Luke 16:19-31 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:… It will be a solemn thought to-night, when, in your own room, you open that holy volume, and think, "This Bible, that is being now preached, this Bible which I am reading, is the highest, best, last, only means by which God undertakes and promises absolutely to convert, teach, comfort, edify, save me. What then? If the hearing and reading God's Word have not turned my heart, then the resurrection would not do it I nothing would do it!" And with this conclusion, I am confident that all experience will agree. Great events, surprises, sorrows, bereavements, will, by God's grace, bring a man to his Bible, and then his Bible will bring him to God; and then it would seem as if those events converted him; but the truth is, that God's Word did the work — the rest only brought him there. But let us understand clearly what this Book is. What is the Bible? It is the likeness which the Holy Spirit has taken of the mind of Christ. And what is Christ? The likeness of the mind of the Father. Then what is the Bible? The exact and perfect transcript of the Spirit, as the Spirit is the perfect transcript of Christ, and as Christ is the perfect transcript of the mind of God. That is the Bible. No wonder then that whatever is to be done, it is this which must do it. But now we are directed to the manner in which the Bible is to be savingly used. "If they hear not" — that is, if they do not realize it even as if they heard a voice — if they do not hear and obey — "Moses and the prophets, then they would not be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: |
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