Welcome to the 2015 Shepherds
Conference General Session number 10, Steve Lawson. Well, our hearts
have been lifted up to the throne of grace, have they not? And
as we've joined our voices together in worshiping the Lord, it's
been an enlarging experience for my heart as we have worshiped
together and sung these anthems of praise. I don't think there's
anywhere in the world that this particular group of men would
come together in one conference at one time, as you have come
from 70 different countries around the world. As you have come from
the various continents and from all across the United States
as we've gathered here, intent on one purpose with one mind
in one place, being of one spirit, we have devoted ourselves to
the worship of God and the ministry of His Word. And so as we now
come to this session, I do want to ask you to join me in a word
of prayer. Father, as we now come to this
time to hear yet again from Your Word, I pray that You will magnify
Your glory before our eyes, that You will enlarge our confidence
in Your Word, that Your promises are yea and amen. that You have
spoken with an infallible voice that has been recorded and preserved
for us in pages of inspired Scripture. And I pray, God, that as we assemble
in this conference and even this morning, that You would solidify
and stabilize our firm allegiance to the ministry of the proclamation
of Your Word. We believe that what the psalmist
has said is true, that You have exalted Your Word above Your
throne in the heavens, and that You have promised to honor the
man and honor the ministry that will honor Your Word. It is Your
Word that tells us of the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Your Word that sets on
display before our watching eyes by faith. the height and the
depth and the breadth and the length of Your love for us in
Christ. And so as we gather this day,
Lord, I pray that You would do a significant work in our hearts,
that this would not be just one more conference or one more meeting
or one more session, but that You would...You would go deep
into our soul and that You would anchor us in Your Word. and that for the rest of our
lives, our ministries will be faithfully devoted to expounding
Your truths. You have said that Your church
is the pillar and support of the truth. And in this hour and
in this day and this generation, I pray that we would faithfully
uphold sound doctrine. and that we would earnestly contend
for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Lord,
I pray that You would come alongside each and every man here today
and that You would strengthen him and fortify him and encourage
him, that You would open the windows of heaven and pour out
Your grace upon everyone who is gathered here today. We're reminded of the words of
our Lord, apart from Me, you can do nothing. Truly, truly,
I say unto you, he who hears these words of Mine and acts
upon them is like a very wise man who built his house upon
the rock. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, it did not fall because
it was built upon the rock. And he who hears these words
of Mine and does not act upon them. is a very foolish man who
has built his house upon the sand and when the rains came
and the winds blew and beat against the house, great was its fall
because it was built upon the sand. Lord, by Your enabling
grace, incline our hearts even more
to build upon the rock. of the revelation that has been
entrusted to us in Your inspired, inerrant and infallible Word. Father, we pray this in the name
that is above every name, the name of Him who is the living
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I have just one bit of unfinished
business from yesterday. Many of you, if not most of you,
were in my session as I spoke on William Tyndale. And I neglected
to say to you something very important. I held up this Tyndale
Bible, we believe it's 1534. This is the greatest masterpiece
in the English language. I have seen the crown jewels.
in the Tower of London. This is the real crown jewel.
It's the Word of God translated into our language. If there is
an evangelical Ark of the Covenant, this is it. 1525, Tyndale was
in Cologne, Germany. attempting to make his first
published New Testament. There was a raid on the print
shop at the time of Matthew 22, verse 12. He had to gather up
his materials, head to the Rhine River, get on a boat, come downstream
to Worms, Germany where Tyndale would try to complete the work.
It was where Martin Luther in 1521, April 18th, stood at the
Diet of Worms and gave his great defense of the Word of God. Tyndale
knew there were Luther sympathetic people there. And in 1526, he
completed the first ever English translation from the original
Greek into English. Eight years later in 1534, He produced this. There's only
one in the world of 1525 up to Matthew 22, 12. There are about
seven in the world of 1526. There is but a very small number
of 1534. Tyndale made somewhere between 4,000 to 5,000 corrections. He was committed to the best
translation he could possibly pull together. And he produced
this. There would be one more quick
revision, 1535, he would be martyred in 1536, the same year John Calvin
came to Geneva. One man steps off the scene and
God raises up the next man. This book will be on display
just outside the doors. You may never have a chance again
to be this close to, I think, the greatest treasure in the
English language. I would encourage you to go by
and take a look for it is truly a priceless treasure. I want to speak to you this morning on the invincible power of the
inerrant Word. We understand what the word inerrant
means. It means that the Bible is without
any errors as it was recorded in its original autographs. This is a flawless book in all
that it states. Psalm 12 verse 6 says, the words
of the Lord are pure. As silver tried in a furnace
on the earth, refined seven times, meaning refined to absolute perfection. It is a flawless book in all
that it states. Psalm 119 verse 140, your word
is very pure. Proverbs 30 verse 5 says, every
word of God is tested, meaning it has been put into the fire,
there are no impurities that remain, it is the pure gold and
silver of the truth of God. Jesus prayed in John 17 verse
17, your word is truth. The word truth means reality.
