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If
you’ll go ahead and open up to Hebrews Chapter 1, that is the passage
where we will begin the lesson this evening.
I’m going to try to cover quite a bit of information in the lesson
tonight, and so I’m going to speak fairly quickly but we’re not going to go
into detail or hardly anything. The
lesson tonight is an overview of the Old Testament.
Hopefully, there’s something that will be presented in the lesson
tonight that will be helpful in your reading and studying of the Old Testament.
The reason I wanted to do this lesson at this time is because, in looking
at our daily Bible-reading schedule, we’ll be getting to an area, before too
long — in the Old Testament — where I’m afraid sometimes some
people who are reading that material have some misunderstanding or difficulties
in understanding or knowing exactly the context.
We’re going to talk more about that here in just a moment.
But
in Hebrews Chapter 1, beginning in verse 1,
“(Hebrews 1:1) God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
“(2) Hath in these last days spoken unto us by
his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds;
“(3) Who being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high.”
We
find here, in the opening of the book of Hebrews, the theme for the book, the
focus on Christ and the preeminence of Christ, the exalted position of Christ.
We find, throughout the book of Hebrews, the exalting of Christ above
that of Moses, the exalting of the gospel above the law.
Now, the Jews at this time — there were those who had a hard time
accepting Christ as the promised Messiah for a variety of reasons.
They had a hard time letting go of the law. And the point here, as we find in other books of the Bible
also, was that it was time to let go of the law, it was a thing of the past.
It had been done away with, nailed to the cross of Christ, and we now are
to abide under the gospel of Christ. Notice
what it says in Hebrews Chapter 2, beginning in verse 1.
“(Hebrews 2:1) Therefore we ought” —
notice, there’s a condition, there’s an obligation: we ought — “to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we should let them slip.
“(2) For if the word spoken by angels was
stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of
reward;
“(3) How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him;
“(4) God also bearing them witness, both with
signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
according to his own will?”
So
we see that Jesus, here, purged us from our sins. We saw that in Chapter 1.
We see here that there is the message of great salvation that is
available to us, and that opportunity is available; because of the sacrifice of
Christ, we can have our sins forgiven and look forward to a home in heaven.
We’ve
already seen reference to a message delivered before: the writing of the
prophets, the teaching of the prophets. And
notice, when we read the Old Testament scripture, it points forward to the
coming of the new, and the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament scriptures. We find here in Hebrews Chapter 10 verse 1, it
says,
“(Hebrews 10:1) For the law having a shadow of
good things to come....”
See,
the law was not meant to be permanent. It
was part of God’s plan of salvation for mankind.
It was temporary. It was a shadow of other things to come, and those other
things to come being in the form of Jesus, the Messiah, and the teachings that
he brought to us. Of course, in
John Chapter 12 verses 48 through 50, we’re told that Jesus didn’t
bring his own commandment, didn’t bring his own thing, but he taught the
commandments of the Father, passed that along to the apostles, they being guided
by the Holy Spirit into all truth. And
then we have the recorded teachings in the scriptures today. If you back up a couple of chapters, in Hebrews Chapter 8,
talking about Jesus as our high priest, making the offer, the sacrifice for us,
his own body and blood upon the cross, a high priest that now gives us access to
our Father in heaven. It says, in
verse 6,
“(Hebrews 8:6) But now hath he” — Jesus —
“obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
“(7) For if that first covenant had been
faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”
So
we find prophecies within the scriptures of a new covenant to come.
If you notice, in verse 9 it talks about a covenant, not according
to the covenant made with the Father, talking about the time in which they were
led out of the land of Egypt. This is another covenant to come, a better
covenant, a new covenant. And notice what it says in verse 13.
“(Hebrews 8:13) In that he saith, A new
covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is
ready to vanish away.”
So
we have individuals who have differing views on how much we should study the Old
Testament, how much we should read in the Old Testament, how much we should try
to learn about the law. Remember,
it’s important to keep in mind that not all of the Old Testament scripture is
the law of Moses. The book of
Genesis and the beginning of the book of Exodus covers a period prior to the
law. But of course, the majority of the Old Testament does cover
the time in which the people were living under the law of Moses.
