Numb to the Word: Disobedience Leads to Death
In this lesson, we will look at the consequences of our disobedience to God’s Word. The Bible teaches that we have long suffered from spiritual leprosy ever since human beings sinned. In our time together, we will discuss how disobedience cuts us off from the Source of life, why our best efforts to fix ourselves are in vain, and how even our best desires are insufficient to change us.
Course Outline Playlist God's Word to You: A Summary of the Bible
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God’s Law for Life: God Reveals His Standard of Obedience
Some view God’s law as limiting rather than liberating, but within the Bible’s story line, we see the law as a description of a life of joyous freedom under the God who has made us. The law clearly explains God’s standard for our relationship to Him and to others, spotlighting God’s holiness while exposing our failures and faults. The law reveals our need for salvation, but it is powerless to save us. Even as God legislates, He points us to Jesus, who keeps the law in our place.
- God has set a moral standard that expresses His character (Ex. 20:1-2).
- God’s law teaches us how to relate to God and others (Ex. 20:3-17).
- God asks for complete obedience, which is why we desperately need His grace.
Have you ever felt numb to God’s Word?
What attitudes or decisions lead to spiritual numbness?
How does a person begin to "feel" again?
1. Disobedience cuts us off from the Source of life (Eph. 2:1-2; Rom. 6:23).
In what ways does the church’s hypocrisy reflect a suppression of God’s Word?
What sins have we in the church made “respectable”?
What has been the response of the lost world around us?
What are some lies that our world believes in contrast to the truth of God revealed through creation?
What are some lies that we in the church believe in contrast to the truth of God revealed in His Word?
2. Our best efforts to fix ourselves are in vain and for our vanity (Isa. 64:6).
In what ways is sin related to unbelief in the promises of God?
Why might we prefer the word “mistakes” over “sin” when speaking of our attitudes and actions?
Is it possible to run from God while trying to earn His favor?
How can our “best efforts” get in the way of true salvation?
How does our inability to save ourselves provide a platform for God to display His glory?
How does “boasting in the gospel” influence the way we think about evangelism and missions?
3. Our best desires are insufficient to change us (Rom. 3:10-12).
There is no one righteous, not even one.11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.12 All have turned away; all alike have become useless.There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
Conclusion
The gospel says that Jesus still touches lepers—and when He does, feeling is restored. What was once disfigured and dead is made whole and alive! When we repent and turn to Christ at the sound of His voice, numbness flees and we are enabled to feel the pleasure of His love evermore in His presence.
You need no longer bear the internal pain of being “unclean.” You have been made clean and now are free to gather with others who have been made clean in a new colony called the “church”—the people tasked with spreading the message of hope and salvation to a world of spiritual lepers.
- Are you more sensitive to God’s Word and voice now than when you first believed? Why or why not?
- How does our being healed of spiritual leprosy lead us to take the message of healing to the spiritual lepers around us?
Jesus: The Faithful Son Who Obeys God’s Word
In this lesson, we will see that God provides a way for us to be accepted by Him. How? Through Jesus’ living up to the righteous standard God requires of humanity. By obeying God’s Word, Jesus reversed the curse that sin has brought upon God’s people and His creation. Unlike Adam in the garden and Israel in the wilderness, Jesus proved Himself to be the faithful Son who obeys God’s Word.
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