Treasure and Preach The Truth

Transcript

GRM 957
4/23/2006
Treasure and Preach the Truth
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We’re going to take a little break from I Corinthians this morning and I’m sure that surprises some of you. When I take one week break I usually take two weeks’ break. We have moved through I Corinthians through chapter 7 and really what we’re going to do today started out in my thinking as the introduction to moving into chapter 8. And then the more I worked on it the more I thought I would like to spend some time with you looking into the matters that we’re going to talk about.

Our regular pattern at Indian Hills is to study the Word of God book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, sentence by sentence, beginning at the beginning of one of the books and moving through to the end. I’m not saying that’s the only way to study the Word of God. At times we study it topically, maybe take the topic of the Holy Spirit and pull together what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. So we’re in different places in the Word of God. Today we’re going to be moving through a variety of passages. But all of our studies as a church are based upon the fact that God has spoken, the Bible is what He has said. And our responsibility is to give out what He has said and then to help explain it to make it as clear as possible. We would say we follow what is called propositional preaching and teaching, which is simply giving forth the statements of what God has said and then explaining them. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, that’s what the Bible says. Now we may explain the further, why is He called Christ Jesus, Christ being from the Greek work that means the anointed one, the Christos. And He is the Messiah prophesied and promised in the Old Testament, the one who is anointed to be the Messiah, the King of Israel. He is Jesus, Jehovah Savior, He came into the world. And we walk through and explain it, the statements of scripture which must be believed or some disbelieve to their own judgment.

Now there is a change in thinking that is influencing the evangelical world today and many of you are aware of it. And I just want to remind you of what we do and why we do it the way we do it, and it’s based upon our conviction regarding the Word of God, and alert you a little more. Some of you have been in some classes that have been available on the subject. Some believe we should move from propositional preaching, making the clear statements of scripture, to narrative kind of preaching which is more of a story style of preaching. And it seems, well, that is not a big issue. It is a major issue, and it is a major cataclysmic shift away from a truly biblical manner of presenting the Word of God. We believe that there is absolute objective truth, and that is what must be proclaimed. That is not the conviction of everyone, but it is our conviction. It ought to be the conviction of everyone in an evangelical church, but that is shifting.

Let me read you some quotes relating to what is taking place. They’re talking about the new perspective on the church, the emerging church, the church that is emerging, the emergent church that is now coming out. And they see it as a development. What does it mean to be a new kind of Christian today? A major thrust is that we need to recast our theology in terms of being rooted in the Christian story which is told in scripture. We say well the Christian story which is told in scripture, that’s not bad. But things are being refocused from a focus on the facts and statements of what scripture says to the general story. We also need to see the truth of the faith, not as a set of abstract propositions that somehow cannot make sense apart from the story in which it has meaning. Now I understand that some of the way this is written becomes confusing and I find it confusing, but really they say we need to move away from the propositional approach, just a statement of the facts of what scripture says. Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, He was buried, He was raised on the third day, He was seen by witnesses. You must believe that to be saved. Well, we need to move to more, let’s just tell the story that the scripture talks about with Christ.

They have an approach, in light of this that conversion is a process. It’s not just a response in faith to certain facts, but it is a process and so they see churches as a place where people should belong before they believe. Evangelism is not to be done from a superior position, as we know it, but as a conversation in which we listen and genuinely care for people, telling the story of Jesus as well as our own story of our relationship to Him. Now we’ve moved away from a clear statement of the facts of the gospel as I just gave them to you from I Corinthians 15 to now let’s just have people in and they’re here just as part of us. And in this context we want to talk about Jesus and the story of Jesus, and we want to tell them our own story of how we came to know Jesus. And there’s an element of truth when we talk about telling them the story of Jesus, but the problem is where they’re going with this is not where we want to be. We have the old song, tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. But that’s not what they’re talking about. We’ve moved the focus away from the facts of scripture now to just the general story. And that is a major, major shift.

