His View of the Scripture

Introduction

Well, it is a joy to be with you. I said that uh at the nine o’clock period, and um I haven’t changed my mind since then. Uh sure did enjoy uh the Bible class period taught by Greg. And as has been mentioned, uh Greg uh studied with us and worked with us and with the church at Hansville, and we came to love him and appreciate him, and I I did not try to make it easy for him. I assigned him uh uh quite a workload, and whatever I asked him to do, he did that and did it well. And all I hear about his work is good. I I rejoice in that. That gives me such great joy. And so um, as I say, on several levels, I’m just glad to be with you.

Um several of you I’ve known for some time, many of you I don’t, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to get to know you better in the course of the week. That’s one thing gospel meetings uh do is to afford those kinds of opportunities for other interaction. But we’re here to glorify God, and we cannot glorify God without knowing his son, Jesus Christ. Paul was ex uh expressing his concern to the Corinthians. He said, I’m afraid if somebody comes to you and he preaches another Jesus, another gospel, another Holy Spirit. You just put up with that. You’d bear with it, you’d accept that. And you wonder how what what is this matter of preaching another Jesus? And when we’re preaching Jesus in a different way than what the Bible does, that’s another Jesus.

And there’s just a world of people that say they believe in Jesus, but Paul would say, no, that’s another Jesus. The only way we can come to know Jesus is through his word. And in particular, through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but really the whole of Scripture is about Him. If we would see Jesus, we must see Him in the Old Testament because it’s all looking forward to Him. And we not only see what He did, but what He continues to do in the book of Acts and all the way through Revelation. So it’s all about Him. But we’re especially going to be looking at the Gospels in this series. This morning, I want us in particular to look at one outstanding trait of Jesus. I want to preface that, though, by looking at Luke chapter 6 and verse 40.

A text we mentioned this morning earlier. The disciple is not above his master. But everyone that is perfect shall be as his master. Now that’s the that’s the King James Version, and I mentioned that. But when you see that word perfect, the Lord is not talking about being sinless because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We’re not excusing that, but I’m saying the word is the concept of training. The New King James, some of you use that, tell us that a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. That’s the idea of training, of learning. That’s what a disciple does. And uh comparing again the New American Standard, as we did earlier, a pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher.

So Jesus is the teacher. We are his pupils. And it raised the question this morning: how long does that last? Is that like going through your high school and you get your diploma and that’s it for high school, or you finish a terminal degree and that’s it, you don’t go anymore? And as we said, no, that’s that’s the rest of our lives. And it’s so important that we have that way of looking at things that we see ourselves, I’m a student, I’m a disciple, I’m a pupil. And the Lord is the teacher, and I’m coming to him and I’m saying, speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. And my purpose in life is to know him and be more like him, be identified with him. As Paul would say, Christ in you, our hope of glory.

There’s so many traits of Jesus that we could consider, but the one I want to look at this morning at this time period is one of the most important things we could consider. And that is, I want to talk, I want to show from the scriptures how Jesus looked at the Word of God. And just making the point that when we see how Jesus viewed the scriptures, that that is the way that we must view the scriptures because we’re disciples. We’re to be like the master, we’re to be like him. Jesus in John chapter 10 and verse 35. Do I need to do something with this? Do I have it too high? Okay. I can do that. Is that better? Okay. Now that I have your attention.

A short statement in John 10, verse 35. Jesus made the point. Now, again, there’s always a context to scripture. And it’s in the context of his claiming to be one with the Father. But Jesus said the scripture cannot be broken. God’s word is always right. Whatever it says, whatever subject it addresses, the scriptures are right. The scripture cannot be broken. The kind of regard that Jesus had for the scripture is seen in passages like in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 18, when Jesus is saying, think not that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. You see, because Jesus in this Sermon on the Mount in particular would say so many things that were different.

You have heard it was said, but I say to you, but it’s not a contrast in many cases with what the law said and what Jesus says in the New Testament, but what they had heard, what they had been taught. And because what Jesus was saying was so different than what they’d been taught, many would say, well, he’s just setting aside the law. He’s just destroying the law and the prophets. He said, No. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. And then he made this point. Till heaven and earth pass away, which is a figure of speech denoting the certainty of something. One jot or one tittle will by no means pass away from the law till all is fulfilled. The jot is the yod, and that’s the smallest character in the Hebrew alphabet.

