What the Bible Contains for the Believer 101 does not run in the b l o o d n o r is it that you have member ship in the visible Church of Christ; nor is it to be found in delightful frames and feelings—in a word, not even a genuine Christian experience constitutes your “title-deed.” Where then are we to bottom our hope? Why, just in the naked bare Word of God. It is written, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My words, and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life,” etc. (John 5:24). Straight to the record do we appeal for a final test as to our possession in God. “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11, 12). Our faith lays hold on the Son of God, in whom we have redemption (Eph. 1 :7 ) by means of and through the recorded Word of promise, for this record was “written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (John 20:31). The Scriptures are the covenants, old and new, in which God has guaranteed to us, by word and oath (Heb. 6:17, 18), sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ (Matt. 26:28), an inheritance among the saints. We do not emphasize this point in any wise to underrate Christian experience (for it is most blessed and true), or undervalue the blessing of believing parents, or the Church and her ordinances, but only to draw your attention to “the more sure Word of prophecy” (2 Pet. 1:19), which is better to us for confirmation than visions and voices, frames and feelings, parental benedictions, and church sacraments. 3. The Word of God is the Means Appointed for the Culture of Our Christian Life. James tells us (1:18) that the Word of truth is the instru ment of our regeneration, and Jesus tells us that the truth not only “makes us free,” but prays the Father that we may be “sanctified through the truth” (John 6:32-36; 17:17-19). And Paul tells us, in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker