Facing the Issues

Why Jesus And The Bible Are Inseparable
by Dr. DeWayne Nichols

Dewayne Nichols is pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.

“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)

      Notice what Jesus said: “...ashamed of me and of my words...” as though those two things go together. To be ashamed of Him is to be ashamed of His words, and to be ashamed of His words is to be ashamed of Him.
      Then notice His statement in John 12, which is maybe even a little clearer. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) Notice again how Jesus ties Himself and His Word together. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,...” To reject Jesus is to receive not His words. To receive not His words is to reject Him. So Jesus ties Himself to the Word of God. He ties Himself to this Bible. I’m going to speak to you today on this subject: Jesus And The Bible Are United And Inseparable.
      Let me begin by making a statement and then giving two or three illustrations in order to clarify what I mean. The statement is this: There are certain entities which are joined together, united together, in such an intimate and vital fashion that they cannot be separated without destruction taking place.
      Illustration: Think of a pair of scissors consisting of two blades. Those blades of a pair of scissors are united and cannot be separated without the scissors being destroyed. If you take a pair of scissors and separate the two blades -- put one blade over in one place and put the other over in another place -- then you’ve destroyed the scissors and they can no longer accomplish the task that they were made to do. So I’m saying, then, that the blades of a pair of scissors are united and inseparable. They cannot be separated without destruction taking place and without the purpose for which they were made being destroyed.
      Another illustration: A glass of water. Water is composed of two elements -- hydrogen and oxygen. These two elements are united and they cannot be separated without the water being destroyed. I suppose that a scientist could take some water into a laboratory and separate the hydrogen from the oxygen there in the laboratory, but if he did so, it would no longer be water. He would have destroyed the water by separating the two elements. So then the hydrogen and the oxygen, which make up water, are united and inseparable and they cannot be separated without destruction taking place.
      Another illustration: Think of conjoined twins, what they used to call Siamese twins. These are twins who are born in such a way that they are joined together at some point on their bodies. We heard the reports just recently of some Siamese twins, who I think were joined at the head. The doctors were able to perform an operation and separate them, but I’ve read of other cases where Siamese twins could not be separated. Maybe they were joined together in such a way that they shared vital organs. Maybe they shared a heart, or a liver or something like that, so that they could not be separated and in those cases, if the twins were separated, then death would be the result. So again in those types of situations the twins are united and inseparable and cannot be separated without destruction being the result.
      Again my statement is that there are entities which are joined together and united together in such an intimate and vital fashion that they cannot be separated without destruction taking place. I’m talking about entities which are united and inseparable.
      In the final analysis Christianity rests upon, it stands or falls, upon two entities which are united and which are inseparable. Those two entities are, number one, the Lord Jesus Christ, His person and work and, number two, the Bible. What I want us to get hold of is that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible are united together in an inseparable way. I want us to get hold of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible go together like the two blades of a pair of scissors. They go together like hydrogen and oxygen go together to form water. Our Lord Jesus Christ and this Book go together like Siamese twins who cannot be separated because they share vital organs. You cannot have the Lord Jesus Christ without the Bible and you cannot have the Bible without the Lord Jesus Christ. The two are inseparably and indivisibly united and to accept one is also to accept the other. In other words, if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, then you accept the Bible as well, and if you accept the Bible, then you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as well. Conversely, if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, then you reject the Bible, and if you reject the Bible, then you reject the Lord Jesus Christ.   Because I’m saying to you that the two cannot be separated. They are united and inseparable and indivisible.
      There was a time when this truth was pretty much understood by practically everybody, both Christians and non-Christians. I mean there was a time when most everybody understood that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible go together and that they cannot be separated one from the other.
      However, about 150 years ago, unconverted religionists launched a movement which became known as modernism or theological liberalism, and these unconverted religionists began to deny fundamental basic doctrines of Christianity, while still claiming to be Christians. Now understand that they were not true Christians in the Bible sense of the word; nobody is a true Christian who denies fundamental Christian doctrine.
      My good friend, Dr. Kevin Wynne in Mexico City, tells of being out some time ago soulwinning, knocking on doors and he had a Bible in his hand, John and Romans. He knocked on a door and a man answered and Brother Wynne began to witness to him and tried to get the man saved. Shortly this man said to him, “Preacher, I want you to know that I love Jesus Christ, but I hate that Book that you have in your hand.” Brother Wynne simply closed his Bible, looked back at the man and said, “Sir, I want you to understand that you are a liar.” Ladies and gentlemen, he was exactly right. You cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ and hate this Bible at the same time. The two are inseparably and indivisibly united.
      When these unconverted religionists 150 years ago began denying basic fundamental doctrine, one of the subtle, devious methods that they used to do so was to try to separate and to try to make a division between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible. Ladies and gentlemen, this religious infidelity has made such inroads over the past century and a half in our country, that it now permeates most of the mainline denominations. All over the country this Sunday morning, liberal reverends will stand before congregations of people and these liberal reverends will talk about following or patterning after Jesus, they’ll talk about loving Jesus and having the Spirit of Jesus, while at the same time they deny that the Bible is the Word of God. Dear friend, I say to you again that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible are united together in an inseparable, indivisible way and they cannot be separated the one from the other.
      There is this traveling side-show that tours the country that met in our city of San Antonio a few years ago, known as the Jesus Seminar. All it is is a group of religious infidels who meet together on occasion in order to pick the Bible apart, in order to attack and criticize the Bible, while still claiming to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. These infidels like to disguise and masquerade themselves in the costume of scholarship. They like to call themselves scholars. They do this very deliberately and very calculatedly. They call themselves scholars so as to imply that those of us who do not swallow their infidelity are not scholars. In other words, the implication is that the reason some of us don’t agree with them is because we’re just a bunch of poor, dumb, ignorant hillbillies, who simply are not scholarly enough to know what they know. Let me say to them, “Mr. Infidel, you can go ahead and call yourself a scholar all you want, but a skunk by any other name still stinks just as bad!”
      Someone says, “Well, Preacher, don’t you know that modern scholarship has shown that the Bible is an out-dated, out-moded Book?” Yes, dear friend, the Bible is about as out-dated as next year’s newspaper.
      I remember reading about an island that was inhabited by cannibals. Some missionary went to that island and through the preaching of the Word of God, these cannibals began to get converted and began to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, as the result of the efforts of this missionary and the conversion of these former cannibals civilization was brought to those islands. Shortly after that trade began to be conducted between those islands and other countries.
      One day one of these converted cannibals was sitting on the beach with a copy of the Bible. He was sitting there reading from the Word of God. As he read, one of the merchant seamen walked by and saw him there with an open Bible in his hand. That seaman said, “Sir, in my country, we consider that Book to be out-dated and out-moded.”
      The former cannibal pointed to a pot of bowling water and said, “Well, Mr. merchant seaman, you’d better be glad that here in my country we don’t consider the Bible to be out-dated and out-moded, because if we did I’d be cooking you for supper in that pot right now.”
      I’m simply saying this, ladies and gentlemen; Jesus and the Bible go together. They are inseparable. You might as well try to separate heat from fire. You might as well separate water from wetness. You might as well try to separate sound from noise, as to try to separate Jesus and the Bible. It simply cannot be done. They are inseparable. They are indivisible. They go together and cannot be separated without destruction taking place to Christian doctrine.
      In Mark 8:38 Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Jesus said, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) I’m saying, friend, that in both of these verses the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, united Himself together with His words in such a fashion that makes it impossible to separate them one from the other. Jesus and the Bible are united and inseparable. I want to share with you for a few minutes some of the ways it is demonstrated and manifested in the Bible, the fact that Jesus and the Bible are united and inseparable.
      #1. Both Jesus and the Bible, and only Jesus and the Bible, are set forth as the embodiment of Divine truth. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I didn’t say that there is nothing else that is true besides Jesus and the Bible. There are many things that are true. It’s true that fire is hot. It’s true that ice is cold. It’s true that strawberries taste good. All of these and a thousand other things besides are true, but I’m saying to you that there are only two entities that are set forth as absolute truth. There are only two entities that are set forth as the embodiment of truth. There are only two entities that are set forth as truth without any mixture of error. Those two entities are number one, the Lord Jesus Christ, and number two, the Bible.
