Genesis (Part 3)
Bible Study Time 6-15-08
(From James Roberts 8-18-96)
Bible Study Time 6-15-08
(From James Roberts 8-18-96)
Now we’re going to continue our Journey Through the Scripture. If you missed the first two Sundays, you have missed a couple of miles on this journey, and we would like to encourage you to get your Bibles and study along with us today and then to be with us each Sunday morning as we continue this Journey Through the Scripture.
On the first Sunday of this journey, we saw God set forth as the creator of the universe. God is not the creation. Rather God is over and above the creation; God transcends the creation. From the very beginning, Satan has tried to get man to worship the creation rather than the creator. Pantheism tells us that God is the creation, but the Bible declares that the creation is the handiwork of God. The creation did not just evolve from nothing, but God created the heavens and the earth.
Last week, we saw something of the creation of man when God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. In this we see first of all a refutation of the devilish doctrine of evolution.
Secular science tells us that man just evolved from a speck of protoplasm that was there in a primordial slime. It says that over billions of years this speck of protoplasm evolved through the dinosaur stage and all of the other stages until man evolved into what he is today. I want to tell you that this doctrine is of the devil. The devil wants man to deify man in order to displace God from His throne. According to the Bible, man was created by God, Himself.
Another reason that the doctrine of evolution is so devilish is that it does away with the necessity of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. You see, if there was no first man, Adam, who was created by the very hand of God, then there is no need for the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. If there was no literal, historic Adam, then there was no historic fall by which man became a sinner; and if man is not a sinner, then he has no need for a savior. However, the Bible declares that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
In the first week of our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw how Lucifer became Satan, the enemy of God, or the adversary of God. This occurred when Lucifer introduced sin into the universe. We also saw that God created man in His own image. By a direct, creative act He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that man became a living soul. This happened instantaneously, not by means of evolution through ions of time, but as an instantaneous, creative act of God. As God breathed into his nostrils, man became a living soul.
In our studies we have seen that the first man, Adam, disobeyed God and through that act of disobedience all of Adam’s descendants became sinners. Well, that’s where we left off in our journey last week, and I want us to take up with that thought this morning as we move on into the next truly significant event in the scriptures.
Before Adam sinned, God was accustomed to walking in the garden in the cool of day, communicating and having fellowship with Adam. But when Adam disobeyed God, Adam felt the need to run and hide. When God came looking for Adam, God called out, saying:
Genesis 3:9-11 NKJV
9 . . . "Where are you?"
10 So (Adam) said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
11 And (God) said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
Now, did God ask this question because He didn’t know what Adam had done, or was He simply trying to bring Adam to the place of acknowledging his guilt? I believe that it was the latter. God knew that Adam had been disobedient, but He came into the garden, seeking Adam, so that He could draw Adam back into a place of fellowship with God. So what was Adam’s response the Lord?
Genesis 3:12 NKJV
12 Then the man said,"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
In so many words, Adam said, God, this is all Your fault because You gave me this woman. I ate the fruit only because she gave it to me.
Well, then the Lord turned to the woman and asked:
Genesis 3:13 NKJV
13 . . . "What is this you have done?" (And) The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Clearly, Eve was trying to put the blame on the serpent, saying that she had eaten the fruit because the serpent deceived her.
Here we see that even at this time, Adam and Eve were doing what man is doing so effectively today. They tried to portray themselves as victims rather than confessing their guilt.
Today we often see people who are brought up on some kind of charge, whether it’s murder or lying or some other charge, and they will try to place the blame for their actions on someone else. They may claim to be the victim of society or the victim of child abuse or some such thing. They will go to any length to keep from admitting that they are the guilty party.
Here in Genesis 3, the man said, the woman that You gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat. Then the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I did eat.
Admittedly, there was a little bit of truth in both of these statements, but neither statement expressed the whole truth. It was true that the woman did give the fruit to Adam, but in fact, Adam was a free moral agent. He had the ability to choose, but he chose to disobey God. Therefore, he was the guilty party. Not God. Not the woman.
According to Genesis 2:18, we read that in His goodness and mercy God created the woman for Adam because God saw that it was not good for man to live alone. God made the woman as the perfect companion for Adam, but Adam cast a reflection upon the goodness of God by stating that the woman that God had given him had caused him to eat the forbidden fruit.
The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and that was true, but the woman had the word of God that forbad her from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, she was guilty of sin even though she was deceived.
