Here We Stand Lesson 3

Lesson 3 The Scriptures Are God’s Truth for Us Worship Read responsively (Psalm 119:17-24).

Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word.

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.

My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.

You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands.

Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.

Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.

Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.

Prayer: Lord, your Word is a light to my path. I trust what you have revealed to me and all humankind in the Scriptures for they are your truth. In them I have learned about my Savior, Jesus, and all the blessings he has secured for me and all people. Help me to remain faithful to what you have revealed in the Scriptures.

Comfort, strengthen, and encourage me by your Word that I may remain your disciple and a witness to your love for all I know. Amen.

Introduction There is a lot of trouble in our world. Think of issues that cause trouble, dissension, or tension specifically because people have ignored the Word of God. Think of examples in your own life when ignoring or disregarding God’s Word has resulted in trouble or heartache. Think of times when the load of trouble on your shoulders or in your heart has been lightened substantially when you

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contemplated God’s Word. Luther wrote: “It is plain therefore, that the beginning of our salvation is a faith which clings to the Word of the promising God, who, without any effort on our part, in free and unmerited mercy takes the initiative and offers us the word of his promise” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 36, p. 39). “For God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a word of promise, as I have said. We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise” (Vol. 36, p. 42).That truth may seem self-evident to us, but in Luther’s day that wasn’t necessarily the case. The drift from the truth of Scripture was destroying the church.

We suffer consequences when we disregard God’s Word.

1. To fully comprehend the importance and value of God’s Word, we go back to

the beginning. Read Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 2:15,16. God’s creation was “good.” Give some reasons why God would call his creation “good.”

2. How was God’s Word a blessing to Adam and Eve in the garden?

3. Read Genesis 2:20-25. In your own words describe the perfect state of Adam

and Eve in the garden.

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4. Genesis 3:1-9. When Adam and Eve disregarded God’s Word to them, what

happened immediately after they disobeyed?

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Outline some specific details that revealed a change in Adam and Eve when God approached them.

5. Read Genesis 3:14-19,23. Identify the consequences of their disobedience of

God’s command.

God’s Word is filled with great promises.

6. Yet God was gracious to Adam and Eve. He gave them the first gospel promise.

Read Genesis 3:15. Describe how that promise would change Adam and Eve’s outlook on life and their expectations for the future.

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7. Read Hebrews 1:1-4. In the past, how had God repeated his promise? List

some examples of the promises God made in the Old Testament.

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Through whom has God shared his promises “in these last days”?

8. Read John 8:23-30. What claim does Jesus make about his message?

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List at least two reasons why that is important to you.

9. Read John 17:13-26. In this prayer of Jesus, he prays for his first disciples (vv.

13-19). Identify the specific things he asks from his heavenly Father for these disciples.

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In this prayer, Jesus also prays for future disciples (vv. 20-23). How will future disciples come to faith?

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What does Jesus tell his heavenly Father he wants for those who later come to faith (vv. 24-26)?

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Apply Jesus’ prayer to what happened at Worms.

10. Read John 16:12-15. Why is the promise of Jesus important to us today who

have not heard Jesus but only read the word of his disciples?

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Read John 20:30,31. How does this verse help us understand what Jesus meant in John 16:12-15?

11. Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17. How is what Paul tells Timothy a fulfillment of Jesus’

promise in John 16?

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This is inspiration of the Scriptures. See also 2 Peter 1:16-21 and 1 Corinthians 2:12,13. What is so important about these passages for what you believe?

12. Luther recognized that certain practices and teachings in the church were not

in agreement with Scripture. Human reason and tradition were often regarded as more authoritative than the Scriptures themselves. List some of the evidences he saw of this drift from the truth of Scripture.

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13. What serious consequence was the church suffering as a result of its

disregard for the truth?

14. Satan still tries to convince us to doubt God’s Word and accept something

different. What are some of the religious ideas you have encountered that are different from what the Scriptures teach?

15. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. What must we do with religious ideas that we

think are different from what the Bible says?

16. Galatians 1:6-9 and Revelation 22:18,19. Why should we avoid all teaching

not based on the inspired Word of God?

Supplemental Questions: 1. List three things that make verbal inspiration important to every Christian today.

2. In what ways is the gospel the power of God even for us today (Romans 1:16,17)?

3. How do we make sure that future generations know God’s truth in the Scriptures?

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4. Explain why the world’s religious ideas that are not based on the Bible are foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). 

