You
know, I'm a skydiver. I jumped out of an
airplane one time. It was sitting on
the ground and I hopped out. How many
of you have ever in your life jumped out of a real airplane up in the sky when
it was moving? Anybody? 3 hands. 4. First church there were
zero. You're more adventuresome here at
second church, I think. Well, I would
never do that. You couldn't pay me 10
dollars to do that, or a hundred dollars to do that.
There
was a 26-year-old skydiver who had 5 hundred and 86 jumps to his credit, and he
was stepping out the door of an airplane and he was going to just step out and
do his thing. And there were some ropes
on the floor of the aircraft and his feet got tangled up in the ropes and when
he jumped out they ended up around his feet and there he was hanging from the
aircraft. He didn't have any way to get
loose. He tried and tried to get
loose. He tried to climb up the
rope. He could not do it. And he got weaker just hanging there. The pilot, there was only one other person,
the pilot. The pilot was up there
trying to keep the aircraft stable with the man hanging. It was just a small airplane. And lo and behold they were running low on
fuel. You know, whenever you go up in
one of those things the least you could do is fill up all the tanks. Fill them right up to the top. I don't understand some of these
pilots. But anyway, there he was.
And
so they flew back and forth over the airport, and people were looking and they
got the idea what was going on, and some of his friends were down there. And so they got the idea of getting another
aircraft, and they flew the second airplane beside the airplane that was in
trouble and they had a hunting knife with them. And they said, “Can you catch this? You’ve got to catch the knife.”
I hope it was in a sheath or something.
And they flew close and they practiced this several times and then they
threw the knife to him and he caught it.
And he cut the ropes. Pulled the
parachute cord and walked away from the landing. That’s an amazing story, and you know, he was saved by the
knife.
And
we’re in a world that is about to self-destruct and we’re entangled in the
ropes of sin. Sin has wrapped its cords
around us and we need a knife, and what is the knife, spiritually? Answer.
The Bible. We're told this in
Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12. This is
the two edged sword. We need to always
carry a knife with us. It's a good
idea. And the Bible is our two edged
sword. Psalm 119. I want to read verse 11, and I want to read
the whole verse. I think the second
half of the verse is pretty important.
So look at Psalm 119. The
longest chapter in the Bible. Takes up
the most pages. I think, actually, Numbers,
chapter 7 is longer in words. Psalm
119, verse 11. “Thy
word, have I hid in my heart.”
And then there's another half to this verse. What does the second half say?
“That I might not,” what? “Sin against Thee.”
So
the Bible will keep you from sin. But
sin will keep you from the Bible, too.
So let's immerse ourselves in the Word of God, because I want to be un-entangled
with the ropes of sin. Amen? Do you?
And I believe the Bible is inspired by God. It's intended to deliver me, to benefit me personally and so, let
me tell you a story about a king.
He
was a habitual drunkard, this king, and addicted to other vices which should
not be mentioned in a Christian pulpit.
He married off his children like pawns to suit his foreign
policies. He drained the royal treasury
to meet his desires for wine and for women.
And this man, he lived about 400 years ago. This is a fairly modern king, sort of. He's well known. In fact,
I have never met a Seventh-day Adventist but what he loves this king. Or she. He had a very large head, this king did, and a slobbering tongue. His clothes were always quilted. His legs were rickety and this uncouth man
had eyes that stood out grotesquely.
Why
do all Christians like this man?
Because it's King James. He delivered
to us the first Bible, in 1611. The
King James version of the Bible in the English language. What a wonderful blessing he gave to
us. I think that's about the only good
thing I’ve ever heard that he did. He
probably did a lot of good things. But
today, approximately one million Bibles are distributed every 27 days. The Bible is translated into 1 thousand 6
hundred and 59 languages. Between 3 and
4 billion King James Bibles have been printed.
This is a very, very popular book.
All because of King James.
But
there's a problem. The average person
living in the year 2 thousand and 9 has no time to read the book. That's our problem. The book is shut most of the time. We get involved in Facebook. I'm on Facebook. How many of you are on Facebook?
Raise your hands. It's not
something to be ashamed of. Is that
all? It's more than first church. You're more adventuresome. We’re involved in Facebook, but we spend
very little time with the
Book. This is the Book. It's more important than Facebook, the
checkbook or any other book. We like to
own books, but we seldom read them completely through. We look at the pictures, we look at the
chapter titles and the subheadings.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 12, “Of the making of many books there is no end.” And Gutenberg hadn't even invented the
printing press. So imagine what Solomon
would say today. Today there are
approximately 65 million books, different books that have been written. I wonder what Solomon would say today.
