YP Address—G. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Chapter 22 Proverbs, Chapter 22.
And verse 17.
Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise.
And apply thine heart unto my knowledge, for it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee.
They shall withal be fitted in thy lips, that thy trust may be in the Lord.
I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in Councils and Knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of Truth, that thou mightest answer the words of Truth to them that send unto thee.
And now shall we turn also to Second Timothy?
Second Timothy Chapter 3.
And verse 15.
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, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and in Second Peter, Second Peter, Chapter One.
Cool.
Verse 21 For the prophecy came not in old time, by the will of man.
But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And now in two Corinthians chapter one, First Corinthians, pardon me.
First Corinthians chapter.
First Corinthians chapter 2, I should say and.
Verse 9.
But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yeah, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even saw the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
Well, by these scriptures that I have read have here young people, you probably realize that I'd like to speak to you about the importance of the word of God.
I believe it's a very necessary thing for us in days like this. The very first temptation that Adam brought, that Satan brought to Eve was to raise the question how God said that is, he put a doubt into her mind as to the truth of what God had spoken. The very first recorded words of Satan in the New Testament are if thou be the Son of God. So you can see that in both instances it was an attack upon the word of God.
In the first instance upon the written word or spoken word, and the second one upon the living word.
00:05:01
Because the Lord Jesus is the living word. And it's a remarkable thing in the days in which we live that men are following this same course. It's called modernism, but it began away back in the Garden of Eden. Now that is questioning God's word. It isn't modern to be thinking that what God says is not true, or that this is not the word of God. It's the oldest attack that Satan ever made upon the human race.
And dear young people, he's still making the very same attack today, and perhaps more than ever. And to me it's quite a remarkable thing that men have made tremendous advances in science and knowledge in these last days. In fact, they have made such tremendous advances that they look upon everything that they have learned in the past as being almost unimportant. They say they've come to the point of breakthrough, and so that they have.
In the last perhaps five years, learned so much that the past doesn't seem important. Well, the effect of all this has LED men to question everything that they thought they knew. And I know that you young people who are going to school are being taught this very thing that it was once considered, that we know certain things, even that two and two make 4. But we must question all those things today.
It's only modern that we should question everything that we have thought that we know.
Now this is a very striking thing. It's quite a reflection on man that after almost 6000 years on the earth, he comes to the point where he says I don't know anything. I hope I'm going to know something in the future, but just now I can't say that I know anything. And this has led him to do it. Most foolish thing to think that God is in the same position as himself and that because he doesn't know anything after 6000 years, that perhaps God's word isn't the truth either.
Now what I want to bring before you, dear young people, is this. I'm very searching in a very solemn thing that it is true that God has allowed men to make these advancements. When man was placed on the earth, God said be fruitful and replenish the earth and subdue it. And God has allowed man to make some wonderful advancements in subduing the earth. But he never, never gave him any permission to question.
The the source of supreme knowledge.
God himself is the source of all. He is the one who gives us life and breath and all things. And I want to impress upon you this very serious thing that just because men have come to this point and they're beginning to question everything and I don't save it. What? It's rightly so, because a lot of things they thought they knew, perhaps even 10 years ago, they have found or not facts today. But should this lead us to question the word of God?
Now, this one who is infinite in knowledge, as the Bible says, does he have to make some advancements after 6000 years of human history? Does he have to tell us that he made a mistake and didn't know? Oh no, dear young people, Never. Never. And what I want to bring before you is the blessed fact that in this book, in a precious living word of God, you have a source of information on which you can rely. You have a source of information that is going to be.
Just as reliable through the eternal ages as it is at this moment. Because it's truth. It's the word of God. It's something that we can receive from our Creator, from the one who gave us life and breath and who talks to us. And this book is a revelation from God. And so again, I say Satan's attempt is to get you to question. It's nothing new. It's just the same old story.
But isn't it blessed that those who have clung to this precious book, of those who have relied upon it find it just as much up to date and perhaps more suited to the times than it ever was? Because the Bible is not only a statement of facts of things that have taken place, The Bible is also prophetic. The Bible tells us the future. The Bible tells us what is coming, not only what has taken place.
