Turning Point

Announcer (Male): A good book can change your life, but the good book, the Bible, can transform you now and for all eternity like no ordinary writing ever could. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers the life-changing power of God's word that elevates the Bible above any other book in existence. Listen as David shares the conclusion of his message, "How Can One Book Change My Life?"

Dr. David Jeremiah: You know, people look everywhere for God and today it seems like there's a more intense search than there's ever been. Throughout history, they have looked everywhere for God—in nature, in legend, in gurus, and sometimes even within themselves. But you know what the answer is? God has revealed himself in a book and that book is called the Scripture. It is the word of the Lord, straight from the heart of God to us.

And it's available to us in many translations and in many ways if we will seek the word of God. We will find God because that's the reason the Bible exists—to reveal God to us as we read its pages. We're going to talk about that today. Throughout history, there have been many wonderful stories about how the Bible has changed the lives of people. One book, just one book, they read that book and everything changed in their lives.

And I would imagine that many of you listening to me today have your own story about that. But we'll talk about it in just a moment as we turn in our Bibles to Psalm 19 once again for part two of "How Can One Book Change My Life?" During the month of May, we're making available as our resource for the month the brand new book that just came off the press here at Turning Point called *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*.

This 236-page hardback book will help you practice daily abiding with the Lord, help you discover a deeper source of hope throughout difficult seasons, and be encouraged to invest more intentionally in relationships and activities that have eternal value. It's only available from Turning Point and it's only available to you for a gift of any size during this month. When you send your gift, ask for your copy of the book *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*. And now here is part two of "How Can One Book Change My Life?"

Down through the centuries, the Bible has always been something that has been hated and scorned. It is something that has created a great deal of opposition and men have gone out of their way to try to abolish it. Voltaire’s satire, Ingersoll's slander, Hitler’s soldiers, and Bishop Pike’s skepticism—all of this has turned to be human hammers that are broken on the anvil of God's word. They wear themselves out on the Bible and they never seem to get anywhere.

Through the centuries, emperors have demanded the destruction of the Bible. Church leaders have placed their superstitious traditions over it. Smart seminary professors have written it off as being beneath their sophisticated scholarship. But the Bible defiantly, victoriously, convincingly still stands. The Bible's pages continue to tell the grace of God and the message remains the only inerrant, infallible, complete revelation that man has ever gotten from his living God.

And so today, we look back on history and all the critics, and we realize that in a strange way, Moses has outlived Voltaire. Isaiah has outlasted Ingersoll. The apostles outsmarted the agnostics. The prophets have overpowered the professors. And the Bible still stands as God's wonderful message to man. The six titles tell us of the majesty of God's word. But after the six titles, after reading of the law, the testimony, the statute, the commandment, the fear, and the judgments, we see the six descriptions.

Read back through that text again and you will discover that here the Bible is described in six ways: it is perfect, it is sure, it is right, it is pure, it is clean, and it is true. I wish I had time to take every one of those descriptions and tell you all of the truth that's wrapped up in them. The Bible is perfect. The Bible is sure; you can count on it. The Bible is right; it's always right. The Bible is pure.

The Bible is clean and the Bible is true. The law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments: perfect, pure, clean, true. The psalmist literally uses 18 different expressions to try to get to our attention the importance of centering our thoughts on God's word. But the last six words have to do with its effectiveness. Does it really change your life? I mean, come on, pastor. I know you're paid to say stuff like this, but does the Bible really change your life?

I remember reading a story about an old lady who lived way back in the country. One day, there was a knock at her door and it was a vacuum cleaner salesman. He came into her house and began to give the woman his high-pressure sales talk. He said, “Madam, I've got the greatest product you've ever seen. This vacuum cleaner will eat up anything. In fact, if I don't control it, it’ll suck the carpet right off your floor.”

Before the woman could do anything or say anything, he said, “I want to give you a demonstration.” He went over to the fireplace, scooped out some of the ashes, and threw them in the middle of the carpet. Then he took a bag that he’d carried in with him and some dirt and threw it on top of the ashes. Some more junk on top of that and after making a thorough mess, he said, “Madam, I want you to watch this vacuum cleaner at work. I guarantee it will suck up every bit of what I've thrown on your rug.”

