Adult Sabbath School Lesson

May 8, 2004, Novato SDA Church...

Leader: Dr. Elloway

"Playing God"

Study of Isaiah - Chapter 13

*Dome on the nations (ISA. 13)
*The late great city of Babylon (Isa 13:2-22)
*Fall of the Mountain King (ISa. 14)
*Heavens Gate (ISa. 13-14)
*Final Triumph of Zion (Isa. 24-27)


I. God and Babylon
II. The main foe unmasked
III. Two destinies
IV. God the Righteous Redeemer


Isaiah is prophecying about Christ's coming. Things were going from bad to worse. Human
sacrifice was rampant.

Last week we studied about the Assyrians. the northern Kingdom. They took over
Babylon 4 times. Eventually the Babylonians overcame the Assyrians.

Important kings in Babylon: Nebuchadnezar - met Daniel, had a dream. Went from a bad
guy to a good guy. Had to loose his mind, because of pride.

Things offensive to God:
1) Pride
2) Self-sufficiency

"Most hopeless and incurable sins."

So easy for us to slip into these sins.

* God does not regard all sins of equal magnitude
* Satan "unfuses" ency, discontent, ambition for position, honor, into minds of man
* Pride and ambition are widespread. When these are cherished they open the door to
envy, and a striving for supremacy. The soul is alienated from God and unconsciously
drawn into the ranks of Satan!

How does God view sin? God looks at the history of our sin.

Not only does God have perceptions of degrees of sin, but man does as well. (Possibly in Christ's Object Lessons.)

God abhors all sins.

Are the rules ruling with pride and self-sufficiency, or are they making themselves an example for the
world.

IS there is a parallel to today's world? Not just limited to the U.S., or a specific country, or state,
or city, or the church, or the family, or the individual. These principles are applicable at all levels.
If we dont manage the characteristics of Pride, and Self-Sufficiency we will fail.

This is the mechanism by which Satan controls us. Satan and his armies can control us in the same way
that he controlled Sattan and his armies.

We should note about Sin:
* Timothy makes very clear, what we call sin that leads to eternal death is sin, singular. Sin as in
separation from God. Sin singular leads to sins plural, being separated from the source of life, leads us
into a disfunctional life. The by product of being separated from God is a disfunctional life in which
we do all kinds of wrong actions. Sin singular leads to separation from God, and eternal loss of loff.

We have all sinned (singular), and we are doomed to eternal damnation. The grace of God redeems us into
eternal life.

Sins plural, have different degrees of gravity. How do we determine if something is worse than something
else? By reading all the minor prophets, we get an idea of what makes God really mad. Habakuk: The sins of
my people are incurable. God hates sins with a passion because sins hurt us, and He hates them. Certain
degrees of sin hurt us more than others. God is saying that certain types of consequences really hurt
us badly, and he hates them. We have all sinned (singular), and all are doomed to damnation, without
hope of salvation, unless we accept the gift.

James - there is a sin that is unto death, and there is one that is not. It gives us the idea that
God doesn't view all sins the same.

When we were created, how were we created?

Perfect.

When Satan was created, how was he created?

Perfect.

What happened?

How did he get this pride? How did a perfect being get this? What was the process?

It had to do with when he failed, and ceased to acknowledge that all of his talent and beauty were
from God, and he started to take for himself credit for gifts that were from God.

How can we translate that into our present day life?

Do we accumulate our pride in the same way?

It is a by product of free will... You can choose to decide for yourself to live eternity with
me or without me.

Sin is sin is sin is sin.

Isaiah prophecied the coming of someone who would restore us to perfection.

When does He restore us to perfection?

A big debate in the church is "What is perfection?" What Christ desires for us is a perfect
relationship, communion, with God. What we think is God's thoughts, what we say are His words,
what we desire are His resires. This doesn't mean that we don't still have disfunctional body, brain, legs,
and everything else. We can still make mistakes.

But what God is concerned with is having a perfect relationship with us. God had perfect confidence
in his relationship with Job.

So if we have a perfect relationship with God, do sins matter?

Hopefully the perfect relationship will bear fruits.

How do we do this?

Itis a process, learning about him, developing a trust in God,
surrending to him, yielding to him. It's not the end of it.

We realize that the same things that hurt God, hurt us too. We understand
that the only pride we can have is in what Jesus did, and the worthy price that
he paid for us.

How do I develop a perfect relationship with God?

Some of the answer is how do we develop a perfect relationship with our children, our spouse, or neighbors.

Just like we may love our children, and really want to have a close relationship with them, it is still
their choice to resist, or to cooperate. Our role in our relationship with God, is to give time to
communion with him, study of the word, time spent in meditation and prayer. Develop a sense of God in
our lives all day long, all week long.


If we don't spend time with our spouse, our relationship will not be what it should be. And we should
be sure to spend time listening, and not do all the talking. In Western society we are alone with God,
we want to talk all the time, and we dont quiet our mind, and give God a chance to speak. Quieting our
mind and opening it for God to speak to us.

If I do not spend time with the creator, in an organized fashion, then we dont have the presence of the
relationship, and we don't sense it.

Daniel prayed morning noon and night, without ceasing.

It's our relationship, asking for the spirit to be with us. WE have to ask the Creator to prepare us to
be evangelists. Accept that it is His program, and ask to be transformed into having a mind that will allow
us to do that.

How do we listen to God?

Focusing on Christ's life, and especially on the crucifiction is when His spirit comes and fills us.

Commenting on meditating on the last scenes of Christ's life...

Pastor's wife would right to him before he their were mailed. Read the letters with a sense of
what do these have to do with me. I wanted a sense of the love that was being communicating. I
really look forward to being home with her.

God wants to have a very deep communion with us. Communion with God, time spent in his Word, it does
go with you the rest of the day. It pervades your life, and becomes a factor in everything, and it
becomes a life changing experience. We need to ask God to ask change us every day.
 

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