Grace Immanuel Bible Church: Men of Grace and Granite

By Grace Immanuel Bible ChurchReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Grace Immanuel Bible Church: Men of Grace and Granite episodes

October 16, 2018How to Study the Bible (Part 1)
The pattern of Biblical Exposition:
The teacher expounds on the meaning of Scripture.

And, draws out its implications for the listener.

And then, he preaches/exhorts the will to follow Christ.
This formula is extracted from Paul’s writings in 2 Timothy:
Read scripture. Understand it as an unashamed workman.

Explain scripture in its Biblical context, pulling out the implications for the inner life and conduct of the believer.

And, exhort the will to obey by putting off sin patterns and putting on righteous living.
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October 09, 2018 The Inerrancy of the Word of God
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October 02, 2018 The Scripture's Presuppositions about Biblical Interpretations (Part 2)
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September 25, 2018 The Scripture's Presuppositions about Biblical Interpretations (Part 1)
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September 18, 2018The Sufficiency of the Word of God
Last week as part of our Hermeneutics study, we examined The Power of the Word of God. Today, we will examine The Sufficiency of the Word of God.
Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 11:1-4. We see in this passage something that causes the Apostle Paul to be afraid for the sheep.
The enemy, Satan, is after minds.

It should not surprise us that he wants to separate us from the conviction that Scripture is sufficient for leading a godly life.

Convictions are not lost over a weekend, but temptations to doubt the veracity and sufficiency of God’s Word in every life situation creep into the mind and convictions are softened, if we are not on high alert.

We mix a little of the world with scripture and it is enough to pollute the mind.

It also should not surprise us that Satan attacks the leadership of the church and its philosophy of ministry. He introduces heresies, world views, and add mixtures.

We stumble when we doubt and look to pop psychology or worldly reasoning to solve moral problems that only scripture can.

Mixing the world and truth produces a false way.
Notice:
Verses 1-2: Paul’s passionately desires devotion to Christ in purity.
Verse 3: Paul expresses his fear of Satan’s deceptive practices to lead their minds astray from the devotion to Christ.
Verse 4: Paul adds a little sarcasm with a description of how beautifully they have already been led astray by false teaching.
Key to the text: Satan is after the mind and how we think/reason. Convictions are rooted in our reasoning. When we are led astray, we move away from the simple message of Christ and Him crucified.
Cross reference passages:
Psalm 119:105, 140 – God’s Word is light and pure.

Psalm 19:7-8 – God’s Word makes us wise; it enlightens the eyes.

2 Peter 1:3 – True knowledge

Heb. 4:12 – God’s word exposes the intentions of the heart.
Conclusion: Truth can be apprehended easily from God’s Word with a heart that submits and believes.
It requires a mind that is devoted to Christ.

It requires a love of Christ and His Word.

Once you believe in Christ and His Word, your eyes are opened, and you gain clarity to reason, correctly.

There is a trusting dependency on the sufficiency of His Word.

There is no need for discipleship that is clever; we must trust the Truth.

Our minds must focus on faith and the simplicity of Christ.
Open to Romans 12:1-2:
This passage shows that there is a mind renewal for believers.

Our reasoning changes as our world view receives an overhaul.
We jettison old ways of thinking as we dwell on the Truth of Scripture.

We examine and believe Truth.

Mind transformation is supernatural work of God.

Reasoning from a worldly perspective is the opposite and evil, since we approve and accept things not acceptable to God.
What is our reasoning world view?
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we live our lives by a grid of convictions.

The definition of conviction:
Something we are willing to die for.

For example, are you willing to regularly put to death the lusts of the flesh, because God commands it in His Word?

If so, you hold a conviction about that certain truth.

As the world and circumstances come at us, do we regularly subject them to Truth or do we reason them from some other world view?

We must subject our view of life to God’s view as revealed in His Word.

Practical living with convictions rooted in Truth is the foundation of life for a believer.

Romans 1 plainly states that all of us after the fall and before Christ:
Became futile and useless.

Our intellect was wasted on self.

We had no clarity and our hearts were darkened.

The most gifted and intelligent people on the planet have darkened minds, hearts, and reasonings for the moral things of God.

Heb. 11:6 – Apart from faith it is impossible to please God.

1 Cor. 3:19-20 – The wisdom of the world is foolishness. The reasoning of the wise are useless.

Eph. 4:17 – Unbelievers walk in futility.

Romans 8:5-6 – Those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, which is death (i.e. total depravity).

1 Cor. 2:14 – Both the will and the ability is corrupt. An unbeliever will not and cannot accept the things of God.

Eph 2:3 – We are dead in our trespasses and sin.

As believers, we know we are saved by Scripture, so why do we fall back toward a pattern of worldly reasoning?

Here are the regular practices of Biblically discerning believers:
They saturate themselves with Truth.

They practice discerning between good and evil with Scripture.

They live with eyes open and their senses trained by Truth seeing things the way the Bible evaluates them.

They believe God’s Word and trust it in humility.

They allow God’s Word to collide with their thought life and deny the lies that they believe. (Allow God’s Word to indict and correct their hearts.)

Commit to a habitual practice of rejecting lies and believing truth.

Set a goal to have thoroughly renovated convictions in subjection to Scripture.
The litmus test of questions for a changing and renewing mind:
Are you becoming more and more humble before God’s Word and other disciplers/elders, etc.?

Are you crushing pride?

Are you growing in the fear of God? 1 Peter 1:17 – We are not condemned, but He is the Judge and He has a right to condemned us.

Do you have genuine love?
Of God with all your heart, mind and strength?

And for others?

