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by GLENN PEASE
02/10/18
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Based on I Peter 1:13-25

Abraham Lincoln did not like a lot of things about Christians and the church, but there are few great men in history who loved the Bible more than this great leader of our land. In Fisk University Library in Nashville, Tenn. is a copy of a Bible presented to Lincoln with this inscription: "To Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, the Friend of Universal Freedom, from the Loyal Colored People of Baltimore, 4th of July, 1864."

        When this Bible was presented to Lincoln he responded, "In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book..... All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere thanks for the elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present." Lincoln was so immersed in the Bible that his speeches were illustration of biblical language. He was 10 years old when the first family Bible was purchased, but before that he read the Bible in school where that was the only book they had to read. As president he used biblical language and ideas constantly, and once he gave a lecture on the Bible sponsored by the Bible Society of Springfield.

        Lincoln was greatly disturbed by preachers who used the Bible to support their own political agenda, such as justifying slavery. He had to be a student of the Word of God to fight against the abuse of it. The Bible became the key source of power that first founded our nation of freedom, and then restored it to freedom again. If you take the Bible out of the history of our nation, you will have noheritage to be proud of, for we would be a nation of tyranny and bondage like so many nations of the world. All that we treasure as Americans is due to the impact of the Bible on our leaders of the past.

        Theodore Roosevelt was one of our most brilliant and dynamic presidents, and he said, "Almost every man who has by his life's work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, of which our people are proud; almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible." Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II said, "Nearly all of the great men of our country have been well versed in the teachings of the Bible." All of the presidents of our nation were students of the Bible, for one was not considered educated who did not know the Bible.

       William E. Gladstone, the great statesman and intellectual giant of England said, "I have known 95 great men of the world in my time, and of these 87 were followers of the Bible." We could go on to quote many of those great men about their love for the Bible, but these are sufficient to establish the fact that the Bible was a powerful influence in the history of the Western world and of our nation. No one can question our biblical heritage, but now we must face the facts that the Bible is no longer the highest authority in our land. It still sells like hot cakes, but apparently it is read as infrequently as hot cakes as well, which is not at all. Studies of Christian youth entering college reveal that they know little about the Bible. They know more about movie stars and cartoon characters than they do about Bible characters.

       In many Christian homes the best place to hide money is in the family Bible, for nobody is ever going to look there. A Catholic author I read complained that only one priest in a hundred has ever read the Bible from cover to cover, and the result is that most Catholics do not take Bible reading seriously. Protestants and Catholics alike have taken for granted that we are a Christian nation, and they have assumed it would stay that way regardless the place we give the Bible in our education. Now we are reaping what we have sown, and that is a post-Christian era where leaders and people alike are ignorant of the Bible.

       No people can be great who neglect the best that God has given to man, and no year is going to be great in which the Bible does not play a major role in our lives. To encourage you to make Bible reading apart of your life we want to look at the two characteristics of the Word of God that Peter stressed in verse 23, where he writes of the living and enduring Word of God.

I. THE LIVING WORD.

      Life only comes from life. For a long time man thought life could come from non-life by means of spontaneous generation. That theory was destroyed by facts, and man learned that life can only come from the living. This is true in the spiritual realm as well. If you want abundant life, you will not get it from the world of dead materialism. Jesus came to give us life abundant, and we get that life from the Living Word of God. Peter says it is like a seed planted in us, and then it bursts forth from the soil like a plant or flower, and we are born anew. By means of the truth of the Bible we come to know Jesus as our Savior. We may read the Gospel, or we may hear it, but it has only one source, and that is the Bible. The Bible is alive because the Spirit of God who inspired it uses its life-giving truths to inspire those who read and hear it to give them new life.

       Robert Ingersall, the great skeptic, urged General Lew Wallace to write a book exposing the follies of Christianity. Wallace began by studying the Bible. What he discovered was that the Bible was alive. The truth of God got into his mind and changed his heart and life. He wrote a book alright, but instead of it being one of criticism, it was the classic on the beauty and power of the life of Christ. He wrote the book Ben Hur. The Bible gave him life and through him it was channeled to many others.

       All of Christian history is the history of the Living Power of the Word of God. A Bible distributor in Sicily was held up and the bandit ordered him to build a fire and burn all of his Bibles. He asked if he could read a part of each one before he threw it in the fire. The request was granted, and so from the first he read the 23rd Psalm. The bandit said that that was a good book and so that one he could save. He then read the parable of the Good Samaritan out of the next one, and the bandit liked that too, and spared it from the flames. From the next one he read the Sermon on the Mount, and from the next he read I Cor. 13, and in each case the bandit felt it was worth saving. He also heard the Gospel in realized he was worth saving and that Jesus died so he could be spared from the fire of judgment. He repented and trusted Jesus as his Savior. He went on to become a minister of the Gospel to others.

