Which Side of the Cross - Lesson 19 week 2
Mike Doyle · Oct 29, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 41
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492668435013

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

So that's a 19. I think we have evolved to question five. Right. Because we've been talking about the fact that. How do you know? How did we get to know? what everything is about God and His wisdom, and there's a distance between God's thoughts and ours, and how can we know them.

We looked at Isaiah 55.8, Romans 11.33.

But in question 5, we go a little farther, up to Romans 11.36, and I'll read it. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, How unsearchable are His judgments, and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from him, through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

So, verse 34 says something along these lines. We progress in the knowledge about the Lord, but we can never come to the end of that knowledge. Do you agree with that? And what do you think the reason is? Why is there It's really kind of an interesting question because one of the things that I notice in most of a Christian environment, there's just, at best, just information on the surface about who the Lord Jesus is, yet this verse is talking about depth of knowing him, right?

And he's infinite. We're not infinite, so we're finite creatures. How does a finite creature grasp and try to understand someone who's infinite? How do you do that? You can't, I don't think. I think he's unknowable, but we can know him. He's unknowable, and how do we know him?

We learned in Romans 1 that we know that God is powerful and that he is God from his creation and from the witness, I think it's probably our conscience, from that witness. So we know he's powerful and we know that he's God, whatever the concept of what you think God is for a non-believer.

But what does infinite mean? It means he has no limits. to who he is and what his attributes are. And so, the only way you and I are ever going to find out anything about God is if he decides to show us, right? Did he? He showed us what he wants us to know.

Yeah, and is it, is it a, is it a, it's like scientists, you know, they're studying all the time and searching like Eccles, you know, he's searching for whatever answer. And on the other side of that, here's God just letting the secrets out a little at a time, depending on what his goals, what God's determinations are. But he already knows, and he already has the information for the solution, but somebody will dedicate their entire life seeking the solution to cancer. And so they study, and they sweat, and they go through 40, 50 years of research, And maybe they find some answers, maybe they don't. And really the bottom line is, is that God show them the answer? Because they're not going to see it unless he does. You agree with that?

As well as I was reading the other day that evolutionists would say, this was a few years ago, that the smallest particles there are are the atoms. There's nothing smaller than that. And then they said, well, a little while later, they said, well, atoms are made up of protons and neutrons and that kind of thing. Well, now they've discovered, because of God revealing, that a neutron has thousands of particles in it. And so does a proton. And each one of them is an atomic particle, and each one of them has a specific purpose. Thousands of them. So what we thought was the smallest thing, 50 years ago the smallest thing was a cell, now we don't even know what the smallest thing is.

Microscopic, you can't pick it up until God allows somebody to invent a microscope that can see it. All of that, though, is designed to reveal to those who, I think, who seek God, to demonstrate to them who He is. Now, when a human being becomes a believer, everything changes because of his identity with Christ. Do we have the capacity to understand the depths of God as believers?

Or maybe I'll ask it another way. Are we going to be at some point in eternity where we say, okay, I got it. No. Because eternity by definition, or eternal by definition, means there's no bottom. So we're not deity. And God has determined that we will spend, we were talking the other day, how do you use your mind to understand what eternity is? We are so locked into time that we go from here to there, to there, to there, but eternity isn't like that, there is no time. So how do you figure out in a non-time environment that we're going to grow? How does that happen? I know more on Thursday than I do on Wednesday.

But that's the way He is. And so we will keep on finding out things about God, resident in the Lord Jesus for all eternity. And I think He specifically has designed us and recreated us in Christ for that one purpose. More than any other single thing. To know Him more. And so you can't, you have to have the capacity, which being in Christ we do. We have the resurrected life of Christ.

And through all eternity we are not, you know, we like to talk about what's heaven going to be like? And I read in Revelation about the new heavens and the new earth and then the city, the new Jerusalem coming down, and I'll be hanging out there. We just look at it all from a time standpoint, that we'll be able to come to the earth, the new earth or whatever. In eternity there's no time, so I don't know how that works. I can't get my mind on what that's like.

I do know this, God has created each one of us and recreated us in Christ for a specific capacity to contain Him and not to do it ignorantly, to do it with full understanding. That's a really cool thing. So, even though God is infinite and we can't mine the depths of who He is, we constantly will be growing in understanding and knowing Him.

If there's any element of Christianity that's the key element of what God's up to, that's it. He wants us to know Him above everything else. Everything we learn, every time we spend time in the Word of God, it's all designed for us to know Christ more and more and more. Now in verse 36, it says, For out of him and through him and unto him are all things. So what are the relationship of these things of God designed to reveal? These things of God are out of him, through him, and unto him, are all things.

