Psalm 97:9 (CSB) For you, LORD, are the Most High over the whole earth; you are exalted above all the gods. And how can we even fathom this glory of God? How can we fully look upon God in his sheer radiance, beauty, and majesty without our minds and eyes and hearts shutting down? It is sheer madness. And that is exactly what God wants! He wants to be with him forever and ever....
Isaiah 48:9–11 (CSB) 9 I will delay my anger for the sake of my name, and I will restrain myself for your benefit and for my praise, so that you will not be destroyed. 10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own, for how can I be defiled?...
We have fully established that we are not fully alive despite being biologically alive. Throughout the Bible, starting in Genesis 2, God states that sin separates the soul of man from the spirit of God. And without God, we are dead. And just being dead is not enough: Ephesians 2:1-3 (CSB) And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient....
When God saved us from eternity past, His saving work was not finished when Christ lived, died, buried, and rose again, as though there is nothing for him for his people. You see, every single person born of man since Adam and Eve were born inherently not in connection with God but being apart from God both infinitely and eternally. That separation is because we have no spirit of God because our hearts were not born of God....
Matthew 1:21 (CSB) She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This has been one of the most difficult chapters to write because there is so much to be packed into the doctrine of propitiation. The only way I could approach this is to start at the beginning and start at the high altitude and work our way down....
1 John 1:9 (CSB) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the magnificence of the True God. The God of the Old Testament who called down judgment on the wicked and the departed. The same God who expressed His faithfulness to His people who were faithless. The God whose steadfast love never ceased to those whom he promised would make things all things right....
Many people tried to say that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are completely two different gods. Have you heard this argument? Why was God so angry? Why is Jesus so loving and kind? Was God in the Old Testament was the Father and then his Son took over in the New? I don’t understand a god that would punish people. I can only understand a god that loves....
The Introduction How did God save us? What does the Bible say? Chapter 1 The Overflowing Love of God - The Predestination of God Chapter 2 The Weight of Sin - The Fall of Mankind Chapter 3 For God So Loved the World - The Gospel of God Chapter 4 We Are Destined to Die - The Wages of Sin If you are not in Christ, you must know where you are at right now in order to see what God does to rescue you....
How does God determine who he will save and not save? If you ever speak about the doctrine of election and predestination, you are sure to get that question asked. Numerous times have I been asked this and numerous times the answer of “his glory”: Isaiah 48:11 (CSB) I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own, for how can I be defiled? I will not give my glory to another....
Now that we have established who we are in the sight of God, let us tackle the bigger, nay impossible question: Who is God? Beyond the authoritative Scriptures, each single attribute has had countless books and papers written describing in full detail the awesome majesty of God. Yet, when I read the Bible, I am truly confident of who God is for God is love. The Bible overwhelmingly states this to be so....
Before we can even try to understand what God has done in Salvation, we must first truly understand our condition as human beings born on this earth. I feel compelled to at least touch on this doctrine for I believe that many Christians sometimes either forget their natural state before God saved them or they simply don’t remember being that ‘bad’ of a person before being saved. It is not that we have to dwell on our depravity, our flesh, our sin nature but to ignore or forget about it would absolutely rob our heart of joy and worship before the Lord....
To proclaim ourselves as Christians is to proclaim that we believe and trust upon Christ as our Saviour and Lord. At that beautiful moment, when God saved us, we hope and pray that each one of us are immediately surrounded by other brothers and sisters in Christ that are willing to walk alongside with us in love, encouragement, teaching and exhortation. This is called discipleship. This is the grassroots of the Great Commission....
Exodus 14:1-4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD....
Exodus 29:43 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. Exodus 31:13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified....
_Lord, you are more precious than silver. Lord, you are more costly than gold. Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds, and nothing I desire compares with you._ 2 Chronicles 20:7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? Ruth 1:16-18 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you....
John 14:18-21 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me....
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!...
Genesis 24:27 and said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps....
Genesis 6:5-6 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Lamentations 5:3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. 1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were....
Isaiah 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Genesis 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Genesis 6:5-9 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually....
Psalm 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life....
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. Exodus 6:1-9 But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land....
Leviticus 6:28 And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken. But if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed in water. Leviticus 16:21-22 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness....
Luke 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Leviticus 6:28 And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken. But if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed in water. Isaiah 53:1-12 Who has believed what he has heard from us?...
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Ephesians 1:3-10 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him....
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 1 Chronicles 16:34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Matthew 5:45 For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ...
John 1:1-5; 14-18 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” ...
Leviticus 18:24-22:31 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.” ...
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost....