Seeking the Saviour in the Sacrifices

Berean Baptist on August 19, 2019

The Old Testament is often ignored in many churches without people realizing it holds the key to many New Testament references. At first, the only Bible New Testament preachers could use was the Old Testament. This meant they were continually seeking Jesus in Old Testament texts. Even Jesus referenced the Old Testament testimony of Him. He taught two disciples on the road to Emmaus immediately after He arose from the tomb. He explained the Old Testament text beginning at Moses and the prophets to show them He was the true promised Messiah.

In the New Testament era, God speaks through the living word, Jesus Christ, as revealed in the written word, the Bible. We have no other way of knowing Him in the fullness of His splendor except as we understand Him through scripture. We need not expect any other revelation because scripture testifies to its sufficiency. It tells us everything God wants us to know in this present day. Yet, God spoke in various ways in times past. Sometimes He gave dreams and visions. Sometimes He appeared in theophanies. These were manifestations of His presence through other forms. For example, He spoke to Moses in a burning bush or appeared as a stranger conversing with Abraham. Joshua saw Him as an angel and Jacob wrestled with Him at Peniel. Those were unusual occurrences even for Old Testament times. The more common way of God teaching about Himself was through the pictures of worship.

God gave Moses the plan for the tabernacle, a tent-like structure, made from a pattern of the divine in heaven. Each part of the building, the materials, the articles of furniture, the superstructure, the surroundings, and the priests who served were types of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were also many sacrifices classified as either sweet savour or non-sweet savor.

I am convinced there is no better way to learn the person and work of Christ than to study Old Testament worship. If Jesus used the Old Testament to teach His work to confused people, and if the apostles had nothing but what they learned from the Old Testament to guide them at first, surely an examination of Old Testament worship is time well spent. As the authors wrote the New Testament, it gave life to the types the Old Testament portrayed. The Israelites could not see it as well as we do today. The recognition of a type requires the unveiling of the antitype. We more recognize the types/antitypes because we have a completed Bible. But what good does it do to have the antitype if we do not recognize the type? You see, the dilemma is the same. If you do not know the Old Testament, the antitype is largely unrecognized.

There are many of these in the scriptures. We miss much meaning if we do not take time to study and learn them. As the Old Testament and New Testaments complement each other, so does Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon at Berean. Sunday afternoons are usually the deeper of the two services and affords the opportunity to increase your understanding of scripture. How much you grow in the Lord depends on how much you know about scripture. If you don’t know about the sacrifices of the Old Testament, you are missing important information you really need to know.

Christ taught Himself and the apostles taught Him by using the Old Testament. If the New Testament is all you know about Christ, you haven’t learned enough. Be sure to study the Old to find Him in more ways than you can imagine.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

God’s Works Remembered

Berean Baptist on November 6, 2017

He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.

(Psalms 111:4)

As I was thinking on the 111th psalm, verse 4 reminded me of a negative application of the same thought in 2 Peter 1:9:  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. The psalmist said God has made His work to be remembered while Peter said the one who does not care to build on his faith by adding Christian graces will soon forget the mighty works that God has done in his life.

I think it is interesting how many times the Old Testament retells the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. I have commented on this before from other psalms and scripture texts, and here we find it again in more subtle references in the 111th psalm. It seems the crowning achievement of all God’s wonderful works for His people is how God humbled the defiant Egyptian Pharaoh and brought His people out with a mighty strong arm. He brought them through the perils of the wilderness and gave them the land promised to Abraham. This is reflected in verse 6: He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. The scriptures continue to remind of this fact so that Israel would never lose the assurance that God was on their side and would always fulfill His promises to them.

The same is true for the Christian today. Our deliverance in the moment of our salvation when God broke through the stronghold sin had on our hearts is a grand touchstone to return to time and time again. God brought us into the marvelous light of the gospel of Christ and became the author of our eternal salvation. Like Israel’s remembrance of deliverance from Egypt, this is our place of remembrance of God’s wonderful works.

There is, however, another similarity between the 111th psalm and the quest for holiness in 2 Peter 1. Israel was taken into captivity because they forgot what God did for them. They were not careful to maintain their obedience which caused them to fall and to experience bitter chastisement. The Christian has the same propensity if he is not careful to maintain his focus on Christ. We will also fail and find ourselves back in the captivity of sin.

This is what Peter warns against in 2 Peter 1:9. The person who forgets that he was purged from his old sins will soon fall into those old sins again. We are doomed to repeat our past mistakes which is the exact problem with Israel. Old sins always yield the same results—it never changes. The loss of assurance is its fruit; when the fruit of the Christian life should be grace, peace, and the contentment of resting in God’s promises.

As I read the psalm and compared it to 2 Peter, I was also reminded how scripture says Old Testament stories were given to warn us not to fall in the same holes as Israel. We must guard ourselves and be diligent to add all spiritual graces. This is the sure method of never failing to remember God’s wonderful works. Look at the world around you and see the immensity of His power. And then, look into your heart once blackened by sin and see it cleansed by the gospel of Christ. Keep looking and you will never forget the joy of being purged from your old sins.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Doomed to Repeat the Past

Berean Baptist on February 20, 2017

Psalm 78

In the 78th Psalm, we come to one of the many instances in which the history of Israel, the ups and downs of their relationship with God, is recounted. The purpose of these places is to teach that we must remember the failures of the past and to warn those who have not yet learned the lessons we have learned how to avoid the holes we have fallen into.

In dealing with the Corinthian church, Paul encouraged them to pay attention to Old Testament scriptures. They are not passé and of no benefit. Rather, he says in the 10th chapter that the experiences of Old Testament Israel were for our example. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen used the historical record to point out how the Jews of his time were no different from their forefathers. They claimed to be the righteous children of Abraham, but Stephen skillfully discovered to them they were certainly more like the children of Abraham than they cared to admit. At every turn, their forefathers continually rejected the grace of God and these more modern Jews were no different. They proved it when they crucified God’s own Son (Acts 7:51-52).

Psalm 78 can be rightly called a reminder of Deuteronomy 6:6-7:  “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” The power and might of God in taking Israel to the Promised Land were to be an incentive to follow faithfully. Whenever Israel failed, it was a direct result of disobedience, of stubbornness, and refusal to remember what happened each time they disobeyed.

I believe we find the same incentive in the New Testament in words that are written to Christians. Hebrews 12 speaks of chastisement which we strictly want to avoid, but who among us has not gone back to the same sins time and time again? Who learns the lesson well that the same sins always yield the same results? It seems we have great difficulty learning our lessons as if the holes we fall into are not hard enough at the bottom to make us want to keep from stepping into them again.

While there is no excuse for this, we do have to chalk it up to human nature. We surrender to the flesh rather than continually crucifying it with its affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24). If you wonder how Israel kept doing what they did after seeing the power of God to deliver them, just remember we fare no better. Many times the authors of scripture tell this story about Israel and many times we are challenged to be strong in the faith. Shouldn’t one chapter in one book of the New Testament be enough to keep us straight? Apparently not because encouragement to forsake the flesh and follow Christ is an often repeated theme.

God wants us to keep up the fight. We are not to surrender because the way is hard. Every temptation has a means of escape just as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 10. God knows we will fail—He understands us better than we do ourselves. For this reason, He offers forgiveness rather than condemnation. As the Psalmist wrote in verses 38 and 39, God knows us: “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

Thank God His compassion is deeper than our holes. When we repeat the past, His forgiveness is there. When we come in confession and repentance, He never fails to forgive. In our flesh, we may be doomed to repeat the past, but the blessing of our salvation is in Christ. He took the blame for us for which we will be eternally grateful.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith