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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 12
19 August 2007
Jesus Christ and the Scriptures
(Message delivered by Rev Hien
Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, August 12, 2007)
Text:
Luke 24:25-27
Last week we have learnt how vital to know the Lord Jesus Christ and put our trust in Him personally. The more we know Him and His Word, the more we love Him, trust in Him, fear Him, honour Him, appreciate Him, obey Him and humbly submit ourselves to Him. It is God’s command that we should keep on growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In order to grow in His knowledge, we must be born again, have a desire to know Him, forget those things which are behind, keep on seeking Him and His Word daily, keep His Word with our humble submission, regard all things but loss and take up our cross and follow Him.
To know the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s Truth, we have to read and diligently study God’s Word, the Scriptures, with a humble, teachable, faithful and prayerful heart. This is the key condition as God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Understanding the Scriptures
The Bible text of Luke chapter 24 today tells about our risen Saviour appearing and walking and talking with two disciples on their way to Emmaus on the first day of the week, but they did not recognize Him. Our Lord has promised to be with us alway, all the way, even unto the end of the world (Matt 28:20), but we often do not recognize His presence in our lives!
When hearing their doubt about His resurrection despite the testimony of the women, our Lord rebuked them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (vv 25-26). The prophets had spoken in the Scriptures, and our Lord had talked with them several times about His death and resurrection (Matt 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7; et al), even many other people knew and remembered His words (Matt 27:64), not to mention His power “in deed and word before God and all the people” (v 19), but His disciples were still lacking in intelligence and sense to understand God’s Word and slow of heart to believe! This shows that without the revelation of God, human beings with their natural understanding are hopeless in darkness despite their great scholarship! The Bible confirms, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).
When I was still young in God’s truth, I usually wondered why many Catholic bishops and scholars who had learnt the Scriptures, even in Hebrew and Greek with Doctorate degrees, did not see God’s Truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, about salvation by grace through faith alone, about true worship in spirit and in truth without any images or idols, or human worship. Later I understood the reasons why they and many other scholars cannot see the truth. First, it is Satan,
“the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Cor 4:4). Due to their unbelief, their minds are blinded and cannot see the glorious truth from God’s Word. Next, because they do not receive God’s love and God’s truth, God gives them up to their own deceit, believing the lie while they assume that they believe the truth,
“because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie” (2 Thess 2:10-11). How serious and dangerous it is! Finally, it is due to their arrogant knowledge and scholarship that God hides His truth from them. If I want to hide some information from you, how can you know it? And if God wants to hide His truth from you and me, can you and I see and understand His truth? We will be absolutely hopeless! The Lord Jesus says,
“I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto
babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.” (Matt 11:25-26). Then, we should not be surprised to see many people even “Christian scholars” are against God’s Word and God’s truth. With their “scholarship” and “credentials”, they arrogantly criticize, question and cast doubt on God’s Word, confusing and shaking the sincere faith of many including me. After I was born again, I was thirsty for God’s Word and made use of time to read the Holy Scriptures, and grew in God’s Word. Then one day I read a “scholarly” book, saying that there were about 5,000 Greek
manuscripts, not two of which were the same. That kind of a teaching did shake my faith in God’s Word until by God’s grace I came to FEBC with sound doctrines and training, my faith in God’s Word has been restored. Dear friends, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17), and Satan is attacking God’s Word to shake our faith in God’s truth. Nowadays, we must be cautious to discern our Shepherd’s voice from strangers’ voice. Who is your and my Saviour? If our Lord Jesus Christ alone is our Saviour, then it is safe and wise for us to hear His voice and follow Him no matter what human “scholars” may say or claim.
The Bible says, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (v 27) and “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (v 32), and “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (v 45). Dear friends, if you and I do desire to understand God’s Word, we must humble ourselves, listen to God’s Word with faith and trembling, and pray to the Lord for enlightening and illumination every time we open the Holy Scriptures to read, “to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2) and “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:17-18).
Let us learn from our Lord Jesus Christ’s attitude toward God’s Word.
