The Bible

Every year we observe Holy Days. And the Holy Days are a big benefit to us. A big benefit to us. Of course, they're commanded assemblies by God. He commands us to keep those Holy Days. And on those Holy Days, we should be...one of the huge benefits is that we remember His plan. We pay attention to what's going on in the Spring Holy Days, the dependent cost, all Holy Days. And we remember His plan.

If we didn't keep those Holy Days, like some people would suggest, don't need to happen in the New Testament, we would probably lose sight of God's plan. We would not be thinking about it because when we come to Passover and we come to Unleavened Bread, we do think about what Jesus Christ did for us.

We do think about what we're supposed to be doing in our lives. And it is good. It is good for people to have those reminders every year. The same thing is true of some of the holidays that we keep in America. This past week, we just kept Thanksgiving. And this is a secular holiday. But Thanksgiving is a good day because it should focus us again on a very noble thing that we can do. And that's to thank God and look at what He has provided for us.

Maybe this past Thanksgiving, since there was a football game canceled and maybe you didn't have as many people over at your house as you normally would have, you took some time to think about all the things that we have physically and spiritually. There are just too many to mention.

Thanksgiving is a good time and a good reminder for us to do what the Bible tells us to do, be thankful every day. I've been doing some of that this year. And last week we talked about the benefits of having you and I having grown up or living in America and the things that have been an opportunity for us physically and spiritually living in this land. There's something else I want to talk about this week, something that maybe we overlook and it's something that's so common to us that we don't maybe give it the credence that it's due.

And I don't mean that negatively at all because I know what I'm going to talk about. We all hold important, but maybe not to the degree that God would have us. You know, we all have in our homes and part of our everyday lives is a miracle that God has worked from the beginning of time that he will continue to work right through the time of Jesus Christ and beyond that. We've talked about church history and we've talked about how the people of God and the Word of God has been suppressed throughout history. There were people in the Catholic Church, notably, during the 12th, 13th, 14th hundreds, was renowned for stopping anyone and putting to death people who would even own or talk about this book that I'm holding up in front of you.

The world has been against the Bible for a long time, and as we look at the world around us today, we see that same thing occurring again. It is at one time the most popular book, probably, in the world, but also the most hated book.

It has had that happen down through history, but this book, this book of the Bible, is nothing short of a miracle. Mankind and Satan have done everything they can to get rid of this book, because it is the only book of its kind that we could ever possibly have. There is none like it written by very God Himself. In it, he provides everything that man needs. It is the key to everything you and I know, everything that mankind ever knows. Everything that we need is in this book, and it is simply a miracle that was ever put together and that has sustained all these years.

When you think about God and all the detail that he put into creating the earth, how everything works so perfectly together, all the intricacies of our ecological system, how animals interreact with each other, how our bodies work. I mean, it is phenomenal the time that he must have spent and the detail they did in making this creation a perfect place for us. And he had a plan. He had a plan that went beyond this physical earth at the same time that he would make sure everything would happen exactly the way that he said.

And on top of that, he inspired a book. A book that would last through the ages, that would be here for the people of the Old Testament, the people of the New Testament, the people from 100 years ago, down through the Middle Ages, and down through the millennium. As long as there's mankind exists, God took the time to inspire and record every single word in this book. And we may think we know it, but we will learn as the days go ahead, there is so much more in this book than we ever have even thought about.

So today, as we're still in the mode of Thanksgiving, I want to focus us on the Bible. And I want to look at what the Bible tells us about the Bible and maybe what we should be doing a little bit more with it, because we all know the Bible, but we have just scratched to the surface. People who weren't even in the church before us understood more about the Bible and general Christian principles than I think you and I do.

And this Thanksgiving, I've spent a little bit of time, as I mentioned last week, looking at what our founding fathers knew. And the quotes that I read last week about how they put together the Constitution and our form of government based on the Bible. And I've heard that before, and over the years I've looked at that, but this week I looked at it a little bit more, like, what does that mean?

I know it did, because the government, until recently, the Constitution for mankind has worked. It has produced. It has produced a wonderful land that we live in, and it was a place that we could all grow and develop.

Well, before I even get into that, let's look back at the Bible, a verse that I want to start with that you've probably been thinking. Let's look at what the Bible, what the God says about it. 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3 tells us what this book is about. Let's begin in verse 14 and lead up to the verses that we talk about often. 2 Timothy 3, 14, Paul writing to a young minister, Timothy, he says, It's always saying what we often say. Continue in the things that you've been taught. Don't depart from them. It's truth. This word is truth. Hang on to it. Know that from childhood, verse 15, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Well, there's one of the key things of the Bible. This Bible is the road map to salvation. In it are the words that can take you from physical, mundane, only death have we earned life to eternal life and salvation. Only through this book, only through Jesus Christ, only through His word that's there in your lap. It's the road map. We really don't need anything else except God's Holy Spirit, which He's given us, and this book. It will teach us everything that we need to know. It will provide everything that we know. Verse 16, a very clear statement, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. What more do we need? If we know our lives are mortal, if we know that we are here and God wants to give us eternal life, He tells us where it is. It's in the Bible. It's not in all the self-help books in the store. It's not in the TV broadcasts that you might listen to. It's in the Bible. That's where the answer is. This is the book that God has given us that He gave to all of mankind miraculously, painstakingly, and lovingly. Verse 17, He gave it to us that the man of God may be complete.

