God's Word

Dear Weekly Readers!

May the Peace of God be with you this week!

Please enjoy the below article from a Pastor from the country of Norway.  One year ago I had the privilege to serve in his home church.  This pastor is now over 90 years old, and is still proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

May God Bless your week!  John R.

 

GOD HAS CALLED US THROUGH His Word, and He has revealed His grace to us through His Word.  We have become sinners through the enlightenment of God's Word and, by the testimony of this same Word, we have also been able to believe that our sins are forgiven.

We have come to know God's wrath toward sin but also His love toward the sinner who humbles himself under His mighty hand. We have heard the Gospel, and we know that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Faith is also a gift of God. The Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith; He alone is our righteousness. It is by His grace that we have been saved through faith.

God loved us so highly that He called us, lost and condemned sinners, to be His children. This great love enables us to understand that we are indebted to love God and all of those who are born of God. Love to God is also evidenced in a love of His Word. Therefore, Jesus said, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

But the Word of God does not speak to us only of God's love; it speaks to us of His righteousness and of His wrath toward sin. The apostle Paul gives this testimony concerning the written Word: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

When the spoken word is according to the written Word, it contains both comfort and admonition. Thus it was with the teachings of Jesus. His Word was comfort and salvation to the repentant sinner; it was admonition and chastisement to those who did not receive it. Therefore, it is necessary for all of us to humble ourselves under the Word of God so we may lay aside all of those things

that the Word shows us to be contrary to the will of God. None of us is perfect; we are all guilty before God. But we see also that even though Jesus was a faultless preacher who preached the perfect and living Word there were still those who would not humble themselves unto repentance in obedience to this Word. They said,This is an hard saying; who can hear it? (John 6:60)

If we become guilty under the hearing of the Word of God and cannot find any fault with the Word, the fault must lie in us. It will be harmful to us if we allow ourselves to be offended at the one who has spoken the Word, as did the Jews, rather than acknowledge and confess our own sins. The most important thing is not who speaks the Word but what is spoken. When the Word of God is spoken according to the Scriptures and the doctrine of Jesus, it will be a blessing and a joy to those who keep it. But the devil, who is God's enemy, will endeavor to corrupt the Word. If he has great wrath toward the children of God who love His Word, how much greater is his wrath toward those who are the preachers of the Word!  He endeavors in every way to cause them to forsake their labors in the Lord's vineyard.

Therefore, I encourage all of the children of God who love God's Word to pray to the Lord of the

harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray also for those who continue to preach the Word. Ask God to be with them and strengthen them so that their work might be to the glory of God and to the salvation of souls; yes, that they might labor in one Spirit so that there will be one flock and one Shepherd.

 

Kaare Suhr