Romans 8:1

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As we look around us, as we watch the news, as we go online, watch TV and so forth, we see that our world is pretty messed up, isn’t it?

There’s so much sorrow, suffering, pain, and death. Part of it is the fault of human beings. We think of selfish human beings who act in harm towards their neighbor, sometimes trying to cheat them out of what rightfully is theirs. Sometimes it’s by harming their bodies, sometimes it’s even by killing them as well. We know that suffering and sorrow and pain doesn’t just come from other people, but it’s just part of our world as well as we think about our own bodies can be afflicted with disease like heart disease or cancer or other things that can cause us suffering and pain and even death too. And then we think about all of the terrible natural disasters, things like wildfires and hurricanes and tornadoes and how much destruction that causes to people’s property and people’s lives and livelihood. And we look at our world and we say, it’s so messed up. What in the world is going on?

It’s made many people to wonder if there in fact really is a God. Because they say if there is a God, he must be all powerful. And if he is also a God of love, well, where is he? Why is he allowing all of the sorrow, suffering and pain and death to go on in the world as we see it today? And some then conclude, well, God can’t possibly exist because there is so much suffering, sorrow, pain and death. It’s good for us to note, though, that the world that we see before our eyes today isn’t the world the way in which God originally made it. God didn’t create a world that was filled with sorrow, suffering, pain, or death, or any of those things. God, in fact, created a perfect world in which he placed the first human beings, Adam and Eve. And he gave Adam and Eve free will, free will to either choose to obey God or free will to disobey God.

We know what the Bible says about them, what they use their free will for. Ultimately, as Eve was tempted by the serpent, tempted by Satan, she took from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She took it and she ate it. She gave it to her husband as well, Adam, and he ate it. And both of them sinned. And as a result, there came sorrow, suffering, pain, and death, not just to their own bodies, but upon the entire world. And so the world we see today isn’t the world the way in which God intended it or created it. But it’s a world that is broken by sin.

We might ask then, well, why doesn’t God fix it? Why doesn’t God just get rid of all of that sin? If he was to do that, what would be left? No, who would be left? Would you be left if God got rid of all of the sin in the world? Oh, we know our own sin, and we know our own corruption, and how that often causes sorrow, suffering, pain, and death in our own lives, too. And so we see the problem lies within. The reason that God has allowed this broken world to continue is because he wants sinners to come and to know their Savior, Jesus Christ, that they might be rescued from the condemnation that their sins deserved. And so he has allowed this broken world to go on for a time, that the good news of salvation: that Jesus Christ has come as your Savior from sin, might be spread to more and more, that they might be spared the judgment and have eternal life.

But God has told us in His Word that he is coming to rid the world of sin one day. That day is sometimes referred to as Judgment day. As he will judge all sin. It’s certainly a scary day for each and every one of us who knows our sin, but he wants us to especially know we have nothing to fear on that day. As he tells us in Romans chapter eight, verse one,

So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

We are safe in Christ our Savior. We can be assured that he is coming soon to make all things new, and to bring us to a place that is free from sorrow, suffering, pain, and death forever because of Christ and what he has done for us. Amen.

Genesis 1:27, Colossians 3:10, Ephesians 4:24

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In Genesis chapter one, God says this about Adam and Eve.

God created the man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

That Bible passage tells us that we are created in the image of God. All human beings are created in the image of God, both male and female. What does that mean? I think many times we wonder, does that mean that we have eyes like God’s eyes or nose like God has a nose or fingers and toes like God has? Well, it’s good for us to keep in mind that God, in his essence, is spirit is what the Bible tells us. Obviously, in the person of Jesus Christ, he takes on human flesh, doesn’t he? But in his essence, God is spirit. So he doesn’t have those things like the way that we have. So what does it mean that human beings are created in the image of God?

Well, a very helpful passage for us to consider is Colossians chapter three, verse ten, and it says this.

