Sunday, August 23, 2015
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GOD’S PLAN FOR MAN’S REDEMPTION - 1
Today I want to begin a brief study of God’s plan for redemption.
It is sometimes called the “scheme of redemption”.
The word scheme, while often used
in our language do describe something sinister or secretive, actually
means a plan.
In
the manufacturing industry, parts are made with very precise
specifications. Usually the
variation that is permitted is miniscule.
The reason is that the overall product depends on exactness for
everything to fit together and so that it will work with minimal or no
problems. A factory worker
must realize this as he works his station.
Sometimes the way for one to realize how important these
specifications are, he needs to step back and take a look at the final
product and realize how the part he is making is integral to the
finished machine working properly.
We sometimes call this the big picture.
When it comes to God’s plan of salvation we often emphasize the details
of what we need to do. But
sometimes one has difficulty understanding the purpose of these details.
One reason for that is they don’t know the overall purpose of a
particular command or task. For
example: Why does God want us to be immersed in water to be saved (He
does - Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Acts 22:16)?
Is it simply that he wants us to get wet or is there a reason
behind it? Clearly there is a reason. Understanding that reason gives us
a better understanding of the command.
I am convinced that many today reject baptism because they don’t
fully realize what it symbolizes. They do not realize how centuries
before the coming of Christ, God knew what He was going to expect.
So beginning today, I want us to take a step back and look at
the big picture of man’s redemption.
I want to go back to the beginning.
Paul wrote in in Romans 15:4, “For whatever things were written
before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
We realize that we are not under
the Old Testament system anymore.
But is it useful?
Should we bother studying the Old Testament?
I am convinced that we cannot
fully understand redemption without the Old Testament.
So today, I want us to take a step back and begin to take a look
at the overall picture of the Bible.
We are going to notice God’s plan as it unfolded through the
pages of scriptural history and see how the Old Testament brings us to
Christ. In today’s
lesson we are going to notice the story of God’s redemption.
Next week we are going to address its fulfillment in Christ
Jesus. My hope in these
lessons is that we have a fuller appreciation of what Jesus did and what
it accomplished concerning our salvation.
So let’s get started!
a.
Isaiah 46:10“Remember
the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God,
and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And
from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel
shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’” (Isaiah 46:9–10, NKJV)
b.
2 Timothy 1:8-9, “who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us
in Christ Jesus before time began,”
c.
Titus 1:1-3, “Paul, a
bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the
faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords
with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie,
promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word
through preaching, which was committed to me according to the
commandment of God our Savior;”
d.
Romans 8:28-30 - this
text uses words like foreknew and predestined – terms which indicate God
had a plan.
e.
Ephesians 1:10,
Galatians 4:4 – the fullness of time and tie that expression to Jesus.
a.
To help us understand
this plan God recorded His message for us.
b.
His message is
remarkable and undeniably the work of God.
Consider that the Bible is actually:
i.
66 different books
ii.
Written by some 40
authors over a period of 1600 years – from Moses to John the apostle.
These authors came from varied backgrounds from scholars and
kings to fishermen and farmers.
iii.
Written in 3 languages
(Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) on 3 different continents.
iv.
Yet there is ONE theme
to the Bible – the redemption of man.
III.
God’s plan – a timeline
– blood and the seed promise
a.
God created the heavens
and the earth (Gen. 1:1)
b.
He created man in His
image (Gen. 1:26), from the dust of the ground He formed man and
breathed life into him and he became a living being (Gen. 2:7).
i.
Man is different from
the rest of nature in that he was created with a soul that will live
eternally (see Eccl. 12:7, 3:21, 1 Cor. 15:50-55, cf. Matt. 10:28,
25:46, etc.)
ii.
Another difference is
that man was created with freewill, the ability to choose between good
and evil. As a result, God
created a creature that could serve Him because he wanted to rather than
being forced as a robot.
Joshua 24:15 finds a call for
Israel to make a choice who they would serve.
Anytime the Bible discusses choice it demonstrates man’s
freewill. 2 Peter 3:9 tells
us that God is not willing that any should perish.
iii.
After he was created man
was placed in the Garden of Eden where he was commissioned to tend the
garden (Gen. 2:8-9, 15).
BUT, He gave Adam a command in vs. 16-17, “And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””
This is the first recorded choice
give to man.
iv.
Then from the side of
man God created woman as a suitable helpmeet (Gen. 2:18-25)
v.
Had man not sinned that
would have been the end of the story.
c.
But man sinned – Genesis
3:1-7.
i.
Sin by definition is
transgression of God’s law – 1 John 3:4 describes sin as lawlessness.
When we disobey God, whether it be a failure to do what He says
or we do what forbids we sin against Him.
Sin separates us from God – Romans 6:23.
ii.
Satan tempted Eve, she
partook of the forbidden fruit and gave to Adam who also ate it.
1.
As a result of their sin
woman was placed under submission of her husband (cf. 1 Tim. 2:13-15),
and sorrows in childbirth were increased.
