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2 Corinthians chapter 17. I'm so delighted to have the
privilege to be asked to speak on the Bible in America, the
Bible in America. And we have to come to the word
of God and ask God to give us an understanding. That's where
we get understanding for what's going on in life. We get it from
the Bible and we find the discernment and wisdom that we need from
the word of God. And before we read our text in a moment, I'd
like to ask you, how many of you own a copy of the Word of
God? Would you raise your hand if
you own a copy of the Bible? How many of you own more than
one copy of the Bible? Okay. How many own perhaps five
or more copies of the Bible? Somewhere here and there. Good.
How many of you grew up in a home and your parents owned a Bible
in the home you grew up in? Would you raise your hand? That's
very interesting. How many of you believe that
your grandparents owned a Bible and had a Bible in their home?
That's interesting. And we maybe could go further,
but people don't know as much about their great-grandparents
and their great-great-grandparents. The odds are if you are an American,
that it's likely that for many generations, maybe even more
than you could trace or count, the families that led to you
finally being here all had a Bible somewhere in their home. In fact,
a survey just a couple of years ago revealed, a very extensive
survey revealed, that 94%, 94% of adults in America at least
own one Bible. Isn't that amazing? Especially when we look at our
country and you see how far removed we are going from the Word of
God and the truths of the Word of God, it's amazing that the
Bible is still out there, but it is definitely out there. With
COVID and a lot of pandemic scare in the last couple of years,
those who trace the Bible and what goes on with the Bible in
our country tell us that There was an uptick in the number of
people who reach for a Bible, not in a church service or not
in some religious meeting, but on their own, they at least sometime
reach for a Bible. They tell us that in 2021, 181
million adults in America, at least one time picked up a Bible
and read it. They must be looking for something,
right? And it's amazing to me to think that people still regard
the Bible in such a way in this country where they know there
must be some answer there for me. Otherwise, why would they
pick it up, especially in a time where they're very fearful? Well,
there's a lot to say about the Bible in America. We can't say
it all. But as I think about God's word,
I wanted to bring us to an historical account that God gives us in
the Old Testament that I think is very unknown. At least to
me it was. Maybe it's been highlighted to
you. But to me, when I discovered this, I realized that God has
some very interesting truths in this particular part of the
Bible that really speak to our nation and to the need that we
have in our nation. And it happened under one of
the good kings of Judah named Jehoshaphat. How many have ever
heard of Jehoshaphat, all right? He's one of the more popular
names among all the kings of Israel and Judah. And most of
you know that in the Old Testament, the kingdom of Israel was united
under Saul and David and Solomon, and then it divided. And then
there was a history of a divided kingdom, Israel in the north,
Judah in the south, And both of those kingdoms met their end
in a great destruction because they both kept going back to
idolatry and they kept leaving. Very simply, they were leaving
the law of God. And so in the northern kingdom,
Israel, all the kings, without any exception, were evil. In
the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, most of the kings were
evil, but a few of them Actually five of them, for at least some
era in their reign, were very good kings. And what made them
good was one very simple thing, they got back to the Bible. Now
they didn't have the entire word of God, the completed word of
God, Genesis to Revelation that we have today, but they certainly
had the law of God and the word of God that had been given up
to that time. And the one common denominator
between all the good kings is they just simply went back to
the Bible. Would you look at this account with me, please,
in 2 Chronicles chapter 17. Let's notice what God gives us
here. Let's see if we can see America,
perhaps, in an analogy, an application of what God gives us here in
his word. In 2 Chronicles chapter 17, verse one, and Jehoshaphat,
his son, reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against
Israel. And he placed forces in all the
fenced cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah
and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.
