The Beauty of God's Unbreakable Bible

Providence Baptist Church

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May 27, 2024

John 10:35

00:00: Good morning. Let's see what I get for not wearing a jacket today. My daughter fell asleep on my shoulder and drooled here.
00:08: And so if you see that, that's a big, that's a big drool stain. It's not from me. It's from Margie.
00:14: So hopefully the only one I will put to sleep today. John chapter 10, turn there in your
00:21: Bibles. We are in a bit of a, I don't know the word
00:27: I want to say, a bit of a in between time between our sermon series.
00:33: We just finished last week, the book of Ephesians. You thought it could never be done. It has been done.
00:39: We finished Ephesians and next Lord willing, we're going to tackle that little book among what is known as the minor prophets called
00:49: Nahum. So I can't tell you when that will be, but it will be in the coming weeks.
00:55: Sometime this summer, we will pick up the book of Nahum. But we have an opportunity today to kind of set a foundation, to really just recalibrate ourselves, remind ourselves that the reason we do here, the reason we do what we do here is because of the word of God.
01:15: We believe in the unbreakable power of the scriptures.
01:21: And the reason we preach through the books of the Bible, the reason we preach through one book of the
01:26: Bible, and then we end up picking up another book of the Bible. And the reason we'll do that until we die or until Jesus comes back is because we believe in the power and efficacy and authority and sufficiency and clarity and necessity of God's Bible.
01:45: We are people here of the book. And I think about the chaos that is
01:50: America in 2024. I think about, I can't help, but you pull up social media and there's some breaking news.
01:58: You know, there were tornadoes last night in Northern Arkansas, but more than that, there's always seems to be a shooter here or a shooter there or I hesitate to even draw attention to it.
02:10: But we are at the time of year where we have Pride Month that starts coming up in a week.
02:18: I mean, we shouldn't acknowledge that, but it is the reality. It starts coming up this week. This Saturday is
02:24: June 1st, where our country parades around, shakes its fist at God, and says, we dare you to do something about our debauchery.
02:36: All right, so what do we do? What does the church do? I mean, we can get mad, we can get frustrated, and rightly, there should be some righteous indignation, but what does a church do in the midst of chaos and uncertainty and wickedness in our day?
02:53: Well, there are many things I could tell you, but one of the things I wanna tell you this morning is the church must stay resolute and shackled to the
03:02: Word of God. We must stay the course. We must see the
03:09: Scriptures as the very Word of God in written form. Listen, I just wanna tell you in wading into this sermon this morning, this has to be more than a formality.
03:23: Some people who profess to be Christians treat the Bible like Congress treats the
03:28: Constitution. You understand that's a bad thing, right? That's not good.
03:35: You can't look at the Bible as just this symbol that you say, oh yeah, we believe the
03:41: Bible, but in your practical and daily lives, you aren't reading it, you aren't having the
03:47: Scripture shape your mindset and your worldview, you aren't shackled to it as your highest authority in this life.
03:56: And so all of these things we want to address this morning from the Scripture. So let me just kind of give you a thesis
04:02: I'm going to preach from John 10, 35, but in the midst of a chaotic world of mutable ethics, viruses, and even the once basic understanding of human biology, the
04:15: Word of God is the unchangeable rule believers must stand on.
04:23: The Bible cannot be broken and all will give an account one day based on its immutable standard.
04:31: So John chapter 10. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word?
04:40: And just for some context, let's start in verse 31. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
04:49: Jesus answered them, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you going to stone me?
04:55: The Jews answered him, it is not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself
05:04: God. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods?
05:10: If he called them gods to whom the Word of God came, and here's our text, and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the
05:20: Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming? Because I said, I am the
05:27: Son of God. Let's pray. Father, would you help us to understand your
05:32: Word, the beauty of your unbreakable Bible? Help us to be a church, that not just in thought, not just in confession, not just on a piece of paper, say that we believe the
05:44: Bible, but let every thought and act and deed, the way that we interact, the way that we do church, the way that we worship, the way that we evangelize, the way that we order our homes, the way that we think about government, the way that we think about family and culture, the way that we think about Christ, may it all not just disconnected, but be practically driven and shaped by your
06:07: Bible. Give me grace this morning as I preach, and may Christ have the preeminence.
06:14: I pray it in his name, amen. You may be seated. So this morning, the sermon is simply the beauty of God's unbreakable
06:22: Bible. The beauty of God's unbreakable Bible. Now there's some stuff to work through here.
06:28: Jesus is quoting Psalm 82 6, and we really, it's not the focus of the sermon.
06:35: I'll just mention that it can either mean Israel's judges were called gods in Psalm 82 6, or Israel itself called gods.
06:43: The point is, that's not the point here. The point for us is Jesus is showing that his opponents do not have biblical warrant for stoning him simply because he says that he is the son of God, particularly because his works prove it.