When Paul talked to those the philosophers on Mars Hill, he didn't enter into a discussion about their philosophies. What did he do? Why? He told them two things that their philosophies and their wisdom would never discover, two things that were the subject of divine revelation. He told them that God was the creator and he told them about the truth of resurrection, two things that man by his wisdom could never discover because the wisest man could never discover.
00:10:14
God as the Creator, they may discover what they think is the source of life, and if they can't discover it, then they'll just speak of the eternity of matter. But they'll never discover the true source because they reject the knowledge that God gives them. But Paul in addressing these philosophers he said, God in whom we live and move and have our being, and then he sat about Christ, that he has given assurance unto all men.
In that he has raised him from the dead. Yes, those were two things that are subjects of revelation. And this book, I tell you, dear young people, is a revelation from God, and you can rely upon it, and there'll never be any true science that will in any way contravene this wonderful book. It may be that there are things that God has not been pleased to tell us, and He hasn't been pleased to tell us how old this earth is in which we live.
He's been pleased to tell us when the first man was placed on it, but not how old the earth is or what took place before the 1St man was placed on it. There's many things about which God is silent.
But he has told us what we need to know, and I'd just like to speak a little bit about some of these verses that we have read and perhaps some others. Notice where we began here in Proverbs 22 and verse 17.
Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. That is, there's someone wiser than ourselves who is speaking. You know, if someone talks to you who doesn't know as much as yourself, you don't feel you're going to learn very much from them. But when someone talks who knows more than yourself, then you bow down your ear and God is speaking through this book.
God is speaking through this book, and He calls upon us as creatures to bow down our ears.
Those haughty ears, those ears that are listening to all different things that are coming out about man's advancement, he says bow down mine ear, because he has something to say to us. And the wonderful part of it is dear young people that he hasn't just told us these things merely for information, but he has told us what he has told us because he loves us and because he seeks our blessings.
Now, your school teacher may tell you some very interesting things. Many of them may be facts, because, as I remark, God has said that He was placed man in the position to be fruitful and replenish the earth and subdue it. We can expect that He is going to discover some things, and that God hasn't necessarily taken the time to tell us in His word. These things may be very interesting, very necessary for your work and for your position in life.
But what God is seeking to tell you are things that are for your good.
And for your happiness. He has spoken to us because he loves us. Because the very first words that God spoke, we spoke about the very first words that Satan spoke to man to bring in sin. The very first words that God spoke after sin had come in. What were they?
Adam, Where art thou? Adam, where art thou? God became a seeking God.
He was seeking man. He was seeking his good. He was seeking his blessing. It has been said that man's wisdom treats man as a race to be educated. The Bible treats man as a Sinner, to be either reconciled to God or to be judged. And this is where the Bible stands out, in absolute contrast with all the works of men. I don't care what kind of books they are, whether they're religious or otherwise, if they're written by men apart from the wisdom of God's Word.
They'll treat man as a race to be educated, to tell him certain things and recognizing that perhaps he can act upon these things but denying really the fact that he's fallen. Because the Bible treats man as a Sinner and he doesn't like that. But it's a different thing in the Bible than any other book I say, because it treats him as such and tells him that he must be reconciled to God, that he must get a new life, and then.
00:15:07
If he rejects this offer that God makes that then he must be judged because God speaks to man as a responsible person.
But again, I say to your young people, God addresses you because he loves you.
Satan's lie was that God was holding back from Adam and Eve, that which was for their happiness, he really was saying to them. In effect, God has given you many things for your happiness in this garden, but he's held back the best. The very thing that would complete your happiness, he has held from you. And if you'll just listen to me, I'll tell you what can complete your happiness. I'll be a better friend to you than God has been. Oh, what a lie that was.
But Adam and Eve listened to it, and so they fell. They received the knowledge of good and evil.
But they lost the power to do what's good and the power to refrain from evil.
