It's really good to see you guys. I want to thank y'all for being here and being a part of the class today. As always, it's a privilege and a joy to come here to Savannah Bible Mission Training Center and work with you guys. And I'm sorry that I miss y'all on y'all's plays and y'all's graduation. I really am. I really would love to be here on Saturday night. I just simply have to work every Saturday because in the retail business, I either have to work Saturday or Sunday. And of course, I pastor a church, so I can't work on Sunday. So I have to work Saturday night. And so I'm sorry that I missed you guys. I hope that you all had a good time doing it. I hope that everybody benefited from it. But with that said, we're going to go ahead and get in our lesson. I only get to see you guys twice a month. And so we want to go ahead and jump right on into what we're talking about today. If you all remember, we had been going through something called the Baptist Catechism. A catechism is a form of teaching where you ask a question and then the student responds in reply. And all of these questions that we've been studying over the last, well, we've done 15. This will be our 15th catechism question. There's actually 150 of them all together in the Baptist catechism. There's several different catechisms out there. But the one we're doing, there's 150 questions. So through 15 questions, we've learned a lot. And one of the things that you might find out is when we first ask the question, they sound kind of simple and kind of like, well, what's the point of even asking that question? But then once we answer it and then we get into the scriptural background of why the question was asked and where the answers come from, we find that the answers aren't quite as simple as what one would think. But they are basically simple questions because the reality of the Christian faith, the reality of true biblical Christianity is that the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things. You don't have to be all fancy and talking big fancy terms all of the time to get the point across of what the Bible is trying to teach us. The Bible is written, most of our modern English translations are written on about a fourth or a fifth grade reading level. You might not believe this, but the King James Bible is written on a sixth grade reading level. Remember when King James English was written, the sixth graders in King James Day was reading Greek, Latin, And Hebrew, the kids were a lot smarter than we are nowadays. We have too many things to take our time away from learning. But the point is, these questions sound like they're very simple, but they actually dig into some really deep, deep scripture and dig into some deep meanings. And what you'll find is they begin to start answering questions that you hear a lot of people ask. it began to answer a lot of questions that a lot of people ask. For example, today's question is going to get involved with, how many of you have ever had someone say, well, if God is so good, Why does he allow evil in the world, right? That's a common question that a lot of people ask. Maybe you have that same question yourself. If God is so good, why is he letting me go through this? If God is so good, why is this world so messed up? Et cetera, et cetera. And you are not the first person to think of that question. You're not the first person to ask that question. And people have been struggling and wrestling with that question for centuries, right? And the truth of the matter is there's an answer to it. That term, the question is actually known as Theodicy. Theodicy. And what it means is, if God is good, how can there be evil? Or if God is omniscient, if God is all-knowing, if God is omnipotent, all-powerful, how in the world can this world be in the mess that it's in? How can there be cancer, and diseases, and sickness, and pain, and sorrow, and suffering, and addiction, and depression, and suicide? How can all of these evil things, if God is so good, how can we have so much evil in the world? And what you'll find is, is that most people don't wanna deal with that question, and most people are asking that question because they don't wanna answer it. Because the truth of the matter is, is that God is not the author of sin. God did not create sin. God does allow it. God allows sin. He's not the author or the creator of sin, but he does allow it. So think about God's will. Where do we know God's will in the clearest sense? In the Bible, in the book of Exodus chapter 20, there's a list of 10 things. What are they called? The 10 commandments. And those 10 commandments are God's will for man. He shall have no other God before me. Don't bow down, worship any idols. Don't take my name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't lie. What's the other one? Don't bear false witness. Honor your mother and your father so that your days will be long. And so these commandments are God's will for life. And so God's will is thou shalt not kill. There's no doubt about it. That is God's will. Do not kill. Do not murder. But God allowed his son to hang on a tree and allowed a bunch of men to nail him to that tree, allowed a bunch of men to slice his back open with whips and glass and beat him mercilessly to a pulp. And God the Father allowed his son to go through that. So if anybody asks you, was it God's will that Jesus die on the cross? You better believe it it was his plan before the world was ever founded That his son would come into the world and down that cross to save a people for himself and so even though it's God's Decorative will that means it's decreed Right his decreed will is thou shalt not kill God allowed evil To do what it did and Only the creator, only the good and holy and omnipotent God can take evil and turn it around and use it for our good and his glory. And so no matter what you've gone through in your life, no matter what struggles you've been through, no matter how much abuse you've been through, no matter how much pain, sorrow, no matter how many loved ones you've lost, no matter how much this world has beat you to the point of no hope, We know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those who are called according to this purpose. And so for the believer, there's going to be a wrestling. There's going to be a struggle with this reality. But if I can always remember that God is good and God is in control. If I can keep those two thoughts in the forefront of my mind and realize that everything happens for my good and His glory. Everything happens for my good and His glory. Now it doesn't say that everything happens is good. Everything that happens to you is not good. But everything that happens to you in the long run in the end when we turn around in eternity future and look back on the past We're going to see where everything was for our good in his glory. God's going to get the glory in all of it So the answer to why does God allow evil if God is so good if God is so powerful Why does God allow evil the answer is because I? Mean that's the answer Because he's God and we're not. And remember, he's not the author of sin. He created the man good. It was man's choice that turned away from God's will that brought sin and pain and suffering into the world. Can't blame God for it. And we like to try. I was just watching a debate this week with an atheist who said, well, God knew that Adam was going to eat from that tree and he could have put that tree somewhere where Adam couldn't get to it. But because God put it in a place where Adam could get to it, then it's God's fault. Because he knows everything and he knew that Adam was going to eat. So you see where this, this wrestling, this struggling comes in. So we're going to get to deal with that question today. Let's go ahead. We'll open with a word of prayer and then we'll look at, we're going to do a quick review over a couple of questions we've asked in the last couple of weeks and then we'll get into today's question. So let's pray. Father, we come to you this evening thanking you for this time that you've given us as your people, as your body, as believers to come together and to meditate on you and to meditate on your good and righteousness and your holiness and your glory and your power. We do recognize, Lord, that you are all-powerful and all-knowing. And that everything that we have comes from you, that you are a good and a holy God and a righteous God. And so Lord, we do recognize that you are God and you are good and you are in control. And yet we also recognize that as fallen and broken human beings, as those under the curse of sin, as those who have struggled with pain and sorrow and suffering in this life, with those of us who have struggled with the power of sin over our lives, the bondage of sin over our lives, we still have a hard time seeing things from your point of view. So I pray tonight, Lord, study your word as we study these truths, that you will keep us focused and that you will open our hearts and our minds and our lives to these truths. Help us to see them, to believe them, and to trust them. Help us to walk with you and to know that everything is for our good and your glory. We will ask these things in Christ, your son's name, your son's name, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we ask in his name. Amen. All right, so quickly we're going to review. We taught in Baptist Catechism question number 13, what are the works of providence? And then we answered God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, powerful, preserving, and governing all his creatures and all of their actions. So there's this term known as providence. And what is providence? Providence is God's most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving, What does it mean to preserve something? To keep it safe. Preserving and governing. What does it mean to govern? To rule over. So everything that's happening in the world around you right now is according to God's providence. And God's providence is His most holy and wise preserving and governing all of His creatures and all of their actions. So it's showing us God's providence, we have to realize that God is in control. And if God is in control, we are not. You know, it's coming up on Christmas time right now. Y'all know that, right? And did you know the world has no problem with baby Jesus? Little baby Jesus, the world likes little baby Jesus because they get presents too. It's not the little baby Jesus that the world has a problem with. It's the God-man Jesus. It's the prophet, the priest, and the king, and the judge Jesus that the world has a problem with. Why? Because the whole world is in rebellion to His preserving and governing. The whole world is in rebellion towards Him. But God's providence is His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all of His creatures and all of their actions. Remember we talked about this in the past in one of our other classes. There's not a radical molecule in all of the universe. There's not one atom of oxygen or hydrogen or one atom of plutonium or whatever. I don't even know if plutonium is an element. Where's Smith tonight? Is he not here? Is plutonium an element? Is it? Alright. So the point being is that God is in control of every