Read Your Bible Series

READING YOUR BIBLE

Hebrews 4:12

INTRODUCTION

1. Come up to the front reading the instruction manual for the telephone, whilst carrying other instruction manuals. Read a little to the congregation, and then dump them in a trash can, saying, well, I am a man, I know how this thing works, who needs the manuals anyway. Now lets us see, it looks like this plugs into this thingamawatchit, and this thing might plug into this and this. Oh no I have too many wires, and where does the fax plug in anyway.

2. I guess I will have to take time to read the manual, to see how this complex instrument works anyway.

3. Today, I want to talk to you about something that is much more complex and demanding than any phone system, more intricate in its nuances than any other thing that you could ever know.

4. This thing that we are talking about comes in two models, one is more logical than the other, who is more tender and emotional. Both of them are equally of much value in the eyes of the Designer and Creator. In fact He is very pleased with the way that they initially turned out. However, those that possessed these things, refused to use them in the way that they were intended, and ignored the operating instructions.

5. Beloved, I am talking about the human being, so lovingly formed in the dust of the earth, and so lovingly and gently given the breath of life. I am talking about the most beautiful creation ever formed out of the rib of man. There are two models, the male and the female, each one similar, and yet uniquely different and special.

6. Beloved, it is sad to think that we have taken something so perfect, magnificent, and beautiful, and have misused them against what they were created for. Man has taken this beautiful creation, and has corrupted it to the point that man can never say that he is without sin. Due to the state of our lives, we can only lament with the apostle Paul RO 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

7. For many years, mankind would wander around in ignorance, not knowing exactly how they were to act, or how they worked. They would indulge in every harmful thing that destroyed their earthly body and their soul. There are still some like that today, who will not heed the warnings of the Creator, as they refuse to read the manual.

8. Yes everything that has been designed, has an operating manual full of instructions. The problem is, we think we know better, and charge full speed ahead into trouble. Drinking is not a problem. Smoking is not a problem, Drugs are not a problem. Adultery is not a problem. A loose tongue is not a problem. Selfishness is not a problem. Greed is not a problem. ETC.

9. Is there anyone here who wants to know what it is like to have peace, to have joy, to have contentment, to have your needs met, to be complete, lacking in nothing. For us to have a full and content life, we need to live our lives the way that our Creator designed us to live, and that way is found in the Holy Word of God our manual.

I. THE REALITY OF THE BIBLE.

A. The Bible Is Recorded By Scribes For God.

1. A Scribe is one who writes a letter or something on behalf of someone else. The words that are written down, are not the words, or the intent of the scribe, but he writes down each word that is spoken.

2. The Word of God, or the Bible, is the Holy Will of God for mankind, which He revealed and spoke to many scribes, called prophets, who painstakingly recorded every word, exactly as God said it.

3. There may be many who claim that this book is merely written by men, and that it is now outdated and very cultural, and so it cannot be believed in its entirety, and so therefore the reasoning of modern man needs to be believed rather than an archaic book.