We're reading tonight from Matthew 5, verse 17, the second in the series of messages on the subject of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The title of the message for our consideration tonight is The Lordship of Christ and His View of the Scriptures, The Lordship of Christ and the Bible. Matthew 5, verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 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." The appearance of Jesus Christ into the Jewish community in Palestine was quite revolutionary, and from the onset of his earthly ministry, which began with the baptism of John in the River Jordan, he clashed with the religious leaders of his day. The religious leaders of his day within Judaism were divided into primarily three camps. They were the Pharisees, who were the religious conservatives of the day. They believed the Old Testament scriptures. True, they distorted them to such a degree that they made them of none effect, because they taught so many other commandments that they covered up the will of God. The second group of the religious leaders were known as the Sadducees, and they were the liberals of the day. They did not believe in the supernatural, and hence they didn't believe in angels or life after death, and yet they were a very prominent sect within Judaism. Then there was a third group known as the Essenes, and this group were those which represented what we might call today a Zionistic approach to Judaism. That is, they believed that through military means the Messiah would make his appearance and would overthrow the enemies of Israel that were ruling, such as Rome, and establish his kingdom. And this was the group which was always in conflict with the Romans or whatever government that was in power. But all of these combined against Jesus and said that he was an insurrectionist which came with the primary function, and that was to destroy the will of God as given through Moses. And so at the beginning of his statement here in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord says, I don't want you to think that I have come to destroy the law. I have not come to do that. I haven't come to undermine any of the teaching in the law or the prophets. but I'm come not to destroy, but to fulfill." And he said, I will bring about that fulfillment, and heaven and earth may pass away, but the requirements of God in his moral law shall never pass away until I have fulfilled all of them. Now, in the first message this morning, we define lordship as the ability or the power to rule over the lives of others. It's the right to use one's own power as their own wisdom sees best. And it's the ability to control all the events of life so as to fulfill one's own good pleasure. If you recall in the morning message, we illustrated it in the life of Pilate. He very quickly let Jesus know that he was in control of Jesus' life, that he had the power to exercise the option of either releasing him or crucifying him. But Jesus informed Pilate that, no, there is someone with more authority than you. he shall determine whether or not you shall release me or not. And so the Lord is the one who sits on the throne in power with the right to exercise options. And men today think that they are lords, that they have the options, and God has to respond to the options of men. But it's the very opposite. We as creatures may think that we are doing what is contrary to God, and that we're going to put God in a box, but God can either opt to let us go on in our foolish way, or he can intervene and change our hearts to enable us to love and desire him. Now, if Jesus is the Lord, whom he claimed to be, then what kind of an attitude did he have toward the Bible? What kind of a view did he have of scripture? For whatever he believed about the Bible, it is incumbent upon us as his followers to believe that. Quite frequently I come across individuals in churches who tell me this, I love Jesus, but I don't agree with everything in the Bible. Now, that is a contradiction in terms. You cannot have a high view of Jesus Christ and a low view of the Bible. And many are attempting to do this. If you believe that Jesus is an exalted Lord, then whatever he taught, you as one of his followers must acknowledge that. And if we don't, then we put ourselves in the category of Peter when, after he had made his great confession of faith, that thou art to Christ the Son of the living God. And Jesus said unto Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but my Father which is where? in heaven. Thus there was a supernatural revelation of who God was that was given to Peter. And Jesus said, upon this confession of faith I will build my church. Then in that same conversation Jesus explained how that he was going to suffer many things at the hands of men in Jerusalem. And then Peter, who had just made that great informed statement of the spiritual confession of Jesus, said this, Not so, Lord." Now, that's a contradiction. Reflect on it. You cannot argue with someone who is your Lord. You may say, Not so, but you can't say it to someone who is of more power and authority. So Jesus replied to Peter, Peter, now you're thinking like a man. Get thee behind me, Satan. You are thinking in terms of a human individual, and the Father in Heaven has not revealed this unto you. So Peter argued with his Lord, and we cannot argue with Christ as Lord. If he is our equal, yes. But he is not our equal, as we set forth in the message this morning. He is our very God of gods, and hence we must acknowledge him and his claims. He said that whosoever would be ashamed of me and of my words, him will I be ashamed of when I come in clouds of glory. So we must not only confess who Jesus is, we must confess his teachings and what he believed about the Bible. First, what did Jesus believe about the Old Testament scriptures? Go with me now to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 24. Jesus had at his disposal the entire canon of the Old Testament scriptures like we have today. Of course, we understand it was not given in English like we have today, but the Hebrew in which it was written and also the Greek translation from Hebrew to Greek was present at the time of Christ, and our Lord quoted from both translations. He quoted from the Hebrew text on various occasions, and on various occasions he quoted from the translation of the Hebrew text into the Greek text. In Luke 24, and beginning in verse 44, 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. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things." And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Not only did the Old Testament scriptures set forth the suffering of Christ, it also set forth the resurrection of Christ. And not only did those two great elements of the gospel, where they are set forth in the Old Testament scriptures, but the demands upon a person when they met the gospel were also predicted that men should repent and believe in him. And not only that, but the promised ministry of the Holy Spirit in a unique way was also set forth in the Old Testament scriptures. It's referred to in verse 49 as the promise of the Father. And so here, in one statement, in one location, Our Lord places his approval upon the entire canon of the Old Testament scriptures as the word of God. Notice that the Jews divided the scriptures into three distinct categories for reference purposes. They were, in verse 44, the Law of Moses, or the historical books. Secondly, they were the prophets. The prophets were the preachers and the interpreters of Moses. and in the Psalms, the wisdom literature. That is, it didn't just include the book of Psalms as we had it, but it included Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and all of the wisdom literature. and the Jews' threefold division of all the books of the Old Testament scriptures, of some 39 in total, were divided into these three categories. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in one blanket statement, places his approval upon the entire Old Testament canon of scriptures as containing the word of God, and that it was written in order to make him known. That is, Christ is found in the Old Testament scriptures. And to read the scriptures and to miss their predictions of Christ is to be totally blinded. And thus Christ must open the understanding of an individual to give them the ability to see Christ in the scriptures. Back up in chapter 24 and verse 25. Then he said unto 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? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Now, I submit unto you that Jesus Christ had a very high view of the Old Testament Bible, and I submit to you this proposition. that if there were errors and contradictions in the Old Testament, it was incumbent upon Jesus Christ to correct those and to point them out, for he was the world's greatest teacher. And yet not one time did we find him saying to his hearers, now this portion in the Prophets, that's not true of God, avoid that. Now, this over here, that is the word of God. But this portion over here, that's not the word of God. We never find him taking that approach. He places his approval upon the Old Testament scriptures in their entirety. And we have in our seminaries today, in all the major denominations, teachers and professors who believe that they have been called of God to give us what is really the word of God. And that is that they are called upon, they believe, to go through the Bible and determine what is true of the character of God and what is not true. And hence they start with this, that a God of love would never say this. Scratch that out. A God of love would never do this. It's unworthy of the character of God. A loving God would never send a flood. A loving God would never send fire down from heaven. A loving God would not do this, he would not say that. And hence these individuals feel that they are called upon to wipe out or to scratch out all the references which are not consistent with the God of whom men think that he ought to be. And they think that because of all of the findings that they have discovered in the various Dead Sea Scrolls and various other discoveries, that we have far more information available to us than the early writers of the New Testament had available to them. And thus we are called upon, listen to us, we are the individuals who can tell you where to find the word of God. I reply, listen to Jesus Christ. He knew what was in the Old Testament at the time that he was here on earth, and if he was who he claimed to be, then he possesses more wisdom about the Bible than Dr. So-and-so possesses today. This is my beloved son, hear ye him. And no professor, I don't care how many degrees he has, knows more about the Bible than Jesus Christ knew. when he was here on the face of the earth. And if there were problems, if there were contradictions and errors in the Bible, then it was incumbent upon Jesus Christ to correct those, but he let them go by. So we can only then assume that if he is the Lord and places his approval upon the entire canon of scripture, then the Bible which we have today is authoritative. When he says, I say unto you, then we can trust our Bibles as genuine and reliable. Secondly, Christ not only placed his approval as Lord upon the Old Testament canon of scriptures, but he also placed his approval upon the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In our higher criticism today, that is, the form of biblical interpretation that I have made reference to, which is found in the view of Christianity known as liberalism, which denies much of the supernatural miracles of Jesus, much