How to Study the Bible #2

Fred R. Coulter—October 18, 2011

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1. The Plagues of Egypt - PDF format
2. Genesis 15 Covenant Sacrifice and the Death of Jesus Christ - PDF format

Woman taken in adultery:

I don't know if you have this in your notes, so if you do, forgive me for it. Let's come to John 8. This is a very, very interesting situation here. So let's look at it and as we go along in the light of what Michael said, let's see if you can figure out exactly what Jesus did.

John 8:1: "But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And at dawn He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them…. [Here's a lot of people around Jesus. He was teaching them.] …Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman who had been taken in adultery; and after setting her in the center" (vs 1-3). What they did, put her right before Jesus and all the people gathered around. They were right there in the center.

Verse 4: "They said to Him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. And in the law, Moses commanded us that those who commit such a sin should be stoned. Therefore, what do You say?' Now they said this to tempt Him, so that they might have cause to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger" (vs 4-6).

Everyone wants to know what did He write? Obviously there was a purpose for writing it—correct? Let's see if we can decipher what that purpose was.

Verse 7: "And as they continued to ask Him, He lifted Himself up and said to them, 'Let the sinless one among you cast the first stone at her.' And again He stopped down and wrote on the ground. But after hearing this, they were convicted each by his own conscience, and went out one by one, beginning with the older ones until the last.… [What do you suppose He was writing there that caused them to leave?] …And Jesus was left along, with the woman standing in the center" (vs 7-9). So it was Jesus and the woman, everyone's watching. They saw all the scribes and Pharisees slink off.

Verse 10: "And when Jesus lifted Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, 'Woman, where are your accusers? Did anyone condemn you?' And she said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more'" (vs 10-11).

Is this an act of forgiveness? No! When you read what it says in the Old Testament about adultery, they were to bring the man and the woman—correct? How did they catch her without the man? Like a lot of our prosecutors, they twist the evidence. I wonder which one of the Pharisees it was that was tempting her. This is exactly what Mike brought out right at the end of what he concluded here. 'In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established.'

• She had no one to condemn her, no witnesses.
• I believe Jesus was writing on the ground, 'Where is the man?'

And they all knew they were trapped in their own devices. They didn't want to admit it and I think this is really a tremendous case to show—how shall we say—exacting and according to the Law that Jesus really was. With no one to condemn her, there was nothing that could be done. But He did know that it was so, because He said, 'Go and sin no more.'

This is not an act of forgiveness, this is a release by judgment of inadequate and twisted evidence and the lack of two to three witnesses. So she was released. But like a lot of judges today, when they come up with something that they have to release the person, they tell them, 'Now you better behave yourself, because if you come back in this court before me again, I'm going to get you.'

The calendar and the Sabbath:

Now we're going to change subjects. While I was traveling to the different Feast sites I spoke about the calculated Hebrew calendar in every place and discussed why the calculated Hebrew calendar is what God wants us to use because God accounts for every minute of time.

I'm not going to get much into the calculated Hebrew calendar today, because I have already done that, but let's come to Genesis 1. First of all we need to review how God reckons the Sabbath. Let's understand that everything must fit into the seven-day week, and balancing out of the months and the years must also be balanced out in whole days in segments of seven. This is why it's important to understand what I'm going to cover here. We have day one, two, three, and four.

This becomes very important to understand. We're going to have to make a supposition as to one thing here, but even if it's not exactly correct, this will demonstrate that the seven-day weekly cycle is independent of the month. The month is dependent on the solar year and the lunar year. The weekly Sabbath is dependent upon seven days, nothing else. Here on the fourth day, I want you to keep in mind: day four. Why did He not do this on day one? The sun and the moon were there, because He said, 'Let there be light, and there was light'—correct? Yes!

Let's see what He did then on day four, because you can't have day one, two, and three, without the sun—isn't that correct? Evening and morning were the first day. Now we come to day four: Genesis 1:14: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons..." That's why we keep the Feast in their appointed seasons. Now I'll talk a little later about the book we're working on, Appointed Times of the Messiah. It begins right here in v 14. And this ties right in with Lev. 23 about the appointed Feasts of God in their seasons.

Verse 15: "'And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. And God had made two great lights... [because they were already made first] ...the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and God had made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens..." (vs 15-17). He put them in their proper place on day four.

