“Basic Christianity, Part 34” by Romans
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We are continuing in our Series, “Basic Christianity.” Tonight, we are continuing in the review and examination of our Christian walk, as a facet of Basic Christianity. We are going to continue our acrostic review of the phrase, “By Growing in Grace,” in regard to our following in the steps of Christ. So far we look at “B” and “y” in the word, “By,” and the letter “G” in the word, “Growing.”
Tonight, we will look at the “r” in the word, “Growing.” “R” is for “Read and study His Word.” What do we know about the Word of God? Can it have been not merely written down by man, which we know it was in his capacity of his being a secretary or stenographer, but actually inspired by God?
Is there any other book ~ of any kind ~ on Planet Earth that has been able to make prophecies that have been fulfilled in ways that the most severe critic or atheist cannot deny? When the Jews returned to Israel, and became an established nation in May, 1948, after 2,000 years of being scattered among the nations, that was not a surprise to Bible Scholars. It was an expectation.
The Book of the Prophet Zechariah was written in the 6th Century before Christ. In an End Time context, we read, “ And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:14). This Prophecy clearly states that Jerusalem would still be an inhabited city in the End Time. Given its history of repeated invasions and multiple destructions from every surrounding empire and nation, even this Prophecy, that Jerusalem would still be anything but ruins like Jericho or so many other ancient cites, is a real stretch.
But then the Prophecy makes another bold statement, that Jews would still be able to be identified as Jews in the End Time. So... where are the Amalekites? the Amorites? the Hivites? the Jebusites? and all of the other “ites” that originally inhabited the Promised Land which God gave to the children of Israel?
Any of their descendants are with us, but they have been absorbed down through the centuries into the nationalities that either conquered them, or with whom they emigrated. But the Jews, as the Prophecy indicated they would, have maintained their identity no matter where they were scattered!
And this Prophecy clearly states that there would be Jews who would be in, and fighting for Jerusalem. This could not have taken until the Jews took back Jerusalem in the Six Day War in June, 1967. Yet, both of the details of the Prophecy, against astronomical odds, and against all logic and reason, and even common sense, were fulfilled.
What other book is there on Planet Earth that demonstrates the ability to identify the birthplace of a specific baby, five hundred years in advance of that birth? When the Wise Men came to Herod looking for Him Who was born King of the Jews, Hebrew scribes were able to dig out the five hundred year old scroll of the Prophet Micah, and find that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. And the Wise Men, without hesitation, went to Bethlehem, and there He was!!
I recall reading Matthew Henry's Commentary several years ago in which he was writing on one of the Prophecies regarding the Jews returning to the Promised Land. You will remember that his Commentary was published in 1711, when the fulfillment of this Prophecy seemed outlandish and absurd. He wrote words to the effect, “I don't how God will work to return His people to the Promised Land. I only know that He will.” He was as sure of that impossible event being fulfilled as the Wise Men were of finding the Messiah in Bethlehem!
But there is more we need to consider when we think of God's Word that transcends what we have covered thus far. The mere belief or acceptance of fulfilled Prophecy by many, and I will include myself in that number, find it exhilarating, it is still essentially head knowledge. We cannot apply prophetic events to our own life, as a guide to the choices we make. The Apostle Paul describes God's Word that we are to read and study, as far more than a Book of Prophecies.
We read, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Here, in so many places that have no connection to Prophecy, is the Guidance and Instruction and Correction that we vitally need. And we see that the Guidance that is provided is thorough in conveying what God desires and expects of us.
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “The scriptures we are to know are the holy scriptures; they come from the holy God, were delivered by holy men, contain holy precepts... and were designed to make us holy and to lead us in the way of holiness to happiness; being called the holy scriptures, they are by this distinguished from profane writings of all sorts.
If we would know the holy scriptures, we must read and search them daily, as the noble Bereans did in Acts 17:11. They must not lie by us neglected, and seldom or never looked into.
Now here observe, (1.) What is the excellency of the scripture. It is given by inspiration of God, and therefore is his word. It is a divine revelation, which we may depend upon as infallibly true. The same Spirit that breathed reason into us breathes revelation among us: For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved or carried forth by the Holy Ghost, (see 2 Peter 1:21).
The prophets and apostles did not speak from themselves, but what they received of the Lord that they delivered unto us. That the scripture was given by inspiration of God appears from the majesty of its style, - from the truth, purity, and sublimity, of the doctrines contained in it, - from the harmony of its several parts, - from its power and efficacy on the minds of multitudes that converse with it, - from the accomplishment of many prophecies relating to things beyond all human foresight, - and from the uncontrollable miracles that were wrought in proof of its divine original:
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will, Hebrews 2:4. (2.) What use it will be of to us. [1.] It is able to make us wise to salvation; that is, it is a sure guide in our way to eternal life. Note, Those are wise indeed who are wise to salvation. The scriptures are able to make us truly wise, wise for our souls and another world. “To make thee wise to salvation through faith.”
