God Is Truth (07/14/2002) | NOTE: Audio malfunctions until minute 4:27

Romans chapter three. We're talking about the fact that God is truth.

We're going to review just a little bit about last week's message before we get into this morning's. One reason we didn't get it all on the tape last week, so we want to review enough for those who

Brother Raymond ministers to all across the country as he passes these out to truck drivers all over America.

I guess we can welcome the truckers this morning to Park Meadows Baptist Church, Corsicana, Texas.

God is truth. God advances that which is truth.

He confirms that which is truth. He abides by his promise of faithfulness.

He executes every threat and every warning. Without his truth, there would be no certainty for us in life whatsoever.

Without his being truth, revelation would be but a mockery.

Truth in God is that what he has disclosed is according to the true nature of things and can be depended upon totally.

God's inspired word, the Bible, is the complete and perfect compilation of God's revelation of truth from the beginning of time and even before the beginning to the end of his age and on.

In Romans chapter 3, verse 4, the Bible says, Let God be truth, but let every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome.

In this passage, we began to look in the message last

Sunday with this. We notice the contrast between man's religion and true worship.

The Bible teaches that God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit, but it also teaches that God is truth.

We're reminded that it's not that God tells the truth, it's that God is truth.

So we talked about how not to please men. First of all, the Bible teaches, in this passage of Scripture, looking down at verse 29 of Romans chapter 2, that he is

Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.

So the Bible begins to teach us that if you're going to be a man -pleaser, then your religion needs to be outward.

Your religion does not need to come from the heart. Because if it comes from the heart and you have a true heart for God, you're going to find very quickly that your praise is not of men.

But the nice part of it is that it says, but of God. And that's what we desire.

Secondly, we talked about the fact that if you're not going to please men, then you must be a person who is not interested in outward form.

Remember in Galatians chapter 5, verse 11, the Apostle Paul talked about this in his own life.

And he said, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?

Then is the offense of the cross ceased. He made the point that if I were out preaching still about works, about religiosity, about the fact that you need to be outwardly circumcised, then why are the

Jews persecuting me? Why are they trying to kill me? He said, the fact is,

I'm not still preaching that. What I'm preaching is the circumcision of the heart. He said, that's where the offense of the cross is.

So we see this taught very clearly. How then do we please God? Have a private, secret, powerful walk and relationship with God that is not seen by man.

This inward circumcision of the heart, this private, secret relationship and walk with God is contrasted with the letter of the law, such as legalism, ritualism, outward form, and it does not gain the praise of men.

Then we went into John chapter 4, verse 21. You might want to turn there. Jesus saith unto her woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the

Father. And we pointed out that Jesus himself taught a true dispensationalism.

He taught the fact that things are different after the cross and because of the cross and because of his finished work on that cross.

And he says there was a time when you worshiped at Jerusalem, but there is going to be a time when you do not worship in Jerusalem.

You did worship there. You will not worship there. It's a contrast in the faith of the

Old Testament, which was a physical system of faith based upon things, places, people, the temple.

The seventh day Sabbath and the law. And that was contrasted with the time when he says you shall not worship in Jerusalem, which is the faith of the

New Testament, which is a spiritual relationship in the world of the unseen. It is not at all pleasing to natural man.

We saw a contrast between the way the Sabbath was used then and the way it is used now.

And turn in your Bibles for a moment to Hebrews chapter 4.

The last time we saw a contrast between the way the Sabbath was used then and how it is used now.

And we also saw a contrast between the way circumcision was used then and the way it is now.

With regarding the Sabbath and the law, they had to keep the

Sabbath, the seventh day Sabbath. But on this side of the cross, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 4 says, for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest in verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And it's no coincidence that that verse about the written word finds itself in this passage about the rest, the continual rest, the continual

Sabbath rest of the believer in Christ. Then we saw that there was a contrast about circumcision as well.

First Corinthians 6, 19. What know you not that your body is the temple of the

Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? And then in verse 15, it says, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature.

Now this is contrasted with Genesis 17, verse 14 where it says, and the uncircumcised man -child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people.

He hath broken my covenant. Do you see the difference? Philippians 3, 3 then comes back and talks about the circumcision of the heart, which is this new spiritual relationship that we're speaking of that is contrasted with the letter of the law before the cross.

Philippians 3, 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

Colossians 2, 10. I hope you're going quickly this morning. Racing through these scriptures. Colossians 2, 10.

And ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith and the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead.

