Systematic Theology (part 2) [Bibliology]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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All right, today is Bibliology, hopefully all of you have a handout on Bibliology or the study of the

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Word of God. Now before we begin, I have a couple of brief comments and then we'll get right into the material.

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Firstly, last week we did an overview of theology, we covered a lot of different things just to impress upon ourselves the urgency and the importance of studying systematic theology.

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We call this adventures in theology because theology can be boring, right?

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Theology is something that is most important, the study of God and this ought to be exciting and life transforming.

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So every word we spent studying about God ought to transform us and last week we talked about New Year resolutions, how we want to be more sanctified, how we want to grow and so this is one of those ways in which

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God has graced us to give us knowledge about Himself through the Word and then we study it systematically.

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Now when we said systematically, the good side about it, can somebody remember what was the definition of systematic theology?

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Not exactly, yes, go ahead, excellent, that's exactly right.

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So when we look at a topic, what is the Bible, the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation saying about this so that way we have a comprehensive, complete understanding of God's revelation about that area, very good.

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Now that's the good side of it. Now the downside of it is I could be on bibliology for the next six months and you could get very, very tired because the

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Bible does say a lot of things about a lot of subjects. So I think one of the challenges for us is to find the balance in terms of how deep we will go and then how quickly we can cover the breadth of theology rather than just get stuck in one area.

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And so there's going to be people here who want to study more deeply. You may have more questions that I'm bringing up here, so bring those questions up as they come up and we will try to engage with them or at least take them next time.

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And the overall goal of this series, we don't really know how long this is going to go. It could be as short as a couple of months or it could be a whole year, you know, to cover everything that we do.

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And I'm not really concerned about how long it goes, I just want to make sure every week we engage with things that all of us can engage with the content in a live and practical way.

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We can take out of these classes things that we will say, I know I ought to do something about this.

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Remember, theology gives rise to methodology and gives rise to doxology.

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So it's a life transformation, the adventure that we're going to be looking at once our mind is informed by the word. So those of you who want to study this more,

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I would encourage you to pick up a systematic theology book that you already own. Any book would be fine.

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Or if you want some recommendations, you can talk to me, I'd give you some input in terms of what you're trying to learn and what would help.

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For myself, I am actually using the outline from Grudem, only because he does a very good job of laying out the order and is very clear about what he talks.

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I myself don't recommend Grudem for the only reason that he goes off charismatic on a couple of chapters and it can be confusing.

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We will actually deal with those subjects when we get there. But like I said, last week we talked about Berkhoff, Hodge, there's tons of good systematic theology out there,

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Calvin. So you can pick any book and then follow along and then bring questions to this time here.

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So the last comment before we get into bibliology. When I say adventure, I want you to think of it as a roller coaster ride.

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Last week we had the big panoramic view and that's always exciting. You know, when we say systematic theology, it sounds very nice, but when you get into the little details, it's like, it's hard work, isn't it

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Luke, in seminary or in college. When you take a book, you need to study, you need to engage, you're confronted with things you don't understand.

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And then instead of just moving on, you have to sit there, meditate on it, try to figure out what the word means. And so today's topic, bibliology, is kind of going up on a roller coaster.

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You know, it's a time, you know, there is a fall that's coming on the other side, but right now it's going to be like, you need to kind of go up, gain that potential energy before you get the kinetic energy on the other side.

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Because on the other side, we've got the doctrine of the theology proper, you know, the doctrine of God.

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And on this side, we've got building ourselves up to be ready to dive into the nature of God himself.

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So with that rather boring introduction, let's get into the first question over here.

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When you think of bibliology, the study of the word of God, how do you think this connects with theology?

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We talked about theology as, you know, study of God himself. Why would bibliology, how would bibliology relate to theology?

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Excellent. So if I want to know about God, the source of knowledge about God comes primarily from the word of God.

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So I need to know the word of God in order to be able to understand God himself. If I had to put it in a different way, you know, we as Christians, again, with the

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New Year resolution theme, you know, we want to be closer to God. We want to be more intimate with God. We want to understand

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God more in our times alone with him, in our times when things happen in our lives and we look for the hand of God in our lives.

