Major Bible Themes
Mike Doyle · Jan 23, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926224487518

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, today is chapter 3, the subject and the purpose of the Bible. And if you've read your chapters, you know what they are, but I won't ask them now. What Roger and Hal did, they assigned homework, and I think what they did, and as I've looked at these, I think they're probably really the questions that are pertinent to what the chapter is about. So each week, and does everybody have a disc? You can look on your own disc and concentrate on those four questions for the week. So I have a couple of questions to see how smart you guys are.

On what grounds would you think it would be reasonable for God to reveal himself to man? Is it reasonable that he should do that? Yes. Yeah, it's reasonable. And so on what grounds would he do it? He created us rational beings, right? We have the ability to comprehend and observe and know things from the environment that we're in. And because he created us that way, I think it's probable that we should expect God, the creator, to communicate with us. Would you say that's a true statement? Yeah, I think it is. Which means that he would communicate to us what his purpose is and what his will is about things. And then he also, along with that, would reveal himself to us so that we would get to know him.

Now as we've talked about over and over again, in 1 Corinthians it says that the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him he can't know them. I would say that in terms of spiritual things, you have to have left the realm of natural manhood and entered into the body of Christ. But as we'll study this morning, that doesn't prevent God from revealing himself, certain aspects of his character, to those who are lost. And that passage, is in Romans 1, 19 through 20.

Somebody go there. Those of you who have Bibles and English ones and know how to read. See all the prerequisites you have to have to be in this class? You have to have a Bible, got to understand English and got to be able to read. Romans 1, 19 and 20.

Since what we may be known about God plain to them because God has made it plain to them. Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men were without. Okay, two things here. God reveals himself in his creation and where else? 19 says, because that which is to be known about God is evident within men.

You've got this little video inside your head that is evident. What is it in you that makes it evident that there is a God? Conscience? Conscience, sure. And then in his creation is revealed, what is revealed in his creation? What can you know about God by looking at his creation?

He's pretty awesome. That he's awesome. What else? It says eternal power and divine nature. The awesomeness of his creation is what leads you to understand that this God we're dealing with is eternally powerful. He has no limits to his power and that he has a divine nature. He must be God.

Now, is the total and complete revelation of God available in nature? In your conscience? No it's not. So by what means then would God try to perfect his revelation to man? His word. His word? Which word? The Bible. The Bible? No. His son. His son. The living word. Oh. Okay. So, and we'll talk about that a little bit later.

The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is so important because What he's here to do is to reveal who God is. Now, does everybody understand what it means in John chapter 1 when it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Who is the Word? Christ. And so why don't they call him Jim or something else? Why do they call him the Word? What is the function of the second person of the Trinity? What's his main role? Well, he's got a lot of roles, but as entitled by the term Word, the Logos of God. Sure.

Without Christ, we wouldn't know anything about God, other than his eternal power and that he has a divine nature. But we wouldn't know anything about the fact that he's loving, and he's all those kind of attributes unless Christ shows up on the scene. Okay?

Because God is a spirit and you're not. You know, you're a sentient being with a soul and your observations of reality are based on material and emotional apprehension of things. You can observe if you're spiritually alive spiritual aspects, but Adam, before he fell, it was a very visible world that he was in.

Even though God walked with him in the cool of the evening, still, how much did he know about God? That he was Creator? That he wanted a relationship? By the way, when God is walking with him in the cool of the evening, which person of the Trinity is doing that?

What do you think? Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ. Sure it is. Because Christ is the one of the triune God who has been designated to be the revealer of the person of God, who they are. And without him we wouldn't know. You alright with that? Okay.

His sacrificial death proved and demonstrated some of the characteristics of who God is. That he wouldn't tolerate sin. that he loved us so much that he'd send his son to die. Maybe put it another way, he's the exact portrait of who God is. For us to know. So, why is that revelation of Christ superior to that of nature? A redundant question maybe. Why is Christ coming? a revelation of who God is superior to just his creation and your conscience. But we can know God.