07:02: But really, we read the context to examine that little phrase there in verse 35 that I highlighted, where Jesus just kind of offhandedly, right?
07:12: It's probably set apart in your Bible. It's like, it's not even part of the main point of what he's saying. It's almost just kind of offhandedly like, oh yeah, let me remind you of this truth.
07:21: So kind of offhandedly reminding his hearers of the truth, he says, Scripture cannot be broken.
07:29: And so what we're trying to do today is to remember that in the midst of a chaotic world of mutable, mutable means changeable.
07:36: So in a midst of a chaotic world of changeable ethics, ethics change, ethics today are different than they were yesterday as far as culture goes.
07:45: The changing viruses, changing political stances, even the once basic understanding of human biology, a girl is a girl and a boy is a boy.
07:57: In the midst of all these things that are happening today and things that are changing, it is the word of God that is the unchangeable rule on which we must stand.
08:08: The Bible cannot be broken and one day, all will give an account based on its immutable, that is unchangeable standard.
08:17: We serve an unchangeable God. We could explore the doctrine of God's immutability, but it's very practical if you think about God's unchangeableness because it reminds us that since God doesn't change, our
08:31: Bible doesn't change. We have a Bible that stands the test of time.
08:38: We have a Bible that we can trust and obey and that all the world will be judged by the standard therein.
08:46: And since God is unchanging, His word is unchanging. John MacArthur puts it this way, whatever's true about the character of God is true about the nature of God's word.
08:55: Think about that. Whatever's true about the character of God is true about the nature of God's word. He goes on, God is true, impeccable, and reliable.
09:03: Therefore, so is His word. Again, MacArthur, I'm still quoting. What a person thinks about God's word in reality reflects what a person thinks about God.
09:13: I'll say that again, that's MacArthur's word. What a person thinks about God's word in reality reflects what they think about God.
09:26: Is God's word to you worthy of spending time with? Is God's word to you something that can change, something that can mold, something that's malleable, that changes with the times and the seasons and the age?
09:40: Whatever it is that you think about the Bible, it's actually reflecting what it is you think about God.
09:47: What I wanna do in this sermon is to put forth for us the beauty of the immutable standard of God's word, namely the
09:57: Scriptures, the 66 books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. So number one this morning, let me say this.
10:06: The Scriptures are, number one, an unbreakable writing. Now this comes straight from the text.
10:13: The Scriptures are an unbreakable writing. Jesus says Scripture cannot, it is unable to be broken, that is dismissed, done away with, destroyed.
10:28: The Scriptures are unbreakable writing. Now the word for Scripture in our text is the Greek word graphe, which it literally just means writing.
10:37: And so this is what the Scriptures are. You probably remember the Vodibachum quote that the
10:42: Scriptures are a collection of writings. And he goes on talking about writings of 40 different authors over 1 ,500 years.
10:50: But the point is, I'm just trying to remind us this morning that the Bible is a collection of writings.
10:58: Poor men wrote these things. Rich men wrote these things. Young and old wrote these things.
11:04: Some who were very well educated wrote these things. Some whom the Bible actually calls ignorant and unlearned men wrote these things.
11:11: Some of these writings are composed in palaces, some in caves, some in jail, some during moments of great triumph and great joy, some in times of terrible grief.
11:24: Doctors wrote these words. Kings wrote these words. Prophets and priests and fishermen and shepherds and tax collectors wrote these things.
11:33: And Jesus says of these writings that they are unbreakable. Now, D .A.
11:39: Carson says the words of Scripture cannot be broken, mean that the Scripture cannot be annulled or set aside or proved false.
11:47: Now let me just throw something here. Some would tell you this morning, you don't trust the
11:54: Bible, you can't trust the Bible. Why? You could probably finish the statement. You can't trust the Bible because it's written by men.
12:03: So some would say, well, since God used murderers, Paul, adulterers,
12:10: David, uneducated, Peter, infallible men, that's all of them, to write the
12:16: Scriptures, then they indeed can be broken. Now I'm gonna tell you why that's not true in just a moment, later in the sermon.
12:25: But before I get to that, can we just appreciate the fact that Jesus don't care what those people say?
12:33: Can we just appreciate the fact this morning that I don't care what newspaper article, what
12:39: Times Magazine has to say, what somebody on YouTube has to say, I don't care what a professor has to say,
12:46: Jesus says the Scriptures cannot be broken. God is able to use fallible men to bring forth an infallible rule and standard in the
13:00: Scriptures. Jesus believes it, and that is enough.
13:05: Bible says that all Scripture, 2 Timothy 3 .16, is breathed out by God. So let me just, it's gonna get a little technical here, but let's remind ourselves that we believe in what is called the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture.
13:22: Now that's big words, but let's understand what we mean by that. Verbal plenary inspiration.
13:30: Verbal means words. So listen, the
13:36: Holy Spirit moving through the authors inspired not ideas, not concepts, of course ideas and concepts are included, but we're talking about down to the very words, verbal.
