God's Word Cannot Be Domesticated

It's great to be together again this morning.

Last week we talked about holding fast to the doctrine of inerrancy in our doctrine of Scripture

! And the cost of compromising our view of Scripture.

This week we'll continue that theme.

Continue thinking about our doctrine of Scripture,

specifically the temptation to try to bring the Bible under our control.

To try to make it so that it works for our own benefit instead of submitting to it.

Our passage this morning is 1 Kings chapter 13.

1 Kings 13 · chapter mention

Would you turn there in your Bibles?

1 Kings chapter 13, if you're using a few Bible in front of you,

1 Kings 13 · chapter mention

1 Kings chapter 13, that's page 346, I believe.

1 Kings 13 · chapter mention

346.

This is a pretty long story.

It's about 34 verses long.

We're going to read some of it.

We're going to summarize some of it.

It's pretty long, so it would be helpful, I think, if you follow along.

You can navigate there on your device.

Let's open in prayer and ask for the Lord's help.

Lord, we are grateful that you have spoken to us.

We don't take that for granted.

You have not been a silent God who has left us to try to figure out your will and your values

and your plans on our own, but you've given us your holy word.

And we know that this passage is an important part of what you've revealed to us.

We pray for your help now to understand it.

And not only to understand what it means, but what it means for us.

We pray in your name.

Amen.

I went to college in downtown Chicago at Moody Bible Institute.

And I enjoyed my time in the city.

I was from a rural area and wasn't used to the big city, but it was pretty fun.

A lot of great restaurants.

I would go ice skating a lot down at Skate-On State, you know, by the Macy's down there, I think.

Lots and lots to do.

We have a fun rivalry with the Bears.

We like our neighbor to the south.

But, you know, Chicago has a long history of corruption.

Not long ago, I was reading about a law enforcement operation called Operation Grey Lord,

which was a joint undercover operation by the FBI, the IRS, the Chicago Police Department, and even the post office.

All of these groups were working together in order to try and prosecute corruption in the Cook County courts.

Over the course of almost four years, in the 1980s, the FBI set up, it was this elaborate scheme.

They set up fake court cases, fake attorneys.

They managed to get a warrant to put the first listening device in a judge's chamber because that corruption went all the way to the top.

I mean, the ways that they were buying and selling justice.

In the end, they indicted 92 public officials, including judges and cops and even a state representative,

because officials were taking bribes to pervert the rule of law in murder cases,

in sexual assault cases, in drug convictions, and even in things like child custody.

There was all this legal corruption.

I'm sure that's very common.

I don't want to be naive.

I'm sure that everywhere, powerful people are trying to corrupt the law to avoid convictions

or weaponize the legal system to their own benefit in some way,

or exploit loopholes in order to get out of trouble.

And I think we're tempted to do this, too, with Scripture.

Like U.S. federal law or Illinois state law,

the Word of God presents an objective standard by which to measure our actions and hold us accountable.

It indicts us for sin against God and other people.

It holds us accountable with accompanying consequences.

And like we talked about last week, we want knowledge.

We want the power and the benefit that comes from knowing things.

We talked about that last week.

But we also want to do what we want to do.

And so ideally, we would love a word from the Lord that we can control.

We would love to have a word from God that tells us what we want to hear,

that supports our own actions instead of critiquing us,

that gives us a certain kind of power or influence over others

or can be used in some way against our enemies.

We could call that taming the Word of God or domesticating the Word of God.

What are some other metaphors we could use?

We could, you know, cutting the legs out from under it or removing its teeth, right?

I don't know what kind of metaphor we want to use.

But this is related to the doctrine of inerrancy

because as we saw last week in Deuteronomy 18,

an errant word, a word that is filled with errors,

lacks full divine authority.

An errant word is a tamed word.

Its teeth have been removed.

Because as we move away from the doctrine of inerrancy,

we are left with a Bible that doesn't always get things right.

