The Unity of the Bible

Well, good morning again, brethren. Glad to see all of you. I guess we're missing Karen today, but hopefully she'll be able to be back next time. But glad to see all of you today.

And certainly interesting to hear what Tom was explaining about Psalm 22. You know, that's a lengthy Psalm, and it would be difficult for me to memorize that. But it would seem that others may have greater capacity than me to be able to do that. And if indeed, you know, not only was Jesus referring to just the very beginning of that, but then all of it, which seems to directly apply to what he was going through. And we really do need to understand how that other verses give us insight. Surely the one in John 16 makes it pretty clear God was going to be with his son. He was going to help him all the way through. And then, of course, you know, my thought, well, somehow he had to turn away. Well, that doesn't entirely make sense. It makes sense that he would be supporting and that he would rescue Jesus from what he was going through. So, very interesting to listen to that and actually to study the Word of God in that way. That's what I want to talk to you about today, is about the book that most of you have in your lap. Or if Brad or Brian are looking at their phone, maybe you and some of the rest of you look at, you know, your pad. And I don't like to do that because it scrambles my brain. I don't like to do it. I've tried to, you know, can I look cool and do this type of thing? Definitely not. I cannot do this. I've got to see what's ahead and behind and I've got to see what am I talking about here. And so, you know, the amazing book that we all, I think, in many ways take for granted. You know, we haven't had to memorize much of it, as perhaps people had to in the past. And yet, hopefully, we are memorizing a good part of it because that is, you know, not only good for us, but it is, it's beneficial to be able to bring to mind. Now, when you can't sleep at night, it's good to be able to roll through things that you have memorized, whether it's Psalm 23, whether it's other references that may be very familiar to all of us, maybe even Psalm 22. If we commit that to memory, we would have that available just to think about and to mull over and to consider. It's a fascinating book that God has inspired. Of course, God is the one who has given us the book that we call the Holy Bible.

It is His divine revelation to man. Now, most people don't think of it that way. They know it's a holy book, or they know it's a book that has significance, but brethren, it should have a great deal of significance to us. It should be so precious. You know, we've been going through, the ministry has had available to us the labor in the Word program. And I want to pass on some of what I learned. I can't pass on, I hope, everything, but at least I want to pass on some of what I'm learning in the programs that they're making available to the ministry. And in the first section that was really about our appreciation of the Bible, it was called the unity of the Bible. The unity of the Old Testament and the New Testament and how they come together. And there are many, many, many different ways that you could approach that topic and be able to discuss or describe just how it is that God has tied the Bible together over millennia of time, over, you know, numerous authors. I believe over 40 that you could easily pick out who are referenced throughout the Old and the New Testament. But how it is that God has put that together. And of course in John chapter 6, Jesus makes a statement that should take on a great deal of meaning to us. Here in John chapter 6 you have a whole chapter where Jesus is even talking about things in the Old Testament. He's talking about the Israelites and he's talking about, and of course he's just fed the, what is it, the 5,000? And so he's talking about your ancestors were given bread in the wilderness. And so he's talking about a whole section of the Old Testament. And yet he said that that bread didn't sustain you. He says, I, in verse 35, and the bread of life. And he says the same thing again down in verse 48. I'm the bread of life. In verse 51, I'm the living bread that has come down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread is going to live forever. You know, he was making some extremely important points and clearly we want, and we read this every Passover, we go over this information. It is very clear about how it relates to the body and then the blood of the Lord and how that through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us, we have eternal life.

And in verse 61, being aware that His disciples weren't fully understanding what He just said, He said in verse 61, does this statement that I've made offend you? And He goes on to say, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend Him to where He was before?

He was telling them something that was going to happen. He said, what if this happens? What if I just ascend into the heavens? What are you going to think about that? Of course, He's told them something very difficult to understand as far as being giving His body and giving His blood and that we need to eat that bread and eat that blood or wine. We need to take that to have eternal life. He understood that it was difficult to understand, but He goes on to say in verse 63, it is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is useless or is prophets nothing.

