11 FEBRUARY 2007: THE VISIBLE WORD - Truth Revealed

SERIES: 2 of 4 on God's Word
NOTE: This was a Lord's Supper Sunday and the message was tailored to transition in the series as well as segue into the communion service.

TITLE: THE VISIBLE WORD – TRUTH REVEALED!
TEXT: ROMANS 10:17

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

TRUTH CLAIM: This verse is critical to understanding our faith; Scripture says, “by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

So if faith is the conduit through which God’s grace is received for salvation, then we need to know how and where to obtain such faith … we find it in faith comes from hearing. But where do we get the hearing? Through the word (concerning) Christ.

[JUNK MAIL] Now man has an unfalsifiable bias against truth; this bias is hard to over-come. So hardened is this bias that if God "emailed" a revelation of Himself, most Internet providers would classify it as “Junk Mail” and most people would delete it.

Man's fallen nature causes him to deny truth; no matter how it is revealed, especially if it casts light on his own sins.

You see, truth is "a person”; God's Son is that person and God's Word reveals God's Son! [John 1:1-3, 14, & 14:6] And sinful man is offended by something this personal and near.

God's word is truth, His Son is the Word; in His word is His Son revealed, and in His Son is the Father revealed. [Matthew 11:27; 1 Timothy 1:16; Revelation 1:1] God has graciously chosen to meet the spiritual needs of man by revealing Himself to man in a personal and redemptive way through His Word.

In last week's message: "THE LIVING WORD: TRUTH INCARNATE”; we looked at "the Word became flesh," or "in the fullness of the time ... God sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4). We were reminded that from the beginning man has yearned for truths like he yearns for riches, only Greater Riches … yet man has done everything imaginable to avoid satisfying his yearning.

Recall how an 18' ladder isn’t sufficient to reach a 24' fire; nor will half-truths meet the need for the Whole Truth!

God's word, we agreed, must be united by faith in order to receive God's gift of Grace.

And the following answers were provided for the question, what do we know about God’s Incarnate Truth?

I. WE KNOW GOD HAS FREELY GIVEN THIS TRUTH!
II. WE KNOW MAN SEARCHES FOR THIS TRUTH!
III. WE KNOW MAN HAS A BIAS AGAINST THIS TRUTH!

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteous-ness, because that which is known about God is evident in them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Romans 1:18-2

[REVEALED TRUTH] It is a miracle of unity: like 40 men designing a mosaic independent of each other, over a period of two millennia, each having responsibility for a single piece ... yet the whole is pro-claimed a masterpiece at completion.

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: In this crazy world of nothing plumb and everything crooked, it's good to know some things never change.

[AHAB’S LAMP] Like Melville's lantern in Ahab's quarters in Moby Dick. No matter how the ship rolls the lantern is true to a fixed-line, straight through the earth's center.

So too does the Word of God; it reminds us of the plumb line of Jesus [Amos 7:7-8], no matter the roll of the world, Jesus is true to a fixed-line, drawn straight through the center of the Holy of Holies.

Melville, in referring to the gimbaled lantern said, "It reveals the false lying levels" of everything else.

HOW IS GOD'S TRUTHS REVEALED?

“For God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 2:10

Last week we found truth incarnate, the Living Word; now we've truth re-vealed, the Visible Word.

We will now turn to the Lord’s Supper and give witness to our faith and our salvation …

The Lord’s Supper Sevice
Scripture Reading

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in your-selves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for-ever."

John 6:47-51

The Bread

Sharing the Loaf - Elders
Scripture Reading 1 Corinthians 11:23-24
There Is a Redeemer 308

The Cup

Sharing the Cup - Elders
Scripture Reading 1 Corinthians 11:25
And Can It Be 347

Benediction and Blessing

RELATED LINKS: The SHEEP'S CRIB SERMONS

SPECIFIC TAGS: Bible, Scripture, Word

GENERAL TAGS: Homiletics, Preaching, Sermons