Book: Revelation

God’s Word Is Complete

Answers Bible Curriculum Second Edition, Unit 1 Lesson 7

This week in Sunday school, we’re investigating several questions related to the authenticity of the New Testament as Scripture. How do we know that the New Testament is really God’s Word? How do we know that the New Testament canon contains the correct books? And how do we know that the Bible is now complete?

Our main texts for this lesson are John 14:25-26 and Revelation 22:18-19.

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

well good morning let’s get started welcome to Sunday school welcome to our continuing series using the answers Baba Curriculum second edition today’s lesson really is the complement to what we talked about last week last week we talked about how God preserves his word and we also talked about the Old Testament how we know the Old Testament is God’s Word this week we’re talking more specifically about the Canon of Scripture as a whole and when I say Canon I’m talking about the definitive standard of faith that is seen in a certain set a divine collection of holy writings that we call God’s Word now we’re talking today about why the Canon is complete and why we believe the New Testament is also God’s Word not just the Old Testament not just the New Testament but both are God’s Word now someone may ask based off of last lesson if Scripture wasn’t done in Jesus’s time how do we know it’s done today or that some missing books didn’t make it into the Canon you sometimes hear people talk about Lost Gospels like the Gospel of Thomas or even the Gospel of Judas was there a conspiracy to keep certain books out of the Bible or if you know at church history you know that there are other valued Christian works that were circulated in the early church that were nonetheless not considered Scripture works like the Epistle of Barnabas or the Shepherd of hermas or first Clement if the early church thought these works were useful why aren’t they considered Scripture or even maybe there are some books that are in our Bibles that aren’t supposed to be there you might know that Martin Luther really struggled with the book of James II to him he said it was pure straw and contained very little useful gospel truth those who embrace liberalism and earnest theological liberalism and higher criticism they questioned much the reliability of the New Testament they try based on their own assumptions and standards of what is reasonable to I’d what Jesus and the Apostles really said and what was just added later by their followers so we have to ask can we trust the New Testament as the Word of God and can we trust that there’s nothing more to be added well once again let’s see what the Bible itself has to say here’s our lesson outline today’s class we’re going to see how the Apostles were uniquely chosen enabled to write the New Testament scripture we’ll also see how the Bible warns against those who are not chosen from adding to or changing God’s Word also see how the early church responded and recognized the New Testament as God’s Word and will consider some application questions for our lives today a lot to talk about a lot of great information so I’m looking forward to going through this with you let’s pray before we go on a great God we do thank you that you have given us your word that you didn’t you didn’t just speak to the disciples and then leave with no record of of what happened or what you taught and not even a impotent record but a full record a a perfect record thank you God because we would have been we would have been lost without without this revelation thank you Lord for the completion of this revelation thank you that we are fully equipped for this age what I pray that these shoes would be you’d help me be able to explain these truths well for well the people this morning and I pray that you would enable them to pay attention to take these truths in and to be encouraged by the way this in Jesus’s name Amen well the first passage I want to look at with you today is in the book of John so please open your Bibles to John 14 John 14 verses 25 to 26 just two verses here these verses are key for understanding why we accept the New Testament as God’s revelation so John 14 verses 25 to 26 follow along with me as I read Jesus speaking these things I have spoken to you while abiding with you that the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you and normally we go through passages a lot longer than that but that’s it that’s Kate we do some passages – we’ve read the text we want to follow our inductive Bible study method start with observations just simple observations of the details of the text and the context notice the context we’re in the Upper Room and the night before Jesus’s crucifixion Jesus is with his eleven disciples having just eaten the Passover meal inaugurated the Lord’s Supper his death is imminent Judas Iscariot has already left to betray Jesus Peter has already been warned if you’ll deny Jesus three times it’s not exactly the most encouraging time to be a disciple of Jesus but despite these depressing developments much of this chapter and what follows contains words from Jesus to his disciples of comfort instruction and encouragement in fact a little later a little later on we hear something similar to what is expressed in these two verses turn briefly over to John 16 John 16 verses 12 to 15 a little bit of an expansion of what Jesus says here still talking to his disciples look at what it says mmm John 16 verse 12 I have many more things to say to you but you cannot bear them now but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth he will not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come he will glorify me for you take of mine and will disclose it to you all things that the father has are mine therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you so keep this extra passage in mind as we consider the words in John 14 let’s actually go back to John 14 now have a sense that context but notice a few things about these two specific verses notice first of all that the language of these verses is very straightforward see any figures of speech this is just direct instruction and notice what Jesus says about himself the father and the Holy Spirit Jesus promises that when he leaves the father will send the Holy Spirit in Jesus’s name what precisely is it that the Holy Spirit will do Jesus says the Spirit will teach the disciples and bring to their remembrance the words of Jesus how it made some observations here let’s move to our second step and talk about interpretation I forgot to put up those little details on the slide but sorry I had to move on to the next one interpretation some questions to ask Jesus is giving a promise to his disciples about the coming Holy Spirit why what is the purpose of Jesus telling them this what do you think like a Jesus have left out this instruction is it not important and if it is important why well consider the context again this is a time where Jesus is seeking to comfort his disciples they know that he’s about to depart for them that would be a very discouraging thing for multiple reasons now one of those reasons would be the teaching the words of Jesus they’re not gonna have anymore remember one of the things that Jesus or that Peter says to Jesus when Jesus says hey do you want to depart from me like all these other people who don’t like my teaching and Peter responds where else can we go you have the words of life now apart from many other reasons why they’d be sad to see Jesus depart one of those reasons would be we’re losing access to the one who has the words of life we’re losing access to his teaching who’s gonna teach us going forward who’s gonna help us understand the truth and she says comforts him by saying don’t worry when the father sends the Holy Spirit not only will he continue to teach you but he’ll bring back to your remembrance all the things that I’ve taught you so he’s comforting them by showing them they’re not gonna lose access to his words they’re even going to remember them and know them supernaturally and now let’s take this a step further why would the book’s writer the Apostle John is his gospel why would he include these words as he writes to his own audience well there’s a similar comfort for them this passage affirms for John’s listeners that they have not lost the words of Jesus that even though Jesus is no longer on the earth his trustworthy word remains because the Apostles John included were supernaturally empowered by the spirit to see remember and write Jesus’s revelation this would be a great comfort this would be a great a great confidence it really this ties in with some of the things we’ve seen in the previous lessons the Apostles words recorded in the various letters do not ultimately come from the Apostles but from where from God the Holy Spirit and you can even say from Christ it’s just like what we read in 2nd Peter 1:19 221 and second Timothy 3:16 217 there’s a supernatural nature to the instruction of the Apostles because it is enabled empowered by the Holy Spirit and authorized by Christ we could really summarize it in this way how did we get the New Testament the Holy Spirit brought to the Apostles perfect remembrance the experiences of the teachings of Jesus are the experiences with the teachings of Jesus and a spirit also taught the Apostles some new things that the Apostles did not know or experienced before fossils that wrote down what the Spirit taught them and caused them to remember under the perfect superintending of the Spirit these writings then or the original and perfect manuscripts of the New Testament so we can say the New Testament has both divine authorization and divine inspiration authorization due to Jesus’s promises here in John 14 and 16 but also inspiration is guaranteed as well the Apostolic writings art the god-breathed inerrant infallible and authoritative word and this is an important promise both for John’s original audience and for us because most the New Testament letters as far as we can tell were written about ten to thirty years after Jesus’s ascension now what would happen if your I tried to describe in detail events that happened ten to thirty years ago what happened probably would be the most accurate record be a lot of things that we forget that might even be important or I might miss remember things we think something happened it didn’t really happen there’d be some some pretty there would be some inaccuracies there I don’t know if you know the experience of with a family member or maybe your spouse you say oh you remember this thing and they say that’s not that’s not how it happens that’s not really what happened and the more time goes by the more you have the propensity to make mistakes but that’s not the case when it comes to the Apostolic writings because of what we have promised in John 14:16 God supernaturally empowered the Apostles through this Holy Spirit to record perfectly the revelation of Jesus even ten thirty fifty years later now there’s some debate about the exact dates of the writings of each New Testament book let me give you a rough timeline Christ sends around 80 thirty first book of the New Testament written probably was James or Galatians around 80 forty-five most the other New Testament books are written between 80 50 and 80 70 when the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed so before that date last books in the New Testament come from the Apostle John and his works were likely written between 80 80 and 80 95 his last work the book of Revelation was the last book of the Bible probably completed around 80 95 so can we trust the accuracy and authority of all these works from the Apostles oh hopefully you see we can’t and the reason is because Jesus specifically authorized these works by his promise and because the Holy Spirit empowered the Apostles to know remember and write Jesus’s revelation now quick side question did Jesus promise about the Holy Spirit extend beyond the Apostles were they just the first recipients of the promise and maybe the spirit guides others to learn remember and declare his revelation accurately today is that is that the case well yes and no Christians today are not eyewitnesses of Jesus unlike the Apostles and we are also not authorized or empowered to speak and write new scripture like the Apostles work now it is true other scriptures show us that God has given all Christians an illumination and power through the Holy Spirit to understand the scriptures to obey them and to declare the scriptures to others so though we’re not quite the same as the Apostles the Spirit does affect us also empowers us also and this is why we are called many times the New Testament to walk by the spirit walk by the spirit by understanding and putting into practice what the Spirit actually says in the word anyways that’s the Apostles their unique character as eyewitnesses is key to their Commission and authority as biblical writers now consider how often in the New Testament their first-hand experience is noted I’ll just give you a sampling of some verses 2nd Peter 1:16 2:18 this is before the section we looked at recently 2nd Peter 1:16 18 says Peter riding through we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God the Father and such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory this is my beloved son with whom I am well-pleased and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven and we were with him on the holy mountain consider another statement from John in first John verses 1 1 2 3 first John 1 1 2 3 what was from the beginning but we have heard what we have seen with our eyes well we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life and the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us what we have seen in her we proclaimed to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our Fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ I’ll give you another statement from John in his gospel John 21 verses 24 to 25 John says this John 21 verses 24 to 25 this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote this things and we know that his testimony is true and there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they were written in detail I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written so from our examination so far we can see really three powerful reasons to trust the New Testament Scriptures as God’s Word first it was authorized by Christ himself second it was given by eyewitnesses of Christ and third it was super intended by the Holy Spirit they had a promise about it we have eyewitnesses those are the best kinds of witnesses and then we have the Holy Spirit superintending supernatural prompting moving protection production of the New Testament word this is all through the Apostles now you might say wait a second I know something about the New Testament authors were they all really apostles I mean Luke wasn’t an apostle was he what about Jude I don’t think he was an apostle was he how can their books be considered apostolic and benefits of these things we noted well the explanation is actually kind of simple in response to that question these other books like Jude or Luke or mark they were written by Associates of the Apostles under the oversight of the Apostles and so really there’s still APIs let me show you a chart detailing this idea I’ve listed for you the different books the New Testament and yeah the Apostle who’s associated with that book I’m gonna go through all of it with you but you can just glance through it you can see though that there is an apostle associated with every book either to writing it directly or overseeing its production therefore the facts regarding the Apostolic and eyewitness nature of the New Testament book still stands in fact firsthand experience with Jesus was apparently a requirement for being an awesome as seen in Acts chapter 1 when the Apostles are choosing a replacement for Judas Iscariot they looked for someone who had been with them and who was a true witness and testimony or testify of Jesus additionally the apostles validated their unique offices by obvious and miraculous signs obvious and verifiable miraculous signs the Apostles had the unique responsibility and empowerment as eyewitnesses to write Scripture and as I say we do not have that empowerment we don’t have that same environment therefore only the Apostles only the Apostles writings constitute the New Testament Scriptures and since all the Apostles eventually perished no new scripture can be added added today this is why we say the Scriptures are complete Jesus commissioned he gave promises to the apostles but not to those beyond them and the the Scriptures are complete now to further illustrate this further illustrate the completeness of the scriptures let’s examine a profound warning that appears in the last