Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sunday Sermonette

Mindful of the Words
March 28, 2010

"That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." (2 Peter 3:2)

There has long been a tendency for certain Bible teachers to water down the doctrine of verbal inspiration by arguing that it is the "thoughts" of Scripture that count--not the precise words. They forget that the transmission of specific thoughts requires precise words. Ambiguous language is bound to produce fuzzy thinking and uncertain response.

Thus the apostle Peter, in his last chapter, urged his followers to heed the words written by the Old Testament prophets. And Paul--in his final epistle--stressed that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). That is, all the writings are "God-breathed." The "Scripture," of course, means the writings, the actual words written down--they are "God-inspired," not just the concepts.

Similarly John, in his last chapter, warned of the grave danger incurred by anyone who would either "add to" or "take away from," not just the ideas, but "the words of the book of this prophecy" (Revelation 22:18-19). Actually, "he which testifieth these things" was not just John but the glorified Jesus Himself (see Revelation 22:16, 20).

In fact, Jesus frequently quoted passages from the Old Testament, sometimes basing His entire thrust on a single word (e.g., John 10:34, 37; arguing on the basis of the word "gods" in Psalm 82:6). In that connection, He stressed that "the scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), referring to the actual words written by Moses and the prophets.

Near the end of His earthly ministry, He made a startling promise: "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31). Thus the actual words of the Bible have come ultimately from God, and we do well to learn them and make them a part of our lives. HMM

h/t: Henry M Morris, Institute For Creation Research

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday Sermonette

Aceldama
March 21, 2010

"And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood." (Acts 1:19)

Never was a tract of land more fittingly named than Aceldama, an Aramaic word meaning "field of blood," for it had been purchased with blood money, "the price of blood" (Matthew 27:6). The purchaser had been Judas (through the "executors" of his estate, as it were, following his suicide), but the blood he sold, to acquire the price of the field, he had deemed "innocent blood."

The miserable thirty shekels of silver which consummated this transaction was the price of a slave in ancient Israel (Exodus 21:32), but this slave was none other than God incarnate, so the thirty pieces of silver--the price set by the religious leaders of Israel--was the price for the sale of God.

The prophet Zechariah, more than 500 years before, had acted out a prophecy of these strange events: "So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver . . . a goodly price that I was prised at of them" (Zechariah 11:12-13). Next, according to both prophecy and fulfillment, this blood money was cast down in the temple and then used to buy the potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:5, 7-8).

These and many other such details in these accounts constitute a remarkable type and fulfillment of prophecy, and thus a testimony of both divine inspiration and divine foreordination. But, more than that, it is a striking picture of the price of our salvation, for the "field of blood" typifies that great field is the world (Matthew 13:38) and Christ is the man who, searching for "treasure hid in a field . . . selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field" (Matthew 13:44). All that He had--the very blood of His life--was willingly shed that we, dead in sins and hidden in the world, might be "purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). HMM

h/t: Henry M Morris, Institute For Creation Research

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sunday Sermonette

Settled in Heaven
March 14, 2010

"For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119:89)

There are yet quite a number of unsettled controversies among Bible scholars as to the original text of certain passages in both Old and New Testaments. In fact, a frequent objection raised to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is that, since all the original "autographs" have been lost, we can never really be sure of any passage.

It is interesting to speculate on what happened to those manuscripts directly inspired by God and penned by Moses, John, Paul, and the others. It is strange that they all simply disappeared, with not a hint as to their history. If they had been preserved in a church or monastery somewhere, they would soon have become idolatrous objects of worship, so it is probably best they are gone.

But where did they go? The famous "ark of the covenant" similarly vanished at the time of the Babylonian invasion, and many fruitless searches have been conducted for it even in modern times. In this case, however, we do have a remarkable revelation. "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament" (Revelation 11:19). Evidently, the ark has been translated into heaven! We must realize that heaven is a real place in this eternal physical cosmos. Enoch and Elijah were translated there in their earthly bodies, and Christ is there in His physical resurrection body.

If, perhaps, angels somehow carried the original manuscripts of God’s Word to heaven after enough copies had been made to assure its faithful transmission on earth, placing them there in the ark, like the tablets of the law when it was still on the earth, this would surely give added meaning to our wonderful text verse: "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven!" HMM

h/t: Henry M Morris, Institute For Creation Research

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Sunday Sermonette

The Duty of Rejoicing
March 7, 2010

"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee." (Psalm 5:11)

It may seem strange to think of rejoicing as a Christian duty, but the Scriptures do contain many commands to rejoice, and many of these are given in circumstances of grief or danger, as is the case of our beautiful text verse.

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4), Paul wrote from a Roman dungeon. In the upper room the night before He was to die on a cross, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). And then He said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16:2). But then He said again: "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).

If David could rejoice while fleeing from murderous enemies, if Paul could rejoice while chained unjustly in a Roman prison, if the disciples could experience fullness of joy while facing martyrdom, and if the Lord Himself "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2), then our Christian duty of rejoicing in all circumstances may not be such an unseemly command after all.

We can rejoice, as our text reminds us, "because thou defendest them." Furthermore, He Himself provides the joy, for "the fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy" (Galatians 5:22). It is not that the Christian will never know sorrow, for Christ Himself was "a man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3). But He also was a man of joy and, in Him, we can be like Him--"as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing" (2 Corinthians 6:10). HMM

h/t: Henry M Morris, Institute For Creation Research