Equipping The Saints: Be The Church 5f226j

EQUIPPING THE SAINTS

#BETHECHURCH

Stephen and Amy Ross

Copyright © 2019 by Stephen and Amy Ross All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: [email protected]

First paperback edition December 2019

Book design and edits by Michelle Morrow www.chellreads.com

ISBN 978-1-7343857-1-7 (paperback) ISBN 9978-1-7343857-0-0(ebook)

Facebook: Be The Church Instagram: bethe_church Twitter: @bethe_church Gmail: [email protected]

Table of Contents

Introduction

Knowing God is one of the greatest privileges for a believer. Often in today’s culture we see little value placed on theology and doctrine. We now place much of our value in experience. Although our God is a supernatural God giving us a supernatural experience starting with the miracle of salvation, this alone cannot be our defense on why we believe what we believe.

Many false religions can offer up a supernatural experience that can deceive even the greatest skeptics. Be The Church Ministry wants to help equip the believer with a deeper understanding of:

WhywecantrusttheBible

TheAttributesofGod

WhatdoestheBiblehavetosayaboutHumanity?

JesusInOurSalvation

DoctrinesofOurSalvation,WhatThis MeansforUs

We will give you an overview of these 5 topics spread out into 15 weeks of study. We pray we whet your appetite to desire to go deeper on each topic for yourself. Ministry resources will be included in the back of this study guide to help you as you grow in your faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ

The study guide will present you with scriptures to look up on your own and meditate upon. Room to write the scriptures out or put your thoughts down has been included. Please go slowly through the study and allow Holy Spirit to teach you, as He will. We

Equipping The Saints

encourage you to go deeper and search out more scriptures as you work on the study. Keep in mind the turtle wins the race. Take your time and allow these foundational teachings to abide in you.

We recommend these versions of the bible:

ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version with Study Notes NASB: New America Standard Version NKJV: New King James Bible

Section 1

Lord we ask that You show the student the supernatural aspect of the bible. Help the student to see Your word is their final authority and can be fully trusted in every area of their lives. We desire for them to realize that the bible is fully sufficient and is all they need to navigate their earthly walks.

Week 1

“Makes no sense to defend the Bible than it does to defend a lion. Just set the lion loose it will defend itself” ~ Charles Spurgeon

WHY TRUST THE BIBLE

We will start with understanding the foundation of the Bible. If we do not commit to the belief that the Bible is written by God through men as the inerrant perfect word then the rest of our foundations falter. God chose to reveal Himself through scripture. He chose to leave us this supernatural love manual. We are expected to use this manual for better understanding of who God is, who we are, why we are here, how to live out our short time here as believers and what is waiting for humanity after we leave here.

FACT

40 authors over a 1500-year period of time wrote the Bible. These authors were from different backgrounds and centuries. However, the Bible is completely harmonious having no contradictions.

“Our bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eye witnesses during the life time of other eye witnesses. They reported supernatural events that took place in specific prophecies and maintained their writings were divine rather than human in origin” ~ Voddie Baucham

Side Note: Notice in verse 16, the eyewitnesses heard God the Father confirm Christ as His Son. This confirmed to them all the Old Testament prophecies about Him.

COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

-66 books written on 3 continents Asia, Africa and Europe

-3 Different languages Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic

-Bible is filled with names, dates, and places of historical accuracy. We have over 23,000 archeological digs. Every single dig has actually backed up the historical accuracy 100%. Not one dig has come up with something that can be refuted.

Having confidence in the historical evidence of our bible is truly supernatural in itself. Luke gives us the reason why he wrote his gospel.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Luke 1:1-4

Luke is letting the reader know his letter will give an of eyewitnesses of Jesus, His life, His death and His resurrection. Proving He is the messiah that has been prophesied to come.

The Bible is Written by Eye Witnesses

The authors often refer to themselves as eyewitnesses in their writings.

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John 21: 24

1 John 1:1-3

2 Peter 1:16

The apostles give eyewitness of the resurrection and this is backed up in the historical book of Acts.

The early church fathers back up the notion of the authors of scripture being eyewitnesses as well. Such as Papias he describes Marks of the gospel as being the eyewitness of Peter. Mark was the disciple of Peter and recorded his teachings in the gospel of Mark in which Peter says he was an eyewitness.

SIDE NOTE: Early church fathers, the name given to those in our early church history, preceded the first apostles. The apostles personally taught one of the earliest church fathers, Clement of Rome. He had

written about the things he was taught. He fought to continue the exact teachings of the apostles. We have other church fathers that also precede the first church fathers and then so on and so on. The church fathers defended our doctrines against all the false teachers coming out with their own writings and false teachings. They unified our church into solid orthodox teaching based solely on scripture. Although the further we get away from the early church the more we begin to see man’s traditions and world systems creep in. Early church fathers are typically from 100 AD – 400 AD. Please note God does not inspire their writings as infallible. They had misunderstandings much like we all do in nonessential doctrines. We are blessed to have their writings just as many elders today have written great books, however the Bible alone is our final authority not man.

Sadly, many false teachers have come against this claim revising history knowing many will Google or go to YouTube and then blindly believe whatever they tell them. However, history has always backed up the Bible and we can trust the historical accuracy of the scriptures.

FALSE:

Many university professors and false religions like Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses claim there are multiple translations of the Bible, which means you can either:

1. Not trust our bible or 2. Can only trust their rewritten bible or 3. They have made their books above the Bible.

Side Note: This is satan’s age old lie. He looked at Eve in the garden and said, “Did God really say”? He makes her doubt God or doubt that God really meant what He said. False teachers or secularist are used by satan in the same way. “Is your bible really accurate” or “Did God really say”?

TRUE:

The Bible is NOT translated from other versions of the Bible. We use the oldest manuscripts available to translate the Bible from its original language written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.

Side Note: The university professors know this but continue to repeat the lie in order to deceive their students. They know most all of their students will not go search it out. If they repeat the same lie often enough eventually it becomes the new truth. At least they believe it is truth but it is still a lie.

Another Lie Often Used in Universities:

FALSE:

We can’t trust the Bible because back then there was a group of overzealous monks who changed all the old manuscripts.

TRUTH:

No evidence of this lie exists at all, but it keeps being repeated to deceive the masses.

Three holes in the monk stories

Wehaveatleast6,000manuscriptsaloneoftheNewTestamentifweIncludetheOldTestamentwehave

Let’s put this in perspective.

a. Julia Caesar “Gallic Wars” which we get the history of who he was and what he did has less than 12 copies. Yet we never question the accuracy of these writings or the historical facts written in them. b. Aristotle’s Poets, which is all we know about Aristotle we only, have 10 copies.

c. Writing of Socrates, we have zero copies. Only thing we know about Socrates is what Plato wrote, yet we do not second- guess any of the facts.

LetusgetbacktotheMonktheory.Jesustoldustogo makedisciples.AfterHisdeaththat’sexactlywhatpeopledid.Theyspreadthegospeltoevenmoreregi We now have the New Testament written in not only the three original languages but now we have Coptic, Syriac and Latin to add to this period of time as well. These educated professors want us to believe that some zealous monks went out and found over 6,000 copies of the New Testament in six different languages. These manuscripts are spread over multiple regions. The monks then brought them all back to their cave and completely rewrote them. Finally, without showing any of their penmanship, they were able to get all 6,000 copies back in a timely manner before anyone noticed they were missing. How did these isolated monks also happen to know all the six languages and locations of each and every manuscript?

Please write your thoughts on how this is possible. Maybe you can see the problem with this lie being taught in our universities.

This lie is being taught as a fact even though there is no evidence at all. We must use common sense when reasoning these things out. However they know almost all the students including Christian students are not going to take the time to research it.

Anotherholeintheirtheoryiswehaveallthewritingsof theearlychurchfathers.TheywrotecommentariesoftheNew Testament.NightyfivetonightyeightpercentofalltheNew Testamentwasquotedbytheearlychurchfatherswithperfect accuracy,exceptfor11verses.Anothertwisttothemonktheory;notonlydidthemonkshavetofindallth well.Ofcoursewithnoonenoticingtheyweremissingorthatthe penmanshipwaschanged.Todosomethingthiselaborateevenifit werepossiblewouldhavetakenatleast300years.Thisisjust absurdwhenyouputitinperspective.

The Bible Reports Supernatural Events

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

*Voice of Almighty God is recorded. Matthew 3:16-17

It was a miracle to have Gods audible voice come down from heaven to speak to them.

*John declares there were so many miracles they couldn’t record them all. John 21:25

*Notice the man with a withered hand; Jesus didn’t touch him.

Mark 3:1-6

*Jesus walked on water Matthew 14:25-26

*Jesus controlled the weather Mark 4:39

*Jesus was crucified and miraculously rose from the dead Luke 24:6-7

SIDE NOTE: No one ever denied Jesus walked in miraculous signs and wonders. The early writings of Christian history by secular men do not deny He was a miracle man. His enemies had to it there was something extraordinary about Him. It gives us some pretty good evidence He was who He said He was.

Bible Prophecy

Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies through His life, death and resurrection. These predictions were written hundreds and even a thousand years before He came on the scene.

Mathematically 1 person fulfilling 8 of the prophecies is a chance of 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000

One person full-filling 48 prophecies is 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power.

One person full-filling 300 plus prophecies… ONLY JESUS

Here are a few:

Micah 5:2 written in the 8th century BC

What prophecy was fulfilled? Matthew 2:1-6

Isaiah 7:14 written 735 BC

What prophecy was fulfilled? Matthew 1:20-23

Deuteronomy 18:15 written 1200 BC

What prophecy was fulfilled? John 7:40-42; Acts 3:20-23

Zechariah 9:9 written 520 BC

What prophecy was fulfilled? Matthew 21:8-11

Psalm 22

What was the prophecy fulfilled? Matthew 27:39-40

Side Note: When the bible was originally written there were no chapters or verses added. When people wanted to refer you back to something written in the bible, they would use the words in the age to point you there. They would not say turn to Psalm 22, instead they would repeat a sentence or two of the age they wanted you to reference. So, when Jesus said:

‘Father why have you forsaken me?’ This would have taken the Jewish audience right to Psalm 22. This should have made them realize they just crucified their messiah; however, many had remained blind.

