Nothing But the Scriptures…So Help Me God!
The Bible is the Word of God. Those people born again of God, the Spirit, know this fact, “Your Word is truth (Ps 119:160; Jn 17:17).” This is true because God is true (Rom 3:4), and God has spoken. He has moved along certain men to write Holy Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). None of the authors of the 66 books of holy writ wrote God’s Word with his own prerogative (2 Pet 1:20–21).
People search the Scriptures to understand the most important subject, which is God’s salvation of His chosen people (2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 2:9). Many read the Scriptures, but they are baffled by what they read. This is because the Bible is given to men by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God is spiritual; therefore, if a man does not have the indwelling Spirit of Christ (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Jas 4:5), he cannot discern the words of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14).
The Bible informs us that the Bible, the Word of God, is to be preached and taught (2 Tim 2:15; 4:2), by those who have been called to set their hearts to study God’s Law (Ezra 7:10). The man of God must meditate on God’s Word, day and night (Ps 1:2). It must be his daily bread and his delight.
The Bible warns its readers that many false preachers and teachers have gone out into the world (2 Pet 2). These will malign the way of truth and in their greed, and they will exploit their hearers with false words. They will deny Jesus Christ in one way or another. These are false shepherds peddling the Word for a profit (2 Cor 2:17; Ezek 34).
It is most common for human philosophy or human psychology to be mingled in with Scripture. Even the words of the Bible are ascribed with definitions that are not fitting. The result is the introduction of destructive heresies (2 Pet 2:1). Those who follow false teachers and their false teaching are the deceived, who do not have the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9), for it is the Spirit of truth who guides God’s people into all truth (Jn 16:13).
The Holy Spirit is the believer’s Teacher (Jn 14:26). In other words, the Christian is taught of God (Jn 6:45), and the content of the Spirit’s teaching is the Word of truth (Ps 119:160; Jn 17:17). It is this Word that sets captives free from falsehood and lies (Jn 8:32). This is why the earnest student of Scripture will painstakingly seek out a fellowship, a local church, where the preacher rightly divides the Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15).
It is the Word that washes over the saint, as with a river of cleansing water (Eph 5:26). This is the sanctifying agency of the Spirit (Rom 15:16; 1 Pet 1:2), employing the Word to convict one of sin, to correct, to teach, to rebuke, etc. (2 Tim 3:16). God’s Word is powerful like a double-edged sword that cuts and separates truth from error (Heb 4:12). God’s Word never returns to Him empty (Is 55:11). It always accomplishes its good work because it is the sword in the hand of God’s Spirit (Eph 6:17).
Woe to the man of God who trusts in something other than the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor 1:24). There is no salvation in the worldly gimmicks that so easily pervade local churches, associations, and denominations. The Word of God must hold primacy in the life of an assembly, of God’s called out ones. For this reason, the Bible is called “the Word of life” (Phil 2:16; 1 Jn 1:1).
The Spirit and the Word not only give life to God’s elect (Jn 6:63), initially, but it is the sustaining power of a continuing life (Heb 1:3). Here is the abundant life the Bible references…itself! Just as Jesus breathed on His disciples and they received His Spirit (Jn 20:22), so the Spirit exhales the life of God into saints, today. Like oxygen to the nostrils and lungs, so is the Word of faith to the heart and mind.
Christian, are you distracted by the words of men? Are you caught up in the frenzied passions of this dark world? Salvation, belonging to God (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1), remains the essential subject. The litmus test will always be: Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12). He alone is our God and Savior (Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6). All men everywhere are ordered to repent of their sins, in order to turn in full submission to Him (Acts 17:30), who is Lord (Phil 2:11)…Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
My dear reader, it is my hope that you recognize this when you read what I write to you. My only end is to have presented you the message of the Bible, in everything I write, as often as I write. For me, there is nothing to write than what I know of the Gospel of salvation (Eph 1:13), that is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mk 1:1; Rom 1:1).
The Bible itself speaks of itself. This is a remarkable feature for God’s written Word that Jesus Christ Himself affirmed. He taught His disciples the Scriptures (Jn 17:8), and they learned that the Scriptures were all about Him (Jn 5:39)!
Christian, pause for a moment, today, and give thanks to God, for your desire to read, to listen, to love, and to rejoice in this Word that was given to you. Your ability to know, and to understand these spiritual things (1 Cor 2:15) is entirely by the grace of God.
My own prayer is that God would graciously constrain me to continue in His Word (Jn 8:31). Distractions are legion, but I have tasted and seen that God is good (Ps 34:8), and His Word is like honey (Ps 119:103). I know this…for it is written.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 22, 2022
