Jesus and the Word | Matthew 15:1-9

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Isn't it good to just do a little something different? Would you guys thank Davy again for leading us? That was so good, so special. It's good to change things up every once in a while. And what a joy to have Wayne and Carolyn speaking into our lives this morning. Now here we are, opening up the Word of God together. I believe God wants to speak to every person in this room.

Every week here at Watermark, we teach the Bible, because we believe God has gone to great lengths to speak to us. These are God's words to us. So, are you ready to hear from him? Let me invite you really quickly. Take a second and pray for yourselves. Say, "God, speak to me this morning. Wake me up. Center me on what you want to say to me today." Then pray for your friends and family around you, everyone else in the room. Pray that God would speak clearly to them. Then would you pray for me and ask God to speak through me to you?

Lord God, we believe you are a God who loves his people and loves to speak to his people. Thank you that you have given us your Word. Would you open up our ears and our hearts right now? May we be receptive to all you want to say to us. I pray that not one person would leave today without meeting with you. In Jesus' name, amen.

This morning is going to feel a little bit like a reality check, and I hate reality checks. For example, I like to think the celebrity I look most like is Aladdin, because Aladdin got the princess. It's a reality check when people tell me I look like Borat. I've never seen that movie. I have no plans to see it. I'm not encouraging you to see it. I have no clue what it's about, but I've looked up what that guy looks like. It's a reality check.

Or like that time years ago when I was swimming in the pool with my shirt off, and my wife's aunt said, "Oh, look at that Chick-fil-A bod." That was so unnecessary. Now I'm a big fan of swim shirts. Even at nighttime they can be very helpful. Here is the thing about reality checks: they let you know where you are. Until you deal with your current reality, you cannot move toward a better reality.

The reality check for some of us this morning is that your relationship with the Bible might actually look more like Jesus' enemies' relationship with the Bible than it looks like Jesus' relationship with the Bible. It's just good for us to come to that realization that the way we relate to the Bible might actually look more like Jesus' opponents' connection with the Scriptures than it does Jesus, the one we are aiming to follow.

Until we embrace our current reality, we cannot move forward to a better reality. What is a better reality? It is for everyone who calls Watermark home to revere the Bible as Jesus reveres the Bible. If we love Jesus, we want to be people who love the Scriptures like Jesus loved the Scriptures, but we have to do some work to get there.

If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to open up with me to this reality check. It is found in Matthew, chapter 15. Let me just read you the entire story so you get a sense for what's happening here. It says this in Matthew 15:1-9: "Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 'Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.'" Some of you are like, "That sounds like my kids every single day."

"He answered them, 'And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, "Honor your father and your mother," and, "Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die." But you say, "If anyone tells his father or his mother, 'What you would have gained from me is given to God,' he need not honor his father."

So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"

Let me just tell you right from the start. Do you want to know how Jesus' opponents handled the Scriptures? They were firm where the Scriptures were flexible, and they were flexible where the Scriptures were firm. What we need to figure out is if that's how we relate to the Bible. Are we firm where the Scriptures are flexible, and are we flexible where the Scriptures are firm? If that's the case, hello. Reality check. I'm so glad you're here. It's time to take a step forward to revering the Bible as Jesus reveres it.

So, let's unpack what's happening in this story. The text tells us that the people present are Pharisees and scribes. If you're new to the Bible, Pharisees were Jesus' chief opponents. They were the religious leaders of the day. Scribes were actually a type of Pharisee who were legal experts in the Mosaic law. These were religious lawyers. So, these people were experts in the Mosaic law.

What was the Mosaic law? It was the law God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. He gave the Mosaic law to the people of Israel so they could be a holy people. They would be a people through whom salvation came to the nations. God gave this law to Moses, and Moses wrote it down. Think Ten Commandments and a lot of other commandments in addition to that.

The religious leaders, the Pharisees, believed the Mosaic law was, in fact, the Word of God, but then they also believed God gave to Moses certain traditions and explanations of how to live out and apply the written Word, and these things God gave to Moses weren't written down; they were known as oral laws. The Pharisees believed God gave to Moses different explanations of the written law so they could live it out.