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Now how is it that we can do all of these things? Now if God did not tell us anything about himself, we'd be speculating, we would be guessing, we would be probably mostly wrong about our ideas of God.

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But then here we get to know God in the best way possible because God reveals himself to us in the word.

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And I think that's going to be the thrust of what I'm going to spend today. Maybe we'll do two weeks minimum on bibliology, maybe we'll take more.

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And that's going to be the focus that I want to bring out. The Bible is very, very, very important.

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I don't care if you read no other book, but if you read the Bible, if I get you excited to read the Bible in a new and transformative way, in a more, with more passion through this year,

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I think that'll be well worth it. So let's look at the Greek words that I just printed out there, some of you

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Greek people, can you just read that out? So it's halogos to theou, the word of God.

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And you know theos, theou is the genitive form, logos is the word.

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And so when you think about theology and bibliology, you know, it's God's word. So one of the things we are going to learn about God, even in bibliology, it's

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God's communication and his power. We'll see how power connects with this in a moment.

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So let me just read a brief description. Last week the definition that Brian gave us is also from Frame, a definition here of bibliology.

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God's, or the word of God, God's word in all its qualities and aspects is a personal communication from him to us.

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And you're going to see this word personal over and over and over again. We don't want to think of this as some dusty old book, a book of great academic importance.

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This is an intimate love letter, I think as some have called. This is God's personal communication to us.

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God's speech to man is real speech. Now let's talk about that for a moment. God's speech to us is real speech.

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Why do you think we would need to even say that? What would be the opposite of it? What would be some views about God's speech that this would counter this definition?

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That's right. You know, God is so transcendent. I mean, if you're like a mystic or some, you know, some new age person, you'd be like, oh, you know, language, come on.

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God doesn't stoop down to language. You know, he just permeates, you know, just go near him and you will kind of get it.

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You need to go to his level to get it. No. God's speech to us is human speech. Excellent. And I hope you get what you just heard because part of theology is to understand what

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God says about even something as simple as language. God is the one who is the author of language.

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He gives us language and he gave languages as he multiplied languages too. So he is a communicating

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God. Excellent. The biblical story is a story of God speaking to people personally and people responding appropriately or inappropriately.

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So I've been reading through Job and I've been reading some things there that all the four or five guys are talking about.

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And now, is everything that is said there appropriate or are some of those things there inappropriate?

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Okay. In what ways, those of you who remember Job, in what ways are some of those things inappropriate?

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Excellent. And I think the culmination of the book, in fact, if it's the first time you're reading it, you may not know. You'll be like, oh, okay, okay, everything is good.

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And then as you come close to the end, you're like, okay, these guys don't like each other a lot. But you need

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God to come at the very end and say, okay, nice talking, but here's what the deal is. You know, you guys, you need

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Job to pray for you and ask for your, to sacrifice for you so that, you know, you wouldn't be condemned for what you have said.

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And you're like, oh. And many of the things that Job's friends say are actually right in terms of its truth, but in terms of its application, completely miss the mark.

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And so the Bible records all of these things. And I think the definition here is the story, the biblical story.

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It's not just propositions in the sense that God is A, B, C, D, E. It's about how

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God works with his people, how people respond, and what responses are commendable in terms of God honoring and what responses are not.

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And so we get to see all of these things in the scriptures. So it's not just a list of, let me make a list of definitions from the

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Bible, but you're actually understanding God's communication to us through working with us.

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And let me, we have a lot to get to, so let me read the last one and we'll be done. And again, the idea that God communicates with human being in personal words pervades all of scripture and it is central to every doctrine of scripture.

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So from this definition, all I want you to remember is it's a personal communication. God loves to communicate,

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God loves to reveal, and it talks about how God relates in all areas of our lives.

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And when you look at a doctrine, you want to remember the propositional truth that it communicates, but also the narrative within which it is laid out.

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And we will see this later. If you can think of a grand narrative of the scriptures, what would that be? Redemption, yes.

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So right from the very beginning, you know, you have maybe like two chapters of, okay, you know, things are going well. And after that, right from Genesis three, all the way to the very end, it's a story of God's love for a lost mankind, redeeming them.

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And then you have that narrative thread throughout, through which you have progressive revelation about the nature of God.