Here
in America, did you know that there are over 10 thousand magazines that are
published on a regular basis? 10
thousand different magazines. If you
would subscribe to all those magazines it would take you a long time just to
read one issue. We can't do all
that. There's no way. We can never keep up with all the
information out there.
You
know what inflation is? We’re suffering
with inflation here in the United States of America. Inflation is, basically, my understanding, and Don Van Ornam
could correct me, inflation is sort of just an increase in the money
supply. Watering the money down. It doesn't go as far. And that drives down the value of all money.
And
just so, as this paper blizzard of our modern age, we have all kinds of
papers. People said with the computer,
you're going to have a lot less paper.
Well, I think we buy a lot more paper now that we have computers. We’re in a paper blizzard. And this is watering down the value of all
the other paper, which waters down all the books that we have. Water down the value of the Book. We just have
too much to assimilate. There's too
much to read. Every 60 seconds, there's
2 to 3 thousand new pages, 8 and a half by 11, of information that come
out. Copy machines. Copy machines, we keep them in good repair,
but do they keep us? I don't know. The material produced every 24 hours would
take 1 person almost 10 years to read.
That's how much new information comes out.
Daniel,
chapter 12 and verse 4 says in the last days the knowledge will what? Knowledge will be increased. It is being increased. The Bible is absolutely true. Ministry Magazine gives advice to pastors
every month. And you know what Ministry
Magazine said, and I'm going to quote this.
This is speaking about pastors. “We
must keep our noses above the rising literary tide if we are to keep from
drowning professionally.” You've got to
read. And there's more information than
1 pastor can read. I probably read an
average of 20 hours a week just to keep my sermons going and to keep fresh
information for my people.
I
used to have a church member that subscribed to the newspaper and would read
the front page every day all the way through.
He said the front page, that's what you're supposed to read and I'll
read the rest too, but not as completely.
Do you know, that if you were to read the front page of the Wall Street
Journal every day you would probably read the equivalent of several books of
the Bible. If we have time for the
newspaper, then we have time for the Word of God, and if you don't have time
for the Word of God, get rid of the newspaper.
Get rid of the Facebook. Cancel
the Internet. Do whatever it takes to
make time every day for the Word of God.
We
used to be a people, Seventh-day Adventists did, of the Book. I urge you to read your Bible through. I have never read this Bible through. It's several years old. It's even been rebound. I keep it because it has nice large print
that I can see, and I don't use one that I've read through because it's all
marked up, and it’s marked up too much.
But I have read many Bibles through.
All the way from cover to cover.
I urge you to spend time this year in the Bible.
As
Americans we used to be a nation of the Book.
I don't think we're any longer a nation of the Book.
When
I was a kid, our teacher took us from Hartford City, Indiana down to Muncie,
and we toured a slaughterhouse. Have
you ever done that? They used to do
that back in the days when we went to school, and I will never forget what I
saw. They took us through each
stage. Well, anyway, they don't do that
today. I don't know if they are allowed
to take children to slaughterhouses anymore.
I don't know. People don't do
that.
But
I will tell you what we do here in America.
We won't do that, but we allow our little children to witness a same-sex
‘marriage’. We have all kinds of things
that we allow them to do and it just doesn't make sense. Crime is increasing. Lawlessness is rampant. In many areas it's no longer safe to walk at
night. I'm going to go on a hike this
summer, in June, out to northern Montana to see grizzly bears. I like bears. And the instructions tell me, don't walk at night. The night belongs to the animals. And that's true in the large cities too. The night belongs to the animals. The people that are not Christians, that
will hurt you. And lawlessness is
increasing. America, I'm afraid, we are
entering a post-Christian age. I sense
that.
And
what is the cause of this? I think the
cause is that we neglect our Bibles. We
spend time watching our TV. We spend
time on the radio. We spend time
listening to our music, but we are not a people of the Book like we ought to
be, and I wonder if England has been doing the same thing. Neglecting the Bible. Because I read that over a 20 year period of
time that 4 hundred Christian churches in England have been converted to Moslem
mosques, and that's not just in England.
That is just in London and its environment. Its surrounding areas.
That is bad.
We
need the Bible. We're entering a dark
period of the history of the world. A
period when sin is very, very much an abundance. And we need the light of the Bible. We are told that this Book is our light, a light to our path.
You
know, there was a little girl riding a train one day with her mother. And it was a beautiful sunshiny day and the
train man came through their coach and lit the lanterns above, and she watched
him do that and she looked out the window and the sun was shining. It was the middle of the day, and then he
lit another lantern and then another one and went on to the next coach doing
the same thing, and she said, "Mommy, why is he lighting the lanterns in
the middle of the day?" And the
mother said, "Honey, just watch."
