Theology You Can Use - The Word Of God (pt-3)

All right, before we get into the text, just a little comment about preaching. I take preaching very seriously and I think preachers proclaim the truth. Don't you? I preached in California last summer, this summer, and I was criticized because I gave too many imperatives, too many exhortations.

I believe that preaching should contain both indicatives, statements of facts. This is the gospel. Jesus died for sinners and was raised from the dead. But I also believe that preaching should contain imperatives.

Therefore, repent. And imperatives should even be for Christians. Ephesians, excuse me, Romans 6 was read tonight. We have died in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let sin no longer reign in your mortal bodies.

Preaching must contain indicative statements of fact and imperatives. Obey. Now, if we only get up and say obey all the time, that would be legalism. If we get up and only say indicatives all the time, then who gets any direction?

But I think preaching by nature is someone standing in the pulpit and they proclaim God's truth for him from the Scriptures. And when God speaks, he speaks with an authoritative voice and he commands us and compels us and desires for us to obey.

So when I hear preaching, I think preaching should look at the congregation with the words you and you should obey. It's not just we. All week long, the Lord is saying to Mike through the Scriptures as I study, you should obey.

You should obey. You should obey. Then I get in the pulpit and then what do I say? You must obey. That doesn't mean I'm above you, but you must obey just as God has called me to obey. God has given us commands in Scripture, not just suggestions.

And so when you hear preaching, I think by nature you should hear people say, please. Today, I think this is a first for me, but saying that you're insane if you don't use your spiritual gifts. I think I use that word four times and I try to exhort you to serve.

That is just preaching by nature, whether it's John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Until you watch and there will be second person imperatives. You is second person, right? I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they, you kind of thing.

And so we just have to have that. And so I want you to hold me to that where I give you both indicatives and imperatives. And when you preach the gospel to someone, I hope you preach. You must be born again.

Does this have anything to do with tonight? No, but I just wanted to talk about that. I spent the day with MacArthur, as I said before, and I really was energized again, because John is a man who I think preaches the word in season and out of season more than any other man I've met.

And so it was good to remember that truth is vital and truth must be proclaimed by the person in the pulpit. I will give lots of latitude and leeway to those who have a hard time communicating scripture.

But if you stand in a pulpit and you don't preach the Bible, I have zero respect for you because we have a duty. And that duty is we are stewards and ambassadors of truth. Therefore proclaim it. So it was good to be reminded by John that his job and our job as pastors is to preach the word of God.

I did ask him just one quick story. So what's going on behind the scenes with Larry King? As you know, Larry King has invited MacArthur on many times and he likes John because John actually believes the Bible.

All the other clergy come on and they just believe portions of it, but John believes the Bible. And so Larry likes that, a man of convictions. And so John had dinner with Larry the other night and John was trying to preach the gospel to him and Larry just wanted to talk about baseball.

John said that Larry is a baseball fanatic and he knows all the details and all the batting averages. And so it was baseball and gospel and John was trying to preach the gospel to Larry. He knows the gospel and we just want Larry to be saved.

I also asked John, I said, have you heard from Guy Ritchie lately? Guy Ritchie is Madonna's husband who called John one time and said, I'd like to meet and talk about Christianity because you're one of those men on Larry King who actually believes the Bible.

And I'd like to know about Christianity from you. And so I said to John, has Guy talked to you recently? And he said no. But there's hope for these people. We don't need stars to be saved so the kingdom comes quicker, right?

Because 1 Corinthians 1 says there's not many mighty, not many noble. It doesn't say there's not any, but we don't need stars to have the gospel go around the world. But it would be nice when some of these folks would get saved.

It's like when Denzel Washington was reading the Bible and someone from Grace, I think I told you the story. He was reading the Bible and a person from Grace Church walked up to him and said, do you not understand what you're reading?

And he said, no. Kind of reminds you of which account? Acts chapter 8. That's right. He said, my pastor's written a study Bible and if you'll read it, I'll give it to you. So Denzel now owns a study Bible.

And so I'm sure some of these people God will rescue. Well, tonight we want to talk about the word of God. What does the Bible say about the Bible? And as you know, we've started a year-long series on Sunday night.

And basically the title is Theology You Can Use. I want theology to be practical. I want you not to run and flee to the exit doors when you hear the word doctrine or theology. After all, theology just means a word about God.

And you are all theologians. True? You're all theologians. You're either good ones or bad ones. You're either biblical or not quite biblical. And we're all growing. And I want you to be great theologians.

And I want you to understand doctrine. And so tonight we'll talk about having a high view of God's word, of God's revelation. And for me, let me just say simply at the start, it's all or nothing for me.

Either God's word is true, all of it, or it's just a big lie and I can't figure out what's true and what's not. But I'm an all or nothing kind of guy. And that's exactly the Scripture, the view of Scripture that we need, that Jesus had, that the disciples had, and that I want you to have.

And I want you to take a look at the Bible. And when you have that all or nothing view, then you will study it with confidence. And you will be a man just like John Wesley who said, I am a man of one book.

I like that. Some of the things Wesley did I'm not too sure of, but I sure like that. How about this one by John Bunyan? I was never out of my Bible. That's what I want the congregation here to be. I think we should take Spurgeon's advice now that I'm quoting some of these old giants.

I would recommend you either believe the Bible up to the hilt, or else not to believe it at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two.

Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation. A faith that paddles about the edge of the water is a poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry land faith and is not good for much.

That's exactly right. Why, and for the visitors here tonight, when I ask you a question on Sunday night, it's good to get an answer and it will keep you awake after a long day. Why is the doctrine of the Bible, or your view of the Bible, important?

Why would it be important for us to have the right view of Scripture? Anyone? Raise your hand, or you don't have to raise your hand. Just blurt it out. Okay, and how many doctrines do we believe that are in the Bible?

And if we've got a skewed view of the Bible, then what about our salvation, and what about the second coming, and what about all these other issues? Good. Any other reason why we need to have a good view of the Bible?

Proper view of the Bible? Wesley? Where else are we going to go? Visions, and mystic dreams, and some other book. I was sitting in the airplane from, let's see, Providence to Chicago, and I was reading a book, and the book is called Exodus, why liberal churches are losing their members, and they're all going to conservative evangelical churches.

And I was reading it, and a guy sitting one seat over, I'm on the aisle, he's on the aisle, and you've got the middle cart area, and he had an old book. It was kind of tattered, underlined. I saw the little tabs, and I wanted to kind of show him my book that I was reading, kind of a Christian book, so he could see.

It looked like he was writing a sermon. I kind of sized him up, and he kind of looked, you know, with a part, and I thought, all right, I'm going to somehow talk to him a little bit, and I kept looking, and then I thought, wait, there's not too many tabs in his Bible.

He's taking notes, but I don't see one Bible verse there. Then he got his palm pilot out, and he was looking up words, and searching everything. Finally, I thought, you know, I'm going to have to just do the old, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, but I did the old.

He was reading Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon's adjunct text. I thought, oh, no, now what am I going to do? If we had the Book of Mormon besides the Bible, then we might have some kind of other knowledge, but if we only have the Bible, where else are we going to go?

We have no place else. And we live in a day where people, with their spirituality today, talk a lot, where Christians listen. I can't speak, sorry. Christians listen. There's a lot of talkers about spirituality, but Christians listen.

Let me tell you some of the talkers. The first talker is rationalism. My mind is supreme, and my reason tells me what is true. There's another one, mysticism. That we have divine revelation, but we have some kind of human experience, and that trumps the Bible.

We have Roman Catholicism, where you have not only the scriptures, but you have tradition and the church, the magisterium. We have neo-orthodoxy, and by the way, neo-orthodoxy means what? New orthodoxy, and it is neither new nor is it orthodoxy.

Neo-orthodoxy means this. When I'm reading the Bible and a passage really hits me, that's biblical, that's inspired, that's revelation, but the other parts are not. Here's how you can sniff out a neo-orthodox person.

They will say the Bible is not the Bible, it just contains the Bible. That is to say, let's use something smaller to make it easier, that the Word of God is contained in the Bible, but all the Bible is not the Word of God.

