Well, we'll just go ahead and get started.
Tonight we're going to go over part 4 of the nature, the purpose, and power of Scripture.
And if you have your sheet on here, it's a double-sided one today.
And we're doing part 2 of the titles and the names of Scripture.
Tonight we'll be going over the Word of Christ from Colossians chapter 3 verse 16.
And we'll be going through a couple other verses today, so just be prepared to go through a few verses.
We'll learn about the Word of Truth.
So remember, we've been going over what are the different names of Scripture.
What is the significance of that, and what does the Bible have to say specifically for these verses?
So that's going to be really good.
So remember, we have been going over the divine inspiration of the Word of God.
We've talked about the role of the Holy Spirit.
We've talked about the carrying along of the writers, the apostles, the prophets, and how Jesus Christ is the, technically the author.
He is the Word.
The Word became flesh.
And so what I'd like to do, I'm going to start off with an opening question here.
It's about the living Word.
It says here, how does seeing Christ as the living Word, how does that influence our relationship with the Scriptures and with Him?
I want us to think about that. Feel free to... we're just going to go right into it.
I'm going to do two questions and then we'll go ahead and open with prayer.
But first, I want to start off with this question.
So seeing Christ as the living Word.
I can tell you from last week when we piggybacked off of the implanted Word and the spiritual milk of the Word, it's the idea that faith comes through hearing the Word of God.
And from that same Word that's living and active, that God breathed His breath of life, so to speak, that knowledge, it helps us to come to know the Lord.
It helps us with the growing in our faith to mature, to have a better understanding of who Jesus is and what His Word has to say.
It's the core of our faith. It's coming to Christ through faith by believing in Him.
When we believe in Christ, we receive the gift of salvation.
The Word that was brought to us, right, it gives us that knowledge of Him.
And to grow deeper in our faith, it's certainly when we make a decision for Christ, it's a one-time thing that happens.
But the continual growing in Christ is a lifetime.
It happens each and every day that we open our Bible.
And we go from being a baby Christian, so to speak, to mature adults.
And the question I want us to think about also is how can we go from milk to solid food?
And I don't mean as a literal infant, I mean a spiritual infant, where we think of a bottle, right?
A newborn baby when they are just drinking from the warm milk of the bottle.
And they are being nourished, they are growing, they are, you know, their whole body is forming.
So I want you to reflect on this, how can we go from milk to solid food?
And as we reflect on that, this is going to lead us to part two, where we are learning about the Word of Christ and the Word of Truth.
So before we go any further, I want us to pray and I want us to then go into our study.
So let's pray together. Father God, we're grateful that we have this time and this opportunity to come here tonight to open your Word.
The Word of Christ, the Word of Truth, your living and active Word.
We are grateful that not only is your Word truth, but that there is life in it.
And that your Word helps us to come to know who you are, to know your Son, Jesus, the Messiah, and to grow in our faith in you.
We ask that our minds are open to learning more about you through the connections, but also through the context of your Word.
In all of this, we also pray that our hearts are open to live and to love like you.
We ask that you send down your Holy Spirit to be with us tonight as we delve more into your Word.
May we grow together. May we grow together and may we focus on you.
There's so much that we can learn and understand and grow in our faith and we're just so grateful that we have our Bibles,
that we have the ability to come here tonight and that we can just really think about you, focus our minds and our hearts on you.
It is in Jesus' name that we pray, we all say together, Amen.
And so I'd like for us to turn, this is our first verse of tonight.
It's going to be in Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 and this will be found in page 1170.
My bad, two pages so far.
Oh, okay, it is correct. It's on my notes that wasn't correct. So 1170.
It says in here, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And I love that next verse that says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
And what we see in here is the word of Christ, right? It says right in there.
It's the same logos or logos that has been used in previous verses.
We know that Christ is the word. So the word of Christ, it's speaking of the words of Jesus.
And it's saying in here that we are to have this word of Christ dwell in us richly.
I want to ask you, I want you to take a moment to, you can respond or write down or just think about this is,
have you ever felt the word of Christ? It could be specifically the red letters.
It could be specifically a verse that stuck out to you and it could be in a time of trial.
It could be in a time of just when things were good as well.
