Thankful for God's Word
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Giving thanks
American
Freedom of speech
Freedom to bear arms
Freedom to succeed or fail
No caste system
Freedom to vote our leaders into office
Christian
Salvation
Grace
Forgiveness
The cross
Christ’s sacrifice for me
The Holy Spirit
All the attributes of God
Immutability
Holiness
Mercy
Omniscience
Omnipresence
Omnipotence
Sovereignty
Love
The Word of God
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
I’m thankful for preachers and pastors who stand in the pulpit who get up here Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and preach the Word of God with boldness without fear of man
This country has enough weak pastors who stand up for anything
Certain pastors
They clearly tell the One on only way to Heaven
Will avoid questions on abortion or alternate lifestyles
They water down the Bible just to tickle the ears of their hearers
Those preachers don’t believe the power of this book.
This book awesome!
Let’s get back to cherishing this Book, loving this Book, reading this book, memorizing this Book, heeding this Book, living according to this Book
I LOVE THIS BOOK
Thankful that It is alive
Thankful that It is alive
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Theopneustos: God-breathed
Just as God breathed into man and man became a living soul
This Book is literally the word of God: God breathed out this book
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the word and because He is alive, this Book is alive
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Oh yes! Jesus is alive and we have an incredible hope!
And this book is alive too!
No matter how many times you read a passage the Holy Spirit is able to shed light on something.
This book has so much depth
There is no way it is man made concoction
It is the inspired Word of God
It was written over the course of over 1500 years by about 40 authors
This Book is incredible
Thankful for Its Power
Thankful for Its Power
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
And it was so and it was good
When God speaks, things happen
There is incredible power in God’s Spoken and written Word
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
The Word of God has changed countless lives
A girl in Madagascar who was taken from her home and sold as a slave. Read her New Testament whenever she could. Her owner one day found her reading and asked her to teach her how to read. After several weeks of reading lessons the owner was enthralled with Jesus and decided to accept Christ as savior. She then freed all of her slaves. She asked for missionaries to come to teach them further. They did but died from diseases. But gradually grew a church with many many members.
Thankful for Its Sharp Edges
Thankful for Its Sharp Edges
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.
The extent of its sharpness
Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
The Word of God has always been found, from the beginning, capable of penetrating deeply into the heart of a sinner; of producing a sudden and terrible alarm in the conscience, of striking conviction into the trembling frame, and lowering the rebel to the ,lust.
To the humble, pious, faithful disciple also the Word of God is a sharp instructor, a penetrating sword; often bringing truths to remembrance, which in mortal weakness had been forgotten; often giving a new colour and force to truths already in the mind.
And how quick, and mighty, and prevailing are the truths of the gospel for the furtherance of grace, and the increase of heavenly comfort in the soul; depths of wisdom newly discovered; rays of consolation beaming forth; lights of unearthly brightness successively rising to the eye of faith. (J. Slade, M. A.
And of the joints and marrow
It dissects and invades the deepest recesses of our being
There is no where the Word of God can’t reach
The vilest of sinners have been saved after hearing the Word of God
The hardest hearts have been softened
The proud have been humbled
Proud have been abased
The Humble have been exalted
The Word of God is what can do the changing
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Thankful for Its Criticism
Thankful for Its Criticism
During the 1800s, people from many nations eagerly read newspaper accounts of David Livingstone's explorations of Africa.
Year after year, this famous Christian braved dangers from tropical diseases, hostile slave traders, and wild beasts, always refusing to give up, even after being mauled by a lion.
His goal in life is to win Africans to Christ and open pathways for other missionaries to follow.
He wrote this in a diary once:
The Bechuanas are excellent patients. There is no wincing. In any operation even the women sit unmoved.
I have been quite astonished, again and again, at their calmness. In clotting out a tumour, an inch in diameter, they sit and talk as if they felt nothing.
“A man like me never cries,” they say; “ they are children that cry.” And it is a fact that the men never cry.
But when the Spirit of God works on their minds they cry most piteously. Sometimes in church they endeavoured to screen themselves from the eyes of the preacher by hiding under the forms, or covering their heads with their karosses, as a remedy against their convictions.
And when they find that won’t do they rush out of the church and run with all their might, crying as if the hand of death were behind them. (D. Livingstone.)
The word of God will reveal our wrongs but we must not leave the mirror and neglect to fix the problems
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
If you believe that God is about your bed, and about your path, and spieth out all your ways, then take care not to do the least thing, nor to speak the least word, nor to indulge the least thought, which you have reason to think would offend Him.
Suppose that a messenger of God, an angel, were now standing at your right hand and fixing his eyes upon you, would you not take care to abstain from every word or action that you knew would offend him?
Yea, suppose one of your mortal fellow servants, suppose only a holy man stood by you, would you not be extremely anxious how you conducted yourself both in word and action?
How much more cautious ought you to be when you know, not a holy man, not an angel of God, but God Himself, the Holy One, is inspecting your heart, your tongue, your hand, every moment, and that He Himself will surely call you to account for all yea think, speak, or act! (J. Wesley.)
My Old Bible
Though the cover is worn,
And the pages are torn,
And though places bear traces of tears,
Yet more precious than gold
Is this Book worn and old,
That can shatter and scatter my fears.
This old Book is my guide,
’Tis a friend by my side,
It will lighten and brighten my way;
And each promise I find
Soothes and gladdens the mind,
As I read it and heed it each day.
To this Book I will cling,
Of its worth I will sing,
Though great losses and crosses be mine;
For I cannot despair,
Though surrounded by care,
While possessing this blessing Divine. —Author unknown
But, now, there remains a most important question—how comes it to pass that if the Word of God possess this dissecting power, so that it lays man bare and exposes to his own eye all the secrecies of his soul—how comes it to pass that so little effect is actually produced?
This is only because the hearers are utterly inattentive; because they give no heed whatever to the statements of the preacher; but go through the business of the sanctuary as a matter of form, in which they have no interest.
It is no marvel if to such as these the Word of God should not be as a “sword.”
They may be said to clothe themselves in that thick armour, the armour of indifference, and though dissection may be going on all around, they ward off from themselves the knife of the anatomist.
But there is another class of hearers on whom considerable impression is often made by the preaching of the gospel, who, while they remain in church, and are actually hearkening to the solemn truths of religion, feel an interest in what is said, feel its power, and wish to use it for their guidance; and in whom there seems the best moral promise presented of such an attempt at amendment of life, as would issue in genuine conversion.
Best of All
Blessed Bible, sacred treasure,
Precious book, of all the best,
There is comfort never failing,
And a calm abiding rest.
Read with reverence, and commit it,
Verse by verse, and day by day;
'Tis the word that God has spoken,
And it cannot pass away.
Fanny Crosby