Back To Basics (Sixth In A Series)

Weekend Message/Devotion

July 21, 2019

Back to Basics

(sixth in a series)

Sermon Prayer: “Heavenly Father, I stand before Your people, to deliver Your message. Though the words are mine and I prepared this message, I pray that this message is Your message in its entirety. I pray your blessing and anointing on the message, its delivery, its reception - and most of all, its application in our lives.” Amen

Weekend Message/Devotion

Today, we are continuing a series of messages entitled “Back to Basics”. The series will be to review basic biblical doctrines. In other words, reviewing what our beliefs and practices are based upon. We are utilizing Bible Doctrines (A Pentecostal Perspective) authored by William Menzies, Logion Press 2001; The Great Doctrines of the Bible by William Evans, Moody Press 1974; and of course, God’s Holy Word.

The Doctrine of Man

So, just where do we come into the Great Doctrines of the bible?

We have discussed many times how we are created in the image of God. A few weeks ago, we delved into this aspect in the study of “The Doctrine of God”. So, in a brief review: Man is created in the image of God “in an intellectual and moral sense” - not in any physical likeness. God is omnipresent which means He is everywhere at the same time. In that He is in Spirit form, we can understand that. Were we to try and visualize God in any physical imagery, we just might have a tad bit of a problem trying to understand how He can be everywhere at the same time.

We are created in that image of God relating to goodness, kindness, uprightness, merciful, on and on and on. BUT, what happened? I’ll tell you what happened. It is referred to as “The Fall of Man”. Just what is this Fall of Man? It is called SIN. God is sinless in every sense of the word. God created man to be sinless, yet He always wanted and even today wants mankind to have FREEWILL. Left to our own devices and will, we have fallen into sin. His will is that we seek to do His will. Most Christians truly do seek to do His will, but the constant lure of temptation has a way of finding a weak spot and we often fall into that trap.

How easy it would be if Our All-Knowing God would just remove all that temptation from our lives and likewise remove the weakness from within that we all harbor!

God didn’t create us to control us and regiment our lives. God created us to love Him and seek to do His will of our own volition. God abhors slavery and that is exactly what we would be: slaves moving about under His direct control at all times. If that were so, the only diversity among men would be by His Divine Hand.

It all began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and partook of the tree of knowledge, which was expressly forbidden by God. Adam and Eve were God’s very first creation of Man. Their disobedience was the very first sin perpetrated by man.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17

Certainly die? Yep! DIE! Die to sin that is. Dead to sin means that life without sin is impossible, therefore, that first sin perpetrated and continues in perpetuity.

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” Genesis 3:8-11

Because of that disobedience, sin has remained a struggle in the lives of mankind ever since.

Rather than eradicate sin, God made a way for man to overcome the sins of life by way of forgiveness and redemption. He sent His Son Jesus to earth to teach the ways of a sinless life and left us by way of His personal sacrifice on the cross as a payment for all sins of all man for all time.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1