God’s Immutability

Finding hope, comfort, and purpose in the God who never changes

Consider the extent of God’s immutability

Let God’s immutability change you

Good morning, church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests)

Today I have the privilege of doing something special during our services. Honoring two men and their families who have sacrificed to serve our church family for years. Specifically in the role of deacon. We read about this role in 1 Timothy:

Athis time I would like to invite the Conns and Wallins to the stage. I want to acknowledge the sacrificial service of the entire family today because I know that it is not just the deacon who bears the cost of the role. Their family does as well.

Adam has been serving as a deacon since before I moved to Des Moines 7 years ago. Jeremy joined the deacon team in 2019. Both men are rotating off of the team at the end of this year and we wanted to make sure to show our appreciation for them before the year was out.

As a token of our appreciation, I have a plaque for each of your families thanking you for your sacrificial service at our church. As well as some cards from our pastor team with a gift for your family within.

Let’s pray and give thanks to the Lord for these faithful men and their families!

My daughter, Haddyn, just turned 9 years old a few days ago. My grandma turned 90 the day before that. I’ll be turning 40 in two months. Do you realize what happens as you age? You change. Not just in getting older. You also mature (or at least that’s what is supposed to happen)… You get stronger (or weaker). You grow in wisdom (or in folly).

As you go through life, you are inevitably shaped by your experiences and your interpretations and responses to them. I’m sure all of us have had the opportunity to know someone who was once kind and gentle who later became bitter and cranky. Or a person who once looked at things with optimism now growing cynical and calloused. This is a real and challenging possibility for those who are constantly changing. Of course, the change is not always in the negative direction; in fact, we hope it is for the better.

But my point is that change is certain. Our physical appearance changes. Our character changes. Our goals and aspirations change. How many of us wanted to grow up to be veterinarians or astronauts? Eventually you just want to be gainfully employed in a job you like! Even our speech and behavior changes as we learn and are shaped by the content we consume and by the people we spend time with.

Some of the change we welcome – growth in maturity, wisdom, capabilities – yet other change is unwelcome – increased awareness of our world’s decay into brokenness, as well as our own temptations to sin, uncertainty of our direction/aims in life, or our own physical decay - gray hair (less hair or no hair!), wrinkles, aches and pains, creaks and cracks where they weren’t before…

The ability to change is also what allows for moral decay. People who were once our closest friends or family can betray us or let us down. Wedding vows that were spoken in sincerity are forsaken for worldly pleasures or treasures. Politicians who made promises during their campaign abandon them the moment they take office because they are no longer politically beneficial for them. Christians or pastors or churches or even entire denominations who once affirmed the truthfulness of God’s Word now twist it to have another meaning or excuse its teachings away or abandon it entirely for another, more socially acceptable system of belief.

Hopefully you’re getting the point. For humans, change is certain, and it comes with powerful potential – for growth or decay. For holiness or wickedness. Our capability to change, while filled with powerful potential for good, is also what makes us unreliable and a poor place to put our hopes and trust. I wanted to start with this bittersweet dose of reality because I believe it makes the truth of God’s immutability that much sweeter!

“God’s what?” His immutability. His “unchanging-ness”. The reality that God is not subject to change. He is unable to change or be changed.

This is the attribute of God that we are studying today, and it is oh-so-sweet in light of the dangers and hardships that come when change is possible. Unlike humans who change in their character, will, desires, and words (and so on)… God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the unchanging God. And this can become a source of incredible hope, comfort, and purpose for you, if you’ll allow it. That is my aim for our time together today.

I am very much aware that there are people within our church family who have been deeply hurt by changing, fickle people in their lives. If that is your situation, I hope this sermon will be a balm to your soul… Please join me in…

Our journey this morning starts here. We must first…

Consider the extent of God’s immutability

Again, the term immutability means “unable to change or be changed.” Theologian Arthur Pink puts it this way, “God is perpetually the same: subject to no change in His being, attributes, or determinations.” You can hear some elaboration on the extent of God’s immutability in this definition. Theologian Wayne Grudem says, “God is unchanging in his being, perfections (attributes), purposes and promises.” This is very similar to Pink’s explanation, simply using some synonyms for the word attributes (perfections) and determinations (purposes and promises).

These definitions are all well and good for sharing the definition and extent of God’s immutability, but how do we know whether they are accurate or not? For this, we must turn to our source of truth – the Bible! Today we are moving between many passages, so I will include the full text on the slides behind me in case that is easier for you to follow along. My plan is to consider each component of the definition given by Pink. We’ll start with the truth that…

God is immutable in his being

This is the idea that God never changes in who he is at the core of his being or essence. Let’s journey to Exodus 3 where God meets Moses in the burning bush.

Now you may hear that passage and think, “Where does that say anything about God’s immutability!?” The answer is in God’s name. God chooses to reveal his personal name to Moses and his name is I AM or Yahweh in the Hebrew. This is a powerful statement about God’s nature. By identifying himself as I AM, he is saying that he is the uncaused causer of all things. He is the pre-existent, Creator God. He is the God who has always been, always is, and always will be. The God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

By identifying himself like this, he is giving Moses and the nation of Israel a way of understanding who he is. His name describes his essence. If God were able to change, then his name would become inaccurate. God knows that he cannot and will not change, therefore revealing his name to Moses is for his benefit and the benefit of those whom he will lead out of Egypt.

Listen to how Moses led the nation to sing to God after escaping from the Egyptians at the Red Sea.

Moses proclaims the name of the LORD (Yahweh) and then goes on to call him, “The Rock.” This name for God comes up five more times in this song. This is indicative of God as a steadfast, stable, secure place to find their hope and protection.

King David would revisit this name of God for the same reasons when he penned Psalm 18:

This is not a mere title, but it is a descriptor of who God is and what He is like. He is the Rock - unchanging, steadfast, reliable, dependent… That is who He is!

Of himself, the LORD also says, “For I the LORD do not change.” (Malachi 3:6) The context of this proclamation was that the children of Israel might have hope. God is still the same long-suffering, compassionate God that He has always been, which is why the entire nation has not been consumed by wrath for their disobedience. He is keeping his end of the covenant. However, he also will not change to lower the standards of holiness either. He does not change!

God’s unchanging essence or being means that he has never grown, evolved, or improved. As the perfectly Holy One, he cannot change for the better or the worse. And we ought to be thankful for that! A God who is able to change for the worse would be terrifying! And a God who is able to change for the better is no god at all, for something else could be “better” than them. Only a perfectly holy God who never changes will do. And that is exactly what we have in Yahweh. He is immutable in his being. The Scriptures also testify that…

God is immutable in his attributes

Consider this truth about the Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness:

His steadfast love has no end. It endures forever. It is unchanging. He has always been and always will be steadfastly loving. His faithfulness or truthfulness endures throughout all generations. Neither our ancestors nor our descendants have or will ever know a God who fails to be faithful.

This truth encourages generational faithfulness in us! My children worship the same God that we do. He is the same to them as he is to us. Perhaps for you, this is the same God that your grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great grandparents served and worshiped! What an incredible realization.

Amongst humans it is rare to find a person who is consistent in their character from week to week, let alone year to year or decade to decade. But our God is unchanging in his attributes! You can count on his steadfast love remaining the same on your worst day as you can on your best day. That’s an incredible comfort and source of hope to broken people living in a broken world!

Or consider the unchanging nature of his word.

Forever… Firmly fixed… What God says, He means. What God says, stands.

I think, as humans, we have a really hard time with this one. Because we are creatures who change, we struggle to comprehend a God who says exactly what He means and then His word never changes. We struggle to conceive of that because I may say one thing today and tomorrow change my mind about what I said. Or I may find out new information that enlightens my perspective and I change my position.

THAT NEVER HAPPENS TO GOD! As the all-knowing God, he is not surprised by new information… EVER. He has all the information needed to speak the perfect counsel of His word and have it firmly fixed forever. Just stop to consider that for a moment. I honestly think some of our brains might melt and run out of our ears…

Maybe that's why some try so hard to change God's words and their meaning. They just cannot believe and accept the beauty of the unchanging truth from an all-knowing God. Consider how often we hear of Christians or churches or denominations pondering, “Did God really say?” or “Did God really mean?”

It has been a struggle since Genesis 3 to have fallible, changing humans trying to question or undermine the firmly fixed Word of God. Now, this is not to say that we should not continue to study the Word and seek to understand it better. That’s not the attitude or practice I’m talking about. Absolutely we should do the positive practice of studying the Word to know and apply it to our lives. What I’m addressing is the selfish, sinful practice of questioning the Word’s clear teachings to escape conviction or permit sin. That is a practice that continues to this day.

God’s firmly fixed Word invites us to find hope, comfort, and purpose in God’s revealed plans and purposes for us.

God is immutable in his determinations/counsel

Of this, the Psalmist speaks:

God’s plans and purposes are unchanging. The all-knowing, all-powerful God has always known what would be best and, in his sovereignty, is able to execute his plan and purposes. There is no reason for God’s plans and purposes to change because they were made with perfect knowledge. He always does what is good. Notice how the attributes that we’re studying this month tie together here.

About this, Arthur Pink says, “God’s purpose never alters. One of two things causes a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of power to execute them. But as God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for Him to revise His decrees.” (The Attributes of God)

We must not forget that God is not like us in our weaknesses. He lacks nothing. He knows everything. And when he communicates his plan/purposes, he has the power to carry them out.

God makes this truth very clear through the prophet Isaiah:

Boy this gets me excited to resume our verse-by-verse study of Isaiah in the new year!

Earlier this year in our study of Isaiah, we heard multiple times of how God promised a particular outcome and then brought it to pass according to his plan. And these were not small matters, they were moving entire nations into and out of power. Directing entire armies around the world. God’s plan and purposes are not able to be thwarted or resisted by the most powerful among mankind.

This is an opportunity to rejoice, especially when combined with God’s goodness and holiness. We can rest assured that God’s plans and purposes are always good and will result in what is best. Even when we do not understand or see fully how this may be, it is our opportunity to trust God. (Main point slide)

Consider this truth in light of Christmas. It was always God’s plan to send His Son to rescue and redeem his people from their sins! This was not plan B, C, D or even Z after Adam and Eve sinned. This was plan A, the only plan, from eternity past. How incredible that the Creator desired to go to such great lengths to save those who were dead in their sin and actively rebelling against Him! In what other context would a Great King so freely love and pardon treasonous citizens by taking on their punishment?! Answer: NONE! Yet this is the immutable plan of our unchanging God! *pause*

Now let’s look at God’s immutability from a more critical angle.

What about the times in Scripture where God appears to have regret, as if his plan needed to change!? Perhaps you’re familiar with passages like Genesis 6 where God sees the continual evil intentions of man and regrets making them or 1 Samuel 15 where King Saul chooses sin and God says he regrets making him king. This language of regret does not mean that God changes his plan or purposes. God is speaking in human language of the pain that they are causing him by their sin, yet he still chooses to go forward with his plan! He knew from eternity past that these things would happen, and he counted the cost of enduring them!

The prophet Samuel helpfully says:

It is precisely because God is unchanging that he responds to man’s sin in the way that he does – with righteous discipline and long-suffering patience. As a perfectly holy God he is expressing sorrow over sin. Yet he proceeds with his unchanging, grand plan of redemption. And for that, we should be deeply thankful! Our fickle, sinful nature does not change God’s plan of redemption. Are you thankful for that this morning?

Consider the extent of God’s immutability

God is immutable in his being

God is immutable in his attributes

God is immutable in his determinations/counsel

Throughout this study I’ve already sought to share some ways you can respond to these wonderful truths, but now it’s time to make it even clearer. If you’re going to find hope, comfort, and purpose in the God who never changes, then you must…

Let God’s immutability change you

Allow these beautiful truths about our unchanging God to have a deep and profound impact on your life. Let’s talk specifics of how this could and should play out.

First, I want to address those of you who are stuck in sin and are not turning to Jesus for forgiveness. Whether you want to realize it or not, you are depriving yourself of the hope, comfort, and purpose that could be yours in God. I don’t want that for you! So…

If you are unrepentant, know his holiness and justice are unchanging

Jesus, during his life and ministry, gave some very sobering words:

These words are intended to shock. No one fools Jesus on judgment day. He knows the hearts of men/women. Those who are putting on a show in this life or those who outright reject him are depriving themselves of the hope of eternal life and the comfort of knowing Jesus as Savior/Lord.

God spoke even more bluntly through the prophet Ezekiel:

The point is simple. Do not believe the lie that God does not care about you or your sin! Do not believe the lie that your sin is no big deal! Do not wait until judgment day to cry out for mercy!

Today is the day of forgiveness and salvation. God has made a way of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is what we celebrate at Christmas! Confess your sin and ask Jesus to forgive you!

Do not deprive yourself of the hope of the forgiveness of your sins or the comfort of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness towards you! *pause*

Broadening the focus now to everyone present, we must all…

Realize God’s desire is for you to change

God has gone to great lengths to make change possible for us! His unchanging loving-kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. What we find in the Scriptures is that our change is essential in our repentance.

If you are here today and stuck in sin, whether as an unbeliever or as a Christian, please realize that our unchanging God has provided clear guidance for how you can change!

First, trust in Jesus by confessing your sin and asking him to forgive you. Second, put off your old self both through prayer, “Lord, help me not to live this way anymore!” and through practice, “I’m not going back to that way of life!” Then, renew your mind through the truth found in God’s Word. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many people in the counseling room. I think many are surprised at how practical and applicable God’s Word is to their daily struggle. Our all-knowing God did not leave us without the resources to fulfill our purpose! If you put in the time and effort to KNOW God through His Word, I guarantee you that you will be amazed at the truth you find within it. Finally, put on the new self (Christ’s righteousness) by taking the next step of obedience. As God teaches you, put it into practice.

This process of change is lifelong as we daily repent (or turn) from the old ways of sin and turn to the ways of God. This process is known as sanctification (aka growing in holiness). Paul reveals its beauty:

The promise of God’s unchanging Word is that as you put in the time and effort to behold the glory of the Lord, you will be transformed. You will change as you become more and more holy! You will radiate the light and purity of Christ! What a hope! What a comfort! What a glorious purpose for our lives!

You should also allow God’s immutability to lead you to…

Trust him as your Rock

Earlier we heard that God is the Rock. He is a sure refuge and protection in times of need. While our family and friends may fail, our God never will. He is your solid comfort who can be relied upon.

Listen to this beautiful promise from Psalm 34. This is the same psalm where David invited us to taste and see that the Lord is good last week.

God hears your cry for help and delivers you from your troubles. That may not mean he removes the trial, but he will bring you through it! How wonderful is it to know that he is near to you when you are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit! Some of you are in such a season right now. Trust God as your Rock. Cling to Him! He will deliver you! He redeems the life of his servants; none who take refuge in him will be condemned!

What wonderful promises! God’s immutability can be a precious balm to our souls in the midst of the trials and tribulations of this life, if we will allow it. Do you ever stop to consider how the Psalmists can, in the same psalm, begin with honest lament about their trials, while ending with worship and praise of God? This is a common pattern in the psalms. This is only possible when you have drunk deeply of the beauty of God’s unchanging being, attributes, and determinations. So, drink deeply of these things and allow it to foster a trust in God that brings you through the storms of life! That will produce a testimony in you that is beautiful and attractive to the world around you. They will want to know how you can have such hope, comfort, and purpose in your trials.

(Recommend Trusting God by Jerry Bridges or Knowing God by J.I. Packer)

If you’re tracking so far, God’s immutability can change you:

from dead in your sin to alive in Christ

from living in sin to growing in holiness

into a man/woman who trusts God no matter what

And finally, I want to encourage you to find hope, comfort, and purpose in your unchanging God as you…

Devote your life to worshiping him

If you consider what we’ve already heard today… Because God is unchanging…

He is trustworthy and true

His Word is trustworthy and true

His plan of salvation is trustworthy and true

His promise to come again is trustworthy and true

It’s this last that I want to end on. Jesus made a wonderful promise to his disciples:

John not only had the privilege of hearing that promise firsthand, he also had the opportunity to see a vision of how it would be fulfilled in the future:

John’s vision of the new heaven and new earth is grounded in the unchanging character of our God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Because God is who He is, He will do what He has said He will do. (Main points slide) He alone is worthy of your worship. He alone deserves your allegiance and unconditional obedience.

Will you devote your life to worshiping the immutable God? Will you allow Him to change you and conform you to His Son’s glorious image? I pray that it would be so. If you have questions about any of this, I would love to talk with you more after the service.

We are going to close out our services today by worshiping the Lord through the celebration of communion or the Lord’s table.

Communion is an opportunity for Christians to remember all that the Lord has done for us through his death, burial, and resurrection. This is an opportunity for Christians to remember that we have embraced the promised hope of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and salvation of our souls!

We will celebrate by partaking of both the bread and the cup as a symbol and reminder of Jesus’ body broken in our place and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Communion is an opportunity to remember how great a price was paid so that we could be saved from our sin. It is a sobering, yet joyful celebration for Christians. Sobering that the Son of God would give himself for us as a ransom. Joyful that he did, and the result is a living hope that cannot be taken from us! Jesus is victorious; therefore, we have the hope of heaven with Him!

At this time, I’d like to invite the ushers forward with the elements.

Before we pass them, I want to share the biblical requirements for joining in this celebration.

This celebration was given by Jesus to his followers. We invite anyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation to join us in this celebration today. If your faith is not in Jesus Christ alone, then we would encourage you to let the elements pass by you and simply consider what you’ve heard so far during the service this morning and reflect on what is keeping you from trusting him for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul.

The second requirement we see in Scripture is a call to examine ourselves. This is the idea of making sure that you’ve confessed any known sins and sought to turn away from it. It would not be wise to partake of the table if you have sin in your life for which you are not repentant. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that taking the table while living in sin is eating and drinking judgment on yourself. I would ask you not to do that, for your sake and the sake of God’s glory. Instead, I would encourage you to use this time to confess that sin and make a plan to address it right away. If you know you need to be reconciled to someone else in this church, please take care of that during this time. The table is time to protect the unity of the church.

The ushers are going to pass the elements now as we have a time of silent reflection and prayer to prepare for the table. Please use this time to reflect on all that we’ve talked about today and to prepare yourself to take communion by confessing and repenting of any known sin. After the elements have been passed, I’ll lead us in prayer and taking communion together.

Silent prayer. Corporate prayer.

Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus!

God’s Goodness

Exodus 33:18-19, 34:5-7; Psalm 103

Taste and see that the Lord is good

God is good

All of creation comes from God’s goodness

Rejoice in the ways God expresses his goodness towards you

 

Good morning church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests)

This December we’re studying the character of our God in a series titled Let God Reign. I appreciated how Frasier pointed out the cheekiness of the title last week. As the Only Sovereign being in the entire universe, we do not let God do anything. He is the One in charge. However, we are still responsible for our response to Him! Your response to God must align with the reality of who He is. Does the way you live indicate that you are “letting” God reign in and through you? *pause*

Over the course of the month, we are getting to study some incredible truths about who God is. (Click through images as I mention them) He is sovereign. He is good. He is immutable (unchanging). He is all-knowing (omniscient). God the Son came down and took on flesh and dwelt among us (incarnate). He is all-powerful (omnipotent). (Sermon graphic with all 6 attributes)

These realities are not true some of the time. They are always true. God is always sovereign. He is always good. And so on… That should blow your mind! I hope that we will walk away each Sunday with a BIGGER view of our God. A view that helps us combat the temptation to live for and worship lesser things throughout our weeks. Even better that this is the Advent season, and we are actively preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! I want to encourage you to use the church’s Advent devotional to cultivate this God-centered way of life this month. (Title slide)

I’d like to pose a scenario to you. Please try to imagine this as best you can… Can you imagine being defined by a particular quality? For example, you are ALWAYS grumpy. Everything you think, say, and do is characterized by your grumpiness. You wake up muttering under your breath about having to face a new day. You kick the cat on your way to the restroom for simply existing and being in your way. You slam the toilet seat up or down, frustrated that no one else has the common courtesy to leave it the way civilized people like yourself want it. Your grumpiness doesn’t stop there, it continues into the day. Your family makes it their aim to stay out of your way. Your co-workers disperse from the breakroom when you walk in. You are a walking minus sign. You get the idea. Grumpiness is your way of life – it never lets up – day after day, week after week, year after year. You are ALWAYS grumpy.

