Introduction:
The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!
WBTU:
Last week we talked about how the Israelites didn’t enter into God’s rest.
Hebrews 4:2, 6, 11
What can we do to make sure that we enter that rest, heaven? By looking at vs. 12
Thesis: The Word of God is... 4 things this morning.
For instances:
The Word of God is prevailing (living)
To prevail is to prove superior in strength, power, or influence.
Why is the Word of God always going to prove superior in strength, power and influence? Because it comes from the living God. Psalm 47:2: How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth! Like Pharaoh -“So let it be written, so let it be done!”
Jesus himself said that the Word will prevail. Matthew 5:18: I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
We know that the written Word will prevail because we know that Jesus Christ prevailed over death, sin and hell. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Word come down from God the Father. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Mankind took the Word and like Jesus said in a parable- “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they nailed him to a tree. He died and they buried him, but on the third day he rose from the dead. Revelation 1:18: I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
This verse (Hebrews 4:12) is talking about the written Word more than the Word, Jesus Christ, but it does apply. Since the Word, Jesus Christ, lives on so will the written Word, the Bible.
1 Peter 1:23-25: For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used Voltaire’s printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.
The Word of God is persuasive (active)
When I preach I try to be as plain and simple as I can be. Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2-5: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
We don’t need persuasive words because the Word of God is persuasive enough. I love taking one verse or many verses and preaching from them. Why? Because the Word is persuasive.
Holman Standard translation says it is effective. Isaiah 55:11: my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
C. S. Lewis, one of this century’s great Christian thinkers, was an agnostic, who wanted to disprove Christianity. He did so by going to the Bible and trying to prove it faulty. Instead of finding the errors that would discredit the Christian faith, he found the living God, and became an able defender of the faith.
The Word of God is projecting. (Judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart)
What is it projecting (like a projector)? Reminds me of two people in a heated conflict and one person gives one story and the other person gives another story about the same episode. Let’s say that to eliminate errors and discrepancies between the two people we have 10 cameras upon that same event and we play those in court. We will see and hear all the words, actions and body language there. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before our eyes.
The Word of God goes even deeper than that. It shows us our thoughts, our bad or good attitudes, our emotions, our motivations good or bad, basically we see our hearts.
Many do not like that but it gives us an accurate picture of who we really are. It has been well said that when we read the Bible, the Bible reads us. James 1:23-24: Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
At one church, the preacher was greeting folks in the back after service. One man shook hands, looked intently at the preacher and said, "Powerful sermons, preacher. Thoughtful, well researched. I can always see myself in them…and I want you to knock it off."
The Word of God is penetrating (Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow)
The Bible is sharp all over. It will cut the conscience and wound the heart.
The Word of God probes the deepest places of our spiritual being and brings the subconscious motives to light. The Lord working through the Word like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:5 will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. Many times through the Word he brings these things to our attention.
Like a sharp sword which can lay open the human body with one slashing blow, so the sword of the Scripture can open our inner life and expose it to ourselves and to others. No heart is too tough and no soul is too dark.
A very successful evangelist was sitting down with some friends one day when one of them asked him: "What do you do in cases where the unsaved man does not accept the Bible as having any authority?" He replied: "Well, if I had a fine sword with a sharp double-edged blade I would not sheath it in a fight just because the other man said he did not believe it would cut." --Sunday School Times.
Jeremiah 23:29: “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
An East Indian Christian, Sandhu Singh, made a perceptive statement when he said, “One day I was sitting on the banks of a river. I took from the water a round stone and I broke it. Inside it was perfectly dry. That stone had been lying in the water for a long time but the water had not penetrated it. Then I thought that the same thing happened to the men in Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity but Christianity has not penetrated, does not live within them.”
Conclusion and invitation:
How can we let the Word of God penetrate us?
1. BELIEVE IT!
b) John 6:68 Peter says to Jesus “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
c) There is no where else to look, Jesus is the word, and the word is the only way to eternal life.
d) Accept the Bible as the divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant, all-sufficient, complete Word
2. STUDY IT!
e) All Christians should make a goal to be like Apollos “mighty in the Scriptures” Acts 18:24.
f) People in the churches of Christ across the world were renowned for their exhaustive Bible knowledge not 30 years ago, but now Biblical illiteracy is at an all time high.
g) It is because we do not devote ourselves to the study of the word.
h) Too many Christians are content with shallow, superficial bible study, or even none at all!
j) II Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
3. OBEY IT!
l) Above all, as a result of belief and study, we must obey what is written in it.
m) Obedience is ultimately the only response to God’s word.
n) It will do us absolutely no good if all we do is believe it and study it. Knowledge isn’t action.
The Commands of God are not optional, the conditions of salvation are not suggestions.
Mark Twain once said: ‘Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.’
4. HOLD IT HIGH!
1 Thessalonians 2:13: And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes
