Hearing From God Through the Bible--Life with God Series

            When I graduated from high school, I walked across the stage with people who were my best friends in the whole world. Some of them I had known since I was in kindergarten, and I had so many great memories with them. On that day, I couldn’t have even imagined that just one year later, I would have very little contact with most of those people.

            That’s how it goes for many people with their high school friends, and it’s all because communication dies off. When you were in school together, it didn’t take any effort at all to communicate. You saw them every day, you were in the same classes and activities together, and so you were always communicating.

            But after graduation, you may have gone to different schools; you now lived in different places. All of a sudden, communication took effort. You didn’t just run into each other anymore, so now you had to initiate communication if it was going to happen. And for many people, that communication with their high school friends slowly fades away, and the depth of those relationships goes with it.

            This is a principle that’s as certain as death and taxes – if you don’t communicate with someone on a regular basis, the depth of your relationship with them will disappear. Communication is the heartbeat of a relationship, and when that heartbeat grows weak, the relationship will atrophy and eventually die.

            A lack of communication with God is likely the main reason why many Christians do not enjoy the close bond with God that they would like to have. Now last week, we learned that the main way in which God has made himself known to us was by sending Jesus into the world. And today, the way that we get to know Jesus is by reading about his teachings and actions in the Bible. So God’s channel of communication to us today is the Bible. If we want to communicate with God, we must hear what he has to say in the Bible.

            Today, I’d like to show you what kinds of ideas and information God communicates to us in the Bible. We have a great summary of these ideas in 2 Timothy 3:16, and alongside that verse I’m going to bring in numerous statements from Psalm 119—a psalm that is all about the Word of God.

What kinds of ideas does God communicate to us in the Bible?

            2 Timothy 3:16 is one of the most important verses you will ever read about the Bible. It is the Bible’s testimony about itself, we might say, and the last part of the verse gives us a helpful word picture for understanding what it is that God communicates to us in the Bible. Let’s read this verse, and then we’ll focus on each of the four parts of this word picture [READ 2 Tim. 3:16].

            The picture here is that in the Bible, God reveals to us the proper path to follow in life. He also alerts us if we get off that path and shows us how to get back on the path. Finally, he instructs us in how to stay on the path from that point forward. Let’s look at each of these ideas in turn.

Teaching

            In its teaching function, the Bible shows us how to think and how to act in the proper ways. It tells us the true story of how we got here, why we are here, and what we are supposed to do in life. In this way, the Bible shows us the path that we should follow in order to live out God’s will.

            Psalm 119 describes this teaching function in verses 9-11: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

            Notice the emphasis at the end of verse 11 – if I want to stay on the right path and avoid sin, my heart has to be a warehouse for the word! I have to store up God’s message in my heart so that I can then distribute it to my mind, my emotions, and my will. Otherwise, how will my mind know the proper ways to think? How will my will respond in ways that are proper for me to act? Yes, I can always look up God’s teachings in the Bible when I have a question about them, but that’s a far cry from having those teachings tucked away in my heart to where they become part of me.

            College basketball coaches often talk about how young players think too much when they’re out on the court. The plays aren’t yet like second nature for them; they’re not yet familiar with their teammates’ tendencies, and so young players tend to make a lot of mistakes because all of that information hasn’t yet been internalized. They have to slow down and think about a lot of things, but the game doesn’t slow down for them, and so it forces them into a lot of mistakes.

            Isn’t that just how life comes at us? We have to make 100 decisions off-the-cuff every day! Life has no pause button, so when your toddler throws a fit and your temper flares up, you don’t have the opportunity to say, “Stop! Let me go to Bible Gateway and look up 10 verses on anger.”

            The Bible gives us God’s teachings, and we need to internalize those teachings in order to know them and obey them. Even if you never memorize very many verses word for word, you have to know the essence of God’s message – the gist of it – so that you’ll know how he wants you to think and how he wants you to act.

But we don’t always stay on the right path, so God also uses the Bible to express another kind of idea.

Reproof

            A reproof is a statement of correction; it’s a declaration that you have done wrong. That’s not always the kind of thing we want to hear, but if we have in fact done wrong, we need to know it! God is very kind to provide reproofs and rebukes for us as we read the Bible. He has accomplished this by naming sinful attitudes and actions in the Bible, so as we study the Word, we discover instances where some of our own behaviors are labeled as being sinful.

            Though it’s not always pleasant to be told that you’ve done wrong, it is necessary and it is very beneficial for us if we will learn from it. The author of Psalm 119 recognized this. In verse 67, he wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” He repeated that thought just a few verses later in verse 71: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

            So reproofs are to the soul what physical pain is to the body. Pain tells us that something is wrong; something about our physical condition needs to be addressed before we have greater and greater problems. Reproofs give us that same kind of alert about our spiritual condition, and so they are very good for our souls if we will respond to them properly.

Now God, in his grace, doesn’t just tell us that we’ve done wrong – he also tells us how to correct the situation. And so, we find that the Bible expresses a third kind of idea.

Correction

            In the Bible, God also explains to us how to get back on the right path after we have wandered off of it. And so, we read about actions like repentance, which is a change of mind about what we have done. When we repent, we move from thinking that our actions were okay to deciding that they were not acceptable – and in fact they were sinful.

            We also read about an action like confession, in which we express our change of mind to the Lord. When we confess our sins to him, we lay aside any justifications or excuses that we may have had for our actions, and we acknowledge that he is right to call our actions sinful. God encourages us to confess our sins by giving us a promise like that in 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

            How wonderful it is that God has given us that promise! When we come to understand that we have sinned, we may be devastated by that realization. We can then echo the words of Psalm 119:28 – “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” It is the promise of God that gives us reassurance and comfort after we have gone astray, as the psalmist acknowledges in Psalm 119:58 – “I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.”

            So once we have repented of our sins and confessed them to God, we are ready to get back on the right track. If we have harmed anyone else by our actions, the Bible also teaches us how to ask for forgiveness and pursue reconciliation with others. So we can leave that bad detour behind us and get going again down the proper path.

As we get heading in the right direction again, our desire is to avoid taking any more disastrous detours, and so the fourth kind of idea that God communicates to us is training in righteousness.

Training in Righteousness

            As God trains us, he shows us how to stay on the right path even when we might be tempted to go astray. Training in any endeavor is meant to teach us how to successfully accomplish the task that is set out for us. Training on the job is meant to show you how to do what you’ve been hired to do, and so you learn the computer systems that you might have to use or the techniques for your job, and you also get some instruction in how to troubleshoot problems that you may encounter. Training in a sport is meant to teach you the skills that you need to be successful and to train your body and mind for the demands of the game.

            God’s training gives us the “how to” of the Christian life. How do we follow the commands that he has given us? In the Bible, we learn about the resources that we have – like the power of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts that he has given to us, and the bonds of support and encouragement that we have with other Christians.

            God’s training also answers the “why” question about our motivation for obeying him. In the Bible, we learn that even little creatures like ourselves can bring tremendous praise to God as we obey him. We can also gain rewards from him for faithfully obeying his commands. By learning about these things, we come to see that we have tremendous motivation for walking down the path of obedience.

            As we learn about the how and the why of obedience from the Bible, we can learn the attitudes of the psalmist in Psalm 119. We can learn how to obey despite opposition from others – “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes (v. 23).” We can learn to honor and adore the Lord as we see his promises carried out – “Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared (v. 38).” We can learn to love and delight in the word of God – “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces (v. 72).”

            God communicates with us through the Bible, so make it a point to regularly read what God has to say in the word. Read it or listen to an audio Bible; memorize it or ask someone else to read it to you. Whatever it takes, get familiar with God’s teachings in the Bible, then continue to learn them until they become part of you – until they control the way that you think before you even think about it; until they direct your will before you even realize it. If you will devote yourself to hearing from God through the Bible, you will find the deep friendship with God that you desire.

The Bible--God's Message to Mankind ("Definite Convictions in a Do-Whatever World" Series)

Note: This sermon is the beginning of a new, occasional series on my church's Statement of Faith. I will be preaching from our Statement of Faith on the Sundays that we celebrate The Lord's Supper together.      

     

Section 1 of our Statement of Faith is entitled, “Verbal Inspiration,” and it states: “We believe that all Scripture of the Old and New Testament is God-Breathed, is inerrant in the original writings and is the supreme and final authority in all matters of life, faith, and practice (2 Tim. 3:16, Matt 4:4, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Rom 15:4).”

            This title, “Verbal Inspiration,” simply means that God’s involvement with the writing of Scripture extended all the way to the very words that the human authors chose to use to express their message. In other words, God didn’t just give the human authors of the Bible some grand and lofty ideas and then leave them on their own to put those ideas down in writing. That would’ve left the writing process vulnerable to all the imperfections of human beings.

            For example, we’ve all experienced the frustration of having an idea in our minds but not being able to find just the right words to express it. In the end, we sometimes have to settle with an imprecise or incomplete expression of what we truly had on our minds.

