Intro – Some of you watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” in the past couple of weeks. Sure enough, just like last year, George Bailey wished he’d never been born, and he got to see what the world would have been like if he had never existed.
It was just a little over a year ago, I asked everyone to consider what the Bible would be like if we took out prayer. Then, we spent 2005 making prayer a more central focus of this church family. Why? Because a Bible without a prayer just doesn’t work.
Now, this morning, I want to consider another “without” situation. What if, instead of a Bible that was missing something, there was no Bible at all? What if we were living without a word from God? What would it be like? What would it mean? I want to highlight some items that we’d be without if we didn’t have God’s word.
When we’re without a word from God, we’re…
1. Without a Real Connection With God
Mentally take away your Bible for a minute. Take away everything you know about God because of what you read in the Bible. Now, what’s your view of God?
It’s pretty much like the typical US person – God is what I want Him to be. I’ve got Tom Cruise explaining Him through the eyes of Scientology. I’ve got the pictures of Him painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel. I’ve got the image of God that comes from every lame movie and story that ever tried to explain Him. And then there are several so-called spiritual pursuits that even make Him into “her” or “it,” whichever you choose. I need a word from God to even begin to have a real connection with Him.
Sometime around 1050 BC, people aren’t hearing much from God. Samuel describes the conditions of the time:
1 Samuel 3:1
The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.
In fact, it was so rare, when God came calling on Samuel by name one night, he had no idea Who it was that was calling him. It wasn’t until there was a word from God that the connection gets made.
Can you imagine a child whose father or mother never spoke with him? Would he have any way of knowing that his parents loved him?
Why do you think that kids in inner cities get in with gangs? Because there wasn’t a mom or dad at home that cared enough to speak to that kid and tell them that they loved him. At least the kids in the gang speak to him.
Every person is born with an inner desire to be loved by and accepted by their parents. Maybe that has been damaged for you through the years. Maybe you never had that fulfilled in your life. But the fact is at the very youngest age, every one of us wants a real connection with parents.
There’s another part of us that longs for a connection with God – a real connection – something that knows Him as more than just “The Great Spirit” or the “Force” behind nature. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. But to know God personally, to have a real connection with Him as a personal God Who knows us and wants to be known by us, requires more. We need a word from God. Without it, there’s no difference between the beauty of the sunset and the power of a tsunami. Without a connection with God, an explanation of Who He is, there’s no invitation to know Him any better than we know the solar system. No word from God, no real connection with God.
When we’re without a word from God, we’re…
2. Without an Answer to Satan’s Lies
The devil’s native tongue is the lie. Sure enough, from his very first appearance, Satan’s lying.
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
It’s a question about a word from God. God had spoken to Adam and Eve.
Over 2,000 years later, Satan’s at it again, and each time he tells his lies, Jesus responds with the same phrase: It stands written. God has said. That settles it.
Matthew 4:4 - Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"
Matthew 4:7 - Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ’Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’"
Matthew 4:10 - Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"
Remember the pledge to the Bible? Remember saying that pledge of allegiance? “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s holy word, a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path. It’s words will I hide in my heart that I may not sin against God.” What was that all about? Well, that was about
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Take away that word from God, and I don’t have the lamp for my feet, the light for my path. Take away that word from God, and I don’t have a tool to help me not sin against God.
Hebrews 2:1-4
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
Satan has lies that are tailor-fitted to you. I don’t care who you are, there’s a lie just for you. It may be that you’ll be happier with more stuff. It may be that you’ll feel more valued if you’ll smear someone’s reputation. It may be that you’ll feel satisfied if you’ll compromise your purity. It may be that you’ll have more control of your life if you let your anger fly. What’s the lie that you’ve bought into?
Who’s to say it isn’t true? Well God has, but if you have no word from God, than one lie makes just as much sense to listen to as anything else you hear. It may be that right now you’re thinking some lie of Satan is true. Who’s to say it isn’t, unless God has given you the truth?
