[0:00] I don't know if you saw, but there is a handout made up for this evening. If you didn't grab one, you might slip out. Right outside the door, there's a handout printed, and you'll need a pen if you intend on following along.
[0:15] And I hope you do. Years ago now, I was putting together some curriculum for teaching in a Bible class, and I came across some material that was like the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible.
[0:28] And as I thought, I thought, this is good, I'll use this in my Bible class, and so I did. But as I continued to read and study my Bible, I kept seeing more and seeing more and seeing more, and I kept jotting down the references and accumulating the material, and I put together in some format the thought here of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.
[0:54] And so I thought tonight we'll take the time to do this as a study and not study all of these verses and look all of them up. It's quite a list, as you can see. But I'll go through several of them with you and give you the idea and then allow you, if you so choose, to take it up on your own time and to complete the study at the house.
[1:10] And notice that this book and our Savior are, how do you say it? I mean, they're like that.
[1:21] They're not the same, but they are so close and in so many ways. And so you see some headings here. The first one says in title and in description. Some of these things you're going to say, I knew that.
[1:34] I maybe just never made the connection or saw how many of these actually are in the book. The second one is in nature. Both the Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ both have very similar natures and attributes about them.
[1:48] And then in work, and then there's a few additional things to add on. This is not an exhaustive list, but it's enough to fill a page. And so let's start in Revelation 19 and in Revelation 1.
[2:00] And we'll just start at the very top, and you'll pick this up quickly as we go what the idea is. Some of them maybe are not as obvious as others. And it's those ones maybe that I'll at least have you fill in on your own.
[2:17] So go to Revelation 1 and also Revelation 19. So under the heading, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have Revelation 19 and verse 13.
[2:36] And the Bible reads there, And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:48] You see in verse 16, King of kings and Lord of lords. And the Lord Jesus Christ has a name. We know that name from earlier in the Scriptures in John chapter 1.
[3:00] In the beginning was the Word. And I'm sure the first time you read that passage, you saw that capital W, and it made you stop and think, Wait, what is that?
[3:10] Or why is the Word, Word, capitalized? And what is this talking about? It says the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And it goes on to talk about the life and light that was in him.
[3:21] And then it goes on to call him the Light, with a capital L in that same passage. And being the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And then in verse 14, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
[3:34] And you understood, probably by studying, that this is talking about the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. But it probably struck you the first time that you ever saw that, if you could even remember that.
[3:45] That's a peculiarity. That his name and title is the Word of God. Now, I don't think we really have to look up a verse for this one on the other side here, the Bible, but it's in Revelation 1, verse 2.
[3:59] John says here, This is kind of goes without saying. So you can write in your blank, The Word of God. They're both called, in title, The Word of God.
[4:14] Now, I don't have that title. You don't have that title. Only one person has that title, and only one book has that title. And just for that sake alone, there's a connection to be made between the Lord Jesus Christ and between the Scriptures.
[4:31] They're both called the same thing. Now, that's not enough, of course. So, if you're in Revelation 19, stay there and look at verse number 11. Revelation 19, and I turned away.
[4:44] Verse 11, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called, capital F, Faithful, in capital T, True. And in righteousness, he does judge and make war.
[4:57] Here's another title and description of our Savior. Faithful and True is what he was called. Amen. Well, you're close by. Look at Revelation 21, and verse number 5.
[5:11] And this one's switched backwards. Verse number 5, Revelation 21, 5, And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words, are true and faithful.
[5:24] Now, look at the next one. It's on your list. 22 and verse 6. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true.
[5:35] Now, these verses, I have notes going back to Isaiah and 25 verse 1. I think he used the word faithfulness and truth there, if I recall.
[5:47] You can write down faithful and true, and this should get pretty obvious to you, that the title and description about our Savior and the Word of God are very, very, so much identical in so many ways.
[6:01] Now, you probably, if I asked you before we started, can you tell me a few things about the Bible and about Christ that are declared in this book to be the same, and if I gave you that first one and it's an example, saying they're both the Word, right?
[6:14] If I asked you, could you tell me a few more, I wonder what you'd say. I don't expect you to have too many of them. I definitely probably couldn't just pull them off the top of my head too quickly and be able to give you references where I know the Bible is this and Christ is the same thing, but if I said, well, how many do you think there are?
[6:31] You'd probably, what would you say? Three, five, six, or seven? Would you say there's a good list of them? I doubt you would, and that's just because I think this information is a little obscure, and it takes a little digging to pull it out.
[6:47] When you put it together, it becomes something more than probably we even understand in entirety of the connection to be made between our Savior and this book. So we'll make some more comments, but let's go on to 1 John chapter 1.
[7:06] And let's see here. Let me, Nathan, can you grab verse, the one for the Bible, Philippians 2.16, and I'll just spread this around a little to move it along.
