I am about to preach
something that I’m sure everyone in this sanctuary has heard before. But I
preach it again today on this third Sunday of Lent because there are so many
voices that every day contradict God and His Truth (with a capital T) – Truth
that many of you have known since childhood.
So,
I stand today, doing what the apostle Peter did when he wrote to his readers: 2
Peter 1:12-13 “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these
things, even though you already know them, and have been
established in the truth which is present with you.”
The
contrary voices I refer to come from neighbors, friends, family, the media –
even some pulpits. The contrary voices spew from mouths and the pens of many who
have doctorate degrees and have written books on theology. Understandably,
then, it is easy for many faithful Christians to be seduced by their smooth words,
even though those words are laced with poison. It’s easy to be seduced if we aren’t
reminded again and again of God’s truth as it’s been delivered to us in His infallible,
inspired, and inerrant Word.
Rightly
did the Psalmist say it: (Psalm 11:3) “If the foundations are
destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
I
will say it right at the beginning of this message: Anyone – regardless of
their academic degrees or popularity – anyone who tells you anything about God,
about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit that is not supported by Scripture in
context with the historic teaching of the Christian Church from the first
centuries – then know for certain such men and women are liars, frauds, and
deceivers who wittingly or unwittingly work with Satan for our destruction.
In
those early centuries, as the Christian Church struggled against such false teachers
in their day, genuine and trustworthy biblical scholars convened several
‘councils’ to differentiate truth from heresy. The 4th century
formulation of the Nicene Creed was developed to address some of those lies –
specifically the Arian heresy which taught huge swaths of Christians that Jesus
was a created being and not the incarnate Son of God. If that sounds like
modern Jehovah’s Witnesses and original Mormonism, you’d be correct.
Listen
to how the Nicene Council wrote of Jesus who is: “God from God, Light from
Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial [one essence]
with the Father; Through him all things were made. For us men and for our
salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary and became man.”
Unlike
the damnable lies about Christ circulating today in so many churches and spewing
from so many pens, each point and subpoint within the Creed was supported by God’s
infallible, inerrant, and fully inspired Scripture and not by traditions,
opinions, or what was then current religious philosophies. We don’t have time
today to look at each of those supportive texts, but they can easily be
researched and would make a good homework assignment.
As
I’ve said before, Lent was designed by the same 4th century scholars
to draw us closer to Christ. But the question facing EVERY Christian throughout
Church history, to this present moment is this: Which Christ are we being drawn
to? Is it to the Christ of Scripture, or is it to the make-believe Christ proposed
by atheists, humanists, and wolves in clerical clothing who received training
in some seminaries and churches?
The
warning Jude gave to his first century readers is just as appropriate and
necessary in 2026: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those
who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons
who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:4)
Make
no mistake, every heresy that has ever gotten off the ground and inserted its
serpentine seduction through the Church in every era – including ours today –
every heresy got its strength by rejecting the doctrine of biblical inerrancy,
infallibility, and divine inspiration of the entire Bible.
What
do we mean by biblical inerrancy, infallibility, and divine inspiration?
Briefly, it is this: Biblical inerrancy states that the Bible, in its
original manuscripts, is without error in anything it teaches. This includes
history, doctrine, moral dictates, and anything else found in the Scripture.
Biblical
infallibility
means the Bible is incapable of error. It is never wrong about history,
doctrine, morality, or anything else the Bible affirms.
Divine
inspiration
means the Scriptures, in their original manuscripts, are “God-breathed.” In
other words, God supernaturally guided (not ‘dictated’) the authors of the
Bible to write exactly what He wanted to communicate. Every WORD of the
original texts is God-breathed. Every word. Every ‘jot and tittle’ is God’s
intended message.
That’s
why every heresy got and gets its strength by rejecting the doctrine of
biblical inerrancy, infallibility, and divine inspiration. No wonder the
apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Galatia: “But even
if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what
we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we
have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel
contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8-9)
So,
which Jesus? That’s an extraordinarily serious question on this the third
Sunday of Lent because how we answer that question determines the health, the
soundness, and the genuineness of our relationship with Christ.
To
answer that question, we now look once again to the Bible where God answers
that question with such clarity that even a child can come to true faith if
only he will believe the message. For the sake of time, we will look briefly at
only a scant few Biblical texts.
Which
Jesus? Scripture tells us Jesus is Almighty God in the Flesh (called the
‘incarnation’). (John 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:14) “And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us.”
(Philippians 2:6–7) “Although He existed in the form
of God . . . [He] emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being
made in the likeness of men.”
It
is necessary to now remind ourselves that after the Lord told the lame man his
sins were forgiven, the Doctors of the Law correctly said to themselves, “Who
can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7) They were correct because all
sins are ultimately sins against God – and therefore only God can forgive sins.
The reason Jesus was and can now forgive sins – yours and mine – is because He
IS God.
That point then leads us to the next. Scripture
tells us Jesus is the promised Messiah (Christ), fulfilling the Old Testament
promises God made to Israel and to humanity, promises to save anyone who WANTS
to be saved from the eternal penalty their sins deserve. Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53,
Jeremiah 31, Micah 5 are only a few of the HUNDREDS of Old Testament promises
fulfilled in Jesus.