That verse has a lot in it. Say that again? That verse has a lot in it. Sure does. It tells us that he's the source. He's the source, right. He's the sustainer. They come out from Him. He's the goal. It's all of this. That's what those three phrases are talking about, is this. The things of God. The things of God are out from Him, they're through Him, and they return back to Him. That's pretty cool, isn't it? That He set it up that way, to whom be glory forever. to whom be glory forever ends this passage. Everything that comes out from God returns to Him for His glory. When someone talks about the glory of God, that His purpose is to reveal His glory, to show His glory in His creation, doesn't that sound a little self-centered on God's part?

It doesn't? Tell me why it doesn't. Because He lets us behold Him. Why wouldn't it be... I mean, how do I say this? A person operating in the flesh would look at that and say, well, gee, it's all about God. What about me? That's what we do say. That's what we do say. We don't understand that God revealing His glory is not a self-centered thing. because he is God. It's a wonderful thing because he's made his creation and all that he's done, including us, to manifest who he is. If you got right down to the core of God's greatest attribute, what do you think it is? Righteousness. No, I don't think it is. Love. It's love. That's what he is. Love. And so what is he doing? He's demonstrating, he's got all of these other attributes, but his greatest one is love. And he wants us engaged in that.

Do you have a question? Well, you know, I was thinking that same verse you were looking at, the same sense that we don't understand anything outside of time, You know, when God says He's the Alpha and the Omega, there is nothing outside of Him. That's right. He's totally... How do you grasp that? You know, you just have to take His word. Well, you do, and then when you say about His glory that it's not arrogant, everything is him, of him. Yeah, it is.

I may have told you this last week, I had a guy call me last week and some of you know this guy so I won't tell you, he doesn't come to church here. He said, I'm out working. I had to tell somebody this. I said, okay, what is it? He said, well, I'm going from one job to the next job to the next job. And I was in between driving. And I said to God, I'm lonely.

He said, yeah. And he said, then he showed me, he just showed me a glimpse of the kind of love it took for Christ to die just for me. He said, I had to tell somebody that. I said, yeah, I understand what you're saying. Because what I find fascinating about that is that this guy goes to the Lord and says, hey, I'm lonely. The Lord says, well, let me show you about me.

Now, there's a result of that. One is, he's okay now. He's not lonely. Because the God of the universe just showed him that he loved him. So if his wife doesn't love him this afternoon, he's probably okay with that. He doesn't want to create a problem, but he's not going to be offended because the God of the universe loves him. The second part of that is that he's free now to love everybody else.

Because one of the problems I think we have as believers is that We're always asking God to do stuff for us or to show us, and really what we're saying to him is, well, show me you love me by giving me this. Show me that you love me by fixing that thing. And he just shows you himself, and you learn and grow in the knowledge of his love for you. It qualifies you to be a lover yourself.

Do you see that? Because you stop thinking about, have I got enough? And when you get overwhelmed with God loving you, it's like Romans 5, the very first mention of the Holy Spirit is that he sheds abroad in our hearts a love for God. Well, how does he do that?

He shows us that God loves us. So it helps to conditionally equip the saints to be lovers. And that's what this guy saw. He said, I can even love my kids. But if you know that you're loved, it changes the equation. Most arguments between married couples is because one of them or the other one doesn't think they're loved. But God just loves us. And he wants us to know that. He wants to show us that. And it has no depth. The love he has for us has no depth. That's kind of cool.

Question 7, Psalm 19, 1-4 tells us that God's intent is regards as glory. What is it? Psalm 19, 1-4. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words are the end of the world. So what's God doing? What's the number one thing that God does? He declares His glory. He shows it.

I don't know about you, but I do this all the time. When I'm outside and it's a clear night and the stars are out, I'm just overwhelmed by what I see. I look at one planet and I think, boy, that sucker is a long way from here. I'd like to know where you're at because I can't see. I look up and it's all, there's nothing.

Because you're in the city. Yeah. But even in the city you can see the planets. Yeah, you can see the planets. You don't get to see a lot of the Milky Way or something like that. But you do get to see a few things. Like you see the moon and Venus next to the moon.

And sometimes I look out there and where I live, the flight path coming over the mountains to DIA, you look out there and you think, is that a planet or is that an airplane? And you keep watching it and it turns out to be an airplane and you think, big deal. But there is a planet out there.

There is. Watch it, it's not moving. I know. The moon is an amazing thing. Go look at the moon. When you get a full moon like, you know, we just had a harvest moon, we'll probably get another one. It's just, you know, that it's there. Yeah. It's just there. And it makes the tides work.

