The Indestructible Word
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
As we finish up this series on “The Holy Bible” I thought it would be fitting that we finished by looking at “The Indestructible Word.”
The Old Testament certainly asserts God’s word is indestructible.
89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
The New Testament also affirms that the word of God is indestructible.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
It’s no wonder Henry Giles once stated…
The Gospel according to St Mark 24–31. The Second Advent of the Lord
His words have passed into laws, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never “passed away.”
With that in mind let’s take a moment and be reminded how God’s indestructible word has withstood the test of time.
There is no doubt concerning God’s word that…
It Withstands The Attacks
It Withstands The Attacks
Atheists
Atheists
In 175 BC, Antiochus IV became a Seleucid ruler during the Greek Empire and eventually nicknamed himself Epiphanes which means “manifest as a god” later in his life.
He is most infamous for what he did in 167 BC to Jerusalem in what has become known as the “Abomination of Desolation” in theological circles.
He set up a pagan altar in the temple of God in Jerusalem and other pagan altars all over Judah.
54 Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah
He tore up and burnt books of the law of God and had anyone possessing God’s word put to death.
56 The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. 57 Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king.
And yet through it all God’s word was not utterly destroyed.
Though Antiochus try as he might to destroy the word of God and remove it from the face of the earth he failed miserably.
Diocletian, a Roman emperor from 284-305 AD was well known for his persecution of Christians.
He made a decree in 303 AD that death would befall anyone that owned a copy of the bible, and two years after making this decree later historians would say he boasted…
“I have completely exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth.”
However, in 325 AD when Constantine came to the throne, he wanted to have copies of God’s word and offered up a substantial reward to anyone that could discover and deliver him God’s word.
It is reported that within twenty-five hours fifty copies were offered to the emperor.
Others have striven or made the claims that God’s word would end at some point.
Voltaire was a notorious French atheist that once boasted that within one hundred years the bible “would be no more.”
Later, the very press that printed his blasphemous prediction was used to print bibles and his very house ended up being bought and used by the Geneva Bible Society to store bibles as distribute them.
Bob Ingersoll was an American agnostic who once held up a bible and his hand and said, “In fifteen years I will have this book in the morgue.”
Within fifteen years Ingersoll was in the morgue, but God’s word obviously lived on.
17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
Atheist weren’t the only ones to attack and strive to destroy God’s word.
We also find in history this being done by the…
Catholics
Catholics
In Brother Dehoff’s book “Why I Believe The Bible” he would write some interesting if not tragic information about Catholicism and its history with the bible. In his book he mentions…
Pope Innocent II, in 1199, had the French bibles burned at Metz and forbade the people to have more.
Pope Gregory IX, in 1234, ordered the people of Spain to bring in their bibles so they might be burned.
Pope Julius III was advised in 1553 by a large number of bishops to permit the least possible reading of the bible in order that the papacy might be strengthened.
The Jesuits, members of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus, in 1637 claimed they had personally burned sixty thousand bibles in a single year in Bohemia.
Pope Clement II, in 1713, condemned bible reading on the part of Christians as did Pope Pius VI.
Pope Gregory XVI, on May 6, 1844, said those favoring bible societies (translators of the bible) were guilty of the greatest crime before God and the church.
This doesn’t even take into account the story of Wycliffe, who is considered the first translator of the bible into English.
He was condemned as a heretic by the Synod of Oxford in 1382 AD and around 1495 AD his bones were dug up, burned, and his ashes thrown into the brook Swift with the hope that he would be eternally condemned due to his body not being able to be resurrected.
All of these attempts at attacking and striving to destroy the word of God failed.
Benjamin Franklin (1812-1878), was one of the American Restoration preachers, and in his autobiography he writes about his great-great-grandfather under the rein of Queen Mary.
It is he talks about how is great-great-grandfather got an English bible and concealed it by fastening it under and within the cover of a joint-stool.
When his great-great-grandfather gathered his family to read from the bible he would have one of his younger children stand at the window and look for the apparitor, who was an officer of the spiritual court and if he saw him coming they would turn the stool back over hiding their English bible because it was against the law to have such.
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”
Atheists and Catholics aren’t the only ones throughout history that have attacked God’s word and striven to destroy fully or partially.
We also find it so with…
Liberalism
Liberalism
From the beginning of God’s word through the end we find God warning against perverting his message.
2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
How can liberalism pervert God’s word and by definition strive to destroy it?
They do so through several means, one of which is taking passages out of context and using them for their own doctrines.
Illustration: The topknot hair style being said to sinful in the 1920’s when a preacher “proved it” by quoting Matthew 24:17.
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Illustration: The doctrine of “one cannot fall from grace” is said to find proof in 1 John 3:9.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Illustration: People striving to drink alcoholic beverages for recreational purposes will go to passages such as 1 Timothy 5:23 to justify its use.
23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)
Obviously this text is about a medical situation not recreational usage.
Summary
Summary
We could continue all day, but this is sufficient to demonstrate that people have long attempted to attack and destroy God’s precious word, but God’s word is still here…it still stands indestructible.
In the same way it has withstood the attacks we find…
It Withstands Being Neglected
It Withstands Being Neglected
The Word Last In The House Of God
The Word Last In The House Of God
In the Old Testament we read of a time when God’s word was lost by the Israelites.
Josiah was in the process of striving restoring God’s people back to righteousness when he sent Hilkiah the priest to the temple to look for some things and in the process found God’s Word (2 Kings 22-23).
It is true that God’s word is so neglected by many of God’s children today that it could be said they have lost the word of God.
What is some evidence of neglecting the bible that we find today?
When I was a kid it became popular to have everyone raise their hands in bible class to count how many were daily bible readers.
Yet of all the congregations I have seen this done, never have I seen the majority of the congregation counted.
For many, their bible is at home gathering dust or on display on top of the coffee table.
However, its pages are not worn and God’s word is not feed upon all too often because they have neglected the bible, God’s holy word.
There is no doubt that our bodies need daily food for survival.
11 Give us this day our daily bread
In the same way so does our soul.
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation
This is not anything new, in Hosea’s day we find the same was happening.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
However, God’s word, though neglected by many, is not destroyed.
It’s message never falls short of reviving the dead and neglected soul because the word of God is indestructible.
We can correct our neglect by feasting daily on the Bread of Life, the Word of Christ.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Summary
Summary
Though the every person in the world neglects God’s word, it will not be destroyed (2 Peter 3:9).
Conclusion
Conclusion
Though atheist, Catholics, or mutilators of God’s word attack it it will not fall.
Though everyone neglect God’s word it will stand forever, for it is “The Indestructible Word.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
