Ee Ee What to Do with the Bible
Word of God, its every commandment is God’s commandment and should be obeyed. Of course, we should note carefully to whom any specific commandment is addressed. Some commandments are addressed to the Jews as Jews, some to believers in Christ, and some to individuals. The Bible always makes it clear to whom any specific commandment is addressed. Of course, every commandment to a believing Jew is also for a believing Gentile. The Bible has but one commandment for unbelievers, whether Jews or Gentiles, and that commandment is to believe on Jesus Christ (Jno. 6:28, 29). Until a man does that, no obedience to any other commandment in the Bible is acceptable to God. There is no use in preaching Christian ethics to unbelieving men, to men who reject Jesus Christ, to unregenerate men.
1. Obey every Commandment of the Bible that is addressed to you. We must not pick and choose. They are all God’s Word, and to disobey any one of God’s commandments is an act of rebellion against God. For example, God commands all believers in Jesus Christ to “rejoice in the Lord always’ (Phil. 4:4), and for any believer in Jesus Christ to have a joyless moment is for him to disobey God. Again, God commands every believer in Jesus Christ, “In nothing be anxious’ (Phil. 4 6) and for a believer in Jesus Christ to have a moment of anxiety or fear is for him to disobey God.//
2. Not only obey every commandment, but Obey exactly. Do just what God says to do, not something
[97] nearly like it, something that seems to you just as good, ‘but do exactly what God says to do.
3. Obey unhesitatingly. It always pay’ to obey God, so when it becomes Clear that God commands you in His Word to do anything, do it at once, without the slightest hesitation or questioning. Do not recoil from any commandment of God and question and parley, obey immediately.
4. Obey gladly. No matter how hard the commandment may seem, or what sacrifice it may involve, or what disaster seems to be involved in obedience, with joy do the very thing God tells you to do. God commands it, therefore I gladly do it. Never forget that every commandment in this Book is a commandment from your Heavenly Father, whose love to you is not only wiser than any earthly father’s but more tender than any earthly mother’s. You do not understand why your Father commands you to do this thing. But why should you understand? Can you not trust Him and ask no explanations? Just do it, and do it gladly.
I, Study the Bible)
In the third place, we should Study the Bible. As the Bible is the Word of God and no other book is the Word of God, we should study it as we study no other book. Of what value is what man says, even the greatest and wisest of men, in comparison with what an infinitely wise God says? In the light of the fact that the Bible is clearly proven to be the Word of God,
[98] it is supremely irrational not to study the Bible as we study no other book.
There is in the Bible the truth that will safeguard you against every error of these times, or any times, but this truth, though it is there, will not safeguard you unless you see it and know it, and you will not see it, and cannot know it, unless you study long and earnestly the Book in which it is to be found. The Bible has no magic or “hocus-pocus” power. It has power only for the truth it contains, and to see that truth and feel its power, you must study, study, study, the Bible.
1. Study the Bible with eagerness and avidity. Study it with eagerness and avidity just because it is the Word of God.
2. Study the Bible every day. To let a single day go by without studying the Bible is to insult God. There is a deeper significance than most of us realize in the words of Acts 17:11, “Now, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received. the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” Never let a day pass without digging*into that Book. I have read the whole Book through I do not know how many times. I have read the New Testament through in Greek many, many times. I have committed whole chapters and whole books to memory. I have stored it in my heart. Nevertheless, never a day would I let pass that I did not dig into it again, not one single day. He is a wise man who so arranges his affairs as to
[99] give a solid hour every day to Bible study. It certainly pays.
3. But not only study it every day, Study hard. Many do what they call “Bible study,” but it is only lolling over the Bible, dreaming, mind wandering, wool gathering, instead of gathering the nuggets of gold for which one must dig and dig and dig. Give your whole mind and your whole heart to your Bible study. When you do study the Bible, concentrate on that one thing, roll up the sleeves of your intellect and pitch in. Mark well the significance of Solomon’s words, as found in Prov. 2:1-5, “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee; so as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding; yea, if thou cry after discernment, and lift up thy voice for understanding; if thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures: then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lorn, and find the knowledge of God.”
4. Study the whole Bible; for we have seen that the whole Bible is the Word of God, and we should seek to know the whole mind of God. We cannot afford to neglect any part of the Bible; study the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, study Matthew’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel as well as John’s Gospel. Do not be content with that silly and conceited book, Kent’s “Shorter Bible,” or the “Shorter Bible” of anyone else. Study the whole Bible. Professor Kent says in the introduction to that volume of the “Shorter Bible’ which appeared first, “The New Testament,” that “the ‘Shorter Bible’
[100] aims ... tosingle out... those parts of the Bible which are of vital interest and practical value to the present age.” If these words mean anything, they certainly mean that the “Shorter Bible,” while it omits much, does present everything in our present Bible, the real Bible, which is “of vital interest and practical value to the present age.” That statement or implication is a gross falsehood, and not only does Kent’s Bible not contain all that “is vital and of practical importance to the present age,” but in what he does give he does not give what God really says, but what he thinks God would better have said, and oftentimes his alleged translation is not a translation at all, but an interpretation, and frequently a very weak and silly interpretation, and oftentimes an out-and-out substitution of his own ideas for what God really said.
