One of Satan’s cleverest tools: Using God’s life-giving revelation against itself. The devil himself quoted Scripture to Christ when he tempted Him in the wilderness. How is this possible with a perfect text? First Timothy 3:16-17—inspired of God, adequate to make us perfect; indeed, search the scriptures, and for all its writers over all its centuries, you’ll find no contradiction. And if you DO search the scriptures, you’ve done exactly what Satan doesn’t want you to do. No, it is not with imperfect text that Satan uses Scripture . . . it is with imperfect HEARTS; hearts unwilling to seek out truth.

To misuse scripture, you must look at it with a shallow viewpoint . . . only then can you follow to false conclusions. This was as much a problem under the Old Law as it was and now is under the New Law. False conclusions are made based on a shallow examination of the text.

But there is another form, and possibly more dangerous, that we’ll discuss, as well. Hearts are turned cold by all manner of emotional dilemmas conjured up to oppose God’s laws. We’ll examine both, and their motives, today.

Most certainly throughout Christ’s ministry we find that the Jews continually failed to look more closely at Christ in their objections made against Him. Looking at a few of them:

1) "Jesus came from Galilee, not Bethlehem."

John 7:41-42: Others were saying, "This is the Christ." Still others were saying, "Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?

"Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"

Micah 5:2: "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."

Yes, certainly upon a cursory examination of this man, Jesus, you might wonder about that. But if they bothered to inquire further, they’d have learned what WE know.

Luke 2:4, 6: And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David . . . .

And it came about while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

Consider another argument of the Jews:

2) "The Christ would not encourage people to break the Sabbath. Why, Jesus even broke the Sabbath Himself."

Matthew 12:1-8

Also, in John 5:1-16, when Jesus healed the paralytic man on the Sabbath,

John 5:16-18

Here is Christ before them, having proclaimed in His Sermon on the Mount . . .

Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."

The Jews had to take a narrow view of the Law indeed to miss what Christ in these instances directly told them—ALL prophecy up to this point had been pointing toward His coming!
 

John 6:30-31: They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

"Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’"

. . . And Moses spins in his grave! The very sin that got him exiled has been perpetuated in the minds of these Jews!

John 6:32-33: Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."

4) "The Christ would not associate nor allow sinners to touch Him as Jesus does!"

Luke 7:39: Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner."

5.) "This Man was crucified . . . how can He be the Christ who would live forever?"

John 12:34: The multitude therefore answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?"

You see what shallow viewpoints the Jews took. Reading these passages, I would love to have been there to smack them over the head with the Book of Isaiah!

On the road to Emmaus, Christ once again indicated that ALL prophecy of the OT was leading up to His life:

Luke 24:25-27: And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!"

"Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?"

And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Him in all the Scriptures.

Had these Jews taken a little time to make a cursory examination of the Scriptures, every one of their objections could have been easily answered.

But that’s not what they wanted, was it? They chose to rest on their superficial reasoning.
 

Consider the BIGGIE:   BAPTISM. "Is it really necessary?" "What about the thief on the cross?" "We’re not saved by our works, and baptism is a work of man."

The fact of the matter is, EVERY conversion account of the New Testament mentions baptism BEFORE salvation.

You would think false teachers would single out "confession" for exclusion, wouldn’t you? Yet the most widely mentioned step in Christ’s plan is the MOST ignored and LEAST accurately obeyed!

The same shallow reasoning used toward instruments in worship: "David used instruments in worship." You can begin your study on this topic with a concordance, looking up the words "music" and "sing." Observe the stark contrast between their uses in Old and New Testament, and, if necessary, look to Galatians and Hebrews to determine the importance of what that contrast of OLD law and NEW law means.

Hebrews 8:13: When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Galatians 5:3: [Shows us that observance of measures of the Old Law—in this instance, circumcision—has far-reaching consequences] And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

Colossians 3:16-17: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Which leads directly to another line of shallow reasoning that has led to the stain of institutionalism upon the Lord’s church: "The Bible doesn’t specify ‘how.’" When, in fact, it does. The church is shown to be a local, autonomous body, its acts of benevolence outlined in Acts 6 as such, a local endeavor. Teaching, by apostolic example and simple reasoning is the most vital part of a church’s work—simply because if faith cometh by hearing, who’s to hear if no one’s to speak?