But in Romans Chapter 15 verse 4 — remember, this
morning I said I’d make reference to Romans 15:4 — Paul makes it very
clear that the Old Testament scriptures are still very beneficial to us.
He says,
“(Romans 15:4) For whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Well,
what was it that was written aforetime?
The same as is referred to there in the book of Hebrews, the writings of
the prophets, the Old Testament scriptures, including the law.
Paul says that those things are there for our
learning. So yes, we are under
the New Testament scriptures; we are bound by the New Testament, the new
covenant. But that doesn’t mean
that we should discard or neglect the Old Testament scriptures, because there is
much to be learned in those scriptures. We
learn more about God. We learn
about our origination. We learn of
the history of His people. We learn
of the instructions that He gave to His people and the concepts in which He
dealt with them. He gave them
instructions, and with those instructions, there was the responsibility to obey
those instructions, that they were given great and wonderful privileges as the
chosen people of God under the law of Moses, this Jewish nation.
But that with those privileges, there were also conditions and
responsibilities, and with those responsibilities also came accountability.
We are offered far-exceeding privileges under the gospel of Christ, but
there are conditions that go with those privileges.
There are responsibilities that go with those privileges, and there is
accountability for and to our responsibilities.
We learn a lot about God’s dealings with mankind, that He expects
mankind to obey Him, and when people turn away from God, then there are
consequences to be faced. And when
people obey God, there is reward that is received.
But
what I’d like to do this evening is consider the Old Testament in a broad
overview, because I’m afraid that, with our reading of the Old Testament,
there are times in which we get kind of bogged down.
Sometime we can get ourselves confused.
We lose sight of the context of what’s taking place.
There are a couple of things that happen, I’m afraid, that cause us to
not learn as much as we could from the Old Testament. First of all, we struggle
with those long names and places, the words that we kind of stutter through.
And I do all the time, stutter through those names and those places.
Please don’t allow that to get you bogged down, but look at the overall
context of what is being spoken, the overall message. I think probably the primary reason that sometimes people
have a tendency to kind of get bogged down or seem to lose their place when
reading the Old Testament, is because when we open a book — for instance,
a novel — and we start at the beginning of that book, we read it through
in order, and it’s in chronological order.
That is not the case with the scriptures. They don’t follow a chronological order in the Old
Testament scriptures, and we’re going to see that by this diagram here this
evening. So when we are reading a
book, if we know the chronological order, or the estimated chronological order,
then we can read it in that order if we like.
Or we can go ahead and read in the order that the books appear in the
scriptures, but if we do that, then we need to know the context surrounding that
book: what’s taking place
historically; what is the situation with God’s people, if we’re reading of
times under the law. That will
certainly help us to have a better understanding and be able to follow along
better with what’s taking place.
In
this chart this evening, it divides the Old Testament into twelve different
periods or twelve different categories. We
find here, beginning with the section entitled ante — I believe that’s
the correction pronunciation. See,
I’m stuttering over one of the short words.
It’s antediluvian: ante meaning
before, diluvian in reference to the
flood. And so this is the time
before and leading up to the flood. Of
course, this is the first part of the scriptures, Genesis 1 through Genesis 7,
and here we find the creation of mankind and we find some things involving
mankind, with Adam and Eve and sin entering into the world from the very
beginning, at their time in the Garden of Eden.
And we find here, at that very moment when sin entered into the world,
mankind needed a redeemer; God’s plan was already underway to provide that.
You see, God’s plan of salvation for mankind doesn’t begin with the
book of Matthew, in the New Testament; it beings with the book of Genesis, and
it continues throughout the scriptures. So
we find the sinfulness of mankind also in these early chapters of the
scriptures; we find the great spread of sin and how it got to the point where
even the thoughts of mankind were evil continually.
We find the flood being sent, but Noah and his family, or course, being
spared through that flood.
We
then come to the postdiluvian. This
is the time after the flood, Genesis Chapter 8 through Genesis Chapter 11.
