Sunday, September 22, 2024 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church iconSunnyside Baptist Church

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim, Pastor

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Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this day, and I thank you for your grace that is at work through your
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Son, and by your Spirit, and these folks here today. How grateful we are for your gift of the
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Holy Spirit, and for your love that is poured out in our hearts by your
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Spirit, given to us in the peace of Christ, which has been wrought by His blood, by His death and resurrection.
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What a joy it is to love one another. How good it is to love one another in this your church.
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To love one another by your grace and for your glory. We thank you this morning for the gift of your
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Word. We thank you that we may take up this Word and in the light of Jesus Christ and by the leading of the
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Holy Spirit know who you are and what you have to say, and that we may rejoice in it and be changed by it.
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We pray this morning that there would be, through your Spirit, a hearty amen in our lives concerning the truth of your will revealed here from heaven.
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We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to open your
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Bibles and turn with me to Acts 17. Acts 17, and we'll be reading verses 1 -15 this morning.
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Acts 17, verses 1 -15. The title of our sermon this morning is
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The Good Book. The Good Book. It should not be surprising how essential and how authoritative the
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Bible is presented in the Bible. Whether we're in the first five books of the
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Bible, and Moses is writing down the Word of God in the shadow of that grove of Acacias beneath Mount Peor before the
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Israelites cross over into the Promised Land, or relaying to them the precepts of God, those ten commandments that he himself wrote down on the tablets.
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To the very last book in the Bible, which only has 404 verses and some 700 textual allusions to other passages of the
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Bible. More Scripture is crammed into those verses than any other place.
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So, from the beginning to the end of the Bible, the Bible showcases the authority and the essential nature of the
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Bible. And that's true in the book of Acts, where the preaching of the gospel proceeds by the preaching of the
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Word of God. The preaching of the Word of God in Acts 2, 3, who can forget
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Stephen's masterful sermon in chapter 7, and the preaching of the gospel in Galatia by Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter 13.
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When the people of Christ, when the church was trying to figure out how to organize themselves and how to proceed in a difficult time, they turned to the
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Scriptures in Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 6, trying to figure out how are we going to organize ourselves as a church.
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When it came to navigating the tumultuous politics of the day, both foreign and domestic, where they were often the target of tyrants, in Acts chapters 4 and 5 and 12, they turned to the
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Word of God to know how they were to respond, what their proper mindset should be.
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And so here again, in Acts 17, we find Paul and Silas coming to Thessalonica with the
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Word of God to preach the Scriptures. I invite you to stand with me and let us read together
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God's Holy Word. Acts 17, beginning in verse 1. This is the
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Word of the Lord. Now when they had passed through Amphitholus and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the
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Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the
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Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying,
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This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout
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Greeks and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. But the
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Jews, who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and, gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
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But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out,
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These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying,
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There is another king, Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
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So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Then the brethren immediately sent
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Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the
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Jews. These were more fair -minded than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness and searched the
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Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the
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Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul in Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds.
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Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea. But both Silas and Timothy remained there.
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So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens, and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.
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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. A generation or two ago, there used to be a trope in pop culture, whether put into the screenplay or put into the comic book or the novel.
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And the trope went something like this. As the good book says, and the director or the author's idea there was, what a great line from the
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Bible, very often in the King James. How poetic. And recognizing that many of our sayings in English were derived directly from the
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Bible. They want to bring in this powerful word, but they want to do so without committing themselves to any kind of religious position, without saying anything too doctrinal or theological.
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And so the person will say, as the good book says, kind of a soft nod to the
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Bible, and then the quote comes into play, usually out of context. And it functioned very much like that disrespectful, if not outright profane, description of God as the man upstairs or that neutral, nothing of the greater power.
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And that's how it was used. But now it is an absolute scandal to even suggest that the
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Bible is a good book at all. Now this trope is no longer used as the
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Bible is considered a very bad book, very bad indeed. We are told in our culture today, which is a negative culture, as Aaron Wren has said, we are a negative culture versus Christianity, that the
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Bible is just no good. The Bible is no good historically, scientifically, or sociologically.
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The Bible is no good logically, factually, or emotionally. The Bible is no good textually in its transmission or translation.
