[0:00] Well, good morning, everyone. Great to see you. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119, Psalm 119.
[0:10] If you're new or visiting, welcome. My name is BK. I have the pleasure of being one of the pastors. I have the pleasure of serving this flock. If you were with us last week, you know exactly where we are.
[0:23] So we've begun a new series looking at kind of going over our mission or mission statement, our affirmation of faith or our statement of faith.
[0:35] And I'm hoping over the next while to explain to you what we believe and why we believe it. And just through this process, I'm hoping to answer some of your questions that you might have.
[0:50] So it really helps me if you do have questions to let me know what they actually are. So there's a couple of ways you can do that.
[1:01] You can email them to me. You can hand them to the office. You can use in your bulletin. There's a place for you to write some comments. You can add some questions. You can deposit it into the boxes at the back anyway.
[1:15] Or you can just come and ask me. The problem is if you ask me the question on Sunday, I'll probably forget it by Sunday 12, 15. It's kind of like witching hour for me.
[1:25] Or give it to me in a piece of paper. But some of the questions that I am answering are some of the questions that I have received over and over time. People have asked me some of these type of questions.
[1:39] So the more you ask me, the better I can serve you by taking you through this trip together. So as you guys all know, in your bulletin, there's an explanation.
[1:52] You guys have it? There's a printout of a part of our affirmation of faith called the Bible. Do you guys see that? So we're at the beginning. We're obviously starting with the Bible because the Bible is the foundation of our faith.
[2:05] It is where we source, how we know what God has said to us. And I'm just going to read it to you. And then I'm going to, as we go through the sermon, you'll see how I subdivide it.
[2:18] So before we go any further, let's just pray. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we just, I pray that we passionately and intimately are able to pray the words, Lord, I need you.
[2:39] Father, for whatever stage of life that we are in, those are not cries for help when we are in trouble. Those are to be our desire at every stage of our life, at every day of our life.
[2:57] That not only are we saved by the gospel, but we desire to live a life that is honoring to the name that we have been called to, the name of Jesus.
[3:10] And we need you, O Father, both to empower us, and you have granted us this Bible, this book that has filled us with your wisdom, that allows us to seek you, to understand you, to know your will.
[3:29] And not so much what we are to do, but it's a call to action to who we should be. For you are far more concerned with us being the people of God than the works that we are to do, O Lord.
[3:48] So, Father, as I dive into this sermon, O Father, I pray that you'd guide me, just give me clarity, and let those who hear me hear me clearly.
[4:00] As we get into these issues of your word, I pray that confidence would grow, and trust would grow in you, and in this Bible that we use. In your most holy and precious name, amen.
[4:12] So, I'm just going to read our statement that we have, and if you go online and you're checking us out, this is the statement that you're going to read from the internet that we have.
[4:23] It basically states, the Bible, throughout history, God has revealed himself in a variety of ways. And God has preserved the substance of this revelation in the Bible.
[4:37] When we say the Bible, we mean the 66 books of the Old Testament and New Testament. These books were written by divinely chosen authors as they were prompted and guided by the Spirit of God.
[4:51] Although those writers were genuine authors, and in most cases not just secretaries taking dictation, the work of the Spirit was so complete that everything written in the biblical books taught the truth without any errors.
[5:06] Strictly speaking, this inerrancy of the Bible applies to its books as originally written. But we can be confident that we have the original text of the Bible in the copies and translations we possess today because God has preserved those writings.
[5:26] In any attempt to define what we ought to believe or how we ought to live, only the Bible can be used as a final authority.
[5:38] Traditional interpretations of the Bible and confessions of faith are useful guides, but they are always open to corrections and based on further study of the Bible.
[5:49] Any cooperation with others who profess to be Christians must be based on a shared commitment to the unique authority and complete truthfulness of the Bible.
[6:03] So that is our statement, our affirmation of faith. If you were with us last year, you would have heard me begin with how God has revealed himself through history.
