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Lessons and Sermons from the Longmire Road church of Christ in Conroe Texas USA
Morne Stephanus (00:00)
Good evening, everyone
the last eight weeks, we have been considering the Word of God from various vantage points. The aim of all of those lessons was a better appreciation and understanding of what we have in our possession, the revealed will of God. But not just the revealed will of God, the only revealed will of God.
But an understanding of what we have in the Bible is not the same as an appreciation for its content. An appreciation for what it is and what it means to us. When we talk about the Bible, we ought to have a better and deeper appreciation for what it is, because we are talking about our Creator's final communication to his creation. This is the
Last will, the New Testament, the last will and testament of our Savior. There is no other communication that is going to be coming forth from the Lord. He has given us what He wants us to do, He has communicated us, and we know exactly how He wants us to live. And so we understand that this book has been given for us. This book has been given for us to live righteous lives, to help us while we walk through this life.
And to encourage and strengthen us as we deal with various things in this life. And even if you were the only person on earth, this book would still be for you, and it still would be in existence. As God desires to educate, God desires to inform me, desires to comfort, and he has done so through his written word. And so the question then becomes is what does the word of God mean to you? What does it mean?
We know that we have it in our possession, but how do you feel about the Word of God? The facts, the benefits that we have and see in it is of little value to us if we don't value the book? If we don't think anything of it. What is your relationship with the Word? Is there one? Or are you estranged from it? How do you feel about the Word?
Is it like Jeremiah shut up in your bones and you were weary with forbearing? Even when you thought you wouldn't get into it, you get into it. Is it like that? How do you feel about the word of God? Are you indifferent towards the word? Do you have contempt for certain passages? Are you cynical about it? I don't really believe it. Or do you love the word of God? How do you treat the word of God? Do you honor it?
Do you respect it or do you neglect it? These are all questions that all of us have to answer for ourselves personally as it relates to the Word of God. And so this evening, what I want us to do, I want us to look at one person's relationship with the Word. And it can be summed up as follows in Psalm 119 103. That's where we'll be spending most of our time tonight, Psalm 919. And notice what verse 103 of Psalm 119 says.
It says that the word is sweeter than honey to his mouth. That is a very beautiful description of the word of God. That it is sweeter than honey. It is something that he cherishes and values. The man in question, as some have said, is David. And we turn to Psalm 119. And although no author is a scribe, some scholars believe it is divinic in its tone and in its expression.
Now, how did David feel about the Word of God? How did he feel about the Word of God? Well, prayerfully, we may be able to feel the same way. And so we're going to look through these things and notice various attributes that he gives about the Word of God and what it means to him. The first thing he says, or the first thing we want to look at, is verse number 11, where David says that the Word of God is a treasure in his heart. He says, Your word have I hidden in my heart.
That I might not sin against you. The word was hidden in his heart, not hidden away from preaching and proclaiming it. That's not what he's saying. The Hebrew word here reflects the idea of hiding or storing treasure, hiding or concealing something that is of great value. And so I consider the word, he says, of God so valuable that I have.
Buried it like someone would bury treasure when they find it. They would bury it somewhere so that it is protected so that it cannot be found. Like what we do with our value bills, that which is important to us, we put it in a safe, we put it in a safety deposit box, we put it in a bank. Why? Because we don't want anything to happen to it. That's what he is doing with the word of God. That's how he values it. He stores it up in his heart.
Don't misunderstand, he's not storing up the scrolls, right? He's not does not have a copy of of the Decalogues somewhere, as most as all the kings were supposed to have, anyway. He doesn't have a copy of it stored somewhere and say, Well, I'm looking at the Word of God and I'm putting this in my safe. It wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily. You don't want your Bible, you don't want to lose your Bible, especially if you've got a lot of notes in it. But that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the content of it. He's saying that the content is stored in his heart. And so when you store something.
When you put something in a safe place, what is it? It is protected. It is protected. It's in that vault. Nobody can take it away. No one will remove this great treasure from him. It is protected, but not only is it protected in the safe place, it is also preserved. When we store something away, we are also preserving it. When you protect something valuable, it preserves it for longer.
And the fact that he is treating it like a treasure means that he wants to preserve it. He doesn't want anything to happen to it in i i in the mind, if you will, as he stores it up in his mind, he's taking measures for the word of God to maintain his life and to continue to maintain his life. The word was hidden in his heart. It was so valuable to him that I'm he says he's going to put it in his heart or in his mind.
