The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: The Bible Says: Trustworthiness of Scripture

Episode Date: November 15, 2020

The Bible, God’s Word, is a gift from God to us. It is trustworthy and true and it all points to Jesus.

Amen, amen. I hope everybody's doing well. I am Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors today, and it's my joy to open God's word with us today. And we're going to be continuing a teaching series through the New Testament book of 2nd Peter that Pastor Jobi kicked off for us last week. And so we'll be in chapter 1 of 2nd Peter, and then we're going to hop over to Matthew, chapter 17, for a few minutes. So as you find your way there in Scripture, I just want to celebrate a little bit about things happening in the life of our church. As I'm sure you've heard at your campus or you, you know, you're you know, you're going to be in your you go, we were able to tune in online. We read the entire Bible together as a church this past week. And it was awesome. Yeah, amen. It was awesome. On Sunday night, Pastor Jobi kicked us off in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 around 7 o'clock. And for the next 76 hours and seven minutes, 138 different people read 31,102 verses across 2,498 pages of God's Holy Word.

We're about to open our new worship center at the San Pablo campus, which is where I'm from, where I'm at right now, and where Pastor Jobi normally preaches from. And so that's going to be happening in the next few weeks. And so to inaugurate that, we just really felt like God was asking us just to wash the walls with his word and to just say out loud, beginning to end, Genesis' revelation, the holy inspired Word of God. And so he did. And it was incredible. One of the things that really took me back through the whole three days.

plus process was just how breathtaking the Word of God is. I mean, it really is unfathomable that we have been given a gift like this where God has made himself known to us and has made himself so accessible to us. I mean, it really is remarkable the fact that we have this. And I don't know about you, but I own quite a few Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, there's one in a seat back in front of you. You can take that. And that's our gift to you. we want you to have the Bible, we want you to read the Bible. I have many Bibles, but oftentimes in my life, I can grow so accustomed to it that it just becomes, maybe sometimes it falls into like a commonplace in my life versus me really esteeming it for the beautiful, holy and inspired

thing it is. We are a Bible-believing church. We believe God's word here, amen? Amen, we do. We love it. We believe that it is the holy, inspired word of God, that it is infallible, that it is inerrant, that it is historically true, that it is eternally trustworthy. We believe that it is good for preaching. That's why we preach it every week, verse by verse, word after word. We walk through the Bible as a church. We believe it is good for reproof and correction. We believe that it is good in the final authority in regards to all things pertaining to life. We believe the Bible. We stand on it. We believe what the Bible says about itself is true and spot on when the says that it is living and active, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword, and that it penetrates

through the spirit to the bone and marrow. We believe and love the Bible. There's really nothing like it. It is unique among anything else in history. There's never been a book like it. There never will be another book like it. The Bible has come under more scrutiny, more criticism, more attack than any other book in history, and still yet here, it stands. It has survived bans. It has survived burnings. It has survived holy wars. It has survived academic criticism from higher education institutions.

It has survived criticism from false religions. It has stood the test of time, and it always will. It's incredibly unique. The Bible is currently illegal in 52 countries around the world. 52 countries today. this book is illegal. When communism was really taking hold in China in the 1940s and 50s, they kicked out all religion, including Christianity.

And so Christian missionaries had to leave the mainland of China. And one of the things that the Bible tells us about God is that God is sovereign over all kings and kingdoms. He is sovereign over everything. And so in the 40s and 50s, the communist China decided they were going to kick out Christianity. And so God looked at that, and this is fascinating. God looked at that, and do you know what nation in the world will print more Bibles than any other nation in the world this year? China. You can't make this stuff up. God says, you're going to kick me out. Cool, I'm going to turn you into the Bible printing capital of the world.

