God’s Unfailing Word

Well, today is Tuesday, July 18th.

I'm Jon Galantis. I'm here with Dr. Abbadon Shah and you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in, suggest we talk about here on the show, you can always send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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We are going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming from Proverbs 29. We talked about Proverbs yesterday and so today's verse of the day is coming from Proverbs 29 and verse 25. It says, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.

Wow. It's kind of just like what we talked about yesterday. Like people tend to sleep on the book of Proverbs. They think that, you know, Proverbs are sort of the, like, I think he said like the kindergarten to second grade sort of, sort of a book, but there, there's some real godly wisdom in here.

And I don't even say that just like, Hey, there's some stuff about you. Like it's the word of God. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. You know, think about that church in Smyrna. We were in Smyrna.

We were in Izmir, which is near Smyrna, ancient Smyrna. The complaint that Jesus had against them was this. He says in Revelation chapter two, verse eight, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna, right? These things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life.

I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. So the fear of it is not a compliment to say, I'm afraid. Fear of man brings a snare. And this church was being warned that if you fear, I'm going to come and take the lampstand away from you.

Yeah. Well, we think, we think that Jesus, when he says, Hey, do not fear. Don't be afraid. We think he's encouraging us. It's a command. It's a command.

It's a command. Hey, don't do this. Right.

It's not just like, Oh, now, now don't. Don't come on. Don't be afraid guys. We can do it. We can do it.

Just trust me. Well, that's okay. That may have some implications and applications, but in these passages, whether the one you just read or in Revelation chapter two, because it's ends with that letter to Smyrna ends with this. He who has an ear, this is for Revelation 2.11 in case some of our listeners viewers are looking for it.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. So fear will keep you from overcoming the second death. Isn't it crazy how something we, and we, we glorify fear. We glorify our anxiety. We glorify our stress. We, we do everything we can to let the world know how scared and fearful and anxious and stressed out we are.

And it's the exact opposite of what Christ says. And people are wearing their fears, their phobias as a badge of honor. Like, Hey, this is my fear. You should honor this. You should recognize, you should validate, validate this for me. Yeah.

You should, you should alter your life to accommodate that. Yeah. This is my fear guys. Okay.

Now this is my fear. Yeah. I'm very triggered right now. Point of privilege. I am becoming very, very triggered. You know, it's, it's one of those, I was going to try to blow past it, but I remember what you're talking about.

Point of privilege. I would like to, it's just one of those things that if Jesus himself is intervening in the life of your church, you, you would think like, okay, these seven churches should still be alive and active 2000 years later because Jesus himself warned them. Like if Jesus like himself came to Clearview and it's like, Hey, here's something I want to change it. I would be like, got it.

Yes, sir. Well think about when he was in the boat with the disciples, when he woke up and they woke him up, you know, like, like little kids, wake up, wake up, wake up. What are you doing? It's tightening and laundering.

I used to say that as a kid, it's tightening and laundering. I don't know what to say after that point. They're scared. They're scared. So what did Jesus say? Oh, little poor children. How often I wanted you to come next to me and in the midst of, no, he's like, why are you afraid? Why did you doubt? Yeah.

I'm on the boat. Yeah. So there's a lesson there for us when it comes to fear.

That's right. I had someone write this in, this is from David M. We hadn't got a, we hadn't got a text in a while because they, they typically go to Ryan, but he actually sent me this one. Million dollars, Dr. Shaw. This one's gross.

I don't think you're going to like this. You might like the million dollars, but for one year, anytime you eat a meal, you have to cover it in Thousand Island dressing. Like it doesn't matter what the meal is. Like before I eat or, well, I mean, of course.

Oh yeah, yeah. You got to eat it covered in Thousand Island. So if it's like a steak, if it's like pasta, God forbid, or if it's like, I don't know, pizza, you just got to cover it in Thousand Island. And I get how much? You get a million dollars. You only have to do it for a year. I'll do it. You do it? I'll do it. A million dollars, right? Yeah. A million dollars.

