All right, we'll go ahead and look at a little bit more verses
here. Talking about the word of God,
we've been studying that for the last few weeks and I appreciate
Brother Larry and the word that he brought in the first hour.
And it truly is a blessing to have another brother. Here to
be able to share I get I talk all the time and preach and it's
nice to get to hear it once in a while and Appreciate brother
Larry doing that whenever asked to or not asked to if you ever
wants to just ask me I'd Always fine and same with all the other
brothers if the Lord ever Gives you something that you'd like
to share. You're always welcome To do that. Just let me know
if you want to share something to the congregation and We definitely
would like to hear if the Lord's giving you something in your
heart to share. I fully believe that that's how the Lord does
things is whenever he raises up pastors and preachers and
teachers, he does that within the congregation and he gives
those gifts to men. And as they begin to exemplify
that, the church recognizes that God's called them to do that.
I think that we ought to give them the opportunity to exercise
those gifts as God has given them that. And so any of you
men, if you ever feel led to do that, you don't have to wait
for me to ask you. or anything. If you feel that
the Lord has given you something and you'd like to share or study
that the Lord has laid upon your heart or something, we'd love
to hear it. So just let me know and I'll
be glad to let you speak if not the one week after that, if I
remember. Give Larry an extra week to study. No, I was forgetful is what it
was. All right, Psalms 119, if you would, please. Psalms 119. Larry made a comment a little
bit ago about how amazing some of the wording is in the scriptures. And a phrase that you've heard
me say here a lot since I've been here is that every word
counts in God's word. There are no throwaway words
in God's word. We read last week that all scripture
is given by inspiration and it's profitable. And I believe that
whenever we're looking at God's word, that every word is important. Matter of fact, it's those little
tiny words that a lot of times we don't pay much attention to
that sheds a whole different light on the way that we interpret
those verses. For instance, the faith of Christ
or faith in Christ. Some people say, well, there
ain't no difference in that. It's talking about the same thing. No, there's
a big difference between faith in Christ and faith of Christ. And that changes the whole tenor
of Romans five, whenever you see that. and the whole meaning
of Romans 5. And it turns it from being man-centered
Romans 5 to Christ-centered Romans 5. And so every word does count. And so as Brother Larry was mentioning
that, my mind kind of raced back on all the times that I've been
studying scripture. And as I study the word of God,
things that I've read over and over and over again, just like
a couple of little things and we're brother larry and i was
just talking uh... course you guys have heard me
mention this before uh... in uh... my views on the eternal
manhood of christ uh... that uh... uh... for years you
know i've i've seen christ uh... are we've seen god was uh... appeared as a cloud of fire or
excuse me, as a cloud or as a pillar of fire. But whenever you read
the words actually there, it says that he appeared in the
pillar of fire and he appeared in the cloud of smoke. Well, that changes the whole
meaning of that. It's not that he appeared as
that God came down as a cloud. He came down in a cloud. That's
two different things. And so whenever we read God's
word, we see that there is a lot of things there that we just
race over. But anyway, in Psalms 119, if
you look with me at verse 161, This whole section here, if your
Bible is like mine, it's broken up into the, Psalms 119 is broken
up into the sections, and I probably am not gonna pronounce this right,
but this section is called shin, C-S-C-H-I-N. And starting in
verse 161, I wanna read down to verse 168, but I want you
to pay attention to how our attitude, what the word of God does, how
our attitude looks to the word of God. And as pertaining to
what we were just talking about, about seeing all these little
words, but also the profoundity of everything that's in the word
of God, how it connects, how it all speaks of Christ, how
it doesn't contradict, how it all speaks the same things over
thousands of years and multiple writers and multiple levels of
education, all that kind of stuff, how amazing it is, because when
you get down to it, it is one book written by one author. You
know, we break it up into 66 books. We recognize that there
was multiple authors that was inspired, but it is one book
by one author about one subject, and that's Christ. But look what
God's word does to the attitude of a child of grace. Now, if
you're here today, I pray you are a child of grace, and if
you are, Look at what the word of God does to a child of grace
and think, is this what the word of God does for me? Look at verse
161, it says, princes have persecuted me without a cause, but here
it is, my heart standeth in awe of thy word. You know, I just
stand in awe sometimes of God's word and how amazing it is that
no matter what position we are in life. Whether you're a low
down grunt here or whether you're a high fluting, you know, foo-foo
way up here, whatever level of social status that you might
be, no matter how much education you have, whether it's way up
here or way down here, no matter how much influence you have or
no influence you have, whatever the case might be, Whenever we
come to the Word of God and we see the things that's found therein
and has been illuminated by God, we stand in awe of that. And
I stand in awe a lot of times when I read God's Word and I
think to myself how amazing it is because This can apply to
me here. It applies to me here. It touches
every aspect of our life and it can speak and help countless
millions of people in all the arenas that they're a part of.