        History is filled with stories like this that reveal the living power of the Bible to transform lives. Every saved person on the planet is a child of God because of the power of God's Word. There can be no salvation unless the truth of the Bible is read or heard, and then accepted. The Bible is the Living Word that gives us life in Christ. It is the source of our nourishment that enables us to grow. The milk of the Word helps us get the basics so we have a solid foundation. But there is the meat of the Word that is for mature living. The Bible has much that is hard to understand because it is designed to be a challenge to the most brilliant and mature believers. It is to be the source of life for all of life, and so it has to have food for the newborn and also for the believer of ripe old age, who has spent a lifetime studying it. You never get so wise that the Bible is no longer a feast of new and exciting meals for the soul.

       Like all living things the Bible changes with the times and the circumstances. You can study the same book a few years after you thought you had studied it thoroughly and it will speak new truths and give you new insights that fit who you have become. You don't ever pass up the Bible, for it stays with you because it is alive. As you change and mature the Bible becomes more relevant to the issues you face now that you never even thought of before. If you think you can read the Bible and say you are done with it, you do not know the potential of the Bible. You are never done, for it is a living and life-giving power. You can no more get done needing it than you can get done needing food.

       You would think a person was very neurotic if you said, "have a ham sandwich," and they said, "No thanks. I had one last year." It is just as foolish to not read Hebrews again because you read it last year. Your body needs food repeatedly, and so does you mind and soul. We need to feed them on the Living Word that never gets old or obsolete. It stays fresh and relevant to whatever stage of life you have reached. A converted African cannibal was reading his Bible when a European traveler passed by and said to him, "That book is out of date in my country." The African responded, "If it was out of date here, you would have been my supper." The greatest proof of the relevance and power of the Bible is that it goes on changing lives all over the world.

       An unknown author sums up the value of the Bible like this: "This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully. It is a mind of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasures."

II. THE LASTING WORD.

       The Bible is the living and enduring Word of God. Most living things don't last.   They wither and pass away like flowers, but Peter says in verse 25 that the word of the Lord stands forever. The Bible will be a part of eternity, for it is God's Word, and God's Word never dies. It is alive with eternal life. Jesus said in Luke 21:23, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away." In Isaiah 40:8 we read, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever." To know the Bible is to be getting an education that is eternal.

       William Lyon Phelps, who was once professor and orator of Yale University, and director of the Hall of Fame in New York City, said, "Everyone who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may truly be called educated. I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible." He said that only one of Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower had a college education, but they were nevertheless an educated people because they knew their Bible. This great educator concludes, "No group of people can be rightly described as uneducated who read and know their Bible.

       Henry Van Dyke, who was once professor of English at Princeton said, "No other book in the world has had such a strange vitality, such an out going power of influence and inspiration. No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own." There are thousands of great educators who would say amen to these quotes. There is much education that will become obsolete in a few years, and most all will pass away in time, but to know the Bible is to be educated for eternity, for it will never pass away. When you know the Bible you are always up to date on all that matters. To know the mind of Christ is to have ultimate wisdom.

       In 1951 at the meeting of the United Bible Societies, Dr. Gilbert Darling of the American Bible Society told of how special measures had been taken to preserve various translations of the Bible in case of an all out atomic warfare. Copies of all important editions of the Bible were placed in specially made vaults in Colorado, New Hampshire, and New York City. If every book in the world would go up in flames, the Word of God would still be preserved. Satan knows the Bible is the greatest obstacle to his power in people's lives, and that is why the history of Bible translation is a history of fire against fire. When John Wycliff gave the common people the Bible in their language he was so hated that after he was buried for 30 years his bones were dug up and burned, and then thrown into the river Avon. John Hus was burned at the stake because he translated the Bible into the Bohemian language. William Tyndale was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English.

       Once people got the Word of God in their own language they were no longer in the dark and in bondage to the forces of evil. They were liberated by the light of the Gospel. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Once you are free to know the will of God you can never be content with less than liberty in Christ.   That is why the Bible is so hated by those who want to keep people in the dark and in bondage. Bible education sets them free forever. The reason we are so blessed with a free nation is because the founders of our nation were men who were educated in the Bible.

        George Washington said, "Above all, the pure and benign light of Revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind, and increase the blessings of society. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without the Bible." Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence, and who was one of the greatest men America has ever produced, said, "I have always said, and always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, and better fathers and better husbands...The Bible makes the best people in the world." We have to prove this to ourselves by giving the Bible a place of priority in our lives. There can be no higher goal for the coming year than that of giving a greater portion of our time to knowing the Living and Lasting Word of God. May God help us all commit ourselves to being busy getting an Everlasting Education.

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