Jesus Christ and OT Authority #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time. So let's get right to it.

Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. But let's go beyond the general historical examples. We haven't even gotten to the difficult things yet. Difficult from a human perspective, from the perspective of the critics of the Bible.

Let's consider, here's subpoint number two, or subpoint B, depending on your numerical system that you prefer. Let's consider some controversial historical examples. Some controversial historical examples. Let's consider matters that people use that humanistic, atheistic, agnostic critics would use to mock the Bible, to deny the Bible, to intimidate believers away from relying on the Scriptures alone for their source of absolute truth and the basis upon which they have hope for eternal life and the forgiveness of sin. Let's consider the matter of creation.

Billions and billions of years, 13.4 billion years. You know, a big bang explosion that gave rise to the universe as we know it, and then there were just billions of years that followed. There's nothing like that in Scripture.

I realize that some so-called biblical scholars try to make the case, but that's not what you find. You read the account in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and if you haven't been pre-polluted by those insinuations, it just reads like a natural six day period of time. Morning and day, first day. Morning and evening, I should say, first day. Morning and evening, second day.

Morning and evening, third day. What's so hard about this? As you read on in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, you read that God created humanity, male and female.

No third option. Binary. In the language that has to be repeated today. Genesis chapter 2, verses 21 through 25. He took a rib from Adam, formed a woman, brought her to Adam. Adam said, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. A forward narrative of what God did in creation, at direct odds with what modern science teaches, at direct odds with what much of a bad wing of evangelicals would teach and affirm.

Forget all of that. What did Jesus say in this realm of controversy? Look at Matthew chapter 19, look at Matthew 19, verse 3, the Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? It's another critical matter, beloved.

The institution of marriage has now been put into issue. And what did Jesus do in order to uphold truth? What did he point to? He points to the Old Testament. He points to his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. Again, beloved, hear the whole matter of creation. Jesus looks at the whole account of creation and says that is a reliable guide for us, what the Old Testament says, what Moses said is a reliable guide for us to determine what the right thing to do.

What to do is and to believe going forward. He did the same thing with the account of Noah, a worldwide flood, Genesis 6 through 9, Genesis chapter 6 through 9. What did Jesus do with that truth? Matthew chapter 24.

After a while, this becomes as simple as, you know, like shooting fish in the barrel. You can't miss because there's so much to hit as we look at Jesus affirming the Old Testament. Now, Jesus, I'm just overwhelmed by this, beloved. The nature of revelation, the nature of the Son of God, the nature of eternal salvation, the nature of the institution of marriage. The matter of eschatology, what will happen in the future?

How will world history come to an end? What does Jesus look to? What does Jesus speak to in order to assert and define the truth?

When earth will pass away, he says, concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. And he illustrates. And where does he go to illustrate such a crucial point about the outcome of world history, beloved? What is all of this?

What is everything driving toward? He goes to the Old Testament. He says, for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus says, you can look at the historical narrative about Noah and the flood and judgment and the suddenness upon which it came upon the world, the unbelieving world, and you get a picture of what my return is going to be like, what the coming of the Son of Man is going to be like. Don't you see that if the underlying narrative was false or untrustworthy, that his whole argument collapses? That these things about the nature of revelation, the nature of the essence of the Son of Man, the nature of the institution of marriage, the nature of eternal salvation, the nature of eschatology and the return of Christ, he premises it all. The foundation that he points to again and again and again is the Old Testament. And on these matters of most colossal, surpassing importance, if those matters were not reliable, his entire argument collapses. The whole system of biblical truth falls in on itself because he's relying on something that actually could not be relied upon if the Old Testament was not utterly reliable.

But the Old Testament is utterly reliable, and that's why Jesus could quote it in support of these magnificent doctrines. The matter of the resurrection, you remember Jonah, swallowed by the great fish in Jonah chapter 1 verse 17. Go back to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12.

