Bible Study August 2, 2012

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our study of Apologetics with our second series of lessons entitled The Case for Jesus. 

  When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see 

Slow Fade 

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IF

Love Wins - Rob Bell

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Why is Sin such a big deal if love wins in the end? Why did God give man the choice to Sin?

Did God want Adam and Eve to Sin?

Why is Sin such a big deal if love wins in the end?

• Sin is a very big deal and God is not playing a game with us. Jesus is not our fool. He cannot be manipulated - He sees right through us. Jesus knows our every thought; our every intention of heart. If we have no real remorse for our sin and no desire to actually obey Him as evidenced by our deeds... then we do in affect mock Jesus' sacrifice and there will be no forgiveness of sin.

Why did God give man the choice to sin?

• God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice.

Did God want Adam and Eve to sin?

• God creates man. He gives him dominion over the environment. He puts two trees in the middle of the Garden and tells them not to touch one of the trees. He also created curiosity. God says nothing to Adam and Eve about Satan. He does not prepare or warn them about His arch enemy that is about to be unleashed on them. God leaves the garden and leaves the gate open, so to speak. In marches Satan. Now wouldn't you think that God would have at least warned Adam and Eve that He was going to let Satan enter the garden and try and deceive them? He doesn't! Remember, the Bible says that Satan can do nothing that God does not allow.
• God did not want Adam and Eve to sin. God knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and would thereby bring evil, suffering, and death into the world.

I. SIN DEFINED – GENESIS 3:1-6

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” 4 You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.



There was a time in human history when there was no sin. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect environment with only one law, rule or command. What would happen when the temptation to break God’s moral law was presented?

• Would they trust God?
• Or would they listen to someone else and rebel against God?
• They would rebel.

What was Adam and Eve’s sin? How serious was their sin?

• The woman decided God must be wrong and the man decided God didn’t matter.
• Both acts of unbelief, the essence of all sin.
• The choice of trees was really a choice about their relationship with God.
• Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s instructions in order to become like gods.
• They could have eaten from the tree of life but they chose the forbidden fruit.
• They chose the way of death and rejected the way of life.

Why did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve?

• God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice.
• Bible says that Satan can do nothing that God does not allow.

Why is Sin such a big deal?

 

II. SIN’S CONSEQUENCES – GENESIS 3:16-19, 24


16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

………………………………………………………………

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.



Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin's consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself. May we echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”


What were the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin?

• Awareness of their guilty feeling about being naked. Tried to hide from God. Separation from God.
• Separation from each other – Adam blamed Eve and God. Eve blamed the serpent.
• The woman would have more pain in childbirth.
• The man would toil in his labor.
• The woman’s desire would be to her husband and he shall rule over.
• Human death – dust to dust.
• The results—evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death—have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve's decision results in every person being born with a sin nature, a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve's decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the cross and shed His blood on our behalf. That was a BIG DEAL!

Why is Sin such a big deal?

 

III. EVERYONE SINS – ROMANS 5:12-14

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.


What were the long-range consequences of Adam’s sin?

• The sin in the garden launched the history of a world of sinners.
• The world became so steeped in sin that God sent a great flood as judgment, sparing only Noah and his family.
• People again became sinful and God called Abraham and made a new start.
• Universal and original sin.
• We inherit from Adam a nature and an environment that’s bent toward sin.

Why is this lesson in a study of “The Case for Jesus?”

• Jesus came to be the world’s Savior from sin, and the Bible starts with the assumption that all people have sinned.
• If sin were not a big deal, Jesus would not have come and we wouldn’t be making a case for Him.

Are all sins equal to God?

• Bible seems to indicate that there are degrees to sin - that some are more detestable than others. Proverbs 6:16-19
• When it comes to eternal consequences of sin, they are all the same.

 

What is your understanding of the "Unforgivable Sin?"

• Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
• Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:31-32; Luke 12:10

Why is Sin such a big deal? 

We begin a new series of lessons this week as we continue in our study of Apologetics. Be in prayer this week as we begin with the very issue of SIN and why it is such a big deal.

See you on Thursday!

In His Love,

David