The Authority and Ability of God’s Word | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Glorious worship. Would you agree? Amen. Well, meet me in the word of God as we continue to worship through the hearing and the receiving of God's word in second Timothy chapter three in a very well known passage of scripture beginning here in verse 16. Would you pray with me one more time, please?

Lord, this is a familiar passage of scripture, and we are in danger of allowing familiarity to breed a contempt. But we ask, Lord, that you would give us fresh revelation, and that it would speak to our hearts. Our hearts would be moved. And Lord, may the goal, may the result of such a time together in your word cause us to love your word, to reverence it, to stand in awe of it, oh God. Lord, help us not fall into the trap that this word though it is common, though we hear it week after week, though it occupies many of our shelves and our nightstands.

Lord, may it be seen today as what it is, the living word of God. Oh, Lord, speak to your people. Speak to us. Reveal yourself to us. Touch us.

Draw us closer to the person of Jesus Christ. In your name we ask these things humbly, desperately. Amen and amen and amen. Verse 16 of second Timothy chapter three reads, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I think we should read these verses one more time.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Our time in this precious epistle is coming to a near end as we are approaching the last chapter of Paul's final letter before his death. But before we transition into his concluding thoughts, we are going to focus our attention and plant ourselves in one of the most familiar and often quoted passages of all the Bible. These two short verses powerfully describe and define for us the authority of God's word, its nature, its function, and its ability to change lives. Now remember the context.

Remember what Timothy was facing, the challenges of his day. Let's look at what is happening around these verses to help us understand exactly why Paul is saying these things. Timothy was facing primarily false teachers who were emerging And they were presenting new ideas and new concepts and twisted versions of the scripture or total dismissal of the word of God altogether. Therefore, Paul is going to remind this young disciple of the divine origins of his beliefs. And how because this is supremely given to us by God, that it triumphs over every man made concept no matter how persuasive or beneficial it might be.

He wants them to see how this word is above all else. Secondly, as we read here, look at verse 13 again. While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, There is going to be a new effort now to rebel against God, and that's only going to grow as we approach the return of Christ, and sinning against one another. So there is this corruption that will increase. Therefore, Paul is going to tell his young disciple how he can grow in the opposite direction.

How he can go from glory to glory. From faith to faith. From love to love. And it is found, he's going to be reminded, it is found in your engagement. Your absorption, your your obedience to the written word of God.

This is gonna be a little different Sunday service than usual because it's gonna demand you to be more attentive with the references that are gonna be brought to you. I hope you have your bibles firmly in your hands because in this particular message, I'm gonna do a lot less, talking, explaining, commentating, and a lot more pointing to verses. And a lot more putting verses together for you to see the two main points of this message and that is this. Number one, the authority of the word of God. The authority of the word of God.

Is this just, another book among many other books? No. You're gonna discover that this is in fact the very word of the living God. Number two. Not just the authority, but the ability.

What can this word do? It can do what no other book can do. And that is transform lives miraculously as we engage with it. The authority of God's word. We read here, all scripture is breathed out by God.

What is scripture? What is Paul referring to here? Well, surely we heard last week in verse 15 that there are these things called the sacred writings. And that is a beautiful way of describing the Old Testament library that you have in your Bible and that the Jews share with us. And they would call it the Tanakh.

And though they have different orders of the books, the content is still the same. And this is what is known as scripture. This is what is known as the word of God. This is what is known as the sacred writings. But what's different between us and the Jews as you know is that we have an additional library.

It is the New Testament library. It doesn't contradict the old. It is built upon the old. It is the revelation that God furthers from the old covenant and fulfills. And so the question is begged this morning.

Well, what about that? What about the new testament books? Are those just as authoritative? Are they just as much breathed out by God than the sacred writings? And the best way to answer that is to see what Jesus Christ said about his own words and to see what the apostles who were commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ believed about their own writings.

And once we see that, we realize that there is a harmony, not just a harmony, but there is equal value, equal authority to both testaments, which should comfort our souls. And so the first place I would encourage you to turn to in your bibles is actually two places. You're gonna have one hand tucked in the old testament, another hand tucked in the new. In the old, you're gonna turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. In the new, you're gonna tuck your hand into John chapter five beginning in verse 46.

Does all scripture include the new testament, or is it limited to the prophets of old? Let's see what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter five verse 46 to 47. John chapter five. I always encourage you to bring your Bible so that you can see the word for yourself and you can have a mental map of your own Bible. You can get to the point where you read your Bible so much where you may not know the reference, but you're like, I know it's in this side of the page, on that side.