We do not start to see chapters and verses in our bibles until about 1550 AD. This has caused some controversy among some modern scholars even today.

We have made it to easy to scripture pluck verses and build entire doctrines around them.

As you become a student of your word keep this side note in mind and try to read the Bible as a whole thought process and not divided into chapters and verses.

Psalm 22 was written about 1,000 years before crucifixion was invented. The psalmist would have had no reference for such a way of torcher and death. Roman loved inventing new ways to kill their enemies and crucifixion was one of them.

at:

Hundreds more fulfilled prophecies are available for look up

CBN: Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

Week 2

What Does the Bible Say About Its Inspiration The Bible declares to be the Word of God at least 3,800

times with sayings such as: “Thus says the Lord,” and/or “God said”.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Isaiah 59:21

Isaiah 40:8

Jeremiah 23:29

Psalm 119:105

1 Thessalonians 2:13

1 Corinthians 2:13

Matthew 24:35

John 17:8

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Hebrews 4:12

Side Note: satan knows the word is alive and active. He has done everything he can to twist it, lie about it and convince Christians it has little value.

How many distractions does satan use each day in your own life to keep you from diligently studying the word? The word is part of our daily armor and we are told to put it on. It’s more than just reading a toilet devotional. We need to memorize and meditate on the word.

We are told to hide the word deep into our hearts so that when trials come, we can quickly use it as our comfort and as our weapon. The word is our greatest protection from false teachers and false teachings.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Ephesians 6:17

Joshua 1:8

Matthew 6:6

Although this verse is talking about prayer, we know prayer and bible study go hand and hand. There is a diligence here to escape distractions by getting alone with God and His Word. Jesus did this often.

James 1:22

Psalm 1:2

Psalm 119:9

Psalm 119:11

Luke 11:28

Side Note: Notice Jesus, while being tempted in the wilderness, could have called down a legion of angels. He could have commanded satan to flee from Him. However, satan comes with his famous scripture twisting (same old trick he still uses on the world today). Jesus is the Word and knows satan’s lies and tricks. How does Jesus defeat His age-old enemy? By saying “It Is Written”

If Jesus who is God used the word as His weapon to defeat satan, how much more do we need to be armed with it? We live in a day and age where deception literally is breeding like rabbits. Watch YouTube one time you will find many videos that use scripture to twist and lie to deceive many.

Christians do not know the word so they are being carried away by every wind of deception that satan has laid out before them.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Ephesians 4:14

Colossians 2:8

The purpose for us writing this study guide is in hopes you will get rooted in the basic foundations of your Christian faith. By doing so the enemy cannot easily deceive you. We pray you are never deceived but this study guide will only scratch the surface of our foundational teachings of Christianity. You will need to take what you learn and go deeper.

We hope it will give you a hunger and thirst for your bibles. We want you to be armed as the end time army for God in His word and by His Spirit.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

John 4:23-24

2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Timothy 2:3-7

Matthew 7:15-20

Matthew 24:24

Section 2

Father, we pray that this next section glorifies You. We pray the student captures the beauty of who You are. We pray by studying Your attributes they will realize how amazing You are. We pray this knowledge brings them into a deeper worship of You. We pray this in Jesus Name. Amen

Week 3

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

When we say attributes of God we are talking about specific characteristics of God, given by God, about Himself. These truths are absolute and not up for debate. He is the God Almighty and has chosen to give us a glimpse into Who He is through the word of God and though the observations we can make in creation.

Attribute Definition: A quality or feature regarded as a character or inherent part of someone or something.

SIDE NOTE: The attributes of God use to be foundational for any new believer to learn in the church. In our modern Christianity we are hard pressed to find ministries who equip the new believer in such things. We now have generations of believers who do not know these basic attributes and sadly many pastors, teachers, and elders do not know them as well. We have become lazy in our studies of God and our enemy the devil has taken full advantage of our lack of knowledge.

Hosea 4:6

God is Trinity or Triunity

The trinity is not able to be fully understood in our human finite minds. However, we can find the teaching strung throughout all of scripture to come up with the absolute truth of the trinity. This is an essential or orthodox teaching of Christianity. Once someone is taught the truth and they still deny the teaching we must understand that they are likely not a true Christian. The Spirit always bears witness of Himself and His truth taught in scripture.

John 8:18

1 Corinthians 12:3

FALSE

False teachers will proclaim the early Catholic Church came up with the false doctrine of the trinity stemming from pagan roots.

TRUTH

Tertullian was the first to coin the “word” trinity in 160-225 AD, way before the “catholic” church was formed. The writers of the old and New Testament clearly used “trinity” language to describe God, as we will go into later. Like in our day Tertullian was seeing false teachers teach wrongly about who God is. In his effort to spell it out using scripture he used the word trinity to describe what the Bible clearly taught. Though the word “trinity” cannot be found in the Bible the clear teaching of the meaning of “trinity” can be. This is called systematic theology

Systematic Theology: A form of theology in which the aim is to arrange religious truths in a self-consistent whole.

In AD 325, the Council of Nicea confirmed the trinity as the official church doctrine based on what Christians have always believed from the scripture. The council got together to confirm many doctrines and put to rest many false teachers and heretics that were plaguing the Christian church at that time. Much like today we have many wolves that have invaded our churches with false theology and doctrines leading many astray. We no longer have unity among the Christian community, which makes it difficult to expel them. When you manage to get them removed, they start

another church down the road and many blindly follow, often because they tickle their ears or have a charismatic personality.

Side Note: Every false teacher has a false belief about God, His Nature, His divinity or His Gospel

False religions that call themselves Christian but deny the trinity:

Mormonism: Started in 1830 by Joseph Smith

*Jesus and Satan are brothers

*You must do good works to enter heaven

*Jesus is married to a goddess wife

*Dark colored skin people were refused heaven until they revised their teaching in 1978

*Jesus has children with is goddess wife or wives

Jehovah’s Witnesses: 1870 by Charles Taze Russell

*Jesus is not God but rather is Arch angel Michael

*They deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus

*Deny the trinity

*Deny hell

*Changed the Bible to fit their false theology

*Jesus returned in 1914 and expelled Satan.

Christian Science: 1879 Mary Baker Eddy

*Jesus was a man only

*Mary, mother of Jesus, conceived the idea of Jesus, which is called Christ consciousness

*Christ consciousness now is in all of us

*Jesus did not die for sinners or to conquer sin but rather to prove death does not exist

*Sickness and disease are not real, it’s an illusion of the mind thus no medical care allowed

*Deny the trinity and deny Jesus is God

Oneness Pentecostals (often disguised as apostolic or some Church of Gods): 1914 by Robert T. McAlister although many were involved as a divide had started among leaders in the Pentecostal faith over who Jesus is.

*Deny Jesus is God the Son

*Deny the trinity

*Add works to salvation: Baptism and speaking in tongues

Unitarian Church: 1974 by Theophilus Lindsey

*Deny the trinity

*Deny Christ’s divinity

*Deny Holy Spirit as God

*Deny Hell

*Deny the atonement of the cross for our sin

Scientology: 1953 by Ron Hubbard

*Deny Jesus as God

*Deny Trinity

*Deny the atonement at the cross for our sin

*Gnostic teachings

*Deny heaven and hell

SIDE NOTE: We are living in an age of apostasy where everyone thinks they are right in their own eyes. The explosion of social media has given rise to false teachers and false teachings. Technology catches our eyes and history revisionism is alive and well reforming our solid church history. We have never lived in a day of age since time began where we must have the full armor of God on like we do today. We have to know our theology and doctrine. We need to follow true elders of the faith and not waver on the essentials. This will bring

great prosecution to the believer’s life, however Jesus warned us if we truly follow Him, we should expect tribulations.

We wanted to set the stage as we go into the Trinity so that you are more aware of the truth so that you can be more equipped to combat the lies.

What is the definition of Trinity: The Christian Godhead as one God in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three distinct Persons who are distinguishable from one another, and yet they share the same divine nature or essence and are in unbroken fellowship.

We it this is a great mystery of our faith and mans mind cannot fully comprehend it, though it is clearly taught in scripture. Let’s take a look at the Bible for better clarification.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through Let’s start with the very beginning Genesis 1:1

Side Note: God here in Hebrew is Elohim, which is plural for God (not many Gods but we can see the first understanding of the trinity at work)

Genesis 1:2

Side Note: Spirit of God was hovering (we can see the third person of the trinity is hovering as they were about to create)

Genesis 1:26

Side Note: “Let Us make man in Our own Image”. There seems to be an obvious distinction of the trinity or Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together in harmony.

God is One

Although it seems contradictory that God is one, yet also three persons, it is not when you gain more understanding. God is still One God and yet operates in three distinct separate persons

God describes Himself as Monotheistic.

Monotheistic: relating to or characterized by the belief that there is only one God

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Deuteronomy 4:35 & 39

Side Note: Scripture is clear there is only One God and Our God is Him. However, as we continue, we will see the beautiful yet complex doctrine of the trinity unfolds. Although three separate and distinct persons they are still One God.

God as Our Father

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Isaiah 64:8

Psalm 68:5

Ephesians 1:3

Psalm 103:13

1 John 4:14

Romans 8:15

Jesus is God

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John 1:1

John 1:14 (God came in the flesh)

John 5:19-26 Jesus ascribes attributes to Himself that only can be attributed to God, proving He is God in the flesh

Works

AllKnowledge

ResurrectionPower

Asking for the same Honor as Godin Worship andRespect JudgingorbeingaJudge

RegenerationorAbletoSaveHumanity

Self-ExistenceorNoBeginningorEndtoHim

John 10:30

John 9:38

Isaiah 9:6

Side Note: He will be called Mighty God this would be blasphemy if Jesus isn’t God yet we know God is One so we can see the trinity here

John 20:28

Side Note: Thomas declaring Him My Lord and My God is giving Him the same worship as God the Father something no Jew would have ever done. They clearly understood Jesus is God

Colossians 2:9

FALSE

ONENESS Pentecostals teach Jesus is God alone there is no 3 distinct separate persons operating as one God. They will baptize in “Jesus Name Only” and you cannot be saved unless you got baptized in this manner with the evidence of speaking in tongues

TRUTH

How can Jesus be His own Father?