Don't need any other outside. You need the Bible. You want to be complete? Do you want to be what God wants you to become? He gave us this book that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Everything He wants us to be if we learn this Bible, and that takes a lifetime. Not just one or two readings through, and not even maybe ten or fifteen readings through, but a lifetime of legitimate, detailed learning. If we do that, God says this book will be what we need. One chapter back in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15.

He tells us, Be diligent. I think Wednesday on the Bible study we talked about the word diligent. When you see the word diligent, pause. I ask myself, Am I diligent? Am I digging into this the way that I should be? Am I just kind of cursorily reading it, but not applying it, not really fully understanding it, not delving into it? Be diligent. That means hard work. Put effort into it. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. Who doesn't want to be approved to God? I hope no one here wouldn't say, I don't want to be approved of God. But I hope all of us realize that as we are today, God would approve what we're doing and where we're going, but we're not where we need to be yet. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. A worker. Not just a reader. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Rightly dividing it. Looking at it from the Bible's aspect. Looking at it the correct way. Understanding what it is that God wants us to have. That takes time. That takes effort. That takes God's Holy Spirit. The world will tell you, don't waste your time. The world will say there's a better way. We don't need what the Bible says. Those things that they say and the judgments they make on people and their lifestyles, that's for old times. That's not for today. And yet we know better. We know better. Mankind will always go apart from the Bible. Mankind will always go the opposite way of God. That's his nature. Romans 8-7, it's enmity against God. So he's going to resist God. He's going to resist the Bible. He doesn't want to say what the Bible says. It's more and more, what do I want? And mankind will always, always try to eliminate the Bible and put it aside.

But God is always there to make sure that it exists. Let's go back to Jeremiah 36. Interesting little story in Jeremiah 36. This is near the end of the kingdom of Judah before God sent Babylon in to conquer them. They had departed from God. 40 years Jeremiah had been preaching to them and warning them. But they just went on doing their own things. And here in chapter 36 we see the king being read the words of God.

Let's pick it up here in verse 22. I guess 21. chapter 26 verse 31. The king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elisham of the scribe's chamber, and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of the princess who stood beside the king.

So it's kind of like they were having a Bible reading. The scribe brought the Bible out, the scroll out, and he started reading it to the king. They were all gathered together there. The king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with the fire burning on the hearth before him. Nice setting, right? Kind of peaceful. Let's read the Bible together. And it happened, verse 23, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

Sitting there peacefully reading, and then the king decides, I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear this at all. Take the knife, cut it in two, throw it into the fire. Well, it's not like our Bible is today, right? If someone does it to that, we go out and buy another Bible.

Not so in the time of Jeremiah the king. These things had to be painstakingly transcribed. So it's like, here's the king. Doesn't like what he's hearing. I don't want to hear that stuff. Get rid of that book. Get rid of that book. I only want to hear what I want to do. Find me a book that agrees with me. I don't want to agree with that book. So he thought he got rid of it. We come down to verse 27.

It says, The book was gone. And God says, take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiachim, the king of Judah, has burned. He thinks that he outsmarted me. The book is burned. But you get another scroll. I'm going to give you the words all over again. Mankind can think he can stop the words of God, but he cannot. He cannot stop them. He cannot get rid of this book. And you shall say, verse 29, Jehoiachim, Thus says the Lord, you've burned this scroll, saying, why have you written in it, that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and cause man and beast to cease from here.

I don't want to hear that. Get rid of the book. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning Jehoiachim, He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. Well, God exacted his punishment on them. The point being, the Word of God continues. Mankind will not be able to do away with it. Down through the Middle Ages, attempt after attempt after attempt after attempt, even at the risk of people being burned at the stake, being beheaded, being tortured, the Word of God always existed.

They couldn't put an end to it. Jesus Christ Himself said, back in Matthew 24, in the Olivet prophecy, at another time in history where mankind will want the Bible gone. We don't want to hear it. We don't want to hear Christianity. That's an enemy of the state. That's the opposite of what we want people to preach. That's the opposite of what we want people to believe.

And so get rid of it. And Christ says in chapter 24, in the Olivet prophecy in verse 35, He says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. They will always be there. Just like Jesus Christ is with us forever, God's Word is always there. It will not disappear from the earth. It will be with us day and night. Just like it's day and night in our homes. It is literally the Word of God that He has preserved for you and me.

When we ask, Why doesn't God speak to people today? God does speak to us today. It's in the Bible. It's how close and how diligently are we listening to those words. I suppose we think if God would come down and He would thunder out His voice to us and say the same things that's written in the Bible, we might pay attention. But if we're diligently paying attention to the Bible, if we're diligently searching it, we're going to be able to ferret out those principles that we need to be living by.

I mentioned last week, and I'm going to take just a little bit of time here to talk about the Constitution again and this concept of our forefathers framing our government based on biblical principles. Let me read this little quote here from John Adams. He wrote this in 1813 to Thomas Jefferson. He said, It's a beautiful statement, isn't it? We would all agree with that. Here's John Adams. He didn't know the Sabbath day. He didn't know the Holy Days. He doesn't know what you and I know.

