The Unshakeable Pillar of the Word of God

Well, we welcome a rising third graders who are in the service for the first time. So, I hope as you came in, third graders, you received the worship brochure. I've got some questions there, so that means you've got to listen to the message. If your moms and dads are not listening, just nudge them, keep them awake so that we hear the Word of God. Well now that we've concluded the series in Jeremiah, I plan to preach two messages on our theme verse. Theme verse of Calvary, many of you know, but it is this, for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Next Sunday, Lord willing, I'll deal with the testimony of Jesus Christ, that is the gospel, but today I want us to remind ourselves of the importance of the Word of God. A couple of weeks ago, we thought of the terrible example of King Jehoiakim, the mighty king who took the Word of God.

He didn't like what he was hearing, and he cut it out and burned it until there was nothing left. But we thought of this fact that the Word of God is indestructible. Isaiah says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our Lord abides forever.

How important that is. When I was 16 years old, my parents started attending a small church in Scotland, and I remember on the back of the wall of the church, there was a text which came from the book of Jeremiah, and it's from Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 28. And in these ancient days, we read and had preached to us the King James of 1611, and in good King James, the verse said this, he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. That's from Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 28. He that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. In Jeremiah's time as there is today, there were false prophets. Jeremiah writes about them. There were people who claimed to have visions, people who had claimed to have all kinds of ideas and were propagating them to the people of God. And so here is a reminder by Jeremiah, and we need to hear it today, that those of us who handle this book, the Word of God must do so faithfully.

Why? The verse gives the answer, it is, says the Lord, my word. If it was my ideas, you could discard them. If it was just the views of Calvary Church, you could say, well that's just what Calvary Church believes, but we can't do that with the Word of God. It is my word. And in the same passage in Jeremiah chapter 23, we read this, is not my word, that is the Word of God, is not my word like fire. Think of the fires in Hawaii. Think how difficult it's been to extinguish them. The Word of God is like fire.

You ever think of that? Declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Pictures of God's Word, like a fire, like a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. The supernatural power then of the Word of God, and that's why at Calvary Church, on this pulpit, in our classes, in our children's ministry, in our student ministry, and all that we do, it is focused on the Word of God. We want to declare that faithfully. We who preach and teach the Scriptures are accountable to God. My question for you is, are you listening?

Is it having any impact in your life? A blacksmith bought a new dog, and shortly afterwards, someone visited the blacksmith's shop, and the dog was barking fiercely as the blacksmith was hammering the horseshoes on the anvil. The dog obviously didn't like it, and it kept barking and barking. As the individual would come in and out of the blacksmith's shop over the days and the weeks, the person remarked that the dog was barking not so loudly and less frequently, until one day, he goes into the blacksmith's shop, and this blacksmith is hammering away with his hammer on the anvil, making these horseshoes, and the dog is soundly asleep, silent at last.

It no longer heard the hammer of the blacksmith. And I fear some of us may be like that dog. We've heard the Word of God, and it just goes right over us. We say, well, we've heard that, we know that, and it does not have the impact, and our hearts may have become dulled, may have become hardened to the Word of God.

That's a very serious condition, isn't it? Several times in Scripture, we hear this statement, today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your heart. Today, you're going to hear the voice of God from His Word.

I ask that you do not harden your heart. That means we must listen, we must hear, we must listen, and we must do that with humility because it is God's Word, my Word. And at the beginning of this year, as we thought of the Word of God, I challenged you to spend at least 15 minutes a day in this book in the Word of God. I wonder if we had an honest survey what the percentage would be.

Wouldn't that be interesting? How many of us from the beginning of the year till now have every day been in the Word of God for at least 15 minutes? You say you're very busy. I realize that you're a very important person. You keep telling us how busy you are.

You're rushing around all the time, and you say you don't have time to read the Word of God. I read on Monday that Barbie — you know Barbie? — lost its number one spot on the domestic box office after four weeks. So Barbie is no longer number one, I would say, thankfully. After four weeks, to DC's superhero flick Blue Beetle.