The point of this is to demonstrate how unrealistic it is. None of us is ALWAYS one particular way. We change. Our attitude and actions are often influenced by our changing circumstances. Perhaps you came in here this morning a bit downtrodden but will leave encouraged. Change is a part of humanity.

But now let’s consider that God is unchanging! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In fact, we’ll study God’s immutability (unchangeableness) more next week. But for today, I want you to consider this in light of God’s goodness. God is always good. He has always been good and always will be good. All that he is and does is informed by His innate goodness. God will not and cannot do anything that is not coming from his goodness. And that is how it ALWAYS has been, ALWAYS is, and ALWAYS will be. You see, unlike us, God is consistent and steady. He is reliable. And when it comes to the reality of His goodness, this is a very powerful truth indeed.

How often do you slow down to meditate on such a wonderful truth? To let the reality of God’s goodness sink into your heart and influence your life… That’s exactly what my aim is today. I want us to…

This was the invitation of King David in Psalm 34…

Put another way - savor this truth about God’s goodness like your Thanksgiving feast. Look intently into the reality that God is good and seek to understand it! Our study begins in the pages of Exodus. Look with me at Exodus 33:18-19. The context of this passage is Moses having led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and arriving at Mount Sinai, where God gave him the 10 commandments. Unfortunately, Israel had committed grave idolatry by fashioning a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain with God. Now Moses is seeking reassurance that God will still go with them. Let’s read the text.

What a fascinating interaction! God speaking directly to Moses, answering his request to see God’s glory. And how did God respond? “I will make all my goodness pass before you…” Why goodness when Moses asked for glory? Because God’s goodness is his moral perfection, and it encapsulates so much of what man experiences in his relationship with God. Pastor Kevin DeYoung says, “God’s goodness is the overflowing bounty of God’s essence expressed to us.” And this overflowing bounty of God’s essence is glorious! Look at the very next chapter in verses 5-8 when this comes to pass.

Do you hear the goodness and glory of God revealed here? He is a merciful God. A gracious God. A patient, slow to anger God. A God who abounds in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness (truth). He is a forgiving God, yet also a just God. These are all outworkings of God’s goodness and they are glorious! What a brilliant and pure picture they paint of our Creator. I look forward to unpacking this further as we go today. But first…

It probably goes without saying that our first takeaway in our study of God’s goodness this morning is the reality that…

God is good

This is our baseline from which we will build today. But what does it mean to say that God is good?

When we say that God is good, what that means is that His essence (His intrinsic nature) is admirable, attractive, and praiseworthy. Theologian and author J.I. Packer wrote, “When the biblical writers call God good, they are thinking in general of all those moral qualities which prompt his people to call him perfect, and in particular of the generosity which moves them to call him merciful and gracious and to speak of his love.” (Knowing God)

So earlier, when we heard King David invite the people to taste and see that the Lord is good, he was doing so in reference to the deliverance that God had provided to him from Abimelech. God had proven to be a trustworthy refuge in time of need, which was evidence of God’s goodness! In Psalm 107, the psalmist pens:

This time the Lord’s goodness is revealed in his steadfast love which has benefited those whom he has redeemed from trouble. And on and on we could go with example after example from the Scriptures. We’ll take time to go in more depth on specifics of God’s goodness later in the sermon. For now, I simply want you to see and hear that God is good. This is affirmed over and over again in the Scriptures. In fact, it must be true about Him because He is God. God is perfect in character. Goodness finds its origin in Him. God is known as the greatest good because there is no one more morally pure than He! And from his perfection of character (his goodness) he only does good (perfection of activity). If you were here last week, you may recall that Frasier ended his sermon with the doxology, which begins with, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” This is true because God is good and the source of all good in our universe.

Theologian Wayne Grudem adds a helpful perspective when he explains it this way, “God is the final standard of good, and all that God is and does is worthy of approval.”

This is exactly what we hear coming from the throne room of heaven in the book of Revelation. As God sits on his throne, the magnificent beings in his throne room cry out:

God is perfectly holy, perfectly good, and worthy of approval. In fact, the cry of these heavenly rulers worshiping God anticipates our next takeaway in tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. It is that…

All of creation comes from God’s goodness

The heavenly rulers cried out, “For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” This is a true statement about the origin of all things. The pre-existent, eternal God is the Creator God. All of creation comes from God’s goodness.

Put another way… It originates from him! Flows from him! Its genesis is in him!

The beautiful sunshine you enjoyed on your drive in? That came from God’s goodness.

This planet that you call home and enjoy living on? Comes from God’s goodness.

The beauty of April showers that bring May flowers? Or that Christmas tree in your living room this season? (If it’s not fake!) God’s goodness.

The awesome splendor of the full Moon or Northern Lights or constellations like the Big Dipper? God’s goodness.

Those playful dolphins you saw on vacation, the bass you enjoy catching from the local pond, or those pets you are so fond of? God’s goodness.

Every single breath you’ve ever taken and will take yet today? The laughter you share with friends and loved ones? The wonderful experience of deep human relationships? All from God’s goodness.

God’s goodness informs everything He creates. As we heard last week from James 1:17, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”

Every good and perfect gift… including the Son of God taking on human form and walking among us as our Savior. After all that’s what we’re celebrating this Christmas season! Every single aspect of God’s grand redemption plan and the forgiveness and hope of eternal life that we enjoy from it are sourced in God’s goodness!

I hope by this point you would agree that God’s goodness is both incredible and awe-inspiring. That you would say, “I am tasting and seeing that the Lord is good! Give me more!”

I intend to do exactly that! Let’s turn our attention to Psalm 103, which some of you sought to memorize through the FighterVerse plan this year. This can be found on page 594 of the Bibles handed out earlier. If you’re willing, let’s read this hymn of David aloud together. It is a great reminder of many ways that we taste and see the Lord’s goodness to us. I think it would be powerful to repeat it together as it was designed for. I’ve broken it up into smaller segments to show on the screen as we go.

What an incredible reminder of God’s goodness, expressed to us in so many beautiful and powerful ways! As we walk through this Psalm, I want to encourage you to taste and see that the Lord is good as you personally…

Rejoice in the ways God expresses his goodness towards you

David begins the Psalm with a call to bless or praise the Lord with everything that he has. This is a whole-bodied, whole-souled response of worship to Yahweh! Will you join David in this whole-bodied, whole-souled response of worship?

Let’s consider in more detail the ways God expresses his goodness towards you from this Psalm. These are the benefits that David calls us to remember and rejoice in:

God forgives all your iniquity (v3)

Iniquity means sin or guilt. And what does God do with all our sin/guilt!? He forgives it. Some of it? NO! All of it!

What a beautiful expression of God’s goodness towards us! God, the eternally, perfectly righteous King has chosen to pardon the transgressor. Though we are dead in our sin, he, in his goodness, has provided a way of escape so that we may have new life.

In King David’s day, he only knew of the sacrificial system found in the Law, but in our day, we know of the greater, once-for-all sacrifice for our sins – Jesus Christ. This is what we celebrate at Christmas! That God the Son took on flesh and dwelt among us so that he could accomplish the grand redemption plan at the Cross and in the resurrection. Jesus made a way for sinners like us to be FORGIVEN and FREE through faith in Him.

Thank you, God, for your goodness in forgiving ALL our sins!

God heals all your diseases (v3)

Not only did God take care of our greatest problem in forgiving our sin, but he also expresses his goodness towards us in this life through the healing of our diseases. God has authority over illness. We see this demonstrated repeatedly in the life of Jesus when he healed the sick, the lame, the blind, and even raised the dead.

Anytime God chooses to heal an illness is a demonstration of his goodness. When we are sick, we should pray to God and ask him to heal us. In the New Testament, the apostle James encourages those who are sick to call for the elders of the church so that they may anoint them with oil and pray over them in God’s name. God delights to answer our prayers for healing.

However, we must understand that God’s answer to our requests for healing is not always “yes”. Even King David experienced this when his first child with Bathsheba was not healed. But in the midst of such experiences, we can trust that God is good and at work for our good and his glory. That is David’s conclusion, and we would do well to learn from it. God’s goodness is not based on us getting the outcome we desire. He is good and whatever he provides must be for good. Last week Frasier explained some of the ways God’s providence works in whether in blessing or affliction.

No matter what God’s answer might be, we can and should say, “Thank you, God, for your goodness in healing all our diseases!”

God redeems your life from the pit (v4)

God expresses his goodness towards us by providing the hope of eternal life! David is quite forthright here. We were born in sin and heading towards the pit (hell), yet God provided a way of salvation for his people. While it is hard to rank the expressions of God’s goodness, this has got to be near the top for sinners like us!

The Apostles Peter and John declare the way of salvation clearly in the book of Acts:

If your faith is in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, then you have tasted and seen God’s goodness in redemption. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, then today can be the day of salvation for you. What is it that is keeping you from confessing your sin and asking him to save you? I’d love to talk with you more about that after the service.

Do we stop to consider just what Jesus endured so that we might be saved? Yes, Christmas is about his birth, but why did he come? So that he could endure the Cross! So that he could bear the wrath of God for my sins and yours! So that we might be counted righteous with his righteousness and that he might take our sin upon himself. He tasted death and wrath so that I don’t have to! And neither do you!

Thank you, God, for your goodness in my redemption!

God crowns you with steadfast love and mercy (v4)

Not only do we not face judgment in the pit, but God adopts us into his royal family! The promise for his people is that they will be crowned with steadfast love and mercy. This is speaking of being covered by God’s love and mercy.

What a change! No longer are we under God’s wrath but under his love and mercy. God’s goodness is expressed towards you in every act of love that he demonstrates to you. From your adoption into his family, to the many good gifts he lavishes upon you throughout your life, you are deeply loved by God. His mercy is his goodness expressed to you when you are in distress. I love how Paul speaks of God in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:

This became a very precious promise to me when I was going through my own season of distress a few years back. God delights to show mercy and provide comfort to you when you are in distress! If you are going through a trial right now, do not turn from God, but run deeper into his embrace. Why would you turn from the only One who can truly comfort you in time of need?

Thank you, God, for your goodness in crowning me with steadfast love and mercy!

God satisfies you with good (v5)

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Meaning that God delights to show his goodness towards you by giving you good things, so you’re encouraged to keep running the race of faith. How sweet is it when God provides a deep friendship or longed-for opportunity at work or even just a quiet morning in front of your fireplace and Christmas tree with a good book? These are good gifts that come from our Heavenly Father. He wants you to be satisfied in him and his provision so that you would have endurance to run the race of faith until the end.

The nation of Israel had certainly wrestled with finding their satisfaction in the wrong things throughout their history. David is reminding himself and them that the Lord is the source of satisfaction and the one to whom they should look. It is a good reminder to us today that our satisfaction must be found in God, not in living for the things of earth. We were not made to worship creation but the Creator. Anything else is disordered living! Put another way, it’s not about what God can give me, it’s about knowing Him!

Thank you, God, for your goodness in satisfying me with good! Help me not to live for your creation rather than you.

In verses 1-5, King David reflected on specific benefits that God had provided. Now, in verses 6-18, he reflects on God’s provision to the nation of Israel through the historical Exodus account. There is a tie-in here in verse 8 to what we read from Exodus 34:6 earlier. This serves to make the rejoicing in God’s goodness even more sweet. For even in the midst of human unworthiness, such as when God’s people built the golden calf while he was meeting with Moses in fury and flame on top of Mount Sinai… even in the midst of that, God’s goodness shines forth.

God works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed (v6)

He had rescued the nation of Israel out of Egypt. He provided a deliverer through Moses. He heard the cries of his people and answered them. God does not delight to see injustice and ungodliness ruling the day. He cares for the oppressed and moves towards them.

He does this because he is good. And it is appropriate for us to rejoice in this expression of his goodness. Without it, history would be forever changed. Israel would have remained in captivity. The hope of the Messiah would not have come to fruition. They would have died in their sins and so would we.

Thank you, God, for your goodness in working righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed! Both Israel in their day and those who are oppressed in ours.

God makes known his ways and acts (v7)

God is not far off and aloof. He did not create all things and then walk away saying, “Good luck!” No, he made known his ways to Moses by speaking with him as a friend. He made known his acts to the people of Israel through many incredible events and the prophets. God does not conceal his will and ways from us! He does not leave us guessing on how we ought to live or on what his expectations are for his creation.

Our God, in his goodness, has revealed his expectation of holiness and his grand plan of redemption to make us holy as he is holy. God has been faithfully involved in creating a people for himself since the beginning. In his goodness, he is a heavenly Father who is near to his children and seeks to train them up in the way that they should go. We cannot claim ignorance of God’s will and ways when he has provided his clear revelation right here in his word!

Thank you, God, for your goodness in making known your ways and acts to us!

Now we have our quote from Exodus 34:6 in verse 8, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

God is merciful (v8)

God is gracious (v8)

God is slow to anger (v8)

God is abounding in steadfast love (v8)

In our Advent devotional we pointed out that each of these are expressions of God’s goodness:

Mercy – his goodness towards those in distress

Grace – his goodness towards those who deserve punishment

Patience – his goodness towards those who continue to sin

These verses and those that follow are showing just how rich the goodness and lovingkindness of God is. He is not like humans who struggle to forgive and are tempted to stay angry. Even when faced with great sin against him, such as the idolatry of the golden calf, God is still willing to show mercy and grace. He is a slow-to-anger/patient God.

Paul would later call upon the people of his day to respond appropriately to God’s goodness expressed in these ways:

When you realize how good God is you ought to be convicted of your need to respond to him in faith! My hope is that if you do not yet believe you will taste and see that the Lord is good today, turn from your sin and believe in him!

But for the rest of us, who have already been recipients of God’s mercy and grace and patience, how much more should we rejoice this morning!? You have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Your salvation is evidence of that! Rejoice in the steadfast love of the Lord. Thank you, God, for your mercy, grace, patience, and steadfast love shown to me!

David then goes on to show how God is different than mere men, who can be petty and vindicative:

God does not always chide or keep his anger forever (v9)

God does not deal with/repay us according to our sins (v10)

Even though God had many reasons to wipe out Israel he relented and persevered with them through the golden calf incident, and many others throughout their history. He continues to do the same with his people today.

God’s steadfast love is great toward those who fear him (v11)

As high as the heavens are above the earth

God removes our transgressions from us (12)

As far as the east is from the west!

He uses two analogies that drive home just how great God’s love and forgiveness are. They are immeasurably great! Far beyond what you can comprehend. Then he shifts to a familial analogy:

God shows compassion to those who fear him (v13)

Like a father to his children

Because he knows how finite/weak we are (v14)

When one of your children struggles with sin and comes seeking forgiveness, a good father stands ready to forgive. He has compassion for his children because he understands that they are weak and need help. He knows that he can help them, so he moves towards them to offer aid in time of need. That is exactly how God treats us. When we come to him in our brokenness, asking for his forgiveness and help, he delights to move toward us in compassion to help in our time of need. I love how this is highlighted in the book of Hebrews:

Consider just how rich God’s goodness is today! He is near to you. He stands ready to comfort you. He is willing and able to forgive you. He can heal you. He will crown you with steadfast love and mercy. He alone can satisfy your soul with good.

You are not alone. You do not have to stay stuck in your sin and brokenness. There is a way forward. There is a way out. There is hope for tomorrow. There is hope for eternity! For as we see in verse 17:

God’s love is eternal in duration (v17)

God is not only concerned with this life, but he also cares about the life to come. We are created for eternity. God, in his goodness, has provided an eternal love that will sustain you forever. But you must respond in faith and obedience. That is the qualifier given in verse 18. Though God’s goodness is shared with everyone in some ways, as we read in Psalm 145:

Everyone gets to experience some aspects of God’s goodness and mercy. However, God’s eternal saving love and grace are only shared with those who believe in and follow him. So, believe in and follow him today!

And for those who do believe and follow him, rejoice in the many ways that God expresses his goodness to you.

God made you and all things (Genesis 1)

God forgives all your iniquity (v3)

God heals all your diseases (v3)

God redeems your life from the pit (v4)

God crowns you with steadfast love and mercy (v4)

God satisfies you with good (v5)

God works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed (v6)

God makes known his ways and acts (v7)

God is merciful (v8)

God is gracious (v8)

God is slow to anger (v8)

God is abounding in steadfast love (v8)

God does not always chide or keep his anger forever (v9)

God does not deal with/repay us according to our sins (v10)

God’s steadfast love is great toward those who fear him (v11)

God removes our transgressions from us (12)

God shows compassion to those who fear him (v13)

God’s love is eternal in duration (v17)

And I want to be clear. This is not an exhaustive list of God’s goodness. This is only scratching the surface. I hope you’ll add to this list as you seek to know God and experience his goodness in your life.

Let’s pray.

Finding peace in the unshakable rule of our sovereign God.

Job 1:1–2:10

God is Sovereign

God uses His providence to bless

God uses His providence to afflict

As the ushers are handing out Bibles, I will invite you to turn to Job Chapter 1 on page 491.

Just place your finger or bookmark there for now, and we will come back to it shortly.

 

To begin, though, let me ask you a couple of questions:

What comes to your mind when you think about God?

Is your understanding of Him rooted in Scripture, or is it shaped by your own experiences, desires, or even misconceptions you’ve picked up along the way?

The way we view God is no small matter. A distorted picture of Him can lead us down paths of doubt, fear, and misunderstanding, robbing us of the peace and assurance that come from knowing Him as He truly is. My heart’s desire is to protect you from these dangers and guide you into a clearer, more biblical, and more joyful view of our great God.

Some people imagine God as a distant creator—a kind of cosmic administrator who set everything in motion but now stays out of the picture, except for the occasional “system maintenance.”

Perhaps others see Him as little more than a stern judge, watching for every mistake to punish us.

Or maybe, they think of Him as powerful but limited, either unable to intervene in the chaos of the world or restrained by human choices.

Instead, Scripture presents us with a God who is far greater, far more glorious, and far more trustworthy than anything or any character that we could invent on our own. A God who reigns supremely over all creation, infinite in His being, perfect in His attributes, and yet still merciful in His dealings with us.

One of the most helpful summaries I’ve come across that beautifully captures the biblical teaching about who God is comes from the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith:

The Lord, our God, is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of Himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.

This God, the God of the Bible, reigns over every corner of creation. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and fully in control. And, when we know God as He truly is, that’s good news for us! Because our hearts are filled with peace, our faith is strengthened, and we are freed from the anxieties that come from false views of Him.

That’s why, as we begin this new sermon series—Let God Reign—we’ll take time to explore some of the attributes of God, starting today with His sovereignty. In the weeks ahead, we’ll also consider His goodness, immutability, omnipotence, incarnation, and omniscience.

Of course, even a lifetime of sermons couldn’t exhaust the riches of who God is, but my prayer is that this series will deepen your love for Him, challenge any of your remaining unbelief, and increase your trust in the Lord. So let us begin today by considering the sovereignty of our great God.

It starts with the acknowledgment that:

1. God is Sovereign

Whether you want to admit it or not, this is reality: God is sovereign. First, let us define our terms; what does it mean for God to be sovereign?

Here are a few definitions for us to reference:

The biblical concept of God’s kingly, supreme rule and legal authority over the entire universe.

The possession of ultimate authority and power.

God’s authority and power to accomplish his will as the supreme Ruler of all things.

Taking these definitions collectively, we find that sovereignty means God is the King of the universe, with complete ownership, power, and authority over all of creation- and He is able to accomplish all His holy will. There is no one and nothing outside of His rule.

But how do we know that this type of sovereignty is rightly attributed to God? Definitions are helpful, but the ultimate authority is not the words of men but the Word of God. Does God Himself claim this sort of authority?

To explore this reality Biblically, one need look no farther than one of our church’s memory verses from earlier in the year: Psalm 103:19

19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Of course, this isn’t the only passage that declares God’s sovereignty. As we look through the pages of God’s word, we see over and over again that He is the only sovereign- with eternal dominion over all.

1 Timothy 6:14–15 (ESV)

14 … Jesus Christ, 15 … —he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Do you see the pattern? God is the great King over an everlasting kingdom. He possesses ultimate ownership, power, and authority over all creation.

One of my favorite expressions of this truth is found in David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10–13, where he exalts God’s sovereignty with such beauty and clarity:

10 Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

Amen! What a comfort to know that our God reigns supreme!

