“IT IS WRITTEN!!!”
Deut. 8:1-10
Some of us can remember back to the war that we had with Saddam Hussein in 1991. We did not know all that we had to fight with for some things had not been proven. We found out when he launched 86 Scud missiles towards us. Most of them missed their targets. We had what they called Patriot missiles that were shot up into the air to blow up the missiles he launched. The critics had said that these missiles would not perform in the heat of battle. This missile proved the critics wrong and saved thousands of lives. Many years ago there was another war being waged and it was fought in the wilderness in the Middle East. It featured two global superpowers. For forty days the attack went on with Jesus Christ against the enemy Satan. Satan had his deadly missiles aimed with precision to destroy the mission Christ was set to do. Jesus did not have Patriot missiles but he did have a weapon to defend with. It was the indestructible, everlasting, uncompromising Word of God. When Satan fired his heavy weapon store at Jesus they were met with a power greater than any missile, “It is written.” Jesus defeated with an impact that shook both heaven and hell. Here we are many years later yet Satan still remains and he wants to destroy us and fires his force of temptations at us. He and his demons are out to destroy those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you felt the heat of battle lately? Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon that has been made to be used against you will succeed. You will have an answer for anyone who accuses you. This is the inheritance of the Lord’s servants. Their victory comes from me," declares the Lord.” 2 CO. 10:4 “The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. Rather, they are powerful weapons from God.” I know that we are in an intense battle spiritually. When I talk with people about their commitment to the Lord and His church there seems to be little response that they want to be involved. The excitement level seems to be low these days with a “who cares attitude.” Could it be that we live in defeat because we do not know the Word to blow up the incoming threats of the devil? How did Jesus use the Word of God and why did He think it was the weapon that would be effective in this war? Let us remember that Jesus had been without food for forty days and it could have entered his thinking that He could serve God better if He had a full stomach. He chooses rather to live by the spiritual bread, The Word of God, than depending on physical strength of food. When we are in a war it is not a time to experiment with weapons that will not do the job. Let us discover what Jesus believed about the Word of God and its power for us today.
I. JESUS BELIEVED THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD. He believed that all that is contained in this book is of Divine inspiration. Though we know that humans were used to write this book they were under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. Other books that are spiritual books have been rewritten and revised but the Word of God remains the same. Matt.4:4 “Jesus answered, "It is written, ’a person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that God speaks.’" This book is not a result of human intelligence. It is God’s book written for our benefit. Jesus said in MK 7:13 that this was “the Word of God.” So when the Bible speaks it is God speaking. So what David wrote in the Psalms was inspired by the Spirit and Jesus used it when answering a question that was brought to Him. Paul said, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” This means it is god Breathed. So being the very breath of God what the bible says is what God says. 1 TH. 2:13 “Here is another reason why we never stop thanking God: When you received God’s word from us, you realized it wasn’t the word of humans. Instead, you accepted it for what it really is—the word of God. This word is at work in you believers.” Peter said, “No prophecy ever originated from humans. Instead, it was given by the Holy Spirit as humans spoke under God’s direction.” The thought here is as t he winds fill the sails of a boat to move it is the Holy Spirit filled, moved and directed what was written without error. II. JESUS BELIEVED THE ENTIRE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD. He believed in the full, entire, complete spoken inspiration of the Bible. Jesus believed that the whole Bible was inspired and not just parts. It is every letter and every stroke was inspired. We do not have to go to an explanation of what the Bible says by another person we need to take it for what it says. “It not the parts of the Bible that I do not understand that bothers me, but what I do understand.” Jesus believed that all the books of the Bible were inspired—Luke 11:51 from the start to the finish. Jesus also gave a word about the New Testament in that the Holy Spirit would be supervising it and gives us what was to come. So we can say all the books are inspired. Jesus also believed that all the words were inspired for He said “Every word that comes from the mouth of God. He went even further to proclaim that every letter was inspired. The smallest letter looks like an apostrophe. Even the dot above the I is God given. Even farther He said the smallest stroke will not pass away. When He said all the Bible was inspired He meant the books, the words, the letters and even the strokes we God breathed. What does that do to your thinking about the Word of God? III. JESUS BELIEVED THAT THE BIBLE IS WITHOUT ANY ERROR. That means it is inerrant, it is absolutely true and has not mixture of error. The Bible does not lie and contains the whole truth and nothing but the truth. What a book for it claims that it can never make a mistake in leading us to what we need to know for living for God. Jesus said it very plainly when He said, “Your Word is Truth.” “I am the truth.” God cannot lie and neither can His Word. Now some would like to contend that the Holy word of God could not come from sinful men and be without error. Consider the birth of Jesus. He was born to a sinful woman but was pure in all His actions and words. IV. JESUS BELIEVED THAT THE BIBLE WOULD NEVER FAIL. A WORD WE COULD USE HERE IS INFALLIBLE, perfect, dependable and reliable. Every promise in the Bible has been or will be fulfilled. All the prophecy will come to pass. Every judgment will come All truth will be correct. All that the Bible says will happen will happen. Nothing in this book will be deleted. Men may try to destroy it or criticize it but man is no match for God’s Word. Jesus even declared at one time, “It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the least of the Bible to fail.” Every detail in Christ’s life that had been written before He came was fulfilled in His life here on earth just as it was written. If one rejects the Bible he is rejecting Christ. Voltaire and atheist said the Bible would not last within 25 years. He is dead and the Bible is still alive. The fact is that forty years after he died they used his very house to print Bibles from.
