Chapter 1 — The Holy Spirit and the Bible
Everything that God has ever done and everything
that God will ever do, He has done and will do by His Word. He created the
universe by His Word. Again and again in the book of Genesis we find the words,
"and God said." Genesis 1:14, "And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." Genesis 1:20, "And God said,
Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and
fowl that may fly above the earth in the he open firmament of heaven." Genesis
1:24, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it
was so." Genesis 1:26, "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth." Genesis 1:29, "And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall
be for meat." You will note that all God did in creation He did by His Word.
When Jesus comes again, He will put down the Antichrist by His Word. II Thessalonians 2:8, "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." Then in Revelation 19:13 we find that His name is called "The Word of God" when He comes again. "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God."
Now the Word of God was authored by the Spirit of God. To know the Word properly, one must know the Holy Spirit personally.
1. The Word of God is eternal. Psalm 119:89, "For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in Heaven." It, along with the Godhead, is eternal. It is eternal in Heaven, which means that the entire Word of God was in Heaven before the world was ever created. The last verse in Revelation was I heaven before the first verse in Genesis was ever given to man. This forever settles the truth of verbal inspiration. Pseudo-scholars have sat behind desks and stood before chalkboards in our colleges and seminaries and advanced the heresy that God gave the thoughts of His Word to man and that man put them down in his own words. These pseudo-scholars remind us that Paul had his style of writing, Peter had his style of writing, John had his style of writing, etc. They would lead us to believe that each man took the truth and gave to us in his own styles and manner of writing. Let these deceivers be reminded that God did not make His Word to fit a man; God mad a man to fit His Word. The Word of God is eternal in the heavens. God made a man like Paul to fit the portion of his Word that he wanted Paul to pen. Hence, God did not make His Word to suit the personality of a man or a human vocabulary, but God made a personality and a man with a certain type vocabulary in order to reveal to us the eternal Word of God that was in Heaven completed before its first word came to earth.
2. God gave His Word to man. II Peter 1:20, 21, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The word "moved" here implies breathing. God breathed His Word to man. The term "Hold Spirit" could easily be translated "Holy Breath." thus, His Holy Spirit, a holy Breath, moved upon man and God breathed His book into man. God spoke to Moses and told him to write. He spoke, "In the beginning." Moses wrote, "In the beginning." God spoke, "God created the heaven and the earth." Some man-made scholars shout, "But that's mechanical dictation.' No, that's verbal inspiration! The eternal Word of God was given word by holy men of old as the Holy Spirit breathed the Word of God into them and upon them. The term "mechanical dictation" is a term invented by the liberals and Bible doubters to cast reflection upon verbal inspiration. It is a term of satire in their attempt to make those who believe in verbal inspiration look scholarly. This is their attempt to cast a stigma upon the fundamentalist. This is their effort to prove that those who believe in verbal inspiration are shallow.
The fact remains that the Word of God is eternal and forever settled in Heaven and that God gave this Word to man as He breathed on him, and man wrote it word for word as God gave it!
3. The Holy Spirit accompanies the Word of God. I Peter 1:12, "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are not reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." The Bible alone is not the answer. Teaching and preaching the Bible in the power of the Holy Spirit is the answer. There is nothing more wonderful than to preach the Book that the Holy Spirit gave to us and while we preach it have Him speak to the hearts of those who hear it. The Holy Spirit speaks from the outside through His Word and then He speaks from the inside as He confirms His preached Word to the hearer. It is also a wonderful thing to read His Word as the Holy Spirit accompanies it.
One day I was riding on an airplane. I was amazed as I looked across the aisle and saw a passenger reading my book, BLUE DENIM AND LACE. I looked across the aisle and introduced myself whereupon the reader was so pleased to meet the author of the book and asked me if I would shed light upon its truth. Because I wrote the book, my explanation of the book would give added meaning to the words.
Not only did the Holy Spirit write the Book and not only did He breathe it to holy men of old as they were moved by Him to give it to us, but He is available to teach it to us if we will read it. It is not a math book to be studied analytically, but it is a love story, written from God to man, and confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit as we read it, as we teach it and as we preach it.
4. The Holy Spirit quickens the Word of God. John 6:63, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." He makes it alive to us. Most of the cults are started by people who read the Bible but do not study it in the presence of the Author. Thank God, the Author is available to teach it to us and to make it live as we learn it, teach it and preach it.
5. The Holy Spirit teaches the deeper truths of the Word of God. I Corinthians 2:9,10, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." He not only teaches us what He said in the Book, but He teaches us what He meant when He said it. There are so many handfuls of purpose that God has for us as we glean in the Word of God, but this must be done under the leadership and tutorship of the Holy Spirit. There are truths in the Word of God that the eye cannot see and that the ear cannot hear, but He Who breathed the Book to us through holy men of old can sit beside us as we study it, and He will teach us things not on the surface.
Every step that the Christian takes should be a step in obedience to the Holy Spirit. How does the Spirit lead us? First, He gives us a Book of instructions. He never goes contrary to His Book, and we need not seek his will concerning something that is written in the book. A young lady says, "I'm going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit if I should marry that unsaved man." There is no need to pray. The Holy Spirit has already told you not to marry an unsaved man. It's in the Book! A man says, "I'm going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit whether or not I should tithe." There is no need to pray that prayer. The Holy Spirit has already answered it. It's in the Book! The Bible is basically then a set of instructions given to us by our Guide. To be sure, there are circumstances that are not specifically covered by the Word of God. The Word of God may tell us that we are to spread the Gospel, but it does not tell us in what country or city that we are supposed to live and headquarter as we spread the Gospel. Therefore, we read the Bible to find the leadership of the Holy Spirit and then we seek Him to lead us in every detail that is not specifically laid down in the Word of God.
For guard duty in the Army we had what we called the "general orders." These general orders were exactly that- several things that we were supposed to do while on guard duty. The last of these was to call the Corporal of the guard in any case not covered by instructions. This meant that there were some circumstances not covered by the general orders. In such a case we were to call the Corporal of the guard. In the Bible we find our general orders as breathed to us through holy men of old by the Holy Spirit. We are to call upon Him personally in any case not covered by instructions; that is, by the general orders; that is, by the Word of God.
When I was a little boy my mother used to call me to her knee every night. She would hold the Bible up and say, "Son, this is the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God." Then I had to repeat it three times. She would then tell me that the Bible was about Jesus and that Jesus was the Son of God. Then she would make me repeat that three times. Then she would exhort me always to believe the Bible, and she warned me against those professors, teachers and preachers who would shake my faith in the Word of God.
When I was a poor teenager, she continued this ritual. In fact, every night until I went into the Army in World War II, I was required to say three times that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the Son of God and I was warned against those who would shake my faith in its truths. I was exhorted always to believe that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God.
When I was in the paratroopers in World War II the Bible was my constant companion. Now over a third of a century I have preached its truths. It is the first book I pick up in the morning and the last book I lay down at night. It is God's eternal Word, forever settled in the heavens, brought to me by the Holy Spirit, taught to me by the Holy Spirit. What a book! What a Savior! What a teacher!
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