Turn, Turn, Turn: How I First Believed
ŘChapter 1: Th
e Need to TurnChapter 2: The Power to Turn
Chapter 3: Turn
Chapter 4: False Turns
Turn, Turn, Turn. Nice song from the 60’s. But it is a repeated song of our Lord in the Bible. Over and over again he urges us to turn. Turn from what we are. Turn to what he offers. Over and over again we refuse to listen to that same old song, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” or we have to re-listen to it. Why do we have to turn? What does it mean to turn? How can we turn? We’ll look at these issues and others as we look at the doctrine of Conversion.
Chapter 1: The Need to Turn
What it means to “Turn”
The word “turn” in this study stands for a number of words which denote “repentance.” In the Old Testament, to repent commonly meant to turn (
shuv), turn from your evil ways and turn towards God. Other words the Bible uses are to be reborn, be regenerated, to see the light, to return, to be converted and, the most common and powerful of all, to have a change of mind (metanoia—metanoia). God demands a change of mind from the human race. He wants us to change our mind about what we think of ourselves (that we’re pretty good just the way we are), change our mind about what we think of him (that he’s not a big bully, but a Savior God) and that we show this change of mind with a change of life.The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37.1-14)
After God’s people had been taken into Captivity, the only future apparently awaiting them was destruction as a nation and, with their destruction, the destruction of God’s promises of a Savior. God gave them a prophet, Ezekiel. In a vision, Ezekiel sees the plight of God’s fallen people and the hope of God’s powerful Word. It is a prophecy of the future of God’s people, but it is also a telling tale of how God turns the dead into the living.
How does Ezekiel get to this valley?
Is it a real valley? How do you know?
What does Ezekiel see in this valley?
What had these bones once been?
What had happened to them?
Looking at it from a human point of view, could these bones come back to life?
Who alone can make these bones come back to life?
What is Ezekiel to do to these bones?
What happens when Ezekiel preaches the Word to these bones?
Are they alive now?
What do they lack?
The Human Condition: Dead, Dry Bones
Is what Ezekiel saw a realistic view of the human race? Are we really nothing but dead, dry bones? Take a look at the first humans, Adam and Eve, and how they become dead, dry bones.
Read Genesis 3.7-13
Were Adam and Eve alive with God before the events of Genesis 3? Can you prove it?
What had God warned them would happen if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
What had been their spiritual condition before the events of Genesis 3? Can you prove it?
Why do they sew fig leaves together for coverings?
What happens when they hear the Lord coming?
Why are their actions foolish?
What has happened inside of them that they now fear God?
Why was Adam fearful of God and ashamed of his nakedness?
What was Adam unwilling to do in God’s presence? Can you prove it?
What is Eve unwilling to do in God’s presence? Can you prove it?
What has happened on the inside of Adam and Eve?
What will happen to the outside of Adam and Eve?
Read Genesis
5.1-3
How had God created Adam and Eve?
What did that image of God mean?
How did Adam and Eve lose that image of God?
Whose image does Adam and Eve’s children have?
What does this loss of the image of God, this inherited sin, mean?
How can this be?
An Inheritance of Death
Read Romans 5.12-21
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--- 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God has condemned all people because of Adam’s original sin. God has accounted all men to have sinned when Adam sinned. We call this imputed sin. The many were made sinners. It is not genetic, it is not accidental, it is imputed, given to us, imposed on us, by a decree of God. This imputation of original sin leads to an inheritance of death.
How does Paul show in Romans 5 that God’s imputation of original sin is real?
What does that mean for human beings who do not know God as their Lord and Savior?
What does that mean for every human being coming into the world?
Read Psalm 51.5
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
What is the human condition?
What are we headed for?
The Warning to Turn
Call to mind Ezekiel’s vision. At first he “fails” in bringing the dry bones back to life. He preaches the Word to them. What happens to the bones? Are they alive now? Why not?
Call to mind God’s dealing with fallen Adam and Eve. How does God initially “fail” in bringing Adam and Eve back to spiritual life with him?
We might call this “Law,” God setting forth his holy, unchangeable will for our lives, complete with encouraged blessings for what we should do and threatened punishment for what we should not do
Look at the following simple statement of the Law.
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5.48
What does God expect of us?
How perfect do we have to be?
What does that mean?
What was God’s intent in giving the Law?
Read Galatians 3.21
For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. Galatians 3.21
How did he intend for human beings to live?
What does “righteousness” mean?
What would be the reward for their righteousness?
Instead man fell into sin and lost his ability to be righteous. A new reality is upon us. Look at the following, sad statement of reality, why the Law’s warning to turn is unheeded.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, Romans 8.3
What has been weakened because of the sinful human nature?
What has been absolutely lost because of the sinful human nature?
Indeed, far from achieving it’s intended purpose, guiding man to heaven, the Law works these purposes.
Law brings wrath. Romans 4.15
Think back to Adam and Eve in the Garden when God finds them. In whom does the law work wrath?
The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Romans 8.7
Think about all the “righteous” people who were around at the time of Jesus. How did his work show that they were not righteous?
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Romans 8.8
What if an unbeliever really, really wants to please God?
What, in essence, is our spiritual condition before God, thanks to Adam’s fall into sin?
Read Ephesians 2.1-3
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
How does this inner deadness show itself in our lives?
Where will this deadness lead us unless we turn?
Discussion
1. Show ways that little children have the sinful human nature, inherited sin and how that fights against our society’s view of little children.
2. Yes, there are a lot of terrible people out there in this world. They deserve to go to hell for all the evil they do. But you know, not everyone is a Hitler or a Stalin. There are some people who are pretty good! I’m sure God will take that into account when Judgment Day comes.
Analyze this sentiment and either prove or disprove it from what we’ve seen in this lesson.
3. But what about free will? Man has free will, doesn’t he? How does free will play in here?
How does free will play in here?
4. If the human condition is one of sinfulness, even though we didn’t do anything to deserve it, then God is unfair. No one even has a chance to get to heaven. What is the point of living a good life if those who try to be good are going to end up in the same hell as those who almost out-sinned the devil in their lives. Explain why this is the only rational response to the teaching of our first section of “Turn, Turn, Turn.”
Next week: The Power to Turn