So I want you to think, have you ever felt the word of Christ dwell in you?
Because the verse is saying, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
So I wanted to ask, has there ever felt that way? Have you ever, has there ever been an experience?
That's very good. You know, when we're thinking about the word of Christ dwelling within us,
I think of kind of this idea that the word of God is living, right?
When you think of a dwelling place that it's living within you, that it's in your heart.
And I think that's, it could be a verse you've memorized.
It could be maybe a particular, a parable or a certain story that maybe is just really,
it comes up, you know, out of the blue or, but it's really this idea of reflecting on it and having it within you.
I know last week we talked about the implanted word, right?
Having the word be like a seed that's planted in you.
And when we think of the seed and the soil, we want to water those seeds.
We want to be open to letting God work on our heart, work on our mind.
And we think about transformation.
I think I would say a big part of it is, are you open to God working to you?
I think very often, sometimes we say we're open to the Lord or the word of Christ changing us,
but sometimes we're not. It just really depends.
And so, you know, each situation is different.
When we're looking at this, the apostle Paul, he's talking about the new identity that exists in Christ, right?
We are a new creation. We have our new identity in Christ.
When we become believers, we are to focus our minds and our hearts, not on the things of this earth,
but to focus on things that are higher.
It's in the back of your notes. You'll see in here.
There's Colossians chapter three, verse two.
And it says here that set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.
And I've always found that is very challenging.
But certainly, you know, it's when we think about how we live our life for the Lord,
we're thinking about things that are not fleeting, right?
Things that are not temporary. We're focusing on life after death.
We're thinking about heaven. We're thinking about, you know, what's the goal of our life?
You know, what's going to happen at the end of our life?
And it's certainly very difficult.
We think of all of the friendships or family and we think of our pets even, right?
We think of the beauty of nature and what do you mean, God?
You want me to think about things that are above this, not dwell on things on the earth?
But when we begin to think about life after death or we think about heaven, we think how beautiful God has set the heavens, so to speak for us.
And how we should at least get more excited as time goes on about heaven.
And that's, to me, like, that's very, like, difficult, but it's not a bad thing.
And so, yeah, he's talking about the new identity, right?
Set your mind on things that are above.
And I would further add, so often we get so tied up in just the little petty things, right?
We get so focused on, let's just say, drama, right?
Or just things that are going on.
I can't tell you how many times you're at the gas station or you go by a magazine stand or you go into a bookstore and you see celebrity images and you see, like, certainly there's some good things out there, new discoveries or whatever.
But sometimes they get so focused on, you know, what did this celebrity wear on this day and why was it not fashionable, you know?
Or you think of just things that are not the most important thing, I would say.
It's not that you never want to focus on them, but certainly have your mind on that, you know?
Be mindful of it, I would say.
The focus is to focus on being more like Christ, to focus on the love of Christ, to focus on what is heaven like, how can I share my faith with others?
How can I grow in Christ and be able to share that with my family or my friends or help other people grow in the Lord?
And one question I want to put on here, there's a lot of questions and a lot of verses, but is how can we enter into an environment where we dwell on the word of Christ within us?
So I want us to think about that.
Feel free to take a moment to write down an answer or at least to think about it.
Memorizing.
Yeah, memorizing is very important.
I mean, going to Sunday service, going to Bible studies, I mean, those are the most common that we can think of.
But I also think of sometimes you have someone that's in a situation where they may have a 24-hour shift or maybe they have a high-stress job,
or maybe they have a strange situation that they're in. The idea of this question is how you answer that may be different than how someone else answers that.
How someone enters into an environment to dwell on the word of God.
It takes a lot of intention.
Sometimes it takes planning to do.
You know, it's, but when you go in with the focus, I'm going to focus on God's word and allow for God to speak to me, or I'm going to focus on just reading scripture.
I'm going to focus on praying.
Where can we find peace and quiet?
Where can we find a place where we're not distracted by technology?
Where, you know, some people, when they go for a drive, some, I'm just going to go drive in the evening, and I'm just going to take some time to pray.
It might be that.
It might be you have, you know, one room that is away from everybody else and you go to that room.
It could be, I always enjoyed nature as a good option, right?
