1 Thessalonians chapter 2. We've
left the study of Genesis and Galatians today. I wanted to look at this passage
of Scripture, just one verse, and I really don't want to even
go into detail explaining it. Very seldom I have a subject.
It's usually I just look at the Word of God and try to get into
it and explain it. I wanted to read you this text
before I looked at the subject that I have on my mind this evening.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, in verse 12 and verse 13, the Apostle Paul had came here to
Thessalonica and preached to these people that had been converted.
And now he was telling them how he had walked and how he encouraged
them to walk. that ye walk worthy of God, who
hath called you unto His kingdom and to His glory. We looked at
that just a minute this morning, didn't we? He's called us to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory
of His gospel, His redeeming mercies and love. For this cause
also thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the
Word of God, which you 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." The word of God. The word of God. You and I profess
to have it, don't we? We profess to have the infallible
Word of God. Without any errors, without any
mistakes, we profess to be able to open our Bibles and read it. We don't have to depend upon
dreams. We don't have to depend upon
visions. We don't have to depend upon man's opinions. But you
and I have the infallible Word of God in our hands. I know and
you know that what we have is a translation of the Scriptures. I know that and you know that. And since we have a translation,
an authorized version that you and I call it, we cannot claim
for it inspiration. We cannot say that this version
of the Scripture, our authorized version of the Scripture, is
inspired of God. Now, don't let that shock you.
When I used to hear that said, it shocked me. You and I believe with all our
hearts that the original writings were inspired of God. Brother
Glenn read it to us in his writings tonight, that holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They never went and
found themselves a dictionary. They never compared what they
said with other scriptures before they wrote it down. The Spirit
of God moved upon those holy men of old, and every word they
jotted down, was as it were breathed out of God's mouth. But that's
the original writings. The Old Testament writings and
the New Testament writings. But when you and I come to this
translation, the King James Bible that you and I hold dear, our translators ran into a problem.
And here's the problem that they faced. When they went to translate
those original writings into the English language, they had
a difficult task. Sometimes they couldn't find
the proper English word to match the Hebrew word or the Greek
word. They had a difficult task to properly pin down the correct
phrases. They had to consult the dictionaries.
They had to consult former and other translations. You see that
in the front of your King James Bible. It's translated out of the original
tongues. Diligently compared with these
other versions and revised. Ain't that what it says? But
when you and I Pick up this Bible to read it. We have to keep this in mind.
Though we do not have the inspired Word of God as those old scriptures
claim for themselves, and as most surely they were, yet we
have the Word of God. Now that may sound contradictory.
Sometimes we have trouble bringing these two things together, but
they're both so. They're both so. Now, I wouldn't
offend any of you for this world, so let me tell you why that we
say that we do not have the inspiration as those old scriptures contain. God moved upon them, and the
paragraphs and the sentences and every word was inspired of
God. They didn't have to consult anybody
to make sure it matched. They just wrote it down as the
Holy Spirit came. But it wasn't so with our translators,
as I've said. And here's why we've got to remember
this. Here's why we must not claim inspiration for our version. If our translators were inspired
as those Old Testament and New Testament writers were inspired,
then this is indeed This is indeed written by inspiration of God.
But if these translators can claim inspiration, then what
about all these other versions? You remember Brother Lance Heller.
He was the missionary that preached to us here from New Guinea. And
there's over a hundred tribes there in New Guinea. that speak
different languages and have different dialects. And he is
making an attempt to translate out of the English Bible over
into some of the languages of those tribes, and he's running
into all kinds of difficulty. And you can imagine, you can
imagine. Luther ran into the same problem
when he translated into the English Bible. Now, here's why we can't
claim inspiration, why we mustn't claim inspiration for our King
James Bible. What if some of those people
over there in New Guinea read Lance Heller's version and ran
up to him and said, Oh, Brother Lance, this is inspired of God. That would scare him to death,
wouldn't it? It would scare him to death. It would have scared
Martin Luther to death if they had said that of him. And it
probably would have scared our translators to death. You know
what they would have said? Oh brother, listen, listen. We
have done the best job under God that we could do. We searched
for the best phrases. We searched for the best words
in the English to match the Hebrew and the Greek or whatever. But
we can't claim inspiration. We cannot. Now see the difference
in that. See the difference in that? And we must hold to both
of these. While we do not say that the
King James Bible is inspired as those original writings were,
yet at the same time, this is God's Word. It's infallible. It's not the words of men, but
it's in truth the Word of God. And when you and I come to this
passage that I read to you this evening, we can read it without
stopping and qualifying it. We can say in our language, this
is not the words of men, but this is indeed the Word of God,
infallible rule of our faith and of our practice. I've never known any scholar
that I've read after, not the first one, that said there was
mistakes in our King James Bible. I've never read the first one. have sought to poke holes in
it. And it's usually those who know
nothing about Hebrew and Greek to begin with, and there's been
some preachers who've gone up and preached, and I'd like to
have just stood and asked them, do you believe you're reading
God's Word or not? If so, quit poking holes in it.
