Insights into the Doctrine of Scripture from the Old Testament

Alpha & Omega Ministries

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Comments are disabled.

00:39

Welcome to the Dividing Line. I'm blessed to be here with you today. I appreciate the opportunity from Alpha Omega Ministries to speak with you.

00:51

I'm Pastor Dan Cofessi of Sovereign Grace Bible Church here in Phoenix and we really appreciate the

00:58

Dividing Line ministry, and it's kind of a mainstay for us, and I know for many of you.

01:05

I've chosen today to speak on Old Testament insights into the doctrine of Scripture, and quoting myself here, whether we're aware of it or not, there is no more crucial issue affecting the lives of our evangelical churches today than the doctrine of Scripture.

01:29

And what do we believe about this book we call the Bible? Assaults and compromises on what

01:38

Scripture is are not new— not at all—but since the 18th century and earlier, these assaults on the doctrine of Scripture are constant, and they are relentless, and I guess we could say it actually began in the garden, right?

01:57

Hath God said. So these aren't new, and a more searching question is, not only what do we believe about the

02:08

Bible, but what do our practices show we believe about the

02:14

Bible? And I'm going to talk today more about the first part of that, what we believe about the

02:20

Bible, but the real test of what we believe about the Bible are our practices and how we actually use the

02:27

Old and the New Testament. Now, for humankind, we cannot compromise the authority of Scripture and continue knowing anything with certainty.

02:43

And what's happening in Western culture is just that. The authority of Scripture has been massively compromised, and the generation after generation effect of that is we've lost conviction about certainty, and the doctrine of Scripture and Revelation and Epistemology are all three tightly bound together, and we need to come to understand that and know how to communicate those concepts and how they're bound together to our culture, and especially to the younger generation among us.

03:24

You know, Revelation, is there any revelation from God? If there is revelation from God, is any of it understandable?

03:36

Is it reliable? Is it trustworthy? And what does trustworthy mean in this discussion?

03:46

For me, trustworthy means revelation, which accurately reveals

03:55

God's mind and thoughts. We might say revelation is trustworthy because and when it reveals what

04:06

God believes. That's my definition of trustworthy revelation.

04:12

It reveals what God himself believes. Now, to contend for the

04:19

Bible's doctrine of Scripture is to contend that we can know the mind of God.

04:29

Not exhaustively, but accurately in regard to the subjects that the

04:36

Bible addresses, and that is what we're contending for. I think at times we don't quite realize, well, what are we arguing about?

04:45

What are we contending for? And I like to express it this way. We're contending that it is possible for human beings and especially those who are regenerated and have the

04:57

Holy Spirit to know the mind of God. We can know what God thinks about things.

05:03

We can understand, not exhaustively, but we can know the mind of God, and we can know that accurately in regard to the subjects that the

05:15

Scripture addresses. Now, my goal today is not to present a tightly reasoned apologetic or defense for a conservative view of Scripture.

05:24

Rather, I desire to familiarize you with the Old Testament's teaching regarding Scripture.

05:33

We cannot be too familiar with how the Old Testament refers to itself, how it talks about Scripture, the expressions that are used in describing

05:44

Scripture. So we're going to just walk through a number of areas. We're going to take our time at this.

05:50

to get familiar with how the Scripture describes itself.

05:57

We're going to begin here. There are a number of figures that the Lord uses which describe how we are to understand the revelation

06:07

He gives through His prophets. A number of those figures center around this idea that He puts words into the mouths of His prophets, and this figure begins in the calling of Moses.

06:29

And let's look at this in Exodus 4, verses 10 through 16.

06:35

This figure of the Lord putting the words into the mouths of His prophets.

06:40

Then Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I'm not eloquent neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.

06:54

So the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth?

07:02

Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, the blind? Have not

07:09

I the Lord? So let's stop here for a moment. The Lord's reasoning is irrefutable here.

07:16

Who has made man's mouth? Well, obviously Yahweh has made man's mouth.

07:22

And what is man's mouth? Well, it has a number of purposes, but one of the higher purposes of man's mouth—higher than just eating—is speech, language.

07:36

And that's what the Lord, of course, is saying here. I have created man's organs of speech.

07:42

I have created language. I have created a human mind that understands words and grammar and all the rest.

07:53

And the Lord is reassuring Moses, since I've created your mouth, Moses, my words will come through it.

08:03

Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth. If you want an

08:08

Old Testament expression that Scripture is

08:14

God -breathed, here it is. I, Moses, will be with your mouth.

08:21

And what does that mean is Moses's mouth is going to out -breathe

08:28

God's words that he desires spoken. I'll be with your mouth to teach you what you shall say.

08:38

That's the Old Testament version, of course, of 2 Timothy 3, 16. But he said,

08:45

Oh my Lord, please send by the hand of someone else. So the anger of the

08:50

Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?

08:56

I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you, and when you see him you'll be glad in your heart.

09:03

Now you shall speak to him, and here it is, put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do, which includes what you shall say.

09:23

So this is a preeminent figure and the foundation of the

09:28

Old Testament's view of the words that come out of the prophet's mouth, that God has placed those words in in his mouth.

