Panel Members:

Jenny Salt:

Carrie Sandom:

Colleen Gallagher:

Deb Lorentsen:

Kathleen Nielsen:

Opening Thoughts: 

Charles Simeon Trust… Chicago. Training Bible Teachers.

Proclamation Trust… UK.

Reading the Bible out loud, long portions every day.

Local churches that preached and taught expositionally.

We are not good readers of anything today, and we need to learn how to read the Bible well.

We need to become equipped to help others become able to lead and teach.

Defining Terms: 

Expository Bible Teaching: Kind of preaching that works through systematic and consecutive passages of the Bible, to see it within the context of the entire scope of the Bible. Studying a book within the context of the wider whole.

The story of the is a story about Christ. The OT is pointing forward to Him and the NT proclaims Him. It’s not about us, it’s about God and His revelation to the world.

We read the Bible wrongly when we think we are at the center and it’s written to me and my life.

Allows God to set the agenda. Prevents us from trying to answer the question, “What do people need to hear?” We just proclaim the Word and God speaks.

Teaching, moving sequentially through a book of the Bible, seeking to discover the main point of the text and making that the main point of the message. We don’t start with our point and try to make the Word fit it.

The Storyline of the Bible: Tracing the promises of the OT through the fulfillment in the NT. Shows how each book fits in to the whole Bible. Shows the reader how God has been working throughout history.

Two Types of “Big Picture” Training:

1. Unfolding Mystery: Finding Christ in the OT.

2. How to Read and Study the Bible: Asking the Right Questions of a Text

Main idea and application

How does this passage connect to what’s before and after?

What are the surprises?

How does this point to Christ?

Makes study hands-on.

Why is this important for women? Don’t we have pastors and elders to do this? 

God calls us to the hard work of learning sound doctrine. Sound doctrine produces good work. “Teach what is good.”

Titus 2 ministries cannot be just mentoring and good works, there must be sound doctrine.

Does this mean we all need to go to seminary? 

No and Yes.

Mostly No. But if you have the opportunity, it is a wonderful place to grow.

There is no two-tiered maturity in the Christian walk. But there are great advantages in going to seminary. Wonderful time for concentrated study of God’s Word. Alongside like-minded people, who are committed, and who are delighted to spend intense time in God’s Word.

Exposes you to all parts of the Bible. Grapple with thinking on the Bible from different perspectives.

What are other options besides seminary?

Online training. Websites. Sermons and Journals and Commentaries and Courses.

Eph. 4. Training takes place within the church context.  God-given, natural place for training in the Scriptures to take place. These must have either the direction or the authority of the church leadership in order to grow.

We should be trained in all types of places and areas, from seminary to one-on-one training. Have an accountability partner and train together. Mary Wilson on TGC. Not everyone needs to be trained in how to teach formally. We need to teach our children well and our neighbors and our friends. We must train the next generation to be equipped.

Never underestimate the power of modeling the truth. Are you going to just get coffee and pray together? Or are you going to pick a book of the Bible, read through it and discuss it together. The young believer is not thinking, “Hmm, this is expository Bible learning.” She’s thinking, “This is what it means to be a Christian.”

We must actually practice what we preach. It is not enough to just soak in and learn. We must actually DO what we teach others to do.

The Proclamation Trust in the UK.

Study with an eye toward teaching.

Practice– two presentations to others to help one another improve.

Model– Leaders showing others.

SimeonTrust.org

What should we look for in ourselves and others in order to assess the potential of one being a teacher?

Under the authority of pastors and elders.

Based upon the Pastoral Epistles. The list of qualifications there is actually godliness. There is an aptitude to teach, yes, but more godliness.

Christian ministry is not a way to escape the world. It is not the limelight. Who will live out the Gospel in their own lives and not just teach others to do it?

Current Trends in Bible Study: 

1. Video-Based:

Positives: Modeling expository preaching and teaching.

Negatives: More people quoting those teacher more than they are quoting God. The high profile teachers become infallible.

It’s not just someone’s ability to teach, but it’s their lives and how they model the Gospel. On video, we just have teaching and not their lives. We don’t see how they relate to the world. We need to see real life, there with us.

1. Experienced based and put us at the center. Women are particularly prone to this. Scripture reveals the purposes for Christ, not for us as individuals.

Example: Ruth is not about God providing husbands or children or grandchildren to the women in your church. It is about God using Israel to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Ruth was a Moabitess, not SINGLE…

1. Bible discussion with no training.
2. Leave it to the professionals.
3. Personal Shopper approach.
4. Jack Sprat approach– picky eating…

The Bible is just ONE STORY. There is a beautiful continuity to it and it is exciting to read the Bible when you see that.

Ways we’ve been encouraged in the work God is doing in the hearts of women. 

To see women equipped and then go out to do the work of the Gospel.

Serving overseas.

This is not a theoretical or academic endeavor, but a vibrant, transforming love of the Word of God passed along to the next generation. 

Word-Based Ministry to Women with Nancy Guthrie

 

What is going to be your disctinctive quality in your ministry to women? Your consistent aim? The one thing that’s going to mark your ministry?

Fun? More real and personal, relaxed… Love it, but not in the driver’s seat.

Story? Is your testimony all you have? Is it the defining thing that people remember most from your ministry time.

“Just tell your story. Your story has power.” Ask, “Power to what?”

Felt needs? We want to meet felt needs, but it is not the focus.

How do we allow God’s Word to set the agenda for our ministries?

Hebrews 1 tells us what a Word-centered ministry will look like.

God. Spoke. Has this been drained of wonder for us? The God who has power to speak planets into being has condescended to distill His voice into human language.

This is not merely past tense.

1:6– God speaks in the present: “God says…”

2:11-12 “Saying…”

3:7-8 “Spirit says…”

Not that God only “said” as if He only spoke a long time ago. The Spirit is saying this NOW and you must listen as if He is speaking directly to you NOW. Because He is.

They are God’s Words being spoken. He is speaking NOW, to every generation.

Do you have the same urgency to hear from God as you do to check your text messages or your voicemail?

Heb 4:12-13 What hearing God’s voice does IN us.

