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The Bible is non-negotiable truth. If you want to understand God, the destiny of man, or how you are to live, the Bible is where it’s found. This is the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) This is what we want to look at today—non-negotiable truth—and the challenge from others who say that there is error within it. Is there error within it? If so, then it’s negotiable truth. But it’s not. It’s non-negotiable.

The Bible is the Word of God

What you are looking at in the Bible is the very word of God, the precepts of life by which we get understanding. It’s His word which He sends and by which He heals us and delivers us from all our destructions. It reveals to you what your God is like, what His ways are like. It lays out for you the beginning and the end and everything that goes in between.

As Peter was preparing to die (because God had shown him that the time of his departure was at hand), he sat down to write one final epistle. He said this:

2 Peter 1:15-16 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

People in that day and age were challenging the fact of whether Christ would ever really return to earth and whether He would really set up His kingdom to reign, King of kings and Lord of lords. Peter defends the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come. He said, “I saw Him. I was an eyewitness of His majesty.”

2 Peter 1:17-18 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “this is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

This is the Mount of Transfiguration, when they saw Jesus transfigured into His glory along with Moses and Elijah who were standing with Him.

2 Peter 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Peter is saying, “Look, I saw Him with my eyes. I heard God with my ears. I heard His testimony about His Son, and yet I have a more sure prophetic word even than what I saw.” That more sure prophetic word is the Bible. Peter tells us then how this word came into being.

2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

In your hands you have the word of God written by men who were moved by the Holy Spirit. They recorded for us the words of God. We have non-negotiable truth in our hands. You may be familiar with these Scriptures but it’s good to look at them and to know where they are. It’s good to cross-reference them so next to 1 Peter 1:20-21 write 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Paul in his second letter to Timothy also knew that his departure was at hand. The Lord had revealed to him that he was going home, that he was not going to be rescued this time. This was his final hour so Paul takes quill in hand and begins to write his final epistle to his son in the faith, Timothy. He tells Timothy what’s going to happen in the last days:

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

They are evil men but also impostors, therefore they are not going to act like evil men but will have a guise over them. If they’re evil men and in the church, they’ll act like they belong in the church, like they’re truly born again.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings… These are sacred writings, holy writings, books set apart and chosen by God. They were canonized and put together to form the Scriptures: Your faith that was delivered to you—the faith that was delivered once for all to the saints…) which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, this is non-negotiable truth, wisdom that tells you how you can know that you are truly going to be saved to live forever and ever in the presence of God, not in the lake of fire where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.

Then Paul makes a statement: All Scripture is inspired by God. The word “inspired” is a Greek word that means God-breathed: “Theopneustos” (θεόπνευστος). This word is used only one time in the entire New Testament. This is where it’s used. It simply means “God-breathed.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God (God-breathed) and profitable for teaching (or “doctrine”, which means, “What am I going to believe? What is the teaching that I am going to embrace?”), for reproof (shows you where you’re wrong, where you’re off in your thinking, understanding, or behavior), for correction (to show you what’s wrong and make it right), for training in righteousness; (instruction in doing what God says is right.)

God is the absolute righteous God, so to be trained in righteousness is to walk according to the way God says to walk. Unfortunately we live in a day and age, a time, where many—a great majority—of those sitting in the church collectively are not living righteous lives. We’re living in a time when men even in leadership have stood up and said that homosexuality and abortion are all right. We have churches in great conflict over what is right and what is wrong. We’ve come to the day when men are calling good evil and evil good. God says, “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good.” This is non-negotiable truth. In other words, if you find it in the Bible, you’re finding it in a book that was inspired, God-breathed, and is profitable for what you believe, to show you what’s wrong, to show you how to make what’s wrong right, and to show you how to live righteously.

You’re looking at a book that was not of man’s own devising. Men didn’t sit down to say, “Let’s just write this.” No. Holy men, set apart by God (that’s what “holy” means) spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Thus we have the mind and heart of God so that we know how to live. The Bible tells us how to live. But the problem is this:

The church is not living that way anymore. The church is doing its own thing. It has turned from what is true to what is false. It has turned from a clear understanding of the word of God to its own understanding and ways, its own devising, its own reasoning. Why has this happened?

