Sermon preached on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at Garden Valley Chapel; Psalm 19:10-14.

Turn in your Bible to the nineteenth chapter of the book of Psalms. Psalm nineteen. A Psalm of David.

I couldn't think of anything more important than to address the issue of Scripture, the Word of God moreover the authority of the Word of God.

I believe Scripture is everything to the life of a believer. I know that you believe this and that is why you are here. Yet this is not the case in most evangelical churches today.

Too quickly do we forget that God´s Word comes to us like fire and like a hammer as the prophet writes in Jeremiah 23:29 -

29"Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

Sometimes as a pastor you feel like "throwing in the towel" but verses like this one in Jeremiah remind you:

Scripture is penetrating, purifying, and consumes every evil. It is full of power like a hammer strongly wielded. His words do not soothe men in their sins; it crushes the heart to bring it to repentance. It convicts and it converts, it neither amuses nor entertains.

It strikes the sinner´s heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Can any rock-heart hold out and not be broken with its blows?

This is why we bring the Word of God week in and week out - to let it bear upon people´s hearts and minds and we are careful to explain it verse by verse, phrase by phrase, word by word.

As Spurgeon writes -

"Leave not off reading the Bible till you find your hearts warmed. Read the word, not only as a history, but labour to be affected with it. Let it not only inform you, but inflame you."

Go not from the word till you can say as those disciples, "Did not our hearts burn within us?" (Luke 24:32) -Thomas Watson.

Our confidence lies in the promise of God that His Word will accomplish its perfect work in peoples´ lives. This is written in Isaiah 55:11 -

11So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

You can count on God to produce His intended result. He will fulfill His spiritual purposes for your life and He will use His Word to do so.

This is what the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 119:89 -

89Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.

And because His Word does not change, it is always spiritually relevant.

We would even go to the extent so as to say that we live by His Words and they are more important to us than the choicest of meals.

You might remember the words spoken by God as He reminded His people wondering in the wilderness some forty years what He had done for them. This is recorded for us in Deuteronomy 8:2-3 -

2"You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3"He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

Likewise Job made this remark before he had any clue of why affliction had come to him & his household. One thing was for sure and it is recorded for us in Job 23:12 -

12"I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

This is what the Word of God meant to Job - even more than his necessary food. Is that the cry of your heart, my beloved?

We must always remind ourselves that God´s word is sacred (cf. 2 Tim. 3:15). His Word is Holy (cf. Rom. 1:2).

With that in mind let us read one of the most powerful statements about God´s Word which set it apart from any other religious instruction known to mankind.

Read Psalm 19:7-14.

God´s Self-disclosure in the WORLD (vv. 1-6)
God´s Self-disclosure in the WORD (vv. 7-14)