Overarching Theme of the Word of God

Driving home: But, in all of these books, with the manifold literary genres, that is, types of literature, there is both an undergirding and an overarching theme that ties the whole thing together.

The Bible is likened to a mini-library of 66 books, highlighting its vastness and diverse literary forms while setting up the idea of an overarching theme.

The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 7, 2009, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now this book, that we call the Bible, that I hold in my hands, is a very large book by any measure. I took out a pen and recorded the number of pages that are found in my copy of the Scriptures, and totaled up the Old and New Testament, and it's over 1,200 pages, a very large book by any evaluation, and it has double columns, so it is a very, very large book. In fact, it's really not one book. It's a mini-library, a library composed of 39 books that together we call...

0:02 - 1:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But, in all of these books, with the manifold literary genres, that is, types of literature, there is both an undergirding and an overarching theme that ties the whole thing together.

Key biblical statements are described as 'capsule statements' that, when understood, 'flower out and blossom out' like a flower opening, revealing the full beauty of the Bible's message.

that give us the heart of the whole message of the Bible. And those statements become like a door into this marvelous, panoramic, overarching message of the Bible. And if you can grasp those particular texts, those particular portions, you have a handle on what the Bible is all about. So that the more you study it, and the more you understand it, what you see is those little mini-capsule distilled statements flowering out and blossoming out, but like a blossom on us. A flower, you're not seeing something different. You're just seeing the closed reality open more and more and more into its full...

4:16 - 5:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the modern aversion to the word 'sin' and uses a vivid medical analogy to emphasize the necessity of confronting this deadly diagnosis. He asserts his commitment…

Pastor Martin recounts his personal diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer. This extended story serves as an analogy for the seriousness of God's diagnosis of sin and the foolishness of ignoring it.

The word sin usually means that you're talking about a God who sits in heaven and looks down upon His creatures and sees their thoughts and their words and their actions, and He calls some of them no-nos. He calls them sin. Well, I'm not at all embarrassed to say that my text demands that I speak about the issue of sin. For when the text says, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way, this is the prophet's way of declaring the universal condition of sinfulness that applies to every person. Every single one of us. Now think with me for a minute. Twelve y...

7:47 - 8:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is the very essence and tragedy of human sinfulness. That man who, unlike all other creatures of God except the angels, was made to know God, to live in intimate communion with God, to find his greatest delight in f…

The simile 'all we, like sheep, have gone astray' is explained by describing the implications of sheep leaving their true shepherd, illustrating humanity's departure from God.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Here he likens the entire human race to a vast flock of sheep. And he says that vast flock of sheep without exception have gone astray. Now in this agrarian setting, everyone would understand the point of the simile.

15:04 - 15:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is the very essence and tragedy of human sinfulness. That man who, unlike all other creatures of God except the angels, was made to know God, to live in intimate communion with God, to find his greatest delight in f…

The account of Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden after their sin is used as the first external indication of humanity's straying from the Shepherd.

This is the very essence and tragedy of human sinfulness. That man who, unlike all other creatures of God except the angels, was made to know God, to live in intimate communion with God, to find his greatest delight in fellowship with God when, sin enters, man leaves his true shepherd. And we find this in the very third chapter of Genesis. When sin enters the human race through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, what's the first external indication that they have sinned? Apparently, God had a pattern of coming to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day for a season of unusual face-to-face, voice-to...

16:59 - 18:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously your true condition: you're a straying sheep who's turned to his or her own way, and almighty God is incensed.

Examples of God's judgment on sin (banishment of Adam and Eve, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) are used to demonstrate God's serious attitude toward sin.

you're praised oh how you suck it into your soul you are living unto yourself that's God's diagnosis of every one of us generically in the big picture we're part of this vast flock of Adamic sheep who've gone astray we've left the shepherd we've left his government and we have turned every one of us to his own way now my question is this what's God's attitude to all of this does he have the attitude of that indulgent grandparent who's seeing a grandchild do something naughty pulling one of its siblings pulling the braids or kicking them in the shins kids are going to be kids is God's attitude ...

26:39 - 28:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sobered by the bad news that you're part of a flock of sheep that has gone astray and that you've turned to your own way.

The vastness of galaxies revealed by the Hubble telescope is used to underscore the immense power of God, who could crush humanity in a moment, emphasizing the seriousness of offending Him.

who's turned to his or her own way and almighty God is incensed he's incensed who are you the creature of the dust to whom I give life and breath you cannot uphold and sustain your own life for a moment I gave it I sustained it who are you to say to me I want nothing to do with you I want to live my own life by my own standards to my own ends in my own way almighty God is incensed and you better take seriously that reality have you ever taken that seriously or have you just been bopping through life once in a while a nagging thought what will happen when I die oh put that out of my mind I'm no...

31:05 - 32:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: save truth and saving religion is the downward arrow for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son here in his love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for o…

Saving truth and religion are described as a 'downward arrow' from heaven to man, emphasizing that salvation originates with God's gracious provision, not human effort.

but now we learn that the author of the good news is none other than God himself the incensed God who takes our sin seriously we are told the Lord has done something and there is the window of hope and of blessing if you want a good little litmus test of any professed religion whatever its name may be ask yourself this question does it tell me what I do to reach up to God to do something to make myself acceptable to God to think some thoughts that will make me pleasing to God does the arrow go upward or does it go outward to my fellow men or does the arrow come down from heaven to man save tru...

34:02 - 35:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God forsaken by God who can understand it we can't understand it but this is the good news of God's gracious provision for sin

The scene of Christ standing before the Father in the 'courtroom of heaven' is used to illustrate the substitutionary nature of His atonement, where He willingly bears the sentence for sinners.

make him something less than truly God he's undercut what he does as the savior of sinners if he can make him something less than truly man he does the same thing but the servant of the Lord is none other than the God man and in a very special way if you look at our text God's provision for sin focuses on the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all and the Lord God has taken what our sins deserve of his wrath and of his judgment and he's picked it up and he's made it to rest upon his son and when it rests upon his son and his so...

39:57 - 41:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God forsaken by God who can understand it we can't understand it but this is the good news of God's gracious provision for sin

Martin Luther's profound meditation on Christ's cry of abandonment ('My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?') is cited to highlight the incomprehensible depth of Christ's suffering.

shrouds the heavens in blackness the son is drinking and drinking and drinking until toward the close of the three hours he cried out in words that eternity will never end will never exegete for us my God my God why have you abandoned me Martin Luther sat at his desk for three hours meditating on those words and at the end of three hours Martin Luther like he pushed himself back from his desk and he exclaimed God forsaken by God who can understand it we can't understand it but this is the good news of God's gracious provision for sin because because the same one who cried my God my God why hav...

42:56 - 44:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin reads a six-stanza hymn that powerfully illustrates Christ's substitutionary suffering: bearing our burden, drinking the cup of wrath, receiving God's rod, enduring the…

A six-stanza hymn is quoted in full, using vivid imagery (burden, cup, rod, tempest, sword) to comprehensively capture the reality of Christ's substitutionary atonement and its benefits for believers.

accomplished Jesus was conscious in his soul that everything divine justice demanded as payment for sin was paid in full and so he cried it is finished and three days later because God wanted everyone to know he was really dead dead dead when he rose from the dead and he was Joseph's empty tomb was God's amen from the throne of heaven yes my son it is finished and the scripture says he was delivered up for our offenses raised for our justification that's what the prophet is telling us though he gives us the bad news of our horrible condition in sin he gives us good news of God's provision for ...

44:24 - 45:51 Read in full sermon