The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life. You know, that's not just simply the words that Jesus spoke and that if you have the right type of Bible that are in red letters, you know, that's certainly important and clearly significant, but ultimately Jesus guided and directed the writers of the entirety of the Bible, including Psalm 22, even predicting what He as a human being would go through as He is crucified. And yet this statement in verse 63, I would say that we probably should memorize that verse in order to continue to be mindful of the fact that the Bible is not just something I carry around.

It's not just a nice thing to have on my shelf. It's not just a nice thing to have on my coffee table. It should have even greater significance than that because it is the way to eternal life. It shows us what it is that we need to do in order to have eternal life. And I know whenever He said this to the disciples, I have to believe they didn't fully grasp the significance of what He was saying.

Perhaps this was written for us. This was written for us to fully understand that His words are spirit and they are life. And they give us the direction. They give us the path to eternal life. I want to focus on several things here this morning. And I don't know how much I'll get over. I know they gave us an awful lot of material in a couple of hours. And when you go back and you look at it and you study it, it seems like even a lot more material than they initially gave us.

But there are numerous ways that you can approach how God has written the Old and the New Testament. A lot of times people only want to focus on the New. Or maybe many times you get a New Testament that has a book of Psalms in the back.

That's the entire focus. Well, and there's nothing wrong with focusing on that. But you don't want to negate what God put in the Word of God throughout the entirety, actually tying together from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation. I think it's fascinating to see all the things that are introduced in Genesis. Even in the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis, and essentially the Book of Genesis is the Book of Beginnings, you have not only the beginning or the re-creation of the earth and the establishment of the earth so that man can live, so Adam and Eve can be there on the earth and be able to function as we do, a gloriously beautiful earth as we see some of the fall colors and as we enjoy God's creation.

And yet, you know, there are many other beginnings there that you read about in the Book of Genesis. And they're tied together with what we read in the very end of the Book of Revelation. You know, from the creation of the earth, from the designation of man, from the deception of Lucifer, to the tree of life that's in the first couple of chapters. You see all of those things. You see light introduced. You see dark introduced.

See, all those things are mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the very last chapter or two. You know, you read about the tree of life there. You actually read about the new earth needing to be created. You read about no need for the sun, no need for light because light comes from God. It comes from the Father and the Son.

There is no night there. The tree of life is flowing out for all as a part of the family of God, a part of the creation that God is working on right now in us. You see, it's fabulous to think about. There are three points. I guess I better narrow this down in my mind. Three points that I want to make here during the sermon this morning. And it's about the unity of the Bible. It's about the value that the Bible should have to us. And the first thing I want to focus on is just how is it that God is able to bless our understanding of the Bible?

How is it that we can receive God's blessing as we study the Bible? I know all of you are Bible students. I would say most of you know the Bible better than many folks around Fulton and around mid-Missouri. Now maybe people have certain knowledge of different passages, but overall understanding the whole of the Bible, understanding the Old Testament, is the story of Abraham and his children and Jacob and his family and ultimately the nation of Israel. I mean that's very clear when you read it.

And yet most people, you know, to many people that's very fragmented, you know, that isn't really a clear picture. But of course, even that was done by the Father, you know, to discuss the origin and then, you know, the, in essence, a demise of the physical people of Abraham who are going to go into captivity because of sin, but then they're going to be revived. They're going to be re-lifted in the New Testament, where you see an Israel of God made up differently, not just physically descended from Israel, but made up as the Israel of God, which is mentioned in Galatians 6, 16.

That's where a description of the church is, and that's where all of us. You read that even more so in Romans, but it is tied together with what you study in the Old Testament and what, you know, we all benefit from reading the New Testament. But how is it that we receive God's blessing as we understand or as we seek to understand the Bible? Really, we have to study it. We have to, you know, look into it, and we have to seek that blessing from God.

