Sunday, March 21, 2021 PM

Seats. Hopefully everyone has remembered to bring their Bible tonight. Since our study tonight is coming to the Bible, we started off with a question, can I have one of those books? Which was a question I got from a visitor one time.

She was pointing at a stack of Bibles and she said, can I have one of those books? And of course we gave her one. And just a reminder that God wants those made in his image to have his word. He wants us to have his word.

He wants us to know it, to understand it, to live by it. Another question we asked was, which translation? Talked about the need for translation, the priority of it, especially we see that at the Day of Pentecost, that what a blessing from the Holy Spirit that everybody heard the gospel preached in the language they knew best.

All of them there knew Greek and they all probably knew Aramaic. Nonetheless, they all got the word preached to them in the language of their country of origin, their culture of origin. So we need translations that faithfully take up the original languages and convey them to us in the language we know best.

We also asked the question, who wrote it? Well of course God wrote it and of course men wrote it. God used men to write it and it's God's word without error. It's his word and it's also a human book full of human language.

And we talked about why these books, why these books in the Old Testament, why these in the New and how they all testify to one another in the truth therein. We also asked, what good is it? What good is it?

And we looked at 2 Timothy 3 and talked about all of the good that comes through the Word of God. Now we're to another question, what is it all about? What is it all about? That's a question that someone will ask about the Bible.

What's it about? If you ever recommend a book to somebody, they're gonna say, well what's it about? Well what's the Bible about? And you know, when you ask that question, you can get receive a variety of answers.

What will somebody say that the Bible is all about? Someone may say, well the Bible gives you a moral code to live by. Someone might say that. Someone say, well what is the Bible about? Someone will say, well the Bible will tell you about ancient history, things that happened a long time ago.

Somebody will say, well the Bible will tell you the future. You can find out what's gonna happen in days to come. The Bible is full of promises about the future. You can find that out. Someone will say, well the Bible of course tells you how to be saved.

The Bible tells you how to be right with God. Someone will say, well the Bible is about the ultimate meaning of everything. If you want to know what this world is about, you got to go to the Bible. Find out the ultimate meaning of the universe, of mankind, of everything.

You go to the Bible and you find that out. And in some sense, every single one of those answers is correct, is correct. But if we selected just one of those answers, okay, and we said that was all the Bible was about, we'd end up being wrong somehow, okay.

And it's not easy to, when someone says what's the Bible about, if you gave all five answers, you know, then the Bible sounds like kind of a variety show. It sounds like kind of a collection of a whole bunch of different stuff.

So what's it all about? Well, let's take these different possible answers and then consider how it is that each one of these answers resolves in Christ. I think that's what the Bible is all about. The Bible is all about Jesus Christ.

So if you take the approach of saying, well it's about the ultimate meaning of the universe, how are you, how can you understand, how can you understand what anything is? Well, you go to the Bible. I've heard it said before, someone says their favorite verse in the Bible is Genesis 1 .1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Do you know how many things that settles all at once? What a helpful verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That answers so many questions.

It tells you that everything that is in existence, God made. God was there beforehand, but God made everything that we now see around us and experience. Well, it's a creation cosmology, an understanding of the universe.

What is this? This is a creation. This is a creation, and there's a creator. The creator is not the creation. The creator made the creation. The creation is far less than the creator. The creator is over all of his creation, and that's an important thing to confess these days.

The alternative to that two-ism of creator and creation, the alternative is one-ism. That's the alternative. The alternative to two-ism is one-ism, in which everything is one. There's no creator, or if there is some sort of deity, the deity and the non-deity are all one.

Hinduism, Buddhism, and New Age-ism, and so on. I think of C .S. Lewis who astutely observed that if everything were shaken down to its core, there would only be Christianity and Hinduism. There's either two-ism or one-ism.

The paganism we see around us today, full of despair and full of terror, is all one-ism. Why is it that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who is convinced the world is going to end in some horrible way?

I mean, they're everywhere. Sidewalk prophets, they don't have to stay on the sidewalk anymore. They're on the news. They have their own shows. They sell a lot of books, too. You know, for people who think the world's gonna end, they sure sell a lot of books.