like the Sadducees did in their day. This view then says that Moses was not the author of the first five books of the Bible. And when asked, well, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, they present a very lengthy and involved description of what is known as the hypothesis theory, or the documentary theory of the Pentateuch. And this works like this, that as many women sit around the campfires for hundreds and hundreds of years, that at night when the fires were twinkling, they'd sit around and they'd discuss God. And one would say, do you believe in God? Yes, but what do you believe about God, John?" And John would give his view as to what he believed about God. And then so-and-so would give their view of what they believed about God. And it made such an impression upon some that they began to write these things down on parchments. And then, as hundreds of years rolled by while these writings were collected by an unknown editor, hundreds of years later, and he put them all out on a large table, and he began to cut and edit. And through this unknown editor he compiled the first five books of the Bible. This is known as the J. P. and E. view, that certain writings belong to a certain author, Other writings belonged to another, and that Moses could not possibly have written the Old Testament books of the Pentateuch, because Moses lived in a time in which that he didn't even know how to read and write. Now that is actually found in so-called wisdom literature of the day. And yet the Bible says that what? Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and that wisdom was so advanced that even today there are mathematical formulas in trigonometry which our most brilliant mathematicians have never yet deciphered, how they got those pyramids built and what formulas they used to build them. That was how Moses was trained. He was trained in a very intellectual era, not somewhere in a cave, but he was a very brilliant man. And yet these individuals today would have us believe that Moses was not the author of the Old Testament. Well, what does Jesus have to say about that? If he's the Lord, then we ought to bow to him, right? What did he believe about the authorship of the Pentateuch? Turn with me now to the book of Mark, Mark chapter 7. I'll read verse 9 for the context. He, Christ, said unto them, Full well you reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For whom? Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother, and whosoever curses father or mother, let him die to death. Now, who wrote that portion of scripture according to Jesus? Moses did. Moses did, and that's found in the Pentateuch. And time and time again, Jesus quotes from the first five books of the Bible and says, Moses says this, Moses says that. So I don't believe that Jesus believed in the documentary theory of the Pentateuch. Don't believe that Jesus believed that the first five books of Moses just came into existence as a result of an editor who cut out and pasted until finally we have the first five books of the Bible. I'm so glad to tell you tonight as your pastor that when you read those books of the Bible, that you can be assured they are reliable, they are trustworthy, and that the Lord of glory has preserved them. for our consideration, and that we can see Christ in them as he was predicted in those books. So it is not incumbent upon me, it is not incumbent upon you, to have to sit and read through the Bible and determine what is worthy of God and what is not worthy of God. We have the word of Christ on this, and if he felt it was worthy, then we do not have to indulge our time in thinking, well, this is just not consistent with my understanding of God. Incidentally, that in a way proves the Old Testament is from God, for men would never have written the things that are found in the Old Testament. Men would never write and tell the things about themselves that is found in the Bible. When men write their biographies, they want to put their best foot forward, don't they? But God is honest. He tells us about ourselves, and he fills in all the warts. You ever go get your picture taken, and you get the thing back and there's a blemish, or there's a shadow? That photographer has the ability to cover up the warts and the blemishes. Jesus Christ is God, and we do not have to look to the Bible as being filled with errors and blemishes. And that Bible tells us all about ourselves, and it puts in all the warts and all the blemishes. Oh, it tells us about David, of what a good king he was, that he was a man after what? God's own heart. But what does the Bible also tell us about David? That he was a man who also was given over to lust, and it includes the affair with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. Now, if you were going to write a biography, would you put that in there? What's happened here in the last two or three weeks? When Reverend Abernathy gives a report of Dr. Martin Luther King, why it's created such an upheaval among that particular nationality, that they've come down upon him with, I want to say, all four feet. I don't know where that came from. I said, that's not worthy. Even if it were true, why would you put that in there? That would cause people to think less of him as a leader. And yet God didn't think it would cause people to think less when he included that event in the life of David. What am I saying? I'm saying men did not just write the Bible on their own, for they would not tell the things about men. But they would give a glowing report, but God gives it all. So Jesus believed in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Thirdly, Jesus as Lord believed in the Genesis account of creation. Jesus did not believe in evolution, but he placed his stamp of approval on how man got here. Turn with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 19. How did man get here? Did he arrive on the scene after millions and perhaps billions of years of biological and organic evolution from that of a lower form of life? And finally, after millions of years of walking around in the monkey kingdom, then suddenly man was able to take on human form as we have today? Is that the way man arrived? Did man arrive on the scene as a little baby? Did God create uniquely, and did he create a little baby male and a little baby female, and they grew up to become adults? These are all questions which we have an interest in knowing. Now, how are we going to get the final answer? I say unto you, and I'm not saying Jim Gables. Behold, I say unto you. Now, in Matthew chapter 19, the I here is none other than Jesus. 