Here we find the repopulation of the earth.
Of course, we’re down to Noah and his family, and so we are given quite
a bit of information regarding genealogies, such and such begat such and such,
who begat such and such, having to do with Noah, his sons and their families.
Within this information, we find some information regarding the
development and establishment of different nations. We find, in these chapters, mentioning of the Isles
of the Gentiles, and so we have some information here about the development
of the Jews and the Gentiles. We
also find here the Tower of Babel. We
usually say babble; I believe the correction pronunciation is Babel, the Tower
of Babel. The people were building
a tower to reach into the heavens with their determinations, what they wanted to
do. God saw that that was not good,
and He separated the people and gave them separate languages.
That’s an interesting passage.
But
then we move on to Genesis Chapter 12 through Genesis Chapter 50. We refer to this as the Patriarchal section of the Old
Testament: patriarch meaning father.
Here we are given some information about some of the fathers of some of
the families, those who were directly involved with the plan of salvation, the
lineage that would lead us to Christ. Here
we learn of Abraham, often referred to as Father Abraham.
We hear of the promise that God made to Abraham, that Abraham, and his descendancies
(phonetic), there would be a great nation, that they would be given a land, and
that through his seed, Abraham’s seed, all nations of the earth would be
blessed. The rest of the scriptures
fulfill that promise that was made to Abraham.
And then it was repeated through Abraham’s descendants, through Isaac
and Jacob. We hear Joseph, at the
end of Exodus, repeating that promise to his family.
Now, of course, there were other children, but we are given the details
on this individuals, for the most part, because, again, this was the lineage
that would lead us to Christ. So we
see again, God’s providential care and that He is in control and that He has
His plan in place. Ephesians 1
tells us that plan was in place before the foundations of the world.
With
Joseph, we find that he is despised by his brothers because he is Jacob’s
favorite, and so the plot against him and sell him into slavery.
Through the providence of God and the virtue of Joseph and his obedience,
Joseph finds himself, through a sequence of events, at the right hand of
Pharaoh. A very, very powerful
position in the Egyptian Empire, and they were very strong at that time.
And so Joseph is in a place of authority and power.
We find that he interprets the dreams that indicate that there would be,
in the land of Egypt and the surrounding area, seven years of plenty followed by
seven years of famine. He then
gives the recommendation that Egypt should take in store portions of the crops
from the seven years of plenty, and should keep those on hand to make it through
the seven years of famine. During
that time, the years of the famine, the nations surrounding Egypt would come and
buy grain from Egypt, including Joseph’s brothers.
Well, we know how the story goes, that he eventually reveals himself to
them, invites them to come down with their families, Jacob and his family and
all of their belongings, to come down and dwell in the land of Egypt.
And so that takes us through Genesis Chapter 50, and we find that
Joseph passes away. Things are going pretty well for Abraham’s descendants down
through Isaac and Jacob, and at this point they’re in a good position in
Egypt. But things change quickly.
When
we come to the book of Exodus, beginning in Exodus Chapter 1, we find the
Egyptian bondage. There is a change
of Pharaohs in Egypt. This Pharaoh
was not familiar with Joseph, and he felt threatened, because of the great
numbers of the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, that were dwelling there in
Egypt. After all, if an enemy came
up against Egypt and these descendants of Abraham sided with the enemy, Egypt
would be in trouble. So he put them
in bondage, and we find that in the opening chapters of Exodus. Then we hear of Moses, who was spared, even though there were
instructions to kill the male babies who were born. We find Moses being spared, being brought up in the house of
Pharaoh. Hebrews Chapter 11
tells us how Moses forsook the riches of Egypt, because he knew it was worth the
reward in Christ and in God’s plan and in obedience to Him.
We find Moses slaying another Egyptian and then leaving the land of
Egypt. We find, through a sequence
of events, he encounters the Burning Bush, he investigates, and God gives him
instructions. to go back down into Egypt and stand before Pharaoh and demand
that the people be released. We
find that taking place. Pharaoh
hardened his heart, of course; he wouldn’t release the people.