Christianity is still illegal in China. Explain it. It's amazing. It really is. Just unbelievable how unique the Bible is. It has been printed more than any other book in human history. Billions of copies have been. printed, tens of millions are sold and circulated every year. It is the most translated book in the world. Wycliffe Bible translators tells us that there are more than 4,000 different languages the Bible has been translated into, including the fictional Star Trek language of Cleon. I didn't believe it when I first saw it, and so I looked it up, and it's true, the Bible has been partially translated into Cleonon. Now, that tells us two things. One, some people have too much time their hands, right? And two, if you have a copy of the Bible translated and clean on, you

shouldn't tell anybody, ever. That's me doing you a favor right there. The Bible's impact on the world is undeniable. It really is. It's unbelievable what this has traveled through in order for us to know God through it. But it's not just its global impact. For me personally, it's It has had significant impact. There is nothing in all of my life that has been more formative than the Bible. There's nothing that has shaped me or formed me more than this book. I have distinct memories of being a child from the time that I can, all the way back to, I can remember until the time I was 14 or 15 years old, every night as a family,

we would sit around the dinner table and my father would read the Bible to us. Every day of my life. I remember being in poorly named church programs called RAs or a, Juana's or I don't even know where no Juana is and I was in it for years, but half the Bible that I know today I learned as a child because I went to a church that like this church took the Bible very, very, very seriously and they were committed to getting the Bible inside of us. And so I began to learn it and it began to change me and inform me. One of the things we did when I was a kid was we did these things called sword drills.

The Bible calls itself the sword of truth or the sword of the spirit. And so when I was a kid, we would do sword drills. And what they would do is they would line up eight or nine kids on the stage, and then there would be a host of sorts, and the host would call out book, chapter, and verse of the Bible. And so somebody would say, Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 8. And so all the kids would open their Bible, and we'd be flipping through. And whoever got to Jeremiah 29, verse 8, and found it, they would say, I got it.

And if you did that enough times, enough rounds in a row, if you got there first, then you were awarded the winning medal. And so it is with great humility that I announced to you that you were currently looking at the 1989, sword drill champion from Hebrew Baptist Church in DeKula, Georgia. Yep, no, no, no, no, save your applause. The Bible says pride comes before the fall. So we're not going to talk about such things.

It really is amazing. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah says in chapter 40, verse 8, that the grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God will stand forever. And so into the Word of God we go into 2 Peter chapter 1. Last week, Pastor Jobi kind of taught us the heart of this letter from Peter, who was Jesus' friend, a disciple and follower of Jesus, an apostle in the New Testament. The heart of the letter is that we would, through these words and these reminders,

be able to confirm our calling and election, is how Peter says it. And what that means is that through God's word and the testimony of Jesus Christ that we can deep in our relationship with Jesus Christ by obeying his words. So we pick up in Peter's letter in verse 16 of chapter 1 and he says this, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we may known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Underline power and coming by our Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to come back to that at the end. He continues. but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. That word eyewitness is an incredibly important word.

Why would Peter make a point of him saying, we were eyewitnesses to the glory of God as revealed through Jesus? Don't forget that we saw this with our own eyes. Why does it matter that Peter and the other apostles were eyewitnesses to the glory of God revealed through Jesus Christ, specifically in the New Testament. Well, because one of the criticisms of the Bible, specifically the reliability of the New Testament,

is that it was all just made up by Jesus' followers because they were just trying to garner support for their cultural agenda or for their political ideology. They just wanted people to do what they wanted people to do. And so they made up these fabricated stories about Jesus Christ who was their hero, that Jesus didn't really do the miracles. He didn't really teach these things.

He didn't really die on the cross. He didn't really resurrect from the dead. that it was all just made up. And this criticism is still around in academic circles today. And so there's two things quickly I'll offer you that encourage us and give us confidence in the historical reliability of the eyewitness accounts in the New Testament, starting with the book of Luke. Luke was a doctor, incredibly brilliant.

He interviewed tons and tons of eyewitnesses, and he is credited with two books in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He wrote both of those by giving. giving eyewitness accounts and having many, many interviews. And he says this in Luke chapter 1, verse 1. He says, in as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and

ministers of the word have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, who he's writing. this letter to, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. This letter that Luke is written, one of the reasons we can be confident in the reliability of the New Testament is because when these letters were written, it was far too close to the actual events to be a thing of legend. Luke writes this letter about 30 years after the accounts of Jesus' life and death, and what he's saying is that I have carefully investigated everything from the beginning of his

life and I have checked what I've written with eyewitnesses. So even though it's 30 years later, Luke is saying there are a lot of people who actually saw these things happen and you can just go ask them to confirm what I'm saying is true. And it's not just Luke. It's also the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was a terrorist who hated Christians and he killed many of them. And he, through radical intervention from God, actually becomes a Christian and a follower of