[7:17] So Philippians 2.16, and then John, would you grab the ones under the Bible in John 6? And we'll stop there in this section.
[7:32] So everybody else should be in 1 John chapter 1. In verse number 1, John writes about the Savior. He says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the capital W again, word of life this time.
[7:50] The word of life is a name and title for the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, Nathan, please. Philippians 2.16. Philippians 2.16. Capital W or a small w?
[8:05] It's a small w, the word of life. It's a reference to the scriptures, holding forth the word of life. So again, there's another title, word of God, faithful and true, word of life.
[8:16] And let's do 1 John 5 and then we'll move on. 1 John 5, verse 20, if you're there. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ.
[8:34] This is the true God and eternal life. Speaking of the Son of God, saying He is the true God and He is eternal life.
[8:45] What's that say about the Bible here, about the words of God? John 6.63, please. First, 6.63.
[8:59] Don't I have 63 on there? No, you have 68. Oh, only 68? Okay. Well, then just do 68. Okay. The words of eternal life.
[9:15] Obviously, the words of eternal life. Christ said, my words shall never pass away. You can just write eternal life down for letter D. Both the Bible, the Scripture, is considered the words of eternal life and 1 John 5, the Savior is the true God and eternal life.
[9:34] Now, you can do the rest on your own and you'll see a word or words. These are just one word, but be careful because there's repetitive verses on the left side.
[9:45] Then there's more than one word in there and you just have to look up the right side to get the right one should you choose to do so. But let's move down to the nature of the book and of our Savior.
[9:57] And this will be easy here, but if, I'll go to Hebrews 7. And if Russ, you could get 2 Timothy 3 on the right side.
[10:12] And Randy, if you got it behind him, get, how about just get both of those, the Psalms and the Proverbs verse. And I'm looking for Hebrews.
[10:28] Hebrews chapter 7, verse 26, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. For such a high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.
[10:43] He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is holy. And the word of God, the scriptures, please. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise and salivate in two things, which is Christ.
[10:59] So you can write down holy, both are holy. Both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible are holy. holy. All right, I'm going to roll back to 1 John chapter 3.
[11:18] And verse number 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. He being Christ, the one who's going to appear and will see him as he is even as he is pure.
[11:34] All right, what's the scripture say about the scriptures? So you wrote down pure.
[11:55] Both are holy, both are pure. And I'll give you the next two because they're, they're kind of almost sound the same and you have to kind of be careful but both are eternal is letter C there for number 2.
[12:09] Both are eternal, the Savior and the scriptures and both are alive. In Revelation 2 and in 1 Peter 1, Hebrews 4 says the word of God is quick.
[12:21] In 1 Peter 1 it's speaking of the scriptures saying that the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. So both Christ and the book are alive.
[12:34] They're holy, they're pure, eternal and we'll leave the last one for you to do on your own. All right, in work. So here's some action that we're going to see. Hebrews, I'll go to Hebrews and Rich, can I get you to, well, never mind, don't do John 17, that's too easy.
[12:50] Do the second one, do John 12, 48. I hope we all know John 17, 17. Hebrews 13 and verse number 12 in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ says, Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate.
[13:14] And now the scriptures in John 17 as I think we know, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth, so both sanctify.
[13:25] In work, they both sanctify. The scriptures sanctify as well as the Savior sanctifies. All right, Rich, you're in John 12, so the rest of us will try to hustle back to John 5.
[13:40] John 5. All right, John 5 and verse 22, the Bible says, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
[14:04] And then a few verses later, verse 26, For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man.
[14:17] So the Lord Jesus Christ has the authority from the Father to judge all judgments committed unto him. And then, please read 1248. Both judge.
[14:43] And that's where when we were in Sunday school in Matthew 7, I said, the world knows that verse, judge not, that you be not judge. And that's why my reply is always, I'm not judging you.
[14:54] It's the scriptures that have already judged. They've already done it. And Christ is the judge, the righteous judge. And it's just my duty to declare to you what the judge has declared about you.
[15:08] And he's declared, he that believeth not is condemned already. So it's not me telling you that I don't like the way you're living, or I think I'm better than you.
[15:18] That's how they feel. The cases they need to see is that they're going to stand before a holy judge. And they're going to want to know what he's already said. So they both judge.
[15:30] I think the last two you can do on your own. And so let's just go down to the fourth section here, some additional comparisons. And Chris, can I get you on that one, on the Psalms?
[15:42] There's two verses in the Psalms. And Gary, how about do 1 Peter 1? And I'll go to 1 John.
[15:57] 1 John 2, verse 1. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.
[16:11] And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. What a title and name given to him, but as a reference of his person.
