We may by a little consideration observe the value which God has set on the revelation He has, from time to time, been making of Himself and His will, and also our own title to the direct personal use of that revelation. And such truths are of serious and happy importance to our souls at all times, but in some sense especially now.
When the Lord God planted and furnished the garden, and set Adam in it, He made all to depend on His word or revelation; "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This was the revelation then; and man's history, as we know, was to hang entirely upon it. And thus, at the very outset, we see what a place of value the word which had gone out from the mouth of the Lord holds; and it became the direct object of the serpent's assault and enmity.
So, when the character of things had been changed through man's disobedience to this first word of God, all is made to depend on another word: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." Man's return to God now depended on his belief of this word, as his departure from God had afore hung on his disobedience to the first word. For all now rested on faith, or obedience to this revelation. Thus we find that Abel, by faith, offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. All service from man now rested on faith or obedience to the word or revelation of God (Heb. 11). So high was the value which the Lord put on His word, making it, as before, the standard and the test of obedience, and the hinge on which man's history was to turn. And Cain's offering was in unbelief, or in despite of God's word about the seed of the woman. He despised God's word, as the serpent had before assailed it. And so in process of time, in like manner, Noah and Abraham are called forth from a revolted world by revelations from God, and their acceptance of such revelations determines their path in present peace onward to glory.
But when we reach a larger scene for the energies and acts of God, as in the nation of Israel, we still find that all was made to turn upon the revelation He was giving His people. We read that they were neither to add to it or diminish from it (Deut. 4 and 12). Thus carefully did He hedge around it and jealously watch over it, that it might not be entangled with the thorns of the wilderness of worldly wisdom, or disturbed by the admixtures of man's thoughts. And having thus protected it, and provided for its purity, Jehovah ordered that His people should bind it around their heart and their soul, and fix it under their eye continually, inscribing it on their gates and doors, making it their morning and evening meditation and the theme of their family intercourse (Deut. 6 and 11), so that they should let it in, that it might mingle itself with all their personal and social life, and shed its light on every path, however ordinary, of their daily journey. And if any of them were put at a distance from the more immediate place of the nation and of their religious observances, still the word was to be their rule there (Josh. 22:4, 54And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan. 5But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Joshua 22:4‑5)). And if any of them were called into circumstances which might be extraordinary or unlooked for, the same word of God should follow them there; for if there were to be a king in days to come, the law of his God should go up to the throne with him, and be there before him as fully as he was before the people (Deut. 17). And the history of Israel as a nation, like that of Adam in Eden and out of Eden, was to be determined by their use of God's word (Deut. 28).
What an expression of the value which the Lord set upon His Word all this gives us! and with what jealousy does He watch it, that He may maintain it in its purity! and how immediately would He have it bound around the heart and soul of each of His people!
It is blessed to see the Lord thus esteeming His own revelation, and commending it to our esteem; and, as we go on in His ways, it is His Word we still find the Lord using and estimating. Israel was disobedient to the word of His law, and what He does is to send them the word of His prophets. If they refuse one testimony, it is only another they must get. God will still use His word, and still make their history to rest on their use or abuse of it. And therefore we find that their final dispersion and bondage in Babylon came of this, that when the Lord had even risen up early to send them His prophets, they did but despise those prophets, and the words which they brought; so that wrath came on them to the uttermost, and there was now no remedy (2 Chron. 36).
There is however a return to Jerusalem out of Babylon, and return to God then is marked very clearly by a return to His word. The captives are obedient to the word. Ezra, for instance, makes it his meditation, the theme of his intercourse with the people, and the rule of his ways and acts in the midst of them (chap. 7). So Nehemiah and his companions. They read it, they own the power of it over their consciences, and they set themselves to walk and act in the light of it (chaps. 8 and 13). As long, or as far, as those returned Jews were obedient to God, so long, and so far, were they attentive to the voice of His truth, both trembling at and rejoicing in His word according to its spirit in addressing them. They had returned to God, and must therefore return to His word; and while this was so, blessing was theirs, and latter day blessing is made to depend on this also (Mal. 4:5, 65Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5‑6)).