Christ, and he is credited with writing about half of the New Testament. And in one of the letters, he writes, 15 years, only 15 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, Paul writes many letters. In one of the letters, this is what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 6, in speaking about Jesus, Paul is saying, and then he, Jesus, appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. And this is the key phrase, most of whom are still alive. Paul could not possibly have written in a public document saying that there were 500 people who saw Jesus at once

and most are still alive unless that was actually the case. I mean, maybe if it was three or 400 years later and you were just trying to make up a legend, you could say some of these things. But you could not say Jesus was crucified and Jesus was resurrected when thousands of people, both for Jesus and against Jesus, were still alive. and they witnessed all of it, if not some of it.

You couldn't say it when the eyewitnesses were still alive. If Jesus had not been crucified and raised from the dead, these public documents going around claiming that he was, that were distributed among the synagogues and among the house churches of the time, they would have absolutely been debunked, and Christianity would have never gotten off the ground. So one reason we can historically trust the reliability of the New Testament

is because it was written so close to the actual events. The eyewitnesses said they saw it, and they gave testimony to it. But the second one is if you actually read it, if you read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they are far too counterproductive to be a thing of legend. They're far too counterproductive to be a thing of legend. I mean, if you were just making it up and you were just trying to garner support for your political ideology, why would the hero of your story at the exact moment of his most significant act of heroism, why would right before that act of heroism would he try to get out of it? I mean, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell us that in the Garden of Githemone, Jesus praised this prayer where he says, if there would be any other way than me having to go to the

cross, then let's do it a different way. And so why would you write into the story the heroic act being questioned by the hero? It just doesn't make any sense. And not only that, if you were just making up a legend and you were trying to garner people to your cause for a political or cultural gender ideology, why would you write your into the story and make yourself look so dumb. I mean, why would you do that? Why would you make yourself look like a coward? All the disciples, in all the gospel eyewitness accounts, all of them fled Jesus at his highest time of need. They all denied Christ in one way or another. They all

did stupid stuff. They all lacked faith. Why would you write that into the story? It's just too kind of productive. And in the first century, shame and honor culture, in a time when women were very, very oppressed, an ethic which Jesus flipped up on its head and he got in a lot of trouble for it. In that time where there was a lot of shame and a lot of dishonor toward women, why would you pick women as the key eyewitnesses to the miracle that the whole thing hinges on, which is the resurrection? When Jesus comes out of the tomb, according to these eyewitness accounts, who are the first people to see him? Women, so why would you hang the credibility of the whole thing on people who are devalued and undervalued in culture.

It just doesn't make any sense. So logic and scientific textual criticism prove the reliability of the scriptures in a historical context. It is all the eyewitnesses saying that they saw the same thing and telling the same story that gives us confidence in the authenticity of the written word, including Peters. For most of us today, tuning in, listening. the question for us is not, is the Bible historically true? That's not really what we have to wrestle down.

For most of us, the question that we have to wrestle down is this. Is the Bible authoritative? It's not, is the Bible historically accurate? The question we really have to wrestle through is, is the Bible authoritative? Meaning, is it not just true, but is it the standard of truth in the world. Meaning, does God get the last word really?

Does God really get the last word in regards to all things pertaining to how life should be lived? One of the most challenging things about being an American today in our culture is that if you use any discernment at all, it is very difficult to tell who's telling the truth and who's telling lies. Truth is under attack, and it has been under attack for a long time. This is nothing new. been going on for a long time. It has just been on center stage in our country of late. But it's

been going on for a long time. And I remember all the way back in college 20 years ago, I walk into a sociology class in college and my professor, a sweet lady. She walks in, starts class off by writing this on the board. She writes, there is no universal truth, period. And then she opens it up for discussion in the class. And me, lacking self-control at the time, I'm not near as self-controlled, I'm more self-controlled now. Wait, whatever, self-control. It's the thing. Me lacking it at the time, I just throw my hand up in the air. And she's like, yes, sir. And I'm like, I'm like, man, how can that be true? And she looked at me, kind of like you're looking at me right now. If there is no universal truth, how can that statement be true? I'll let you think about that

