High View of Our Scripture (Part B)

Prophecy means what God has spoken. That's the first definition of prophecy. Foretelling the future is the secondary, not the primary. It is critical.

I'm not downsizing it. I'm just outlining it. Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. How were they moved? He breathed into them.

He imparted the information using their personalities. Now, here's Pastor Rick in Proverbs chapter 30 as he continues his message, The High View of Our Scripture. As our Lord taught us on the road to Emmaus, unity and faith with Mary worshippers, Buddhism, Islam, liberalism, when you come across those who are calling themselves part of the Christian community, and yet they are throwing feathers at these things, then something is wrong. And so are we to classify such crimes against the pure word as a theological misdemeanor. Is it a misdemeanor? It's a high crime.

It's a capital crime. And we have to stand up. It's always grass root if the Holy Spirit is moving. One thing I loved about Calvary Chapel when I first discovered her, which I am so concerned about the Calvary Chapel movement today, because many ravenous wolves have crept in and they are doing damage. But when I first came to Calvary, it was grass root. It was the people. Anybody who loved the Lord could receive the word of God and not be suspicious, not wonder if it was the word of God or not, or if somebody was up to something or trying to get into their pockets or start a new cult. It was just loving on the Lord according to His word. God says His word is pure with men who use His name are now disputing it with the potential to reach the world from their kitchen.

They can go to their kitchen and from their laptop or their smartphone or whatever else they can send out these low minded views instantly. And so Proverbs 17 for an evil doer gives heed to false lips, a liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. You see, there are those they want the Bible to not be true. Why? Because it's hard. It's difficult. It's the Christian life of bearing the cross. But here's the part that Satan won't tell you.

All of life is difficult. And so Christ comes along and says, make it count. Make it worth something. Have it show up when you stand before me. You know, those works that are not destroyed in the fire. Not the wood, the hay, and the stubble, but that which is purified. And so every word He says to us here in this proverb, now I begin my sermon. When we speak of every word, it's of course the New Testament says all scripture is God breathed. The Greek is God breathed. As God breathed breath into Adam, He breathed life into His word.

We'll talk about how He did it in a minute. But all scripture is breathed by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. What does that leave out in the human experience and human behavior? That it's profitable.

It's worth it. And so when we talk about the word of God, we are dealing with the most solemn thing on earth. God's word. There's no thing higher than God's word.

God speaks and He has spoken and the Bible is sole source and is not ashamed of that. You have people that finally have a problem with that. Do that with their money. Say, well, what's in your wallet is now what's going to be in my wallet.

Because why should you be the sole source possessor of your money? It's a philosophy that is easily destroyed, I think, in so many other ways. Clever minds, more clever than minds. Oh wait, there is no more clever than minds. God speaks and He has spoken. Hebrews chapter 1, God who at various times and in various ways, spoken times past to the fathers, has in these last days spoken to us through His Son.

Nothing, nothing about that is difficult to understand. Nothing about that is offensive to anyone who wants a right relationship with Jesus Christ. And therefore His word is not only an appeal to the reasoning mind, it's an appeal to the soul and the soul is who you are. When you die your body will rot. The Spirit of God, if it is in you, will live forever. But the lost soul has not the Spirit of God in them, they just have a soul. And that soul will live forever too.

But where? Where will it live? It will not live in glory. The Christian will. So it is about the soul. It is paramount the soul. It is all about the soul. And that's why the word of God is that single most important thing to us because it cares for the soul.

It is a shield for us as our text tells us. Again, we read Proverbs 35, verse 5. Every word of God is pure.

He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Looking at that from John's Gospel, chapter 1, you say, wait a minute, Solomon, you just linked the pure word of God with God the Son and the flesh come to earth. As we read about in John's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, and then verse 14, which we'll get to as we move through this morning a little bit quicker here though. And so, coming back to this, the soul is paramount.

If man is to judge scripture, then scripture is not the word of God to that man. Now at some point, we do have to examine it. When we're first being exposed to it, we have to make a decision based on what we're listening to, what we're receiving. But at a point, the decision has been made. The realization has entered in. We've got it. And then Satan says, okay, you've got it.

I'll be back and I'm going to steal it from you. That's his goal. He's a liar, he's a thief, and that's what he does. And so we are armed against him, the Lord being our shield, using the very word that Satan wants to steal from us as our shield. And there, there, man's low estimate of what God's word means lies when he begins to become the judge of God's word and decides what is true and what is not. Isaiah 66, solemn words from Isaiah on this matter. Thus says Yahweh, but on this one will I look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Do you tremble at his word?

