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I'm thankful to be with you again
this morning. I certainly desire your prayers that the Lord will
bless us as we examine a portion of His Word. I want to look at a segment of
Psalm 119. Did you know it's the longest
of all the Psalms and in almost every verse there is some reference
to the Word of God. It speaks of the law of God,
the commandments of God, the statutes of God, in a variety
of ways, references made to His Word. It's divided into 22 sections,
8 verses each, each one designated by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And we want to look at the 8
verse section that begins with verse 97, Psalm 119, Reading with verse 97, O how I love thy law! It is my
meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments
hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with
me. I have more understanding than
all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand
more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained
my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I
have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me. How
sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. Through thy precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. How would you describe the
word of God? Would you say that it is difficult,
it is challenging, or even bitter in some instances? The psalmist
says it is sweet that he loves it. Verse 113, I hate vain thoughts,
but by law do I love. I don't just recognize it, I
don't just read it, I actually love it. In the 19th Psalm, Verse
10, he says, more to be desired are they than gold. That is speaking
of the judgments of God or the Word of God. More to be desired
are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also
than honey and the honeycomb. Here he tells us it's of tremendous
value, of greater value than silver and gold, The people of
this world are constantly in pursuit of silver and gold, money,
material things, but he says God's word is more to be desired
than all of that which is so highly esteemed by others. And
then says that it is sweeter even than the honeycomb. Surely then, it must be the desire
of all of us today that we could join with the psalmist to say,
I love thy word. Not just that we have a Bible
on the nightstand at home or even carry it to church and read
it periodically, but that we actually love it. Now there are
some hindrances to loving it. Sometimes that may come in the
form of some preconceived idea about a variety of things. that
maybe without ever recognizing it, we have been influenced by
worldly philosophy. You know, we are constantly bombarded
in this information age. It comes at us from every direction. You get information over the
radio, over television, over the internet, all kinds of printed
materials. You hear conversation among friends
and relatives and people in a variety of situations in life and everybody
has their own outlook, opinion, and concept about the issues
of life. And it's really strange as to
how God's own people can be so easily influenced. Somebody comes
along with great educational attainments and It's assumed
that they know what they're talking about. They tell you that they
are intelligent and that they have accomplished a great deal
and somehow people just concede that that must be the case. Must
heed what they say. Or somebody comes on radio or
television and they're happy to give advice. There's all kinds
of free advice out there. And of course there's some that
you have to pay a big price for. And what's free and what you
pay for is worth just about the same amount, nothing in many
cases, because it is totally mixed with man's thinking. God is left out. But much of
man's speculation and philosophy enables you to feel good about
yourself. And our own human nature likes
that. I concede, when I'm reading the
scripture, I would a lot rather read the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in the
green pasture. It's a great comfort in that Psalm and many others.
But you read other portions of scripture and it's convicting.
It shows you where you are. It reveals the sin of your heart. In fact, there may be certain
days you come across a passage you might be trying to read through
the Bible. And you come across a passage
and say, I don't think I can handle that part today. Where
is that 23rd Psalm? I think I'll come back to this
another day. I'm not emotionally prepared for this at the moment.
Some of it is hard to take. So people are constantly looking
for something that will make them feel good. I was counseling
with a young lady several years ago. And among her many other
problems, she was impoverished financially. She was just struggling
to get by. So I couldn't help but be a little
surprised when I learned that in addition to seeing me once
a week, she had been going to see a psychiatrist once a month.
And while my services were free, she was paying him $100 a visit.
And I said, how on earth did you decide to do that when you
tell me you can barely pay your bills and just barely keeping
your head above water, and you're willing to pay him $100 for 45
minutes? She said, well, he tells me I'm
OK, and you never tell me that. I said, well, I've got to speak
the truth. And all I'm doing is not giving
you my opinion, but citing God's word. And God's word is convicting.
But it was worth $100 a moment to her to have somebody tell
her she was OK. Well, that desire is in all of
us. We'd like to be complimented
and thought well of. I concede. I like it a lot better
when somebody shakes my hand after a sermon and say, I enjoyed
that and I believe that. than to have the response I have
had at various times where somebody looked daggers through me and
tell me I didn't believe a word of that, or I thought you were
wrong on this or the other. We'd rather hear something complimentary. But what we need is truth. And
when we come to God's Word, that's what we're going to get. So we
don't want to be influenced by our own personal desires or by
human philosophy and preconceived ideas. In the book of Isaiah,
chapter 44, Verse 24 says, thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that
maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that
spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. You know, it's interesting
if you start noticing throughout the scriptures how many references
are made to the fact that God is the sovereign creator. We
put a lot of emphasis on the Genesis account of creation,
which indeed we should. But when we had what we called
Creation Weekend at our church this summer and went over to
see the Creation Museum across the river from us, on Sunday
morning, I brought a message on creation through the Bible. And just as rapidly as possible,
I went through a number of scriptures and then began to make comment
on them, but went all the way Old Testament and New Testament
alike and showed just the abundance of references. So it's not, if
a person says, I don't believe in creation, it's not just denying
the Genesis account, it's denying the whole Word of God. The truth
of creation permeates the Bible. So he says, I'm the Lord that
makes all things. I'm the one that stretched out the heavens
alone, and that spread above the earth by myself, that frustrated
the tokens of the liars, that make diviners mad, and turneth
wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. And that's exactly what God does.