Put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in knowledge, according to the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:10)

That passage talks about the new self, sometimes referred to as the new man. Or we talk about as we come to faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, we are a new person, right? We are born again as well. And it talks about that new self as a new self that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. So it talks about the image of God in connection with this new self, that it’s being renewed in knowledge. And so I think that gives us a lot of insight into what it means in the Bible when it talks about Adam and Eve being created in the image of God, that they had perfect knowledge of God and of his will, they had a perfect relationship with him as well.

And there’s another passage that goes along with it from Ephesians chapter four that says this

Put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

Again, it refers to that new man or new self as it mentions there, but it says, what’s the connection? Well, it’s been created to be like God in righteousness and holiness. And so that’s another aspect of the image of God that we are righteous and holy as well too. So both those things are true knowledge of God, a perfect relationship with God, but then also that holiness and righteousness, all of that is part of what it means that human beings were created with the image or in the image of God.

So why aren’t we that way today? You know, why aren’t we righteous and holy? And why do we sin? And why is our relationship with God broken? Well, it’s because of sin, isn’t it? As Adam and Eve fell into sin, they lost the perfect image of God. Maybe another way is to think about it as being clouded or tainted by sin. And so there isn’t that perfect knowledge of God. There isn’t that perfect relationship with God. We were separated or divorced from him by our sin, but also we ourselves aren’t perfect. We are corrupt because of sin.

And yet, the good news for us is to know that by faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, through trusting in him, that relationship and that image is restored, that God has given us a new self. We are a new creation, new people in Christ, and that in him God is restoring the image of God in us. He is giving us that knowledge of him. He is sanctifying us by His Holy Spirit, making us holy. And one day we will be perfectly holy as we see God face to face in life eternal, not because of us and the things that we have done, but only because of Christ and what he has done for us, and how he has given us new birth and made us a new creation, giving us God’s image in full, a perfect image once again in glory. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

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What are human beings? Now that maybe seems like a very strange question. After all, anybody asking that question should know, right? After all, don’t only human beings ask the question, what are human beings? We should be able to tell each other what we are from our own experience. Yet I think it’s a very important question for us to ask, because people have different opinions, different ideas on this topic of what a human being is.

There are the materialists, people that say that we’re basically just a big clump of cells with these electro chemical pulses that happen in our body that cause us to move, that causes us to think and cause us to have sensations and feelings and that sort of thing. But then what happens when you die? Well, such people would say that once you cease to live any longer, once those electro chemicals stop, well, then you’re dead. And that’s it. No more. There’s no more you. Right?

Then there’s kind of another train of thought that believes that there is both the material part of a human being, but also an immaterial part, sometimes referred to as a spirit or soul. And that’s really what the Bible tells us concerning human beings, that we are both body and soul. I think of one place in Scripture that we see this is recorded in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse seven, as it speaks concerning one who has died. As it talks about the body.

The dust goes back into the ground—just as it was before, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

The passage talks about that when a Christian dies, their body is buried in the ground. It returns to the dust. And we hear in Genesis chapter one that our bodies, human being, bodies, were made from dust, but the soul or the spirit returns to God who gave it. It says that there’s part of us that remains even beyond death. And isn’t that good news to hear? To know that there is a part of us that remains even after we die. You know, think about how tragic it is to think in those other terms of the materialistic way of thinking that when you’re dead, you’re dead, and that’s it. That means that you never again can see a loved one who has died. That’s it. They’re gone forever.

But the Bible tells us very differently. The Bible tells us that isn’t the end. The Bible tells us, furthermore, that those that die trusting in their Savior, Jesus Christ, their soul, doesn’t just go to be with God for a time. But on the last day, we’ll be reunited with the body. They will be a whole human being once again, both body and soul. To live with God in a perfect place called heaven. And we can see them there again, too, trusting in that same Savior, Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. We can know that we will not end up in hell forever because of our sins, but rather because of what Christ has done for us. We will live with him, both body and soul, with all other believers in Christ for all eternity.

So that’s some good news for us, especially as we consider what human beings are. Let us not just understand human beings are both body and soul, but more importantly, let us trust the Savior that gives us eternal life, both body and soul, forever in heaven. Amen.

