Level: 1, Lesson: 4
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
OUTLINE

1. People need to understand the nature of God. Relationship with someone takes understanding.
2. Satan still causes us to doubt God’s character.
   Genesis 3:5: "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
3. God is a good God.
   A. God is full of mercy.
   B. His will for us is only good.
   John 8:3-10: "And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?"
4. The purpose of the law:
   A. To show how deadly sin is (to do so, the law needed to be enforced).
   B. Not to please God, but to know right from wrong.
   C. To show the need for a Savior.

Level I, Lesson 4
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

LESSON TEXT

1. One of the most important elements of any relationship is understanding the person that you have a relationship with; that applies to God too. You have to understand the basic nature and character of God to have a healthy relationship with Him. Misunderstanding the nature and character of God is one of the reasons that many people don’t have a positive relationship with the Lord.
2. The truth is that God is a good God, and His will for us is only good. Satan uses the same temptations on us today that he used against Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-5). He’s basically saying that God is not a good god. If people just have a casual understanding of the Bible, they could get this impression because there are examples in the Word where God’s dealings seemed harsh and cruel. These examples of the Old Testament law were given to make sin (the sin that we had committed) become exceedingly sinful. The purpose of this was to make people aware of how deadly their transgressions were. Because of a loss of perspective of what was right and wrong, God had to bring mankind back to a plumb line: a proper standard of what right living was, so that they could reject the devil, his temptations, and recognize what the end result of these wrong choices would be.
3. Although God did give us the laws (Old Testament commandments), they were not given for the purpose of qualifying us for God’s love and acceptance. That’s not the nature and character of God. Rather, He did this to make our sense of right and wrong become accurate and to bring us back to a sense that we need a Saviour. The problem is that people thought God was demanding perfection before He could love and accept them. That is not the message of the Bible.
4. Jesus’ willingness to forgive a woman caught in adultery seems contradictory to the Old Testament law which demanded death for adultery. It looks like there are two different Gods. Will the God of the Old Testament, or the God of the New Testament be the one that we serve? The truth is, God has never changed. His love for mankind has never changed. God has always sought to reconcile mankind unto Himself. The Old Testament law, with the harshness and punishment, was not the truest representation of God. The Bible says in Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus was the express image of the Father. That means an exact representation - a perfect display - a perfect manifestation of God’s heart. Jesus showed us the real heart of God in forgiving others.
5. God’s heart is to reconcile mankind unto Himself, not to judge them or impute their sins to them. That’s the heart of God for the people in the Bible and that’s also the heart of God for us today. We need to understand the real heart of God. I John 4:8 says that God is love and God seeks to take our sins away and anything else that would separate us from Him. He’s already done it through the Lord Jesus and He’s offering you a relationship today, not based on good works or your performance, but on your faith and acceptance of Jesus baring your sins. You can have a relationship with God today regardless of the failures in your life. All God is asking you to do is put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. What does Psalms 86:5 reveal about God’s goodness?
2. (a) According to Romans 3:23 the wages of our sins earn us what?
   (b) The free gift that God offers is what?
3. (a) According to Galatians 2:21, can the righteousness that we need be derived through keeping the law?
   (b) What was the true purpose of God giving the law, according to Galatians 3:24?
   (c) According to Romans 10:3-4, if we go about to establish our own righteousness before God, what do we fail to do?
4. What does II Corinthians 5:19-21 reveal about God’s desire for each of us?
5. What does Hebrews 8:7-13 reveal that the New Covenant will do?

Level I, Lesson 4
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

(Additional Information)

Is God Schizophrenic?

One reason God can be so easily discredited is because people don’t really know Him by His Word. The only way you can truly know anything about God is through the Bible. Everybody on the earth has an opinion about what God is like and what He will do. But the only thing He gave us to know Him - and the only source that is truly reliable - is His written Word.

There are a lot of passages in the Bible that appear to give a "schizophrenic" revelation of God. Of course, God is not schizophrenic, but that is the way it appears to some people from a casual reading of the Scriptures.

In one scripture, God commands you to be stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day (see Numbers 15:32-35), and then in another He forgives and does not condemn a woman caught in the very act of adultery (see John 8:3-11). Examples like that have given people a rather strange impression of who God is.