We find God sending the plagues upon the Egyptians, and Pharaoh
eventually — although he was very stubborn — but Pharaoh
eventually allowed the people to leave.
Then
we come to the wilderness wandering. Now,
up to this point, we are, pretty much, in chronological order, only involving
the books of Genesis and Exodus. That
shows up how much is covered, how much information is in, in particular, the
book of Genesis, also in the book of Exodus.
We find a great amount of information and the foundation being laid upon
which the plan of God unfolds throughout the rest of the scriptures.
We find, when we get to the wilderness wandering, this is the time in
which the people were leaving Egypt, heading toward the promised land.
We find, along the way, that now some other books of the Bible come into
the picture. We find, when we read
the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, they all cover this time
period, or they all happen under the context of this particular situation of the
wilderness wandering. Remember, the people made it right up to the southern tip of
the promised land. They were right
there on the borders. It was there
to be given by God. God instructed
them to send spies to go into the land, to seek it out, one from each tribe of
the children of Jacob, the family of Joseph.
So
we find that the twelve spies go in, they spy out the land.
They’re in there for forty days. They
come back and say, Yes, it’s a good
land. But there are people there
that are awful strong. They’re
giants. They have strong armies.
They’re well armed. They
have fortified cities, walled cities. If
we go in, we don’t stand a chance. They
discouraged the people; they wanted to turn around and go back to Egypt even.
And so we find that God punished them and said that for each day those
spies were in the promised land, that they would spend a year wandering in the
wilderness. And so they wandered
for forty years. The purpose of
that was so that that first generation that rejected God and didn’t follow His
commandments would literally die out, saving Caleb and Joshua, because they gave
a good report and they encouraged people to go into the land.
But the people wouldn’t listen, and so we find the wilderness wandering
taking a forty-year period in which the people would die.
And then the second generation would go into the land, and in the book of
Deuteronomy, those instructions are being given to that second generation that
is about to go in and inherit the land.
That
brings us, then, to the book of Joshua, the period of the Canaan conquest.
They were to go into the land of Canaan and conquer the land — of
course, with God providing the way. We
find, at this point now, that Moses had died, and Joshua is now the leader of
the people. We find him going in
and doing battle with the nations that possessed the land, and they were given
the instructions to utterly destroy those people, to completely drive them out.
They came close to doing that, but they didn’t quite accomplish that,
they didn’t quite follow God’s instructions completely.
And they paid the consequences of it for years to come.
Because those people that were in the land had forgotten God.
They’d completely turned away from God.
They were idolatrous. They
were a bad influence. And
unfortunately, the children of Israel fell to their influences.
As a matter of fact, we find here the inheritances being given. We find now that the people are dispersed through the
promised land, no longer gathered together as one group as they had been up to
this point, looking toward one particular person, either Moses or Joshua, for
leadership. But now they are to go
to their individual lands. They are
to maintain the law and keep the law and maintain their worship through the
priests that also were there in the land. But
the people failed to do so.
That
brings us to the period of the Judges, sometimes referred to as the dark days
for the children of Israel, for God’s people.
We’re now in the book of Judges, in the first part of I Samuel.
We find that there was a cycle that the people went through.
They would follow God for a while, and things would go well.
But then, usually because of the influences that remained in the land
because they hadn’t followed God’s instructions in the first place, they
would be led away from obedience to God, and they would turn to idolatry. Because of that, God would allow them to be overthrown, to be
oppressed, and the people would be in a difficult situation because of their
sin. Then they would realize that, This
isn’t the way it should be, and they would realize that they were in that
situation because they had turned away from God, they had sinned, and so they
would repent. Repent back to God
and pray to God and ask for His help. And
so He would raise up a judge.
Now,
when we think of the word judge, we
normally think of a person who sits in a court of law and passes sentencing.
Well, actually, the idea here is that the judge was more of a deliverer.
God would bring up a deliverer to rally the people, lead the people and
deliver them out of the hands of their oppressors.
