Is The Bible Revelant Today?

Introduction

Thank you, brother, for leading our hearts and minds in praise and worship to our God. Thank you, Brother White, for the prayer that you offered. I would encourage you to take a Bible and to turn to the Gospel of John chapter 12. We’re going to look at the text there in just a few moments. I want to say what I have said each time I’ve had the privilege of standing before you. I appreciate so much the opportunity that you’ve given me to come and be with the saints at this place. I have been encouraged by my time here. I have found the brethren here to be saints that are not only loving and hospitable but have a sincere interest in the Word of God and following where it leads us, whatever that may be.

I loved having the opportunity today to visit with Tony. We picked each other’s brains for some time as we were able to have lunch together and spend a little bit of time, and I’m looking forward perhaps to having a little bit more of that before we end our meeting tomorrow. I would ask you, and I’ll go ahead and mention it now and perhaps tomorrow as well. Keep me in your prayers if you would when I leave. Lord willing, I’m going to leave out Wednesday night after the lesson. I’ve got to be in Nashville Thursday and Friday. And I drive overnight. I’m kind of a night out. I’m used to that. And but nonetheless, if you would keep me in your prayers as I travel, I would certainly appreciate that.

Back around the first of the year, when the president was sworn in, there was an article that ran in the Huffington Post in which the author of this article was talking about the fact that it is a custom in our nation when a president is inaugurated to have the president place his hand upon a Bible. I think just incidentally that is rather interesting given the fact that we live in a world that in many respects has become so secularized to the point that we de-emphasize any public declaration of faith in God, and yet that shows kind of the origins of a people that recognize the authority of Scripture and the importance of a belief in God. This particular author, however, in the article that he wrote was talking about that custom, and rather than viewing it as something that is honorable and that reflects a honorable kind of attitude towards the authority of God, this particular author described it as something that in today’s world is completely irrelevant.

In fact, this author said that there is no reason for a president to put his hand on a Bible, and it is no more relevant for him to put it on a Bible than it would be for him to put it on a book written by Hitler or a book written by Mohammed or some other kind of thing such as that. I first heard about that when I was preaching a meeting in Evansville, Indiana with a young man that I’d worked with in a training program for a number of years when Olsen Park, where I preached, had first started doing some training programs, and he had been really chewing on that, and that really kind of got under his craw. And he was planning on doing a lesson the upcoming Sunday on that subject.

And he kind of asked me the question he said, Well, how would you address that kind of attitude, a view that says that the Bible is irrelevant? And kind of off the top of my head, I started thinking a little bit about how I might approach that. And it ended up resulting in me putting together a lesson for when I got back from the meeting, and he put together a lesson for the Sunday after I left, in which we both addressed that topic. I’d like for us tonight to ask ourselves the question as we think about this, is the Bible relevant today? Now, as you think about this, you may think, well, you know, why do I need to know this? Obviously, I believe the Bible is relevant or I wouldn’t be here, and I’m glad that’s the case.

But you are certainly going to encounter people that you go to school with, people that you work with, maybe people in your family or in your neighborhood that have been so influenced by some of the attitudes that we see in the world around us to the point that they absolutely see no reason to follow what the Bible says. They don’t believe it is something that is relevant to their life today, and they perhaps, although they might put it in different words, absolutely believe that it is irrelevant to their life today. And I’d like for us to think a little bit about that, because we may find ourselves in a position in which we are trying to help them come to recognize that, yes, the Bible is relevant.

I want us to first think about as we ponder how might we answer that question. I think one of the first things that we need to ask ourselves is well, what do you mean by relevant? You know, as we think about that which is relevant, it is that which is pertinent to our needs. It is something that is beneficial to us, it is something that relates to our condition and our circumstances. You know, if people say it’s it’s irrelevant, are they arguing that there is no benefit that comes from it or there’s no reason we have to be accountable to it? Well, I want to submit to you that we must acknowledge the relevancy of the Bible because of the claims it makes about itself. To begin with, turn with me if you haven’t already to John chapter 12.

1. The Standard on the Day of Judgment

And I want us to notice, first of all, that the Bible is absolutely relevant because the Bible indicates that it is going to be the standard on the day of judgment that we’ve talked about several times already this week. It is going to be the standard by which you and I are judged. Read with me, if you would, in John chapter 12, beginning in verse 47. Jesus says, and if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me, and notice, does not receive my words, has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. Now, you can accept that or you can reject it.

