Introduction to Malachi

Transcript

GR 46
2/2/1975
INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI
Malachi
Gil Rugh

I direct your attention this morning to I Corinthians and the 10th chapter. I Corinthians and the 10th chapter. We're going to begin a consideration of the book of Malachi this morning. And Malachi being the last of the Old Testament books.

In chapter 10 of I Corinthians, you see something of the purpose of the recording of the Old Testament and the significance of these events to us. Let's begin reading with the first verse. Let's begin reading with the 1st verse of I Corinthians 10. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brother, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed the; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.'' Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will now allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.1'

It's been a month since I preached last and I feel a little bit rusty in this starting again. We're going to start our study this morning, as I mentioned, with the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. All of our studies on Sunday mornings at Indian Hills, since I've been pastor over the last five years have been New Testament books, with the exception of the study of prophecy when I first came. We studied the book of Hosea on Sunday evening, and the book of Daniel on Wednesday evening, some time ago. I thought it would be good for us to look at an Old Testament book. We looked at another New testament book (?) an originally we went to Zechariah, but Zechariah has 14 chapters as if I feared that some of you might fall by the way, so we'll get our feet with four chapters and then we'll go back to a New Testament book where you can breathe again and then maybe we'll go back and pick up an Old Testament Book like Zechariah.

As you noted in our scripture reading and that's just one of the passages we could've read, God had a purpose in writing all these Old Testament Books. It wasn't just that since they were already written you'd tack them onto the New Testament.

They were written for our admonition and when Paul wrote to Timothy and said all scripture is inspired of God that included the books of the Old Testament as well as those in the new. And I think we'll see much of the doctrine that we've come to understand in the New Testament illustrated in the Old Testament.

What we're going to do this morning is look at some background material and just the first verse of Malachi and connect them with the background again of the book.

Now in your bulletin you should have an insert that's like so to be review for some of you and maybe new for others. The top of the sheet looks something like was it on the overhead, listing the books of the Old Testament. Now I haven't put them all in on the overhead, but you have them on the sheet. The top half of the sheet, starting with Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Now what that does, those books that I just read, the top row. That carried you through the history of the Old Testament. If you read those books in order you will have covered the history of the Old Testament.

Now the books that are underneath those, for instance Job, under Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ruth do not move the history along. But they relate material and happenings going on within the historical period covered by the book on top. So a good exercise for you sometimes is to read the Old Testament through reading the historical books. Those books that move the history along. You read Leviticus it will tell you of the worship going on in the time of the book of Numbers, that the book o£ Numbers would relate, but it won't move the history along. Same with the other books. You might be interested first, this gap here, 70 years, you'll note that underneath we have the prophets before, during and after, before the Babylonian captivity of 70 years, and those prophets are listed under the before—in the box, but during Ezekiel and Daniel and then after, we have Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Some would put Daniel up here and because he does cover the period of the exile, the 70 years captivity that does move the history along to a degree. But I've put all the prophets along underneath since their preaching goes on within the other historical framework.

A little bit about the theme of each book. You might be interested in jotting alongside the boxes. I just given the theme of the book that moved the history along. Not like the others, like the theme of the book of Leviticus should be worship—the books that moved the history along like the book of Genesis is talking primarily about the beginning--you start with creation and move on. We have the beginning of not only mankind, but we have the beginning of the nations with Noah's sons and their descendants. We had the beginning of Israel which is the bulk of the book. We start with Abraham and then we develop the nation of Israel down through the rest of the book.

So Genesis, the beginning, Exodus redemption; redeeming Israel from bondage in Egypt. Numbers is the book of wanderings, the children of Israel because of disobedience to God wander in the wilderness. Joshua a book of conquering or victory as they final have the privilege of going into the land and conquering the land.
Genesis—beginning, Numbers is wanderings, Joshua—victory, Judges--defeat.

The conquering and the victory in the book of Joshua is followed by the defeat that is recorded in the book of Judges as Israel goes through a cycle of sin and then the punishment of God, the restoration and only to fall into sin again. And they keep cycling though that in the book of Judges.