I can tell you. Sometimes I read things like, Master, Master, didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we prophesy in your name? And what does he say? Get away from me.

I never knew you. Does that not make you tremble? Who can forget that when I brought that verse up who said I never heard that before? No Christian that is into the word. We all know that section of scripture. And so if scripture is God's word, then it must judge man. And this is what man does not want, fallen man. Man that is not regenerated. Man's unbelief and disbelief do not make God unbelievable or impure.

It is self-condemning to try it. Romans 3, for what if some did not believe? Now remember when Paul writes the Roman letter, and this will help you on those difficult sections. He uses a question-answer format. And so he's always throwing these questions out, which I think many Bible commentators lose sight of. They know it, but they seem to lose sight of it when they get to special sections.

But anyway, for our purpose, it helps to understand. Paul asks this question. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without a fact?

And then he answers the questions. He couldn't say that in the Greek, so he said certainly not. Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. And so Solomon says the word is pure.

God's speaking through him. Psalm 12, 6, the words of Yahweh are pure words. Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thoroughly cleansed. Pure, pure in the highest sense. Now we have things like pure olive oil, extra pure, super duper extra, infinity pure, extra olive oil.

We don't need all of that. If it's pure, that's it. There's no higher. That's it.

No superlatives won't help you. You're just making yourself look silly. Like Jesus said, you know, let your no be known, your yes be yes or not. Yes, I really, really, really, really mean it.

Like, I really, really like mean it. Well, the purity of the word. Not the purity of the life.

We're not talking about that. Your life, my life, not pure. We're not talking about the purity of the life. We're not pure.

We are very impure. It takes a pure word to wash us clean. And that's why Paul makes the reference in Ephesians, we are washed, we are regenerated through the washing and regeneration of the word. So we're talking about doctrinal agreement with God.

That's what we're talking about. When we're talking about this purity of the word, I am impure. But there's one greater than I who is pure, who has decided and come up with a way to save me from my impurity. And that is in his pure word. And if I take that out of the pure word, what can I then trust?

Nothing. So we must remember that the principle of peace is purity. You want peace with God? You're going to have to have purity. It has to be imparted. It has to be administered to you, you and me, through the blood of the Lamb.

It makes us white as snow. James, but this is the wisdom, James 3.17, that is from above, pardon me, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, not compromise. Turn the other cheek, not strive, not promote oneself. Full of mercy. Any of you full of mercy? Or are you harboring grudges because someone hurt your feelings?

This is very easy to do. It's so easy when someone hurts you. It's a satisfaction in hating them back.

Think of all the things you would do to them if you could. And that's Satan, of course. And we come to a place like this, and if a friend can't tell you to your face, you need to let that go, the pastor can tell you. Because the Holy Spirit comes right alongside you and says, gotcha.

What you going to do? Anyway, back to this, the fact is, in no way changed because we may not feel condemned. We understand this. We may not feel the purity of God. We may not feel our impurity and condemnation that is upon us. That's not necessary. God spoke it.

That's what is necessary, what He has said. And so the Bible does not cater to self-deception. It seeks to correct it. And this is why so many people have a problem with it and they want to correct the Bible. And according to their idea of correction, and this is wrong.

And this is a reality. There's no way around this, so it's time to line up on God's side or the other side. You cannot have Bible truth without Bible teaching that mankind is broken without God.

And only with Jesus Christ are they repaired. We must not be ambiguous about this. This is not something that we should be unclear about when we're sharing Jesus Christ.

I don't think most of you are, but my fear is later you might be or you have people in your library who are that way. You have people in the Christian circles that you admire who aren't clear about these things. They're not upholding these doctrines. Do you know when Charles Briggs and Harry Emerson Fosdick were pulling their stunts, men who were once lions in the faith began to yield to them for the sake of unity of the Presbyterian Church.

And they failed. Unity does not come before truth. Truth establishes who we will unite with and who we will preach to. It is not us against the world, it is us for the world. It's very difficult to remember because the world's so irritating.

Constantly making the same mistakes and touting it as a victory. This is our gospel. Jesus said this. When he has come, he's speaking of the Holy Spirit. He's speaking as a pronoun, a person, the Holy Spirit.

Not a force out there, but the person of the Holy Spirit. When he has come, he will convict the world of sin. That means he lays down the evidence. You are guilty, here's the proof, and you can't deny it. And so they don't deny it, they just try to destroy it.

They tamper with the evidence. It continues, Jesus does. End of righteousness, he will convict the world of sin, end of righteousness, end of judgment of sin, because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. You see, conviction, righteousness, trying to correct things according to God's plan.

That's what the Christian faith largely involved. You younger Christian, now's the time. Don't think you've got to wait.