Man comes along with his boasted wisdom as though he's got everything
figured out. He understands our emotional
makeup. He understands how we function
and what the solutions to life's problems may be. But God says
he makes man's wisdom foolish. Now you think about it. Who knows
the most about you? Is it not the God that made you? He knows what makes you tick.
He knows your past. He knows your present. He knows
your future. So how foolish it is for somebody to say, I've
got to have professional help. I'm going to go to somebody that
doesn't even believe in God. And I think that with their great
wisdom, they're going to be able to solve my difficulties. Friends, going to the Word of
God, hearing the truth as he has presented it to us by writers
under divine inspiration, is where we will find the answers
we so desperately need. First Corinthians chapter 1,
we find a confirmation of that which we just read from the book
of Isaiah. It says in verse 19, for it is
written, reference made to these Old Testament writings, it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? God's
in the process of destroying the wisdom of the world. All a man's boasted wisdom comes
to naught. I was trying to preach at a place
some time back, and there were two little children that became
real competition for me, and at times I felt like they were
winning the battle. Their parents were sitting there,
but didn't have any concept about how to bring those little fellows
under control, and apparently didn't even think it was necessary,
and showed total disrespect for our effort to speak from the
word of God. I later learned that they were both involved
in public education. And this is not to discredit
people who are involved in it. There are some godly, wonderful
people who are involved. But I couldn't help but believe
that they had been influenced by the philosophy of the day,
that you've got to let little folks just express their personality
and you're not too restrictive and you don't try to correct
them and put them under control. But you come to God's word and
you find wisdom. You find that the one that neglects
to restrain their children and instruct their children and discipline
their children and guide their children are not only dishonoring
God, but they are harming the children themselves. No matter
what the subject matter may be, we're going to find the information
that we need, that which is God-honoring and that really which is ultimately
beneficial to His people, we're going to find it in His Word.
No wonder then the psalmist could say, I love Thy Word. I love
it because the answers to life's problems are there. So often
we struggle with issues and say, I'm not sure that there is an
answer to this. But often it's because we really
don't want to accept the answer the Bible provides. We kind of
have our mind made up and say, this is the course I want to
take. This is the road I want to travel. This is the way I
want to go. Where do we get the answer? In God's word. And if we're reading it and we're
praying, God will guide us and give us the insight that we so
desperately need. Sometimes it's a matter of being
influenced by false teaching. Paul referred to that in the
Colossian letter, Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. Beware lest
any man spoil you through what philosophy? and vain deceit after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. Now that covers a lot of territory. I don't want you to be spoiled.
I don't want you to be ruined. I don't want you to be confused
through philosophy or vain deceit, empty deceit. This means that
there are some who would intentionally deceive. I'm confident that there
are some false teachers that are themselves deceived. And
what they teach is deceitful, but they're blinded to it. This
indicates that there are those who are deceivers and know it.
I don't want you to be confused by it. By the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, the elements of this world, and
not after Christ. Vain deceit. Somebody told me
about hearing an old preacher back in the hills that He got
up at an associational meeting and he says, brethren, I tell
you, I just don't try to preach the Bible anymore. He said, it's
so confusing. I just preach my experience. Now, friends, here's
somebody that's fallen off the precipice when it comes to having
proper respect for God's word. Here's somebody that's preaching
experience as opposed to the definitive truth that is found
in the word of God. Verse 18 says, let no man beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed
up in his fleshly mind. Don't let anybody beguile you.
Don't be deceived, whether it's worldly philosophy or somebody
who even invades the church and speaks something which is unsound
and incorrect. hearing me on the radio, send
me a lot of materials they want me to read and tapes and CDs
they'd like me to listen to. If I read all of it and listened
to all of it, I'd never have time for the Bible itself. But
I started on a trip the other day and just picked up a stack
of things people had sent me and thought as I travel I'll
listen to some of them. Put in a CD, here's a man that
gets up in the pulpit, says he's gonna expound the word of God.
First text he read, he said, now we know that it doesn't mean
what it says. We know it doesn't mean what
it says. I thought, what kind of an impact is that going to
have on people as they hear a preacher say, the Bible doesn't mean what
it says. I mean, you hear enough of that, you finally lose respect
for it. If it doesn't mean what it says, then they don't need
me to read the Bible, because even the preacher couldn't figure
it out, and I know I can't, so I won't even bother to read it. inclination of some to spiritualize
to such a degree that it conveys the same thought. Can't just
take the Bible literally. That doesn't mean what it says.
