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Now, in this world, there are the haves and the have-nots. The haves have seen Niagara Falls, the have-nots haven't. When you go to Niagara Falls and you sense the falls, you smell the falls, you feel the falls, you hear the falls, it's incredible.
Something about Niagara Falls. I did some study this week, and people have gone over the falls in strange objects. Of course, the one that we always think of is the barrel. 1930, July 4th, George Tsikakis, a Greek immigrant in Buffalo, New York, went over the falls in a barrel.
He designed the barrel so that he could stay alive within the barrel, there was enough oxygen for eight hours, but they could not rescue him until 18 hours, and he was found dead in the barrel. But his pet turtle that he brought with him lived.
1951, speaking of strange objects over the falls, William Redhill, Jr., and the account says son of William Redhill, Sr., thanks, I'll drink to that. He went over the falls in a craft named The Thing.
The vessel broke apart on impact, and he was killed. 1961, speaking of strange objects, Nathan Boya went over the falls in a rubber ball nicknamed The Plungosphere. Plungosphere. Hit the rocks, bounced, he lived.
1995, Robert Overacker went over the falls on a jet ski because he wanted to raise awareness. For the homeless. That seems like that's logical. Over the falls we go on the jet ski. The parachute did not open.
He plunged to his death. And it's not a person going over the falls, but of interest. 1827, William Forsythe, he owned a hotel and he thought it would be a good idea to take a schooner and fill it full of animals and send it over the falls.
So he filled the schooner named The Michigan with buffalo, bears, raccoons, a dog, some say two foxes, 15 geese, and an eagle. Sends it adrift. Allegedly the two bears jump free and swam to Goat Island.
And every other animal perished except one goose. Pushed that schooner out. Nothing else needs to be done. Down the current you go over the falls. That's exactly a wonderful picture of Hebrews chapter 2.
The drift is not doing terroristic things. The drift is not murder and idolatry and pornography and forbidden lust. The drift for the Christian is just doing nothing. And over the falls you go. Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2 this morning as we deal with not the drift of the falls, but drift of a spiritual nature.
Theological drifting. The danger of neglect you might call it. The threat of carelessness. The hazard of inattention. The peril of taking your eyes off of Jesus, doing nothing else, and then there are consequences.
Of course not eternal consequences to the child of God, but consequences nonetheless. And so the writer of Hebrews wants to take the readers, grab them by their robe or their lapel or by their jacket and say, Jesus is the high priest.
And for 13 chapters we're going to teach you about Jesus, this great high priest. Unlike Paul who focuses on maybe the union with Christ. Unlike Paul maybe who focused on justification by faith alone.
The writer of Hebrews, if you get only one little bit of information about summary of the whole book, is Jesus is the great high priest. He stands between God and man as the man Christ Jesus. So everything revolves around that and so the writer of Hebrews, he takes his lens and he says Jesus is better than angels.
And soon enough he'll say Jesus is better than Moses and better than Aaron and better than the Old Covenant and better than everything else. But right now he's been talking in chapter 1 and 2, Jesus is better than angels.
And like a good preacher, because that's what this really is, this book is a sermon, it's called an exhortation in Hebrews 13. He'll stop every once in a while with application points and they're called warnings.
Sometimes when you preach you can front load the sermon with application. Sometimes you can wait to the very end and say here's four takeaways. Or sometimes you can punctuate the sermon with application points.
Let's learn something, now let's step back and reflect. And that's what Hebrews 2, 1 through 4 is. The first warning where this truth that we've learned in chapter 1, Jesus is greater than angels, should mean something.
You just can't take it or leave it. You can't just neglect it. And let's think about this for a second congregation. What in your life, if you neglect it, what happens if there's something even tangible in your life, rather, that you neglect?
When you neglect the yard or the garden, well weeds come. You neglect work, you neglect health, there's trouble. We understand neglect in temporal arenas, but the same thing's true in spiritual life. Neglect is never good.
And so he uses this goad of the warning to shake the unbeliever who's listening to the sermon unto faith in Christ Jesus. And he uses the same goad for believers to shake them out of their lethargy, to shake them out of their spiritual doldrums.
