Are You Taking the Word of God Seriously? | Paul Washer

[Music] there are no great men of god there are only tiny little needy men of a great and merciful god that's all that has ever existed there's only one hero in this story what i'm going to say you need to take seriously i need to take seriously and there are men who do take it seriously the bible wasn't written as a plan for us to fail it is something that we can accomplish in the power of the holy spirit it says what rule hath god given to direct us how we may glorify him and enjoy

him and the answer in that catechism is the word of god which is contained in scriptures of the old and new testaments as the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him the word of god is absolutely essential to the christian life now here's my question for you tally up in your mind how many hours this last week you spent in reading studying memorizing and meditating upon the word of god just because you're in a church that is trying to submit itself entirely to scripture doesn't mean that you are do you

see that so the question is as individuals are we taking scripture seriously it is easier to have your life put in jeopardy for the preaching of the gospel to do something extraordinary like that it is easier than simply being obedient in the simple things of christianity every day i have no doubt that there are men and women here that if they were told to deny the bible or die they would die what's difficult is the daily routine the being faithful day in and day out in the things that are considered simple so indeed all who

desire to live godly in christ jesus will be persecuted let me ask you a question have you been persecuted because if this radically depraved morally corrupt sewer of a world never has a problem with you you've got a problem you've got a problem so we live in a world that will persecute godly people we live in a world where there is evil and evil men there are impostors they're not getting better the world is not getting better it's going from bad to worse and they not only deceive but they themselves are deceived that's the kind

of world we live in if you are not set apart from that world in any way if this kind of world doesn't see you as unusual there's a real problem this kind of world doesn't have a problem with you either you're not what you profess to be or you're being too quiet about it but i have discovered that if a godly man doesn't even open his mouth but walks in godliness he will be persecuted his relatives may call him a religious fanatic his friends may turn away because he's no fun anymore the people at the

job will be angry because when they revel in a filthy joke he walks away i mean does any of this look like you now i want you to look at something who was timothy's teacher the apostle paul now he learned from him he learned directly from the apostle paul and he became convinced of it of what he learned he was totally convinced but then this is what's unusual he says continue in these things continue in the things you have learned we go to first timothy we see a lot of the same continue continue we also

have examples of men who did not continue you know this is continue this is the hard thing beginning is easy beginning is always easy it's continue continue continue but this is where the idea of a faithful man a faithful woman a trustworthy man a trustworthy woman they just continue and that's what that's what he's telling timothy to do because it's the hard thing to do i have said there are men that two years ago i would have filled the platform with who now i will not i do not believe they continued on they got diverted

but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron anytime in the church of jesus christ you give anything preeminence over the person of christ and his redemptive work in the gospel you have committed gross apostasy anytime you deviate and so men who've departed from the simplicity of the gospel how is the world to be healed there's only one way it's a cross where the

son of god died and rose again from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of god and will reconcile all things in himself that's it how is a child converted through the scripture and in this case he's talking about old testament scripture that pointed him to the messiah let me give you a statement everything that exists was made for messiah [Music] everything for messiah he's absolutely everything all the old testament points to him it all points to him it's all looking at him can you imagine that day i mean here's this jesus

of nazareth the son of god but he came in the likeness of sinful flesh that doesn't mean he was sinful or his body was corrupt but they did it he didn't come in a pre-fall adamic body like they appear like he appears in the movies where he's a head taller than everyone else and he's just the most handsome guy that's not the way it happened at all he was he was run up the mill i mean he was he was common you imagine this carpenter stands in front of all the religious leaders of the day

and said that book that you would die for that book that you study 10 hours a day that book you've memorized that book that represents everything our nation is about every bit of it was written about me can you imagine can you imagine and that's what he said you searched the scriptures but all of it was written about me that's why i love to appreciate the statement by lorraine buttner in which he says jesus is the only expected person there's never been anyone in history never julius caesar wasn't expected he wasn't churchill wasn't expected no

