Lon Solomon Ministries
An Inspired Bible - So What?
Let's take a Bible and open it together to the first book in the New Testament, the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 4. And if you didn't bring a Bible, we want you to borrow a copy of the Bible you'll find on the back of the seat in front of you, going to be on page 682, page 682, and our copy of the Bible, Matthew 4, and yours, a little over 100 years ago, the great American evangelist White El Moody said these words, and I quote, "He said what we need today is men and women who believe the Bible from the crown of their heads to the souls of their feet. Men and women who believe the whole of it, the things they do understand and the things they don't understand," end of quote. And you know those words are just as true today as they were over a century ago, which is why over the last two weeks in spiritual boot camp part 1 and part 2, we've been talking about the Bible. We've been talking about the inspiration of the Bible and the inerrancy of the Bible. And just to remind you, when we say that the Bible is inspired, what we mean is that God caused the exact words that He wanted to be written down on the pages of the Bible. And when we say that the Bible is inerrant, what we mean is that the Bible, because they're words directly from God, they are without error in everything they say about everything. Now last week, I gave you oodles of independent external verifiable proof that will stand behind the Bible's claim that it is the inspired Word of God. And proof it demonstrates that believing the Bible to be the inspired Word of God is an intellectually justifiable position, a position that intelligent, educated people can hold without apology. We're going to go on to date a part three and that's this, if the Bible really is what it claims to be, if it is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, then we have a very important question we need to answer. And that question is, and I know this is coming early, but I know you're not ready, so take a deep breath and get mentally ready. Here we go. The question is one, two, three. Question is so what? I mean, long as the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, wonderful, big whoop. What difference does that make to the way I live, Monday through Saturday? That's what we want to talk about today, and I've got three so what's I want to give you. So here we go. So what number one, if the Bible really is the inspired Word of God, then so what number one, the Bible has total authority. This is what Jesus said right here Matthew chapter four. Look at verse four, Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." And as the inspired Word of God, that's exactly what the Bible is. The Bible are the words that came from the mouth of God. And the reason it has authority is for that very reason it comes from God. We're all familiar here in Washington with executive orders. Executive orders are directives that come from the President of the United States and they have immediate authority. And the reason they have immediate authority is not because they're written on special paper with special ink, they have immediate authority because they come directly from the chief executive of the United States of America. Well friends, the same is true in the Bible. It has immediate authority and absolute authority because it comes directly from the chief executive of the universe and that's what gives it authority. Now when we say the Bible has total authority, what do we mean, what kind of authority are we talking about? Well, first of all, we're talking about the fact that the Bible has authority over all of human society. Now our culture may not be listening, but on the pages of the Bible, God is speaking about every facet of society here in America, abortion, homosexual rights, pornography, faithfulness in marriage, grounds for divorce, premarital sexual behavior, business ethics, integrity in government, God has a righteous will about every single one of these issues and any nation that hopes to see the unrestricted blessing of God on that nation, any nation that wants to see God's unbroken blessing is a nation that has to take seriously the authority of the Bible and a nation that has to make the Bible the foundation not only for its system of jurisprudence, but also for all of its social policy. And you know what really bothers me as a follower of Jesus Christ is how many people we see politicians who campaign as followers of Jesus Christ but who seem to catch spiritual schizophrenia and become different people as soon as they get in the office and begin making policy. Now the halls of Congress are full of these people. The corridors of the White House are full of these people, people who carry their Bibles to church on Sunday, but then they act like the Bible doesn't even exist Monday to Saturday. Now friends, these people have missed the point. They have missed the point. God did not write the Bible so that we could carry it to church on Sunday for our photo op. God wrote the Bible so that we could carry it into our streets, into our committee rooms, into our cabinet meetings, into our policy sessions Monday to Saturday. He wrote it so we would use it as the very fabric for the moral society we build and he wrote it to tell us how to construct a society that pleases God and brings the blessing of God. Now this is the message that as followers of Jesus Christ we got to keep shouting to America. America may not be listening, the politicians may not be responding, but this is the message we've got to keep telling them that the authority for this society, if we want it to be a society that has the blessing of God, has got to be the Word of God. Now it has another realm of authority and that is not just when it comes to society as a whole, but the Bible also has total authority on the individual level when it comes to our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Joshua chapter 1 verse 7, "Be careful to obey God talking to Joshua, all the law my servant Moses gave you from me. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. And do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do everything that's written in the Bible." Friends as followers of Jesus Christ we do not have complete and unilateral control over what American society does and how they choose to live every day, but we do have unilateral control over how we as individuals choose to live every single day and what God is telling us right here in Joshua chapter 1 as followers of Jesus Christ is that we are to live our lives every little detail of our lives in conformity with the Word of God. You know over the last 20 years as a pastor here I take appointments every Tuesday and I have a string of people every Tuesday who for 20 years have come in to see me and almost without exception they're in crisis. Most people don't come to see me because everything is going well. And so when I talk to them and I find out why they're in crisis, what they did to get themselves in there I always try to ask them well why did you do that? Why did you make the choice that you made? Why did you decide to take the action that you took? And the answers I tell you I could predict them. The answers are all the same because I felt like it because I wanted to because my friends said this was the right thing to do because this is what everybody else does because it was the easiest thing to do at the time. Folks as followers of Jesus Christ we have to understand that the authority in our lives is no longer how we feel about anything. The authority in our lives is no longer what we want to do. The authority in our lives is no longer what our friends say what our culture does or what the easiest road out is. When we come to Jesus Christ one of the single most important adjustments that we have to make as a follower of Jesus Christ is to abdicate control of our life, to abdicate authority over our life, to abdicate it away from how we feel what we want, what our friends say, what the worst of the world does and to accept as the authority of our life the written inspired Word of God. What I like to hear people tell me when they come in my office is the reason I did this is because that's what God told me to do in the Bible and interestingly enough when people come in saying that they're usually not in crisis. You ever see the commercial on television for Hebrew national hot dogs? I love this commercial. You know it's got the big uncle Sam on it and he's getting ready to bite into this hot dog and his big voice comes on the screen and says the government says we can use non-meat fillers in our hot dogs. We can't. The government says we can do this and that and the other thing we can't. We're kosher and we are subject to a higher authority. I love that commercial. Maybe it's my background, I don't know, but I love that commercial and friends what God is trying to tell you and me is that if we are followers of Jesus Christ we are Hebrew national hot dogs. We are subject to a higher authority than what we feel like what we want to do, what our friends tell us or what the rest of the world does. So why as a follower of Jesus Christ do I run my business with integrity even though my competitors don't. Why as a follower of Jesus Christ do I keep my word even to my own hurt? Why as a follower of Jesus Christ do I watch my eyes and my words and my mind when I'm around members of the opposite sex? Why as a follower of Jesus Christ don't I sleep with my boyfriend or my girlfriend before we get married, why as a follower of Jesus Christ do I tell the truth even when it's not to my own advantage, why as a follower of Jesus Christ do I return good for evil and not malice and hatred and run people into the speed wall on the belt way. Why do I do that? Only one reason. It's not because your friends tell you to because that's not what they'll tell you. It's not because that's what you want to do because you don't want to do that. It's not that's how you feel because you don't feel like doing that there's only one reason and that is you and I are subject to a higher authority, the authority of the word of God and that's what God says to do and he is in authority in our lives not us. That's a decision we made when we came to Christ. So what number one if the Bible is the inspired in errant word of God then friends as a follower of Jesus Christ it has total and final authority over your life and the sooner you and I surrender to the authority of the word of God the sooner we will see the blessing of God on our life become unrestricted. Number two so what number two is if the Bible really is the inspired in errant word of God then so what number two is that then the Bible is the secret. It is the key to living a successful life here on earth. Joshua chapter one verse eight continues be careful to do everything written in the word of God that's where we left off then it goes on to say for then you will be prosperous and then you'll have success. I love what Saul 119 says about this. Listen David writing says oh how I love your law I meditate on it day and night your commandments make me wiser than my enemies because your commandments are ever with me. I have more insight than all of my teachers because I meditate on your statutes and I have more understanding than even the elders of my people. Why because I obey your precepts okay friends so where do we go to get wisdom to get insight to get understanding that keeps us from making mistakes and tripping up in life. And as David say we get it all by meditating on and following the precepts of the word of God which is why Saul 119 goes on to say verse 105 your word is a light to my feet and a lamp to my path why because when you're allowing the word of God to be your marching orders it's like having a big old spotlight right in front of you so you don't step on anything and hurt yourself. I don't know if you've been keeping up with football pro football but if you have you know that the New York Jets are four and oh now the New York Jets have never been four and oh even when Joe Nameth was playing for him they never started four and oh anybody here a jet fan yeah well God bless you was not going to last but they are four and oh now now they beat they went four and oh by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week both teams were three and oh Tampa Bay was a huge favorite the Jets beat them 21 to 17 but there was an enormous subplot happening around that game that involved a fellow named Kishan Johnson wide receiver Kishan Johnson had been drafted number one the number one draft pick by the Jets several years ago but this past offseason they traded him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he didn't like that his ego was wounded his pride was hurt he didn't like that at all and so all week leading up to the game he is just dogging on the Jets just bad mouth and on the Jets particularly picking on his replacements wide receiver Wayne Kerberth just really lambasted this guy for example he said and I quote that comparing Kerberth