Lessons of the Garden

We are back in the Garden of Eden this week to get a fuller view of a key lesson for every Christian.  For centuries men and women have come to this garden and debated over the fruit.  Was it an apple or a banana?  Was the fruit just a figure of speech or a sweet reality?  What’s more, why would God place this one tree at the center of the garden, with fruit that’s “beautiful to the eye”, and promptly restrict its consumption?

For years I’ve heard about a test of love.  “If man was created in the image of God with free will,” the argument goes, “then the exercise of obedience to the divine command would show man’s love and respect for God.”  In other words, it was a test of the depth of man’s love.  Perhaps, but there’s much more here than that!

By this time in our series we have traveled quite a distance down the path of divine revelation.  While some may debate timelines or creation theories, what we have endeavored to do is examine the broad strokes of divine revelation – seeing how, in fact, the “war” between Satan and God commenced.  Indeed, by the time we come to Genesis 3, Lucifer has been cast from the presence of God to the territory of his dominion that had become a wreck and a ruin through divine fiat.  It was all darkness and formlessness until the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – remade what was lost.  In those six days of creation God brings light out of darkness and His image bearers out of the dust.

One of the results of His work is the incitement of Satan’s jealousy and disdain.  When Satan sees what God has done he determines to attack.  His hatred is toward his enemy, the Most High God, and his target is this new rival creature – man.  Think of it.  When God places man, male and female, in the garden He extends to them the same responsibility Lucifer once enjoyed.  He gives them dominion and, as we see in our text, Satan cannot abide by it.

Now, rather than analyze the kind of fruit tree God restricted in Eden, or the depth of Adam’s love for his Creator, we will instead turn to some more important lessons found in the garden; lessons that have a direct impact on you and your walk of faith.  Remember, we are seeking to establish a biblical context for the spiritual warfare in which each of us is now engaged.

Spurgeon once said, “Unbelief is a weed, the seeds of which we can never entirely extract from the soil, but we must aim at its root with zeal and perseverance.  Among hateful things it is the most to be abhorred.”  Indeed, it is so egregious that when it is in full fruit, Jesus speaks of it as the unpardonable sin.  You know its origin?  Genesis 3.

Here in the Garden of Eden Satan attacks his rival by sowing seeds of doubt and unbelief in the mind of man.  He does it through a question and a declaration, both of which are intended to elicit doubt.  It’s a two-headed doubt that remains alive and well today.  The first head is to doubt the character of God, i.e. “How could a good God restrict such fruit?”  Satan still sows it!  The second head is to doubt the “badness” of man.  Is there any question that doubt is alive and well today?  Think of it.  God’s not good and man’s not bad.  That’s Satan’s agenda and it’s the prevailing view today, sometimes even in the church.  We look at the foundations of this satanic perspective this Sunday in a message entitled, “Lessons of the Garden.”  Our primary text is Genesis 3:14-24, but we will also read Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23 and note its relevance.  In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1.      What was the Synod of Dort?

2.      How did the declaration of the church of Holland relate to the truth of Genesis 3?

3.      When man fell into sin how far do you think he fell?  Is there any evidence from Scripture?

4.      What does it mean when someone says, “If you get the fall of man wrong, you get the Gospel wrong?”

5.      Why does God place the restricted tree in the garden?

6.      What is man’s immediate response to their disobedience?  Is it still true?

7.      How is Satan’s question in Genesis 1(b) a frontal attack on Christ?

8.      How does his question cast doubt on the goodness of God?

9.      How does his declaration cast doubt on the evil of disobedience?

10.  How do God’s judgment of man and His gift of garments shed light on our salvation?

 See you Sunday!

