Saved by Grace - Class Notes: Culture

2008-05-23

05/18/08 - Genesis 23

Genesis 23:1-2 (ESV) 1 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

1. What is a good eulogy for Sarah?

Genesis 11:29 – Married Abraham in Ur before he was called to go to Canaan

Genesis 12:11 - She was beautiful

Genesis 16:1 – She was barren for a long time – long enough to give up hope

Genesis 16:2 – She lost patience and talked Abraham into sleeping with Hagar in hopes of providing children to Abraham

Genesis 16:5-6 – She could be jealous and had a temper

Genesis 17:15 – God names her a princess

Genesis 18:15 – She had doubts and could lie with the best of them

Genesis 20:2 – She was beautiful even in old age

Genesis 21:2 – She is the mother of Isaac, the child of promise Genesis 21:6 – She was a believer in God and his promises

Isaiah 52:2 – A promise we can look towards

Hebrews 11:11 – She had faith in the impossible in spite of her doubts

1 Peter 3:6 – She is an example of a godly submissive wife

2. Peter points to Sarah as an example of an obedient wife. Was she and if so, how?

Sarah was obedient in following Abraham out of Ur and Haran in to the land God promised him. She was obedient when he told her to say she was his sister when he was afraid the people would kill him for her. However, Sarah also had a strong will. She encouraged Abraham to have Hagar in order to bear children we she gave up on her own ability. She also told Abraham to have Hagar and Ishmael leave the camp after Isaac was weaned. Submissive and obedient does not necessarily mean silent. It means the husband has the final say but as two have become one, the wife is an important part of the one.

3. What can we take from Sarah's life and apply it to our own?

Our failing faith can lead to a stronger faith as we recognize when God does fulfill his promises in our lives.

Read Genesis 23:4-20

4. Abraham calls himself a sojourner and foreigner in the land of Canaan. Can we relate as Christians to Abraham and his visitor status?

1 Peter 2:11 - We are temporary residents and aliens in our world. We have to live in the world and interact with it as Abraham had to do. However, like Abraham, we must not conform to this world and compromise our faith in return for what the world offers us.

5. Why did Abraham insists on paying for the land to bury Sarah?

Abraham did not want to owe Hittites anything. He knew that could be used against him in the future and perhaps endanger him to compromising his faith in the future.

6. What can we learn from Abraham and how he lived as a foreigner in Canaan as we live as foreigners in our world?

Abraham engaged the world – bought the land following the customs of the land but would not allow them to give the land to him, or take what the world was offering. The world offers us plenty of things and stuff that may appear harmless but could compromise our walk with Christ.

Class discussion on what "stuff" the world offers that we should turn down?

7. What does it mean to abstain?

Merriam-Webster: : to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice

8. What are passions of the flesh?

Galatians 5:19-21 (HCSB)
¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,
²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions,
²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul says the works of the flesh are obvious and he also makes it clear that this is not an all encompassing list ("and anything similar").

Class discussion on what other works of the flesh are obvious and similar to the above but not explicitly listed. The litmus test - is what I am doing glorifying God?

9. Do you abstain from passions of the flesh or just dabble?

No notes - just class discussion\challenge.

Genesis 18:9-15

1.) Why did Sarah laugh when she over heard God telling Abraham that she would bear a child the following year?

The obvious answer is that she was well beyond the child bearing years and she knew it. However, this promise was so far out there that it caused her to actually laugh at the idea.

We all tend to put God in a box. We think we have faith and we say we understand that God can do anything. But most of us draw the line somewhere. Maybe we don’t say that God can’t do it. We usually mask our lack of faith by saying God could do it if he wanted but he probably has other plans.

The problem is that we live in a box. God can do more wonderful things in our life than we can even think to ask about.

Jeremiah 33:3 (ESV)
3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
Genesis 18:16-33

2.) Why did God tell Abraham what he was going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah?

God saw Abraham as a partner in his redemptive plan. Abraham was more than an unwilling participant but a partner. How great to be a partner is God’s plans as opposed to just a bit player or by-stander. God is going to carry out his ultimate plans. However, he blesses us by allowing us to play a part.

3.) In what ways can you be sure to actively participate in God’s plans? What did Abraham do in order for God to consider him an “insider” with His plans?

Abraham believed and obeyed God.

4.) Why was God sending his angels to check out Sodom and Gomorrah in person? God knows all, so God knew what it was really like there. Why the personal visit?

If God had just wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah without talking to Abraham about it, Abraham would not have had the chance to intercede on behalf of the inhabitants of the city. Part of the reason for God’s personal visit was to talk to Abraham about it, not that Abraham was going to change His mind but that Abraham would have the opportunity to give an interceding request. God also knew that it would take His angels visiting Lot in person to get him to leave the city and God was intent on sparring Lot.

5.) God promised not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if he found ten righteous people in the city. Did Abraham talk God into this decision? If not, what was going on with this dialog between Abraham and God?

God could have told Abraham that he knew there were none righteous in Sodom and that he would give Lot and his family the opportunity to get out. After all, God knows all so he knew he would not find any righteous there.