      That’s why Jesus in John 14:6 said, “...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” In John 17:17 as the Lord Jesus prayed His great, high priestly prayer the night before His crucifixion in which He prayed for you and me, in verse 17 He cried out to the Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” The Lord Jesus Christ set forth only two entities as being the embodiment of truth, as being absolute truth, as being truth without any mixture of error, and those two entities are Jesus Himself and the Bible. There is where you find unmitigated truth. There is where you find unadulterated truth. There is where you find truth without one spot of error. Where? In the person of Jesus Christ and in the pages of the Bible, that’s where.
      By the way, this gives us a clue as to what a true New Testament church will be. First Timothy 3:15, referring to the local, New Testament church, declared the church to be the pillar and ground of the truth. According to that Bible definition and that Bible description, a true church is not just some outfit that gets together and calls itself a church. Anybody can do that. In fact, the queers have their so-called churches, but it’s not a true church in the New Testament sense because it doesn’t fit the description and definition of being the pillar and ground of the truth. Dear friend, since the church is the pillar and ground of the truth and since only two entities embody the truth, Jesus and the Bible, then that means that a true church will be a place that uplifts and exalts and upholds number one, the Bible and number two, the Lord Jesus Christ, His person and work, and what the Bible says about Him. An outfit that does not do that may call itself a church, but it’s not a church in the Bible sense of the word because a true church is the pillar and ground of the truth and the truth is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ and in the pages of the Bible. This inseparable unity, this inseparable, indivisible connection between Jesus and the Bible is demonstrated in the Word of God because both Jesus and the Bible and only Jesus and the Bible are set forth as the embodiment of Divine truth.
      #2. Both Jesus and the Bible are designated as the Word of God. What is a ‘word’ anyway? A word is that which gives expression to the invisible. For example, my thoughts are invisible. You cannot see my thoughts, but I can give expression to my invisible thoughts. I can, as it were, make my thoughts visible. How? With my words. You can know my invisible thoughts and what they are like. I tell you through my words what my thoughts are. A word is that which gives expression to the invisible. In the same way that my words can give expression to my invisible thoughts, in the same fashion the Word of God is that which gives expression to the invisible God. In other words, we can know God and we can know what He’s like. How? Through His Word, that’s how. He gives expression to Himself through His Word.
      I say again that both Jesus and the Bible are designated as the Word of God. Why? I’ll tell you why. Because both Jesus and the Bible reveal and manifest and allow us to see the invisible God. Jesus is the living Word; the Bible is the written Word. Jesus is God revealed in human form; the Bible is God revealed in printed form. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh; the Bible is God manifested in a Book. Both Jesus and the Bible are designated as the Word of God. Most people are aware that the Bible is called the Word of God. In Mark 7:10-13, the Law of Moses is referred to as the Word of God. In John 10:35 Jesus referred to the Scriptures as the Word of God. Most of us know that, but the preachers here and many others besides are aware of the fact that there are at least five passages in the Bible where the expression ‘the Word of God’ is used, not with reference to the Bible, but with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
      In John 1:1 speaking of His pre-existence and His Deity, John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In verse 14 of the same chapter, speaking of Christ’s incarnation, John said, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
      In I John 1:1, speaking of Christ’s eternal existence and the reality of His humanity John said, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”
      Speaking of His unity and co-equality with the other two members of the Triune God-head, I John 5:7 says, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
      In Revelation 19:13, speaking of Christ’s second coming, John sees Him on a white horse returning to this earth after the seven year tribulation and John declared, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.” What is it that gives expression to the invisible God? I’ll tell you what it is and I’ll tell you who it is. It’s the Bible and it’s the person of Jesus Christ. Both of them reveal God to us and so both of them are set forth as the Word of God. There is an inseparable, indivisible connection between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible.
      #3. The Bible refers to itself as the Word of Christ. Colossians 3:16 commands us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;...” Now it stands to reason that the Bible would be the Word of Christ because it’s the Word of God. Since the Lord Jesus Christ is God, therefore the Bible is the Word of Christ.
      I like that story in Luke 24, how the two disciples were on the road to Emmaus and the Lord Jesus Christ showed up and began to walk along with them, but He veiled Himself so that they did not recognize who He was. Verse 27 of that chapter says, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” The Lord Jesus Christ opened up the Old Testament Scriptures and began to point to Genesis 3:15 and say to the disciples, “See that promise about the Seed of the woman that will bruise the serpent’s head?” Jesus said, “That’s talking about Me.” He’d point to the book of Exodus and say, “Remember that Passover lamb. That’s talking about Me.” He revealed to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
      A little bit later on the journey down the Emmaus Road, He caused those disciples to recognize who He was. In verse 32 the Scripture says, “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” The reason Jesus could go into the Old Testament and explain the Old Testament Scriptures and what they said concerning Himself, the reason He could do that is because it’s His Word, and He’s the One Who had given It in the first place. The Bible is the Word of Christ. That’s why it’s so ridiculous and absurd for these unsaved religionists to talk about worshipping Jesus and loving Jesus and following Jesus, while at the same time they deny the Bible. It’s like saying, “Well, I love and worship and follow Jesus, but I think He’s a liar.” How ridiculous! How absurd! How ludicrous! Dear friend, if you love Jesus, you’ll love the Bible. “...If a man love me, he will keep my words:...” said the Son of God.
      #4. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified to and put His approbation on the Bible. I began to study this out. I was absolutely astounded at the relationship between Jesus and the Bible in the days when He was on earth.
      For example, Jesus declared that the Scriptures cannot be broken. You check it out in John 10:35 Jesus said, “... the scripture cannot be broken;” If you’ll study that passage, you’ll find that Jesus wasn’t teaching a lesson of the truthfulness of the Bible. He made that statement as an after-thought, as simply a given assumption that everybody knew and understood that the Scriptures cannot be broken. You may not believe the Bible, but Jesus did.
      Jesus declared that the Scriptures will be fulfilled. You read the Gospels, especially the Gospel of Matthew, and you’ll find again and again that this happened and that happened and Jesus did this and did that, why? That the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He declared in Matthew 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.”
      Somebody said, “Preacher, do you believe in word-for-word inspiration?” Brother, I not only believe in word-for-word inspiration; I believe in letter-for-letter inspiration. In fact, He wasn’t even talking about inspiration, He was talking about preservation, if you want to know the truth about it. He said, “...Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Jot, that’s the Greek rendering of the Hebrew yowd, which is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. A tittle was a little marking that differentiated one letter from another, such as the mark if you make the letter ‘O’ and then put a little mark down in the lower right hand corner, that ‘O’ becomes a ‘Q’. That little mark that makes it a ‘Q’ instead of an ‘O’, that’s what a tittle was. It was a little marking that differentiated one letter from another, and Jesus said, “Not only will the words of the Bible be fulfilled,” but He said, “Not one jot, not the smallest letter in the Bible and not one tittle, not even the little markings that differentiate one letter from another.” He said, “None of it will pass away till all of it is fulfilled.”
      Jesus declared that the Scriptures are eternal. In Matthew 24:35 Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” In case we didn’t get it in Matthew 24:35, He repeated it exactly in Mark 13:31 and in Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” There will come a time when God will renovate this universe. He’ll renovate the present heavens and the present earth and bring in new heavens and a new earth. In that day when the heaven and the earth pass away and this system that we’re in now is changed for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, when the heaven and the earth pass away Jesus said, “There is something that will still stand. My Word shall not pass away.”
      Jesus declared that a knowledge of the Scriptures would keep us from error. In Matthew 22:29 the unbelieving Sadducees, the liberals of the day, tried to trip Jesus up by asking Him that question about the seven brothers that were, in succession, married to the same woman and all of them died. I want you to see what Jesus said in Matthew 22:29 to the Sadducees, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err,...” You are in error. You’re wrong. Why? Jesus said, “...not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” So if they were in error because they didn’t know know the Scriptures, then I guess if we know the Scriptures that will keep us from going into error.
