Part 2: The Word of God as a Means of Grace

We are continuing to lay a Biblical Foundation before we warn the church of practices that are outside God's Word. This teaching will help us know why we place the Word of God so high and so sufficient. And also to understand the Holy Spirit's place in His Illumination of understanding to our hearts.

The Word of God as a Means of Grace

I thought that I would continue with the theme of God's Word, The Bible. And lay a foundation of how important to start with The Bible as the eternal source of God's Truth that speaks to us.

Pastor Bob DeWaay from Twincity Fellowship held a conference on Sola Scriptura: The All surpassing authority of scripture.Before going into these other practices that churches are adding on to Grace. Bob DeWaay stresses that The Word of God as a Means of Grace. I placed the slides that he uses in the blog so that you will use as important material to study the scriptures with and check out for yourselves. Here are some links to his ministry.

http://http//cicministry.org/

http://http//twincityfellowship.com/index.php

Check out the store where you can purchase this dvd set

http://http//www.cicstore.org/servlet/the-59/Faith-at-Risk-4/Detail

Part 1

On June 26, 2010 a loving Saviour and King ,Jesus Christ placed a man in the very presence of the Lord. His eternity started many years ago when he repented and place his complete trust in the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ. Darrell Lindsay is that man. I am very careful to give full credit to God for using him to effect me in a lasting way. He laid a great foundation to love the Word of God. That the Word of God is the final authority for all people, for all places and for all times.
I was blessed to serve "Brother Lindsay" as a pastoral Intern for nine months. To sit under his teaching and preaching of the Word was a very act of great kindness and mercy for God to me. Our times of prayer, study and laughter has shape me for the rest of my life. His passion and drive to place the Word of God above any cultural trend, any accepted "new thing", and man conceived plan. Was truly God honoring and God glorifying.
I wanted to share an article that he wrote in 1952. Many of us that were blessed with his friendship knows that at the age of 89 he never wavered from a very high view of the Word of God. He trusted those precious words to the day his spirit left the body that the Lord gave him.
Praise be to God for His wonderful Salvation that was very much applied to the heart of "brother" Lindsay.

