Psalms 119. Now, we've been looking
at this study of the Word of God, the study on the Word of
God, in the Word of God, the study of the Word of God, and
we've looked at quite a few things about the Word of God. We've
seen that it's called different things throughout scripture.
book of the law, the law of the Lord, scriptures, the word of
God, the word of life. Uh, we've seen that it's a descriptive
whenever we say the word of God, it could be describing the old
Testament law. It could be God's revealed plan.
Uh, it could be completed. So, uh, completed revelation.
It could be the gospel could be the messages of Christ. Um,
then last week we looked at, uh, um, The word of God is perfect. We've seen that it was pure.
We've seen that it was restraining, that it was sure, that it's the
truth, that it endures, that it's effectual, that it's sanctifying
or cleansing. It's harmonious with itself.
It was inspired by God himself, or it was inspired, breathed
out by God himself to those who wrote it. And then it is living
and active. Now today, let's look at a few
things that we find that the Bible can be compared to. A lot
of times the Bible uses metaphors and similes and metaphors. Jesus used parables, you know,
in the New Testament, a lot of times Jesus would teach a parable,
and that parable that he taught would be a story to illustrate,
a story of natural things to illustrate some things of spiritual
nature. Well, a lot of times in the scriptures,
we find that there are metaphors or similes of one word that describes
another word or is used to describe another word. And so if I would
say, man, that man was a Hulk, the word Hulk would be a metaphor
for a guy. We, of course, our minds all
race back. Of course, if you raised up comic
books like me, the Hulk is a, you know, big green monster,
you know, that's real muscley, you know, and strong. And so
whenever we say that guy was a Hulk, we think, well, he must
be a big, burly, strong man. Okay, so our mind is taken by
using figurative language to describe something. And so God's
word also has names for it that is figurative, that gives us
some ideas about how it is. And in Psalms 19, if you'll look
with me at the, let me get over here to the right spot, to the
105th verse, Psalms 119, 105. It says, the word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. And just for you young children,
so that you kind of get a little understanding. I know you guys
have been doing homeschool grammar and English and are kind of probably
learning about these things as you go along. But we know that
whenever we're talking about the word of God, whether it's
in this Bible or spoken word or whatever it isn't an actual
light that lights up a room you know I don't walk into a room
and hold up my Bible and now I can see everything okay we're
not talking about that it says the word is a lamp unto my feet
and so we're making a comparison here we're using the figurative
language to describe God's Word God's Word is like a lamp Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. Now
for us in today's time, it's kind of hard to kind of get what
the meaning and how this is talking about because what do we do?
What do we do when we got here? We came in and we flipped the
light switch and boom, light came on, right? We don't have
to depend upon candles and lamps and things like that to see. But back before they had electricity
and you know light bulbs and all that kind of stuff for people
to see in the dark they had to light a candle and or light an
oil lamp or something and carry that around And if you just think
about that, even today with flashlights, you know, we go out into the
woods or something and it's dark and you can't see, but you turn
on that flashlight. Well, that flashlight doesn't
make the whole world shine, does it? It just makes it shine right
there where you're at. And now you can see where you're
going. You can at least see your path. Well, the Bible here says
that the word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so what's that saying to
us? What does that mean? What does
that illustrator's figurative compared to for us? Well, God's word is what shows
us the way. It illuminates the direction
that we ought to go. It tells us the path that we
should be taking or the path that we're on, okay? While in
admonitions, it tells us how we should live, but it also tells
us where we're going. God's Word tells us that we've
been saved by the grace of God, and that we've been redeemed
by blood, forgiven by the blood of Christ, and that in the end,
as we go, whether it be Christ come back first, or we die and
go to be with Him, we will be in His presence for all eternity. And so it tells us where we're
going. So the word of God lights a way
of our path, but it also is a lamp into our feet right now. So it's
a twofold thing. It shows us where we're at right
now, but it also shines a light onto where we're going in our
path. And so just think with your flashlight out in the dark
and you're walking a trail, you hold your flashlight down here
because you need to see so you don't stumble and fall on the
pathway that you're walking. You know sometimes we're out
there and we're walking around there might be tree limbs and
all kinds of rocks and stumps and we might trip over those
things and so we take our flashlight and we shine it around to see
where we're going. Well whenever we see we've got
clear walking path then what do we do? We shine that flashlight
forward to see where we're going and we see what's up ahead of
us and we look up and then we bring come back down to make
sure we don't fall. That's what this is saying. The Word of God
is being compared to not only a lamp that lights my feet directly
where I'm at at the moment as I'm walking day by day, but it
also is a light into my path that shines forward in the direction
where I'm going to show where I'm heading. And so the word
of God tells us not only about ourselves and how we should be
now, but it also gives us that great promise and assurance of
what is to come when we get to the end of this road, as we make
our way through all those stumps and rocks and sticks and all
that kind of stuff in our pathway. So we see that the Bible or the
word of God is compared to a lamp. It illuminates, it lights up,
it reveals to us those things. Look with me if you would in
Jeremiah chapter five. Jeremiah chapter five. Verse 14. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord
God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make
my words in thy mouth fire, and this people would and it shall
devour them. Lo, I will bring a nation upon
you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. It is a mighty
nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou
knowest not, neither understandest what they say. So here we see
that the word of God is compared to a fire. I believe it was Jeremiah, Brother
Larry might correct me on this. I believe it was also Jeremiah
who said that he had fire in his bones and that he couldn't
help but to preach these things and to teach these things. I
believe that was Jeremiah. What is it talking about? Well,
he says, the word of God is like a fire. It consumes, it burns. Well, how does that work? I mean, again, I don't hold up
the Bible and fire shoots out of it. I don't speak and fire
shoots out of my mouth and consumes whoever's listening. But what
does it do? Well, a fire can be destructive. And fire can also be constructive,
right? Fire can be destructive in that
it burns down something. We've seen houses catch on fire
and it's burnt to the ground and it's a tragic thing and there's
a lot of loss there. But we also see that fire also
is a constructive thing. We wouldn't have gold and precious
metals without fire. Steel, whenever they bring that
ore out of the ground, they have to put it in the fire and melt
that and it brings out all the impurities and it leaves something
pure. And so there's a constructive
aspect to fire. There's a destructive aspect
to fire. And the Bible says that it is
like fire. It can do both things. That fire
can come out and it can burn away, so to speak, those things
in our life that are unwanted, unneeded, those things that are
against God. whenever we preach and we talk
about sin and we talk about transgressing the law of God and we talk about
transgressing and being disobedient to the Lord, those words can
be like fire. I don't know how many times I've
sit and heard a preacher whenever he's been preaching on something,
the Holy Spirit just convict me and just burn in my heart
and I know Probably all of you've been here this before you've
been under preaching and after that you've said somebody's went
and told the preacher on me How did he know that he was preaching
straight to me today? Well, you know, a lot of times
that's not true. There was one time I was preaching,
a guy came up and he was kind of upset. He thought that someone
had come to me and told a secret that he had told somebody. And
I didn't have a clue. I said, well, you just told on
yourself because I didn't know nothing. I said, matter of fact,
that sermon that I preached today, I prepared two or three weeks
ago but wasn't able to preach that day and and this guy particularly
that was there that came and was talking to me he was a guy
that didn't even come very often he only come you know every so
often and I'm like you know I told him I said you know brother you
don't necessarily come very often I don't know when you're going
to be here and I said that wasn't me that was burning in your heart
that was God does burn in your heart. So the word of God can
be like fire and consume us of those things, but it also can
be very purifying. We talked about the purifying
aspect, sanctifying or cleansing aspect of the word of God. Whenever
the word of God is preached and it does burn in our hearts, it
can burn away some of that dross. We learn the things that we should
do, that we shouldn't do. and we stray away from those
things that we shouldn't do, we go to those things that we
do, and in that way, in a temporal way, we are being purified. And
so, not being made perfect, not being made holy, not being made
more righteous, but just in that aspect of that, that it is keeping
us from sin. and so it becomes a fire and
it consumes us. Eventually the word of God is
going to be spoken and it's not going to consume them directly
But it will say, depart from me, ye doers of iniquity. I never
knew you. And then they will be cast into
everlasting fire. And so the word of God is a fire. While we're here in Jeremiah,
look also in chapter 23. We find another comparison of
scripture, Jeremiah 23. Starting in verse 28, Jeremiah
23, verse 28. It says, the prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell a dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat,
saith the Lord? Now, first I want to pause right
there. And I'll be honest, I read over
that really fast in my preparations and really didn't put a lot of
emphasis on that last verse, but it just jumped out at me
like a wild cat. What does the chaff to the wheat
say to the Lord? Why did he say that after what
he just said? The prophet that hath a dream,
let him tell the dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak
my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? He's saying, don't worry about
the chaff, you speak my words faithfully. You tell the truth,
stand on the truth, defend the truth, and don't worry about
the chaff. Now, I'm just going to make a
side note. I'm not even to what I wanted to talk about, but let
me make a side note on this. We are going to be ridiculed.
