Read all 66 in 2006
Heb 4:12-13
INTRO: What in this life can we count on?
1. Other people. We all disappoint one another at times, we can not
all be counted on 100% of the time, no matter how much we want to
or try.
2. Government: Right?
3. Nature: Tsunami 1yr ago, Hurricanes recently, drought & fires now
B. There are only 2 things that I know of that you can count on
with absolute security.
1. They are God Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.)
2. The book that tells us about God, the Bible, God’s Word.
Ps 119:89 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
3. In a changing world, it’s good for us to focus on &
remember those things that never change.
a. They give us stability. b. That Rock to build our life on
Mt 7:24 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:”
Joh 13:17 ‘If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”
Lu 11:28 “..blessed [are] they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”
B. Yet many people, many Christians never truly get into the
Book, the Word from God
1. Noble People of Berea received the Word
a. Did they just hear the word or did they hear the word?
1. Dad to son, carry out trash, “Ok, dad I’ll do now,” but an hour
later he hasn’t a. Did he hear his dad, yes
b. But did he receive internally what dad said? No
2. Couple dated for months: she wonders if ever he’ll pop the
question/one night they went out to eat at a romantic restaurant, w/
candles and violins/he looks at her and says, “Sally?”/ “Yes,
Bubba”/ “Can I ask you a question?”/ “sure” [getting excited]/
“pass me that ketchup”/ “oh, ok, here it is” / “one more
thing…will you marry me?”/ “oh, yes, Bubba, yes, I’ll marry
you!” and throws her arms around his neck!
a. Did she hear it with her ears?
b. Did she embrace it with her heart? Yes!
2. Like the Berean Christians there is a need in each of our
hearts to receive the Word, to desire it, devour it too read,
study, digest it into our life & apply to our being
I. The Word of God is alive.
A. Why believe an OLD Book?
1. An argument for not accepting the validity of the Bible is
the thinking that it is a dead book.
a. They ask “How can a book that was completed almost 2000 years
ago in a land halfway around the world have anything to do with
my life?”
b. If that question was asked about any book other than the
Bible, I would not have an answer for it.
c. But the Bible is unique in that the author is still alive,
1. And I have a personal relationship with Him.
2. When I read His Book, He is able to take what I read,
a. Show me how it affects things that are going on in my
life.
1. If there are parts that I do not understand – There are a lot of those
2. Then I am able to go to the Author & seek His wisdom in how to
understand them.
a. Everything else in my world that is alive, changes.
1. My views, my relationships, my politics, my understanding
3. What about the Bible?
a. Since it’s living, is it going to change. NO! Why?
b. Because it is already perfect.
Ps 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect . . .
c. Things that are perfect don’t need to change.
4. The Bible, as it was delivered by God through His prophets
a. Does not need any Additions *such as the book of Mormon –
b. Or Editions – Add or subtract because don’t like some
1. It doesn’t need our updating, it needs our obedience
*Ever heard of the Jefferson Bible? Thomas Jefferson didn’t believe in the supernatural, so he published his own edition of the Bible with all miracles and acts of God subtracted from it. I’ve never read a copy of his Bible, but I imagine that it would be pretty sad to read it. There would be none of the healings of Jesus, no feeding of the 5000, no raising of Lazarus from the dead, and Jesus would still be in the grave.
c. We are to either accept all of it or none of it.
1. You can’t pick and choose.
**I don’t like your hair. Got to accept me warts & all
That would be like me coming up to Mike and saying, “Mike, since you’ve been so nice to me over the holidays, I’m going to invite you into my home for dinner after church today. But Mike, I must tell you that there is one part of you that I really don’t like. It makes me mad every time that I look at that part. If you’re going to come into my home, you must leave behind your right thumb” When you accept me, you accept me warts and all, or you do not accept me at all.
d. The Bible, has many promises & rewards, are real nice,
c. But if you’re going to accept those, then you must also accept
the commands and the requirements that God through His Word
puts on your life.
B. In what sense is it alive? Mark 4:13-20.
1. Did you see what happened when the seed of the word
sunk into someone’s heart? a. It produced a change.
1. The Word of God is not alive because it changes; it is alive
because it changes me!
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
b. Earlier read Ps 19:7 The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple.