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The Bible is no good politically, or culturally, or morally. But we find in Acts 17 that the
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Bible is good. The Bible is indeed a good book, the good book,
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God's holy word, and it's meant for all mankind. I think this passage leads us to affirm by both our words and our deeds the goodness of God's word.
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We have encouragement here, we have example here. I think we have three affirmations that we can say for sure that leads us to three actions that I think would glorify
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Christ. And the first affirmation is this, that the Bible counts as proof.
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And it's the good kind of proof. Secondly, that the Bible creates problems, the good kind of problems.
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And thirdly, that the Bible clarifies its own point, and what a good point it is.
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Therefore, we ought to reason with the Bible as our proof. Therefore, we ought to reckon with the power of the
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Bible, counting the cost of being committed to God's word. And thirdly, we should receive well, with eagerness and diligence,
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God's word. We need to push back against an unfitting fear that arises in our hearts.
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We need to dispel this absurd folly where we go around apologizing for the Bible, where we're always on the defense concerning the
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Bible, where we keep our distance from the Bible when it comes time for public dispute and debate, where we even embrace doubts about the
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Bible and avow that we have doubts about the Bible. We should not apologize for the holy
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Bible. The scriptures themselves, the
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Bible itself is not God the Father, it is not God the Son, it is not God the
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Spirit. But here in the Scriptures, everywhere in the Scriptures, the
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Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit. And while this is not the Holy Spirit and this is not
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God the Son, this is certainly the ring upon His finger which all men must kiss.
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This is the scepter of His lordship. If somebody says Jesus is Lord, let me ask you by what measure is
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His lordship felt in your life? Here is His scepter. Here is
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His authority. Now, first of all, the Bible counts as proof, it's a good kind of proof.
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Notice in verses 1 -4 that Paul and his missionary team travel a hundred miles west on the
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Via Ignatia to this imperial city of Thessalonica, a city as proud of its
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Greek heritage as Philippi was of being a Roman colony. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the
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Jews. Now, we know Paul's pattern. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three
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Sabbaths reasoned to them from the Scriptures. Now, we're not thereby to understand that they only spent a grand total of three weeks in Thessalonica, but that he only used up three
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Sabbaths in the synagogue proper preaching the Gospel from the
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Scriptures. And from there, many were converted and saved, and then the Christians had their own church services.
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So, he was there for three Sabbaths. Now notice what he was doing with the Word of God. He reasoned with them from the
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Scriptures. That means he was laying thought alongside thought. And he was using conjunctions like therefore, and even wherefore possibly.
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He was using conjunctions and prepositions like not only, but also.
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And he was bringing thoughts together from the Word of God. Laying thought alongside thought.
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Putting these logical progressions together where they would see incrementally and in totality the glories of Jesus Christ.
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Not only did he reason with them from the Scriptures, but he was explaining. Which means he was taking things that were not as clear and he was making them clear.
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He was answering questions they didn't even know that they had. But once he answered them, they had burdens lifted off their heart.
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And he demonstrated. That means that he was taking all of this teaching and he was laying it carefully paving stone with paving stone and he was paving a path for them to move out of shadow to the substance.
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From the darkness to the light. From death to life. As they turned their attention to Jesus Christ.
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And he preached to them. He heralded the truth of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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And we see that many were persuaded. Meaning they believed.
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They believed. Look who's there. There are Greeks. And there are
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Jews. There are men. And there are women. Some of them are leading and notable. And some of them are not.
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But the Word of God is preached to them all. It's preached in this Hellenistic city.
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This Greek specter of a city in Macedonia far and away from Jerusalem where the events of Jesus' life came to a culmination.
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And yet, the preaching of the Word of God is meant for the Romans in Philippi and the
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Greeks in Thessalonica. It's meant for men and women and free men and slaves. It's meant for all these different types of people.
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The Bible counts as proof. Paul picks it up. He takes the Word of God and he reasons and he explains and he demonstrates and he preaches so that people would believe and be persuaded.
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And this is what he did even as he moved on. When he left Thessalonica, he went to Berea. He did the same thing.
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He went to Athens and he did the same thing. And he left there. He went to Corinth and he did the same thing.
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In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 -4, he reminds them of how he came to them not so long after Thessalonica, and he was preaching to them.