It's a warning shot across the bow. Let's read Hebrews 2, 1 to 4. That's really our section that we're looking at. The last two weeks, this week and maybe next week as well. Truths matter about Jesus being greater than angels.
And it says, Therefore, in chapter 2, verse 1, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.
He wants the readers, He wants the listeners in that time and in our time and today to be cognizant of the fact that drift is real and you don't want to get caught in that current and do nothing about it.
Now, it's important congregation, before we dive back in here, to be reminded, Hebrews is talking about the High Priest, but your response that He wants is faith. He's after faith. And so, as we are thinking about drifting, although it's true we might drift into some sin, we might drift into, well, we don't read our Bibles as much, or pray as much, and we might drift into, we don't have our quiet times.
The main point, though, in Hebrews is this, don't drift by unbelief. Keep on believing. The sin in the book of Hebrews is the sin of unbelief. And by the way, that's the core of every other sin. Unbelief leads to lawlessness, leads to idolatry.
Show me somebody with idols, idols in their heart, idols in their house, and it comes back to lawlessness, but it finds its root in unbelief. Keep believing. Here's this great High Priest. Keep believing.
He uses words like confidence. Do you see Hebrews 3 .14? For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 4 .16, Let us then with confidence draw near.
The sin that was being dealt with in Hebrews was unbelief. Keep on believing in the great High Priest. Remember back in Hebrews 11? Without faith it's impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
And then by faith, Noah, by faith, Abraham, by faith, Sarah, by faith, by faith, by faith. The issue is, Jesus is the High Priest. Keep believing. That's the big point. But how do we protect ourselves from this drift, this backsliding, to use modern vernacular?
What we saw two weeks ago, number one, the first step was, pay attention to Jesus Christ. When you feel yourself drifting, and when you feel unbelief creeping in, and when the doubts come in, and you're wondering, what should I do?
Well, look to the shore where there's that steady, firm, fixed, lighthouse-like object, Christ Jesus, verse 1. We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. What have we heard? Chapter 1, Jesus is greater than angels.
You feel yourself to drift? Get that magnifying glass out. By the way, I wondered the other day, why my grandparents always had magnifying glasses everywhere? I mean, were they like special botany people, and they were looking and everything?
And I'm thinking, I've got to have a magnifying glass now with my little workbench downtown, a downtown downstairs. Here we go again. I'm just opening this right now. We're going for it. Come on. Breakfast of champions.
It'll be a 90-minute sermon today. Everywhere I go is this magnifying glass because I'm so blind. I can't see. I put the readers on and use the magnifying glass. I'm just floating away. I feel I'm drifting.
I'm far from the Lord. I've got all these doubts, and secularism is in my mind, and tolerance, and inclusivism, and all these other things. Then get the magnifying glass out, as it were. Open up your Bible and say, I need to focus on who Jesus is again.
Even if you start focusing on yourself too much, it's the wrong focus. He says, pay closer attention. Get down and see the pixels, and get down and see the nuances, and see the beauty of Christ, and you'll go, yeah, that's right.
I'll give you an example. You begin to study Christ after you're kind of having a season of dryness and barrenness, and you study Christ and you think, wait a second, Jesus Christ, He never sinned. Can you imagine the Pharisees, and the scribes, and the hypocrites, and the Sadducees?
Modern day equivalent to the Washington Post, Woodward and Bernstein reporters. Follow Jesus, hound Jesus, to try to get any dirt on Jesus. For three years they're trying to say, He's not the Messiah, He sinned, He's done this.
They try to get dirt on Him for following Him for three years. And what did they finally say? He said, don't pay taxes, and He said, destroy the temple. He said, neither. But that's all they had. I thought to myself the other day, how many minutes would Woodward and Bernstein have to follow me before they could find enough dirt on me to say He's not the Messiah?
Jesus never sinned. He always pleased the Father. You begin to study and you think, He's my captain, He's my advocate. I'm drifting away, but now I see the fixed lighthouse. That's chapter 2, verse 1.
When you struggle, you have to pay attention to Jesus. We saw last week in verses 2 and 3, is there another step when you feel yourself struggling? You not only look to Jesus carefully, but you realize the ultimate drift of unbelief is hell.