At this time also we find — as I’ve already mentioned here, in I Samuel
Chapters 1 through 9 covering this period — Samuel, because Samuel
was the last of the judges. But we
also find the book of Ruth taking place during this overall time period, the
period of the Judges. And if
you’ll notice, I put Job on this list here with a question mark. There is some debate as to where the book of Job would belong
in the chronological order, in terms of time frame. It is thought to be one of the older books, and there are
differences in ideas as to how old, exactly.
Some would actually put it earlier on the outline.
I don’t know, and so I put it there with a question mark, so please
keep that in mind. We’re going to
see some dates here in a moment on this outline, and please keep in mind that
those dates are approximate. Some of those, we know rather well; some, we don’t know
exactly, and so those dates are approximate.
But again, looking for an overview, and idea of a chronological order.
Through
the period of the Judges, there were fifteen different judges, with, as I’ve
already said, Samuel being the last. And
it comes to the point where the people no longer want that type of system. They want a king. They
see the nations around them that have kings, and they want a king, so God allows
that to take place. He realizes
that the people are rejecting Him, because they don’t want their system, they
want their own, they want a kingdom. And
God allows that, and He designates Saul as the first king.
We have the time of the united kingdom — that lasts through Saul,
David, and Solomon — in which there was one nation.
Now
we find several books, and here’s where sometimes we can get bogged down a
little. This period of the united
kingdom is covered through the rest of I Samuel.
II Samuel focuses in on the time of David.
We find I Kings, in Chapters 1 through 11, covering this time
period. Also in the book of I Chronicles,
in the first ten chapters of II Chronicles, Chapters 1 through 9.
So when we read those portions of those books, let’s keep in mind that,
within the context, we’re talking about the united kingdom, with the people
all in one nation. But also we find
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon being written during this
time, because Psalms, of course, primarily written by David; Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon being accredited to Solomon.
So those books are being written, or were written, during this united
kingdom.
But
now we get down to the portion where sometimes we lose our context.
If you’ll notice here, I have the date of 931 BC. That is an important date, because in that date, the kingdoms
split. God’s people were not
getting along. They were having a
lot of struggles and debates amongst themselves, different issues, and so the
kingdom splits, and now we have a divided kingdom, the northern kingdom of
Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Let’s
talk about Israel here for just a moment, the northern kingdom.
We find that they existed for some time, up until 722 BC.
The king, overall, of the northern kingdom of Israel, were very sinful,
and it seemed like one was trying to out-do the one before, in terms of being
more sinful. The nation turned away
from God more and more as they progressed.
There was warning after warning that was given to them, but they refused
to listen and refused to repent. And
so, in 722 BC, the Assyrians came into the northern kingdom and overthrew
it, took it into bondage, and it was never reinstated as its own nation again.
That was the end of the northern nation. We find that this divided kingdom is covered in the books of
I Kings Chapters 12 through 22, the book of II Kings, and II Chronicles
Chapters 10 through 36.
If
you would turn to II Chronicles Chapter 36 — now if you’ll turn
the page — according to this outline, we find that Joel was one of the
earliest writings of the prophets. It’s
estimated here that he wrote in the 800s, still well within the time of the
divided kingdom, both Israel and Judah. But
what book do you see when you turn the page after II Chronicles?
The book of Ezra. Notice on this chart where Ezra is. On down the line quite a ways.
You see, the scriptures are not in chronological order.
We need to keep that in mind. If
we read of the time of Ezra, we’re reading of a time that comes on down the
road a ways. We’ll talk about
that more in just a moment. But if you go in a chronological order and we find that those
who wrote during the divided kingdom, we’ll find Joel and Amos and Hosea,
Jonah. Of course, Jonah didn’t
prophesy or spread the word to Israel and Judah; he was told to go to the
Ninevites. It is estimated —
again, a question mark there — that it was sometime during that time
frame that that took place. We find
Isaiah starting his work right before the Assyrians overthrew the northern
kingdom. Then after 722 BC, of
course, those prophets that taught the word of the Lord were teaching the
southern kingdom of Judah, because the northern kingdom did not exist any
longer.
