"A Man and His Bible" | Pastor Steve Gaines

[Applause] all right take your bible turn with me to psalm 119 105 i'm going to do something i never do i'm going to take a scripture and launch from it into a purview a panoramic view of what the bible says about the bible and the title of the sermon is a man and his bible look at psalm 119 by the way it's right in the middle of the bible it's the longest chapter in the bible and it's all about the bible that's a lot of bible right there okay psalm 119 105. you probably learned this when you're a child if you grew up in a baptist church it says this your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path would you read that with me read it off the screen your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path i want to say this to you whether you're a man or a woman whoever you are you need a young person you need to live in the bible and let the bible come alive in you if you don't understand the bible something's going on because if you're saved the holy spirit is inside of your physical body and he is the one who inspired godly men to write this so the holy spirit in you should bear witness with the holy spirit in this book and if you don't understand any of it it just really means you're probably not saved i'm not trying to be ugly i'm not saying if you know there's a few things that you don't understand but if you don't understand anything man at the end of this service give your heart to the lord jesus christ but if you are saved you need to live in the bible now you might be looking at your outline say how in the world are we going to get out of here before 2 30. look at all these blanks i have never seen so many blanks in my life well the good thing is they're not blank up here all right i know what goes in them and we're going to get going and we're going to do it right now let's talk real quick about how we got the bible and that is a process called canonization you don't have to spell that to get into heaven but it's canonization now what in the world does the canon mean when they put together the whole bible the old new testament it was a canon of scripture the word canon refers to a measuring rod and that was saying we were measuring these books against some of the other books that didn't make it in how did we get the bible well at first it was all oral and then they started writing some of it down and then you know it was inspired you say how do you know that we believe that the bible is inspired we don't believe that the quran is inspired we don't believe that the book of mormon is god inspired we don't believe that the apocrypha that the roman catholics believe those extra 15 books should be attached to the regular bible of the old testament we believe there are 66 books we believe there are 27 in the new testament 39 in the old testament and so let's talk a little bit about canonicity and the early church how they they measured how they took that uh canonicity that measuring rod and they saw the process go through about which ones would be brought in in the church councils and which ones would not they did not determine which books were inspired they simply recognized the ones that god had inspired above the others the collection of all these books that we have in the bible are recognized by the early church as completely authoritative scriptures not to be added to not to be taken away from let me just give you and this is not in your notes but you might want to write this down if you want to and some of the tests of canonicity how did they test the books that were out there there are a lot of books floating around the early church councils and what you have is when jesus rises from the dead and he ascends to heaven and the holy spirit comes back then all of a sudden you had these gospels circulating you had letters from paul and peter and some of the other apostles and you had all these books circulating you'd already had the canonization of the old testament those 39 books were canonized back in 400 around the time of ezra in 400 bc but now we're getting into like a.d 50 through 100. that's when all the by the the books in the new testament were put in the canon of scripture and here's some of the tests of canonicity number one it was authoritative when you read these books there was something about these letters or these gospels or these books that we put them into the canon of scripture that was saying thus saith the lord it was it was obvious that this was not just from man and then it was prophetic in the old testament it came from a spiritual leader like an old testament prophet a king a judge a scribe in the new testament it always had to come from an apostle somebody that jesus said was an apostle or called as an apostle and paul was later on called to be an apostle as were the others it was also authentic it was consistent with the revelation of all the truth of god that we have it was dynamic it demonstrated it changed people's lives people would read the bible and their lives would be changed and they knew that that though that needed to be in scripture it was changing people's and it was received there was this universal acceptance of these scriptures that's how we got those scriptures and you can read more about that sometime i'm having to go quickly because i'm just giving a little overview here i could talk all day about not all day but a long time about this you said we don't worry about that we know that but anyway i could talk a lot about this but simply to say that the old testament was solidified by the year 400 and then in the the first two or three centuries the church started being persecuted and so they had to decide what are the books that are floating around the gospels that are floating around the letters of the apostles that are floating around that we would die for we would say you know what you can kill us if you want to but we are going to hold on to these scriptures even if it means death and they were greek manuscripts in the new testament and they were aramaic and they were hebrew and the old and they said this is the bible we'll die for this and you know what they started they came down to four gospels they came down to the writings of paul the writings of peter the writings of james the writing of jude the writings of john aside from the gospel of john and they came up with the new testament and all of those books were written not long after jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven between 50 a.d 50 and ad100 all the books of the new testament were written again the church did not make the canon of scripture they just officially recognized the kingdom of scripture that's all i can say about canonization and you can look up more about that in other books if you'd like to let's talk about inspiration now not just canonization but inspiration the inspiration of the bible what does it mean when you say the bible is god breathe what does it mean that god breathed scripture into existence what is inspiration let me tell you what it is not a lot of times to figure out what something is you have to figure out first of all what it's not it is not mechanical inspiration god did not dictate these words he impressed them upon their hearts they were perfect when they came out but it's not like god said okay you just be there you just be a dummy and i'm going to speak through you and you're just a microphone that's not how it worked god did not do that you see their personalities when paul's writing you'll understand that his personality is there but all of the things that he wrote that were in the canon of scripture they're all inspired by god but he didn't god didn't dictate it to him okay and it's not dynamic inspiration some people say well it's just the ideas that are inspired but not the words you know i don't want to say goofy but that's just plain goofy all right i mean how can you have ideas without words what are you even talking about and so yes it's not just the ideas that are inspired but the words are inspired and then some say well part of it's inspired partial inspiration and that's when people say well you know we'll just take and pick what we want you know only parts of the bible are inspired and so that way you know if they don't like what the bible says then they can just do the other and feel good about it and then some say well it's kind of a naturalistic inspiration it's like any other good book like the writing of poetry oh it's kind of inspired by man i want to say this to you this is not the book of the month this is the book of the ages all right don't compare this when it comes to inspiration like any other book so what that's what inspiration is not what is inspiration it is verbal and plenary write those phrases down they are theological words but you need to know them plenary means that all of it is inspired plenary all of it psalm 119 verse 160 says the sum of your word is truth the totality all of it all of your word is truth it is inspired and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting so all of the bible is inspired and then the words are expired and that is what we get the word verbal verbal jesus said in the sermon on the mount right after he said the beatitudes he said in matthew 5 18 for truly i say to you until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke that's where you get the phrase jot or tittle and it's talking about parts of words not even entire words parts of letters i should say he said even the parts of the letters are inspired so it's all inspired if the letters are inspired the words are inspired it's verbal inspiration he said not the smallest letter of stroke shall pass away to the law until all is accomplished all right number three you say boy we're moving fast oh it bogs down after a while so hang with me okay what we believe about the bible i have people ask me why are you a southern baptist one of the reasons is because of what we believe about the bible this comes from the baptist faith and message it is not scripture but it is scriptural it was rooted in scripture and i helped draft this dr rogers who was here before me was the chairman of that committee we were taking the origin the uh the original baptist faith and message was the 1925 version and then in 1963 they updated it and i say updated it they just redid it and then in 2000 we took the 1963 one and we made it very clear especially on scripture what we believe about the bible and so i was on that committee dr rogers with the chairman there were 15 of us total he led us and he led us well and here's what we put now this is not scripture but it is scriptural and i want you to read it with me this is one of the main reasons i'm in the southern baptist convention because this is what we believe about the bible read it with me please off this big screen and if you can't read this i don't know what to tell you all right okay here we go the holy bible was written by men divinely inspired and is god's revelation of himself to man it is a perfect treasure of divine instruction it has god for its author salvation for its end and truth without any mixture of error for its matter therefore all scripture is totally true and trustworthy it reveals the principles by which god judges us and therefore is and will remain to the end of the world the true center of christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct creeds and religious opinions should be tried all scripture is a testimony to christ who is himself the focus of divine revelation amen amen that just tells me the bible is the word of god that's what we believe about the bible let me give you a few biblical facts about the bible okay write these down first fact i want to give you is this bible is perfect psalm 19 verse 7 says the law of the lord is what say it out loud perfect again psalm 119 160. i quoted this a moment ago the sum the totality plenary inspiration the sum of your word is truth every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting it's perfect you can't add to it that's why the bible says in the old and new testament don't take away from it don't add to it it's fine the way it is just leave it alone obey it and then secondly it is trustworthy you can trust the bible a lot of things written out there you can't trust it but when you pick up the bible you can trust it it's trustworthy psalm 19 verse 7 the testimony of the lord is sure that little word sure there means you can trust what it says psalm 93 verse 5 your testimonies are very sure holiness adorns your house o lord forever it is correct does anybody remember incorrect and correct now it's just relative whatever you want is good your reality is what not ain't wrong it's either right or it's wrong it's either correct or it's incorrect okay for all people not just for you you don't get to make your own rules sorry that's not the way life runs okay the word of god sets the rules okay so it's it's correct psalm 19 verse 8 the precepts of the lord are right that is they're correct psalm 119 128 therefore i consider all your precepts to be right i hate every false way if there's a true way there's a false way if there's a right way there's a wrong way and it is correct and then it is clear by that i mean it is pure but it is understandable especially when the holy spirit comes to live in your life when you get saved psalm 19 verse 8 the commandment of the lord is pure that is it is clear psalm 12 verse 6 the words of the lord are pure words they are clear words they're understandable words as silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times and it says refined seven times refined perfectly that's again goes back to the perfect nature of scripture it is clear and it is true i know i'm going fast but there's a reason we've got a lot of blanks okay and i'm trying to get to the last part especially it is true psalm 19 verse 9 the judgments of the lord are true and then jesus the longest prayer we have of jesus comes from john 17. he prayed it the night before he died on the cross for our sins and he was praying to god for the followers that he had and he said in john 17 17 sanctify them in the truth and then he defined truth your word is true say that with me please your word is truth you read books nowadays i'm reading a biography on george washington right now and i'll be honest with you it's a great book but it's not inspired by god i mean there's probably some things in there that are not true but when i read the bible i don't have to worry about that this book is true and it's true because the author is sinless and true he can't sin we'll get to that momentarily and so it is true and then it is righteous it is righteous i'm not righteous you're not righteous but jesus is righteous and the word of god is righteous psalm 19 verse 9 the judgments of the lord are righteous all together psalm 119 138 the statutes you have laid down are righteous they are fully trustworthy i don't have any righteousness that can get me into heaven the bible says in isaiah my so-called righteousness is like filthy rags but when jesus saved me he who knew no sin jesus he who knew no sin bore my sin in his body on the cross now listen that i might become the righteousness of god in him in christ when i got saved the righteousness of god was given to me i received jesus righteousness and when i stand before god now he sees me clothed in righteousness one of these days if you're a christian you're already clothed in righteousness but one of these days when you see jesus he's going to give you the crown of righteousness and then i believe you're going to take it off and put it right back at his feet and say worthy art thou o lord our god to receive glory and honor and power for those created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created but our righteousness is in jesus christ and it's just fitting that even though jesus the living word is righteousness the written word it says is righteous as well and then it is desirable when you get saved you will want to get into the word of god and once you get in it even if you are saved right now and you haven't read it very much you start getting the word of god and you're just supernaturally drawn to it it is desirable psalm 19 verse 10 they are more desirable than gold talking about the precepts of the lord then much fine gold sweeter also than honey how many of you like honey anybody like honey out there i do i love honey and i love to put it in my oatmeal mmm that's good and uh but the bible says that it is sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb psalm 119 97 oh how i love your law it is my meditation all the day jeremiah one of the greatest men in the bible jesus quoted jeremiah several times jeremiah in fact jesus quoted jeremiah all the time but jeremiah said this in jeremiah 17. he had no wife he had no children he was not a father on father's day anything like that you know if they had father's day back then he was just a man of god living in a time where hardly anybody was really them for the lord he was preaching to people that beat him up and would throw him in jail and they'd throw him in a a cistern of mud to hope that he would die and this guy was just he was just he was tough man he was just strong in the lord but something he said i can't get it out of my mind i memorized it years ago and he was praying to the father in jeremiah 16 i think it's verse 11 and he said this thy words were found and i did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for i am called by thy name o lord god of host thy words were found and i did eat them when's the last time you thought about the scripture that is so sweet it's so wonderful i just want to devour it i just want to take it in i want to feed on the desirable word of god this is not a drudgery this is not something that's hard to do you get saved man you want to read the bible you want to read the bible it is in it is desirable and it is inspired it is breathed from the very breath of god ii timothy 3 16 is so good and so famous i want us all to read it off the screen read with me please all scripture is inspired by god and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and righteousness all right let's take that word inspired and say god breathed all right we're going to read it now and instead of saying inspire we're going to say is god breathed alright here we go all scripture is god breathed by god and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in rights when you read the bible you're just reading what god breathed into into words how did god create the heavens and the earth he spoke them and that's what he did here he spoke these words he breathed