And so if it doesn't always get things right,

then that means that on any given issue,

we can question it and qualify it and challenge it for our own benefit.

And this issue of trying to tame or domesticate the Word of God

is a subject of this really crazy story in 1 Kings chapter 13.

1 Kings 13 · chapter mention

And it is crazy, but it's also deadly serious.

This is a story about the Word of the Lord.

That phrase is repeated 10 times in these 30-some verses.

10 times it talks about the Word of the Lord.

That's what the story is about.

And before we get into it,

let's just sort of catch up here

and recall where we are as we drop into the middle of 1 Kings.

Israel has split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.

There's been the secession and kind of a civil war between them.

And in 1 Kings chapter 12, the passage right before ours,

1 Kings 12 · chapter mention

King Jeroboam, the ruler of the northern kingdom,

is concerned that his people are going to travel south into Judah,

down to Jerusalem,

to worship at the temple and to make sacrifices there.

And that's a pretty good concern that he has

because that's exactly what God has commanded them to do.

God has commanded all the people of Israel to go to Jerusalem to worship.

But Jeroboam is afraid

that they are going to become disloyal over time, right?

Because they're going to worship somewhere else.

And so what he does is he creates two calves of gold

and he installs one in the very northern part of his country

and one in the very southern part of his country

at a city called Bethel.

And he creates a new calendar of worship

and it's an alternate worship, right?

Don't go to Jerusalem, just stay here and worship my golden calves.

And Bethel is an important site for worship

because that's where the king has built an idol

and that's where they're supposed to worship.

And he's worshiping, he's making these illegitimate sacrifices

to these idolatrous calves that he's set up.

And that brings us to our story.

If you want to write this on your bulletin,

it takes place in four scenes.

It is a long one, as I said.

The first scene is in verses 1 through 10.

1 through 10.

The second scene is verses 11 through 19.

The third scene is verses 20 to 25.

And then the fourth scene is verses 26 to 32.

And we'll look at each of these sections

and then we'll put it all together at the end.

Here's what it says at the beginning in verse 1.

And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel.

And Jeroboam, the king, was standing by the altar to make offerings.

And so right away at the beginning of our story,

the Lord sends a man of God to confront King Jeroboam for his idolatry.

And it says here that he's sent by the word of the Lord.

That's the first of these occurrences of this expression, the word of the Lord.

And there's no doubt about Jeroboam's guilt

because he finds him in the act of making sacrifices

on this illegitimate altar that he's constructed.

Now, why is he called here a man of God

instead of the usual word that we would expect,

which is a prophet?

Well, this term man of God is used quite often in the Old Testament.

It's a label that is used for Moses and Samuel and Elijah and Elisha and David

and a number of other people.

And interestingly, whereas the word prophet can refer to a false prophet or a true prophet,

the word man of God is always used of a true prophet of the Lord.

So I think that the reason it calls this person a man of God here

is to distinguish him from a false prophet that we're going to meet later in verse 11.

This man of God is not named or identified in any way.

And that's probably important because it doesn't matter who he is.

It doesn't matter.

He's there to deliver the powerful and the true word of the Lord.

That is his task and his job.

And he's there to confront the king.

And we've got to give him some credit.

That would take some guts.

Because he's on the king's turf.

He is coming to confront the king at Bethel,

the headquarters of the king's idolatry,

right after one of the king's religious feasts,

while the king is making a sacrifice.

This is a place of power.

And now the man of God is coming there to confront him.

And that's what we would expect because God's power confronts every human,

every human power, religious, political, social.

God's word speaks against those things.

And he proclaims God's word against the altar in verse 2.

And he predicts three things, right?

Verse 2.

First, he predicts that a future king named Josiah will be born to the house of David.

Then number two, he predicts that Josiah will kill the idolatrous priest that the king Jeroboam has employed.

And three, that Josiah will desecrate this altar.

