9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Introduction
Supreme Court Justice David Brewer once said that any individual or any institution that could take a Bible to every home in the country would do more for the country than all the armies that ever marched from the beginning of time until now. It is because we believe so much in the Bible that we are trying to put a Bible in every home in our country. Since we are doing that today, I thought it might be good for us to give some thought to the Bible and speak this morning on the subject of God’s indispensable word.
Henry Thoreau said concerning the Bible, “Most people favor it outwardly, defend it with bigotry, and hardly ever read it.”
If we only realized how important, how absolutely indispensable the Bible is, we would not only favor it outwardly and defend it with great enthusiasm, but we would read it, practice it, and share it with other people. The Bible is the only book through which God speaks to us.
God has spoken to us in many ways in days gone by. He speaks to us in nature; the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork. All of creation speaks to us of God’s greatness and God’s glory.
God speaks to us through our conscience. That still, small voice that haunts us and guides our tracks through life is oftentimes the voice of God speaking to us.
God has spoken to us through his Son Jesus Christ who came and walked among us. But primarily, God speaks to us through the pages of the Holy Bible, through written revelation, through inspiration from the Holy Spirit. It is only through scripture that we know the way of salvation. If it were not for the Bible we would know nothing about Bethlehem, Calvary, or the empty tomb. We would not know the way to life everlasting.
Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). The primary reason why God gave us the Bible was so we might search its pages, read it, and come to know him in life everlasting.
In the book of Acts the question is asked: “What must I do to be saved?” A clear understandable answer follows: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). The Bible points us to Jesus Christ and the way of salvation, and it is the only book to do that. It’s the only book from God through which he speaks to us. It is indispensable in our lives.
Not only is the Bible the book that tells us the way of salvation, it is the book that tells us the way of sanctification, which is the way to grow to maturity in the Christian life. Peter wrote, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). As a baby must have milk in order to grow physically, so we must have spiritual food in order to grow spiritually. The Bible is the milk of God’s word. It is the bread of life. It is the meat that sustains a strong man. Repeatedly, the analogy of food is used in scripture to help us to understand the importance of God’s word in our lives. If we want to grow to be spiritually mature—to be like Jesus Christ—we must have a steady diet of God’s word. It is indispensable in leading us to salvation; it is indispensable in helping us to grow to be more like Jesus Christ. It is also indispensable in giving us stability in our lives.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 that we should not be as children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. He emphasized that we should not be taken in by slight-of-hand tricks and the craftiness of people who are not trustworthy—those not honest with the word of God.
He talks about stability in the Christian life. Paul uses three analogies to help us to see how some people are not stable. He said, “Don’t be like a little child.” We know that children are gullible. He said, “Don’t be like a ship that has no anchor, that is tossed to and fro.” He talks about slight-of-hand tricks that are used in gambling.
He says, “Don’t be like a country boy dealing with a Las Vegas gambler.” You need to be careful lest you be taken in—lest you be sucked in by somebody who is more cunning and more clever than yourself. The only way we can have the stability that we need in our spiritual lives is to have a good solid knowledge of the word of God. It is this knowledge of the word of God that keeps us from theological confusion and saves us from moral error. There are approximately three million people in America involved in a thousand different cults. Many of those people went to church, were in Sunday school classes, and had Bibles in their homes, but they never read the Bible. They never seriously studied in Sunday school. Because they had no knowledge—genuine knowledge of the word of God—they were easily led astray into some cult and became involved in some false doctrine that has them entangled and ensnared for perhaps the rest of their lives.
Even greater than the number of people confused theologically today are the people who are confused morally. Never in my life have I seen such moral confusion as that existing in America today, and it is simply because we do not know the word of God. If we knew what the Bible said, and if we accepted it as the authority for our lives, we would know what to believe and we would know how to live.
Because the Bible points us to Jesus Christ and the way of salvation, and because it is the means of spiritual growth, it is milk and meat and bread for the soul. Because the Bible gives to us that stability, both theologically and morally, it is indispensable for our lives. We simply cannot live without the word of God.
Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The spiritual part of us must have the word of God in order to survive and to prosper spiritually. We need to understand the nature of God’s indispensable word.
There are four things I want you to remember about this indispensable word. If you are taking notes on this sermon, these are the four things you will want to write down:
First, the word of God is inspired.
Second, the word of God is infallible. That means it is without error—it is inerrant.
Third, the word of God is indestructible, meaning that it will endure forever and ever.
Fourth, the word of God is inexhaustible. We may study it for as long as we live and never know all there is in it. It is a book that comes from God and thus it is always a challenge to us. It always enriches us no matter how old we are or how deeply we may have already studied it. This indispensable word then is inspired, infallible, indestructible, and inexhaustible.
1. The word of God is inspired.
The first thing we need to remember about God’s word is that it is inspired. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
That word inspire or inspiration literally means “to breathe out.” It is the picture of a musician picking up a flute and blowing his breath into that flute to produce a beautiful melody. In the same way the breath of God blew across the lives of men and they produced the Holy Bible. In fact Peter says that holy men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost and the result was holy scripture. Holy men, plus the Holy Spirit, resulted in holy scripture. That means that the Bible came from God. It is a God-blessed, God-breathed, and God-inspired book that is indispensable for your life and for mine.