The person promoting this that he quotes does not say there is no place for propositional truth in evangelism, just the statement of the facts of the gospel. They’re not saying there’s no place for that, but we need to share our stories, for it is in these stories that propositions have their meaning and proper place or context. But you understand the facts of the gospel are the power of God for salvation regardless of what my story is. The truthfulness of the gospel does not depend on my story, let me tell you about me and what happened to me. I may share with you how the gospel impacted my life, but Christianity stands or falls on the facts of the gospel, not the story of Gil Rugh. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Now these are men influencing evangelical Christianity, keep this in mind, those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians. In this writer’s opinion, in a post modern world there is no objective universal truth. All is relative. However, we still can show the truthfulness of the gospel story by how we live out the Christian life in community. There is no objective absolute truth, but we can show the truthfulness of the Christian story by how we live. Now wait a minute. How can I show the truthfulness of something I’m not sure can be true. And somehow it makes sense to somebody, but I can’t get it to make sense to me. But we move from the story, and we’re going to talk about our story, let’s tell people about the story of Jesus, let’s tell people our story of how we came to know Him. And all of a sudden, that sounds all right. But we move away from telling them what God has revealed, the basic facts of the Word of God to somehow blending of story and trusting over time our story will convince them that there is truth.

Instead of emphasizing biblical truths presented as propositions to be rationally accepted, we need to invite students (this man is writing on how we reach high school and college students), we need to invite students and others into our Christian communities in which they will see believers living out the faith authentically. Now again, there’s an element of truth. People ought to see the life of Christ in us, changed lives as a result of the working of the gospel. But now it’s presented, instead of emphasizing biblical truths presented as propositions to be rationally accepted, to be believed, they don’t need to hear that. They just need to come and they need to see us living as Christians should live. And that convinces them of truth. And somehow we’ve lost the perspective of how God says He works and the place His Word has in the work of God in the world.

One writer says, foundationalism, and foundationalism basically says there are certain foundations, objective truths, that are the foundation. Foundationalism is the view that we can base or ground our beliefs upon a set of foundational beliefs that enable us to know how things really are. In other words, objectively. We would believe that. We must believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Those are foundational. But these writers are saying everything is subjective, we cannot be objective, there is no objective way to interpret doctrine and scripture. And on it goes.

Now the danger of this……. I was reading the doctrinal statement of an evangelical church who has in their material, we do not believe that propositional preaching and teaching is the way to reach our culture. We must go to a narrative style to be effective. But as you read their doctrinal statement it could be the doctrinal statement of our church. It becomes confusing to believers because they don’t stand up and deny any of the doctrines, and they say we’re going to still hold to those doctrines and present them, but we’re going to present them within the context of the story and narratives. And what we’re really doing is moving away from presenting the scripture as the factual revelation of God. They say well Jesus told stories. Makes me want to pull out my remaining hair. You know Jesus told parables to keep unbelievers from understanding the truth. And I quickly looked at one section of my shelf and I have 15 books on the parables in that section. Well that’s wonderful. You know none of them were on the parables of Peter, none of them are on the parables of James, none of them are on the parables of Paul. Just because Jesus told parables didn’t mean that’s the way we learn. We’re not rewriting scripture or writing more scripture, you understand. We are giving forth the scripture that God has given and explaining it. We ought not to get confused on this. There’s a place for me giving my testimony. You understand, your salvation should not be founded on my testimony, it must be founded on the facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I may fail, the truth of God’s Word never will.

Turn to Acts 26 and then I want to go to the Old Testament with you. The way these things begin to make inroads in the evangelical church is people may have good intentions, I can’t judge their motives and they are irrelevant at this point for me, but they look at their own experience and they get frustrated. One of the men that I was reading this week, saying he had a ministry to high school young people and to college young people and he realized when I just presented the facts of the Word of God I drove them away. And I realized there is no sense in having a ministry that just drives people away. I began to realize that in our culture in our day you cannot reach people by just presenting the facts of God’s Word. We must build a community and then within the context of community we tell the story of Jesus and we tell our story and through that they come to know the truth. They fail to understand that it takes the work of the Spirit using the Word of God to transform hearts. You may present the gospel and get the exact opposite of what you were hoping for, in fact that will probably be the norm.

In Acts 26 the Apostle Paul has been arrested, now he has opportunity to present his case before Festus, the Roman authority, and Herod Agrippa who has been appointed by the Romans with a realm of Jewish authority. And the Apostle Paul has told how he came to know Christ. Then in Acts 26:19, so King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring (now note this) both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem, then throughout all the region of Judea, even to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds that are consistent with having repented of their sin. What did he preach? A message of repentance.

Verse 22, and didn’t get a good reception. The Jews seized him and tried to put him to death. That’s how he comes to be now a Roman prisoner. Verse 22, so having obtained help from God (now note this) I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place, that the Christ was to suffer. That by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim life, both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. That’s my ministry. I’m proclaiming what Moses and the Old Testament prophets said would happen. And all must repent of their sin and trust in the Christ who died for them and was raised from the dead. He simply presents the facts of the gospel.

How did this impact Festus, the Roman? While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you mad. Paul, you’ve gone crazy. No one in their right mind would believe this stuff. Verse 25, Paul says I’m not out of my mind, I utter words of sober truth. Verse 27, he asked King Agrippa, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? That’s the bottom line. Do you believe what God has said, do you believe what God has said through the prophets? Do you believe what God has said concerning His Son, Jesus Christ? That’s it. Doesn’t matter that people say you’re crazy, doesn’t matter that Agrippa says, what do you think, you can make me a Christian in such a short time? You’d think Paul would get the idea by now that this isn’t working very well. But he is called to preach the truth.

God’s plan for His people, Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament and in our day, is that their lives focus on the facts, the truth that He has revealed. And I just want to look at a number of scriptures with you. Many of these we’ve looked at before, to draw our attention to the focus that is to be ours as the people of God. And you note, it will be on the Word of God as He has given it. And there are to be no adjustments so that it will be more pleasing and acceptable to people. We allow God to do with His Word as He sovereignly chooses.

Turn back to the book of Deuteronomy. I’m going to focus in the book of Deuteronomy just for simplicity. If you want to do an exercise, we’ve done on other occasions, you can write down Exodus 39-40 and Leviticus 8-9. If you haven’t done it before, take those 4 chapters and go through there and underline or highlight every time in those 4 chapters there is a statement like “just as the Lord commands, just as the Lord commands, just as the Lord commands,” as He repeatedly reminds Israel, you do it just as I have commanded. Deuteronomy 4 begins, now oh Israel, listen to the statutes and judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from it. That you may keep the commandment of the Lord your God which I command you. So you note, they are to be told what God has said. When God says it, it’s a command. And they are to do it. And they are to be taught what God has said so they can do it. That’s the pattern.

Look in Deuteronomy 5:1, Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, hear oh Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. I’m going to tell you what God says and you are going to be responsible to respond in faith, believe it and obey it. Your obedience will give evidence that you believe it. It’s a simple pattern, isn’t it? Let me tell you what God said. Now you are responsible to believe it and to do it.

Verse 29, God says, oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and their sons forever. Israel has just responded to what God said and said we’re going to do everything God said. And God said, oh I wish it would be so, that they had a heart that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always. Verse 31, but as for you, stand here by Me that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them. So here, Moses, I’m going to give you my word and then you go teach it to them. And then this will be spread out. It was one of the major responsibilities of the priests in Israel, to instruct and teach the people. Verse 32, so you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you. That’s it. He doesn’t say, now Moses I want you to go and tell your story. Moses, you go tell them what I said. Don’t add anything, don’t take anything away. Go tell them what I said. Simple, simple task.