I've got to get some hidden message out of it. I've had people several
times ask me, say, what do you think those five smooth stones
meant that David picked up when he was going to go fight Goliath?
I say, I think that means he had five rocks that he was carrying
out there to use in battle. That's what that meant. Somebody
tries to make it mean the five principles of grace or whatever
else. There's no biblical authority to say that's what it means.
Now, I can see that you go to the book of Revelation, you're
going to find a lot of symbolic language. And some people just
kind of pick up what... They're inclined to accept and
say, here's what I think it means. Well, if we're going to take
a dogmatic position about what something means, then we need
to have scripture to tie it down. And say, here's what we know
it means, because here's what God's word says. Turn to the
book of Proverbs, chapter 27. The seventh verse says, the fool
soul loatheth an honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter
thing is sweet. Now, this clearly indicates that
one of the hindrances to loving God's word is being full of worldly
interest. person goes to church, it's a
good thing that they have assembled with God's people, but if your
mind is totally distracted and instead of really hearing the
preaching, you're thinking about what you're going to do the next
day and about the jeopardy into which your investments have fallen
and the immediate financial crisis that we're facing here in this
country. or all you're thinking about is something of a materialistic
nature, then there's certainly not going to be a full appreciation
for the word of God. The full soul, the one that's
already full up, doesn't even desire the sweetness of the honeycomb.
But on the other hand, the one that's hungry, even to that one,
every bitter thing is sweet. I love to see people who are
responsive to the Word of God, that when you're preaching His
Word, even if it's something that's convicting, if it's something
that is not necessarily uplifting, but it's the truth, a person
has great regard for it. I preached a rather extended
series of messages on the subject of money at our church recently,
and I know that's not the most popular theme in many churches
today. In fact, some would tell you
that a preacher ought to avoid it entirely. That is just totally
out of order for a man to have to talk about money from the
pulpit. And I understand also that some preachers are reluctant
to preach on it because they're afraid that somebody will assume
they're trying to feather their own nest, and so I better leave
it alone. But if we're going to preach the Bible, we have
to preach something about money. Jesus said more about money than
he did any other one subject. So many of the parables, so many
of the lessons that he presented dealt with the issue. Well, why
is there such a reluctance? One, I'm confident is that some
people are consumed with the spirit of covetousness. And if
you've got a covetous spirit, you don't want to hear somebody
talk about money. But how we handle our money, and even as
I make that statement, something that needs to be corrected there.
I said, how are we going to handle our money? You know, really the
fact is it's not ours, it all belongs to God. When we start
on that premise, that gives us a whole different concept. It's
not how much of my money am I going to give to God, but how am I
going to handle God's money and be a good steward of what He's
given me and return a portion of that to His service. And when
we understand then that the attitude that we have toward money is
a real indication of where we are spiritually. whether we're
selfish and greedy or whether we're delighting in having the
privilege to give in God's service. Well, as I preached that series
at our church, I knew that certainly a lot of our younger people needed
it desperately because I'd counseled with some that had gone overboard
and were in debt with their credit cards. Just incredible today. how the credit card companies
have sucked so many young people into this vicious cycle, starting
out very young, offering them their cards, and so they continue
to mount this debt until, as they're paying 19% interest. The credit card companies believe
that if they once get a person to the point that they have over
$800 on their balance and they're only paying the monthly minimum
they'll never pay out of it, they've got them for life. They'll
be paying it from now on. I've actually counseled with
people that had so many credit cards that when the bill came,
they borrowed from one card to pay the other one. And they're
on the slippery slope going down with no solution at that point. And so we need to understand
how we are to be good stewards of all that God has given us.
But the point I'm getting to, while I knew that a lot of our
young people needed it, I was a little concerned that some
of our older people would say, well, I'd really rather hear
something else because it's not that much interest to me, but
I greatly appreciated it when one of the oldest sisters in
our church came to me after one of those sermons and said, I
tell you, I love that sermon. She said, I'm already trying
to figure out how I can give more. I just, I just am so thankful
that somebody is touching on that subject. Well, when a person
is, is a hungry soul, they've got the right spirit, the right
attitude. It doesn't matter what the subject is. If it's biblical,
if it's in the word of God, I said, I'm glad to hear that. I want
you to preach on that. I need that. And so we want to
see to it that we're not filled up with worldly interest and
with other materials feeding on junk food to the point that
we've lost our appetite for the Word of God. And then we go to
the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2. And we gain some insight here
as to something that could be a hindrance to loving the Word
of God. Verse 1 says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may
grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious. Now, if we're going to then have a sincere desire
for the Word of God, we're going to taste that the Lord is gracious.
We're going to be growing by it. He says there's some things
that's got to be attended to first. We've got to lay aside
lying. We've got to be honest with ourselves,
with God, and with others. We've got to get rid of malice,
bitterness, guile, hypocrisies, an envy spirit, evil speakings. If you're consumed with these
things, He says, You're not going to have the desire for the Word
of God. They are hindrances. They are obstacles in the way.
