Doctrine Series

 

The Sovereignty of God
Calvinism, or “Something Else?”

Read Isaiah 44:9-23. The week I typed this particular sermon, I also typed up the week’s prophecy update. As you know, at the end of the prophecy update – which is often a bit of a downer in its contents – I add in one or two ironic things that have happened in the recent past. I do this to end on a fun note rather than on something that might be depressing or maddening. The two ironies for the week were –

1) On a Tiny Island that Bans Guns, the Only Prosecutor is Shot Dead, and 2) ‘Lucky’ Buddhist Statue Topples Over and Crushes Religious Leader as It Is Unveiled in Thailand.

It’s hard to imagine two better lead-ins into the subject of the sovereignty of God. The first example is because as soon as there is a tragedy in our lives, the preeminent question which arises in our minds is, “Where is God in this?”

We may ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” We may ask, “Wasn’t God big enough to stop this?” A hundred variations of this line of thought will come to mind, or they may even be spoken aloud as we implicitly accuse God of not being in control.

The second example could follow suit, at least for the friends and family of the monk who got scrunched. But would they have a right to ask this? They lost someone who was crushed by a concrete image of Buddha that fell over.

We could stop right there and ask a few logical questions. “Where did the concrete come from?” “Is concrete used for other things?” “Do we pray to or petition our concrete house?” “Do we pray to or petition the sidewalk?” What is it that makes the lucky (or in this case – not so lucky) Buddha different than a concrete urinal in the public restroom?

Text Verse: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” 1 John 5:21

What is it that we are worshiping when we fall down before, and pray to, lucky Buddha? It is the work of our own hands. It is the imaginations of our own mind. It is almost a form of man worship, because we are giving our devotion to something man has made.

But isn’t that the same as questioning why God allows the death of someone close to us? Is God required to serve our happiness? Is this the point of the Creator’s existence – to serve His creation and make sure that it remains happy, content, and free from calamity? Or, in this, have we not fashioned a god in our own minds rather than allowing God to be God.

God is sovereign. He is sovereign over His creation, He is sovereign over how He allows access to Himself, He is sovereign over suffering, He is sovereign over all things. There is no thing which is outside of His knowledge, ability, or presence. Nothing happens apart from Him. He is omniscient, He is omnipotent, and He is omnipresent.

Therefore, He is sovereign. And the sovereignty of God means that whatever happens has been allowed by Him. We may question why something happens, and we may question how it fits into His plan, but we may not – ever – impute an implied state of incompetence or wrongdoing to God in the process of our questioning.

Such truths are to be found in His superior word. And so, let’s contemplate that precious word once again. And, may God speak to us through His word today, and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Free to Will, or Not Free to Will

Most Christians will acknowledge the sovereignty of God. Even if we don’t think about it much, we take it as an axiom that God is in full control and that He is fully capable of working things out as they should be.

The questions that arise from us, such as “Why did God allow this to happen?”, show a weakness in our understanding, and that usually comes from not being properly trained in the ways of God. But even if we get it. Even if we understand that God is in complete control, we still may not understand what that means in regard to the things we do.

It would be impossible, even in a hundred sermons, to define everything about the sovereignty of God, but one of the greatest questions of all, and one of the greatest doubts of all – even by some of the finest theologians in Christian history – comes down to the question of free will. Does man have free will? If so, how far does that free will go? Does it extend to doing good? Does it extend to salvation? Or, does man actually not have free will at all?

One thing that is evident and clear – even without the Bible – is that God knows the future. But the Bible does proclaim it as well –

“Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isaiah 42:9

He created all things in a single moment. Relativity proved this. Time, space, and matter all came into existence at the same time. None of the three can exist without the other two. They are all dependent on the existence of the others.

But they could not have created themselves. If they did, then there would have been the existence of each of them before they existed, meaning all three would have existed already – a logical contradiction. Therefore, there is a Being which brought them into existence who is not a part of them. The Bible says this is God, who is also the deity of the Lord Jesus –

“because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by him and for him.
¹⁷ And *he* is before all, and all things subsist together by him.” Colossians 1:16, 17 (Darby)

God has no matter; He is not bound by time; and He is not limited in space. Because of this, His being – for the lack of a better word – is above all matter. This means above in power, in presence, and in how it subsists.

In other words, when we look at the vastness of the known universe, and in all of the power displayed there, He is – right now and for all time – in control of it.

We may see a tremendous storm and think, “What a display of God’s power.” We may see the enormity of a volcano and tremble at the destruction which flows from it. Or, we may look to the nuclear weapons we have created and think, “What an awesome display.” The mechanics of a small bit of plutonium and a few other elements combine to create such power. And from that, we can think about how God was the One who set that power into those things.

But consider this, all of the power and energy that man has ever seen on this earth, or that he will ever see on this earth, doesn’t compare to a millionth of a second of the power released in the rest of the universe.

That is the matter. But there is also space. With our telescopes – of various kinds and which peer into assorted diverse places of the universe – we have an idea of the size of what we call “the known universe.”

The implication is that there is still “the unknown universe.” But, of the known universe alone, which stretches out, as they say, 93.016 billion light-years, not one micrometer is outside of the presence of God.

If we were to travel on one of our space shuttles, which can move at 5 miles per second, it would take about 37,200 years to go one light-year. Multiply that times 93 billion light-years. And now consider that in three dimensions. We may ask, “Where is God in this?” during a catastrophe, but the answer comes right back, “He is here, and He is everywhere else – right now.”

That is the matter, and that is the space. But there is also time – the third element which necessarily came into existence with the other two. It is often said that before God created time, He lived in the eternal state.

The word “eternal” has two general meanings. The first is a condition where there is no beginning or end. The second is that which lasts forever. The first is the one used to describe the state God is in. The universe had a beginning, but God was there before that. It is He who did the beginning, putting it all together. That is found at various times in Scripture, such as –

“Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Psalm 90:2

As this is so, He is before time, and He is outside of time. Thus, logically, like being in all places at one time, and like having all power of all of the universe at all times, He also fills all time at all times. His being is present with Adam right now, and His being is hovering over the cross of Calvary – right now. His being is with Jacob as he agonizes over the loss of his beloved son Joseph, and His being is on the road which Paul is taking to Damascus in order to persecute Christians in that city.

His being is here in this church, and His being is there at the rapture – and indeed He is present at all times which is throughout all of time that ever has existed or ever will exist – right now.

He is everywhere, He is at all times, and He possesses all the power contained within the two. And, further, He is not limited to these things; He transcends them. This is the Creator; this is God. This is the One who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush of Sinai –

“And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:14 (Darby)

As these things are true of God, they establish the baseline of God’s sovereignty and control in, and over, the universe. In all things – nothing excepted – God is aware of and allows all things to occur, which, in fact, occur.