He never repented. He was never baptized in the name, well, he was never baptized in the true Church of God. But he talks about the general principles of Christianity, the things in the Bible. If you look back at the time, in the 17s and 1800s, the Bible was the primary book that mankind looked at.

They may not have understood everything, but they knew what was in these pages. And they lived by them. Were they perfect people? No. Are we perfect people? No. But they lived by them. They knew them, they applied them into their lives, and they applied them as they were forming a new government.

They built and used the Bible as a basis for doing that. And as you read that and you see what they did, I find myself thinking, could I have done that? If I was forming a new government, would I have understood the Bible and been able to ferret out the principles that they did that I would build in to a document that would last for 250 years?

Let's look at a few things. Just a couple things. You could do your study on that as well. I'm going to be turning back to Isaiah 33. But one of the things we all know, every child in here studied government, and we know in our government we have three branches. We have a judicial branch, we have a legislative branch, and we have the executive branch. Where did the founders come up with that? Well, here in Isaiah 33 and verse 22, probably a verse, I've read many times, but it would have never occurred to me that I was building a government, and I wanted to pattern it after what God said, that right there in the Bible I have the three branches of government.

Isaiah 33 verse 22. For the Lord is our judge. There is your judiciary branch. The Lord is our lawgiver. We have to have a branch that makes laws. There's Congress. There's the legislative branch. The Lord is our king. We have to have an executive branch.

There it is. But when you read the history, based on that verse, we live in a land that has three branches of government. I was impressed. I'll have to say, here's people who knew the Bible that they could look at that verse and say, we need to build that in. I don't know that I understand the Bible that well yet that I would be able to say I would have done the same thing. Now, with God's leadership and God's inspiration, yes.

But that shows they knew the Bible. They knew it perhaps better than most of us in this room to some level. Let's look at another one. I'm going to be turning back to the little book of Nahum. We were in the book of Nahum a few weeks ago, and we were talking about God's patience and mercy and talking about Nineveh. I made the comment a few times about that book of Nahum, what it is, and I'm learning there is a lot in the book of Nahum, just like there is a lot in the whole Bible, that we may not fully comprehend yet.

But in our Fifth Amendment, it's the Bill of Rights that talks about there isn't double jeopardy. You can't be tried twice for the same crime. And as you look at the Fifth Amendment, it will refer you to Nahum 1 and verse 9. Based on Nahum 1 and verse 9, that's the principle in our government. Nahum 1 and verse 9, what do you conspire against the eternal?

He will make an utter end of it. Talking about Assyria there, as we talked about, affliction will not rise up a second time. And the translation of that verse is pretty literal. And I looked at that when I saw the reference in it, from that verse that that tenet came from, that Fifth Amendment. And I read about how this manager, Rome, he translated the Bible into Latin back in the 4th century. And as he knew the Bible and as he looked at it, he's the one who said, what that means is, God doesn't try people for the second time.

Of course, he added on to it, if you repent, God doesn't charge you twice with the same sin, if you repent and turn from that sin. And so the double jeopardy came into being that you can't be tried twice for the same sin, because God wouldn't hold you accountable the second time if you repent. That part is, in a way, implicit in our judicial system, but not really spelled out. And so, from that time, it says, the legal profession have taken Nahum 1 and verse 9 and said, double jeopardy has to be part of every law. Now, again, I would have looked at that verse, and I'm still looking at that verse, and wondering how exactly that came up with it.

But it does tell me, and what I want to draw your attention to is, there are principles in the Bible to look at. Principles that you and I might not have even looked at, because we might listen, and we might feel comfortable with what we're doing, but are we really delving into the Bible? The Bible, the guidebook to salvation, the guidebook that God wants us to be following implicitly, if we will be in His kingdom, if we will be teaching people what He wants us to learn. Let's go back to Proverbs. Proverbs 1.

Of course, we know this book was written by Solomon, wisest man outside of Jesus Christ who ever lived. And it was written to his son. At least, that's what the words are here. But as we read through a few verses here in Proverbs 1, I want you to take away my son, and I want you to put your name into it, because we are all God's children.

And it is God who wrote this book. It is His word to us. Solomon only wrote what God inspired him to write. So when we look at it, we say, my son, hear the instruction of your father. Replace father with a capital F, your father, God the father. My son, hear the instruction of your father. And don't forsake the law of your mother.

The way families work. Dad is the spiritual head. He's the one who sets the tenor for the house. He's the one who sets it. Mom is the one who's supposed to enforce it. Teach it. Make sure it happens in everyday life. So in religion, we have the same thing. God has given us His word. He tells us, you know it. You preach it. You live it. You apply it. Church, my church of God, you teach it. You make sure that people understand the word. And you live by it and encourage people to live by it. Hear the instruction of your father. Don't forsake the law of your mother.

How valuable is it? There'll be a graceful ornament on your head and change about your neck. You like jewelry? I guess people back then really like jewelry. Maybe not as much today. It's the pearl of great price. It's the thing that we should wear around us. It's the thing that we should be living and displaying to the people who we come in contact with.

That they can see God. They can see a way of life that leads to everything that we'll see here that is implicit in the word of God. We go to chapter 2. It begins again. My son. That's you and me. My son. If you receive my words, that's God speaking to you. If you receive my words. There's that little word, if. Because we all know we can hear words and just kind of shut our mind off to him.