They sure get a lot of money for their shows. They are just cataclysm after cataclysm is now, this is how the world's gonna end, right? We're growing too many cows, and the cows make methane, and methane is gonna blow the world up, okay?

And a variety of other ways to die. And they're so serious. There's that girl from Europe. She's just so serious and angry about everything because she's a believer. She's a zealot. All sorts of cults in this world.

Why? Because of one-ism. And so the idea is that, you know, everything because we are controlling everything, everything is one, so everything is falling apart because everything is bad. Well, you have paganism, or one-ism, or you have two-ism, creation cosmology.

The Bible tells us there is a creator, and then there's creation. It's two-ism. How helpful is that? Makes sense. But more to the point, after we read Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning was God, and God created the heavens and the earth.

We read in John chapter 1 and verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

So, when we say that the Bible is about ultimate meaning, and it begins with, well, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, to be even more specific, to be even more precise, in a more glorious fashion, we read, in the beginning was the Word.

And who is the Word? We're told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We read, this grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

He is the Word. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was God the Son. In the beginning was Christ. And all was made through him. Apart from him nothing was made that was made. So that what?

Verse 4 of John 1, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it, or did not overcome it. Verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.

This man came for witness, to bear witness of the light, capital L, light, that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Now look at verse 9, that was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

You're in darkness unless you have the light of Christ. You don't understand the world. You don't understand anything unless you have Christ. You may profess yourself to be wise, but you are indeed show yourself to be a fool when you exchange the truth for the lie.

You have to have Christ, otherwise you don't have light, and you don't know what the world is about. When we come to the Scriptures, yes we discover that there's a creator and creation. Specifically, all things were made through the Word, the everlasting Word who was with God, and who was God.

Mystery of the Incarnation, also the mystery, or mystery of the Trinity, and also the mystery of the Incarnation here in John chapter 1. So if we say, well the Bible is about ultimate meaning, then we follow that up with, and ultimate meaning is found in Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

The centerpiece of everything is the Incarnation. So we can't make sense of the world without thinking of Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us who he is. It also tells us how to be saved. The Bible tells us how to be saved.

The Bible tells us that from, you know, beginning to end, how to be saved. Of course, it tells us why we need to be saved, but the Bible tells us how to be saved. And there is a remarkable consistency throughout the Word, throughout the Bible, regarding this.

Turn of Galatians chapter 3 verses 5 through 14. Paul was writing to some people who needed the gospel to be clarified, because it was getting muddled by false teachers. He says, "...therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you," does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Now watch this, "...just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.". Genesis 15. Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. What did Abraham believe God about, by the way?

You read Genesis 15, and Abraham's troubled by, you know, these promises, and I'm gonna be a father of many, and I don't even have one descendant. How's that going to work? And God takes him, well, it says that God, that the Word of the Lord showed up and came inside of his tent, and then brought him outside of the tent, and said, come out here.

And he looks up and sees the stars, and God tells him, can you number the stars? No, I can't. So shall your descendants be. And then it says, so shall your offspring be, so shall your seed be. And as soon as he receives this promise of the seed, the seed of Abraham, he then believes and is accounted to him for righteousness.

Believing in the promise of the Messiah, he is justified, he is saved. So just as Abraham, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Verse 7, "...therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham, and the scripture foreseeing...".

There's a scripture, capital S. "...and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, or the nations by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand.". So who, so who preached the gospel to Abraham?

Scriptures did. Scriptures did. The scriptures preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "...and you, all the nations shall be blessed.". That's Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. "...and you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, and you, then all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.".

Paul says, that was the gospel, and that was preached to Abraham by the scriptures. So he concludes, "...so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.". So here we are in Galatians, you know, this was being written sometime in the 50s, after the birth of Christ, and talking about things that happened 2 ,000 years before the birth of Christ, and Paul's saying to the Galatians, you know, if you really want to know how to be saved, let's go back to what the scriptures were preaching to Abraham 2 ,000 years before Christ.

Do you see the consistency of the message of the Bible about how to be saved? You're saved by, not by works, but by faith. Saved by faith in Christ, as he is proclaimed. In the Old Covenant, of course, he was proclaimed in shadow.