I Samuel is establishing, I call it establishing because it relates to the establishment of the kingdom. The first time we have the kingdom of Israel. It becomes a kingdom with a king and I Samuel is about Saul, the first king of Israel. So even though it's title I Samuel. I Samuel is about Saul. II Samuel is the development of the kingdom under David. II Samuel is about David. I Kings is the division of the kingdom and the Solomon's son Reheboam. And we'll say something about that in a moment. The kingdom was divided into the North and the South.

So I kings talk about the division of the kingdom and function of the Northern and the Southern kingdom of Israel.

Then II Kings talks about captivity, the nation goes Into captivity and ceases to exist as an independent kingdom. So the 70 year captivity, then we have Ezra, the temple rebuilt and Nehemiah or the walls of the city rebuilt. Then we have the 400 silent years and then we have the New Testament. So that is an overview of books of the Old Testament—primarily the history books as God picks this up in the beginning and carries us
through. And there’s a progressive development o£ God's plan.
And as you read through these books from Genesis through Nehemiah, you'll see God revealing Himself and His purposes and plans in history. And God's revelation of Himself is inseparable from History. God had chose to reveal Himself in human history and the development of this history is a development of the revelation of God. We call it: progressive revelation. God has progressively revealed himself. We'll talk about revelation a little bit later this morning.

So the Old Testament does have an order, sometimes it seems like a collection of books and you sit down and try to begin with Genesis and you try to read to Malachi, sometimes you get discouraged.
Then you might start out by reading the Historical history and that way you'll get an overall view and then you can go back and read the book that takes place within the historical setting.
Okay, now we are interested in the prophetic books because Malachi is a prophet. So the bottom half of the chart, the bottom chart on your sheet deals with the prophets. Now I've put, (you can't see in front of me, it's the same thing on the overhead that you have on your sheet.) Saul, David and Solomon because they are the only three kings over Israel as a United Kingdom. Saul is the first king. And Solomon for all intentions and purposes is the last king over the United Nation, Israel. 1043 is the date for the establishing the kingdom of Israel. Not the establishing of the nation.

The Nation began with Abraham back in the book of Genesis around 2000BC, but for the establishing of the Kingdom with the kings, is 1043. 931 BC the kingdom splits under Solomon's son Reheboam.
And Reheboam would've been king over the United Kingdom for a brief, but such a brief period and such an ineffective period that for all intents and purposes it ends with Solomon. So 931 we have the split. We have the Northern kingdom. And that is called Israel, maintains the name Israel because it had 10 tribes. It has the largest percentages of the tribes. The Southern Kingdom is called Judah because there are two tribes-- Judah and Benjamin. And Benjamin is so small that Judah is what gives the Southern Kingdom its significance.

Now I put the prophets with the half of the kingdom they are connected with. And so Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Amos, Hosea all are Northern Kingdom prophets. Now a time line here is just a little bit up from the top of the Northern Kingdom,722 the Assyrian captivity are underneath that we are in 640 and 609 in the Southern Kingdom, so you can adjust that and if you don't like that, you can go home and redraw and use a time line proportionate. I put Elijah and Elisha in parentheses because they wrote no books, but they are such outstanding prophets; Elijah probably the greatest of the Old Testament prophets to John the Baptist. And Elisha, his successor we have no book written by them. But they were such outstanding prophets, I noted them there.

Jonah, Amos and Hosea. Prophets coming out of the
Northern Kingdom and Amos and Hosea, prophets of the Northern
Kingdom. Jonah and his ministry was directed primarily
toward Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. And in 722 the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom, take them away into captivity and for all intents and purposes that is the end of the Northern Kingdom. So they are done.

We note the Southern Kingdom has a greater number of prophets. Judah being the outstanding tribe and the nation, the southern half of the nation, is the part that gets the emphasis of God. It is through Judah that the ruler is going to come and there is more good in the Southern Kingdom than the Northern kingdom from the standpoint. The Northern Kingdom never had a good king. You can quite clearly remember which kings were good that ruled over the northern kingdom. They were none.

