Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. Jesus studied the scripture. And he submitted. to the authority of Scripture in his life. We, like Jesus, must secure ourselves standing upon the truth of the Word of God.
On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how to build your life on the truth of God's Word.
Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message. Establishing your faith. The Word of God is essential to our spiritual health and well-being. And in an era, in a time, in a generation where.
Truth is somewhat perishable in the minds of some. It is absolutely essential that we establish Our faith. That we understand our source for truth. and that we build our lives upon that truth. At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about building our lives upon his words.
As a sure foundation, he spoke of a man who built his house upon a rock, and when the storms came, and they always do, don't they? When the storms rained Pelted the house. It stood because it was built on a firm and solid foundation. In contrast, Jesus said, Another man built his house upon sand, and when the rain came, the house was washed away. It was a failure.
It fell, and it mightily fell because it was built without foundation. Life without a foundation, like a house without a foundation, is susceptible to the storms of life that rage against us.
So it is vital. It is absolutely imperative that we build our lives upon the sure foundation. of the Word of God. Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 and following. Do not think that I came to destroy the law.
Or the prophets. I did not come to destroy. But to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till the heaven and earth pass away. One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. of heaven. For I say to you, That unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom. of heaven.
Jesus said, Our truth source. The foundation for Lot.
Okay. Absolute truth. He is grounded in the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets, of course, speak of the Old Testament scriptures. The law, the Torah, the Pentateuch.
And the prophets. This was the Bible that Jesus himself Possessed. Believed. and practice. The living word of God.
both Old Testament and New Testament is the book of God. God wrote a book. And this book The Bible It's not the book of men. It is the book. of God.
Jesus believed in the accuracy, the authority. of Holy Scripture. There are many evidences That the Bible is the Word of God. But perhaps the most powerful evidence of all is the endorsement of Jesus Himself. Because Jesus Believe that the Bible is the eternal word of God.
Though he was seen and viewed as a religious rebel by some in his day, he never discarded or deleted. The authority of Scripture in his life. Rather, he defined it. He fulfilled it. And when Jesus spoke, his message was full of the word of God because he believed it.
The word of God is eternal. Heaven and earth shall pass away, he said, but not one jot or one tittle of my word will pass away. The Bible is not the book of the month, it is the book of the ages. It is the book of God. The grass withers, 1 Peter 1:24 and 25.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Jesus believed that the word of God was eternal. He also believed that the word of God is to be viewed as verbal. That is, that every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is true. He said, Not even one jot or tittle of my word, the law, the prophets, shall pass away.
A jot, a tittle, a small stroke. Even a comma. has been given by God. You cannot have thoughts without words. 3,008 times the Bible says the word of God came to me, saying, It is written.
This book. Breathes the breath of God. It lives with the breath of God. This kind of inspiration is not mechanical or magical, but it is miraculous. It is the supernatural.
Inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the word of God is eternal. Jesus said the word of God is verbal. Jesus said the word of God is infallible. That is, it will be fulfilled.
He said, till all is fulfilled. Why? Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is factually and perfectly flawless. Proverbs 30, verse 5, every word of God is pure.
This is what Jesus believed about the Bible. And he said, I have come. to fulfill The message. The living message of the Bible.
Now this is so very important in our age that we Believe as Jesus believed in the authority. and accuracy of scripture. And it's time that we as Christians and churches pass to coming generations, this one and the one that is coming, this kind of sure faith and foundational truth. Because many of our teenagers today are being swept away by this culture which says, your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth, and never the twain shall meet. Our students need to know.
The truth. of the living God. Jesus said. I have come. Not to destroy the scripture, the law, and the prophets.
But to fulfill it. That fulfillment of the Old Testament. is also viewed in the New Testament. Thus the Holy Scriptures. But how does Jesus fulfill the scripture?
I want to give you five ways this morning that Jesus fulfills the scripture. Jesus fulfills the scripture prophetically. Over and over again, we will discover in the Gospels. Especially the Gospel of the King, the book of Matthew. that Jesus would do something.