Let's just do a little sidebar here on this. How did they get out of place? I have this on Church at Home, How Old is the Earth? I'll just summarize it here, so we can fill in the blanks.

Verse 1: "In the beginning God created the heavens... [full stop] ...and the earth.... [afterwards; not at the same time] ...And the earth was without form and void... [How did it become that way?] ...and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (vs 1-2). How did it become that way? We can put some Scriptures together, so you can write them down. I'll just refer them and you can go back and read them. Rev. 12, Satan rebelled and took a third of the angels, called stars, with him

When did that happen? We don't know. Do we have any clues? Yes, indeed! The book of Job says, I forget the chapter right now, that God speaking to Job, God said the sons of God—referring to angels in this particular case—'all sang together when I laid the foundation of the earth.' So the angels that followed Satan had to be after the earth was already created. It says back there in Rev. 12 that the tail of the serpent drug a third part of the stars of heaven. Didn't it? Those are angels. They all sang together when 'I laid the foundation of the world.' So God said to Job, 'Job, where were you, if you're so righteous?'

This tells us that the earth was formed before the rebellion. And it also tells us in Rev. 12 that there was war in heaven. We see that it was on earth, because 'without form and void' comes from the Hebrew 'tohu' and 'bohu'—which means in chaos and disorder. God is not the author of confusion. God is the author of order, so this is telling us that after God created the heavens and the earth and all the angels were there and singing for joy, then between vs 1 & 2 we have the rebellion of the angels. And there was war in heaven and that's how the earth became 'without form and void' and covered with water. And the geological record that they find in paleontology shows that there were two floods: this flood and the Flood of Noah.

That's how the sun and the moon got out of balance with the earth. Just like the earth was destroyed, covered with water, now God had to restore the earth and He had to restore the sun and the moon in the right positions. That's what He did on day four. {speculation}: Could this be a new moon on day four when He set them in their places, which began a month? What we have is, if that is true and we would have to suppose that it would be, that the week began before the month. Now the reason I bring this out is because we're going to cover one of the trickiest and one of the most difficult to answer heresies concerning when is the Sabbath.

Let's finish the count: Day one, two, three, four—God set the sun and the moon in their place on day four. Then we have day five and day six and then we have day seven. The week is counted every day. You don't lose any days of the count. Out of the week God accounts for every minute. Out of the month God accounts for every minute. That's why there are postponements because the motion of the earth and the sun and the moon are all different. There are going to be fractions of time left over. All of those have to be reconciled into whole days.

Just like this year. We have the fall equinox beginning September 23rd. Now why? Supposed to be on the 21st. What happened? Now our calendar is a solar calendar and it's 365-1/4. How do we account for that one-quarter of a day? We accumulate the quarter. You can't have a quarter of a day to start a new day.

When I was back in Michigan they were telling me the problem they had between Michigan and Indiana. They're both on Eastern Standard Time, but Indiana did not choose to go on Eastern Daylight Time. So, two towns five miles apart there was a difference of one hour in time. Think if you had to cross that every day. You lose an hour, you gain an hour; you lose an hour, you gain an hour. People listened to the radio, 'It's five o'clock.' No, you look at your clock and it's four.

You see the problems when you change the time in the middle of a day. That's why God has all days wherever you are on the earth begin and end at sunset. That's simple. Everybody can figure it out.

As I covered concerning the calendar, when you get out into the universe, things become very complicated. If you look up at the moon, that's not how you get there. Look at what it had to be for them to get the men to the moon. They had to build the rocket, they had to get all the computers. Remember what it was at NASA? Row after row after row of computers! Computer to watch this gadget, computer to watch this machine, a computer for the fuel, a computer having to do with communications—all of that. Then when the rocket was sent off, it didn't go in a straight line. What it had to do is make an S-curve and come around behind the moon and slow down for a couple of orbits to where it was slow enough that they could drop down on the moon.

And now they know, the ones who said it was done in the Arizona desert, are wrong, because they can see with the telescopes the footprints. They also left some kind of whatever it was. I don't know if it was a tri-pod, I don't know if they put it in the ground, I don't know how they attached it up there, but they put a receiver for a laser beam so they could beam it right to the moon. In that case it would be a straight line and this gave them the exact distance between the moon and the earth. So, we know they got there. But the Sabbath is counted from day one and goes right on down through time.