Hopefully,
this will give you an idea. Of
course, there are individual lessons in each and every one of these books that
we don’t have the time to approach tonight.
But notice here, we have a date of 606 BC
and Carchemish that is listed there. That is a location in which a battle took place in 606 BC:
the Babylonians fought with the Egyptians, and the Babylonians won.
So here we have the Babylonians coming into power, and the reason that is
a significant date is not only because the Babylonians are eventually the ones
that are going to take the southern kingdom of Judah into captivity.
That process started on that occasion, on 606, and involving some of the
children of God along with the relationships in that battle, some of God’s
people were taken captive at that date. Now,
they had been warned by these prophets over and over, that there was punishment
to come if they did not repent and turn back to God, and we see that process
taking place. However, the prophets
continued with their messages. But
yet, the people were still reluctant and hardhearted.
Of
course, there was a seventy-year period that was talked about in the scriptures
and warned of in the scriptures, and we see that fulfilled, the seventy years of
captivity. Some say that you should
start counting that seventy years on this occasion, 606, because that was the
time when the first group was taken captive.
But others say that, actually, we should wait and start counting in 586 BC,
another very important date. Nebuchadnezzar,
who was the king of the Babylonians, came in and overthrew Jerusalem at that
date, destroying the temple, which is very significant, because the temple that
Solomon had built was the house of God, the dwelling place of God, and now it is
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Some
say that is when you should start counting the seventy years, because that is
when Jerusalem was taken, the capitol city, that’s when the temple was
destroyed.
Well,
keep that in mind, but notice here that when the captivity starts and continues,
God’s message is still being taught. Ezekiel
and Daniel were among those who taught during the captivity.
As a matter of fact, if you turn to the book of Daniel, in Daniel Chapter 4
verse 1, we see Nebuchadnezzar being referred to — again, the king
of the Babylonians — so we see that this is during that captivity.
However, if you go Daniel Chapter 6 verse 1, we see Darius
being referred to. Now, if you back
up to the last verse of Chapter 5, we see that Darius is a Median or a
Mede. If you go over a few more
chapters, to Chapter 10, we find King Cyrus, king of Persia, being referred
to, and here’s what happened. The
Persians and the Medes joined forces and overthrew the Babylonians, while
God’s people were in this Babylonian captivity.
That is why we find Cyrus being mentioned here.
He is now one of the kings in authority. And in 536 BC, he allowed some of God’s people,
Abraham’s descendants, the Hebrews, to return to their land. Then notice this, if you start counting the seventy years
when the first group went into captivity, then you would stop counting when the
first group came out of captivity, 606 BC to 536 BC — how many
years do you have? — seventy. Just
as the scriptures had told. But if
you say you ought to start counting when the temple was destroyed — in
516 BC the new temple was finished and dedicated, so from when the temple
was destroyed to the time it was dedicated, how long do we have?
Seventy years. It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, you still get
seventy years. God knew what He was
talking about.
So
we find here that now we come to the book of Ezra, the book following —
in order, as it appears in the scriptures — the book after II Chronicles. Ezra went back and was leading the people in efforts to
rebuild the temple. We see that
that had started, and then others started causing some troubles and caused the
work to cease. We find then that
Haggai and Zechariah came along and continued to teach the people and encourage
the people, and the temple was finished. We
find that the book of Ezra covers quite a stance, about 536 to 445.
Well, that brings us right up to the time of Nehemiah.
Notice that Ezra is from 536 to 445; Nehemiah about 446.
They were contemporaries, and so Nehemiah also urged the people to
continue working, working on some projects and restoring Jerusalem back to the
way it should have been. He focused
on the rebuilding of the walls. Ezra,
Haggai, Zechariah encouraged the people to build the temple, and
Nehemiah, along with that, also encouraged the people to rebuild the
walls.
Now
we find a period of restoration, and we find Malachi being the last, in terms of
chronological order, that revealed a message from God.
Then we find some years of silence, leading up to the New Testament.