So there needs to be a confession of sin and a turning from these
things in order then to feed upon the Word of God, to grow
by it. And as you grow by it, you begin
to love it more and more. You finally come to realize this
thing really works. I've had this great trial. I've had this great burden. I've
had this difficulty. And I've gone to God's Word,
oh I can see there are times that you read and you may read
over a number of verses and say, I don't know if I understood
any of that. I was reading through the book
of Ezekiel not long ago and I came over several verses and I read
and I thought, I don't know that I understood one thing that I
read. And I can see that it can be discouraging when you come
across some of those passages. But you read long enough and
the Lord will open up some things to you and give you some understanding
and bless you to see some things. Maybe you've read over it many
times before and all of a sudden it's like it jumps off the page
at you and God speaks to your heart. And you apply it and it
makes a difference. And you say, this is great. And
when you see how effective it is, it not only proves to be
a blessing in your life, you then have a desire to share it
with others. Because you say, I can't wait to tell somebody
else about this principle, this truth, because I know it'll make
a difference in their life. Now, you need to be careful.
If you're going to exhort somebody else, if you're going to try
to give them the counsel of God's word, be sure that what you're
saying is God's word and not your personal opinion. A lady
in our church came to me several years ago She had just tried
to give a bit of encouragement to another sister in the church.
This lady lived alone and had to provide her own income, had
a little business and she was very discouraged because she
said her business was declining and that some of the customers
that she'd had for several years had moved away and she didn't
know how she was going to replace it and she was just Very discouraged. So the sister that had come to
me to talk about it said, so you know, I told her, you just
need to cheer up because things will get better. And she said,
I've got to think about that later. And I thought, I don't
know if I told her right. I said, no, you didn't unless you're
a prophetess and you know that God has revealed to you it's
going to get better because the fact is it might get worse. She
said, I've got to think about that. She said, what on earth
should I have said? You should have said that no
matter how bad it gets, no matter how dark it may be, God has promised
not to leave you nor forsake you. He's promised to provide
your needs. It may not be through your business.
It may be from some other channel. You've got to point to God, not
to circumstances. You can't promise somebody that
things are going to get better. So if we're going to give counsel,
let's be sure that it's biblically correct, that it's sound, it's
going to be a benefit to somebody. There's another issue that stands
in the way of somebody loving the Word of God, and that is
a rebellious spirit. Read what it says, and I've had
people say this, well, I know, but I'm sure it doesn't mean
that. I'm sure it doesn't mean that. Because it wasn't what
they wanted to hear. Or I've actually had some go
so far as to say, well, I know what it says, but I can't do
it. And remember having somebody one day so bold as to say, I
won't do it. A rebellious spirit puts you
at variance with God's word. Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 23. But they obeyed not, neither
inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff that they might
not hear nor receive instruction. a stiff net of rebellious people
that they would not receive instruction. Some people are like that because
they think they know it all. They don't think anybody can
tell them anything. Nobody can possibly instruct them because
they are far ahead of everybody else. And then some, it's just
a cantankerous, rebellious spirit. I will not hear it. It's not
what I want. It's not what I want to do. And
I will not receive it. Look at another example of this
in the book of Ezekiel chapter 33. Verse 31 says, and they come unto thee
as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people,
and they hear thy words. Here is, as to the prophet, the
people come, they sit before you as my people, they're going
through the motions, they hear the words that you speak, they
hear the audible sound, but they will not do them. For with their
mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their
covetousness. The Lord said there are those
that draw nigh unto him with their mouth, their heart is far
from me. These say all the right things, but they will not apply
the word. Their heart goes after covetousness. For lo, thou art unto them as
a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can
play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but
they do them not. To some people, preaching is
just the sound. As long as a man sounds like
he's preaching, that's about all it amounts to. They don't
get much out of the content. It's as though a lovely song
is being sung, but they will not do what is proclaimed in
God's Word. We're not to love only in word,
but in deed and in truth. If we fail to apply it, it doesn't
matter how much we know. Some people like to study the
Bible, but it's all for the purpose of debate. You ever seen somebody
like that? They've always got some controversial
point. They got something they want
to argue about. They fail to dwell on those things that exalt
the Savior Jesus Christ. They fail to dwell on those practical
issues that give you guidance about how you're to live. Got
some issue that they want to argue about. And so often, it
seems to be that the whole issue is, I want to prove how much
I know. I want to prove how smart I am.
And so I want an opportunity to parade my wisdom. If you begin
to study God's Word from that standpoint, you just wanna win
an argument, you wanna defeat somebody else, you're not gonna
get any benefit out of it. You're not gonna really love the Word.
You just look at it as an ammunition chest, but it's not that which
feeds the soul and draws you nearer to God. So while there
are many hindrances to loving it, there are a lot of reasons
for loving it. First of all, the fact that it
is God's Word. Think about this for a moment.
