C4 – The Bible, the Word of God
Let us review what we have learnt in the past lessons. We have learnt that we are sinners and we need to be saved. We learnt about how we can become children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to that, we learnt about enemies that a child of God will face in their Christian path. These are the world, the flesh and the devil.
We also learnt so many interesting things about God. We know now that God is eternal, holy, all-knowing, almighty and more. Where did we learn all that? We learnt all these from the Word of God. The Word of God is called the Bible. It is the subject of our lesson today.
What is the Bible?
The Bible is the Holy Word of God. It is the message of God to us, and it is therefore the most important book in the world.
There are two divisions in the Bible: The Old Testament and The New Testament. The Old Testament was written before the birth of Christ and the New Testament was written after the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ back into Heaven. In total there are sixty six (66) recognized books in the Holy Bible. The Old Testament is made up of 39 books while the New Testament is made up of only 27 books.
How did we get the Bible?
Perhaps you are wondering who wrote the Bible. The answer is that God Himself is the author of the Bible. God inspired different men to write down His words. He told these men exactly what to write:
“…for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. 2 Peter 1 vs. 21
For instance, long ago God spoke to a man called Jeremiah and commanded him to write a certain portion of the Bible. God said to him:
“Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you”. Jeremiah 30 vs. 2
The Holy Spirit came into Jeremiah and told him exactly what he had to write and he did. That is what is meant by inspiration; every book in the Bible was written this way. We read that,
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” 2 Timothy 3 vs. 16
All the 66 books of the Bible were written in this manner, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Men were the instruments, the words they wrote down originated from God. No other book in the history of mankind was written this way. The Bible is the only God inspired book. Furthermore, The Bible is complete and relevant to every generation! The last book of the New Testament, Revelation, warns us that we should neither increase nor detract anything from the word of God.
What is the message of the Bible?
The Bible tells us about the origins of man from God and his ruining by sin. It tells of God’s faithful love to man despite our sins and His program of salvation to every one of us who by faith will accept the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior. It shows us how to gain victory over sin. We see the importance of the Bible as shown in the upbringing of servants of God like Timothy: The Bible says about him in 2 Timothy 3 vs. 15,
“…and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”.
Truly the Bible is an amazing and wonderful Book!
How can we understand the Bible?
There are so many things in the Bible which are difficult to understand. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Bible teacher who knew everything about God and the Bible! Fortunately for us, there is such a teacher. He is the Holy Spirit! God has given us the Holy Spirit from the day we believed on Him to guide us through the Bible and teach us whenever we read it. The Holy Spirit teaches us all things about God. The Lord Jesus said,
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you”. John 14 vs. 26.
Without the Holy Spirit it would be impossible for us to understand the Bible. We are very thankful to God for having done so. We must rely only on the Holy Spirit to help us understand the word of God as King David prayed in Psalms 119 vs. 18:
“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law”.
What does God want us to do with the Bible?
There are four things God wants us to do with the Bible:
1. Read the Bible every day
We need to read the Bible every day because it is the only means through which God can speak to us and tell us what He wants us to do. Reading the Bible is as important as food is to the body. The Bible is our Spiritual food and we cannot grow without reading it. The Lord Jesus said,
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Luke 4 vs. 4
2. Believe the Bible
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him…” Hebrews 11 vs. 6. To believe the Bible means to have absolute trust that what is written in it is truth. Some people will doubt the Bible or believe some part of it and ignore other parts of it. But we know for sure that the Bible is the everlasting word of God:
“Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven”. Psalms 119 vs. 89
A famous preacher called D. L. Moody once prayed and prayed that God may increase his faith. Nothing happened despite many prayers. One day, he came across the verse below in the Bible:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. Romans 10 vs. 17
Mr. Moody had now discovered the secret to increased faith. It had not so much to do how vigorous somebody prayed. Faith increased through reading the word of God. He begun to study the Bible every day and his faith grew tremendously. Read the Bible and you too will grow!
3. Memorize the Bible verses
When the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wild (See Matthew 4), He quoted verses of the Bible from memory. Likewise, if we want to have victory over the devil’s temptations we too need to memorize passages from the Bible. Psalms 119 vs. 11 says,
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!”
Memorizing Bible passages will also help you to become a better witness of God. When you meet people anywhere you can tell them about the love of God and give them answers they may have concerning God and the way of salvation.
4. Obey the Bible
The Bible contains lessons to believe, promises to claim or hope for and commandments to be followed or obeyed. The Lord Jesus expects us to obey Him.
He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven”. Matthew 7 vs. 21.
In another passage He said,
“More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11 vs. 28.
So we must obey God’s word.
START TODAY!
As a guideline, start reading the Bible every day. Make a schedule for reading the word of God such as early in the morning and stick to it.
Start with the Gospel of John
The Gospel according to John was written to help us believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to accept Him as our personal Savior. Towards the end of this wonderful biography of the Lord Jesus, we read these words:
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name”. John 20 vs. 31
After reading the Gospel according to John several times, you will develop an interest to read all of the remaining parts of the New Testament.
When you come across a verse that you particularly enjoy, highlight it and memorize it. Share what you have learnt with others.
You can know that you are saved!
We conclude this lesson by considering three amazing facts from three verses. The first two verses are as follows:
1) “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” 1 John 5 vs. 11
2) “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5 vs. 12
From the first two verses above, we learn that the Bible is the testimony of what God said. So we believe that God has given us eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. If you believe in Him you have this life, if you have not yet believed then you do not have this life.
The last and third verse says,
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5 vs. 13
From this verse we see that God wants us to know that we have eternal life. A true believer does not have to say, “Maybe I am saved.” Or “I hope I am saved.” We can confidently say, “I know I am saved because God said so in the Bible!” How thankful we must be for God’s word, the Holy Bible!
Why do we read the Bible?
We read the Bible to have fellowship with God. If we want to hear what God wants to say to us we have to read the Bible.
How do we read the Bible?
You may read silently or audiably. Think about what you have read and try to take it in. Do not be in a hurry to finish a chapter!
Speak to God
Pray before and after reading God’s Word. Ask Him to give you understanding. Do not forget to thank Him for His promises and blessings found in His Word.
Wait on God
God will always respond to our prayers but we have to rest on him and patiently await His response.
What you can do
Highlight the verses you enjoyed, do what the commandments instruct you to do, tell others what you have learnt and memorize the Word of God…Don’t study to forget.
Next Steps
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