Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday, February 9, 2014
We have been traveling back and forth through the four Gospels, – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Why?
Answer = Each Gospel focuses in on a different aspect of TLJC and His ministry on the earth.
It is important for us to learn about our Lord’s life especially in the Gospels.
The Four Gospels speak of the different aspects and views that God the Holy Spirit inspired the different writers to put into writing.
Divine Inspiration = God the Holy Spirit directed the human writers of Scripture, that without waving their intelligence, their individuality, or their style of writing, or any other kind of human factor, His words have recorded in perfect accuracy of the original languages of Scripture.
The very words in the original language bear the authority of divine authorship.
2TI 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God Inspired – theopneustos which means breathing in and breathing out, and therefore God-breathed.
Theo means God, pneo means to breathe. Breathing means inhale and exhale.
What does the phrase “All Scripture is inspired by God or God-breathed really mean?
The first thing we need to understand is that the Bible in it’s original language is filled with words of power for the Church-age believer.
MAT 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
JOH 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
MAT 5:18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.
KJ – MAT 5:18 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.
Amplified – MAT 5:18 For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished.
McLaughlin translation – MAT 5:18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter [dotting of the “i”] or stroke [crossing of the “t”] shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.
2TI 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable
The inhale is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who communicates to the human author God’s complete and consistent message to all generations.
The soul has lungs, in the Greek they are called the nous and the kardia, the mind and the heart.
The Bible was written by men who had old sin natures, not one book was written by TLJC.
We have a lot of shysters who peddle the word of God.
The first one is a shyster who is also known as a swindler, or a con artist, a deceiver, one who pretends something for personal gain.
The second one is the word “peddle” which literally means to sell something from house to house or in a very small but subtle way.
2CO 2:17 which says “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”
It’s important to note that the Bible was written by men who had old sin natures, not one book was written by TLJC.
Can you imagine what these shysters of the Church-Age would be selling or peddling to simple-minded individuals who are suckers for every gullible form of nonsense that comes their way?
Send .95 for a small jar filled with the sand that Jesus walked upon.
.99 for a small bucket of water from the Red Sea that Jesus sailed upon, fished upon, but most of all, walked upon.
For 29.95 you can have a piece of the cross that Jesus was nailed upon, only a piece as big as a toothpick because there is such a demand.
This is one of the main reasons why God the Holy Spirit did not inspire TLJC to write one book in the Bible.
Jesus Christ did not personally write any of the scriptures, however, the scriptures do contain His mind and His thinking.
2TI 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God
Passages like this refers to the inhale ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the human authors of Scripture.
The exhale is what the human writer wrote down in his own language and within the framework of his own personality, the divine message to man.
Man is the instrument but not the author of the Word of God.
2PE 1:20-21 “Know this first of all, [then we have literally the phrase] that all prophecy of Scripture does not originate from one’s own interpretation;
2PE 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will or purpose], but men moved or being carried away by means of the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
God the Holy Spirit through the principle of Revelation led the writers of the first four Gospels to write what He desired to reveal to them in a book or a Gospel with their own style and their own vocabulary, God’s words about the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s not that the writers of the Gospel are mimicking God the Holy Spirit’s precise words about TLJC but that He is motivating them to speak from their own experience the life of Christ in their own viewpoint inspired by the accuracy and the preciseness of the word of God.
The Book of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew. Mark was written by John Mark of Jerusalem. Luke was written by Dr. Luke and his patient, the apostle Paul.The Gospel of John which was written by John.
These principles of the importance of the Gospels and the “Word of God” or “The Word from God” is brought out in the Gospels and also found both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The prophet Ezekiel gave us a glimpse of the Gospels in his visions of the Cherubim angels and the wheels attached to them,EZE 10:1-14.
EZE 10:14 And each one [of the cherubim angels] had four faces. The first face {was} the face of a cherub, the second face {was} the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
The first face attached to a cherub refers to Mark’s Gospel. The second face was the face of a man, referring to Luke.The third the face of a lion – Matthew. The fourth the face of an eagle – Gospel of John.
REV 4:6-7, and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
REV 4:7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
The lion = The Gospel of Matthew. Calf or an Ox – a reference to the Gospel of Mark. Man – a reference to the Gospel of Luke. Eagle – a reference to John.
In the doctrine of typology or a discussion concerning Interpreting Symbols, we mentioned that under the doctrine of Numerology, the number four is symbolic of global completeness denoting the entire world, the earth.
The message of the gospels is intended for worldwide dissemination.
The gospels also give us a fourfold manifestation of Christ: He is seen in His sovereignty (Matthew), ministry (Mark), humanity (Luke), and deity (John).
Christian tradition has connected the authors of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) with the four “living creatures” that surround God’s throne, as described in REV 4:7.
REV 4:7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
Anyone who gives this book some time to reveal itself has to be impressed with the accuracy and preciseness of WHAT it says, WHEN it says it, and HOW it says it.
The Bible is a book where Evidence Demands a Verdict.
The Bible gives us evidence and then puts the ball in our court, as it were, and says in effect; what is your opinion or verdict that you conclude after hearing the facts that have been presented?.
The symbols are the Lion, the ox, the servanthood of man, and the eagle.
The lion stands for Matthew, for he specifically saw Jesus as the Messiah and the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The ox stands for Mark, because it is the OX that represents service and sacrifice.
1CO 9:9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.”
The apostle Paul said in 1TI 5:18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
Under the principle of Oxen, our Lord revealed the Ox representing the picture of someone willing to lay down his life for others.
Mark saw Jesus as the great servant of men and the universal sacrifice for all mankind.
The man stands for Luke or the love and graciousness of Jesus Christ as found in the Gospel of Luke.
LUK 7:47 our Lord said “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
LUK 7:48 And He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”