THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S without the illumination of the Holy Spirit that is found in answer to in tense, believing prayer. I I I . Preach and Teach the Bible. In the third place, preach and teach the Bible. The Bible completely fur nishes the man of God unto every good work because “it is profitable for doc trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” This, therefore, is the one thing you must teach and preach, if the people to whom you minister are to get the teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness which they sorely need. Teach and preach the Bible in public and from house to house (Acts 20:20), to crowds and to individuals, and teach and preach nothing but the Bible. There is nothing else as good as the Bible to teach and preach. It “is the sword of the Spirit” (Bph. 6:17), and as David said of the sword of Goliath, “There is none like it” (1 Sam. 21:9). I received a letter last Monday from a Methodist pastor who is forty-five years of age. In that letter he asked me if I thought he better take up the study of the History of Philosophy, as some of his friends were advising him to do. Listen, compared with the incompara ble Word of God, Philosophy is Fool- osophy. 1. No other teaching and preaching draws like the teaching and preaching of the Word. Why have we built up in the brief history of this great congrega tion that gathers every Lord’s Day in this place? The answer is plain, be cause we have taught and preached nothing but the Bible. The Bible is what people are hungry for, and when they find where they can get it they will flock there as bees will crowd where there is honey. Why the vast crowds that gathered in London when we were there? The day we began our five months’ campaign in London, the first two months in the Royal Albert Hall, that seated 10,000 people and accom modated 2000 more in the dome, and
810
2. In the second place, let me say, Study hard. Many do what they call Bible study, but it is only lolling over the Bible, wool gathering, instead of gathering the nuggets of gold for which one must dig, dig, dig. Oh, give your whole mind and heart to your Bible study. When you do study, concentrate on that one thing. Roll up the sleeves of your intellect and pitch in. Let me give you a passage of Scripture for that. You will find it in Prov. 2:1-5: “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou cry alter discernment, and lift up thy. voice for understanding; If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” 3. In the third place, Follow the best method or methods of Bible study that you have learned at the Bible Insti tute, or discover better methods and fol low them. My own opinion as to the best method for studying the Bible, is that it is the method of close, analytical study of book by book. I do not mean that you shall study the Bible in no other way, but I do mean that I would put more time into, this method of study than into any other. 4. Do I need to add, Study it prayer fully? I fear I do need to add it; for even active work for Christ often crowds out prayer. The key to the Bible study that really illumines the soul and safe guards us against error, and completely furnishes us unto every good work, is found in Ps. 119:18: “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Thousands and tens of thousands of men, hard Bible students, deeply versed many of them in the original languages in which the Bible was written, miss the real meaning of the Word of God be cause they come to the study of the book
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs