Genesis to Revelation in One Lesson Part one outline

THE CLASS DIDN'T BELIEVE I COULD TAKE THEM THROUGH THE BIBLE IN ONE LESSON. WELL IN 52 MINUTES I DID.  A BIRD EYE VIEW WAS THE GAME PLAN.

GENESIS TO REVELATION IN ONE LESSON:Part one

Act 1: God Creates Everything.

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.In 6 days God made everything. On the 7^th day he rested. (Wednesday Night Bible Lessons)

That’s Genesis 1.

Genesis 2 tells us about Adam and Eve.

• God created Adam out of the dust of the ground and placed him in the Garden.

• Then he fashioned Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s side. He presented Eve to Adam who was very pleased indeed.      The two became one flesh.

They were naked and they were not ashamed.

Act 2: Man Rebels Against God

• The serpent appears to Eve and deceives her.

• She eats the fruit, gives it to Adam, and he eats.

• It was an act of utter, willful defiance.

• Because Adam was not deceived, God holds him accountable.

“Sin entered the world through one man" (Romans 5:12).

• This was the critical moment, the great turning point.

• Nothing will ever be the same.

• Suddenly they are ashamed, they try to cover their nakedness. Innocence is gone forever.

• When confronted by God, Adam makes excuses.

• “Who told you that you were naked?”

• "The woman you gave me."  First he blames Eve, then he blames God. Eve blames the serpent.

• Judgment comes quickly.

• They are cast out of the Garden.

• God clothed them with garments of skin, a sign of his grace. Sign of Redemption. Now they are on their own.

• The world becomes a very unfriendly place.

• Cain kills Abel.

Civilization spreads. Large cities form.
Death is everywhere. That’s Genesis 4-5

Things go from bad to worse.
In Genesis 6 God intervenes.

The earth had grown corrupt and full of evil.
God calls Noah who builds an Ark.
When the flood comes covering the whole earth, only 8 people are saved.
Thus do we learn of judgment and grace.

Now the line narrows to Noah and his family.
After the flood, the three sons of Noah spread out and begin to multiply. Generations come and go.

Eventually they build a tower  to express their enormous arrogance. God sends the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel.
People scatter across the face of the earth.

Act 3: God initiates redemption

• Something hugely important happens in Genesis 12.

• God calls Abraham.

• He’s a prosperous, middle-aged, pagan businessman in Ur of the Chaldees. God calls, he responds and becomes the outstanding example of faith in the Bible. Romans 4.

We can divide the whole Old Testament this way:

Genesis 1-11 God creates the human race.
Genesis 12-Malachi God creates the Hebrew race.

Abraham and Sarah have a son–Isaac.
Isaac has a son–Jacob.
Jacob has many sons, the most important being Joseph. Joseph ends up serving Pharaoh in Egypt.
His family follows him there. They number 70 people.
God blesses them until the day comes when a Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph.

For 400 years the people suffered in bondage until God raised up a deliverer named Moses.
He leads the Jews out of Egypt and into the desert.

The Glory of God and The Life of The Mind

THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE LIFE OF THE MIND

Charles e. Whisnant

To be human is to think, and to think is to operate within a worldview. Every individual operates out of a basic set of convictions about reality, truth, meaning, and how the world works. As thinking creatures, we create, perceive, absorb, and base our thinking upon certain intellectual assumptions that, in essence, allow the world to make sense to us. Well; so says Albert Mohler.

From early in my life the thirst for knowledge and understanding has been the sense in my mind. Those early years of Dad and Mom reading Proverbs must have implanted into my mind the desire to get knowledge and understanding and wisdom.   

The knowledge that I have sought is that of the Bible. What a library of books, sixty-six to be exact; and from those sixty-six books have come thousands of other books that have attempted to explain those books. 

My Dad had a great library of Christian books, and early in my teens I loved to read them.  While I started reading the Bible when I was twelve: (thanks to Dad’s Mom.) 

The best way I knew to know the Bible was to read those books that would help me.  You only get as good as you have been trained in the field you desire to be in.  My training in learning the Bible was quite simple.  The climate around me were preachers who didn’t seem to believe a lot of learning was necessary to know the Bible.  Thus, my skill of learning the Bible was reduced to reading   Christian books.  Dad believed in teaching the Bible book by book in Sunday  School, and he would give teachers a book by H.A. Ironside.  (1876-1951) To know the Bible was to read H.A. Ironside.  Also Dad would have the radio on everyday listening to other radio preachers.  I would listen to their preaching.   Examples: J.V. McGee, Oliver B. Greene. M.R. Dehaan.  Charles Fuller, and others.

Finally going to seminary, I was able to listen to some really great teachers of the Bible.  So I learned to know the Bible by hearing what others were saying about the Bible.  

The point I am making is this, I learned from others what I knew about the Bible.  It’s a habit that seems to be what I still do today.  

While the trend of the day in our circle of preachers was, “don’t have people believe you know the Bible from reading other books. “   The idea was: don’t study very much.  Just get your knowledge from the Lord and the Holy Spirit.  

Well, I bucked the system.  I remember the first sermon I preached was not one that I came up myself, for I didn’t have a clue how to do that.  I used books to help me with the sermon.  I preached once in Hickory North Caroline one Sunday and used the introduction of a sermon by Charles H. Spurgeon. (That went over well…..)

I wanted to know what the book of Galatians said, and I spent months writing each verse out, and then finding books that would help me understand what they meant. (I still have that project from 1965).  I taught Psalms in our Bible class as a teenager and used Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon.  (I still have those notes)

The desire to know what the Bible meant verse by verse has been my life’s work.  Thus, in my early ministry, knowing the Bible came by reading books. I was rather proud of my library of several thousands of books.  But I wanted to know the Bible on my own, that is, how was H.A. Ironside able to know what he knew?   I was really never taught the skills of knowing the Bible.  I did have a class in seminary one summer on hermeneutics: the science of interpreting the text, the way you can explain and interpret the Bible.  

