Bethlehem Baptist Church
September 17 – December 10 2014
January 14 – April 29 2015
 Introduction
 Scripture: 2 lessons
 The Trinity
 God’s Eternal Purposes: 2
 God’s Creation: 2
 Man’s Sin and Fall
 Jesus Christ: 2
 The Saving Work of
Christ (Jan. 2015)
The aim of our charge is love
that issues from
a pure heart and
a good conscience and
a sincere faith.
(1 Timothy 1:5 ESV)
 Three Hymns reflect our discussion from last week:
 Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
 What image/Bible passage comes to mind with a Rock, cleft for me?
 Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
 The question last week about the “happy God” and the wrath-filled God
– How do we resolve those concepts of God? Here it is in a hymn we
sing regularly.
 You are Holy, Holy
Are you Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
 Michael W. Smith
 "Safe?" said Mr Beaver
..."Who said anything
about safe? 'Course he
isn't safe. But he's
good. He's the King, I
tell you.”
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― C.S. Lewis, The Lion,
the Witch, and the
Wardrobe
 http://www.desiringgod.org/blo
g/posts/five-truths-about-thewrath-of-god
 4. God’s wrath is his love in
action against sin.
 This is counter-intuitive, but
hear me out.
 God is love, and God does all
things for his glory (Romans
11:36). He loves his glory above
all (and that is a good thing!).
 Therefore, God rules the world
in such a way that brings himself
maximum glory. This means that
God must act justly and judge
sin (i.e. respond with wrath),
otherwise God would not be
God. God’s love for his glory
motivates his wrath against sin.
 Admittedly, God’s love for his
own glory is a most sobering
reality for many and not good
news for sinners. It is after all, “a
fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God” (Hebrews
10:31).
 Gen 1:1 and following
 John 1:1-3
 Hebrews 11:3
 Rev 4:11 – Worthy because of creation
 4.1
 We believe that God created the universe, and
everything in it, out of nothing, by the Word of His
power. Having no deficiency in Himself, nor moved by
and incompleteness in His joyful self-sufficiency, God
was pleased in creation to display His glory for the
everlasting joy of the redeemed, from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation.
 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
 Genesis 1:1
 “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and
the sea and everything in them.” Acts 4:24
 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the
word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of
things that are visible
 (Hebrews 11:3 ESV)
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through him, and without him
was not any thing made that was made
 (John 1:1-3 ESV)
 The God who made the world and everything in it,
being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
temples made by man, nor is he served by human
hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself
gives to all mankind life and breath and everything
 (Acts 17:24-25 ESV) At Athens
 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a
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thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the
field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its
fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your
vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of
trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me
 (Psalms 50:10-15 ESV) cp. Mt. 6:26 The birds of the air.
 And whenever the living creatures give glory and
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honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne,
who lives forever and ever, the twenty- four elders fall
down before him who is seated on the throne and
worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their
crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
 (Revelation 4:9-11 ESV)
 How do the various religions view creation?
 How does our understanding of creation affect our
understanding of God, and our relationship to Him?
 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by
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the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he
created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his
power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand
of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as
the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God's angels worship him
 (Hebrews 1:3-6 ESV)
 Of the angels he says,
 “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
 But of the Son he says,
 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is
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the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God,
your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your
companions.”
And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the
heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same, and your years will have no end
 (Hebrews 1:7-12 ESV)
 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
 “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a
footstool for your feet”?
 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve
for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation
 (Hebrews 1:13-14 ESV)
 Question from Grudem:
 Misconceptions about angels in our society: How do
we use scripture to counteract these wrong ideas?
 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of
the field that the Lord God had made.
 He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not
eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the
serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that
is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest
you die. ’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not
surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes
will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil.”
 (Genesis 3:1-6 ESV)
 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do
your father's desires. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of
his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies
 (John 8:44 ESV)
 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient
serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver
of the whole world— he was thrown down to the
earth, and his angels were thrown down with him
 (Revelation 12:9 ESV)
 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and
threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him,
so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until
the thousand years were ended
 (Revelation 20:2-3 ESV)
 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the
devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the
Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil
 (1 John 3:8 ESV)
 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are
perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded
the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God
 (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV)
 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you
once walked, following the course of this world, following
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
 (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some
will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to
deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the
insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who
forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods
that God created to be received with thanksgiving by
those who believe and know the truth
 (1 Timothy 4:1-3 ESV)
 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, for many false
prophets have gone out into the world
 (1 John 4:1 ESV)
 A
 And God saw everything that he had made, and
behold, it was very good. And there was evening and
there was morning, the sixth day
 (Genesis 1:31 ESV)
 “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the
beginning,
 and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will
perish, but you remain;
 they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you
will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed.
 (Hebrews 1:10-12 ESV)
 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the
dwelling place of God is with man
 (Revelation 21:1-3 ESV)
 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through
the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the
river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its
fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of
the nations
 (Revelation 22:1-2 ESV)
 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they
may have the right to the tree of life and that they may
enter the city by the gates
 (Revelation 22:14 ESV)