If you have sinned, don’t allow yourself to play the victim. When you sin, don’t blame someone else. That is just following in the footsteps of Adam. God wants us to acknowledge our sin before Him, and He tells us that:
1 John 1:9 NKJV
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
In verses 14 and 15 of Genesis, Chapter 3, we see God’s goodness and grace to mankind in His promise of a Redeemer. Because the serpent did deceive the woman, God placed a curse upon the serpent, saying:
Genesis 3:14-15 NKJV
14 . . . "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
In this first promise of a Redeemer, we find that the Redeemer was to come into this world as the Seed of the woman in order to bruise the head of the serpent. This prophesy was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 4 says that:
Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV
4 . . . when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
You see the Lord Jesus Christ had no earthly father; He was the Seed of the Woman. The serpent did bruise the heel of the Lord Jesus by orchestrating the crucifixion of Christ. However, the crucifixion of Christ was all a part of God’s overall plan and purpose which we find hidden in the scriptures such as Genesis 3:15. According to Genesis 3:15, it was part of God’s eternal plan that one day the Seed of the woman would come into this world to bruise the head of the serpent with a deadly wound.
We read in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 2, that by the grace of God the Lord Jesus Christ became a partaker of flesh and blood so He could taste death for every man. This chapter goes on to say that by doing this, Christ became the destroyer of the one who has the power over death, even the devil.
This passage in Hebrews carries the idea that God will set the work of the devil at naught. The serpent bruised the heel of the Lord Jesus by orchestrating the crucifixion of Christ, but it was the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus that inflicted a mortal wound upon the devil, destroying the devil’s master plan to overthrow the plan and purpose of God.
Because of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the doom of Satan is sealed. One day the devil will be cast into the Lake of Fire where he and all of those who follow after him will remain day and night, forever and ever. However, those who put their trust in the Redeemer and believe that Christ died on the cross for their sins will have eternal life and will live with God for all eternity.
In Genesis 3:16, God places a curse upon the woman and institutes the headship of the man over the woman. He says:
Genesis 3:16 NKJV
16 . . . "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
Then, to the man the Lord says:
Genesis 3:17-19 NKJV
17 . . . "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
On the first Sunday of this journey, we saw God set forth as the creator of the universe. God is not the creation. Rather God is over and above the creation; God transcends the creation. From the very beginning, Satan has tried to get man to worship the creation rather than the creator. Pantheism tells us that God is the creation, but the Bible declares that the creation is the handiwork of God. The creation did not just evolve from nothing, but God created the heavens and the earth.
Last week, we saw something of the creation of man when God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. In this we see first of all a refutation of the devilish doctrine of evolution.
Secular science tells us that man just evolved from a speck of protoplasm that was there in a primordial slime. It says that over billions of years this speck of protoplasm evolved through the dinosaur stage and all of the other stages until man evolved into what he is today. I want to tell you that this doctrine is of the devil. The devil wants man to deify man in order to displace God from His throne. According to the Bible, man was created by God, Himself.
Another reason that the doctrine of evolution is so devilish is that it does away with the necessity of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. You see, if there was no first man, Adam, who was created by the very hand of God, then there is no need for the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. If there was no literal, historic Adam, then there was no historic fall by which man became a sinner; and if man is not a sinner, then he has no need for a savior. However, the Bible declares that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
In the first week of our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw how Lucifer became Satan, the enemy of God, or the adversary of God. This occurred when Lucifer introduced sin into the universe. We also saw that God created man in His own image. By a direct, creative act He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that man became a living soul. This happened instantaneously, not by means of evolution through ions of time, but as an instantaneous, creative act of God. As God breathed into his nostrils, man became a living soul.
In our studies we have seen that the first man, Adam, disobeyed God and through that act of disobedience all of Adam’s descendants became sinners. Well, that’s where we left off in our journey last week, and I want us to take up with that thought this morning as we move on into the next truly significant event in the scriptures.
Before Adam sinned, God was accustomed to walking in the garden in the cool of day, communicating and having fellowship with Adam. But when Adam disobeyed God, Adam felt the need to run and hide. When God came looking for Adam, God called out, saying:
Genesis 3:9-11 NKJV
9 . . . "Where are you?"
10 So (Adam) said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
11 And (God) said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
Now, did God ask this question because He didn’t know what Adam had done, or was He simply trying to bring Adam to the place of acknowledging his guilt? I believe that it was the latter. God knew that Adam had been disobedient, but He came into the garden, seeking Adam, so that He could draw Adam back into a place of fellowship with God. So what was Adam’s response the Lord?
Genesis 3:12 NKJV
12 Then the man said,"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
In so many words, Adam said, God, this is all Your fault because You gave me this woman. I ate the fruit only because she gave it to me.
Well, then the Lord turned to the woman and asked:
Genesis 3:13 NKJV
13 . . . "What is this you have done?" (And) The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Clearly, Eve was trying to put the blame on the serpent, saying that she had eaten the fruit because the serpent deceived her.
Here we see that even at this time, Adam and Eve were doing what man is doing so effectively today. They tried to portray themselves as victims rather than confessing their guilt.
Today we often see people who are brought up on some kind of charge, whether it’s murder or lying or some other charge, and they will try to place the blame for their actions on someone else. They may claim to be the victim of society or the victim of child abuse or some such thing. They will go to any length to keep from admitting that they are the guilty party.
