The Bibles Place in Society - 1

Where Does the Bible Fit in Todays Modern World?

Matthew 5:13
August 14th 2011 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
www.biblebc.com

I. Introduction (Matthew 5:13)

A. Lets be honest. We have lost our savour our effectiveness as Christians
1. Not for lack of biblical knowledge
2. But for lack of backbone
a. The courage to live by the very words that this world is crying out for
b. The courage to live by the very words that we claim to believe!
B. Throughout history
1. RELIGIONS have multiplied, but so has abuse and disgrace at the hands
of some of the most religious, and most devout
a. Remember the Pharisees? They crucified Jesus and persecuted His
disciples
b. Have you paid attention to the continuing awful news stories of pious
men and women of the Catholic Church?
c. Have you forgotten about all the murderous crusades?
d. Have you forgotten about all the burnings at the stake because of
simply disagreeing with the official doctrines of the Catholic Church?
e. And that is just one denomination!
2. POLITICIANS have risen to such great power, but only to enslave their
peoples, and destroy their neighbours
a. Every one of the leaders of the middle east, and Africa came to power
promising freedom and prosperity yet with all their wealth, the
majority are still starving!
b. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 promised freedom and prosperity
for all Russians through communism yet all Russians got were labour
camps and mass starvation!
3. ATHEISTS and agnostics have taken over almost every school and
university, only to oversee the most murderous wars of the past 100 years!
4. Every attempt at enlightenment by the human race has only enslaved,
and slaughtered more people than ever before!
5. No one has found anything that does not harm and ruin life, except for this
Book, the Bible
C. But, the effect of this Book is amazing!
1. Its effect on a nation is amazing!
a. Not as an ornament, or a symbol, but as the foundation for every law,
for every custom, for every master, and for every servant.
 b. This Bible has been behind the building of the greatest nations, and its
rejection has caused the most ruin!
c. It made tiny Israel into the greatest nation surrounded by its enemies,
it was unconquerable and indefeatable!
d. What our world needs once again is to lean upon this Book of books
e. Not because of its words alone on a page, but because of its absolute
LAWS, its boundless PROMISES, and most importantly, because of its
Almighty Author! God Almighty!
2. The effect of this Book on a single, solitary life is simply marvellous to
watch!
a. It convicts hardened, sin-cursed hearts, bringing grown men to their
knees in repentance
b. It convinces the most self-righteous and arrogant of men and women
that they are wrong
c. It corrects wicked thinking
d. It cleanses a heart filled with sins and Satan
e. It starts people all over again, but this time, with God!
f. ONLY the Bible can do all that!
D. What a Book the Bible is! It has its place today! At the very centre of the life
of a nation! It is the devil who is behind all the efforts to put the Bible into a
museum behind a glass case, when it was written to save souls, forge lives,
bless families, and raise up great nations!
II. Review
A. Last week I taught you all
1. How a group of uneducated, unorganised, poor Jewish people could turn
their world upside down in the first century! Without the internet. Without
media. Without Television advertising. Without any money at all
2. Is it possible that Christianity could do it again? Could turn THIS world
upside down for God? Could actually effectively make a difference?
3. Not only CAN it, but we must!
B. Our World is a Mess (1John 5:19) I dont even have to tell you that!
1. Violence that once was only on the streets of third world countries is on
our streets
2. Wars are only on the increase
3. Divorces, Domestic violence, absolute distrust amongst people, wicked
living
4. Well, Humanism is NOT the Answer
a. Stalin murdered over 30 million Georgians in his purging of the
1930s
b. Mao tse tung forced march over 30 million peasants to their death in
the last 1940s
c. Hitler enacted his final solution resulting in the murder of over 6
million Jews, 9 million Russians and 5 million Polish
d. And the killing hasnt stopped!
 1) Today, 56 million have died at the hand of the Humanistic Me
First Philosophy that has slaughtered 56 million unborn babies in
the US
2) And over 20 million in the UK since the 1960s
3) Russia murdered almost million last year alone
4) China does not even report their count of abortions!!!
5) Someone worked through all the statistics and came to a colossal
number for the total number of abortions for the last 60 years and
put it at 900 million!!!
6) THAT is the fruit if HUMANISM ME first! God last!
7) Listen to the words of Barak Obama! At a town hall meeting in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania on a Saturday afternoon in 2008, Barack
Obama told the crowd that he didn't want his daughters, "punished
with a baby." Listen: "Look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and
6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and
morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished
with a baby."
5. Religion is NOT the Answer
a. 22,000 religious groups in the world
b. Atrocities unmentionable at the hands of multitudes of religious zealots
6. Feminism is NOT the Answer! Moving motherhood to the bottom of
society hasnt made things better especially not for the children that are
handed off to the arms of others!
7. Politics is not the answer. We had better have learned this by now!
8. The Media is not the answer
a. Ted Turner, creator of CNN and very wealthy said in a 1996 interview
with Audubon Magazine that a 95% population reduction would be
ideal. Below is his quote. A total population of 250-300 million
people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal. He said
that because he thought humans were animals that need to be contained
and stopped from using up all the earths resources!
9. Science is NOT the Answer
a. I love science! I love studying physics and astronomy, and biology
b. But today, people are constantly thinking that science has disproven
God
c. They are trusting science like it has all the answers!
d. Yet science offers no answers only pain killers, and smarter bombs!
e. It cant answer peoples problems with anything more than drugs,
bombs, and the internet!
f. The Space programme has discovered new cures, or found out where
life came from
g. All it has done is given the world the illusion that it is more advanced
than the Bible.
h. Science is messing with genetics and only making profits, not things
better!
 i. Did you know that there are 77 cures developed from adult stem cells,
but ZERO cures come from aborted babies - and YET that is where all
the money is!!!
C. The world needs to see Bible believing Christians (Philp 2:15)
1. Not just religious people!
2. But people who can influence our generation for God, before it is lost!
a. Christians are Light in this dark world
b. We need to live like light shine in our dark world not hide what
Christ put in us
c. But Christians must choose to walk as light - live as Jesus Christ told
us how to live as LIGHT in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation
d. We need to be that harmless but effective influence that Jesus saved us
to be!
3. We have a lot of work to do
a. Being not JUST Christians
b. But the kind of Christians our world needs!
4. I showed you last week HOW. Download the message and listen to it
again! We have all the tools to change our world! The only thing we lack is
a desire!
D. Well, I want to motivate that desire this morning, by looking at just how
important the Bible is in even our post-modern society of the 21st century!
III. Message
A. Our Hearts Need This Bible
1. Before we can talk about anything else, we need to put the Bible back
where it belongs in our HEARTS!
2. What our heart is (Jeremiah 17:9)!
a. People can lie to themselves, and believe anything they want to
b. But the fact is
1) Our hearts are so desperately wicked
a) We are not messed up just a little bit
b) We are so wicked that none of us even know how low we could
go
2) Our hearts are where every problem comes from (Pr 4:23; Mark
7:21-23)
3. What Only The Bible Does mark these and learn these truths!
a. The Bible Exposes the Heart (Heb 4:12) cuts it wide open, exposing
everything inside
1) Counsellors wont do it too deep, and too dangerous only
believe we are evolved animals working out our need to procreate
2) X-rays cant do it. People believe we are only flesh and blood!
There is nothing more than muscle tissue and chemical reactions!
 3) Only the Bible tells us what is really in every heart! And it is
beyond belief! Depravity! Filth! It is simply BEYOND words what
is in every heart in this room!!!
b. The Law Convicts the Heart (Acts 5:29-33; Rom 7:7) makes us very
guilty
1) I had not known lust was sin except the law said it (Rom 7:7)
2) I would not have known a grudge was wicked (James 5:9)
3) I would never have thought that withholding forgiveness was just
as sinful as the hurt that needed to be forgiven, except God had said
so in His word!
4) Who would have thought that hating someone was just as bad as
murdering them?
5) Doesnt anyone else here realise just how much our hearts need to
hear this Book? And learn its contents, and obey its laws?
c. The Words of Scripture Converts the Heart (Rom 10:9,10) transforms
it! Doesnt patch it up and make it feel better! It changes it!
d. The Truths of Scripture Rebuild the Heart (Heb 10:16,17) repairs all
the flaws
e. The Words Keep the Heart and Mind Clean (John 15:3)
f. What an amazing Book!
4. Ask God to give you a heart for His Law, for His words (Jer 24:7)
a. So that you can say like David in Ps 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O
my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
b. So that it can be said of you like it was of king Hezekiah in 2Chron
31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of
God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did
it with all his heart, and prospered.
5. And then get busier than ever reading, and memorizing vast portions of
this Book of books! Psalm 119:11
6. Only then can the Bible affect the world around us when we allow it to
affect US!

Part 2 Next Week