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Matthew 5:17-18

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

Has it ever occurred to you that Christians are “betting our eternal souls” on the accuracy of a translation of copies of copies of copies of copies of a set of documents that were written between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago in languages that no one on earth still speaks today?

Well, that is exactly what we are doing!

How on earth can we do that?

Easy. We know beyond question that a “complete equivalence” or “functional equivalence” translation of the Hebrew and Greek Manuscripts enables us to have a Christian Bible that is a fully preserved and a rightly canonized rendering of the Original Manuscripts of the very words of very God!

Thankfully, there are five such translations available in the English language today: The King James; the New King James; the American Standard; the New American Standard; and, the English Standard Versions all of which were produced through this process, and each of them provides us with a fully reliable rendering of God’s Words!

We are further assured by the discovery in the late 1940’s of the Dead Sea Scrolls which verified the accuracy of existing Old Testament documents; and, by the 5,600+ Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament that have been discovered.

In all of these documents, there is not a single verse that brings any doctrinal teaching into question; and comparing them with one another allows us to understand the wording of the Original Manuscripts with a reliability that exceeds 99%.

In addition to all of this empirical evidence, we have the “Ultimate” evidence of the words of Jesus in our text today!

Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

I am thankful that God preserved this multitude of ancient documents so we can physically see and mathematically calculate the fact that we can indeed reconstruct more than 99% of the Original Manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures; but, if all we had was the promise of Matthew 5:17-18, that would certainly be enough!

Beloved Ones, we have the Word of God! God revealed it, inspired it, preserved it, and led men to rightly understand which Books ought to be part of the Christian Bible.

Now that we have it, what ought we do with it?

I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!

Pastor Lanny

16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Scriptures are the means by which God has determined to reveal to human beings HIS existence, HIS Nature, and HIS will. HE provides this “revelation” of HIMSELF by enabling men to both know and write the very words God would have written if HE had chosen to physically write them HIMSELF!

“Revelation” is God making HIMSELF known to mankind; “Inspiration” is God enabling men to write that Revelation of God in human language!

This coming Lord’s Day, as the LORD allows, I will bring our next Sermon in the series about the Believer and Your Bible. I have already attempted to impress on you that the Bible is the most important thing in your life as a Christian. In fact, no one can even become a Christian apart from the work of the Word in their life!

In the first two sermons, I have tried to establish that the Bible is the Word of God; it works effectively in the life of the believer; and, it has four main attributes: necessity; authority; clarity; and sufficiency.

This coming Sunday, I want to begin looking at the seven-step process of getting this revelation of God from the mind of God to the mind of HIS people.

That process is… (1) Revelation; (2) Inspiration; (3) Preservation; (4) Canonization; (5) Translation; (6) Interpretation; and (7) Application!

I will attempt to do the first six of these two at a time, and then take a final sermon in the series to teach about the all-important work of applying the Word of God to our everyday life!

There are several ways by which God reveals HIMSELF to humans including Creation, the Conscience, the Content of Scripture, and the Person of Christ. Occasionally, God reveals HIMSELF through a supernatural phenomenon such as a “Burning Bush!”

BUT, GOD usually and normally reveals HIMSELF to humans through the words of the Holy Scripture!

We will take a careful look at our text in 2^nd Peter 1, as well as several other pertinent Scriptures, and see what we can learn about these two vital processes of “Revelation” and “Inspiration.”

I hope you will read over, think over, and pray over these verses between now and Sunday as you prepare your mind to hear the Living Word of the Living God!

As my friend Tom Rains loves to say, “I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!

2 Peter 1:16-21 (ESV)

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1^st Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (Emphasis mine…)

The most important thing in a person’s life is whether or not they repent of their sins against God and trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

That is #1. Period!

Second only to that is their relationship to the Word of God! As the LORD allows, this coming Lord’s Day I plan to begin a series of 8 sermons about the relationship between one who is trusting in Jesus and HIS eternal Word – the Christian Bible.