09:40

So I'll say it this way, the Lord does not think that this means of communicating his mind is fraught with insurmountable limitations.

09:55

He's actually saying the opposite. The Lord can use human language, human speech, human mouths, and it's not a limitation of him communicating his mind.

10:11

Moses, putting words in the Aaron's mouth, images the relationship between the

10:16

Lord and the prophet. And we see this elsewhere, of course, too.

10:22

When Jeremiah is called, he protests in a similar manner with Moses, and I see why that's happening.

10:38

I got to reload the verses here. When I highlight,

10:49

I did a search. Jeremiah has the same situation.

10:55

Then I then said, I, ah, Lord God, I cannot speak, for I'm a youth. But the

11:01

Lord said to me, do not say I'm a youth, for you shall go to all whom I send you, and whatever

11:07

I command you, you shall speak. God's confident.

11:14

God is confident that he can so work with the prophet that whatever he commands him the prophet shall speak.

11:26

Do not be afraid of their faces, for I'm with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched his mouth, and the

11:37

Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

11:45

See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, and to root up and to pull down, to destroy and throw, the various prophecies, the various words that God wants to speak to the nations and to Israel.

12:01

Verse 11, moreover the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see?

12:08

And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am ready to perform my word.

12:22

So, again, Jeremiah is called, the words are put into into his mouth.

12:34

Ezekiel, we have the similar figure of the calling of Ezekiel.

12:40

The prophet is to speak the Lord's words to Israel, and he eats the scroll which is filled with written words.

12:48

Let's look at that text as well, Ezekiel chapter 3, the prophet's call.

12:58

Then he said to me, son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.

13:07

For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language whose words you cannot understand.

13:20

Surely I have sent you to them. They would have listened to you. But the whole house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me.

13:31

For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard -hearted. So, there's the clarity of the message that he's not sent to a people with a language that is hard to understand.

14:00

He's sent to a people with a language where they will understand the prophet and the

14:05

Lord will put the words into his mouth by the scroll that he has him eat.

14:17

And you shall speak my words to them. And I'm missing the reference on the eating of the scroll.

14:29

You'll have to trust me that he has him eat, eat the scroll.

14:37

But, of course, the writing on the scroll is not gibberish.

14:46

The writing on the scroll are the words that the prophet is to speak. So, this assumes a clarity of Scripture.

14:54

It's not a hard language. Both the Lord, the prophet, and the people—all three of them—understand this language.

15:05

Deuteronomy 8, 3, the figure of the Lord putting his words into the prophet's mouth, is reversed in expressions like the mouth of the

15:14

Lord has spoken. So, this is a reversing of that expression,

15:23

Deuteronomy 8, 3. So, he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know and your fathers did not know.

15:34

That he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

15:46

So, now, that reverses the figure that the Lord uses an anthropomorphism that we can understand, that he has a mouth, and what comes out of those mouths are words that we can understand.

16:02

So, he can have a conversation with us using this vehicle of words.

16:11

The figure is undeniable. So, he says that in other places—Isaiah 120—and we won't go to those places.

16:25

So, the conclusion here is, given these figures, we are not unreasonable in concluding that the very words used by the prophets are those that the

16:39

Lord has chosen. Nor does this conviction deny the human element in Scripture, and this is not the dictation theory of inspiration.

16:51

We take this one piece at a time, but the words that the prophets are using are those that the

17:01

Lord has chosen at the level of the very words that are spoken. It's not a stretch that since the

17:08

Lord made man's mouth, he too knows how to talk and how to talk to the creatures he created, and we have to express it that way.

17:21

When I first say that, the people initially, they don't know what I'm talking about. When I say, you know,

17:27

God knows how to talk, and that's how to begin the conversation with anybody under 35 or 40 years old.

17:34

You just tell them, you know, I believe that God knows how to talk, and then you can begin opening up the idea that we do have revelation that we can understand, because not only does

17:48

God know how to talk, God created our mouths and language and all of these things.

17:53

You know, we're made in the image of God. The doctrine that we're made in the image of God is foundational for understanding the doctrine of Scripture itself.

18:03

So let's go on to another subject then. The expressions, God said, the

18:09

Lord said, the Word of the Lord came. These are so familiar to people that read their

18:18

Bibles, but we need to stop. We need to think about these expressions. They're used hundreds of times in the

18:24

Old Testament. God reveals his mind in words, which can be clearly understood and therefore trusted by his people.

18:37

And these phrases, and God said, remind me later,

18:47

I almost, I hate Windows 10 in some respects.

18:53

It's taken the control away from the user, and I used to be a programmer.

19:00

Okay. These expressions, these phrases, and God said, and the

19:11

Lord said, are sometimes used without a direct object.

19:17

When the Lord intends to reveal his mind to us, he talks to himself.

19:25

In our language, and lets us listen in on what he says to himself.

19:33

So I don't feel too bad when I talk to myself, because the Lord actually does that.

19:40

Now, I'm not trying to be cute here. When he does so, he's revealing his mind to us.

19:50

And the Lord God said to himself, it is not good that the man should be alone.

