The Preciousness Of Our Bible
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning Church! And I mean that, it is an absolutely beautiful morning. This week I got a text that there was someone who gave their life to Jesus, and I gotta tell you I was on cloud 9 - if that doesn’t get you excited that God is working in our church to bring others to Him then I don’t know what will.
And then a couple of days later I had lunch with Scotty - and I have some exciting yet sad news to bring you today - the sad thing is that Scotty will be leaving us here at Harmony, but the exciting thing is that he’s been called to the church where he’s been filling the pulpit at these past few weeks and is now going to be the pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Rolla, and I’m excited because we’re a sending church and we’re going to be praying for Scotty and we’re still going to be working with Scotty to support him.
Now Scotty will be back because we want to send him off right and we want to have an opportunity to pray over him and his family as they follow God’s call on their lives.
And I want to share that I’m excited about today’s message, The Preciousness of our Bible, because it talks about just that - bringing others to Christ, Discipleship, our lives in relationship with the Father, how we interact with the Word, and I’m super excited to bring this message to you today - but first let’s pray.
Now for the past couple of weeks we’ve been discussing God’s promise of rest. But how do we enter that rest that chapter 3 and the earlier part of chapter 4 talks about?
The simple answer is that we read God’s Word, but we can’t just read it like it’s some other book on the shelf.
Dr. H.W. Griffith Thomas, a theologian from the late 1800s and early 1900s once said that the the entire Bible deserves our careful consideration, our constant meditation, and a complete application to our lives.
The writer of Hebrews was concerned that we see the importance of the Word of God. The first four chapters all deal with the supreme Word of God. When God speaks, whether through the written Word in the Bible, or in Jesus, the living Word, it is different from the words of man. In our passage today, the inspired writer describes graphically the difference between His Word and all other words. Hebrews 4:12-13:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
All through the book of Hebrews we are exhorted, we are strongly encouraged, to give attention to the Word of God.
Israel failed to pay close attention to all that God had said. They failed to believe God’s Word and the consequences were unforgiving. An entire generation died in the desert due to failing to pay attention.
And it’s not just that one instance -
If you’re going through the Bible in a year with us, we’re in Judges, and it’s just - there’s a Judge that God raises up, they’re following God’s Word for a bit, then that judge dies and Israel turns to another God or some other thing to worship and they fall into their own sin and the destruction that brings and God bails them out again with another judge and the cycle just repeats itself - ultimately through all of the judges, all of the kings, and all the way up to captivity.
There I just gave you the one paragraph version of Judges through about 2 Chronicles.
And that’s the thing - we know that Romans 10:17 tells us
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
And we receive the Word of Christ through our Bible today. And because we know the Word of God is the word of God, we can know 4 absolute truths from these 2 verses. The first truth we know is that
1. THE WORD OF GOD IS POWERFUL. V. 12a
1. THE WORD OF GOD IS POWERFUL. V. 12a
Hebrews 4:12a
For the word of God is living and active...
The word of God is alive - it’s living, it’s always working and motivating the human heart. Therefore God’s Word of rest that we have been speaking of for the past few weeks is not a dead and meaningless promise; it is living and full of life to the heart of the believer.
The written Word of God introduces us to the living Word of God.
The Word of God will not let a soul who hears it ignore God’s promise of rest.
To be living is to be quick or alive, and that means animated life. The Word of God is alive and it is life giving. Living is a present active word, indicating continuous life - it’s not lived or will live, but living. The Bible is continuously alive. The Bible is every bit as applicable today as it was when it was inspired and written. Long ago when these authors were inspired by the living God through the Holy Spirit wrote the Word of God these words were living power to them in their generation.
We look around ourselves at our world today and think if only those writers could see the cesspool of sin and corruption that we have today - folks they had the same stuff back then, maybe even more so. Sure technology has sped some things up as far as how fast that sin can travel by network or car or plane or whatever, but the sins of today were still the sins of then.
So here we are, a couple thousand years later, and we read these same words that were written in their time and they are still relevant as if they were composed this morning. The Bible is the eternal Word of God.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
The Word of God is living and active - it’s powerful, it’s energizing. The Word of God brings activity where there has been inactivity, it’s productive.
It’s the Word of God living through you that brings people to that relationship with Jesus.
I don’t have statistical data or anything for this, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most people do not come to Christ because someone has a physical Bible on them.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and that means that our walk with Christ involves knowing the Word and being able to share with others. This sharing of Christ doesn’t have to be perfect word for word sharing of the Gospel - do you know enough of the principles and context of the verses? Good, you’re probably going to quote scripture without even knowing the book, chapter, and verse. And besides, with all of the translations out there now you probably will hit one just by knowing that information.