      Do you understand that the Lord Jesus Christ used the tense of a verb in the Bible to establish the doctrine of life after death and the doctrine of the resurrection? I used to read this and wonder, “What in the world is He talking about?” In Matthew 22:31-32 Jesus said this to those same Sadducees. “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Now what is He saying? He goes back to the burning bush, when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and God said, “...I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob...” (Exodus 3:6) He didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” even though they had been dead for hundreds of years by that time. God didn’t say, “I was their God.” He said, “I am their God,” meaning that they had to still be alive somewhere and that indicated that one day their bodies would be resurrected and reunited with their soul and spirit. The amazing thing is that the Lord Jesus Christ used the tense of a verb and the fact that God said, “I am,” and not I was. Do I believe in word-for-word inspiration? Brother, I believe in tense-of-the-verbs inspiration.
      Jesus used the Scriptures to defeat the devil. In Matthew 4, the first 11 verses, three times Satan approached the Son of God, trying to entice Him into yielding to Satan’s temptation. G. Campbell Morgan said that that was one of the seven most important events in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Do you understand that it was at His temptation that He established His bona fides, that He established His credentials? Had He succumbed to the temptation of Satan, then He could not have gone to the cross and died for our sins.
      You understand, dear friend, not only did Jesus verify the truthfulness of the Bible in a general way, but it’s interesting to me that Jesus verified the truthfulness of those Old Testament accounts which infidels most often deny. He took the very things that the infidels point to as mistakes in the Bible and put His stamp of approval on those things.
      For example, what’s the single most attacked truth that is set forth in the Bible in our society today? I would say the Biblical account of creation. We built an entire society and our public institutions on the lies of evolution. I want you to know, my friend, you check it out in Matthew 19:4-6 the Lord Jesus Christ pointed back to the Genesis account of creation and put His stamp of approval on what the Bible said about creation.
      The same ones who deny the Bible account of creation also deny the world-wide flood of Noah’s day. In Matthew 24:37-39, the Lord Jesus Christ pointed back to the flood of Noah’s day and put His stamp of approval on what the Bible says about that, and furthermore declared that one day those conditions would exist on earth again.
      The story of Jonah and the whale, the infidels have laughed and scoffed and come out with all kinds of ridiculous nonsense about why that could not be true, but in Matthew 12:40-41 the Lord Jesus Christ pointed back to the experience of Jonah and the whale and put His stamp of approval on what the Bible said about that and then declared that it was a type and a picture and a sign of His own death, burial, and resurrection. Not only did the Son of God put His stamp of approval on the Bible in a general way, but He took the very things that the Bible tells us are true, that the infidels deny, and Jesus said, “You can believe those things when you read them in the Bible.”
      You say what you want to say, but to say that the Bible is not the Word of God and is not true is to say one of two things about Jesus Christ. That is to say either that He was a liar, who deliberately deceived people into thinking something was true that He knew was not true, or it’s to say that He, Himself was deceived and thought something was true that wasn’t true. Either way, if either one of those two things are so, then Jesus could not be the Saviour. I’m saying that Jesus and the Bible are united and cannot be separated one from the other.
      Finally let me say that Jesus points to the Bible as the message of salvation, while the Bible points to Jesus as the way of salvation. In John 5 the Lord Jesus Christ points to the Bible and says, “That’s where you learn how to be saved.” Then you go to the Bible and the Bible points to Jesus and says, “He’s the One you have to trust in order to be saved.”
      In John 5:39 Jesus spoke to those Pharisees, who claimed that they believed the Bible, but did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to them, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39) He went on in verses 45-47 and said to the Pharisees, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” Jesus and the Bible go together in an inseparable, indivisible way.
      We come to the very last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. In Revelation 3:10 the Lord Jesus Christ gives the promise of the pre-tribulation rapture to the Philadelphia church, but I want you to notice how He worded it. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Jesus puts a high premium on the church that keeps the Word of His patience. I’m simply trying to get across to us that the Bible and the Lord Jesus, dear friend, you can’t put Jesus over here and the Bible over here and divide and separate the two one from the other. The two are joined together in an inseparable, indivisible way. Preacher brethren, only as we are true to the Bible are we being true to the Lord Jesus Christ.