            So is that what we have with the Bible? Is it just the best attempt of the human authors to communicate all that God had placed in their minds? No – not at all! God’s involvement in the writing led the entire process from beginning to end, so that even the very words the authors chose to use were the words that God desired for them to use.

            The first statement of this section says, “We believe that all Scripture of the Old and New Testament is God-Breathed.” What does this term “God-Breathed” mean? Well, it comes from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 [READ 2 Tim 3:16-17]. This picture of God breathing out the Scriptures tells us that he is the ultimate source and origin of the Scriptures. Even though it was actually human beings who put pen to paper in order to write the Bible, its message ultimately came from God.

            Think of it like a musician playing a beautiful piece of music on an instrument. Yes, the musician uses the instrument to produce the sound, but the music is ultimately coming from the musician, not the instrument. So it is with the Bible – God used human authors to produce the documents, but the message is ultimately from him.

            The second statement declares that the Scripture “is inerrant in the original writings.” This declaration means that the documents produced by the original authors were free of any mistakes or errors. Therefore, the Bible tells us the truth and nothing but the truth.

            In this statement, though, why do we only focus on the original writings as being free of errors? The reason is that we know mistakes have been made in the copying process that has taken place from that time until now. For example, in 1631, a new edition of the King James Bible was printed in England that became known as "The Wicked Bible" because the printers accidently left out the word "not" in the commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery!” Thus, their Bible made it sound like God was commanding everyone to commit adultery!

            Now how do we know that this was an error? It’s because we have thousands upon thousands of other copies of the Bible that say, “thou shalt not commit adultery.” By comparing all of these copies together, we can spot locations in individual copies where mistakes have been made – such as in The Wicked Bible. By this process of comparison, then, we can eliminate those mistakes and know that we have an accurate copy of what the original authors wrote.

            The final statement of this section says that the Bible, “is the supreme and final authority in all matters of life, faith, and practice.” Notice how comprehensive that statement is – the Bible is the final authority for how I live, what I believe, and for how we do things in the church. This respect toward the Bible is simply the logical response to the fact that the Bible is ultimately a message from God. He is our Creator, our Lord, our Savior, and our Master, so whatever he has declared for us is the standard by which we must measure all things.

Monday Matters

            Now at this point you may be thinking, “This is wonderful information, Pastor Tim, and if I ever end up on Jeopardy it may help me to know what verbal inspiration means. But what difference does this make for my life?”

            That is a fair – and very important – question! When we wake up tomorrow morning, we will have to deal with Monday matters all over again. We’ll have to get the kids out the door and get them to school, and perhaps little Johnny is falling behind in a certain subject and will have to wrestle with some complicated decisions about what to do. And perhaps you’ll head off to another day at a job that you don’t really enjoy, and you’ll put in one more day just so you can pay those bills that are breathing down your neck.

            When you have to deal with those realities, what difference does it make that you know these truths about the Bible? In each sermon in this series, we’ll deal with this question, because it is very important to know how doctrine does connect with daily life.

            In today’s case, the great comfort and help we receive can be summarized like this:

In the Bible, we have a source of divine wisdom and food for the soul.

            In life, we have to deal with so many different decisions that can feel so complicated. Sometimes it’s hard just to form your own opinion, and then on top of that, you may have to sort through all kinds of advice from other people. It can all be so confusing, but in the midst of that confusion, we have a source of light, piercing through the fog, showing us the direction to take.

            The Bible gives us a framework for thinking that is not based on the limited understanding and perspective of men. It comes from above the fray, from a vantage point of unlimited knowledge and wisdom, untainted by sinfulness, and unfazed by the passage of time. The Bible helps us to align our priorities in the proper order so that we can accurately weigh the various options that may be available to us in any situation.

            So as we deal with the complexities of life, we don’t have to simply lean on our own understanding, which is so limited and filled with blind spots because of our own sinfulness. Instead, we can have the confidence that we are following a path that has been laid out by divine wisdom and infinite love. Our Statement of Faith references Romans 15:4, which says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Remember that hope is the biblical optimism that we have through the instruction and promises of God. It is a biblical optimism, which remembers – as the Apostle Paul stated – that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God, but hope is optimistic nonetheless because it is confident in God’s ability to fulfill his promises.

            So we can see how this divine wisdom is also food for our souls. The Bible nourishes us and sustains us spiritually when we grow so weary because of life in this world. Each one of us knows that even after we have fed our bodies, we can still be malnourished if we have not fed our souls. You can feast on the finest cuts of meat and the most delectable desserts and yet still be empty inside because your soul is fatigued and underfed.