The tittle, this is a tiny projection point that is used to distinguish one letter from another. Some letters in the Hebrew look very similar. Um the Dalit, the consonant similar to our D, looks just almost like the Rish, which is the consonant like our letter R. How do you tell the difference? Well, it’s just a tiniest projection point at the top of the line for the Dalit, just a tiny projection point, whereas the race is rounded. That’s all. Several letters like that. The gimel and the noon, the G sound and the N sound, just a little mark at the bottom of the gimel to the right there, just a tiny projection point. And Jesus is arguing from the lesser to the greater. He has not just regard for the law and the prophets, not only does he regard them generally in a high way, in high esteem, but the smallest letter.

The smallest diacritical markings used to distinguish one letter from another. Not one yod, one tittle will pass away till all be fulfilled. And Jesus talked about the one that kept the commandments and taught others to do so. He’s great in the kingdom, but the one that broke them and taught others to do so. He’s the least in the kingdom. So that’s the kind of regard that Jesus had. The scriptures as a whole, but it’s every word, every syllable, every letter. Do you have that kind of regard for the scripture? But there’s a passage in particular that I want us to spend the bulk of our time giving some attention to. And that’s in Matthew chapter 22. And leading into the reading of this passage, this is this is in the final week of the Lord’s ministry.

And to be specific, this would be Tuesday before Jesus is crucified on Friday. That’s how close we are, right down to the wire. One of the amazing things about Jesus is that, I mean, right up to that point, right to the end, he’s still what’s he doing? Well, he’s teaching in the temple area, the temple complex. He’s giving even his enemies yet one more opportunity to hear truth, another opportunity for repentance. And yet what we see is this is a very controversial time. Questions are raised. What about tribute money? Shall we give or shall we not give? And Jesus answered that. And the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, they they formulated a question about the woman that was married to seven brothers one at a time, in keeping with the leveret law of marriage for the purpose that a man’s name would not be blotted out in Israel.

But they thought by saying, you know, here’s somebody. She’s married one at a time, and each one died, but married to these seven men. Now in the resurrection, who shall they be? For they all had her. And so they they felt they were it’s reducing the resurrection to absurdity by the nature of this argument. Jesus says, You don’t know the scriptures. He says, You greatly err. You don’t know the scriptures nor the power of God. And in the resurrection, he said that they shall neither marry nor are given in marriage. So their whole presupposition is wrong. But then he said, as concerning the resurrection of the dead, that they are raised. Here’s our passage. Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

1. Spoken by God: The Inspiration of Scripture

Matthew 22 and verse 31. Jesus went on to say, He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But I want to, as I say, give some attention to this passage and what we can learn as far as how Jesus looks at the scripture. Notice in the first place, Jesus said, Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God? Now, Moses wrote Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was written by Moses, but it was spoken by God. And that’s the view that we must have of Scripture. There were about 40 different men that were used by God in writing the 66 books of the Bible. Men wrote it, but God spoke it. It’s spoken by God.

Jesus says, Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God? And so he is affirming the inspiration of Scripture, and biblical inspiration is not just when somebody gets, you know, the word’s used in a lot of ways. That’s an inspiring sunset, or you know, this thought gave someone some inspiration to write a poem or something. Literally it’s talking about what comes out of the mouth of God. Jesus said in Matthew 4 and verse 4, man shall not live by word by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16, all scripture is given by God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

That the man of God may be complete, completely furnished unto every good work. But that word inspired is literally saying God breathed. And the idea of breathing there is as we breathe out, as we articulate, as we breathe out, as we speak, it literally comes from God. There’s a text also when it was necessary in Acts chapter 1 to select one to take the place of Judas. The wording, the wording in Acts chapter 1 and verse 16, the Apostle Peter is speaking, and he said, Men and brethren, this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in his ministry.