God's Word meets those needs for them, if they're the children
of God. And it speaks to them, and it
clearly always only points them to one thing, and that's to Christ.
It's not pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. It's not
work a little bit harder, do a little more work, do a little
more good deeds, make yourself more righteous, make yourself
more holy, sanctify yourself. It's not like that. It's what? The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. It's over, it's done, it's accomplished. You can obtain this light salvation
if you have been called. See, obtaining something doesn't
mean I worked for it. I obtained it, that means that
I have it and I've got it, but it didn't mean that I went out
and looked for it or bought it or paid for it or whatever. I obtained it. So we look at God's word and
do we stand in awe of God's word? A lot of people, they don't think
much of God's word. They think a whole lot of John
Gill and John Calvin and Martin Luther and Zwingli and Beebe
and Crisp and Spurgeon and all those types of people that throughout
history, we've elevated them and put them on pedestals and
cheered them as our great theologians of the cause. But yet all they
are is fallible men who are telling us what they say God's word says
when we have God's word to come to. And instead of standing in
awe at how, listen, I agree, John Owen is a great mind and
when you read him, You have to read him four or five times,
at least I have to go back and read four or five times to get
what he says. John Gill the same way. They have like 15, 20 run-on
sentences that you gotta get down and he says 50 things of
what this doesn't mean to get to what it does mean. Great minds. But brethren, listen, I don't
stand in awe of those men. I stand in awe of the word of
God. If those men know anything, it's because they've been given
light to the word of God, not because they've been given light
as orators and men of their own to just come up with this stuff.
That's why I would say I hate hearing that Calvinism is the
gospel. Have you ever heard that across
the internet? Calvinism is the gospel. No, Calvinism is not
the gospel. That is not the gospel. Calvinism
is rubbish. The gospel, God's word, the gospel
didn't come from some French reformer. It came from God himself. As Larry was pointing out earlier,
you know, Paul preached the doctrines of grace way before Luther and
Calvin. Jesus taught the doctrines of
grace. But brethren, listen, go to the
Old Testament. The prophets preached the doctrines
of grace. Isaiah is a great preacher of
the doctrine of grace. David was a great preacher of
the doctrine of grace. Ezekiel, a great preacher of
the doctrine of grace. Malachi, Hosea, all preachers
of doctrines of grace. Types and foreshadows, yes there
was. But they all spoke of one thing.
A people and a man who was gonna redeem that people. And it's
an amazing thing. Not every people. And so we come
to the word of God and we stand in awe. Princes have persecuted
me without cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. Oh, if God's people would stand
in awe of the word of God instead of all these other things. Look
at verse 162. Here's another thing. I rejoice
at thy word. Do you rejoice at God's word?
God's word is something to rejoice about. Why? Well, for one, the
very fact that a holy, righteous God humbled enough to give us this
word. to even give us anything about
himself. For him to even reveal himself
to us, whether it be from this word or from the man, Jesus Christ,
is something that we do not deserve, but he has. And so he has given
us this reward. So we ought to rejoice at the
fact that God has given us his word, and then rejoice at the
fact that as his people, he's given us his spirit that illuminates
and teaches us the truth of this word. Because these are spiritual
words. and natural man can't receive
and comprehend and understand and rightly interpret. Can they
gather facts? Yes. Can they memorize? Yes. Can they quote? Yes. Can
they build doctrines upon what's in this deal? Yes, they can,
but they cannot rightly understand, interpret, and apply God's word
unless they're spiritual. That's God's word about it. That's
not my word about it. That's what God's word says about
his word. They don't understand it. And
so we ought to rejoice at the fact that he has given us this
word, rejoice at the fact that he's given us understanding of
this word. And we ought to rejoice that
this word is here for us for everything we have need of. Are you heartbroken today? God's
word has something to say to you. Are you depressed today?
God's word has something to say to you. Are you going through
troubles with your children? God's word has something to say
to you. Are you in despair? God's word has something to say
to you. So we have to rejoice that God has given us a word,
words, but a word for every need. but mostly what to rejoice that
God has given us his word. to point us and show us, reveal
to us Christ Jesus, our hope. Christ Jesus, our salvation.
I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. Now,
we're not talking about when we open up the carton of milk
and find chunks there. That's not what we're talking
about, great spoil. Although, if you open up a deal of milk
and take a big swig of it and it's bad, you find great spoil. It's not good. That happened
to me one time at work. But anyway, we're not talking
about that. This is old language, kids. Great spoil means like treasure. We watch a documentary program
on TV about Oak Island and all these people that's searching
for the treasure of Oak Island for all these thousands of years
and these men that's been looking for this and everything. What
are they looking for? They're looking for spoil. They're looking
for these supposed treasure that's hidden on this island. That's
spoil, that's what it's talking about. So it says here, I rejoice
at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I mean, so he's
comparing this to, if I find a big old giant pirate treasure
chest full of gold and jewels and stuff like that, I'm going
to rejoice. If I went out in my backyard,
well, let me just put it on a thing that we've all done. How many
of y'all ever walked out in a parking lot and seen a dollar bill blowing
across the door? Hey, I've got a dollar bill.
