The heart and soul of our evangelistic ministry must be the Word of God. People will sometimes say, If you teach the Bible all the time, when do you do your evangelism? Beloved, the Bible is the greatest tool of evangelism. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
In an article in a Christian magazine, a minister spoke about a survey on divorce rates that he had seen. The survey showed that people who identify as Christians get divorced at least as often as unbelievers. The minister's conclusion: Scripture is not sufficient. It's not enough to help us with the problems we face.
Well, when people question the Bible's relevance or authority or clarity or historical accuracy, do you know what to say? Today's message on grace to you can help you with that. John MacArthur is showing the transforming power of Scripture. That's the title of his current study. And so now here's John with the lesson.
Let me draw your attention for the time we have in God's Word back to 2 Timothy 3. I was rereading the epistle, and I came back to this same section, and in reading it, I realized that there was one further tremendously important issue here that had not been addressed that I needed to deal with. And that has to do with what I like to call the work of the word. The work of the Word. We talked about the fact that it was inspired, but we must also focus on its work.
And you will notice in verse 15 that it says that the sacred writings are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Initially, the work of the word is salvation. Then, in verse 16, it is useful, that is, inspired scripture is useful, for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, with the idea that the end product may be a man of God adequate and equipped for every good work.
Now, a simple reading of those verses indicates to us five elements of the work of the Word. Salvation. Teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. Those are the things which the word does. which the scripture produces.
They're not new to me. They're not new to most of you. They are new to perhaps some of you. And as I thought about it, I thought, well, it's pretty basic, but it's also pretty important. And let me say by way of general introduction that The distinguishing characteristic, I hope, of my own ministry and of Grace Community Church is a very, very strong commitment to the authority of the Word of God.
We are definitely a church committed to God's Word. We endeavor to teach God's Word, to preach God's Word, to implement God's Word, to live God's Word, to proclaim God's Word, to exalt God's Word. It is the focal point of everything that we do. When God speaks, we listen. I think so many times of Revelation 2 and 3: if you have ears to hear, then hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
So we have always been a church that listens to the Word of God, that is committed to the Word of God, that is submissive to the Word of God. And the focal point of our ministry has been the Scripture. There are many things that a church can do. There are many focuses. There are many sorts of themes that a church can camp on.
But for us, for all these years, it has been the Word of God. Our church, our personal lives are dominated by the Word of God. Week in and week out, we teach the Bible. We preach it expositorily, that is, explaining its meaning. We go through scripture after scripture after scripture.
The reason for that is because of the work of the word. Because we understand what it does, that's why we give it. The main Attention. Let me just remind you of a very important promise with regard to this. Isaiah 55, 10 and 11.
You don't need to look it up. Just listen. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty or void without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I send it. In other words, God says when I send my word, it always does its work.
It always does its work. It never comes back empty. Just like rain and snow produces what grows, my word produces my will. The Bible is God's messenger. It accomplishes His will, it accomplishes His purpose.
The word of God is depicted in Psalm 147 as a swift messenger. It runs to do God's work. It runs to accomplish God's goals. You might look just at Psalm 147 for a moment. There are several verses there that really are.
Very vivid. Verse 15. He sends forth his command to the earth. That's verse 15. He sends forth his command to the earth.
His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth his ice as fragments. Who can stand before his cold?
He sends forth his word and melts them. He causes his wind to blow and the waters to flow. He declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. And here is this sort of intertwined analogy: as God sends the coal and the frost and the sun and all the natural elements to produce what he wants to produce, so he sends his word. And the word is analogous to that.
It goes out to produce the ends that God has intended for it. That's a tremendous confidence that we have who teach the Word of God, who articulate the Word of God, to know that it always accomplishes what God wants it to do, never comes back empty. Always produces, always produces like rain and snow and all the other things that God sends with production in mind. The word is productive, it is prolific. And it accomplishes its purpose.