My son. If you receive my words and treasure my commands within you. So that you incline your ear to wisdom. Meaning that's what you really want. You're not just filling in some time. Doing a little checklist.

Padding yourself on the back. Saying that I've done this or that. So that you incline your ear to wisdom. And then watch these action verbs. And apply your heart to understanding. Not enough to just read. Have to delve into it. Have to look into it. Have to make it work. And ask God to help it work. Apply your heart to understanding. If you cry out for discernment. That's not just, oh God help me understand. I've got my 15 minutes before I go to work to read.

If you cry out for discernment. If you lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures. That's the diligent worker in 2 Timothy 2.15. That's the one who applies. That's the one who works. If you do all that, then you'll understand the fear of the Lord. And you'll find the knowledge of God. If that's what we really want.

If that's what we really want. And if we don't really want it, then we'll just play at it. And we might know some stories. But we won't really use the Bible for the reason that God gave it to us.

Let's go back to Matthew. Matthew 22. Now you've heard me often say that every answer to every problem that befalls man is in the Bible. I believe that. And the longer I live, the more I see that. It may not be immediately evident to us, but when we seek it out, we see that there's no financial problem that there isn't the answer to in the Bible. There isn't any relationship problem that there isn't the answer to in the Bible. There is no other problem that can't be resolved if we seek out the answer in the Bible and we apply the Bible.

There's the two things. Reading it. Nice. Good. Read it. Believe it. Apply it. Put the work behind it. It's there. But you have to diligently seek it. In Matthew 22, verse 29, this is the occasion where the Sadducees came to Christ, and they had this hypothetical situation.

Of course, the Sadducees remember they did not believe in the resurrection. And so they came up with this story. Christ, what happens if there's seven brothers and each brother dies, and the wife marries each one in accordance with the Old Testament command?

Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Well, they asked him a question because they wanted to kind of trick him into something. But I think his answer is very notable here in verse 29. No, Jesus answered and he said to them, you're mistaken. You're mistaken not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

And then he explains it to them. You're mistaken because you don't know the Scriptures. The answer was there in the Scriptures. They just didn't know them. They had their own idea. They had closed their minds off to anything that they heard, heard. We don't believe this. We don't believe that. Got up and left when someone would talk about the resurrection, perhaps.

And he simply pointed to them, you are mistaken. You don't know the Scriptures. And how many times might we not know the Scriptures? How many times could people say to us, you're mistaken? You don't know the Scriptures. Now, one thing I want to just point out here. You notice Jesus Christ didn't chide them for coming up with a hypothetical story that probably was never going to happen.

He didn't say, that's a really dumb question. I'm irritated that you even asked me. You should know better than that. He simply said, you're mistaken. You don't know the Scriptures. And then he explained the Scriptures. And I always encourage people, ask the question. If you don't know, ask it. There is no such thing as a dumb question. No one's going to chide you for asking a question. You might just not know the Scriptures. And when we have questions, we go back to the Bible and let the Bible talk about it because the Bible has the answers. We don't need self-help books from off the library shelf. We don't need to go there and there and whatever.

The answers are in the Bible if we know the Scriptures. And that's different than being able to memorize a few verses and say, generally, this is what's going on. It takes a lifetime to know the Scriptures and to apply them. That's why God has given you and me the time that we have now to look at the Scriptures, to know them, to apply them.

And the last eight months, we've had a lot of opportunity to know the Scriptures and apply some. You know, go on when Jesus Christ answered the question to them, and there might have been some in the audience that day that thought, well, these Sadducees, they should know better than that. Why are they asking that question? But when he was done, the way he responded, notice it says, when the multiturds heard this, they were astonished.

They were astonished at his teaching. You gave us the answer from the Bible. The Scriptures have that answer. We didn't have to go to this fictional writer and come up with this story or that story. The answer is there. The answer is there. And telling you the answer to our problems is here, in this book that is a miracle in itself that we have. The Bible itself many times says that it is truth. John 17, verse 17, Jesus Christ said in his own words, sanctify them by truth, your word is truth.

Other places he said it as well. John 10.35, he said, the Scripture can't be broken. Those are pretty strong words. Those are pretty definitive statements. You know what? It's up to you and me to prove that the Bible is truth. It's up to you and me to prove that the Bible, the Scripture can't be broken. And when we prove that, do we have no choice but to live by it and to look into it?

But if we haven't proven, if we just believe what someone says, if we've grown up in the church and it's just like, yeah, they said it, you know what? We need to learn that the Bible is indeed 100% truth. It claims itself to be. God's the one who said those words, and we need to know that to the depth of our being because when we do, that should be the motivator that we follow every single word. Every single word, as Christ said in Matthew 4-4 and as it said back in Deuteronomy 8-3 in the Old Testament.

But let's look at a few verses, even in the Old Testament, to talk about that. Back in Proverbs again. Proverbs 30 and verse 5.

