Sunday, February 9, 2013
am
BACK TO BASICS – 6
The Bible – 2
Is the Bible Inspired?
Can We Understand the Bible?
a.
What do we mean by
inspiration?
i.
It is important that we
establish that the Bible is the word of God.
In so doing, we see a message “from God to us” that ought to be
heeded.
ii.
But, it is admitted that
the Bible was written by men (some 40 authors).
Was what they wrote their own findings or did God actually give
them the words? It is only
the latter that renders the Bible as a book worthy of reverence.
iii.
As noted last week, the
word inspiration means, “God breathed” or that which comes from the
mouth of God. (cf. Matt. 4:4).
What it means is that the words we have recorded in scripture
(and that were first spoken), while being transmitted through men using
their personalities and abilities, is still the exact message that God
intended to be conveyed.
b.
Passages addressing
inspiration
i.
In the same way that the
Bible claims to be the word of God (continually) it claims inspiration.
And they are certainly related, if not synonymous.
ii.
2 Tim. 3:16-17“All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good
work.” NOTE: The word
“writings” is from the Greek word, “graphe” significant here as it notes
that not only the teachings of the apostles and their associates (and
the prophets) were inspired, but the writings themselves.
iii.
2 Pet. 1:19-20, “And
so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a
light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning
star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of
Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by
the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit.”
c.
The character of the
Bible
i.
We again appeal to the
character of the Bible – written over 1600 year, by about 40 men in 3
languages, etc. with a cable of unity throughout that is only possible
with the help of a designer greater than the work itself.
ii.
Prophecies – one of the
things the apostles appealed to was the prophecies –
Acts 3:18
iii.
Add to this, its
influence in the world, its historical and scientific accuracy, its
“unexcelled moral tone”, its
stile of brevity and calmness, etc.
d.
The Biblical process of
transmission (How do we get from God to the Bible is His word?) for the
New Testament is as follows.
i.
God – we
begin with God. Our premise
is to demonstrate it is His word.
He has PRIMAL authority!
Cf. Acts 17:22-24
Heb. 1:1-2 – the claim. He
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.
ii.
He DELEGATED that authority to Jesus
– Matt. 28:18, John 14:10, 24, “Do you not believe that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not
speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the
works.”…“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the
word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
iii.
The Holy Spirit REVEALED the message.
As Jesus was about to die, He promised that a Helper would come.
We read of Him in John 14:24-26, “He who does not love Me does
not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the
Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while being
present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 16:7–15 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your
advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not
come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has
come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness,
because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because
the ruler of this world is judged.” “I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit
of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not
speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He
will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of
what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are
Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
IN Matt. 10:16-20 He instructed them that the Holy Spirit would give
them the words they needed.
iv.
The apostles and others DELIVERED the message
(Apostles were ambassadors).
While on this earth, Jesus
trained His apostles (and others) to carry on the work after He left.
They did the job – at first orally.
Acts 2:1-4 records the Holy Spirit falling on the apostles and
immediately they spoke in tongues (languages) and began preaching.
“But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have
entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for
those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For
what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is
in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is
from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to
us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9–12, NKJV)
Their message was extraordinary - “Now when they saw the boldness of
Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained
men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
(Acts 4:13)
2 Corinthians 5:18–20, speaking of the apostles as AMBASSADORS,
“Now all things are of God,
who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,
and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we
implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
v.
These inspired men
RECORDED the message of God – In their writings they claimed inspiration
and with their lives they backed it up!
1 Cor. 11:23, 15:3, “For I
delivered to you first of all that which I also received…”
1 Cor. 14:37
“If anyone
thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that
the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”
“How that by
revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written
already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ),” (Ephesians 3:3–4)
Peter said, “Beloved,
I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your
pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of
us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,” (2 Peter 3:1–2)
John wrote, “We are
of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear
us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1
John 4:6)
vi.
And thus we have the
written word of God.
vii.
The OT is similar,
beginning with God, delivered directly to prophets (in various ways),
spoken and written down (cf. Heb. 1:1, 2 Pet. 1:19-20)
e.
Consider the inspiration
of the Bible, what we have is:
i.
Complete – 2 Tim.
3:16-17, Jude 3
ii.
irrevocable, unbreakable
– John 10:35, Luke 16:17
iii.
Inerrant – John 17:17,
Psa. 19:7, 119:160,
“The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your
righteous judgments endures forever.”
a.
The challenge – today
there are so many different religions, even among believers in the
Bible. Why?
Does this mean we cannot understand the Bible?
There are some who will you, “You understand the Bible your way
and I understand the Bible my way.
We should not judge each other.”
That argument is not logical nor is it accurate, especially when
we consider that we are dealing with the word of God.
I am a firm believer that we CAN understand the Bible alike.
Let us consider this for a few moments.
b.
The Bible claims to be
“truth” (John 17:17). That
means that its message is unmistakable.
When you have 2 differing views of a teaching, both CANNOT be
right. They can both be
wrong, but truth by its very nature only has one conclusion (given
context). Our quest is to
find THE TRUTH!
We apply this in society every day.
Why do people flock to stores for a sale on the same day and
expect a product to be sold for a specified price?
Because the advertisement is understandable (unless there are
deceptive practices – and you CANNOT compare that to God’s word).
How can people across the country take the same recipe and create the
same dish? Because the
recipe is accurate and FOLLOWED!
c.
We are told we can
understand it
i.
Ephesians 3:3–4 again
says, “how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I
have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),”
ii.
Ephesians 5:17, “Therefore
do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
iii.
Jesus said, “It is
written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”” (Matthew 4:4)
If we cannot understand the will
of God, how can we live by it?
d.
We are told to speak the
same thing.
i.
1 Cor. 1:10, “Now I
plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but
that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment.”
ii.
Philippians 2:2 “fulfill
my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind.”
iii.
How can we have true
unity if we cannot understand God’s word?
e.
The same thing was
taught everywhere in every church
i.
Paul did it
“For this
reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in
the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach
everywhere in every church.” (1 Corinthians 4:17)
ii.
Peter acknowledged the
preaching of Paul – 2 Pet. 3:16
iii.
John to the 7 churches
of Asia. While chapters 2 &
3 are addressed to 7 different congregations, each with an independent
message, it was NOT a different gospel. The same gospel was applied to
deal with different circumstances.
At the conclusion of EACH letter we read, “He who has an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:7,
11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22)
f.
The claims of scripture
we have already discussed bear this out –
i.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 – with
God’s word we can be complete
ii.
2 Peter 1:3-4 – His
divine power has given us “all things that pertain to life and
godliness.”
g.
So why is there so much division and diversity of views with the Bible?
While the reasons are varied, it’s not God’s fault – it is in
man’s approach to His word.
Either man has faulty attitudes or poor study habits.
We’ll address that next week as
we discuss how to study the Bible.
Jesus rebuked poor application of scripture in passages like Matt. 22:29
“Jesus
answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures
nor the power of God.”
That’s just one example. You
also have the rebuke of Nicodemus in John 3:10, “Jesus answered and
said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these
things?”
h.
NOTE:
IT does need to be said that there are things we don’t fully understand
about God and even subjects that are addressed in His word.
There are some things God doesn’t intend for us to fully
understand. BUT, when it
comes to our salvation, how to serve Him and how to live – you can’t
miss the point!
And
thus we can see that the Bible is dependable.
WE can with confidence accept it as the word of God and with
equal confidence, if we put forth diligent effort we can understand its
message and have assured hope that we are pleasing to God.
What about you? Is His word useful to you?