And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first
ways of his father David and sought not unto Balaam, but sought
to the Lord God of his father and walked in his commandments
and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore, the Lord established
the kingdom in his hand. and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat
presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance, and his heart
was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he took away
the high places and groves out of Judah. Also, in the third
year of his reign, he sent to his princes, even to Ben-Hel,
and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nathanael, and to Micaiah,
to teach in the cities of Judah. And with them, he sent Levites,
even Shemiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebediah, and Asahel, and
Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and
Tobadonijah, Levites. And with them, Elishma and Jehoram,
priests. And they taught in Judah and
had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and went about
throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of the Lord fell
upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah,
so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. Also, some of the
Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and tribute silver,
and the Arabians brought him flocks, 7,000, and 700 rams, and 7,700 he goats. And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly,
and he built in Judah castles and cities of store." I want
you to mark, if you would, please, in your Bible, back in verse
number nine, the Bible says, and they taught in Judah and
had the book of the law of the Lord with them. This is an amazing
account. What took place prior to this,
we won't take the time to study in detail, but Jehoshaphat had
a father who started out right. His name was Asa. He had some
great victories when he relied on God, but then he began to
rely on the arm of the flesh and he ended in defeat. And now
his son, Jehoshaphat, has an opportunity. He's seen his father
trust God and then rely on the flesh. And he decides when he
comes to the throne with this leadership opportunity, he makes
a good decision. He decides that he's going to
do something that when his father ended his reign, he was not doing.
He made a change. In fact, he made a change that
was the difference in his own personal life. It kept him from
following just simply after the arm of the flesh like his father
was leaning on. And you'll notice if you would,
first of all, that he had a regard for God and for God's word. In
verse three, it says, the Lord was with him because he walked
in the first ways of his father, David. He went all the way back
to David and he went back to David who had a heart after God. David who loved the Lord. David
who was so interested in whatever God wanted for his life. Not
the last ways of David where there were many mistakes in David's
life. In fact, one great sin. Thank
God he found forgiveness and he found cleansing and he found
a way back to God, but the very first ways of David. And Jehoshaphat
said, that's the kind of regard that I want to have for God.
And it went further because it got detailed. In verse number
four it says, but he sought to the Lord God of his father and
walked in his commandments. I want to say something very,
not very profound, but very simple. If he walked in his commandments,
he must have known his commandments. If he walked in his commandments,
he must have read his commandments. If he walked in those commandments,
he must have studied those commandments and he must have learned those
commandments and he must have thought, how do these commandments
apply to me as the king of this land of Judah? And that's exactly
no doubt what Jehoshaphat did. And it all started in his heart
with this regard for God and a regard for the word of God.
And so the Bible says in verse five, therefore the Lord established
the kingdom in his hand. God begins to bless him. And
when he realizes that following God and regarding the word of
God brings God's blessing, he knew that he wanted that blessing
to continue, not just in his life personally. not just God
blessing him, but he wanted to lead a nation that would have
God's blessing. He wanted to lead an entire people
who would evoke the blessing in favor of God. And so he did
something that was completely out of the ordinary. In fact,
it's never recorded anywhere else in Scripture just like this.
It's an anomaly. It's, it's, it's a unique thing.
The common, the common practice in Judah would have been that
in the family circle, the word of God would be taught. Perhaps
you remember from Deuteronomy chapter number six, where Moses
said to the families of Israel that this is what he wanted.
He wanted the word of God to be in your heart. And then he
said, thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And so the
family circle was the primary means of teaching the commandments
of God and teaching the word of God. And there was some, to
some extent, some rabbinical type teaching. We know that the
priests sometimes became instructors of the law and explainers of
what God's commands were and what God expected for the people.
And those were the common ways that people receive the word
of God. But evidently, it was failing
on that level. Evidently, many family structures
had abandoned the word of God. Evidently the religious structures
that were in place were not strong and they were weak and they were
faltering. And so they weren't doing the
job of teaching and giving the word of God to the people of
that nation. And so he did something very
interesting and very different. He assigned some official men
and their names are listed there as we read it a moment ago in
verse number seven. He sent his princes. And he lists
them, Ben-Hel and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathanael and Micaiah. And he says, I'm going to invest
an authority in these men to go out and get something done. Well, what needs to be done?