You see dear brothers and sisters, when we allow the Bible to shape our understanding of God, it provides us with great assurance and peace. We can come to Him with the confidence of David, knowing that the Lord has the authority to act. We don’t need to worry or wonder whether He is in control—He is!

Now consider all of this in light of the title of our sermon series: Let God Reign. As we have begun to study how God is completely sovereign, the irony of the name should make itself clear.

Let God Reign...

Let? We don’t get to let God do anything! He is the King! I know we’re not used to kings here in America, but just imagine the guts it would take to tell your king, “Sure, I’ll let you reign over me.”

Oh Lord, please forgive us for ever doing anything other than recognizing your crown-rights and exalting your sovereign name! “Give us grace to see more clearly You are God, and we are not!” (Christ Our Wisdom by Sovereign Grace Music)

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So how does God’s sovereignty actually play out?

We’ve established that God is sovereign, possessing complete ownership, power, and authority over all creation. But the question remains: How does God exercise His sovereignty? When we examine the Scriptures, we see two primary out-workings of this attribute: predestination and providence.

As much as it pains me, we simply don’t have enough time today to explore both topics in depth. So, we’ll touch briefly on predestination before focusing the rest of our time on providence.

To briefly address God’s predestination, I’m simply going to assign you all some homework:

Go home and prayerfully read Romans 8:28-9:28.

Bonus passages: Ephesians 1-2:10; John 17; John 6:37-40; Acts 13:48; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:4–5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14; Romans 11:5; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Peter 2:8; 2 Peter 2:3; Jude 4; Matthew 11:25-27; John 10:22-30; Matthew 22:14; Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, Revelation 20:15

As you study, ask yourself this question: Does your view of salvation and election line up with God’s Word on this topic?

And if it doesn’t, why are you still listening to someone other than God Himself on this topic?

And if you have any questions or want to chat through this some more, please contact me or the church. I’d love to talk with you more about the beauty of God’s predestination.

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But, for the remainder of today, let’s explore how God exercises His sovereignty through providence.

We’ll start by defining our terms:

Providence is the governing power of God that oversees his creation and works out his plans for it.

Essentially the distinction between sovereignty broadly and providence specifically is that providence describes how God works in even the smallest details of His creation.

He providentially coordinates every single minute atom, every thought, every soul across the world, and every single choice of each of those people to work out for His will and the good of His elect.

 

To begin to explore the wonders of God’s providence, let’s go ahead and open up our Bibles to our main passage for today, and let’s read Job 1:1-5

1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

 

Before we even get to the calamities we often associate with Job, the first verses of the book paint a picture of extraordinary providential blessings that God ordained for His servant. These blessings were not random, nor were they earned by Job’s merit. Instead, they were displays of God’s sovereign kindness and care, poured out upon Job in multiple dimensions of his life. As we examine this opening snapshot, we see the richness of God’s providence, not just in preserving Job but in blessing him abundantly.

This is our second takeaway for today:

2. God uses His providence to bless

Starting at the outermost layer, we see that Verse 3 describes Job as “the greatest of all the people of the east.” His reputation extended far and wide, and his influence reached beyond his household. His uprightness, wealth, and leadership had earned him respect among his peers, making him a man of both substance and stature. But we should be quick to remember that even variables such as reputation and favor are directly ordained by God. This social blessing was just one thread in the tapestry of God’s providence, granting Job a platform to live as a witness to God’s goodness.

The blessings continue with Job’s material wealth: “7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants” (Job 1:3). Now I’m not a farmer, so these numbers may sound large to me, but they don’t actually compute to any sort of monetary value in my head. Maybe it all makes sense to you, but it’s been just a little too long since I bought my last camel. So, curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to look up some livestock prices this week:

Just to give you a ballpark number, at today’s prices, he had approximately $10 million worth of livestock. And that’s not to even mention the amount of land, crops, and other assets he must’ve had!

Now, before your mind gets carried away, let me be clear that I am by no means advocating for any sort of prosperity gospel or name-it-and-claim-it theology. I am simply trying to help us realize that if or when we experience material blessings, the credit belongs entirely to God. He’s the one who owns everything and who temporarily entrusts things like assets and finances to us. It is yet another thread in the tapestry of God’s providence. Job’s wealth was evidence of God’s providential provision, and it was to be put to use in sustaining him, his family, his servants, and to serve God.

So we have abundant social blessings, abundant material blessings, then we find in verse 2 a description of Job’s family: “There were born to him seven sons and three daughters” (Job 1:2). Ten children! Can you imagine?! He even had the Lees family beat! Think about how much of a blessing this would have been upon Job! A legacy of fruitfulness that reflected God’s design for flourishing, and His command to be fruitful and multiply. And even beyond just having the children, God providentially ensured that they were united with one another in love. Verse 4 tells us that Job’s sons and daughters regularly gathered to celebrate together. Think of what this says about their relationships: there was joy, peace, and fellowship within the family. I know that for my parents, few things make them happier than seeing all four of us adult children gather together! What a precious blessing we see in Job’s ten children - a blessing directly from the sovereign hand of God.

 

Now, let’s imagine that this was the end of the description: We have a man who is rich, well-liked, and has a large family who seem to love each other. To be sure, each of these categories are amazing testimonies of God’s providential blessing. But if God’s providence for Job ended there, He would have a gaping hole in His life. Specifically, his spiritual life. What a dreadful existence to have everything you could ever need, and still be dead inside.

...

Let’s see what the Lord sovereignly ordained for Job in this category of his spiritual life:

The very first verse gives us the answer: “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). This isn’t to say that Job was sinless, but that his life was marked by a sincere devotion to God. He feared the Lord and repented of evil. His heart has been cleansed, and He now trusts in the sovereign will of God. This godliness wasn’t natural; it’s not something Job was born with; it was a product of God’s saving and sanctifying work. We know this to be true because God has told us (multiple times actually), Psalm 14:2-3; Psalm 53:2-3; Romans 3:10-12

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

See, even Job’s ability to live a life of integrity was itself a providential blessing from the Lord.

Job had become so devoted to the Lord that he even recognized his paternal calling to act as the priest of his home. In verse 5, we see Job rising early to offer sacrifices on behalf of his children. His reasoning is striking: “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Job’s devotion to his family’s spiritual well-being reflects a heart deeply familiar with God’s holiness and mercy. He knew that sin, even unspoken, was an offense against God and that intercession was necessary. Job’s continual offerings point us to the providential blessing of faith, a faith that compelled him to seek God not just for himself but for those he loved.

 

As we reflect on these blessings, we must recognize that they were not arbitrary. God’s providence is always purposeful. The gifts given to Job were intended to magnify God’s glory, enrich Job’s joy, and perhaps even prepare him for the trials that lay ahead. Job’s life was a testimony to God’s abundant provision in every area—spiritual, familial, material, and social. And even as we know that these blessings would soon be tested, we can affirm with confidence that they were part of God’s wise and sovereign providence.

 

For us, Job’s blessings serve as a reminder that every good gift we enjoy comes from the hand of God.

17 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.

Our families, our resources, our reputations, and even our ability to know and love Him are neither random nor earned; they are graciously and providentially given by your King.

Let’s consider God’s work in our lives:

His providence has woven together a beautiful tapestry for each of our lives - consider what the tapestry of your life looks like for a moment - It would begin with how He formed you in the womb, where and when you were born, what type of family you grew up in, every single moment of happiness, all the friendships you enjoy, each of the jobs and responsibilities you have ever had, the skills and talents you exercise, seeing the love of your life for the first time, getting married, experiencing the joy of holding your child for the first time, your daily bread, your home, your daily protection, and even beyond all of those blessings: if you are a Christian He has even ordained how and when He adopted you, He has ordained your ongoing sanctification, and eventually He will providentially ordain for your journey to your heavenly home! He has woven countless bright threads into your life’s tapestry.

We have such a good, wise, and loving Father who cares for our every need.

Amen! Thank you, Lord, for your providential hand upon our lives!

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So far, we’ve considered God’s providence to bless, but what about the painful details of our lives? What happens when we encounter God’s afflictive providence?

Can we worship God throughout this type of providence, too? And, even if we can, will we?

I know that we don’t typically like to think about trials. We’ve grown up in a culture that not only avoids suffering but tells us that we deserve happiness. Those of you who know me well know that I try not to watch television very often or listen to any kind of popular music, but every time I do, I am inevitably flooded with commercial after commercial telling me: “Everything SHOULD be yours! Look at how happy you DESERVE to be! Don’t all of these little fictitious commercial people look happy? You are ENTITLED to be just as happy as them!” And it goes on and on and just never ends!

I know I’m being a bit dramatic, but this is craziness! Our American culture is obsessed with avoiding, covering, ignoring, hiding from, numbing, and rejecting any kind of discomfort or suffering. This is unbiblical nonsense, guys! Who do we think providentially gave us that trial? Is God not absolutely and providentially in control over our suffering? Do we do well to curse the very means that God meant for His glory and our good?

And I’ll be the first to confess this morning that I often fail so terribly in stewarding the trials God has graciously put into my life. This is the trouble of our fallen nature: we look at the plan that God has put forth, and we say, “Uhhh, no thanks, I’ll do it my way instead.” -God, please be merciful to such a stubborn and rebellious sinner such as myself!

Now, I don’t want to give the impression that I see this problem in all of you! In fact, I have been so encouraged by the faithfulness displayed by many of you, as you have trusted the Lord throughout suffering. Many of you have learned to reject our culture’s false narrative and instead prayerfully bring your afflictions to the one who is sovereign over them. Even just a couple of weeks ago at the Stewardship Celebration, it was such a blessing to my soul to hear testimony after testimony sharing how you have learned to better trust God as a result of your trials. Praise God for His refining work in your lives, brothers and sisters!

...

But some of us aren’t there yet.

Intellectually, we know that God is sovereign, and we know that He is good, but lingering questions still plague our thoughts:

Is my suffering a sign of God’s judgment upon me?

Why would God allow hardship in the lives of His people?

If God is good, and He is truly in control, why do I have this chronic pain? Or this depression? Or the loss of my loved one?

These questions are not new. They’ve haunted humanity since right after the fall of man in Genesis 3. But they become immensely personal when trials crash into our lives like an unexpected storm. All of a sudden, they become your questions: Why would God let this happen to me? Does He even see my pain? How can this possibly be for my good?

Today, we will wrestle with these questions by turning to God’s Word, specifically by continuing to read the book of Job. Job presents us with one of the most profound depictions of suffering in all of Scripture. Job’s story challenges us to consider the mystery of God’s providence—that He ordains all things, including our suffering, with wisdom, justice, and love.

As we dive into Job’s story, let me warn you: we won’t find answers that are easy to accept. Instead, we will find a God who is completely sovereign, infinitely wise, and deeply compassionate. And through Job’s trials, we will seek to expound some of the purposes that God accomplishes through providentially ordaining suffering. Let's keep reading Job chapter one, starting again at verse 6:

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. 13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. 1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 3 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

As we consider this passage, we arrive at our final takeaway for today:

3. God uses His providence to afflict

I know this point is likely hard to hear this morning, but we must consider it. This is such a significant takeaway in developing a biblical view of God that allows us to worship him accurately. Without understanding this reality, we are left with a worldview that sees suffering as meaningless and offers no real hope for those who are suffering. So, let’s dig in and seek to understand.

Job lost almost everything. And the text is clear that God providentially ordained for Satan to take away his animals, his servants, his children, and his health. Later on in the book, we see other losses, such as his loss of reputation when his friends accuse him of wrongdoing, and we even see in chapter 3 that he has lost his desire to live. Yet amazingly, Job did not lose his assurance in God’s character!

Many of you know a taste of Job’s pain. Afflictions come in many different ways:

Some can resonate with Job in his loss of property, others understand the sorrow of burying friends, many of us are familiar with loathsome physical pain, some have walked through the trial of an ungodly spouse, many can relate to his depression and despair - and perhaps more dreadful than anything I can imagine, some even know the misery of burying your own child.

...

I want to proceed delicately here, I am not able to speak to you this morning as one who knows the depths of your agony. I cannot heal your pain; all I can do is grieve along with you and remind you of the sovereign Lord who does know your pain. He is the one we must cling to when life loses its sweetness.

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You see, my lament is that too often, we have been given unsatisfactory answers for our pain. When we suffer, we often are told in one way or another that God may have allowed this heartache, but He was not in control over it. The world tries to feed you a lie about God and pretend like He had to forfeit some level of His sovereignty during your affliction. This line of thinking inherently implies that the Devil or outside circumstances are outside of God’s control, which would mean that they are greater or more powerful than God!

We must reject this lie and instead hold fast to the Biblical reality that God providentially ordains all things, even our sufferings and afflictions.

Job had some room to grow, but let us learn from his wise words in Job 1:21, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;”

This reality may be painful, but the Bible affirms it many times:

7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Even in our main scripture passage, don’t miss the fact that God was the one who mentioned Job in the first place. Job 1:8

8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

God providentially brought Job to Satan’s attention, and then He allowed and ordained each of Satan’s attacks against him.

We cannot attempt to deny that God is the one who brings afflictions to our lives when He clearly and repeatedly takes the credit for them.

We can know from the mouth of the Lord Himself that all of it, from the smallest of pains to the greatest afflictions, was providentially ordained by God.

 

But have we answered any of our questions? At the end of the day, we long to know one thing: Why?

First, let me say that we must be careful with this question. If what we mean by asking “why?” is anything close to “Why did God do it that way?” then we have already begun to forget who He is.  When Job questions God’s actions, God answers in Job 40:8:

8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

Or later, we read in the New Testament:

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

We cannot comprehend His mind, and He has no need to ask for our counsel. So, we must guard against thinking we can question God’s ways.

But I know that there is an appropriate way to ask the question, “Why?”

If asked in faith, we can cry out like Jesus and ask, “My God, My God, Why?”

It is no sin to ask questions to God, but it is great sin to ask questions of God. Do you hear the difference? Asking questions of God complains about Him and questions His providence, while asking questions to God means coming to Him in our hour of need with a desire to understand His will and His ways.

 

When we ask the question rightly, it sounds like pouring out our heart to our Father and then searching the scriptures for answers. When we function this way, we can find hope for our weary hearts. He probably won’t give you all of the answers: Job was never given an explanation for His trials. Yet God does share a few of His purposes. Let us use up our little remaining time this morning exploring what purposes can be found for our afflictions:

 

Firstly, know that your pain is not without a purpose:

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

God’s providence is never without purpose. Both when He gives you blessings and when He gives you afflictions. If you are one of His elect, He has a good plan for you - through all things.

Secondly, consider some of the purposes for suffering that we find in scripture (not an exhaustive list by any means). Here are some of our answers to the previously asked “Why?” questions to God:

To Reveal, Deter, and Mortify Sin (Job 42:5-6; Hebrews 12:5-11; Psalm 119:67)

To Produce Godliness and Spiritual Fruit (Job 23:10; James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5)

To Reveal the Character of God (Job 38-41; Psalm 46:8-10)

To Relinquish the Temporal for the Eternal (Job 1:21; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Philippians 3:7-11)

To Equip Us to Comfort Others (Job 16:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Galatians 6:2)

To Produce a Sincere Faith, Devoid of Hypocrisy (Job 2:3; 1 Peter 1:6-7; James 1:12)

To Encourage Fellowship with God Through Word, Prayer, and Ordinance (Job 13:15; Psalm 119:71; Hebrews 4:14-16; Philippians 4:6-7)

To Bear Witness to the World (Job 2:3, 42:10-11; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

To Cultivate Greater Communion with Christ, the Greatest Sufferer (Job 19:25-26; Philippians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 1:5)

Unfortunately, we do not have time to explore all of these potential purposes this morning, but let us take a deeper look at number 9: To Cultivate Greater Communion with Christ, the Greatest Sufferer

I believe this is perhaps the greatest purpose of suffering, that it draws us closer to Christ. Job’s sufferings foreshadowed Jesus’s sufferings. Job, like all humans, was still a sinner in need of grace. But Jesus, by contrast, was the only truly righteous sufferer. He alone lived a perfect life, and yet He endured the most profound suffering: betrayal, mockery, physical torment, and, ultimately, enduring the full wrath of God while paying the penalty for sinners like us.

Isaiah 53:3–5 describes Jesus as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” who was “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities.” His suffering was not the result of His own wrongdoing, but it was ordained by God for the salvation of sinners.

Jesus’ sufferings were not an accident. In Acts 2:23 Peter declares,

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Again, the crucifixion was no accident; it was the ultimate display of God’s sovereign providence, bringing redemption through affliction.

So if you are suffering today and you wonder whether or not God is still sovereign, you wonder if He is still good, look to the cross!

Jesus’ suffering assures us that God can bring the greatest good out of the deepest pains. Because God is sovereign, you must trust that your trials, too, are part of His perfect plan. You see, the cross not only secures our redemption but also transforms our perspective on suffering. Jesus has suffered for you, therefore your suffering is no longer meaningless. It is part of God’s plan to conform you to the image of Christ. Through affliction, God is preparing you for eternal life with Him. Trust His sovereign providence in all these things.

Now please note that this hope in the midst of suffering is limited to those who follow Christ. For those of you who have yet to place your faith in Christ: this sovereign God calls you to turn to Him today. Lay down your self-reliance and the burdens of sin and suffering and trust in Jesus, who suffered and died to redeem sinners just like you. Don’t go on trusting in the power of your own kingdom, but instead come and enjoy the blessings found only in the King of kings- Bow the knee to Jesus today and be forgiven of your rebellion against Him. And if you have any questions or concerns about this, I’d love to speak more with you after the service.

 

CONCLUSION:

As we reflect on today’s message, let us remember the three truths we have explored about God’s sovereignty.

First, we have seen that God is sovereign, possessing ultimate authority and ruling over all creation with power and wisdom to accomplish all His holy will.

Second, we considered how God uses His providence to bless, as shown in Job’s life through his family, wealth, and spiritual devotion.

Finally, we examined how God uses His providence to afflict, ordaining trials and suffering to accomplish His perfect purposes, especially in drawing us closer to Christ.

These truths are not just for our minds but are meant to affect how we respond to God in any season. If you are in a season of blessing, then give thanks to the One who reigns over your life. If you are walking through the valley of affliction, take comfort in knowing that your pain is not meaningless; it is held in the hands of a sovereign and loving God who is working all things for His glory and your ultimate good.

I encourage you to take time this week to study through the handout that is on the inside of your bulletin. Explore the ways that God works in affliction to accomplish His purposes.

 

As we close, let me read for us an expanded version of the doxology, praising God for His sovereignty over us:

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him all creatures here below;

Praise Him above ye heav'nly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

Praise God through trials that shape our soul,

Through fires that cleanse and make us whole.

In brokenness, His mercy flows,

Restoring joy where sorrow grows.

 

Praise God who reigns with sovereign might,

His wisdom rules both day and night.

His justice stands and love endures,

Our hope is firm, our rest is sure.

Amen”                 Let’s pray

The Holy Spirit’s Gifts

Romans 12; 1 Peter 4; Ephesians 4; 1 Corinthians 12-14

Embracing God’s plan for His gifts

Understand the context for being given the gifts

Adopt God’s purposes for giving the gifts

Exercise your gift(s) faithfully

Reject false teachings about the gifts

 

Responding to the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:1-17

Which way do you walk?

Living according to the flesh

Living according to the Spirit

 

Good morning, church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests)

Over the course of November, we’ve been discussing Stewardship of the Holy Spirit. It started with a call to believe the truth about God the Holy Spirit. During that sermon we discussed that…

The Holy Spirit is God

So worship him as God!

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force

So interact with him as a person!

The Holy Spirit has a mission

Glorifying Jesus Christ

So cooperate with him in the mission!

Then in week two, we sought to cultivate awe of God the Holy Spirit. We did that by:

Recognize the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament era

Creates and sustains life

Empowers people for specific tasks

God promises his indwelling Spirit to his people

Rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s work in the New Testament era (2 slides)

Convicts us of our sin and need for forgiveness

Regenerates the hardened heart

Indwells and purifies believers

Leads

Guides into truth

Gives assurance of adoption

Counsels

Intercedes in prayer

Bears fruit

Illuminates the Word

Guided the apostles in writing Scripture

Seals believers

Gives gifts to believers

Today we are turning our attention to a very practical matter - Responding to the Holy Spirit. As we’ve learned about this member of the Godhead and discovered how very involved He is in our world and daily lives, I thought it would be beneficial for us to consider and evaluate our own response to Him. Today is meant to be a time of self-evaluation and hopefully, humble growth in your faith.