the scriptures what a beautiful picture it's inspired and then it is inerrant there's no error in the bible i said oh sure there is no there's not well i know there is my professor told me well show me one well i just know it's there he wouldn't tell a lie oh really there are people all over our united states who have phds in philosophy and psychology and mathematics and biology and they try to be experts on the scripture but they don't have any training in the scripture now if i went into their biology class and say hey i took 10th grade biology get out of the way i'm a teacher class they'd throw me out of memphis state i'm sorry university of memphis and rightfully so i don't have a degree that qualifies me to teach on biology and look they don't have a phd or anything else that qualifies them to teach on the technicalities of scripture and i want to say this to you if you're not going to tell the truth about the bible don't say anything trying to ruin children's thoughts when it comes to the bible and it's historicity and it's it's really being the word of god amen amen belongs there right there that's that's one of the big things wrong with our country they say it's it's it's full of error it is not it's not when it speaks scientifically it is correct when it speaks historically it's correct whatever it says i'm telling you it's correct numbers 23 19 god is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent has he said and will he not do it has he spoken will he not make it good whenever god says something it's right romans 3 4 let god be true but every man a liar i want to say this to you don't get mad at me but everybody in this room you've told a lie before so you're a liar everybody in this room is a liar he said brother steve i'm being so blessed thank you for this sermon this is great well we all are but jesus is not god has never lied everybody has sinned and falls short of the glory of god everybody in this room is told he says all men are liars but god is not god is not a liar all of us are sinners and god is true but every man is a liar aren't you glad though that god can save liars amen he can forgive us of our sins and wash us and cleanse us and then the bible says in titus 1 2 god cannot lie cannot lie and then the hebrews 6 18 says it's impossible for god to lie i think i've always looked at it this way i heard a guy say one time he said if god tried to lie he would choke on it i mean the lie would get just stuck in his throat amen so god can't lie god can't sin so god can't lie and then the bible is infallible it is incapable of error that's what that means psalm 119 105 your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path it is it's incapable of error now i want to ask you something how many of you when you're putting something together especially at christmas time you don't look at the instructions come on raise your hand anybody out there i got my hands up all right and it's frustrating because my wife reads all the instructions of anything she does and so when i get about a fourth of the way into it i've messed up don't know what's going on don't know what this part goes to this part or whatever and she said did you she always said did you re and she knows the answer don't you hate it when they ask questions they know the answer to it's like they know the answer to all the questions so i said did you read i said no i didn't read the instructions it's just a little toy i mean why can't i put together she said just read the instructions and and i want to say this to you that's why you read the instructions here because it's infallible it is absolutely incapable of error just like the instructions your word is a lamp to my feet a light to my path all right it is authoritative it's authoritative jesus said in matthew 15 verse 1 and following the bible says then some of the pharisees scribes came to jesus from jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders ah the tradition of the elders that's a big deal right not to jesus for they don't wash their hands when they eat bread shame on them oh they don't wash they don't wash their hands in this specific ritualistic way oh jesus why in the world are you letting them get away with that's our tradition as the old uh you know movie said traditional tradition they were all about tradition and so jesus said i don't care anything about your tradition i care about the word of god and he answers and said to them verse 3 why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of god for the sake of your tradition then he gives an illustration that was really powerful he said for god said honor your father and mother that's in the ten commandments and he who puts speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death but you say whoever says to his father mother whatever i have that would help you has been given to god he is not to honor his father or mother by this now listen you invalidate the word of god for the sake of your tradition you hypocrites rightly did isaiah prophesy of you this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the precepts of men i just want to say this to you the authority of bellevue baptist church is not the southern baptist convention the authority of this church is not steve gaines or anybody else on the staff the authority of this church is not our membership the authority of this church is the word of god that is it that is our authority if you can't see it in the bible chunk it all right that's the hebrew word for throw it away okay and the bible is eternal it is eternal bible's always going to be here don't worry about the bible now you may we may you know one day in america god forbid we may out they'll be outlawed maybe but you know what they're going to be all over the place underground amen you're going to find the bible here a lot of people will memorize scripture that's one of the main reasons we memorize scripture is so that we'll always have the word of god no matter where we are it will be in our heart but it is eternal other books are not eternal but the word of god is isaiah 40 verse 8 read it with me off the screen great verse the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our god stands forever if you look