Now the Southern Kingdom didn't have all good ones. They had a mixture. But at least some of the kings that ruled over the Southern Kingdoms were what we would call good kings. Kings that were submissive to God in that desire to lead the nation in following Him. We start with Obadiah and we go down through the Babylonian captivity is in 606 BC. That’s when it starts, the final deportation doesn't take place till 586. Three times the Babylonians came in and deported more and more of the people.
But the first time it took those six and for all intents and purposes that's when the captivity began. The Southern kingdom was a conquered people. It's just a matter of time until the Babylonians got tired of the rebellion among the Jews and annihilated the kingdom all together.

The might Babylonian empire, the head of gold, in Daniel prophecy in chapter 2, last for a total of 70 years. That's it. Because it accomplished God's purposes in 70 years so God does away with the Babyloanian kingdom. And we think of it as being a might empire and it was but it lasted a very very short time.
And in 536 the Persian conquer the Babylonians and the captivity is over. Because Cyrus' policy, king of the Persians, was the opposite of the Assyrians and Babylonians policies. The Assyrians and the Babylonians followed a policy of deporting conquered people. In other words if they conquered Lincoln they would take the people of Lincoln and transport them to California. Now that would be real punishment. Ahhhh, but then the people of California maybe we inhabit the city of Lincoln, or the state of Nebraska. The purpose being, they thought there was less chance of rebellion if people were not in their familiar surroundings. In other words people would be more tempted to stand and fight again and rebel against Babylon if they were if their familiar surroundings. So you put them in a strange environment and in a strange country and that will help them keep calm down.

The Persian policy was just the opposite. It allowed people who had been deported by others to return. And we get in the first chapter of Ezra, where Cyrus gives the decree. The Jews want to go back to Palestine--Go Ahead! Anybody who wants to go can go back. They're idea was that you be kinder to let the people be in their land and they won't rebel because they won't be fighting to go home. Who is right, I don't know. But at any rate God used the Persian policy.
536 we're back and we have three prophets. Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi. They prophesize after the Babylonian captivity. Daniel and Ezekiel prophecy during the captivity. Haggai and Zechariah, you'll note, prophesized approximately 90 years. That right? That's too far. We're going to back down before Malachi. They're instrumental early in the return on getting the people to rebuild the temple, the messages from God and so on.
Malachi comes later, and really, after things have redegenerated. Now the people go back in 536 and they're going to rebuild the temple and there is an excitement and an enthusiasm. And they follow that by rebuilding the walls of the city. And, again, there is still an enthusiasm. But now when Malachi prophesize the people have been back from Exile for about 100 years and they've forgotten why God had to send them into Exile. They've forgotten the judgment of God on their sins and they've redegenerated back to the old place again. The temple, and noting this, was completed around 516 BC. You have about 20 years after they got back from captivity that they finally got the temple completed and this enable them to reinstitute the temple worship, the sacrifices, and so on. There was no more idolatry in Israel.

The prime purposes of the 70 year period, the Babyloanian captivity, was to annihilate idolatry among the Jews. And it succeeded. Because after the Babylonian captivity, idolatry is never again a problem in Israel. We don't find Israel worshipping Baal or the other Gods, but their worship has degenerated by Malachi's time to a cold formalism.

They’re going through the rituals of offering the sacrifices, going through the rituals of whatever in temple worship. But the real life has gone out of it. And so Malachi becomes a condemnation of worship--formal, dead, worship.
The priest who are the spiritual leaders have become laxed and degenerate. And a good bit of the book is devoted to condemning them. The sacrifices they are offering are inferior. They're not the ones that God demanded. Divorce and mixed marriage outside of Israel is now common again in the nation.
And God has some strong things to say about the men who have left the wives of their youth. So Malachi, the closing book of the Old Testament ends on I guess what we would say a depressing note. With Israel after all they've gone through, from Abraham times to 2000 years before Christ down To Malachi time around 400 years before Christ. And in those 1600 years all that has transpired with this nation as they are back, is formalized cold, dead worship. And I take it, that it is important for us, as we'll be looking into this as we look at the book. But the cycle is the same thing that effects us.

