Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 7. I'll second
John's sentiment about Frank and Janet and having a vacation.
A true pastor is someone that needs a lot more vacations than
they'll afford themselves. And I pray that they get some
rest and relaxation. He comes back rejuvenated and
ready to continue the work here. This morning, I have a true Bible
study for us. Maybe not in the sense that we
normally think of going through a few verses of Scripture in
order, but the title of this is the Word of God. So I'm going
to start off with a feeling that I had just after preaching a
couple times. I went to a pastor that I greatly
respect and been doing it a long time. And this is basically what
I said to him. That one of the most difficult
things about preaching the gospel is that when I stand up in front
of people with the intent to proclaim the truth about the
Lord Jesus Christ and salvation completely in him, is that I'm
the one doing the talking. You're looking at me to tell
you, to teach you, to show you something. Now, I don't have
this feeling because I'm a person short on confidence. I could
be classified as a braggart, cocky, and definitely I know
I think too highly of myself. Even in those moments when I
know I think too highly and try not to, I'm still thinking too
highly of myself. The most common verse of Scripture that I was
quoted, and it was quoted more than all the rest of the Scriptures
combined as a boy by my mother, was, Pride goeth before destruction,
Luke, and a haughty spirit before a fall. But when I stand up here,
I'm so scared that the Lord is going to let me do the talking.
He's going to let me say what's up here. I'm going to misguide you. I'm
going to say something foolish. and that you're going to hear
my words and not his. Now, the answer when I gave all
this to that gentleman was a very matter of fact point to me and
say, Luke, the minute you stop feeling that way, don't you ever
get up in that pulpit again, which was such a comfort because
it's the feeling you're supposed to have. And I don't say all
this to get pity, though. I need your prayers and I ask
for you to to pray for me consistently, even while I'm doing this. I
say all this to set up the message. So in Matthew 7, look at verse
21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have not have we not prophesied
in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name
done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity. This passage clearly states here
that some of the people who stand up and preach in the name of
Christ or preach religion, they are not saved. I've always thought
that the way to identify the difference between a person who
is preaching the gospel and a person who isn't is by what they're
saying. What's the message? But recently
I noticed the answer to that question was right here in this
passage. In the phrase that says in verse
22, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? The little word
in in this phrase is what makes all the difference. These men
said, Lord, Lord, I'm sorry, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? They were not prophesying the
name of Christ. They were not preaching the name
of Christ. They were preaching in his name, meaning they were
using his name to tell the people what they wanted to tell them.
So they were getting their authority from his name. They weren't preaching
him. And I don't stand up here to preach in Christ's name. I
stand up here with a desire to preach Christ. I don't want to
use the Lord as a way to make you believe what I say. Instead,
I want to say what He said and for you to believe it. I'm not
trying to be cute, okay? This is something that's very
important. Don't look at what a man wears. how he looks, how
he talks, don't focus on any titles, his education, where
he went to seminary, or how big the congregation is. The authority
in a man's message doesn't come from any of that stuff. Examine
if the message is telling you what to do or if it's telling
you what the Savior did. Make sure the focus isn't on
us or you, but completely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look upon
the content of the message if it comes from the preacher's
words or if it comes from God's word. John 3.34 says, For he
whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. So with that said,
I'm going to take a few minutes and talk about why God's word
is so important and why we must believe it. The first reason
is because it's the words of God. It's actually the words
of God. Now, that sounds simple, but
very few people actually treat the words written in this book
as His words. In Hebrews 11, it says, through
faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God. His words, the words we see in
this book, how powerful they are, they framed the world. God
created man in his own image. The image of God created he him,
male and female, created he them by his words. He's the potter. We're the clay. And once he created
us perfectly, we fell into sin. We'll see that in our next message.
But that's where we are today. We're sinners with no hope apart
from our creator. As sinners, we must look for
a way to salvation. We must find salvation. That's
why we look to His words. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
19. Revelation chapter 19 in verse
10. Revelation 19, verse 10, And
I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See
thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren
that have the testimony of Jesus, worship God. For the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on His head were many crowns. And He had a name written that
no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations. And
He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he
that on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords." Our Savior's name is the Word of
God. Now in 1 Thessalonians, I'm just
going to read it to you. 1 Thessalonians 2, it tells us,
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing. Because
when ye received the Word of God, which ye had heard of us,
ye received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth,
the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."