It means the way things really are. It means not that which
the culture or the population says something is. It's not how
it is perceived by us. The word truth means reality.
It means the way things really are. And sin is whatever God
says sin is. Salvation is whatever God says
salvation is. Heaven and hell is whatever God
says something is. Let every man be found a liar.
Let God be found true. In James 1 verse 25, the Scripture
is referred to as the perfect law. In 1 Peter 2 verse 2, the
Bible represents itself as, quote, the pure milk of the Word. That is to say it is unadulterated
and it is unvarnished. The Bible says in Hebrews 6 verse
18, it is impossible for God to lie. I have retranslated this
from the original language and this is what it literally means.
It is impossible for God to lie. It means what it says and it
says what it means. Titus 1 verse 2 says, God who
cannot lie. There are some things that God
cannot do and God can never contradict Himself. And it is impossible
for God to lie because God is truth and His Son is the truth
and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and the Word of God
is the Word of truth. Concerning such an inerrant Bible,
the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, if I do
not believe in the infallibility of Scripture, the absolute infallibility
of it from cover to cover, I would never enter the pulpit again. Close quote. And so it is for
all of us who are gathered here today, who minister the Word
of God, if we did not believe in the inerrancy of the Word
of God, we would never enter a pulpit again. Because the Word of God is inerrant,
it is therefore by necessity invincible. Because the Word
of God is absolutely pure, it is therefore absolutely powerful. Because the Bible is what it
claims to be, it is able to do what it claims to do. The word
invincible means incapable of being overcome or subdued. It means incapable of being conquered
or debated. such as the supernatural power
of the Word of God. And the Bible is so invincible.
so invincible that it requires many different symbols to communicate
the whole of its power. It's like the Bible is like a
beautiful diamond that has many different cuts and when you hold
it up to the light, each beauty is refracting the light out of
each different side and no one symbol of the Bible can communicate
the whole, so it requires many different metaphors, many different
analogies to even begin to try to put its arm around the totality
of the invincible power of the inerrant Word. And so what I
want to do for us together in this session. is set before you
but seven symbols of sacred Scripture, seven metaphors, seven analogies
that are found in the Bible itself, how the Bible represents itself
to us. I would encourage you to write
these down. I would encourage you to write these in the back
of your Bible. I would encourage you to preach this outline. I
would encourage you to teach this as a lesson. Seven symbols. of the sacred
Scripture. I want you to think with me first
from Hebrews chapter 12...excuse me, Hebrews chapter 4 and verses
12 and 13. Number one, the Word of God is
a sword that pierces. It's not a Q-tip that tickles. It is a sword that pierces. It
is not a feather It is a sword. And if the Word of God is not
a sword in your hand, you are not preaching the Word of God.
In Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 12, I want to look at
verses 12 and 13, and I want you to note with me first what
the Bible is and then second what the Bible does. Four things
what the Bible is at the beginning of verse 12. Number one, it is
the divine Word. It says, for the Word of God.
It's not the Word of man, it's not the Word of culture, it's
not the Word of society, it's not the Word of tradition, it's
not the Word of religion, it is the Word of God. It has come
down to us from above. It has not originated from within
us or from within this world, it has come down from the throne
of God above. It is the Word of God. Not only
is it the divine Word, second, it is the living Word. It says,
for the Word of God is living. That is to say, it is alive. It speaks in this very hour. In fact, across the page in Hebrews
3 verse 7, please note the verb tense of this, it says, therefore
just as the Holy Spirit says. And then he quotes from Psalm
95 verse 7, not said, past tense. what the Spirit says through
His Word, present tense. This book is alive. In fact,
that is the emphasis that is made by the writer here in the
original language, the order of the words is this, living. for the Word of God is. It's
put in the emphatic position. It's as if the author of the
book of Hebrews has taken a yellow highlighter and underscored the
word living. That should jump off the page
to us today. This isn't just an ancient book.
