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GOD WANTS ALL

#1 · November 29, 2005, 10:09 am

Quote from Forum Archives on November 29, 2005, 10:09 am
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
GOD WANTS ALL TO BE SAVED

Introduction:

1.   It is important to recognize that in response to humanity’s sin, God, being God, had many alternatives open to Him. He could have rightly destroyed man immediately and completely, enforcing the “you shall surely die” clause on the spot. He could have abandoned man on the earth to suffer the consequences of his sin without extending any divine help.

2.   But to see and understand the option God chose is truly amazing. God chose, and had actually chosen “before the foundation of the world,” to curb and control sin, and to rescue man from its clutches. The Biblical text is largely occupied with the record of God’s efforts to save humanity from sin.

3.   To grasp a bit of the whole scheme of God’s efforts to save is to be humbled and moved to repentance and faith. If you read and study the Bible very much and hear preaching and teaching from it for very long, at some point the light comes on in your mind and you are able to put much of it together into a coherent whole.

4.   This sermon is my effort at “putting it altogether” and helping the light of the gospel to come on in our minds. I hope you’ll sit back, relax, read and listen, and try to piece together the truly amazing and inspiring story of God’s efforts to save us from sin.

5.   Though the story may be told in several ways, we will consider four portraits of God that mark out the major acts of God’s saving humanity. All I am actually doing is noticing and bringing out before us the four major ways God is described in Scripture.

I.    THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB: GOD WHO CHOSE

A. Gen. 1-11 records the creation of all things by God’s power and providence and the distortion of all things by man’s sin.

1.   From the beginning, there was a concern and a universal vision. God created all—“the heavens and the earth” (1:1), and cares for all—“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (1:31). Man and woman occupied a prominent place in creation, being made in the very image of the Creator (1:27).

2.   But creation was substantially and adversely affected by human sin which disfigured and distorted God’s good handiwork. The opening chapters of Scripture document the proliferation and progression of sin. There was an avalanche of sin that put humanity in a dangerous and depressing situation in the world and before God.

3.   The tower of Babel incident (11:1-9) represents man’s sinful, selfish ambition to make a name for himself, to be God for himself. God intervened in this attempt, preventing man from destroying himself by his sin, and providing a means of redemption.

B. Instead of man making a name for himself, God chose one man

(Abram) to make his name great. Abram would be blessed and would be a blessing to the world. In him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3).

1.   This universal promise of divine blessing is extremely significant. It was given covenant status and form (Gen. 15) and memorialized in man’s flesh by circumcision in the succeeding generations of Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 17:7-11).

2.   God’s covenant with Abraham was cherished and transferred from generation to generation—to Isaac (17:19-21; 26:3, 24), Jacob (28:13-15; 35:9-12), Joseph’s sons (48:8-20).

C. God came to be known more specifically as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6). This designation, prominent throughout Scripture, captures and expresses the fact of God’s choosing these men and purposing to bless the world through them. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God who chose. Don’t miss the significance of the fact that of all the alternatives open to God, He chose a man and his family through whom He would bless the entire world.

II. GOD WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT: GOD WHO DELIVERED

A. The generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned, for the most part, in the land of Canaan. The next generation, however, became enslaved in a foreign land, the land of Egypt. The people cried out to the Lord for help in their bondage (Ex.

2:23).

1.   “So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (2:24), and took measures to deliver His people from their slavery. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was beginning to act on behalf of His people and would be known by them in a new way. They would know Him especially in connection with His delivering them from slavery.

2.   God did this delivering through the leadership of Moses, bringing the Israelites out of Egypt by means of a series of plagues, the final one being the death of the firstborn. God preserved His own people by means of the blood smeared on their houses. On the fateful night of His striking the firstborn of the Egyptians, God would pass over His own people who had faithfully obeyed Him (Ex. 12:12-13).

3.   As a memorial of this ominous and awesome occasion, the Lord established the Passover observance: “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place” (13:3). And future generation were to be reminded of this powerful deliverance (13:14-16).

