Christ in the Old Testament - Pat Abendroth (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Abendroth here. You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com.

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Don't forget to go to Amazon, please. And if you've read any of my books, would you give them a rating? Especially the new ones,

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Cancer Is Not Your Shepherd and the updated and revised Sexual Fidelity, both 31 -day guides.

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Now, I've made a mistake in the past, and I called Cancer Is Not Your Shepherd a 31 -day guide to suffering.

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I've also called Sexual Fidelity a 31 -day guide to suffering too. Today is part two of Pat Abendroth's message preached in Beloit, Ohio, Community Bible Church, Pastor John Tucker, his excellent message on seeing

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Christ in the Old Testament. And we play this with permission. He goes on to say, it is a mark of eisegesis, reading into the scripture.

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It's bad. Eisegesis is bad. We want to do exegesis, get the meaning out of scripture. He's saying it's a mark of eisegesis, not exegesis, to borrow freight that appears chronologically later in the text and to transport it back and upload it to an earlier passage simply because both or all the passages involved share the same canon.

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Wherever he's teaching or wherever they're using his books, I'd never want to send the men to seminary from Omaha Bible Church because they're being trained in enlightenment or post -enlightenment hermeneutics, and they're going to be afraid to interpret the old in light of the new and the new in light of the old.

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That's sub -Christian. That's not how Christians have been doing this. That's not right. Just listen to an old, they're acting like theological liberals.

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This is the Second London Baptist Confession. It's similar to the Westminster Confession. Listen to what it says about how you should interpret the

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Bible. This is pre -enlightenment. The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself.

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That's pretty helpful. That's super helpful, and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, which are not many but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly.

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This is what I think is probably the instinct for most of you and for most of us. Interpret the

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Bible with the Bible. Interpret scripture with scripture. If I don't quite understand what this one is, maybe I need to do more work on it, but eventually it's going to coincide with other scriptures.

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So we were taught this, interpret scripture with scripture, and if that's how you think, and you were taught that, awesome, great job.

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Just know that pastors are being trained by supposedly conservative

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Bible -believing Christians who believe in inspiration and infallibility and authority and all of these things, who are telling the students, don't interpret the old in light of the new.

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So just to keep that in mind, we could do this one all night long. It's interesting, the Pentateuch, when

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Israel would have first had the Pentateuch, they wouldn't have gotten... Israel did not receive Genesis 1 when it happened.

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Newsflash. Okay, I mean, just the last time I checked, Moses wasn't around in the Garden of Eden. Okay, so even if you think about that, the

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Pentateuch would have been given to Israel and they would have read the whole thing. So they would have been able to read scripture with scripture.

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In a sense, the Pentateuch came as one book, the five books together. So it's already, even things like that just make common sense to us if we stop and think about it.

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Of course we'll read the Genesis 1, 2, and 3 in light of other passages. Of course we would.

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I will pose this question before we move on to the next one, and that would be, why would somebody do this? I hope some of you are sitting there thinking, why would somebody do that?

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Well, maybe because they just don't know any better, and it's what they were taught by their professor who they esteem, which is fair enough.

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But it also might be that you would not interpret the old in light of the new because it might mess up your theological system.

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It might be that. Because, here's an example, when I read Hosea 11, 1, it says, out of Egypt I've called my son, and it says that that's

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Israel. And then I read Matthew chapter 2, and it says, and remain there until the death of Herod.

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This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. Who's that talking about?

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It's good. Everybody knows it's talking about Jesus. And so with that in mind, we might just say,

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Israel's God's son as a type, as a shadow, in anticipation of the ultimate son, the

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Lord Jesus. Because I interpret scripture with scripture, and therefore I'm going to say, you know who's center in all of redemptive history?

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You know who brings fulfillment? You know who is the end game in all the best senses? It's not national

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Israel. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's going to, if I don't want you to go there with me,

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I'm going to tell you, don't you dare interpret the old in light of the new. Because if I let you, you might think

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Jesus is most important to think about that. He's ultimate son.

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It might mess up our theological systems. So right now, there's a, in recent days, there's been a pretty good resurgence of Christ -centered preaching, and I would commend that.

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It's good. But there's also been pushback against Christ -centered preaching of things like the

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Old Testament. And not always, but a lot of times, it's because of this. If people catch on, and they go to the conference, and hear this, they might just think

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Jesus is the ultimate son. And they might just not become Zionists. It might be what happens.