Well, he sends nine Levites and two priests with them. And he
says, here's what we need to do. We need to reseed our nation
with the word of God. We've got to reseed our country.
We've got to get the word of God out again. And these men
begin to execute the orders of the king. And with these nine
Levites that are listed and these two priests that are listed,
you've got a teaching team and they evidently divide up throughout
the land of Judah. And the Bible says that they
go to all the cities, all the centers where people can come
and they can gather together. And this is not the word of God
given in a traditional way, but it's given in an intentional
way where people in the public are called together and and those
who are trained to give the Word of God stand up and they have
the law of God in their hand and they begin to reseed their
nation with the Word of God. So this reseeding goes on and
you say, well what took place? Well evidently Jehoshaphat's
concern and burden to get the Word of God to the people was
met with a receptive heart. Because for some period of time,
God did something very special for this country. Notice the
results in verse number 10. It says, and the fear of the
Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round
about Judah, so they made no war against Jehoshaphat. God
said, I am going to bless this people because they are receiving
the word of God. God's Word is being propagated
and God's Word is going forth and God's Word is being heard
and believed and received. And because this is going on,
not just in the king, but in the people, God said, I'm gonna
give that nation rest. I'm gonna give that nation peace.
By the way, isn't that what a nation and a people always desire? In
the New Testament, God said that we should pray for kings and
all that are in authority. And then he tells us why we should
pray for them He says the goal is, the intent is that we pray
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and sincerity. God says this is the kind of
blessing that I can give to a people. I can give peace, I can give
quiet, I can give rest. And not only did he do that,
but notice in verse 11 it says the Philistines and the Arabians
begin to bring in the tribute and they begin to bring in and
God gives prosperity to this nation. That's a blessing from
God. wealth begins to come and and that's an extra blessing
and then notice it says in verse 12 that Jehoshaphat waxed great
and he builds castles and cities of store. God gives security
for the future and there's an assurance and there's a rest
in their hearts that all is well because God has blessed us and
God has helped us. Now when I read of this account
in the Word of God I can't help but think about
the amazing history that we have here in the United States of
America. I'd like to show you something
that I brought with me, and as I left our Christian Heritage
Center a moment ago, I let the folks know you don't have to
call security. I will bring it back, all right? But I'd like
to show you something I brought with me. I have in my hands a
page from what is referred to as the Bible, of the American
Revolution. And it's centered here. There's
some words about the man who printed it. There's some words
from our first president and our general during the war for
independence, George Washington. I'd like to tell you a little
bit about this Bible and about our country. See, many years ago when this
country was being founded, there was a burden for people to get
the word of God out. The first Bible printed in America
was certainly not an English Bible. It was really a missionary
Bible. John Elliott came in the 1630s
from England, and he ended up pastoring a church in Massachusetts,
in Roxbury, Massachusetts. And as a local church, they had
a burden to get the gospel to people. And next door, just in
the area, were the Algonquin Indians. The Algonquins had a
spoken language, but no written language. And John Elliot and
his church family wanted to reach those Indians. So they felt it
was their duty to take that language of the Indians and to learn it,
to put it in writing, and then to translate the word of God
into that language, and then print a Bible so that those people
could know the truth of the word of God. Isn't that amazing? Those
are the kind of people who came and were at the heart, sort of
the seedbed of the starting of the nation that you and I are
privileged to live in. Well, while England was in charge
when we had just colonies here, it was illegal to print English
Bibles. Some were printed, but they were
contraband, okay? They were illegally printed and
illegally distributed. Some of them There were German
Bibles and French Bibles and Dutch Bibles and other languages
printed here in the States on US soil. But for a long time,
there were no English Bibles not officially printed. Well,
there's a gentleman named Robert Aitken, and he's pictured here
on this display. And Aitken came from Scotland
in 1769. Of course, our declaration of
independence was in 1776, so just a few years before we declared
our independence from Britain, Robert Aitken came over from
Scotland, and when he came, he was already a convinced patriot. He wanted freedom, and he wanted
liberty for America. In fact, he was already so identified
as a patriot that when this guy came through New York Harbor,
he just very narrowly escaped being caught by the British and
placed on a a prisoner of war ship in New York Harbor. He very
nearly got through. But he got through New York Harbor
and he came to Philadelphia and he began connecting with the
men that we know of as the founding fathers of our nation. And very
early on, as our nation was being formed, Aitken understood that
we needed to get the Bible to America. You couldn't have a
free land, you couldn't have liberty without the word of God.