Or even better, you had a hundred dollar bill. You're like, wow,
you know? You know, here I am on a parking lot with about,
you know, a hundred cars, you know, and you go, hey, is this
anybody's? Okay. I rejoice. I just found a hundred
dollar bill blown across the parking lot. Praise the Lord. I know we're all laughing about
that, but brethren, do we rejoice like that at God's word? We have
the word of God given to us. We rejoice as one that findeth
great spoil. Look at 163. I hate and abhor
lying, but thy law do I love. So what is one of the things
that the word of God does? It gives us a love for that word. We love the word of God. And
as far as this verse is concerned, because it's truth. See, it's
saying right there, I have whore lying. I hate untruth. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. The Bible talks about truth a
lot, but Jesus encompasses, Jesus embodies that very truth. He is truth. Larry read it. God cannot lie. Why? Because
he is truth. He cannot lie. He can't, what
is a lie? A lie is a contradiction. And
a lie does not contradict, I mean, the truth doesn't contradict.
God's word doesn't contradict. And the psalmist here is saying,
I can't stand lying, contradictions in messages. And so I love the
law of God. Why? Because there is none. There
is no contradictions. There is no lying. Whenever I
read what the word of God says, I can count on that because God
cannot lie and God is the one who breathed out these words
that were written down for us. So we love the word of God because
it's the truth and it doesn't lie to us. 164, seven times a day do I, here
it is, praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Now that can or cannot be talking
about God's word, righteous judgments. We can have a, a keeping of the judgments of
God here in God's Word. We see God's judgments before
us in black and white, the judgments that He did all through the Old
Testament. We see the judgments that He did in the New Testament.
And we can look at those and we can say that those things
are righteous judgments. And so God's Word contains the
judgments that God has given and shown to man throughout the
course of mankind And we look at those things and we can praise
God for those. So the Word of God causes us
to praise Him. So we stand in awe of it, we
rejoice at it, we love it, we praise God because of His judgments
are given to us and shown to us. Can you imagine if we didn't
have the testimony and the record of everything that happened in
the past? If we didn't have that? Now, the people in Jesus's time,
they had some of the record of that old stuff, but they didn't
have the record of all of what was going on during their time.
We have both of those. And we can see how God has worked,
not only through his people's history in a physical way, but
we also see how he's done that in a spiritual way. We've seen
how redemption has worked its course through Old Covenant and
into the New Covenant. And what an amazing thing that
is. And so, we praise God that we've been given the righteous
judgments of God given before us in his word. Look at 165.
Great peace have they which love thy law. If you love God's law,
it says here, you're gonna have great peace. Why? Well, one of the reasons why
is because it brings rejoicing. If you read God's word, it brings
rejoicing. A lot of times when I'm rejoicing, I'm experiencing, I guess I should
say, I'm experiencing a time of peace. If I'm in turmoil,
I'm not doing much rejoicing. So if I'm rejoicing, then it's
probably because I'm experiencing peace within my heart. But here's
the thing. Those who love the law of God,
that means those who study and read God's word, you know what
it's gonna tell you? It's gonna tell you about the
finished work of Christ. And there's nothing that can
bring greater peace than the finished work of Christ on your
behalf. To know that it is finished. To know that it is done. To know
that He has saved His people from their sins. To know that
their iniquities are no more. To know that He doesn't remember
them, as Larry read a while ago in Hebrews. That He has went
in once for all times. That there isn't a continual
having to sacrifice something or someone or some of yourself,
you know. A lot of people think we got
to continue to make that sacrifice of labor working every day for
the Lord and doing like this to stay in God's will and stay
in God's fellowship and all that. No, the sanctifying was in Christ. He set us apart for all time
by his blood. Now that's peaceful. I don't
know about you. And I remember, I remember back
whenever that first, whenever I first come to truly understand
the truth of imputed righteousness, the load of the world was removed. I've told you all how I've spent
countless nights praying. Did I say, did I say forgive
me for everything that I did wrong? Am I doing enough for
the Lord? Did I speak the right way? Did
I teach the right way? Did I do all the right, go through
all the motions the right way? I mean, all these things that
was a way, but whenever it was, all those things ain't what does
it. the imputed righteousness of Christ given to you before
the foundation of the world based upon his blood and righteousness
is what counts. And if he's given that to you,
you can't do nothing to lose it. You can't skip out on it.