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You have progressive revelation about what God is doing in our lives. You have progressive revelation, even in terms of understanding who we are and how

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God transforms us. So there's a lot of things that is going to come in the story of the Bible. Now before we get into the

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Bible, there is one question I need for us to be clear on. And that is, what can you know about theology apart from the

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Bible? So Taylor mentioned, you know, there is a very important reason we have the Bible because this is how we know

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God. Is there some things we can know apart from the

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Bible itself? I'm sorry, who said?

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The glory of God can be known. So what were you thinking of? That's right.

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The heavens declare the glory of God. So you have natural revelation. Oh, excellent.

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So actually, if one of you can just read or memorize, if you can just quote Psalm 19, one to three, either way is fine.

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Yes, go ahead. Please go ahead. Excellent. And if you just think about it for a moment, the poetry here just uses the same kind of language as we would of the word of God.

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So there is God, even for those who do not have his word, he has a witness for him in natural revelation, and that's a language that doesn't stop speaking.

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So when you look at the heavens and you look at the creation that God has made, you ought to look at God's glory.

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So that's one. What else? Is there anything else that talks about God apart?

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Excellent. What does Romans 1 say? Oh, thank you.

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Excellent. And so you talked about his power and his divine nature or attributes.

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So these two things are actually known to us by what we see. So when we look at this amazing creation around us, we are reminded of the creator of all of this.

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And therefore, there is something in us that recognizes it.

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And I'd like to just make a brief comment. We'll look at this later. It's not like natural theology,

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I think. It's not like natural theology. The purpose of natural theology is to say, I see all of these things and I write an equation and I say, you know, there is a design and therefore there must be a designer.

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So I'm actually intellectually walking through the logical steps of if this must be there, then there must be a creator.

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And I don't think Romans 1 20 is actually talking about just that. I think there is a sense you could derive that.

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But I think what Romans 1 20 is talking about is you just see this and you go, you know, how can this be?

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And and then Romans 21 and on goes on to say, OK, I'll make up an alternate reason for this because I don't want to acknowledge the

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God who made them all. So thank you, Bob. And then there is one more verse.

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And if someone can just read this, Genesis 1 27, whoever has it.

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Yes, go ahead. Thank you. So here we have something called the imago de image of God that man has.

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So, you know, you might ask, you know, look at the little kitty in my house. He looks at this great creation. And what does he see?

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I don't know what he sees. But one thing I do know is humans do see something. I think that's what

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Romans 1 20 is talking about. Humans are made in a very different way than every other creature that has been made.

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And one of the aspects and we look at this more a couple of months later is the nature of man.

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There is something that we reflect. There's an image. There is a sense in which we reflect the nature of God himself.

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And there is in us, I think what some people call an epistemic quality. You know, we have like some kind of antenna that kind of connect to God because we've been made by God and we're made in his image.

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So there is a sense in which we all can relate to God as his not just as creatures, but those created in his image itself.

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Now, the OK. Now, maybe I'll ask a broader question for all these three versus some 19

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Romans 1 and Genesis 1. If the heavens declare the glory of God, if we can see

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God's divine nature and attributes, if we're made in God's image. What's what's wrong with us?

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Why can't we just why do we even need this? Right. Excellent.

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So there is some information that is missing, meaning there is no content about what parts of salvation we can't get from from just the created world.

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Atonement of Christ, Jesus Christ himself. Are even maybe a need for salvation and what

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Jesus has done, how we must be saved. None of these things is there. Yes. OK.

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So, you know, while we may have a conscience, we don't have an explicit understanding of what God requires of us, because that's in the word.

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Excellent. And I think the primary issue is, even though we have all of these things in Genesis 127, we read the image of God.

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Genesis three. You already have man's knowledge of God. He's out of the garden and he starts walking away.

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Now, no longer is he just in direct communion with God, but he starts to want to do his own things and to reject

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God from his ways. And so some 19, while there is no problem with creation communicating,

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I am no longer responding with the heart of faith and worship. And so Romans 120, that whole passage is just explaining that we have a problem and we do not respond to what we the way we ought to respond to revelation.

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General revelation. I think that's a great way of saying it. Next week, Ecclesiastes, I think it talks about that thing, you know, the way

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God has made us. And there is a sense in which, like from Genesis 127, you're like, OK, this is not all there is to life.