The Old Testament Is Incomplete

In the Old Testament, we see a picture of God that is incomplete. It is not incorrect; it is just incomplete. People who create their understanding of the nature of God only from the Old Testament usually do not end up with a fully accurate picture. The Old Testament is only a partial picture. It is not a perfect representation of God. Unless you understand the New Testament and are able to harmonize it with the Old Testament, you are going to end up with a misunderstanding of the love of God and the whole nature of God.

One night I had a dream that I was Joshua in the Old Testament. I was going into the Promised Land, and God had commanded me to kill everybody in all of the cities, just like He commanded Joshua. That was hard for me to do! No women, children, or anything that could breathe were to be left alive. But I couldn’t justify it. I was nearly to the point of saying, "God, I just can’t do it."

To make the situation worse, I discovered that one of my very best friends was in one of these cities, and I was supposed to kill him, his wife, and his kids. I woke up from the dream thinking, "God, I can’t do it. God, there’s no way I can do it." I thought about the dream all morning, meditating on it and praying about it. I was thinking, "God, how could these things have happened?"

My answer was found by looking at the Old Testament through the revelation of the New Testament. God began to show me that if Jesus had lived in His human form in the Old Testament, He would not have done things the way Joshua did. That is not to say that Joshua was wrong. He was obedient to God and God was operating in the manner He had to operate during that time period.

Still, all that God did through Joshua was not a true and complete representation of His nature. Nor was it who God has revealed Himself to be to believers in the New Testament. And yet some people have the impression that God is a God of wrath who will wipe out anyone who gets in His way.

Under the Old Testament, you see some things being done in that manner, but that is not the whole nature of God. It is vital to know who it is we are really dealing with. If you don’t know God’s nature or really understand Him, then you’ll never effectively walk in the blessings and the power of God.

Old Testament Judgment

In I Kings 21:1-24, Ahab and Jezebel are probably two of the most wicked people in history, and certainly the most corrupt king and queen of Israel. They conspired together to kill an innocent man named Naboth in order to acquire his vineyard. They had Naboth stoned to death and his body thrown into a field, where the dogs came and licked up his blood. While Ahab was walking through his new vineyard, he saw Elijah the prophet and said, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?"

Elijah replied, "I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord."

Then Elijah began to rebuke Ahab and said, "Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."

It took awhile for those prophecies to come to pass. Ahab was killed in battle and when he was brought home, the people went to wash out his chariot. As they were washing it, the dogs came and licked up Ahab’s blood (see I King 22:38).

As for Jezebel, when a man named Jehu became king, she was thrown out of a tower and landed on the ground by the wall. Jehu rode his chariot back and forth across her, mutilating her body. Then he went into the palace, sat down, and began to eat. Right in the middle of his meal he said something like, "Well, she’s a king’s daughter, and even though she was a wicked woman, she ought to be buried."

So Jehu sent some people out to bury her, but all that was left was her head, hands, and feet. The rest of her had been eaten by dogs! (See II Kings 9:30-37.) Elijah’s awesome prophecies came to pass exactly the way he had said-so you wouldn’t want to mess with Elijah, right?

In II Kings, chapter one, we move on to the story of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel had sinned against God to such a terrible way their lives would end. Ahaziah had seen those prophecies fulfilled, but he didn’t like Elijah any more that his parents had.

Ahaziah was following in the footsteps of his parents. He wasn’t seeking the one true God; he was seeking after pagan gods. When he gets sick, instead of seeking God and inquiring of Him for healing, Ahaziah sent messengers to Baalzebub, the god of Ekron.

According to II Kings 1:3-8, when Ahaziah’s messengers were on their way to inquire of this pagan god, Elijah met them and said:

" . . . Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? 4Now therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. 5And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? 6And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. 7And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? 8And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite."

The king knew it was Elijah and he was seized with fear, so he sent his armies out to capture him. Verses 9 and 10 say,

"Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. 10And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."

That’s pretty strong, isn’t it? You just didn’t "mess" with Elijah. Ahaziah sent out an army - fifty men and a captain over them - to take Elijah, but Elijah called fire down out of heaven and destroyed the king’s men. Continuing in verses 11 and 12:

"Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. 12And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."

That’s 102 men! Somebody might think, "Well, Satan must have done that." But it says in verse 12 that it was the fire of God that came down from heaven. Elijah had access to the power of God to such a degree that he could consume people. He could kill people with the power and the anointing of God. This is similar to Revelation 11:5, where it says the two witnesses will have the power of fire coming out of their mouths, destroying anybody who stands against God.

