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Psalm 119:18
In light of the movie "The Passion of Christ", many have declared
the movie will lead people to Christ. I do not believe this is the case, as God
has said that the foolishness of preaching is what reaches the lost.
In doing a study of worship, I read Psalm 119:18, which says, "Open thou
mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." As I
meditated on it, the Spirit again taught me of the preeminence of God’s Word,
and that He must open our eyes to the meaning of His Word. I know I can not give
others my convictions, for convicting men of truth is God’s job and will come
about by the Holy Spirit. I also know, people cannot be convicted about
something without reading or hearing the preaching of God’s Word. Thinking on
this sent my mind in another direction; the Holy Spirit has impressed upon my
heart a desire to share it with you tonight. Please bear with me as I try to do
so.
I. The Historical Importance of the Word of God
A. Deuteronomy 31:9-13
1. Vs 12-13, People of all ages need to hear the Word of God.
2. When at all possible, keep the children in the full assembly.
3. Children need to learn to sit still and eventually learn to listen
to God’s man.
4. God’s man is to be preaching a message for all sheep of all ages.
5. Keeping children out of the assembly too much can be
counter-productive.
6. Remember verse 12-13 that they may hear and learn to fear.
7. Remember – Only God can raise a child.
B. II Timothy 3:15-4:2 – Preach the Word; it is profitable for doctrine
etc.
C. Titus 1:1-3 – God chose to manifest His Word through preaching.
D. I Corinthians 1:17-25 – Preach the Word; it is God’s prescribed
method for teaching.
1. Many people are looking for excitement from the preacher instead of
the truth of God’s Word.
2. I remember one woman telling about a particular preacher she liked.
She didn’t care what he believed or what he said, she liked the way he
said it.
3. Vs 21a – It is not the wisdom of the world that eternally affects
men.
4. Vs 21b – It is the preaching of the Word that eternally affects
men.
5. Vs 22 – Many times the world wants something more tangible.
6. The world wants something they can see and even be entertained with,
like puppets, pictures of Christ, and movies about Christ etc.
* Please do not shut me off here! For the teaching of tangible things
(physical facts), pictures and movies are great and very effective, but never
for portraying Deity; that is the job of the Holy Spirit, as we study His Word.
Keep what I’m saying in context! We read in Exodus 20:4-6 that no images are
to be used for representing Deity. A picture is worth a 1,000 words, but not in
the Spiritual realm; there the Holy Spirit is the teacher! Pictures will
actually hinder spirituality. When we pray, if we must see an image in our
minds, we are not praying to God.
II. Let us learn what Christ taught concerning the human desire to see
Deity.
A. John 1:1 Christ is the Word, the expression of God the father.
B. John 3:2-3 – Nicodemus saw with the human eye that Christ was
different.
1. Vs 3 – He needed to be born again to "see," or to
perceive, to understand, the kingdom of God.
C. John 6:26-27 – Seeing the miracles only affected them physically.
1. Vs 28-29 – It is the work of God that any person believes.
2. Vs 30 – Still they wanted to see a miracle, but that only affected
them physically.
3. Vs 36, Human sight does not give spiritual sight.
4. Vs 37-40 – Seeing that involves believing is a different thing all
together. (Remember verse 29)
5. Vs 44 – Jesus teaches that believing is God initiated.
6. Vs 62 – Again, Jesus teaches that believing does not come from
physical sight.
7. Vs 63-65 – The Spirit must quicken first, and then one can truly
believe.
D. Matthew 16:13-17 Jesus taught that flesh and blood did not reveal this
truth to Peter.
III. We MUST note the necessity of GOD’S WORD in our efforts to
evangelize!
A. Luke 16:27-31 – The rich man still wanted a miracle, because he had
forsaken the Word of God long ago.
B. Romans 1:14-17 – No images, movies, etc. needed; the Word of God is
the power!
C. Romans 10:13-17 – Faith to believe comes from the Word of God.
1. Note carefully the wording of verse 17.
2. The verse does not say that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
3. The verse states that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God.
4. Faith comes by the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ – John 1:1,
but faith also comes by spiritually hearing, not just physically hearing
the Word of God.
D. I Corinthians 1:17-25 – Remember as we have already seen, this is
God’s prescribed plan!
IV. As we HEAR (or read) God's Word, we still need to be taught of the
Spirit.
A. I Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul’s message was Christ; his power was the
Spirit of God.
B. I Corinthians 2:9-10 Ones senses cannot grasp the heavenly, this is
reveled by God’s Spirit.
C. I Corinthians 2:13-14 – The Holy Spirit will give His people
understanding of the truth.
CONCLUSION:
Images, movies, and the like, may give a human picture but we should never
try to humanize Deity with that kind of limited, feeble effort. When we try to
subject the minds of people with images portraying Deity, it is actually very
counter productive. The Spirit of God is a far better teacher! The fact that
some people’s emotions get stirred up with graphic images is certainly no
proof that the Holy Spirit is the cause. How many times have people cried
through a sappy love story? That is not the Spirit of God. We cannot say that
the Bible only speaks of the Word because there were no technological
advancements as there are today. Back as far as Moses there were images that
were made to represent Deity. What about the live drama? Surely this is not
limited to our day and age! What we do know for a fact is; God has ordained His
Word to be preeminent and His Spirit to be the teacher. Can we pretend to be
able to improve on God’s pattern? Dare we even be so arrogant as to try? I say
no! Let us always stay true to the Biblical pattern. |