Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone

The uproar caused by the Bishop of Dur­ham’s remarks concerning hell and the return of Jesus Christ was predictable. Yet it could be thought surprising, for how many people really know and understand the established church’s teaching on hell (even if it is erroneous)? and how many people live their lives in readiness for the return of Jesus? The Bishop of Durham has no belief in the inspiration of Scripture, and certainly has no time for the fundamental beliefs held dear by us. His attitude and statements can only continue to erode any standing that Scripture might have in his church—a process that has been ongoing for centuries now.

Consider how many thousands of people each day of the week take hold of a Bible and say: “I swear that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God”. The Bible is in theory used to ensure that people tell the truth. Its presence is supposed to carry authority, and to remind peo­ple that God is their judge and aware of their thoughts and words. Yet do we really believe that the presence in the courtroom of the Bible prevents perjury, lies or the distorting of truth, both from witnesses and from professional officers? It is contempt of court, not of God, that is an offence. The Bible does not induce reverence or honesty in the minds of many people in the affairs of everyday life. Yet there are more cop­ies of the Word of God in circulation today than at any other time.

Since the invention of the printing process, Bibles have become a mass-produced item; some 23 million new copies went out in the last twelve months. Yet the world becomes more godless, and the religions of the world become more hu­manist. Only recently, when the media were highlighting the lack of morality in our leaders, political and royal, the Church of England highlighted some of the words spoken at the coronation of the monarch, when the Bible is handed to him or her with the words: “Here is wisdom, this is the Royal Law, these are the Lively Oracles of God”. Sadly, the comment was that few of those to hold such high office seemed to take such statements to heart, and act accord­ingly.

Throughout the world, in millions of hotel bedrooms, the Gideon Society has placed a copy of God’s Word in the forlorn hope that it might refresh and uplift those that stay there. Rarely, in my experience, is it left out in the open, on the top of the table or dressing table along with guides and information leaflets; it is nearly al­ways tucked away in a drawer. It seems that the more God’s Word is spread abroad, the less in­fluence it has. Paradoxically, at a time when copies of the Bible are so freely available, it seems that there is “a famine .. . of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11).

The fool hath said …

There are so many counter attractions to the Bi­ble, and the arrogance of the human mind pre­dominates, puffed up with the knowledge it has unlocked over the last few hundred years in particular. Since the time when the higher critics and evolutionists attacked the position the Scrip­tures held by pouring scorn and doubt on its accuracy, reliability, relevance and truthfulness, the humanism, materialism and leisure pursuits of this world have obscured “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4) so that it cannot shine clearly before men and women. Their minds are filled with the images of this world, through the maga­zines and newspapers, in schools and places of higher education, by the encouragement to par­ticipate in a vast range of leisure and holiday activities, by the enticing advertisements for se­curity, enjoyment, and fulfilment in material possessions; all this aided and abetted above all by television.

The horrifying statistics, published a few years ago, are that by the time children reach sixteen years of age they will have spent more time watching television than listening to their teach­ers, and that an average adult reaching sixty-five years of age will have spent the equivalent of nine years watching television; and these sta­tistics still apply. Over the Christmas/New Year holiday in 1993/4 the television compilers pub­lished figures showing that the average house­hold watched 30.75 hours of television. Did yours? People no longer have time for the Word of God; indeed, they no longer have time for God. Yet His Word, the Scriptures, is a visible manifestation of God, His visible presence amongst us today.

God’s temple is still in ruins, the Jews have returned to the land, but not to God in their hearts and minds. God’s Kingdom has not yet been restored, but in His Word His Name is glorified and borne before all men. Those who are led by the Word, who live by the Word, who feed upon the Word, will carry His Name before all men. To neglect the Scriptures is to neglect God. To allow the affairs of life, small or great, to displace it from pre-eminence in our lives, no matter for how short a time, is to relegate God from pre-eminence in our life.

There is no room for complacency in the life of the believer in these matters. Do not think that we are not like ‘them’. We are moulded and influenced by this twentieth-century world of advertising and media activities, just like any human being, unless we take active steps to en­sure otherwise. The Scriptures are the words of God to us; we can, as Peter by the Spirit exhorts us, put ourselves into the events we read about as though we were there, and as though the things which were spoken were spoken to us (2 Pet. 1:19).

The Bible is not just a book of facts, history and teachings, which we read or listen to as observers or onlookers, and then go away to make up our minds about them. It is God’s view of events, it is God’s mind put before us and put within us. I am aware of many interesting and even important events in the history of the world, and of many opinions expressed. by eminent men, but none of them causes me to rejoice and praise God, to have hope in the coming Kingdom, to humbly acknowledge my sin and seek forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Christ.

There is danger among us also in the ‘Holy Spirit Culture”¹ which removes from us the realisation of the power of God’s Word. It gradually dulls our awareness of our need for the Word of God, and causes us to see eventually the reading of the Word as ‘just getting knowledge’; but without this knowledge there can never be true wisdom.

We are living in the time prophesied of when there would be “scoffers, walking after their own lusts”, a time when men are “willingly. … ignorant” of the Word of God, anti we must beware of those without, those within, and of our own selves, “lest [we] also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from [our] own stedfastness” (2 Pet. 3:3,5,17). If, like Paul, we are caused to reflect on “many, which corrupt the word of God” (2 Cor. 2:17), our heart’s desire must surely be to have applied to us the description, “ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you” (1 Jno. 2:14).