B. Because of this new act of redemption, God became known by a new designation. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would now be known as “the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:2).

1.   This became “the” significant feature of God’s actions toward His people. He is God who delivers and this made the relationship between God and His people all the more significant. Following the deliverance from Egypt and just prior to the nation’s entering the land He would give them, God set forth the terms of proper covenant relationship with Himself which we know as “the Law” given at Sinai. These terms of relationship would protect and preserve the nation so the people could participate in and enjoy the blessings of their God.

2.   It is significant to notice that in both presentations of the law, God who set down these terms of proper relationship with Himself was God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Ex. 20:2, Deut. 5:6). We must not miss the force of the fact that God who directed their lives was first the God who delivered them from slavery. This same principle is active today in the way God deals with us. He directs us because He delivers us.

3.   Throughout the Old Testament, God is referred to again and again as God, who with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, brought His people out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This deliverance or redemption was the one significant action of God toward His people. This assured them of God’s grace toward them while at the same time demanded their faithful obedience.

III.            THE GOD OF YOUR FATHER DAVID: GOD WHO LED

(Our knowledge likely wanes a little when we it comes to the kings and prophets. Listen carefully!)

A. Israel was in the land of promise, and God made provisions for the nation to have a stable and favorable existence there. As the nation developed and existed in a world of other nations, and as His own people were persistently unfaithful to their God, God began to narrow His focus to a representative who was to lead the nation in God’s ways and through whom He could accomplish His ultimate purpose for them and the world.

1.   This representative was Israel’s king who was to be the “Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. 16:1, 3) and a man after God’s own heart (13:14, 16:7). And many of you will recognize that God found a man like this in David (Acts 13:22). The character and faith of David were such that, despite his occasional weaknesses, he became God’s representative in the true sense of the word and led the nation to God and in the way of God. And he did so in a way like no other king before or after him.

2.   God became known as “the Lord, the God of your father David” (2 Kings 20:5, 2 Chron. 21:12, Isa. 38:5). The kingship of Israel ideally represented the kingship of God Himself, so the throne of David emerged in Israel as the vehicle of God’s blessing the nation. Ideal kingship was an expression of divine leadership. God was leading His people through the kings, and the kings’ responsibility was to lead the nation in the ways of God.

3.   This ideal kingship was formalized in a significant covenant God made with David (2 Samuel 7:5-16). God would make for David a great “name” (9), he would grant Israel a “place” of rest (10-11), and He would make a “house” for David (12-13). You will notice in this covenant and David’s response that follows striking similarities to the covenant God made with Abraham. Notice what’s happening: now it would be through David that the blessings made long ago to Abraham would be realized.



B. In the course of God’s fulfilling this covenant and granting these blessings, the line of Davidic kings was eventually cut off due to the kings’ blatant unfaithfulness to the Lord. In spite of this, however, the ideal surrounding the throne of David was pursued by psalmists and prophets as a hope developed of future restoration and blessing beyond judgment. This hope is frequently expressed in terms of the kingship or throne of David (Jer. 23:5-8).

1.   The human kings never lived up to the Davidic ideal and in a national sense Israel never enjoyed the full blessings of God. But this did not stop God from pursuing His purposes for His people. The ideals remained and were pursued. God would continue to lead those who would follow, but this shows us that God’s leadership would always have to be redemptive in nature.

2.   And as time passed, the throne of David as a blessing to the nation and the world was ultimately expressed in terms of a “Coming One” who would lead, save, and bless the world. We know this Coming One as the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of kings.

IV. GOD THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: GOD WHO SAVED

A. With the long history of promise and covenant, deliverance and direction, blessing and cursing past, Jesus came into the world. The dramatic opening statement of the New Testament is “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mat. 1:1).

1.   In His own Son, God bridged the centuries to fulfill ancient promises and save the world from itself. Jesus Himself had a keen awareness of doing His Father’s business (Lk. 2:49, Jn. 4:34) and filling the role of Messiah (Lk. 4:16-21), though this was largely unrecognized by people while He was on earth.