Well, a few minutes later they went into a long dark tunnel. They needed that light. And I believe that God has provided us with
a Light. Let's use our Light. It'll keep your batteries from going
dead. This Light will do that. America is entering a dark age. Don't let the Bible gather dust in your
life.
And
don't use the Bible to pound other people over the head. "You realize it says here you're doing
wrong, sir, you're doing wrong, ma’am.
You ought to read this."
No, it's for you. Don't beat
people over the head with the Bible.
Don't twist the Bible or misuse the Bible.
There
was a lady that I read about. Let me
quote what she says. She says, "My
pastor husband, Scott, has a sweet tooth." You know pastors have that.
"And I knew that the chocolate chip cookies that I had just baked
might disappear before I returned from running errands, so to discourage him I
taped a verse on the wrapped package of goodies." Beat him over the head with the Bible. And here's the verse that she taped on here. "Everything is
permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial." That's in First Corinthians 6, verse 12. She continues writing. She says, “When I returned, I found half of
the cookies were gone and another verse was attached to the package. This was Proverbs 13:25.” You can read it sometime. Well, I can read it for you. It says, “The righteous
eat to their heart’s content.”
Now, don't go write that verse down.
“The righteous eat to their heart’s content, but
the stomach of the wicked goes hungry.”
Twisting
the Bible is dangerous. That's why we
have so many churches in America. We
need to read it right. Accept the words
of the Bible, just like they are. In
fact, accept them, do some of you do texting?
These are God's text messages to you.
These texts in here are for you.
Accept them. Read them for what
they are. In the pages of the Book are
hundreds of text messages just for you.
They're just as important, in fact, they're more important than those
text messages that you get on your little cell phone. More important. So please
read them.
President
Woodrow Wilson urged, he said, “I ask every man and woman in this audience that
from this day on, we realize that the destiny of America lies in the daily
perusal of this book, the Bible.” The
destiny of America. John 6, verse 63,
gives you, come over here to John 6, in your Bible, verse 63. This gives you the reason why this Book is
so valuable. Why this book is so important. Teddy Roosevelt said, "Through a
knowledge of the Bible it is more value than a college education." Look at John, chapter 6 and verse 63. It says, "The
words," these are the words of Jesus. "The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are" what? "They’re life." They’re life.
I
wish America would indeed, I wish that all nations would make this Book paramount. That they would make this Book as their
guide, and then we would see the life of the Bible flow into our nation. And into our homes. And into our children. The Bible brings real life.
Christ's
Object Lessons, page 60 says this.
"God bids us to fill the mind with great thoughts, with pure
thoughts. He desires us to meditate
upon His love and mercy. To study His
wonderful work in the great plan of redemption, and then clearer and still
clearer will be our perception of truth.
Higher and holier our desire for purity of heart and clearness of
thought. The soul dwelling in the pure
atmosphere of the holy thought will be transformed by communion with God
through the study of the Scriptures."
That's how it happens. If you
want to transform the life then you've got to immerse yourself in the study of
the Scriptures. It just has, there's no
other way to do it. It’ll change
you. So study the Bible.
Acts
17, verse 11 says, it talks about a group of people. It says, "They were more noble than
those in Thessalonica because they received the word with all readiness of
mind. They searched the Scriptures
daily whether those things were so." You need to be in the Bible every day. Every day. Acts 17:11.
You’ve
heard of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
They have this huge museum up in Dayton, Ohio. Some of us go to Dayton, Ohio now and then and as you go by there
on I-75 you can see that wonderful monument there. And they finally on December 17, 1903, they achieved flight. At least long enough so that they could say,
“We did it.” It was 59 seconds of
airborne and they were so elated. And
so, what they did, they sent a telegram to their sister in Dayton, Ohio telling
of this great accomplishment, there from Kitty Hawk, and the telegram, let me
read you the telegram. Very short, says,
"The first sustained flight today, 59 seconds. Hope to be home by Christmas." Well, their sister was so excited about the success of her
brothers. She ran the telegram down to
the newspaper and gave it to the editor and said, “Put this in the paper.”
The
editor read it and he did. The next
morning, the newspaper headline read, “Popular local bicycle merchants to be
home for holidays.” They had missed one
of the greatest stories in the history of the United States. Why did the editor miss it? Because he just, he would just, “Oh, ok.
They’re going to be home.”
When
you read the Bible pay attention to what you're reading. Pay attention to it. If you're too casual or you read too quickly
you might miss some truth that's likely to affect you in your life. Maybe God wants you to be in church more
this year. Maybe God wants you to be a
different person this year. Maybe you've
been neglecting the Lord this year or last year. Well this year could be different, and the Bible can help you
achieve that. Read it. Read it slow. Take your time.