Suppose you had never had a Bible in your possession, didn't even
know anything about the Bible, but God had blessed you just
to behold His handiwork to recognize there is a sovereign Creator.
God has revealed Himself by the display of His handiwork. He says that it's impossible
to look into the heavens to look at all that is done and not understand
there is a Creator. So you have come to that understanding. And the thought would cross your
mind, would it not be a wonderful thing if this God who has created
heaven and earth, all of the beautiful things that I see around
me upon this earth, would it not be a wonderful thing if that
God had written a book And then you discover, He has! The Bible,
66 books given us by men of divine inspiration. And yet, those of
us that have been exposed to the Bible all of our life tend
to take it for granted. Fail to read it like we ought.
But think of it. It is God's inspired Word. How many times have you thought,
you know, if God would just speak to me? If God would just give
me a message. Well He has. He's given you a
message in His Word. And anything that He impresses
on your mind and heart will be in harmony with what's in His
Word. I've talked to a few people that said God had told them something
but I knew they had a bad connection somewhere because what they claimed
God had told them diametrically opposed what God had revealed
in His Word. Anything He impresses us to do will be in harmony with
His Word. It's a book we ought to love
because it's not only God's book that He gave it to us, He inspired
men to write it, but it tells us about God. Now there are a
lot of things you learn about God by looking at creation. You
learn about His wisdom and His power. But you turn to His Word
and you read about His holiness and you read about His love.
You read about His grace, you read about His mercy, and you
see the great extent of the information that He's provided to give us
guidance in every detail of life. It unfolds God's providence as
He has worked in the lives of multitudes. You see the stories
of the Old Testament? How he begins with Abraham in
the Ur of the Chaldees, calls him to leave this idolatrous
place, and gives him a promise and a covenant that he's going
to make him the father of multitudes. And you see that even in that
promise and covenant that he made with Abraham, that there
is reference to the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ, that's
going to redeem a great portion of the fallen race. Because we
learn in the book of Galatians that he's talking about not seeds
many, but seeds singular. He's talking about Christ. So
early on, there's a prophetic reference to the coming of the
Son of God. And you see the great blessing of God. Oh, we couldn't
begin to go through the whole story, but see the great blessing
of God in the life of Jacob. Here's one, had many qualities
that we certainly would not admire. But nevertheless, God loved him.
Jacob, have I loved but Esau? Have I hated? Isn't that a marvelous
thing? Somebody says, I can't understand God hating Esau. Well,
it's difficult to understand God loving Jacob. And if you
once see yourself, that's what you're amazed at. How could God
love me? Have you ever been so disgusted with yourself to say,
you know, I don't even like me? Many times that you think, there
are a few people I'm having a lot of trouble liking. But then you
get a good view of yourself and I don't even like me. We think
if you don't like you, what about, I can expect God to like you
or love you. And so it's amazing that he loves
you. You know that he doesn't love you because you're lovable.
He loves you in spite of yourself. That's on the basis of his grace
that he loves you. And here he loved Jacob. And
Jacob said, wasn't worthy of the least of his mercies, nor
of the truth that is made known to me. And then you see the unfolding
of providence in the life of Joseph and how it appeared that
everything was dark and to the contrary and nothing, nothing
was going right in this young man's life. Sold as a slave,
falsely accused, imprisoned, looked like God had forgotten
all about him. But ultimately he's exalted from the prison
to a place next to authority to King Pharaoh himself and when
the famine comes, Eventually the whole family has brought
down and given the best of the land and provided for. And you
see the unfolding of providence. And you read these things repeatedly
throughout the Old Testament and say, I'm so glad to know
that the sovereign God who created heaven and earth is still in
charge. That you can say with the prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk
chapter 2 and the 20th verse, the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him. It's easy to forget
that. When a crisis strikes, When trouble
comes, our human nature is such we tend to fall apart. We sometimes
forget some of the most basic things that we have heard preached,
the things that we sing about. Go to church on Sunday and hear
a man preach about a big God. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
They say, Amen. I believe that. That's my God.
I believe He can handle anything. And we sing these uplifting songs.
God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform. He plants
His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Oh, I can
trust God when the storm comes. But then the storm hits. And
the storm is frightening. We had the tailwinds of Hurricane
Ike hit our city. And we were in our afternoon
service. The electricity went out. And
you could see pieces of trees flying by the windows and part
of the roof being blown off. And you get just a little anxious
when the storm comes. There was devastation in our
city with 75 mile an hour winds. The whole area was without electricity,
many of us, for as much as eight days. You find out that when
the storm actually comes, sometimes it's a little different than
singing about it and thinking about it in advance. The crisis
comes and we tend to fall apart. We forget what we've learned.