What a sad plight to be in a world where you know good and evil, and to be unable to refrain from evil and not to have the power to do good. What a sad flight. And that's the world in which we live. But all how wonderful it is that God, after sin had come in, he begins. Then addressing himself to man, he brings before man his guilt, but he doesn't close the story without making the promise.
That there was going to be a Redeemer. That there was going to be one who would come and undo the works of the devil. Yes, that precious Savior who has come and who has accomplished redemption. And so I say again before I go on, that the reason God speaks to you is not merely to give you information, although there's much information in the Bible. But He speaks to you because he loves you, because He seeks your blessing.
Because he desires it more than anyone else on the face of the earth. More than your father, your mother, your best friend.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him, also freely give us all things? Yes, God is not going to be satisfied until he has a redeemed people from around himself in a place where sin can never enter. And then he is going to share with those redeemed people all that's in his heart. And as we had this morning in our Bible reading, He has called us friends.
Because he has brought us into these councils and purposes. He's told us what He has for us, and he is waiting the day when he is going to share it with us forever, unhinderedly, and he wants to share it with us now, as we had in our chapter. The Lord Jesus said that he spoke those things to his disciples, that their joy might be full. Yes, the devil is telling you that it's going to hinder your joy to follow Christ wholeheartedly.
To accept the Bible and to just take such a place before God is listening to his wisdom.
He's going to tell you that that is foolishness, but it is happiness. It is truth.
And it's not foolishness, it's the wisdom of God. It's foolishness to man, because man would rather be considered a race to be educated. He'd rather be an exalted ape than a fallen atom. Because if he's an exalted ape, why, this is something he can take credit to himself. He's climbed up. Oh, he says. Look how low I was. See those pictures? That's what I looked like in my ancient ancestry. Look how I've climbed. So he Pats himself on the back.
But to be told that he was created in the image and likeness of God and that he fell from it, This is humiliating. This is something that the natural heart doesn't like. But young people, it's the truth. It's the truth. But all we have something better. Even alone, we have fun.
God says I am going to lift you to a higher place than that from which you fell. You were in a state of innocence in the Garden of Eden.
But I'm going to lift you to a place in association with my beloved son, and you can't do this yourself. Also, man keeps on the climb as he thinks, and this climb in knowledge is only making him more confused and more miserable. But the truth of God shows that we're fun. By accepting Christ, we're lifted as beggars from the dunghill and placed among Princess. What a difference. Well, let us just notice this a little again and bow down.
Thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart.
00:20:01
Unto my knowledge, For it is a pleasant thing if thou will keep them within thee.
And they should. They shall with all be feted in thy lips. Isn't this nice? It says it's a pleasant thing if thou keep them within the Oh, it says thy word. Have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? I know when you go to school, some of you perhaps are studying for examinations, and you're studying ever so hard. You'll be glad when you can put the books on the shelf and say I'm so glad it's over.
But in spiritual things, it's not this way.
Because as you and I read the word of God and lay hold of it in our souls, that precious word.
Dwells in us as it says that the let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, as dear Mr. Darby said, he said, Read the Bible until you learn to think in terms of scripture. All dear young people, let it get right into your heart.
Word of God dwells within you. Oh, it's wisdom. This is something that's not going to require further advancement or something. You know, it's a very strange thing with man that even when he does recognize the Bible is something wonderful, he says. But at least we have to change it a little bit to bring it up to modern times. And in this sense, I would warn you of so-called new translations, you know.
The so-called new translations are not all translations. Some of them are interpretations.
That is, they're not making an attempt to actually translate the scriptures. They're actually trying to tell you in their own words what they think the Bible means. I warn you about some of these so-called new translations. I say again, they are not translations, they're interpretations.
And the attempt to try and make them suited to this day and age is very dangerous.
Because it says in the verse that we read in Corinthians which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Remember, God didn't just give the thoughts in the Bible, He gave the very words, and he didn't give them in the words that man's wisdom teaches. He gave them in the words that the Holy Ghost teaches. And we can only be sure that we have the truth.
