MEMORY VERSE: ‘Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.’ Luke 12:51.
LESSON AIM: To study the Christian’s struggle to break free from the world.
‘Christ said of Himself, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34. The Prince of Peace, He was yet the cause of division. He who came to proclaim glad tidings and to create hope and joy in the hearts of the children of men, opened a controversy that burns deep and arouses intense passion in the human heart. And He warns His followers, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”’ Acts of the Apostles, page 84.
1. What is mankind’s natural path of least resistance? Jeremiah 17:9.
NOTE: ‘God has told us what is in the natural heart. He say, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” Mark 7 21,22. That is what God sees in the natural heart, but does man see all that? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Man says, I am no murderer; I am a very moral man. I go to church regularly, nothing of the kind is in my heart. But those very things are there. Unless Christ is there and has cast them out, they have come in and defiled the temple of the soul.’ W. W. Prescott: Bible Echo, January 27, 1896’
2. What does God want for us? Ezekiel 18:31-32.
NOTE: ‘Here the Lord has plainly revealed His will concerning the salvation of the sinner. And the attitude which many assume in expressing doubts and unbelief as to whether the Lord will save them is a reflection upon the character of God. Those who complain of His severity are virtually saying: “The way of the Lord is not equal.” But He distinctly throws back the imputation upon the sinner: “‘Are not your ways unequal?’ Can I pardon your transgressions when you do not repent and turn from your sins?” The character of God is fully vindicated in the words of Scripture I have placed before you. The Lord will receive the sinner when he repents and forsakes his sins so that God can work with his efforts in seeking perfection of character. The promises are not yea and nay, but if man complies with the conditions, they are, in Christ, “yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” The whole purpose in giving His Son for the sins of the world is that man may be saved, not in transgression and unrighteousness, but in forsaking sin, washing his robes of character, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. He proposes to remove from man the offensive thing that He hates, but man must co-operate with God in the work. Sin must be given up, hated, and the righteousness of Christ must be accepted by faith. Thus will the divine co-operate with the human.’ Testimonies, volume 5, page 631.