You look back at the history of some of the great denominations and you know, we go through that cycle.
Martin Luther, and others with him in the reformation break away from the dead, cold, formal worship of the Roman Catholic church, get back to the word of God. Only the word, the motto of Martin Luther. Only the word! that's all. No formalized worship. Now what has happened? Now you look at the churches that have followed the reformers— Luther and Calvin and others and what has happened. We're back to formalized, dead, degenerate, worship. I think
that part of the problem may be that we haven't spent
enough time with the prophets of the Old Testament that
give strong warnings from God about the cycle that will
transpire unless we're careful to do something about it.
Alright, look over in the book of Malachi if you would.
Malachi and that's the last book of the Old Testament. And
that's one of the easiest books in the Old Testament to find.
It's brief, four chapters. They're not very long chapters. I'd
encourage you to read the book. Doesn't matter If you don't
grasp everything in it. Just read it. Make it a point to down and read it through at one sitting once a week. More if you
can, just so that you're familiar with what Malachi says. Even
if you don't understand it, read it anyway. And at least you'll
know what he says, then when we go over it, it will be much more
understandable. You'll get a feel for the book as a whole.
It's an important book, too, because as I mention after Malachi,
there's going to 400 years of silence. There's not going to be
a prophet in Israel now, for 400 years. I take it that it's
significant. God has something to say to Israel. And God is
going to speak to Israel and then He's not going to speak again
to them for 400 years. So what he has to say is very important.
Israel has existed now from Abraham's time for 1600 years.
Now for 400 years, which would be 25 percent of their total
existence, God is going to maintain silence. John the Baptist
will break that silence. And if you were going to divide your
bible, you could divide it after the gospels, because John the
Baptist is the last of the Old Testaments prophets. You put him in the New Testament because the time is Christ but timewise John the Baptist is a prophet of the Old Testament. And that is the time here in which he functions.

Malachi! Begins his prophecy in verse 1, ''The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.'* You pick up his name first of all--Malachi. We don't know anything about Malachi except his book. It's not mentioned elsewhere in the bible. Some have thought then that Malachi is a pen name, it's not really Malachi, because the word means, 'my messenger.1 It's the equivalent of the greek word 'Angel.' And it could be translated my angel. So Malachi is my messenger and therefore this means that the prophet has spoke. My understanding is then, and we won't go into all the reasons, but that Malachi is his name because all the prophetic books of the old Testament that all the prophets are noted by name. And it would be out of line in the Jewish practice to accept the book that did not have a genuine name attached to it. The Jews are strong about this. Many books are going to be written in the 400 silent years. The Apcrapha, which is part of the Roman Catholic bible and has been since 1546, accepted by the Roman Catholic church as scripture. It was never accepted by the Jews as part of scripture. The Jews of Jesus day, even though there were many apocrypha books; books that were written during the 400 years between Malachi and Christ were never accepted by the Jews as being scripture. In fact they looked on them quite a bit with disdain as a rather improper forgeries.
Malachi I take it is the man's name. That's the way the
Jews accepted it and I see no reason to take it otherwise. Malachi is the prophet. They are other prophets that we don't know anything else about except their names. Now the significant thing, I think, in this first statement and we're going to spend the rest of our times this morning in the completion of our background. Because of the oracles of the word of the Lord to Israel though Malachi. And Malachi is simply a messenger or a spokesman for God. The significant thing about this little book is that God has chosen to speak.

And He spoke to a man called Malachi. So Malachi's only significance is, he is a spokesman for God. And that is the significance of any of the prophets of the Old Testament.
They're a spokesman for God. And Malachi is no exception. God has chosen to speak to the nation through a man, a prophet Malachi. And you cannot match Malachi prophecy; we'll fit the others.
The presence of a prophet in Israel is always a sign of spiritual decay. As we look back on the prophets and say, 'My, mighty men, mighty preachers of God—and they were. But their very presence is always an indication that the spiritual condition in Israel are at a low point. And so quite a bit of their message is one of condemnation and judgment. Because the Jews already had God's law and knew what they were to do.

God sent the prophets to condemn them when they weren't doing what He already told them that they should do.
The oracle of the word of the Lord! Now you'll note in the margin, it says, 'the burden' if you're using a New American Standard Bible, I think that they probably put that in, 'the burden of the word of the Lord.* Because otherwise he has a repetition here—the oracle of the oracle of the Lord. Because the word translated, 'the word* can also be translated 'the oracle.' The word is a burden—the burden of the word of the Lord. It is translated that way in Malachi, I mean in Zechariah in chapter 9, I believe again in chapter 12. Yes. In the New American Standard they are not allowed to reverse it, they call it the burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel in Zechariah. But here they put the oracle of the word of the Lord.
So It means a burden. It's something impressed upon as inferior and was used as an obligation placed about a person by a God for a master.