19:59

I will make a helper comparable to him. Genesis 2 .18

20:06

Genesis 6. So the Lord said to himself in the context,

20:13

I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing, and birds of the air, for I am sorry

20:22

I have made them. He's not speaking to anyone. He's speaking to himself. And the first point here is that the vehicle of revelation is human speech.

20:40

The Lord believes this is a reliable, trustworthy means of revealing his mind to us.

20:49

And so he actually represents himself. He represents his thoughts in the human language, communicating as if he's speaking to himself.

21:02

We listen. What does that tell you? It tells you that he believes human speech is the adequate, sufficient vehicle to communicate his mind to us.

21:16

That's what it tells us. The second point is the fact that he believes the use of human speech is adequate, is seen throughout the

21:32

Bible by his holding man accountable to believe and obey what he has said in human language.

21:40

And throughout Scripture, the Lord holds us accountable based on what he says in human speech.

21:52

So if we assume God is just, he is not violating his justice by holding humanity accountable to what he has revealed with the vehicle of human speech.

22:09

If you deny that God cannot adequately communicate his mind in human speech, you have no basis to say he can justly hold mankind accountable.

22:25

Knowledge makes accountable. The vehicle for that knowledge is human speech.

22:31

The judgment that's coming is going to be based on human speech that Yahweh believes is more than clear enough for him to judge us.

22:42

All of that works together. You deny the clarity of Scripture, then you deny the ability of God to justly judge the world whom he has not clearly spoken to.

22:56

So we need to think about those things. The phrase, the word of the

23:03

Lord came, is a phrase closely associated with a revelation received by a prophet.

23:12

Now, one might make the argument that the word of the

23:19

Lord came simply means the message of the Lord came, not necessarily the actual words.

23:27

However, the above figures, words put into the prophet's mouth, words written on scrolls, which

23:35

I couldn't show you the text, words eaten, make it clear that the expression, the word of the

23:42

Lord came, is synonymous with the words the Lord has put in the prophet's mouth.

23:48

It's not, it can't not be abstracted up. Well, that just kind of means the message of the Lord came, not with these figures of words eaten, words written.

23:59

No, that phrase, the word of the Lord means means the word of the

24:05

Lord came. The word of the Lord came means words. We can't we can't try to abstract up to another level.

24:16

You know, there's a great temptation to do that with some difficult passages of Scripture, but you're giving up the foundation of the doctrine of Scripture if you do that.

24:28

All right. Let's look at another aspect that we learned from the

24:35

Old Testament—passages which confirm an emphasis on individual words. If the

24:42

Lord puts words in the prophet's mouth, then we would think we'd find confirmation of that in Scripture, and of course we do.

24:52

We do find confirmation of that. Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, we already saw that.

24:58

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

25:08

So that reflects very nicely God's calling of Moses. Let's look at Proverbs 30 and verse 5.

25:20

Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

25:28

The reason you can trust Him with certainty is every word of God is pure.

25:37

If we deny the doctrine of the Word of God, we undercut all certainty.

25:44

And so every word is pure. And then we know, of course, the

25:50

Lord Jesus Himself—though we're not dealing with the New Testament here today—but the

25:55

Lord Jesus emphasizes the importance of every jot and tittle. So these expressions confirm the understanding of the individual words.

26:08

Now let's go to another area here regarding being familiar with the

26:18

Old Testament and the doctrine of Scripture—the manner in which the Lord refers to His own speech.

26:28

So how does the Lord talk about His own speech? So let's think about that.

26:34

So here's another expression, then. These expressions, thus says the

26:40

Lord, and says the Lord. These are used 854 times in the

26:48

Old Testament, either to introduce the Lord's words or to declare that what has just been said are the

26:58

Lord's words. Now, it may seem obvious, but it should be stated, the

27:05

Lord, Yahweh, is not reluctant to say these

27:11

Hebrew words are His. Yahweh is not reluctant to own these

27:21

Hebrew words as His words. It's not the prophet's idea to say, thus says the

27:30

Lord. It is the Lord telling the prophet, say, thus says the

27:37

Lord. It is the Lord's idea that the words which follow are

27:43

His words. He never attended many of our seminaries.

27:54

Now, some may disagree with what I've just said and claim, well, no, the prophet used his terminology based on a thinking of his age, but the

28:06

Lord never intended that our human words could actually be His words. Well, as an example, notice the quote marking in the

28:19

New King James and most earlier versions and the

28:24

ESV translations of Isaiah 111 and 1120.

28:29

Let's look at this. And you'll see what I'm saying here.

28:37

Isaiah 111—what did I say? Isaiah 111?

28:45

111. Yeah. And then 120.

28:54

So here we have the New King James, quote, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?

29:04

End notice. End quote. See that? End quote. Then we have the expression, says the

29:11

Lord, open quote, and then the Lord speaks again, I have had enough burnt offerings of rams and fattened cattle.

29:21

Now, someone not familiar with these controversies would read this passage in English, and I put that in green, and they would understand this to be the prophet's word, but not the

29:32

Lord's word, the way the quote marking is here. Now, the

29:39

ESV translation has become sensitive to this issue, and notice what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, and notice there's no quote here anymore.