Chapter 6, now this is the commandment, the statute, the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them. Verse 2, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God. There is a tragedy here happening in our day in the evangelical church. We have people who have been taught the Word of God somewhere in their lives, and now they are in churches that have moved away from the clear teaching of the Word of God to telling the story. And these people have assembled a knowledge of the Word of God and the facts of the Word of God from when they were being taught it, and now they put that into the story. You know what’s happening? They have placed their children and their grandchildren in the context where they are not being taught the facts of the Word of God. They’re just being told the stories. And that’s why it will take a generation and the evangelical church will be an empty shell. Just have to wait for the old people who have learned the Word of God someplace else, but now have somehow lost their discernment and are sitting in a church thinking this is wonderful and nobody is denying and we believe all these things. They don’t realize my children are being raised now in a context where they are not being taught the facts of the Word of God, that this is truth that must be believed and then obeyed. And so we have yet to see the ultimate culmination of this disaster if the Lord doesn’t come. And that is in a generation the evangelical churches will have rolled over like our major denominations did. It took a generation until the oldtimers died off and that generation that was raised in that environment where the Word of God was not being clearly taught, now they’ve been raised without a knowledge of the facts and truths of the Word.

So verse 2, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes, His commandments which I command you. Oh Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you. Verse 4, hear oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. Bind them on your hand, on your forehead, write them on the doorpost of your house. I mean what is it about? It’s about the words that I’m giving you, the truth of what I say. We don’t hear about go tell your kids your story. Go tell your kids what I told you, build it into their hearts and minds. Why is it important that your children be in a situation where they are being taught the Word of God? He says learn it to grown, so it’s built into their mind so the Spirit of God might impress it upon them and by His grace draw them to the Savior. Be like Timothy, that from a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise to salvation. I am dumbfounded that people care not for the eternal destiny of their children, and will sit in a church where the Word of God is not being taught, but think they’re all right, not considering where is the next generation, their children, their grandchildren going. Where will they be?

Chapter 8, the events that happened to Israel in the wilderness, and we’ll pick up, and you’ll note I’ve been skipping sections, not because they are not important, but I want to get in a number of verses. You can go back and read the whole context. Verse 3, break in the middle of the verse, why they went through all that they did in the wilderness, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Jesus quoted this verse in the temptation in Matthew 4 as satan tempted Him. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You don’t need to hear my story, you need to hear what God says. People have sometimes said to me over the years, why don’t you talk more about your family. Why should I waste God’s time talking about my family? You didn’t come to hear about me, you came to hear about Him. You don’t need to hear what all is going on in my life, you need to hear what God has said. We are to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Christians ought to be up in arms. People say, well we don’t believe that propositional teaching and preaching is the way to reach our culture today. We sometimes think, well we do want to reach our culture and we want to be effective in evangelizing the lost, so if propositional teaching, stating and giving forth the facts of the Word of God, doesn’t do it, then maybe narrative and story is the better way. God never called me to come up with a better way, never calls you to come up with a better way, never called Israel to come up with a better way. He told them to give out the word as He had given it to them, and He would do as He pleased.

Chapter 10, verse 12, now Israel what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding to you today for your good. This is what God requires—do His Word. This is it. Now how can you do it if you’re not taught it? Oh, that’s not interesting, that’s work. I understand. People come to Indian Hills and they say we opened up the Word and we went through, we didn’t even go through every verse, we went through every word. I was tired. Good. Who said we came to be entertained? This is serious business, the eternal God has spoken. What could be more important than we understand clearly and accurately what He said. We want to be approved by God and to be workmen approved by God we must be handling accurately the Word of truth, Paul wrote to Timothy. This is not a game, this is not something that will be appealing to unregenerate people who are in rebellion against God.

Chapter 26, and there are verses we’re skipping, there are many, but it gives you a sampling. Deuteronomy 26:16, this day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. Now if you’re not taught what they are, how are you going to do them? Where are we left? If you haven’t been taught the facts, the details, how do you know? So you came and I shared with you my story and included in that how I came to trust Christ. That’s fine, now you know my story. But if you don’t know the facts of the gospel and what God has said, you are still adrift. You may go and hear somebody else’s story and it’s a better one, more interesting, more dramatic. Are you going to believe that story? My story of how I came to know Christ is only of interest as I share with you how the facts of the Word of God were used by the grace of God to impact my heart and life. But you understand, it’s the facts of the gospel that make the difference, the truth of the Word of God.

