Reimar A.C. Schultze

Past Issues of the Call To Obedience

"Is His Word Above Your Word?"

By Pastor Reimar Schultze

Winners live by God’s Word.  Losers live by man’s Word. That is the Total Difference!

 “And Jesus answered him, saying, it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”—Luke 4:14

These are the two things, then, that men ought to live by: the physical bread and the spiritual bread. If we live by these, we shall live well. If we neglect either one, we shall die!

Repeatedly, Jesus met the word of the devil with the Word of God—with an “It is written.” Over and over our Lord went back to the Scriptures he had memorized in his youth. Jesus was one who had learned the Scriptures, who lived by the Scriptures, who fulfilled the Scriptures, and who conquered by the Scriptures. They sustained his spirit, and they drove back the enemy. The Scriptures were his bread and sword.  I want to impress upon you the necessity and the blessings of knowing the Scriptures. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” That, indeed, was Jesus’ life. We are not to live by our feelings, by our opinions, or by what others say about us, but by every word of God.

By the time Jesus was twelve, he knew the Scriptures so well that he confounded the doctors, the scribes, the lawyers and the Pharisees. Jesus inhaled the Word, and he exhaled prayer. This is how he lived until he went to be with the Father. Because of this devotion to Scripture, Jesus knew what he could and could not ask of the Father. He knew what to speak in comfort and in defense. He knew how men ought and ought not to live. He knew to discern both good and evil. He knew how to converse with the adulterous, the soldiers, the fishermen, the rich, the poor, the dedicated, the careless, and his enemies when he was on the cross.

By the time he began his priestly ministry, Jesus had learned to think, to speak, and to walk the Word of God so that; in the words of Martin Luther, “his conscience was captive to the Word of God.” “It is written” was the supreme statement of his life He had no other rule to live by, and because he lived by “It is written,” he still lives on today! By this he fulfilled prophecies, by this he knew God, and by this he listened to and obeyed the voice of his Father. Others have copied his life and have triumphed even as Jesus did. The extent to which you hold God’s Word above your word is the extent to which you will triumph and behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now the word of the natural or carnal man separates us from God.  It is man's word that the devil wants us to live by. The devil does not want us to live by that which is written. Friend, let me name some of the words of men that come from the very pits of hell, that are so often carelessly hurled into the face of God; words that often are exalted above the Word of God.

1.                  “NOBODY LOVES ME.”

How many times have Christians said, “Nobody loves me”? This is a lie. This is NOT WRITTEN. This is the devil’s word spoken from the lips of man and thrust into the heart of God as a two-edged dagger. “Nobody loves me!”  Consider the violence, the wickedness, the meanness of these words, “Nobody loves me,” especially when they come from the lips of professed Christians.  Is God “nobody?” Is the Creator of light and darkness, the maker of flowers and wind, the ostrich and the greyhound, a nobody? Is he that gave men breath a nobody? Is he who causes the grass to grow and the flowers to bloom, who waters the crops that you may have food on the table, who keeps the earth in its orbit lest you be burned up or frozen to death a nobody? Is he who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, a nobody?

How can such a statement as “NOBODY LOVES ME” ever stand in the courts of eternal justice? The objects of God’s love are those created in his own image—both depraved and redeemed. “It is written” that God loves you. This is God’s Word. Live by it every day. Do not live by your feelings or opinions—but by that which is written. Don’t you EVER say that nobody loves you.  You may live in a home of strife or maybe you have never heard a kind word from anyone in your life, yet, the FACT is, “It is written”; you are loved.

Furthermore, not only does God love you, but also all the saints love you. Saints are the sanctified ones. Sanctified people love all people. “The love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” ( Rom. 5:5). Again to say, “Nobody loves me,” is to speak in ignorance, carelessness, defiance, or self-pity. It is a statement that cannot be substantiated, either by history or Scripture!  My friend, do not live by the lies of the devil, lest you perish.  Live by the facts! That’s what Jesus did. You cannot put your word above God’s Word and be a Christian very long!

   Let me turn now to a second word that men, Christian men, at times put above the Word of God.

2.                  “I CAN’T MAKE IT!”

Friend, that is a lie. What is this ghastly word that exalts itself against the knowledge of God? Don’t you know that it is written, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). It is written, “All things are possible to him who believeth” (Mark 9:23). It is written, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper” (Isa. 54:17). To live by his Word means not being bitten by the fiery serpents, not infected with the venom of unbelief.

