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Well, I've been accused of a lot of things in my life as a pastor. One particular accusation that seems to come up on a regular basis is that I engage in bibliolatry. That I engage in bibliolatry. Biblion, which means book, and latria means worship, that I worship a book.
Probably some say that about you as well, that you're a person who worships a book, the book, the Bible. That word's thrown around a lot, usually in a derogative form, pejoratively, negatively. Some think if you don't believe in tradition, you only worship a book.
Back in the 90s, the Southern Baptist Church was accused of bibliolatry because they wanted to say the Bible is inerrant, it's infallible. Do we worship a book? Professor Mullins said in 1925, this is not to put the literature in place of the Redeemer, but only to assert that the literature is a necessary medium for the transmission to us of a knowledge of the Redeemer.
I think that's right. How about this, to help us as we think, do we worship a book or do we not? Mullins said, the telescope is interposed between the eye and the heavenly body. The astronomer is not accused of worshiping the telescope or advised to pursue the science of astronomy without its aid.
That's a good way to think about it. Do we worship a book? Do I engage in bibliolatry? Well, we might as well clear it up right now for once and for all, do I engage in bibliolatry? Turn your Bibles to Psalm 119, before you storm out of the church, as I put my hands up to the Word.
Psalm 119, before we're in 1 Corinthians, I'm just trying to set the stage so we understand what we're after today, what I'm after. Psalm 119, verse 48, David does something very interesting. He raises his hand to God's Word.
As people would stretch out their hands towards the temple, they know the temple is the localized presence of God and they would reach their hand out in a yearning for God to know who He was. And David realizes that Torah, that the Old Testament, that the Word of God is the focus of who God is and His divine presence.
And what does Psalm 119 say, verse 48? I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Do you feel better now? He says, God, I want to know you. You cannot know God apart from His Word.
Jesus was actually called the Word. One reformer said, we owe to Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 138, verse 2. Psalm 138, verse 2. We're almost to 1 Corinthians, but Psalm 138, verse 2.
I'll be reading from the ESV, although I'll quote the King James as well. Psalm 138, verse 2. For those that somehow think maybe we ought not to highly revere God's Word, Psalm 138, verse 2, the ESV says, I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
For you have exalted above all things your name and what? Your Word. Put right together. King James says, for thou hast magnified thy Word above thy name. Friends, we are people of the book. God communicates to us today through His Word.
He gives us wisdom through His Word, and so shouldn't we want to know His Word? If you want to know God, you know Him through His Word. So my purpose this morning as I preach to you from 1 Corinthians is that you would say to yourselves, God, thank you for giving me your Word.
Help me to study it with more enthusiasm, with more regularity, and Lord, I'd like to get to know you better, so help me to do that through your Word. We sing songs like, Lord, I Want to Know You. You get to know God through His Word.
Colin Hansen said, Americans love their Bibles so much so that they keep them in pristine, unopened condition. George Gallup says, Americans revere the Bible, but by and large, they don't read it, which basically means they don't revere it at all.
And at our church here, God the Holy Spirit has blessed us with a desire to study the Bible, from Sunday schools to Sunday morning, to AWANA, to VBS, to IBS, and the list goes on. God has given us that hunger, and so today, I want to pour the proverbial kerosene on your fire to say, keep going, way to go, keep studying.
And I want your attitude towards the Scripture to be this, if it isn't already. That seem odd? I don't want it to be. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. 1 Corinthians chapter two. Paul is writing this great epistle in love to correct the Corinthians.
I'm not preaching this passage, nor am I preaching this book, because I think we need a lot of corrections that are similar to the ones that 1 Corinthians needed. But it's good for preventative maintenance.
It's good so that we don't slide into this kind of church. And Paul writes 29 chapters to Corinth to tell them, this is our focus. Here's who Christ is, here's who we are, here's how we live our Christian life.
16 chapters in 1 Corinthians, and the first couple chapters dealing with church unity. So specifically dealing with how to look at wisdom. If everyone follows wisdom of men, then we're fractured. If everyone follows the same wisdom from God, we all line up, we all submit underneath the one, and we're unified.
So Paul has been preaching and preaching. He says, I don't want you to be hypnotized with worldly wisdom. You're getting very sleepy. Postmodernism, relative truth. You are the end of the world. Everything revolves around you.
We don't have to somehow buy credibility from the world by following their wisdom. Paul says there's wisdom from God revealed through the apostles, and then do everything you can, Corinth and Bethlehem Bible Church, to suck it in, to absorb it.
Have you ever seen a sponge, and you take a sponge and just squeeze it, make sure there's nothing in it, and put it in a big pool on top of your kitchen cabinet? And what does it do? It just absorbs it.
And then you squeeze that sponge over the sink, and it just all kinds of come, it all just comes out. I want to be able to take you after the service and figuratively squeeze you and have Bible verses just flowing out of you.
Spurgeon said, cut my wrists, and out of my blood vessels is going to flow, not blood, but bibling. Just verses ooze out. And if you'd like to know God better, if you'd like to follow Him better, it is the Spirit-applied, energized word that is going to help you.
We have no other resource, no other tool kit. And so Paul says to the church of Corinth, stop following the wisdom of the world and follow divine wisdom that we the apostles give you. And so in chapter two, verses six through 13, I gave you six reasons why you should want to study the Bible with continued enthusiasm, fresh enthusiasm, whether you're sick or whether you're healthy, whether you're a new Christian or an old Christian, you need to be reminded that there is wisdom in these words.
Not my words, but these words. The world's going to say, this is ABC stuff, this is infantile, this doesn't work. And Paul's going to say, no, no, listen. I might critique wisdom. I might say worldly wisdom is bad, but there is a good wisdom.
Six reasons you ought to saturate yourselves with God's Word. Number one, four of these are in review. Number one, you should saturate your mind with the Bible because God's wisdom is always relevant.
Found in verse six. That's the first reason. This is not a fad-driven scripture. Verse six, yet among the mature, Paul says, among Christians, we do impart wisdom. I'm not against all wisdom. Although it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away.
Literally, Paul says, wisdom we speak. There's a real wisdom that I want you to learn, but it's not temporal, it's not fading. Have you ever taken kids' bubbles? My kids are getting older now and I kind of miss bubbles.
You know, it's the cheapest $1 thing. It's a dollar, it's cheap. And you get the bubbles and you put the bubble thing in there and you just blow it and out comes this cool bubble. You can see all the different colors in that bubble and all of a sudden, it just kind of pops.
And so here comes Nietzsche's philosophy. Kind of looks cool, pops. Socrates, pops, it's gone. Michael Foucault, pops. Your favorite philosopher, it just pops. Paul said, you run after those, you're gonna be split up, so let me give you the real wisdom that never fades away.
It's always relevant, it's always in. We do impart that. Don't forget, when you see the we's and us's here, it's going to be the apostles. He's not saying the church of Corinth and me, Paul, we all impart this wisdom.
No, it's the apostles and we'll see that later as well. It's not this temporal thing, it's real wisdom from God that lasts. Well, number two, we saw in review last time. Why should we saturate our minds with the Bible?
A, it's always relevant and B, or number two, it reveals the eternal mind of God. It reveals the eternal mind of God. Verse seven, look with me. But we, apostles again, impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
God's wisdom is eternal, he's saying here. It's limitless. Verse six, here's the negative critique of worldly wisdom. It passes away and God's wisdom doesn't do that. So positively, what does it do? It's eternal.
I love that, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Why should you study the Bible? Number three, because it will disclose just how wise you really are. Or maybe I could put it this way, found in verse eight, so that you'll see that worldly wisdom isn't neutral.
What do I mean by that? Show me worldly wisdom and I'll show you what a crucifixion looks like. Verse eight, none of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
Mark this, worldly wisdom isn't neutral. Worldly wisdom attacks the Scriptures. It attacks God. It attacks Jesus. Show me the pinnacle. Show me the very height of, show me the apex of worldly wisdom and I'll show you a wisdom that says Jesus must die.
So when you look at the cross and say, that's mercy and wrath and justice and grace kissing one another. I say to you, you're wise. If you look at the cross and say, I can't be bothered, then I say to you, you're foolish.
It's a good test. Show me the smartest Harvard graduate in the world or any other university and I will show you someone, if they don't believe in the cross, someone who doesn't understand wisdom. They crucify, what's the text say?
The Lord of glory. Talking about Jesus. The essential attribute of God, His heavy glory, the Shekinah glory, that's spoken of Jesus, not just the Father. Number four, the fourth reason, final thing in review, reason why you should saturate your mind with Scripture is because it tells you things that you can never come up with on your own.
You couldn't invent this stuff. Only God tells us. And here, as we looked at last time, two weeks ago rather, verse nine, a very misinterpreted verse because we think that it sounds like heaven. It is true of heaven, but the context here is wisdom.
What's God's wisdom like? Like, I'll tell you, you could never come up with it with any of your senses, sight, hearing, tactile touch. What no eye has seen, talking of wisdom, nor ear heard, talking of wisdom, nor heart of man imagine, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
The wisdom that God has prepared for you through the apostles is out of this world. I'm trying to think of a good comment there, but I can't. I like crying babies. One man said, we know by the things we see, the things we hear, the things we smell, the things we taste, but divine truth is known by revelation.
How do you know God? Well, I'm just going to go outside and get to know Him a little bit. You only know generalities. The only way you know specifics about sin, death, hell, substitutionary atonement, resurrection is how?
A burning in your bosom? No. Most bosoms don't burn with, I'm a wretched sinner needing the grace of God. Most bosoms that burn don't say like Pastor Steve read today in Isaiah 64, verse 6, the best I offer is still like a filthy rag to God.
This is not about heaven, although those things will be true of heaven. This is about wisdom that God has prepared for us. We receive God's wisdom. We don't discover God's wisdom. Maybe that's the best way to put it.
And now we move on to number five. The fifth reason why you should love to study the Bible, that you need to study the Bible, is because you learn the deep things of God. The deep things of God. You will learn the intense things, the profound things, the weighty things in a world of superficiality, triviality, scratching the surface, but here we learn the deep things of God.
God, give me the deep truths. You'll find them in Holy Spirit inspired Scripture through the Apostles. Look at this in verse 10. I love this. These things God has revealed to us. The Apostles got that information.
We got these things that no eye could see, no ear could hear, no tongue could taste, but God told them to us. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. This is not just for a select group of people.
This is through the Apostles, not to us. And we all get to know because the Apostles are told to tell us what they know. By the way, this should tell the church of Corinth, stop trying to be better than the other person in the church because everything you know about God is what?
You came up with. You know, I go over here and I go in the tent and I make it really hot and I sit there and I think about God and I came up with a few things and then Bernard, he goes over here and he goes in a tent and then he just makes it even hotter and eats some peyote or something.
Now he comes up with some things and I go, I've learned this about God and it's way better than your Bernard kind of thing. But no, it's revealed to us. Nobody's better because we receive. We don't come up with.
You don't discover truth. You receive truth. Deep things too. Just how deep? Look at the Spirit of God, the third person in the Trinity. For the Spirit searches everything. Present tense. He searches and searches.
It doesn't mean he's coming up with new information because he's God. He's never learned anything. But everything he knows. Nothing escapes the attention of the Spirit of God. There's nothing beyond his knowledge.
That word deeps, by the way, I love. It is used of the depths of the sea. It means unfathomable. You can't come up with what's going on in the bottom of the ocean. I looked up, what's the deepest place in all the ocean?
Marianas Trench. You could put Everest in there and still have plenty of room to drown. The deepest place. They have like batho spheres that go down there to try to figure it out. We don't need a batho sphere to try to figure out the truth from God because the Spirit of God, who is God, searches the deep things of God.