Genesis 1:1

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Where did we come from? Where did the world come from? Where did the universe come from? Those are important questions that human beings have been asking themselves throughout all of human history. Many people over the course of human history have answered the question this way that they’ve said, well, something must have made this world in which we live, something must have made me. They’ve looked at all the evidence around them. They’ve seen the trees and the grass and the animals. They’ve seen the weather patterns and all the different physical attributes of this world. They’ve analyzed themselves. The fact that they have eyes and ears and nose and mouth, that they have fingers and toes, and they’ve looked at this amazing, complex world and their amazing and complex bodies and has led them to think something must have made all of this. Something must have made this world that I see with my own eyes. Something must have made me because I am pretty incredible as far as my body. This world in which I live is pretty incredible and pretty complex as well.

It was only in recent centuries that human beings have thought different. Instead of believing that there is a creator, they’ve rejected that notion, and they said, that’s mythology. To believe that there is a God is like believing that there’s some spaghetti monster in the sky that doesn’t exist. Why believe that? And instead they’ve replaced that idea that something created this world and created me with the idea that all that we see, and even ourselves, came about by chance, through the big bang and through the course of chance events that occurred over billions of years, it all came into being.

But if you think about that, even that sort of answer to where I came from, where the world came from, still presents a number of problems. You still have the issue of where did the original material come from? Is material eternal, from which the big bang came, or even the question, what caused the big bang? How in the world could that big bang have happened if there weren’t other things that were living that would have caused the chemicals to mix together and things like that as well.

The Bible tells us clearly where we came from, where the world came from, in its very first verse in Genesis chapter one, verse one,

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

The Bible goes on to tell us that God created the entire world in six 24-hour days. He did it from nothing by simply speaking the word. Let there be light and there was light. The Bible testifies that there is a God, and that God is all wise and all powerful, and really explains a lot concerning what we see in our world. It explains all of the complexity that we see in the Earth and the universe, and even in ourselves as well. But the Bible doesn’t just tell us where we came from and where the world came from. It also tells us what has happened to our world. It’s been corrupted by sin, and that’s why the world around us is no longer perfect. That’s why people get diseases and they die. This is why bad things happen in our world. Because sin is in our world. Evil is in our world because humans caused that to be.

But the Bible also reveals that God has a plan to rescue us from this world that’s broken and corrupted by sin, to bring us to be in a new and perfect world, a new heavens and a new earth, as it’s described in Holy Scripture. And he says that the way that we can be there and be part of that new heavens and new earth with him forever, is only through a Savior, Jesus, who has lived and died for us.

So those are some pretty big questions for us to wrestle with. Where did the world come from? Where did I come from? Let us see the evidence around us in creation, in ourselves, but especially in God’s Word. Know and believe what God tells us there that he is the creator of heaven and earth, but he is also the one who has in love, sent his Son to save us. Amen.

Malachi 2:10, Matthew 6:31-32, Galatians 3:26

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Why do we call God our father? Now that it seems like there’s a lot of people in the world today that refer to God as father, and so it makes us wonder, you know, why do we even call God Father? Does that even make sense? Well, hear this in Holy Scripture. In Malachi chapter two, verse ten, it says this

Don’t we all have one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? (Malachi 2:10 EHV)

You know, one reason that we can refer to God as our father is because he’s our creator, he made us. And we can think about an earthly father. None of us would be here without an earthly father, right? I know there’s a lot of mothers that say, well, fathers don’t contribute that much to human life, and maybe we’d say that so, because mothers do so much, in carrying a child and giving birth and so forth. But the reality is, is none of us would be here without an earthly father. And so that’s one reason we call God Father is because he is the one who created us, the one who gives us life.

Another reason is found in Matthew chapter six, beginning at verse 31.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unbelievers[a] chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.(Matthew 6:31-32 EHV)

Now on those verses, we are reminded also what God does for us, like an earthly father who is supposed to take care of his family and provide for his family needs. So also God provides for our needs. He gives us this beautiful world in which we live, the world that’s filled with so many resources to provide for our food and clothing and shelter. And he takes care of us using those things.

But the third and most important reason why we call God our father is this. In Galatians three verse 26, it says,

In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26 EHV)

And that’s the real reason we have the right to call God father. Is through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and what he has done. It has brought us into God’s family. It’s brought us into a good relationship with him. Now it takes us back to the Garden of Eden, as we think about Adam and Eve, and how they had that perfect relationship with God back then. What happened? As a result of their sin there was a divorce, so to speak, a separation between their heavenly Father and his creatures and his children. Sin separated them from perfect and almighty God.

But Christ has come to repair the damage. He has come to repair our relationship with God, and he has done it through suffering the punishment that our sins deserve. So through faith in Christ, we are right in God’s sight. And now his children. So, especially for Christians, we have the right to call God Father.

Yes, there are many people today who refer to God as their father. Isn’t he the father of everyone? And maybe we can say that’s true when it comes to the fact that he created all things, or he provides for everyone. What a joy it is to say, as a Christian, that God is our father, and to know that it is true that we are his children through what Christ has done for us. Amen.

Jeremiah 23:24, Malachi 3:6

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The church has sometimes use some pretty big words to describe what God is like. We say that God is omniscient, that God is omnipotent, that God is omnipresent. What are those words mean?

Well, we talk about God as being omniscient. That means that he is all knowing. And it’s interesting when we think about those omni words that each and every one of them we can say there’s an aspect of them that is scary, but also an aspect of them that is comforting. It’s scary to know that God is all knowing because that means he knows our thoughts, even our deepest, darkest secrets that we have never shared with anybody else. He knows them. He knows what we are thinking. He knows our sinful thoughts. He knows our selfish thoughts, knows our embarrassing thoughts.

But it’s also comforting knowing that God knows everything because he also knows our thoughts. He knows what we’re going through, even when we have never expressed it to anyone else. That God knows everything we’re going through. And God is there to also help.

We talk about God as being omnipotent. That means that he is all powerful. And many times in scripture he is called Almighty, right? Again, this too is scary, but also comforting and scary knowing that God could squash us at any moment, right, because of our sins and what we have done, but is also comforting knowing that there is nothing greater than God. That God can protect us from every evil force that threatens us and threatens our life.

We think about that final word that God is omnipresent, that means that he’s everywhere, present. We think about a passage from Scripture from Jeremiah 23, verse 24, where God asked this rhetorical question,

Do I not fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:24)

And of course, the answer is yes, you do, God. He fills heaven and earth. He’s everywhere at all times. It’s scary because God can see every terrible thing that we do. But it’s also comforting to know that there is nowhere where God is not. And so when we’re so worried and scared about those that might threaten us, God is there too to comfort us and to help.

Then another thing that we learn about God that is also scaring and comforting is this truth that we hear of in Malachi chapter three, verse six. As God says this, he says,

Certainly I, the Lord, do not change. (Malachi 3:6)

We would say God is unchanging. That’s scary in this way to know that God’s word and his law and his morality doesn’t change. You know, we think about the world in which we live today, 21st century, right? And many people would maybe say, well, we understand why God had all these rules about sexuality and encouraging people not to be promiscuous or encouraging them away from homosexuality and calling those things sin because he didn’t want unwanted pregnancy. He wanted to spare people from STDs and things like that. But we’re beyond all of that. We’ve had many medical advances. We don’t have to worry about those things. So morality can change, right?

That’s not what God says. God says he doesn’t change. Neither does his moral standard. That’s scary to think about our world as it’s changed all what is right and what is wrong. But God says what I say in my word is true. And so it condemns us, especially as we think about our own sins. That truth that God is unchanging is also very comforting for us when we know this, that God’s promises then also cannot change. It’s comforting to know that God can’t all of a sudden one day and say, Well, you’ve been too sinful. So all that stuff that I said about forgiving your sins through Jesus, well, yeah, that’s not going to work anymore. I’ve decided I’m taking all of that back. No, he can’t do that, right? God has to follow through with what he said in his word, He cannot change his promises. They remain unchanged for us, no matter how sinful we’ve been, no matter what we’ve done. What a blessing to know God’s word, God’s unchanging word that assures us that the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Yes, there are some big words that describe what God is like. And a number of those things that we describe concerning God are both scary and comforting. Yes, it is amazing that God is Almighty all powerful everywhere present, but may especially be a comfort to us that God is unchanging concerning His promises, especially his promise of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Psalm 90:2, John 3:16

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What is God like? One thing that the Bible tells us concerning God is that He is eternal. We look to a passage such as Psalm 90, verse two, that says this

From eternity to eternity, you are God. (Psalm 90:2)

It’s hard for us to maybe fathom this truth that God is eternal. Now, maybe not so hard for us to think that God exists forever into the future. After all, we as human beings even come up with such imaginary things like vampires. Think about a vampire. It’s supposed to be someone who can’t die, right? They live forever. We can imagine that. And I think even for ourselves, too, we can’t even imagine us going out of existence. We imagine us existing forever into eternity. So that’s not hard when it comes to God. What’s really tough, though, is to think about this, that God has always existed, that he has existed from eternity having no beginning.

That seems like it hardly makes any sense at all, because everything we know of in this world had a start. It had a beginning. It came from something or from somewhere. I want you to think about this. Imagine there was a child who came up to you and they brought to you a piece of paper and they asked you, where did this paper come from? And you tell the child, Well, I went to the store and I bought a package of paper. And the child asks you, well, where did the store get it from? And you say, Well, it came from a manufacturing plant, a place that manufactures paper. And where did it come from before then? And you go on to explain the material for the paper. Well, came from wood, from trees. And the child asks you, Well, where did the trees come from? And go on to explain, Well, the tree started as a seed and the child keeps asking, Well, where did the seed come from? And eventually you probably tell the child, Well, God created the trees and their seeds and so forth. But the child persists and he asks, Well, where did God come from? And so you tell the child, well, God’s always existed.

I want you to imagine that that wasn’t the answer to the question. Imagine that you could tell the child that, well, there was this thing that created God. What would the child’s next question be? It’d probably be where did that thing that created God come from? Right? It’d be an unending cycle of questions and logically we would say that there has to be an end to all of this. There has to be something that has always existed. And the Bible tells us the thing that has always existed is God. That he is eternal, not just that he exists forever into the future, but he has always existed even before the beginning of the world, before the beginning of time.

What is even more incredible, though, about God isn’t just that he has always existed and will always exist into eternity, but that he desires us to live with him in eternity forever. And he has made a way for us to do exactly that. We think about that very familiar passage from John chapter three, verse 16, where Jesus says this

For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

It tells us in that passage that God sent Jesus so that we would not die forever in our sins and be destroyed in our sins, be punished forever because of our sin, but rather through belief, through trust in Jesus as the one who has forgiven our sins at the cross. We have life, eternal life. We live with God forever, in eternity because of what He has done for us through His Son. Amen.

John 20:31

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What is the main purpose of the Bible? Do we have the Bible to tell us that there is a God? Do we have the Bible to tell us right from wrong? It certainly has a lot to say about those topics, but are those things really the main purpose of the Bible? Consider this. Could you know that God exists even without this book? Could you know right from wrong again, even without the Bible?

I would say yes. You know, if you look at human culture throughout history and even today, you’ll see some commonalities. You’ll see religion in almost every single human culture. Why is that? Well, every single human society is trying to explain that the evidence, the evidence that we all have for God. Consider the evidence. Simply look outside. Look outside the window. And what do you see? You see an incredible complex world filled with plants, animals, all within this environment. And you can maybe take each of those parts separately and consider how complex they are. But it’s also amazing to think about how they work in harmony with one another. Think about what a plants needs to survive and produce fruit. It needs sunlight and water and proper soil, and its environment provides all of those things for it so that plant can grow and produce fruit. And then what happens? Then an animal will eat the fruits. But what happens then? The animals body is designed to even take in that plant food and to be able to digest it and get nutrients and energy from it so that that animal can survive off of it. And of course, animals also will consume other animals, too.