Being by a river or a lake.
I mean, usually I don't, at least I don't think of many times where there's too many people by trails.
I mean, I guess if it's a popular trail or a popular lake, but, and you know, we are, we are led to Christ by the preaching of God's word, by the teaching of God's word, by our own reading and study of God's word.
And we come to know who, who is God?
Who is Jesus?
Who's this Jesus guy?
Right.
And once we know enough about the Lord, we hopefully all make the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus.
And in receiving salvation, we enter into that new life, that new identity, the new purpose.
God gives us a new direction for our lives.
And Paul mentions about how we are to put away the old self, right, and to put on the new self.
And that leads us to where we're talking about this idea of the word of Christ dwelling in, inhabiting us, as the Greek would say.
It's defined as dwelling or inhabiting, right, living within us.
Now we know that the word of Christ, it is the word of God, and we must allow for God's word, the implanted word, the spiritual food to dwell within us, richly, abundantly.
That is done through hearing the word of God, reading the word of God, seeing, think of the senses, right?
Using our senses, I don't think you can smell the word of God, but certain senses you can do.
We allow for the word of God to mold us.
I always think of the idea of how God is the great potter, and we are the clay, we are the work of God's hands.
And since Christ is the word, we let the words of Christ dwell in us, just as we would have any of Scripture dwell within us.
Now, I have mentioned about Jesus being at the creation of the world, and when you're a baby Christian, that may be a little hard to learn that.
You're like, I thought God was there and said, let there be light, and there's the Trinity verse where it's saying, let us make, what do you mean Christ is there?
We know that Christ is a part of the Trinity.
We have God the Father, we have God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one.
It helps us with our understanding of the word and the roles that they play, thinking about how God has spoken through the prophets, how Christ being the word and the Holy Spirit working through us.
It's all connected with each other.
And I am reminded of, it's in the back of your notes in John chapter 10 verse 30.
It's a famous one where Christ is saying, I and my Father are one.
Right, but learning what in the world is the Trinity and how are they all connected?
Yeah, it's definitely, and that's one of the things when you read the Bible.
But the way I've understood it and the way I always recommend to people is looking at the context, but also looking at the connections.
Sometimes you find people that are so focused on only the context.
Sometimes you find people that are only focused on the connections.
You need to look at a balance between both.
What is Paul saying here?
What is Jesus saying here in this parable or in this teaching?
So it's having a fine balance and other things to consider is the culture of the time.
What were the traditions of the Jewish people?
Why were things or understanding that the culture was very different than it is now?
So that would be part of it.
And I really like as we start from being going from milk to solid food.
First and foremost, it's learning about Jesus Christ.
But as time goes on, it's like, okay, what is justification?
What is sanctification?
What is the Trinity?
What do you mean the fulfillment of prophecy?
What do you mean the end times?
Like you start getting into those kind of things.
You start getting into like when we talked about the mystery of Christ.
That would be more of a deeper thing.
And it's all part of our growth.
And so we let the word of Christ as the verse says to teach us and to admonish us.
So this means this is back in our verse Colossians 3 16.
So let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, right?
Abundantly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.
So let's just focus on the teaching and the admonishing part.
Did I just skip that?
It means that we let the word of God, the knowledge of who he is.
Like we've talked about molding us, right?
Like the potter and the clay help us on our spiritual growth.
It's to be taught.
And so we know the teaching part.
That's pretty self-explanatory.
The admonishing part is to be the translate the translation of the Greek is to be warned or to be corrected.
To be corrected in our walk towards the Lord.
And that's nobody likes hearing that being corrected as you're growing.
But as you grow, you it's like when you're training as an athlete, having the correct form for when you're working on your muscles or when you're, let's say you're setting sail on the ocean.
Well, you have to course correct.
You're not always going the wrong way.
You just may have to change just a little bit one degree.
If one degree is not course corrected, then it goes pretty far off.
So you kind of have to constantly correct, be corrected.
And so when we're talking about the word of God, it's correcting us.
It's warning us.
It's part of that transformational power.
And I would like to add that as you study the word of God, you start knowing God more, you start knowing his word more.
You develop the sense of discernment.
You develop the sense of what is right and what is wrong.
