Preached December 17, 1989, morning service New Winchester Missionary Baptist Church Danville, Indiana
Thy Word is truth. Repeat, Thy Word is truth.
Let"s pray.
Father, thank you for Your Word, it"s alive, it is a
2 edged sword, it is Your light, shining in a dark
world. Help us to receive it and to honor it, and
to leave this place to practice it and to change
humanity for the good thru it. In Jesus name we
pray. And all God"s children said, Praise the Lord.
I hold in my hand the most powerful Book that has
ever been written. It was authored by God Himself.
God the Holy Spirit. This is not a good book. Gone
with the Wind is a good book. This is the living,
unchanging Word of God. The Bible is beyond other
books, as a river is beyond a drop a water. It is
beyond other books as the sun shining a noon day
with all its brillance, is brighter than a candle.
It is greater than other books, as a mountain is
greater than a grain of sand. The Bible says that
this book is milk for the babes in Christ. It is
meat for men. It is the pillow on which the saints
of God have rested their head throughout time. It
is a Light shining in a dark world.
This Book is not a mith, as many humanist are
proposing.
It is a miracle written thru men. 66 books, over
2,000 years in span. Yet every word, every chapter
and every verse agree in total with each other. It
is a Book that will change you, heart, soul, mind
and body. You can read Shakespere and Shelley, and
Keat and Barron and it will inspire you. But this
Book will change you. This Book has the ability to
make an alcoholic put his bottle down and read this
Book. This Book has the ability to make a person
put down drugs and transform his life to the
glorious image that is in this Book.
This Book will take the pain and the death out of
dying. This Book has the gloom and the grave
totally conquered in the victory of the Lord, Jesus
Christ.
Truth is not what I say it is, and truth is not what
you say it is. Truth is what God"s Word says it is.
And it is not truth until God"s Word does say it.
This Book is a diamond mine of unlimited depth.
This Book is a vien of pure gold, that leads to the
unserchable riches of Christ. This Book is a book
of love, and mystery and revelation, and life and
poetry and prophecy and family planning and financial counciling. It is a Book whose words can
conquer disease. It a Book that when you open the
pages every demon in hell begins to tremble, because
they know you are reading the powerful Word of God
that exposes Satan and his powers and his
principalities in the heavenlies.
It is a Book that when you read it it will transform
your marriage, it will transform your home, it will
transform every relationship that you have. This
Book is the Book that has the answer. America is
rotting at the core and people are looking for
answers to the problems in our school systems, with
aids and with homosexuality, with corruption and
crime. Here is the answer. God"s Word has it.
What"s wrong with morality. What"s wrong with
intigrity, what"s wrong with decency, what"s wrong
with honesty. The Book says, try it, you"ll like
it.
Jesus says in the Book of Matthew, 4:4, "The Word of
God is bread". Say that with me. "The Word of God
is bread." The problem with bread is that it won"t
help you if you won"t eat it. It won"t do you any
good in the sack.
A Georgia sharecropper presented himself to the
ordination committee, because he was seeking
ordination to preach the Gospel. They said to him,
"do you know the Gospel well enough to preach it?"
He said, "Absolutely". They said, "What part of the
Bible do you know the best?" He said, "Well, I know
the Book of the Parables the best." They said, "You
know the book of the parable the best?" He said,
"Yes." They said, "You tell us what the book of the
parables says." He said, "Alright. There was the
good Smaratan going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
And he fell among thorns. And the thorns sprung up
and choked him amost half to death. And he said, I
will arise and he arose. And he mounted his donkey
and he rode as fast as he could and he got caught in
the branches of a low hanging tree by his hair. And
he hung there for 40 days and 40 nights. And the
raven said it. And Delila, she saw him hanging
there and she came and cut his hair off and he fell
on stony ground. And he said, I will arise, and he
arose. And he came to a wall and Jezebell was
sitting on the wall. And he said to those standing
there, throw her down. And so they cast her down.
And he said cast her down again. So they cast her
down again. And he said, cast her down 70 times 7.
And they cast her down 70 time 7. And great was the
fall thereof. And of the fragments that remained,
there were 12 baskets full. Very I say unto you,
whose wife is she going to be on the resurrection
day?
You really have to get it botched up to get it that
bad. The Bible says, "Study to show yourself
approved," Say that with me, "Study to show
yourself approved, a workman that needith not to be
ashamed. Rightly dividing the Word of God." Some
people can divide it, but they can"t get it back
together.