God, in defense of Elijah, released fire from heaven and killed 102 men. Finally, the third captain and his fifty men came, but this captain was a God-fearing man. A paraphrase of what he said is, "Have mercy on me. All I’m doing is what the king told me to do." So God told Elijah to go down with him to Ahaziah.

God protected Elijah, and he wasn’t touched by any of the king’s men. He didn’t have to call fire down out of heaven to strike anybody else. Did you know that’s not the only way Elijah could have handled the problem? But this is an Old Testament example of the power, the anointing, and the wrath of God in defense of one of His prophets.

New Testament Grace

Now let’s compare this story of Elijah with Luke 9:51-53:

"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem."

It had been commanded by God that Jerusalem be the center of worship for the Jews (see II Chronicles 6:6). That’s where He put His temple and where the ark of the covenant was located. God had commanded His people to worship Him only in Jerusalem.

There was a time when the children of Israel rebelled against God and He allowed the northern ten tribes to be taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The two southern tribes, Benjamin and Judah, remained undisturbed on the land because they had maintained worship in Jerusalem.

After the northern tribes were taken captive, the king of Assyria sent colonists from Assyria to inhabit the land of the northern ten tribes so the fields wouldn’t go to waste. These colonists intermarried with the remnant of the ten tribes who had remained behind. The remnant of the northern tribes forsook their identity as Jews and intermarried with the Assyrian pagans, in direct disobedience to God’s commandment not to marry people who did not worship Him.

Because the Assyrians didn’t know the ways of God, the beasts of the field began to multiply. The Bible says in II Kings, chapter 17, that God sent lions among them. The people were being killed and devoured. The Promised Land that was a blessing of abundance to the Jews now began to produce beasts that were devouring the Assyrians.

Word of this situation was sent to the King of Assyria. He released some of the Israelite priests to return to the Promised Land and teach the Assyrians the ways of the God of Israel. If they pleased God, they would not be consumed by the wild animals.

The Assyrian colonists began to learn the outward practices to please God, but they didn’t change their hearts. They were still pagan worshipers and they incorporated their pagan practices into the Israelite rituals. They did the necessary things to appease God and get rid of the wild animals, but it was not pure worship of God.

As a result, the northern tribes became a mixed race of people called Samaritans, which led to racial problems in Israel. The devout Jews who were living in Jerusalem hated the Samaritans who had corrupted worship. This is verified in John, chapter 4, where Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. There was a tremendous hatred involving religious and racial prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans at all.

By Luke, chapter 9, Jesus had already ministered to the Samaritans. He had seen the entire city of Samaria respond to Him. They had accepted Him as Messiah. But now, when He came through their town, they would not receive Him because it looked like He was going to Jerusalem to worship with "those hypocrites down there." The Samaritans rejected Jesus because of racial prejudice.

To reject Jesus under those conditions was pretty serious, and His disciples, James and John, had a knee-jerk, Old Testament reaction:

"And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" Luke 9:54

Certainly James and John were as justified in wanting to kill the Samaritans for their rejection of Jesus, as Elijah was justified in calling fire down out of heaven to kill the soldiers who had rejected the God of Israel in II Kings 1:10. This was a serious rejection of the Lord Jesus, and they were simply imitating Elijah, a great man of God.

The two disciples were taking a scriptural example, acting on the Word of God, and doing what Elijah did. Yet how did Jesus respond to His loyal, zealous disciples?

"But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them." Luke 9:55-56

Jesus rebuked James and John for trying to do what was done under the Old Testament. He rebuked them for trying to be like Elijah, one of the most powerful men of God who ever lived under the Old Testament. Does that mean Elijah was sinning in II Kings, chapter 1? No, because at that time God was dealing with man in a different way, the only way He could at the time.

Harmonizing Old and New Testaments

When people don’t look at the whole Word of God, examining the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, they generally get an Old Testament picture of God as a God of wrath, judgment, and punishment. That is a truth about God, and those who don’t accept the love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ will one day experience a terrible day of God’s judgment. But wrath and judgment are not the essential nature of God.

