Adult QuarterlyIn the Beginning

A Study in Genesis 1—11; Job

QUARTERLY AIM: The student will understand that Jesus created all things for His glory and see the creative hand of God in the world around him.

6—The Beginning of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

13—The Beginning of Mankind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

20—The Beginning of Sin on Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

27—The Fruit of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4—The Grace of God in a Sinful World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

11—The World That Perished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

18—God’s Covenant with the Present World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

25—The Failure of Our Ancestors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

1—Prosperity, Adversity and Misery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

8—Miserable Comforters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

15—Words from a Young Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

22—A Message from the Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

29—Repentance, Submission and Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

November

Vol. 107, No. 4, Fall Quarter, 2020. Editor in Chief: Kyle W. Elkins, kyle.elkins@bogardstore.org Business Manager: Dean Grigsby, dean.grigsby@bogardstore.org © 2020, Bogard Press, 4605 N. State Line Ave., Texarkana, TX 75503-2928 www.bogardpress.org; 1-800-264-2482

September

October

Dr. David Robinson was born in Greenville, Mississippi and grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was saved in 1956 and was baptized by Cones Road Missionary Baptist Church. He graduated from Hot Springs High School, attended the University of Mississippi and graduated from the Missionary Baptist

Seminary in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1966 earning the Master in Bible Languages and Doctor in Bible Languages Degrees. He surrendered to preach in 1960 and was ordained to the gospel ministry in December of 1962. He has pastored churches in central and southern Arkansas. From 1967 to 1999 he served as an instructor in the Missionary Baptist Seminary. He served as Registrar at the school from 1978 to 1988 and as Chancellor and Editor of the Missionary Baptist Searchlight from 1988 to 1999. He served as Chaplain for the Pulaski County Sheriff ’s Office from 1992 until 2007. He served on the Sunday School Committee of the ABA from 1987 to 1998 and as Pres-ident of the ABA in 1999 and 2000. He has served as Parliamentarian for the ABA since 2001. Presently, he is pastor of Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he has served since 1971. He has written Young People’s Sunday School liter-ature, the BTC Adult Quarterly, and he currently writes the Sunday School Adult Quarterly used in the churches of the American Baptist Association. He may be contacted at dcrobinson@aristotle.net.

About the Writer

American Baptist AssociationThrough-the-Bible Series Sunday School Lessons

2029 John 13—21

Ezra; NehemiahHabakkuk; HaggaiMalachi; Esther

1 Peter2 Peter

1, 2, 3 JohnJude

2020

EzekielDaniel

ZechariahRevelation 1—11 Revelation 12—22

Genesis 1—11Job

2021 Genesis 12—50 Matthew 1—13 Matthew 14—28 Exodus

2022 Romans

LeviticusNumbers

DeuteronomyHebrews

JoshuaJudgesRuth

2023 Acts 1—14 Acts 15—28

1 Samuel2 Samuel 1—4

1 Chronicles 1 —10Mark 1—8

2024 Mark 9—16

2 Samuel 5—241 Chronicles

11—291 Kings 1; 2

James1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians

Psalms 1—72

2025 Psalms 73—150 Galatians

1 Kings 3—222 Chronicles 1—24

2 Kings 1—13Joel; Obadiah

1 Corinthians

2027 2 Corinthians

Isaiah 1—392 Chronicles 29—32

2 Kings 17—20Nahum

Isaiah 40—662 Kings 21—23

2 Chronicles 33—35Zephaniah

PhilemonPhilippiansColossians

2028 Ephesians

1 Timothy2 Timothy

Titus

JeremiahLamentations2 Kings 24; 25

2 Chronicles 36

John 1—12

Winter Spring Summer Fall

2026

ProverbsEcclesiastes

Song of SolomonLuke 1—13:21 Luke 13:22—24

Hosea; Amos;Micah; Jonah;

2 Kings 14—162 Chronicles 25—28

September 6, 2020

The Beginning of Creation

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Text: Genesis 1:1-25Focus: Genesis 1:1-23

Key Verse: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1

Sunday Devotional: Made for a Purpose, Isaiah 45:17-19.

Application: The student will dis-cuss that the beginning of faith is accepting that God created all things.

