The Bible and the Believer

What it is and What it Does.

By DR. G. F. PENTECOST.

THE Bible is not a book to be studied as we study geology and astronomy, merely to find out about the earth's formation anti the structure of the universe;
but it is a book revealing truth, designed to bring us 'into living union with God. Scientific knowledge, and I, the words in which that knowledge is conveyed, have
no power to change our characters, to make us better, or give us a living hope of a blessed immortality ; but .the Word of God has in it -a vital power, it is " quick and powerful"-living and full of Divine energy (Heb. 4. T2)-and when received with meekness into our understanding and heart is able to save our souls (Jas. 1:18,21)


(1) THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY BOOK THAT CAN MAKE US WISE UNTO SALVATION.

The Word of God is a living seed containing within itself God's own life, which, when it is received into our hearts, springs up within us and " brings forth fruit after its kind ; " for Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of s God, is the living germ hidden in His Written Word. Therefore it is written, " The words that I speak unto ' you, they are spirit and they are life" (John 6. 63), and so it that " he that heareth My words "-that is,  receiveth them into good and honest hearts that "he that heareth the Word and understandeth it, "hath everlasting life" (John 5. 24!). Of no other book could such things as these be said. Hence we say, the Word of God is the instrument in His hand to work in us and for us regeneration and salvation ; for of His own will beget, He us with the Word of truth, the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (Jas. 1. 18, 21). 

This leads us to say that (x) we are rebated to God rend the eternal verities revealed in this Book, not through intellectraal apprehension rind demonstration, but by faith. Not by reasoning, but by simple faith, do we lay hold on these verities, resting our faith in God, who is under and in every saving fact in the Book. (See 2 Pet. 1. 21) It seems to me, therefore, to be supreme folly for men to be always speculating and reasoning about these spiritual and revealed things ; and yet we meet constantly even good people who are thus dealing with God's Word.

First of all, they treat the Revelation as though it were only an opinion expressed concerning the things revealed, and so they feel free to dissent from or receive r it with modification, and deal with it as they would with the generalizations and conclusions, more or less accurate, of the scientists, and the theories, more or less true, of the philosophers. If the Word commends itself to their judgment they accept it ; thus making their judgment the criterion of truth, instead of submitting their opinions to the infallible Word of God. Then again, many people who profess to believe God's Word seem never to think of putting themselves into practical and saving relation to it. They believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, but they never believe on Him or in Him; in other words, that He is a Saviour to them.

(2) God's Book is full of doctrines and promises. We declare them, and some one says, "You must prove. that doctrine or that promise to be true." The only way to prove a doctrine to' be true is by a personal experience of it through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ says, '1 Ye must be born again." Should you attempt to master the meaning and power of that doctrine by mere speculation, you would presently land just where Nicodemus did, and say, "How can these things be ? " Instead of doing so, suppose you attend further to what is said, namely, "Whosoever believeth, is born of God" (1 John 5 1 ; John 1. 12,13). In obedience to this Divine teaching, not knowing how it is to be done in us, we take that Word and yield ourselves to Jesus Christ; and lo! there dawns upon us an experience that throws light upon all that which before was a mystery. We have experienced no physical shock, but a great change is wrought in us, especially in our relation to God. "Old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5. 17)

Thus we come into an experimental understanding of the doctrine of the new birth.. So every other doctrine pertaining to the spiritual life is by God's grace transmuted into experience. For just as a word stands for an idea or thought, so the doctrines of God stand for experiences ; but the doctrine must he received before the experience can be' had. And, moreover, we are to receive all doctrines, all truth, through faith in Him, for Christ and His Word are inseparable, just as a man's note is only current and valuable because the man is good. A bank-note is received in the faith of the batik it represents. Should the -bank fail, the note instantly becomes worthless.