And it will be a part of him, guide him, and preserve him. Now, when we think about the heart, what is it? The heart, the mind, it is the seat of emotion. It is the seat of emotion. And so David feels for the word of God. There was a genuine love for God's word. That's why it's in his heart. When you have something that is valuable to you and you store it somewhere safe so nothing happens to it, it's because you have a
An emotion towards the thing, you have a feeling towards it, that's why you're trying to protect it. We don't try to protect things that have no value or we don't feel anything about. Right? If there is an heirloom that you have, you might be very upset if someone comes in, you know, as soon as they walk in, what is this? And they start picking it up and waving it around. You might say, please be careful with that. That's that's a one-of-a-kind, that's an heirloom. You feel some way about it. It's the seed of emotion.
But not only is it the seed of the mo emotion, it is also the seed of intellect. It is not just that which we feel, it is also a comprehension of it. He has put the word in his heart. Notice what he says here. He has put the word in his heart that he might not sin against him. So he is not only storing it up here because he values it, it also serves a purpose. In 104, Psalm 119, 104, he has put it in his heart so that he can understand.
And remember it. It did not go in one ear and out the other ear. And so when he's putting the word of God in the heart, it's a seed of emotion, it's a seed of intellect, but also it is the seed of desire. David longs or yearns for the word. And so this will explain or set up the foundation of some of the other attributes as it relates to his relationship with the word. He loves the word of God because he deems it so very val valuable.
This is what it means to him. It is a treasure in his heart, that seed of emotion, that seed of desire, that seed of intellect. He has put it there to accomplish something because he has such great value for it. And so the question for us is where is the word of God in your life? Is it in the safe place, in that place where we store that which is valuable, or is it gathering dust on the coffee table? Where is the word of God in your life?
Is it a treasure in your heart, or is it a treasure on a coffee table somewhere? Or is it a treasure, because that's what it is, in the pew somewhere? He has stored it up in his heart, this great treasure, so that he might not sin against God. If your mind's in the word, it will keep your heart out of the world. And so the psalmist says the word of God is a treasure, it is locked up in his heart.
But not only is it a treasure, if you go to verse 15 of Psalm 119, notice what it says. He says, it is important in his life. It is not only a treasure in his life, it's important. Notice what he says: I will meditate on your precepts and I will contemplate your ways. This tells me that the word of God is important to David. The word meditation there means to ponder or to think of.
or to put forth thoughts out loud. So if you ever come forth to the building during the week and you hear me talking, sounds like I'm preaching, I'm meditating. I'm putting forth thoughts out loud. That's what meditation is. Meditation, when the Bible talks about meditation, it's not this thing where you're you're sitting there on and on the floor and you're right that's that may be an Eastern view of meditation, but that's not how the Bible describes meditation. A meditation is thinking out loud.
It is an actual talking out loud and working through your mind the things about which you're thinking. And so meditation is a it's in being in deep thought and concentration. That's what he's doing with the word of God. He says, I am in deep thought and I am concentrating on your precepts. I'm thinking about this stuff. But not only that, he says, I will meditate, I will contemplate. The word contemplate there is the sense of looking at something.
Intensely in a focused way. So not only am I thinking about this out loud, not only am I in deep thought and concentration about the word of God, but what I'm also doing, I'm intensely looking at it. I'm studying the word of God. It's not a mere reading of the text, it is an intense look at the text. When's the last time you intensely looked at the text?
Not just reading over it, opening a passage and reading the Bible. I've always said reading the scriptures, you should read through the Bible. There are plenty of plans that you can employ to read through the Bible within a year. And you can do it probably twice a year if you're if you're a really fast reader. But we're not talking about reading the Bible. We're talking about opening it up and opening up your funk and wagnels, opening up your lexicons, and looking at it intently, studying the Word of God.
Getting into the text, making sure that you understand. That's what he's doing. And so you know this is important in his life because we spend time on things that are important to us. If we want to know how to do something, we go to the University of YouTube and we spend a lot of time there looking at a lot of videos on how to accomplish something. Why? Because it's important to us. That's what the psalmist here he says, he's intently focused on the Word of God. It's not a
Re mere reading of the text. How does the psalmist feel about the word? He says it's important and pertinent enough for me to put some serious time and effort into. I'm going to study it. I'm going to get into it, meditate upon it, contemplate. This takes time and effort. There are no shortcuts to learning the precepts of God. When we continually preach, preachers have stood in this pulpit and this lectron for long before I've been here.