It’s quite incredible to think about the amazing complexity of the world in which we live. Really, you don’t even need to go outside to see the evidence for God when it comes to creation. You can simply look down, look at your own hands. They’re quite incredible to think about your fingers and how they move and how your hands can grasp and all that they can accomplish. But you don’t even need to really think about your hands, think about your eyes that can see your hands and how incredible it is that we have these organs on our bodies that can perceive the world around us, that can present this image on our brain. Like, where did all of these incredible things come from? Doesn’t it all testify to a creator, something that made all of it? Is it really logical to conclude that all of the plants and animals and the environment in which they live in our own bodies as well, and as complex as they are and everything that they can do simply came about by chance? I would say it’s far more logical to believe that something who is wise and powerful created us. All evidence for God.

But also consider this. Think about all the different cultures and countries in our world and even throughout human history. All of them also not only had religion but also had morality. They had codes of law, codes of conduct, of right and wrong. And to some degree, a lot of those rights and wrongs matched up with other cultures that no matter where you went, it was still wrong to murder. It was still wrong to steal. Where did that come from? We don’t see it in the animals that they have sort of moral code, a sense of right and wrong. We see it in human beings. Is that also evidence for a God who has a sense of right and wrong? A sense of what is good and what is evil? A sense of justice.

Now, the Bible, of course, can tell us a lot more than we can learn about God concerning who he is. It can also tell us a lot more about exactly God’s standard of right and wrong. But what we’d really be missing without the Bible isn’t a knowledge that God exists. It isn’t a sense of right and wrong. The key thing that we would be missing is we would not know that God is a God of love who sent his Son to rescue us from our own sin, from our own judgment that we deserve because of our violations against God’s moral standard, His moral code. The Apostle John writes these words at the very end of his book, John chapter 20, verse 31, He says this,

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

John says that the reason that he recorded everything about Jesus life was for this purpose so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, that he is God’s anointed one, that through faith in him, you may have life. That through trusting in him, you have rescue from eternal punishment in judgment. That’s the number one purpose of the Bible to tell you about Jesus and what He has done for you. To tell you that God is not just powerful and wise and just but he in love sent Jesus to rescue you from your sin and to give you eternal life. Amen.

Luke 10:25-28

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It’s been said that there are two important teachings in the Bible, two big overarching truths that you find throughout the Bible, and they are these teachings, law and gospel. The law is something I think that’s easy for us to understand. We have laws in our world and our country. We have directives as far as what we are supposed to do and what we are not supposed to do, like pay your taxes or don’t speed or don’t steal. And if we don’t follow the rules, if we don’t obey the law, we can expect punishment.

Well, God, too, has laws or rules written in his word. Things like love your neighbor as yourself, things like be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect or don’t hate or don’t lust. We think about those things scattered throughout the scriptures, telling us what to do or not to do and threatening punishment if we disobey.

There’s another teaching in scripture, though, and that’s the teaching of the gospel. And again, it’s something that you’ll find woven throughout the Holy Scriptures. Sometimes the gospel has been summarized in this way that it is the good news. It’s a completely different message from the law. The law makes us feel bad as we see how we have fallen short and how we have not done what God demands. But the gospel comforts us. It assures us that our sins have been paid for in Christ. It assures us that heaven is secure because of what Jesus has done for us. It makes no demands, but simply says, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

Now these truths are woven throughout the Scriptures, and each have their purpose. We often say that the law is meant especially to show our sin, to show our need for a Savior. And the gospel does show that Savior, reveals that Savior to us. A portion of Scripture that I like to turn to where we see this principle in practice is recorded in Luke chapter ten. And this is right before that familiar story of the Good Samaritan. And it says this

An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “What do you read there?”
He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”
He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28)

At first glance, for a Christian, this story seems perplexing. We might say, I thought that we are saved by grace, not through our work. So why does Jesus tell this man, follow the law, love God perfectly, love your neighbor perfectly, and you will live. You will have eternal life. Well, it’s important for us to recognize what this story is. It’s law, isn’t it? Right? What they’re discussing there is entirely law. The man gives a summary of the law. Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the summary of the Ten Commandments. Jesus tells him, do the Ten Commandments. Follow them perfectly and you will live.