Verse 17, you have declared the Lord to be your God. What does that mean? And that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances and listen to His voice. How can people who have declared that God is their God, His Son is their Savior, then not be focused on the details of what He has said. His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, listen to His voice. The Lord has declared you to be His people, a treasured possession as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments. Literally, to keep, He has declared you to be His special treasure to keep all His commandments, that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame and honor. That you be a consecrated people and so on. I realize some of this is directed to Israel, but as the people of God you note where the focus of Israel is to be—on what God has said. And that will be exactly the same, when we get to the New Testament and talk about the church.

Go to chapter 27, verse 9, then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all of Israel saying, be silent and listen oh Israel. Now there is something going on that is another tragedy in the evangelical church, and that is an emphasis on meditation. Not biblical meditating on the Word of God, but Eastern meditation where you empty your mind. That has nothing to do with biblical truth. And contemplative prayer, where we just sit and wait for God. I tell you, what God has to say to you is found here. You sit and empty your mind and wait, the devil will put something in there. God speaks through His Word. He says be silent and listen oh Israel. What do you mean, what do you listen to? Just sit in silence like they do in Eastern meditation? This day you have become a people for the Lord your God, you shall therefore obey the Lord your God and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you. That’s it. Shut up and listen to what God says, is what He is saying. Then do it. You be quiet and listen to what God has to say. We have to get confused on this. We oughtn’t to have well-known men who have been noted as Bible teachers promoting what we call contemplative prayer, where we really adopt Eastern mysticism and then we think we’re just sitting and I just put everything out of my mind. And I sat in silence, empty-headed before the Lord, and waited for Him to speak. The Lord doesn’t speak that way, He speaks through His Word.

Go to chapter 32 and that will be the end of Deuteronomy, I’ll skip the rest of these. As I said before, if you knew what I left out, you would appreciate me more. Deuteronomy 32:46, Moses is finishing up his life’s ministry. He is at the end of a life of faithful service. Verse 46, he said to Israel, take to your heart all the word with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you, indeed it is your life. You see what it is about? It is about the very words that God has spoken through Moses. They are for you, they are for your sons. It’s not an idle word, an empty word, it’s your life. You realize when we move away from the Word of God we’ve moved away from everything. Now we just have empty religious form. That’s where Israel went, you’re well aware of that. They invalidated the Word of God with their traditions, they came up with practices that they thought made the Word of God more effective and Jesus said the net result of it was you invalidated any effectiveness of the Word of God. Tragic, tragic situation. We see it unfolding in our churches.

Turn over a couple of pages to Joshua, just after Deuteronomy, Joshua 1. We have a new leader on the scene, Moses has died. Any change in plan, the human instruments aren’t what matters. Neither the leader, the spokesman nor the receivers, it’s all about God and what He has said. So Joshua is instructed, verse 7, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. Joshua is not to pick up now and tell the story of Moses, he is not to pick up and tell his own story. You keep telling them what I said, you tell them what I said, you tell them what I said. That’s always God’s plan for His people. The New Testament warns us, there will come a day when people will not put up with sound, healthy teaching, God’s people. But they will heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears. That happened in Israel, and it's happening in the church, sad to say.

Turn to Psalm 19, right about the middle of your Bible, a little before the middle. Psalm 19:7, we’re 500 years or so past Moses, nothing changes. Not a different time, not some adjustments in culture, not a different setting. Even though it is a little different setting, it is nothing different. Verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward. You see that repeated emphasis on the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the judgements of the Lord. These things are so precious I’d give up everything I have, all my possessions, because these are more precious to me than gold, than much fine gold. Yet the people of God hold them lightly. ????????if giving forth the purity of God’s Word as He gave it isn’t effective, we’ll give it up. Let’s tell a story. And at the same time we’re carrying around our doctrinal statement that we believe in the inspired scriptures. And it’s like Israel. A number of years ago when we were at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you know they carry out their Torah and they hold it above the people. They’re having a Bar Mitzvah at the Wailing Wall and here they honor it. It’s like Jesus said of the Jews in His day, these people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. Same thing the prophets said.