Observe, The scriptures will make us wise to salvation, if they be mixed with faith, and not otherwise, (see Hebrews 4:2). For, if we do not believe their truth and goodness, they will do us no good. [2.] It is profitable to us for all the purposes of the Christian life, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. It answers all the ends of divine revelation. It instructs us in that which is true, reproves us for that which is amiss, directs us in that which is good. It is of use to all, for we all need to be instructed, corrected, and reproved: it is of special use to ministers, who are to give instruction, correction, and reproof; and whence can they fetch it better than from the scripture?
[3.] That the man of God may be perfect. The Christian, the minister, is the man of God. That which finishes a man of God in this world is the scripture. By it we are thoroughly furnished for every good work. There is that in the scripture which suits every case. Whatever duty we have to do, whatever service is required from us, we may find enough in the scriptures to furnish us for it.
(3.) On the whole we here see, [1.] That the scripture has various uses, and answers divers ends and purposes: It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction of all errors in judgment and practice, and for instruction in righteousness. [2.] The scripture is a perfect rule of faith and practice, and was designed for the man of God, the minister as well as the Christian who is devoted to God, for it is profitable for doctrine, etc.
[3.] If we consult the scripture, which was given by inspiration of God, and follow its directions, we shall be made men of God, perfect, and thoroughly furnished to every good work. [4.] There is no occasion for the writings of the philosopher, nor for rabbinical fables, nor... legends, nor unwritten traditions, to make us perfect men of God, since the scripture answers all these ends and purposes. O that we may love our Bibles more, and keep closer to them than ever! and then shall we find the benefit and advantage designed thereby, and shall at last attain the happiness therein promised and assured to us.”
The Sermon Bible says of this: “I. The Old Testament is a trustworthy historical record. This is repeatedly implied, though not directly asserted, in the discourses of our Lord. He stamps with His own authority the essential truth contained in the account of man’s creation in the book of Genesis, when He appeals to the primeval order as the basis of the sanctity of the marriage bond, and quotes as the ordinance of the Creator Himself words which we read there as the historian’s comment upon the facts which He records.
II. No less full is the Lord’s own testimony to the prophetic and typical character of the Old Testament scriptures. He blames the Jews who searched them, because they failed to learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. They thought that eternal life lay in the letter, not in Him of whom the letter testified.
A true insight would have made them recognise in Jesus the Messiah for whom they waited. But while they boasted of their trust in Moses, they failed to believe his writings, and missed the sight of the Prophet of whom he wrote. Our Lord teaches that the Old Testament is full of types. Actions and events, and ordinances therein recorded, held concealed within them a deep significance of spiritual or prophetic meaning.
III. Our Lord deduces from the Scriptures authoritative rules of conduct and far-reaching moral principles. "The two commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets," form an epitome of religion and morality, which is of universal application, and they are the sum and substance of the Old Testament teaching. The Old Testament supplies a principle of conduct, yet withal it is not in every respect a perfect director.
For—IV. Its rules require expansion. The law was the lesson given for man’s childhood, and childhood requires clear and definite rules for its guidance. But now, in the full age of the new kingdom, the principles which underlay and animated the old rules must take their place.
The more we study the New Testament, the more we are convinced that the Old Testament is a part and parcel of the same Divine revelation, and that the two cannot be divorced or sundered. In the words of St. Jerome, "Those who banish the doctrine of the Old Testament from the commonwealth of God, while they reject the Old Testament do not follow the New, for the New is confirmed by the testimonies of the Old. A. F. Kirkpatrick, Oxford Undergraduates’ Journal, Jan. 31st, 1878. References: 2Ti_3:14-17.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 27; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 171. 2Ti_3:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1866; J. N. Norton, The Kings Ferry Boat, p. 81; Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 267; H. W. Beecher, Forty-Eight Sermons, vol. i., p. 165; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 256; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 39; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 72; A. Saphir, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 305; W. Braden, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 250; R. F. Horton, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 56; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 159.”
Next, let's consider these words from Psalms 119:11: ““Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
Of this Alexander Maclaren writes, “Then there are two kinds of hiding-one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion.
It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just as bad to have them all in the cellar. There are two aspects of the Christian life-one between God and myself, with which no stranger intermeddles; one patent to all the world. My two texts touch these two.
I. ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart.’ There we have the word hidden, or the secret religion of the heart.
Now, I have often had occasion to remind you that the Old Testament use of the word ‘heart’ is much wider than our modern one, which limits it to being the seat and organ of love, affection, or emotion; whereas in the Old Testament the ‘heart’ is the very vital centre of the personal self. As the Book of Proverbs has it, ‘out of it are the issues of life,’ all the outgoings of activity of every kind, both that which we ascribe to the head, and that which we ascribe to the heart.
These come, according to the Old Testament idea, from this central self. And so, when the Psalmist says, ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart,’ he means ‘I have buried it deep in the very midst of my being, and put it down at the very roots of myself, and there incorporated it with the very substance of my soul.’
Now, I venture to take that expression, ‘Thy word,’ in a somewhat wider sense than the Psalmist employed it. There are three ideas conveyed by that expression in Scripture; and two of them are distinctly found in this psalm. First, there is the plain, obvious one, which means by ‘the word,’ written revelation. The Bible of the Psalmist was a very small volume compared with ours.
The Pentateuch, and perhaps some of the historical books, possibly also one or two of the prophets-and these were about all. Yet this fragmentary word he ‘hid in his heart.’ Now, dear brethren! I wish to say a very practical thing or two, and I begin with this. If you want to be strong Christian people, hide the Bible in your heart. When I was a boy the practice of good Christian folk was to read a daily chapter. I wonder if that is kept up. I gravely suspect it is not.
There are, no doubt, a great many causes contributing to the comparative decay amongst professing Christians, of Bible reading and Bible study. There is modern ‘higher criticism,’ which has a great deal to say about how and when the books were made, especially the books that composed this Psalmist’s Bible. But I want to insist that no theories about these secondary questions touch the value of Scripture as a factor in the development of the Christian life.
Then there is another set of reasons for the neglect of Scripture, in the multiplication of other forms of literature. People have so many other books to read now, that they have not much time for reading their Bibles, or if they have, they think they have not. No literature will ever take the place of the old Book. Why, even looked at as a mere literary product there is nothing in the world like it!
And no religious literature, sermons, treatises, still less magazines and periodicals, will do for Christian men what the Bible will do for them. You make a tremendous mistake, for your own souls’ sake, if your religious reading consists in what people have said and thought about Scripture, more than in the Scripture itself. Why should you dip your pitchers into the reservoir, when you can take them up to where the spring comes gushing out of the hillside, pure and limpid and living?
But there is another use of the expression, ‘Thy word,’ which is not without example in this great psalm of praise of the word. In one place in it we read, ‘For ever, O Lord! Thy word is settled in heaven’; that is not the Bible. ‘Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. They continue this day according to Thy ordinances’; these are not the Bible-’ for all are Thy servants.’
‘Unless Thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in my afflictions’; I think that is not the Bible either, but it is the utterance of God’s will, as expressed in the Psalmist’s affliction. God’s word comes to us in His providences and in many other ways. It is the declaration of His character and purposes, however they are declared, and the expression of His will and command, however expressed. In that wider sense of the phrase, I would say, ‘Hide that manifested will of God in your hearts.’
Let the thought of the will of God sit sovereign arbiter, enthroned in the very centre of our personality, ruling our will, bending it and making it yielding and conformed to His, governing our affections, regulating our passions, restraining our desires, stimulating our slothfulness, quickening our aspirations, lifting heavenwards our hopes, and bringing the whole of the activities that well up from our hearts into touch with the will of God.
When God’s will is deeply planted within, it will work quickening change on the heavy dough of our sluggish natures. It is when we bring the springs of our actions-namely, our motives, which are our true selves-into touch with His uttered will, that our deeds become conformed to it. Look after the motives, and the deeds will look after themselves. ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart.’
And now I venture upon a further application of this phrase, of which the Psalmist had no notion, but which, in God’s great mercy, in the progress of revelation, we can make. There is a better word of God than the Bible; there is a better word of God than any will uttered in His providences and the like. There is the Incarnate Word of God, who ‘was from the beginning with God, and was God,’ and is manifested in these last times unto us.
In addition to the exhortation, to hide the Scripture in your hearts, and to hide the uttered will of God, however uttered, in your hearts, I add, let us hide Christ in our hearts. For He will ‘dwell in our hearts by faith,’ and if He is shrined within the curtains of the secret place within us, which is ‘the secret place of the Most High,’ then, in the courts of the sanctuary, there will be a pure sacrifice and a priest clad ‘in the beauties of holiness.’