[16:21] Jesus Christ, the righteous. What does the Scripture say about the Scriptures? Here's the Scriptures. So you can write down the word righteous.
[16:49] That's the book, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ again. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 27.
[17:12] The Bible says, Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Won't happen. Alright, 1 Peter 1, please.
[17:24] So you can write down incorruptible.
[17:35] The Savior as well as the Scriptures. Incorruptible. And let's go to the bottom one.
[17:47] I'll leave one blank for you. John 6, 48. One of the I Am's of Christ.
[18:06] There's seven of them in the book of John. John 6, 48. He says, I am that bread of life. I am that bread of life.
[18:16] He likens himself to bread. What about the word of God? What a coincidence. Matthew chapter 4. And verse number 4. Quoting Deuteronomy, Christ says, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
[18:37] You can write the word bread down. The Scriptures likened to bread, something that you partake of. Christ likening himself to bread that gives or yields eternal life if he's partaken of.
[18:50] Eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Such a hard saying, his disciples said. Who can hear it? So he's likened to bread. Now, this is a healthy list you've already filled out.
[19:04] We've looked out. And there's more that you can do on your own should you choose to. And complete that. And just do a little Bible study. And in the end, you just, you find out that this book and the Lord Jesus Christ have very many similarities.
[19:19] Very many. So much so that I personally, it's just my, I don't have a Bible verse for this, just how I feel after being in the Bible and walking with the Lord and having him draw me to his words and having this book do something inside of me and change me from the inside out.
[19:42] I have a feeling, I just have this conviction about me that you can't have one without the other. And I don't mean you can't be saved without being faithful.
[19:54] I don't mean that. But I mean you cannot say that you have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ but never pick up this book. That is not happening.
[20:06] And I'm not saying that when you read this Bible you are reading Jesus. I wouldn't say that either. I'm not a bibliologist as some would attack or throw.
[20:17] But I kind of, I don't know if this is perfectly accurate but this is just how I feel. I feel like because they're so closely connected and almost one interwoven into the other, I feel that your relationship relationship with Jesus Christ is either, I don't know if I could say it's equivalent to, but it sure is displayed by the amount of time and energy and effort and love you have for the Holy Word of God.
[20:49] And I believe that. I believe there's, I think, I don't see how any Christian can just do this and then say, I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus and I just love Him and I want to live for Him but the book stays shut because tell me what did Jesus give you?
[21:11] What did He give you? He gave you a book and He said, get to know me and as you get to know me, let me change you. Let me change your mind. Let you become more like me.
[21:22] How do you get to know Him? And there's a weak element of Christianity that likes to say, I love Jesus and they don't know a thing about Him. They don't know about how He would respond.
[21:33] They don't know about what He wants or how He wants them to react or to speak or what truth is. When Jesus Christ, He's the one that said, I am the truth and He's the one that said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
[21:48] I think the Lord Jesus Christ thinks an awful lot about the Word of God and I think if He would hear, would be on this earth to walk among our midst and to see us and to look over our shoulders when we pick up the Word of God, I think He'd be saying, get in there.
[22:05] You know what's in there? And He does say that to us when we open up the Word of God. He does say, do you know what's in there? Did you see that? Have you ever felt that?
[22:16] Have you ever sensed that? God's saying, did you see that? Go read that again. I've felt that several times in my life, especially in times where I was looking for or just asking God to show me something that I needed direction-wise or just some instruction and there's times just reading, reading, reading, reading and all of a sudden, boop, go back and read.
[22:39] And I'd back up a verse or two and reread. I'm like, ooh, because something God just said, now, now if I just shut that book and said, God, please help me.
[22:49] God, please show me. God, please direct me. God, please, please, please, please, please. But never get into there. I've only got half of it. I really believe it that the relationship that this book reveals to us is that Christ and the Word of God are like that.
[23:09] They are so interwoven and connected. And I find it hard to believe that anybody can have a real fellowship with Christ Jesus and not spend time in the Word of God.
[23:25] I know you can go a day without reading your Bible. I know you can go two days without reading your Bible. And I know it can happen that three days go by. But somewhere along the line, it all starts showing up in your heart and in your mind that I'm not reading my Bible.
[23:42] And along that way, it ought to be starting to say, I don't think I'm right with God right now. I think I'm letting other things take me away from the thing that He's calling me to do faithfully.
[23:57] Again, I'll do this for the rest of my life if I can. I want to encourage you to be in the book. Encourage you to faithfully read your Bibles. Not just because it's got everything you need, but for one reason tonight is because it screams the Lord Jesus Christ.
[24:19] Look at John chapter 5. John chapter 5. And verse number 37.
[24:48] And the Father Himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time nor have seen His shape.
[24:59] And ye have not His word abiding in you. For whom He hath sent Him ye believe not. But if they would believe the one that He sent, guess what He would conversely have abiding in them?