The woman, kind of overwhelmed by this, stood there agape, speechless. The salesman went on to say, “Lady, if it doesn't suck up every bit of this, I will personally eat it all with a spoon.” The woman looked at the salesman and finally found her voice. She said, “Well, sir, start eating. We ain't got no electricity.” I wish I could have been there to watch, don't you? Somebody always needs to get caught like that when they do that sort of thing.

But it kind of reminds me that before you pitch a product, you'd better be dead sure you can deliver, right? For whatever reason, let me tell you, I am absolutely certain about what I'm going to say to you about the Scripture. I know this is true. This is what the Bible will do for you. The psalmist says it will restore your soul, refreshing your inner life like food does your body.

The King James says, “converting the soul,” and that reminds us that there is no way that you can even come to know God apart from the Scriptures. But the one thing the Bible will do for you that you can't find any other book that will ever do for you is the Bible will deal with your soul. The Bible will deal with the real you, not the external facade that you walk around in, but the real you.

The Bible will get down deep into where you live and help you to understand who you are. And if you take it at face value, you will discover that this book begins to refresh you and restore you. Sometimes there's a little bit of tearing down first, isn't there? Sometimes the Bible has to tear out all that's bad so that it can begin to build up that which is good. But I promise you that I know this book will do that. It will restore your soul.

Keep reading. Not only will it restore your soul, but the Bible will renew your mind. The psalmist says that it makes wise the simple. It gives practical guidance to the inexperienced. Did you know, men and women, that there is wisdom in this book for every situation you face? I found help in this book for my family. I found help in this book for my financial challenges.

I found help in this book for health, believe it or not. The book has some very interesting principles about health. I found help in this book about discipline. I've discovered some hard truths in this book about the fact that the Christian life doesn't just descend upon you, that godliness comes through discipline. This book makes you wise. The psalmist says it will rejoice your heart, bringing delight and pleasure to you when you obey it.

It rejoices your heart. You know, I've understood that a lot more in recent days than ever before. Do you know this book is filled with truth that sometimes it just kind of explodes in your heart and you cannot contain yourself? I sometimes go to a special place and I'm going to tell you where it is, but I have a special place that I go to. It's beautiful: beautiful water and mountains.

I go there to read the Bible and to pray. And you know what? Sometimes when I've been reading the Bible and I'm all there by myself, I forget where I am and I just start having a party. I get so excited about what I've read. I just want to shout and sing and beep the horn. I don't know, just whatever you can do because the word of God rejoices your heart. Oh, I know there are times when the word of God works you over, but there are also so many times when you study the Bible and really come to grips with its truth, it just gets in your soul and it makes you happy.

And if you haven't known that, it's because you haven't gotten into the book. Keep reading. What else will it do? It renews your mind, it rejoices your heart, it'll refocus your vision. The psalmist says that the Bible enlightens the eye, illuminating the dark. Do you know what this book has done for me? It's helped me to stay off of a lot of dead-end streets. It's given me wisdom and knowledge so that I've always said to my wife it's a sixth sense. No, it's not. It's a biblical sense.

It's the awareness of biblical principles that I may not even pull out at the time that I've learned and that I've been taught and that I've read. And when I start to go in a direction, there's an uncomfortable feeling that comes and I get my focus changed and it's refocused now because God's word has helped me. If you want to have a biblical lifestyle, it's not about a bunch of rules and a whole list of do's and don'ts.

It's about getting into the book, and the word of God will get into the sinews and the flesh of your being so that when you start to walk in a direction, the word of God will keep you from getting into trouble. How many of you would like to have the ability to read the word of God to such a degree that you'd have a sense when somebody's trying to put a scam on you? Somebody's trying to take you down a dead-end street, take your money, take away the things that are important to you.

How many of you would like to read the word of God so much that when you see your children heading in a direction, you just have a sense that that's not good? You can sit them down and help them understand. That's what this book will do. It'll refocus your vision. And then it says it will remain forever. The word of God is eternal. You know, I thought about this week, if God allows His Son to tarry His coming and He doesn't come for another 50 years or 100 years, they’ll still be preaching this same book 50 years from now and applying its truth to that generation.

And it will be just as accurate and just as powerful as it is today because it is a timeless book. The principles live on. You know, most of the books we buy today, they’re outdated in a couple of months. A lot of the people that I talk with in the medical field and in the engineering field say they have to keep reading and reading because the stuff they read last month is already dated. But the word of God is timeless; it remains forever.

And then finally, the psalmist says that it will refute any critic. The mutual parts explain and defend one another. Did you know that? It says it is righteous altogether. What that means is that its parts come together in defense of itself. Do you have any idea how many people have made it their life's work to try to totally destroy the word of God? All the critics who've made it their life's work to destroy the credibility of the word of God—not one of them's ever been able to do it.

One of the great translators of the Bible was a man by the name of Tyndale. Tyndale was a distributor of the word of God. He translated it, and he printed it, and he distributed it. And in the midst of the great distribution under Tyndale, the government—the king—got angry and he wanted to get these Bibles out of circulation because they were attacking the national church. So he had a friend go and see if he could get all the Bibles that Tyndale had printed. He said, “Whatever it takes, buy them. Just buy them and destroy them.”

The guy came and talked Tyndale out of the Bibles and Tyndale just gave him an exorbitant price. He paid the price, took the Bibles away, and destroyed them. And Tyndale used the money from the Bibles that he bought to print 30 times as many Bibles as he already had. And he distributed these Bibles all over. And the king came and wanted to know, “Where in the world did he get the money?” And his friend said, “You paid for them. You bought the Bibles and he distributed them.” Isn't that great?

I think God sits in heaven and He laughs at the foolishness of men who try to destroy God's word because it's beyond destruction. I want to tell you something: if that's true, if what I'm telling you is true, why in the world wouldn't we want to get our heads and our hearts into this book? There's something special about this book. In fact, read the next few verses and you will see it: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned: and in keeping them there is great reward.”

You talk about a guarantee? That's sort of like the stuff that's written on the bottom of the product. Here it is. You know what it says? It says there's great possession in the Bible for those who will discover it. For gold is good and fine gold is better; much fine gold is better yet. And God's word is better than much fine gold. It's better than the best. And there's great pleasure in the Bible for those who will seek it. Honey is good and the droppings of the honeycomb are very sweet, but the word of God is sweeter still.

And there's great protection in the Bible for those who will believe it. The word of God not only encourages us, it warns us, it constrains us and restrains us. It opens doors before us and closes doors against us. That's what the Bible does. And there's great profit in the Bible for those who will obey it. In the keeping of it, there is great reward, not in the future only but even here and now. The Bible—wow! What an incredible book.

I don't like to try to get you to do something out of guilt. I really don't. And I'm not here to make you feel guilty. If you're in the 23 percent that never read the Bible, shame on you, but it's not my problem, it's yours, right? I don't want to come here today and say, “Boy, you people, you don't read the Bible and you ought to be ashamed.” That's not it. You know what my heart is? I just want to tell you what you're missing. I want to encourage you. If you've never taken seriously this book, you need to do that.

Do you know there's so many incredible helps that are available for you to get into God's word? I want to give you two responses—two responses to the revelation of God in the skies and to the revelation of God in the Scriptures. First of all, the revelation of God in the skies. You know, when you see the glory of God in the skies, folks, I hope you never get to the point where you take for granted that you know the God who did that.

And sometimes when I stand at the edge of the ocean and I hear the surf break against the shore and I watch the rolling tide and I hear that most majestic sound, I think as I look out at the incredible expanse of it all, I know the one who did that. I know him. I'm not name-dropping, friends; I'm telling you the truth. I know him. And even in the silence when it's sometimes scary and you hear the howl of the wind, or maybe the storm comes and the thunder and the lightning crash all about you—in that is the revelation of my God.

You know, I'm not in need of God's revelation to come to know His Son because I already know him. But I am grateful for the revelation of God, and I think I'm growing in my appreciation of it more and more each day—that God's creative work in nature is one way that He continually reminds us of His power and of His majesty. And so I stand in awe of God's glory written in the skies.

But I also stand in awe of God's greatness written in the Scriptures. I want to just ask you a couple of things about God's glory and God's greatness in the Scriptures. If all the things I've told you are true—and let's just assume for a moment they are—if God's word can do everything that I tell you from the word of God it can do, wouldn't it make sense that it'd be great to get into a routine to read the Scriptures a little bit every day?

Publishers have taken the word of God and organized them so that they're chronologically in the right order and every day you just open to the date and in the book, it gives you all the Scripture you're to read for that day. You don't have to turn from the Old to the New Testament; you can just read it all. Then the next day the rest of it. And if you read that all the way through from January to the end of December, you will have read every word in the Bible.