Genesis 2:2: "And by the beginning of the seventh day..." This is where arguments come. It says in the King James, 'And on the seventh day.' And I've had these arguments with people and they say, 'Well, if you're supposed to keep the Sabbath Holy, why does it say on the seventh day God finished His work?'

No, "...by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made…. [If you want to call this spiritual work, then you could; spiritual work is not physical work.] …And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made" (vs 2-3).

I gave you three months of a calendar—December 2010, January 2011, and February 2011. Why did I give you these months? Remember, God accounts for all time. Just to give you an example. We're going to be talking about the moon.

The earth is 365-1/4 days around the sun. That's a solar year. The moon is 29 days, 12 hours, 793 parts, because God divides an hour down into 1,080 parts, so you get rid of all those decimal fractions that you would have in odd-ball division. Because it's divisible by so many numbers, you never end up with an odd-ball fraction you have to deal with.

What happens with the 793 parts? Those are accumulated until you get over 1,080, so that puts an hour back into the equation. You still have a little remainder left. When that gets up to over 1,080, you put back another hour. After 24 of those, you have a day. That day is accounted for, but it must fit in with the Sabbath. You don't come up with an extra day.

I'll show you here in the calendar. Take December 2010. Look at day five. We'll just use the new moon that we have here. Here is the heresy that some people say on how to keep the Sabbath. First you look for the new moon. I've already covered how unless you know what to look for with the new moon, you're looking really at the second day of the new moon, not the first.

As I explained with those two scientific teams: They had one team at 8,000 feet watching for the new moon with binoculars and all of this sort of thing. Eight miles away at 4,000 feet was another team. The team at the high elevation saw the new moon at 14 hours 53 minutes; I think it was. That would declare that day as the new moon day. However, those who were down at 4,000 feet did not see the new moon, so the next day they would declare as the new moon.

Long and short of it is, when you get the CD, listen to it, and we have all kinds of calendar material, so be prepared to put your thinking cap on. We can send you all of that so you can study it.

Now let's look at their method of coming to the Sabbath. They call it the lunar Sabbath. You don't find that phraseology anywhere in the Bible.

December 5, 2010:

• new moon—day one (Sunday)
• the Sabbath—day seven

(in this case, it comes out on the Sabbath)

• end of the next week—day 14
• the next week—day 21

That takes care of December.

• day 28—which is the fourth Sabbath

That's the last Sabbath that you keep in that 28-day cycle.

January 4, 2011

• new moon—day one

So, you drop out two full days; and you know there are people who believe that? It's amazing! To make the calendar material complete, I wanted to do this, so I thought I would do it here. All right, now let's number the days. Since the 4th is day one,

• the 5th—day two
• the 6th—day three
• the 7th—day four
• the 8th—day five—which should be the Sabbath, but it's not.
• the 9th—day six
• the 10th—day seven—Monday, Jan. 10 is a Sabbath

That's what they proclaim, because instead of starting with the week and accounting for every day and every seventh day being the Sabbath, they say, 'We start with the new moon and when you see the new moon then you count seven days and that day is the Sabbath.' They end up with the Sabbath rotating all the way through the week. How's that for mind-boggling heresy?

• 17th—next Sabbath.

They hit a good day, Martin Luther King Day, wonderful for them.

• 24th—Sabbath
• 31st—Sabbath (4th Sabbath)

February 2011—let's see what happens here, because see, you stop counting at the fourth Sabbath and you wait for the next new moon.

• 3rd—new moon—day one.
• 9th—day seven

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—on a Wednesday. Now we've had the weekly Sabbath on a Sabbath and on a Monday and then we have the weekly Sabbath on a Wednesday. See if you can hold a job on that!

• 16th—second Sabbath
• 23rd—third Sabbath
• March 2nd—fourth Sabbath

Then you wait another two days for the new moon. I didn't bring March because I thought three months would be quite sufficient for you to figure out the difficulty.

I get all kinds of papers about all kinds of things. This is one of them. To show you how it affects some people, and you have to be on top of all of these things. You might want to save this or at least remember it and know how to show someone that you can't do that. I suppose they could take it to an extreme and say, 'Well, this is my Sabbath. And oh, by the way, we don't count the next two days, so I'd those off every month.'