Here in Isaiah 28, you see a verse that, again, I know none of these would be unfamiliar to you, but in Isaiah 28, you see a section in Isaiah that was God inspired him to write down how it is that, or to whom it is, he will give understanding of his inspired words. Here in Isaiah 28, starting in verse 9 and 10, or starting in verse 9 and reading through 10, who is it that God is going to give understanding to?

In verse 9, it says, whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message?

See, Isaiah certainly had a message. He often found that people didn't want to hear it. He found that people didn't even pay attention at all to what he had to say, but God had told him they're not going to listen. Their ears are going to be stopped. Their eyes won't see. But here he says, well, who is it that's going to learn this knowledge from God? Who is it that's going to accept a message from God? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast. So it's not going to be the infants who can't do anything or are not concerned. It's going to be those who follow in a mature way what it says in verse 10. The Bible has been written precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line here a little and there a little. You see that God is able to give his message. He's able to give understanding, but he's going to give that not to infants and babes, even though we do start off that way. We start off learning and then growing, and yet we find that things have to be put together. You have to see the similarities. You have to see the way the unity of the Bible ties the whole thing together. I want us to go back to Hebrews chapter 5 because as Paul was inspired to write to the people who were Jewish Christians. See, these were Jews who had been familiar with the Old Testament but who had accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and have become a part of the Church of God. That's what the book of Hebrews is written to. And yet here he says in chapter 5, verse 11, he says about this, we have much to say that's hard to explain since you have become dull in understanding. See, he was pointing out to them that, well, you've got the book, you've got the Word of God. At that point it was the Old Testament, but you're dull in understanding. You are not applying it. And that's what he's going to go ahead and say. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant is unskilled in the Word of Righteousness. But, he says, solid food is for the mature. Those who are maturing. Who is God going to give his blessing and give his understanding and give his grace and mercy to in understanding the Bible? Well, those who are maturing in verse 14, solid food is for the mature for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. Those who are willing to study, willing to learn, willing to obey, God is willing and able to give his revelation. As we came into the Church of God whenever, if that was recently or if that was some long time in the past, God brought us to a certain awareness of what his Word said, what his law said, and how it was that we needed to turn from sin.

But that was just the beginning. That wasn't the finished product. That was the beginning.

And then we are to mature in our obedience and responsiveness to God, and then God can continue to expand our understanding. So, in answer to the first of these three questions, how to receive God's blessing in understanding the Bible, we have to be willing to obey. We have to be maturing in our desire to understand how the Bible is tied together as a whole.

The second thing that is critically important, and this is just amazing, whenever you read what this says, this is found in the book of James. The book of James points out an attitude toward God, and toward his Word that is absolutely critical. If we're going to grow, if we're going to gain insight and understanding in the Word of God, well then we're going to have to have an attitude that is described here in James chapter 1. It says in verse 19, James says, you need to understand this, my beloved, let everyone be quick to listen.

See, these are all seemingly kind of anti-normal human response.

He says everyone needs to be quick to listen. Everyone needs to be slow to speak. Usually we speak and then we try to listen later, but he says we all need to be quick to listen. We need to be slow to speak. We certainly need to be slow to anger. Now that's anti what normally we fight our attitude of getting upset or being angry or saying something we shouldn't. You know, these are all a description. Of course, it goes ahead and elaborates in verse 20, because the wrath of man, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

You know, that pretty well negates me getting mad over almost anything, because I'm not really seeking the righteousness of God whenever I'm upset. And you can read throughout the entirety of the Bible about how anger gets people into trouble. And of course, we've discussed before how surely anger had to be part of the fuel for Lucifer to choose to pick a, you know, impossible battle against his creator. You know, whenever he rebelled against God, you know, that had come after a long period of time of deceiving himself into thinking, I've got a chance. I think I can overthrow him. I think I can win. I think, you know, he had to get madder and madder and madder. And I would say, you know, that attitude had to affect, you know, a third of the angels who crazily follow his bad choice. And yet, you know, that certainly, it was there was a great deal of arrogance and pride involved in that. There was great deal of deception, because, you know, he had to be deceiving himself. And there are verses that talk about us deceiving ourselves. So we don't want to deceive ourselves. We want to follow what it says. Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger, because the anger, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And then verse 21, which is what I want to get to, therefore, rid yourself of all-sortedness and brain growth of wickedness and welcome. Welcome with meekness or with gentleness, I think the New King James says, many of you have.