There are cults that have the Bible plus, but we as conservative Protestants' orthodox position is the Bible alone, sola scriptura, is our guide. It is God speaking. And so tonight for an outline, if you're taking notes as we look to the Bible, I want to give you five words so that you will remember these words and then your trust of the Bible will increase.

This is not going to be really a sermon, but we will talk about five words and ask some questions about these five words. And the first word tonight is canon. What does the word canon mean in the context of Scripture?

Anyone? Canon, C-A-N-O-N. When we talk about the canon, what are we talking about? Kind of a quiet congregation tonight, aren't we? The loquacious ones have all stayed at home. Welcome, Gladman. Are you using some neo-orthodox term, contain?

Oh, okay. Okay, excellent. The word canon is used to describe those books that are recognized as inspired of God, and it comes from the Greek word, any guesses? Canon, good. And the Hebrew word keneh, and it used to mean a rod or a measuring stick or a reed.

And then as time goes on, it is then applied to the decisions of the councils, as it were, as they recognize these are the books in the Bible. How many books do we have in the Old Testament? Thirty-nine.

If the Jews were counting, how many would you count? Same amount of information, same exact books, but they would count 22. And then in the New Testament, how many do we have? Okay, good. Those are the books that are in the canon.

Canonicity is the aspect of Scripture that determine which books of the Bible, old and new, are the word of God. Why would canonicity be important, by the way? We'll get to the Bible here in a second, so don't worry.

Why is canonicity important? I could ask this question. Were there any other books being written at that time? Yes, and so we need to make sure which ones were biblical, which ones are not, which ones are in the canon and authoritative, and which ones are not.

The term canon was used by Athanasius in reference to the Bible in A .D. 367 in something called the Easter Letter. But the idea was held earlier, and when we think about the canon, here's the main point I want you to get tonight.

The church at that time did not determine which books were in the canon. They what? They recognized. Just burn that into your brain. You can read books on the canon by F .F. Bruce and by others, but I want you to understand the difference between recognition and determination.

And you will see, especially in this part of the country, oh, our church determined which books were biblical. Our church made the Bible. What is the difference between recognition and determination where people receive the word of God, they recognize it as the word, versus standing over the word, saying that's in and that's out.

It's very important. Recognition, not determination. Let me give you some hints on the canon, or some information. True or false? In the New Testament, Jesus and the Jews argued about the extent of the Old Testament canon.

They argued the Pharisees and Jesus and the scribes and Jesus were arguing which books were in the canon and which ones were not. No. There was no debate at that time about which books were in the Hebrew canon.

Why don't you turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 11. This is interesting. If you don't know the Jewish testament of the Old Testament in terms of which books are which, you might miss it. But just turn to Luke 11 .51.

You know me. I like exposition, but tonight's going to be jumping all around just because of the nature of the Grudem book that we're working through a little bit at a time. Luke 11 .51. What was the first book in the Old Testament canon in the Hebrew canon?

Pretty easy one. Genesis. What was the last book? Was it Malachi? No. Which one? 2 Chronicles. Exactly right. And so what does Jesus do in Luke 11 .51? He said, From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah.

And if you're a preacher today in England or in America, you say it's from the blood of those from A to Z. Z. It's A to Z. No, but that's not what He's trying to do. From the blood of Abel, He's talking about this death in Genesis to the blood of Zechariah.

That's in 2 Chronicles. Who was killed between the altar and the house of God. Yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation. Here's what's going on from the first book of the canon to the last book of the canon, the Hebrew canon that is.

Why don't you turn to John 14 .26 as I give you another bit of information about the canon. And there is help by Jesus through the Spirit of God so they will know what to say, what to write specifically, so it would be in the canon.

Now, I'm going to say this verse and you tell me what it means. That's kind of a scary thing in our church, I know. I didn't say what it means to you, but what does this mean? But the counselor of the Holy Spirit, John 14 .26, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

What does that mean? Does that mean you have a personal relationship with Jesus so that He has given you the Holy Spirit and then when you study the Bible, He helps you understand things? Or if you're in a difficult spot and you need to preach the gospel to someone and the Word of God is brought to your memory by the Holy Spirit in exactly the right time.