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Okay, we better move on to the next one. Number four.

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We're doing 10 of these. Another guideline would be, let shadows do their job. Let shadows do their job.

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What is the job of a shadow? Well, we're going to go to Hebrews chapter 8, and Hebrews chapter 10.

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But if you think in terms of a person approaching, and you can't see them yet, because of a wall, or because of some kind of obstruction, and you see someone approaching, and you see their shadow, what's the job of the shadow?

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Yeah, it's showing you something else is about to arrive. Someone else is about to arrive.

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It's anticipating. It's previewing what's going on here. And in the Old Testament, a lot of things are referred to as shadows.

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They're in anticipation. They're on purpose. They're by divine design, by divine revelation.

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They're there, but they are shadows, and we want to let shadows do their jobs. So when we look at temple, we look at lambs in the

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Passover, we look at things like prophets, priests, and kings, servants, sons, sabbaths.

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They're referred to as shadows. They're not the ultimate, but they're anticipating.

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So how about this? Hebrews chapter 8, Hebrews chapter 10. It's so cool to see this. It says in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5, they serve a copy.

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He's talking about old covenant realities, all the stuff that has to do with the temple, all the sacrifices, and the priests, and all of that.

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They serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things. I'm using self -control.

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I do not want to talk about that. That's interesting. There are heavenly things before there are shadowy things.

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They shadow heavenly realities. Now I just can't help myself. But when Jesus does come, he's the heavenly thing, if you will, incarnate.

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But since we believe in the sovereignty of God, and we're not post -enlightenment, and we believe in the eternality of the sun, the shadowy things are showing you previews of things that already exist in heaven to get you ready for that thing in heaven.

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Sorry to use thing, but you get the idea. That person, they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.

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For when Moses was about to erect the tent, the tabernacle, the unique dwelling of God at the time, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

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So he had this heavenly vision, and now we have a copy, a shadow of it, if you will. But that's not the end game.

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Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1 also says, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

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And the argument in Hebrews is what? Only Jesus can. Only Jesus can.

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Shadows represent heavenly things that anticipate the actual coming of heavenly things, if you will, in Christ himself.

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Their job is to anticipate. So please go to them and look at them and say, these are cool, amazing, good, and important anticipations that are gracious from God.

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But now let's do this one. Number five, related to number four. Otherwise I would only have nine, and we need a top 10 list.

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Number five, the next guideline for recovering the Christ -centered nature of the Old Testament, don't allow the shadows to replace the substance.

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Don't allow the shadows to replace the substance, the reality, the person.

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It's their shadows. Colossians 2 17 says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

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The substance belongs to Christ. So don't let the shadows replace the substance. And some of you, and some of us, and I've done this before in my life, so I'll include myself.

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Somehow, because of the way we're taught things, we think somehow we go from shadow to substance, and oh, we're longing for the shadow to come back.

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That doesn't make any sense. So my wife Molly, if she, if I see her shadow coming, and I know the silhouette, we've been away, and I see around the corner or something, and here's

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Molly approaching, and do you think I should be excited about the shadow? You don't think

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I should be excited about the shadow? Sure I should, right? You thought I was giving you a trick question. I'm super excited about the shadow, right?

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I get to see Molly, and so the shadow's exciting, but if then

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I see her, and I ignore her, and stare at the shadow, what kind of piece of work am

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I, right? That's not going to go well for me. That's not how it works. It's not supposed to be that way, but I would encourage you to never forget that, right?

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It doesn't make any sense for us to stay focused on the shadows, and when the substance comes, the argument of Hebrews is, don't you dare go back.

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There's warnings in Hebrews for those in the first century who wanted to go back to the shadows, and that's just crazy.

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The substance has arrived. Look to Christ, and only to Christ. So let's be excited about shadows, but let's just know according to the progress of revelation.

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We could talk about that. We won't for the sake of time, but Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 talk about God revealing

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Himself in many different ways, but then it says, in these last days, climactically, wonderfully,

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He's spoken to us through His Son. Don't go back to the shadow. By the way, just as one more thing before we move on to the next one, speaking of shadows and substance, who is

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God's firstborn Son? And this is a trick question. Who's God's firstborn

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Son? I hope you're thinking Jesus, and maybe even saying

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Jesus, and well, Exodus 4 .12,

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4 .22 says, Israel is my firstborn Son. Things that make you go, hmm,

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Israel is God's firstborn Son, according to Exodus 4. But you know, and I know, because we've read the

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New Testament at least once, to know other texts that say things like, He's the firstborn Son.

