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THE KING’S BUSINESS
builder (Matthew 16:18), and is in need of weapons.
business letter to him, so should the Bible be to-the Christian. As man among animals, so is the Bible among books,
I. The weapon of prayer. A spiritual weapon. The Christian needs prayer ; 1. To be led to the right person and work. We cannot speak to everybody, nor work in every field; hence the need of decision. 2. Prayer as to what to say. Not “wisdom of words/* but the word of wisdom’’ is the need of the Christian worker. This eomes through prayer. II. The Word of God. This is the ' Christian’s arsenal as well as granary. From this he gets his sword as well as his bread. He needs to know his Bible: 1. To show men that they are sinners. All men are sinners, but they do n°t ' realize it. Use ' the Bible to show them this fact. 2. To show the penalty of sin. Men do not have this conception—do not realize the awfqlness of this fact. Show it' to them from the Bible. 3. To show men how to be saved. Men are ignorant of the way pf life, just as the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius were ignorant of it. 4. To give men assurance after they are saved. 5. To show them how to grow. The Bible is milk and bread and food, but men need to be shown how to use the Bible as a means of growth. 3. Prayer to make effective what, is said. Even the sword of the Spirit is pow erless unless it is wielded in prayer.
3. He must approach it as a spiritual book requiring a spiritual quality to under stand it. It is the book of God for the man of. God. The Holy Spirit, who' is the Author, is also the Interpreter. Just as the sun-dial is valueless without the' sun, so is the Bible without the Spirit and the spiritual nature. - 4. He must approach it as an authorita tive Book. Not a Book of opinions, but of com mands. Not_ only true, but abso- ' lute truth. The final authority in matters of faith and practice. This can be shown from the testi mony of printed Bibles ,to the fif teenth century; by manuscripts, to the fourth century; by quotations from the church and ■apostolic fathers,'to the time of Christ; and . . by the, Septuagint,- made 2S0 B. C. 2. The experimental te&t of the Bible. The Bible can do what it claims to •do. The best test is the experi mental test. C onclusion . II. The Christian’s assured confidence in the reliability of its revelation. 1. The historical evidence is sufficient to show that we have the very Word o f;God. Theme: Spiritual Weapons— Prayer and the Word of God. T ext : Ephesians 6:17, 18. I ntroduction : The Bible describes a continual warfare between light and darkness during this age. The Christian is a fighter as well as a
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