Now he goes on to say, to quote in verse 20 of Acts 1, it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live in it, and let another take his office. And so Peter, before he quotes that, says, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before, that is, in Old Testament times, by the mouth of David, concerning Judas. So it’s the mouth of David that wrote the song, but the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David. Now, if you have any other view about Scripture, other than what is presented in Matthew 4 and verse 4 and these related passages, you don’t have the view that Jesus did. He believed that the scriptures were the very words that proceeded from the mouth of God.

2. I Am Their God: The Accuracy of Scripture

The Holy Spirit searched the mind of God and revealed these things to the men who would write them down so that they are in permanent form that we can read and understand the mind of God. Jesus believed that the scriptures were inspired of God. Let me suggest to you something else. Jesus said, Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And the point being that these men had been dead for years. Now, Exodus 3, the burning bush. In the book of Genesis, Abraham had died and was buried in the cave of the tomb of Machpelah. Isaac had died, and was buried by his sons, Jacob and Esau.

As the book of Genesis closes, Jacob died. And a lot of time went by till there arose another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph. And the affliction that is there. A lot of time went by until Moses is called to take God’s people out of Egyptian bondage onto the promised land. These men had been dead, been dead for centuries. God said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What Jesus is doing here is making an argument on the very tense of the verb. Jesus believed in the accuracy of Scripture, that the meaning cannot be, I was their God, because, well, yeah, that wouldn’t prove that they were still living. And he’s not even saying right here, I will be their God, but he says, I am their God.

3. Real People: The Historicity of Scripture

At this present time, they are now living. I am their God now. So Jesus believed that you could make an argument on linguistics, that you could take a word and make a valid argument on something as important as the doctrine of the resurrection, based upon your correct understanding of a single word in Scripture. I am their God. Well, let me suggest to you in the third place. That when Jesus says, Have you not read that God said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, Jesus believed those were real people. He is affirming the historicity of Scripture. Now, I don’t know, you know, everyone’s background here in terms of what your level of understanding would be about the scholarly world as it is called.

But when I say the scholarly world, I’m talking about those that are recognized today and in past times as well, uh as being experts that will be used to write books, and uh if if someone’s doing a documentary, uh the uh Discoveries Channel or whatever, National Geographic, anything like that, men that will be called upon, you know, to for their expertise, but but and a lot of them are archaeologists, a lot of them, as I say, are authors, they’re they’re they’re guest speakers at universities, but they do not believe that Abraham was a real person, that Isaac was really someone, that the things you read about in the Bible, that that really happened, and likewise of Jacob, that that all of this in the in the time of the patriarchs, that years later, in fact, a lot of these experts will tell us that in the days of the exile, that that there was a need to develop solidarity among the Jewish people.

And so to give them a sense of unity and roots that they go back from the captivity and write the history. They do that to give them a sense of belonging. And so these characters were just invented for that purpose. And instead of that just being some weird, you know, the wow, you know, who who would who would believe that kind of thing, some exceptional uh person saying that, as I say, that kind of view is widely held. So that people that really believe what the Bible says in Genesis about the patriarchs, we’re really in the minority, and I don’t just mean in the world, but I mean among those that would say they’re friends of the Bible, that believe in the Bible. Now, we’re followers of Jesus.

We’re disciples of him. And whatever he taught, we must teach. Whatever he believed, we must believe. And you see, Jesus believed that these were real persons, and what the Bible says about them is true. And it’s not just that. I want to take just a moment, a few moments, to illustrate how that there is a pattern here that we can see. For example, when there is a question that is raised in Matthew chapter 19, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? In answering a very important question about marriage and divorce, Jesus said, Have you not read that he that made them in the beginning, made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.

What therefore God is joined together, let not man put asunder. So what does Jesus do to answer a question like that of such magnitude? He goes to Genesis chapters 1 and 2. In particular, chapter 2 is where he’s quoting from. But the concept of the creation of man, that’s recorded in chapter 1, and the creation of Eve, and what is here said about their the two becoming one flesh, all that’s in Genesis chapter 2. Now you see, Jesus believed in the Genesis account of creation. And Jesus believed what you can read in chapter 1 and 2 about the creation of all things and the creation in particular of Adam and Eve. Now see, here’s where a lot of people don’t see the uh the connection. And you have a uh a significant number of people that say, Well, I believe in Jesus, but I don’t believe the Genesis account of creation.