one but the whole book is expecting one person and it was fulfilled in jesus of nazareth and to depart from that is ridiculous also to have sunday school for children that primarily paints pictures of noah's ark is ridiculous and if that makes you mad then repent and follow me on this do you know why noah's ark is important oh because all the animals got saved no because it's a type of christ everything's important because it points to him this book is about pointing everyone to christ but here's the amazing thing you say yes you look

at your six-year-old and say okay read verse romans 1 1. what i'm trying to tell you is the scriptures for your children don't keep the scriptures from your children and don't just give them little stories that have nothing to do with jesus because all the stories have something to do with jesus teach them the story of redemption every time you open your mouth and give them the scriptures that's what catechisms are about that's the way children were taught learn theology learn doctrine learn those verses to prove it to me catechism why did god made you

he made me for his own glory prove it give your children the scriptures so here the scriptures are adequate to bring a child to christ and the scriptures are adequate to train a man to be the most mature and capable expositor of the scriptures on the planet almost three decades and it has been sometimes 10 hours a day and i can tell you this that if you gave me 85 years and the greatest library in the world and only gave me john 3 16 i would not even scratch the surface of that verse that's how

profound it is you will be in a thousand eternities in heaven and at the end of that you will not even have reached the foothills of understanding the gospel of jesus christ but then if you want to train a man to be the greatest missionary or the greatest preacher it's the very same book that in itself shows you the power of this book if you only could realize how much time you're wasting and how you're going to regret this later and how you should give yourself to this things that are productive or oh son this

relationship friendship you need to be careful with it it's dangerous oh son if you could only see through the eyes of your old father many of you have been in that place both fathers and mothers and why are you doing it that it may be well with them and with their sons forever you want so much for them and hopefully when i'm saying this you're not thinking about yes i want my son to be a professional i want him to be a doctor i want him to be a football player i want my daughter to

be this or that hopefully you're not that trite hopefully you're thinking i want my son to be godly want my daughter to be godly i want them to know the joy and the prosperity of a sense of god's pleasure if you're genuinely a christian and not everyone in the church is a christian what i mean in the visible what you're looking at right now in the true church everyone is a christian there's no remnant theology if you're if you're really in the church you're really a christian but in a local congregation not everyone is christian

the faith cannot exist apart from the word of god why do you believe something you believe something because god has said it if god hasn't said it you can't believe it and if you do believe it you're in presumption well the bible says according to what's written here faith is the assurance of things hoped for in what way how can i have assurance of what i hope for how can i have the conviction that something i've never seen exist only if god says it if god says it and i do not react to it positively

that's unbelief if god hasn't said it and i believe it that's presumption and both of them are deadly the the word of god is central to reverence it's central to faith you know what else it's central to love you say how is that how do you make yourself love god more you can't well then we're doomed no we're not doomed it's just we're not going to put our hope in you when i married my wife you should have seen her in all her glory i love her more now now when someone says that what happens

immediately every oh what a great man you know you see some man who loves his wife and what do you think about you think about the man oh he's such a wonderful man he loves his wife maybe he's not a wonderful man at all maybe he has a wonderful wife my point is this why do i love my wife more now than i did before because i have seen over the decades more of her virtue more of who she is and it's her virtue a greater revelation of her virtue that does something to me draws

out my affections so if you want to love god more what do you do you go look for more of god and if you're if your heart is unregenerate you're lost and just a church member the more you see of god the more you'll hate him guarantee it but if your heart has been changed you're regenerate you're a christian the more you see of god his beauty his splendor his faithfulness his power his love the more you see of it the more he will draw that beauty of god will draw out your affections do you

know why there are some people who are able to die the most horrific deaths in the name of christ you know why there are people who are able to apart depart from their family and not return for 40 years serving in the worst hell hole on the planet you know why it's not that they're better from than you we all come from the same stock of adam then what is it they've just seen more of christ than you have paul says it is the love of christ that constrains us and we're so humanistic we always