13:49: In fact, I'll illustrate it from the text. Look at verse 34. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law,
13:57: I said you are gods. Jesus is actually making an argument from a single word.
14:06: You understand? He is making an argument based on one single word in the
14:13: Scripture, the word gods. So the idea that I'm trying to communicate is, Scripture is
14:19: God's word down to the very individual words.
14:25: Verbal plenary inspiration, verbal words. Plenary means the whole
14:30: Bible. So it means not just a word in the Bible. So sometimes liberal theologians, they get kind of creative and they'll say something like this.
14:39: And to the faithful, it goes right over our heads sometimes because we're not listening carefully. And they say, the Bible contains the word of God.
14:47: And you say, well, you might be tempted to say amen. But there's a problem with that statement.
14:53: The Bible doesn't contain the word of God in the sense that it's not that inside the
14:59: Bible somewhere, you'll find the word of God. It's more accurate and proper to say, the
15:05: Bible is the word of God. Do you understand? It's not that we look at the individual words and we say, well, some of these words individually are inspired, but some of them ain't inspired, right?
15:16: No, you say, listen, the whole Bible, each individual word is inspired by God in its original language and original writing.
15:25: Each individual word is inspired by God and the whole thing, verbal plenary. And then when we talk about inspiration, we talk about what 2
15:35: Timothy 3 .16 means. Not inspired like Beethoven was inspired or you watched a movie and you were inspired to,
15:42: I don't know, compose a symphony. I don't know, whatever you're inspired. That's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about you saw a quarterback throw a great pass and you're inspired to go out and get better at athletics.
15:52: We're talking about the breathing out of the word of God into the mind and heart and will of the rider.
16:02: So verbal plenary inspiration is the biblical teaching that God works in the mind and the heart and the will through the culture and the time period of the authors so that each one pens exactly what they wanted to write while simultaneously perfectly preserving the exact words that God intends for them to write.
16:27: So thus the Bible is written by holy men, divinely inspired by God. That's what
16:32: Paul means in 2 Timothy 3 .16, God breathe. And that's what Jesus means in our text,
16:38: John 10 .35, that the writings are unbreakable. They're unbreakable, the scriptures are unbreakable because they're
16:46: God's word. Now, in each one of these points, we have four points. Each one I'm gonna give you an attribute of scripture.
16:52: The attribute I'll give you in this point is the attribute of clarity. So let me say this.
16:58: God used human authors to write in common language so as to communicate a clear word to us.
17:07: Now, we're not talking about that we can't sit around and debate the Nephilim, right? Talk about, okay, what does that mean?
17:13: There are difficult portions of the scripture. We can talk about, we can wrestle with that. But the point is that the scriptures taken as a whole are clear.
17:24: Jesus actually, if you read the Gospels, he actually interacts with people and says things like this.
17:29: Have you not read? In fact, he expects that the people around him would have read the
17:35: Bible. He says things to Nicodemus like, are you a teacher in Israel and you don't understand?
17:41: In other words, God hasn't given us gobbledygook. He hasn't given us a Bible code or something like that.
17:47: He's given us clear and understandable words that we can read.
17:53: The scriptures can be understood by children. In fact, Paul tells Timothy, he tells us that Timothy was acquainted with the scriptures from childhood.
18:05: That's what the Bible says. So as we consider this immutable Bible this morning, understand that it is a clear word from God and it cannot be broken.
18:15: Secondly, the scriptures are an unbreakable writing. Secondly, they possess unquestionable reliability.
18:22: They're an unbreakable writing. They possess an unquestionable reliability. So Jesus says in our text, almost offhandedly it seems, scripture cannot be broken.
18:34: Now I want you to consider something. Jesus has a much higher view of the
18:41: Bible than so much of evangelicalism today. It's very interesting, isn't it?
18:46: I'm not trying to pick on liberal denominations and such because we understand, they gone, right?
18:54: But I'm talking about people who profess to be conservative, that who profess to be a part of evangelicalism, whatever that word means anymore, and they profess to follow
19:06: Jesus, but then they say things like this. You give too much time to the Bible. You care too much about what the
19:12: Bible says, literally things that I've been told before, right? I was in a meeting one time, not here, this was years ago.
19:18: It was a meeting one time with deacons and we were having a situation and I said, you know, as a pastor, I have to give an account for the souls of the people of the church.
19:26: He said, no, you don't. I said, brother, Hebrews 13, 17, I started flipping over and he got mad, he's like, you're always going to the
19:33: Bible. Well, of course we're always going to the Bible, right? So you need to understand this morning that we live in an age of an evangelicalism that has a very low view of the
19:44: Bible while Jesus has a very high view of the Bible. So you say,
19:49: I follow Jesus, not the Bible, or I trust Jesus, but I don't believe everything in that Bible. But did you know that not one time in the
19:58: New Testament does Jesus have to defend the Bible?