 

Five Marks of a Word-Centered Ministry to Women

1. We Listen to Hear the Living Word Speak— Not a record of something God said one time, but what God is saying, right now.

How do we hear God speaking?

“The Lord told me…” when we really mean “I felt like…” or “I just wanted to…”

Why? Does it sound more spiritual? Does it keep people from questioning us?

We cannot trust our interpretation of how God works within our circumstances. He has spoken authoritatively in His written Word, and is what we most need to know.

When we go to the Word of God expecting it to speak to us, it often answers questions that we didn’t even know enough to ask. 

“God talks to me no other way [than in the Bible]. It is personal and He is my friend and He speaks to me, early in the morning. The only authoritative word He speaks to me is found in this Book.” John Piper, Lausanne 2010

What are you doing to instill in women a confidence to trust that God speaks to us? Is your speech sprinkled with, “The Lord told me…” or “The Lord impressed upon me through His Word…”

2. We expect the Word to do its work– The Word is ACTIVE. From the beginning, God’s Word has gone out and accomplished what it set out to do. Genesis 1: God spoke it and it was…

1. We expect God’s Word, the reading, teaching, and instructing of it, to do what God intends to be done. More powerfully than our intentions and ideas…

Do you set aside the Bible study to let people minister to one another? When we set aside the study to give comfort and advice to a hurting woman, what are we telling her about the relevance and power of the Word? Do you believe that God’s Word is what she needs more than your advice? We don’t set aside the Word so that we can speak. 

Because the Word of God does the Work of God, it’s not up to us to convince or coerce. We don’t have to feel as if we failed when we do not see with our eyes the responsiveness we had hoped for.

It is not up to us to create change in people. It is up to us to deliver the Word winsomely, authentically, adequately…

3. Allows the Word to cut both ways. “Sharper than any two-edged sword….”

Sharp on both sides.

Speaks salvation, but warns of judgment.

Speaks words of comfort and conviction.

Speaks grace and destruction.

Speaks blessings and curses.

In what ways do we allow the Word of God to cut both ways? Do we only encourage encouragement or the judgment? 

This is why book studies are superior to topical studies. It forces you to face the ugly stuff.

The commands to destroy the Canaanites in the historical books in the OT do not meet the felt needs of the stay at home mom who is just looking to have some adult conversation. But who are we to edit what God has said to us? Who are we to determine what is relevant and needed, able to bring the change God intends to bring. All of the Word speaks of Christ and they help us to see Jesus from another angle.

Our greatest need is to see Jesus more clearly, and that comes through the full counsel of Scripture.

As leadership, we have the huge responsibility when choosing studies to take care to not edit the Word of God. There are no expendable or irrelevant parts of the Bible. The whole Word of God is relevant because it is God who is speaking.

Are we patient with the women who are “bored” or “offended” or “disinterested” so that the two-edged sword can cut through those things.

4. Challenges shallow beliefs and hidden agendas. 

Women have cliches and sentimentalism that have taken the place of solid truth.

“Most of us are content to swim in the shallow things of God until we are forced into the deep end…” Joni Erikson Tada.

We become angry with God when we expect God to do something that He has not promised. We make assumptions that devastate us when those assumptions are challenged and destroyed.

 When the Word goes deep, our faulty assumptions are revealed, and removed. 

When we are in the Word, it shines the light of truth on our petty jealousies and deep seated desires and forces us to see how we seek to use God instead of loving God. Breaks through our religiosity to reveal the state of our souls.

Many people approach the Bible by standing over it, picking and choosing what they agree with and can go with and what they will pick apart and debate.

Instead, we must come underneath the Scriptures, submit ourselves to its demands, accept its truth… Shape our perspectives and adjust our priorities. Instead of judging the validity of God, we allow the Word of God to judge the validity of our hearts.

If the Word of God cuts to the deepest part of me, it’s going to hurt, and my initial reaction is to protect myself. But we can trust that the Surgeon knows exactly where to cut, and He cuts to heal us, not hurt.

5. Prepares Women for the Ultimate Exposure. 

Lies live in the dark, and evil does its work undercover. The Word throws the Light on in the dark room of our lives so the little lies and failures are exposed and driven out.

We will one day stand before the blazing Light of God, where nothing will be hidden, and will give an account of our lives to God. 

We are to not only equip our women to deal with the struggles of this life, we are to prepare them for the accountability of standing before a Holy God.

If we have large numbers at events and our women enjoy themselves, but we haven’t prepared them to meet their Maker and give an account of their lives, haven’t we really failed? 

Kevin De Young: “Brothers, we are not gate agents.” Do not encourage women to get on a plane and go on a trip on which you have never gone yourself. Are you pursuing God with the same fervor you encourage others? “I don’t want to round people up for holiness without ever having gone there myself.”

We, too, must be prepared to give an account.

Carrie Sandom

Psalm 40

Emily was a believer who found herself in an affair with an unbelieving, married co-worker. Her guilt was no longer as intense as it once was, and that scared her more than the fact that she was involved with a married man. She was ensnared, and she knew it.

Joan was an older woman who had begun experiencing several physical ailments, and while her time had once been full of ministry and joy and other people, she was now isolated and withdrawn. Her life revolved around medical appointments and evaluation of her pain. People began separating themselves from her because every conversation came back to her health. She was consumed with herself.

Kate was a young, married mom who is consumed with running her family from place to place. She hasn’t read her Bible or prayed in months, and she misses the spiritual fire she had in college when she went on mission trips overseas and spent hours in praise and worship times with friends. She is unable to see her way out.

Compromised, consumed, and cold-hearted. And they’re all in a miry bog. And they aren’t the only ones. In a group this size, there are many of us trapped in a miry bog as well. Bogs come in various shapes. We know what it’s like, and many have experienced that the more we struggle to escape, the more bound we become.

But God knows we desire to escape, and in the Psalms, God gives us words to the desperation of our hearts. The Psalms were written supremely to each them about God; who He is and how He relates to His people. But the also taught how to respond to Him, regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves.