Anything which does not fit His plans for what occurs will not occur. All that He determined to occur will come to pass. He can cause or prevent anything in order for what He wills to come about. However, those things which do occur, which are morally opposed to His nature, and yet which have come about, have been allowed by Him, though not directly caused by Him.

Some, when contemplating that God is sovereign and that He knows the end from the beginning, cannot accept the idea of free will in man. To them, if God knows the end from the beginning, it must – by its very nature – negate free will in man.

If God already knows what we will do, and if God has already determined how all things will come out, then they would say that we cannot be truly free moral beings. There is real fault in that thinking, from several perspectives.

First, God calls certain things “evil.” There is evil that God abhors. Further, man is capable of committing evil. Therefore, to say that man lacks free will is to then say that God determined the evil, which he abhors. That is a logical contradiction. There are many examples of this in Scripture, but one example will suffice –

“Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. ² They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.” Numbers 25:1-3

These people willfully bowed to a god which is not God. God did not force them to do so, but He also could have forced them to not do so. Therefore, there is an allowance by God of things which stand opposed to His own moral nature.

But, does the fact that there is evil then mean that God is not in control? Not at all. To understand the problem of evil – how it came about, and what it means in relation to God’s plan – you can go back and watch several of the early Genesis sermons, especially the sermon called “Who is the Liar.”

Suffice it to say that evil exists, that God – although the ultimate Cause of all things – does not actively cause evil, and that logically man, therefore, possesses free will. God indirectly controls all things, but He does not directly cause all things to occur.

This, then, is the exterior limits of God’s sovereignty over His creation. Man’s free will, and man’s accountability as to how he exercises his free will is that limit. We can do things which are contrary to God’s nature, and He allows this within His own personal control of creation.

Just because God knows something will happen, it does not mean that free will does not exist. What it means that God’s knowledge, and His plan using that knowledge, has factored in man’s free will.

Though the term “free will” is not explicitly stated in Scripture, the concept is. One does not need to have specific words stated in order to have a concept explicitly stated in another way. In other words, the term “original sin” is not found in Scripture, but it is taught implicitly, and it is stated in another form explicitly. So is free will, explicitly, such as in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 –

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰ that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

This precept is found, maybe in its most profound sense, in the words of Jeremiah the prophet. Moses could have said to Israel, “You are commanded today to be observant to the Lord your God.” But even that implies free will, because a command is – by default – something that can be disobeyed.

However, a burden was laid upon Jeremiah by the Lord. It is one he strove to cast off – implying free will to do so. And yet, the Lord overrode his ability to do so. Thus, His allowance of certain things only extends so far –

“Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.’
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.” Jeremiah 20:9

The very fact that Jeremiah willed to withhold the name of the Lord and the word of the Lord, but that he could not, proves that he had free will, but it also proves that he was not free to will. So it is with each and every one of us. But how far does what God desires to occur mean that God will override what could occur. It is an interesting question that is answered within Scripture. For example, 2 Peter 3:9 says –

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

The Lord is not willing that any should perish. But, in countless other places, the same Greek word is used to show that, in fact, many will perish, such as by the hand of Paul in 2 Thessalonians –

“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10

Therefore, though it is God’s will that all will be saved and that none should perish, there must be a limiting factor placed on what God desires, because those He desires to not perish will, in fact, perish.

One of the premises of the Bible is that God is building a church, out of living human beings. Jesus alluded to it in Matthew 16, Paul confirms it and explains it in 1 Corinthians 3:9 – “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”

Peter speaks of it then in 1 Peter 2:7 saying, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” From there, both Paul and Peter say that Christ is the Cornerstone of this building. There is one building, and one Cornerstone of those who are not set to perish.

But one of the limitations of that building is that it will only be built out of those who have faith in Christ, believing His gospel message.

God has set the parameters, one of which is faith. But not merely any faith will do. Rather, a properly directed faith is necessary. It takes real faith to walk into a shopping mall, pull a cord, and blow yourself up in order to destroy others in the process.

There is real faith in the person that what he has been told is true – paradise awaits, along with a bunch of perpetual virgins. The problem with that is not a lack of faith, but it is misdirected faith. And, misdirected faith is, unfortunately, wasted faith.

Using the same word for “perish” that both Paul and Peter did above in regard to those who perish and those who God wills not to perish, Jesus our Lord – Jesus the Lord – says this –

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16, 17

God is willing that none should perish, but some – in fact – do perish. And the limiting factor that one should not perish is faith. But it is not any faith. It is faith in Christ Jesus.

Despite the sovereignty of God, He does not force faith. Instead, He allows man the choice. But the fact that some perish does not mean God is not sovereign.

Just because God does not actively cause and direct all things, people assume that He is not sovereign. “Why couldn’t God keep my husband from dying?” But if God must do everything that He can do, and everything that He wills to do, then all things would be done, and there would be nothing to do.

But God has put limitations on Himself in order for things to come about in a way where we can participate in His creation. Along with those limitations, He has set parameters, and He has given guidelines. Some of those are known to us. They are recorded in nature and they are recorded in His word. An example of this is found in Romans 10 –

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:14-17

God has set limitations on Himself as to how the message to keep those He wills to not perish can do so. One of them is that He has given us the word of God. And within that limitation, he has set the parameters. There must be someone who will proclaim that message.

But there are then other implied parameters. Because a person is limited by time, by movement, by funding, and so on. A person cannot simply stand on a mountain, shout out the gospel, and then expect everyone to hear it.

And so, there are set natural and written parameters which must be adhered to. And yet, these are limited by guidelines. As we saw, faith is how the message moves one from “perish” to “not perish.” And that faith must be proper faith for this to occur.

But some might then say that this dispels the idea of God’s sovereignty. Rather, it upholds it. If there is a message of restoration with God, and if that message is exclusive of all but one avenue, and if that avenue has defined parameters and guidelines which come from God, then it means that God is sovereign over the very process which He at first seems to be incompetent in controlling.

What this tells us, is that God has put a burden on us if we care about what He desires. His will, including His will that none should perish, is actually tied up in our will in regard to that same precept. If our will says, “I don’t care that some are perishing, then He has allowed our will to override what He wills.”

This is certain because Paul says that the message which has been given must go through us. And further, that the one who carries that message cannot do so unless he is sent. And so, as you sit here, unwilling to assist those who desire to go forth to share the gospel, your uncaring will is, at least in part, the cause of God’s willingness that none should perish to not come about. How does that move you? Or does it just not matter to you?

