1 Tim 3:14-16 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory. 
In the message before Easter, we looked at the importance of the Word of God. It, alone, must be the basis of any teaching in order for that teaching to be life to the hearers of the Word. It needs to be read, pondered, prayed over and obeyed in both our individual and corporate lives. It needs to be shared within the fellowship, the gathering of the saints into a complete oneness of hearing and obeying and cherishing all that God has set before us in His Word. It must express the inner hearts of our praise unto God, seeking to bless Him with His very word. That indicates that we are receiving it and valuing it for all that it contains, thus fulfilling the promise of the Lord in Isa 55:9-11. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. 
	This morning, let us look at two more very basic aspects of the importance of God’s Word in our lives as members of His Church, His Body on this earth. The first is that the Word taught is powerful for instruction. As it is taught and received, it will cause a reaction and an interaction with the Holy Spirit from within our hearts. It will not just be pricking our ears and minds, but our very heart and soul. There will be a communication from within that these are the words that God wants us to hear and we will be moved into action or reaction to them. The power of God’s Word is not a passive one. As we read in Heb 4:12, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 
	There is power in His Word as it penetrates our lives in order to establish a greater and richer spiritual life and relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We see this power recognized by the Apostle John as he saw the son of man standing in the middle of the heavenly lamp stands, Rev 1:16, And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. That two edged sword is the same one as recorded in Heb Chapter 4, it is the powerful declaration of the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
	We see the power of His Word throughout the Old Testament. Deut 4:9+10 "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.' What a glorious revelation God gives us in that promise! What a tremendous truth of God’s opening His heart to His people. 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. His Word will draw forth that awe and praise and honor from His people, to such an extent that we will only be able to live as we completely rely on Him. Because His Word is our very course of life, it will be the course of the teaching of our children in ways of the Lord.
	On this point, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that, as a fellowship, we are so very blessed with parents who are sharing the Lord with their children at an early age. It is never too early to read the Word of God together. It is never too early to pray together. It is never too early to sing His praises together. It is never too early to bring the children into the fellowship. This is as it should be. As our children are reared in the Lord, even from the prenatal stage, they will learn of His great Love early in life. 
It will be a life-long teaching in the Lord and they will see that relying and living forth in line with God’s Word is to be our normal manner of living on this earth. When they are troubled, pray together and read about God’s grace and comfort. Read His Word and pray together for the Lord’s guidance and direction in facing all circumstances and issues, great and small. When it is a time of rejoicing, let that rejoicing be in thanksgiving to the Lord for His great goodness and provision. Bless the Lord with the Psalms and praises and passages of thanksgiving and prayers of honor unto Him from His Word. As our children are taught, from the earliest point of development, that our lives are to be in line with God and His plan and His purpose, fully revealed in His Word, they will know that we cherish Him above all else in this world.  
	Consider the instructions of the Lord to parents recorded in Deut 11:18-21. "You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. 
It first begins with us, as we impress His Word into our hearts, as we bind ourselves to His Word for our very sustenance. Then we teach that Word to our young and we never cease to talk of the Lord and His Word, all the days of our lives. To use vernacular phraseology, we not only talk the talk, but we walk the walk. Our lives manifest exactly that which our hearts desire to impress upon our children, as it is impressed upon our hearts first and foremost. That is the power of the Word for instruction.
	As well, we read in Isa 2:3-5 that we will be taught of Him and drawn unto Him and walk in His ways. His Word is the governing principle of our walk on this earth. As the Holy Spirit directs and guides, His Word manifests all the truth and principles of God in action. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. The Word of God is our light through all the darkened avenues and alleyways of this earthly sojourn. We will find it to be our true and unfailing map directing us in our spiritual walk before God and before man. 
This, then, leads into our next point of consideration, the major aspect that ignorance of the Word is perilous. It is the Word that is used by the Holy Spirit to instruct, and to edify, and to encourage, and to comfort, and to bring forth understanding and wisdom to face the power of this age. When we do not know the Word, when we are not familiar with its precepts and enlightenment, we soon find that we are missing the full impact of God’s work in our lives. It is as we read His Word, as we know His Word, as we study His Word, and as we value His Word that we find every promise of His covering in operation within our lives, both individually and corporately.  
