Unashamed (Part 1)
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Prof. Robert Dick Wilson of Princeton, who held several doctorates and knew 45 languages and dialects of the Near East - "I have come to the conviction that no man knows enough to attack the veracity of the Old Testament. Every time when anyone has been able to get together enough documentary 'proofs' to undertake an investigation, the biblical facts in the original text have victoriously met the test."
And the attacks still happen today, and what is the most troubling thing about our time? The most aggressive and constant attacks are actually coming from the church. When pastors or clergymen in America were asked if they believed that the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant Word of God in faith, history, and secular matters: 95% of Episcopalians said "No." 87% of Methodists said "No." 82% of Presbyterians said "No." 77% of American Lutherans said "No." 67% of American Baptists said "No."
Popular preachers today make theses claims… Andy Stanley. Stanley also said we do not believe Christianity because of the Bible, but because of the resurrection and eyewitness testimonies. A couple of years ago, he said that preachers should stop saying, “The Bible says.” He believes we have been naively taught, “The Bible says it, that settles it” and that kind of simplistic reasoning is why many walk away from the faith as adults. Theological liberals have always attempted to liberate Jesus from the Scriptures. He argues that our faith is based on the resurrection and not the Bible.
But Jesus says that this cannot happen… If you don’t believe the Bible you wont believe in the resurrection.
“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
We need the scriptures… we gotta have the Bible to believe. We say it every single Sunday… Jesus died for our sins according to Time Magazine. He was buried and He was raised on the third day according to the New York post. All according to what we read in the scriptures. It is not possible to separate Jesus from the scriptures you cannot have one or the other. Today so many in the church are minimizing the necessity of the scriptures, putting it down, believing the apparent contradictions, putting more trust in human intellect, making it unnecessary for life and godliness, asserting that there is even life apart from the Bible, it is a dead antiquated letter. Let me tell you what Jesus says about the scriptures...
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.
The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
The Bible is not a dead letter...
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
And of course...
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
What is happening today in the church is absolutely unthinkable. People decide for themselves whether its will be used or not, it is interpreted anyway they want to interpret it, it is seen as so inconsequential that it might not even be mentioned from the pulpit at all. So are we actually putting God’s judgement on ourselves?
“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
And we have a plea from our passage today…lets take a look. Part two of the Hebrew letter Waw.
Do not snatch your word of truth from me,
for your regulations are my only hope.
I will keep on obeying your instructions
forever and ever.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Don’t Snatch Your Word
Freedom by the Word
The first thing we will look at today is the reality of judgement and punishment with the removal of the Word of God. Second, we will see the freedom of Christ that we get from the good news of the gospel made clear by the power of the living Word of God.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose confidence in the very Word of the living God, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see the wonders of God’s special revelation, His very breath, is our truth, our source and even our hope.
I. Don’t Snatch Your Word
- The judgement of Word removal.
A. This is the cry of the heart from our psalmist today… look at what he says. Please don’t take your word away from me because your word is my only hope. I don’t think our psalmist would have liked what is happening in the modern church today. For him the worse thing that could happen is for the Lord to take away the only hope he has. And that hope was the scriptures. And does God take away the scriptures? You bet He does...
“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
B. Do we not fear this? It kinda reminds me of many in the modern church who do not fear church discipline. In the end it comes down to the fact that they do not know and do not understand. So do we think that when it comes to the Bible we just do not know and that we do not understand. I often wonder why it is not obvious that the scriptures are our only hope. I often wonder why it is not obvious that the scriptures are that which we can’t live without. I often wonder why it is not obvious why we cannot just cast aside the scriptures as easily as we do.
C. Could it be that the scriptures are not what we really need… therefore it is not really our hope. Maybe our ignorance is not what we think the scriptures are, its ignorance about what we think we are. If the scripture are not our only hope… what else is there? Where else are we looking? If we don’t consume ourselves in the Word of God where are we getting our hope and truth? So it is possible for us to get hope, truth, direction from something other than the Bible? Can you tell me what? Money? Political party? Successful people? Powerful and influential social media personalities? Technology? Popularity? Relationships? Success? What would it be?
D. After 20 years of intense theological studies, I find that our real problem is that we don’t have a good understanding of what the church is. See the reason why we consume ourselves with content from other than the Bible is because words from successful entrepreneurs, financial advisors, psychologists, social media is because we are confused about what the church is. Let me ask you a question...
