“The Plan of God” - Pt 3
Notes
Transcript
When we began our study two weeks ago with God--because that's where the Bible begins!
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
We are looking at TEN issues concerning the plan of God, trying to answer the question, "Why?"
REVIEW:
I. The Plan of God in CREATING ALL THINGS!
I. The Plan of God in CREATING ALL THINGS!
"Why Lord, did You create it in the first place?" Two basic reasons:
11 Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.
Because He wanted to!
20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
So we would know Him!
II. The Plan of God in MAKING MAN!
II. The Plan of God in MAKING MAN!
‘"Why did He make humanity in His image?"
He gave us dominion, understanding and volition so we would choose to bless/praise His Holy Name!
III. The Plan of God in DIVIDING MANKIND INTO THE NATIONS!
III. The Plan of God in DIVIDING MANKIND INTO THE NATIONS!
"Why God divide mankind into the Nations?"
26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.
27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
"So they would seek the Lord!"
IV. The Plan of God CONCERNING THE NATION OF ISRAEL!
IV. The Plan of God CONCERNING THE NATION OF ISRAEL!
"Why did God establish Israel as a separate and unique nation?"
6 For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7 “The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8 But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands.
10 But he directly pays back and destroys those who hate him. He will not hesitate to pay back directly the one who hates him.
1. So we would understand His complete FAITHFULNESS to His promise!
2. So we could see a demonstration of His UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
V. The Plan of God in the FALL OF ISRAEL!
V. The Plan of God in the FALL OF ISRAEL!
"Why did God let Israel fall?"
25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
"Why?" – So GENTILES would be saved!
VI. The Plan of God in ALLOWING SIN and SUFFERING!
VI. The Plan of God in ALLOWING SIN and SUFFERING!
"Why did God allow sin and suffering?"
To DEMONSTRATE RIGHTEOUSNESS!
To BUILD OUR ANTICIPATION OF HEAVEN!
To DEMONSTRATE HIS POWER AND PROCLAIM HIS NAME!
So we would GLORIFY HIS NAME!
LESSON:
VII. The Plan of God in GIVING THE LAW!
VII. The Plan of God in GIVING THE LAW!
I have decided to devote an entire message to this topic (in three weeks), so let me just say this:
“What then is the purpose of the Law?”
19 Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one.
21 Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law.
22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.
23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.
24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
To lead us to Christ!
VIII. The Plan of God in SENDING HIS SON!
VIII. The Plan of God in SENDING HIS SON!
"Why did you send your Son into the world?"
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.
14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
To PAY THE RIGHTEOUS REQUIREMENT of the Law!
23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
To PUT AN END TO DEATH!
30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree.
31 God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
To GRANT FORGIVENESS OF SINS!
24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.
26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
To DEMONSTRATE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
IX. The Plan of God in FORMING THE CHURCH!
IX. The Plan of God in FORMING THE CHURCH!
"Why Lord, did you form the Church?"
19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
To be a dwelling place of God to MANIFEST HIS GLORY and REVEAL HIS CHARACTER!
Whether in the Tabernacle, the Temple, in Christ, or now in the Church! God's plan has been the same!
God is teaching the world about Himself by the Church!
But not just on earth…
10 This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.
The Church is a manifestation of Himself to the ANGELS!
We are God's OBJECT LESSONS of His grace and mercy!
X. The Plan of God in SAVING US!
X. The Plan of God in SAVING US!
"Why then, did He save us?" "What was the purpose in that?"
4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.
5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.
14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
That we should be “…blameless and holy […] to the praise of his glory.”
The OVERALL OBJECTIVE of God is that HE MIGHT BE GLORIFIED!
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Wow! Quite a journey through the Plan of God!
If there is a passage that might sum up all we have learned, it would be…
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
