Lenox Federated Church - Firm Foundations, Creation to Christ

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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 12 - God's Provision and Judgment

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Did God call Adam because God didn’t know where Adam and Eve were? No, God knew where they were. God wanted them to voluntarily come to Him and admit their sin.

2. Can anyone hide from God? No, God sees us at all times, no matter where we are.

3. Why did God have the right to call Adam and question him?

a. God was Adam’s Creator.

b. Adam and Eve belonged to God.

c. God made Adam to love and obey Him.

4. Why does God have the right to demand obedience? Because He gave life to everyone.

5. What was God’s curse on the snake? From that time, it was to move by crawling on its belly.

6. What can Satan and the spirits hide from God? They cannot hide anything from God. He knows their every thought.

7. Whom did God promise to send? God promised to send a Deliverer.

8. How was this Deliverer to come? Through the seed of the woman.

9. What did God say that the virgin’s Son would do? He would overcome Satan and deliver man from death and Satan’s power.

10. Why did God promise to send a Deliverer for man? Because God loves all people.

11. Did Adam and Eve deserve God’s love and His promise of a Deliverer? No, they deserved to go to everlasting punishment.

12. How would you describe to someone else the meaning of grace? Grace is giving what is needed rather than what is deserved.

13. Why didn’t we talk about God’s grace and mercy during the first lessons on creation? Grace and mercy are God’s responses to man’s sin and were not needed by man before he sinned.

14. In each of the areas listed, contrast Adam and Eve’s situation before they had sinned with their situation after they had sinned and had been put under God’s curse for their sin.

a. Their relationship with God. They had been friends with God; now they were enemies. They had been under God’s control; now they were under Satan’s control. They had had the opportunity to live forever with God; now they faced eternity in the Lake of Fire away from God’s presence.

b. Their relationship to each other. Eve had been given to Adam as a helper to be co-ruler with Adam over the earth; now Adam was to rule over her.

c. Their daily life and health. Adam’s work had been pleasant; now it would be hard because weeds and pests would make gardening difficult. Neither Adam nor Eve had known pain; now Eve was to experience much pain in childbirth, and both of them would be subject to suffering and disease and death.

15. What evidence is there in the world today of God’s curse on Adam and Eve? Sickness, sorrow, birth pains, death, hard work, thorns and weeds, droughts, devastating storms, poisonous plants, animal and insect pests. These are all signs of God’s curse.

16. Who were the first parents of all people? Adam and Eve.

17. Why do all people die? Because Adam disobeyed God, all Adam’s descendants die.

Students of history tell us that knowing what happened in the past gives us insight and understanding into what’s going on today. The Bible is true history. The events recorded in Genesis 3 affected all mankind—every person today—you and me. God had these things recorded in His Word so we could read them and gain understanding. God communicated these things to us because He wants us to know Him.

As we continue to read, let’s give special consideration to what God was doing in this critical passage of the history of mankind.

- They made themselves coverings of leaves.

- Because they had disobeyed God, they were embarrassed to have God see them naked. But God refused to accept the clothes which Adam and Eve had made.

- Why?

He wanted to teach them that they couldn’t do anything to make themselves acceptable to God. God will not accept anything that is done according to man’s ideas. God only accepts whatever is done according to His way. No one can make himself acceptable to God by what he does. People today still do many things to try to make themselves acceptable to God; they try to “cover” for their sins, just as Adam and Eve did.

- Example:

Some people think that if they go to church or do a lot of good deeds, it will help to make up for the wrongs they have done. You can probably think of lots of other examples of this kind of “do-it-yourself” covering for sin. God sees right through it, and it is completely unacceptable to Him. We must instead come to God and find His way to make us acceptable to Him. He simply won’t accept anything we could ever do. No matter how thoughtful or religious or costly our efforts might seem to us, they will never cover our sins in such a way that God will not see them and require the death payment.

The first death in the world was brought about by sin.

- God killed animals. The animals’ blood was shed. God then took the skins off the animals.

- Adam and Eve did not do this; God killed the animals, and He took the skins off.

- God was reminding Adam and Eve that disobedience to Him brought death into the world

Why did God kill the animals? To provide clothing for guilty Adam and Eve.

- God provided them with clothing made from the skins of the animals which He had killed.

- God did this for Adam and Eve, even though they did not deserve it. Only God could supply them with clothing which would make them acceptable to Him. God put coats of skin on Adam and Eve.

- He didn’t just give them clothing and tell them to put it on.

- God put the clothing, which He made, on Adam and Eve.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit said this.

- They were talking about Adam and Eve.

- When God first made Adam and Eve, they didn’t know anything evil or bad.

- They only knew what was good. Everything God made and gave to them was good. Everything God told them to do was good.

- But when they disobeyed God their Creator, they found that not everything was good. Satan had deceived Eve so she thought the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be good for food. But as soon as Adam and Eve ate that fruit:

- They were filled with shame and fear.

- They now knew that not everything was good but that some things were evil. Adam and Eve should have trusted God.

- God knew what was good and what was evil.

- Adam and Eve should have trusted Him to tell them instead of finding out for themselves. God had given them every good thing to eat—He had even offered to them the opportunity to eat from the tree of life. But they had chosen to disobey God and to eat, instead, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—the one tree from which God had forbidden them to eat. Now, because they had disobeyed God, He would not allow them to eat of the tree of life.

- Consider:

Genesis 3:22 says that the reason God put them out of the garden was so that they would not eat of the tree of life and live forever. This was actually an act of God’s mercy.

- God did not want men to physically live forever as sinners. (Can you imagine what the world would be like if all the evil men that ever lived were still alive now?)

- By putting man outside of the garden, God allowed the consequence of sin to take its eventual toll—that is, death.