You couldn't have a republic like these men were dreaming
of and crafting over those years. You couldn't have that type of
a nation without a moral people and a people who understood right
living and righteousness and the kind of changed life that
was produced by the word of God. And so Robert Aitken was known
as the man who published and printed the very first English
Bible in America. And we have a page of it. for
you here. He attempted to print it and
publish it in time to put in the hands of every soldier who
was out there fighting in our war for independence. He didn't
quite make the deadline, didn't quite get it out in time. And
General George Washington is listed over here. There's an
article that's listed. You can read it on your own time
as you go through our Christian Heritage Center. But there's
an article where Washington expresses his deepest regret that he did
not get that Bible in time because Washington said, I would have
loved nothing more than to place your Bible in the hands of every
one of our soldiers. That's how this country was started.
And after Aitken printed that first Bible, the Bible of the
American Revolution, many others came behind him and they desired
first and foremost to seed this nation with the word of God.
In fact, in the early 1800s, one after another, Bible societies
were formed. And if you look at the men who
formed these societies in Philadelphia, in New York, and then finally
state societies like the Massachusetts Bible Society, and the Connecticut
Bible Society, and the Virginia Bible Society, and many, many
others, one after the other, in every locale, in every city,
in every state here in our nation, founding fathers, the men with
the highest names that you read of again and again, were coming
together and they were saying again and again, we have to concentrate
our efforts on making sure there's a Bible for everybody in this
country. We have to seed this nation with
the Word of God or we will not last. We have a nation, we have
freedom, we have liberty, but we're not going to keep it And
they literally strategized and they put their money and their
time and their energy and effort to say, we've got to get the
Bible. In fact, one of the most dominant societies was started
in 1816. It was the American Bible society, which still exists
today. And the goal of the American
Bible society was to place a Bible in every home in America. because
they knew without the Bible in every home, this country will
not stay what this country needs to be. The first president of
the American Bible Society was a man named Elias Boudinot, French
last name. He served with George Washington.
He was a neighbor to Ben Franklin. He was the mentor of Alexander
Hamilton. He served three terms in our
Continental Congress and one term as president of our Continental
Congress. In fact, he was one of the men
who was there and who signed the peace treaty with Britain
to end the war for independence. Elias Boudinot was one of our
main founding fathers of this country. And when Boudinot took
the presidency of the American Bible Society, here's what he
said. He said, this is the greatest honor that could have been conferred
to me on this side of the grave. This is a greater honor than
signing the treaty between us and Britain to end the war. This
is a greater honor than being the president of the Continental
Congress or being the friend of George Washington or the mentor
of Hamilton. This is a greater honor than
anything I've ever done to be the president of a society and
all we want to do is get the Word of God to every home in
this land. Isn't that amazing? The second
president of this society was the first and original chief
justice of our Supreme Court, John Jay, who was also a member
of the Continental Congress, and then chief justice, the second
president and one of the founders of that society, John Quincy
Adams, our sixth president, was one of the presidents, and then
he later served in Congress, and on and on we can go. These
Bible societies were established everywhere. And their goal was,
we're going to put our resources together and our energy together,
and we're going to do everything we can because these men believe
with all their heart that we must have the Word of God saturating
this land. They tell me that if you read
our founding fathers' documents, That is, the documents that shape
the laws of our land as they were being written and the documents
that shape the beginnings of our nation as those journals
of Congress were written out, they tell us that there are at
least 15,000 times that you read quotations from the Word of God.