20:04: He just points to it as truth. You can complain about the Pharisees, but if you don't trust the
20:09: Bible, you're actually worse off than the Pharisees. Because Jesus never had to sit around and say, now, you know, guys, this is the word of God.
20:16: They already agreed, right? They knew it. Jesus is not defending the scripture. He just can point to it and he can say things like this, and scripture cannot be broken.
20:25: And there's not a single person in the crowd when he says, and scripture cannot be broken. There's nobody saying, are you sure about that?
20:31: No, they're all doing this. Yeah, that's true. Why? Because they hold a high regard of the scripture.
20:38: So Jesus holds a high view of the scriptures. He loves the scriptures. He considered them as authoritative, and certain, and clear, and sufficient, and absolute.
20:47: He actually says things like this in Matthew 5, 17. Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.
20:52: I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So some crazy people try to use the
20:58: Sermon on the Mount to say, look, Jesus is changing everything in the Bible. No, he's not. He's coming to show their proper interpretation, and he's showing,
21:05: I am the fulfillment of the scriptures. He believed in a literal
21:10: Adam and Eve. He believed Jonah was swallowed by a giant fish. He believed
21:16: Moses wrote the Pentateuch, and ultimately, he believed the Bible pointed to him as the focus of divine revelation.
21:24: So if you hold a contrary position to anything that I just said, you hold a contrary position to the
21:31: Bible than does our Lord Jesus. I don't know about Adam. I don't know about Jonah.
21:39: Jesus didn't question these things. He gave them to us as truth.
21:45: So the scriptures cannot be broken, and what I mean here in this point is the scriptures are unquestionably reliable.
21:52: So I'm telling you this morning that everything the Bible says, whether it's talking about homosexuality, whether it's talking about floating axe heads, whether it's talking about a literal six -day, 24 -hour -for -each -day creation, whether it's talking about the resurrection of Christ, everything the
22:10: Bible says is unquestionably reliable. It is absolutely true, and even beyond just being true,
22:19: Jesus says it this way, God's word in John 17, 17 is truth. God is the
22:25: God of immutable truth. He is the God who cannot lie, and his word, therefore, is unquestionably reliable.
22:33: Every word of God proves true. Every word, every word. We talked about the attribute of clarity in the last point.
22:41: Let me mention here the attribute of necessity. That is, these scriptures, because every word that God says is true, are not only clear, but they're necessary.
22:54: Now, they're not necessary to know that God exists, and they're not necessary to condemn us.
23:01: I see this quoted a lot. God did not send his son in the world to condemn the world.
23:07: So I see people saying things like, you know, if Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, we shouldn't condemn the world, you know.
23:13: Things like that. But do you understand that the world, the point of that passage, John 3, 17, is the world's already condemned.
23:22: That's the point. You understand? Jesus doesn't come into the world to condemn the world. The world is already condemned.
23:30: Why? Because they see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the beautiful creation.
23:36: They see the aurora borealis. They see the snow falling, and the leaves changing, and all of God's wonderful creatures.
23:43: They see these things, and instead of turning to God, and worshiping God, and loving
23:48: God, they create idols, and worship idols, and go their own way.
23:56: But the scriptures are necessary if we want reliable truth about all that we are to understand and know about God.
24:03: In order to worship him rightly, to follow him, the scriptures are necessary.
24:10: In fact, I'll push it a little bit. Since the scriptures are unbreakable writings, and possess an unquestionable reliability, this book is absolutely necessary to address the chaos in our world today.
24:23: Quit, and I'm gonna get to this in just a minute, but quit putting the Bible aside and trying to address the problems of the world today.
24:31: Quit saying, well, the world doesn't believe the Bible, so I'm gonna set it aside, and I'm gonna try to find some neutral ground.
24:38: It's not right. I'll mention that in a minute, but let me put this before you. John Bunyan said, who are they that are so tossed to and fro with the several winds of doctrine that have been broached in these days, but such for the most part as have had a light esteem of the scriptures?
24:57: Listen, let me give an application here to parents. Parents, you want your children to be ready?
25:02: You want your children to be ready what they're gonna face in high school? You want them to be ready for what they're gonna face in college?
25:09: You want them to be ready for what they're gonna face when they get out into the world today? You must ground them in scripture.
25:16: I cannot tell you, I'm not that old. I'm only 37. In a couple of weeks, I'll be 38. I don't feel like I'm that old, right?
25:23: So I look at the world, and I know, I've seen already in my lifetime conservative people bringing their children up in a conservative church, and when their children go off to university, what happens?
25:38: They turn liberal. Why? They weren't grounded in the word of God. What's wrong with our youth today?
25:44: I get all this stuff coming up from Lifeway and different. What's wrong with our children today? What's wrong with teenagers today?
25:50: What do children need today? What do teenagers need today? They need the gospel. They need the good news of Christ, what
25:57: God has done for sinners by slaying his son on the cross and raising him from the dead.