But he is predicting something 300 years in the future.

So who is going to believe a thing like that, right?

Just because the man of God says it.

And so in verse 3, he announces a sign.

And a regular sign is just an indicator.

It draws attention to something or it's a reminder of something.

It serves as a promise of something.

And often it isn't miraculous at all.

We have signs in the Old Testament like just a word, someone's word,

or a rainbow in the sky,

or a pile of stones is a sign of something.

It can just be a reminder.

But the Hebrew word here for sign is a special word.

And it would really be better to translate it as wonder or a miracle.

This man of God is going to do something.

He's going to do a miraculous sign to prove the authenticity of his word against King Jeroboam.

And so he says that the altar will split open

and the ashes that have accumulated from sacrifices will spill out.

And that demonstration of power now will validate the long-range prediction of King Josiah 300 years in the future.

Right?

When you see the miraculous altar split open now,

you will know that God's word 300 years in the future will come true.

Now, in verse 4, when King Jeroboam hears this,

his first response is to persecute the man of God.

The word of God is a threat to him.

It's a threat to his program of idolatry and his power.

And so when he hears the speech of the man of God,

look what it says in verse 4, right in the middle.

One translation says that his hand withered.

Another translation says that it shriveled up.

The king has been debilitated.

Then, apparently at that same moment,

if we look at verse 5,

the altar splits open and the ashes pour out

and now we have two acts of God's power.

The king's hand has shriveled up as a reaction to his attempted persecution

and the altar has broken open as an immediate miraculous sign

that confirms the prophetic word.

And then in verse 6,

the man of God restores the shriveled hand of the king

and there's a third miracle.

He heals him.

And now there is no doubt at all

that God's word is true

and he cannot be resisted

because there's been three miracles in about 10 minutes.

Well, it didn't work very well for the king to persecute the man of God.

So in verse 7, he decides to take a different approach.

He invites the man home for lunch.

He says, look at verse 7, he says,

come home with me and refresh yourself

and I will give you a reward.

Well, that sounds pretty nice.

I mean, now he's being invited to be a guest of the king in the palace.

I'm sure the man of God has had a long journey from Judah

and he wouldn't mind some delicious food

and a rest and a beautiful room

and besides, the king says something about a reward.

Use your imagination.

That sounds pretty good.

But the man of God categorically refuses the offer

and he says that God has forbidden him from going home with the king.

Look what it says in verse 9.

Well, that seems strange.

Those are strange instructions.

First of all, why would the king invite the prophet home with him?

And second, why would God specifically command the prophet

not to go home with anyone

and not to eat or drink with them?

It seems weird until we realize that this has attempted corruption.

The king is saying, let's see if we can make a deal.

Why should we be enemies?

He says to the man of God, come home.

Let's talk this through.

I'll feed you.

I'll give you a reward.

Let's see if we can work something out here.

Eating and drinking together imply fellowship

fellowship and fellowship implies corruption

and God is prohibiting the man of God

from eating or drinking with anyone

or returning the way he came

because he doesn't want any interference

with the man of God's mission here.

Any attempted corruption.

If the persecution doesn't work,

then the king thinks to himself,

well, I'll just kind of tame or domesticate God's word.

I'll bring it into my own house.

I'll bring God's word under my own authority.

I'll control it for my own purposes.

But the man of God says, no, I'm not going home with you.

I'm going home a different way.

And look what it says in verse 10.

So he went home another way

and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

Okay, so far so good.

That's the end of scene one.

God's word confronts human powers,

even the king and his government.

God validates his word with three powerful miracles,

including protecting his man of God,

his prophet from persecution.

And when the king tries to corrupt

or domesticate God's word

and bring it under his roof

and under his authority,

God says, no, we're not going to do that.

His word has to remain free.

It has to be nonpartisan.

It has to be independently authoritative.

All right, scene two, verses 11 to 19.

Verse 11.