In other words, the Bible so saturated their minds and it
so saturated their hearts and they were so convinced of its
necessity that it just permeated everything that was involved
in the building of this country. You cannot explain America without
reading your Bible. One very modern author said,
if you want to better understand the Constitution, you must read
your Bible. Because the principles of the
Bible, the doctrine of the word of God, permeates everything
that was used in establishing this great land. Can we appreciate
a little more of what people did so that we have a Bible today? So that our homes had a Bible
when we grew up? So that our granddaddies and
grandpas had a Bible? And our great granddaddies and
grandpas had a Bible? Can we appreciate a little more
the fact that we have inherited something that's amazing? The
heritage we have is not just a heritage of bravery. and patriotism
and courage, and it is that. It's a heritage of belief in
this book. And that's what founded this
nation. And to whatever extent America
is still put together today, that's what's kept it together
to that extent today. It's the word of God. Not only
did our early Americans want to produce the Bible and distribute
the Bible and print the Bible, but they wanted to teach the
Bible. Over in England in 1780, there was a man named Robert
Rakes who started something that God touched and blessed in an
amazing way. And we think of it as sort of
a trite thing today, but Robert Rakes and Gloucester in 1780
started what we know of now as the Sunday School. He walked
by some boys, that was his hometown, Gloucester, and he walked by
some boys and they were gambling on the street and they were cursing
and they were seemingly rough and filled with sin, seemingly
from homes that were filled with sinful things and he thought
something has to be done about this. The age of industrialization
was coming on in England and then of course would come on
in America, especially New England in the north. Industrialization,
cities began to be larger and families were moving in, a lot
of factory workers and that type of thing eventually in that era. And Raikes said, we have to do
something because our country will not remain the same if people
don't know the Bible. And he started seeing it slip
and he saw it falling away and he said, I gotta do something
about it. Before long, Raikes had 400 in his Sunday school
there. Maybe at some point in time he
thought or someone thought, well, that's the mighty blessing of
God. And that would have been considered a mighty blessing
of God to have 400 children and families. Sometimes parents came
as well and they were learning the word of God and they were
hearing the gospel. They were learning how to live
according to the Bible. That was an amazing thing. But
did you know in England in 70 years time, from 1780 to 1850,
Rake's Sunday School went from just a few hundred to two million
in just really one generation. Two million children were registered
in Sunday schools. Well, that was going on across
the pond. And over here in America, as
that was being seen across the way, America followed suit in
many things with Britain. And when Americans saw that in
the later 1700s, Sunday schools began to be formed in America
because America did not just need the Bible distributed, but
we needed to know the Bible. We needed to learn how to live
according to the Bible. And so Sunday schools began to
be established in America. In fact, Sunday school unions
and associations began by 1824, the very large and famous American
Sunday school union was established. In four years time, they had
reached to 28 different states in America and they had started
Sunday school movements in 28 different states in America.
And whereas, perhaps even as an analogy to our text way back
in Jehoshaphat's day, maybe whereas other structures were not strong
and other structures were failing or other structures didn't have
the equipping they needed, they were providing resources and
training and motivation and stirring up churches and believers everywhere
in 28 different states to start Sunday schools. Some of them
went to areas that needed to be evangelized, and they thought,
the way we're gonna evangelize is we're gonna take the Bible,
but we're gonna teach the Bible. We're gonna start Sunday schools.
There was a man whose name is not very well known, but I look
at him as one of our great men in our Christian heritage. His
name was Stephen Paxson. And the American Sunday School
Union sent him out as a missionary to the Mississippi River Valley. How many of you live somewhere
in the Mississippi River Valley? And you come to us from there.
A few of you do. I know where you come from. Well,
he went into the Mississippi River Valley because there seemed
to be a great need for the Bible to be taught. And do you know
Stephen Paxson rode around on horseback for many years and
Stephen Paxson himself started 1,300 Sunday schools. You say, what did Stephen Paxson
do? Let me tell you what he did. Stephen Paxson was a huge part
of America being America. Stephen Paxson was a huge part
of America having God's blessing, of America having God's peace,
of America having the security and the safety that God gives
when a nation gets the Word of God and a nation is taught the
Word of God and a nation begins to live and receive the Word
of God, that brings on God's reward and that brings on God's
blessing. And a man that most people have
never heard of may be more responsible for America, staying America
than any of the famous names that we read about among our
founding fathers. Because you know what he did?