Every word out of God's mouth is bread, it says in Deuteronomy 8:3. It feeds somebody, it nourishes somebody, it makes somebody grow, it accomplishes something. And so we want to ask the question: then, if it does accomplish something, what does it accomplish? What is the work of the word? What is the purpose of the word?
Let's look at these five things. The first one is that the word produces salvation. You'll notice that very familiar verse that we looked at in chapter 3, verse 15. It says that the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation, Which comes, of course, through faith in Christ Jesus. The thing that he says there is the word, the sacred writings referring to scripture, have primarily in that particular verse reference to the Old Testament.
But nonetheless, scripture produces salvation. Scripture produces salvation. It makes you wise unto salvation. It is the instrument of salvation. The practical implications of this are obvious.
Before we look at those, though, let's see if we can't reinforce that truth a little bit by looking namely at the testimony of Jesus himself. Turn in your Bible to John's gospel. And in John's gospel, we have the continual teaching of Jesus about the power of his word. And the word of God. But in chapter five and verse twenty-four.
We read this, the words of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you. He who hears my word. And believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. That is a tremendous verse.
That is a verse that binds up the essence of the gospel. Believing in God. The God who sent Christ. And hearing the word. Brings eternal life and delivers one from judgment.
Passing out of death into life. And note, please, the key to it all. Verse 24, he who hears my word. The word is the agency. The word is that which begets new life.
In John chapter 6, I draw your attention to a couple of verses toward the end of the chapter. And Jesus again teaching in this familiar section where he speaks on the bread of life. But in verse 63, he says, It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. Then, this: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
And if they haven't effected that in you, verse 64 implies, that's because some of you don't believe.
So the word mixed with faith. produces life. Chapter 12 of John, and there are other texts you could look at, but these are highlights. Chapter 12 and verse 49, Jesus says, I did not speak on my own initiative. Even Jesus operated under delegated authority and operated by speaking only that which was the word of God.
He said, My Father himself who sent me has given me commandment what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me. And again, Jesus is articulating the reality that the word is that which produces eternal life. The word brings life. The sum of it all comes in that great watershed, verse 31 of chapter 20 in John's Gospel, which really gives us the reason for the whole book, the whole gospel.
These have been written. These have been written, says John. That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. And again, eternal life comes by believing the written word, the revealed word, the Word of God. Scripture, then, is the source of That truth which brings salvation.
Look again further into the New Testament. The 10th chapter of Romans, and we find that the Apostle Paul was committed to the same truth. In Romans chapter 10, a familiar verse. 17 says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ, or some manuscripts, the Word of God, I think preferably perhaps the Word of Christ. The New American has it that way.
But the point is, one way or the other, it's the Word of God or the Word of Christ, which are one and the same, that produces salvation. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. That's why you have to have preachers. That's why you have to have those who will go out and speak the truth. It says in verse 13, Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but how are they going to call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they going to believe in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? And even when they're sent, the implication is they must hear the word of Christ.
So it is again emphasized that the Scripture is the source. In Ephesians chapter five, that great section on. Marriage, as compared to the church, verse 25 says, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. Christ has Cleansed his church, saved his church by the washing of water with the word. The word, again, the agency.
And Paul writing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 refers to the work, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. The word works.
Now, salvation occurs when you have a ready heart. That is open to believe mixed with the revelation of God, the word of God in a ready heart. That's the issue. James refers to the same dynamic in James 1:18. He says, He brought us forth.
He begot us. He redeemed us. He saved us by the word of truth. By the word of truth.
So, the scripture, the word of God, is the source of salvation. That's why Philippians 2:16 calls it the word of life. It is characterized as that which gives life. Psalm 19:7. The law of the Lord is perfect.
What's the rest of the verse? Converting the soul. It has the power to convert. And I think back to Nehemiah. Tremendous illustration of this.
Look with me for a moment to the eighth chapter of Nehemiah. It's a few books to the left of Psalms. And in Nehemiah chapter 8. We have the introduction of a revival. In Nehemiah chapter 8, it begins, the beginning of a real revival.