Old Testament Examples

In 2 Kings 22, we have an account of Josiah. Kay could teach a whole hour about him. In the days of Josiah, about 640 B.C., when he became king, the temple of the Lord had been greatly neglected. Josiah had a father, Amon, who was an evil man, and a grandfather, Manasseh who did more evil than any of the other kings before him in the kingdom of Judah. Josiah came to power at eight years old once his father and grandfather were dead.

2 Kings 22:2 And he did right in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left.

This is a young boy who at eight years old assumes the throne. Do you have an eight-year-old? Do you want him ruling? No, but Josiah was ruling and was already better than his father and grandfather. Why? Because Josiah, despite this ungodly ancestry, ruled and walked in the way of his father David. Therefore, this tells us that Josiah is of the lineage of David, and as David was a man after God’s own heart, so was Josiah, not turning to the right or to the left.

It doesn’t matter what your heritage is. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had evil parents or grandparents. That is no excuse for you to be evil. You are to be righteous. Your heritage does not determine your destiny. It is God Almighty, and whether you believe Him or not, that determines your destiny. So Josiah walks in the way of the Lord.

2 Kings 22:3 It came about in the eighteenth year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of the LORD saying,

They went to the house of the Lord to clean it out because the beautiful temple that

Solomon had built was in great disarray. They had put up idols to the sun gods; they had male temple prostitutes that had been in there being immoral. This is the holy temple of God!

Everything in Jewish life centered around the temple of God. The three major feasts of the Jews that required them to come to Jerusalem three times a year were all centered around temple worship. But now the temple is in disarray. It’s been neglected because of ungodly kings who did more evil than the kings before them. As a result, Josiah wants to repair this gorgeous temple that Solomon had built. Men were cleaning out the temple when they found the book of the law which had gotten lost in the house of God. They brought it to Josiah, who was now 26 years old.

2 Kings 22:10-11 Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. And it came about when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes.

The word of God had gotten lost in the house of God and for the first time this 26-year-old king had the word of God read to him. When he heard it this is what he said:

2 Kings 22:13 “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” “God’s wrath is great against us because of this!”

Why? Because this is a book that tells you how to live. You can have a heart for God like Josiah who accomplished a lot but when he finally came face-to-face with the word of God, he realized how far off they and their fathers were from obeying it. As a result, God’s wrath was great against them. As a consequence he had them go to the prophetess Hulda who told them, “Listen. What God spoke against this house and against this people if they did not obey this book is going to come to pass” because this is non-negotiable truth. As it is written, so it shall be.

Josiah was prophesied about by name in 931 B.C. when the kingdom divided. (1 Kings 13:2) He was called by name hundreds of years before he even existed. Now in 622 B.C. what was prophesied about Josiah is about to come to pass because it is the word of God.

2 Kings 22:18-19 “But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD thus shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD.’”

In other words, “You found the truth, heard it and believed it. You responded and humbled yourself, tore your clothes and wept before Me because you saw what I required. And you saw that you had not obeyed. Because you have a repentant heart with a godly sorrow that leads to repentance, even though judgment is still coming, it won’t come in your day. I’m going to restrain it in your day.”

What would happen in our nation or world if we embraced the word as non-negotiable truth so that it became a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path? (Ps 119:105) What would happen if we would begin to obey it and call others to obey it? What would happen if the word of God, which has been lost in the house of God, was finally found and put back on the pulpit where it belongs and in Sunday school classrooms? What if we heard the word of God and then didn’t just come to church to find out how to become healthy or wealthy or successful or how to have a good family life but we learned how to take the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit, and to wield that sword, to kiss that sword, and to go forward into battle into a world sitting in darkness that needs to see a great light, and we live righteously? What would happen if we realized that this was the non-negotiable truth, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints and we made it our business to know this book inside and out?

Well in Josiah’s day, here’s what happened:

2 Kings 23:2-3 And the king went up to the house of the LORD and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people,, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

This book that’s non-negotiable truth is made up of two parts: the Old Testament, or the Old Covenant; and the New Testament, or the New Covenant. What would happen if we said that we’re going to keep all the words of this book? If you go back to Deuteronomy 8 you’ll see that this book is the very bread by which we live.