book of the Bible turn over to revelation 22 please revelation 22 and we’re looking at verses 18 to 19 just another two verses here last book of the New Testament revelation and last chapter revelation 22 here’s what John the Apostle writes I testified to everyone who hears the words the prophecy of this book if anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book now again short passage but we can make some observations first note the context again our authors the Apostle John he’s writing to believers in the seven churches of Asia he’s writing in late 1st century AD 90 to 95 he’s been exiled on the island of Patmos and is suffering under apparently emperor Domitian persecution in chronology of the New Testament revelation then is the last book what is that the author has just described before our passage wealthy no revelation or a few clans back to chapters 22 22 you know that John describes the final judgment last judgment and the coming of new Jerusalem the new heavens and the new earth the end of history and after these verses we read comes the end of the book really and what we’re told to beckon and to look forward to Jesus’s coming let’s take a little bit closer look at these two verses notice that we have two warnings in this passage we’re told not to add two not to take away from the words of the prophecy and there are severe consequences for violating these warnings the plagues described in the book and if you know of the plagues of Revelation they are quite serious they’re very painful they are very horrific and destructive he says whew tamper with this prophecy the plagues described in this book will come upon you and if you tamper with this prophecy the person that person will be removed from the blessings of this book even access to the Tree of Life and to the holy city that comes at the end of history now what is this book or the book of the book of this prophecy that John refers to in verse 18 well according to context it must be the letter of Revelation itself this is a work of prophecy has much to say about prophecy he says this this word of prophecy this book you do not dare add to it or take away from me okay so we’ve made these basic observations but let’s again talk about interpretation why did John write these words well one intention is pretty straightforward from the Apostle John and through him the Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit that is do not even think of altering the words of this particularly the consequences of doing so our diet that’s pretty straightforward reason for writing this but we often hear these verses used as a justification regarding the whole Scripture these words are interpreted to mean that the New Testament set of Scripture the New Testament Canon is being closed therefore do not add or take away from the words of the Bible is that a legitimate interpretation do these verses really mean one cannot claim any new revelation after after John wrote this book well revelation is the last book of the Bible from the last apostle talking about the last part of history so does make a certain amount of sense to give this closing warning I mean what more could be said and who would say it so there is something to that idea is these words applying to all the Bible but there’s something else worth noticing and that is this isn’t the only time the Bible has warned readers about adding to or taking away from Scripture consider the following verses and maybe you’ve read some of these before Deuteronomy 4:2 Deuteronomy 4:2 says Moses writing here you shall not add to the word which I’m commanding you nor take away from it that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you further in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 12:30 to whatever I command you you shall be careful to do you shall not add to or take away from it and proverbs book of proverbs chapter 30 verses 5 and 6 every word of God has tested he is a shield to those who take refuge in him do not add to his words or he will reprove you and you will be proved a liar these verses sound very similar in their warnings as to what we read in revelation 22 right don’t add to don’t take away from the words God has given you but you may notice there’s a potential problem these other statements come much earlier in the Bible after which there was much more Scripture added he says don’t add to these words but plenty of people did add to those words and God affirmed that those at his words as his own alright how do we reconcile this in the one hand we are warned not to add to God’s words and yet on the other hand prophets and apostles did just that how can this be well I think it all comes down to who is it that did add to the words of Scripture who added additional scripture the people we call apostles and prophets what is unique about them they were specifically chosen and commissioned by God to do so they added to God’s Word because God called them to add to his word God commissioned him God empowered them to add to his word and this is the key this is the key to understanding these statements throughout the Bible and here in revelation unless you are officially commissioned by God to give new revelation and you have all that goes with that the accompanying miraculous signs to validate your word and of course I’m not talking about the shady and controlled miraculous signs of so-called prophets and apostles at our day unless you are one of those officially commissioned and officially validated persons you have no rights that claim new word from the Lord this is the warning that John is giving in Revelation this hasn’t stopped I see your hand Roy I’ll come back to just a second this hasn’t stopped many people from doing so from attempting to add to God’s Word even though they don’t have authorization we see this even in the Bible for example God condemned the supposed word of the Lord from false prophets the Old Testament even in the Book of Jeremiah Jeremiah 23 verse 21 Jeremiah 23 21 God says I did not send these prophets but they ran I did not speak to them but they prophesied the false revelation was a problem in the Old Testament and it was a problem in the New Testament New Testament church we read this warning from Paul to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 2 verses 1618 2nd Timothy to 1618 but avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene among them our hymenaeus and philetus men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place and they upset the faith of some these guys Jaime is philetus state they came up with her own revelation he said no resurrection already happened that wasn’t God’s message that was false it wasn’t just in the Bible spurious revelation has been a part of church history ever since man named Marcion around AD 150 he rejected all the New Testament writings except those of Paul and he reinterpreted the Old Testament to reveal to assert that there were actually two gods in the universe there was a good saving God in the New Testament and there was an evil creator cruel or evil cruel Creator God in the Old Testament and it’s the good God is trying to save us from that evil old testament god that was marcin’s revelation manis who’s his followers are known as the manna keys of the Manicheans in the 200s ad he created news scriptures that were a blend of Judaism Christianity Zoroastrianism and even Buddhism Muhammad he created new scriptures in the six hundreds which were a blend of Judaism Christianity and Arabian tribal religion in more recent times Joseph Smith he added scriptures he had new scriptures in the 1800s and he founded Mormonism all of these man have wants to claim a new kind of Apostleship or a new role as prophets of God but God did not send them their claims to speak for God came from her own imagination how they sought to use the Old Testament and the New Testament to support their new revelation they had to alter the Bible to do so directly violating command that we see in the Bible in Revelation and throughout the Scriptures convenient in each one of these prophets was the inability for anyone to verify their claims of being a prophet these prophets could not be suppose at prophets could not produce verifiable miraculous signs now when they contradict a scripture they claim the original scriptures were corrupted they and they alone had the true translations and interpretations there is no way to to put a check on that because it didn’t agree with already revealed revelation they didn’t have miraculous signs and I didn’t have others who were prophets with them they were all alone and they claimed new revelation reality is of course that these were not God’s prophets they were not declare as a God Scripture they were not officially commissioned from God and they have no authorization in the scriptures to do what they do Roy did you want to say something yeah that’s a great point really thanks very mention adjust restate what you said briefly even though we have these warnings in Scripture even the Old Testament not to add to God’s Word there is a at the same time clearly expectation and promise about additional revelation you mentioned those prophecies that having to do with the Messiah and the New Covenant there’s clearly gonna have to be new revelation as these things come to pass even more than that we can go to even the words of Moses where he says the Lord is gonna raise up a prophet like me from among you and you were to listen to that prophet and we see in the New Testament that ultimately is talking about Christ so there was the expectation that there would be more representatives of God and they would speak new revelation from God but you had these warnings at the same time and so that’s why I’m saying our understanding of these warnings and how they fit with these fit with the rest of Scripture and even the promises a new revelation is that it’s all about divine authorization are you a divinely authorized and commissioned revealer of god’s truth or are you just taking that taking that responsibility upon yourself now one thing and this I think is is worth pointing out and that is we should not forget that there there will be profits again I mean if we look at the book of Revelation we have those two prophets standing as witnesses and doing miraculous signs so it’s not as if prophecy has totally ceased it’s not as if there there will be no more revelation but for this age there will not be God has given everything that we need for this age and you memory even in Revelation where John talks about the what the seven thunders uttered but he wasn’t allowed to write it down that’s something that God is only going to reveal later there have been these there’s different ages where God said this is this is uh this is what I’m going to reveal for this age and that’s it this is all that my people need and for our age for the church age we have we have the complete revelation because this is all that God has authorized and he’s given his authorization he’s given proof of that even in the scriptures say a little bit more about that again why we believe the Canon is closed even though we read regarding what revelation says about prophets in even in the tribulation period and afterwards the Apostle saw themselves as foundation layers not as continuous sources of Revelation with an apostolic office to be passed down of course this is in direct contrast to the teaching of the Catholic Church they claim that Peters office as the chief apostle and leader of the church that has been inherited by various Pope’s to the present day but turn to ephesians for a second fusions chapter 2 Peters chapter 2 verses 19 to 20 Paul is speaking here to some newly converted Gentiles and he’s talking to them about how they have full salvation inheritance full salvation blessings along with the Jews but in Ephesians 2 19 to 20 he says something very poignant about the Apostolic office Ephesians 2:19 2:20 so then you are no longer strangers and aliens that is you Gentiles but you are fellow citizens with the Saints NRF God’s household having been built on the foundation of the and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone but this is very this should be very striking because the Paul says the Apostles appointed by Jesus himself they were responsible to lay the gospel foundation they declared they further explained the revelation of Jesus and having fulfilled their appointed task the Apostolic office was no longer needed and it disappeared once you lay the foundation there’s no need to lay another foundation or to keep laying a foundation in fact Paul says no we’re building on the foundation now that’s what you guys are you Gentile effusions you’re being built on the foundation that has been laid that is being laid by the apostles by the apostles and prophets indeed rather than instructing their followers to appoint new apostles or prophets to find out more revelation from God what is the instruction that we see in the New Testament from Peter and Paul and others regarding God’s revelation it isn’t to look for what’s new rather it’s to hold on to what was old again and again Paul Peter and others they say don’t forget what we told you hold fast to it cling to it contend for the faith as Jude says that was once for all delivered to the Saints the Apostles recognized the uniqueness of their own office they’re our own enroll as declare MERS and chroniclers of the revelation of Jesus and with their foundation laid the New Testament Scriptures were complete so coming back to our verses in Revelation though John writes this morning specifically about his prophecy the book of Revelation the concept of not adding – you are taking away from the revealed word as a whole holds because of the position of John’s book is the last book in the last topics but more than that because the Apostles unique role as the commissioned writers of the New Testament the revelation of Jesus the climactic revelation of of all of God’s revelation is complete there’s nothing more to be added you dare not add to it or take away from it because Crysis specifically authorized representatives have accomplished it they have given it so there’s no more that needs to be added now what about the early church did they understand this what did they think about the Apostles about the New Testament and about the Scriptures as a whole let’s transition now to talking about the early church it’s commonly claimed by skeptics that books of the New Testament were chosen many hundreds of years after the fact they allege because the ideas of particular books fit with the teaching of certain people in power at the time that many those books were accepted and many other books were rejected these rejected books conflicted they merely conflicted with the ideas of the powerful the influential or the elite well these accusations were totally unfounded the early church pastors and elders didn’t simply choose the books they wanted to be in to be Scripture rather they work to recognize the books that God had produced and chosen as Scripture and a primary factor and their decision-making was apostolic authorship primary factor in recognizing what is truly Scripture according to the early church was apostolic authorship understand that recognizing the Apostolic works was a process when every book of the New Testament was immediately universally recognized some books were accepted as Scripture for a while and then determined not to be apostolic and other works that church leaders weren’t quite sure about or later recognized to indeed be apostolic and canonical the authoritative Word of God these are the church Shepherds though were very committed to knowing and proclaiming what works were actually Scripture because they were charged as we are to hold on to the word of the Apostles if you’re gonna hold on to the word then you need to know what the word of the Apostles actually was so discerning up Apostolic works and preserving them was a main task of the persecuted Roman Church the early church but it’s not as if they were in the dark for hundreds of years as soon as the Apostles wrote the original letters of the New Testament those letters were preserved copied and circulated as scripture on the same levels the Old Testament but we’ll get into it now but there are several statements in the New Testament where the Apostles themselves recognize they’re writing Scripture or they recognize each other’s works as writing Scripture Paul even quotes Luke I think it’s following me it might be Peter he quotes Luke as Scripture so they they understood they were writing a scripture and it was on the same levels the Old Testament and you know the church understood that so there’s good reason for us to believe because they recognize this right away we’ve received scripture copy and preserve it pass it around it’s good reason to believe that most if not all the New Testament Scriptures