You can't miss it. You know, that was one of the
things with all the missional movement back when, when all
the Baptists began to split into all these different splinter
groups, and there was fighting over everything, is because there
become this Fullerite notion, and it wasn't just with Fuller,
it retched back before Fuller, but he kind of made it prominent,
at least in around the Baptist ranks. but all this notion that
there are thousands of people out there that are dying and
going to hell that aren't being reached. Oh, we've got to get
to every tribe, language, nation, and tongue because they're not
being reached. Larry read it a while ago, and I don't know
if he even realized it whenever he read through there, but he
talked about that word going out, speaking out to everywhere
back in the Old Testament. But the message of Christ, the
New Testament says that it did go out to all the world. Now
that doesn't mean that we stop and we don't go and tell people
about Christ. That's not a deal to say, well,
there you go. We don't preach to nobody, okay? But brethren, listen, the word
of God has gone out to everybody in every language, every nation
and every tribe. And listen, the promise has been
made that there will be people out of every one of those. And
we're not the ones that are making sure that that promise is kept.
Christ is making sure that that promise is kept. He is not willing
that any should perish. He has a sheep from other places
that also needs to be brought into the fold. He's the one that's
doing it, the shepherd of the sheep. And so we have this great
peace to know that Evangelism, as modern day people understand
evangelism, is not failing. There's not one person that's
going into hell that Christ died for. And I know a lot of people say,
well, yeah, you guys preach that kind of stuff so that you don't
have to go witness to anybody. Well, We witness to people because
we want to. We witness people because we
love the Lord. We witness people because we like to talk about
Christ and share with them about Christ. We witness to people
whenever they're speaking error and we correct them and reprove
them about what they're saying wrong about Christ. But brethren,
we don't have to go out and witness that that person be saved. That
person was saved by Christ. It's going to be converted by
the hearing of the gospel. They're going to hear that and
believe. But brethren, listen, the saving wasn't on us. Our
hands are not going to have blood on it because we didn't reach
that guy in the elevator that I didn't say something to and
I think I should have, but I didn't. He's not going to hell because
I didn't talk to him. He's going to hell because of
his sins. He's going to hell because God did not choose to
apply the blood of Christ to him. So whenever we understand the
word of God, and we read the law of God, it speaks of a unconditional
salvation. And that, as it says here, brings
great peace. There's peace, but that brings
great peace, brethren. Verse 166, Lord, I have hoped
for thy salvation and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept
thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly. Again, he uses the
word love here. He loves the testimonies of God. You know, the word of God is
one big testimony of Jesus Christ. One big testimony of Him. He
is the one who testifies of God the Father, right? Jesus is the
testimony of who God is. In Colossians, it tells us that
all the fullness of the Godhead dwells within bodily. The Bible
tells us that he is the fullness of the Godhead. The Bible says
that he is the exact representation of the Godhead. Jesus Christ
is. And so he is the one that is
the testimony of who God is. And then this word that's been
given to us is the testimony of who Jesus is. And so we love
the testimony here. This is also, brethren, I don't
know if you realize it though, this is also a testimony of who
we are. Not only in Adam, but who we
are in Christ. This is a testimony of who we
are. And so the testimony speaks to us, and we love it exceedingly. We love what it says about Christ. We love what it says about us. Then look at 168, it says, I
have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies, for all my ways
are before thee. So we find in there that we stand
in awe at God's word, we rejoice, we love, we praise, we receive
peace, and we receive exceeding, or excuse me, then we are given
exceeding love for God's testimony. Turn with me if you would over
to Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah 66. Look at verse one, it says, thus
saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool. Where is the house that ye build
unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all those things
hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. But to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite heart or spirit,
and trembleth, my word So another thing that the Word of God causes
us to do Now we just learned that we stand in awe and some
may think that tremble may be kind of the same thing It's kind
of close, but it is different. One thing is is we stand in awe
amazed But then also whenever we look at work God's Word we
tremble You know, whenever I read about
how Christ is gonna judge at the end of time, and that there
are gonna be countless millions and millions that are thrown
into the lake of fire that is prepared for Satan and his angels,
and they're gonna burn there where the worm dieth not in everlasting
torment and fire, whenever I read those things, I tremble at that. I tremble at that and I stand
in awe because I'm no better than they are, but for the grace
of God. The only reason that I'm not
a part of those who will be thrown in the lake of fire is only because
God chose to save me by the blood of Christ. Nothing that I did. I didn't choose him. I didn't
ask for him. I didn't want his salvation and
look for his salvation. I couldn't do any good works
to earn or merit that salvation, but yet he chose me to do that,
to give mercy to, to give grace to, to give love to, to not give
wrath to. And so I tremble at those things
knowing that there's nothing that I could have done one way
or the other. And so sometimes whenever we look at that, we
tremble at the word of God. I think this passage is talking
about there is a great humility that comes with the Word of God,
