The Graphic Gospel (2): Man

MAN

Man was created good,
but fell prey to temptation and
sinned against God,
bringing death to his soul.

Therefore, just as sin came into the
world through one man,
and death through sin,
and so death spread
to all men because all sinned.
Romans 5:12 ESV

For the wages of sin is death. . .
Romans 6:23 ESV

And you, who once were alienated
and hostile in mind,
doing evil deeds . . .
Colossians 1:21 ESV

And you were dead in the
trespasses and sins in which you
once walked, following the
course of this world,
following the prince of
the power of the air,
the spirit that is now
at work in the sons of
disobedience. . .
Ephesians 2:1-2 ESV

Taking the Truth to Heart

When God created Adam and Eve,
He established mankind’s rule
and dominion over all the
creatures and the earth.
He placed them in the Garden of Eden
and explained to them that they could
eat of any tree in the garden except one.
One tree was off limits.
One.

They were in the midst of a
beautiful garden and
in amazing companionship
with God and one another.
No pollution, no crime, no credit card
debt, no taxes, and no red tape.
There was no death, no dying,
no cancer, and no ugliness-nothing
to complain about, nothing to fear,
nothing to blame God for.
Nothing bad had happened.

Along came a serpent
to tempt Adam and Eve
to doubt God.

Despite all God had given them.
Despite having been formed and
created in the image of God.
Despite being in perfect fellowship
with Him,
Adam and Eve listened instead
to the lies of a serpent
and disobeyed God.

Listening to his voice,
they questioned whether God
was really as good as He seemed to be.
They questioned if what He said was true.
They questioned whether God
would love them and take care of them.
They doubt God and His goodness.

They believed the lies,
disobeyed,
and rebelled against
God.

In the process, they lost their lives,
their purity, and their position.
And they have passed this on
to each of their children.

Through Adam, sin came,
and sin came to all. Through sin,
death came, and death came to all.
Romans 5:12

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together
they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
Romans 3:10-13

Close in Prayer:

Lord,
please have mercy on me a sinner.
I don’t want to listen to the voice of
the “serpent.”
I don’t want to question You
and Your Word.
I don’t want to disobey You
because I think I know better.
Help me see my sin as you see my sin
Help me repent of my
rebellious ways.
Please grant me the
grace to repent.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

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The Graphic Gospel (1): God as Creator

G O D  A S
C R E A T O R

Because God is the Lord of all
and
Creator of all
and
He has given us all things.
We owe Him all things.

In the beginning,
God created the heavens
and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 ESV

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

For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!), who formed the earth
and made it (he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord,
and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:18 ESV

Taking the Truth to Heart

God is your Lord,
your Creator,
and your Giver of
all good things.
He has given you life.
He formed you
in your mother’s womb
and numbered each of your days.

His eyes were upon you
as you were being
knit together,
when you were being made
in secret, intricately woven in the
depths of the earth.
God saw your unformed substance;
in His book
were written
each of your days.

Consider the life
He has given to you.

Thank Him.

Praise Him.

Wonderful and
awesome are His works.

Are you giving your Creator,
your Lord, your God,
your all?

Are you worshiping Him each day?

Is He your Lord and your King
and your everything?

Close in Prayer:

Lord,
please have mercy on me.
I am weak.
I am but dust and
to dust I shall return.
Please grant me the grace to be able
to comprehend all you have given,
and grant me the grace to respond
by giving you all things in return…
including my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

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Unbelief

by Susan Sampson

At the beginning of our study Beyond Belief on page 15 it says, “John wants us to have a sure confidence in the Lord, a certainty about His love and His salvation. Such a confidence will enable us to encounter the unexpected with faith, joy, and love and to overcome and not be overcome.”

In Chapter Two, “Light”, we learn how doubt was cast in the minds and hearts of Adam and Eve by the serpent and they fell prey to it. They questioned if what God said was true.

In our final lecture Laurie said the enemy works to impugn the self-revelation of God! The enemy desires that we would be overwhelmed with our weakness and be self-focused so that we won’t be able to hold onto the truth.

This is right where I have continued to fall prey to the lies and deception of the enemy. Unbelief.

1 John 5:9-11 says, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

I will never forget a meeting I had years ago with a precious Thistlebend sister. I can’t remember what we were discussing about God’s Word, but I will never forget what she said to me. She said matter of factly, “Well He said it, so I believe it.” She has the faith of a child and it is beautiful.

I’ve been slowly working my way through an amazing book I got as a gift for my birthday this year called Pierced For Our Transgressions – Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach. I love books on doctrine because they strengthen my weak faith.

Just this week I read page 116 where the authors ask, “Will we humbly accept God’s self-disclosure, his word about himself? Or will we reject him in favor of idols?” On the next page they go on to say, “The most obvious opposite of ‘believe’ would be ‘not believe’. But here, (John 3:36) the contrasting idea is not unbelief but rejection, even ‘disobedience’. Failure to believe in Jesus is not merely a mental error akin to thinking that 2+2=5; it is ethically unjustified, an act of rebellion.” And in the next paragraph they write, “Thus to disbelieve what Jesus says about himself is an attack on the Father. Jesus insists his words come from the Father (John 14:10; 17:8, 14), the Father commands us to listen to the Son (Mark 9:7), and refusal to believe the words of the Son makes the Father out to be a liar (1 John 5:10). It is a denial of his truthfulness. The echoes of Genesis 3 are hard to miss.”

Greg Gilbert was the guest speaker at our recent Gallery Benefit. The Lord used him to speak so powerfully about the gospel. He talked about the definition of sin being “missing the mark.” And he used a powerful image as he held back an invisible bow and arrow that he shot to show what it means to “miss the mark”. But then he explained that sin is so much more. And he turned around and this time he purposefully aimed and released the invisible arrow right at God! It was a powerful picture. Sin is rebellion against the King of kings. Against our King. Against our Father. And against Jesus the One who bled and died for us.

Once again I have to come back to the statement from last week, “God’s Word is the final word.” It is truth. Absolute truth. Unchanging, eternal, fully trustworthy. It is His testimony about himself. It is His self-revelation. I must repent of my unbelief and humbly accept my Father’s words as true and rest in them by faith. As Greg told us at the benefit, we can and must “rely” on them. This is what it means to have faith.

In Chapter 20 of John’s gospel he tells us the purpose of his writing: “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). This is God’s Word. And though it sounds too good to be true, and beyond belief, it is in fact true and we must, by God’s grace through faith, believe it, live it, and rest in it.

 

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