We're going to be... God's going to be blasphemed
whenever we speak the truth. People are going to blaspheme
God over what is being said. People are going to unfriend
you on Facebook. They're going to unlike you.
They're gonna do all kinds of whatever they do now, social
media, to reject you, okay? They may not talk to you in person
anymore. They may not invite you to their church anymore.
They might not ask you to speak in their Bible conferences or
in their Fifth Saturdays anymore. They may shun you. They may say
all manner of evil against you and tell other people, don't
go to your church because you're a heretic, okay? All that kind
of stuff can happen. whenever you speak the truth,
whenever you stand on the truth. There are two kinds of people. There are the sheep of God and
there are the goats. There is the wheat and there
is the chaff. There is the good seed and there
is the bad seed. There are those, or the good
soil and the bad soil, I should say. The seed's good. The good
soil and the bad soil, okay? There is the children of Christ
and there's the children of the devil. And those two seeds, as
we've studied in times past, are diametrically opposed and
both of them have their own line, and there is a promise made to
one that is not made to the other, and no matter how much that the
people on this side want to try to get them over to this side,
it's not gonna happen. The grace of God has been given
to those that have been given to Christ. They will be the ones
who hear this word, love this word, and follow after this word. have any discernment of this
word, have any inclination of this word. They're going to be
the ones who crave this word, who profit from this word. They
are going to be the ones who do that. This other group of
people won't. Now that doesn't mean that we
preach because we don't know who all these people are. We
continue to preach. And as long as someone's alive
until their dying breath, we don't know whether they're the
elect of God or not. And we just keep preaching the
word of God and pray that if they, if they're the child of
God, guess what? They're going to come, aren't
they? That is the promise of Jesus. All that the father gives
me shall come to me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that all come to repentance. So every one of these
people that are born of Adam, but that are the elect of God,
will come to Christ. And they'll be there. They'll
hear. All will be taught of God. All
that know my Father will be taught of the Spirit. And that Spirit
will teach them of Christ. He'll point them to Christ. Not
going to point them to Buddha. Not going to point them to the
Pope. Not going to point them to the Muslims. Not going to
point them to Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. He's not going
to point them there. He's going to point them to Christ.
And so the Bible here is telling us, speak faithfully that word. and don't worry about the chaff.
Why? Because the word of God is intended
for those who will hear the word of God, not for those. That's
why Jesus, and for those who may disagree with what I'm saying
here or think that this is too harsh of a saying, Jesus himself,
when he was preaching and there were those there that weren't
believing him, he looked to them and he said, the reason that
you don't believe is because you're not my sheep. He also
said that the reason that you don't believe on me is because
you're of your father, the devil. See, that's the reason why people
don't believe. Not because they've not been told it the right way
or long enough, often enough, you know, that they've broke
down the Greek and Hebrew for them, that they've not put it
in a little ABCs and one, two, three track, okay? It has nothing
to do with that. Again, I reiterate the fact that
Jesus Christ was the best preacher. He spoke in the best way. He
knew the subject matter better than anybody else. He knew his
audience better than anyone else. He knew the audience's needs
better than anyone else. He knew what would turn someone
in that audience more than anybody else. He knew everything. You couldn't have got a better
preacher to preach on the set. And listen, he knew the subject.
And listen, he knew the words of the scriptures, didn't he?
Why? Because he's the one that spoke
them. He's the word of God incarnate. It was him that spoke the words
to those men of old and told them to write it down. So he
knew you couldn't have got a better preacher than Jesus. And yet
the people there didn't believe. And he told them, well, it's
just, well, I tell you what, come back next week and we'll
take another crack at it. Or I tell you what, after the
services meet back in my study, and let me go over it again,
maybe you just didn't understand what I said. Maybe you're just not
listening very well. Let me do a one-on-one with you.