You know, if ever there was an Old Testament story that uninformed critics could mock, you know, the idea of a fish swallowing a man and that man dwelling in the belly of the fish for three days in kind of a, you know, fish submarine, if ever a story deserved to be criticized and questioned, that might be one that you would look at. Jesus points to it without apology and says, this is a picture of my coming resurrection. Matthew 12 verse 38. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He said, the son of man will die and he will be buried. But just as Jonah came out of the fish, the son of man will come out of the fish. The resurrection without which Christianity collapses, as we see in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, if Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is worthless, you're still in your sins.

Something that essential. Christ says, you can look to the story of Jonah and see an illustration for this most foundational truth. Not only, beloved, are these the historical examples that he chooses, controversial in our day, mocked in our day, he uses them to set forth the most fundamental aspects of revelatory truth. Beloved, the very things, and I love this about our Lord, I love this about Scripture, and you know, God helping me, I never ever want to have a molecule of space between my thinking, what I believe, what I affirm, and what I embrace, both for myself and in my teaching.

I don't want there to be any distance between me and Christ at all. But the very things that would embarrass scholars today to say, to go on to a news channel, to answer spiritual questions, the things that they would dodge and hide from, you know, a worldwide flood, a man being swallowed by a fish, six-day creation, young earth, the things that all of them would try to evade, salvation by faith alone, the resurrection from the dead, all of those things that embarrass scholars today, Jesus embraced from the Old Testament. Jesus affirmed them from the Old Testament. Jesus built the most fundamental doctrines upon them.

There is no reconciling the skeptical view with the view of Christ. Believe and follow Him or not. And if they don't, then they ought to resign their teaching positions and go work at Walmart, because that's what they're worth to do, if they're going to undermine Christ and His authority before His people.

It's that important, beloved. One day, we will literally stand before Christ when He returns. We will literally stand before Him and see Him face-to-face, 1 John 3.2 says, and we will be made like Him for we will see Him as He is.

That will literally happen. Right now, tonight, what we are, we're face-to-face with Christ, but it's in a different way. Right now, we're face-to-face with Christ in all of His authority and all that He said about Scripture. And the question is whether our thinking will be transformed to accept that, to base our hope and our belief and our confidence in the Word of God on Christ, or whether we'll cast ourselves on the wood, hay and stubble of lesser arguments. I know where I want to be, I know where I stand.

I trust you stand right there with me. Now, there are some who say, Jesus didn't really believe these things, or how do you get around this? Some people say, Jesus didn't believe didn't really believe these things. What they allege is no what Jesus did see no you so no Mr. Green we appreciate your enthusiasm and your earnestness we appreciate that but you're missing something really vital here.

Tsk tsk tsk you're missing something important here. See what you don't understand Mr. Green is that Jesus didn't really believe these things. He said them yes but he didn't really believe them because he knew better. What he did and see what he was doing was he was accommodating his teaching to the beliefs of his first century audience.

He knew that they weren't ready for the full truth the real truth about all of these matters. They weren't ready to know that that these historical accounts weren't really reliable and because Jesus knew that that's what they thought he tried to bring them along by by accommodating them you know kind of pretending like he was even he went along with them even though he didn't really embrace it. Now listen that's what that's what New Testament scholars today do. They pretend to believe things that they really don't.

Some of them not all of them but some of them pretend to do that. They pretend to be one thing in front of people like you but when they get alone with each other in their in their scholarship circles in their scholarship meetings they'll undermine the very things that they they they hold up before a so-called lay audience and they think they think because that's what they do that that must be what Jesus did and that's a ridiculous claim. That's foolish false on its face and someone ought to be thrown out to the curb as soon as they say it.

