Video Transcript: Knowing Our Material

We've just spent two sessions talking about the objections that we're going to face. I'm sure if we had time, you could write in and you could list a lot more. But we know now that no matter what objection is raised, we have the truth to meet it. Of course, we would. It's the Truth of God. And no one knows more than he does, and no one's stronger than he was. And all those verses that we learned, they're his Word. He speaks. And we can go with that Word as we confront the various objections. 

Because of the importance of his Word, we're going to spend some time in this session, in this part, talking about knowing our material. That's so crucial. I want to point out to you the power of the Word. I have an account here from a newspaper, and I took it along. I wanted to read it to you. It says, Zen Master on Death Row. It's a story that just breaks your heart. And you say, "Have I been like that somewhere?" 

It gives the name of the person. He's charged with a double murder and is on death row in one of the prisons. And one day, he asked a guard for a Bible. He's all by himself in this cell with nobody to talk to. And he asked the guard for a Bible, because he's going to be put to death. And since then, he has been. And do you know what the guard did? He found a Buddhist tract and he threw it in the guy's cell. The guy had nothing else to read except that tract about Buddha. And he became a Buddhist. A Buddhist believes that there's no forgiveness from God. You just take care of it yourself.

Now, that person who could have read those powerful verses we've talked about and who could've been forgiven by God and even though he was accused of double murder and all sorts of evil in the prison, when he was put to death, like the thief on the cross, he could have seen Jesus face to face. And now, he's spending eternity separated from Jesus just because someone did not give him the Truth when it was time. That says something to you and to me. 

Maybe we didn't do it the way that guard did and just give him an old tract about a false religion. But if we withhold the truth of the true religion from someone, we're doing the same thing. Let's pray about that and, then, move on.

Dear Jesus, how your heart must have grieved when a sheep that was far from the Good Shepherd asked for your Word and was given stones instead of bread and a snake instead of fish and poison instead of water. We're so sorry about that. And it shines a spotlight on our heart. How many times have I done that, Jesus? Just to be popular, just not to be bothered, just because of some sort of fear that I've withheld the truth from someone who is looking for you.

We need you, dear Holy Spirit, to create a fire in our hearts so that we will speak of forgiveness to all those who need it. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

Well, there's a verse I want to start with. Of course, a verse. There's always a verse. And it's a story in Acts 8 right at the very beginning of the history of the Christian church. And a deacon of the church named Philip was walking along the road, and he met somebody who was not a follower of Jesus but who was actually reading part of the Scripture. Philip said, "So, what are you reading?"

And the guy says, "This is what I'm reading, but I don't really understand it."

And then, we read these beautiful words, "Then Philip began with the very passage of Scripture the man was reading and told him the Good News about Jesus." What's so important about that, we're going to study it in just a minute, but that this was a verse in the Old Testament. And Philip knew his Bible well enough so he could start there, put his finger on any verse in the Bible and trace it to Jesus. And do you know what happened? The man was saved. He believed in Jesus. Not like the one in that jail cell who died without Jesus. This man believed in Jesus. There was some water there in a little stream alongside the road. Philip baptized him, and the man went on as a follower of Jesus. Do you see how important that is?

I mentioned before a story about two football teams, and I want to bring it up here again. It's a story of the equipment room. One team in our town was beaten pretty bad by another team. And after the game, the coach of the losing team said to the reporters of the newspaper, "We didn't lose that game on the field tonight. We lost it last February in the equipment room, in the fitness room."

And what he meant by that was that all those weeks and months when his team should have been taking seriously their preparation for the game, they weren't. And the other team that won, they were there in the fitness room. They had that goal. They were preparing themselves. They were going to be ready. And when the time came, they were ready, and they won.

That's such a lesson for us. All those verses that we've talked about, you'll notice that in this whole course, I keep on going back to the Scripture, back to the Scripture, back to the Scripture. I don't know anything on my own. All I know is what the Holy Spirit taught me about Jesus. The only Truth I have is the Truth of God's Word. And I found in the over 50 years that I've been serving Jesus, that has never failed me yet. And so, over and over again, I try to be ready for the big game, for the time that I can present Jesus. 

Well, I want to talk about a couple of approaches to being equipped. First, knowing the author of the Bible. Do you know what it's like? Like, you get an email from someone you know well. Or you get a letter from someone you know well. And as you read it, you can picture that person. You can see that person's face. And when you read a certain word, you say, "Yeah. He uses those words a lot." And when you're reading something that you're not sure it sounds good, because you know that person, you know that those words are all right.

Well, the Bible is God's letter to us. And who is God? We know God is love, God is good, God is steady. We call it faithful. God is just. He will punish what is wrong and he will reward what is right. We know all of that about him, because we know him. And before we go on, I want to go back to that important point again. Do you know him? Do you know him or do you know about him?

We can memorize all those verses without really knowing him, but what good would it do? We have to know him. And we get to know the Father through the Son, Jesus, by believing that Jesus died for our sins and now, we have become children of our Father in Heaven. If you've never squared that away, then now is the time. Put it on pause and get right with the Lord, because otherwise, he's not going to be able to use you. 

A second approach to being equipped in God's Word is to believe it is his word. You say, "Oh, Ren, we know that already. It's God's Word." Do you really know that? Do you believe it in your heart? Are you so totally convinced of it that nothing can talk you out of it? Is all sorts of scholars - some even call themselves Christians - all sorts of articles, every time a Christian holiday comes up like Christmas or Easter, you read all those things in the newspaper, "It's not really true." Does that shake you or do you believe with all your heart?

Paul had such success when he went around preaching. And he started a church in a city where there had been no church before in Thessalonica. And about three months later, he writes them a letter, and he says, "My Gospel came to you not simply with words." And you can say that about your vocal testimony and about Jesus. "My testimony is coming not simply with words."