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1 Corinthians 15, verse 3, For I deliver to you, first of all, that which
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I also receive, that Christ died for our sins, listen, according to the
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Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose again in the third day according to the
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Scriptures. You wouldn't find a more cosmopolitan pagan city than Corinth.
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You talk about a place that has no framework for the Hebrew worldview and the events of Moses and David who has no appreciation whatsoever for the
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Old Testament Scriptures, but Paul came to Corinth and he preached the Scriptures, which he said to Timothy were sufficient to make him wise into salvation.
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But it wasn't simply preaching the Scriptures in and of themselves. Because he preached in the power of God.
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He preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. What goes on here in chapter 17 of Acts, verses 1 -4, this isn't
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Paul being a good rhetorician. It's not that he was a good persuasive speaker, that he had all the tricks of the trade to get people to listen to him.
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He preached in the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. And he reminded the
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Thessalonians of how that happened. In 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 5 and 6, Paul says,
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For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the
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Holy Spirit. That's what's happening here in Acts 17, verses 1 -4. That when he was preaching to them, that gospel, that word came in power, and it came in the
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Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.
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And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the
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Holy Spirit. The Bible in itself is proof.
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It is to be used. It is good. It is meant to be set forth as evidence for all mankind to be reasoned from, to be explained, for the axioms of Scripture, of Christianity, of the gospel to be demonstrated and proved from its texts.
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I wonder, do we have that confidence? Do we have that confidence? What a gift we've been given.
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Here we have in Holy Scripture, we have a fully divine book and a fully human book.
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Thoroughly divine and thoroughly human. It has one author and it has many authors. It is sent to us from heaven and it was written by men upon the earth.
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Holy men moved by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit superintending every word that they wrote down with the very truth of God, just the way that He wanted it.
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When we think about the word incarnate, we are reminded of the word in Scripture. We're reminded that Jesus Christ as our brother
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David Miller said and how He's gone to be in glory, but he said when you think of Jesus Christ, He is as much God as God is
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God and He is as much man as man is man. The mystery of the incarnation. Two natures in one
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Person. In the hypostatic union. Also in Scripture, we have a thoroughly divine book and a thoroughly human book.
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We have here proof that God is there and that He is not silent.
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That He has spoken to us. Here we have a book that is by 40 different human authors written on three different continents in three different languages over a 1500 year time period as holy men wrote exactly what
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God wanted them to write and everywhere it is harmonious and everywhere the Father speaks to the
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Son by the Holy Spirit. Here is the word of God. What a gift. It is evidence.
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It is proof. But how do we treat it?
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I think sometimes we treat it like COVID. Do you remember
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COVID? I hope we don't forget. Sometimes we treat it like COVID.
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We've been taught to treat the Bible that way. We mask it.
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We isolate it. And we inject new genetic coding into it. We muffle its voice in debate.
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Make it soft. Make it incomprehensible. We mumble instead of speak clearly with a full face.
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We tend to sequester the Bible. We move it away from all of those ideological conflicts where we don't think the
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Bible really fits. Oh, we shouldn't bring the Bible into this conversation. And then we also inject foreign genetic code into it.
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We feel the need to inject Darwin into the text or inject Marx into the text.
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Put something in there that makes it sound more compelling to the modern -day hearer. But the
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Bible itself is a good book. It doesn't need to be muffled.
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It doesn't need to be isolated. It doesn't need to be doctored. The Bible is the good book.
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It is good proof. And we are to reason with the Bible as proof.
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We should reason by the logic of Scripture. And we should explain things by the details of the
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Scripture. And we should demonstrate the soundness and beauty of the Gospel by the
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Scripture. And we should preach and seek to persuade men of the critical truths of Scripture.
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I think it's important to remember that that only makes sense if this is about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
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If you take the Word of God up and you think that its message is about something other than Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is the
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Son of the living God. If you take up the Bible and you think it's about something else or someone else and you begin to try to use it as proof,
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I think you'll be disappointed. Now, where the Bible speaks to any area of the human experience, where the
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Bible speaks to any subject matter at all, it is authoritative. This is not a scientific textbook, but if it speaks to something scientific, this is the authority.
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This is not a critical work of historical study, but if it says something about history, it's the authority on the matter.
