The Bible: Our Essential Guide to God and Love

I sat down yesterday Yer afternoon and I I took this book in my hand this is my Bible and I said now Lord I'm supposed to talk about this and I asked how how would you get at expressing the importance of the Bible if somebody said to you how important is the Bible what what where what where would your mind go what what kinds of question questions would it ask so I spent about oh half an hour writing down five questions that I would ask of anything about how important it is and then I applied them to the Bible so let me give you those five questions and my my personal answer question number one was um what would happen if it did not exist that would be the way to ask about the importance of something what would happen if if it did not exist and my personal answer to that question was that there would be no saving knowledge of God the Bible says that that the heavens are declaring the glory of God so if you look outside and you have eyes to see you will see the glory of God but you won't get saved by it because you're rebellious and you're a sinner and you suppress the truth in unrighteousness Paul says and so that knowledge wouldn't help me it would only damn me God has ordained that the Holy Spirit who is the eyeopener fly in tandom with the jet of the word where the word goes the Holy Spirit goes God has just set it up that way where this book is opened the Holy Spirit reveals Christ that's his job the Holy Spirit does not do that with nature he does not regenerating reveal himself God or Jesus Through nature he doesn't he does it through the book that's amazing there would be no saving knowledge illumined by the Holy Spirit without the book question number two what would you give to have it or what would you give to keep it and I'll just give you a sentence I just sat and thought okay probably some of you in this room have access to a lot of money I don't I don't know but if you say you had access to um $500 million and you you said to me I will give you $500 million not to read this book for a year I wouldn't take it on my life I wouldn't take it you can keep your money and I will have my Bible okay that I know nobody would say that but I'm I'm groping for a way to express to you the preciousness of this book third question what does it make possible what does the book make possible it makes for me possible fellowship with the Living God I do not enjoy communion with God any other way if that sounds like an overstatement to you uh talk to me about it I don't mean that I have to have the book open on my desk I can walk through the day why because I've got hundreds of verses in here chapters are in here God talks to me no other way but don't get this wrong he talks to me very personally I open my bible in the morning to meet my friend to meet my savior to meet my Creator to meet my my sustainer and I meet him and he talks to me he said yesterday morning to me as I was trembling with this Prospect of of of messing up 4,000 people or helping 4,000 people he said to me I have made with you an Everlasting Covenant that I will not turn away from doing you good and I have put the fear of me in your heart so that you will not turn away from me and I will rejoice over you to do you good with all my heart and with all my soul he said that to me yesterday he said that to me yesterday it happens to be in Jeremiah 32:40 but I I am in the New Covenant the blood of Jesus is covering me the spirit of Christ is in me and when God makes a promise to his New Covenant people I won't turn away from doing you good he has the eyeballs of John Piper in his sight God never does that any other way I'm not denying Providence I'm not denying circumstances I'm not denying people I'm just saying the only authoritative communion I have with god with any certainty comes through the words of this book it is precious Beyond measure fourth question how does it weather the detractors how does it survive under opposition and criticism the Bible has been relentlessly criticized for 2,000 years 4,000 years the answer is all the Hammers that beat against it are worn out the Bible does not yield it has lasted it will last everything else goes away last question how much effort should be given to spread it and preserve it how much effort should I give to see that this book is in the hands of everyone in the world everyone that people can read that people have a faithful trans translation in their language that was the hardest one for me to answer my answer is more I'm I I have other things to do or or should I quit my job and do Bible translation uh that's not an easy question for you or me to answer how much should you do how much should you spend how much time should you devote to seeing that this book be preserved and then uh gotten into the hearts of people and then gotten into the hands of the people who who can't read or can't have a version in their understandable language and I think all of us probably could answer the way I did more so just ask maybe no no no guilt here just a little more you know just think how for you it might be a little more another 10 minutes a day or another another prayer another dollar another dream or for some of you an explosive new life so those are my five questions on on and there are more you could just go on and on about about this book it is it is infinitely precious and that I have this book in English is incredible to me and uh I love it one or two other things um the ESV Bible has been published by Crossway and um I like it this that's what this is when it came out I I got it because I in 1966 bought my first RSV at Wheaten college and and uh used the RSV for Bible memory for 30 over 30 years and it went out of print you couldn't get an RSV the nrsv replaced it and I think the nrsv is is unusable for reasons that we don't need to go into um so that didn't help me so I switched over for preaching to the nasb because it's nice and literal a little bit difficult to read in places and when through wonderful