[6:15] And that when we look at throughout history, God has revealed himself in a variety of ways. There are two specific ways that God has revealed himself. The first is natural or general revelation.
[6:28] And God does this in two ways. The first being creation. When we see creation, we know that there is a God who exists. The Bible says it speaks to his eternal power.
[6:41] That we know these things just did not happen randomly. Romans 1, 18, 20 tells us that for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
[7:03] So everyone knows there's a God. They either suppress it or they do not. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
[7:17] What the Bible is clearly stating is we know that God exists because he has clearly revealed it to us. And it says, For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.
[7:36] And the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. Just even how we've been created, that blood when we're cut, creates that it starts to globule at the corner to stop us from bleeding.
[7:49] Those are all not by chance how we've been created, but it's been designed that way. That all of creation screams of God. Then the other way that God reveals himself, just to remind you, is our conscience.
[8:06] God has given us a conscience that reveals his will, that demonstrates that when we steal, there's this feeling in a pit of a stomach that even I know as children who steal from the store do not feel comfort when they steal and do wrong.
[8:22] It's why man always has known that adultery is evil, killing is evil, lying is evil. It just answers the question of, it's not the way we should be.
[8:39] So we have both a creation and a conscience which fits under this natural law. What's interesting about natural law, it doesn't point to how great we are, but it points to how small we are, how incapable we are.
[9:02] And ultimately, it leads us to an understanding of how lost and hopeless our situation is without this understanding, which leads mankind for a need for God, which we call special revelation.
[9:23] If we know there's a God on high, we need to know what he wants, what he desires. And the ultimate example of special revelation came in the person of Jesus Christ.
[9:37] Amen? That's why it calls him the Logos. The Word became flesh. The Word of God became in Jesus Christ as he walked this earth, and he affirmed.
[9:48] He was the realization of the prophecies from the Old Testament. He is the Redeemer who saves us. So that's what we covered last week.
[10:01] This week, and we're going to get into a little bit of review, is there's two aspects, and there's two words that theologians use to speak about God's Word that we're going to cover today.
[10:13] One is the preservation of the Word of God, the preservation of the Word of God, and the other word that we're going to look at is the inspiration of the Word of God.
[10:24] If you were here last week, you remember I asked three, I concluded this sermon by answering three specific questions. The questions that I ask is, how do we know that the books that we have in this Bible are the right books?
[10:40] Are we missing some? Is there too many of others? Can we really be confident that what we have in our Bibles is indeed what God wants us to have?
[10:53] Then I answer the question of, how do we know the words of the Bible are actually correct? Did God really say that? Did the authors translate it properly?
[11:03] Did they scribe it out correctly? And I answered another question, kind of an offshoot of that, of how do we know what Bible translation to use? And I kind of answered the question why I use the English Standard Version.
[11:18] Now, to put it another way, I can sum up all those questions with, how can one be sure that the revealed and inspired written Word of God, which the early church recognized as canonical, has been handed down to this day without any loss of material.
[11:40] And if you're unsure and you want to know you weren't here last week, we have it online. But what that area is covered is under the section of the preservation of the Word of God.
[11:52] It's how do I know when I preach, when I teach to you, when I say this is the Word of the Lord, how do I know that this is indeed the Word of the Lord?
[12:07] I think we're attuned to the fact that right from the very start, we have an adversary, one whose primary purpose is to corrupt God's Word.
[12:23] Right at the beginning, in Genesis, when God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree, the serpent, Satan, came.
[12:35] Remember the first question he asked? Did God really say that? Right from the very beginning, the adversary desired to twist, to deny, to destroy, and to distort God's Word.
[12:58] So as I stated, the answers that I gave to you last week, or I answered, the questions that I answered were provided you are built around what I call, as theologians call, the preservation of Scripture.
[13:14] So looking at your bulletin, once again, or the handout that I gave to you, note the first sentence of our affirmation of faith where it says specifically, throughout history, God has revealed Himself in a variety of ways, and that's the special and natural revelation that we talked about.
[13:35] And notice this second sentence. And God has preserved preserved the substance of this revelation in the Bible.
[13:46] Now if you drop down to the second paragraph, which begins, it says, strictly speaking, this inerrancy of the Bible applies to the books as originally written down, and pay attention to here.
[13:59] But we can be confident that we have the original text of the Bible in the copies and translations we possess today because God has preserved these writings or those writings.
[14:15] My friends, this was the biggest area of struggle that I had as a young man in university. And the question that really nagged at me is, could we truly be confident that the words that we say are the words of God were truly the words of God?
[14:33] And I remember just thinking, if someone could show me that there was some error in here or that there was some other book that needed to be in here, if someone could show me that, my faith would have ended.
[14:47] And it wouldn't have been, I don't think I would have been shattered. I would have just said, okay, obviously I was wrong. What do I do now? But that's when I became attuned to this doctrine.
[15:00] The preservation of scripture states, it is the biblical teaching. And when I use that word doctrine, it means teaching, what the biblical teaching is.
[15:10] So when I say biblical doctrine, it means biblical teaching, which refers to the acts, God has preserved through the centuries the written record of his special revelation to the people.
[15:24] So if God gave us a special revelation, do we have it all and are we missing some and have we included wrong ones? So what it entails that not only God provided his word, but did he preserve his word?
[15:45] You with me on that? We believe that God gave us his word, but is this the right word? Is it the Quran? Is it the Book of Mormon? Was there some other religious book that actually contains God's words?
[15:57] So there's two key questions that help us answer this question. One, does God ever say that? Anywhere in scripture does God tell us that his words will be preserved for us?
[16:13] You with me on that? So does God actually say this? So if we're going to affirm this as Christians, does God tell us? And number two is the preservation of God's word because we believe we have this Bible.
[16:29] Was this preserved intentionally or is it accidentally? Was God actually responsible for giving us that word but also providing this Bible for us today?
[16:42] You with me on this? Those are the two key questions I want to answer for you this morning. Well Dave answered the first question does the Bible affirm that God does this?
[16:57] Take a look at Psalm 119 89. Psalm 119 89. And if you didn't know Psalm 119 it's the largest book of the Bible the longest chapter and it's all about God's word.
[17:17] And each section begins with the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Baleh and it goes all the way through. And this section is the L section.
[17:28] And this is where it's got and I know when you guys when Dave started reading Psalm 19 you were saying to yourself oh my goodness is he going to read all of it to us? And I remember being at a conference where the guy started reading and that's what he did he read the whole he read all of Psalm 19 when the next speaker came out just simply said you really didn't believe he was really going to read the whole thing did you?
[17:49] But he did. But anyway so it says notice what it says in verse 89 forever oh Lord your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
[18:03] So the preservation of scriptures the promise God made to us that when he would preserve his written word of his special revelations for his people.
[18:17] What this means is that no inspired scripture has been lost in the past and others that still wait discovery. Meaning we can be confident that we have everything God wants for us.
[18:31] Now in regards to verse 89 notice it says firmly fixed. What that means is it means to be literally to be established or set in place in a lasting way.
[18:45] It's like almost there's this place in heaven where God has firmly affixed that word. It's not moving. It's not being changed anywhere. The author says this is similar to a pillar that is permanently placed within a building when constructed.
[19:03] So when we think about the heavens there's this pillar that almost holds everything together which is his word. So God's word is forever fixed but the key here is that the verse says that God's word is fixed in heaven.
[19:21] You with me on this? That's the promise God gave. He gave us his promised word but it doesn't say here on earth that word is going to be firmly fixed. And what this indicates that God has a permanent and perfect record of his inspired written revelation to man and he has kept that record in heaven.
[19:44] The psalmist will later go on to say in Psalm 152 long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.
[19:56] So the point we need to understand is God's word is fixed. God's word is unchanging. God's word is everlasting and it's perfectly preserved in heaven for us.
[20:13] You with me? Nobody's able to break in to change it to steal it to correct it. So the question is how does that help us?
