Why Bother with the Bible? (Part 4 of 6)

If you've ever wondered if there really is a God, just look up at the night sky or watch a magnificent sunset. But if you want to know who God is and understand how to live a life that's pleasing to him, you need more than creation. You need to open the Bible and read God's Word. Today on Truth for Life, we'll discover why every one of us would be lost without scripture.

Here's Alistair Begg with more. Our question has to do, now, with not, What is the Bible? but has to do with, What is the Bible for?

What is the Bible for? Well, first of all, there at the end of verse 15, because it is through the holy Scriptures—the hiaragramata, the holy writings—that a man or a woman is made wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, I'm asking the question, Have I been saved? Or I find myself asking the question, Am I learning what it means to live as a saved person?

Those are the only two options. The Scriptures are given to us to make men and women wise for salvation and to equip them, then, with everything that goes along with what it means to be saved. Well then, listen carefully, won't you? What Paul is doing in this little section is simply reminding Timothy of the impact that the Word of God has had upon his life and upon his family. He's had a wonderful heritage, hasn't he? A godly grandmother and a godly mom. The two of them had a wonderful impact on Timothy's young life, the way that many of you are having today.

I applaud all godly grannies, and I applaud all godly moms, even as I revere the memory of my own mother and my own grandmother as I speak to you. How can I quantify what their prayers have meant? How can I understand what their nurturing in the gospel has meant? How can I ever repay the debt I owe to them who taught the Bible to me and under whose tutelage I became convinced? Yes, there were pastors, and yes, there was my father, and yes, there were multiple influences, but I have a sneaking suspicion that others along with me this morning enjoy this great and wonderful benefit and never minimize it. And even when your children run away and when they tell you that they have no interest in it and they hate coming to the service and they don't like their teacher and all those other things, know that at least one rapt scallion goes out before them—namely, myself—having jumped out of the window in my Bible class and run off to play with my friends, having been thrown out the door by my Bible class teacher, having been sent home by my Sunday school teacher on frequent occasions, I know by personal testimony those from whom I learned the Scriptures and have become convinced of these things. I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word and creating faith in him, but I know whom I have believed, and I'm committed to that which he has made available to me against the day." And that was Timothy's experience.

The place of his mind in thinking. The key is inserted, the key of the mind inserted in the lock of Scripture, opening the doorway to salvation. The Bible is a Bible under which we come.

Jim Packer years ago wrote a wonderful little book—I pulled it off my shelves again this week—Under God's Word. But he makes the point, the Bible is not primarily a book for the speculative thinker, the scientific investigator, or the literary critic. But it is rather for the individual who, having learned from the world around him and from his own heart something of God and of his own need, now seeks to know God and to find salvation.

Now, why would that be the case? Well, because the Scriptures have been given to make us wise for salvation. You'll notice it's not the Bible that saves us. It's the Bible that makes us wise so that we might be saved. Read the Acts of the Apostles, and you discover that when the apostles begin to proclaim the good news on the Jerusalem streets and beyond, what they're essentially doing is simply taking the Old Testament Scriptures and saying, This is him!

That this Messiah who was to come has actually come in the person of Jesus. And in the great declarative statement of Peter following Pentecost and following the healing at the gate beautifully, he says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. The Scripture has been given to educate us—to educate us, to tell us what we won't get anywhere else.

Let me quote the confession for the last time this morning. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord in various ways and at different times, quoting Hebrews 1, to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church, and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan of the world, to commit the same holy unto writing, which makes the holy Scripture to be most necessary. These former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

Now if that's a bit of an earful, they then work it out in more bite-sized chunks. But actually, it occurred to me that Psalm 19 says this very thing, doesn't it? Where does it begin? The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech or language where this voice is not heard. What is that speech and language? It is the speech and language that is known in every language of every nation of humanity under God's Son, where they stand out under the night sky and look up into the vastness of the heavens, where they bow down before Mount Iger and say, Look at the immensity of this!

Where they consider the continental divide and say, How could this possibly be? And all of this speaks to them in a way that is confirmed by their conscience. For there is no place on the face of the earth in which men and women have not been born with an innate awareness of right and wrong. So says the Confession, confirming the Scripture, God has made himself known in the morality of man by means of conscience and in the grandeur of his handiwork. Every time I hear a newborn baby cry and touch a leaf or see the sky, then I know why I believe, right?

Whoever that was. Well, believe what? You can believe in the existence of God, but you can't believe enough to be saved, because there isn't enough there to be saved. That's why Psalm 19 then goes forward—I think about verse 7 or into 8—and he then says that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimonies of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple.

