[0:00] Well, good morning, Squamish Baptist Church. I got a nice wave from Cam, a good wave from Save. Thank you, sir.
[0:10] Anyway, Lord, we're just very thankful to be here. So let's just give us, let's give the Lord God praise for the blessings that he has for us. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we just thank you that we can come together.
[0:22] Pray your blessing upon this sermon and the challenges it presents to feisty people, which is all of us.
[0:36] People who desire our own way, our own will, and desire the individual greater than, well, anything else.
[0:48] Father, we live in a confused time, but we pray that just this sermon and the series that we are really helps align us to an understanding of where we are in this life and who our Master is and how we respond to him in such a way that is worshipful, it's loving, it's kind, it's caring, it's responsible, it's just, and it's merciful.
[1:18] So, God, we ask these things, we ask that the sermon that I give this morning is clear and clearly spoken and clearly heard.
[1:30] We ask you these things in your most holy, precious, and everlasting name. Amen. If you are new, welcome. My name is BK. I have the pleasure of serving one of the pastors here.
[1:40] We have been in a series the last couple of weeks on kind of what we believe. So, if you are new, you are checking out our church, you want to know what we stand for, this is the series to be a part of.
[1:52] This is the series to listen to. It's a little bit different. Usually, the type of teaching that we do is what is called expository preaching, where we begin with the book of the Bible.
[2:03] We begin at chapter 1, verse 1, and we go to the end of that book, which we will be getting back to in the fall. We will be getting into the book of Romans.
[2:14] But this one is more of a systematic type of preaching. And what we're doing is we're kind of going through our statement of faith. We're going through what we affirm as believers in Jesus Christ here at Squamish Baptist Church.
[2:27] So, to help inform you what forms the basis to what we believe in, the subject that we are on right now is the Bible. The Bible. What we believe about the Bible, what we say about the Bible, what the Bible says about itself.
[2:44] So, this morning, the specific topic that I want to deal with this morning is what is called the authority of Scripture. The authority of Scripture.
[2:55] I've been blessed. I've asked many of you, or all of you. But if you've had any questions, please forward them to me. So, some of these questions, they're going to be answered within this sermon series as best as I can.
[3:11] So, please take a look in your bulletins. You were given in your bulletin a statement. And this statement is what our affirmation of faith, our statement of faith, says about what we believe about the Bible.
[3:23] So, what I've been going through is I've been touching on different aspects of it. And this morning will be the authority. But I'm just going to read it so you have this opportunity to read along with me.
[3:36] The Bible. Throughout history, God has revealed himself in a variety of ways. And God has preserved the substance of this revelation in the Bible.
[3:51] When we say the Bible, we mean the 66 books of the Old Testament and New Testament. These books were written by divinely chosen authors as they were prompted and guided by the Spirit of God.
[4:06] Although those writers were genuine authors and in most cases not just secretaries taking dictation, the work of the Spirit was so complete that everything written in the biblical books taught the truth without any errors.
[4:21] Strictly speaking, this inerrancy of the Bible applies to its books as originally written. But we can be confident that we have the original text of the Bible in the copies and translations we possess today because God has preserved these writings.
[4:42] In any attempt to define what we ought to believe or how we ought to live, only the Bible can be used as a final authority.
[4:54] Traditional interpretations of the Bible and confessions of faith are useful guides, but they are always open to correction based on further study of the Bible.
[5:06] Any cooperation with others who profess to be Christians must be based on a shared commitment to the unique authority and complete truthfulness of the Bible.
[5:18] If you were to compare our missions, our statement of faith to other churches, ours is actually quite verbose more than many. Many just start, we believe in the inspiration of Scripture or we believe certain facts.
[5:32] And our statement kind of flushes out what those means. And those are what I've been kind of speaking on these last couple of weeks.
[5:42] So if you're unaware, this is the fourth sermon of five on this subject of the Bible. And I want to give you a quick recap as to what we've covered so far. The first is we believe that the Bible is absolutely fundamental and essential to the Christian faith because it identifies that only true source of all truth.
[6:07] Now note I didn't say Christian truth, that the Bible is just good for Christian truth. I'm making a statement that the Bible is the source of all truth. For in it, the Bible reveals the creation of this world and it reveals to us who created it.