What's the context here? Who is He talking to? The disciples are promised these gifts, amazing gifts that will enable them to write what? Scripture. That's what He's talking about. To remember all that Jesus said, I could ask you this.

How do you know John 17 is in the canon? The Lord's Prayer, the real Lord's Prayer where Jesus is praying. John 17, one of the best chapters in all of Scripture. What were the disciples doing, by the way?

Sleeping. So John was peaking. By the way, they had wine for Passover and wine makes you tireder. And there they go when Jesus is praying in the garden and they're sleeping. How do we know John 17 is in the text?

Nobody even saw it. Because the Spirit of God, according even to this verse and as an application of this verse, came to John himself and was given that exact prayer by Jesus in the garden. Why don't we go to 1 Corinthians 2 as I'm trying to look at passages that will help us with the canon.

John 14, we're helped with the canon when we understand the Holy Spirit will make sure the disciples teach the right things so they're put into the canon. And now 1 Corinthians 2 is another one of those passages that if you're not too sure about, you miss the import when we miss one particular word and that word is we.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. I have sadly preached sermons from this verse all out of context, all wrong. As you know, you're just jumping into a passage here and I want to give you the background of Corinth and everything else.

But let's just look at this in particular. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.

Here's how I would preach that sermon in the old days. Heaven is going to be so great. You can't imagine all the great things about heaven. Your heart just can't understand. Your eye hasn't seen. Your ear hasn't heard.

Oh, it's going to be so great. Is that what the passage is talking about? Will heaven be that great that we're going to be blown away? Absolutely. But look at verse 10. If you don't understand the passage, what do you do?

Everybody out loud. Keep reading. Thank you. For to us, and we're going to talk about apostles here, God revealed them through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. To us, this is Paul and the other apostles.

Don't miss it. But to us, these things have been revealed and this is the word apocalupto, a revealing, an uncovering. God is giving divine revelation of supernatural secrets as it says in the Expositors Bible commentary.

Verse 11, For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Who can reveal what God knows? The Spirit of God and Him alone.

Now we have received. There's the we again. Not the Spirit of the world. He's talking about the apostles. But the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. Which things we also speak.

Not in words taught by human wisdom when it comes to revelation. It's just not Paul being smart. But in those taught by the Spirit, the Spirit teaches the disciples, the apostles rather, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

And in fact the Spirit brought the truth in to the minds of the apostles. Well let me give you some other words that are not not words but other verses that I think are very interesting. Why don't you go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 as I'm trying to now use the Bible and you might think circularly to show that even the Bible recognizes that are certain books in the canon and certain books are not in the canon.

And it's amazing how this all works out. I want to get ahead of myself but I'm not going to do it. While you turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5 did in fact Paul write Scriptures that Peter said in 2 Peter 3 are difficult to understand.

He even called those Scriptures. When you read the word Scripture in the New Testament I believe it's 51 times there and almost every time it's talking about the Old Testament. And just as the Old Testament canon were Scriptures from God so too some of Paul's writings.

And here I love this one 1 Timothy chapter 5. The elders and I don't love this because now I get to talk about money. But I want to talk about this because there are two verses put together that is just amazing to me.

The elders who rule well are considered worthy of double honor. What kind of honor might that be? Especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching for the Scripture says. Now we have two quotes.

You tell me where they come from. You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. Where does that come from? Okay, I guess I'm looking for something more general. Old Testament. Even my NES with the capitals I realize that is coming from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 25 .4. But now we have a second quotation under the umbrella of Scripture. The laborer is worthy of his wages. Which book of the Old Testament does that quote come from? It doesn't. Where does it come from?

With the exact same Greek words. Luke 10 .7. So do you see what Paul is doing? Paul is saying, listen, I'm going to quote Scripture to you and not only is this Old Testament passage in Deuteronomy 25 .4 Scripture but what Jesus said is also what?