David finds himself in a miry bog. He is Israel’s greatest king, ensnared by his greatest sins. His sins are numerous, and he is greatly aware of them.

He is also aware of the enemies who are surrounding him, waiting for him to buckle under the weight of his pain and sin. A far cry from his glory days of before.

I. David Remembers God’s Deliverance in the Past (vv. 1-10)

He remembers the time, but he doesn’t dwell on the experience. He instead focuses on the God who delivered him from it.

v. 1– David waited for God to come to him, like a Father who will rescue His much loved child.

v. 2– We cannot pull ourselves out of situation. The Lord must pull us out and settle us on solid ground, where our feet can stand firm.

v. 3– God’s rescue lifted David’s whole being; body, mind and spirit. Notice this is “Our God” and not “My God.” David knew that Yahweh does this for all of His people, and not just David. He is the God who Delivers. David anticipates that many others will come to know the Lord’s deliverance and put their trust in Him.

Some find it hard to relate, but for those who know what it’s like to be horribly trapped and gloriously rescued will understand some of the joy David is experiencing.

Example: The Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days may have felt like this. It’s no wonder they praised the Lord when they emerged.

The Lord prompted David to respond to his rescue in three ways. 

1. David Affirmed the Ways of the Lord (vv. 4-5). God’s favor rests on those who trust in Him. Nothing this world offers can compare with the Lord God of Israel, who has done marvelous deeds. No one can match Him. No one can ever come close. David remember the mighty works God had done even before David’s birth. Noah, Joseph, the Israelites in Egypt…
2. David dedicated himself to serve the Lord in obedience (vv.6-8). “You have given me open ears…” more literally translated, “You have dug out my ears…” God has cleared the path for hearing and obedience. A heart full of devotion, with a heart fully resolved to serve the Lord. The desire to live the obedient life is seen by many as the mark of true conversion.
3. David proclaimed God’s Word (vv. 9-10). “I have told the glad news of deliverance…” He tells how he proclaims and called on God to confirm. I have not restrained my lips… Have not… have not… But I have told… I have spoken. He not only refrained from doing evil, but he pursued obedience.

II. David now prays for God’s deliverance in the present (vv. 11-17). 

To this point, David has been responding to God’s deliverance in the past, but he is now in a bog again. By remembering the past enables David to pray with confidence as he asks God to deliver him from the bog in which he finds himself now. His desire to be obedience to God’s will was well meant, but short lived. His heart was weak and he has failed. And enemies seek to take advantage of that.

He has been humbled by his sin and pursued by his enemies. And so he persues the Lord. He lifts his eyes off of himself and focuses on the Lord.

1. David prays with confidence in the Lord (v. 11). David knows he has not kept his promises to the Lord, but he knows that the Lord always keeps his promises to His people. He prays with confidence because He knows the Lord does not change.
2. David prays with reliance on the enduring promises of the Lord (vv. 16-17). The Lord listens to the cries of His people, and David knows this from experience and observation.

There is a final declaration and prayer: You are my helper… Do not delay!

Encouraged by God’s faithfulness in the past, he asks for it again in the present. And then, he waits, knowing the the goodness of the Lord will be seen in his life again.

What does this Psalm tell us today, 3,000 years after it was written?

It tells us we have even more reason to trust and respond.

After the Resurrection, it was revealed to the disciples there is even more treasure in the Psalms because they point to the Savior.

Hebrews 10:4

Jesus is Better than all the OT has to offer. A better mediator, and better High Priest, a better sacrifice.

Hebrews 10:7– David could not do this. He could not obey God’s will for long. He needed a Savior, one who could deal with his sins once and for all. The Lord Jesus Christ delivers. The problem of the human heart could not be solved with the blood of bulls and goats. Only Christ could do that. He died on the cross, taking the death we deserved in ourselves. Both substitutionary and sacrificial. He died the death we deserve and lived the life we could not live. And now His Spirit lives within us and enables us to live the life we could not live on our own.

David is prophetic, looking ahead to the Savior to come. And now, 2,000 years later, we can look back to Psalm 40, through Christ and see He DID NOT FAIL.

1. We should remember God’s deliverance in the past and give thanks for CHrist’s deliverance from sin. The battle with sin is still real, but the penalty of those sins has been dealt with once and for all.
2. We should pray for God’s deliverance in the present, knowing His mercy never fails. By dealing with our greatest need of all, our sin, we know our future is secure in spite of present suffering.
3. We should join David in seeing and singing of the Lord’s goodness in our lives. Proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to those who need to hear.

What does this mean for Emily and Joan and Kate? Individual circumstances are different, but the Savior who will deliver them all is the same. The Lord has shown them already how much He loves them by pulling them out of the miry bog of their sin at salvation, and He can pull them from these seasons as well.

Emily needs to repent of her affair and run to the Lord. The Lord has shown Emily her rebellion, but she is not beyond His grace.

Joan needs to confess her fear of death and old age and cling to His promise that He brings us through death to eternal life. This world and these bodies age and fail, but the Lord endures forever.

Kate needs to confess her cold heart and put the good gifts her children and their activities in their proper order so that she can teach her children this lesson. She and her husband have the responsibility of preparing them for Him.

We should hear the voice of the Lord as He speaks to us through this Psalm

Will we pray and wait and trust?

If you have never experienced the deliverance of the Lord, you have no understanding of His ability to save.

Admit your need to be saved. Believe that Christ has made a way for you to be lifted out. And Cry out to Him to deliver you. Then join us as those who tell others about what the Lord has done for you.

John Piper, Plenary Session Three

Discovering a more adequate view of God.

It happens to all those who seek him. Job’s suffering was mercy from God, who allowed Job to wrestle through his understanding of God to gain a greater understanding of Him.
“Therefore I have uttered what I do not understand.’ Job knew Him better and repented in dust and ashes.

It happened to Isaiah, too.

To Chuck Colson, to John Piper… A new understanding of God, a taste of the majesty of God that never, ever goes away.

Isaiah 6:1-7

There is a glib and shallow silliness in much of the church, of which we should repent.  There is a sense of awe and wonder that is the happiest seriousness in the world.