As the book of Galatians says, in the
fullness of time... God sent forth His
son, made of a woman. We find
John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord, and we find the Messiah being
born. We hear of his life, we learn of his teachings, and we see
his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary for us.
Hopefully, this will be of some assistance as you’re reading the Old
Testament. I encourage you to have
this handy, and when you read a particular book, find that book on this chart
and see what the context is and what is taking place. It certainly will help you to grow in understanding of the
Old Testament scriptures, which, as Paul said, are there for our learning.
We’re
about to sing a song, if I remember right, that is entitled Burdens
are Lifted at Calvary. As we
read through the Old Testament scriptures, we see God’s plan unfolding and we
see it pointing directly to the coming of Christ, his sacrifice at Calvary and
the establishment of the church. We
carry burdens with us, spiritual burdens, and that spiritual burden is sin.
We’ve all sinned and fallen short (Romans 3:23).
But we find, in every one of these prophets, just about every one of
them, there is a pattern that develops. There
are warnings pronounced against either Judah or Israel — and that would
be during the time of the divided kingdom — there are warnings against
foreign nations, surrounding nations, that are going to receive punishment as
well. But always... there’s a
message of hope. If you read
through the book of Amos, Amos was right to the point and pretty harsh.
And we find warning after warning after warning through the book of Amos
of the things that are going to take place if the people don’t repent.
But guess how he finishes that book.
With a glimmer of hope. The
last few verses let us know that not all is lost, but there’s hope.
We’ve
sinned. We’ve fallen short.
That violates the nature of God. That
separates us from God. And yes, we
are warned about that over and over through the scriptures.
But we have a message of hope. And
not just a glimmer of hope. We have
the life of God’s Word that is a light unto our path, that guides us in the
way, and we hear of Calvary, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died for us
so that we could be forgiven. The
scriptures point directly to his sacrifice, the establishment of the church that
we become a member of when we are obedient to the gospel.
We saw this morning, in Acts Chapter 2, that the Lord adds us to the
church when we do what is necessary to be saved. Don’t miss the message of the scriptures, that God loves
you. Enough to send Jesus to die
for you. That He gives you hope and
He gives you promises, and that promise is eternal life.
Yes, there are conditions, there are responsibilities and there is
accountability.
Have
you responded to God’s instructions? Do
you realize that you’re responsible to be obedient?
Do you realize that we’re going to be held accountable one day as to
whether or not we have been obedient? We’re
going to stand in front of the judgment seat of Christ, and we’re going to be
judged by our lives. If it was all
up to us, we wouldn’t have any hope, because we cannot earn our salvation
because of our sins. But because of
the grace and mercy of God, offered through the blood of Christ, we can be
acceptable in the sight of God. Jesus
himself — in Hebrews Chapter 2 verse 11, we’re told that he
will consider us brethren, his family; he’ll claim us as his own and invite us
into a home in heaven. If we’ll
believe in him as the Son of God (John 3:16).
If we’ll confess that belief (Matthew 10:32).
If we’ll repent of our sins, as Jesus went out preaching in Matthew 4
verse 17. If we’ll be
baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).
Becoming a child of God when we are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27).
As Peter said in I Peter Chapter 3 verse 21, baptism
doth also now save us. It is
necessary for our salvation. Those
are the steps that we must follow. If
you haven’t done that, on this very evening you can have your burdens lifted
at Calvary. If you’ve been
obedient to the gospel, perhaps you haven’t remained obedient.
Allow those warnings throughout the Old Testament to teach a valuable
lesson. Always, God demanded His
people to obey Him, and they strayed away time and time again.
But never ever did God not leave an opportunity for them to repent and
come back to Him. At any time, He
would forgive them and accept them back, regardless of what they had done.
That
is the same with us today, under the gospel of Christ.
I John Chapter 1 verses 7 through 9, the blood of Christ
continues to be available as a sacrifice for us.
If you’ve sinned, if you’ve allowed sin back into your life, don’t
maintain that. Correct that.
Pray to God. Confess your faults and ask for His forgiveness.
He will forgive you. If you
need your burdens lifted, you can do that this very moment, as we stand and
sing.
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