No, Jesus said the reason that you don't believe is because
there is a dividing line. There are those who are mine
and there are those who are not mine. There are those who are
meant to hear and those who are not meant to hear. and those
who are not meant to hear will not hear. The natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him, neither can he know them because, because they are spiritually
discerned. And so the scriptures here is
saying, speak faithfully my word and pay no mind to the chaff. Don't let the people who are
unhearers Goats, children of the devil, deter your words. Why? Because it's these people
over here that can and will hear and listen. It's for them. These
are the ones. If you change your message to
suit these people over here, you're not helping these people
over here, but you are hurting these people over here. If you
compromise the message of Christ, if you compromise the message
of salvation, if you compromise the word of God to please those
who reject God, hate God, will not come to God, who are not
the elect of God, which we don't know, but if you compromise to
suit those who are unbelievers, you're not helping them at all.
You're speaking lies to them, and then that is damaging and
hurting those who have ears to hear. Because the Bible says
that it is this, the word of God, it is Christ and Him crucified
that is the nourishment that we receive. He's the bread from
heaven. We feed off of what Christ has done. We feed off of His
gospel. We feed off of His word. This is our spiritual nourishment
that we receive from Him that He has given to us. And so we
need to hear it in truth. without compromise. Because if
you compromise, that ain't going to change anybody's mind that's
on this side. And so the scriptures tell us,
speak my word faithfully. And so I encourage any preacher
that's here or on Facebook or on the sermon audio, preach faithfully
and don't compromise. Now that don't mean you have
to be a jerk when you're preaching or teaching or talking to somebody,
but there can be a firmness. Jesus didn't pull away. John
the Baptist didn't pull away. Paul and Peter, they didn't pull
away. They were very firm in their
speaking the truth. Now, unlike Jesus, Paul and Peter,
they didn't have the cognitive understanding or the godness
to know the hearts of who was who, to say you're of your father
the devil. or you're not my sheep. They
didn't have, you cannot find anywhere where any of the apostles
or that early church, any of those men that were ministers,
not one of them ever said anything like that. Only Jesus did. Why? Because he knows those who are
his. But yet you do hear Peter and Paul and all the apostles
are very strong and firm, coming against untruth, proclaiming
the truth, no matter who it's gonna offend, And even among
the brethren, whenever one was in error, they came and rebuke,
Paul rebuked Peter. And then also exposing those
who are false. Remember Hymenaeus and Alexander. Diotrephes, those three men,
they were openly exposed in the word of God for us, but at that
time, Paul said, hey, watch out for Hymenaeus. Watch out for
Alexander. They've done a lot of harm to
the gospel. They've done a lot of harm to
the ministry. Matter of fact, he went on to say that they are
gangrene. They're causing rot within the
church. You need to get them out of there.
Don't listen to them. And then John spoke of Diotrephes,
a preacher that came in and he wanted the preeminence. It was all about Diotrephes and
not about Christ, not about the church, not about the people
of God, it was about Diotrephes. And so John called him out and
said, Diotrephes wants the preeminence and you shouldn't listen to him.
So we're in a world now, brethren, where people don't want to hear
that kind of stuff. They want to tell you you're
too judgmental when you come against them. Or you think that
everybody ought to know everything. And so whenever they're not telling
the truth, you got to say something. Listen, speak the truth. Don't worry about the chaff.
What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Verse 29, is
not my word like as a fire? Again, it's going back to this
fire metaphor. Okay, what's the fire going to
do to the chaff? It's going to burn it up, okay? The chaff for kids, the chaff
was whenever they would cut wheat, That wheat, whenever they would
do that, there would be all kinds of dust-like stuff that would
come off of that wheat. A lot of times they would fan
and that would just blow off, or you could light it on fire
and it would just... go up in flames really quick.
I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but from what I understand,
that's what it is. And so he says, listen, my word
is like chaff. It's gonna take care, or like
fire, it's gonna take care of the chaff. Now, if you don't
believe that, just watch. When people come
and they hear the truth of God's word, They're going to run off. We've seen that here before.
People come and they think that they want to come here and they
don't know exactly what they're getting into doctrinally, I guess. But they come and whenever they
hear on predestination and election and sovereign grace, the sovereignty
of God over ruling all things, ruling over all things and overruling
all things, Whenever they hear those things, they're like, absolutely
not, and we never see them again. See, the word of God, if you're
truthful and you stand on the word of God, preach faithfully
the word of God, you don't have to worry about the chaff. It'll
go away. It'll burn it up. But look at
what else it says. It says, it's not my word like
as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces. So here again, the Bible is like
a hammer. Okay, so a hammer illustrates
what God's word does. What do you use a hammer for?
Well, most of the time you use a hammer to drive nails, right? Did they have nails back then?