And this one's studying the Word of God. Study God. Why are we constantly talking to brethren about getting into the Word of God? Because it takes time. It takes time to study the Word of God, and you have to put some effort into it. How often do you meditate and contemplate on the Word? How often do you meditate and contemplate on the Word of God? The answer to that question reflects the importance of the Word of God in your life.
Because we make time for things that are important to us. We make time for things that we want to do. Well, how much time do I spend in the Word of God? The psalmist said in Psalm 119, 131, he says, I opened my mouth and panted. I longed, he says, for I longed for your commandments. The idea panting, there is heartbeating, deep breathing. I'm panting the word long, only found here in Psalm 131. It means a earnest desire.
I have an earnest desire for the Word of God. And if the Word of God is that important to me, I'm going to make time, not excuses. I'm going to make sure that I have the time to get into it and to study it. I'm not going to wait for the preacher to stand in the pulpit. I'm not going to wait for the teacher to stand in the lectron. I'm going to make time on my own to get into this book. Why? Because it's important to me. And here is a guarantee.
That the psalmist gives. I want you to notice this. If you make time for meditation and contemplation on the word of God, it's going to benefit you. Here's the guarantee that he gives in verses 97 through 100 of Psalm 119. If you go to verse 97 through 100, he says, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. So once again, he says that it is his his earnest desire, he's thinking about it.
You through your commandments, notice this, make me wiser than my enemies. He says, this is what the word of God is going to do. It's going to make you wise. It's going to make you wise against those who would not have your best interest at heart. David talks about his enemies. Now, most of the time we don't have enemies walking around, at least that we know of. Right? We don't have people chasing because David had a lot of enemies and they made it known that they were his enemies.
But there may be people who do not have our best interest at heart. How do we respond to these individuals? Well, read your Bible. Get into the book, it's going to show you how to live and how to respond. For they are ever with me, he says. I have, notice this, more understanding than all my teachers. Here's what's going to happen: the more you study the Word of God, the more you're going to learn. And the more you're going to learn, the more you're going to understand, and that is the desire.
Of anyone who has ever been in a school of preaching or whatever, I've always told the students this you better get out of here and at some point know more than your instructors. Because here's what we do we have a parallel walk, if you will. If you're instructing people in the word of God, you kind of stay in that lane, you don't go very far, there's not a whole lot of time to go all the way out here. But you, when you get out there, you will study more.
You will gain more knowledge. You will increase in more knowledge. You should be wiser than your teachers if you get into the Word of God. He says, For your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients. The more you study, the more you're going to understand, even than those that have gone before you. Why? Because I keep your precepts. He says there are benefits here of seriously studying the Word of God, not just reading it, but meditating upon it and contemplating it.
And so the psalmist believes the word of God is important enough for him to make time for it. And so the question for us is how much time do we make for the Word of God? If the only time this book gets my hands on it is if I'm here at services, that's not enough time. Life is so short. Job said we are a few days of full of trouble. You don't know how short life is. Just wait. It'll be over here in a second.
There is so much to study. Sometimes I think about, I plan out my sermons and things. I plan it out well in advance. And I look at all the things I want to preach, all the things I need to preach, and I say, man, I'll never be able to get through this. I will die not being able to get through preaching all of the things that need to be said. Why? Because there is so much. It's not there's there's new things every time that comes up.
But there's so much information here, so many things that we can learn. There is really no time to waste when it comes to studying the Word of God. And he says it's important in his life. He desires to be in it. But not only is it important in his life, not only is it a treasure in his life. Note that it is a joy. It is the joy of his life. In verses 14 and verse 16 of Psalm 119, in verses 14 and verse 16.
Notice what it says. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word, verse 16. And so the word of God is a source of joy or happiness in the psalmist's life. I have rejoiced, verse 14 means great rejoicing and jubilant celebration.
That's what that word means when he says, I have rejoiced. It's a jubilant celebration. And what's the scope of his joy? It is better than all riches. That's how he feels about the word of God. It's better than all riches. David was a king with a lot of wealth. And this man who has a lot of wealth, he looks, he says, Listen, I look at all of my wealth, I look at everything that I have. And I'm telling you, nothing brings me more joy than the word of God.