One problem with man’s view of God’s sovereignty is that man places far too high of a view and value on himself, or on the things he possesses or loves than the Bible actually reveals concerning how God views those things.

The Bible says that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. As God (as we have already seen) possesses time as well as space and matter, then He possesses all things once and forever. For man to perish, it means that he perishes from the stream of time going forward. But God does not stop possessing that man at the time he existed. And, therefore, God always possesses that man.

And he may have been a good man or a bad man. But to us, a good man or a bad man is not the same as it is to God. A person to God is, by default, bad. That is the doctrine of original sin. Sin is bad; man has sin; man is bad. But we love people around us without taking that into consideration. God does not.

Those who do not have the sin problem corrected perish. From a certain point, and forever after, they are done. But, they were already done because of the sin in them. God is not out of control when someone perishes. Rather, He has controlled what was already bad by not allowing the person to continue (see Genesis 3:22-24).

The value in man is not in the state in which he arrived. It is in the state which he will become, if he comes to God through Christ. That is why Christ came. It was to allow a change in the default position from bad to good.

Therefore, God – the Person of Jesus – came into the stream of humanity in order to bring about the necessary change for man to go from “bad” to “good.” Was God under an obligation to do this? No. Could God have destroyed the entire world? Yes. Did God destroy the world once? Yes, with the exception of eight souls.

Therefore, God’s sovereignty is not in question. The goodness of man, and the usefulness of man to God is. God sovereignly allowed eight to live. God sovereignly chose Israel to bring forth Messiah. God sovereignly stepped out of His eternal realm. And God sovereignly set the parameters, based on these things, to bring man from bad to good.

He is not out of control. Rather, He is in complete control. He is allowing things to occur, despite that control, in order for the man of value, meaning the man brought from “bad” to “good” to come about.

Our arbitrary assigning the concept of “bad” and “good” to those around us is not reflective of how God assigns those same values. This is why Solomon was able to say this to us –

“When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, ¹⁷ then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.” Ecclesiastes 8:16, 17

We look at the plan of redemption, and we say, “If God is not actively redeeming all men, then He must not be in control.” But all men are bad. Therefore, that any are redeemed at all shows that God is sovereign over the entire process – both for those who are perishing, and those who are being saved.

The parameters are set, the guidelines are given, and God’s sovereignty stands. What He determines is advanced no matter which occurs. It may not be our will, but our will is not always God’s will, and His standards take priority over our fallen state, and our preferences, desires, and life choices.

However, when our will is in accord with God’s will, then there is a chance that what God is willing to happen, meaning that a particular “bad” person will become a “good” person, will happen. If not, then His will for that unchanged “bad” person, will come to pass. Both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man are on prominent display here.

“To whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One
Lift up your eyes on high; look and see
Who has created these things, and who is His Son 

Who brings out their host by number, from darkness to light?
He calls them all by name
This, by the greatness of His might
He will bring Himself glory and fame

Through the strength of His power
Not one is missing; all the heavenly host is accounted for
From day unto day and hour unto hour
And as the waves ceaselessly wash up on the shore

Great is God, and worthy is He of our praise
Glorious is God, from everlasting to everlasting – unto eternal days

II. God is Sovereign Over Salvation

If God is Sovereign over all things, as is clearly the case – even if He doesn’t actively work out all things – then God must be sovereign over salvation. Jonah, from the belly of the great fish, confirms this with the words, “Salvation is of the Lord.”

Man cannot save himself because he is already condemned. Jesus says that explicitly in John 3:18. As we are condemned already, then to become uncondemned must come from without ourselves, just as the default state of a computer must be changed from outside. Even if a computer was programmed to change its default settings under certain circumstances, the programming had to come from outside itself originally.

Unfortunately, because of this idea of such a dramatic change in man’s default position, and because man cannot change himself, certain aberrant doctrines have arisen over time to say that man is incapable of being changed apart from an active working of God.

Such a view proclaims that this is the only way to confirm God’s sovereignty over the salvation process. If He doesn’t actively do every step of the changing, then it somehow would then mean that He is not sovereign over what occurs.

But the fallacy of that is seen in the computer which is given instruction to change its default position. The instructions are given, and they may or may not ever occur. But if the parameters which have been placed into the computer are met, the default position changes.

There was no active participation by the programmer, and yet, he has remained sovereign over the process of change. The error of, for example, Calvinism is in perceiving how the process of change is effected in the man.

The question for man is, “As Scripture declares that man’s nature is condemned already, and also incapable of saving himself, then how is it possible for a person to choose or desire a relationship with God?” The Calvinist answer is, “He cannot. Therefore, he must be predestined by God for regeneration in order to believe and then to be saved.”

This makes the assumption that man cannot see what is good. But that is proven false both in human nature, and in Scripture. Man is not incapable of seeing that which is good, nor is he incapable of pursuing that good thing which he sees.

Further, Calvinism incorrectly uses the words of Paul to show that man cannot make a choice for salvation. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that apart from Christ we “were dead in trespasses and sins.” Calvinism says that one who is dead cannot choose life, nor can he bring about a change in himself any more than a rock could.

This is what is known as a “category mistake” – a fallacy, or an error in thinking. A category mistake is the error of assigning to something a quality or action that can properly be assigned to things only of another category.

Calvinism has taken the category of “dead in trespasses and sins,” meaning spiritually disconnected from God, and it has assigned that same category to living man, who is a rational, cognitive organism that can choose both good and evil.

Because of this, Calvinism produces a convoluted theology concerning salvation which says that 1) man is dead; 2) God regenerates man (he is born again by God); and then 3) man chooses Christ, and then – based on that choice – 4) he is saved.

From this error, the other principle points of Calvinism arise. Each based on the original error, and each therefore continuing that original error and expanding on it. Quite possibly the greatest error of this failed theological system is the doctrine of “Limited Atonement,” which says that Jesus died only for the elect, not for all people, and thus only the elect are saved.

Limited Atonement supposedly stands in opposition to another heresy known as Unlimited Atonement in the sense that Christ died for all people, and that all are, therefore, saved. But this is a second category mistake made by Calvinists. The words, Limited Atonement and Unlimited Atonement do not stand alone as the only quality which is assigned to the process of salvation.

John 3:16 says that Christ died for the world, meaning the people of the world, and that whoever – meaning anyone – believes in Him would not perish but would be granted everlasting life. This is substantially repeated elsewhere in various ways and degrees throughout the New Testament.

Therefore, the term Unlimited Atonement is appropriate, but it is only so potentially, not actually. And the term Limited Atonement is appropriate, actually – not because God has limited the atonement, but because we have limited it – either through negligence in transmitting the word to those who could be saved, or through rejection of the word presented to the individual.

