Sermon
#103 Series: Isaiah
Title: “The Word of Our God.”
Text: Isaiah 40:8
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:1-16,
97-104)
Subject: The Inspiration, Authority,
and Value of Holy Scripture
Date: Sunday Evening – February 2, 1992 (AM)
Introduction:
I
want to talk to you tonight about “The Word of Our God.” The Lord God has graciously
given us a Book which is able to make us wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus (II Tim. 3:15).
By reading this Book, the Bible, “The Word of Our God,” we may learn
what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live comfortably before
God, and how to die in peace.
Yet I
fear that many a great many who profess faith in Christ, use the Bible very
little. Few read it with
regularity. Fewer still study it with
care. Fewer still seek to govern their
lives by it. One of my great concerns
as your pastor is that I inspire you to read, study, and live by “The Word of
Our God.”
With
that object in mind, shortly after the New Year began, I started working on a
Bible reading program that would be helpful to us all in the daily reading of
the Holy Scriptures. You will have the
program given to you each week in the bulletin this year. Hopeful, I can have it printed and ready for
public distribution by the beginning of next year.
Tonight,
I want, by the help of God the Holy Spirit, to inspire in our hearts both a
reverence for and an intense desire to know and live by “The Word of Our God.”
Proposition: Everyone who cares for his own soul, the souls of
others, and the glory of God, ought to value the Word of God highly, study it
regularly, and make himself thoroughly acquainted with its contents.
Let
me see if I can inspire in your heart a true reverence for and an earnest
desire to know “The Word of Our God.”
7 Plain Statements About “The Word
of Our God.”
I. There has never been a book,
in the history of the world, written the way “The Word of Our God” was
written- (II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:2.
God
himself taught the writers of Holy Scripture what to say. God himself put into their minds the
thoughts, words, and ideas recorded upon these pages. God himself directed their pens, as they wrote the words of this
Holy Book. So, when you read the Bible,
you are not reading the thoughts and words of poor, sinful men, but the very
word of our God! When you hear the
Scriptures read, you are not hearing the opinions of mortals. You are hearing “The Word of Our God!”
II. There is no book in existence
which reveals and teaches those things which are revealed and taught in “The
Word of Our God,” things that are absolutely necessary.
Many
books are written, with many purposes, to teach many things. But the only Book that is absolutely true,
that was written for absolutely pure purposes, and reveals that which is
absolutely essential to our souls is the Bible.
Time
and space will not allow me to show you all the many things which are found
only in the Bible. Let me just sketch
out an outline, a very broad outline, of its treasures.
A. Only in the Bible is the Lord
our God revealed to men.
B. Only the Word of Our God
reveals God’s great purpose of grace and plan of salvation by the sacrifice of
his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
· The Covenant of Grace.
C. Only the Word of Our God unravels
the mystery of God’s Providence (Rom. 8:28).
The only satisfactory answer to the
questions which all men and women make about why this thing or that has
happened is God’s providence, as it is revealed in this Book.
D. Only the Bible shows us the
origin of man, the origin of sin, and the source of all evil in the world.
The Word of God alone shows us that man is a fallen creature, out of whose heart all wickedness proceeds. The Bible alone reveals the remedy for man’s sin- The Cross of Christ!
E. The only place where the
realities of eternity are revealed is Word of Our God.
· What happens at death?
Other books speak of these things. But the Bible alone reveals them. And all that is written about them in other places is either borrowed from or attempts to discredit “The Word of Our God.”
III. No book in the world has produced such astounding effects
upon humanity as the Bible, “The Word of Our God.”
A. This is the Book whose
doctrines turned the world upside down in the days of the Apostles.
With the Bible in their hands and the Holy Spirit in their hearts, in a few generations the people of God changed the face of society and the world.
· Pagan temples were turned into ruins.
· Moral principles were lifted between men.
· Womanhood was lifted from servitude to honor.
B. This is the Book that turned
Europe upside down during the Reformation.
When darkness covered the earth 500 years ago, when papacy had spread heathen idolatry and moral corruption everywhere, it was the translation of the Bible into the language of the people that broke the arms of Rome and threw off the yoke of bondage.
· The Bible Alone!
· Christ Alone!
· Faith Alone!
Luther in Germany, Calvin in Geneva, Wycliff in England,
and Knotts in Scotland.
C. This is the Book which set the
course of our nation in its beginning.
I do not pretend that all our founding fathers were believers. Many of them were, in fact, Deists. But it was, in God’s providence, the regard of the early American settlers for the Word of God that set the course of this country.
