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<2022.02> God Reveals His Love for Man

North American Bible Study Meeting, 2006
God Reveals His Love for Man
December 26th, 2006, Afternoon Lecture
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.  Titus 3:4-5
We who Are Born Again through the Word that Was from the Beginning
Let’s turn to Psalm 84. 
How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young—even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!  verses 1-12
This passage includes the expressions “Your tabernacle,” “Your altars,” and “Your house.” It also says, “Your courts.” This seems to be presenting us with a place that is tangible, a place we might attempt to depict in our minds. I think passages like this will resonate far more with the Jews who lived during Old Testament times and recorded the Scriptures than they do with us as Gentiles.
Previously, we considered the church. Many such passages in the Old Testament provide lessons for us, and they are actually accomplished within us. Also, the Old Testament presents, in the form of events that took place on this earth, a shadow of the tremendous blessing that will come to us. 
Now let’s turn to Matthew chapter 5. There it says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you . . . You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you” (verses 21-22, 27-28). 
When we read these words, write them down, and talk about them, we generally think of “those of old” as referring to people like Moses who would have spoken about matters of old, and because Jesus said, “But I say to you,” we think of Him as saying something new. This would not be incorrect. After all, Jesus Himself said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). He spoke of  “a new commandment.”
But, let’s think about the order here: first, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old,” and then He said, “But I say to you.” On the one hand, He refers to those of old, and on the other hand, He says, “I say to you.” Jesus spoke these words to the Israelites when He came to this world in human form. It is all a matter of what the original intent was. 
There are many passages in the Old Testament in which such matters are presented in the form of a story rather than straightforward words. To give you an example, when it comes to the relationship between Isaac and Ishmael, even though Ishmael was definitely the elder brother and Isaac the younger, Isaac became the son who received God’s promise of the inheritance even before they were born. 
The matter of the second-born son receiving the blessing can also been seen in the stories of Cain and Abel, and Esau and Jacob. The same is true of the story of Joseph and his brothers. We come across many such accounts in the book of Genesis, and we can also see this in the book of Esther.
The question is, when did God promise the blessing He originally intended to give? In the Bible, the church always appears second. This is the order we find. In the Bible, the story of the Israelites appears in the Old Testament, and then as we continue to the New Testament, we find it talking about the church. Yet, as we are living in the present age—the age of the church—we need to consider when God originally had the plan in His heart for the seed of His word that would be planted in your heart.
Let’s think about this as we slowly read John’s Gospel chapter 1 from verse 1.
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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  verses 1-14
In the first verse here we find the expression “In the beginning.” We have this short sentence that says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Now let’s turn to John chapter 10 and read from verse 34.
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”  verses 34-36
At this time, Jesus explained to His disciples about God the Father, and He said that many sheep would be fed by His coming to this world. Jesus was speaking in the temple when He referred to God as His Father, and because of this, the Pharisees tried to stone Him to death.
The words, “If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)” are a reference to Psalm 82 (see verse 6). These are very strange words. No matter how much you think about it, you will know you are not a god, in fact it would be a problem if you thought you were a god. Even so, we can see that the Bible acknowledges this.
Here Jesus also said “to whom the word of God came,” and these words hold a very important significance for us. The day when we were born again was different for each of us, but one thing is certain, and that is that we were all changed through the words of the Bible. This is why we sing hymns that refer to the fact that we are of one blood and one body.
We need to consider seriously the question as to when the seed that has fallen into our hearts actually started out. This one sentence is enough to tell us this:
In the beginning was the Word.  John 1:1
It was there from the beginning; it is simply because of our ignorance that we are barely able to see through the words of the Bible the seed of God’s word that pierced through our hearts of stone. In other words, this is saying that the words of the Bible which exist in the realms of God’s time have been planted in our hearts as we live within the confines of time and space. The Bible expresses this in various ways as, for example, “receiving eternal life,” “being saved,” or “being born again.” This is a tremendous blessing.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1
As we read the Old and New Testaments, we find God supplied the words that were appropriate for the age in which they were written, but there are many times when we forget the heart of God that is hidden away behind these words. The Bible is saying that the word was with God, that God existed as the word within the realms of a time that man cannot possible imagine before God had the words of the Bible recorded, before the Bible and man existed in this world, before the beginning when “God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void” (Genesis 1:1-2). It is telling us that this word is the same seed of the word that was planted in the hearts of each one of us when we were born again.
I have a reason for repeating myself on this matter. It is that it is absolutely necessary for us to understand this in order to understand Jesus, the central figure of what we read in the Bible, and the church, His partner in love. 
There is also an order to the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It says, “the heavens and the earth.” First God created the heavens. It was some time after this that He formed the earth. Since “the heavens and the earth” is such a short phrase, it is easy for us to think God created both together. Many biblical scholars also think in this way.
Yet, we can see very clearly from the Bible that God created the heavens first. These are not the heavens through which we fly when we travel by plane. Those heavens are just a small model of the heavens that God created first. Through the Bible, God tells us there is a world above.
In the Psalms, we read that God had a plan even before this creation. These are matters so far removed from our present reality that they sound strange to us. We do not even know what happened before we were born. Perhaps you have seen a photograph of your greatgrandfather, but if you go back further than that, you will probably know nothing about your ancestors except perhaps their names. We have never seen those ancestors and there is little evidence of their existence.
Nevertheless, as we were living within this very short period of time and with our very narrow thoughts, we somehow manage to experience being born again through the words of the Bible. Through the Bible, we found the cross of Jesus and came to believe with absolute assurance that we have been forgiven for our sins, the evidence of this being planted in our hearts. It is God who plants that faith in our hearts. The words that God granted to us in our hearts existed from the beginning.
We also need to know that the Bible tells us that in the beginning God had a secret that He was intending to reveal to us through the Bible. This secret is not related to Israel. The history of Israel was determined after the creation of this world so that God might accomplish the plan He originally had. It is what the Bible refers to as the “church” that is prophesied and predestined in the words of the Bible. Constructing a building, hanging a crucifix on it, and giving people titles such as deacon or bishop does not in any way constitute the church that appears in the Bible. According to the Bible, the church is the gathering of people who have had a definite experience of being born again in their hearts. This is the church in God’s eyes. 
The Saints in Ephesus 
and Faithful in Christ Jesus
Keeping John chapter 1 in mind, let’s turn now to Ephesians chapter 1. As we are reading the Bible, there are times when we come across something that seems very strange to us. As we read the books in the Bible, in particular, the letters from Romans through to Hebrews, First John, Second John, and Third John, and the letter of Jude, and as we examine their content, we find it is as if we had turned on several television sets and were watching them all at the same time. It is like watching a motor race. The strange thing is that they all have the same destination. This is true not only of the letters, but the other books as well. The entire Bible is like this. That one destination where we are to arrive is a common theme throughout the Bible.
Each book and each letter
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