atom, every particle, Every breath that comes in and out of your nose, every ray of light that comes through these windows, God is in control of it all. He's in control of it all. And He uses that sovereignty, He uses that control to preserve and govern all of creation. Now we look at the world around us and what do we think? If God is in control, then why is this world in such chaos? Well, is our will really free? Our will is only, you're right, we do have a choice. We have creaturely choice. But to say that we have free will, what we'll find out is we actually lost free will in the garden. We were free to choose until we chose wrong. Now we don't have free will anymore. Our will is only as free as our nature. All right? So none of us in this room can will to be a day younger, right? All the medicine, all the science out in the world is chasing after the fountain of youth, trying to figure out how we can what? Stay alive. How we can be young and trim and fit again. How I can look like I look and act like I act and feel like I felt when I was 16 or 17 or 18 years old. Well, the problem is, is your body says, I don't care if you want that or not, it's not happening. You know, if I go, so my will is only as free as my nature allows it to be. You see? My choices are limited by my nature. Okay? So I can go stand on top of a 10-story building and sing R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly. And I can believe that I can fly so much that I jump. And I'm going to die. Now, I chose to believe that I could fly. But you see, my will is limited by my nature. The problem is I'm not a bird. And God's law of gravity works every time. God's law of gravity never gives up, it never lets down, it never, what was it? His love never, God's gravity never fails, His love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me. Well, His gravity never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me. His gravity is always there and it always works. It's a law of the creator put that law into place and said if you jump off of a 10 story building you will die. And no matter how much I choose to want to fly or believe that I can fly, God's will is going to override my will in that circumstance, you see? So our choice, our will, you and I will is not as free as we'd like to think it is. A matter of fact, our whole argument with God as being the sovereign is that it's our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And the whole struggle is my will over his will. That's where all the struggle comes in. All of the struggle comes in when we say, you might think you're sovereign, but I choose differently. And then all of the suffering and all the pain and all the sorrow comes from our free will, our creaturely will. So you decide what you want to order at the restaurant off of the menu, right? But if you go to McDonald's, you cannot order a Whopper. No matter how much you will a Whopper, you're only going to get a Big Mac. And if you go to Burger King, guess what? You're not going to get a Dave's Triple Baconator. Choices are, even though we have creaturely choice, we can make choices, our will is only as free as our nature allows it to be. So maybe that little verse that says, unless the sun sets you free, or when the sun sets you free, you're free indeed. You see, when you started on your road to addiction, every one of us in this room has struggled with some type of addiction. Your road to addiction started with choices. Did you know that? And let's just say it was alcohol. Well, let's just use a simple one like cigarettes. All right, Joan, I'm not picking on you. I'm just talking about cigarettes. All right, the first time that you smoked a cigarette, you chose to grab it and light it up, did you not? And you know what your body said when you inhaled? That's bad for me, stop that. Don't put that in my lungs. You chose and your body said, no, no, this is not good for you. But the longer you chose to do it, the easier what was not good for you got to be. And before long, you're taking half a Newport in one drive. Your body is now convinced that what you're doing is good for you. And in reality, it's killing you. And you know what happens? Those first few choices where it was a free choice on your part, it's not a choice anymore, John. What happens after I get done with dinner? I'm going outside to smoke a cigarette, because that's what my body tells me I'm going to do now. And so that choice turned into bondage. Well, that's the story of sin. Adam and Eve turned away from God and choose to do it their way, and what did it turn into? It turned into bondage. You will surely die. And now, no matter how much they choose not to die, they die. Okay, so providence that was the first question of catechism question 13 in catechism question number 14 We asked this question. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created? So how did God's work God's providence act towards man when he was created? The answer is when God had created man he entered into a covenant of Life with him upon the condition of perfect obedience Forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death. This is actually catechism question 15 This is a question we're going to talk about tonight okay, so God's providence is his holy wise most powerful preserving and governing of all of his creatures and all of the creation But in that providence God exercised his providence towards man when he created him God created man And he exercised his providence when he created the man. When he created Adam, he already knew that he was going to fall. He created man in his image. Now, go back to that Baptist Catechism question 13, look what it says, up at the top of the page. How did God create man? It says, God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. So God created man, male and female, he created them in his image and he gave them what? Dominance over the creation. He told Adam and Eve to rule and reign over the creation that he had given them. Yes? It says, how did God create man? It says, how did God create man? He simply spoke it. He spoke everything into his image. Actually, with man, he formed him out of the clay with his hands. With what? I got that right now, too. Yeah, yeah. He spoke everything into existence but when it came to man he took the ground and he formed man out of the ground. And the difference in the man and the way that he created the man was he created man in his image. The birds, the bees, the flowers, the trees, the sun, the moon, the stars are not in the image of God. They are expressions of his creativeness but man is different than all the rest of creation because man was created in the Imago Dei. How many of you in this room have ever, when you were struggling with your addiction, maybe you were struggling with depression, suicide, and things like this, there was a true hatred towards you? You could look in a mirror and say, I hate you. I hate you. Or you look at your fellow man and say, I hate you. All of the racism and things that we have going on in this world right now is hatred towards what? A fellow man. And why is that? It's because in our fallen nature, we hate God. And the closest thing to remind us of who God is, is man. Why? Because man was created in his image. You see? So why do you think that the devil and all his demons attack mankind? Because they are a reminder of who God is. Because man was created in the image of God. And so when Jesus died on the cross, he was dying to save his image bearers. He was dying to save sons of Adam, daughters of Eve. He wasn't dying to save the birds, the bees, the flowers, the trees, right? He wasn't dying to save Herschel as much as we love him, right? Jesus didn't die on the cross to pay for Herschel's sin. Jesus died on the cross to pay for Adam's sin. So when Jesus, the God-man, came in the likeness of man, he poured his physical man's blood out on that cross to pay for man's sin. So man is created in the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and has dominion over the creation. And so what we find is, is when Adam fell, he lost all of that. His image was marred, his knowledge was skewed, his righteousness was gone, and his holiness and his dominion over the creation was taken away from him. Right? It's why we can't control our animals anymore. We can kind of control them a little bit, but we've all seen those animal gone wild videos. You know, nature was not designed to kill one another and destroy one another. Nature was created by God to be a beautiful expression of God and who He is. But in our fallenness, when Adam chose to turn from God and bit from that tree, bit the fruit from that tree, not only did he bring death upon himself, But he brought death upon all of that that God had given him dominion over. And so, our question today is this. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created? The answer is, when God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon the condition of perfect obedience. Forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death So what I want to do now I want us to open our Bibles We need to get into some scripture and read the text to know where we're getting these answers from so turn way into the book of Genesis We're going to look at Genesis 2 verses 15 to 17 Genesis 2 verses 15 to 17 I hope y'all guys are turning there with me because this is the most important thing. All of the words that I'm saying are secondary to what this says, okay? It says this, then Yahweh, God, took the man and he set him in the garden to cultivate it and to keep it. And Yahweh, God, commanded the man and said, from any tree of the garden you may surely eat, But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. And Yahweh, God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. And so, we see here that God made man. He set him in the garden to cultivate it and keep it. And then it said He commanded him. It wasn't a suggestion. He commanded him and said, you are free to eat from everything out here. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you are not free to eat from it. Because the day that you eat from it, you will lose your freedom. The day that you eat from it, you will surely die. So our question says that God created man. He entered into a covenant of life with him upon the condition of perfect obedience. So who remembers what a covenant is? Covenant is a pact between two people, between two parties. So God came into agreement with Adam and this is what he said. I'm giving you life and this life is yours. based upon your obedience. All of this is yours to have, to control, to enjoy, to rule and reign over, and it's all good. The only thing that wasn't good was you being alone, and now I've given you a wife, so that's good too. All of it's good. Everything you have is good, and it will always be good, it will always be right, it will always be perfect, it will always be holy, Conditioned upon your obedience So it was called a covenant an agreement between God and Adam and Of course we know what happens next let's go to Genesis 3 now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field which Yahweh had made and he said to the woman indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree in the garden