We are going to spend most of our time today in two places, Romans 8 and Galatians 5. Let’s turn our attention to the book of Romans now. Before we read this specific text, I want to give you some context of what Paul has already written to the Christians in Rome. Paul has been building his argument through the entire book.

Paul began the letter with his typical greeting and giving thanks for their faith in Jesus. He declares that he longs to visit with them so that they might mutually encourage one another in the faith. He was eager to preach the gospel (Good News of salvation in Christ) in Rome.

After sharing these rather heartwarming opening comments, Paul elaborates in very straightforward terms why both Jews and Gentiles need the Gospel. The rest of chapter 1 captures the downward spiral of sin that most of the world is caught in as they reject God and suppress the truth about Him. Paul moves from the condemnation of the worldly to challenging those who claim to know God yet live in a worldly manner in chapters 2 and 3. He rebukes both Jews and Greeks and points out that all are dead in their sin. No one is righteous, no not one. This is a sweeping indictment of the human race!

Yet Paul does not leave them without hope. In chapter 3:21-26, he points to the righteousness of God that was revealed in Jesus Christ and is available to all who believe. Faith in Jesus is the answer for those who are dead in their sin!

In chapter 5, he reiterates that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly to save us from our sins. Our appropriate response is faith in Jesus and forsaking our old ways of life. We must not continue in sin now that we have received grace! (Rom. 6:1-4) He points out that, in Christ, we are no longer enslaved to our sin. If your faith is in Jesus, then you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. (Rom. 6:11) You must no longer let sin reign in you but present your bodies as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:12-14).

This means, if you are a Christian, that you now have a choice for how you live! You can choose to walk/live in sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to walk/live in the Spirit, which leads to life. Paul even uses his own life as an example of the struggle Christians face with our sinful nature (aka flesh) in chapter 7. However, as chapter 7 ends, he helpfully declares, that though an internal war rages within him, through Jesus Christ, rescue is possible. Those who are in Christ do not have to live in sin, they can choose to please Christ!

This high-level recap brings us to the beginning of chapter 8, where we are going to pick up and read today. Hopefully you’re tracking with the argument so far:

Everyone is born dead in their sin, living for themselves rather than God.

Without faith in Jesus, we will continue in that downward spiral from bad to worse.

Thankfully God has made a way of salvation through his perfectly righteous Son, Jesus Christ

We must respond to the Spirit’s conviction of our sin by placing our faith in Jesus.

This begins an ongoing battle to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

With that understanding of man’s condition and God’s provision, let’s read our text for today. As I read this, please listen for the two different ways to live articulated here.

The question I want each of us to consider today is…

You’ll notice that there are two ways to live presented in this chapter and the book of Romans at large. You can either walk (or live) according to the flesh (your sinful nature) or you can walk (live) according to the Spirit. Now you need to notice that there are two different spiritual conditions which you can be in as well. For the sake of clarity, I want to use a diagram to help us track what we’re talking about today:

 

(In the flesh)

(In the Spirit)

Only possible way to live;

Hostile to God

Choosing to live in sin;

Hindering spiritual growth

Not possible;

Unable to please God

Choosing to please Christ;

Enjoying spiritual growth

 

Let’s discuss these one at a time. Beginning with a discussion of…

Living according to the flesh

In the Scriptures, this category is spoken of in two different ways. First, you have those who are described as “in the flesh” as their entire category of life. Meaning it is their identity. This is speaking of those who have not been convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit and put their faith in Jesus Christ. They have no interest in living for God and would rather do what comes naturally to them, which is pursue their own sinful self-interests.

This is the left column of our table.

(In the flesh)

Only possible way to live;

Hostile to God

Not possible;

Unable to please God

The second way this category of living according to the flesh is spoken about is in reference to those who have faith in Jesus Christ yet due to their remaining sinful nature still make sinful choices that hinder their spiritual growth. That is what the top right part of our table refers to.

(In the Spirit)

Choosing to live in sin;

Hindering spiritual growth

Neither of these positions ought to be desirable for anyone! They bring devastating consequences into our lives. Let’s go back through Romans 8:1-17 and consider what God’s Word reveals about living according to the flesh.

If you were to go back through Romans 8:1-17 and highlight all the references to living in the flesh in one color, here is what that might look like. (Image) How is it described?

Under the law of sin and death (v2)

Paul used language that was intentionally shocking to his readers. To be outside of faith in Christ was to remain under the law of sin and death, meaning the Old Testament laws. His point throughout the letter was that they could not perfectly obey the OT law – no one could!

If you try to be justified by your efforts, you will fall short 100% of the time. The law points everyone to their need for a Savior! We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot work our way to righteousness. It is impossible for those who are dead in sin to make themselves spiritually alive. This is a severe warning to those who do not have faith in Christ and continue to live according to the flesh – it will not end well for you.

Just a few verses later, in verse 5, we read that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

Minds set on the things of the flesh (v5)

The focus and priorities of such a person are on things that do not please the Lord. The fruit of their life (thoughts/words/actions) reflect what is at the root (desires of their heart). Their deepest desire is self-interest. They are driven by, “What do I want?” rather than “What does God want?” in their daily life. It would be wise to evaluate whether this is true of you!

Let’s look at some examples of such “things of the flesh” from Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

He describes the works of the flesh in terms of sinful handling of sex, relationships, communication and conflict resolution, and alcohol, among other things. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. To it, we could add any other form of selfish ambition or self-worship:

Valuing career advancement at the cost of loving others

Pursuing influence and power for self

Creating a home environment that is about you rather than your loved ones

Forsaking your responsibilities to pursue a life of entertainment or ease

When we look around us and survey the cultural landscape (both inside and outside of the church), these are the very battles we see raging! And it is no surprise, because when you live according to the flesh, your minds are set on these things, and you pursue them.

When we live this way, we are being ruled by indwelling sin, rather than the indwelling Spirit. And the result is not desirable! Paul warns the Galatians that those who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God. Or as he said in the letter to the Romans, this way of life…

Leads to death (v6, 13)

“To set the mind on the flesh is death.” The result of this way of life is separation from God’s presence to bless and spending an eternity under his judgment. That is not an outcome that I would wish upon anyone!

Why is this the outcome? Paul explains it further in verses 7-8. A person who lives this way is…

Hostile to God, not submissive (v7)

Unable to please God (v8)

When you live according to the flesh, you declare war with God. You have rebelled against the King of Kings, the highest authority possible. You have refused to submit to His righteous rule and reign. This is a problem for anyone, but it is especially dangerous for those whose identity is “in the flesh” – meaning unbelievers.

For those whose identity is “in the flesh”, you literally cannot please God. Paul confronts unbelievers who cling to the false hope that somehow their “good” can outweigh their bad when they stand before God one day. If you are “in the flesh” – meaning your faith is not in Jesus Christ for salvation – then nothing you do is pleasing to God. The reality that he is speaking about identity is clarified in verse 9 – those whose identity are in the flesh do not have the Spirit of God. Again, this is primarily addressing those who are in the left column of our table:

(In the flesh)

Only possible way to live;

Hostile to God

Not possible;

Unable to please God

However, for those who profess faith in Christ, we too must be careful how we live. Living by the flesh must not be an option for us!

(In the flesh)

(In the Spirit)

Only possible way to live;

Hostile to God

Choosing to live in sin;

Hindering spiritual growth

Not possible;

Unable to please God

I think of Paul’s counsel to the Ephesians:

The reality is that Christians are still tempted by their sin nature. Though our faith in Christ has transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, meaning we are no longer enslaved to sin, we are still susceptible to sinful, selfish desires. Christian, you no longer HAVE to sin, sin’s mastery over you has been broken, but you MUST choose to forsake sin.

We must make it our aim to please Christ rather than living by the flesh. There is a real spiritual war that we are engaged in within ourselves. The battle to live by the flesh vs. by the Spirit.

Paul articulates this so well in Galatians 5:

Christian, do not take a lazy approach to your walk with God. You must not assume that just because your faith is in Christ that you can live however you want! The temptations of sin are still very real for us.

We must be on guard and seek to live holy lives. We must be regularly about the business of identifying and uprooting sinful desires and their fruit from our lives. If we are lazy about this and make peace with our flesh, then we will live in a manner that is selfish and hinders our growth in holiness. Such a lifestyle will not bring glory to God.

You have been given an incredible gift – freedom from sin and the flesh – use that freedom wisely, to serve God and others! Paul is no dummy. He is very aware that just because you have freedom from sin does not mean that you will automatically use that freedom well. Those who are “in Christ” now have a choice to make – “Will I live to serve/please myself?” or “Will I live to serve/please my God?” I would encourage you to take time to evaluate your own life and walk with God. Do you see evidence of this war within? Are you fighting to walk in holiness and put temptation/sin to death? Is it your aim and desire to serve God and others?

Paul argues in his writings that those who truly are in the Spirit will not make peace with the flesh. Though the battle rages on, the Spirit rules their lives and they will make progress in the faith. This was Paul’s own testimony, and it is the experience of all who are truly following Jesus Christ. Paul confidently stated:

This is our calling as Christians. As those who live by the Spirit, we must crucify our flesh and keep in step with the Spirit. My hope is that this would be the desire of all who are here this morning! Our second way to walk is…

Living according to the Spirit

This is represented by our bottom right cell of the table. This is only possible for those whose faith is in Christ. Who are known as living “in the Spirit” and by the Spirit.

(In the Spirit)

 

 

Choosing to please Christ;

Enjoying spiritual growth

Let’s go back through Romans 8:1-17 and consider what God’s Word reveals about living according to the Spirit.

If you were to go back through Romans 8:1-17 and highlight all the references to living in the Spirit in another color, here is what that might look like. (Image) How is it described?

Set free from the law of sin and death (v2)

While living according to the flesh keeps you under the law and thereby found guilty, living according to the Spirit sets you free! Paul explains that the requirements of the law, which we were unable to fulfill, have been perfectly met in Christ! (Fulfilled in Christ - v1, 3-4) This is why there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! This was only possible because God the Son took on human form and lived a perfect, sinless life in our place. This is the beauty of Christmas and Easter – Jesus did come as a man, and He paid it all in our place! Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. How sweet that we get to celebrate this reality by taking communion together after the sermon!

Notice also that the Spirit is described as the…

Spirit “of life” (v2)

There is already a contrast drawn between the outcomes. Living by the flesh in sin leads to death, but living by the Spirit leads to life. He is the life-giving Spirit, as Paul points out later in this chapter.

Now, just as those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the flesh, so too those who live according to the Spirit have their…

Minds set on the things of the Spirit (v5)

The focus and priorities of such a person are on things that please Jesus. The fruit of their life (thoughts/words/actions) reflect what is at the root (desires of their heart). Their deepest desire is pleasing God. They are driven by, “What does God want?” rather than “What do I want?” in their daily life. Is this how you live?

Let’s look at some examples of such “things of the Spirit” from Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

If you recall the fruit of the flesh, you can see how they are directly opposed to one another! Rather than being selfish, you are loving. Rather than being quick to conflict you are a joy-filled peacemaker. Instead of exploding in sinful anger, you are patient and kind. You are self-controlled rather than being ruled by your passions. The result is a person who is not seeking their own gain, but rather the glory of the Lord and good of others. If you claim Christ, does this describe you? If not, why not? I would encourage you to wrestle with the Lord on that this week.

Hopefully you know Christians who bear this kind of fruit in their lives! Hopefully you are such a Christian. This ought to be the character and conduct of every single man, woman, boy or girl who claims to follow Christ. And sure, you won’t be there right away, but are you growing into these characteristics? Is this the trajectory of your life?

When we live this way, we are being ruled by the indwelling Spirit, rather than by indwelling sin. And the end result of living this way is to be eagerly anticipated! Paul said in the letter to the Romans, this way of life…

Leads to life and peace (v6)

By life and peace, Paul is speaking of spiritual life and peace with God. One who is living according to the Spirit and has their mind set on the Spirit reveals that they are a child of God. There is no longer enmity between God and this person. When he looks at you, he sees one of his children whom he has forgiven and adopted into his family!

Paul said in Romans 5:

If your faith is in Christ and you are walking according to the Spirit, you have every reason to rejoice! You are forgiven, at peace with God, and have the hope of eternal glory! Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:9-11 that the Spirit of God now dwells within you and provides you righteousness and the hope of eternal life.

Indwelt by the Holy Spirit for righteousness and eternal life (v9-11)

Commentator Douglas Moo puts it this way:

God’s work in you has present and eternal benefits. Praise God for that!

The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, Christian! Because this is true, he will give life to your mortal body through the Spirit! Though you die, yet shall you live. This is exactly what Jesus promised in John 11 before raising Lazarus from the dead:

Christians have a very real hope both in this life and the one to come. In this life, upon faith in Jesus Christ we are made into a new creation by the Spirit. We heard about this last week – being regenerated or born again. Listen to how Paul explains this to the Corinthians:

Jesus took on our sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. If your faith is in Jesus Christ, then you are not the old man/woman you used to be. You do not have to continue living by the flesh, you can and MUST choose to live by the Spirit. This is exactly what Paul spoke of in Romans 7:

Christian, you do not have to live for the flesh any longer! You have died to the flesh, and you are now able to live in the new way of the Spirit. You have been appointed an ambassador for Christ! You are called and commissioned to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus. And that Good News includes the hope of eternal life that will be fully realized when Jesus returns. Of it, Paul speaks of in Philippians:

When you realize what God has done in and for you through Jesus Christ and through His Spirit, you ought to be incredibly thankful and zealous to live for Him! We have every reason to rejoice. We have every reason to put to death the deeds of the body/flesh, as Paul speaks of in Romans 8:13-17. Living by the Spirit necessitates…

Putting to death the deeds of the body/flesh (v13)

Christians no longer have to live according to the flesh. You must choose to put it off as you seek to live by the Spirit. This is both an objective reality – if you are in Christ, then you are in the Spirit and you will live accordingly – and a subjective calling – you must live according to the Spirit in your daily life with the temptations you face.

This is the crux of the matter and our sermon for today. If you are in Christ, then you are called to respond to the Holy Spirit by walking in the Spirit and mortifying (killing) the desires of the flesh. There is no other godly alternative.

We must not make peace with our sin. We must not be apathetic in our walk with God. By the power of His Holy Spirit, he has given us new life, convicted us of sin, led us to salvation, and empowered us to pursue holiness. Yet he still calls us to cooperate with Him in this process of sanctification that he is currently carrying out within us. We are to be holy as he is holy. That holiness or fruit of the Spirit is produced in us as we forsake sin and choose to please Him. This is an interesting dynamic in the Christian life. Douglas Moo puts it this way:

Christian brother or sister, God the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Cooperate with that work. Carry it out. Say “yes” to the conviction of sin and forsake it. Say “yes” to the desire to please Christ in your life each day. Do not harden your heart by choosing to walk according to the flesh.

And, if you know that there are ways in which you are walking according to the flesh right now, CONFESS AND FORSAKE THEM! Why would you wait any longer? They only lead to death! Confess your apathy towards reading God’s Word. Confess your propensity to excuse lustful looks and thoughts. Confess your arrogance in your conduct towards your spouse/kids. Confess your idolatry in turning to food or alcohol or entertainment for comfort. Confess your worldly ambitions to be somebody important or to stack up money in your accounts.

May we orient our lives around the will of God. His desire is for us to walk by the Spirit and bear fruit in keeping with the Spirit. He has called us to be his ambassadors who are out in our community helping people know and follow Jesus. He wants us to be men and women of the Word who are godly husbands/wives/sons/daughters. We are to be holy as he is holy. And that only happens as we walk by the Spirit in cooperation with the work God is actively doing in our lives.

I hope this study has invigorated you to evaluate where you stand with God and to make sure that you’re in the position of:

(In the Spirit)

Choosing to please Christ;

Enjoying spiritual growth

I look forward to the good work God will do in our midst as we purpose to live in the Spirit by the Spirit in the days ahead. *pause*

We are going to close out our services today by worshiping the Lord through the celebration of communion or the Lord’s table.

Communion is an opportunity for Christians to remember all that the Lord has done for us through his death, burial, and resurrection. This is an opportunity for Christians to remember that we have embraced the promised hope of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and salvation of our souls!

We will celebrate by partaking of both the bread and the cup as a symbol and reminder of Jesus’ body broken in our place and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Communion is an opportunity to remember how great a price was paid so that we could be saved from our sin. It is a sobering, yet joyful celebration for Christians. Sobering that the Son of God would give himself for us as a ransom. Joyful that he did, and the result is a living hope that cannot be taken from us! Jesus is victorious; therefore, we have the hope of heaven with Him!

At this time, I’d like to invite the ushers forward with the elements.

Before we pass them, I want to share the biblical requirements for joining in this celebration.

This celebration was given by Jesus to his followers. We invite anyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation to join us in this celebration today. If your faith is not in Jesus Christ alone, then we would encourage you to let the elements pass by you and simply consider what you’ve heard so far during the service this morning and reflect on what is keeping you from trusting him for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul.

The second requirement we see in Scripture is a call to examine ourselves. This is the idea of making sure that you’ve confessed any known sins and sought to turn away from it. It would not be wise to partake of the table if you have sin in your life for which you are not repentant. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that taking the table while living in sin is eating and drinking judgment on yourself. I would ask you not to do that, for your sake and the sake of God’s glory. Instead, I would encourage you to use this time to confess that sin and make a plan to address it right away. If you know you need to be reconciled to someone else in this church, please take care of that during this time. The table is time to protect the unity of the church.

The ushers are going to pass the elements now as we have a time of silent reflection and prayer to prepare for the table. Please use this time to reflect on all that we’ve talked about today and to prepare yourself to take communion by confessing and repenting of any known sin. After the elements have been passed, I’ll lead us in prayer and taking communion together.

Silent prayer. Corporate prayer.

Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus!

 

The Holy Spirit’s Work

Various Texts

Cultivating awe of God the Holy Spirit

Recognize the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament era

Rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s work in the New Testament era

 

Good morning church family! (Welcome guests, introduce self)

As I mentioned last week, the month of November is Stewardship Month in our church, where we focus on the concepts of biblical stewardship. Last week I shared four principles that drive our understanding, do you recall what they are?

God owns everything, I own nothing

God entrusts me with everything I have

I can either be a wise or poor steward of what God has entrusted to me; He wants me to be a wise steward

God can call me to give an account at any time and it could be today

We see these principles established in both the Old and New Testament.

I also want to remind you of the resources the church has provided to help you grow as faithful stewards this month. (Stewardship Resources Slide)

Please take advantage of these tools. They are for your spiritual growth and the glory of God.

In our sermon series this November, we are focusing on Stewardship of the Holy Spirit. Let’s turn our attention to our topic today: The Holy Spirit’s Work. Our aim is…

I want to start by sharing our church’s doctrine statement related to the Holy Spirit. Here is what we believe about God the Holy Spirit.

Last week we discussed the first sentence of this doctrine statement as we looked at the Holy Spirit’s deity and mission. Today we are focused on the rest of the statement, which concerns itself with the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is my belief that most Christians are quite unaware of how much God the Holy Spirit is actively at work in our daily lives. I anticipate that as we go through our study this morning, your mind will be blown as you hear and consider all that He does in, through, and for you. I have been eager to preach this sermon, knowing just how sweet of a meditation it will be on this person of the Godhead. I am praying that it will lead each one of us to worship God more passionately and seek him more fervently. That it will help us cultivate awe of God the Holy Spirit. *pause*

Now, the way the sermon is laid out today is that we will begin by:

Recognize the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament era

After taking time to understand how the Holy Spirit worked in the Old Testament era, we will then aim to:

Rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s work in the New Testament era

Many of these works the Holy Spirit still carries out in the church and Christians to this day.

So, without further ado, let’s tackle our first way of cultivating awe of God the Holy Spirit as we:

Recognize the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament era

This begins at the beginning… Genesis 1 and the Creation account. We heard this passage last week, along with Psalm 33:6. Here is what they said:

Just as God the Holy Spirit is co-eternal, co-existent, and co-equal with God the Father and God the Son, so He was present and active in the work of Creation. The details of how all of this played out are not spelled out in Scripture, but the reality is that He was involved. Elihu, in the book of Job would testify:

In a passage reflecting on the greatness of Yahweh, the Psalmist writes:

He is speaking of the creation of the innumerable creatures that fill the earth and sea. God the Holy Spirit is instrumental in the creation of everything!