This is a terrible indictment of the United States, isn't it? Talk about fantasy, that Barbie has now been replaced by the superhero flick called Blue Beetle. And as I read this, I thought, isn't this amazing that we as the people of God say we don't have time, but millions of us apparently flock to see these fantasy movies of Barbie and the Blue Beetle. Now, I never heard of the Blue Beetle. I had heard of Barbie.

Never owned one, I want to say. But Blue Beetle apparently is an American superhero. If he's our superhero, we're in real trouble, right? And this is what I read about it. Jamie Reyes, R-E-Y-E-S, never heard of the guy.

I'm sure some of you have. Jamie Reyes suddenly finds himself, this is about the Blue Beetle, in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the scarab. With the scarab, sorry, when the scarab chooses Jamie to be its symbiotic host, he's bestowed with an incredible suit of armor that is capable of extraordinary, unpredictable powers forever, changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle. And I thought, people say the Bible's difficult to understand. I thought it was incredible, isn't it? We feed our minds with such fantasy. And this individual, this Blue Beetle, which has, I quote, extraordinary and unpredictable power. You say, well, it's fantasy.

No one believes it. Well, why do we watch this stuff? Think of this. Think of the transforming power of the Word of God.

That's what I want you to think about. And to spend our time reading, meditating, memorizing, and discussing the Word of God. First of all, I want to say that this Word, God's Word, can be trusted, absolutely. God's Word is truth. Turn in the book of Psalms, halfway in your Bible, Psalm 119, which is the great psalm on the Word of God, and to read three verses there to establish that God's Word is truth. Psalm 119, verse 142. Psalm 119, you want to spend an hour thinking what God says about the Word? Read Psalm 119. Psalm 119, verse 142, your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.

Notice that. God's law is true. Verse 151, but you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true. Verse 160, the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

How wonderful. Psalm is the saying that God's Word is true. And Jesus makes that very clear in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, where in prayer to His heavenly Father, He says to His Father, your Word is truth.

What a strong statement. Not just that it contains the truth or has some truth, God's Word is truth. God's Word is absolute truth.

This is why we can trust it. Many people today believe there is no objective truth, just your private interpretations. They live in their own reality with their own rules in a world which believes it's not appropriate to tell anyone how to live. Parents are only to use positive reinforcement. Counselors and therapists are to be non-directive.

People whose life may be a shambles, but you can't tell them that what they're doing is wrong. Our experts in the social sciences are to be non-directive. But sensible people base their lives on truth, not on delusions, not on prejudices, not on wishful thinkings, not on the fantasy of Barbie and Blue Beetle, not on what they would like to be true, but on reality. When you go to your doctor, you want her to tell the truth about your condition. You want her to tell you the truth about the cure.

You want your health to be based not on what you think, not on what you read in a magazine, but on reality, on truth. This is truth and can be absolutely, absolutely trusted by you. Forever, O Lord, says the psalmist, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. That means that God is always dependable. That means that God is always trustworthy.

We sang Psalm 121. That means that in my journey of life, whatever the circumstances, I could depend on God. No, God never falls asleep. He neither slumbers nor sleeps.

You do. God never goes on vacation. You never contact God, and He's not there. He never puts you onto voicemail. He's there. He's a living God.

He's absolutely trustworthy. I heard of a man who thought this was very spiritual to begin his day by saying to God, hello God, how are you today? What a silly question. You don't need to ask God that question. God today is the same as He was 10 billion years ago. God today is the same as He will be for the countless ages of eternity. He's God. He's immutable. He does not change.

Isn't it wonderful to put your trust in His unchangeable Word? You change, I change. You sometimes give good advice.

You sometimes give lousy advice. We're up and down. What the experts say in any different subject changes. Science changes.

Medical technology changes. But God never changes. His Word is always true. James says He's the Father of lights with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning. No shadow with God.

You ever speak to someone and you think, are you getting the whole truth here? They're in the shadows, a bit of truth, a bit of error, hiding something. God is never like that. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. God's Word is truth. Therefore, you can trust God. You can trust Him and love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He'll never let you down.

He'll never fail you. He's God, and His Word is eternal. Now turn to John, John chapter 18 in the New Testament, the fourth gospel, and we will read what Jesus says about the truth. I've already quoted Him from John 17, verse 17. Here is Jesus before the judge Pilate. John chapter 18, verse 37.