Now an old prophet lived in Bethel

and his sons came and told him

all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel.

They also told their father

the words that he had spoken to the king.

And so in the second scene,

we're introduced to an old prophet

who lived in Bethel,

that same town,

that same place of idolatry

that the king had set up.

This is the headquarters of the king's idolatry.

And it does not say here

that he's a true prophet of the Lord.

Prophets were often sort of employed by the king

to tell him what he wanted to hear.

But all it says is he's a prophet.

He's supposedly someone

who receives a message from the Lord

and then delivers it.

And when he hears about this confrontation

that had taken place

between the man of God and the king,

he sets out to find this man of God.

And his sons saddle a donkey for him.

And he gets on the donkey.

And even though the man of God

had obeyed the Lord

by going home a different way back to Judah,

he finds him.

The old prophet finds him.

And he rides up to him on his donkey.

And he finds the man of God sitting under a tree.

Obviously taking some sort of a rest,

you know, on his long journey.

And look at the middle of verse 14.

And the old prophet said to him,

are you the man of God who came from Judah?

And he said, I am.

And then he said to him,

come home with me and eat bread.

I mean, what is it with these hospitable people?

They're so hospitable.

See, the old prophet hears

about the power of God's word.

The power of God's word

to make the king's hand shrivel up

or to make the altar split open

or to heal the king's hand.

And he wants some of that.

He wants some of that power.

And so now he tries

to bring God's word under his roof.

God's word represents influence and power.

And he thinks, come home with me.

Let's talk this through.

See if we can make some kind of a deal.

Let's see if I can use God's word

for my advantage and my personal status.

And again, the man of God refuses.

He repeats the instructions

that were given to him by God in verse 16.

And this is important.

It's important because it tells us

that the instructions were clear.

It tells us that there is no confusion

in the mind of this man of God

about exactly what he was supposed to do

and not do.

He knows what God has commanded.

Do not go home with anyone

to eat or drink.

And then, verse 18,

the old prophet invents

a prophetic word on the spot.

Remember we talked about this last week

in Deuteronomy 18.

What happens when a prophet says,

hey, I just heard from the Lord

and it's a lie.

He invents it on the spot.

Look what he says in verse 18.

I also am a prophet as you are.

And an angel spoke to me

by the word of the Lord saying,

bring him back with you

into your house

that he may eat

and eat bread and drink water.

But he lied to him.

The old prophet says to this man of God,

hey, how would you like a second opinion?

I'm also a prophet.

What a coincidence.

And you may have heard from the Lord,

but so did I.

And he told me something different.

He gave me a different word of the Lord.

And the old prophet makes an explicit claim

to divine source and divine authority.

He says, an angel spoke to me.

Wow, that's impressive.

And it was by the word of the Lord

that this word came to me.

And he wants you to come home

and eat and drink with me.

He is by definition a false prophet.

Because he has spoken a word

in the name of the Lord,

but it is a lie.

It is a word that he has just invented

and fabricated.

And the man of God knows

what God has commanded him.

He has repeated the instructions

twice in full.

He has seen the word of God

validated by three miracles.

And now this false prophet

directly contradicts

what God had told him to do.

It should be obvious

that this is a lie

and it is not really from the Lord

because God would never

contradict himself that way.

But he compromises.

Look at verse 19.

So he went back with him

and ate bread in his house

and drank water.

Maybe he thought,

well, you know,

I guess it's possible

that God's original word

was in error.

I suppose it's possible

that God told me one thing

but now it's been superseded

and he's changed his mind.

I suppose it's possible

that this is a new

and improved word of the Lord

that we all like

a little bit better.

It's more relevant.

It's certainly easier to accept.

It comes with concrete benefits.

I wouldn't mind some lunch.

I mean,

does this sound familiar?

Do we do this?

We have been taught

all our lives

that the Bible is God's word

and we believe that.

And then we hear something

that directly contradicts

what God's word says.