How was J. Vernon McGee able to know the Bible?  How was H.A. Ironside able to know the Bible?  How was A.W. Pink able to know the Bible?  That is what I wanted to know.  

Having the mind to learn, having the intellectual ability to learn would help.   The development of one’s mind or intellectual capacities in order that we may understand the Christian faith, and the Word of God and develop the ability to know Christian thought would be good. How do you do that?  

Of course, I was taught that preaching was something different than teaching.  Preaching had a different point of view than just teaching what the Bible said verse by verse.  Be a preacher first. then if you have time, learn what the Bible really says.  

Theology?    While I had Dr. George L. Norris and he was really great; but theology was not to be a part of preaching, others said.  Therefore, those early years were not reading John Calvin and theology books.  

But I still had a desire and still do, to know for myself the Word of God.   But I still have to have books.  Now I use what are called theological and technical books which help explain the meaning of the verses in the Bible. And books help explain the theological concepts of the verses.  

I have never been able to develop the mind and skills that could discover the meaning of words purely on my own.  But goodness, there are those gifted by the Lord who have been given that great blessed gifted. I am very thankful for those who can.  I am just glad I can read and study those who can, and I am glad I can understand what I read.  That is a blessing.

Many Christians and preachers ignore the intellectual component of discipleship.  Many Christians fail to develop their intellectual capacities in order that they may understand the theology of God, and the Christian faith, and develop the habits of Christian thought. Many do not even want to form intuitions that are based upon biblical truth.  Christian discipleship requires growth and development, intellectual faithfulness requires a lifetime of devoted study, consecrated thinking and analytical reflection. Few Christians, it seems, really want to devote themselves to knowing the Word of God in depth.  Few want to know the Biblical truth about what the Bible really is saying about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Prayer, Salvation, Christian living, Lordship, the Glory of God, the Church, the Holiness of God, etc.

Few take seriously to know the undertaking of the Bible, and take time to really develop the discipline of learning what God is really saying in the Bible. But thank the Lord for those who have taken seriously the task of Christian thought and the development of a distinctively Christian mind.  I am continually working on that.  

Christ Himself instructed Christians to love God with heart, soul and mind.  It is not so we can be known as intellectually smart but to be known as a person who loves to know Him.

The Five Pillars of Sound Doctrine

BUT WHAT MAKES A GOOD CALVINIST?

I Scripture is the absolute inerrant, verbally inspired in every word, God-breathed. Infallible Word of God. What the writers wrote were literally the Word of God

II THE BIBLE IS THE FINAL AUTHROITY ON DOCTRINE AND MORALS.

III GOD AND HIS WORD THE BIBLE IS THE ORGIN AND SOURCES OF TRUTH, JUSTICES AND MORALS AND MEANING AND BEAUTY.

IV ONCE YOU BELIEVE THE BIBLE, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE. YOU COULD DO BIBLE BINGO. OPEN THE BIBLE AND FIND A VERSE AND SAY THIS VERSE GOES AND THIS VERSE SAYS.

:You don’t find God’s will by opening the Bible and putting your fingers down.

The historical-grammatical-interpretation and exegetical of Scripture of the original text, the Hebrew and Greek. Is the method of interpretation.,

Any verse taken out of context becomes the pretext for history. :You have the immediate context, paragraph, chapter, book, section, and historical culture.

This means the grammar, the syntax, sentence structure have the final say of the meaning of a verse.

the exegete should take into account the historical and socio-cultural settings in order to understand the text on its own terms, and not from a 21^st century context.

Examination of the cultural and historical context of this passage

V THE ABSLOUTLE SOVEREIGN OF GOD

• THE PREEMENANCE AND LORDSHIP OF CHRIST OVER ALL THINGS.

• GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL THINGS ARE HE ISN’T.

• THE PRESUPPOSITONIAL FRAME WORK OF OUR OF DEFINITION OF CALVIMISM ARE THESE FIVE PILLARS. AND YOU THROW OUT ANY OF THESE FIVE THINGS, YOUR CALVINISM GOES.

Your can be a Calvinist

1. 1 If you believe the bible is the absolute inerrant, verbally inspired of God

• 2 If you believe God is the origin of truth, and the measure of all things,

• 3 If you have rejected the idea of humanism and man is the measurable of truth.

• 4 If you accept the historical-grammatical-interpretation and exegetical method of Scripture

• 5 If you believe God is sovereign over everything then you can began to understand the position of the Calvin point of view.

SO YOU ARE A CALVINIST IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

ILLUSTRATION

Come in and put your bible away.

“Am I a man of God.”

Do I preach the Word of God, by the Spirit of God

Then how can I be wrong.

Two views from two preachers who say the same thing.

Just because you are a man of God does not mean your theology is correct.

Put your bible away we are not having a bible study.

Which means your theology is not going to be decided by the bible but my the person who is speaking.

The dean of ministry said, “Charles would I like to you?”

“Yes, you would probly lie like anyone else.”

“What, you are saying I would lie to you.”

“The Pope claims to be all knowing, are you claiming to be all knowing too”

“Are you saying I lie?”

“Yes if it will serve your purposes you would.”

“Get out of this office.” So I left.

WHEN SOMEONE TRIES TO PUT YOU INTO A POSITION OF ACCEPTING THEIR DOCTRINE ON SOME OTHER BASES OTHER THAN THE SCRIPTURE THE ALARM BELL SHOULD GO OFF.

You need to understand what you believe should be determine by the Bible.