It is now a choice but it is a burden imposed upon someone. And so what we have is a burden imposed upon Malachi and it takes away that action. And as you read through the prophetic book you sometimes find a hesitance on the part of the prophet to speak what God has said. Because the message is often harsh. The prophets are among the most persecuted people of the Old Testament. And they were hesitant to speak what God had said. And Jonah becomes an example of a prophet who didn't particularly wanted to carry out the burden imposed upon him.

But you note there was no action. It wasn't that Jonah decided he wouldn't go to Nineveh, so God said, 'Alright I'll just get someone else.' No, Jonah was going to Nineveh to speak what God had said and that's implied in the word here, 'the burden of the word of the Lord.' It's imposed upon Malachi and he may not
want to give this message but God hasn’t asked him. God has told him and imposed his burden upon him.

The burden is what God has to say to Israel. 'The word of the Lord to Israel.* A common expression through the Old Testament, 'the word of the Lord.’ 'The word of the Lord to Israel.* This is the burden given to Malachi. And I take it is quite a burden because much of what he has to say is not good. It's a harsh prophecy. There is much in it as we'll see. They are some rays of hope and we end with the coming of Elijah in chapter 4, but...primarily it is a prophecy of condemnation and of judgment.

Usually as we read a book, on a prophetic book and so on, we read through that first statement. So that's the introduction and we have to get on. I think we lose sight of what is most important. Because verse 1 is what makes the four chapters of Malachi significant. That the word of the Lord has been spoken. Now if that statement is true then these four chapters are fantastic. That the infinite, omnipotent God, the creator of everything has spoken to men and that puts everything in our realm of existence in a different light—that there is a God, and He has spoken,then the most important thing a man can do is find out what he has said. That point will put everything in perspective. And that's what verse 1 does. God has spoken!

So as you read Malachi, you're reading what God says to man and that makes it of supreme importance. You talk about the realm of what we call revelation. Revelation, and I scratched some terms for our review, on the transparency here. The three kinds we're looking at: the first is Revelation. And revelation concerns the origin in giving a truth. And it's two words--the Hebrew word as I’ve noted here is 'Gala' to uncover.

The Greek word equivalent of it in the New Testament, is apcolipto and that means to unveil. So you can see they are synonymous. We have the apocalypse, the book of the Revelation; and that's the unveiling of Jesus Christ. The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ is the unveiling of Him—the revelation of Him, the uncovering, the making known of Him.

So Revelation concerns the origin and giving of truth. And ultimately only God can give absolute truth if there is such a thing. If there is not a God who has revealed Himself, then there is no such thing as absolute truth--all truth is relative. So we end up with no truth at all in the ultimate sense. So Revelation is an unveiling from God. And we'll look at some uses of this word a little bit later. But God has revealed Himself.

But that is what He is doing to Malachi. I am going to speak through my messenger Malachi. Now just a word about the 'word'. 'The word of the Lord.' There's an emphasis in scripture on God verbally communicating and always the question comes up,
'well why would God do it this way?’ So you can see the fallacy of the question because you can ask that about anything that God did. 'Why did He do it this way?' Or, 'why did He do it some way?' But there's a logic to a verbal communication because we are dealing with a personal God as we've been considering in the open chapters of Genesis. So he's made man in His image, of a personal being. Now how do you and I communicate as personal beings, verbally? If we're going to express ourselves to one another we do It in words. Now it seems to follow through logically that the personal God who created us as personal beings will communicate to us verbally as well, with words and that is what He does in the book called, 'The Bible.’ It's a very logical way for a personal God to communicate to a personal creation. Now I realize that god has revealed Himself in other means. That he revealed Himself through creation, through nature as in Romans chapter 1 indicates. But it is a verbal revelation that makes His other revelations understandable and intelligible to man.