This isn't just an old book. This book is alive. Martin Luther said, the Bible
is alive, it speaks to me. It has hands, it runs after me.
Or it has feet, it runs after me. I was translating out of the
German at that point. I know when you're laughing with
me and when you're laughing at me. It has feet, Luther says. The Bible runs after me. It has
hands. It lays hold of me. Surely this
book has grabbed you by the lapels. Surely this book has laid hold
of your heart. Jesus said in John 6 verse 63,
the words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. Every other book in reality is
a dead book unless it contains the living Word of God. And because
this book is living, it is the most relevant book. It speaks
to every age, to every generation, on every continent, in every
place. It's been well said, this book
is more up-to-date than tomorrow's newspaper. You want to have a
contemporary ministry? Great, preach the Bible. It's
the most contemporary, relevant message that there is. And then
third, it says it's active. This word active in ergas means
energetic. It's full of energy. This book's
never flat. There have been many times I've
walked into a pulpit like this and I've been tired physically,
emotionally, mentally. But this book's never been tired.
And when I open this book and begin to preach this book, the
energy of this book begins to surge through my soul and it
begins to surge through your soul as you stand up to preach
this book. This book is never tired. This
book is never listless. This book is active. This book
is always at work in the world. This book never takes a day off.
This book is never on sabbatical. This book never needs a rest.
This book is active. And when you preach this book,
it continues to work even after you go home and you go to sleep. The Word of God continues to
carry out its work in the hearts of people. And then fourth it
says, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's the Word of God,
it is living, it is active, and it is sharper than any two-edged
sword. In fact, it is the sharpest weapon
in any arsenal in the world. No surgeon's scalpel can even
compare with its cutting power. And it is sharper than any two-edged
sword. In other words, there's not a
dull side in the Bible. It cuts both ways. There's not
a flat book in the canon of Scripture. There's not a dull chapter. There
is not a blunt verse. Every verse in the entire Bible
is razor sharp and can cut and make a penetrating cut. That's what the Bible is. And
you should never go into the pulpit unarmed. But note what
it does. That's what it is. Note what
it does. First of all, it's piercing. Do you see that in the middle
of verse 12? And piercing as far as the division of soul and
spirit. This book is so razor sharp. that it penetrates through the
outward facades of men and women. It cuts through the excuses that
they would hold up. It plunges into the depth of
the heart. It cuts to the core of the inner
person and gets to the bottom of one's life. Every other human
message is superficial. It just lays on the surface.
It massages the ego. It may stroke the temple, but
this book plunges down into the depth of a person's soul. It
gets beneath the surface. It does not inflict a mere flesh
wound, but it plunges into the vital organs. down into the heart,
and note second, not only piercing, but judging and is able to judge. There is the sufficiency of Scripture.
It is able. It is more than able. It is able
to judge, kritikos, meaning critique or critic. The Scripture is able
to critique perfectly the human heart. It is able to judge the
soul and to render the divine verdict. It is able to judge
the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Man looks on the outward
appearance, but God looks upon the heart. And it is the ministry
of this sharp two-edged sword that is able to penetrate and
to judge what no one else can see, what you alone know about
yourself, or perhaps what has not even yet been made known
to you by the Word. It gets so far down deep into
the crevices of your soul and into the depths of your spirit
that it is able to judge the thoughts. Those secret thoughts
and intentions, the inner desires, the personal ambitions, the driving
motives, the deepest attitudes, able to judge the thoughts and
intentions of the heart. That's how razor sharp the Word
of God is. And note verse 13, note the first
word of verse 13, and, meaning what is found in verse 13 continues
with the same flow of verse 12. It connects verse 12 and verse
13 together, and there is no creature, no one in your congregation,
no one in your ministry, no one in your house, no one who is
sitting under the sharp two-edged sword, there is no creature.
hidden from His sight. God who is omniscient and knows
all things and sees into the inner thought life, there is
no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open. And in this context, what this
is saying is that God sees into the inner heart. long before
the piercing Word cuts into the soul to peel back the layers
of a man's heart. And as the Word is ministered,
we are enabled to see ourselves as God sees us. We are able to
see something of what God sees when God looks into the depths.