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I look at the mirror and I'm saying, you know, this is not God. And yet who the God is, we need special revelation.

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The word of God. That's a beautiful illustration. We have a feast all around us. Yes. I love that.

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And I think, you know, maybe we'll just take a moment and then we'll move on. The what Pastor Bob was just talking about is the nature of radical depravity, radical corruption.

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Mankind, we are so alienated from God. It is not just that we are neutrally saying,

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OK, I'm missing some information. I'm ignorant. But rather, I'm willfully walking the other way. I would reject what would be what ought to be clear to me by saying

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I will make up my own God, whether it is evolution or any other gods that I make. And so that is the problem there is.

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And when we look at the narrative of redemption, it's man is running away from God. And then God is coming and then rescuing us.

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And he opens our eyes. He gives us a joy and a love for him. All right. So with that, let's now come into the word of God.

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So I have one big question and I'm going to give the answer and then we'll dig into it. What are the different forms of the word of God?

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So when we say word of God, we normally mean the Bible. Last week, I kind of touched on this. You know, there are the way the word of God is referred to is in different ways in the scriptures.

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And today we will unpack that. But the two broad ways that I want us to think of is one is in the person of Jesus Christ.

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And the second is in the communication that we find out through the word about how

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God communicates. So there are four things listed here. God's decrees, God's personal address,

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God's speech through human lips and then God's words written down. So those are the four things that are listed here. Now, with that in mind, let's maybe go quickly through this because there's not a lot of information on Jesus as the word of God.

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In fact, the verse references that I have that if I can have, can someone read Revelation 19, 13?

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Just show me your hand. Thank you. John 1, verse 1 and 14. Thank you.

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And then first John 1, 1 and 2. Thank you. So whoever has,

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I'm sorry, Revelation 19. We'll begin with that. Can you actually read the verse before that too?

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Verse 18. I'm sorry, 12. Verse 12. Thank you. So verse 12 says he has a name that no one knows except himself.

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And then verse 13 says, you know, while he is sitting and obviously the context of this passage is Jesus coming back.

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He's sitting on the throne. He's coming as a conquering king. And I think Pastor Mike preached on this a few months back.

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You have his name as he's sitting there. You know, your eye level, he's on this horse. And then you have the name on his thigh.

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And the word that is, the name that is written there is the word of God. And there is a sense in which this name no one else knows except himself.

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You know, only he knows this name. And we get to read or see what that name actually is.

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Maybe I'll just explain. Before I explain, can somebody comment on that? What does this mean that no one else knows except him and the name of Jesus here is the word of God?

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In what way is it not known to us? I don't want to get deep into this, but just briefly.

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So when we think of Jesus Christ as the eternal, the next verse we're going to be looking at more closely, Jesus as the word of God, there is things that we know about him.

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You know, this is who Jesus is as the word. But in terms of the depths of what that truly means, you know, what does that name?

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When you think of name always in the Bible, you want to think of this as explaining something about the character and the person and the attributes of this person.

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So when you look at the names of God in the Bible, each of those things tell us something about God. And I think this is a healthy way for us to think about God himself.

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In Deuteronomy, you have the verse that says, you know, there are some things that are revealed to us that we know. And there are secret things belong to God that we don't understand.

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Part of the reason is because we are finite. We cannot comprehend the infinite depth and the beauty of God and all his in on all its meaning.

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And there are other things that God has not revealed to us yet. And then we will find out at a later point what that how that meaning fills itself out.

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So when we think of Jesus as the word of God here, he is this conquering king. He comes as with the name word of God.

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And then when we try to understand what this means in its entire depth, none of us actually know this.

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And then that's basically what it's talking about. But what is this word of God really? So who has

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John one of Luke? OK, so was 14 helps us recognize that verse one is talking about Jesus.

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This is the person who became flesh. So the second, the person who was with God, the father is none other than Jesus Christ.

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And he's given the name word. And then in verse one said in the beginning was the word.

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The word was with God and the word was was God. And then was two says he was in the beginning with God.

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And then nothing was made that was made except by him.

