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    What Does God Want of Us Anyway?: A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible
    What Does God Want of Us Anyway?: A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible
    What Does God Want of Us Anyway?: A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    What Does God Want of Us Anyway?: A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible

    By Mark Dever

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    About this ebook

    Originally delivered as sermons by pastor Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, these three studies are now available in one hardcover volume. Dever guides readers to take a step back and look at the Bible from a broader perspective. As we notice new features of an object when viewed from a distance, so too the major themes of Scripture become more apparent when we take in the Bible as a whole. Part of the IXMarks series, this book considers the central messages of the Bible as seen in the promises of God.
    Dever examines the general narrative of God's Word to answer the question, "What does God wants of us anyway?" Readers looking for a panoramic view of Scripture will be reminded of the faithful, persistent love of God and find themselves drawn into a broader, but deeper, understanding of the maker and keeper of promises.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossway Books
    Release dateMar 9, 2010
    ISBN9781433524004
    Author

    Mark Dever

    Mark Dever (PhD, Cambridge University) is the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and president of 9Marks (9Marks.org). Dever has authored over a dozen books and speaks at conferences nationwide. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Connie, and they have two adult children.

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    • 3/5
      Very very brief overview of the biblical storyline. I would recommend this to new Christians. To those familiar with the subject, nothing new would be learned (though Dever has no attention to be deep).

    Book preview

    What Does God Want of Us Anyway? - Mark Dever

    Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

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    Mark Dever is an able and sure guide to the message of the Bible, which tells us what God wants of us all. The reader of this book is in reliable hands because the author depends not on himself but on the Word of God to answer life’s greatest questions. We cannot live lives that please God unless we know what God has said about himself and about us. This book will help you to know God through knowing his Son revealed in his Word.

    Thabiti Anyabwile, Pastor, Anacostia River Church, Washington, DC; author, What Is a Healthy Church Member?

    In this fantastic little book, Dever shows us what it means to say that Jesus Christ is the point of the Bible. He offers us a breathtaking, panoramic view of Scripture. Since the message of the Bible is so important, and since Dever has captured that message so succinctly, I’ll give this book away again and again—both to Christians eager to get a sense of the whole and to seekers wondering just what the Bible is all about.

    Aaron Menikoff, Senior Pastor,

    Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Sandy Springs, Georgia

    The Bible’s size and complexity can overwhelm many new readers. Mark Dever’s friendly overview both provides a map to its complexity and downsizes its message to the heart of the matter—what is the passion of God’s heart? Keep a bunch of these at your church for giving to anyone unfamiliar with the grand narrative of God’s Word.

    Matt Schmucker, Founding and Executive Director, 9Marks

    Other 9Marks books published by Crossway:

    Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever

    The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever and Paul Alexander

    The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever

    What Is a Healthy Church? Mark Dever

    What Is a Healthy Church Member? Thabiti Anyabwile

    The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love,

         Jonathan Leeman

    What Is the Gospel? Greg Gilbert

    It Is Well, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence

    9781433514159_google_0006_001

    What Does God Want of Us Anyway? An Overview of the Whole Bible

    Copyright © 2010 by Mark Dever

    Published by Crossway Books

                     a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers

                     1300 Crescent Street

                     Wheaton, Illinois 60187

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

    Part 1 and Part 2 originally published in The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made by Mark Dever (Crossway, 2006). Parts 1 and 2 were originally preached each as one sermon on January 9, 2000, and September 1, 1996, respectively, at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC.

    Part 3 originally published in The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept by Mark Dever (Crossway, 2005). Part 3 was originally preached as one sermon on September 8, 1996, at Capitol Baptist Church in Washington DC.

    Cover design: Studio Gearbox

    First printing 2010

    Printed in the United States of America

    Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

    The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

    Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

    Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-1415-9

    PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1416-6

    Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1417-3

    EPub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2400-4

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Dever, Mark.

         What does God want of us anyway? : a quick overview of the whole Bible / Mark E. Dever.

                 p. cm.

            Parts 1 and 2 originally published in The message of the Old Testament : promises made, 2006. Part 3 originally published in The message of the New Testament : promises kept, 2005.

            ISBN 978-1-4335-1415-9 (hc)—ISBN 978-1-4335-1416-6 (pbk.)—ISBN 978-1-4335-2400-4 (ebk) 1. Bible—Theology. 2. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Bible—Introductions. 4. Baptists—Sermons. 5. Sermons, American—21st century. I. Title.

    BS543.D48 2010

    220.6'1—dc22

    2009039053

    To

    Annie and Nathan

    CONTENTS

    Introduction: The Big Picture

    Part 1: The Message of the Whole Bible

    1. One Great Story of Promises Made and Promises Kept

    2. A Particular History

    3. A Passion for Holiness

    4. A Promise of Hope

    5. The Promised Redeemer: Christ

    6. The Promised Relationship: A New-covenant People

    7. The Promised Renewal: A New Creation

    Conclusion: Believing God’s Promises

    Questions for Reflection on the Whole Bible

    Part 2: The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made

    8. Is the Old Testament Really Worth Reading?

    9. A Particular History

    10. A Passion for Holiness

    11. A Promise of Hope

    Questions for Reflection on the Old Testament

    Part 3: The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept

    12. Where Do You Set Your Hopes?

    13. Christ

    14. A New-covenant People

    15. A New Creation

    Conclusion: The Maker and Keeper of Promises

    Questions for Reflection on the New Testament

    INTRODUCTION

    THE BIG PICTURE

    Have you heard of the Above series of large coffee-table photography books? There is Above Washington and Above London and Above Europe and many others. I enjoy the series because of the sweeping panoramas it provides. The plans of the original city planners, hidden when walking down the streets with building tops high overhead, suddenly become visible as the pictures let us rise up and look down on the whole. The aerial photographs provide a sense of perspective and interrelatedness, and we see what the planners envisioned in their minds and blueprints.

    Clearly, the sense of the whole is important for understanding and for planning. Some people suggest the ecology movement did not begin until the first pictures of the whole earth, taken from space, were published around 1970. Wasn’t it on the cover of the old Whole Earth Catalog? Seeing a photograph of the earth, I think, jelled our understanding of the world as a whole and galvanized certain individuals to action. In the same way, we want, in the three studies that follow, to pull up and get an above the Bible or whole Bible view all at once.

    Or we might consider the concept of time-lapse photography. In time-lapse photography, the photographer positions the camera to take a shot of the same location multiple times over the course of a day. That allows him to see the changes that occur in one place over a long period of time in just a few moments of flipping through pictures. Reading through the Bible has the same effect. The Bible is, of course, much briefer than what it records. I know it would take you a long time to read it, but it would take you much less time to read it than it took to write it; and it took less time to write it than it took for the events to happen. So the text of Scripture itself is already like a time-lapsed series of photographs. And we want, in the course of the three studies that

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