He always searches them and then he tells the apostles to tell us. Who needs a spiritual batho sphere? Is there such a thing as a batho sphere? Sounds good. Today, no clapping, by the way, but today I've been married to Kim 21 years.
D-day. I'm just kidding. Now sometimes I know what she's thinking. Sometimes I can finish her sentences. But there's lots of things that Kim thinks about that I have no idea. I didn't say where they came from.
I don't understand her. I don't know her omnisciently. I can't even understand another person's thoughts and I've been married to her for 21 years. And Paul uses a little illustration here to teach us that only God knows God.
The Holy Spirit has to be God and He knows God and like knows like and if like knows like, then like can tell us what God's like. Verse 11. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him?
Who knows what I'm thinking right now? Nobody knows except me. What are you thinking right now? Nobody knows except you. What is God thinking right now? What has God thought? No one knows except God. And here the omniscient spirit knows what God's thinking.
You say, I'd like to know what God's thinking. How do I get to know God? You get to know God through the Spirit of God as He uses the apostles to tell us. So also, verse 11, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Like knows like. What God is doing, only God knows. What God is doing, the Spirit of God knows. The Spirit of God is God. Can you imagine this? God has private thoughts. I have some private thoughts and you never get to know them.
Nobody ever gets to know them. And the only way you get to know my private thoughts, what makes me tick, what I do, what I think, they are private thoughts. I owe them to no one. But if I decide to tell you about how I work, what I think, what my private thoughts are, what I like, what I don't like, I can decide to tell you, can't I?
And then you'll get to know me. If I didn't tell you, I didn't tell you. The Spirit of God owes nothing to sinners and yet He says, I'm gonna tell you what I'm like. I'm gonna tell you what God's like.
I'm gonna tell you about who He is, what He's done, what He did in eternity past, eternal decrees, what happens in the future, eternal heavens, and I'm going to tell you. So why would you ever listen to human philosophers when you can have what God thinks?
That's the point. I love these verses for lots of reasons. Here's one. Before I preached this passage in 6 -13 of chapter 2, I never underlined these verses. My goal today is to get you in your mind to underline them so you'll realize I need divine wisdom, it's found in one place.
Who underlines chapters 2, verses 6 -13? Before this service, whoever did, before this sermon series? Some did, always there to prove me wrong. I don't know what's in a person because I can't examine them until they tell me.
It's like the guy who said, sometime read the Bible, but don't read the verses you've underlined, read the verses you haven't underlined. To think that God has given us wisdom. What's the beginning of wisdom, Solomon said in Proverbs?
Fear of the Lord, but he also said, here's the beginning of wisdom, get wisdom. Acquire it, where do we go? It's in the Word. And so I am committed to try to tell you with great happiness, by the way, way to go Bethlehem Bible Church for your study of the Bible.
And as Paul says to the church of Thessalonica, what? Say it out loud. We have a few old elect people here. Excel still more. Keep going. The world is going to keep on selling you wisdom. So don't say, well, you know, I've read through the Bible one time and I'm good to go.
The world sells its wisdom and God says it's fatal. It passes and it doesn't know what God's thinking. I want to know what God's thinking. What an interesting concept. Let's see, what am I going to study today?
Geometry, calculus, difficulties, all these other subjects, which are fine to study, especially if you're in school. But I think today I'll study the mind of God. Tell that to your unbelieving roommate at WPI.
What are you doing today? I'm studying the mind of God, the depths of God. He's decided to disclose himself. It takes study, yes, but it's worth it. And now number six. The sixth reason found in this text that you should study the word of God is that you get to be taught by the best teacher in the universe, the Spirit of God, verses 12 to 13.
You should study the Bible. It's relevant. It shows the eternal mind of God. It shows just how wise you are. It shows you things you could never come up with on your own. It shows you the deep things of God and it teaches you truth from the best teacher in the world, the Holy Spirit himself.
