Noel Edmonds hosts a show called “Are you Smarter than a ten year old?” I want to ask you the question this morning “Are you Smarter than the Bible?” We are not going to have a Bible quiz. I am talking about your approach to life and the Bible’s approach to life.
Do you know better than the Bible when it comes to the issues of life? Do you know better than the Bible when it comes to the decisions of life? Some of our decisions can mean life or death to our spiritual life.
If influenced by some scientists or even some “silly ministers,” we could be led to believe we are smarter than the Bible because it’s out of date, it’s fictitious and has contradictions. “Silly ministers” claim the Bible is not relevant to modern thinking on sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, modern life styles or living arrangements, or modern religious diversity.
The Bible teaches:
Life begins before physical birth. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jer 1:5
Men and women marry and become one. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:24
You can’t take another life. “You shall not murder.” Ex 20:13
There will be an increase in religions to take people away from God. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” 1Tim 4:1
Church as it was meant to be, was a community of saints who valued the word of God as their ultimate and final authority. Church when it is as God intends it to be doesn’t think it is smarter than the Bible.
Acts 20:25-38
The word of God is the Shepherd’s message.
In Acts it is estimated that the word of God is used 169 times to preach or teach. Paul would have used the Old Testament, the “kerygma,” which was the preaching of Jesus and the Apostles and “didache,” which was a catechism or instructions for Church order.
The foundation or roots of what Paul and others in Acts said was always the word of God and revelation of the Holy Spirit. 1 Thess 2:13
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
The word of God was their ultimate and final authority. They were convinced they didn’t know better than the word of God. 2Tim 3 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”
Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Paul committed the shepherds to “the word of God” or “word of His grace” because it builds up and leads to a share in an inheritance. Acts 20:32.
The word of God is sheep food
1. In the natural, if a person goes without food, weakness, confusion, chronic diarrhoea, irritability, bad decision-making, decreased sex-drive and immune deficiency may be experienced. Advanced starvation will cause your organs to shut down one by one. People in the throes of severe starvation might experience the following: hallucinations, convulsions, muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat.
God’s word is the spiritual food that builds us up, makes us strong, keeps our focus on God clear and makes us fit for the fight.
The word of God reveals (From God’s Word, Will & Ways):
His Compassion, (so we will know how much He loves us, Jn 3:16)
His Character, (so we can become more like Him, 1 Pete 1:15-16)
His Commandments, (so we will know how He wants us to live for Him, Mk 12:28-31)
His Commission, (so we will know what He wants us to do for Him, Mk 16:15-18)
His Coming Again, (because He wants us to be ready for Him, Jn 14:3, Eph 5:27).
If we consistently go without our spiritual food, God’s word, it weakens our spiritual defence, leads to compromise and opens the door of our lives to the savage wolves.
The Word of God is:
1. A Two-Edged Sword – Heb 4:12
2. A Hammer – Jer 23:29 – It breaks the resistance of the heart.
3. A Mirror – Ja 1:23-25 – It reflects the true picture of man.
4. A Fire – Jer 23:29, 20:9 – The word of God is pure and refining.
5. A Lamp – Ps 119:105 – It is illuminating.
In the natural, what we eat is influenced by the social, religious and geographic culture that we have grown up in. We are conditioned to eat meat and veg, beans on toast, fish and chips, whereas some people are conditioned to eat veg without meat, spicy food or pasta. Of course, globalisation is changing our eating habits. However, when we go to a different culture we crave after the foods we have grown up on.
The taste of what we have grown up on just can’t be replicated. “No one can make pea soup like my mum.” When others have tried, it looks ok, it’s called the same thing but just doesn’t taste right.
Paul said to Timothy, when the wolves came into the church at Ephesus,
2Tim 3:15 “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures”
The point I am trying to make is, if we have grown up on the spiritual food of sheep, we will miss it and crave it when we go without it. Somethings can look like the word, sound like the word, but when we taste it we realise it has been tampered with, it has been twisted, it has been manipulated.