[20:27] Well throughout the pages of scripture there's this saying I guess for lack of a better word and it's represented in many parts of scripture.
[20:39] 1 Peter 1 24 if you want to keep a record he's actually echoing the words of Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 48 it says all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the Lord remains forever.
[21:08] Like I said God's word is eternal but there is no direct indication that this eternality includes a promise of a perfectly preserved copy here on earth.
[21:25] Now what I mean by that is a lot of people who attack the word of God if I took an NIV is there anybody using NIV here?
[21:39] How about a new American standard version? King James version? King James? Old school. Okay. Now what's interesting in the King James version camp before there was really any other versions they believed their version was the only version and anything that was unlike the King James version was a polluted version.
[22:02] So they accepted this idea that only the King James version could be the correct version and any other version opposite that would be incorrect. But so the question is does the Bible actually say that his word is kept in one version?
[22:19] And the verses I'm telling you it's not right? It's not it's actually in many of the different versions. So there is we do not have a flawless copy or what's called an inspired edition and the only ones that God promised were the ones when the scribe wrote down what God said.
[22:43] You with me on that? And remember we talked about that last week. We talked about when they were given the scribe would write the inspired copy someone would look over my shoulder hey you know I'm going up to Whistler tomorrow I want to make sure I've got God's word.
[22:58] So he would write it out and someone would say well I'm going to Brackendale and then they would write you know and all the copies would go all over but someone might make an error. He might have copied a word twice.
[23:10] So all the people in Brackendale would have a copy that would be incorrect a little bit different from Whistler but as you took all those copies together you knew you could find the right copy by just noticing the errors or what they call variants.
[23:26] You with me on that? Technically I don't hear any snoring so you're with me okay a little bit on this. It's kind of funny I thought when I began seminary this would be the most boring class that I ever took and I can honestly tell you after I thought it was the most exciting class that I ever took when I learned about how wonderfully God preserved his text for us to this day that he always wanted to make it happen.
[23:54] Now why did this happen? And here's the thing every time God gave his word to man whether it was to Moses whether it was to Solomon or David throughout scripture they were always supposed to copy it but they were always supposed to share it.
[24:18] You with me on that? Let me read you a couple of verses. And God what I'm saying is God always command that when he gave that special revelation their task was to share it and to protect it.
[24:35] You with me? So God started to use us in that process of preservation. Let me give you an example in Deuteronomy 4 2. This is what he's this is the command of Moses he says you shall not add to the word that I command you nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
[24:59] The intention of God right from the very beginning when I give you this special revelation is to protect it to preserve it. The last book of the Bible revelation almost echoes the same words but it comes much more strictly revelation 22 18 to 19 says I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book if anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues described in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.
[25:43] God means business when it comes to his word. Amen. If you read you'll read this in Proverbs in in in in Jeremiah there's repeated charges which make it clear that what God said through the pens of the human authors was exactly what he wanted to say and he wanted us to protect it.
[26:09] not only that we are accountable for the protection of his words. So when we hear Jesus say in Matthew 5 18 for truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
[26:34] It's kind of credible isn't it? So he's letting us know there's this perfect copy which preserved in heaven which he's given to us on earth and we are charged to protect it.
[26:50] And what's interesting there's some really great books written that tell of the history of how God preserved his word. And if you guys are interested in this I've got the books in my library.
[27:00] I got a couple of thousand books. I'd love you. Some of them are really short. They're just testimonies about how some people gave their life. We've heard of the printing press right? Gutenberg.
[27:11] The whole goal that Gutenberg had wanted the whole world to have the word of God. And that's why he invented the printing press so all the people of the world he could print so much faster God's word.
[27:27] There's this interesting story in Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah had a scribe named Baruch and he would so God has given Jeremiah the words that he's to say. Jeremiah would print him and this guy Baruch would answer this scroll.
[27:42] And this scroll was judgment against the king. So Jeremiah goes in or I think it was another guy goes in and presents it to the king. These are the words of God that were spoken through the prophet Jeremiah and he just took them off page by page and burned them.