But understand that Jesus is saying here that his word, his message that he is teaching on the day of judgment, is what’s going to determine whether or not we are acceptable to God or not. We’re not going to be judged by our opinions. We’re not going to be judged by our wishes and our desires. We’re not going to be judged by the common thought of the day. We’re not going to be judged by what popular philosophies exist in the world around us. We’re not going to be judged by scientific theory. We’re not going to be judged by psychological ideas. We will be judged by Jesus’ words.

2. All Scripture Is God Breathed

Because it is the authoritative record of Jesus’ teaching and his words. But further, I think we must recognize that the Bible is relevant because it does not claim to be, as so many in our world want to assert that it is. It doesn’t claim to be simply a book like any other book. Read with me, if you would, over in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and in verse 16. I’m going to read from the New King James Version, but I want us to note a little something as we read through this, and I’ll call to your attention, something that we must understand from the wording that is found here. Paul, through the Holy Spirit writes, 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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Now, I call your attention the phrase that in the New King James Version is translated given by the inspiration of God. The translators use a number of words to communicate the idea. It’s actually one word in the Greek. It is the word thaupenustos. The first part of that is the word God.

It literally means that which is God breathed. If you’ve ever looked at the New International Version, it renders it that way. I would recommend that for your study Bible, but there are time there are places in which, in its dynamic equivalence translation, it gets it exactly right, and that’s one example. All scripture is God breathed. That means when I am reading the Word of God, it is not claiming that it is simply Matthew’s idea or Mark’s idea or Luke’s idea or John’s idea. Instead, it is claiming to be that which the Holy Spirit led these men to write. Now, again, you can either accept that or reject it. But if we’re thinking about the relevance of the Bible, if it claims to be and claims to have God as its origin, then I think we need to recognize that there is certainly some relevance attached to it.

3. The Word of God Lives and Abides Forever

Look over in 1 Peter chapter 1. And I want us to notice, you know, sometimes when people speak of that which is relevant, what they are talking about is they have the idea that, well, you know, so much has changed, and we’re going to touch a little bit more on that a little bit later, but sometimes people will say, you know, that was an age in which they didn’t know anything about flight, they didn’t understand so much about science. So how could that be relevant to our modern world where we understand astronomy so much better and we understand physics and things like that? Well, let’s never confuse changes in stuff and changes in technology with the relevance of our needs as human beings. We’ll talk about it a little bit later.

Have we really changed? No. Human beings still have the same kind of weaknesses, the same kind of strengths, same kind of struggles. Now, if we recognize that the Word of God, that the Bible claims to be inspired by God, I want us to notice something else that it claims about itself, and that is if it is in its origin from a God that is eternal in his nature, then that God would have within him the foreknowledge to know what our needs are today, in the same way that he knew what the needs of people were 2,000 years ago. Listen to what Peter says about that in 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 22. He says, Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, notice this, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Stop there for a moment. Notice what it says there about God’s word. It is not something that is only valuable for a couple of decades. You know, we’re so used to things like that. You get an iPhone, you’ve got to get a new one every couple of years. You get some kind of technology that is the most advanced, and before you even know it is outdated. Do we somehow imagine that the Word of God is like that? Are we so accustomed to what really I’ll tell you a secret is a marketing scheme to try to get us to buy new things. It’s not that it loses relevance.

It’s you’ve got people that are wanting to sell you something else. Then we view the Word of God in that way.

Because all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now, this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Think about it. We talked earlier in our studies about a God of such power he can speak the universe into existence. We are talking about a God of such power that he knows the future as clearly as he knows the past or the present. If you are talking about a being of all power and all knowledge, why in the world would we imagine that he does not have the power to speak words that are just as relevant today as they were when they were first pinned?

4. Inspired by a God That Knows the Future

That’s right. I think we need to understand it is relevant. Not because it is of human origin, it is relevant because it is of divine origin. And I want to touch on this idea that I just mentioned. A God that knows the future. Go with me to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. If we were talking about a piece of literature that was written merely by human beings, that were themselves limited by knowledge and time and space and what they understood about the present and the past, then we would be talking about something that would have kind of a limited relevance to it. You know, you read those things that were written a hundred years ago, and you’ll see that there’s things about them that are a little harder to discern.