[6:24] Speaks to the creation of this universe. It explains the truth about man, the truth about our relationship with God, and the truth of our relationships with one another.
[6:41] Anybody with half an eye on the world knows that there's many things that are broken between man and God and ultimately man and man. And the truth is that our relationships cannot be mended without God.
[6:58] And without this interaction by God in our relationships, our horizontal relationships one-on-one cannot be fixed.
[7:09] We looked at the idea that there is natural revelation and special revelation. We learned that natural revelation, God in his creation reveals himself to be all-powerful, all-knowing, or there's a power that is able to create.
[7:30] Natural revelation includes our conscience. The Bible teaches that there's not a single soul on earth that can truly deny that there is a God.
[7:41] That our consciences help us understand what is good, what is wrong, what is for God, what is counter God.
[7:52] It reveals that truth. That is why the world over we know that murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. And man in his own thoughts and his own intelligence can discern, is this a right way to live or not a right way to live?
[8:11] But the problem with natural revelation, it leaves man stuck at asking that question. That's why the world over, in just about every part of the world, men created statues out of wood and stone, hoping that that could be the God that they could ask for forgiveness for, to appease their consciences.
[8:33] But that doesn't help. What we needed was special revelation. We needed God to talk directly to us, to explain to us how to be right with him.
[8:52] And that's what the Bible does. The Bible has never set itself to be simply a history book. It never set itself to be a moral compass or some sort of instruction manual.
[9:06] The Bible simply claims that it is the very word of God alone. We see this through the personified presence of Jesus Christ.
[9:18] So we know that God knew we were helpless, gives us this word to help us understand him and what he has for us.
[9:31] We also looked last week at what's called the preservation of the word, which helps us understand how God has preserved this book. And it's pretty incredible. And I've invited any of you who want to read some more direct books on this.
[9:45] I got some great books in my library that talk about how God used different men in different times and different countries to protect his word. Because God not only gave a command to keep my word, to understand it, but to protect it and preserve it and to share it.
[10:07] We looked how God promises. He says he preserves his word in heaven, and we are to protect it here on earth. God's word. This understanding informs our knowledge of the Bible.
[10:20] It gives us confidence that the books in the Bible actually contain God's word. What words are actually God's? What books in our Bibles are to be in this Bible, and which books are not to be?
[10:37] God made a promise through the writings of 1 Peter 1.24. Actually, it's an echo of God's words from Isaiah 48, which says, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of field, the flower of grass.
[10:58] The grass withers, and the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And last week I talked on the inspiration of Scripture and the mechanics of how God wrote this incredible book, which is written over 1,500 years by 40 different authors in different countries in three different languages, yet the message is perfectly coherent.
[11:31] It completely follows. It completely makes sense in all its ways. And it's attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit as he informed these men, inspired these men to write these words.
[11:46] That it wasn't simple, an inspiration like a novelist or an artist would have, but it was a direct act of God on the human author, where he used their personality, language, and style to bring about each book that we read in our Bibles.
[12:11] As 2 Peter 1.20 tells us, For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
[12:26] We call this the verbal plenary inspiration, which leads us to today's topic, which is called the authority of Scripture.
[12:40] If you look at what our statement says, if you look again, it simply reads, In any attempt to define what we ought to believe or how we ought to live, only the Bible can be used as a final authority.
[13:02] The issue comes down to one question. How does one become convinced that the Bible really is the Word of God?
[13:15] Right? We've talked about preservation. We've talked about inspiration. And we've talked about how these different aspects come together.
[13:26] But how can we convince that the Bible is really the Word of God? But let me take that question one step further.
[13:37] If the Bible really is the Word of God, how can we be convinced of that? But not only that, since it is the Word of God, God has the right to exercise authority over our lives.
[13:56] Let me repeat that. Let me repeat that. How does one become convinced that the Bible really is the Word of God?
[14:12] And since it is the Word of God, has the right to exercise authority over our lives. If the Bible is real, if the Bible is true, if it truly is the Word of God, the creator of all, the creator of us, does that not make it authoritative over our lives?
[14:39] Not only authoritative over our lives, what if I told you that it has complete authority over our lives?
[14:52] Let's be honest. It's one thing to believe this. But it's entirely another to live this. I know when I say that word authority to some, it's almost a four-letter word.