26:03: They need the gospel of Christ, and they need to be grounded in the word of God. And parents, I'm telling you, this is gonna come across harsh.
26:09: You are failing your children if you do not ground them in the word of God.
26:16: Now, you can get mad about that and say, he's got no right to say that to me, or we can humble ourselves, and we can say, you're right.
26:25: I confess, I need to be a better husband and father in these areas. And so let's do this together and be committed to this wonderful book.
26:37: Thirdly, the scriptures are an unbreakable writing. They possess unquestionable reliability. Thirdly, the scriptures are an unchanging rule.
26:47: So Jesus says here, the scriptures cannot be broken. And I remind you of what
26:53: D .A. Carson has said about that. The unbreakableness of the scriptures means they cannot be set aside or annulled.
27:01: And so the idea when Jesus says scriptures cannot be broken should bring to our mind that God's word does not, it cannot change.
27:09: And because he is immutably holy, the standard that he has set forth for us in his word cannot and will not change.
27:19: God does not lower his standard of righteousness. I'll tell you a funny story. Three summers ago, Braden's baseball team, we made the state tournament, and that was fun.
27:28: That was a fun year. We had a fun regular season in the state tournament. I think we went like one and two or something, so that struggle.
27:35: But it's funny, I showed up, I think it was in Poland. I showed up to the first game, and I was just kind of, you walk around, you look at the field.
27:42: Now I do not know what the person who was painting the foul lines had eaten or drank that day, but I can tell you this, the foul lines,
27:53: I took a picture, they were like this, especially the one on first base. I mean, literally, it was like he just went like this.
27:59: Either that or they ran out of help and somebody told their three -year -old, hey, will you go chalk that line?
28:06: And I was just like, wow. So that's supposed to be the standard, right? And so it's supposed to be based on home plate, so home plate is the standard, and then the foul lines are straight, straight out into the outfield.
28:18: And so there's supposed to be an immutable, unchangeable standard that's true for everybody. The problem is somebody fallible had done that and it was a problem.
28:28: But I want to remind us this morning that the Bible's not like that. The Bible literally flows out of the unchanging character and nature of God.
28:40: So it's not a line that goes back and forth like this. It is a straight line that doesn't shift.
28:47: You can't shift it. God's not gonna shift it for you or for your family. He won't change it.
28:53: It cannot be broken. It cannot be bent. It cannot be annulled. It cannot be snuffed out. It cannot cease.
28:59: This is the unbreakable Bible of God. And even more comforting for the
29:05: Christian is that the reality is that the Bible is not dead.
29:11: It's living. It's not changing, but it's living. It's not just some unmovable stone from the ancient past.
29:19: It's living and active. There is an inviolable connection between the Word of God and the
29:24: Spirit of God. That is, the Spirit of God is perpetually taking the Word of God and he's making it alive, as it were, to those who encounter it.
29:35: I think as Martin Luther said something like this, I did nothing in the Reformation. The Word of God did everything.
29:40: Now, Luther's work in many ways is commendable, but he's right. It's not him that brought about the
29:48: Reformation or Calvin or Zwingli or whatever. It's the Word of God. And if you want hope for your children and for your home and for this church and for this nation and for the world, you're not gonna bring about Reformation, but the
30:01: Word of God is. And we put ourselves in front, but just listen to some of the things the Bible says about itself.
30:08: Jeremiah 23, 29 says that the Word of God is a fire. Scripture will burn away all that is false with a person's life or reality.
30:17: The Holy Spirit uses it to destroy false perceptions. The same verse,
30:23: Jeremiah 23, 29, says that the scriptures are a hammer.
30:29: The Bible smashes to smithereens all wrong and ungodly worldviews.
30:36: It has the power to break through the hardest of hearts. Psalm 119, 105 says the
30:41: Bible is a lamp. The Word points us to the narrow way. It exposes the darkest corners of our hearts.
30:49: It sheds light upon the human condition. It discovers in us any idols or erroneous views of God.
30:59: James 1, 23 and 24 likens Scripture to a mirror. If you wanna know what you really look like, then you need to read the
31:07: Bible more than you need to read the Bible. In one sense, you need the Bible to read you.
31:12: You need to gaze into its sacred pages and see what it says about who you are.
31:18: We can fool each other. You can fool your people on Facebook. You can put yourself out like you're really this one type of person, but you can't fool the
31:28: Bible. It shows us the reality of our filthy garments apart from Christ. Of course,
31:34: Hebrews 4, 12 and Ephesians 6 call the scriptures a sword, a double -edged sword.
31:39: It pierces us deep within. And this is what the
31:45: Bible is. Let's mention another attribute of Scripture here. So far, we've said that Scripture is clear and necessary.
31:52: Thirdly, let me say that Scripture is authoritative. This is what Jesus says in our text. Scripture cannot be broken.
