BIBLE INTERPRETATION SERMON SERIES
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5. New Revelation Must Agree with Previous Revelation
In our sermon series so far we have covered 4 topics regarding correct Bible interpretation. We must pray to God for wisdom and understanding. We must be willing to obey the truth. We must come to the Bible with an open mind and we must expect to learn new things. We saw that a crisis is coming upon the earth soon. It is a religious controversy. Just as new truth and new responsibilities came to Abraham and the Israelites and to the people in Jesus’ day, so new truth will come to us. It is our privilege and responsibility to know and obey that new truth.
Let’s introduce our topic today with a text from Isaiah.
Isaiah 8:19-20 And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
In this passage of scripture, Isaiah is talking to people who are in communication with supposedly dead people through mediums and wizards. We would probably use the word channelers and fortune tellers. The channelers and fortune tellers claim to communicate truth, oftentimes about events of the future. Isaiah points to the law and the testimony as the standard of truth. The word “law” that we read here is the Hebrew word torah. This word is referring to the entire works of prophetic teaching. The testimony refers to the testimony of the prophets. Isaiah said that if anyone comes forward claiming to have new truth, the people must compare that new claim to the law and the testimony. The previous revelation of God is the standard by which we evaluate new claims. This cannot be over-emphasized. Why?
Because in every generation there are people who come forward with supposedly new revelations. How can we know if the new teaching or revelation is from God? The first thing we must do is compare it to the teaching of the law and the testimony, that is the previous prophetic writings. If the new teaching contradicts the previous one, the new one should be discarded.
Throughout history people have claimed that the prophetic writings have been changed and are no longer trustworthy. But if God was not going to preserve His prophetic word to use as a standard, why would He inspire Isaiah the prophet to say so? It doesn’t make sense and is contrary to the character of God.
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -- which you have not known -- 'and let us serve them,' 3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 "You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
God is warning the people that false prophets will arise and they will work signs and wonders. Even if they can work signs and wonders God said, “Do not believe them.” Why? Because they are teaching against the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are God’s moral law for all people in all ages. If someone arises and says that one of the commandments is no longer valid you can be sure that this person is not carrying a message from God. God wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone with His own finger. They don’t change.
In our last sermon we saw that God gave new instruction to prophets at various times. We saw that the new revelations don’t do away with the old ones but they can expand the knowledge of a previously revealed truth. They can reveal new responsibilities.
But you may ask, “David, if a new revelation always agree with the old, then how can you say that the temple sacrifices became unnecessary with the death of Jesus on the cross?” Doesn’t that mean that a new revelation canceled a previous one? Good question. Let’s let the scriptures reveal the answer.
First let’s go to Amos 3:7.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
According to this passage of scripture, if one day the Jewish sacrificial system and temple services would come to an end, God should have communicated that to the prophets. Did God do that? Yes. In the writings of the Hebrew prophets, God told the prophets that one day the sacrifices would end.
Daniel 9:26-27 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate."
This prophecy of Daniel was written more than 500 years before Christ. It says that the Messiah would be cut off, but not for Himself. Jesus did not die for His own sins. He was sinless. He died for our sins as a sin offering to God. The Messiah would cause the sacrifice and offering to cease. There it is, in the writings of the Hebrew prophets. This is not the only prophecy on this subject.
Psalm 110:1-4 A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." 2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! 3 Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. 4 The LORD has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."
This prophecy is about the Messiah. The Messiah was to be the son of David. But the prophet David refers to the Messiah as Lord. No father refers to his offspring as Lord because the older doesn’t serve the younger. But here, David calls the Messiah, Lord. David also said that the Messiah would be a priest forever. But Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Only the sons of Aaron, a Levite, could be a priest. How could the Messiah be a priest then? God was predicting through the prophet David that the priesthood of Aaron and the whole system of sacrifices and temple offerings would come to an end with Messiah. Jesus would be a priest in a new priesthood. There would be a different temple and so the laws regarding the old temple service changed. God told the people beforehand just as He promised.
For Bible interpretation we must remember this point. Before God makes any major changes He reveals these changes long beforehand through the prophets. So if someone arises with a so-called new revelation from God with new commands and requirements, they are under obligation to show in the previous revelation where these changes are predicted in advance.
In Jesus’ ministry, He constantly pointed His listeners to the Old Testament prophecies to validate what He was saying. If the Hebrew prophets had been altered by the Jews, God would have communicated this to Jesus. It is impossible that the Hebrew prophetic writings were changed before Jesus.
Were the Hebrew writings changed after Jesus? Many people have made that claim through the centuries. And before 1947, the oldest manuscript known was from around 895 A.D. Skeptics said this manuscript was corrupt. No one could prove the skeptics were wrong. But all that changed with the Qumran scroll discovery in 1947. Copies of 38 of the 39 books of the Old Testament were found there. They date from before the time of Christ. And you know what? The skeptics were all proven to be wrong. Except for minor spelling differences the Old Testament that we have in our hands today is almost exactly the same as what Jesus used. God protected the scriptures. They are the standard by which we test any later revelation for veracity.
Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures to demonstrate that He was the Messiah, the savior of the world. God testified to this claim by signs and wonders. Jesus always kept the law of God.
What about the New Testament? Has that been changed? No, but we will give more time to explain that in upcoming sermons.