How to Study the Bible:

Now we're going to look at something entirely different. Now this is going to also dovetail with what Mike was talking about in a little different way. Let's understand some things about the Bible. Some things in the Bible are easy to understand, like the Ten Commandments. Is there anything difficult about the Ten Commandments? No, you can understand them! Some things are hard to understand.

There are some things that are hard to understand. There are some things that are hidden. It says in the Proverbs that 'it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it is the honor of a king to discover it.'

Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law." That applies to the whole Bible, not just the Law. And what I want to do is I want to show you how we can learn from the Old Testament the things that are fulfilled in the New Testament and how they connect together.

With this, let's begin in Isaiah 9:6: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace…. [How are you going to understand that?] …Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with righteousness from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this" (vs 6-7). How are you going to interpret that? What does this mean?

We will take the principle that we find—just put in your notes there, Isa. 28—'precept upon precept; line upon line; here a little, there a little.' You have to add it together. Some of these things are not answered until you come to the New Testament. This is where the unity of Scripture, the Old Testament and New Testament come together.

Let's analyze this, v 6: "For unto us a child is born... [that's clear] ...unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder... [Obviously He's got to grow up—correct?] (Here are the things that are hard to understand]: ...and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God..." Do you call any man, God? How are they to understand it? The truth is you can't understand this without the New Testament. Is He human or is He God?

"...The Everlasting Father..." (v 6). How do you square this with Matt. 11:25 where Jesus said that He came to reveal the Father. What is this?

"...The Prince of Peace.… [that tells us something] ...Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end... [Has there ever been a time of no war? Not through the history of man, no! When will this be?] ...upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with righteousness from henceforth... [Meaning right now. How can this be right now? How can you have an infant be God? How can you have an infant take over the government? Why does He have the names of God?] (It says): …from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this" (vs 6-7).

All right, now let's understand a principle that's in the Bible. Is God a God of Truth? Yes! God cannot lie. It's impossible for Him to lie—correct? When God says something, it's as good as done, because He cannot lie. "…from henceforth, even forever…" what He said here is going to happen, and it is as good as done.

When we come to the New Testament we can tie some other Scriptures to it and we'll see a little here, a little there, and we'll go back and we'll answer different things. Let's see what it says of Jesus.

Matthew 1:19: "And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to expose her publicly, was planning to divorce her secretly. But as he pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, because that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall give birth to a son, and you shall call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.'.... [Everlasting Righteousness] ...Now all this came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 'Behold, the virgin... [If you check that out in the Hebrew, back there Isa. 7:14, it is the virgin, not a virgin, but the virgin, a special, particular one.] ...the virgin shall be with child and shall give birth to a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel'; which is being interpreted, 'God with us'" (vs 21-23).

Here we have the Everlasting God—right? The Mighty God! Let's come down here a little further. When she gave birth to her son, the firstborn, he called His name Jesus, because that's what we find in Luke 1 that He should be called. Let's see something else about this. What we have back there in Isa. 9, we have the beginning of a prophecy, which then was going to unfold down through time and was going to continue on forever.

Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you; and for this reason, the Holy One being begotten in you shall be called the Son of God." In the Greek it is present tense passive being begotten. It was taking place right as Gabriel was talking to her. This adds to Isa. 9:6—the Son of God.

1-Timothy 3:16: "And undeniably, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifested in the flesh... [How did that happen? All of this ties in to that one verse in Isa. 9:6.] ...God was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory."

That tells us a lot—doesn't it? What I'm trying to do with this is show you how you can go from one Scripture that's hard to understand to other Scriptures and put it all together to get the full meaning out of it. God manifested in the flesh. How did that happen?

What are we doing right now as we're studying this? What are we doing? 'Line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; precept upon precept.' We have this; we all know this. This is one we need to know by heart. And yet in spite of all this, you know there are people who do not believe that Jesus was God before He became a human being.

The Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus was Michael the archangel. Since I mentioned that, what Scripture do you use to show that that is not correct? We're talking about God manifested in the flesh. We're not talking about an angel manifested in the flesh—correct? What Scripture do you use to show that it could not have been Michael the archangel? The announcement to Mary, that was part of it. But where does it specifically say? Hebrews 1 tells us more about Jesus, going clear back to Isa. 9:6, 'For unto us a child is born...' and so forth.

Hebrews 1:1: "God, Who spoke to the fathers at different times in the past and in many ways by the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days by His Son." His Son! What did Jesus say concerning angels? He said that they neither marry nor are given in marriage, they can't have offspring. His Son. That substantiates Luke 1:35.

