Here is this week’s outline & verses in a downloadable PDF format.
2020 Summer Truth Pursuit Week 5
Spend some time this morning to open up to the Lord in prayer regarding what He touched you with during the previous six days. Review your notes and the outline points and verses. Ask the Lord what He would have you share with all the saints. Prepare a prophecy (1-2 minutes long) to share with the saints what you enjoyed this week.
Message 5: The Fall of Man and Man’s Need of Salvation
I. The fall of man:
A. God’s eternal purpose can be accomplished only by man receiving God as life.
B. The two trees:
1. The tree of life—Gen. 2:9:
a. The tree of life signifies God in Christ as the source of life—Psa. 36:9; John 1:4; 14:6; 15:5; 6:57.
b. The principle of the tree of life is dependence upon God.
c. The result of dependence upon God is life.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Psalm 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
2. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil—Gen. 2:9, 17:
a. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan and everything apart from God.
b. The principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is independence from God.
c. The result of independence from God is death.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
C. The fall of man:
- Satan deceived man, causing him not to depend upon God, but rather to depend upon something other than God—Gen. 3:5.
- Satan’s way of deceiving man was by causing man to question God, His word, His heart and His intention—Gen. 3:3–6.
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Genesis 3:3-6 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. 4 And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make oneself wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
II. Man’s need of salvation
A. The objective problem before God:
1. The word “objective” means something having to do with us but outside of us.
2. When man sinned against God he began to have a sinful case before God.
3. In the eyes of God, there are only two men in the universe––Adam and Christ—
1 Cor. 15:22, 45
4. Our objective problem before God is not a matter of what we have done, but rather a matter of whether we are in Adam or in Christ—1 Cor. 15:22
1 Corinthians 15:22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
5. In Adam we are:
a. Under God’s condemnation—Rom. 5:18; John 3:18
b. Under the wrath of God—John 3:36
c. Awaiting God’s judgment—Heb. 9:27
Romans 5:18 So then as it was through one offense unto condemnation to all men, so also it was through one righteous act unto justification of life to all men.
John 3:18 He who believes into Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed into the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36 He who believes into the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
Hebrews 9:27 And inasmuch as it is reserved for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.
B. The subjective problem within himself
1. The word “subjective” means something within us, something related to our being.
2. When man sinned against God the satanic sinful life entered into man and he became fallen—John 8:44
a. Deadened in his spirit—Eph. 2:1.
b. Ruined in his soul—Eph. 4:17–18a.
c. Corrupted in his body—Rom. 7:17–18a, 24; 6:6b.
3. In Adam we are
a. Children of the devil—John 8:44; 1 John 3:10.
b. Constituted sinners—Rom. 5:19.
c. Whenever we fail to take God as the source of life we are already fallen.
Ephesians 2:1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins.
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.
Romans 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous.
Additional verses for reading:
Ephesians 4:17–18 This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind, 18 Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.
Romans 7:17–18 Now then it is no longer I that work it out, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but to work out the good is not.
Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks it out of his own possessions; for he is a liar and the father of it.
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not love his brother.
Further reading:
God’s Full Salvation, Lessons 6-7.