at the context the grass and the flowers that's people people flowers are the prettiest ones among us but even they fade even they fade but not the word of god it stands a comb hebrew it stands for ever and then it is the bible is christ centered the whole bible points to jesus jesus said in john 5 39-40 you search the scriptures because you believe that they give you eternal life you see they worship a book but we don't worship a book we worship the one that the book points to all right you say you search the scriptures because you think you believe that they give you eternal life but the scriptures point to me jesus said yet you refuse to come to me so that i can give you this eternal life let's think about it real quick what's the old testament point to the messiah it's all about the messiah who is the messiah jesus christ jesus the messiah jesus the anointed one so all 39 books of the old testament point to the messiah jesus christ it's coming and now what are the four gospels matthew mark luke and john what are they they're about jesus life and ministry and his teaching what then is the book of acts it's about his continued teaching through the power of the holy spirit and it's the church of the lord jesus christ and they're all preaching and teaching about jesus and what about now all these epistles all these letters the book of james the book of peter the second first and second peter timothy and all paul's books all that what is that all about they're crystallizing and and they are coming and they're showing you all the theology that was given by jesus and they're crystallizing that and putting it where we can apply it in the local church and then what's revelation about it's about the coming of the lord jesus so from genesis to revelation the whole book is about jesus christ it is a christo centric book it is christ's all right very quickly number five the functions of the bible what does the bible do number one it leads people to salvation leads people to salvation ii timothy 3 14-15 you however continue in the things paul said to timothy you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings now watch which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in christ jesus how do i know how to get saved i read the bible it tells me how to be saved when i was in my first pastorate i was about 26 years old when this happened i started when i was 25 pastoring at that church in lake dallas texas and i can remember getting a call our secretary was part-time at the church she took the call and she said this lady wants you to come you and donna to come she says uh she she wants you all to talk to her she's uh thinks she's become a christian she wants you to come talk to her so we went to their name is gloria and we went to gloria donna and i went with her donna went with me and we went precious lady she said i'm roman catholic i'd never read the bible and i'm not saying that roman catholic never read the bible i'm just saying she said i'm roman catholic i've never read the bible i started reading the bible i read it a couple of times and i got saved i think that's what you call it she said i think i got saved i got saved i said well tell me about this i just started reading the bible and the more i saw i just i just saw that i was a sinner and and then and she just like it's like she just shared the gospel with me and nobody had talked to her except the bible don't tell me there's not power in the word of god she got saved we baptized her her husband got saved we baptized him her kids got saved we baptized all of them and to my knowledge she's still in that church serving the lord i want to say this to you the bible is powerful unto salvation and then also it helps us mature it helps us to mature another way would be to say it it helps us to be sanctified more like christ second timothy 3 16 all scripture is inspired by god and it's profitable what for what teaching reproof for correction training in righteousness sometimes it will tell you that you're what you're doing is wrong sometimes it will tell you hey go this way i'm teaching you i'm training you in righteousness i'm reproving you i'm correcting you all of that is the part of the sanctification that after you get saved you become more and more like jesus christ that's what maturing is becoming more like jesus and then not only is salvation and maturing but also service it prepares us for service once we start maturing then we need to serve the lord and everybody ought to want to do that like these people who are working in a ministry they've driven all the way over from oklahoma but you don't have to do that we look we've got ministry places for you to go serve you can serve in vacation bible school camp outrage you can serve in a lot of different things all around memphis we've got bellevue loves memphis we've got every kind of way you can imagine to serve the lord right here and if you're christian the word of god will prompt you to want to do that it prepares us for service second timothy 3 16-17 all scripture is inspired by god it's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and writing now watch this so that the man of god or the woman of god may be adequately equipped for every good work all right save the best for last you ready i want to tell you how to do it what does it matter if i can say oh you need to be in the bible what does it matter if i don't tell you how to do it so i'm going to tell you how to do it if you if if somebody is listening right now or they're not listening right now would you just look in the name of jesus elbow them as good as you can right now okay i mean now don't get in a fight okay but just wake them up and say hey tune in here we go understanding the bible how do you understand this thing it's not complicated of course you've got to be saved to understand it but saying you're saved already here we go number one that is going to really be i'm not kidding you sometimes the most simple things are the most profound things you need to read it you need to read it kind of like those instructions did you read the instructions no no did you read the bible no i read it when you preach on it brother steve look at me 168 hours in the week i preach about 45 