(3) But there are some things revealed ire the Word of God which we believe without experience.  For instance, we believe that this " vile body" (Phil. 3:21), dishonoured by sin and upon the neck of which death will soon put his foot, will in tire day of  His appearing and kingdom" (2 Tim. 4, 1 ; 1 Thess. 4:15) be raised, changed and. fashioned like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3. 21). Do you know how we can so surely believe these things ? We answer, because God has proved to us so much of His Word that when He announces something yet to be made true, on the basis of past experience we reach out toward and accept as true the promise of the future things. Indeed, He already makes it true in our hearts, for "faith is the substance of things hoped for " (Heb. 11. x). For even here we have a present spiritual experience ,which is as an earnest to us o£ the culmination yet future; for we are already risen with Christ. (Col. 2. 13; 3. x ; Eph. 2. 5, 6 ; Rom. 8. 11).

II.) THE BIBLE CONTAINS IN ITSELF THE ABSOLUTE GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE IN CHRIST.

Suppose we should come to you some day and call in question your ownership of your house, and, demand that you give it up -a homestead bequeathed to you by your father.. " Why do you make such a demand upon me ? " you ask. '° Because," we reply, " it is not your house, you have no right to it; at least you do not know that it is yours." " Oh, yes," you reply, '' I am quite sure it is my house." "How do you know? What is your reason for believing it is your house ? "

Why, because my father lived here before me." "That is no good reason." " Well, I have lived here undisputed for five years myself:" '° It does not hence follow that the house is yours." "But I am very happy in it ; I, enjoy myself, here." °' Well, but my dear sir, that you may do, and still have no right to it." At last, pushed to the wall,. you _ show us your father's will, duly written, signed, sealed and recorded.

This may serve to illustrate the point. A great many Christians are at a loss where and how to ground their "title:" It is not in the fact that you .are a descendant of a saintly father; a-child of believing parents, for, as old Matthew Henry says, " Grace does not run in the blood; " nor is it that you have membership in the visible Church of Christ ; nor is it to be found in delightful frames and feelings-in -a word, not even a genuine Christian experience constitutes your  title deed." Where, then, are we to bottom our hope? Why, just in the naked bare Word of God. It is written,

Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life," etc. -(John '5. '24). Straight to the record do we appeal for a final test as to our ,possession in God.' "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His -Son. He that hath the Son bath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (r John 5. 11, r2). Our faith lays hold on the Son of God, in whom we have redemption. (Eph 1. 7) by means of and through the recorded Word of promise, for this record was " written, that ye might believe that.-Jesus is in Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name" (John 20. 31).

III. THE WORD OF GOD IS THE MEANS. APPOINTED FOR THE CULTURE OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE.

James tells us (1. 18) that the WORD of truth is the instrument of our regeneration, and the Lord Jesus not only tells us that the truth °' snakes us free," but He prays they Father that we may' be "sanctified through the truth" (John 6-. 32-36; 17. 17-ig). And Paul tells us, in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, that  Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word," etc. (Eph. 5. 25, 27). "This is the will of God, even your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4. 3), for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness (r Thess. 4. 7). Alter , regeneration, nothing can be more important than this. We are told in the bible, and we believe it, that by and by we shall be in another state of existence, in the presence of the loving ands glorified Christ, that we shall see His face, and His name shall be on our foreheads (Rev. 22. 4), that we shall be absolutely untainted with sin, as glorious as' the uncreated light of God. (Rev. 21. 4, 27; Matt. -13: 451• This being the place and the company toward which we are being borne along so rapidly, we want to be prepared for both place and society.