1. God is Alive. 
   1. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” The king is dead, the Lord is not. “From everlasting to everlasting.” He is alive throughout history. He was alive and will be alive in ten trillion ages of years. Those who have claimed him to dead will be obliterated in the years of time like a bb pellet dropped in the vast ocean, and He will still be alive.
2. God is Authoritative.
   1. God is never at wit’s end with His heavenly realm. There is no indication of him plowing fields, loading trucks, cleaning and yet, there is complete order. He is sitting. On a throne. And is in complete control.
   2. We do not give authority over our lives to God. He is in authority already.
   3. “God can do whatever He damn well pleases, including damn well.” We do not question Him. We may weep and be perplexed, but we do not rebel against our King. He is the Supreme Court, the Legislature, and the Executive of the Universe.
3. God is Omnipotent. 
   1. “High and Lifted up.” Not just authority, but authority with supremacy over all things.
      1. Is. 46:10
      2. Dan 4:35
   2. He is a refuge for women who hope in God and experience tsunamis of pain. Few things give a pastor more pleasure than to watch his people be steadfast in suffering, because they have an unshakable place to stand– on the Authoritative, Sovergeign, Omnipotent God.
4. God is Resplendent. 
   1. “His Train filled the Temple…” Imagine the train of a bride’s dress, going down the stage and stairs. Now imagine it going up the aisle, over the pews, into the balcony…
   2. There are about a thousand self-illuminating fish in the bottom of the ocean… How can light be produced at the bottom of the ocean without any batteries? Why did the Lord make 1,000s of those? Because He is LAVISH in His creativity, beauty and splendor.
5. God is Revered. 
   1. “Above Him stood the seraphim.” These beings are not described anywhere else in Scripture. Reubens has not helped our picture of the angels. They are not fat little babies, fluttering around the ears of God. When one of them spoke, the foundations of the earth shook.
   2. But as magnificent as they are, sinless, beautiful… They cannot look at God in His glory.
   3. Though we may look at this world and weep for those who give Him no reverence of all, God is always revered.
6. God is Holy. 
   1. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”
   2. Language is pushing its limits with the word holy. When you have finished defining holy, you have simply said “God is God.”
   3. “To cut” or “to separate” so a holy thing is cut off or separated from one thing and (usually) devoted to something else. It’s not part of the common. It’s devoted unto God.
   4. Almost anything can be holy before God.
   5. But what happens when this is applied to God?
      1. There is an infinite, qualitative difference between God and everything else that is.
      2. His essential being is “I AM” and not dependent upon anything outside of myself. All else is dependent upon Him. He is absolutely unique.
      3. His holiness is His Godness.
      4. What is God devoted to?
         1. There is nothing above Him to which He can conform.
         2. He’s not holy because He keeps the rules. He made the rules.
         3. He’s not holy because He keeps the Law. The Law is holy because it reflects the nature of God.
      5. Holiness is His essence, which makes it more rare and more valuable. His value determines the value and worth of everything else. The ultimate value is not you or your family or any of the other 7 billion people on the planet. Our greatest failure is in missing this truth. Everything else has value in proportion to His worth and value.

We have no rights before our Creator. He is right above all else. And you know you have tasted the Lord when that truth is sweet to you. Holiness is not far away and distant. Our God can be experienced and He is sweet.

7. God is Glorious. 

1. “the whole earth is full of His glory.” Why glory? Why not holiness? Or power?
   1. Glory is the manifestation of the holiness of God. Holiness is intrinsic, infinite worth. When that goes on display, it’s called the glory of God. God’s holiness gone public.
      1. Lev. 10:3– “I will show my holiness… and before all people I will be glorified.”
      2. It is the radiance of His holiness. When God shows himself holy, we see glory.

What does all of that have to do with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of Man, co-eternal with the Father, the Word with THIS God.
John 12. Quotes Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53 in this context.
Isaiah 6:10– Isaiah will preach this vision with little effect. God tells him, “It’s not going to go well. This vision will make the people hard.” But at the end of verse 13, there is a stump of holiness remaining. “The holy seed is its stump.” There is a remnant that can flower and return! When we get to chapter 53, we see the seed again, the Suffering Servant. “Who will hear our report?” The people won’t listen.
John 12 ends Jesus’ public ministry and John explains why Jesus is rejected.
John12:37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Jesus fulfills chapter 6 AND chapter 53 in Isaiah. Both the resplendent King and the Suffering Servant are rejected. 
Why? John 12:43 “The people loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”
Faith in this Jesus is impossible for those who crave the approval of other men more than the approval of God. If you desire the glory of mankind, you will reject both God’s majesty and suffering because BOTH take your glory. When we seek our own glory, we don’t want either and Jesus was BOTH. 

Was Jesus rejected because of the sin of man, or because of the plan of God?
There are no detours between God’s plan and God’s accomplishment. No wasted centuries. No suffering and no rebellion is without meaning.

Will Israel be thrown away because they rejected their Messiah?
Romans 11:25– No. “A partial hardening has come upon them…” The nation will one day turn to her Messiah. Israel has been disobedient in order that mercy may be shown to the Gentiles. Now, through that mercy, they too will be shown mercy.

As Paul closes the tracing of God’s work through history, Paul can only close this section of Romans with praise:
Romans 11:32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Paige Brown

Plenary Session 2

Through Moses, God introduced HImself to his people as I AM. The truth of who He actually is.

I AM is saying I’M IN. I am in with my people.

The I AM God who lovingly becomes I’m IN.

1 Kings 8. The Temple dedication

The preceeding chapters talk about the limitless power and worth. This is THE palace of THE king. The Temple shows us the worth and splendor of the Lord for whom it was built.

The God who comes IN. How in?

1. The INhabitant God, who inhabits a building. 

The physical presence in the Temple. Solomon prepared for this celebration for 11 months. God had brought the people to their permanent dwelling place, now the people have prepared God’s dwelling place for Him. They ask Him to come in, and He does.