You know that that's not true. You know that Jesus was not accommodating himself to the beliefs of the first century. I alluded to it and when when I opened the when I opened this message as we read from Matthew chapter 5 Jesus made a direct confrontation against the religious authorities in Matthew chapter 5. He said woe to you scribes and Pharisees eight times in Matthew 23 and those were the religious leaders that everybody followed. Jesus wasn't afraid of what the audience thought. He didn't want to affirm them and mislead them. This is so blasphemous. The last thing that Christ who is the truth would do is let people continue in their false belief if in fact their beliefs were false. He didn't allow false teaching he confronted and condemned it. What kind of argument is that? This is what people say a tribute to Jesus that are used to lying themselves. No no as you as we've seen from his general teaching on Old Testament history on controversial historical matters Jesus insisted on the accuracy in his specific handling of the Old Testament text and beloved what you've got it you've got to remember this all comes together that's why I'm so glad you're here on a Tuesday night because all all of these messages that we're doing they're all linked together and if you miss some of them the links in the chain start to get broken in your mind and I I worry over that happening in for some all of these things are linked together remember what we said Jesus affirmed in a general matter the Scriptures cannot be broken what we're seeing now is that he worked that out in general history and controversial history he's perfectly consistent in the way that he handles it all and the point the point for building a Christian mind is this is that you and I our responsibility our duty before a holy God is to recognize what Christ did and taught receive it believe it affirm it accept it defend it like he did and to realize that we receive we receive the Old Testament on the authority of Christ now thirdly let's consider specific ethical examples specific ethical examples we've looked at general history controversial history and seen the way Jesus affirms the Old Testament I'm just going to cover these in 90 seconds here when we talk about ethical examples what we're saying is that Jesus enforced Old Testament morality on his hearers Jesus upheld the ethic of the Old Testament the commands of the Old Testament on his hearers just three examples again we could multiply these in Deuteronomy chapter 6 we see that we're supposed to love God with all of our heart soul strength and mind hero Israel the Lord is one the Lord is your God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul strength and mind go to Matthew 22 go to mark 12 you'll see Jesus repeating that and enforcing it in Leviticus 19 verse 18 we see an admin admonition to love your neighbor as yourself we see Jesus repeating that applying it to his first century hearers in Matthew 22 and again in mark 12 this time verse 31 the fifth commandment in Exodus chapter 20 verse 12 honor your father and mother expanded on in Exodus 21 17 that he who reviles his father mother shall be put to death you see Jesus quoting that affirming it applying it in Mark chapter 7 verses 9 to 13 it's not just a matter of Jesus affirming the historical accuracy of the Old Testament he's affirming the ethical accuracy of the Old Testament and saying the morality that you see laid out in the Old Testament it applies in continuity with my ministry and in the New Covenant ministry as well there are aspects of discontinuity we don't do animal sacrifices we don't have a literal temple anymore but that's because Jesus fulfilled those things he fulfilled the ceremonial law but these moral matters the of enduring moral law Jesus continues them and repeats them and forces them you know Matthew 5 21 to 48 and his and his explanation of the the inner aspect of the of the moral law it just goes on and on it just it just doesn't stop a fourthly finally this this fourth aspect let me state it this way get the point out the fourth sub point you can look at his own hours of testing his own hours of testing and this is this is really sweet it brings us into you know it brings us into a a kind of spiritual fellowship with Christ as we consider these things we realize what the Word of God meant to him in his humanity and and we get a we have a faint echo of that and what the Word of God means to us in our humanity as as we draw strength from the promises of God found in Scripture in our times of trials our times of tears our times of temptation our times of testing we turn to the Word of God for clarity for strength for direction because the Word of God is precious to us and nothing else is like it anywhere in the universe that's part of being a Christian is the uniqueness of Scripture to the believing heart and we look at this and we see Jesus in his own hours of testing his own times of testing look at how Jesus used the Old Testament look at Matthew chapter 4 I do want to just turn to these with you you know the story in Matthew chapter 4 Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil Satan was assaulting him with temptations and what did Jesus what was Jesus strength what was his response in those temptations it was the Old Testament Word of God