Design of the Bible

As you can see from the title, it is God's—or the marvelous design of God's Word. I've been reading lately, and it has really opened my eyes when you look at the news, what is happening in religions around the world, and especially here in the U.S. This is from the Christian Post. Steve Cable, who does a lot of polling, finding out what's happening in the churches.

And he wrote an article that says, only one in three young Christians believe only Christ is the way. That means that in these churches, two-thirds of young Christians believe that, well, Christ isn't the only way. There are other ways for salvation. And, as Steve Cable found, five disturbing patterns in some young Christians, and it is increasing how many are following these five patterns. The first is that their faith is personal and subjective.

In other words, don't judge me. I've got my own idea of God, and I follow Christ my way. So it's just personal and subjective, which means based on a person's feelings, not on the facts as much. Number two, they find themselves captive to consumerism. In other words, getting the fast buck is a main objective. I just want to get money so I can buy things.

I just want to have a good life, enjoy my physical goods. That is one of my chief aims and goals. Now, we have always said that it is a means to an end. God wants us to prosper, but He doesn't want us for that to be the central focus and goal in our lives. Yet, young people are continually falling for that more. Number three, little civic or community spirit. They're not really helping out very much in the community. They don't feel civic responsibilities as much.

Number four, they believe sex is not a moral issue. In other words, I can love Christ, I can follow God, I can go to church. If I sleep with my girlfriend, that's not a big thing. Again, that's something personal. That's not a moral issue. That's becoming more and more the tendency, because it's happening. More people are now cohabiting than they are getting married.

Shocking is statistics that more and more people are not getting married, including a lot of these Christian evangelicals, or Protestants, and even Catholics. Also, it's interesting the statistic that in the U.S., 50% of those that get married will eventually divorce. That's half of the people in the U.S. When they remarry, in other words, the second marriage, it's 60% end in divorce. If you marry for a third time, the average is 70% end in divorce. So, of course, when you combine all of that, that's how you get to 50%. Because that's the average in the U.S. as much. People are just marrying and giving themselves in marriage more and more.

Young people do not have the patience that former generations had. If they're not happy a month later, they're already ready to throw in the towel. Oh, I can always just get married again. But it gets worse. So, this Mark Gally, who is a writer for Christianity Today, one of the main Christian magazines, wrote an article, Yawning a God's Word, about the mood in a lot of young Christians, which he is alarmed about.

This is what basically the churches are letting them know what is happening. It says, it is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible. But he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out. That's what he has found. A lot of the young people nowadays, they want something more, you know, snappy. They want something more entertaining, something that gets their attention right away, or they check out.

So don't spend a lot of time in the Bible. We tell our preachers. But be sure to get to personal illustrations, examples from daily life, and most importantly, an application that we can use. All of this adds up, unless countered by the authentic reading and preaching of the Word of God, to a form of group therapy, entertainment, and wasted time, if not worse. This is from one of the leading writers in the Christian movement here in the United States. And he says this is really affecting churches throughout. This gentleman brings up the example of Ezra and the Levites in Nehemiah 8, 1-8.

Now, what was the youth doing then? Well, they were going along with their parents. They took the Scriptures seriously. And Ezra read from the Scriptures to make them understandable. Notice, let's read Nehemiah 8, 1-8. Nehemiah 8, 1-8. Now, this was one of the feast days. When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

Now, verse 1, now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Watergate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month, which is the Feast of Trumpets. So here we actually have church services going on. And he said, verse 3, that he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Watergate from morning until midday.

So the crowd was so big, you couldn't put them in a building. And so they were out there in the square. I'm sure it was hot. I'm sure it was muggy. But they just wanted so much to be there and to listen to God's word explained.

And it says, then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Watergate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

So Ezra describes, stood on a platform of wood, which they had made for the purpose and beside him, at his right hand stood. And it mentions all of these Levites. Verse 5, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. And as you can see here, there's a representation of him opening up the scrolls and reading from the Scriptures.

People did not have their personal scrolls. So they had to virtually memorize the Scriptures. He said, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Notice how much they honored it. They stood up and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, Amen, Amen, which means, let it be so. And while lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Remember, they'd been 70 years in Babylon because they had broken God's law.

