****THANKS TO GOD WHOSE WORD WAS SPOKEN (2)

In a sermon he preached, about a year ago, my pastor summarized all biblical theology in two statements:

1.     GOD IS.  That fact is declared in the first four words of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning GOD…”

2.     HE HAS REVEALED HIMSELF.  And that is the rest of the Bible in its entirety.  It’s all about Him.  It’s His revelation of and about Himself to His creation.  Everything we need to know for faith and practice, He has revealed in His written Word.

Can you imagine what it would be like if it were left up to each one of us to discover God through subjective means?  We could never be certain.  But we have His Word.  It is true and it is certain.  The Word of God is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. 

THANKS TO GOD WHOSE WORD WAS SPOKEN, is a song of thanksgiving to God for His Word.  He has given us everything we need to know about Him.  And He has done it with WORDS.

I was fascinated by the way the author, R. T. Brooks, outlined God’s progressive revelation in the four stanzas of this hymn.  But then,  I was bothered by how he ended each verse with the same phrase; “Praise Him for His OPEN word.”  

In the context of 21^st century American Christianity, that word raises a lot of confusion. We have open theism, open marriages, open doctrines, and churches with open memberships.  God’s Word should be open but it is NOT open to interpretation; it means exactly what He intended it to mean.  We are not to approach His Word with the question, “What does this verse mean to me?” but rather, “What did God mean when He spoke it and what does it mean if I had never been born?"

So, I have taken the liberty to change the last phrase in each verse, in order to more clearly identify the mode through which God has Spoken (see lyrics below). 

The first stanza describes the beginning of God’s revelation in His creation (“the deed that made the earth”).  Gen. 1;1 says, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.”  Then, in subsequent verses, we read that in every act of His creation, prior to man, He created with His Spoken Word (“…and God said, ‘Let there be…’ ”)    All creation is an unmistakable testimony of God’s glory. 

The concept that God has spoken in His creation is further expounded in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.”

The stanza continues with God calling His people.  Hebrews 1:1 says, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets…” 

That verse is clear, God spoke IN TIME PAST.   And He was precise and deliberate to ensure that His Word was not changed or corrupted.  If any man claimed to be a prophet, and his prophecies did not come to pass, he was executed so that there would be no confusion among God’s people.  

We Praise Him for His SPOKEN Word.

The second stanza is a reference to verse 2 of Hebrews 1, “…(God) has, in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”

John introduced the Son of God with these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  And we beheld His Glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Then, in verse 17, John makes this distinction between the Word of prophecy and the Incarnate Word;  “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

We Praise Him for the LIVING Word.

The third stanza takes us to the Scriptures which were given to us by God through the Apostles.  (2 Tim. 3:16-17) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Now we have His complete Word recorded for us. 

We Praise Him for His WRITTEN Word.

Does God still speak to us today?  Yes!

The last stanza tells us that the Spirit speaks to us. 

One of the functions of the indwelling Spirit of God is to teach us and guide us into all Truth.  And He does that with His Word because “His Word is Truth.”  

When we hear or read and meditate on God's Word, the Spirit convicts us of sin and leads us in the way we should live.  And any time we feel that the Holy Spirit is telling us something, it must be tested against or verified with the Written Word of God.  God’s Word never changes and it never contradicts itself because God never changes.

Praise Him for His CHANGELESS Word.

THANKS TO GOD WHOSE WORD WAS SPOKEN

Thanks to God whose Word was spoken,

In the deed that made the earth.

His, the voice that called a nation,

His the fires that tried her worth,

God has spoken, God has spoken;

Praise Him for His open SPOKEN Word.

Thanks to God whose Word incarnate,

Glorified the flesh of man.

Deeds and words and death and rising,

Tell the grace in heaven’s plan.

God has spoken, God has spoken;

Praise Him for His open LIVING Word.

Thanks to God whose Word was written,

In the Bible’s sacred page.

Record of the revelation

Showing God to every age.

