Gregory Dickow - Freedom From Emotional Pain
Adam and Eve were alive: spirit, soul and body. Jesus Christ makes us alive: spirit, Soul and body. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 he wants to complete a spirit, soul and body. In John Chapter 3 he begins the process by causing our spirit to come alive and to be born again. But here, their spirit has died. And what is spiritual death? Separation from God's presence. Boy, when you get a hold of this, when you get a hold that this is the death that they died, separation. They were separated from God's presence. Why? Because Isaiah 59:2, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you". So now what has sin done? Sin has brought death. And how is death defined? Separation from God.
Adam and Eve didn't die physically that day, but they were separated from God that day. And the moment that they were separated from God, that's when all of the problems in the world today started right there, as soon as they were separated from God. So the all problems in this world arise from our separation from God, which is called spiritual death. And all solutions begin when we are reunited, and reconnected to the presence of God and no longer separated from the presence of God. Now, but let's go through, real quick, some of the the side effects of the spiritual death, and the separation between God and man that took place.
So go back to Genesis chapter 3. When you see in verse 8, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, because they couldn't come into the presence of the Lord, because what had separated them, what had separated them from God, their what? Their sin separated them from God, they were spiritually dead, ok, are you with me? Now, if nothing else, although Jesus death accomplished so much more, but if nothing else, the most important thing that Jesus death accomplished was he paid for Adam and Eve sin, so that the very thing that separates all of mankind from God is removed, so that there is no longer a separation between God and man.
Now, why is this so important? Because every bit of joy that you will ever need comes from the presence of God. Every bit of healing that you ever need, every bit of wisdom that you'll ever need, every bit of comfort that you'll ever need, every bit of satisfaction and completeness and happiness comes from the presence of God. And separation from that presence leaves you spiritually dead, leaves all of mankind spiritually dead. It wasn't even your sin. It was Adam's sin that made us all dead spiritually. And it's Jesus Christ's obedience, death on the cross, resurrection from the dead that makes us the righteousness of God when we accept his substitutionary death to pay for our spiritual death. Are you still with me?
And verse 10, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid". I was afraid. Man, if we just stopped right there and drilled down on all the problems that happen in the world today because of fear. This is the first mention of fear, this is the first consequence of Adam's death. Now through death, separation from God, which is death, spiritual death, separation from God, and separation from God creates fear. Nothing else in this world truly creates any fear, all fear, like if you knew God was with you, you could go to a horror movie and you would laugh. You might be startled with some stuff, but because you knew God was with you, that movie could not make you afraid.
David said, "Yay"! Hey, whenever you start a sentence out with "Yay"!, that's that's the sign it's going to be a good day. He said, "Yay! Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil". Why? "For thou art with me". He doesn't say, "I will fear no evil because there is no valley anymore. I will fear no evil because I don't have any problems anymore". He said, "I will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and I will fear no evil, for thou art with me". Presence, presence, the presence of God, the presence of God, the presence of God. Moses said, "Lord, if your presence does not stay with me and go with me, I'm not going anywhere. I don't want to go without your presence".
The Bible says of Joseph in Genesis 39:2, now think of this, Joseph was the favorite son of his father, Jacob. He had received the coat of many colors. He was the foreman. He was the boss of all of his brothers. He was in charge of them. He was the richest of them. He was the most loved by his father. He was the best dressed and the most favored of all of his brothers. So there's twelve sons of Jacob. And what did ten of them do? They throw him in a pit, then they pull him out of the pit, and sell them to the Ishmaelites as a slave, and the Ishmaelites sell them to Potiphar, and he becomes a servant or a slave in Potiphar's house.
Now for the first time in Joseph's, life in Genesis 39:2, he's stripped of his family, stripped of his coat, stripped of his position, stripped of his power, stripped of his wealth, stripped of his career, stripped from the people that love him, stripped from his dad, stripped from everything that we think matters in life. And yet, here in verse 2 of Genesis 39, for the first time, the Bible describes Joseph as a what? A successful man. Why? Because the Lord was with him. When he had all that other stuff, the Bible never called him a successful man. When all that stuff is gone, God can now help define what true success really is, "For the Lord was with Joseph".