[15:07] It's an offensive word. We don't like the word authority. When we hear the word authority, we think of abusive authority, corrupt authority, elitism, where authority is the construct to keep people down.
[15:25] And often the cry of this age is, the only authority I need is me. And sadly, it is a cry that is heard in many churches as in the world.
[15:40] And any parent knows every child fights authority. Amen? You know when you tell your child before they can even speak, don't touch.
[15:50] What do they do? They touch. Wouldn't it be great, right? Just go around, hey, don't touch that electrical outlet. Don't pull on the cat's tail. Well, that's okay probably.
[16:01] But don't pull the drapes or the plates off the table. And you just, you can't simply tell a child that. You have to safe proof your home because the child will buck authority at every point of his existence.
[16:23] It's almost you could say that this anti-authoritating streak is ingrained in us as if it naturally occurs in us.
[16:36] And now, there's these Christians, pastors, believers who tell us this book, which is over 2,000 years old, written in a culture that truly does not exist anymore, in Israel.
[16:58] And it even goes, dates back further, another, at another 3,000 years. So in some aspects, some books of this Bible are over 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 years.
[17:12] And you're trying to tell me that this has authority over me? How I live, how I raise my kids, how I love my wife.
[17:27] It's a big pill to swallow, isn't it? We can see why people struggle with this. Well, before we let our ideas pollute our thoughts on what this word authority means, let's take a look at what the New Oxford Dictionary says.
[17:46] It simply says, authority is the power or right to enforce obedience. moral or legal supremacy.
[17:58] Or simply put, authority is the right to command or give a final decision. The New Testament alone, the word authority is used over 100 times, carries with it the meaning of power exercised by rulers or others in high position by virtue of their office.
[18:24] Now, we live in a day and age where people argue incessantly by what is the right type of authority. There's the oligarchical authority where a powerful few exercise authority over the majority.
[18:39] You have the democratic way of authority. We elect those to be in authority over us. We have the hereditary, the kings and queens by a particular family.
[18:51] We've given them the right to have authority over us. Then sadly, in some countries, it's the despotic, those who are strong enough to take power and rule it in an evil fashion.
[19:04] But then there's the personal type of authority where we exercise it over ourselves. The Bible's message actually teaches that the original and ultimate authority resides with God and God alone.
[19:25] What's interesting is God did not inherit this authority because there was no one there before him to take it from. God did not receive his authority because no one exists to give it to him.
[19:40] God did not receive his authority via an election for there was no one to vote for him. God did not need to seize authority because there was no one for him to seize it from.
[19:55] You see, God does not need to earn his authority because it always was and always will be his and his alone. Amen? And his authority is obvious and unquestionable when we consider these three facts.
[20:11] One, Genesis 1 and 2 tells us clearly God created the heavens and the earth. Amen? He is the creator of all and as creator he has absolute right to have authority over us.
[20:25] Not only that, God created you and I, man and woman, in his own image. And God granted us dominion over the earth, the sea, and the sky to man.
[20:39] Secondly, the Bible says that God not only created the earth, but he owns the earth and all that it contains and all those who dwell upon it. Psalm 24, 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
[20:57] for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. The greatest way that I first came to understand this concept and I heard it from a guy who you might know, Chris Hamilton, you know, years ago and he says that my kids aren't my own.
[21:21] My kids are God that God has given my children to me for a short time that I might steward them in the Lord. How many of us think about that?
[21:34] That even our money is not ours. No matter how smart we are or how hard we work or how ingenious we are with it, God still owns it.
[21:46] And that he gives it to us to steward in a way that brings him blessing. Do we ever think of things like that?
[21:57] Probably not. The car's mine, is it? The house that I live in is mine, really? When we understand that God owns everything, it changes our perspective.
[22:14] And here's the third thing that God says about the earth. 2 Peter 3.10 says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
[22:38] God tells us that he will consume this earth. So when people ask, does God have the right to be authority over us?
[22:49] God will be God and the earth will be God and the earth will be and the earth will be to destroy it. Paul in Romans 13.1 says, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
[23:09] Even our governments are instituted by God for whom we are to show authority. today we read in Psalm 62.1 all power belongs to God.
[23:21] In 2 Chronicles 26 it reads, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nation.
