CONCLUSIONS OF THE BOOKS

The student will find it helpful to note at the beginning of each book of the Bible, a statement that briefly sums up the spiritual teachings of the book. These conclusions are as follows:

Genesis — The failure of man under every condition is met by the salvation of God.

Exodus — Redemption is by the blood and that alone.

Leviticus — Access of the redeemed to God is only through the blood. Holiness of the redeemed is imperative.

Numbers — The redeemed are saved ^ to serve and must be on their guard against unbelief.

Deuteronomy — Obedience to God is imperative.

Joshua — The faithfulness of Jehovah to His own has been fully demonstrated.

Judges — Man is prone to wander from God. God's grace ever pursues and seeks to restore the backslider.

Ruth — True rest comes only through redemption and union.

I. Samuel — Prayer should have a great place in our lives that the power of God may work for and through us.

II. Samuel — Be sure your sin will find you out.

I. Kings — Jehovah is the sovereign ruler of Israel, blessing the obedient, punishing the disobedient, and forgiving the penitent.

II. Kings — God's Word is certain of fulfilment to saint and sinner.

I. Chronicles — Jehovah is the sovereign Lord, blessing the obedient and punishing the disobedient.

II. Chronicles — Seeking and serving the Lord is the secret of a vital religion and a life of victory.

Ezra — God's Word should have a place and power in the religious, social and civil life of His people.

Nehemiah — Prayer, pains and perseverance are the conditions of successful work for God.

Esther — The great God takes a real interest in all our affairs and shapes His providences to work out His glory through them.

Job — Trial is the school of trust not always given as chastisement, but sometimes for our education.

Psalms — Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and give to Him the glory due His name.

Proverbs — The most intensely practical thing in the world is godliness.

Ecclesiastes — Apart from God, life is full of weariness and disappointment.

Song of Solomon — Christ covets the full communion of His people and blessedness comes to all who walk in His fellowship.

Isaiah — Salvation is by the grace of God and through the vicarious suffering of Christ.

Jeremiah — Judgment is the certain result of sin. God is long suffering, not willing that any should perish.

Lamentations — Sin brings misery. The compassion of Jehovah for the subjects of His wrath, is marvelous.

Ezekiel — God is marvelously good to those who show a desire to walk with Him, and terribly severe upon those who persistently rebel against Him.

Daniel — God is universal sovereign of all and is yet to be acknowledged as such by all men.

Hosea — God longs for the return of backsliders, pleads with them and makes every inducement for their repentance.

Joel — Repentance, a heart broken for sin and from sin, is necessary, if the judgments of God are to be averted.

Amos — National sin inevitably spells national judgment.

Obadiah — We should take solemn warning against the perils of pride and antiSemitism.

Jonah — God is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jew.

Micah — God abhors injustice and ritualism. He takes delight in pardoning penitent sinners.

Nahum — An awful doom awaits the apostate.

Habakkuk — God is perfectly consistent with Himself, even though evil is long permitted.

Zephaniah — Our God is a jealous God.

Haggai — God demands first place in life and service.

Zechariah — The infinite care and love of God is over His people through the centuries.

Malachi — Remember Jehovah, repent toward Him, return to Him and render to Him that which is His due.

Matthew — Jesus, the Messiah-King, was rejected and killed but His wounding was for our transgression, and He was bruised for our iniquities. He is coming again to rule and judge.

Mark — Jesus is the Mighty Worker, who came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

Luke — Jesus is the Ideal Man, the human-divine One, who came to seek and to save that which was lost.

John — Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who came into the world to reveal God in terms of human life.

Acts — The work that Jesus "began" to do was, and is, continued by Him through the Holy Spirit.

Romans — Justification is by faith without works, and is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer, wherein he is made eternally safe.

I. Corinthians — Jesus Christ our risen Lord is Head of the Body working through His people by the Holy Spirit.

II. Corinthians — The Christian is God's ambassador, with a spiritual and glorious ministry, finding in Christ consolation in all his sufferings and sufficiency for every testing.

Galatians — Christ is the Deliverer from the law and mere externalism and leads into glorious liberty.

Ephesians — The Church is the Body of Christ. Each believer has an exalted position through grace and is to have a walk in accordance with that position.

Philippians — Christ is the believer's life, pattern, object, and strength.

Colossians — The Godhead was incarnate in Jesus Christ, in whom the believer is complete.

I. Thessalonians — The coming of the Lord Jesus is imminent. The hope of His return is the great hope and inspiration and comfort of the true Christian.

II. Thessalonians — The Christian is to wait, watch and work for the coming of the Lord Jesus, when He will be glorified in His saints and His saints shall be eternally satisfied in Him.

I. Timothy — God would have the minister and the Christian know "how they should behave in the house of God" and how "to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."

II. Timothy — The Christian must be loyal to Christ and to the truth, enduring as a good soldier against all persecution, and in the midst of growing apostasies.

Titus — Christ's ministers should follow the divine order as revealed in the Epistles, for the conduct of the Church.

Philemon — Wise and good ministers of Jesus Christ will have great and tender care of young converts to encourage and hearten them, and get them received into the fellowship of the saints. There is a spiritual brotherhood between all true believers, however distinguished as to their station of life, and we should therefore seek to strengthen and help those who have been newly united to the Christian family.

Hebrews — The cure for faint-heartedness toward the Gospel is a right conception of the glory and work of our Great High Priest who has passed into the heavens.

James — The evidence of faith is good works.

I. Peter — Those who are walking with Christ will be enabled to suffer patiently, joyously and to the glory of God.

II. Peter — The believer must be pure and loyal in the days of corruption and apostasy, and hastening the coming of Christ by every means.

I. John — Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ brings a life of fellowship with God, joyfulness, victory, safety and certainty.

II. John — The test of our love to God is universal obedience to Him, and we have need to maintain this love, for there are many destroyers of it in the world those who subvert the faith, denying the person or the work of Jesus Christ. Let such men not be entertained as ministers of Christ, nor given support in any way.

III. John — Ministers of Christ should abound in, and joy in hospitality toward fellow helpers in the Lord, and should beware of the peril of a domineering leadership which stands in the way of blessing to the people of God.

Jude — Believers must be on their guard lest they be robbed of any essential article of Christian faith by the cunning craftiness or plausible pretenses of ungodly men who pose as teachers and lie in wait to deceive. Our duty in the presence of the apostasy is to earnestly contend for the faith ? trusting to be kept from stumbling by walking in the perpetual consciousness of God's love through Christ, looking toward the day when we shall be presented before Him with exceeding joy.

Revelation — The Lord Jesus Christ is the gloriously exalted One, the Alpha and Omega. He is the High Priest of His people; the Bridegroom of the Church; the King-Judge of all mankind.