You know his attributes. You only get to know two in the creation, right? How many attributes does he have? A few. Yes, a few. Unlimited. And you wouldn't know those without Christ being here, okay? Now, so, in terms of, let's see if I can do this. Alright.

The person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme subject of scripture. From Genesis 1-1 all the way through to the end of Revelation, the subject matter of the word of God is Christ. You alright with that? And he's revealed according to the author as the creator, because he did create everything, as the supreme ruler of the world. as the incarnate word and as a savior. Now, let's talk about Christ as a creator.

In Genesis 1-1, somebody quickly turn there. You're going to have to be able to flip your Bibles pretty rapidly. The author makes an interesting point in Genesis 1 here, by using in the beginning God, and he uses the term for God Elohim, which means, it's a plural term, which initially indicates that there's more than one person in the Godhead. So all three persons of the Godhead were engaged in the creation. Now, do you remember what the author said about what Christ's role in creation was? Do you remember what that was?

Colossians 1.16, let's go there. By the way, the first two chapters of Colossians are some of the most incredible chapters of the Bible. They're amazing. So whoever's got Colossians 1,16, read that verse.

For it was Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen. For there are no minions, rulers, or authorities. All things were created and exist through Him by His service and intervention and in and for Him. It's a pretty inclusive term in terms of He created all things and all things were created for Him and by Him.

Isn't it interesting that God through Christ created all things for Himself? It's kind of cool. We'll talk about that in a minute. Yeah, and he holds all things together. So no matter what you think about scientists and prevailing opinion and evolution and all of that, this sort of just lays down very simply in a few words who Christ is, what the all things include. That he created all things and he did it for himself and he holds all things together. So when you're your little boat gets a little rocky, you can kind of remember that, you know, especially since you're united to him.

Now, then in 126 he said, well let's make man in our image according to our likeness. What is that about? Why would God do that? And what is the image and likeness that Adam had that was like God? So that he could have a relationship with him. Yeah, he could have a relationship with him. What was the relationship based on? God breathed into Adam the death of lives and Adam became a living soul. And he could communicate with God on a spiritual level and a soulish level. Right? And that's what God wanted. He wanted a creature who could appreciate him. who could receive love from him and love him back, who could receive knowledge and understanding from him and love him back. You see that?

So he makes him like himself. Not deity, but with the capacity, but he's also with the capacity to know God because that's what God wants. But he's not deity and plus he's innocent. We don't need to chase the innocent rabbit. In John 1, let's go to John 1, 1-3, somebody read it.

All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. Okay, what's pointed out right here is that all things came into being by him and that's the Ginnomai word, which means it came into a new state of being. What he created wasn't there before. OK? He didn't take a computer program and do a prototype and figure out and then go find some material and put it together. He made it from nothing and brought it into a new state of being.

So, as Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself in the Word of God as Creator, which leads us to understand what? Something about Him. and something about God. So you can say that Jesus Christ as creator is part of the subject matter of scripture. Next part is that he is the supreme ruler of the world. Would you say world? I don't think world is enough. He is the supreme ruler of creation. Wouldn't you say that?

So Ephesians 1.20-22 talks about who he is again in terms of his authority and his ruling. So let's look at that. Who hasn't read yet? Ephesians 1 20-22 So the Lord Jesus is above every government, every authority, every power, every dominion and every name that is named. Do you think he missed anything? No, he didn't. So he's been given authority.

Now, what's cool about Ephesians 1.20, is he talking about the Lord Jesus as he came to the planet? Was he in this role when he was 12 years old on the planet? No, he wasn't.

But now he is, how come? raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in heavenly places. What is so cool about when he raised him from the dead? Who is this supreme ruler? What's his makeup? He's a man. That's kind of cool. He's not an angel. It's a man who has supreme authority. The Lord Jesus Christ, a human being. That's not an important point. I think it's really important. Because there's another verse that says this.

