God Speaks to Us Through the Bible

Mothers Day

Last week we spoke about how God speaks to us through prayer. This week we will explore another way God speaks to us. The Bible is as important now as it was when each part of it was first written. We see the Bible compared to a lot of different things for us to see it as. Some say it is a love letter from God to His creation, others would say it is a history book of God’s interactions with mankind, but today, just for fun, this will be the focus of what the Bible is.

SLIDE
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

So the Bible is a very powerful and useful instruction manual. Ok, for the men here, an instruction manual is something provided by the creator of something that gives instructions on how and why this product works, and helps with assembly if needed. I know most of you throw that out before you read it, I am with you, but this is not an instruction manual not to throw away.

Today we will see how God uses the Bible to speak to us.

The Bible guides is in God’s way for us to live

We read in the Bible how God clarifies so much for us to what we can and should do versus what we can’t do or shouldn’t do. We all need something to guide us right? The Bible uses light and dark a lot as examples for us to better comprehend certain points. I love this verse in Psalms.

Psalm 119: 105
Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.

That was one of the first verses I memorized as a kid, and it is still very powerful to me. We have all wandered around in the dark haven’t we? This illustration helps us understand the purpose of the Bible, that it guides our steps in the dark world we live in. We have kicked the corner of the table, run into something that had been moved from its location in the dark, but when we have light, just a little bit, we can navigate the room. Life is the same. How do we avoid obstacles, how do we avoid making mistakes? We read His word, which illuminates our path.
We know scripture was provided not for God, but for you and me to live a good life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

The scriptures were given to us so that we would know how to live our lives. This is not for God’s sake but our own. We see man left to his own efforts comes up with all sorts of horrible logic, and we manipulate information, facts, anything to our will if we don’t have a standard or a direction in how we have to go.

Proverbs 14:12 reads
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.

This is funny, this is again repeated word for word in Proverbs 16:25

Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.

This was so important that is was written, verbatim twice. I don’t quite know why, but I know we see how man manipulates logic, facts, whatever it takes to get to where we want to go when we want to get there. It is so important to come humbly and ask God to show us His way, for His way is always better.
We also read in the new testament

1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

We as man pursue everything to try and find peace, to find that something that fills our hearts, our needs, our desires, but none of that happens outside of God. He created us a certain way, and trying to fill that need with anything else never works.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[b] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

That is God speaking to Israel while they are captured and conquered by the Assirians, but does that sound like a God who just lets things happen willy nilly? We know we as mankind are broken and flawed, but God guides us and provides for us what we need to know His way for us. If God spoke and led all the people in the Bible, do you think that stops short of you? No, God loves you and has a plan for you, and it is always better than the plan we choose for ourselves.

The Bible guides us in truth

As I stated a little earlier, we see that mankind will change truth to fit their prerogative. Fact is no longer fact in our world, and truth is a matter of opinion. Before I go on a tirade about that, I am going to lovingly state that God is truth, and we can find no truth other than Him.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We can’t find truth outside of our God. He created everything, He knows everything, and there is nothing outside of Him that He is not its author and creator.

John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

We see here that God directs us in truth, and we know He wrote the Bible to instruct us in truth. It is so important to know the scriptures.
We heard from Jordan a few months ago about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, and we see how Satan tempted Jesus in a variety of ways, and in doing so he even used scripture to try and trick Jesus.

Matthew 4:5-7
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

We see here that Satan is quoting

Psalms 91:11-12
11 For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

So we must look at the context and see what is going on. Here is your homework, read Psalms 91, and check what I am about to say. We see this psalm is not a prophetic message for the messiah, but this is an encouragement to all who seek refuge in the Lord. So if one were to deliberately test the Lord to see, that is a sin and not what is being stated here. We see Jesus correctly interpret and execute what the scriptures say. He responds with

*Deuteronomy 6:16
16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. *

That is your second piece of homework. Go check out what Israel did at Massah. The point being though, before I go too far down the rabbit hole, we need to know the scriptures to guide us, because our enemy knows the scriptures too, and will use them against us. That is why we must know them. The Bible is written to guide you and me in living a good life for God.
We need to know the truth, and we have an enemy that tries to distort that truth, make us believe that it isn’t true, tries to discredit the truth, but we know truth sets us free.

John 8:32
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We see how Jesus is speaking of how He will set us free from sin. If you read the entirety of this interaction with Jesus and the pharisees, you will see how Jesus is educating them that their ancestors don’t get them into heaven, but Jesus does.
As truth shifts today like sand, we need a firm rock to build on, to know what is true and what is not, and that truth isn’t always what we want, but God guides us with truth, will you yield to it or will you try to create your own unfulfilling truth?

It’s not once or twice, but we see multiple times that God is truth, guides us in truth, and shares truth with us. We can rely on Him.

The Bible is active today

We need to know the truth, and we have an enemy that tries to distort that truth.
This is not just a history book. The Bible is still active today, and speaks to us today.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We see that there is a temptation to say this was written thousands of years ago, things have changed, and we need to change to meet the times. Sometimes we see the Bible does speak to the culture of the day, but the truth of it when it was written is just as true today, and we can’t dismiss that. We know that His truth is here to guide us, and that doesn’t stop.

Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

If you read this verse literally, then we see that heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never. Think about that? what God ordains, says, teaches us, that never will change, and yet heaven and earth will pass away.
If you read this historically contextually, heaven and earth mentioned like this would represent the temple they had in Jerusalem where ark of the covenant, and where they held their main sacrifices were. This is where the curtain was torn that separated the world from God’s presence where only the high priest could enter and perform the annual sacrifices on behalf of the Jews. That temple was destroyed in 70AD, and if we read it in this context, we see the temple was destroyed, but God’s word is still around, and will be until the very end.
Either way, we know His word will not pass away, and is for us today, just as much as it was written then.

Matthew 4:4
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

His word nourishes us, and sustains us. There is a hunger that we have for truth, for God, that we try to fill outside of Him, but it can’t be filled without Him.
Story of Shashwat and rice

You, me, and all of mankind have this hunger for God and His truth, but we don’t always realize it, and some claim that they don’t have this, but everyone has a basic need for God’s word, just as we have the basic need to eat food.

All of us live our life, but we have the author of life who made us, and created us with a purpose. He is the one that sets the standard, and He guides us in that. We see that God communicates to us through the Bible as instructions for us to know Him, His will, His ways, and how we live that out. There is no scenario in the world that the Bible doesn’t cover. So if the Bible guides us, and it is active today, and God uses it to communicate to us, are you reading it? Are you going to it for help and guidance? Is it a tool for you, or is it a book of mythology? Some day later we will discuss more about the Bible, but for today, we are focusing on it is an instruction manual for you, from God, you father and creator to you so you can live the life He made you for. Did you through it away like the other manuals you have had, or do you use this to be like Christ and listen to what God is guiding you in?