There are things about them that you know had some relevance to what was going on then, but you may not even be able to understand some of the figures of speech that are used, or some of the references that are made to the political or social environment of the day. But if you’re talking about a being that is the inspiration of a text who is not limited by time as we are limited by time. A being that knows exactly what you’re going to say in the next 10 seconds or 10 years. A being that knows exactly what you’re going to do tomorrow. Just in the same way that you know what you’re doing right now. And you have to be looking at something a little bit different.

Listen to what the psalmist says. In Psalm 139, beginning in verse 1 and go down to verse 6, and think about it. We often look at this text as we think about it very personally of God’s knowledge of us. And that’s certainly a way to consider this. But I want you to think about what this tells us about the God that stands behind the scriptures. Read with me beginning in verse 1. David says, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and am acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. David admits here, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.

It does describe the fact that all those that are in Christ, God has predestined that they will be saved. You know, one of the elements that I think we need to appreciate about that is that while Scripture does not equate preordination with predestination, in other words, God may know everything that will happen without forcing everything to happen. I think we must be impressed by the fact that in his foreknowledge, that reveals some amazing things to us. You know, sometimes people struggle with the issue of how could Jesus have been tempted in all points as we are if he really was God in the flesh, if he knew what was going to happen. I want to tell you, brethren, that didn’t trouble me. I think that would have posed an even greater challenge to our Lord as he bore flesh.

Because think about that for a moment. Think about what it would be like to walk with disciples that you knew were going to deny you. Think about what it would be like to treat with love and consideration the very disciple you knew would one day betray you. Think about what it would be like to walk among a people that you knew one day would shout, crucify him, crucify him. And yet Jesus, knowing all things, knowing what was in man, behaved as he should have towards them. I can’t imagine how I could do that. You know, if I knew that you were going to walk up and slap me in the face, I’d probably start looking at you with a little bit of a leery kind of attitude.

And I don’t think I could treat you the way that I ought to if I knew that’s what’s ultimately going to happen. Now think about that as it relates to the Word of God. Is it relevant today? It is inspired by God that knew every technological advancement that would ever come. It was inspired by a God that knew every advancement, every change, every thought, every attitude. And as the book of Ecclesiastes says, there’s really nothing new under the sun. What has been in the past will be in the future. And when we’re talking about sin, sometimes people imagine, well, you just don’t know the challenges we face today as it relates to sin and temptation. You know what? We’ve probably got it easier than some brethren did in the past.

5. The Bible Is Applicable

So as we think about this issue, is the Bible relevant today? Absolutely, because it was inspired by a God that knew all things, it is the inspiration of God, and it is the standard by which we will be judged. Sometimes I think when people talk about the relevancy of Scripture, what they are really getting at is they are addressing the issue of whether or not it is applicable. You know, they may think, well, so much has changed that it’s not really as applicable as it once was. I want to ask you the question if you’ve ever wrestled with that or you’ve encountered people that think that. What really has changed in our daily life? And I mentioned technology has certainly changed. I can’t read in scripture about an iPad or an iPhone or a computer.

I can’t read in scripture about cars and planes and automobiles. However, as we think about it, the fact that stuff has changed really says nothing about you and I. Can we see in Scripture, in spite of the fact that so many around us are convinced that there’s this kind of evolutionary path, and you know, we once were monkeys and now we’re not. Well, the Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches that we were the creation of God. And when you look at what Scripture talks about, man from the beginning had some of the very same problems that we have today. Sin is just as common as it once was. Now, sometimes as we think about this idea of applicability, often you’ll hear people say, well, you know, the Bible conflicts with science.

There are things that science has now found and discovered that they didn’t know about in Bible times. And I will admit to you that there have been things that have been done in the name of religion. There have been beliefs that people have had in the name of religion that were absolutely false, but that was not because of what Scripture taught. That was because of their personal misunderstanding. As we think about what the Bible teaches, I would submit to you that there is no conflict between the facts of science and the Bible. There is conflict between the theories that men espouse and the things that the Bible teaches. You know, when you have people that will say, no, we were not created by God. Instead, we were created through some mechanical process.

