Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Word of God P16 (03-15-21)
Synopsis
As you read through chapter eleven in the book of Hebrews, you will read about several Old Testament people and events that happened during their lifetime. We read about these men of faith, some that conquered kingdoms and others that were conquered for the cause of Christ, some were strong and did great exploits whereas others were sawed in two or wandered around in holes in the ground. But all of them were commended for their faith.
So you ask yourself, why would the writer of Hebrews think it important to write about these people and events? Certainly he believed they were real people and real events. Then you also have the apostles Peter and Paul also writing and referencing people and events, and sometimes the same people and the same events. Did they think they were real people and real events? What about their enemies? Did they think they were real people and real events? As you ponder over these things, you must conclude they were real people and real, and not fairy tales.
There were real events recorded in the Old Testament and substantiated in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Upon careful examination of the New Testament, it is observed that Christ as well as the writers of the New Testament cited or quoted from the Old Testament scriptures as a fact. There was no question in their minds in regard to the validity of the scriptures nor was the response of the enemies ever against its validity. “Thus says the Lord” and similar expressions are found in the Old Testament over 3000 times, so it is obvious that men of the Old Testament were speaking with God’s authority.
Not only that, Jesus Himself referenced people and events of the Old Testament, often retelling those events to provide an analogy for us today, to walk in the same manner of faith as He did and as those men of faith in the Old Testament did. And if Jesus claimed to be God, and is God, then He is the promised Messiah that all of Israel were to be looking for, that the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about, and were all fulfilled in Christ Jesus, then these scriptures are of divine origin. If Jesus is divine, and the divine does not lie, then there is nothing in the scriptures that is a fairy tale.
Even the Passover, in commemoration of the day the Jews escaped from slavery in Egypt, being led by Moses across the Red Sea, where the day before a lamb was sacrificed and blood was put on the doorposts so the death angel would pass over them. That passover event has such significant meaning and the spiritual meaning is that Jesus is mentioned in scripture as our Passover Lamb today. John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
When Jesus walked the earth after His resurrection for a period of time, He spoke to the two men on the road to Emmaus and explained the bible from the beginning to the end and explained how He fit in with prophecy. That also is what the writer of Hebrews is doing. So the far reaching effects of doubting a part of the bible become evident when we find we are compelled to discount all of it. You are not able to discount some of it and not discount all of it. Because how in the world are we going to be in a situation of determining what is true and what is not?
Christ claimed to be divine. That is either true or false. If it is true, then His own personhood guarantees the truth of all the rest of His teaching. A divine person cannot lie or commit error. Therefore, His view of the Old Testament is truth of the Old Testament scriptures. If His claim is false regarding the Old Testament scriptures, then there is no compelling reason to believe anything else He ever said, including our salvation. If on the other hand, we accept Christ’ claims, therefore we commit ourselves to believe all that He taught based upon His authority. If we refuse to believe some part of what He taught we are in effect denying Him to be the divine Messiah on our own authority. That is based on our own authority, not on His. The question “What do you think of the Old Testament?” is resolved by the question “What do you think of Christ?”
Transcript
Turn to Hebrews 11:17
Hebrews 11:17
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[Genesis 21:12] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Why? Abraham believed He was going to raise Isaac from the dead. That was a promise. He will be the start of a whole new race of people by faith. That was Isaac, his son. If God told him he was going to have Isaac, and they had him, even though Sarah was barren and he was past age. Obviously there was going to be children more numerous than the stars. Then God is saying to sacrifice his son. If this is going to be and I am going to have more children contributed to me than sand on the shore and stars in the sky. If I am going to offer Isaac as a sacrifice then God is going to have to raise him from the dead. That is faith. That is what faith is all about.
Isaac was not going to be raised from the dead because Abraham had faith. Isaac was going to be raised one way or another, but it was the faith of Abraham to be able to make the offering. In other words, take the step. That is the step we take if God has promised something to us. Again, the main event was the offering of his son. Right at the last minute, which God seems to always come through at the last minute, God provided the ram. Thanks for your faith, but I am going to provide my own lamb. Of course, that was a picture of Christ Jesus for all of us. All of the sacrifices continued on though God was not pleased with them, but they were required. “Sacrifices I did not desire but mercy.” The sacrifices were given but that was not the final. The final was in the final sacrifice not made by what we do, but the sacrifice that God made by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man and becoming sin for us. God will provide the lamb.
Now in Hebrews, this is a lineup of people of faith.
Hebrews 11:20-26
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
Look at all the historical figures cited by New Testament writers under inspiration of God. These were not fictitious people. There were Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Joseph’s sons, the Israelites from Egypt, Moses, and his parents, Pharaoh’s daughter. These are historical events taking place recorded in the New Testament scripture.
Hebrews 11:27
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
You have to see someone invisible by faith. But he saw him even though God was invisible. The presence was so great that it says he saw him.