So these were people that were contrite. They had seen what had happened when you break God's law. They didn't want it to happen to their generation as it had the previous one. And again, all of the names of the Levites are here. It says, they helped the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place. So they read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading.

In other words, how to apply it. What is God wanting of us, which should be the main thrust of why we come to services, to see what God wants of us?

So that is an example that this writer brings up, because there is a lot of concern. And not only does that happen outside, but also we live in a society where the youth are getting more turned off, and many people are thinking, well, how can we adjust? What can we do? And that is a concern. Now, it is a common problem, as President Victor Kubik has brought out. We are striving to remain relevant, especially with our youth. And there is always room for improvement in our services, but all within a biblical framework. In other words, the question, do we want Bible-based services or something else?

There is not much room if we have congregational singing, a sermonette, announcements, special music, a Sabbath thought reading on occasion, and a sermon. Then we have youth day, Sabbath in the park, we have sometimes, instead of sermonette, we have cantatas, which, so we're doing what we can to make it relevant that the youth do feel we are also speaking to them. But again, it should emphasize the messages. We have two messages given each Sabbath services. And if we reduce those, we add other things. Are we going to be getting the meat of God's Word? Or are we going to get something much lighter, as these writers are talking about? And I'll bring this up a little later on, which brings us to the following subject, which is that the Bible is remarkably designed. Do we really appreciate it, or is it becoming boring? Notice some scriptures. Psalm 12, verse 6, says, The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Now, when jewelers had to prepare silver, as you know, silver is mined from all kinds of subterranean mines. And it comes in, and basically they have to grind it down, and then they have to melt it and try to burn what they call the dross, which are the impurities. But many times, the first time it is burned that way, not all impurities come out. And so you have to submit that silver to another treatment with the oven. And so some more of the dross is burnt, but it's still not 100% pure. Now, if you do that seven times, can you imagine how much time that takes to put that silver and then put it back and put it back until it's seven times been in that oven? Well, you have pure silver. There are no impurities. And God's word is compared. Just like if it had gone through a furnace seven times, being purified. And so we have this wonderful word. This is what we come here to hear. We want it to be based always on this point. And we want to draw the youth to love the Bible, to focus on it. Because those are the words of life. I remember back in Chile around 1995 when we were going through a period where we were going to see if we were going to keep God's word and His laws pure or not. I remember this gentleman way out there in Argentina in a little old town, but a man who was very respected. His name was Mr. Cordoba. And I remember he called me and he said, Mr. Sagley, Please do not water down these truths, for they are the words of life. And that's what the Bible has described that in Acts chapter 7, when Stephen gave the sermon. And there he said, and they received the words of life. They are the words of life.

Notice in the second scripture, John chapter 5 verse 29, this is in the King James Version, where he spoke to the Pharisees. And he said, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. The word here, search, eronus, in the Greek, means to search as a miner seeks silver and gold. You have to mine. It says, Search the Scriptures. This isn't something you're just going to find on the surface. You have to go and dig for those golden and silver nuggets of truth. And Christ said, Search the Scriptures. We have to search the Scriptures. No other book will ever give you the fulfillment and the value for your life. No other book can be comparable to it. And then, in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, it says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So, all the Bible was inspired by God and is profitable to establish doctrine. That's why our doctrines are not based on some man's word or some woman or some pope or some idea. No, it is based on God's word. And God's word is written in such a way that it can be understood. You don't need a college degree to understand the Bible. Abraham Lincoln learned to read by reading the Bible and other books. But he basically was educated with the Bible as the central source of his education. It was President Theodore Roosevelt that said, A good understanding of the Bible is better than a college education. That doesn't mean you shouldn't go to college. But he's just saying, throughout your life, a good understanding of the Bible is going to be more valuable in the way you live than a college education.

