All right, we're good to go. All right, let me go ahead and...
All right, so everyone has a sheet and their Bible and we're ready to go. Well,
it's definitely great to be here tonight. It's installment six of the Nature,
Purpose, and Power of Scripture. You know, we started off part one was the origin of
scriptures, learning about divine inspiration of the Word of God and how
the Holy Spirit carried along the authors to write or to dictate to their
scribes the word that was to be written. Then we went over the author of scriptures,
learning about Moses. We went over the prophets, the apostles, and Christ being
the author as well. Then we went over the names and titles of scriptures. So we
just finished that portion where we learned about the implanted Word, the
spiritual milk of the Word, the Word of God, and the Word of Christ which dwells
in us. We learned about the Word of Truth which is the gospel message. And this
last week we finished off the holy scriptures and the oracles of God. And
this makes mention to the Old Testament, but it can also make mention to the
entirety of scripture. And so tonight we're going to talk about the nature and
the description of the scriptures. So you find that in your note just right at
the top or Roman numeral three characteristics and we're going over
that first one which is pure, the purity of scripture. The main verses we'll be
going over is Psalms chapter 12 verse 6, Psalm 19, chapter 19 verse 9, and then
Psalm 51, chapter 51 verse 10. So we're gonna learn about that. We're
learning about the purity of scripture. We'll go on next week about how God's
Word is true, how it's perfect and sure, living and active, or some
translations say quick and powerful. But for tonight we're just going to go over
the purity of scripture and just how it's all connected together. But before we
go any further, what I want us to do I'd like for us to open in prayer and we'll
go ahead and get started. So we pray, Father we come before you tonight. We're
ready to open our Bibles to learn more about who you are and what you have done.
We ask that you help us to understand the depths of your Word and to challenge
us to know you and to grow in faith in you. As we have learned the titles and
the names of your holy Word, may we learn more about the purity of your Word,
the truth that is found in the Word of God, in your Word, and how they are
perfect, how your Word is sure, how it is living and active. And as we learn we
ask that our hearts will be open to live and to love like you. We wish to be more
like your Son Jesus the Christ and not to have hardened hearts or bitterness. We
ask that you're with us tonight as we learn more from your Word. It is in
Jesus' name that we pray and we all say together amen. Amen. So we're first
going to start off, it's going to be Psalms chapter 12 verse 6. It's going to be
found in page 534 of the ESV Pew Bible.
Let's read Psalm chapter 12 verse 6. So let's read this together. The words of
the Lord are pure words like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times. And that leads us to our first question for reflection. Have
you ever paused to consider what pure means when we're talking about the Word
of God? Why do you think? Why might God emphasize the purity of His Word to us?
So feel free to take a moment to write down your thoughts or you can interact
and whatever comes to mind, however, whatever works for you the best. So
let's take a moment and reflect on that. Sometimes the heat gets turned on in our
lives if it will, but sometimes we go through things because it's supposed to
kind of mold us and I know that's very heavy language, but it is true. And in
the same way we're seeing here that the purity of God's Word is something that
it's not tarnished, it's not dirty if you will. And when we are becoming more
like the Lord, we are going to have those little imperfections if you will
taken out and where we become more holy, where we become more Christ-like. And so
that's... these are very good answers. These are definitely good answers. So to
start off with, this is one of the Psalms of David and this verse is saying that
the words, right, the speech, the commands of the Word, these words are of God and
they are pure. There are some translations that will say clean or will say
flawless. Do any of your translations say in Psalms chapter 12 verse 6 anything
different? Does it say pure, clean, flawless? Does it say anything different? So
depending upon the translation, I think the main idea is certainly the same
that it has like this verse is saying, silver that is refined in a furnace. So
without error, right, without flaw, when you're thinking of, again, precious metal,
I think that's a very good example that the Lord is presenting to us. If you're
buying fine silver or fine gold, you don't want it to have any imperfection.