Say something. And then the words followed. He did this, he said this, that the scripture might be. fulfilled. Especially as we move towards the Passion Week of our Lord in those final hours of his life on earth, over and over again, describing those events that changed the world.
It was said he did this in order that the scripture would be fulfilled. All of the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, speak of the coming of the king. The world awaited the Messiah. And thus The Old Testament, the law, and the prophets speak of the coming of this Messiah. It begins early on, after the fall, the failure of man in the Garden of Eden, when man sinned.
and brought upon the earth the depravity of that sin and the consequences of that sin. Yet, there in the middle of the fall of man. The collapse. God raised the cross and the message and the promise of the future in Genesis 3 and verse 15 when He said there would be one born of a woman, the seed of woman. Who would?
Bruise and destroy the head of Satan. And so, there at the very outset, the promise of the Messiah, the promise of a deliverer. was given. And when you open the Word of God page after page, I'm speaking of the Old Testament from Genesis all the way to Malachi, you read these powerful truths concerning the coming of the Messiah. No wonder when Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus with those believers who were downcast because Christ had been crucified, they didn't realize they were with the living Lord.
And Jesus. The Bible says to those doubting and discouraged men, open to them the scriptures. Beginning with Moses and the prophets, he showed them in all the scriptures those things concerning himself. It's all there in the Old Testament concerning Jesus, from his virgin birth to his virtuous life to his vicarious death and his victorious resurrection and yes, his visible return. The law and the prophets.
Speak of the coming of the king. And when Jesus said he is fulfilling the word of God, that means that all of these prophecies to the minute and minutiae of detail, Jesus fulfilled the word of God prophetically. But not only prophetically, but Jesus fulfilled the word of God personally. Personally, Jesus is the only person who ever walked on this planet. Who perfectly obeyed The law and the prophets, the word of God.
The Bible is clear on this, that Jesus never sinned by disobeying God or his word. He is perfect and pure in every way. He looked at his accusers one day and said, Which of you accuses me of sin? And no one could. Jesus lived.
A beautiful life. Magnificent life. And the attractive and compelling life of Jesus. Is so powerful in our days. He elevated the standard of life and of living.
When you look at Jesus, he stands apart. From anyone. Whoever walked on the earth. And this, Jesus personally adopted and accepted the Bible. As his standard of life, he believed the Bible.
He embodied the truth of the Bible. He lived in true righteousness. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message. Establishing your faith. We are excited to share that we have a new way to connect.
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Maybe you're wondering if there's more to your walk with Jesus than just trying harder. There is. That's the encouraging truth Pastor Jack Graham shares in his book, Powering Up. Powering Up will show you how to walk in boldness, joy, and supernatural strength as you live fully connected to God's power through the Holy Spirit. This resource is our thanks for your gift of $10 or more to help PowerPoint share the gospel around the world.
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Now, let's get back to today's message. Establishing your faith. So he fulfilled the scripture. personally. He fulfilled the scripture.
Prophetically. And he fulfilled the scripture. Perfectly. When you read the law and the prophets, You discover in the Old Testament That God who is holy demands perfection. Perfect obedience.
And God is teaching the lesson through the law. Like a schoolmaster, Paul said, to lead us. To Christ. And every lesson of the law and of the prophets. Speaks of our need to obey and their consequences for disobedience.
One of the prophets, Ezekiel, said in Ezekiel 18 and verse 4. The soul that sins will surely The Apostle Paul built upon that truth, fulfilling The message of the prophets as well when he says in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. The law and the prophets speak of death and yes of judgment. But also running its course. In the pages of Scripture, It tells us how God covers and cleanses from sin, and how God instituted a system of sacrifices.
A sacrificial system in order that the people could experience forgiveness. for their sins. And so throughout the pages of the Bible when you open it. You discover this sacrificial system and how men and women would bring their sacrifices, animals, and sometimes food. Birds.
as offerings. as payment. for their guilt and sin, God was teaching a powerful lesson through this sacrificial system. That without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. of sin.
