The Protestant Reformation - Getting Back To The Bible

You please find in your Bibles tonight Second Timothy chapter

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

3, Second Timothy chapter 3, and I want to commence to read at

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

verse 10. Second Timothy chapter 3

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

beginning to read at verse 10. And when you find the place,

then we will read together God's Word that is now here, the

reading of God's precious Word. But thus fully known, my

doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering,

charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me

at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, for persecutions I

endured. But out of them all the Lord

delivered me. Yeah, and all that will live

godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men

and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being

deceived. But continue thou in the things

which thou has learnt and has been assured of, knowing of whom

thou hast learnt them, and that from a child.

Thou has known the Holy Scriptures which are able to

make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ

Jesus. All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished

unto all good works. I know that God will be pleased

to bless his reading, the reading of His word tonight.

For Jesus sake. We'll just bow again for prayer.

Dear Lord, we're gathered here before thee tonight.

My word is open before us. A congregation is gathered,

preachers found in the pulpit, and all we need now is power

from heaven. We're thankful for that time

that Christ ministered among the people, and the Bible tells us

that the power of the Lord was upon him and that the word that

he preached was with power. That's something we can't work

up in and over sails. That power is something that

comes from above. And so for the time left to us

this evening, as we come to think about this time of the

year, about the Protestant Reformation, about the Bible

that was rediscovered, about the great blessing of God at that

particular time when the world really was changed.

And we pray that we might be encouraged to look again to the

Lord, to do even a similar thing in our day.

It was a dark, dark time. The wonder they called that

period prior to the Reformation, the dark ages.

People lived in darkness. They were ignorant of the

gospel, ignorant of truth. And oh God, thou didst do

something wonderful that has continued even right up to this

day. And we ask of thee that

especially in our day that we will see times of refreshment

from the presence of God. Many hearts will be open to the

gospel, many blinded eyes will be illuminated, and many

hardened hearts softened, and that many will seek the Lord

while he may be found, and call upon a while is near.

Abide with us now, and bless us together, for we ask these

things in Jesus name, Amen. Let me read verses 16 and 17

again with you. All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto

all good works. Now for a little time this

evening I want to preach about the Protestant Reformation and

the theme is getting back to the Bible.

Now, 500 years ago, the world was changed by the Protestant

Reformation, and there's a very simple way to remember the

reformers, the message of the reformers, and the message of

the Reformation. It is simply called the five

solas. Now these are 5 Latin phrases

starting with the word sola, which means alone, our own way,

and they cover quite a lot of doctrinal and theological ground

quickly and in a memorable way that each one of us can clearly

remember. We don't know who thought of

them, when they thought about them, or where they first

appeared. But this thing we do know that

they were crucial to the 16th century Protestant Reformation,

sitting aside the Reformers, setting them apart from the

erroneous teachings of the Church of Rome.

I've mentioned in my prayer that prior to this, that period in

history was called the Dark Ages.

Now the people lived in darkness.

They didn't have a Bible. And even if they did have a

Bible, they couldn't read the Bible because they were

ignorant. They had no education, no

teaching, and so they were just in darkness and left to perish

in their sins. But then, at that crucial moment

500 years ago, God sent the light in the form of that

Protestant Reformation. God intervened in grace.

May the Lord be pleased to do the same for us in our day, the

day in which we live now. These principles stand at the

heart of our faith, affirming the authority of Scripture, the

centrality of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation by faith

through grace, all for the glory of God.

Now, what are these five souls? I'm sure Mr McLaughlin, from

time to time has drawn your attention to these five

important matters. Well, first of all, there is

soul. The Scripturia.

Scripture alone or Scripture only.

Then there is sola Christos, Christ only, or Christ alone

solely, Phaidae, faith alone solely, gratia, grace alone,

sola de la Gloria, That is, to God be the glory.

The glory belongs to God alone. So these five solas show us the

foundation of our faith, namely the Bible.

And of course we know the Bible to be the Word of God.

They bring us also to the means of our salvation by grace

through faith. Then they go to the centre of

our faith, that is Christ Jesus, because Christ Jesus came into

the world to save sinners. And finally, we are reminded

that whatever we do, we do to the glory of God alone.