Especially read the familiar passages slow because you've already got a
preconceived opinion on those. All
Scriptures should be read more closely.
Let the deep meaning sink into your heart. Study the Bible, carefully.
Don't miss any point.
You
know, the honey bee, the diligent honey bee will fill their cells with the
sweet nectar. They have that honeycomb
all filled up. You don't see them doing
it much. You see a bee around now and
then, but they are filling up their cells with honey. You need, every day, to be filling up the cells of your heart
with the nectar of the Word of God.
With the sweetness of Jesus.
That's what you need to put in there.
And that's not just for your husband.
That's for you. That's not just
for your kids, that's for you as a parent.
It's for all of us. We all need
to be immersing ourselves in the Word of God.
Filling up our heart with the sweetness of Jesus. Others might not see you sitting there
filling up your life, but they’ll see it in your life. The power of the Bible. It's not in the ink. It's not in the paper. It's not in the leather. It's in the words. The words are life. They
really are.
So
sink your teeth into the Bible. There's
no substitute. You get the Little Friend. You get the Junior Guide. You get all the Insight. You get the Review. You get the quarterly. No substitute for the real thing. One day somebody gave me a copy of a copy of
a copy of a copy. And I could hardly read
it. It was almost unreadable. Go to the real thing. Go to the source. Don't go to other people's ideas.
Romans
chapter 10 and verse 17 says, “Faith comes by,”
what? “By
hearing. And hearing by,”
what? “By the
Word of God.” Get your kids into
the Bible and they'll have faith.
Now
I have an idea for you. I don't know if
you've ever thought of this idea. I
would like for you to go buy a brand-new Bible, and I would like for you to
read it this year for one of your kids.
Now let me explain myself. Let's
say your kid is named Frank or Sally or whatever. Read a new Bible. Read it
through once. Maybe several times. This might take a year, or two or
three. Dedicate the Bible, you’re going
to give this Bible to that child when you're done with it. Dedicate that time to that child. Before you open that Book pray for that child. And then as you read that Book, you fill the
side margins, fill those side margins with notes about that child. Of how you're praying that this text will be
fulfilled in their life. "Today, I
prayed that the promise in this verse might be yours." And tell them about all this. Write notes in there and then when you're
through, a couple or 3 or 4 years later, you give that marked Bible to that
child and place it in their hands. Your
son. Your daughter. And it'll change their life. It'll change your life. Just try that. Try that. The marked
Bible. There's power in a marked
Bible. Why not mark it up for your
kids. And then when you get through
with that child go to the next child.
And if you’re a grandparent, do it for your grandchildren. Why not?
There
was a little boy that was born blind.
Finally, a surgeon said, “I think I can help him.” So they did an operation, took off the
bandages, and lo and behold, he looked around the room. He saw his mother's face, saw the doctor, he
said, “I can see everything. This is
wonderful.” The first time in his life he
had ever seen. His mother took him
outdoors and he looked up and saw the sky and the trees and saw birds go across
and he could see shadows. He said, “Mommy,
why didn’t you ever tell me about all this?” She said, "I tried to but you couldn't understand."
You
know, it's that way when you try to understand the Bible with your spiritual
eyes shut. You're not going to get much
out of it. Unless your spiritual sight
is open, you can't fully appreciate the beauty of God in this Book. Psalm 119, verse 18. "Open Thou mine
eyes that I may behold the wondrous things out of Thy law.” Out of Thy Book. You need to have your eyes open when you're reading this
book. Psalm, chapter 1 and verse 2,
says, "His delight is in the law of the Lord and
in this law he doth meditate day and night." You need to meditate.
You
know what the word ‘meditate’ means? It
means ‘chew the cud’. That's what the
word ‘meditate’ means. That's the base
meaning of the word and if you have stood watching a cow chewing her cud you
understand what God wants you to do with the Bible. He wants you to consume it, to eat it, to masticate it, to make
it a part of you, to swallow it, to digest it, to assimilate it and make it a
part of your very, very being. And
you'll grow from it.
I
believe that a preacher's sermons are probably doubled in their effect when he
preaches to a congregation that is a Bible reading congregation. It makes the sermons better. It doubles the power of the preacher to have
a congregation that reads the Bible. So
study it carefully. Think of it
prayerfully. Ponder its mystery. Slight not its history. Spend that thoughtful hour and be enriched
by its power. And this year, allow the
waters of the great reservoir of all truth and wisdom to irrigate your thirsty
soul and you will be changed. I
guarantee it. God guarantees it. Get into the word this year. Okay?
Let’s
sing our closing hymn, Give Me The Bible.
Hymn of Praise: #21, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise Scripture: Psalms 119:9-11 Hymn of Response: #272, Give Me The Bible
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 1/16/09