I am going to bring some messages on the fact that the Bible is God's Word and the Bible faithfully records what God has said and what He has revealed to man. This is the issue of issues today. And whatever your attitude shall be along that line has a lot to do with determining what your destiny out yonder in the life to come shall be.
Now without doubt all through the ages there have been three great issues that have concerned men as they have sought to relate themselves to Almighty God and their eternal welfare. These three issues are brought before us in 1 Kings 18:36-39. I want you to remember that in this chapter we have a record of the contest between Elijah, the prophet of the true God, and Ahab and the prophets of Baal. Any of you could quote almost by heart the record of the conflict of Elijah with Ahab the king – how Elijah dares the prophets of Baal to produce a god who is alive, and how they bring the offering and dig the ditch and pour water on the altar – and then Elijah saying, "We are going to let God decide, we are going to test, we are going to prove; and the God that answers by fire, let Him be God."
When the preparation for this contest was fulfilled, the prophet Elijah, I think, raised his eyes and looked up to heaven, and in verse 36 and following, which we have as our text, we read: "And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy Word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God."
Now there are three great issues in this prayer of Elijah to Almighty God, and as I mentioned a moment ago, I think they are the three issues that have been in the thick of the fight between heaven and hell; between Satan and the Lord Jesus Christ; between the people of God and the people of Satan. The three issues are simply this as they are recorded in his prayer. First, Who is the true God? Secondly, Who are the true servants of God, the true prophets of God, the true preachers of the Word? And thirdly, Is the Bible the sure enough record of God Almighty's revelation to man? Notice how these three issues are encompassed in our text here in verse 36: "Elijah said [here is the first issue], Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and [the second issue] that I am Thy servant, and [here's the third big issue] that I have done all these things at Thy Word!" There's the issue.
Praise God, there is just one true God. There in Elijah's day there were gods many, and there are still gods many, but there is just one true God and eternal life is to know the only true God. John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. "Luke 10:22: "All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no man knoweth Who the Son is, but the Father; and Who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him," And so the issue in the midst of all the conflict around the world with gods many, with men making their own gods out of the wickedness of their own hearts, with men taking their pocket knives and creating a god with whom they can be comfortable, with the heathen gods, with the gods of men and women everywhere – the issue still today is, "WHO IS THE TRUE GOD?" Who is the true God? And if there is only one God, if there is a true God, if there is only one true God Who has revealed His will and His mind and His purpose and His ways to sinful man – Who is He?
My friends, that brings us right back to the Bible. Is the Bible the record of what God has said to men? The conflict rages everywhere now as to whether or not the Bible is the Word of Almighty God. We have so many answers now, and I think I am dead right when I say that every issue that is afloat in the so-called Christian world heads up in the right answer to this question. When I take up the Word of God, written on the cover there is the title "Holy Bible" (that was put there by man of course), and I open it to the book of Genesis and thumb through until I come to the last "Amen" of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ –Whose Book is that? Is it a cleverly contrived way to pull the wool over people's eyes? Is it some truth and some error? Is it the product of the best salt of the day in which it was written; or do we have here a miracle of God's grace, preserved through hell and high water, through controversy, through burnings many and through persecutions? We have the opportunity to sit down in the quietness of our own rooms and open a book called the Holy Bible, and read as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and makes the record to mean something to us. Can we actually read words that come from God Almighty Himself? That is the issue.
We have got the Bible of the modernists. We have got the Bible of the heathen. Even Khrushchev has been over in this country now, and he has been referring to God in Whom he said he does not believe at all, and everybody is getting religious. Everybody believes in some kind of a higher being, and everybody is for home and righteousness, and Motherhood, and God, but nobody pays much attention to the revelation that God has made of Himself, that revelation written down in a Book preserved through every persecution until this very hour.
But oh, my! It will not do to worship the Bible. It will not do to be superstitious about the Bible. It will not do to put the Bible in the place that we ought to put God. It will not do to say, "I believe the Bible," and never pay attention to what it says. The issue, my friends, is this: If God has revealed Himself and His will and His way in a recorded word and this Bible is that record, the faithful record, the true record of God Almighty's revelation to man, and the Holy Spirit is here to interpret the Scripture and open blind eyes and take the wax out of ears and give you a new heart, so that the Word of God will be real to you – if that is so, I tell you, all of our eggs are in this one basket, "Is the Bible the Word of God?" Is it the record or the revelation of Almighty God?
