October 28, 2007

 

Scripture Readings

Psalm 119:105-112

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
       and a light for my path.

 106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
       that I will follow your righteous laws.

 107 I have suffered much;
       preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.

 108 Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth,
       and teach me your laws.

 109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
       I will not forget your law.

 110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
       but I have not strayed from your precepts.

 111 Your statutes are my heritage forever;
       they are the joy of my heart.

 112 My heart is set on keeping your decrees
       to the very end.

Deuteronomy 30:1-10

 1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10 if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

 

 

 

 

“God’s Word – Our Response”

Joshua 1:8

 

          From my earliest memories the Bible was “The Word of God”. That is what my parents taught be, what my pastors and Sunday School teachers taught me; and perhaps most powerfully, that was a truth I saw acted upon by parents who always had a well-read Bible on their nightstand. They strongly believed that through Jesus we have been invited to live in a renewed relationship with God, and the dialogue of that relationship involved prayer and the Holy Spirit’s activity in our reading of the Bible. Perhaps your story is similar to mine.

 I grew up in the Covenant denomination believing the Bible to be the Word of God, the “only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct.”

          That is what I believed, that is what my parents believed, and that is what I proclaim to adults, youth and children today, whenever given the chance.

 

But…. along the way I’ve had my doubts. As a teenager, “questioning and challenging” is the name of the game. Adolescence is that wonderful time when we get to examine those “inherited beliefs” we received from our parents; perhaps even concluding that they are wrong about a few things. (And thus the tensions arise in families with teenagers.)

 

But maybe you grew up in a home that had few strong faith beliefs, and you were encouraged from a young age to make your own way. Either way;

-         whether you were the inheritor of a strong belief system, or

-         one presented with a world of choices to wade through,  

it is important to make a decision about what you believe, so today I ask the question:

What do you believe about the Bible?

 

According to a 2007 Gallup poll:

Thirty-one percent of Americans believe the Bible is literal and inerrant.

Ten percent of Americans with no religious affiliation believe the Bible is the literal word of God.

Twenty-six percent of Americans with no religious affiliation believe the Bible is inspired by God.

Nineteen percent of Americans believe the Bible is a compendium of myth and legend.

Associate Press, "Polls: Most Believe Bible as God's Word," www.washtimes.com (5-29-07);

 

 

What do you believe about the Bible? Where do you fit in this survey? Is the Bible God’s written Word? If so, how do you make use of this gift, and what if any are the benefits of taking God’s Word seriously?

 

Last week I began a Sunday morning message emphasis on the importance of growing spiritually. This week and in the weeks ahead I will be looking at four ingredients of spiritual growth which we believe to be crucial, the first being God’s Word.

 

Over the past nine years I have repeatedly encouraged you to read and obey the Bible, and while I will give you good reason again to do so, this morning I also want to give you reason to either accept the Bible as the very Word of God for the first time, or to make that belief even stronger in your mind than it ever has been.

 

Reasons to Believe the Bible is God’s Word

I believe the Bible to be the Word of God because….

1.    Jesus did. As one of Philip Yancey’s great books is titled: The Bible Jesus’ Read, we affirm that Jesus recognized God’s words and revelations in what we call today the Old Testament. Today we understand the New Testament as a record of Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament promises along with insights into the workings of His Holy Spirit within His followers. In Luke 24:44-47 Jesus appears for the first time to the Apostles in Jerusalem following his resurrection, and says:

44 "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."  45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Jesus not only believed the Holy Scriptures to be God’s Word but, as the “Word Incarnate”, Jesus brought us more of God’s Word through His teachings, His love, His death and resurrection, and the working of His Spirit in that early Church.

>> I believe the Bible to be God’s Word because Jesus did.

 

I also believe the Bible to be God’s Word because of

2.    Fulfilled Prophecy

 

If we were to look only at Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2 and Daniel 9:25-27, we would be amazed that in these three Old Testament passages, all written hundreds of years before Jesus appeared on earth, we receive detailed information about Jesus birth, life and death.  Does that catch your attention?

Do you realize how excited people get these days about the writings of Nostradamus if they sense that even one of his 16^th century prophecies came true? How then shall we react to 456 fulfilled prophecies about Jesus in the OT?  Can we not conclude that a powerful spiritual force beyond human understanding is behind these writings and their fulfillment?

 

I also believe the Bible to be God’s Word because of

3.    The Unity of the Bible

This is something we talk a lot about in Confirmation. Though the Bible consists of 66 books, coming through 30 different authors, and written over a 1,500 year span in three different languages, the Bible has a unity of thought.

Consisting of historical drama, songs, story-telling, laws, teachings, poetry, genealogies, prophecies, biographies and letters, there is a collective unity in describing a Holy and Just Creator God, who in love reaches out to save humanity from their sins and to welcome us back into the kind of relationship He first created us to enjoy.

There is a significant tree in the first chapters of the Bible, as there is in the last. Life happens in between, and the Bible guides us with a remarkably united message throughout its pages. This can only be of God.

