An Overview Of God’s Plan For Man

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I. The purpose of the first part of this lesson is to obtain an understanding of the overall picture of the Bible and how the Old Testament fits in with the New Testament.

  1. When we look at an overview of the Bible, we can see that historically speaking the Bible is naturally divided into three periods of time indicating three ways that God dispensed law to his people: (1) Through the patriarchs or heads of certain families covered in the book of Genesis and lasting 2500 years. (2) Through Moses and the prophets, covered in Exodus through Malachi and lasting 1500 years. (3) Through Christ and the apostles, revealed in the New Testament and lasting over 2000 years.
  2. Notice the following main points in the Patriarchal age:
    1. Adam and Eve were made to leave the garden of Eden because of sin. 1656 years later the earth was covered with people who were involved in widespread wickedness. God promised the flood giving Noah 120 years to build an ark and preach to the people. No one repented and therefore only eight people were saved with the animals that were brought into the ark. What should the story of the flood teach us about God?
    2. When Abraham comes on the scene 500 years after Noah, God begins to build the Jewish nation. Abraham has Isaac and Isaac has Jacob whose name is changed to Israel which begins the Israel Nation. After moving to Egypt, the families of Israel are taken into bondage by the Egyptians. During their 215 year captivity they grow to be a great nation of 2-3 million. At about 1500 B.C. God sends Moses and delivers Israel out of captivity and brings them to Mt. Horeb (Sinai).
  3. Israel at Mt. Horeb begins the Mosaical age. Note the following points and questions during this period:
    1. Read Deuteronomy 4:10-13. What is the contents of the covenant God made with Israel?Notice from this that from now on when God refers in the Bible to the covenant He made with Israel, we know that the main contents of this covenant is:
    2. Read Deuteronomy 5:1-3. With whom did God make this covenant? Notice that this covenant was not made with those who lived before them or any of the Gentiles.
    3. After Israel left Mt. Horeb they came to the land of Canaan and after conquering the land God led them by the means of Judges or military leaders for 350 years. The people then desired a king, God giving them Saul David, and Solomon.When Solomon died the kingdom of Israel divided into a northern and southern kingdom (925 BC). The northern kingdom (Israel) was very wicked and therefore God allowed the Assyrians to take them away into captivity in 721 BC. The southern kingdom (Judah) eventually became as wicked as the north and were taken away captive by the Babylonians in 606 BC. The Southern kingdom, however, was allowed to return to their land 70 years later and rebuild Jerusalem. It is their descendants who are the Jews today and through whom Christ came. (This concludes the historical part of the Old Testament which brings us through the book of Esther.)
    4. The prophets did their work during the time of the two kingdoms mentioned above. They warned the people of their wickedness and also prophesied of a new covenant to come in the time of Christ.Jeremiah 31:31-34 is a good example of a prophecy of the New Covenant God had planned when Christ came to the earth.
      Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 and discover the answers to the following questions:

      1. What will the new covenant not be like?
      2. What is the main benefit of the new covenant?
  4. This brings us to the Christian age. The passage in Jeremiah is quoted in the New Testament to show its fulfillment. Read Hebrews 8:6-13. God has now made a better covenant because this covenant provides for the forgiveness of sins by the death of Christ that the old covenant did not provide.From Hebrews 8:6-13, discover the answers to the following questions:
    1. Was the first covenant perfect as far as man was concerned?
    2. What does verse 13 say has become of the first covenant?Now read Hebrews 10:9-10
      Discover the answers to these questions:
    3. When Christ came to do God’s will, what did He do?
    4. Through which “will” (covenant) can we be sanctified?
  5. We should be able to see from our studies so far that we are no longer under the first covenant (the Old Testament or the 10 commandments). We are now under the law of Christ (the New Testament). Some of the commandments of the Old are repeated in the New and therefore unchanged. But many of the laws of worship are not repeated (such as keeping the Sabbath holy). Also, God no longer tolerates divorce for any cause or polygamy. We must understand that whatever we do religiously today must be found in the New Testament, not in the Old. This is the first main reason there are so many churches today: most pick and choose laws from the Old Testament instead of finding their authority in the New Testament.

II. In the second part of our lesson we want to understand God’s strictness concerning the way we worship Him. Since the Old Testament is to be used for examples, (I Corinthians 10:11), let us note the example of Nadab and Abihu.

  1. Read Leviticus 10:1-3
    If you are reading the New King James Version, you will notice that Nadab and Abihu offered “profane” fire. The word “profane” means “common, not sanctified or set apart.” The King James Version says, “strange fire.” Simply put, Nadab and Abihu offered a different kind of fire than what God commanded. Fire that was not taken from the altar of burnt offering was profane (Leviticus 16:12). Notice that though Nadab and Abihu were offering worship to God, they were not accepted because they did not worship the way God had commanded.
    What lesson should this teach us about our worship?
  2. Read II Samuel 6:3-7
    In this passage King David is moving the ark of the covenant. God had three rules concerning the ark. (1) It was never to be touched. (2) Poles placed through rings on the side of the ark were provided so that it could be carried on the shoulders (not on a cart). (3) Only the family of Kohath of the tribe of Levi were to transport the ark.

    1. What things were done wrong by David and the Israelites?
    2. Notice that the only reason Uzzah touched the ark was because he did not want it to fall. He was trying to protect this valuable object. Notice that his good intentions did not excuse him for violating God’s law.
  3. Does God have the same feelings about worship in New Testament? Read Mark 7:6-9. Jesus is talking to the Jews who were very religious.
    1. What did Jesus call their worship?
    2. What were they doing wrong to cause Jesus to call their worship this?
    3. Do religions of the world today do the same thing in their worship as did these Jews? What will Jesus think of our worship if we do this? Consider also Galatians 1:8 & Revelation 22:18-19.

III. Since Jesus is not pleased with us when we worship with the traditions of men, let us see how Jesus originally established His church before men added their traditions.

  1. Read Romans 6:3-4 and Acts 8:35-39.
    1. How were people baptized in the Bible?
    2. What did the Ethiopian eunuch have to do before Philip would baptize him?
    3. If a person is suppose to do this before being baptized, can children be baptized? (You will notice that there is never an example of children being baptized in the Bible.)Read Ezekiel 18:20. Are children born inheriting the sins of their parents?
  2. Read Acts 2:37-38.
    1. What did these people have to do in order to be saved?
    2. What was baptism for? According to this verse, can a person be saved before he is baptized?
  3. Notice the other characteristics of the church as Jesus established it:
    1. The name of the church pictures it as being as owned by Christ. Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2.
    2. The name of the disciple pictures him as being owned by Christ. I Peter 4:16; Acts 11:26.
    3. The organization of the church was very simple with elders as overseers and deacons as the special servants. I Timothy 3:1-13.
    4. The Lord’s Supper was taken on the first day of the week and on the same day the disciples gave of their money as they had been prospered. Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:1-2.
    5. There was no instrumental music in their worship. They only sang and made melody in their heart. Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16.
    6. They taught that hell was a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth and that it was eternal, lasting as long as heaven. Matthew 13:42; Matthew 25:46.
  4. Compare the characteristics of the church as the Lord established it to the way churches today are operating. Can you find a scripture for the practices of the modern day denominations?
    *Read Matthew 7:13-14. What should we be doing?