Where was he? Where was Joseph? Look at verse one. "Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there". Potiphar, but Joseph. What does that make, Joseph? Thank you. A slave. And what does God call him in the very next verse? A successful man. Because listen, let me tell you something. No matter what has enslaved you, no matter what has imprisoned you, no matter what has been stripped from you, no matter what you lack in your life, no matter what you've been through, no matter how many sins you've committed, no matter how many mistakes you've made, no matter how far you've fallen, no matter how many bad decisions that you've made in your life, the one thing that makes the distinction that brings true success, and true biblical prosperity in your life, one thing and one thing only, it is the presence of God with you.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man, and was in the house of his master, the Egyptian and verse 3, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And so what happens? Verse 4, look at this. So what happened? So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him and he made him overseer of the house, and all that he had he put under his authority, like Joseph is in charge. Why? Because when you are large, you are in charge amen now. And what makes you large is the presence of God, the presence of God. So I'm trying to illustrate for you that you could be stripped of everything, but never, ever will you fail when you realize the Lord is with you. And you'll rise. They'll put you down and you'll rise, they put him in a pit and he rose, they sold him as a slave and he rose. They put them in prison and he rose. Because when the Lord is with you, you will always rise.
But people are still separated from God, why? Because until the Lamb of God becomes your Lamb of God, you'll still be separated from him. He's got to become your lamb. You got it, you're going to have to just accept the reality that sin has a price tag, and that price tag is death. The wages of sin is death. "And the day that you sin...", he said to Adam, "...is the day you die". How did he die spiritually? What did that mean? He was separated. From what? From the presence of the Lord God. From God, from the Lord, from the presence of God, from the presence. This is really important. We get a hold of this from the presence of God.
And what made the difference in Joseph's life? The Lord was with him. God's presence was with him. What does Jesus come to do? Matthew one twenty one. And his name Matthew. Chapter one, verse twenty one. Look at this. You shall bring forth the sun and you shall call his name Jesus or he will save his people from their sins. Verse twenty three. Behold the Virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated. Come on. Which is translated. What. The presence of the Lord, you want to know why everyone, Jesus came in contact with his freedom from fear because he was the presence of the Lord, where did fear come from? Separation from the Lord. So Jesus comes. And what is the effect of the what is the effect? What is the result of God with us? What is the result of God not with us? Fear, depression, sorrow, inferiority complex. All the shame, all the things in Genesis three that we went over.
That's the consequence of God no longer with man. And what is the consequence of God with us? Everywhere Jesus went, he delivered the oppressed set free, the depressed fed, the hungry healed, the sick opened the eyes of the blind set at liberty. Those that were bruised and captive and brought favor and did everything. He removed the shame. He removed the pain. Isaiah fifty three and first Peter to twenty four says he bore our pain. He carried away our disease and with his stripes we are healed. And why is all that happening? Because he is the Lord with us. He is God with us. God without us, us without God with him. We're here without him. We're here with him. Without him. With him. Without him. With him. Without him.
What makes hell hell is not the fire, because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace that was so hot that the guys who opened the door to put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in were burned instantly and disappeared in the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walks through the fiery furnace and why did they not get burned by the fire because of the fourth man in the fire who was who? The Son of God. Who was who? Emmanuel, who is who? God with us. So what is God's solution. Verse 21, look at this. Genesis 3:21, look at God's solution. And for Adam and his wife, after all that Adam and his wife did wrong and brought all this unleashed hell into this earth, unleashed separation from God, death and all the consequences of it, fear, sorrow, pain, sadness, inferiority, shame. But for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin. And clothbound now.
What did he clothe them with, clothed them with animal skin? How do we know? Because there was no there was no other skin in the game, folks, you understand? There were no other people. God didn't go up back to heaven and grab an angel and rip the skin off of him and put it on Adam and Eve. He took the skin of the animals and killed the animals, sacrificed their blood and covered Adam and Eve temporarily with an animal sacrifice. Why was that so important? Because of Hebrews nine twenty to watch this now. Hebrews Chapter nine, verse twenty two. This is why this had to happen. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood.