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I paraphrasing it. So there is there is the second person of the

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Trinity who is called the word of God. In fact, these are the only two places where it's explicitly. Jesus is referred to as the word of God.

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One in Revelation 19 when he comes back and here in Genesis one right at the very beginning of all creation that he existed as God.

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God, the word, if you want God, the son or the word of God. Now, there is something here that is being described about the second person of the

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Trinity. We're going to find the meaning in the next few verses. But can someone try to. I don't know, speculate, theologize, theologize.

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Why the second person of the Trinity is called the word here is Bill Cantor. Last week, he gave part of the answer.

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Yes, that that's excellent. Hebrews one just makes it clear. This is the culmination of the final revelation or or everything you need to know is in him.

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And I think verse 14 makes that clear. You know, he dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. There is this God knowing that comes when

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Jesus comes into our presence. So that is, I think, a very key aspect of God, the word.

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There is something more to this word. And I I'll just say that it talks about the power of God.

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And we'll look at the verse in a little bit that talks about the second person of the Trinity. The third one, who has first John?

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Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. So here again looks very similar to John one in terms of the beginning.

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But this is more of the physical person, Jesus, that the apostles have seen, touched, heard and all that.

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And then he's described not as a word of God, but as a word of life. And Jesus himself says,

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I, I am the way, the truth and the life.

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Jesus calls himself the source of life. You know, he who comes to me shall have life. So there is a sense in which he is the communicator of life to all of us.

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So there is a word of life that is said here. Now, with those are the three titles, I think the closest that we can use.

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And that's all there is to it. And what I want to do is just keep that in the back of your mind about the nature of the second person of the

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Trinity. And now we're going to come and look at this side, the speech side of it.

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What is it that God has said? But before we do that, any other thoughts on the word of God? Yes, Charlie. And I think, you know, when we think about it, for many of us, we take it for granted.

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And I think just to remember, like right at the end of verse one, he was God. He made all things and he was before all things.

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All of these things just help us to properly think about the second person of the

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Trinity, not just for ourselves. Remember, part of theology is, you know, first and foremost for ourselves. So we know and worship, but also to be able to communicate to others, to teach others.

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You know, who is this great God? People who do not know Jesus Christ. How can you rightly communicate the nature of God, nature of Jesus to them?

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Yes, the relationship, right? That's wonderful. And I think, you know, I'm sure a lot of people are thinking that.

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When I say word of God, I'm sure half of you at least must have crossed your mind. Like, word of God.

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Is this talking about the Father's word coming to us? You know, what is this

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God? Is this the more general, you know, God as all three persons together? Is this the Father communicating?

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Is this a generation, an eternal generation of the Son from the Father as the Father speaks? You know, what is this, all this?

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I'd love to answer that, but we will be spending time on the Trinity. So when we do that, we will talk about the relationships.

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And at this point in time, I think all we need to think about is we have three persons in the

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Trinity. The Son is equal with the Father. Yet, there is a sense in which the Father, I have to be careful what word

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I use. I could become a heretic very easily here. Functionally, the

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Son is subordinate to the Father. Like, I think the best way to think of it is in salvation.

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The Father is the one who elects. The Father is the one who sends his Son. The Son is the one who willingly goes.

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He is the one who willingly does what the Father has asked him to do. And then the Spirit is the one who comes alongside and now regenerates.

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So all of them are involved in our salvation, but they have a function and a role that they perform.

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Not that any one of them is not involved in what the others are doing, but there is a relationship.

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And we will unpack that in the Trinity. Yes. I love that.

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I wanted to say that. I did. You know,

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I think there is a sense in which we should never lose sight of the humility of the creature before the

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Creator. Because as finite beings, there are things we will never know. And I love Calvin for this because Calvin will say, you know, this is all the

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Bible says. I'm not going to go out there and say, you know, this could be X, Y, and Z.

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I'll say, I'll explain what the Bible is clear about, and then I'll let God be God. And I think we need to have that right tension.

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I mean, I was driving in this morning, the mist in the trees, it's like, oh, it's just beautiful. I love that kind of view.

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Not everybody does. I know. But it's like when you see that, there is a sense in which you see this beauty. But then after a point, it just kind of fades away.

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Right? Yes. Amen. Excellent.

