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Part three of a series. Read part two.
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Editor's Note: Continuing in our consideration of chapter three of Arthur Pink's Profiting From the Word, the author next addresses the spiritual profit we may gain from understanding the reality of Christ. In our day during the Easter season even some conservative Protestant churches present what amounts to a replica of the Oberammergau Passion Play, in which they actually dare to crucify Christ once again in a live stage drama. But this is not how we are to learn of Christ. We learn of Him, and the reality of His person and work gain greater hold of us, only as we read the written Word, meditate upon it, and hear it preached. This is God's ordained method: the preaching of "the message [literally, the Word] of the Cross " which "is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:20).
Any other method - live drama, film, whatever - inevitably adds to, or takes away from, the truth of Scripture. The Lord Jesus Himself has forbidden that with the strongest possible warning: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18-19). Let us heed Christ's warning, and adhere solely to the Word of God read and faithfully preached. This alone He has promised to bless and to use. - Dr. Paul Elliott
An individual is profited from the Scriptures when they make Christ more real to him. The great mass of the Israelitish nation saw nothing more than the outward shell in the rites and ceremonies which God instructed, but a regenerated remnant were privileged to behold Christ Himself. "Abraham rejoiced to see My day" said Christ (John 8:56). Moses esteemed "the reproach of Christ" greater riches than the treasure of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26). So it is in Christendom. To the multitudes Christ is but a name, or at most a historical character. They have no personal dealings with Him, enjoy no spiritual communion with Him. Should they hear one speak in rapture of His excellency, they regard him as an enthusiast or a fanatic. To them Christ is unreal, vague, intangible. But with the real Christian it is far otherwise. The language of his heart is,
I have heard the voice of Jesus;
Tell me not of aught beside.
I have seen the face of Jesus;
All my soul is satisfied.
Yet such a blissful sight is not the consistent and unvarying experience of the saints. Just as clouds come in between the sun and the earth, so failures in our walk interrupt our communion with Christ and serve to hide from us the light of His countenance. "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). Yes, it is the one who by grace is treading the path of obedience to whom the Lord Jesus grants manifestations for Himself. And the more frequent and prolonged these manifestations are, the more real He becomes to the soul, until we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee" (42:5). Thus the more Christ is becoming a living reality to me, the more I am profiting from the Word.
Next: The Spiritual Profit of Greater Engrossment in Christ's Perfections
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