29:51

Says the Lord, and it keeps right on going. So now when you read this, you very clearly know that the expression, says the

30:00

Lord, is on the lips of the Lord. So if we go down through this passage, and I'm showing you here the

30:11

New King James translation, and most earlier English versions are that way, it does that throughout this passage.

30:19

Come now and let us reason together, end quote, says the Lord, open quote, though your sins are like scarlet and so forth, and it comes down here, and finally there's an end quote, and for the mouth of the

30:31

Lord has spoken. So let's look at that one. For the mouth of the

30:36

Lord has spoken. So look at this here. Again, most

30:42

English versions drop it there, and they don't include this.

30:48

And they say, well, this is perhaps Isaiah saying the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Well, I don't believe that's correct.

30:56

Now, the ESV again has become sensitive to this, and you notice, you shall be eaten by the sword for the mouth of the

31:05

Lord has spoken, end quote. So what's correct?

31:19

Does the Lord refer to His speech in this way, or is it only the prophet?

31:25

Referring to His speech in this manner. Well, Jeremiah 15, 1 through 2, and other places can clarify this, and let's do that.

31:41

Jeremiah, yeah, let's just do it this way.

31:59

Just do it this way. Okay, Jeremiah 15, 1 through 2.

32:10

Okay. Then the Lord said to me, quote, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people.

32:21

Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall be, if they say to you, where should we go?

32:31

Then you shall tell them, thus says the Lord. Okay, now there's no ambiguity there.

32:39

Yahweh is telling Jeremiah to tell them what? Thus says the

32:45

Lord, such as art of death, and so forth. And is this the only place that is explicit?

32:52

Well, no. Let's look at a few other places.

33:00

Genesis 22, 15 is actually the first usage of that expression.

33:12

Genesis 22, 15. Then the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself

33:21

I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing.

33:29

And so, the point

33:35

I'm trying to make here, perhaps somewhat clumsily, and I could multiply more references.

33:46

I don't think that is necessary. You can dig them all out on your own. But the point I'm trying to make here is, the figure of the

33:53

Lord putting words into the prophet's mouth, including the says the

34:00

Lord statements, is proof enough that the Lord intends us to consider the human speech to be

34:09

His words. These are His phrases. Says the Lord, thus says the

34:15

Lord, are not phrases that originate simply from the prophet. He owns these phrases over and over again, is my point.

34:29

There are other expressions that even are clearer where the

34:36

Lord refers to human words as His words. Cases of the

34:42

Lord referring to my words or words, and the reference is to the speech of the prophets.

34:51

Let's look at the most classic one, perhaps, is in Isaiah 66.

35:03

The print's really small here. We'll get there.

35:13

Isaiah 66. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.

35:21

Where is the house that you will build for me? And where is the place of my rest?

35:27

For all these things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the

35:34

Lord. The quotes aren't right here, but we'll go on. Says the Lord, but on this one

35:41

I will look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

35:53

My word. He owns it. So, this is the

36:02

Old Testament concept of Scripture. He trembles at my word.

36:12

And we already did Ezekiel 3, 4 through 7.

36:17

He eats the scroll, which was covered with words, and the Lord explained a figure there that I'm not sending you to a people of strange language or strange speech, and that's an issue about the clarity.

36:32

Ezekiel is sent to a people who can understand, and so the Lord is just fine having the prophet's words be his words.

36:44

And Israel, not listening to Ezekiel's words spoken in their familiar language, is equal to them not listening to the

36:56

Lord's words. He tells Ezekiel, I know, Ezekiel, they're not going to listen to your words, because they don't listen to my words.

37:06

And there's an equivalency between the words of the prophet and the words of Yahweh.

37:13

And so nowhere in Scripture do we see, Old or New Testament, the

37:19

Lord distancing himself from the actual words of his prophets.

37:25

And we are being told over and over again that we can't know the mind of God.

37:32

We cannot understand what the Lord has to say about the things he addresses.

37:39

And the reason we can't is because there's this gaping distance between the mind of God and the words of the prophets.

37:48

But nothing here in the Old Testament shows that there's any gaping distance, and it shows that mankind's going to be held accountable based on the words that Yahweh puts into his prophet's mouth.

38:05

Now, that's not only a negative thing, that's a wonderfully positive thing, because every word of God is pure.

38:13

He is a shield to those who, what, put their trust in him. And how in the world do we put our trust in him?

38:20

Only by hearing his words. And a

38:26

Protestant, liberal view of Scripture entirely undermines the foundation of biblical faith and trust in Yahweh.

38:37

They have entirely undermined what it really means to believe with this

38:44

Protestant, liberal view of Scripture that's centuries old now. We're getting off the subject.

38:54

Okay, so the Lord's not ashamed of his prophets, so neither should we be. Let's go on.

39:03

See, I should read my own notes. There's no justification found within the Bible for the

39:09

Protestant, liberal idea of finding the Word of God in something other than the inscripturated words of the

39:21

Lord's prophets, i .e., Barth's conception of Scripture that, well, there is a

39:27

Word of God, but when we encounter God in experience, that's when we're really encountering the

39:35

Word of God. Not, says the Lord's prophets. No. We encounter the mind of God via the

39:43

Word of God through the prophets whose mouths have had God's words put into them, and that's the place where God talks to us.