If God is only one Person, why did Jesus say in John 14:23: If “we” keep His word His Father will abide with us. If God is only one person who is the “we” Jesus refers to?

How can God be one person yet have two distinct wills at the same time Luke 22:42 (Jesus is speaking to the Father)

Isaiah 9:6 if Jesus Name is “eternal father” then why don’t we call Him “Eternal Father”?

If Jesus is the Father and the Father judges no one, then Jesus could not be judge

Jesus is clearly a distinct person of the Godhead. Let us examine further

Side Note: These verses help us to think through the lies of false teachers about the trinity. You can use these verses to help them see the truth when they try to teach you otherwise.

John 1:1 In the beginning refers to Genesis 1:1 Christ is there creating as God.

Philippians 2:6 Equal with God

Titus 2:13

God and Savior

Colossians 1:15

The very image of the invisible God

Romans 9:5

Jesus is God over all

Hebrews 1:8

Look how God the Father refers to the Son as God and calls it His throne. They are both unique yet one God working in 3 distinct person hoods.

God as Holy Spirit

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Acts 5:3-4

V 3 Who is lied to?

V 4 Who does Peter say he lied to?

Side Note: We can see Holy Spirit is God and the third person of the trinity who can be lied to.

1 Corinthians 3:16

We are called the temple of God

1 Corinthians 6:19

Paul says we are the temple of the Holy Spirit

Side Note: Paul would never say we are the temple of God and Holy Spirit unless he understood Holy Spirit is God and a real person in the trinity.

Romans 8:9-11

V9: God Dwells

V10: Christ Dwells

V11: Holy Spirit Dwells

Side Note: Notice the working of the trinity who dwells in you. Yet God is One! We see this beautiful use of language here describing God as Holy Spirit, Christ as God dwelling in us. God who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. WOW! Such majesty, such wonder! Although we cannot fully grasp it we clearly see it in scripture.

1 Peter 1:2

Side Note: Look at the trinity at work in our salvation. The Father God Chooses, The Holy Spirit sanctifies us the moment we get saved and Christ shed His blood as our atonement for our salvation. Wow again! Look at our amazing God at work as the trinity in our salvation.

Week 4

God is Eternal, Self-Existing with no beginning

“God dwells in a mode of being totally beyond us and wholly above us and infinitely removed from us, yet when we think about God we are trying to think about someone unlike anything we know. God says, “Who am I like? The answer being, nobody; nobody’s like God, nothings like God.” God is like himself.”

A.W. Tozer

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Exodus 3:14

I AM Who I AM

God just is who He is. He has no beginning no end He is not bound by time or space. He is not created but rather the creator. Because He exits all other things exist in Him.

Revelation 1:8

Side Note: Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He is the beginning and the end of all things.

Psalm 145:13

Psalm 45:6

Jeremiah 10:10

Psalm 90:2

Isaiah 40:6-8

1 Peter 1:24-25

Side Note: God is self-existent He has no need of anything. He is not lonely or incomplete in anyway. He is God alone and needs nothing. Every living creature or thing has some sort of dependency. God alone has no dependency or need. Everything depends on Him alone because all things exist in Him

Acts 17:24-25

Based on this scripture does God need man?

Side Note: Often we hear God created Adam because He was lonely. God is not nor was He lonely. He absolutely without any doubt has any need of man at all in any way. He is the very source of life. He is fully sustained within Himself. We on the other hand, are only being sustained by Him. We completely depend on God to keep us alive.

The planet, universe, multiverse and beyond only exists because He is sustaining it. The fact God uses any of us to complete His plans is the most humbling reality. His great love for us is why we exist. His love for us sustains us. His love for us uses us for His work on earth. It all flows out of His love, not His need for us.

John 5:26

Colossians 1:16-17

Side Note: If God would lower His hand and no longer sustain all of creation, it would instantly cease to exist, as we know it.

God is Omnipotent or All Powerful

“Although such power might seem frightful, that God is good. He can only do anything according to His infinite ability, but will do only those things that are consistent with Himself. That’s why He can’t lie, tolerate sin, or save impenitent sinners” John MacArthur

God is all powerful. This attribute alone belongs to God alone.

Nothing or no one else carries this attribute.

God cannot do anything that conflicts with His Holy nature or anything that would contradict His nature. Such as God cannot lie, because Gods nature is truth.

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Psalm 115:3

Psalm 33:6

Psalm 135:5-6

God is all-powerful in Salvation

Isaiah 44:24

God is all-powerful in creation

Matthew 19:26

Philippians 1:6

God is all-powerful in the resurrection

Romans 6:4

Romans 1:16

John 10:17-18

Acts 26:8

God is Omniscient or All Knowing

God is all knowing of all things. He is not learning or does he know more as he experiences more. All things will come to according to His will.

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Ephesians 1:11

Side Note: God is everywhere at all times and knows all things past present and future. His word is perfect in guiding us in His will and knowledge. His presence being everywhere at the same time yet not contained by time or space should bring amazement and wonder to us. He is in all things and has a very personal relationship with each one of us.

Job 21:22

Hebrews 4:13

Luke 12:7

John3:20

Side Note: Nothing is hidden from God. This is comfort to the believer that He is always with us working all things out for our good. However, this should terrify the sinner, as nothing will be hidden from God on judgment day, not even the thought life.

Romans 11:33

Revelations 2:23

John 2:23-25

Side Note: God is not learning He knows all things past, present, and future.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Psalm 147:4-5

Take a look at Psalm 139: 1-4 and 11-12 write each verse out with a statement of how God deeply knows you.

Romans 2:16

All our secrets will be judged

Matthew 6:7-8, 31-32

God knows our needs before we ask

God is Omnipresent or Present Everywhere

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito”. ~ C.S. Lewis

God is not bound by space or time 2 Peter 3:8

Psalm 102:24-27

Timothy1:9

Titus 1:2

Psalm 32:8

Our finite minds simply cannot grasp that God is out of time yet fully present with us at all times. His eyes are always on us.

Proverbs 15:3

Psalm 139:7-10

There is no escaping Gods presence

Jeremiah 23:23-24

Acts 17:24-28

Deuteronomy 4:39

This brings the believer such comfort to know God can be called upon any time. He does not sleep and is everywhere at all times.

Psalm 121:2-4

Matthew 28:20

Side Note: Although this brings great comfort to the believer it also should bring great terror to the sinner, as nothing will be hidden from God on judgment day. Not only will it not be hidden but also because they are not clothed in Christ’s righteousness they will have to pay the sin debt they owe God.

1 John 3:4-10

Exodus 20:1-17

Side Note: if we break one law we broke them all.

Colossians. 2:13-15 (refers to your sin debt)

Week 5

God is Immutable or Never Changing

God is already perfect and eternally has always been perfect. He is not learning or evolving as some supreme being. He will not suddenly become evil or lie or become untrustworthy. God won’t go back on His promises or decrees. We can trust His Word to be 100% faithful.

Malachi 3:6

James 1:17

Hebrews 13:8

Isaiah 14:24

Skeptics Objection

A skeptic will often say if God is unchanging or does not change His mind then what about Jonah 3:4 (Look Up)

Answer

There is Gods conditional declarations verses unconditional declarations.

Conditional: God says I will destroy their city however they repented. They would have been destroyed had they not repented.

Unconditional: When God says to David Your House and your kingdom will endure forever before me and your throne will be established forever. Meaning no matter what David did, this promise would be fulfilled. 2 Samuel 7:16

God will give us declarations that work with creation based on choices we make and then also has unconditional promises or statements that no matter what we do it will still happen. This shows Gods great character and holiness as He loves His creation and works with us. We were once enemies of God and His wrath abided on us. Did God change His mind ? No! He responded in His character of Grace, Mercy and Love to forgive us when we repented and placed our faith in Christ Jesus. God cannot change in His character but His character is consistent when working with His creation.

God is Holy

God is literally Set apart as Holy. God is transcendent above His creation and above or untouched by His creation’s corruption. Everything else whether on earth or above or below are created

beings. God alone is the creator that is above or distinct from every created being.

Holiness of God is the greatest truth about His very nature. Every other attribute or anything we learn about God stems from His holiness. All God does extends from His attribute of Holiness. No other being can be worthy of worship. He is mysterious, unsearchable, amazing and yet we can know Him through Jesus Christ. This fact makes me want to stop and worship Him right now!! Oh, how He is worthy, so Holy, so Majestic yet calls us sons and daughters.

this:

When we study all of Gods other attributes, they must read like

God’s Love is Holy, Gods Justice is Holy, Gods Wrath is Holy, Gods Truth is Holy, and God’s Omniscience is Holy

We must take serious Gods Holiness. God is far above us; how can we comprehend Him?

God is so pure and undefiled that even our greatest works as sinful man is but a woman’s used sanitary napkins. Our works no matter how good are defiled and putrid to a God who is Holy and undefiled. God cannot sin; He cannot take pleasure in sin and certainly cannot fellowship with sin.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Isaiah 6:3

Revelation 4:8

Side Note: Notice the trihagion, which means a word that is used three times. Holy, Holy, Holy. This is to give us an emphasis that God is Holy. We never see in scripture God is Love, Love, Love or Just, Just, Just however we do see Holy, Holy, Holy.

Exodus 15:11

Samuel2:2

Isaiah 40:25

Isaiah 59:1-2

God cannot sin or have fellowship with sin

Habakkuk 1:13

John1:6

Corinthians6:14-18

Deuteronomy 25:16

God is holy thus sin is an abomination to Him. He loathes sin and it evokes disgust in Him.