In the New Covenant, he's proclaimed in substance. So we have this example of redemptive history. Let's keep on reading, because it's good. Verse 10,. "...for as many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not a faith, but the man who does them shall live by them.". Notice this,. "...Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.".

That's in Deuteronomy. "...that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.". So the Bible tells us how to be saved, how to be born again, how to have our sins forgiven, how to be made right with our Creator God, how to live in a true life, to be made alive.

And it all has to do with the person and work of Jesus Christ. So the Bible tells us how to be saved. What's the proper response to the preaching of the gospel? Well, it's simple. It's repentance and faith, which are gifts from God.

But Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15, "...after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.". Here's the good news, the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and saying, "...the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.". Repent and believe in the gospel. Repentance is a change of mind, metanoia in the Greek, with the mind. There's a change in the inner man. There's a reorientation in the inner person.

And this reorientation is not a re-centering upon the self. No, this is a turning to Christ, a turning to His person and His work, an absolute reliance upon Him. The Bible tells us how to be saved, and there's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

"...there is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and that name is the name of Jesus Christ.". And so, yes, the Bible tells us how to be saved, and that, of course, centers our attention upon, well, Jesus Christ.

I think the Bible is all about Christ. Well, the Bible is also, isn't it a code of morality? Aren't there like some thou shalt's and thou shalt not's? Quite a few of them. It was said that, well, Jesus agreed with the man who summed it all up into two.

Jesus summed it all up into two. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You should love your neighbor as yourself. On these two, hinge all the law and the prophets, like two hinges on the door.

Love God supremely, love others rightly. On those two hinges, the whole law and prophets swing. We have the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, the Ten Words, and then beyond that, someone counted up 603 explanations of those ten.

So there's 613 laws total that somebody found unique laws in the Old Testament. Well, I didn't count them, so I'm just trusting that they're pretty close. That's a lot of laws. Well, time and again, God says, I am the Lord.

We're going to say, I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt, he says to Israel. And then he gives them a thou shalt or a thou shalt not. And so in all these different commandments, God is revealing himself, his own character.

Because of who God is, therefore, you who are made in his image, this is the way you are to live. And so the law is not something that God had to make ad hoc. He just came up with it. All this sounds like a good idea.

It's something that comes out of his character. It flows from who he is. He doesn't have to invent anything. When the Creator tells his creation to live in a certain way, it's in accordance with who he is.

So the law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, or even summed up into the two Great Commandments, certainly has a lot of exposition about what that means, what that looks like. Thou shalt not steal. And here's all the ways you don't steal.

Do not commit adultery. And this is what it means to not commit adultery. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And that's what this looks like. And here's all the explanations of it. Okay, so the law, in all of its exposition, we have that in the word.

We see what is right and wrong, not based on the outcome. Right and wrong, not based upon our experience. Right and wrong, not based upon the current culture. Right and wrong, not based upon our vocabulary.

But right and wrong, based upon the character of God. The unchanging, immutable, holy character of God is the determining factor about what is right and what is wrong. So the conclusion, Romans 3 verses 19 through 20.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. And it's kind of a trick question, but who's under the law? Someone says, well that's the Jews. What does Paul say? That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

So who's under the law? He just said every mouth and all the world. In what sense? Well, not everybody got the Ten Commandments sent to them, did they? No, of course they didn't. But Paul's already explained in chapter 1 and chapter 2 that all mankind, I think, created by God, they know who God is by what he has created and how he's created them.

And he has put his law on their hearts. And they suppress the truth and unrighteousness and rebel against what God has put there. So even if they have all, if even if all that they have is that they are still under the law.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in this sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Why is anything wrong? Because God said it was wrong. And he told us that in our hearts.

And of course you can seal your conscience and you can suppress the truth and unrighteousness but then other worse things happen. So yes, the Bible is a, you could say, well it's a code of morality. Well, we discover what is right and wrong in the Bible because the Bible is God's Word to us.

We discover who God is and we discover what's right and wrong according to the Bible. So yeah, it's called a code of morality. I guess if you say it that way. But it's not just laws, right? There's not just rules to follow and so on.