A FIRST LOOK

Genesis means birth, or beginning, and this book tells us about the beginning of all things, and in particular the beginning of God’s covenant relationship with His people. As we study, we would do well to heed the admonition of Jesus in John 5:39 when he told the Sadducees to search the Scriptures. The Bible is about Jesus. Every book is testifying about Him and about God’s divine plan of redemption. As we read in Revelation 13:8, Jesus stood as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The heavens and earth we know were created in order to further God’s great plans. Genesis begins with the simple statement that God created the heaven and the earth. This statement sums up in ten English words, only seven in Hebrew, the answers to fundamental questions we all face when we think seriously about life and the universe. Jesus

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Daily Scripture Reading

M. — Creation Was at the Command of God, Psalm 148:1-6.T. — Creation Was the Act of God, Malachi 2:9, 10.W. — Upholding All Things, Hebrews 1:1-4. T. — All Things Were Created by God, Colossians 1:16, 17.F. — We Should Be Thankful for God’s Creation, 1 Timothy 4:1-3.S. — Creation Is Known in Heaven, Revelation 4:8-11.

believed in creation (Mark 10:6; 13:19), and if we believe in Him, we must accept what He said as accurate. God is eternal and the truth is also eternal. The underlying theme of Genesis is the inadequacy and sin of humanity. The book opens with creation and ends with a coffin in Egypt. Human life begins with the wonderful life giving experi-ence of birth and ends in death. Most people who study Genesis focus their attention on the first eleven chapters, yet there is more said in Genesis about the life of Joseph than about the creation of the earth. The Bible begins an epic account of creation that will end with the replacement of the heavens and earth as we know now. The book of Genesis establishes a foundation for Bible truth that allows us to build our faith on Jesus Christ. If we want to know about God, we must begin at the beginning.

I. Night and Day

The earth was without form and void when the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The Holy Spirit was present in creation, just as Jesus was. God then said, “Let there be light” (verse 3). As a result of this command, there was light. God sepa-rated the light from the darkness. It is important to note that this was on the first day. The sun, moon and stars were not made until the fourth creative day. There was light before the sun and there will be light after the sun shines no more. God is light himself (1 John 1:5). There was light, and God then declared that the light was good. By extension, the darkness was not good. This is teaching us that things are good or bad only because they fulfill the plans and purposes of God. Light was not declared good because it suited the world or because some heavenly committee decided

A CLOSER LOOK

Text: Genesis 1:1-25 5

Genesis 1:3-53. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

that this would be a correct application of light. God sovereignly created light, and God sovereignly declared that it was good. This should teach us that only God can decide whether things are good or bad. We should not usurp this authority and make our own decisions in these matters. God then gave names, or labels to these periods of light and darkness. The light was called day, and the darkness was called night. These concepts are so ingrained in us that we can hardly think about a situation when they did not have names, but God labeled these things for us. Then God defined the day for us. Evening and morning were the first day. Importantly, it was not morning and evening. A day is a period of darkness followed by a period of light. We have made a sandwich of our day, beginning it in darkness, then a period of light and then another period of darkness. This misses the great lesson God was teaching here. We begin in darkness, and then we move toward the light. The day ends, not at the beginning of darkness, but at the coming of light. This is true spiritually as well as physically.

II. The Atmosphere

Isaiah declared in Isaiah 51:13, “The Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens.” This is an accurate description of the atmosphere, called the firmament here, that is stretched out over a hundred miles high, gradually thinning until it comes to the emptiness of space. The atmosphere is also stretched around the earth, forming a blanket of air that protects us from the lethal rays of the sun. The atmosphere also preserves the warmth of the earth, and equalizes the temperature and makes life possible on the earth. Physical life is possible because of the stretching out of the amazing blanket of air we call the atmo-sphere.