Here in Genesis 3, the man said, the woman that You gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat. Then the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I did eat.
Admittedly, there was a little bit of truth in both of these statements, but neither statement expressed the whole truth. It was true that the woman did give the fruit to Adam, but in fact, Adam was a free moral agent. He had the ability to choose, but he chose to disobey God. Therefore, he was the guilty party. Not God. Not the woman.
According to Genesis 2:18, we read that in His goodness and mercy God created the woman for Adam because God saw that it was not good for man to live alone. God made the woman as the perfect companion for Adam, but Adam cast a reflection upon the goodness of God by stating that the woman that God had given him had caused him to eat the forbidden fruit.
The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and that was true, but the woman had the word of God that forbad her from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, she was guilty of sin even though she was deceived.
If you have sinned, don’t allow yourself to play the victim. When you sin, don’t blame someone else. That is just following in the footsteps of Adam. God wants us to acknowledge our sin before Him, and He tells us that:
1 John 1:9 NKJV
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
In verses 14 and 15 of Genesis, Chapter 3, we see God’s goodness and grace to mankind in His promise of a Redeemer. Because the serpent did deceive the woman, God placed a curse upon the serpent, saying:
Genesis 3:14-15 NKJV
14 . . . "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
In this first promise of a Redeemer, we find that the Redeemer was to come into this world as the Seed of the woman in order to bruise the head of the serpent. This prophesy was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 4 says that:
Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV
4 . . . when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
You see the Lord Jesus Christ had no earthly father; He was the Seed of the Woman. The serpent did bruise the heel of the Lord Jesus by orchestrating the crucifixion of Christ. However, the crucifixion of Christ was all a part of God’s overall plan and purpose which we find hidden in the scriptures such as Genesis 3:15. According to Genesis 3:15, it was part of God’s eternal plan that one day the Seed of the woman would come into this world to bruise the head of the serpent with a deadly wound.
We read in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 2, that by the grace of God the Lord Jesus Christ became a partaker of flesh and blood so He could taste death for every man. This chapter goes on to say that by doing this, Christ became the destroyer of the one who has the power over death, even the devil.
This passage in Hebrews carries the idea that God will set the work of the devil at naught. The serpent bruised the heel of the Lord Jesus by orchestrating the crucifixion of Christ, but it was the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus that inflicted a mortal wound upon the devil, destroying the devil’s master plan to overthrow the plan and purpose of God.
Because of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the doom of Satan is sealed. One day the devil will be cast into the Lake of Fire where he and all of those who follow after him will remain day and night, forever and ever. However, those who put their trust in the Redeemer and believe that Christ died on the cross for their sins will have eternal life and will live with God for all eternity.
In Genesis 3:16, God places a curse upon the woman and institutes the headship of the man over the woman. He says:
Genesis 3:16 NKJV
16 . . . "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
Then, to the man the Lord says:
Genesis 3:17-19 NKJV
17 . . . "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
We see that a curse was placed upon the earth, but someday that curse will be lifted; and when that curse is lifted, the earth will be blessed forever and ever. This time of blessing will be made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and this is pictured for us in Genesis, Chapter 3, when God offered up a lamb to provide coats of skin for Adam and Eve. After being clothed with the clothing that God provided, Adam and Eve were once again able to fellowship with God.
As the Lamb of God, Christ shed His blood to provide the clothing of righteousness for those who believe in the Lord Jesus. The blessing of fellowship with God is now available to those who wear this clothing of God’s righteousness, but someday even the curse that is upon the earth today will be lifted and all of creation will be redeemed by the blood of Christ. Today, God is simply waiting for the perfect time to bring His glorious plan of redemption to its ultimate conclusion.
Next week, we’re going to continue our Journey Through the Scripture. I see our time is already gone for this morning. We’ll look forward to being back with you again next week. Until that time we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
We see that a curse was placed upon the earth, but someday that curse will be lifted; and when that curse is lifted, the earth will be blessed forever and ever. This time of blessing will be made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and this is pictured for us in Genesis, Chapter 3, when God offered up a lamb to provide coats of skin for Adam and Eve. After being clothed with the clothing that God provided, Adam and Eve were once again able to fellowship with God.
As the Lamb of God, Christ shed His blood to provide the clothing of righteousness for those who believe in the Lord Jesus. The blessing of fellowship with God is now available to those who wear this clothing of God’s righteousness, but someday even the curse that is upon the earth today will be lifted and all of creation will be redeemed by the blood of Christ. Today, God is simply waiting for the perfect time to bring His glorious plan of redemption to its ultimate conclusion.
Next week, we’re going to continue our Journey Through the Scripture. I see our time is already gone for this morning. We’ll look forward to being back with you again next week. Until that time we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
No comments:
Post a Comment