That's what would make a piece of... any piece of jewelry valuable is how perfect
it is or how pure it is or how flawless it is. So that's something to keep in
mind. So there's other translations that say other maybe not as common
translations that would say God's Word is trusted or sure and those are... I would
say those are good ways of looking at it as well. To have a better understanding
of the meaning of purity in the Hebrew word, it's defined as pure. It is defined
as clean or without... without blemish, right, without any sort of error, so to
speak. It's the kind of purity that's also defined, I'll get this, as the kind
moral or chemically pure also used in a ceremonial sense. So when we see this
word, it's very often used in the Old Testament Levitical Law or the Law in
Deuteronomy, which is about being ritually pure. So you find that specific
word used in the Old Testament Law. But here we're finding that purity is used
in the purity, the cleanliness, the perfection, if you will, the trust of
God's Word. Now I'd like for us to turn to 1st John chapter 1 verse 5 here
because what's very interesting is when we're talking about how God's Word is
pure, well it's part... we know that the Word of God comes from the Lord and
certainly there's a great reminder for us when we... I absolutely love this verse
because it helps... 1210, not 1220... it helps in our faith to understand this. So
1st John chapter 1 verse 5, it says, this is the message we have heard from Him and
proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Now what's
very interesting about this is it's similar to being pure, right? When we're
talking about the holiness of God and how God's way is perfect, it's another
word to describe the attribute or the characteristic of God. So if you're
looking at a light, well it has to be pure. Have you ever seen if you're using
a flashlight and there's a speck of... maybe there's dirt or mud on it, right?
It doesn't do what it's supposed to do. So God being light without having any
darkness of Him is kind of connected to the idea of God being pure and God's
word being pure. And so that helps us in our faith journey. And that leads us to
the next question that comes up here. If God is pure and light with no darkness,
how does this challenge us? Or how does this comfort you? Or how does this comfort
us in your walk with Him or in your walk with the Lord? So feel free to take a
moment and write that down or express your thoughts on this because it can be a
challenge for some but it can also be a comfort for others. It definitely helps
us. It helps us speak to other people about who God is. You'll have some people
every so often who'll say, well isn't God evil? Well no, God's not evil. Or does
God sin? Or does God do... it's just simple questions that we hear it and we're
like, well no. Well here's a verse that's like absolutely not. God will not tempt
you, for example. God will test you but He will not tempt you to sin. That would
be clearly against not only this verse but other verses in Scripture. And so when
we're thinking about the goodness of God, the truth of God, we know that God is not
a liar and we know from this verse that there's no darkness in Him. So to the
ones that are... they have in their mind thinking, oh well God must have some evil
qualities or God must be like me who's imperfect. Well no, it's really simple,
you know. So if you ever speak to someone who is saying, well you know, God
must have sinned or God must have made a mistake. Well I don't know what God you
believe in but that's not the God that I believe in. Because the God that I believe
in is good, the God that I believe in is holy, and He is pure, He is clean. And this
is one of those many verses that would show the holiness of God. And so that's...
it is comforting, isn't it? You know, knowing about that. I'll also add this,
which I think will help. When you look at other... the Pantheon, right? The many
gods, right? Think of Roman gods and goddesses, the Greek gods and goddesses.
They were very much like humans with superpowers, if you will, right? They had
the ability very strong or they could control the sea, but they weren't perfect.
And I think that's so interesting when you're looking at even the antiquity,
right? Those old gods and goddesses that they were not perfect in any sense of the
word and yet they still worship them. But we worship God who is perfect, right?
And so I just find that to be very interesting just how... I would say that
it's very common for humans understanding, for man's understanding, to think of God
like that. Well, how could God be different than me? You know, aren't we all the same?
Well, no, we're not. And you know, that the Greek mythology or the Roman mythology
is a great example of kind of making gods, if you will, that are very human-like.
But with our God being three in one, right? Just like the Trinity or being the
creator of the universe or is giving the way for forgiveness of sins is very
different than what you learn about in those kind of mythologies of old. So,
right, they fought with each other. They got angry like people did.
So those gods were no different, right? With how we understand other humans.
