How Could We Know?

The theme of my message today centers around the wealth – the unimaginable wealth and value – the riches our Creator offers us throughout our lives, day by day. St Paul speaks of that wealth in his letter to the Christians at Colossae. In it he asks of the Father: “That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)

Paul is certainly not the only writer of Holy Scripture to recognize the riches inherent in God's infallible and inerrant word. Agur – one of the writers of the Proverbs, is another. Listen to what he wrote: (Proverbs 30:5) “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”

But one might ask, “Tested when and by whom?” Answer? At the time of Paul’s writing, tested by more than 1500 years of the testimonies of God's people to the truthfulness and faithfulness and efficacy of God's word as it relates to life and death and beyond to eternity.

As a young man approaching the seasoned age of 18, I didn’t know about the Bible’s value. Nor did I care. To that point I’d led my life as an irreligious Jew quite comfortably. What more could the Bible give to me? And some of you here today might have a similar story from your past – the Bible was just not that important to your life.

I remember the time I got curious about the Bible – specifically, I wondered what all the fuss was about, especially the New Testament. So, I got a copy of the Scriptures, turned to the New Testament, and started reading at the beginning – where I thought all books should be started. This is what I read as I opened Matthew’s gospel:

“The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.”

I had a very vague recollection of those names – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – but that was where my recollection ended.  We never even owned a Bible as I was growing up in my mother’s house. I rarely went to synagogue as a child. I never heard the names of Bible characters at home or even in school – except for a rare and passing reference to Moses.

Anyway, I continued reading: Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.” Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of

Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah . . .

And it was there that I stopped reading. Not only could I not pronounce most of those names, but I had no clue who they were, except for David and maybe Solomon.  And I thought to myself, “What’s all the fuss about the New Testament? It’s a boring book.”

I closed the book and didn’t go back to it for a few more years. And that was a tragic mistake. I use that word, ‘tragic’ on purpose. When I didn’t know the wealth of God's word, when I didn’t know the hope and purpose and comfort and joy of hearing His voice in my mind as I read His word – when I didn’t know those things, I simply did what most of humanity does in their ignorance of God. I did as much as I could and as often as I could – ‘My way.’

Frank Sinatra’s signature song describes how I lived for the several years between my senior year in high school and when God finally brought me to Himself. Like Sammy Davis Junior’s popular song, “I Gotta Be Me” – I convinced myself that the best way to be happy was to ‘Be Me.’ And I didn’t care much if ‘being me’ was hurting others.

And, Oh! How I hurt others. And that is why those years were for me tragic, with memories that linger to this very moment. But just as tragic, some of you listening to me have had similar experiences before you finally understood and sought for the wealth buried in the pages of your Bible.

I returned to the Bible several years later when I read a book about Bible prophecy. In Hal Lindsay’s ‘The Late Great Planet Earth,’ Lindsay explained what else was in the Bible besides those unpronounceable names in that first chapter of Matthew’s gospel. He explained the promises God makes to me, even in the middle of my empty life. Promises I’d never known about, but promises I so desperately, at that time in my life, needed.

Like what? The same promises every person in this room needs to hear and receive into their hearts as unassailable truth. Promises of hope. Promises of His unconditional love. Promises of grace. And mercy. And comfort. And promises of His forgiveness – every time, every time I truly repent.

Oh, how I needed His forgiveness. Just as you do, also. And listen, when we repent of our sins – as egregious as those sins might be – God promises in His word to not only IMMEDIATELY forgive those sins, but He also promises to immediately erase those sins from His memory.

I’ll repeat that for emphasis. When God forgives our confessed sins – as horrible and wicked as any of those sins might have been – when God forgives our sins, He considers them as if WE NEVER COMMITTED THEM. That’s what the word ‘remission’ means – He views those sins as if we never committed them. Listen to Jesus, speaking only hours before He would spill His blood on Calvary’s cross as our atonement: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

Here also is Psalm 103:11-12 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

And the prophet Micah: (Micah 7:18-19) “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

But the Bible is not only rich with God's promises, but they also are His flawless instructions for an abundant life, a fruitful life, a life that brings glory to our Creator, a life that elicits from us a worthy reverence and devotion to the one who died in our place so that we might live forever. Can anyone begin to fathom the incredible wealth the Bible is to anyone with open hearts? Scripture asks: (Job 11:7-8): “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? “They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?”

And because the Scriptures are God’s voice to humanity in printed form, it logically follows that: (2 Timothy 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 [or woman] of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped for all good works.”

Yes, God's voice in printed form is of inconceivable value, and only those who immerse themselves in its words and study its precepts can catch a glimpse of it worth. Don’t neglect it. Please, because “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

Oh. So many promises He made to me. But I never knew of them. Just as you also did not know of them until you heard someone read them to you from the Bible – or you read them yourself in your own Bible.

One of the texts I memorized a while ago is this one from Jeremiah’s prophecy: (Jeremiah 33:3) “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Aren’t there things you would like to know about life itself– and about YOUR life in particular? Aren’t there things you would like to know about HIM – Who He is, and why He loves you? Aren’t there things you’d like to know about faith and what it MEANS to have a faith that brings eternal salvation?