God, through the giving of His Son, has granted the potential for all men to hear the word, and then for all who hear the word to be saved. But he has only granted that salvation actually to those who hear, and who then respond in accord with His word. This is perfectly seen in the words of John –

“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

The sacrifice of Christ is not limited to the elect except in how it is received or rejected. Election is made based upon the free-will exercise of faith in the Object of rightly directed faith, meaning the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

Understanding this, we can see that God is wholly sovereign over the process of salvation. Man fell, man is in the pit, and God must bring Him out. In this, He has developed the remedy, He has prescribed both the parameters and the guidelines, and He has limited Himself in the process.

To say that God must first regenerate the man is to say that He must make a second move in salvation, apart from the giving of His Son. This is not found in Scripture. God has made the move. He has entered into the sphere of His creation, and He now offers that to the people of the world.

Again, just because God does not actively select and regenerate the man, it does not mean that God is not sovereign over the process. The exact opposite is true. If we were the computer mentioned earlier, the default setting is already set – condemned.

But there is a program which has been included in the process which, if enabled, changes the default setting. Unlike a computer which cannot see good and bad, man has that ability (again, Genesis 3:22 says this). The fact that you are listening to this sermon – whether saved or not – testifies to this. Not that this is a good sermon, but you are freely deciding if it is or not. I hope you are not disappointed.

When you execute the appropriate command, the default setting is changed. God’s sovereignty is seen in that He has shown the way of salvation, he has effected and provided the means of salvation, and He has established the mode of salvation.

All who are to be saved will follow the path, they will hear the gospel message, and they will place faith in what they have heard. For those who do not hear, or for those who reject what they have heard, God is sovereign over that. For those who do hear and respond, God was and is sovereign over that (see John 12:32).

No part of the salvation process is out of the control of God, and the glory is given to God through the process. Though upholding what would otherwise be the sovereignty of God, the Calvinistic model does not bring glory to God because it does not follow the process of salvation as recorded in the word of God.

But on the other side of the aisle are the countless other religious expressions found in the world, both supposedly Christian and those outside of the realm of that sphere.

There is one common thread between every one of them – be it Roman Catholicism or the Hebrew Roots Movement, or Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and etc. That common thread is works.

For non-Christians, it is works in order to please God so that the man can be saved – whatever that salvation means to the individual. For them, it cries out, “I am my own savior, and God will accept my works as such.”

For supposed Christians, it means works in order to please God apart from what Christ has done. For them, it cries out, “God has sent the Savior, but I still must save myself.” It is a rejection of the all-sufficient work of Christ, and it is a desire to show God where His deficiencies were and what the person can do to correct those deficiencies. Both deny the sovereignty of God over the salvation process.

The sovereignty of God says that He is in complete control of all things, but that He has allowed certain things to occur apart from His direct control. This is true in creation, it is true in the daily process of our lives – either in harmony with Him or apart from Him, and it is true in the process of salvation which restores the harmony between us and Him.

Concerning God’s sovereignty in the process of salvation, it is just as necessary for God to allow man free will in his decision-making process as it is for Him to impel His will at any time and in any way that He so chooses.

This is because His word has given man the right, the duty, the privilege, and indeed the responsibility to carry this message forward. As His word is a reflection of who He is, then to effect the transmission of this message apart from man – whom He has commissioned to do so – is to interfere in His own sovereign decree over the very process which He has ordained.

And this must take into consideration that not everyone who transmits this message has the same reason for doing so. Some will do it because of their love for God. Some will do it because of their love for money. Some desire to be famous. Some might simply use the gospel as a way to travel to exotic locations. Who knows… one may simply want to marry the preacher’s daughter, and becoming a preacher is the surest way for that to happen.

Surprisingly, God has factored all of that into the transmission of His word to the people of the world. God, who is infinitely wise, and who is in complete control over all things, has done these things to bring Himself glory, and to bring restoration and fellowship to those who were once far off, but whom He has now brought near through the precious, purifying, and all-sufficient shed blood of Christ.

Closing Verse: “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: ¹⁶ The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; ¹⁷ but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” Philippians 1:14-18

 

 

 

The Word of God
The Basis of our Faith

The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8

It is certainly argued which point, or aspect, of religion and faith is to be held as preeminent. This is especially true because there are innumerable religions, and there are countless texts out there which claim religious authority.

And within adherence to those various religions, whether defined by a tradition, a text, or simply an adherent who claims divine inspiration to speak on behalf of God, there are still innumerable interpretations of how to correctly pursue what is presented within a particular religion.

Does anyone here think that all Buddhists are united in how they interpret the teachings of Buddha? Obviously not. There are as many subdivisions within Buddhism as there are kernels of corn in Iowa at harvest time.

Did everyone in Jamestown accept the words of Jim Jones equally? Again, obviously not. Some gladly drank the grape juice while others were forced to do so. Are Muslims united in their theology? If they are, they wouldn’t be blowing one another up as much as they do, and there wouldn’t be Shiites, Sunnis, and Wahhabis – along with countless other divisions among them.

Each different religion, and each difference within a religion, must come from somewhere – even if it is simply from the mind of a lunatic – L. Ron Hubbard anyone?

What is it that is preeminent in religion that would define one particular religion as right and proper, and how can it be known that adherence to that one right religion is doctrinally correct?

In a random list of possibilities, not intended to place any above another so as to incorrectly settle the matter in your mind now, we could consider various points and try to establish which is the most noble, which is the most important, and which is to be preeminently considered before the others. Here are some options –

The nature of grace. The Trinity. The nature and/or attributes of God. The Deity of Christ. The Humanity of Christ. The need for Christ. The nature of Sacred Doctrine. The sovereignty of God. The all-sufficient atonement of Christ. The salvation of man. Eternal security in salvation. How man is saved. The covenants of God. The dispensations of time. Israel. The existence of God. The nature of man. Creation. The nature of Creation. The glory of God. Heaven and hell.

Which of these, or is it some other not mentioned, is most necessary for us – as human beings – to know what is right and proper to place first in our search for the truth of God and the disposition of man within the stream of time?

Text Verse: “If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be just the preacher for this people!” Micah 2:11 (BSB)

Adding to our list, how about the nature of good and evil? Wouldn’t that be an appropriate starting point in our quest for the truth? If there is good, there must be a source of goodness. If there is evil, there must be a reason for it to exist and a source from where it is derived. Right?

No, rather all such things, even the nature of God, must be pursued, logically, from a source which reveals those things to us. I could have just said, “the nature of God Himself,” but that would be presupposing that God has revealed Himself in the masculine.