32:01: Do you understand the whole argument? So let me come back to the text for a moment. And let me step forward.
32:07: Do you understand the argument Jesus is making? It's interesting, isn't it? Jesus appeals to something as authoritative to make this argument.
32:19: What does He appeal to? The Scriptures. Jesus recognizes the authority of the
32:27: Scripture. It is our highest authority. I mentioned the Reformation, one of the solas of the
32:33: Reformation, sola scriptura, Scripture alone, meaning the Scriptures alone are our highest authority in all things pertaining to life and godliness.
32:43: So some people come around, they think they're cute, and they say things like this. What's your highest authority? I say the Bible. Ha, ha, the
32:49: Bible's not my highest authority, Jesus is. Well, you are being foolish. Because the way that Jesus communicates
32:57: His authority is the Scriptures. You understand? You can't separate that.
33:04: You can't say, well, the Bible's not my highest authority, Jesus is my, of course Jesus is our highest authority, and He communicates that authority through what we can put our hands on, what we can put our eyes on, what we can listen to, what we can sit under in preaching, and that is the
33:18: Word of God. Let's say that you follow Jesus, but not His words is nonsense, all right?
33:26: That's like saying, I love my wife, I don't listen to her. Well, try that in marriage, and see how, disclaimer, that's sarcasm, don't try that.
33:37: It doesn't make logical sense to say, I follow Jesus, but not the book He gave us. So to disbelieve or disobey the
33:44: Bible is to disbelieve or disobey God. Jesus told the devil, quoting
33:50: Deuteronomy 8 .3, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
33:56: And so when we read the Scriptures or hear the Scriptures, we are reading or hearing, in a very real sense, the very voice of the unchanging
34:04: God. And the Bible is our immutable standard of truth. So that means all opinions, all creeds, all sermons, all church decisions, how we structure the church, how we worship, how we structure our family, what marriage is, how we behave in the workplace, how we consider what it means to be a good citizen, and what we think about a nation, what we think about government, it means everything must be tried by the word of God.
34:32: There's not a higher authority. The highest authority are the Scriptures.
34:39: Now our culture today doesn't want to say that anything is false except saying something is false.
34:45: That's the only wrong thing to do today is to say somebody's living wrong or somebody's doing wrong.
34:51: But I want to tell you this morning that we have God's unchanging rule. And it is okay.
34:59: In fact, I need to say it stronger than that. It is mandatory. It is obligatory that the church look at the world today and say the
35:14: Bible says. Now you're gonna hear some people, some of them well -meaning, some of them like Andy Stanley, snakes.
35:21: They're gonna say things like this. We gotta move away from that. Because the world doesn't care what the
35:28: Bible says. I know the world doesn't care what the Bible says. That's why I'm telling them what the Bible says, right?
35:35: They don't care what the Bible says, I get it. But I'm gonna tell them what the Bible says, why? Because I know in telling them what the
35:41: Bible says and quoting the Bible to them and teaching and preaching and heralding the
35:46: Bible that God is actually going to use the Bible. Do you think you've got better words than God does?
35:52: Do you think you have smarter words than God does? Do you think you have something to say to this godless and wicked generation today that is more clever, more loving, better than what our
36:03: God has said? Friend, you don't. Quote the Bible, teach the Bible, tell this godless generation this is what
36:12: God's book says. Let them look at you. Let them laugh at you.
36:18: It's okay. You've got the scriptures. And it is our duty to let them know that they are going to be held accountable for all that this book says.
36:33: It's foolish and sinful for a church to be afraid to tell the world this is what the
36:41: Bible says because they're afraid that the world is going to reject them. We believe what
36:49: Jesus believed. The scriptures cannot be broken. Now listen, the scriptures have broken many a man.
36:57: They've broken many a nation, many a woman, many a cult. But the Bible has never been weakened or redacted in the slightest.
37:06: Gunnar told us this morning and he's right. Our families, our land, our houses, our money, these things will pass away.
37:13: The word of God will stand forever. So in the midst of a chaotic world of mutable ethics and viruses and even the once basic understanding of human biology, it is the word of God that is the unchangeable rule that we stand on.
37:26: The Bible cannot be broken. And all will give an account one day based on its immutable standards.
37:32: This is God's unbreakable Bible, finally. So we stand upon this even if the masses reject it.
37:40: The scriptures are an unbreakable writing. They possess unquestionable reliability. They are an unbreakable rule.
37:48: And finally, they point us toward an unavoidable reality. When Jesus says a scripture cannot be broken, he means all of it.
37:57: Not just this verse that he's quoting. He means all the scriptures. From Genesis to Revelation cannot be broken.
38:05: You know, I'll mention this. Earlier in John 10, 27, sorry, earlier in John 10,
38:11: John 10, 27, Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
38:18: You know what a characteristic of a believer is? I don't know if someone, I don't know if I'm a believer. Do you hear the voice of Jesus?