While this will be a new series of new sermons, I will basically cover the same areas that I covered from January through March of 2007 while I was serving you for the second time as Interim Pastor. The series must have gone well because three weeks after I completed this series of lessons you graciously called me to serve as your Pastor-Teacher!

Following this first, Introductory, message I will embark on an exposition of what the Scripture teaches about itself; how we received it; and, how it works in our life.

But, first things first…

Our Text for this first sermon (1^st Thessalonians 2:13) points out clearly the two issues all believers must both face and settle: First, what is the Bible? “it really is the Word of God…” and, Second, what does the Bible do? “the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

The Bible is the Word of God!

The Bible accomplishes God’s will by the work that it does in the life of the believer!

Period!

Again, only your personal relationship with Jesus Christ is more important to your spiritual and eternal health than your relationship with the Word of God!

God, Who Himself created humans, could have chosen to communicate with us in any way HE chose. For His own plan and purposes, HE decreed that HE would communicate with us through human language; and specifically, through the written (inscripturated) Word.

First, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Revelation.

Second, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Inspiration.

Third, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Preservation.

Fourth, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Canonization.

Fifth, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Translation.

I certainly realize how controversial this area of doctrine is; but, I honestly think this will be one of the most helpful sermons I have had the privilege to preach in our Church. I will give tons of evidence to show you “The 5 Completely Reliable English Translations” and why that is so.

Sixth, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Interpretation.

Seventh, we will consider the Christian Doctrine of Application.

As we work through these seven foundational Bible Doctrines, I trust that all of us will understand more fully than ever before the relationship that God wills for us to HIS Holy Bible.

Finally, I will close the sermon with a five-fold direct application of these doctrines in a practical format that will help you focus on and remember why and how to “hide God’s Word in your heart.”

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!

Pastor Lanny

As we come to the final sermon in this series of 26 sermons (that began 10 months ago on September 15^th of 2013) I want to refresh your mind a bit about where we have been…

We spent the first 9 sermons going over the events of Creation Week; 1 sermon on the Marriage of Adam and Eve; 7 sermons on the Fall and its consequences; 2 sermons on God’s decree of salvation; and 7 sermons on the Flood and its aftermath.

Genesis Chapter 12 begins the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and the founding of the Hebrew people and Nation. I intentionally decided before I began this series that I would stop with Chapter 11 and move on to my next series of Doctrinal Sermons entitled, “The Believer and Their Bible” that will continue (as the Lord allows) until Labor Day weekend.

I am planning to follow that series with a verse-by-verse exposition of Matthew Chapters 24 – 25 that will continue through November of this year. These two chapters cover what God has decreed for the “End Times” and will entail a lot of teaching on Biblical Prophecy.

This coming Lord’s Day, (as the Lord allows) I will demonstrate in Genesis 11 that in the 4,500 years that have passed since the events of Genesis 1 – 11, both the rebellion of man against God and the response of God to the rebellion of man against HIM have not changed!

Humans are rebels because of our fallen sinful nature and the presence of “Original Sin” in our spirit. God is perfectly holy and cannot and will not let sin go unpunished!

We will consider Nimrod and what we learn from him and from the fact that so many people were willing to follow him.

We will consider the attempt to overthrow the rule of God at Babel and how that has impacted the location of peoples in the world as we know it today.

We will see what a “Theophany” and a “Christophany” is and how we can understand something about why God would come to earth from time to time in some unusual forms.

Finally, we are confronted in the genealogies of Genesis 11 with the rapid decline in the span of human life! I will ask and hopefully answer the questions as to why and how God decreed this change.

I have enjoyed this series. I trust that this “capstone” sermon in the series will be a blessing to you.

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, (you are going to need it) and your family and friends by your side!

²⁰ “Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”

One of the most complicated issues I face as a Pastor is when I speak to issues that conflate our love of God and our love for America. Of course, the two are different things; but, they are both real.