minutes that's all the bible you get and you're online and you're watching television and you're going to movies and i'm not saying i'm not i'm not saying you never do that stuff i'm just saying you probably spent 20 30 40 hours doing that and you wonder why you're not growing as a christian and you've got to spend time in the word you've got to read the bible revelation 1 3 is talking about the book of revelation but i think also applies to the whole bible blessed is he who reads let's say that together blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near you're going to be blessed if you read the bible if you're a christian it's going to bless you i read it slow i read it out loud i read it to feed my soul i can't just get up here and feed you i can't just write checks i've got to make deposits all right and my deposits are when i read the bible just for my soul to feed on the word of god and then you need to hear it that's what you're doing right now you can hear it on youtube there are great bible teachers out there you got to be careful some of them not so great either but you need to hear the word of god romans 10 17. consequently faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of christ here godly men teach the bible and if you look if you go to a church and nobody opens a bible get out of there get out of there you say oh my family's already going you know what get your family out of there i mean tell them all let's get out of here they're not preaching the bible they're not talking about jesus let's hit the road and go find us a bible church amen amen amen i'll amen for you that's fine great study it the best way to start this is just go buy you a good study bible ryrie studied about we have great study bibles over the bookstore and just go over and get you one of those second timothy 2 15 says be diligent to present yourselves approved to god as workmen studying the bible can be work who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of the truth i remember when i first started living for jesus man i couldn't get enough bible i i was just reading my bible and i started reading books about the bible and then i started reading commentaries about scripture and the text and all that stuff and i said you know what this is what i want to do the rest of my life i just want to preach this stuff and i want to spend time in the word and i want to get in the word and study and it was just the more i did it i was it was just like i couldn't get enough now i want to say this to you do you study the bible do you study the bible you don't have to be a theologian to understand the bible i had a guy tell me one time rail gambling rail gambling one of my deacons in lake dallas he was a mechanic at one of the airlines there southwest airlines he started with them when they opened up southwest airlines in dallas and rail came up to me one day and said preacher he said i i can't understand this bible i can't read hebrew or greek i said real gamblin you can't read the bible in hebrew and greek but you can read it in holy ghost you can read it in the power of the holy spirit and i believe the holy spirit will take the english language and make it open to you and feed your soul if you will spend time in it i believe that with all my heart don't don't don't say that you can't study yes you can memorize it oh i can't do that i can't remember anything don't say that kind of stuff sure you can sure you can memorize the word of god psalm 119 verse 11 i have hidden your word in my heart that i might not sin against you i started reading the bible and i started memorizing the bible right after i started reading the bible way back when i was 18. 45 years ago i'll do the math 63 is what i am right now proud of it all right but i started memorizing scripture back then i haven't memorized scripture every week since then but i'm still memorizing scripture i i went to a funeral yesterday went up to see my mom and dad's grave yesterday came back and i took my scripture memory cards with me and that's when i i just memorized the scripture when i get on the elliptical machine you know and i'm sweating and everything a lot of my scripture cards are soaking wet when i get through with them but i i memorize scripture when i'm i'm working out so why do i do that why do i want to hide god's word in my heart because i don't want to sin against the lord i want god's word to be in my heart so that it's not just something i read once in a while but i'm really taking it in and going over it and over again and you say i can't do it stop that stop it look i'll tell you what i got you can go get this there's the scripture memory book called it's a little organized card 60 cards 60 card yes 60 cards it's called the navigator's topical memory system they're in our bookstore if you they don't have it you can order it i'm telling you it tells you if you read the little book it tells you what to do tells you how many times to remember to review it tells you how to write it out and all that stuff i'm just telling you you can do this and you will be blessed if you'll memorize the word then meditate on it once you memorize it you can meditate on it and just go over it and over again over and over again look at joshua 1 8 on the screen one of the greatest verses in the bible about the bible this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth that's a hebrew way of saying it will always be in your mouth it will never depart from being in your mouth is what he's saying but you shall meditate on it when day and night so that you'll you may be careful to do exceeding according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success meditating on it is just taking a verse and one of the reasons i like to memorize is because i'm meditating i'm going over and over and over and over again okay kind of like a young child with a lollipop they stay on that thing until it is gone amen so that's what you need to do meditate on and then pray it pray it i've gotten where i can't even pray without praying scripture when i pray the word of god i pray the will of god when i pray the will of god i'm going to get answers to my prayers and so john 15 7 jesus said if you abide in me and what my word