Have you does anybody else relate to that? Yeah. That's the beauty of God's word, when you have a copy of it. Verse 46. For if you this is Jesus speaking.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? The first thing to observe here is that Jesus Christ testifies that Moses, who was revered by the Jews, obviously, the mediator of their covenant, Moses wrote of Jesus Christ. And there are many references to that, some shadows, some types, but there is the most famous, the most known prediction of the person of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before his incarnation and that is where your hand is in the old testament in Deuteronomy chapter 18. And beginning in verse 15, we read, Moses speaking to the nation of Israel saying, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. The Muslims love to use this scripture to say that it speaks of Muhammad. That he is that prophet to come and you can just simply answer by saying, so is he among the Jews? I didn't know Muhammad was a Jew because it says from among you, from your brothers. It kinda closes the conversation very quickly.

But look at this part. It is to him you shall listen. That's important because this future prophet who will be like Moses will have something very important to say and it will call for the people to pay attention to what he has to say. Notice that Moses says that there will be a prophet like me. Many prophets have come after Moses, but there's gonna be a particular messenger from God who will be very much similar to this amazing man of God who had a unique relationship with God.

What are the similarities between this future prophet as we know fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ and Moses? Well, number one, God himself testifies that he communicated to Moses in a way that he didn't with others. Face to face, directly from God. You might say that God has done that with other prophets, but what makes Moses even more unique are the miracles that he performed. The signs and the wonders.

And we see Jesus performing very similar signs and wonders and miracles. In fact, the most common one is when he multiplied the bread and the fish where? In the wilderness. And the Jews understanding this prophecy and the Jews understanding what Moses was able to do by the power of God saw what Christ did in John chapter six and they made the connection themselves. You don't have to turn there, but in verse 14, look at the reaction as Jesus made bread seemingly appear out of nowhere just like the manna in the wilderness.

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this indeed is the prophet who is to come into the world. This is him. This is whom who Moses spoke about. Even they were convinced. But as you heard earlier, this prophet who would be like Moses would be similar because Moses was this mediator.

He was the liaison. He was the communicator of the old covenant at that mountain with the law being given. And yes, you know this that the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. And so these things are plain and obvious. And it all makes sense with Jesus' comment when he said, if you don't believe his writings, how will you believe my my words?

How will you believe my words? What what do you have to say, Lord, that is so important? Why do we have to believe your words? Is there something that you have to say that we have to adhere to and listen and obey? Well, we, we don't have to, we don't have to guess.

Let Moses speak on behalf of the Christ and the answer will come to us. When you scroll down in Deuteronomy 18, look at verse 18. God is speaking now and he's speaking to the people and he was saying, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And look at this. I will put my words in his mouth.

And he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. So the words of this future prophet who will be like Moses will be the very words of God. God will place his words in his mouth. He will command him exactly what to say and he will fulfill what he's been told to say.

In fact, the words of this prophet are so serious, so important, so divine that those who would refuse, according to verse 19, to listen to what he has to say, there will be consequences. I myself will require it of him. And we know that Jesus Jesus echoes exactly what Moses is saying here concerning his own ministry and his own message. How will you believe my words? Because Moses said that there's gonna be one like him and he has something to say, and what he has to say is in fact the very words of God.

When you scroll back now, go to John chapter 12. Look what Jesus says in verse 48 about his word. John twelve forty eight, Jesus is speaking about his words. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

Let me pause to say that, it's very dangerous to boast in biblical knowledge because the more light you get, the more judgment you will receive. So be very, very careful in boasting about biblical knowledge because according to this, the word that we receive, that we are exposed to will be our judge. Verse 49. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. It's right there.

That's exactly what Moses said. He's gonna come and he's gonna speak what has been commanded to him. And if you don't listen to what he says, God says I myself will require it of you. And here comes the Lord Jesus Christ saying, if you do not receive my words, this word will judge you because everything that I am saying to you has been given to me by the father who commanded it to me. There's no denying that Jesus Christ's words are the words of God.

And if they are the words of God, then they are divine revelation. And if they are divine revelation, then they are scripture. Like what Moses predicted, he would be commanded. And Jesus says, I was commanded. And Moses says he would have something to say and those who refuse to listen will be judged.