40:00

Visions, dreams, and burdens. Very briefly, these are other expressions in the

40:05

Old Testament. Remember, we're just familiarizing ourselves with how the

40:11

Old Testament talks about the Scripture. Vision, dreams, burdens, or oracles.

40:19

This one is probably the most difficult, so I have the least to say on it.

40:24

The Scripture also describes the Lord's means of communication by the prophets using visions and dreams, and according to the

40:35

Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of Old Testament, the

40:40

Hebrew term chazom, kazom, often translated vision, has two common meanings.

40:51

It can mean vision, actually seeing something, but it also often means word of revelation, that is, without seeing.

41:05

And Isaiah 1 .1, for instance, refers virtually to all of Isaiah's prophecies as a chazom, often translated vision, but the only vision in all of Isaiah is his calling in Isaiah chapter 6.

41:22

So the term means word of revelation, and here again, we're striking at the core of what the words are.

41:34

The words are a revealing, an opening up of the mind of God, and Jeremiah is never said to have received a vision.

41:45

However, on a few occasions, the Lord does ask Jeremiah, what do you see?

41:51

But in newer translations, many places where we have vision in our

41:57

English Bibles, we have something like word of revelation or message or something.

42:06

So you should be familiar with this term, vision, somewhat used in the

42:12

Old Testament. Now, of course, the Lord does at times communicate to his prophets with visions, and the exilic prophets

42:20

Ezekiel and Daniel and the post -exilic prophet Zechariah. Visions, in the sense of actually perceiving a vivid, detailed piece of imagery in one's mind, abound in the exilic and post -exilic prophets.

42:38

Now, Numbers 12 .6—and we're going to go to that text a bit later—might lead us to visions and dreams.

42:48

Daniel chapter 7 came in a dream. Dreams also seem more prevalent with the patriarchs, and perhaps the difference between a vision and a dream is whether the revelation comes when the prophet is conscious or asleep.

43:07

Now, the fact that the Lord uses visions, that is, imagery, should not be surprising, because we communicate with imagery all the time.

43:20

We say a picture is worth a thousand words, and imagery is a means of communication, and we should not try to limit

43:29

God to only one means of communication. And as we get our

43:34

Old Testaments, we realize when He breathed out His Word through His prophets,

43:42

He used visions, and He uses imagery. Now, He doesn't tell them—maybe this is bizarre—He doesn't tell them to go chisel out the imagery on the wall of a cave.

43:58

He doesn't say, I want you to preserve my revelation by chiseling out imageries on the walls of a cave.

44:05

What does He tell them to do to preserve the vision? He tells them to put the vision into words, and that's how it works.

44:16

So, He has these visions, and the Lord uses them, but He has those visions inscripturated by the prophet.

44:27

All visions and dreams were preserved by His intent in words.

44:34

So, that brings up an interesting question. Should we try to recreate the vision in order to understand the prophecy?

44:43

I don't know. I'll leave you to think about that. I'll think about it with you.

44:50

One other term, burdens. Prophecies are also called burdens in the

44:56

Old Testament, and some believe that the Hebrew term really should be translated oracle, but the evidence seems to lean toward the burden side.

45:06

The context of these burdens, these prophecies, consists almost always of threatening.

45:13

All I'm doing is exposing us to the various terms and the language and the phrases that are used in the

45:18

Old Testament about Scripture itself. Another subject regarding the

45:27

Old Testament, and this can be important also for how we interpret and how we handle

45:35

Scripture and how we handle the Old Testament. There's an intended clarity and obscurity in the

45:43

Old Testament, and the discussion we've had up to this point confirms what

45:48

Hebrews 1 .1 states—that God, who spoke in times past by the fathers in various ways, a variety of ways, has spoken in these last days in His Son.

46:01

Hebrews 1 doesn't use the term clarity. He's spoken more clearly in His Son, but obviously that's the intention of Hebrews 1.

46:11

God used these various means of communicating His mind in the

46:17

Old Testament, but in these last days He's used another means that the clarity has increased, and we're not compromising the doctrine of Scripture to acknowledge this principle.

46:31

There's clarity, and then there's super -clarity, and we need to be sensitive to that when we deal with the

46:40

Old Testament. And so this variety of speaking in the

46:46

Old Testament includes a variety of clarity and obscurity, and this variety of clarity and obscurity—and this is my key point,

46:59

I have it here highlighted in blue, and though Rich hasn't put it up there for you, the most significant stuff is in blue—this variety and clarity and obscurity was intended.

47:16

So it's not a slam on portions of Scripture that have some obscurity in them.

47:27

Now, a simple—I'm going to give some examples here in a moment—but a simple reading of the

47:34

Gospels reveals that Jesus at times spoke with intended obscurity, didn't He?

47:40

On numerous occasions He spoke that way, and there were purposes for some intended obscurity.

47:49

Numbers chapter 12, verses 6 -11, is somewhat a key text about Old Testament Scripture and prophets, and this is when the

48:11

Lord is reproving Aaron and Mariam for denying or challenging

48:19

Moses' authority, and of course Moses is the prophetic figure here par excellence.