It just is sad, and we need to be careful it doesn’t become true of us. Oh we honor Him with our lips, but somewhere along the line we set apart His Word, the passion for His Word, the love for His Word, His Word being something we will die. We need to go to the bookstore and get some of the books on the martyrs and people who died for the Word of God, died in their stand for the clear statements of the Word of God in a particular place. And we just let it go easily.

Turn over to Psalm 119. And we could read this whole psalm. A number of years ago, you don’t know how close we came to having our service being totally devoted over to reading Psalm 119. And to give you variety I was going to have you stand for some stanzas and sit for others. Let me just read you some sample passages. Psalm 119:4, you have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your Word. Verse 11, your word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Verse 14, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. Verse 24, your testimonies also are my delight, my counselors. Where do I go for counsel? The song says where could I go but to the Lord. Oh yeah, we sing it, we say it, and then when trouble comes we just go to pieces and go everywhere.

Verse 38, now note this, establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. You see what we’re abandoning when we move away from the purity of the Word of God and the clear presentation of that Word as God gave it. We no longer produce reverence for the Lord. Some of you have been here for Numbers, and in Numbers 20, when Moses failed to do exactly as God said, to the word, God said you didn’t treat me as holy. That’s the issue. You didn’t treat me as holy. What a terrible thing that evangelical, Bible-believing churches, we know it. It’s guilty of not treating God as holy because we’ve come up with Plan B and it works. If it doesn’t treat God as holy, it doesn’t work, from God’s perspective.

Verse 50, this is my comfort in my affliction, that your Word has revived me. Where do you go when you’re down, when you’re crushed, when you feel discouraged and despondent? Ought to go to the Word, just fill your soul and your heart with the Word and let it refresh and revive you. Verse 63, I am a companion of all those who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. I mean it’s all about the Word, what God has said. Verse 67, before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your Word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. We all have learned that—under affliction and under pain and under pressure we draw closer to the Lord and His Word becomes even more precious. How many times have people said, oh it’s been such a painful, difficult time, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. They’ve learned what David learned, the law of the your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Note how often it comes about the Word of God is more precious to me than riches. Because we live in a world where riches are so important. If you had the choice, everything you have, everything you possess, you will be reduced to the worst of abject poverty, but you’ll be able to keep your Bible. Or we’ll take the Bible and you can keep everything else. Well let me think about it. Would there be any necessary time for thought?

Verse 80, may my heart be blameless in your statutes so that I will not be ashamed. What is more shameful than that the people of God are not blameless according to the Word of God. Verse 89, forever oh Lord your Word is settled in heaven. All I’m doing is reflecting what God has already settled. I am privileged, you are privileged to give forth a truth that is settled in heaven. Verse 92, if your law had not been my delight then I would have perished in my affliction. Verse 104, from your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. And the further God’s people move away from God’s Word, the more accepting and tolerant they become of the false ways of the world. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Verse 127, therefore I love your commandments above gold, yes fine gold. Therefore I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. A pastor came to see me one day, he sat in my study, we were in the midst of a conflict then. He said, Gil, I’m not going to follow you in this conflict. I don’t expect you to. He said, Gil, you would die for everything in here. I took that as a compliment. Then I asked him to explain what he would die for in here. Aren’t we supposed to? Doesn’t he say he would hold onto all these things, all your precepts concerning everything. Is it to me to decide? People aren’t interested in this, I just think we’ll just take this out. Nobody is going to pay attention………. I think we’ll take that out, let’s get this down to what people really will respond to. No sense in me preaching to empty seats. David said, I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. Everything God said is right, and I hold it in high honor. I hate every false way.