As Christians, we love God first and foremost… but, as Americans we also love our Country. We must be careful here; we cannot say, “My Country right or wrong” when our Country continues to go against the teaching of God’s Word in so many areas of life.

Because I love America, I long to see her as “One Nation Under God.” Sadly, that appears to be going away. Since our Nation (by and large) has chosen to turn away from God and His Word, we are going to stand against her more and more often.

I long to see America as she once was when our people – for the most part – honored God and stood for the kind of principles that God gives in His Word. Many Americans still do, of course, but the days when honoring Jesus was widely accepted among Americans may be gone forever in America.

I am completely convinced that because America has turned our back on God HE is beginning to turn His back on us! This is already a very different America than it was fifty years ago; and, only God knows what it will be fifty years from now.

Certainly there is hope. God can send revival at any time HE wishes to do so. Please join me in praying that HE will.

Due to the fact that God seems to be removing HIS “Hand of protection” off of our Nation, we are now facing several threats to our very existence as a Nation that we have never faced before. Some of the threats we have faced before have returned and they are more fearsome than ever.

As the Lord allows, this coming Lord’s Day morning, as we begin the celebration of the 238^th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I will address the subject of “The Greatest Threat to America.” We face threats financially, militarily, morally, ethically, and spiritually; but, one threat is more dangerous by far than all of these others combined!

We find a clear illustration of this threat in our text for Sunday, Acts 12:20-23.

We find the story of a people who had become so dependent on a human King and his government that they began to literally worship him and attribute to him the title of, “a god.”

We will also clearly see how the One True Living God reacts to such people and such governments.

I fear that America is rapidly becoming such a blasphemous people! We (as a Nation) tend to look everywhere and anywhere for our provision and protection except the one place we ought to look – Jesus Christ!

So, we will look to this story of a godless King and his stupid people who by attributing deity to him brought about his destruction and I will attempt to make three specific and pertinent applications from this text to the situation in America in the 21^st Century.

I hope that you will read through, think through, and pray through these verses carefully between now and Sunday. I hope that you will take these days of celebration to reflect on and pray about the “spiritual downgrade” we face.

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!

This coming Lord’s Day, as the Lord allows, I will continue our survey of the first eleven Chapters of Genesis with a sermon that covers Chapter 10 as God reveals the immediate aftermath of the world-wide Flood and how HE repopulated the world.

The world was, of course, re-populated through the means of the three sons of Noah and their wives and their children and grand-children and so on and so on…

God takes time to list key members of these families:

In verses 2-5, God lists the descendants of Japheth.

In verses 6-20, God lists the descendants of Ham.

In verses 21-31, God lists the descendants of Shem.

The facts in this Chapter are simple and clear. The big question, with which I will spend nearly all of our time, is “Why did God preserve these lists of names and the stories of some of these people?”

Of course, we know that God has a perfect reason for everything that HE does, and Genesis 10 is not an exception to that rule.

Thankfully, God cares about people! He cares more about people than anything else HE has ever created. So he takes time to list and preserve the lists of these people as individuals and as families.

But, there is – of course – more here than just that. God has chosen a people from before the foundation of the world to be HIS chosen people. HE lists and preserves the lists and some of the stories of these Chosen People so we can see HIS faithfulness to them; and, HE brought His Only Son Jesus out of a particular line of these people so HE records these lists in order that Jesus would have HIS genealogy intact from Mary and Joseph back through David and through Judah to Abraham to prove that HE is the promised Messiah of Israel and the rightful Heir to David and qualified to sit on his Throne as the King of Israel.

We will also see two other points of lesser importance; the areas settled by the sons of Noah and their families, and how the biblical timing and math prove the reality of the fact that this great Flood and later re-population occurred about 4,500 years ago, rather than some hundreds of millions of years ago.

It is always a personal joy to me to shoot holes in the anti-biblical, anti-scientific, and nonsensical idea of the earth being “millions” or even “billions” of years old!