Most of you know the setting. Pilate's a Roman judge, and Jesus is on trial. He's going to end up crucified, but here is Pilate. John 18, 37, Pilate said to Him, so You're a king. Jesus answered, You say that I'm a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Only God incarnate can say that. John 14, verse 6, Jesus says, I am the truth.

Here is God incarnate. He is absolute truth, and Jesus is making this astonishing statement, which only God could make. It is this, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate doesn't want to listen to the truth. He tries to avoid the truth.

He tries to avoid making a decision. Truth is too costly for him. And at the end of the day, he doesn't choose truth, he chooses injustice, error, political expediency.

He's more concerned with his career. He's more concerned what the Roman emperor thinks rather than the truth. Is that how you regard the truth?

The truth is good, but not if it conflicts with your well-being or your career or your standing in the community or among your family. Jesus says, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. You see, the kingdom over which Jesus the King rules is a kingdom of truth. And we who are part of the kingdom of God are to love the truth.

It's a kingdom based on truth. Jesus is the truth. When we receive Christ, we're receiving the truth. So Pilate hears this, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

And that's one of the characteristic of the true follower of Jesus Christ, as opposed to the hypocrite. True Christians not only listen to the truth, they obey the truth. Not only hear the Word, but obey the Word. So Jesus says in John 10, my sheep hear my voice.

Do you hear the voice of Jesus? You know this in your relationship with your family, with your friends, you love someone, you listen to them. If you turn from them, if you never listen to them, that's not a sign of love. A sign of love is that we listen to them. We like their voice. I can have people calling me from 6,000 miles away, and whenever they call, they don't need to introduce themselves. I recognize them by their voice. I love to hear their voice. Jesus is my sheep. Hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Do you get it?

Not just hearing, but following. You want the truth? Truth is not arrived at by discussion. Truth is not arrived at by looking deep within, getting in touch with your feelings.

No, that can be very, very misleading. Listen to the voice of Jesus. He's the personification of truth.

I am the truth. Don't base your life on a fantasy. Don't base your life on a superhero. Don't base your life on a feeling or an illusion or what you hear around you on the social media.

That is utter folly, foolish. Build your life on truth. Listen to Jesus. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. That's why I think it is very, very important for us who are followers of Jesus to read and re-read the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

You say, I know them. Read it. Listen to Jesus. See Jesus in action. Listen to His voice.

See how He deals with different circumstances. Listen to His teaching, and we grow in our love for the Savior. God's Word can be trusted. God's Word also is life-transforming. You know, this book is not just a book of stories. It's not just a book of morality. It's certainly not just a book of principles for living as some think.

No, it is packed with the power of God. Listen to the writer of Hebrews. Hebrews 4, verse 12, for the Word of God, are you listening, is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It's living, it's active, sharper than a two-edged sword.

This word, active, means it produces results. It's not something just dead. It's not just an old book.

No. This is God's Word. It's eternal. It's living. It's powerful, packed with power.

It's active in the sense that it produces results. It's effective, it's dynamic, and it's life-changing. The power of the Word of God penetrates in a way that no psychotherapist or psychiatrist or therapist or anyone else can. Our hearts can be so hard. Our sins can be so deceitful. Our defenses and rationalizations can be so high that even those closest to us don't really know us. And we can put up our defenses, and we have our secrets, and we have our inner thoughts deep, deep within.

And you can hide them from anyone. But here's the Word of God. You're sitting there, and God's Word comes, and it penetrates you. Someone says to me, well, I didn't like that particular message. Well, maybe the reason you didn't like it is because it was convicting. Was it cutting?

Did it pierce right into you? You see, this comes from God the Holy Spirit, who is alive. And our faith grows as we hear the Word of God.

Paul says in Romans 10, verse 8, what does it say? The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of faith that we proclaim, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.

For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord over all, bestowing his riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they're sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?

But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what He's heard from us? Verse 17, so faith comes from what? Hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. You say, John, I'd like to believe. I'd like to have that faith that I trust in God as I go through life as we sang that wonderful Psalm, Psalm 121. I'd like to live like that, but I don't have the faith.

I wish I had the faith. How do you get the faith? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. You hear the Word of God, you believe it because it comes from God. And the Holy Spirit pierces and convicts your heart. And that way, as we test the Word of God, our faith grows and grows.

