God's Word is Understandable

Good morning church! So good to see you this morning!

If you are new here, we are pumped you’re here! We hope you feel welcome and part of this big crazy family from your first time with us! We do have a gift we would love to give all of our guests today! If you will, please take that card from the back of the seat in front of you, fill it out, and drop it by Next Steps in the lobby on your way out, they will hook you up with a free t shirt, just for worshiping with us today! You can’t beat that deal!

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 55. We will be there shortly.

Next Sunday is October 31st. People all over will be dressing up in costumes, going out asking for candy, and some may look for tricks instead of treats. I get asked sometime, “What is a Christian suppose to do about Halloween?” I would argue that it is not the time for us to lock our door and keep our light off. It is a great night for you to meet your neighbors and have conversations. So, stock up this week on candy, keep the porch light on, and meet some people! Your kids may even get to meet some special characters here at church next Sunday morning!!!!

But the 31st holds another special meaning for us Christians. On that day in 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses began circulating and sparked what would later be called the Protestant Reformation. I will actually walk through some of that story next week if you are unfamiliar. It’s really crazy to see where Christianity had gotten to in those days!

One of the most frustrating things for the reformers was the way in which the Catholic Church had convinced the people that God’s Word was super complicated and the common man could not understand it. So, the only major Bible of the day was a Latin translation that only the most learned leaders in the church could read.

But Luther and others began to help Christians see that God’s Word was for everyone! This led to translations of the Bible in common every day German, and later English. The Bible was now BACK in the hands of all the people to read!

Just as it was not only for the elite Christians in 1517 to understand God’s Word, the same is true today! If you think that it takes a pastor to make sense of the Bible and you will just never be able to read it like Kenny does, or like I do… STOP THAT IDEA RIGHT NOW!

Today, I want to show you that the Reformers were right! Bible is clear. It is understandable!

Let me read verses 8-11, I’ll pray and then we will dive into this and several other passages.

Isaiah 55:8–11 CSB

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

Pray

God makes it clear at the beginning of this passage that He is working on a different wavelength than we are, right? Isaiah uses an interesting measurement to describe that separation. This is going to be similar to our convo two weeks ago, but hang in there with me...

1. God is not understandable Man cannot understand God

Isaiah 55:9 CSB

“For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Something you may not know about the Hebrew language that Isaiah originally wrote in… Heaven is the same word as SKY. And EARTH is the same word as land. So, for example, Genesis 1:1 could be translated as “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth OR He created the skies and the land.”

So often we can think of EARTH as our planet. But that was not a term in biblical history yet! Earth simply meant the land or dirt. That’s a good example of how we read the Bible through our own lens so easily and struggle to read it in context.

If you find that interesting, come this Wednesday night to groups! Our group leaders will be walking through good practices of how to read the Bible this way.

So, why does Isaiah use skies and land here?

This would have been the biggest measurement they had to work with! He could have said as high as Temple sits above the city. That would have been pretty big difference. Or as high as Mt. Sinai is above the surrounding land… But he said as high as the heavens or skies are above the land! This means the gap between God’s ways and thoughts and humans ways and thoughts is as big as anything can be!

Then, Isaiah takes this measuring stick and drives home a really cool point for us!

2. God’s Word has a purpose

Isaiah says, though the skies are infinitely higher than the land, the skies do interact with the land. That’s through Rain. And that rain has a purpose right?

Isaiah 55:10 CSB

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

The rain doesn’t come down touch the earth and then go right back up in the sky! You may argue with Isaiah, “Well, actually, have you heard of evaporation?” No. He hadn’t! That wasn’t studied and defined until the 1700s, so Isaiah had no idea about that, but notice that what he says doesn’t conflict with it either!

He is simply making the point that the rain has an immediate purpose of saturating the earth for the purpose of helping plants grow.

Now, with that in place, let’s see the analogy...

Isaiah 55:11 CSB

so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

In the same way as that, my word (the rain) that comes from my mouth (in the skies) will accomplish what it is sent for (to the earth)! God says that his Word does not span that huge gap without a purpose.

And we’ve talked about that purpose the last couple weeks. God gives his word so that we can know him. We need it for that purpose! And it is enough and sufficient for that purpose.

But this passage takes it a step further! God says that not only is there a purpose, but his word WILL accomplish that purpose!

I will argue that what God is saying is that...

God’s Word can be understood

Look at the verse again...

Isaiah 55:11 CSB

so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

God’s Word is sent to us for a purpose and that purpose can and will be accomplished! How can that be accomplished if we can’t understand it, right? I know this seems like a simple mental connection here, but the big question on my heart for myself this week and the question on my heart for us right now is this...

Do we believe God’s Word is understandable?

Because I would bet that some of you are kind of rolling your eyes right now! Hey, every time I open the Bible, I get confused and don’t have a clue what I’m reading.

Listen, the kicker here is that we are not saying the Bible is EASY to understand from beginning to end. We are simply saying it is UNDERSTANDABLE.

We are reading ancient letters, teachings, narratives, and a law code that were written in a different era, a different culture, and different languages than us. Because of this TRIFECTA of confusion, I believe we can say with confidence...