of our heart. There was no creature hidden
from His sight, but all things," please note, all things, action,
attitude, thoughts, intentions, motives, attitudes, all things
are open, out in the open because of the ministry of the Word of
God. It exposes everything. This word for open is a Greek
word, gymnos, from which we derive the English word gymnasium or
gymnastics. And when you would go to a gym
in the first century, you would strip down as you would exercise
and pump weights and run and all of the like so that there
would be no restrictions, nothing of even clothing that would hold
you back from full extension of all of the limbs so that you
could truly work out. And this Word says it is the
Word of God that strips us down and makes us naked before a holy
God and we are allowed to see ourselves for the very first
time as God sees us. This Word strips away all pretenses,
all excuses, all cover-ups, all fig leaves. and leaves the human
soul naked before God. And note the next words, and
laid bare. We are stripped down and then
laid bare under the piercing two-edged sword. These words,
laid bare, trachelidzo, you can hear the word tracheotomy. It
means to seize by the neck. It means to expose the throat
or neck of a victim for killing. They would take the sacrificial
lamb and pull back the neck, and the priest would take the
knife and slit the throat and bring the death blow to the sacrificial
animal. And that is what the Word of
God does. It renders the death blow to pride. It renders the
death blow to self-righteousness and self-sufficiency and self-flattery. Laid bare to the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do. Or better, to whom we must give
an account. Or literally, to whom is our
Word? Or to whom we must answer to? Or to whom we must give an answer? It is the Word of God that establishes
our direct accountability to God as it cuts down into the
depths of a person's soul. And no one will ever be saved. apart from such heart-rending
conviction and exposure of the soul before God, to leave one
in a sense of conviction of sin and a desperate and dire need
for a Savior and His grace to perform open-heart surgery and
to give me a new heart. This is what happened on the
day of Pentecost, Peter unsheathed the sharp two-edged sword and
he wielded it and in Acts 2 verse 37 it says, now when they heard
this, after Peter has said, listen, you men of Galilee, hearken unto
me, this is that that was spoken of the prophet Joel. And he quotes
Joel 2, verse 28 to 32. Then he goes to Psalm 16, verses
8 through 11. Then he goes to Psalm 134. Then
back to Psalm 16, 8 through 11. And then for the crescendo, he
goes to Psalm 110, verse 1. Scripture, Scripture, Scripture,
Scripture, making these thrusts to the hearts of those. And when
they heard this, it reads, they were pierced. They were deeply
pierced to the heart. The word means to stab as with
a knife. Men, I call upon us as we minister
the Word of God to take up the sharp two-edged sword. It is
the invincible weapon of the minister. Never enter the pulpit
unarmed. Unsheath the sword. Wield the
sword of the Spirit. The weapons of our warfare are
not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction
of fortresses. Put down all other plastic forks. Put down all other butter knives. Put down all human crafted utensils
and take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God."
This is number one. Sounds like you're sitting on
your sword. It is the sword that pierces. You need the sword to
pierce in your ministry. You don't need to have a back-slapping,
ego-massaging, palm-greased ministry. You need the sharp, two-edged
sword. Second, it is a mirror that reveals.
Turn to James chapter 1, James chapter 1 and verse 23. And I
want you to note second that once the heart is opened up and
the chest cavity is made bare before God by the plunging sword
of the Spirit. Now the mirror of the Word is
held up. In James 1 verse 23, we read,
for if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, so we're
talking about the Word of God, and He is saying, if anyone hears
but does not heed, he is like...it's an analogy...he is like a man
who looks at his natural face, watch this, in a mirror. He is
likening the Word of God to a mirror. And what do you do with a mirror? A mirror gives you self-knowledge. A mirror enables you to see yourself
as you truly are. A mirror tells it like it is.
A mirror gives a true reflection and revelation of what's on the
inside. There is a real sense, I never
truly knew myself. until I began to read the Word
of God. I was born in 1951, that baby
boomer age. I grew up in a Norman Rockwell
type of home. I was a firstborn child. My parents
doted on me. My mother loved me. My father
loved me. My mother adored me. My wife's
still trying to correct that. On top of that, my mother's sister
lived with us as I grew up. I had two mothers. They catered
to me. They did everything for me. They
affirmed me. They praised me. And then I played
football. basketball, baseball, ran track. I went to pep rallies, would
stand in front of the student body, be given trophies. The
cheerleaders would cheer your name, went off to college, played
football. The sororities cheer your name. Then I began to read my Bible. And I wasn't quite what everyone
else was saying. I had...when I went to college,
I had a living Bible. Not the Hebrews 4.12, but the old living Bible, that's
all I had. I only had a New Testament. It
was a living Bible with pictures. It was. It had pictures of athletes
running. that would be spliced into the
New Testament. And I took that book wherever
I went. And I would go to class and I would sit in the hall and
lean back against the wall and I would just read my Bible and
I had felt-tip pens and I was...I didn't...I had no commentary,
I had no study Bible, I had no Christian book whatsoever under
heaven. All I had was a Bible and several
colors of a felt pen. And I just read through my New
Testament week after week after week after week. I would take
it to the dorm. I would take it to football practice.