J. Sidlow Baxter, a world-renowned Bible teacher, said the biggest division between Christians today is no longer between one denomination and another—it is between those who believe that the Bible is inspired and those who do not believe it is inspired. We don’t place nearly as much emphasis today as we used to regarding the difference between Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. The real issue is this: do they believe that this book is God-breathed? Do you believe that it came from him?
If you do not believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, then you have no authoritative guide for your life. It is fundamental to our belief that this book came from God. If it did not come from God, then it is just another man’s opinion, and is worth no more than another’s man opinion. But if it did indeed come from God, then it teaches us what we ought to believe and how we are to live. The moral and the ethical standards that are set out in this book are as binding upon you, upon me, and upon our generation as they have ever been upon any group of people—anywhere and at any time. Because God’s word is inspired it is ever and always true. It ever and always guides us in what to believe and how to live.
2. The word of God is infallible.
The word of God is inerrant, meaning that it does not have error. It contains truth without any mixture of error.
Now as for me, if this book is from God, it cannot be full of errors. For if God wrote it and God knows all things, he would never ever give me a book that is full errors. So I am persuaded that the Bible is infallible; it is inerrant, and it is true in all of its parts.
The “errors” of the Bible are a slippery lot. About the time a person thinks he’s got his hands on one, it squirts out and he has to go around hunting up another. It is like a wet bar of soap. You just can’t get your hand on it to make anything out of it.
People say, “Well the Bible is not scientifically accurate. After all, the Bible talks about the sun rising and the sun setting, and everyone knows that the sun doesn’t move. It is the earth that moves around the sun. And so the Bible is not scientifically accurate.”
Well, the Bible speaks to us in the language of appearances. I’m sure that God knew that the sun doesn’t move. But we didn’t know that at the time. He speaks to us in words that we can understand—in the language of accommodation.
I read the newspaper this morning, and do you know what it said in the weather section? It said the sun rises at 6:37. It said the sun sets tonight at 8:01. I am confident that those who printed the newspaper know that in reality the sun does not rise and the sun does not set. They likewise are speaking in a language of accommodation, a language of appearances—the kind of language we can understand.
The purpose of the Bible is not to teach us scientific truths. The purpose of the Bible is to introduce us to Jesus Christ. Then, having brought us to salvation, its purpose is to carry us on to spiritual maturity and show us how to live while we are here on this earth.
To get the highest good out of anything, you need to see it according to its intended purpose. You know a loaf of bread and a brick may look very much alike, but you cannot interchange them for the same purpose. The Bible is no more intended to teach us science than a crowbar was intended to be used as a toothpick. If you want to get the highest good out of the Bible, recognize that it was given to introduce us to Jesus Christ, to teach us spiritual truth, and then to carry us on to spiritual maturity.
The Bible, I’m persuaded, is accurate in all of its parts. I hear people say sometimes that the Bible is filled with inconsistencies. But from everything I can see, the inconsistencies are in us and not in the Bible. Once we clear up the inconsistencies in our lives, once we square our lives with God and his will and his word, we no longer see inconsistencies in the Bible. I’m persuaded that the Bible is the infallible word of God.
My friend from Houston, Texas, John Morgan, asked his congregation one morning, “How many of you believe that everything that is put out on the television is true?” Nobody lifted a hand. He asked, “Well then, how many of you believe that everything printed in the newspaper is true?” Again, no hands were lifted. Then he asked, “How many of you believe that everything that is in the Bible is true?” Hands went up all over the congregation. Then he asked this question: “If you do not believe that everything on the television or in the newspaper is true, but you do believe that what is in this book is true, why do you spend so much more time watching the television and reading the newspaper than you do reading and studying this book? If this book is the truth of God, and if it is truth without any mixture of error, shouldn’t you become acquainted with it?”
Can you truly be considered wise if you do not know what this book says? To believe that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant, inspired word of God with no mixture of error makes it incumbent on us to give ourselves to the studying and the spreading of this book.
3. God’s word is indestructible.
I’m persuaded that the Bible is inspired, that the Bible is infallible, and that the Bible is indestructible.
Time has a way of gnawing at all human books. Books come to the forefront, they see a time of prominence and prosperity, and then they soon fade into oblivion. But this book has a way of going on and on forever. Listen to what the psalmist said as he explains the indestructibility of the Bible. He says in Psalm 119:89, “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” That word settled literally means “to establish or to fix.” God has established his word. God has fixed his word. God has set his word in the heavens and it is there to stay.
Isaiah said something close to that in Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.” When I went back to my study a little while ago, there was a vase with some flowers in it. Someone had brought them during the early hour.
Those flowers are beautiful today, but I know that in a few days they will wither, and we will have to throw them out. There are some things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Their beauty and their usefulness is passing, and soon they are of no value whatsoever. God’s word is not like that. God’s word is not like the grass that withers or the flowers that fade. God’s word stands forever.
When you anchor your life to it and live by it, you are anchoring to and living by that which is eternal.
Men have always tried to destroy the Bible. It seems strange that people would so attack a book like this. But Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, took a knife and he cut the prophecy of Jeremiah into shreds and then he burned it in a fire. He thought, “I am through with the prophecy of that book forever.” But God dictated every word to Jeremiah again and he wrote it again. Today Jehoiakim is dead and the book of Jeremiah still lives.
In the year of A.D. 303 Diocletian—who ruled the Roman Empire in the very zenith of its power and glory—determined that he would stamp out Christianity. He arrested all the Christians that he could and had them imprisoned and killed. He confiscated all the copies of the Bible he could find and had them burned. When he had finished with this great persecution of the church and this destruction of the Bible, he declared, “The name of Christianity is extinguished from the earth.”
Nine years later, Constantine became the emperor of the Roman Empire. He saw a vision of a cross and he heard the words, “By this sign conquer,” and he felt that the Lord had spoken to him. He said, “Get me a copy of the Bible.” Just nine years before, the emperor had said the name “Christianity” was extinguished from the earth. But now, within an hour, Constantine had five copies of the Bible. He ordered all the pagan signs and symbols to be taken from the shields of the Roman soldiers and crosses to be put in their place. He inaugurated the beginning of Christianity in the Roman Empire in a new and fresh way. While Diocletian was dead, Christ and the Bible lived on.
Voltaire, the 18th-century French philosopher, said one day concerning the Bible, “Another century and there will be no Bible on the earth.” Exactly 100 years from the day he said that, one century later, the very house in which he lived was the headquarters for the Geneva Bible Society. Voltaire was dead and the Bible lived.
Thomas Paine said in his book The Age of Reason, “I have now gone through the Bible, as a man would go through a wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees. Here they lie; and the priests if they can, may replant them … but they will never make them grow.”
When Benjamin Franklin heard that statement he said, “The man who spits into the wind spits into his own face.” Thomas Paine is dead and gone. If you want to read a copy of his books you may find them in the library but while he is gone, the Bible continues to live. All of man’s efforts to destroy this book have proven futile because it is the indestructible word of God. Flowers may fade and the grass wither but the word of God endures forever. Billy Sunday quoted a poem about a blacksmith in one of his sermons:
I stood one day beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil beat and the bellows chime;
Looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers worn out with beating years and years of time.
“How many anvils have you had?” said I,
“To wear and batter all those hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, then said with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
So me thought, the anvils of God’s word—
Of Jesus’ sacrifice—have been beat upon and fought.
The noise of falling blows was heard—
The anvil is unharmed—the hammers are all gone.
Voltaire was a hammer beating against the anvil of God’s word. As Billy points out, “The anvil stands, and the hammer is gone.” Jehoiakim was a hammer beating against the anvil of God’s word. But the anvil stands and the hammer is gone. Diocletian was a hammer beating against the anvil of God’s word, but the hammer is gone and the anvil still stands. Others who have waged war against God’s word are gone, because the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God endures forever and ever.
God’s holy word is inspired, inerrant, and indestructible, and that makes it inexhaustible for your life and mine.
4. God’s word is inexhaustible.
Since God’s word contains the mind of God, a man may study it all of its life and never fathom all the depths of it. Man will never ever touch bottom in this book.
Several years ago I talked with a man who spent his life preaching, studying, and teaching this book to college students. He said, “Many times I have read through and taught through the Bible. I’ve never yet gone to it and didn’t learn something I had never seen in the book before.”
Such a book has to come from God. It has to contain the mind of God, for it is inexhaustible. The Bible is such a book that a lamb can wade in it, but an elephant can swim in it.
Children can pick it up, read it, and they can know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
But at the same time, an aged scholar who has studied it with great detail throughout the years can still come to this book and find new truth, new light, and new inspiration. I tell you, this book is inspired. It is inerrant. It is indestructible. It is inexhaustible. It is imperative that we not only honor it, but that we read it and that we feed it and that we give ourselves to the preaching, teaching, and dispensing of it, so that all men everywhere might come to know the truth of God as presented to us in holy scripture.
The primary way that God speaks to us today—the main reason this book means so much to me—is that in and through it, God found me and I found him. Any book that enables me to know God as I’ve come to know him has to be indispensable in my life.
Dr. Bob Gehring was a practicing physician at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. He stood here in our pulpit several months ago and gave his testimony about being a former drug addict and an alcoholic. He came to such a point of despair that he almost took his own life. But then somebody found him and introduced him to Christ. His life was gloriously changed and he was set free from his alcoholism and his drug addiction. He said in his testimony concerning those days of alcoholism and drug addiction, “I spent $22,000 on psychiatrists, and then I found my help in a 10-dollar Bible.” That’s because this is the word of God, and if we find him in it our lives can be changed and made new again. You have a copy of this book. Read it. Take seriously what it has to say, and you will live and die a better person.