Are you growing in Christ through discipleship? Are you meeting with other Christian brothers and sisters through individual one on one study or group study?
Because we’re not always going to have the physical Word of God on us, but if we are believers in Christ and we are actively treating the Word of God as an active and relevant to today living document, we’re going to immerse ourselves in it and allow it to live through us - that’s where the faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God comes through at - it comes through you knowing the Word well enough to share it it’s living and active in you.
2. THE WORD OF GOD IS PIERCING. v12b
2. THE WORD OF GOD IS PIERCING. v12b
Hebrews 4:12b
…sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow...
It’s a principle we see elsewhere in Scripture as well, look at
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
And that term sharper - it means that it can cut. It won’t leave you alone it’s penetrating and convincing. If the Word is heard you are going to feel it.
Remember it’s the sword of the Spirit - God causes us to feel through His Living Word, not entertainment not me, not you - we’re all just messengers.
Piercing to the division - it’s going through the heart and it’s hitting the soul and spirit of man -
Listen, until one is saved, their spirit is dead and entombed in their soul. The soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. In the fall of Adam, the spirit of man was separated from God, and death resulted. When the Word of God penetrates our souls it divides the spirit of man from the tomb of his own soul. Once that takes place the spirit of God rules the spirit of man and a takeover of the soul and body becomes possible. This is a picture of what happens on the inside when we are saved and begin to walk in a relationship with God.
And it pierces more than just that because as we are living it pierces of joints and marrow as well and that speaks of the external and internal work of the Word of God.
Because the lost person - those that don’t have that relationship that is making them a new creation - the lost person is world conscious. They are going to focus on the things of this world the things the world focuses on, how much money I have, how much success I have, fame, or other things like drugs or sex, sinful desires that are a part of how they view the world.
The saved person, the one who is new in Christ, they’re going to be Word conscious, and as a result they are going to focus on things that are beyond this world and beyond this life and focus on the eternal - their relationship with Christ, relationship with other believers, and even the relationship others need with Christ because we experience an eternal freedom that the world just doesn’t see.
And that relationship with God that focuses on the eternal is because we have God’s Word that brings us closer to Him.
Our convictions are formed in our lives as children of God as a result of the piercing nature of God’s Word.
But how do we deal with other believers who don’t adhere to our convictions - those that are walking is sins that we are convicted of?
We’re not going to read all of it today for time’s sake, but when you get home today read through Romans 14. In it you’ll find that in verses 1-4 we’re told not to pass judgement on those who have different convictions from our own,
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Verses 5 thru 8 tells us that our convictions are to the Lord and developed out of a sense of obedience to Him - not to me.
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
And then in verse 23 we’re told that we must be true to the convictions that the Lord places on our hearts and follow His guidance and not that of others.
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
In other words, our convictions don’t cross over to other people. But we need to be following the convictions that God’s Word places on us as unique individuals and obey those convictions or we’re walking in sin.
So how can we be sure of our salvation? How can we be convinced of the salvation of others?
To start, we have to be exposed to God’s Word. If you aren’t reading it, you’re not allowing that piercing sword to do it’s job. And sooner or later that sword, the Word of God, will find you out if you’re just pretending to be a Christian.
Just because your convictions are not my convictions doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t share a Heavenly bond. Just because your convictions aren’t my convictions doesn’t mean that we don’t see that renewal or that change because number 3:
3. THE WORD OF GOD IS PROBING. v12c
3. THE WORD OF GOD IS PROBING. v12c
Hebrews 4:12c
…and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Discerning, critically looking at the heart. The Bible is the infallible critical look we need. The Word of God probes into the inner recesses of our being and explores all our motives.
And it’s not always comfortable.
How many of you like doctors?
Doctors will probe around every time you go to see them. And every time I needed a surgery it was probing in ways that just seemed to cause more pain - moving my shoulder a certain way, or my ankle, pressing in places and asking if it hurts - and you’re just like stop it already, I already know what hurts.
And we go to see doctors to make it feel better, but this probing is necessary, albeit uncomfortable, for us to live healthy lives here.
The Word of God is a probing discoverer. And it isn’t always comfortable, in fact it usually isn’t - much like those doctor visits. And it is painful at times and just makes you want to squirm sometimes.
You know those times where you sometimes feel that the pastor is speaking directly to you? That’s not the pastor - chances are I don’t even know what’s going on, I’m not that good. The Word of God is revealing your thoughts to yourself, and your motives.
God’s Word is going to illuminate those dark corners of your life and some of us need to clean house because those cockroaches and rats are going to scatter.