knowing this isn't something that we just command. I know
preachers, they come to the Word of God and they think because
they've got some education or because they've been preaching
for even several years, something like that, that they've got such
a command of God's Word and they come to this thing. I've even,
well, I've said this before in some areas myself, but that was
before I come to Christ but I've heard preachers that have made
claims like what do you want me to preach a pick any verse
in the Bible you just you just tell me what you want me to preach
on and I'll preach you know now whether that's true or not that's
I mean it's wonderful that you might Understand the Word of
God and have studied the Word of God enough to be able to bring
something out of whatever you know if it's one of one of these Okay, I want to speak today on
Psalms 22 21, okay, I But to have that cocky assurance
that you just tell me what you want me to talk about, and I'll
talk about it. I don't know about you brothers,
but sometimes that happens with me that, you know, I don't feel
a move of God necessarily on this passage or that passage
or something like that. And I come up with, you know,
this is to the best of my understanding, this is what I'm studying, this
is what I'm doing, this is what I'm gonna preach about. Then
a lot of times there is this overwhelming, the Lord moving
me that I want to talk about this. This is something that
God laid upon my heart to speak about, and I come and speak about
that. But in no way should we ever
be trivial in just saying, well, I just, whatever, you know, and
throw it up there. You know, we should come with
a reverence to God's word. And here it says that the word
of God, one of the things that it does to his people is it gives
them not only a contrite spirit, but it causes them to tremble
at this word. Look at verse five. He says,
hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word, your
brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my namesake
said, let the Lord be glorified, but he shall appear to your joy
and they shall be ashamed. Here again, the word of the Lord
came to those who trembled at his word, who reverenced his
word. Look if you would in Jeremiah
chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23. Look with me, if you would, down
to 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, we talked about this passage
last week, but let me reiterate again that one of the things
that the word of God does for us and brings to us and admonishes
us is to speak faithfully, to speak faithfully. And I find,
at least I have found in my own experience and in the experience
of others that I know who have kind of gone the way that I have,
that whenever you do look to other men for your guidance on
what the Bible says, you often preach what they say. I know one preacher that whenever
he preaches, it's always, this is what the concordance says,
then this is what this preacher says, this is what this preacher
says, this is what this preacher says, and he quotes, and his
whole sermon is full of quotes by what other men have said.
Now, I'm not against quoting men. If they can say, most of
the time, they can say what I think about something, they can probably
say it a little better than me. You know, my oratory skills are
very low, but they can say it a lot better than me. And I'm
not against quoting something if a guy can say it better than
me, but to fill your message and say, well, you know, this
is what we're gonna learn today, and basically all we learned
is what so-and-so thought about so-and-so. We need to speak faithfully about
God's word, not faithfully about something else. But a lot of
times what we do is we have our theologies and our doctrines
built around men, and we're not speaking faithfully, we're following
after the thoughts of men. Now, there is two ways that we
can speak faithfully here. At least two ways that I can
see, and I might be wrong, and these two ways may not even exist.
It may just be one. I'll stand for correction on
that if there be. We can speak not only faithfully
to what is revealed here, okay? And that's what we're called
to do. That's what we ought to do. I hope that's what we strive
to do. I pray, my heart, that Whenever
I stand up here, whenever I speak, I speak the things of God and
not the things of Mike Smith or somebody else, okay? I wanna
speak the truth of God. I'm sure Larry, the same way.
Any of you other brothers, whenever you speak and whenever you teach,
whenever you're, any of you ladies, you're talking to somebody, we
want to speak the truth about what the Bible says. But there
also is a thing of speaking faithfully to what is revealed to us, to
what we know, and to what we believe. See, I'm not gonna preach
something that I don't believe. I don't think you would either.
I mean, it would be hard for me to stand up here and preach
something contrary to what I really believe about it, even though,
you know, knowing, well, that person don't believe that, so
I'm gonna preach it a different way. or that person doesn't agree,
or this church has invited me to speak, and they've asked me
to speak on this topic, but I don't believe it's the same way that
they do. And so I'll just preach it the
way that they like to hear it, and I still believe what I believe. And we can't do that either.
And even in some of these areas, you know, the eternal manhood
of Christ, some of these other doctrines that people would categorize
as, you know, side issue type things. You know, some men have been
given some understanding of things that other men may not be given
understanding to right away. I didn't always have an understanding
of some of these things. And whenever I heard guys speak
of that, I thought, well, man, that's crazy. No matter what it is,
and not just that, but I mean, any topic. You know, I thought
that was, I mean, election, that's crazy. That guy's nuts. God doesn't love everybody. God
didn't choose everybody. He only chose some. Oh yeah,
that's not God. He's not a respecter of persons.
Now, I thought it was crazy, but you know what? There was
men who had a more in-depth understanding or a more illuminated understanding
of God's word than I did. And sometimes, you know, I'll
talk on several forums with preachers and different things like that.