And it’s interesting because people will scorn the fact that Christians are a people of faith, and yet they will believe in a system that cannot be reproduced. They can’t go in a laboratory and create even a single cell of life, and yet they base their entire life thought and hope upon a theory that says, you know, the earth once was in such a condition in which all the circumstances were right, and life just came about by chance. You know, I wish that I could do that. In the Panhandle where I live, we have a hard time sometimes growing tomatoes. I don’t know why it is. This year things went real well. My wife had a garden in the backyard, and we have tomatoes all over the place this year, but that’s not usually the case.

If it is so easy for us to imagine that life can just come from nothing, why is it things like disease? Why are things like planting a garden or things like that are so much out of our control and ability to quantify and to figure out, and yet, how many people are there in the world that are staking their eternal future on this faith, that life can come from nothing. It’s important for us to understand. The Bible is applicable. The Bible reveals to us the source not only of its own writing and revelation, but it reveals to us the source of our life and the source of the creation of this world. You know, as we think about this idea of relevancy, I think we must recognize that relevancy once again has to do with that which is benefit.

6. Is It Beneficial? Absolutely

Something is beneficial, then something is very relevant. We talked last night, I want us to go back to a text in Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. And let’s consider a statement that’s made there. Last night we talked about what the Bible teaches about the idea of grace and how Peter urges us to grow in grace. And we looked at the fact that it is used of the grace of God that brings salvation, as we’ll know here. We looked at the fact that it is also used of that message that is revealed by God as it is addressed here. But we also looked at the fact that grace can be used of any blessing of God. The favor of God that is given generally. Now, let’s think about that.

If, as we talked about last night, the grace of God is demonstrated in the message of God that brings about the salvation of man. Listen to what Paul writes here in Titus chapter 2, and let’s look beginning in verse 11 and go down to verse 14. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that we might that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Now, think with me about what this text claims.

It claims that this message of grace, this word of grace that is the gospel, as we noticed in several passages last night, that’s been revealed by God. And that message brings us salvation. Now, whether our friends in the religious world that have no belief recognize their need for salvation or not, I think we must recognize that the claim of Scripture is that it is absolutely beneficial to us because that’s the way we can know how to be saved. You know, many people that don’t follow the Bible, they do believe in some higher power. Or they do believe that there is some type of reward and perhaps even punishment that comes because of how we live our life. Now, sadly, many people, when you talk to them about, well, what do you think you have to do in order for your life in the age to come to be beneficial?

Many of them will just kind of, you know, think some opinion within themselves. Well, I think I need to help those people around me that are in need. Well, that’s a good thing. You probably think that because the influence of the revelation of God has led our culture to think that in many respects. You know, but even if you’re talking about people that don’t believe in life after death, one of the issues that they need to come to grips with is we don’t know anything about what lies beyond this life, were it not for the revelation of God. You know, when we think about that, even when you’re talking about the most hardened atheists that there may be that imagines that somehow our life is just a physical kind of process and there’s no accountability to any higher power above, they still can’t deal with what happens when we are confronted with death.

I want to submit to you that all of us need that salvation from that threat of death that comes. And the only thing that is given to mankind that offers to us the sure and certain answer to that salvation from the questions of life after death and the salvation that comes from the sin that Scripture reveals to us that separates us from God is found in the pages of Scripture. Is it beneficial? Absolutely. Because it tells you and it tells me what I need to do, so that when that day of judgment comes, when life passes from my body, I can know how to deal with that which now is absolutely unknown to the senses. You know, the person that imagines that by their own knowledge they can do and answer all questions in life, they don’t have the foggiest idea about what comes after this life.

It is Scripture that shows us the way to life. And that’s true in many respects. Notice with me over in John chapter 10. In John chapter 10. Living life as it is directed, as we are directed in Scripture, is, I am convinced, the best way to live within this life. Some people imagine that, well, the way to be happiest is just to get all the gusto I can, just you know, get every pleasure I can pursue, get as much as I can while I can. But you know, you don’t have to look very far to see that people that are very wealthy, people that give themselves to every indulgence they might imagine, are some of the saddest people in the world. They’re never happy. And Solomon said that years ago in the book of Ecclesiastes, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear with hearing.

You know, if you imagine that, well, if I just had this other thing, you’re demonstrating that very problem. Because you’re never able to attain happiness. You’re never able to see any kind of peace in mind in life. Notice John chapter 10, beginning in verse 9. Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he. Therefore they said to him, How were your eyes opened? He answered and said, A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go and stand by the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I received sight. So they said to him, Where is he? He said, I don’t know. In describing his healing of a blind man, it is interesting here, and I think I’m in the wrong chapter.