38:24: Well, I've never heard Jesus audibly talk to me. No, no, no, what he means is, do you hear his voice and his word?
38:31: Do you hear the scriptures? My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
38:37: They seek to adjust their lives and their thoughts to the scriptures, because here's the unavoidable reality that judgment is coming.
38:49: As a whole, Christians in the 21st century, we don't know this blessed book the way that we ought to know it.
38:55: You need these words. You need to meditate on them. You need to memorize them. You need to study them. You need to live by them.
39:02: You need to wake up in the morning and read them. What's your habit like with this book? You need to consider these things.
39:09: The truth we need now more than ever is still here in this unchanging, unbreakable
39:15: Bible. And let me remind you this morning, sir, ma 'am, that one of the reasons this book is so beautiful is because it is in this book that we find
39:26: Christ. You don't find Christ on the mountaintop looking up at the stars.
39:33: That doesn't tell you about Jesus, but this book does. This book shows you
39:39: Christ. You don't need to just be in the book so you can go around winning arguments, apologetic arguments in the world today, but you need to be in the book so that your heart can receive the answers it needs too.
39:53: You need Christ. The book shows us Christ. It shows us who Jesus is. His humanity,
39:59: His divinity, His life, His death, His fulfillment of the law and prophets, His absorbing the wrath of God, His resurrection,
40:13: His ascension. It shows us our right standing before God is based only on this, grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.
40:21: I talked with a person recently. They said, I just don't feel like I've measured up. And I said, you're right.
40:35: That's why we need the gospel. That's why we need Christ. So an application here of unavoidable reality is that God's people must be more committed to His book.
40:46: But let me just drop the fourth attribute of scriptures here, that the Bible is clear, necessary, authoritative.
40:52: And finally, I could preach a whole sermon on this. It is sufficient. It is sufficient. That is, we have all we need in the
40:58: Bible to know God in a saving way and to live a life that is pleasing to Him, that we must structure the church and the home and ministries based on this sufficient, unchanging word from the living
41:10: God. Now, that's all I'll say. It's not all I want to say. It's all I will say right now. Because we need to consider, when
41:18: I say that the scriptures point us to an unavoidable reality, I'm really getting at this. The judgment of God is coming.
41:25: Do you believe? Jesus says the scripture cannot be broken. And He means that all of it is true.
41:31: And if it is true, all the good stuff is true. Well then, also all the things that may be concerned you or were you as true to, and that is
41:37: Christ is coming back to judge with a rod of iron. The scriptures cannot be broken, but many stand ready to be broken by the truth when the
41:47: Lord judges. All will give an account and all will be evaluated by the righteousness of this book.
41:55: I don't care if you think it's outdated. I don't care if you think it's unfair. Your life will be judged by the righteousness of this book.
42:03: It really doesn't matter if people believe the book is true or not. That doesn't change the veracity of it. It doesn't change the standard.
42:10: Our word is from, this word, it's God's word, is from our immutable God. And it's an immutable standard, unchangeable.
42:18: The scriptures cannot be broken, but listen to me, you can be.
42:25: The Bible cannot be broken, but you can be. One day there will be, and you know how, some people love when
42:35: I do sports analogies. You know how they watch college football or NFL and there's the instant replay and then they go to the booth review and they look at it and everything.
42:42: And sometimes somehow they still get it wrong. That's not gonna happen with you. One day there will be an instant replay, if you will, of your life, but it won't be a fallible
42:53: NFL referee reviewing the footage. It will be the Lord of hosts. It will be the righteous one.
42:58: It will be the King of kings and Lord of lords. And his judgment of you will be based on, I'm telling you this morning, the immutable standard of the truth that he has given to us in his word.
43:09: So again, I'm not trying to be mean to your grandma, but it doesn't matter what your grandma says. It doesn't matter what your neighbors say.
43:15: It doesn't matter what the man on the television say. Ultimately, it doesn't even matter what the man in the pulpit says if it's contrary to the word of God.
43:22: It is the word of God that all men will be tried. So two questions.
43:27: One, are you ready for that? If you're resting in your works this morning, you're not.
43:35: If you're hoping you get a pass for whatever reason, you're white, you're black, you're American, you're not
43:42: American, you think that you're gonna get a pass, you're not. If you're remaining in sin today, no one knows this sin that you're involved in, but you're staying in it.
43:52: No one knows, but you're staying the course in that sin. Then you're not ready for that day.
43:58: God is incorruptible. His holiness demands recompense for your sin.
44:05: You understand? And so your only hope is Christ. If you haven't fled to Jesus for refuge in faith, then today is the day that you must hear
44:16: His voice and not harden your heart and go to Christ. You must listen to the word of God.
44:22: You must hear things like this. The Bible says things like, the Spirit and the bride say, come.
44:28: That is the Holy Spirit as well as the church say to you, come to Christ today, be forgiven, but you must come in faith.