Now, above all else, the Reformation was a return to the

Bible. And the Reformers, they're

focused, they focus on making the Bible accessible to ordinary

people. And that was a tremendous step

forward, a tremendous move. And they did that through the

translation of the Scriptures into the common language like

German and English. And the key aspects include the

principle of Sola, Scripturia and the reformers, men like

Martin Luther and others. Martin Luther, for example,

translated the New Testament into German.

William Tyndale, he was one of the men who gave to us the

English translation of Scripture, along with John

Rogers, who followed in his footsteps.

And this movement that these men were involved in, they

challenged the Roman Catholic Church's authority and LED to an

increase in lay literacy, an individual study of the Bible.

You see, at that time the Church of Rome was the only authority,

the main authority, the old powerful authority, and they

kept the ordinary people in darkness, They kept them chained

in their bondage to sin. But Sola Scripturia emphasises

the Bible as the sole source of religious authority, leading as

it did to the translation into the vernacular languages.

Now society today has by and large rejected the Bible.

That's sad, sad times in which we live.

Even among professing believers, some doubt the authority, the

authenticity, and the accuracy of the Bible.

I can't understand that, but that's the way it is.

Some things just never change. There has been a constant

attempt and attempts over the centuries to erode our

foundational belief in the Bible.

Now, although it may come from different and different forms,

it's aim remains the same. To deprive the people of God of

their great heritage. Having an open Bible, having the

book of God, having the truth. Can you imagine not having a

Bible? Can you imagine what it would be

like without the Bible? Now?

It's sad to say that many of our churches are quite small, or

some of our churches are quite small and some of them happen to

be in Protestant area, so-called Protestant areas and they sit

just with a handful of people week after week.

That shows you the state of Protestantism.

It's dead, it's bankrupt of truth, it's apostate, it's

turned away from God and that's the state of Protestantism in

these days. And yet we hear from different

lands of missionaries declaring the gospel of people who have

been in darkness for decades now, for centuries, are

embracing the gospel, coming to a knowledge of the truth.

God is not. It doesn't seem that he's moving

here, but he is. It may not be to the same extent

that we'd like to see him work, but on the other hand, God is

moving in these places, gathering in a great people for

the glory of the Saviour's name. So the church and the Christian

people need to be on alert today of what is happening now.

The purpose of my message is not to defend the Bible.

We do not have to do that, Spurgeon said.

And I like the way he put it. There's no need to defend the

lion when he's been attacked. All we have to do is open the

gate and let him out. He will defend himself.

And that's what I want to endeavour to do tonight for a

very short time. I want to talk to you about the

Bible. Not necessarily the history of

the Reformation, but I want to talk to you about the Bible

itself. And what was said of Goliath's

swords can truthfully and rightly be said about the Bible.

There is none like it and there is nothing quite like the Bible.

And so we want to have a look, and I want to focus your

thoughts upon these two verses that we've read from Second

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Timothy, chapter 3. And I have some very simple

things that I want to leave with you.

First of all, there is a defined extent of an inerrant Bible.

An inerrant Bible is a Bible without error.

And I believe that what we have in the word of God is a Bible

without error. And you'll notice the words

there, verse 16. All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God, and that little word all is very

inclusive. Do you know what that little

word all means? That means all.

And I think of Proverbs chapter 30, verse 5, where we read every

Proverbs 30:5

word of God is pure. It's true.

It's inspired. We can trust every word of God.

Now there's some people who say I believe part of the Bible, but

not all the Bible. That's interesting.

I wonder what part they believe. Is it the part that suits them?

What's the part they don't believe?

Is it the part that that doesn't, that doesn't suit them?

And there's some people, that's the way they operate.

That's the mindset that they have.

If it suits me, that's OK. If it doesn't suit me or fit

them with my plan, well, I, I, I don't want to know about it.

Others say the Bible contains the word of God, but it is not

the word of God. But let's open the gate and let

the lionoid, let the Bible speak for itself.

And here the Bible says that all scripture is given by

inspiration of God. That now Protestants

historically have used 3 keys or three terms to describe what we

believe about the Bible. We speak of verbal plenary

inspiration and that word plenary simply means all.

There may be different degrees of worse in the Bible, but there

are certainly no different degrees of inspiration.

For example, let me explain myself there.