Of course, there are – if you’re someone who thinks for yourself and doesn’t care what the culture tells you about those things. For example, the culture, and a growing abundance of pastors and theologians – including Pope Frances –will tell you that all religions lead to God. But what does God say about the subject? We won’t know for certain unless we read it ourselves.

Or, the culture will say to a person suffering emotional or physical pain, or loneliness, or living in a horrible life-circumstance – they’ll say something along the lines of: Surely you don’t believe God loves you do you? Look how you’re suffering. Why would a God – if He exists at all – why would an all-powerful God who is supposed to love you – why would He let you suffer like this?

And the person suffering through life will not know God’s answer to those accusations unless he reads it for himself in God's Book.

The culture and many of our neighbors also have much to say in approval about some social issues such as abortion, ‘gay sex,’ adultery, fornication, and transgenderism. But you won’t know what God has to say about those things unless you read it for yourself.

Ah . . . so many questions. Important questions. Life-altering and life-challenging questions – questions that can ONLY be fully and truthfully answered by God when we read His word again and again – because His word is a living document. It speaks to us where we are at any point in our life-journey because the Bible is not – as many will tell you – an archaic compendium of inaccurate history and ancient myths. No, rather, it is a supernatural book. A living book. A book that knows more about YOU and me than we know of ourselves.

THAT is why it speaks to us every single time we pick it up and read it with an open heart. It probes us. It examines us. It challenges us and CHANGES us – if we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us. Listen, please, The Bible WILL accomplish wonderful things in our lives – if we don’t leave it a closed book.

Yes, call to Him and He WILL answer. Expect Him to tell you things about yourself and about Him as you read the Bible. Oh, please listen, and I say it again for emphasis: God has SO MUCH to tell us who want to hear from Him.

Let me give you yet another example of what He wants us to know: If we hadn’t read the Bible, we wouldn’t know of His personal, passionate, and intimate love for us. Individually. By name.

How often do we say the words so glibly, so mechanically: “God loves us”? And if not for the voice of God on the printed page, the best anyone could do is guess at what it means to say, ‘God loves us.’ But then we read about Calvary, and no one who knows the story, no one who believes the story, no one who understands the story can ever say or even think, “God doesn’t love me.”

No wonder the deeply penitent apostle Paul – with his murderous history of ravaging the early Church, complicit in the execution of Christians – no wonder he could tell EVERY penitent sinner what they’d never know if they didn’t read the Book: (1 Timothy 1:15-16)  “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” 

It is BECAUSE we read it in God's book, we know that when we repent of our sins that He utterly and eternally forgives those sins, regardless of how horrible those sins were.

And – please get this – not only does He forgive those sins, but He ERASES those sins from His memory. He chooses to view those confessed sins as if we never committed them. It’s like the difference between how the Etch-A-Sketch works, and the Magic Slate.

And once again, let me say it as I bring this message to a close: I wouldn’t know ANY of these things if I hadn’t read it in God’s infallible, inerrant, and fully inspired word that we call the Bible. And YOU would not know these things unless you had read it for yourself.

Listen, just because you hear a preacher preach each week – or even if you listen to one every day – you’re only getting snatches of Bible texts here and there – and often out of context with the rest of the chapter, or the book in which those texts are found. It’s like opening a best-selling novel and reading a few paragraphs here and there on random pages – expecting to get a good idea of what the book is about. Who would do such a silly thing? So why do so many people in the pews do something similar with the Bible?

In 2022, the American Bible Society’s annual State of the Bible report found that roughly 26 million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible in 2021. When Lifeway researchers surveyed their respondents, they found that one of four who DO read the Bible do not read more than a few sentences at a time.

Isn’t it odd that those who read one fiction or non-fiction book after the other, or who routinely spend hours in front of the TV – isn’t it odd that so many of them don’t make time to even begin to plumb the depths of the vast wealth of the book of Books?

I know many of you regularly read the Bible. Many also read the entire Bible every year. But there may be some here who need to do better in seeking God's voice through the pages of His Scriptures.

Please. If that is you, please plan to do better. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a love for His word because a love for His word is NOT something that comes naturally to us. Our sin-nature doesn’t want to know what God says and will give us all kinds of excuses to leave the Book on the shelf. So, please, ask Him for a passion for His word.

I will close with this: If you read at least two chapters each morning from the Old Testament and two each evening from the New – each sitting takes about 10 minutes or so – you will read the Old Testament once a year and the New Testament three times a year. It’s simply a matter of math.

If you have access to the internet, you can find lots of Annual Bible Reading plans. You can also take the pamphlet I’ve written. But whatever you do – become a better student of God's word. We cannot know the wealth of God's Book unless we call to Him – and seek Him through consistent reading of His word. We cannot uncover the treasure trove that God offers us unless we patiently, consistently, and humbly seek it with all our hearts.