But there's also the saints and their examples. In Hebrews chapter 11 you have a whole chapter full of saints who are set forth as examples of faith. Examples of how to follow God. And of this group we read in chapter 12, summing it all up, therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Look at these great examples of faith before us. This cloud of witnesses. So let that stir us up. Well, let's do that as well. But notice it's not just the example of the saints. We keep reading verse 2, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is really where we ought to be looking if we're going to understand right from wrong. We're going to look at Jesus Christ. I'm glad that we don't have to look at David to figure out right from wrong.

Right? We just read about a huge failing in David's life. And there's other times that you say, oh well that's obviously good. David's doing good there. Oh obviously David's doing bad there. And there's sometimes like I can't tell what he's doing here.

Now is that good? Is that bad? I don't know. David's not the perfect example of what is right and what is wrong. But what if our Savior Jesus Christ, if we say well there's a code of morality, there's a there's a way of living right and wrong.

What do we learn about Jesus Christ? Let's start in verse 1 of Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Did you know that zeal for God isn't enough? A lot of people are zealous about God, but they have no idea about Christ and no idea about what salvation is and no idea about who God really is. Zeal is not enough.

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness. That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I'll determine good and evil for myself. They have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Now here's the good news. Verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law, the telos of the law, the goal of the law, the fulfillment of the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Oh that's good news. That's good news. Jesus Christ fulfilled all of the mandates of the law. Always loved God supremely, always loved others rightly, never failed in any aspect of keeping the law. He's the fulfillment of it, he is the end of it, and it's his righteousness that is given to everybody who believes.

His righteousness. For the gospel in the words of and the image of Herman Bavinck uses, the gospel, the good news is not that we get set back on the path where Adam was to start over from the beginning.

The good news is that we get set at the end of the path where Christ has already accomplished it. So well, well what about all these laws then? What do we do now? Well we read Colossians 3, be great, great thing.

The end of Colossians 2 tells us about the box of do-nots that don't help. They look like they help, but they don't help. Then we go to chapter 3 in Colossians and everything there is about focusing on Christ.

If you were, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is our life appears, then you will appear with him in glory. Now verse 2, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. That is not an exhortation to say, I'm just gonna think about heaven and the earth can just go to hell in a handbasket.

Bible tells me to. When you read the last part of Colossians 2, just a couple of verses before, the focus of false holiness is all on the things on the earth. You know, I'm going to skip eight meals a week.

That'll make me holy. I'm not going to touch, taste, or handle anything that an idolater looked at. That'll make me holy. Paul says all of that is foolishness. You don't become holy from that. That's setting your mind on the things that are on the earth.

He says, if you want, if you're looking for holiness and true spiritual growth, if you, what is, you look above where Christ is. You put your focus upon Christ, and it's when we put our focus upon Christ, therefore we put to death our members which are on the earth.

Verse 5, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

Well, what's the way forward? What's the way out of the entanglements of sin? It's to keep our focus upon Christ, who's at the right hand of God. We've got to be so heavenly minded we're of some earthly good.

Verse 8, but now you yourselves are to put off all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and to put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to things on earth.

Nope. According to the image of him who created him. A renewal of the image of God in us. How? By our putting our attention upon Christ at the right hand of God, and everything else that follows. Well, code of morality, sure, but it's following Christ.

It's focusing on Christ. It's worshiping Christ. It's abiding with Christ. It's receiving his authoritative word from the right hand of God. Is it about ancient customs? Oh, there's lots of ancient customs in the Bible, and it's not just the Old Testament.

The New Testament's full of ancient customs, too, and for a lot of people that's the only interest of the Bible. It's just, you know, a bunch of ancient stuff, and, you know, it's an old and outdated book.

But, you know, when you read through all the ancient customs, especially in the Old Testament, you're reading through Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and, you know, and, wow, this is kind of thick to wade through.

All these sacrifices, all these regulations, all these holiness codes, even the arrangements of the civil government of Israel that God instituted. Like, man, this is all old and ancient. And yet, as we track through the testimony of Scripture, we come to realize Christ is the fulfillment of it all.

