The Word of God Part 2

0:00Welcome to the Radical Truth Podcast. I am your host, Glenn Melderon, and this podcast is brought to you by in his Presence Ministries. Visit us on the web at www.ihpmianistri.com. We started a new series in our last lesson, which is on the Word of God. In that lesson we looked at how the Greek word logos is a reference to both the written Word of God and to the living Word of God, who is Jesus. We closed out that lesson by examining the call that God has on all of His followers to know the Word of God so that they can share the Word with others. Though this includes preaching and teaching, it also takes in discipling the saved and evangelizing the lost. One of the closing thoughts I presented is that the Word of God should always be proclaimed through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and this is extremely important. This is the biblical model that's clearly taught in God's Word, and through Christ's example. I want to take a few minutes to press this

1:04thought home, even though I've dealt with it in various ways over the last few series, and even when I taught the Gospel of Luke in the Book of Acts. The challenge that we have at times in reading and understanding God's Word is that it was written between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago, and they wrote with a very different style back then than what we do today. This means that some portions of the Bible many people would deem as unimportant today, but they didn't think so in ancient times, and on the flip side there are many things we would like included in the Bible because of our modern way of writing that's not there. Let me use the subject of revival to make my point. It can really help us to understand what constitutes authentic revival if we study Jesus and the revivals he created as revealed in the Gospels. We see the same kind of dynamic working through the early church, and so the book of Acts could also be titled, The Acts of the Holy Spirit, which is actually an ancient name of that book. Just a cursory look at Jesus will reveal that he is revival and wherever

2:04he went, revival followed. Large crowds followed him. The people sought him in homes and fields. They pressed through the crowds to touch him. Others wanted him to lay hands on them and still others just to speak a word. All these and so much more are indications of revival. This is how people act when God shows up. When people are striving to enter the kingdom of God, they will do things they otherwise would have never done because they have grown desperate for the kingdom to invade their lives. Thus, numbers of people were pressing into Messiah to receive his salvation that comes by faith, while others who had great need of his healing sought after their only hope because all of their other hopes had vanished. Then there are those who were in the grips of hopelessness that went in search of Jesus to deliver them or someone they love from demons. When you look at the history of revival, you see very similar things take place. At times people tried to get into a church that was full beyond capacity, or flocked to the fields where they could hear the word preached

3:06under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. At times the accounts tell of people streaming to a church, home, or a location and field because the conviction of the Holy Spirit had engulfed them. Why did they act in such ways? Because the divine magnetism of the Holy Spirit was drawing them to where they could hear the word of God preached due to the power of the Holy Spirit. This is where profound and even agonizing conviction comes upon people where they are begging to be saved. In these times of divine confrontation, you see radical salvation, which are the New Testament standard of genuine conversion, and these are always radical and revolutionary. All that's needed is for people to honestly read the Gospels and the Book of Acts, and they will see this very thing taking place. This is God's plan for the Church of today, and it's what the Word of God teaches and calls us to. When the Holy Spirit is anointing the preaching of the Word of God, radical things happen, and this is nothing new or even strange. Just look at the day of Pentecost, when that

4:08strange event took place, and through the Holy Spirit anointed message that Peter preached, 3,000 people were saved, I'll certainly take that kind of strange. That's revival, and it's clear evidence of what the power of the Holy Spirit can do, and what He still wants to do. This was followed by Peter's second anointed sermon that's recorded in Acts, and this happened after the healing of the layman at the temple, where thousands appear to be saved as a result of that sermon. The Word of God, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is explosive, it does extraordinary things. There are accounts and acts, with the revivals that were working through Paul shook the city to such an extent that the unsaved who were hostile to what God the Holy Spirit was doing and started a riot in an attempt to stop the move of God. These riots happened because some angry devils got a hold of some angry men, and together they tried to fight against God, but they miserably failed. These kind of events are nothing new, it happens throughout