He has been given as the head of all things to the church. So in this role, in this capacity, he has been given to the church as the head of the church. So do you understand who you're dealing with here in the Lord Jesus Christ as the head of the body?

There's not anything that's out of control. Nothing. Okay? So, I think it's important when he's seated at the right hand in heavenly places, and oh, by the way, where are you? Yeah, you're there. Positionally, you're seated at the right hand. So, do you enjoy a position in Christ above all of these other authorities and governments and powers? Do you or don't you? No matter what the Democrats do, or the Republicans, does it matter? Does it really matter? If you're here, does it matter what those bozos do? No, it doesn't. He permits it. Sure. He permits it. And he permits it for what? For his glory. For his glory, and for your edification. You know? Cool.

Okay, the next revelation about Jesus being the subject of scripture is the fact that he's the incarnate word. John 1, in the beginning was the word. When's the beginning? In the beginning was the word. Why does it say this? In the beginning, or the word was in the beginning. What does that mean?

That's right, he didn't just come into being at the beginning of the world, he already was. Okay, so he's deity. The word was with God and the word was God. So when he comes into the world, I'm sorry, at the beginning of creation, here he is, he's God himself from all eternity. But what's the word incarnate mean? It's a Mexican dish? What's the word incarnate mean? In flesh? What about in flesh? It says that the incarnate word, this word did what? Became flesh.

He became a man. In other words, God became a man. He's a hundred percent man and he's a hundred percent God. And Jesus Christ is for all eternity now going to be united and be a man. He is a man, a human being, just like you and me. So as we talked about before, he becomes a man for the purpose of doing what?

To demonstrate who God is. Why didn't he choose to be an angel or a German shepherd or something? Because we are humans. What's that? He wanted to relate to us, not to the dog. Why? Because we were made in his image. Because we were made in his image, that's right. He wants to relate to us.

Now, Hebrews 1.3 says, somebody go there, Hebrews 1.3 is really a good verse. This is who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." Now there's another one of those verses that if you could spend just hours contemplating, what's it mean that he's the brightness of his glory? He only exists in light.

Yeah? Do you understand that the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes are so bright that they can't be apprehended. I've always had in my mind that somewhere out in eternity there was kind of a curtain and behind that God was radiating out in glory but on this side because of sin he wasn't. But that's not true. In the Lord Jesus Christ is the radiance of God's glory and do you get a chance to observe that now?

No. I got a no and a yes. I got a yes over here. Yes, you do. How do you do? Well, where's the brightness that you can't look at? Why not? Well, we look at Christ. Yeah. How do you get to see this brightness now? Right here. Reflectively. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. Okay, I'm thinking physically.

But if you look to the west you see his power, you see his power and his divinity. But you don't get to see the totality of his glory outside of the word. Well I'm thinking of Paul. When he's walking to the road, on the road to Damascus, right? Yeah. And didn't, wasn't that so bright he couldn't see? Yeah, I couldn't see for a few. Imagine I'm thinking, how so? How could we see that?

And you said it's in the Word. That's a different brightness then. See, I think it's important for believers to understand that God has given us this Word and made Christ the subject of this Word so that we can know God through this Word and you don't know God in terms of, well, he's kind of a good guy. God is described as glory, which are his attributes, and because they're infinite and eternal and without limit, at this point we can only observe them reflectively in the Word. I think more believers need to understand that that's what the Word is really for, is for us to behold the glory of Christ. And by beholding the glory of Christ, you behold the glory of God.

This isn't something that we're waiting for until the day the Lord takes us home and you know I think a lot of believers are going to be surprised by who he is when they see him and a lot of believers aren't because they have been growing and beholding him their whole life they know who he is you know I love the story about the theologians that went to heaven with their books and they came down the road and they saw Christ and they went excuse me and they walked right around him they know who he was because they were too much of this So his person and his work demonstrate who God is. How does his work demonstrate who he is, the work of the cross? Demonstrates love.

