If God created man capable of sinning, why would He punish man because he sinned? What is sin? If it is true that all have sinned, is there any future life for anyone, but one of suffering and torture? Stay with us and we will see.
What a joy it is to welcome you, my friend, to our program of Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. I am so blessed. Like King David said in Psalm 31, verse 8, I thank God daily and pray to Him to grant me wisdom and strength for such a ministry as this because "He has set my feet in a large room." Your tremendous response to recent programming is so encouraging, too. We never planned for this to be a question and answer program. However, your questions tell me what you are thinking. And, they put me to thinking about what you are thinking and things that interest you.
The program today is in response to a letter. The writer had some very good questions. They were prompted by something I had said in an earlier program relating to man having been created capable of sinning. He, and perhaps you, too, wondered about that. So, we have given the program the title, Sin, Guilt, Hell and Salvation.
If you would like or need a free printed copy or a CD or an audio cassette tape of it, please mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. If you prefer to call, you may use our toll-free telephone number. That number is 1-800-321-8633. Visit our website, too, at searchtv.org. We know you have many, many choices of programs. Of course, you do! And we're glad that you have chosen ours for today. After Ken Helterbrand leads us in a hymn, I'll be back and we will read the Bible together.
Our scripture reading today is from the book of Ephesians the second chapter. Now remember as we read this that it was written to Christians. And let us read, beginning at verse one. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Now let us go to God in prayer. God of all grace, we humbly approach Your throne today as those who have been transgressors of Your law, but have been reconciled to You through Your Son, Jesus Christ. And we give You our thanks and our praise for all that You have done for us and lifted us out of the guilt of past sins and given us a new start in life. And we pray that we may convey this message on to others that they may become so as well. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen!
How very, very marvelous are the works of God! What person among us can fully know all that we would like to know about God or the "whys" and the "hows" and the purposes of all of His mighty works? The brief biblical story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis is extremely revealing, even though it leaves us wondering about some things. What God did the first day, the second day, the third day, until He had completed the work of creation answers many of the questions mankind would ever have relative to the origin of things-- and even of the origin of life.
The exciting story begins in the very first sentence of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I like to remind the youth especially, that in spite of all the theories they are being taught today about the origin of life and the universe, this sentence is really the only believable answer we have for all of it! By now, unbelievers have spent centuries and literally trillions of dollars trying to find a satisfactory explanation for the origins that would leave God out, but they have been unsuccessful. No, my young friend, you don't need to apologize-- or be ashamed of your belief that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
The Bible's second sentence turns the reader's attention from the whole universe solely to this earth. It says, “and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep." From that point forward, throughout the whole Bible, the focus is upon the happenings here on earth. Is there life on other planets? Some think so; others wonder. I don't know. The Bible doesn't discuss that. On the first day God created the light. The second day He created the firmament. The third day He created the vegetation. The fourth day He set the sun, the moon, the stars in their places. On the fifth day, He created the sea creatures, the fish and the birds of the air. On the sixth day He created animal life. And, when He had provided all things necessary to sustain man, He created man in His own image, and according to His own likeness. And He said, "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all of the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." That is Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." That is Psalm 33, verses 6 through 9.
But you see man was created different from all animal life. He was created in the likeness and the image of God. God is spirit (John 4:24). Therefore, man, “as His offspring” (Acts 17:28-29), is "spirit," too, as well as flesh. And in that day-by-day description we just noted, it was learned that God created us responsible beings. We were created to be in charge-- I mean to have the care of all creation. The second chapter of the Bible tells us how the man Adam gave names to all the cattle and birds, and all that God had made and whatever Adam called everything, every living creature that was his name. David said it best in the eighth Psalm: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor" (verses 3 and 5). Well, "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.” Man was created to tend all that God had made. Therefore man was a responsible creature. He couldn't be as the animals-- or even as a robot. He had to be free to decide or to choose to do, or not to do. He was also given accountability. I mean his Creator would hold him accountable for his behavior. Well, "the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." That is Genesis 2, verses 8 and 9; and 16 and 17. One of man's earliest choices or decisions would be whether to obey God or disobey God in this regard. And Adam chose not to do as God had said.
Of course you know the story. God loved them. He came in the cool of the day and walked with them and talked with them (Genesis 3 and 8). I confess I don't know all that means, but in it I can and I do see an expression of fondness, and closeness, and warmth, and love overflowing between them. That's the inspiration for that old hymn we sometimes sing, "I Come to the Garden Alone." I love it; it's one of my favorites. Satan, the great deceiver, saw that he couldn't stand to see that relationship. He didn’t want to see it continue. So he deceived the woman so that she ate of the fruit of that tree. And she also gave it to her husband and he ate of it. "So He [meaning, God, of course] drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." God had said, "In the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall surely die." They ate and they died that day. "Oh no!" someone says. "They didn't die that day; because the next chapter says that they lived on; they had children. There were Cain and Abel and Seth after that." But, friend, they did die that day-- or God's word is not true.
