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(upbeat music) - Welcome to day two of our look at Romans chapter 15 and drive
time devotions. Yesterday we began by looking at what these verses have to say
about unselfishness in our lives and how we can live that out in a daily way.
And right in the middle of that passage on unselfishness, verses four and five
of Romans 15, Paul brings up the hope that we get from the Bible as one of the
reasons, one of the strengths that I can find to be unselfish.

But it's interesting, in this passage, verses four and five, there are some
incredible truths about the Bible here. John Stott talks about five crucial
truths about God's word that you can learn just in these two verses that are
just sort of dropped in the middle of Romans chapter 15. Let me read those
verses for you again and then go through these truths that John Stott talks
about.

For everything that was written in the past, talking about the Bible here, was
written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the
scriptures, we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and
encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ
Jesus. As you walk through these verses, here's five truths about the Bible.

First it says everything that was written in the past. Truth number one,
everything that was written was written to help us to grow, all of the Bible. I
see a lot of people wanting to trust part of the Bible and that's never made
sense to me.

If I only trust a part of the Bible, what part am I going to trust and who is the
authority on which parts of the Bible I can trust and which parts I cannot
trust? I know, we can play all kinds of mind games and say, well, because of
history or because this person said this or this commentator said this, then
somehow I can trust this part and not trust that part. What I've found as I've
talked to people, the reason people want to trust one part of the Bible and not
trust another part is, let's just be honest, they don't like what the Bible says
and the part they don't want to trust.

And so we try to find some way to make ourselves feel okay about, well, I'll
live this part but not this part. God, who wrote the book, says clearly that you
can trust it all. Everything that is written in the Bible.

I've always liked what Augustine said about this. If you believe what you like
in the gospel and reject what you don't like, it's not the gospel you believe
but yourself. I don't want to trust myself.

I want to trust the Bible. Above my own feelings and opinions and ideas and even
my own culture, I want to trust the Bible because everything written in the Bible,
I can trust. Now everything, obviously, I have to read with understanding.

When I read in the Old Testament about the sacrifices, I trust that God was
looking forward to something, that one day Jesus was going to sacrifice himself so
he don't need to make sacrifices anymore. So don't get silly about this and
thinking that trusting every verse in the Bible means that you don't understand
the Bible. I trust it, I understand it as God helps for the Spirit.

Everything written, all the Bible. A second truth about the Bible in this
passage is that it was written to teach us, written to teach us. Not written
just to teach the people who first read it but written to teach us.

The Bible is written to teach every believer of every generation, which to me is
an awesome truth. One of the most obvious ways that I know that the Bible is
God's word is the fact that down through thousands and thousands of years now,
it has been read by people and has inspired their hearts and lives to make
radical changes. When you read some of the historical documents from ancient
Greece or some of the first plays that were written in those days, it might be
an interesting story but it doesn't change people's lives.

But God, who wrote the Bible, wrote it to teach us, to change our lives, to
direct us, to give us his direction in our daily lives. It's not written just
for the past. It is written for today.

If you look at the Bible as an historical book, then you're missing out on the
truth of it. The Bible's history is true, but that's not the point. The point is
the change that it can make in my life today.

It is written for today. Everything that is written is God's word and is written
for today, a second truth. A third truth is that the Bible is centered on
Christ.

This passage ends by unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus. And then
it's interesting, as you look up in verse three of Romans chapter 15, the
passage is quoted from the Old Testament, the insults who insults you have
fallen on me, and it's applied to Jesus Christ. If you've read the New Testament
any at all, you've probably noted that again and again and again in the gospels
and the rest of the New Testament writers, they take verses in the Old Testament
and they show how they apply to Jesus Christ, how they're talking about Jesus
Christ.

The writers of the New Testament saw Jesus in every corner of the Old Testament.
Now, I'll admit you can take this too far, and some in the early church did do
that. They started to try to see Jesus in every number in the Old Testament.

They'd see a number three and they'd think, oh, that always has to mean the
Trinity. They'd see a number one and they'd think, that means God is unified.
Every number they saw, they tried to make fit into this false idea that Jesus
could be seen even in every little number and letter.

Well, that's obviously not true, but what is obviously true is you can see Jesus
in the sacrifices of the Old Testament. You can see that Jesus fulfilled the law
of the Old Testament. You can see the kind of victory that Jesus wants to bring
in our lives that's different than the Old Testament.

You can see the worship of God in the Old Testament being fulfilled in the
person of Christ in the New Testament, and you can see in many, many, many, many
verses in the Old Testament, Jesus being foreshadowed, looking forward to that
day when he would come. And that's a reminder that the entire Bible, both Old
Testament and New Testament, is centered on one person, Jesus Christ. It is a
book that is written to lift him up, to glorify who he is, because it is through
Jesus Christ that I find a relationship with God, and that's the purpose of the
Bible, to help me to find and to grow in my relationship with God.