Our translators admitted there were places that perhaps and
phrases that perhaps were weak in the translation, but they
weren't errors. They weren't lies. This is God's
Word, Brother Larry. We have it. And if one paragraph
is the truth and one is a lie, then let's just throw it away.
But it's not so, is it? We have in our hands the Word
of God. Now, having said that, if some
person came up to you, I'm not talking about a scholar, I'm
talking about just a common person, just as you are. Came up to you
and asked you this question. How do you know that the Bible
is the Word of God? How would you answer? Have you
ever thought of that? Well, I just feel like it is. Well, ain't
nobody have a stronger feeling that what they're reading is
the Word of God. than some of those radicals there
in the Middle East, when they sit down and read the Koran.
How do you know that's God's Word? Oh, they have some strong
feelings. So that ain't going to work, is it? That ain't going
to be an answer. You feel like. How can we know
we have the Bible as God's Word? I'm going to give you five reasons,
and you probably won't be able to take notes on this, but history
is scattering. And this is mine, so it may not
be very well. Every time I've said, this is
mine and nobody else's, it just didn't come out very well. But
here's the way I would tell somebody, here's the five reasons I believe
that we have God's Word. And the first, and let me say
it like this, man has a consciousness of God. No matter where you find Him,
no matter what generation you find Him in, no matter what part
of the world you find Him in, this world in general has a consciousness
of this one thing, that there is indeed a God. You talk to
people who have never read the Scriptures, they've never heard
a message, But they have this consciousness about them that
there is indeed a God. And one of the things that makes
people aware of this is creation declarative. Listen to what David
said in Psalms 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech. It preaches. It talks to people.
And night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is going
out through all the earth and their words to the end of the
world. One of the things that makes
people conscious of God is the creation. It's a preacher, right? And no matter where you're at
in the world, It preaches to you. This is why Paul wrote Romans
1.18 and said this, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
ungodliness, because that which may be known of God is manifested
in them. It's manifested in their conscience. For God hath showed it unto them,
for the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation
of the world, even his eternal power and deity. So they're without
excuse. Man has an awareness that there's
a God, and one of the things that makes that known to him
is he's living in this world. that shows the power and the
wisdom and the righteousness of God in the creation of these
things. And my point in looking at this
is this, humanity is conscious of its Creator, and it's conscious
of its Creator being a righteous judge. Now, I don't have to explain
that. I don't have to go into detail
and say that's so because of this and because of that. All
we have to know is that's so. Humanity is conscious of its
Creator and conscience that its Creator is its judge. And as its judge, the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven upon the sins of those who hold the
truth in unrighteousness. Paul said to those on Myers Hill,
He confronted those with these very words. He said, I declare
unto you the unknown God which you ignorantly worship. God that
made the world and all things therein, he hath made of one
blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth. See
what he confronts them with. what they already were aware
of, not in Scriptures, but they were conscious of this thing,
that God was the Creator. And that He had made of one blood
all nations of men to dwell upon this earth. And then He confronts
them with this, God hath appointed a day in which He will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.
The world is conscious of these two things. And you and I don't
have to explain how that is. It's God that makes men aware
of that. It's God that's left men conscious
of that, and they're aware of that. And Glenn, they can't deny
it. You can't deny it. Before I ever read the first
verse out of God's book, before I ever had any verse read to
me, I was aware that there was a God. He made me to know it. And one of the ways He did was
by creation. Now this same Creator, this same
Judge that the world of humanity is conscious of, has revealed
Himself in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Now listen, when I say, when
I say that the world has this consciousness of God, I'm not
saying the world knows God. I'm not saying they believe Him.
I'm not saying they love Him. I'm not saying they worship Him.