I would take it to the dining hall. And as I read this book,
it was like someone was reading my heart and someone was doing
inventory of my soul. And this book was not cheering
and applauding me in the sense of flattering me. This book was
giving me the accurate picture within my soul of who I truly
am and my dire need for grace. You and I need to be holding
up the mirror as we preach. And you and I need to be standing
behind that mirror and people not seeing us but looking into
this mirror and seeing themselves. There's been many a time after
I've preached, I'll be out in the lobby and I can see out of
my peripheral vision over in the corner a shy man whose wife
has made him come to church. And he's waiting for everyone
to leave so he can come up to me privately. And I'll see him
coming and he'll come up to me and he will say this after he
has heard the preaching of the Word of God. Have you been talking
to my wife? Because it seems that I know
more about Him than what He knows about Him. And I will say, no,
I have not spoken to your wife at all. He will say, yes, you
have. And I will say, no, I have not
spoken to your wife. But the Word of God is like a
mirror that reveals yourself to yourself. Listen, no one will
ever be saved until they see themselves for who they are and
what they are, and no one will ever be continually sanctified
without continually looking into the perfect law of liberty and
seeing the estimate of God and where there needs to be improvements
and where there needs to be repentance and where there needs to be mid-course
correction. It's a mirror that reveals. in every verse. I was preaching
not long ago in my church that I pastored, and I preached what
I thought was one of the most soft messages I think I've ever
preached. I was preaching through 1 Corinthians
13, I came to love is patient. And I was almost apologizing
to my own heart for preaching love is patient. I thought, this
is going to have no effect on anyone. It was like the application,
go into all the world and smile. You know, and I was just praying
the Lord would not come back while I'm preaching, love is
patient. But at the end, I spoke of how Christ is the personification
of this virtue of love and how patient He has been toward us
and that God is not willing that any of His elect should perish
but that all should come to repentance and faith. And as soon as I finished
that message, there was a man who had come in, I had never
met him before, and he made a bolt to the pulpit. I couldn't even
get out of the pulpit, he was in the pulpit with me. And he had that look where God
had a hold of him. And I said, let's come down to
the front pew and we sat down and he said, I've come to church today by
myself because no one in my family will come with me because I am
so impatient and because I'm so domineering and overbearing
and over the top and you have spoken of God's patience towards
us in Christ and the need that I have to be patient And there
on the front pew of the church, as after everyone had left the
sanctuary, that man was born again. It was the Word that revealed
Himself to himself. And listen, you can talk about
the culture and society and give book reviews and quote poems
and talk about movies and television shows and all the rest, and it
has in most times the opposite effect. But when you hold up
the Word of God as a mirror, people see themselves and they
see their dire need for grace and they come to Christ. Not only is the Word a sword
and a mirror, but third, it is a seed. I want you to come to
1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23, 1 Peter 1 verse 23, and I want
you to see that the Word of God is a seed that germinates. It
is a seed that regenerates. It is a seed that reproduces. And Peter writes in 1 Peter 1
verse 23, you have been born again. Stop right there. The
you refers to all the believers who are scattered abroad that
he mentions in chapter 1 verse 1. And he says to these true
believers, you have been born again. It's a passive perfect
participle which means this has already happened in the past
and they were passive and someone acted upon them. This is what
we call a sovereign regeneration. This is a monergistic regeneration. It is God acting upon the spiritually
dead soul and you have been born again. The new birth is the life
of God and the soul of a man. It is the spiritually dead soul
now becoming the recipient of the life of God. And a person
becomes a new creature in Christ, and the old things passed away.
And behold, new things have come, and you have received a new life
in Christ, totally unlike anything you have ever experienced to
this point. In fact, it is eternal life that
has come into the soul and it is the life of the ages to come
in the soul. Heaven comes to us before we
ever go to heaven. And he says, you have been born
again. And he gives a negative denial,
then a positive assertion. First the negative denial. This
is how you were not born again, not of seed which is perishable. A perishable seed can only reproduce
a life after its own kind. Apple seeds do not produce bowling
alleys. Apple seeds produce apple trees
and the fruit of apple. There's a fundamental principle
in life, like produces like. So he says, you were born again,
not a seed which is... Imperishable. Eternal life is
not by a perishable seed that only gives temporal life. No. He says, but. And Martin Lloyd-Jones
says, praise God for the buts in the Bible. But, imperishable,
and we would add the word seed. A seed is a remarkable thing.
