Every Word From the Mouth of God
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
1 Peter 4:10
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Please open your Bibles to Matthew 4:1-11
Do you want to live forever?
If “living” means to be conscious and aware of our surroundings then we will all “live” forever!
But, do you want that consciousness to be eternal life in the presence of the Lord?
Or do you want that consciousness and awareness to be eternal death where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth and where the worm does not die? This is NOT a pleasant place … (from Mark 9:48)
Assuming that we all want to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord we certainly want to know how to get there, right?
Let’s read Matthew 4:1-11 and see if Jesus gives us a clue: Matthew 4:1-11
(Prayer for help)
What is the phrase we are looking for in this passage?
Matthew 4:4
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’”
What do we have here?
- It is written
- Every word that comes from the mouth of God
The Bible contains every word that comes from the mouth of God that He wants us to have and it has all been written down for our spiritual consumption.
What is one principle that we employ when making such assertions?
The Lord knows we are thick headed so if something is important to our salvation He says it over and over and over hoping we’ll finally get it!
Again … Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
What about our memory refresher verse for this Sunday?
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
What is the Scripture Paul is speaking of when he is writing to Timothy?
There was no New Testament at that time, right?
In 2 Peter 3:16b Peter is speaking of Paul’s writings when he says,
“[Pau’s] letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
So, what else do we see?
Psalm 1:1-2 KJV (that’s the way I memorized it as a child …)
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”
The righteous man or woman delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night!
Another one of our memory Scriptures says,
2 Timothy 2:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.”
Why is this so important? Why do I seem to harp on this week after week?
Pastor Karenlee and I and any of our Sunday School and Bible study teachers will have to give an account to the Lord of every word we have spoken in preaching, teaching or counseling.
(Don’t let that scare you. It is better to obediently teach God’s Word to the best of your ability than to disobey out of fear that you might not teach something correctly.)
Many denominations are being torn apart because of belief or disbelief of the Scriptures. What do you believe?
Do you believe in the actual existence of:
- Able, son of Adam and Eve? (Luke 11:51)
- Noah and the flood? (Matthew 24:37–39)
- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? (Matthew 8:11, John 8:56–58)
- Lot and his wife? (Luke 17:28-32)
- Sodom and Gomorrah? (Matthew 10:15)
- Manna in the wilderness? (John 6:31)
- The serpent in the Garden of Eden? (John 3:14)
- Jonah? (Matthew 12:39-41)
- Sheba, the Queen of the South? (Matthew 12:42)
- Daniel? (Matthew 24:15)
- Hell? (Matthew 18:9)
- An eternal dwelling place for the righteous? (John 14:2)
Jesus believed all these things and used them as examples in His teachings!
Do you believe that there was a left-handed judge in the Old Testament who went into the private chamber of the king of an opposing nation, stabbed him with a short sword and the guy that he stabbed was so large that the judge left the sword in the king’s belly and his fat closed up over it?
(Judges 3)
Do you believe Jesus walked on the water?
Do you believe Jesus gave sight to a man born blind?
Do you believe Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit and a virgin?
Do you believe Jesus fed a crowd of over 5,000 with five small loaves and a few fish?
Do you believe Jesus was bodily raised from the dead?
Do you believe Jesus will return and judge the earth?
Do you believe that the words of Jesus in the Bible are accurate?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions you have just put yourself as an authority above the Word of God … OR … you don’t believe that the Bible is REALLY the Word of God.
When you begin dismantling the Word of God where do you stop?
How much of the Bible can be untrue and it still be God’s Word?
Do you remember a few weeks ago when we read the admonishment from Jude that we must, “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people?” Jude 1:3b
Do you remember our memory Scripture that says in:
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
That day is upon us! And it did not start with our generation!
How do we tell the Truth from the myths? God’s Word!
In Hosea 4:6-9 the Lord is speaking to the priests of Israel when He says:
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
“The more priests there were, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.
“They feed on the sins of My people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.”
Knowledge of God is impossible apart from the Word of God!
If we are to know God we MUST know His Word!
If we are to live faithfully for God we MUST know His Word!
If you read books ABOUT God’s Word and you do not KNOW God’s Word how will you keep from being led astray?
This year I want to encourage you to get to know God’s Word.
Get a Bible translation you can understand.
One of the most conservative pastors I know of does his personal devotions from the old Living Bible paraphrase.
You may want to read the Bible from cover to cover.
Sometimes, reading too fast in order to accomplish a goal can cause you to miss something important.
On the other hand, reading the Bible from cover to cover can help you to get a more complete understanding of Who God is and what He is like.
Another idea might be to just read the four Gospels over and over throughout the year, or, maybe even to take one of the Gospels and read it over and over to squeeze every morsel of truth from the words of Jesus.
And, always read with the thought in mind of, “What is the Lord trying to tell me here? What does He want me to learn? How does He want to transform my mind so I can know His will?
”
Never read with the question of, “What does this mean to me” as if each person can have their own private interpretation of Scripture.
I have heard people actually say, “Well, that may be what it means to you but it means something different to me.”
I remember one young man who had just gotten out of seminary and was working in a church as a youth pastor. He was so confused by what he had been taught in the seminary that he almost left the ministry.
One of his friends made the suggestion, “Just read only the Bible for three months.” He did and it made all the difference in the world.
Romans 12:2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Along those lines I just want to make one suggestion. Don’t watch or read “documentaries” about the Bible that are made by unbelievers.
They will have one focus, one agenda. And that agenda is to cause you to doubt the Word of God. Just like the serpent in the Garden of Eden they will ask, “Did God really say?”
If God’s Word is really NOT God’s Word then we are on a Fool’s Errand.
But if God’s Word really IS God’s Word then it is the one and only path to eternal life!
Final thoughts and closing prayer.