we have today were recognized as Scripture by the second century church that is in the 100 AD they they understood as they encountered these different writings they say oh this is this is the Apostolic we’re at this description why don’t we say that even by the second century it was recognized well one reason is because of the Miura torreón fragment this is a partial text that we have received from about 170 ad and at list 20 of the 27 New Testament books as universally recognized among the Roman churches and mentions a few other books that were recognized by some but not quite universally accepted this shows us that the early church is aware of Scripture and they are coming there’s a large amount of agreement as to what constitutes Scripture the New Testament scripture immediately it’s true that lists of New Testament books are rare in the early church writings you don’t see that many lists but the lists begin to appear more and more in a reaction to heresies denying the works of certain apostles or trying to add to them people like Marcion or manis or even the montanus they as people began to mess with revelation what actually was God’s revelation it it caused the early church leaders to say we need to get straight what actually is the New Testament what actually is the apostolic word and this is really just like the teaching of the Trinity it wasn’t that that doctrine was developed or adopted at a particular council merely that it was articulated at a council in response to a growing heresy in the 300s it’s not that the council of nicaea created the doctrine of the Trinity it was always there but it was specifically articulated in a reaction to arianism it’s the same thing when it comes to the candidacy of the New Testament the reason that we see more and more lists and we see a greater effort to specifically articulate which workshops taluk it’s in response to false teaching and often this is how it works in church history doctrine is clarified doctrine is articulated in response to error it’s not that it’s created it’s always been there now the first complete list of the 27 books of the New Testament comes from a letter from Athanasian in 367 ad this is followed soon after by two church councils in Western Europe the Synod of Hippo and three ninety three and the council of Carthage Carthage in 397 they affirm the same list these 27 books the same 27 books we had today they say these are the universally these are the largely recognized Scripture and since that time there’s largely been no controversy this list has not been changed in the church ever since what’s the new testament it’s these 27 books what’s the Apostolic Word it’s these 27 books that controversy really ceases after the 4th century now what was the criteria that these early church fathers were using to assess their various works that they had received now the different pieces of criteria but I want to list some of the main ones for you the first two are the most important was the book if you’re going to figure out whether something is God’s breathed word you first ask was the Booker letter written by an apostle under the direction of apostle like I said they know that the Apostles charged them to hold on to their word so they want to know what this the Apostles word or not does it claim to be written by an apostle is it demonstrate that was written by an apostle the second one is also very important did the writings conform to what the church received from the Apostles and is always taught again this criterion is justified by Scripture you remember what Paul said in Galatians even if we or an angel from heaven comes to you with a gospel different than the gospel we originally preached you let that person be accursed that’s a person being half maleta be damned you hold to the gospel that saves you you holds the gospel that we originally gave to you so the early church took that seriously is this the gospel that we’ve always taught the one that we originally received do these writings conform to that do they affirm that do they teach that so these first two criteria were the most important does it confirm the Apostolic teaching we’ve received and does it demonstrate itself to be written by an apostle along with that we have these other criteria did the writing resound with the truth of God did it speak with a voice of authority as the Word of God and not really the words it meant obviously if a piece of writing is just derivative of other writing not really say anything new just quoting what was already said or if it’s only a platform for the ideas of men it cannot be scripture further were these writings used from the earliest of times this is according according to the adage if it’s new it’s not true and if it’s true it’s not new we’re looking for apostolic writings and those are ancient we’re not looking for new work so might it sound great but if it’s from the 200 ad it’s not Scripture and finally did most churches accept these writings as the New Testament canon again this is not a definitive criterion but if it is Scripture it should be able to be recognized by more than one source if you’re the only one saying this is Scripture that’s that’s probably a bad sign so this was not like like I’m trying to illustrate this is not a formal counselor process this is not like okay let’s guys let’s all get together and have a specific counsel and we’ll figure out what God’s where it is no this was a process this is somewhat informal just different church leaders different different Christians then in the early church just reading circulating talking about discussing analyzing all in an effort to recognize what is God’s Scripture what is the Apostolic word what is the New Testament they want to affirm that so they can hold on to what the Apostles charged them to hold on to you and really what what Christ has charged them to hold on to to some of all this historical information New Testament Scriptures were completed by the Apostles between 80 45 and 95 early church recognized and circulated in most of these works as Scripture by 80 150 to 175 and all controversy over scripture had ceased by about eighty four hundred we can come back now to our overarching theme we can trust that God’s Word is complete and that the New Testament is God’s Word because you see the different things that we’ve seen today the apostles were eyewitnesses and officially commissioned by Jesus and supernaturally enabled by the Holy Spirit to remember and teach the Word of God the Apostles themselves warn those who are not commissioned scripture Vitus against adding to or taking away from the scripture the apostles were responsible for laying a foundation of doctrine which the Apostles themselves affirmed they completed and the early church affirmed the apostolic Authority was determinative in their own process of discerning which writings were really God breathed now there’s much more we could say about the writing of the New Testament the Canon and why we why we believe what we do but this will have to suffice for today’s class if you’re interested you can find a lot more information about this topic on the Answers in Genesis website they’re also a number of good books that you can check out of course if you have a specific question you can always email me and my email address and I’ll do my best to answer it any comments and questions of what I’ve shared with you so far alright well let’s consider a few more application questions before we close as I say application is an important part of Bible study we don’t just observe and interpret but we also want to apply so this is part of our inductive Bible study method here’s our first application question that I would like you to consider there’s commonly claimed that the Bible is put together by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 how would you respond to such a claim what would you say well there are two approaches there are two ways of answering this question really think they go together we know that this is a this is a myth it’s a commonly perpetuated myth but this is not true we know from the we know from the Bible itself that scripture was being recognized as Scripture long before 325 AD as I said the Apostles are affirming that themselves but again we can you can do in point to archaeological evidence and the texts that have been recovered from ancient times we had the Miura torreón fragment that’s showing that scripture was being recognized even by 170 ad no it was not determined by the Council of Nicaea in 325 and besides the Council of Nicaea is as far as we know had nothing to say about the Bible’s candidacy it was specifically convened to deal with the Arian controversy those who are denying Jesus as divinity it was not convened to determine what the Bible was or even to discuss what were the recognized scriptures that wasn’t the Council of Nicaea so multiple reasons why such an assertion is a complete yes but similarly is another question how do we respond to the claims that the New Testament was written many years after the lives of Jesus and the Apostles and therefore cannot be accurate now again hopefully you’ve seen from today’s class the answers to this question this again is a faulty clean because we have the guarantee in the Bible that even though the Apostles are living decades after the Ministry of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus they’ve been supernaturally empowered to remember and to learn new things by the Holy Spirit and perfectly and completely give Jesus’s revelation time going by doesn’t effect that for the Apostles and as to the contention that the books the Bible the books on your Testament written many years after the Apostles again we can just look at the historical record we have and see that that’s not true many many works outside the Bible are quoting the words of the Apostles even in the second century even in the early 2nd century which means they had to be written before that you can’t quote it if it hadn’t been written yet and even many liberal scholars those who don’t actually believe the Bible more and more they have to concede that yeah these New Testament New Testament works they were written in the first century which is what Christians have been saying all along so again this claim is yeah there’s nothing to it we have the promises in the scripture and we have the record of history to show that this is not true these this revelation of Jesus has been preserved and preserved accurately are not just preserved accurate but written accurately it’s another question was the Apocrypha those writings from the intertestamental period included in many Catholic Bibles how did those the how does the Apocrypha figure in this discussion of biblical canon isset II well it’s worth noting that in the early church these books if you’re not familiar with the books the Apocrypha it’s not super important to become familiar with it but they include things like the books of Maccabees look of Judah the book of Tobit sections of Daniel and sections of Esther that were added in the early church some of these works were considered helpful but they were not considered god-breathed Scripture it’s interesting that the earliest copies of the Septuagint we have Mary that’s the Greek translation the Old Testament they include the Apocrypha now the Septuagint was the early church’s Old Testament Bible I mean we have many Greek speakers in the Roman Empire so they’re using the Septuagint though they included the Apocrypha they also made clear that it is not divine Scripture Jerome is very a good example of this Jerome was early church father in the 300s he’s famous for his Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate and it’s actually the translation of the Bible that the Roman Catholic Church uses and affirms he included the Apocrypha in his translation in the Bible but he also specifically and very obviously stated that the Apocrypha is helpful but not scripture says do not consider even though I’m including this do not consider this on par with the rest of what I’ve translated the rest of what I’ve included this is helpful but it’s not Scripture this can be encouraging this can be inspiring this is an interesting historical record but it’s not the Divine Scripture now the Catholic Church itself did not consider the Apocrypha to be Scripture until the Catholic counter-reformation in the 1500s we had the Reformation lots of other problems for the Catholic Church and then the Counter Reformation they part of one of the things that they did was they affirm the Apocrypha as the Bible they said this is all though God this is also God breathed and why did they do that well the affirmation the Apocrypha came partly from the Pape C’s wish to affirm Jerome’s entire vulgate translation as inspired and perfect remember one of the things that the Reformers were pointing out and not just the reformers many many biblical scholars at that time we’re saying hey the Latin translation we have does not accurately translate certain words from the original Hebrew and Greek and the Catholic Church’s response rather than admit that was to say no the Vulgate is entirely inspired even the Apocrypha is inspired so that was one impetus but the second was the Catholic Church had become used to certain doctrines and certain practices that are not biblical but they do appear in the Apocrypha and so they saw that it would be useful to affirm the Apocrypha in order to validate those practices things like praying for the dead so we should not we have no reason to affirm the Apocrypha as Scripture even though the Catholic Church has done so since the 1500s all of this I’ve been giving you a lot of maybe more technical information but don’t miss the main point this is really the main question that we’ve been posing over the last couple of lessons having to do the Scriptures and it’s one that I want to bring you back to you considering all of this how do you treat God’s Word how do you treat the New Testament how do you treat the Old Testament God specifically commissioned his apostles and apostolic associates to give the church including you this life-giving and life word so how do you think God wants you to respond to how do you think God will react to you if you respond to his word wrongly or inappropriately as you go the rest of your time of worship today and I should go home and then afterwards please consider continue to consider this question how cute read God’s Word and how do you think God wants you to treat his word his word is a great gift consider what our lives would be like if we didn’t have the New Testament or if we didn’t have the Old Testament but so often we take that for granted not only that we have it in the original languages but we have it in good English translations how do you think God wants to respond wants you to respond to that situation so we’ve talked through why we can trust the books the Old Testament why we can trust the books of the New Testament as God’s Word now next week we’ll talk further about the modern claims of new revelation and prophecy this is kind of one of the one of the tensions right we see prophets in the New Testament we see prophets in the Old Testament and we even see in Revelation that there will be certain prophets again how do we know there are prophets today okay maybe they’re not writing new Scripture maybe that was that was the climactic revelation of Jesus the Apostles we’re still got prophets today maybe they do have something to say in terms of God’s revelation well we’re gonna talk about that next week well see how we have to test such claims of self-proclaimed prophets and how we ought to respond to those who follow and believe such prophets let’s close as we finished today our Lord God we thank you that you’ve given us your word Lord what a great comfort it must have been to the Apostles to hear that they’re not going to lose your word that more than that they would be able to understand it better they’d be able to remember it perfectly they’d be able to proclaim it and they would be continually taught all those things that you wanted to teach them but you couldn’t teach them your spirit taught them well thank you that you not only gave that to them but you’re giving it to us thank you God that your word does not pass away that you have not only promised of the word but to preserve it and even so gracious to allow us to have that preserved word god we know that would this great blessing comes to great responsibility this is the word that we must know this is the word that we must hear and steady this is the word we must put into practice not just because you deserve it as God but because that’s the way to blessing that’s the way of wisdom so god I pray that each listener would be appreciating that and they would love you for your word in Jesus name Amen all right all right thank you you’re welcome I’ll see you next week