Because they were separated from God, they would also have to die physically. Therefore, God put Adam and Eve, the father and mother of us all, out of the garden, away from the tree of life.

- God had put them in the garden and told them they could eat of the tree of life.

- Now that they were sinful before Him, God put them out of the garden, away from the tree of life so they would die.

- Consider:

When Satan sinned, God put him out of his wonderful position in Heaven. Now, because of God’s hatred for sin, He also put Adam and Eve out of the garden.

God doesn’t ask anyone what He should do; He is the supreme one in the whole universe.

- No one can fight against God and win.

- We cannot trick or deceive Him. God hates disobedience to His commands and will not allow any disobedient person to live with Him.

At the east of the garden of Eden, God put some of His good angels called cherubim and a sword of fire which turned every way to make sure that Adam and Eve could not return and eat the fruit from the tree of life.

- If they had tried to go back, the good angels of God would have seen them, and they would have been killed by the sword of fire.

- There was nothing they could do.

- When God put them out of the garden, that was the end.

- There was absolutely no way they could get back to the tree of life. They would now grow old and die.

Eve said this because she knew that God is the giver of all life.

- God made Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him to give him life.

- God made Eve from Adam’s rib.

- Every person is given life by God.

- Your life was given to you by God.

- Psalm 100:3 says, “Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.”

Because Adam and Eve had sinned against God, they were put outside of the garden, away from the tree of life.

- Cain and Abel were born outside of the garden, away from the tree of life, because Adam their father was outside of the garden.

- Cain and Abel were born sinners because their father Adam was a sinner. Had Adam not sinned, Cain and Abel would have been born with the ability to know, love, and obey God. Instead, they were born under Satan’s control. When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect before God, and He loved and accepted them.

- If they had obeyed Him, then they would have continued to live in the garden and eat of the tree of life.

- Their children would have been born perfect and would also have lived in the garden.

- They, too, would have loved God and been fully accepted by Him. But because of Adam’s sin in eating the forbidden fruit, Cain and Abel were born sinners, separated from God, outside of the garden, and away from the tree of life. Not only was Adam the father of Cain and Abel, but he was also the father of the whole human race.

- Adam was your forefather.

- He was my forefather.

- He was everyone’s forefather.

Therefore, because Adam disobeyed God and was separated from Him, all people in this world are born sinners, cut off from God and with Satan as their father.

- Explanation:

We do not like to think of being born with a disposition to sin. But think for a moment about children. Have you ever seen a little child who is totally unselfish? No. Children must be taught to share and to care about others. Children are not born with a nature to obey; they must be taught. Have you ever heard a tiny child learn to say “yes” before he learned to say “no”? Have you ever seen a little child who wanted to do everything that his parents asked him to do, just when his parents asked him to do it? No. Children are self-willed (some more than others) and must be taught to submit themselves to their parents’ authority and to God’s authority. Both our heredity and our environment strongly influence our development. We are, in many ways, a product of our parents, and of their parents, and of their parents’ parents, and so on, all the way back to Adam. We have inherited not only genetic characteristics and behavioral and cultural patterns from our forebears; we have also inherited the disposition to sin. We are the product of sinners; and the line of sin can be traced through every generation right back to Adam, the father of the human race.

God is the one who gives life to all people, but we are not born in friendship or oneness with God.

- Satan has taken God’s place as our spiritual father.

What does this mean?

It means that we, too, just like Cain and Abel, were born unable to know, love, and obey God. From birth we are under Satan’s control.

- It is important that we realize we were born sinners.

- We were born separated from God, with Satan as our father, just as every other human being was born separated from God. We must also remember that, even though we are born sinners, it is God who has given us life.

- All life comes from God.

- All life is owned by God.

- He created everyone and everything.

- Consider:

Some people like to think that we are “all God’s children.” This is a very comforting thought and sounds very loving and religious. In a very subtle way, people are using this idea to relieve their minds of considering the possibility that God would ever reject them. But this kind of thinking is totally unscriptural. Yes, God created us. But as we have just discussed, Adam’s sin put all men into Satan’s family. So we are not born “God’s children,” but Satan’s children, cut off from God.

What we are reading from the Bible is true history.

- Adam and Eve were real people, and we are their descendants.

- God mentions their story and their names even in the New Testament.

- Adam and Eve’s sin affected all of us.

God has written these things for us so we can know Him.

God has not changed; He sees and knows everything we do.

- There is no place where we can hide from Him.

- It is impossible to deceive or trick God.

- Darkness and light are the same to God.

- There is never a time when we are out of His sight.

- He even knows our every thought.

In our next lesson we will study about God’s dealings with the children of Adam and Eve.

QUESTIONS:

1. Why did God refuse the clothes which Adam and Eve made?

2. Can a person make himself acceptable to God by putting on good clothes or by anything that he does?

3. What are some of the things you can think of that men do to try to make themselves acceptable to God?

4. Will God accept any of these things?

5. Who is the only one who could make Adam and Eve acceptable to God?

6. Why did God kill animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve?

7. Why did God make them clothes?

8. In what way did Adam and Eve become like God after they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

9. Why did God put Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden?

10. How did God make sure they wouldn’t be able to return?

11. Can anyone trick or deceive God?

12. Who gives every person his life?

13. Where were Cain and Abel born?

14. Why were Cain and Abel born sinners and separated from God?

15. Why were we all born sinners and separated from God?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 56: Leviticus, Chapters 21 and 22

Day 57: Leviticus, Chapters 23 and 24

Day 58: Leviticus, Chapters 25 and 26

Day 59: Leviticus, Chapters 27 and Numbers, Chapter 1

Day 60: Numbers, Chapters 2 and 3