Churches of Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 20th century
I have found sometimes that those people who argue the loudest and take
the most dogmatic positions on points of doctrine are the very ones who
don’t read the Bible. They think they know! They can tell you what’s
right and what’s wrong. If you ask them how much they read the Bible,
they’ll hang their heads in shame and say, “Well, I haven’t read it
much.” Sometimes they even preface their remarks by telling you they
haven’t read it much. They say, “Now, preacher, I don’t read the Bible
much, and I know you do, and so and so” and then proceed to tell me just
exactly how it is. _A man who doesn’t read the Bible has no right to
express an opinion in the field of religion._ A man who begins his
conversation by saying, “Now, I’ll admit I don’t read the Bible,” ought
to stop right there until he has read it. He doesn’t have any right to
talk about it, nor to undertake to tell anybody what to do, or what one
ought to do until he has read the Bible—the only reliable standard of
right living. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word
that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). “Receive with meekness the
engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas. 1:21). “Study to
show thyself approved unto God ...” (2 Tim. 2:15).
If you will read the Bible every day, there is not much that needs to be
done for you; if you will not read the Bible, there is not much that can
be done for you! Anybody who doesn’t love the Lord well enough to read
this letter that He has written, anyone who doesn’t want to go to heaven
bad enough to be a daily student of God’s word, I just can’t see much
chance for him. One of the most alarming things is the ignorance of our
own people concerning the Bible. Many of our own members are not daily
students of God’s holy word. I wish I could say something that would
scare you just as much as the second boy who fell in the grave. If I
knew what to say, I’d say it. I’d like for you to become so badly scared
that you would read the Bible every day.
Now, you can do it! If you don’t read it, you cannot blame anybody but
yourself for your failure. You say, “But, Brother Dark, I don’t have
time.” Oh, yes, you do; you have as much time as anybody. There are
twenty-four hours in the day and you have all twenty-four of them. You
say, “Yes, but I have so many other things to do.” Well, are those other
things as important as going to heaven? Do you love them more than you
love going to heaven? Do you want to do them more than you want to be
saved?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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