I Jesus is my personal Savior. But but I I really view Genesis the first three chapters as kind of a myth, you know, because there’s a lot of creation myths out there, and Genesis is just one of those. A lot of people are like that. But you can’t do that. If Jesus, if we can show from the scripture, Jesus believed in the Genesis account of creation, you may have questions about it. There may be things you don’t understand, but you know what you have to do? You have to say, me too. That’s what I believe. What he said. That’s what I believe. And if you don’t say that, then don’t claim to be a disciple, because a disciple is one who is taught by the teacher, and his whole goal is to become as the teacher.

Genesis chapter 4. Jesus in Luke chapter 11, verse 51, referred to the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah. He’s talking about all the blood of righteous people that that generation in his day that would reject the Christ, that they’re like those that had persecuted the prophets and shed the blood of righteous people, but he specifies, in fact, his beginning point is the blood of righteous Abel, who was killed by Cain. Again, we read about that in Genesis 4. Jesus believed that. And reference is made uh he’s talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew chapter 24. But he said it’s going to be just like it was in the days of the flood. People were eating, drinking, giving in marriage until the day that the flood came.

Noah entered into the ark and the flood came. But he specifies Noah, he specifies the flood and the destruction that came, and people not paying attention to what Noah said and what God had said. Jesus believed in everything you read about pertaining to the flood. And if we’re his disciples, we accept that, that there was a global flood that destroyed all flesh, in whose nostrils was the breath of life, except for eight souls. And if you don’t believe that, then you’re not a disciple of Christ because we can show that’s what he believed. That’s what that’s what he taught. And another thing, you read about in the book of Genesis, chapter 19, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Jesus made reference to that. And in particular, he said, Remember Lot’s wife.

Here you are reading in Genesis chapter 19, and the text tells us that she looked back and she’s turned into a pillar of salt. And here you wonder, well, that did that happen or not? If you if you think like that, then you come to Luke chapter 17, and Jesus is talking about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and God raining down fire and brimstone, and he says, You remember what happened to Lot’s wife? And so when he’s talking about again the coming destruction of Jerusalem, you’re out in the field. Don’t try to run back into the house. You’re on the housetop, don’t run back in and try to get something out. You just flee when you see those armies coming. Remember Lot’s wife. Remember what happened to her.

So Jesus used that in his teaching. He believed in that. And as we have have seen already, and in Matthew’s account and in Mark chapter 12, he talks about the place in the burn about the burning bush where God appeared to Moses. And in that desert of Sinai, when you have to look for places where you can pasture your sheep, there was a bush that caught on fire that day. But it wasn’t an ordinary fire, and Moses recognized that when it didn’t go out, and he approached it, and from that, the voice that spoke and said, Moses, take your shoes off. You’re on holy ground. And the Malach Yafi, the angel, the messenger of the Lord, turns out as you continue to read that that there’s interchangeable use, so that this is the Lord speaking to Moses.

This is a theophany, a divine appearance there. But what you read about in Exodus chapter 3 of God’s appearance to Moses, Jesus accepted every word of that. And I do too, because I’m a disciple of Jesus. And when you come to the matter of manna, beginning in Exodus chapter 16, mana started and it would continue for 40 years. And Jesus referred to the manna that your fathers ate in the wilderness, and he was able to make a point from that. He said, Now they ate that and they died. But I’m the bread of life that comes down from heaven, and if you eat this bread, you’ll never die. But you see, again, Jesus, as he makes those parallels, is showing, yes, he believed in that. And it’s amazing to me.