for a while. But 20, 30 years ago, all the rage was there is no universal. truth and it has given way over the decades to the fact that truth is relative. Now relative truth is the thing. And if you want to believe whatever you want to believe for your sake, then you can believe whatever you want to. You make it true for you and then it's true. The idea that there is a standard of truth in the world has been under attack and oppressed for a long time. Now, as believers, this comes as no surprise to us. Because as it is with all things pertaining to life, the Bible explains this to us. And the Bible's account of why this is goes all the way back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden with the first man and woman named Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve were created to flourish under God's rule and reign. They were created to have shalom, this universal flourishing under God's truth. And God said, I have created you to multiply. I've created you to produce. I have created you to cultivate. I have created you to have dominion. I have given you authority over all created things. But that's not just true.

There is a truth. And the truth is that there is a truth. a tree in the garden and you shall not eat of it. If you eat of that tree, there will be a significant consequence. This if then is a truth. And Adam and Eve had to decide what to do with that truth. And in slithers God's enemy. And what does he do? He begins to suppress truth. And how does he do it? He doesn't just come out and blatantly say, eat of the tree, eat of the tree. God's stupid. God doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't just, it's not a blatant frontal attack. What does he do? The enemy just simply ask a question. He says, did God actually say? Is what God said the final word?

Is his word really the authority? Romans chapter one tells us that at the foundation of all things evil is the suppression of truth. Jesus tells us that we have an enemy and that that enemy hates us and that he wants to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And you would say, destroy what? Well, to destroy us. Destroy peace. Destroy joy. Destroy life. Destroy purpose. Why? And how? The way he wants to destroy us is by lying to us. It's by getting us to believe lies. The Bible calls him the father of lies. But good news, my friends, that 1 John chapter 3.8 says this, Jesus Christ came into this world to destroy the works of the devil. And that he, he says, he He has overcome all of the lies.

Jesus Christ did not come to this world to set us free from truth. He came to set us free through the truth, and the truth will set us free. Is the Bible the final word? You see, the beautiful thing about the written word is that it contains the living word. The written word contains the living word. And John, the apostle, Jesus' friend, an eyewitness to the accounts of Jesus. apostle who was martyred for his, marty for his faith on an island, he dies. He writes this in his gospel eyewitness account in John chapter 1, verse 1.

It says this, John says, in the beginning was the word. And it's capitalized. It's an interesting word in Greek, and the word is Lagos. It means the essence of God. The essence of God. So in the beginning was the Lagos, the essence of God, and the Lagos was with God. God and the word was God. And then he gets very pointed. The Lagos, he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through the Lagos and without the Lagos was not anything made that was made. In him was life.

And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. You see, history books are good. And there's a plethora of fuel of knowledge for you to study the Bible is reliable history and you should. It's sharpen you and you'll grow and it's good. History books are good and history books are good because they inform our thoughts around things. But the Bible doesn't just inform our thoughts. It invades our thoughts. The Bible is not primarily a history book just giving us context and appreciation for events that happen. The Bible is the living word of God and it leads us to the place where we have to make some decisions. The living word, the Logos, he has a name. He has a name and his name is Jesus Christ. And Peter, in this letter he's writing, is saying, I saw the whole

thing. I saw the Lagos with my own eyes. I can give eyewitness testimony to the fact that he is the glory of God. And he picks a very specific event to confirm the authority from which he speaks. And he goes on in verse 17 and 18 of 2nd Peter chapter 1. Speaking about Jesus, for when Jesus, he received honor and glory from God the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the Holy Mountain. Christians, Jesus followers. We are a people of faith. It is an incredibly informed faith, no doubt, but we are a people of faith. And our faith is not rooted in the idea of faith. It's not ideology. Our faith is in a person. And it's specifically in that person because of what that person

said and what that person did, namely the resurrection. Our faith, the cornerstone of our faith as Christians is the fact that Jesus Christ died bodily on a Roman cross and he was taking bodily down off that cross dead and he was bodily buried in a tomb where he lay for three days and then three days later he bodily resurrected from the dead. And now he is the final authority because he has life and death. That is what we believe. That is who we believe in. Jesus Christ is what our faith is rooted in and we believe everything he said because the fact that he resurrected from the dead. We believe everything he said. He gets the final say because of what he said and what he's done. We don't just believe the New Testament. We believe all the Testament of the law and the prophets