God has spoken, God has spoken;

Praise Him for His open WRITTEN Word.

Thanks to God whose Word is answered,

By the Spirit’s voice within.

Here we drink of joy unmeasured,

Life redeemed from death and sin.

God is speaking, God is speaking.

Praise Him for His open CHANGELESS Word.

****O WORD OF GOD INCARNATE

O WORD OF GOD INCARNATE was written by William How in 1867.  It is a rich meditation that reflects a very high view of Scripture and uses several unusual, or unique, metaphors for various aspects of the Word of God.

The first verse begins with a reference to one of the most important passages in Scripture; the opening verses of John's Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then in verse 14, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…”  and, of course, we know that is a reference to the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

There are other passages in the Old Testament that allude to the personification of the Word (Proverbs 8, for example) where wisdom is personified.

When God reveals Himself to us, He does it principally in His Son and He does it with words.   Everything that we can know about Him is revealed in scripture.   And that’s ALL we can know.  Anything about Him that is not revealed in scripture, we cannot know.

Now if you have been paying attention to current events, lately, you are aware of the rapidly declining moral condition of our culture.   And you have probably heard many misguided attempts, by nominal Christians and liberal churches, to legitimize and accept all kinds of immoral behavior in the name of tolerance and Christian love.  And, furthermore, they defend their tolerance by implying that “Jesus never actually said anything about it so it is okay.”

Well, it’s NOT okay because it is just not true.  One of the reasons I don’t use a red-letter edition of the Bible is because ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD BREATHED.  And that’s the point.  Jesus and Scripture are in total agreement.  There is never any contradiction.  We can’t form our theology on just a few selected red words.

This hymn starts by presenting the Living Word of God.  He is incarnate; He is God in human flesh.  So the song moves us along from the Word to Wisdom, to Truth, and then to Light; all of those referencing Jesus Christ.  And then it transfers that picture of Light to the Written Word of God which is the Bible. 

So there is an inseverable relationship between Jesus and Scripture. Jesus is the Word, and Scripture is the Word.  Someone has said, “If you want to hear from God, read your Bible; if you want to hear Him speak to you audibly, read it out loud.” 

Now, look at the last verse.

“O make Thy church, dear Savior,

A lamp of purest gold,

To bear before the nations,

Thy true Light, as of old.”

This prayer is a call for the Church to uphold, preach, and proclaim the written Word of God, which is the Bible.    When we read Scripture, we are reading His Words.  And when we preach His Word, we preach Christ.

O WORD OF GOD INCARNATE

O Word of God incarnate,

O Wisdom from on high,

O Truth unchanged, unchanging,

O Light of our dark sky:

we praise you for the radiance

that from the hallowed page,

a lantern to our footsteps,

shines on from age to age.

The Church from you, our Savior,

received the gift divine,

and still that Light is lifted

o'er all the earth to shine.

It is the sacred vessel

where gems of truth are stored;

it is the heaven-drawn picture

of Christ, the living Word.

The Scripture is a banner

before God's host unfurled;

it is a shining beacon

above the darkling world.

It is the chart and compass

that o'er life's surging tide,

mid mists and rocks and quicksands,

to you, O Christ, will guide.

O make your Church, dear Savior,

a lamp of purest gold,

to bear before the nations

your true Light as of old.

O teach your wandering pilgrims

by this their path to trace,

till clouds and darkness ended,

they see you face to face.

7/26/2016

*HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION (Reformation Day)

(Reformation Day is one of the most important days on the church calendar, so for our worship service, I chose some hymns appropriate for the day.)  

It was on Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral and exposed the errors and unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church.  That incident is widely recognized as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

As it happened, my pastor's sermon for the day would continue his series, “Confronting the Culture,” in which we have been learning that our faith will often bring us to a point where we must make hard decisions or take difficult stands that will cause us trouble.

As I was thinking about his sermon outline, I couldn’t help making the connection between it and the Reformation.

