Every Christian fights a battle: The battle for sanctity, for holiness. It's a daily struggle against our three great enemies of the soul (flesh, world, devil).
Likewise, every Christian parent fights a similar battle for their children.
ILLUSTRATION: Hotel room television. QUESTION: Do we shelter our kids? Yes
Voddie Baucham’s Illustration: Dating? Brand New Car, Teenage Boy.
We are in a constant battle for our children; but one day they will be grown.
QUESTION: What tool should we arm them with for the battle?
PROBLEM: The modern logic of many Christians is that we must give up the Scripture to fight life’s battles. We replace it with pop-psychology and secular philosophy.
Illustration: “Engaging the Culture” One of the worst things that people have become convinced of is that you have to give up the Bible to engage the culture.
We say, “People don’t believe the Bible, so I have to use some other method.”
Intelligent Design There is evidence for intricate design in irreducible complexity.
Belief in intelligent design is essential, but it is insufficient.
Illustration: Jesus before Satan: Matthew 4:1-11
The Bible is our only offensive tool (Eph 6), when we give it up we have already lost.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible, and every verse points to the Word of God.
QUESTION: Why is the Bible the right weapon for our children to fight life’s battles?
Our passage today gives us 5 reasons.
NOTE: Regarding the “Word of God” - John Owen said this is Jesus (incarnate), John Calvin said this is Bible (inscripturated), Charles Spurgeon said this is both.
1. It is a Divine Document
The Bible is the “Word of God” (Gr. oJ lo/goß touv qeou)
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture is God-breathed”
2 Peter 1:20-21 “No prophecy of Scripture come from one’s own”
Many books claim divine origins, but the Bible bears the marks of divinity within.
It was written over 1500 years, by over 40 people, in three languages.
Yet there is a consistency to the message which runs from the beginning all the way to the end (you couldn't get 4 people to agree constantly!)
Likewise, it is the most well-attested work of antiquity; no other comes close.
Homer, Tacitus, Pliny and others come nowhere close in the amount of manuscripts and the proximity of them to when the origin was written.
The myth of the “telephone game” - The Bible has not been translated multiple times and lost and changed portions over time (ill. Fall festival talk to devil girls).
The Bible is both Divinely inspired and miraculously preserved.
No other religious book boasts the marks that the Bible does.
Koran/Mormon written by one man, in one language, in one lifetime.
These books also lack the verification of the prophetic utterance wherein a prophet would say something and generations later it be fulfilled.
2. It is a Living Document
The Word of God is “living” KJV: “quick” (Gr. Zw◊n)
Same root is used for “living God” in Peter’s good confession.
Stephen referred to the Law of Moses as “Living oracles” (Acts 7:38)
There are those who question whether the Bible can be relevant to today.
Illustration: “The Obsolete Map” Herman Melville, “Redburn”. A young man desired to go and visit his family’s hometown of Liverpool; his father gave him a map. When the young man finally arrived in Liverpool he realized the was obsolete.
Melville’s point? It is an allegory of the Bible. He had been raised in a home where the Bible was treasured and biblical truth was taught. But as he aged he became cynical.
Melville was wrong; but he is certainly not alone.
The Bible’s opponents say that it is a dead book by dead men.
On the contrary it is a living book authored by a living God.
Because it is alive, it never becomes irrelevant.
It answers the most important questions we could ever ask: Who am I? What is my reason for existence? What happens when I die?
People spend fortunes on finding gurus and self-help pop-psychologists to make up answers to the questions that only it can answer.
Some Christian leaders say we have to make the Bible relevant: Wrong!
You speak to any issue: parenting, marriage, ethics, economics, justice, etc.
Not only does the Bible speak to these issues, but it reveals the will of the Creator Himself in regard to these issues.
Case in Point: One of the most contested issues which abounds today is that of origins: Where did we come from and what is our purpose?
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
3. It is a Powerful Document
The Word of God is living and “active” KJV: “powerful” (Gr: e˙nergh\ß)
It has the power to convert the lost:
Psalm 19:7 (KJV) “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul”
1 Peter 1:23 “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God”
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Illustration: Augustine’s Conversion Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time in his youth, dabbling in paganism and many other types of errant philosophies. He heard a child’s voice singing “Tolle Lege, Tolle Lege” which means “Take up and read”. He considered this to be a divine command, and so he went to the Bible and the first thing he came to was Paul’s letter to the Romans. In particular, one portion caught his attention. “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:13-14).
It has the power to sanctify the redeemed:
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
Psalm 119:11 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
QUOTE: MacArthur “The Bible will keep us from sin, or sin will keep us from the Bible.”
4. It is a Piercing Document
Two-Edged: It has no blunt side, and both side drive to a point.
The question of soul/spirit and joints/marrow
There is some debate about if this addresses a trichotomy/dichotomy of man.
This passage is not meant to give an exposition of the nature of man, but rather of the nature of the Word.
The word cuts us both emotionally and spiritually - in our mind, and in our inner man. Nothing is left, the Scripture lays us completely bare.
Hebrews 4:13 “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
NOTE: You don’t have to be open to it for it to penetrate - no creature is hidden.
The word of God performs spiritual surgery on us, cutting us to the core.
5. It is a Discerning Document
It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart
The word discerns who we really are; it confronts us like a mirror.
James 1:23-24 “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
The Bible tells me exactly who I am; it reflects my imperfections to me.
It exposes both my thoughts and my intents.
Why do I struggle with truth? Why do I deal with lust? Why do I covet?
Because the Bible says I am a sinner by nature because I am a son of Adam.
Steven Lawson “The more I read the Bible, the more it reads me.”
Yet, as James says, many people do read the Word and walk away unchanged - WHY?
They intentionally suppress what it says.
Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven …suppress the truth”
Anytime we share the Word with someone, their heart knows it is right.
If they believe, they are actively suppressing the truth within them.
CONCLUSION: To truly arm our kids with Scripture, we have to help them understand what the Bible truly is…
The Bible is not a book of stories, morals, science, history (though it contains all)
The Bible is God's revelation of himself to man; It is His sacred truth; His Word.
There is a consistency to the message which runs from the beginning all the way to the end.
God is holy. Man is sinful and rebellious against God. God chose not to leave man in his sinful rebellion, but God instead reached down to man and provided for him a way of redemption.
Jesus Christ is that way.
Jesus is the thread which runs from the beginning of the Bible all the way through to the end.
He is the seed of the woman and the promised descendent of Abraham.
He is the one Isaiah saw seated upon his throne high and lifted up.
He is the one testified about by the prophets.
He is the suffering servant, who would be born in Bethlehem of a virgin.
He is the Word of God incarnate, and the inscripturated Word is all about Him.
So when we say we want to arm our children with the Word, we need to remember that we first must arm them with Jesus.
They need to know He is more than words on the page; He is the living Savior who loved us enough to die for us, and He calls sinners to come to Him.
We will be JUDGED one day; and we will be judged by this Word.
Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”
That judgment will come from the Word of God, incarnate & inscripturated.
READ: Revelation 19:11-16
Never believe the lie which says judgment is not coming.
Never forget that the standard for judgment will be God’s Word.
We teach it to our children because it can convert them, because it can sanctify them, and because it can cut through their stony sinful hearts.
We teach it to them also because it is the only offensive weapon that God has given to them to fight life’s battles.
We teach them the Word of God because we love them.
