Sunday Sermons
Bring the Books
There are interesting stories about books. One bookstore owner encountered a customer who wanted to buy 128 feet of books; “he had been hired by a group of trade union leaders, who were to be hosting their educated counterparts in management in an effort to break a deadlock in some highly volatile negotiations. To decorate their offices, and convey the intimidating air of being literary and ideological heavyweights, they had ordered books by the length that would adorn their walls and terrify the opposition” (Ravi Zacharias). One lady once wrote an author and thanked him for his Christian journal, for it perfectly fit her birdcage. “One critic of Stephen Hawking’s bestselling book, A Brief History of Time, said that it would be the most bought and least read book in recent memory” (Zacharias). Solomon noted, “But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Curiously enough, as verse 12 perceives, this may not suit us. We grow addicted to research itself, in love with our hard questions. An answer would spoil everything” (Kidner p. 106). Here is an admonition to all of us. There is a great temptation on the part of mankind to seek answers beyond those God had given. How many people keep looking for answers, when God has already clearly given the answer? And how many people are more in love with searching for an answer, then in actually wanting to find one? There is a time when research must end and application must begin. This verse is not talking about the writing of inspired books, which are not endless in number. In addition, we are to diligently study the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15). “It is the nature of the wisdom of this world to never give a final answer to the most basic and penetrating questions of life” (Kidwell p. 280). It is also the nature of this world’s wisdom to always want to hear something new or novel, or to jump on the latest self-help book.
The danger of many books
When I go to garage sales from time to time I am simply amazed at the amount of books, especially paperback novels, that people consume—all the while neglecting the word of God. It is ironic that people who would claim that such reading is an escape, are people who are already living a life that is an actual attempt to escape from the reality that this is God’s world(Romans 1:21-22). “While many books around us may convey the impression of being well read, only the Bible gives to us the ultimate guidelines of what it means to read well. Charles Dickens reminded his children to read well, but above all the books in the world to read the Scriptures, for the Bible alone was supreme, the Book of books” (Zacharias).
God gave us a book!
I know that various people do not like the Bible and complain that one book cannot meet the needs of all men or convey all truth or even be understood by all alike. Yet, in spite of all the nay-sayers, God did give us a book that contains all truth (John 16:13), everything we need to believe (Jude 3), everything necessary for being godly and pleasing God (2 Peer 1:3), and everything we need to live as Christians and perform the work that God has given us to do (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The benefits of the Book
· The right context:
“The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11). The book of Ecclesiastes is such a collection. Such words are like well-driven nails: “For nails fastened give a definite point on which all manner of things may be hung, so stable words of the wise give a man something to hold and to tie. They furnish a kind of mental anchorage” (Leupold p. 295). “A picture of that which makes something fixed and immovable, a symbol of the stabilizing and sure character of wise teachings” (Garrett p. 344). The words of Scripture are like nails in the sense that they establish a definite and sure reference point, something upon which you can hang everything, a definite point that will not move with time and culture (John 12:48). They also “nail down” all sorts of truths. This is extremely beneficial in our modern society where more and more of modern communication is a sound bite that misses the larger context. Allan Bloom writes, “Our students (in college) have lost the practice of and the taste for reading. They have not learned how to read, nor do they have the expectation of delight or improvement from reading. There is no printed word to which they look for counsel, inspiration, or joy” (The Closing of the American Mind p. 62). People do a lot of grazing when it comes to reading, but most people do not carry around with them a worn copy of a book, like the Bible that has changed them, even Christians can fall into the trap of going for days without opening up the Word of God. He goes on to note that great literature gives us the context to evaluate life. “It is a complex set of experiences that enables one to say so simply, ‘He is a Scrooge’. Without literature, no such observations are possible and the fine art of comparison is lost. The psychological obtuseness of our students is appalling, because they have only pop psychology to tell them what people are like, and the range of their motives. Kramer vs. Kramer may be up-to-date about divorces (but without a larger context) as part of his viewing equipment he cannot sense what might be lacking, or the difference between an honest presentation and an exercise in consciousness-raising, trashy sentimentality and elevated sentiment” (Bloom p. 64). You see the Bible gives us the right context in which to judge the happenings of this life. For example we will never understand the true context of divorce until we read Malachi 2:14-16 or Matthew 5:32. In like manner, we will never understand the homosexual lifestyle, no matter how many documentaries, movies, television programs or actual homosexuals we have talked to until we read Romans 1:26-27.