Psalm 5:4-5

Side Note: God is Holy and when He calls us out of darkness, He then says for us to be Holy too. This seems like an impossible task. He alone is Holy; how can we then be Holy? God does not lower His standard for man, nor His standard in Holiness.

This is now is our standard to be like Him who is holy. Although we can never fully attain it on earth, we still should aim for it, while resting in Christ’s holiness that was imputed to us at the cross. It’s by grace we are saved and mercy that we need each new day. We do not simply give up because we can’t be perfect. We get

up each day with a new desire to reach maturity in Christ looking more like Christ as we run this race until He calls us home.

1 Peter 1:15-17

1 John 2:6

Galatians 5:16-21

Corinthians5:21

Hebrews 12:1-3

2 Corinthians 7:1

God is Love

“Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made” ~ Francis Chan

This is not a mere feeling or attitude or work but God literally is Love. Love is His nature. God doesn’t “just” love but He is the very essence of love. Just like God is righteous He is love. Everything He does flows through love. Even His divine judgment is done through love.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

1 John 4:8

1 John 4:16

God is Love

Side Note: Gods attributes work in harmony with each other. Love does not mean tolerance. God is Holy and can’t tolerate sin.

He loves His creation so He made a way through His Son, Jesus for our sin debt to be paid in full. His love saved us without compromising His Holiness. God tells us the truth of our sin separating us from Him. We broke all His laws therefore His judgment is coming for us, however because of His great love He poured out His wrath upon His Son in our place. If we repent and place our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ then we will be saved from the wrath to come. God didn’t compromise truth for love. Love tells the truth. When we are evangelizing, we must tell the truth. This is the most loving thing we can do for others. We are commanded to preach the whole council of God. Often want to preach about His love and mercy, but we don’t talk about His wrath and justice on a sinner.

Exodus 34:6-7

God has mercy on the wicked because the righteouses are still here. Both the wicked and the righteous participate in His goodness.

Psalm 145:9

Psalm 145:15-16

Matthew 5: 44-45

Acts 14:16-17

God’s unconditional love 1 John 4:8-10

John 3:16-17

Romans 5:6-8

Side Note: We are God hating creatures where sin absolutely rules us. We take for granted Gods love to provide even for the wicked with sun, rain, food, shelter etc. However, though we deserved death and judgment His love made a way for us where there was no way. What a loving God!!!!

Romans 5:8-10

Romans 8:32-39

1 John 3:1-11

Side Note: Can we imagine the love it takes to love your sworn enemy? The one who mocks you every day; they treat you like you are nothing. These same enemy wars against you in all they do. Now imagine dying for them, giving up your precious life. Imagine adopting them into your family and calling them son or daughter. You give them all your riches. You show them favor, mercy, love, blessings, protection even from their enemies. They did nothing to deserve such love from you. Oh what love and mercy God has shown such a vile sinner as myself. Worship Him for He deserves our worship and praise.

God Is Faithful

Literally means to be secure or firm. You can picture the beam of a house that s the entire structure. The beam keeps us from worry that the whole house will collapse. Although this is humanistic and inefficient explanation of Our Creator God, it does help us understand the attribute. He is faithful to care for His creation. He is faithful to fulfill all His promises. We can trust Him at His word to do all He has promised us to do. He will never leave us or forsake us as believers. He promises to guide us through this life. No matter what is happening

we can rest that God is faithful to us in all areas of our lives even when it seems all hell is breaking loose.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through Deuteronomy 7:9

Deuteronomy 32:4

1 Corinthians 1:9

Peter4:19

Psalm 33:4

Thessalonians3:3

Psalm 100:5

God’s faithfulness never ends

Psalms 119:90

Hebrews 10:23

Side Note: We can trust God because, as we learned above, He is immutable. (Never changing) He will not change His faithfulness or promises to us.

Ephesians 1:11

Malachi. 3:6

Joshua 23:14

God is faithful to His word

1 Kings 8:56

Matthew 5:18

Genesis 6:17-18

God Promised Noah He would save them, and He did.

Side Note: We see His faithfulness to save the humanity from sin through the promise of sending a Savior. All the prophecies of the Messiah coming were fulfilled as promised. We can now trust He will come back for us. We can trust He will be faithful to keep us. He is preparing a place for us in eternity. We can fully trust God’s word for our lives now and our lives to come in eternity.

1 Corinthians 1:9

Corinthians10:13

Thessalonians3:3

1 John 1:9

John 14:2-3

Thessalonians4:16-17

Revelation 1:7

Jeremiah 17:5-8

We can either trust in Gods faithfulness or trust in ourselves.

Week 6

God is True and Truthful

God is literally truth. He cannot lie. He cannot bare falsehood. He must be honest and truthful in all aspects because it’s His divine nature. We live in a culture that says your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. However, God being absolute truth there can be only one truth. Either God is truth or He is a liar. He cannot be both. Truth is not relative as we are being taught in our schools and society now. Gods attribute of truth is important for us to grasp. We have to understand Gods word is the final truth in our lives. Once we compromise on any truth we become completely compromised. God cannot be compromised. His nature is truth and being truthful.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Revelation 6:10

Isaiah 65:16

John 3:33

Psalm 57:10

Titus 1:2

Timothy3:16-17

We can trust Gods word as our final authority

John 1:14 & 17

John 14:6

2 Timothy 2:15

Side Note: As believers we cannot compromise the truth in order to be loving. Jesus is loving and thus never compromises truth. However, if we ourselves do not know the truth how then can we give truth? Also, if we do not know the truth, we are left vulnerable to the deception abounding in our culture.

Psalm 40:10

Ephesians 4:15

Ephesians 6:14-17

2 Timothy 2:25

God is Just

To be Just means to be fair and impartial in judgments. God cares about right and wrong. His attribute as Just will make Him the perfect righteous judge. He cannot be compromised and will not make mistakes on judgment day. This can be terrifying for the unbeliever. God being Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent means nothing is unseen or unknown by Him. When we stand before Him, He will judge with a pure righteous all-knowing judgment. The greatest human judges are not without mistakes when

rendering a ruling. They do not have all the facts because they are not God. God will not be mistaken on that day and we will be made fully aware of all we did or did not do as well.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Acts 10:34-35

Colossians 3:25

1 Peter 1:17

Because God is Just and Perfect there must be a penalty for our sin against Him. We cannot break any laws in society and go before any judge declaring all our good works in order to get off from paying for the penalty of breaking the law. If he is good moral judge, he will punish us according to the law. God being perfect must punish us according to His laws He put into place.

We have broken every law. Take a look at the 10 commandments to see the laws you have broken.

1. You shall have no others gods before you

Have you ever put anything above God, made anything your idol? Drugs, Alcohol, People, Money, Success etc.

2. Do not take the Lords Name in Vain

Have you ever said Gods Name without reverence or used it as a curse word?

3. Keep the Sabbath Holy

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Do we rest in Him, take pleasure in Him or Joy in Him? Loving Him as He ought to be loved?

4. Honor Your Father and Mother

Have you always honored your parents? Have you ever disobeyed them as a child? Did you always clean your room and do your homework or do your chores properly?

5. Do not Murder

Jesus said if we have hatred in our heart for someone, we murdered him or her. Have you ever hated anyone? An ab, a bully, a politician, a family member, enemy?

6. Do not commit adultery

Jesus said if we look upon a man or women with lust, we have committed adultery. Have you ever lusted after someone? Looked at Porn? Cheated on

anyone? Have impure sexual thoughts about people, sex outside of marriage?

7. Do not steal

Have you ever stolen? Take money from your parents? Stolen from a store? ed music off line without paying for it? Used someone else’s s for a product you are not paying for, such as, Hulu YouTube, Netflix?

8. Do not bare false witness

Have you ever gossiped about someone and it was not the full truth? Have you repeated stories from the news without knowing for sure its 100% accurate about someone?

9. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife

Have you ever desired your friends’ boyfriend/girlfriend or another significant other?

10. Do not covet your neighbor’s goods

Have you ever wanted something that was not yours? Have you been jealous of others success, money, house, cars, spouses, jobs, body, fame etc etc.? It says God is not enough for us or that we are not content when we covet what others have.

We break just one law one time we have broken them all. God’s standard of holiness is not our human standard. We will be held to His standard of righteousness.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

James 2:10-11

1 Peter 1:16

Revelation 20:12-13

Romans 2:11-16

Side Note: However, because God is Just and must punish lawbreakers, He made a way for our debt to be paid in full, otherwise we have no way to pay for our crimes against Him. He sent His Son to die in our place and take the full wrath of God, which is due us for our sin. We will go over it later in this workbook.

Now is a good time to really reflect on all the laws you have broken and repent to God if. Repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ for the free gift of salvation. If you have repented and you know you are saved now is a good time to stop and just worship Him for a bit. He is so worthy of our worship. What a good and faithful loving God we serve.

God is Merciful

Definition: Comion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.

When God shows us mercy, He does it with comion. We deserve punishment and death; however, He shows us forgiveness and comion. Mercy being an attribute of God is vital to our salvation. He has the ability to wipe us all out yet shows us comion in our frail state as sinners. He truly is a good God of Love.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

2 Corinthians 1:3

Ephesians 2:4

James 5:11

Psalm 103:10-14

Side Note: We literally get new mercy every day. We still mess up in our weakness of the sinful nature we war against. How could we stand each new day if we didn’t stand in Gods great mercy for us?

Lamentations 3:22-23

Hebrews. 4:16

God is Gracious or Grace

“Gods mercy and grace give me hope for myself and for our world” ~ Billy Graham

To define grace, we say its Gods unmerited favor. He gives His creation favor although we do not deserve it. We broke His laws; we sin against Him in great rebellion.