19, verse 3, The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife wherever cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? He which made them at the beginning made them male and female. Now where did they read this at? Go back to the opening chapter of the book of Genesis. So our Lord is quoting from Genesis, and he's saying this is how man got here on the scene. He's not a product of evolution, even in maturity. But he was created mature, as a male and a female, with full reproductive capacities from the hand of God. And that's the way God created all the other things. already had apples on the trees and the seeds in the apples. So the old adage, which came first, the chicken or the egg, is not something to just be kicked around. The chicken came first. The chicken came first, because the chicken is the mature being or the mature animal that has the capacity to reproduce. And thus, if you had gone out in the Garden of Eden that day, and you had seen all those beautiful trees, and you had taken your chainsaw, as I did yesterday out on Brother Farrell's land and cut some wood, I am informed by our scientists that if you cut a tree down, you can look at the rings in the stump, and you can determine pretty closely how old that tree is by how many rings are in there. It is generally true that a tree puts on one growth ring for about every twelve months. But that is not an absolute truth, because science also tells us that in certain climates, trees grow so much faster than the others that they actually are capable of putting on two rings in a year's time. But let's suppose that I would have taken my chainsaw and I would have arrived at the Garden of Eden on the day of creation. And I would have said, now I want to find out how long this creation has been here. So I go out to that great big oak tree and I cut the thing down. It is a beautiful tree. And I count 150 rings in that tree. And then I say, all right, one ring per year. This creation has been here 150 years. Would I be right? No, God had just created it. and it already had the appearance of age in it when God created it because he created it mature. The same with the plants, the same with the animals, and the same with Adam and Eve. They were not little babies who had to grow up and go through puberty and obtain reproductive capacities. They had the full mature adult reproductive capacities when they were created by God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and God made man in his own image. So Jesus places his approval upon the Genesis account of creation, that it was as given in the Bible. Now, nearly everybody I know believes that if you read the Genesis account of creation in chapters 1, 2, and 3, and you take it as it is, that it does describe how the creation took place, as I have just given it to you. But some people say, but you can't really believe that because science has disproved it. Or Jesus believed it. You mean Jesus didn't know something that modern science has since discovered in the creation? Who do we believe that Jesus is? He's the creator himself. He's the one who knows all things. about what he has created. He's the Lord, and the creation is the owner's manual. He knows how to put it together, because he put it together. And no one is ever going to discover more about the creation than what Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, already knows. And he didn't acquire that by going to school. He had intuitive knowledge. That is, knowledge which did not have to be learned as he as God possesses. So Jesus believed in the Genesis account of creation. Fourthly, Jesus as Lord believed in the account of Jonah and the great fish. I've stated on various occasions this is the hardest thing for a liberal to swallow, and that is the subject of Jonah and the great whale, or the great fish. Men just cannot take that, and they say that's a parable, that that didn't actually happen, and that this is only to be understood in a figurative sense, that there was not a real Jonah, and there certainly was not a whale, because modern science has determined that whales' throats are no bigger than grapefruits, and it would be impossible for a whale to swallow a human being. Well, our reply to that is, first of all, the Bible in the original does not say whale. It says a great fish or a great sea monster. And secondly, in the book of Jonah, it says that God prepared the great fish. When you bring God into picture, that changes the whole thing. That was a unique creation of God. And God not only created that great fish, he directed him right to the location where the storm was blowing. So as they threw him overboard, he was right there at the right place. Oh, you say that storm was blowing. So as they threw him overboard, he was right there at the right place. Oh, you say that's a little bit far-fetched. That was just a token of luck. No. You say, well, who are you to say these things? Who knows whether there was a great fish? Who knows whether there was ever a Jonah? I'll tell you who knows. The Lord of