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It's talking about Jesus, Hebrews 1 .6, Colossians 1 .15, the firstborn. So you see,

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God has a firstborn Son, and then again, God has a firstborn

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Son. One is a shadow in anticipation, and one is the substance, but that shadow is important, and the shadow played an important role, but it was a shadowy role designed to anticipate the firstborn

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Son. This is my Son, He says from heaven, right? In whom I am well pleased.

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Doesn't sound a lot like the history of Israel. This is my beloved

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Son with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to Him. You see, history's been going somewhere by divine design, and it is exciting to see, but don't go back.

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Don't go back. You don't go back to the temple. You don't go back to animal sacrifices. You don't go back to the centrality of a nation in the

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Middle East. As much as I love to go there, I'm booking flights now, as crazy as that might sound in our crazy climate.

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Number six, next guideline for recovering. Remember the ant.

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Remember the ant. Let me put it another way, to be really,

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I'm going to run the risk here of having John escort me down from the pulpit, but I think he knows me and trust me enough to not do that, so remember that the

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Bible is not sufficient. Let me finish, please.

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I think it is sufficient for what it's designed to be sufficient for. I believe 2

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Timothy 3, 15, 16, and 17 with all of my heart. I'll crawl over broken glass for it, if need be, but the

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Bible itself teaches that it's not sufficient for everything, because we have special revelation in Scripture that teaches us about salvation, and Christ, and redemption, and sanctification, and all of those other important things, but the

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Bible itself teaches that God has special revelation in the Bible, but he has general revelation, and both revelations belong to God, and so it's okay to study the

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Bible. No, it's not okay. It's mandatory to study the Bible to find out how salvation works, but it's actually mandatory to study

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God's creation to understand how some other things in life work. Where I'm going with this is, don't treat the

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Old Testament or the New Testament like it has every answer to everything, because if you do that, you're not going to find every answer to everything, and more than likely, you're going to stop seeing it for what it's meant to be.

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It's meant to be a book about redemption in Christ is where I'm going. Proverbs 6, 6, go to the aunt, oh sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise.

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The Bible says go outside of the Bible to learn some things about life, so I think it's probably a pretty good idea to go outside of the

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Bible to learn some things about life, not about eternal life. We have to have special revelation for that, but about other things, and you all know this.

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Paul didn't assume or Paul isn't teaching in 2nd Timothy 3, 15, 16, and 17. He's talking about salvation there, by the way.

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He was not telling Timothy, you know Timothy, if you need to build a fishing boat because you're going to be in Galilee, you know, just read 3rd

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Timothy, right? Or just read Jonah, because you know that has to do with boats.

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We know he wasn't saying the Bible's sufficient to teach people algebra, and the list could go on and on and on and on, and I'm afraid that when we say that the

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Bible answers every question you might ever have about everything in life, and it's all about things like character studies, because we don't know what else to do with it, and it's all about answering every question in life.

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We make the Bible do something it was never intended to do, and you know what happens then more often than not?

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We don't make the Bible about what it's meant to be about. Redemption in Christ.

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That's what it's meant to be about. Back to the enlightenment.

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One thing that happened post -enlightenment was this. People still tried to justify being religious, and even professing

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Christians who were influenced by the enlightenment, and maybe they weren't so much supernaturalists anymore, but the pastor still likes his pension, and we still like community, and we still like to be together, and we still like to do the things, and after all we kind of like the songs, and so but you know we don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, because that's supernatural.

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We don't believe he earned perfect righteousness for us, because that's supernatural, and we don't believe in the second coming, because that's supernatural.

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We certainly don't believe in the pactum, because that's supernatural, and if we say predestination, people will think we're crazy.

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You get the idea. So they had to make the Bible about something else other than Christ, and you know

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Jesus was good, and it's good to be good. So be good, and what are we going to do with the

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Old Testament? Well, I guess we could say that we can make it about character studies, because it's not about Christ and redemption.

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Anticipating the ultimate exodus. Christianity and liberalism, right?

