THE BOOKS AND THE BOOK

2 TIMOTHY 4:13

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I. SALVATION OF THE SOUL

1. Why not find revealed in Bible, secrets of atom, biology, chemistry?

Because - most important, God, soul, salvation. Then the rest in time.

2. So today.

The first great decision, for God. Knowledge of God. Then the rest in order, school, business, vacation.

The primal, first foundational revelation here.

a. Poem

We search the world for truth; we cull

The good, the pure, the beautiful

From graven tomb and written scroll,

From all old flower-fields of the soul;

And, weary seekers of the best,

We come back laden from our quest

To find that all the sages said

Is in the Book our mothers read.

3. If that not first, the remainder never blest.

II. A SURE, CERTAIN GUIDE THROUGH LIFE

What a compass is to the mariner.

What a radar screen is to the pilot.

What a blueprint is to the builder.

The Bible to us.

1. "This is the way; walk in it”? Isaiah 30:21.

The paths of this world are a crooked maze

And we are woefully lost.

For the road to Him in the paths of men

Be faint are hidden and crossed.

Oh, that someone would show us the way!

a. "Thank God for the Bible."

Thank God for the Bible, whose clear

Shining ray,

Has brightened our path and turned

Night into day.

Its wonderful treasures have

Never been told,

More precious than rubies, set

Round with pure gold.

Thank God for the Bible! How dark

Is the night

When no ray from its pages sheds

Forth its pure light.

No Jesus - no Bible - no heaven

Of rest -

Oh, could we live, were

Our lives so unblest.

There are millions who wander

In darkness today.

No Jesus - no Bible - no knowledge

To pray.

God help us to feel and to act in

His sight,

To render our thanks by giving

Them light.

2. Here the revealed will of Him Who made us.

1. For each one, a place, a purpose.

(We know it, reading, praying)

2. Our highest happiness, in that will.

Compare: Cry of Moses, Deuteronomy 30:15,19.

3. How to reach the goal.

Not tangents that lead to nowhere.

Not paths that lead to destruction.

Not failing of the high calling.

A sure arrival.

III. ASSURANCE AT THE END OF THE WAY

1. What assurance? Hope? Comfort? Promise?

"Bring me my books of chemistry."

"Bring me my books of biology." Read me again, how we descended from apes.

"Bring me by books of geology, economics."

2. The Book.

a. Sir Walter Scott