October 21, 2018
New Heaven and New Earth

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 4 Lesson 12

In our final lesson of the Answers Bible Curriculum, we look at how the Bible answers questions such as: What does God have in the future for our planet and universe? Where will people spend an eternity? How to live in a world that mocks the second coming of Christ? and What will Heaven be like?

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

ready oh maybe the sound needs to get adjusted little okay we can everyone hear me out there okay great okay well let’s begin we have a full hour here well good morning and happy Father’s Day to you fathers thank you for coming this morning to Sunday school what today is the final lesson in the Answers in Genesis answers Bible curriculum and for the last four years David has taught through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation and it has been a blessing hasn’t it last week he introduced what the Answers in Genesis calls the last of the seven seas of history or the consummation and his lesson focused on the second coming of Jesus Christ that will usher in the end of all things and in David’s absence I am privileged to teach this lesson to you although we will have one more week of Sunya school next week I will wait until the end of the class to share with you what that will be well last week and this week our study surrounds what theologians call eschatology which means a teaching when the Bible says about future end times last week David surveyed key and timed doctrines such as the rapture the tribulation and the Millennium he also briefly looked at various views on the timing of these events concluding that at Calvary we understand the scripture to teach the following a pre-tribulational rapture which means that Jesus will come to take his church to heaven before the tribulation before the Tribulation Period occurs on the earth and also a futuristic premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ meaning that Jesus will return to earth before the Millennial Kingdom and at his return he will set up the Millennial Kingdom physically on earth and reign in Jerusalem along with all the redeemed for a thousand years and at that time Satan will be bound in the abyss so be sure to view last week lesson online if you want to either get the details well today our agenda will be looking at what the future of our current earth and its surrounding heavens or universe will be we’ll also look at where people will spend in eternity and theologians call the final destiny of the redeemed humanity they call it the eternal State for believers we often think of the future eternal state that’s simply heaven but the scripture actually teaches that there’ll be both a new heaven and a new earth and just to clarify will not be studying what happens immediately after one dies it is true that the Bible teaches that immediately upon death the believer will go to heaven an unbeliever will go to Hades but in both cases it is not their final destination those places are what theologians referred to as the as immediate States in choosing the intermediate states and not their final destination we’re not going to be covering those details today instead we’re going to look at what the Bible tells us is are the future events that God has in store for both believers and unbelievers at the end of what has currently got to reveal the will in the Bible so for today’s lesson we’re gonna look up several passages today if you’ll please we’re going to start with 2nd Peter chapter 3 so please turn there in your Bibles 2nd Peter chapter 3 and I’m gonna just set the context here to give you some background and then I’ll I’ll read we know that Peters writing to Christians since he addressed the letter to those who have received a faith by the righteousness of Jesus as he indicates in his letter many of these Christians are the same people to which he wrote his first letter at which time he encouraged them how to respond to persecution in this second letter Peter senses that he’s nearing the end of his life and also he’s keenly aware of false teachers that will surely arise when Peter is gone and they’ll try to persuade the believers through some deceptive means to turn away from believing the promises of God and so Peter wanted to leave these brethren with a written reminder of what the Word of God declares with certainty his purpose is to encourage them to be grounded in the truths that they had been taught so that they will recognize error when they hear it and they will not be dissuaded by the scoffers who will come mocking these truths and as we read notice also that there is a connection between the Genesis account of the global flood of Noah’s day and the events to come in the future so 2nd Peter chapter 3 verses 1 through 13 this is now beloved the second letter I am writing to you in which I’m stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles know this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for ever since the father’s fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation for when they maintained this it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water but by his word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men but do not let this one fact escape your notice beloved that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years in a thousand years like one day the Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up since all these things are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for the for in hastening the coming of the day of the Lord day of God because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat but according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells well notice in verse 1 and 2 that Peter’s purpose in writing is to remind them of words spoken by the holy prophets and apostles that is to say to remind them of what is written in the scriptures the holy prophets representing the Old Testament scripture and the Apostles representing the New Testament scripture that was in the process of being written and so by including them together that is the prophets and the apostles Peter’s holding both old and new Testament at the same level of authority both being in the Word of God verse 3 Peter starts off by saying know this first of all it’s intended to communicate priority importance rather than timing Peter wants them to know that mockers will come in the last day you could expect this to happen mark my words don’t be caught by surprise he says in verse three that what will characterize their conduct is their own lusts and so a question then for you is what message will these mockers promote in their mocking what are they going to mock when they call where’s the Lord’s coming the second coming that’s in verse four it says they’re saying where is this coming they’re gonna not deny the attempt begin to deny and attempt to shed doubt on God’s promise of the second coming of Christ and the reason that they give here in verse four is that in the past all things have continued without interruption just like they have from the beginning in essence they are denying the reality of the past of past supernatural events from God that’s a philosophy known today as uniformitarianism which is the view that the slow and gradual processes that we see in the created order today are the same as what happened in the past and this is the prevailing erroneous view of geological history that’s taught in our schools today of course an atheist that is when not believing in God would deny and certainly may Mock the second coming of Christ but these specific people that Peters referring to they’re not necessarily announcing themselves as atheists how do you know that what is what in the text does it say that might indicate that they’re not coming announcing themselves as atheist Roy yes and also that’s true also there they’re speaking about from the beginning of of the time of creation of course an atheist would not acknowledge any kind of creation and so maybe there would be someone like a deist who would say that you know God created and then kind of left things go and didn’t have anything to do with it also if we would read the context of 2nd Peter we would see that all of chapter 2 Peter is talking about warning them about again false teachers and so false teachers they’re going to come in and sneak in her secretive heresies that are destructive and so they certainly have some knowledge of the Bible as a false teacher would have to be able to deceive someone who would be a Christian well also next question here is in making the claim the claim that all things have continued naturally up to this point so there’s no reason to think that a supernatural events such as Jesus Christ’s return will actually happen what past events are they willingly ignoring was that the flood right Peter mentions that he says there there what’s escaping their notice or they’re willingly ignoring the flood actually there’s two things it says here they’re ignoring first of all the specific details of the biblical account of creation they may acknowledge some sort of creation but they ignored the details that are in Genesis as well as the global catastrophic flood that will destroy the earth that has destroyed the earth in the past also by the way Peter acknowledges the Genesis creation account of the earth being formed out of water verse 5 you can see that in Genesis chapter 1 and that’s in direct contradiction to the current day Big Bang evolution which claims that the earth was formed by a fireball explosion and then cooled down over time so evolution is not consistent with the with the scripture it’s very contradictory to it well it seems as I was thinking about this that a current day example a modern counterpart of who this might be describing would be someone who holds to a kind of a maybe ideas who believed in a creation but then has no details and just says that the things evolved like a theistic evolutionist or or sounds like a liberal professor professor of a Biblical Studies class in college and so very much to be aware of what are what are these mockers trying to avoid so they’re dismissing the second coming of Christ but in reality what are they actually trying to avoid in doing so they forget about a past judgment yes they’re ignoring future judgment the promise of future judgment and if you think about what their motive might be as to why they’re dismissing future judgment and denying past judgment is so that they can live ungodly lives without consequence without without accountability and so that they can also get this snatch naive disciples away to follow after them who are willing to do so Romans chapter one speaks of people who deny God so and do so not because of a lack of evidence but because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness they love their sin more and so to ease their conscience they deny God and future judgment well Peter gets very specific about how God will bring about this coming feature judgment the idea of fire consuming and cleansing everything is repeated several times you can look at that in verse 7 verse 10 and verse 12 the elements that says the basic parts of the earth will melt with intense heat this judgment will be global in extent similar to the past global flood but far worse because it’ll be more than global will be universal after Peter exposes the mockers motives for their mocking and he reassures his readers of the certainty of future judgment he then explains why Christ has not returned yet the same reason is true today and we’ll see that answer in verse 8 9 he begins by reminding his audience that God’s view of time is very different than ours he says with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day and then he adds this the Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness the point is that God is outside of time and is not subject to the definition of slowness that others place on as the sovereign God he does things in his own time and for his own reasons for an eternal being one thousand years is no different than a day but for humans with a lifespan of not much more than a hundred years even relatively small amounts of time can seem very long and so Peter wants this his readers to keep this in the forefront of their thinking when they listen to mockers then Peter explains God’s purpose for seeing for seeming to delay worldwide judgment and he does this in verse nine the verse that he gives is that God is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance and he further clarifies this in verse 15 if you’ll just look over in verse 15 he says that God’s patience and waiting is for the purpose of salvation in other words today is the day of salvation as Paul has said and one once Christ returns and God begins to pour out the judgment described by Peter the day of salvation will be completed there will be no more opportunity for salvation no more opportunity to repent and trust Christ similarly as in the days of Noah once the rain started falling there was no more opportunity for salvation for the lost who are outside the ark let me remind you that Peter is talking to believers in this letter and so in this and his first letter he refers to them as in his letter as the called or those who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God and so Peter is saying here that God is not willing for any of you that is the called the elect of God is not willing for any of them to perish of course any of them in that day and any of them in any day as long as they are still the elect who will come to Christ and haven’t yet so he will not allow any of them to miss salvation and receive judgment and so until all the elect are saved Christ’s Second Coming is being delayed that is what God is waiting for even though mockers mock it will not hurry God any faster he will put up with their mocking because he loves the elect and patiently waits for them to become saved in his timing well in verse 10 Peter returns to describing the judgment and this time giving it a name the name is the day of the Lord and he and adding to it that it will come like a thief meaning that it will come unexpectedly to those who are not looking for it this phrase the day of the Lord it appears at least 19 times in the Old Testament and for uncontested times in the New Testament the Old Testament prophets used this term when speaking of both near historical and far excuse me near historical events and far future and time events always involving God’s wrath the New Testament writers applied the day of the Lord both to the judgment that will climax the Tribulation Period and also to the judgment that will usher in the new heavens and the new earth which is the context here in our passage in 2nd Peter ever since the fall of man in Genesis 3 mankind has been in rebellion against its creator but a time is coming when God will judge the entire world with calamitous wrath to prepare for the establishment of his kingdom the day of man will give way to the day of the Lord and if you skip down to verse 13 with all this talk about judgment of unbelievers and destruction Peter reminds believers of God’s promise for them for us that God will create a new heavens and a new earth one in which righteousness dwells note that this promise is not new but as Peter indicated in verse 2 it is said to be promised through the holy prophets in the Old Testament for instance the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 65 verses 17 and 19 says this for behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former things will not be remembered or come to mine but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create for behold I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people and there will be no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying and so God states that he will alter the present heaven and earth in in a way that amounts to a whole new creation notice also that in this new creation a new Jerusalem will be the focus of everything Isaiah mentions the new heaven and new earth again in Isaiah 66 verse 22 where God indicates that it will endure or it will remain forever before him well Peter Peters reminder of these promises is not merely informative but he emphasizes a practical life response for all believers look back to verse 11 and Peter exhorts his readers this way since all these things are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of the god of day of God see if we want to dwell in God’s new creation later where there is only perfect righteousness scripture is clear that those headed there should want to live righteously now on earth the Apostle John says it this way about the believers hope of seeing Christ at his return he says and anyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure well that is all that we have time to cover in 2nd Peter we’re going to be headed to Revelation 21 but before we get there we’re going to take a brief in Acts chapter 3 and so here in Acts chapter 3 we’re gonna look here what the Bible refers to as the period of restoration of all things it’s a future time coming here in acts 3 Peter is preaching to the men of Israel and he said and look at what he says will happen in the future beginning in in acts 3 verse 18 he says but the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled this happened in Christ’s first coming therefore repent and return so they your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time well very briefly because there’s a lot more to cover notice what Peter is saying in verse 18 Old Testament scripture has been fulfilled regarding Christ’s first coming and then notice that God’s plan for Israel is not terminated just temporarily suspended we know this because here in verse 19 and 20 Peter says something must happen with Israel the nation before Christ before Christ returns a second time and so prior to Christ’s second coming which is indicated here in verse 20 Israel must experience what’s it say it says therefore repent and return and he’s talking to the men of Israel he’s talking about not individuals because there’s individuals today and have been for the last two thousand years who are Israelites who have been coming to Christ on a one-by-one basis but he’s talking about in this passage about the repentance and return of national Israel the leaders the the Israel as a whole not just a few of them and so he’s he’s commanding them the national Israel to repent and return that your sins may be wiped out and then at that point times of refreshing will come at that point Christ will return and then it also says that in verse 21 when Christ returns it says that there will be restoration of all things well restoration means to return to its original condition or close to it so this passage speaks of a future time when God will restore the creation which is currently under the curse return restore the creation to similar but not exactly identical pre fall-like conditions Peter said that God spoke of these things through the Old Testament prophets and if you want to read about them I encourage you to do so you can look them up on your you can look them up on your own I have some passages listed here that speak of a future restored earth Isaiah 11 Isaiah 35 65 Ezekiel 36 Amos 9 sucker ayah 14 there are many other passages those are some unfortunately time does not permit me to show you the details in the scripture but I believe this future restored creation that’s described in these and other passages it will take place during the Millennial Kingdom which David taught about last week and