Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3303
“And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORRD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan… Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes.” 2 Chronicles 34:15,18,19.
~On Behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society-
HILKIAH had found THE BOOK and it was a more important find than if he had discovered a mine of diamonds, or perpetual motion, or a new world! Oh, that Book, that wonderful Book! Was there ever anything like it under Heaven? Well may it be a power when we come to think of what it is—the Book of the Law of the living God! How reverently did he lift it from its hiding place, remove its dust and commence to read its title and contents! This particular Book of the Law was probably the first five Books of Moses, commonly called the Pentateuch. Some have thought that it was only the Book of Deuteronomy, but it is too late in the day for us to decide with confidence its exact form. We know that it was “a Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses” (2 Chron 34:14), probably an autographed copy by Moses. Of that we cannot be sure, but whatever hand may have written the letters, what a Book the Law of the Lord is! The Old Testament is a Divine light which has led multitudes of saints to the Lord’s right hand—and its luster is not dimmed by the New Testament, but increased thereby. Not one tittle of it has failed, or shall fail—it lives and abides forever! Taking an enlarged view of the Law of the Lord today and holding in our hands two Testaments, both the Old and the New, what a marvelous Book the Bible is! Earth does not contain an equal wonder!
It is a Book which has God for its Author, for though there are many authors and the Book is divided into many treatises, yet it is all of one as to its innermost authorship, since holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. A Divine originality runs through it all—marks of the Divine Mind abound in every portion and the Holy Spirit still inspires it all and breathes it into the hearts of believing readers. Matthew and Mark, and Luke and John are here, but we scarcely observe them as compared with the higher light, the Light of God which illuminates every page! The Book is saturated with a heavenly life!
What God has written is to be received with the utmost reverence. It is a pity that so many treat this Sacred Volume as they would treat any ordinary book. They sit on the throne of judgment and sway the scepter of criticism, as if they would call God, Himself, to their bar! Surely they have never heard in their heart and conscience the sound of that question, “Who are you that replesagainst God?” If God is not its Author, this Book is a gross imposture and the sooner we treat it as such the better! But if God is its Author, let us bow before it obediently and accept it as our Infallible Directory.
As it has God for its Author, so it commends itself to us as inestimably precious because it has God’s mind for its matter. In this Book of the Lord the chief subject is Himself and His ways and His Grace towards us, His creatures. Here the Lord does not so much explain His works as His own personal ways, thoughts and designs to our fallen race. He does not take the pen in hand to explain to us what He has written in the stone book, or to open up to us what He has printed in letters of light in yonder constellations, but to reveal His glorious Grace which He has caused to dwell in all its fullness in Christ Jesus our Lord! He has left us to find out what we may of visible things—a happy and healthful exercise for our
minds, but He had something nobler to tell us when He inspired this Book. Herein He has told us His thoughts of man and of the Man, Christ Jesus. His thoughts upon our sin and the ruin that comes of it. His thoughts as to how we may be saved and what shall come out of that salvation. The windows of this Book look towards Heaven and truly they are windows of agate—themselves precious and giving us a view of still more precious things! Its doors open into eternity and its gates lead into Glory. Every page points to holiness and felicity and attracts us thereto. Precious Book! I would say of you what David said of Goliath’s sword “There is none like that. Give it to me.” You are marrow and fatness, honey, wines on the lees well-refined—yes, manna of angels and water from the Rock, Christ Jesus! Of all soul medicines you are the most potent! Of all mental dainties you are the sweetest! And of all spiritual food you are the most sustaining!