Every meal covered in Thousand Island. I asked some of the staff earlier, they would not do it. Oh yeah, I wouldn't do it. Would you do it, David?

A million dollars. My man looks convinced. You would eat every meal covered in Thousand Island dressing? Yeah. I had no problem at all. I would eat every meal covered in Thousand Island.

I would like cover my laptop when I work in Thousand Island. You don't got to ask me. I mean, I would also do it, but I would be pretty miserable. Well, you guys let us know right in. Would you take a million dollars to eat every single meal covered in Thousand Island dressing?

I'm kind of gagging a little bit just thinking about it. I want to also text Ryan and see what he would say. We're going to start the show in just a moment. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, text us, 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com.

We're going to be right back after this. If we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clear View Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clear View and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at clearviewbc.org, or you can download the Clear View app on iTunes or Google Play.

On that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abidhan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at clearviewtodayshow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in, suggest that we talk about, any future topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. And don't forget, if this is your first time ever tuning into the show, we want to let you know who's talking to you. Dr. Abidhan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's abidhanshah.com. Dr. Shah, happy Tuesday. Happy Tuesday to you as well. Happy Tuesday. Did people ever greet you like a happy Sunday when they came to church?

Was that a thing when you moved to the south? Well, the one I remember is happy Easter, and it was a happy resurrection Sunday. Really?

I'm like, why are you saying that? But they were saying it because they misunderstood that the Easter has to do with some goddess is a star. That's got nothing to do with that. We've covered that.

I think we've covered that on the show. But we're talking today about this unfailing word of God. One of the things that I've always admired about you, and we talked about this on the show, is just that there's a deep love and appreciation for the text, God's word. And if you truly believe that this book is God's word, then our lives become devoted to it. We build our lives and our church and our ministries upon this word.

That's literally the first core value of our church, is we're a Bible-believing church. Well, you have a choice. Either you can believe your emotions, you can believe your experience, your human wisdom, some knowledge, some expert that you know in your life or in the world, and then you play the dice and see if your life will work out. You have a choice. But on the other hand, you have a book that claims to be God's breath, that comes from eternity, right? From the beginning of time, I should say, and will go on into eternity. This is the word of God. It lives and abides forever. You have a choice.

Which way are you going to live? I definitely find that when I'm drifting in life or when I find myself doubting and I'm nervous or I'm anxious and I've just always got that dread in my stomach, 100% of the time, not most of the time, but every single time, it's because I'm not reading it. I'm not in it like I should be. I'll go maybe a day and I'm like, well, that's a day. That's not a big deal.

I'll pick it up tomorrow. And then of course something happens tomorrow and I don't. And then I'll go weeks at a time and I'm like, I'm not reading it and I'm stressed and I'm fearful and I'm drifting. And that's what causes it every time is not being in that word. Right, right. We start living by ideas, emotions, experiences, feelings, the world, some expert, some book, some movie, some song.

And there is no guarantee that any of those things will help you or enable you to get to the goal you think you're going to. It's the word of God that lives and abides forever that helps us get to our goal and get there successfully and overcome the problems along the way. And then, you know, find peace and joy. So God's unfailing word.

Yeah. Well, I like that you mentioned even songs because Christians will typically, they'll put so much emphasis on the worship and the music. When I say the worship, I mean like the singing portion of church, because worship we know is much more than that, but I'm talking about they'll put so much emphasis on that time of singing because they want that uplift, that emotional uplift. And I've never heard a worship song that can sustain my heart.

You know what I mean? None can. It can't.

It literally can't. The Psalms can, God's word can, but I've never listened to a song like that. I've had some that kind of put me on that mountain top, like we were talking about yesterday and brought my spirits up, but I'm always, without the word of God, I'm always going to sink back down. Well, here's what the Bible says in first Peter chapter one, verse 23, it says, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever because 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, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Well, Paul wrote, I mean, Peter wrote this letter and he was writing to the various churches of Asia Minor, but to the North of Asia Minor, which is like modern day Turkey, but the Northern side kind of around the Black Sea area. Did y'all get to go to that area?

