Remember King Josiah? The people of his day had changed, radically. They were caught up in the spirit of the day, the values of the day. Slowly the world’s values had permeated Israel, and Israel became a different entity.

Then Josiah had delivered to him an old dusty Scroll. As Josiah read through it he realized that what was in that book did not measure up to what he saw in the people of God around him. People of God? No, that was the problem. They had ceased being the people of God and were in fact the people of the world. Pagan. They talked and acted and worshiped like the world around them. The salt had lost its savour.

Josiah knew that if that Book were true, he and these people were in grave trouble. He made a decision. No matter the cost, we’re going back to the Book, he said. It cost a lot. But the cost would have been far greater had he not instituted his reforms.

Eventually Israel returned to its vomit, loving the world and its idols more than the God Who had taken them from bondage. And judgment came, without apology, from a God Who loves His Word and keeps His promises.

The point here is that even one man who decides to live by the Book can stay God’s hand of judgment, at least on himself and his own.

It sounds curious to some to hear of “Book” talk in this age of the Spirit. Yet God has always had a Book, a written testimony. Even in the New Testament days, the apostles served as a walking Bible to the fledgling church. They knew what God was saying, did these first century saints. They had all of God’s recorded history and law handed to them, what we call the “Old Testament”, and then living apostles to tell them what it all meant and where things were going.

The apostles live with us still, if men prefer to talk of a living Presence rather than a “Book.” Brother John spoke to me just this morning from Patmos, reminding me that I need to renew my first love. Really. If talk of a “Book” is not sufficient for some, let me talk of a Spirit who speaks through the words of living - though departed from us – apostles.

Why does Jesus say that the person who breaks and teaches the very least of His precepts shall be least in the Kingdom one day? Because written words still matter. Jesus did not come to annihilate law. That activity is the work of the “lawless” one, the antichrist, not our righteous Lord, Who demands righteousness and perfection from all His saints.

What changed at Calvary was not the need for directions and rules and laws, but the way that all of this could be accomplished. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, an impartation of righteousness and a filling of the Spirit now “keeps” the law within us. God’s people are still people of the Book. They can’t help it!

Yes, the Commandments are summed up in love of God and love of neighbor, but have you read lately the detailing out of that summary as recorded not by Moses, but by Paul, and Peter, and all the other New Covenant men? God is speaking to His people. And the only way He has ever judged them worthy of this or that reward is through their obedience to those messages. He is still a holy God Who wants a holy people. And those people must obey! Whatever the Spirit has said to apostle or prophet of old, obey!

By the way, if apostles and prophets live among us today, judge their words by the words of the originals. When they do not speak the same thing, they are not to be feared. Many false prophets and apostles have already come… and gone. More will be along directly.

So many in the Western church of the 21^st century will not endure such sound teaching. The pendulum has swung to experience, to the near exclusion of principle. These things ought not to be, but it is not a new phenomenon. The putting aside of the written word goes back to the days of Moses himself.

No one is suggesting that experience is not necessary. At least I am not. It is vital. Without personal experience, the book is a dead letter, a reminder of Sinai, a bondage. But on the other hand, experience without word will lead one to join hands with Mary-worshipers, Buddhists, Hindus, and the host of other religions where experience is king.

Perhaps the modern church and each of its members needs a serious assignment: Pick up a copy of the Bible, go on a retreat, whatever the cost might be, and read it through without commentary or human assistance. Stop only to eat and sleep. Do nothing by day or night until that Book is finished. Pray all the way for illumination.

In many cases, there will be Josiah moments. For, we will see the people of God in that Book, and realize that our group, our own life, does not in any way measure up. Then will come the choice. I fear that in many cases the choice has already been made, and it will be hard to stem the tide of the coming world religion. But the choices are still there:

1. Continue on, let things develop as they are, see where it all comes out. This was the choice of the early church as it headed into the paganism of the Dark Ages. Not until the Reformation did people finally say, Enough of this!

This has been the choice of most denominations, too, who go just so far and no more. They are equivalent to motorists stopping in the middle of a freeway and setting up a tent there. “I aint goin’ nowhere,” they will tell the officer… They have to be forced into moving on. But there is another choice…

1. Take a stand. Dig your heels in and say, Thus saith the Lord! We’ve gone the wrong way, we must go back, regardless of whether we move against traffic, swim upriver… There is only danger and destruction in the path we are on. Back to the Book! Back to the apostles! Back to the Spirit of God!

Amazing things happen when people make this choice. Not all of them are pleasant things, but always amazing. God’s favor will surely be evident, peace will fill the heart, communion restored, oh my!