In the Garden

This Sunday we come to the heart of the middle scene of divine revelation.  When you study the Scriptures you find that all of existence can be divided into three scenes:  the first creation (Genesis 1:1, 2) and its judgment; the second act of divine “creation” as God brings order out of chaos (Genesis 1:2f through the second coming of Christ); and the final act of “creation” when God creates the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21).  The reason I place quotation marks around the word creation in Acts Two and Three is to distinguish God’s first act of creation as ex nihilo – out of nothing.  When God created the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1:1, He did it out of nothing.  Prior to this act of creation there was no matter out of which God could shape the heavens and the earth for no matter existed prior to Genesis 1:1.  However, in His second and third acts He re-forms or remakes what He had previously created.  This is why the word “brood” is used to describe God’s work in Genesis 1:2.  When the Spirit of God broods and the Father speaks His word order is brought out of the chaos when God judged Lucifer in the wake of his rebellion.

If you were with us last week for Tim’s message, “Piercing the Darkness,” you know that each member of the Trinity played a critical role in the work of re-creation.  What God had wrecked and ruined He reshaped and refashioned by the word of His mouth and the brooding of the Holy Spirit.  What the fallen angel Lucifer was entirely unable to do, God does by the word of His mouth.  How ironic it is to know that the one named “bearer of light” is completely impotent in bringing light out of the darkness of God’s judgment.

This week we are at a crucial point in Act Two – Genesis 3.  Here we find Satan’s response to the creation of a rival.  Think about that “rival” for a minute.  In Genesis 5:1-2 we read, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.  When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and named them man when they were created.”  (So much for exclusive language in the Bible!  From the very beginning “man” equals male and female.)  This description incorporates several features of man’s creation that are greater than the features in His creation of Satan.  First, the verses tell us that God made man in His image and likeness.  Though Lucifer was said to be “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” there’s no imago dei in him.  Second, the man is said to have received a divine blessing.  This too is a distinguishing trait of man.

So, when God brings light out of darkness, when He forms the earth and the sky, the waters and all living creatures, He doesn’t rest until He has made man the crown of His creation.  This infuriates Satan.  Satan had always looked on the earth as his personal property.  When he was created, as we’ve noted from Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, he was given three roles – prophet, priest, and king.  Even in his fallen state, this last role is retained in that he goes from the king of creation to the prince of this world (John 14:30) or the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2).  In commenting on a divided kingdom He references Satan (Luke 11:17, 18).  If God should “try” to endow an intruder (one He creates in His image) with dominion in Satan’s domain, Satan would do everything he can to make him his creature.  (Indeed, everyone who seeks to entrench himself/herself in his/her position and place of power is operating in the spirit of Satan.)  So the battle is joined.

Satan has two primary objectives in the garden:

1.      To interrupt the relationship between God and his image bearers;

2.      To gain the allegiance of these image bearers so that they might will Satan’s will rather than God’s will.

It is said that the seed of every great biblical doctrine is found in Genesis 3.  Indeed, when you examine the balance of Scripture you find each one of these embryonic doctrines coming to full bloom.  The sad fact is that nearly every biblical heresy and contemporary error has its genesis in a misunderstanding or misapprehension of the truths of Genesis 3.

In preparation for Sunday’s message “In the Garden”, Genesis 3:1-15 and John 20:19-23, and our three points:  The TARGET (Genesis 1:26, 27); The TESTIMONY (Genesis 3:9); and The TRIUMPH (Genesis 3:15), you may wish to consider the following:

1.      What biblical doctrines can you identify in Genesis 3:1-24?

2.      How is the “T” of TULIP so commonly misapprehended?   How far did Adam fall?

3.      How is the creation of man a threat to Satan?

4.      How is the creation of man a further judgment of God on Satan?

5.      What does the imago dei mean?  How are we made in the image and likeness of God?

6.      What is the meaning of God’s act and question in Genesis 3:8, 9?

7.      What is God’s purpose in setting the command in Genesis 2:16, 17?

8.      In what way did God honor His promise of death in Genesis 2:17?  (See I Cor. 2:14.)

9.      How different are God’s judgment of fallen Lucifer and His judgment of fallen man?

10.  What is the blessing in 15(a)?

11.  What is the blessing in 15(b)?

See you Sunday as we welcome some wonderful new members into the family of faith at Hebron!