These oral laws, or these oral traditions, were passed down from generation to generation. Over time, the religious leaders began to add to these oral laws or these oral traditions. That is what we are talking about right now, because these oral traditions that were passed down and added onto eventually snowballed to a point where they went well beyond what God ever expected or commanded of his people.

The Pharisees right now are taking issue with Jesus' disciples breaking one of these oral traditions. We get a good example right here of issues Jesus had with the Pharisees, especially around these oral traditions. One right here is around washings. Track with me on this so you understand what the issue is in this story.

These religious leaders are upset, because in the written law, in the Mosaic law, there was this law specifically for priests to wash their hands and feet when they were offering a food offering, but over time, there was an oral tradition that was developed that the Pharisees meant for all people, not just priests.

So, all people now needed to do certain washings anytime before they ate food. What they did was they looked throughout all of society, and they identified a bunch of different things that if they touched those things with their hands, it would make them unclean. So then, if they went and touched food without washing their hands, it would make their food unclean, and then if they ate that food, it would make them unclean.

I feel like I lived this this week. I would have made a great Pharisee. If you know me, you know I am a major germ freak. This week, we were flying as a family. We were going through the airport, carrying my kids' luggage, and all that. So, Kat and I stop at Eatzi's in DFW airport. We grab some sandwiches, we get onto the plane, we sit down, and I look at Kat for a hand wipe or some hand sanitizer, and she looks at me for a hand wipe or hand sanitizer.

We both realized that no one brought anything, and then I entered this moment of sheer panic, like, "Everything I have touched in this airport is now going to be touching my food." Then I got food poisoning a couple of days later, and Kat was like, "Do you think it's because you didn't wash your hands?" I was like, "I don't know." But I will check out therapy very soon.

This is what's happening with the Pharisees. They looked at all different things in society that, if you touched them and then touched food, would make your food unclean, so they developed this ritual cleansing that needed to take place, but it was very specific. It had to be running water, but the problem was they didn't have running water on tap, so it had to be poured out. You had to have water poured onto your hands, and it mattered whether you were washing one hand or two hands. That determined the amount of water you needed to use in order to be clean when eating your food.

The reason all of this is an issue, and the reason I went to the lengths I did to even explain that to you, is the Pharisees had begun to believe the oral traditions, the oral laws, were equal in importance with the written commandment and law of God. They were putting them on the same plane. So, when they come and see that Jesus' disciples have not gone through the ritual washing, they're offended, because Jesus is these disciples' rabbi, so the assumption is that Jesus is responsible for their theology and their activity.

So, if Jesus is letting his disciples eat food without observing the oral tradition, then that means Jesus most likely actually taught them to disobey the oral traditions; therefore, Jesus taught his disciples to disobey God's law. Do you see what's happening here? If I lost you in all that explanation, let me bring you right back. Here's what's really happening. The Pharisees were making traditions that had been passed down from different religious leaders equal to God's law, and the result was they were being firm where God's Word, Scripture, was actually flexible.

What could this look like now for us here at Watermark Community Church? Well, I don't know about for Watermark. People who go to other churches might believe things like, "You can't be a Christian and drink alcohol. Dating in high school is definitely a sin. You cannot be a Christian and send your kids to public school. You can't be a Christian married mom who works."

After this past week, some might say, "You can't be a Christian and vote for Trump," and others are going to hear that and be like, "No, you can't be a Christian and not vote for Trump." But those are just people at other churches. We don't deal with that here. We have to bring it a lot closer to home, because that's pretty distant.

What could this more practically look like for us here at Watermark? Well, it could look like this. "Unless a married couple is sharing every detail of their finances and their sex life from day one in Community Group, and unless they're asking the group for permission to make any purchase over $100, and unless they are thoroughly answering the three Community Group questions one to two times per week, then they clearly don't understand biblical community. They don't get it."