And you know how long it takes? It takes 15 minutes a day. In fact, you can read through the whole Bible in 72 hours. Did you know that? And I told you I wasn't going to put any guilt on you, but I'm going to do it right now for just a minute. All right? Do you know that the average American watches television in two weeks for 70 hours? So that in the time that the average American watches television in two weeks, you could read through the whole Bible from cover to cover.

I'm just saying: wouldn't it make sense to take a moment and make a decision that you're going to read the Bible a little bit every day? Then you ought to get into some relationships where you're not ashamed to discuss what you read. You know, the best thing you can do to keep yourself accountable is to talk about it with somebody else. We try to encourage each other in the Scripture and in reading the Bible.

Most of us have got friends that if we went to work and we said, “You know what I found in the Scripture today?” they would think something really terrible had happened to us. And I'm not saying all your friends should be that way, but if you want to be faithful in reading the Scripture, you need to have somebody—a husband or a wife, a good friend—who will help you stay accountable to your reading. I can't teach you all the Bible, but I hope I can create a hunger and thirst within you that will make you want to get in the word of God for yourself. That's the purpose of the pastor.

Let me tell you a story about somebody I read about that encouraged me. His name was Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, the most decorated soldier in the 30th Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II. General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium and he did it at the head of the Allied forces. This man was so decorated that he received every medal possible except the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He was honored with the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He was one of the few generals to be wounded in action. When the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations command and because of his character and self-control, was ultimately President Eisenhower's choice to head the long, tedious negotiations to end the Korean War. General Harrison was a soldier's soldier.

He led a busy, ultra-busy life, but he was also an amazing man of the Scriptures. When he was a 20-year-old West Point cadet, he began reading the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament four times a year. General Harrison did this until the end of his life, and even in the thick of war, he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed battles.

So that when the war ended, he was right on schedule with his reading of the Scripture. When at the age of 90 his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had read the Old Testament 70 times and the New Testament 280 times. It is no wonder that the people who knew him said he was a man of godliness and wisdom. And his wisdom was so incredible that people would come to him almost like they came to Solomon to ask his advice on just about any subject you can imagine.

And the Lord used him for 18 years to lead the Officers’ Christian Fellowship. What I learn from his life is twofold: first of all, that it is possible even for the busiest of us to read the Bible if we really put our mind to it, isn't it? Just something we've got to decide. God has given you a will, he's given you determination. You set your mind on a goal and you can do it. There's no question about it.

Some of you say, “Well, Pastor Jeremiah, I'm up in years and I've never read the Bible.” So what? Start now. Just make up your mind to do it. Sit down and write out a plan. Get your little one-year Bible if that's what it takes, or get a reading schedule and just say, “Hey, I'm not going to die before I read the Bible. I'm going to read the Bible and I'm going to stay alive till I get it done.” Amen?

Not only can you read the Bible when you're busy, but Harrison also teaches us what can happen when your mind is properly programmed. You get the word of God in your mind and it will change every area of your life. It'll change your family, it'll change your spiritual life, your professional life, and all the problems that you face will have a new picture, a new twist. And you can come to understand what the psalmist meant when he wrote about the treasure of God's word.

In fact, he ended his psalm with this prayer: “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Do you know how the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart can be acceptable to the Lord? It's right here. Just get in the book. Make it yours, study it, meditate upon it, make it a purpose in your life. And you can be sure that the meditation of your heart will be acceptable to God. This book can change your life.

This series is called *God, I Need Some Answers* and we've asked some of the questions that we provided an answer for during this series. Next time we meet, we're going to talk about “How do I face my fears?” A question that is certainly very prevalent because in the Bible, fear is mentioned well over 300 times. So God must know we need some help and He's sent us the Scriptures to help us and we'll talk about that tomorrow and again on Wednesday here on Turning Point.

I have in my hand the resource for the month of May: it's the beautiful book *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*. It is 236 pages of teaching from five very special Psalms that will help you in your walk with the Lord. This book will add value to your life and it's yours for the asking when you send a gift to Turning Point this month. Simply say, “Please send me the book on Psalms,” and we'll do it as our way of expressing our gratitude for your investment in Turning Point. Have a great day, folks, and we'll see you right here tomorrow.

Announcer (Male): The message you just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Reach out and tell us how this ministry blesses you by writing to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David’s new book, *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*. It’ll help you abide with God. And it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content. Search the app store for the keywords "Turning Point Ministries." Visit davidjeremiah.org/radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue *God, I Need Some Answers* on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.