In the last chapter we thought about all of the millions and millions of people in this world. These people have different climates and they have different cultures, but the Lord Jesus Christ died for them all.
There are people all around me. I probably see thousands of people every week. I am in the middle of all of these people. Where do I fit in to this world with all its multitudes of people? How do I fit in? Who knows that I am even here? Does anyone notice me? Does anyone spot me?
You are not lost in the middle of the crowd. People do spot you and people do see you:
There are always people in the crowd who see me and who know that I am here! As they look at me, what do they see? Am I just like them? Am I different from them? How am I like them? How am I different from them?
As you think about the people all around you, how are all people usually alike? Do most people have two hands? two eyes? one nose? Do all people have a head? a heart? at least one lung? Do all men have the same kind of flesh (1 Cor. 15:39)?__________ Have all men come from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7; l5:47-48)? Do all men enjoy God’s promise of protection (Genesis 11:5,9-11)?_____________Can ydu think of other ways that people are alike on the outside?____________________________________________________________________
How are people alike on the inside? How can a person become different on the inside?
Who was the first man that God created (Genesis 2:20)? _______________ Did Cain come from this man (Genesis 4:1)? ______ Did Noah come from this man? ________ Did your parents come from this man? ______________________ Did you come from this man? ___________________ Did we all come from Adam? ________________ Is Adam the father of us all? _________________________________
When you were born you received certain traits and characteristics from your parents (the color of your skin, the color of your hair, the color of your eyes, etc.). There are certain things that are passed down from parent to child. There is something that Adam has passed down to every person who has ever been born. Adam sinned against God (Genesis chapter 3) and he became a sinner. Every person born into the world (except the Lord Jesus Christ – Luke 1:35) has received a SINFUL NATURE from Adam. This SINFUL OLD NATURE is described in Ephesians 4:22. It is called the OLD MAN and it is sinful and corrupt and wicked. There is nothing good about it, when placed before the Holy God.
Do you have an ADAM NATURE (a sinful nature)? ____________________ Do your friends each have an ADAM NATURE? ______________________ Do your parents? ___________________ Is the same thing true for the people living in China and India? ________________________ All people are alike because they have all received the same nature from Adam.
Consider Jeremiah 13:23. Think carefully about each question that is asked in this verse. Can an Ethiopian (an African, a dark-skinned person) change his skin? Sometimes people try to change the color of their hair, but have you ever known anyone who has tried to change the color of his own skin? _____________________ Can the leopard change his spots (Jeremiah 13:23)? _________________________ Can the leopard change his spots into stripes so that he will look like a tiger? ______________ No, spots are something that are passed down from the leopard parents to the leopard children. It is part of the nature and make-up of a leopard to have spots. It is part of the nature and make-up of an Ethiopian to have dark skin.
Notice the last part of Jeremiah 13:23. The verse is talking about a person who is accustomed to doing evil. This person is in the habit of doing evil. He does evil every day. This describes every one of us! We all have an ADAM NATURE (which is sinful, evil and corrupt) and therefore we all are accustomed to doing evil. Did anyone have to teach you to do wrong or did this come quite naturally? The question that our verse is asking is this :
Can a person who is accustomed to doing evil do good? The answer is
| "NO!" | It is impossible for an Ethiopian to change his skin It is impossible for a leopard to change his spots It is impossible for an evil-doer to do good. |
A person cannot act against his nature. If a person has an ADAM NATURE, then he will act as a child of’ Adam. Think of a sheep and a wolf. A sheep has a sheep nature (gentle) and a wolf’ has a wolf nature (violent). The wolf cannot become a lamb and the lamb cannot become a wolf. Even if the wolf decides to put on sheep’s clothing, on the inside it will still be violent and will want to go out and slay and eat meat (compare Matthew 7:15). Can the wolf change its violent nature? Not unless God does a miracle (see Isaiah 11:6).
Suppose you were to take a piece of’ clay and work it with your hands. You could take this clay and shape it into anything you wanted. You could shape it into a club or a ball or a mouse or a lion. But no matter what shape it is, it is always clay.
People are all shaped out of’ the same stuff. Every person has an old ADAM NATURE even though that nature can take many different forms. One unsaved man might be a murderer and another unsaved man might be a doctor who has saved the lives of’ many people. Do they both have the same ADAM NATURE? ______________________ You may form a piece of clay into a knife or you may form it into a baby bottle, but they are both made from the same clay, even though one seems much more harmless than the other.
The same is true with people. The sinful-nature that is in your heart is just as corrupt and wicked as the sinful nature that is in the worst criminal who ever lived. It is the same old nature no matter what form it might take. The wolf that leaves sheep alone is just as much a wolf as the wolf that attacks the flock. One wolf does not seem as bad as the other wolf but they are both wolves. You can take a pig and clean it up and dress it up, but is it still a pig? ________________ Have you changed its nature (PIG NATURE)? __________________________ Does it still love to wallow in the mud (2 Peter 2:22)? ___________________________________________________
There might be a very cruel father and there might be another man who is a very good and kind father. Both are unsaved. Do they both have the same EVIL NATURE (see Matthew 7:11)? ____________________ Think about a rich man and a poor bum. Do they both have the same nature? ___________________________ Think about a very intelligent man and a very stupid man. Do they both have the same ADAM NATURE? ________________ You might try to help an old lady cross the street or open the door for her at the grocery store. Your friends might try to throw snowballs at her. You seem less cruel than your friends, but do you still have the same NATURE as your friends?_________________________________________
Can an unsaved person quit smoking? _________________ Can an unsaved person decide never to use swear words? ____________________ Can an unsaved person decide to go to church every Sunday? ________________________ Do these things mean that there is a change of nature? ________________________ How does God describe the OLD NATURE (Ephesians Lt:22)? _____________________________, You can take a corrupt apple and put candy or chocolate all around it, but is it still a corrupt apple? __________________________________________________
How can I change the inside? How can I become different? How can I get a different nature? This world is filled with people who all have the same kind of ADAM nature. How can I be different? Why does God want me different? Why does God want to change me?