Creates and sustains life

Elihu affirms this in a negative statement:

A removal of God’s Spirit from created things results in death.

Already the testimony of Scripture about the Holy Spirit’s work is of the utmost importance and relevance for you and for me! He is the reason we continue to exist. The reason our hearts beat and our lungs draw breath. He is the creator and sustainer of the life of the beautiful creation all around us. The Spirit is sent by the Father to create life – and this is yet another reason why we have the conviction that life begins at conception. The Spirit of God has already been at work in creating life and it is sacred and worthy of our protection.

But that is not all we learn about God the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. We also see him at work as he:

Empowers people for specific tasks

Consider the process of calling David as a king.

God’s Spirit upon David was his calling and equipping as king.

Let me give you another example. Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan King of Babylon, recognized the Holy Spirit at work in Daniel.

Daniel was quick to give God the glory for any interpretation of dreams that he might do. He knew God the Holy Spirit was at work in and through him.

Joshua’s qualification was that he was a man in whom is the Spirit. God was empowering him for the task of leading the nation. Or how about the Spirit’s empowering of Bezalel to create the tabernacle for God:

The Holy Spirit was present and at work in the lives of Old Testament saints in a variety of ways. We could also go to the book of Judges and hear of the Spirit empowering these judges so that they might deliver the nation from their oppressors. Time and again, God the Holy Spirit worked through fallible men and women to accomplish the plan and purposes of God.

One thing to note about the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament is that it is spoken of in a more temporal nature. The Spirit works for a time in a person to accomplish a particular purpose. This is different than what we hear promised by God under the New Covenant.  For example, in the book of Ezekiel, God says through the prophet:

God is speaking of an entirely different type of relationship that he will have with his people. No longer will the Spirit’s work be temporary in their lives, but God will work in such a way that they will have his Spirit within them permanently. This is our final observation about God the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament for today:

God promises his indwelling Spirit to his people

This observation is different than the others coming before it because it does not find its fulfillment in the Old Testament era. This is a distinctly New Covenant promise that will be fulfilled through the finished work of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is foretold in the Old Testament but accomplished in the New Testament. The prophet Joel is another example of this foretelling:

Joel’s message was one of warning followed by a call to repentance. He spoke of a time in the future when God would do an incredible work through His Spirit. One fulfillment of this prophecy was seen in the days of the early church at Pentecost. After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to be with his disciples as he had promised.

As this happened, the Apostle Peter, understanding Joel’s prophecy was speaking of a fuller and more powerful work of the Spirit in the new covenant age, preached the following message to the assembly in Jerusalem:

Peter connects the dots between Old and New Testaments in the work of God the Holy Spirit. It was always God’s plan to send the Spirit not only to empower God’s people temporarily, but to indwell them so that they could live holy lives. The New Testament era is the fuller revelation of what God has always intended to do – create a holy people for Himself and be in relationship with those people!

So, now we seek to cultivate awe of God the Holy Spirit as we…

Rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s work in the New Testament era

The Old and New Testament eras are two different yet interconnected parts of God’s grand redemption plan. They are called Old and New Testaments because they are focused on the Old and New Covenants that God made with his people. In the New Testament or New Covenant, God has promised to give them a new heart and a new spirit. Through Ezekiel he said, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:27) In Jeremiah he said, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

These two different prophets are speaking of the same New Covenant work that God promised to his people. Yet this New Covenant work did not come to fulfillment until hundreds of years later through Jesus Christ’s life and ministry. In fact, Jesus promised during his ministry that he and the Father would send the Spirit as promised:

Jesus assured his disciples that the Spirit of truth would dwell within them, helping them live holy lives and carry on the mission of making disciples. He went on to say:

Jesus shares that the grand redemption plan is for him to leave and for the Helper, the Holy Spirit to come in a more powerful way. You also hear some of the ways that the Spirit will work in our world in this New Testament/church era. The Spirit convicts sinners. He guides us into the truth. And he glorifies Jesus. This is an introduction to some of the many important and beautiful works of God the Holy Spirit.

What I’d like to do at this point is talk through the many ways we see the Spirit at work in the New Testament era, as taught by the Scriptures. I think you are going to be blown away by all that this member of the Godhead does. As we’ve been doing throughout this sermon already, we’re going to be moving quickly through the Scriptures. This is a topical survey of the ways we see the Holy Spirit at work, so we’re going beyond a single passage to unpack.

I’ve grouped these into as much of a sequential order as possible. What I mean by that, is I am trying to share these wonderful works of the Spirit in the order they come into our lives.

First, we have the works of the Spirit related to our salvation. Did you realize that the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts you of your need for salvation?

Convicts us of our sin and need for forgiveness

Without his work in this way, you would never realize your need for a Savior, nor desire to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior! This was the argument of Jesus in John 16:7-11. The Spirit comes to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. If your faith is in Jesus Christ, then you have God the Holy Spirit to thank for convicting you of your sinful state and need for faith in Jesus. Your salvation is a work of God the Holy Spirit!

But how can a sinner’s heart be convicted unto repentance? Isn’t it hardened by rebellion against God? Yes. The Scriptures tell us that before faith in Christ, we are dead in our sin. Which is why the Spirit’s work of regeneration is also essential.

Regenerates the hardened heart

We hear this taught in passages like Titus 3, which says:

Our condition before faith in Jesus Christ was dead in our sin. Enslaved to it. Living in an ungodly manner. Humanly speaking, there was no way we would be able to make our spiritually dead hearts come to life. But God is good and kind and merciful, and he sent the Holy Spirit to regenerate our hearts. This is a powerful term that means to be born again or to experience new birth. The teaching of Scripture is that though we were dead in our sin, through the Holy Spirit we can be born again to new spiritual life (aka regenerated). This is exactly what Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus.

Becoming a Christian, a follower of Christ, is a supernatural work of God in our lives. It cannot happen unless he first works in us to regenerate our heart and convict us of our sin. This should humble all of us immensely. We are utterly dependent on God to change us and to be rescued from sin and death.

No Christian has any right to be proud or boastful in their salvation. It is entirely a work of God’s mercy and grace! When you understand this, it motivates you to worship God all the more.

For those of you who are wrestling with what you believe and know that you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, I would encourage you to take heed of what is being taught here today. You need God the Holy Spirit to regenerate your heart and convict you of your sin so that you might believe and be saved! I would encourage you to pray to him and ask him to do this supernatural work in your life today.

One of the beautiful realities is that the Holy Spirit’s conviction does not stop upon salvation. He continues this work of conviction in the life of believers. This is the process by which we are made holy. As we are made aware of sin in our lives by the Holy Spirit, we are then responsible for confessing it and fleeing from it. Paul speaks to the church in Philippi and calls them to cooperate with the work of God in them.

God works in us, and we are to cooperate with that work. To “work out our own salvation” means to do our part in pursuing holiness by forsaking sin and turning towards obedience to Christ.

In another letter, after speaking about the many ungodly behaviors and desires of false teachers, Paul commands his disciple, Timothy:

We must do our part in the work that God the Holy Spirit carries out in purifying believers. As promised in the New Covenant, God the Holy Spirit indwells and purifies believers.

Indwells and purifies believers

What a great reason to rejoice! Through faith in Christ, we have God the Holy Spirit living within us, making us spiritually alive, and purifying us unto holiness.

This is the teaching of Peter in his first sermon at Pentecost. After the audience was convicted of their sin, here is how they responded:

Turn from sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise for all who believe is that you will be recipients of God the Holy Spirit. He will dwell within you. This is a far cry from being dead in our sins. Listen to the difference as Paul describes it in Romans 8:

He goes on to say:

What incredible news! Through faith in Christ, you have been transformed! By the Spirit’s work, you can put off sin. Those who have God’s Spirit and are led by Him will live out their identity as sons/daughters of God! They will desire to be holy as He is holy!

After all, this is the expectation of those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit:

What a powerful reality! God has chosen to dwell within the Christian. We are to view ourselves as a temple of the Holy Spirit, which means we must live in a holy manner. Thank goodness that God the Holy Spirit is actively at work in helping us be holy as he is holy! We have divine enablement to pursue this calling.

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve transitioned from the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation into the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification (or growth in godliness). For the sake of time, I’m going to share multiple related works of the Holy Spirit together, several of which we have heard about in previous passages:

Leads (Romans 8:14)

Guides into truth (John 16:13)

Gives assurance of adoption (Romans 8:16)

Counsels (John 14:16)

Intercedes in prayer (Romans 8:26-27)

Even when you are not sure what to pray, God the Holy Spirit prays on your behalf! He is with you in your weakness. That is how much God cares for you.

How incredible is it that God has provided such redemptive works through the Holy Spirit to believers?! It is because of his work that we can have great confidence in our faith and daily walk, even when we are struggling with temptation, suffering, or weakness. He is faithful to work in us for the glory of God. This is good news this morning!

And, the promise of Scripture, is that as we walk or live by the Spirit, we can expect to bear good fruit.

Bears fruit

These are the types of qualities that will be increasingly yours as you cooperate with the work of God the Holy Spirit in your life. When you seek the things of God and actively put off the ways of the old man/woman (the ways of sin) God blesses that effort! He is actively at work in you to conform you to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now, we learned last month that the primary way that God is growing us up into maturity is through the teachings and application of His Word. As you are disciplined to study the Word and put it into practice in your life, God will grow you in holiness! The Holy Spirit is at work throughout that process. You see, he…

Illuminates the Word

This is a bit of a restatement of “guides into truth” that came up earlier. Illumination means that the Holy Spirit gives understanding of the text of Scripture. About this, Paul says:

Without the Holy Spirit, we are unable to understand what God’s Word says and unable to apply it accurately to our lives. That is why unbelievers are so frustrated by it and find it so uninteresting. But when a man or woman is saved by God, the Spirit now works in them to make the Scriptures come to life before their very eyes! Suddenly they can understand the truth that previously seemed so dull to them.

Now, this does not mean that you automatically understand everything the Scriptures say about every topic. Rather it means the spiritual blindness that was previously covering your eyes and mind has been removed such that you can now begin to see and learn for the very first time.

We are still called to devote ourselves to studying the Word and applying it to our lives. This is the process of gaining wisdom! But the guarantee for believers is that the Spirit is at work in you to allow that to happen. Are you allowing the Spirit to illuminate the Word to you regularly? This requires you to open up your Bible and prayerfully consider what is written within.

This brings me to another incredible work of the Spirit in the New Testament era. It is one that was limited in duration, but for our benefit.

Guided the apostles in writing Scripture

We heard this passage in our previous series, but here it is again:

This is a work of the Spirit that has ceased with the closing of the canon of Scripture. Just as the apostles are gone, so has divine, authoritative revelation ceased with the closing of the Scriptures. However, we have a treasure trove at our fingertips to study and apply! Thank you, Holy Spirit, for making this possible!

Two more and then we’ll wrap it up for today. We also see the Holy Spirit:

Seals believers

We heard about this in previous weeks from Ephesians 1:13-14. When you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit seals or protects your salvation, guaranteeing your inheritance in heaven with God. This is what gives believers great confidence of where they will spend eternity! God will complete the work he began in us and make us holy so we can be with him!

Finally, the last work of the Holy Spirit we will discuss today is that the Holy Spirit:

Gives gifts to believers

We will have an entire sermon on this on 11/24. For today, I will simply point out that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers for the edification or building up of the church. This includes calling and appointing some to lead. The Spirit knows how to strengthen and unify the church and gives the gifts necessary to accomplish this goal. In the sermon on the 24th, I’ll also address some of the false teachings surrounding this topic, including the idea of a second baptism in the Spirit.

I’ll close with this. God empowers his people through His Spirit to tell the whole world about Jesus, the risen King. As we heard last week, the mission of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus. We are to cooperate with that mission by submitting to the Spirit’s work in our lives. We cooperate with Him when he convicts us of sin and when he teaches us from the Word. We cooperate with Him by obeying the call to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the calling for every Christian. Will you cooperate with the Spirit’s work in you? *pause*

Do you think it is possible to be a Christian without the help of the Holy Spirit? No, it is not! So, should we be incredibly thankful and in awe of the Holy Spirit today? Absolutely!

Let’s end our time together by rejoicing in the Spirit’s work in several people within our church body.

I am excited to share with you that that we have three individuals who are publicly professing their faith in Jesus Christ through believer’s baptism today. They want the world to know that they have turned from sin and are following Jesus. What a privilege it is to end our service with these baptisms.

Baptism is an act of obedience for all who follow Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus’ last command to his disciples was to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that Jesus taught.

As we see in Scripture, baptism is a public profession of a spiritual reality in a person’s life – namely that they have responded to Jesus Christ in faith for the forgiveness of their sins and that they desire to live for him. Baptism is not earning these folks any merit with God, but it is an act of obedience and worship. We have the privilege of witnessing this declaration, celebrating with these individuals, and partnering with them on the journey of a life of faithful service to Jesus.

In the Scriptures, we see that baptism is done after a person professes faith in Christ and it’s done by immersing them in water. The reason for this is that it symbolizes the person’s unity with Jesus’ own death, burial, and resurrection. Consider what Romans 6 teaches:

Going under the water symbolizes the person’s death to their sin (the old way of life) and coming back up again symbolizes their being raised from the dead to new life (following Christ).

If you realize that you do not have a testimony of faith like these individuals are about to give, I would love to talk with you about that after the service. If you’re here and you’ve never taken the step of obedience to be baptized as a believer, then I would encourage you to email the church and let us know that you’d like to do so as soon as possible!

At this time, I’d like to invite _________ forward to share a testimony of faith in Christ this morning.

Savanna Palmer

Levi Travnicek

Nella Travnicek

The Holy Spirit’s Deity + Person

Various Texts

Believing the truth about God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force

The Holy Spirit has a mission

Good morning church family! (Welcome guests, introduce self)

Welcome to November, which in our church is also known as Stewardship Month! Stewardship month is an opportunity for us to learn about the principles of biblical stewardship. Biblical Stewardship is based on the understanding that God owns everything… which includes you and me and all that we have.

The Scriptures teach that this world is God’s and so is everything in it!

Everything is God’s. He owns it all! Which means that anything you have – life, health, possessions, and so on – has been entrusted to you by God. As your Creator, he is generously sharing these gifts with you for your careful management. That’s what it means to be a steward. You are a manager of the resources that God has entrusted to you.

If it was all His to begin with, then anything we have is given to us by Him. So, the question we have to ask ourselves is, “What does God expect me to do with all that he has entrusted to me?” Time, talents, treasure, my life, it’s all his!

Well, the Apostle Paul sets a helpful example in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.

Just like Paul, we are to view ourselves as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. And not just any kind of steward, faithful stewards.

God expects us to take what He has entrusted to us – His truth, His world, our lives - and to be faithful with them. I want to share with you four stewardship principles that drive what we’re discussing this month:

God owns everything, I own nothing

God entrusts me with everything I have

I can either be a wise or poor steward of what God has entrusted to me; He wants me to be a wise steward

God can call me to give an account at any time and it could be today

These principles inform the discussions that we will have each Sunday in November.

I also want to make you aware of the resources the church has provided to help you grow as faithful stewards this month. (Stewardship Resources Slide)

Please take advantage of these tools. They are for your spiritual growth and the glory of God. I would love to see every person, every family unit growing in obedience to God in these areas. I have personally benefited greatly from learning and following God’s clear teaching with my time, talent, and treasures.

In our sermon series this November, we are focusing on Stewardship of the Holy Spirit. Now, you may hear that and think “How is that a stewardship issue?” That is a fair question. My answer is twofold:

First, God has entrusted the church with His Word, and we are responsible to teach sound doctrine to equip the saints to stand firm in the faith and for the work of the ministry. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul called the church “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15) It is the church’s job to protect and uphold the truth, including what God says about the Holy Spirit. Then, in his letter to Titus, Paul said that anyone who is going to be a pastor in the church “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” (Titus 1:9)

Given how much misunderstanding there is about the Holy Spirit, our pastor team believed it would be wise to preach a series on this member of the Trinity. We want to protect our church from false teaching that has led others astray. In general, most of us are probably more well-versed in speaking about God the Son or God the Father than we are about God the Holy Spirit. So, we believe it will be beneficial to learn from God’s Word together on this matter.

The second part of my answer is that this is a stewardship issue because God’s Word teaches that God the Holy Spirit indwells believers at salvation and we are called to walk by the Spirit rather than grieving the Spirit. In his writings to the Galatians, Paul says:

Or in his letter to the Ephesians, he writes:

Our pastor team believes that it is important to understand what God means when he says these things. What does it look like to be a wise steward of our relationship with the Holy Spirit? How can we view him correctly and respond to him appropriately? To walk faithfully by the Spirit and not live in a manner that grieves the Spirit.

These are questions worth answering. And, as you heard last month, the Word of God is our authority, so we will be turning to it to inform our views. Our desire is to please the Lord and bear great fruit in our lives and the world around us.

So, over the course of November, we are going to address the following four topics related to God the Holy Spirit.

11/3 – The Holy Spirit’s Deity + Person

11/10 – Work of the Holy Spirit

11/17 – Responding to the Holy Spirit

11/24 – The Holy Spirit’s Gifts

I hope you’ll make it a priority to gather with us each Sunday as we dive into this study in the Scriptures. Let’s turn our attention to our topic for today The Holy Spirit’s Deity + Person. Our aim is…

I want to start by sharing our church’s doctrine statement related to the Godhead. Here is what we believe about God.

It’s this second half of the doctrine statement that I want to focus on. As Christians, we believe in a triune God – One God in three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Notice that they have the same nature, attributes and perfections, and are worthy of precisely the same homage (honor), confidence and obedience. We do not separate them out as if the Father were the most authoritative, the Son the most gracious, and the Spirit the most helpful. They are all the same God.

Another way of putting this is that God the Holy Spirit is co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent with God the Father and God the Son. Let’s look at some passages that teach us these truths. First one that shows us that he is co-equal:

This is known as the Great Commission. It is Jesus’ final command to his disciples before ascending to heaven. He is commissioning them to go in his authority to make disciples. Meaning they are to spread the teachings of God the Son and call upon sinners to repent and believe in Him. And part of this discipleship process is baptizing them in the name of all three persons of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If they were not equal this statement would be blasphemy because we are told in Isaiah 42:8 that God does not share his glory with another. But because they are co-equal members of the Godhead, it is a right and true statement that glorifies God.

Speaking of baptism… it is an act of obedience for anyone who professes faith in Christ. Next Sunday, during our 9am service, we have the opportunity to celebrate with 3 individuals who are doing just that!

Now let’s look at Acts 5:1-4. This is in the days of the early church, when they were sacrificially selling their goods in order to care for one another. This is another example of the deity or co-equalness of the Spirit.

This situation with Ananias and Sapphira is the context for Peter stating that the Holy Spirit is God. Peter speaks of lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God. This is another helpful piece of evidence as we seek to believe the truth about the Holy Spirit.

Now let’s look at some passages that reveal the co-eternal nature of the Holy Spirit. If we go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, which speaks about the beginning of Creation…

Before anything was made, God was. And in this passage, we find the Spirit of God directly involved with the creative work of God. This is alluded to in Psalm 33:6:

The word translated “the breath” is the same word for Spirit in the Hebrew. These examples, though not quite as obvious as the New Testament ones, are believed to be referencing God the Holy Spirit. We’ll hear another passage about the Spirit’s eternality later in the sermon.

Let’s look at a passage that shows the co-existence of the Godhead. This is recording the baptism of Jesus prior to the start of his public ministry.

Notice that you have all three members of the Godhead present here. The Father is speaking from heaven, the Son is being baptized, and the Spirit is resting upon the Son to empower Him for ministry. This is a reminder that although they are all One God, they are three persons. Perhaps the most helpful illustration to try to convey this mind-boggling truth is (IMAGE):

They are equal in being, yet distinct in role. We see just a glimpse of this distinction in the Gospel of John:

The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to help believers. We’ll talk more about his specific work next week, but nevertheless we see a distinction in roles within the Godhead. The Father sent the Son, the Son does the Father’s will in accomplishing the plan of redemption, and the Spirit is the Helper who bears witness, teaches, and convicts about the truth of God.

All of this leads us to our first truth about the Holy Spirit… He is God.