Now, I can already sense some of you planning to beeline it for me after the service, so if that's you… If you're taking issue with anything I just said, then don't miss what I'm telling you now. Understand the issue we're addressing. There are some people, some Christians, for whom it will never be okay for them to drink alcohol. It's just not a good thing. For you to do it would be sin.

There are a lot of reasons that dating in high school would not be a good thing for a lot of people. And you know what? Biblical community only really works when people are committed to being fully known and fully loved. Here's the issue we're addressing. The issue we're addressing is when we expect our personal convictions on specific matters to be observed as God's commandments for all. That's the problem.

This is where we need to figure out where rigidity exists in our lives, where we are being firm where Scripture is flexible. Are you expecting some of your personal convictions on specific matters to be observed as God's commandments by all? So, I just encourage you to evaluate. Where have you become firm where Scripture is flexible? You should evaluate in your time with the Lord. Where have you become firm where the Scriptures are flexible?

Okay. Now watch how the story continues. Now we're going to see the Pharisees be flexible where the Scripture was firm. If you remember what happens, the Pharisees start the conversation. They're like, "Why do you let your disciples eat without washing their hands?" Here's Jesus' response. Verse 3: "He answered them, 'And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?'"

Do you notice the wording? He says, "Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Not God's tradition…your tradition. See, there's a difference. One is from God and one is from man, but the Pharisees had confused the two, and they believed their traditions had become God's traditions.

Do you see his accusation? He says, "Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" What he's saying is their oral traditions around God's law were actually leading them to break God's law. He gives them an example of how they're doing this. Verse 4: "For God commanded…" Why does Jesus say that? Because he's trying to tell these religious leaders, these experts in the law…

He's like, "Look. Remember what God explicitly said and Moses wrote down, the thing you're actually supposed to be an expert in. God commanded it. He explicitly said, 'Honor your father and your mother' and 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.'" He just quoted two different passages from Exodus, Exodus 20:12 and Exodus 21:17.

"But you say…" Do you see the difference? "God commanded, but you say… God says this; you say this." "But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, "What you would have gained from me is given to God," he need not honor his father.'" Do you know what's happening here? In the first century, children were basically their parents' life insurance policy. They were their retirement portfolio.

Kids were deeply responsible for caring for their aging parents, yet this tradition had developed where Jews were getting absolved from any responsibility for caring for their parents. All they had to do was take all of the resources they were going to use to care for their aging parents and say, "You know what? I am actually dedicating all this to God."

Interestingly, what they were dedicating to God was actually just going to stay in their possession. How convenient is that? But they could say, "I'm dedicating this to God; therefore… Hey, Mom and Dad, if you're watching at home, I'm not going to take care of you, because it's all for God." Jesus is like, "So, for the sake of your tradition, look at what you've done. You've made void the Word of God. You guys have taken what is explicit, what should be firm, and you've made it flexible."

He goes on in verse 7 and calls it what it is. "You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" He just calls it what it is. That's hypocrisy. It's empty and pointless worship in the eyes of God. When we take God's Word and blatantly disregard it, and we make it flexible where God has called us to be firm, God would look at that blatant disobedience and say, "That's pointless."

Just to be clear what we're talking about, we're not talking about you saying, "You know what? I am deciding to reject God, and I'm going to go out and forget God. I'm going to go sin." That's not what we're talking about. We're actually talking about classifying ungodly behavior as godly. That's what the Pharisees were doing. They were like, "You know what? This sounds so spiritual. We're taking all of these resources and dedicating them to God. God is so honored by this. Sorry, Mom and Dad."

Do we ever do that? Do we ever classify ungodly activity as godly? Are we ever flexible where God's Word is firm? Do we ever void God's Word with tradition? We do it all the time. Here are some ways this might play out. Some might say, "You know what? God wants me to be happy, but I'm unhappy in my marriage; therefore, it would be better for us to divorce and be happy than to stay married and be unhappy. Then, if we're both happy, we can more effectively honor God." Do you see what's happening there? It's classifying ungodly activity as godliness.