And Jesus says, if you don't listen to me, you will be judged. No mere man can say that. This is the prophet of prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you might not be convinced or maybe it might satisfy some skepticism. And there's so many places you can go to.

There's so many places to prove this. But I like this one. This one's neat. It's found in the gospel of Mark. When you go to Mark chapter 13 verse 31, it's gonna be a little bit of a marathon this afternoon.

Look what Jesus says after he finishes teaching on the end times. After he finishes talking about the signs that will come before his return, he concludes with this divine stamp of approval. He says something about his words that if the, that if the Christian hears it, they understand with ease. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, you can hear what Jesus is about to say and say, well that makes sense. I believe he is God.

But to the Jewish mind, who sees a mere man and is challenged by this concept of God becoming man, though they shouldn't be because the scriptures prove it over and over, this would have been blasphemous. This would have been just shocking to hear. Mark thirteen thirty one, Jesus puts this exclamation mark to his teaching on the last days, and he says heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. My words. To us we say amen.

But to the Jew they go, who do you think you are? My words will not pass away. Why would this be so shocking? Because he dared to take the prerogative that solely belongs to God and his word alone and applies it to himself. Jesus takes a prerogative, a statement that God alone makes about his word and he says, my word is equally eternal and equally reliable and equally permanent.

Because the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 40 verse eight, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Are you saying your words are the same as the word of our God? Are you saying that though humanity is frail, mankind will fade, that your word will stand until the end of the age? And Jesus without blushing, without hesitation says, my word. My word will never pass away because my words are the very words of God.

That might help. I may settle the skeptical heart, and we can go on and on and on about what Jesus' words mean and the authority of his words. But I think the more debatable area is, well okay, that's fine. But what about the apostles then? What about the apostles?

Because even some people who innocently or deceptively say, well, I I follow the the letters I've read. And, and that is becoming more and more common and I'll tell you why in a moment. But these people fail to realize that the very words of the apostles are the words of Christ. And if the words of Christ are the words of God, just do the math. Jesus in John chapter 16, this is incredible.

In verse 12, he's speaking to his own before his passion. He's speaking to those 12 that have followed him faithfully for years. And he's about to speak now about his departure, but he's also going to give a comforting promise. They've been chosen for this apostolic ministry, and he's not gonna leave them behind without assistance and guidance. But he says something quite remarkable in verse 12 of chapter 16.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. You know, know, it's amazing after three and a half years of ministry on earth, Jesus admits here that there are still many other things that he had to teach concerning his person, concerning his work, concerning his will for the church. But he tells them why he did not teach them up to this point. Because they could not bear them now. You can't handle this now.

It'll be too overwhelming for you. It'll be confusing and that makes total sense. And so what are what are one of the reasons why he does not teach them what he says he wanted to but he couldn't? I believe it's because he had to first die. He had to first be buried.

He had to first resurrect and ascend before the further revelations would even make sense to the minds of the disciples. Because we see over and over that when Jesus even tells them blatantly, I am going to be surrendered. I am going to die and I'm going to rise. They were confused. They could not accept it.

They could not understand it. And if they could not understand the the beginning of his redemptive purposes, how would they understand the things that it would accomplish? How would it understand the things that would be as a result of his death and resurrection when they couldn't even understand him dying and resurrecting? And so he puts a limit to what he teaches them because they could not understand it. They could not bear it.

Yes, they were sorrowful. That's one part. But I believe they were limited in their understanding and the things that he would want to teach would only make sense after the events of his redemptive purposes being accomplished. After his sacrificial atonement, then these teachings would make sense to the mind and to the heart. But he gives him a promise in verse 13.

When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. You are my apostles. You will be the foundation of the church through your teaching.

And I wanna promise you now, this is what Christ is saying, that the agent who will deliver these further revelations will be the person of the Holy Spirit. He will be given to you, and he will tell you exactly what you need to know. He will guide you into all truth. And the primary application of that deals with the New Testament writers who will who will give us this library. The promise is you are going to receive the revelation necessary to complete what I want to say to the world and to my people.

You don't have to turn there, but early on he says about the Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things, in John fourteen twenty six. He will teach you all things and bring all the things that I've said to you to remembrance. And if you ever met somebody who said, and I've heard this from somebody once many, many years ago, you know, if if I'm in doubt of the New Testament, I I just go to the words of Jesus. Paul, John, Peter. Yeah, but they're like, you know, but the letters in red, that's where I go to.