THE BIBLE STANDS
In this fast moving twentieth century, the church is confronted with a melange of views and teachings that are resulting from men substituting the wisdom of this world for the Word of God, or, on the other extreme, introducing teachings for which the Holy Ghost is held responsible, although these teachings do not cor-respond with the written Word of God. The result is tragic. Where the wisdom of this world has sown seeds of skepticism and unbelief in hearts, the result has been a cold formal church that drifted far from the fresh communion with God which the early church enjoyed. The Word and power of God, the Deity of Christ, and many of the fundamentals of the Christian faith are held in ridicule. On the other extreme, where man has based teachings and resulting activities on his impressions, without testing as to whether they were inspired of God or correspond with the teachings of the Word of God, the result has been a fanatical departure from truth. The enemy of man's soul doesn't care which of these errors a man takes interest in, so long as he goes wrong. In order to be safe, we are going to have to keep close to the Word of God.
Perhaps a look back into the life and writings of the apostle Paul will be a help. Paul had spent much time preparing himself for a career in life. He had had the privilege to study the law at the feet of Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin. He had been thoroughly schooled in the Old Testament writings under this great teacher. No doubt, this is the reason Paul could quote freely in his writings from the Old Testament prophets. Paul himself states that he was a citizen of the city of Tarsus. In his description of his home city he described it as "no mean city." It is said that to have citizenship in this city one had to be of a fair financial standing. So, apparently, Paul name from a family that was prosperous, financially. I have read that Paul was a student at the University of Tarsus, a school, it is said, that rivaled the schools of Athens in advanced learning. Paul was schooled in the philosophies of the day. He had learned Greek rhetoric and sophistry. He knew the writings of the day. No doubt, he learned to stand in the classroom and use his keen mind and tongue in argument on matters of learning of the day. He was a man schooled for the day. He was filled with enthusiasm to make his mark in life.
We first hear of his standing guardian over the clothes of those who stoned Stephen. I believe as he stood and listened to the words from the lips of the first martyr for the gospel, the first blows were struck at the vain ambitions of his life. I believe that although he gave consent to Stephen's death, he was troubled to the extent he bad to grasp for his vain philosophies in order to ease his troubled conscience.
The little band of the early Church was scattered everywhere under the hand of persecution. Saul (Paul) was disturbed at the momentum at which the early Church was growing. He probably heard of the landslide revival which Philip had had at Samaria and of the growth of the Church at Jerusalem and elsewhere. The question racing through Paul's mind was how could a band of unlearned men like the disciples preach and teach as they did. Reaching back into the learning he had received, he did not find the answer. Me decided to fight and destroy those called Christians. We read in the ninth chapter of Acts that he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Christ, and had started to Damascus armed with letters from the high priest giving him authority to hail all who professed Christ, bound to Jerusalem. Possibly as Paul left the room of the high priest on that day, the high priest and the other ecclesi-astics envisioned Paul making his mark in life as the exterminator of this troublesome band, the Christians. Little did they know that before the sun set that day Paul would be struck down on his way and there receive his divine commission to preach the gospel he had so bitterly fought. But away went all his philosophies and arguments, and valueless was his worldly education and wisdom. His knowledge of the law and the prophets took on new life. He now saw Christ as the Messiah of whom the prophets had spoken. His first message was simply described by the words "he preached Christ." His only message was Christ. To the religious class of the day (the Jews) this message was a stumbling block, because the blessings of God were to be obtained through the depth of the one they had crucified rather than by their own self-righteous acts. To the learned of the day (the Greeks) the message was foolishness. They were too wise in their own conceits to believe in Christ. They wanted a religion that was a product of their own thinking, their own argument. How plain we can see the two classes of people today, the self-righteous and the super intelligent, who, by their own doings and thinking, show that they know not God.
In the 17th verse of the first chapter of Corinthians Paul declares he was sent forth to preach the gospel, "not with words of wisdom, less the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." In the 18th verse he states, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." A perishing world, some nineteen hundred years this side of this statement, is still trampling over the gospel, branding themselves by their own foolishness as those that perish. What a price man pays for his wisdom when he, by the wisdom of the world, deceives himself into rejecting the wisdom of God as it was manifested at Calvary! God knew man could never lift himself by his boot straps of self-righteousness or worldly philosophies above the grip of sin and satanic force. In a mighty sweep of His divine wisdom and love He sent His blessed Son to Calvary to redeem "whosoever will." The worship of God is more than a thing of the mind: it is a thing of the heart and spirit of man, but the world fails to realize this.
It would be well to read the remaining verses of the first chapter of I Corinthians. In the 2d chapter, verses 1 and 4, Paul states that he came not in excellency of speech or of wisdom, not that he did not have the ability but because he was anxious to exalt Christ rather than his own abilities. We learn from the 3d and 4th verses that this great man, who, as we have learned, was schooled in. the art of speech-making and argument. stood in fear and much trembling when he preached. His speech and preaching, he states, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but (this is an important "but") in the demonstration of the spirit and of power.
This statement reminds us of the words of the Saviour when He declared to the disciples that they would be endued with power to become witnesses for Him. He promised that they would have the abiding presence of the spirit of truth. In verse 9 Paul quotes and Old Testament scripture (Isaiah 64:10): "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things that, God hath prepared for them that love him"; but he follows this by stating that God hath now revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Paul was not speaking of far-distant blessings alone, but was, I believe, speaking of what is ours now through Jesus Christ, From this 10th verse to the end of the chapter Paul brings to us at least three workings of the Spirit in bringing the truth of God's will to man-kind. First in this 10th verse he states that by the Spirit the will of God and the things of God for His people have been revealed. He states further that as a man knows what are the things of man, so the Holy Spirit knows the things of God (the will of God, the purposes of God, etc). Also, in the 12th verse, he says we have not received, the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. Paul states in Gal, 1:12 that the gospel he preached was not received from man, nor was he taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul's message was truly one of divine revelation. Christ, through the Spirit, had done something for him that all his former learning had not done. Paul and the other disciples had the will of God revealed to them so they could preach to others the things freely given to mankind by God. Thus we read, in the 13th verse, that the Spirit of God inspired them to preach what had been first revealed to them.
Let us go a step farther, Not only what they preached but what they wrote was inspired of God. Paul declares this in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." John the Revelator declared in Rev. 14:13 that what he wrote was inspired by God. If what Paul and the other writers in Scripture not only preached but wrote was inspired of God, then the Word of God should be the basis of all our teachings.
In these last days we hear so much about new revelations, many of which will not stand the test of a comparison with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word agree. God is not telling anyone anything that will not carry the endorsement of the Word of God which is His revealed will. Since man, in the carnal state, cannot receive the things of God, according to the 14th verse, the Holy Spirit, the Illuminator or Revealer of truth, must work in his life until he comes to know the Truth of truths that Christ is his Saviour, indeed, and on into other truths of God. Those of the world who know not God may train and develop their minds and talents to obtaining the material things of life, but never will they know the divine will of God without believing and accepting the Word of God.