And so, it is remarkably designed. And I'd like to go over some of these jewels that maybe some understand. But I want to bring it to you so we can see why we need to always have, as our basis, God's word. And always try to give the meat of God's word, give it as thoroughly, as deeply as we can. Because this superficial Christianity is going down the tube. And God's judgment is going to come down one day upon this whole society. But if we are grasping that depth of God's word, it's going to keep us like a light in a dark place. It is a lamp to our feet. Now, notice that the number seven is used throughout the Scriptures to mean a completed and perfect work. By the way, you don't have to write everything down. You'd like it. We can always send you the PowerPoint presentation by email. You can go over it. But in the Bible, the number seven means a completed and perfect work. For instance, the seven days of creation. He didn't create it in eight days. God did not bless the eighth day, which is what today is being kept Monday after the seventh day. No, it is seven days of creation. That was completed. It was perfected. And so God uses the number seven to let us know that was a completed work in the sense of him resting on the Sabbath day. Then there are seven feast days. They're not six. They're not eight. There are seven because that is God's plan of salvation and the seven steps to carrying it out. Not six, not eight. Then there are seven churches of revelation. Not eight. And this is God's instruction to his churches throughout history until his return. There are seven trumpets in the book of Revelation. And you can go on and on in this way. And there are seven sections of scripture. The Bible is divided into seven parts. That is not a coincidence. That is not an accident. That is the way God chose us. That it is a completed and perfect work. Now notice that Jesus Christ mentioned the three main sections of the Old Testament. In Luke 24, verse 44, he said, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms concerning me. That was the standard way of speaking about the three sections of the Old Testament. The law of Moses is composed of the first five books. Then come the prophets all the way from Joshua, all the way to the book of Malachi. The psalms begins the third section, which is commonly known as the writings. There are three parts in the Old Testament, and there are four parts in the New Testament.

In its original order, there are 49 books. Again, this is a multiple of seven. Seven times seven. Seven sections here are multiplied by seven. There are 49 books. There are 22 in the Old Testament. As Josephus brings out in his writings, he said, we only honor and accept the 22 books. There are not 23 or more, just the 22 books. Those are the ones that we have today in the Old Testament. There are 27 in the New Testament. Our Bible is divided up differently than those 49 books, but they contain the same thing. They are the same books, just some are divided into two parts in our Bible. Whereas in the original order, there is only one. For instance, we have the first and second books of Samuel. Well, in the original, that was just one book, the book of Samuel. We also have the book of Kings, and that was in the original. That was divided into first and second Kings. There is a book of Chronicles, which was divided into first and second Chronicles. Also, other books are combined. For instance, there was one scroll that had to do with what they called the minor prophets, because they were small, or books. There were 12 of them, but in the Jewish Bible of the Old Testament, it was just one book. It included Amos and Hosea and all of the rest.

That's why we have a different number of books, but the 22 books are the same as the ones that we have now in the Old Testament.

Also, in the New Testament, those 27 are the same ones. Although there is one notable difference in the original order in the New Testament, we had the four Gospels, and then the book of Acts, and then, instead of the epistles of Paul, we have what is called the general epistles, which begins with the epistle of James. Then it goes on to epistles of Peter, and then John and Jude. After you're through what they call the general epistles, then you begin with the epistles of Paul. Unfortunately, that had to do more with a Catholic idea of putting Rome first, the book of Romans first, and also to really get into heavy theology and leave the basic books of theology at the end, which are the books of James and Peter and John and Jude. And so I compare it to beginning with the twigs in a tree and leaving out the basic branches, the main branches. See, if you would have started with the book of James, you would have known that God's law should be kept, that there is faith plus works. See, these are the fundamental truths. These are the main branches. And James talks about that you need to have obedience to the commandments and how you don't have to just go into grace by itself. And later on, Peter also discusses the same thing, how some are turning grace into licentiousness. And John says he who says that I know him and doesn't keep the commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. So, of course, these false teachers did not want these epistles at the beginning after the book of Acts. So they put all of these books of Paul first, which are actually elaborate. These are the finer points of God's law, but you can get confused, as Peter himself wrote in one of his epistles, that some are hard to understand and that people twist. So, of course, we don't have a say in what kind of Bible we would choose, but if we had a Bible to choose, we would have one which would have the books of James and Peter and John and Jude first after the book of Acts and not the epistles of Paul. But the main point is that we do have all of the books, although they are disordered in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, when I went to give these Bible studies, just like I have been doing here, when I did them in Chile, we went through all of the Old Testament, then we went through all the Gospels and Acts, and then I told the brethren, now we're going to begin with the book of James after the book of Acts, and we went through the general epistles, and then we went to epistles of Paul, and it was so natural. I think that's why they never swallowed a lot of these lies. They were not duped because they remember these main, the trunks of the tree here were the book of James, the epistles. And so people knew you can't just take grace and wipe away God's law in that way, but many people were duped by that. So this is important to understand the design of God's Word, how carefully it was done. Now, of these seven sections of the Bible, as I have mentioned here, you have the law, the first five books, the prophets, Joshua to the prophets. By the way, in the Old Testament, they also changed the two latter parts, because now we have the writings in such a way that some of the latter prophets are stuck at the end. That was done by this setuagint version of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible back around 200 years before Christ. And they switched some of the books around, the order. But here we have the law, the prophets, the Psalms. Then we have the Gospels, the Book of Acts, the Epistles of the Apostles, and finally the Book of Revelation. And there is remarkable harmony in these seven sections. Let's notice.