So another way to look at this of being corrected is if we have an improper understanding or if we hear an improper understanding.
I would say definitely when you hear something that just doesn't sound right.
You'll be convicted if you will, you'll be moved.
There's something wrong about what, you know, we'll just say someone on YouTube, right?
We'll just say someone that we're hearing is like, yeah, that's true, but I don't know about this part.
It's just like how we think about Genesis, right?
When the snake was saying, did God really say that?
And, you know, very, I mean, that's how when we think of Satan, the devil, the adversary, that's how he works is by kind of, if you will, putting that seat of doubt in your mind.
But when we're empowered with the word of God, well, we'll know, well, wait a minute, that doesn't sound correct.
I know what the word of God says, and this is clearly a false, a blatant lie, if you will, or it's a twisting of scripture.
So that's a very good benefit of knowing the word of God is to be able to be corrected in our walk and to be taught.
It's all part of the transformation that comes from scripture.
Now, a question that I'm going to put up here is, can you think, because, okay, we've talked about this as being taught by the word of God are corrected.
So I want to ask you, can you think of a time or an experience that you've had where the word of Christ taught or corrected you?
It's definitely a question to think about the times where the word of God, the word of Christ is teaching you or correcting you.
You know, I think on a very personal note of how I used to think that God could tempt me.
I used to believe that I used to think God could tempt me to do wrong.
But in scripture, it's testing, as opposed to tempting.
And I wouldn't say I recently learned that I learned that a couple years in as a Christian.
And I think a lot of it just came from my upbringing, like, oh, you know, kind of the fire in brimstone mindset, so to speak, where I thought, you know, am I going to hell?
Am I going to hell and always thinking that way?
Like, oh, what if God's tempting me to do evil?
Well, then one day going through James, wait just a minute.
And I remember how that it taught me and corrected me because I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
What do you mean God won't tempt me?
And it's like, oh, man, I've nobody likes admitting when they're wrong or they were taught or they had a misunderstanding of scripture.
But I just remember when I when it finally it was like a light went off and I was like, oh, and that's okay.
You know, that's part of learning, right?
Just like how I was talking about an athlete when they're training.
Sometimes they may have been doing they may be very strong and they may have had improper form.
They needed to correct something or whatever it is.
But that's that is something that for all of us, there may be a time where that happens.
Even if you've been a Christian all your life, you know, I didn't I didn't look at it that way or I didn't think about it that way.
But yeah, that was that is something I've thought about.
I'm like, sometimes you'll hear Christians say that like, oh, I'm being tempted.
Why is God tempting me?
I'm just wait a minute here.
Like, what?
Yeah, you're just like, wait, where did you hear this from?
You know, right?
Exactly.
So when we talk about the implanted word, we talked about that last week, the seed that is dwelling within us, helping us come to know the Lord and growing.
They use the language growing in our salvation.
Well, we're saved, right?
We're saved.
We were saved by belief in the Lord.
There's the ongoing salvation.
It's the ongoing process of becoming more holy, becoming more Christ like it's the idea of sanctification or purification growing in your faith.
We start by believing in Christ, where we have everlasting life and we grow from there in the back of your notes in the additional verses, John chapter six verse 47.
It's, it's, this is basic, right?
Whoever believes has eternal life.
It's belief.
It's not taking membership classes.
It's not how much you give.
It's not about the things that you do.
It's belief.
So going back to our, our verse in, let's see here in Colossians chapter three verse 16, right?
So we're talking about the word of Christ dwelling in you richly teaching and admonishing each other in all wisdom, singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Well, here in the Bible, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
It's such beautiful language.
In the New Testament, we do see that talking about singing the congregation coming together and singing to the Lord.
So that's definitely, it's pretty self-explanatory.
We don't need to go much further into that specific one.
Great hymns of the faith, spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
When you're coming to worship, right? When you're coming to sing to the Lord, it's being thankful, right?
Coming and offering your burdens to the Lord is very appropriate.
Being thankful for the life that you have, being thankful for God sending his son.
So part of it is, yes, the melody.
Sometimes it's, you get an emotional feeling from the music.
It's also the lyrics that you're reading, right?
