A1*. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
..
31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was]
very good...
Amplified Version, Heb 1:10-12
10 And [further], You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth
in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
11 They will perish, but You remain and continue permanently;
they will all grow old and wear out like a garment.
12 Like a mantle [thrown about one's self] You will roll them
up, and they will be changed and replaced by others. But You
remain the same and Your years will never end nor come to
failure. (original passage is Psalm 102:25-27)
Amplified Version, Heb 13:8
8 Jesus Christ, the Messiah, [is always] the same, yesterday,
today, [yes,] and forever -- to the ages.
Premises:
1. God did not originate evil.
2. Evil is not to be found in God.
3. Evil cannot be laid at God's feet, or to His charge.
4. God can be TRUSTED ABSOLUTELY.
True Obedience is founded upon TRUST in GOD Page #
Genesis 2
15* And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16*. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat:
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.
All things that God had made for man, he placed into man's keeping.
God's good things were entrusted to man, and corruption, decay,
death, hell and the grave are attributable to man alone, and not to
our Creator who finished all that He had made and considered it to be
'very good' (Gen 1:31).
God's commandment to man was given, and was not dependent on an
obedience born of fear, but on an obedience based in trust. Since
sin had not entered into the world at this time, fear had no place.
Adam and God shared perfect communion, or perfect love, and this
allowed perfect and unchallenged TRUST, a complete reliance upon God
without doubt or fear.
Genesis 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?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden:
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.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die:
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.
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.
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.
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.
The ancient pattern of Satan's corrupting attack on God's creation
is set forth in these verses. By subtil deception, Eve is led to
believe that God is keeping something from her by means of His
commandment. God is characterized as something He is not. God, His
character, and His Word are brought into question, creating mistrust.
At the end, Eve no longer trusted her estate to God, but set about to
establish her own estate in her own power and to establish her own
interests apart from God, because she stopped trusting God.
James 3
13. Who [is] a wise man and endued with knowledge among
you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with
meekness of wisdom.
14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your
hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but [is]
earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife [is], there [is] confusion
and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy
and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them
that make peace.
Jude 1
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once
knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of
the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not.
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but
left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
---
Notice here that Eve's eyes were not opened, and then Adam's,
although Eve ate first of the fruit, as a result of deception, and
then Adam ate of the fruit, as a result of Eve's presentation.
Adam could have, with God's help, restored Eve to fellowship because
neither of them had fallen at the time he took the fruit from her. We
have scriptural examples that explain how this could be, that Eve
could have tasted and not fallen, had Adam interceded for her.
Genesis 2
23 And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she
was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
1 Corinthians 7
14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your
children unclean; but now are they holy.
Ecclesiastes 4
9 Two [are] better than one; because they have a good
reward for their labour.
10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but
woe to him [that is] alone when he falleth; for [he hath]
not another to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but
how can one be warm [alone]?
12* And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand
him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
*** God is Looking for Intercessors ***
Jesus Christ is referred to in Scripture as the Second Adam. We
know that He left His rightful place in heaven to descend to earth as
an intercessor. He came to reconcile the entire creation to God at
the price of His own cruel death on a tree He had made, and at the
hands of a nation He had greatly loved, nurtured, and protected.
In fact, in the deepest pains of agony in His death he asked the
Father to forgive His accusers and His murderers for they were
ignorant of what they were doing.
Were they ignorant of the cruel death to which they subjected Him,
or were they ignorant of His Life and Teachings which manifested Him
as God in the flesh, Yeshua Ha Messiach, Jesus, the Messiah? NO!
They were ignorant of God, of His true character, and of His Word.
Just as Eve believed a lie, and presented Adam with the fruit of her
deception, so has the world believed a lie and so does the world
present mankind with the fruit of its deception.
Jesus Christ clothed Himself with flesh and bone to join Himself
with our humanity in order to restore us from a state of MISTRUST
(which is death), to a state of TRUST (which is life eternal).
Colossians 3
12. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and
beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if
any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave
you, so also [do] ye.
14 And above all these things [put on] charity, which is
the bond of perfectness.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the
which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord.
Galatians 6
1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
*** The Real Power of Prayer ***
James 1
2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations;
3 Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh
patience.
4 But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any
thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways.
James 1
13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any
man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his
own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
James 4
1. From whence [come] wars and fightings among you? [come
they] not hence, [even] of your lusts that war in your
members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and
cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye
ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye
may consume [it] upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit
that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse
[your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye]
double minded.
James 5
16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert
him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error
of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude
of sins.
1 John 5
14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask
any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired of him.
16 If any man see his brother sin a sin [which is] not unto death,
he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto
death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for
it.
Index of Preacher's Help and Notes
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