One great example, of course, is in Hebrews chapters 7 and 8. Always read those two together, and you read about Melchizedek, and you read about Christ, and you read about him being a high priest of a new covenant.

How all of these, all of the sacrifices, and all of the ways that God instructed Israel. This was shadow, but Christ's substance. This was pointing the way forward, but Christ is our true high priest.

The old covenant is obsolete and ready to pass away, but the new and the better has come. And we see that, yeah, all these ancient customs, but they have a point. They have a point. In the granite of Israel's history, God carved the pictures of Christ until Christ came.

And so, we've said this before, but if you're on I -40 heading west, trying to get home from wherever to get back to Oklahoma City, you do not stop at the first sign that says Oklahoma City. You'll still be far away from the city.

You keep moving, and you see sign after sign after sign. You get closer and closer and closer until finally you arrive. And we don't hate the signs. We don't resent the signs. We don't claim the signs false and useless, because they are not the actual city.

The signs all pointed us to where we wanted to go. And this is what we have in spades in the Bible. We have several things in the old covenant pointing forward to the new and to Christ. So, yeah, ancient customs, but they're ultimately fulfilled and explained and made glorious in Christ.

And, of course, promises of the future. Promises of the future. Now, some people make more of this than they should, and just about every five years, someone knows exactly what's going to happen in the next five years.

And what actually happens is they sell a lot of books, and then a lot of people get disappointed, and then they wait a little while until everybody forgets what a washout it was. And then they come up with a new theory, and they do it all over again.

Now, this is nothing new. We think that's been happening since, you know, 1948. No, it's been happening for a long time. Bold predictions about all these things that are going to come to pass. And it's always very sensational, but it's always very predictable, and this has been happening for a very, very long time.

However, the Bible does tell us about the future. Thank the Lord. There is a future ahead, and it is good. And we get the sense that the Bible is about the future, really, from Genesis chapter 1. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

But we also have something about the future in Genesis 3. Genesis 3 15 is where God picked a fight. He says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman. The problem was that there was no enmity between the serpent and the woman.

They were in cahoots. Every time all humanity gets together to do something in unity in the Bible, along the way, it's usually against God. And God says, no, you're not going to be unified with the devil.

I'm going to pick a fight. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And so from the very beginning, we hear promises of the future which amount to this.

Salvation comes through judgment. God is going to judge his enemies and the enemies of his people in order to save them to his own glory. Salvation comes through judgment time and time again. In fact, our greatest salvation, our salvation in Christ, was through judgment.

Judgment upon Christ in our place. And for our sake, salvation always comes through judgment. That's the promise of the future. Christ is reigning and will continue to reign until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

Their judgment, but our salvation. Now, there's two words that are very dear, near and dear, to the heart of Christians. Actually, one of them is, and the other one is, you know, well, we don't know what to do with it.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 22, these two very Christian words show up together in the same verse, and it's a little surprising, but it reminds us of this whole theme of what's to come. Salvation through judgment.

1 Corinthians 16, 22. If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come. Well, in the Greek, those last two words are just this, anathema maranatha. Anathema, let it be cut off from God, let it be totally cursed and judged.

And then maranatha, O Lord, come. Anathema maranatha. Well, that's kind of odd. Why are those two in the same verse? Because the judgment of the enemies of God and the enemies of his people mean the salvation of his people, and so we have that to look forward to.

The forecast is full sun and clouds of glory, right? That's the forecast, full sun and clouds of glory. That's exactly what the angels told the disciples. Why are you staring up in heaven like that? He's coming back in the same way that he left.

He left in clouds of glory, he's coming back in clouds of glory, and that's what we have to look forward to. And so, yes, the Bible does have promises about the future, not so much about, you know, the COVID and Bitcoin and Putin, or even Trump.

The Bible has promises about the future, the future of the glory of Jesus Christ, the future of the glory of God, and the salvation he brings about through Christ. So we have that to look forward to. All right, so that's what the Bible is all about.

Come back next time and we'll talk about why all the controversy, or why all the disagreement, and that'll be the last question we'll tackle in this study. But let's close by singing the doxology together.