Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Word of God P15 (03-10-21)
Synopsis
The purpose of this lesson is to enable you and me to realize that the book we hold in our hands, both old and new, is a book that was dictated out of the very heart of God Himself. As we read about what the prophets wrote down, realize that they were dictated to them by God. We read that from the prophet Jeremiah 30:1-2, what he testifies where He got the words from. These words we read in the scriptures are of divine origin. With so much testimony, the conclusion to me is evident, that the scriptures we hold in our hands truly is from God.
We also have the testimony of the New Testament that would refer back to Old Testament people and events. That testimony itself gives validity to the fact that the New Testament writers believed the Old Testament scriptures came from God. And even more so, Jesus Himself quoted from the Old Testament scriptures, giving an analogy for spiritual truth for us to grab a hold of today. For example, do not fail to enter the Sabbath rest. There is now a Sabbath rest for the people of God today, for Christ Jesus completed the work that all the Old Testament prophets testified of. All of them were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
So we now look at the book of Hebrews. We are presenting the fact the author of Hebrews led by the Holy Spirit of God is recording, taking out of the Old Testament, actual events and actual people. Hebrews 11 specifically mentions several people of the Old Testament that were commended by God for their faith.So these are not fictitious characters nor are they made up events. They are true characters and recorded exactly as it took place, as they too, the writer of Hebrews, had a deep conviction about the authenticity and the validity and the inerrancy of the word of God or else as the New Testament writer would not be pulling these passages and events into the New Testament in order to substantiate the truth about Jesus. The reason for the book of Hebrews was to lead people to Christ. To tell people it is Jesus and Him alone.
Transcript
We are in our bible study booklet, A Closer Look at the Word of God in chapter 4, The Validity of the Old Testament. This book is a testimony of the bible itself regarding the validity of the truth of the word of God we hold in our hands.
(Listen as Bob shares about building a foundation through what God has taught you out of the word of God. Let your confidence be on what the Spirit of God teaches you from the word of God. He can, teach, help and direct you as to what the bible says, but in the final analysis what is revealed to you has to be by your own relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, which has to be revealed by the Holy Spirit of God. You take the time to find the scriptures, read and rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the meaning. So let the bible teach you the validity of the word of God.)
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
I look at the New Testament’s testimony of the Old Testament. That is really what this lesson is about. How did the New Testament writers perceive the Old Testament? We just heard what Jesus had to say about the Old Testament and all of the stories in it, and that ought to be enough. Let us see what Jesus had to say through the New Testament writers in regard to the validity of the Old Testament.
Turn to Jeremiah 30:1-2.
Jeremiah 30:1-2
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.
So when we look at that, we ask where did the word that came to Jeremiah come from? From the Lord. What was Jeremiah to do with the words that came from the Lord? Write them down. So did Jeremiah write down his own words or are they the words of God? It is obvious. They wrote down what the Lord has spoken to them. Even though Jeremiah’s personality might be in the writing of the book, what he wrote came to him directly from the Lord. So can we trust what is written down from the prophets, from the prophet Jeremiah? All of scripture was written down from literal dictation from God Himself. So all of it is the word of God.
That again was dealing with the Old Testament scripture. So now let us look at some passages out of the book of Hebrews, which was a book that was geared and headed to the Jew. The audience was the Hebrew, who was a Christian or thinking about becoming one. It is focused toward that. In so doing, it was constantly pulling out the fact of Jesus from the teachings in the Old Testament. Certainly would have been ludicrous to have done that had not the author of Hebrews, which was being guided by God Himself, not believe that the Old Testament scriptures were true.
Once again, the purpose of this lesson is to enable you and me to realize that the book we hold in our hands, both old and new, is a book that was dictated out of the very heart of God Himself. Let us look at Hebrews, through some passages and see who it is directed to and who are the key figures involved and what is the main event that is talked about in these scriptures.
Hebrews 11:4-5
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[Genesis 5:24] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
It is interesting as you study about Enoch, a passage of scripture that is very meaningful to me, as it said that Enoch walked habitually with God. I thought to myself, if you were going to have a goal for yourself, would that not be your goal, for someone to say that a man walked habitually with God. Unfortunately we do not always do that, but it certainly is the desire of your heart. It makes a lot of sense. If you are going to walk on earth with any meaning at all the only way it is going to be accomplished is to learn to walk habitually with God, that is, a habitual trust in the word of God we hold in our hands.
We are presenting the fact the author of Hebrews led by the Holy Spirit of God is recording, taking out of the Old Testament, actual events and actual people. So these are not fictitious characters nor are they made up events. They are true characters and recorded exactly as it took place, as they too, the writer of Hebrews, had a deep conviction about the authenticity and the validity and the inerrancy of the word of God or else as the New Testament writer would not be pulling these passages and events into the New Testament in order to substantiate the truth about Jesus. The reason for the book of Hebrews was to lead people to Christ. To tell people it is Jesus and Him alone.
Hebrews 11:4
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did.
Cain and Abel are actual people. The main event is that by faith this sacrifice that Abel offered God, which was a sacrifice based on faith, what God told him to do, is still speaking today even though he is dead. It talked about Enoch, the key figure being Enoch, who it says was taken away. God took him away, and he was one who walked habitually with God.
Hebrews 11:11
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.
Abraham was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. Who did he consider faithful who had made the promise? God made the promise to him that he was going to have children, even though he was past age to bear children, and Sarah herself past age, in their nineties, and he was enabled. So God had to enable him to become a father. The reason that he was able to be enabled was because he believed the one who told him he was going to do it, who was faithful in regard to the promises that he made.
The enablement that takes place in our lives comes from our faith in the Enabler. When God says for you to do something, He also says He is the enabler to enable you to do that. So many times, it is like when God says to love one another. I say, “I can’t. I am not able.” But He says, “I know, but I am the Enabler.” Until we see that, we will try to love people in the energy of our flesh, which is disgusting and phony. I have to realize I cannot love people that way, with the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. “I am not able.” “I know but I am the Enabler, and I promised you that if I commanded you to love one another, then I promise you that is feasible.” It is like saying to a branch to produce fruit. Branch says, “I am not able to produce fruit. But the Enabler, who is the life of the vine, is able to produce fruit.” So if you trust the Enabler and believe He is the Enabler and make yourself available to the Enabler, you will be able to bear fruit.
So everything God ever commanded us to do from the spiritual vantage point is impossible. We are not able, but we know that is our desire. So our response is “I am not able. But the Enabler is.” So when you put your faith in the Enabler, you will be able to accomplish what I had promised you. Marvelous promise to realize that we can’t but He can and because He can and I can’t, I can experience what I can’t because He can.
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.