We're racing because we're still preaching last week's sermon. We don't have a lot of time left for this week but I wanted to review some of these both for our people listening on the tapes and those of you who weren't here last time.

You see that the circumcision of the heart, the Bible says, is the operation of God. It is an operation that he himself does to his own and this is the operation that makes the difference.

Paul said neither circumcision, now he's talking about outward circumcision of the law here, whether you get circumcised or whether you don't, he says, availeth nothing but a new creature is what avails something.

Whether you're born again. Verse 17 says, all these things are a shadow of things to come.

But the body of Christ, the one day a week Sabbath, the circumcision of the flesh, all of that was a shadow, an

Old Testament type of the real thing. And on this side of the cross, the real thing is, where is your heart?

Is your heart circumcised? Has it been marked as being different from all the rest of the world?

Has it been marked as being separated? As being different from all the other young people that you're around because you belong to Christ?

Different from all the business people that you may be around because you're ashamed?

It's not about a Saturday Sabbath, it's about whether you're having a Sabbath right now. Are you resting or are you depending on your own works?

If you did keep the Saturday Sabbath, I would not be angry with you, but I would ask you, are you doing it in your own works?

To please God? Because if you are, it does not. Because it must come from the heart and you must be resting, which means you can't be about works anymore.

You must be resting in the finished and continuing work of Jesus Christ. He finished his work on the cross that paved the way for God to be satisfied with the payment for sin.

He finished his work on the cross that paved the way for you to be reconciled to God and for you to be redeemed.

In other words, bought out from the slave market of sin that you were in. The price was the precious blood of the

Lord Jesus Christ. All of the work that he finished on that cross, that's what it took to save you.

But he didn't stop there. He stayed in the grave three days and then he came out. And when he rose from the grave, the

Bible teaches very clearly that that same power of God that brought him out of the grave lived in you today and that's what helps you to live a resurrected life free from sin.

Now, I don't say that you don't sin because we make mistakes and we go back into the flesh sometimes because we believe the lie of Satan for some reason.

But I will say this, you have the same power that brought him forth from that grave and out of that grave probably even before the rock was moved.

You have that same power to live a resurrected life, which means you're already dead. You're already dead of sin.

Sin can't even affect you because you're dead. You were crucified when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

You were in him spiritually. You are dead to sin. Therefore now you are risen and it's as if you're already in the heavenlies.

Now let me ask you this, when you get into the heavenlies will you be tempted? No. Will you ever sin again?

You've already died into this world. You've died into the law.

You've died into the temptation of the flesh and you have, your body has been reformed, made without the tendency for temptation and so forth and we all know that's a fact.

But do you know that even now here in this life that the resurrection power is to be used by you and me to live a resurrected life as if we're already there?

The apostle Paul said reckon these things to be so. To demonstrate that those who were called were justified and those who were justified are glorified.

In God's mind you're already there. And so he said reckon it to be that way and live as if you are.

So all those things were a shadow for things to come but we're in the place of the things to come. We have it.

We have the real. We have the Holy Spirit of God sealed within our bodies until the day of redemption.

We are exhorted by Scripture to be filled with that Holy Spirit. In other words the

Holy Spirit came to live in you the day you got saved and you had a spirit and it was quickened and brought alive and the

Holy Spirit came in and he's in you. Now he's either there like this or he's there like this.

Either we walk filled with the Spirit in which case we become one and really it's like we hide behind that and all we see is him.

But we're there. But we're attached in unity and oneness. A oneness that we can't even understand in the physical world.

And then if we get back in the flesh he does not leave us but it's like this and all of a sudden we're out of fellowship.

He never leaves the temple. But you have removed yourself from fellowship with him through sin, through wantonness.

Blessed be that sweet Holy Spirit even if we had grieved him.

Even if we had quenched him. And that is the true way that the new man should walk.

When we walk that way we have resurrected power. We are circumcised of the heart. We are living a continual

Sabbath rest every moment. Resting in his work alone. And then not only did he have that finished work but he is continuing the work.

He's our advocate with the Father right now. He did go back into the heavenlies where he is seated in the heavenlies and he says, if you do mess up and this happens and you're not in unity with the

Holy Spirit and you sin in the flesh and the accuser of the brethren comes and says to God or to anyone else that this person cannot deserve heaven.

The Lord Jesus Christ says if he stands up and he says that person is in me

I died for that person. I'm going to take you away and therefore that person is innocent.

He is our advocate with the Father. He slams the accuser. He's already nailed him to the cross.

He makes him shut up. When Satan comes all he can do is usurp authority that's not his anymore. When Jesus died the

Bible says that Satan his power was nailed to the cross his authority was nailed to the cross.

Same with the world system. Same with your flesh. If you want to sin it's doing it in a way that's not right it's not supposed to just like Saul kept the throne for a while after David had been anointed a king it wasn't supposed to from a human viewpoint but he did but he usurped it it was not rightfully his.

And I'll tell you this if you understand who the Lord is I live in the best

I live in a time where the Holy Spirit indwells us permanently.

Not that he comes upon us and then leaves after his accomplishments have been done but he comes within us at the moment of salvation and dwells there.

Now in John 4 .22 this passage goes on and he's talking to the woman at the well he says something interesting here in verse 22 and this is going to lead us back into Romans where our text verse is but this is virtually a parallel passage

I want you to see it look at John 4 .22 you worship you know not what but know what we worship we know what we worship for salvation is of the

Jews and that's an interesting phrase salvation is of the

Jews I want to go on and finish a little passage and we'll talk about that phrase for a moment but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him and the woman she was still in the other dispensation on the other side of the cross but he told her that she would soon be living in a new dispensation when things would change when they would no longer worship in Jerusalem and when the worshipers of God would have to worship in spirit and in truth but that's who he seeks for the human flesh than it is for a person to yield up himself totally into the

Lord Jesus Christ and say, take me where you will, I am yours. We think that would be easier, but if it were, everybody would be running to do it.

The truth is, everybody's running to the law. We're running back to the law. We've got people running around this country today trying to teach you're supposed to keep the

Sabbath on Saturday, that it saves a born -again Christian is supposed to still do that.

No, you can't please God by doing that. You can only please God if you have the

Sabbath of the heart while you're doing that. But that goes for every other day of the week as well.

You know why? Because it's more difficult to walk that walk because it's a walk of yieldedness.

It's a walk from the heart rather than from the outward show. Jesus told the woman, this is where it is going, and she changed the subject because it made her uncomfortable.

It made her uncomfortable when he said, it's not going to work for you to go down there and bow down in Jerusalem. Just keep the form.

That is not going to work. You're going to have to worship God from your heart, from your spirit. And she changed the subject.

Then the woman said unto him, I know the Messiah is coming. Let's talk about that for a while. Let's stop talking about this heart stuff and let's talk about the end of time.

I think I've heard the Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things.

And Jesus looked at her and said, he that speaketh unto you is. Or he says,

I am. Most people that day knew what I am meant.

That was the name that God chose when he told Moses to go back and tell him, I am has sent you the eternal

God, the God who dwells in the eternal. Now I am. That's my name, Jehovah God. And Jesus looked at her when she changed the subject.

She said, you better pay attention because I am. She did pay attention from that point on.

In fact, she went and brought a whole city out to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And now back to our passage in Romans.

This was a beautiful parallel of passage in Romans chapter three. Even chapter two, verse twenty eight, twenty nine.

And now into chapter three and verse one. Look at this question.

What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?

And he answers his own question, much. See verse two. I want you to look at the words much and then the word chiefly.

So he answered his question, but let's go back and look at the question. What advantage then hath the Jew? Now remember, we're talking in the context of the fact that God is true.

God is true. Man is born in darkness. Man is born in sin.

He's born blind. He's born deaf. He's born lame. He's born crippled.

He's born with a cold, dark heart that is desperately wicked and who can know it but I do.

He is born not seeking after God. Not one, no not one seeks after God.

That's how man is born. Now if God is truth and man is a lie and living a lie, how does

God get the truth to man? The history of the Bible is a history of how

God has in fact revealed himself to man. God has shown man the truth.

Every time he shows himself to man, he shows man the truth. What advantage then hath the

Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Now he just got through telling us that circumcision is not a profit.

There's no profit to you unless you've been circumcised of heart. But he's changing the subject now. He's not talking about profit from the point of view specifically of salvation.

He's talking about is there a profit to the Jew himself at all because of his history.

So what advantage? This word advantage is an interesting Greek word because it means exceedingly, abundantly above.

Now when he talks about what advantage does the Jew have and then he comes back later and says much, you don't even have to get to the word much yet.

Because the word advantage itself in the Greek language, unlike in the English, but in the

Greek, it carries that term with it. Exceedingly, abundantly above, very high, beyond measure.

That's how much advantage the Jew has. Now let's go and see, he says what profit is there in circumcision?

The word profit means usefulness. And he answers this much.

Every way. Chiefly because that unto them were committed before it was.

