Did God Really Say? Series

You know the story - way back in the days of Adam and Eve, Satan slithered up to Eve and he asked a very simple question: “DID GOD REALLY SAY?” The question seemed innocent enough - BUT it was intended to plant a doubt in Eve’s mind. “DID GOD REALLY SAY?”, Satan said … and it worked. If Satan could get her to DOUBT God’s faithfulness and truthfulness, then he could get her to ignore God because obviously she couldn’t trust God but she COULD trust Satan.

ILLUS: It’s a trick as old as history. For example, if an advertiser (who you don’t know) can get you NOT to TRUST someone you might ordinarily trust (like doctors, or scientists, or certain large companies); and if they can get you to doubt those groups, then there’s a chance that they can get you to buy THEIR product or service - because you can trust them! And how do you know you can trust them? Because they told you so. And why CAN’T you trust the people they’ve warned you about - because THEY told you that you couldn’t trust them.

I’ve seen various advertisements that start out by saying something like: “Here are secrets that pose risks to doctors’ careers … stick around for these top ten secrets doctors don't want you to know!” Another YouTube video advertised: “In this video, we’re going to take a look at 10 mysterious discoveries that scientists don’t want you to know about.”

The idea is to get you to DOUBT somebody you might have trusted so that the advertisers can get you to buy a product… a product you’ve never heard of, from a company… you’ve never heard of either.

That’s what Satan did. He got Eve to DOUBT God, so that she would TRUST him (Satan).

ILLUS: I saw a video on the internet I’ll play for you later - that I’m going to tell you about now. There’s this professor fielding questions from his audience, and one of the questioners says this: “Why would you choose to worship a creator God who forbade men to actually eat from the tree of knowledge, that you have obviously eaten from because you are a rather knowledgeable man. Why would you choose to worship this sort of deity who would have kept you down?” And the professor smiled and replied: “That’s a very good question. And I will tell you why it’s a good question: I notice it was originally asked… by a snake. … The issue (in that story) was whether we (as human beings) can TRUST GOD.”

And that’s what our passage this morning is all about: You Can Trust God and you can trust HIS WORD. “All Scripture is breathed out by God (it’s HIS Word) and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:16-17

IT’S GOD’S WORD… YOU CAN TRUST IT!!!!

God’s Word is profitable for us because it can change how we think and make better people, and better servants of God! Hebrews 4:12 says “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

THE BIBLE CAN CHANGE YOU!!!

ILLUS: There was an interesting court case in the state of Kentucky a few years back. It regarded a law that had required that every classroom in the state had to post the 10 Commandments. The Supreme Court ruled against the state of Kentucky and ordered it to take down all copies of the Ten Commandments saying: “Having the commandments on the wall may induce a student to read, meditate upon, and actually obey what is therein written.”

Well… yeah! That’s the purpose of God’s Word. It’s there for us to read to meditate upon and actually obey what is written. And that’s because the Bible has the ability to effect how we think and live.

ILLUS: Even pagans understand this… and they’re not comfortable about it. When I was a lot younger, I went to a secular college and took classes in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy. And I noticed that in several classes - the professors would spend part of the class attacking the Bible. Why would they do that? Because many of the students had been brought up in church… and Scripture had shaped how they thought about the world. And the professors hated that, because the Bible was a threat to what they wanted to teach. As long as the students clung to Scripture they might not accept what the professor taught. So the teachers’ goal was to MAKE THE STUDENTS DOUBT, and thus to destroy whatever faith that these students had in God’s Word.