	It is as we learn His Word that we are enabled to deal with all the deceitful challenges launched against our faith in God and His sovereignty. Consider when the Pharisees were trying to discredit Jesus because His disciples were eating corn from the field on the Sabbath. His response was based fully on the Word of God. Matt 12:3-8 But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he became hungry, he and his companions; how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? "Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent? "But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here. "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." It is by the Word of God that we face all the questions and avoid the manifold snares laid as traps for us. His Word is more than sufficient to deal with every possible threat, if we know it, and read it, and value it, and earnestly seek the Holy Spirit to bring it to mind and to open our understanding of all that it contains.
	Our knowledge of the Word of God allows us to not be fooled by all the various misinterpretations and manipulative twisting to make it seem that earthly knowledge and desires are reinforced by heavenly principles. Consider when the Sadducees were falsely using the Scripture, twisting it to discredit Jesus. He responded as follows in Matt 22:29-33, But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God. "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. "But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. " And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. 
Because He fully understood the Word of God, Christ was able to not only remove Himself from the cleverly laid trap, but to also draw forth the astonishment of the people as to His teaching of the Word. We can only understand the Word as we spend time in it, with the Holy Spirit actively opening it from within us. As that takes place, our lives and our actions and our reactions will cause others to be astonished at what the Word of God instills within the life of a Christian.
	As well, there is boldness in our hearts as we know that we stand firmly planted in the Word of God. Matt 19:3-6 And some Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?" And He answered and said, "Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh'? "Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Notice the force of Christ’s declaration. It was not timid, nor was it at all compromising. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. The Word of God is powerful enough to withstand any onslaught. As the Holy Spirit opens it into our lives, we are more and more persuaded in His truth and in His ways. We see the gloriousness of God’s Word and it becomes the force of all our arguments against anything that seeks to discredit God and His Only Begotten Son. We will stand in the boldness of God’s Word against all those elements that try to tear down and to minimize His authority in all of creation.
	As well, it is only as we know the Word that we can testify to the Love of God as foretold in the Old and the New Testament. It is the Word that declares Jesus Christ alive and resurrected, and it is the Word by which we proclaim Him risen and glorified. Listen to the stand taken by the Apostle Paul when he was asked to share the teaching of the Scripture in the synagogue. Acts 13:26-35 "Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation is sent out. "For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. "And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. "And when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. "But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm,' Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.' "And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' "Therefore He also says in another Psalm, 'Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.' 
	Paul was bold in the Word because Paul knew the truth of the Word in its declaration of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. He used scripture to declare the risen Lord and the people responded in such measure that the Jewish council feared the loss of their credibility and followers. The people begged Paul to share more of the life of the scripture the next Sabbath. When he did, almost the entire city turned out to listen to the truth declared. It is Jesus Christ Whom we proclaim as we make known God’s Word and that will draw those in need unto the Messiah of all who will believe upon Him.
	Finally, ignorance of the Word is the veil that hides the truth from our hearts. If we ignore the Word, which cuts asunder all our false concepts and ideology, we will find that we lack any deep understanding of His Word. If we wallow in laziness of reading the Word, in our lack of desire after the message of the risen Lord, we will find that we do not value His Word. We will consider it as just a token within the practice of Christianity. 
It is not until we meet the Word face to face in Jesus Christ, through the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, that the veil will be lifted from our faces. We will then be able to behold the glory of God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Paul recounts this concerning the Jews to the church at Corinth. He compares those Jews to the ones who could not look upon the face of Moses, after he had met with God face to face. They had demanded a veil to cover Moses’ face from them. 2 Cor 3:14-16 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 
	The Word of God must be read within the church. The Word must be taught from the pulpit and from house to house. It is needed by young and old for nourishment, sustenance, strength, boldness, and understanding. As it is valued within the Body of Believers, it will manifest, in greater and greater reality, the majesty and the glory and the honor due unto God for the great Love with which He loves us. The household of God ought to cherish every moment in His Word, as we learn to esteem to increasingly greater depths Our Husband, Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His life that is endued in every word of Scripture. It is the piercing and precious Word of God which causes us to be brought unto Him, as His perfect bride, without spot or blemish, or any such thing. So be it!
	I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory. Amen

Benediction   Ps 145:1-13 I will extol Thee, my God, O King; And I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Every day I will bless Thee, And I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, And shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, And on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. And men shall speak of the power of Thine awesome acts; And I will tell of Thy greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Thine abundant goodness, And shall shout joyfully of Thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.  All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, And talk of Thy power; To make known to the sons of men Thy mighty acts, And the glory of the majesty of Thy kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Thy dominion endures throughout all generations. Amen