And if anybody ever says that or maybe you believe that, I would say, well, what do you do with a scripture like this? Because Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own authority. The Holy Spirit who worked through the apostles was not giving something additional or less than. What does it say here? That he will take what is mine, Jesus said.

He will take what is mine and make it known to you. So you you go to first Corinthians and you see Paul writing to a church and the immediate context is is the troubles that they have and the people that he's communicating to, that he's ministered to. Paul's writings? Yeah, but Jesus' words. John, same thing.

Why is this crucial? Because we're coming to a day where people are saying, well Jesus didn't speak about homosexuality so it must be okay. Jesus wasn't very clear about gender roles within the local church and the home. So, well yeah, but that's Paul. That was Peter.

Well, Jesus said that what they would receive from the spirit would be from him, so they're actually Jesus's words. So what are you gonna do with that? They are his words through the apostles and these chosen men who received the promise of the Holy Spirit to experience a supernatural work of being inspired in a specific moment to write holy writ. They themselves knew, they themselves were convinced that their content at certain times were in fact given by Jesus Christ, by the spirit. They knew that.

If you believe that the New Testament was just compiled accidentally and that the apostles did not know what they were writing, would be inspired and would come to this point where we would have these scriptures. No, no, no, no, no. They in fact knew it. Though they were not in control of when they would be inspired, they knew that they were by the Holy Spirit carrying them along. Proof of that is in second Peter in chapter three.

In verse one, Peter says, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you. Beloved, in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember, now look at this, verse two, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and savior through your apostles. You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets, and we know that those prophets were the men who spoke in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Nahum and Malachi and Deuteronomy. Remember their predictions and look where he places his own writings with the other 11 in the same category. Equal and worth equal in authority and the commandment of who?

The Lord and savior through your apostles. The apostles writings were just as relevant and reliable and and authoritative as those of the ancient prophets in the Old Testament. And so even the early church learned to submit to the words of the apostles as though they were divine in origin, and that's clear here. And this should excite us to a certain degree. Because Jesus is telling, telling them that this is going to happen and Peter's experiencing it.

And what he's saying to his people is that you should be reminded that what we're saying comes from Christ. Comes from the Lord himself, your Saviour and our Saviour. But what about Paul? Paul was additional. Paul wasn't among the 12.

So maybe Paul. I mean, I know this sounds crazy but you have to understand this is how people think. This is how people actually think. They they chop it up in such a way and they really believe that not all scripture is breathed out by God. Now you believe that.

But there is a world increasing and even in academic settings that will say otherwise. So narrow it down. We go from all scripture, Old Testament, now we come to the words of Jesus. They're divine. Okay.

There's no much argument there. Okay. The 12, there but what about Paul then? Paul was Paul is third number 13. The same chapter.

You scroll down to verse 16 of second Peter. He's speaking about Paul's writings. You can go to verse 15 actually. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation just as our beloved brother Paul. I love how Peter speaks about Paul.

Our beloved brother. Tenderness and compassion. Our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you to the wisdom given him. Now look at this. As he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand.

That comforts me. There are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. So even Peter, in speaking about Paul's letters, is saying that they are scripture. As they do, implying what? That Paul's writings are just as much scripture as Moses' writings.

And people twist them. And I as I said earlier, I'm comforted to know that some parts are hard to understand. So if you have difficulty reading some passages of scripture and you don't understand what's being said, it's okay. Even Peter did. Notice this incredible connection.

And I hope that this brief time would at least settle your soul to realize that when God, through Paul, says all scripture, he really meant all scripture. Now if you wanna know how the Bible has been developed and how why we have these particular books in our library, you can come ask us after the service. That's a whole another session on its own. But within the testimony of the word of God itself, we know that from the sacred writings to the words of Jesus to the words of the apostles, it is considered as the very truth of God from God's heart and mind himself. And this is encouraging because we go on to read here that all scripture, all scripture is breathed out by God.

Sounds poetic. Sounds profound. Sounds powerful. What does it mean? What does it mean?

Breathed out by God. It's an expression only found in this verse in all of the Bible. Though the meaning is expressed in different ways at different portions of the bible, this phrase itself is unique to this text. And the purpose of this claim is to make sure that although you and I believe that the bible has been written by individual writers with their respective personalities, The origin, the origin is God. It's God.