Paul says earlier in Romans 1, in Romans 3, as he tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He says, let every mouth be stopped. That's it.

Do you know what it is? We talk too much. You talk about your problems. I find that some people for years and years and years have gone for therapy and counseling, and they talk and talk and talk about their problems.

I'm not saying there's no value in that. I'm sure there is some. But before God, we need to stop talking. Do you know what we need to do? We need to hear. Are you good to listen to the Word of God? Is your spiritual ear attuned, sensitive to the Word of God?

Are you a critic? You think you know better than the Word of God? You say, oh, I've heard this before. As we hear the Word of God, you know what happens? There is life transformation. Down through the centuries, millions of lives have been transformed through hearing and obeying the Word of God. Think of the Apostle Paul, persecutor of the church, a man who hates Christians, and he hears the Word of Jesus, and his life is totally changed. Think of a slave leader like John Newton, who hears the Word of God and is saved and can write of God's amazing grace that saved a wretch like him.

Yes, the worst of men and women and boys and girls. Lives are transformed. We had an example of those last Sunday who were baptized.

These young people, what were they saying? Their life has changed through the Word of God, not through something, not through some program at Calvary Church, not through some little technique, but supernaturally through the Word of God. The Word of God, I can testify, as many of you can, has transformed my life. And as we live the Christian life, God's Word is not only essential for our salvation, it is, it's also essential for our sanctification. What's sanctification?

Becoming more and more like Jesus. Turn to 2 Timothy, the verse we've turned to many times. 2 Timothy chapter three, 2 Timothy 3 verse 16. All Scripture is breathed out by God.

So you need to read it, you need to listen to it. God speaks to you. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. For what?

For teaching. You and I need to know the Word of God. This Word of God is essential for your spiritual health, for your spiritual growth, for your well-being. Some of you are fixated on your physical diet, on your exercise, on physical fitness.

That's good. However, here is how you become spiritually fit, spiritually healthy, spiritually strong. The Word of God teaches us God's truths are to be learned, they're to be understood and obeyed. It's profitable for teaching, for reproof. Oh, do you ever need to be rebuked? That's what the Word of God does, doesn't it? You hear the Word of God and it cuts right across what you're doing, what you're thinking. It rebukes us. Our failures, our faults, our errors, our secrets are exposed, they're unmasked as it were. They're confronted as the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and says, now, there you are, John. You need to listen to this.

This is for you. The power of the Word for correction. You go off course. It's like the GPS saying, what it keeps saying to you, recalculating or redirecting.

The other day it was trying to tell me to take a, make a U-turn in a place I couldn't make a U-turn, and I thought, who is this person always telling me what to do? But what had happened, I had gone off course. How easy it is in the Christian life to go off course just a little bit.

That's why it's essential we're in the Word of God daily. Today may be the most important day of your life. Today you may face the most difficult decision.

Today may be a day which is one of the worst days of your life. What's going to make you strong so that you are not off course? Answer, the Word of God. It teaches me. It reproves me. It cracks me.

And, says Paul, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. It's like a coach training the athlete who likes to go through training. We like the game. I was playing soccer. I like the game.

I like the match. But before that, there is the training where you do something over and over and over and over again. The coach is saying, no, you haven't quite got that right, Monroe.

Do it again. And the Word of God, what does it do? It trains us. That can be difficult.

That takes time, doesn't it? It trains us in living godly lives according not to the world, that's the voice we hear all the time, but to God's righteous standards. Wonderful thing is, as we do this, we are, says Paul, being equipped, transformed.

It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? You're serving the Lord, and you look back on your life and think, well, God brought us through some very difficult circumstances. But to the glory of God, we can say we'll become stronger. We have gone through the training, and we are equipped, and we're becoming more and more like our Savior. That's the real test, isn't it?

You're more like Jesus than you were a year ago. I learned at the camp I was saved, their motto, Psalm 119 verse 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. How is a young man going to live a pure life going off to UNC Chapel Hill? Is it possible with all of the junk of our world?

Yes, it is. What's the answer? How shall a young man live a clean life? That's the question of Psalm 119 verse 9. Answer? By taking heed thereto according to Your Word. By guarding it according to Your Word. That's it. Verse 11, Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You.