Verse 12. Don't forget, our we's and us's here. It's not Paul and the Church of Corinth. This is the apostles. Remember, they're false apostles teaching all kinds of wrong things. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world that passes away, that's doomed, that comes up with nothing, but the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
And as we get them from God, now we give them to you from God. People say, well, you know, I really like Jesus' writings, but I don't like Paul's. I'm kind of a red letter guy and I just study the red letters and if Jesus says that, then, you know, I go for it.
But if Paul does, you know, that's Paul. Or people say, well, you know what? Especially if they don't like a particular verse, they say, man wrote the Bible. Men wrote the Bible, but they wrote what God the Holy Spirit told them to write, the deep things from God.
By the way, when people say, I don't like Jesus, I like Jesus' red words, but I don't like, you know, Paul's, I just hope they read the Sermon on the Mount sometime and they read chapter seven and they'll say, well, maybe I don't really like Jesus because he exposes sin too.
The black letters in your Bible are just as inspired as Jesus' words. And don't fall for this error either. The Bible just contains the Word of God. Is that a good word to say, a good sentence? The Bible contains the Word.
What's wrong with that? I call that a weasel word because it sounds close and to the naive, we might just say, well, yeah, that's right, it contains the Word of God. But here's what people are saying.
It isn't all God's Word. Some of it is and some of it isn't. So the Bible does have divine truth, it contains it, but it's not all the Word of God. Paul said, I didn't just come up with this. I just didn't somehow say to myself, I think I'll start Christianity.
Paul says, God of the Spirit taught me and if you'd like to be taught by God, then read your Bibles and read the wisdom from God, of God. And you notice what he says here? How does God communicate today?
In words. Verse 13, and we apostles impart this in what? Words, in grammar, in syntax. That's how God communicates today. Not in dreams any longer, not in visions any longer, not in pillars of cloud any longer, not in words any longer.
This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased. Do you know how God communicates to people today and how He only communicates to people today with direct revelation? Through words. He communicates through words.
So this would be a good time to stop. The Spirit teaches words. And they're freely given. Leon Morris says, the Spirit's activity extends to providing the actual words used and is not confined to the supplying of general ideas.
God communicates not phrase by phrase, not thought by thought. He communicates with exact words. No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 5 that not one jot or not tittle is going to be destroyed. It's going to be this eternal mind of God.
By the way, I did some research and how many jots or how many tittles or how many in Hebrew, yodes, are there? Just the smallest little marking. If I remember how Bengal counted before computers, he counted 66 ,420 yodes in the Bible.
Because those yodes help us understand what the letters were because the letters help us understand the words and the words help you understand God. I used to tell people that came to my Bible study in North Hollywood, you'd like to be a good Bible student?
Here's my first recommendation outside of reading the Bible. Go take an English refresher class because if you're anything like me, when I went to school, I shot spit wads during English class. You know, rubber bands with needles and stuff like that up into the ceilings.
I didn't understand what a phrase was, what a clause was, what a particle was, what a preposition was. The object of a preposition. You want to understand God? Okay, let's just say we don't understand Greek or Hebrew.
But you can be a great scholar, a great student, a great theologian if you understand the English language. This is a great translation. NES is a great translation. New King James is a great translation.
You don't need to know Hebrew and Greek, but you have to know English. What does the text say in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13? And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
He is our teacher. What a great teacher. I can go back to my seminary days and think, well, who's my favorite teacher? One of my favorite teachers was Dr. Roskup. I know Steve had Dr. Roskup as well. My favorite thing about Dr. Roskup is this.
He loved the Lord and he loved his wife. His wife was sick and he'd have to quickly leave class and drive all the way home to take care of his wife. She couldn't get out of the house. You'd go up to Dr. Roskup.
I'd say, Dr. Roskup, I'm struggling in this area of my life. Would you please pray for me? Yes. A year later, you'd see him in the elevator at the seminary and he'd kind of give me that scowl. It was a smiley scowl, but it was still a look of displeasure.
Hi, Dr. Roskup, what's going on? Well, I told him that that particular thing in my life was much better and he was disappointed that he had to continue to pray about what had already been resolved about nine months earlier because every single day of his life, he prayed for that issue because I asked him, could you pray for me?