And now God in his wisdom does not give us the mechanics, does not give us a step by step process of how that inspirational work happened. Did they go into a trance and start writing? I don't think so. But we don't have that. We're not given that all God believes is sufficient for his people and for a world who is skeptical to know is that at certain times with certain men, God used them to say exactly what he wanted to say, and it is found in our bibles today.

Breathe out the same way that your words are accompanied by your breath. You breathe out your words. This written word are the very words of God does not inspire reverence in us. That this book that we are hearing from today is not Paul's thoughts, not Peter's thoughts. Yes, God worked through them.

It's ultimately the Lord himself. These are his commands. These are his instructions. This is his counsel. This is his revelation.

Oh, from time to time, we need to be reminded of that so that we can tremble when we come to this word. And I'm afraid that with with such availability, we are losing that sense of reverence because you can download God's word. It's just an app right beside Instagram and Facebook. There's God's word. Be reminded today that no matter what platform it's found, it's still God speaking.

It's God speaking. And in order to even show how connected God's word is to him, you may have never heard this before but I hope it inspires some excitement in you this afternoon. In order to show just how connected God is to his word, the Holy Spirit in the bible sometimes, listen to this, uses the word God and scripture interchangeably. In other words, when God has said something, sometimes the New Testament will just say, and scripture said. When it was in fact God who said it.

And there are other times that when there is a clear scripture given by a specific author, the New Testament will say God said that. God said that. And I wanna show you just two examples of that. This is this is exciting. One is found in the book of Galatians.

Galatians chapter three. There are the wrestling of the leaves. Galatians chapter three. Look what look what Paul says. Look at this masterful statement in verse eight of Galatians chapter three.

And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. Hold on. Read that slowly. Who's foreseeing? Who's preaching the gospel to Abraham?

Who's saying? It's not a who, it's a what. The scripture. The Scripture foreseeing. The Scripture preaching.

The Scripture saying. But you go back to Genesis 12 where this quote is taken from and you realize that it's God who's speaking to Abraham. God is the one who said, in you shall all the nations be blessed. And yet Paul by the Spirit goes on to say, actually it was Scripture who said it. Paul personifies Scripture.

As though scripture can see, as though scripture can preach, as though scripture can say, because what's credited to God, he actually credits it to scripture. For what reason? To show just how connected scripture is to the heart and mind of God. He does the same in Romans nine verse 17. You don't have to turn there.

He says, and the scripture said to pharaoh and then he quotes what God said about pharaoh in Exodus. Well, God said it. Yeah. But scripture said it because whatever God says is scripture. So Paul even personifies the written word of God to a certain extent by saying when God said it, it's divine revelation.

And he does the opposite. He does the opposite. When a human writer wrote something, he says God said it. And that's found in Hebrews as an example. In Hebrews chapter three verse seven, I told you we're going to a lot of verses today.

In Hebrews chapter three verse seven, we read this, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. He quotes Psalm ninety five seven to 11. And it's clear that a psalmist wrote this. It's a psalmist in fact giving instruction to the people of how to respond to God. Don't harden your hearts.

That's a preaching thing. That's an instruction thing. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Some would say that's David and actually that is David. When you go down later on, we're told it's David.

But he doesn't say the psalmist. He doesn't say as David says. He says who? As the Holy Spirit says. And the Holy Spirit is God.

What does that mean? Well, when you read the Psalms, you're not just reading David, you're not just reading Asaph, you're not just reading Moses, you're reading God speaking to you. And in fact, in the next chapter, in chapter four verse seven, we are told with the same Psalm that God spoke through David. Through David. The Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice.

Not David. Yes, David was the instrument. Yes, David was speaking with his personality, his poetic ability. But it was God who said it. It was God who said it.

And so you see how God, even in the word, conjoins his word with who he is. They're inseparable. These things reveal him. They speak of him the same way your words reveal who you are. God's word reveals who he is.

And I hope we understand that. I hope we see that this is supernatural. That it's inseparable from who he is. But you might be in an honest way asking, well how how does this ancient spirit woven series of texts apply to my modern life? You've proved it, I hope.

All scripture means all scripture, including the words of Jesus, including the words in the writings of the apostles, that when they spoke, God spoke. But what does that mean for me? What does that do for me? Oh, you asked a wonderful question. And Paul, after speaking about the authority of God's word, this breathed out book, goes on to speak about the ability of God's word.