We gave God every reason to snuff us out yet instead He gave us favor and died for us, so that we can be with Him for eternity. It is so beautiful the good news of God’s grace towards you and I.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Peter5:10

Isaiah 30:18

Ephesians 2:8-9

Side Note: God showed us grace and mercy before time began. He knew all the rebellious sin I would commit against Him yet still chose me before I was born. How marvelous is our God? He deserves our worship; He deserves our lives to be sold out for Him. He chose us to be ambassadors for His Son. He is truly a God of grace and mercy that we serve.

Timothy1:9

Ephesians 2:7

Romans 6:1-2

Titus 2:11-13

Ephesians 1:4

Acts 20: 24

Week 7

God is Sovereign

“When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

God is the supreme authority over all creation. God has no limitations and literally rules over all things. God is completely independent to do as He wishes within His Holy attributes. God will not go against His own nature. He answers to no one and as Creator can do as He wills with His creation.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Isaiah 46:9-10

Daniel 4:34-35

Ephesians 1:11

Job 42:2

Colossians 1:16-17

Side Note: God has decreed everything from the beginning to the end. He knows all things not only because He is Omniscient but also because He is sovereign. He created it, He decreed it, and He willed it to be.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Romans 9:20-21

Side Note: We need too humble ourselves for we Live in a culture of Humanism and Self Help we have “dethroned” God and put ourselves on the throne. It’s time we get back to the understanding that God is in charge of this life and all that is in it. His sovereignty is comforting to the believer if we truly understand all His attributes. He rules with the attributes of righteousness, grace, mercy, love and justice. When we grasp Gods sovereignty and His attributes it will bring a new peace in us through the storms of life. It is why Paul could be shipwrecked, beaten, naked, near death and yet still have the peace and joy of the Lord. He knew he could fully trust his creator even unto death.

Psalm 23 (entire age)

Ephesians 3:20

Proverbs 3:5-6

Psalm 46:10

Matthew 6:25

Hebrews 13:8

Romans 8:28

Section 3

“Lord help the student gain deeper understanding of who we are as humans. Help them to grasp the depravity of their nature and rebellion towards You Lord let them see Your grace, mercy and justice in their lives. Let it cause them to worship You in the manner in which You deserve to be worshiped.” Amen

Week 8

What Does The Bible Say About Humanity?

God created man. God formed man from the dust of the earth and then breathed His life into him. Our bodies are made up of earth materials such as; calcium, iron, potassium etc. God is our creator and we only exist in Him. Whether we believe in Him or not all creation still exists in Him. Man is always searching for reasons for his existence and we will aimlessly search if we do not acknowledge our very existence can only be found in God. God created us for Loving Him, Glorifying Him and Doing His Will. Until we surrender and truly follow Him and His ways, we will wrestle with finding our authentic selves in this life.

Creating Man

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Genesis 2:7

Genesis 2:21-23

God said Let Us make man in Our own image.

Genesis 1:26-28

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all 3 there as One God creating man in their image and likeness.

Side Note: Humanity is unique in the creation. We are the only created being that is created in the very image of God Himself. We are not a third kind, alien kind or any other type. We are created in the very image of God. This makes us so special and unique and above all other creation.

What does to be made in Gods image mean or look like?

Personality: We are self-aware with a conscious. We are not robots or only instinct driven. We have reason and thoughts to work things out.

Spiritual: Because God is Spirit; we too have a spirit. The spirit gives us the ability to know God, fellowship with God and respond to God with obedience, worship and thanksgiving.

Will: We have been granted the ability to choose and to make decisions.

Immortality: We have an immortal soul. Although our physical bodies will die because of Adams sin our soul once created will live on forever and ever either in heaven with Gods love or in Hell in His wrath.

We are created for God with a mandate to bring Him glory. Romans 11:36

Colossians 1:16

Psalm 95:6

Mark 12:28-30

Psalm 100:1-3

Genesis 2:16-17

Side Note: God made us perfect in His image in the garden. However, man fell because of this free will we just talked about above. He chose to sin and rebel against God causing all of humanity to be affected.

The Fall of Man

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Genesis 3:1-6

We know from Revelations 12:9 and 20:2 that satan was working through the serpent. Satan lied to Eve about the consequences of disobeying God.

You won’t die… this was a half lie. Technically they did not die physically when they ate the fruit. However, they died spiritually. Their eyes became opened to sin and shame. They now would experience physical death over time.

SIDE NOTE: Satan was able to get Eve to question Gods word. “Did God really say”? He uses this same trick on us today. “Does Gods word really say”?

“Does it really mean”? If Satan can get you to question Gods word, question truth of history, use the worlds culture today to supersede what His word declares then he has you. You will be deceived. He will get you to rebel against God and God in turn will put you under a strong delusion for refusing to believe the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11)

Genesis 3:7-11

Side Note: They formed the first religion by sewing cloths to hide their nakedness (sin). Religion wants to work at covering the sin. They hid from God because they feared Him. They went from this loving relationship of embrace to now they wanted to hide from Him and felt shame and fear.

Genesis 3:14-24

God pronounces judgment on them for their sin and disobedience. Sin always has a consequence.

We see the first prophecy of Christ coming to redeem the lost because of Adam. Satan will bruise the messiah at the cross but the Cross defeats satan and sin.

Women will have pain in childbirth and Man will rule over her. She will always desire to rebel against Man as the head of household, churches, and communities.

Man will toil to provide for his family and ultimately return to dust again.

How the Fall Affects you and me

Adam was the head of the human race, so to speak. When Adam sinned, it corrupted not only the human race but also all of creation. Stars die, trees die, animals die and we know humans grow old, suffer and die. We see wars, devastating earthquakes and storms. We turn on the news and all we see is mans depraved nature. The whole earth moans and groans for Christ’s final return to set it straight.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Romans 5:12

Explains how through Adam sin entered the whole world.

Romans 8:20-23 (look up all 3 scriptures)

Romans 6:23

Explains the penalty of sin is death but just as death entered in through Adam, we also have the opportunity to have eternal life because of Christ.

Side Note: We believe when sin entered in it corrupted every aspect of us as humans. You do not have to teach a toddler how to lie, how to not share his toys, how to throw fits in the store, how to not bite ect etc. Quite the opposite we have to teach them how to tell the truth, share their favorite toys, act appropriately in the store, do not bite, do not hit, and do not get mad when they are told no. We are selfish prideful sinners who continue to grow in our sin when we are not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and given a new nature by Him.

When we were born into this sin nature it causes us to sin against God. Not all men become murders and rapist but we all fall short of the glory of God and we are His enemy because of our sin. We have a sin nature that has broken every law of God. We all have lied, lusted, stolen, dishonored our parents, not loved God with all our heart mind soul and strength. Sin has gravely affected us all.

Ephesians 2:3

1 Corinthians 2:14

Ephesians 2:1

1 Timothy 5:6

Colossians 2:13

Romans 3:23

Skeptics Objection

How can God be Just in allowing one man’s fall to corrupt us all giving us this sin nature that separates us from God?

Answer

The same objection can be made, how can God be just in allowing Christ Jesus, who is perfect, to take on all your sins at the cross? This is a free gift of salvation where you will pay no penalty at judgment.

Adams sin affected the whole human race but this gave God an opportunity to show His glory to the whole human race that deserves eternal hell fire. His grace and mercy is shown through His Only Begotten Son Christ Jesus. All of creation glorifies God for such a display of His love. Someday every knee will bow before Jesus and call Him Lord.

Ephesians 1:4-6

Romans 9:17-18

God does things to show His glory to the world.

Matthew 5:16

Peter2:12

John 17:1

John 13:31-32

Romans 15:7

Week 9

Sin affected us all spiritually

We are dead in our sins the Bible says. We love our sin. We go out of our way to fulfill the desires of our sin nature.

Think about what length you have gone to get the drugs, alcohol, sexual partner, sexual satisfaction, fancy clothes, new home, new car, enough food for the day, or to get your way. Depending on what your particular sin nature was drawn too will depend on what you can relate to.

Here are some scriptures to describe our sinful nature Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through Psalm 58:3

Psalm 51:5

Genesis 6:5 Before the flood

Genesis 8:21 After the flood

Job 15:14-16

Ecclesiastes 9:3

Isaiah 64:6

Jeremiah 17:9

Matthew 15:19-20

Side Note: We are blinded by our sin and this sin has caused us to be separated from our Holy Creator. We walk around like bloodthirsty zombies chasing our sin. It controls us and keeps us bound. Even if the sinner thinks they are free and happy they are not. They are under a strong delusion. Sin is only a temporary feel good and once we fulfill that desire, we want more and more. Sin births out more sin and before we know it, we have a compounding problem that only a supernatural God can cure once and for all.

Ephesians 2:1-3

Timothy3:1-7

Romans 9:7

Sin makes us children of the devil

Often, we hear people falsely say, “We are all children of God”.

The truth is we are all created in Gods image sharing in some of His attributes but we are not all His kids.

The scripture actually teaches our sin nature and choosing to sin and rebel against God have made us children of the devil or united with Satan in rebellion against God.

Now understand God and Satan are not in some cosmic battle that we are all caught up in. Satan is a created angel by God who rebelled and was cast down from heaven. He has been given

temporary dominion over the earth however even in that power God gave him; it’s all for Gods glory in the end.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

John5:19

Luke 4:5-6

Devil is able to offer power to Jesus over the world

Corinthians4:4

Satan is the God of this world

Ephesians 2:2

John 8:44

We are children of the devil

1 John 3:8-10

Colossians 1:13

2 Timothy 2:26

“The cliché God hates the sin but loves the sinner, is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty Psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner; His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible, the wrath of God rests both on the sin (Romans 1:18) and on the sinner (John 3:36)”. ~ D.A. Carson

What is Gods response to our sin and rebellion?