Remember the story of Pavlov's dog. This scientist experimented with dogs and he would ring a bell. And the dogs would then be fed. Ring bell, feed the dogs. Pretty soon, the dogs realize, uh-huh, here Bell eat food.
And Pavlog discovered the longer that he did this, he developed a pattern. in the animal's life and he would ring the bell and the dogs would begin to salivate. They were ready for food. Ultimately, he could ring the bell, and whether he fed them or not, whether there was food available or not, they would salivate. He was preconditioning.
The dogs. God in The system of sacrifice in the Old Testament was preconditioning pre Preparing the world for the final and ultimate sacrifice. of Jesus Christ, who is the pure and perfect Lamb of God. When you open the Old Testament, It's been said, cut it anywhere and it will bleed. It's a bloody book.
And The truth that We need redemption. We need atonement by sin at the Passover time. Jews today still celebrate and remember this glorious, miraculous moment in Hebrew history when. As slaves in Egypt, they were given a promise. And that promise was to take the blood of the lamb, the Passover lamb, and put it on the lentils, the doorpost of the house.
And God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over. And judgment passed over those who were under the cover of the blood. Why? Because without the blood, there is no remission of sin. And so Day after day, as the sacrifices were brought in fulfillment of the word of God, the ceremonial.
Laws of God were kept. And Jesus who perfectly lived the law of God. Who purely obeyed the law of God, who was without sin or stain. Jesus, the Savior, the Redeemer, became the perfect. Final sacrifice for sin.
And so when he offered his blood, when he poured out his life, He was fulfilling the scriptures. This is why he came. to take our sin and take our judgment. To take and pay a debt that we owed that was impossible for us to pay. Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets perfectly in his sacrifice.
Upon the cross. We preach the blood of Christ. and the redemption. the necessity of redemption. in him and him alone.
This is what sets the Christian faith apart from world religions. Every other religion is a system of works, personal sacrifice. What man can do in order to attain the favor of God, which is impossible in our human strength. The message of Jesus is that he fulfilled the law. and the promises of the book.
And he died on the cross, bearing the weight of our sin and our judgment. I deserve death. You deserve death. But Jesus took our pain, our punishment upon the cross. He fulfilled the scriptures perfectly.
Thirdly. He fulfilled the scriptures. Practically. Jesus studied the scripture. And he submitted.
to the authority of Scripture in his life. So when He was tempted, driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. to take on the enemy, Satan. When Satan offered him the kingdoms of this world, when Satan asked him to bow down and to worship him, Jesus responded with each temptation. With the clear words of the Bible.
It is written, it is written, it is written.
So he used the word of God in times of temptation as a weapon. And so must we. As we face Attacks from the enemy. We like Jesus must secure ourselves standing upon the truth of the Word of God. in times of teaching.
Jesus relied upon the word of God. You've heard that it has been said, I say unto you. He would often say, it is written. Or These are the words of God. Jesus quoted from 24 of the 39 books of the Old Testament.
And so when he taught, He taught with one as having authority. There was the authority of the word and the authority of His own life, the living word. When he was tempted, when he taught, and when he was tested by religious leaders. Who in engaged him in order to entrap him. And they brought questions after question, and yet he confounded them every time with the word of God.
He responded with truth.
So practically, He applied the Word of God. He lived in allegiance to the Word of God. Again, he never discarded it, he defined it. He is the word. Of God in action.
And one final thing. Jesus fulfilled the scripture purposefully. Jesus taught that the scripture had a purpose, and what is that purpose? to change us. from the inside out.