The first section, the law of God, equals in the New Testament the Gospels. In this first part of the law, it's the beginnings of the physical order of things. The Gospels is the beginnings of the spiritual order of things. You have, in Genesis, the first Adam.

And in the New Testament, you have Jesus Christ as the last Adam, as 1 Corinthians 15, 45, compares Adam with Jesus Christ. In John 1, 17, it explains, it says, They don't oppose themselves. The Gospels complement the law. They add the spiritual dimension that the physical law in the Old Testament needed. And so they complement each other, the law and the Gospels. You always begin with the laws. Just like in the Constitution, you begin setting up the main laws that the country is going to abide by. Well, you set up, first of all, the law of God. That's what Christians are going to abide by, and then Jesus Christ added the spiritual dimension. So it was not just going to be kept physically, but also spiritually in the mind. The second section of Scripture are the prophets. They are the equivalent of the book of Acts. See, the second section in the Old Testament is equivalent to the second section in the New Testament. In the part of the Old Testament, you have the history of Israel. And in the book of Acts, you have the history of the church.

In the prophets, you see how Israel obeyed or disobeyed the law. And this history ended mostly as a spiritual failure. 2 Corinthians 3, 15, and 16 just says these rights were not able to obey the law, as they should have. And then you have in the book of Acts the history of the church, and it shows how the church obeyed or not the law, and now having the Holy Spirit in them. And it was a success, and it continues to this day, people that are keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.

Let's see what the third section is about. The writings. They are the equivalent to the epistles. The writings began with the book of Psalms, and this section is called the writings, and this is the wisdom literature of Israel. Whereas the epistles are the writings of the apostles. This is the wisdom literature of the church. It gives us, as we see here, just as the wisdom literature. Of course, we're talking about Psalms, we're talking about Job, we're talking about Proverbs, we're talking about... Well, actually, it does begin with Psalms, not Job. Job is different. Then we get to Proverbs and to Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon and all of these, which is the practical application of God's law. And the epistles are the practical application of God's laws with the Holy Spirit and the people. So here is where we get the practical side of things. Paul usually ends his epistle with a lot of practical advice on how to apply God's laws to our lives and in the church.

And then we come to the final section in the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. This is the culmination of God's Word. It includes the law, it includes the history, and above all, the prophecy to finalize God's plan of salvation. So the Bible wouldn't be complete without that last seventh section, which seals the Bible. And we can compare it to these seven sections.

Each one has a certain figure and a certain shape, and they all, like a puzzle, are put together in these seven parts. The law, the prophets, the writings, the gospels, Acts, the epistles, and Revelation. So as you study the Bible, you realize there are these parallels between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and how everything fits together so seamlessly. That's why we need to understand God's Word more deeply, understand its sections, understand each relationship one section has with the next. And also to appreciate God's genius as he set this all up. These first six sections are history, law, prophecies, but then at the end we have the book of Revelation as the finishing touch. This is what we all need, and it is all we need to guide us in our lives. Now, from this basis, we can then put everything else in place. Everything we study is sifted through God's Word. As Mr. Armstrong at Ambassador College put there as one of the mottos, the Word of God is the foundation of knowledge. He didn't say it was entire edifice. It wasn't a complete building. But it is the foundation, the basis for everything else. And society has thrown away more and more of that basis. Now, everything has become more relative. Everything is much more. Instead of building our house on a rock, it's being built on sand, the sifting sands of worldly thought. And our kids are being duped more and more by it. So, as kids go to college, parents have to be aware of these wrong thoughts that men have put. And we've covered them more in our literature, our magazines, these streams of thought that have captured and changed so much of our youth's minds. So, this is the world that we live in. Notice a couple of quotes. This is from an article by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He wrote an article, Falling on Deaf Ears, Why So Many Churches Hear So Little of the Bible. It says, It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly or we start mentally to check out. From Mark Galley, yawning at God's word. And then Dr. Mohler says, That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity and impatience with the word of God. It's not enough. We've got to put more things into it. One minister was told, cutting down on the number of Bible verses, quote, would save time and, it was strongly implied, would better hold people's interest. Mark Galley reflected, Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation's concerns, not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. You know, what do you want to hear? What would appease you? What do you get a kick out of that we can try to catch you to really feel good about self and self and self? The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns. And so now we have all of these specialties out there. Okay, what is your hang up? Go over here to this office and we'll deal with this and that. And people go for all the therapy they can get in the church. Now, there is a place, but it should be biblical. It should be based on God's Word.