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Jay Gresham Machen's classic book had its 100 -year birthday last year. He's addressing these same kinds of things in theological leftist

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Protestantism. You guys are making the Bible all about how to do things, and how to do everything, because you're not making the

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Bible about what it's meant to be about. It's meant to be about Christ. So if you haven't read that book,

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I'd commend that book to you. Super helpful, because it's addressing these kinds of things. Okay, this one's related. Number seven.

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We're doing ten of these. The next guideline for us recovering a Christian perspective of the Old Testament, and that would be resist application.

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Resist application. Just for clarity, I'm not saying don't do any application.

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In fact, it's pretty easy to apply the Bible, because guess what? The greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

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So there's always a way to apply the Bible, right? So I'm not getting at that. In fact, even the

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Old Testament does say, for example, the New Testament says about the Old, First Corinthians 10 verse 6.

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These things took place for us, for our instruction. Not saying we don't find any application.

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I just want to overstate it for shock value. If the

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Bible doesn't have all of the answers to all of the questions, you're not always trying to answer everybody's questions.

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They might need to look elsewhere to answer all of their questions about parenting, or all of their questions about management, or all of their questions about the home, leadership, the

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Bible, where the Bible talks about these things. It's true. It's right. But pastors especially feel so compelled and so driven to make everything practical and applicable that sometimes we end up making it practical and applicable in a way it was never designed to be practical and applicable, and you probably do the same things when you're doing small group

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Bible studies or personal Bible studies. How does this apply to my life? And sometimes there's going to be direct application.

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But you know what? A lot of times the application is, isn't Jesus amazing?

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That my sins are forgiven, and now I can seek to love God and love my neighbor out of gratitude because I'm not going to get what

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I deserve. And that's going to make you a better employee, and that's going to make you a better dad, and a better granddad, and all of the other things that you might need to do in life because your biggest problem has been taken care of, and you've got a great

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Savior who's for you. Maybe the application a lot of times is, don't just do something, stand there.

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You're standing in Christ before God, not cowering in fear. Again, please don't take me wrong.

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I'm trying to overstate the case, but a lot of the time, a lot of the Bible, Machen even does this, a lot of the

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Bible is history, describing how God has been working in redemptive history to lead everything to the point where we would have the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So, so many times it just ends up being we're learning about how great

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Christ is, and how great God is, and how we do want to do good works out of gratitude, and we know what the good works are, loving

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God and loving neighbor. Number eight, number nine, number ten, guidelines to hopefully help us and motivate us to read the

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Bible the way Christians have for a long time, and that would be from a Christ -centered perspective, even the Old Testament.

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Number eight, watch Isaiah. Watch Isaiah. It's not a show on Netflix or Peacock, okay, but watch what

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Isaiah does. Isaiah the prophet does an amazing job of showing us how to be reading even the

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Old Testament. If you would just listen to, or you can look if you'd like, Isaiah 41, Isaiah 42,

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Isaiah 53. Listen carefully if you would, I've got questions for you. Isaiah 41, 8, but you

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Israel my servant, who's he talking about? Israel, right?

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It says it right there. You Israel my servant, Jacob whom

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I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend. So first of all we see, and it's not just there, I just chose three verses, but there it's clearly, and it's earlier in Isaiah as well, but Isaiah 41, who's the servant?

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Who's the servant in Isaiah 41? It's not Jesus, it's Israel. Israel is the servant.

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Then if we go to Isaiah 42, verse 1, behold my servant, and we're expecting it to be

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Israel, because he just said that before. Israel's the servant. Isaiah 42, 1, behold my servant, whom, that seems like he's personifying

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Israel. There might be something happening. Maybe we're just reading too much into it, but there might be something happening, because he doesn't, he says whom.

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Whom I uphold my chosen, in whom my soul delights. It seems like maybe something's going on here that's different than national

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Israel. They are called chosen, but there's someone else is called chosen, not just elect sinners, but also the son.

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My chosen in whom my soul delights. That doesn't seem to be true of Israel very often.

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I have put my spirit upon him. Oh, I'm reading the old in light of the new, and new in light of the old.

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That sounds a lot like what's going on with not Israel the servant, but Jesus the servant.

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He will bring forth justice to the nations. Well, Israel was supposed to do that, but I do know there's one who's going to do that.

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Ah, the plot thickens. You go, there's something happening here that's worth noting, and then everyone who's ever been to Sunday school once for more than like five minutes knows

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Isaiah 53. Jesus is the suffering what?

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He's the suffering servant. He is. It's meant to be going there is what's happening.