When we have it in the very words of God. So I warn you again to be careful about the so-called new translations. Thank God there may be some that are reliable. We praise the Lord for the translation by Mr. JN Darby, which he sought to stick as closely as he possibly could to the very words in which the Holy Ghost spoke. And this, I think, is excellent.
And it's a it's a translation that we can be very thankful for. We have to be careful about some, though. But let us notice this now. It's a pleasant thing. If thou keep them within thee, they shall with all be fitted in thy lips. Isn't this all so nice? Fitted in my lips so that when some subject comes up just almost unconsciously, Why, aversive scripture comes to you, and it comes out of you, It's in you.
And the circumstance causes it to come out in its application to the situation.
That has come before you? Well, this is the way that the voice of wisdom speaks to the young man in the book of Proverbs, telling him that these are excellent things fitted to his lips. Verse 19, That thy trust may be in the Lord.
Yes, there's too much self-confidence in this day. Our natural hearts are full of it. self-confidence. I know that this is another thing that is greatly pressed in school today.
Self-confidence, self-expression to get the feeling that you can do this and that you have this possibility within you. Well, isn't this blessed here that thy trust may be in the Lord? Someone asked. A great servant of God, he said.
Can you tell me how I can study the word of God so I can get a good knowledge of it? He said study, study well. 5 words, the flesh, the four words I should say The flash. Prophetess. Nothing. Yes, we need to have confidence in the Lord, not in ourselves. Peter had confidence in himself, but Peter fell. Many another has had confidence in himself. It's natural to us.
00:25:10
That thy trust may be in the Lord all. Do you believe in him?
1.
Servant of the Lord said, Why is a man an infidel? Because he believes in himself. Why is he a Christian? Why is a man a Christian? Because he believes in Christ and not in himself. I thought that was a very good answer. And then for those and then for those, because he believes in himself, he has confidence in his own mind. He says that I am able to take up God's word and I am able to say whether it's true or not. That's a great deal of confidence that man has in himself, isn't it? He thoroughly believes in himself.
But the Christian doesn't believe in himself. He believes in God. He believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's why I'm a Christian, because I don't believe in myself. But I do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't even believe in my feelings. They change, but I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you? Is that where your confidence is? Well, if so, you have one upon whom you can truly lay confidence with absolute certainty.
I have made known unto thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in Councils and Knowledge. Now this is another thing I'd like to just mention to you. Excellent things in Councils and Knowledge. I'm amazed how many people think of the Bible as though it were only concerned with telling us the way of salvation, telling us that we're sinners, that Christ died for us.
Telling us that we have a home in heaven when we receive him warning us of judgment. And I seems to me that that's about as far as they seem to look to the Bible, other things in their life. They seem to consider their matters, that they must decide for themselves. But what I want to show you is that God is interested in everything in your life. There isn't a thing from the time that you are born until you die.
That is not the subject of his interest. He careth for you.
He is concerned about you and I don't believe that there is a single matter that can come up in your life.
Whether it's in childhood, whether it's in your teenage or whether it's in your 20s, or whether it's through your whole life that you won't find instruction in the word of God. Is it in connection with your job? Well, there's ever so much instruction in the word of God about preparing for Our Calling in life. Let every man abide in the same calling where he is called with God, and I believe even the verse that speaks about training a child according to the tenor of his ways.
Is not only the thought of the way we train them for the Lord, but rather than I believe it's a responsibility of the parent to see that the child has a certain bent and to help the child prepare in life for that which is the occupation God intended him to fulfill. God has a niche for you to fill in life.
And he can help the past, his parents, to help our children in this we don't have to defend just upon the guidance teacher at school. God gives us as parents this wisdom to observe our children and to be a help to them in making these decisions, even as to their calling in life. Doesn't He tell you a great deal too about the kind of partner you should have ever so many instructions about the things that are suitable and not suitable and those things that we'll make for your happiness?
In your marriage life, doesn't he tell you as children how to act? And doesn't he also tell us so much about how to get along with our brethren, with our neighbors, and not to be overly bothersome and all kinds of instruction in the word of God. It's all found in this blessed book. And even as our brother brought before us yesterday, even we can find instruction about clothes because God is concerned about these things.