And it’s true. Why does Jesus bring that up? He uses the law as a tool to show this man his sin. He wants to show this man the impossibility of following the law to get to heaven so that he might turn to Jesus and say, that’s impossible. I have no hope of heaven. So that Jesus might share with him the gospel, the good news of salvation.

And so we see those truths in the Bible, woven throughout law and gospel again and again and again. It’s important for us, as we are reading through the Scriptures, to understand what we are reading. Is this something that falls into the category of law? If so, it’s supposed to show our sin and our need for a Savior. And if it’s gospel to be comforted by it, to be comforted what God has done for us in Christ.

So hopefully that clarifies some things for you as you’re reading the scriptures yourselves and maybe as you begin to see so clearly these doctrines show up again and again and again. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:17-19

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Is it really that important to believe that the Bible is 100% true, inspired and inerrant? It seems like there’s a whole spectrum when it comes to Christians and what they believe concerning the Bible and its truthfulness. There’s those on the one hand that believe the Bible is 100% true, the inspired and inerrant word of God. And there are others on the complete other side of the spectrum that believe that the Bible is filled with a bunch of myths that maybe teach nice moral lessons, however, there isn’t much basis in reality. And then there’s another segment that’s somewhere in between.

So is it really all that important to believe that the stories of the Bible and the facts of the Bible are true? I think of a story like Ananias and Sapphira recorded in Acts Chapter five. It’s a story of a couple who had pledged to sell a piece of property and donate the entire amount to the church. But when they got the money, they decided to keep some of it for themselves, and they presented the rest to the church as if they were giving the full amount they got for the land. Well, the Apostle Peter, it was revealed to him that they were telling a lie, basically, to God and to the church. And so he confronted them. God ended up striking them dead as a result.

You know, whether you believe that story actually occurred or if it’s just a legend, I think the main point is about the same. That it’s bad to lie, especially to lie to God. Right? So, again, is it really that important to believe that the stories of the Bible actually happen and that it’s 100% true?

Well, what about miracles? What about the virgin birth? What about even the resurrection of the dead? Is that important to believe? The apostle Paul writes this in First Corinthians chapter 15, he says,

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished. If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)

He makes the point that if Jesus didn’t actually rise from the dead, if that story isn’t actually factually true, then our faith is worthless. It’s futile, he says. He says we’re still in our sins. He says we have no hope after life on this earth, no hope of heaven or of anything after death. So we think about how critical it is to believe that the Bible is true and that even the amazing things of the Bible, even the miracles of the Bible, are true and accurate. They’re the foundation of our faith. But you might have some that say, okay, okay, I believe that the virgin birth is true. I believe that the resurrection of the dead is true and Jesus rose from the dead, but do I really need to believe that God created the world from nothing in six days? After all, the scientists say that it was created over billions of years through a course of evolution.

The scientists also, many, believe there is no God. Many also believe that miracles can’t possibly happen, not just the creation of the world by God, but also the resurrection of the dead. And so who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust the scientists or are you going to trust God and his word? Again, we see how important it is to trust God and to trust that miracles actually do happen and have happened as they’re recorded in the Bible. But we don’t believe the Bible simply because it’s a necessity for our faith or simply because the Bible says that it is true. We also believe the Bible because it’s been proven to be true. There are countless prophecies in the old Testament and also in the New Testament that have already come true that we can say, see, this prophecy was fulfilled hundreds of years later. This book must be true and accurate and reliable.

So the bottom line for us is, is it important to believe the Bible is 100% true and inerrant? Of course it is. It’s the foundation of our faith. And because we believe the Bible is true, we can be sure that Jesus rose from the dead. And that means that our sins have been forgiven. And we are for sure going to go to be with God forever in heaven through faith in Christ. Amen.