2.   Jesus was the climax of His Father’s efforts to save humanity from sin, but it would only be later that most recognized what Paul called, “the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and upon the earth” (Eph. 1:10). What God planned, promised, and pursued, He finally administered in Jesus (Eph. 1:10, 3:9).

3.   So, God became known in yet another way, emphasizing the last and fullest efforts God made to save: “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:3) “who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3) and “who has bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

B. Jesus was heaven’s ultimate effort to accomplish our redemption. In Him—the God-man—sin was fully dealt with and its effects were cancelled for all those who will take advantage of His salvation.

1.   This, for Paul, was of first importance, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

2.   It was, according to Peter, “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23) as “announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets” (3:18). Notice how all these strands are brought together by Paul as he spoke in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia in Acts 13:16-41.

3.   The facts of God’s redemptive activity in Christ are interpreted and developed throughout the New Testament documents, but none of them get very far away from the fact that Jesus came as the God-man, lived, died, and rose for man’s redemption. As Paul puts it, “In Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

4.   So, it is no surprise that we are called to Christ to be in Him, and in Him have salvation, a right relationship with the Father, and the hope of eternal life with God. Indeed, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is it! God’s redemptive efforts from beginning to end are brought together by Paul’s dramatic statement, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Conclusion

1.   Here, then, is the reach of God’s redemption. It stretches “before the foundation of the world” into eternity. In the final analysis it is “the summing up of all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10), “the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ” (3:11).

2.   And you can be involved; you can have a part in it all, you can be His and have His salvation. All God’s efforts to save humanity from sin are freely and fully available to us in Christ Jesus.

3.   The ultimate issue for us is the same as for all those before us.

As with Abraham, Israel, the kings, and the Jews and Gentiles of the first century, we must come to God in faith, want His forgiveness and follow His will, being in Jesus Christ. Having now put it all together, will you do this now?

http://www3.sympatico.ca/henkf

…….
  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Cartoon Site"  www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod/  *************************************                                                                            --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: sermonsonthenet-unsubscribe@welovegod.org  

Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

GOD WANTS ALL TO BE SAVED

Introduction:

1. It is important to recognize that in response to humanity’s sin, God, being God, had many alternatives open to Him. He could have rightly destroyed man immediately and completely, enforcing the “you shall surely die” clause on the spot. He could have abandoned man on the earth to suffer the consequences of his sin without extending any divine help.

2. But to see and understand the option God chose is truly amazing. God chose, and had actually chosen “before the foundation of the world,” to curb and control sin, and to rescue man from its clutches. The Biblical text is largely occupied with the record of God’s efforts to save humanity from sin.

3. To grasp a bit of the whole scheme of God’s efforts to save is to be humbled and moved to repentance and faith. If you read and study the Bible very much and hear preaching and teaching from it for very long, at some point the light comes on in your mind and you are able to put much of it together into a coherent whole.

4. This sermon is my effort at “putting it altogether” and helping the light of the gospel to come on in our minds. I hope you’ll sit back, relax, read and listen, and try to piece together the truly amazing and inspiring story of God’s efforts to save us from sin.

5. Though the story may be told in several ways, we will consider four portraits of God that mark out the major acts of God’s saving humanity. All I am actually doing is noticing and bringing out before us the four major ways God is described in Scripture.

I. THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB: GOD WHO CHOSE

A. Gen. 1-11 records the creation of all things by God’s power and providence and the distortion of all things by man’s sin.

1. From the beginning, there was a concern and a universal vision. God created all—“the heavens and the earth” (1:1), and cares for all—“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (1:31). Man and woman occupied a prominent place in creation, being made in the very image of the Creator (1:27).

2. But creation was substantially and adversely affected by human sin which disfigured and distorted God’s good handiwork. The opening chapters of Scripture document the proliferation and progression of sin. There was an avalanche of sin that put humanity in a dangerous and depressing situation in the world and before God.