And at this point we are going to go out into a discussion on the importance of the written word of God.

We call it the written word now because we have it written for many years. It was carried through father to son, father to son and grandfather to grandson and so forth.

Up until the time Moses began to pen it. All the way from Adam up until Moses it was carried by word of mouth.

And then God began to have it written. God began to deposit on this earth and on this planet a written record of his eternal word.

And this word much advantage is very important.

Chiefly means firstly. First in time, place, order and importance.

So they have much, much advantage and the first and most important reason they have much advantage is because they had the oracle of God.

Now let's look at it. It says it was committed unto them. The oracles of God were committed to the

Jew. What does that mean? It means they were entrusted with it. God chose to give it to them.

The oracles of God. What does that mean in modern English? Well let's look at the Greek roots. The word oracle itself is the word logion.

And it means an utterance of God. It comes from a

Greek word logios which means an orator.

And that comes from a smaller Greek word that you're more familiar with, logos, which means something said, which comes from a smaller

Greek word that only the children around here understand and that's the word lego, which means to lay forth or to put together in a systematic way.

Just like you do legos. I'm playing with them right now as we speak in the nursery.

They got them all spread out in there probably. A lego is something that you lay forth and then you put it together in a systematic set way.

This all comes back to say that the oracles of God are the written word. They are the word of God that have been laid down like legos in a systematic way, one upon another, line upon line, down through time by the holy prophets.

So they had much advantage because they had the word of God.

The advantage of the oracles of God in establishing truth. Turn with me to Psalm 12 and verse 6.

And we'll only have time this morning to continue these few thoughts on the importance of the written word with regard to the truth of God.

But it is a very important aspect of this in our day because we live in a day where the mysticism of old has been sort of brought back into the church.

So now we have many people who claim to be mystics. A mystic is someone who will come and say that God talked to me and told me something that I need to share with you.

Outside of the revelation of God. A mystic is a person who comes up with a mystical thing that you're supposed to hold with the same authority that the written word of God holds.

And I am not for that. I don't believe the Bible teaches that's the way it is now.

Now there were prophets and the truth is there were New Testament prophets and those men and women could speak as God gave them utterance.

We'll look into that as well. But look what Psalm 12, 6 says.

Emphasizing the importance of the written word. Now I want to say this before we get into these verses.

We are not talking here about the living word which is Jesus. Some would say well the thing all the verses in the

Bible are talking about that you would use to teach the written word. They're not really talking about the written word. They're talking about the living word which is

Jesus. But that's not the case. One excellent way you can tell the difference is many times the word is plural.

You see the word words. In which case you know that you're talking about the words themselves.

So think about the written word. Psalm 12, 6. The words of the

Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. You can look these up if you want to. Nehemiah 9, 5.

I want to give you just a couple of verses that talk about the name of God. And you'll see why in a moment.

You're going to think I'm on a rabbit trail here but I'm not. I want to just stop and put a little parentheses in the message here.

The name of God. I'm going to give you some verses that deal with the name of God. Nehemiah 9, 5. Stand up and bless the

Lord your God forever and ever. And blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

The name of God is exalted or lifted up above all blessing and praise.

Now in Psalm 8, 1 it says this about the name of God. To the chief musician, a psalm of David.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens.

God's name is exalted. Psalm 148, verse 13.

Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent.

His glory is above the earth and heaven. Now I think those of us in the modern church need to see the next verse.

Turn to Psalm 138, verses 1 and 2. As high as God himself lifts his name above all things to be exalted and to be praised.

Psalm 138, 1 and 2 teaches something very interesting.

A psalm of David, I will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods will

I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth.

For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

You see, the modern church wants to diminish the value of the written word. And I know why.

It's because the Baptists and some of the Church of Christ and the Bible Church scholars have tried to minimize the role of the

Holy Spirit in speaking to us. Now I'm always pleased when

I hear Brother Otis in the Sunday School class teach us about the importance of the word. Or he'll ask a question like, how does

God speak to us? And someone will raise their hand and say, by the word. And he'll say, yes, that's right. And how else?

He always says, and how else? And then someone raises their hand and says, by the

Holy Spirit speaking to us and teaching us the written word. Well see, theologians are like on a pendulum.

And as truth tends to swing this way and get away from balance more, it goes towards error.

And so the theologian's job is to grab this and pull it back towards the truth. And when he does, he often pulls it all the way over here.

And in the modern church, we've taken these truths of old. If you go back and read any books that are older than 100 years old, the written word of God is magnified as the authority upon which the children of God should live in this world.