Scripture. This is kind of scary but we'll do it anyway. If I were God... If I were God, here's how I would make the canon. Here's how I would put the Scriptures together. Here's how I would make sure my people understood I have said this and I've said it with clarity and with conviction and with authority.

I would have some kind of angel deliver the Bible in its entirety. Maybe a gold Bible. Might that be good? I don't know if I'd call the angel Moroni or not. But I would have some kind of supernatural thing almost like when God took His finger and wrote the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

But I would make Him do that for everything because I'd want to make sure my people got it right. I'm okay in sending. I'm not so sure the people are okay in receiving. But that's not how God did it. How did God put the canon together?

How did God let people recognize which books were Scripture and which ones were not? With a council? Did the council determine the text? Remember that word, determine. You don't even want to go close to that.

No. Did the church determine the text? No. Did the church recognize the text? Might be a better question. Listen to what Partington said. The canon of the New Testament was formed gradually under the providence of God, the Holy Spirit in the churches, we believe, giving the needed discernment to accept the genuine and reject the spurious.

The fact that certain books were for some time held in doubt but later were accepted simply shows what care was exercised. Do you know in the eastern part of Christianity in the 300s said, these are the books we recognize as Scripture.

How many? 27. Do you know in the western part of the world in the Mediterranean Sea, the church said, these are the 27 books that we have recognized as Scripture. That's amazing to me. Let me give you the quote from Grudem.

In AD 367, the 39th Paschal Letter of Athanasius contained an exact list of the 27 New Testament books we have today. This was the list of books accepted by the churches in the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

30 years later, the Council of Carthage, representing the churches in the western part of the Mediterranean, agreed with the eastern churches on the same list. These are the earliest final lists of our present-day canon.

It is amazing to me that no one sat down and said, these are the books by fiat or by declaration they said in all the different places. It's amazing. These churches over here, these churches over here all recognize this is the Word of God.

God guiding those very people. I have a question for you. What about the Apogrypha? What's the Apogrypha, by the way? Hidden books. Good, they're hidden. Well, maybe they're not so hidden. They're in some people's Bibles.

They're in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Something that's hidden or covered. Well, let me ask you another question. When were the Apogrypha books written?

From about when to when? Intertestamental, good, from about 200 B .C. to maybe about 100 A .D. is the general time. And let me give you those books. 1 Edress, 2 Esdress, Tobit, Judith, Esther 10 -16, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Daniel 3, 24 -90, chapter 13 and 14, the Prayer of Manassas, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and sometimes you'll see these listed, the Prayer of Azariah, the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, and Bel, the Dragonslayer.

Can we use the Apogrypha for anything? And don't say kindling. I'm talking about something better than that. How could we use the Apogrypha? We have this intertestamental period where some books were written.

History, that's a good way we could use the Apogrypha. Let me give you an example. Do you remember Herod, that one day he had the party for himself? In Acts, I think it's Acts chapter 12, possibly 13.

Let's have a party for the day and remember what happened. He was eaten by what? Worms, and then he died. Listen to what the Apogrypha says about that in 2 Maccabees 9 .5. The text in Acts chapter 12 says, immediately an angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not the glory of God, glory to God, and he was eaten of worms and he died.

As a matter of fact, if you study sometime, those are the kind of worms that have male parts on one side and female parts on the other side, so they just reproduce. And it's the worm that dieth what? Not, and just keeps multiplying and multiplying and multiplying.

Josephus talks about that death as well. And so we could use it a little bit, and I think they're interesting. If you haven't read them, I would... If you don't read the Bible that much, well, then don't read them.

But if you read the Bible plenty, I think it's okay to read them. But let me tell you why we should reject them. Were they ever in any Jewish canon? Did the Jews ever recognize them in Scripture? Ever?

No. Did Christ, an apostle, or any other New Testament writer ever quote from the Apogrypha? Never. Never. Did the Apogrypha writers ever claim inspiration? Never. Are there errors of geography and history and some contradictions between the Bible and history and the Apogrypha?

Yes. Does the Apogrypha contain prayers for the dead? That might be a good reason, I think, to get rid of them. The Apogrypha was not held as canonical until Council of Trent, 1546 -1547. And just when you thought it was all over, there's one other group of books that's popular today, and they're not called the Apogrypha, they're called the what?