44:36: Trust Jesus's work today. Yeah, I feel like I've fallen short. Boom, you're not far from the kingdom, but don't stop there.
44:43: Don't rest and you're falling short. Instead, turn from it and turn to Christ. Trust His perfect life of righteousness.
44:51: Trust His sacrificial death, bearing God's wrath. Trust His resurrection. I deal with my children a lot.
44:58: The three of them, I believe, have been converted, but I deal with my children and they say things to me like, but how do I do that? Because in one sense, it's profoundly simple.
45:06: In another sense, it seems profoundly difficult. What do you mean, what do I do? You believe, okay, but how?
45:16: You believe, right? You look to Christ. You seek Christ. Call upon the Lord even today.
45:22: You say, but it's difficult. I want to believe. It's so hard. Call upon God. See if God would answer that prayer.
45:28: God, help my unbelief. Look to Christ. Flee to Him. God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him in Christ.
45:36: How do I know? The book told me. He won't cast you out. How do I know?
45:41: The book told me. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How do
45:46: I know? The book told me. If you want a relationship with Christ that is saving, you must repent, turn from your sins, and go to Jesus in faith.
45:55: How do I know? You guessed it, guys. The book told me. This is God's book. It is trustworthy.
46:02: It is reliable. Don't forsake what God has told you today. If you'll come to Christ, you'll be saved.
46:10: I say that on the authority of the word of God. It's not my idea. It's what
46:16: God has told us. You'll be ready for the day of judgment if you repent and believe the gospel.
46:24: Quit holding on to the idols of this world. Sometimes, some of you, that's big idols, your work, your hobbies.
46:34: Some of you little ones in here, it's little idols. You want to hold on to Spider -Man more than listening to mommy and daddy.
46:42: But they're all idols. Let go and go to Christ. And the second question is, knowing the truth, it's for the church, knowing the truth of God's immutable standard will we resolve today to know, stand on, and proclaim this truth?
47:03: You remember what Moses said to God? Please send someone else.
47:10: Now, that is sometimes the disposition of our heart. God, I didn't choose to be born.
47:18: Like, I want to live in the 70s or whatever. I wish today, instead of the 20s, 2020s,
47:27: I wish it was 50 years ago. I mean, you know, some of you were in the 70s, you know it's not like, it wasn't like there was no sin.
47:37: There's less moral clarity today, it seems. So I wish we could go backwards, but I'm gonna tell you something.
47:43: You can't go backward. This is the time we live in. And so you need to understand, you can't be like Moses and say to God, please send someone else.
47:52: No, no, no, this is who he sent. He sent Providence Baptist Church. It is our responsibility, church.
47:59: It is our responsibility to look around to Perry County, to look around to Central Arkansas, and to say, thus sayeth the
48:06: Lord. Listen to me, if our church is not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? That's not me disparaging another church.
48:12: I'm not trying to disparage any of the Lord's people. I'm just saying, are you really gonna try to give that responsibility to something else?
48:19: I'm gonna sit back in my lawn chair and drink my root beer and cast my line into the water, and someone else can worry about that.
48:26: No, no, no, God hasn't sent someone else. He sent us. Let us take the responsibility the
48:32: Lord has given us to this perishing generation seriously. These are the days to stand.
48:41: These are the days to proclaim.
48:48: Will you live out this truth? Will you believe what the Bible says, what Jesus says here?
48:53: The scriptures cannot be broken. We possess a clear, necessary, authoritative, and sufficient word from our unchanging
49:01: God in these 66 inerrant, infallible, God -breathed books. Will you spend more time?
49:07: It's summertime. Put the Bible on your reading list. Will you spend more time in this book privately and with our children and with our spouse and with believers over coffee and making attendance to the preaching of this book a non -negotiable priority?
49:23: Will you resolve to proclaim these truths to the masses even if it costs you, no matter the cost, and if they fine us, if they jail us, if they kill us, if they ridicule us, so be it.
49:40: There are a number of things that the world can do to me, but I got a book that can't break, and I'm gonna go forward clinging to this as it shows me
49:57: Christ, as it shows me what I must do as a husband and father and pastor and Christian, and this is the way forward.
50:08: Let us be people of the book. Let us love the beauty of God's unbreakable
50:15: Bible. I don't know how you need to respond today. I won't even presume.
50:23: I would surmise that there are people here that need to come to Christ. I would guess that there are
50:28: Christians here who haven't treated this Bible well, but I'll let the Holy Spirit do the convicting, and I will trust that God's word never returns void.
50:39: Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, and I plead your promise right now that it wouldn't return void.
50:47: Thank you for the beauty of your unbreakable Bible. Pray it's not just a rah -rah rally that we would remember in the most difficult seasons.
50:58: You've given us a book that cannot be broken, and so, Lord, I pray our hearts are attached to it in such a way that our spirits won't be broken.
51:06: We press forward in the work. We wouldn't grow weary until we cross that final river and see