Men of the world are anxious that they, or; it maybe, their children, should appear well in the society of this world. To this end they devote themselves and them to the schools of the world and fashion; the dancing-school and the academy, they fancy, is the only, place where polite manners and courtly grace may be acquired. Believers, too, are anxious that their children should be cultured and accomplished in every way worthy of being the King's sons or daughters, as by grace they are. But they should not think of seeking for them the entrée of what is called in this world the  best society, or sending them to fashionable finishing schools and dancing academies, in order to such end. If they may have their hearts filled with the dear, great
love of God; and the sweet grace of Christ; if they hang on the chamber walls of their souls as pictures,  Whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report, think on these things" (Phil. 4. 8) ; if they journey through this world in companionship with Him; if the Holy Spirit guides them through the Word, as Bunyan's Pilgrim was led through the  house of the interpreter, and shows them wonderful and beautiful things out of His law; if tile fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance " (Gal. 5. 22, 23),
adorns their lives and characters Christians are not then afraid that their children will be a whit behind the foremost society people in the land in culture of mind and heart, and grace of. manner. Ah! there is a heavenly culture and a Divine grace of manner that far transcend anything found in the schools of this world. 

 Goethe, who said he was "not Christian," has declared of the canonical Gospels:- "The human mind, no matter how much it may advance in in' e1lectual culture, and in the extent and depth-of the knowledge of nature, will never transcend the high moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the canonical Gospels." Renan, the French infidel author, concludes his Life of Jesus with these remarkable words: "Whatever maybe the-surprises-of the future, Jesus will never' be surpassed;. His worship will grow young without ceasing; . His legend will call forth tears without end ;; His suffering will melt the noblest hearts; all ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus." - And Strauss, .'the rationalistic' German author of the", Life of Jesus," says: °° Jesus presents within the sphere of religion the culminating point, beyond which posterity can never go; yea, which it cannot even equal. He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought, and no perfect piety is possible without His presence in the heart"

Thus the power of the " Book and the Person " for the highest culture of the highest nature of man, is affirmed by the great apostle of modern culture, and by those
who do not admit the Divine origin, of the Scriptures, or the'deity of Him of whom they are from first to last the witness. If, then, you want to know how to serve
God and do His will on the earth, and be thoroughly prepared and cultured for glory hereafter, take His Word, and make it the rule and companion of your life.

IV. THE BIBLE IS THE CHRISTIAN's ARMORY.

The Christian's calling in the world is that of a soldier. He must fight the good fight of faith. (I Tim. 6. Iz ; 2 Tim. 4. 7). Sinners are to be won from the power of the devil to God. Their intelligence, their wills, and their affections, are to be stormed and carried for Him; they are to be turned from the power of ~. darkness to light; their prison-houses of sin are to be broken into ; their chains knocked off and the captives set free (Acts 26. 16-r8y. We also, in our own Christian life and pilgrimage, are set upon by the powers of darkness; by ,the fiery darts of the devil. Doubts, infidelity, temptations, evil imaginations, unclean, unholy, and vain thoughts assail us, poured in upon our souls by Satan, the lusts of the flesh being thus set on fire of hell, if by this means the child of God may be overtaken in a fault or overcome by sin. But this warfare is not carnal, or after the manner of the flesh. " For though we walk in the flesh [have our lives as other men do in fleshly bodies] we do not war after the flesh : (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds) ; casting down imaginations [reasonings] and every high thing [lofty edifice] which is being, raised against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought in obedience to Christ" (2 Cor. 10.

'Just as Joshua went up against Jericho, and took its strongholds and high towers, and cast them down and made captive the city, not with carnal weapons, but with trumpets of rams' horns (Josh. 6), so we, proceeding against the strongholds, imaginations, and infidel arguments of men, are to take the Gospel trump. The sword we are to wield is the `° Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit " (Eph. 6 17) which makes him who wields it invincible. The Bible itself must be brought out, not only as the best defence -against all the` assaults of infidelity from the lofty towers'of human reasonings, but also as the mighty weapon to overcome and bring . the enemies of God into captivity.to Christ. " They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" (Rev. 12. II). 1' WherefoFe take unto you the whole armour of God; having your loins girt about with truth ; and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace ; and above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby -ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked ; and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of Cod " (Eph. 6.- t3-t7). We have only to recall how our weapon, " It is written," in order that we may be. furnished with the secret of successful warfare for Him.