5:10the history of the church when authentic revival breaks out. Sometimes the opponents of the move of the Holy Spirit are unsaved, and at other times they are church folk that supposedly claim to be Christian. Then there are the times when supposed ministers of the gospel fight against the Holy Spirit, and the one whom God has anointed to preach the truth who pent across the power. We see examples of this in Wesley, Whitfield, Finney, Wigglesworth, Campbell, and the list goes on. All these were godly men that were being mildly used to the Holy Spirit, yet at the same time they experienced much hostility against them for the work that God was doing through them. Why should we be shocked when this happens? For Jesus told us as such things would take place. Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church, had the testimony that he was a man full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit, and because of this we are told in Acts chapter 6 verse 9 that opposition arose. Preach the Word of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and opposition will arise. If we aren't angering some men and devils, then we are doing a very poor work of preaching

6:15the Word of God and are surely failing to do so under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In every genuine revival the Word of God is clearly and powerfully preached, and the Holy Spirit is given as rightful place as God in the midst of the people. I was saved in the Jesus revolution and saw the move of the Holy Spirit saving people on a constant basis. The power of the Holy Spirit in those services is unforgettable. Give me this any day over dead religion that's void of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. I was also privileged to be a member at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, for four years while my ministry as an evangelist was growing. This is where the Brownsville Revival broke out, and the evangelist Steve Hill preached a clear gospel message for five years. Every revival service hundreds of people literally ran to the altar for salvation. These are both first time conversions and backsliders running home to Jesus. At one service I prayed for three backslidden pastors that went to the altar for salvation. They were all in sexual sin, and they fled to the altar of repentance when the Holy Spirit confronted

7:19them of the evil that they were living out. In spite of all that the Holy Spirit did, and the faithful preaching of the Word of God, the critics were like snapping wolves seeking some fresh meat to devour. They brutally condemned the revival and the preacher, but they did so behind their computer screens in the safe place of their little pulpits. They maligned what God was doing, labeling it as counterfeit, or even as a work of the devil. But Jesus said something very important. Wisdom is justified of her children, and the over 100,000 people that were saved during that revival testified to it being a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. Eternity was literally changed because of that move of the Spirit, and all those critics did absolutely nothing to advance Christ's kingdom. All they could do was condemn those who were doing God's work God's way. The critics did a lot of complaining and criticizing of the revival, yet they are the ones nobody remembers. Those who were used by the Holy Spirit,

8:22they are remembered in what they did change eternity. The greatest advances that happened in the kingdom of God on earth were done through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the sound teaching of the Word of God. That's a historical fact. Dead religion, along with all the worthless church growth programs, or any other man-made religious practices, has done virtually nothing in building Christ's kingdom, and at times they have even been extremely detrimental to it. God, the Holy Spirit, can do more in a moment than the entire church can do through her own power and wisdom in a millennium. Yet the Holy Spirit works through the faithful preaching of the Word of God. For, as I have said many times before, the Word and the Spirit can't be divorced from each other, and it's disastrous when people try to do that. The preach the Word of God without the Spirit of God produces only dead religion, and those who do this aren't being faithful to the Word of God. And those who try to have a move with the Spirit without the guidance of the Word of God faithfully preach will cause the church or movement to get doctrinally off the wall, cultish, and at times very

9:26bizarre. It must be the Holy Spirit in the Word of God working in perfect harmony with each other if we want to see another great revival sweep our land. All kinds of people claim revival is happening in various places around the country. But where's the proof? There's always clear evidence when genuine revival comes, and so there must be more than the mere words that revival is here, or it's there, or it's happening because there's some big programed event. Authentic revival has never been programmed and will never be programmed. The Lord won't let that happen because it would ruin far more people than it would help. Evidence of revival begins with the Word of God being faithfully preached through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is non-negotiable. And then the power of the Holy Spirit is in the midst of the church in worship, repentance, surrender, and salvation. The saints are being awakened from their spiritual slumber and so evangelism explodes, and the lost are being saved in great numbers who then become missionaries in the world from which they were snatched. Local revivals change local

10:28communities, and awakening can transform an entire nation. There's a price to pay to see revival come, and there's a terrible price to pay if it doesn't. The scandals that keep coming out of the hypercharismatic circles are due to the Word of God not being faithfully preached, which includes the message of repentance and personal holiness, and this is exceedingly sad since it doesn't have to be this way. A great number of churches and preachers have forsaken the very message Jesus preached, which is the gift of repentance, and this is a very loving message. What may start out as a move with the Spirit because some people are pressing in the God ends up being distorted because pastors don't hold the simple message of the gospel. When spiritual leaders stray from the sound teaching of the Word of God to delve into strange teachings and personal prophecies, they are sure to grieve the Holy Spirit. When the covering of God is removed from these leaders, then you are going to see scandals take place because they have moved away from the Lord. My heart is aching for another