Maybe God is female, as some claim. My use of the masculine would be a point of contention with Him… I mean Her, if so. How can we determine what is correct in all things theology? Or, can we even do so?

The answer is, “Yes.” However, the answer will actually take some thought to get us to that point. Yes, you are going to have to use your brains today, and you are going to have to think about things logically and rationally.

That is absolutely necessary to know if the word of God is, in fact, the word of God. “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord.” The Lord wants you to think your faith through, and He wants you to be well prepared to then explain it to others.

Such truths, believe it or not, are to be found in His Superior Word, and so, let’s both turn to and contemplate that precious word once again, and may God speak to us through His word today. And may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. A Reasoned Defense

Of the great works of Christian philosophy, somewhere right at the very top of the list, is what is known as the Summa Theologica. It is the massive and detailed work of Thomas Aquinas, written from 1265-1274. It is considered one of the most influential works of western literature. In it, Aquinas evaluates a vast array of subjects, many of which we just considered a moment ago.

He discusses the nature of God and the Godhead. He discusses the problem of evil. He evaluates what the natures of man and angels are like. He looks into the law and also into grace. There is hardly a subject that one could think of in relation to religion that Aquinas didn’t evaluate. And he did it in an order that allows a person to think logically from one premise to the next.

With this in mind, what discipline did he place first? What was the one thing that set the parameters for all of the other things he would discuss, including the very nature of God? The answer is “Sacred Doctrine,” meaning Scripture. His first subject, or as he puts it, his first Question is –

“Question 1. The nature and extent of sacred doctrine.” From there, he asks, discusses, and answers the following ten questions: Is it necessary? Is it a science? Is it one or many? Is it speculative or practical? How it is compared with other sciences? Is it the same as wisdom? Is God its subject-matter? Is it a matter of argument? Does it rightly employ metaphors and similes? May the Sacred Scripture of this doctrine be expounded in different senses?”

The logic of placing the nature and extent of Sacred Doctrine first is impeccable. Without a surety of knowing what Sacred Doctrine is, nothing else in religion matters. Everything, including the nature of God and all that proceeds from Him, is subject to error.

We can deduce things about God without a source of writing which tells us of Him. In fact, we can be positive about a host of things about Him without ever first being told those things.

We can also do this concerning creation, about who we are as a species, and so on. Man has done this since the beginning, and he continues to do it today. We can logically work out things that must be because of things that are. However, there are also deficiencies and defects in man which can cause us to make limited or incorrect conclusions about such things as well. Despite having knowledge, we don’t have all knowledge.

But, with knowledge we can often – if we are willing to – prove things false much more readily than we can prove things to be true. If we look at religious beliefs, for example, we can see a common thread among many of them. There is the proclamation that there is a “God,” or there are “gods,” and that we are accountable to Him or them.

However, by simply thinking the matter through logically, man can actually know – with all certainty – that there is only one “God,” meaning the Source of all things. We can, in fact, know this.

Therefore, we can be sure that any religion which proclaims more than one God cannot be true. If you can’t see how this is possible, go back and watch our Genesis 1:1 sermon. There we discuss the First Principles. First Principles are statements of logic which are undeniable, or which can be reduced to the undeniable. We will even talk about some of them later here and in upcoming sermons.

From there, and understanding that there is a God, just One, we can also further determine what this God must be like. Aristotle was able to do this. He deduced that there is a God, and then he deduced many things about Him that Christians today take as axioms concerning Him.

For example, there can be no change in God. Aristotle explains why this must be so. Aquinas builds upon that and further defines it. Did Aristotle have the Bible to tell him this? No! He simply thought the matter through logically. And you can too.

As God does not change, that will then further refine our pursuit of “which” God, if any, is the true God as claimed by His adherents.

Taking the god of Islam, for example, we can read the text which describes “Allah” the god of Islam, and we can know if what it says about God is correct or not. The Koran says that there is “one God.” Well, that matches what we can know is certain. Is that the end of the test? Do we now bow down and say, “O great Allah, you are “god” and there is none other!”?

No, more is needed. God doesn’t change. Does Allah, the god of Islam, change? Yes. He is vindictive. He also proclaims one thing and then another, but not in a logical way. Rather the supposed god of Islam changes in his very nature by the proclamations he makes. We can toss out Islam, and we can toss out Allah.

See, this isn’t that difficult. Man has been given a brain to use, if he will but use it. God did this so that man will seek Him and reach out for Him. He is actually not far from us. Man has, however, invented many gods, but because there is one God, man can – and very well should – be able to say, “This is a lie. This is not ‘God.’”

So, we know there is one God, and we can know things about this God. This then allows us to search out the supposed revelations of God, like the Koran, and say, “No, this ain’t God.” Eventually, through this process – and if it exists – we come to what is truly “Sacred Doctrine.”

We are presented with a copy of the Bible. This word of God says there is one God. That passes the test. The word then says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). So far so good. But what about the verses which seem to show that He does change?

Do those actually reveal this, or are those supposed changes in Him merely logical and orderly revelations of Himself for our benefit and understanding, but not actually changes in His being? Through careful study, we find out that this is the case. God hasn’t changed. Rather, we have changed in relation to Him, and the result is obvious and expected based on His unchanging nature.

And so, after reading what is truly Sacred Doctrine, meaning the proclaimed Word of God, or what we would call the “Holy Bible,” we are convinced that this is how God has revealed Himself to us, including in the masculine – something we were trying to avoid as a presupposition a few minutes ago. He has done this, and so we follow suit – He, Him, Father, etc.

And so now, with this carefully and precisely laid out word, this text of Sacred Doctrine that finds its source in God, we continue to expose faulty conclusions concerning Him. As we have already seen, there are countless denominations and cults all claiming this word as their source and authority for right doctrine. How can that be, and this still be the Word of God?

The answer is not that there is a problem with either God or His word. The answer is found in us and in our translations and interpretations of this precious gift of life and restoration. We act no differently about our own text than Muslims do about theirs. They don’t engage their brains, and we don’t engage our brains.

The Jews stop with one testament and one over-arching covenant. Some supposed Christians do this as well by falling back on the Old when the New has set it aside. But right there in the Old is the promise of a New. The same God who does not change is not changing still. He is slowly and progressively revealing Himself.

And so, knowing this, we can toss out Judaism – in all its forms – as being a proper evaluation of Sacred Doctrine – it is not. The Old Testament is proper revelation, but it is incomplete. And in tossing out this theology, we can then toss out the theology of some Christians, such as Dual-Covenant theologians like John Hagee. Such heretics teach that Christians are saved through the New Covenant, and Jews are saved through adherence to the Old. This is even taught by the Roman Catholic Church – the church of Thomas Aquinas.