You know, and I want to buy a new suit of claws. I like to have my wife with me. I like to please her about the clothes I buy. And I'm sure that if the Lord has said as much as He has about it, that he's concerned about it too. And that surely we can take the Lord with us, even about the clothes we buy, because he is concerned about everything in our lives. Dear young people, there's not a single thing. And then your whole life that the Lord is not concerned about. And perhaps you say, well, my friends like my hair a certain way.
00:30:06
Well, the Lord likes your hair a certain way too. And He tells you in His word, there isn't a thing about your whole life that the Lord doesn't give some instruction about. And if you just listen to his instruction, how much we have in His precious word, then we meet other Christians and they stand by the word of God about the way of salvation. They're so sure they know they're saved and thank God for it. But then you start to say to them, well, with what company do you fellowship?
Oh, well, I think we can choose our own church. And we found a nice active little group. And so on. Well, there's the word of God. Just leave us in this matter too. Does it say, Well, I've saved you now and you can choose the Church of your own choice? Well, men might say that, but God doesn't. God tells us about those things, too. He gives us instruction in his precious word about how we should gather.
For two or three or gathered together in my name.
There am I in the midst of them all. Dear young people, isn't this great, excellent things in Council and knowledge?
Excellent things in counsel and knowledge. I've told the little incident before about a a girl and she was having some problem in life and so there was a column in the newspaper which I guess some of the young people have seen where you can write in your problems and.
You'll get some answers from the wise people of this world. And I saw this girl, saw that there she'd read this column often and so on. This problem confronted her. She decided that she would write her problem in two, and she started to write her problem out and she didn't get it finished. At least she wasn't quite satisfied with the way she'd worded it. So she went to bed and left it lying on her desk. And her older sister came in after she'd gone to bed and asleep and.
She saw this lying there on the desk and she just rolled across it. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Well, I don't think that went in. I think the request went to the Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. All dear young people, God has given you such a wonderful source of information.
Unless we should find any problem in how to apply these things to our lives.
He has actually filled the Old Testament with stories of young and old.
Of men and women, of boys and girls who were placed in similar circumstances to ourselves. And I must say to your young people, I enjoy reading those stories in the Old Testament and just spinning myself right into the very circumstances I often see myself. Just like Joshua or just like Caleb or just like.
Jehoshaphat, with the temptation to go along with Ahab. And I fit myself right into those circumstances and I just see how that's just like the things I meet in life.
And not only does God tell us the wise choices, but He lets us see the mistakes that these men have made.
He doesn't just write down Thou shalt and thou shalt not. He opens his picture book and he shows us the lives of these men and these women, I say, and these boys and girls, and let's us see how they acted. He opens a chapter on college life in the first chapter of Daniel and there we find 4 Hebrew boys that were going to the College in Babylon and they were faced with a situation and we're told how they acted and how God.
Honored their faith? Yes, dear young people, there isn't a thing. You can just see the pictures in the Old Testament.
You can see how they acted. You can see the mistakes they made, You can see the results of the mistakes they made. And you can see that when they acted, how God blessed them because it says He that honoreth me I will honor, but he the despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed. It's a bad thing. When God has to lightly esteem us, we have a great esteem for ourselves.
But sometimes when we set aside his wisdom, he has to lightly esteem us, and it's because we don't listen to this wonderful instruction that he gives us all suited to our everyday life, all written down for us. I don't believe that there's a single circumstance in life that you won't find either a direct scripture or some principle, some story to give you the kind of light and the wisdom that you need.
00:35:22
And those various decisions of life and I would encourage you, dear young people.
Read the Bible. Read it until, as it says, it's within you, it's fitted to your lips and you realize that God, who knows all about you, has written these things down to help prepare you for those problems of life that you are going to have to face.
Your predecessors, before you face them, they lived in similar days, and lived under similar circumstances, not, perhaps exactly the same, but very similar. And God gives us this kind of instruction. Have not I written to the excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth?