11:28genuine revival, where hundreds even thousands are striving to enter into the Kingdom of God. My heart is aching for the wonder of God, the Holy Spirit, descending on a congregation, and you are overwhelmed by the glory of God, and at times all you can do is weep, either in repentance or in thanksgiving, and at times it's both. I can say like King David, I have seen God in the sanctuary, and so my soul thirst for the living God, for his manifestation to me and to his people, and to the unsaved. Until the pastors and preachers of our nation are willing to repent of their powerless sermons that are void of the Holy Spirit's anointing, there is no way that a fresh wind of the Spirit will blow across their country. And until they are willing to preach the Word of God without the fear of man and without compromise, but through the fear of God and a compassion for the people, they will not see authentic revival. And until we are willing to go back to the upper room and pray for a new penicose until the Lord pours his power from an eye upon us weak and needy people, we won't receive a new

12:31penicose to allow pouring like we desperately need. How prone we are to play games at religion and forsake the very source of divine power the Lord wants to pour through his people, churches, and pastors. Now I want to establish a few points about the Word of God, beginning that the Bible includes both Old and New Testaments, that's pretty basic. I also want to establish that the Word of God doesn't include the Apocrytha, or the Book of Ena, in all the other works that have proved themselves to be extremely erroneous. The true Word of God is a divine revelation that was God breathed into existence as we looked at in 2 Timothy chapter 316 last week. The Scriptures are verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit in its original autographs, and the Holy Spirit continues to breathe life into those who believe the truth that God has given us. Peter affirmed this fact in 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20 and 21. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by a prophet's own interpretation, for prophecy never

13:36had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is a brief description of what God did in giving us the written Word of God. It didn't come through the will of man or the inspiration of devils, as is the case with all the other books that defines the cults in world religions. The Bible is unique in all the world and in all of history, for it's the only book that God breathed into existence through the power of the Holy Spirit, who moved upon the true prophets so that we could have this infallible revelation from God. This is truly a gift beyond our imagination. The Word of God is a revelation of God's self-disclosure to mankind where he makes himself known to men. Why did he do this? So that they can put their faith in him and be saved, for it's not his will that any perish, but that everyone comes to eternal life. When we look at creation, we see that through it God has revealed himself in a limited way, as we are told in Psalms 191, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work

14:41of his hands. The Bible, however, is what we call special revelation because it goes beyond what can be known about God through nature. General revelation is just that, it's general, for it's given to all of mankind. But special revelation is personal, for it first came personally to men who were to deliver to us so that God could interact with us personally through the word of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit. This special revelation makes known to mankind things that otherwise would be unknown, and even unable to be known unless God revealed it. As a result, we can truly say that his origin is divine. The unique nature of this special revelation is that it came from God through the vehicle of human language that was written down so that the following generations could have the pure word of God. The Holy Spirit used people to write what he supernaturally revealed to them, not as mere copious, but as those who are being guided and led by the Holy Spirit. We see this thought laid out in 2 Peter 1 verse 21,

15:45which I just quoted a moment ago, where we are told that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Being carried along by the Holy Spirit is showing us how the Spirit used these godly men so that the word of God could come to us. This speaks to the divine origin of the word of God, that they came through the Spirit of God and are there for divinely inspired. When people say that the Scriptures are inspired, they are referring to the fact that God supernaturally influenced the human authors in such a way that what they wrote was the very word of God. And yet in the process, the Spirit never violated the free will of the person or robbed the individual of his personality, but the Lord worked through the individual and his personality. It's astounding how the Spirit used the people, employing their vocabularies, ways of thinking, writing and speaking, to create the individual styles of the various books. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 12 through 16 wonderfully conveys this thought. We have not

16:46received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has really given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ? In these verses we learn that the Word of God was given by the Holy Spirit and not to human wisdom. These are spiritual truths that came from God and can only be rightly understood when they are spiritually discerned. This means for us to understand what God wrote to us, we need His grace to enlighten our hearts and minds, so that we can comprehend the truth,