Verse 2, For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? The ultimate drift is hell.
So I don't want to get anywhere close to that drift. I want to stay off the drift. For the believer, that's good because he uses this warning to protect us. Stay away from the edge. Don't get too close.
And for the unbeliever, they realize, well, I kind of had this superficial faith, this intellectual faith, this assent faith, but it's not really real faith. I don't really know if it's worth it. You're going to be going over eternal wrath falls, and no plunges fear.
And so that motivates. If angels delivered Mosaic Law, and there were temporal judgments on Israel, you sin, you don't go into the land, and it was true, do you think now Jesus, the greater than angels God-man, gives His word, and you just go, ah, whatever Jesus says, it's no big deal.
And now today, how do we avoid drift? Remember Jesus. Pay attention to Him. Remember, ultimate drift leads to hell. And now number three, remember who gave the message. Remember the authority of the message.
Jesus gave this message, and He is reliable. And what does this text say about this great message of salvation? Remember in the middle of verse 3, this great salvation? A great salvation, great forgiveness, great standing before God, great eternal life promises, great hope in the future, great hope that God takes everything, works them together for good.
It's a great salvation. Who declared the great salvation? Verse 3b, it was declared at first by the Lord, Jesus. He's the one that said it. See, I'm drifting away. Well, focus on Lord Jesus, His person and work.
Don't forget about what's over the cliff. And lastly, right here in verses 3 and 4, who gave this message? Not your science teacher. Not your mommy and daddy. You know, the first time you realize, mom and dad are not perfect.
Mom and dad usually tell me the truth, and what they said, that wasn't true. Those are devastating times for children. You'll experience those one day, I know. Jesus gave the message. Whose message is it?
I'm drifting away from the message of not just Jesus, not just Christ. What does He call Him here? The Lord. I'm standing against the Lord, His message. The validity, the accuracy, the eternal standing of this.
He gave Himself for our sins to deliver us, Galatians 1, and He gave us the Word. He was declared at first by the Lord. And remember back in chapter 1, verse 2, do you see how He wonderfully weaves with great homiletics?
Chapter 1, verse 2,. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.
He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. After making purification for sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How does God speak? Through His Word. It's Jesus Himself.
How could we neglect that? I don't want to neglect an agent of an angel, let alone neglect Jesus. This is the message of salvation spoken through His Son. Now think about it. Our culture. There's more ways than one to Jesus.
You go, well, maybe there's a lot of good people. I've met some good Buddhists. I've met some good people that are hardy Christians. I've met some good Scientologists. Jesus said, I'm the only way. Well, yeah, but the world and how could all these people...
God's not necessarily going to make people to send them to hell and this election and all that stuff. God the Son said, well, I'm just not so sure about all these other things. They're going to think I'm a bigot at work.
I'm going to get fired at work and all this. So, you know, I'll just kind of contour those edges. I'll get the block plain out. This is kind of this 90 degree thing is too sharp and I'll just plain that.
Give me some sandpaper a little bit. But Jesus said, that's the point. That's what the writer of Hebrews is trying to do. He's trying to say, who gave this message of salvation in the God-man? Who gave the message that Jesus is the only advocate?
Who gave the message that in eternity past, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, with great love for one another and great love for people, said, let's go rescue people. Son, go rescue the bride. Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18, all authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
So, listener, remember Jesus has the authority to say things. What Jesus says goes. Yeah, but I feel it was spoken to us first by the Lord. Matthew 7, 28, the people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one having authority.
What does Jesus say? Now, let's go to Luke. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke. Let's focus on Jesus for a minute and see what He did say. When Jesus came to earth, I know primarily He came to live a perfect life and to die on the cross, to be raised from the dead.
That's primarily what He came for. That's what the Father sent Him to do. But He did preach along the way. I wonder what that message was. What was the message of Jesus? Was it, be good? Was it, be nice?
Was it, it's nice to be nice? And I'll drink to that. Side note, when I teach you the Bible, I'm trying to teach you how to do interpretation and study, exegesis, context. But I also hope you realize, when you teach the children in junior church and Sunday school and dads, and you teach your children the Bible, I want both light and heat.