The Gospel is both attractive and repulsive.  It is attractive to those whom God is saving; it is repulsive to the lost.  Whenever or wherever real, Biblical Christianity collides with Government, the culture, or even an apostate church, the result is tribulation or persecution.  There is going to be trouble; that is just the way it is.

In the hymn, HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION, verse 3 says,

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

That reminded me of this interesting analogy:

As they were studying chapter three in the book of Malachi, a group of women came across the verse that says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." They wondered what that statement meant about the character and nature of God.

Later that week, one of the women made an appointment to observe a silversmith at work.  He held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that, in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot - then she thought again about the verse, that He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was necessary to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The smith answered yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire because if the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

Then she asked him, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"  He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's the easy part – it’s when I see my image reflected in it."

There is no question that troubles and trials are both fiery and painful but we can rest assured that God is holding us over the fire to remove the impurities and He is watching until He can see His own image in us.

(Click here for more commentary on this hymn)


7/19/2015

****THANKS TO GOD WHOSE WORD WAS SPOKEN

WORDS MEAN THINGS

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son,"  Gal. 4:4.

That phrase literally means “at the appointed time.”  God is sovereign, even in every detail of history because He is the author of history.

From that verse, most of us understand that Jesus came at just the exact point in time, and place in history that God had fore-ordained before He created the world.

But beyond just the details of His birth, I think that phrase also implies significant geopolitical conditions one of which is language.

When we communicate with each other, we use words because words mean things. And when God communicates with us, He uses spoken words.   Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has, in these last days, spoken to us by His Son…”

God didn't wait to communicate with us in today’s English language; that would have been chaotic and confusing because our language is so malleable; words are constantly being re-defined to mean so many different things.  In some cases, the same word can have opposite meanings.  We are like Humpty Dumpty, in the story by Lewis Caroll, who said, “When I use a word, it means whatever I choose it to mean.” 

Often, in Bible study groups or discussions, someone will say, “Well this is what I think that verse means to me...”  To which someone else might say, “No, I like to think that God is telling us…”.

Well frankly, it doesn’t matter what you or I think the Scripture is saying; the important question is, what did God mean when He said it?  With a  language like ours, precise communication is impossible.

But that was not so when God’s written Word was conveyed.  “In the fullness of time,” the dominating world power was the Roman Empire and the predominant language, Greek, was very precise.  All words meant precisely what they meant.

The Holy Spirit directed the writing of His words through human beings so that their letters were exactly what God wanted to communicate.  The Bible is the trustworthy Word of the Living God.

In his Gospel, John opens with this amazing revelation:

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

God’s communication also came in the form of the man, Christ Jesus, God’s perfect Word became flesh.

In this hymn, “THANKS TO GOD WHOSE WORD WAS SPOKEN", the author points our attention to both the written Word of God AND the Living Word of God. There is an inseverable relationship between the two.  Scripture is the Word of God AND Jesus is the Word of God.

Do you want to hear God speak?  Read His Word and, when you read it, you will see Jesus.  And when you look at Jesus, you will see who God is.   For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

1.    Thanks to God whose Word was spoken

In the deed that made the earth.

His the voice that called a nation;

His the fires that tried her worth.

God has spoken: God has spoken

Praise Him for His open Word.

2. Thanks to God whose Word Incarnate

Glorified the flesh of man.

Deeds and words and death and rising,

Tell the grace in Heaven's plan.

God has spoken: God has spoken

Praise Him for His open Word.

3. Thanks to God whose Word was written

In the Bible's sacred page,

Record of the revelation

Showing God to every age.

God has spoken: God has spoken

Praise Him for His open Word.

4. Thanks to God whose Word is answered

By the Spirit's voice within.

Here we drink of joy unmeasured,

Life redeemed from death and sin.

God is speaking: God is speaking

Praise Him for His living Word.

(NOTE) This is a great Hymn for Sunday Worship.  It is set to the tune of the Christmas carol, "Angels From The Realms Of Glory" so it is familiar enough for easy congregational singing.