We have seen how the Lord answered the devil's common temptations entirely by the Scriptures, as the Word of God. And it is striking that as to similar attacks of the devil, men generally use their own reason, power, and will, and never think of turning to the Word of God for an “It is written.” It is also further remarkable that in each of these cases the Lord turns, to the writings of Moses, as the Word of God— the very writings especially attacked by modern ignorant infidels. These far-seeing men in darkness tell us that they are not the writings of Moses, but were written hundreds of years after him. Let us hear Him of whom God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”—He who alone could say, “I am the truth.”
To the healed leper He said, “Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded” (Matt. 8:4). He appeals also to the words of Moses in the matter of divorce: “Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female.... For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” And what these words of Moses teach, He regards as of God. “What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,” etc. The whole context proves that the Lord owned the words to be of and by Moses. And the Pharisees acknowledged the truth of this (Matt. 19:3-8). See also Mark 1:44, “And offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” “For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother,” etc. This Jesus regarded as the commandment of God (see Mark 7:9, 10). To the Pharisees on another occasion He said, “What did Moses command you?” (Mark 10:3). “Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham” (Mark 12:26-31). “They have Moses and the prophets ... .If they hear not Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:29, 31). “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Thus, Moses and all the prophets are declared to be the scriptures by the risen Son of God. “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45). Do we need any clearer proof than the plain teaching of Christ? “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Let us agree with Philip, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write” (vs. 45).
Jesus constantly refers to facts recorded in the books of Moses. He says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). “Did not Moses give you the law?... Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision” (John 7:19,22). Such is the uniform teaching of Christ. Thus the puerile attempts to repudiate the authorship of Moses, or the inspiration of Moses (the law), the psalms, and the prophets—as God truly speaking to us by them—is a wicked attempt to make Jesus a liar and a deceiver. My soul, be thou found with Him, the light and life and the truth, and not lost in the wanderings of modern thought.
The teaching of the Holy Spirit, in the Acts and the epistles, is equally decisive. “For Moses truly said unto the fathers.” And the words of Moses are “the covenant which God made with our fathers.” “Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21-26).
Can we say of any other writings that God has spoken to us by those writings? No, assuredly no! This is the true sense of inspiration. God has spoken to us in the Holy Scriptures—and Moses is spoken of first. “For Moses truly said unto the fathers,” etc. This is what we must understand by inspiration: God using men to convey His very words to us. What a privilege to be thus brought into direct contact with God.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by [or in] His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). Thus all Scripture was in the beginning owned as the very Word of God; as such it was quoted by the Son of God, and as such was always regarded by the inspired apostles. Hearken to Paul; “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.... For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (1 Thess. 2:4-13). So he exhorts Timothy to continue in the things which he had learned. “And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:15-16). Therefore the closing words of Paul to Timothy are these, “Preach the word.” For the time would come, and now is, when they will not endure sound doctrine.
Peter also says, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” It is not merely of man's ability. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:20-21). Oh, how dignified then was the Lord's answer to the devil, “IT IS WRITTEN.”
Let us then beware of appealing to any authority, but to the Word of God. Now, as God did not speak to us in our own tongue, it is of the utmost importance that we should have the best and most literal translation — and that we should not add, or take from, for even one word would often alter the entire sense. There can be no compromise on this question. To give up one verse, or one thought, which God has spoken to us, is to give up all, and set up ourselves as God. In no other way can we meet the attacks of the devil than by appealing by faith to “It is written,” in the Word of God.
It is also important to remember, that the New Testament is regarded equally as the Word of God with the Old. (See 2 Pet. 3:16; Rev. 22:18-19.) Also Paul says to the Corinthians, “What! came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:36-37). Where can our souls rest with calm security amid the confusion and contradictions of these last days, if we could not go back to that which was in the beginning, to the very words of God to our souls?
To bring down the inspiration of the Scriptures then to the level of Milton, or Shakespeare, or any mere man, is to reject the revelation which God in richest grace has been pleased to give us. Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the apostles, quote the whole Old Testament as the Word of God. And as to themselves, the inspired writers of the New Testament, John sums up all in a few words, “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6). However men may in these days of development reject the Word of God, or treat it as a mere human imperfect book, or books, it is most certain that in the beginning every Christian received it, as it is, the very Word of God. If a man did not, he was not of God, but of the spirit of error. Is it not so now? By this simple test then we know, that whoever questions the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture, is himself assuredly in error. All this may seem a long digression, but since our only appeal will be to “It is written,” how vast is the importance of being well grounded in the fact, that what is written is the sure Word of God.
Now let us for a moment suppose the Bible to be withdrawn from this world, and every ray of light borrowed from the Bible. If such a thing were possible, what would be the condition of mankind? How would you answer the thousand questions that rise in your mind? How came this world, or this universe, into existence? We see in its existence proofs of infinite wisdom and power, but how came the things we see to exist?
Then what contradiction to that wisdom and power in the overwhelming scene of misery and death which covers the globe on which we live. How came this to be so? What could man say, except, I don't know! What means, and what is that terrible thing we call conscience?—that terrible remorse of the human mind, for having done the things it hates, or loves, which leave such a poisoned sting? And what is the remedy, and where is it to be found? The poor dark mind could only reply, I don't know. Will death end it? I don't know. Is there a future after death? I don't know. What is the future of this world, even here? What is your future? On all these subjects and thousands more, take away the Holy Scriptures, and man is left in total darkness. No God of love to speak to him. No Savior from the terrible despair. No comfort, no help here, or heaven hereafter. The only thing such a man could do, would be to say, with Voltaire, I wish I had never been born. Nevertheless, God did not leave the heathen without a manifestation of Himself, as we learn from Romans 1.
O young man, think of the end and aim and development of modern thought. Let it once get possession of you, and in the wretchedness of despair, as I have seen it, you may long in vain to be delivered from the poison you have' imbibed in the writings of modern unbelief, which after all is not modern. No, it is as ancient as the words of the tempter, “Yea, hath God said?”
God has spoken in His holiness; we will rejoice. Yes, He who said, “Let there be light,” has spoken. What would this globe have been without light? Just what it would have been morally if God had not spoken. Oh, the mighty power, oh, the eternal blessedness of the Word of God. I have known a dying man, by five words of Jesus, turned from a blaspheming infidel, to a happy believing child of God here, and in a few hours in heaven. Those words were “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” God grant that the reader may never reject that Book of books, that treasure of all treasures. Well do I remember singing, when a youth, fifty years ago—
“The Word of God, the Word of truth,
Instruct our childhood, guide our youth,
Uphold us through life's middle stage,
And be the comfort of our age.”
Praise be to God, I have found it so. No, fellow believers, let us earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. It may possibly be asked, How am I. to know what was the faith once delivered to the saints? Let us then turn to the sure Word of God. May He grant us grace to reject everything concerning which we cannot, with our Jesus, say, “It is written.” What is written then let us turn and see.