Let’s go one chapter over. I didn’t think that sounded right. Verses 9 and 10. My big fat fingers hit the wrong chapter number, I think. My apologies. Verse 9. Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. Listen to this. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. How do you want to you want to have life? Do you want to have happiness? That is to be found in Christ Jesus. He’s to be found in his word, in his revelation. In John chapter 20, Brothony and I were talking a little bit about some things related to this passage today.

In John chapter 20, notice with me a statement that is made in John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31. We’re near the end of this gospel, we have these words. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Now notice there, it seems to expand it a little bit beyond just the idea of a happy life here. When we put our faith in Jesus, when we are following the revelation of God, we are granted the opportunity to be able to have a life beyond this. This is even more clear if you look at the final passage here in 1 John chapter 5.

Conclusion

1 John chapter 5 and in verse 13. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. John once again writes, these things I have written to you, that you may believe in the name of the Son of God, and that you may know that you have, listen to this, eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Very similar statement to John chapter 20. It is the word of God that allows us to be able to know and to have life. Well, I want to end by thinking about this. You know, when people wrestle with this issue, I really think when they say, well, is the Bible relevant today? It is not really a question of relevance. It is not because they have just come to believe that there’s no relevance that it has.

We’ve seen the claims of Scripture that demonstrate that it is applicable, it is beneficial, it is relevant. Those who question its relevance really do so not because it is irrelevant. They do so because they do not wish to follow guidance. urge you if you’re here this evening and you hear these words that we’re discussing. I don’t know what your reaction is to them. Hopefully, you know, if you’re a child of God, you hear these words, and it encourages you to know how to go out and talk to others to help them come to see the relevance of Scripture. If you’re here tonight and you’re not a Christian, maybe you have wrestled some with this idea of thinking, well, why should I follow the Bible? You know, I’d rather just do my own thing.

I’d rather pursue my own thoughts. That is failing to recognize, once again, the source of Scripture, who it has as its origin. If you have struggled with that, I want to leave with you one last text in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And read with me in verse 13. And I want us to hear the praise of the Apostle Paul that is offered to brethren thousands of years ago in the city of Thessalonica, who heard the message of the gospel in a way very similar to what we’ve been talking about over the last few days. And when they heard it, they were in the same position that you and I are. They could hear it and say, well, you know, I don’t want to do that.

They could hear it and they could say, Well, why is your idea any better than anybody else’s idea? And if they had such an attitude, they were imagining that, well, this message is just from Paul, or this message is from Barnabas or whoever it may be. Paul praises those in Thessalonica. Because they recognize what you and I must recognize. If there is any value in what has been spoken from this pulpit today or at any time, it is not because of Kyle Pope, it’s not because of Tony Mock. It is because the word of God has been declared. Read with me in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and in verse 13. Paul says, For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing. Because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth.

The word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. Will you this evening recognize that the word of God has been spoken? Will you recognize the relevancy of God’s word? Because in it we have the way unto salvation. In it we learn what is going to be the standard by which you and I are going to be judged. In it we have the answers to all the things that we need to know about to pass from this life into the age to come. There’s no other source that can offer us those things. There’ll be a lot of claims that’ll say, well, here’s the way to go, or that’s the way to go, but they are inconsistent. They contradict one another. They don’t have the testimony of hundreds of years of prophecy and revelation and confirmation by multiple sources that all, even though they come from different backgrounds, speak a consistent message.

Why? Not because they all conspired together and compared notes, because the word of God has the Holy Spirit as its source and as its inspiration. Would you put your faith in Jesus, the Son of God? Confess that faith before men. Repent and turn from sin that separates you from God and be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. If as a child of God, maybe you’ve never said it with your mouth, but maybe in your life from day to day, you’ve allowed yourself to come to that point where you’ve begun to think, yeah, you know, I know the Bible’s for some people, but I don’t want to be a Bible thumperer. I don’t want to just dictate everything I do by the Word of God.

I hope that you’ve seen in some of the things we consider tonight how important it is that all things we do, we allow to be governed by the Word of God. Because on the day of judgment, it’s not going to matter how rich we are. It’s not going to matter how creative our mind is or what we imagine we should or should not do. What is going to matter is have we followed God’s Word. And if we can help Him with that, won’t you come while we stand and say?