No. We went to Istanbul, Constantinople, we stayed there for a day or two and then we immediately headed South to Adana. And then we began, we couldn't go to Antioch on the Orentus because of the earthquake. So we went to Adana, from Adana we went to Tarsus, which is right there, Paul of Tarsus.

So we went to his hometown and kind of went along the Southern coast. So we kind of missed the North. But Peter is writing to the North.

To the North, Bithynia, Pontus, that part of the country. And so they're going through some difficult times. They're facing trials. And Paul was, I keep saying Paul, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, he wrote this letter to encourage them. He was telling them, please don't get discouraged.

And he reminded them that this was simply a test of the genuineness of their faith. If we go through a trial and we're just enduring it just to see it through to the end, then the trial has no point. So what? Right. Right. God, God didn't work it together for good.

It was just some needless thing that he put on me for what I guess just because he likes to do that. No, it has a point. He's going to work something good through those. Right.

Yeah. Peter has said a lot of things in this letter about suffering and love and obedience and prayer. I don't want to get into all that, but I want to focus on that passage. It says, verse 23, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God. So in helping these Christians, Peter was reminding them that they were born again through the word of God. It means God's word saves us. Now, at first it sounds kind of strange because we immediately say, wait, no, no, Jesus saves us.

You know, what is saying here is this. Listen to James 1.18, if you don't mind. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. Again, Paul says in Ephesians 5.26 that Christ will sanctify and cleanse this church with the washing of water by the word. Also, Jesus said in John 15.3, you are already clean because of the word, which I have spoken to you.

So kind of a strange idea, but how does the word save us? We can look at creation and know that there is a God, right? We can look at the vast heavens and the deep seas, and we know that he is infinitely powerful. We can look at the many different kinds of creatures and know that he is creative. We can look at the human mind and know that he is infinitely wise.

We can look at the beautiful sunset, correct? And know that he loves beauty, but nothing tells us that God is holy and we are sinful and God will punish sin. But Jesus took God's punishment of sin upon himself. If you don't have the Bible, you'll never get to know it.

Right. It's only in the pages of God's word that we find God's answer to humankind's deepest needs, which are just sin, sorrow, and death. If you look, I see what you're saying. If you look anywhere else, that's not going to be the true gospel of Christ, because what we're saying is God has revealed himself in his word. And it's a very intentional revelation. So I see where you went with that.

I was kind of with you. I was like, yeah, well, how does the word saith only Christ saves us? But Christ is revealed in the word of God. Like that's plan of salvation. I'm not going to get it apart from this book. I'm not going to look at it.

And I've heard that illustration before, but it makes sense now. I'm not going to look up at the stars and say, wow, you know what? There must be a holy God out there. And judging by the beauty of this nighttime sky, I think I'm a sinner in need of God's loving grace.

Yeah. Cause I'm under the punishment of sin. Look at the thunder clouds gathering. Nobody says that. It's more like, let's get out of here.

Yeah, it's about to rain. But it's a Bible that tells us like Acts 16, 31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your household. Romans 10, 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And I love it's the same.

This is the same message. No matter where you go, it's always the same gospel. And it's always only through Christ. Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So this is the gospel that is the world across. I love it.

I love it. It's one of those things that you, you come to and you, you just realize that this book is different from every other book and there will always be people. And we've talked about this on the show. I think we've talked about it with the Quran.

We've talked about it with Hinduism and the various Gita's. They'll always try to compare them. But when you really look at it, there, there's no comparison.

It stands alone. It's the only book of its kind. It's getting to the heart of the real genuine problem of not just humankind, but also individual human beings. And I think that's where the love of this book comes in. Like, like the emotions that we come for. We know that our emotions, yes, they're shallow, but they're also real. And the love that we feel for this book comes from the fact that it is the only one of its kind.