Verse 130, the unfolding of your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple. Aren’t you glad? Here we are, gathered as a bunch of simpletons, but we have understanding. We have brilliant minds with multiple doctorates and they don’t know what we know. Verse 142, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth. I am offended to read that people claim to be evangelicals and they deny that there is absolute truth. I believe they are revealing their true character. Your law is truth.

Verse 151, you are near oh Lord and all your commandments are truth. Of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. I’m not worried about where our culture is today. God has founded His testimonies, His Word forever. Verse 160, the sum of your word is truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting. And that about says it, doesn’t it? Don’t tell me that propositional preaching and teaching is not the way to reach our culture, that’s an affront to God. We’ve come up with a way to do it. We do it as God does it. I realize it’s not going to be “effective” as man would see it, but God has said His Word never returns to Him void, but it always accomplishes His purposes. I just better be sure that my purposes are in line with God’s purposes.

Talking with a pastor this week who called me on the phone, a man committed to the Word of God, teaches the Word of God faithfully. But it’s a difficult ministry. It’s a small number and you have people leave, oh well we’re going, we like the music over here. The teaching may not be on the same level, but the music is good. And somebody else, well we’re leaving. The church we’re going to go to, I realize the teaching may not be as good but our kids like it. Preaching the place empty. Well what do you do? I said, you’re being faithful, you’re preaching truth. That will be the measure of your ministry when you stand before the Lord. Not the numbers who sat under your ministry, but the faithfulness in giving out the Word.

Go to Jeremiah, you’re in Psalms, you’ll jump over and go through Isaiah and you’ll be in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 15, look at the last statement of verse 15, no for your sake, as Jeremiah addresses the Lord, I endure reproach. We hold Jeremiah in high honor, God has honored him, we study what God says through Jeremiah twenty-five hundred years after Jeremiah was God’s spokesman. But you understand during his life Jeremiah didn’t get any honor. What’s he say in verse 16? Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I have been called by your name oh Lord God of hosts. I mean your Word is my food, I took it in like food, your very words. And that filled my heart with joy because I am called by your name, I belong to you. The world reproaches me, the people of God reproach me, but your word is the joy and delight of my heart.

Turn over to chapter 20. Jeremiah had a hard ministry. The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, as we know him. Oh Lord, verse 7, you have deceived me and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me. You know what? The word as Jeremiah gave it out wasn’t effective in reaching that culture, those people. He was a laughingstock, everyone mocked him. Five hundred or so years later Paul would preach to Festus and King Agrippa and Festus would say, Paul, you’re a madman. You’re out of your mind, you’ve gone crazy. What happened when Jeremiah preached the Word that God had given? He was a laughingstock. We don’t believe in absolute truth today so we just won’t come to hear you. Mock. Each time I speak I cry aloud, I proclaim violence and destruction. Because for me the Word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. You know we as God’s people have to be satisfied with God’s plan and it was God’s plan that the more Jeremiah preached the Word of God, the more people despised Him, the more people looked down upon Him, the more people didn’t want anything to do with Him. You know what Jeremiah says? You know if I make up my mind, all right I’ve learned my lesson. This just isn’t working, I’m just going to shut up. I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, I’ll just keep silent. Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in, I cannot endure it. You know he says if I decide I’m not going to give out God’s Word, I can’t take it. It’s just like there’s a fire and it’s just getting hotter and hotter and hotter on the inside, and I have to give out God’s Word.

What is wrong with us today that we give up so easily the Word of God and we’re so happy to do so? Verse 11, but the Lord is with me like a dread champion. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail, they will be utterly ashamed. Because they have failed, with an everlasting disgrace they will be forgotten. You know Jeremiah didn’t live to see this, Jeremiah died rejected. Even what he said came true about the Babylonians, but people still wouldn’t believe him. We find the book of Jeremiah ending up with Jeremiah being carted off to Egypt against his will be people who won’t listen to him when he said God told him to tell them not to go to Egypt. We say I don’t mind suffering if I have the hope at the end, they’re going to have to say, you know you were right. You know some days I think I’ll just sit by the phone and wait for the call—just called to say you were right. Those can be long days, can’t they? And if that’s the way we think it’s going to be as God’s people, the day of vindication comes and we stand in the presence of the Lord. And if we’re looking for success now, we will find ourselves moving away from faithfulness.