Do you live your life where you look forward to the Scripture exposing another layer of unbelief in your thoughts, intentions, and motives (Heb. 4:12)?

Do you practice 2 Cor. 10:5 and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?
You imprison your thought life to Christ.

The Lord wants to expose the idols of your heart and extinguish them.

Are you practicing this obedience moment by moment?
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September 11, 2018The Power of the Word of God
Today, we begin a new series in the Men of Grace & Granite as part of our three-year cycle of material studied. We will examine Hermeneutics and later Bibliology. At the outset, we want to examine the only power that can transform lives: The Power of the Word of God.
Ephesians 2:10 teaches us that we are His workmanship. We can stop right there and camp out on that one truth.
The Word of God ALONE transforms lives.
In Christ, we are created for good works.

No other source has power to conform us to Christ and to transform a heart through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Exposure to Scripture is not about you, but it is the work that the Scripture is doing in your life.

Push back against the tendency to want God’s Word to meet our demands.
By pushing back, we grow in our appetite for the truth.

We must be pliable and open to what God wants.

Pray that the Spirit of God does the work that God wants to accomplish.

My assessment of how, why, and where God is working through the Word is not important. We believe He is working, and we follow where He leads.

To come under God’s Word means we become convicted of sin.
My flesh hates this! My flesh does not want to be exposed.

The Spirit of God wants sin exposed and hearts changed.

The Spirit of God knows our heart, intentions, motives and attitudes, intimately. He knows what needs to be exposed.

We tend to forget that these desires wage war against the Spirit (James 4:1).

1 Thessalonians 2:13 is an interesting passage to examine in this context.
Receive the word of God = open to the content.

Accepted it = willing and welcoming to it
This means we anticipate heart change eagerly.

We actively desire that it will perform its work. Why? Because we believe in its power to do just that!

Not the word of men it is the word of God
There is no place to grumble against it. We are in unbelief when we doubt.

We dismiss men, we do not dismiss God.

Work hard to resist any temptation to doubt and believe this is God speaking to you in His Word.

Performs its work in you = this is a promise that God’s Word is working.
It brings insight and clarity to my life when I believe (Psalm 119:97-104).

Isaiah 55:11 – God’s Word accomplishes work.

James 1:25 – God’s Word liberates.

Our litmus test is John 8:31 – Christ says, “Abide in my Word and you are my disciple.”
This marks out a man who is God’s workmanship.

Abide = remain in it and under it, willingly.

God’s Word is our nutrition that produces fruit.

Further, John 8:47 – Christ says, “He who is of God hears the words of God.” He listens. He is pliable.
Do not be indifferent to Scripture.

The seeds of apostasy are in every sin.

And finally, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15
Those who are under God’s Word willingly suffer for it.

We know that believing God’s Word will cause hostility with those around us.

Suffering is a sign that we are welcoming to God’s Word.
Q/A – What if we are challenged by a Charismatic Pentecostal with a charge that the church is dead, because we are not open to receive the word of the Holy Spirit? They might say to us, “You’re just adhering to ancient words on a page, therefore there is no life.”
Answer Outline:
The content of the written Word of God is not just a backdrop in which the work of the Spirit is to be compared. Or in other words, the Word of God is not just an information databank to verify the Spirit’s work.
Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says the man of God is thoroughly equipped for every good work through Scripture.
We know it is only the Spirit’s power that thoroughly equips us.

Yet, all scripture is breathed out by God.

And, scripture is going to bring about an adequate preparation for every good work.

We might want to ask a Charismatic friend?
Which good work in your life did the Spirit prepare you to do that was not in Scripture?

If God’s Word is adequate in the preparation for every good work, then no Biblically defined good work can be suggested that is not found in God’s Word (which is breathed out by God).

God breathed comes from God – adequacy is from a God breathed revelation by the Spirit of Truth Himself.
2 Peter 1:21
Men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

It dd not come from their will or their interpretation.

They did not receive a prophecy in their mind and put it in writing as they chose. God chose what appeared in God’s Word.

They were not used robotically with a dictated message.

Through who they are, they were moved along by the Holy Spirit.

Notice the last phrase, they “spoke from God” (they spoke from God Himself).
Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “We live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Ask the Charismatic, “Which word are you getting directly from the Spirit which is not in Scripture?”
They often reply, “We verify the prophesy by Scripture.”

They say it is outside of the written word, so they cannot verify it with the Word.

If it is verified by Scripture, why would we need the voice in someone’s head?

How would you know the source of that voice?
I might think it is the Spirit, but how would anyone else know?

It is unverifiable, if it is just coming into my head.

Is it the musing of my corrupt flesh?

Instead, we trust the written revelation of Christ.

God’s Word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).

Philippians 2:12-13 “Working out our salvation with fear and trembling”
Fear & Trembling = Humility & Faith

We go to God’s Word and we bring ourselves under it in humility and faith. We know it will produce an adequate Christian for every good work and that path is in fact God working in me according to His will.

The words in Scripture are ancient, but the content is living and active.

1 Peter 1:23 “We are born-again by the living and enduring Word of God.”

Providence can accomplish virtually everything they claim:
For example, a Charismatic might say, “God told me to share the gospel with that person on a park bench.”

They claim that have this massive inspiration that almost sounds like an audible voice: “Go share the gospel with that person.”

This is: Biblical Conviction in a Believer + Seeing a Need = God’s Providence.
The content of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is life for the believer.
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May 01, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 7): The Social Gospel vs. the Mission of the Church
1 hr 23 min
April 24, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 6): Building Up the Body of Christ
1 hr 15 min
April 17, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 5): The Non-Negotiables Are Essential
1 hr 18 min
April 10, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 4): All Things to All Men?
1 hr 18 min