Something from a friend

or something from a book

or someone that we respect.

and it just sounds

so attractive.

It sounds so loving.

It sounds more generous.

It sounds more open.

It sounds more flexible.

Surely that new word

is what God really wants.

Surely that new word

is what God really thinks

or at least what I wish

he would think.

and we compromise.

It says in verse 19

that the man of God

went home with the old prophet

and the word of God

has now been domesticated

and tamed.

Or has it?

Let's look at verse 3.

Scene 3.

Scene 3, verses 20 to 25.

The man of God

and the old prophet

are sitting at the table

enjoying lunch

in direct disobedience

of God's word

and suddenly

the old prophet

who we have been told

is a false prophet

speaks a true word

that really is from God.

This is when the story

really goes crazy.

Right?

Suddenly the false prophet

speaks a true word

from the Lord.

It's a big surprise

but in some ways

it shouldn't be

because God

is not limited.

We read in Numbers chapter 22

Numbers 22 · chapter mention

that God speaks

through a donkey.

We read in 1 Kings 19

that he speaks to Elijah

in the sound

of a low whisper.

We read in Daniel chapter 5

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

that God communicates

to a king

by writing on a wall.

And here in 1 Kings chapter 13

1 Kings 13 · chapter mention

he communicates

through a false prophet.

Look at verse 21.

He cried to the man of God

who came from Judah.

Thus says the Lord.

Because you have disobeyed

the word of the Lord

and have not kept

the command

that the Lord your God

commanded you

but have come back

and have eaten bread

and drunk water

in the place of which

he said to you

eat no bread

and drink no water

your body shall not come

to the tomb

of your fathers.

It was not

that the man of God

was confused

about the contents

of the word of God.

He wasn't uncertain

about what God

had commanded him

he just disregarded it.

He compromised

and he didn't

have to do that.

And as a result

the old prophet

predicts

through the word

of the Lord

that the man of God

will not be buried

with his fathers.

Now there's no response

from the man of God.

He finishes his meal.

He saddles

the old prophet's donkey.

And look at verse 24.

As he went away

a lion

met him on the road

and killed him.

And his body

was thrown in the road

and the donkey

stood beside it

and the lion

also stood beside the body.

Wow.

There's this

sudden act of violence.

The lion kills

the man of God

on the road.

And that could be

a coincidence.

I mean we know

that lions are very dangerous

and they were dangerous

in ancient Israel.

But what is weird

and very unusual

is that after killing

the man of God

the lion just stands there.

He doesn't eat

the corpse

of the man.

He doesn't eat

the donkey.

The lion is just

standing there.

It's weird, right?

And it's so weird

that it says

that when people

see this

they go into the city

and they start

talking about it.

Hey, did you guys see

what was on the road

over there?

But did you notice something?

The lion

doesn't eat.

The man of God

ate

against the word

of the Lord

even though God

had commanded him

not to.

But the lion

stands there

on the side

of the road

as a symbol

of the man of God's

compromise

and disobedience

of the word

of the Lord

because even though

it's a lion,

even though it's

just an animal,

it doesn't eat.

And that's the end

of scene three.

All right, quickly,

scene four,

verses 26 to 32.

When the old prophet,

the false prophet,

hears about the corpse

of the man of God

lying on the road

and the lion

and the donkey

standing there

next to it,

he recognizes,

wait a minute,

that's the man of God

that I just had

over for lunch.

Look what he says

at the end

verse 26.

It is the man of God

who disobeyed

the word of the Lord.

Therefore,

the Lord has given him

to the lion

which has torn him

and killed him

according to the word

that the Lord

spoke to him.

Now,

I'm guessing

that this old

false prophet

has probably

invented

every prophetic word

he has ever spoken.

He is probably

a serial liar.

It's probably his job

to just make things up.