This is the Book to which
America and
all the civilized world is indebted for its best, most praiseworthy, and useful
institutions. The fact is, light or
darkness, morality or immorality, godliness or superstition, liberty or
despotism, good laws or bad, abound in proportion as the Bible is honored or
despised.
1.
Our
earliest and best colleges were schools train men in the
knowledge of Holy Scripture- Harvard –Princeton –Yale.
2.
The laws of this land were established,
originally, in conformity to this Book.
·
Honesty
·
Morality
·
Human
Relationship’s
·
Crime
and its Punishment
3.
Every
humane, charitable institution, established to care for the
poor, the sick, and the homeless, arose only after the influence of Holy
Scripture upon mankind.
You will search the histories of the world in vain to find one mention of these institutions in the Gentile world prior to the spread of the gospel of Christ. Neither Rome nor Athens provided for the outcasts of their people until Christ was preached among them.
Illus: The Atheists at Harvard. The Blasphemer in the Hospital.
The Infidel in a past Home.
IV. There is no book in the world
that can do so much for all who read it rightly as “The Word of Our God.”
A.
Is
the Instrument by which Sinners are Born of God (James 1:18; I Pet.
1:23).
B.
Is
Able to Make you Wise unto Salvation, through faith in Christ
(II Tim. 3:15).
C.
Is
the Means by which Believers are Established in the Faith.
This Book is….
·
A
Cleansing Book (Ps. 119:9).
·
A
Sanctifying Book (John 17:17).
·
An
Instructing Book for Righteousness (II Tim. 3:16).
·
A
Soul Furnishing Book (II Tim. 3:17).
The
man who has the Word of God and the Spirit of God in his heart has everything
needful to make him truly wise.
V. The Word of God is the only
rule of faith and practice for the church of God- (Isa. 8:20).
A.
Our
Doctrine Must Be The Doctrine of The Bible.
B.
Our
Ordinances of Divine Worship must be the Ordinances of the
Bible.
C.
Our
Rules of Life and Conduct must be the Rules of the Bible.
VI. This Book, the Word of Our
God, is The Book which all true believers have always believed, loved, and
lived upon.
This is our milk, our bread, and our mea. All who are born of God delight in the revealed will of God (Ps. 1:2).
· Job- “I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).
· David- “Oh, how I love thy law!” (Ps. 119:97). “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
God’s people love his Word!
Illus: The African Chieftain- Reading all day long.
The Converted
Tribesman- “It is never old and never cold.”
The
Old Slave Learning to Read- “I will never give it up till I die. It is worth all the labor just to read that
one verse: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”
VII. This Book, the Bible, The Word
of Our God, is the only book in all the world that can comfort a man in the
last hours of his life.
Illus: Voltaire’s Son- “There’s nothing to hang on
to!”
Voltaire and Paine, The infamous infidels died in
misery, bitterness, rage, and despair.
Harold Mountain-
“Preacher, it’s good to know now that it’s all under the blood!”
There
is no book in the world like the word of our God.
Application:
1.
Some
of you never read the Bible at all- You have no regard for God, his
Word, or your immortal souls. But one
day, you shall be judged by this Book.
2.
Some
of you who are believers read the Word of God very
little.
1. You get little comfort from it in time of need.
2.
You
will never be established in the truth.
3.
Your
life is a long, sad history of mistakes made because of your ignorance of the
Word of God.
3.
Are
you willing to read the Bible? Do you
want to profit from it? Then let me
give you Some suggestions that will help you to profit by reading “The Word of
our God.”
a.
Begin reading the Word of God this
very day.
b.
Read
the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.
c.
Read
the Scriptures with a simple, childlike faith and humility.
d.
Read
the Word with a spirit of obedience and self-application.
e.
Read
God’s Word every day.
f.
Read
the Whole Bible and read it in an orderly way- “All Scripture is profitable!”
g.
Read
the Word of God fairly and honestly- As a general rule, a verse means what it
appears to mean.
h.
Read
the Bible with Christ constantly in view.
A poor, believing woman, once responded to the assaults of an infidel upon her faith this way- “I am no scholar. I cannot argue like you. But I know that honey is honey, because it leaves a sweet taste in my mouth. And I know that the Bible is God’s Book, because of the taste it leaves in my heart.”
I
send you home with this word of exhortation.
1.
Read
this Book!
2.
Believe
this Book!
3.
Obey
this Book!
4.
Live
by this Book!