God’s nature is not judgment. You can’t find that in the Word of God. He does judge, and He is just and holy, but Scripture reveals to us in I John 4:8 that God is love. Love is God’s real nature. He doesn’t just have love or operate in love. God is love. Love is the true character of God.

Elijah’s actions in obedience to God were not the complete representation of the nature of God, and the Old Testament cannot give us a total revelation of God by itself. We need the New Testament to understand the fullness of God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. . .14And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

John 1:1,14

"Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John 14:9

Jesus is the walking, living Word, and when we see Him we see the Father. So the problem many Christians are facing in knowing God is that they are seeing God through the Old Testament instead of through Jesus. They misunderstand and are confused about who God really is and the relationship He wants with them because they see Him according to the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, God had to deal with mankind and sin in a different manner. But when Jesus came, He brought the true revelation of the Father to mankind, and He operated very differently.

I personally believe if Jesus had come to earth in His human form in Old Testament times, He would have rebuked Elijah, Joshua never would have killed every man, woman, and child in those cities in the land of Canaan, and Moses would have been rebuked for a lot of the things he did.

You may be thinking, "Brother, how can you say such things?" I believe it’s clear in the Word of God that it never was God’s desire to have to deal with mankind so firmly. That never was His real nature and character. But because we haven’t known this, we have a mixed impression of God. We haven’t seen Him in His fullness.

Most of us don’t really recognize or understand the depth of the love, mercy, and compassion God has towards us. And this mistaken impression of God keeps us at arm’s length from Him. That’s why it is so important to harmonize all of the Word of God. Only then can you get a firm understanding of His true nature.

Grace Extended After the Fall

Most people’s concept of God is that the moment sin entered the Garden of Eden, the wrath of God began to be released upon mankind. People believe that God was holy and man was unholy, so therefore God separated man from Himself and drove Adam and Eve from His presence because His holiness could not stand to look upon sinful flesh. But there was a period of time from Adam until Moses when God dealt with people out of love, mercy, and forgiveness instead of wrath and judgment.

Now, of course, I believe God is holy, and I know that man is sinful, but God’s love is so great that He did not just expel man from His presence. As a whole God dealt in mercy towards man, and He did not impute their sins (hold those sins against them) until the days of Moses, when the Law was given.

Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Let’s take a good look at how God dealt with them.

"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." Genesis 3:22-23

When you see the word "therefore," you’re always supposed to look and see what it’s there for. So "therefore" means this verse is tying in with what was said previously.

"Therefore" links the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden with what was just said. What would happen if God didn’t send them out? The reason God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden was because He didn’t want them to eat of the Tree of Life, which would mean all of mankind would live forever in their sinfulness. It was not because God couldn’t tolerate mankind.

Adam and Eve transgressed against God, but God did not expel them from His presence. The presence of God went with Adam and Eve and their descendants outside the Garden of Eden. I’m going to show you that even after Adam and Eve sinned and left the Garden, God was still walking and talking with them in the cool of the evening. He was still fellowshipping and present with sinful mankind.

The reason God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden was because He loved them so much, He didn’t want them to partake of the Tree of Life and live forever in a body that was corrupted by sin. Sin gave Satan the opportunity to put sickness, disease, and all kinds of curses on us. Can you imagine what it would be like to live for all eternity with diseases destroying your body, yet you couldn’t die from them? It was God’s mercy that sent mankind out of the Garden and away from the Tree of Life.

For a person who knows God and accepts His provision, there is a glorious, glorified body coming that won’t be subject to the things this earthly body is subject to now in this life. There’s coming a body better than Adam and Eve had after they sinned. God sent them out of the Garden because He didn’t want them to live forever in a corrupted body, subject to all of the things we are subject to because of sin. In Genesis, chapter 4, we see that God was still fellowshipping with mankind after the Fall, outside the Garden. We know that because God was talking to Cain and Abel. How did Cain and Abel know to bring a sacrifice? How did they know to bring a blood sacrifice and give the first fruits of their labor to God?

Adam and Eve didn’t have blood sacrifices explained to them in the Garden, because they had no transgressions to atone for yet. The Bible doesn’t say this outright, but it’s evident to me that God was still talking with Adam and Eve and with Cain and Abel. He was talking and communicating with them, because they understood about sacrifices and how to approach Him.

After Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, Genesis 4:5 says, "But unto Cain and to his offering he (God) had not respect." It says God did not respect Cain’s offering. How did they know God did not respect Cain’s offering?