verse 4 he answered it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God that's from Deuteronomy chapter 8 chapter 7 I'm sorry verse 7 you shall not put the Lord your God to the test it's written Satan be gone verse 10 you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him yeah and only shall you serve him you know and so we see Psalm 91 and Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 8 my point being that when he was tempted Jesus turned to the Old Testament it's a sign of the authority and the strength and the God inspired power that was found there well turn to Matthew 27 Matthew 27 beloved on the cross on the cross as he was crucified as he suffered in the flesh bearing our sins in his body on the cross as he hung exposed before men as the bystanders mocked him as the thieves on either side of him mocked him what was on his tongue the Old Testament look at verse 45 Matthew 27 now from the sixth hour there was darkness all over all the land until the ninth hour supernatural darkness representing the pouring out of the wrath of God upon Christ in that compressed window of eternity if I can put it that way about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lema sabachthani that is my God my God why have you forsaken me have you ever wondered where that came from it's from Psalm 22 verse 1 my God my God why have you forsaken me just after he as he was absorbing the wrath of God the Old Testament Scriptures are on his tongue of course they're authoritative of course they're the Word of God in his hour of temptation at the beginning of his public ministry he turns to the Word of God as the wrath of God is poured out upon him for our sake he turns to the Word of God and in the final moment of his earthly life turn to Luke chapter 23 Luke chapter 23 also verse 46 next flat next to last chapter of Matthew 27 verse 46 next to last chapter of Luke 23 46 Jesus calling out with a loud voice said father into your hands I commit my spirit and having said this he breathed his last into your hands I commit your spirit he's quoting from Psalm 31 verse 5 in our English Bibles beloved it's not understand understand that that that G this was not an abstract matter to Christ this authority of the Old Testament this was not this was not some academic question to him God's the purpose of God is bound up in the way that he handled the Old Testament his own life his own death was bound up in the way that he responded to the Old Testament and the way that he viewed it general history controversial history human ethics the life of Christ beloved I've shown you a sample from an entire biblical library here this evening to show you that Jesus clearly obviously affirmed the complete accuracy and authority of the Old Testament without question and when we ask the question how do we know the Bible is true you have a better understanding of why the answer to that question is Jesus Christ we look to him in his teaching his example his life his death and we see him consistently upholding the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures saying that they point to him in his life in his ministry his death there's no evading this why would we want to beloved we accept the Bible we know that the Bible is true on the highest authority in the universe our teacher and Lord has spoken repeatedly in various ways in different manners while he was here on earth and after words in his resurrection he took the scriptures that existed in his day as the trustworthy authoritative Word of God he quoted it he enforced it he used it in his own humanity that's how we know the Bible is true we look to our Lord we see not a preponderance of evidence we see not a probability case we see his statements in whole the general statements we see them worked out in detail and we're left with no other conclusion but to bow before the authority of Christ say Lord you are my teacher and you are my Lord you say the Old Testament is the authoritative Word of God I believe and I worship in response let's pray together we'll consider the New Testament next time Lord by your spirit you've brought us into the authority of your own word the authority of the Son of God and we're we're lost in wonder awe and praise father won't you please seal this these matters to the hearts of everyone that's here and everyone that will ever come under the sound of the voice of this message to forsake worldly thinking to turn from those who mislead to turn from those that would undermine the authority of Scripture diluted with other things to repent of our propensity to doubt you and by faith confident informed faith embrace the Lord Jesus Christ to follow him in his teaching to believe as he believed to act as he acted on these matters and father we ask you to build in us a Christian mind that we would not be children tossed to and here by the waves of changing doctrine but that we would be rooted and grounded in Christ in love for him love for you love for your word love for one another help us Oh God to that end however long it takes in Jesus name Amen that's Don Green founding pastor of truth community church in Cincinnati Ohio thank you so much friend for listening to the truth pulpit join us again next time as Don begins a new message as we continue teaching God's people God's Word on the truth pulpit