I’ll, again, you know, you do some reading, and people say, Well, in the desert there, see, there’s this shrub, there’s this plant of some kind, and this substance exudes from it, and so they’re, you know, that’s probably what that was. Well, that’s a strange thing that it did that um Sunday through Friday, but it for it didn’t do it on Saturday. But I guess on Friday it produces twice as much. And it’s also a strange thing that as soon as Israel crossed the Jordan under Joshua’s leadership, got to the other side and began to eat the produce of the land as the 40 year period was over, that the manna stopped. And so you try to come up with naturalistic explanations for that and kind of explain the way the text, and you create a whole lot more problems than you would have if you just went to the Word of God in faith and said, Now, what does Jesus say about that?

Jesus believed that. You know, when it comes to the book of Jonah, the prophet, you read about his being swallowed by that great fish that God prepared. Does that stretch our imagination a little bit? I mean, would that be possible for something like that to happen? Did Jesus believe that? Yes, he did. Do you believe that? Do you believe that in the days of Jonah that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and in the belly of that great fish for three days, and then he was spit out, and then he made his way to do what God said earlier to go to Nineveh and preach. Do you believe that? My answer is I believe every word of it, every word of it. Because Jesus did.

4. Spoken to You: The Perpetual Binding Force

And it wouldn’t make any sense for me to say, I’m a disciple of Jesus, and then try to explain away somehow what is said in the book of Jonah when Jesus said he believed that. But you see the point that from Genesis all the way through, as Jesus continues to refer like that to Old Testament instances, he gives his stamp of approval. He shows the validity, he believes in it, he establishes the historical accuracy of all of this, that it is fact, it’s not fiction, it’s not legend. Jesus believed it. And I do too, because I believe in Jesus. Let me suggest to you something else as we probe that passage further. See, what we have in this verse is a rich vein of ore, and we’re mining it.

The text says, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God? What Jesus is hereby affirming is the perpetual binding force of the Scripture. It was spoken, he said, to you. Now, I don’t know if you’re like I am. I suppose many of you are. But the way I would have looked at this in the past, I would have thought, you know, people in the days of Jesus. That’s pretty close to the time of Moses. That’s not too far. You know, if you had lived in the time of Jesus, the events about Moses, that would have happened pretty, you know, pretty recently. Because we read so much about Moses and the Gospels and their disciples of Moses, so all this must be very fresh.

But the truth of the matter is that about 1,500 years had passed since Exodus chapter 3, when our Lord in the first century was engaged in his ministry. About 1,500 years have passed. So a thousand years have passed. Then 500 more had passed. 1,500 years have passed since this event in Exodus 3 happened since Moses wrote that. And Jesus says it was spoken by God to you. The passing of time did not lessen the force of God’s word. The passing of time did not lessen the validity of God’s word. It was a perpetual binding force and validity. It was spoken years ago, but it was spoken to you. And really, once you establish that and have a feel for the chronology that’s involved there, we’re not that different today.

I mean, how long has passed between us and looking back to the time of Christ? We’d round it off and say about 2,000 years. Well, what’s the difference in 2,000 years and 1,500 years? If somebody says 500, well, I knew that. I knew that. But I’m saying as far as the principle is concerned. I mean, between them and Jesus, 1,500 years have passed, between Jesus and us, another 500, 2,000 years, we’re in kind of the same situation. And don’t you know that if we view the scriptures as Jesus did, and we take up the pages of the New Testament, we see that God is speaking to you and to me today just as much as he was in the first century. Because it wasn’t written just with the first century in mind, but the 21st century in mind.

It is a perpetual binding validity. See, a lot of people miss that point. They’ll say, well, that would be well and good for people in the first century. But my look at how times have changed. And so, you know, we need something different. Well, times have changed, but our needs have not changed. And the word of God has not changed. And Jesus would still say and still says, it was spoken by God to you. And so if we’re reading in 1 Thessalonians like we were in class this morning, yes, it was written to the Thessalonians. Yes, it was written to them in the first century. But that’s spoken by God through Paul to you and to me, with just as much force and application as it was to the first ones who received it.