· The Bible keeps us from being naïve:
The Bible gives us the full range of human motivations and reveals that not everyone is sincere, not even all religious people(Matthew 6:1ff; 23:5). No, all churches are not the same (Revelation chapters 2-3), and not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually is (Matthew 7:21-23). In addition, there are people who will tell you what you want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3),and who will appear to be very godly (Matthew 7:15). In addition, the Bible makes it clear that everyone can change for the better (Acts 17:30), and when people remain in sin it is because they do not want to repent (Revelation 2:21).
· The Bible keeps guilt real and genuine:
Apart from the Bible, we may feel guilty for not giving some money to the bum on the street corner, or helping out the sluggard one more time just in case it helps him change this time, yet the Bible gives us the right context for this situation. The Bible keeps guilt in its proper context. It prevents us from feeling guilty over the wrong things, such as refusing to co-sign for someone who is not responsible (Proverbs 6:1ff), spanking our children (22:15), withdrawing from someone who is unfaithful (1 Corinthians 5), or as in the case above, refusing to give money who someone who refuses to work (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
· The Bible keeps the past in the right context:
Even though people who want to rewrite history surround us, the Bible does not allow such a revision (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Romans 1:18ff; 2 Peter 2:4ff). Bloom writes that so many young people today have never experienced the anxieties about simple physical well being that their parents/grandparents experienced during the depression. “They have been raised in comfort and with the expectation of ever increasing comfort. The unbroken prosperity of the last twenty years gives them the confidence that they can always make a living” (p. 49). But the Bible teaches us that life can be extremely difficult, especially for the Christian (2 Timothy 3:12). The Bible also reveals that there is really nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and that fads come, make an impact, and then depart and are viewed by the next generation as being old and out-dated. What this means on a practical level is that whatever fads appear in religion and present themselves as the ultimate in church growth, are simply temporarily gimmicks that really have nothing to do with actual and real growth. Unfortunately, in a number of history classes today students are taught that “the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, racism, and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all” (Bloom p. 26). Thus the Bible actually helps us from becoming “suckers for the new”. It helps us resist the lie that everything in the past was poor and contemptible, and prevents us from abandoning the good old ways(Jeremiah 6:16).
· The Bible keeps the present in the right context:
Especially, temptation and trials that we are enduring (1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:2-4). The temptation that many people encounter is to think that what they are going through gives them the right to abandon morality and that they are not accountable because either they are suffering or because they are being tempted in a manner far more serious than anyone else has ever been tempted. I believe that many young people during the last 30 years justified sexual immorality because they felt that while it had been taboo for their parents, it was right for them, because they were far more passionate and loving than the previous generation. The Bible informs us that every generation has been passionate, and every generation has fallen in love, and has loved just as intensely, yet sexual immorality has always been wrong (Galatians 5:19-21).
· The need for the goad:
Ecclesiastes 12:11“The words of wise man are like goads”: “The goad was a rod with an iron spike, or sharpened at the end used for driving oxen (Judges 3:31; 1 Samuel 12:21; Acts 9:5)” (P.P. Comm. 304). “Like goads they can rouse to action, promote reflection, restrain from error, impel to right; if they hurt and sting, the pain which they inflict is healthful, for good and not for evil” (P.P. Comm. p. 3-4). “The purpose of goads is to prod the sluggish to action. Good proverbs do that. They bear in them power to give a mental and spiritual stimulus” (Leupold p. 295). “They spur the will and stick in the memory” (Kidner p. 106). The verse infers that we all need a good “goading” now and then (2 Timothy 4:2; 3:16-17). People do complain about the high moral standards in the Bible, yet such a complaint when analyzed is unwise. Do we want to live a life where we only aim for mediocrity or worse? (Matthew 5:46; 6:32) Without the Bible we would all be deprived of the one thing that man so desperately needs, that is, instruction regarding how a person really should live, the standard of true maturity or holiness (1 Peter 1:14; Matthew 5:8). “Deprived of literary guidance, they no longer have any image of a perfect soul, and hence do not long to have one. They do not even imagine that there is such a thing” (Bloom p. 67). Yet true love (1 Corinthians 13:4ff), real unselfishness (Philippians 2:3-5), and genuine purity of heart are real goals that a person can reach (Matthew 5:8; Psalm 139:23-24).
