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-15-
God Hath Spoken
The Noble Bereans
In Acts chapter 17, verse 11, the Bereans are declared to be more noble than the people of Thessalonica because the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily whether the things Paul preached were so. They gladly received the preaching of the Word, or as the Scriptures say, "with all readiness of mind."
The Word of God was precious to them, and because they acknowledged the Scriptures to be the Word of God, the Bible was the settler of all their disputes. They did not force the Word of God to read like their opinion, but they rather made it their opinion. The Scriptures, the written revelation God has given, was their authority.
The Bereans said with Samuel, "Speak, [Lord,] for thy servant heareth." They did not dismiss the plain reading of Scripture by saying, "There are some things we cannot understand." Instead, they accepted what the Scriptures plainly said. The Scriptures were to the Bereans the embodiment of Truth. They did not allow a system of interpretation to decipher the Word of God. Neither did they accept the preaching of Paul simply because it was the preaching of an apostle, but they turned to the Scriptures and searched, searching every day, whether the message Paul preached coincided with the Word of God. It was this —the Word of God—that was their authority.
Reader, to what authority do you turn? Is it what you have experienced, or is it the experience of someone else? Is it some man you consider to be enlightened? or is it the Bible? It was because the Bible was their ultimate authority that the Bereans were said to be more noble than those who lived in Thessalonica.
The Bible must be taken as our ultimate authority. Suppose the reader was told in a vision, "Lo, here is Christ" or "Lo, He is there." The apostle Paul warned, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed," i.e. "let him be damned" (Galatians 1:8).
The reason for the present proliferation of cults, and of heresies, is because people do not know the Word of God. They will not study it, or even read it. But this generation is more accountable than previous generations because people who have never sharpened their reading skills can study the Bible by listening to the Scriptures on cassette tapes.
People who do not study the Bible do not think it is important; and the reason they think it is unimportant is because they do not consider the Bible to be the final authority. But since the Bible is the authority for every believer, then the Bible is true in spite of what doctors of philosophy contend. Therefore, a five-year-old child who believes the simple Word of God has more wisdom and understanding than a man with his doctorate who does not believe the Word of God. God's ways are not our ways and our thoughts are not God's thoughts. We look on the outward appearance; but God looks on the heart.