Brother Bill Sunday School 8/12/12

Brother Bill Sunday School 8/12/12

A lot of this series of lessons is simple teachings that we have heard throughout the years.  It is good for us to be reminded, “Bring things to your remembrance.”

The theme scripture:

Isa 62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.

When I think of the standard, the main thought is the true teachings of the Word of God: Salvation, sanctification and consecration, holiness, if you sin then you are not saved, unity, all the teachings of the Word of God. 

There is nothing wrong with being reminded of things; things do get forgotten.  You see people that were once church of God that are now way off on some doctrinal issue or issues.  You think, “What happened?”

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

God made man at the first with His Divine nature.  They had no sin and no carnal nature.  They were in the complete state in the thought of having the Divine nature of God.

Ecc 7:29  Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

In the beginning God made man upright, without the carnal nature and with the Divine nature.

Gen 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God set boundaries at the first, “You can partake of this but not of that.”  It is the same today there are things in life that we are taught to stay away from.  Adam and Eve had a knowledge of what to stay away from.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

We see here the three things that are in the world:  they saw that the tree was good for food: the lust of the flesh, pleasant to the eyes: the lust of the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise: the pride of life.

Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Let’s never try to hide from God.  He has an all seeing eye. 

Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

Gen 3:10  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Gen 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Gen 3:12  And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Gen 3:13  And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

There are real consequences to not obeying God.  People may think that they are getting by or that they will be the exception.  There was a good saint of God that backslid and then later got back to God.  Her testimony was that she thought that she would be an exception to this rule of sowing and reaping. 

You cannot play around with God.  He has set up laws and if you stay within the laws, if you will walk within the parameters, then you will be blest.  If you do wrong then there will be consequences. 

This is brought out to lay the foundation:  Adam and Eve messed up.  God had to kill an animal to cloth them with the skins.  There was a sacrifice made.  An animal had to die so that they could be clothed.  Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins so that we can be clothed spiritually. 

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Rom 5:16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Rom 5:18  Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Still today, a principal that will never change, sin produces spiritual death. 

As things go on, people may try to change things in the Word of God.  They may try to cross out scriptures even if only in their heart and mind, “We don’t have to do that.  This is for the Old Testament days.” 

When we get before God at the judgment, He has the master copy.  When we are judged it will not be what we scribbled out or added to that will judge us.  You will not change the master copy and it is the master copy that we will be judged by.  “This world shall pass away but my word shall never pass away.  It is forever settled in heaven.”

Because Adam and Eve messed up, they lost that Divine nature.

Gen 5:1  This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Gen 5:2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Gen 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the Divine nature and experienced spiritual death.  Death is not an extinction of the soul; it is a separation of the soul from God.  God and a child of God can walk hand in hand, but when the child sins, the bond is broken and there is a separation there.  The only thing that can bring that unity back is that person repenting of their sins and restoring that unity.

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

When Seth was born, then his generation was born with the corrupt nature.  This nature makes it so that there is always that thing in man that reaches out for their own way.

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Because of Adam and the carnal nature that we inherited from him, we all ended up falling into sin.  None of us could keep from doing wrong because that nature helped us to want our own way.  Yet, thank the Lord, God through Jesus made a way that we could all obtain victory over the sin life.

Rom 5:16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

No matter how far men go in seeking their own way in rebellion to God, if they repent then they can be justified. 

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

We can obtain ‘abundance of Grace’.  This takes away the excuses.  In the Old Testament they may have said, “I have to sacrifice again because I just couldn’t do it; man cannot live without sin.”  But today, in this New Covenant experience, God has made a way that “Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.” 

The new dispensation I think of with the picture of a young man working out with weights.  Under the old dispensation, he would take a certain number of pounds and some could partway lift up the weights or others almost fully lift the weights, but all come short of completely getting them into the air.  This new dispensation of grace gives you meat and potatoes so that the young man can lift the weights fully into the air. 

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

When I first got saved I was ignorant.  Before, I had tried to straighten out my life and just couldn’t.  Under the way of the law, I could not do this.  After I got saved, under the faith of Jesus Christ and repenting of my sins, (it is not us anymore; it is Him.), I came to the realization that I was not doing that evil anymore.  He put the law in our hearts. 

Under the New Covenant, the excuses are not there anymore.  With the abundance of Grace, now we can make it. 

The people in false religion, (most of them), try to do it in the old way.  They don’t get the experience of salvation as the whole; they have a profession and are still trying to do it in the old way.  Their testimony is that it cannot be done.  If they meet the conditions then they can succeed just like anyone else.