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Isaiah 53 11, the righteous one, my servant. Yeah, and then when you go to the

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New Testament, the New Testament over and over again in the book of Acts says, yeah, Isaiah 53, that's Jesus. So you see when our friends, and sometimes our friends act like frenemies, who say, don't you dare interpret the old in light of the new.

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We can say, you know what? We don't even have to. We don't, we can, we already know it's about Christ.

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We don't even need to go to Matthew 1 1. It's already built in.

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Listen to Isaiah. Isaiah himself already under inspiration was getting us ready to understand this great reality that Israel typifies.

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Israel shadows the better, greater servant who's going to be Jesus. That's exciting.

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Let's listen to someone else. Let's listen to David. Number nine, next guideline. We're doing 10 of these. Next guideline for recovering the

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Christ -centered nature of the Old Testament. Listen to David in Acts chapter 2 is all you really need to see, because in the of Acts and in Acts chapter 2 in particular,

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Peter is quoting David and it's climactic. It's radical. It is really connecting the dots at the ascension.

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Jesus is the one. Listen to David. Even in the Old Testament, he was saying in effect,

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David was saying in effect, I'm not him. I'm not the ultimate Messiah. I'm not the ultimate king.

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Somebody else is going to fulfill the Davidic covenant. Second Samuel chapter 7, and his name is

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Jesus. So how about this? Ever so quickly, Acts 2 25, for David says concerning him in Psalm 16.

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You probably have it in your margin, but if you don't, you can add it in Psalm 16. So in the Old Testament itself, Peter is saying this is even in the

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Old Testament. I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

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Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope.

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So there's resurrection hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your

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Holy One see corruption. David, the expert in the Davidic promise of an ultimate end times new creation with the

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Messiah king, is saying these things, but he's anticipating somebody else.

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How about verse 29? Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

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Peter's like, it's not David, but don't just take my word for it. Verse 30, being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn,

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God had covenanted with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne.

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So it's not him, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Messiah, of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

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Again, Psalm 16, this Jesus God raised up, of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

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He's saying the Joel prophetic text, saying this is what's going to happen in the end times, has happened before your very eyes, is happening.

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And then just ever so quickly in verse 34 and following, how about this? For David did not ascend.

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That's king, Messiah, royalty kind of talk, ruling and reigning kind of talk.

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David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the

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Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

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Lord and Christ, both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.

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It's extraordinary what he's doing there. It's absolutely extraordinary what he's saying.

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And Peter's saying, what I'm saying to you, listen to David. David himself was making it patently clear in the

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Old Testament, I'm not the guy. There's a greater one who would come.

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Matthew chapter 1 does say Jesus is son of David. He's in his line. Do remember this too,

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Christ is not Jesus last name. Christ is the

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New Testament word, the Greek word that partners with, that is the same as the

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Old Testament concept and the word is Messiah. So if you had a

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Greek version of the Old Testament, it's not going to say Messiah, it's going to say Christ. So when the

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Bible says that God has made him both Lord and Christ, he's made him both Lord and Messiah.

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David was a Messiah because David was a king of Israel. But even David, the best of the kings of Israel, a

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Messiah, lowercase m, was saying there's a greater Messiah coming, a greater

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Christ coming. And Peter's saying, listen to David, listen to David.

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The Old Testament itself is saying it's about David. It's about Jesus. It's about him.

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So listen to him and learn about this. And notice he ascends. What happens at the ascension?

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What happens is he doesn't just go from earth to heaven, he goes from earth to heaven, but he goes to the throne. This is why

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Christians say he's the king. He's not going to become the king, he is the king. As a matter of fact, he's seated, to use the old language, he's in his session because he's ascended.

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He's ruling and reigning now. Inaugurated anyway, but the Bible teaches a second coming, so we're anticipating the consummation.

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But absolutely. Otherwise he would not be the Christ. He is. Okay, last one.

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Next guideline. We'll wrap it up here. And that would be learn from the apostles. So learn from the apostles.

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We've learned from Jesus early on. I wanted to include that early on, but now later we've learned from some Old Testament figures.

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But how about some New Testament figures? The Apostle Paul says the rock in the

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Old Testament was Christ. Now I've got questions about that. I have some answers, and if you have questions,

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I might have some answers. I might have some questions for you, and you might have some answers. And at the end of the day, we'll just ask

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Pastor John. But just know, under inspiration, the

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Apostle Paul says the rock that you learned about in the Old Testament, that's Christ. That's pretty profound.