that’s part which is part which in part is the time when mankind through the last Adam Jesus fulfills the Genesis mandate to rule and subdue the earth successfully on God’s behalf and we believe that Christ for a future Kingdom will in fact be a two-phased Kingdom okay beginning with the Millennial Kingdom on a restored earth for a thousand years and then culminating in a newly created earth forever earlier we read about the promise of this new earth and second Peter and now if you will please turn your in your Bibles over to Revelation chapter 21 and before we read I’ll set the context of Revelation at this point Christ has returned to earth and fought the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19 and the earthly Millennial Kingdom reign of Christ has come to an end revelation 20 and the final judgment of God through Christ has sentenced Satan and all the ungodly to eternal hell also revelation 20 at which time the whole universe was dissolved and you can see that in Chapter were dissolved by fire you can see that in Revelation 20 verse 11 and also and it was dissolved wishes me the the whole universe was dissolved by fire and it was uncreated into non-existence by the command of God so God by his command created everything out of nothing he also uncreated everything into nothing into nothingness so it will have been gone the earth will not be uncreated or dissolved by nukes it will be dissolved by the Word of God and so revelation 21 and 22 is the New Testament exposition of the promise of the new heaven and the new earth that’s found we just read about it briefly from Isaiah 65 and 66 we saw that earlier the last two chapters in the Bible contained the most exhaustive and clear description of the future new heavens and new earth and all of Scripture this is the beginning of the time when everything we know will be made perfect evil be purged from the universe from the universe confined forever in the lake of fire death and sin and sadness and pain have been entirely done done away with at this time the new heaven and a new earth that replaced the old will be the glorious realm in which believers will dwell eternally and that is what theologians referred to as the eternal state it will last eternally we will only have time to selectively touch on some of the points here so let me read then beginning with chapter 21 verses 1 through 8 then I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea and I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God Himself will be among them and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes there will no longer be any death they will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain the first things have passed away and he who sits on the throne said behold I am making all things new and he said write for these words are faithful and true then he said to me it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost he who overcomes will inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my son but for the Cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all Liars their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the and death well the Apostle John the Apostle John saw the new heavens and the new earth here new doesn’t just refer to new as opposed to old by the way I want to mention please as Christians do not read those books do not get those books that talk about people who’ve gone to heaven and back there’s one heaven is for real about a four-year-old boy who went to heaven came back do not get those books do not read those books they have a tendency than by reading such things to to to take the take such as someone that someone claimed that isn’t verifiable and hold it above the Word of God we only know what God has told us in the Word of God about what is in the new heavens and the new earth and what is in life to come so as believers we should not be giving money to support those kind of things okay here the Apostle John is the one who saw the new heavens and a new earth and the new heavens then the word new she’s me doesn’t just refer to new as opposed to old but I understand the greek word translated new stresses that the earth the god will create will also be different it’ll be new different this same word is used also in 2nd corinthians 5:17 you know the verse well it describes the new birth of the believer says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature the old things passed away behold new things have come see genuine salvation given by God guarantees that the believer is in will is and will be different from the way that he was as an unbeliever if there has been no change in a person’s life then there is no genuine salvation in a moment we’ll see what the text reveals are some of the differences between the old and a new of the old earth and heavens and the new earth and heavens some of the changes though differences that we can be certain of but first some theologians believe that although the new earth will definitely be different it doesn’t necessarily mean that all all sense of familiarity will be lost in fact there is reason to believe that there may be more familiar components in the new heavens and new earth than we realize for instance believers are not annihilated but rather were resurrected and like Jesus who rose bodily from the grave and in new form he had both different as well as familiar aspects compared to before so it should be with the Redeem it should be with the redeemed as well there is a one-to-one correspondence between believers now and who they will be in the future if the destiny of the earth parallels that of believing mankind then some aspects of the physical creation that exists now will also exist in the future albeit in glorified form okay back to the text here in verse 1 it ends with and there shall be no longer any see note that this is the first difference listed although it doesn’t say explicitly why there’s no see in the new new earth so we can so we can’t know with certainty some commentators have suggested that it indicates the elimination of natural boundaries stressing the unity of God’s people others point out the sea often symbolized to fear in the minds of ancient peoples and so stating that there’s no sea it may indicate that there’s no longer any fear well John’s description here of the new heaven and the new earth doesn’t say much about the new earth per se the primary focus in the remaining verses is really on the on the holy city New Jerusalem which comes down from heaven to be the ruling capital of the earth we see this in verse 2 the new help the New Jerusalem is set is called a holy city meaning that it is separated unto God it is prepared by God and it is a city adorned by God the New Jerusalem will be a threat will be the home of the bride the glorified Saints all the glorified Saints God will recreate the heavens in the earth merging his heaven with the new earth into a perfect combined dwelling place that will be our new home forever heaven and earth will be united and God’s sovereignty will reign supreme everywhere that’s a quote from Pastor Bobby as he preached through revelation 21 some years ago in verse 4 you can look scripture comforts and excites us to hear the things that we dread and dream on and deem unfavorable they’re totally absent in the new heavens and the new earth for instance our number-one enemy death along with all pain sorrow and crying is specifically said to be to no longer exist such an inclusive list means that there also be no sickness there’s no hunger no trouble no tragedy nothing that will provoke any worry and no more sin that weighs us down will be present heaven nothing will be present in that regard heaven is a place then where God’s people will dwell together with him eternally utterly free from all the effects of sin and evil God is intimately pictured here as personally wiping away the tears from the eyes of the redeemed and only complete delight in eternal blessing nothing but absolute perfection which means perfect righteousness joy and peace such things are honestly hard for our minds to even imagine having never known anything in this life that is free from the stain of sin and its calamities if you look in verse 5 God instructs the Apostle Paul he says write these things down and he announces that they are faithful and true words the Lord is emphasizing the reliability of these great promises and brethren this is much needed this is much needed truth for our minds to dwell on in an age as today where mockers abound scoffing such precious promises notice that verse 7 speaking of the ones who are granted to dwell here are those who are said to have overcome according to first John or according to John in first John 5 verses 4 and 5 and overcomer is one who exercises saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ it’s a description of every redeemed person all believers are promised the blessings of heaven as of forever inheritance God will be our God we shall be his children heaven will be our eternal home and we will dwell there listen not as mere guests but with all the privileges of family members children of the Lord scripture teaches that all who are believers are children of God and if children heirs also romans 8:17 says heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ so if we are errors that means we receive an inheritance so brethren revelation 21 is God giving us a peek at our future inheritance it is only by the grace of God that anyone will enter the new heavens and new earth after saying who will dwell in the new creation John presents a very sobering contrast by giving a representative list of those who will not be there revelation 21 verse 8 says this but for the Cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all Liars their part will be the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death okay there we go it reminds me this list reminds me of the Apostle Paul when he gave a similar list in first Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11 it says this or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God in verse 11 he says such were some of you but you were washed but you were sanctified but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God notice that Paul says they will that these in the list will not inherit the kingdom of God in our revelation text John spoke of the new heaven and new earth as our inheritance Paul’s first print the in tax gives hope that the new gives gives hope here that the new heaven and new earth will be filled with men and women who previously lived these ways but repented of their sins and trusted Jesus Christ to save them from their sin making them fit for this inheritance but all who reject the salvation that Christ offers and that refused to repent and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness they’ll be sentenced to hell for all eternity this list of sins in Revelation it shows the lifestyle of those who have rejected the truth it is a difficult truth but is the truth from the Word of God and we must not shrink back from warning unbelievers of the dire consequences of sin and plead with them to turn to Christ for salvation revelation 21 versus back in Revelation verses 9 through 21 it contains a description of some of the physical details about the New Jerusalem which we don’t have time to read now I encourage you to read them on your own but to finish up our lesson today I’ll pick up reading from chapter 21 verse 22 and read through chapter 22 verse 5 and Revelation so please follow along in your Bibles as I read chapter 21 beginning in verse 22 I saw no temple in it reference to the New Jerusalem for the Lord God the Almighty and the lamb are its temple and the city has no need of the Sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illumined it and it’s lamp is the lamb the nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it in the daytime for there will be no night there its gates will forever excuse me will never be closed and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nation’s into it and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life then he showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming down from coming from from the from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation’s there will no longer be a curse and the throne and the throne of God and the lamb will be in it and his bond servants will serve him they will see his faith they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and they will no longer be any Knight and they will not have need for the light of a lamp nor the light of the Sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever well the holy city Jerusalem is said to have no physical building as its temple and no need for a Sun or moon for the light source instead John says that God himself and the G and Jesus are the temple and the glory of God will and Jesus will illumine illuminate the city the next section is very interesting in may be new to your way of thinking about the new creation in verses 24 26 and if you’ll look over in chapter 22 verse 2 John mentions the presence of nations and even kings of nations the presence of nations and the world and world leaders show that littoral nations exist on the earth stating that they bring their glory into the New Jerusalem implies that activity takes place outside the New Jerusalem well how can we understand this while there is one people of God in regard to salvation the presence of nations reveals ethnic and national diversity on the earth the best cultural contributions of these nations are brought to the New Jerusalem and these nations act in complete harmony since the leaves of the tree of life which appear for the first time since the fall of man in Genesis 3 they functioned for the healing of the nation’s we’ll consider this quote from Mike block while the new earth will certainly be filled with corporate worship of God the presence of nations and kings outside of the New Jerusalem indicates that the people of God are involved in more than an eternal church service the new earth is full of diversity and activity one of the greatest miracles which will bring glory to God the unity that will take place among different ethnic groups and nations as they exist in peaceful harmony and work together to bring glory to our great God and quote notice in verse three another of the many connections back to Genesis there’s no more curse there’s no more curse on man or creation it is removed and yet for all the beauty and blessing of this New Jerusalem City the best part is the presence of God and the lamb himself who are on the throne verse 3 and 4 says this that his servants the redeemed will serve Him and see his face now seeing God’s face is very significant and Exodus 33 verse 20 you may remember God told Moses you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live the hope and assurance of Old Testament Saints was that they would one day see God’s face Psalm 11 verse 7 says the upright will behold the Lord’s face certainly King David had this hope in Psalm 17 15 he says as for me I shall behold your face in righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus promised that the pure in heart will see God and in John’s first letter he writes of the glorious promise for all Christians that we’ll see Jesus face-to-face in all his glory well this is where it happens the hope of every genuine believer to see God face-to-face and live this implies the ultimate perfection of our intimacy and communion and fellowship with God John adds in verse 5 that God’s name will be on our forehead this speaks of both his ownership of us and our wholehearted commitment to him and what a contrast to the passage earlier in the book of Revelation that you may be familiar with it speaks of unbelievers having taken the mark of the beast on their forehead finally in verse 5 the final depiction of the New Jerusalem it reveals that the Saints will reign forever and ever Genesis 1 revealed that God created man to rule and subdue the earth and the last verse describing the new earth explains that God’s people will be doing just that and how is this so all glory and honor goes to the god man the lamb our Lord Jesus Christ it is the sure hope of every believer that Christ will return for those whom he has been preparing a place we know this will happen because we trust in God’s character and know that he will fulfill his promises this same message that brings hope and encouragement to balute to the believer he should bring fear and trembling to the unbeliever whose future is eternal judgment if you are that unbeliever then please know that it doesn’t need to be that way with you if you will humble yourself and call on the name of Christ confessing your sins to him and trusting in his sacrifice alone for your forgiveness then heaven and the inheritance that God has for his children can be yours and so as believers our heartfelt response to the end of the story that we eagerly anticipate and vigorously strive for should be that of the Apostle John very last words of Scripture amen come Lord Jesus let us pray Lord Jesus you are king of kings and Lord of lords and one day in the new heaven and the new earth you will reign and God thank you for making a way through Christ for sinners to dwell with you for all eternity help us to realize that this world and the things of this world are passing away and to grasp the amazing wonder of what is to come that it would so affect us to live godly lives now and proclaim this truth to those who are lost in Jesus name Amen at the beginning of the lesson I said that this is the last Answers in Genesis Bible curriculum lesson and I understand unless that has changed since I last heard that David will be starting up teaching the whole thing again we’ve been for years going through this he will start again in the fall and so if you came in in the middle if you just started attending partway through or even if you’re here from the beginning I know that he’s learned a lot since those four years ago and he’ll I’m sure be enhancing the messages so they won’t be exactly the same in the years to come but we’ll beginning again in the end September now next week however is one more Sonya school class I could be corrected here but is is there going to be another one after next week or is next week the last one next week is the last Sunday school class so there’s nothing they won’t be in Answers in Genesis lesson like this we just finished but next week the plan is to show a DVD there’ll be about 45 minutes for that and it will be entitled the the building of the Ark Encounter although actually the bill the ark the ark encounter is a life-size Ark with interior exhibits it’s not just what you see on the outside but these people actually the chief designer was someone who worked at Universal Studios came and designed the whole creation Museum and also then designed the arc and you’ll see the DVD next week it’ll talk to show you all the inside exhibits that were as they were being created and thought out this was built by the Answers in Genesis ministry it resides in Kentucky and the intent in showing this next week is to whet your appetite for a spiritually enriching vacation for the whole family and so I like to encourage you to please attend and I think you will be greatly encouraged if you do actually I did end earlier than I anticipated so I kind of practiced several times and went over every single time so I wasn’t sure how this was going to be so if you any have any questions that we have just a couple minutes left No okay if not then you can get started on your food earlier