Jesus Believes in God’s Preserved Word
In the days of our Lord Jesus, there were no original manuscripts of the Old Testament in Hebrew (autographs) but only copies (apographs), but our Lord, the all-knowing God, neither doubted God’s Word, nor criticized, nor questioned God’s Word, nor saw any discrepancies like many modern “scholars” do nowadays. He did not doubt the global flood in Noah’s days, “until the flood came, and took them all away” (Matt 24:39) or Jonah in the
whale’s belly for three days (Matt 12:40), and so forth. Our Lord uses the perfect tense in passive, “It has been written and is still written” or “It stands written and is still in force” when He quoted the Scriptures to confirm that God’s Word is always living, powerful and unchangeable throughout the ages. He confirmed the perfect preservation of the Scriptures, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt 5:18). One jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and one tittle is a small extension like a small dash to a letter and it may totally change the meaning of a word. For example, in English the word “lame” is totally different from the word “tame” with a small tittle. God is unchangeable and unable
to make any mistake, so His Word is unchangeable without any mistakes. Dear friends, do you perfectly believe in God’s preserved Word just as our Lord Jesus does? Then, we can wholeheartedly believe in God’s Word preserved for us today. That is the Hebrew and Greek texts that underlie the King James Bible, which is the most faithful, trustworthy and correct translation in English. We can safely and wisely build our saving faith and saving knowledge on this perfect foundation no matter what others even “scholars” may say.
Jesus Knows God’s Word Thoroughly
Our Lord Jesus not only believes but also knows all the scriptures thoroughly, and expounded (explained clearly and exactly) God’s Word to His disciples “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself… And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (v 27, 44). The common Jewish division of the Hebrew OT is the Law, the Prophets and the Holy Writings. The Law includes the five books of Moses. The “Prophets” has two parts, the former prophets including Joshua, Judges, two books of
Samuel, and two books of Kings, and the latter prophets including the books from Isaiah to Malachi except the books of Daniel and Lamentations. The Holy Writings include Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel and two books of Chronicles. Then the first book of the Hebrew OT is Genesis and the last is the second Chronicles. Our Lord knows all these books well. When saying, “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel (Gen 4:8) unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias (2 Chro 24:20-22), whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matt 23:35), our Lord refers to the whole Hebrew OT, from Genesis to second Chronicles.
Our Lord expounded unto His disciples “in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” He must have quoted Genesis 3:15, which refers to Him as the seed of a woman and then the Lamb of God (Gen 3:21, 4:4, John 1:29; Rev 13:8), the seed of Abraham (Gen 12:3), the Great Prophet (Deut 18:15,19; Acts 3:22-23), the Priest and King (Ps 110:4; Heb 7:2), the Messiah (Isa 61:1-2; Luke 18:21), His birth through a virgin in Bethlehem (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23; Micah 5:2; Matt 2:1), His suffering, death and burial (Isa 53, Matt 26-27), His resurrection (Ps 16:10; Matt 28; Mark 16; Luke 24), and so forth, exactly as He said, “all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (v 44).
Dear friends, may the Lord help you and me study and know His Word more and more day by day. May He open our mind and understanding so that we may understand His Word and see the Lord Jesus Christ in all the scriptures.
Jesus Lives by God’s Word
When our Lord was hungry and tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). This shows how our Lord depends on and submits to His Father’s Word and will, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). Dear friends, it is not enough for you and me to believe
and know God’s Word. We must live by God’s Word with our full dependence and submission. It is safe and wise for us to live by God’s Word and depend on it no matter what others, even “scholars,” might say.
Jesus Effectively Uses God’s Word,
the Sword of the Holy Spirit
Our Lord Jesus perfectly believes, knows, lives by God’s Word and uses it effectively in His teaching, preaching and fighting against Satan and His enemies. Our Lord quoted God’s Word to defeat Satan and his temptations, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God… Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God… Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt 4:4, 7, 10). He reminded the hearers of Noah, Lot, and Lot’s wife to warn them to be prepared for His return (Matt 24:38-39; Luke 17:28-32). He told about David and his men eating the shewbread on the Sabbath to answer to those who accused his disciples of plucking the ears of corn to eat on the Sabbath (Matt 12:1-4). He quoted the saying of God, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” to refute against the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, and so forth.
Dear friends, if you and I do not believe, know, live by God’s Word and use it effectively, we surely shall be defeated before Satan and our enemies. The more we know God’s Word with faith, reference and humble submission, the more effectively we may use the Sword of the Holy Spirit because it is the Holy Spirit, who reminds us of His Word and help us choose the right verses at the right time, “For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say” (Luke 12:12).
Conclusion
Dear friends, our Lord Jesus Christ is our Saviour and good Shepherd. Following Him we shall never go astray or regret no matter what other “scholars” may say. To understand God’s Word, you and I must humble ourselves and pray to the Lord for His illumination when we read or study His Word. May the Lord help us be His good and faithful servant who believe, know, and live by God’s Word with full submission, and use it effectively as the Sword of the Holy Spirit for His glory alone. Amen.
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