Proverbs 30 verse 5. Every word of God is pure. Doesn't say most words. Every. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

We'll see later. Who believe in Him, who put their trust in Him. Don't add to His words, lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar. Answer from the Bible. Don't come up with your own explanation. Don't come up with your own ideas. Don't add to it. If you're going to speculate, let it be known as speculation. Just say what the Bible says. We go back to Psalms because we know that David, he loved God's Word. Spent his time meditating on it. Back in Psalm 12. Psalm 12 verse 6. He writes, The words of the Eternal are pure words, pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Like gold. That's how precious it is. If we're going to look at something that we look at and compare it, gold is kind of the historical gold standard, if you will. Verse 7. You shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. He gave it to the Old Covenant people, gave it to them in the time of Jesus Christ. His words, when He was on earth, are preserved for us. The Apostles' words are preserved for us. He'll preserve them forever. Psalm 18. Psalm 18 and verse 30.

As for God, verse 30, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He's a shield to all who trust in Him. Do we know that His way is perfect? Do we? Can we say His word is proven? The only way we can say His word is proven is if we've proved it.

If we've lived it. If we'd applied it diligently. If we are seeking it for the answers in our lives and directing our paths and our behavior and our life according to His word. If we do that, we can prove it. The Bible will make many claims about what happens when we apply His word. We'll see some of those. Do we know that? Have we lived it? Are we actively doing that? Psalm 119. Longest chapter in the Bible. Talks about God's word over and over and over in Psalm 119.

Since it is God's literal word to us, Psalm 119 verse 160, the entirety. Notice He just doesn't say your word, the entirety. Every word is this. The entirety of your word is truth. The entirety. Can't say, well, Jesus Christ didn't mean that.

Jesus Christ said, do all things that I do and observe them, but He didn't really mean that. He really kind of meant, you don't have to do that anymore after He was resurrected and went to heaven. You scratch your head and you think, well, what are these words in the Bible? The entirety of your word is truth. And every one of your righteous judgments endures forever.

Not a different set of laws for the Old Testament than the New Testament. Immutable, as John Adams said. Unchangeable. Christian principles that are there from the beginning of man all the way as long as there is physical man on earth. It's up to us to prove that. The Bible says, prove all things and then hold fast that which is true. Know the Bible. Live it. Prove that it really is the Word of God. And you will know that as you go through your life and you see God's Word. See God working with that. Let's go back to Jeremiah, or forward to Jeremiah.

Another interesting verse here in Jeremiah about the Word of God, this Bible, the scroll that they had back then, but the Bible that you and I have in our laps today. In Jeremiah 15 and verse 16, Jeremiah says, your words were found. You know, you read through the Old Testament, you can see where they, you know, they would find them.

Oh, the Word of God is still here. He preserved them, although even though some of the kings were ever looking at them. Your words were found and he says, and I ate them. I ate them. You know, we eat something, it becomes us, right? If we put really good nutritious food in our body, our body kind of enjoys that.

If we put junk food into our body or junk food into our minds, you know, it's garbage in, garbage out, that old saying. But Jeremiah says, I found your words and I ate them. They became part of me. It's the same admonition we have every spring holy day when we come to the Passover and we talk about repenting, giving our lives to God and going through the days of unleavened bread and eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Eat those words. Moses, when he was giving the command to Israel, he said, when you eat this unleavened bread, think about the law is in my mouth. Jeremiah said, I found your words and I ate them. And what happened when he ate them? And your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.

For I'm called by your name, Lord God of hosts. Wouldn't you like to eat something when you're feeling kind of downtrodden, depressed, sad, feeling out of sorts? I can eat this and when I eat it, there's the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Wouldn't that be a fantastic thing? And God says, if you eat his words, it'll be joy. It'll be a rejoicing of the heart.

You know, today, when people feel sad, depressed, they don't know what to do, life looks hopeless, all too often they look to little pills. Oh, this little pill. I can take that and that'll wipe my depression away. This little pill will help me feel happy.

It'll change all these little things in my mind and I'll feel joy. We don't need those little pills. What we need is the Word of God. Jeremiah says here, God tells us here, it's his words, not mine. Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.

When we eat, when we eat them, they become us.

And so we eat the words of God. Let's go forward to the New Testament, Colossians. Colossians 3.

Colossians 3, verse 16.

Verse 16 says, let the Word of Christ. When you read Word of Christ, when you read Word of God, think of the Bible. It's God speaking to you. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you, richly in all wisdom. How does something dwell in us? We put it into our minds. We eat them, they become part of us. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you, richly. Richly. There's a nice adjective. Adverb, let the Word of Christ dwell in you, richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. If that's what we're eating, when we get together, what's on our minds? The way of God, the Word of God, rejoicing in His Word, thinking of things in a spiritual sense. And so our conversations, and when we're with each other, this is the things we do when we see someone that needs encouraging. Pat them on the back and use the words of God. What a noble thing to do. And the Bible tells us what to do if we're eating His words, if they're becoming part of us, if we really are delving into it and letting the Bible guide us and direct us to eternity. More and more, that's what we would be doing. James 1, verse 21. James 1, 21. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. You know what that means? Stop eating the works of the flesh. Stop eating those things that are producing in you filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Get rid of them. Eliminate them from your life. Take them out of your diet. If that's what your life is and that's what you feel you're doing, you have to stop eating what's causing the filthiness and overflow of wickedness. And a lot of that is our own human nature that has to be overcome, that can only be overcome with the Spirit of God and our determination to overcome it. Because God looks to see where our heart is. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word. The implanted word. Planted in you. Part of you. You live by it. You think about the Bible. When something comes up, you search the Scriptures or something will be coming to your mind that the Holy Spirit... Or you ask God, I know the principles there. Lead me to what it is that you want me to know. I know it's there in the Bible. And receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Look how important that word is. It's able to save your souls. What else? What else besides the Word of God is able to save our souls? But it has to be implanted in us. It has to be implanted in us. In John 6, Jesus Christ talked about His Word. He says in verse 63 of John 6, It's the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you. The words that are preserved for us right here, that are given to us today. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. They're spirit and they're life. Life now, life eternal, life, health, physical life, spiritual life, their spirit and their life. Let's go back to Proverbs. See what God's words for us in the book of Proverbs would say.

