EXTRACT

The Lord Himself stresses the books of Moses, placing them alongside His own words, indeed He says—“if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” remarkable grace and wisdom to stress thus the value of the Pentateuch. He began there, in speaking on another occasion, not to a large congregation, but to two persons, and they erring Christians.

Christendom is full, alas! of erring Christians, persons who have turned aside. Not that I am accusing any in particular, but it is a fact, and hence the example set by the Lord is to be observed—“beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24: 27), showing that erring Christians need to have the Scriptures not only read, but expounded. Exegetical works of great value on these books are current, and should be attended to if we to be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Expositions are of great importance, not that Christians should depend wholly on them, they should read the Scriptures in dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Lord said, “How readest thou?” to one man, and that is a good question for us all. If you read them aright you will be supported in them, they even preach the gospel. An unconverted man would do well to read them, for the Scriptures preached the gospel to Abraham, we are told, and here it is said to Timotheus: “from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”. They are able to do that. The apostle says elsewhere, “the Lord will give thee understanding”; He is available to us.

The Spirit too, guides us into all the truth. We are wonderfully furnished and no one who is ignorant is excusable. In fact, where people are ignorant and have no exercise the word might apply; “let him be ignorant”, 1 Corinthians 14: 38. Very solemn! So we are to read the Scriptures. The Lord Himself says, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life—and they are they which testify of me”, John 5: 39. They are full of holy matter, the most engrossing matter for the renewed heart, able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. The eunuch is a good example; he says to Philip, “How can I (understand), except some man should guide me?”, Acts 8: 31. It is well to have the sense that you need to be shown. The eunuch was reading, but he admitted he was not getting help, and if not getting help in reading Scripture it is wise to ask; I would advise each to do so, to ask the person most likely to answer helpfully. We read of the Lord Himself in the temple hearing and asking questions. I am not going to say He needed to ask questions, as we do, but that is what He did, and then His understanding and answers! It is wise, as I said, to ask questions, but be sure of the person of whom you ask. Philip was a good person of whom to ask questions about the Scriptures; he was a man amenable to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a safe man, not a man who trusted his own mind. An angel directs Philip to go down to the desert, and the Spirit says, “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot”, and he did. He was a man under the guidance of the Spirit, and Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch; so it is not only the understanding of the Scriptures that is needed, but the knowledge of Jesus, for He is the subject and substance of all Scripture.

J. Taylor (Vol. 47, pp.470–472)

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