48:26

So then He, this is the Lord, said, Hear my words, if there is a prophet among you,

48:35

I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream, not so with my servant

48:45

Moses. He is faithful in all my house, I speak with him face to face, even plainly, not in dark sayings, and he sees the form of the

49:00

Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

49:05

Now, in this statement, as the prophetic ministry is being formalized and unfolding in Israel, we have a distinction here between Moses, the arch -prophet, and other prophets, and what we're being told here is the revelation that's going to come through the other prophets is not the degree of clarity that comes through Moses, and we need to take that into account.

49:39

And I understand the reason this is done, historically, is because Moses is what?

49:48

The type of Christ. Moses is, the

49:54

Lord's going to raise up a prophet for you like unto me, unto Moses.

50:00

And so all the other prophets are lesser prophets than Moses. The clarity of what comes through Moses is greater, and Moses is a type of ultimately the

50:12

Lord Jesus Christ who is the Word, who is the one and only great prophet in the fullest sense to come.

50:21

But there's an intended obscurity here regarding the other prophets.

50:27

I speak to them in a vision and in a dream. That in itself should tell you something about the clarity issue, perhaps.

50:40

So, I think I've already said those things.

50:48

Also, this matter of intended obscurity, the

50:53

New Testament concept of mystery—Ephesians 3,

50:59

Colossians 1—that New Testament concept of mystery is an acknowledgment that certain matters regarding how the

51:08

Lord would save Israel and the Gentiles were intentionally not disclosed.

51:16

They're there, but they're not clear, and it was intentional and uses the term mystery, that truth which is there, not completely, fully revealed to the old covenant saints.

51:38

So, the New Testament revelation, of course, is fuller, clearer by far.

51:47

And that Christ is a prophet like Moses gets us ready to expect a very clear face -to -face encounter with God speaking.

52:00

God spoke face -to -face with Moses, Christ is that prophet, and God speaks face -to -face with Christ, of course, because he's in the bosom of the

52:11

Father, and then that face -to -face revelation, not obscure, is brought to us humanity in Christ.

52:24

Now, the difference between Moses, who is designated to be a type of Christ, and the rest of the prophets should caution us from finding a precision and a clarity in much of the

52:39

Old Testament that doesn't exist. And that, of course, certain schools of interpretation have gone way off the rails, because they are trying to find a level of precision and clarity in certain aspects of prophetic speech, and it's simply not there.

53:02

And they're setting dates, and they're doing all this kind of stuff, and that clarity is not there.

53:10

So, okay, enough on that subject. I've lost all track of time.

53:20

We can keep going. This is a robust audience. Another subject on doctrine of Scripture in the

53:28

Old Testament, and this one has apologetic value. Well, these all have apologetic value, but is

53:36

Israel's view of prophecy unique among the nations?

53:44

Now, of course, those that want to lessen the authority of the Bible, they want to try to find that the

53:52

Old Testament is just like ancient Near Eastern religion, and so here's a significant question.

54:01

Is Israel's view of prophecy unique among the nations? I believe that it is, and although the

54:08

Old Testament contains prophetic visions, actual visions, and dreams, in many cases, maybe most, the

54:19

Word of God came to the prophet without visions or dreams.

54:25

It appears that when the Word of God comes in such cases, the prophet is fully conscious.

54:33

That is, his human consciousness and faculties are operating as normal when the

54:43

Word of God comes to him. That's the bulk operation in the

54:49

Old Testament. This experience is sharply in contrast to what is called prophetic ecstasy.

54:59

Common among false prophets and other nations. Henry Blicker, and I'm just going to quote a couple paragraphs from him because he says it better than I can, in Hellenistic Jewish writers, such language that prophets are in a state of ecstasy and not conscious of what they are saying is often associated with a basically pagan understanding of the psychology of prophetic inspiration as irrational ecstasy in which the prophet is a purely passive instrument of the divine

55:45

Spirit, unconscious of the words the Spirit utters through him.

55:53

Nowhere does Scripture extol ecstasy as a superior degree of inspiration.

56:02

Ecstasy was not absent, and there's a few examples in the Old Testament, not very many.

56:09

1 Samuel chapter 10, when Samuel anoints

56:14

Saul, there's a group of prophets that come down and greet Saul, and they are in kind of this prophetic ecstasy state.

56:24

But Blicker is right. Nowhere does Scripture extol ecstasy as a superior degree of inspiration.

56:33

Ecstasy was not absent, but Scripture never suggests it indicates a stronger intervention on God's part.

56:45

Major prophets, I'm still quoting, major prophets show no sign of having their intelligence or their consciousness suspended as they carry on the duties of their office and shape their messages.

56:59

Isaiah received his mandate in a vision, but refers to no other.

57:05

John the Baptist was hailed by our Lord himself as a prophet, and more than a prophet, and no ecstatic trait appears in John.

57:16

Moses, as the Old Testament prophet, stands above all others because God does not communicate with him through visions and dreams, and I may throw in there ecstasy, but in the simplicity of transparent fellowship,

57:33

Numbers 12, 6 -8, the disqualification of human faculties is no essential part of the biblical idea of prophecy.

