What it means to believe.
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How much weight does the Bible have in your life? How much authority does it have? Is it just another book? Do you agree with it only when it agrees with your feelings?
Intro
Intro
Fake News
Frida Sofia
Young Girl trapped in Mexico City in rubble that turned out to be not true
How do we make sense of the real and fake?
As Christians it is the same with what we are to believe in the church
How do we make sense of the things we are taught and what we believe?
News media can be wrong and biased - facts can be skewed by interpretation and human influence
As Christians it is the same with what we are to believe in the church
How do we make sense of the things we are taught and what we believe?
What is our authority?
Drama
Drama
John Sets out to ensure us of the Ultimate Authority for our belief
John wants us to know that God is using his witness as a method of belief
He has credibility as a disciple
One who witnessed Jesus work
“In the preence of the disciples”
John wants us to know that what is written is and direct testament to God’s revelation
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is teh Christ,”
John wants us to know that thisis God’s Chosen method of communicating Himself to us
This is how we know who God is and what he has done and expects of us
The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Larger Catechism
Q. 5. What do the scriptures principally teach?
A. The scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
Doctrine
Doctrine
The Scriptures do not include every detail
The Good Book
Not a mystical book of all information
David Meade, Christian Conspiracy Theorist, and Planet X
End of the world on Spetember 23rd 2017.
Meade has been quoted previously saying: “It is very strange indeed that both the Great Sign of and the Great Pyramid of Giza both point us to one precise moment in time – September 20 to 23, 2017.”
Meade has been quoted previously saying: “It is very strange indeed that both the Great Sign of and the Great Pyramid of Giza both point us to one precise moment in time – September 20 to 23, 2017.”
But Scripture does not give every detail
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Matt 24
Scripture does tell us what God wants us to know
About Him (31a)
“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,”
About our salvation (31b)
“and that by believeing you may have life in his name.”
Eternal Life
Life now
Perseverence
The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter I. Of the Holy Scripture
VI. The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.
The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter I. Of the Holy Scripture
VII. All things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.q
God has chosen to reveal himself through men and the written word
Ordinary means
Scripture is the ordinary means authored by God Inspired by the HS in the men he chose to preserve his word for us - NO FAKE NEWS
Doxology
Doxology
Praise Him for the preservation of His word - The Scripture
Praise Him for changing the hearts of men through this
Faith and belief come about by His Word
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Therefore,
Turn to God’s Word, Scripture for growth in your own life of faith and belief
Turn to God’s Word for calling others to faith in Him
Illus: Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 to February 18, 1546) was a German monk
He became professor of the University of Wittenberg
As he was preparing his lectures on Romans he read
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, angry with Pope Leo X’s new round of indulgences to help build St. Peter’s Basilica, nailed a sheet of paper with his 95 Theses on the University of Wittenberg’s chapel door.
In June and July of 1519 Luther publicly declared that the Bible did not give the pope the exclusive right to interpret scripture, which was a direct attack on the authority of the papacy.
Why?
Finally, he realized the key to spiritual salvation was not to fear God or be enslaved by religious dogma but to believe that faith alone would bring salvation. This period marked a major change in his life and set in motion the Reformation.
All of this by the reading and meditating on God’s Word.
How should we view the Bible? The Holy Scriptures?
They are the ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit opens mens hearts through faith and teaches and molds men to obey God.
One verse began a reformation that has lasted 500 years this Oct 31st.
God’s word, written by the Apostles such as John, are not just words on a page, they are the inspired words of God who is its author. We should look to it and seek it as such. What do we believe? Turn to God’s Word.
Everything we do should be based on God’s Word and it’s authority.