Or what about this? "It's okay that we're sleeping together and living together before marriage, because it gives us a chance to test drive what marriage would actually be like. This way, we can know if we are a good fit and if we will really be able to honor God in our marriage." Or this: "A same-sex relationship must be honoring to God, because God wouldn't allow me to have attractions to someone of the same sex if he didn't intend for me to bring them to fulfillment."

Or "God wired me with sexual desire. My spouse isn't fulfilling my needs. Looking at porn will prevent me from dishonoring God by having an affair." Or what about this? "I'm not going to forgive that person or reconcile with that person, because I don't feel like forgiving them. If God wanted me to forgive them, he would give me the desire to do so." Or this: "I'm not going to give to the church, because God is going to hold me accountable for how I steward my money. Watermark has a lot of nice things, so I don't know if they will steward my money as well as I can steward my money."

Do you see what we're doing? We're taking ungodly activity and putting a spin on it, classifying it as godliness. Here is the reality. I hope you don't miss this. There's a natural bent in every single one of us, including me, to want a version of Christianity that says "Yes" to every dream and desire we have. We want a version of Christianity that requires no change. We want a version of Christianity and a copy of Scripture that gives a resounding "Yes" to anything we dream or desire.

So, our tendency will be to classify things that are ungodly as godly. We'll be flexible where Scripture is firm. But we have to remember why Jesus came. Why did Jesus, the eternal Son of God, leave heaven and take on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ? Why did he live a perfect life? Why did he die a gruesome death? Why did he conquer death victoriously through the resurrection? To make us new so we could be transformed.

Jesus didn't come to just make a way for us to keep being who we've always been. He came to make a way, when there was no way, for us to become like him. That's the gospel. So, it's just good for you to evaluate. Where have you become flexible where the Scriptures are, in fact, firm? This is the reality check of today.

This is us saying, "Hey, it's important that we at least evaluate and embrace where we are right now, because until we come to grips with where we are right now in regard to God's Word, we can never take steps forward toward a better reality." Is it possible that our relationships with the Word of God look a little bit like the Pharisees' relationship, where we are firm where the Scriptures are flexible and flexible where the Scriptures are firm?

If that's the case, okay. What's the path forward? The great news is there's absolutely a path forward. What's the path forward? It's to look to Jesus. It's to look at how Jesus revered the Scriptures. All we have to do is look at how Jesus revered the Scriptures, and then we ask the Holy Spirit to go to work in us and help us love the Scriptures as Jesus loved the Scriptures. So, with the time I have remaining today, I want to show you three ways that Jesus revered the Word of God.

1. Jesus believed the Scriptures were the Word of God. That's important. Notice what I'm saying. Jesus believed the Scriptures were, in fact, the Word of God. Did you notice Matthew 15:3? How does he refer to God's law? He says, "Why do you break the commandment of God?" Verse 6: "For the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God." Jesus believed the Scriptures were the very words of God.

In John 10:35, Jesus declares Scripture cannot be broken. What did Jesus mean when he said Scripture cannot be broken? Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung explained it like this: "For Jesus—just as for his Jewish audience—he believed Scripture was the word of God, and as such, it would be gross impiety to think that any word spoken by God, or committed to writing by God, might be an errant word, a wrong word, or a broken word."

Don't miss this. To revere the Bible as Jesus revered the Bible is to believe that the Bible is to be trusted, it is trustworthy, it is absolutely true, and it is the final authority on all matters. Why? Because it's from God, and God doesn't make mistakes. That's what it means to believe that the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God: that it's true, it's trustworthy, and it is the final authority on all matters.

So, just evaluate really quickly. Is that where you're at right now? Do you believe this book is, in fact, the Word of God? Do you believe what I said at the beginning of this message, that when we open up this book on Sunday mornings it's like we are opening up God's mouth? When we open this, do you believe God has gone to great lengths to speak to us, and when you read this book, it's actually God's way of communicating to you? It's important.