How to Study, I have said elsewhere. (See “How to Study the Bible for the Greatest Profit” and ‘The Importance and Value of Proper Bible Study.” )
IV. Memorize the Bible
In the fourth place, we should not only study the Bible, we should commit large portions of the Bible to memory. Fill your mind and your memory with it, and then meditate upon it day and night. It is as true today as when David wrote it of old, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and
[101] night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Ps. 1:1-3.) What is there in all this world that is so good to fill the memory and the heart with as the golden words of God? Happy is the man who has his memory full of them.
V. Live the Bible
In the fifth place, Live the Bible. I am often asked what is the best translation of the Bible — the Authorized Version, or the Revised Version, or Weymouth, or Rotherham, or Wilson’s Diaglott, or Moffatt, or J. N. Darby, or what? The best translation of the Bible, beyond a question, is the translation into daily living. Get the Bible into your heart, saturate your mind with it, and then live it out. Be a walking Bible in your character and conduct, be the Word of God incarnated in a human life again today. Of course, that is only measurably possible to each one of us. It has never been fully realized in but one person, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate “Word of God.” (Jno. 1:14.) The Christian is the only Bible the world reads, so be sure that you are an accurate translation into life of the written Word of God.
a Love the Bible
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In the sixth place, nes the Bible. Logically, this should have come first, but there are reasons for putting it sixth. Love the Bible. The Psalmist said, “My
[102] soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thine ordinances at all times” (Ps. 119:20), and he said again, “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Ps. 119:72), and again, “Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97), and again, “I opened wide my mouth, and panted; for I longed for thy commandments” (Ps. 119:131), and again, “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil” (Ps. 119:162). Jeremiah says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart” (Jer. 15:16). Job said, “I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12), and the Lord Jesus Himself said, ‘““He that is of God hath the words of God” (Jno. 8:47). Certainly, if the Book is God’s Word, and, as we have seen, it undoubtedly is, beyond an honest question, every true child of God will love and cherish it above gold. What is so precious as the revealed Will of God? That is what this Book is. Some silly people, who fancy themselves wondrous wise, talk about ‘“‘Bibliolatry.” I have never known a Bibliolator, that is a man who worshiped the Bible, but, thank God, I have known some who love the Bible, their Heavenly Father’s Word, above all earthly treasures. Our Lord Jesus made two of His most wonderful promises to those who did love His Word. He says in John 14:21, “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them (“and keepeth them” means more than obeyeth them; it means to regard them and hold on to them as a precious treasure), he it is that [103] loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father,’and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him,’ and He says in Jno. 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.’ Those are wonderful promises. When you get home, take them and meditate upon them. One of the best evidences that one really 1s a child of God is that he really loves the Word of God. One of the best evidences that one is not a child of God is that he does not love the Bible, that he is perfectly willing to have parts of it discredited and glad to have it cut down from its full compass to a “Shorter Bible.”
Vil. Teach and Preach the Bible.
In the seventh place, Teach and Preach the Bible. As Paul advised Timothy, “Preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season.” (2 Tim. 4:2.) What else is so worth telling people, as what God says? What other work is so important and beneficent as teaching the Word of God? Our text tells us that the Bible “completely furnishes the man of God unto every good work,” because “it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” This Book is the one thing we must teach and preach if the people to whom we minister are to get the teaching, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness which they so sorely need. Teach the Bible not only publicly, but from house to house (Acts 20:20), not only to crowds but to individuals, and teach and preach
[104] nothing but the Bible. There is nothing else as good as the Bible to teach and preach, it “is the sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17), and as David said of the sword of Goliath, “there is none like it” (1 Sam. 21:9).
I received a letter once from a Methodist pastor who was forty-five years of age. In that letter he asked me if I thought he had better take up the study of the history of Philosophy, as some of his friends were advising him to do. To this I would reply, compared with the incomparable Word of God, man’s profoundest Philosophy is utter foolishness.
Every child of God can teach and preach the Bible; not necessarily to large congregations or even to Bible classes, but to individuals in the home and on the street, and everywhere. Whatever else you may be called upon to teach, Mathematics, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Science, Philosophy, Literature, History, Latin, Greek, or whatever it may be, be sure that you also teach God’s Word. They may not permit you to do it in your school but you can do it out of school. There are many ways of doing it and many places in which to do it. To sum up, Believe the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Obey the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Study the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Store your Memory with the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Live the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Love the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God: Teach and Preach the Bible, for it is the Inerrant Word of God.
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