A seed contains an embryo of a plant within it. ready to be germinated for propagation. Within a seed, there is the ability
to reproduce. It is capable of germination. And he says that we have been
born again of imperishable seed that...and what is this seed? He says that is through the living
and enduring Word of God. A supernatural life comes only
from... a supernatural seed. Eternal
life only comes from a seed that is living and enduring. Listen, it would be easier to
grow oak trees by planting marbles than for someone to be saved
without the planting of this imperishable seed into the prepared
soil of their hearts. And Jesus spoke of this in Luke
8 and verse 5, He says, the seed is the Word of God. That it is living is what Hebrews
4.12 said, that it is enduring, means it never perishes, it never
dies, and it produces a life that never perishes and never
dies. Jesus said in John 11 verse 25,
though you die, you will live forever. It is by this inspired and errant
Word of God that this new birth comes. Now here is the truth
about your ministry. You reap what you sow. You reap
more than you sow. You reap later than you sow.
And if you sow a worldly message, you will reap a worldly church. And if you sow secular humanism
and pop psychology and worldly trends and religious traditions
and corporate leadership and cultural ideologies and philosophical
thoughts and personal experiences and political commentary, you
will reap an unconverted church. But if you sow the living and
enduring Word of God under the auspices of the sovereignty of
God who alone can cause that seed to germinate, you will have
a regenerate church. Spurgeon said, I would rather
speak five words out of this book than 50,000 words of the
philosophers. If we want revivals, we must
revive our reverence for the Word of God. And if we want conversion,
Spurgeon said, we must put more of God's Word into our sermons. Did you hear that? Less of you,
more of God. Fourth, the Word of God is milk that
nourishes. While you're in 1 Peter, while
we're in the neighborhood, look at chapter 2 verses 2 and And
once one has been sovereignly regenerated by the Holy Spirit
of God, causing the seed of the Word to spring forth with life,
he says in verse 2 of 1 Peter 2, he talks about now the spiritual
growth of the one who is born again. And he makes another analogy. And he says, like newborn babes. all believers are to always be
like newborn babes. You are to never outgrow being
like a newborn babe. You never advance to a place
of spiritual maturity that anyone in your ministry, nor you who
serve, are to be beyond being like a newborn babe. You are
to be always craving the Word of God like a baby craves for
milk. And so he says, like newborn
babies, long for. That means to cry out, to crave,
to intensely desire, to have this singular dominant thirst
for. Like newborn babes, long for
the pure milk of the Word. There's the inerrancy of Scripture,
the pure milk and milk. It's a primary source of nutrition. Milk is able...babies are able
to digest milk before they can digest other kinds of food. Milk
contains antibodies that provide protection from disease. Milk
has nutrients that cause growth. As we minister the Word of God.
We must be feeding our people the milk of the Word. It is a
dynamic spiritual growth stimulant. No one's spiritual development
will advance beyond their intake of the Word of God. None of us will live up to all
of the Word of God that comes into us, but none of us will
advance beyond the measure of the Word of God that is flowing
into us like milk. And He gives us the reason why
in verse 3, so that, here is why, purpose statement, so that
by it. And the by here means by the
means of the Word of God. Here is the ordinary means of
grace. By it, you, referring to all
those born again, you may grow, meaning develop, mature, advance,
increase in godliness in respect to salvation and the salvation
here refers to sanctification. The Word is to be taken up and
digested and it produces spiritually strong bones and healthy hearts. and a strong immune system that
is able to fight off spiritual diseases. How shall a young man
keep his way pure? How shall an old man keep his
way pure? How shall an old woman keep her
way pure? How shall a teenager keep his
or her way pure? By keeping it according to Your
Word. Your Word I have treasured in
my heart that I may not sin against You." It is the Word of God treasured
in our heart that enables us to resist temptation. You remember
Jesus in the wilderness, 40 days, 40 nights? At the end of that
is the climactic three temptations. I think the text indicates He
was tempted and tested for the entirety of that experience.