There's a song, We Worship the God Who Saves.
I know that's a, it's a repeated verse, but that's a very good one.
I love that one.
And then of course, I know there's, in some places there's debates, oh hymns versus, you know, which one.
But the main idea is to come before the Lord with Thanksgiving, right?
Enter his gates with Thanksgiving, I think of that verse.
It's just a great reminder of us to let the word of Christ dwell within us when we come together, when we sing songs to the Lord.
So the next question that comes up here is, have you ever feel convicted to do or not do something?
It's piggybacked off of the word of Christ.
So let's think about that for a moment.
I'm sure we all have felt convicted at one time or another to do something or to not do something.
It might be speaking to someone, not speaking to someone, right?
So let's take a couple moments to think about that.
I know when we did communion last week, talking about Christ being creator, redeemer and sustainer just fit really well.
Because it's talking about the idea of bread, right?
The ingredients that are used, right?
When God is taking the ingredients and making us, right?
And then you're thinking of the kneading of the bread when you're preparing it, just like how the Lord is going to mold us, right?
We make the decision and it's not through with us, right?
And then when we're being placed into the oven, oh, that's a tough one, right?
You get going to the oven, right?
Well, the fiery furnace, but knowing that God is going to be with you in the testing of your faith.
I think I mentioned in that sermon that you don't put bread out in the oven and walk away.
I mean, you might walk away for a little bit, but you're not going to leave it in there for hours and just hope it comes out all right.
You're there constantly checking in on it.
And that's much like how God is there with us.
He doesn't abandon us even though we may not feel like he's there.
He's still there with us.
So going on, we have Psalm 96 verses 1 through 2 in the additional verses section.
You know, biblically, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
I love how there's connections, especially with all of the Psalms that are out here.
I always think of sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing to the Lord all the earth.
Bless his name and tell of his salvation from day to day.
All right, we thank God singing a new song.
I always love that lyric.
What is the new song going to be?
You know, so now we're going to go ahead and turn to our next verse.
So it's going to be James chapter 1 verse 18.
We'll start at verse 16.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Verse 18.
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
And James is talking about the testing of faith.
Count it in joy when you're enduring trials.
That's a very hard verse.
But contextually, he's talking about what happens when we're facing trial.
If we lack wisdom, we need to ask God for it in faith.
And in verse 18, James is talking about, well, right before verse 18, every good and perfect gift is from above.
And that God brought us forth in verse 18, the word of truth.
It is God's will that he brought forth to us his word.
That means to us that the word of God was not given by mistake.
It was given to us, for us, from him.
In other words, it's divine purpose for divine inspiration in our Bibles.
The word of truth.
It's something that is found in other places in scripture.
And you'll see in your notes that in the original outline, it was just Colossians and James, but there are other verses.
You'll see that it's italicized because there's other verses that use this phrasing, the word of truth.
When we study the word of God, again, context and connections.
So in context of James, enduring trials, seeking wisdom, that every good gift comes from the Lord, and that God intentionally gave us his word.
So the word of truth, it's found here, helps us with our understanding.
The word of truth is the word of God, and you'll see what I mean here.
So there's more insight on the specific wording of the word of truth. Let's turn to Ephesians 1-13-14 in your Bibles.
This is going to be page 1159.
So Ephesians 1-13-14.
We can start at verse 11. Why not?
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, uh oh.
Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
So that we who were first to hope in Christ might be able, uh, might be to the praise of his glory.
Verse 13.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
So we're focusing on verses 13-14, hearing the word of truth.
What is the word of truth? It is the gospel of your salvation.
So what a beautiful connection here, right?
That the word of truth is the gospel. It is the good news.
Well, the gospel of your salvation, what is your salvation?
Well, the gospel of your salvation is the gift from the Lord.
Salvation is free. It is available for all who believe.
And this language is saying here that we are sealed.
We're sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit and that we will have our inheritance.
We have this guarantee of this inheritance.
Well, when we went over Hebrews chapter one versus one through three, this is not in your notes.
We learned about how Christ is the heir of all things.
Right?
And that Christ is the heir of all things and that we receive the inheritance.
So think about this. There's a beautiful connection here.
That we receive this inheritance to the praise of his glory.