Hebrews 11:28-30
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
The Passover was an event that the angel said he was going to pass over anyone who sheds the blood on the lentil and the doorpost, the top, bottom and the sides. Incidentally, the early formation of a cross. Anyone who has that on their doorpost when the judgment comes and he sees the blood, he will pass over. Outside of that, the destroyer of the first born that was going to destroy all first born who were not under the blood.
Again, a picture of our salvation today. When you and I are covered with the blood of the Lamb, that the judgment passes over us. You will note that when that angel, the passover destroyer, came over, he did not look inside the house to see if they were nice people, sweet people, or mean people or if they were not people. He was not looking as to that type of thing in regard to the people. There was only one thing he was looking at, “Did they trust what was said and cover themselves with the blood?” That is the very thing that Jesus was talking about when he said the world’s sin is unbelief in me. The issue between God and man is, “What did you do with my Son?” There is none righteous, no not one. So it makes no difference if a real good person or a very bad person. It is totally irrelevant. None are righteous anyway. It makes no difference if trying to act righteous or acting like a devil. The issue is, “Did you come to the point of trusting the blood of Christ Jesus, and turning to Him by faith and therefore being passed over in judgment. There are a lot of people who could have been acting a certain way but the issue is when the crunch comes of life and judgment comes, the issue is “Have you been covered with the blood of the Lamb?” That was a beautiful picture, a foreshadowing, of that event that was going to take place by Christ Jesus.
As the New Testament writer inspired by the Holy Spirit of God recanting the stories that were in the Old Testament and again bringing them back into the New Testament as examples, once again, of where Christ fit into those whole teachings. Which you certainly did not know at the time of the Old Testament events or writing of the Old Testament because Christ had not been revealed yet. It is just like Christ meeting with the men on the road to Emmaus. What did He do? He explained the bible from the beginning to the end and explained how He fit in with prophecy. That is what the writer of Hebrews is doing. So he talked about Passover and how he ultimately He is our Passover today.
Hebrews 11:29
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
That is an interesting event. The skeptics get into this. A friend of mine talked about a college professor who discounted the word of God in regard to the Red Sea. He would say how ludicrous and stupid that is. “Come on. God did not part the Red Sea. There is a certain time of year where the Red Sea where it comes down to 6 inches of water. All Israelites have to do is walk over it. God did not part the Red Sea. They just walked through it in 6 inches of water.”
This student stands up, yelling and screaming. “That is the greatest thing I ever heard in my life. That is a greater miracle than the first one. All Pharaoh’s army drowned in six inches of water.” Always a skeptic who sounds so smart but when you look at it from God’s vantage point, you just take the other side, and say that is a better miracle than the first one.
Hebrews 11:30
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
Did that event happen? According to the writer of Hebrews, it did. According to Christ it did. So did that occur? Yes, it did.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 and Acts 7:36.
1 Corinthians 10:1-11
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea [Red Sea]. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”[Exodus 32:6] 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
It is talking about the fact that believing Christ, trusting in Christ. When we do not trust in Christ, we are going to have to trust in ourselves. When we trust in ourselves, we are going to find ourselves in places we should not be. When we find ourselves in places we should not be, right smack in the middle of Satan’s power. We will find repercussions that will occur to that. There are natural repercussions to our decision to walk in a way other than being guided by the truth of the word of God. Those are natural repercussions.
Acts 7:36
36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
Was the desert experience just some kind of a fairy tale or was it a fact? Jesus said it was a fact. The author of Hebrews said it was a fact. Paul said it was a fact. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, said it was a fact. These people knew it was a fact by the testimony of Christ Himself.
The writer of Hebrews presented all of these accounts of historical figures that lived in a certain time in history. If these people and events were not real, then you would have to dismiss the entire book of Hebrews and put it in the category of a fairy tale. The most unbelievable teaching in the New Testament, as it related to unbelievable meaning, the most descriptive of the finality of the cross is the book of Hebrews, equating that whole book of superiority of Christ over Moses, over Joshua, over the angels and over that of Abraham, and over that of the priests, and becoming a new priest, and therefore, a priest over a brand new covenant in which we stand today.
Hebrews 10:17
17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
How could I rejoice that in today I am enmeshed in a new covenant whereby it says my sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more, and where these are forgiven there are no more sacrifices for sins. A detailed explanation of how Christ’ sacrifice was final and for all and no more sacrifices left. Unbelievable instructions to man to get rid of all other areas of forgiveness where Christ Jesus is it period? How could I rejoice in that if I thought the rest of the book was merely a book of fairy tales? The answer to that is you cannot.
Inasmuch as the same people and events are recorded by the physician Luke in the book of Acts and in the gospel that bears his name, you will also have to reject those two books if any errors are found. The same is true of the apostle Paul. Since his letter to the Corinthians contains several references to Old Testament events, it will have to be discounted also if these accounts that he is talking about are not true. If myth or error were found in one of his writings, it would necessarily invalidate the rest of his writings. How in the world would you know the difference? So the far reaching effects of doubting a part of the bible become evident when we find we are compelled to discount all of it. You are not able to discount some of it and not discount all of it. Because how in the world are we going to be in a situation of determining what is true and what is not?
