HOW PRECIOUS IS GOD'S WORD TO YOU?

WHEN PAUL WAS IN PRISON what was it that he asked to have brought to him? The scrolls, especially the vellums (2 Tim.4:13). When Paul told the Ephesian elders that they would see his face no more, to whom did he commit them, and what did he commend? To God and to the word of His grace (Acts 20:32). When Daniel was in the deportation, to what did he turn for light about deliverance? The writings of Jeremiah (Dan.9:2). While Tyndale was in the dungeon, what did he specially plead for in his list of modest requests? His Hebrew Bible and grammar and study tools. When Adam wended his way out of the garden now denied to him, what was among his pitiful possessions? His tablets containing the creation account are found in Genesis 1:1-2:4.

What is it that the Adversary attacks always and all ways? The Word: spoken, living, written. Most of our homage to the Word is hypocritical. We honor it with our mouths, yet our minds are so often occupied with thoughts which are far from its contents. We dishonor it even in our professed honoring of it. We say we love His Word with all our heart and soul, yet we refuse to love it with all our mind, as well. How often we are little men, afraid to study the Word scientifically lest we find our intellect demolishing what our faith is embracing! Much too frequently our faith is a groundless faith; it is not founded on the facts. Why should we fear to ferret out the facts which God has revealed, that they might form the foundation for our faith? Are the facts which faith accepts inimical to reason and at war with intellect? God made the heart for believing, the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, and the mind for—what?

The only way to truly honor both the Giver and His gifts, is to accord to them the attention God says they must have. This is especially true of His Word. Honoring it with our mouth only, can never take the place of daily searching to master what it says, and then practicing its precepts. If we really believed that God addresses us through His Word, would we continue to slight it as we do?

What three things do we need, if we are to extricate ourselves from the ruins of unbelief? First, a readiness of mind to receive. A person can be taught nothing if he thinks he already knows it all. To be taught, one must be teachable. He must be reachable and amenable. Thus the cliche, "My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with the facts," should have no place in our thinking.

Second, daily searching to see if what we hear or read is as the Word has it. To search means to track out what is in the Word. It means to make diligent inquiry; to trace out, as did the prophets, the subject of salvation. It means to be diligent. It means to judge or sift again.

After readiness of mind to receive and daily searching to see, what should follow? The third: therefore, many believed (Acts 17:11,12).

Faith comes by hearing God's declarations. Man does not live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of a collaborator, but rather by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God (Matt.4:4). When did you last feed on His living, active, powerful Word? When did you last check up on the sermon you heard to see if you were being misled about death? About salvation? About destiny? About soul? About time? When did you last examine the latest religious book—"best seller"—to see if it dealt out death or ladled out life?

No one can deceive you unless you want to be deceived. Only where there is no love of the truth (for your salvation) is there a fatal capacity for strong delusion, which would allow you to embrace a falsehood (2 Thess.2:10-12).

To what shall we turn if we turn not to the Word? To conscience? To inward intuitions? To enlightenment? To one special magazine? To one particular man? To one definitive theology? To one cast-iron creed? To one denomination? To a selection among the early church fathers? To those claiming to be in the apostolic succession? To a local church? To our unaided reason? To our fund of common sense? To the leadings of our devoted heart?

NO! And again, NO! Only by turning to the Word of God as illuminated by His Spirit, may we recover the mind of Christ about the things of God. To the Word of God, only, solely, exclusively, absolutely. To the Word of God; reliable, authentic, accurate, inspired. To the Word of God, written. We need nothing else, we need accept nothing else, we need heed nothing else.

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