That thou mightest answer the words of Truth to them that stand unto thee.
Yes, God has written these things. Well you say what is the remedy when you don't seem to have the faith you should? Well, I like that verse in Romans 10/17. It says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I believe that if you read the Bible carefully and prayerfully, why, you'll find that faith comes with the reading of it because God grants a blessing for reading His word and He gives us faith. Because I've often said the Bible carries its own credentials. Frankly, I'm not very interested in books that try to prove the Bible through science.
I believe that the Bible proves itself. I believe that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And especially in these days when the ideas of science are changing so rapidly, isn't it better just to rest upon God's word? As a matter of fact, you young people, it's not faith. If you require some other proof, I might illustrate it like this, Supposing that you told me something and I hung my head when you told me and said well.
I'm going to ask a few other people. If they say it's true, I'll believe it. Would you feel very happy about that?
Or you'd say you wouldn't believe it because I said today. So I go and I ask a few people.
I'm not very careful whether the people I ask are reliable or not, you know, and I wouldn't like to say that man's science is altogether too reliable. He doesn't think so himself and the present state of change, but.
The people that I ask, it's not too important whether they're reliable or not. And so I come back after a while and I say, well, I believe it now, I believe it now. Well, you said you believe me or do you believe the other people?
Well, dear friends, dear young people, you can safely believe God.
The Bible, I say, carries its own credentials. There is no book like it in the whole world.
As I said, and I say it again, it's the only book. It's the only book that treats man as a Sinner needing to be reconciled to God. All the other books carry a different character. They treat man in a way that pleases him. And that's why people don't like the Bible. They like to be flattered. They like to be told that they have possibilities. You like your teacher to say you've got the possibilities of your work. That sounds good, doesn't it? You've got the possibilities if you work, but God says you haven't got the possibilities.
But I'll give you a new life. I'll give you a new life. And that's what God does. He imparts a new life. And as we have been having in our meetings, a life that runs the way of his commandments, a life that delights in obedience, a life that is able and finds its joy in pleasing God. I know that his commandment, his life everlasting. And so I say I I believe that if you read the Bible.
You will find your faith will be far more strengthened by reading the Bible carefully and prayerfully.
00:40:00
Than by these other books, because these other books are, shall I say, they're leading you to place your faith in some other source than God who has spoken through his word. And so you find some people who believe the Bible because science proves it.
And I say that's not faith in God, That's faith in science. That's faith in science. But I believe the Bible because God spoke it all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And more than this, we don't need the, shall I say, the authority of the church to make it the word of God. When Paul stood up to preach in Thessalonica, did he come with the authority of the church? Oh, he had great authority when he was killing the Christians.
He had authority from the high priest and he was killing the Christians, but he didn't have any human authority.
When he stood up in Thessalonica and preached the gospel to those people, how did they know it was the word of God?
While the Spirit of God applied it to their hearts and consciences, and it says they received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh in you the belief. And so I say to your young people, this book that we have has stood the test of the ages. Think of a book, the last page of it, written almost 1900 years ago, and it's thoroughly up to date. It's more up to date than the daily newspaper.
Because it tells you things that are going to happen, and it's suited to the times in which we live. The stories in it are not so land equated that they don't fit into the very affairs of everyday life right now. The instructions about what I said, clothes and hair and all kinds of things, they're all just suited to our day. Why? If man had been writing a book about such subjects, they'd be far out of date. But here God writes a book and is perfectly suited to the year that it was written, and it's suited to our day.
It's God's book. It tells us things as I say that no scientist could ever discover, Tells us how God created the earth, tells us how it fell into the present state of ruin. Explains to us the reason for all the misery that's in the world, even telling us why animals suffer, and tells us about how God is going to set things right and how things are going to move toward that event when the Lord Jesus takes his rightful place. And here we find ourselves just at the time.
When everything is moving for that wonderful event, when the second man, the Lord from heaven, the one who came to undo the works of the devil, is about to take his rightful place. And God looks around the whole panorama of the world's activities and says, as this time comes, you'll see this happen here and this happened there and that happened there, and we just watch these things that God has unfolded. I asked you, the young people.