Welcome with gentleness the implanted word that has the power to save your soul. See, we have within our grasp the power to save our soul. You know, it's wrapped up here in this book called the Holy Bible. It's wrapped up in the word that is implanted in our mind and in our heart. And what it tells us as far as the attitude that I'm asking about here, attitude toward God in His word that is so critical, it says, welcoming with meekness, the implanted word.

Now, I want to read to you a little bit about what this word meekness or gentleness, what it is meaning, what it is implying. Now, this is out of Barkley's commentary, and he's writing about this one word gentleness or meekness. He is describing the Greek word there, which is protes, I think, protes, I'm not sure. P-R-A-U-T-E-S is how it is spelled. But he says regarding this word, gentleness is an attempt to translate an untranslatable word, protes. This is a great Greek word that has no precise English equivalent, but it's describing the quality of a man whose feelings and emotions are under perfect control.

And this is a description he's going to go on and say, you know, no one could ever find one English word to translate. What is the one-word summary of the truly teachable spirit? That's what this seems to imply. Receive or to welcome with meekness or gentleness with a truly teachable spirit the implanted word. He goes on to say the teachable spirit is docile and tractable, and therefore humble enough to learn. Again, this is in contrast to, you know, the arrogant know-it-all attitude that many people have. The teachable spirit is without resentment and without anger and is therefore able to face the truth even when it hurts and condense.

Now that's another attribute that often people, because of resentment, because of barriers, they don't even want to look at the truth. But of course we want to do that. The teachable spirit is not blinded by its own over-mastering prejudices but is clear-eyed to the truth.

The teachable spirit is not seduced by laziness but is so self-controlled that it can willingly and faithfully accept the discipline of learning. See, this describes an attitude toward God and an attitude toward the Word of God. And it tells us in James 1.21 to have that perfectly teachable spirit, a spirit that is seeking to be guided by the Word of God that can save our soul.

See, that's in addition to what we mentioned earlier about understanding how it is that God's going to grant understanding to those who are maturing, those who are acting on what they're learning, and then those who have this very teachable spirit. The third thing I want to cover is just simply that we all become convicted of the truth of God.

We become convicted of the purpose of human life, of an understanding of how God is achieving a miracle of changing human beings from dust to flesh. So we're in that stage and he's going to change us into eternal spirit. He's got a grand plan in mind. And see, we all become convicted of that truth of God through two things. One of them is through the Word of God.

If we don't spend time in the Word of God, well, then we're limiting ourselves.

We're limiting ourselves in growing, in thinking like God. But we're convicted of the truth of God, first of all, through hearing the Word of God, hearing or reading in most of our cases, but also through the working of the Spirit of God. This is what we read in John 16.

Of course, these chapters that we often go over during preparation time of the Passover, we have a good understanding of what chapter 13, the foot washing service in chapter 14 and 15 and 16 and 17 in John talk about because we go over them every year. But there is such, we often go through this pretty hurriedly at the Passover service, often only little bits of it at time, just because of time. It takes a long time to read through this, and it is extremely complex.

But here in John 16, you see a section where John is inspired to write about how Jesus was telling the disciples, and perhaps John was, he was recording this. I don't know that he had his recorder on when Jesus was saying it, but he had to be remembering it. And I'm sure it had to be something that he and Peter and James and others of the apostles who were with them.

I bet they had to discuss it and to talk about it and think about it. And John would ultimately later be writing down his memory of what it was that Jesus said.

Here in verse, let's see, we can start in verse 5. Jesus said, I'm going to him who sent me. And yet none of you asked me, where are you going? So he realized they didn't fully comprehend what he was going to go through, how he was going to be despised and then crucified and then be resurrected from the dead. Because he tells them that I'm going to go away, I'm going to be gone, but I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back, I'm going to see you. They say, what is he talking about? What is he talking about? He talks about this and in a little while I'm going to do this and a little while they say, what is he talking about?

But here in verse 7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, to your advantage that I fulfill my mission and purpose here on earth. I have been in this human form. I have been willing to take on, you know, to relinquish the God-kind and take on the human kind to experience. And you see verses there in Hebrews talking about how he was suffering and how that that suffering perfected him. That perfected him with his relationship with the Father. He was fully engaged with the Father at all times. I don't guess we can say that. You know, we don't feel that that's the case much of the time, but Jesus was always engaged in that way.

And yet here he says, it's to your advantage that I go away and if I don't go away, the comforter will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment about sin in verse 9 because they don't believe in me and about righteousness because I'm going to the Father and you will see me no longer and about judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Now again, I'm sure the disciples' understanding of that statement was very limited and yet they were coming. See, what did they watch Jesus do? They had watched him heal the sick. They had watched him love the little kids. They had watched him pick up a little kid and put him in front of them and said, you need to become like, you need to seek the humility and trust and obedience that this little child has to be a part of the kingdom of God. See, they had watched him nurture Mary and Martha when they surely thought our brother is dead. And yes, he was. But Jesus was able to solve that as well. He was able to raise Lazarus from the dead and they, even as we had read in the sermon, sermon F. You know, Jesus said what he said so that those who were hearing it would understand who he was. They would understand, I'm the Son of God. I'm God in the flesh. You can follow everything. You know, they had watched him calm the sea. They had watched him walk on water.

You know, Peter had walked a step or two or one or a half, whatever it was. He didn't go very far before he realized, you can't do this. See, that was what Peter came to see. You know, he got to thinking about the problems that this is. Well, he should have been thinking about the problem that Jesus just walked out here. He walked out here on top of the water and he, you know, at another time when they're out in the boat, he's asleep on the pillow. And they have to go get him and they have to say, don't you care that we're all going to die? You know, they had watched a lot of stuff. They had watched Jesus master the demon world because you see interaction not only healing many people, but you often see Jesus interacting with people who were affected by a demon and they didn't understand it at all. Their parents didn't understand it. The rulers didn't understand it. Jesus surely understood it because many of those demons say, we know who you are. Have you come to torment us before our time? We know you're the holy one of God.

See, they had a full under...Jesus knew who they were and he obviously would be able to identify that much better than us. And yet he was able to solve the problems and of course heal the lepers and care for people in a loving and merciful way. But doing that, see, they, the disciples were watching him and I think in many cases simply puzzled. How in the world can he do? And they had to conclude, well he can only do that because and as God was revealing to them and as he would be revealing to Peter, well who do people say I am? We think you're John the Baptist or Elijah or some of the problems. We don't know who. People don't know. And yet Jesus asked, well who do you think I am? And Peter said, well you're the holy one of God. You're the Messiah. You know, they were starting to sink in. Of course Peter would later deny him and all the rest of them denied him.

They were faced with, you know, a problem they couldn't handle and they weren't close enough to God to be able to do anything else. But they would be. They would be because of this. Because in verse 7, Jesus said, nevertheless I tell you the truth is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I don't go away, the Comforter will not come. But when I go away, the Comforter is I'm going to send him to you. And so in verse 12, he says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth comes. See, when the Holy Spirit is united with your Spirit in order that you can understand the things of God and the Spirit of truth comes, it will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak of his own, but he will speak whatever years he will declare to you the things that are to come. The Holy Spirit, just as Jesus wasn't going to be in contradiction of his Father at any time, in any way, he was always going to be in unison with the Father. The Holy Spirit was always going to be passing on what it is that God the Father wants us to understand. And so that's what he was telling the disciples.