The authority. And with the swing of the pendulum in these last days, it has been pulled over here where the authority of the written word has been minimized to try to make room for prophetic utterances and those sorts of things.

And really, the truth is, perhaps some in the early days, Lewis Schaeffer and some of those, perhaps they overemphasized the written word to the point where it made people think that they didn't believe the

Holy Spirit had a play in it. But let me give you some history. In their day, they had just come out of some events in the late 1800s where there had been a pendulum swing over here to simply people saying things, saying, well,

God said that. God told me to tell you that. There was a rise in mysticism from the 1830s for quite a few years down in through there.

A rise in the mystics who didn't base what he said on the word of God nor on what prophets had said before him.

The Bible forbids that. It says the spirit of the prophets depends on the prophets. And they were going outside of all that.

So the pendulum swung over here, and they emphasized the importance of the written word. And now today, people feel that that was taken too far, and the

Holy Spirit's not discussed enough, so they swing it back, and then they go too far that way. The truth is the balance is in the middle.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us predominantly today by the written word. And you say, well, then he couldn't tell us which house to buy.

He couldn't tell us where to go. Well, he has a way to do that. But seldom does he do it with an audible voice.

I wish he would. Because in your business decisions and every decision you have, you would rather have an audible voice.

But what he chooses to do is for you to have to study. And most of us don't, and therefore we think we then have to rely on some mystical thing to know.

And listen, if you're in the Word daily, and you're bathing your heart and mind in the

Word of God, and you're doing that in the presence of the Holy Spirit who wrote that book, the

Holy Spirit has a way to direct you. He not only uses the written word, but he can use circumstances.

He can use the innermost feelings of your heart by placing desires in your heart, the

Bible says. But that's when you're like this, back to the first discernment. That's when you're in one unity with the

Holy Spirit as you read the written word. He just comes alive in that way. He can put a thought in your mind from the

Word of God that can tell you what to go do today. It's absolutely remarkable, but only in conjunction with the

Holy Spirit. So that's where the balance is. But what I'm trying to do today is bring some balance back to the importance of the written word.

Never minimize it. Never, ever minimize it. The Bible says that God Himself has magnified

His Word above even His name. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15 says, and that from a child thou hast known the

Holy Scriptures, which are able, that means absolutely able, to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.

Now we have salvation covered. It is by hearing the Word of God that faith comes, and it moves on into growing.

Look at verse 16. Talk about the Christian growing. I've heard people say, well, you can't just have the

Bible. There has to be other things, other ways that God speaks through maybe a word of wisdom or word of knowledge and comes and tells you what to do.

That's not what the Word says. The Word says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.

Now Scripture has a very clear definition in the Bible. When you come on this side of the cross, when you come into the later epistles, some of the epistles called other epistles

Scripture. So the Scriptures were the oracles of God given down through inspired men as they penned

God's Word. They were inspired, which means God breathed.

And God breathed His eternal Word, which has always existed, by the way, and it came down into space and time and landed in your lap this morning.

But it was not given all at one time. It was given little by little through the ages, through the

Old Testament prophets. Hebrews 1 -1 -3 explains it very clearly. But look what this says.

Once we have the Scriptures, all Scripture, and quite a few of even the

New Testament Scriptures were penned by the time 2 Timothy 3 -16 was written.

Now John had not yet penned the Revelation, so it was not all there yet.

But that which was there at this time was what it says about it. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.

That's so that you can know truth, doctrinal truth. For reproof, that's so you can be corrected when you go the wrong way.

Now remember, this is the written Word, the Scriptures that do this. They correct us when we go the wrong way.

For correction, they doubly correct us. They rebuke us and they correct us. They reprove us and they correct us.

For instruction in righteousness, that's so you can live a holy, righteous walk with the

Lord. But look what the next one says. That the man of God may be perfect. Now you have to understand the word perfect in the

Bible doesn't mean sinless. It carries the meaning of finished out in time, fully equipped.

That the man of God may be equipped, fully equipped.

That he might mature, thoroughly furnished. Now what does the word thoroughly mean?

The word thoroughly in the Greek means to finish out, to equip fully, accomplished, thoroughly furnished, fully equipped, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

The word all is rather encompassing. So if the Word of God is able to cause you, the man of God, to be perfectly equipped, perfectly maturing, growing, and thoroughly furnished or equipped to do all of the good works

God wants you to do, then I would say the written word is very, very important in our day and time.

