Bring The Book

Bring The Book

Nehemiah 8:1-3 And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. [2] And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. [3] And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

l. INTRODUCTION -- QUOTES ABOUT THE BIBLE

-The Bible is the greatest book ever delivered to man. Throughout history it has had detractors and skeptics but it’s vitality has outlived it’s harshest critic and when all is finally said and done, the Word of God will stand.

A. Preachers

Augustine -- The Scriptures are our letters from home.

Martin Luther -- The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.”

John Bunyan -- I never knew all there was in the Bible until I spent those years in jail. I was constantly finding new treasures.

George Meuller -- The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.

Charles Spurgeon -- Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.

B. Presidents and Patriots

Robert E. Lee -- In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.

Ulysses S. Grant -- Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write it’s precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future.

Woodrow Wilson -- I am sorry for the men who do not read the Bible everyday; I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and of the pleasure.

Dwight D. Eisenhower -- The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope.

Ronald Reagan -- I never had any doubt about it being of divine origin. . . . Point out to me any similar collection of writings that has lasted for as many thousands of years and it still a bestseller, worldwide. It had to be of divine origin.

C. Poets and Philosophers

Immanuel Kant -- A single line in the Bible has consoled me more than all the books I ever read besides.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.

Sir Walter Scott -- The most learned, acute, and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of the Bible. The more deeply he works the mine; the richer and more abundant he finds the ore.

Charles Dickens -- The New Testament is the best book the world has ever known or will know.

Helen Keller -- The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that ’things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal’.

ll. THE WORD OF GOD CANNOT BE NEGLECTED

-Most American homes, at least in the past, had multiple copies of the Bible on the shelves and scattered about the house. But time has demonstrated that the Word of God must be more than something that graces the coffee table.

-It must be read and applied to our lives. It is more than a motivational book in times of difficulty. It is more than something to be read at funerals. It is more than something to be carried to church under our arms.

A. A L’Amour Illustration

Louis L’Amour, the great Western writer, wrote a short story about a man who liked books. The man acts suspiciously as he examined the books on the shelves of a library. He took down one book and then another until he finally found one. It was a leather-bound copy of Shakespeare’s King Lear. He ran his fingers gently over the cover, then opened the book and sniffed it’s pages. Suddenly, he tucked the treasured book under his coat and bolted out the door.

Someone who was watching all of this transpire ran after the man and after a long chase finally caught him. The man surrendered the book without a struggle. Then he explained. All of his life he had loved books but he could not read. He came to the library anyway because he loved how books smelled and the way they felt in his hands. That is why he had taken the copy of King Lear.