How can you just get up and talk about this with kind of no enthusiasm? No enthusiasm, no caffeine. I don't know how it can be done. When you come to Luke 4, you're going to go, there's just nobody like Jesus.
He is the Prince of Preachers. He's a great expositor. There's nobody who preaches like Jesus does. And it's a stunning passage. Chapter 4, verse 14. Once in a while, I'll read from the NAS. This is one of those times, but you're fine in the ESV there.
Luke 4, 14. Thinking about what the writer of Hebrews said, it was first spoken by the Lord. What was Jesus speaking when it comes to His message? Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
And news about Him spread. That word is feime, where we get the word fame. His fame preceded Him. News about Him spread through all the surrounding districts. All word of mouth. All grapevine. No texting.
No tweets. No anything. Just off it went. Like wildfire, though. Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Now remember, by the power of the Spirit, He's pushed into temptation. We might say, God, deliver us from temptation.
But Jesus didn't pray that because it was the opposite for Him. The Spirit of God drives Him to be tempted. He's the last Adam. And when Adam was tempted in the garden and fell, when Israel tempted in the wilderness and fell, when David tempted on the rooftop and fell, when I'm tempted and fall, when you're tempted and fall, isn't anybody going to be pushed into temptation?
And then always say, no, I won't fall. It was Jesus. But now the Spirit is pushing Him into Galilee with power, and news begins to spread about Jesus. And verse 15, in Luke 4, He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
Just kept teaching over and over and over. When you read Luke 4, the emphasis on teaching. Of course, Jesus does miracles, but you can be healed from your diseases and still go to hell. But if you're internally healed, spiritually healed, forgiven, you get to go to heaven.
So He's teaching, teaching, teaching. The word praised, praised by all, usually in the New Testament Gospels, God alone is to be praised. It's used for God, reserved for, exclusively for God. And here Jesus, of course, we know is God, and He's teaching and they're praising His sermons.
The writer, Luke, he wants you to start saying, this is pretty amazing. He wants you to get kind of drawn in. What's the message? What was Jesus talking about? I'd like to know. I'd like to be there. And frankly, if I could go anywhere in the world and see a historical event happen, this might just be it.
This might just be it. People say, well, if you could go back in time and see anything, what would you see? I mean, maybe for some it was the ice bowl and Bart Starr with the one yard quarterback sneak defeating the Dallas Cowboys.
I don't know. Would anybody pick that? No? Okay. Jesus, He's in the wilderness. He's getting tempted. He defeats Satan in the wilderness. And now the Spirit of God pushes Him into this public ministry and He begins to teach.
And the writer is making you say, okay, I want to know. Would somebody tell me what He's preaching? I'm interested. Now, if you're thinking biblically, here's what's going to happen. When Jesus goes into a synagogue, it's usually trouble.
Especially when it's the Sabbath. Sabbath, synagogue, Jesus, chaos. Trouble. Every time Jesus walks in on a Sabbath, there's trouble. Well, Jesus is preaching there's going to be trouble. What's the message that leads to trouble?
Verse 16. And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. There'd be a servant. There's all kinds of scrolls.
He gets those scrolls. He's kind of like a deacon and He gets the scrolls and He delivers them to the speaker. Jesus' fame is preceding Him. And so they're asking Jesus this famous one, would you like to read?
And out of reverence for God's Word, people stand up. They didn't stand up when they read Esther. But every other time, tradition tells us they would stand up. Torah is read. One of the first five books of Moses.
And then after that, one of the prophets is read. And then someone would give them an instruction. Torah. Prophets. Instruction. That's what would happen in a synagogue. And the book of the prophet, verse 17, the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus.
And He opened up the book and found the place where it was written. Now there's two options. Jesus particularly looks for Isaiah. Or what most likely is happening is they like us, we're reading Psalm 103 this week, Psalm 104 next week, Psalm 105 next week.
They would do the same thing. And by sheer chance, sheer coinkydink, sheer luck, Jesus saunters in on the day they're reading Isaiah. And in your mind, you're already thinking the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53, suffering servant.
And they hand the scroll to Jesus. The attendant gives it to Him and Jesus opens it up. I won't go too far with this, but just far enough to get you to think. What did Luke do for a living, by the way?