God’s anger and wrath is towards the sinner every day. Because God is Holy, Just, Righteous; He must have wrath or anger against injustice. We often hear hell is a place of torment because God won’t be there. However, the truth favorable attributes will not be there but his wrath and justice will be there that is what will make hell a place of torment.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Romans 1:18

Nahum 1:2

Romans 3:5

Hebrews 12:29

Jeremiah 10:10

Jeremiah 23:19-20

Romans 2:5-6

Ephesians 2:3

Ephesians 5:3-6

Colossians 3:5-6

Doctrine of Hell

God’s judgment will come to all men who die in their sins. God’s wrath is manifested against humanity through physical death, the judgment and eternal hell fire. Hell has become a topic churches no longer want to talk about. Jesus spoke about hell more than any other person in the bible. Jesus also spoke more about hell than He did heaven. According to scripture most people will end up in Hell, sadly!

One of the best books we have read on the subject that really breaks down the scripture is “Erasing Hell” By Francis Chan.

In a culture full of false teachers, the teaching on hell is trying to be erased more and more as an eternal punishment.

We often hear Hell is a place of torment because God won’t be there. However, the truth is Gods favorable attributes will not be there but His wrath and Justice will be there that is what will make hell a place of torment.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Revelation 14:9-11

Isaiah 30:33 (can you imagine Gods own breath will kindle the fires of Hell)

Matthew 7:21-23

Matthew 7:21-23

Luke 13:27

Matthew 8:11-12

Matthew 22:13

Matthew 25:30

Week 10

Hell will be torment and suffering

“The torments of hell abide forever, if all the earth and sea were sand, and every thousandth year a bird should come, and take away one grain of this sand, it would be a long time ere that vast heap of sand were emptied; yet, if after all that time the damned may come out of hell, there were some hope; but this word EVER breaks the heart.” ~ Thomas Watson

Hollywood can’t scratch the surface of what the torments of eternal hell fire will be like. Jesus gives us a glimpse.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Matthew 8:12

Luke 16:19-31

Revelation 14:9-11

Side Note: There will be different degrees of punishment. Some depict different levels of hell. We do not know, however the Bible talks about rewards in heaven based on our works here. It also speaks of different punishments based on our works here as well, if we are not saved.

Matthew 11:20-24

Luke 12:42-48

Matthew 23:14

Matthew 18:8

Hell is eternal just as Heaven will be eternal.

Matthew 25:41

Jude 7

Matthew 25:46

2 Thessalonians 1:9

Mark 9:47-48

Revelation 14:11

Revelation 20:10

Here are some of the descriptions given about hell in the Bible

Matthew 3:10-12

Matthew 13:42

Jude 13

Revelation 21:8

Matthew 8:12

Matthew 22:13

Matthew 25:30

False Teachings About Hell

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through False: Jesus paid the price for our sins in hell

Taught by many false teachers especially in the Word of Faith Movement

Truth: Jesus finished the work of reconciliation at the cross.

He Himself declared this to be true John 19:30

Side note: When Jesus said “It Is Finished” He was declaring that everything He came to accomplish was fulfilled. He fulfilled the messianic prophecies about His coming. He kept the law perfectly. He did the perfect Will of God. He reconciled the believers back to the Father. He took the wrath of God for our sin debt. He justified us making us legally right with God. He declared Himself one with God the Father for people to finally understand the Godhead at work. Jesus finished every thing He was commanded to do by the Father through His death burial and resurrection. It is Finished means just

what He said. We can rest on the finished work of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our Christian walk. God’s wrath was satisfied for our sin. Justice was made complete. We are now redeemed, sanctified, justified and reconciled back to God. Jesus kept the law perfectly where we could not. He paid our debt where we could not. He satisfied God’s wrath, where we could not. He atoned for our sins, where we could not. IT IS FINISHED!

The writers of Scripture also declare this to be true.

Colossians 1:20

Colossians 2:14

1 Peter 2:24

False: Jesus went to hell in our place and was tormented there.

Truth: The same movement of false teachers often teaches this false teaching. Often, they use Ephesians 4:9 to this teaching which says Jesus went to the lower parts of the earth. However, most scholars understand what Paul meant was:

EitherJesuswasburiedorJesuswenttoHadestodeclareto thealreadydeadaboutHimselfandwhatHehaddone. ManyalsobelievePaulisreferringtocomingfromheaven toearthinthe incarnation asababy.

Either way this verse does not teach Jesus suffered in hell or was tormented by demons for our atonement. These false teachers believe and teach if you do not believe that your atonement was made in hell then you are not truly saved. Satan loves to twist scripture and then give false understanding of true salvation.

False: Annihilationism: unbelievers will just cease to exist and hell is not forever or eternal taught by Seven Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses

Truth: The Bible teaches that hell is eternal and forever. Revelation 14:11

Revelation 19:3

False: Universalists teach there is no hell and everyone eventually gets to heaven no matter how you live here on earth.

They use scriptures plucked out of context such as: 2 Corinthians 5:19, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, 2 Peter 3:9, Romans 11:32, and 1 John 4:8. They claim since God is love then a loving God cannot send anyone to hell.

Truth: Jesus spoke often of people being separated from heaven and hell. This is why we must use the Bible to interpret the bible. The Bible was not written in chapters and verses we must again be very careful not to scripture pluck and build entire theologies or doctrines around one or two or a few scriptures out of

context. The Bible as a whole clearly teaches eternal damnation to all who do not put their faith in Jesus Christ. a partial truth is still not the truth.

False: Purgatory started being taught by The Roman Catholic Church in 1274 AD. They taught purgatory is a place where a believer who did not deal with all their sins on earth properly will be put in a place of purification until they are made pure enough to enter heaven. Purification will be either immense loss or pain by the refining fire. Babies baptized or children who die before the age of ability and Catholic Saints who lives holy lives are excused from the purification process and go right to heaven.

Truth: Basically, by teaching this then Christ alone does not cleanse us from our sin. We are not saved by faith alone there is something we need to do further to be cleansed and holy for heaven. More important scripture does not teach purgatory.

Section 4

“Jesus, we pray the student gets deeper revelation on why You came to earth. Help them to understand the great sacrifice for their sins. They learned so far what a great need for a savior they have. Now help them to appreciate even more what You have done for them.” Amen

Week 11

Jesus in Our Salvation Why did Jesus Come to earth?

Jesus came to do the will of the Father. The Fathers Will was to reconcile His creation back to Himself. God is holy and we are sinners. We have a debt that must be paid for our sin. Jesus came to pay the debt on the cross for our sins. Jesus wanted to not only do the Will of the Father but also bring all glory unto Him. We are saved first and foremost to Glorify God.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

John 6:38

John 4:34

John 17:4

Hebrews 10:7

Side Note: Jesus also came because He loves us. Jesus was not forced to do this job but rather He did it willingly because of His love first towards God and also His love for you and me. We are a rebellious people who deserve death and hell but Jesus came and died for us anyways.

Romans 5:8

John 15:9

John 15:13-14

1 John 4:19

1 John 3:16

Jesus is Fully God but also Fully Man

This is an essential doctrine of our Faith to deny Jesus as being fully God and Fully man is a spirit of antichrist.

John4:2

John7

Corinthians12:3

Hypostatic Union: Jesus has a duel nature Fully God and Fully Man at the same time.

We already addressed Jesus as God in the trinity portion of this study. We will now look at why Jesus is Man and why He has to also be a man for our salvation.

Jesus was born of a virgin woman but He had no earthly Father. His Father was the conception of the Holy Spirit. This is how He is perfect and sinless.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Matthew 1:18-20

Luke 1:26-38

Isaiah 7:14

It was prophesied that the Messiah would be a man.

Matthew 1:22-23

Quotes Isaiah to prove Jesus is the promised messiah

Isaiah 9:6

Side Note: Jesus is God in Flesh becoming the God-Man. Jesus did not stop being God because He put on Flesh. He only added humanity to His deity becoming fully God and now Fully Man. He is still one person with two distinct natures, divine and human. He did not give up His divinity but rather submitted the use of it to the Father’s will. He became a true man just like us only without sin.

Corinthians8:9

1 Timothy 3:16

John 4:6

Jesus wept, thirsted got tired just like our human bodies do.

John19:28

Matthew 4:2

John 11:35

Week 12

Jesus is Sinless

Jesus was a man like us but without any sin. He had to be perfect to be our ransom. Only God can be perfect again proving Jesus is God and also fully Man.

Jesus did not inherit the seed of Adam because Holy Spirit conceived Him. Jesus is called the second Adam. Jesus came to undo the devastation the first Adam caused in his sin and rebellion. Jesus had to be perfect and obedient in the law, in thought, deed and action to be able to pay the debt we all owed because of Adam and our sin.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Romans 5:12-19

John 1:29

1 John 3:5

1 Peter 1:19

1 Peter 3:18

Jesus is the final sacrifice for sin

In the Old Testament unblemished bulls and goats were used as temporary covering for the sins of man. The animal would be slaughtered and offered to God in place of the person who broke Gods law. This showed the seriousness of sin, which had now affected the entire world. This was not a permanent solution to sin but rather a type of shadow of the promised messiah who would come after the fall of Adam. Humanity needed a savior who could supernaturally purify our hearts and reconcile us once and for all back to God. The Old Testament saints looked forward towards the coming messiah who would take away all their sins. We now look back to the cross onto the same messiah who did take away all our sins.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Hebrews 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:25-26

Hebrews 10:1-14

Side Note: Speaking on sacrifice we must look at what is called the Substitutionary Atonement. Christ paid the price for us. We broke Gods Law; we deserve to be punished for breaking the law. Christ sacrificed Himself for us even though He broke no laws.

Look at the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham brought his son up to God as a sacrifice yet God provided a ram stuck in the bushes and said the ram will be the sacrifice that satisfies me today. The ram was a substitute instead of Isaac. We deserve to be punished and yet God provided a perfect sacrifice to take on your sin instead, God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Genesis 22:13

Isaiah 53:4-5

Romans 4:25

2 Corinthians 5:21

Now let’s look at Christ as the Lamb of God in sacrifice. Lambs were sacrificed day and night for sins, doubled in numbers on the Sabbath and used for sacrifice at special festivals. John the Baptist in John chapter 1 declared Jesus the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. The Jews would have understood what John was saying there. Jesus is here now to be the final sacrificial lamb for sin.