And these are the final three climactic temptations as the
devil throws the artillery of hell against the sinless Son
of God. Command that these stones become
bread. And Jesus said, it is written,
man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God, Deuteronomy 8 verse 3. And with each advance,
Jesus unsheathes the sword of the Spirit and repels the advances
and the temptations of Satan by the Word of God. This is how you and I will remain. faithful in our pursuit of holiness
by the grace of God and by the Word of God. Fifth, it is a lamp that shines. Come to Psalm 119, verse 105. And what we are doing is setting
before us the different symbols of Scripture. What an incredible
instrument of grace is the Word of God. It is a sword that pierces. It is a mirror that reveals.
It is a seed that germinates. It is milk that nourishes. It
is a lamp that shines. Psalm 119 verse 105, you know
this text very well. Your Word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. Three things I want to tell you
about that verse very quickly. Number one, we live in a very
dark world and it is becoming darker by the moment. There are
many dangers and many perils and many snares that threaten
the safety of all who travel the narrow path that leads to
life. And many travelers have suffered
disaster on their way to glory. We live in a dark world and we
need light to see our way and to see the bends in the road
and to see the dangers that are lurking there for us. And second,
not only do we live in a dark and dangerous world, but the
Word of God is a lamp giving necessary light for all the travelers. Listen, this lamp is not an option
for a few of us. It is a necessity for every one
of us. And the light shines brightest
in the darkest hour of the night. And this lamp of God's Word has
never shined any brighter than it is shining in this very hour
in which you and I live, as we live in this sinful and adulterous
generation, as we live in times that are virtually unprecedented
on many levels. It is the Word of God. that is
shining the light before our path and revealing the way. And
as we stand in pulpits and stand behind lecterns and as we minister
the Word of God, we are to be holding forth the light. Proverbs
6 verse 23 says, the commandment...the commandment is a lamp. The teaching is light. You're to be a torchbearer. Psalm
19 verse 8, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening
the eyes. 2 Peter 1 verse 19, the prophetic
word, more sure, is a lamp shining in a dark place. Dr. MacArthur has shared with me
the number one thing that people say to him after he preaches. What do you think it is? Oh, I see it now. And the light is shining as we
open the book, and people see with a Christian worldview, and
people see through a Christian lens, and they see now with light
shining in a dark age. And the third thing that I want
you to note, it says, your Word is a lamp to my, please note,
feet. The emphasis here is not on the
head, not on the ears, not on the heart, but it's on the feet.
Now that presupposes it's come into the head, and it's come
by the eyes or by the ear, and it presupposes that this light
has shined into the heart. But it doesn't stop there, does
it? And it's not real until it affects the feet. And what we
learn, we must live and put it into practice. And he says, your
Word is a lamp to my feet. James Montgomery Boyce writes,
we do not know how to live our lives but the Bible shines on
the path before us to expose the wrong dangerous ways we might
take and light up the right way. It is the inerrant Word that
gives infallible guidance. Spurgeon said, everything in
the railway system depends upon the accuracy of the signals.
When these signals are wrong, that life will be sacrificed. And on the road to heaven, we
must have unerring signals or the catastrophes will be far
more terrible. And there is only one source
that gives infallible signals and inerrant guidance. And it is the lamp of the Word
of God that we hold forth. Your church, your pulpit, your
lectern, your class needs to be the brightest place in town.
Your ministry needs to be shining brighter than ten thousand suns
in the sky above, piercing the darkness. Sixth, the Word of
God is a fire. that consumes. Turn back to Jeremiah
chapter 23 and verse 29. Jeremiah 23 and verse 29 and
we read that the Word of God is a powerful instrument like
fire that consumes. In Jeremiah 23 verse 29, in this
section dealing with false prophets. God is the speaker. Jeremiah
is the secretary. And God declares, and Jeremiah
records this question from the lips of God, is not My Word like
a fire? That is a rhetorical question.
The answer of which is so obvious, God will not even answer the
question because if you have two brain cells that are touching
between your ears, you know the answer. And it is a powerful
form of communication. This is not a question, this
is a statement. Is not My Word like a fire? Now there are many positive Uses
of fire, it gives light, it gives heat, it gives energy, you can
cook with it. But this is intended in a very
negative fashion in this sense. It is this fire that consumes
and burns up all that with which it comes
in contact. that is resistant to the Word
of God. In this larger context, in this
chapter, if I could just draw it to your attention very quickly,
the reference is to, in verse 25, prophets who prophesy falsely. In verse 26, prophets who speak
out of the deception of their own heart. Verse 27, prophets
who make God's people forget God's name. Verse 28, prophets
who relate their dream that have nothing to do with God's Word.