That we would obey God Not only with the hands, but with the heart. that we would fulfill not only the letter of the law but the spirit of the law that our lives would be characterized not simply by outward observance but by internal obedience to god the attitude of the heart for the lord jesus was absolutely vital That we were to love him with our hearts, that we were to serve him with our hearts and all of our hearts, that we are to worship him with our hearts, that we are to give, that we are to act from the heart. And so Jesus said. unless your righteousness exceeds The scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. When he said that, there must have been a collective gasp.
move across the congregation on the mountain that day. Lest your righteousness exceeds The Pharisees, the scribes. My goodness. To the people of that day, this religious crowd, the scribes and the Pharisees, they were the God squad. They kept all of the laws of God.
They added to the laws of God over and over. The Pharisees had 613 rules. They had 248 commandments. They had 1,521 emendations or rules that added to. They were just chock full of rules and regulations and keeping laws and adding to the law.
But Jesus said, Unless your righteousness exceeds The righteousness of the Pharisees, you'll never even enter the kingdom of God. What on earth did he mean by that? Jesus was saying very clearly, That if your religion is simply external, If it's all superficial. And it doesn't come from the heart that has been changed. By the Spirit of God.
then there's no salvation. You'll never enter the kingdom of God. And the purpose of the law and the prophets. It is to lead us to faith in Jesus Christ, the fulfillment. of what God has written.
How about you? If you're trying to live by the law, or the prophets or even the Sermon on the Mount, you will fail. And remember The soul that sins will surely die.
So what on earth? How on earth? Can I enter the kingdom of God? How can I be saved? Not by law keeping.
or by good deeds. But by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the love of Jesus, who wants you to know Him. It is the radical revolutionary message of the Bible. Jesus taught and fulfilled the scripture in order that we might know that we have failed, that we have fallen, but that Jesus, who has fulfilled the purposes of God, gives us eternal life when we come to him by his grace in Faith.
You are listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message: establishing your faith. Through the Holy Spirit, God empowers you to love when it's hard. Forgive when it hurts and persevere when you're worn out. He equips you to live with joy, peace, and boldness no matter what circumstances you face. in his insightful book Powering Up, Pastor Jack Graham shares how you can live the life God intends for you.
We want to send you a copy of Powering Up as a thanks for your gift of $10 or more. To request your copy of Powering Up, just text Power to 59789. We are incredibly excited to share that we have a new way to connect with PowerPoint. We've just launched a brand new texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here. Imagine getting all the latest news, inspiring devotionals, and helpful reminders for the Bible in a Year podcast, all delivered right to your phone.
You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content. To join, start a new text conversation by texting Connect to 59-789. You'll receive a reply back. and that will add you to our text group. Just text Connect to 59789.
Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Jesus said that God's Word is eternal, it is everlasting. And when we believe in the Word of God and begin building our lives upon its truth, then no matter what we face, no matter what storms we may experience in life, the struggles, and all the rest, we will be able to stand strongly and build our lives upon the truth that lasts forever.
Now, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, you don't have a foundation for your life, and ultimately you will be blown away, both in life and in the life to come. There's no hope in future without Jesus Christ. This ministry is a ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's our prayer that if you do not know Jesus, that right where you are, right this very moment, that you will bow your head and invite Jesus into your life. You say, well, how do I do that?
Here's how to receive Christ into your life. Number one, accept the fact, admit the fact that you have sinned against God and that you need a Saviour. Then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. I mean to believe not simply intellectually, or believe in these things as a matter of fact, but as a matter of truth for your life, to truly believe in Jesus and to put your trust in Him. To believe in Jesus is to receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior, to confess Him and to believe that He died on the cross for your sins and rose again on the third day.
Do you believe? If you do believe, then confess Him, call upon Him as your Lord. The Bible says, If we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus, and believe in our hearts that God Has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Right now.
Call upon his name. Just say, Jesus, I do trust you. I receive you as my Lord and my Savior. Come into my life, forgive me, and cleanse me. and make me your child.
I want to know you, Jesus. I want to follow you all the days of my life. Just tell him. Just simply call out to him and cry out to him in faith and he will hear your prayer and come into your life. For he said, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift of $10 or more to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Powering Up as Our Thanks. Just text the word Power to 59-789.
And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can find freedom from anger. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
