THE 20/20 VISION OF THE CHURCH

Acts 20:20

I. The Bible is profitable.

A. The Bible is more profitable than the writings of men.

1. Thomas Paine, after writing The Age of Reason which

has become known as “the atheists’ bible,” declared

that he had “gone through the Bible with an axe and cut

down all the trees.” Ironically after Paine died, his

printing press was used to print copies of the Bible.

2. Robert Ingersoll, an American agnostic, boasted that he

would send the Bible to the morgue. Ingersoll died,

but the Bible lives on (see 1 Pet. 1:25).

B. The Bible has changed the lives of more men than any other

book. History is divided by a key biblical event--the birth

of Jesus.

C. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 will never be truthfully written about

any other literary work!

D. Just as soldiers, prepared to die in battle, value that for

which they fight, the writers of the Bible, who were

prepared to die, valued its message as profitable.

II. Let’s teach its message.

A. We cease to evangelize when we fail to realize that the

Bible is profitable.

B. In order to be better evangelists we must believe two basic

facts.

1. People are lost without the Bible.

2. Souls can be saved only through the Bible.

C. Good news travel quickly (see Col. 1:23).

D. When we are physically sick, we want to find out the real

cause of our illness, and when we are spiritually sick, we

should want the same.

E. The person is not a true Christian who does not see the need

to teach the Gospel to others.

March 23, 2003 (a.m.)