If I had a choice, I’d make sure that all of my sermons had an eye-catching, or ear-catching, title. That is not always possible, but I think that this morning I have succeeded. The title of today’s message is – “Jesus the Liar.” Of course, I don’t believe that to be true, but still I have a good reason for beginning that way. I will come back to that title later, after wandering all over the map for a few minutes. And I do mean that quite literally.
How can I possibly develop a message from the simple historical and geographical words of verses 1 & 2? Let me put it this way, these verses come to us from the Holy Spirit, as part of the inspired Word of God. This message is not so much about Christ, as it is your ability to trust what the Bible says about Christ. Jesus once said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” – and I believe him. In the context of the important words of I Peter 2:24 – Christ Jesus, “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” In the context of those words are the equally important words – “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” Christ possessed no guile in the sense of subtlety or deceitfulness – He was not a liar. In order for a sinner, like me, to be delivered from Hell, I need a perfectly righteous Saviour. I need someone who can satisfy the laws of God against me. And I have that Saviour in my Lord Jesus Christ.
Having said that let me begin by thoroughly confusing you in regard to –
Matthew – the penman of this Book of Matthew.
We were first introduced to this man back in the ninth chapter – “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.” “Matthew” was the name that Matthew preferred to use, even though he had another – “Levi.” He probably turned away from “Levi,” because that was the name by which he was formerly known as the Roman tax collector. The Book of Mark describes the same event that Matthew does, by saying, “And as Jesus passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.” In reading the context of both quotations there can be no doubt that Matthew and Levi are the same man by different names. Then with a little further investigation we learn that this son of Alphaeus was a resident of Capernaum.
So Matthew was a Galilean, not a Roman, a Samaritan or even a Judean – he was from northern Israel. And I’ll make an educated guess – he was a somewhat proud that he was a Galilean. Northern Israel – specifically Galilee – was miles from the political hubbub of Judah and Jerusalem. You could say that Galilee was on one side of the tracks, while Judah was on the other. And depending on with whom you were talking, the other fella was from the OTHER side of the tracks. Semi-heathen Samaria– a province between Galilee and Judah – made up the tracks The people of Judah had no right to disenfranchise the people of Galilee, but they behaved that way. It was a rather common thought – “Can any good thing come out of Galilee.” I am sure that many of the people of Galilee responded in the same sort of way toward the Judeans.
We have now studied nearly two thirds of this first book of the New Testament . Have you noticed that Matthew has never mentioned “Judah,“ ”Judea” or “Judean” – even one time? Are you aware that up to this point Matthew has mentioned “Jerusalem” only in regard to Jesus’ birth – and then about those who came from Jerusalem to tempt Christ? He did refer to “Judaea” twice but only to say that early in Jesus’ ministry people from Judaea followed and listened to Him. But in addition to these, there were important events in the life of Christ which took place in Jerusalem and Judea which Matthew didn’t mention. Don’t you find that a bit strange?
For example, early in His ministry, Jesus went down to Jerusalem for the Passover. During that visit He drove the money changers from the Temple, as recorded in John 2. When Jesus’ met with Nicodemus, uttering those important words, “Ye must be born again” – that was in Jerusalem, but it’s not recorded in Matthew. Following that Jesus needed go through Samaria on His way back to Galilee from Judea. Outside of the city of Sychar, Jesus had that memorable conversation with the woman at the well. John 4 says that Jesus’ disciples had gone into the city to buy some food. The wording makes every suggestion that these were the twelve disciples, including Matthew.
How faithful was Christ to keeping the Passover and the other feasts as required by the Law of God? I have no doubt that He was thoroughly faithful, and as a result so were His disciples. That means that Matthew had been with the Lord in Jerusalem at least six or eight times over the last couple of years. But not once did Matthew mention any of those visits, or any of the ministry that Jesus had in Judah. This final trip to Jerusalem and Judea is the first that Matthew records.
You may be thinking otherwise, but I am not criticizing Matthew for his particular account of Jesus’ ministry. I have often said that each of the four gospels present Christ from different perspectives. Mark describes our Lord more from His human side, while John elevates the eternal Son of God. The other two – Luke and Matthew – are somewhere in between. Many events are recorded in three of the gospels, and some are in all four. But then a few are recorded only once. And adding them all together they paint the full picture of the Theanthropic Person – the God Man – the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here is today’s first major point – Matthew wrote what he was lead to write by the Holy Spirit. The Book of Matthew which we have been studying for three and a half years is the inspired Word of God. There may be sixty-five other books in the Bible, which are just as important as this one. But it cannot be argued that there is a more important book in the world in which to spend this much time. Someone might think that to spend an hour on Sunday morning thinking about Matthew 19:1-2 is a waste. But I assure that such is not the case, so long as we open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to what the author – the Holy Spirit – has to tell us.