So that what does not happen by way of natural religion happens as a result of the Bible taking hold of the mind of a man or a woman, of a boy or a girl. Now, if you think about this, I think it will make perfect sense to you. I was reading The New York Times and was excited to see the word Cleveland appear in The New York Times.

I'm familiar with a plain dealer stealing from The New York Times some of their articles, but I don't often see the word Cleveland in The New York Times. And it was referring to the fact that Case Western University has hosted this almost global conference on cosmology. And therefore, we ought to be proud that this was the location that was chosen for this event, and from around the world came some of the brightest physicists and mathematical minds dealing with the issues of cosmology. I began to read the article. It was clear to me that I didn't understand much of what was going on, except, I think, that the debate was largely between two groups, both of whom agreed that the universe was expanding, but one group believed that it is expanding at a slowing rate, and another group believed that it is expanding at an increasing rate.

And it had something to do with five million or a billion years ago, I don't recall. And it was fascinating, and I said, My, my, I wish I could even understand a tenth of this material. My, I was also studying my Bible I was thinking about today. And I said, You know, all of this wisdom cannot address the issue of making a man or a woman wise unto salvation. You need the Bible for that.

And incidentally, those of you who regard yourselves as intellectual sophisticates, too smart to believe this stuff. You cannot, by any other means, be brought to faith in Jesus, except through this stuff. You can know enough about God to be rendered without excuse. That's why Paul begins Romans 1 as he does. He says, And so all men are without excuse.

Why are they without excuse? Because they know enough about God to know that exists. Therefore, when they say he doesn't exist, when they exercise their willful unbelief, they're going against what is actually made plain to them.

They have made a great exchange. But it is by the Scriptures that a man or woman is made wise for salvation. And I'll only turn you to one other passage, but turn to 1 Corinthians, just for a moment, to familiar words. Isn't this the great argument of Paul to the thinkers in Corinth? All these people coming and saying, You know, Paul's a bit of a dimwit. He's here with some strange story about Jesus of Nazareth. And so Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and in verse 18, he writes to them, and he says, Well, let's just acknowledge that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Just pause there for a moment. If you are perishing—and that's the word the Bible uses, not the word that I used. In other words, if you are on your way to an eternity without God, when you listen to me or anyone else teach the Bible concerning the nature of salvation, you think it's daft. You think it's foolish?

You may think it's trite and perhaps beneath your level of intellectual awareness. I mention this simply to let you know that God is not taken by surprise by the reaction of man, and neither is the letter to Corinth. To us who are being saved, the message of the cross is actually the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate. In fact, he says, Why don't you come up and stand up here beside me, wise man? Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

How do you mean, Paul? Well, what I mean is, since in the wisdom of God the world, through its wisdom, didn't know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those—notice—who believe. Who believe?

No one is saved without believing. So really, there is a fundamental question that is before us. If the Bible makes us wise, tells us stuff that we can't learn anywhere else at all, are we prepared to listen to what the Bible is saying? What is it saying to us?

Well, this is how the wisdom goes. The good, the bad, the new, the perfect. God made the world, and he made it in perfection. Man turns his back on God, sin enters into the world, and the world as we know it today, and man as we know him today, is not as God made him in all of his pristine beauty and reality, but is man messed up by his rebellion. Into that sorry condition, God comes, because he is a wonderfully loving God, and he comes to introduce man to the remedy for his predicament, providing in his own son a savior and a guide and a friend.

And when men and women believe in that son, then not only is their life now transformed, but they look forward to a day when that which has become new within them will become perfected in heaven. Or what the Bible says is, first of all, did you know you're lost? I was lost only briefly this past week in Detroit, just for a short time, but long enough to know I was wrong. And apparently, in a very way that is untypical of a man, I pull in almost immediately when I'm lost. There's some caricature of men that will drive all the way to Chicago before they admit that they're on the wrong road.

I am not one of them. I am perfectly and quickly prepared to say, Help me out. And I pulled in, and the man who spoke, like, I saw him for z's, cross him for z's, and lost, and whoa, he should have been lost, but I was lost, but he knew enough to tell me I was going in the absolute wrong direction. And so I turned around and went the other way. And as a result of listening to someone who knew what I did not know, the lost boy was found and was set on the right track. The Bible says that you and I are lost willfully, helplessly, and naturally, and that Jesus has come to find us, that salvation is the gift of God to us, and that God has given it to us in Jesus because we cannot save ourselves.

The Bible is able to make us wise for salvation. I can never think of this without thinking of someone of whom I heard to my encouragement just a couple of months ago. I've told you of this man before, but I want to tell you about him again, because many of you weren't listening the first time, and others of you weren't here. English.