abides where in you then pray ask whatever you wish that the word of god's abiding in you now ask pray the word ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you when you pray the word of god you get the will of god and then obey it you can't just talk about it you got to do it okay james 1 22 says this but don't just listen to god's word you must do what it says otherwise you're only fooling yourselves that's the new living translation and then share it ah we finish every blank if you don't have one that's on you i did all of them okay share it ezra 7 10. this is one of my favorite verses because it's the first verse don and i memorized this in august of 1980 41 years ago in two months three months whatever it is and we we memorized it out of the king james this is the new american standard read it with me please for ezra had set his heart to study the law of the lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in israel now what is that talking about it's talking about sharing it with other people i went to a funeral yesterday in arkansas and i went to the wrong place there were two funeral homes in two towns that were 10 miles apart marked tree was one and something else in arkansas i don't remember the name of it and so they were but the the funeral home had both had the same name and so i put in my phone and i went to the wrong one and it was providential he said how do you know because while i was there i went to the gas station and the lord just as clear as the bell said i want you to share the gospel with that girl behind the counter and those two older men outside and i said okay so i went back to the car i carry gospel tracks with me everywhere i go and i got three gospel tracts out now there's people coming and going all this so you can't you know just stop i'm gonna tell them about jesus you can't do that okay so if you did that they'd say get out of here so the girl's name was angelica so i knew that god wanted me to talk to her amen so i talked to her and said do you know the lord have you ever been saved she said well i'm still working on that and so this is a little book that i wrote a little gospel tract would you would you read this you said sure i'll read it today and i gave it to her and talked to her about the lord then i go out there and these guys are you know they're they're i'm telling you they were older okay uh they they were cl they're close to eternity all right i don't have to say it and so you know and they look like they got one foot on the grave and one foot on a banana field but anyway i i'm just sitting there you know looking at them and i said man if you guys don't know the lord you need to get him real quick okay so so i share the gospel with them and this one goes yes i know jesus i said bingo that guy knows the lord the other guy kind of faltered a little bit and i said sir do you know the lord he said well i went to church years ago and so i just shared a little bit of my testimony shared with him gave him a gospel tract i'll probably never see those guys and by the way that's why i went to the wrong funeral home at first all right how many of you know that god a lot of times we think it's a mistake when it's providential amen god's all over it and i'm not saying that to try to put myself on a pedestal well what does it matter if i get up here and preach to all of you and i won't share the gospel with a little girl at a convenience store and pray that she'll be saved and want her to be saved say where where do you where do you get that where do you get that desire to share the word from the word jeremiah said lord sometimes i just don't want to speak the word don't act like you don't know what he's talking about he said but when i shut down your word within me is burning it's burning it's like a fire in my bones and i can't stop talking about it i want to say this a real christian when you love somebody you talk about them and when you love jesus you'll talk about them in a good way and you'll share the word of god one of my favorite little poems about the bible is this i got it from w.a crystal he got it from somebody else who knows where it came from really doesn't matter very short please listen to it it's called my precious bible my precious bible though the cover is worn and some pages are torn though places bear traces of tears yet more precious than gold is this book worn and old that can shatter and scatter all my fears when i prayerfully look in this precious old book many pleasures and treasures i see many tokens of love from my father above who is nearest and dearest to me this old book has been my guide it's been a friend by my side it has lightened and it has brightened my way and each promise that i find it smooths and gladdens my mind so i read it and try to heed it every day turn off the tv for a while put down the book of the month get off the social media and take a bible bath today let's go home and take a bible bath how do i do that well first you've got to open it up instructions just go to the gospel of matthew if you don't know where to start and just start reading read it out loud read it slow if you don't understand it read it again if you don't understand it at all put a little check by about it talk to somebody that knows about the bible and say what does that mean and just read it read it from left to right unless you're hebrew read it from right to left just read it spend time in it meditate on it and you'll have that burning in your soul that you can't hold it in you've got to tell other people about it may god bless every man i know it's father's day but can i go ahead and say and every woman may we all live in our bibles let's thank god for the word of god can we do that amen

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

Views: 1,251

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: man and his bible, bible canonization, what is the Bible, pastor Steve gaines, the role of a father, Bellevue Baptist Church, bellevue memphis, bellevue church, bellevue sermons, Steve Gaines sermons, Steve gains, bell view, Bellvue, bellview, fathers day sermon, Father's Day sermon

Id: JX1CobuHI4g

Length: 48min 47sec (2927 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021