The Truth of God's Word
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Introduction
Introduction
The greatest gift that God has given you and me is His love and salvation through His SonJesus Christ. The second greatest gift that God has given is His Word that tells us about His love and salvation through Jesus Christ. God orchestrated a plan for generations upon generations to have His word. Listen closely as we define God’s word.
What we have now is a book that is comprised of 66 books in two sections called the Old Testament and the New Testament. It was written of a span of over 1500 years and composed by multiple authors under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Every book points to the redeeming love of God manifested through His Son Jesus. There is no other book like it. Kings have tried to ban it. Conspirators have turned to burn it. Doubters have tried to belittle it. It is still the best selling book of all time and has been translated into more languages than any other piece of literature. It is God’s Word.
There are over 400 times the phrase, “The Word of the Lord,” is mentioned in the Old Testament. The best definition of that Old Testament approach is found in Psalm 119:105. King David, a man after God’s own heart who became a Psalmist said:
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
In the New Testament, the Apostle John said the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
St. Augustine said over 1500 years ago that “The New is in the Old contained; the Old is in the New explained.” The record of God’s Word has been given to us to guide us and direct us. It has been given to us that we may know that which morally right and theologically correct. Yet so many people fail to study it for themselves and make it so many things that is it not. Unfortunately, many so-called teachers have misrepresented it, misunderstood it, and misinformed many because of some wacky teaching they have made up. In fact, many have claimed to have a word of God that directly contradicts the Word of God. In this day and age, we have to be careful.
How do we know what is God’s Word and what is not God’s Word? First we can ask God to clearly let us know. His word declares that He will give us that ability. The Lord told Solomon, the wisest person ever known,
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.
May my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word.
God’s desire for us to receive His word and to understand. It is not some mystery that cannot be solved, but God desires for us to understand and believe His word so we can declare it.
Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
If you are not declaring God’s word, you might want to think about a bit more. You see, a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is also a missionary and a missionary should be a disciple. We should tell what the Lord has done for us! We should be declaring His word.
If you have been a Christian for a hundred years or just a few days, I want to remind you of the importance of being a student of God’s word. In fact, I want help you think about three things today that will help you as you are a student of God’s word.
I want to encourage to look at the case for God’s Word, the character of God’s Word, and ultimately, the Christ of God’s Word.
The Case for God’s Word
The Case for God’s Word
When one is able to build a case for God’s Word, we have to get personal with it. I find myself asking, “what’s in it for me?” The Word of God is full of answers to that very question. First and foremost, we can gain understanding about God and what He thinks of me. What He thinks of me is the same as He thinks of you!
Psalm 139 is one of those passages we can spend hours on looking at how God’s Word describes how He thinks of you and me.
O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
Wait a minute. You mean God knows me? Yes! And He loves you, cares for you and thinks about you so very much!
Psalm 139 tells us that He knows everything about us. In fact, we read in this great chapter, we see that the thoughts God has outnumber the grains of sand. If we put that in context, these thoughts are thoughts that God has about me and you. It does not include the thoughts about creating a sunrise or sunset, or a about the miracles He does day in and day out. This passage in talking about you and me and the amount our God thinks of us!
God uses His word to edify that which He made. You and I can find much edification in God’s word. Only God can truly edify His creation because He has hand-made each one of us for His Glory!
We are edified so we in turn can edify. We find that is God’s word.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
This is acts a case for God’s word in showing us how we should live. We see what God thinks about us and in turn we see how God wants us to live. This is just one small example but God’s word is full of such examples!
When we are edified, we are enlightened. God’s Word gives us enlightenment. The word enlighten means “to give intellectual or spiritual light to; to instruct; or to impart knowledge to.” God’s word makes me smarter. God’s word helps me understand more about my Christian walk. God’s word gives me knowledge.
He is constantly giving us insight in to Who He is, what He is all about, and how He loves us so much.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
In other words, once you see that the Lord and His word can be tasted and tasted good, you cannot allow yourself to go back! Why do we have so many miserable Christians in this world? They have not understood this concept of enlightenment! However, when we receive enlightenment, we most definitely will be encouraged!
How many times in your life dear Christian has God’s Word encouraged you? This week, I have done a wedding, helped with 2 families that are grieving, helped a few families that have had medical issues, and helped with one funeral yesterday and will help with another later today. It is an example of life. There has been a joyous celebration, fear from the result of unknown in medical conditions, and overwhelming grief. One common thing that has helped in all those hopefully has been the encouragement from scripture.
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The edification, enlightenment and encouragement I receive are integral parts to make a case for God’s Word.
The Character of God’s Word
The Character of God’s Word
I am fascinated by the many things that Jesus declared about His Father. I am also fascinated by the many prayers we have recorded of Jesus talking with His Father. However, my charismatic side shouts and raises my hands when Jesus prays and makes a declaration about His Father! One such is found in John 17:17. In the midst of this beautiful prayer, Jesus says this:
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
In this short sentence, Jesus uses the word truth with two different statements. Sanctify them by the Truth and Your Word is Truth. One of the beautiful realities of the Character of God’s Word is that is is truth. We see that word often in scripture as well as two others that we use quite a bit. In addition to truth, we also see true and trustworthy. So, what is the difference?
As a noun, true is a state of being in alignment.
As an adjective, true is conforming to the actual state of reality or a fact.
Truth is a universal state of being that cannot change.
Trustworthy is exactly trust that is worthy. It is deserving of trust and therefore reliable.
Let’s look at how this plays out in scripture.
All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.
If God’s words are true, then we know that His character is also true. He means what He says and says what He means. This makes His word reliable.
Next, comes this idea that if the character trait of true never changes, then we can see the word of God as truth, a universal state that cannot change. Ephesians 1:13 and Colossians 1:5 both call the word of truth the Gospel. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the story of Jesus and how He loves us and forgives us from our sin by His sacrificial death on the cross and the resurrection from the grave.
The True Word of God gives us the word of truth, and therefore it is trustworthy.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The Christ of God’s Word
The Christ of God’s Word
We have already said that every book of the Bible in some form or fashion points to Christ. The Word of God is Sovereign and so is His Son.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
One thing I have learned, is that sovereignty is that the sovereignty of the Christ of God’s word, never changes because He never changes.
So a truth that comes from God’s word is Hebrews 13:8:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
The Christ of God’s word is sovereign and our savior.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
It is more than just a feel good story. The truth of God’s Word shows that because of His great love, Christ came to be our savior.
So think with me about this concluding thought. If the case for God’s word helps be edified, enlightened and encouraged, and the character of God’s word is true because it is based on truth and can be seen as trustworthy, then the Christ in God’s word is sovereign, our savior, and our security.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
But we learn about it through the truth of God’s word.
And when we read Romans 8:37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We can count on it as truth!