And yet, there is more to consider. The New Testament, which details the New Covenant, also details some very precise revelations of God, of who He is, and of what He has done. For example – and of which will be explained in greater detail in another sermon – the Bible clearly shows that though God is One, there are different persons within the Godhead.

And more, there are not two or five or twenty or a hundred. The revelation of Sacred Doctrine, which is the only source for knowing this aspect of God, shows us that there are three individual Persons within the Godhead – not more, not less.

There is a Person we call the Father. There is a Person we call the Son. And, there is a Person we call the Holy Spirit. Each is clearly revealed to be God based on the nature of who God is.

However, there are some denominations and cults which deny this. There are others who affirm it but then violate laws concerning the nature of God that we don’t even need Scripture for in order to know they are wrong.

For example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses state that Jesus is a created being – denying His deity – and yet they say that Jesus is the Creator of all things other than Himself. We don’t need the Bible to know this is incorrect. All we need to do is think it through logically.

For Jesus to be a created being, and yet to create all other things beside Himself, would violate the Principle of Contingency, the Positive Principle of Modality, and the Principle of Existential Causality. To understand this, go back and watch the Genesis 1:1 sermon. And so, we can toss out their teaching.

Likewise, Mormonism also teaches that Jesus was a created being. He was a man who became God. The same principles apply as those we just saw. But Mormonism also adds another Testament to Sacred Doctrine. Without going into all the details and faults of this supposed text – of which there are many – it violates what is explicitly stated in the New Testament writings, and it is false. Mormonism can be tossed out.

As you can see, the brilliance of Aquinas’ logic of placing the nature and extent of Sacred Doctrine first is evident. One must be able to determine if there is such a text. That is possible without even having such a text.

In other words, there may not be a true text of sacred doctrine. God may have just not revealed Himself in this way. But that doesn’t mean we can’t know if all of the false texts which claim to be sacred doctrine are false. We can. If they don’t match what we can know by simply using our brains through logic, then they are false.

From there, and if such a text actually does exist, one must be able to determine if how the text is presented is acceptable or not. This can be determined from within the text itself, such as through revealing a misunderstanding of what Paul says in relation to something that Jesus says.

It can, at times, also be determined from outside of the text – by simply using logic, such as the necessity for Jesus to be God if He is the Creator of anything.

If He created anything at all, even one coffee bean, then He must have created all things – and no thing which is created came into existence apart from Him. The Bible may tell us this – and it does, in Colossians 1 – but we don’t need the Bible to do so for us to know it is true, as we have already learned.

Logic necessarily precedes God’s revelation of Himself in order for us to know if this (or that) is God’s revelation. If it (meaning logic) does not come first, then we cannot truly know if it is God’s revelation.

This is exactly why there are so many religious texts, and this is why there are so many religions. And this is why the immensely intelligent Albert Einstein, a Benedict Spinoza pantheist, spent the rest of his life – after discovering the Theory of Relativity – working on the theory of everything. Yes, his worldview said that all is God (Pantheism), meaning the universe is the manifestation of God.

He did not want to accept that his logic, which is revealed in Relativity, confirmed the very source of his Judaism, meaning Sacred Doctrine – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Through Relativity, Einstein proved there was a beginning. If there was a beginning, there must be a Beginner.

The Bible says that God precedes His creation. He is not a part of it. That didn’t fit with Einstein’s presuppositions about the universe and about the god he believed in. Hence, his continued work on the theory of everything. However, if we now know that God has revealed Himself in this manner, meaning through Sacred Doctrine – of which we are convinced He has – then we must still use logic to know if our understanding of what He has revealed is correct.

This is exactly why there are so many denominations within Christianity, and so many – countless variations in fact – disparate doctrines which come to completely opposite conclusions concerning Christian theology.

Again, logic must precede God’s revelation of Himself in order for this to not occur. If it does not, then any and all of those religions, denominations, and even cults, are on an equal standing before your eyes. You actually have no basis for saying one is more or less valid than another.

Some of you are now sitting here and saying, “But the Bible proclaims faith, not logic. We are to ‘live by faith and not by sight.’” Yes, I know that verse. It is 2 Corinthians 5:7, I’ve written a commentary on it, and that is not what Paul is speaking about. He is speaking about our existence in Christ, after having made a decision for Christ.

And biblical faith is not, as the vast majority of people seem to believe, blindly stepping into acceptance of the Bible. It is exactly the opposite. It is stepping into the revealed light of God, which is the Bible. Nobody comes to a saving faith in Jesus unless he has heard about Jesus. And the knowledge of Jesus is recorded where? Yes, in the pages of Sacred Doctrine – the Holy Bible.

Again, there has to be a basis for your faith, or your faith has no basis. This does not mean that God does not accept you because of your faith. Rather, God accepts you based on your faith which was based on His word which He has revealed. It is light, you heard it, and you accepted it. But you had to logically put those things together in your head when you heard the word.

As Paul says in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God did the revealing, you did the analysis, you found it reasonable, and you then – only after logically thinking it through – demonstrated faith in what the Bible revealed to you.

This is why God made the gospel so simple, and the means of obtaining it so simple. It is because too much needed logic, and most people would never get saved. The gospel’s simplicity is its own mark of the infinite grace of God.

As we have seen though, there are those who say Jesus is not God, and yet, they proclaim exactly the same verses concerning salvation as those who say Jesus is God. Therefore, again, logic must precede the faith, and that logic precedes the revelation of God in His word. It doesn’t mean it is more important, but it is a necessary part of the process in order to come to accept whether the message is true or not.

The title of this sermon is “The Word of God – The Basis of our Faith,” and that is true. The salvation of God which is found in Jesus Christ our Lord is only found for us in the word of God – whether transmitted orally, in writing, in a play on a stage, on a computer, or some other way. We are not getting saved without faith, and we cannot have faith without the word.

God is pleased with our faith in Christ when we hear this word and accept it as such. But there is a world full of people that do not. They have already either rejected the truth, and/or they have accepted something other than the truth. Or, they may have simply never heard the gospel.

How will they be saved unless you are willing to show them that what they have in their hands is false, and that what you have in your hands is true? If you care about their state at all, then you have an obligation to, as Peter says, “…always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” 1 Peter 3:15.

The word Peter uses there, which is translated as “defense,” is apologia. It signifies not a dubious doctrine based on blind faith, but a well-reasoned reply for an issue which is raised. In ancient courts, it signified a legal defense and a reasoned argument.

