Chapter V: God’s Word Is Final

Furthermore, friends, we ought to regard it as final and complete and as the standard of truth, the standard by which all of our religious questions are to be decided. This conclusion is fundamental and very important. It needs to be emphasized. If you talk to the people of this world and see how many different human standards they are relying upon, you can see the importance of settling all religious questions by the divine standard, the word that God hath spoken through Christ.

I want to use a simple illustration. Suppose three men measure the length of this room and one of them uses a yardstick 35 inches long, another uses a yardstick 36 inches long and the other a yardstick 37 inches long. They won’t get the same answer because they are not using the same standard. The same is true in the field of philosophy and religion. If each man uses a different yardstick, nothing but confusion and division can possibly be the result.

And, friends, that is just exactly what is wrong with this world today. One man uses the “Pope” at Rome for his yardstick. He says that whatever the “Pope” says is right. He measures everything by that. Then I come along and measure by the Bible, the Word of God, and he and I get different answers. Somebody else takes the church to which he belongs as his standard of measurement. People say, “My church teaches so and so,” and “My church practices so and so.” I have even had them come to me and say, “What does your church believe on this point? What does your church teach here?” They simply mean, “What does the group of people with which you are associated have to say about this matter?” Over and over again I have them ask me, “What do you _think_ about it?” I have heard that expression many, many times during the last four weeks.

Well, you can see how all these different yardsticks will get different answers. One man wants my opinion about it, that’s his yardstick; somebody else uses his church’s opinion as his yardstick; another takes what his parents think about it; still another takes tradition as his yardstick; and someone else takes simply the way he feels about it. I hear them say, “Well, I like it, and therefore it must be all right,” or, “It seems good to me.” I recently heard a boy try to justify his going to a particular church on the basis that it made him feel good. Well, those are just all irregular standards. They are not standards. People who reason like that are using the wrong unit of measurement.

Friends, God hath spoken and when God speaks all the world should be quiet and listen. We should take his word as final. It should be the standard by which we decide all questions, and until the world can agree upon the word that God has spoken as its yardstick, as its unit of measurement, as its standard for determining truth, we shall continue to have division and confusion in this world. So I want to impress you with the fact that _God hath spoken_. Let us go to that word to find the answer to every question that pertains to religion. In fact, I might just say the answer to every question, for almost all questions are answered in the Bible, at least in a general way. If we would apply the principles of its teachings, all of our domestic and social problems would be solved. Our industrial and political problems would be solved. Our international problems would be solved, if all people would learn what God hath spoken and follow it.