One may get more out of reading the Sermon on the Mount of

Matthew, chapters 5 through 7 than one would from reading the

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

genealogy of Matthew chapter 1. The genealogy is very dry and

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

it's hard going to read through a book full of genealogies.

For example, over in Chronicles, you have chapter after chapter.

How many of you have come to those chapters and said, will I

leave that for some other day or some other night?

You never get back to it. Let's try reading.

But then when you do start to read, you come across a name

like Jabez. What a wonderful little story

there in the list of names God gives.

Whet's the appetite, if you like, and just gives us that

grace to continue on. Because every word of God is

inspired of the Lord. So the genealogy is just

inspired as the Sermon on the Mount.

The genealogies are just every bit as inspired as John 3 and

16. Because every word of God is

inspired. It's all inspired of God.

And then that word verbal, it simply means every word.

It comes from a Latin word meaning word.

And this means that it's not thoughts that are inspired, it's

not phrases that are inspired, but every word is inspired.

And Jesus adhered to this when he said, there, Matthew 5/17/18

Verily, verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, not

one jot or title shall at no wise pass from the law.

That's interesting. The jot is the smallest

character in the Hebrew alphabet, and the title is the

smallest smaller than a comma, and it is used to distinguish

consonants. Now this can be illustrated, and

it was illustrated by another preacher from the English

alphabet, and this is the way he illustrated that.

You have the small A, you go back to school, you have the A's

there, and then you have the dot at the top.

Can you see the drawing up here at the front the line?

There's the dot. So that is what the preacher

said about the jot. It's just like the dot on the A.

And then what about the cross? I'd better draw this arrow way.

Now I'm I'm drawing AT can you see it down this here?

And then there you see the big cross at the top there.

So you have the dot like the dot on the eye.

And then you have the title. That's like that little bit of

cross on the top of the T. So what Jesus saying that the

dot on the eye and the cross and the teeth shall not have passed

away from the holy, inspired, infallible word of God, the jot

and the tell, it will not disappear.

That's what God has said here in his precious word.

And then you come to that word inspiration.

And that simply means that the text of Scripture is God

breathed. It's breathed out by God.

God breathed out, and the man that God chose, they took down

what God breathed out and they inscribed it in the originals.

It's inspired of God. So all the Bible, every word in

the Bible, in the original manuscripts are breathed out by

God. And men wrote down what God told

them to write down. Some say God gave the thoughts,

allowing man to write down them and his own words.

But we believe in verbal inspiration.

God gave the words and these individuals chosen by God, they

wrote down what God said. So there's the defined extent of

the inerrant Bible. And then the second place, there

is the detailed evidence of an inerrant Bible.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, so Scripture

is given. It's supernatural because it

came from God. It came from above.

It originated with him, not with man.

None of the apostles ever thought of it up.

None of the prophets either. It was of God.

It was God breathed. And the detailed evidence of

this fact is found in the unique nature of the Holy Bible.

The Bible is not really a book. The Bible is a library of 66

different books written over a course of about 1500 years by at

least 40 different writers from all walks of life.

Some were fishermen, some were prophets, some were kings, some

were shepherds, some were doctors who came from three

different continents, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Yet the Bible has come together with one theology, one plan of

redemption, 1 theme running throughout its pages, leaving no

explanation for its unique nature outside of God Himself.

It's given by inspiration of God.

Everything's tied together in a most amazing fashion.

Can you not see this? This is one of the evidences

that the Word of God is inspired.

Then also it's evidenced by the way in which it can change

people. Now, there are people here

tonight. I don't know you all, but I

assume that quite a number of you are saved.

You're not what you used to be. But what brought about the

change? Well, the grace of God.

You heard a message from the Bible.

It gripped your heart. It broke down your resistance to

the gospel. It brought you to the cross.

You repented. You believed you're not the

person you used to be. You're changed by grace.

So hearing the Word of God and when you think of millions and

millions of people all down through church history have been

changed by the grace of what you think about the millions in

heaven. They're not in hell today, but

they're in heaven because of the message that came to their

hearts, The message of full salvation in Christ through

grace. And heaven will continue to be

populated until the purpose of God comes to an end and every

rejoicing soul is brought home to glory.

But I think that the greatest proof that the Bible is indeed

the word of God, as in the way prophecy has been fulfilled down

through the centuries, through it as pages, the pages of truth.