 

I also believe the Bible to be God’s Word because of

4.    The Superiority of Its Teachings to those of other books

 

One of the often heard beliefs among Christians is that only the Bible contains truth. This is a belief we much challenge. For indeed, truth comes to us in other ways than the scriptures. The Bible itself tells us that

 

Romans 1:18-20

 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

 

God’s truth is “out there” for biblically illiterate people to discover, but these truths are as Joseph Cook once described “jewels picked out of the mud”.  What we have in the Bible is the “ruler” by which all else will be measured. “The only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct”.

 

Perhaps you will see shared truths coming out of Christianity and other faith traditions, but where there are differences, which will you believe is truth?

·         If the Bible describes a Triune God; one in relationship within Himself, a God reaching out relationally to us, what do you believe about the Impersonal truth of Buddhism or Taoism, or the impersonal pantheism of Hindu gods? Which do you believe is the truth?

·         When the Bible talks about God creating everything out of nothing, and declaring His creation “good”, what do you think about faith traditions which separate out the spirit which is good, from our physical bodies and the physical world which was created by an evil god? Which do you believe is the truth?

·         Here is one playing out in the public arena these days:

          Do you see our broken condition as an alienation from God cause by our “sin”, correctable only by God’s mercy, or are human beings simply ignorant of their divine nature, and need to live life over and over again via reincarnation until we finally get it right? Can we truly educate morality, or does morality change only as people yield themselves to the inwardly transforming powers of God’s Spirit on the human heart? Which do you believe is the truth.

·         While the Bible describes the freedom by which human beings choose their destiny, other faith traditions describe our lives as dictated of karma. “My Name is Earl” may be a funny TV show, but does it proclaim the truth about why we experience what we experience. Which do you believe is the truth?

 

We could go one forever, but when will we conclude that the Bible consistently presents truth, truth by which we can observe and live life?

As often described, do you believe the Bible to be your “compass” in life’s journey? I have found that it is, for the Bible will always point me in the right direction, though it is still up to me to go in that direction.

 

I also believe the Bible to be God’s Word because of

5.    The influence it has had on individuals and the world.

While many books have been known to inspire their readers, I have yet to find a book that has truly transformed the numbers of people transformed by the Bible.  When people read the Bible, and by faith live according to it, I have seen addictions broken, marriages mended, children reconciled to their families, priorities realigned,  joy displace sorrow and hope overpower hopelessness.

 

Not only is the Bible the most published and translated book of all time, but if one were to add to that number the commentaries and studies, which never stop coming, and books expounding God’s grace and love, and holiness and healing power…. We can only begin to marvel at the influence and impact the Bible has had.

As people gather around the Word… by hearing a message, by attending a study, by sharing our lives in the context of small groups where God’s Word guides discussions and our support of one another, the Bible always leads us to greater knowledge and holiness. Personal disagreements become less black and white as scripture is studied together, and God is given the final say. This truth is at the heart of the Covenant’s ability to gather as diverse thinkers committed to growing together in Christ the incarnate Word and the Bible, the written Word of God.

There are many more reasons to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, but I want to end this message with an encouragement for you to grow in God’s Word by giving you

 

Reason to Obey God’s Word - Blessing

For if you come to believe that the Bible is God’s Word, one needs to respond to that Word. Today we can ignore much of the junk mail and emails we get. We can even delete messages from our answering machines with rare consequences for our behavior. But what happens if God speaks and we fail to listen? Or what happens if God speaks, and we hear but we fail to act upon God’s Word?

 

Time and time again we are reminded in the scriptures that God is the giver of all good gifts (Matthew 7:11); He is a Heavenly Father who desires to shower His children with His blessings. Now our culture has a way of defining God’s blessings in terms of money or riches, and we have to be wary of such assumptions when they are proclaimed as truth…. But the bottom line is this; God has given us His laws, His Word, His Son to show us how to live. But if we ignore the message; if we fail to obey God’s Word, is it God who robs us of His blessings… or is it you?

          Earlier we read the words of Moses, offering a final encouragement to the Hebrews before his death. Having received God’s laws and sharing them with the newly freed children of God in the wilderness, Moses experienced the frustrations of people who heard by failed to obey. For 40 years they wandered in circles before a new generation rose up to receive what God had wanted his people to have for a long time; the land promised to Abraham.. the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey.

          And so Moses exhorted this new generation to be obedient before he died.

          It is noteworthy that as Joshua assumed leadership after Moses death, that he would offer the very same message…. For life is best experienced when it is guided by truth….. and so we hear again the call to obey God’s Word:

 

Joshua 1:7-8

7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

 

Maybe your growth challenge for today is to find an answer to the question “What do I believe about the Bible?”  But, if you have already come to believe that the Bible is the Word of God; the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct, then maybe your growth challenge for today is to ask yourself “What is keeping me from fully obeying God’s Word, so that I can experience His fullest blessings?”

 

Today I say “GROW”. Grow in your understanding of the Bible, and grow in your obedience to the Word of God. AMEN

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ©.Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.