He says, "My Gospel came to you not simply with words but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction." And when you go with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction, you're going to be successful.

Paul said in another place-- if the guy who plays the trumpet in the military-- "If the trumpet sends out an uncertain sound, who's going to know that it's time to get ready for the battle?" And if we come out and we scratch our heads and we give the impression we think this might be true, but we're not sure, you can believe it is truth, because you believe it is God's Word and you never have to back down. It says, "You will never be put to shame."

I look at the salespersons on TV. They get special ones who are so convinced that a certain kind of soap or a certain kind of wax or a certain kind of paint or a certain kind of car. Nobody is ever out there scratching their head and saying, "Well, you might not want this," or, "I'm not sure it's going to work," or whatever it might be. They are totally convinced. 

Look at people who jump out of airplanes. All they have is the promise that that parachute is going to open. There were people at our house yesterday who were washing the windows. And I looked up at them standing on that ladder. How do they know? They've got confidence that that equipment is going to hold them up. 

And here were unlearned and ignorant men, and what do they do? They went around with the Word of God and they won the world. 

Another approach to being equipped with the Bible is to understand the general content. Do you have just kind of a thumbnail understanding of the whole Bible, the way it's written. Do you know, for example, there's the Old Testament and there's the New Testament? There's the part that leads up to the birth of Jesus, and the part that takes place after his birth and life. 

The old has the 39 parts called different books of the Bible. The new has the 27 parts. I have found it helpful especially with the Old Testament to have certain dates in mind that you can hang your hat on as you walk through the history of the Old Testament. Do it this way. Abraham lived as far before Christ as right now, we are living after Christ. Just use the date 2,000 for Abraham. Then, use the date 1,500 for Moses and the Exodus. Then, use the date 1,000 for King David and then, King Solomon and the rest. And then, use the date 500 when you don't hear much about it anymore until the light shines when Jesus is born. If you have that kind of picture of the Old Testament, it gives you an idea where to plug in, and it helps you to get used to it.

What's the difference, then, between the Old Testament and the New Testament? It's one word. It tells the same Truth, but maybe we could use this illustration. We're taping this now in a beautiful room. There are chairs, there are flowers, there are pictures on the wall, and nice carpet on the floor, a desk. If you came here at night, when the light wasn't on, you could dimly see the flowers, the pictures, the desk, the chairs, the windows. It would all be there, but you wouldn't see it very clearly. That's the  Old Testament. 

When we come in and turn the light on, we can see it clearly. Everything about Jesus is in the Old Testament. But you don't see it very clearly. And then, when Jesus comes, the Light of the world, then you see it. That's why Philip could start with a verse in the Old Testament and tell that man about Jesus. 

Now, one more thing about being equipped and that is memorizing the specific parts. I was at a meeting of thousands of Muslims, and the person who spoke knew the Bible so well, because he was trying to show that Christianity is not true. Even the devil knows Scripture and quoted against Jesus. And how did Jesus answer his critics all the time? "The Bible says, the Bible says." You have to memorize parts of the Bible. 

You say, "I can't memorize." Let me ask you a question. Do you have a telephone? What's your phone number? Do you know the days of the week? Do you know the letters of your alphabet? The key to memorization is repetition. Over and over again. I want to show you that I always carry cards with me like this. I have them in my truck. I have them in the bathroom where I get ready in the morning. I have them at my desk. I have them in the fitness room when I work out. And there are Bible verses on them, and I'm always going over them, over them, over them. The key is repetition. So, imagine if you were to set a goal. "I'm going to learn 12 verses this year - one a month - and just keep going over them so that you'd be prepared. 

And then, there is some help to being equipped and that is knowing your limits. You can't know everything. Don't go out there and think you're going to answer every question. And do you know what? Besides that, you can't do anything-- let's have that in mind. I'm going out there. I'm going to be a vocal witness, but I can't do anything. 

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, "I came to you not with worldly wisdom, not with words but with the power of the Holy Spirit." And again, look at what happened to those ignorant and unlearned men in Acts. Once the Holy Spirit came in them, then they were able to act. 

So, we don't go out there as judges. We don't go out there as professors. We don't go out there as the greatest people that the world has ever known. But we pray, because we're partners with God in his work. And we witness with confidence. Know your limits. We can't do it. The Holy Spirit does it through us, especially as we've prepared ourselves, as we've just studied, knowing his Word. 

Here's another help to being equipped. Know your support system. You're going to get questions that you can't answer. You're going to be in situations you don't know how to handle. One of your support systems is a prayer team. You have to have someone who prays with you and you pray with them about being a vocal witness. 

And then, remember, Jesus is your support team. When he sent us out and he said, "Make disciples," do you know what he said? "I am with you always even until the end of the world." So, we go out with confidence. 

And then, one more. And that is know your emotions. Know who you are. Are you a very aggressive person or are you very timid? Personally, I'm quite timid, and I really have to gear up to go out to be a vocal witness. Others are really aggressive. They might have to tone back a little bit. 

When you feel that you're being threatened, understand that. It's you. It's not the Word. When you begin to feel anger within you, you have to step back and say, "Why am I feeling angry at this point?" 

Who would you rather have lunch with? Someone who's mean and surly and grumpy or someone who's pleasant and cares about you? It's the same when we go out. We go out as those who are broken, who are being healed by Jesus Christ, to people who are still broken and have to know about that healing. Let's pray about that together.

Jesus, we're going out as human beings, those whom you have made through faith in you, children of your Father in Heaven, and you have given us your Spirit. We're going to face those objections. We're going to remember that you faced a lot of objections yourself and you won. And through you, we can bring others home. We love you. Amen.