The way bank employees are taught to identify a counterfeit is by learning what a real bill looks like. They don’t spend lots of time studying the fakes. They spend time learning what’s real and genuine.
When we’re without a word from God, we’re without an answer to Satan’s lies.
3. Without Authority to Speak
What gives you the right to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do? In a world without a word from God…nothing; nothing except the power to punish me or stop me.
If there were no word from God, the church of today would be timid – afraid to speak out against things like homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, and birth control being taught and made available through public schools. If there were no word from God, what right would anyone or any church have to say that anything is wrong? There would be no authority to speak.
The Bible presents itself in a different way. 70X in the NIV we find the phrase “It is written,” 268X the phrase “Says the Lord” or “The Lord says.” Like so many others, the prophet Obadiah starts out his book by saying,
Obadiah 1:1a
The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says …
Samuel said to Saul,
1 Samuel 15:1
"I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD.”
Paul told the Thessalonians,
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.
When Jesus entered the temple courts and threw out the crooks who were using it to make a fast buck, the reason He gave for “imposing His beliefs” on all those people was simple:
Matthew 21:13
"It is written," he said to them, "’My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ’den of robbers.’"
Take away a word from God, and all of that goes away. No right to say what’s right or wrong. No authority to say what should and shouldn’t be.
• Parents can no longer say to their children “You should obey me because it’s right.” Now they will have to say, “I really don’t like it when you do that.”
• Teachers will no longer have the authority to tell children in their classrooms what’s right or wrong. It will all depend on school policy.
• Matters of morality will no longer be settled by seeking the source of all truth and holiness. Now, we’ll have to take it to the courts and let them decide.
• Oh, and I’ll have to get up and share my feelings and personal convictions every Sunday instead of sharing anything of greater authority.
No word from God, no authority to speak.
4. Without Direction for the Church
Just days after Jesus ascended back to heaven, the disciples are faced with the fact that Judas is also gone. They used to be 12 in number, but now there are only 11. What should they do? They could just get the job done with 11…maybe. The Church hasn’t even started yet, and they need a word from God about what to do. And they have it…
Acts 1:20 - "For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms, "’May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, "’May another take his place of leadership.’
They needed direction, and tahey found it, because they had a word from the Lord. Later Paul is
teaching the Corinthians about how to provide for those who were devoting all their time to teaching and leading in the Church. They needed some direction in this. Where would it come from? God had already given a word on the matter…
1 Corinthians 9:9-10
For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.
The whole book of Acts is full of God giving His word to the Church and the Church remembering God’s word that they already had. Every time they had decisions to be made, every time they needed an attitude adjustment, every time they needed to grow deeper, there was a word from God to guide His Church. Take that away, and the Church would have floundered.
One of the first priorities for establishing the Church among the unreached people groups of our generation is to get them the Bible in their own language. The reason is simple: until they have God’s word to guide them, no church can be what it’s supposed to be.
Just look at the number of churches in the US who argue and feud over what the Church is supposed to be – and we have the Bible. I wonder how that happens…
One thing is for sure, if we were without a word from God, we’d be without direction for the Church.
Last, when we’re without a word from God, we’re…
5. Without Our Only Weapon
Ill - I remember the scene from the movie “Pearl Harbor” where the crews of B-17 bombers are inside their heavy bombers, trying to “lighten them up” so that the Doolittle raiders can take off from aircraft carriers and bomb Tokyo. They had to jettison every pound they could drop, otherwise the planes would just crash into the ocean instead of take off. In the midst of it, the commander tells them to remove the side and tail guns. Now, those guns and bullets were a lot of weight, but they were also the only defense the bombers had against small attack planes. Needless to say, the crews weren’t real thrilled as they painted broom handles black to stick them out of the plane and make it look like they had real guns. They men who normally operated those guns were going into an attack…without their only weapons.