That’s why – and this is point number three in
answer to the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ – That’s why He is the only and unique
Savior. Only the incarnate God can save sinners from the Father’s wrath against
sin committed against Him – as is every sin we commit.
Listen again to only a sample of such
Scriptures: “Jesus said . . .“I
am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father but through Me.” John 14:6. Peter proclaimed: “There is salvation
in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been
given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12); Paul told the
Thessalonians: (1 Thessalonians 5:9) “For God has not destined us for wrath,
but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is because of who Jesus is that this next
point about Him must also be true: Jesus is the ONLY mediator between us and
God. There can be no other. (1 Timothy 2:5) “For there is one God, and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
A
mediator. That was Job’s complaint: “How can a man be in the right before
God? If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a
thousand times. . . . For He is not a man as I am, that I should answer
Him and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any mediator
between us who might lay his hand upon us both.” (Job 9:2-3, 32-33)
That
was Job’s cry. He didn’t have a mediator. It would not be until many more
centuries passed that God-incarnate would enter humanity as our one and only
Mediator between us and the Farther. I am grateful Job’s complaint does not
need to be ours.
What else does Scripture tell us about Jesus?
It tells us He died on Calvary’s cross as a substitutionary atonement for our
sins. Listen to Isaiah: Isaiah 53:5-6 “But He was pierced through
for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His
scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
to fall on Him.”
And Scripture again: “[Christ] bore our sins
in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24).
And what else does Scripture tell us of Jesus?
The He physically rose from the grave on the third day. When the grieving
women came to His tomb, Matthew records: “The angel said to the women, “Do
not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been
crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come,
see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has
risen from the dead.” (Matthew 28:5-7b)
After Mary and the others reported to the
disciples the empty tomb, John tells us that he and Peter raced to the tomb.
When they stepped inside they “saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the
facecloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings,
but rolled up in a place by itself . . . For as yet they did not
understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” John
20:5-7, 9)
And finally, for our purposes today, Scripture
reveals the genuine Jesus to be humanity’s final Judge: “For not even the
Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all
will honor the Son even as they honor the Father . . . . “Do not marvel at
this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear
His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to
a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a
resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:22ff)
The full acceptance of the Biblical record of
Jesus’ unique role as humanity’s ONLY door to eternal life, the record of His virgin
birth, sinless life, full deity and simultaneous humanity, of His atoning
sacrifice for our sins, His resurrection, ascension to heaven, and His promised
return for His faithful followers – belief in these biblical doctrines are
essential for salvation. Jesus said to the theologians of His day: “You are
from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you
believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (John
8:23-24)
But
as I said earlier in this message and many times in the past, not every person
who stands in the pulpit or in front of a seminary classroom believes or
teaches God’s truths. It is about those whom Jude warned in his short letter –
and his warning carries equal weight today: “Woe to them! For they have
gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong
into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of
Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs . . . caring for
themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees
without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting
up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom
the black darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1:11-13)
If
we succumb to Satan’s lies about the Scriptures, then we can end up following
men like popular spiritual author Richard Rohr, who teaches a New Age heretical
Christ. We stand with heretical pastors, theologians, and authors like the recently
deceased Episcopal priest, John Shelby Spong, who rejected the historical truth
of the Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, as well as Scripture’s
commandments regarding human sexuality.
If
we let ourselves be seduced by Satan’s evangelists, we will blindly follow
wolves in clerical garb, even like those I’ve heard here in churches in this
and nearby towns where some pastors preach a form of pantheism and Hinduism, or
who tell their congregations that homosexuality is a legitimate sexual
expression, or who won’t speak about abortion so as to not offend their
congregation.
When
the apostle Paul stood before King Agrippa at his trial, he asked the king: “Why
is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the
dead?” Acts 26:8)
Likewise,
the question can equally be asked, “Why is it considered incredible if God
ensured that the Bible we hold in our hands today is essentially identical to
the original manuscripts penned thousands of years ago? Think of the irrational
and deranged hubris of people who claim that the omnipotent and omniscient Creator
is unable to communicate with humanity inerrantly and infallibly! Think of how
insane it is to believe that God, who spoke everything in existence INTO existence
and SUSTAINS everything in existence –
why is it so unreasonable to believe this same Almighty God couldn’t ensure an
accurate copying and transmission of His words across the millennia to us in
2026?
Satan’s
most often used strategy to lead people into moral and theological error has
always been to convince them that the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, is
not God’s very word to us in printed form. Through his witting and
unwitting servants, Satan seduces humanity into believing the Scriptures are full
of error, myths, archaic philosophies, and culturally assigned attitudes.
Please!
Pat attention. To imbibe such lies from his workers is to find ourselves
outside the Body of Christ.
The
season of Lent is another opportunity for the Christian – and I’d also say for
the unbeliever in Christ – Lent is another opportunity to open our Bibles with
humble hearts, to seek God’s truth, and to be drawn by Him closer to His
wounded side.
As
Matthew records in God’s inerrant, infallible, and divinely inspired word –
Jesus appeals to us: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,
and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew
11:28-30
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