So shall My Word be

The written word has been God’s form of communication and instruction since time began.²

The prophet Isaiah teaches us that, as the rain and snow in the natural process are essential ingredients for growth, food and life, so the Word of God performs the same process and achieves the same effect in the spiritual sense (Isa. 55:10,11). The psalmist, in Psalm 19, shows that, just as the sun dominates the natural creation, and nowhere on earth is excluded, so the Word of God must dominate and give life to those dead in trespasses and sins. He tells us that the Scripture converts (or restores), gives wisdom, causes rejoicing, gives vision of the future by providing enlightenment, and encourages us that in keeping of them there is great reward” (vv. 7-11).

This Word is truly the Spirit power of God in our lives, just as it has been in the lives of believ­ers in all the centuries since Creation. The wise man reveals this in the words, “Turn you at My reproof: behold, I will pour out My spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you” (Prov. 1:23). The NIV translators put the word ‘heart’ in place of ‘spirit’, but their bias against inspiration, and inconsistency in translation, can easily be seen.³

Jesus himself confirmed the power of the Word with his inspired saying: “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (Jno. 6:63). So it is that James instructs us with the words of the Spirit when he says: “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas. 1:21). Our SOS can and will be answered by the Word of God. Here is a picture of the Word implanted (engrafted) in the heart, as depicted in the Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13:23) and Isaiah 55:11 again, and growing after it has taken root. It is interesting to note in the Parable of the Sower that the ones described as receiving the seed (the Word) into stony ground fail because “they . . . have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time” (Mk. 4:16,17). So often in this life meekness is seen as weakness, at best gentleness. This is not the meaning of the Greek word used.⁴ When Scrip­ture tells us to receive the Word of God with meekness it means we need discipline and self-restraint.

The Greeks applied the word ‘discipline’ to the training of wild horses. One does not break the spirit, the power, of the animal; one trains, channels, disciplines it into working for one. That is what God is doing with us, asking us not to fight against or struggle with or run from Him, but to have our energies and intellect moulded by His, even as His beloved Son did: “Not my will, but Thine, be done” (Lk. 22:42).

We must follow the example of Jeremiah, so that, when we find the words of God, we can say: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart”; and even more that His Word may be in our hearts “as a burning fire” (Jer. 15:16; 20:9). What greater description could there be of the power of God than “a *burning fire”?

The Word of God

So, while this world moves further from God, and diminishes the power and meaning of His holy Word, the believer is called upon to im­merse him or herself totally in the Word. This is not a matter of making sure that we ‘do the readings’ each day, spending thirty to forty-five minutes doing our duty. When did we last open our Bible as a form of leisure or turn to it for enjoyment? Ten minutes to spare before fetch­ing the children or starting to prepare a meal?—just time to meditate on a passage. On journeys by rail, air or road (when not driving), what is the main item we take to read? Are we embar­rassed to be seen reading the Bible? Preparing addresses would be less of a chore for brethren if their minds were attuned to the things of the Spirit by the constant feeding on the Word at various times, such as coffee breaks and lunch breaks.

We can set ourselves tasks: the meaning of one Scriptural word a week; drawing up a list of words we are not sure of in advance, and then, when we have a few spare minutes, taking the next one on the list. Just to read and meditate upon a passage of Scripture will be of tremen­dous benefit. Five or ten minutes at different times can transform the day as well as us. It was a cause of great joy to the Apostle Paul that, when the brethren and sisters in the ecclesia at Thessalonica “received the word of God”, they “received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). This word ‘effectual’ carries the meaning to work with power’.

If we believe that the Bible truly is God’s Word, we will want to meditate upon it as often as we can. All around us people ridicule it and make it of no account, but it can and must be the power in our lives, to transform us from children of Adam to children of God.

When our Lord came he was indeed “the Word … made flesh”, and, as his ministry drew to a close, in his prayer to his heavenly Father, he said: “I have given unto them the words which Thou gayest me”; and in receiving this Word the follower of Christ must expect difficulties: “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them … Sanctify them through Thy truth:

Thy word is truth”. This is true not just for the apostles, but for “them also which shall believe on me through their word” (Jno. 17:8,14,17,20).

The acceptance of the Scripture as the holy, inspired Word of God, the moulding of one’s life to its precepts and principles, allowing it to become the power in our life to the exclusion of all other, will bring us into conflict with those around us—religious or humanist. It will set us apart. These are “the last days”, when “perilous times shall come”, when we shall see both those who are “lovers of their own selves” and those who have “a form of godliness”, from whom we are to “turn away” (2 Tim. 3:1-5). But, as these prophecies come to pass, let us remember that through “the holy scriptures” we can be made “wise unto salvation” in Christ Jesus, and so be complete in the sight of God (vv. 15-17).

1. The ‘Holy Spirit Culture’ is the belief that the power of the Holy Spirit works in our life, independent of Scripture and angels, transforming our character, giv­Mg guidance, understanding and comfort. Such views are inconsistent with Bible teaching, and are espoused by the apostate churches around us.
2. References in the New Testament show that Abraham had a written record of God’s promises (Rom. 4:23; Gal. 3:8; Jas. 2:23). Moses, Joshua and the prophets all wrote down God’s words (Ex. 24:4; Josh. 24:26; 2 Chron. 26:22, etc.).
3. The Hebrew word in Proverbs 1:23 for “spirit” is ruach, which is translated ‘spirit’ by the NIV in Psalm 51:11, 104:30 and 139:7, and should also be ‘spirit’ in Proverbs, not ‘heart’. The usual word for ‘heart’ in Hebrew is leb, as used in Psalm 14:1 and 19:14.

4. The Greek word prautes is described by Vine’s Exposi­tory Dictionary of New Testament Words as follows: “The meaning of prautes is not readily expressed in English, for the terms meekness, mildness, commonly used, suggest weakness and pusillanimity to a greater or less extent, whereas prautes does nothing of the kind . . . prautes describes a condition of mind and heart”. Moses was meek, as was our Lord, neither of whom would be described as weak, mild men.