The Holy Spirit is God

This is the first truth we must believe. We’ve already heard some evidence in the Scriptures for the deity of the Holy Spirit but let me give you more.

From the pages of Scripture, we see that the Holy Spirit has attributes that are only found in God. Such as:

Eternality (Heb. 9:14)

“the eternal Spirit” … As we heard earlier, the Spirit has no beginning or end. He has always been and always will be, because He is God.

Omnipresence (Ps. 139:7-10)

Only God can be present everywhere at once. Theologian Wayne Grudem defines this attribute of God as follows: “God does not have size or spiritual dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.” This is how the Spirit can carry out His work in many people around the world at once. It is a mind-boggling reality that Scripture teaches. Or how about the Spirit’s…

Omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10-11)

“The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God…” There is nothing hidden from God the Holy Spirit. That is both incredibly comforting, you want a God who knows everything and always does what is best, yet it is also incredibly uncomfortable, God knows everything about me! That leaves us feeling a bit small and very exposed, doesn’t it? Yet, even though he knows everything about us, he still chose to make a way of salvation for us. What a good and gracious God!

The Spirit identified as Yahweh

There are also a few times where the New Testament identifies the Spirit as Yahweh of the Old Testament. For example, earlier this year we studied Isaiah 6 and heard Yahweh calling Isaiah into ministry. Listen to how Paul elaborates on this in Acts 28:25-28:

Paul says it was the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah offering salvation. He has no problem speaking of the Holy Spirit as Yahweh. Or how about Psalm 95, which says:

The word LORD is Yahweh in the Hebrew. This same passage is quoted by the author of Hebrews in the New Testament as coming from the Holy Spirit.

What Yahweh says, the Holy Spirit says, because they are one and the same God.

As the first line of our doctrine statement about the Holy Spirit states:

So, what, right? What are you supposed to do with all of this? Well, because the Holy Spirit is God, that means you must worship him as God. (Write “so I must worship Him as God” next to the main point)

All of the reverence and awe that is due to God the Father/Son is due to the Holy Spirit, because He is God. The many passages encouraging you to praise God are applicable to the Holy Spirit. Which is why Jordan wrote this new song about the Holy Spirit. Because, as our God, we want to sing true things about Him to Him and to one another.

Just as you worship God the Father/Son by seeking to know Him more and respond to Him appropriately, so you must do the same with the Holy Spirit. It is worth the effort! It will not do to have unequal understandings of the persons of the Godhead. They are all equally worthy of your worship.

Which means you must also seek to think right and true things about Him. It will not do to believe lies or half-truths about the Holy Spirit. This is another reason we are going through this sermon series. We want to see what the Word says about the Spirit so that we can correct any misunderstandings we may have, or any lies we’ve been taught over the years. Will you gladly engage in this study so that you might better worship Him? *pause*

Along that line… one of the common misconceptions about the Holy Spirit is to say “it” rather than “him” when referring to him. In modern English the word it is used to refer to a thing, while a person is referred to as him/her. Referring to the Holy Spirit as “it” diminishes the personhood of the Spirit.

For example, if you referred to the person sitting next to you as “it” rather than him/her, would that not be dehumanizing? You wouldn’t do that because it would be inaccurate and weird and probably offensive. The same is true for the Holy Spirit. Our second truth takeaway today is…

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force

As much as I am a Star Wars fan, there is no joke to be made here when we diminish the personhood of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not some mystical power that we can command or wield for our own purposes, as some false pastors wrongly teach. The pages of Scripture are very clear that the Holy Spirit is a person with emotions, a will, and actions. Let me prove this to you.

First, let’s look at the Spirit’s pronouns. Not the kind of pronouns our culture is talking about, but the legitimate kind. Listen to Acts 13, where we join in the commissioning of Barnabus and Saul:

Did you catch that? The Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for ME… for the work to which I have called them.” An impersonal force does not communicate or command or refer to itself in first person pronouns. This is an act of a person.

Not let’s look at evidence of the Holy Spirit’s will. For this we journey to 1 Corinthians 12, which is a rich section of Scripture on the Spirit’s gifts. But our purpose right now is to look at verse 11 where Paul says:

As “he wills”. The Spirit is the One who determines what gifts to give believers. He chooses. This is an act of personhood. An impersonal force like friction does not have a will or make decisions about anything!

How about this - did you know the Holy Spirit has emotions? We heard this passage earlier:

Can you grieve an impersonal force? Does gravity care if you make fun of it? NO! Who gets distressed when someone hurts them? A person does. This language about the Holy Spirit being grieved by our sin is revealing. When we choose to live in sin, we are choosing to offend or grieve the person of God the Holy Spirit. We are living in a manner contrary to which he has called us to live.

You may recall another passage from earlier:

Notice a few things. First, the Spirit has desires – again evidence of personhood. But also notice that the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. They are opposed to this sinful way of life that we used to indulge in (or perhaps are currently indulging in). The way we avoid grieving the Spirit is by putting to death the desires of the flesh and choosing to walk in the desires of the Spirit. Guess where those are revealed to you? In the Scriptures! We’ll unpack them in more detail in future weeks.

This is not to mention all the other personal activities that the Spirit does, some of which we’ve already referred to (he helps, he teaches, he brings to remembrance, he speaks, he commands) and others we’ve not explored yet but will in future weeks (he intercedes, he convicts, he loves).

What should you do with this truth about the Holy Spirit? Interact with Him as a person! (Write that on your bulletin...) Do not mystify him. Do not dehumanize him into some kind of magical power/force that you can manipulate or command. Interact with Him as an authority in your life.

Listen to Him. (When he teaches you through the Word, hear what he has to say! We he convicts you in your inner man/woman, don’t ignore it!)

Learn from Him. (He is teaching you the truth!)

Obey Him. (Don’t just be a hearer of the Word through the Spirit, DO it!)

Pray to Him. (“Holy Spirit, convict me of sin. Open my eyes to understand your Word.”)

Thank Him for his work/blessings.

I should make sure I clarify something very important here. Everything I have been teaching has assumed that you are a Christian, meaning that you have confessed your sin and trusted in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation. The beautiful, redemptive, sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit is only available for those who are in Christ.

So, if you find yourself stuck in sin and are tired of it… If you are ready for true life change and are humbled to the point of admitting life your way hasn’t worked out… If you are willing to die to yourself and live for Christ… then I would invite you to confess your need for a Savior and cry out to God to save you!

One of the first visible evidences of the Holy Spirit at work in a man or a woman is that they are convicted of their sin and recognize their need for a Savior. If that is happening in your life, then I would encourage you to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in you. Our first responses to God the Holy Spirit on this journey of faith is confession of our sin, belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and taking the first steps of a life of repentance (turning from your sin to live for Jesus). If you’d like to talk more about that, would you please stop and talk to one of our prayer team or pastor team members in the back after the service? The same offer applies to those who are here as Christians yet stuck in unrepentant sin. If you’re being convicted that you need to change, we’d love to talk and pray with you! *pause*

Let’s do a quick recap of what we’ve learned so far:

The Holy Spirit is God

So worship him as God!

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force

So interact with him as a person!

Finally, our last truth to believe about the Holy Spirit for today is…

The Holy Spirit has a mission

This was referenced in our doctrine statement earlier. In part it is informed by John 16:14, where Jesus is preparing his disciples for his imminent departure. Let’s join them and hear what he said:

Jesus knows his time is short and there is more for them to know and obey. However, the grand redemption plan of God is to send God the Holy Spirit to fulfill this part of the plan. He will come and guide Christians into all the truth. And all of this is for the glory of Jesus Christ. That is the Spirit’s mission – to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

To glorify means to exalt or to worship or to reveal the glory of God. It conveys the idea of reflecting the utter holiness and purity of God. To accurately show who God is and what He is like.

In doing this, the Spirit is ultimately glorifying the Godhead. Listen to how Jesus prayed to the Father about this glory.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have shared glory from eternity past. They are equally glorious. And the Son was sent to glorify the Father by his obedience to the grand redemption plan. Yet the Father also glorified the Son by accepting his perfect sacrifice on the Cross for the redemption of His people. The Cross was glorious as Jesus Christ conquered sin and death through it. And the Spirit glorifies the Son by carrying on his teaching and mission to make disciples after he departed this earth. This work carries on to this day! Every sinner who repents and trusts in Jesus Christ is to the praise of His glory and that is a work of the Spirit!

And our appropriate response to the Spirit’s mission is to cooperate in the mission (Write that down! --> don’t resist!) You are here to glorify Jesus Christ. And the way you glorify Jesus Christ is by submitting to the Spirit’s work in your life. Cooperate with Him when he convicts you of sin – confess it and turn from it. Cooperate with Him when he teaches you from the Word – prayerfully obey it.

Do not be like the religious hypocrites of the disciples’ day. Listen to the rebuke that Stephen had for them:

Do not be stiff-necked, resisting the Holy Spirit, disobeying the clear commands of God and hardening your heart to his conviction of sin in your life. Just like the Israelites who had repeatedly disobeyed God and reaped judgment, it will not end well for you either! There is a better way – humble submission and cooperation in the mission of God.

(Title Slide) I want to wrap up our time together today by sharing a great way to combat pride and hard-heartedness that resists the Spirit’s work/mission. Are you ready to hear what this secret weapon is? … It is prayer. Prayer is a powerful resource given to us by God that cultivates humility and cooperation with the mission of God in our lives. Let me share some specific prayers that help cultivate a heart and life that pleases God:

Ask God to change your heart. (“Help me to want to change! To desire to please you!”)

Ask him to convict you. (“Help me to see my sin like you do!”)

Ask him to humble you. (“Help me to be teachable and willing to change!”)

Confess your sin. (Say what God says…)

Pray through truth from His Word. (Pick a passage and respond to it in prayer)

Ask for faith.

Ask for wisdom.

I am sure you can think of other prayers that would also be helpful in cooperating with the Spirit’s mission. I would encourage you to discuss these as a family, in your small groups, with your accountability partners or discipleship relationships this week.

We want to be known as a people who are worshiping the Holy Spirit as God, interacting with Him as a person, and cooperating with Him in his mission to glorify Jesus Christ. This is part of what it looks like to be wise stewards of the Holy Spirit. May we all be found faithfully following God’s teaching on this matter. I look forward to unpacking this further in the weeks ahead.

Let’s pray.

 

The Bible’s Infallibility

Responding rightly to the truth about Scripture

Consider the truths we’ve been given about God

Adopt Jesus’ view of Scripture

Believe, obey, and hope in God’s infallible promises

Good morning, church family! (Introduce self, welcome guests)

Today we are closing out our series on The Word of God. It has been a short but important study on the doctrine of the Bible. I hope it has been invigorating for you to consider the significance of God’s Word for your life. It is the written expression of God’s authority, teaching you how to know and follow Him; it is sufficient, containing all that you need for life and godliness; it is inerrant, speaking and revealing the truth from God; and, as we’ll hear today, it is infallible. If you’d like to keep learning, I want to encourage you to go check a book out of the church library in the foyer:

Taking God at His Word – Keving DeYoung

Why Trust the Bible? – Greg Gilbert

30 Days to Understanding the Bible – Max Anders

These are a few of many books, booklets, pamphlets that we have on the Word. There are literally too many to list! (Resource Library slide)

Before we dive into our study for today, I want to give you a heads up on what is coming next month. If you’ve never been around our church during the month of November, it is known as Stewardship Month. Stewardship month is an opportunity for us to learn and review principles of biblical stewardship. It is based on several key beliefs:

God owns everything and I own nothing.

God entrusts me with everything I have.

I can either be a wise or poor steward of what God has entrusted to me; He wants me to be a wise steward

God can call me to give an account at any time and it could be today

We’ll get into this more next week. This year our sermon series for November is going to be on Stewardship of the Holy Spirit. We’ll spend time learning about the oft-overlooked third member of the Trinity. We also have our annual Stewardship Celebration on the calendar for Sunday, 11/17. This is our church’s thanksgiving celebration – we’ll have a meal catered by Hy-Vee, and it will be a sweet evening of fellowship, worship, and testimonies of God’s work in our body this year. I hope you’ll plan to be there! It’s from 5-7pm, so please put it on your calendars.

Let’s turn our attention now to the study of the Word of God. As we’ve said throughout this series, our aim has been…

Let us begin as we…

Consider the truths we’ve been given about God

We are starting with a little review! Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned quite a bit about God’s character and how it directly relates to His Word. It began three weeks ago with observing the truth about God’s authority.

His authority

As God, he has all authority. He has demonstrated that in numerous ways, from the Creation account to the Exodus, to the Words he spoke through His prophets and then brought to pass, as well as the miracles of Jesus Christ as he healed the sick, cast out demons, calmed the seas, multiplied the loaves, and raised the dead, to the final day of Judgment when Jesus returns as the just judge. From start to finish, the Bible reveals God’s authority. And, as we previously heard, His spoken word became His written word as he inspired the prophets and apostles to write it down. You may recall the word from 2 Timothy 3:16 – theopneustos – “God-breathed”. God guided and protected the whole process of remembering and recording the Scriptures. Because God has all authority, His Word is authoritative. And our call was to submit to this authoritative word. Meaning we order our lives around its teachings. Have you sought to do that this month? …

Then in week two we observed the truth about God’s self-sufficiency.

His self-sufficiency

Or as Pastor Jack put it – His “enoughness”. This is the reality that God has always been, always is, and always will be. He has not needed anything from anyone at any point. In and of Himself, He is complete or enough. Yet from that “enoughness” He has chosen to share His sufficiency with us. He is all that we need and to communicate this and help us embrace it He has provided His sufficient Word. As Pastor Jack helped us see through numerous passages – the Bible is fully sufficient for guiding human life and understanding faith. Our call was to recognize that God is enough, to trust that God has given us all that we need for life and godliness in the Scriptures, and to make it our aim to study, meditate on, and obey God’s sufficient word. How has that gone over the past several weeks?

Then last week we discussed God’s truthfulness.

His truthfulness

The context of this study was a discussion on The Bible’s Inerrancy which is closely related to our topic today The Bible’s Infallibility. Because they are closely related, I want to quickly review the main points from last Sunday.

When it came to inerrancy, we said it…

Begins with recognizing God’s truthfulness

We established that God is the only true God and the source of truth. He is the God that corresponds to reality, and all his knowledge and words are both factual and the final standard of reality. You may recall God’s own self-revelation in Exodus 34:6.

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (Heb. Emet)

Or in Jeremiah 10:10…

We covered many passages from both the Old and New Testaments that supported this understanding. And from this view of God, we then progressed to the conclusion that…

As God’s Word, Scripture is inerrant

Inerrant - incapable of being wrong (COED); free from error (MW).

What the Scriptures say, God says. They are the God of Truth’s Words; therefore, they are full of truth and free from error. They have the truth necessary for our salvation and our sanctification (growth in holiness). Unfortunately, many false teachers have sought to undermine our confidence in the truthfulness/inerrancy of the Word… We must be wise and discerning in whom we listen to regarding the Word. Our conclusion at the end of it all was…

I must believe, obey, and hope in God’s inerrant word

If you were here, you may recall the repeated phrase, “GIVE ME THE WORD!” This is the appropriate response to the true revelation about salvation from sin and eternal death. This must be our response if we want to learn to live a holy and fulfilling life that pleases God and ends in eternal life. Has this been your response?

If you missed out on any of these sermons, please go back and listen to them!

Today, as I mentioned, we’re closing out the series by studying The Bible’s Infallibility.

I’d like to show you how this concept overlaps yet is distinct from our topic last week – Inerrancy. I’m going to do that through a quote from Pastor RC Sproul.

Inerrancy and infallibility do share overlapping definitions, yet as Dr. Sproul helpfully clarifies, infallibility goes further than inerrancy. Not only is the Bible free from error, but it is incapable of ever making an error. It is not possible because God cannot make mistakes or be wrong. Let me put the definitions on the screen.

Infallible – incapable of making mistakes or being wrong; never failing; always effective (COED); incapable of error (MW)

Inerrant - incapable of being wrong (COED); free from error (MW).

It seems the COED definition of inerrancy was perhaps a bit too overstated compared to MW. It really took on some of the definition meant for infallible. That just goes to show how interchangeably these terms have been used in our modern language. But I believe it is important to maintain their distinctions too.

I believe that there is value in studying the distinction in the belief of the Bible’s infallibility. My hope is that our study today would be of great encouragement to you. Because God’s Word is infallible, His many promises cannot be broken. They are never failing. We have a God who speaks words that can be relied upon.

If I’m not saying it plainly enough, I want to show you the beauty of infallibility as it relates to trusting the unbreakable promises of God.  After all this is Jesus’ view of Scripture. Jesus viewed and treated Scripture as the trustworthy, unbreakable Word of God. Let me show you. Consider this interaction that Jesus had with the Jews in Jerusalem. After revealing himself to be the Christ and to be one with the Father, here is what happened next:

Let me set the scene for this passage. The Jews are angry with Jesus for claiming to be God! Notice how Jesus responds. He references an obscure verse in Psalm 82:6 that really seems unrelated to the specific matter at hand. But Jesus’ point is not so much the context of Psalm 82 as what he says about the words he is citing – “and Scripture cannot be broken”. The word for broken in the Greek means to loose, release, dismiss, or dissolve. Here it carries the sense of breaking, nullifying, or invalidating. By saying this, Jesus is affirming that Scripture is unbreakable or infallible. His point is that if God’s Word speaks like this, then he accepts it as true, and they have no reason to be upset that he would say something consistent with God’s unbreakable word.

I know that may seem like a bit of a convoluted argument, but it is one of the ways we see Jesus demonstrating his utter trust in the words of Scripture. He viewed it as unbreakable such that he could use an obscure Old Testament reference to drive home a point with the Jews of his day. Jesus knew the Word and took God at His Word. Consider how Jesus responded to the devil when he was tempted prior to beginning his public ministry:

Do you hear what Jesus does each time Satan tries to tempt him? He responds – “it is written…” and then quotes Scripture! Jesus’ view of Scripture is they are the very words of God, full of truth to live by. Do you understand the significance of what Jesus is doing here? He is refuting the lies of the enemy with the truth of the Word. Jesus had spent time studying and committing the Old Testament words of God to his heart so that they were on His mind and tongue in time of need! How often do we consider that Jesus prioritized the study of God’s Word in His own life?

Jesus demonstrates that He believes the Scriptures are authoritative, sufficient, and trustworthy/without error. He takes God at His Word and by that belief He overcomes the Devil and can serve as our perfect High Priest and Savior. Then, after beginning his public ministry, he goes on to say the following in Matthew 5:

The word translated abolish here is the same Greek word we heard earlier translated as broken in John 10:35. Jesus has not come to break what He views as unbreakable. Rather He has come to bring them to completion. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament Scriptures pointed towards. He affirms that every iota (the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet) and every dot (the tiny graphical markings which distinguish similar Hebrew letters) will remain until all is accomplished. This is a powerful statement about the unbreakable, sustaining nature of God’s written Word.

Or how about Matthew 12? In this text, Jesus speaks of the prophet Jonah as a historical event that will have direct consequences on his present-day audience.

Jesus treats the teaching of Scripture about Jonah as fact. He speaks of it alongside of real historical figures such as the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. He uses the repentant Ninevites of Jonah’s day as a foil for the unrepentant Jews of his day. This is yet another example of Jesus’ view of Scripture – it is true, it is unbreakable, it is infallible, and it is to be believed and acted upon.

So, our second takeaway this morning in responding rightly to the truth about Scripture is…

Adopt Jesus’ view of Scripture

I chose to emphasize Jesus’ view of Scripture because He is our Lord and God, and we know that He does not lie. If Jesus had these views of Scripture, then who are we to adopt a different view? This flies in the face of liberal scholars, churches, and denominations who seek to undermine and erode people’s confidence in the Word of God. As we heard last week, God foretold that there would be such false teachers in the last days. Do not be fooled by those who want to deceive you into doubting God’s Word! As Pastor Jack pointed out two weeks ago, that is the M.O. of Satan… “Did God really say?” When you hear that kind of language you should immediately be on guard and start putting a little “hiss” along with it to help you distinguish who it is really from… “Did God really ssssssssssay?”

Did God really sssssssssssay that lust whether hetero or homosexual is sin? Yes, he did.

Did God really sssssssssssay that the Bible’s view of Creation and the Flood is true? Yes, he did.