* Converted Cannibal The story has been told of a South Sea Islander who proudly displayed his Bible to a G. I. during World War II. "We’ve outgrown that sort of thing," the soldier said. The native smiled back, "It’s a good thing we haven’t. If it weren’t for this book, you’d have been a meal by now!"
2. Every person that has encountered this Book and has been
changed by it is a testimony to the fact that it is living. *Dwight L. Moody was right, "The Bible wasn’t given for our information but for our transformation."
a. God did not give us the Bible just to tell us what
happened in the past.
1. He gave it to equip us to live in the present in light of the future. –
II. The Word of God is powerful.
*Don’t sheath the Sword A very successful evangelist was sitting down with some friends one day when one of them asked him: "What do you do Mr. Norton, in cases where the unsaved man does not accept the Bible as having any authority?" He replied: "Well, if I had a fine Damascus sword with a keen double-edged blade I would not sheath it in a fight just because the other man said he did not believe it would cut."
A. Some seem to expect the Word of God to hit them like a jolt
of adrenaline each time they read or study it.
1. Although the "jolt" may hit us periodically, the benefits of
the Word of God act more like vitamins.
a. People who regularly take vitamins do so because of their
long-term benefits,
1. Not because every time they swallow one of the pills, they feel
new strength surging through their bodies.
2. They have developed a habit of consistently taking vitamins
because they have been told that, in the long haul, vitamin
supplements are going to have a beneficial effect on their physical
health, resistance to disease, and general well-being.
2. The same is true of reading the Bible.
a. At times it will have a sudden & intense impact on us.
b. But, the real value lies in the cumulative effects that long-
term exposure to God’s Word will bring to our lives.
3. The length of time we spend in God’s Word determines
how deeply we get into it and it gets into us.
a. The longer we are in the Word, the "stronger" we become.
4. The word isn’t something we read once & put down, but
we read over & over to let it soak our heart & change us
B. The Word is Powerful, for the Author is Powerful
1. If we read it as if it is the newspaper it won’t have much
effect
a. But read as God’s voice, His sacred communication to
you,
b. Then the Spirit of God will take the Word of God and
change the heart for God
III. The Word of God is sharp.
*Log marks / Stealing There is a story of a frontier settlement in the West whose people were engaged in the lumbering business. The town wanted a church, so they built one and called a minister. The preacher was well received until one day he happened to see some of his parishioners clawing onto the bank some logs that had been floating down the river from another village upstream. Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp on one end. To his great distress the pastor saw his members pulling in toe logs and sawing off the end where the telltale stamp appeared.
The next Sunday he prepared a forceful sermon on the text "Thou shalt not steal." At the close of the service, his people lined up and congratulated him: "Wonderful message, mighty fine preaching." However, as the preacher watched the river that week he saw his parishioners continuing to steal logs. This bothered him a great deal. So he went home and worked on a sermon for the following week. The topic was "Thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor’s logs." When he got through, the church membership ran him out of town.
1. “Thus saith the Lord” has gotten a lot of preachers in trouble
a. Elisha & Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Peter, James, Paul
2. For some reason people don’t like to be told of their sin
a. Don’t like their guilt pointed out
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
3. The word Judges us, it cuts deep and wounds our pride and
self-righteous attitude
a. Then condemns the guilty 2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
IV. The Word of God is revealing.
A. Like a microscope it reveals everything good & bad
1. If you peered through a microscope at your food
a. Saw stuff crawling? What would you do?
1. Throw away your favorite dish?
2. Learn how to prepare food in a more sanitary way
3. Throw away the microscope for showing you the truth
2. The word tells it like it is, like, lump it or jump it
a. It is up to us to change
3. The word helps there in not only evaluating us, but also
aiding us in over coming our sin
a. Tells us the place of forgiveness
b. Reminds us of the right ways, correcting us
c. Empowering us to succeed
B. We each face a life on planet earth that is full of trials,
challenges, snares and other problems
1. We each need help
2. Our maker, creator has given us his Manuel, a love letter
a. his word to assist us too live life to the fullest
**FedEx commercial During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?" She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
3. Are you going through life without truly opening that
which is our greatest resource for life?
a. Three ways to open the word
1. Personal daily reading too read
2. Personal In debt study, running references, studying words &
definitions, culture of biblical times, asking questions
3. Under the teaching & preaching of the Word in bible class, S.S. &
worship services
