Why Read the Old Testament

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Why Read the Old Testament

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name's Mike Abendroth, and I today am going to try to motivate you. I'm going to try to spur you on. I'm going to try to get underneath your skin so that you will read the Old Testament.

The purpose of the show today is to be excitedly, motivationally, practically, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm trying to get you to read the Old Testament. How's that? I want you to understand who God is.

I want you to read all of the Bible. I don't want you to be a Marcionite canon person, Marcionite canon, and that person would only believe there'd be 10 books of the New Testament, so he only studied 10 books.

But sometimes, Christians, we say we believe in all 66 books of the Bible, all inspired by God, all God-breathed, but practically, we never read the Old Testament. These days, I've been consumed with the Old Testament.

I've been studying, reading, fascinated by God as he deals with people in the Old Testament, how he deals with sinners, how he forgives them, how he is sovereign over the sinner's evil acts, over the saint's evil acts, over the saint's good acts, over the sinner's seemingly good acts.

I love the Old Testament, and if the Bible is inerrant, infallible, inspired, sufficient, authoritative, then you ought to read that book, including the Old Testament. I think you should read the Old Testament because how can you understand who God is without understanding the Old Testament?

There's not two different gods. You need to see God in the Old Testament properly and who God is. I could ask you this question. If you had to put a pie chart together, make a little pie. So if you're driving, you can't do this, but if you're at home, you just draw a circle, which would be our pie, and you split that in half and in half and in half, and so you've got eight pieces of the pie.

Preferably, anything with rhubarb in it would be my kind of pie. Not too much sugar, not too much raspberry, not too much strawberry, but just rhubarb, a lot of that kind of stringy rhubarb that makes your teeth feel like it has fuzz on it.

That's what you want, this fuzz rhubarb, and you have eight pieces of the pie. Dr. Block taught me this, Dr. Daniel Block at Wheaton College. Now, I'd like you to write in those eight pieces of the pie descriptions of God from the Old Testament, attributes, characteristics, perfections, something that talks about God.

So you could write something like just, that would get you going. So what else would you put in there for the Old Testament view of God? People say all the time, well, you know, that's the God of the Old Testament, like there are two gods.

So if we're gonna study the Old Testament, what kind of God are you going to find in the Old Testament? Well, you've got justice there. My guess is you'll probably put wrath, as you think of Noah's Ark and Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife.

What else would you put? Just, wrathful, maybe holy. Yeah, holy, Isaiah chapter six, you'd say that God is holy. You'd probably say omnipotent because He is all-powerful, He is strong, He is almighty, and off you go.

So I'm just gonna give you about 10 more seconds to fill in your pie chart. You should have eight attributes of God, eight perfections of God, eight things about God like just, holy, wrathful, maybe righteous, that would be a good one, righteous, don't you think that would be a good one describing the Old Testament God?

And I'll give you eight. There would be more, there's probably an infinite amount since God is infinite, but just a few that you could think of that apply to God, the Old Testament. Okay, so now we're going to use the Old Testament to teach us what those things are regarding, in regards to God Himself saying this.

Exodus chapter 34, you know God has passed by Moses, God has protected Moses, as Moses has seen the back parts of God, as it were, and then it says in Exodus 34, five, you got your pie chart, right? Right next to it, Exodus 34, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord, Yahweh, the Lord God. Now here they come. So pie chart first, compassionate. This is the Old Testament, compassionate. That's the God of the Old Testament, compassionate.

Number two, gracious. Do you have that on your chart? That's pretty amazing, isn't it? Gracious, slow to anger. Number three, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger. That's an amazing view of God that not many talk about, but if you don't read your Bibles, you won't see.

You need to read the Old Testament. Don't just say, well, God is just a God of wrath in the Old Testament. My God's a God of love. A, there's only one God. B, the same God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.

And C, there's all kinds of attributes of God. And here we see in Exodus chapter 34 that number one, God is compassionate. Number two, God is gracious. Number three, He is slow to anger, slow to anger.

Abounding, number four, in loving kindness. Abounding in truth. If you want to put those in one piece of the pie or split them, you can do whatever you want. Maybe we have eight, maybe we have seven, maybe we have nine, but you get the point.

Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, abounding in truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands. So we've got loving, kind, you know, loyal love. Chesed, it's a covenant-keeping love.

Who forgives iniquities. He's a forgiving God. He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. There we have justice. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers, on the children and on the grandchildren and to the third and fourth generations.

You see a God like that, no matter how many pieces of the pie you have there with attributes, you should respond to that kind of being, to that God, to that supernatural entity, the same way Moses did.

And here's what happens in Exodus 34, verse eight. Moses made haste to bow low toward the ground and worship. Moses made haste to bow low towards the earth and worship. If you study the Old Testament, it will increase your worship.

You will see God for who He is, how He has revealed Himself. After all, 70 of the Bible is the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. And you will be able to see God. I don't want you to say, well, we're new covenant people.

We don't look at the Old Covenant. Well, I suggest you don't think that way anymore and that you study the Old Testament and you will see a God who is worthy of quick worship, humble worship, adoration.

Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, if now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your possession.

Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I want you to study the Old Testament. I might as well ask you the question. If you're listening today, have you read your Old Testament? Have you read all the Bible?

What's prevented you from reading all the Bible? If you're a new Christian, you just got saved recently in the last year, let's say, well, I'm gonna give you a pass. I hope you have got a taste for the Word and you're consuming the Word.

I remember when I got saved, I was just ravenous, eating up the Word of God as I could, as fast as I could. And if you're a new Christian, then I don't condemn you, I don't chase in you, I don't discipline you, I don't reprove you, I don't rebuke you for not reading your Old Testament.

But if you've been a Christian for over a year, two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, and you haven't read your Old Testament, I could probably try to shame you and say, how could you?

But let me try a different tack today. It's not too late. It's not too late to read your Old Testament, to understand this great God who is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.

That's the God that I want you to see from the Old Testament. Holy? Absolutely. Wrathful? Absolutely. But you've got to read the Old Testament. You've got to read the Bible. And if you say to me, well, I'm not really a good reader, and I don't really like to read, then my response is, well, that's too bad because God loves to write, and God is a good writer.

And these days, according to Hebrews chapter one, we don't learn about God from dreams, visions, or any other kind of thing that maybe did reveal God in the Old Testament days and in the early New Testament times.

But today he has revealed himself to us in his son. And his son has sent apostolic messengers, and that's how we learn about God. There's no other way to learn the specifics about God. Nature can tell you broadly that God is wise and powerful, but you don't understand sin, atonement, bloodshed, substitution, resurrection, soon return, in any other way except by God revealing it to you.

And you get to see a lot of that very thing in the Old Testament. How can you understand God if you don't read the Old Testament? How can you understand Jesus's father if you don't read the Old Testament?

How can you understand the New Testament without reading the Old Testament? If you say, well, I have a hard time with Hebrews and understanding Hebrews, my suggestion is read Leviticus. Oh, I have a hard time understanding Matthew.

My suggestion is read the Old Testament. Well, I have a hard time understanding the book of Revelation. My suggestion, read the Old Testament. Listen to what Paul Benoit says in his book called The Survey of the Old Testament, which is an excellent book, and you ought to get it.

Survey of the Old Testament, Paul Benoit. A person will never properly understand the New Testament scriptures if the Old Testament scriptures remain a mystery to him. Yet for the average Christian, the pattern, unity, and progression of the Old Testament remain vague or unknown.

Although almost everyone knows about Noah and the Ark, Moses and the Red Sea, and numerous other stories found in the books of the Old Testament, the Old Testament itself often seems fragmented and is seen only as a loosely knit group of stories.

But to understand God's ways and his purposes in this age, as well as his plans for future ages, requires a clear comprehension of the, drum roll, Old Testament, end quote, page 12. You need to find out who God is and his dealings with sinful people, particularly Israel, through the Old Testament.

God is the author. That should motivate you to read the Old Testament, right? Not just that a lot of the Bible's the Old Testament. Jesus' Bible's the Old Testament. The Old Testament reveals God as compassionate and gracious, slow to anger.