6 The Beginning of Creation

Genesis 1:6-86. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

The atmosphere on earth is unique in the solar system. Other planets have an atmosphere, but not like ours. No other planet has an atmosphere able to support human life. No other planet has an atmosphere that contains the quantities of oxygen and nitrogen necessary for life. However, the primary purpose of the firmament or atmo-sphere, according to the Scriptures, is not to support life. We would say that, but according to the Scriptures, the primary purpose is to provide a way to suspend water above the earth, “Let it divide the waters from the waters” (Genesis 1:6), with waters above and waters below. The atmosphere’s original func-tion and its primary purpose, according to the book of Genesis, is to suspend the water in the atmosphere in the form of water vapor, that could condense and fall much later in the now familiar form of rain and snow. Again, like light, this is absolutely necessary to life. If it were not for this amazing function of the atmosphere to keep water above the earth in great quantities, there would be no plants or animals, and there would be no human beings. Our planet is unique in that we have thousands of times more water when compared with our neighboring planets, and that water is distributed completely around the earth in great quantities. This enormous amount of water makes the earth different from the other planets. The invisible atmosphere should remind us that we are surrounded by an invisible, but real spiritual world. Jesus used the wind or movement of the atmosphere to illustrate the working of the Holy Spirit.

III. Land, Sea, Plants

Text: Genesis 1:1-25 7

Genesis 1:9-13 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

God then gathered the waters all together in one place and made the dry land appear. A fascinating truth appears in this simple statement. Moses recorded these words. As far as we know, Moses did not have a globe. He would have no way of knowing that all the oceans of the world and all the continents of the world are joined together. Only God could have revealed this to him. Again, God labeled these basic structures of life for us; earth and seas. Note that earth is singular and seas are plural. The great land masses may be divided today on the surface, but underneath they are all united. The seas may be separated and contained. Again, only God could know this when He inspired Moses to write this for us. God then caused the earth to produce what we call plant life. Plant life came from the earth and has a vital connection to it. There was some combination of matter into a new and different form that resulted in the highly complex organisms and the vast range of species of plants that exist on earth. This was not done by chance; it was done by divine choice, by the Word of God. God spoke and things that were already here were rearranged to produce new life. This refutes the Darwinian claim that all life came from a single source, and that infinite modifications produced the forms of life we know today. This account teaches us that life began suddenly. The Bible also tells us that plant life developed within rigid patterns. There were three simple divisions of plant life; vegeta-tion, including plants that do not propagate using seeds; seed-bearing plants like grasses and grains; and fruit, plants with internal seeds, like fruit trees.

IV. Sun Moon, Stars

8 The Beginning of Creation

12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Genesis 1:14-1914. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

On the fourth day God dealt once more with light on earth. He placed the sun, moon and stars in the heavens for three purposes. They are there to divide the day from the night, to identify signs and seasons and to mark days and years. We might wonder why God made these lights if there was already light there. God made these lesser lights so that we can make a choice. He put us in a world where we must choose the real light of the world instead of the temporary light. There is also a great lesson in the source of light. The sun produces light while the moon reflects light. As the light of the world, Jesus is the only source of spiritual light. Our job is to reflect the light that He shines on our lives. When the world comes between the sun and the moon the light of the moon fails, and when the world comes between Jesus and a child of God the light in that life is eclipsed as well. Once again note that God declared that this arrangement was good. It was in accordance with His purposes and divine will.

V. Animals

Now God made animal life. Note that God made these things. Mankind can rearrange the things that God has already made; only God can make something out of nothing. Life is not some

Text: Genesis 1:1-25 9

Genesis 1:24, 2524. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

specific arrangement of chemicals and molecules. Life is a gift from God. Note that the order here is the reverse of that suggested by the theories of evolution. Wild animals are first, then domesti-cated animals and then creeping things. Note also that every creature was to reproduce after its own kind. This means that there could never be a cross between an insect and a cow. Of course there are variations within kinds, but not the links that suggest that one species of animal was once another species.

There is much beneficial information in these verses. We should remember that although the Bible is accurate when it deals with matters that we consider science, it is not primarily about such things. The Word of God is given to us to show us that we are sinners and that we need to be born again. God created the Heaven and the earth, and He gave order to the world we know. He is also waiting in the future world that is to come for every one of us. Make sure you are ready to meet Him.

1. Why do you think there is such great opposition to the Bible account of creation? 2. Can we profess to believe in Jesus and reject what the Bible says about creation? Why? 3. What is the alternative to believing that God created the heaven and the earth? 4. How does creation reflect the glory of God and testify about Him?

10 The Beginning of Creation

FOR CLASS DISCUSSION

A FINAL WORD