But now

that his own word

has come true

when he told the man

of God,

you will not be buried

in the tomb

of your fathers,

he recognizes

that the word

of God is true.

And so once again

in verse 27,

he saddles a donkey

and he goes

to find the body

and he finds the body

of the man of God

and look at the end

of verse 28.

The lion

had not eaten

the body

or torn the donkey.

The narrator

tells us again,

he wants us

to notice this.

The lion

did not eat.

And the old prophet

takes the corpse

of the man of God

and look at

verses 30 and 31.

He laid the body

in his own grave

and they mourned

over him saying,

Alas,

my brother!

And after he had buried him,

he said to his sons,

When I die,

bury me in the grave

in which the man

of God is buried

and lay my bones

beside his bones.

So there's two things

we need to notice here.

First,

the word of the Lord

came true again.

The man of God

was not buried

in his own family tomb.

And second,

God had told

the man of God

not to accept

hospitality in Bethel.

And the irony is

that not only

has he come

to the old prophet's house

for lunch,

but he is buried

in the old prophet's tomb

and he will remain

in Bethel forever.

He will be

a permanent resident

in the place

of the king's idolatry.

That is ironic.

And in verse 32,

the old man

concludes

what all of us

are supposed to conclude

at the end

of this wild story.

Look at verse 32.

For the saying

that he called out

by the word of the Lord

against the altar

in Bethel

and against all the houses

of the high places

that are in the cities

of Samaria

shall surely

come to pass.

The word of God

cannot be stopped.

It is true.

It will come true.

And when we look

over in our Bibles

at 2 Kings chapter 23,

2 Kings 23 · chapter mention

we find out

that 300 years later,

King Josiah

did tear down

that altar.

He did kill

the idolatrous priest.

He burned human bones

on it

to defile

and desecrate it

according to

the word of the Lord.

It came true.

Everything has come

full circle.

The word of the Lord

against Jeroboam

will come true.

Well,

there's a lot going on

in this story.

So let me summarize

two points

that lead us

kind of toward

the main theological

point here.

First of all,

the main conflict here

is an attempt

to domesticate

or tame

the word of God.

First,

the king invites

the man of God

to his house.

He's attempting

corruption.

He wants the word of God

kind of off his case,

get off my back.

He wants to remove

the pressure

of conviction

and condemnation.

And then,

the old prophet

invites the man of God

to his house.

He has a different motivation.

He wants to

harness that power

to use it

for himself.

And I think

this is why

we keep hearing

about donkeys.

Doesn't it seem like

there's a lot of donkeys

in this story?

The donkey

takes the old prophet

to find the man of God.

It stands by the man of God

when he's been killed.

It carries the man of God's

body to the tomb.

I think donkeys here

are symbols

of these compromises.

Second,

despite their attempts,

actually,

the word of God

will not be domesticated.

It will not be tamed.

Even though the man of God

faces down

the king of Israel

in the epicenter

of his system

of idolatry,

in all of his power

and high position,

the king's hand

shrivels up,

the altar splits open,

the king's hand is healed,

God is in total

control of that situation.

And even though

the man of God

compromises

and disobeys

and goes home

with the old prophet,

God speaks

through the old prophet.

He's not limited.

It's not like God says,

well,

I had one

true prophet

and I've lost him

so now there's no way

I can communicate.

No,

then he just speaks

through the false prophet.

His word cannot be stopped.

And when the old man

is killed,

I'm sorry,

when the man of God

is killed,

the lion,

a ferocious beast

that usually probably

can't control its appetite,

does not eat.

And when the false prophet

sees God's word

come true,

he realizes that

what the man of God

predicted about Jeroboam

and his altar

in the future

will also come true.

The word of God,

despite all these attempts,

cannot be corrupted,

it cannot be tamed,

it cannot be domesticated,

it speaks

with absolute truth.

And absolute authority

to every human power.

Here I think

is the big idea

of this story.

The word of God

cannot be domesticated,

it is true

and authoritative.

