The Clarity of the Bible

Introduction

Have you ever met a conspiracy theorist? Have you ever met a person who always believes that what appears obvious and clear to the rest of us is just a mirage and elaborate cover-up of what has actually taken place? I have a friend that recently accused me of not taking the Bible seriously because I don’t believe that the earth is flat. He said that Bible speaks clearly of the ‘ends of the earth’ and of the sun rising in the morning; thus, we must hold that the earth is flat if we hold that the Bible is true. When I explained to him that these passages were written as figures of speech and from the perspective of man, he said that I had bought the lie. A round earth was no more than a government conspiracy for the purpose of gaining money. He believes that there are secret military bases in Antarctica that are guarding us from discovering, and falling off of, the literal end of the world.

Now, that may sound extreme to us, but it isn’t all that different from the way that I have heard a lot of people relate to the Bible. Just last week, another friend texted me a screenshot of , which says that Lamech died when he was 777 years old, and he wanted to the know the significance of that number. In other words, he wanted to know the mystical side of the story. He wanted to know the allegorical code that might be used to unlock the deep secrets of the Scriptures. By the way, this is how you identify someone who gets their theology from the history channel. We love to believe that there is more to it than meets the eye, and by obsessing over ‘irreverent myths’ we take the emphasis off of what God has said and emphasized instead what God might have said. So, the Bible becomes less a source of authority in our lives and more a source of speculation in our lives. Today, however, we’re going to hear clearly from the Scriptures about how clear the Scriptures are.

God’s Word

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God Speaks with Grace.

v. 11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you.” First, I want you to see that God speaks with grace. Moses is preparing to hand over the reigns of Israel to the next generation so that they can enter and enter the Promised Land. And, he’s explaining to them here how they can enjoy the blessings of their covenant relationship with God and not the curses of their unfaithfulness. God had told them how they might flourish and thrive as his covenant people, and He had told them in a way that wasn’t too hard for them to understand. He had told them in Deuteronomy that the greatest commandment was to love God with all of their hearts and all of the minds and all of the their strength. Simple enough. He had told them that they were to provide for those who were in need and to honor the commitments that they’ve made in marriage. Not exactly string theory. And, here we glimpse the grace and kindness of God. A God that speaks is gracious. For the other peoples of the world during the time of Moses, their gods were impersonal. They were angry, but you didn’t know why they were angry. They were happy, but you didn’t know why they were happy. You experienced prosperity and famine, but none of it every made any sense. You never knew where you stood with the gods. But, Genesis tells a different story. Genesis opens from the opening paragraph with the voice of God. God creates mankind, and then He speaks to him. God initiates the relationship. God tells him how to flourish in relationship to him. God speaks to Moses in the burning bush, and God speaks to his people on Mt. Sinai. God has revealed himself to them so that they can know who He is, who they are, and how they can live with his blessing. This is grace from the beginning. It’s ‘not too hard for (them).’ God has told them where they stand and what He wants and what He gives.

God Wants You to Understand

God’s speaking reveals the goodness of God. Just to be able to say that verse 11 is true is to say that God is wonderful. God has spoken to them ‘today’ and it’s ‘not too hard’ for them. God spoke to mankind through the words of man for the good of man. He didn’t have to say anything ever, and yet He wrote us an entire book. Consider how kind and wonderful it is that God WANTS you to understand. He is far more glorious than the god many people are creating for themselves these days. There are many who say that God is an impersonal, distant power that set into motion raw materials and energy, and then let the clock tick so that over time, and without his intervention, everything has evolved into what you now see. They see God as an original source but nothing else. He’s a clockmaker than winds up the clock and then just lets it tick. But, God’s speech demonstrates his willingness to relate to his creation. God personally created us with the sound of his voice, and then used that very same voice to identify us and love us.

You Don’t Need a Yoda

1:1 “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel” And, one of the coolest things about this passage is who it’s written to. In the very opening verse of Deuteronomy, it says, “These are the words that Moses spoke to ALL Israel.” He says, “All.” That is, these words are written for priests or pastors or religious experts. These words are written to all of God’s people. The Bible is a book that is written to ordinary people in ordinary language. That’s why Paul addresses his letter ‘..the the saints of Ephesus’ and ‘to all the saints in Christ Jesus in Philippi.’ These words are written lovingly, graciously, wonderfully for you. You don’t need a Yoda to tell you what the Bible says. You can read it for yourself. You can study the Bible for yourself. You can understand it through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

God has Said it, and He said It to Me

APPLICATION: Is it any wonder that Psalms, the book of praise in the Bible, starts with “Blessed is the man who delights in the Law of the Lord and meditates upon it day and night”? Love your Bible, because your Bible is proof that God loves you. It’s the proof that God wants you to understand and to know him and to enjoy him forever. Ignore the deceiving voice of our Enemy who, like he did with Adam and Eve, seeks to confuse you about what God has said, undermining the goodness of God in the process. Love your Bible so that when Satan asks, “Did God really say that sex is confined to marriage, did God really say that you are no longer guilty of your worst sins?” You can answer him, “God has said, and He said it to me!”