One thing I can say with surety is that none of us know all the principles that are hidden in the book of Proverbs. God's Word is a digest. It isn't voluminous. We don't come in with wheelbarrows full of books where God explains everything, but the precepts are there. We have to dig them out. As you read the Proverbs, it does very little good. If you read three Proverbs, don't dig into what each one of those little verses mean. Each one of them has a principle hidden in there that God designed for us to dig them out. Are the keys to life and salvation Proverbs 4. Let's look at verse 20.

Here we go, my son. That's you and me, my son. Give attention to my words. Pay attention to them. Wake up. Sit down. Don't just roll your eyes. Fall asleep. Think, I heard all this before. What am I wasting my time for? My son, give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. When you're reading the Word of God, be alive. Be awake. Be alert. Ask him that you can pay attention to it. Don't let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. Ah, read them. Eat them. Let them be part of you. For they are life to those who find them. Their life.

The Word of God. It's life. They are life to those who find them. Again, the impetus being on what we do with what God has given us. They are life to those who find them. And health. To all their flesh.

Health to all their flesh. Health spiritually. Health mentally. Health emotionally. Health physically. All the answers are right there. All the answers are in the Bible. We just look at physical health. We know what physical health is, right? When God brought Israel out of Egypt, what did he tell them? If you obey all the words that I give you. If you apply them. How many times did Moses say, if you diligently and carefully preserve them? If you believe them. If you apply them. I won't put on you any of the diseases from Egypt. He said that. Do we believe it? Do we think that he said those words back then, but they don't apply today? Do we think that God doesn't heal or that he can't? If maybe we learn what he is looking for, that he tells us in the Bible what needs to happen in our lives for him to heal? Who are we? What do we do? What do we look to? Do we put our trust in him? Do we see him as our shield, as we've read several times?

We've talked several times in the past. I won't say about several times, but a few times about health laws that are in the Bible. We know the health laws are there. We know that God tells us, here's what you eat, and it goes beyond just clean and unclean animals or clean and unclean meats. We apply the principles of what's good for our body. And today, in the land that we live in, there are many things that should be considered unclean to us. If we're really looking at it, even though we can't specifically say they're unclean in the Bible, we look at the principles and we can apply those into life and say, Oh, you know what? That's probably departing from what God's health principles are.

Sometimes it's hard to depart from those things. When we were called and we repented and we started coming to church, it was hard to give up some things, wasn't it? God didn't say, you know, call, repent, just come into living your life the way you used to live it. Just keep doing the things that you used to do. Many of the world's churches tell us that. Just keep doing what you used to do. But go ahead and say, in our spiritual life, no. Get rid of the filthiness. Get rid of the wickedness. All that is part of the past. Don't do that anymore. It's an effort on our part. That takes the cognizant. I can't do that anymore.

Same thing with the physical when we read what God has to say for us.

You know, today it's very easy to do what we want to do and go take a pill. This pill will be the answer to all of my problems. I can keep doing what I've been doing. I can not bother exercising. I can eat whatever I want. I can just take this pill and that will solve everything.

Is that what's in the Bible?

Is that trusting in Him? Is that applying the words of God to our lives?

I'm not saying, don't do it. I'm saying we grow and we learn. And we learn to live by every principle of God. I somehow just don't see that in the Kingdom, in the Millennium, on every street corner there's going to be a CVS. I don't think I'm going to just be able to walk down the street to Walgreens and do whatever I want to do. I don't know if there is a place of safety, a place that God will take His people to. I don't know that He's going to say, man, I've got to make sure that there is something right there that they can get their stash of medicine. I don't think He needs it. I think He can heal us. I really do. And I think we're going to be learning the way to do it, the way He said to do it. Because He doesn't say these words emptily, He says, I'll heal all your diseases. If you do what I say, if you dig into this book and live my life, live your life the way I've given it to you to live. We could say the same things about the emotional problems that people have, mental problems. And today it's so easy in a world of psychotropic drugs. Just take the pill and I can wipe all my thoughts away.

That's not... I mean, it might be okay to do that, to get yourself in order. I wouldn't even say that. The answer is with God. The words of life are in the Bible. We already read about joy and rejoicing. They come from reading the Bible. Maybe instead of running for a pill, we run to the Bible. Maybe we run to the Bible and seek out the words and see what we're doing and turn to Him.

In Psalm 107, going back a few chapters here in the book, Psalm 107, Psalm 107, and verse 1...

We don't want verse 1. Let's look at verse 17.