Do not think you've got to be this or that before you can start embracing these truths. Now is the time. Satan will come along and say, red light, ha ha, you can't move.

Red light, green light, one, two, three. That's what Satan plays. God says today, right now.

Start getting it in now. You've got no time to waste. You don't want to look back and say, why didn't I give those earlier years to Jesus Christ? And so, again, these facts are no ways. They do not fall off the table if the guilty don't feel guilty. Purity condemns impurity as a crooked stick is condemned by a straight one. And that's what the church is supposed to be. Purity is always stronger than impurity. And to seek God's power to bless without allowing his word to purify by correction is to remain weak and weaker. If you want God's blessings but you do not want his purifications, you can forget the blessings. And any blessings you may salvage out of that will not be what they could have been. And that brings with it a tragedy all of its own. And so to have little concern for doctrinal purity is to be right where the devil wants you.

Right there. We talk about the sword of the faith. The sword of the faith is your doctrine.

What else could it possibly be? And so while every word of God is pure, every word of man is not. But we have a decontamination filter. And thus, Titus said, to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled, nothing is pure.

They have not our filter. And so this word of God filtered, 2 Peter chapter 1, for prophecy never came by the will of man. When he says prophecy, he's not saying, oh, just telling the future. Prophecy means what God has spoken. That's the first definition of prophecy. Foretelling the future is the secondary, not the primary. It is critical.

I'm not downsizing it. I'm just outlining it. Prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. How were they moved? He breathed into them.

He imparted the information using their personalities. And so do those who claim to belong to Christianity while rejecting his words believe scripture is not the special authority? Yeah. And you say, well, I don't come across these things. I'm too busy just trying to get my own life together. If God's doctrine is not the priority in your life, you will always be trying to get your life together. You will be on the treadmill of constantly putting second things first and always ending up with the second result.

Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. And therein is the fight. And I don't want to sound harsh.

I'm in this fight, too. It's not always easy. What do you do when the wrong mood shows up? Dial up for the right mood.

If you're in school and you've got to do an assignment, if you can't get past the mood, the assignment won't get done right, if at all. You've got to take the first step. You've got to put that pen down and start moving. And so it is with the Christian life. You've got to start swinging your sword or else atrophy will come in. Ephesians 4.

Don't worry, we've got an hour left, so plenty of time. But you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Do these newer Christians preaching these things, and I don't want to say their names, I want you to be able to also to identify them on your own.

I think that's what God wants. That's why I've extracted it from the sermon. Do they believe that God spoke in times past by the prophets in any clearer note than whatever light he may have allowed a Confucius, a Buddha? Not the religion, not talking about the religion. Talk about the individuals. Socrates. Let me tell you something about Socrates. He died a philosopher. Buddha died a sinful philosopher just like Socrates. Confucius died a philosopher. Christ died, the Son of God rose again and is coming again.

There's no comparison. And this is what is also happening. These other religions are lumping Christ in and the church is helping them.

He's one of the potted plants according to them. And so yes, we believe the Bible to be the only, the only, the singular inspired, that means God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word of God. Now if we suspect the Bible is untrustworthy, then we've placed it on the level of every other book. And now it is no longer scripture.

It is just a book. And so I've covered most of that and I'll move forward to the next point. The shield.

It is a shield. And I'll be closing with this. Fine. If you want to go home just knowing I have about 3,000 words unsaid, live with yourselves over that. But because I'm merciful, I'll just get to the end. You notice there are no clocks in here.

We're on eternal time. Proverbs chapter 2, Yahweh gives wisdom from his mouth comes, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. And then you say, but I don't walk uprightly. Do you want to walk uprightly? Do you want God to give you a stronger spine? Yes.

Then you're in. God knows these things. When Christians talk of the word, we talk of Jesus Christ. And here's the verse I had promised.

And perhaps this is a good place as any to close the message. Well, I'll make one more quote of scripture before I use this. John's Gospel chapter 1 verses 2, 3 and 14. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And yet we have those in the church helping those along.

We have those in the Calvary Chapel movement helping along, trying to identify with those who don't identify with every word of God as being pure. And a shield to those who put their trust in him. And so where did this message come from?

Well, as I think the Lord gave it to me, I'll close it with this. This is, I think, the premise for such a text. It is a whistle blowing text. It is a wake up call. It is a reminder. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in God's Word. If you've missed any part of this message or would like to explore more teachings, you can hear them by going to crossreferenceradio.com.

Pastor Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Again, that website is crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio that we upload. It's a great way to stay connected to God's Word. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. That's all for today. Thanks for joining us here on Cross Reference Radio.