The Bible contains ideas _ which ho philosophy or human theory can furnish, and therefore puts us in: possession of weapons which the, enemy cannot withstand when hard pushed by them, reinforced as they are by the invisible and mighty presence of the Holy Spirit, and which renders us impregnable to the assaults of the adversary. Of this mighty power of the Word and Spirit of God we -have .a splendid example in the case of Stephen, and other early disciples, whose words,

drawn from the Scripture, the Jews could, We have never yet met an infidel, or atheist whose arguments we could not turn aside when depend- irig simply on the Word of God. If you know God's thoughts and seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit, He will say out of your mouth the right word at the right time, both to ward off an assault and to strike a telling blow for the truth. And amidst all this warfare, the light and love and gentleness of Jesus Christ will so shine out in your bearing and manner that men will be convinced of your sincerity, and God will give, you the victory.

V. THE BIBLE IS A PERFECT MAP AND CHART TO THE CHRISTIAN ON PILGRIMAGE-THROUGH THE WORLD.

With God's Word in hand and heart you may tread, your way with perfect safety and confidence . through all the labyrinths of this world. The straight anti narrow way is clearly and .sharply marked. It is a highway (unseen, it may be, by the worldling) ~ in which a a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err (Isa. 35. 8), for it is everywhere marked 'by His commandments. More than that, we have an unseen Guide, even the Spirit of Truth, who leads us, and says to us, in places of doubt or uncertainty, ".This is the way, walk ye in it " (Isa: 30. 21). Thus, a pilgrim and a stranger, you may keep your onward way to the city of God in safety and confidence, following in the light of the Word, which is " a lamp to your feet, and a 'light unto-your path" (Psa. 119:105), the path that no one knoweth save He that leadeth thee. Yea, and you will find that the way, over hills and through valleys, shines more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. 4. 18). The Word of God is a chart that marks all the rocks and reefs in the sea of life; if we heed, and sail our frail bark by it, we shall come safely into the haven of rest at last.

VI. THE BIBLE REVEALS THINGS TO COME.

It not only contains the history of the past, of :God's dealings with nations, but it also contains much unfulfilled prophecy. Revelation is a book devoted to things that " must shortly come to pass." Prophecy has been called unacted history, and history is but fulfilled prophecy. It is a mistake to suppose that God's hand-in history has been limited to those nations mentioned in the Bible. Could we have the story of God in history, it would be seen that His .providence has been in and over all the great and small events of all nations. Daniel in his great prophecy has given a rapid and graphic sketch of the course of history from the Golden headed Babylonian Empire down to the end of time, when the " Son of man shall come with the clouds of heaven"  when there " shall be given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all nations and languages should serve Him." When He comes, " His dominion will be an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 2: 44. ; 7, 13-27). Meantime God among nations will be overturning, and "° overturning, and overturning until He comes whose right it is" (Ezek. 21: 7). '

Emperors and kings and cabinets are rapidly bringing to pass things that .God has marked out in prophecy ages ago. But they know not what they do. There are °° signs in the heavens," and on the earth there is " distress of nations with perplexity; and the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall. they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory " (Luke 21. 25-27 ). Of the day and hour when the flaming heavens shall reveal tbe °' appearing and kingdom " of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 4:1), no man knoweth ;. but we are bidden to wait and be ready, lest we be surprised by the great and notable day of the Lord. To this end the Scriptures are also written, that the loving student of them may live in advance of history, and be overtaken by no untoward event. If His prophetic Word dwell richly in our hearts and minds, there will be no great surprise for us as time goes on. We shall discern through the prophetic telescope, dimly, it may be, the approaches of those things out of which history is made.

There is a growing disposition on the part of many to make light (they know not what they do) of all prophetic study ; but our risen Lord, in His last revelation to John concerning things to come, caused him to write at the very outset : " Blessed is he that reai8eth and they that hear the words of this prophecy ; and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand; " and at the close of the book to add : " These sayings are faithful and true; and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold I come quickly; blesseth is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book " (Rev. 22. 6, 7).