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You don't say that if you're a naturalist post -enlightenment, but you do if you're a Christian. And then if we keep reading the

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New Testament, it teaches us that the Old Testament is all true by divine design, because there's a pactum, but there's more to it than may have met the eye.

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How about Galatians 3 .16? Galatians 3 .16 says, Now the promises were made to Abraham.

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Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, lots of different places. The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

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So far so good, Genesis 3 .16. But the Apostle Paul, and maybe he doesn't do this, maybe he does this.

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The Apostle Paul, writing under inspiration, says this.

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It does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring who is

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Christ. Built in the Abrahamic covenant, the

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Apostle Paul is saying you might want to take a closer look at that. It's always been about Christ.

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It was always going to be about Christ. It always is about Christ. And if that weren't thorough enough, listen to this comparison between Genesis 17 .8

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and Romans 4 .13. This is Genesis 17 .8, Abrahamic covenant, where it says,

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And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, listen to this, all the land of Canaan.

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Wow! For an everlasting possession. Wow! And I will be their

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God. Wow! The Apostle Paul, writing under inspiration,

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Romans 4 .13 won't contradict that. But he will say more. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world.

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That includes Canaan, all right. But he was never to be the savior of the

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Jews only. By divine design, he was to be the savior of Jews and Gentiles.

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We sometimes say, as the Bible does, savior of the world. Heir of the world, built in the

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Abrahamic covenant. Heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness, talking about Christ of faith, faith in Christ.

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It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. I asked you earlier,

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I'll ask you again, and then we'll have a closing verse. Who's your favorite Bible commentator? I think

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Jesus is my favorite Bible commentator. But it's kind of a trick question.

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Because if Paul, as it says, and others, is

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Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus. Romans is red letter, every bit as much as the gospel according to John.

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Because apostles speak with the authority of whom they're apostles of, if I'm getting my grammar right.

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But you get the idea. Yeah, that's what's going on there.

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So we should listen to them. And they should be our favorite Bible commentators.

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They might not have million dollar ad campaigns behind them, or ministries named after them, or you get the idea, or being published by the big publishers.

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But I would just encourage you with the fact that it's more Christianly, from a historic perspective, to trust the

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Bible's interpretation of the Bible than it is to trust anyone else's interpretation.

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And I hope I've at least stimulated your thinking and stirred your hearts with God's help to think that perhaps, no, in actuality, the

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Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is a Christian book. And we should do all that we can by God's grace to recover that kind of perspective, is what we should do.

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And if we don't, we're busy reading the Bible, pretending, even though we're

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Christians. We've trusted in the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we're Christians. We've trusted in His life, and His death, and His resurrection, and His ascension.

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And His perfect work has been credited to us freely by faith and faith alone. And we have no condemnation.

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We're Christians. But if we don't read the old in light of the new, and the new in light of the old, we're pretending like we're not

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Christians. Why would Christians try to pretend like they're not

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Christians? And don't just take my word for it. That's what the Apostle Paul teaches in 2

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Corinthians. We'll end with this, 2 Corinthians 3 .14. The Apostle Paul says, but their minds were hardened.

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Sound good or bad? That's not a good look. Their minds were hardened.

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So we definitely don't want to be like them. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted.

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Because only through Christ is it taken away. Don't try to act like an unbeliever in your

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Bible studies. If you're a believer, it just doesn't make any sense.

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Should I pray? Okay. Father, thank you so much for an exciting time of consideration of things that men and women and boys and girls have been talking about and thinking about for thousands of years now, how to read the

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Bible, how to interpret the Bible. And we're thankful tonight to have this opportunity to come together and hopefully be stirred up to think about this.

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And I would pray that we would see throughout the land, not just in the United States of America, not just in this local congregation, but throughout the whole world and other places in countries like India and countries like China and countries like Germany, everywhere, that we would love to see a resurgence.

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We would love to see a recovery of the fact that the Bible is a Christian book. And we know that it would glorify

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Christ and we know it would be good for the church. And so we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, that wraps up part two of Pat Abendroth's message about Christ in the

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Old Testament. Wasn't that good? I think you should probably turn that into a book or something. That is excellent.

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Don't forget he can be found at thepactum .org or omahabiblechurch .org. This is Mike Abendroth. Thanks for listening.