So Christ being the heir of all things.
Well, think for a moment.
What is our inheritance?
How do we know what it means?
Well, I want to put, I want to point you real quick on the back of your notes.
First Peter, because there's the mention of the inheritance in there.
First Peter chapter one versus three through four.
It's the one before the key takeaways.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance.
Well, what about this inheritance?
It is imperishable.
It is undefiled.
It is unfading.
And it is kept in heaven for you.
The inheritance is everlasting life in Jesus Christ.
So the word of truth, it is the gospel and certainly it can be viewed upon as also the word of God.
So it has, if you will, two meanings.
All of these names that we are going over, the titles of the word, they point to the story of the redemption.
They point to Jesus Christ and they are all connected.
And that leads us to our second Timothy chapter two verse 15.
I'm going to put that up there.
Second Timothy chapter two verse 15 page 1182.
So it says, I'm reading from verse 14, remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Verse 16, avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene.
Very interesting.
So going back to verse 15, present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Well, the question then comes up is how can we handle with the word of truth?
Well, let's think about that.
The verse is Paul is writing to Timothy about being a soldier for Christ.
He uses language for a soldier, an athlete and a farmer.
So Paul goes on to mention that the word of God is not bound with chains. Let's actually go back to there.
Hopefully you didn't close it like I did.
Let's go back there.
Go to verse nine.
So we're still in second Timothy.
Second Timothy, we were at two fifteen.
So we're going to go to verse nine here.
Yeah, so let's actually go to verse eight.
Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead the offspring of David as preached in my gospel, right?
For which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal. So Paul is in prison, right?
But the word of God is not bound.
Just a short little, short little piece right there, right?
So he's writing to Timothy saying to rightly handle the word of truth.
It has to do with accurately preaching and teaching the word of God, being mindful of the things that you're saying when he's talking about not babbling.
Well, you got to have substance to what you're preaching.
You got to have depth into what you are preaching or teaching.
Don't just use a bunch of fluffy words if you will, which is something we all have to be mindful of, right?
You got to have substance to what you have.
We can learn from this passage about how important it is to study the word of God and to have a proper understanding of it.
And this is most especially, well, Paul is writing to Timothy, who is a leader in the early church.
So certainly this applies also most especially for those who are in leadership, pastors, preachers, teachers and evangelists.
You have to be mindful, right?
Doesn't scripture say that you will be judged more strictly?
That's a very difficult one.
I know whenever I think of those verses, oh, I got to be careful, right?
But it's a good reminder, though.
It just means it means you're accountable to God and the things that you teach.
And certainly you should take some seriousness in that.
And so having that proper understanding of the word of God.
And so look, in the in the early church and even now there are those who teach something that is contrary to the word of God.
That's why you have to let the word of God speak for itself.
Okay, you have to find those connections.
Okay.
When I had this outline, it was originally Colossians 316 and James 118.
But the more I studied it, I'm like, wait a minute, that's not the only one that says the word of truth here.
There are other verses.
So certainly we could have just gone into James and the context of all that rightfully so.
But finding where else in scripture do we find word of truth?
And this helps us with our understanding.
Think of it like this.
For every false teacher and they're teaching something that's contrary to scripture, they have to reconcile with the verses that are saying one thing, right?
What do you do when you're teaching that it doesn't really say whosoever or it doesn't really say Jesus rose from the dead or it doesn't really say whatever the false teaching is, you have to reconcile one way or another.
So what do you do?
Ignore it?
You cut it out?
I mean, what do you do?
And that's why I will always say this, let the scripture speak for itself.
Right?
It's not about what I believe in.
It's not about my own agenda.
It's about what the word of God has to say.
We now go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 7.
That's going to be on page 1148.
Now this is an interesting one because you'll find in it, at least if you're using your ESV.
Is anyone not using an ESV?
I'm using the New King's.
Okay.
I'm using the American standard.
Okay.
So this is good.
This is good.
So let's read it and you'll see in just a second.
So 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 7.
It says here, by truthful speech and to the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.
Okay.
I know it's a little bit out of, there's a whole thing going on there, right?
So to understand that better, you got to go to verse 3 and 4, right?
