Psalm 33:8,9
February 7, 2021
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Introduction (Psalm 33:8,9)
A. Psalm 33:8,9 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
B. When I got saved over 40 years ago, this Book took over my life!
C. It had a power unlike anything I had ever studied or learned about in school
1. I began to read about how it worked in days gone by with great revivals, and great awakenings that saved entire nations from ruin! Including England and America
2. I believe with all my heart, that England and America owe their very existence today, not to powerful weaponry, or politics, but to the strong preaching of the Bible to the people!
D. This Book has untapped power that this world needs badly
1. That Christians today desperately need
2. It has been sitting idle in your house all these years, and you have not let it loose
E. I am here to tell you it does great good
1. To anyone who has the right kind of heart for it
2. And as I will show you next week, this Book will ruin anyone whose heart is hard!
II. Preliminaries
A. This Book Is the Word of God
1. I Believe It!
a. I don’t say this flippantly, or ignorantly
b. I am not like the faker and fraud priests and pastors in so many modern churches that read from the Bible but don’t believe half of it!
c. If I didn’t believe it is the word of God
1) I wouldn’t be a Christian.
2) I wouldn’t be in church.
3) I would just live any way I wanted, because then, nothing matters at all! Anyone’s guess about things is as good as another’s!
4) We are all just animated dirt on our way to a hole in the ground!
d. But I DO believe it!
2. And I Believe It Because of Three Reasons:
a. The Bible Claims to be the Word of God
1) 421 times, the Bible reads, “Thus saith the LORD...” THIS is what God says!
2) Deuteronomy 11:18,19 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
3) 2Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
4) Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5) Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
b. THIS Book has proven itself to be God’s words on every page – unlike all other books and writings
1) A lot of books claim to be inspired and claim to be true…
a) The Quran
b) The Book of Mormon
c) The Hindu Puranas, Itihasa and Vedas
d) Buddhist Sutras
e) And Charles Darwin’s origin of the Species!!!
2) But THIS Book
a) There is nothing like THIS Book!
b) It has over 300 spot-on prophecies – all well researched and undeniable
c) Over 1500 major Archaeological facts that back up the people and places from Genesis to Revelation
d) Over 2500 Historical facts confirm events as written in the Bible
e) And when the Bible speaks about science, it has been proven to be absolutely true
c. I have personally found it true
1) I have found THIS Book to be the word of God!
2) No one ever spoke like this Book speaks to my heart
3) I found this Book to be true when I prayed and asked God to forgive me like the Gospel commanded over 40 years ago!
4) I searched and researched the original languages and the translation processes, and found this Book is faithful and true unlike any other book
5) Revelation 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6) I find this Book to be true still to this day
a) When I choose to do the right thing and follow God’s laws – things happen for the best
b) When I cast all my care on Him, like the Bible tells me I can, I fgind a peace that passes all understanding
c) When I read it, I get convicted and cleansed and encouraged all at the same time
d) When I study it, I find it goes deeper and deeper that I can imagine
e) When I preach it, it still works in other people’s lives!
B. This Book Has Power
1. When we think of ‘power’…
a. We think of electrical power
b. Nuclear power
c. Wind power, solar power
d. Government power
e. Abuse of power
2. But, Did you know that Words have power
a. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
3. And GOD’S words have unimaginable power
a. Real power
1) It is not radiating
2) It is not pulsating
3) It has no batteries, or wires
4) But it has great power! In the words on each page!
5) Psalm 33:8,9 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
6) The word of God CREATED the entire universe using only His words
a) With Uni-ONE… Verse-Sentence (universe)… God made everything that there is!
b) Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
c) That is not religious – it is science!
d) They call it the Big Bang, and boy are they right!
e) They just ignore the WHO behind it
7) The word of God HOLDS the entire universe together, by His word
a) Hebrews 1:2,3 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high
8) He is holding YOU together too – just by His word!
9) THAT is real power
b. God’s word has an effect on people, on the devil, and on this world beyond anything we can imagine (Mark 1:23-27)
1) Mark 1:23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
2) Mark 1:24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
3) Mark 1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
4) Mark 1:26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
5) Mark 1:27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
C. THAT is the power of the word of God sitting in your hand!
III. Message - What Does The Bible Do? What CAN it Do?
A. Just a few of the 100’s of effects this Book can have on a person, and on a nation…
B. It Exposes what is usually hidden – like an X-Ray
1. That is great power! To show what is really going on behind the curtains
2. What is going on in the human heart (soul)
3. What is wrong with the old nature – the flesh
4. It exposes the fact that people afre NOT generally good people – but deep down are wicked and sinful and rebels against God!