And you heard it. It's profitable for teaching. It's profitable for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Now we read in verse 15 of second Timothy chapter three that these sacred writings make us wise for salvation. When you come to this book, even the old testament, you can be led to saving faith.

But he goes on beyond that. It's more than just that. It's more than just bringing you to the place where your soul is secure in the hands of a merciful God by faith, by repentance. It is adequate enough from that place. It is adequate enough to make you healthy, spiritually, to make you whole, to make you pure, to make you strong, to make you fruitful, to make you effective, to make you discerning, to be complete.

Complete doesn't speak about moral perfection. It speaks about being mature in the things of God. And we do strive unto perfection, but complete in the sense that you are furnished with all that God would want to furnish you with. And what do we need? Do we need 10 texts?

Do we need the Book of Mormon? Do we need no. No. No. Just the scripture.

It is sufficient. It is enough. It is it is God's necessary and sufficient truth to tell you exactly what he wants you to know about him. It is exactly what God wants to say to you about who you are, with him or without him. What this world is.

What this world will become is enough for you to know how to to act, not to act. There's nothing more that you need, that I need, than this written word. And that will only be exciting, really, to the person who would strive to be what he tells him that he is to Timothy, a man of God. You men of God, listen. You want to be a man of God?

This will equip you to be a man of God. If you don't care about being a man of God, this Bible will not be attractive to you. If you don't wanna be a woman of God, you will not be attracted to this book. But if you strive after coming to salvation, through the wisdom of God's word to say, now Lord, make me into a man of God. Then this is the place to be.

This is where you draw that wisdom from. And as you hear it, as you receive it, as you engage with it, it supernaturally works in you and begins to shape you and change you from glory to glory to glory. You do not read this book every morning because that's what a good little Christian does. You come to this word because it is God's way of speaking into your life as he spoke into creation. Let life come.

Let order come. Let chaos be calmed in your heart, in your mind, in your behavior. But the difference between you and the trees and you and I and the planets and the water is that they do not have the ability to say no. When God said trees come up, yes. Sand come up, yes.

Mountains come up, yes. But when it comes to you and I, when God's word is exposed to us, you have to submit to it in order for it to work in you. What I love about this truth is that if this is the source that brings about a certain kind of person, a man of God or a woman of God, then as a local church, as we make this word central, then we can know what to expect from our people. And that is to be trained in righteousness. That is to be equipped.

That is to be complete. The only way that you can have such caliber of people in a local church is when you elevate the word of God and you teach it. You use it to reprove. You you use it to to preach and teach and instruct. And then, only then will you see a people arise to be mighty warriors for the kingdom of God.

Only then. Nothing apart from the word of God. And yet, here we are hearing of different methods to draw I am not interested in drawing people in. And neither is the Bible. The Bible is interested in creating certain type of people.

That can only happen from the word. When the word is sung, when the word is conversed, when the word is declared, only then will we see like Timothy, men and women of God. And when this word is central, you know what happens? It weeds out the people who don't want it. It weeds out those who think that they can live in sin and worldliness and come and take refuge among God's people.

This word is so sharp that when it is declared by the power of the Holy Spirit, the person who does not want sin cut out of their lives will run for his life from such a place. But to those who say, oh God, do what you need to do. Whatever surgery you need to do, cut it out. Mold me. Shape me.

Put me in a fire. Melt me so that you can create something beautiful in me. A local church that puts the word of God as supreme and primary will be an oasis in a wilderness for such a person. They will come and drink. They will sit and they will receive even if they have to go coast to coast to receive the word from the Lord.

You wanna be a man of God? Come to the word. God wrote a book. God wrote a book. And God has ordained it since he has made covenant with a people that they would hear from him through a book.

And if you have a copy of his book, it means that in his good providence, God longs to speak to you. I know we pray and say, God speak to me and we want the Mount Sinai experience, not realizing that the Mount Sinai experience was to create the very word that he would communicate his people with. God spoke and God still wants to speak. Notice I didn't say God wants you to come to his word to learn something about him. I didn't say that.

I said God wants to speak currently to you. And I want to prove that to you in our final text as we close in a moment. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 22, I want you to see how Jesus believed how this word spoke and still speaks. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 22, he's speaking to the Sadducees. They didn't believe in the supernatural.

They didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in angels. And somebody jokingly said, well, no wonder they were called the Sadducees. Sad, you see. They don't believe in things that should make you rejoice.