Psalm 107. Fools. Now, what fools mean here is that they know of God, but they don't really pay attention to His word. They know it, but they don't apply it. Fools, because of their transgression. And we know that when we sin and when we keep continuing in that way, our mind gets closed off. We just close our minds to God. Sin separates us from God. Fools, because of their transgression. And because of their iniquities, we're afflicted. We know what afflicted means. They hurt. Could be sickness, could be trials, could be other things. Fools, because of their transgressions, because of their iniquities, we're afflicted. God lets that come upon us. Sometimes it's a warning that we look and examine our lives and see, what is God doing?

Their soul abhorred all manner of food.

Spiritual food? I don't want to hear. I don't want to hear the Word of God. I don't want to hear what He has to say. That's mankind's natural reaction. I don't want the Bible. I don't want to hear what God has to say. Their soul abhorred all manner of food. And they drew near to the gates of death. Spiritual death? Apart from God?

I don't want to hear it. Get the Word of God out of me. Get away from me. End this Bible. I don't want any part of our lives or our system anymore, mankind would say. And they drew near to the gates of death. But they got it a little bit. As they were about to die, verse 19, they cried out to the Lord in their trouble.

Boy, when we're feeling down, when we're feeling out, when we're feeling we're about to expire, if we're feeling that we're lost, downtrodden, about to give up hope, just to give up, maybe we cry out to God in our trouble. And look what he says. He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His Word and healed them.

He sent His Word and healed them. He didn't send a pill. He didn't send a vaccine. He sent His Word. He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. When they returned to God. When they looked to Him. And not to themselves and not to the world around them. When they looked to God. Oh, that man would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving. We have to give up some of our self to do what God would have us do. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing.

Something we can contemplate as we look at the words of the Bible. God's speaking to us. Let's go back to Hebrews 4. If you're on the Bible studies Wednesday, we talked about verse 12 at length. I'm not going to labor it here. If you're interested, you can go back and listen to that Bible study.

But again, to talk about the Word of God and not talk about this verse, I would be remiss. Because it shows that while the Word of God can lead us to physical health and spiritual health, verse 12 talks about it all. It can show us exactly what we need to do in order to become what God wants us to become to heal our spirit, our mind, body, and soul. Verse 12, for the Word of God is living.

How many times do you hear in the world today? Maybe our young people hear it more than those of us who are older. The Bible is for old folks. The Bible is old-fashioned. You can't live by that. We've grown out of it. That's not us today. We can't live in that society. It's not for us anymore. The Word of God is living. It's His Word. It's here. He's preserved it. It's the way of life. It's living. It's powerful. It's not just some mundane little thing you put over on your shelf. If you use it for the Word of God is living, it's powerful.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword. We talked about how that two-edged sword, one edge could lead to life as it cuts out the things that can lead to our death. The other edge can put to death the things that lead to our death. A two-edged sword goes both ways. And sharper than any two-edged sword, doing what you and I can't do, but people seek this to be done in their lives, it will pierce even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.

You know how detailed that is? That's what the Word of God can do. It can get places that no man can get. No knife, no surgical knife, no pill. It can do all that. If we know it, if we seek it, if we learn it, if we apply it, and it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. How many psychiatrists are in the world today?

How many psychologists are in the world today? You know what they do? I've never been to one. But I've been in hospitals, and I know what they do. People talk to them. They want to counsel with psychologists and psychiatrists. They have the answers. They can help me get into my mind. They can help me say what it is that makes me tick. You know, Jesus Christ is called our counselor. He is our counselor. His words are to us. The answers are there.

Psychologists will go back into your mind. They'll have you talk. Psychiatrists will, too. They'll use a little medicine, too, to help, I suppose, to make you feel better. And they'll go back in your life so you can see, what was it that made me this way? How did I become this way? How did I develop this little thing, this sin, or this way of life, or whatever it is? Maybe you are struggling with something. You think, I don't know how I ever became this way. You know, I have a sibling that doesn't have this problem. How did I become this way? What is it that... Why am I struggling with this? Where did it occur? The Bible, the Word of God, can let you see where it began. And you know, once you begin, once you see where it began, you can rebuild from there. God can show us where these things started. All of us have had parents. And as we grew up, as David said, he was formed in iniquity. And we all love our parents. And every single one of us have made mistakes with our children. And every single one of them, one day my children will say, you know what? Because Dad did this, and Dad did this, and whatever. But I hope that they can get back to it and say, oh, maybe that was handled inappropriately back then. Maybe it was the wrong way of dealing with it. But now that I know, I can tear it out and I can rebuild. That's what it is. That's what God does. He builds our houses. He can go into your heart. He can go into your mind. And if you ask Him, He can show you what it is. I've done it. I have answers to things that I now know where it began. And so I was able, while I am in the process of being able, to cut it out. Once you know, you can eliminate and you can rebuild. Psychiatrist, you can spend the fortune with them. You can do it. Nothing wrong with you. That's what you want to do. Or you can talk to God and you can discern His Bible. You can use His Word and it will give you what you need to do. You just need to do it. And you need to believe in Him. You know, we can even ask, what is the intent of our heart? None of us want to be here if we're here for the wrong reason. We can ask God, just like David did, what is it? Why am I here? I hope that I'm here for the right reason. That I'm not doing this for any other purpose than what you want me to do. Because when we're doing what God wants to do, we will be happy. We will be joyful. We will be rejoicing. We will be energetic. We will be zealous. We will be all those things. But if we're doing it just because we think we have to or it's the right thing to do but my heart's really not in it, we're going to be miserable. Life's going to continue to be miserable. There's going to continue to be chaos everywhere. There's going to continue to be all these problems that we fail with. Nothing ever gets settled down. That's a problem. Time to look into the Bible. Time to give God and listen to His words and not our own words and the words of the people around us who can't help. I'm not saying they can't help. They understand things that many of us don't understand. But the basis is in the Bible. We go back to Psalm 19.