So you almost have to look at it like people who are in positions of power.
Like, oh, they're elevated, if you will, in society, but they're still imperfect.
You still hear about, oh, you know, this politician embezzled money or, you know,
this CEO committed adultery, right? Or whatever it is. It's no different than
how the Greek and Roman mythologies, right, how they elevated their gods, but
they were still imperfect, right? And so there is darkness in them, if you will.
And so that's really good. So although the first John passage does not
specifically use the word pure or clean, it still helps us with our understanding
of who God is and to understand that his word. Because God is good, therefore his
word is good. God is pure, God is light, God is love, he is holy, and he is sovereign.
And since God is pure, the words that God speaks are pure. And there are two verses
I want to share with you that will help us with our understanding of the purity
of God's word. We're gonna go ahead and turn to Psalm 19. So Psalm chapter 19
verse 9. And that's gonna be in page 538 in the ESV Pew Bible. And I'll put that
up on the screen right now. Psalm 19.9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous all together. Now if you
look previously, you'll see verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the
soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the
precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing in the heart, enlightening of the eyes.
So a lot of this is talking about the law of the Lord, so also the the laws
that were found in the Old Testament. But the fear of the Lord being clean,
this second verse is it's pure and it says it endures forever. I'm curious
what your other translations say, what it says. The fear of the Lord is what? Is
it say clean? Does it say pure, flawless? The idea of this is just so interesting,
right? The fear of the Lord being pure, being clean, and it enduring forever,
right? It might say your translation might say it endures forever or enduring
forever, but the same idea is still there. And the rules of the Lord are true and
righteous all together. So okay, we're learning about the word of God being
pure, but to have the fear of the Lord is also pure. So having the fear of the
Lord it's clean, it's pure, and it endures forever. So that leads us to our next
question. Well then wait just a minute, how do you fear the Lord in your life?
In what ways does God's splendor and majesty influence you? So I want you to
take a moment, reflect on that, write down or speak to it. God will be with you
in every season of your life, and that I didn't write this, I didn't make this up,
but someone once said that when you're being Christ-like, you're a believer in
Christ, you're on a path to sin less, but never to be sinless. And I thought
that was such a nice little play on words there, because we will continue to
sin, you know, but it should be less than it was before, you know, especially
before you knew the Lord. But certainly there are situations where people
struggle with sin, and that is a reality. But knowing that God is there for us and
is there to guide us through His Word and through prayer, and even with the
church being the community of believers helping each other out is also
something that's very beautiful. This language of the fear of the Lord
unfortunately has been taken in a very negative light, right, to be a frayed of
God. And I'll make it very clear, the only time you should fear God as in
being a frayed of Him is if you don't know Him. Okay, now that's different than
the fear of the Lord, which you find scattered throughout the wisdom literature.
The fear of the Lord is, it's a different kind of fear, and I'll read what I wrote
on here to kind of help out. When we read verses that speak of the fear of the
Lord, we're talking about a reverence that is defined as the awe and the wonder
of the Father, right, of the Lord. So think of it like this, the fear of the
Lord is not the kind of fear that pushes us away or draws us away from God,
rather it's the kind of awe, wonder, it is astonishment of who God is and what
He has done for us, and it draws us closer and it draws us near to Him. It's
very different than, like I said, it's different than being afraid of God by
not knowing Him. When we're talking about specifically that phrasing the fear of
the Lord, we have to look at it as reverence, respect, I use awe and wonder
a lot or astonishment of the splendor and the majesty. Now there have been
Christians that I have met who when they read the fear of the Lord, they
automatically think I must be afraid of the Lord even if I am a Christian, and
that would be that would be inaccurate, that would be incorrect. It would be at
that point what the fear of the Lord is to the Christian would be different than
being afraid of hell or afraid of what life is after death by not knowing God.