I'm simply saying they're conscious that there is definitely a Creator
and a Judge. And this same God, whom the world
is conscious of, has given us His Word, and in that Word He
has revealed Himself. not only as the Creator and not
only as the Judge, but in that Word He has made Himself known
that He does indeed rule sovereignly in providence and that He is
indeed the glorious Creator. That's what we find in His Word. Only the Bible and nothing else
has the definite answer. as to how everything was created
in its original form, especially the creation of man. Man has
a consciousness that God is his Creator. Well, all you've got
to do is turn to the pages of this book and you'll find out
how God created man. The Creator is revealed in this
Word. The science of evolution have
only theories. That's why when you read about
evolution, they say perhaps or maybe. They don't have anything
definite. That's the nature of science.
It's an ongoing study. But the Bible sets forth the
fact of creation, and while it don't go into detail, it simply
and dogmatically declares that God hath created everything. And without him was not one thing
made that was made. The science of evolution cannot
begin to solve the complex makeup of our beings. You and I are
complex persons. You may call us an animal. That
may be the category science puts us into. But I tell you, they've not yet
figured out. the glorious being, if you want
to go that far, that you and I are. Look at our brains. Look at our
nervous system. Look at our emotions. Look at
our intellects. How does science explain the
origin of man? They can't. Only the Bible does
that. This same God whom the world
is conscious of has revealed Himself in His Word to be the
Creator of humanity. Now He's done it. God formed
man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. God made man in His own image.
Know ye the Lord, that He is God. It's He that made us, and
not we ourselves. I will praise the Lord, for I
am fearfully and wonderfully made. One of the greatest faults
about the science of evolution is this. It's just not honest. It's just not honest. Go ahead
and study. I hope they find out all they
can. But I just wish they would be
honest. I wish they would look at what
we know about man today from medical science, his DNA makeup, and all the complexities of that. And if the science of evolution
would be honest, instead of getting tunnel vision, if they'd be honest,
perhaps they might consider that just possibly such a complex
and glorious body and mind and intellect and emotions could
not evolve from a sail or a monkey hanging from his tail in a tree.
I say they're not honest because they're smarter about our makeup
than we are. Medical science knows more about
us than we know about ourselves. And brothers and sisters, anybody
that would be honest about this, just looking at man and his makeup,
would have to admit, if he's objective, that surely this being
came from the wise hand and the breath of a great Creator. Would he not? And my point is this, humanity
in its fallen state is aware of God, and this same God has
undeniably revealed Himself in His written Word. And you and
I have that Word. And we have received that Word,
not as it is the Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word
of God. And those who reject this Word,
and refuse to hear it and believe it, they reject the very God
that they're conscious of. Man's not honest with his conscience
if he don't say this is the Word of God. Because this reveals
the very God that he's conscious of. And he knows it. He knows it. How do we know the Bible is the
Word of God? Because the Bible alone tells
us the origin and the cause of society's troubles. The Word
of God alone tells us the origin and the cause of society's troubles. has problems, don't it? Something's
wrong in our society. Not certain segments of our society,
not certain nationalities in this world or certain cultures,
but society as a whole. Every man and woman and boy and
girl without exception. Our society is in problems. Our society is in a dilemma. And the greatest problem in our
society is just this, that it doesn't know what its problem
is. It doesn't know what the source
of its trouble is. Society can identify many of
its problems, but it can't know the source of it. We have mental problems. We have
emotional problems. We have diseases. We have wars. We have crimes. We have violence.
How many wars did we have in the last century? World War I? World War II? Was that the war that was supposed
to end all wars? Then there was the Korean War
and the Vietnam War. Around 1990 we got in another
one. We're in one today. is having problems. Society in
this world is facing all kinds of troubles. And then we've got
those who seek to identify the trouble and produce some remedy
for it. We've had the League of Nations.
We've had the United Nations. We now have NATO. We have science. We have therapists. We have educators
of all sorts. Have they found a solution? to
society's troubles. Oh, we have to educate people,
they tell us. That's a man's whole problem, they tell us.