Can other people make me different? No, they have the same nature I do. They can influence me for good or for bad, but they cannot change me. The clay can be shaped and reshaped in many ways by many hands, but it will always be clay.
Can religion make me different? If I go to church and pray and sing hymns, will this change my nature? Remember, a dressed up pig is still a pig.
Can evil angels (demons) make me different? No, because they are sinful like I am. The devil does not have the power to give me a new nature and he wouldn’t do this even if he could: "the devil ____________________________________________________ from the beginning" (1 John 3:8).
Can good angels make me different? Even though they are good and holy, they cannot make me good and holy.
WHO CAN CHANGE ME? WHO IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN MAKE ME DIFFERENT? ______________________ "With men this is ____________________ but with ____________________ all things are________________" (Matthew 19:26). Who is the only person who can save me and change me (Acts 1l:1O-l2)? __________________________________________________________________
A miracle is needed to change the color of an Ethiopians’s skin. Do you think God could do this if it pleased Him (Luke 1:37)? ______________________________ A miracle is needed to change the spots of a leopard. God could do it! God could give the leopard stripes and change the leopard into a brand new creature!
Today God is able to do a miracle in the human heart: "Therefore if any man be ______ _____________________________________________________________he is a NEW CREATURE" (2 Corinthians 5:17). God is able to give a person a brand new nature and God does this the moment a person receives Christ as Saviour. How is this NEW NATURE described (see Ephesians 4:24)? Is it good or bad? ______________ Is it holy or unholy? _____________________________ Is it righteous or unrighteous? ___________________________________
When a person is saved, the old sinful ADAM NATURE does not go away. It is still there and it is just as sinful as ever! The unsaved person only has one nature: THE ADAM NATURE. The saved person has two natures: THE OLD ADAM NATURE and THE NEW HOLY NATURE. If I am holding on to my new nature, then I can never come out wrong. If I try having one hand on my new nature and one hand on my old nature, I am going to have problems! The old nature is always bad and the new nature always good. It takes both hands on the good, not Just one hand. I cannot hold bad and enjoy good. Can I serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)? _____________________ The Bible says, "P______ 0 __________ concerning the old " (Ephesians 4:22) and "P__________ 0 ________ the new man" (Eph. 4:24).
As people look at me, what do they see? Do they see a difference in me? Am I lost or am I saved? Am I doing good or am I doing wrong? Does my life reflect what is right or does my life reflect what is not right? Am I dead or alive (1 John 5:12)?
Am I like the crowd or am I unlike the crowd? In what ways am I alike? In what ways am I not alike? Do I stand out in the crowd as different or do I blend into the crowd as alike? Suppose you were to put one tomato in the middle of a pile of 5,000 tomatoes. Would this tomato stand out in the crowd of tomatoes as different or would it be lost in the pile? If you put an orange in the middle of the pi1e of 5,000 tomatoes, could you easily spot it? The orange is DIFFERENT and it stands out! People can spot what is different! Do you think people spotted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were the only ones not to bow down (see Daniel 3:5,6,12)? Were they lost in the crowd?
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Perhaps there is only one person out of all of the students in the school who bows his head and prays before eating lunch and thanks God for the food. Do you think people would spot this? The unsaved do pay attention and they do see a difference (see 1 Peter 4:2-4)!
Do your parents know you? Do your brothers and sisters know you? Do your friends in school know you? Who else knows you?
Today you are known for good, or bad, right or wrong. As you grow older, more and more people will get to know you. You are known now, but you will become known more and more as you get older. As people know you and get to know you, what will they see in your life? Will they see the wrong or the right? Will they see Satan or the Saviour? Will they see the ADAM NATURE or the NEW NATURE?
I am part of this planet! People know me and I know them. They see me and I see them. As I scan the people around me, what do I see? What problems do I see in the world? If people did not have an ADAM NATURE, would there be all of these problems? I need to pay attention to what I see in the world and learn to see things clearly. This set of notes will help me to see the world and to understand it better. There is much to see and there is much to know!
I have a real place in this world and I have a real part. As I learned in Chapter 1, my life produces ripples that are felt all over the world! My life is important. Even though I am only one person, my ripplies are felt! And as I grow older my ripples will be felt more and more (Just like a rock produces more ripples than a pebble).
I must make a choice. Will I live for God and for good and for rightness or will I live for Satan and for bad and for wrongness? I must decide. I cannot be neutral. I must not be like the Civil War soldier who wanted to be neutral and not take a side. He wore confederate pants and a union shirt. The confederate soldiers put bullets through his top and the union soldiers put bullets through his bottom! "CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE" (Joshua 24:15).
I am surely seen in this world by the people around me) by angels good and bad and most of all by God (see Psalm 14:2 and Hebrews 4:13).
I am also able to see those around me and I want to and I need to understand the differences that exist and why they exist (see Hebrews 5:14).
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