We kick around a lot of verses back and forth. And, you know,
sometimes a guy comes up and he has a thought on a few things
that kind of make you say, well, you know, hey, that's something
to look at. You know, it's made me go back
and study and say, hey, and sometimes I've found that they're true. That's right. That's what God's
word seems to be saying. And there's a lot of times I
go back and I look at it and I was like, man, that guy's just
really stretching that in that area. Sounded good, but you know,
just, I can't see where I can really say that. I can't speak
faithfully to something that even if I compile it where it
all seems to fit and work together, if it doesn't, if it's not out
of here. See, I mentioned that there was
a time whenever I was asked at another church, I was asked,
I said, you know, they said, we like your preaching. Can you
continue to preach, but just not go into all this stuff? I wouldn't be speaking faithfully
if I didn't. Not only speaking faithfully
to what I've been given to believe, but I surely wouldn't be speaking
faithfully of God's Word. I wouldn't be preaching the whole
counsel of God. I'd only be finding the select
areas to tickle the ears of those who wanted to hear. The word
of God is given to us and the children of grace, whenever they
speak, they are speaking faithfully. Look, if you would, with me over
to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. How many over here would ever
desire to be noble? That's kind of a desirous thing.
I mean, I'd say I'd like to be a person that would be a noble
person, you know? Well, what does the word of God
say? It says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Poor Thessalonica. For all of
the rest of history, as long as God's word will remain, The
Thessalonians got pinned as the ones who were not as noble as
somebody else. But it says, these were more
noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word
with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily
whether those things were so. Now, of course, we're talking
about Paul was preaching in Athens here. And we're talking about
the Bereans. Those of Berea heard Paul, the
Apostle Paul, the theologian Paul, the one who was at the
feet of Gamaliel and then transformed on the Damascus road and has
become the great Gentile preacher, the Apostle Paul. greater than
Gil, greater than Calvin, greater than Bibi, greater than all these
other men that we see in history, the Apostle Paul. And the Bereans
were, the scriptures say, more noble because they searched the
scriptures to find out whether that apostle, that preacher to
the Gentiles, that man of God, with all the education that he
had behind him in the Old Testament, and all the education that he
got in the New Testament by Jesus Christ, you know what they said? Mm-mm, it's coming from the lips
of a man. I'm going to God's word, which
is infallible. Now, you would think that the
Apostle Paul was infallible, right? If the Apostle Paul said
something, then it's gotta be right. That's why I keep saying,
brethren, those men were fallible. That's why they weren't inspired,
the words were inspired. All scripture is given by inspiration. The scripture is given by inspiration. Men of old wrote them down, but
it was because God told them what to write down. But anyway,
we see here that they were more noble, why? with all readiness
of mind and search the scriptures daily, whether those things were
so. So one of the things is, is that we are given a readiness
of mind to search the scriptures and we listen to what the scriptures
say and not listen to man. You know, we don't listen to
pastors because they're pastors. That don't make it, I don't wanna
belittle the pastoral office that God has given to the church
that's very important. But those men that hold those
offices are men just like anybody else, are fallible. And it isn't
because they say something that we believe it. We believe it
because it's the word of God. I would pray that you guys wouldn't
believe anything because I said it, but that you had took it
to the word of God and you held it up to the standard of God's
word. And if it's right, then believe
it. If it's not, please, in love, come and correct me and reprove
me, rebuke me, chasten me if I don't repent. That would be
my desire. That would be the desire, I think,
of any child of grace on that, that we ought to search the scriptures
to see whether they're so. While you're there in Acts, turn
back, if you would, to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four, and look with
me, if you would, at verse 29. And now Lord behold their threatenings
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word. I think we ought to pray that
the word of God is boldly spoke. So many people are hedging on
God's word today. It's just amazing. They just,
they're afraid to stand for God's word, to say what God says. If God said it, why are we afraid
to say what God says? Now, the way we say it might
be off-putting. Don't be that. but there's nothing
wrong with saying God's word. If God says that homosexuality
is, and I would say he doesn't use the word homosexuality, he
uses the word fornication, he uses the word sodomize. If he says that sodomy is a sin,
we ought to have no problem saying that sodomy is sin. If someone
says, do you think this is wrong? We ought to say, well, yeah,
absolutely. Yeah, God's word says it's wrong. that we should
speak boldly. We should pray that our preachers
speak boldly in the pulpits and not be afraid to speak what God
says. So many preachers are afraid
to speak the truth because their numbers might diminish, their
money might diminish, their accolades might diminish, their popularity
might diminish, all these things. You take Joel Osteen and that,
however many thousands, 25, 50,000 arena, and if he starts preaching
the truth of God's salvation, if they start practicing accountability
among its membership, you think that that thing's gonna be full
in a few weeks? It's not gonna be full in a few
weeks. If he starts preaching on sin, and how sinful you are
and depraved, you know what? He won't be guy smiling anymore.