Romans chapter 1 makes clear that without the presence of the verbal revelation of God man can never, ever understand and respond positively to the revelation given in creation in nature. So the verbal revelation becomes crucial. It's just as though I drew a design on the overhead and none of you could figure out what it was. But if I gave a verbal explanation that, at least in my presuppositions here, would make my design intelligible. I would explain to you what it is. So as long as I read the scriptures, I understand that the heavens declare the Glory of God, that the firmament shows His handiwork. But apart from the verbal revelation, I didn't see God there. I wasn’t responding to Him in faith and submitting myself to His salvation. It was only when the verbal revelation came. So it's a very logical way. You and I as personal beings couldn't communicate to any depth and degree without some kind of verbal communication. Even when a person loses the ability to speak they learn a sign language which communicates in affect, verbally--communicates words through signs—and thus the revelation that God has given is a verbal communication.
Connected to that then, is inspiration which we briefly noted, relates to the reception and recording of the truth. So as God reveals Himself well this revelation then is put down in writing. It has to be recorded. So the prophets were the recipients of it and they recorded it. And inspiration relates to the reception and recording of it. It guarantees the infallible recording of the revelation. By inspiration God has guaranteed that His revelation will not be distorted or corrupted. And again it's very logical.
But here is where the breakdown of some liberal theologians would be. That they find that God revealed himself. That God revealed Himself through fallible men. So fallible men make fallible records. So we have a fallible recording of God's revelation. Now we have to get back and find out what the true revelation was. And we begin to get into a hopeless state.

If you tell me something and I totally misunderstand it and write it out all wrong and give it to someone else, how are they ever know for sure what you really said and meant. 'Well we say, they’ll come and talk to you.' Well how are you going to do that with God? Where are you going to go to find out what He really meant. So you have to go to some solid theologian and he'll tell you. But if it doesn't mean what it says and it means what I say it says, who has become the authority in this? The scholar theologian, end quote, no longer the word of God. Because the word of God doesn't mean anything. It's all garbled up and I have to tell you what it really meant. Now I want to tell you what was in the mind o£ God, that garbled in the mind of the prophets must ended up with a scribble. But how am I going to know what was going on through the mind of the prophets coming from the mind of God?

Did you ever sit and try to read somebody's mind? That's hard enough when they are sitting in the room. That I'm going to read Malachi's mind when he wrote 2400 years ago. I know what was going through His mind and knew what God was saying even though Malachi didn't write it down right. So we obviously come to the point where men come today—that revelation is of little value. If you like it fine. If it speaks to you fine. But it really serves no great purpose.

Two or three passages in the New Testament. II Timothy 3:16 and II Peter 1:20-21. And why don't you just turn there, quickly if you can find it quickly. Very familiar portions that we usually go to. II Timothy 3:16 we have jotted down here and I should've really written it bigger. It's two words divided here; meaning 'god-breathed' So inspiration is really just the opposite of the word--god breathed—the idea of, or breathing, not an in-breathing but an out-breathing. God breathed the word, the idea that it coming directly from Him—it comes out from Him.

Now connected with this, while you are there, ''all Scripture is inspired or God-breathed and profitable,'' Verse 17, 'in order that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.'' So it were true that if God had had said something, it's profitable. You don't have the omnipotent God making trite statements, telling you it's not worth my time and attention. Everything God says is significant. And so all scripture is profitable and it serves to make us what God intended for us to be. So it's God's revelation about man and about himself.

Now over in Peter and Peter is behind Hebrews. Hebrews, James, I Peter, II Peter chapter 1. Here it tells about the recording of this. First the portion in II Timothy we just read had to do with the writings—al scripture is God-breathed. Now II Peter has to do with the writers, verse 20, ''But we know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,1' or private origination. Verse 21, ''for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.'' And that is why fallible men, when writing scriptures did not write fallible scriptures. God took fallible men that God breathed His word and used His spirit to guarantee that when they were recording His word, it would be recorded accurately. And that is the same prerogative we take. You have a secretary or a person who is going to write something that you wanted them to write. Then when they have typed it up or written it you take it back and read over it and correct it if it is wrong. You want it to say what you mean it to say. And we want to take that prerogative from God and say, 'well God was in a bind. He wanted to reveal himself to man, but He could only use fallible men to do it, so poor God was stuck without a way to get an accurate revelation to man.' Well that sort of removes the omnipotent from God, doesn't it? Because we have a God out there who just as frustrated as man down here. Because man down here frustrated— wanting to know about God. And God up there is frustrated wanting to make Himself know to man. So fallible man can't find God and weak God can't communicate to fallible man without mistakes. Now if your going to talk about a God at all, the logic of that ought to become ridiculous. You might as well do away with a God period and of course that's the natural follow through with this kind of theology if you want to call it theology.