That's what makes it valuable. And the way Peter describes it is this. Once he has told you that you're being born again, not of corruptible, but incorruptible through the word of God, he says, which he qualifies that with which lives and abides forever. What does that mean to live and abide forever? It means it never fails.

That's right. Cause word never fails. In this life, you know, many things will fail. People will fail. Your health may fail. Technology definitely fails. Automobiles may fail. Governments will fail, but God's word never fails.

Yeah. I love that because it's assurance and we know that because we've seen it time and time again. I can't think of one instance where I've ever seen God fail. I know my disobedience has led me to fail. I know that my wandering away from God's word and God's path, like we talked about yesterday, has led me to fail, but never once has God caused any of those things. And sometimes I've really, honestly, I'm not just saying this to be silly. I've racked my brain to try to think of a way that God has misled me or let me down or led me down the wrong path. Never once.

It's never ever going to come to me because it can't happen. He can't fail. Right. And Peter quotes from Isaiah 40. Remember you said just now, it's beautiful to see scripture quoting itself. So here he is quoting from Isaiah 40, which talks about all flesh as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower fades away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. So all flesh is as grass. I mean, think about our lives. There's just one moment they're here.

Next moment they're gone. All the glory of man is the flower of the grass. People do some amazing things, whether it's athletic things or artistic things or building massive businesses and corporations, but they all are like the flower of the grass, which means as the grass dies, the flower also bends down, wilts and falls away. You know what it makes me think of is those pictures you showed me of your dad's garden, like the garden by your dad's church when, or I guess by y'all's house as well when you were growing up. It just makes me think of all those flowers and those like trees. Like when you say, yeah, my dad had a garden. I was thinking like, like something like my mom's garden, like a little azalea bushes, or you showed me the pictures. I was like, this guy has like a jungle in his yard.

Like it was impressive. So when I went there, you know, I went looking around and guess what? Most of those flower pots were still there, but not the same flowers.

All kind of different. They're done. They died. Long time ago, they died. And so different flowers were there, different, you know, herbs or plants were there. But, but just like scripture says, the grass withers and the flower fades away.

They had, they had withered and faded away. You know, it's, it's one of the things that brings me comfort to know that it's not only the word, but that word also has promises. You know what I mean? Because that's really the thing, like the word, the wisdom of God, yes, it's never going to change. But for me, as a Christian, his promises to us, his covenant that he's made with his people, that if you if, what is it? If my people are called by my name, you know, I'll, I'll, and they turn from their sin. I'll hear, I'll hear them. Those promises.

He's still faithful today. Yeah. Can I give some promises? Please, please.

Hopefully somebody's watching on YouTube or they're listening on the radio network or they're listening on the podcast. Here are some promises guys. I promise you will never fail. God has promised in Psalm 50 verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. You're going through trouble. You're going through a difficult time. Call upon God. Say, God, I don't know what to do with this problem. I don't know what's happening. I am at the end of my rope. Call upon him and he will deliver you.

Here's another one. In Isaiah 40, 31, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. That's something we all need right now is a renewing of our strength. You know, the human body is just an amazing work of beauty and it's just amazing itself because have you ever been sick?

Oh yeah. I mean, how are you doing today? I'm doing fine.

What happened? Great. My strength was renewed. I got better.

Yeah. You recovered. That's amazing when you think about the human body, how it went through a very difficult time and then it came back, took some months. It wasn't immediate. It got stronger.

So also those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. That means there will be times where you'll feel like I just can't go another day. I just don't know what's happening. I'm frustrated. I am defeated. I'm discouraged. I don't know how it will make and then a day goes by a week, a month and you find yourself renewed in strength and what the world will tell you, what influencers on social media and Instagram and TikTok will tell you is that it's completely okay to feel that way, which it is, but that's where it stops because they'll never say, make sure you trust on the Lord so that he'll renew your strength. What they'll say is you've got this, you're strong, you can overcome this. Like it's never going to be that way. It is completely okay to feel those things, but then you also have to bring it back to that promise. Trust in the Lord, hope in the Lord.