That's our big idea.

The word of God

cannot be domesticated,

it cannot be controlled,

it cannot be tamed

or leveraged

or harnessed

or corrupted,

it is true

and authoritative.

But,

the man of God

compromised

by assuming

that God's word

was in error,

by assuming

that God's word

was open to debate

and he ended up

dead on the side

of the road.

It's like we said

last week,

either

God's word

in scripture

is a merely

human text

with some good ideas

and some bad ideas,

with some things

that the authors

got right

and some things

that they got wrong

and if that's the case

then we can just

safely disregard it

because it's just

a couple of guys

and what they think.

Or,

the other option is

that God's word

in scripture

in our Bibles

is the independent,

true,

reliable authority

to which we are

all accountable.

And if that's true,

then we must

obey it

and believe it.

And those are really

the only two options.

When we compromise

our doctrine of scripture,

when we say

that the Bible

has errors

and that it gets

some things wrong,

what we are saying

is that at least

to some extent

it is a merely

human text.

We're trying

to domesticate it.

We're trying

to tame it.

We're trying

to kind of

knock off

some of those

sharp edges

so it isn't

as embarrassing

or so that it

fits our world view

or our experience

a little bit better

or so that it

isn't so offensive

to people

or so that other

people will like

it more.

And like the man

of God,

we know

that God's

revelation

has been validated

by miracles

and we know

that this is

the word of God

that has been

passed down to us

through countless

generations

of the people

of God

and we know

that this

is the word

that has been

recognized

by the people

of God

as inspired

by the Holy Spirit

and breathed

out by him

and we know

what it says

and we know

what it claims

but then

like the old prophet

someone with

some other kind

of authority

comes along

a scientist

or a scholar

or a politician

or a celebrity

or a good friend

and they say

well I'm not sure

the Bible means

it quite that way

I'm sure that God

is a little bit

more flexible

than that

and then we say

like the man of God

okay let's have

lunch at your house

I can think of

a couple of ways

that we might be

tempted to compromise

our view of the Bible

there are others

but here's two

one temptation

is to compromise

to protect the Bible

from being offensive

the good news

of inerrancy

the good news

of the doctrine

of inerrancy

is that we don't

have to pick

and choose

the whole Bible

is important

and nowhere

in the Bible

are there any

false claims

but of course

that's also

the bad news

right

inerrancy

means

that those

passages

in Scripture

that seem

embarrassing

or are really

out of step

with our culture

are the authoritative

word of God

and must be

believed and

accepted

our culture

is at the point

now when the

Bible

and the views

that we hold

from the Bible

are viewed

as evil

sometimes the

Bible has a

sharp

sharp

contradiction

with culture

that everyone

has a sin

nature

that Jesus

is the only

hope of

salvation

that marriage

is between

only one man

and one woman

that it is

wrong and

sinful

to entertain

ourselves

with certain

things

that consumerism

is a sin

and spending

all of our

money on

ourselves

instead of

submitting it

to the Lord

is a sin

how do we

respond to

that temptation

to kind of

tame it

so that it's

less offensive

we have to be

we have to be

determined

to be loyal

to God

first

and to make

everything else

secondary

we have to

cultivate a

love for

scripture

even the

moral laws

we have to

recognize that

God prohibits

things because

he loves us

and he wants

our good

he knows

that those

sins will

destroy us

and they will

destroy the

people that

we love

the second

temptation

is to

compromise

our view

of the

Bible

in order

to excuse

or allow

for personal

sin

one time

I heard a

New Testament

scholar say

that many

people

compromise

their view

of scripture

in college

because they

want to be

sexually

promiscuous

we've heard

these stories

we've heard

stories of

people caught

in adultery

or moving

toward adultery

and then

it's amazing

suddenly they

find out that

scripture

doesn't prohibit

adultery

people

conveniently

ignore

what the

what scripture

says about

the sin

of divorce

people ignore

what scripture

teaches about

loving our

enemies

even our

political

enemies

but

what we

need to

do

is follow

scripture

as the

absolute

guide

to what

God wants

from us

confess

repent

do not

put up

with any

hidden

sin

that will

weaken

you

don't

allow

small

compromises

to grow

and lead

to bigger

ones

in C.S.