I hope you will read over this wonderful Chapter and pray over how it applies to your life today as you prepare your mind to hear the Word of God on Sunday.

I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!

Pastor Lanny

There are stories that when you read them you just want to cry out, “Oh no! Say it isn’t so!” Sadly, Genesis 9 is one of those stories. We have just gone through Genesis 6, 7, and 8 where we met Noah, the hero of the story and the man God chose to save the human race.

And now, in the very next Chapter, we learn that he is human, just as we are; and, that he has weaknesses, just as we do. It is true… “The best of men are just men at best.” Sad. Noah was indeed a super man, but he was not “Superman” after all.

It has been well and often said that God only uses ordinary men because HE only has ordinary men from whom to choose! I am not so sure about that, but the Bible is certainly filled with the stories of famous men whom God used only to fail later. We think of Adam, Samson, David, Solomon, Simon Peter, and on and on. I suppose that this reality should give Christian men and women everywhere hope that if God can use broken people like these – maybe HE can use me!

Of course, we also learn that Ham, the youngest son of Noah, also lets us down in this story. We are not exactly what he did when he went into his father’s tent, (other than look at his drunk and naked father lying on his bed) but whatever it was it was enough to incur Noah’s anger and a curse upon Ham’s son, Canaan. So Noah lets us down and his son lets him down. Sad.

Key to the story is that God never lets us down! HE is a promise making and promise keeping God! He makes a covenant with the world that HE has kept to this day. Today, in the beauty of every rainbow we see and remember the faithfulness of God to HIS covenant.

We also learn about God that HE is a serious Being Who is serious about sin! HE not only drowns 99.999999999% of the people on earth; HE also brings judgment upon those who continue in sin even after their deliverance from the Flood. If fact, HE imposes and demands the death penalty on those who would – without legal sanction – take away a human life.

Noah teaches us that good men can be sinful and stupid. He was and too many times we are as well.

Genesis 9 is a Chapter filled with disappointment and failure. It does testify to God’s faithfulness; but, it also testifies to HIS unwillingness to tolerate sin in the life of HIS people; even those of HIS people whom HE has used greatly in the past.

And, of course, we are reminded again that all humans are mortal.

I hope you will take the time to read through this Chapter. I hope you will think through and pray though what it reveals to us about God and about men.

As my dear friend, Tom Rains always says…

“I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your friends and family by your side!”

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor Lanny

One of the best known and most instructive stories in the Old Testament is the world-wide flood during the days of Noah. It is also – of course – one of the most controversial.

This coming Lord’s Day, as the Lord allows, I am going to take “the biggest bite” of Scripture I have ever covered in a single sermon! Lord willing, we will cover these two and 3/4 Chapters of Genesis on one Sunday.

And, NO, we will not go until 3pm. (That is a nasty rumor started by the Elders to scare the Nursery Workers…)

I do think the sermon I have put together will both fully and fairly cover these Chapters and help you understand both the “Bad News” of world-wide destruction; and, the “Good News” of God’s gracious salvation that HE simultaneously accomplished in this historic catastrophe!

I will take the time to give you several introductory remarks to help you understanding the setting of these events. The outline itself is simple and will – I believe – help you come to grips with both the reality of this Flood and the reasons for it.

I hope you will take the time to read through Genesis 6 – 8 as you prepare your mind and spirit to hear the Word of God on Sunday. I hope you will pray earnestly and ask the LORD to show you how these events apply to you and the world in which you live today.

Let me encourage you to think through these questions about the text:

How do we know that this story is true?

If these events are true, are there physical evidences of this event that can be seen and studied today?

If so, what are they?

How, and more importantly “why” did God spare the human race during this event?

What was God’s overall purpose for doing this?

What does this tell us about salvation today? I get it that they were saved from the flood; but, does this teach us anything about being saved from the judgment of God today?

And, of course, THE BIG QUESTION… What does this teach us about God?

I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, (you are going to need it – as you always do) a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!