Right. A scientist. A physicist. A confessed atheist. He was quite prepared to tolerate the fact that his wife and his daughters, three of them, should go along to church. He thought it was somewhat beneath him, and without seeking to disparage his wife in any way, he was quite happy for her to attend. When I visited their home in the course of my responsibilities in Scotland, it was an interesting encounter, and when I suggested that I might pray, he said something to the effect of, Go ahead and pray if you want.

It won't affect me. He worked at the National Engineering Laboratory. He had a PhD in physics, and he was bright—far brighter than me.

But of course, I'm used to that. I went home, got a copy of Basic Christianity—it was around 9.30 in the evening—got a copy of Basic Christianity and drove back to his house and put it through his letterbox, with a note that said, Maybe you could read this and we could talk about it. He read it.

We began to talk. He came intermittently to church. He sat in the balcony.

He never looked at me. He always looked across the balcony. And a journey began in his life. And one morning, preaching through the twenty-third psalm, having come to the phrase, He leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake—a sermon that, frankly, I haven't a clue what I said, I'm not sure even then, I was very aware of what I was saying.

I can't imagine what that phrase means even now. But anyway, I tried my best. He leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. It was one of those events where he said, Well, okay, we did that phrase. Let's move along. And God saved him.

What? From the twenty-third psalm? He leads us in the paths of righteousness? This isn't Romans 10 and 9, is it? You know, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You can get saved from that verse, you see, but you're not supposed to get saved from Psalm 23. You know, he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. How could that ever happen?

Why? Because the Bible makes people wise for salvation. And the missing link for him was simply he could not understand how it would ever be possible to live a righteous life. And that was the final piece in the jigsaw for him, and in that morning it dropped into line, and this great archetypal protagonist bows his knee to the lordship of Christ.

And he was made wise for salvation. Well, our time is gone. We'll come back to it.

But let me just give you a thought as you go. What do you think happens to a culture, to a church, to a family, to a life that neglects the Scriptures? What do you think has happened to the history of the United States of America in neglect of the Scriptures? We neglect God's Word at our own peril. That's Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, and Alistair will close today's program with prayer in just a minute, so please keep listening. Teaching God's Word is what we're all about here at Truth for Life. As Alistair just explained, only God's Word can open our eyes and help us see that we're lost and in need of a Savior. This is the gospel message we share every day on this program.

We know that when God's Word is heard, God's Spirit works in the hearts of many who are listening to bring them to saving faith. This happens miraculously by God's grace, and it's through our partnership with you that these messages are heard. Your giving helps cover the cost of bringing Truth for Life to a large listing audience through radio and online. So as we prepare to close out our year in a financially solid position, we want to ask you to reach out to us today and make an end-of-year donation. Your giving goes directly toward the distribution of this program and will help continue making Alistair's online teaching library free to access and free to share with others. You can give quickly and easily online at truthforlife.org slash donate or call 888-588-7884. Or you can mail your donation to Truth for Life at P.O.

Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. And when you give, be sure to request a copy of our featured book. It's titled Spurgeon on the Power of Scripture. The powerful sermons of Charles Spurgeon have benefited thousands of men and women including Alistair. When you read these compelling messages about the power of God's Word, you'll find out why. Now let's join Alistair as he closes with prayer. Father, thank you for giving us the Bible, not as a compendium of theological ideas, certainly not as a source book to allow us to argue with one another about superficial and tangential issues, but rather giving us a book that would allow us to insert the key of our minds into the lock of Scripture and would open the door to discover why we exist and how you have pursued us in Jesus and what it might mean to be found and forgiven and made new.

Some of us are here this morning, and we have never, ever believed. Help us, Lord, we pray. Speak into our lives. Show us in this book ourselves and our Savior. May the Bible shine into the darkness of our hearts.

And if perhaps someone is saying, Well, I would love to believe. I don't know what I'm supposed to say. Then say something like this just in your heart. Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I'm weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed. But through you I'm more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you for paying my debt and bearing my punishment and offering me forgiveness. And I turn from my sin and receive you as my Savior. So then, Lord Jesus, speak into our lives this day, helping us to bother with the Bible because it makes us wise for salvation and also equips us so that we might live properly on account of your grace to us. May the hours of this day and our walking into the week be touched by your grace and your mercy and your peace. That comes from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forevermore.

Amen. And if you prayed that prayer along with Alistair, if you'd like to know more about what it means to be found and to be forgiven, I want to encourage you to visit the Learn More page on our website. You'll find there a short illustrated video called The Story. This video clearly explains God's plan for our salvation.

So look for it. Go to truthforlife.org slash learn more. The Bible is all about Jesus. It leads unbelievers to saving faith and through the power of God's Spirit, it makes us more like Christ. Tomorrow, we'll learn why it's so important to read God's Word regularly. I'm Bob Lapeen. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.