Lewis's

book

The Silver

Chair

Aslan

who represents

Jesus

gives

Eustace

and Jill

four signs

that they

must memorize

and repeat

in order

to be

successful

on their

adventurous

journey

and Aslan

makes Jill

repeat these

four signs

over and

over until

she has

them

memorized

he warns

her that

once they

get into

Narnia

and the

adventure is

confusing

it will be

easy to

forget the

signs

and that

she must

repeat them

every morning

every afternoon

and every

evening

so that

nothing

can make

her forget

them

but then

as the

children are

on their

adventure

they do

forget the

signs

and it

doesn't go

well

they run

into all

kinds of

problems

and danger

and troubles

because they

have forgotten

their instructions

from Aslan

the man of

God in this

story knew

his instructions

he knew what

God had

commanded him

to do

and he

repeated those

instructions

but he

compromised

in a moment

and it led

to disaster

what do we

need to

recite

what have

we been

told about

the nature

of scripture

what do we

need to

allow to

sink deep

down in

our hearts

in order to

fortify and

strengthen us

for the

difficult days

to come

I just want

to end

today by

reciting a

few key

verses of

scripture

about

scripture

and these

will be

our signs

that we

recite

and remember

to strengthen

our hearts

to accept

the truth

and the

authority

of God's

word

numbers 23

19

God is

not man

that he

should lie

or a son

of man

that he

should change

his mind

Psalm

19

7

the law

of the

Lord

is perfect

the testimony

of the

Lord is

sure

making wise

the simple

Psalm

119

89

forever

O Lord

your word

is firmly

fixed

in the

heavens

Proverbs

Proverbs 30:5

30

verse 5

every

word

of God

proves

true

Isaiah

Isaiah 40:8

40

verse 8

the grass

withers

the flower

fades

but the

word

of our

God

will

stand

forever

Matthew

5

18

for truly

I say

to you

until

heaven

and

earth

pass

away

not

an

iota

not

a dot

will pass

from the

law

until

everything

is

accomplished

John

10

35

scripture

cannot

be

broken

John

17

17

your

word

is

truth

2nd

Timothy

3

16

all

scripture

is

breathed

out

by

God

and

profitable

for

teaching

for

reproof

for

correction

and for

training

in

righteousness

Titus

1

2

in

hope

of

eternal

life

which

God

who

never

lies

promised

before

the

ages

began

Hebrews

6

18

it

is

impossible

for

God

to

lie

2nd

Peter

1

21

for

no

prophecy

was

ever

produced

by

the

will

of

man

but

men

spoke

from

God

as

they

were

carried

along

by

the

Holy

Spirit

Amen

Let's

pray

Father

you

have

given

us

your

holy

and

authoritative

word

and

it

does

not

always

match

very

well

with

the

culture

in

which

we

swim

with

the

values

that

are

advanced

around

us

with

the

way

that

our

friends

and

neighbors

view

the

world

and

their

lives

and

us

and

so

what

we

need

is

the

renewing

of

our

minds

and

we

pray

for

that

we

pray

that

you

would

give

us

a

rock

steady

confidence

in

the

authority

and

the

truth

of

your

word

so

when

the

bumps

come

when

when

life

gets

confusing

when

we

face

situations

that

are

new

that

we

will

know

that

we

stand

on

your

unchanging

and

unerring

word

we

pray

that

you

would

convince

us

of

this

that

your

spirit

would

impress

it

on

our

hearts

and

that

we

would

not

compromise

we

pray

this

in

your

name

amen