June 17, 2018
The Surpassing Glory

In this sermon, our missionary Brian Shortmeier looks at the vision of the glorious Lamb on the throne in Revelation 5. Brian Shortmeier explores the nature of Christ’s glory and how His overwhelming glory ought to compel Christians to evangelistic and missionary work. Brian Shortmeier concludes by showing a video describing recent gospel fruit among two tribes in Papua New Guinea.

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

well good morning um I was thinking oh great I’m sitting up in the front so my bad voice is not going to influence anybody else it’s just going in this direction but oh nuts that also means you can see me wiggle as I sing well uh Pastor Bobby if you’re listening to this later I only raised my hands once and I didn’t wiggle too much uh like Eric said um uh my wife and I Susan she’s there in the back go ahead stand up all right we went to Papua New Guinea in 1984 and uh we obviously looked a lot younger back then and uh we went to work the school for missionaries children we were in there for 16 years as principal of that school for 14 and then we moved into field Administration I was a field administrator for for 10 years left there at the end of 2010 we’ve been back now here in the states and I was asked to join the Executive Board of new transmission so there’s six of us on that board guiding the work of NTM USA throughout the world and in the training facilities here and being part of the global neutralized mission for part of that for uh in conjunction with that this uh November Susan I will be heading off to Thailand for a global forum with our International Leadership there and uh it’ll be a real good time of getting back in touch with a lot of our folks especially those in the Asia Pacific area now I’d like to thank you for uh your support uh your prayers uh this church has been supporting us for close to 20 years now I’m thinking in that you know we’ve known you for quite a while and we’re just really really grateful uh I got a question to ask you here let’s see first let me make sure everything working okay with sound good good we’re in good shape there okay when’s the last time any view this doesn’t count for those that are under 20. but when’s the last time any of you looked at your old high school yearbook you know do you even know where it is sometimes reminiscing is fun and bring backs a lot of fond memories there are a lot of memories associated with significant events especially things like marriage marriage anniversaries usually bring to my a lot of thought most of them happy but you know there are a lot of different types of anniversaries as an organization new tribe’s mission is coming up on a really significant one on a horizon the 75th anniversary of new transmission will be next year in 2017.

uh that was the 1942 was when Paul Fleming our founder and two other men signed a pledge it was Cecil die and Bob Williams and in preparation I’ve been reading some of the old letters and documents from the founding days of NTM and not surprisingly one of the passages of scripture that was often quoted in those early days is Revelations chapter 5 verses 1 to 14.

so I’m going to be reading from that right now obviously you’re welcome to to read along with you or if you want to just I want you to try and visualize this and imagine what I’m going to be reading here so Revelation chapter 5.

this is the vision of John as he was caught up to heaven then I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with Seven Seals and I saw a mighty Angel proclaiming a loud voice who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll but no one in heaven or on Earth or under the Earth could open the scroll or even look inside it I wept and wet because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside then one of the elders said to me do not weep see the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has triumphed he is able to open the scroll in its Seven Seals then I saw land looking as if it had been slain standing in the center of the throne encircled by the four living creatures and the elders he had seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the Earth he came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne and when he had taken it the four living creatures and the 24 Elders fell down before the lamb each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls of incense which are the prayers of the Saints and they sang a new song you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and Nation you have made them to be a kingdom and Priests to serve our God they will reign on the Earth then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders in an allowed voice they sang Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise then I heard every creature in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and Power forever and ever the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshiped it’s quite a stirring picture isn’t it well why do missionaries with new transmission do what we do I mean why do we feel the need to attempt Ministries that other Christians choose to ignore well part of the answer is found there in verse 9.

what we see there isn’t it’s not a parable it’s not a metaphor verse 9 describes an actual event that is yet to happen the redeemed of the Lord will include people from every tribe every language every people and every nation that is a fact that is what’s going to happen but you know the emphasis of the Revelation 5 passage isn’t isn’t on who’s included in the group though you would think that’s what you know uh what I focus in on and that’s true but that’s not the focus of the passage the focus is on the one who sits on the throne and on the land in the center of the throne it’s always where the focus needs to be we read in verse 12 that they will sing those around him to Hidden who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor glory and Power forever and ever praise and honor power and Glory and I’ll tell you praise and Power they’re actually easy concepts for me to understand and I think I have a handle on honor though the more I think about it the more I realize there’s more I don’t know to that but you know what I struggle with Glory it’s a word we read a lot an alert word we use a lot but I ask you what is it really now in the Old Testament the glory of God was described as a consuming fire on top of Mount Sinai it was described as something that filled the Tabernacle and then the temple God’s glory has been set above the heavens and says that the heavens themselves declare the glory of God it’s interesting we get to the New Testament one of the first things we read about the glory of the Lord is the glory shown around the Shepherds and right before martyrdom Stephen was able to look into heaven and see the glory of God and in a process that I believe in but I don’t really yet understand we reflect the Lord’s glory in an ever-increasing way as we are transformed into his likeness at Second Corinthians 3 18.

that’s kind of hard to believe that people like us could be a reflection of the Lord’s Glory but that’s what the word tells us well is Glory something physical well actually it seems it can have a physical manifestation is it Supernatural or spiritual well obviously there’s certainly an aspect of that have you ever thought about it is Glory a degree of splendor is it a degree of reputation for what God is known for I believe there’s a certain element of both in those as you look through the Bible you will notice that glory is most oftenly associated with light Psalm 104 2 tells us that God wrought wraps himself in light as with a garment and we also read that the light source of the New Jerusalem which will come out of Heaven from God that light source is solely the glory of God Revelation 21 23.