To Adam, the ground was cursed and produce became more difficult
(destined to harder work and dealing with thorns and weeds).
2.
Death came as a result
of their sins (Gen. 3:19, Romans 5:12, 1 Cor. 15:22 – as in Adam all
die…)
3.
But the ultimate tragedy
of sin is that sin separates man from God.
Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death (both physical and
spiritual).
James 1:14-15 speaks of how when we give into temptations it gives birth
to sin which results in death.
Isa. 59:2 says, Your iniquities have separated you from your God.
4.
The serpent (Satan) was
cursed (3:14-15) – he would go on his belly, and be cursed
iii.
The problem of sin - But while sin has physical consequences (including death) and spiritual
consequences (separation from God), is there anything that can be done
to deal with the problem of sin.
iv.
Genesis 3:15
- The beginning of the promise of redemption announced, “And I will
put enmity Between you and the woman, And
between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””
v.
Genesis 3:21 – For Adam
and his wife the LORD made tunics of skin and clothed them (could this
be the first shedding of blood?)
d.
Man continues to sin
worse and worse including Cain murdering Abel and various other sins.
As a result, God decides to destroy the world by flood.
i.
Noah (and his family)
was spared because the promise is yet to be fulfilled – Genesis 6:8-9 –
he found grace in the eyes of the LORD because He walked with God and
was a just man.
ii.
After the flood, Noah
emerges from the ark and new laws are enacted.
Among them we find the rainbow – a promise the world will never
again be destroyed by flood.
iii.
Genesis 9:3-4 – eating
flesh permitted, but not the blood because that is where life is found
iv.
Genesis 9:5, “Surely
for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every
beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of
every man’s brother I will require the life of man.”
The significance of blood is
declared! It is sacred!
e.
Patriarchs – the seed
promise repeated
i.
Genesis 12:1-3 – Abraham
has been called out of Haran to go to a country that He would give Him.
In this text we find a promise that God would show him a land
(the He promised to give him – vs. 7), make him a great nation, bless
those who blessed him and “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
In Genesis 22:17-18 after Abraham offered Isaac as the LORD commanded,
He again emphasizes this promise saying, ““blessing I will bless you,
and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the
heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants
shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.””
ii.
Genesis 26:4 the LORD
speaks to Isaac saying, “And I will make your descendants multiply as
the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands;
and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;”
Isaac has 2 sons – Esau and Jacob.
Jacob, while younger is chosen by the LORD.
iii.
Genesis 28:13–14, Later
as Jacob is fleeing his brother the LORD appears to him in a dream and
says, “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;
the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also
your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread
abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you
and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
iv.
Genesis 49:8-10 as Jacob
blesses his 12 sons, he has a special blessing for Judah.
While not mentioning the seed we do read that the scepter would
not depart from Judah.
This prophecy will later be shown to be related to the seed promise as
the LORD speaks with David.
v.
The family of Jacob (and
his 12 sons) then lives in Egypt for some 430 years (Gen. 15:13, Gal.
3:17) where they grow into a great people that would become the nation
of Israel (fulfilling the promise to Abraham).
In time they are placed into slavery by the Egyptians.
f.
The Law of Moses – the
commandments, the sacrificial system and blood
i.
But God raises up a
deliverer - Moses. Moses
will lead them out of Egypt with the hand of God (the 10 plagues,
crossing the Red Sea, sustaining this great nation in the wilderness,
etc.). (Exodus 1- 12)
Worthy of note in this discussion is the 10th plague, the
death of the firstborn. It
was announced in Exodus 11 and Israel was provided instructions through
which they would be exempt from the plague.
As a family, they were to take a lamb without blemish and on the
appointed day they were to kill it at twilight (Ex. 12:4-6).
They were to eat it as part of the Passover meal.
But they were also to take some of the blood and put it on the
doorposts and mantle of their home (12:7).
If they did this a promise was made to them, “‘For I will pass
through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood
shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the
blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to
destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12–13)
Their obedience results
in their deliverance!
ii.
The Ten Commandments -
As they leave Egypt, Moses leads them to Mount Sinai where they receive
the 10 commandments AND the law that would govern Israel until the time
of its fulfillment in Christ.
iii.
The sin sacrifice - the
Law of Moses consisted of much more than the 10 commandments.
It included priesthood and sacrifices.
1.
Among the sacrifices was
an offering for sin.
Whenever a person of the nation of Israel sinned a sacrifice was
required. Leviticus
1-7 describes 5 different types of sacrifices including offerings of
thanksgiving, burnt offerings, sin and trespass offerings.
2.
The shedding of blood
was demanded to atone for sins.
Hebrews 9:22 tells us, ““And according to the law almost all
things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is
no remission.”
3.
One particular sacrifice
was to be offered on a yearly basis.
It was called the Day of Atonement.
(Atonement means to appease or satisfy). Speaking of that day,
Leviticus 16:30 says, “For on that day the priest shall make
atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your
sins before the Lord.”
