RAGGED BIBLES AND SPIRITUAL LIVES

RAGGED BIBLES AND SPIRITUAL LIVES Psalm 119:89-96 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Chuck Smith, "The Power of Simplicity"; Rai Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods; Derek Kidner, Psalms; Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest September 21, 2003 [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory "Born to be battered...the loving phone book. Underline it, circle things, write in the margins, turn down page corners, the more you use it, the more valuable it gets to be." That is an ad for the South Central Bell Telephone Yellow Pages. I think it works better as an ad for Bible use. At least this Book will last a lot longer than a one- or two-year phone directory that weighs 2 pounds, is of absolutely no use in a few months and has to be recycled at a special location. By contrast, the Word of God, the Bible, is eternal. That's the first thing our text tells us this morning. Turn to Psalm 119. That's the Bible's longest chapter and it is pretty much dead center in your Bible. Read beginning at verse 89: Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you. The Bible Endures The psalmist is impressed with the eternal nature of God's Word. He pictures it as something strong, unconquerable and standing firm in the heavens (skies). He implies a comparison in verse 90 with God's own faithfulness and God's creation. They continue through all generations and endure. It's a praise song to God about His character and the fact that all that He designs is durable. That is, they last just as long as He wants them to. Don't you wish you could do that? Buy a car and make it last for your entire lifetime? Well, you'd probably grow tired of it and want a new model anyway. How about your hair? Do you ever wish you could just "freeze" when it is just the right length and cooperating with how you want it to lay? Or your lawn? Wouldn't it be nice to cut it to just the right length in mid-Spring, do all the trim work, and then in two days or so, when the tracks from the mower have disappeared, you could freeze it for the rest of the summer and fall? But it doesn't work in the real world for us. Styles change, our preferences change (few women want their hair poofed way up these days; most men don't wear their hair in a pompadour), and most things we buy, even if we wanted to keep them for a long time, have been built with planned obsolescence. Not so with God. He created the heavens and the earth to last until He decides it's over on the great "Day of the Lord". Plants live for certain lengths of seasons and they die. Since the Fall, people live three score and ten, give or take 20 years. That's His design. But there is at least one thing God said would last forever: His Word. Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Matthew 24:35) In fact, Jesus also taught, "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." [webmasters note: Matthew 5:18, also Luke 16:17] The Word of God endures. The psalmist admiringly speaks these words to God: Your laws (equivalent of scripture) endure to this day, for all things serve you. [webmasters note: verse 91] For over two millennia infidels and skeptics have been trying to destroy God's Word by trying to discredit or prove it wrong. In fact, no other book in human history has been subjected to the level of attack and scrutiny that the Bible has undergone. Every chapter, verse, line and word has been sifted by cynics in search of any shred of evidence to cast doubt on its authenticity. In classrooms and even in churches scoffers try to challenge the scripture with charges of inaccuracy or contradiction. Voltaire the renowned French infidel announced in the late 18th century, "One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker." Fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society published cases of Bibles using Voltaire's own personal printing press and they did it in his house! Exactly one hundred years after Voltaire's death the British government paid the Czar of Russia $500,000 for an ancient manuscript of the Bible. That same day a first edition print of Voltaire's work sold in the market in Paris for 11 cents. If this Book had not been the word of God, it would have been destroyed centuries ago. Scientists, philosophers, humanists, Communists and other skeptics have put forth their best efforts, but they failed and died, while the Bible lives on, and is still the perennial best seller all around the world. The French Hugenots pictured the Bible as an anvil surrounded by three vigorous blacksmiths, beneath which they put this inscription: "the more they pound and the more they shout, The MORE THEY WEAR THEIR HAMMERS OUT." Two questions interest me when I think of the continual attack on the veracity of the Bible: 1) why does this book draw such fire from the enemies of God? and 2) why has it survived? Not only does the Word of God endure, but it might also help us to endure. Last month news reports carried the story of a Maryland matriarch who celebrated her 100th birthday. Martha Yoder has had ten children, 37 grandchildren, 70 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren. In media interviews she credited her longevity to daily Bible reading. The Bible endures. Consider the second observation about the Bible in this text. The Bible Saves The psalmist next praises God because he has been saved, delivered, protected and preserved, and all through His Word. Verses 92-94: "If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. Save me, for I am yours; I have sought out your precepts." This writer has come through some harrowing times and he credits his survival to the words of God in the Bible. We don't know the nature of the affliction and danger he faced, but we do know that he believed he made it through because of the wisdom of God's Word. Through his understanding of the Word of God, and his obedience to those precepts, he survived. You'll remember Jesus' temptations in the wilderness as Satan threw everything he had at Him, trying to get Him to sin through fear, pride and idolatry. What was the Lord's defense? The Word of God. Brothers and sisters, we have no greater defense against the wiles of the enemy of our souls than the teachings of scripture. Verses 4, 5 and 6 of Psalm 37 are familiar to most of us. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." When we know the will of God through His Word, and delight ourselves in following that will, we can not only survive, but thrive, through the most difficult challenges thrown at us by the world, the flesh and the devil. President Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying, "Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe." What he said was so true. What he did, unfortunately, by consulting diviners and other quacks, didn't exactly correspond with his faith in the scriptures. All that we need is available to us in His precious Word. During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you." But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?" She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds." Like the contents in this package, the resources for survival and abundant life are readily available for every Christian who will take advantage of them. "If your Law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life." (verse 92-93) How does the Word of God save and protect us? • The Word leads us in living righteously, and thereby we avoid the punishment and discipline of the Lord when He has to correct or rebuke us and bring us back in line with His will. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws." (Psalm 119:105-106) • The Word gives us strength for the times of temptation, so that we don't fall into sin or perdition. "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11) • The Word of God protects us when we face even stronger spiritual attack. "Therefore put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God…" (Ephesians 6:13-14, 17) Here the Bible is referred to both as our defensive weapon and a weapon of offense against the devil. • The Word of God makes us wise for salvation. "…from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15) The very faith that saves us "…comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the message of Christ." (Romans 10:17) • The Word of God makes us mature. By the Word of God, Peter writes," …you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:2-3) Ephesians 4 makes it clear that as we are instructed in the Word, we grow to unity "...in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature…Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming." (Ephesians 4:13-14) The Word of God endures and the Word of God saves us in many ways. But there is a third observation about the Word of God in this text. Read verse 95-96 - "The wicked are waiting to destroy me, but I will ponder your statutes. To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless." The Word of God perfects One of the things we learn when we investigate the message of the Bible is the high estimate God has of us. Sin and guilt cause us to walk around with a very low opinion of ourselves, and we busy ourselves trying to cover it up and somehow deal with our insecurities. Scoffers who have apparently never read the Bible, at least not with any faith, often think that the Bible is the reason people feel bad. But the Bible only reports the situation of our sin. It is sin that destroys us. It's a bit like blaming our brake trouble on that nasty little red light in our dashboard. Blaming the Bible for our guilt and sin is like trying to eliminate our brake problems by taking an ice pick to the red light. MTV political correspondent Tabitha Soren says: "No matter how secular our culture becomes, it will remain drenched in the Bible. Since we will be haunted by the Bible even if we don't know it, doesn't it make sense to read it?" To read the Bible is to be reminded, as Bill Moyers says, "that what is in us is worth more." Here's what God thinks of you - He willingly sent His own Son to die for you. I ask you, is He for you or against you? Once again the psalmist says that his defense in the face of his enemies' threats is to meditate on God's Word (I will ponder your statutes). Notice what comes next. As he talks about meditating on the truth of the Bible, his thoughts turn to "perfection". He admits what we would all admit as well-there is nothing and no one that is perfect in this world. Yes, of course Jesus incarnate was perfect, but he hadn't come yet at the time of this writing. Then he says in verse 96, "but your commands are boundless." What does he mean by that? Well, he is at least contrasting the Word of God with the rest of what he knows in the world around him. It's all bounded by imperfection, but God's word is boundless. Everything else may be imperfect, but the Word of God is perfect! Your Bible probably cross-references this verse with Psalm 19:7 where David declares, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple." You see, it's not just that the Word of God is perfect in itself, but it makes perfect (strong, wise, etc.) those who hear and obey that Word. You remember, don't you, Psalm 1, where it says that the one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, "He is like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither." (Psalm 1:3) James 1:25 puts it this way: "The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does." The Word of God, understood and obeyed, brings out the best stuff in the person of faith! It is as we are instructed by and obedient to the Bible that we grow toward maturity! (That is, after all, what perfection means when it refers to people being perfect in the Bible--maturity.) The Word of God makes us effective in our service, delivering us from failure. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Listen, this is awesome! The Word of God is saying to you that all you ever wanted to be before God, you can be, if you first come into relationship with Him through Christ, then love and live this Book! God knows what He's put in you, what He designed you to be, what He destined you to do to bring glory to Him-all the stuff you're not doing now, but want to. He knows your weakness because of your sin and guilt, but in Christ He has paid the price for you! He welcomes you into His kingdom, his family. And He hands you this glorious book and says, "Be all that you can be, in my army!" To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless. There are no limits, no bounds to what you can be and do in Him when you live in His grace and the inspiration and direction of His Book. And you're no longer living for temporal trophies and imperfect accomplishments-now you're engaged in things of eternal value. Do you know what the Bible says about the very best works done by the person who has not yet come to Christ? They are as "filthy rags" before God (Isaiah 64:6), worthless in terms of eternity. Do you know what the Bible says about the good works of Christians? "Their deeds will follow them." (Revelation 14:13) God's desire is to "perfect you"-to bring you to spiritual maturity. If you are a Christian, you are in a place where that can happen. Get yourself into the Book that instructs you and challenges you in that direction. Read it, study it, meditate on in, memorize and sing its truths, encounter it daily, obey it faithfully (you have the power of the Holy Spirit to understand it and to obey it!). But if you won't get into the Book, and let the Book get into you, it will be to you as useless as food to a starving person who will not eat it, medicine to a sick person who will not take it, a map to a lost person who declines to use it. Get that Bible off your shelf and into your mind and heart and life! Read it through, read it again, wear it out and get another one! What about your Bible? You bought it ten years ago and haven't even worn to gold edging off the pages yet? Some of the pages still stick together? The binding isn't creased yet because you hardly ever open it? A wise person once said, "A Bible that's falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn't." Born to be battered...the loving book of God. Underline it, circle things, write in the margins, turn down page corners, the more you use it, the more valuable it gets to be. Conclusion Here's what the famed missionary George Muller said: "It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray." Francis Schaeffer said of the Bible, "I don't love this book because it has a leather cover and golden edges. I don't love it as a 'holy book.' I love it because it is God's book. Through it, the Creator of the universe has told us who he is, how to come to him through Christ, who we are, and what all reality is. Without the Bible we wouldn't have anything. It may sound melodramatic, but sometimes in the morning I reach for my Bible and just pat it. I am so thankful for it. If the God who is there had created the earth and then remained silent, we wouldn't know who he is. But the Bible reveals the God who is there; that's why I love it." [Back to Top]