What to Do with the Bible

“But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. ... Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” — 2 Tim. 3:1, 12-17.

Our subject this morning is, ““What to do with the Bible.” You will find the text which contains the substance of what I have to say, in 2 Tim. 3:1, 12-17: — “But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come... Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is inspired of God

[87] and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” — z2 Tim. 3:1, 12-17.

Paul here tells Timothy of the “difficult times” that are coming, times of great peril and testing. He tells him of the certainty of persecution for those who are faithful to Christ Jesus. Then he tells of the great increase of evil men and subtle errorists, both deceiving themselves and also deceiving others. It is an exceedingly dark picture that he draws, but it is a very accurate and graphic picture of our own times. It is a startlingly accurate picture of our own times. It isa picture to fill one with apprehension and dismay, were Paul to stop here, but Paul did not stop here. No, he went on to say, in substance, “But, Timothy, even with these exceedingly dark days ahead, there is nothing to be afraid of, there is a path of perfect safety, though perils lie on every side. That path of safety is found in the study of, and trust in, and obedience to, the Holy Scriptures, which are “inspired of God” (that is, to translate more literally, “God-breathed”’). However, many and however subtle false teachers may be, the Holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, Timothy, you can put perfect confidence in these Scriptures, for they are God-breathed, and are profitable for every needed use, for teaching, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness, and through the study of these, no matter how the night darkens and the perils increase, the man of God

[88] will be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.”

We are living today in the days that Paul so accurately pictured nearly nineteen centuries ago — the evil men, the spiritual jugglers (which is the exact force of the word translated “impostors’”), and spiritual impostors of all sorts, are increasing at an appalling rate, and they are becoming more and more cunningly, and more and more shamelessly, “worse and worse.” You will find them wherever you go, in the country as well as the city, and in the foreign field as well as at home, in China and Japan and India as well as in America. How shall anyone who sincerely desires to serve God, and accomplish the very best results for Him, find safety? What shall he do? Our text answers the question. You will find safety in the Book, the one Book of God, “the Sacred Writings,” the Writings “inspired of God,’ the Bible; the Bible which we have conclusively proven to be the Inerrant Word of God. Paul, of course, had the Old Testament books in view ) when he wrote these words. It was these Timothy had “known from a babe.” But if what Paul says in these words is true of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, and it is, it is certainly true of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The Bible, if a man use it aright, will make a man perfectly safe, no matter how error may abound and how subtle it may be. And the Bible, if properly used, will make him to be thoroughly equipped for God’s service. But how must we use this Book to be safe in these times of increasing darkness and peril, and to be completely

[89] equipped in a time when so many workers, yes, even so many mitisters and theological professors, are making an utter shipwreck of their usefulness? This exceedingly important question is answered in the Book itself, indeed is very largely answered in my text. So my subject this morning is, “What to do with the Bible.” In our recent addresses we have clearly proven the Bible to be the Inerrant Word of God and on the basis of that demonstrated fact, we take up the subject of ‘What to do with the Bible,’ what shall we do with the Book which is proven to be the Inerrant Word of God?

I. Believe the Bible

The first thing to do with the Bible, if we are to find safety in it from the multiplying errors and moral perils, and other perils of the day, and if we are to have complete furnishment through the Bible for every good work, is to [Believe the Bible,|Believe the whole Bible, for, as we have seen, the whole Bible is the Word “of God. When you allow yourself to entertain doubts as to the absolute reliability of any statement of the Bible, the Bible loses its power to save you from that error which that statement exposes. The Unitarian understands that, and so he seeks to undermine our faith in the Gospel of John. The Universalist understands it, too, and so he seeks to undermine our faith in those passages which clearly set forth the doom of the impenitent. The Christian Scientist understands it, and so he seeks to undermine our faith in those parts of the Bible which lay bare the disgusting folly and

[90] the many glaring falsehoods of Christian Science. The Spiritualist and the Theosophist understand it, and so they seek to undermine our faith in those passages that lay bare the Satanic origin of those thoroughly demoniacal creeds. Professor Kent and his colleagues, who hate the precious doctrine of the substitutionary character of the death of Christ and the atoning value of His shed blood, and allied doctrines, understand it also, and so they bring out their “Shorter Bible,” that calmly eliminates the passages that contain these py As, for example, by omitting entirely from the 3rd chapter of Romans the 25th and 26th verses, the very heart of that wondrous chapter. And this so-called “Shorter Bible” eliminates these passages, and kindred passages, without one particle of manuscript evidence, without one particle of textual, or other sanely critical reason for such elimination. Believe the Bible, that is the first thing to do with it, believe the whole Bible. Believe, not a man-made “Shorter Bible,” but a God-made full Bible. Listen to the text again, “Every Scripture is inspired of God (God-breathed), and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’”’ The Revisers tried to tinker up that verse and make it read differently, by changing the position of the word “is” in the verse, but this they did without a particle of reason, indeed against all reason, there not being one single instance of such a construction of a sentence to be found anywhere else in the Bible. But even were we to admit the correctness of the change, even then they have failed to accomplish their object, for there

[or] can be no doubt that by “every Scripture inspired of God,” if Paul had used that phrase, he would have meant every Scripture of the Old Testament. Believe the whole Bible. The proof that the whole Bible is the Word of God is, as we have recently seen, unanswerable and, therefore, the whole Bible is worthy of your absolute confidence. When you begin to doubt any part of it, look out.| Doubt of that kind is a “leaven” that grows with surprising rapidity, until it has “leavened the whole lamp.” When the destructive critics began their work, they began with portions of the Bible that did not seem so vital, but they went on and on, until now they do not hesitate to discredit everything that is most fundamental. Yes, they even discredit the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, and not only discredit His teachings but discredit the conduct of our glorious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They do not hesitate to demand that we accept their authority and Inerrancy instead of the authority and Inerrancy of Jesus Christ.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago, I was talking with a good man and a sound man, but not a very clear and far-seeing thinker, about the destructive criticism as it stood then. He said to me, in speaking of some of the more mildly destructive theories, “They tell me it does not touch any vital point anyway, and what difference does it make whether Isaiah wrote the later chapters of the book or whether someone else wrote them?” I told him that this was only the entering wedge, and I urged him to look to where it would lead and where it would end. It has led to and ended

[92] exactly where I then predicted it would,// Any smallest insect of destructive criticism is like the little borer ant which gets into the underpinning of Hawaiian houses and bores and bores away unseen, until suddenly the whole house collapses.// Believe the Bible, believe the whole Bible. It will prove in the ultimate outcome every time that it is either the whole Bible or else no Bible at all. Today it is Professor Kent as he was fifteen years or so ago, tomorrow it is Professor Kent as he is today, next day it is a critic who puts Bob Ingersoll all in the shade, and the next day it will be the Devil himself, laughing and jibbering and jabbering and mocking, saying, “Yea, hath God said?” Gen. 3:1.)

But exactly what is involved in believing the whole Bible?

1. In the first place, Believe its every statement, its historical statements, its doctrinal statements, its statements of every kind. Every statement that the Bible makes (that is, the Bible as originally given) is absolutely true. Of course, as we have seen in a recent sermon, that does not mean that every statement that

every one is recorded in the Bible as making is neces- sarily true, for, as we saw then, the Bible records some statements that the Devil made and uninspired men ’

made, but the Bible statement that the Devil or these uninspired men made these statements is absolutely true.

2. In the second place, Believe absolutely its every Promise. Risk anything and everything on its every promise. Take every promise as meaning all that it