17:47and then have the supernatural power to put these truths in the practice. Verbal planary or complete inspiration of the Word of God applies to the original manuscripts, which we no longer have, and this doesn't apply to the translations of those original manuscripts. This means that no translation of the Bible is inspired to the same extent as the original manuscripts. In spite of this reality, the Lord has preserved the biblical text to such a remarkable degree that we can trust it, that we can rely upon it, and in this way we know that we are believing the truth as God gave it, and not some deceptive cultist writing. Since the scriptures are the inspired Word of God, we know and believe that they are also an errand, or without error. They also are authoritative in that the Word of God has the sole power to lead us to Christ, and His sure and faithful promises. This leads us to the need to have a correct view of God, so that we will have a correct view of His Word, otherwise we won't see and believe in the divine

18:50authority of Scripture. God, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and absolutely perfect, is more than able to deliver to us, in our day and culture, the Word of God that can lead us to salvation. The Bible claims to be the infallible, authoritative Word of God, and without a doubt, I believe this to be true. The Word of God is also all-sufficient, which means that it contains everything we need to equip the saints for a life of faith, service, and personal holiness, and we touched on this when we looked at 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, verses 15 to 17. We see from these verses, and so many others, that God wants to reconcile us to Himself, and He paid the price so this could be done in our lives personally. Since separate us from Him and through Jesus, we can be reconciled to God, and it's the all-sufficient Word of God that shows us Jesus, and how this broken relationship can be restored, and that's obtained by grace through faith. What we truly need is revealed to us in the Word of God,

19:53and is found in Christ alone. The point that the Bible was verbally inspired by God, the Holy Spirit, means that the words of the Bible are not just some religious ideas, but they are much more. For they were divinely inspired in what they say and teach. This is true for the entire Bible, not just some select portions of it. Because God is infinitely perfect and He gave us the Word of God, we can know and trust the Bible is free from error in what it says. We need to thoroughly believe in the factual, verbal, historical, and erudity of the Bible, and that it's all-sufficient for developing our relationship with God. The Word of God in its original documents are free from error, as a revelation of God-demand kind. The authority of Scripture extends to all matters about which it speaks, and this includes what it says about history, geography, and science. Through Scripture, we are given a sure, undefiled revelation of how sinful man can enter into fellowship with a holy God, and what God did to make this possible for us to approach Him. It also teaches us how to

20:58live pleasing to God in this wicked world on a daily basis, and how to overcome in every situation and culture. The Word of God shows us how to have great marriages and wonderful families, and how to be holy singles that are pressing into no Christ better. It teaches us how to work for people or how to be good bosses, how to love our family and neighbors, and how to even treat our enemies with kindness and love. Everything we need is right there in the Scriptures if we would only believe and apply these revolutionary truths to our lives. So why is it that a vast number of those who profess to be Christian have bad marriages? It's certainly not God's fault, and the Word of God is true and faithful, and it works every time. Time and again, I have seen that people refuse to put into practice the Word of God, and so bring room to their family and children in life. This never has to be, but is always the choice of the individuals. Since the Word of God is divinely inspired, and since it's impossible for God to make a mistake or sin because He's infinitely perfect and

22:01holy, we can trust the Word to be faithful in all that it says. Jesus declared in Matthew chapter 5 verse 18, I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappears, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of the pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. This is the first time Jesus used the phrase, truly, I say to you, for that's what the Greek reads. One commentator said that this phrase is a dedication of supreme legislative authority which tells us that what follows is of extreme importance. What is Jesus saying that's so important? He's establishing the authority of Scripture and that it doesn't suffer the instability of creation that will one day be destroyed and a new heaven and earth created in this place. In Matthew chapter 24 verse 35, Jesus declared his divinity by stating, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. That is absolutely radical.