The reason this matters is… Think about this. Don't miss what I'm telling you right now. If the Bible truly is the Word of God, then God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us, and God had a specific message he wanted to communicate in every single verse of the Bible. If that's the case, then here's how we guard against being firm where the Scriptures are flexible and flexible where the Scriptures are firm.

The reason we get into trouble is because, when we come to this book and read verses, the first question we ask ourselves is, "What do I get out of this verse? What does this verse mean to me?" That's the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is, "Why did God put this verse in the Bible in the first place? What was God's intended purpose for writing this to his people? What was God's intended meaning? What is God's intended message?"

We don't have the luxury of opening up this book and reading it and getting cute and creative and finding insights into it that no one else in history has ever found. Why have they never been found? Because they're not accurate. Unfortunately, there has been this steady movement for a long time away from viewing the Bible as God's absolutely true and trustworthy Word.

A lot of people would say they still really respect the Bible, yet they would say that the Spirit of God is using the Scriptures to give fresh, new meanings to the Scripture that God never intended for any passage. Then others completely reject what God meant originally and focus on what Scripture must mean today in light of how we have progressed and become more enlightened as individuals.

So, verses and even entire portions of the Bible are obsolete, and other verses completely trump other verses. Many will see the Bible now through the lens of culture instead of seeing culture through the lens of Scripture. So, here's my encouragement for you this week. When you spend time in the Bible, when you read the Scriptures this week, just read a passage, read a verse, and then ask the question, "Why did God put this passage in the Bible?" Like, what was God's intended meaning?

You might need to use some accurate interpreting principles to come to that conclusion. You might have to ask questions like, "Who's writing this? Who are they writing to? What was actually going on when this was written? What were the trials of that day? What was the context going on? What was God actually trying to address? Now how does that connect with 2024?" The first thing is that Jesus believed the Scriptures were the Word of God.

2. Jesus was sustained by the Word of God. If you want to take a step in your reverence toward the Scriptures, if you want to revere the Bible as Jesus revered the Bible, then my encouragement to you is to learn from Jesus. Jesus was sustained by the Word of God. Did you notice how, in chapter 15, Jesus quotes three different Old Testament passages, two from Exodus and one from Isaiah? Interestingly, he did the same exact thing in Matthew, chapter 5, when he was being tempted by Satan.

If you go back and read that passage, it's fascinating. Every time he's tempted, he responds with Scripture. I want to point you back to one of those in Matthew 4:4. That's where I'm getting this idea that Jesus was sustained by the Word. Think about it. Jesus hasn't eaten in 40 days. Satan comes to him and tempts him to turn stones into bread. What does Jesus say? "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Isn't that interesting? "Man shall not live by bread alone," the most basic building block of necessity for life…bread, food. "Man shall not live by bread [or food] alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Jesus is basically saying that the Word of God is just as essential for survival as food. Maslow got it wrong on his hierarchy of needs. He left out something very important: the Word of God. You cannot live without it.

If that's true, I just want you to think about this. If Jesus was sustained by the Word of God, if the Scripture was like food for his soul, then here's how I want you to think about it. If I were to come to you today and say, "Hey, the Watermark elders have been thinking and praying, and we want to ask every Watermark member to fast for 24 hours this week," what would you think?

Some of y'all would be like, "Nope. Not going to do it. Twenty-four hours is too long. I never go that long without food. I cannot do that. I might do one meal. Twenty-four hours is too much." Others of you might be like, "Awesome. I like the challenge." You like to be challenged, so that sounds good.

What if I were to say, "The Watermark elders have been praying, and we want to ask every member to fast for 72 hours this week. No food for 72 hours," what would you think? I bet that group of people would grow in terms of people who are like, "No, thanks" or those who feel kind of anxious or nervous. Why? Because something in you is like, "I can't do that. I can't go that long without food." You don't know if you're going to make it, and you definitely don't want to feel that discomfort.

