Yesterday we introduced the topic of the Bible and how God has preserved its unique message down through the ages. The first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, were authored by Moses. In those stories of Abraham and the patriarchs God planted the principles of truth which would develop souls for His Kingdom. The faith of Abraham, the victory of Jacob, the purity of Joseph, these divine attributes were to grow like mustard seed in the lives of Gods people of all ages as they read the Bible stories.
God intended that the nation of Israel should be the evangelists of the good news of salvation, witnessing from their favorable land, situated at the cross-road of the world. But they utterly failed to carry the message of a soon coming Messiah. The world was unprepared for Jesus when He appeared in the manger of Bethlehem. The Son of God came to save the lost, but He also came to live out in the flesh the glorious possibilities which every human being can attain. He lived in the wicked town of Nazareth to demonstrate that environment and circumstances cannot defeat the one who prevails with God. What the Old Testament Scriptures contained in embryo form, Jesus magnified by actual experience in the flesh.
So Jesus came. Why did Jesus come, friends? Jesus came to this world to illustrate His divine philosophy in the flesh. Because His people had failed; because the Israelites had not presented to the world His great principle of truth, He came to this earth Himself to demonstrate in the flesh how He wanted man to live.
But why did Jesus come to Nazareth of Galilee? Nazareth was one of the most wicked towns in all the world in those days. It was a by-word among the nations for its sin and iniquity; yet Jesus came there to manifest His holy life. Why did He choose to grow up in that place where evil was so prevalent? Friends, Jesus lived there because He wanted to convince us that no matter how terrible the environment might be, no matter how dark the world might be around us, we can still live above those things and gain the victory through His strength.
Now we come to the time of the New Testament, and the New Testament was written out by holy men. God moved them by the Holy Spirit. What was the purpose of those writings? The books of the New Testament are simply an explanation of that same divine philosophy God had been giving through the prophets of the Old Testament. You will find in all the writings of the New Testament those same principles, that same idea, presented throughout, that God wants a people who will come apart from the world, who will join His family and be His children. Under the blessing of Heaven that idea began to spread like wild fire. Those New Testament writings were circulated among the churches and scattered all over Asia, and finally all over the world. The Devil got very, very angry, as he saw the seeds of divine truth spreading to every nation. He began to work desperately to destroy the Bible, and to try to put down the Word of God. My friends, the devil almost succeeded. The Bible in those days had to be written out by hand and it was a long laborious process. There were only a few copies of the Bible in existence at any one time because of the opposition that Satan brought to bear against it. But it was never lost. It was miraculously preserved.
Then suddenly in 1456 something very wonderful happened. A discovery was made which proved almost as valuable as the invention of the alphabet. Do you know what it was? Gutenberg, over in Germany, invented movable type and began to actually print books by machine for the first time. And do you know the name of the first book to be printed on that press? It was called the Holy Bible. My friends, that wasn't just an accident. It was in the plan of God that the Bible should be printed, that it should be circulated, that it should be no longer held down and trampled upon. It was printed in 1456 and rapidly circulated from one end of the earth to the other. For the next 300 years the Bible became a very, very popular book in the world, and its philosophy began to take hold. Thousands of people decided they would rather die than to disobey God. During that terrible period of the Dark Ages millions of people did die, because they preferred to serve God rather than to defile their conscience.
Then in 1753 something else of tremendous import took place. A man appeared by the name of Jean Astruc who asserted that the Bible was not really the Word of God. He said the Bible was just a collection of fables, just some legends that misguided people had written down through the years. He began to tear it apart line by line and to deny its power and its holy origin. Well, a few people began to listen, and for about 90 years this so-called "higher criticism" developed until thousands of people had lost their faith in the Bible. They said, "Maybe this man is right. Perhaps this is not really the Word of God, after all." Finally, in the year 1840 a few godly men said, "Why don't we prove that the Bible is right? Why don't we go over there to Palestine and Assyria and Egypt and dig in the ruins and see if we can't prove that the Bible is really a true and authoritative book?" So in the year 1844 the first archaeologist went to the Middle East to dig in the ruins seeking to confirm the Word of God. This man was a Frenchman by the name of Botta. He went to Assyria and began to excavate the site of the ancient city of Khorsabad.