I don't know. They may have had wood pegs or something like that.
I don't know what they had back then when this was written, but
hammers are used for busting up rock. And this is what it
ties to, at least in this passage. It says, a hammer that breaketh
the rock in pieces. So one of the things that the
word of God could do is no matter how hard we are, no matter how
stubborn we are, I can be really stubborn sometimes. But God's
word can break that to pieces. When I study God's word and I
see my, you're just wrong about that. God's word can break that
heart that wants to be calloused, that wants to say I'm right.
God's word comes in and it busts it to pieces. So God's word is like a hammer.
It breaks the rocks to pieces. Now in Matthew chapter 13, moving
to the New Testament, we're gonna see, I made reference to it a
while ago, kind of jumped ahead, but Matthew chapter 13, we see
that God's word is also like a seed. Matthew chapter 13, and
look with me if you would down to verse 18. Matthew 13, 18. Hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower. When anyone heareth the word
of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is
he which receives seed by the wayside. But he that received
the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word
and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet he hath not root in himself,
but dureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the word, by and by he is offended. Brethren, a lot
of that's going on right now. There is these people that have
received the word of God to some degree, and it seems that a root
has taken hold, but yet when persecution comes, or tribulation
comes because of God's Word, then they're offended. They're
offended by God's Word. They're offended by the messenger
of God's Word. Whenever you tell a Christian,
you know, hey, it's not right for you to step out on your wife. It's not right for you to leave
your husband. It's not right for you to have
fornication outside of marriage. Whenever you say to someone who
professes to be a Christian that that is not the doctrines of
scripture, that's not the doctrines of Christ, and you begin to press them on
those things, then they become offended. Verse 22, he also that
receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word,
and the carriers of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. Verse 23, but he
that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth
the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. And
so here we see the word of God is like a seed. Now there's nothing wrong with
the seed, right? The seed is the word of God,
nothing wrong with it. But you'll notice that three
out of four hearers are the only ones that heard it, or excuse
me, that didn't hear it. Now, some guys take these numbers
and are applying them, trying to figure out about how many
is God's elect. you know, on how many are gonna
hear and how many are not. But here we see that in this
example, that out of four different hearers, only one heard, which
does go along with what the Bible teaches, that there will be a
majority of people who do not hear God's word, who will go
on the broad path. The Bible says broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction, and many are on that path. But
narrow is the way that leads to righteousness, and there's
only few that find that, okay? So the Bible is replete. The
people of God, though vast in number, is still just an elect
number and a remnant out of all of the people of the earth. I
mean, you think of all the people that have ever existed from Adam,
you know, that's a lot of people. and God's people has been a few
among them. And so we see that there is a
small number. So here we see that the word
of God, before it has anything, that's why I say there's nothing
magical about God's word. There are those who think that
it's the preaching of God's word that causes people to be born
again. It's called gospel regeneration. That the Holy Spirit takes something
from the word of God and does something in the heart and it
causes them to be born again. I may not be articulating their
position exactly right, but they think that that's the instrument
that the Holy Spirit uses to quicken the believer. But brethren, the believer has
to be already quickened for that seed to have any effect upon
that person. So life must precede the instrumentality
of, now I'm not saying that the word of God isn't an instrument.
The word of God is an instrument that the Holy Spirit uses. Not
for birth, not for quickening, but uses for conversion. And conversion can happen simultaneously. We was kind of discussing this
a little bit yesterday in our men's fellowship. It can happen
simultaneously, or it can happen over a short period of time where
you're not around the Word of God. You don't know the Word
of God, and you're being taught the Word of God. The Holy Spirit
has quickened you, and then now you're listening and hearing
the truth of God's word and beginning to see that's the truth, that's
the truth, and you're believing upon that. Or it could be instantaneously,
you hear that message being preached of the truth of the gospel, the
Holy Spirit quickens the heart, and immediately you hear that
and say, that's the truth. And it can happen at one time.