and the woman said to the serpent from the fruit of the trees in the garden we may eat and But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, you shall not eat from it, you shall not touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wife. She took the fruit of it, she ate, and she gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and they made themselves loin coverings. Then they heard the sound of Yahweh walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden. And Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, who told you you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from? That I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman that you gave me, she gave me from the tree and I ate. And Yahweh God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. And Yahweh God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than any of the beasts of the field, and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put a hatred, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed and he, her seed will bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and conception and in pain you will bear children. Your desire will be to your husband and he will rule over you. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. Then Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from it, curse is the ground because of you, and in pain you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. About a sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to the dust you will return. Now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Alright, so God created this creation. He came into covenant with Adam and said what? You are free to enjoy it, to take care of it, it's all yours. And the only agreement, the only part of our covenant that I command is that you don't eat from that tree right over there. The serpent comes into the garden, he don't go and attack the garden, he goes and attacks the image bearer of God. And what does he say? Did God really say that? The first question in the Bible was asked by Satan. The first question mark in all of the Bible is a question from Satan. If you go back and look, you'll find it. That's the first question mark in the Bible. And it is what? Did God really say? So what is the devil doing? He's attacking what? God's Word. He's attacking God's promise. Anytime you're dealing with an atheist or somebody who is not a believer or somebody who doesn't want to believe or someone who is rejecting God, the first thing they'll say to you is, how do you know that Bible is even true? Why? Well, because they are poisoned by the serpent and they're asking the same questions he asked. Did God really say that? Well, what did God say? If you eat from that tree, you're going to die. And when he said, you're not going to die, You see, God knows that when you eat from that tree, your eyes will be open. You'll know the difference between good and evil. You're going to be just like God. So the devil gets her to question what God says. Did God really say that? Then he gets her to doubt what God said. You're not going to die. And then he puts words in God's mouth. For God knows that when you eat from that tree, you're going to be just like Him. And He don't want you to be like Him. So the woman saw with her eyes that the tree was good for food and delightful eyes and desirable to make one wise. She took of the fruit and she ate it. And as soon as she bit into it what she do, she gave it to her husband who was with her. Adam was right there watching her. He knew that when she ate from that tree what was going to happen. What did he know was going to happen when she ate from that tree? That she would die. And what did he do? He let her bite it anyhow. And then as soon as she didn't drop dead right on the spot, he said, oh, maybe that serpent's got something going here. Let me try that. But the Bible says that Eve was deceived. She truly thought she was doing something that was going to help her and her husband out. Adam, on the other hand, was being willfully disobedient to God. He knew that he wasn't supposed to do that. He grabbed it and he ate it. And so they run and hide in the bushes. God comes down into the garden and finds them. He calls Adam by name. Adam, where are you? You're the one that broke the covenant. Where are you? Here I am. Why are you in the bushes hiding? I'm afraid. Why? Because I'm naked. Who told you you were naked? Well, who told him he was naked? Did the servant tell him he was naked? Who told him he was naked? His conscience. That's exactly right. And we all have one. He knew that he was wrong. And he was trying to hide from God and it wasn't going to do any good. And so God brings the curtain. And what's funny is, God said you will surely die. But they didn't fall and drop dead right away, did they? Right? Drugs and alcohol will kill you. Well, most people don't die of an overdose their first time. It's usually after a long period of use and a long lifestyle of it before it finally gets them. You see? Smoking's bad for your health. And we go sometimes 30, 40, 50 years thinking we got it beat. And then we go to the doctor one day and the lung specialist says, you got black stuff all over your lungs and that looks like cancer, you're gonna die. You see? And then we go, oh, why me? Well, because a long time ago back when you took that first drag and your conscience went, This is bad. You didn't listen. And so what happened? Your lungs became callous to the smoke. Well, it's the same way with sin. It's the same way with our conscience. Our conscience has become callous to the commands of God and