The word of God, holy and pure
Is given to us from His wise and loving hand
Through this word, our faith is strong and sure
Because of our God, through it we can Him understand

We can know what is right for salvation unto life
And we can know when to reject that which is wrong
Through sound doctrine, we can weed out theological strife
And have doctrine which is sure, sound, and strong

Praise be to God who has given us this precious word
Praise be to God who has shown us what is true and right
The pages of the Bible are a precious cutting sword
Weeding out all that is false and revealing God’s glorious light

II. The Problem of Evil, the State of Man, Israel, the Nature of Creation, the Prophetic Word, etc.

The word of God has been given by God. The Bible makes this claim. It is up to man to either prove it false, or to accept it as true. By simply thinking the matter through – in a very limited way – we have seen how man has determined logically that there is one God. From there, we have seen what this one God must be like.

We have reduced the religious expressions of the world, through simple logic, to one possible expression which reveals God as He is – biblical Christianity. We could include biblical Judaism, but that is simply an incomplete revelation of Himself to the world.

The coming of Christ, and the introduction of the New Covenant, supplants the expression of God as limited to the Old Testament. But it is certain that the Bible is a big book, we are not going to prove or disprove every aspect of it here in the next few minutes.

Nor are we going to defend or prove false every point of doctrine to be found in the Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Methodism, fundamental Baptists, and so on. Those things will take a lifetime of study and contemplation. And it shouldn’t be necessary to rush away from a church simply because of a few minor doctrinal points of disagreement.

But what we can do is contemplate some of the aspects of what the Bible presents, and then decide if what it says aligns with how things are. In other words, why would someone read the Bible and put their hopes in a word which mischaracterized the state of man?

Likewise, why would someone look to the Bible for the plan of salvation if it got the problem of evil wrong? In fact, when there is an error in something, the thing is defective. If something is defective, then why would anyone go to it to correct their own defects?

And yet, people have gone to, and they continue to go to, the Bible for the correction of their defects. Drunks become productive citizens, harlots become faithful wives, the miserable are made joy-filled. There is a power in the word which transforms lives.

And as desperately as its enemies have attempted to challenge the Bible, there has been no successful challenge to it since it was first given to man through the hands of Moses 3500 years ago. Since then, it has been added to by God through men of God right up until John received the book of Revelation and then finished it with the word “Amen” in Revelation 22:21.

It accurately details the problem of good and evil – how it came about, what He would do to correct it, and why it continues to this day. Yes, the Bible explains how evil is cured, and when evil will be eradicated forever. In this, there is nothing left unattended to. What was lost in Eden will be restored in God’s coming Paradise.

How often it is said, “If God was truly God, He would eliminate all the evil in the world.” But that is a shallow and naive way of looking at how things work. It assumes that evil is out of the control of God’s sovereignty, but the Bible very clearly shows that it is not.

In fact, time and again what we consider to be true evil is used by God for good purposes and for His glory. Adam fell, Cain killed Abel, and from Joseph’s troubles in Egypt to man’s trouble with sin being laid upon Christ, God uses evil to bring about good.

We look at the cross as the highest expression of love, grace, and mercy, and it is so. And yet, you can be guaranteed that Jesus’ mother, Peter and the other apostles, and indeed many who saw Christ being crucified would have said, “This is evil. So why has God allowed it?”

Do you see the fallacy and naivete of those who question God’s competence because of their own supposed standards of what is good and what is evil and what God is doing about those things?

What is appropriate is to say that God has allowed evil into the world for His purposes, those things bring Him glory, and the evil will come to an end in His timing. If someone desires to use the problem of evil as a point of discrediting the God revealed in Scripture, they will find no satisfaction in their attempt.

The problem of evil is accurately explained in Scripture, it is properly death with by God in Scripture, and its end is assured in Scripture. That which was good at the beginning will be good again at the consummation of all things.

*The state of man – from how he got here, to what his purpose is – is exactingly expressed in Scripture. The desperately evil human heart is spoken of there. Go check Jeremiah 17:9. The chains which bind man are described there.

The freedom which man seeks is revealed there. The relationship between man and his Creator is defined there. If someone is looking to prove the Bible wrong, the state of man will not satisfy his goal.

*Some people look at Israel and deny Scripture because of them. That may be the most perverse ideology of all. In fact, exactly the opposite is true. Israel’s rejection of God does not in any way call into question the reliability of Scripture.

Rather, the words of the Lord, through the writings of Moses, foretold what has subsequently been revealed. Israel’s rejection of the Lord, the Lord’s continued faithfulness to Israel, and the prophetic timeline of such events – all recorded in His word – confirm time and again the reliability of what God has spoken.

If someone is in hopes of calling the word of God false because of either what it says about Israel, or what Israel says about the Lord, they have simply rejected what is clearly printed about both in it. And in fact, the attempts to destroy Israel are merely attempts to find some fatal flaw in God’s word which has not yet been found.

If only Israel can be destroyed, the word will be proven false and man will no longer have the convicting power of it hanging over their heads. Such is the dream, and such is the hope for a world which hates God, rejects His word, and finds the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ deplorable. But the Lord has spoken –

“‘I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
¹⁵ I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,’
Says the Lord your God.” Amos 8:14, 15

Israel stands, and Israel will stand. They have been planted again in their land, and they shall remain rooted there forever. The Lord God has spoken, and it shall be. If someone is looking to find fault in the Bible, the nation of Israel is a poor and perfectly pitiful place to attempt to do so.

*But what about something larger than Israel? What about the nature of creation itself? The Bible doesn’t attempt to argue that there is a God – a Creator. Instead, the Bible proclaims His existence and then it explains how He created. Further, it does so in a logical, orderly, fashion. God speaks, information is transmitted, and creation stands firm.

Rather than a universe which created itself, a logical impossibility by the way, the Bible reveals exactly what logic demands. There is existence, the existence is not necessary and yet it exists, and therefore there must be a necessary Being that exists in order for all other things – which are not necessary – to exist.

And not only that, but there can be only one necessary Being. That is God, and the Bible proclaims Him as such –

“For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
I am the Lord, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:18

And within the realm of creation, the Bible explains that things don’t always work as they were originally intended to, why that is so, and how it will be corrected. The Bible also explains aspects of creation, stating them as axioms, that were not understood until modern times.

For those who desperately desire to break off the chains of God by disproving the Bible’s claims concerning the Creator and His creation, their efforts only end in embarrassing futility. The word of God stands because it is, in fact, the word of God.

*And there is another aspect of the word which not only confirms that God is, but that God knows. He didn’t just create and let things go however they may come about. Rather, He reveals – in His word – things that will come to pass before they occur. He does this so that when they come about, man can say, “My trust in God is not in vain.” He even explains this to us so that we are all the more assured of what lies ahead –

“Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isaiah 42:9

The things He has spoken have come about, and the new things He reveals are assured to happen as well. Not a word of the word shall ever fail, because it is the word of God who cannot fail.