When we open the New Testament, after all this, we find the word, or revelation of God, in this accustomed place of honor and value. It is put into the lips of the Baptist; no power lies in his hand, but the word of the Lord breaks from his lips. "John did no miracle," but he was a "voice" from God, acceptance of which was again to determine the history of Israel. So the Lord's own ministry, which this of John introduced, was not only a fresh ministry of God's Word (on the value of which I will not speak), but it did itself greatly honor the precious Word; and this still shows us what value in God's esteem His Word holds. Thus, in His acts, the Lord Jesus was ever fulfilling that Word, as the evangelists are careful to tell us; in His conflicts with the devil, He uses that Word as the gospels again tell us; and in His teachings, He is ever referring to that Word, rebuking the Jews for their value for anything else, for their use of traditions, and their neglect of it, and giving them to know that not a jot or tittle of it can in any wise fail; that the Scripture cannot be broken; and that if Moses and the prophets be not heard, even one risen from the dead would not avail to lead to repentance (John 5:4747But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:47)).
This is much to be observed; and thus did the Son, in His day, honor the Word. The Holy Ghost, in like manner, is a Spirit of revelation in the apostles, and fills up by them the Word of God. And not only so, but in them He does continually, clearly, and fully express His high divine sense of the value of the Scriptures. If man dare not add to it, God need not. It is perfect, able, as the Apostle tells us, thoroughly to furnish the saint to all good works. And no authority stands, or can possibly stand, on equal ground with it, so that even if an angel were to gainsay it, he must be cursed. It matters not who it may be, all must sink below the voice and authority of that gospel or revelation of God which had been delivered.
Thus do we see, from the beginning to the end, the Lord's value for His own Word-how He has made a hedge about it, that no rude hand may guiltlessly touch it, and also has appointed it to be the great standard at all times, on which the history of His people, either for blessing or for curse, was to turn, and has bound it around the heart and soul, before the eye, and on the palms of His people, and given it an authority which nothing is to be allowed either to gainsay or to rival. God of old, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, each in His day, attests this. And all this is precious to the soul. God and His Word are joined together. To give up His Word is to give up Himself, for He can be known only by His own revelation.
But if we see the divine estimate of the Word, with equal clearness and sureness we may see our title to that Word, and how the Lord has joined us and the Word together also, and that no man therefore can put such asunder.
By one short sentence the "ready writer" has given all saints an immediate personal interest in all the old scriptures. "Whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning." This one sentence writes our title to a most precious inheritance. The old scriptures are God's gift, and this word from Romans 15 is the deed of gift, entitling all saints to a common property in it. The title is short and clear and simple, as the inheritance conveyed is invaluable.
But with equal simplicity can we make out our title to the new scriptures. Luke addresses his Gospel to a private Christian friend, as we may speak, hereby showing that it was written for the saint in the most or din a r y circumstances—not committed to any elect order of persons, or persons in authority, but to a private Christian friend who bore no office or distinction of any kind; of whom, indeed, we hear nothing but in this address of the Evangelist to him. But this shows that this Gospel is given to us all. And if Luke be thus part of our inheritance, so surely are Matthew, Mark, and John. We ask no favor from anyone to allow this-the title is so clear, so simple, so beyond all question—and on the very same ground is our title to the book of The Acts. This was the property of the same private friend, the same Theophilus; any lover of God may deem himself in fullest possession of it, as a further part of his inheritance, and use it without reserve.
The epistles in their turn not only convey their rare and valuable treasures to our souls, but at the very outset tell us of our' title to them.
They are addressed (saving in personal cases, as Timothy, Titus, or Philemon) to the saints or the churches in the different places to which the Spirit by His apostles, sends them; and the book of Revelation (which, following the epistles, closes the volume of God) is sent to the seven churches in Asia; and thus we read the title of all saints to these words. They are not specially committed to any separated order of men, but cast upon the hearts of all the saints, as Moses had done with all the statutes and judgments of Israel. And I may add, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" would never have been written to the saints at Colosse if they had not title to the immediate personal enjoyment of that Word. But so it is, blessed be God. He has as simply joined His Word and the heart of His saint together, as He has joined Himself and His Word together. And we say again, "What... God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
And if any do so violently- if any take away the key of knowledge -they are falling under the direct judgment of the Lord; "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge." Luke 11:5252Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52).