57:45

Isn't that significant? Israel's view of prophecy is very different from that of the nations, and that statement that I just read at the end here is talking about what we often contend for when the church refined its view of Scripture.

58:10

There is a human element in Scripture, we must acknowledge that, and there's a divine element, but the fact that there is a human element does not disqualify the biblical idea of prophecy as the words of God revealing the mind of God.

58:28

And not to mention how this relates to all the craziness going on with additional revelation throughout the history of the church, and it's sad.

58:39

You know, it seems—I'm not quoting any longer here—it seems that the clearest revelations come in the most ordinary manner.

58:49

Now think about that for a while. The clearest revelations come in the most ordinary manner.

58:59

And so when we stand up and preach the Word of God in our churches, do you realize what we're doing?

59:07

This isn't in the notes, but do you realize what we're doing? We are bringing a crystal -clear revelation of the mind of God to the faces in front of us.

59:19

And we're doing that in the most ordinary of manners, by having the words of God and using the faculties that God has given us—yes, blessed by the

59:32

Holy Spirit—explaining those words. We are giving a clearer revelation than any miracle.

59:40

I can't work miracles, but if I could and I could stand on a stage and work miracles, what does a miracle tell you?

59:48

What does a miracle tell you? Well, God's powerful. Well, I know that by reading Romans 1 that God's powerful.

59:55

My natural conscience tells me that God's powerful. The clearest revelations come in the most ordinary manner, even biblically, with what?

01:00:08

Moses and Jesus. Those are the pinnacles of God speaking clearly, and it's in the most ordinary manner.

01:00:19

In the surrounding nations and in Israel, false prophets impress people by their bizarre behavior, and people fall for this all the time, as they believe some supernatural force has taken over the prophet, and he's foaming at the mouth, and everybody begins to listen for the words that'll come out, and somehow they think that's supernatural, that that's a clear revelation.

01:00:50

Well, everything in the Old Testament is contrary to that way of thinking about the clarity of revelation.

01:00:59

So, that kind of stuff has always been with the church. It's with us today. However, the biblical pattern, especially in regard to the two greatest prophets,

01:01:09

Moses and Jesus, is that the signs they worked authenticated their message—I won't deny that—which for the most part, their message came in ordinary human speech.

01:01:26

So, prophetic ecstasy squashes the human element in Scripture.

01:01:35

The clearest revelations really are the most normal and have the human element preserved, and this appears to be the teaching of Scripture on the matter.

01:01:49

So, I think, you know what, let's go on a little more.

01:02:04

Having said all that, let's just kind of bask a little bit in how the

01:02:09

Scripture describes itself. Let's just do that a little bit. The view of Scripture expressed in the

01:02:18

Psalms, Proverbs, and a few other places. Deuteronomy 4, 1 through 2.

01:02:40

Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe.

01:02:47

God's going to teach them through the vehicle of human language, which

01:02:52

I teach you to observe. That you may live and go in the land and possess the land which the

01:02:57

Lord your God of your fathers has given you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the

01:03:09

Lord. They can know they're obeying the commandments of the Lord based on the word of the

01:03:15

Lord. We can have certainty about what God commands us to be and do because of the word of the

01:03:23

Lord. And so, don't add to it or take away from it which

01:03:30

I command you. So, that's wonderful.

01:03:36

You can know what God expects of you. I can know what

01:03:42

God expects of me, and I can know that with clarity and certainty.

01:03:48

That's a wonderful thing. Let's look at other wonderful statements about the word of God.

01:04:02

Deuteronomy 30, 11 through 15. Apologize, I can't get to them faster here.

01:04:15

The Sunday school class wouldn't put up with the delays. For this commandment, which

01:04:24

I command you today, if you don't know this passage, this is the ultimate—this is the locus classicus, if you want to use the big words, of the clarity of Scripture, this passage right here.

01:04:40

For this commandment, which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.

01:04:51

It's not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend in heaven for us to bring it down to us?

01:04:59

Do you realize every person saying, oh no, you can't know the mind of God. You can't understand

01:05:05

God. It's too high, you know, like the pagan philosophers, you know. God may exist, but we can't understand

01:05:14

Him. This is contrary to all of that unbelief. The commandment, it's not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us to bring it down?

01:05:30

By the way, who has actually done that? Who ultimately has brought it down from heaven? Have you read?

01:05:36

Yeah, the Lord Jesus. You read John chapter 3? Jesus is laying claim to be that ultimate, clear, final revelation that does come from heaven.

01:05:45

And what Jesus said is tied into this passage, that He is the one who has come down to heaven and brought the final, full revelation of God.

01:05:55

But even here in the historical context of the Lord using the words of Moses, it's not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven and bring it down to us?

01:06:08

So it's not mysterious that we can't understand it, and it's not so far away that we can't reach it, that we may hear it and do it.

01:06:20

Nor is it beyond the sea. You know, we can't cross the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

01:06:34

But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

01:06:44

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the

01:06:52

Lord. What is he talking about? The word that Moses brought to them and the word that he has

01:06:58

Moses inscripturate. And that word, how is it in their mouths?