            But the Bible provides the nourishment and sustenance for our souls to give us spiritual energy so that we don’t have to feel beat down and worn out as we go through life. As Jesus himself said in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We find these precious words in his holy book, the Bible, and drinking them in will quench the thirst of even the driest soul.           

           

Gaining Encouragement From a Great Cloud of Witnesses--1 Peter 1:10-12 (1 Peter Series)

            A few years ago, Nike ran a rather ridiculous and over-the-top ad campaign featuring Lebron James that had the tagline, “We Are All Witnesses.” The idea was that we should all celebrate the fact that we are alive at such a glorious time – the reign of King James! – when we get to witness Lebron’s greatness on the basketball court. (And of course, what better way to celebrate our good fortunes than to buy Nike shoes and T-shirts!)

            Well, I don’t know if we need to feel all that special about the fact that we are alive to see Lebron James play a game, but according to Peter in our passage for today, we should feel very privileged to be living during this stage of the history of God’s plan of salvation. There were God-fearing men in the past who longed to understand and know about the things that we are now experiencing as children of God, and as we’ll see, there are also supernatural beings who testify in their own ways to the greatness of our salvation. So today, we can draw encouragement from the fact that:

A great cloud of witnesses testifies to the greatness of our salvation.

Let’s read 1 Peter 1:10-12, and then we’ll take a closer look at these various witnesses [READ].

The First Witness: The Holy Spirit

            The first and greatest witness concerning our salvation is the Holy Spirit. He is the witness who has revealed the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about our salvation. He revealed this truth first of all to the Old Testament prophets, and he continues to reveal it today through the preaching of the Gospel.

            Let us make no mistake about his revelation – although it most definitely was written down and proclaimed in this world by human beings, the source of the message is none other than the Holy Spirit himself. Notice how Peter emphasizes this fact in verse 11, where he writes about how the Old Testament prophets were, “inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” Peter did not say that “they” (meaning the prophets) predicted these things, he said that “he” (meaning the Holy Spirit) predicted them.

            Let us never forget that this book we hold in our hands, the Holy Bible, is a message from none other than God himself. People have promoted many other ideas about the Bible over the years. Some people have said that the human authors of the Bible were religious geniuses in the same way that Mozart was a musical genius and Shakespeare was a literary genius; and so, they have given us a religious work of art that is exquisite, but nevertheless utterly human.

            Other people have said that the Bible is a record of human beings recording their experiences with God; and so, the really significant thing about the Bible, it is said, is not what the words of the Bible might say or mean, but how they could potentially lead us to have our own unique experiences with God.

            But Peter reminds us that the true significance of the Bible is that it is in fact a message from God himself. The only reason that the prophets could make predictions about the Messiah was because the Holy Spirit was speaking through them.

            According to Peter, the Holy Spirit bore witness about two broad categories of truth concerning the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ – his sufferings and the glories that would follow them. These two seemingly opposite realities would both be experienced by the Lord Jesus.

            The tension between these two ideas created no end of confusion for students of the Old Testament in ancient times. According to Christian scholar Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, some Jewish rabbis in ancient times concocted a “Two Messiah” theory, which taught that one Messiah would come to fulfill the predictions of suffering, and then another Messiah would come after him to fulfill the predictions of glory and exaltation.

            This tension between suffering and glory also caused great confusion for the 12 disciples during the ministry of Christ. What was Peter’s own reaction when Jesus first began to announce to them that he would have to suffer many things, be killed, and rise from the dead? Matthew 16 says that Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him! And how did Jesus respond? “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

            In God’s plan, the Messiah’s glories would come because of his sufferings; he would be exalted because he was willing to endure the sufferings for what they would accomplish. It is the same today for us! God asks us to patiently endure suffering today in the form of persecution and other difficulties, and if we will, he promises us that our future with Christ will be all the more glorious because of those sufferings.

            The Holy Spirit announced the plan of salvation through the Old Testament prophets as predictions, and now, since New Testament times all the way until the present day, he announces the great truths of salvation as accomplished realities through the preaching of the Gospel. The Old Testament prophets understood that they were being used to proclaim truths that were very significant and profound, and their keen desire to understand these things makes them the second witness to the greatness of our salvation.

The Second Witness: The Old Testament Prophets

            There’s a trend going around social media these days that makes fun of “first-world problems” – like when the barista at Starbucks accidentally puts soymilk in your skinny, half-caff latte. This trend reminds us that even though we do have our problems and inconveniences in this country, there are millions of people around the world who would be happy to trade places with us.

            If we could speak to the Old Testament prophets today, I imagine they might tell us that they would have loved to trade places with us. We might tell them about the trials and persecutions that we face as followers of Christ, but they might say, “Yeah, but those are just “New Testament problems.” You still get to live through some of the amazing realities that we only got to hear about!”