He went from little town to little town and city to city and rural
place to other rural places. And he rode in on a horse and
he took a Bible and he did what those guys did in Jehoshaphat's
day. He said, I'm here to teach you the word of God. And he called
the people together and he worked with children and families 1,300
times he said, I've established something here and he handed
it off to others who knew the Lord and it continued to shape
and build and secure our nation. The Bible in America, you know,
we have an amazing past. But we don't live in the past,
do we? God let us live today. And what God wants us to do today
is not just talk about how far the past has been left behind. He doesn't want us just to talk
about, you know, how far removed we are from days gone by. Look,
how many of you have a Bible again? That's all of you, right?
How many of you know something in the Bible? That's all of you
sitting here today. How many of you could teach someone
something from the Word of God? That's all of you sitting here
today. Do you know, it's not just about the past. It's not
just about what amazing people did in the past. It's about you.
It's about me. What are we gonna do with America
right now? Could America be reseated once again with the Word of God? Could America know once again
not just what it means to have a Bible, not just looking at
the Word of God as a token thing that everybody has in their home.
I mean, 94% of us do. Could America have a change and
have a reviving where she comes back not just to acknowledging
the existence of the Bible or acknowledging the need for the
Bible? Many Americans today still say,
we need the Word of God. But could America come back to
actually knowing the Word of God and believing the Word of
God and adhering to the truths of the Word of God? You say,
how's that gonna happen? Listen, the only way that's gonna
happen is one life at a time. You know, there could be a Steven
Paxson somewhere in this audience this morning. And by the way,
it may not be a Steven, it may be one of you young ladies, I
don't know. But there could be someone today who would say,
you know, I don't know what all I can do, but I could get on
my horse and I could ride to somebody and I could show up
somewhere with the Word of God in my hand, I have it, and I
could try to encourage them and teach them and help them to believe
the same Bible that's brought blessing after blessing after
blessing to this country for all these years. I could try
to help them believe that same Bible. You know, churches today,
it's such a sad state that churches in America are in. Churches today
have given up on the Word of God. It's no surprise that lost
people have, but it's such a shame that churches have given up on
the Word of God. Someone called me just the other day and they
said, we have, we have a Christian school and they named a certain
place. They said, but there's a problem at this Christian school.
I said, well, what's going on? They said, well, they have a
class called Bible, but we've been in the class and they never
even opened the Bible for the Bible class. And you know, that's
a Christian school, but that's happened in churches all across
America. Churches have become religious
entertainment. But they've lost the Word of
God and they lost the teaching of the Word of God, line upon
line and precept upon precept. They've lost the application
of the Word of God as if this is what you build your life upon.
And pastor's given us this theme, build your life on the Bible.