So I hope that makes sense because I know that's a very, that can be a very touchy
topic, especially for those who were taught that if you need to be afraid of
God even as a Christian, and unfortunately that can happen, I can't
think of an instance where that's happened specifically to me, but I do know
people who have felt that way before. There's one, if she watches this
online, she'll know exactly who I'm talking about. There's a there's a
Christian that I knew who she read verses that talked about the fear of the
Lord, and she was, she's like, well I'm a Christian. I don't, why do I need to be
afraid of him if I'm on his side? And we had a lovely talk about that,
about what that meant. As we go further in this, you'll see there's a nice
connection about knowing the Lord, and that I almost want to say that the
fear of the Lord is not an accurate way of describing it, but I don't want to
change what scripture's saying. That's why, that's why I have to be very careful
with certain words like that. They have certain meanings. When we read them, they
mean a certain thing. But with this woman that I knew, she's a young lady. She went
to youth group, and she had to kind of, she was, she knew other people who were
taught the fire and brimstone. And if I sin, I'm going to hell. If I, if I do
wrong, God's gonna throw me out of, you know, into the pit, if you will. And
unfortunately, that's more extreme. I think, I think that'd be an accurate way of
saying it. I don't want to say a specific denomination, but there are, there
are ones out there that talk about that if you, if you sin, you're separate from
God, therefore you're probably not going to go to heaven. Well, scripture actually
talks about how no one can, no one can pluck you out of God's hand. I'm trying
to remember, it's in John. I think it's John six. But the idea is when you make a
decision for Christ, when you believe in him, you are secure in the arms of the
Father, and God will protect you. He will, he will shield you even. And I think
that's, we don't want to look at, we don't want to look at those kind of
verses and being afraid when we don't need to be afraid. There's really, there's no
need to be afraid of the Lord if you know him. It's no different than how some
people, when they come to faith, they don't like calling God Father because
they might have had an abusive Father, right? Or they would say, oh, I can call
him, or maybe I don't want to call him Lord, can't I just call him God, or can't
I just call him something else other than that? Well, I mean, I would say that's
one reason why God has many different names, you know, that would be one great
thing. But one thing I want you all to know is that there is a connection with
the fear of the Lord that's found in the Old Testament with having saving
knowledge of the Lord. For when we know who God is, we come to believe him
through faith. And here's where I'll show you. Let's turn to this next verse. In
creating this, I was going to go over the purity of the word, the truth of
the word, the living and active. I was going to go through all of them, but once
again, when I go through it, it comes out longer. But this will, I hope this helps
in understanding the tie-in with the purity of scripture and the fear of the
Lord and the knowledge of God. So Proverbs chapter 2 is, so it's Proverbs
chapter 2 verses 4 through 6, but you know what, let's just go,
um, yeah, I guess we can go to verse 8 because there's a period there.
All right, so what's happening here? Solomon is writing to his son, right?
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom, right? And inclining your heart to
understanding, right? Just like how we need to hear the word of God and we need
to have our heart open to understand him. Verse 3, if you call out for insight and
raise your voice for understanding, verse 4, critical, if you seek it like
silver and search for it as hidden treasures, then you will understand the
fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes, come knowledge and
understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright and he is what?
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of the saints.
So that's powerful. Having the fear of the Lord
and finding the knowledge of God, right? There's a connection there.
So let's bring it all together. God's word is pure, it is clean, it is
perfect, right? Just as God is light and God is pure. God is sovereign, God is
holy. And for us to have the fear of the Lord,
to seek God or to seek Christ who is, as we've studied before, the wisdom of God,
it is much like how we are to seek first the kingdom of God,
then we will have knowledge of him and then we will come to
faith in him. And I know that's a lot when I'm saying that, but it's a
connection bringing what we would find in the Old Testament for
having the fear of the Lord and having the saving knowledge
of God, right? Because having that saving knowledge, that's where we come to
believe in the Lord and we receive that gift of salvation.
So what this is all saying is, okay, wait just a minute.
To have the fear of the Lord is to, it's almost like you're seeking God at that
point, right? To have that awe and wonder for who
God is. When we're considering the stars in the sky,
the mountains or the sunrises in the sunset, and you're looking at
how the heavens declare the glory of God, right?