[23:31] In your hand are power and might so that none is able to withstand you. Anybody who says they are a Christian nation is completely blind to the fact that God rules all.
[23:45] Even those that do not acknowledge him. For those who are here in a part of my dissertation that I did for my doctorate, remember the point was, who rules over hell?
[23:59] God. People think it's Satan rules over hell. God rules over everything. Satan rules in a place that is ruled above by God.
[24:12] it will be his death is where hell is. So in Matthew 29 18 says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[24:24] And why in the end Paul writes Philippians 2 10 at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
[24:38] Jesus rules everything. So how do we establish that the authority of God is found in the Bible? Well, there's two ways to go about doing it.
[24:51] There's primary ways and secondary ways. And those are words that theologians use and I'm going to stick with it. So I'm going to start with a secondary way. How do we know that the Bible is true, the Bible is real?
[25:03] One, we have what's called archaeological evidence. There's evidence today that teaches and proves the veracity of what the Bible says is true.
[25:15] Archaeologists have found the city of Jericho and if you remember Jericho from the story in Judges, it says when the trumpets blew, the walls fell out and they believe they found these areas where significant amounts of the walls are fallen outwards rather than being crushed inwards from an invading army.
[25:37] We also have found this interesting slab of rock and I don't know why a slab of rock would be interesting but it is and it actually comes from 900 BC and it talks about the house of David and those who ruled within that house.
[25:54] So we have this historical evidence of David and one of my favorite kings in the Bible is actually King Nebuchadnezzar and people used to say he never existed, he never existed until they outdug this whole city and his name was simply on every single brick in this city.
[26:15] The more archaeologists find, they find more evidence for the veracity of scripture. So we have archaeological evidence which proves the truth.
[26:32] Then we have the fulfillment of prophecy. Isaiah 53 provides for us plenty of details about the crucifixion about the Lord Jesus Christ which happened 700 years before Christ walked on this earth.
[26:53] In fact, I know a man who is a Jewish psychiatrist or psychologist, I don't know which one, I can never tell the difference, but anyway, he's in Europe and someone reads him that passage from Psalm 53 and the Christian person who's witnessing to him says, where do you believe that comes from?
[27:13] The guy says, obviously it comes from the gospels and then he showed him in his book, his Jewish Bible, that it was in Psalm 53 and he said it was on that day that he first became a believer.
[27:28] Isaiah 44 28 makes reference to Cyrus the king in person by name and that he will give the order to rebuild the fallen temple of Jerusalem hundreds of years beforehand.
[27:45] And of course, there's Daniel. That book is laden with prophecies that have already come true. he predicted the Persians, the Mede Persians, the Greek, the Roman empires, hundreds of years before they happened.
[28:04] And it's interesting and just as an offshoot, one of the biggest holes in Mormonism, if you understand the Mormon faith, they believe that a Roman type people lived here in the north eastern part of the United States and that they were eventually decimated by the Native Americans that lived here.
[28:24] Well, the big hole for them is that there's no evidence because the Book of Mormon says there was great cities and all these things and nobody has ever found evidence of any of these things.
[28:37] Then the last of the secondary sources is called the personal impact. And this is sometimes viewed when we see the lives of people who become Christians we notice a difference in them.
[28:54] Some people will point to the real life effect that believing in Christ means to them. People point to the Bible basing their convictions that the Bible is the word of God on a very practical or emotional effect it has on one's lives.
[29:14] Now there's a bit of a problem with that because sometimes that's just subjective impressions. And secondly the Bible never speaks of it in that way. But those are somewhat evidences that can encourage us to the existence and truthfulness of God.
[29:30] Amen? We know that. Hey our Bible is indeed real. It's a part of something. So what I've just included to you are those are the secondary sources.
[29:42] Now I want to tell you about the primary sources. And I think you know where it all begins. The primary truth that the Bible is indeed the authoritative word of God is in fact the Bible itself.
[29:58] The descriptions of God and the titles applied to him demonstrate throughout the Bible that he is an absolute authority over all of his creation. Right at the very beginning Genesis 1 1 for God created the heavens and the earth.
[30:15] He's identified right from the very beginning. Deuteronomy 10 17 gives him the title Lord. Genesis 17 calls him God almighty which demonstrate his authority and power over all things.
[30:32] The nature of God is expressed by his attributes while equally affirming his authority. the Bible tells us that God is eternal.