Without the word of God, we’re without our only weapon. 2X the word is referred to this way:
Ephesians 6:17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Hebrews 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.
God gave us a word so that we’d be on the offensive. Take away that word, and we’re running into battle armed with painted broomsticks.
Application:
Now, I want to spend the rest of our time on some application of all this. This part’s easy, isn’t it? With the Bible being so important, what should we do about it?
We should get as many copies of the Bible as we can, in the language of and in the hands of as many people as we can, as soon as we can. Amen? It’s so obvious. To not have that word from God means to be without all those things. People need God’s word in a form that they can use.
What about in our own hands? We should get it there too, right? Real quick, everybody think this through: how many copies of the Bible do you have in your house? OK, how many have at least 3 copies? 5? 8? 10 or more? (a lot)
Great! Let me ask some more questions:
• How many of you have a VCR in your house? How many of you know how to use all of its functions? Before it became more automatic, the only way to get rid of the flashing 12:00 for lots of people was to tape a piece of electrical tape over the front.
• How many of you have a computer, with some software on it? How many of you know how to use all of that software, or use it all?
• And Email – I know a lot of our church family’s Email addresses. You can write an Email to someone – but if they don’t check it, what’s the sense in it?
• Cell phones. How many of you have a cell phone that does all kinds of stuff that you don’t even know how to use, like how to figure a currency exchange rate? Even you guys that are teenagers, honestly, do you really know how to use every feature on that phone?
• We send out a lot of newsletters, 2X a month. We go to great lengths to try to get lots of important information into those newsletters. How many of you get the church newsletter? That’s great. How many read it is another story!
• How many of you knew that we have bylaws – legal documents under which the church operates? They do exist, but very few people read them. Good cure for insomnia: “Honey, I’m having trouble sleeping. Could you read the bylaws to me?”
Here’s the point to all of this. If you have a VCR that can be programmed to record a program 3 weeks from now at 2 am, but you never learn how to use it, are you any better off?
If you have a computer that will create videos from you camera, but you never learn how to do that, is it any better than if it couldn’t do that? If you have a cell phone that will let you set a reminder to yourself to call your Mom on Mother’s Day, but you don’t have any idea how to set it, are you any better off than if you didn’t have it? If you get Emails sent to you, or a newsletter sent to you, but you don’t read them, is it any different than if you didn’t have them at all? And if we have bylaws but never look at them or try to arrange ourselves under them, is it really any different than not having any at all? And if God gave us a perfect word, but we’ve never even finished reading it, how is it any different than not having some of it at all? We’ve seen what would be missing if we didn’t have a word from God – a lot!
1. A real connection with God.
2. An answer to Satan’s lies.
3. Authority to speak.
4. Direction for the Church.
5. Our only weapon.
If we don’t read the word we have from God, how is it any different than not having it in the first place? If we’re not reading that word, if we’re not hiding it in our hearts, if we’re not trying to arrange ourselves under it, how is it any different than not having a word from God at all? Until it’s read, this book is about as useful as a 12:00 o’clock flashing on a VCR.
2 Timothy 2:14-18
Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 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. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.
You see, in the church in Ephesus, there are pressures facing the church. There’s the potential for arguments over trivial matters. There are some who get caught up in godless chatter, false teaching, faith-destroying lies. Having a word from God among them isn’t enough. Look again at v.15. Timothy is told to learn to use that word. Read it. Know it. Get skilled with it. Handle it correctly. That’s the way to handle the junk around you. That’s the way to be pleasing to God.
Conclusion:
God predicted through Amos…
Amos 8:11-12
"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land-- not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
We all have a choice laid out in front of us this new year. Either we can make the word of God a part of our lifestyle, or we can act like having it is enough.
I want to challenge everyone again to commit to reading the Bible through in 2006. God didn’t give us a perfect word so that we’d choose to be without a word. Just like He didn’t give us the life of His Son so we would go without that gift…