Piercing the Darkness

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse gives a succinct overview of Genesis 1.  "A single verse (1) suffices to speak of the original creation of the heaven and the earth.  Another verse (2) is all that is needed to describe the awful chaos into which the ruined earth was plunged.  And less than thirty verses more tell of the six days' work during which the Lord 'made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is'."  The Invisible War, p. 68

Into the darkness of Genesis 1:2 comes the Spirit of God to reveal the divine plan of a renewed earth and the creation of mankind.  God's purpose has not been thwarted by Satan's rebellion.  The "light" will be turned back on and mankind, though made "lower than the angels" (Psalm 8:5), will ultimately be raised to "judge angels" (I Corinthians 6:3) and give all glory to the Almighty.  Satan must have become increasingly angered at this "invasion” of what he considered his realm as the "prince of this world".  Though stating that he would be like the Most High, he has no power or ability to do what God does with simple commands = create light and life!   This new creature, man, placed in his realm with authority and responsibility must be attacked and subjected to his will.  Sounds like spiritual warfare to me!

See you Sunday!

 1.  The Spirit of God "brooded" - this term seems to connect us with the concept of a bird covering her eggs in the nest.  Consider some other passages that give us a symbolic view of God from the "bird world". Ruth 2:12; Psalm 17:8; Luke13:34

2.  Find the Trinity in Genesis 1:2-3.  Compare Hebrews 1:2 and John 1:1-3.

3.  Study about Christ in Colossians 1:15-17. What does the “firstborn over all creation” mean regarding Christ?

4.  The darkness of Genesis 1:2 invaded by God's light in Genesis 1:3 has a wonderful parallel in our salvation.  Consider John 8:12; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Peter 2:9.

5.  Consider God's renewal of the earth from formless, empty, darkened, and deluged to lightened, organized, full of life, and very good as you read Genesis 1.  Quoting Dr. Barnhouse again "Out of the chaos was brought the 'cosmos' which signifies order, arrangement, and beauty." The Invisible War, p. 68

6.  Why would Satan consider the earth his realm and God's intervention to be an invasion?  Luke 11:17-18; John 12:31; 14:30

7.  What could we consider to be God's greatest intervention into Satan's "realm" producing the greatest light of all?  John 17:4

 

The Victor's View

Have you ever been in a fierce lightning storm?   It is both frightening and fascinating in its power, brilliance and danger! Jesus said that He saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightning.  This statement from our Savior corresponds to Satan's fall described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.  When Satan rebelled against God with his 5 "I wills," he was hurled from God's presence to the earth. Many of us watched the recent "fall" of Felix Baumgartner from approximately 24 miles above the earth. It was astounding to observe the speed and twisting with which he hurdled downward! We can only imagine what explosive impact Satan's collision with earth must have had as he was thrown from the presence of God for his rebellion.

Our sermon series' theme is "Jesus Wins!". The words of our Lord that He saw Satan fall speak to that truth in three awesome ways:   1) Jesus was there when it happened = another testimony to His eternality and Deity;  2) He won - Satan lost; and 3) We too can have victory over Satan through Jesus' name!

What a blessing it is to also read in our text of the believer's name recorded in Heaven. Satan is ultimately out of God's presence, but we will be eternally in His presence due ONLY to the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

See you Sunday!

1. There are 70/72 (depending on your Bible translation) disciples of Jesus sent forth to minister. Does the number 70 stand out in the Bible? Genesis 46:27; Exodus 15:27, 24:1; Numbers 11:16; Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:24

2. Who/what are demons? Study 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6

3. How did demons respond to the authority of Jesus? Mark 1:23-25, 5:2-12 What did they know about Him?

4. How vital is the name of Jesus to us? Matthew 1:21; John 16:24; Acts 2:38, 3:6, 4:9-12, 16:18; Philippians 2:9-11

5. How does the O.T. correspond to Jesus' statement of Satan falling from Heaven like lightning? Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:17

6. Consider this sobering Scripture passage from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:22-23

7. What do the Scriptures mean about our names being written in Heaven? Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5, 20:15, 21:27

The First Judgment

Perhaps you’ve known a kid like this. His name was Eric Von Fange and he lived in the same neighborhood I did in Virginia. He had an inquisitive mind. When his father bought a new car and brought it home, Eric stayed up for forty-eight hours taking the engine apart to see how it worked. Imagine that! His father buys a car, drives it home and within hours he and his wife are on a plane to California. At the same time Eric’s in the garage ripping the engine from its mounts.