He'll be guy frowning. Why? Because probably three fourths
of that whole congregation of people will leave. We need to
pray that preachers would speak boldly. In chapter eight there
in verse 25, it says, And they, when they had testified
and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and
preached the gospel in many villages and in Samaria. And they, when they had testified
and preached the word. Paul also tells Timothy, and
we won't go to it there, we won't for the sake of time. He says,
preach the word. be in season and out of season,
preach the word. So there is a time where we're
called to preach the word, not just share the word. Sometimes
around the coffee table, we're sharing the word of God, but
we're talking about a public declaration where one stands
up and proclaims the word of God to those who are there to
listen. We preach the word of God. We're called in Acts chapter
11, and I'm trying to hurry for time. Acts chapter 11 and verse
one, we're called there. It says, and the apostles and
brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received
the word of God. So the word of God is something
that can be received if God gives us the ears to hear and the heart
and the eyes to see. It can be received. They received
the word of God. What does that mean to receive
the word of God? Well, it means that they believed
it and they trusted it. They received it to themselves.
They received it as being truth to them. If I receive the word
of God, that means I've heard it and I accept that and receive
that. And I can't do that unless God
gives me those ears to hear. If you remember, all those who
were ordained to eternal life believed. You believe because you're my
sheep. That's what Jesus said. And then in Acts 13, 48, I just jumped
ahead of myself. The one verse, if I could put
any verse down as the pivotal verse of me coming to the gospel
is Acts 13, 48. Verse 47, for so hath the Lord
commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
and this refers to not just the verse above that, but everything
that Paul had been preaching. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Not as many as
believed were ordained to eternal life. That's not what it says. Matter of fact, what Paul writes
here grammatically is in the same construct as what Jesus
said when he said, you don't believe because you are not my
sheep. Here he says, the reason you
believe is because you were ordained to eternal life. The ordaining
to eternal life is the causality of the belief. Jesus says, the
reason that you believe is the causality because you're my sheep. And so we see that what does
it do? It causes us to glorify. If you're
the sheep of God, if you are the one ordained to eternal life,
when the word of God comes in and is received by grace and
by faith, guess what? We glorify the word of the Lord. And then what do we want to do? Acts chapter 18. And he continued there a year
and six months teaching the word of God among them. Now this was
Paul, whenever he went to, I believe this was Corinth was where he
was at. Yeah, it was at Corinth that he went. And as a result,
many believed and was baptized. And in verse 11, he said, he
continued there in Corinth for a year and a half. We have these
churches that think that they can explain the Word of God in
a little pamphlet. Nothing wrong with tracts and
pamphlets, but they think that they can give the Word of God
and teach somebody in some little small session. These churches
that are crazy that you have to pass some sort of test to
get into membership and they have to go through a class, you
think they're gonna be able to teach the Word of God in a month-long seminar? Paul was there a year and a half
teaching the Word of God among those people. See, that's why
Jesus said, whenever disciples are made, that you baptize them,
and then you bring them back in to the gathering, and you
teach them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded you. It's
a reciprocal thing. We make disciples, we bring disciples
in, and we together are edified by the preaching and the teaching
and the fellowship of God's people together. That's where we learn
the Word of God so that we go out there to exercise those things
among the world. But it's here that it's done.
And so a year and a half, but it says that he taught the Word
of God. We teach the Word of God. The
Word of God tells us that we don't have any need that man
teaches us, that the Holy Spirit does the teaching. Does that
contradict what it says here, that Paul taught them the Word
of God? No, the teaching is an inward teaching that happens
first, and then they hear that and they attest, yes, that's
the Word of God. When Brother Larry was talking
this morning, and he was sharing things with us, And whenever
he would say something and our hearts would say, yes, that's
true. That's the truth. And we were
taught and learned by what Larry said, but it wasn't Larry that
actually taught us. Larry brought that word. He manifested
that truth to us, to our ears, but it was the Holy Spirit that
applied that in our heart and in our mind as the truth of God's
word. And so, yes, do we need teachers?
God has given us those gifts and given us men that have that
gift given to do that. But yet brethren, it is the Holy
Spirit of God. And you don't have to have somebody
to reveal that. God's word can reveal that to
you by the Holy Spirit. But we don't feign the men of
God that God has raised up and given gifts within the church
to do those things. In 1 Peter 3 and verse 1, we
read that we are to obey the Word of God. 1 Peter 3 and verse 1. Likewise, you wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also
may be without the word, be won by the conversation of, well,
I don't think that's the one that I meant to write down. Whenever
I was pulling my verses, it has obey in the thing, but I don't
think that was the verse I was meaning to read. Well, for time's sake, I'll just
skip over that. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Timothy, Chapter 2. 2 Timothy, Chapter 2. The scriptures itself tells us
in verse 15, it says, study to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Now that rightly dividing the
word of truth doesn't mean into its dispensations. There's a
lot of talking. Some of y'all may not even know
what I'm talking about, and if so, great. But there are some
out there that believe that the dividing of the word of God is
talking about breaking it up into the dispensations of time
as the dispensationalists teach. But that's not what it's talking
about. Rightly dividing the word of truth means taking God's word
and teaching it, preaching it, interpreting it correctly. So
we need to study God's word and rightly divide it or rightly
teach the word of truth. So we should handle it properly.