Now think about this. What if I came to you and was like, "Hey, the Watermark elders have been praying, and we want to ask you to not read the Bible for the next 24 hours"? By the way, if I ever do that, you should go find another church, but just imagine if I were to say, "The Watermark elders want to ask you to not read the Bible for the next 24 hours."

Would that do anything to you? Would you be like, "I wasn't planning on reading it anyway, so, no problem. I'm already looking at my calendar during this message. Full day tomorrow, so that kind of helps me out." Would you feel it at all? If I were to say, "Hey, the Watermark elders have said don't read the Bible for 72 hours this week," would that throw a kink in your schedule, your routine? Would that mess you up a little?

I would hope so, but I would imagine that some might be like, "You know what? That is many of my weeks, where there's a day or days that go by without any intake, no nourishment of the Word of God." Jesus is saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God." My fear is that many feed more on what their favorite podcast, preacher, influencer, or author says about God's Word than on God's Word itself.

I still remember hearing Francis Chan say, when he was at the height of people making him a celebrity… I loved that he said this, because he did not give a rip about being a Christian celebrity. I'll never forget him saying this. He essentially said, "So many people are content taking a selfie with Moses when God is inviting them to come up the mountain to meet with him." That's our tendency. Our tendency is to feed more on our favorite podcast, preacher, author, or influencer's take on God's Word than on God's Word itself.

So, I just want to encourage us to take a step. What are you nourishing your soul with? Is it the Word of God? I've shared this before, but a good friend and mentor of mine, Greg Matte, made a practice of not eating physically until he had eaten spiritually, simply as a way of reminding himself that the Word of God sustains in a way that food can't. What if we all tried that this week? This isn't a new oral tradition. This is not a law or a commandment. If you already have a good thing going, don't let me disrupt it.

I'm just saying, I wonder if that would move the needle if there were hundreds or thousands of people this week who were like, "You know what? I'm not going to eat physically until I've eaten spiritually." I just wonder if we would be firm where the Scriptures are flexible. I wonder if that would go down and we would be less flexible where the Scriptures are firm. Why? Because we're nourished by the Word.

I think one of the reasons we might struggle with being firm and flexible where the Scriptures aren't is we just don't have enough intake of the Word. What would it look like for us to get to a place where we don't just read the Word but we are sustained by the Word? So, Jesus believed the Scriptures were the Word of God, and secondly, Jesus was sustained by the Word of God.

3. Jesus knew he was the point of the Word of God. In a different story where Jesus is interacting with his chief opponents, the religious leaders, listen to what he says to them in John 5:39-40. He says, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

He's saying, "You search the Scriptures. You're diligent. You are diligent to study the Word of God." They were more diligent than the majority of people in this room. The religious leaders had more Scripture memorized than probably anyone in this room, yet Jesus said, "Yet you completely miss it, because you're looking into the Scriptures, thinking your study of Scriptures is what is going to buy you final approval from God when, in fact, the Scriptures are all about me, the only one who can give you eternal life."

They completely missed the point. If you want to revere the Bible like Jesus, then here's what you have to realize: God has given us his Word so we may see Jesus, surrender to Jesus, be saved by Jesus, be satisfied in Jesus, and show Jesus to an unbelieving world. That's why we have the Scriptures. It is to know and enjoy Jesus Christ.

Do you know why many of us are firm where the Bible is flexible and flexible where the Bible is firm? It's because we're coming to the Bible with our own agenda instead of getting synced up with God's agenda. Jesus, from start to finish in the Scriptures and in our lives, is God's agenda.

Here's how I want to finish today. Do you remember what happened on the road to Emmaus after Jesus rose from the dead? He appeared to some of his disciples, but they didn't recognize him, and he didn't reveal himself. He was kind of eavesdropping and then just inserted himself into their conversation. Listen to what it says he did in Luke 24:27.

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets…" That's a way of saying, "The entire Old Testament," because Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus… "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Do you see it? Jesus is the point of the Bible.

