The Amazing Word of God
"Getting the Most Out of the Bible"

Matthew 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe who is
instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an
householder, which brings forth out of his treasure things new and
old.

Introduction:
1. Treasure untapped, unused, wasted
2. The American Dream - so close but oh so far
3. Why read the Bible?
4. The king, the scribe, the people
	

The Bible is Amazing and Unique

Amazing and Unique in Continuity - 
 - Authors: 1500 year span, 40 generations, 40 authors, kings,
peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statsmen, scholars,
physicians, travellers, tax collectors, rabbis, herdsmen, military men
Unity of

 - Topics - though separated by hundreds of years writers agree upon
every point.


Amazing and Unique in Translation 
		
Septuigent Greek Translation 250 A.D.
		
Scribes meticulous transcriptions - counted letters, syllables, and
words, jots and tittles - no one has done that to Plato or Scocrates!
More languages than any other book - 1280+


Amazing and Unique in Circulation
	
More than any other book bar none - no other book compares
		
British Foreign Bible Society 30 yrs ago - 1 every 3 seconds night and
day 22 copies min, 1369 per hour, 32,876 every day of year.


Amazing and Unique in Survival 
		
Written on fragil papyrus paper, copied and recopied
		
Persecution: "No other book was so chopped, knived, sifted,
scrutinized, and villified. Burned, torn and shredded, forbidden,
confiscated, outlawed, condemned, mocked, scorned, ridiculed, and
harassed.
		
French Monarch's plan - "Sire, the church of God is an navil that has
worn out many hammers."

i.e. Voltaire 1778, said that 100 years from his time Christianity
would be swept from existance. But 50 years later Geneva Bible Society
used Voltair's own printing press to publish stacks of Bibles.


Amazing and Unique in Teaching

Amazing and Unique in claim - Heb 4:12 - power to give life, change
life, enrich life, bless life SET MEN FREE - "You shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free."

Amazing and Unique in its Effect - life giving, life changing

	i.e. People reading the Gideon Bible in Hotel room
	i.e. Student given a NT on campus
	i.e. Student studying comes across Bible


Amazing and Unique in the Way it is to be Read

For many Christians the Word of God is still a mysterious undiscovered
treasure.

We need to read and study it carefully with a magnifying glass
(sifting the gold pan)

Here is an easy to remember achronym "PEPSI"

	P= Promise to claim

	E= Example to follow

	P= Principle to pray about

	S= Sin to avoid

	I= Instruction to obey


Conclusion

God has given to you the KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - treasures of eternity
in your hand

"Fear not little children. It is your Father's good pleasure to GIVE
YOU THE KINGDOM."

Will you use it?  Will you read it?  Will you heed it?



END