For example, Isaiah, who wrote about 700 years before the birth

of Christ, he wrote that the promised Messiah will be bored

of a virgin who would have come up with that idea, something

that never had happened and never would have been apart from

what we read of in Matthew's Gospel.

A virgin would become the mother of the promised Messiah, a

teenager at that. That's an amazing thing.

A lowly teenager would become the mother of the promised

Messiah. And yet 700 years before the

event, the servant of God, Isaiah, received from God of

breath that cultivated his mind. He took up the parchment and

began to write a book. This verse.

Behold, a virgin will be the child.

That's an amazing thing in Michael.

In Michael's book, 500 years before the birth of the Lord

Jesus Christ, he foretold that the Messiah would be born in a

little town called Bethlehem. Now when the wise men came from

the east, they made their way to Jerusalem.

That was the place they expected a king to be born in the capital

city. So they made their way to

Jerusalem. They thought that's where they

would find. Where is he that is born king of

the Jews? This cried.

And then the scribes, they started to search the scriptures

and they turned over, and they turned over and they came to

Micah, and there's the red mic. And they discovered that the

Child, the promised Messiah, would come to a place called

Bethlehem. And so 500 years before it

happened, this man was moved of God to take up the pen and to

write it down the parchment that the Messiah would be born in a

place called Bethlehem. No one ever expected the child

to be born there. Sure, it's got to be Jerusalem.

No, it was Bethlehem because God said it was to be in Bethlehem.

This book's a wonderful book, wonderful book even.

To this day, the prophecies found in Zechariah and other

places are still being fulfilled and will continue to be

fulfilled until the jigsaw puzzle comes together finally at

the end. You know what it's like if you

have a jigsaw there. And my wife and myself, we

bought a few jigsaw puzzles and we got the table up there and we

started to build. It took us a long time to build

the first one, you know, bit by bit, but we couldn't get that

bit in there. We could get that bit more in

there. Then with the passing of time

and things began to come together.

We could see the picture and then it became easier to get the

pieces all put into the proper place.

And then it was over. We we called little grandson.

He'd been there watching at different times, and we allowed

him to put in the last piece into the jigsaw puzzle.

And then we stood back and we can see the picture.

And all down through history God has been put into place.

All the jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces foretold in the

Scriptures, the inspired Word of God coming together, we can

understand more clearly now than what we were able to understand

maybe 30 years ago. With the passing of time, we're

seeing more and more of the prophecies of God's Word being

fulfilled. The coming of the Lord draweth

nigh. You need to prepare to meet God.

That was the message of the Old Testament.

Prepare, prepare to meet by God. And this book that we had before

us is a wonderful book in the original for that word

inspiration. I'm not going to attempt to

pronounce the word in the original Greek, but it means God

breathed it's passive and the Bible then as a result of the

breath of God. Now God used men, but he did not

breathe in men. He breathed out of men the word

of God, just the way a skilled composer creates a score

utilising the flute and the tuba and other instruments.

So God chose his own instruments, his own men,

somewhere different as flutes and tubas, yet he chose them and

used them to breathe out to give us his word.

What an honour it is to have the word of God.

They're in the bench at home, but sitting there beside the

bed, you can imagine a time when there was no Bible, a world

where there was no Bible and the darkness and the superstition

and the debauchery. I think that we're going back to

times like that because by and large, society has rejected the

Bible, rejected the truth, becoming more Pagan than ever

before. And then when you get our king

going to pray with the Pope? Sad, sad times.

First time in what, 500 years? Sad.

We're talking about the Protestant Reformation.

Change the world. May God be pleased to change

things again for the praise of his name.

Now, these writers were not mere mechanical dictators giving

dictation. The Bible writers were not mere

stenographers, having their minds in neutral and playing the

part and be nothing more than a puppet.

The writers were had their own individual personalities.

They had their obvious styles and that appears in the

scriptures and you can think about that when you read of the

different men. Given this responsibility, God

used their own personalities to get the message across, but God

was in control. God controlled their

environment, their salvation, their call and everything about

their lives. God controlled everything.

And we read there in second Peter one verse 21, holy men of

God spake as they're removed by the Holy Spirit.

We have a wonderful picture there.

You go down to Portrush. There's not much of A wind.

You see a sailing boat out there.