That's certainly what the scriptures indicate as you study in the Bible what the scriptures teach about themselves.

King David said this in Psalm 119, and then we're going to stop for this morning. But next time we're going to be in Psalm 119.

We're going to read many, many scriptures in that chapter, in that Psalm, where the

Bible speaks of itself. What does the written word say about itself, of its importance in our life?

I want to close with this one in connection with what we've said today. Psalm 119, verse 9 and 10.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word?

Now remember, throughout this chapter, the word word is used and the word word is used.

It's very clear that the chapter is speaking of the written word of God. The psalmist,

I'm sure, would recognize that since God has laid down His word over time, He's going to continue to do that.

And there were scriptures that came after this psalm was written. But when it speaks of God's word, it's speaking of the totality of it.

And He says, With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy commandment.

There is a great lesson for all of us in the modern church. If you see a brother or a sister who wants to tell you that God told them something to tell you, all you have to do is don't let it wander from the written word.

If it's in line with the scriptures, then listen to them. Listen to them.

If it's in perfect line with the scriptures, listen to them. Listen to them with caution, because unfortunately there are as many wolves in sheep's clothing as there are true brothers and sisters.

But really, if they give you something that's in perfect alignment with the written word, they haven't given you anything new.

You could have found it. They just save you some time. And hopefully you went and checked it out when they told you.

So I'm not real big on a lot of the people that come and tell me, Brother David, God told me to tell you this.

I'll say, well, let me check that out. I bless your heart. I thank you for that. Let me check that out.

You have to check it out. And you know what God has given us? He's given us this written word.

And there is much evidence, and I know there are differences of opinion, but there is much evidence that when John wrote the

Revelation, the book that said, if you add to this or take away from this, the curses of God will be placed upon you, that God put a back cover on the word of God.

I believe that's true. I believe that's exactly what God did, and I think this is his word to the end of his age, at least.

And I know we'll learn new things from the living word when we get into his presence. You may learn something that's new to you from the living word now, but it will fit perfectly in line with his written oracles.

That was the advantage that you had. The lesson for us today is this. We only have an advantage if we love this book that God has given us.

I'm not saying to worship this book, but I will say that God placed his word above his name. We have to focus on the one who wrote it, yes, but we cannot live in this world without it because we will be walking idiots in darkness.

This is his Revelation. It's authoritative. It's concrete.

It is objective, not subjective. It is that which every prophet must stand up against.

It is that which every prophet must agree with. And remember this rule. If you prophesy, if you miss it,

Brother Raymond's going to stone you because that's the rule for a prophet. So be very careful to add to this.

God's given us what we need in this book. See me after church, Brother Raymond. I'll have to line that out for you.

God has given us what we need in this book and in his precious indwelling Holy Spirit. Why do we always look for more?

Jesus said he was adulterous. The evil generation seeked for a sign.

He said there won't be any sign except my resurrection, my death, burial, and resurrection.

Jesus said, or the word of God said, in these last days he hath revealed himself to us by his son.

And Jesus told his apostles, he said, you write down everything, but you don't have it all yet. And I'm not going to give it all to you until I ascend to be with the

Father and send the Holy Spirit. And then I will speak to you things that you can't even handle right now.

And after the death, burial, and resurrection, and when Jesus ascended to heaven, and when the

Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, those disciples and apostles and New Testament prophets,

God gave them, Jesus specifically, gave them the revelation that he wanted them to put down for us.

And we have it. And God used men as a tool, as he always does with us, to bend these things, to preserve these things, to protect these things so that we would have them again.

And that is God's way. So let's bring this thing back to balance. Let's don't under -emphasize the importance of the written word.

You know what that means? We can talk about it all day, but are we going to have it out this week studying it? Do we love it enough where we'll put other things aside for a few moments and just get into it and say,

Lord, show me something here. I know this is not new to the world, but it's new to me. Show me something I haven't seen from your words that I can live.

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what he meant when he wrote it. Hopefully you won't be one of those where it says in the end times, if possible, even the elect would be deceived.

But if you're not, it'll be because of this and the Holy Spirit teaching you what he means.

Let's stand. Truth of God. God is truth. He's given us his word to share truth with us.

Father, we ask you to bless our fellowship this afternoon, our Bible teaching a little later on, and our breaking of bread together.

Bless our meal together for Jesus' sake. We thank you that when we think of even the bread, we think of the body of the

Lord Jesus Christ that was broken for us, the blood that was shed for us. We can never thank you enough for that.

us to think about that as we fellowship together today. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.