1. This is not speaking of His omnipresence, this building does not limit God, but God chooses to come down. But still in His cloud. The cloud both reveals and conceals. It shows He is clearly there, but it is also the covering of His glory. There is still a mystery to the glory of God.
2. The cloud of glory is so great, it drives them out of the Temple for a time.
3. “Miss Jean Louise. Stand up. Your father’s passing.” To Kill a Mockingbird. She was already his daughter, she already loved him. But she needed to be reminded of who he was. The same happens with Israel. The cloud reminds them of who He is.
4. God’s glory is not a dazzling noun, but a verb, that shows off and is meant to bring response.
5. The Ark (mentioned eight times in this chapter) must be where God dwells. We know what’s in the cloud, but what’s in the box? God’s Law. The hand-written tablet.
6. God comes in the with Ark, not with Solomon’s prayer. God comes in by His word, not by the word of man.
7. The Israelites cannot come before the Ark, for they hold the Law they cannot meet. The Law is covered by the Mercy Seat.
8. Man cannot meet God at the Ark. We must meet Him at the Alter.
9. Incalculable splendor and gore. Overlaid with gold, the place of sacrifice. Beauty and sacrifice meet in this place.
10. Verse 23: “There is no God like you, who keeps what You declare.” They know what He has done, they know who He is, and they press into Him more, relying on Him to continue keeping those promises.
11. verse 28, transition from proclammation to petition: “Yet.” Biblical grace.
    1. Every other religious system is based on a language of “therefore,” I ______, THEREFORE god ___________. It is always logical and causative.
    2. The God of Israel speaks of “But” and “Yet.” Speaks of grace and mercy of Christ. It is always contradictory, the grammar of grace. Always in spite of, not because of. He begs for that which is not required. “YET, hear and forgive.”
    3. The primary need, forgiveness, had to be met before the primary purpose, which is relationship, could be fulfilled.

Solomon’s prayer is audacious: He asked 7 things, those things which brings curses in Deuteronomy. He asks for corporate forgiveness, for individual forgiveness, and for complete forgiveness.

We know there will be consequences, but we beg that there will not be condemnation.

We know you will hear us in heaven, but we beg that You come here! Come near with all of your senses, Lord!

The Temple is not so much a place for them to see, but for them to be seen. They can see God’s glory wherever they are, but with forgiveness, they will be looked upon and seen by God.

Intensiveness: It is deep and complete.

Inclusiveness: Israel is a special people, but not so they can have a permanently unique status. They are special so that they can model that special status before the watching world that God was calling to himself.

Exclusiveness: We are your favorite! Israel is the nation you have chosen, let the world see You through us!

The King has brought forth the ability to be in relationship through the lens of atonement.

The size of the sacrifice is audacious. It is so large, it could not be counted. But God could count it, and it wasn’t enough.

The Temple sacrifice wasn’t supposed to meet the need for forgiveness, it was to point to it. The sacrifice was supposed to expose their dependency on the Lord, not increase their independence.

The Temple is the THE test of the hearts of the people. The summary verdict on every king was whether or not they allowed worship to take place in any other place besides the Temple.

The dedication of the Temple is the beginning of the desecration of the Temple. Throughout the remainder of the books of the Kings, the Temple eclipses God. It’s a site to show off their status. No other king went to the Temple to seek God for forgiveness, but they plundered the Temple for treasure to pay off invaders and went to the high places to worship other gods.

They try to hold God hostage: “Hey God, we’ve got your Temple.” They thought the Temple was their ace in the hole. They thought they were guaranteed God’s favor, regardless of their relationship with Him. “Do you know who we are?”

God has to love me, I have the thing that guarantees it! Whether that thing is church membership or status or doctrine or family or possession or accomplishments… those things to not guarantee the favor of God.

Jeremiah tells them that God says, “You hear, but you will not listen.”

Ezekiel saw the abomination of the worship of false idols in the Temple. In their rebellion, God leaves.

The God who is IN, is now OUT. But even as God is leaving, He’s making promises over His shoulder. BIGGER promises:

Jeremiah 31

Ezekiel: New hearts.

“Beyond the best, there is a better.”

The Israelites thought this was the best there was, but God says “I’m coming in even further.” The Temple was a lesser holding place. There is something bigger and greater coming. And it’s not Herod’s Temple.

A greater presence. After hundreds of years of silence. He comes in. No longer the inhabitant God in a building, but the INcarnate God in a body. Not in a chariot, but in amniotic fluid.

The Glory of the Lord left the Temple. When do we see it again?

“The glory of the Lord shown round about them, and they were sore afraid.”

This time, do not be chased out, do not hide! God is here, and He is IN!

IN Bethlehem

IN a body

IN baby’s clothes

IN a feeding trough

God is IN a person, revealed IN the flesh, revealed to shepherds and tax collectors and prostitutes. The same Temple God is Saviour, both the Messiah King and Suffering Servant.

In the OT, “Why is He willing to be someWHERE?”

In the NT, “Why is He willing to be someONE?”

He is IN.

IN the manger.

IN a carpenter’s shop

IN Mary and Martha’s house

IN Capernaum

Solomon asked God to come IN. And He came.

“The Temple has, for too long, been the forgotten picture in the New Testament.”

There is tension, though, for those who are still in love with the building and the status of the building.

Jesus is tied to the Temple throughout His entire life. It is His Father’s house. But He is clear to state that the Temple is His stage, and it points to him.

Jesus supersedes the Temple in every way. The crowds love Him more and those attached to the Temple hate Him more.

Matthew 21: When Jesus has the chance to stand up to the establishment, what does He do? He cleans out the Temple. The incarnate Temple cleans out the architectural Temple.

The weekend of Palm Sunday= the mall the day after Thanksgiving. And Jesus cleans house.

The push people out instead of bringing people in. Jesus comes IN, and He purges the court of the Gentiles of the false confidence of those Jews who placed their hope in the Temple.

And when Jesus cleared the way, what happened? The lame and the blind come in with their need and Jesus heals them.

They had been barred from the Temple by leadership. They had nothing to offer for sacrifice, but they needed nothing, for He was the sacrifice.

But the leadership was not astounded at the wondrous works of Jesus, they were indignant. And His heart broke.