Years ago I read of another boy who tore into a grandfather clock to see what made it tick. When he tried to put it together, however, it seemed to have enough wheels and springs to make two clocks. In the process he discovered that all of the parts must move in their proper sequence – certain wheels must move forward and certain ones backward. There are wheels that move quickly, and there are wheels that move slowly. There are large mainsprings and tiny hairsprings. All of the parts need to work together to make the clock go.

So it is with the life of a Christian. When events move forward we are pleased with the progress. If events move backward, we are inclined to be impatient; we want them to move in the direction of our own will, not understanding the purpose that God has in our lives. There are matters that are great and very important to us – mainspring events like births, marriages, deaths, triumphs, and tragedies. There are matters as fine as a hairspring like petty annoyances and trivial happenings that seem little and unimportant at times. Yet, both mainspring events and hairspring events regulate the course of our lives. There are events that move smoothly and rapidly and we rejoice at their action. Some things lag and incite our impatience as we seek to speed them up to the tempo of our own wills. Some events are welcomed and cherished. Others are dreaded and rip at our hearts.

But when all of these events – backward, forward; fast, slow; great, small – are seen in their relationship to each other, we Christians must conclude with the Apostle Paul that to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose and plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good that brings Him glory.

As I write this morning it’s only thirty-eight hours after the discovery that 22-year-old Sara Walendziewicz’s earthly life has been cut short. For Sue and Dave, David and Ashley, and so many of us, this event is a mainspring that conjures up a myriad of questions that strike at the very heart of the plan of God. How could Sara’s final breath be a part of a perfect pattern of good that brings God glory? How can her life and death speak of a loving God who works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose?

Paul’s words in Romans 6:23 help. Paul says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now many think Paul is speaking of sins and their consequences. They think of sins like the seven deadly ones, or the ten chronicled in the Ten Commandments, or any other list of actions that are in opposition to God’s law and reap the wage of death. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

Paul is not talking here about acts of sin. (He talks about sin elsewhere.) But here he’s talking about the state of sin. As we will note on Sunday, the sin of which Paul speaks is like poison in the bloodstream and acts of sin are like the resulting boils. Paul is speaking about our natural state in Adam. Before the finished work of Christ is applied, every one of us has a death sentence hanging over our head. Indeed, we are already dead spiritually and on our way to the same end to which Lucifer is destined. But that’s not the end of the story for the believer. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s a gift that He has already bestowed on you and me and Sara. We are the recipients of that gift. Unlike Lucifer and his armada of demons, our destiny is not death, but eternity – everlasting life with the One to Whom we belong.

We are going to talk about one of the giant mainsprings of existence this Sunday as we look at two great texts: II Peter 3:1-7 and Romans 1:18-23. In a message entitled “The First Judgment” we will look at God’s judgment of Lucifer. We will see in II Peter – the PAST, the PRONOUNCEMENT, and the PLAN of God as we continue to establish a biblical context for our life in Christ and our purpose therein.

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1. In what ways is Romans 6:23 not an evangelism text?
2. What is the difference between sin and sins?
3. Of whom is Paul writing in Romans 1:21?
4. How were God’s words in Genesis 2:17 fulfilled in Genesis 3:19?
5. What do you make of the Eden described in Ezekiel 28:13f?
6. How does it compare to the garden in Genesis 2? Revelation 21:15-21?
7. What waters is Peter referring to in II Peter 3:5-6?
8. How are they different from the floodwaters Noah endured? (See Jeremiah 4:23-26; Job 9:5-10; Psalm 18:7.)
9. How does God deal with Lucifer’s rebellion?
10. What is God’s word to us in the face of judgment? (See II Peter 3:1-2.)
11. What is the message for Sue and Dave Walendziewicz and you?