Explain why the message of the Bible is God’s wisdom.

The Babylonian Captivity of the Church was a critique of the Roman Catholic Church’s distortion of the sacraments. In particular Luther opposed the teaching of seven sacraments and especially the distortion of the Lord’s Supper as a sacrifice for sin.

The Roman Catholic Church accepted these ideas without any support from Scripture.

Luther wrote, “By [the Roman Church] we have been carried away out of our own land, as into a Babylonian captivity, and despoiled of all our precious possessions.

This has been the fate of the Mass; it has been converted by the teaching of godless men into a good work” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 36, p. 47). As time allows, you may discuss the following supplemental questions that focus on the sacraments.

1. Why do we maintain that there are only two sacraments?

2. Explain why Christ’s words of institution of the Lord’s Supper direct us to offer both bread and wine when we celebrate the sacrament.

3. Why does the sacrament do us no good if we are not present to receive it?

4. Explain how Baptism done once for us has value every day of our lives here on earth.

5. We still practice ceremonies for ordination, confirmation, and marriage as Protestant Christians. Why are these ceremonies important? Why are they not sacraments for us? Can you give more than one reason for any of them?

Additional Reading: “The Source of Christian Doctrine: Holy Scripture,” from God So Loved the World,

by Lyle Lange, pp. 35-96.

“The Bible: Its Inspiration and Use,” “The Attributes of the Bible,” and “The Proper Use of the Bible,” from Grace Abound: The Splendor of Christian Doctrine, by Daniel Deutschlander, pp. 19-92.

Baptism: My Adoption into God’s Family, by Gaylin Schmeling, and Lord’s Supper: The Lamb’s High Feast, by Arnold Koelpin. Both volumes are part of the NPH People’s Bible Teaching series.

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Genesis 1:31 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 2:15-16 15 The LORD God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. 16 The LORD God gave a command to the man. He said, “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden, Genesis 2:20-25 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal, but for Adam no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. 21 The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the LORD God took a rib and closed up the flesh where it had been. 22 The LORD God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, Now this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She will be called “woman,” because she was taken out of man. 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will remain united with his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:1-9 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5 In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists.

8 They heard the voice of the LORD God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:14—19, 23 14 The LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

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the woman he said: I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing. With painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, but[d] he will rule over you.

17 To Adam he said: Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat from it,” the soil is cursed on account of you. You will eat from it with painful labor all the days of your life.

18 Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you, but you will eat the crops of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the soil, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

23 the LORD God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken.

Genesis 3:15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

Hebrews 1:1-4 1 In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature. He sustains all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.4 The Son became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

John 8:23-30 23 “You are from below,” he told them. “I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am the one, you will die in your sins.” 25 “Who are you?” they asked. Jesus replied, “What I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to say and to judge concerning you. But the one who sent me is true.

And what I heard from him, these are the things I am telling the world.” 27 They did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one, and that I do nothing on my own. But I speak exactly as the Father taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

John 17:13-26 13 “But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so that they may be filled with my joy. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also sent them into Here We Stand

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the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth.

20 “I am praying not only for them, but also for those who believe in me through their message. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one: 23 I in them, and you in me. May they become completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am so that they may see my glory—the glory you gave me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these men knew that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have for me may be in them and that I may be in them.”

John 16:12-15 12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into[b] all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

John 20:30-31 30 Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 14 As for you, continue in the things you have learned and about which you have become convinced. You know from whom you learned them 15 and that from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, well equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:16-21 16 To be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the powerful appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 We also have the completely reliable prophetic word. You do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts, 20 since we know this above all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. 21 In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God[g] as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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1 Corinthians 2:12-13 12 What

we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 19 Do not extinguish the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 But test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Keep away from every kind of evil.

Galatians 1:6-9 6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, 7 which is really not another gospel at all. There are, however, some who are trying to disturb you by perverting the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven would preach any gospel other than the one we preached to you—a curse on him! 9 As we have said before, so I now say again: If anyone preaches to you any gospel other than the one you received—a curse on him!

Revelation 22:18-19 18 I give this warning to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. 19 And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City, which are written in this book.

Romans 1:16-17 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 19 In fact, it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Jewish law? Where is the probing thinker of the present age? Has God not shown that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21 Indeed, since the world through its wisdom did not know God, God in his wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message. 22 Yes, Jews ask for signs, Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 We preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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