He's just too illiterate. That's what makes him so harsh
and mean. What about the Greeks? Did you
ever read anything about the Greeks? How smart they were. They sought nothing but to be
wise. The wisdom of this world. And
you know what the Greeks did? They sent their mighty king and
his army and shed blood all over the known world just to conquer
it. That's pretty decent people,
isn't it? That's pretty good people. Education will not solve
man's problem. Society's whole problem is this,
and it's ignorant of this problem. It's ignorant of the source of
its problems. The trouble with humanity is
not what it's doing. That's why we have these people
seeking the remedy. But they're seeking a remedy
to do something about the effects. But they cannot go to the source
of our problem. The source, brothers and sisters,
of our problem is this. It's not what humanity is doing,
it's what humanity is. Ain't that the problem? Until
we find out what we are, we're not going to seek for a remedy. It's like somebody going down
in a muddy stream, a polluted stream. and begin to pour in chemicals
in the stream. But it does no good. And you
know why? You know why? The pollution has
come from the head of the stream. You can't go down a mile from
the head and clear up the head. You've got to follow the fountain
head. Find out what the source of the
problem is. And that's what you've got to
deal with. What is it? And who is it? And where is it that you and
I can go to read to find out the essential source of man's
problem? Where is it we can go? The Word
of God. You know what that tells me?
Only God knows the source of our problem. And since the Word
of God identifies the source of that problem, this must be
the Word of God. And anybody who reads the Bible
objectively will have to acknowledge the truth of this, that all men,
without exception, in their essential part, I mean in their very nature,
in their heart of hearts, are wicked. Now that may sound harsh,
and it is to this world, but that's what the Bible says the
source of our problem is. In our natures, we are wicked. We don't wait until we're 12
years old and become wicked. We're born that way. The wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Now where else can you go that
will identify our essential problem other than the Word of God? It
knows us. It will not hide the truth from
us, even though it shames us and embarrasses us. It confronts
us with this awful reality that nothing else will. That man by
his nature is alienated from God. He's a sinner. Light is coming to this world,
and he hates darkness rather than light. The carnal mind is
enmity against God. That's our problem. That's our
problem. There is none that doeth good. There's none righteous, there's
none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God.
They've all gone out of the way. All men without exception are
fallen away from God, and only the Bible tells us the origin
of that fall. Nowhere else you can go to get
it. Adam, our first father, who was created upright, And you
had communion with his Creator. Disobeyed. And as a result of
that disobedience, he died. And he lost the life of God and
the knowledge of God. And he was alienated from the
life of God. And ever since then, that's how
it passed on down through all of his children. And now you
and I suffer the consequences of it. That's our problem. All
are burned away from God and their chief problem is not what
they do, it's what they are. We're children of wrath by nature. If society knew its problem, it has no remedy for it. It has no remedy for it. It can't
heal itself. And it can't change itself. You
can't change your nature. I don't care what Charles Feeney
says. You cannot change your nature. Can the Ethiopian change
his skin? Michael Jackson might do it.
He's the only one I know. And that don't look too good,
does it? Can the Ethiopian change his spots? So may you who are
accustomed to do evil in your hearts change your hearts? No,
you can't. Then you can't remedy your awful
situation. That's the dilemma society finds
itself in. After all this searching for
6,000 years, and all the people looking for the cause of our
problems of humanity, they've not found the cause. And they
don't know the remedy. But every individual who has
found and identified this cause and who has found the remedy
for his trouble has acknowledged that he found both of them revealed
here in the Word of God. And that's how we know we have
God's Word. Thirdly, I believe the Bible is the Word
of God because it tells us the truth of our end. You won't find this in any place
else but the Bible, the truth of our end. It's appointed unto
men once to die, and after this, the judgment. It tells us what
takes place after we die. He not only tells us things of
time, but it tells us matters of eternity. It speaks to us
of heaven, and it speaks of hell. It speaks of rest, and it speaks
of torment. And it speaks with such force
to the conscience that we cannot deny the truth of it. If a man
will be honest, he cannot deny the truth of this Word. You say,
well, I ain't afraid. Well, there are some people that
are not afraid, but I'll tell you why. They've never read in here where
the Bible has identified their end. They've never heard it preached
from the Word of Truth of what's to come upon a man who dies Christless. You let the Word of God come
to a man and confront him with these truths. His conscience
cannot resist it. For these things are not the
opinions of men, but this is indeed and truth, the Word of
God. And in spite of Satan's lies,
in spite of man's attempt through the ages to deceive himself and
to cast God's Word behind his back, yet humanity cannot escape
the tormented expectation of what the Bible calls The world
to come. The world to come. Paul reasoned
with Felix of faith and temperance and judgment to come. And what
did that man do? He trembled. Why did he tremble? He was confronted with God's
Word about eternity. Try as he may, man's conscience
cannot escape the reality. The Bible is truth because it's
God's Word. Fourthly, we believe the Bible
to be the Word of God because the Bible alone gives us the
true remedy for our sins and the judgment of God upon society. We are ruined by sin. The judgment of God is upon us. And the Bible alone sets forth
to us the remedy that we must have. And it can sum it up in
one word, reconciliation. Reconciliation. Some people have
read the Bible and they've been disappointed. They thought they'd
read a Bible and find a history book there. And they wonder why
the Bible didn't go into great details on the history of the
world. Or some have read about creation and wish that God had
given us more details about how He created these things. If I had only one answer to give
people like that, it would be this. In regard to their importance,
such things fail in comparison. to our need and of our need to
hear and understand the gospel of reconciliation. God has written
to us a book, His Bible, and the theme of that book is not
history. And the theme of that book is
not so much God as the Creator of all things, but the theme
of that book is this. How a holy God and a sinful man
can be reconciled. That's the theme of this book.