He's a doctor. And he used doctor terms. Did you know that? It's good to work in the operating room before you become a pastor. Because when they cut someone's sternum open for open heart, and then they have these special instruments that open up the sternum so you can get to the heart.
They just kind of crank it. It's almost like one of those, I don't know what they are, kind of like whisking egg yolk or something for meringue. Did I say that right? No, not egg yolk, egg whites. Is that what they do?
The word for open the scrolls is to open up the sternum to have access. And Jesus is going to show authorial intent. Jesus is going to show what these things mean. There could be layer upon layer upon layer of tradition.
Pharisees taught this. Jesus is going to tell us what this really means. He opens to Isaiah of all things and rolls the scroll. Opens it up. And He's going to open up more than just the scroll. He's going to open up the sluice gates for His message and His messianic ministry.
And it wasn't just Isaiah, but it was Isaiah 61. Perfect providence of God. The first reading here of the day is Isaiah 61. Luke 18 says this, and you can see it comes from Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Now when I read that, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, I'm just quoting the writer. Jesus is saying it. He's not just quoting the writer. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He means it. Because He anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives. What was the message of Jesus that we better not turn from? Here's the message. Recovery of sight to the blind. To set free those who are oppressed.
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. God the Father sends the Son, the Messiah, and by the way, I am He. Messianic era starts today. I'm going to give liberty to the captives. Forgiveness of sins.
Sight to the spiritual blind. I have good news for you. Verse 20. He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Why? Because there's Torah read, there's prophets read, and then like the rabbis would do in authority, they would sit in a position of authority.
You can think of Moses' seat. Here they sit for authority and now comes the exposition. Scripture reading has been said. Now it's exposition. What will Jesus say? That's why the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
They sensed this. They noticed this. Rapt attention. What's the exposition going to be? And here's the thing. Why do I want to go back to time to hear this particular thing? Because I only get the first sentence of His sermon.
That's all I get. Verse 21, and He began to say to them, see, there's more to be said. He just began to say, today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. It's like a nuclear bomb. Your Messiah predicted by Isaiah has come, and I am He.
I think He had their attention. He began to speak. There's more to be said. We're either getting the essence of His message or the first verse of His message. The first sentence. And their response was, verse 22, and all were speaking well of Him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips, and they were saying, is this not Joseph's son?
Here's Jesus coming to give the message about spiritual forgiveness and sight to the blind and the favorable year of the Lord. He came preaching the Gospel. Repent and believe. And so here we are as Christians and when we feel the forces of drift, we've got to run back.
The writer of Hebrews says, don't forget who gave the message. Who gave the message? And it's not going to be some kind of red letter Bible. It's not that, but Jesus Himself, the Messiah, gave this message.
We can't ignore what He said. I don't know if you know this or not, but the Bible, and the attack on the Bible rather, is ratcheted up to about the highest level in the history of the universe. And here's the bad news.
While if people outside of the faith attack the Bible, I get it. Do you know where the attacks are coming from now? Within. Inside of evangelicalism. And they're doing things like this. Well, if I just say, the Bible says, then the unbeliever is going to go, you believe in Noah's Ark?
You believe in Sodom and Gomorrah? You believe you can't wear polyester on Sundays? You can't eat shrimp? And the list goes on. But what are we going to do? What's the option? Well, I'll just tell you about Jesus.
From what book, I don't know. But I'll just tell you about Jesus generally. And later, after you kind of get the Jesus thing, and you read your Bible, then you'll think we're crazy. I mean, they're going to come to know it anyway.
I thought the Bible teaches. When Paul says, I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You want a sign? Great, I would too. You want some wisdom? If I were you, I would too.
But I'm not going to give you either of those because signs and wisdom doesn't save. The Gospel alone saves. And at the core of the Gospel, I'm going to look at you and say, God says that you're sinful, depraved.
You just don't count for nothing. You're going backwards. You have spiritual demerits. And the only good you are is to be put in a fire of eternal hell and burned. We put people like you in a trash can.
Burn it. It's called hell. I'm not saying that's what you should say to unbelievers, but eventually, the Gospel is so offensive because it just doesn't go after our deeds. It goes after who we are as people.