Jesus was not taken to the cross, Jesus GOES to the cross.

God does not forgive sin. He can’t. He forgives sinners. But the sin must still be paid for. Jesus knew it. And on the cross, He echoed Solomon’s prayer, “Father, forgive them.”

Glory and forgiveness can only be combined because on the cross, they were exchanged. We get glory that is not ours, and He took sin that is not His.

Because we took a place that was only God’s, He took a place that was only ours.

Everything is His. What do we bring to it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It is all through Him and all for us. It is all complete in Him.

And yet, after the resurrection, He leaves. On a cloud.

But it is not a desertion. It is a heightened presence. Over His shoulder He promises a better beyond the best.

The disciples think, “Come back!”

But Jesus promises, “I’m coming in.”

John 16: “It is better for you that you that I go.”

Acts 2: God comes visibly, just as He has to all of His former dwelling places. Not as a single cloud, but as an individual flame on EACH of them.

He does not dwell IN the room, but IN them, as individuals. This is not lesser. This is bigger! This is bigger than anything they have seen before. This transforms them.

Not INstruction, but INdwelling.

The strangest Temple combination of all:

Not glory and blood.

Not fully God and fully man.

But indwelling God IN man.

The Temple is no longer a picture, it is what we are.

What are we now?

1. Glory
2. Word, written on our hearts
3. Forgiveness, lives in us, we are the righteousness of God
4. Sacrifices, living sacrifices
5. Prayer, constant, groaned for
6. Assembly

It is fully who we are persons, but we are not all the Temple is.

Not, “I will be your God and you will be my person.”

Unification shows fullness. Filled, “No room for anything else.”

I no longer live, Christ lives in me.

We have the fullness of Him, but He is to have the fullness of us. 

You have been filled, so BE filled.

2 Cor 6: Bring holiness to completion.

He is not “The Father up above who’s looking down in love.”

He is IN us.

Is what I’m doing squaring with my Temple-ness? Does our living deny our Temple-ness? Titus 1: They claim to know God but deny Him with their lives…

There is no room for the attitude that what I do with my life is up to me as long as my heart is fully committed to Jesus. It’s ALL His.

He tells me who I really am. If He can overcome my DEATH, He can overcome my habits. There is warfare, but He is greater! We are transformed from one degree of glory to another.

Prayer of St. Patrick: “Father, bind unto me these realities…”

BUT, even our Temple-ness is not our final state. There is still a longing, because beyond the best there is a better.

He doesn’t call us, beckon for us, send for us. He comes to us.

We aren’t just glorifying Him, we are actually glorified. We will see Him like He is, and we will be like Him. We will be with Him.

He is still really coming again.

“I am coming again, that where I am, there you will be also.”

Tim Keller, Plenary Session One

Exodus 19

We are here, not to think and talk about women, but to think and talk about God.

As the various cultures of the world bring out different aspects of the Gospel and enrich the whole church, so too do the different genders. Women doing exegetical study enriches the entire church.

Exodus 19 is looked to in Heb 12 and 1 Pet 2. Extremely important in the story of the Gospel

1. The History and Order of Grace (vv. 1-8)
   1. “The Bible Speaks Today” series, Exodus commentary written by JA Motyer.
      1. God and Moses basically said to Israel, “Trust us.” And Israel trusted. Now, at Sinai, they are actually further away from the Promise Land than Egypt was.
      2. He told them He was taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But He meets them in the desert. A place worse than where they were in Egypt.
      3. It’s like this for us sometimes. We give Christ everything, our whole lives, and things get worse from there. It seems God is taking us away from where He says He’s going to take us. This is so often the story of grace in our own lives as well.
         1. Penultimate Example:
            1. In Dothan, Joseph, who has been Jacob’s obvious favorite, is spoiled and well on his way to being a terrible person. But he is sold into slavery. Perhaps Joseph called out to the God of his father’s and said “Help me.” And there was silence.
            2. In Dothan, Elisha prayed and his servant saw the flaming army.
            3. What was the difference? Joseph needed something much deeper. If God had shown up and told Joseph his problem, he wouldn’t have listened.
            4. John Newton, “No one ever recognized he was a sinner by being told.” We cannot be told, we must be shown. It took Joseph and his brothers years to be able to see grace. But by the end of Genesis, Joseph knows what they meant for evil, God meant for good.
         2. Ultimate Example:

1. The crucifixion– The followers of Jesus could not have known how the cross could be something good. But life comes through the cross. Jesus could not return without destroying us.

The order of grace:

1. Saving acts of the Lord
2. Our obedient Response
3. The Blessing that comes through Obedience.

NOTHING must every upset that sequence. You will never understand the Bible if you do not understand this order.

God did not give the children of Israel the Law, have them agree to be obedient and then take them out of Egypt.

“I saved you, now obey me,” not “Obey me and I’ll save you.”

From the Passover to the Arrival at Mt. Sinai is the most astounding visual aid ever arranged.

Of the Gospel, there is nothing more important to understand:

• “I am accepted, therefore, I obey.” This person is motivated by love and gratitude to obey. You obey to get God. This person’s obedience is unconditional. “I do the right things regardless of how life is going for me.”
• NOT “I obey so I will be accepted.” This person is self-centered and operating out of fear. You obey to get blessings from God. This person’s obedience is conditional. “I do the right things and my life is not going well.”

The Blessings from God: They are yours, and yet, they are not quite yet yours. They are already there, but it only through obedience that you will realize it.

1. You’ll be my treasure. God’s treasure. Treasure means, “The private, personal wealth of an ancient king.” God has already treasured them because He saved them. But He wants them to obey INTO that relationship.

1. When you love someone, you want to please him. You find out what he likes and wants. Essentially, you are obeying his will. This is the obedience God desires. He desires the obedience of love.
2. Legalism and Antinominanism are essentially the same. Neither understands the grace of obedience.

2. You’ll be a holy nation.You will really be different. When the Gospel gets the human ego sorted so you aren’t whiplashed back and forth between thinking too highly and too little of yourself, the ego is shut up. “You don’t think more of yourself or less of yourself. You just think of yourself less.” No pecking order, no biting and devouring each other. Money, sex, and power operate completely differently when under the power of graced obedience.

