Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:07 Hey there. Welcome to village church, sermon Q and a I'm pastor Alex. And I'm here with pastor Craig and pastor Michael, and on July 4th, 2021, pastor Craig and I preached a sermon in the series called the golden calf. We're going through Exodus. And we have a question from that series. So I'm going to ask pastor Michael, I'm actually going to ask you this question. Is it true that God is angry in the old Testament and loving in the new Testament. Now kind of let me set this up. Uh, there are people who will read the Bible and say those are two different gods. And that idea is not a new idea. It's actually one that's been around for a long time. Uh, there's an ancient heresy called Marcy aneurysm. And I just want to read something from a Wikipedia article on Marcy,
Speaker 1 00:00:50 Most reputable source, very trustworthy source, but
Speaker 0 00:00:53 In this case it happens to be true. So, uh, Marcien preach that the benevolent God of the gospel who sent Jesus Christ into the world as the savior was the true Supreme being different and opposed to the malevolent God or creator God of the Hebrew Bible of the old Testament. So Marcy and essentially said, Hey, there's two different gods here. And we really like the new Testament one, right? So this is really problematic because,
Speaker 1 00:01:20 Okay,
Speaker 0 00:01:22 Hebrews 13, eight says, Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever, right? So this idea states, your God does not change. His character has always been true. The God who created the universe is the God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. So with that being said, there is, as we look at old and new testaments, there is a difference, right? So pastor Michael, can you help us understand this difference?
Speaker 2 00:01:47 Yeah. Something, I mean, something changed and it's the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which literally altered human history. So, but, but if you pull back from this, there is only ever been one God represented in three persons, father, son, holy spirit. And that God has always been the same. And so if you look at the old Testament, uh, here's what you have. You have a God, the God, the only God who is angry, but he's also really kind, and he's really merciful and he's really forgiving and he's really patient and he's revealing himself and he is, he is revealing his plan and he is helping and guiding. He's sending messengers. I mean, if you really just think about all of the things that we know that the God of the new Testament does, they are all over the pages of the old Testament. And then you go to the new Testament and whoa, he's still loving and kind and gracious and merciful and sending messengers and giving us his will and his word.
Speaker 2 00:02:41 And it's literally the same God, but there is a difference. And the difference is very simply Jesus, his death and resurrection changed everything. And what it changed is not God, but it changed how God often relates to his people because we went from an old covenant 613 laws for the nation of Israel to a new covenant, which is stipulated in the gospels and in the writings of the new Testament. And so you have these really big changes. It's sort of like if you have a kid, I've got two daughters at the time recording. They're 10 and 12 years old. And, and we have rules in our home, not years, 13. I hope
Speaker 1 00:03:19 We have rules in one day. If they give a thousand, you're amazing. You're better than me. I have 2000.
Speaker 3 00:03:26 My kids have a memorized, but
Speaker 1 00:03:28 My, my seem to forget all the rules all the time, definitely. But one day they're going to move out.
Speaker 2 00:03:35 Let's say they get married. And so the relationship is going to shift. Um, and, but I don't change and they don't change in my love for them. Doesn't change. But how I relate to them is going to shift. And so when you go from the old covenant to the new covenant, pre death and resurrection to post death and resurrection, um, things do shift, but it's always the same people. It's always the same God. Um, but the dynamic in the covenant has, has shifted. The, I think the best illustration is that is the torn curtain in the temple. And in the old covenant, before the death of Christ, you couldn't go behind the curtain. It was the holy of Holies and the spirit of God dwelt there. And if you went into that place, you would die unless you're the high priest on the day of atonement with a bunch of sacrifices
Speaker 0 00:04:16 Stipulations, right? And then
Speaker 2 00:04:17 All of a sudden, Jesus is crucified in the curtain is torn from top to bottom. And now with symbolizes that we have full access to God and Hebrew says, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we can find grace. Instead of if we had run it to the holy
Speaker 1 00:04:34 Of Holies, we would've found wrath very
Speaker 2 00:04:36 Quickly, right? But same God, same people, sinful people. But the covenant changed and the death, the resurrection of Jesus brought us from that old covenant to the, to the new covenant. And so, yes, um, it is the same God. Here's what I know by people who say this, okay, I'm going to be very blunt. They haven't read the Bible. They don't want to believe in the Bible. And they are taking mantras that they heard. Other people say they're internalizing them because they probably trusted the source. And they're now regurgitating them. It's a defense mechanism so that we don't actually have to deal with the claims of Christ. We
Speaker 3 00:05:12 Naturally want a God that is more benign. Yeah. We want a God that do what you want. Correct. Yeah. Adapts to us, which is idolatry by the way, because we're creating God in our image instead of acknowledging we're made in his image. And so with that benign God, we see we've created a Jesus that were sandals and walks the beaches and hands out free food and whatever you want that Jesus to be. You can make that to me. Yeah. So I think, I think in our humanity, in our fallenness as human beings, we prefer a God, that's not judgmental, but we have to be selective. If we look at scripture that way, because in the new Testament, there's this, there's just as much judgment as there is in the old Testament. In fact says, get your heart right with God before the day of judgment comes.
Speaker 3 00:06:01 And we talked about this already in revelation, John, on the island of Patmos and Jesus appears to him and he's holding the keys to death and the grave, which is a great picture. Like if you want to get out of death, like go to the guy that has a keys, right? You want, you want to get out of this prison, go to the guy that has the keys. And so John is excited. He's throwed by seeing Jesus and, and, but all throughout the book of revelation, as we all know, it's a, it's a book of judgment. And so there's going to be a group of people that are excited about seeing Jesus someday. And there's going to be a group of people that are scared of seeing Jesus someday. And those who are excited about seeing Jesus or those who have given their hearts to him, who've given trust in him out of faith. And then the last verse of revelation says, even so come quickly. You know? And so we're, we're anxious for, for that day, but we know that same God of the old Testament is the God of the new Testament and judgment is coming on. Those who don't believe somebody who says the new Testament is only God of love. It's funny point in revelation to be like
Speaker 1 00:06:57 Good luck. Right. Okay. Because there is love in revelation. Let's be clear about that.
Speaker 0 00:07:03 So in summary, new Testament, you have a God who is both angry and loving old Testament. You have a God who has anger and is loving, right. Those two things are absolutely true. Well, thank you so much for joining us for village church, sermon Q and a. And uh, we hope you'll join us again soon. <inaudible>.