You see, our word "Death" is from "Thanatos" meaning a separation. For example, God says in1 Timothy 5 and 6, "But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." She who lives in pleasure is separated, alienated from God while she lives. And that was the case with Adam. He was separated from God-- no more walking and talking with Him in the cool of the day. Well, that is exactly what God means when He says in Romans chapter 5, verse 12: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death [or separation from God] through sin, and thus death [that is separation from God] spread to all men, [please get this friend,]-- because all sinned." No, no, no, now. We are not born with the guilt of Adam's sin. That verse doesn't say that. To the contrary, it says that Adam was the first sinner. The rest of us are sinners because we have all sinned.
Before we go any further, probably we should define "sin." We are crowded for time, but-- well, yes, we must define sin. What is sin? The Scripture says, "...sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3 and 4). That is the New King James Version. The old King James has it saying, "...sin is a transgression of the law." It's also written in James 5:17, "...to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." Well, you see, God requires us to exercise our responsibility-- our power of choice-- which we have by creation. He made us that way. We may choose to disobey Him as Adam did, or we may choose to refuse, simply neglect to do what He says. And we would be no crown of glory to Him, as it was written in that eighth Psalm that we read awhile ago, if we were robots. We would be no glory to Him. It's when we choose to do God's will that we glorify Him. It is that stubborn refusal to obey the Lord, or that willful disobedience to His specific teaching, as in the case of Adam, that displeases our Father who is in Heaven, and brings not glory to His name. Well, perhaps you have small children in the home right now. Or it could be that your children are grown and they have children of their own. In either case, you know the pleasure that you receive when they obey you-- and the displeasure you receive when they disobey you. The Scripture says, "...we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” (Hebrews 12 and 9)
So we have all sinned. Yes! Is there any hope for us? Yes! Oh yes! There is, my friend. To Christians He wrote, "You He made alive, who were dead [separated from God] in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead [separated from God] in trespasses, [in sin] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Now those are the verses we read at the outset of our message today, written to Christians.
Did God know when He created Adam that Adam would sin? Of course He did. God is "all-knowing." With Him there is no yesterday, today and tomorrow. He knows all things past, present and future, as though they are present tense. "Then," you may be asking, "Why did God create Adam capable of sinning?" Well, we answered that, didn’t we? God needed a caretaker for the world who could make choices; and decide to do the right thing in the care of God’s creation. Rather than to create a robot who could not disobey Him, He created man who could make those choices. So, God had a plan by which He would gracefully reach out to all men to reconcile us to Himself. And that is exactly what Ephesians 2:8 is saying. That is salvation by God's grace. Man, the guilty party in Eden, couldn't come up with a plan of salvation by which he could be reconciled to God. Despite the fact that he was the offended one, God did it. Why? "Grace," grace is the only word for it. And that's what the Holy Spirit is saying in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). The plan was centered in the man Christ Jesus. If we will accept His offer of atonement through the blood of His son, every one of us sinners can be reconciled to God. Let's pray about it. Father, we know now how we were created, and why we were created, and we know now that we are sinners before You. And we pray that there will be those today who will decide to walk no longer in sin but to be reconciled to You in Christ Jesus, Your Son, in whose name we pray today. Amen!
Our friend whose letter prompted this program also asked something to the effect that if God created us capable of sinning, why does He promise to punish us in Hell because we do sin? What kind of a God and Father is that? Well, we have answered part of that question; but God wants our willful obedience. He didn't want us to robot-like to have to do His will. He "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish [in hell] but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Yes by God's grace, we can be reconciled to live at peace with God if we obey His will. "The Lord is not slack [or slow] concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). It is in Christ that we can make peace with God and be reconciled to Him. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That is why you need to be baptized. That is Galatians 3:26-27. You know-- no, you don't know. I'm about to tell you. Right while I was preparing this message that you have just heard, we had letters from three people-- all men-- young, middle-aged and older, who had confessed belief in Christ, repented and been baptized into Him, and are living at peace with God in Christ right now. Oh, my friend, I hope you will, too, this very day. If we can help you, please let us know, will you?
If you could use a free printed copy, or CD, cassette tape of this message, simply mail your request for it to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or by e-mail, our address is searchtv@searchtv.org. You may use our toll-free telephone number and talk to one of us if you like. That number is 1-800-321-8633. Or it's available to you free on our website. We are glad you were with us today. We hope you will be back next week. God bless you. We love you.
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