In Matthew 22 verse 31, Jesus speaks to them because they try to corner him with a question about the resurrection. They thought they were clever. And look what he does so masterfully. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

He is not God of the dead, but of the living. Jesus is a master apologist, evangelist, knew that the Sadducees only held to the first five books of the Bible. They didn't hold to the prophets. They didn't hold to the historical narratives. They held to the first five books.

So what he does to prove his case is he goes to the first five books to prove the resurrection and he goes to the book of Exodus. But more than that, he says, have you not read? And then he finishes that statement with, what was said to you by God? Have you not read what was said to you? Well, that's interesting because he quotes Exodus in that burning bush scene where Moses approaches this burning bush and God speaks to Moses.

And when you go to Acts chapter seven, and you don't have to turn there, Stephen goes to this incident as well in his last message before he is executed. And he clearly says in Acts seven what the Lord said to him, being Moses. And he engages with the same reference. Stephen says what the Lord said to him. Jesus says what the Lord said to you.

What do you mean to you? God spoke to Moses, that was the immediate context, and yet Jesus still says in this text that even though in the immediate context God spoke to Moses, God was actually having in mind something for you to hear. God in his mind obviously wrote it and recorded it for Moses, but he also had in mind that for future generations when they would read that portion of scripture among all of it, they would understand that God was actually saying something to them as well. You sadducees hundreds of years after what this happened, where this happened, God actually was saying something to you. Did you hear it?

Did you hear what God said in Exodus when he spoke to Moses? He wasn't just speaking to Moses, He was speaking to you and he's still speaking to us in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. He's still speaking. What does that mean? This phrase proves to me in essence that when I come to his word, not just the, the obvious instructions given to me and you as Christians in Philippians and Ephesians, do this, don't do this.

Even when I come to Exodus, God has something to say to me. From Genesis to Malachi, although it's historical, it's ancient, it's narrative, it's descriptive, and yet still according to the words of Jesus, God wants to speak to me through those stories. He wants to speak to me through Leviticus. He wants to speak to me in Malachi and Zechariah. That will make all the difference in your approach to the word of God.

That will make all the difference. It will be much more exciting to come to something like the Old Testament and not think that the ultimate motivation is so I can memorize certain truths so that when I'm quizzed, I can show that I'm sharp. Who cares? What, what are we seeing here? Come to the word of God because God wants to say something.

You should get giddy, my brother and my sister, when you finish a book in the Old Testament, and you're ready to come to a new one, you should prepare yourself. Oh, God, what are you going to say to me? What are you gonna speak to me? What are you gonna reveal yourself to me through this text? Because God had in mind through Jesus Christ that when you see these things and read these things, he would say something.

And I hope you would feel that way when you read God's word. Because as you come with that kind of an attitude, you will go deeper in your knowledge of him in a way that would be so rich and so real and so transformative that you will not be the same as you discipline yourself to have a conversation with God. When God speaks to a heart that's willing to receive what he wants to say, that heart cannot remain the same. It cannot. Now if you come to this book to receive data and information, then that can only go so far.

When you're disconnected from this book and you don't realize that it's actually God's means of speaking and communicating to you, you won't go very far in being equipped as a man of God. But when you come from cover to cover ready for the Lord to speak to you, oh, you will be furnished. You will be molded. You will be transformed. Something will happen to you.

Your your conversation style will change. Your outlook will change. Victory over sin becomes more available and more experienced. Something happens. But you have to believe that it's God's voice first.

Jesus said it. And I hope today, this afternoon, that you would leave here with a greater itch in a holy way, a greater appetite. When you fail to feel the motivation to come to God's word, realize what Jesus said to these Sadducees, he wants to say something to you. He wants to say something to you. Lord, we thank you for your word this afternoon.

Thank you that all scripture is breathed out by God. And this world will be held accountable to the word. Thank you that we have received the wisdom from this word for salvation. But Lord, we don't want just salvation, we wanna be sanctified. We wanna be a man of God, a woman of God.

Lord, help us believe what Christ himself said of his word that it speaks to us, you speak to us. Even in this day, you had in mind from eternity past that Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and everything after that would be your way of speaking, revealing, communicating to us. Lord, we just ask in this moment that there would be a renewed love for the word. And in this moment, we, in response to it, show you reverence as we sing to the living God with his living book. Breathe in us breath of God, fresh life, fresh hope, and fresh faith to continue in this walk faithfully as we walk in the word.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and worship the Lord together, shall we?