think it's paul's love for christ that pushed him on and constrained him that's not what he's saying he's saying christ's love for me pushes me on do you see the difference because if you see someone loving god it's just because their affections have been drawn out so it wasn't self-generated no it has nothing to do with any goodness in a human being it has nothing to do with any of that it all began with christ do you know that the job of of the elder he's a minor who minds he goes into places no one

else goes he stays there a long time he swings precariously over text trying to figure out what's there to look for gems when wisdom is what truly ought to be sought after but in a sense the elder goes into his study and you know the only thing he's really trying to do he's not there for himself even he's there for the bride of christ and he's there looking for oh that's beautiful about christ oh and that one is beautiful about i can't wait to present this on sunday this this beautiful mag they've never seen this

before it's showing them christ it's showing them christ so how do we grow in the fear of the lord reverence for him how do we grow in love how do we grow in faith there's one way seeing more of him seeing more of him seeing more of him when covid and all this started happening it seemed like the world was falling apart everybody needed an answer everybody needed an answer everyone needed to know what was god doing what was god doing that is idolatry and that's an attempt to hold god hostage when your attitude is

that way and it demonstrates immaturity because basically you're what's what you're saying is i will not have peace god until you tell me what's going on that's idolatry the mature response of the christian is god i don't need to know what's going on because i know who you are and i know you're sovereign and whatever you're doing is right even if it leads to my death it's not those who know what god's doing who will be strong in the book of daniel it's those who know their god who will be strong in the book of

daniel the lord is our god the lord is one and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might these words which i am commanding you today shall be on your heart one of the ways the way the great way that we're able to move towards attainment of what we see one of the ways that we can see the exclusivity of god the uniqueness of god and love him with all our heart soul mind and strength is through his revealed words which i am

commanding you today the way we're able to know him and to love him and to believe him is only through his word dear brothers and sisters and this is the words which i am commanding you today shall be on your heart don't deceive yourself it's very easy i know believe me how easy it is to be self-deceived when i say these words shall be on your heart you're going yes yes yes okay how often are these words on your heart let's say you're awake for 16 hours a day where are these words where are they

why are we losing our children and teenagers and our college students and everything eight hours a day five days a week where they are totally being bombarded with anti-christian propaganda that goes against everything the bible teaches that's 40 hours a week afterwards they come home and most of them get on the internet at least a couple hours and television so let's let's just bump that up to 12 hours now a day and on weekends in which they're being bombarded with anti-christian ungodly formation and then they're surrounded in their schools by other children are given to

the same things and then on sunday you have them paint a picture of noah's ark with crayons really you think there's a mystery why why we're losing our children come on i mean think about it it's not a mystery how much time do they see their father studying the word of god how much time do they hear their father speak about the word of god how many times do they see their mother and father talking about the word of god here's what i want you to see brethren i am one of you i say this

to myself that i need to spend more time with my wife in the scriptures and prayer and i need to spend more time with my children in the scriptures and i need to exemplify the scriptures in a greater way especially with her mother see this is us this is me and you and women it's the same way yes there are different roles in the family and there's different roles in the church but you know what men and women grow the same way through an in-depth study of scripture to know god women need the same doctrine

the same theology the same everything to grow as men do are you teaching your wife wife are you teachable are you pouring into your children both of you are you realizing that life is short eternity is long are you also repenting when you sin against your child you're impatient don't try to fix that by just being nicer next time that's not biblical you go to your child and you say i need to tell you something i sinned against you please forgive me and what's she going to say oh daddy that's all right that's where you

really have to now go into teacher mode and you say this no daughter it wasn't right it was sin and i really need you to forgive me i really need you to release me and say dad you sinned against me you were impatient but i forgive you and i love you wouldn't you do that if it was a brother and you want him not to say oh that's all right when you want him to say yes you sinned against me i love you i forgive you the little things are the big things the hard part

is living every day like right now it's so easy for me to appear godly but with the people that are closest to me that's the test and so often i failed and i have to say forgive me that's what it means to be in a biblical church because you're the church father thank you for this day [Music] please bless your people bless your good people lord help them in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] you