Romans 10:13-14: . . . for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have no believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Certainly the means of worship are recorded for those who seek to find it. The organization of the congregations set forth in Scriptures are local bodies. "Yeah, it says local bodies, but it doesn’t say anything else." Exactly. And that silence should be respected.

Having looked at how this problem of Christ’s contemporaries continues, let’s go back and see what Christ said about the REAL motivation for the Jews’ unbelief:

1) They were self-seeking.

John 5:39-47

And isn’t that the same problem we have today? Isn’t it the problem we face with baptism? With the Bible itself? No longer can you begin a discussion on the common ground that the Bible is perfect and inspired of God. Why is this? The same reason the Discovery Channel will feature specials trying to cast doubt on the miracles of the Bible, which they dub as "mysteries," by ignoring and maligning the Bible, the single-most verified and concrete historical document EVER FOUND, and then turn around and air hours of programming that uses cheap "reenactment footage" and every scrap of shoddy evidence they can find to convince you that there really is a BIGFOOT!! People today are self-seeking, and they don’t want to confront the truths the Bible lays out so clearly.

The Jews, on top of that (perhaps as a result of that)

2) They had blinded eyes and hardened hearts.

John 12:37-40

These often revolve around two primary doctrinal issues: baptism and marriage. Baptism, I suppose, because it appears too ritualistic, and marriage issues because a great deal of emotion and heartbreak is involved in acceptance of God’s laws on marriage whenever sin corrupts a union. Issues where "WHAT IF?" scenarios are involved are NOT hard to understand . . . but they may be hard to ACCEPT.

Such was the case for the Sadducees, who were trying to back Christ into a corner with a scenario they thought would cinch their idea that there was no resurrection.

Matthew 22:23-33

Clearly, the Sadducees’ "WHAT IF?" situation did not change the truth Christ came to preach. You cannot nullify God’s words with difficult situations!

Take for example a tract written by David Martin, a Baptist preacher Bob Bunting debated a few years back. The title of the tract was "Common Sense Questions A ‘Church of Christ’ Preacher Cannot Clearly Answer." In it, Mr. Martin wrote, "Mark it down that if you ask one of these ‘preachers’ any of the questions in this tract, you won’t get a straight answer due to their ‘screwball’ theology." Here are two samples of these "unanswerable questions":

1) "If a ‘Church of Christ’ elder refuses to baptize me, will I be lost until I find one who will?"

2) "If the water pipe broke and the baptistry was bone dry, would my salvation have to wait until a plumber showed up?"

When Mr. Martin asserts that these are questions a Church of Christ preacher cannot clearly answer, what he means is, he expects a "yes" or "no." What he does NOT want is to study baptism.

He doesn’t want to see this, how plain and obvious it is. He’s drawn it away from what God says—he’s not concerned with that. He wants an exception. If you say "yes," a person is saved who is delayed from baptism, then baptism is not necessary. If you say "no," an individual is NOT saved who is delayed from baptism, you’re a cold-hearted snake and CLEARLY God couldn’t teach anything like that.

Right?

You know, a lot could’ve happened to the Galatian brethren who were falling under the sway of the Judaizers by the time Paul’s letter had arrived to correct them. If one of them had died, would they have been exempted from the message in the letter? What if the Ethiopian Eunuch’s chariot had struck a rock and thrown him and Philip to their deaths?

Acts 2:38: And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

I Peter 3:21: And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Brethren, we need to be on guard in our own lives to be SURE that we don’t fall into these intellectual traps. Is there a topic that we avoid studying in depth because it’s something we have "difficulty" with?

If we are having "difficulty" with a practice or doctrine, and our reaction is to recoil from rather than rush to Scripture, I’d be mindful of the attitudes that motivated the Jews. A self-serving, blind eye, and a hardened heart. May that never be true of us. Let us "examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so."

I’ve got another scenario for you. What if you’re at a church building that has no baptistry?

Mark 16:16: "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."

Galatians 5:4: You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.