It's not making much progress. And then all of a sudden there's

a bit of a gust of wind and you can see the sail being filled

with the wind and then it suddenly moves forward.

That's the picture we have here, that the Holy Spirit came and

filled the sail of these men that God chose to give to us the

Scriptures and moved them along. That's the picture we have here.

It's a wonderful picture. God controlled them.

God moved them and as a result of that, then they did a perfect

work in the original languages. Sir Isaac Newton did not give us

gravity, God did. The writers of the Bible did not

give us the Scripture. God gave to us the Scripture

because all the scriptures given by inspiration of God, the

writings are what were really inspired.

Paul was not inspired to write the book of Romans.

The writings themselves were inspired.

God did not breathe on the words of men.

God breathed out words himself. That's exactly what Second

Timothy 316 is all about, referring to the breath of God,

the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So God breathed. Isaiah wrote down his prophecy,

God breathed. Matthew wrote down his gospel,

God breathed, Luke wrote down his gospel, and John wrote down

what God gave to him, and God breathed, and Paul wrote down

his epistles. What an amazing picture we have

here in the Holy Scriptures. Every one of them, every writer

points to Jesus Christ, every prophecy in some way points us

to Christ. And did not Jesus say search the

scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life?

And they are they which testify of me.

Remember that day in my Mace Rd. The two disciples were downcast,

they were sorrowful. The world just seemed to come to

an end because Christ, they felt, was still dead.

They thought he would deliver the people, the nation from

Roman authority and power. But now he was dead.

The whole purpose was completely frustrated.

But here they are travelling out to Emmaus, 7 or 8 miles and

suddenly a stranger draws near. He was a stranger to them.

The rays were holding that they could not know him, and he began

that Moses and all the prophets expounded unto them, and all the

Scriptures and things concerning himself.

What happened? Did they not say later on?

Did not her heart burn within us as He talked with us?

By the way, the word of God preached burned into their

hearts. The Word of God caused to give

them a burning heart. It was what He talked to them

about, what He expounded to them, thrilled their hearts, and

bless their souls. So you have the defined extent

of the inherent word, the detailed evidence.

You have the divine effect. All the Scripture is given by

inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Now this book that we have before us is profitable.

It's profitable for doctrine, teaching us what we never had

would have known otherwise. God wrought a miracle when He

revealed to us our need of salvation, when He wrought with

our hearts the great work of grace, acquitting us with the

Scriptures and our need of salvation and our need to repent

and believe the gospel. The book acquaints us with our

fallen condition and God's plan of redemption.

We never would have known about these things had it not been

revealed to us by the Spirit and the Scriptures of truth.

Everything we need to know about doctrine, about how to live for

Christ, about the future, about eternity is laid down in the

Word of God. Everything we need to know about

how to live a successful Christian life is laid down in

the book. It shows us the way to heaven.

It shows us how to repent. It shows us how to get right

with God. That tells us all of these

things and much more. How to prevail in prayer, how to

get answers in prayer, how to witness, how to tell the good

news, how to win our families for Christ.

It's all laid down in the book. It's profitable.

It's profitable for reproof as we send the Bible convicts us.

Jeremiah 2329 says is not my word like a hammer that breaks a

rock to pieces. So the Bible says that it's

effect is the effect of taking a hammer that continues to beat us

with conviction and reproves us over sin.

And so when we do go astray, the word, the inspired word, it's

like that hammer that God uses to break us into obedience.

It's always easier to obey the the teaching of the word of God

than they have God chasing us. It's better to just accept it as

it is and believe it and exercise faith in it than to

hold out against God and to fight him, causing God to send

some discipline into the life to chasten us.

But that's that's a dangerous place to get to.

So He uses his word as a hammer to to break down the hardness of

our hearts. When we stray from the right

path, He corrects us, showing to us the way back into fellowship

with Him. It's also profitable for

instruction. So we do go astray.

He uses the hammer, He corrects us.

Once we get that correction, He brings us back into the right

path again. And then He instructs us.

He trains us in the way we ought to go, how to grow in the things

of God, how to develop spiritually.

We see proof of this profitable statement, for example, in the

epistles. The book of Romans is profitable

for doctrine. It's a deep theological epistle.

The Corinthian letters would be for reproof Galatian.