Later on, when Peter was writing his Holy Spirit inspired second epistle, he was probably not thinking about his old friend Matthew, but he could have been. Peter had been with James and John on the top of the mountain when Jesus was transfigured. And in II Peter 2 he made reference to that marvelous revelation, but then he went on – “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star (Christ) arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy (the Word of God) came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
When Matthew described the transfiguration, the incarnation or the ascension of Christ, the words which he used were God-breathed – Holy Spirit inspired. They were accurate and designed to accomplish the eternal purpose of God. Also, when he wrote Matthew 19:1-2 it was with the same purpose. Again, Paul was probably not thinking about this morning’s scripture, but he could have been, when he wrote – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Time and time again, God’s men, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, acknowledged that what they were saying and what they were writing were the very words of God.
And that means several very important things. The first is accuracy – what the Bible says should be considered as the truth. That must always be our approach – the Bible is true. Don’t carry with you the idea that what the Bible says must be proven or corroborated. Consider God and His word to be true and every man a liar – and every statement of man a potential lie. Second, because the Word is the voice of the eternal God, the scriptures are eternal. Christ has told us, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” “Forever O lord, thy word is settled in Heaven.” And if the Word is settled in Heaven, then you can be sure that it is applicable on earth as well. Then a third very important point about the Bible is that it is spiritual. Because it comes from God, the Word of the Lord can tell us things which we can never learn anywhere else. It reveals God to us and at the same time our own true spiritual condition. We would be lost without the Bible to tell us about sin, salvation from sin and about eternity. And once again, I stress, emphasize and reiterate – the Word of God can be trusted – it is true.
But what exactly IS the “Word of God?” There are dozens of different versions of the Bible; which is the Word of God? Some say all of them. But all those different versions say different things. Oh, yes they do. Thinking of English only, since that is our native language, there have been popular versions in the past which have become passe. Why is that? And why is it necessary for new versions to come along, when we have the old King James Version which has stood the test of time – the last four hundred years?
With this I’d like to take you back to our original scripture – Matthew 19:1-2.
“And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.” Comparing all four gospel accounts, on this occasion Christ and His disciples first went to Jerusalem, and then back and forth into Judaea beyond the Jordan River – which also had the name Perea. Of the four gospels, I want you to consider what John says about going down into Judaea. We read those verses during our song service earlier.
Christ and His disciples had not been to Jerusalem for several months, because the Jews wanted to kill Him. His earthly brothers, still somewhat doubtful that He was the Messiah, encouraged Him to go once again. They wanted him to prove once and for all that he was the Christ – if indeed it was true. “Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” At that point Jesus’ earthly family, probably including His mother, began the trip down to Jerusalem. But Christ Jesus remained another day or two. “When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.”
Earlier I said that the words of Christ – and the Word of God in general – are completely trustworthy. While I say that, there are quite a few so-called Bibles which suggest that Christ was a liar. In God’s Word, Jesus said to His brothers, “Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up YET unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” Sadly in a great many books, pretending to be the Word of God, Jesus is said to say, “Go to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to the feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” That is from what was the standard Bible of the liberal Christian world – the Revised Standard Edition. The Living Bible misquotes Jesus saying, “You go on. I’m not going….but after his brothers left… Jesus also went…” The Living Bible declares that Jesus said that He would not go to Jerusalem and then He did. Either Christ lied, or He didn’t know His own heart. In either case, Jesus would have thus disqualified Himself as Messiah. The New English Version, the American Standard Version, the Contemporary English Version all say essentially the same thing. One of the most popular modern versions today is the English Standard Version. It reads “You go up to the feast. I am NOT going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.” To my simple mind, this statement makes Christ deceptive and deceitful.
If I made the statement that I was not going to go home after the church service this morning…. If I said that I was going to stay right here and pray until the evening service…. But then at 1:00 you saw me driving into my garage, you might charge me with lying. On the other hand, if I say that I was going to “stay here for a while in order to pray,” and then later you saw me driving home, you might say that hunger cut my prayer time short. When Jesus said, “I go not up YET unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come” it would have been perfectly permissible for Him to go to Jerusalem a day later. But if He said, “I am not going,” and then He did, it would make Him a liar.
Lying is sin in the sight of God, and we read that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” If Jesus was a liar and sinner, then He could not be the Saviour that this sinner needs. If Jesus was a liar then when the Bible said that He “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” – it would have been untrue. That would have rendered the Bible untrustworthy. This may appear to be a small thing, but to a thinking mind, all Christianity falls to nothing based on whether the word “yet” is found in John 7:8. Dozens of modern versions of the Bible work to destroy the credibility of Christ by omitting this simple word.
I believe the Bible – the King James Bible. As far as I am concerned and the rest of the so-called Bible versions should be burned. I believe that Jesus Christ was born without sin, and He lived and died without sin. That was absolutely necessary in order for Him to become the sacrifice that I needed for my sin. If Christ was a sinner then He died for His own sin, and I would have no hope for my sin. My faith and hope for deliverance from sin – my salvation and fellowship with God – is rooted in the perfect work which the perfect Christ accomplished on the cross. I need a sinless Saviour, but the Jesus of all these other bibles is not the Saviour – the Son of God – the LORD Jesus Christ. And you need a sinless Saviour as well. Please, I urge you, bow in repentance and faith before the Christ of the King James Bible.