circumstances Crossway was able to get the copyright for the RSV and then assembl a team of faithful Scholars to render it even better which is what this is um I was thrilled my Bible is back and uh I got it and I've preached from it used it and uh asked my church to make it the church for memorizing and liturgy and children's ministries and and that's what it is so it was it was thrilling to me that the when the speakers met in February I mean the expositors not all the speakers the expositors here met in February and Cairo to study Ephesians together um the question was what version will we have on that piece of paper that you unfolded and uh and and there was no agenda for anybody and we we just kind of did a little survey I think and and they did it by email so that we didn't know what others were voting for and we all sent to uh Lindsay I think uh olberg our our passion for whatever we wanted and and and the ESV emerged and I'm I'm I'm thankful for that it's not the only translation it's not a perfect translation there aren't any perfect translations but um I love it because of its combination I wrote down four continuums readability versus strict formal equivalence it gets the right balance contemporary idiom versus historic phraseology it seems to get the right balance uh Simplicity versus technical religious terms I think it gets the right balance preserving the ones that I think are really important Clarity versus original ambiguity that's a really tricky one and it basically gets the right balance so from my from my sense of how the Bible can be broadly useful from youth ministry to evangelism to corporate worship to memorizing to meditation to Serious study no version is perfect for all of those and the ESV is really helpful in covering the whole old ground let me close like this um thinking and loving when I put that in the title that I gave Lane here's what I had in mind I'm going to give you a few verses from mat Matthew 7 and then draw out what I mean by thinking and loving and and I'll stop you know these words ask and you will receive seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds and to the one who knocks the door is open for which of you who has a son who asked for uh bread would give him a stone or if he asked for a fish would give him a snake if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children will will not your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him now just stop there that's verses 7- 11 of chapter 7 that's spectacular news we have a father who never gives us a stone when we ask for bread never he may not give the bread you want doesn't say he gives the precise slice of bread at the precise moment in the precise way that you ask he just says he doesn't give you a stone you don't get every fish you want but you don't get snakes from your father ever ever cancer is not a snake the point of those verses is God is better than any father on the earth better than any father on the earth and he gives good things always all things work together for good for those who love God my God supplies all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus no good thing does he withhold from the those who walk uprightly goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life God does only good to his children only only only only good never does he abuse his children never does he hold his children in contempt this is spectacular he's the creator of the universe he's omnipotent and he's always always always 100% for you of course he spanks us that's what Hebrews 12 says you have not yet resisted under the shedding of blood he loves you he's going to spank you but he's never holding you in contempt he's never giving you anything bad for you now that's what I mean by by uh loving God what a God worthy to be loved now here's the think part the next word in verse 12 is therefore therefore whatever you would that others would do to you do also to them that's the Golden Rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you it's connected to verses 7 through 11 by the word therefore why because loving other people like you would like to be loved is the hardest work in the world it's impossible in fact unless you believe you have a father like that if you believe that you have a father who always meets your needs who always cares for you wherever you are in the world he is totally in charge and totally on your side and will only let what is good for you happen to you you are the freest radical most radical most risk-taking person in the world to love other people you don't need anything from them you have God for them and so you have to think about the therefores that's where think comes from the importance of the Bible for thinking is that the Bible is glorious sentences connected with logical connectors I used to think when I was growing up that the Bible was like a String of Pearls and I would get a pearl in the morning carry it all day long I still do that I still do that I memorize a verse in the morning I take it with me all day this morning it was there was a little boy who had two barley loaves five barley Loaves and two fish and he gave them to Jesus and Jesus fed 5,000 I said okay good there'll be 50 years 60 people there this morning and and I have I have a loaf and maybe God will feed them all and so I still take these pearls but now I see it's not just a chain of pearls it's it's a chain of Steel and they're links this and they can't be broken so there are these therefores and now that I see that I'm called to love not just out of nowhere I'm told to love you as I would like to be loved because ask and you will receive seeking you will find knocking the door we open he'll never give you a stone he'll never give you a steak a snake go go love go love people just go I'm going to take care of you this book is very precious we love people we love him because we think with the illumination of the Holy Spirit about this book and I hope that you love it I'm sure you do so I hope that you love it more [00:00:27]