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Learned ignorance. Things that we know we don't know. All right. So let's now move rather quickly. But this is where the core is.

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Let's begin with decrease. Can someone read Genesis 1, 3 for me? Just if you can lift your hand, raise your hand.

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Who can read Genesis 1, 3? Thank you. Psalm 30.

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I'm sorry. Genesis 1, 3 and 24. And then Psalm 33, verse 6. Thank you.

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Hebrews 1, 3. Who can read Hebrews 1, 3? Thank you, Gary. All right.

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Luke. Yes, please. Thank you.

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In both the verses, just two parts to it. God said something. And then, and it was so.

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So that's the thing I want you to keep in mind. Who has the next verse? Thank you.

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Yes. By the word of the

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Lord, the heavens were made. So it's a commentary on what happens in Genesis 1.

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This is the means or the cause of all that we see. The hosts, the stars, and everything else.

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And then Hebrews 1, 3. Gary. Upholding all things by the word of his power.

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And I remember when we talked about the person of Christ, I said there is something about power in the word. And I'm hoping you can start to see the connection with all these three verses.

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When we normally, why word of his power? Let's maybe just comment on Hebrews 1, 3 first.

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What does that mean? Upholding all things. Oh, we're going to be hearing that today, right?

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That's today's sermon. Okay, maybe I, go ahead. That's excellent.

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Maybe we'll just take that for a moment. And I think, you know, this is kind of what theology does to us. When we look at things around us, when our understanding of God just starts to permeate, it just literally blows our mind.

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So when you think about the closed system, the universe as it is, what are the things within the system that operate the way they do?

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If you ask a naturalist, what would he say? A naturalist who doesn't, who thinks it's all material forces.

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Yeah, so it's laws that hold them up. Now you want to ask them, okay, who put those laws in place?

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Why do those laws act the way they do? Why do those constants have the same value, the precise value for the universe to have its existence?

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Or go one step further and say this closed system, you know, why is this closed system the way it is?

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You know, if, you know, almost think of it as you pull the foundation off, the ground away from this universe, you know, what will happen?

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Will anything, will we actually even have our being? You know, and I think what

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Hebrews 1 .3 talks about is that there is a sustaining, not just a creation from Genesis 1, but also a sustaining that keeps everything that is created in order.

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And I think there was someone who commented on Genesis 1 .24 when God says, you know, from the earth, all these creatures coming up.

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It's not like the earth had some potential power to create life. It's God's word that brought all these creatures in very precise form out of these.

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And God is the one who keeps them the way they are until the dissolution of heaven and earth.

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So I think, you know, these are the things when you think of these three verses. Let's maybe just step back.

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Now that we've seen these verses, step back and think of the term decree. We say

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God's decrees. So for a moment, you know, just pretend you never heard any of those verses. Think about in human terms.

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What do you think of the word decree? Okay. So who are the kind of people who have the authority to do that?

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Kings and monarchs and presidents and rulers.

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All kinds of people. So you have the authority to write or say or make some laws.

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And those become enforced in the land in which they have the authority. And that would be executed in accordance with what they have decided or said.

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Now, when you think of a human decree, there are two sides to it. Right. One is they make up the rule of the law.

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And then there are other people who would enforce it because they come under this person.

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Now, in the case of God, how is this decree a little different? Good. Excellent.

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So the decree in terms of what is said and how it is done have there's no separation.

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Excellent. And actually we are already unpacking some of theology here in terms of the nature of God.

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You know, we can't pick apart God's work in the way that we normally do our human things.

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Because we have certain faculties. We operate in certain ways. And some things work and some things just, you know,

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I forget to do this part of my work. But when God works, it's all. There is no logical order or chronological order in which things happen.

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And God says and it is. And I think now when you understand this, we want to move back and say the word of God.

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What do we think of the word of God when we think of it as the decree? So when we began this morning, we were talking about communication.

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And that is going to be a big part of what we're going to see. But when we see the word of God, especially in this aspect of decree, there is power.

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So go back now to the person of Christ with the reference we had was. Even John one one in the beginning was the word.

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The word was with God and the word was God. Now was three makes a lot more sense. All things were made through him. This is the word that is powerful and active in creation.