II. The word not hidden, or the religion of the outward life.
Our second text brings into view the outer side of the devout life, that which is turned to the world. The word is to be hidden in the heart, for this very end of being then revealed in the life.
For what other purpose is it to be set in the centre of our being and applied to the springs of action, than to mould action, and so to be displayed in conduct? It is not to be hid like some forgotten and unused treasure in a castle vault, but to be buried deep in a living person, that it may affect all that person’s character and acts.
The word, if hid in the heart, will certainly be manifest in the life. For not only is it impossible for a man who deeply and continually realises God’s will, and lives in touch with Jesus Christ, to prevent these experiences from visibly affecting His life and conduct, but also in the measure in which we have that conscious inward possession of the divine word and the divine Christ we shall be impelled to manifest them to our fellows by every means in our power.
What, then, is the inference to be drawn from the fact that there are thousands of professing Christian people... who never felt the slightest touch of a necessity to make known the Master whom they say they serve? They must be very shallow Christians, having no depth of experience, or that experience would insist on coming out. True Christian emotion is like a fire smouldering within some substance, that never rests till it burns its way to the outside.
As one of the prophets puts it, ‘I said I will speak no more in Thy name’; he goes on to tell how his resolve of silence gave way under the pressure of the unuttered speech-’Thy word shut up in my bones was like a fire, and I was weary of forbearing and I could not stay.’ So it will always be. Every genuine conviction demands utterance. A full heart needs the relief of speech. If you feel no need to show your allegiance and love to Christ by speech as well as by life, I shrewdly suspect you have little love or allegiance to hide.
Further, the more we show it, the more need there is for us to cultivate the hidden element in our religion. If I were talking to ministers I should have a great deal to say about that. There are preachers who preach away their own religion. The two attitudes of mind in imparting and in receiving are wholly different; and if one is allowed to encroach upon the other, nothing but harm can come.
It is meant that our Christian convictions and affections should grow in strength and in transforming power upon ourselves, by reason of utterance; just as when you let air in, the fire burns brighter. But it is quite possible that we may dissipate and scatter our feeble religion by talking about it; and some of us may be in danger of that. The loftier you mean to build your tower, the deeper must be the foundation that you dig. The more any of us are trying to do for Jesus Christ, the more need there is that we increase our secret communion with Jesus Christ.
We may wrongly hide our religion so that it evaporates. Too many professing Christians put away their religion as careless housewives might do some precious perfume, and when they go to take it out, they find nothing but a rotten cork, a faint odour, and an empty flask. Take care of burying your religion so deep, as dogs do bones, that you cannot find it again, or if you do discover, when you open the coffin, that it holds only a handful of dry dust.
The heart has two actions. In one it opens its portals and expands to receive the inflowing blood which is the life. In the other it contracts to drive the life through the veins. For health there must be both motions; the receptiveness, in the secret ‘hiding of the word in the heart’; the expulsive energy in the ‘not hiding Thy righteousness in my heart.’”
This is the Book that we recognize as God Word. This is the Book that we are encouraged to read in the letter “R,” the next letter of our acrostic. “Read and Study His Word. Finally, let's look at the actual Scripture from Robert Boyd's list in “The World's Bible Handbook,” we will go to 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Albert Barnes writes, “Study to show thyself approved unto God - Give diligence 2 Peter 2:10, or make an effort so to discharge the duties of the ministerial office as to meet the divine approbation. The object of the ministry is not to please men. Such doctrines should be preached, and such plans formed, and such a manner of life pursued, as God will approve.
To do this demands study or care - for there are many temptations to the opposite course; there are many things the tendency of which is to lead a minister to seek popular favor rather than the divine approval. If any man please God, it will be as the result of deliberate intention and a careful life. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed - A man faithfully performing his duty, so that when he looks over what he has done, he may not blush.
Rightly dividing the word of truth - The word here rendered “rightly dividing,” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, “to cut straight, to divide right;” and the allusion here may be to a steward who makes a proper distribution to each one under his care of such things as his office and their necessities require; compare the notes at Matthew 13:52.
Some have supposed that there is an allusion here to the Jewish priest, cutting or dividing the sacrifice into proper parts; others, that the allusion is to the scribes dividing the law into sections; others, to a carver distributing food to the guests at a feast. Robinson (Lexicon) renders it, “rightly proceeding as to the word of truth;” that is, rightfully and skillfully teaching the word of truth.
The idea seems to be, that the minister of the gospel is to make a proper distribution of that word, adapting his instructions to the circumstances and wants of his hearers, and giving to each that which will be fitted to nourish the soul for the Kingdom of God.”
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Basic Christianity, Part 34.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on May 19thth, 2020.
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