How We Got God's Words

Matthew 4:3-4, “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

I gleaned the following thoughts from a timeless and life-changing audio sermon by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) titled, “HOW WE GOT GOD'S WORD?” (MP3). Dr. Hyles provides the following helpful sermon outside:

1. The Words of God have always been in Heaven.
2. Man must have them to live.
3. God must find a way to get every Word up there down here to man.
4. God chose men and made them holy. He did not choose men who were holy; but rather, He chose men to make them holy. By that I mean He set them apart to be His pen.
5. God could not trust giving to sinful man the Words to give to us, so God gave those Words through these men, holy (chosen and sanctified) men. And through those men He gave His Words to us.

God Himself gave His Words, not to holy men of old; but rather, through holy men of old. God literally put His Words into their mouth. Those chosen men of old, which God set apart for His use, were simply PENS.

King David said:

Psalms 45:1, “My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

They weren't holy in the sense of righteous living; but rather, they were “set apart” and chosen for God's purpose and work. Those inspired Words have been divinely preserved unto this day in the inspired King James Bible. The Bible is not men giving us the Words of God; but rather, it is God Himself giving us His Words using the mouths of the men who were chosen by God to do so.

Moses did not give us the Pentateuch (i.e., the first 5 books of the Old Testament). Moses was the mere pen. God is the Penman. It was God speaking through Moses. God cannot use the impure minds of a murderer like Moses, nor an adulterer like David to get His pure Words to us:

Psalms 12:6, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

“Pure” means that you cannot improve on them. God's Words are perfect and cannot be made better. God cannot use the impure minds of men to give us God's pure Words. So God chose men and made them holy (not in the sense of being righteous, but in the sense of being chosen). And God said, I'm going to use your mouth and your tongue. The men who wrote the Bible were mere PENS, but God is the divine PENMAN. | READ MORE

“There is also the danger in our special prayer groups for us to pray for others to improve, which is simply a way for us to criticize someone to a friend and place it in the disguise of spirituality and prayer. If one is going to pray for the improvement of another and mention his faults, it is best for him to go into the closet and pray alone.” —Dr. Jack Hyles, chapter 46, a quote from the book, “EXPLORING PRAYER WITH JACK HYLES”