Who's a teacher like Dr. Roskup? Who loves like Dr. Roskup? Who's your favorite Bible college professor? Oh, I love that teacher. But to think we have the Spirit of God as our teacher. And this isn't just for pastors, by the way.
This isn't for the deluxe club. This is for everybody. And then at the very end, a very complex, very difficult thing to understand. Scholars debate what this means. Interpreting at the end of verse 13, interpreting spiritual truths to those who aren't spiritual.
I'll quote Garland, spiritual subjects, namely the things that God has graciously given them, such as Christ's sacrificial death on the cross require spiritual expression. Words taught by the Spirit. And now we come full circle.
Paul says, I didn't pick these words because I'm trying to win an audience. I didn't pick these words because it grows churches by numbers. I didn't pick this because the Jews hankered for them and the Gentiles demanded them.
I picked these words because what? God told me these words and told me to tell you these words. I don't use rhetoric and oratory. I use the words that God gives. Now, let me just push this for a second.
If God is the great teacher of the Holy Spirit, there's got to be a few implications. Let me give you the first one. Here we have a great teacher of God, the best teacher, the omniscient teacher. Let me give you an implication.
Number one, trust God that he has supplied all the information that you need to know when you're facing a problem. Trust God that he has supplied all the information that you need to know when you're facing a problem.
Now, the text doesn't teach that. I'm just saying this. If God is the great teacher and you're in a great problem and the Spirit is, the Scripture is sufficient, don't say to yourself, I wish God had given me more information because I've got a problem and I don't know what to do.
We've all done that, I think. We've all been tempted to do it. I have this huge problem in my life and I'm looking for a Bible verse. I just need to figure out what do I do? God, help me. I wish you could be more specific.
But as the great teacher of the universe, as the great God of the universe, the Spirit of God, did he forget something? If I could just find, God tells me to go be a missionary to Maddis Gasgar, I would go.
So here's what you do, by the way, when you have a trouble that needs to be solved, when you have trouble that needs to be solved, a decision that needs to be made. So immerse yourself with divine wisdom that doesn't even necessarily relate to your problem and then trust the Lord with all your heart and make a decision.
Saturate yourself with wisdom from the Word and then make a decision. You don't have to be told, well, I need to marry Jim, you know, or I need to marry Sam. Who should I marry, Jim or Sam? And then you drive down the street and you see Samuel Avenue.
There's a sign from God. You don't do that. That's not bibliolatry. You know what that is? That's bibliomancy. People used to take old books and they would open up the book and they would point to something in the book and say, that bit of the Quran, that bit of Socrates' wisdom, that bit of whatever book that they were reading, that book of proverbial wisdom from Confucius is now what God wants me to do in my life.
And they called it bibliomancy. Doesn't that sound like what we are prone to do? Because I think we forget that we have the greatest teacher. And if God didn't tell us these details in here, He didn't tell us for a reason.
That is to say, He doesn't want you to know. He wants you to know general wisdom and then He wants you to trust in Him. Don't ever think that you wish you'd have more to the Bible because there's plenty in there to try to understand now, but God wants us to know His nature and His character so much so that we just say, I have a decision to make and I need to make that decision.
Trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will what? Make your path straight. Why do we want to say, yeah, but I want some other teacher and I think I'll do circumstances for a teacher.
For those of you who are on the BBC mailing list, I sent out something this week from S. Lewis Johnson called Satanic Providence. Satanic Providence is what S. Lewis Johnson calls the art of looking at circumstances to make decisions in your life.
And he talked about how Jonah, Jonah goes down, he wants to run from God and he goes down to the harbor and he needs to go that direction and that boat that he went down to, it's going to Tarshish. Perfect.
How much is it? Well, it's this amount. I just happen to have that exact amount in my pocket. It's a sign from God. S. Lewis Johnson said that is Satanic Providence. Trusting in circumstances and trusting in open and closed doors versus trusting in the wisdom from God and God says in his wisdom, I told you everything you need to know about me.
