John 21:25 says, “And there are also many other things which
Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
“The Four Gospels themselves recognize that they are not
complete biographies,” explains Jordan. “Four would not be enough. Thousands would
be too few to contain it all.
“What Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do is demonstrate the selectivity
of God’s design. He picked out certain things to record about the earthly
ministry of Christ because there were things in the Scripture that told Israel:
‘Be looking for this so that shows up.’ There’s symmetry between what prophecy told Israel to be looking for and
what you find in the Gospel accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
*****
“If you don't understand how the Gospels fit in God's grand scheme, you’re going to try to take things out
of them and make them work for you and practice them in your life, all because Jesus said them.
“He didn’t say those things to you and me today! He said those
things to the nation Israel and the people who came to God
through the nation Israel.
“That’s why, for example, when He says, ‘Fear not little
flock it’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,’ the next verse
says, ‘Sell everything you have and give alms.’ You ever wonder why in Acts 2
and 4 they sold their possessions and laid them at the apostles’ feet? They’re
doing what Jesus told them.
“Now before you get all righteous and say, ‘Well, I just
want to do what Jesus said,’ why don’t you practice Luke 12:33?
“I have a good friend who had just gotten saved in a big
church and soon the preacher preached on ‘Sell out for Jesus; sell all that you
have,’ and my friend went out and sold everything he had. He even sold the rug
on the living room floor.
“Little while later when he was in trouble financially and
in need, he went to the preacher and said, ‘Why ain’t it working?’ The preacher
said, ‘Well, you crazy nut, I didn’t mean do that!’ My friend said, ‘Why not,
that’s what the verse said?!’
“You don’t have to talk yourself into being an unbeliever by
claiming verses that God never gave you, and when they don’t check out in your
life and in your experience, go and say, ‘Well, it must not mean what it said!’
“The verses say what they mean and mean what they say right
where they say them. You need to go back and ask those questions about who said
it (the Lord Jesus Christ as a prophet of Israel), when did He say it (time
past) and to whom did He say it (the nation Israel). If you study those books that
way, they’ll mean more to you than they could have ever meant any other way.
******
“The Lord came to Solomon at night in a dream and said, ‘Solomon,
what can I give you? I’ll give you riches and power—whatever you want,’ and
Solomon answered, ‘I want wisdom.’
“Then the text says Solomon awoke and what he’s saying is, ‘You
know, it doesn’t help you to work incessantly; stay up all night, get up early
to go to work, work through all kinds of difficult, sorrowful, hard, painful experiences
because God gives you His gifts when you’re not working at all. When you aren’t
conscious. You’re asleep.’
“I thought about that; it’s not of works. It’s His
workmanship, not of us. This stuff all comes from Him. Think back through Scripture.
When did God give Adam Eve? When did He cut the covenant with Abraham? He put
him in a deep sleep. I mean, Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture that that’s
true of, and that’s why he wrote it.
“When Paul says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s saying God’s the one
who gives the blessing, not based on your merit, but on His giving. ‘For we are
his workmanship.’ This is His doing.
“That word ‘workmanship’ (Eph. 2:10) there is talking about
a work of art. A masterpiece. Preachers like to point out that the Greek word
that’s translated there is the word we get our term ‘poem’ from.
“That word comes over in English as ‘poem.’ You’re His work
of art. You’re literally the form through which He’s going to express Himself. A
masterpiece is something you do to make yourself known.
“Paul only uses the Greek term twice. Romans 1:19. Everybody
knows something about God. He’s manifest in them. Chapter 2:14 says, ‘For when
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the
law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’
“You see God has indelibly printed into the heart of man,
all men, some information. He manifested Himself. Everybody knows there’s a God.
“You have to educate yourself out of that, and what the
educated guy says is, ‘Well, if you want to be sophisticated and educated, you
have to get over your primordial tendency to believe in the superstitious idea
of something bigger than you.’
“To get over that is to get over the mystery of life itself
and to become nothing but a crass materialist where the only thing that’s real
is what you can hold in your hand and you believe in the survival of the
fittest even though you’re never going to be the fittest so you’re never going
to survive. It doesn’t add to life; it detracts!
“You can look at creation and see the wisdom, knowledge and
understanding of God; the fact there’s a Creator revealed right there and that
verse that term ‘things that are made’
is a translation of exactly the same word in Ephesians 2 about workmanship. Creation
is God’s workmanship. It’s His masterpiece that demonstrates His wisdom, His
understanding, His knowledge. He’s placed it in the creation.
“When you look at the creation, what you’re seeing is God
manifest His wisdom, His knowledge, His purpose, what He’s accomplishing. You find
out about Him!”
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