Jesus idenified the Bible as the source of spiritual
life. And when you refuse to read the Word of God,
you are systimatically starving yourself to death.
You are committing spiritual suicide systimatically
when you don"t read the Word of God.
First you become weak, then you become spiritually
sick. Here are the signs if you are in spiritual
starvation. You are irritated all the time. Your
spouse can"t do anything right, the church is not
like it use to be, the preacher doesn"t preach
right, the choir doesn"t sing right, the ushers
don"t usher right, the deacons don"t deacon right,
you can"t trust the trustees. I mean the whole
world stinks. Do you know anybody like that?
You"re like Elijah. You manage your pity party and
you say Lord, I"m the only one worthy of you. I"m
the last one living for you. Why don"t you just
take my life. I don"t have time to read the Word of
God, I"m so busy with this and that. I just don"t
have time. You slip into the "I"m not appreciated
mode. No one loves me. I brought colored tooth-
picks to the church picnic and no one put my name in
the newsletter.
I talk to people who are having a pity party and I
ask them, "Are you reading the Word of God?" And
they will say, "What has that got to do with how I
feel?" IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HOW YOU FEEL.
THIS IS BREAD. Repeat it. "This is Bread". When
you don"t eat it, you get weak, and miserable, and
depressed, and grouchy. Spirit filled---but grouchy
none the less.
Let me ask you this question. How many of you watch
television at least once a day? Let me see your
hands. How many of you read the Word of God at
least once a day? Let me see your hands.
Let me ask you, if you watch television at least 3
hours a day, which the average family watches 8
hours. And you read the Word of God 3 minutes a
day. Which is going to have the greatest effect on
you, Hollywood or the Word of God. Hollywood will.
You are what you eat. Repeat. You are what you
eat. It you eat lots of sugar you teeth rot and
your body goes into shock. You think you"re on a
high, but in fact, your body is in shock from all
that sugar.
Some of you are on a sugar-stick theology. Paul
called it itching ears. Tell me how I can be rich
without righteousness. Tell me how I can be happy
without holiness. Tell me how I can have the Crown
of Life without the Cross. Tell me how I can have
conquest without conflict. Tell me how I can have a
testimony without a test. I"ll tell you how. It"s
not possible.
Please understand that sinning is not robbing banks
and beating up on grandma. Sin is simply not doing
what God wants you to do. It"s not what I say it
is, it"s not what you hope it"s not, it"s what God
says it is.
There needs to be in America today the return to the
meat & potatoes Gospel, so there can be health in
the house of God. We need to read the Word of God
with passion. Jesus said that we will have revival
when the prayer room is as full as the supper room.
We will have the power again of pentecost when
fasting becomes as popular as feasting, when tithing
becomes as popular as telling, when giving and
witnessing come together in the house of God, we
will be healthy again, because God"s Word is Truth.
And we need to practice that.
David said, "Blessed is the man whose delight is in
the Law of the Lord---(that"s the Bible) and in His
law doth they meditate day and night." How often?
How often? Not after the Johnny Carson show. Not
after what ever show it might be. Not when you are
so tired that your eyes won"t stay open and you
close it and put it on the shelf.
Truth is not what I say it is, it is not what you
think it is, it is what God"s Word says it is.
Why is it that you can read the newspaper, you can
read magazines, you can read the Wall Street
Journal, and nothing happens. But you can pick up
the Bible, which is nourishment for the soul, and
the revelation of God"s goodness to you and the
phone rings and the door bell rings and the dog
barks and the baby cries and falls out of the crib
and you fall to sleep at 9:00 o"clock in the
morning. Why? Because the prince of darkness does
not want you in this Book. It exposes him. It
exposes him as the father of lies.
And when you read this Book, written by the Holy
Spirit, that God has given to you, that is powerful,
and alive and sharper than a 2 edged sword. It can
bring you life and joy and peace and the power of
God to transform every inity of your life.
I"m a heir, and a joint of with Jesus Christ. This
Book says so. If you are putting your trust in Wall
Street, or anything similar. (Sweet Hour of Prayer)
You are in big trouble baby. You should invest in
the Kingdom of God. Because God the Father owns the
real estate on both sides of the Jordon River and
when you get on the other side, it"s all waiting on
you with an interest factor of 100 fold. You can"t
beat that on Wall Street. But the Word of God says
it"s mine. I have eternal life, because the Bible
says, "He that believeth in Me shall never die."