The prophecies of God, both those that are expressly spoken, and those that are typologically prophetic, and which have already been fulfilled, are so numerous and so specific that there is literally no excuse for those who see them and deny what they reveal.

The prophetic word, for those who have heard it, seen it fulfilled, and who yet reject it will stand as an eternal witness against them. God has spoken, His word has come to pass, and man will stand before God and receive his just due for how he has responded to that same prophetic word.

I am the One who created all things
And by Me all things are held together
My works are that of which the angel sings
Stretching out the heavens, they go on forever 

I am the Lord who called Abraham so long ago
I am the One who renamed Jacob Israel
I spoke from the burning bush to Moses, so you know
And of Me, David in the psalms does tell 

I am the Word of God, who was and is and is to come
And I offer the water of life; be pleased to partake of some

III. Common Sense Concerning the Word

One obvious question about the word of God, and one which is probably most often levied against it, is that of source texts. “Why are there variations in texts?” “How can we be sure that it is one rather than another?” And, “Don’t these variety of texts disprove the very premise that the Bible is the word of God?”

The answer to each is, “No,” but it is also not a study that can be completed in a few short minutes. Entire books have been devoted to the matter. Scholars dedicate their entire lives to this field. But, in short, the very fact that there are numerous source texts – even if they vary in content – will validate the reliability of the word.

If there are 10 source texts, and one of them says ABC in Isaiah 53, and the other 9 say XYZ in the same place, then it is rather certain that XYZ is the correct reading. This is especially so when these source texts come from different locations, different languages, different points in time, etc.

This could not be the case if there was only one source text. Nobody would know if the source was accurate or not. And there are other logical reasons why God would not want one single text to be the only source of His word. There is great wisdom in God’s word not being kept in any single man’s possession.

And so, for five groups to have five texts, each with some type of minor error in one place or another, but four of the texts having no error in the same place as any other text, it actually benefits the scholar. There is not just a reasonable certainty of the text, but a convincing certainty of it.

What we possess in our hands may have variations based on source texts which people can quibble over, but the substance of the words is as reliable as the over-arching message of the whole.

No major point of doctrine in Scripture is in question, and the absolute reliability of the word of God is evidenced through the amazing care God has taken to preserve His word in various ways, places, and languages throughout history.

If this is a point where you would question your faith, then spend the time needed to study this discipline. Give up 10 or 20 hours of TV a week that you watch, and instead, go learn just how reliable this word is.

When reading your Bible, forget the commentaries that may be provided with the text. Instead, read the footnotes which are also provided. They are where the mechanics of the accuracy of the word of God can be found.

For example, what you might read is something that at first causes you to question the Bible’s reliability. You read the footnote and find a difference between some texts, of which they cite the Greek, Hebrew, Samaritan, Masoretic, Vulgate, and Dead Sea Scrolls.

And yet, when you see that only the Masoretic Text and a few lesser Hebrew manuscripts say DEF, but all the others say GHI, you will realize that a corruption occurred, possibly on purpose, to hide Jesus, such as occurs in the Masoretic Text of Psalm 22 and of Isaiah 53.

But when you learn that the Greek and the Latin were both translated out of the Hebrew, long before the time of the Masoretic Text, and that the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek both predate the coming of Christ, then you can say, “Aha! I understand!”

Your faith in the word will not be diminished. Rather, your faith in man will rightly be reduced, and your glory to God will be magnified when you realize that He has actually protected His word, even from the manipulations by His own chosen people who rejected Him when they rejected Christ.

Have confidence in God, be sure of His word, and trust that what He has proclaimed concerning His Son, His redemption, and His future promises to you are surer than the ground under your feet. Use your brain when you are presented with a doctrine you may have been unaware of before.

There is that which is of God and is reasonable, and there is that which comes from man and is simply wrong. Unless you are willing to study in order to show yourself approved, you will most likely not be approved. Proper theology is hard work, but the rewards for pursing it are heavenly.

As a good summary of this marvelous treasure, this gift and blessing from God, an unknown person penned the following words which are often printed in the Gideon’s Bible. Think on what you hear as I read to you what it says –

The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.

It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s charter. Here Paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed.

Christ is its grand subject, our good the design, and the glory of God its end.

It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened at the judgment, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

I implore you now, to always consider the word of God. Handle it carefully, treat it as the most precious jewel you possess, and love it as God in Christ loves you. It is the rhema, the written word of God, that speaks of the logos – meaning the Word, Christ Jesus –the expression of God in Whom He reveals Himself.

Cherish the one and you will cherish the other.

Closing Verse: “’All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
²⁵ But the word of the Lord endures forever.’
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1:24, 25

For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

The word “for” builds upon what was just said – “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.” As we are “absent from the Lord” our walk is different than it would be if we were in His presence. The word “walk” denotes our conduct in this life. It is a metaphor used to indicate the things we do and how we do them.

This “walk” for the Christians is a walk of “faith.” We have been saved by Christ and therefore, the conduct of our lives is to be for Him, emulating Him, telling others about Him, anticipating our being gathered to Him, etc. But as he said in the previous verse, at this time we are “absent from the Lord.” Because of this, our walk is entirely one of faith, “not by sight.”

The word “sight” doesn’t mean the active sense of vision. Rather, it means “appearance.” The word faith then is being contrasted with the time when we actually behold Jesus and our new heavenly home. We have never seen Him and we have never experienced heaven, and so our walk in this life is only in anticipation of those things. It is entirely a walk of faith. As the author of Hebrews says –

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

But in this walk of faith is a blessing in and of itself. In fact, the next verse in Hebrews says, ”For by it the elders obtained a good testimony” (Hebrews 11:2). We obtain a “good testimony” through walking in faith. Jesus confirmed this to the disciples when addressing Thomas after the resurrection –

“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

Life application: Lots of people have claimed to have seen Jesus, and lots of people have claimed to have gone to heaven. This is contrary to what the Bible teaches. If someone has experienced one of these things, then their walk is no longer of faith. And so, we must decide to either believe the Bible or believe them. Though many have seemed convincing about having experienced these things, it is better we reject their stories and accept that we do, in fact, live by faith and not by sight.

Lord God, we don’t need to read the stories people have written about going to heaven or having talked to Jesus. The Bible says that we are to live by faith and not by sight. That is good enough for us. We have researched Your word and we have the surest hope of all that what You have told us is sufficient for our faith and practice. The change in us testifies to this. We will stick to Your word and not fancy stories which do nothing to enhance our walk with You! Amen.