What we have in these 32 verses are ten genealogies in the Family of Adam and Eve from Creation until the Flood!

The Genealogy of Adam (5:1-5)  

The Genealogy of Seth (5:6-8)

The Genealogy of Enosh (5:9-11)

The Genealogy of Kenan (5:12-14)

The Genealogy of Mahalalel (5:15-17)  

The Genealogy of Jared (5:18-20)

The Genealogy of Enoch (5:21-24)

The Genealogy of Methuselah (5:25-27)

The Genealogy of Lamech (5:28-31)

The Genealogy of Noah (9:28-29)

In these 32 verses, we are given the account of 10 generations of Adam and Eve’s Family from Adam through the three sons of Noah. In fact, these 10 generations provide us with a reliable time line of 1,486 years from Creation until the Flood

We are given the age at the time of the death of ten of these men; and, their average at the time of their death was 777. If you don’t count Enoch, (who did not die but was transported directly to heaven at the age of 365) the average age of the remaining nine men at the time of their death was 912!

The youngest of these men at the time of their death (not counting Enoch) was Lamech, the Father of Noah, who died at the age of 777. In fact, the timeline shows that Lamech died the same year as the Flood; and, he may have – in fact – died in the Flood!

Enoch did not physically die in the normal sense; but, he was transported directly to heaven as was the Prophet Elijah!

(2^nd Kings 2:11)

We are given some additional and exciting information about Enoch’s life and ministry before he was taken up to heaven by the Apostle Jude in verses 14-15 of his Epistle:

“It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 

In this Chapter, (including the genealogy of Noah in Chapter 9) we are told NINE TIMES both boldly and simply, “and he died.” Since the sin of Adam and Eve, this is the common denominator of mankind!

As the Lord allows, this coming Lord’s Day, I want to go through the Holy Scriptures and answer four vitally important and contemporary questions…

#1: What is death?

#2: Why do people die?

#3: What happens when people die?

And, the most important question of all…

#4: What will happen to you when you die?

I hope you will take the time to read over Genesis 5, pray about it, and think about it as you prepare your spirit to hear the Word of God!

There are only a few things that universally apply to every person on earth… and, this is surely one of them!

Someday, somewhere, someone will say of us… “and they died.” It is my sincere prayer that each of us will be ready for that day!

As my dear friend Tom Rains often says, “I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!”

Pastor Lanny

Exodus 1:22 – 2:10

1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Amram and Jochebed may not be household names today, but they should be! They are, of course, the parents of Moses. Not much is known about them other than being his parents – and his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam. Together, they are mentioned in the Bible less than a dozen times.

But, even though we don’t know a lot about them; what we do know about them is vitally important… especially, Jochebed’s faithfulness in sparing the life of Moses and then raising him for the daughter of Pharaoh.

I thought about titling this sermon, “Jochebed, the Mother of Moses” but, instead I have titled it “Setting Up Your Children to be Used by God.” Why? Because what we do is more important than who we are! No one else but Jochebed will be the Mother of Moses; but, any Christian mother can do what she did! Any godly Christian Mother can set her children up to be used of God!

As we look through these eleven verses, I want to examine and explain the answers to five vitally important questions that she faced; and, that we still face today:

What are the implications for our children when the National Government becomes the enemy of God and His Kingdom people?

How should a godly mother respond to cataclysmic threats to the welfare of her child?

What can a godly mother do when there is absolutely nothing she can do?

Is it possible in such dire circumstances to have our prayers answered and to have our fondest dreams for our children come true?

How does a godly person respond when the will of God for our children is not the same as our will for our children?

Beloved Ones, while Jochebed’s situation was unique, Christians face these same kinds of situations both today and in the future.

On this Mother’s Day, I want to honor Jochebed and her faithfulness to God… but, more than that, I want to instruct and encourage God’s Kingdom people that God is still sovereign and He is still in charge of His creation.

We can still be faithful to HIM and HE will always be faithful to us!

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!