Brother DeClean was sharing with us yesterday that he feels that
he knows the time and date when he felt that happened. Whenever
he felt that change of disregarding what he'd been taught, believing
on the gospel, and he believes that there was an adverse, I
mean, not an adverse, a genuine change that he knows. I, on the
other hand, am a little bit different. I don't particularly know exactly
when that point come. I do know when I felt my need
of Christ, my being wrong about the gospel, and whenever it just
kind of like a light bulb came on that this is right and that
has been wrong. Now, was that when I was quickened? I don't know. I don't know. But
I know one thing. It takes a good soil for the
seed to take root and to produce fruit. Faith being one of those
things. Faith being a fruit needs to
be, for one, good soil and the Word of God. See, I can't have
faith if I don't have something to trust in, to know. So I don't
believe on Christ if I don't know about Christ. but that doesn't mean that there
isn't life there. Life has been given, but there has to be something
there for faith to take hold of, for faith to be evident. So here we see the word of God
is like a seed planted in the soil, but the soil has to be
made good. And let's take, look at one more
and then we'll take a break. Ephesians chapter six and verse
17. Ephesians chapter six and verse
17. Verse 17 says, and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. So here we see that the word
of God is like a sword. It's like a sword. What are swords used for? It can be used in two ways, right?
A sword is a two-fold weapon. A sword can be used for defending,
and a sword can be used for killing, for offense. and defense. A warrior would use a sword to
strike and combat, and others that were coming at him with
swords. You guys have probably all seen at one time someone
sword fighting, or as a kid would sword fight with sticks. Get
up there, sword fight. What are you doing with that
stick whenever someone comes and swings at you with that thing? Well,
you're putting your stick up to block it, right? So it's used
for defense. You're defending yourself. The
Word of God can be used as a defense. Whenever we preach the Word of
God here and our people hear the Word of God and learn the
Word of God, it becomes a defense from false gospels, from false
messages, from error. That's what my grandpa used to
always say. If you know the word of God, you learn the word of
God. You don't have to go out and
study all of those cults and all those other false religions
out there to know what they're saying so that you can defend
the word of God. No, if you know the word of God,
you'll know what's false and fake whenever it shows up. I
always give that example of the counterfeit guys. You know, the
counterfeiters don't go out and study the counterfeits so that
they can be on top of their game. No, they know the real thing
so well that whenever a counterfeit comes in front of them, they
can feel that paper ain't right. That paper's not right. It's
not thick enough. It's too thick. It's to, you
know, the color's off, the wording's off, the letters are off, the
placement's off. I mean, something, they know
that. But whenever a child of God studies the word of God,
he knows whenever things are wrong. See, that's kind of how,
and I won't say, At that point in time, you know, I won't even
say that now, but I'm just, you know, I know all the word of
God, but I remember whenever I first started my journey into
the doctrines of grace, I've shared with you guys before,
we was at a men's Bible study on Friday morning, and the person that was bringing
the message, in the middle of the message, just in passing,
he wasn't dwelling on this or anything, but just in passing,
had made mention that there was a possibility that Jesus could
sin. That he didn't give in to temptation,
but that he could have sinned, but he didn't. And red flags
went up. I didn't have to go study the
whole movement that believes that Jesus is peccable. I really
didn't even have to go study all the writings of men that
talked about Jesus being impeccable. Now, I did. I picked up W.E. Best's The Impeccability of Christ
and read through it. But more than anything, I went
to the scriptures and looked at that. But red flags went off
whenever he said that. Why? Because I had studied the
word of God enough to know that there was no way that Jesus could
have sinned. And so whenever that false message came, I knew
that immediately. This is kind of what we're seeing
here. He says that the sword, or the word of God is a sword. So it's a defense against the
false gospels, the false messages, the false teachers that are out
there. But on the other hand, it's also
a good weapon. God's word is a good weapon.
Listen, whenever you go into council with somebody who is
having struggles, there's no better weapon to go into council
with them than the word of God. Whenever you go, someone who
is in sin and they're a child of grace, there's no better weapon
to go to them with than the word of God. Why? Because it's a hammer, it's a
fire, but it's also a sword that's gonna penetrate their heart.
It's gonna burn up the chaff. It's gonna burn up the draught. It's gonna smash the rock, but
it's also gonna penetrate. The Bible says that it even comes
in dividing in us. And it puts us at odds with ourselves. Whenever the word of God comes
in, it's like a sword being thrust into your heart. Why? Because we know it's true
and we know we're wrong. And the word of God just is an
excruciating pain to us because we know that it's true and we're
not. And so the word of God can come
in and is a great weapon in the hands of the believer to combat
evil, to combat false accusers, to combat things within the church,
amongst ourselves, within our family, within yourself. The
word of God is a great weapon to have to combat those things. Anybody got any comments or anything
you'd like to add, brother, Mark? All right, we'll take a break
here and we'll get a drink and refresh our drinks.