Verse 2: "Whom He has appointed heir of all things... [that's including the throne of David] ...by Whom also He made the [ages] worlds... [The Creator! See how much these Scriptures give us?] ...Who, being the brightness of His glory and the exact image of His person..." (vs 2-3). That is of God the Father. What did Jesus say in the book of John? 'If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.'

What we're doing with this Bible Study is showing the method to study and how that all the Bible fits together. That's why you can't take one Scripture over here, versus another Scripture over here that may look like its contradictory and then you use what the worldly Christianity uses—subtraction. They say, 'Since this Scripture contradicts this Scripture,' because they're not willing to interpret it, 'then we get rid of them both.'

"...exact image of His person, and upholding all things... [Which means the universe. What did Jesus say just before He ascended? 'All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me.'] ...and upholding all things by the word of His own power... [the whole universe is under the control of Jesus] ...when He had by Himself purged our sins... [Everlasting Righteousness] ...sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… [Here's the answer to the question that Jesus could not have been Michael the archangel]: …having been made so much greater than any of the angels, inasmuch as He has inherited a name exceedingly superior to them. For to which of the angels did He ever say... [Which He would have to say if Jesus were Michael the archangel.] ...'You are My Son; this day I have begotten You'? And again, 'I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me'? And again, when He brought the Firstborn into the world, He said, 'Let all the angels of God worship Him'" (vs 3-6).

That goes right back to Luke 2, Jesus was born, the shepherds were out in the field, great light appeared, the angels began singing, 'Glory to God in the highest.'

What I want you to understand in a concept of understanding the Bible is this: Think of a sphere and that all the Scriptures represent lines going through this sphere. You can almost an infinite number of lines going through this sphere. Every cross section of a line is putting the Scriptures together to give you understanding. And so this is what we're trying to do right here with just this one verse in the Old Testament in Isaiah 9.

 (go to the next track)

Let's come back to the Gospel of John 1:1. Now there are three places that talks about 'in the beginning.'

• Genesis 1
• John 1:1
• 1-John 1:l

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... [that means God in the full sense that God is God] ...He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him" (vs 1-3). All the atheists and the evolutionists are out of luck.

Verse 14: "And the Word became flesh... [The Word was God. How did God become flesh?] …and tabernacled among us... [temporarily dwelled] ...(and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of grace and Truth."

How did God become flesh? Again, let's get another Scripture and put it together. Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let Us make man in Our image after Our likeness..." That's why God made man and woman the way He did, so that He could become a man and we can enter into the Kingdom of God. Not to one of the angels did He ever say, 'You are My son, this day I have begotten you.'

What happens when we're baptized and we receive the Holy Spirit? We have been begotten by the Father, so that at the resurrection we can become and look like and be like and are part of the family of God, greater than the angels. All of this was planned before the foundation of the world. What did God tell Moses when Moses said, 'Show me Your glory'? He says, 'No man can look upon God or see My face and live.' Why? Because there's so much power that flesh would just be disintegrated! What happened when God came down on top of Mount Sinai? The top of it melted! What do you think that would do to human flesh? So He put him where? Back in a big crack in a rock and said, 'No, you can't see My face, but I'll let you see My back parts.' So, He passed by Moses and he could see that.

What did God have to do to come from being a glorious spirit being, in brightness and power, upholding the universe by the word of His power, to become flesh? made flesh? We're told, we've already read, God was manifested in the flesh. How did He do it? All of these Scriptures tie in and relate to where we started in Isa. 9:6.
Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.... [it describes Him]: ...Who, although He existed in the form of God..."—'huparkon' means in the form of God.

Let's yet go to another Scripture. 'Line upon line; precept upon precept; here a little, there a little.' That's what we're doing—right? Let's see what Jesus said in His last prayer before He was arrested and led off to be judged and crucified.

John 17:4: "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me with Your own self with the glory that I had with You before the world existed" (vs 4-5). That's what that means in the Greek, before the world existed. He had to give up His glory.

Philippians 2:6: "Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, But emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant; and being found in the manner of man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (vs 6-8). Jesus is the One, that perfect sacrifice. But think of this: All things came into being through Him—correct? Also what we're going to learn is this, once we put the Scriptures together, then we can make some proper conclusions.