2 Peter 1:21: "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."
I read this poem many years ago, and I have carried it with me, I guess, 25 or 30 years. It reads like this:
I thank God that I am just an humble fool enough to believe that, in spite of every effort of Satan and his tools, we still have the record of God Almighty's revelation to sinful men! With old Elijah, every time I preach I can say, "Oh, God, visit us, not just for my word, but You let people know by the work of the Holy Spirit that what I am saying came from Thee!" And I am delivering to you, "Thus saith the Word of a Holy God." That Word has been put in a Book, and that Book is the Bible, and it is a true record of God's revelation to sinful man. I thank God I can believe that in spite of all the scissors that modernists have used to cut out of the Bible what they cannot understand and do not think is acceptable – despite of all the maneuverings on every hand from one direction and another – I still believe the good old Book!
What I am saying is this, "I don't care how much evidence they bring and that the scholars say, 'Well now, we are not able to believe so-and-so. We have reached the place now where we are able to sit in judgment on the Book, and this part may be acceptable but that part we will have to cast away.' The results of scholarship as they call it now –this part or that part of the Bible is no longer accepted as the Word of God. But bless God, I don't care how they talk; I have got something now that I didn't have when I was a boy! I've got some inside information about this old Book."
I don't think I am speaking to anybody now who didn't, when you were a child (especially if you were brought up in Sunday School and church) hear preaching and hear Mama talk about the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, and you used to wonder if it were so. I know I did. I heard everybody talking about Jesus being the Son of God, and I said, "I wonder if that is so." I thought, "That couldn't be. God couldn't be down here. God couldn't have been born as a little baby in a woman. God couldn't do that." And I used to wonder about it. Now I can tell you that I don't wonder about it anymore. I don't have any more proof to offer than I had when I was a boy, but I know the Bible is so. And I am as sure as I am sitting here right now that I have had a real encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother, I don't care what you do. You can tear up everything and throw everything away, but here is one old sinner who believes that Jesus died, not on the testimony of Mother or anybody else, but on the testimony of the Holy Spirit as He has taken this old Book that I am talking about this morning and made it real to my old sinful heart. And I have seen Christ. I have beheld His glory. Have you?
I tell you, everything depends on whether or not, in the Word of God, we have a record of what God has to say to men. Isn't that so? Why, you tear up the Book and remove it from every place on earth, and as soon as this generation of people who had a living encounter with the Son of God have gone on, then you wipe Christianity off the face of the map. But, thank God, He has given us a Book that they haven't been able to destroy. They have tried to. Bless God, I've got the Book, and I have the ONE Who wrote the Bible, and bless God, I am perfectly satisfied! Psalm 100:5: "For the Lord is good,' His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations." Psalm 117:2: "For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord." Psalm 119:41: "Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Thy salvation, according to Thy Word." And Psalm 119:11: "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee."
I remember many years ago I was a student in the seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, and I had what they called a student pastorate. I lived in Fort Worth and went out on the weekends and preached to the people. One day I got a telephone call and they said, "Mr. So-and-So is dead and we want you to come and preach his funeral." I left my classes and got on a bus and went out to my little church about 60 miles from Fort Worth, and I went into the home. There was that dear widow with a lot of dear children, and there in the casket, already laid out, was the still body of her husband. I was a very young preacher. And I remember that pretty soon after I got there, this dear woman brought me the Book and just handed it to me and said, "Pastor, read out of the Book. Read out of the Book." Why, sure! Read out of the Book. It is God's record. Don't let anybody rob you of that. When death comes, read out of the Book. It is God's Book. If you need a Saviour, read about One in the Book. It is God's Book. If you wonder about the future, bless God, read out of the Book. It is in God's bands. I still believe the good old Book. Do you? Do YOU? The issue of this hour is simply this: Has God revealed Himself, His will and His way in the Book? And is that Book the Bible? With all my heart I believe it and I am going to preach it. Thank God, I am not trying to doubt it; and I commend to you the Bible, the record of God's revelation to sinful men!
Psalm 68:11: "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that published it." Psalm 138:2: "I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy Name for Thy lovingkindness and for Thy truth; for Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name."
1 Peter 1:25: "For the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 2 Peter 1:21: "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 we conclude with some of the last words in the Bible about itself. Revelation 22:18-19: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the Words of the prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book. And if any man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this Book."