In James chapter one, we're told that we ought to do God's word. James chapter one, verse 22,
it says, but be you doers of the word and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural
faith in a glass. So we're exhorted to do the word
of God, to do the word of God. And the last one we'll look at
this morning is found in Revelation chapter one, one that is probably not the
most popular one. But Revelation chapter 1, and
look with me if you would at verse 9. I, John, who also am your brother
and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the
word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He is our companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. So if we're
a companion to John, and Jesus also said this in various places,
but if we're a companion in this tribulation, then one thing that
we're gonna experience is suffering for the word of God. Now, it may be It may be that
ultimate, horrible, cruel, unliking on Facebook because of the Word
of God. People threaten that to me. I
had a guy, matter of fact, when I was saying stuff about Billy
Graham that I did, one guy said, you know, I just can't take this
no more. I'm tired of all the negativity. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to
quit following you. Well, boy, did that hurt my feelings. I went home and cried all night
long. Okay, all right, well, go away. I mean, if you don't
wanna hear truth, then that's fine. No, I wasn't cruel or rude
to him. I just said, you know, I hate
that that's how you understand that and see that, but you know. No, there's gonna be a time when
we really suffer for the word of God. There may be a time whenever
they come in here and tell us, you can't meet here no more. You're not able to meet in his
name. Sure, you can meet in Allah,
you can meet in Buddha, you can meet in, you know, Bosquely,
whatever, you know, but you're not meeting in the name of Christ.
There may be a time when they say either renounce your faith
in Christ or we'll cut your head off. We may experience that,
brother. I mean, we live, we've been fortunate
in the United States that we've not had to deal really with that.
But there are brothers in Christ that are dealing with that across
the world. I mean, you read some of the
stories from Brother Pat Horner and from Brother Paul Brown,
some of these men who are ministering over in India and over in Thailand,
over in Myanmar. Brother Paul was talking about
how there's people in Myanmar, or what was the other name for
Myanmar? There's another name for it that's
more popular. Anyway. that are crying for them to come
and preach to us Christ and everything, but their governments are saying,
you come preach Christ in here, we'll kill you, we'll kill you.
And so there are those who suffer for the word of God. We don't
know suffering, being unliked on Facebook isn't suffering,
okay? It may hurt our feelings a little
bit. It may scratch our pride, but that ain't suffering. But brethren, believe me, if
you stand on the word of God, there will be suffering. There'll
be families that don't want you to be around anymore, or at least
speak of Christ anymore. Brother against brother, sister
against sister, father and son, mother and daughter, father and
whatever. They're gonna go away. Friends
are gonna go away. They'll be suffering for the Word of God.
But listen, again, remember, the Bible says, count it all
joy whenever you suffer for these things. Count it all joy to be
accounted as one. who has the testimony of Jesus
Christ, but suffers for that. The disciples, remember, whenever
they got locked up and flogged and then turned loose, they said,
don't be preaching about it. They went away counting it a
joy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. So we suffer for
the word of God, but brethren, we count it all joy that we're
considered to be ones who hold the truth of Jesus Christ that
the world hates. Because we know that if the world
hates us, we're loved of God. We're loved of God. Anybody got
anything they'd like to add to this? I know it kind of went
a little bit long here, but anything you'd like to add? All right. Well, let's have a
word of prayer and we'll have lunch and be dismissed. Gracious
Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for the Word of God and we
thank you for this time together. We thank you for the brethren
that you've gathered here today. We thank you for the word that
we've heard from Brother Larry this morning, Lord, and the tremendous,
beautiful picture that Hebrews paints of our prophet, our priest,
and our king. The one sacrifice of all sacrifices
that were ever made, this sacrifice was the sacrifice that saved
His people from their sins. It's the sacrifice that God accounted
as righteousness for His people. It's the sacrifice that will
bring all of His children back to Him. It's the sacrifice that
we love. It's the sacrifice that we preach.
It's the sacrifice that we glorify in. And Father, we're grateful
to be accounted as your people under that sacrifice. Lord, I
thank you today that we have this word to rejoice in. We do
rejoice in it, Father. We're glad that we have been
given the testimony of Christ, but we're also glad that we've
been given truth that we can count on, that we can bank on,
trust in. And so Father, again, we thank
you for another day that we have to gather together and come around
the truth and to share the truth and to be edified by the truth. And Father, we pray that you
let us continue that for many days to come until you come again.
Father, we just, again, thank you for the time that we have
of fellowship now. We just ask that you bless the food that
we're about to eat, the nourishment of our bodies, and it's in Christ's
name that we pray, amen.