So let's go a little bit back because otherwise I'm just pulling it out of a very long list here.
Chapter 6 verse 3.
We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found in our ministry.
But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.
Now go to verse 7 by truthful speech and the power of God.
They're just listing a bunch of things that they are, what they're commending themselves for.
Okay.
So what does your translation say on verse 7?
The ESV says truthful speech.
The main, I'm not, I'm using the word discrepancy, maybe that's not the right word.
There's a difference in translations.
So in your notes you'll see on the front page, you'll see that there's different ways this is translated.
You see word of truth or truthful speech.
The only one that seems to have even a little bit more different is the new living translation.
But for the sake of tonight, word of truth and truthful speech.
So even though, at least in the ESV, it's not specifically saying word of truth, the language that is used,
the Greek that has been used for word of truth is the same in the 2nd Corinthians passage as it was in James 118, Ephesians 113-14,
and 2nd Timothy 2 verse 15.
So it's still part of the same pattern, if you will.
Okay.
So you'll see in there that when we're looking at the context here, it's talking about, let me put no obstacle into anyone's way, right?
So that no fault may be found in our ministry.
Well, certainly something we can observe is you don't want to put an obstacle into anyone's way.
You don't want to have a stumbling block, if you will, when it comes to ministry, right?
So when you think of, I'm going to give a radical example is if I don't want someone to get drunk on wine, if you will, right?
So it's talking about don't be a stumbling block, right?
So that no fault may be found in our ministry.
But as servants of God, we commend ourselves, right?
So what are we doing in our ministry?
So we have the word of truth and the power of God.
That's some very powerful language, right?
Because you have the word of truth, which is the word of God, the gospel message.
And then you have the power of God, right?
And I always think of the verse where it says, you know, if God is for us, who can be against us?
When you have the power of God with you in your ministry, as you are spreading the word of God, why in the world would you want an obstacle to that?
Why would you want a stumbling block that is hindering the power of the Lord?
You know what I mean?
You don't want to have something that is holding back that.
Now, granted, God can overrule and overpower the obstacle, but you still don't want to have an obstacle, though.
So the weapons of righteousness, I love that wording, right?
For the right hand and for the left.
Be mindful of your speech, right?
Be mindful of what you are proclaiming.
Let the words that you speak, the gospel message, let that be a tool, right?
So that the Holy Spirit can be used by the words that you are preaching or that you are teaching.
So that's the idea with that.
So we're seeing a lot of this, how the word of truth is used in Scripture.
And it brings us to this question is, you know, the gospel truth is what comes to mind when we're talking about truthful speech or the word of truth being the gospel, right?
So it's the question then is, how can we speak gospel truth to others?
Well, we know that when we're looking at this second Corinthians passage, well, we don't want to put an obstacle in someone's way.
That's pretty obvious. That's pretty cut and dry.
Don't put a stumbling block to your ministry.
So that's one thing we can think of.
Can we think of anything else?
So take a moment to write or reflect or respond.
I do want to add something I didn't realize was I did put it in here.
When that verse is saying they commend themselves, they're talking about having a ministry that is genuine and authentic, right?
It's talking about an effective ministry by the word of truth or the truthful speech.
So what the idea is, it is what matters.
It is what is said to people, right?
When you're preaching or teaching isn't in alignment with the word of God.
Is it from the word of God?
So it's being mindful of how genuine.
Where is your heart at when you're preaching or teaching?
So they're just saying here, we're commending ourselves.
They're not boasting, they're saying that we have real genuine authentic ministry.
So that was a note that I didn't realize was further down here.
I certainly pray that and want us to think that the words that we speak to others,
spreading the good news of the gospel, that it is truthful.
We want to show people, we want to tell people of the good news, right?
We speak gospel truth to others.
Our testimony.
Maybe it is certain passages in scripture that has helped you.
But certainly it's a prayer that we should all have, that we speak truth and we speak life that comes from the Lord.
In our everyday dealings.
And as we close here tonight, I want us to have kind of a recap of what we've gone over.
I know this was a lot, this was a little more in depth than normal, but that's just how it happens.
So your key takeaways on the last page here.
So it says that the word of Christ, it refers to the words that are spoken by Jesus Christ as recorded in scripture.