Or how we are without excuse to see through observation
that which is created, it helps lead us to the Lord. And so by being an awe
and in reverence of creation, that leads us to the Creator.
That is actually a way that you would find the Lord
before opening the word of God, right? You find sometimes people who
they don't know the Lord yet, but they're on their way to know the Lord.
And when you're looking at the animals, the plants, and they're taking it all in
and they're coming to realize, man, there's no way.
I'm not being distracted by my phone. I'm seeing all
that there is this splendor in the majesty as we've talked about.
And so it's kind of, it's all connected there, right?
Having that knowledge, well there must be something more to this, right?
There must be something more to this life and it's just all
kind of the little seeds, if you will, that leads you to come to know who the
Lord is. It is through belief in Christ that we
have the fear of the Lord, having that awe and that reverence in God.
It is through having that saving knowledge that we
endure forever. And so that brings us right back to this first
this first verse that is talking about God's words
being pure. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a
furnace on the ground, purified seven times. Do you see how all of this is
connected? It's really remarkable. The word of God
being clean and pure, it helps us to come to know
Him. It helps us to grow in faith in Him. This allows for us to
gain knowledge of the Lord through His word, much like the implanted word.
So this leads us to another verse I want to share with you. It's going to be
Psalm 51-10, page 560. Some of you know this one.
Create in me a clean heart. Right now we'll read verse 10, but we'll expand in a
moment. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and
renew a right spirit within me. And that comes with the question of
can you recall a time when you felt the need for a clean heart, or you felt the
need for a right spirit? What happened? What led you to this time?
Feel free to take a moment and reflect on this. Write this down in your notes, and
if you feel led, go ahead and speak to it. I'll give you a moment.
Right. When someone does wrong to you, or when someone
hurts you, it's very easy to
have that sense of bitterness, sense of anger towards someone,
and it just rubs you the wrong way. Right.
Sometimes people lose sleep. They can't sleep at night.
They can't think straight, and it's just like
it's a good opportunity. It's a good time to pray to the Lord and ask for that
clean heart, right, and renew that spirit in you. It's like what a wonderful
prayer to pray. And so that's, I appreciate you sharing that.
It's a harder one to answer, right, because we can think of many times, right,
where we are asking God to, you know, help us get right with him, for
God to, for that clean heart, right, to ask God for that right spirit.
And so when we think about the context of this verse,
it has to do with the sin that David committed,
right, with Bathsheba. And how you know this is if you go, if you go back to
your Bible and right at the beginning of Psalm 51,
it says, to the choir master, a Psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
So it's pretty, pretty forward with that.
And you're saying, okay, so here is where David feels that sense of remorse. He's
praying to God, right, or he's singing to God, right, because it is a
Psalm, to be restored. So this verse is tying
into the purity of God, the purity of Scripture,
where David is praying to God and asking for God to
give him that clean heart. David is asking for a fresh start.
And how often we need a fresh start, right, to have that pure heart.
But it's not just a prayer that we read about David confessing his sins.
It's a prayer that we ourselves, we can also ask the Lord whether we feel
conviction for wrong that we have done or sin that we have committed against God.
David goes on and saying that he is asking for his spirit to be renewed.
It's not just a prayer of forgiveness, it's a prayer for restoration.
It is to be repaired or to be rebuilt when we're talking about this idea
of a renewed spirit. God, help restore me, right.
I've done wrong, help fix me here, help rebuild me.
And in the same manner, isn't that a prayer that we should have when we're
coming to know the Lord? Isn't that a prayer we should have when
we sin or when we feel disconnected?
The more I was reading this, the more I was studying this,
I came to realize and I want us to read this. And
we're still on Psalm 51. Let's read from verse 1 to 12.
You could say the entire thing is...
We can read the whole thing, but I want us to focus on these 12 verses because
you'll see why here. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your
steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy,
blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and
cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin
is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth,
the inward being, in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom
in the secret heart. Purge me with hissob, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be wider than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a
right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your
presence and take not your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Now, I don't know about you,
but this Psalm sounds an awfully lot like a sinner's prayer.