See you Sunday!

"The Futility of Time"

Before Billy Graham there was Billy Sunday. People used to marvel at how a Presbyterian minister with a fourth-grade education could get so worked up about the love of God that when he preached, he would literally rip his clothes. And yet, men of intellect and privilege would hang on his every word. They’d follow him around going from meeting to meeting listening to his words and studying his mannerisms, trying to find the secret of his passion. (They did the same thing with Billy Graham and many concluded it was his eyes!)

But to understand the passion of Billy Sunday you have to go back to a time four months before his birth. Billy was born in 1892, four months after his father was killed in the Civil War. When he was six, his mother took him and his 8-year-old brother to spend the night at a hotel. The next morning when she woke them up, she had tears in her eyes. Billy asked her, “What’s wrong, Mama?” His mother replied, “I can’t afford to raise you ‘cause I’ve got no money, so I’m sending you to Glenwood to the veteran’s orphanage.” And with that she put a ticket into their hands and put them on the train, never to see them again.

When the conductor came around to collect the tickets he said, “These tickets don’t go as far as Glenwood. I’m going to have to put you off the train.” Billy pleaded with him, “Don’t do it Mister. We’ve got no money ‘cause we’ve got no daddy. He was killed in the war.” To which the conductor said, “I fought in the war, too. Ain’t nobody gonna put you off this train.” So he let them ride all the way to Glenwood. And when they arrived he took both boys by the hand and walked them all the way to the orphanage. For the next ten years he was the only person to ever come and visit them.

When Billy Sunday came to know Christ, you know what he said? He said, “I now have someone who will hold my hand and never let go.” To understand Billy Sunday and his passion for Christ you have to know the scars.

It’s something like that when you come to much of the prophetic literature of the Scriptures. One of the great fallacies today is the notion that the prophets of Scripture were men who stood outside the judgment of God. They didn’t. They all occupied the same context as the ones to whom they spoke.

So this Sunday we come again to the prophecy of Isaiah, Chapter 14. Just like Ezekiel 28, Isaiah is speaking within a particular historic context, and yet his words apply to other times and other contexts.

For instance, in Isaiah 14 the prophet is speaking about God’s judgment to come on Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. The funny thing is that Isaiah was speaking 200 years before God brought judgment on Nebuchadnezzar. Moreover, like Ezekiel, Isaiah is repeating words of God that were addressed to Lucifer before the beginning of time. In fact, as we will see on Sunday, time as we know it begins in Genesis 1:2 after the fall of Lucifer and will end when God carries out His sentence against him. Time is then, like a parenthesis between eternity past and eternity future. It is only a fraction of God’s plan.

This week, therefore, we are going to dig more deeply into two texts: Isaiah 14:3-20 and II Peter 1:1-11 and take a closer look at Lucifer’s rebellious will. Here we will see:

1. The Setting of Isaiah’s words in verses 3 & 4
2. The Strategy of Lucifer in verses 13 & 14
3. God’s Solution in II Peter 1:1
4. The Significance in II Peter 1:11

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1. What is meant by the term “sequential revelation” when applied to prophecy?
2. What parallels can be drawn between Nebuchadnezzar (see Daniel) and Lucifer?
3. What grounds are there for applying God’s word to the King of Babylon to Lucifer and his fall in eternity past?
4. What do you make of Lucifer’s five “I wills” in verses 13 & 14?
5. How are they distinguished from one another?
6. What can you discover about Lucifer’s will in the name he uses for God in verse 14?
7. How is Jesus the remedy to Lucifer’s ruinous strategy?
8. How comfortable are you with saying that Jesus is not only the second Adam, but the second Lucifer?
9. How does time fit into God’s plan regarding Lucifer’s challenge?
10. How is communion related to all of this?

See you Sunday as we gather around His table on this World Communion Sunday!

