WE CAN KNOW GOD'S PLAN
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Corinthians 3:6 ASV - who also made us sufficient as
ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Amos
3:7 NIV - Surely the Sovereign LORD does
nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
John
15:15 NIV - I no longer call you servants, because a servant
does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for
everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 16:13-15 NIV - But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,
he will guide you into all the truth. He
will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell
you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because
it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All
that belongs to the Father is mine. That
is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."
Daniel 7:27-29 NIV - Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all
the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy
people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom,
and all rulers will worship and obey him. “This is the end of the matter. I,
Daniel, was deeply troubled by
my thoughts, and
my face turned pale, but
I kept the matter to myself.”
Revelation
21:1-7 NIV - Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and
there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride beautifully dressed
for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he
will dwell with them. They
will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has
passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!” Then
he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the
thirsty I will give water without cost from
the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be
their God and they will be my children.
Isaiah 46:10-11 NIV - I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what
is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From
the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to
fulfill my purpose. What I
have said, that I will bring about; what
I have planned, that I will do.
THE BEGINNING
Genesis 1:1 NIV - In the beginning God
created the heavens and the
earth.
Genesis
1:31 NIV - God saw all that he had made, and
it was very good. And there was evening, and there was
morning - the sixth day.
Genesis
1:26-28 NIV - Then God said, “Let us make
mankind in our image, in our
likeness, so that they may rule over
the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over
all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his
own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he
created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in
the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on
the ground.”
Genesis 6:5 NIV - The Lord saw how
great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and
that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the
time.
Romans 5:19 NIV - For just as through the disobedience of the one
man the
many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of
the one man the many will be made righteous.
GOD HAS A GRAND
PLAN
Genesis
6:5, 11-12 NIV - The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the
human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the
thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of
violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the
people on earth had corrupted their ways.
Genesis
8:21 NIV - The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and
said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because
of humans, even though every inclination of the human
heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all
living creatures, as I have done.
SIN MULTIPLIED
AGAIN
Genesis
12:1-3 NIV - The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your
people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great
nation, and I will bless you; I will
make your name
great, and you will be a
blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and
whoever curses you I will curse; and
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Exodus
24:7 NIV - Then he took the Book of the Covenant and
read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has
said; we will obey.”
Exodus
31:18-32:1 NIV - When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount
Sinai, he
gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed
by the finger of God. When the
people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they
gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who
will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who
brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Exodus 32:25-28 NIV - Moses saw that the people were running wild and
that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to
their enemies. So
he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come
to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, “This is what
the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back
and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother
and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three
thousand of the people died.
Romans 3:21 NIV - But now apart from the law the righteousness of
God has
been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
Deuteronomy
28:1-6 NIV - If you fully obey the Lord your
God and carefully follow all
his commands I give you today,
the Lord your God will set you high above
all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on
you and accompany you if you
obey the Lord your
God: You
will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the
young of your livestock - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your
flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be
blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
Deuteronomy 28:15-19 NIV - However, if you do not obey the Lord your
God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you
today, all these curses will come on you and overtake
you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the
country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your
womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds
and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed
when you go out.
Deuteronomy 31:26 NIV - "Take this Book of the Law and place it beside
the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a
witness against you.
II Corinthians 3:7-18 NIV - Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on
stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the
face of Moses because of its glory, transitory
though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more
glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the
surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came
with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a
hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would
put a veil over his face to
prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for
to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is
read. It has not been removed,
because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is
read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the
Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which
comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Colossians
2:14 NIV - having canceled the charge of our
legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us;
he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Romans
5:20 NIV - The law was brought in so that the
trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased
all the more,
Romans 3:20 NIV - Therefore no one will be declared righteous in
God’s sight by the works of the law; rather,
through the law we become conscious of our sin.
THE ANSWER: JESUS
John 1:1 NIV - In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 NIV - The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory
of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth.
Romans 5:19 NIV - For just as through the disobedience of the one man the
many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of
the one man the many will be made righteous.
John
1:10-11 NIV - He was in the world, and though
the world was made through him, the
world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive
him.
John
1:12-13 NIV - Yet to all who did receive him,
to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to
become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or
a husband’s will, but born of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the
new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here!
1 John
4:17 NIV - This is how love is made complete among
us so that we will have confidence on the day
of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
Romans
6:14 NIV - For sin shall no longer be your
master, because you are not under the law, but
under grace.
GOD'S GRAND PLAN