Is this a better proof than scientific proofs? Is it better than all that man can give to contribute to prove to your mind that this is the word of God? Read it. Read it prayerfully. Read it until you think in terms of Scripture. Read it until your very thoughts are occupied with a blessed One of whom it speaks. For this book, this precious book is not just a revelation of truth, it's a revelation of a person who is the truth.
A person I say, who is the truth, and so I've sometimes told a little story which perhaps some others have heard me tell about this man who was very busy in his study and his little child came in constantly and was interrupting him and trying to talk to him while he was trying to concentrate a little bit and.
So the child kept talking to him. At last he opened the drawer of his desk and he pulled out an old map that he had.
And he took Paracissors and cut the map all up. And he gave it to the child and said, here now, dear, put this together. Well, the child got down on the floor beside her daddy and started at work. And he thought he'd given her something to keep her occupied for quite a while because he didn't think she knew too much about geography. But it wasn't very long till she jumped up and she said, Daddy, it's all done.
Well, of course he was expecting to see a mass or something. He didn't see how it could be, and quickly he glanced down. A child had worked it from the other side. The child didn't look at the map on the other side was a great hand, and the child had worked it from that side, and there was that hand, and if it could have been turned over, every place would have been correct. Everyone would have been in this right place. All the different places on the map would have been perfect.
00:45:21
Because the child understood geography, no, but it knew the hand. And all dear young people. The Lord Jesus. As he walked with the two on the road to Emmaus, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And God has given in His word the history of two men. The first man fallen and ruined, the first man, bringing in nothing but confusion and sorrow and misery. The 2nd man, the Lord from heaven, come down into this world.
Promised a way back in the Garden of Eden.
Come down here. What for? Come down here, that you and I might know his heart, and I say again be lifted to a more wonderful place than if sin had never entered a more wonderful place, because he is going to have us in association with himself in glory. And when we see these things, all man's progress looks awfully dim.
Looks awfully dim. I've often said. They talk about great medical progress and all that medical science has done. But did you ever stop to think, dear young people, we would have never needed medical science if sin hadn't come in? Oh man doesn't like that.
This is a tremendous admission. All we've advanced so much in what we've done. But why did we need it? Why did we need it? Because sin came in, that's why. Because sin came in. Why all the ways of saving labor? Because sin came in. I'm sure all you sisters have so many helpful things in your house. And you say, isn't this a grand thing? Look how it helps me do the work. But why is all this work here?
Why is it all here?
Wonderful devices. But why is the work here Sin came in all there's a scene where the second man is going to bring in blessing with none of the effects of sin or its results. Isn't that worth looking for? Isn't that worth waiting for to your young people? And how shall we turn, just for a few moments, to that passage that we read in First Corinthians chapter one?
Verse 9.
I'd just like to call attention to a few points here in this passage which I think are important about inspiration.
Tonight first, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them, that love him. Now this verse is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. Joy say it was the Old Testament state, that is in the Old Testament, that God was partially revealed. He had purposes of blessing for man, but those things could not fully be brought out until redemption was accomplished.
And saw, and I had not seen your ear heard, neither had entered into the heart of man, the things that God prepared for them, that loved him. There were perhaps little glimpses, But the next verse is the New Testament condition, the 10th verse. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit search of all things, yeah, the deep things of God. Now this tenth verse is the New Testament.
God took a man up to the 3rd heaven. He showed him those wonderful things.
Told him some of those wonderful councils and purposes, and then he sent down his Holy Spirit, so that we might know these things, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. The Spirit of God came down, saw that we might know these things. So in the Old Testament was what was not revealed has now been revealed. Now the 11Th verse. For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even saw the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Well, here we find a book. It wasn't written by men, it was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
00:50:15
It says here that what man, or the things of a man say, the spirit of a man which is in him every time an unsaved person says to you nobody can understand the Bible, you say, Well, that just proves to me again that it's true.