Since Jesus was the One Who created the heavens and the earth, that personally formed man and woman; He was the One Who made the angels.

• How about the sin that took place with the angels and Satan? They have no forgiveness, but it has to be made right.
• How is He going to make everything right?
• Who was the one that let Satan come into the Garden of Eden? God did!
• How is He going to make that right?
• Who put into all men and women the law of sin and death through inheritance? God did!.
• How's He going to make that right? By becoming a man!
• Could God overcome Satan the devil as God? Hands down, no question, yes!
• If He took on the form of an angel, could He overcome Satan the devil? Probably could!

Satan tried to get Him to sin in the flesh—didn't he? Matt. 4 and Luke 4 with the temptation! This tells us why He became a man and why He submitted to what He did that was planned, 'the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.'

How is God going to reconcile and justify all of these things together? By becoming a man! By living a life, never sinning, yet having carried human nature within Him. What happened at the crucifixion? He was arrested and judged—correct? Came as a man, gave up everything.

Verse 8: "And being found in the manner of man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

• Why did He have to die that way?
• Why did God have to die at all?
• If God lives forever, how is God going to die? By becoming a man!
• What was the last thing He said before He died on the cross? 'Into Your hands I commend My Spirit.'

So, He retained enough of the Spirit of God that He could be

• God in the flesh
• the Son of God
• the Son of man—because He was born of woman.

You see how all of this comes together? Why did He do what He did? He turned Himself over willingly! You talk about a willing sacrifice! Only God could do this to overcome.

• He turned Himself over to Satan the devil, who betrayed him, Judas who was possessed of Satan.
• He was led off to be judged by the priests, the elders.
• He was also judged by Pontus Pilate, who wanted to let Him go, but the people wouldn't let Him go, and the priests wouldn't let Him go. Being a politician, he caved in to it.

Sound like politicians we know today? Yes, indeed!

Let's look at all involved in the trial and in the crucifixion and in His death. There was Satan the devil and the demons—correct? Yes! There were the chief priests and the elders. A lot of people like to say, 'Well, the Jews killed Jesus.' Maybe they were the instrumentality, but who did they represent? The religious leaders represented all the religions of the world! What did Jesus say of Judaism to the Jews in John 8? He said, 'You are of your father the devil'—right? Yes, indeed! So they represented all the religions of the world and they all came from Satan—isn't that correct?

What about Pontus Pilate? He represented all the governments of man. What about the people who said, 'Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'? And some even repented on the Day of Pentecost. Some of those standing there saying, 'Crucify Him!' were pricked in their hearts and they repented. The Jews represented all the people of the world. It could not be any other way, since Jesus is the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

John 1:29: "On the next day, John sees Jesus coming to him, and he says, 'Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin... [not the sins] …of the world.'" Isn't that interesting?

The one temptation by Satan the devil with Adam and Eve and the one sin that they committed was probably multiple sins, but then God put in all human beings the law of sin and death. So God looks at it as one sin, takes away the sin of the world. And it repeats it down here in v 36, too.

In going through these things then, this helps us to understand how we are to study the Bible and how we are to put it together. This helps us then to behold wondrous things within the Word of God, the Law of God. There are a couple of other things that we need to answer. We've covered

• child is born
• a son is given
• the government shall be upon His shoulder.

He's the Head of the Church now. He's going to be the King in the world tomorrow or the Kingdom of God.

Isaiah 9:6: "...and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor... [when He is ruling over the earth] ...The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father..." (v 6). When is Jesus going to be an Everlasting Father? He came to reveal God the Father, but when will Jesus become the Everlasting Father? You look at the plan of God. We today—those in the Church today—have the Spirit of the Father and we are called the children of God, that is of God the Father. That's why the first resurrection is so fantastic, because it's of God the Father. But when will Jesus become a Father?

It talks about marriage and we have a little inkling of it right here in Ephesians 5:32: "This is a great mystery; but I am speaking in respect to Christ and the Church." It talks about husband and wife and he says what to do as husband and wife. Then he says "…I am speaking in respect to Christ and the Church."

What is going to happen to Christ and the Church? The marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19)! The Church and Christ are going to be spiritually husband and wife. Are we going to rule and reign with Christ on the earth? Yes! What's going to happen to the people on the earth? They're going to be converted! Under whose auspices and whose direction? Jesus Christ and the Church! That's when He becomes the Everlasting Father. So we have God the Father, Who is an Everlasting Father, and Jesus Christ, Who is an Everlasting Father.