5. Have You Not Read: The Clarity of Scripture

Let me suggest to you one of the thing on this particular passage. Have you not read that which was spoken by God to you? Why would Jesus raise a question like that? Have you not read the scripture? And Jesus would do that a lot in terms of what do the scriptures say? How do you read? Someone asked him a question, he’d say, Well, what’s your understanding of Scripture? What do you read in the Bible? Have you not read? And Jesus said that a lot. But why would he do that? Why would he say that here in this passage when they’re misunderstanding something as basic as the resurrection, he says, Have you not read this? You see, what you have to have going for you for that to make any sense is a book that has sufficient clarity and understandability that it’s proper to say, have you not read it?

If you had read it, you could have understood. Now, Jesus is not saying everything in the Old Testament, you just read it and you’ll fully understand its total significance. He’s not saying that. Because we know a lot of things were kept hidden from the standpoint of the full realization of what the prophets were writing about would not be understood until Jesus came and the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 inspired the apostles. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t understand anything. And Jesus’ argument here is something as basic as, is there life after death, that there’s a resurrection. Have you not read Exodus 3? The scriptures are intended to be read. They’re intended to be understood. If you had read this with the understanding, you would not be denying the resurrection of the dead.

6. A Logical and an Illogical Use of Scripture

But let me close out by saying this. When Jesus raised the point here in this passage, have you not read this text in Exodus 3? Jesus is recognizing that there can be a logical and an illogical use of Scripture. For example, their passage that they quoted was Deuteronomy chapter 25. And Deuteronomy 25 certainly is teaching truth. And in that, again, in the dispensation in which the tribes had been in Deuteronomy 25 were about to receive their inheritance. The idea was that a man’s name would not be blotted out in Israel, so provisions were made that if a brother dies, a brother would marry the widow, and if he died childless, and so this is, for example, in the book of Ruth, why it is that Ruth ends up marrying Boaz because he was next of kin.

So that had a place and it was pertained to inheritance laws. And that child to be born would carry on the name of the deceased, not the name of the biological father. So it had a place, it had a purpose, but to try to use that somehow to deny the resurrection, as they were doing, is twisting the scriptures. You might say, well, they quoted the scripture. Well, they quoted the scripture, but they misused the scripture. And Jesus recognized that. On the other hand, Jesus is showing how to make a logical conclusion that does follow out of the scripture when he says, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Jesus is making use of what might be termed a necessary inference. Now, a lot of times today people say, well, you know, that doesn’t prove anything.

You just, you know, all we can go on is if there’s a direct command. You can’t establish anything by apostolic example or necessary inference. Well, Jesus did that. And Jesus used necessary inference because Exodus 3 is not saying there is a resurrection. But Jesus is taking that information and not just drawing a conclusion, but a necessary conclusion. That these men, though they were dead, were still alive. Have you heard the quotation from C.S. Lewis, who said, You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body. We look at it like, you know, well, you know, we’ve got a soul too. As if we’re giving the body emphasis. That’s not right. We are a soul. Right now we have a body. The time will come that this earthly tent will be changed.

Conclusion

But we are a soul. And that which was real, the real Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were still very much living. And God was just as much their God as when they walked in the land of Israel. They were disembodied spirits awaiting the resurrection. But Jesus is making proper use of Exodus chapter 3 to establish that point. So, in closing, Jesus affirmed the Bible’s inspiration, its accuracy, its historicity, its perpetual binding force, and its clarity. Now we’ve shown that’s Jesus’ view of Scripture. Luke chapter 6 and verse 40. A disciple is not above his teacher. But everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. One of the most important things that we can do is to have the right view of Scripture. If you don’t, it’s going to have all kinds of ramifications.

This is the way Jesus viewed the scripture, and that’s the way we must view the scripture. I wonder this morning if there are among us some that have not yet become servants of the Lord, disciples of His. Surely in an audience such as this, there are some that need to obey the gospel. And I want to encourage you this morning to make the decision to follow Jesus all the way. And that begins, though, with your obedience to the gospel, repenting of your sins, and confessing your faith in Christ, being baptized for the remission of sins. And then, as you begin that new life in Christ, to become more like Jesus and be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. There may be someone who’s made that commitment, but straight away, and you need to come back to the Lord, therefore, and be restored, and we’ll be happy to pray with you and for you.

So, if in any way you’re subject to the Lord’s invitation, please make your way to the front as we stand and sing. Jesus comes.