And I believe there were many people who were saved in the true sense of Old Testament salvation at this revival. And all the people gathered as one man at the gate, which was in front of the water gate, the square which was in front of the water gate. They asked Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses. Three little words, bring the book, really key the whole thing. And he brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding.
In the first day of the seventh month, he read from it before the square, which was in front of the water gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand. All the people were attentive to the book of the law. They stood there and listened to it being read hour after hour after hour. There was a wooden podium, verse 4, set up for that purpose. And Ezra, verse 5, opened the book in the sight of all the people, standing up above the people.
And he opened it, and all the people stood up. He blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, amen. Lifting up their hands, they bowed low, worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Verse 8 says that as they read, From the book, from the law of God. They translated to give the sense so that they would understand the reading.
It had to go from Hebrew into Aramaic, which was their commoner language, and had to be explained to them. And so they were reading and explaining the word. The people's response was amazing. It says at the end of verse 9: they were weeping when they heard the words of the law. They were grieved over their sin.
They were struck because of the dearth of the law of God in their hearing. The end result of all of this was the people really drew their hearts back to God. This reading went on. At the end of verse 18, it says they celebrated the feast for seven days, and they read from the book of the law. The first part of the verse says, Daily from the first day to the last day.
Then the people began to praise God in chapter 9. They were praising and lifting up adoration to the God who had. Revealed himself in Scripture. They were getting their hearts right down in verse 28 of chapter 10 after that long list of people who signed the document. It says That they were Joining together, making a commitment, taking a curse, verse 29, making an oath to walk in God's law, to keep and observe all the commandments of God our Lord, and His ordinance and His statutes.
The net result was the people made a commitment to God. And I believe there was salvation that. Period of time through that seven-day feast, there was a great movement of God and many were saved. And it was the direct result of simply standing and reading and translating, explaining the Scripture. It has the power to convert the soul.
The power to save. Look at another illustration taken from the New Testament, namely the eighth chapter of Luke, in which our Lord teaches a familiar parable which makes the same major point. Jesus teaching here. About the parable of the soils and the sower and the seed. Verse 5 says of Luke 8, the sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky soil. As soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into good soil, grew up, produced a crop 100 times as great. He said, you better listen to the things I'm saying.
Then in verse 9, they asked him what it was he was saying. He's explaining, starting in verse 10, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To the rest, it is in parables, in order that they seeing may not see, and hearing they may not understand. In other words, he says, I'm going to explain it to you because obviously you belong to God. To them, it'll remain a riddle.
The explanation then comes in verse 11. In the parable, the seed is the word of God. That which produces new life in good soil is the word of God. That's the point. If the soil isn't right, you're not going to get the product.
If it's hard soil, like the soil on the road, it says those beside the road are those who have heard, the devil comes, takes away the word from their heart, so they may not believe and be saved. And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they have received the word, they receive it with joy, and they have no firm root, they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity. The word of God will fall into places where the soil is not ready. It's full of weeds, full of rocks, or just hard.
But, verse 15, when the seed falls into good soil, those are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance.
So, what you have here is the Word of God placed in a readied heart, a prepared heart, produces salvation. The practical implications of this are obvious. The heart and soul of our evangelistic ministry must be the Word of God. People will sometimes say, Well, if you teach the Bible all the time, when do you do your evangelism? Beloved, the Bible is the greatest tool of evangelism.
How could we ever come to the point where we would even question such? When Jesus was asked by a lawyer in Luke 10, 25 and 26, he said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to that man, what is written in the law and how does it read to you? Go to the scripture. Go to the scripture.
You can go back to the Old Testament, the sacred writings, and they are able to make you wise unto salvation, which of course has come in the fullness of time through that which Christ has accomplished. What does the scripture say? Jesus said, Search the scriptures, for they are they which speak of me. And then one Very, very explicit text, 1 Peter 1. Turn to it for a moment.