What is a holy nation? Read the Sermon on the Mount.

3. You’ll be a kingdom of priests. You’ll have access to God. You’ll be mediators between God and those who are outside. If you know you are a treasure, and you live separately as a holy nation, you WILL BE an light which brings the world to God.

This is all completely different from the Canaanite religions in the area. Mt. Sinai is God’s chosen ziggurat. Local religions climbed to the top of the ziggurat to get to God. At Sinai, God came down to the Israelites. 

Everything about how they approach God is the exact opposite those around them.

God does more than just take them out of slavery, He also brings them to Himself. 

2. The Terrifying and Beckoning of God (vv. 9-19).

1. Cf. Heb 12:18-21– Fire, darkness, gloom, trumpets, death
2. God is not a warm fuzzy:
   1. A wrestler
   2. A hurricane
   3. Ezekiel 1: Can’t even be described
   4. What is so terrifying about God?

1. The terrifying nature of God does not have to have visual and auditory accompaniment. But He does it to get our attention because we are so far in denial of who we are and what we do. If we really saw just how depraved we are, we would die. It is incredibly traumatic when your self-image is questioned and destroyed. If we doubt ourselves when we are around people who are superior to us, what would it do to us to be in the presence of God? 
2. Sermon on the Mount shows us the terrifying nature of God. It points an arrow at our hearts and removes all cover. It shows us how we want others to behave around us, but we know we cannot do it ourselves.
3. Why is God always in a cloud?
   1. Not to hide or to separate Himself, but to accommodate His glory so that He can come down and be with His people.

3. The Going Down of Moses (vv. 20-25).

1. Moses is the mediator. Perhaps the people have been lax and are getting too close to the mountain and God sends Moses down to them to warn and to save them so they do not die.
2. Heb. 12:21-24 A new covenant and a better word spoken than of the blood of Abel… Abel’s blood cried out against his brother, but Christ was the ultimate mediator because HIS blood cries out, “Grace!”
3. Mt. 27: The thunder and lightening and darkness and death (that we see at Sinai) comes down on Jesus on the cross. Now there is no need for even the cloud to mediate the glory of God.

Speaking from 2 Timothy 1:1-2:7

Preserving the Gospel

We are tempted to think defensively, and start ministry to attack those who, we think, are drifting away.

What is the Gospel that we are defending?

Paul speaks of this preservation of the Gospel in these verses.

“Preach the Gospel, if necessary, use words.” Yes, but when you have an announcement, you speak it.

Yes, our lives must be in conformity with the Gospel, but when you have news, you must proclaim it. There’s a huge emphasis of this in the Bible.

What is the content of the Gospel? 

What God did for us in and through his Son. He bore our sins in his own body as he hung on the tree. God the Father sees us righteous. When God looks on the Son, He sees my sin.

The last enemy is death, and he will battle until that enemy is defeated on the last day.

On the last day, we will see Christ as He is and we will be like him, bearing the likeness of Christ as much as

The Gospel is not what we should do, but news of what God has done.

We cannot separate marriage and happiness and living life in general from the Gospel.

Six Steps for Preserving the Gospel

1. Fan into flame what you received (vv. 3-7). 
   1. Timothy came from a mixed faith family. His grandmother and mother had to reach back to pre-Christian religious systems. And Timothy was heir, not through his father, but through his godly mother. He received the Word from those who were using the Old Testament and things beyond.
   2. He saw the value of their belief structures in his parents. His father was a storyteller and him mom was analytical.
   3. Faith that is worked out in observable ways is seen in subsequent lives. The Gospel is not merely a corpus of beliefs, abstracts of belief. They are lived out and seen in families, and in, above all, the context of the church.
   4. “For this reason…” fan into flame the gift of God. The fact that he is a Christian, reared in a believing home, called into service. Don’t just assume, act.
   5. How do we fan this into flame?
      1. The Gospel must be more than something that is merely assumed.
      2. People do not learn what we are teaching, they learn what we are excited about.
      3. If we want the Gospel to be fanned into flame, we must live out our excitement about the Gospel.
      4. If we are excited about corporate worship styles, about sociological analysis and not about the Gospel, others pick up that the Gospel is really not that important. We must be excited about what is at the center so that it is passed on to others.
      5. The Gospel can be denied not by denying it but by overlooking it.
      6. Think constantly about the Gospel, keep it at the center of all that you think and do.
      7. “For…” verse 7. When we have fanned into flame, we are motivated to courage and love and self-control
2. Maintain a clear grasp of the Value of the Gospel (vv 8-11). 

1. We know these things but we must be constantly be reminded of these things.
2. How will your life look fifty billion years from now? It will still be seen. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
3. There is a context in which we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. And all of this is secured by someone else.
   1. Why do we have to be encouraged to keep that in view?
   2. “Anchored in eternity and grounded in history.”
   3. I don’t know when I was saved… “When did you save me?” “Before the foundation of the world.”

3. Maintain a willingness to suffer for the Gospel (1:6, 2:8). 

1. “It has been graciously been given to you to believe in his name, and also to suffer for his sake.” Suffering is a gracious gift. “May I know… the fellowship of his suffering.”
2. With Pentecost, there came such a power that 3,000 people were converted in one sermon. People lined the streets, hoping the Apostles’ shadows would fall on them. Did the Apostles think, “Where’s the suffering?” Were they worried they were doing something wrong at first?
3. In the Gospel, suffering for Christ is considered normal in the Scriptures.
4. In the West we think of general suffering: cancer, loss, physical pain. But the Bible overwhelming talks of suffering for the sake of Christ.
5. Instead of being outraged for not being treated equitibly in a free society, we are to enjoy in the sufferings of Christ. We should be encouraged and strengthened in our eternal state when being opposed or shut down, even by legal means, and know we have shared in the sufferings of Christ.
6. Don’t be ashamed of Christ or the Gospel. Don’t be ashamed of those who suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Rather, join in the suffering for the sake of Gospel. Genuine boldness, faithfulness and willingness, should it please God, to suffer for Jesus’s sake.