Since Christ is himself in the living word, the word of Christ connects also broadly to all of scripture.
And secondly, the word of truth is referenced to the gospel message about Jesus Christ.
The good news of salvation through faith in Christ is considered the word of truth.
And also it can apply to the breadth, right? All of scripture.
The third one in here is God's word leads us to salvation in Christ just as it says in Romans that faith comes through hearing.
From belief, I put a typo there.
We then continue to shape our minds and our hearts to become more like Jesus.
Well, that is done through the Holy Spirit, through the word of God molding us.
And number four, teachers and preachers, and you could even go as far as evangelists and anyone in leadership.
They have a responsibility to handle and communicate the word of truth accurately so that those they minister to can grow from the spiritual milk of the word to the solid food in their faith.
So what I'd like to do before we close out in prayer, are there any questions or any thoughts I want to or take some time to reflect before we close things out?
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for giving us this time to learn about the word of Christ and the word of truth.
For you are there in the pages of scripture.
We ask that the word of Christ may dwell in us as we go from this place and in the days ahead.
May we speak the gospel truth to those that we interact with in word, the words that we speak.
And in our everyday living, we pray that we can live and love like you.
We are in awe of who you are and what you have done by sending your son Jesus Christ as the sacrificial lamb, the atoning sacrifice.
For Jesus is the way.
He is the truth and the life.
We are just thankful and full of gratitude.
For you do not abandon us.
You do not forsake us. You are there for us.
Your arms are always open for us to come to you.
We pray for this church, for Ontario Community Church, that there will be transformation.
The people who don't know you or yet to know you or maybe they've walked away from you.
May they be drawn near to you.
May the unbeliever or the non-believer make a decision by knowing who you are and not knowing of you but knowing who you are.
We pray for those that are hurting, those that are struggling.
We don't know the full story of everything that's going on with every person in this congregation, but you sure do.
And we ask that where healing is needed, let there be healing.
Where forgiveness is needed, let there be forgiveness.
Where peace is needed, let there be peace.
We pray that this church will grow in a healthy manner.
May we be focused on the health of this church.
That we will focus on the truth of the word.
That we'll focus on what your word has to say.
That we will not be swayed by a movement or an agenda, but we stay rooted on the truth, the foundation that exists in you.
We pray for the city of Ontario.
We know there's a lot of brokenness.
There's people without houses, the homeless, those who are addicted to drugs and living their worldly way.
Your scripture reminds us that there is a way that seems right and that way does not lead to you.
But we pray for transformation in this community.
That people will turn away from their sin, that they will come to you.
That they will see that there is a better way.
Because a life without you is meaningless as Ecclesiastes mentions to us.
A meaningless life.
There is meaning.
There is purpose.
There is direction.
There is life in you.
We just pray that for those that are suffering from mental illness or disease, there will be healing in this city.
We pray for the surrounding towns of Fruitland or Vale or Payette or any of the surrounding communities.
Lord, I don't know everybody in this town and none of us know everybody in this town, but you sure do.
If there is healing needed, let there be healing.
If there is comfort that is needed, let you, may your comfort be there for those in need.
We pray that as Christians, we can be a beacon of hope, that we stand on the truth of the word of God, but we also deal in love and forgiveness and that unconditional love that you have shown to us.
We pray for families that if there are any broken families that they may come together with forgiveness and with love,
may you be at the center of marriages, may you be at the center of our lives.
We pray for those that have walked away from you, ones that are discouraged or disgruntled or hurt.
Maybe there was sin that happened, maybe there was evil that was done, where there is healing needed, let there be healing.
May you comfort those that need comfort.
May there be guidance where guidance is needed.
And in all of these things we ask that your will be done.
We love you so much, for you are the God of healing and the God of restoration.
You are the God of second chances and you give us the chance of having everlasting life through your Son Jesus Christ by believing in Him.
We just pray that you are with us as we go from this place.
We ask that you are with us during the rest of this week and prepare us for this Sunday.
And we ask that as we are preparing for our annual Bazaar that we prepare for that and may we do everything in excellence for you and for your glory.
It is in Jesus' name that we pray and we all stay together. Amen.