There's no greater subject to be studied. There's no greater
truth that you and I must know. So what does God do? He writes
a whole book on the subject of reconciliation. Man, in his spiritual
darkness, feels the need of having his enmity removed. But he does not know how. He
does not understand the source of that enmity. He does not understand
the remedy for that enmity. He has given his back to the
whip. He has given his belly to fasting. He has given his
goods to feed the poor. He's given his children to the
fire, his head to knowledge, and yet he's died the enemy of
heaven. And it's because he does not
know these things. Therefore, God has written a
whole book on the subject of reconciliation. How is God and man reconciled? Only the Bible tells us. From
Genesis to Malachi, The Son of God is coming. That's the message. The Son of God is coming. The
seed of the woman is coming to bruise the serpent's head. The
Son of Abraham, the Son of David is coming. He's coming to put
an end to sins. He's coming to make reconciliation
for iniquity. He's coming to bring in everlasting
righteousness. Lo, I come, He says. In the volume
of the book, it's written of me. And from Genesis to Malachi,
they look to the cross. And they wait for the cross. And then in the first book of
the New Testament, we have penned down in the Word of Truth what
prophets and righteous people long to see and read and experience
and never was blessed to. The birth of Jesus Christ was
on this wise. Immanuel with us. Kings and righteous
men desired to see that and never saw it. They looked to that day,
but never obtained the promise of it. They looked to the cross. And
from Acts to Revelation and beyond, we look back at the cross of
Jesus our Lord and Savior. And there we see the enmity removed. And there we see that peace was
made between God and man. And by faith we look up to the
Son of God in our glorified humanity. And He's seated there at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. And what happens when we
look? We're changed. We look and the guilt of our
sin is gone. We look and our enmity is removed. We look and the tormented fears
that we had of facing God are dispelled. And you and I are
changed into His likeness. And we have new life and new
love and new desires. And where do we find all of this
written, brothers and sisters? Where do we get the information
for these blessed truths that bear witness to our conscience?
We found it here in this Holy Bible that I hold in my hands
and no place else. Fifthly and lastly is this, we
believe the Bible to be God's Word because you and I have felt
and experienced in our souls its life-changing power. I cannot deny it, can you? I
felt its power. Paul was writing here to these
Thessalonians and in chapter 1 he reminded them of what they
were and where they were when he came preaching to them. He
said, you worshipped idols. In your darkness and in your
ignorance and in your enmity towards God, you were bound down
to sticks and stones and worshipped them. Immoral acts. But he said, I came preaching
the Word of God to you. And what happened? He said, it
worked effectually in you. It did something for you that
nothing else could do. It brought light to your conscience. It opened up your soul. And you
saw that reconciliation with God was made, and it changed
you. You turned from your idols, counted
them a dead thing, and you turned to the living God. And now you're
waiting for His Son from heaven. This Word came to you, He said,
with power and in assurance and in the Holy Ghost. You could
not tell these people that this was not God's Word. No, they felt it in their soul. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit in their life. That's what he said. And Peter
experienced that life. Will you go away, Lord? Who would
I go to? You have the words. And I felt
the power of these words, the joy of them, the assurance of
them in my soul. I cannot leave. How often have you and I felt
the power of God's Word in our hearts, saving us, converting
us, instructing us, comforting us, delighting us. I rejoice
in Thy Word, as they that find grace fall. Why? Why would a man make such a statement?
Why would a man open up a Bible and choose to read this? When
He could go out and be a multi-millionaire, and see men rejoicing in all
their wealth that they labored to obtain. Because David said,
there's something about this. There's something about this. It gives life. It comes with
power. It rejoices the soul, the spirit. And here's the reason. It's the
words of the King. And where the words of the King
is, there's power. God bless His Word.