Nothing brings the joy out in my heart than the word of God. Verse 72. Notice what he says in Psalm 119, verse 72. He says, The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. Thousands of coins. Sometimes we think, and we'll talk about this later as we head into the the festive season. We'll talk about some contentment. We'll talk about our mindset in relation to those types of things and appreciation.
But sometimes we think that, you know, if all I had was a little bit more money, I'd be happy. David has a lot of money. David is the king of the most powerful nation that has ever been on the face of this planet that has God as their backing. David has power, David has money, and what does David say? The delight I have is not in the things which I have, the delight I have is in your precepts.
It's in your law. That's a lesson we have to learn. A lesson we have to learn before it's eternally delayed. Don't go running after the wealth of this world to where you ruin your soul. What you need to do is run after the wealth that is in Scripture. Run and seek after that, because there is no joy there. Because he who loves silver will never be satisfied with it.
You can be a trillionaire in this world, I guarantee you, that individual is going to desire to make more and more. There are three things the Word of God can be in your life. It can be a chore. I know I'm supposed to study it, but I really don't want to. You feel about the Word of God the same way you feel about washing dishes. Nobody likes washing dishes. Maybe some of y'all in here are like, well, I don't know. Nobody likes washing dishes. But you think of the Word of God like that. I have to go and do this.
I have to go do this. That's what the Word of God could be. It could be a source of conflict. You read it or you hear it and you don't like what it says. Well, I don't really like that. And so the word becomes a something that you despise, something that you try to avoid. Well, I don't want to get into it because I might read something that I don't like. The word has a way of doing that. Or it could be a joy. I can rejoice in this book because it shows me how to be right with the Lord.
I can rejoice in this book because it provides for me comfort in times of trials. I can rejoice in this book because it talks about the promises that I have received and that eternal salvation that awaits me if I remain faithful in the Lord. And so there is joy to be had in this book. And so because it does these things, I delight in it more than I delight in this world's vain riches, David says. In verse 103 of that same Psalm.
He says, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. My joy is found in God and in his word nowhere else. The steadfastness of his joy, he says, is found there. I will never forget your word. It is a constant in my life. And so that's what I hope it is in our lives. That it is a joy to hear the word of God. You know, I think about when I think about joy to hear the word of God, for some reason
my mind
Brother Dale goes to the revival times. goes to the the times when people were circuit preachers were riding around and they were coming to town, they were hosting a gospel meeting, and there was an a an empty seat in the house, and people are standing outside the tent, and the sermon would go on for hours, and people would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and people would come and drive for hours to hear the gospel. That's that's what I think about when I think about joy.
They are excited about hearing the gospel of Jesus the Christ. How far have we fallen? We can't even get certain brethren to come back on a Sunday evening to hear the Word of God. We have gospel meetings. We can't even get our own brethren to support the gospel meetings at their own congregation where the Word of God is going to be set forth. That's a shame. That's a crying shame. There is no joy and desire.
For the word of God. David says that's what he had. It's a joy in his life. Notice also, he says, it is his life. If you go to verse 33 and 34, notice what he says. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
The word of God is not something that is a part of his life. The psalmist is making a promise to the Lord, and he says, I'm all in. I will observe it with all of my heart, with all of my being. This is complete devotion that the word of God has in his life. For better or worse, in sickness and health, the psalmist, in a sense, is joining himself to the word of God, and he is saying, It will have all of my attention. He will not divide his attention.
And so this verse reminds us of three other passages in Scripture dealing with our devotion to the Lord. The principle is identical. In in Exodus chapter 20, the same devotion is mentioned. And God spoke unto the children of Israel in verses one through three. He says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. God says, I want your complete devotion.
That's what the psalmist here is promising. I will give the word of God my complete devotion. And so the conduct of the psalmist life belongs to the word. When he is guided, he is guided by the word. When he needs advice, it is based upon the word of God. When he seeks comfort, this is where he goes first. The word of God is the center of his life. That is all he is focused on, just like God desires for us to.
To serve him and him only, he desires for us to follow his word and his word only, not to go after idolatry. When your heart belongs to the word of God, there is simply no room for the creeds and opinions of men. When your heart belongs to the word of God, when someone comes from the outside and says, Well, you know, I believe or I think, well, there's no room for that here. My heart is on the word of God. There is no room for the fake promises of Satan.