It's just, and the fact is, you hear these scientists who point these now really powerful telescopes into a black hole in the universe and there's millions of galaxies in the black hole. That's incomprehensible. It is. There's billions of galaxies out there. There's no end. Yeah. That's like eternity. It's just incredible. We were down at the Denver Planetarium or whatever it was. This was like 25 years ago. And they were doing a thing on the Hubble telescope.

And you kind of sit back and you watch, you know. And this idiot who's doing the commentary, who's an evolutionist, is trying to explain how they've discovered a cloud that's gas that's seven light years wide. I don't know how wide that is, and how did that evolve. And every time they look, it gets bigger. and bigger, you know. Now they've got a new telescope they're going to put up.

Yeah. So God in declaring his glory, you have to purposely deny who God is. You have to purposely do it. Because his glory is so magnificent and displayed so aggressively, you know, Romans Romans chapter 1 is really true, that they aggressively won't honor God as God and they're not thankful and they purposely subvert the truth. They do it on purpose. So these people that say, well, there is no God, really. At some point in every human being's life, they knew that there was God.

Now they may have decided to go against Him. It's amazing. He creates his own witness. I'm working on the Christmas Eve service that we're going to do. We're working a little bit on the three wise men and the star. John chapter 1 says that he came unto his own and his own received him not. But he wasn't without witness on the day that Christ was born. He created his own witnesses. He didn't need the Jews to say, oh, we're glad you're here.

8. John 1.14 reveals that the next thing that God intends about His glory, what is it?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning, that in the beginning takes you back to where? John 1 says, in the beginning was the word. In the beginning takes us to where? So far back we can't get there. How far back? Now think about this. Is he talking about the day of creation? No. I don't think so. It was before the foundation. He was from the beginning. In the beginning. What was the beginning? In the beginning was Christ? Is it talking about the incarnation? I don't think so. Would it not be in the beginning of creation? At the beginning of creation. What is he saying?

Back then. Back then. Or is it before them, like you say, in eternity past? Here's the deal. Was the Lord Jesus there at creation? Yes. And the way that this thing is phrased, it says that before creation started, he was already there. In eternity. But the beginning here has to do with, I think, creation. And when it says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was already existing at the beginning of creation. That shows that he pre-existed prior to creation. Okay with that? I agree with you, it goes back before the creation of the world, back into eternity, but the way that it's phrased, the beginning has to be the beginning of what? There is no beginning in eternity. Right?

So, at the beginning of what event? I think it's creation. And Christ was already there. He was the Word, He was with God, and He is God. At the beginning. The beginning is a time word, isn't it? Have I lost you? I agree that it goes back into eternity, but the point being that he's making, there was a beginning, of creation, right? And when the beginning happened, Christ was there. He was already there, meaning he's eternal, which he's going to say in a minute, in verse 14.

Go ahead. The Amplified Bible says, in the beginning, before all time, was the Word, Christ. Yeah. Well, maybe that's the way to say it. That in the beginning, the beginning of what? The beginning of time. that we just talked about. When did God create time? At the time that He created.

But, it says, and the Word became flesh and came into a new state of being. He became flesh and He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. What he's trying to say And what he does say is that this Lord Jesus that we have to do with is God. That's what he's saying. That he is God. He wasn't put together at the beginning. He was already there doing the putting together. And he became flesh. He became a man. And what's interesting about why did he become a man? He came into a new state of being. and hung out with us, and he said, John says, and we saw his glory, we beheld his glory. And then he defines the glory by saying, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now, when he says full of grace and truth, if you're a Jew up to this point, you got what, 500 years of history? Did the Jews understand grace and truth? didn't get it he was gracious to them they came to the table always with sin and he responded graciously but they had consequences and truth so later on the Lord Jesus will say I am the truth or I am truth itself so sometimes you look at the Lord Jesus as somehow not quite equal to the Father, or not quite God because He's a human being, but He is God. And the reason that He's here is to demonstrate God's glory. Without Him, other than seeing God's greatness in His creation, what else would you know about God?

In the Old Testament, He had to come personally and talk to people, either through an emissary, an angel, or through the pre-incarnate Christ. Otherwise, they don't know He's there. but now comes Christ he's full of grace and he's full of truth and he is God himself but he's in the flesh now he's a human being that's astounding to me that God would do such a thing it's interesting in Isaiah chapter 4 verse 5 it says and the glory majesty and splendor of the Lord shall be revealed And all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

And whose mouth is that? It's Christ. The importance of who the Lord Jesus is as it relates to us as human beings who live in time and space is that the Lord Jesus came into time and space and became a man and when the Apostle said, show us the Father and he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Really?