The Galatian epistle is for correction and the Ephesian

letter is for instruction to teach us.

You have the the way it's divided up there.

You have in Ephesians the first 3 chapters that tells us what we

have, tells us about our wealth, what we have in Christ.

Then you move on to the next part, starting chapter 4.

You have our walk in Christ and then you come to the last, the

last verses there in chapter 6 about the warfare we have in

Christ. So there we have instruction

given there and the book. Do we, do we know the book?

Do we ought to know the book? Is it living to us?

Is it our guide? Do we cherish it?

Do we love it? Do we give it first place?

As far as we're concerned, is it just like Goliath sword?

There's nothing like it. We just can't leave it down.

We can't leave it on the shelf. We can't abandoned it.

Sometimes when we get down and discourage the first thing we do

is abandoned the book. We're getting nothing from it.

Let's try I'll try praying about it.

Try get it on your knees. When it doesn't open up, try

again. Keep on at it.

Keep on praying, keep on on your knees seeking the face of God

and eventually it will open up. Is that the way it is with you?

Oh, I I didn't get anything from my Bible readings tonight.

I'm not bother with it anymore. I'll just give it a few days and

so on. And then it turns into a week

and a month in there for you where you end up bad.

Just down a loaded bar, the place of no pasture.

Lost heart, lost interest, things of God.

Oh, this book's a wonderful book because it reveals to us Christ.

Yeah, he has all together lovely.

What a wonderful picture we have of him, the shepherd coming to

seek the sheep. He follows the sheep out into

the wilderness. Not dangerous place.

And then he finds the sheep and he places the sheep on the

shoulder. That's a place of strength.

He brings his back into the fold, and there's great

rejoicing in heaven when that happens.

Have you grown cold at heart? Have you lost your way?

Get to this book. Get on your knees before this

book. Begin to pray.

Let it come alive. Lord, use this word to thrill my

soul, to instruct me, to teach me in the way that I ought to

go. The Bible just like God's road

map. 1st we begin with doctrine, the way that we begin the road

with Christ. He tells us about the way of

salvation, how to be saved. That's great doctrinal truth.

And then he moves on to teach us along the way how to walk, how

to serve Him. And when we obey and come to

Christ, we get on the right Rd with him.

But what happens when we get off the right Rd?

It's profitable for reproof. David should have been out

leading his army in battle. Instead he's lying upon the bed.

The time of ease in this palace he sees a woman bathing.

He sent for her. He sent with her.

He suffer for her. Until one day, Nathan the

prophet came into his presence with a parable.

David, I've got a message from God for you.

And Nathan told David the parable.

And David shook his head. That's a terrible thing that

person did in the parable. And then the preacher stepped up

and said to the king, thou art the man.

Thou art the man that broke David.

He'd been holding out for a year.

Some believe that he had actually contacted leprosy.

He was having trouble physically, mentally.

They weren't the man. And as a result of the challenge

of the Word of God, the reprisal came from the Word of God.

He gives to us Psalm 51, Psalm 32, other psalms as well.

Psalm 23. He restores my soul.

He says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the

days of my life. What about the the blessed man

of someone? He's a blessed man because of a

separation. There's certain things God's

people don't do, you know. Oh, that might offend some

people. They think, oh, I'll get right

with God and I can do whatever I jolly well want to do.

I know that I'm not going to be inhabited by any restrictions

placed upon me. I'm under grace, I'm not under

law. But the Bible does say thou

shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shall not commit

adultery and so on. That's the law of God.

It's never been withdrawn. Still in place, you can find all

of these things and some people say you can't find a law about

the Sabbath. Hebrews 9 tells me one of the

verses there. I think it could be maybe verse

10, I'm not sure. There's something remains from

the old dispensation. It's the keeping of a Sabbath.

So all of the 10 commandments are mentioned again in the New

Testament. Some things just never change.

There's some things you don't do.

You don't walk in the council of the ungodly and you don't stand

there with sinners. You don't sit down with a

scornful no. So that's the negative side of

the Christian life. But then there's the positive

side that comes in verse 2. It's the study of the man of

God, has the lighters and the law of the Lord.

And then as Lord of the meditate day and night, there's a book

that restores his joy. He's separated unto God.

