Knowing The Word; Believe The Word

Tonight, we’re going to have a Bible study. As we look at the passage we’re going to study, I will ask questions, not for you to answer, but to show you how I use questions to study and meditate on scripture. It is something that I learned many, many years ago. This is one of the ways that enables me to engage the Holy Spirit as He teaches me.

The Bible is like an onion. It has layers. The more time you spend in His presence, He can pull back a layer and show you what’s underneath. He has done that many times over the years.

I have given this message the title “Know the Word, Believe the Word.” We’re going to see how important it is to not only know what the Word says but to believe what it says.

In our Bible study tonight, we are going to see why Jesus describes the Devil the way He does in the gospel of John, and it’s found in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, which is typically described as the “book of beginnings”.

For me, it is also the “book of firsts” or the “book of introductions.” In Genesis 3, we are introduced to the serpent, to the devil, and how he operates.

There are folks in the body of Christ who don’t believe that Genesis really happened. They say it’s allegorical or just a collection of stories. The devil has done a masterful job of deceiving them.

When you get into Genesis, (1) you find out who you are, (2) you find out what authority you have on this earth, and (3) you find out who the devil is and how he operates.

But first, let’s read Jesus’ description of the Devil.

Turn first to John 10:10. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Now turn to John 8:44. This verse is significant to what we are going to read in Genesis. The verse says, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

I want to point out some things about the devil that never changes. First, he is the originator of lust. Second, he is a murderer – not physically, but spiritually. Third, the truth cannot be found in him. And, fourth, he is the father of lies. The two things that I want you to remember: he can’t tell the truth and he is a liar. That is who the devil is.

Now, let’s read two short passages from the first two chapters of the book of Genesis before we get to the heart of the lesson. But before we do, I want you to see something.

Turn to John chapter three. We are going to read the first six verses.

(1) There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

(2)The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

(3) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The word “cannot” means that it is absolutely impossible for a person to enter the kingdom of God if he is not born again.

(4) Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

(5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

(6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

With this in mind, turn to Genesis 1:26-27.

(26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

This is what Jesus talks about in John 3. Here in Genesis 1, we see God creating man with His life and nature inside of him. In John 3, Jesus says that when a person is born again, he “returns” to God’s original intent which we see in Genesis 1.