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Matt 5:17-19
As Jesus launches into the body of His sermon, He must clear away two erroneous notions the people held against the Bible.
The first erroneous notion comes from the Jews, the scribes (theologians) and Pharisees (legalistic teachers). When Jesus' exposition of the O.T. runs counter to theirs, they accuse Him of trying to do away with the O.T. This is furthest from the truth. Jesus retorts, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (v.17). The O.T. is God's Holy Law given by the hand of Moses to the Israelites. But the Jewish pundits, who piously quoting the Law, destroy its true meaning by injecting their sly interpretation in order to escape the justice of law.
I need quote only one instance which is in this Sermon on the Mount. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery." Note that this is the seventh commandment quoted by the lawyers with a cunning slant. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" in the sense of not getting caught in the act. And that is also today's wicked philosophy of adulterous men. You are innocent as long as you are not found out.
But adultery in the eyes of God includes the thought behind the act, so that if you look at a woman with lustful eyes, you have already committed adultery with her in the heart. This is how Jesus exposes not only the lawyers and scribes but also our wicked hearts. Any cutting sermon on the conscience is no dull sermon. Jesus comes not to destroy the O.T. law but rather to fulfil, to reinforce it. On the contrary it is the Jews, steeped in their wrong use of the law, who foul up the O.T. For example, there were Jewish converts to the Christian faith in the early church, most probably from among the lawyers and Pharisees. These taught that Gentiles who became Christians must be circumcised like the Jews. This caused such a commotion that the apostles had to call a Council to meet in Jerusalem to decide on the issue. As a result the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 rightly pronounced there is no need to circumcise Gentile Christians (praise the Lord), but Gentile Christians rather are to refrain from fours things; idols, fornication, eating things strangled and blood. They who accuse Jesus of doing away with the O.T. are conversely guilty of imposing the O.T. ceremony of circumcision on the Christian Church, when with Christ's coming such a ceremonial law is abrogated. In place of circumcision, we now have baptism.
Now, a group of Christian teachers called dispensationalists during the last 150 years has also messed up between the Two Testaments of the Bible. Under their dispensational teaching they say you are saved by keeping the law in the O.T. and saved by grace under the N.T. This is popularised by the Scofield Bible which is now being corrected.
Only our Saviour's teaching is immaculate, perfect. Christ neither tries to do away with the O.T. nor foul up the relation between the Two Testaments. Christ comes to fulfil and reinforce all of the Bible. We are sorry to note a group of young people have left us to form another church whose narrower teaching than Christ's on the Sabbath law dictates "man is made for the Sabbath" rather than "the Sabbath is made for man." From the Christian liberty to which we are saved, they would bind us to the doubly rigid interpretation of the Pharisees. This Neo-Pharisaical law that binds the conscience of the young people will backfire one day. For those of you who would like to study into this controversial subject, I have made available a number of copies of my book The Law of Moses & of Jesus at the entrance of the Church.
Now the second erroneous notion about the Bible is by Christian scholars, from such a fundamental school as BJU ( Bob Jones University ) that the Bible is inerrant only in the autographs, the original manuscripts from the authors, but not in the copies that follow. This seems logical, but the Bible declares every Word of God is preserved by God's special providence. Turn to Psalm 12:6,7, "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." If the Almighty God who creates heaven and earth has preserved this universe by His providence, how shall He not preserve His words (the whole Bible) by His special providence? "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt 5:18). This onerous sentence guarantees we have God's Words in our hands in the Textus Receptus, the Received Text by the whole Church down to the time of the 16th Century Reformation. It was translated into English in the King James Bible. Read the most faithful, devout and accurate Version against all the 100 new versions based on the corrupt Westcott and Hort text. The Holy Spirit will tell you, you have an intact Bible without mistakes which God has preserved to this day for you. "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. . . But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (I Jn 2:20, 27).
It is not scholarship that recognises the preservation of Holy Scripture but faith, saving faith. The King James translators were all devout men, six companies that checked and counter-checked each other on the translation. They handled God's Word almost tremblingly. So were the Westminster divines who faithfully and devoutly declared, "The O.T. . . . and the N.T. ... being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages , are therefore authentical . . ." The doctrine of the preservation of Scripture is believed by the Church in this Declaration of the Westminster Confession, but denied by today's fundamental scholars headed by BJU.
Can God who inspires to write an inerrant Bible also preserve it from age to age so that His church can have an infallible guide? The logic is yes, and the facts are yes. A car manufacturer cannot be successful if he does not provide the after sales maintenance. As surely as manufacture and maintenance go together, so inspiration of Holy Scripture must be followed by preservation of Scripture.
So there are two erroneous notions about the Bible that must be corrected. First the N.T. teachings of Christ are not to do away with O.T. Law. Second, not only are the original writings of prophet and apostles inspired, but the copies are also preserved and kept intact and pure from age to age. As I hold up my King James Bible, I am certain I have God's Holy Word in my hands.
May you never be swayed by new errors creeping into the Church all the time. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph 4:14-16). Amen.
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