Verse 23. You have been born again, it says. not of seed which is perishable. But imperishable. That is.
referring to the seed, through the living and abiding word of God. The seed is the word of God again. It is that seed placed in good soil that produces salvation.
So, if we want to be effective in evangelism, we want to teach God's word. If we want to be effective in reaching our friends, we want to give them God's word. Instead of making it very complicated, let me make it as simple as I possibly can for you. If you know somebody who's not saved, first thing to do is give them a what? A Bible.
Bible, remember that? Don't get too complex. Don't get too carried away with feeling inadequate because you can't explain every theological issue. I mean, you don't need to know all the answers to all the questions. The Bible will be enough.
It's not as complex as we want to make it. And of course focusing on That when you give someone a Bible, encourage them to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and see if they can survive that. If they can survive that, the soil isn't ready. There's nothing wrong with the seed. The soil isn't ready.
God hasn't prepared the soil, but the seed is there.
So we need to be committed to that. He says, you have been born again through the living and abiding word of God. And verse 25 says, This is the word which was preached to you. He illustrates it in that passage with a quote out of Isaiah chapter 40. Comparing the word of God to the Passing flesh.
The word abides, it lives forever, it does its work, it produces life. This can be illustrated, I think, quite simply in a A rather brief but beautiful account of A woman's conversion in Acts 16. Lydia, what's her name? And uh It tells about her in verse 14. Just very briefly.
A certain woman, Acts 16, 14, named Lydia. From the city of Thyatira. A cellar of purple fabrics. This is a businesswoman.
Sold purple fabrics for a living. She was a worshiper of God. That is to say, she was um Upright. In the sense of seeking the true God and seeking to worship the true God, but had not yet been exposed to the gospel of Christ. She was listening, and then this.
And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, so forth and so on. I love that. The Lord opened her heart. To respond to the things spoken by Paul.
That's the essence of salvation. You speak the truth of God's word and let the Lord open the heart.
So our task is to Spread the word. Spread the seed. Preach the truth. Give out God's word. And God's part is sovereignly, graciously to open the heart.
Let's bow together in prayer. We thank you for that truth in Deuteronomy 8:3, that every word of God is bread. Father, we thank you for this word which is indeed bread. which feeds us. Lord, we want to say thank you that the word Came to us and was mixed with faith because you prepared our hearts.
By your sovereign grace, We want to thank you that you plowed the soil up. That you allowed your Holy Spirit, yea, you commissioned your Holy Spirit to do a convicting work in our heart, and we were convicted of sin and righteousness and judgment. The soil was made ready, and when the word came, we believed. We thank you for that life-giving word. And Father, we thank you too for the deposit of truth, that doctrine which guards our thinking and our acting.
We thank you for the fact that you've given us not only the book, but you've given us the indwelling teacher, the illuminator, the very author of the book. What a thought that we should not only possess the book, but have living in us the one who wrote it. Oh Lord, no wonder we don't need to trust men, but we have an anointing from Thee to teach us all things. Help us, Lord. Who have been saved by the power of the word.
to be built up by its power. to be nourished in the words of faith. Good teaching. Help us to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly.
So that we have the outflow of all those wonderful things described in Colossians 3. Help us to have that mind renewed. Help us to be able to think on things pure and lovely and just and good, things in the Word. May we Respond to the injunction of Joshua 1. To never ever let our minds depart from your word.
May we, like the people of old, Like Josiah, make a covenant. to walk after the Lord. To keep his law and his testimonies and his statuettes all the days of our life. Thank you that you've given us the content to govern life. You've given us the content to defeat Satan.
You've given us all we need. We thank you that the Word will accomplish its work in us who receive it. For Jesus' sake. Amen. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's current study is called The Transforming Power of Scripture.
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Just log on to gty.com. The majority of the Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be here tomorrow as John MacArthur gives a tutorial on how to use the most powerful tool you own. We are continuing John's study called The Transforming Power of Scripture. With another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