And the demands of the Gospel are so high. Why would I do anything else except say, my view of the Bible, as I preach it and teach it and evangelize, is going to be Jesus' view of the Bible. Jesus, when He came, ask yourself the question.
Here's your apologetics. You don't need Ravi Zachariah. You don't need all this other stuff. If you say to yourself, my Savior's view of the Bible is my view of the Bible. Jesus comes along. He opens up the scroll.
And He stands up. All the people, rapt attention, looking at Jesus. And He said, Jonah's a myth. No original autographs. When Jesus showed up and Jesus says, you know, we don't have the original, so can't really know what Moses said.
Jesus opens up the scroll and says, can't trust him. J-P-D-E-Q. I don't know who wrote it. Jesus opens up the scroll and says, kind of a mad God, wrathful God. He's evolving a little bit. By the time I'm here now, it's just a God of love.
Did Jesus do any of those things? You say, well, I'm drifting away. Secularism has tainted my mind. I'm wondering, can I trust the Bible? Well, to jump off the Hebrews 2 platform for a second, what did Jesus not do?
He didn't make any excuse for the Bible. One of the translators of the Good News for Modern Man Bible, I don't suggest this translation, but it's more like a paraphrase. Good News for Modern Man. Here's one of the translators, Robert Bratcher.
Only willful ignorance or intellectual dishonesty can account for the claim that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. No truth-loving, God-respecting, Christ-honoring believer should be guilty of such heresy.
What's my comment on that? Here's my comment. Couldn't you get a different job? Your job is a translator of the Bible and that's what you say? I mean, maybe seeing things like that, you should go be a home plate umpire or something.
I don't know. Maybe get a different job. Jesus' view of the Bible, from Sodom to Gomorrah to Adam to Eve to Noah to Lot, He affirmed it. He not only told us the truth, but He affirmed it. My apologetic is when somebody says, well, you can't believe the Bible or anything like that, I just say, you know what?
My view of the Bible is Jesus' view of the Bible and Jesus believed in Genesis through Malachi, Genesis through 2 Chronicles. I find it fascinating what Jesus didn't do. He didn't get up and say, you know what?
Before I tell you to repent, I'm going to tell those Bible copy translator editors to repent because they messed up my Word. He didn't do that at all. Someone said of the Old Testament, Jonah, Babylon, surely this is not the record of actual historical events nor was it ever intended to be.
It's a sin against the author to treat literal prose what he intended as poetry. His story is thus a story with a moral, a parable, a prose poem like the story of the Good Samaritan. Hey, my response is this.
If you think of Jesus, you've got three ways to go when it comes to the Old Testament. There are no errors in the Bible and Jesus affirmed it. That's option one. Option two, lots of errors. Jesus has no clue about them, so He speaks with ignorance.
Option three, it's the worst option. There are errors in the Bible. Jesus knows there are errors in the Bible and He lies. Stop defending the Bible because Jesus never defends the Bible. He just declares the Bible.
Thus saith the Lord. I mean, how many times did Jesus say it is written? I count 20 times in the Gospels Jesus says, it is written, it is written, it is written, it is written. What am I going to do? I have to prove the Bible to be true now to an unbeliever before I can then preach to him?
Friends, who made you think the Bible was true? How did you come to the conclusion that it was God-breathed and inerrant and infallible and inspired and authoritative and sufficient? Who made you believe that?
Answer? You made yourself. God lets you know. The Spirit of God illumined your mind. He gave you new life by regeneration and He gave you new sight into the Bible and you think, you know what? My responsibility and, yes, great privilege.
Friends, I know I had all those questions about the Bible too, but one day you're going to stand before God, the God that made you, the God that made all this. You're going to stand before Him. I know you know there's a God.
I know you know you're a sinner. I know you have a conscience. I'm here to tell you some good news. You can be forgiven. Jesus is a historical figure, but more than that, He's the eternal Son. Yeah, but what about this and what about that?
I'll tell you what will happen. Here's what I did when I was back at Gold's Gym in the early 90s in North Hollywood. I thought the Gold's Gym was interesting for lots of reasons. One was there were movie stars there.