to him is like comparing a flashlight to a star he said that he also went on because Kerberth not real tall he called him the team mascot yeah so anyway what happened in the game well 52 seconds left in the game the Jets are behind they have a half back option Curtis Martin rolls out throws the pass into the end zone guess who leaps up and catches it for the winning touchdown for the Jets you'll never guess Wayne Kerberth how'd you know how'd you know yay did and they won the game on that catch you know what our what our friend quiche on did he had one catch for one yard one catch for one yard man it's either awful bright flashlight or awful dim star that's all I got to say he became the laughing stock of America and friends the reason he became the laughing stock of America is not because he caught one pass for one yard it's because he engaged in behavior prior to the game that God told him over and over and over in the Bible was going to lead to unsuccessful living like what well like arrogance like a self promotion like boasting about tomorrow like speaking ill of other people like shooting your mouth off book of Proverbs do not boast about tomorrow because you don't know what a day is going to bring forth you might be one catch for one yard but another person praise you the Bible says not your own lives and the Bible says even a fool when he keeps quiet people think he's wise key Sean you know this whole ugly episode could have been avoided with all the embarrassment and all the humiliation if key Sean had simply chosen to do it God's way huh and friends you know what's interesting to me is that we have people in our world today who are spending literally billions and billions of dollars going around trying to find a successful formula for living life walk in any bookstore there are row after row after row of self help books pop psychology books all trying to tell you the formula for how to live a successful life watch any infomercial and they have for 30 minutes they have the answer for how you live a successful life and then there's the psychic friends network and then there's this new lady now Cleo with two row cards in mind and soul dot com that you're supposed to call up you know and you can't even call the psychic friends network anymore they went bankrupt didn't see it coming now explain that to me but anyway they went bankrupt and the truth of the matter is if you want a formula for successful living if you want a formula for a successful living you don't have to go any farther than the drawer of the desk in every hotel room in America and it's free because if you'll follow the precepts of the bible you'll never end up like he's Sean Johnson you'll never make a fool out of yourself you may have trouble you may have days when you only catch one pass for one yard but you know what you can still be dignified and you can still keep the blessing of God on your life if you'll just live your life the way of the bible tells you to you don't need to go spend a fortune just take the bible read the book of problems and do what it tells you want to live a successful life hey friends so what number two is the inspired and errant word of God was given to help you do it use it use it so what number three and finally is if the bible is the inspired and errant word of God then number three so what number three is that the bible contains the only reliable data the truth about what's on the other side of the grave I had two representatives just as past Tuesday come in from a local cemetery to see me and they had all their mark they had these wonderful marketing plans they brought in for example what they wanted us to do they wanted us to buy two hundred cemetery plots wholesale from them and then we could turn around and retail them to you and keep the money for our building fund that was one of their ideas I was like what no no no no no we don't do that then they also had this deal where you know if you get cremated now I mean a lot of people are doing that so they built a little mausoleum and now that for cremated people to put their erns in they called it cremation gardens I mean these people had every idea in the book I couldn't wait I thought they went off for me a timeshare soon they you know these people were incredible but one thing they did say that made sense they said you know one of the things we're really concerned about is that enough people do not pre-arrange their funeral arrangements and what ends up happening is they come to us they're they're in grief they're in pain they're upset and they don't make good decisions like that well I got to agree with them that's right but I said to the guy you know why we don't prearrange don't you because we don't like talking to people like you about this stuff I mean my toes are curling just sitting here talking to you guys nobody wants to sit here and have a conversation like this but hi I mean they are right I mean it does make sense if death is something we're all going to face and death is something we're all going to go through and we're all going to have a funeral I mean it does make sense I suppose to prearrange I'm here to tell you something far more important you need to prearrange and that is if you're going to die and you are here on earth you better make sure you prearrange your eternal destiny now that's something worth worrying about we all better make sure of that but if you're going to prearrange your eternal destiny where are you going to go to get reliable information in order to do that you're going to go to Newsweek time magazine sports illustrated madam mazelle or Forbes you're going to go to Washington Post God help you where are you going to go to get reliable information to make that kind of a prearrangement well if the Bible is the inspired in errant word of God then it is the source of reliable data and true information about what's on the other side of the grave so that you can prearrange and what does the Bible tell us four things number one it tells us that people live on on the other side of the grave number two it tells us that there are only two landing pads on the other side of the grave and everybody is going to land on one or the other one's a wonderful place called heaven one's a not so wonderful place called hell the Bible third of all tells us whichever one you land on you and land on one of them that's where you and I are for eternity and fourth and finally the Bible tells us the only way the only way to land on the path called heaven is through having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ trusting what he did for us on the cross to pay for our sin and give us eternal life now friends the Bible is utterly air tight on this Jesus John 14 verse 6 I am the way the truth and the life Jesus said nobody now there's the key word nobody gets to heaven unless they come by way of me I had a man here last night a Jewish man who came up after the message and he said I was doing okay to you got to that third so what he said I'm pretty upset about that he said you know we live in a world where we need to be trying to pull people together we need to be trying to unify people and instead you get up to say something like that all that does is push people apart all that does is divide people and he said besides all religions are taking us the same place anyway you ought to be working on trying to pull people together I said well let me respond to that and just say this to you it's a wonderful thing to pull people together we're all for that but you got to pull people together on the foundation of truth if you pull them together on the foundation of a lie it's inauthentic it's not real it's just a smokescreen and this is truth and whether you like it or not this is truth and we stand on this truth and if we can pull people together on this truth we'd love to do that but we're not compromising truth in order to pull people together friends the Bible as the inspired word of God gives us no room to waffle on this there is no room to waffle and that's why we go on nine secular radio stations here in Washington every single month and why with a little thing called not a sermon just a thought we tell them about the truth of the Bible and we don't just talk about eternal life but that's one thing we do talk about and and we don't waffle because there's no room to waffle we've had people that turned out our ads they wouldn't run certain of them they say they're too narrow they're too judgmental they're too condemning we say it nicely people just don't want to hear that there's only one way to get to heaven but there's only one way to do a lot of things there's only one way to kill certain bacteria there's only one way to land a plane on an aircraft carrier there's only one way to do a lot of things in life we don't have a problem with that why do we have a problem with this here's some of the things we say here's one of the spots we ran this one some people didn't like but this is the truth let's see if you like it where oh where can my baby be the Lord took her away from me she's gone to heaven so I got to be good so I can see my baby when I leave this world hi this is on Solomon pastor McLean Bible Church and that's the Pearl Jam remake of last kiss but the question is is this really how a person gets to heaven by being good well the Bible says no the Bible says that heaven is not based on works of goodness which we have done but rather getting the heaven is based on our willingness to put our trust in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross as our only hope of eternal life and our only payment for sin if you'd like to get to heaven why not do it the way Jesus says you can do it by putting your trust in him not a sermon just a call as we tell people because you know what folks that's the truth and so what number three very simply is this if you want reliable data about the afterlife you find it right here and what is this reliable data tell us that the way to get to heaven is by trusting Jesus in a real and personal way that's it and you know what smart people do they pre-arrange they do they prearrange their eternal destiny by doing what God says now so whenever you get to the grave it's all taken care of so let's summarize what have we learned today what we've learned if the Bible is the inspired word of God so what number one is that it has total authority over your life and my life as followers of Jesus Christ and if we've got areas of our life that are still pockets of resistance we need to run the white flag up and surrender number two we've learned that the Bible is the secret has the key to living a successful life and people who are wise we use it we discover the precepts of the Bible as to how to live everyday life and then we bring our behavior in conformity with them and number three and finally the Bible if it's the inspired word of God has reliable data about the afterlife and we use it to make sure we've prearranged now if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your real and personal Savior we want to give you a chance to do that right here we want to give you a chance before you leave this morning to prearrange your eternal destiny and you don't need to get up walking out you don't need to stand up you don't need to raise your hand you don't need to do anything except when we in just a moment bow our heads and close our eyes I'm gonna lead us in a short prayer inviting Jesus to come in and to forgive our sin and give us eternal life and all you have to do is sit right where you are and repeat it phrase by phrase after me if you're ready to make that decision to trade in all your good works and all your religious activity and instead of trusting them to put your trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross we're gonna give you a chance to do it right now so let's pray together if you're here with our heads bowed and our eyes closed and you're ready to make that decision you just pray one phrase at a time right after me here we go Lord Jesus I come to you today because I want to go to heaven I want to know that I have eternal life I want to know that my landing pad in eternity is heaven and so today I invite you to come into my life to be my personal Lord and Savior to forgive my sin to grant me eternal life and a place with you in heaven today I trade in all of my good works all of my religious activity I'm not going to trust that anymore but I'm going to trust what Jesus did for me on the cross shedding his blood to be the payment for my sin and my ticket into heaven I give my life to you today in Jesus name and father I pray for the folks who prayed that prayer that you would confirm in their heart right now that a great transaction has taken place that they have become children of God father in the days ahead begin changing their life from the inside out in such a way that they can't argue with the fact that today they became new creatures in Jesus Christ or thanks for giving us the information we need so we can prearrange honor what these people have done here today and we commit them to you in Jesus name amen