so what’s the glory of Jesus Christ well scripture tells us that Christ’s Glory was possessed before the foundation of the world so it’s something he’s always had it was revealed in the Incarnation oh that’s not the kind of Glory I would have imagined right now just their a little infant taking on a human body yeah the Lord’s glory is revealed in the Incarnation it was beheld upon the Mount of transfiguration his glory will be manifested at the second coming again some of what we read before it will be shared by those who believe in him will be sharing in the Lord’s Glory and as we read earlier around the throne Glory will be ascribed to Jesus Christ ascribed by the Heavenly hosts well what does ascribe mean well means that Glory will be credited to him will be attributed to him will be recognized in him so though we cannot clearly Define it I believe we all have a sense of what glory is glory of God reveals his magnificence his worthiness his holiness it inspires worship and praise you know one aspect of the glory of a thing is that which is outstanding about it for example Proverbs 20 29 says the glory of young men is there strength any old man knows that that’s not there anymore another significant aspect though of the glory of a thing is that which represents its best feature or highest accomplishment the thing of which it’s most proud well we understand that because Proverbs 17 6 that says that what are the glory of children they’re fathers yeah my dad my dad can beat up your dad um we understand that but again here surprisingly First Corinthians 11 tells us tells us that men meaning mankind are the glory of God that’s an interesting concept are we the thing of which God is the most proud that he created not sure but that’s possible one of the themes of the book of Hebrews is how Jesus is better than all who came before him he accomplished more he himself just is more his glory surpasses any previous Glory and I think the verses that Express this thought well are found in second Corinthians chapter 3.

verses 7 to 11.

uh those verses are appropriate in King James but they’re difficult to understand in the NIV I’ll read that here second Corinthians 3 7 now if the ministry that brought death which was engraving in letters on Stone so what are we talking about what was engraving on letters of stone Ten Commandments the law so if the ministry that brought death which was engraving in letters on Stone came with Glory so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its Glory fading though it was will not the ministry of the spirit be even more glorious if a Ministry that condemns men is glorious the law how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness for what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with The surpassing Glory and if what was fading away came with Glory much greater is the glory of that which lasts okay the ministry of righteousness in verse 9 the ministry of the Gospel it’s described as having a glory which excellent or is surpassing this means that it excels or surpasses any other Glory it’s the Pinnacle the highest well we as Americans tend to make a big deal over anything that’s considered the Pinnacle the top the best especially in sports okay those of you who are born prior to 1960 okay so we’re talking about a limited group here you might remember remember the name Mark Spitz okay former American competition swimmer now are you aware that in the 1968 Olympics Mark Spitz won two team gold medals in freestyle relay relays and a silver medal in the 100 meter butterfly no I doubt it what we remember what do you remember about Mark Spitz he won seven gold medals at one point okay at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich I mean there’s an image in the mind of those of us who are rely then it’s the image of the picture on the box of Wheaties The Breakfast of Champions and there he’s standing there in his swim trunks and these seven gold medals all right so what else do you remember do you remember what he did before that no that’s what you remember that was the top okay now for those of you who are rolling their eyes at this ancient history let’s move to the 21st century what do you know about American pharaoh remember that name very popular just last year what was American pharaoh a horse is an American thoroughbred racehorse who won the American Triple Crown in 2015.

first American Triple Crown winner since 1978 only the 12th in history well does anybody know that he was voted American champion two-year-old male horse in 2014 no you have no idea what he accomplished then cares anymore after he won the Triple Crown see the highest achievement is the one to be celebrated the highest achievement deserves the most Glory and I thought back to Revelation 5 and I wondered how does this relate to the glory of God what is the main problem in all creation that God and God Alone was able to find a solution for it was the problem of sin right no one else okay sin is what marred his creation sin is what separated us from God sin is why the father considered necessary to sacrifice his own son you know in our Humanity it’s impossible for us to fully comprehend the depth and the depravity of our own sin let alone the magnitude of the issue of sin in the universe we just can’t get there our sin isn’t something that covers just a portion of us like the dirt we might see on our faces in a mirror sin can’t be compared to something that even fills us those things are actually small enough for me to try to imagine or try to comprehend but our sin is more like a Grand Canyon sized hole so big that if you’re standing at the precipice of it you can even imagine how that hole could ever be filled what part not all but at least a part of the glory of Jesus Christ is that his blood is sufficient to cover or fill that grand canyon-sized hole I believe that at some point in heaven is our understanding of spiritual things increases and as we begin to understand the actual depravity of sin contrasted with the Holiness of God to a degree that we will never understand here in this earth we will actually Marvel that Jesus blood could cleanse and take care of the sin of even one sinner the glory of Jesus is and will be enhanced by every additional sinner who was saved one after another after another I wonder if one at a time will think there’s not enough blood left to do the job but each additional sinner each additional cleanse Center will enhance our love oh and respect for God and will enhance his glory you know when a Craftsman creates a work of art the glory goes to the one who created it not to the work itself each additional work increases the glory do and heaped upon the Craftsmen and so it is and will be with every additional safe person each additional Soul Redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ brings additional glory to Jesus Christ and then I pondered that and when I thought of it it really brought me up short for my own selfishness and self-centeredness I’m not sure about you but there are times with I’m going through difficult time when I think inwardly please return now Lord I can’t take anymore and eventually I realize the absolute assertive absurdity of that statement of course I can take more of course every one of us can take more God’s grace can enable us not only to endure which is where a lot of us are just content Lord just help me to endure this but God’s grace can enable us not just to endure but to flourish under any condition or circumstance he chooses to allow in our lives when we grasp grasp that truth that his grace will enable us to flourish not just endure under any condition I’m going to be a lot more open to what God is doing in the Bible we never find the phrase even though I used to use it even so come quickly Lord Jesus I realize that in revelation 22 20 Jesus said surely I come quickly but John’s response was amen even so come Lord Jesus well I take that quickly from Jesus words I’m added on to John you know but the adjective that the New Testament does use describing the timing of the Lord’s coming is at hand or near Philippians 4 5 says let your moderation be known unto all men why the Lord is at hand Lord’s near revelation 22 10 and he saith unto me seal not the Prophecies of this book for the time is at hand it’s near well determining when Jesus will return is the father’s business until that happens what’s our business our business is to go to obey his command to go and make disciples All Nations baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded look it up yourself Matthew 28 19 and 20.

you know when I’m more concerned for my own welfare than I am for the Salvation of one more lost soul but I’m no longer a burdened for those people groups who haven’t heard the message of the Gospel that’s when I’m saying or communicating to God consciously or not Lord I care less about Sin you get more Glory than I am but my own temporal Comfort come now because I can’t take anymore as the years go by we can begin to feel some of us haven’t we done our share maybe it’s time for others to carry the burden and we can let up that isn’t true there is no such thing as our fair share as long as the Lord has us here in this earth we as part of the bride of Christ have to make ourselves ready for his return and a big part of making ourselves ready is seeing that as many as can be brought into the fold are brought into the fold why because each additional person saved by the blood of Christ brings more glory to him we know our Salvation is not a result of our own efforts our Salvation is only possible through the work of Christ the master Craftsman every safe soul is to the praise of his glory every saved Soul brings him more glory and praise so I go back to revelation 5.

the song of the living creatures and Elders as recorded in verses 9 and 10.

is then repeated by all the angels in heaven in verse 12 and then in verse 13 is echoed by every creature in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and on the sea and all that is in them what’s he describing all creation every single thing all creation joins in this song and they sing to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and Power for ever and ever this song won’t be stopped but Satan would like to see it diminished in First Peter 5 8 we read be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil there’s a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour I’m never sure I don’t know if you’ve ever looked up what that word devour is when something is devoured it’s swallowed up completely overcome no more power no more of any consequence that word devour is actually used in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 11 to describe what happened to Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea when they chased the children of Israel they were completely swallowed up well according to First Peter 5 8 this is what Satan wants to do to us he walks about seeking whom he made an hour he wants to see us overcome without power no longer of any consequence well the scripture says that though we were once Darkness we are now light in the Lord and we are commanded to live as children of light Ephesians again our world is described as being in darkness Ephesians 6 12.

and Satan wants to stop any who live in that Darkness from turning to the light Matthew 13 Acts 26 . second Corinthians 4 4 says in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the Glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them every additional person that Satan can keep from salvation is one less Soul saved to enhance the glory of God and when we aren’t committed to living as children of light and actively bringing light into this world we aren’t bringing glory to God in the spring of um sorry in the spring of 1942 I mean who is the founder of new transmission wrote an article because a lot of people were questioning what is this new organization doing and he wrote an article and published in our new uh publication right back then article called the last tribe I want you to consider how much he wrote in 1942 still applies now in 2016.

he wrote the command of Christ has been obeyed only in part The Staggering fact Still Remains that today there are more people being born into this world than are being reached with the gospel yep that’s still true Paul for me went on to say that the failure of the church to carry the gospel to the ends of the Earth is because the church has lost its vision and that it’s become localized meaning that it’s primarily concerned with itself and with local or domestic Outreach I pray that this church is different I believe it is but I can tell you the majority of the churches in North America are exactly where that’s at and it’s becoming more and more true every day the number of missionaries going out it’s dropping fast number of overseas missionaries from North America another will lose another 6 000 this year right churches we have a church that supports us right now he says you know what we’ve decided we’re not going to do traditional missions anymore well we’ll keep supporting you because you know you kind of grandfathered in but we like projects we’d like to be able we’ll give money we’re good at that and some other group can do it who are really concerned with our town well I’m glad they’re concerned with their town I’m glad they’re concerned with New Jersey okay we should not be should not be forsaking that but Jesus said to do what go into all the world he didn’t say just do it for a while until you’re tired of it and then go back home to Jerusalem again why it’s our job Satan will be happy to see that last tribe not reach for another 100 or 200 or Thousand Years because then he continues to have more free reign on this Earth the church in America is more concerned with itself in local issues than ever before Paul Fleming wrote Our objective in prayer is that we might be a channel this is how why Neutron’s mission was raised up our objective into prayer is that we might be a channel through which the Lord might work to reach the last tribe or unevangelized people group wherever they might be so 74 years now so far the purpose of neutral’s mission has not changed our goals are the same you see the gospel brought God’s word taught and discipleship caught in the least reached people groups of the World wherever they might be you know God we will be glorified we will be there around the throne and a loud voice the Nations will sing Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise God wants each one of us to be committed to this task our mission to those who haven’t heard the life-saving message of the Gospel according to Acts 26 18 is to open their eyes and turn them from Darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness and a place among those who are Sanctified by faith in Christ where’s that place that place is among the tribes of Nations who are encircling the throne giving glory to the lamb it’s been very exciting to see the different ways that the Lord is using NTM missionaries to spread the gospel and plant churches among unreached people groups I’m not sure how many of you are able to see some of that slide presentation that was happening between Sunday school and the church service but it was just again a little review of just some of the things that have happened through new transmission from 2012 to 2016.