Makes me think, years ago, my mother got a little anxious about
what would happen if there was a fire in our house. I had a
room up on the third floor and she was concerned that I might
not be able to escape because there was just one stairway to
get there. So she bought some kind of a
portable metal ladder that you could hook on the windowsill
and escape in case of a fire. She got some other things around
the house and got all kinds of fire extinguishers installed.
But in that house, we had gas-steam radiators. Each radiator was
a separate unit and had to be lit individually. So she gets
up one morning to light the fire in the dining room to prepare
for breakfast, and a spark flew off the mat and struck one of
the sheer curtains, and they just went up in a blaze like
that. In a short time, the room was engulfed in flames. I heard
somebody hollering fire. I thought they'd do anything
to try to get me up in the morning. I didn't believe it at first,
but by the time they opened the door to my room and the smoke
started up, I knew we had a fire. So my brother and I rushed in
and we knew that we had some fire extinguishers. But my mother,
who had made all of this preparation, totally forgot the fire extinguishers. And here she was, with a little
pan of water, trying to throw it on the fire. When the crisis
came, she was in such a panic, she didn't know what she was
supposed to do. She just went into a state of panic. We finally,
with the help of the fire extinguishers and soon the fire department
arriving, were able to get the fire out before extensive damage
was done. But I thought, how that depicts
so many of us. We go to church, and we hear
about the fire extinguisher. We hear about what we're supposed
to do in a case of emergency. How we're supposed to trust God.
We're not supposed to fall apart. No matter what comes, we know
God is in control. I'm going to trust Him. He can
see me through this trial. He can get me through this storm.
I'm going to depend on Him. But the storm comes. Here we
are, we panic. And sad to say that some people
in that state of panic, rather than turning to the Lord, turn
to the world and its philosophy. Rather than to resort to the
counsel of His Word, they turn everywhere else. But here we
see this beautiful example of the unfolding of divine providence
in Joseph's life. That that which was negative,
that which seemed contrary, that which seemingly would have ruined
a young man, Psychologists will tell you this young boy will
never be the same. He heard his brothers talk about
killing him. They hated him. They despised
him. He's falsely accused. He's just a young man, 17 years
of age. How's he going to recover from
this? But look, God's hand was upon him and God exalts him to
a place of authority so that he was able to provide for his
family in the time of famine. on the story goes to see the
unfolding of divine providence. And we come to the New Testament
and we see the details concerning this prophecy and the types and
status of the Old Testament that proclaim that the Savior would
come and at the appointed time Jesus Christ came to this earth.
Said he would come in the fullness of time. It was God's appointed
time that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin. And here there's
great joy. The angelic chorus sang, Glory
to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Old
Simeon held the Savior in his arms. Mine eyes have seen thy
salvation. Now let thy servant depart in
peace. How could he have known that? The Lord had to reveal
to him that this little baby was the Savior of sinners. Mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. He wasn't looking at the church.
He wasn't looking at a doctrinal creed. He was looking at a person.
He was looking at Jesus Christ. This is our salvation. It's in
the Son of God. And we see him then embark upon
his ministry, and for those 33 years, heal the sick, raise the
dead, and reach out to sinners. Oh,
what good news that is to us if we know that we're sinners.
That Jesus Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. He was often criticized for it.
The self-righteous Pharisees condemned him. They thought this
man could not possibly be who he claimed if he was God, if
he was a true prophet. He'd know the character of these
individuals and avoid them. But he came to save sinners. One thing that used to concern
me years ago, and I'm thankful that it seems that many have
grown in their understanding of this issue, But among many
of our churches, we preach that we've got good news for sinners.
We've got the gospel for sinners. But if they found out somebody
really was one, they say, we have no place for you. We want you to say you're a sinner.
We want you to feel like one, but if you really are, there's
nothing for you. I want to tell you, friends,
Jesus Christ has a message for those that sure enough are sinners. And he talks about those in the
book of 1 Corinthians saying, such were some of you, but you're
washed, you're cleansed, you're sanctified. Glad to know that
there is no sin but what it can be forgiven by Jesus Christ and
cleansed by his precious blood. So we have good news for those
that sure enough are sinners. But when a person has been convicted
of sin, now they are through with it. They want to turn from
it. The evidence of divine grace is just like Paul said to those
at Thessalonica, you turn from idols to serve the living and
true God. There was a transformation in their life and how beautiful
it is to see those. who have walked down some of
the dark paths of sin and degradation, being transformed by the grace
of God and coming to love the way of righteousness and follow
and serve Him. We see the unfolding of providence
when at last the time came that Jesus Christ gave Himself to
those that came to take Him away and lead Him to Calvary. Peter
was ready to fight. He took out his sword. He cut
off the ear of the high priest's servant. Jesus rebuked him. Get
behind me, Satan! I've not come to fight, I've
come to die. If I wanted help, I could have called down legions
of angels. But it goes to the cross at God's appointed time. I'm confident it was the exact
time, it was the exact day, it was the exact place. Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you by wicked hands are crucified and slain. Here we
see the beauty of divine providence and human accountability. Jesus
Christ went to the cross by divine appointment. It was agreed upon
before he ever came. He had agreed that he would come
in the fullness of time. It was the appointment of the
Father that he would go to Calvary. There was no other way for the
salvation of sinners. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. And yet those who drove
the nails in his hands and pressed the crown down upon his brow
and spit in his face did it out of a wicked and depraved heart
and were fully accountable for their actions. And yet, out of
that dark scene, no darker scene ever to transpire on this earth
than to see the spotless Lamb of God, the only perfect man
that ever lived, being beaten to an extent that his visage
was marred and he didn't even have the appearance of a human
being. Seeing him writhe in anguish, seeing him bleed and die. How despicable that these vile
men would have so inflicted that pain upon him. And I'm confident
that that was not the greatest of his suffering. The greatest
of the suffering was not physical, but the fact that the sins of
all of his people were put upon him. And therefore, the father
turned his back. He was separated for a time from
the Father. He suffered in that time what
you and I could never have paid for had we gone to hell and suffered
forever. We never would have paid the
debt. But he paid it. He paid it. They thought they
destroyed him. After three days and three nights,
he arose from the dead victorious over sin, over Satan, over death.
