The Bible and You:

Intro:

Good morning.

This morning we are going to look at a sermon that is inspired by a book I’ve been using to teach the middle school class on Sunday mornings.

This is from the book How to Effectively Study the Bible by J. J. Turner, page 12.

The section of the book that we are going to look at for our sermon this morning is titled “The Bible and You.”

We went through this with the middle schoolers last Sunday, and it went well, so I told them I was going to use this material for a sermon (and told them not to spoil it)!

J. J. Turner writes: “In the Book of books you learn some of the following things about yourself. You learn ...”

That You are Created in the Image of God:

Genesis 1:26–27 - “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Of all God’s creation, we are unique in regard to the fact that we were created in the image of God!

The animals aren’t created in the image of God!

The plants aren’t created in the image of God!

The planets, the elements, the sky and the seas, the ANGELS even — None of these were created in the image of God, but WE ARE!

(Let me speak for just a moment about the “dominion mandate” of man).

Was man created for the earth, or was the earth created for man?

That’s an extrememly important question in our day and age — Radical environmentalists have it backwards!

The earth was created for man! (Radical environmentalists don’t believe that).

That You Have Sinned ...

There is a universal problem that exists in the world, and this universal problem is sin.

We made a comment in our last point that man is unique compared to the rest of God’s creation — Created in the image of God.

Man is also unique in this regard — God created man with Free Will.

God desires that we worship and serve Him/obey Him through exercising our own choices.

If He wanted to have created robots, He could have!

But He didn’t — He wanted to give us the ability to choose between right and wrong ...

Which is why the tree of knowledge of good and evil (which was off limits) was even placed in the garden, in my opinion — That was God’s way of GIVING the gift of free will.

Unfortunately though, with this man’s downfall ended up coming, with SIN entering the world in the garden of Eden - Genesis chapter 3.

But sin was not unique to just Adam and Eve — Every human being who has ever been born since then, once he’s attained to an accountable age has SINNED (with the exception of Jesus Christ).

Romans 3:23 - “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The penalty for those sins is death - Romans 6:23.

The reason for that is because sins by their very nature (evil) separate us from an all-good God - (Isa. 59:1-2), but that verse goes on to say that God still has the ability to save!

That’s dependent on whether or not man continues his rebellious sinful ways, or turns to God in obdient faith.

Isaiah 59:1–2 - “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”

That, even though you have sinned, God loves you:

John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Jesus Christ effectively says — “I volunteer!”

“I will volunteer to take the penalty for YOUR sins, the wages that YOU deserve — I’ll take the punishment for them upon myself on my cross!”

This is spelled out perfectly in Isaiah ch. 53.

Isaiah 53:5 - “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:6 - “… The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:8 - “… For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.”

Isa 53:10 says that God made His soul an OFFERING for sin.

Which we see Paul talk about in 2 Corinthians 5:21 - “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

That God planned to save you in Christ before the foundation of the world …

(Read Eph. 1:1-7).

(Define “predestined” properly). (The plan, not individuals).

That God is mindful of you and your actions:

For this, take a look at Psalm 139 — This is a good Psalm that gives descriptions of God.

(We’re going to read verses 1-9).

(Comment about headings in my Bible for the rest of the sections of Psalm 139).

That Christ died for you; even if you had been the only sinner, He would have died for you:

We’ve already alluded to this in a prior point, but look with me ...

At Romans 5:6–9 - “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

This is always a humbling section of Scripture to me!

That God’s grace is extended to you through Christ:

Ephesians 2:5–8 - “Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

This connects back to Romans 6:23 that we looked at earlier: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Were it not for Christ, there would be no ability whatsoever for man to be saved!

Acts 4:12 - “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

John 14:6 - “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

That death is not the end of your existence:

No, we will continue onward after death.

Either we will experience eternal life, or we will experience the SECOND death for all of eternity.

John 5:24 - ““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

John 5:28–29 - “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

We won’t read this one, but in Luke 16:19ff we read of the account of the rich man and Lazarus (Give brief synopsis).

That you are going to stand in the judgment:

This is when we will receive sentencing to either everlasting life or to everlasting second death.

Hebrews 9:27 - “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

The standard by which we will be judged is the Words of Christ - John 12:48 - “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

Acts 17:30–31 - “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.””

That your body will be resurected:

(Read with me 1 Cor. 15:35-58).

This is the conquering over death that Jesus obtained on His cross, and through His resurrection!

And in Romans 8:37-39 we learn that we are “MORE THAN CONQUERORS” alongside Christ who loved us!

It goes on to say: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

That you may know that you have eternal life:

That’s exactly what the Bible says in 1 John 5:13 —

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

As we are getting close to the end of the sermon this morning — “The Bible and You” — You need to know this morning that there is no way you need to leave here this morning NOT knowing that you are among the saved!

The Bible gives you eveything you need to know for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), everything to make you a complete Christian (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and you can KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt these things you need to know to have eternal life!

“You shall KNOW the truth, and the truth shall set you free!” (John 8:32)

That try as you may, you still sin, and this is why we need Christ:

1 John 1:7–9 - “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

That’s just part of it - The entirety of God’s plan of salvation:

Hearing which produces faith - Romans 10:17 - “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 1:16–17 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it (gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””

“Without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

Repentance — which ALWAYS goes alongside conversion — Acts 3:19 - “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Sometimes people want to become Christians, but they aren’t willing to repent!

Confession - Acts 8:37 - Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” (be baptized), And the eunuch answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”” (Also, Romans 10:9–10 - “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”)

Baptism - Acts 2:38 - “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:41 - “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”

Acts 2:47 - “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

That’s the plan of salvation, and I hope you’ve obeyed it!

That you have an inheritance reserved in heaven:

1 Peter 1:3–5 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Acts 20:32 - Paul told the Ephesian elders: “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

That you have a mission:

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it!”

Mark 16:15 - “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

2 Timothy 2:2 - Paul told Timothy: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Now that you ARE a Christian — again, I hope you are — Are you willing to do that?

Conclusion:

As we mentioned last Sunday, thankful people don’t have a problem with Christian giving, with singing, with anxieties (at least, their anxieties don’t consume them because they cast their anxieties upon the Lord).

And I will add now, if you are thankful that Christ saved you, you probably won’t hold back that knowledge, but will share it with others you know and love who need to know the truth as well!

What will it be?

“The Bible and You,” that is, “The Bible as it Pertains to You!”

I thought this was a good synopsis of the entire message of the Bible, thus, sharing this with you this morning!