Would you or I have come up with that kind of a plan? No. That it took death to deal with sin and he did it because he loved us? No. He comes as the savior of the world and in the Old Testament you'll find that he's the promised seed, the conqueror of Satan. Again, something else I'm not sure we appreciate is that when Adam sinned in the garden, who took over? Who took over the dominion of the world? Satan. Satan did. Now what's the problem with that? Who did God give dominion over the creation to? Man. But when he sinned, who got it? Satan. And what is Satan? He's not a man.

Right? So now the whole show is being run by a demonic angel. Right? That wasn't God's purpose, was it? So God immediately promised a redeemer. and someone who would come and conquer Satan, the promised seed. Okay? But he's winning, isn't he? I mean, right now. No, not now. Gosh, look at the world. Now, here's the other issue about the subject of Christ. The iniquity of all of us has fallen on Him.

Now, why would God demand that? Why would God demand, and I'm probably asking a question Why would God demand that Christ, who is the Son of God, incarnate Christ, that what he came here to do was to be made sin for us, and he's going to have to die. Don't you think God could come up with another plan? Why death? Sin had to die. Sin had to die? Why? Why does it have to die?

Sin causes death, which is a separation, and there had to be a separation between sin and God. When Adam sinned, there was a separation created between God's creation and God. It didn't change God's attitude or his purpose, did it? But in order to accomplish his purpose, he can't just package up sin and set it aside. There has to be One, there has to be a penalty. He told Adam, in the day that you sin, you will surely die. And so the premise was set that the result of sin is death. Separation from him for all eternity. Well, he didn't want that. He wanted human beings to be with him for all eternity. So he sends his son to enter into this separation or this death, but then he's raised out of it.

Penalty paid. penalty for all the sins of the whole world is my buddy across the street who has never come to Christ, are his sins paid for? Absolutely they are. All the sins of the world are paid for to satisfy God. God is satisfied about them. So when he does that, he's in the realm of death and God raises him out of that. So now we have a new creation which is totally acceptable to God.

Which creation are you in? The old one or the new one? The new one. The new one, sure. Even though we abide in the old one. So, three salvations that we have. We're already saved from the penalty of sin, right? The penalty is what? Physical death. Am I right about that? No, I'm not. What's the penalty of sin? Spiritual death, separated from God. Has that been accomplished? The resolution of that? Sure it has.

How about the power of sin? Is sin powerful? Yes. That all you Republicans can handle and you Democrats have a little problem with, right? Did his work on the cross avail us the opportunity to be free from the power of sin? Yes. How come you're not? We are. I'm looking at you. How come you're not? Unbelief. It could be ignorance. It could be unbelief.

It could be just growth time. What you learn in spiritual growth is that the penalty or the power of the sin nature is to be overcome by your learning of the total work of the person of Christ on the cross. That he not only died for your sins, but he died unto sin, your sin nature. And if you live, that's what the whole identification truths are about. If you live by faith in those facts, then the power of sin has not dominion over you anymore.

How about the actual presence of sin? It's always there. How about the fact that he accomplished in his death on the cross that the presence of sin would no longer be an issue? When is that going to happen? When we believe. No. One of the greatest I've said often that the two greatest days in a Christian's life are the days saved and the day he gets to go home. Because one of the big things about the day you get to go home is that this happens.

You are no longer in the presence of sin. It is no longer in you. There is no sin. And it's hard for us to imagine life without sin's presence. But think about it. No presence of sin, no propensity, No temptation, no leaning that way. Yeah, you're totally separated from sin the minute you check out of here. So if you hear about me having cancer and I'm going to die, don't pray for me to stay alive. I want to get out of here.

And he's also our high priest. What does a priest do? In the Old Testament terms, there were prophets and priests. What did the prophet do? He got information from God and came and talked to the people about it. What do priests do? He intercedes for the people. A prophet represents God. A priest represents the people. So here you have the incarnate Christ, work finished, glorified in the heavenly places. What's he doing?

He's interceding for you every second of every day of every week of every year of every month that you live. Interceding. because you belong to him. Now do you think that he's ever made a petition to the father and the father said, I don't think that's a good idea Jesus, we ought to do it this other way. Do you think he's ever had that thought? No. The intercession for you as high priest are facts that are accomplished and will be. Any questions here? Oh, I wanted to do something else here.

So what is the supreme purpose of God as revealed in the scripture? What's the supreme purpose? For us to believe. What's God up to? Why is he doing what he's doing? Well, doesn't that sound self-centered? I don't dare say yes, do you? Doesn't that sound self-centered? I mean, what has God up to? Is He the most self-centered creature, not creature, but person in all the universe and it's all about Him?

I used to think that. Yeah, but we're fallen, so how can we make that judgment? That's a great point. Because we're fallen, initially we really don't understand how God could be so focused on His glory. He created for His own glory. He didn't have to. I mean, I know most of you guys think that God did all this because you thought you deserved it. Creation and all of that was something God didn't have to do to enhance His stature, was it? No, but it's all about Him. Gee, it's all about him. He wants the glory. He wants this. He wants that.

Yeah, and why? I feel like it was something you were saying as a teacher. You have to repeat yourself over and over and people still don't get it. In this way, it's like as many times as he possibly can tell you, maybe you'll finally start getting it. Yeah. The more and more it's repeated, like, oh, okay. Oh, wait. Okay, a little more. Maybe put it this way.

As you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, this attitude that God might be a little self-centered about this glory thing starts to go away. And why does it? Because you begin to apprehend a little bit of what God's infinite wisdom and person is. Everything that he did, he did in grace. He didn't have to do anything. He's under no obligation to create a universe. He was under no obligation to create Adam. Was he under obligation to send his son to die for sin? No. Yes, he was. Yeah, he was. Why? Because he promised. He promised, but before then, why? He had to settle. God had to be satisfied. He didn't have to save us, but he had to settle.

It's interesting that God is so glorious that he can create men with wills who can choose against him. But once the choice is made against him and he's offended, and I don't mean in an emotional sense, but there's an offense created against his sovereignty that that offense must be satisfied. And it's got to be satisfied by the very kind of creature that created the offense in the first place. Isn't that something?

So he was, he put himself under obligation to do it. But he, let's see, that was because he was, everything was going along fine until Adam blew it. And he thought, oh, I've got to go to plan B. Nah, he knew this before they ever created. And he uses the circumstances and the opportunity to manifest his glory even more because of the issue of grace. When you understand that God is under no obligation to bless you, none whatsoever, it begins to make sense to you, I think, that one of the characteristics is that he would do things in a gracious manner. That he would resolve the sin issue to his own satisfaction and then offer it to you. Did he have to do that? When Christ rose from the dead and went to heaven, did there have to be a Pentecost? No way. No way. He could have said, I'm satisfied. See you later. You guys work it out. No, he didn't have to do that.

And so, the fact that he demonstrates his grace towards us by offering us salvation begins to demonstrate to us his glory. You okay with that? Now, it's perfectly reasonable, I think, for young believers and non-believers to think that God is self-centered about his glory because we think that we ought to be glorified. Don't we? I mean, and to be honest with you, in most churches and in most organizations, it's all about the glorification of man, not God. It's all about what God can do for me. Yeah, but then if you get on the fairness boat, you don't want to get on that one because you lose. That's right. So, I mean, there's no point. It's like the guy in front of the firing squad, getting ready to pull the trigger.

He says, it is, after all, all about me, right? So, is God self-seeking? No, he's not. Why would he want to manifest and demonstrate his glory? Why would he want to do that? Because he wants a relationship with us? Yeah, but why would he be so insistent on glorifying himself?