You can't understand the New Testament without the Old Testament. Those are all great reasons. But how about God is the author? That's a good reason. Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

You can email me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. You can always email me questions. Some I'll answer, some I won't answer. If you're nice, I'll probably answer them. If you're mean, I probably won't.

I've been getting some emails from folks that disagree with me vehemently, yet are kind and nice, and they say I listen to the show. So I think that's perfect. I want you to listen. I want you to listen to the radio show.

And if you wanna ask questions in a nice way, I'd be glad to answer them. We don't have to agree on everything. My wife and I don't agree on everything. How about that? Study the Old Testament because God is the author.

God the creator, God the redeemer, God the savior. He's the author of the Bible. I'd hate to stand before God one day and say, you know, I've been a Christian 20 years and never read your writings. Now, there's gonna be no judgment for Christians on that day because Christ will have paid for all our sins, including our lackadaisical attitude towards the Bible, for which I am glad because I don't read the Bible with enthusiasm like I should.

Regularly, I struggle with saying to myself, I need to read my Bible today. And I just try to force myself to do it. Now, as I begin to study, then the good feelings overcome me, and I'm happy I did. But if you've got a favorite author, and you like to read that author's writings, how much more should you read God the author's writings?

Some people say, well, I read everything Stephen King writes. I'm not really a big Stephen King fan. I don't have time for fiction. Once in a while, I'll read a classic just because it's a classic, and I feel I need to be well-versed in some of those things.

But I like nonfiction, so let's say David McCullough. One of my favorite historical writers of nonfiction is David McCullough. You probably recognize his voice in a lot of PBS shows. And he can write about floods in Pennsylvania that make it interesting.

He can write, you know, Teddy Roosevelt, and it's interesting. He can make you love understanding the construction of the Brooklyn, excuse me, the Golden Gate Bridge or the Panama Canal. I like to read David McCullough.

I don't know if I'm a Truman fan or not, but I'm gonna like the book that McCullough's written on Truman. But what about God? I used to be a collector, and I would collect all kinds of things. And I started getting into collecting music, and CDs weren't out yet, so I'd collect 45s, picture-sleeve 45s, and long play LP 33s.

And I'd try to find these collector's items. Oh, I was into the Rolling Stones. Here's an amazing Rolling Stones cover. It's this 3D cover. And matter of fact, it was a horrible 3D cover, as I think about it now, Our Satanic Majesty's Request.

I guess the grace of God has brought me a long way. Hallelujah, by the way. But I would try to find those things. And everything that the Stones put out, I'd try to get a copy of and try to listen to.

And I was obsessed. I was a worshiper. Well, now if God has written something, don't you think we should want all those books? I wonder what they'd think 2 ,000 years ago. Yeah, you have all the revelation of God, but you just don't read it.

So, would you read the Old Testament? Would you read 70 of your Bible? Probably if your study Bible has any kind of, you know, anything for it, it'll have at the beginning or at the end, you know, how to read through your Bible in a year.

You can pull it up online. Robert Murray McShane's got a great little menu, which books do you read today to get all the way through. I know that God is the author of the Bible for lots of reasons, but one is because he said it.

And prophecy is never made by an act of human will, 2 Peter 1, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. God uses men to inscripturate his word. Oh, it was written by men. Well, of course it was written by men, but it was superintended by God.

Nobody just got up and said, I think I'll come up with this and write it down. That's not what our scripture is, because no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. That doesn't mean how I interpret the Bible, but it means exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to revelation.

It's not made up by this person. Did you know Jesus said of the Old Testament, when he was on the temptation mount, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And how do you understand every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God when you haven't even read it? So I want to try to get you to read it. Think of what Paul told Timothy, the pastor. Really, at the time, there's no New Testament canon.

There are no New Testament scrolls. There's not a book, and so he's referring to the Old Testament. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

Here we have the Old Testament called the word of truth. Of course, all the Bible's the word of truth, but here, the Old Testament, the word of truth. Do you want truth in today's age of lies, of deceit, covert ops?

What is truth? As Francis Schaeffer would say, what is true truth? How about Joshua 1 .8? This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Why don't you read the Bible so you can understand who God is and God can give you great wisdom through the Old Testament? I think you should read the Old Testament for lots of reasons.