He's a man of study. And then where do we find that

man? He's pandered by the rivers of

water. There's plenty of refreshment

there by the Spirit of God in his life.

He's been fruitful. He's multiplying.

He's growing in grace the things of God.

The Bible is profitable. Oh, we need to be under the

control of the Holy Spirit of the Lord to be filled with the

Spirit. Now, some people think wrongly

about a certain thing. They feel that when they pray

that God will fill them with the Spirit, that they're getting

some more of the Spirit's power into their life.

The thing is, when we are regenerated by the Spirit, the

Spirit of God baptises us into Christ and we receive a person.

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a net.

The holy, the Holy Spirit is a person.

We receive the person who comes to take up his residence in our

hearts and our lives. So we can't get any more of the

Holy Spirit. We get all of the Spirit at the

time when we are baptised into the body of Jesus Christ and

when we pray for power, we're simply praying that the Holy

Spirit will get more of us, that we would surrender to Him, that

He will take more control of the life.

He's there all along, the whole person, the third person of the

Trinity and wells us. So we don't get any more of the

Spirit. The point is this, when we pray

for that enabling of the Spirit, the Spirit of God gets more of

us, less of self, less of the flesh and more of us.

That's when we have power. And, and you read in the book of

Acts of the same disciples and apostles been filled with the

Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And then later on they're filled

again for service to give them boldness to preach.

It's the Spirit of God taking more and more control of them.

They have matured, they grow, and then the Spirit flows

through them to the glory of God.

And so we have these three things.

Another point, but I just mentioned it to you, the desired

end of an inerrant Bible, that the man of God may be perfect,

truly furnished onto good works. This is where we arrive at when

the Spirit of God is taking control, the whole man is

completely revolutionised, brought to that place where God

wants him or her to be. When the Word of God is in

control, when we are completing him, then the Lord takes us and

He fills us with the Spirit. We can't go anywhere, we can't

do anything without the Word of God.

We can never be the people God intended for us to be without

the Word of God. It's our guide.

It's the Holy Spirit that uses His Word in all things.

And Jeremiah said, thy words were found, and I did eat them,

and they became the joy and rejoicing of my heart.

Now, a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone

who isn't. Now, if you see an old Bible

sitting there by the bedside or in the living room, it's been

tattered and worn and written on and falling to pieces.

You can be absolutely sure that the person who owns it is not

falling apart. They're often found in the Holy

Scriptures, reading and studying the Word of God.

Oh, let's cherish what we have. Let's cherish the wonderful,

blessed book that we have before us because all of it is

inspired. Every word is inspired in the

original documents. It's what God has been pleased

the best down through these 500 years of history.

May the Lord be pleased to move again and send to us time for

refreshment from the presence of God.

And let us always cherish this tremendous book that we have

before us, all structure that's given by inspiration of God and

is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be

perfect, truly furnished unto all good works.

May God be pleased to bless His word.

We'll close now in prayer. Father, we do pray that Thou

will bless Thy word to all of our hearts this evening.

We're thankful for the treasure that we have in the Holy

Scriptures. We're thankful for the way that

there has been pleased to use thy truth to rescue millions of

lost sinners on the road to hell by bringing to their hearts that

message of salvation from the Holy Word of God, that Christ

receive a sinful man. We thank thee for the way God

has manifested his power even throughout the generations of

church history. We're thankful for the great

exploits of God. What he did in Old Testament

times, what he did in those early New Testament times, what

he did at the time of the Reformation, what he did in

times of reviving, times of reviving in Wales and Scotland

and England and here in Ulster further afield, Oh God, do it

again. May there be a reviving of

gospel preaching, a reviving of Bible readers.

May the Lord be pleased to move in and power in these dark times

against all of the odds. Be pleased to move and continue

to bless faithful servants of thine who do faithfully,

fearlessly declare the whole council of God that will deal

with those who oppose the going forth of the Word, those who

oppose those who stand in the open air, those who seek to tear

in pieces the the old scriptures of truth that we love and

cherish. O God, send us times of

refreshment from the presence of God.

Dismiss us now with Thy blessing, and then thy fear.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the

fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest in the night upon all of

God's believing people now and forevermore, for we ask these

things in Jesus name, Amen. I don't intend to go to the

door, but May God bless you and may you be encouraged in His own

precious truth tonight. Amen.