And I love the theme and I hope we do repeat it many, many, many
times. But the truth is he didn't discover
that theme in and of himself. He just, that's what the word
of God's all about. You build your life on God's
word. and you're gonna know God's blessing
on your life like Jehoshaphat did, on your nation like Jehoshaphat
saw. You build your life on the Word
of God and you're gonna see that God can bless and God can provide
and God can secure and God can do what only God can do, but
we must first come to submission to the Word of God. You may not know this, but, and
I'm not saying this in any prideful way, And I think all of us who
are here know that this is not prideful because we know there's
so much more that can be done. But every week at the Temple
Baptist Church, under pastor's leadership, every week there
are at least 200 Bible teaching sessions that are going on just
in a seven day period, at least that many. For example, there
are over 75,000 Bible teaching classes that happen just on the
Lord's Day on a Sunday morning. That's 75 different groups of
people who are somewhere and some of them come in with a family,
some of them ride in on a Sunday school bus, some of them are
brought in by moms and dads or grandparents, They come in at
different ways and some are older, our senior friends, some all
the way down to preschool age, but somewhere 75 different times
just on the Lord's day, there are people who are gathering
others together and they're holding a Bible in their hand and they're
reading from the scriptures and they're explaining the scriptures
and they're giving the application of the scriptures and saying,
this is how we can live according to this truth that God's given
us. And then throughout the week, about 125 times throughout every
week at middle schools in our county, at high schools in our
county and some in other counties, at assisted living centers where
people are there and they can't get about and get out to be with
others like they want to, they're really confined to that facility,
at detention centers and jails and juvenile detention centers
and many, many other places at the university campus. in public
buildings there on that campus, in sorority and fraternity houses
on that campus. There are people from this local
church who are standing up with the Word of God and you say,
well, I don't know what I could do for America. Yeah, but I know
what you could start with. You could take the Word of God
and you go to somebody in this community, somebody right in
our shadow, somebody right under our nose, and say, let me get
the Word of God to that person. Let me be used of God. If God
would let me, let me be one of these who have an assignment
to go out and take the Word of God and just simply give it to
others and give it to others and let the Word of God do the
work that only the Word of God can do. You see, we can all do
that. I have a class that some of you
have taken, and the name of the class is Methods of Bible Teaching.
And the first question I ever asked when I walk in that class,
I asked it the other day because we have a new group in that class
for this semester. But the first question I asked
is I walk in the room and I say, how many of you are Bible teachers?
It's always interesting to me. Normally, just a few people raise
their hands. Maybe those few people think,
well, I have a Sunday school class that I teach every week,
or I have a certain other Bible study that I teach every week,
something like that. But I asked the question, how many of you
are Bible teachers? And I think when I asked that
this semester, maybe four or five people raised their hand.
And then I said, well, we've got to get that straight first.
Okay. Here's the correct answer. All
of you are Bible teachers. All of you are Bible teachers.
Do you know the Lord? How many of you know the Lord
is your savior? All right. Do you have a Bible? How many
of you have a Bible again? We're surveying again. Well,
these are fast surveys and they don't cost me a lot of money.
That's great, isn't it? Guess what? You know the Lord, you
have the Bible. How many know something, at least one thing
in the word of God, one truth, one principle to live by, one
example to follow, anything like that? Would you raise your hand?
All right, guess what? You're a Bible teacher. Now, whether
you're doing it or not, that's the next question, right? But
you're a Bible teacher because I know this, God never gives
us. What He gives us, He never gives
us to keep. He gives us to give to others.
He gives us to use. He gives us to multiply. In fact, I've even learned in
my life, as simple as it is, that the more that I come to
the Lord and say, Lord, if you'll show me, if you'll teach me,
if you'll give me light, if you'll give me help, I'll give it to
others. The more willing I am to give
it to others, the more willing God is to give it to me. Isn't
that an amazing thing? And so, who are the Bible teachers? Listen, all of you are Bible
teachers. We just gotta get out the doors and we gotta do it.
We gotta get out into America and start doing it. Say, I don't
know if we can change all of America. Listen, I'll go ahead
and tell you the answer to that. You can't. The answer is no,
we can't. But God can. Our job is just simply to be
obedient. I want you to turn with me. to the 119th Psalm,
and I want you to write down just a few applications, very
simply, from the 119th Psalm. Would you
look with me, please, in verse one through three? Blessed are
the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that seek him with
a whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They
walk in his ways. Would you note the word walk
in verse one and keep in verse two and walk in verse number
three? I'd like for you to write this down somewhere. Number one,
live by the book. You say, how can I make a difference?
Why don't you start living by the book yourself? You see, the
book is not something we just salute to. I believe it. I'll
sign my name to it. Oh yeah, I've got it. No, the
word of God is what we live by. We walk in it. It gets all the
way down into our shoe leather. It is what is controlling our
life and our habits, our decisions, our priorities. It literally
inundates all of our lives. It's our walk. It's what we keep.
