THE GIFT OF GOD’S WORD

II Peter 1:1-4

Sunday Morning Sermon

October 11, 1998

Fair Avenue Baptist Church

This morning I want us to think about the gift of God’s Word and how it relates to our lives today.  I want us to think about the sufficiency of God’s Word.  We have a great book and God gave it to us.  What a wonderful gift.

1.       A DIVINE GIFT

V. 3, “According as his DIVINE power hath GIVEN unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness...”

A divine gift...

We have God’s Word...

God’s Word,

A Book that pertains to life,

A Book that pertains to godliness.

Aren’t you glad that God gave us His Word?

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The Bible was God,

The Bible is God.

This Book we hold in our hands is the very Word of God.

This King James Bible I hold in my hand is the Word of God.

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation as we were at Depot Days.  A lady walked up and said, “Are you the pastor?”  “Yes.” 

          “Aren’t you the church with King James Version on one of your signs?”

          “Yes.”

          “Isn’t it terrible what people are doing to the King James Version?”

          “Yes.” (Still hesitant, not knowing where this conversation was headed.)

          “We believe the King James Version is the best.” (Her and her husband standing there.)

          “Yes.”

          “I can’t believe that they took so many verses out of the King James Bible.  It’s terrible what they’ve done.”

          “Yes.”

          “I teach a Sunday School class at ________ Baptist and I started teaching on why the King James Bible is the Word of God.  Would you believe that I had three ladies quit my class because I was teaching that?”

          “Yes, I can certainly believe that.  In fact, let me be perfectly frank.   I would have never believed it.”

          “Well, more and more people are believing it.  More and more people are realizing that the old King James is the best.”

          “I believe it is not only the best, but the only Word of God for us today.”

The Bible is a divine gift from God.

1.       A Divine Gift

2.       A POWERFUL GIFT

V. 3, “...his divine POWER hath given unto us all things...”

His divine power,

The Word of God,

A powerful Book.

It is a guidebook,

It is a rulebook,

It is indisputable,

It is the Word of God.

It is a Book of God’s Power,

It is a Book of God’s Guidance.

Clouds hung thick and gray as John Faneslow was cleared for takeoff from Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport. 

It was 7:00 AM, January 16, 1995, and Faneslow was returning a Piper Cherokee to its base in Janesville, Wisconsin, sixty miles to the south-west. 

He climbed into the fog and leveled off at 4,000 feet.  Suddenly the needle on the ammeter plunged to zero. 

Faneslow realized that the plane’s alternator had failed, which meant that within an hour the battery would no longer sustain the lights, radios, and other electronic instruments. 

The experienced flight instructor determined that it would be bst to attempt to fly on to Janesville, which would be only a thirty minute flight. 

However, the battery drained quickly, and the instruments went out, leaving Faneslow in total darkness trapped above the clouds. 

He had been in radio contact with the tower at Milwaukee, but now even that contact was lost.  He was stuck, hopeless, with nothing to guide him through the dark to a safe landing.

The air traffic control supervisor at Mitchell Airport contacted another plane in the area requesting the pilot to try to find Faneslow and lead him back to Milwaukee. 

Brian Barton, piloting the plane delivering Federal Express packages, turned on every light available and went to find the lost pilot. 

He made visual contact with Faneslow, indicated that he should follow and safely directed the helpless pilot to a successful landing.  (“Lost in the Clouds, Reader’s Digest, December 1996)

The world to day is full of people who have no clue about where to land or how to arrive safely. 

Churches today are full of peoplw who have no clue about where to land or how to arrive safely.

There are folks in this auditorium this morning and you have no idea of how to live your life.

God’s Word is the critical guide.

It alone gives knowledge of the Holy One.

Without it we are hopelessly lost.

The power of God’s Word is the answer to our lives.

It is the power of God’s Word that helps us be a faithful man - a man of the Word.

It is the power of God’s Word that helps us be the husband we ought to be.

It is the power of God’s Word that helps us be the daddy we ought to be.

It is the power of God’s Word that helps you be the wife you ought to be.

It is the power of God’s Word that helps us be the Christian we ought to be.

1.       A Divine Gift

2.       A Powerful Gift

3.       A CONFRONTATIONAL GIFT

V. 4, “...that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”

This Book,

This Bible,

This King James Version,

It is a confrontational Book.

It’s very fiber is to shake our souls.

It is supposed to rattle our cage.

There was a frontier settlement in the old West where people were in the lumber business.  They wanted a church, so they built one and called a pastor.

The preacher was well received until one day he happened to see some of his members stealing logs from upstream.  Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp one one end.  The pastor was distressed to see his members stealing the logs and sawing off the end where the stamp was.

The next Sunday he prepared a forceful sermon on the text, “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”  At the close of the service he was met with, “Wonderful message, pastor, mighty fine preaching.”

However, the next week the preacher saw more members stealing logs.  This bothered him a great deal.

So he went home and prepared another sermon for the next Sunday.  The title was, “Thou Shalt Not Cut Off The End Of Thy Neighbor’s Longs.”

When he got through, the members voted him out and ran him out of town.  It must have been a Baptist church.

There’s just something about the Word of God that hits us between the eyes.

1.       A Divine Gift

2.       A Powerful Gift

3.       A Confrontational Gift

4.       A CLEANSING GIFT

V. 4, “...having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust...”

The Word of God can cleanse us if we will just let it.

Psalm 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”

But if we don’t read it,

If we don’t study it,

If we don’t learn it,

If we don’t meditate on it,

Then we won’t live it,

We won’t do it,

We won’t even care.

On the table side by side,

A Holy Bible and the TV Guide,

One is well worn but cherished with pride,

(Not the Bible, but the TV Guide.)

One is used daily to help folks decide,

NO! It isn’t the Bible; it’s the TV Guide.

As pages are turned, what shall they see?

OH, what does it matter, turn on the TV.

So they open the book in which they confide

(No, not the Bible, it’s the TV Guide.)

The Word of God is seldom read,

Maybe a verse ere they fall into bed.

Exhausted and sleepy and tired as can be,
Not from reading the Bible, but watching TV.

So, then back to the table, side by side,

Is the Holy Bible and the TV Guide.

No time for prayer, no time for the Word;

The plan of salvation is seldom heard.

Forgiveness of sin so full and free

Is found in the Bible, not on TV!