When your heart believes in the word of God, when Jesus was tempted, what is it that happened? What happened is that the servant, this the servant of God, or the servant of God, the Christ, continually went to the word. When Satan kept making promises to Jesus, he went to the word and he says, Those promises hold no sway here. Those promises mean nothing. Why? Because I have this word. This word is my life.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The word of God is a primary guide to the psalmist's life. In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 24, it says the same no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And just like God wants all of you, the word of God demands all of your attention.
The psalmist is not following half-heartedly, I'm going to keep this, but not this over here. No, he says he's all in. First John chapter 3 and verse 18 says, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The psalmist said, I will observe with all of my heart. He didn't just say, I love the Lord's word, and it is my life, but I'm not going to do it. He says, I'm going to observe it with all of my life. Matthew chapter seven and verse twenty-one.
The Bible is very clear. Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom. The psalmist is not walking around with a big scroll. Right? He's not walking around with a big scroll and let everybody know. Some people walk around with a big old cross on their foot. Hey, I'm religious. Right? That's not what he's talking about. There's this guy I knew I used to work with in the water department. He would, he was very religious, very pious.
And he let everybody know that he was religious. He would walk and he would study his Bible, right? In the mornings he would just be, you know, big old Bible. He would bring his big old Bible and just put it down there, and he would be reading from his Bible. So that everybody could see he's reading from his Bible. I'm like, great. This is somebody who's interested in the scriptures. Let me ask him some questions. That Bible closed very quickly when we started talking about the Bible.
You see, he wasn't interested in the content of the word. He was interested in pretending to be pious. That's not what the psalmist is saying. The psalmist is saying this is actually my life. I'm not just pretending to be pious and to love the word of God. This is actually what I love and what I get into. And so are you completely devoted to the Word of God? Does it guide you in all things? It is it the source of your direction in this life. It was the psalmist, but notice also.
Number five, here, it is his moral compass. In verses 104 and 105, he gives us insight into how the word of God directs his life. He says, Through your precepts I gain understanding. Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. There are some in the world who erroneously believe that man can come up with his own morality. That we have come up somehow, one ape said to the other ape, You know what? I think it's wrong. We shouldn't steal from one another.
They believe that we somehow evolved into the morality that we have today. How is that possible? Thank God this is not the case. Because it is not in man that walker to direct his own steps in the area of morality. We have the word of God. And here the psalmist says that he has adopted the morals of God. Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I.
Hate every false way. He meditates and contemplates the precepts of God. He understands them, and God hates what which is that which is untrue or false, and so therefore he hates it. He's not indifferent towards the word of God. He doesn't read the scriptures and say, well, that's good for Christians, but you know what? I'm not gonna do it. That's not how he feels it. If God hates it, he hates it. If God loves it, he loves it. He has adopted the will of God and made it his own.
The Word of God is the source of what He stands for and what He believes. If you want to know what I believe, open your Bible, He says, and read it. That's what I believe. If you want to know where I stand, open your Bible and read it. That's where I stand. If you want to know my main goal in life, open your Bible and read it. That's the main goal that I have in life. That's the mindset of the psalmist. It is his moral compass. Where am I going in life? What decisions am I making?
How am I going to make those decisions? It's all based on this book. I am not saying that God has your name in here, and He says you should work here or work here or go here or live here. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the foundational principles that guide my life. The word of God, the psalmist says, is his moral compass. It is the lamp unto his feet, and it is the light unto his path. God's word leads.
In the way of life. He says, this is what it is. I can't go anywhere without the word of God. On what are your decisions based in life? On what are they based? When you stand to make a decision, we talked about prayer in Bible class this morning. When you start stand to make a decision, have you consulted the Word of God to make sure that your decision in life, the things that you do, is it guided by the Word of God?
I'll never forget this conversation. You've heard me probably use this illustration before. a young couple, years and years ago while I was in South Africa, and I'm a young couple in the congregation, they were saying, you know, he was moving to another part of part of the country. He was a police officer and he was getting a higher rank, and so he's going to move there. And he was very excited about it, and they've already set out everything. And I asked them, I said, Well, where are you guys gonna worship?
And he looked at me with a strange look on his face, like, I haven't thought about that. What do you mean you haven't thought about that? What do you mean that you mean to tell me you are about to make a life-changing decision, have made a life-changing decision. That you're about to alter the life of your entire family. And you never once concerned yourself with spiritual things? Families lost. They're lost today, they're gone.