and all the things in the Old Testament that pointed to the Messiah who was to come to take away the sins of the world and we believe that that person is Jesus Christ. We believe every word of it because it all points to Jesus. Our faith is in Jesus and all that he accomplished on our behalf through his life, death, and resurrection from the dead. In Peter's letter, he could have picked multiple events like the resurrection. He could have picked the ascension when Jesus goes back to heaven, but he doesn't. He picks this really interesting event, the transfiguration, whereby he says, because we saw this, let me remind you what we saw, you can trust us. And so let's go read about the account of the transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 says this, starting in verse 1. And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother. And he led them up to a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun and his clothes became wide as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with. them. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here. One for you, who I'm looking at. One for Moses, who's standing right there. And one for Elijah, who's right there. And while Peter was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed

them. And a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the son of man is raised from the dead. Peter's saying, we saw it with our own eyes.

And we would say, saw what, Peter? and he would say the glory of God. I saw the glory of God on display with my own eyes. I saw that Jesus actually is the Son of God with my own eyes. I saw that indeed it is a fact that the fullness of God is pleased to dwell upon him. I saw that he is the word made flesh, the Lagos. I saw with my own eyes that this man bent the natural world to his will. I heard with my own ears the supernatural voice from heaven saying,

is my son with whom I am well pleased. What Peter is saying is that I saw and I heard with my own eyes that Jesus, he is God. Peter's giving eyewitness testimony to the glory of God. Now, you and I, we're going to go through our life and you're going to answer a million questions. If you have small kids, you answered a million questions on your way to church today. Right? What am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to go next? Am I going to attend this? Am I going to take this job? Am I going to leave this job and go to this job? Am I going to buy this thing? Am I going to get on Amazon and then spend two and a half hours of my life there? All these things that we have to decide every day, right? And the questions that we ask

and answer in our life are not equally weighted. Right? So answering the question, what am I going to eat for dinner and whom am I going to marry? These things carry a different amount of weight. And they have a different amount of impact on the trajectory of our lives. And of all the questions that we will ask and answer in our life, there is one question that weighs more than any other question. There is one question that has more significance and more impact on the trajectory of our lives than any other question that we will ever ask and answer.

And that question is this. The question that weighs more than any of the rest of them is, who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? There is no denying historically that he lived. We tell time by his life. life. And that doesn't even matter to me if you want to be all PC about it. And you measure time in BCE before common era and common era versus anodomini and before Christ. Whatever word you want to

choose, it doesn't matter. The whole thing still pivots around this man's life. Historically, it's undeniable. There are people who were not Jesus followers who give written credit to the fact that he was alive like Thalas, the Greek philosopher of the first century. Pined a younger, who was a Roman lawyer and author, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. historians, Tacitus and Soutonius, the four independent biographical accounts of Jesus' life that we have from the apostles, there are more documented accounts of his historical existence than any other ancient figure. It's just undebatable that he lived. But that's not really where the decisions have to be made. Where the reckoning really comes in is what Jesus said about himself

true. Is what Jesus claimed about himself actually true? And does he actually get the final word because of it? This is where the decisions really have to be made. Some of the claims that Jesus made about himself, like this one. He says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Have you ever been soul hungry?

You know that thing in you that's just looking to be satisfied? That's just looking to be fulfilled. And a lot of times in life, we'll turn to things outside of ourselves to try to find that fulfillment, whether it be accomplishments or relationships or experiences. We look for these things trying to satiate and satisfy this hunger we have on the inside. What Jesus is saying is, you know what that thing is looking for?

You know what you're actually hungry for in a soul level? Jesus is saying, you're hungry for me. That I am the bread of life. I am what can eternally satisfy, but not just that. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of light. You want to know what the purpose of life is? You want to be able to see clearly your purpose and all the things, all God's purposes and all created things?

I'm the way. I am the light of the world. I can show you what it is you're looking for. Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and we'll go in and out and find pasture. You're looking for peace? Jesus is saying, I'm it. I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. You're looking for somebody who would so uncomfortable? who so unconditionally loves you that they would lay their life down for you? Jesus is it. It's what he says about himself. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. You're looking for eternal life at peace with God in heaven?