[25:14] His word. Because they're like that. And then verse 39. Search the Scriptures. For in them ye think that ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me.
[25:31] There's another passage I want. It's Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1. Christ was challenging them there to search the Scriptures.
[25:46] You think you have eternal life from the book? Well go search it because the Scriptures testify of me. That's where you'll learn about Him.
[25:59] Hebrews chapter oh man why did I say 1? I think it's 10. Yeah it's 10. 10. Verse number 7.
[26:13] Then said I lo I come this is Christ coming into the world in the parentheses in the volume of the book it is written of me.
[26:25] What's written about Him in the volume of the book when He came? Well I mean we can just keep hopping around all night probably and we don't necessarily need to do that.
[26:37] But what was written of Him let's go one more place Luke 24. what was so much written about Him in the volume of this book that's written that they didn't get that their eyes were blinded to that He challenged them to search?
[26:55] Turns out there was an awful lot of things written in that book about Jesus Christ that they didn't even see. Their eyes were blinded to it. Remember the two were in Luke 24 there's two disciples that are on the road there to Emmaus and Christ comes up beside them and talks to them and they start saying that they thought Christ would redeem Israel and they were telling Him kind of updating Him of the events that were unfolding and in verse 25 He rebukes them He says then He said I can't take it anymore listening to you guys talking about me and how ignorant you are of the scriptures He said unto them O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken that was a rebuke to them because they had the prophets they had the book and it was all about Christ and unveiling and revealing to them all of this ministry and things that He would be accomplishing and His rebuke to them is your fools and your slow of heart to believe what's written in the book ought not
[28:05] Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory the obvious answer is yes beginning at Moses Moses started in Genesis and all the prophets He expounded unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning Himself later in that day He meets up with the other disciples in verse 44 He said unto them these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things might be fulfilled must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me then opened He their understanding that they might understand the scriptures these guys were just as blind as the rest of them and they were His very disciples the very men that had power and preached and walked all over Israel and Judea preaching and ministering the kingdom the gospel the kingdom but how foolish they were and slow of heart to believe what was written now getting back to this relationship between Christ and the Bible that book is about
[29:10] Jesus Christ it's it's an autobiography of God it reveals so much about the Lord that you think you're reading about Jonah but you're not you're learning about God I know we covered that in a few messages some months back you think you're reading about a Passover Lamb no you're reading about the Lord Jesus Christ in type and something that He's going to come years later to fulfill you're reading about God's overall plan in all of those details I don't see how you can profess to love Jesus Christ or know Jesus Christ and be serving Jesus Christ if you're not spending time with Him together in the book that is written about Him it's His Word He is the Word you can't separate them you can't put one on the shelf and pretend to walk with the other one throughout the day Christians church the body of Christ needs to get back to the book need to get back to spending time in their Bibles
[30:12] I don't know what else there is that's what it is and if it starts with that I bet you what would happen next is you'd be drawn to prayer you'd be drawn to calling out to God for help and for grace to do what's right and then after that who knows He might start moving in little pockets here and there maybe even here in Sylmar Bible Baptist Church but it's going to start with us getting on our faces and getting on our knees and getting in the Word of God by ourselves seeking Him because they're like this I'm telling you you can't just put it in your car and drive home and go to work for the rest of the week and bring it to church that's not the Christian life and that's not fellowship with Christ and God if He was here He'd rebuke me He'd rebuke every one of us here for our love for Jesus Christ He would so let's dismiss with that I hope that you finish this study
[31:12] I hope you kind of it opened your eyes to how much and maybe even more you can find some as you read and study your Bible and let them jump out at you and be reminded that there's more that our Lord in this book they go hand in hand fathers we dismiss the service tonight I pray that it was helpful to us all I pray Lord that God that you would continue to just kindle the fire inside of our hearts for the scriptures help us to be faithful to the book Lord so often we're faithful to the TV we're faithful to the cell phone and to apps and games and it's so easy to get faithful to snooting around in other people's lives and it's so easy just to veg out and and just kind of lay out because the day was tough Lord I pray that you'll convict us about our relationship and about the reason that we're alive that you put breath in our lungs that you've washed us from our sins in your blood Lord remind us and draw us to the word of God I pray that we grow in our relationship and our fellowship with you individually
[32:17] God may each person here tonight grow because of these thoughts and by your conviction God I pray you grow me I don't want to stay the same God you know my heart I don't want to stink and stay the same Toby that I've always been I want you to clean me up I want to be closer to you I want you to use me in more ways I want you to be pleased Lord I pray we'd surrender our time to you and that you draw us to the book clean us up sanctify us through thy truth I pray these things in Jesus holy name amen amen tonight you are dismissed at 730 on a dock