C. It Convicts – breaks, humbles everyone who will hear it
1. Cuts us like a hot surgical knife cuts butter, and smashes idols in our hearts like a hammer!
a. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
b. Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
2. It cuts through the fog of political correctness
a. Says what is right and what is clearly wrong
b. Declares a man to be a MAN and a woman to be a WOMAN
c. Expects grown men and women to get MARRIED, and not just live together
d. Clearly states any sex outside of marriage is wrong
e. Exposes homosexuality as an abomination
f. Amen and amen folks!
3. It cannot help you until it has hurt you with the truth (Galatians 4:16) Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
D. It Converts
1. If you EVER just get tucked into this Book, you WILL come out differently!
2. It does not make people RELIGIOUS…
3. This Book makes people brand new!
a. 1Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
b. 2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
4. By actually giving us faith! No one gets saving faith unless they read and believe the Bible as written!
a. Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1) Not by the laying on of hands, or by kryptonite, or by Gamma-ray radiation
2) That is not how ANYONE gets power…
3) Only by reading and believing THESE words!
b. John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
c. 2Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
d. So, once you start believing this Book, God will guide you to the cross, and there you will discover why God had to go to the extreme to save a wretch like you and me!
e. And that is when you will cry out in saving faith for God to save your soul!
E. And then it Confirms Salvation (1John 5:11-13)
1. 1John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
2. 1John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
3. 1John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
F. It Transforms
1. Changes your life! Makes a thorough change
a. 2Corinthians 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
b. 2Corinthians 3:13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
c. 2Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
d. 2Corinthians 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
e. 2Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
f. 2Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
g. 2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2. If you read and believe this Book, your life WILL change for the better!
a. It is like a hammer and chisel
b. Sandpaper, starting rough, and working down to a very fine grind
c. Psalm 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
3. The very fact that most “Christians” live the same as the world around them, proves that they neither know the Scriptures, and do not believe them enough to obey them!
G. It Feeds and Instructs – teaches better than the greatest minds of all time
1. John 21:16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
2. USING WHAT? The word of God!
3. Acts 20:27,28 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
H. It Cleanses
1. Psalm 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
2. Cleans up guilt and past memories
3. Cleanses sinful desires and habits
4. Cleanses bad memories, and bad thoughts, and evil desires, and bad attitudes
5. Like a power washer! AMEN!
I. It Comforts – Encourages (1Thessalonians 4:18)
1. 1Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
2. Not every page is comforting, but if you need encouragement, read this Book
3. How? By God opening your eyes to the bigger picture of what is going on, and what He has planned
4. There is no fear for the bible believer! We KNOW what is ahead
5. And with this Book in our hearts, we are ready!
J. There is more that it can do, but I will save them for another time
IV.More Next Week
V. Then the following week, Why Isn’t It Working Much Today Like We Need it to?
VI.Conclusion
A. Have you made up your mind yet? Is THIS Book the Word of God?
1. Can you say you actually Believe It?
2. Have you personally discovered it to be true?
3. Can anyone tell that you believe it? Does it show?
4. You have got to believe it before it is too late!
5. Your kids need to know it to be true!
B. This Book has Power – but do you even want it to have power over you?
1. You will not ever know the power of the word of God through you, until God’s word has power over you!
2. Will you start to allow it to x-ray your heart every day for sinful thoughts and attitudes?
3. Will you let it convict you and humble you?
4. Have you let these words give faith in Jesus Christ?
a. I wish I could give you all the answers you are seeking, but I can’t. No one can.
b. But this Book CAN give you the right kind of faith that will save your soul, your sanity, and your home!
5. Is there ANY change in your life since you started believing the Gospel? There should be some change!
C. Do you want God’s attention?
1. Isaiah 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
2. How you respond to God’s words, determines how God responds to your words! To your prayer, to your needs!
D. He Wants Your Attention
1. He gave you His words
2. Put them in a Book that you and I can read and ponder
3. He entered into this world and lived just like you and I live
4. And through it all, sought sinners who would believe what He said
5. Jesus prayed in John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
6. Will you believe it?