In part one of this teaching we saw that there are two Gods today in the world: The true God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternal and the devil, the god of this age.
The devil is not eternal. He has a beginning and an end. We saw he blinds people concerning Jesus Christ. We looked at the parable of the sower and saw how the evil one works to steal the word out of the hearts of mankind. We looked at the 4 soils Jesus referred to the wayside, rock, thorns and good ground.
We saw that once we receive the word of God it's up to us where and if we will plant it.
If you decide to plant, how will you tend the garden of God?
We looked at the original garden of God, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and how the devil uses this knowledge to control and contaminate mankind's worldview concerning God.
We saw that people who subscribe to the catechism of the world will always be in conflict with those who choose to accept the truth of God's word. They may mean well and be sincere, but sincerity is no guarantee for truth.
Mankind must choose who they are going to believe the world or God's word.
Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
The word dress means to work and the word keep means to guard.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The devil is still feeding mankind today the knowledge of good and evil. He tells us he has a better way, a superior knowledge a greater understanding of how things ought to be. Adam didn't leave well enough alone. Adam questioned God's knowledge and love when he disobeyed and sinned.
Once another knowledge was introduced, mankind had numerous choices concerning right and wrong. He now was faced with an infinite number of choices to pick from.
Because man is always learning always getting smarter or so he thinks.
When Adam obeyed God his life was simple and blessed. He was protected and provided for. When he had a need, he went to God. God always supplied his need and what He provided for him was the very best. In the garden, Adam never questioned if God knew what was best for him until he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now we have all this knowledge of good and evil to choose from concerning family, morality and direction.
In the beginning there were only two choices, God and evil. Today there are millions of choices between good and evil without even considering the word. It doesn't stop there. Today many times we are faced with the choice between good and best. Many times the devil will give us that which is good but God always gives his best. When the knowledge of good and evil entered the world man started to depend on his senses. When mankind lost the spirit of God their connection with God was severed. For the most part all man had now was his senses.
In the garden if Adam had a question he would simply ask God and because of Adams state he was able to receive an answer from God 24/7.
Adam had access to God 24/7, 365 days around the clock. He didn't know how to doubt or worry. He didn't have the knowledge of good and evil and therefore he didn't know how to die.
Man didn't know what the word cancer meant or COPD. He wasn't inundated with all these commercials about cholesterol or high blood pressure.
He didn't know how to cheat and steal. He didn't know what the word adultery meant. You see, when Adam sinned the only thing he had left for the most part was his senses to figure out life.
All this new found knowledge of good and evil enabled Adam to start mankind down a path away from God.
Man thinks he knows better than God. He thinks he can make a world free of hunger, pain and suffering.
Man in his attempts to perfect himself, country and culture has turned his back and thumbed his nose at God. He goes as far to say there is no God.
He now has the knowledge of good and evil available to him to become his own God. So he begins to correct and revise the Holy Word of God.
Consider man's knowledge:
Evolution replaced creation, tolerance is substituted for sin, equality eliminates homosexuality, and political correctness silences the truth.
One God is now any higher power, no fault divorce releases us from covenant, government becomes our sufficiency, legislation forbids prayer, abortion frees us from accountability, welfare now replaces work, reward in place of retribution and marriage changed to domestic partnership.
Man has been playing God ever since the fall. The Bible teaches trust in the Lord Proverbs 3:5. Today, man teaches "trust me". The Bible teaches if you don't work you don't eat. 2 Thessalonians 3:10. Man teaches redistribution of wealth.
The Bible teaches, only man and woman can marry Gen 2:24. Man makes civil unions.
The Bible says, "I am the lord that health thee." Exodus 15:26. Man says Obama Care.
All this is summed up in one verse of scripture.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The problem is our president and most of congress doesn't recognize him as King. And when there is no king of America, then America will follow the same path that Israel did.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes: (Democrat, Republican, or Independent.)
If Jesus is not your Lord you will do that which is right in your own eyes. Did you know that the word teenager and the concept associated with it is relatively new idea conceived of modern man?
The term teenager didn't exist 70 years ago. They were not given their own generational distinction until the very recent past. This is just another way man has used the knowledge of good and evil to replace God's model of family. Children did not leave the home until they married in bible times.
Today, children are pregnant at 13 and proud of it. Throw the internet into the mix and now your teen has expanded the possibility of developing new styles for seeking independence and identity defiant of scripture and family. All because we eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
There is no way around it. We are in a spiritual war of global proportions. You can stick your head in the sand and ignore it or you can agree and compromise the truth away right out of your life. For the believing one, you cannot avoid the fight. You must face the reality that we live in a world that lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19.) God has given us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.
May our choices in life reflect God's knowledge!
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.ÿ