One other passage and we’re done—Ezekiel 2, you know we would have to come to Ezekiel 2. In Ezekiel 1 Ezekiel is given a vision of God, an awesome vision to see the living God on His throne. It overwhelms him and chapter 1 ends at the end of verse 28, such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord and when I saw it I fell on my face. And I heard a voice speaking with me. Then He said to me, son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you. He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me, He set me on my feet. He said, son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. We’re some 1000 years after Moses here, round figures. I am sending you to them who are stubborn, obstinate children. You shall say to them, thus says the Lord, and for them whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. Wait a minute, Lord, if they’re not going to listen, maybe it would just be as well if I don’t go. You understand if they don’t like what I say, they’re not going to like me. If they don’t like me I’m just going to have a life of difficulty. So why even bother giving out your Word when you already say it’s not going to work? Shut up. As for you son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words. Though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions, that’s rather graphic, neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house. But you shall speak my words to them whether they listen or not.

Now somehow the church has gotten off track. ??????have been telling us we tried preaching the Word of God as it is and it wasn’t effective. And we decided that we had to do something if we were going to be effective. Wait a minute. What was Ezekiel’s effectiveness? Giving forth the Word of God as God gave it, right? In spite of the fact nobody was going to listen to him. That doesn’t sound like you’re successful to me. Well success is being a faithful servant to your master. A word of warning, now you son of man, verse 8, listen to what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. A word of warning, danger is Ezekiel might be tempted to drift. It’s not working. Open your mouth, eat what I am giving to you. And here he is given a scroll and he eats it, he takes in the Word of God. It becomes part of his life and out of what God has given him now, he gives it out.

Eat this scroll, chapter 3, verse 3, son of man feed your stomach, fill your body with the scroll. Verse 4, then He said, son of man go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. He didn’t tell him, go tell your story. You go tell them my words. You are not being sent to a people who have a different language, who have a hard time understanding what you say, but to the house of Israel. The end of verse 6, I’ve sent you to them who should listen to you. Yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to me. Woe be to the preacher, to the people, to the church who is concerned to have the people who won’t listen to God listen to them. I mean should there be a difference? You give out the Word of God and they won’t listen. Tragedy upon tragedy if we decide to make an adjustment so they will listen. If they won’t listen to God, they shouldn’t listen to us. There are no adjustments here, we are to give out the Word of God just as He gave it, the statements of fact just as He gave them, objective truth just as He stated it. I’m well aware I may be preaching this church back to 60 people. Does it matter? You say well what’s attendance, are we up or down? Well I don’t mind keeping attendance. Is the measure of our success whether it’s up or down? Let’s look at the offerings—income up or down? Remember one time when a couple came in to see me in my office a number of years ago they said if you preach the Word like that, like you preached it this Sunday, we’re going to take our money and go elsewhere. Involved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Well give me a month to pray about it. What would you think of me if you heard I said that? You know what I said? Take your money today. I can’t change the Word of God.

Speak my words to them, speak my words to them. Verse 10, son of man, take into your heart all my words which I will speak to you. Listen closely, speak to them and tell them whether they listen or not. We are an evangelical Bible-believing church, we exist here to be a center of truth, to give forth the Word of God as He gave it, whether people like it or not. We desire to honor the Lord. We don’t want to be hard-hearted, callous, unloving, but I can make no adjustments—it’s the Word of God. He didn’t give it to me to improve upon it, He didn’t give it to me to edit it to be more effective. He gave it to me and to you to give it forth just as He gave it.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your Word, thank you for the power of your Spirit that takes the truth that we naturally reject as fallen beings and causes us to turn in faith to believe that which is life. Lord, may as your people hunger for your Word deepen and grow. May we have no tolerance for any variation. Lord, may you be honored by the ministry of your truth among your people. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.