Jesus says, I am it. He actually, in the most radically exclusive claim in human history, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except, me. There is no way to get to God the Father in a right relationship except through Jesus. That's what he says about himself. He says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. You want your sins forgiven? Jesus says, I'm it. You want eternal life, a relationship with God. You want truth to set your life by. You want joy, peace, hope, salvation. To every single one of these things,

Jesus says, I am it. I am it. And what people are Peter is saying, as we have heard God the Father from heaven saying, this is my son. And so either Jesus is God as he claims or he is a complete fraud. When writing about this very thing, an atheist turned Jesus' follower named C.S. Lewis, brilliant man. He's writing about these claims that Jesus makes about himself. And he writes it like this in his book, Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis says, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher.

But I don't accept his claim to be God. This is the one thing we must not say. A man who has, a man who was merely a man and has said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says, he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something else. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronized nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not

left that open to us, he did not intend to. Who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? If he is who he says he is and who Peter and the apostles say he is, then we would do well to pay attention. Peter continues in verse 19 and 20, and he says this, because of these things that we saw the glory of God on display with our own eyes, you should pay attention. He says, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. We have the truth to which you will do well to pay attention to us to a light, a lamp shining in a dark place. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. This letter from Peter is much like his last will in testament. He actually goes on to be murdered, martyred by being hung on a cross upside down shortly after this letter begins to be circulated.

And in his last will and testament, what he is saying is that you can have faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ and you can have hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are a people of faith. We know that the Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God and that if we are drawn near to him, then we must believe that he exists and that we will seek him by faith, that we know that we are saved by grace through faith. It is not of our own works, but it is a gift of God of God to us. We know that for God so loved the world that he gave his only son who is Jesus, that whoever would put faith in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. We are a people of faith, but we are also a people of hope. And in Revelation, Jesus calls himself the morning star. It's what Peter's talking about.

He calls him the morning star. And we don't believe just that Jesus came. We believe that Jesus is coming again. And the reason that we believe he's coming again is because he said so. We are a people of faith and a people of hope. Our faith is in what Christ has done. And our future hope is in what he is going to do. Listen, just let me encourage you.

I don't know what it looks like in your life for you. But the one thing you can't do faithfully is to be indifferent to this. Apathy is not really one of the choices. And so I encourage you, do whatever you got to do to get this word in you, to get it down in your guts. You may say, I'm not a reader. Good news. We live in the modern era where technology is in abundance.

And so you can put headphones in and you can listen to the Word of God. You can get it filled. We have, through our app, you can download the Bible's there. We put a reading plan out every day of the week. You version is an incredible Bible app that has tens of thousands of different reading plans. join a disciple group where people gather around and they talk about God's word and God's promises and better understand how those things impact their life. You get this book down into your life. You hide it in your heart so that you may walk faithfully according to God's word. And in it,

life will begin to come out. Peace will begin to come out. Patience and joy and self-control. All of these things will begin to grow in you as God's word gets down in you. Get this word in you, whatever it takes. And I'll close with this. Verse 21 of chapter 1, Peter says, for no prophecy of scripture was ever produced by the will of man. We didn't make this stuff up. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, has done a tremendous amount of work in order to preserve His Word through the ages so that you and I, so that we could have a relationship with him, so that we could know him,

so that his love for us and his plan for us for all of eternity could be on center stage in our lives. And speaking of the suppression of truth and the efforts from the world and from God's enemy to suppress truth, do you know what truth that the enemy wants to suppress from you more than any other? The thing that he doesn't want you to know because if you know it, if you believe it,

then it just changes things about how you live. The truth that has been under suppression for generations that I want to remind you of today is this, that God, he loves you. He loves you. He loves you so much that he came down in flesh and he gave his life for you on a cross so that your sins could be forgiven

and that by faith you could be a part of his family forever. He loves you. And maybe you're here today and you would say, Pastor, you don't understand. I hear you. God's word is true and is trustworthy. Okay. But you don't understand what I've done. You don't understand where I've been. You don't understand what I've said. You don't understand the hurt that I've experienced or the hurt that I've inflicted. You just don't know what I've done. And you would speak over yourself, condemnation based on your qualifications of condemnation, as if you're, you just don't know what I've done. and you would speak over yourself