He will not speak of his own. He will declare to you that things will come. In verse 14, he will glorify me. See, he was going to uphold who Jesus was and how it is that Jesus Christ has got to be a focus in our lives. And yet that's, of course, how it is that all of us are convicted of the truth through the Word of God, through seeing what God's Word verifies, and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So those three factors, I think, are very important as we think about how it is that the Bible we carry with us is the inspired Word of God, that God shows us. He doesn't write it out like any other textbook. You can read a history book, most of them will be in chronological order. They'll be in some kind of a sequence that kind of makes sense. That isn't always the case with the Bible. You see some jumping back and forth. You see Jesus saying, I'm talking in parables so people won't understand. You see, your eyes are able to see and your ears are able to hear. But for the most part, others are outside. That's what it says in the book of Mark. Others are on the outside. We happen to have had the blessing of having God draw us to Jesus Christ and to give us forgiveness and to give us the Holy Spirit. And of course, we all believe 2 Timothy 3, where it says that the Bible has been written in such a way. And of course, at that time, in 2 Timothy, Paul was writing to Timothy, and he loved Timothy a lot. He helped Timothy. He appreciated Timothy's continuing growth in the church and in the ministry and in the service that he was able to provide for people. And he said the reason you're able to do that is because you love Jesus Christ. You love to serve God. You love the brethren. And here in 2 Timothy 3, he says in verse 14, as for you, Timothy, continuing what you have learned and believed, knowing from whom you've learned it and how from childhood you have known the sacred scriptures that are able to instruct you for salvation, for faith in Jesus Christ. He says all scripture is inspired by God. And it's useful for teaching and for reproof and for correction and for training in righteousness. God has inspired the Bible. He has inspired it from Genesis to Revelation. He has put it together. And I know we haven't gone through. I'm going to assume we probably will be able to go through a little more about how the Bible was compiled and how it was put together. I have to say I couldn't talk about that hardly at all right now. But I hope to learn that. I hope to learn more about how that's the case. But God inspired the Bible to come together because it is the inspired word of God. Because it is, even as it claims, it is inspired by God. Now that doesn't mean that God has inspired every specific word because even as you read over here in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul said, and 1 Corinthians 7 is actually a treatise that Paul is making a number of statements about different types of relationships. Those who are not yet married, those who are married, those who are in a different relationship with maybe a mate who is not a part of the church. And he was talking about different factors there. He was encouraging people to marry within the faith. And yet in verse 16, or excuse me, verse 6, he says, I'm speaking this by permission, not really by commandment. Now clearly, when God wrote down the Ten Commandments, he wrote them on the table of stone, and that was what he said. And yet, even as Paul said, well, I'm writing some of these, I'm writing letters, and if God includes them in the Bible, then they take on a great deal of authority.

But see, I'm writing it as I'm understanding it, what I'm trying to teach and preach, and I believe I have the Spirit of God. That's what he said. And so, we have a wonderful blessing of knowing that the Scriptures have been inspired by God and directed by God so that they can lead us to eternal life, that they lead us to the saving of our soul. Let's also look at the two other verses here, too, that would be in connection with this here in Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 verse 1, it says, Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.

And so, here he again is telling the people who are very familiar with that because they are the Jewish Christians. They are people who have been familiar with the Bible, the Old Testament.

And he says, Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, and through whom he has created the worlds. See, there are various means whereby God is able to inspire whether it was Moses or Samuel or David or any of the other prophets because at times when you read through the book of Isaiah, you will see and others of the prophets as well. Sometimes they'll say, you'll see reading the text and you kind of see what the story is, but then you also see, thus saith the Lord. You know, one of the prophets will say that, you know, God is directly giving me this information. Well, what about what was right? Well, that's also inspired by God.

But, you know, how direct is that? Well, it's overall having been given under God's direction and inspiration, and that's what we find here in 2 Peter. 2 Peter 1. It appears so much to me as you read chapter 1 here of 2 Peter that Peter understood that not only was he writing things that would be included in the Bible for Christians heretofore, you know, going forward, but that he was, you know, writing things down as God was inspiring him. It says in verse 16, For we don't follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we have been eyewitnesses of these things. See, Peter, he didn't write a whole lot about Jesus, although he did guide and direct Mark in writing much of what he wrote in his gospel.