Because if a book is written by man, a man who has the spirit of a man can understand it. And the proof that this book is divine is that men who have the spirit of man can't understand it. What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? There's never been a book written by man that other natural men of equal intelligence could not understand. They could always understand that if they had the intelligence of the writer.
But now here's a book, and God says it's been given by his spirit, and so he tells us now you'll never understand it either, unless I give you the same spirit that brought the book. And this is what happens when you get saved, When you accept the Lord Jesus as your personal savior, the spirit of God comes to indwell your body. And from that moment on, the Bible becomes a new book to you because God has given you the Spirit.
By which this book was indicted. And so it says, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. Isn't this a wonderful thing? Isn't this a proof of the divine origin of this book? Inspired by the Spirit, the Spirit of God comes to indwell us and saw that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
And then to guard this very carefully in the 13th verse which I quoted before.
It says which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth.
Which the Holy Ghost teaches. Don't be surprised that the language of Scripture is a very precise and perhaps at times a little different, because it is the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. These are words which are suited for man over his time upon the earth and saw God has written it in such a way that it could be received by those who were indwelled by the Spirit of God.
And so it tells us here it's not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. And that's another thing. When you read the Bible, read it carefully. So you get the very words of Scripture. You want the very words of Scripture because they're the very words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Now the 14th verse tells us plainly. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
Now, I'm sure that many of your friends have said why the Bible's foolishness?
Well, this only should prove to you the Bible is true. It would be to be expected if they said that it was. If they said that they could understand it by then that would be very strange, wouldn't it? Because God says the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. He doesn't have the Spirit, He doesn't have the Spirit, so he can't know them.
But now this 15th verse I think is important. But he that is spiritual Judgeth, or if you have a margin it says discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned in the margin of no man. Now perhaps you say, well I believe I'm saved. I believe I know the Lord is my savior. But I I don't seem to get very much out of the Bible when I read it. I don't seem to get very much.
Well, you get a great deal more than the unsaved people because the unsaved can't understand it. I'm sure that you get many precious thoughts, but it says he that is spiritual discerneth all things, and this is a matter of growth in the things of God as we go on in our Christian life.
And allow the Spirit of God to have His place in leading our lives. Then the word of God will be continually opening up to us with new and precious thoughts of Christ. Don't be discouraged, dear young people. God has given you the Spirit. But this book is infinite. It's God's book, and a lawyer has given you the Spirit. It's a thing we'll be all through our lifetimes still learning more of this infinite book, but as we allow the Spirit of God His place in our lives.
00:55:14
By then the book becomes more and more precious to us. It opens itself up to us. And it was very interesting to me to see in such a dear man as Mr. Darby that as he approached the end of his life he was still talking about new things that he saw in this wonderful book.
Dear young people, again, as I close, I command it to you. I command it to you. You have the most wonderful treasure in your Bible. Don't allow the foolishness of man. Don't allow the advancement of science and knowledge today to lead you to put the science books in the same class as your Bible. They're not in the same class we expect. And I'm sure if you live a few years longer, if the Lord doesn't come, that you're going to find a lot more of men's books discarded.
And set aside because it's going to be tremendous changes if the Lord doesn't come. Men are learning more and more.
But this is God's book. This is God's book. You can rely upon it just as safely in 1968 as you could rely on it in 1900 and 1850 years ago. And if the Lord leaves us here 10 years more, it will be just as reliable, just as up to date, just so suited to your need. Read it, pray over it, Ask God by His Spirit to make it more precious to you and all. Value it. You'll never, never have such a wonderful treasure.
In your whole life, as you've got in the possession of the precious living Word of God in your hands, God's revelation to you, there's a famine coming. A famine, not for bread or for water, but for hearing of the word of the Lord. The famine hasn't come yet. Prize it, Read it. May God make it a rich blessing to your souls, and may it reveal Christ and all his loveliness and all his glory more and more to your heart and mind, that we may see in it more of the things.
Concerning himself, let's look to him for his blessing.
Our blessed God and our Father, we look up to Thee.