"To Will One Will"

In James 4:8, James, the brother of Jesus says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded.”

In the mid-19th century, Danish existential philosopher and Christian, Sören Kierkegaard, picked up on these words and noted that to will one thing is to exhibit purity of heart. And that stands to reason, given what James says about the need to be cleansed from double-mindedness. But Kierkegaard goes further. He states that, if it is possible for a man to will one thing, then what he wills must be good. Now, I don’t want to get way down in the weeds here, but I think that what Kierkegaard is pointing to is exactly where we are headed this Sunday in a message entitled, “To Will One Will.” The texts to which we turn are both from the Gospels – Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 6:5-13.

If you are a regular reader of the e-newsletter I don’t have to remind you where we’ve been since beginning our new series, Jesus Wins, three weeks ago. In the first week we noted the “full stop” or “hard break” in the Genesis record between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. When God created in verse 1, everything He created was perfect, for as we noted, a perfect God can only produce what is perfect. But by the time you take a breath for verse 2 you find that a gigantic shift has occurred. The perfectly created order has become marred. The Bible says, “The earth was without form and void…” The Hebrew says, “The earth became a wreck and a ruin.”

Someone mentioned to me recently that they didn’t believe any of that. They said that they believe that verse 2 and following is an elaboration of verse 1. In other words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and verse 2 and following is how He did it. Now if that’s true, how do you explain the wreck and ruin? How is the formless, shapeless void explained? If God created ex nihilo, “out of nothing,” how is shapeless matter and energy explained? This is particularly puzzling given that beginning in verse 2 we see the entire godhead determining, hovering, and speaking things into being.

While I respect his opinion, I beg to differ. Indeed, I believe that the puzzle pieces of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 go a long way to explaining what happens to the perfect creation of verse 1. As we outlined in our last two messages, the one whom God had anointed as prophet, priest, and king over His perfect creation succumbed to the sin of pride, saying in his heart, “I will make myself like the Most High,” causing the Most High, in all His righteousness, to judge Lucifer. He cast him down from the presence of God (the Mountain of God). He dislodged him from his three-fold office. And yet, as we noted last week, while he is sentenced his eternal punishment is not yet exacted – prompting the question, why? Why would God allow this fallen angel to promulgate evil after God’s work beginning in verse 2?

This week and in coming weeks we will seek to answer such questions by beginning where Kierkegaard began – the will. One of the recurring themes on which nearly everyone opines at some point in their life is the matter of free will. The clear evidence of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is that no one since Adam had a free will with respect to divine righteousness. As Paul points out in Ephesians 2, our will is bound in sin prior to any choice anyone makes to surrender to God. (If you doubt that read Romans; Galatians; John 6, 14, 17; Ephesians, and Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther.) But for our purposes this Sunday, I want you to consider one simple fact – before Lucifer’s sin there was only one will in all of existence. And that will was God’s will. God’s will had no rival or challenge. To will one will was easy, because there was only one. But when in the heart of Lucifer his own will took control, two wills emerge. From that point on there was no longer one will in the universe, but two, and everything changed.

This week we are going to dig into all of that. Not only is it important for our knowledge of God and His Word, it’s critical for what God has freed us in Christ to do and to be.

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1. What is meant by the words, “The first matter of importance of any godly sermon is that it must be “therapeutic”?
2. What are some common answers to the question, “Why does God permit evil?”
3. Why did Marx call religion “the opiate of the people”?
4. What do you make of Luke 4 and the close proximity between Jesus’ baptism and His temptations in the wilderness?
5. What is Satan saying to Jesus in verses 5-6(a)?
6. How do the words of Satan in verses 5-6(a) relate to Jesus’ words to His disciples in Matthew 6:5-13? (Note the footnote after verse 13.)
7. How does II Corinthians 4:4 relate to the presence of two wills?
8. What does Jesus’ response in Luke 4:8 say about willing one will?
9. Why would God allow the presence of a rival will in the universe?
10. What does this tell us about God and His character?

See you Sunday!