That's where your renewing is going to come from. Here's another one. Let's go to the New Testament for a couple. Romans 8 28 and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. I love that. I love it. That's one of my favorite verses in all the Bible.

Many people who are listening today are watching. You may be going through a point of disillusionment, a place of doubt in your life because circumstances are not making sense. It does not make sense. You cannot seem to compute. You cannot seem to lay it out on a piece of paper how it went from A to Z. The dots are not connecting.

That's okay. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God. Here's another one.

Philippines 4 19. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Wherever you're struggling with, are you hoping will come through? Hey brother, hey sister, hang in there.

It's going to come. Yeah. That's very characteristic of Paul to put Christ right back in the center.

I love it. That it's riches and glory by Jesus. Here's another one. 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You've done something wrong. You've broken God's law. You've broken his commandments. You have failed somebody. Confess your sins to God. Don't live in denial. Don't live defending yourselves and don't live beating yourself down. Some people do that.

They just spend their lives. If they're, if they cannot justify it, they will spend their lives just saying, you know, I'm just a jerk. I'm just a horrible. I'm just a loser. I'm just no, no, no. Confess your sins to God.

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all our righteousness. Why do you want to live in defeat? Right. Right. And that's, that's something that's hard for people to do is to confess their sins.

Cause we're, we're very, we can be very fly under the radar. Like, okay, I know I sinned. God knows I sinned. Let's just move forward, but I'm not going to confess that sin. I'm not going to confront it. I'm not going to call sin sin.

Right. I'll call it something else. I'll call it my struggle. My struggle, my weakness, but not sin. Not my sin. God sees it as sin. Here's another one. This is Jesus in Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

That's about as, that's about as big as you can get heaven and earth itself. Like all the things we work for one day will be gone, but his word will not. You know, the French skeptic Voltaire said that within a hundred years, Christianity would be a thing of the past and the Bible would be in a museum. And when did he live? This, you know, you're going back in the enlightenment period, right? So he was wrong, I suppose. Yeah. So a hundred years went by and as Voltaire, who became a thing of the past. Yeah.

I've never heard of him. In fact, almost a hundred years after he died, his poem was used to keep Bibles and sell Bibles. For real? Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it's interesting. That's how the world works. Yeah, that's true. I've never, I've never once heard of Voltaire.

Not before, not before this episode. Yeah, Voltaire, interesting guy. If I want to say something about him, I mean, he just, he just a skeptic.

I'm a very smart guy, philosopher, but at the same time, an ardent skeptic. And he just constantly criticized the Roman Catholic church and, and, and all of that for their failure and all that stuff. And as to age, he lived from 1694 to 1778. So he, so 1694, so the Bible had been around for centuries by that point.

And he thought that a hundred years from his life. Because it's the age of enlightenment. People in the, in the, we're not talking about Renaissance. We're not talking about reformation. We're talking about enlightenment that came at the end of the Renaissance reformation.

And it was almost a sense of optimism. Like we can do whatever. We don't need this, this, this crutch called Jesus. We don't need this Bible.

We can do whatever we want to do. So his house became a place to sell Bibles? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Voltaire was an advocate of, you know, a lot of freedoms and things like that, but he was definitely wrong. God's word outlived him. Oh yeah. And I think that proves the point that we're, that we're saying here is that nothing is ever going to surpass God's word. It's always going to be around.

It's going to be here way, way long after we're gone. And our goal with this radio show is to get that word into your mind and your heart every single day. That's why we do this daily show, because we want you guys to be exposed to the word daily and not only just hear it from us, but that we'd encourage you to go read it for yourself and make that a part of your daily routine. If you enjoyed today's topic or you have any suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at 2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. You can also visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. And don't forget, you can support us financially on that same website as well. It's ClearViewTodayShow.com. Every single time you make a donation, every time that you give, you are helping us get the word of Jesus Christ into the airwaves for someone out there who needs to hear that Jesus is Lord today. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.