God’s Word may be hard to understand

This is not just from experience. We can actually see this truth in the Bible itself!

2 Peter 3:15–16 CSB

Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

Check this out! Peter says, “Yeah. That Paul can be hard to understand sometimes!” And all God’s people said, AMEN!

But Peter does not say, “We have no idea what he is saying. He simply says that it is HARD to understand. And listen, the absolute truth that God’s word is understandable is not diminished by the idea that it takes effort to understand it.

I want to show you a few reasons why God’s Word can feel impossible to understand for us when it’s not really that way...

A. It is thoughtful while we expect plain

We want God’s Word to be simple and easy to understand. We want it to be PLAIN. I should be able to read it and know exactly what it is saying without a lot of thought!

But is that really a good thing? You know the easiest books to understand in my house? Cardboard books for preschoolers.

The Best Mouse Cookie.

Are we willing to sacrifice the beauty of the depth of God’s Word for this simplicity? Do we really want a cardboard preschool version of the Bible?

I SAY NO! I praise God for the parts of the Bible that are confusing to me! Because they make me think!

Psalm 119:15 CSB

I will meditate on your precepts and think about your ways.

You see? God’s Word has always been designed to be studied, not simply read! But this is not what we often want because we are busy with lots of other things and we need God’s Word to fit into this really small part of our schedule. We want to use a pressure cooker to study God’s Word instead of notebook, pen and highlighters.

And I’m guilty of this too! Church! Your pastor struggles here too!

But we have got to be willing to slow down and STUDY God’s Word with some regularity! Only then will we be able to understand it!

Psalm 119:27 CSB

Help me understand the meaning of your precepts so that I can meditate on your wonders.

B. It is spiritual while we only want physical.

God’s Word makes it clear that it takes spiritual eyes to understand the Bible. We can’t just come to it in our own way. We have to be led by the Spirit as we study and hear God’s Word.

1 Corinthians 2:9–12 CSB

But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived— God has prepared these things for those who love him. Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

God reveals these things, yes, in his word, but through the work of the spirit. Verse 12 says that the Spirit who comes from God to us is given SO THAT we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. Without the Spirit of God, his word will always be confusing and we will miss the major movements of it!

This is why Jesus would say as he taught on occasion, “He who has ears let him hear.” Those of you who have the ability to understand, listen to me!

We have to be willing to think as we read the Bible, and also understand that there is a spiritual component that cannot be missed either.

I found this quote in an article this week on this attribute of God’s Word. Let me share it with you...

Clarity is not the same as simplicity, and not all texts are as simple and straightforward as others. Yet in the context of the whole of Scripture, with greater familiarity with the whole, and by comparing the difficult texts with the simpler texts, we can be confident that Scripture speaks clearly and that those who come to the Bible with faith in the goodness of God, with humble prayerfulness and a willingness to repent and obey the word he has given us, will come to understand it.

As you think about all the differences between where we are here in 2021 and the culture in which God’s Word was written, it can be a little overwhelming. Because of those differences we have to be careful in our interpretation. Again, talking about that on Wednesday. But don’t be overwhelmed by this. God wants you to know him. And just as the rain and snow fall to the earth and saturate the land so that it brings forth produce, so God’s Word has come to us to do the same! He will help us in this!

Church, I have said this a bunch of times, because we have been talking about God’s Word so much, but LET’S REPENT of our lack of love for God’s Word. Let’s repent of our frustration with God’s Word and the times we blamed God for giving us a book we couldn’t understand, because we can!

Today let’s worship God that not only did he give us his word that was needed for us to know him. That word he gave us was sufficient to know him. But it is also UNDERSTANDABLE! Guys, this is a big deal! The God of the Universe who is far above everything we think or know has spoken to us in a way that we can understand! That God deserves our worship, AMEN?

One of the keys to understanding God’s Word is knowing the key theme, the purpose behind it all! God created mankind to reign and rule alongside him. We see that in the garden with Adam and Eve. But we butchered that plan by sinning. Now, humans fight to rule over one another and often look more like wild animals in our sin. And just as Cain after killing his brother like an animal in the field, he was removed from God’s presence.

We have no answer for that! But God’s Word teaches from the beginning pages that God was working a larger plan. One that would bring restoration of the original order! It would not only bring humans back into God’s presence, it would allow them to eventually rule and reign creation just as God intended.

That plan was sending Jesus Christ to live the perfect life that no man or woman had ever or would ever pull off. While he was still a young man, he was put to death through crucifixion, nailed on a cross to die. The Bible teaches us that all the sin of humanity was placed within Christ’s body and he died. In his death, he took the separation that our sin brings. He felt the pain, the loneliness, the brokenness. Jesus died IN OUR PLACE, so that our sins could be forgiven.

But God didn’t leave Jesus in the grave. God raised him up on the third day. Just as Christ was born again, so we too can go from dead in sin to alive in Christ! And with that new life, we are called to follow the example of Jesus and walk with the God that we were separated from. We are called to assist in the bringing of God’s kingdom here on earth! Becoming a Christian is not just about the future. It’s about here and now! The Bible talks much more about living in Christ here than it does an afterlife.

Today, you can