• God the Father to us in the first resurrection
• Jesus to those during the Millennium

How it figures with the second resurrection, we'll have to wait and see. All the difficult questions that you find back in Isa. 9:6 are answered in the New Testament. Let's look at another Scripture similar to it:

Daniel 9:24—the 70-weeks prophecy: "Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people and upon your Holy city to finish the transgression... [Isn't it interesting, the sin and the transgression?] ...and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy."

There are a lot of elements in that verse—aren't there? After His death and resurrection, He makes reconciliation. We'll see this in Colossians 1 here in just a minute. But notice what it says: "…to finish the transgression…" In other words, bring it to an end. When does that take place? What ends sin? Satan removed and the wicked cast into the Lake of Fire. That goes all the way to nearly the end of the book of Revelation—correct?

"...to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity... [That began with those that He was dealing with from the time of Abel down to Christ. Then from the time of Christ through what we understand the New Testament.] ...and to make reconciliation for iniquity... [That has to come all the way down through the Millennium, as well.] ...to bring in everlasting righteousness... [When will everlasting righteousness be brought in? Never any more sin! Where is that? Rev. 21 & 22!] (then it says): ...to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy" (v 24).

Let's come to Colossians 1:12: "Giving thanks to the Father, Who has make us qualified for the share of the inheritance of the saints in the light." God is the One Who qualifies us with His Spirit, with His Word, as we yield and change and grow and overcome and repent.

Verse 13: "Who has personally rescued us from the power of darkness... [Who is the prince of darkness? Satan the devil!] ...and has transferred us unto the kingdom of the Son of His love." We are under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God and we won't be in it until the resurrection. Then we will be in the Kingdom of God.

Verse 14: "In Whom we have redemption... [which is reconciliation] ...through His own blood, even the remission of sins..... [the bringing in everlasting righteousness started] ...Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (vs 14-15). This is one verse that is hard to understand if you end there. He was the firstborn of Mary. He was also the Firstborn from the dead.
Verse 16: "Because by Him were all things created, the things in heaven and the things on earth... [See how this summarizes everything we've gone through?] ...the visible and the invisible, whether they be thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things subsist" (vs 16-17). We can tie all of these Scriptures we've covered together with these verses.

Verse 18: "And He is the Head of the body, the Church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead... [When we are resurrected it's like a brand new creation from flesh to spirit. That's why He was the Firstborn of all creation, that is through the resurrection.] ...so that in all things He Himself might hold the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell; and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself... [see how that ties in with Dan. 9?] ...by Him, whether the things on the earth, or the things in heaven" (vs 18-20). Where did the rebellion of Satan take place? In heaven, cast back down to the earth!

Verse 21: "For you were once alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works; but now He has reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death to present you Holy and unblamable and unimpeachable before Him" (vs 21-22).

I just wanted to go through this so you would see how all the Scriptures come together and give you some tools that you can use in studying the Bible so you can understand if you come to a verse that's hard to understand that you go to other verses and you come back and you put it all together. That's how God has designed the Bible.

Scriptural References:

Woman taken in adultery:  John 8:1-11

The calendar and the Sabbath

• Genesis 1:14-17, 1-2
• Genesis 2:2-3
• Leviticus 23
• Revelation 12

Also referenced:

• Book: The Appointed Times of the Messiah (coming soon)
• Sermon: How Old is the Earth (churchathome.org)
• Material/Articles: Calculated Hebrew Calendar by Fred R. Coulter

How to Study the Bible:

• Psalm 119:18
• Isaiah 9:6-7
• Matthew 1:19-23
• Luke 1:35
• 1-Timothy 3:16
• Hebrews 1:1-6
• John 1:1-3, 14
• Genesis 1:26
• Philippians 2:5
• John 17:4-5
• Philippians 2:6-8
• John 1:29
• Isaiah 9:6
• Ephesians 5:32
• Daniel 9:24
• Colossians 1:12-22

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Isaiah 28
• Matthew 11:25
• Isaiah 7:14
• 1-John 1:1
• Matthew 4
• Luke 4
• John 8
• John 1:36
• Revelation 19; 21; 22

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 11-7-11
Formatted: bo—11-8-11

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