I want you to really think about that. So, in your notes here,
I've titled this a Davidic sinner's prayer, right?
It is an Old Testament sinner's prayer,
but it's the one that David had prayed. And you'll see in here the
connections with the themes that's found in a sinner's prayer.
So, I find this very interesting for those of us who are familiar with
saying a sinner's prayer. Well, where is that in Scripture?
Well, here you can find very similar language here, right?
The acknowledgement of sin. In verse 3, I know my transgressions and my sin is
ever before me. That's pretty clear right there.
Asking for forgiveness. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your
steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy,
blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse
me from my sin. That's asking for forgiveness right there.
The recognition of God's righteousness against you. You only have I sin
and done what is evil in your sight that you might be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment. The desire for purification, right? The
desire for a fresh start. Purge me with hissob and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Then asking for God's transformation.
Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.
And then he goes on the fear of separation from God.
Is that the fear of the Lord? No, it's the fear of not knowing the Lord.
Right? Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
He's saying I wish to be restored, right? I'm afraid of being cast out so to
speak. And then finally the desire for joy and
a renewed relationship restore to me the joy of your salvation
and uphold me with a willing spirit. And I'm like if that's not
abundantly clear in scripture, I don't know what is because that is a
sinner's prayer. I mean sure there's some words that are
added and some words that are a little bit different but
certainly it's the same idea here. And man, I want to put this question
up here. Do you see similarities between David's
prayer and your own journey to Christ? Do you remember the words or the
feelings you had when you first turned to God? Because we're talking about
coming to the Lord through this, through the purity of the word.
It's just all interesting how that's connected.
So yeah, do you see a similarity between this Davidic prayer,
this Davidic sinner's prayer and your own journey to Christ?
It's good having that sense of discernment when you're hearing
something.
Christians need to be fed and sometimes what happens is either
sometimes they're not fed enough or they're ready to go deeper. And when
that doesn't happen that creates a very big problem.
I know for a lot of younger people being as educated as they are,
that's a very big struggle. A lot of the younger ones I know
where they have a master's or a doctorate's or they have all these
degrees and they're so used to formal education
that they're like, okay well yes I know Jesus loves me but can we go a little
further than that? And what happens is sometimes those
churches say, well no, this is what we're all about. We're just focusing on
bringing as many people as possible. And I know quite a few people who have
walked away from stopped going to church
period or maybe they've gone to other churches and that. And so
depth is very important when it comes to,
you know, like I was beginning to mention it's a pastor's job to preach
the word and to teach the word. And what happens very often is you might
have one or the other one who's preaching the word of
God and rightfully so and some that only focus on teaching and
you got to have a nice blend of the two. Preaching in the sense that you're
always calling people to make a decision for Christ to believe in the
Lord, to get right with God, to confess their sins, to repent,
right? All that there. Teaching of the word is for
depth, you know, to when the congregation's hungry and they want to
know they want to be fed. The, there are different approaches to
this. Some would say, well you need to have
something elementary on Sunday and you need to have something deep on
Wednesday. That's a very common theme. There are
others that argue, well, what if you make it easy on
both ends? Or what if you make it deep on both ends?
It depends because for Bible study, for example,
some would argue do a book on Wednesday. So let's say we're going
over revelation on Wednesday, right? But on Sunday we're doing the fruits of
the Spirit or we're going over, you know, five ways to
come to know the Lord or just things like that where it's
more topically based as opposed to book based.
That's fine. I mean, if that's what the Lord wants to have done through a
pastor or what the pastor decides, that's fine.