we refuse to obey and we refuse to trust Him. We refuse to believe. So Adam and Eve are now broken the covenant. And the funny thing is they didn't drop dead right away. But God had a better plan than that. It wasn't to zap them with lightning. It was to allow them to live for almost 1,000 years dealing with the repercussions of their decisions that they made. When they woke up one morning and their oldest son had killed their younger son, they knew it was because of the fall that they brought about. That's why their son is suffering. And they watched for 1,000 years as generation after generation fell further and further away from God and became more corrupt. God allowed them, they died spiritually immediately. They were completely separated from God by their sin. But their bodies, their bodies were created to live forever, remember? So it took almost a thousand years for that sin to catch up with them and wipe them out. But their whole life was a life of dying and death. And because of that one choice, they lost all the other choices. because of their unwillingness to trust and obey God, they lost his trust and his care. But God didn't leave him at that. What'd he say? He said, one day, that woman's gonna have a baby that's gonna crush that serpent's head. One day the woman, the seedable woman, is gonna crush the serpent's head. So all the way back again, it wasn't like when Adam and Eve ate from that tree and they were hiding in the bush thinking, God wasn't up in heaven pulling his hair going, oh no, what am I gonna do with these knuckleheads now? I sure didn't see this about to happen. He already had a plan in place. The plan was his son. And so now when we celebrate Christmas every year, it's almost time to celebrate Christmas, we're celebrating the seed of the woman. We're celebrating the gift of God that has come to redeem us from our choices, from our fault, from sin, from death, and from suffering. And all of that is a part of God's providence. So God created man. He entered into a covenant of life with him upon the condition of perfect obedience. Forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death Well, we all know how that covenant worked out. How did it work out? Did God keep his end of the bargain? Yeah, why because the wages of sin is death all of sin have fallen short of the glory of God and so if Wages of sin is death and all of sin then that means all are going to what die See God's still keeping his end of that covenant You sin you die Why do people die? Because they sin. And it's passed on to us from our parents. That's why Jesus said you must be born again. You gotta be born into a new family, because the old family's dying. You must be from the family of God. You must be of a new seed, because that old seed is corrupt. All right, so. We have some backup questions to back up what we're learning here. Let's look at those really quick and we'll close. Did God make man perfectly holy? Look at the answer, yes. God made man upright. Let's look at that passage script, Ecclesiastes. I'm gonna see how many of y'all are gonna flip in your Bible, how many of y'all know where Ecclesiastes is. Where is it? Right after Psalms, right? Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Right after Proverbs, he was right. 729 says this See I have found only this that God made men upright But they have sought out many devices God made us upright And what does it mean to say that men have sought out many devices? God made us straight. We looking for any way we can to be crooked Right God created us in his image, and now we've turned around in our rebellion and said, you know what God, we're gonna make you like us. I want a God that's like me. My God would never, and you fill in the blank. 729, it's on that little worksheet I give you there. All right, the next one. Was man perfectly happy when he was created? Yeah, for God blessed him in the garden. Did God give him a law? Yes, the Lord commanded, how many rules was there? One. He couldn't even keep one. He couldn't even keep one. And was man, as God's creature, obliged to obey that law? Well, look at the answer. Yes, remember, O Israel, thou art my servant. I have formed thee. That's Isaiah 44, 21. God is the one that formed us. We did not form him. Remember what Paul said in Romans? Who are you, O man, to answer back to the potter? Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Can the clay say to the potter, why did you make me like this? No. God created us. And because He created us, He is the creator. We are His creation, and we are responsible to obey Him, to listen to Him, to yield in obedience to Him. Next question. Was the covenant which God entered into with Adam a covenant of life? Yes, for the law is not a faith, but the man that does them shall live in them. So God gave Adam a covenant of life. Why did it turn into a covenant of death? Because man broke the covenant. Man broke his end of the bargain. All right? Were there special commands given by way of trial? Yeah. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. So God was testing the man. What was the test? What was the test? Yeah, the test was are you going to trust me and do what I tell you to do or are you not going to trust me and do what you want to do? Right? That was the test. Are you going to trust and obey me? And how did Adam do with that test? He failed miserably. All right. And was death threatened in the case of disobedience? Yeah. In the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die. Was he under natural necessity to break this law? Did Adam have to break that law? No. Wait a minute, but God knew he was going to do it. So did Adam have to break that law? No. No. Because he had given him the freedom to eat from every other tree out there. He was free to do whatever he wanted, except eat from that one tree. It was one rule, one law, one command. And instead of enjoying all of the freedom that he had, he chose death and sin. And you know what, in our fallen nature, we are chips off the old block. We act just like Adam does. We got all the choice in the world to do the right thing, and every time we find ourselves doing the wrong thing. Right? Look at my diet. Look at my exercise plan. Right? I can go out and exercise, or I can take a nap. And 99 out of 99, 100 times, the nap wins out over me going and exercising. I can eat healthy and have a salad, or I can have some Blue Bell ice cream. And 99 out of 100 times, I'd take the Blue Bell, because it's just easier to do the wrong thing. Have you ever noticed that when you have to get up and go to work, you hit the snooze like 25 times? But if it's to go out on a date, or you're going fishing with your buddy, or going hunting, man, you wake up for the alarm. When it's something we want to do, when it's something we want to do, and usually it's the wrong thing, Man, we don't have no trouble doing that. But when it comes time to do the right thing, we're constantly fighting and kicking and screaming against it. I can't tell you the number of people that I know that are homeless, the number of people that don't have any money in the bank, the number of people that are constantly relying on other people for handouts that don't work. There's a reason why you're broke. A man don't work, he don't, Eat. Yeah, and the truth of the matter is, oh, why me? Nobody help me out, I'm broke. And most of the time, it's because we choose to do the wrong things. Every time we get some money, we go out and spend it on the wrong things. Go pay $10 for a pack of cigarettes. When you should have bought you some bread and some bologna or something, you know, to eat. But the point being is that in our fallen state, it's so easy to do the wrong thing. Why? Because we're in bondage to that death and that sin. It grips us and we grip it. So he was not under necessity to break that law. He chose of his own doing to break it. And by choosing to break that law, he lost his choice. Now, was Eve included, for you ladies in the room, was Eve included in this? Yeah. God said to the woman, what have you done? She was just as guilty. Was the law worthy of God? Was that law worthy of God? Was it a worthy law? Was God right in giving it? Yeah. Shall not the judge of all of the earth do right? So was God wrong in tempting Adam? God didn't tempt Adam. It was sin and it was his own fault in nature that tempted him. God gave him freedom. Adam chose bondage. The Bible says that Adam knew exactly what he was doing. I think what happened was, I think when she bit into that fruit and she didn't die right away, he was thinking, oh, here's a loophole. Right? Oh, she didn't die, so that means I won't die. No, there's a lot, I've heard people, and it comes from a lot of Mormon theology, like the Mormons really, they honor and revere Adam. And one of the things they say is that Adam didn't want Eve to be alone. Like he didn't want her to die alone. So in a chivalrous act, he bit the fruit and took death with her. No, he was trying to get over on God is what he was trying to do. He was sinning. He was in rebellion. Did they know what death was when they took the diet of death? Did they know what? What death was. No, because remember what the devil said. That's a great question. So remember the devil said, he said, when you eat from it, your eyes will be open. You will know the difference in good and evil, and you're gonna be just like God. And so two of the things that he told them happened. The third thing, you will be just like God, was the exact opposite of what happened, because God is holy and righteous, and by eating that fruit, they were unholy and unrighteous. So the devil was lying to them about the third clause, but it said when she ate from the tree, she bit into the fruit, and her eyes were opened, and she knew the difference in good and evil. So before she bit into that fruit, she didn't know what evil was. Experientially, she did not know what evil was. But now she knew what evil was. Why? Because it was in her. She could recognize evil because it was a part of her. Her eyes were open and she knew the difference in good and evil. So the devil wasn't lying with both of those two things. But the problem was is they didn't know evil in the way that God knows evil. They knew evil because they became evil. All right, your last question is this. Is the second covenant better than the first covenant? The Bible says that Christ Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. Well, I'll help you answer that question. Here the Bible is divided into two parts. What are the two parts? Old Testament and the New Testament, all right? Well, I got news for you. That word testament in Hebrew is the word bereth, And in Greek, it's diathiki. And what that word means is covenant. That's what the, so you could actually read it and it reads the old covenant and the new covenant. Well, as long as they're reading God's word, they're in good shape. But most of us, the reason that we do not understand the New Testament is because we don't have an Old Testament foundation. Most people talk about how confusing and mysterious the book of the Revelation is. Well, the book of Revelation is filled with Old Testament symbols and signs. And so one of the reasons we don't understand the New is