glory, whom if we profess that we love him and give him honor as being the Son of God, then we owe unto him the same allegiance to receive what he taught in the word of God. Well, let's go to the Bible in Matthew chapter 12 now. Matthew chapter 12. verses 39 and 40. He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. and behold a greater than Jonas is here." Now, did Jesus believe there was a real prophet named Jonas? Or maybe he was just using this as a parable. For he certainly believed there was a real city named Nineveh, didn't he? And there is a real city named Nineveh. And Jesus said that Jonas was sent there as a prophet from God to preach repentance unto that city. And that as Jonas was swallowed by the great quail, the great sea monster, and spent three days and nights in the belly of that sea monster, so shall the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He says, that's the only sign I'm going to give to an evil and adulterous generation who wants to look into the supernatural. I got a booklet here a few weeks ago from a preacher that sent it out at random, and he said, if we could just have more miracles today, we'd have more people believe in Jesus. And he quoted from the book of John, chapter 2, that when they saw the miracles he did, many believed on him. Boy, he bit into a tiger there, because the text says that Jesus did not commit himself unto those that believed on him, for he knew what was in man. He knew they were all infatuated by the miracles. He knew that they were not saved, that they were not his own. No, it is not miracles that cause dead sinners to suddenly come to life. It is the miracle of regeneration in connection with the preaching of the word of God in the gospel, that sinners are renewed and they pass from death unto life. And Jesus said that's the only message. But if they will not hear that message, like that of the repentance of Jonah, he said, there will be no other sign be given unto this generation. He even went so far as to give us the story of Lazarus and the rich man, in which the rich man said, let me go back after my death, and let me go back and tell my brothers. They will believe that someone comes forth from the dead. And what did Abraham say to the rich man? They have Moses and the prophets. If they will not believe them, they will not believe if you come back from the dead. I tell you this much, if I could get somebody out of this cemetery right over here by the church, just to come back for a couple of weeks, I tell you we'd have to have services all day on Sunday, just coming and going to get people in and out of this church. But that does not mean that God would be in it. Jesus said, I am come to seek and to save that which is lost, and I'll do the saving in connection with the sign of the gospel, the sign of Jonas. And if they won't hear that, they will not be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. No, it is not signs and wonders that we are to depend upon and hope upon. it is the miracle of Christ in the gospel. So this includes the account of Jonas and the great fish. Christ believed in this. Now what is the summarizing significance of Christ's view of scripture? I summarize it in this fashion, that if Jesus was the Lord of glory and he had such a high view of the Bible, it is impossible to confess him. as Lord and Savior and possess a low view of the Bible, and believe that the Bible is filled with contradictions and errors. If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God has brought, raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall confess the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Again, those are only fooling themselves who believe that they have the right to question and to point out all the errors and contradictions in this book, and at the same time call themselves Christians. Jesus Christ is being questioned, and you cannot have a high view of Jesus and a low view of the scriptures. You must have a high view of the scriptures if you have a high view of Jesus. But if you have a low view of Jesus, You will have a low view of the Bible. Now, this is one that most of the men and women who do not believe the Bible also have a low view of Jesus. They believe he was a good teacher, but he wasn't God. They believe he was a good example, but he was not divine. And hence these two, as water seeks its own level, will find itself out. I trust tonight that you have a high view of Christ. What think you of Christ? Whose son is he? Whose son is he? If you say, well, he's the son of David, you'd be correct. He received his humanity from the lineage of David. But he's also the son of God, and you're correct there as well. He is one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. And to show that, Jesus set forth this proposition that confused his own critics. When he said, what think ye of Christ, whose son is he? They said, he's the son of David. And Jesus said, all right, then answer me this, how does David call him Lord? Why does David call him Lord? If Jesus received his humanity from David, David received his humanity from Jesus. I don't want to confuse you with that. Jesus was the one who created David, and yet from David's own reproductive processes, the cells and the bloodline of David formed the humanity of Jesus Christ. You can't just acknowledge him as a man, you must acknowledge him as the God-man. to be considered a Christian in any sense of the word. Hence, true saving faith is involved in this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you truly trust in him, then, my people, you can rest assured that you are dealing with a reliable Bible. that you don't have to read it and say, well, I wonder if this is God's word here or not. Christ has placed his blanket approval upon the entire canon of scripture. Let us stand together.