[30:44] That God is immortal and that there is only one God. Psalm 139 describes God as omniscient.
[30:55] He is all knowing. Psalm 135 describes God as omnipotent, all powerful. Psalm 139 describes God as omnipresent.
[31:05] He is everywhere. everywhere. And Psalm 92 tells us that he is righteous. Romans 11 tells us his wisdom is unsearchable.
[31:19] Genesis 1 1 and Psalm 89 says his sovereign power is over all his creation. And Psalm 104 tells us it is now and forever and there shall be no end.
[31:33] God you see this authority is conveyed to man through God's word. And as we've seen through the inspiration and the preservation of scripture how it is unalterable and it's an authoritative message.
[31:54] What I'm trying to tell you here is the Bible makes it extremely clear that God is God and that the Bible is God's authoritative message.
[32:08] So that's the first way we know that God is truly authoritative. the second way is through the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
[32:20] It is through the testimony of the Holy Spirit or as some would call the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Given the nature of God and his word God alone is qualified to establish and attest to scriptures to the two scriptures divine authority.
[32:44] This is precisely what God does through the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit to a believer. What I mean by this is there is a work of the Holy Spirit upon man's heart that he can come to know the truth about God's word.
[33:02] Now I need to differentiate something here. I am not talking about a subjective feeling that the Bible is God's word but an objective truth that man through the power of the Holy Spirit can know that God's word is truly God's word.
[33:21] And this is what I want to spend a little bit of time explaining to you and why it's so important. It begins with objective statements by scripture themselves.
[33:36] The Bible's first verse begins with the statement, in the beginning God created. Notice nowhere in the Bible does it make an attempt to prove this truthfulness to the reader.
[33:51] It's argued as already known. It offers no lists of reasoned arguments as evidence. God's word simply presents the truth as truth while both expecting and demanding the reader to accept it as such.
[34:13] Do you understand what's going on here? It's kind of interesting. Because we've got this book that is making this demand of us that is truly true. And yes, we can refer to archaeology or to prophecy and history.
[34:29] And we've seen people's changes in their lives and we can look at them and say, yeah, that's why I know, that's why I trust my Bible is true. But where I'm getting at, there's something even more powerful that happens through the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit.
[34:49] Let me just read you the set. It says, what is more, a testimony we have in the Bible is composed by more than 40 writers over a period of 1,500 years that is consistently gives the same message throughout, without contradiction or provable error.
[35:08] This is very compelling to us. But there's a problem, okay? At our most fundamental level, what do you and I always do?
[35:24] We rebel against authority. All right? I need you to understand this. So the biggest issue we have in accepting God's word is God's word is this rebellion against truth.
[35:40] The Bible makes this ever clear. And the thing about this rebellion is that it's actually natural. Paul writes in Ephesians 2, 1 that our rebellion is natural.
[35:55] It is a normal part of us. And why is this so, you might ask? Why is it our natural disposition?
[36:07] Because Paul in Ephesians 4, 18 says that you and I are darkened in our understanding. Because we are born of the seed of Adam, sin has come upon us, and because of our actions, we are sinful.
[36:23] We are darkened. We do not understand these things on our own. And because of this, in Paul in Romans 8, 7, you and I are unable to submit to the law of God from our hearts.
[36:38] What I mean by that is we can follow God's law with our actions. We can act like God's in authority and do the things that he tells us to do. But ultimately, our hearts remained hardened against God.
[36:56] And because they're hardened, 1 Corinthians 2, 14 tells us, we are unwilling to accept the things of God because they can only be appraised spiritually.
[37:13] So what happens? So you're meeting with a friend who doesn't believe and ask you to prove God to you. you might point to evidences.
[37:25] You might point to archaeology. You might point to history. You might have a common friend where there's been a dramatic change in their life. You could show them the prophecies and they could be amazed by all these things.
[37:40] But they're never ever going to see the ultimate truth about the Bible is until the Holy Spirit regenerates that soul and they go from a dead person to a living person.
[37:57] That is why when we share and we want to share with others and what I'm talking about it's this thing it's called presuppositional apologetics.
[38:08] That people aren't going to understand the truth until God openly makes them see with their eyes themselves the truth.