He goes on to say, In many churches there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible. We are called to sing and worship, but the congregation cannot live only on the portions of Scripture that are woven into songs and hymns. Christians need the ministry of the Word as the Bible is read before the congregation such that God's people, young and old, rich and poor, married and unmarried, sick and well, hear it together. As Ezra's sermon in Nehemiah 8, 1-8, the sermon is to consist of the exposition of the Word of God powerfully and faithfully read, explained and applied. So you see from Christianity today that concern, and you see it in these men that are leading different congregations, and what they are striving and struggling to deal with.

Mark Galli, the one who wrote that about yawning at God's Word, says, Whenever the Bible is read, this is his recommendation, a hush should come over us. We should be inching toward the edge of our seats, leaning forward, turning our best ear toward the speaker. Fearful we'll miss a single word. The deeds and words and character of Almighty and merciful God are being revealed. In a world of suffering and pain, of doubt and despair, of questions about the meaning and purpose of existence, we are about to hear of God's glory, forgiveness, mercy and love, of his intention for the world, of his promise to make it all good in the end, of the way to join his people, of the means to abide with him forever. And there we sit, tapping our feet, mentally telling the preacher to get on with it. But if we take the trouble to listen, really listen, he says to that word, we'll discover something else marvelous, that the one being revealed is as patient with us as we are impatient with his word. So again, this isn't something new, but I think it is coming more and more to the fore. I think as society becomes more and more liberal and permissive, people just want something quick and enjoyable and entertaining. And so we have that problem. That sermon that you heard, where the Bible tells us what the therapy is all about, to love God first and to love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the two great pillars that we have to base our faith on. And so as we struggle, we are living in the last days as things are ready to pop one of these days. We need to remember the beauty and the design of God's word. I'd like to end with Paul's instruction to the young Timothy on how to preach in 2 Timothy 4, verses 2-4. And those who speak here, whether they give sermonettes or split sermons or sermons, this is still the basis that God-inspired word tells us to do. And in an uncompromising way, although always trying to adapt to the culture and the world we live in, show it to them in a relevant way, but it has to be biblically based. He says, preach the word. Not talking about another word than the word of God. Be ready in season and out of season. In other words, always be prepared. Convince. Rebuke. There's time to convince people when their reasoning is not right. Rebuke. Sometimes you have to stop and tell a person that's not biblical basis for things. Exhort, which is to admonish, to encourage, with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, people that will tell them what they want to hear instead of what God is telling them to hear. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables, man's inventions. We've seen so much of theology, which is the study of God's Word, in these seminaries that are out there. They have just become worse and worse. They have just watered down things. Now it's all about being, as they call it, politically correct. You can't ruffle any feathers. Nowadays, they're even getting to the point where you can hardly speak about God's Word in certain subjects, because the government is getting involved in so much of a person's life. It says, but you, talking about Timothy, as a minister, he who spoke as a preacher, says, but you, be watchful in all things. Be aware of what's going on. Endure afflictions. It's not going to be easy. There's always going to be persecution, criticism, difficulties. Nobody does it perfectly either. Hopefully people will have compassion and patience and mercy. He says, do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. So let's truly appreciate God's Word, that wonderful and marvelous design that God gave us of His Bible.