Now in those days one of the favorite charges which the unbelievers had been bringing against the Bible was that it mentioned places and people who never existed. The biblical name of Sargon II, King of Assyria, was especially ridiculed because no secular record had been found of such a king. This was the background when Botta, the first Christian archaeologist began his work at Khorsabad. He began to dig down in the ruins at random, hoping to find evidence to prove the Bible. And as he went down, down, down into the ruins suddenly the spades broke into an underground room. They carefully excavated this room and what do you think it was? Friends, it was the private library of Sargon II of Assyria. All those years the doubters had said, "Sargon never lived. He was never a king of Assyria." Then, the first time anybody dug in the ruins they came to the private library of Sargon II, just full of clay tablets with the personal correspondence of that king. It had been proved by secular evidence that Sargon had actually existed.
So it started; and ever since that year 1844 every bit of evidence which has been uncovered in archaeology has vindicated the Word of God and has put to silence those who sought to destroy it.
Friends, today God is trying to plant this same divine philosophy in our hearts like a grain of mustard seed that it might spring up and grow. He wants us to realize that God is able to empower us to overcome a world of sin and darkness. Doesn't this explain why God called Abraham out of Mesopotamia? It was a dark place. Abraham's father and mother were bowing down to idols, but when Abraham was called by God he stepped out of that environment to begin walking with God. Just think of Ruth, the Moabitess, coming from an apostate tribe as she did, and yet she became one of the progenitors of Christ and her name is listed in the ancestry of Jesus. Then there was Rahab, taken out of Jericho, a common woman of the streets, and yet, because she leaned towards the true God, because she was willing to lay hold of the only true and living God, her name is also inscribed in the Bible as one of the ancestors of Jesus.
Today God doesn't call nations, but He is calling individuals out of every family upon this earth. They are coming one by one, dear friends, to join the royal family of God. He is not calling for the great men; He is not calling just for the mighty men and the learned men, but God is calling for every child and man and woman who is willing to put self aside and to follow Him. In Isaiah we have a beautiful picture painted in the 43rd chapter and the 5th and 6th verses. "Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name for I have created him for my glory." What a wonderful text that is! God says, "I will call them out of the east country and I will call them out of the west country. I will call them from the south; I will call them from the north. They will come, My sons and My daughters, out of every nation under heaven and I will bring them for My glory into My Kingdom." Isn't that exactly what is taking place today, friends? It has happened ever since the day of creation. God has sent forth His call to every nation, to every generation, to every family and to every individual saying, "Come, follow me, belong to my family. Be My son, be My daughter." And they have been coming, one at a time, not by families or nations, but one from here and one from there; one from the east, and one from the west; one from the north, and one from the south.
I wonder if that is not why God allowed Joseph to go down into Egypt, and why He sent Daniel over into Babylon. Moses came out of Egypt. Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Why? Because God is trying to show us His divine philosophy that no matter where we live, no matter what our nationality, or the color of our skin, He wants us to be His children. He wants us to belong to His family; He wants us to be true and faithful and obedient to Him in this world of darkness. Dear friends, they are coming today, making up a great family from one end of the earth to the other. Some day the family of God is going to get together. Some day the royal line will be completed, and all God's children will be gathered into one place at one time in the kingdom of God. Won't that be a wonderful day when we can sit down with Abraham, Moses, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and talk to them as we talk together now? Won't it be wonderful when we will be able to keep company with those who lived in days of the Old Testament? What a day it will be! We can talk to Anna, and Simeon, and the shepherds, and the wise men who came from the east; all of us speaking the same language; all of us belonging to just one family and looking back upon the same glorious experiences of victory. We shall all sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Do you know what that song is? It is a song of victory over circumstances. It was against the most forbidding circumstances that they were able to cross over the Red Sea, after which they sang the song of victory. It will be, my friends, against all the adverse circumstances and environments of this world that you and I may finally stand victorious on the sea of glass. What a joy should be in our hearts today as we realize that we are the members of the family of God in this world! No matter what we leave behind, no matter what our earthly family ties, we are going through with all His other children to that glorious Kingdom of Light.