There are other historical characters that are listed in verse 32 of Hebrews.
Hebrews 11:32
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets
All of those people were true. There is a Gideon. There is a Samson. Is the story of Samson a fairy tale that this man was strong? People try to say, “Oh, come on. That is not true.” Yes it is. It is true if Jesus is God. It is true if the Holy Spirit of God, who brought people along to write the New Testament, which we have today, testifies that the Old Testament is true and valid. They are true events and true people.
Then there are accomplishments of the faith of these people.
Hebrews 11:33-34
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Then you have the faith movement that says if you just have enough faith in God, you will conquer kingdoms, and conquer this, and administer justice and again what God has promised, everything God promised for Israel, is for us. We will conquer animals that will eat us. But we forget to keep on reading.
Hebrews 11:35-38
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
All of them were commended for their faith.
Hebrews 11:39-40
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
That is a far cry from people today in the faith movement who say that faith is for financial gains. You are going to rule kingdoms. You are going to do great. But it says some people that walk by faith in God, because God told them they were going to do that, that was a part of their life. But other people walked in the same faith in the same God, and were sawed in two, lived destitute, persecuted and mistreated, which annihilates the prosperity gospel, which needs to be annihilated anyways, for it is a false gospel.
1 Timothy 6:3-5
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Anyone who teaches that godliness is a means of financial gain is a man of perverted mind. The writer of Hebrews presented these as actual facts. They did not share things as showy.
Hebrews 12:1
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
He was quoting out of Hebrews in regard to events that took place in the Old Testament. Again the meaning of that, here is a New Testament writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, quoting from the Old Testament in regard to equating the Old Testament with Christ being the fulfillment of all of those things. Therefore, in Hebrews 12:1, therefore let us do this, throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Remember, we are not talking about the nasty nine and the dirty dozen or the terrible twelve, those types of sins, but the sin of unbelief.
John 16:9 (TLB)
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me
Hebrews 12:1
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
In this age, there are a lot of things put out before us in the Christian community that hinders us from placing our dependency on the validity of the word of God. It is a sin that so easily entangles us because it appeals to the logic of the flesh instead of the wisdom of God. Something appealing to the logic of the flesh instead of wisdom of God will entangle us very easily and will hinder us in our growth and our dependence upon Christ Jesus. So let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. You enter by faith, so complete it by faith. You did not receive Him through the wisdom of the world.
1 Corinthians 1:19-21
19 For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[Isaiah 29:14]
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
You received Him through the wisdom of God. Now walk in Him the same way. You accepted Him by faith, walk in Him by faith.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
3 John 1:3
3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.
That is the race marked out for you and me. It is a race we are in today. It began on the day you were born again of the Spirit of God. It will end the day you will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But all of us are in a race and there is a finish line.
Hebrews 12:2
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If the people we have talked about and the events we talked about were not real, would this verse make any sense at all? Because we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, it would not make any sense at all. There were real events recorded in the Old Testament and substantiated in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Upon careful examination of the New Testament, it is observed that Christ as well as the writers of the New Testament cited or quoted from the Old Testament scriptures as a fact. There was no question in their minds in regard to the validity of the scriptures nor was the response of the enemies ever against its validity. “Thus says the Lord” and similar expressions are found in the Old Testament over 3000 times, so it is obvious that men of the Old Testament were speaking with God’s authority.
2 Peter 1:21
For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Christ claimed to be divine. That is either true or false. If it is true, then His own personhood guarantees the truth of all the rest of His teaching. A divine person cannot lie or commit error. Therefore, His view of the Old Testament is truth of the Old Testament scriptures. If His claim is false regarding the Old Testament scriptures, then there is no compelling reason to believe anything else He ever said, including our salvation. If on the other hand, we accept Christ’ claims, therefore we commit ourselves to believe all that He taught based upon His authority. If we refuse to believe some part of what He taught we are in effect denying Him to be the divine Messiah on our own authority. That is based on our own authority, not on His. The question “What do you think of the Old Testament?” is resolved by the question “What do you think of Christ?”
There is a true story of a young woman who once picked up a certain book to read, but after a while laid it down, finding it too dull and difficult to read. Shortly afterward she met this young man she had become infatuated with and attached. I guess you could say she was in love with him. During the course of this courtship, she learned he was the author of this book she had laid down. After that she began to read the book a second time. This time she read it from cover to cover. What was the difference in the interest? Now she knew and loved the author. When we come to know and love Christ, His book, the bible comes alive and vital to us. God created man with a need for fellowship, interacting with others of like mind and interest. The word of God admonishes us to encourage one another and to bear one another’s burdens, and most of all to love one another.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