And watch this. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. You know what we are told by religion? All these different ways to be forgiven. You say some prayers. You can be forgiven. You say some confessions, you can be forgiven. You confess your sins, you can be forgiven. You go to a priest, you can be forgiven. You apologize, say you're sorry, repent. You can be forgiven. No, no, no, no, no. Without the shedding of blood there is. How much forgiveness? So what do you think is the reason then that Jesus, that what do you think is the reason that God had these animals offered, shed their blood and covered Adam and Eve with their skin? Because God, because sin brings death. Blood brings life. And so Adam had this deep awareness of what his sin cost, because the very animals, at least two of the very animals that he named had to had to be killed so that he could be covered. So that blood that brings life could pay for the death that came from sin and the separation between God and man.
And now because of Jesus, because no greater love. Has anyone in this that what a man lay his life down for his friends, no greater love than look at Romans eight thirty seven, since there's no greater love than a man and lay his life down for his friends and all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Verse 38, he says, for I'm persuading their death, their life, angels, principalities, nor things present or things to come. Looking verse thirty nine nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us. You're saying, oh, well, that means nothing can separate us from the love of God. That's right. But God is love. The love of God is God. God is the love of God. Nothing shall be because of Christ, Jesus our Lord. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord Emmanuel God with us so that you will never have to be separated, never have to be alone ever again. You will never be alone again. Never alone again, never alone again. And never separated from God.
What what, what does that, what does that do for you? Hebrews 10:19, here's what it does for you. Having boldness. It gives you boldness. What is this death of Jesus and his shedding of his blood do? It gives you boldness. To do what? To enter the what? The holiest. That's the holy of holies. That's the where the presence of God. Well, so in the Tabernacle in Exodus, you had the outer court, then you had the inner court, and then you had the holy place and the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was wrested the box, the Ark of the Covenant, which is where God's presence was. You should know this. You should have learned this from Raiders of the Lost Ark from years ago.
And if you haven't watched that movie, even though it's from thirty years ago or whenever you need to watch that movie, it will help you understand the Ark of the Covenant is where God's presence dwelt. You can't touch that ark with your human flesh. It will kill you because of your sin. So what God does is he washes us of our sin and turns us into the Ark of the Covenant and comes and lives inside of us and says, Now you are the temple or the tabernacle of God and of the Holy Spirit. And that's why you can never be separated ever again from God. Why, therefore, brother in heaven, boldness to enter the holiest by our singing. Is that what it says, by our worship? Is that what it says? By our offering? Is that what is said by Our Holiness? Is that what it says when you enter the holiest place? By what you do? We have boldness.
I know. I know. Get excited about this. But this will get you excited. You study this, you get a hold of this, take these scriptures, go meditate on him. You will be leaping and jumping and praising God. You see, religion has taught Christians, if you read your Bible, you can be holy and go to God. If you pray enough, you can be holding God. God, if you worship enough, if you confess enough, if you do enough. And you see this is the problem and they say, come on, let's just sing a little louder and you can now I believe in singing loud, but that doesn't get you into the presence of God. It's the exact opposite. I'm singing loud because I'm so happy that he let me in his presence by the blood.
The reason I'm leaping and shouting and praising is not to impress God, but because I'm impressed by him and I'm impressed by his blood. He's let me in. My God, he lets you in. He's let us in by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, we can have boldness. And why do we need boldness? Because the Bible says that we must be able to go to God any time in Hebrews 4:15 and... excuse me, verse 16, so that we even have we would have boldness and come boldly to the throne of his grace to want to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in the time of need. When is the time of need? Let me tell you something. Every day for me is the time of need. I need some mercy or I need some grace 24 hours a day. I need the mercy of God for the mistakes I made. I need the grace of God for the strength I need. I need the grace of God. I need the mercy of God. His help in times of need.