condemnation based on your qualifications of condemnation as if you get the last word. But let me encourage you that your word is not the final word. That Jesus has a final word for you. And his word, no offense, it's better than yours. It's a better word than your word. And when Jesus was on that cross, on the hill of Galgotha,

and he pushed up on those nail-pierced hand, those nail-pierced feet, and blood fell from that cross down to the soil of the dirt below, he uttered three words that changed the course of human history when he said it is finished. And if by faith you will believe that, that when Jesus died on the cross, it counted for you and that truly it is finished, that is a better word over your life than any lie of condemnation. It is finished. And you may say, Pastor, I'm ashamed. I'm scared. I don't want to say it out loud, but I just am sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so filled with shame. Do you know that Jesus has a better word for you too? He spoke it through the

Apostle of Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 when he says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Will you by faith come to Christ Jesus and let his better word be the final authority in your life? You may say, Pastor, I'm brokenhearted. I'm tired. I'm beat up. And if I'm honest, I contributed to the breaking of my own heart. I don't know how I got here. I don't know how I ended up here, but here I am. And I'm just so tired. Jesus's better word for you is that the Lord,

he is near the brokenhearted. And he comes to those who have a crushed spirit so that he can save them. Jesus' better word for you is that all who are tired, all who are heavy laden and weary, please come to me and I will give you rest. says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Will you come to him? Will you let his better word be the final word in your life? And finally, I just sense that there's a group of people here that would

say, okay, pastor, I agree. And by I agree with the arguments you've made, if you want to call him that, I agree. And what I mean is that I don't disagree. But if I'm really honest, I have not been living according to that belief. I have not been living as though Jesus' word is the final word. I have not been walking faithfully according to His word.

I've just been making it up on my own. And I see where it's leading me and I don't want it. What I want is His better word over my life. And so I need to come home. So I'd invite you today, will you come to him? Will you come to him by faith?

His word is true and his word is trustworthy. At all of our campuses, if you're watching online, we would invite you to take a next step in your faith journey with God by following in Jesus in a step of faith. You can do that a couple of different ways. There's respond cards in every seat back in front of you at our campuses. If you're watching online, there's a next step button or you can request prayer right now. Whatever it is, God's leading you to do. We want to help you do it. You don't need to go out here and try to figure it out in the world on your own. You don't need to just get smarter or try harder, What you need is Jesus, and you need Jesus through His Word, and you need Jesus through His Church. So let us come alongside of you and help you follow Jesus. You can fill out a respond card. You can correspond with us online, whatever it is. Maybe you're here today, and you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus ever.

And you would say, I want Jesus to be my Lord. Grab that card in front of you. Tell us who you are. Take that step. Every week, as we finish, we respond to the gospel together. We do so in three ways. One is we pray. And I would invite you to tell us your prayer through the respond card or online or come to these altars and pray.

What a gift it is to have just a few minutes every Sunday to be able to come and pray at the altar and to be able to do business with God and to be able to make confession to God and to be able to process with the Holy Spirit what he's leading us to do. So we would invite you to pray. We invite you to respond to the gospel by giving. We give our first and our best because God gave his first and best. to us through Jesus Christ, his son. And then we respond in singing. We declare eternal truths about God through song, knowing that he is worthy and he is the only one that deserves our praise. And so we give it to him. So I'm going to pray. And when I say amen, we're all going to respond to the gospel together.

Would you stand with me and let's pray? God, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you that it is true and that it is trustworthy. Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters right now that they would be stirred up by truth in their hearts. Holy Spirit, would you speak to them the word they need to hear? A word of comfort, a word of encouragement, a word of truth, a word of conviction. Would you give us ears to hear what you're saying to us? And would you give us the heart and the strength to obey them? Father, we pray that over the next couple of minutes as we declare your truth,

through song, Father, that you would be glorified and that our hearts would grow inside of us for you. We know that you love us and that you proved it through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, Father, we pray that you would help us to walk faithfully according to your word. We love you more than anything in this world. And would it not just be something we say, but would actually be true in every area of our life. We pray all these things by the power and the victory of Jesus. Christ and all God's people said, amen. Let's worship him together.