Pseudepigrapha. And if I was a big pastor, you know, and you see the TV pastor, I'd say, turn to the person on your left and say the word pseudepigrapha. It's just one of those words that you like to say.

I like to say sacerdotal, I like to say apogrypha, I like to say pseudepigrapha, and I like to say propitiation. Propitiation, they're just words that we like to use every day. Pseudepigrapha. Now, don't go to the pig area, but can you think of a word at least at the front, the pseudo?

That's right, these are the false books, but interestingly, they claim to be authoritative, and here are some of the books. The Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas. By the way, has the Gospel of Thomas influenced any big book and big hit movie?

Now we have to suffer through the big movie now called the what? Just Between Us Girls, the Da Vinci Code book. It's fiction. The Apocalypse of Peter and the Ascension of Isaiah. Those are books that claim to be authoritative, but we still reject.

Now I have a question for you, and this is the big one. If you're sleeping, here's the big question. Why is it important for you to know which words are God's words and which ones are not? So you don't believe the other.

Well, that's pretty good. Did your dad tell you that? They're false words, okay? Grudem says, how would your relationship with God be different if you had the scriptures in the canon, Old and New Testament, the Apographa and the Pseudepigrapha?

Yeah, they don't agree. Good, they contradict. When we study the canon, and I didn't get into all the details tonight when the books were recognized and everything else, but when we know the canon, we can say this is for sure what God has said, and let's get busy obeying what He has said.

Remember Deuteronomy 29 .29, the secret things belong to the Lord? But what does that verse go on to say? But the things that have been revealed, do them. How about Ecclesiastes Chapter 11? Does anybody know how a bone forms in the womb of a pregnant woman?

Answer, no. We can look at it with ultrasound, but you can't know. But what do you know? Chapter 12, fear God and keep His commandments. So don't be out there trying to figure out all these things that you don't know.

Do what God says to do, and He says, fear God and keep His commandments. So we need to know as Christians what God has said so we can be busy obeying those very things. How did the canon come about? Just a last few comments.

There were some attacks back early on, like the Marcion canon. He said there were only 10 books. And if you have somebody saying there are not all these books, these are the only 10, then the church has to respond to this error to say, no, these are the ones we really believe.

How about when Diocletian in 303 A .D. said all sacred books should be burned? That is going to cause the Christians to figure out which ones are worth burning and which ones to be killed over. You can study sometime the New Testament manuscripts if you'd like.

How many manuscripts do we have of the New Testament, either in portion or in total, if you'd like to figure it out? Pretty good. Are you in the Bible Institute class? No. I think you are. Add 10 ,000 Latin Vulgate passages, 9 ,300 other early versions, and we have 24 ,000 manuscript copies of the portions of the New Testament.

That's both in Greek and other languages. How about other documents, by the way? What's an old document that we have 500 copies of or more that go way back that everybody would say, for sure this guy wrote that?

Iliad. We have 643 manuscripts that survive of Iliad by Homer, and the oldest completed preserved text of Homer dates back to the 13th century. Does anybody question the Iliad and the Odyssey? How about Caesar's Gaelic War?

Which is composed about 50 B .C.? There are 9 or 10 good copies. The oldest one is 900 years after Caesar died. I just find that interesting. Well, we've got to keep moving. The first word is canon. The second word is authority.

What about the Bible? We have the completed canon, number two, authority. How many people have seen that bumper sticker? Question, authority. That is something that we like to do. Question authority. Does God have the right to command us to think and to obey Him?

To think properly about Him and to obey Him? The answer is yes. Grudem pushes it so far. He says this, The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God's word in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.

God has an authority. He's our creator, and therefore He commands us to obey. We know, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all Scripture is God-believed. Does God believe the Scripture? Well, Jesus on earth, He believed it.

Let's turn there. You don't know what to do. Tell the people to turn to the text. 2 Timothy 3, please, if you'll turn there. Can God command us to do something? It gets back to that whole thing of if God makes us do something or command us, how can that be real love and all those kind of silly arguments?