Jordan says, “Notice Moses writes the words down in a book. He
sprinkles the book, but before he does, he READS the w-o-r-d-s. You see, it’s
important in the Bible that you read the Bible.
“When Moses describes to Israel about what they’re to do
when they enter into the ‘land of promise,’ one of the first things he tells
them (Deuteronomy 17) is that when the king ‘sitteth upon the throne of his
kingdom, that he shall write him a copy
of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
[19] And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.’
[19] And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.’
“Remember when I asked what would you do if you were the
church at Thessalonica and you got a letter from Paul and the prophet said,
‘That’s Scripture’? What would you do when you’re told to send this to the
other holy brethren? Why would you make them a copy? Because that’s obviously
what God had them do ALL along!
“That copy the king has is just as authoritative, just as
much the Word of God as the original was in the Ark of the Covenant, but he
needs a copy because if he had the real one, where would that leave you? What
would the priest do? With copies, everybody can have them.
*****
“If you want God’s Word, the truth of who you are in Jesus Christ,
the life of Christ, to work in you, you need to get into READING. If you want
who God has made you—He called Israel to be somebody and if that was to work in
them, they had to get those w-o-r-d-s, read them all the days of their life so
those words would work in them.
“You don’t operate simply on your memory. You don’t operate
on what you heard a teacher or preacher say. You sit and read the words
yourself.
“I just want to go through some verses where you can see how
important this is:
“Deuteronomy 31:11 says, ‘When all Israel is come to appear
before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read
this law before all Israel in their hearing.’
“Moses is at the end of his life, talking to Israel. He
tells them in verse 3, ‘The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he
will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and
Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said.’
“When Moses dies and Joshua takes his place of leadership,
God advises, ‘Be strong and of good courage.’
“He says in Joshua 1:8, ‘This book of the law shall not
depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt have good success.’
“You see, they’re to take that book, they’re to read it,
they’re to meditate on it, they’re to think about it, they’re to fill their
mind with it.
“Joshua 8:34 says, ‘And afterward he read all the words of
the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the
book of the law.’
“When they’re going to be led into blessing, led into the
land, they’re going to be corrected for their misbehavior, they’re going to
look at verses in their Bible and read them. It’s that important, folks.
“By the way, this BOOK that Moses starts writing; it just
keeps growing. He keeps adding to it. God is writing His Word, growing His
Word, adding Scripture to it.
“Joshua 24:26 says, ‘And Joshua wrote these words in the
book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an
oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.’
“The verses are showing you there’s this BOOK and they’re
reading it and the Book is why it’s important. Now that’s why there’s a Book,
by the way.
“The Lord says in Isaiah 30:8, ‘Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it
may be for the time to come for ever and ever.’
“The reason that emphasis is so much on that Book, and
reading the Book, is because God designed His people to be people of a Book; of
a written record of His Word.
*****
“I remember the first time I read through the Koran, and I
had asked my neighbor to ‘get me a copy of the Koran that you guys use.’ I had
gone and gotten the one that Arthur Arberry did and I didn’t know whether it
was right or not. If you get a translation of somebody’s scripture you want to
find the one that the people doing it want.
“I told myself, ‘I’m going to read this through at least 6-8
times so I have a little information in my head about what’s in it.’ Thomas Carlyle
said reading the Koran was the most vain effort there is to read and he was
right. It’s a confusing kind of thing.
“Read it 4-5 times and you begin to see there really is no
pattern to it, but I was struck by how, over and over, they refer to Christians
and Jews as, ‘The people of the Book.’
“That’s who we are. God wrote a Book. Now, that’s why
READING it is important, because the reason you’re reading is you’re reading
the Book that contains the w-o-r-d-s of God.
“God didn’t say to listen to DVDs and CDs; He said, ‘Read
the Book.’
“Now there’s a listening and hearing issue too, but it
starts with the reading. Why does Isaiah 30:8 say to note it in a book? ‘That
it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.’
“Notice they are to take the word God gave them (through the
prophet) and write it in a book so it can be preserved for the future.
*****
"In theological circles, there’s a great discussion about
inspiration. II Peter 1:20-21 says, ‘Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
[21] 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.
[21] 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.
“Notice it didn’t say they wrote as they were moved. It said
they SPAKE. See that? Romans 16:22 reveals, ‘I Tertius, who wrote this epistle,
salute you in the Lord.’
“Wait a minute, I thought Paul wrote Romans?! I thought Paul
said, ‘Read what I write and you’ll get understanding’? Does that mean Romans
doesn’t fit if this dude Tertius wrote it? What’s the deal there?
“Paul didn’t write most of his epistles. In Galatians 6 he
writes, ‘Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.’
“It’s only six chapters. But evidently he had some problems
with his eyes and he didn’t actually do the penning. He spoke, and as he
dictated, Tertius wrote it down.
“But the verse says ‘holy men of God SPAKE as they were
moved.’ So where was the inspiration? In spirit, in breathing; that’s talking.
Then they record in written fashion the w-o-r-d-s. You know what the recording
is? That’s preservation of what’s spoken. There’s inspiration and preservation
in one verse.
*****
“It’s fascinating that you take the average doctrinal
statement of the average church, and the average Christian institution since
the turn of the 20th Century, and they talk about the Bible. They
say, ‘We believe the Bible was given by inspiration of God.’
“And they talk about verbal, planarian inspiration and
dynamics in the original autographs. You know what the problem with that is?
You’ve never seen an original autograph. You’ve never seen an original copy.
The book Paul wrote to the Ephesians, you never saw the original. Most people
didn’t. What did they see? Copies.
“Well, if it was only inspired in the original, what have
you got now? By their definition, you have an uninspired bible. You say, ‘Well,
that’s not good.’
“Now when you go out and raise that question, these people
blow their stack at you and they say, ‘Well, you’re one of those ‘King James
Only’ people.
“The point is God wrote His Word, He spake it and it was
written down, and was designed to be preserved. How long did Isaiah 30:8 say it
was meant for? Why did he say to go write it down? So it could be preserved for
the next generation and the next generation.
“It’s still as much His Word after it’s written down as it
was when it came out of Paul’s mouth. The scholars say Tertius is Paul’s ‘amanuensis.’
I love that title. That’s just means it’s his secretary. That’s a just a big
fancy definition for ‘he’s taking dictation.’ You can’t charge somebody $50,000
for an education if you don’t teach them big words.
“What Tertius is doing is preserving for you the inspired w-o-r-d-s
God gave through Paul. By the way, look at Romans 16:26: ‘But now is made
manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment
of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.’
“If God’s Word is to be made known to all nations, what
would that require? It’s going to require that it be translated. You remember
that verse in Zechariah 8 where he says that ‘ten men shall take hold out of
ALL languages of the nations’?
“God knows there’s all these different languages and if His
Word is designed to be made known to all nations, He doesn’t tell all nations, ‘Come
learn this language.’ He says, ‘Take my Word and put it into the languages of
the nations.’
*****
“If you go back and study doctrinal statements before the
turn of the 20th Century, you know what you find they say? They
don’t say God’s Word is found in the originals only. They say God’s Word was
found in the originals and then preserved through history, designed to be
translated into the languages of the nations.
“In fact, the Westminster Confession, the great old confession
that everybody says is supposed to be the standard of everything, says that His
Word is designed to be preserved PURE through all generations. God is going to
preserve His word through history in written form, through copies, translating.
It’s designed so it can be permanent and precise.”
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