If we consistently go without spiritual food we will allow cheap, fake, unhealthy food into our lives that will weaken our spiritual defence and allow the savage wolves in.
To keep the wolves on the right side of the door, which is outside our lives, we must feed on the word of God, by which we are born again (1Pet1:23), from which our faith is increased (Rom 10:17). With the word we are made clean and ready for the coming of Jesus
The word of God cannot be devoured by savage wolves
The Enemy tried to take Jesus out at His birth, in the Wilderness, through His disciples and at the cross. The Enemy failed because Jesus, “having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Col 2:15
The Enemy therefore seeks to take the word of God out of our lives. He has tried to burn it, ban it and bin it, but the word of God is still changing and transforming lives.
The Enemy therefore seeks to take the word of God out of our lives because it makes Jesus, the victor, pre-eminent in our lives.
In Genesis – He is the Seed Of The Woman
In Exodus – He is the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus – He is our High Priest
In Numbers – He is the Star Of Jacob
In Deuteronomy – He is the Rock
In Joshua – He is the Captain Of The Lord’s Host
In Judges – He is the Sword Of Gideon
In Ruth – He is the Kinsman Redeemer
In Samuel – He is the Seed Of David
In Kings – He is the Lord God Of Israel
In Chronicles – He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
In Ezra – He is the Lord Of Heaven And Earth
In Nehemiah – He is the Restorer
In Esther – He is the God Of Providence
In Job – He is the daysman
In Psalms – He is the King Of Glory
In Proverbs – He is the Wisdom Of God
In Ecclesiastes – He is the Creator
In Song Of Solomon – He is Altogether Lovely
In Isaiah – He is the Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince Of Peace
In Jeremiah – He is the Lord Our Righteousness
In Lamentations – He is the Weeping Prophet
In Ezekiel – He is the Wheel In The Wheel
In Daniel – He is the Fourth Man If The Fire
In Hosea – He is the Lord God of Hosts
In Joel – He is the Hope of His People
In Amos – He is the God of Hosts
In Obadiah – He is the Destroyer Of The Proud
In Jonah – He is the God Of The Second Chance
In Micah – He is the God Of Jacob
In Nahum – He is the Avenging God
In Habakkuk – He is the Everlasting Glorious God
In Zephaniah – He is the King Of Israel
In Haggai – He is the Desire Of All Nations
In Zechariah – He is the one Pierced In The House Of His Friends
In Malachi– He is the Lord Of Remembrance
In Matthew – He is the King Of The Jews
In Mark – He is the Servant
In Luke – He is the Son Of Man
In John – He is the Eternal God
In Acts – He is the Ascended Lord
In Romans – He is the Lord Our Righteousness
In Corinthians – He is Our Sufficiency
In Galatians – He is Our Liberator
In Ephesians – He is the Head Of The Church
In Philippians – He is Our Strength
In Colossians – He is the Fullness Of The Godhead
In Thessalonians – He is the coming Christ
In Timothy – He is the Mediator Between God And Man
In Titus – He is the Great God And Saviour
In Hebrews – He is the Captain Of Our Salvation
In James – He is the Great Physician
In Peter – He is the Unblemished Lamb
In John – He is the Advocate
In Jude – He is the Lord That Cometh With 10,000 Saints
In Revelation – He is the Alpha And Omega, the Lion Of Judah, the Bright And Morning Star, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and King Of Kings And Lord Of Lords
Because the word of God cannot be devoured by savage wolves, Paul brings a warning to the church that savage wolves will seek to devour devoted saints.
We must never forget there is an enemy, seeking to devour devoted believers. The enemy is not too interested in the lukewarm, half-hearted, neither-in-nor-out christians because he has got them where he wants them.
Paul warns that savage wolves will distort the truth to draw sheep away.
If we don’t devour the word then we will be devoured.
The scheme or tactic of the savage wolves is to have you believe that you are smarter than the Bible when it come to life’s issues and decisions. Our reply to the claim we can be smarter than the Bible, is that it is the final and ultimate authority in our life. Submit and surrender your life to the values and principles of the word of God and you are sure and certain to walk in the blessing of God.