God declared that He made the prophetic writings the standard by which all later revelations were to be judged. The New Testament writings must be in harmony with the Old Testament. Anyone who comes out saying they have a new revelation must demonstrate that the new revelation agrees with the previous revelation of the Old and New Testaments. If they do not, they are not from God. God set the standard. God protected the standard because He kept His word. You can trust them for your salvation.
Let’s introduce our topic today with a text from Isaiah.
Isaiah 8:19-20 And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
In this passage of scripture, Isaiah is talking to people who are in communication with supposedly dead people through mediums and wizards. We would probably use the word channelers and fortune tellers. The channelers and fortune tellers claim to communicate truth, oftentimes about events of the future. Isaiah points to the law and the testimony as the standard of truth. The word “law” that we read here is the Hebrew word torah. This word is referring to the entire works of prophetic teaching. The testimony refers to the testimony of the prophets. Isaiah said that if anyone comes forward claiming to have new truth, the people must compare that new claim to the law and the testimony. The previous revelation of God is the standard by which we evaluate new claims. This cannot be over-emphasized. Why?
Because in every generation there are people who come forward with supposedly new revelations. How can we know if the new teaching or revelation is from God? The first thing we must do is compare it to the teaching of the law and the testimony, that is the previous prophetic writings. If the new teaching contradicts the previous one, the new one should be discarded.
Throughout history people have claimed that the prophetic writings have been changed and are no longer trustworthy. But if God was not going to preserve His prophetic word to use as a standard, why would He inspire Isaiah the prophet to say so? It doesn’t make sense and is contrary to the character of God.
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -- which you have not known -- 'and let us serve them,' 3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 "You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
God is warning the people that false prophets will arise and they will work signs and wonders. Even if they can work signs and wonders God said, “Do not believe them.” Why? Because they are teaching against the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are God’s moral law for all people in all ages. If someone arises and says that one of the commandments is no longer valid you can be sure that this person is not carrying a message from God. God wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone with His own finger. They don’t change.
In our last sermon we saw that God gave new instruction to prophets at various times. We saw that the new revelations don’t do away with the old ones but they can expand the knowledge of a previously revealed truth. They can reveal new responsibilities.
But you may ask, “David, if a new revelation always agree with the old, then how can you say that the temple sacrifices became unnecessary with the death of Jesus on the cross?” Doesn’t that mean that a new revelation canceled a previous one? Good question. Let’s let the scriptures reveal the answer.
First let’s go to Amos 3:7.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
According to this passage of scripture, if one day the Jewish sacrificial system and temple services would come to an end, God should have communicated that to the prophets. Did God do that? Yes. In the writings of the Hebrew prophets, God told the prophets that one day the sacrifices would end.
Daniel 9:26-27 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate."
This prophecy of Daniel was written more than 500 years before Christ. It says that the Messiah would be cut off, but not for Himself. Jesus did not die for His own sins. He was sinless. He died for our sins as a sin offering to God. The Messiah would cause the sacrifice and offering to cease. There it is, in the writings of the Hebrew prophets. This is not the only prophecy on this subject.
Psalm 110:1-4 A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." 2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! 3 Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. 4 The LORD has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."
This prophecy is about the Messiah. The Messiah was to be the son of David. But the prophet David refers to the Messiah as Lord. No father refers to his offspring as Lord because the older doesn’t serve the younger. But here, David calls the Messiah, Lord. David also said that the Messiah would be a priest forever. But Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Only the sons of Aaron, a Levite, could be a priest. How could the Messiah be a priest then? God was predicting through the prophet David that the priesthood of Aaron and the whole system of sacrifices and temple offerings would come to an end with Messiah. Jesus would be a priest in a new priesthood. There would be a different temple and so the laws regarding the old temple service changed. God told the people beforehand just as He promised.
For Bible interpretation we must remember this point. Before God makes any major changes He reveals these changes long beforehand through the prophets. So if someone arises with a so-called new revelation from God with new commands and requirements, they are under obligation to show in the previous revelation where these changes are predicted in advance.
In Jesus’ ministry, He constantly pointed His listeners to the Old Testament prophecies to validate what He was saying. If the Hebrew prophets had been altered by the Jews, God would have communicated this to Jesus. It is impossible that the Hebrew prophetic writings were changed before Jesus.
Were the Hebrew writings changed after Jesus? Many people have made that claim through the centuries. And before 1947, the oldest manuscript known was from around 895 A.D. Skeptics said this manuscript was corrupt. No one could prove the skeptics were wrong. But all that changed with the Qumran scroll discovery in 1947. Copies of 38 of the 39 books of the Old Testament were found there. They date from before the time of Christ. And you know what? The skeptics were all proven to be wrong. Except for minor spelling differences the Old Testament that we have in our hands today is almost exactly the same as what Jesus used. God protected the scriptures. They are the standard by which we test any later revelation for veracity.
Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures to demonstrate that He was the Messiah, the savior of the world. God testified to this claim by signs and wonders. Jesus always kept the law of God.
What about the New Testament? Has that been changed? No, but we will give more time to explain that in upcoming sermons.
God declared that He made the prophetic writings the standard by which all later revelations were to be judged. The New Testament writings must be in harmony with the Old Testament. Anyone who comes out saying they have a new revelation must demonstrate that the new revelation agrees with the previous revelation of the Old and New Testaments. If they do not, they are not from God. God set the standard. God protected the standard because He kept His word. You can trust them for your salvation.