because we don't understand the Old. You've got to understand it all. The problem with the Old Testament is that it wasn't good enough. Because it was a conditional covenant. What does that mean to say it was a conditional covenant? If you do not eat from that tree, you will live forever. There's a condition involved. And what was the problem with the condition? Adam wasn't willing to keep it. So the Old Covenant is a conditional covenant. The new covenant is based simply on the conditions of what Jesus has done. Not on what we do, but on what Jesus has done. Why is the new covenant a better covenant? Because it's based on the power and the will of Jesus and not the power and the will of fallen sinners. The old covenants, remember they had to sacrifice lambs and sheep and goats and bulls and every year they had to keep coming back and sacrificing more, sacrificing more, sacrificing more. Why? Because they kept sinning. And so what they were showing is, is that all of them deaths of them animals was not taking away their sin because they had to keep coming back and doing it over and over again. It was a conditional thing. But when Jesus, his last words on the cross were what? It is finished. Jesus didn't say it's now up to you You see and that's the difference in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant That's the difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is based upon the work of Christ and It's the better covenant That's what the book of Hebrews is showing you all of the Old Testament things could not save a man Moses couldn't save anybody Abraham couldn't save anybody The the priesthood was not good enough the laws were People wouldn't keep them all of the Old Covenant is conditional and it's not good enough because man is not capable of keeping his end of the bargain and Here's the beautiful thing about that The New Covenant was in the Old Covenant concealed What do I mean by that y'all remember when God made a promise to Abraham and He cut the animals in half And what happened then? Did Abraham walk through the animals with God? No, Abraham went to sleep. God put Abraham to sleep and then God walked alone through those animals. You see what he's saying? You see what he's saying to Abraham? Abraham, this covenant is not gonna be based upon what you do. It's gonna be based on what I do. And your assurance is gonna be found in what I do, not in what you do. See? And so Abraham was saved by faith in Jesus Christ. The problem was that Jesus Christ was concealed in the sacrifices and the religious system, all in the high priesthood and the kings and all that. All of that was a picture of the better that was to come. Jesus is the better that was to come. So God made a covenant in the garden with Adam and Adam was not able to keep it. God made a covenant with Noah when he flooded the earth and Noah couldn't keep his end of the bargain. It's a good thing that God said he would never flood the earth again. Why? Because if it was up to man's obedience, we'd be dead already, right? God made a covenant with David and he said, one of your sons is always going to sit on the throne. God made all kinds of covenants in the old covenant. But none of those covenants stuck. Why? Because every one of them was a conditional covenant. Think about the land covenants with the children of Israel. Why are the children of Israel not in the land? Because they're disobedient. They don't keep their end of the bargain. But the New Covenant, the New Testament, the promise of God is not a covenant of works. It's the covenant of Grace, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, right? And so I hope that this gives you some things to think about. I hope that you will take this handout that I give you and dig into these passages of scripture here and make sure that what I'm telling you is true. You always need to do that. When anybody come in here and teach you, guys, right now what they're teaching you, where they're teaching you from the Bible, and go back in and read it for yourself. Don't take anything for granted. Always go in and study to show yourself to prove the workman that needeth not be ashamed. And anybody that is a true teacher, anybody who is truly being led by God to come up here and teach you will tell you that very thing. Be like a Berean and check and make sure that what I'm teaching you is scriptural. Make sure that what I'm telling you is from the Bible. Anybody that don't like to be questioned, something's wrong, right? If they don't like to be questioned, then they're hiding something. If I teach you something wrong, I want you to point it out to me. I want you to get in the scripture and say, hey, you said this and the Bible says this. And I won't be offended at all. I'll repent and I'll tell you you were right and I was wrong. So make sure, take the lessons that y'all are getting and write down these verses and go back in and dig for yourself. Let the Holy Spirit and the word of God work in your life. God gives you teachers to help you and to guide you but you need time in the word yourself. You need to check and make sure that what you're being taught is true, okay? Let's go with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for this time we've had together. Thank you for your love and your grace and your mercy. Lord, we are so grateful to know that you are God and you are good and you are in control. And we are so thankful to know that it's not up to us, that it's up to you, our God, our savior, our shepherd, our king, our judge, our prophet. our counselor and our comforter, our creator and our king. In Christ's name we pray, amen.