Preciousness of the Bible.
I. Think of the wonderful providence which has watched over the Bible from the beginning. There is no miracle comparable to that which has preserved to us the Scriptures amid all the convulsions of society, after so many centuries of persecution, neglect, superstition, and ignorance that we should still possess the writings of Moses in their freshness, what a miracle of providence is that!
II. The Old Testament presupposes the New. Neither would be intelligible without the other. And both alike have the same mysterious texture call it typical, mystical, spiritual, or what you will whereby the common events of men's lives and the ordinary course of human history are found to be expressive of heavenly truths to be instinct with divinest teaching woven into the very midst of the sacred narrative; from the Alpha to the Omega of it are found the mysteries of redemption, the secret purposes and practices of God. And why is all this but because God Himself is in it, because His Spirit hath inspired it in every part? The Scripture is the very shrine of the Eternal the Holy of Holies, in which the Shekinah of Glory dwelleth, and where God's voice is heard speaking to man. It is called the Word of God, less because it is His utterance than because it is Divine as well as human shares the nature of Him whose name in heaven is even now the Word of God. And need I dwell on the grand mystery of all, the awful circumstance that the gospel not only discourses to us of the Eternal Son come in the flesh, but actually exhibits Him to us? In what relation, then, to the ancient oracles of God is our Saviour Christ found to stand as the constant witness to their infallible truth, their paramount value, their Divine origin? They are for ever on His lips. What wonder if, in reply to the question as to what was the Jews' advantage, the Apostle answered, "Much every way," chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons,No. 3.
References: Romans 3:1; Romans 3:2. G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 203; R. W. Church, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 113; Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 193.Romans 3:4. H. W. Beecher, Sermons,3rd series, p. 168. Romans 3:6. B. Jowett, Church Sermons,vol. ii., p. 273; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 312.Romans 3:9. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 93.