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Wherever the Bible speaks, it speaks authoritatively, but let's just be clear, this
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Word is about the Word. God revealing Himself through His Son by His Spirit that we would know
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Him. This Word is exalting of God through Christ by the
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Spirit. And so it's proof. We ought to take it up and use it, not leave it behind, not mask it, not doctor it.
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Secondly, I think we see from the text that the Bible creates problems, and I think it creates the good kind of problems that we all need.
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We need problems, the good kind of problems. Acts 17, verses 5 through 9, but the
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Jews who were not persuaded, I mean, they did not believe, they did not believe, they became envious and took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason.
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But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
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Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king,
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Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
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So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. So you see how it causes problems when you bring up the
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Bible. It causes problems when you take out the Scripture and you begin to say that according to the
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Scriptures, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, had to suffer on the cross, in our place, and for our sake, satisfying the holiness and justice of God as our sins were laid upon Him and His righteousness is given to us by faith.
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And that He was raised from the dead the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father where He is
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King of kings and Lord of lords. This causes problems for all kinds of people.
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And that's good. And that's good. Some Christians are concerned about the
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Bible causing problems. Concerned about the Bible causing problems.
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They say, well, we need to be careful that we don't cause people to stumble and move away from Christ and so on.
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And we've got to present the Bible as just looking for some market share. Just a seat at the table.
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We just want some shelf space in the Walmart of ideas. It's like every once in a while, put us on sale and give us some love.
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The problem is that when you read the Bible, you find out that the claims of the Scripture, the claims of the Bible, is not looking for market share.
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It's looking for a monopoly. It's looking so that there is not going to be any competition left.
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That's what it means when all of Christ's enemies are going to be placed as a footstool for His feet and then the end comes.
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That there's not going to be any room for that. And when we pray according to the way that Jesus taught us, and we say,
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Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, let me ask you something.
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Are we praying, O God, just like it is in heaven where You give equal air time to the Buddhists? Equal air time to the
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Marxists? Equal air time to the hedonists? Lord, we just want some equal air time here on earth.
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No, if we pray for God's will on earth as it is in heaven, we're going to pray for it differently.
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There is no equal air time in heaven. And therefore, there ought not be pluralism on the earth. Notice the
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Jews were envious. And to put it into a different translation, they employed the hoi polloi to make a hullabaloo, but it was all hogwash.
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Now I think you might find it shocking, absolutely shocking, that anyone would go to the marketplace and find a bunch of worthless people that can't get hired because they're a bunch of lazy bums and they're malcontents, and they're just hanging around with nothing good to do, and that someone would go and grab a group of people like that and employ them for the purpose of starting up a riot and getting a mob all worked up and angry and do so for political leverage for personal gain.
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That's just shocking. Shocking. But long before, long before Salinsky's rules for radicals was written, this kind of stuff went on.
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And you can go back to the Old Testament and see that Ahab and Jezebel used the same tactics. So they're not really upset about breaking the law.
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They're upset because ultimate authority has been hoisted upon them.
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It is no small thing to say that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for our sins, was raised the third day, and was sent into the right hand of the
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Father and will return. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. That does turn the world upside down, and it's been turning the world upside down.
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We are now in the 2024th year of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing has remained the same.
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They say, what you're saying is against the decrees of Caesar.
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Remember in Philippi, they're saying, they're not saying things that are Roman. We want to be Roman. Here they're saying, they're against the decrees of Caesar.
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The decrees of Caesar is what they're against. And so we've got to do something about that.
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When I was trained in door -to -door evangelism, personal evangelism, event evangelism, and so on, all the different classes and training programs and so on, something that was often said, and it was always said at some point, was that the teacher would at some point say, now look, when you go out, don't go out there with a big black
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Bible under your arm. I always called it the big black Bible. Don't go out there with a big black
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Bible under your arm. Get the leather binding, the gilt edges, the triple ribbon, big black
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Bible. And they said, one, you'll get a shoulder injury eventually. But the real issue, they said, because when you show up with that big black
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Bible, that's going to be intimidating to the people you're talking to because it's going to confront them and be intimidating and they're just going to shut you off and they're not going to talk to you at all.
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Interesting. You know, if you talk to anyone for any length of time, you'll discover everyone has a big black
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Bible tucked under their arm. It is leather bound, gilt edged, triple ribboned.