See, in essence, Mark was receiving a lot of information from Peter. And Peter here was verifying I was an eyewitness with Jesus Christ. I saw what he did. He didn't mention, but he saw Jesus walk on the water. He saw Jesus help him out of the boat. He didn't mention that much. Others of the gospel writers talk about that. But see, also Peter goes back and says in verse 17, He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice conveyed to him by the majestic glory said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice from heaven while we were with Him on the holy mount. See, Peter's making that statement as an eyewitness. He says, I not only saw the vision that we were brought up there to see, but I heard what God verified.

And he goes on in just talking about the message that they are conveying in a heartfelt way. In verse 20, first of all, you have to understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. It's not for me to come up and try to figure out what a given verse may mean if it's in conflict with everything else that the Bible reveals. The Bible is going to be able to give us information that would make sense. But he says, no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by human will or from the will of man. But the men or saints of God moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. See, that's how we have a very, very special book. A book that if we use it, we're going to grow. We're going to grow with the help of the Holy Spirit and with the help of the Word of God. We're going to grow in our conviction about God not only writing the Bible, but how it is He gives us a direction. He gives us a purpose for our lives, and that is to become like Him, to take on His divine nature. So I hope that maybe in this kind of introduction to this, that we can keep in mind that there are certain things that are going to help us as we grow. And clearly, as we understand more of the unity that we can see throughout the Bible and how it ties itself together and how God has inspired it, can we continue to grow? And we can, as we see David here in Psalm 116 stating. Psalm 119, excuse me, Psalm 119, you see many exclamations here that would appear to be David proclaiming what it was that he saw as the benefit of being guided by the Word of God. Now we read the life of David, and we see a lot of ups and a lot of downs. You see some disappointment in David's life, but there was a constant that was always there, and not only was the help of the Spirit of God available, but that constant was the Word of God. That's what you see proclaimed here in Psalm 119. You read through 176 verses, and every one of them mentions God's ordinances, His statutes, His laws, His commands. Every one of them have some reference. And of course, in verse 97, David said, oh, how love I your law. It is my meditation all the day long.

You know, that was what fueled him. That was what caused him, you know, to be able to face some of the adversity that he did and say and oppose those who opposed him too many times. He had to maintain a closeness to God through being close to His Word. And down in verse 103, he says, how sweet, how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth. And so he makes a comparison there in verse 103 of how much he liked studying the Word of God, thinking about it, contemplating what it meant, asking God to give him understanding. He says, that's like eating honey. That's like eating dessert. You know, we're all going to eat some dessert. You know, we probably have some cheese and other stuff. We might eat something that's sweet. And see, that's what David said. You know, the Word of God is just, it's just sweet. I just love it. And of course, he also says in verse 105, your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It's not only something that I just love to look forward to studying and reading and participating in, as he was directly doing at times.

But he says, it lights my path. It gives me the stability that he says in verse 98, your commandments make me wiser than my enemies. It's always with me. It gives me more understanding than all my teachers. I understand more than the aged because I keep your precepts. You know, that was the thought that was being conveyed back there in Psalm 119. And clearly, it's a thought that we need to keep in mind as we study the Word of God, not just on the Sabbath, which we do, but as we do that day by day, as we do that as fuel for us in our Christian lives. So, again, I'm glad to see all of you today. We're, I guess, we're glad, I'll say today. I'm always saying I'm glad, but I'm glad Pat's here with us. And I know I brought some cupcakes in order to encourage the royals.

You know, they've done well in Kansas City. They didn't do well last night. I'm sure you didn't watch, but I saw what happened this morning. And they play again tonight and tomorrow. So, if you happen to be interested in what's going on in Kansas City, that is what's going on. But read your Bible first.