Alright so the men and their writings are inspired. Now it does not mean that these men are infallible in every area of their life. We see a man like David who wrote the method of psalm doing that which is contrary to the character of God. But when David was writing the scripture He was under the control of the spirit of God and as that they were recorded accurately.

Now I'll just mention here, and I won't have time to go into the details on it. We believe in what we call verbal plenary inspiration. Verbal plenary. Now verbal plenary, p-l-e-n-a-r-y, the full verbal inspiration of scripture. Be careful. Some believe the facts were inspired but not the words. But you see the breakdown again. How do you communicate your fact. If I want you to know what I am thinking, what do I have to do? I have to verbalize It. I either have to put it in words on paper or express it vocally so you'll know what I am thinking. Now in my thinking, if I have a concept in mind, that I am unable to communicate it verbally, you still will not know what is in my mind. And if God simply inspired the facts to the writers then we're dependent upon their natural ability to express themselves.

Now I read about Amos, the herdsmen of Tekoa, I wonder how I express it what a sheepherder was? That he really expressed himself accurately and precisely. When all he did was talk to his sheep all day. I don't know and how am I going to know?
How am I going to know if he expressed it right? We're back then to a fallible revelation which you need some might revered monsignor pastor or whatever to tell you what it really means. Because you got to really go behind what it says to what the writer was thinking and if he hasn't said what he was thinking then we are back to confusion.

Alright, enough of that! Third time when we meet, then I want to say a couple of things quickly, is illumination. And you have all three accounts: revelation, inspiration and illumination. Illumination centers attention on the ability to apprehend and understand what God has said. Just because God has revealed Himself, just because He guaranteed that that revelation would be accurately recorded, does not guarantee that I'll be able to understand it. We could have a nuclear physicist come in here and give a very learned talk on his field of study, write it out on the overhead and 99.9 percent of us would walk out of here befuddled. Now look. He spoke what he meant. He revealed his area of study, but I couldn't understand it. Illumination is dealing with the ability of man to understand what God has revealed to man. So you see how God has controlled the process from beginning to end. He is making the revelation. He is guaranteeing the accuracy of the recording of that revelation. And He is making the provision for man to understand the revelation. So there is no opportunity for us to bungle it--but man does. But that's not God's problem. There's no need for it. And of course the apprehension and understanding of truth relates the ministry of the Spirit in our life. Eyes have not seen or ear have not heard, neither have entered into the heart of a man the things of God has prepared for those that love him, but God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. And then that chapter in I Corinthians 2 goes on to talk about the presence of the spirit in the life. And if a person does not have God's spirit dwelling in his life, he cannot understand the revelation that God has given him. Because it's the spirit of God who moves the men who wrote the revelation. Because the spirit of God moves the mind of God. He is the person who is doing the unveiling, in effect. I cannot understand what God has said about Himself unless the spirit of God indwells in me and makes in understandable.

That means that a person who has not come to trust Jesus Christ as Savior can read the bible, see his great literature and never understand the revelation that God has given. He can analyze it grammatically, he can talk all about it, but he can never understand it. So it's a closed book for those who don't have the spirit of God.

Now you note the difference here, if I can jot this down quickly. The difference between what we call religion, re1igion:man's religion.

And you can call it a quest for truth a quest for truth.
Really what it does, is man is here....and then he goes in all
Directions.