4. Uphold the mandate to guard the Gospel. 

a. More than making practical, personal application to our lives, but faithfulness to the pattern of sound teaching.

b. We must know how the patterns of the teaching come together and stay on right trajectory.

c. There are more than simple moral lessons.

5. Distinguish the between the betrayers and supporters of the Gospel. 

1. Paul has been abandoned by the church in Asia Minor. They are no longer supporting him since he is in prison.
2. But he also brings attention to those who bring him food and clothing and writing supplies. They met his needs despite the treatment they received.
3. We are tempted to be soft on those who are our friends. But Paul ties it to how people respond to the Gospel.
   1. We love the Gospel Coalition. It has become a place in the council to learn about and to love one another through the shared Gospel that links us and joins. This is the same as should be found in the context of the local church.
   2. Within this framework we learn who is for the Gospel and who is quietly undermining it.
   3. Alliances must be made with those who are Gospel driven, not those who are of the same gender or race or denomination or training…

6. Work hard at passing along the Gospel. 

a. We preserve the Gospel by passing it along.

b. Moreso than defending it.

c. You guarding the Gospel by giving it away.

d. We lose the Gospel when we hold on to it and defend it. The next generation doesn’t see it or hear it and they lose it.

e. We must look for those who are particularly reliable for passing it along, like to Timothy and Apollos from Paul and Priscilla and Aquilla.

Preserve the Gospel by articulating it, defending it, preserving it, and passing it along. 

Tim Keller:

The Culture needs to understand that love is a covenantal thing. God is a witness of the first marriage.

Our culture doesn’t know about covenant, the counterintuitive combination of love and law. More intense than just a love relationship, more personal and binding than a legal contract. The “I’m committed for my whole life, not just to FEEL loving but to BE loving, regardless of how I feel.” That is how we can be safe to be ourselves and trust. It’s MORE intimate, and you can even stop fooling yourself as to who you are.

Covenant allows us to be who we are. Cohabitation leaves us in “Marketing and promotion” b/c the other person can always leave.

Do you get the same electrical charge when you hold your wife’s hand now?

“Heck no!”

“Not the magnitude of my love for her, but the flattery of her choice of me. I didn’t feel love, I felt my ego affirmed.”

“Love is sacrificial service, and the increasing delight you find in the person you’ve invested your life in.”

When we fall in love, we fall in love with the idea of the person we think the other is. As time goes by, we find out who we really are. We live life together, find out who we really are. Live, love, repent, learn who we really are. And real love grows out of that.

“The praise of the praiseworthy…”

What do you do when marriage brings out the worst in both of you? Only the grace of Christ. Jesus saw what we would do, and he stayed on the cross. We can stay, too.

Christ didn’t die for us because we were lovely, but to make us lovely.

Kathy Keller

As memebers of Christ’s body, we are the hands and feet of Christ, ministering grace to a needy people.

Not just a nice metaphor, but a reality.

1 Cor 12: Reflection of “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Not my people, but me.

Eph 4:25: The world sees us, and we are Christ made visible.

Christian marriage is an apologetic vehicle, a message that will astonish the world if we get it right.

We have been told that we have made a God in our image, but CS Lewis stated that he populated the world with things He would be able to call on to describe Himself through His creation.

The revelation that is written is drawn upon analogical language of his previously created beings. It is Divine Show and Tell.

Character of God can be visible in the distinct roles of men and women in a marriage.

Main Point: 

In a Christian marriage, each person gets to play the Jesus role. Each member, playing out their role of headship and submission shows a complete picture of Christ.

Phil 2: Submissive to the Father

Eph 5: Headship over the church

God meant something important when he stamped us XX or XY, so that we would more fully represent in the divinely ordained gender roles.

Headship and submission are both roles reflective of Jesus. Mystery of the Dance of Trinity…

There’s a church on every corner, but only in a marriage can people see repentance operating without manipulation. Marriage can become a window into the Gospel.

Deeper understanding of ourselves and the Triune God.

People see your marriage and how it works (or doesn’t work) more intimately than anything else you do. How you interact is visible, even to casual observers.

What should people see about Christ in your marriage?

What do people actually see in your marriage? 

Husband: Eph 5, Headship and sacrificial love. Gave himself up to make his bride holy and spotless. Not Archie Bunker definition of headship.

Headship is not qualification to receive all the perks and benefits with your little woman to provide them for you…

Great becomes servant, First becomes slave. Jesus emphasized the redemption of power and authority by washing the feet of his disciples. Headship is flipped upside down from what the world expects.

Jesus took the ego out of leadership and redefined as sacrificial servanthood, willing to do the hard work and to even die.

Wives:

If you have a husband who understands headship, there will be no problem submitted to him. But…what about those who are single or are in unhappy marriages, with husbands who do not understand headship properly?

Phil 2… Humbled himself, became obedient to death. THEREFORE… exalted to the highest place. Submission leads directly to God being glorified.

Jesus took the role of a servant. They (headship and submission) are roles. You salute the uniform, not the person.

Father and Son are equally God. But Jesus took a role that is economically subbordinate. Not compelled or required of him, but a gift offered for securing our salvation.

Submission in a marriage is given first to God, not to a husband.

“If submission did not harm the second person of the Trinity, it surely will not hurt me.”

Gal 3: 26-28– Not a challenge to gender roles, but a window into how God uses them.

All sons, but all brides, too. Also sheep… Not as rich when we are “Children”

No one’s worth is found in the role in which they play here on earth.

Distinguish roles from gifts and their value.

Men are = in value and status before God, equally gifted by the Spirit.

Equally called to use gifts, but in different roles, but both in roles Jesus fulfilled.

Idolatry: We forget our true Spouse because we are so focused on our earthly spouse. We are all betrothed to our heavenly bridegroom.

Jesus had an earthly body. Jesus still has His earthly body. He knows what you’re going through when you remain chaste and pure for His sake. Single people are placed uniquely in the lives of married people to remind them to not place too much worth in the earthly life they have in marriage. Married people play out the Gospel before a watching world.