That's it. How are you going to deal with temptation? How are you going to deal with these circumstances that you face? By treasuring the Word in your heart, by reading it, by meditating on it, by memorizing it so when the problem comes, when the difficulty comes, you're able to respond just as the athlete who's properly trained at the moment in the contest, right in the middle of the game, when he or she has to make a certain play, that athlete knows exactly what to do.

Why? They've gone through the training. But often, you see, we flop and we fail. And the answer is not because of God.

He's with us because we've not gone through the training. So God's Word is to be trusted. It's life transforming. Finally, God's Word has to be obeyed. I want to emphasize that. Personally, you and I have to obey the Word of God. One of my unforgettable memories as a student at Dallas Theological Seminary was being in class taught by Howard Hendricks.

He's now with the Lord. And he emphasized this. I put a quote up on the screen. The mark of spiritual maturity is not how much you understand, but how much you use. In the spiritual realm, the opposite of ignorance is not knowledge, but obedience.

Did you get that? You think you're spiritually mature? You know a lot?

Oh, you know a lot. But the question is, how obedient are you? Are you obedient?

The coach can give you all of the training, and you can know that in your head, but the question is, can it be done in the game, in the match, in the tournament? That's the test, isn't it? Not just knowledge, but obedience. So if you're going to be supernaturally transformed, it's not coming through this as if it were just an intellectual exercise.

Yes, there are things to be learned, but you must respond to its teaching. Psalm 119 again, verse 145, with my whole heart I cry, answer me, O Lord. You ever come to the Lord?

Lord, give me an answer. I will keep your commandments. I call to you, save me, that I may observe your testimonies. Remember the wording of the Great Commission at the end of Matthew chapter 28? But we, as we go with the gospel, we have to baptize those who believe, and then we are to teach them to do what? Just teach the commandments?

No. Teach them to observe all that I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you to the end of the age. It's one thing to teach the Word of God, it's another thing to teach to observe the Word of God.

Parents, I'm very thankful that so many of you are teaching your children the Word of God. You should be doing that. But are you being transformed by it? You make any difference in your life? I want to speak to my fellow pastors, elders, life group leaders, Bible study leaders. Are you listening? Many of you enjoy studying the Word of God.

I do. I like to study the Word of God. I like to study. But you must do much more than study the Word of God. See, before these truths are communicated by you to others, you must first teach them to your own heart. You must obey them. Otherwise, you know what will happen to you? You know what will happen to me? We'll have big heads and an underdeveloped body. Do you know Christians like that?

Big heads, a lot of information, can answer the quiz. And the life group is always the first to put up their hand and give a verse. They've got it down.

It's great. It's important. Which we all knew the Word of God. But my question is, are you obeying it? Are you serving the body of Christ?

Some people go to so many Bible studies, I think, yes, but we ask people to serve, and where are they? Teaching, teaching, teaching. You love to teach. You're reaching out to others. You're ministering to others. What happens if you are just a hearer of the Word of God and not a doer?

James tells us. He says you're deluding yourself. Are you deluding yourself? You're teaching the Word of God, deluding yourself. And you may impress the naive. You may impress the gullible and come over with your deep knowledge of Scripture, and people think you're very spiritual because you can teach the Word of God.

But listen, think of this. A smart unbeliever can go online and get some things about the Bible. A smart unbeliever can get a commentary and read that commentary and take what they have learned online or in a course or in a commentary and then regurgitate it to others. That's not Bible teaching. That's the conveying of information. And James is saying, remember he says those of us who teach have a stricter accountability. It's because of this. You're teaching.

You're hearing. The question is to myself, John, how obedient are you to Scripture? That's the test of spiritual maturity, not knowledge. Knowledge is important. We of course have to learn Scripture. The Scripture is given that we could learn from it. It teaches us. That is fundamental. Those of you who know that, know I believe that with all of my heart, but it is more than that. It is transforming.