            It’s humbling to read Peter’s description of the prophets’ keen interest in the things that they were announcing and then to realize, as he says in verse 12, that they were not serving themselves but us. Today, we can look back on some of the things that they announced and see them as accomplished facts, and we are living through this great and glorious day in which our ultimate salvation has already begun. They were dying to know the facts that we learn as children in Sunday School and then spend the rest of our lives reminding ourselves not to take them for granted! They were carefully searching the Scriptures they had at that time to try to discover the very truths that are sometimes just like old hat to us today.

            Their zeal and passion to understand all they could about God’s plan is a testimony to us of just how great the salvation realities are that we live with and experience every day. All that Peter has just described to us with our new birth, our inheritance in heaven, our protection in God, the joy that can be ours as God molds us and shapes us through testing so that he might praise us and honor us at the revelation of Jesus Christ – all of these realities were so greatly longed for by the Old Testament prophets, and now they are ours to enjoy.

            Have you ever imagined that if you could speak to one of the Old Testament prophets right now, he might want you to do all the talking? If you could speak to Daniel right now, he might say, “Wow! Have you got it good!” Or if you could speak to Ezekiel, you might want to ask him about his amazing visions, but he might say, “Enough about me! Tell me what it’s like to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Tell me what it’s like to have the Holy Spirit testifying to your own spirit that you are a child of God. Tell me what it’s like to hear the words of Jesus echo down through the years – it is finished!”

            What a great time we live in, that even the prophets might be envious of us if they could see us now! And they’re not the only ones—there is a third witness to the greatness of our salvation.

The Third Witness: God’s Holy Angels

            Peter states at the end of verse 12 that the realities of our salvation are “things into which angels long to look.” When I read those words earlier this week, I thought to myself, “Aww-- come on, Peter!” That’s a fascinating claim! It deserves more than just a passing comment, but alas – a passing comment is all we get here in this verse.

            Why might the angels be so fascinated by the salvation realities that we get to experience? Well, we don’t often think of ourselves this way, but we actually occupy a greater and more significant role in God’s plan than the angels do. I believe we tend to think of angels as being greater than ourselves because they are apparently mightier and more powerful than we are, just in terms of brute strength.

            But in terms of our role in God’s plan for the ages, we are actually more significant than the angels. Remember – it was not to angels that God gave the right and authority to rule over this world, but to humans. And as Hebrews 2:5-8 tells us, it is not to angels that God will give authority over the new heaven and new earth, but to mankind. The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:3 that in the age to come we will actually judge angels!

            So, since angels actually occupy a lower position in God’s plan than we do, the Bible tells us that God has not put in place a plan of salvation for the angels. Please remember that the beings we call demons are angels who sinned against God by joining in Satan’s rebellion. God has not chosen to provide a plan of salvation for those angels who sinned. And even for the holy angels who remained faithful to God, the Lord has not given them the blessings that he is given to us – like adoption into his family or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

            We receive some clarity on all of this in Hebrews 2:14-18. Why don’t you please turn there with me and follow along with me as I read it [READ]. Notice the great lengths to which the Lord was willing to go for our benefit. He took on flesh and blood – a physical body – like we have, and he was willing to die so that we might be freed from the power of death and the fear of it. He was willing to endure temptation so he could experience what that is like in order to help us when we are tempted and serve as a merciful and faithful high priest before God the father.

            The angels look on at all of these things and they marvel at them! They must be in awe of the love that the Creator has for us that would lead him to do such things! And as Peter seems to suggest – in my opinion – they wonder what it must be like to be the recipient of such love and such great blessings.

            Can you see it, Christian? Can you see it, child of God? Can you see the greatness of your salvation? The Holy Spirit testifies to it by telling us about the sufferings that Jesus endured so that we might hear good news from God. The Old Testament prophets testified to it by carefully and passionately seeking to understand the things that we now know in detail and get to experience as realities. The holy angels testify to it by marveling at all that the Creator has done for us – sufferings that were accomplished not for them, but for us.

            So in any trial or persecution that we might face because of our faith, we can acknowledge that it’s not pleasant, but we had better acknowledge that it’s worth it! To receive the blessings that we have, to be on the path to the glorious destiny that awaits us – boy, is it worth it! When the heat is on, and the hatred directed at you because of your faith is white-hot, don’t forget that the prophets would still be glad to trade places with you. The holy angels still look at you with awe and wonder. Let us stand up with courage under our “New Testament problems” and rejoice that we have received so great a salvation!