The Secret Whereby God Imparts the Mysteries of the Bible — Ian Paisley

The Word Revealed in John's Gospel

We're turning this morning in our Bibles to the first chapter of John's Gospel, the Gospel according to St. John of the chapter 1. We're reading the first fourteen verses, taking our time after me. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of truth and grace. Amen. And God will seal His Word to our hearts, and to His name shall all the praise be.

Knowing God Through the Written Word

Open your Bible with me, and turn over to that portion of Scripture we read together in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I want to speak this morning on the secrets whereby God imparts to us the mysteries of the Bible. To know the Scriptures is to know the highest knowledge in all the world, because knowing the Scriptures is to know God.

It is interesting to note that the second member in the great co-equal Trinity of God takes as one of its titles the Word of God. The knowledge of the Word of God can only be ours as we become careful students of the book.

We live in a day of slackness among the people of God in regard to their attitude to the Bible. The Bible is a Bible that is snatched up, read quickly, put down just as quickly. And we have just a very casual knowledge of it.

We're singing today of the blessed man of Sam 1, and in God's law he meditates day and night. The modern man today sees more of television screens than he sees of the page. That's why there's dearth, that's why there's backsliding, that's why we offer prayers that God doesn't answer and can't answer them, because of the sinfulness of our own heart.

This book reveals God. You will not find the truths about God anywhere else but in the Bible. People talk about they never were so near God as they were when they were in a garden. You should remember that Adam and Eve fell in the garden, and they were sinless.

But they were in the most beautiful garden in the world, and they fell. How are you going to do already fallen with the beauty of the garden? There's only one place where you can meet God, and that is in His Word.

This is the only way to God. It is the only place where we can find God. It's the only place where we can continue with God. God lives in His living Word. God breathes in His inspired Word. God presents Himself in the mirror of His reflecting Word.

God imparts power by His powerful Word. God instructs us in the mysteries of Himself in His instructive Word. Without the Bible, we have nothing, and we know nothing about God. But the Bible can only be opened by God, the God who wrote it.

The Lamb Who Opens the Book

And you will remember that it can only be opened by the Lamb, which it is all about. Revelation chapter 5, verse 4 to 10,. And the apostle John wept, because nobody could open the book and read thereon.

And suddenly, in the midst of the throne, there was a Lamb slain, a newly slain Lamb. Not lying a dead meat on the throne of God. In the center of the throne, the Lamb, the bleeding Lamb was standing.

For all the power of God's Christ is in His most powerful blood, as far as our redemption is concerned. And the elder, they're all Presbyterians in heaven,. The elder said something to them. He said, Weep not!

Behold, the Lamb of the tribe of Judah is revealed to open the book. They opened the book, they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,. For thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,.

Out of every kindred and town and people and nation,. And hast made unto us, unto our God, kings and priests,. And we shall reign on the earth. Our knowing only comes to us when God shows Himself to us.

And where does God show Himself to us? Only in His Word. The knowledge of the Most High God. In all of thy getting, we need to get that knowledge. We need to know the wisdom of God. We need to know the ways of God.

We need to know the works of God. We need to know the wrath of God. And this can only come by a careful study of the Word. It was old Bishop Wordsworth who remarked,. The proverbs of Solomon came from above,.

And they also make us look upward. They teach that all true wisdom is the gift of God. And all true wisdom is founded on the fear of God. They dwell with the strongest emphasis on the necessity of a careful vigilance over the heart, Which is manifested only to God.

And on the duty of acting in all daily business and social intercourse of life, With a vigil reference to the one unerring standard in all the world,. And that is this book of God. In respect, the book of Proverbs prepared the way for the preaching of the gospel.

And we recognize in it an anticipation of the apostolic precept, Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord. The great Scotch preacher, Dr. Guthrie, Considered that the high character of Scotsmen in his day, Was earned in the bygone years, When they were acquainted in their day schools with the book of Proverbs.

And young lives were trained to go by the book. What Dr. Guthrie states, I would totally commend. Those that read in the book of Proverbs, Are reading in the introduction to God's book about Himself. Many, many years ago, too many years for me to count, I sat in the theological hall of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, And one of the professors, Professor MacFarlane, told us, That for years he carried a book with him.

It was the book of Proverbs. And he had a small copy of the book of Proverbs. He carried it in his vast pocket. And he said, gentlemen, the book of Proverbs was set out in the Bible for reading every day.

For there's thirty-one chapters in it. And when you come to a month with only thirty, He said, read the thirty-first chapter as well of that month. And he held up that little book and he said, I can't tell you, gentlemen, how much I owe to that book.

I would recommend that to you. But above all other reading, We should read one chapter of the book of Proverbs to bring us back To the fact that wisdom alone is found in God's precious Word. The wisest of all the kings who ever reigned on this earth, King Solomon learned that lesson And wrote that book by the power of the Spirit of God.

An heirloom to the church of divine wisdom. And we must see to it that nothing takes us away From constant reading, constant loving, And constant reading by the Word of God. God's Word demands seven things.