Now go make some decisions. And by the way, here's the great escape hatch. If you make a wrong decision, an ignorant decision, a foolish decision, a wise decision, a sinful decision, a righteous decision, God our father will make all those things right.
Not for us to presumably do those things, but God is sovereign over sin, ignorance, everything else and he will take his children and guide them in the direct path that they need to go and that is unto glorification.
No decision you can ever make will stop God from glorifying you if you're a Christian. That doesn't mean go out and sin. That means go out, flood your... Here's what I do. I need to make a decision. What do I do?
I'm telling you this is the truth. I read 1st and 2nd Kings. Why? A, I'm selfish and 1st and 2nd Kings don't have anything to do with me. I'm not in 1st and 2nd Kings. Not anywhere to be found. If I was, I'd probably be on the evil king side, but for the grace of God.
And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. You just hear the kids refrain. It has nothing to do with me, but it has everything to do with God who builds his kingdom, who saves sinners, who's sovereign over evil, who's sovereign over sin, who brings some up, puts others down and you read 1st and 2nd Kings and you go, God is so in charge of the world, I'm just gonna go make a decision.
And if my decision's stupid, well, maybe I made it presumptuously and in discipline, God disciplines me and chastens me, but he will never cast me out and he'll turn everything into good. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
True? So make some decisions without some kind of biblomancy. Read 1st Kings, read 2nd Kings and say to yourself, the greatest teacher in the world did not make a mistake by only putting 66 books in here.
I wish chapter 67 would have been in here on where to find a husband, where to move, what to do here, there, the other. No, saturate your mind with wisdom and you know what wise people do? They often make wise choices.
Show me someone that continually makes foolish choices and I'll show you somebody that needs to read 1st and 2nd Kings a little more often, Romans a little more often. A second implication regarding a great teacher, don't add anything to the Holy Spirit's word.
Not new revelations, not tradition. You've read the warning in the back of Revelation. The greatest teacher, this is the flip side of the first implication. The first implication is don't somehow yearn for more and then I'm trying to say to you now, don't add more.
Here's I guess what I could say. I've got it down as implication number three, maybe these all three to go together. Be content with what God has revealed in Scripture and study that. I love when people quote Deuteronomy 29, 29, but only half the verse.
You know the verse? The secret things belong to the Lord our God. Secret things belong to Him, I don't know. That's kind of a good verse to use. I like to use it, but it's not the full verse. How about this for the full verse?
The secret things belong to the Lord our God. Okay, ready? I live for these moments right here. But the things revealed belong to us. He's talking Israel. And to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of the law.
Some things you can't know about God, but the things that you do know about God and what He's told you to do, get busy doing that. To have the greatest teacher, the Word of God, should have you say here at this church, and I know you do.
Let me give you another implication. I demand the Bible to be taught to my kids in this church. I demand the Bible to be taught from this pulpit. I demand the Bible to be taught at VBS. I haven't talked to the VBS people, but let me just give you kind of just a heads up.
I'm gonna do this in a pastorally nice way. If you teach those kids at VBS to mind their manners, to say yes or no, sir, to show up on time, to give their money to the offering for the missionaries, and don't do anything else.
Let me just take care of this early. You're fired. That's not wisdom from God. That's not wisdom from the apostles. If you're a teacher here at this church, every single parent, every single junior church, every single get-together, every single VBS should say, tell the kids the wisdom from God about the nature of sin, and who the Savior is, and the resurrection.
Here's who Jesus is. It's not the wisdom of God to have the VBS class say, you know, everybody just pray the prayer, and everybody that raised their hand, you're in. We have this great wisdom from God.
And if you know me for long enough, and I know your kids for long enough, I'm going to do everything in my power to saturate your minds with the Bible. It's going to be like the manna that's coming out of your ears.
It's going to be the quail. You know, we should like some meat besides the manna, God, and God gives them quail, and it's coming out of their nostrils. This is called Bethlehem Bible Church for a reason.