V. JESUS BELIEVED THE BIBLE IS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY. The Word of God is mandatory in our lives. He said, “It is written.” The Bible is to be followed and obeyed and never questioned or challenged. It contains the commandments of God not suggestions for living. It gives us divine commands for living that is acceptable to God.
VI. JESUS BELIEVED THAT THE BIBLE IS HISTORICALLY TRUE. All the events and persons in the Old Testament were real and true. If you were t o pick out only four stories from the O. T. in which the skeptics would most ridicule do you know which ones t hey would be? The creation of Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and Jonah and the great fish. What did Jesus have to say about them? On one accession he was being questioned by the Pharisees and He built His entire defense on the record of Adam and Eve. MT 19:4 "Haven’t you read that the Creator made them male and female in the beginning” Jesus believed this was history not a myth. Many do not want to believe in the flood because it points out what sin can do to a world. Jesus when talking about His second coming made it clear He believed the Flood was very real and the people of Noah’s were very wicked. MT 24:37-39. Jesus stated there was a flood and all that were not on the ark were swept away and lost their lives. This was history not a myth. Jesus also talked about his second coming in reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. LK 17:28-30. Many are about eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building and giving no thought about God today. It is history not a myth Jesus related to Jonah and the great fish in talking about His resurrection. MT 12:38-40. Jesus did not just allude to these stories but declared them to be facts that really are true historically. We would say there are only three possibilities we must take. There are no errors in the Bible like Jesus said. There are errors and Jesus was mistaken. There are errors that Christ knew about but He covered them up. The second possibility tells us that Jesus could not be God. The third would make Jesus a liar. I choose to believe the first one for I believe that Jesus was the Son of God.
VII. JESUS BELIEVED THE BIBLE IS INDESTRUCTIBLE OR INVINCIBLE. Jesus used the Word of God in response to Satan’s temptations because He believed that nothing is as powerful as Scripture. Satan and his evil forces stand powerless in hearing the Word of God. When we use the Word of God to stand against temptation it is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon. You have more than enough to do the job. Jesus used the words “It is written” three times and Satan was not match with that weapon. Jesus did not have to debate with the devil. Jesus did not say a magical formula. He did not try to speak words to condemn or bind the devil. He just used the Word of God. So we can see from this that Satan is no match even for the weakest of saints who is filled with the Holy Spirit and armed with the Word of God. No temptation we come confronted with can over power us who are in Christ Jesus. 2 CO. 10:4 “The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. Rather, they are powerful weapons from God.” One from church history said, “A Bible which is falling apart usually belongs to someone who is not.” Our word, “It is written.” The battle in this desert was a clearly a mismatch for the Devil could not stand up against the Word of God.
In the 1930’s American military leaders adopted a strategy of offensive air power to trick back against an aggressive nation and end any war quickly. If a foreign power should start a war, planes loaded with bombs would strike a quick and devastating blow and shorten the war. This was tested t o end WW II when the USA dropped bombs on Japan. It was in 1939 that Einstein came to President Roosevelt about creating an atom bomb. The USA asked Japan to surrender but they refused and continued fighting so we came to the only option and that was to drop the deadly bomb. On August 6, 1945 we dropped the bomb killing between 70,000 to 100,000 people. They still refused to surrender. On August 9, 1945 we dropped an even bigger bomb and many more died. Japan surrendered. On September 2, 1945 they signed the official papers on the ship the Missouri.
We do not fight Satan with man made bombs but with a weapon that is far more powerful in this spiritual world. The invincible weapon is the Word of God. Satan threw his heaviest weapon he could at Christ but Jesus responded with a weapon that took care of what Satan used. We have no other weapon in which to win this war. It is the Spirit filled believer armed with the inerrant, inspired, infallible, accurate Word of God who will win and have victory.
There is nothing wrong with the desire to have the Holy Spirit’s power in your life. Sadly, however, teaching on the subject too often strays from biblical truth. In the quest for Holy Spirit power, many people follow paths paved with emotion rather than doctrine. There is an interesting sequence surrounding the temptation of Jesus. He was full of the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit (v. 1). Filling comes with surrender. Surrender allows the Spirit to lead. The Spirit-filled believer will be an obedient believer. In a setting of temptation, He withstood the direct attempts of Satan to get Him to sin. The Spirit-filled believer also will resist temptation and live a righteous life. After the temptation Jesus is described as returning to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit" (v. 14). It is not incidental that "power" is noted after surrender, obedience and resisting temptation. There is no short circuit to Holy Spirit power. One must start with surrender and proceed with obedience. Righteousness also is required. A lack of spiritual power is not due to a shortage of emotion. More often it is a shortage of the Christ like life. If you want Holy Spirit power, follow the example of Jesus. Do not start with emotion but with truth.