Did God really sssssssssssay that there is only one exclusive way to eternal life in Jesus Christ? Yes, he did.

Did God really sssssssssssay that hell is a real place and that it will be absolutely awful to spend eternity there? Yes, he did.

Did God really sssssssssssay “to preach the Gospel and if necessary use words”? Well, no, actually he didn’t say that. I put that one in here because just as it is important not to remove things from the Bible, we also must not twist what is already there by adding extra things to it. We are told to open our mouths to preach the Gospel; it is not a matter of just living a good life in front of people. You have to tell them the reason for the hope that is within you.

I’m sure we could go on with identifying other popular lies or additions to the Scriptures, but that is where I’m going to stop for now. The whole point of this exercise was to show you the dangers of relying on man’s view of Scripture over Jesus’ view of Scripture. In his book, Taking God at His Word, Pastor Kevin DeYoung writes:

I don’t know about you, but I trust Jesus over anyone else! I want to know what Jesus says and believes about Scripture. I want to imitate his depth of knowledge and conviction about God’s trustworthiness and infallibility! Do you? This is going to require us to be students of the Word who are prayerfully asking God to let it sink in and change our hearts/minds/lives. And, if you are struggling with a particular issue that the Scriptures speak to, can I encourage you to invite others in? Let others who know the Word walk with you and reason with you. We need one another to speak the truth when we are struggling with the deception of lies. When you’re wrestling with “Did God really say?” let faithful brothers/sisters in the Lord help you see “Here’s what God says.”

This is leading to our final takeaway in this study of God’s Word. Responding rightly to the truth about Scriptures is a call to…

Believe, obey, and hope in God’s infallible promises

Here is where we really get to have some fun. For the remainder of our time together, I want to draw our attention to a variety of promises that we see God making in the Scriptures. Because God is infallible and therefore His Word is infallible, that means these promises are infallible or incapable of being wrong/broken. We’re going to categorize them in three ways:

Promises to believe

Promises to obey

Promises to hope in

Now, please understand that some or all of these will overlap into multiple categories. This is my manmade attempt to give us a framework for our responses. So, let’s begin with some promises in Scripture that call us to the response of faith/belief.

PROMISES TO BELIEVE (RELATING TO SALVATION)

God would send the seed of woman to crush the serpent

This is a promise that has been fulfilled through the birth, life, ministry, and D/B/R of Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

God has a New Covenant wherein he will transform our desires

This is again a promise that is being fulfilled in the New Testament era. In the church era, God transforms the hearts of people who are dead in their sin to be made alive in Christ and able to know and obey Him!

God redeems and adopts those who believe in His Son

God makes us into a new man/woman through faith in Christ

When we believe in Jesus, we are no longer condemned

When we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us

For those who believe, there is assurance of eternal life

Jesus is returning to save and to judge

There is an eternal judgment for those who do not repent and believe

PROMISES TO OBEY (UNTO SANCTIFICATION)

As Christians, God empowers and calls you to spread the Gospel

If you bring your burdens to Jesus and take up his yoke, you will find rest for your soul

When you pray and trust Christ, his peace will guard you

Suffering is not meaningless, but a preparation for the eternal weight of glory

PROMISES TO HOPE IN

God’s Word always accomplishes God’s purposes

So, study it. Allow God to work in you! Share it. Aid God working in others!

God is gracious to his people

Nothing can separate us from the love of God

God is working all things together for his people’s good

God will finish the good work he began in you

God will bring us to be with him in perfection

There are so many promises of God that we simply do not have time to bring up today. That is one of the beauties of studying God’s Word, there is always more to learn and rejoice in! As we close out this series, I want to yet again call you to faith in Jesus Christ and to faithfully follow Him by being a student of His Word. A DOER of the Word and not a HEARER only.

Let’s pray.

The Bible’s Inerrancy

Responding rightly to the truth about Scripture

Begins with recognizing God’s truthfulness

As God’s Word, Scripture is inerrant

I must believe, obey, and hope in God’s inerrant word

Good morning church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests + share about communion)

Today we are ¾ of the way through our sermon series on The Word of God. I hope you have been blessed by the content of the last two weeks. If you happened to miss out on either one of those sermons, I would encourage you to go online and listen to them. These concepts build upon and support one another. In the day we live in, where the authority, inspiration, and sufficiency of Scripture are regularly undermined and pushed against, it is so important for us to reaffirm these truths. Because God has all authority and has communicated that authority in His Word, we must submit to it! In it He has given us all that we need for life and godliness, through our knowledge of Him. These are life-changing truths!

These truths have certainly changed my life. I still remember my days as a college student at Purdue when I began attending a church that believed and taught these beautiful truths about God’s Word. I had never heard preaching like that before. I had never seen God’s Word applied to specific situations such that people were able to overcome temptation and sin. It was so life-giving to hear that God’s Word has answers for my struggles and that I didn’t have to stay stuck in my sin! That was the beginning of God doing an incredible work of sanctification in my life. And I remain forever grateful for it. And now, in God’s great mercy, I have the privilege of teaching it to you. What a humbling privilege! Today, we are studying The Bible’s Inerrancy.

When we say the Bible’s inerrancy, what that means is the Bible is incapable of being wrong (COED); free from error (MW).

In his book, Can I Trust the Bible?, Pastor and Theologian RC Sproul said:

Did you hear what is on the table regarding this issue? “If the Bible is unreliable in what it teaches… the church is left to speculate and has nothing of value to speak to the world.” Our faith and practice are founded upon the truthfulness or inerrancy of the Bible, which as we’re about to see, is founded upon the truthfulness of God.

As I mentioned in the first sermon in this series, it is not our intent to provide a full-fledged defense of the reality of God in this series. We will get to study the nature and character of God in more depth in our December series Let God Reign.

For this series, we are starting from the position of belief that there is a God who has made all things. It is the only logically consistent position for the intelligent design we see in our world. Our aim this morning is…

In doing this, we begin with God’s character. In this case, our study today…

Begins with recognizing God’s truthfulness

Truthfulness – He is the true God, and all his knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth

This is Theologian Wayne Grudem’s definition for truthfulness. I don’t know about you, but anytime someone uses the word (or a synonym) to define it, it seems a bit circular so let’s define true. True is what corresponds to fact or reality. Let’s plug that back into our definition.

Truthfulness – He is the God that corresponds to reality, and all his knowledge and words are both factual and the final standard of reality.

Now that is a powerful statement! Yahweh, our God, is the one who is real and whose words are right and factual and determine what is real! It’s not that some outside source confirmed God’s truthfulness; what we are saying is that God in Himself is true/He is what is real. He defines what is true/real. No one else. This is the testimony of God found in both the Old and New Testaments.

Let’s look at God’s famous revelation of himself to Moses on Mount Sinai:

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (Heb. Emet)

The word faithfulness is the Hebrew word emet which means true/truth/faithful/reliable. God is revealing himself as the God of truth or faithfulness. These English words are often used interchangeably depending on the context.

Or how about God’s revelation of himself through the Prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 10, he reveals his character in comparison to the idols of their day.

Unlike the idols who were made of wood and silver/gold, Yahweh is alive and everlasting. He is the true God who rules over all. In the book of Jeremiah, He proves Himself as the True God by bringing to pass what He had promised years earlier – that the Babylonians would carry Judah away into exile. God also foretells through Jeremiah that He would rescue and redeem a faithful remnant of Judah out of Babylon too. This also came to pass and is a fact of world history! Only the True God who speaks the truth can determine the rise and fall of nations like this.

This character quality of God is also affirmed in the New Testament. During his public ministry, Jesus said:

Jesus is making an exclusive truth claim here. He is the only way to God and He is the truth. He corresponds to reality. Jesus is helping his disciples understand that he is God and that he speaks the truth. At the very beginning of John’s Gospel, he described Jesus in this language:

Both the Father and Son are the True God, full of truth. But consider how Jesus speaks of God the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity:

He is the Spirit of truth who guides them into all the truth! The Scripture testifies clearly to the truthfulness of God.

Listen to how Jesus later speaks of God the Father in his prayer with his disciples:

Jesus spoke of the Father as the ONLY TRUE God. This is His character. He is the God of truth. The God who really is. The Great I AM – as Jack pointed out last week. Jesus’ ministry and testimony enables us to know this about God. The Apostle John testified to this:

Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are able to know him who is true and be “in him who is true”. This is a powerful statement about the union we have with God through Jesus Christ. Sinners like us can be united to our Holy, True God through faith in Jesus!

What I hope you take away from this survey of Scripture is that God is true and the source of truth. Because he is true, that means that all He says is true and reliable.  He always does what he promises to do, and we can depend on him. King David testified to this reality upon God making a covenant with him:

 

In fact, the Scriptures tell us that as the God of truth, God cannot lie.

God is not like us. He never lies. He cannot lie. To lie would go against His character. He is the God of truth. What He says is true and what He promises, He fulfills. There is great hope in this reality! He is the God who keeps his promises, including the promise to rescue and redeem sinners like us.

Let me tie this into the focus of our study for today. Because God is the source of truth and cannot lie, this also means that the Bible, as God’s Word, must be truthful and without error. We know the Bible to be inerrant because its origin is in the True God. If you’re paying attention, this is why understanding the doctrine of inspiration is also essential. Knowing that the Bible are God’s words helps us trust that all they say are true.

This is the testimony of the Psalmist in Psalm 119:

Do you hear the Psalmist’s connections between the character of God and His words? Because God is truthful/faithful/enduring forever, so too is His Word true/faithful/enduring forever. What God declares stands and comes to pass, as we have seen throughout history.

This has been proven true with the prophecies we’ve studied in Isaiah this year

Of the Assyrians coming up to the doors of Jerusalem but then being miraculously defeated by an angel of the Lord.

Of the extension of King Hezekiah’s life, but later deportation of Judah into the hands of the Babylonians

Of the Immanuel child – fulfilled in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth ~700 years later

For Good Friday & Easter this year we heard from Isaiah 53 of the foretelling of the Suffering Servant who would suffer and die for his people’s sins – so that many could be counted righteous

We know this was fulfilled by Jesus at the Cross

(Image from AIG) This graphic reveals just a few of the many fulfilled prophecies found in God’s Word with a specific emphasis on the Messiah.

The prophecy in Micah about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem, again written hundreds of years before Jesus was born in… Bethlehem.

The prophecy that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey in Zechariah, fulfilled hundreds of years later by Jesus as he came into Jerusalem.

Not to mention the prophecies in Daniel that foretold the rise and fall of entire empires accurately! From Babylon to Medo-Persia to Greece to Rome.

Daniel even foretold the rise to power of Alexander the Great, followed by the final division of his empire to his four generals!

These prophecies and many more like them were foretold long in advance before they ever happened. And then they came to pass, just as it was foretold. In their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, authors Frank Turek and Norm Geisler provide evidence from within the pages of Scripture of the prophecies about the Messiah which are perfectly fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They summarize it this way:

is from the seed of a woman; (Gen. 3:15)

from the seed of Abraham; (Gen. 12:3,7)

from the tribe of Judah; (Gen. 49:10)

from the line of David; (Jer. 23:5-6)

was both God and man; (Isa. 9:6)

was born in Bethlehem; (Mic. 5:2)

was preceded by a messenger, and visited the Jerusalem temple before it was destroyed in A.D. 70; (Mal. 3:1)

died in A.D. 33; (Dan. 9:26)

rose from the dead (Isa. 53:11)?

Here’s my point - every single one of these fulfilled prophecies affirms and supports the truthfulness of God and His Word. Which leads us to our second truth to help us in responding rightly to the truth about Scripture.…

As God’s Word, Scripture is inerrant

Inerrant - incapable of being wrong (COED); free from error (MW).

This is not a word that is used in Scripture of itself but is the belief that we arrive at from a study of God’s character and Word. It is the necessary conclusion of what God has revealed about Himself and His Word. I’ve already sought to make the case for you in the many fulfilled prophecies we find in the Word. So now, let’s turn our attention to the ways this truth plays out in our daily lives.

Because God’s word is true and incapable of being wrong, it points us to the true way of salvation. Let’s consider what it reveals to us about this. Perhaps the most succinct explanation is found in Romans 3:

In this passage we are told the truth about our human nature outside of faith in Jesus Christ… we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is a stunning indictment of humanity. Earlier in Romans 3:10-11, we are told “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” This is our spiritual state upon entering this world. We are rebels against a Holy God and deserving of divine judgment.

Thankfully, as we heard in Romans 3:24-26, this is not the end of the matter. God knew that we were going to sin, and He made a way for sinners to be redeemed and reconciled (at peace) with Him. As you hear in verse 24, this is a gift of grace (freely given, not earned) and it comes through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus – the One whom God sent to pay for our sins.

What you are hearing is that redemption is possible! You do not have to stay dead in your sin and fear the judgment of God. Jesus has done a great work of redemption through his death, burial, and resurrection in our place. Verse 25 uses the big word “propitiation” to describe what he did. This means that Jesus not only took the wrath meant for us, but he also satisfied that wrath. There is no wrath left for those who are in Christ!

But a response to Jesus’ finished work is necessary – notice in verse 25 it says, “to be received by faith”. This is the way of salvation – believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul! When a sinful man/woman/boy/girl does this, the promise is that they will be “justified” which means declared righteous/innocent. If your faith is in Jesus, then God looks at you through the finished work of His Son and sees a person who is clothed with Christ’s righteousness. This is the true gospel and any other teachings that contradict it or require “works” to be saved are false!

What an incredible hope! Are you thankful for the truth of the Gospel? This is the only way of salvation! As we heard Jesus say earlier:

Paul rehearses this glorious truth in Ephesians 1:13-14:

As the truth, God’s Word makes us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus and gives us the hope of eternal life. When you are saved, you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your eternal inheritance. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus! We ought to rejoice in this marvelous truth this morning! *pause*

Not only is the inerrant Word able to make us wise unto salvation, it is also able to grow us in holiness. As Jesus was praying with his disciples after the Last Supper, he prayed:

Sanctify means to make holy. Jesus’ prayer and expectation was that the Father would make these disciples holy through the truth of His Word! This is very much what Paul prioritized in his writings:

Paul is a servant of God for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth! This truth accords with godliness – it is able to make them wise unto godliness. This is why it is so important to be men and women of the Word! You need to know what God says so you can live the way God calls you to live and think the way God calls you to think and desire the things God calls you to desire. He will change you through His Word!

This is also why it is important for local churches and pastors to teach the Word rather than put on a show every week. The Word is what God’s people need. The Word is what the unbelieving world needs. When sound doctrine is taught from the pulpit the lost will be saved and the sheep will be fed! It is sickening to see how many charlatans are in the pulpit, preaching their culturally relevant messages, making disciples not of Jesus but of the world. As the Psalmist says about the Word:

I hope you come to church saying, “GIVE ME THE WORD!” Who cares how Indiana Jones or Star Wars has redemptive themes that we can draw upon?! Those are works of fiction! “GIVE ME THE WORD OF TRUTH THAT FEEDS MY SOUL.” Why in the world would you want to be entertained at church when holiness is on the line?! “GIVE ME THE WORD! I WANT TO KNOW MY GOD.”

Do we truly understand what is at stake here?! HEAVEN AND HELL! Shame on those who masquerade as pastors and deceive the masses.

Thank God that, as the truth, His Word confronts lies/false teaching/ungodly ways of life. This was the case back in the 1st century, when Paul wrote to Timothy, and it is still true today. I want to read an extended passage from 1 Timothy to you now. Go ahead and turn there as this one is too long to put on the screen. When you get there, I want you to pay attention to the flow of this passage. Notice how it addresses both truth and error.

Paul, directed by God the Holy Spirit, writes about these days that are difficult. When people are selfish and sinful. When the men in authority deceive and take advantage of others with their lies and falsehood. He warns of the inevitable persecutions that will come if you choose to live for Christ, while those who are evil will continue their downward spiral from bad to worse. These are the days of Paul and Timothy. These are the days we live in still. Until Christ returns, this kind of behavior will be present.

But for Timothy, and for the faithful saints throughout history, we are to cling to the sacred writings, which make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. We are to remember and hold as precious the fact that these Words are His Words. They have been given to us for our teaching, our reproof, our correction, and our training in righteousness. If we live by them, they will guide us into spiritual maturity.

The charge to Timothy and to all who desire to be God’s faithful is to preach the word. PREACH THE WORD. Not preach the movies. Not preach pop culture. Not preach your best life now. PREACH THE WORD. Reprove. Rebuke. Exhort. With complete patience and teaching. The teaching you hear from the pulpit, whether it is this one or any other, ought to be directly in line with the content and intended interpretation and application of the WORD. And it ought to confront you each week. It ought to cause your soul to sing. It ought to challenge you to be a better man or woman or son or daughter or employee or husband or wife. A better person. BECAUSE GOD IS NOT INTENDING TO LEAVE YOU WHERE YOU ARE AT. HE WANTS YOU TO BE COMPLETE, EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK.

And praise God that is who He is and what He intends! Can I get an amen? I don’t want to stay the same. I don’t want to stay stuck in my sin. I want to grow and change. I want to be more like Christ. I want the hope of heaven to be realized in my life more today than it was yesterday and more tomorrow than it is today! Do you? Be thankful when preaching challenges you to change. It’s for your eternal good. Be wary when preaching is full of feel-good statements and “You can do-its”.

Do not be this kind of person! Do not look for a pastor who tells you what you want to hear. Look for a pastor who tells you what God says in His Word. And who is himself submitted to the Word of God.

I don’t know about you, but I am so tired of hearing of pastors falling. Of churches and entire denominations departing from the clear teaching of Scripture. THIS IS NOT A GAME. ETERNITY IS ON THE LINE. I want to stand firm in the faith until the end, don’t you?! Then please join me in prayer right now on this matter. Right in the middle of the sermon.

Again, in the wise words of Pastor RC Sproul,

So, in our aim to respond rightly to the truth about Scripture, we have established that it…

Begins with recognizing God’s truthfulness

As God’s Word, Scripture is inerrant

And now we conclude with our right response…

I must believe, obey, and hope in God’s inerrant word

I don’t normally include this many quotes in my sermons, but I thought this one from J.I. Packer so captured what I mean by this final takeaway:

Packer, J. I.. Knowing God (Knowing God Set) (p. 130). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

(Main Points Slide) This is the heart of a Christian. Is this your desire? – “GIVE ME YOUR WORD!” It is our source of truth and the lamp to our feet. By it we are convicted and by it we are changed. By it we are assured of our forgiveness and confident in our salvation.

As God’s inerrant word, the Scriptures are the truth we need for life and godliness, and they speak with God’s authority to change our life. Your necessary response is to believe in the Word for salvation. Obey it for sanctification. And hope in their teachings as you endure the trials and tribulations of this present life.

The Bible is full of examples of God’s people being confronted for failing to obey the truth. It is on nearly every page. So don’t believe the lie that it isn’t relevant for you. The struggles we face today are quite similar to the struggles the early church or the people of Israel faced. We are still prone to selfishness, worship of things other than the One, True God, and we are still living in a world broken by sin and suffering, just as they were. The Bible is incredibly relevant for you. Pick it up and read it. Daily. Put effort into understanding what it says. Then do it. Allow it to change you.

Maybe for you, it is opening your eyes to salvation in Jesus Christ. If you are here and you’re wrestling with what you believe, pick up a Bible and begin reading in the Gospel of John. You’re welcome to take one of the Bibles we have here. Keep it as a gift from us to you.

For others, pray that God would open your eyes to specific areas you need to change. Or specific truths to rejoice in. The Scriptures give us wise counsel on how to live righteously and many reasons to have hope. *pause*

I’ll close with this…

What the trustworthy God has promised, He will accomplish.

We are going to close out our services today by worshiping the Lord through the celebration of communion or the Lord’s table.

Communion is an opportunity for Christians to remember all that the Lord has done for us through his death, burial, and resurrection. This is an opportunity for Christians to remember that we have embraced the promised hope of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and salvation of our souls!

We will celebrate by partaking of both the bread and the cup as a symbol and reminder of Jesus’ body broken in our place and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Communion is an opportunity to remember how great a price was paid so that we could be saved from our sin. It is a sobering, yet joyful celebration for Christians. Sobering that the Son of God would give himself for us as a ransom. Joyful that he did, and the result is a living hope that cannot be taken from us! Jesus is victorious; therefore, we have the hope of heaven with Him!