3. The tower of Babel incident (11:1-9) represents man’s sinful, selfish ambition to make a name for himself, to be God for himself. God intervened in this attempt, preventing man from destroying himself by his sin, and providing a means of redemption.

B. Instead of man making a name for himself, God chose one man

(Abram) to make his name great. Abram would be blessed and would be a blessing to the world. In him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3).

1. This universal promise of divine blessing is extremely significant. It was given covenant status and form (Gen. 15) and memorialized in man’s flesh by circumcision in the succeeding generations of Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 17:7-11).

2. God’s covenant with Abraham was cherished and transferred from generation to generation—to Isaac (17:19-21; 26:3, 24), Jacob (28:13-15; 35:9-12), Joseph’s sons (48:8-20).

C. God came to be known more specifically as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6). This designation, prominent throughout Scripture, captures and expresses the fact of God’s choosing these men and purposing to bless the world through them. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God who chose. Don’t miss the significance of the fact that of all the alternatives open to God, He chose a man and his family through whom He would bless the entire world.

II. GOD WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT: GOD WHO DELIVERED

A. The generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned, for the most part, in the land of Canaan. The next generation, however, became enslaved in a foreign land, the land of Egypt. The people cried out to the Lord for help in their bondage (Ex.

2:23).

1. “So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (2:24), and took measures to deliver His people from their slavery. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was beginning to act on behalf of His people and would be known by them in a new way. They would know Him especially in connection with His delivering them from slavery.

2. God did this delivering through the leadership of Moses, bringing the Israelites out of Egypt by means of a series of plagues, the final one being the death of the firstborn. God preserved His own people by means of the blood smeared on their houses. On the fateful night of His striking the firstborn of the Egyptians, God would pass over His own people who had faithfully obeyed Him (Ex. 12:12-13).

3. As a memorial of this ominous and awesome occasion, the Lord established the Passover observance: “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place” (13:3). And future generation were to be reminded of this powerful deliverance (13:14-16).

B. Because of this new act of redemption, God became known by a new designation. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would now be known as “the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:2).

1. This became “the” significant feature of God’s actions toward His people. He is God who delivers and this made the relationship between God and His people all the more significant. Following the deliverance from Egypt and just prior to the nation’s entering the land He would give them, God set forth the terms of proper covenant relationship with Himself which we know as “the Law” given at Sinai. These terms of relationship would protect and preserve the nation so the people could participate in and enjoy the blessings of their God.

2. It is significant to notice that in both presentations of the law, God who set down these terms of proper relationship with Himself was God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Ex. 20:2, Deut. 5:6). We must not miss the force of the fact that God who directed their lives was first the God who delivered them from slavery. This same principle is active today in the way God deals with us. He directs us because He delivers us.

3. Throughout the Old Testament, God is referred to again and again as God, who with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, brought His people out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This deliverance or redemption was the one significant action of God toward His people. This assured them of God’s grace toward them while at the same time demanded their faithful obedience.

III. THE GOD OF YOUR FATHER DAVID: GOD WHO LED

(Our knowledge likely wanes a little when we it comes to the kings and prophets. Listen carefully!)

A. Israel was in the land of promise, and God made provisions for the nation to have a stable and favorable existence there. As the nation developed and existed in a world of other nations, and as His own people were persistently unfaithful to their God, God began to narrow His focus to a representative who was to lead the nation in God’s ways and through whom He could accomplish His ultimate purpose for them and the world.

1. This representative was Israel’s king who was to be the “Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. 16:1, 3) and a man after God’s own heart (13:14, 16:7). And many of you will recognize that God found a man like this in David (Acts 13:22). The character and faith of David were such that, despite his occasional weaknesses, he became God’s representative in the true sense of the word and led the nation to God and in the way of God. And he did so in a way like no other king before or after him.

2. God became known as “the Lord, the God of your father David” (2 Kings 20:5, 2 Chron. 21:12, Isa. 38:5). The kingship of Israel ideally represented the kingship of God Himself, so the throne of David emerged in Israel as the vehicle of God’s blessing the nation. Ideal kingship was an expression of divine leadership. God was leading His people through the kings, and the kings’ responsibility was to lead the nation in the ways of God.