One is, if you're not saved, how about read the Old Testament? I think God could save you as you read the Old Testament. We as Christians like to say to our friends all the time, oh, if you're not a Christian, read the Gospel of John.

I think that's a great idea. The seven I ams, seven great miracles, all confirming and validating the Messiah, the hope of Israel, Israel's king. I think that is a great thing to do, read the Gospel of John.

I like that. I often say to people, read the Gospel of Mark. It's quick-paced, it's fast. You are impressed with this man named Jesus who's the Messiah, who's also God. But what if somebody started in the Old Testament?

Could anybody be saved by just reading the Old Testament? Well, I hope so. God saves people through the word of God, and sometimes he uses the Old Testament. I think of Acts chapter eight, but an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, arise, go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

In parentheses, this is a desert road. And he arose and went, and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship.

And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. That's an Old Testament book, isn't it? And the spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do you understand what you're reading?

Well, how could I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of scripture, which he was reading, was this, it's Isaiah 53. He was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.

In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who shall relate his generation? For his life is removed from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me, of whom does this prophet say?

Of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or someone else? And Philip opened his mouth, formally getting ready to teach, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. And as they went along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized?

And he ordered the chariots to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. You can get saved from the word of God. It is living, it is abiding, it saves people.

And I think of Romans chapter 10, who will call upon the name of the, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they're sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Read the Old Testament, you could get saved. Matter of fact, you should read the Old Testament. Here's another reason, because God sanctifies people as they read the Old Testament. Yes, you, Christian, a member of the church, body of Christ, the bride of Christ.

Listen to 1 Peter 2 .2, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. How about Psalm 119 .9, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to thy word.

With all thy heart I have sought thee. Do not let me wander from thy commandments. Thy word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So positively and negatively, positively sanctifying and negatively keeping you away from sins that you ought not sin.

I think those are all good reasons to read the Old Testament, don't you? Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry, WVNE 760 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And it is almost time to wrap up the show, and today's show is this.

Please read your Old Testament. Go home tonight and open up 1 Samuel and start reading it. I always tell people to go to 1 Samuel and begin to read, and here's Hannah, here's what's going on with Samuel, here's what's happening with Saul and David.

It's just so interesting to see. I'm gonna yawn here if I'm not careful. There it goes, I knew I was gonna do it. I need some more Pete's Coffee is what I need. You can see this great God interacting with people.

And these people are not all super saints. God is the super Savior, and I love to see what God does through sinful people, fallen people, weak people, immature people. That's another reason to read your Old Testament.

If you like to read Christian biographies, how God uses a weak person. I read Christian biographies for that reason, and I also read them because it spurs me on. It makes me want to do more for the Lord and the grace of God, but to do more work.

And so it's the same thing. It's like reading a biography of past saints. I believe these people were saved. They were counted, they were reckoned as righteous, just like Abraham in Romans chapter four.

And so you read their lives and you say, look at how God was good to them. And look at how God used them even though they weren't perfect. I'm not perfect, you're not perfect. And even as Christians, we stand in God's sight, in his law court, as it were, as perfect based on Christ's perfection.

But practically, day-to-day life, we still fall short. We still don't do what we ought to do. And so we study the Old Testament and see some of these super saints who are in the Bible and realize, you know what, they were sinful too, and God still used them.

That motivates me. That motivates me so I'm not so depressed. I just stay in bed all day and say, you know, I can never measure up. Well, in Christ we have measured up because he measured up for us. But God uses the Old Testament saints, and he uses them in a great way.

So I want you to study your Old Testament. I want you to master your Old Testament. And if you've got, if you're 30 years old, you got 60 years to live total, you got 30 years, you got one book a year.

Some of the books like Obadiah read very quickly. The other thing you can do, maybe read the book of Jonah. To one setting, read through the book of Jonah, and you'll be impressed with who God is and how he saves.

God is the Savior, and you'll learn that in the Old Testament, that Jesus Christ is the King. Would you read your Old Testament? And I see those hands, I see those eyes.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.