E. This entire world is in a state of real confusion and destruction. Selfishness prevails, the love of money prevails, injustice prevails, real criminal activity occurs with no justice for victims, murder, stealing, immorality, lust and perversion, deception, covenant violations, drunkeness, debauchery, liciviousness, corrupt leadership, immorality is at an all time extreme so much so that what we do today would even cause the people from sodom and Gomorrah to blush. Abominations, detestable things. Suppression of truth. Darkness. Witchcraft. Corruption is all over. People are destroying themselves. Kids are killing themselves. People are being trafficked. Mass shootings. War mongering. Hatred, anger, destruction, lies, lies and so much more lies. All of this around us 24 7 affecting us and the people we love. It does not end it does not stop and its growing worse and worse every single day.
F. And we go to church and we want to hear about the good life. How we can have the greatest and best of all prosperity. All the wonders of luxurious living. How we can be free from pain and suffering. How we can better thrive in life. How we can have our inheritance and best life right now. How you can unlock the best that life has to offer. God want us to be rich beyond our wildest dreams. Time to celebrate, time to party, time for us to live like kings.
Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you,
“I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!”
That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!
G. Christianity is not a cruise ship full of relaxation and luxury. Christianity is a battleship. The Holy Spirit does not give us luxury to put on everyday… He gave us Armor.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.
Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles.
Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.
Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.
We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
H. We are in a war. We are in battle. But Shane we need breaks we need retreats… yup. But the problem is we never got back into the fight. We are not being good soldiers in the battle before us. And all that we need for this battle and for our hope in the battle is the scriptures. All we have for the greatest battle is the scriptures and the greatest weapon that we wield is?
Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
I. Do not follow the new wave of teaching that is causing many to doubt and lose confidence in the scriptures. The scriptures are being cast aside. Do not go into battle unarmed. Plead with the Lord today not to have His word taken from us. Fight to make sure that we hide the word in our heart so that it is not taken from us. Meditate on the Word so that the Word falls on fertile ground and not on the rocky ground so that the birds come and take it away.
J. Let us be good soldiers today… we have our orders today. It is in the Word of God and it shows us the will of our commanding officer. Let us not get tied up in all the pragmatism and worldly lusts of the world and follow the directives of our commanding officer and so please Him.
K. If the Word of God is gone… we have no hope. When all is said and done and all the nonsense and deception clears… most of the time with suffering, it becomes so apparent that all we have is the Bible. In the end, we will see that the Bible is all that is needed. When we get to more sober thinking we see the real value of the scriptures.
My suffering was good for me,
for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.
L. The only real treasure in life is the Word of God.
Psalm 119:72 (NLT)
Your instructions are more valuable to me
than millions in gold and silver.
M. May we never never never ever fall into the insanity of ever believing that we do not need the Bible or that its value is anything less than the greatest treasure known to man. Please Lord do not snatch your word of truth from me.
II. Freedom by the Word
- And the Word tells us of life and life more abundant.
A. Some of our modern church leaders say that the big problem with the Bible are the many many contradictions that it has with itself. It is an embarrassment. We have got to be honest they are irreconcilable. They are? I’m not the final authority on this, but I have yet to be shown one that cannot be reconciled? Not one. So whats going on? It is the reality of the famous quote...
“Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.”
B. John MacArthur tells of the reason why people do not like to hear sound doctrine and theology… its because they love their sin.
C. Sin is the issue, is always the issue, and that thing that so easily besets us. It is a reality for us. No one is free from it. It is a reality for us all. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins.
D. But just knowing that we all have sinned is not the end of our problem… it is the fact that our God is a holy God who hates sin and rebellion and has promised in His Word to punish sin. It is the reality of the wrath of God. It is the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. The place of outer darkness. The place of eternal fire. The place reserved for the devil and his angels.
E. But thank the Lord that we can be saved from all of this. Rejoice today… the Word of God declares. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Jesus came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
F. And the Lord grants us repentance and the the Lord grants us faith because of His grace and mercy so that… if you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
G. Salvation is here and the Word of truth declares it. The grace and mercy of the Lord has given us the wonderful thing called the Word of God. And we see that there is life and life more abundant in Christ and in Christ alone.