Why Teach the Bible

Matt 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. NKJV

As we come to the final point in our series on great things let's review. Five points.

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

Worship, Love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul.

Ministry, Love your neighbor as yourself.

THE GREAT COMMISSION

Evangelism, Make Disciples.

Fellowship, Baptize those disciples.

Discipleship, Teach the disciples the all things.

The great commandment and the great commission make up the sum and total of the Christian faith. Without them you cannot have Christians. Without any one part you do not have true Christians.

Once the disciples have been made and added to the fellowship of the church they must be trained to replicate themselves. They must re-produce or else or there is no sign of life.

We are to teach, but what are we to teach? Jesus said that we are to teach what He taught, the all things. In its fullest extant that is the Bible, the whole Bible. But why the Bible? Aren't other people's ideas just as valid as the Bible's? Why do we teach the Bible?

  1. It is from God.
    1. The men who wrote the Bible were infallibly influenced by God's Holy Spirit.
      1. 2 Peter 1:21for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. NKJV
      2. 2 Tim 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. NKJV
    2. Being from God it is infallible.
      1. Matt 5:18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. NKJV
      2. Matt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. NKJV
      3. Oceanography owes a great debt to the books of Matthew Fontaine Maury. His discoveries have been of inestimable help to navigators of the high seas. Maury acknowledged his debt to the Bible for some of his scientific findings. One day when he was ill, his son read Psalm 8 to him. When the boy read the eighth verse, his father asked him to repeat it: "The birds of the air, and fish of the sea, and all that swim the paths of the seas." When the boy had finished, the great scientist declared, "If there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them." Today the great oceangoing vessels follow the paths marked out by Maury, who believed they were there because the Bible said they were. -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
    3. Being from God it is unfathomable.
      1. Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?" 35 'Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" NKJV
  2. It alone has the words that can bring life.
    1. The disciples came to Jesus because He alone had the words of life.
      1. John 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. NKJV
    2. God's word gives life, spiritual life.
      1. Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. NKJV
    3. It was at a missionary committee meeting in England that the chairperson startled the people by claiming he had founded a growing Christian group in India. They knew he had never been outside of England. He explained that when he was five years old, he had been impressed by a story of missions in India. He didn't want to just put his penny in the box. The pastor had a friend who was a missionary. The little boy bought a Bible, put his own name on the flyleaf, and mailed it to India. The missionary gave it to a poor man who had walked miles to ask for a Bible. Twenty years passed, and a visitor to a remote Indian village found the people there were Christians. No missionary had ever visited them. But they showed him a well-used New Testament with a boy's name on the flyleaf. -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
  3. It makes us better people.
    1. It has the power to change us by the power of God.
      1. Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. NKJV
    2. It is God's cleanser.
      1. Eph 5:25-27 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. KJV
      2. John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. KJV
  4. It alone tells the truth about undiscoverable truths.
    1. God
    2. The condition of mankind.
    3. The after life.
    4. How to be right with God and get to heaven.
    5. It also has a great deal to say about the things we struggle with.
      1. How to raise children.
      2. How to have a happy marriage.
      3. How to succeed in life.

A clergyman took a seat in a dining car on a train traveling along the Hudson River. Opposite him was an atheist who, seeing his clerical collar, started a discussion. "I see you are a clergyman." "Yes," came the reply. "I am a minister of the gospel." "I suppose you believe the Bible." The clergyman, orthodox in his views, responded, "I certainly do believe the Bible to be the Word of God." "But aren't there things in the Bible you can't explain?" With humility the minister answered, "Yes, there are places in the Bible too hard for me to understand." With an air of triumph as though he had cornered the preacher, the atheist asked, "Well, what do you do then?" Unruffled, the clergyman went on eating his dinner--which happened to be Hudson shad, a tasty fish but noted for its bony structure. Looking up, he said, "Sir, I do just the same as when eating this shad. When I come to the bones, I put them to the side of the plate and go on enjoying my lunch. I leave the bones for some fool to choke on. --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 43.

 This message was preached at FBC Toulon,
by Albert Harmon. See it at http://toulonbaptist.com/