06. I. THE WORD: ITS ONE GREAT OBJECT

"BEGOTTEN . . . . by . . . . Jesus Christ" . . . 1 Peter i. 3.

"BEGOTTEN . . . . through The Gospel" . . . 1 Cor. iv. 15.

"The Son QUICKENETH whom He will" . . . . John v. 21.

"Thy Word hath QUICKENED me" . . . . Ps. cxix. 50.

"You hath He QUICKENED who were dead," &c. . . . Eph. ii. 1.

"Thy Precepts . . . with them thou hast QUICKENED me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ps. cxix. 93.

"He that eateth me, even he shall LIVE by me" . . . . John vi. 57.

"Desire the sincere milk of The Word, that ye may grow thereby" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Peter ii. 2.

"Christ hath made us FREE" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gal. v. 1.

"The Truth shall make you FREE" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John viii. 32.

"The Blood of Jesus Christ . . . . CLEANSETH us from all sin" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 John i. 7.

"Ye are CLEAN through the Word which I have spoken" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John xv. 3.

Christ "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heb. vii. 25.

"Receive . . . . the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James i. 21.

"SANCTIFIED in Christ Jesus" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Cor. i. 2.

"SANCTIFIED by the Word of God and prayer" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Tim. iv. 5.

"SANCTIFIED through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heb. x. 10.

"SANCTIFY them through THY TRUTH. Thy Word is truth" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John xvii. 17.

"Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us WISDOM" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Cor. i. 30.

"The Holy Scriptures . . . able to make thee WISE unto salvation" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Tim. iii. 15.

Christ "HEALED them" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt. iv. 24.

"He sent His Word and HEALED them" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ps. cvii. 20.

"Striving according to His Working which WORKETH in me mightily" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Col. i. 29.

"The Word of God which effectually WORKETH also in you that believe" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Thees. ii. 13.

"The Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall JUDGE the quick and the dead" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Tim. iv. 1.

"The Word that I have spoken . . shall JUDGE him" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John xii. 48.

"I will go unto God, my exceeding Joy" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ps. xliii. 4.

"Thy Word was unto me the JOY and rejoicing of my heart" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jer. xv. 16.

iii. THE LIVING AND THE WRITTEN WORD

Thus we see that the Living Word and the Written Word cannot be separated. And we can understand also why they cannot be separated in the preaching of the Word.

To preach the Written Word without preaching Christ is not preaching at all. Neither is it done in the power of the Spirit.

When Paul went to Thessalonica, he ("as his manner was") "reasoned with them out of the SCRIPTURES" (not as is done to-day, out of the newspapers, or out of the preacher's own head or experience); but he did not end there. We are immediately told that this preaching consisted in "opening and setting forth that CHRIST (the Living Word) must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ (the Messiah)" (Acts xvii. 1-3).

If the Living Word and the Written Word cannot be separated, we learn that in sitting down to the study of the Word and Words of God it is to hear His voice, to choose that "better part"; to sit at Jesus's feet, and hear HIS word (Luke x. 39).

And it is only a "part." The best is to come; when we shall "behold His glory" (John xvii. 24), the glory of our Ascended Lord; as the glory of our Incarnate Lord was beheld when on Earth (John i. 14). Then, in the future, as in the past (as now by the Holy Spirit), the wonderful "Word"—our Glorified Lord—will continue the blessed work which He began as our Risen Lord, "expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself"; and will declare and make known the Father to the Saints, who shall then have been gathered together unto Him (2 Thess. i. 10; ii. 1).

II. THE ONE GREAT SUBJECT OF THE WORD.

i. CHRIST IN THE WORD AS A WHOLE.

The one great subject which runs through the whole Word of God is Christ: the promised seed of the woman in Gen. iii. 15.

This verse marks the depth of the ruin into which man had descended in the Fall; and it becomes the foundation of the rest of the Bible.

All hope of restoration for man and for creation, is centred in Christ; who in due time should be born into the world, should suffer and die; and, in resurrection, should become the Head of a new creation, and should finally crush the head of the Old Serpent, who had brought in all the ruin. Christ, therefore, the King, and the Kingdom which He should eventually set up, become the one great subject which occupies the whole of the Word of God.

Hence, He is the key to the Divine revelation in the Word; and apart from Him it cannot be understood.

The contents of the Bible must therefore be seen and arranged with reference to Him. The counsels and purposes of God are all centred in Christ.

1. In the Old Testament we have the King and the Kingdom in Promise and Prophecy, Illustration and Type.

2. In the Four Gospels we have the King and the Kingdom presented and proclaimed by John the Baptiser, and by Christ Himself. And we see the Kingdom rejected, and the King crucified.

3. In the Acts of the Apostles we have the Transition from the Kingdom to the Church. The Kingdom is once again offered to Israel by Peter; again it is rejected, Stephen is stoned, and Peter imprisoned (ch. xii.).

Then Paul, who had been already chosen and called (ch. ix.), is commissioned for His Ministry (ch. xiii.), and on the final rejection of his testimony concerning the Kingdom, he pronounces for the third and last time the