the number of places where the missionaries have they learn the language and the culture after years of studying and had been able to break down the language and make an alphabet and then create primers and teach the people literacy so they can read and write in their own language and then they can make Bible lessons and then they can teach from creation to Christ and lead people to Salvation and a new church is born and then we’ve got those places where uh after a few years that church that that new fledgling church is interested in bringing that same message to the rest of their tribe and so we had pictures about that and then there was those places where they’re now getting the vision not just our people but those tribes that are near us are next to us around us they need to hear and we want to be a part of that because that’s our job as part of the bride of Christ to see that that continues on and I’m gonna at the end of this we’re gonna see a little video about that and then there’s the places where they’ve after years and years they finished translating the New Testament and has been presented to people I think you say I’ve got God’s word now for myself and my own language which we just take for granted and then pictures of those places where the gospel is getting ready to be presented this year and the places where the New Testament is getting ready to be finished and dedicated this year several years ago missionaries moved into and this is going to be tricky so try to get the two words here into a tribe of people known as the enepog in upon these missionaries after learning the language and culture they presented the gospel and it wasn’t long before tribal Believers from that first Village then learned how to take that and bring it to other distant villages in their same people group just two thousand and I think 14 they took it to the eighth and last Village of the inepong work but around that same time there were in upon believers who were bilingual in e tutang because of marriage who were burned to bring the message back to their own people to their relatives back in that other language group Yi tutang but as they looked at the task I thought We’re Not educated we don’t have the resources to do this we’re just simple Village People and how could we ever bring the gospel to another group but they believed God that God could take them and use them to do that you wanna you know what the resources that every single one of us here in this building today have compared to the tribal people of the enepon our resources dwarf what they have every one of us has been to school it used to be that you know go back a couple hundred years in America we try to give everybody through sixth grade well we try to get everybody at least through High School majority of us have been to college our education our ability to comprehend new Concepts you might think it’s difficult to learn a language I understand that but it’s just because we think oh it’s hard I used to teach mathematics and I can remember students first year of algebra going I don’t know this I’ll never pass and I go I know you don’t know it that’s why you’re here if you knew it you wouldn’t need to be here hey we’ll teach you we’ll train you and at the end I’ll bet you I’ll say at the end of Algebra 1 . let’s look at back at that first lesson you think you can do this one now oh piece of cake why because we took you through it step by step you had the training you needed to bring you to that point you know what every single person here has what you need believe it or not with training to learn another language to learn how to share the gospel because hopefully you’re already doing that in your own language any of them I I want to get too much in the guilt trip here let’s continue on here um this group really felt as if they weren’t skilled or educated enough and they were scared enter Tim and Tiffany Lanier Tim and Tiffany were new missionaries Jay just finished the training here in the United States they went through Missionary Training they went through the language school we have this language School in Camdenton Missouri they finished all that there were new missionaries of the field and as new missionaries they were put into orientation well the way we do orientation there is like okay we want you to go live in an established tribal work with missionaries that are already there you’re going to work you study the national culture and language just in that context of a tribal language but here we’ve got materials for you because while you’re learning the national culture and language for example if it was you went down to Bolivia we’re going to put you in a tribe while you’re learning Spanish and the national culture of Bolivia you can also get exposed to what happens here in a tribe well while Tim and Tiffany were learning the national culture and language of Papua New Guinea okay they were doing their orientation in the in upon work and while they were there they were hearing the prayers of inepond or we need to reach E210 we don’t know how to do it and Tim and Tiffany are saying well when we leave here where does it where is it that the Lord will have us work what new place and as they were leaving they were really becoming burdened for E210 just like the enapong were being burdened for ichu Tang okay I want you to listen to how both the linears and the enepon found the Lord to be sufficient to do things that they never thought they could do so if we could do we turn down the lights we put on the TVs you might not need to the story you will hear is a beautiful one he alone is writing the story it is about his strength his power and His glory and the story will be told through his church come and see the Glorious works of the king foreign so when we had our time of learning the national language and culture here in Papua New Guinea we spent nine weeks in etitong and during that time we began to hear testimony after testimony of the Believers there who were bilingual and had family in tongua and they’re just great desire to take the gospel back to their family and then as we heard these testimonies the Lords began to land our heart a desire to um take part in that it was it was quite a journey we prayed about it a lot there were a lot of obstacles that we saw that the Lord had to help us overcome if this was going to happen and we didn’t know if that was going to happen or not but we decided to trust him enough plenty we saw this as an incredible opportunity to assist and support the local church there to to do something that hasn’t often been possible in PNG and that is to help the local church fulfill the Great Commission by Crossing language barriers and taking the gospel so while we were excited to do this we recognized that it would require a non-traditional approach to church planting one that had many obstacles to overcome to accomplish it many said this local church couldn’t do it that they’re uneducated that this job is too big and too complicated but nonetheless we believe that this is what God was leading us and seemed like was leading them to do we didn’t know it at the time and they didn’t know it but when we left itsutung that first time each of us both the church and our family were praying independently about partnering together to reach the tonguat people we wanted to do everything we could to see if this church was equipped that they were empowered for this task of taking the gospel across language barriers we wanted to see that happen for their further maturing and for God’s glory in that place foreign school this was out of the box it was driven by the church from the strategy of reaching the tongue down to the day-to-day tests and assignments they were given by the Nationals who were teaching them in a time what language every day required this family to lay down expectations and rely on Christ Alone Kim once said I will do whatever it takes even if it means moving at a snail space we will work with the church’s timetable to learn this language and support them in their church planning effort the Lord blesses humility and bless the two time teachers and before the two-year Mark these Believers had brought Tim and Tiffany into the proficient levels of the language and culture there in town Hawaiian when we were far enough along in our language study we developed the tonguat alphabet and we’re ready to put together the tongvat literacy program the etutung church came together in the tangwat bilinguals did an incredible amount of work to see that happen in just a few short days they had wrote all the greatest stories needed for the four primer books and the four graded readers in all they wrote over 100 stories and they saw the materials put together and this helped to ready them for the first classes to begin the literacy classes have been taught entirely by the icheton church from the very beginning foreign so once literacy was finished we got into Bible Lesson writing and translation writing Bible lessons is not a small task it is very big we definitely couldn’t do it in our own space but when we prayed and asked for help God strengthened us and gave us wisdom this work of writing lessons is big but we are just Village People so we did not have a good understanding in how to do this this is what happened often we would start writing a lesson and then our thinking would fall but then God’s spirit would help us and then we’d get wisdom again and we’d go back and continue writing so God chose us Village people who have Believers in him to do this work of writing these lessons as we’ve partnered with the etutong church we’ve had to be very intentional about giving them the front seat rolls and even forcing sometimes them to take positions to take leadership in areas that they want to defer to us to because we’re the white missionaries as Bible translation and lesson writing got underway we began to realize that the task of discipling these guys into this role was consuming a lot of my time and in order to keep up with producing materials for them to be able to teach we needed some help so promise Vaughn joined our team and she’s been a huge blessing in helping continue to help the process of Bible translation continue to progress as we disciple and equip these guys as the ichatang Bible teachers began writing Bible lessons it was a very scary thing for him they didn’t think they could do it they didn’t think that this was something that that was possible by them they’d never sat down for long periods of time to work at a desk or a computer so there was a lot of challenges they were afraid they were really scared of how are they going to do this we can’t do it we’re not educated but they stepped out in faith and saw the Lord meet them there I said you mean you mean you mean our struggle of making this life that’s all because so we continue writing lesson papers and when they were finished the number of papers look like a stack of books some days we would be writing and our house would fall asleep some days we’ll be writing and our backs would be hurting we worked and worked and sometimes thought this work is too hard for us we should just leave it but now God’s spirit said you must do this it will be completed because you yourself in your strength can’t do this you must stand on my strength and do this work God continually encourages Us in that way it was after about 18 months of intensive work on these Bible lessons that they were finally completed and we were ready to go down to tangwa to start teaching at that time man the church was alive with excitement and they were so thrilled to see that the Lord had actually accomplished this through them and they were actually going down to teach to talk about people God’s word so the day finally came when we were able to actually take God’s word in their language and carry it down to tonguat and begin teaching them so the ichatung Bible teachers talked chronologically Through the Bible for four months teaching on God’s character his attributes on sin and Redemption and they quickly realized that they were alienated from God and helpless without somebody to deliver them some of the ladies after the teaching were gathering together thinking and asking what is the road to get back to God how can this problem of sin be fixed and one lady in particular was asking well can we pay money to make ourselves right with God they were thinking of their traditional ways of having feasts and eating together realizing that through all those things that the sin problem wouldn’t be resolved so it was exciting as we went through the New Testament to be able to point to all the prophecies in the Old Testament of the Messiah and what he was going to be like and what he was going to do and as we went through the New Testament we could see each one of those fulfilled and as they saw that they realized that God had a plan and that he was their deliverer and that he was the only one that could save them so as we got to the final lessons uh it was just it was actually very quiet because people were so distraught by what was happening to this one that God had sent the etutong Believers did a drama depicting the Last Supper through to Jesus burial and it was a very convicting time for the people because they saw the story unfold Before Their Eyes acted out and they realized that really really this happened that this is something that God did for us foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign Believers around the world that have been upholding the tonguat people in each time church and our family our team in prayer looking back over the past three years and seeing what the Lord has done looking at the beginning and seeing how this just didn’t seem possible for a lot of reasons but seeing that God is able and he has empowered the people here he’s given us strength time and time again when we felt like we were hitting roadblocks that were going to hinder and it’s been a thrill to us to see him use his church there in ichatung to see him use his local church there to reach the tongaat people has been just a thrill and I think every struggle we’ve gone through has made it all worth it today we Rejoice because he has taken a small band of bilinguals hidden in the Forgotten swamps and valleys of the rainforest of PNG and he has written them into his story he has made them honored characters and privileged vessels who have proclaimed the most important words ever spoken and they have seen Souls transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of our King’s glorious light but the story is still not finished there are many left who still need to hear please pray for the Harvest there still is much to be done uh there’s a lot of different ways and opportunities to help reach the unreached people groups sometimes it’s been as the the new missionary going in there but sometimes it was with Tim and Tiffany and promise instead they joined in with a local church there now you say well why were they needed well one they taught them how to write the lessons Okay but the other thing that was really necessary and often why worst from the West still need it is because though these trauma believers they understand culture and they can learn that and they can learn language and they can talk with they can teach what they’ve been taught difficult part is translating God’s word think how difficult it is for us with the training with the tools that we’ve been have how many versions in English do you have available to you how many concordances how many commentaries and none of those things exist in the tribal languages so that’s another reason why we’re still very much needed to help be part of this team to see that God’s word gets translated um I’m going to just leave one last little challenge here if you’re part of a generation that says yeah somebody else can do it I asked you step out be different from your generation say yeah I know the majority is not but God’s called us throughout history there’s always been a smaller group that’s willing to go out and be a part of that okay and whether he calls you go there or closer to your need to stay here be a part of getting the gospel out okay help see one more Soul save your bring more glory to Jesus Christ let’s pray father we do again Praise You free are we thank you Lauren I just pray you continue to um to use this church or in its community and around the world Lord I do pray that there’d be another one two or more just be willing to step forward from this local body to say I want to be a part of bringing the gospel around the world to people that have never heard it or this church has been so blessed and such good teaching with such breath we do pray that there be those that set forward to Jesus be a part of that can we just ask your blessing upon our time together the rest of this afternoon Lord for the food we’re about to have together Lord we thank you so much for your grace in our own lives to enable us to do any and everything that you’ve called us to We Just Praise You In Jesus Name amen

August 7, 2016
The Process of Interpretation Applied Part 3

November 17, 2013
The Process of Interpretation Applied Part 2

November 10, 2013
The Process of Interpretation Applied Part 1

November 3, 2013
Examining End Time Teaching (Part 14): The Eternal Kingdom

January 17, 2010
Examining End Time Teaching (Part 13)

January 10, 2010
Examining End Time Teaching (Part 12)

January 3, 2010
When the Christian Heart Grows Cold

December 27, 2009