Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Basic. Believing the Simple Truth of Gods Word

BE BASIC

Published by David C. Cook

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David C. Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

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are registered trademarks of Cook Communications Ministries.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version

of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the

New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Used by permission; NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; and NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

LCCN 2009934566

ISBN 978-1-4347-6635-9

eISBN 978-1-4347-0090-2

1998 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Basic by Warren W. Wiersbe published by Victor

Books in 1998 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 1-56476-593-8

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: Veer Inc.

Second Edition 2010

Contents

The Big Idea: An Introduction to Be Basic by Ken Baugh

A Word from the Author

1. BC: Before Creation (Genesis 1:1)

2. When God Speaks, Something Happens (Genesis 1)

3. First Things First (Genesis 2)

4. This Is My Fathers Worldor Is It?

5. Perils in Paradise (Genesis 3)

6. In Center StageCain (Genesis 4:124)

7. When the Outlook Is Bleak, Try the Uplook (Genesis 4:256:8)

8. One Mans Faith, One Mans Family (Genesis 6:97:24)

9. The God of New Beginnings (Genesis 8)

10. To Life! To Life! (Genesis 9:117)

11. The Rest of the Story (Genesis 9:1810:32)

12. CautionGod at Work (Genesis 11)

13. Back to Basics (Review of Genesis 111)

Notes

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Basic by Ken Baugh

Everything in this life has a beginning. My ten-year-old car at one time rolled off the assembly line brand spanking new. Many successful entrepreneurs began their businesses in their garages. A professional basketball player doesnt just appear on the court out of nowhere; his or her career begins with the first bounce of a basketball. The Civil Rights movement began as a dream in the hearts of a few determined people. Every marriage had a first date, and every person began his or her life journey at birth.

Everything in this life has a beginning, and so does the Bible: Genesis is the book of beginnings. In the first eleven chapters we discover the beginning of the universe, the earth, human life, sin, death, and redemption. But most important, we discover the beginning of Gods love affair with humanity. The apostle John tells us, God is love (1 John 4:8). Not simply that God has love, or that God performs acts of love, although these are both true. There is something more basic and fundamental that we must understand about Gods nature and character: God is love. God is the source and standard of love, and everything God does is motivated by love. He cannot act in any way that is not loving.

Think of it like this: If you release a bird into the air, it flies. Why? Because thats what birds do. If you put a fish into water, it swims. Why? Because thats what fish do. When God creates a universe with human beings, He loves them. Why? Because thats what God does. God loves because God is love. And Gods love affair with men and women is the Big Idea that runs throughout the first eleven chapters of Genesis. As you read these chapters, you will discover the three dimensions of Gods love for people.

Dimension 1: Creation. Humans are unique in all of Gods creation, including angelic beings, in that God created only humans in His image: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gen. 1:2627 NIV ). God made humans like Himself in some crucial ways, so humans are unique and special to God. Humans have intrinsic value, because we carry in us the image of God. We did not evolve by chance from some primordial ooze over eons of time. We were handmade by God Himself. The L ORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Then the L ORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man (2:7, 22 NIV ).

God showed His love for humans by creating them in His image and likeness. And then God placed them in a perfect, sinless garden paradise to work, play, and enjoy each other as husband and wife, and to experience a personal relationship with God Himself (3:8). Not only did God create Adam and Eve in His own image, He created them with the ability to enjoy a personal, intimate relationship with each other and Himself. He also created them with the freedom to choose whether to return His love or reject it. God didnt make robots. He didnt use His power to manipulate and coerce. He created humans with a free will to choose life or death, relationship or isolation, good or evil.

God told Adam, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (2:1617 NIV ). Sadly, Adam and Eve used their freedom to rebel against God, and this rebellion severed their relationship with God. But it did not extinguish His love for them. This takes us to the next dimension of Gods love.

Dimension 2: Redemption. God knew that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He knew that they had rebelled against His will and that He must enforce the penalty of death. But even in executing judgment, God showed His undying love for humans as He provided a substitute to make atonement for their sin. The L ORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (3:21 NIV ). This was the first sacrifice for sin, and it paints a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who would one day come to earth as Gods Son and shed His blood on a cross to pay the price for the sin of the world. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21 NIV ).

The sacrifice for sin in the garden was a forecast of redemption, the complete payment for sin that Jesus would provide through His substitutionary death on the cross. Gods love for humanity is revealed as He steps in to pay the price for sin. That doesnt mean that sin is without its consequences. Adam and Eve would physically die one day as a result of their sin. Adam would toil in working the ground as the effects of the curse infected nature, and Eve would experience pain both in childbirth and in relationship with her husband. Sin is not without its consequences, but it is also not without Gods willingness to forgive and restore fallen, rebellious, sinful humans back into relationship with Him.