You’ll also notice that Abraham probably knew that God knew how many were righteous there yet he still pleaded with God for mercy for any righteous God may find. Again, we should take our petitions and intercessions to God and not assume they are not important because God is going to do what He’s going to do anyway.

Genesis 19:1-11

6.) How did Lot end up living in Sodom?

Lot chose to live near Sodom and Gomorrah back when he and Abraham split up and Abraham gave Lot his choice of where to raise his herds. Lot looked around and picked the land that looked the best rather than offering the best to his elder who had taken care of him since his father’s death.

It appears Lot went from living near Sodom to living in the city itself. Lot has some authority in this city as the city gate is where the important men hung out to conduct business. The men of Sodom also had some respect for Lot in that they asked him for the two strangers rather than immediately storming his house.

7.) Why do you suppose Lot was able to live in relatively peace in this evil town that it ready to rape strangers that wander into it?

Lot was enticed by what Sodom had to offer, in spite of immorality all around him. He knew it was so immoral that strangers should not walk the streets at night alone.

Lot was able to fit in somehow. We don’t know for sure why. However, we can make some good guesses by thinking of our own lives. How do we usually manage to fit-in with a lost world? If we are “fitting in” in most cases this is because we are either joining in with their evil deeds or condoning their actions with our silence.
Do you ever condone sin with your silence?

8.) What kind of man was Lot to offer up his daughters so that these two strangers would not be taken by the men of Sodom?

Lot had crossed from condoning evil actions with silence to offering his own daughters to appease the evil men of the city. This is the slippery slope of turning a blind eye to evil around you.

James 4:4 (ESV)
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Open-ended questions for class discussion:

9.) What compromises do we make with our lives and with the lives of our families because of what we are enticed into by the world?

10.) How do we as Christians live in the world but not fall into the trappings of the world? Do we move to the mountains and the desert? How do we separate ourselves but still reach out to a fallen world?

03/09/08 - Genesis 17:1-14

Genesis 17:1

1.) For the first time in the Bible God refers to himself as El Shaddai which means God Almighty. What does the name God Almighty mean to you and your relationship to God?

There is nothing God cannot do including miracles that I know in the normal physical world are impossible.

2.) Is it possible to have the world view of Darwinism Evolution and believe in the God Almighty?

No. Darwinism says we were created as a one cell organism by chance and then evolved into what we are today random chance and survival of the fittest over billions of years. At best, liberal Christianity tries to reconcile this with God by saying God initiated the process but after that what happened was out of his control. That is not a God Almighty.

3.) Why did God tell Abram to walk before him blamelessly and how could Abram possibly do that?

We know that no one can be perfect and without sin.

1 Kings 8:46
Romans 3:23

Blameless implies a heart devoted to the Lord not sinless perfection.

Psalms 101:2

Read the following verses:

2 Corinthians 5:21

Colossians 1:21-22

4.) If through Jesus we have the righteousness of God and are blameless before God, how should we live?

As Christians we like to claim the righteousness of Christ but we often act like that relieves of the precept to walk blameless before God. Righteousness is our salvation. However, if you are not striving to walk blamelessly before God you are either quenching the Spirit by walking away for God or maybe you need to question the reality of your salvation.
We are called in both the Old and New Testament to walk blamelessly before God.

Philippians 1:9-11
Philippians 2:14-15

5.) What does a blameless walk before God look like as a Christian?

The call for living blameless before God looks the same in our day as it did for Abraham and the New Testament Christians. We must remember that our God is the God Almighty. The decisions we make and the actions we take should reflect our fear and love for our God. We strive for blamelessness not because we strive for salvation as that is ours in Jesus already. We strive for blamelessness because we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and desire obedience and desire to please Him. It means a heart devoted to God, not to the world and its promises and worries.

Genesis 17:3-8

6.) What is promising and hopeful to us about God restating his promise to Abraham?

Abraham and Sarah failed when they gave Hagar to Abraham because they believed it was to late for Sarah to have a child. Despite this setback in their faith, God was still faithful to them.
God will still be faithful to us despite our failures to be faithful to him.

7.) "Abram" means "exalted father"; "Abraham" means "father of a multitude. Who are the multitudes?

Israel, the Arab nations through Ishmael, many more people descended from his sons listed in Genesis 25:1-4 and Galatians 3:7-9.

Genesis 17:9-14

8.) What is different between this covenant and the covenant that God made with Abraham in Chapter 15?

This time God gave Abraham an obligation for his part of the covenant. Abraham and every male in his group had to be circumcised.

9.) It is clear that not getting circumcised was a breaking of the covenant and one would not be accepted by God if refused. However, did circumcision guarantee acceptance by God?

Circumcision was a sign that one was Jewish and in a covenant with God. However, it did not make them automatically accepted by God. God requires a circumcision of our heart – by being totally devoted to God – walking blamelessly before him.

Deuteronomy 10:16
Deuteronomy 30:6
Jeremiah 4:4
Romans 2:28-29

Saved by Grace - Class Notes

05/18/08 - Genesis 23

04/06/08 - Genesis 18:9-19:11

03/09/08 - Genesis 17:1-14

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