At this time, I’d like to invite the ushers forward with the elements.

Before we pass them, I want to share the biblical requirements for joining in this celebration.

This celebration was given by Jesus to his followers. We invite anyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation to join us in this celebration today. If your faith is not in Jesus Christ alone, then we would encourage you to let the elements pass by you and simply consider what you’ve heard so far during the service this morning and reflect on what is keeping you from trusting him for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul.

The second requirement we see in Scripture is a call to examine ourselves. This is the idea of making sure that you’ve confessed any known sins and sought to turn away from it. It would not be wise to partake of the table if you have sin in your life for which you are not repentant. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that taking the table while living in sin is eating and drinking judgment on yourself. I would ask you not to do that, for your sake and the sake of God’s glory. Instead, I would encourage you to use this time to confess that sin and make a plan to address it right away. If you know you need to be reconciled to someone else in this church, please take care of that during this time. The table is time to protect the unity of the church.

The ushers are going to pass the elements now as we have a time of silent reflection and prayer to prepare for the table. Please use this time to reflect on all that we’ve talked about today and to prepare yourself to take communion by confessing and repenting of any known sin. After the elements have been passed, I’ll lead us in prayer and taking communion together.

Silent prayer. Corporate prayer.

Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus!

Recognize that God is enough

Trust that God has given all we need in the Scriptures

I must study, meditate on, and obey God’s sufficient word

 

Good morning! My name is Jack Flaherty and I serve as one of the pastors here at Harvest. I am excited to open up God’s Word with you all today. Before we do lets dismiss our 4th and 5th graders. Also invite the ushers to pass out the Bibles. Reminder that this is a topical series on the Word of God, so we are going to be a bit all over the Bible today. Also, quick refresher of what we believe as a church about God’s Word: “We believe the Scriptures of the OT and NT are all inspired by God and inerrant in their original writings. We believe the 66 books of the OT and NT are God’s complete and sufficient revelation and therefore carry God’s authority for the total well-bring of mankind.”

 

Last week we hit on the Bible’s Authority. This week of we are diving into The Bible’s Sufficiency. What do we mean by sufficiency?. Sufficiency--to cause to be or to have what is adequate, to be satisfied with (BDAG); also plenty or enough (BDB); also enough to meet the needs under the law of a situation or a proposed end (Merriam-Webster).

 

I’ve had three groups of people in mind preparing this sermon. First those who whole heartedly affirm & hold tightly to sufficiency, which is many of us. My caution to some of us is to not hold this too extremely where we become Bible thumpers. “GOD SAID.” Yes, that’s true & we kicked off with authority for a reason. However, the Bible sufficiency is not the same as our competency to handle the Scriptures. So affirm but Bible not self. Second those who whole heartedly deny this. This group says we need more than what the Bible can give. My plea is hear what God says. Third those who with our mouths affirm sufficiency yet in practice have a bunch of BUTs. “It’s sufficient BUT we need this or that too.” Not saying we outwardly deny & our heart is to affirm knowledge found by God’s common grace. Yet in subtle & not-so-subtle ways our adding or subtracting undercuts the Bible & God himself. So my caution is to consider your belief & practice.

 

No matter where you land this topic will act like a rock in the middle of a pond. You know what happens when you toss a rock into a still body of water? It sends out ripple effects. At first it starts very small and then eventually works out till the whole pond is impacted. Even if we think this is a small matter it has big implications! David Powlison questions, “are the Scriptures comprehensive internally, or is there something that is vital that is external to the scriptures?” MUST we have something else? If yes, care, goals, and practice will be dramatically different and cause ripple effects in our lives. Our position on sufficiency matters.

 

Today we want to be Responding rightly to the truth about Scripture. It is my prayer that we would walk out of here today not just with a pebble producing right ripple effects, but also that some of us might notice the pebble in our shoe that is making this life more painful than it needs to be. And I must confess that as I prepared to preach on the sufficiency of Scripture, I ironically found myself turning to many reference books, papers, etc. None of those are necessarily bad things and I’d love to share.  However, they all kept giving me Bible! So unapologetically my hope today is to overwhelm you by the Bible’s own testimony. May God prove for himself from the Scripture the sufficiency of his Word. Our first right response to the sufficiency of Scripture is to…

Recognize that God is enough

As we defined above, sufficient means nothing else NEEDED! As Goldie Locks would say “Not too much, not too little, just right.” Too often we say I NEED or I MUST. Guess what, God tells us in His Word that He is enough. First and foremost, God is enough for himself. He is self-sufficient and has been so eternally. Theologians use the fancy word aseity to describe this attribute. Didn’t, doesn’t, and won’t ever need anything else. But is this just some concept that theologians made up because they like fancy words or is this true? Well what does the Bible say?

 

Ex 3:13-1513 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” Moses wants to know what he should say to the people about who God is. He can’t make it up, God gets to define the terms. This is the first time God reveals his proper name.14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God tells us he is “IAM.” He is the Creator! The uncaused Causer of all things who need no one and nothing else. He is eternally self-existent and he is independent of anything or anyone. 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. He’s also commissioner sending people out. He’s also covenant keeping God to be known and remembered for all generations. In short, God tells Moses I am enough & I will show it to you (which he does )

 

Psalm 90:2 “ Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

God’s been around. Did not need anything or anyone. Still doesn’t. He is enough!

 

“9 remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

10 declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”

Isaiah, who we spent time with this year & will spend more sweet time with next year, tells us God there is none is like God. He declares end & beginning. His counsel stands & he accomplishes his purposes. He doesn’t need someone else to do or to tell him how it is. He is enough.

 

Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Again, God is the beginning and end. He is all and all. He doesn’t need anyone or anything else.

 

All of this is great. Uncaused causer, beginning and end, doesn’t need anyone else. But this is where we need to see God isn’t just enough for himself. Even better God is enough for us.

 

You might say, wait a minute does it follow that God’s self-sufficiency then applies to his sufficiency for me? It was a good thought experiment in the office this week! Really the only way to bridge that reality is first that God tell us he is enough for us and second that God demonstrates that reality from his entire character. There’s not one single attribute at play. He is self-sufficient, but he’s also gracious to share his sufficiency with us. He is good, but he also has the authority to carry out that goodness in this world. He has all power and that power is manifest in mercy and love. We could keep going. I think what we need to see is that God is enough within himself yes, but as Creator he also offered himself to be enough for us and told us show in the Bible. Consider a few passages that show us God is enough for us.

 

“25 Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. “

Nothing else but God! May this be true for us! Flesh and heart fail but God wont EVER! He is always enough for us in heaven and on earth.

 

Colossians 1:16-17 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” All things come from him, are for him, & he keeps them together. He’s enough for the whole universe.

 

Philippians 4:19 “19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Doesn’t this sound like sufficiency? God will give us all that we need!

 

James 1:17 “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.” Where do good things come from? The one who never changes but eternally provides, meets needs, is enough.

 

Eph 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” Not some, a few, just shy of what we need, but EVERY spiritual blessing. Sounds good to me!

 

2 Cor 3:5 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, Not sufficient from our own selves nor from someone else or some other discipline of study. That sufficiency comes from God! Common grace does give helpful things but seems God says those are not the necessary things. We have enough! And actually v6 goes on to say God has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Second Corinthians is a terrific letter speaking to God being enough for us. Listen and note all the superlatives. 2 Cor 9:8-9 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”

And again in 2 Corinthians Paul talks about his own struggles in life, ones he has asked God to remove from him, he doesn’t turn to any other source to deal with this thorn in the flesh.2 Cor 12:9-10 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. “ If you think you are dealing with something that is too big, you’re probably right. BUT GOD IN HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT! It might hurt and be a thorn in your flesh, struggle with sin, hard relationship, physical pain, whatever. God will show his power to be enough in your weakness.

 

All this ultimately happens to us through Jesus! Who showed his power in what the world would see as weakness. He humbled himself. He defeated death by death and came through to the other side. Paul says he is content for the sake of Christ. He can handle all these things because his sufficiency is not from himself but from the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus ultimately is the final revelation of God to us, the final disclosure of all we need. He his enough!

 

Consider Jesus’ interaction with Philip in John 14:8-9 “8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” How can you see show me more? We have enough! Jesus says he is the enough we need. That’s why the writer of Hebrews could say what he does in a passage many of our children are memorizing Hebrews 1:1-3 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”  Sat down to show its finished. Nothing new we need from God but what he has already given us of himself by his Son, revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.

 

God being complete and needing nothing from anything else, has provided everything else with what they need. That includes God has provided all the necessary information about Himself and His will for mankind through the Bible. The Bible is fully sufficient for guiding human life and understanding faith without needing additional revelations or sources.

 

God's enoughness guarantees the completeness the Scripture. Which brings us to our second response today.

 

Trust that God has given us all we need in the Scriptures

Now we probably don’t balk at God’s enoughness. By definition he is enough! But when we say the Bible has all we need that might be harder to swallow. But the Bible only has all we need because it was given by the one who is all we need! So with tons of Bible lets see what God says about His Word. Maybe the most important verse on this matter is the one we will start which and shares the rest of our thinking in this point.

 

2 Peter 1:3 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence Do we trust that God is enough and has given us all we need? Then we ought to trust that he has given us all we need for life and for godliness in Scripture. Now it doesn’t say God has everything there is to know. We aren’t omniscient. Nor does it say we will always know the exact answer in an exact situation. However, what we have is sufficient, either directly or principally. We don’t NEED anything more or less. Infact the Bible warns against adding or subtracting.

 

Deut 4:2 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

 

Every word of God proves true;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

 Do not add to his words,

lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

Another one our little ones are working on. Every word is true, including this word about having all we need for life and godliness. Do add to his words and don’t say we need more but run to the shield who is true and proves enough.

 

8 The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

This word lasts! It’s not that we have to wait till the newest business or entertainment strategies come out to survive. We don’t need the latest psychological or sociological realities to figure things out. We don’t need political takeover to sort things out. We need the Word of God which stands forever and has been and always will be enough.

 

Matthew 5:18 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Jesus says law/Scripture is not going anywhere.

 

Rev 22:18-19 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Strong words that We don’t do the adding or subtracting. Nick shared last week 2 Peter 1:20-21 that men didn’t come up with Scripture but spoke as they were carried by God the Holy Spirit. We don’t make it up, we don’t add or subtract!

Maybe surprising to you, but the Bible actually tells us that God doesn’t give us all the knowledge. Deut 29:29. “29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. “ This is a freeing passage! There are things that are secret and belong to the Lord. Do you want to know what they are? Sorry you cant! They belong to God. And that’s the same God who is enough and loving and good and kind and eternal. Trust that and do the rest of what is very clear!

 

Revelation 10:4 “4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” There are things we don’t need to know, otherwise God would have written it down. Even Moses being asked to turn his back and not see God’s face or disciples being told we don’t know the day or the hour. We don’t know literally everything, but we know enough!

 

Again, we aren’t promised to know all the information. That’s why we are tempted to add or subtract. We can learn information outside the bible, even helpful information. And in good faith we may want to add that. But while the Bible does not provide all answers to every possible question, it does provide answers for all we need to know. May we be wary of saying we NEED more for life and godliness. That undercuts the God who is enough and said he’s given us enough. He has given it to us by the very Word’s he has breathed out. Which is another huge passage.

 

2 Tim 3:15-17 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. God breathed out his very Words to us! These Words from the God who is enough are enough for us! The Bible is sufficient! And in two specific ways show here in 2 Timothy 3.

It is sufficient for salvation

It is sufficient for sanctification

First, we see in v14-15 that Paul tells Timothy it wasn’t the cosmos, or entertainment, or business model of the church, or social media adds, or even the eloquence of a preacher but the Scriptures that made him wise to salvation! Places like Romans 10 echo this. It is through the proclamation of the Word of God alone that we have what we need to be right with God.

 

But also for sanctification. That’s what v16-17 say. All of it comes from God and brings profit in teaching what to do, reproving what not to do, correcting when we make a boo boo, and training in all righteousness. Why? That we may be ehh ok? No, COMPLETE! Equipped for EVERY good work. God has given us enough to live on and please him!

 

Yes, there are hundreds of situations we face today that the Bible doesn’t specifically address because we encounter issues that the original authors and audiences would have never imagined. BUT the Bible perfectly equip us for every good work NOT by telling us the exact right decisions to make for every situation we may face. Rather, the Bible provides us with hundreds of narratives illustrating specific situations that may resemble the ones we’ll face. It gives us thousands of commands and prohibitions from which we may draw principles to apply to new issues. It presents us with a display of the nature and character of God so that we may make exactly the kind of decisions he would make without him having to tell us. Actually, those who insist that the Bible doesn’t address something are limiting the profitability of Scripture. The Bible applies to everything!

 

John Calvin said, “We are to read our Bibles and we are to read the world with our Bibles.” Every truth claim is to be evaluated through the lens of Scripture and cannot be put on par with Scripture. For the plumber, the president, the pre-schooler, parent, pastor and parishioner, all each of them need is in the Word of God. This is a subject that has been hotly debated, even very recently. Its one that maybe be tempting you to think of the maybes and exceptions and nuances. As a guy who loves the nuance let me say, there is no nuance. The Bible is sufficient.

 

This has been the issue in every age, attacks on the Word. What did Satan do in the garden of Eden? Cast doubt on God’s Word. What got Israel in trouble their whole history? Not listening to the Word of God. What did Satan try to do to Jesus after 40 days of fasting in the desert? Misuse and twist Scripture! Yet these twisting’s don’t mean reject Scripture. It means we need to know them and rightly apply them. The Bible was sufficient for Jesus as he responded to all three of those temptations with “it is written”! We just learned in James 4 “resist the Devil and he flees.” That whole section was about humility. We submit ourselves to and trust in the authoritative and sufficient Word of God! Lord forgive us for thinking your word insufficient. We have all we need. From the Spirit, thru Word, breathed out to us by God, we have all we need!

 

For good measure, let’s again overwhelm you with the Bibles testimony of itself.

 

John 17:17 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. Sanctified by nothing else. That’s been the story of every false religion of all time. Jesus + ______. But Jesus himself prays that his followers are sanctified by the WORD.

 

Heb 4:12-13 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Context is dealing with hardening of sin and entering rest. The deep problems that harden us to sin and can’t be dealt with any other way are answered by the Bible’s faithful wounds.

 

Acts 17:11  11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Who wants to be “more noble”? Me! The adequacy and sufficiency of life is a daily diet of the Word.

 

And to continue in Acts, how about Paul with the Ephesians elders.Acts 20:20 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house. Told them everything! Didn’t shrink back! What was the content of that teaching?

Acts 20:27 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. The B-I-B-L-E that’s the book for me! And yet more Paul says a few verses later. Acts 20:32 32 And now I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. This Word is commended to build up and give an inheritance! Keep your Bible strapped on you and as Psalm 119:9-11 says stored in you to fight sin and walk with the Lord!

 

1 Thess 2:13 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. He thanks God that they heard the Word! Not as from man but as from God! See the Scriptures as divine breathed out words and as what is really doing work!

 

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The Word that works not only is sufficient but efficient and efficacious! Won’t return void!

 

Even in trouble its enough. After all he went through with losing family, farm, friends, Job says

Job 23:12 12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

No matter hard times Bible is better than food! Fasting hints at this. Bible makes us wise to salvation and sanctification but we gotta take it in. Job says the best nutrients is the Word not bread. That’s what Jesus tells us in Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” The Bible is our daily bread! But the bread life is doing no good sitting on the shelf. Eat it up and do so all the time. As the famous Shema says

 

Deut 6:6 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Put God’s Word everywhere! Where it can be seen!

 

Feeling the weight of this yet? Hopefully you’re seeing the ripple effects. It matters because we either trust what God has said or we don’t. We either look to the Word for the sufficient source or we don’t. First and foremost to see what we need about Jesus. Turn to and trust in Jesus and what he’s revealed of himself in the Scriptures! We have answers to our questions and God’s commands. We have all we need to teach and be taught. We cannot and should not add to scripture NOR see anything on par with it. Further we need not over emphasize what the Bible doesn’t, not call sin what the Bible does, not require what the Bible doesn’t. Calibrate our consciences accordingly not come up with the rules on our own. Paul in Romans 15:14 seems convinced we have what we need to competently care for one another. Not just each individual person but together we can care for with the Word. Lets be content with and trust that we have enough in the Scriptures!

 

What does this trust look like in action? If we recognize and agree with the Word, when it says that God is enough. If we also trust God when he says his Word his word is enough. Then that brings us to our final response today

I must study, meditate on, and obey God’s sufficient Word

I want to camp out in Psalm 19. Frist look at some of what the Word of God is said to do in v7-9!

 The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul;

V7a Salvation--- we don’t need to make it marketable it is perfect and revives the soul.

the testimony of the Lord is sure,

V7b Its sure and secure. We need that!

making wise the simple;

V7c Skill in living--The idea of “simple” is that someone is naïve and who leaves open door. BUT God makes that person wise. They are skilled in the art of godly living.

8 the precepts of the Lord are right,

rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is pure,

enlightening the eyes;

V8 joy and enlightening-- from Bible. Or where do you go? We have true Word to follow!

9 the fear of the Lord is clean,

enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord are true,

and righteous altogether.

V9 Clean to draw us to worship/to produce fear of Lord in us. Its pure and there is no updating needed. Rules, verdicts, and judgements are true. What a battle we have in the world for truth today and the Word of God has answers!

If all this is true and is energized by Spirit oh my goodness! Lean into, chew on, and follow that!

 

But there is still more. Now look at is said about the value of the Word of God in v10-13.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,

even much fine gold;

Greatest possession—gives you what’s needed

sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb.

Greatest pleasure —gives joy

11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;

Greatest protection —want to be aware of problems ahead? Bible!

in keeping them there is great reward.

Greatest profit —possessions can’t get any better.

12 Who can discern his errors?

Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;

let them not have dominion over me!

Then I shall be blameless,

and innocent of great transgression.

Greatest purification—-sin I know and don’t know plan and happen upon clean me from all by the Word

If were missing something in our study, meditation is boring, our obedience is hard, that is never inadequacy of Bible. Rather that is inadequate human beings to study & apply & obedience.

 

Finally see the psalmist’s commitment to the Word of God in v14

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer

Whole life be acceptable by being consistent in our Bibles. What he speaks, ruminates on, talks about, is from the Word! Its all that was just listed above! But in order to do that, we need to know what the Bible says. How are you doing at studying the Word? We could go into polls numbers and that’d be interesting, maybe even here. But not to guilt or shame into it. If we think God is enough and he has given us enough in his word then we will delight to get what we need through careful and prayerful study of his Word!

 

Psalm 111:2 Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

From my favorite podcast Bible Talk and it’s a reminder that studying is sweet! Not to fill our heads with facts BUT to helps us know all we need for life and godliness. God’s Word is enough but am I competent to find what I need and to help others to do the same. Study! Put in the work. Be ready to say, I don’t know what you’re going through and I don’t know what to do for myself, but God does and he wrote a book. One we ought to meditate on.

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

But its not just to gain facts for the doing of life. We need to dwell on and enjoy what it says. Because part of that doing is changing our desires. The brain re-wires as we rehearse thoughts BUT how much more with the power of the Holy Spirit re-wires our hearts affections. Read the rest of this psalm and see the blessing of meditating on the Word. Then go DO IT and experience the blessing of meditating on the Word.

 

Finally, we study, and chew on, but then we need to take that to heart in belief to what it says

Luke 11:28 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Hear and obey Word to bring a blissful state of life. Not ignore or make the Bible say something other than what it says. But obey it and experience blessings of God.

 

This isn’t cold orthodoxy nor academic mumbo jumbo but this is a living and breathing truth for life! Don’t affirm its truthfulness yet abandon that in practice. Don’t hold it tightly yet fail to grow in your knowledge and application. And please don’t sit back and say not for me I don’t believe it. Be noble searching. Be joyful dwelling richly. Be saved by opening to the plan of redemption revealed herein. Though we don’t have time as some growth work, just go read Psalm 119 please!  God is enough for you today Christian brother or sister or you wandering loved one. God has given us enough for life and for godliness in his Word. Trust that! And then as a manifestation of that trust, go study, meditate on, and obey the Word. Get together with others to grow your ability to do all three! But don’t forsake the Word of God. The rock will have ripple effects in the pond of your life. May the be the ripples of the sufficient Word of God bring blessing to you and glory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.