Attention to God's Word

Make a note of them. It demands attention. The Bible would bring us all to a stanchion. Stop your dabbling with the things of this world. Stop being caught away by the niceties of a life of pleasure That leads to sinful pleasure.

Stop on your journey. Give heed to my Word. In the hustle and bustle of this 21st century, The shock breaks neath of Islam on every Christian. He needs to come to attention for... So we're going to really study the book.

We must pay it. We must have an open ear to what it is saying. Your friends will not talk to you Except you show you're interested in what they say. This book will be a dumb book By the attitude you adopt to it.

Retaining the Word Like Seed

You can't read this book in haste. Secondly, this book demands retention. That you don't dismiss what it says. That you retain within your mind and your heart and your soul What it's saying. You all know the story of the seed.

And the seed is the Word of God. You all know what happened. The seed must be retained in the ground. And if it's not retained thoroughly and perfectly and mightily, It will bring no blessing to the soul.

First of all, the devil hates the Word of God. So he snatches away the seed. He doesn't want you to retain it. For that seed has a tremendous effect. Thank God this seed that fell into my heart In a gospel message preached by my dear mother At a children's meeting.

I retained it. And it brought me to the Savior. But the Word must be retained. Secondly, some of it fell on stony ground. It couldn't be retained. It brought forth fruit out of season. And then it died the death.

Some fell among thorns. And it had the same result. But some fell on good ground. A ground that retains the Word. So this book demands attention. It also demands retention. God's book, thirdly, demands reflection.

Reflecting on the Bible's Message

I need to reflect and meditate upon this book. And what it is saying to me. The Bible is the voice of God. Over and over again through it we read, God said, God said, God said. Is the Bible really the voice of God to you?

Well if it is, you will reflect upon what it said. You will stop. You will have attention. You will have retention. But you will have reflection. You will be reflecting. It will be as a kneel in a sure place.

A Word of God driven into the heart by the hammer of the Holy Ghost. For God's Word is a hammer. It drives and kneels in and pinches them on the other side. God's book demands reflection. But God's book demands something else.

Submitting Life to God's Commandments

It demands subjection. It demands me to subject my life to its commandments. To conform, we must hide God's Word in our heart. That we might not sin against the Lord. God's Word leads us to holiness. Without which no man can see the Lord.

The unholy man who claims to see God is a liar. The only eyes that can behold the true God is the eyes of a person made holy by subjection to God's Word. The commandments are given to be obeyed. The commandments must be obeyed.

For if we don't obey the commandments, we cannot know God. God does not commune with those that shut their ears to His commandments. He communes with those that open their ears to His commandments. But the Bible demands projection.

Projecting God's Truth to the World

Projection means to shoot forward. To demand a hearing and a verdict. To throw forward. The Bible must be projected by us. We must be ready at all times to tell this world what saith the Scriptures. We need to be projectors of the Word.

We have a duty. And that duty is to spread the Word. To project God's truth in a day of lying and cheating and dishonesty. To project the truth of God's Word. Especially in the era of religion. When we have much false religion destroying the hearts and the souls.

Interjecting God's Truth in Conversation

But it demands something more than projection. The Bible demands interjection. We need to interject God's truth in every conversation we take part in with ungodly men. It is a great thing to interject the truth.

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you. I had the great privilege the other morning of addressing five of the main grammar schools in our city. We had a great congregation of young people.

It was a most interesting gathering and the questions were rare and the answers they got were rare. But I had the joy of addressing those few hundred young people. With what made me what I am. And to relate this story of my conversion.

And my acceptance of the Word of God as God's only book. I was interested after when the principal of the school we were meeting in. He said to me you know I have something interesting to tell you. He said every one of our teachers in this school who teach religion.

Every one of them are born again Christians. That's a good testimony isn't it? It's nice to know that even in the darkness of our schools the light does shine. And there is the interjection of God's Word.

Thy Word is a hammer that breaketh the rock and pieces. It's a fire. Thy Word is a sword that pierces and divides. And then something more and finally. The Bible is a demand. It looks in to inspect and our hearts need to be inspected.

Inspecting the Heart Before God's Word

We need to open our hearts to God's truth. We need the freedom of God's truth to be let loose in our thoughts. And the intent of our heart. I was struck this week by a word in Luke's Gospel. Luke's Gospel chapter 6 and verse 38.

And Christ talks about the measure of God. And he says it's pressed down. Every drop of divine truth needs to be squeezed out of the Bible as we read it. It needs to be pressed down. It needs to be shaken together for every unifying truth is discovered.

And it has a relation. The Bible doesn't stand on its own. Genesis stands with all the other 65 books. Can't tear the Bible in pieces. Shaken together. And when God shakes His Word. He sends us to another part of the book for confirmation.

And then it's something else. It's running over. It's running over. Oh, the fullness of God's blessed Word. God give us a love for the book. And for the truth of the book. And especially the one who takes His name from the book.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank Thee for Thy good and blessed Word. Write it on our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. And everybody say, Amen.