It's what we do. And the first step among all
the things that you could ever do before you even go out and
teach it, before you even give it, go out and give it to somebody
else is you got to obey it yourself. You see, we talk about revival
in America, but we can't have revival in America unless we
have revival. And the revival is always a revival
of living by the book. I'm just gonna obey it, I'm gonna
keep it, I'm gonna walk in it. Would you write this down, number
two? Not only live by the book, would you write this down? Learn
the book. In verse number seven, just a few verses down, the psalmist
wrote, I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall
have learned thy righteous judgments. Number two, learn the book. The
word learn that God chose to use there is a very interesting
word. It has the idea of training. It has the idea really of a goad
that would be used maybe out in the field to train an animal,
training a horse or training a mule or training an ox to do
what it needs to do, to complete the tasks that need to be completed.
And with some prompting and with some poking and with some guidance
and some authority from the one who knew what needed to be done,
then the animal was trained in the right way, and that's what
God's saying here. Look, let the Bible train your life. Let
the Bible be your prod. Let the Bible be what keeps you
in the will of God and in the way of God. Learn it, not just
in your head, but let it discipline your life. Look across the page
at verse 33. He says, teach me, O Lord, the
way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me
understanding. and I shall keep thy law, yea,
I shall observe it with my whole heart. You see, God is the great
teacher. If you need to learn the Bible,
the teacher that you need, if you are saved by the grace of
God, the teacher that you need is already inside of you. It's
the Holy Spirit of God. And when you ask him to teach
you and you ask him to give you understanding and you have a
yielded heart, Lord, whatever you teach me, whatever you give
me understanding of, whatever you help me to learn, I'm already
committed to obey. That's how it works. God will
teach you and God will give you light. Live the book. But maybe
some today need to say, I need a renewed interest in just learning
the book. Getting interested once again
in what God has to train my life. Then number three, would you
write this down? Love the book. In verse number 47 of the same
Psalm, it says, and I will delight myself in thy commandments, which
I have loved. My hands also will I lift up
unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate
in thy statutes. I love, he says, your commandments,
I love I delight myself in this word of God, which I love. Can
I tell you what we need to get back to? We need to get back
in love with the word of God. Oh, how I love thy law. It is
my meditation all the day. You know, whatever you love,
you think about. If some of you are young and
you're falling in love, I got news for you. You're thinking
about her all the time, aren't you guys, right? If some young
lady's falling in love with this guy, you're thinking about him
all the time. Where's he at? Am I gonna cross his path? Is
he gonna be in the hallway? Is this person gonna be in the
room today? Maybe some of you came into this
auditorium and you looked over because you're in love and you're
thinking. Whatever you love, you meditate on. It doesn't leave
you. And the Bible says of itself,
we ought to love it. We ought to get the heart back
for it, not just the head for it, we ought to have a heart
for the Word of God. We need this insatiable love for the
Word of God. We live it, we learn it, we love
it. And then number four, would you write this down? Let's lift
up the book. Let's proclaim it. Let's give
it to others. In verse 46, the Bible says,
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not
be ashamed. I don't know that we who are
a little older, who are speaking to younger people always give
all the right advice. We're imperfect sometimes. But
I know this, I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that if
you'll live this book and you'll learn it and you'll love it,
you never have to be ashamed of it. You can give it to anybody. He said in that verse, I will
speak thy testimonies to kings. You can give it to the highest
man in the land and you don't have to be ashamed of it. You
can give it to your friends. You can give it to your peers.
You can give it to young people. You can give it to old people.
You can give it to anybody. You can lift up the word of God.
You can speak the word of God and what you're giving, you never
ever have to back down on. You never ever have to be ashamed
of. We need a generation again, like in Jehoshaphat's day, like
in the early days of our country, we need a generation again that
will just simply lift up the Word of God and give it and then
see the results that God will give and the blessing that God
will give when the Word of God goes forth.
The Bible in America
| Sermon ID | 212213735616 |
| Duration | 47:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Conference |
| Bible Text | 2 Chronicles 17 |
| Language | English |
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