Studying the Manual - Part 1

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Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation today at vision.org.au The Bible. And today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers why it's so vital and valuable in the life of a believer. Continuing his powerful series on spiritual growth, The Life God Blesses, here's David to introduce today's message, Studying the Manual.

Well friends, I thank you for joining me today. I really am excited about teaching this lesson because it's right in the sweet spot of who we are and what we do here at Turning Point. And I hope you have something to write with and a place to make some notes because I'm going to tell you several things about the value of the Word of God, the influence of the Word of God, and the power of the Word of God in these next two lessons. You know, strategies for Christian maturity appear like diet plans. There's a new one every year. But the plan God established several thousand years ago, which is meditating on and applying his Word, has never been equaled.

So there's no really any need to change it. The Bible's value and power put in a class by itself, it's supernatural, it's God's plan for your growth and your development, and it will produce The Life God Blesses. Well, let's begin our study of the manual. I'm not going to embarrass us by asking how many there are here who have never read through the Bible from cover to cover.

I'm sure that it would be more than just a few of us. Some of you say, well, I tried that before and when I got to Leviticus, I got stuck. Well, you can get through Leviticus, I promise you, and you can get through all of the books of the Bible and they will be a great encouragement to your heart. One of the things we tried to do to encourage people to take the Bible more seriously is we went back through the Word of God and we reminded ourselves in a fresh new way of the metaphors in the Bible that God has given us to tell us the power and the impact of this book in our lives. For instance, did you know that the Bible is called a sword? Hebrews 4-12 says, For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word of God is called a sword because it has piercing ability.

It operates with effectiveness upon sinners and saints, and it even works on Satan, as we shall learn a little bit later on. The Word of God is not only a sword, it is a mirror. How many times have we opened the pages of this book to see ourselves there? We're reminded in James 1 of the person who looks into the mirror of the Word of God, and he's called upon not to be just a hearer of the Word, but a doer also. The Bible tells us that this book is like looking into a mirror, and when we look into it, we see ourselves, and when we see ourselves, we're supposed to make the necessary changes in the power of the Holy Spirit, so we become what God wants us to be instead of what we have decided to be. The Bible is a mirror because it reflects God's image to us and our image back to us from his Word. And the Bible is a hammer.

I always like to ask this question. How many of you have ever been hammered by the Word of God? You're reading it, you're comfortable in your complacency, and all of a sudden you read something that jumps off the page and hits you straight between the eyes, and you get hammered by a truth from God's Word.

Sometimes it even happens in church. The Word of God is a hammer. Jeremiah says it this way. The Word of God is a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. And then the Word of God is like water. The Bible says that God's Word is a cleansing agent. It's like water that cleanses us, that renews us. Ephesians 5 says that he might sanctify or make holy and cleanse the church with the washing of the water.