Thoughts and intentions of the heart - other people see what we do, but God’s Word examines and reveals why we do what we do.
4. THE WORD OF GOD IS PERSONAL. v 13
4. THE WORD OF GOD IS PERSONAL. v 13
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
This speaks of what the Word of God will show me. And what it will show me is me.
God’s Word is referred to as a sword remember, a dagger or a short sword.
Exposed - the Bible is a sword that causes us to stand eye-to-eye with God, we are fully exposed to Him.
And this is a living sword. The physical sword stabs living people and makes them dead, but this sword, this sword is the Spiritual Sword that stabs people and makes them alive.
When the lost comes under the scrutiny of God’s Word, they will be unavoidably face to face with the perfect truth about God and about themselves.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
The Bible says several things about the Bible being living and powerful, it says that the Word has
1. Awareness
The Word of God is the piercing Sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6:17 and it strikes and arouses an awareness of our immortal spirit and discerns our thoughts and motives in Hebrews 4:12 as we saw earlier.
2. Trueness
The Word of God is the reflecting mirror of life in James 1:22-25
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
It reflects and exposes the kind of person we are.
3. Pureness
The Word is the burning fire of conviction
Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
It burns and consumes the heart, the conscience of men.
4. Hardness
The Word is the pounding hammer which crushes the hardness of man’s heart.
5. Deadness
The word of God is the reproducing seed of the new birth
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Man is spiritually born again by hearing and believing the Word we saw that earlier in Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6. Leanness
The Word is the nourishing food of the believer
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
7. Darkness/Blindness
The Word of God is the guiding light of the believer
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
8. Cleanliness
The Bible is the cleansing water of sanctification.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
God washes and cleanses His own, His Church, that capital C Church, through the use of the Word. We usually use Ephesians 5 for husbands and wives, but look at it from another perspective.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Christ gave Himself for you, and He did it that He might cleanse you through washing us with the Word - We must be faithful to Christ who loves us and is faithful to us, now we must be faithful to Him and wash ourselves in His Word.
Let’s pray.
Father God thank you for Your Word. Thank you piercing through our hearts and souls and Lord we ask that you convict us to lean on your Word so that we can see Your promise and for our church to continue to grow and see your Glory all around us.
As you keep praying today, I want you to really take a moment and just think of how you’ve been interacting with God’s Word. Have you been reading the Word like it’s some of the other books you have, as fiction or history, or have you been allowing God to work through your reading and are you growing closer to Him? Have you allowed the Word to penetrate all that you are and have you given it all to Him? Are you experiencing God’s Word, that love letter to your spirit, or are you just pretending, going through the motions? Today, give it all to Him. You can come forward, there are people who will pray with you if you like, or you can simply pray by yourself right where you are, but today, give it all to the only one who can lead you to the promised land.
Father, speak to our hearts. Guide and direct us with your Word to Your rest. Let Your Word shine through our everyday lives and Lord help us to be eternally minded when interacting with others.
And as you remain in prayer there are some here that may have realized that they don’t have a relationship with Christ. The bible tells us that if you don’t have Christ as your Lord, you are lost and bound by this world and Satan. And he is telling you that you’re ok, you don’t need Jesus - but the problem is that you can never be good enough or do enough to save you. But right now you feel like the Word of God has spoken to you today and you feel like there’s something missing. And if that’s you, there is something missing, and that something is Jesus. God has spoken to you today and He’s telling you that you need the Savior, and Jesus is that Savior.
And there are those of you who Christ desires to reveal Himself to today. So today, call on His name, Jesus, the name above all other names, the Son of God who to save you became your sin on the cross, shedding His blood, dying for you and being raised to life afterwards to have victory over sin and death so that if you will call on His name you will be saved. That’s why you’re here.
If that’s you, if God is calling to you to draw into a relationship with Jesus, answer Him today. If you don’t know how it’s as simple as ABC. A- admit to God that you are a sinner, B-believe that Jesus came to redeem you through that sinless life, death, and resurrection, and C- confessing Christ as Lord and Savior with your mouth, choosing to follow Him. if you don’t know how to start, you can simply pray something like this:
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. Lord I believe that you came to free me from the bonds of sin and death and Lord I thank you for what only you could do. Lord I choose you, to follow in all that you are and to walk in the Spirit in a relationship with you, and to spend eternity with you. In Jesus name, amen.
Father, thank you again for this body, and Father as you are speaking to those here today, I pray that we will follow you where you lead, that we will see you revealed, and that we will follow in your presence today.
If you need someone to pray with you just come forward someone will come to pray with you. Don’t delay, don’t let this moment pass you by, answer His call today, come as He leads, as the music plays softly for a moment, this is your moment.