What? Looking for truth. Looking for God. You can call it a quest for God. And man's religion is looking for God and he's searching for reality. Where is God. And there's all these directions. Now of course, for a personal comfort what do I say? I know this is what I'm doing in my religion, I have no assurance that I've really come to know God. I have no assurance that this is what God is really like, but I am seeking. So pretty soon I say, 'Well sure, everybody religion is acceptable to God, but I haven't really revealed Him at all because I'm still searching for Him. But I'm sure that the Hindu is going to acceptable to this God when we finally find Him. I'm sure that the Buddist is acceptable when we finally find him. I'm sure that the Roman Catholic, or the Protestant, that the Jew, that everybody is going to be acceptable. And the fallacy of that is—I'm still searching. That I've really come to the conclusion God is going to accept the Pharoah and when I find Him we're going just different ways. Now does it look like on that beautiful chart that we're all going to the same place? That we're all going the same direction? You know we're just on different roads. Huh, and the sad thing is that if there is not a revelation from God, how are we going to know. How are we going to know if this is the right one, or this one, or this one....I could be going in just the opposite direction that I should be going. How am I going to know? Because God doesn't reveal Himself. You tell me what you think and I tell you what I think, what somebody else has told me and what do we do. We continue. The difference in Christianity, and it*s a major difference, is (everyone laughs) that you can’t see it. Here it is. Not my gift—the overhead. The difference is, rather, than being a quest for truth, Christianity is a response to truth. That is a major difference. We have truth present but not all man responds to it. In man's religion we have man searching for truth. IN Christianity we have man responding to truth or responding to God. What we have is God and he is revealing Himself to man and thus man's responds to the revelation that God has given. But you know the search isn't on. God has revealed Himself to man, so man down here is searching all over for God. All you have to do is respond the revelation that God has given. And that makes it much simpler. It's proof and and a word of advice and you know why? Well you say, 'well that's hardly intellectual. I mean, look at all the scholars that are searching for the truth. Yes look at them! What a befuddled group.* All you have to do is read the writings of some of our great theologians, end quote, and they don't agree on were they are going. And they don't know if they ever get to the truth, but we can know. Poor sinful us. Well that hardly doesn't seem right. You know, simple us, know? And those great scholars do not know? Hey, why? Because God has already done the revealing and any dummy can respond. I mean I may not be able to put a door through that brick wall over there accurately, but I can walk through the door that's already there. And when you've got men running around trying to decide where the door ought to be, when the door is already in. All I have to do is respond to the truth that God's has given.

I've got to close with reading a passage from Ephesians 3. We're going to do the book of Ephesians in our studies one of these Sunday mornings. Ephesians 3. Paul talks about the revelation that he received from God and it directly pertains to you and I. Ephesians 3, ''For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you that by revelation these there was made know to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.'' And that revelation verse 5, ''as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.'1 The content of it is that, ''the gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakes of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.'' And in verse 9, what he is doing is bringing to light what is the administration of the mystery which has been for ages hidden in God who created all things. In order that the manifold wisdom of do might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.'' The purpose is carried out in Christ Jesus. What has God one? He has revealed his purpose. Paul said He revealed the gospel through me, the content of which is that Jews and gentiles, all men are all going to be brought together in one group. This is accomplished when they respond in faith to Jesus Christ as personal savior. ''Well I don't know whether I buy that.'' No you don't have to. But keep in mind that you can respond in truth positively, or negatively. Because if you turn from the truth you spend the rest of your life in frustration looking for the truth that you've already rejected. Because if God has revealed Himself that that revelation is in the word of God, the bible, and there's no place else you can go to accurately and truthfully find out truth about God except through His word.

And you come to that word, you find out that salvation has developed only in the person of the son, Jesus Christ. That's a matter of revelation. And it's not by what you do but by what He has done and you respond in faith to what He has done and God cleanse you from your sin and brings you into a personal relationship to give Himself. Let's pray together.
Father we thank you for you graciousness in dealing with us. That you have revealed yourself through men, lord that this revelation has been preserved in the word, Lord we thank you for the spirit, who illumines are hearts and minds and enables us to understand. Lord that we might know about yourself. Lord that we might know and understand about ourselves. Lord we thank you for salvation made available in Jesus Christ. Lord for the privilege of trusting Him, of the experiencing and forgiveness from sin and Lord for knowing what it, that we enjoy a personal relationship with the personal of God who created us. Pray that you will hear of those who do not have this as yet as their personal experience might even trust Jesus Christ right now in order that you might do what you promised in your word which is truth. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.