23:02Jesus pronounced the truth at His words or as a thought of an eternal as those of God the Father, and that's a statement of equality with the Father. Through this divine declaration, Jesus elevated with the words that He spoke to be equal with the Old Testament, and this paved the way for the early church to fully embrace the four gospels as the very words of God. Jesus proved that His words were authoritative by the miracles that He did, and then afterwards by His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, according to the very words that He spoke in what was prophesied about Him. Jesus also told us in John chapter 10 verse 35 that the Scriptures cannot be broken, which includes His words as well as those of the Old Testament. God's Word will always do exactly what it says for it cannot fail since God is immutable and is therefore the faithful force behind the Word of God. Do we really believe this? And if we do, then does our life prove it? Jesus argued in John chapter 5 verses 39 through 47 before the religious Jews that He was the

24:05fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah, and since the Word of God cannot change, they prove that He is the promised Messiah. Yet these religious people refuse to believe the truth. The practical application of these truths is that the Word of God is an absolutely essential resource for living the victorious Christian life on a daily basis. There's no substitute for it. We can't be a genuine follower of Jesus without knowing the Word of God, for we wouldn't even know what it means to be a disciple of Christ without it, or what it means to live it out. We have a plague of biblical ignorance in the church today, and this is producing a moral and spiritual compromise that's devastating the church and disgracing Christ before a watching world. When those who claim to be Christian should be a reflection of the glory of Christ, they are more often a reflection of the world, which always causes people to live like the world. Until the Word of God is restored to its rightful place in the life of the church and individual believers,

25:06the church will continue to have an anemic testimony to the world that will cause the unsafe masses to reject our claims concerning the Savior. We have briefly looked at how the Word of God should define our life and be an integral part of the true church. This truth is wonderfully revealed to us in verses such as 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 2, which we've already studied. Even though the Bible is God's revelation mankind, it still must be interpreted correctly. Interpretation of the Word of God is influenced by a reception and understanding what God said and did in the revealed Word. Yet, there are important criteria that helps us rightly understand and apply God's Word to our lives. Right interpretation is our responsibility, and since eternal realities are spoken of within the Scriptures is extremely wise to make sure we are correctly understanding what the Word is teaching. Opinions are worse than worthless when it comes to interpretation of the Bible. We need to understand the truth of

26:08Scripture and apply that to our lives if we are to be saved. The divine inspiration of the Word guarantees the truthfulness of what's written, but that doesn't ensure that we will have an accurate interpretation of it. The Bible is infallible in all it affirms and is therefore absolutely reliable. We can base our eternity upon it. We must learn how to properly interpret the Word of God so that we know the truth that will set us free and not abuse the Word which can then bring people into bondage. There are two ways we can approach the Word of God as believers. We can exegete the text, which is to let the text speak for itself, and from what it actually says in its context, we can then see how it rightly applies to our present situation. The second way is to exegete the text, which is to force it to say what we want it to say. This is a very dangerous practice, and it can easily produce erroneous interpretations of Scripture. Icedigeding the Scriptures has spawned a mirrored of false teachings,

27:09cults, false religions, and horrendous doctrines, many of which are damnable. To rightly understand the Word of God, we must let it speak for itself, which means we need to understand the context of the verse, chapter, or book before we seek to make an application. Those difficult portions of Scripture should always be understood in light of what's plainly taught. Otherwise, we exegete the text, and give it a meeting that was never intended to have. One such case is how people get all caught up over the title, Sons of God, and Genesis, chapter 6. Then they try to get deep into mystical meetings and build whole doctrines about the Nephilim, or Giants. In the end, all their searching didn't cause them to grow one Iota. It didn't bring revival. It didn't deliver people from their sin. It didn't lead people to Jesus. All it did was to cause them to learn a very wrong interpretation of Scripture by Icedigeding the Text to advance their Pat Doctrine. Paul declared in 2 Corinthians chapter 113,

28:10but I fearless somehow as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. This verse can apply in many ways in how demons want to complicate the simplicity of the gospel and make the journey to the celestial city much harder, and this truth also applies to good Bible study as well. Keep it simple, keep it solid, don't get off on any crazy tangents or pop teachings, but stay true to the Word of God and the simplicity of the gospel that has the power to make us wise into salvation. This is God's way to study His Word. Thank you for listening to the radical truth with your host Glenn Meldrum. We add in his Presence Ministries, pray that this weekly podcast will be a blessing to you. Please tell others about it, and subscribe yourself to this free podcast. Don't forget to visit our website at www.ihpmynistri.com. See you again next time, and may God richly bless you

29:15as you seek Him in spirit and in truth. Come, wash in the river, come, be reborn. Come to the river, come to the river, come to the river, come to the river with me.