And after 40 more days, they were with him out on the mountain
His feet began to lift off the earth and they watched Him as
He ascended through the clouds and the angel says, Why stand
ye here gazing into heaven? This same Jesus that you've seen
always going to come back! You see reason for loving the
Word of God that you read the Gospel story there by prophecy
type and shout in the Old Testament and the actual depicting of the
things that Jesus did or what he accomplished in the New Testament
Gospels and you come to the epistles and you find the doctrinal implication
of all of this that Jesus laid down his life for the sheep,
he secured them, he purchased them and therefore our salvation
is certain because it doesn't rest on free will and fickle
efforts of human beings but on the accomplishment of the Son
of God. reason for loving His Word, to come back over it repeatedly
and see the great things that God has done for us. And not
only are there these fundamental truths concerning the greatness
of God, the sovereignty of God, the power of God, the majesty
of God, the unfolding of His providence, the birth of the
Savior into the world, His perfect life, His sacrificial death,
His victorious resurrection, the promise of His return. But
then we find, as Paul in his epistles talks about the fundamentals
of the doctrine, and in the first three chapters, for example,
in the book of Ephesians, he lays the doctrinal foundation
and speaks of the fact that we were accepted in the beloved
before the foundation of the world. And chapter two, though we were
dead in trespasses and in sin, he quickened us and has raised
us up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then
he comes with the last three chapters and he gives us the
practical instruction based on this wonderful truth of salvation
by grace. This being the case, he says, therefore, brethren,
here's how you ought to live. So we need guidance in his word. Just think about two or three
of the practical things that we can find information to guide
us in the scriptures. Sometimes parents struggle a
little bit with what to do about their children's education, whether
or not they ought to give them guidance about a career. And I'm amazed sometimes at how
some parents seem to be so intimidated. I was counseling with a family
and it was evident to me that The young man that was going
off to college was on the wrong course. But the father said,
well, no, this is really what he wants to do. I don't want
to discourage him. I want him to be able to be fulfilled. Well, you know, the scriptures
will give us some insight. First, Timothy chapter 6, verse
10 says, for the love of money is the root of all evil. which
while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows." What do we learn
about that? Certainly an education, the right
kind of education, is important. Having some goal set for a career
is certainly in order. But if the whole motivation is,
I want to make the most money possible, and everything else
is forgotten, the motive is wrong. It may lead you down the wrong
path. You're trying to be like the rest of the world. You're
trying to fit in with everybody else. There's nothing wrong with
money. It's a great blessing when God
prospers somebody. And I've seen some who are very
well blessed financially, but they seem to have also that spiritual
gift of giving, that they just had great wisdom about where
to give and how to give and were generous in doing it. But the
love of money, if your heart is set on it, your determination
is, I'm going to be rich at all costs, You may be willing to
compromise your family, your own marriage. You may ruin your
marriage in the process. You may neglect the things of
God. You may neglect His church. You may neglect His word. So
when young people are giving thought to where they're gonna
head in life, they need the counsel of their parents. They need the
counsel of God's word. Whatever we do, we're to do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, Paul tells us in the Colossian
letter. Now, that already wipes a good many possibilities off
the slate. There's something you can't do
in the name of the Lord Jesus. There are some careers you just
cannot pursue. Am I going to be able to pursue
this particular education? Am I going to go after this career?
Am I going to do this thing? Can I do it in the name of the
Lord Jesus? Say, Lord, my desire is to honor and glorify your
name. If in such mundane things as eating and drinking, we are
to glorify God, Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink,
do all to the glory of God. Then certainly when it comes
to something so significant that concerns your future life and
your career and your education and all the rest, all of this
has to be taken into account. How am I going to honor God? You know, that application will
help just in the daily details of life. You might get upset
sometimes, upset with family members. Husbands and wives sometimes
get upset with each other. In fact, if the truth is known,
the person on this earth who can probably upset you more than
anybody else is your mate. You've got a close attachment.