APPLICATION: Is it any wonder that Psalms, the book of praise in the Bible, starts with “Blessed is the man who delights in the Law of the Lord and meditates upon it day and night”? Love your Bible, because your Bible is proof that God loves you. It’s the proof that God wants you to understand and to know him and to enjoy him forever. Ignore the deceiving voice of our Enemy who, like he did with Adam and Eve, seeks to confuse you about what God has said, undermining the goodness of God in the process. Love your Bible so that when Satan asks, “Did God really say that sex is confined to marriage, did God really say that you are no longer guilty of your worst sins?” You can answer him, “God has said, and He said it to me!”

God Speaks with Clarity

vs. 12-14 “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you.” Next, I want you to see that God speaks with clarity. That is, God makes his word accessible and understandable to us. It isn’t difficult to surmise that our generation is one in the midst of an identity crisis. Psychologists are analyzing dreams and the movements of brainwaves. Self-help books and motivational speakers give us principle after principle after principle to help us attain the life we’ve always dreamed of. Even within the church, it’s not uncommon to hear people today talk about God’s will as though it’s a secret code that you’ll be lucky to crack, as though God is good enough to have a plan for your life but not good enough to let you in on it. And, all of these are begging the same question of, “How can I know my place in this world? How can I know where I fit? How can I find my significance?” This is exactly the type of thinking that Moses is addressing in verses 12-14. The gods of ancient people were very much like the gods of psychology and mysticism and self-esteem today. Life for them was a dark mystery dangling in the heavens just out of reach of mankind, just over the unreachable horizon. But, here is the God of the Hebrews, and He’s unlike any of these other Gods. He doesn’t dangle the truth over our heads like an unreachable carrot. He brings it to us. He doesn’t make us guess at his desire for our lives, He says, “The will of God is....” He brings his word near to us so that we can access it. This is why John is able to refer to Jesus as the Word incarnate and say, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God has used his word to bridge the gap between He and mankind, and Christ Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment.

We Have the Light-switch

Even within the church, it’s not uncommon to hear people today talk about God’s will as though it’s a secret code that you’ll be lucky to crack, as though God is good enough to have a plan for your life but not good enough to let you in on it.

Not Feeling, Illuminating

The world around us is feeling through the darkness, stumbling their way toward death. They are trying every science and every fad to find their way, but it’s all just darkness. But, we’ve been given the light-switch. We have the word of God given to us in a way that illuminates our path. It’s a clear word that clears our path. This is why says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” It’s so clear that says that you’re supposed to teach it to your children because they can understand it. says it ‘imparts wisdom to the simple.’ That is, each of us, regardless of our experience or our age or our IQ can hear and read the Scriptures and be helped by them.

Though we would all realize that the Bible is not equally clear on every subject, what can be certain of is that it is crystal clear when it comes to the essentials, the issues of life and death, condemnation and salvation, who we are and who God is. Perhaps, you can’t discern the difference between supralapsaianism and infralapsarianism, but every person in this room is able to understand profoundly what it means that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

Turn on the Light

APPLICATION: Here’s what Moses is saying and what I want you to see: God has given you everything that you need so that you can live a faithful life for his glory. He has revealed clearly and understandably how you can be an effective and joyful Christian. So, don’t feel your way through the dark; turn on the light. In your walk with God and relationships with one another and questions about gender issues, don’t feel your way through blindly, being blown to and fro by every modern stream of thought. Turn on the light of God’s word so that you can really see.

God Speaks for a Response

v. 14 “It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” Finally, I want you to see that God speaks for a response. That’s the broader context of what Moses is talking about here. Since chapter 28, Moses has been telling them that they are moving toward the realization of two different realities: blessings or curses. And, he’s culminating it in chapter 30 by telling them that, if they are experience God’s cursing and they will, they are without excuse. God has told them how they can know his blessing, and He has told them in a way that they can understand. They must respond through obedience and faithfulness. They must ‘do it’. He isn’t telling them how they can become God’s people. God has already elected Israel. He’s telling them how they can live and thrive and flourish as God’s people under his divine blessing.

You Can Know God’s Will

“in your mouth and in your heart” Here’s what we learn: You can know God’s will so you must do God’s will. This calls for two particular responses. First of all, if God has given you a word that you can know, it’s your responsibility to actually learn it. For his commandments to be ‘in your mouth and in your heart’ implies that you have read them, heard them, meditated upon them, and memorized them. The Scriptures measure our affections. The greatest indictment on modern Christianity is how little of God we’re okay with. The Bible is like an auto-focus lens. With more time and more opportunity, it brings all of your life into greater and greater focus so that you can see how the gospel applies, not only to salvation, but to your worldview and your view of dating and your view of marriage and your understanding poverty.

So, You Must Do God’s Will

“so that you can do it” So, you can know it; thus, you must do it. That’s where it lands in verse 14, isn’t it? If you can understand what God has said, what excuse do you have not to do what God has said? That’s the point. If you can navigate life wisely to the glory of God, what is preventing you from navigating life wise to the glory of God? The Bible is crystal clear on how to be saved and God’s will for sex and how to treat others and how to pray. But, what good is knowing it and understanding it, if you don’t do it? In , Jesus gives us a sobering warning. He says, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you.” You see, Jesus had made the gospel clear through his own presence in Chorazin and Bethsaida, but they had rejected. And, his point is that the more clearly God has revealed his will to you the greater responsibility you will have in the judgement to answer for your unfaithfulness. There is a profound responsibility before God that comes with having the goodness and clarity of his word. What will you do with it?