Read more about the over Lamb in Exodus 12:1-23. When we place our faith and believe, just as the Hebrew slaves did, in the blood they spread on their doorposts we too will be saved from Gods Judgment of Sin to come. Jesus shed His blood as the perfect unblemished lamb so that we may escape the wrath coming upon humanity and their sin.

1 Peter 1:18-20

1 Corinthians 5:7

Jesus became a curse for us

What the above statement DOES NOT mean: It does not mean that Jesus literally became a sinful man on the cross. He did not suddenly become a sinner or sinned on the cross. We need to clear this up because many famous TV preachers today teach that Jesus literally became a sinful man. This is heresy and we must refute this with scripture.

They use one verse to build their theology, which alone is dangerous. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”

Now if we only read this one verse out of context it may seem this is what Paul was conveying.

However, we always want to use the whole of scripture to interpret scripture. We already proved that Jesus is God, Jesus is Holy and Jesus is Sinless. Therefore, Jesus could not have sinned or have a sin nature otherwise He could not be the perfect spotless Lamb.

What does it mean that Jesus became a curse for us or sin for us? Every sinner has the curse of God abiding on his or her lives. They have broken every law and so Gods wrath is upon them.

Breaking the law of God brings a curse upon the sinner’s life. The only way for this sin or curse to be removed is we must be reconciled back to God. The only way to be reconciled back to God is through an acceptable sacrifice to Him for payment. This acceptable sacrifice is Christ His Son.

When Jesus hung on the tree in our place God poured out His full cup of wrath upon Him. He poured out the entire cup of wrath and crushed Jesus for payment of our sin. The Bible says it pleased God to crush His Son. This was the moment when Christ hung there in our place and received the crushing wrath that broke the curse of sin for every believer forever. This is called the substitutionary atonement. Christ died as a substitute for sinners.

I think it would do us some good to pause right here and really take that in. Picture your sin, some of the vilest things you have said and done against God. Now picture our perfect Savior up on the cross with all the love in His eyes for you and me. He then received the full wrath of God. In that moment He was thinking of you and me and how dying was worth it for us vile wretched sinners. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.

Please look up and read all the scripture below to back up the last two paragraphs:

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

John 3:36

Galatians 3:13

Matthew 25:41

Numbers 14:18

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Deuteronomy 29:20-21

Galatians 3:10-14

Acts 3:19

Romans 5:8-10

Colossians 1:20-22

Romans 1:18

John2:2

Side Note: Propitiation means that Christ’s sacrifice is Gods only acceptable sacrifice for sin. Christ’s sacrifice appeased Gods wrath for those who believe in Him.

Romans 2:5

Revelation 14:10

Isaiah 53:10

Section 5

“Holy Spirit, teach the students more about what happens when they get saved. Help them to understand what all this means for them. Give the divine revelation into the beauty of the gospel. I pray they are transformed by the revelation to Go and Be The Church of God to their homes, churches, communities and the nations”. Amen

Week 13

Doctrines of Our Salvation, What This Means for Us Imputation

The next topic I want to discuss is probably one of my favorite doctrines of all. When Christ became the curse for us or took upon Himself our sin, we call that “imputation”. All of our sin, past, present and future was imputed to Christ at the cross.

Imputation is a legal term to describe one’s before God. We like to use the analogy of a bank . When we are born, we are born with a sin nature. Adams sin changed all of humanity forever. When we are born no matter how cute we were, we were little monster sinners.

We screamed when we didn’t get what we wanted when we wanted it. We grew teeth and bit people. We learned to crawl and walk and disobeyed our parents every time we purposely touched something, we were told not to touch 10 thousand times. We then threw fits at grocery stores, repeated bad words, refused to share our toys and the list just continues to grow as we age.

As we sin our bank continues to grow against God. I went from a cute baby who had to be taught not to lie, share my toys, don’t bite the neighbor kid and obey my parents to a teenager that started to have sex outside of marriage, try alcohol or drugs,

play with witchcraft or read horoscopes, watched porn, used foul language, lusted after my peers, desired money, success, fast cars, the best clothing, became mean boy or girl in school, bullied, lied, cheated on tests, skipped school; the list can go on and on and we haven’t even graduated high school. Depending on where you are in your life depends just how big your bank of sin is.

Let’s look at Christ’s bank . Sinless, never lied, never stolen, never lusted, never disobeyed the Father, never cussed, never craved the riches or power of this life, healed thousands upon thousands of people, cast out demons, showed the most vile sinner comion, didn’t defend Himself to His accs before the cross and healed the ear of the soldier Peter cut off with a sword when they came to arrest Him.

I am not doing justice here of how perfect, how amazing, how holy our Savior is. His bank is the biggest most amazing bank in the universe because He is God!

The first man Adam sin entered all of us, but the second Adam, is Christ righteousness. I want you to write below all the sin you can think of that you committed against God. I promise this list will only scratch the surface of the sins we have actually committed against a perfect holy God.

You wrote your list! Now this is where it gets amazing. When Christ took the wrath of God for our sins on the cross, all of YOUR sin was imputed to Him and God crushed Him pouring out His wrath on His Son for you. I want you to take the list you just wrote out and visualize nailing it to Christ’s chest as He was suffering on the cross. Visualize taking a nail, now pick up the hammer, take the list and nail it into His chest. ALL OF OUR SIN or all of the sins of every believer was imputed to Christ on the cross as He suffered and died for you.

There was an even greater exchange than this. The bank of Christ’s that we mentioned earlier, that big fat perfect holy bank of perfection, was imputed to you. You and Jesus switched bank s on the cross. He took your sin and you now have His bank of righteousness and holiness.

This is what justifies us before God. This is how we are able to go to the holy of holies now. This is how we can commune with our Holy creator. We are positionally sanctified. Which means we were made Holy, as Christ is holy. Can you even grasp the beauty of this doctrine? Christ not only took our bank full of sin but also then gave us His bank of Holiness so that we can now have a relationship with the Father? Oh, saints if we could only bask in this every morning when we wake up and every night before bed it would change your Christian walk forever! Just think I only scratched the surface of this beautiful part of our salvation. Keep reading; let’s go deeper together.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

2 Corinthians 5:21

Romans 4:22-25

Romans 4:6-8

Romans 1:16-17

Side Note: Its important to that because we rest in Christ’s imputation, His holiness and His righteousness we are no more saved on our best day verses our worst day in Him. Often because we are so “works” driven we will feel like God loves us more when we have the best day in Him. When everything just lines up in our religious works. However, because we rest in Christ’s imputation at all times, even on our worst most flesh filled day He still loves us. We can still go to the throne room of grace. This is never a license to sin, or should we ever use this to justify sin. However, we must rest in Him at all times. He gets the glory when we are great and on days when we are not so great. We should desire to always have great days and God certainly rewards our obedience to Him, but He loves us the same no matter what. He loves us the same because He chose us from the foundation of the earth as a gift for His Son. We are the chosen brides of Christ.

Reconciliation

The word means to “unite, bring together, to make favorable” Every world religion teaches in order to go to heaven or have a good after life we must do good works.

However, Christianity is the only religion that teaches man is sinful and God is Just so no one can do enough good works to

satisfy a Just God of all our sinful acts. Christ alone took all our sins upon Himself and all we can do is place our faith in Him and the finished work of the cross. He is the only way to be united with God, to be made favorable with Him, to be brought together with our Creator.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Romans 5:10-11

Colossians 1:19-22

Side Note: Not only did Jesus reconcile us back to God through His sacrifice but once we become born again, we now are managers over this reconciliation. We are to manage it by telling others about Him. We now implore sinners to also become partakers of this reconciliation. They too can be

united with God. God dwelled in Jesus, because Jesus is God and now, they dwell in us. We have this wonderful yet serious mandate to take the ministry of reconciliation to a lost and dying world.

Corinthians5:17-20

Redemption

This is another favorite doctrine of ours. What does it mean to be redeemed? To be bought with a price, to be purchased out of something. Satan is the ruler of this world and its inhabitants.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Luke 4:5-6

John5:19

Corinthians4:4

Ephesians 2:2

Side Note: We are born into Adams sin and Satan is our master. We are called Children of the Devil as sinners. We do satan’s bidding here on earth as unbelievers. We are blind in sin and caught in His snare. We don’t like to think of it that way. We like to think all humanity is God’s Children.

How many times have you heard or said this yourself? “We are all Gods kids”.

No, actually we are all satan’s kids until God redeems you. When you are redeemed only then do you become a child of God, adopted into His family forever. Only then do you have the rights and privileges of being Gods child. Before salvation we are enemies of God and children of the devil.

1 John. 3:8-10

John 8:44

Acts 26:18

2 Timothy 2:26

Picture this: The old slave markets. If you have ever been down south to some of the old cities, they still have the slave markets where slaves were bought and sold. The slave owner would bring the slaves to market typically on a Saturday morning. People wanting to purchase slaves would come and pay the owner money to retrieve the slave. Once the slave was bought the new master now owns the slave and the slave is to do whatever the new master says to do. The old master no has control over the slave.

This is us, we are in the slave market of sin. Satan is our master; we do whatever he influences us to do. We are by nature sinners so we easily go after whatever sin Satan puts in front of us and follow hard after it. Jesus came to reconcile believers back to God. When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for our sin with the price of His blood. He made a way for us to leave the sin

market of Satan and now be in the slave market of God for righteousness. We were snatched out when we became born again. Gods seal was placed upon us, the seal of the Holy Spirit. We now belong to God; we are His property. We become slaves to righteousness. We have a new master now and we are to be doing what He bids us to do. We are to be living separate of the world’s works of darkness. We are to be holy for God is holy. We are to be soldiers for Christ spreading the truth of the gospel to a dark world. We are to be attending weekly gatherings with believers, giving of our time, talent and treasure for the furtherance of the gospel. We need to be representing our new master in word and action. We are to die to our flesh daily and be led only by Holy Spirit. Although Satan has been disarmed at the cross for us, we still battle him, but now we have victory.