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And if you talk about anything that has to do with a truth claim or a moral value, they're going to plop that big black
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Bible out on the table and cite chapter and verse about why they believe what they believe.
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And they may be citing Buddhism or they may be citing Mormonism or they may be citing materialism or Darwinism or something, but everybody has a big black
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Bible under their arm and they're going to pull it out and cite chapter and verse. So why are we leaving ours behind?
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Where's the wisdom in that? Where's the wisdom in that? Someone's going to say, well, according to the experts.
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Oh, have you read the experts? Well, no, but it's their consensus. Oh, so you've read the consensus and examined it for its consensus.
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No, but somebody who was a popular YouTuber said that's what the consensus said, and so that's why
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I believe what I believe. Oh, most excellent. Oh, the decrees of Caesar.
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Oh, the scribes. Oh, the experts. They're going to pull out their big black Bible and say something. What authority do we stand on?
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The authority of Jesus Christ, the scepter of His Lordship. Here's the Word of God. The Bible just creates problems. It creates problems for people who don't know where their authority comes from and creates problems for the
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Christians because persecution's incoming. Persecution is incoming.
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You take your big black Bible and you go out over the target zone. You're going to take flack. And we need to count the cost.
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Jesus told us to count the cost. He said the king does the arithmetic before he does the battle.
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Do I have enough soldiers to go out there and actually win the day? The builder, the one who wants to build a vineyard, sits down, calculates the cost of everything before he goes out and builds that vineyard.
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We need to reckon with the Bible's authority, reckon with the Bible's power. Count the cost.
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Are we ready for direct persecution? Now, we don't have to look for it. It's coming.
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It's not a bug. It's a feature of the situation that we're in. But not only be ready for direct persecution, you know when you drop that Scripture verse at that family gathering, what is going to happen.
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You're ready for it. And you're ready in love. And you're ready in hope. And you're ready in patience. And you've been praying, praying, praying for the moment to drop that Scripture verse at that family gathering.
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But be ready for something else as well. Did you see Jason and the brethren? Jason didn't travel from Philippi to Thessalonica and preach three
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Sabbaths in the synagogue and get everybody started. Jason didn't do that. He was just letting
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Paul and Silas stay at his house. Paul and Silas couldn't be found.
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And so this mob of justice, so concerned about being correct in their indignation, just grabbed whoever they could grab.
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No, we can't find Paul and Silas. We'll grab Jason. And they grabbed him and they throw him in front of the court and they make him bail out.
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They make him pay bail. Jason and the brethren, they weren't directly the reason why the persecution happened, but indirect persecution is incoming.
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You don't ask for it. It just shows up. Oh, you're a Christian? Here comes the anger. Here comes the accusations.
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Here comes the fury. I didn't do anything to you. Why are you mad at me?
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But we are entrusted. You didn't ask for indirect persecution, but you are entrusted with it. Like every trial you have, every tribulation you endure, you don't ask for it, but you are entrusted with it.
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In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
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Blessed are you. Happy are you. How good it is. Because, why? Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
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Or so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So, count the cost.
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The Bible counts as proof. It's a good kind of proof. The Bible creates problems. It's a good kind of problems.
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So we ought to reason with the Bible as our proof, and we ought to count the cost, reckon with the Bible's power.
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And thirdly, the Bible clarifies its own point, and it's a good point. The Bible explains itself.
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The Bible clarifies itself. The Bible is really, really good at making its own point.
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You say, well, why all the confusion then? Why all the various interpretations?
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Why all the disagreement and the arguments across history and time, and even today, across dominations and so forth?
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Do you know that God is not confused? We're confused. God is not of a divided mind.
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The church is often divided in mind. But it's not God. It's us.
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And God is doing a work in us, and we can put our hope and trust in Him to do that work and to sanctify us.
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Do you remember that it says that Jesus washes His bride with the water of His word? So that what we believe, and our affections, and our behaviors, everything about us is washed in the water of His word.
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You say, well, I just kind of depend on an expert somewhere. Let me know what to believe about X, Y, and Z.
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What about the experts? What about teachers? Teachers are a good gift. We find from Ephesians that teachers are a gift from our
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Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, for the edification and benefit of the church. But you also know that 1
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John 2 says that teachers are not a requirement. Why does it say that?
