The Bloody Bible Part 1: The God of Two Testaments-04302017

The Bloody Bible: Part 1

The God of Two Testaments

Isaiah 6:1-5

Series Introduction:

Do you know someone who has asked you “What is the deal with…?” about something in Christianity? Do you have any of those questions yourself?

When you talk about the Bible, a lot of controversy and questions come up with people who aren’t sure about God. Science and evolution, hypocritical Christians, greedy churches. Is the Bible legitimate; and if so, which one? Is there even a God?

That is what the realm of apologetics seeks to deal with. [Explain apologetics]

But newer generations are asking questions a little differently. Older generations asked questions about God’s existence. Newer generations are asking, “If there is a God, what kind of God is He? They are not rejecting His existence. They are rejecting what they have understood about what God is like.

Most of this understanding about God comes from what they have been taught about the Bible: sometimes negatively and sometimes positively.

The Bible is supposed to be the revelation of who God is and what He is like. But many have taken that revelation and said, “If that’s God, then no, I don’t want to believe in Him. I don’t think He is a God worth following.”

Sometimes, it can seem in the Bible that God is a person who acts in ways we would never dream about acting ourselves. He sometimes seems overly angry, judgmental, and a little too quick to send people to Hell. In fact, why is there a Hell to begin with? He gets hung up on things like homosexuality, divorce, and sex outside of marriage. So, if these issues aren’t dealt with, it could lead to a couple of thoughts about Him.

1. He can’t be a good God.
2. He is not worthy of worship (much less obedience).

Richard Dawkins, the antitheist, has said that “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”

So, the point of this series, “The Bloody Bible” is to help us deal with some of these valid concerns and see what kind of God is really portrayed to us in the Bible.

Message Introduction:

If God is such a good God, then why is there so much suffering in the world, and why has He caused so much of it? Much of the accusations made against God by skeptics comes from His actions that we find in the Old Testament, so let’s start there.

Many people see a big difference between God as He is portrayed in the Old Testament versus the God we see in the New Testament. So, which is He? The God of the Ten Commandments or the God of Jesus of Nazareth? Is He a God of justice and vengeance, or is He a God of love and forgiveness?

1. What is a Testament anyway?

• The word testament simply means “agreement,” “covenant,” or “contract.”
• The Bible in many ways is a big record book of the agreements and covenants He has made with mankind and how they have been kept and will be kept.

1. The Old Testament is the record of God’s promises made to Israel before Jesus was born.
1. Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
2. As we progress through the Old Testament, we see God starting very general in His dealings and then He gets more specific. In early Genesis, God makes promises and commands to the whole world. But by the end of Genesis, He is working through one man’s family, Abraham and his descendants. And at the end of the Old Testament, He is making promises that deal specifically with the ancient nation of Israel, which descended from Abraham.
3. But a funny thing happens as we move through the OT. God unfolds more and more of His plan to these people. We see more of what God is up to as we move through the timeline of human history, and then it all comes to a head with the anticipation of the Messiah. By the end of the OT, we are anxiously awaiting a Promised One that will come to set everything right. Then we jump into the New Testament.
2. The New Testament is the new agreement between God and man based on Jesus’ payment for sin on the cross.
1. Heb 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
2. But Jesus didn’t replace the Old Covenant. He fulfilled them. He completed them.
3. The purpose of God’s Old Covenant was to prepare people for the coming, completed covenant that was started by the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
3. Do the two testaments give two different pictures of God?
1. Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament?
1. This question is best answered with another question: “Have you read it?” Have you read the Bible for yourself and looked for God in it? I have, and I have come to realize that God is actually the same in the New Testament as He is in the Old Testament.
2. There isn’t really a substantial difference between how God presents Himself in each testament.
3. John 5:19 – What we see in the New Testament is Jesus in His life here on earth portraying His Father to others.
4. John 1:18 – No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
5. Jesus is not the nice version of God. He is a reflection in His character to what His Father is in His character. Jesus is no more loving than His Father, and the Father is no more judging than Jesus. And the Father is no angrier than Jesus, and Jesus is no more tolerant than His Father.
2. How does God lean in each testament?
1. What we see from God in both testaments is a bias towards mercy and granting a second chance.
2. Examples:
1. Nah 1:2-3 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. (3) The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
2. 2Pe 3:4-9 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (5) For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: (6) Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: (7) But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (8) But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
3. Act 13:18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.
3. God is a God of love at the same time that He is a God of justice.
3. How did we get this impression that God is different in each testament? Because you can paint God in whatever light you want, if you choose to focus on certain areas and ignore other areas.
1. Show Youtube of Scary Mary and Scary Frozen.
2. So, is that the real Mary Poppins? Is that the real Frozen? Those are real clips from the actual movies.
3. Certainly not. When you mash up the information, you can create whatever story you want. Context os king.
4. Could skeptics be doing that with the God we see in the Bible?
4. Can God be both holy and merciful?
1. Does mercy make God soft?
1. C.S. Lewis pointed out that God is not safe, but He is good.
2. Illus – He is like a fire. The same fire that warms also burns.
2. In Isaiah 6…
1. The Seraphim
1. The word seraphim means “bright ones” or “burning ones.” But as bright as they were, they had to cover their faces and bodies from the glory of God.
2. Illus – When Moses wanted to see God’s face, he was told it would kill him. So, Moses only got to see God from behind, and even that was enough to leave a visible glow on Moses.
2. The Statement
1. The seraphim state that God is holy, holy, holy.
2. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and when words are repeated in Hebrew, it’s not being done for poetic effect. Repetition in Hebrew is done for emphasis. So, if someone said, I was in a “pit pit,” that meant it was a doozy of a pit!
3. And when someone stated something three times, it couldn’t get more emphasized. So, when these seraphim talk about the holiness of God in triplicate, they are saying that God couldn’t get any holier.
4. Notice though, that the Bible says that God is love, but it never says that God is love, love, love. It says that he is merciful, but it never says that he is merciful, merciful, merciful.
5. What does holiness mean?
1. It means that God is pure and perfect.
2. It also means that he is different and separate.
3. The Sentencing
1. Isaiah’s response is “Woe is me!” Seeing God’s holiness did not cause him to become upset at God for being such a big bully. His response was, “Wow, I can’t even to stand to look at myself when I stand next to God.”
2. The problem with our view of God is that we compare Him to ourselves and others. But we have the order wrong. Instead, swap roles and stop standing in God’s place.
4. Verses 6-7 – God is not just a holy God. He is a God of grace.
1. The seraphim pick up a tong from the altar and place a coal upon Isaiah’s lips to purge them. The coal was so hot that even an angel had to use a tong. How painful!
2. God is full of grace, but grace and forgiveness aren’t cheap or easy. There is always a cost to forgive.
3. In fact, to provide the purification that we all need, someone had to die, even a death on a cross.

Application:

This is the God of the two testaments: equally holy and merciful in both volumes. Equally just and loving.

Remember what we said about God being like fire? We like the warming part but not the burning part.

Conclusion: So, we still need to discover how some of the things we read in the Bible add up. How can you have a God of justice and a God who orders animal sacrifice? Or war?

Make no mistake, the Bible is a bloody book. And that is what we are going to explore in this series and in our home studies.