He is the vehicle, for lack of a better way to put it, through which his glory is demonstrated to men way more than observing his creation in the universe. It's a person in which his glory is to be revealed. A person. I think that's really cool because there's something about personhood, human beings, like we know each other, we get to know each other, we interact, and we kind of get to know each one of our character and that kind of thing. Well, God's created us to be able to do that, to apprehend and understand another person. To have, we could use the word fellowship, but to have an interaction on an intimate level.

So the Lord Jesus becomes a man for that very purpose. So that we could know Him, and by knowing Him, you know the Father. This is where the Gospels get real complex to me. Because I see Him before the cross and then to know Him after the cross. That's right. Think about this too. Is it possible, how well can you get to know Him over here?

I mean, He's got to be a burning bush. He's got to be some sort of apparition. There has to be a voice in the cloud. There has to be some physical evidence over here. He's got to come and talk to you. Talk to Abraham, right? What about over here? What happened right here? So not only are we indwelled by God, but we became an entirely new creature. And that new creature allows us, through this process, to do what? To know God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like we know each other.

We'd be in trouble if he hadn't come in the flesh, I think. we would be Jews. And we probably would have been like most Jews, we would have rejected them. We wouldn't have been people of faith. So what we try to do, I think, is we try to minimize this. We try to minimize who Christ is and try to fit him in a box so that we can control him.

And that's what the Jews did over here. That's what all the Old Testament people did. That's why those that rejected the truth about who God was created gods that were creeping on the ground and birds flying in the air and that kind of stuff, because they could control Him. Well, you don't control God.

And He says that over and over again, but then He sends Christ so we might know Him. John 17, 20. I think I made a mistake there, 20-22. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in me through their word, that they may be one even as you and Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, purpose so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one."

Ever spend any time thinking about this verse? I mean, this is an astounding verse. This is John 17. The Lord Jesus is praying to the Father. Just like we prayed for three or four people this morning. He says to the Father, here's what I want. And your father's sitting there thinking, well, how about I give you two and four, but three and five I'll keep. In other words, I'll respond, I'll give you half of what you asked for, how's that? Or I'll just give you the first thing, and then we'll work on the rest of it.

This is the second person of the Trinity, who's the Son of God, praying to the Father, and here's what he's saying. Those who believe in me through their work, the work of what? The apostles that he was praying about, that they may be one even as we are one.

What the heck does that mean? Ever thought about that? What does it mean when Jesus says, I want them to be one Father, just like you and I are? What is that? I mean, we all belong to the same fraternity? What is it to be one? The Lord Jesus says, I want them to be one as we are one. So how are the Father and the Son one? One in what? What were they? What are they? One in Spirit? There are three separate persons. Here's a finite mind trying to explain the Trinity, right? Three separate persons, but one life. One purpose. But three persons. And they're one with each other. You know when before the creation, before the beginning, What was going on in terms of who existed before the beginning? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right?

Were they missing anything? Did they need to add anything? Was creation something they needed to do because they were bored? satisfied with each other. So why did they create? It's simple. They wanted to share who they were with creatures. They wanted to manifest their glory to creatures that they created, which would redound back to them.

Is this oneness that we have in the Lord Jesus part of the oneness that the three of them have? Let me draw you a diagram. You tell me if I'm right or not. So, there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. in the form of a triangle. And there is love and life moving between each one of these persons all the time.

Okay? Now when we go into eternity, when we leave here, Now, down here are the Jews, saved men, angels, the creation is all here. God is here. He did this creation thing to manifest His glory, right? Where are we? When we go to eternity, are we just like in this slot here? Or are we up here a little ahead of the Jews and above the angels? Where are we? Where are you going to spend eternity in terms of just hanging out? Right in the middle. Middle? Anybody else?

Have you ever had this thought? This is a fascinating thought. Because the Word of God says that we are one with the Son. The Son's in this thing. So we're in this triangle. So what happens for eternity? This process that goes on, we will be part of that. We could put us in the center. We could stick us in here. But this whole dynamic that's going on, this is what will be happening with us. We will be in such oneness with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit that all of they are, we will be involved in it.

That's amazing to me. And if they for all eternity, again a time word trying to explain eternity, were perfectly satisfied with each other in oneness, I can imagine that eternity for each one of us is going to be just like they are because we are united to Christ through this work. It's not like you know me and I know you and it's dualism. There's you're over there and I'm over here. But oneness in Christ eliminates that dualism because there isn't any them and us in here. They're one. And we're going to be in that. Oneness.

Way above who these people are. No, they're not going to be dissatisfied. But God has determined, in order to manifest His glory to His creation, to make those who believe in Christ one with Him. That's astounding, isn't it? And He says that they may be one in us. Us. Yeah. Do you think the fall is part of why that's such a hard concept for us to... Absolutely. And if there's ever a concept that the opposition wants us not to know about, that's it. Because this is just incredible when you just spend a little time on it. A non-believer wouldn't buy into this. Most believers wouldn't buy into this.

But you can't read John 17 without thinking, what does he mean by oneness? And I know that his goal is to manifest his glory, but he's going to manifest his glory to all of these. But he's saying, I'm going to manifest my glory in you and through you. That's what's so special about the church and what the church really is. I was just thinking, today's Jews who put their faith in the cross with Christ, they're going to be in there too. Yes, they will because the Jewish distinction goes away. If any man be in Christ, what is he? He's a new creation, a new creature. Old things have passed away. Everything that was from the old creation is gone. Behold, everything is new. New what?

New in Christ. And He now is a human being. It's interesting that now, using my example, the Lord Jesus is not just spirit anymore. He's now also a human being. That's new. And we're one with Him, that's new, and now we're in this interaction between the God of the universe, the oneness, that they may be one and in. So that the glory which you have given me, I gave to them that they may be one just as we are one. And we can do that now. See, it's true of us now.

But one, if we don't know it, and two, if we don't believe it, you're not going to see it. I won't see it, and it certainly won't be manifested. But if I do know it, and I do believe it, and I rest in that fact, believe the fact, that's what's going to start happening. Okay, now I almost got done. Oh, that's the first one. Oh, we're good. I'm going to make it, maybe. So, God has determined that he's going to share his glory with believers. If you and I were working up this plan, we wouldn't have come up with that. We'd have been too selfish to do it.

Romans 11.36 reveals God's ultimate purpose for glory. What is it?

Romans 11.36 says, for of him, through him, and in him are all things to whom be glory forever. What's the essence of biblical faith? Right here. Everything is of God. Everything is of God. What God is trying to do through, well how do I say this? If I was going to say the essence of God's objective of biblical faith would be what? How would I say that? What is the essence of biblical faith? What is God really trying to do? What do you think? Okay. What are the efforts though? See, he isn't glorified unless I somehow understand. So in order for him to be glorified, what's he got to do?

He's got to reveal to us who he is. But before all of that, the essence of biblical faith is God's revelation to man. It's this coming towards us. All of who he is, right? And as we believe him, We are transformed. As we believe Him, we are able to behold His glory face to face, resulting in a conformity to His image. There is no manifestation through us of the glory of God if there isn't any degree of conformity, because we can't do it out of ourselves. It's not the right vehicle.

So God is about this business of revealing himself to man and he does it in his word. Why does God do that? We already know the answer because that's how he's going to glorify himself. That's how he does it. Think about this. Could I say correctly that Jesus Christ is more on the earth now than he ever was when he was here? Yes. I can say that, can't I? That would be a true statement. Why? Because he's in every one of us. And so God recognizing that he's in every one of us, not recognizing but setting it up that way, what is he doing?

The Lord Jesus, when he was here, he said, I only do what I see the Father doing. He was manifesting the life of God. So now he has however many millions of Christians there are, all with that purpose. to manifest His glory to the creation, to call out people for His name. That's what He's doing. That's why He said you will do greater works. Greater works.

In the end of that verse of 36, for all things originate with Him and come from Him, all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him. Yeah. So it's all wrapped up. Yeah, and you know what's interesting about that? What? You know what's interesting about that?

Where are we in that verse? We're in it right now. We're in Him, but that verse doesn't talk about us, it just talks about what He's doing. But we find out in other verses that we're the vehicle. We're the vehicle that He's going to use, and is using. Think you're important? You know, and we're all about being busy Christians. And yet God has a whole agenda that he's working out to manifest his glory through us.

That's just amazing to me. It kind of takes the stress out of it. Okay. I think that's good. Okay, we will streak on to lesson 20 next week. I'm going to try to get somebody else to teach. If these guys would show up, it would be great. Father, how we thank you for your word and we thank you for yourself and to find out exactly what you're doing and that you have in your purpose to manifest your glory. You've included us in that and are teaching us, revealing your son to us so that his glory can be manifested to this world and redone back to you, Father. We thank you. We pray in the Lord's precious name. Amen.