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Because Christianity is not Gnosticism. Christianity is not a religion in which the only access you have is through a guru who will tell you what you're supposed to believe.
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Because Jesus Christ is our teacher. Jesus Christ is our shepherd. Jesus Christ is our
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Lord, and He has given us a good word, and He has given us the Holy Spirit, an anointing by which we will come to know who
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He is and who God is when we read the word. Read the word in the light of who
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Jesus Christ is. When Paul goes to the Berean synagogue, we find that these
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Jews were more fair -minded than those in Thessalonica, meaning that they're going to do more scripture searching.
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But they received the word with all readiness. And look, between the Sabbaths, they did extra work.
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They searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
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They didn't search the scholastics. They didn't search their feelings. They didn't search their personal histories.
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They didn't search their friends' opinions. They searched the Scriptures to see whether these things were so.
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Therefore, many of them believed. Look at all the different people who believed.
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What a great approach. That kind of eagerness. That kind of diligence. But you see, the
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Jews from Thessalonica were so zealous to shut down any kind of reading and searching of the
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Scriptures that they came down to Berea to mess with the
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Christians there too. Let me ask you a question. If the
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Bible was obtuse and thus its power diffuse, confusing, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, and it's just up for grabs.
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If that was really the case, why is the Bible so hunted and hated?
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The Bible is hunted and hated because it is clear.
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And the simple reading of it, searching of it, studying of it, and applying it is so dangerous to the demonically infested tyrannies of our day, so dangerous to the cults and the false religions, that anybody from communists to Islamists search and destroy, burn and kill because of the
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Scriptures. And thus it has been even back as far as Diocletian and Nero. That's why the
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Bible is hunted and hated. Because it is clear. The Bible clarifies its point. And its point?
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Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and everybody must bow their knee to Him, kiss the
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Son, do homage to Him, while you're still in the way, lest His wrath be kindled and you perish.
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That's pretty clear. That's pretty clear. And those who would stand in a pulpit, or in a classroom, or at the head of a family, or in some kind of venue, those who would maximize the mystery of the
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Word and problematize its proclamation only hiss in harmony with the serpent who said, has
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God really said? Christ truly saves.
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Christ truly forgives. Christ truly sanctifies. Thus He also truly enlightens and reveals and clarifies and unifies through His Word.
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So we receive the Bible well. Receive it with integrity. Receive it immediately.
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Receive it with industry. Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is a great psalm to go read about the
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Word of God. But verses 145 -148. Listen. The psalmist says,
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I cry out with my whole heart. This is the integrity.
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With my whole heart, hear me, O Lord, I will keep Your statutes. I cry. Here's what
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I say. Heart, this is what I desire and think. Hear me, O Lord, I will keep Your statutes. This is what
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I do. This is what we're reminded of what integrity is.
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Our dear brother Ralph Bullard when what we think and say and do all agree, there's the integrity.
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Here's the integrity of the psalmist. He says, I cry to You. Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.
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Listen to the immediacy. Look at the urgency. I rise before the dawning of the morning and cry for help.
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I hope in Your Word. First thing I'm going for. 148. My eyes are awake through the nightwatches that I may meditate on Your Word.
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Industry, diligence. I'm not done from the early morning to the evening. That picture.
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Of integrity and immediacy and industry all together. That's how we receive the Bible well.
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And we should. It clarifies its own point. The Bible is good for proof.
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The Bible is good at making problems. The Bible is good at clarifying its own point.
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And it is truly, beautifully, a good book.
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So the Bible is good. The Bible is good.
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It is good historically, scientifically, sociologically. The Bible is good.
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It is good logically. It is good factually. It is good emotionally.
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The Bible is good. It is good textually in its transmission and its translation.
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It is good. It is good politically. It is good culturally. It is good morally.
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Because it is the good book. The good book of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for this day. I thank You for the reminder from Acts 17.
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As we see Your Word going forth by Your servants, being preached in Thessalonica. And how it is preached by Your grace with power.
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And how it changes things. And does not leave sinners on their own, by themselves, in great plight.
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But transforms and saves. So Father, give us confidence.
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Give us joy. As we affirm the goodness of Your Holy Word. We pray these things in Jesus' name.