What is this WHINING spirit that moans and groans under the burden of disbelief?  It complains that the journey is hard, the water of life is scarce, the heavenly bread is dry, the pillar of fire is dim, and the cloud of God is tattered.  It whines that the Jesus’ blood is inefficient; the God’s grace is barren, his arm short, and his ear deaf.  God is absent, disinterested and His promises are weak. 

What is this complaining spirit that twists the Word of God to its own destruction, and says, “His yoke is hard and his burden is heavy”? Is it not that same carnal spirit that complained about the lack of onions and leeks in the wilderness? (Num. 11:5) Is it not the same spirit that rose up against Moses and said, “Why have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die?”(Num. 21:5).  My friend, “I CAN’T MAKE IT” is a bullet from hell’s arsenal. It is counter to truth. It is an anti-Christ expression, an antithesis to God’s thesis. Shall we put any word above God’s Word? God forbid! “Yea let God be true, but every man a liar” ( Rom. 3:4).

You can be justified, no matter how unjust you have been. You can be cleansed, no matter how unclean you have been. You can be sanctified, no matter how often you have failed. You can be the instrument of his love in all situations of life, no matter how much resentment you have had. You can find the life of no hurt feelings—the life of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. You can be disciplined, even though you have been undisciplined all your life. You can be because IT IS WRITTEN that you can. Everything God wills for you to be, you CAN be. Oh, glory, glory, glory!!! I am so thankful that this is WRITTEN!  Friend, keep persevering in faith, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets you, you can make it! 

Thirdly, consider this word of man that exalts itself against the Word of God so many times in our churches.

3.                  “IF OTHERS WOULD JUST...”

 “If others would just live up to what they profess, I could make it.”  That’s lie number three on today’s list. IT IS WRITTEN that Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and that He is the bread and water of life.  Jesus said to the adulterous Samaritan woman, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John. 4:14).

Don’t ask, “How do others live?” or “Are those professed Christians living it?” It is not a question of the lack of quality in others; it is simply, “DO YOU BELIEVE IN HIM?” If you do, rivers of living water shall flow out of your innermost being, out of your soul, out of your heart! (John. 7:38) This does not depend on what others are or are not doing—the contingency is only on believing Christ. It is written, “LOOK and LIVE” (see Num. 21:8, 9; John. 3:14, 15) Look at Christ!

Christ be with me. Christ within me. Christ beside me. Christ to win me.

               Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ behind me. Christ before me.

                Christ in quiet. Christ in danger. Christ in mouth of friend or stranger.

Christ in hearts of all that love me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me.

(Attributed to St. Andrew)

It is CHRIST, CHRIST, CHRIST, CHRIST, CHRIST forever! Surround and saturate yourself with Christ.  What others do or don’t do; what they are or are not matters little.  This spirit of blaming others for our predicaments is of the devil. Have you ever heard someone say, “I am not going back to church as long as so- and-so is there”? There was a Judas even in Jesus’ church, yet no disciple left that church because of Judas. They simply kept their eyes upon the Master.

Have you heard it said, “I will never go to church because of what so-and-so said”? Why, my friend, you just need to get acquainted with what is written. Nobody has ever been exhorted to live by the comments of others. Oh, how many people live by the comments of others?  They eat the bitter herbs of hell, depriving themselves of the sweet coriander seed of heaven (Ex. 16:31). If your life is regulated by the comments of others rather than by Christ, oh, what a roller coaster you will be on. You will fail and fail and fail, and you will be in the BLACKEST OF ALL POSSIBLE NIGHTS. It is not written, “Live by the comments of others,” but “Live by the word THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” God loves you. God is the victory, and Jesus is the only bread you need.  Blaming others was    one of the first sins of fallen man, blaming others for their troubles. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. All those who blame others have been bitten by the serpent that deceived Eve. On judgment day, nobody will get by with blaming their own failures on the shortcomings of others.  May the Lord help us all to live by that which is written, not by what we think, not by what others think or say about us, nor by how we feel.

 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Those who live by that Word are the victorious ones. Those who live by any other word are the losers.  Live by that which IS WRITTEN everyday—from now on, so you shall live with Christ forever.