Bible Studies

Wednesday Night Bible Study

July 21, 2019

1Jn 5:20  And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 

The greatest obstacle facing humanity is our willful lack of understanding of God.  Our spiritual condition is wrapped up in our dealing with ourself.  Man does not see the sinfulness of sin nor does he see himself as a sinner or as one who needs to know the LORD in a personal way.  And then to grow up in Him, Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving

Why does all mankind need to know Him?  The answer is simple: it is sin and all have sinned, [1]"The Bible is specific upon that point. Experience verifies that truth. Observation corroborates it. The sin of the world is a universal matter. "There is no man that sinneth not," is as true, as terribly, bitterly, tragically true to-day as it was at the time when Solomon pleaded it with God. Sin is still the eternal problem of God and of man. It is the fertile root from which spring all the troubles that human flesh is heir to.

Solve the problem of sin, and wars will vanish, class inequality will disappear, poverty will be banished, race barriers will be dissipated as the sun dissipates the morning mists. Solve the problem of sin, and sorrow, suffering, sickness, strife will be the forgotten difficulties of a hazy past. Solve the problem of sin, and you can scrap the navies, discharge the armies, spike the cannons, melt the battleships, commercialize the bombers, close the penitentiaries, vacate the hospitals, empty the cemeteries. Sin, sin, sin is the miasmic ground from which sprout the noxious, bitter, poisonous weeds that have choked up the fair Edens that God and men would fain have built.

Sin is a disease. It is the fever of the mind, befogging, bedimming, deluding, thwarting, corrupting, warping, twisting man's clean intellect into a breeding place of evil fancies and wicked imaginings. It is the tuberculosis of the heart, undermining, debilitating, weakening the appetites, the emotions, the affections, sickening them with every vile vapour of miasmic transgression. It is the cancer of the soul, an extraneous growth that stifles its beauty, sickens its spirituality, choke its divinity, destroys its vitality."

Sin goes beyond the grave.  Its cure cannot be found in medicine, reformation, commitment or religion.  Its cure is beyond the bounds of human intervention. Rom 3:9  What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 It is God's will that you have this understanding of the Gospel, 1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.  Titus 3:1-6, i.e. 4-5 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

God cannot be known through earthly wisdom, 1Co 2:1 -5 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

The LORD asks this question: Jer_32:27  Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?  Our faith must rest in the LORD and not in the power of the flesh.

He is known through the Word. John 1:14 And the Word was made 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. 

God has made a way for us to know Him Joh 14:6-11  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake

It was as the Son of Man that He died on the Cross, John 3:13, And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (His incarnation was known in heaven before He came)

God hath redeemed all by the blood of this One Man, Jesus Christ.   John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  The Truth is the complete revelation of God in Christ and Christ in God, i.e. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life:

What does it mean that He gave His Only begotten Son?  From eternity past, He looked beyond the birth and saw the life  – He looked beyond the Life and saw the Cross – He looked beyond the Cross and saw the Resurrection – He looked beyond the Resurrection and saw His Coming. He looked beyond the Second Coming and saw Christ on His throne.  And that is the One He gave, "For God so loved the world (you and me) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

We have this treasure in earthen vessels:  2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We have the Light of the Gospel, the Truth of Christ, in our bodies.  Earthen vessels were not the treasure; they were cheap and easily replaced if broken or chip.  We are just mere humans and there is no power in us for we are sin, Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.  

We have no power to redeem our self.  That was the truth that perplexed Nicodemus. John 3:7-9  

It was as the Son of Man that Christ died on the Cross, John 3:10-15. The Power is in the finished work of Christ, 1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.  It is there for all to see;  the power is not of us but of God:  (2)But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

[3]"In days of the writer of the Bible earthen vessels were used to store treasurers, Herodotus says of the king of Persia: "The great king stores away the tribute which he receives after this fashion: he melts it down, and, while it is in a liquid state, runs it into earthen vessels, which are afterward removed, by being broken and thrown away leaving the metal in a solid mass" (3:96). Stanley cites the story of a Rabbi who was taunted with his mean appearance by the emperor's daughter, and who replied by referring to the earthen vessels in which her father kept his wines. At her request the wine was shifted to silver vessels, whereupon it turned sour. Then the Rabbi observed that the humblest vessels contained the highest wisdom."

We are broken vessels! Chipped, marred and broken by sin but not discarded by the Master but have been redeemed for all to see, "°.we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. "

"Excellency" That the surpassing greatness of our salvation is by the power of God and not of us.

Will, you today be as the young man in Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. Luk 15:20  And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. Luk 15:21  And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

He first came to himself and remembered his father's house.  Second, he said I will arise and go to my father and say I have sin against heaven and before thee (Psa 51:4  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.).  Third, he arose and came to his father and said I am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as a hired servant and you know the rest of the story.  From this point on it is no more about the son and his sin but about the Father and His Love, Grace, Compassion, and Forgiveness! And you will find the same Grace and Forgiveness if you arise and go to the Father.