And so when Denzel Washington says, Can I get a spot? You just drop those two weights on his chest and walk away. No, you spot Denzel Washington. And they had a lot of the American gladiators there working out.
Remember those people? And so a guy said, You know what? I believe the Bible. If you could just answer me this one question. Okay. Oh, if I go home, study it, check everything out. MS-DOS, you know, IBM 386SX.
Am I talking your language now? Okay. Look it up. I give him the answer. And he goes, Oh, that's good. Well, what about such and such? I don't care. Go back. It's like throwing the Frisbee to the dog.
I mean, she just doesn't get it. She thinks it's a game. I'm trying to give her exercise so I don't have to take her out at night. I mean, here's what the Bible says. Friend, I know you don't understand it.
But the authority of the Word of God, it says, the Bible says. Why? Because Jesus attests to it. It is written. It's law language. It's written. It stands written. It is written. Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Jesus said that. It is written. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Jesus affirms it. Maybe one of my favorite ones. And let's just go here and then we need to wrap up. Turn to Matthew 22.
The Bible is so inerrant, so infallible as Jesus comes to give that message. That even verb tenses matter. Have you ever won an argument with a verb tense? I suggest you try because Jesus actually did that.
For me, when I was growing up, I didn't care about verbs. If it wasn't a conjunction-junction-what's-your-function thing, I didn't care about it. I wish I would have known now. Do you know that they make seminary students take English refresher classes to start because people don't know prepositions from clauses?
Jesus comes preaching a message. Why would we neglect that message? But I want to make the point today because it's important in our evangelistic endeavors. You can trust the Bible. You can trust what Jesus spoke.
You can trust the Bible. Matthew 22, verse 23. Quickly. Teacher, let's back up a little. On that day, some of the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to Jesus and questioned him, asking, Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother.
Now, there were seven brothers with this. And the first married and died having no children, left his wife to his brother, and also the second and the third down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died in the resurrection.
Remember, they don't believe in it. Therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her. But Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Do you realize who he's saying that to? You're mistaken. You don't understand the Scriptures. They should have. And if you don't understand the Scriptures, you don't understand the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
You're going to try to get me to untie a Gordian knot, but you don't understand. Verse 31, But regarding the resurrection of the dead, you give me this kind of lip service, calling me teacher. I'm going to teach you something now.
And here comes the word incarnate. And he unleashes it on these dim-witted Sadducees. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? Oh, this is so fun to watch.
I don't know. You know what? Here's the good news. Schadenfreude isn't a good thing. Having pleasure based on other people's pain. But there are always exceptions to the rule. And there's one right here.
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, because if He was, Jesus would say, I was the God. I was the God. God the Father said, I was the God, but I am.
Meaning what? There's a resurrection. Abraham died. But God is still his God right now. He wins by a present tense. When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. When Jesus says, haven't you read this back in Exodus 3, with the burning bush?
I am the God of your father, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Haven't you read that? Hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have been gathered to their fathers. They are still alive and so is God.
Friends, it might be easy to go over the falls in a strange object. I would hate the headline to say, 2016, strange object goes over the falls. A bunch of people who congregate at Bethlehem Bible Church are in a big structure, a big building called the church building, and over the falls they go.
God in His mercy has then helped us and said, do you know what? You put a stake in the ground, and you say, by faith, I'm going to keep examining passages about Jesus so I can trust His person and work.
And the second peg goes in the sand, but goes down deeply, the peg of faith that says, I don't want to go over the edge into unbelief, at least to perdition. Let me stay far from that. And then the third one is, the tent peg goes down into the ground with the same force that it would go through Cicero's temple.
Can I get a witness? Jesus gave me this message. How can I abandon Jesus' message? Father, I thank You for today. I thank You for these beloved saints. Help us to walk by faith. You granted us faith to believe, and now we need to walk by faith.
What a great Savior we have. Oh, to be there to hear Him preach. How great that would have been. Yet we look forward to eternity. I think we'll gaze at Your Son. I think we'll gawk at Your Son. I think we'll fall on our faces.
I think we'll beam. And I think we'll listen to Him preach and to tell us about all Your greatness and excellent mercies. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. In Jesus' name, Amen.