If you and your brother came and offered a sacrifice today, how would you know which one God respected and which one God didn’t? As born-again Christians, we have a witness of God in our spirit. But Cain and Abel weren’t born-again Christians, so they didn’t have God inside them. It’s evident God was talking to them. They were aware God was walking, talking, and fellowshipping with them, because in verse 6 it says, "The Lord said unto Cain."

Here we have God speaking in an audible voice to Cain just the same as God did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

"And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Genesis 4:6-7

God is talking face-to-face with Cain and Abel. As I stated earlier, most people thought God had to separate man from His presence because man was unholy and God was so holy there could be no fellowship. That’s the concept most people have developed, but it’s not proven or taught by Scripture.

When Cain saw God respected Abel’s sacrifice more than his, he was overcome with jealousy and killed Abel in anger. The Bible shows us that God spoke to Cain about it.

"And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?" Genesis 4:9

Now stop and think about this. Here’s the very first murderer on the face of the earth and, while he still had the blood of Abel on his hands, an audible voice from God out of heaven said, "Where is Abel, your brother?"

What would you do if you just murdered somebody, still had the murder weapon in your hand, and God spoke to you in an audible voice? You would probably die of a heart attack! You might do a lot of things, but you wouldn’t just turn around and say, "I don’t know where he is, God. Am I my brother’s keeper?"

Do you know why Cain did that? Because he was used to talking to God. He talked to God every day. It wasn’t unusual. There had to be a familiarity with the audible voice of God. God was still walking and talking with man, even after sin entered the world and mankind was expelled from the Garden of Eden. He was not imputing sin or holding their trespasses against them. God was not treating them the way the Old Testament Law reveals sin should be treated. He was operating in love, mercy, and forgiveness till, God showed His disapproval of Cain’s killing of Abel and let Cain know what the consequences would be.

"And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; 12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." Genesis 4:11-12

Cain became fearful and in Genesis 4:14 he said, "God, I’m going to be a vagabond, wandering throughout the earth, and everybody who finds me is going to try to kill me." Do you know what God did? Instead of bringing judgment on the very first murderer on the face of the earth, God put a mark upon Cain and protected him.

1. "For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).

   Although this is a long and somewhat elaborate verse, we will only trying to deal with one aspect of this verse, that is, righteousness, a right relationship, a right-standing with God that is offered to us as a gift.
   The dictionary defines a "gift" as "something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation" (AH Dict.).
   If you bought your wife some flowers and then asked her to pay you $19.95, would that be a gift?
   If you bought your children bicycles for Christmas and then asked them to begin making payments in January, would that be a gift? Of course not!
   A gift is free to those receiving it, although it does cost the person who purchased it. The gift of righteousness is free to those who will receive it, but it did cost God the death of His Son to offer it.

2. In Luke, Chapter 18, Jesus spoke a parable to a group of self-righteous people. This is what He said, "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:" (Luke 18:9).
3. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican" (Luke 18:10).

   In Jesus’ day the publican (tax collector) was considered a very ungodly and evil person. The tax collectors worked for the Roman government and were usually considered traitors by their own countrymen. The taxes that they collected were by means of pressure, scheming, and cheating. They were considered by others as wicked, evil people.

4. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican" (Luke 18:11).
5. "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess" (Luke 18:12).
6. Notice the body language of this publican. "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13).
7. "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified (declared right before God, just as if he had never sinned, acquitted of his sins, declared innocent before God) rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

Adapted from The New Topical Text Book.

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Here are some questions to think about for this lesson

Level 1 Lesson 4 Questions
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

1. According to Genesis 3:1-5, how did the serpent (Satan) tempt Eve?
2. According to Genesis 3:9-10, did God still have communication/relationship with Adam and Eve after they sinned?
3. Why did God drive Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? * See Genesis 3:22-24.
4. Can you see that this was an act of mercy by God, rather than only a punishment?
5. How did God deal with the first murderer, Cain? * See Genesis 4:8-15.
6. Can you see that God also dealt with Cain in mercy and grace?
7. How did sin enter the world? * See Romans 5:12.
8. How do we receive God's grace? * See Romans 5:17.
9. Can you see from the Bible that God has desired a relationship with man from the beginning, and has continued to reach out to us in grace and mercy?

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