Leviticus 16 records
this offering. It was a day
when the High Priest would enter the Holiest of Holies in the tabernacle
(where the Ark of the Covenant was) with required sacrifices for the
nation of Israel.
The first thing he was required to do was to wash his body (water) and
put on holy garments (16:4)
Before he could minister for the people, he was required to sacrifice a
bull and a ram as a sin offering and a burnt offering for himself and
his family - this was to make him holy [atonement for himself – Lev.
16:6, 11] so that he could offer a sacrifice for the people.
There were also two goats one that day.
One was chosen as a sacrifice for the people (16:15-16).
It was killed and some of its blood was brought into the
tabernacle to atone for the sins of the people.
The other goat was then brought to the High Priest who would lay his
hands on the head of the goat, confess the iniquities, transgressions
and sins of the children of Israel and then he would send it away into
the wilderness (Lev. 16:20-22).
[This is where we get the idea of a scapegoat.]
“The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an
uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”
(Leviticus 16:22)
This sacrifice would
appease the wrath of God for another year.
But it had to be offered yearly as it was temporal.
The Hebrew writer deals with this in Hebrews 10:1-4.
4.
Leviticus 17,
immediately following these instructions, the sanctity of blood is
addressed. Man was not to
eat the blood of an animal.
The warning was that if a man eats any blood he was to be cut off (Lev.
17:10). Vs. 11 explains, “For
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon
the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that
makes atonement for the soul.’”
5.
THIS SACRIFICE is
important when Jesus comes to this earth.
g.
David and the throne
promise- 2 Samuel 7
i.
For about 500 years
after the giving of the Law of Moses at Sinai we read of the behavior of
the nation of Israel.
Typically, they rebelled against God in many ways.
He would punish them, but He never completely removed them from
His sight.
One reason was His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The seed promise was yet to be fulfilled.
ii.
Eventually, David
becomes king, (about 1000 B.C.) a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel
13:14, Psalm 89:20, cf. Acts 13:22).
He is a good king, though we know of some of his sins.
He loved God and when he did sin, he was remorseful and repented.
iii.
2 Samuel 7 – on one
occasion, as David realizes how blessed he is, he calls for Nathan the
prophet and asks permission to build God a permanent house (the temple).
Nathan inquires of God who replies to him.
He notes that he never asked for a “house of Cedar” (but He will
grant the request which was carried out by David’s son, Solomon).
But then we read, “…Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a
house. “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers,
I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and
I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I
will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of
the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it
from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your
kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be
established forever.”
(2 Sam. 7:11–16)
h.
The apostasy of Israel
i.
After David dies, his
son Solomon reigns as king.
Solomon began as a godly king, even blessed with wisdom from God
Himself. But eventually he
gives into worldly lusts. He
loved women – having 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3).
They turned his heart away from God.
As a result, the LORD told him that the kingdom of Israel would
be divided after his death.
The only reason his descendants would rule was because of the promise
the LORD had made to David concerning his throne (1 Kings 11:11-13)
ii.
After Solomon dies, the
kingdom divides into two nations – Israel and Judah.
Israel from its beginning until its end is rebellious and
idolatrous against God.
Every king (19 of them) was described as failing to walk in the ways of
the LORD. It falls to the
Assyrian empire in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 17:5-23 summarizes the sins of
Israel and explains why they were carried away).
iii.
Judah continues a little
longer until it too is carried away into Babylonian captivity for 70
years (606-536 BC). They
then return and continue in a less glorified state until Jerusalem is
finally destroyed after the coming of Jesus.
iv.
Of note is that Judah is
never totally removed. Why?
Because the seed promise to Abraham and the throne promise to David had
yet to be fulfilled as we shall see in our next lesson.
i.
The prophets – a coming kingdom
i.
During the time of the
kings, God would send prophets (messengers from Him) who would warn them
to repent of their sinful ways and return to Him.
Often they foretold of imminent consequences.
Occasionally Judah listened, but more often than not they
rejected His word and did as they pleased.
ii.
In the midst of these
prophecies of doom, there were promises of hope.
There were prophecies of a coming kingdom and Messiah (deliverer)
who would establish the kingdom God intended all along.
It was a kingdom, not exclusive to Israel but for all mankind.
iii.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 is one
example: ““Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,
says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their
minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and
every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I
will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.””
iv.
Isaiah 2:2–3 says, “Now
it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s
house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be
exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people
shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we
shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
v.
Many other prophesies
would be made concerning the coming Messiah.
Isaiah 7:14 speaks of a virgin who would conceive.
Isaiah 53 describes in vivid detail (as Psalm 22) how He would suffer
and the nature of his offering would result in the forgiveness of sins
(53:10-12).
j.
In all of this, God
keeps His promise that He made to Abraham and David.
In
this lesson we have noted some key events and a brief history of the Old
Testament. In examining
these passages we can learn about the nature of God, see how He had a
plan for mankind and that He is fully able to execute that plan.
In our next lesson we will notice the fulfillment of God’s plan
in Christ and His church.