[38:19] We can bring evidence but until God regenerates that heart they're not going to see it. So what our task is when someone wants to sit down and talk to you about God's word you know what we're called to do?
[38:34] Here let me share you my testimony. Let me share with you how I used to live my life. And then you've heard my testimony. Rebellious kid just before to enter sixth grade I heard this story my Sunday school teacher told me that I had sinned and I knew I sinned.
[38:53] I had a younger sister so of course big brothers always pick on their little sisters. Right? You stole whatever you could. I'm not talking from the store but even dishonoring my mother and my father.
[39:05] Those were things that I knew to be true in my life at that age. So when I was presented with this fact that you were indeed a sinner and your eternal destiny is hell.
[39:16] I believed it because that is what the Bible teaches. But there was hope. There was hope for me in the person of Jesus Christ. So they taught me who Jesus was.
[39:29] I already knew I'd broken the law. I was Catholic. Right? Catholic you think you're breaking the law every day. I think I crossed the street wrong. Did I jaywalk? Did I not? Did I walk over that person's lawn by mistakes?
[39:41] Oh my goodness the dog got away. I've sinned. I've sinned. Where's the next priest? Right? You guys know what I'm talking about. All the things that come into your thing.
[39:52] So you know you've offended this God somehow and you want to make it right. Well then you find out there's this man named Jesus Christ who lived this perfect life and that he wasn't just a man.
[40:03] He was God. He claimed to be God's own son. And then I learned that God loved me so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ here on earth to die on this cross to pay for the penalty of my sins.
[40:18] And then if I trusted him not only were my sins taken away so were my hiccups. But it was removed.
[40:30] And that burden was removed even from that 10 11 year old heart. I knew I could live in the freedom of God.
[40:43] So once that Holy Spirit regenerates this lost heart and we're made alive with this spiritual sense we see life differently.
[40:57] And we receive an enablement from the Holy Spirit to discern from the scriptures what are in fact the word of God. This is what 1 John 2 20 tells us.
[41:11] John 17 17 says that Jesus himself affirmed what that the prophet spoke was indeed true. Jesus also declared that a confident conviction of this fact is dependent on a heart that is willing to submit to God's will.
[41:33] God's will. And this requires a new heart that only God can provide. You see the eternal testimony of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior provides for us an illumination of the objective truths that are found in the Bible.
[41:56] The biblical basis for this clarity is derived from two sources. verses. First the words of scripture are self-attesting because they claim to be from God.
[42:08] And two the Holy Spirit's dynamic of power applies this truth of scripture and it gives us a confidence assurance that the word is the word of God itself according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 2.
[42:21] And then the ministry of the Spirit comes alive through the reading and proclamation of scripture. Can anybody attest to this?
[42:34] Right? Amen. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ you could have read the Bible, made no sense to you. God regenerates your heart. Now it makes sense to you. You understand how to apply it.
[42:45] You understand. And I'm not saying you got all the revelations figured out kind of thing. Right? But the Bible does teach you how to live. It does teach you how to conduct yourself with your spouse, your kids, how to act in the workplace.
[43:00] And some of it is so contradictory. It actually speaks about being humble, compassionate, meek, forgiving.
[43:10] And any of you who live in a secular workplace with other people, you see how much gossip goes around. how people's feelings are hurt over the smallest, dumbest things.
[43:27] And ultimately a lot of it comes down to is they don't know how to forgive someone because they've never been forgiven. You know, I spent those eight years working for the government. I remember one of my co-workers just bothered by another co-worker and they would just be going on, why can't you just forgive them?
[43:42] They made a mistake. The concept was like they were too proud to forgive. You guys know this. it's amazing.
[44:01] Regeneration is truly a gracious rescue. Amen? So the Bible clearly says we were lost and now we were found.
[44:13] How we were blind but now we see. How we were imprisoned but now we are free. praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit and helping us understand the authority of God's word.
[44:40] That does not mean and I write here that does not mean that all who hear or read believe understand everything but it does mean but it does mean that those who believe do so because of the convicting and illumining work of the Holy Spirit.
[44:56] And without the whole ministry of the Holy Spirit the Bible will not make sense at a personal and spiritual level. Now before I go any further on this subject I want to give you a warning about what the Bible isn't.
[45:12] it's not a collection of mysterious writings or sayings that require some master key to unlock their true spiritual meanings.