But I would say personally, this is just my own opinion, is you need to have depth
and present it simplistically as best as possible, whether that is a Bible study
or a sermon. The only difference I would say between
here and a Sunday is on a Sunday I would say
make a decision for Christ here. I mean, we could do that. I was like, yeah, do you
know the Lord? Let's make a decision for Christ. Let's pray Psalm 51 as a
sinner's prayer. Let's get going. But I do try to have
sermons and Bible studies to be in depth. I try to have it where it's
the same, how would you say that? The same type of depth you'll find on
both Wednesday and Sunday. It's just maybe what we're going over is
different. I like having these themes for this. This
would be, I call them Bible studies, but some people would argue, oh, this is
this doctrine, is this theology, is this a Bible study? Well, at the end of the day,
your theology and your doctrine should be formed by the Bible. Thank you very much.
But all that to say, it should be deep regardless.
And I, some people disagree with what I'm saying and that's fine.
I've, yeah, for this one it's more of, these are more themes.
I mentioned that book that I got from the
20s. It has like a Bible study on demons, a Bible study on angels, a
Bible study on the, on Christology and the fulfillment of
prophecy and all these different things. And it's definitely hard to pick from all
of them because there's so many of them. But even with those, it's like,
as you're going through the Word, sometimes God's going to change your
little outline. I can't tell you how many times the little
outline you have on the top is not, it's not what I was provided.
It's changed so many times. The outline from the book from the 20s only had
Psalms 12-6. But the wording for pure shows up,
it shows up in the Levitical and Deuteronomy law.
But that same word showed up in Psalm 19-9 and Psalm 51-10. So it was very
important to have that show up in such a study.
But yeah, it's, I try. Everybody has different
difference of opinions. I know some, one church that I know that I can think of
right off the top of my head, they do an actual like
DVD series on their Wednesdays and then they'll do something
specifically on Sundays. Others do
doctrine versus a book of the Bible. Some do it where it's
motivation. I've seen that approach in Seeker-friendly churches,
motivational versus biblical. So motivational on Sunday and biblical on
Wednesday. It's just different approaches to those
kind of things. But anyways, to bring all of this
together,
God is holy and God is pure. His Word is pure.
To know the Lord is, He wants us to know Him and to be in awe and wonder, to have
that fear of the Lord. It is pure. It is clean to have
that saving knowledge, to have that fear of the Lord, to be in awe and wonder of
who He is. And because of this, we receive salvation.
We will endure forever. We will live forever,
forever, as the word says. For us to know the Lord,
we need to believe in the Lord. And what better way for us to know the Lord
than to pray such a prayer like we read in Psalm 51?
A prayer of transformation, to create a clean heart within us.
A prayer for a renewal of our spirit. Why not pray the prayer for us to be
forgiven of our sins and to be restored with Him?
No longer being separated. No longer feeling
that there's that distance between you and God, but to be
born again, to be saved by grace, no longer a slave or a servant to sin,
but rather to be free from sin. And that's where the final question comes in
for tonight is, what does believing in the Lord look like?
Is it an intellectual agreement or is it something deeper than that?
Jesus answers this question very well in Mark chapter 12 verse 30,
that you shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, with all of your soul. And what's the third part?
With all of your mind. So it's more than just
head a head decision, right? A mind, a mental decision.
It is to love with all your mind and with all your strength.
I always love how that one's in there, right? For those who love going to the
gym, you work out for Jesus, right? But all joking aside, it's with the
essence of who you are, right? With all of your being, so to speak.
And that would be a biblical way to respond. But keep in mind, there are
some people that think that it is a mental decision.
It has to be more than that. It has to be more than...
You can even go as far as to say it has to be more than an emotional decision,
right? If you think, well, that's crazy for someone to make it just a mental
decision, well think, is it possible for someone to make
just an emotional decision or just a strength decision, right? It has to be
all of you to make that decision, right? To love your Lord, right?
To believe in Him. It's something beyond just the mental.
That's a powerful feeling having that, you know, when we talked about the
overwhelming feeling, right? How the Holy Spirit carries
along the writers of the Word of God. It's no different than feeling
the overwhelming feeling. And I love how that's the word to describe the Spirit,
right? We talked about how as water is carrying
along the boat on the sea, that's the overwhelming feeling that you
feel from the Spirit. Where it's like, oh my goodness, you know, I'm
feeling this sense of love or this sense of warmth or this sense of comfort.