We must believe this book is His Word. Not just parts of it,
not just the things that fit what we think, but all of it,
the whole book. And we should thank God, as they
do here in Thessalonica, without ceasing. It says, they without
ceasing thanked we God, because we received it not as the word
of man, but as the word of God, what it is. Joshua said, unto
the children of Israel, come hither, hear the words of the
Lord your God. Now, another reason why the word
is so important It's because our Lord, our God, gave the word
to us. It's a gift. Psalm 68 says the
Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those
that published it, or great was the company of those that announced
it cheerfully. Everything in the Bible was written
under divine inspiration of God. The Old Testament foretells of
His coming. And many of the prophets, many
of the men who wrote those books, it was so important to them to
let everyone know that this is not my words, these are the words
of God, that a lot of them actually started their books with words
such as, the word of the Lord came to me saying. They started
the books out saying, the Lord told me these words. These are
from Him. I didn't do this. And then Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John tell the Savior is here. They tell of who is here. And
the rest of the New Testament tells us what he did and that
he's coming again. But all of this was given to
us. His words were given to us. So why is God's word so important? Because it's about him. Every
single word in this book, in the word of God, is about the
Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty. And he deserves our praise for
it. He deserves credit for everything. Nothing needs to be given to
us to make him deserve it. We don't need to be saved or
we don't have to be saved for him to still deserve the credit.
He is God and we must repeat in Psalms to the end that my
glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. Oh, Lord,
my God, I will give thee thanks unto thee forever. And Jude told
us to the only wise God, our Savior. be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. So God's word
is the most important thing in the world. That's because we've
seen it's God's actual words. He's the one who spoke these
words. He gave it to us freely. It's a gift. And because it's
all about him. So the fourth reason I'm going
to give is the one that every child of God loves, the one we
hang on the edge of our seat waiting to hear about. And it's
basically a summary of these three reasons. The first reason
in God's word, God told us about ourselves. He's the only person
that could tell us who we are, what we are and what we need.
The second reason, He gave the Word of God to us. So if we remember
in what I read in Revelation, it said that the Lord of Lords
and King of Kings, He also went by the name the Word of God.
So the second reason actually translates to this. Christ gave
Himself to us. Christ gave His Word to us. Christ
gave Himself to us. And the third reason that this
Word is about Him and that God gets the glory. So why is all
this so important? Why is the Word of God so important
to us? Because that's where a sinner finds a Savior. That's where
a sinner can find salvation. Now I'm going to turn to a lot
of Scriptures to verify all this. Turn with me to Acts chapter
13. Acts chapter 13. So God in His Word told us what
we needed and what we had to have. Then Christ gave Himself
to us in fulfilling that, and then He finished the work. Acts
13 verse 44, And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the
multitudes, They were filled with envy and spake against those
things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary
that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But
seeing you put it from you and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting
life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles that
thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the Lord, the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region. In verse 46, it says,
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, these men preached the word of
God and the Jews, instead of hearing it, they were jealous
of the multitudes and rejected it. But the Gentiles, they were
glad and they glorified the word of the Lord. Look over at Acts
chapter 4. In Luke 2, it says to us, For
unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Then
Matthew wrote, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, or he shall save
his people from their sins. Look at Acts 4 verse 7. And when
they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or
by what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to this impotent
man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all
and to all the people of Israel. that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before thee whole. This
is the stone which was set at nought of you, builders, which
has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none of the name under the heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. In Hebrews it said,
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. Go over to 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy chapter one. In Hebrews it says, for by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. 2 Timothy
1 verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us
and called us with a holy calling not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel, through the word of God is the way it's brought
to light. Turn over with me to Titus. Just a couple more Scriptures.
I feel with the title of the message, the Word of God, that
I shouldn't try to paraphrase these things I'm trying to say.
Instead, give you about ten Scriptures that go through the whole thing.
Titus 3 verse 4 says, But after that, the kindness and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
OK, I want you to turn to one more, 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1. In Matthew 18.11, for the Son
of Man is come to save that which was lost. And in Romans 5.2,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The best
place you can stand is into the grace. We stand in the grace
of God. Alright, look at 1 Peter 1, verse
18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your father,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. Who by him do believe in God
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your
faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, by Christ, which
liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. The only way a man can preach
the Word of God is to have the Word of God. We would not be
able to do this without it. Now, let me wrap up this Bible
study with one more reason why the Word of God is everything
to a believer. And no man should ever dare preaching
anything other than the Word of God. So I started this message
with the concern that I always have, that I'll be standing here
by myself and that all you'll hear is my words and not God's
word. I'm going to finish this message
when I say the last reason and then I'm going to read a passage
from Luke 24. So turn over to Luke 24. Luke 24, verse 13. The final reason why the Word
of God is so important and why it must be used in preaching
is that we must use the Word of God in preaching because that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ preached. Look in Luke 24, verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem,
about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holding that
they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner
of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye
walk and are sad. And the one of them, whose name
was Cleopas, answered, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and
word before God and all the people. and how the chief priests and
our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified
Him? But we trusted that it had been
He which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were early at the sepulcher. And when they found not His body,
they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said, that he was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulcher and found it even, so as the
woman had said, but him they saw not. Then he said unto them,
O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
had spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went
into Tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and
gave to them. And their eyes were opened, And
they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. And they
said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while
he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the
scriptures.