3. This ideal kingship was formalized in a significant covenant God made with David (2 Samuel 7:5-16). God would make for David a great “name” (9), he would grant Israel a “place” of rest (10-11), and He would make a “house” for David (12-13). You will notice in this covenant and David’s response that follows striking similarities to the covenant God made with Abraham. Notice what’s happening: now it would be through David that the blessings made long ago to Abraham would be realized.

B. In the course of God’s fulfilling this covenant and granting these blessings, the line of Davidic kings was eventually cut off due to the kings’ blatant unfaithfulness to the Lord. In spite of this, however, the ideal surrounding the throne of David was pursued by psalmists and prophets as a hope developed of future restoration and blessing beyond judgment. This hope is frequently expressed in terms of the kingship or throne of David (Jer. 23:5-8).

1. The human kings never lived up to the Davidic ideal and in a national sense Israel never enjoyed the full blessings of God. But this did not stop God from pursuing His purposes for His people. The ideals remained and were pursued. God would continue to lead those who would follow, but this shows us that God’s leadership would always have to be redemptive in nature.

2. And as time passed, the throne of David as a blessing to the nation and the world was ultimately expressed in terms of a “Coming One” who would lead, save, and bless the world. We know this Coming One as the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of kings.

IV. GOD THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: GOD WHO SAVED

A. With the long history of promise and covenant, deliverance and direction, blessing and cursing past, Jesus came into the world. The dramatic opening statement of the New Testament is “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mat. 1:1).

1. In His own Son, God bridged the centuries to fulfill ancient promises and save the world from itself. Jesus Himself had a keen awareness of doing His Father’s business (Lk. 2:49, Jn. 4:34) and filling the role of Messiah (Lk. 4:16-21), though this was largely unrecognized by people while He was on earth.

2. Jesus was the climax of His Father’s efforts to save humanity from sin, but it would only be later that most recognized what Paul called, “the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and upon the earth” (Eph. 1:10). What God planned, promised, and pursued, He finally administered in Jesus (Eph. 1:10, 3:9).

3. So, God became known in yet another way, emphasizing the last and fullest efforts God made to save: “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:3) “who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3) and “who has bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

B. Jesus was heaven’s ultimate effort to accomplish our redemption. In Him—the God-man—sin was fully dealt with and its effects were cancelled for all those who will take advantage of His salvation.

1. This, for Paul, was of first importance, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

2. It was, according to Peter, “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23) as “announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets” (3:18). Notice how all these strands are brought together by Paul as he spoke in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia in Acts 13:16-41.

3. The facts of God’s redemptive activity in Christ are interpreted and developed throughout the New Testament documents, but none of them get very far away from the fact that Jesus came as the God-man, lived, died, and rose for man’s redemption. As Paul puts it, “In Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

4. So, it is no surprise that we are called to Christ to be in Him, and in Him have salvation, a right relationship with the Father, and the hope of eternal life with God. Indeed, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is it! God’s redemptive efforts from beginning to end are brought together by Paul’s dramatic statement, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Conclusion

1. Here, then, is the reach of God’s redemption. It stretches “before the foundation of the world” into eternity. In the final analysis it is “the summing up of all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10), “the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ” (3:11).

2. And you can be involved; you can have a part in it all, you can be His and have His salvation. All God’s efforts to save humanity from sin are freely and fully available to us in Christ Jesus.

3. The ultimate issue for us is the same as for all those before us.

As with Abraham, Israel, the kings, and the Jews and Gentiles of the first century, we must come to God in faith, want His forgiveness and follow His will, being in Jesus Christ. Having now put it all together, will you do this now?

http://www3.sympatico.ca/henkf

…….

  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Cartoon Site"  www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod/  *************************************                                                                            --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: sermonsonthenet-unsubscribe@welovegod.org