How many here are interested in living, let me see
your hands. (There"s a few over here that are not)
Some day my physical body is going to wear out.
Some days I think it already has wore out. And they
are going to lay me in the ground. But my eternal
soul is going to fly into the arms of God the
Father. They will take my body and they will
cremate it, but they can put on the inscription,
he"s not here, he"s with the Father, because he has
eternal life, because the Lord says so.
Do I understand all that. No. I don"t understand
how a black cow can eat green grass and give white
milk and yellow butter. I don"t understand it, but
I believe it.
I know there are a lot of people who want to be
healthy. I see them at the health club, at weight
watchers, out walking along the road, or riding a
bicycle or walking in the Mall. I know you want to
be healthy. You watch your diet. No fat, no red
meat, only fish & chicken & turkey and nothing
fried, only baked. You watch your blood pressure
and your iron and liver. Why don"t you read
the Word of God. It can make you healthy.
(Tell story of mom"s neck & mom"s cancer) Why,
because the Word of God is stronger the cancer, it
is stronger the a blood clot.
This is a Book of Perfect Guidance. Are you
stumbling through life. Some of you are. Have you
lost sight of your goals? Some of you have. Do you
know where you"re going in your marriage? Some
don"t. Have your plans collapsed. Have your dreams
been crushed. Are you searching for new horizons,
new directions? David said, "Thou Word is a lamp
unto my feet and a light unto my pathway." (repeat)
Do you want to know where to go with your life?
Don"t read Jean Dixon. Read this.
The Bible plainly tells you about the future. You
want to know whats going to happen in the Middle
East. This Bible has had it written in there for
hundreds of years. A child can understand it, if
you"ll read it.
The Bible is your protection from Satan. When Satan
came to Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus answered
him, "It is written." "It is written". "It is
written". I want you to get this, Satan didn"t look
at Jesus and say, "I don"t believe that"s true."
Satan did not question the Word of God. He didn"t
say, "I doubt that". When Jesus gave him a
scriptural answer, even the devil shut up.
The devil took Ps. 91 and twisted it, to try to
destroy Jesus. Jesus properly quoted from Deut. and
saved His life. Why do I say that? If the devil
took scripture and tried to get Jesus to destroy
Himself by twisting it, he"ll most assurdily try to
destroy you by getting you to twist the scripture to
get a meaning out of it that has nothing to do with
the Word of God. He is a liar and the master of
deception. The only way you can defeat him is to
get into the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit
speak to you so you will know the truth.
Let me say this in closing. This Bible is the
sourse of authority on Judgment Day. When you stand
before the judgment bar of God, you are not going to
be judged by what you were taught in school. You"re
not going to be judged by the National Council of
Churches or the World Council of Churches. You"re
not going to be judged by what your preacher says,
or the priest says or the pope says. You"re going
to be judged by what the Word of God says. Right
here. (hold Bible)
Not your philosiphy. Not what some professor taught
you at the University about your humanistic rights.
But by what Jesus says about life and truth and
integrity and character. That"s what you are going
to be judged by.
There is one verse. A sweet verse. But a verse we
have so many problems with. "You must be born
again." If not, you will not see the Kingdom of
God.
No matter what else you may think or not think,
scripture says that on that day of judgment you will
stand before a Holy, Mighty, Just God and the Books
will be open and one of those Books is the Bible.
And He will read from the Bible, "You must be born
again." Is your name in the "Lambs Book of Life",
the proof of you being born again. If not God will
read your judgment from His Word. "You must be born
again to see the Kingdom of God."
God says, "Thy Word is Truth". Say it with me. "Thy
Word is Truth."
And John the 1st chapter says, "The Word became
flesh and dwelt among us." May we this Christmas
season realize what God has done for us in giving us
His Word. For in His Word, you will find the living
Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can we stand to our feet. Bow our heads.
Father, in Jesus name, thank you for the day, and
thank you for your word, and thank you for the Love
of God that has made it possible for us to know
redemption through Christ. Now may the Xray of the
Holy Spirit fill this room and cause each of us to
examine our own selves. Not the lives of those we
know, but the lives of those we know best,
ourselves. And give an account of our life in the
presence of the Lord. In Jesus name.