Interesting point here, the buzzer didn't go off yet, did it? No. In the history of man and the Bible, there are three people groups. Jews, Gentiles, and the Church. Can you think of any others? Okay. What was the first group? The Gentiles. And then, what was God trying to accomplish through man up until Abraham? What was he trying to do? All of the descendants of Adam get to Noah and so he wipes out the whole race except for Noah and his family. And then he goes, quickly, he goes from Noah to the Tower of Babel and then he decides that, well, I'm not going to deal with all mankind anymore, I'm going to deal with one nation, Israel. What was he hoping to accomplish through Israel? that they would be a light to the Gentiles.

Uh-huh. How about Manifest His Glory? Right. Okay. And then the church. So, whenever you study the Word of God, you're going to see those three people groups. Jews, Gentiles, and the church. And oh, by the way, is there a connection between this group and this group? In other words, did the Gentiles just sort of meld into the nation of Israel, and then the nation of Israel sort of meld in and become the church?

No, they're totally separate deals. If you are a member of the body of Christ, you cannot be a Jew or you can't be a Gentile either. In Christ Jesus, there's neither Jew or Gentile, bond or free. It's a brand new kind of man. So, when you study the purpose of the Word of God, You have to understand about the three people groups, that that's who he's dealing with, not anybody else, okay?

Now, glory. God's glory is declared through his creation, right? And it's declared through his son, by God revealing himself in his son. And the next part of that is that he's decided he's going to share this. Now how would God share his intrinsic attributes with you and me? How would he do it? Explain. Here's Leslie. She's the son of God. She belongs to Christ. And God is going to share his glory with her. Does she get it wrapped at Christmas? How does it look? What's it look like? How would God share his glory with Leslie? How would he do it?

As in, he makes her a new creature and he puts her in Christ, right? Now she has the nature of the resurrected Christ. That nature does what? Reflects the glory of God, doesn't it? So while she's here on earth, God is about the business of conforming her to the image of Christ. For what purpose? To manifest the glory of God. That's why he's doing it. When Christ is revealed Who's going to be revealed with him?

All of us. I have this picture in my mind of the millennial kingdom on the earth, right? And the Lord Jesus is hanging out in Jerusalem, glorified. The nation of Israel is all around him and the Gentiles are doing their deal. And the earth has been released from the vanity that it was subjected to because of Adam's sin. you know your little victory garden will grow enough food to feed a thousand people you know there'll be no satan will be locked up and there'll be jews in jerusalem and gentiles all over the earth where are you going to be? right there you're going to be here now how are they going to distinguish between kaylee and levi one of these godly jewish guys how are they going to know that she's not Just another Gentile or just another Jew?

She's in Christ. How do they know that? She's got a little sign that says I am in Christ. How do they know? To radiate His glory. See that? The radiation of God's glory will come out of every one of us in this room for that thousand years. And every creature on this planet will know who you are as a son of God and as a member of the Bride of Christ because God's glory will radiate out of you. that won't happen to Levi? No, unless he's a believer in Christ before the rapture. Well, I'm thinking Levi the...

No, he'll have the law written on his heart. Okay. He'll be following the statutes of the law, no problem. He'll be a righteous man. He'll be terrific. Won't even have to take showers probably. But Cayley will be radiating the glory of God. And anybody who's Caesar will know who she is. Because she'll be amongst the regular people, but she will be...

I don't know, you know, kind of how we're... I guess we'll be walking around or hanging around. But the regular people will still be there? Mm-hmm. Okay, so we as Christians will then be all light? I think so. I think that's what's going to happen. Did I finish enough? Yeah, I think we got the message across. So next week, Courtney's going to teach. And then the week after that, it'll be Mr. Case. Next week is Chapter four. And there's the four four questions you should focus in on.

OK. Any questions? This doesn't really do that, but it wasn't by accident. We have the ability. I mean, yeah, we take it for granted. We kind of do. to know him and to be known of him. Isn't that so? No. No, he doesn't. That's awesome. All right, let's close. Father, how we thank you for your word and as we discover more and more of what you, your glory through it and through your son, Father, we thank you, we pray in his precious name. Amen.