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And then when you look at Hebrews one three, this is the same word that is also sustaining. There is tremendous power in the word that actually both creates and sustains.

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And and is the. What I'm trying to say is we should just be looking at the word of God with with open eyes and say, wow, this is what the word of God does.

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Now, when we think of this in the natural world, in terms of a decree and creation, we can just we practically tremble at the immensity of God's power in his word.

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And in the next section, what we're going to do is we're going to draw that same word in terms of communication with human beings.

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So we have the same word, which is powerful to create, powerful to sustain everything that we see around us now.

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Functioning in relationship to finite, mortal, sinful human beings.

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So let's maybe maybe we'll just do this and then we'll stop.

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Well, let's just take the personal address and imagine this. Actually, does anybody have to go? I know there are things that need to be done.

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OK, we'll just take a few minutes and we'll stop here. OK, this is the problem. We may not get too far at this pace.

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OK, let's let's do this quickly. So Genesis two, 16 to 17. Who can read that? Just raise your hand, please. OK. OK, thank you.

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And then Genesis three, 16 to 19. Well, and then

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Exodus 20, one to three. Anyone, please just raise your hand. OK, maybe

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Carol. And then the last one is Matthew three, 17. Thank you. All right. So let's begin with Genesis two, 16 to 17.

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And as these verses are being read, just keep in mind, this is God speaking to an individual.

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So now that you understand the decree of God and the word of God and the power of God, this is the communication one on one.

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Who has that? Genesis two. Yes, please. Thank you. So, again, this is pre -sin.

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So Adam is not sinful in the sense I will burn in the presence of God. Yet here is a finite creature hearing from the almighty

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God of heaven and the one who makes. And it is so. And think about the term decree once again. When God said it happened and here

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God is actually making a rule in a human sense of decree and command.

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And you can just imagine the weight of importance. Genesis one has just talked about the decrees of God. And Genesis two is now talking about the personal address, the communication, the command of God and the weight of all that it holds.

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When God says to Adam, thou shall not eat. OK, next one. Genesis three. Thank you.

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Here now, post fall, you have Adam and Eve hiding from God because sin now causes that separation, causes that fear.

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And in that state, God now pronounces the curse. And this is and again, you can just picture this, you know,

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God in the presence of Adam speaking to him in a state of humiliation, in a state of guilt, and then

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God decreeing in the in a sense the the state of affairs that he would face and all of us would face today.

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So this is exactly what God said. And you can just think about the weight of what that means for each of you, whether having children or going to work or the consequences of the fall that God has spoken to to Adam and Eve.

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OK, next one. Exodus 21 to three. And again, you know, now this is a different context. This is the beginning of the redemption out of Egypt into the promised land.

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And again, think of it as personal address. We're going to see this in the next few verses next week or the week after next.

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You have here God's revelation to his. This is this is

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God speaking to Moses to communicate to the rest of the Israelites one on one. He is speaking to this person and revealing who he is.

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The next was a Matthew three seventeen. So again, here in the baptism of Jesus Christ, you have the father speaking from heaven, the spirit descending like a dove.

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And then audibly you have God speaking. Now, many of just one comment and then we'll close.

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Most people want God to speak directly to them. Right. It's like once you read the Bible, God just came and told me

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I'll do it. I mean, maybe not not you guys, maybe not even Christians.

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So most Christians should be terrified of it. Maybe unbelievers would be like, oh, you know what? This is just an old book that God come and talk to me and then

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I will I will listen. I'll believe God did speak in the past and we're going to see why

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God doesn't speak this way anymore. We'll be seeing that on Sunday. But let me stop here.

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We are out of time. Any thoughts or comments? We did go very slow today.

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Next week, next next week, we'll have the missionary. So the following week we'll come back. We'll probably go much faster than we did today.

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And again, you know, if you have any thoughts, please email me. We will we will try to take questions that you have. Great questions as well.

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Let's let's close. Dear God, our heavenly father, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you for your word.

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We thank you that you. Give us a glimpse of your power as you speak.

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We thank you that you have spoken once and for all through your son. We thank you that those words are written to us in the word.

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Help us a lot to treasure your word. Help us a lot to treasure you in our hearts. Help us a lot to worship this morning with a high view of who you are and how you have spoken.