So these five truths of the Bible, everything is God's word. It's written to
teach us today. It's centered on Christ, and the fourth truth is the Bible is
written for a practical purpose.

It's written to make a daily difference in my life. Note that it says, "May the
God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity. " It's
through the endurance and encouragement of scripture that I am changed.

The Bible is written not just to inform our mind. It's written not just to make
us feel morally superior to others because I read it. It is written to make a
difference in our lives.

Sometimes you'll hear people call the Bible the good book, and I think I know
what they mean by that. They mean it's a good book, but it confuses me because
we always talk about good books as being those classics that people would read,
like War and Peace, or Homer's Iliad, or all those kinds of books that you
think, wow, that's a good book. You never read it, but you have it on your shelf
to impress other people that you have it there.

Well, the Bible's not that kind of book. I always like to say it has no shelf
life. You have to bring it down off the shelf, open it up and read it and see
what it has to say before your life.

I'd like to say to you that the Bible's not so much a good book as a guide book.
It's written to be more like one of those Thomas Guide maps that you get out
every day in your car and you look in it to see how do I get from point A to
point B. That's what you need to know today.

How do I get from point A to point B to better my marriage? How do I get from
point A to point B in the argument that I just had with my son or daughter? How
do I get from point A to point B in this decision that I have to make about my
business?

How do I get from point A to point B in, well, you fill in the blank. You know
what you're facing today. How do I see in God's word the daily direction that I
need for life?

Now, let me just say something about these words, endurance and encouragement,
when it comes to the daily direction that I need for life. Before we go on to
the fifth truth about the Bible that we see here. It is through endurance and
encouragement that I find hope.

And I need hope if I'm going to make it every day in life. But note that it comes
through endurance and encouragement. My endurance plus the Bible's encouragement
equals hope.

My endurance plus the Bible's encouragement equals hope. It takes both. I know
some people who try to endure, they try to gut it through on their own, but they
have no encouragement from the Bible.

And so as far as they're able to make it, and they may have a lot of endurance
on their own, they don't make it all the way through because they don't have any
encouragement. I know other people who, they read the Bible a lot, they get a
lot of encouragement from the Bible, but they're not willing to endure. They
bail out at the first sign of problems.

And because of that, they don't have hope either. God has given us grace. But
let me just warn you this, do not see God's grace as a parachute that you can
use to bail out of problems.

It's not why God gives us grace. God wants us to endure because he knows that's
where we're going to find hope. Grace is not a parachute that you use to bail out.

Grace is the fuel that you need to make it through when things get tough. That's
what grace is all about. Grace is not the power to bail out.

Grace is the power to make it through. Endurance and encouragement, that's what
brings hope. And that's one of the practical purposes of the Bible, to give us
the encouragement we need in everyday life.

And there's one final thing that's talked about here. He says, may the God who
gives endurance and encouragement in verse five. It's interesting, in verse four
he says, it's the Bible that gives endurance and encouragement.

And then right away in verse five he says, it is God who gives endurance and
encouragement. And that is a representation of something that's done again and
again and again in the Bible. Again and again in the Bible you see that whatever
God says is what the Bible says.

Whatever the Bible says is what God says. Why? Because the Bible is God's voice.

The idea that somehow I can trust God, but I can't trust the Bible is ridiculous
because the Bible itself says the Bible is God's voice. I know some who trust a
dream that they had or some coincidence that happened or some other strange
feeling circumstance in life because they think God brought that about and they
think, well God did that, but I'm not sure I can trust the Bible. You can trust
the Bible because the miracle is God brought his word into our lives.

God gives us his word. It is God who is speaking when I open it up. And when I
realize that, that's when my life really begins to be changed.

Now, as we pray today, as we talked about God's word, let's take a minute to
pray together about the impact of his word on my life. Lord, thank you for your
word. Thank you for what we've just looked at today in these few verses.

Everything I can trust. It is written to teach me and it's centered on Jesus,
the one who loves me more than anyone will ever love me. And through your word
you're able to give me the encouragement that I need to endure through the
difficulties of life.

Because Lord, it's your message. It's your voice that I hear. So I pray that
instead of looking to myself for solutions, instead of trying to figure it out
on my own, instead of rushing on without consulting your word, you would remind
me.

You'd remind me of your truth. And I pray specifically that as I read your
truth, even as I hear it today, that you would encourage me. Not discourage me,
but encourage me to live the life that you've made me to live.

Encourage me to receive the forgiveness that you've made me receive. Encourage
me to, Jesus, this day, live in a way that honors and glorifies you. I need your
encouragement.

I pray for it today. I pray you'd remind me to look for it in your word. I ask
this in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, tomorrow we're going to continue our look in Romans 15. We'll be looking at
verses eight to 16.