He no longer owns us; we don’t have to follow his lies and temptation. We have victory over sin. Life with the new master Christ is the abundant life, a life of peace and joy. We have an eternal home of perfection and love waiting for us when our job here is done. We are called bond-slaves because we willingly follow our new master. We want to be in His slave market. We desire to do His will.

Colossians 1:13-14

John 8:34

Galatians 5:1

2 Peter 2:19

1 John 3:6

Slaves to God when we are redeemed

2 Timothy 2:24

1 Peter 2:16

Revelation 1:1

Romans 6:15-23

Week 14

Sanctification

This is the process by which we are set apart for holiness unto God. We were sinners using our sinful nature to do the bidding of satan. When we become born again, we are set apart now with a new nature. We have the nature of Christ. We now desire to do that which is pleasing to the Father. We now work with God by the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness. Holy Spirit teaches us, convicts us, and comforts us in this process. There are four difference aspects to sanctification. Let’s explore them a bit deeper.

Preparatory Sanctification

We are chosen from the foundation of the earth. Paul writes about being separated from his mother’s womb to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ. We all know the famous verse in Jeremiah about being called before he was formed in his mother’s womb to be a prophet for God.

With this in mind let’s explore your salvation a bit. God says He chose you from the foundation of the earth or before earth began. When you were conceived God already chose you. I believe that the Holy Spirit followed us around since conception. This may be why you have glimpses in your life of God being with you even though you were not yet saved. Maybe you always had conviction of sin. You knew what you were doing was wrong but had no real power to overcome. Maybe you said a prayer when you were 5 years old asking Jesus to come into your heart. However, you become a

teenager and suddenly sin takes completely over your life. You are convicted but you are not transformed. This is the power of the Holy Spirit always whispering to you, always drawing you, always watching over you. He is still guiding your steps for the very moment when you will get saved or be born again. He is prepping you for salvation until the moment you become regenerated.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Ephesians 1:4

Galatians 1:15

Jeremiah 1:5

2 Thessalonians 2:13

Holy Spirit preparing us for salvation

1 Peter 1:2

Positional Sanctification

The very moment we become truly born again we become holy in Gods eyes. We are now in a position of holiness before God. All of Christ’s holiness was imputed to us. This is why we can now go

boldly to the throne of grace and make our petitions known to God. We can now be in His presence through prayer and worship. We are seen as holy because we are clothed in Christ.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

1 Corinthians 1:2

Hebrews 10:10

Hebrews 4:16

Colossians 1:21-23

Progressive Sanctification

This is the third step and the most often talked about and understood step in our salvation process. Once we are born again, we are made holy positionally with God, however we are not holy in action. I don’t think I have to do much convincing that you or I still struggle with sin. We now work with God to look more and more like Christ. We are called to be Holy for God is Holy. God does not lower His standard because we cannot be perfect and Holy like Him. However, He still calls us to holiness. Every day we get up, we look to His perfect standard of Holiness, which is Christ, and we ask Holy Spirit to help us. He guides our steps, convicts our hearts and comforts us when we don’t meet His standard. He is our teacher our absolute guide in this life as we continue to grow in Him from glory to glory.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Corinthians1:30

Corinthians3:18

Philippians 3:12

Colossians 3:10

Romans 6:13

Romans 12:1

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

We actively work with Holy Spirit to be holy

Prospective Sanctification

This is our future sanctification when we are actually made holy. This is when we die and go onto glorification in heaven with Christ. We will finally be free of this sinful body, which we war against daily. What freedom we will have to no longer sin nor desire anything sinful.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Colossians 3:4

1 John 3:2

Philippians 3:20-21

Week 15

Justification

Justification is a legal term. We are sinners who owe a debt for our sin. As we talked about above in the doctrine of Imputation our bank s are pretty full of sin debt. Justification is the process in which at the moment of salvation God declares us not guilty. All our sin is wiped away. We went from sinner to saint in a split second. From guilty to innocent; Jesus wiped out all our sin at the cross. At the moment you get saved all the sin debt was nailed to the cross with Christ and all His righteousness was imputed to you. Its truly an exchange that now makes you innocent of all charges in the court room of God.

Sin must be punished because we broke the law. God is perfect righteous judge. He took the penalty upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. All of Gods wrath was poured out on His Son on the cross for all your broken laws. He shed His own blood and now you are made not guilty because the blood was applied to your . It is sincerely a free gift. You cannot earn it; you simply received it.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

Romans 5:9

Hebrews 9:22

Romans 5:18

Romans 3:24-28

Regeneration

Regeneration is done at the same moment as Justification and Positional Sanctification. They are all three done at the moment of salvation. Justification is where we are legally in right standing with God. Sanctification is where Holy Spirit guides us to looking more like His Son and sets us apart for holiness. Regeneration is the changing of your very nature.

We were born with a sin nature from Adam. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus we must be born again. We need a new nature if we are going to look like Christ. Our old nature must die and we must be given a new nature. When we are saved God supernaturally gives us this new nature. We have a brand-new life. We will now have new affections. We will love what God loves and hate what God hates. We are given His nature. God comes and lives inside us now. We are the living temple of God.

This doctrine is often not talked about with our society of easy “believism”. We simply ask people to repeat a prayer and declare them saved. We give them five things they must do now (works) and we hope this brings about change (humanism). However, when God truly saves a person change is automatic. We do not become suddenly perfect but we do desire perfection. Salvation is a supernatural life transforming work of God in which a person is radically changed. The person is so changed that everyone who knew them before will know that something has changed. In the Bible when people met Jesus and were born again, they were transformed. They did not go on sinning habitually and living the

same way they lived before. They became a new creation in Christ. Read about the Women at the well (John, Chapter 4) The women caught in adultery (John, Chapter 7) The blind man that was excommunicated from temple life (John, Chapter 9) Apostle Paul who made it his mission to murder and arrest Christians (Galatians, Chapter 1) Regeneration equals real transformation. If someone professes Christ yet has no real transformation they likely have not been born again. (Matthew, 7:21-23)

I love testimony nights at Be The Church because you hear the most radical life changing stories. People one day were addicted to Meth and suddenly they met Jesus and never desired it again.

People living in sexual immoral situations suddenly stop and give their lives to purity. People bound by Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, Bi-Polar, D.I.D., etc. and suddenly free. Why are they free?

How is it possible after years of treatments, therapy, pills, and classes, etc. one day they are free? They are free because whom the Son sets free is free indeed. God gave them a new nature. Some things happen instantly and other issues are worked out in the sanctification process. Either way chains are gone and they have been set free by the regenerating work of Holy Spirit.

True salvation sets the sinner free. Jesus said “repent and believe”. We repent of all our sin and we believe that Christ took it all at the cross. We believe He is fully God and Fully Man. We believe He is the second person of the trinity, God the Son. We believe He rose on the third day. We believe He is returning for us.

We believe He was born of a virgin. We believe His word is perfect, alive and active.

Take this time if you haven’t already to just be honest with God and talk to Him about being saved. Tell Him you want saved. You want the regenerated work of the Holy Spirit. You want to be supernaturally born again. You want to be justified legally, sanctified positionally. You are ready to walk out this new life with Christ, to look; act and love just like Him. No matter the cost you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ. There is no magic formula, no patterned prayer you pray, no work you must do. It is simply talking to God and asking for Him to grant you repentance. Then believe He will, because He promises to grant repentance to anyone who sincerely asks. He is faithful to forgive us. He wants to come make a home inside you. He wants to adopt you into His kingdom. He never said it will be easy. He only promised that it would be worth it.

Look Up * Write Thoughts * Pray Through

John 3:3

John 17:21-23

Corinthians3:16

Corinthians5:17

2 Corinthians 13:5

Matthew 7:13-23

John 14:20

1 John 2:4

Ezekiel 11:19

Conclusion

We at #BETHECHURCH pray you take the things you have learned in this study and go deeper. We will give you resources below to help further your studies. Our greatest desire is that you will fall in love with the deeper things of God. We want you to fall in love with His word, theology, doctrine, church history and mostly with Him. The more we know the true God the more satan and his false teachers cannot deceive us. We live in an age of the great falling away. We recommend keeping these teachings fresh in your memory. Do this study often to keep yourself equipped. Stay strong saints of God we are in a battle for souls!

We caution new believers to be careful of the teachers, internet sites and videos they watch as there is so much misinformation and deception out there now. They make it look and sound good and even use scripture. They do tons of history revisionism. Here is a short list of teachers/elders of our faith we endorse for your safety as you navigate through the scripture.

CARM.org,Matt Slick (excellentfor any theologicalquestionyouhave,podcastandliveonYouTube).

DesiringGod,JohnPiper

GracetoYou,JohnMacAurther

HeartCryMissionary,PaulWasher

LigonierMinistries,R.C.Sproul

FrancisChan,readhisbooksandwatchhissermonson YouTube

VoddieBucham,watchhissermonsonYouTube

GotQuestions.org

AnswersinGenesis.org

LivingWaters,RayComfort(greatevangelismresourcecenter)

WretchedRadio,ToddFriel(fromfamily,theology, historytoevangelismgreatresource)

About the Equipping the Saints

Equipping the Saints is a great study guide for individual study or small groups. This study guide will give foundational truths of our Christian Faith. We recommend this study guide to the new believer and the mature saint alike. We have designed this study guide to get the student to search out the teachings using their bible. We believe the bible is our final authority and fully sufficient for this life. We are hoping by getting the student in the word to learn the basic truths of their faith it will only cause them to crave more of God in which they will want to only go deeper in their studies.

About the Authors

Stephen and Amy Ross have been married over 20 years. They co-labor in ministry at Be The Church Ministry Inc. A non-profit outreach ministry that believes in being as close to the biblical model of early church ministry as possible. They believe in Salvation, Deliverance and Discipleship through the word of God as keys to the maturing of the saints. They have one daughter Erica Dawn and many spiritual Children. They plan to continue to make Christ known wherever God opens doors for them.