[45:24] A lot of people believe we need this in order to unlock the mysteries. Let me tell you what the Bible is. The Bible accurately reveals and clearly communicates God's message.
[45:38] Even a child can understand the message of for God so loved the world he gave his only son that whoever believes in him can have eternal life.
[45:53] There is a saying in some parts of Christianity all I need is the Bible the Holy Spirit in me. But that is not true because the Bible clearly teaches that just because we are saved and we have the Holy Spirit we still need to study it.
[46:09] We still need to spend time to discern the meaning of Scripture. The reality is there are mysteries that are still not fully revealed.
[46:23] And while the overall message of the Bible is clear God has not revealed in his word anything related to his mind and plans for redemptive history that would rob us from understanding him.
[46:38] So to conclude what the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit does for us. One it gives us a receptivity to the authority of God's word.
[46:50] When you come to this understanding that it is God and God gave us this word we understand authority is already a part of it. Amen. He's the creator.
[47:01] He's the sustainer. He's the builder. He's the owner. Two it gives us a conviction that it is the truthful word of God.
[47:13] That within the pages we are reading it is indeed true. And the third the illuminating work of the Spirit provides for us a capacity to discern the true meaning of the word of God.
[47:30] It's amazing. The Bible attests that it is sufficient. That it is light to one's path. It is more reliable than even the most amazing spiritual experiences.
[47:42] The Bible says it is able to lead a person to saving faith. Amen. The Bible instructs the religious elite as well as the common believer.
[47:54] It is given by God to parents to instruct their children. children. And we clearly see that the Bible was given for inspiration that is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
[48:15] So if you're not understanding your Bible, it could be because you do not have the power of the Holy Spirit within your heart to help you understand. And it could come that you truly haven't given your life over.
[48:29] You have not fully trusted Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Could be that you're holding back an area. God, I want you to save me at home but not at work.
[48:42] God, I want you to save me at work but not at home. But true understanding of the gospel, we understand that God is authority over all aspects of our lives.
[48:57] What does that mean? We have to give him all our life. Amen? So when that happens, there comes this experience, this knowledge that we're able to understand God's word in such a deep, personal way.
[49:16] So next week, I just want to tell you that we're going to talk about what the word biblical inerrancy means. I want to spend some time going over what the Bible is and what the Bible isn't.
[49:31] And thirdly, I want to cover some pitfalls many Christians fall into when they read the Bible and are being untaught in the message.
[49:41] And there's a lot of ways we think are Christian but truly aren't Christian. And people believe they're loving God by following a path that sometime leads to destruction. So we're going to cover some of those errors that happen in the Christian life.
[49:57] So just please pray with me now. Dear Lord, holy, heavenly father, I know there's a lot of information that I'm dispensing here and I pray that it was truly understandable.
[50:18] Father, I give you thanks for your Holy Spirit that not only gives us an understanding of that it is indeed your word, we pray that it drives us to give us a deeper understanding of your word.
[50:30] That it's not enough for us to believe that the Bible is your word. It's got to be enough to want to know your word. That we want to study it. We want to know it.
[50:40] Just as we know we're spouses. It's how we know we're children. We spend that time with them day after day, year after year. We know the quirks and the foibles of our friends and families and we love them for it.
[50:55] And sometimes there's even these stories in the Bible which perplex us, confuse us. Some stories we even hate. But all too often we just do not understand the context of what was going on or how it truly reflects on your holiness, your righteousness.
[51:13] righteousness. So many times I see too many people judging God.
[51:25] Imagine us finite, broken, for lack of a better word, stupid people thinking our sense of justice and authority is greater than God's sense of justice, mercy, and authority.
[51:51] Father, I pray that you'd continue to work in our hearts to an understanding that we would desire to know your truths and riches. There's a reason why the psalmist says it's more desirable than pure gold are the riches that are found in Scripture.
[52:14] Whether it speaks about money or relationships or how to worship, how to parent, it's all good and it's all great.
[52:28] Father, I pray that we would be a people of the word that are powered by the Spirit, that have an incredible love for God. Father, I, if we can truly understand that principle, pity be the one that tries to hold back in believing in you.
[52:56] We thank you, Jesus, for this Sunday and this time of worship. In your name we pray. Amen.