Because they have not made the word their moral compass. If you're not consulting the word of God when you are making decisions, if you're not making sure that your life is guided by it, you are going to end up in the wrong place. The word of God is the light and it's the lamp. And the psalmist says that is what he uses. And so this is certainly what we ought to use last and in no wise the least. The psalmist says it is his hope.
In Psalm 119, 114, he says, You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word. Biblical hope is a confident expectation of receiving something. It's not the hope that we hear, well, I hope it's nice weather this week. That hope is wishful thinking. Biblical hope is a confident expectation. This is going to happen. The psalmist says he confidently trusts in the promises of God.
He trusts in the commandments of God and the promises associated with it. It is his hope. Where would we be without the word of the Lord?
What hope would we have without God's word? Where there is no information, there is no consolation. If I knew I had sin, but I didn't know that someone died to take care of that, where would be my consolation? If I knew that my eternity is as dark as night in the fires of hell, and I didn't know that God has provided a way for me not to have to endure that.
Where would be my consolation? If I did not have this, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, that's Paul's entire point. If we did not know, then certainly we would be most miserable. The Word of God gives me every reason to be hopeful. Sometimes we lose hope. And it's not because there is nothing in which to hope, it's because we've removed ourselves from the proclaimer of hope. When we lose hope, we've removed ourselves from the message of hope.
Because the message hasn't changed. Two thousand years that message is still the same. The promises haven't changed. The hope is still there. So when we lose hope, it's not because the message has moved. It's not because the promises have moved. We've moved. And what we need to do is once again put ourselves closer to that hope. In Psalm 119, 92, it says, Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Unless your law has been my delight, I would have perished.
In my affliction. I cannot survive without it. All of us in this room who are members of the body of Christ, we knew where we were, even if we grew up in the body of Christ. We knew where we were, and we know where we are right now. Without the word of God, we would have perished. I'm so very thankful that God was patient with me. It took a long time for me to get to a right understanding and say, yes, and you need to obey the gospel. I'm glad God was patient.
I'm glad I was able to study the Word of God. Why? Because I need it. It is the only hope that we have is in Jesus Christ, and that is found in here. There is no other hope. You won't read of hope anywhere else. There are going to be a lot of folks who are promising you a lot of things, but this in here, this is the hope that we have. How sweet are your words to my taste.
Sweeter than honey to my mouth. We've studied the Bible, and we haven't even touched the hem of the garment of that study, but we've gotten into some key facts about the Bible. But one thing we have to take with us as we end this series is this. I need to have a special appreciation for this book. Because without this book, we wouldn't even be here tonight.
And I hope it means the same things it did to the psalmist. I hope it means the same thing to you tonight. But maybe it is the case, as heaven's invitation is extended, that you have lost interest. Maybe it is the case that you recognize that you have not put this on the top of your priority list to get into. Maybe it's the social medias and the magazines and all of those things that get your attention before this does.
Ask God's forgiveness tonight. Recognize that this is the thing that's going to go with me into eternity. Social media is not. I don't know if you know. Facebook's not going with you. Instagram, TikTok's not going with you into eternity. The word of God is going with us. Because it is from eternity and it will go into eternity. So I want to get to as close to it as possible. Because I want to go to its source.
I want to go to where it comes from. And so tonight, if you have not been treating the Word of God appropriately, certainly, you can ask God's forgiveness. And He will forgive you if you are sincere in that repentance. But the Word of God also, the Word of God is your salvation. Without the Word of God, there is no salvation. You wouldn't know what salvation is if you didn't read it in this book.
And so since salvation comes from this book, what does this book say about your salvation? It says that in order for you to be saved, you need to hear that there is a plan for you to be saved. And that plan is in Jesus the Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And but after you hear about that plan, what should you do? The Bible says you need to believe. Because without faith it is impossible to please him, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. But is that all I need to do? Just believe?
No, the Bible answers that question for us as they ask the question Men and brethren, what shall we do? After they believed the gospel of Jesus the Christ, Peter and the rest of the apostles said, Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. And so the Bible says we have to repent. All men everywhere have to repent. Acts chapter 17, 30 and 31. But not only repent, we have to confess the good name of Christ before witnesses. That we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And when we have done so, we can be immersed in water to have all our sins.
Washed away. That's what the Bible says, where your hope is found. The Bible says your hope is in Jesus the Christ who died for you and rose again and is now seated at the right hand of God. Your hope is in your obedience to that gospel, immersion in water, and being added to the body of Christ. That's where your hope is. The question is, will you accept what the Bible has to say while we stand and as we sing?