Otherwise, we have people with big heads and underdeveloped bodies, and ultimately it can be hypocrisy. When I was a student at Emory University for about six, seven weeks, I met with a man for an intensive Bible study. He had, I discovered, he's about 10, 12 years older than I was. He must have had a photographic memory, because as we were reading the Scriptures and I was brought up in a home where we opened the Scriptures, so I had a working knowledge of the basic Scriptures. But I would mention a verse, and he would say, well that's in such and such and such and such. I thought, well, this guy knows that verse. And then I began to think, well I'm going to come with a really book, you know, from Zechariah or something like that, and throw out that to him.

And he didn't look at that. Sometimes he didn't quite know the verse, but he said, well, you know, that's in Jeremiah chapter 23, maybe about the beginning of the verse or towards the end of the verse. Any of you can do that?

If I put any verse to your Old Testament, New Testament, could you tell me where it comes from? Don't think many of us could do that. This man could.

Absolutely amazing. And a very good teacher. I learned from him. I can still learn what — I can still remember some things that he taught me. But I was in a situation with him as a young man.

He was a married man, and the way he acted, I was absolutely unfounded, because his actions were totally inconsistent with the truth of this book. Knowledge alone is very dangerous. It is knowledge plus obedience that produces maturity.

Will you get that? You know that in music. You can give me all the lessons on musical theory, and I could learn it, and you could tell me, but the question is can I actually play this instrument? You can teach someone a sport.

You give them all of the knowledge, all of the techniques, but if they're not doing it, if they're not practicing, they'll never be a good athlete. I can give you all of the information about Scripture, but if you're not acting on it, if you're not obeying it, it's not doing you any good. In fact, it's quite dangerous because you can breed hypocrisy and legalism and superiority of your knowledge, and you can depend on your knowledge rather than knowing and loving and following Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way, everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act upon them. Do you hear it?

You hear it, but you don't act. It's like a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. The Word of God, Howard Hendricks used to tell us, is not to make us smarter sinners. It's to change our life. God's Word is life transforming. My question to you in your heart before God is, are you becoming more like Jesus? The Word of God at Calvary must always be our unshakable pillar. Paul in 1 Timothy 3.15 refers to the church.

He describes it as the household of God, the church of the living God, and he says it is the pillar and the foundation of the truth in a society which departs from the truth, in a society where the most bizarre statements are made and are plotted, in a society where our children are indoctrinated in perverse views of sexuality and gender, in a society where we often don't know are our political leaders telling us the truth, in a society where many students in our schools, in our colleges and universities are cheating. It is essential that we who are followers of Jesus Christ stand on the truth. I'm asking you, are you a person of truth? Are you a person of personal integrity, that you don't lie, that you don't cheat, and that your life is being transformed by this book which is absolute truth? Sometimes people come to me and want me to sign a Bible or a book, and often the text I put in it is Proverbs 23 verse 23, buy the truth and do not sell it.

Will you do that? Will you be so committed to the truth you will not sell it? And even if the whole world is against you, you will stand on the truth of the Word of God. My calling as a pastor is to glorify God through the exposition of the Word of God, the truth. And as you come to Calvary, we want you to get a glimpse of the greatness of God. We want you to understand more and more of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We want to uphold our Savior Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who died for our sins, was buried, and is risen again. We want you to look up and say, even so come, Lord Jesus. We want you to be people of truth. His Word is a lamp to our feet.

It's a light to our path. It is the Word of God that makes us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the bread of life.

It's the food for our souls. This is the living and abiding Word of God. Read it.

Read it. Ask God to help you and obey it, and always stand for the truth of the Word of God, for the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Father and God, we thank You for Your precious Word. May we be people of truth.

Some have never come to Jesus who is the truth. I pray that Your Spirit will draw them, that they will be like little children, like these little babies that we dedicated, resting totally on Christ, realizing that they can never ever save themselves, and calling out to the Lord as we read that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. May they be saved. And we think of many who are following Christ, increase our appetite for the Word. May we hunger and thirst after righteousness, and may those of us who preach and teach the Holy Scriptures be men and women, not just conveying knowledge, but seeing lives becoming more and more like Jesus. May that be true of us as individuals, of our families. It may be true of Calvary Church, but in a world of confusion, in a world of error, in a world where many people don't know what they believe, may we stand for this wonderful book that You have given us as You reveal in it Jesus, the Savior of the world. In His name we pray, Amen.