In verse 30, God is against these prophets. Verse 31, again, God
is against these prophets. Verse 32, God is against these
prophets. Verse 34, God will punish these
prophets and all who follow their abominable message, and God Himself
is a consuming fire. And God's Word is like a fire,
and God promises judgment and will consume all that is not
built upon the solid rock of His Word. Earlier in Jeremiah
5 and verse 14, God says, behold, I'm making My Word in your mouth
fire. And the people would, and it
will consume them. And the message that Jeremiah
had from God for the people of his generation was a message
of fire that will consume all unbelief and it will bring the
fire of judgment for all who do not turn to the Lord and repent
of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This too
is a part of our message. This too is opening this book
and preaching the Word. Because the message that we preach
will cause people either to be blessed or to be burned. And
they will either be on fire or in the fire. They will either
be on fire for God or they will be in the fire of God and there
is no mediating position in between. And how we need again in this
hour, in this day, men who will stand up and preach like Jonathan
Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry God, while we preach
the grace and the mercy of God. But we need Romans 1 as much
as we need Romans 3. It's not either-or, it's both-hand.
And the Word of God is a consuming fire, and it will consume all
those who are in unbelief. This is a red-hot book, my friend. The Scriptures are sizzling.
It is the hottest message this world has ever heard. And when
you're called to preach, you're called to play with fire. Finally, the Word of God is not
only a fire that consumes. But in this very same text, in
verse 29 of Jeremiah 23, it is a hammer that shatters. It is a hammer that shatters.
There is no force in the world that compares with the shattering
power of the Word of God to overcome all resistance in the day of
His power. In Jeremiah 23 verse 29, God
again is the speaker. Jeremiah is the secretary and
the recorder. This is a dictation. These are
my words, God says. Write it down, Jeremiah. Deliver
it to the people. Put it in the Scripture. For
every generation to hear this is not my word like a hammer
which shatters a rock. This is another rhetorical question,
the answer of which is an affirmative yes. It is an amen. It is yea,
verily, amen. It is a statement that the Word
of God is like a hammer that shatters a rock. It is like a sledgehammer. And little weak men stand in
a pulpit with a sledgehammer. And they bring the force of the
Word of God to bear upon the heart that is resistant and it
shatters pride and it crushes and smashes self-righteousness. In this verse, rock is not my
word like a hammer which shatters a rock. The rock are the false
prophets mentioned in the previous verses and in the following verses,
and it also refers to those who are in allegiance with the message
of the false prophets. These false teachers and false
followers are like a rock. They are hard-headed. They are
hard-hearted. Their foreheads are like flint.
They are uncircumcised of heart. They have a heart of stone that
is resistant to the truth of God. Their lives and their hearts
are unresponsive to the things of God. They are spiritually
dead. They are like a rock. And how will they ever be brought
to humility before the throne of grace? How will they ever
be brought low before God? And it is by this. invincible
weapon, the Word of God. It breaks down all resistance
in the day of God's power. This hammer is harder than the
hardest heart. This hammer is harder than the
thickest forehead. This heart is harder, or this
hammer is harder than the stoniest soul and the most rock-like unbelief. It is this hammer. that administers
the death blow to self and smashes self-trust and brings a man or
a woman to the place of humility before God and to call upon His
name for the grace and mercy that He needs. This is the invincible
power of the inerrant Word. I call you this day to wield
the sword, to hold forth the mirror, to scatter the seed,
to serve the milk, to hold up the lamp, to spread the flame,
to swing the hammer, and stop with the secular wisdom in the
pulpit, and cancel the entertainment in the church, and fire the drama
team. If you can't preach, get a dramatine.
Get rid of the shtick. Unplug the colored lights. Put
the pulpit back in the center of the building. Stand up like
a man. Open the Bible. Lift it up, let
it out, and let it fly. It is the invincible power of
the inerrant Word. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
I pray that You would intensify our confidence in this book,
that we would no longer be effeminate in our preaching of the Word,
that we would man up and that we would take the Word and that
the fullness of the power of the Word of God would be unleashed
through our ministries. that we would unsheathe the sword
all the way down to swinging the hammer and that the Word
of God would be like milk and would feed and seed that would
germinate in all of our ministries in these days. Father, we pray
this in the mighty name of Him who is seated at Your right hand,
who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, in His
name we pray. Amen.