And as long as I'm alive, and as long as the elders are alive, I have no wisdom. I can't offer you anything. I can't change anybody's life. I can't save you. I can't sanctify you. I can't glorify you.
I can't do anything. Maybe make you mad. I can do that. I can't do anything, but I am determined, and you are as well, and it is a gift from the Spirit of God that you have this as well. Give me the book.
Amos says there's a famine in the land, so give me the Bible. It's not a famine for food. It's a famine for the word. I want you to be wise. I want you to be skilled in living. I want you to say, you know, I know how to look at things.
I'm no great politician. I'm no great economist. I'm no great sports analyst, but I have a wisdom from God, and so do you, through the apostles, through the word where you say, I know life. I know more about life and death, and so do you, than any unbeliever you've ever met or will meet.
I don't call up unbelievers and say, could you kind of walk me through this problem in my life? Because I've been taught the word, and so have you, and so I guess I like to say this every once in a while, and I'm not trying to ruffle feathers, but you need to demand the Bible from this place, even if it divides.
Truth divides, by the way, and truth divides what? Truth from error. Well, it's just kind of so divisive, and it just kind of, that's just kind of the, it just slices. Propositional truth says, this is right, and this is wrong.
That's just the way it is. If I was going to come up with the wisdom from God, here's how my ears, my eyes, my nose, and my taste buds, and my hands would figure it out. I've got a way to kind of balm everyone, calm everyone, get everyone to like me, and then kind of over here, I'll just slip in some truth.
But even like last week with Luke 17, that's just not the way God does it. That's why I want you to read Mark this summer, because you'll look at Jesus, and you'll say, nobody teaches like Jesus, and he stands up to teach the truth to people, whether they think they need it or they don't.
So if you're an Awana leader here, VBS leader, Sunday school teacher, you're an evangelist here, I want you to give what God has given you, and that is, I receive wisdom, and I give it out. I'm going to know this book.
Machen said, if we're going to avoid controversy, we might as well close our Bibles, for the New Testament is a controversial book, practically from beginning to end. The New Testament writers and our Lord himself presented truth in sharp contrast with error, and indeed, that is the only way in which truth can be presented in any clear and ringing way.
If you don't read your Bible, today's a good day to repent. Ask God to forgive you. He will, and start reading today. You want to be wise? You'd like to come into my office for less counseling? Read your Bibles.
Read your Bibles and say, God, open my eyes so that I can see in your law deep things, wonderful things. I want to worship you, and I want to receive from you who you are, and if this is the focus of divine presence, God, I want to worship you.
Feed me. Luther said, I have coveted with my Lord that He should not send me visions, or dreams, or even angels. I am content with this gift of Scripture, which teaches and supplies all that is necessary both for life that is on earth now and that which is to come.
Now here's my final question. What's your view of this book, our Heavenly Father? I know you use the word to encourage, to chasten, to sanctify, to convict, and I pray for the members of Bethlehem Bible Church, for the staff, for the visitors today that you would increase our hunger for your word.
Thank you that you're a forgiving God. We've never studied the Bible like we should, so we look to Christ Jesus, our risen Savior, one who studied Torah exactly the way we should have. And how you look at us now as great Bible students because of Christ, but practically, Lord, help us.
I pray that the church this summer would have hunger pains for the word. Their stomachs would growl for the word. And Father, I know it's easy to do in my life, and so I pray for this church as well. It's all too easy to go on vacation and get out of the routine of reading the word, worshiping you.
So Father, prevent that this year. May you give us a rest during the summer, holiday, refreshment, sabbatical. But Father, don't give us rest from wanting to know you better. As the song says, Lord, we do want to know you.
And you have made yourself known. So Father, turn our hearts now toward your word. And let us never be satisfied by circumstances, dreams, visions, burning in the bosoms. Father, help us to read your word.
So I pray that you'd encourage the congregation, too, as they do that, and they might see marvelous things. In Jesus' name, amen.