We have no way of knowing exactly what Jesus shared on that road, but I just wonder… Can you imagine being on that road, walking with Jesus and those people, and Jesus saying, "Hey, guys, you need to know… In Genesis, I was the Word of God and the seed of the woman. In Exodus, I was the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, I'm your high priest. In Numbers, I'm the pillar of cloud and fire. I'm the rock struck to give you living water.

In Deuteronomy, I was the prophet greater than Moses. In Joshua, I was the commander of the Lord's army to bring you into the Promised Land. In Judges, I was the Judge. In Ruth, I was your kinsman redeemer. In 1 and 2 Samuel, I was the anointed shepherd king who slayed the giant of sin. In 1 and 2 Kings, I was the righteous King and Lord of Lords. In 1 and 2 Chronicles, I was the faithful restorer of the kingdom.

In Ezra, I was your faithful scribe and the restorer of the temple. In Nehemiah, I was the rebuilder of everything broken. In Esther, I was your Mordecai, your advocate. I'm the one who risked my life to bring you to royalty. In Job, I was your living redeemer and true comforter. In Psalms, I was your shepherd, the one who hears your cries. In Proverbs, I was your wisdom. In Ecclesiastes, I was your meaning for life. In Song of Solomon, I was the loving bridegroom coming for you, my bride.

In Isaiah, I was the Prince of Peace and suffering servant. In Jeremiah, I was the potter and righteous branch. In Lamentations, I was your weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, I was the river of life bringing healing to the nations. In Daniel, I was the fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Hosea, I was the faithful husband pursuing his unfaithful bride. In Joel, I was the outpourer of the Holy Spirit. In Amos, I was your burden bearer.

In Obadiah, I was the judge of all the earth who was mighty to save. In Jonah, I was the prophet who spent three days in the depths. In Micah, I was the promised Messiah from Bethlehem. In Nahum, I was your stronghold. In Habakkuk, I was the watchman and your reason for rejoicing. In Zephaniah, I was the one who was mighty to save. In Haggai, I was the desire of all the nations. In Zechariah, I was the branch of David and the one who was pierced for you, and in Malachi, I was the sun of righteousness rising with healing in his wings."

Now we have the New Testament, so we know from Matthew, he's the King of the Jews. In Mark, he's the servant king. In Luke, he's the Son of Man. In John, he's the Son of God, the Word made flesh. In Acts, he's the risen and ascended Lord, the Savior of the world. In Romans, he's our justification and the righteousness of God.

In 1 Corinthians, he's our rock and resurrection. In 2 Corinthians, he is our comfort. In Galatians, he's our liberty. In Ephesians, he's the head of the church. In Philippians, he's our joy. In Colossians, he's supreme over all creation. In 1 Thessalonians, he's the coming King. In 2 Thessalonians, he's the believer's patience as we await his return. In 1 Timothy, he's our mediator between God and man. In 2 Timothy, he's the seed of David raised from the dead.

In Philemon, he's our benefactor, restoring us to effective service. In Titus, he's the blessed hope and faithful pastor. In Hebrews, he's our high priest, our sacrifice of atonement, the author and finisher of our faith. In James, he's the power behind our faith. In 1 Peter, he's the chief cornerstone and the rock of offense.

In 2 Peter, he's the faithful, long-suffering Lord, not willing that any should perish. In 1 John, he is love. In 2 John, he is the truth by which we walk in love. In 3 John, he's all that is good and hospitable, a hospitable host. In Jude, he's the one who keeps us from stumbling and presents us blameless. In Revelation, he is the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Maybe the reality check for you this morning is you don't know the one we just talked about. If so, come to him. Put your trust in him. Be saved by him today. If you know him, may we revere the Word of God like him. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, that's my hope and prayer. If there's anyone in this room today who doesn't know you, I pray they would put their trust in you, that they would call upon you and be saved. God, would you help us take a step? God, would you help us grow in the areas where we're firm where Scripture is flexible and flexible where Scripture is firm? We want to revere the Word of God as you do, Jesus. By the power of your Spirit, would you help us to do that? In Jesus' name, amen.