I've read this before but I keep coming back to it. The words of David again. Psalm 19, if I can find 19. 19, verse 7. The law of the eternal is perfect. It's the Word of God. The Bible's sitting in your lap. The very words that God speaks to us that He's preserved for us. The law of the Lord is perfect. It converts the soul. Converse means turn us back to God. Turn life around. The law of the Lord is perfect. Turning us back, it converts the soul. The very being of us. The essence of us. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Not to doubt it, it's sure. It makes wise the simple. His statutes are right. They rejoice the heart. His commandment is pure. It opens the eyes. And when we do it in faith, in belief, it opens our eyes to how wise and how good and how perfect God's law is. The fear of the Lord, it's clean. It endures forever. Well, let's go back to John, John 5. I'm going to give you a few more verses and just quote them to you. But here in John 5 and verse 24, we can talk about all the things that God's Word can do. We've talked about many of them. It leads to salvation. It provides joy. It provides rejoicing of the heart. It provides patience and comfort. That's Romans 15, verse 4, and hope. Lacking hope, feeling discouraged, feeling there's no way out. Go back to the Word of God. Your hope will be revived. In John 5 and verse 24, Christ, in His own words, speaking to us today, He says, Most assuredly I say to you, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life. Hearing the words is good, but you have to believe. And that's not... that's, as I say every time I almost think that I say the word believe from the Bible. It's the Greek word, pistoio. It means a deep belief that changes the way we think, changes the way we are, makes us go a different way because it is so riveting what God has called us to. Most assuredly I say to you, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life. You've got to hear the words. You can write down Romans 10 verse 17 because faith comes by those words as well. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So you're probably the commutative principle that you all learned in elementary math. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes through the Word of God. But hearing it, that's why you and I are here. That's why we keep the Sabbath. That's why we have commanded assemblies. So that we come and hear the Word of God. We do it the way God said to do it. Not the way we might want, and we don't wander from here to there and whatever. We come and be where God wants us to be so that He can teach us and lead us to where He wants us to be. Most assuredly I say to you, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me, He has everlasting life. And He shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. God already sees us doing that. If we're really implying the Bible, if we're really diligently seeking it, if we're really looking at it and using it for what God intended, the only book literally we need. Is it wrong to listen to sermons that explain it? No. Is it wrong to listen to books that expand on biblical principles? No. But all we need is the Bible.

In the millennium there won't be endless libraries of hell-self-hooked books. There will be the Bible. That's what people will be taught. That's what we will learn from. And that's what God will teach us from.

So this book, this book, we should be thankful that God has preserved it for us. It is His Word. Every time you look at it, laying on your table or on your nightstand or in your car, realize that's God's Word. You don't want to depart from it. You want it close at hand. You want to know it. You want to understand it, and we spend the rest of our lives learning it. I'm going to mention, I think when we started the Bible studies in Hebrews, I mentioned that a commentator wrote that you could read the book of Hebrews a hundred times. It's such a book that's so filled with so many principles of life that you could read it a hundred times and you would learn something new every single time. That's the Bible as a whole. Never think, I've read it through ten times. I've read it through fifteen times. I know it all. We will never in this lifetime know it all. God will keep adding. God will keep opening as He sees us diligently wanting what His Word is. It's His Word. He will open the minds to it if we keep looking, if we keep hearing, if we keep searching. We use it for the answers to life that we may look for. I want to close in 1 Corinthians 10. In a world as we look ahead, more and more the Bible will become the enemy of the state. They're not going to want people who live by the Word of God. They're not going to want people who pay attention to it. They're going to throw it out just like all the religions have down through the end of man. There will be a war against the Bible, a war against people who believe in it. We read that in Revelation 13. They will be murdering people who believe that way who won't give in to the state. We'd better know what the Bible says. We'd better have proven it so that when that time comes, we can stand up and say, literally, we will die because I know this is the Word of God. We'd better see it living and alive in our lives. We'd better be learning what He wants us to learn. And that only comes from living it, from doing it, and from applying it. 1 Corinthians 10.11 is a notable verse. All these things, it says, happen to them as examples. All those Old Testament stories, our kids love them. They're inspiring to us. Love reading about Noah, love reading about Abraham, love reading about Daniel and David and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedgo. They were all given as direct examples to us. God painstakingly preserved those for you and me, for all of mankind. But here in the 21st century, for us, it's His Word to us today. All these things happen to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. That's you and me. Beneficial, profitable, absolutely necessary for every man who has ever lived, given to us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. It's time to turn back to the Bible. None of us have turned, I hope none of us have turned from it. Maybe we just haven't counted it as important as it is. Maybe we're not as thankful for it as we have. Maybe we've begun to take it for granted. It's always there. Maybe it's time we need to start looking at what God's Word says a little more closely and doing it. And doing it and counting it for the very miraculous and lovingly preserved Word of God that it is.