Everything You Need To Know To Receive What You Need To Receive Series

May 25, 2003

Morning Service

Text: 2 Timothy 3:16 ? 4:5

Subject: The Word of God

Title: Everything You Need to Know to Receive What You Need to Receive

I’m going to speak to you today about the end times. I knowthat got some attention. Everybody likes to hear about the end times prophecy and how it is being fulfilled every day in our midst. The war in the Middle East, the constant conflict in Israel, America’s "Road Map to Peace" These things all seem to have end times implications. You can go on Christian TV any time you want and there will be a preacher there who will tell you what you need to know about the end. He can tell you who Gog and Magog are. They can tell you where the 200 million-man army will come from. They have the events of the tribulation all figured out. Sometimes I think they spend so much time telling us what it is that God means that they miss some of the most important meaning of scripture. I am not opposed to a study of the end times. But I stop short of saying that my interpretations of those bible verses are set in concrete.

I am going to talk about events of the end today, but not the way you probably want me to. I want to talk to you today about what Paul wrote to Timothy about the times to come. He said that there is coming a time when people will not endure sound doctrine. Now some of you are probably sitting there and wondering, "How did he go from the end times to doctrine?" Easy! Doctrine comes from the word of God. The word of God is truth. Even the confusing prophecies of Revelation are truth. We just don’t understand the whole truth yet.

But Paul said there will come a time when people will not stand for sound doctrine. For me this creates a problem. As a pastor I try to really dissect the scriptures in order to properly understand them. I preach the word of God without any excuse for what I say or believe. You hear my preaching every week. Is it affecting you? Is the word of God beginning to sink down deep inside of you to change you? Do you know what you believe and why you believe it?

. I’m afraid we have come to the point where many don’t really enjoy what the Bible has to say, but instead would rather hear words that make us feel good about ourselves. Last week I spoke to you about moving forward with God. "Get out of Haran" was my challenge to you. Don’t stay in your comfort zone. If you ever expect to receive anything from God, you need to know what the bible has to say about it.

Do you want to receive God’s blessings and promises? Then you should understand this. The Bible contains everything you need to know about how to receive what you need to receive. I want you to pay close attention today because what I have to say could change your life eternally.

I. You need to know what the Bible says. (3:16,17)

The bible is God’s word. "All Scripture is God breathed." What does that mean? It was given through men by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21, Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

It’s not something men just wrote down. It was written over a period of about 1600 years and is woven together so intricately from the beginning to the end that we can’t deny its truth. This is where controversy begins. Many people will discount the veracity of the scriptures. It is a book written by men so it must be messed up. Interesting that many will confess the weakness of men but deny the power of God. Some will even agree that it was given by God but because man had a hand in it there must be mistakes.

I have to confess. There are mistakes. By comparing manuscripts and seeing that there have been copying errors made throughout history we have a New Testament in which 1/1000th of the text is in question, and none of the doctrine is questionable. The Old Testament record is even more impressive.

The bible is profitable...

For doctrine. Doctrine could be described as a set of beliefs set aside by a religious group as truth.

We in the Assemblies of God have 16 fundamental truths that we believe are unchangeable. Is doctrine important? A seeker asked a Christian:

"Say, what do you believe about God?"

"I believe what my church believes," said the Christian.

"And what does your CHURCH believe?" asked the seeker.