You two have become one flesh. And you may be able to be very
calm and patient with other people, but your mate says something
that triggers you. You can just fly off the handle
and become so angry. Let me tell you something. Plug
in this verse. Whatever you do, you do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus. Can you say, dear Lord, bless me while I tell her
off. Bless me while I blow my lid.
I've had it. I'm just going to let it fly
today. No, you can't do that. A lot
of things you can't do in the name of the Lord Jesus. Makes
all the difference. And then when it comes to the
issue of marriage, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 and 15 says,
be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Now, marriage
is instituted of God and it's a wonderful blessing. But under
the best of circumstances, marriage has its challenges. When you
put two sinners under the same roof, you have the potential
for problems. Because by nature, we tend to
be selfish and self-centered and we want our own way. And
so even though a person is marrying a believer, there can still be
difficulties. And those difficulties, though,
can be resolved when we go to God's word for the answer. But
let me tell you, you certainly are off on the wrong foot if
you ignore what this passage says in 2 Corinthians chapter
6. Being on the radio every day, I get a lot of calls from people
with various problems, and I have gotten an unusual number of them
in recent years from young women in particular. who said, I'm
really struggling. I don't know what to do about
my situation. And then asking about the details, find that
they have married an unbeliever. In many cases, they say, well,
my husband-to-be went with me when we were courting. But once
we got married, he lost interest and doesn't go anymore. I've
got this problem or that problem. Well, was he a believer? Well, I never was real sure about
it. Or in some cases, no, he really
wasn't. Here's God's Word. Be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. There are numerous problems that
are going to be encountered if that's ignored. I've had some
interesting experiences in recent years, though, along this line.
I don't recommend that you put the preacher under this kind
of stress, but I've had some where it was evident to me when
I started premarital counseling that the young lady was a believer
and the young man she was about to marry wasn't. Well, I won't
perform a marriage ceremony under those circumstances. But the
first one of those I encountered, I was trying to decide what to
do. Do I just tell them at the end
of this first session, you need to get somebody else if you're
going to be married because I can't do it? No, the thought crossed my
mind, by God's providence, He sent this young man to me, and
I'm not going to send him away on the first go-around. So I
began to pray for him. And in addition to making an
assignment about the issues that I wanted him to study regarding
marriage, I started assigning him homework that concerned the
basic fundamentals of Scripture as to who God is, what our condition
is as fallen, ruined sinners, the only hope for us through
Jesus Christ the Savior, And this particular case, the young
man did a remarkable job with his homework. He'd read the material,
he'd read the scriptures, he would come back writing down
in detail what he understood, and he got it right. But every
time, I would try to press the question. Your answers were all
sound. You obviously understood the
lesson. What about you? Oh, he had more ways of sidestepping
that than anybody had ever seen. He'd always try to get it shifted
off some other way. He knew this to be a fact, but
he was like an observer, looking at it from a distance. Thankfully,
we started well in advance of the wedding date on this situation,
so we had a lot of sessions. Finally went to the father-in-law,
and I said, we're in a state of crisis. I said, I don't know
how you let this slip by that the whole responsibility is on
me, but I'm going to have to bow out of this thing here in
the next week or two if we don't see a change. I said, I'm still
hopeful. This young man's given all the right answers, and I'm
hopeful that there's going to be evidence that God's working in his life.
But you better be praying or I'm going to bow out. Finally
got to the session, I decided at the end of today's session,
if I don't see some transformation in this young man's life, I've
got to say, I can't marry you. So, turned in his homework, described
beautiful things about the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and the
fact that this is the only hope for sinners. I said, now I want
to ask you something. We've been meeting over these
past weeks, and I commend you. You've been diligent in your
homework, in the things that you've written about marriage,
and the things that you've written about God, and about these fundamental
teachings of Scripture. But I want to know today, where
do you stand? And he broke down and began to
cry. And he said, I know that I'm just like that sinner I described
in my homework, and I know that Jesus is the only Savior, and
I want to be baptized. I said, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And I've had
that same experience about four or five times now. And I know
that God indeed can do a work in one's heart. But I tell you,
girls, don't expect that's going to happen every time. You should
start out on the right track back here knowing that you're
not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. coming to
love God's Word. Now, so much more could be said
about that and about those verses that we read, but I hope you
can see in what we've looked at this morning that as the psalmist
says, I love Thy Word, we have every reason imaginable for loving
God's Word, for receiving it, for respecting it, for making
it the guide of our life that we may follow and serve our Jesus
Christ to the glory of His name.
Loving God's Word
Series Lasserre Bradley Jr. Archive
Friday Morning Service
| Sermon ID | 12218200383303 |
| Duration | 58:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Language | English |
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