      I’m not an art student, as you might imagine. To me it might be Rembrandt, or it might be Michelangelo, or it might be Charles Schultz, you know. It’s all the same to me. But there one painting I heard an old preacher tell about. In Acts 10:43 Peter said about the Lord Jesus, “To him give all the prophets witness,...” He said the whole Bible is about Jesus. Everybody that wrote something in the Bible wrote about Jesus. I heard an old preacher tell what I guess illustrates that truth as well as anything I’ve ever heard. He told about going into an art gallery in Europe and looking at some of the paintings by the old masters from three or four centuries ago. One thing that is interesting about art from that era is how many times they tried to depict things from the Bible and paint it on canvas.
      This old preacher told of seeing one painting where the artist tried to set forth the fact that the Bible is a Book about the Lord Jesus Christ. He described it as Jesus being painted standing in the center of the picture. Then out on this side of the Lord Jesus Christ stood several men representing the Old Testament men who wrote the Old Testament Scriptures. Then on this side were several men that represented the New Testament prophets. He said, “Here is Jesus standing in the center. On this side you have the Old Testament men of God and everyone of them is standing there like this, pointing to the One in the center. Then over on this side are the New Testament preachers, everyone of them pointing to the One in the center.”
      I visualized in my mind, as I thought about that painting, I pictured Jesus standing there and out here at the end stands Moses pointing to Jesus and saying, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;” (Deuteronomy 18:15)
      Standing next to him I visualize David pointing to Jesus and saying, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalms 23:1)
      Standing next to him I visualize Isaiah pointing to Jesus and saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
      Standing next to him I visualize Malachi standing and pointing and saying, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;...” (Malachi 4:2)
      Then on this side I pictured and visualized John the Baptist standing and pointing to Jesus and saying, “...Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
      Standing next to him I visualize the Apostle Peter pointing to Jesus and saying, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
      Standing next to him I visualize the Apostle Paul pointing to Jesus and declaring, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Corinthians 5:21)
      Standing next to him I visualize John the beloved pointing to Jesus and crying out, “...Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” (Revelation 1:5) I’m simply saying, my friend, that the Bible and Jesus are inseparably connected.
      Some time ago I started preaching a series on Sunday mornings showing the portrait of Christ from sequential books of the Bible. The first Sunday I preached from the book of Genesis on Jesus the Seed of the Woman. The next Sunday I preached from the book of Exodus on Jesus the Smitten Rock. The next Sunday I preached from Leviticus on Jesus the Scape Goat. The next Sunday I preached from the book of Numbers on Jesus the Brazen Serpent. The next Sunday I preached from Deuteronomy on Jesus the Prophet like unto Moses. The next Sunday I preached from the book of Joshua on Jesus the Captain of the Lord’s Host. The next Sunday I preached from the book of Judges on Jesus the Delivering Judge.
      The next Sunday I preached from the book of Ruth on Jesus, the Kinsman Redeemer. The next Sunday I preached from I Samuel on Jesus, the Anointed One. The next Sunday I preached from II Samuel on Jesus, the Seed of David. The next Sunday I preached from I Kings on Jesus, the Greater than Solomon. The next Sunday I preached from the book of II Kings on Jesus, the Lord God of Elijah. The next Sunday I preached from the book of I Chronicles on Jesus, the One Who Keeps the Records. The next Sunday I preached from II Chronicles on Jesus, the Temple of God. This last Sunday I preached from the book of Ezra on Jesus, the Restorer of His People.
      Next Sunday morning I’m going to preach from the book of Nehemiah on Jesus, the Rebuilder of the Ruins. The next Sunday after that I’ll preach from the book of Esther on Jesus, the Providential Protector of His People. I’ll stop there, but I think you get the idea. I told my folks, “If you don’t get anything else out of this series, I hope you get this: The Bible is a Book about Jesus and Jesus and the Bible are joined together and united together in an inseparable, indivisible way.”
      Again I say, preacher brethren, it’s only as we are true to the Bible, that we’re true to the Lord Jesus Christ because the two, Jesus and the Bible, are united and inseparable.