Psalm 119:97a
O How I Love Thy Law (NAS)
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Some of us are old enough to remember the Southern Baptist struggle to lift high the inerrancy of Holy Writ. Younger ones among us can read about it in history books, but to those of us who lived it, the contest has taken on the status of beloved folklore, legend, and legacy. We savor it.
But one danger of worthy causes won is; what one generation fought for, another generation can take for granted. For instance, our forebears died to win religious liberty; now an alarming number are nonchalant about it.
We remember the story of the ruler in India who built a massive mausoleum to honor his dead wife. After years of construction had gone by, he one day ordered a box to be taken out of his way. It was his wife's coffin.
The Bible has won a place of primacy in our theology. The question is; will it win a place of primacy in our hearts? Believing it is not the same as loving it. My goal for today is simple: I want us to love the Bible more.
Love it in the private place. Studying the Bible is not enough to bring us victory in our spiritual lives. We must weave it into the warp and woof of our innermost being. We must be in the Word for the Word to be in us.
I ask us, "Do we love the Bible? Are we in the Word, reading from it daily, reading all of it yearly?" Beware the religious person's downfall. Many preachers and laypeople can trace their spiritual failure to having let studying and hearing about the Bible substitute for being in the Word.
I made this near-fatal choice in seminary. I was attending religion classes and studying theological books. I decided I did not need daily private devotional time. As my brain filled with facts, my spirit bled dry. I was dying on the vine. I am glad I learned this painful lesson in early adulthood.
I love to read. I am addicted to it. I love to read books, newspapers, magazines, obituaries, and tombstones. Mud Island in Memphis boasts a one-mile scale model of the Mississippi River. On the walkway are placards telling about significant events that happened on the river. One day, when the temperature was over 100 degrees, I read every marker while Ruth and the children writhed in the heat. Dearborn Village has acres of vintage cars, each one having an explanatory placard. When we entered the museum, Ruth grabbed my arm and said, "You are NOT going to read every sign!"
I love to read anything, but above it all, I try to stay in the Book. 2015 will mark the fortieth consecutive year I have read the whole Bible. This custom is the most helpful single discipline in my spiritual walk before God.
Much good literature is available. Beware, dear saints, best's worst enemy is always second best. In the private place, love the Bible most of all.
Love the Bible in your pulpit. In sermons, don't quick-read passages. Take time. Let people hear and absorb God's precious words. Google Margaret Thatcher's funeral and hear her granddaughter masterfully read the Bible. She treated it like it mattered. In your preaching, always remember YHWH's question, "What does straw have in common with grain?" (Jer. 23:28 NAS). Never forget which is straw and which is grain. Wheat, what matters most, is God's words; chaff is ours. Don't act like it's the other way.
Christianity has no authority apart from the Bible. Spurgeon rightly said, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is our religion."
Believers have no right to speak of absolute truth apart from God's written revelation. Without Scripture, a preacher's thoughts are merely guesswork, anyone's opinion is as valid as any other person's; swampy subjectivism muddies the water. Only the Bible is eminently trustworthy.
Reformation fires ignited John Calvin's heart. He destroyed the idols in his cathedral, and built an elevated table to set the Bible on. Henceforth the Bible retained the highest place in his building. A preacher entered the pulpit by a stairway. To discourage distractions, the preacher wore a robe, and the only sound coming across the top of the pulpit was the voice of an almost hidden preacher, whose words floated over God's Word. The Bible was love-number-one. My boyhood church called the pulpit the sacred desk. From it God's man heralded God's truth from God's Word to God's people.
Love it in your pulpit for the sake of our nation and churches. We all yearn for revival. Only God can bring order out of our social chaos. I am pleased with calls to prayer I repeatedly hear and read. These encourage me.
I am appalled at the dearth of preaching I hear about the six great Old Testament revivals. This troubles me because by ignoring them we miss a profound truth; all six were begun, not primarily in prayer, but in response to God's written Word. Revivals under Joshua (JS 8:32), Asa (2 CH 14:4), Jehoshaphat (2 CH 17:9), Hezekiah (2 K 18:6), Josiah (2 K 22:8), and Ezra (EZ 7:10) were "Bible revivals". God's conviction came on people from a re-discovery of His written Word. If revival comes in our corporate life, it will descend on the wings of prayer and ascend from the pages of the written Word. Revival hinges on both/and not either/or. Keep preaching hard about prayer. At the same time, ratchet up a notch your preaching about the Bible.
Love the Bible in the parsonage, in our homes. We must teach our families to love the Bible. Encourage your spouse, and teach your children, to love this book. Keep one on the coffee table. Read from it to the kids every day. Give them Bibles when they leave home. Tell them you love it.
Ruth and I host about 40 college students in our home for Bible study, food, and fun on Thursday nights. We break into six groups: 3 guys, 3 gals.
Ruth and I grieve over the lack of Bible knowledge the kids who grew up in church have. They can be ignorant of the most rudimentary Bible truth.
If I had my way, every high school sophomore would be taken under wing by a mature believer who would stay with them, meet regularly with them, through thick and thin, till they became at least sophomores in college. They have to stay in the Word. If someone does not pressure them in this Bible quest, we feed lambs to wolves. We must teach them to love the Bible.
I remind you, Pastors and staff members, of a vital truth. You, not your church, are responsible for the spiritual development of your children. You must teach them to love the Bible. It is the only tangible thing you can give them to take with them to aid their spiritual walk when they leave you.
Many of our own children are driven to ruin by seeking life's answers in the wrong places. The only right place to look is to the sacred Scriptures.
We Pastors are devastated when our people, and especially our own families, come to us with tales of unspeakable woes that can be traced directly to not loving the Bible. The Bible is our children's friend. Teach them to love it. Emil Brunner well said, "The fate of the Bible is the fate of Christianity." Do our children know this? Have they heard us talk like this?
My Grandpa Marshall called the Bible "The Book," as if no other book deserved to be ranked with it. When he lay a corpse, my grandma said he did not look right. After she had his Bible brought and placed under his hands, she said, "Now he looks like himself." "God, help me love the Bible like that. Let no discernable distinction separate Holy Writ from holy life."
Love the Book. It will carry us when nothing else will, all the way through the valley of the shadow of death. And then, once we have passed into the light casting the shadow, the Bible will remain behind to comfort our loved ones left here in the dark valley. At my wake, I want people to hear in the background my recorded voice preaching the Bible.
On my tombstone, I want an electric eye that will activate my voice preaching the Bible. Late some night, I hope a drunk will stagger past my grave, trigger the preaching, and get saved from hearing the Bible preached.
Is our love for the Bible waning? Has the infallible inerrant Book become less important to us in private, in the pulpit, and in our parsonages?
Never take it for granted. In persecuted lands, visitors see handwritten copies of the entire Bible. In the Middle Ages, Bibles were chained to poles to keep them from being stolen. It is the most amazing book ever, worthy of our saying in private, in the pulpit, and in the parsonage, "I love Thy law."
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