01:07:04

They were to hear it, and they were to repeat it. And so this wonderful statement is about the clarity of God revealing

01:07:16

His mind in written Scripture. It's just wonderful.

01:07:26

You can trust what God says and reveals, and you don't need an experience to know it.

01:07:39

Yes, you need the work of the Holy Spirit, but you don't need an experience of ecstasy or whatever.

01:07:48

The mind that God has given you—enough said. Okay, Proverbs 30, 5 through 6, let's bask in some of these wonderful, wonderful statements.

01:08:13

Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

01:08:21

Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God. And every word is pure.

01:08:27

Therefore, you can trust every word. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

01:08:36

So there's the Deuteronomy. I mean, this is Proverbs. This is written way, way after Deuteronomy, but you see the concept of Scripture carried forward in latter portions of God's Word.

01:08:49

Every word is pure. You can trust it. Wonderful, wonderful. Psalm 12, verse…we'll find it here.

01:09:01

Psalm 12. That's not

01:09:10

Psalm 12. That's Numbers 12. I'll get there.

01:09:17

I focused on the 12. Psalm 12. The words of the

01:09:23

Lord are pure words, like silver. It doesn't say the messages, the message of the

01:09:30

Lord. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

01:09:45

You shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The translation here is kind of disputed, whether he's talking about preserving the words of the

01:09:56

Lord or preserving the Lord's people. So the

01:10:01

New King James Translation gives you the idea that it's referring to the words being preserved.

01:10:09

But the words are pure, purified in a furnace seven times, seven times over.

01:10:17

They can't be any purer. And it makes sense. Since they're Yahweh's words, they can't be any purer.

01:10:27

Wonderful. Now I think we're going to Psalm 19. Oh, that was not in here.

01:10:43

I can't hear you. Psalm 19, verse 7.

01:10:49

No, the list of adjectives are just wonderful. Most people know this passage.

01:10:55

The law of the Lord is what? Perfect. Converting the soul. It's the law of the

01:11:01

Lord. It's the testimony of the Lord. What? It's sure. See, that's the certainty thing. That's the epistemology thing.

01:11:08

The testimony of the Lord is sure. Making wise is simple.

01:11:14

The statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart.

01:11:19

You know, how can you tell someone's been converted? How can you tell someone's really been operated on by the

01:11:25

Holy Spirit? Right there. That's all you can tell. Rejoicing the heart. When I see someone who hasn't ever rejoiced over the

01:11:34

Word of God begin rejoicing over the Word of God, that's the work of the

01:11:39

Holy Spirit. Rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

01:11:48

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

01:11:57

If the Lord's speech was not clear, His judgments and holding man accountable would be unjust.

01:12:11

And here, judgments is not just referring to judgment, but it's a synonym for Scripture's expression.

01:12:19

I understand that. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honeycomb, than honey in the honeycomb.

01:12:30

I mean, that's the other evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Word is God -breathed, and when

01:12:36

God breathes on our human souls, guess what? The Word becomes sweet.

01:12:43

That's the miracle that we're looking for when we evangelize people and when we disciple people.

01:12:52

And we long to see our churches filled with people to whom the Word of God is sweet.

01:13:04

So, okay, that's enough. Psalm 1830, the

01:13:11

Word of the Lord is proven. Psalm 33 -4, the Word of the

01:13:16

Lord is right. I'm just going to skip over some of those. Ah, Psalm 107 -11, let's look at this.

01:13:27

This is the Thanksgiving Psalm, Psalm 107 -11.

01:13:37

You ever been here? Let's back up a little bit.

01:13:42

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the

01:13:56

Most High. I mean, do you realize what mankind is doing when we despise the words of God, when we rebel against the words of God?

01:14:10

It's despising the counsel. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor, and they fell down, and there was none to help.

01:14:18

How did they get here? By rebelling against the words of God. But he's merciful.

01:14:25

They cried out to the Lord in their trouble. They fell down, verse 12, they fell down, and there was none to help.

01:14:32

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.

01:14:39

He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains into pieces.

01:14:46

So, they rebelled. And I can't help, you know, this here, those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, you can't help but think about the future judgment in eternity and where humanity is going to end as they rebel against God's clear revelation.

01:15:19

And the clearer the revelation becomes, the greater the accountability is. And there's still time for mercy, of course.

01:15:33

Wonderful statements about the Word of God. Isaiah 48.

01:15:54

I can see it. Isaiah 48. Many Christians know this.

01:16:01

It's exciting the first time a new believer reads a statement like this. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the

01:16:09

Word of our God stands forever. Oh, Zion, you who bring good tidings, get into the high mountain of Jerusalem.

01:16:19

You who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid.

01:16:25

Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. And how are those good tidings going to be brought?

01:16:31

By the Word of the Lord. The only way to truthfully bring pure, trustworthy, good tidings is to bring the

01:16:45

Word of God. Amen.

01:16:54

Lord willing, we'll try again a week from today on other aspects of Old Testament Doctrine of Scripture.

01:17:04

I want you to be familiar with everything that relates to the

01:17:09

Doctrine of Scripture that's in the Old Testament. We need to have that familiarity and then build off of that.