And it's undeniable that it is, you know?
I think I would say that's a very good way of looking at it, because when
we're talking about the saving knowledge of the Lord, right? It's starting
with the mental. And what I'm trying to say on here is
it's not the only thing, right? It certainly starts from there and it
will go from just like how in the Romans passage to be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, right? So there is a very important sense
of the mind, the mental state, and it grows from that. But it
shouldn't only be that. It should grow into all of your
being loving the Lord, right? So when we're talking about belief in the Lord,
yes, it would be the mind, right? It would be making that decision on there.
And I put on here, whether you say a sinner's prayer,
or you just say, Jesus, remember me as the thief did,
or you make that internal decision, just you're just praying and you believe
right then and there. You don't utter any words. I know that's a
difficult one. Some people would say, well, you need to say the words. Well,
could you not be there praying to the Lord and just offering, you're saying, you
know what, I believe in the Lord and you're just praying without speaking?
Well, certainly that is possible. And all that matters is that whatever it is,
whatever way it is, coming to believe in the Lord.
For some people, it is a sinner's prayer. And I'm not saying that is,
I'm not invalidating that. It is a great way to come to believe in the Lord.
Jesus, remember me is another great way, right?
Just praying and being and just believing sometimes if it's you alone
and at a church one day and something happened and you just
started there praying and you're believing in Jesus, that could be it.
It could be one of those, I think of the what is it, the harvest crusades. It
could be coming to faith in those. There's many different ways, but it
should all come back to belief, right? Because it is
in believing that we then receive salvation.
So whosoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life.
And this reminds me so much of the Luke 23
verses 42 through 43. He said, Jesus, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And he said to them, truly I say to you today,
you will be with me in paradise. And you see, this is the encouragement though.
The encouragement is that we come to see that God is holy
and that his way is perfect and that his word is pure. It is clean.
And I pray that God will work in and through us.
He'll continue to work on us. I pray that God will work
through everyone who comes through these doors,
that they'll have that saving knowledge of him and they'll make that decision
and they'll be able to love the Lord with everything that they are.
And I pray that they also will, that the word will
refine us and work in us because we're always learning, we're always growing in
the word. At least we should be. If you're stagnant, I guess that's a
different proposition there. But the encouragement is that you
grow in the Lord. Much like the implanted word,
let the word of Christ dwell in us. And may we become that beacon of hope
for others sharing in our faith with our testimony,
sharing with scripture. You know, I'm waiting for the day where someone says,
hey, go to Psalm 51. There's your sinner's prayer right there.
You just open a Bible and say, hey, look, let's go over this.
I mean, that's a great way to do it. It's just many different ways,
but still leads to belief. I'm not saying there's many ways to salvation.
I'm saying there's many ways to come to believe in the Lord.
It could be through the observation of nature, as we were talking about earlier.
It could be through simply just reading the word of God.
But as long as you come to having that saving knowledge of who Jesus
Christ is, that he lived, he died, he rose again, of who he is.
When we talk about the thief on the cross, I'm pretty sure he recognized who Jesus
was at that moment, at those last moments. And so may we share in our faith,
in sharing the word, sharing our testimony, how God has worked
in us, through us, around us, people we know. I mean, it's just wonderful to have
that opportunity with people. Well, I want us to go ahead and
let's just close in prayer. And it's been really good.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this time, for us coming together
and going through your word. May we come to realize that there is
life, there is truth, there is purity that exists in scripture.
Your word is life, and you call us to believe in you and to,
through belief, we receive salvation in you. And upon salvation you work in and
through us, refining us and making us more like you.
I pray that it is our desire for not just us here tonight, but for this church
to be more like you, to read scripture, to study scripture, to
hear the word of God preached and to just go deeper in the word that we can
become mature in our faith, that we can defend the faith, and that
we can discern what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.
You show us the truth that is found in your word.
You are our shepherd, and you keep us protected by your love and by your grace.
May we boldly go from this place to know you, to grow in you,
and to go in your holy name. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.
Amen. Amen.