[27:56] So the guy goes back to Jeremiah. We don't have that word of the Lord. But the scripture specifically said God says don't worry. He gave him back every single word of the Lord.
[28:07] And then he added the king burnt it the first time. Right? It was exactly the same that he reported to it. And we have that record in scripture. What I'm saying here is that God has used man in tremendous ways to keep his word today.
[28:25] What's amazing is it's why we have it in so many different languages going to different nations and different countries. From the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic people were painstakingly.
[28:41] And you guys know one of our missionaries Kyle is involved in this work. And his work is because he's an expert in the original languages. He travels throughout all of Africa and Southeast Asia.
[28:54] So when someone has a copy of the Bible that they want to give to this people group in their heart language. Kyle's kind of like the final editor just to make sure that it's biblically correct.
[29:09] He just goes over everything painstakingly to know that nothing's missing. So that group of people in that point of the world have exactly the same word that we enjoy today.
[29:23] praise be to the Lord. That God has indeed preserved his word. We have absolute confidence that those words have been preserved in these 66 books of the Bible that we have here in our Bible.
[29:43] The final aspect I want to take a look at is the inspiration of Scripture. So if you want to look at your handouts once again. Our statement of faith, affirmation of faith, whichever you want to call it, actually gives a really great description of what happens here.
[30:02] It says these books were written by divinely chosen authors. These were men that God had chosen to write down his word as they were prompted and guided by the spirit of God.
[30:15] Although those writers were genuine authors and in most cases not just secretaries taking dictation, the work of the spirit was so complete that everything written in the biblical books taught the truth without any errors.
[30:32] You see, this is the issue. Did God write out words that God, did they leave any words out or how did they come up with this idea of inspiration?
[30:50] And I'm going to give you four different views of how people think through this process. I'll deal with three briefly in the one that we hold. So one view that a group of people believe is that the Holy Spirit would kind of take over a writer and he'd almost become a robot without his mind.
[31:08] He would write perfectly the words that the Lord would have of him. Then he'd like snap out of his trance and wonder where he was. And hey, look at this. I got this whole scribe. This is pretty good.
[31:18] Who wrote this? That's what some people would believe. That's called the dictation method. But what's interesting is that we study God's word. We know that it occurred over 1500 years.
[31:30] There was 40 different authors. And as you guys note, you've been reading your Bible. Different authors have different styles. Amen. They write differently.
[31:42] You know, Dave and I, we preach differently. We've been given a personality. So that one kind of doesn't fit the what the Bible's view of inspiration.
[31:52] The other view that people use, it's called the concept theory. And they believe that God gave this concept to man. And then they wrote out the Bible.
[32:04] Now, this view gets attacked a lot or it's used to attack the Bible. So when there's a verse in the Bible that we disagree with, they will say, well, it's because God gave them the right idea.
[32:21] They just wrote it wrongly. You with me on that? So all of a sudden, they become the police or the expert on what God should have said. And usually, it tends to fit the cultural sensibilities of the day, if you know what I mean.
[32:38] Whatever's the hot topic or there's a word that people find somewhat convicting today, let's fall on the concept theory. And then that allows us to change the word God would have for us.
[32:54] The third view is called the natural theory of inspiration. Like a great artist or a great writer who has an inspiration to paint a picture, to write a novel.
[33:08] Some people have stated that that's how God inspired that author and he wrote that book. The problem with that is that is not how the Bible presents the inspiration of scripture.
[33:25] The technical biblical view, the one we espouse, is we believe in what's called the verbal plenary inspiration. And I'll read this text for you.
[33:36] It says, God, through his spirit, inspired every word penned by the human authors in each of the 66 books of the Bible in the original document.
[33:50] Notice I said every word. Words matter. Remember last week, we were talking about different Bible versions.
[34:00] The reason I use the ESV is I believe it's one of the more accurate translations because it's translating word for word. It's putting an emphasis on words rather than ideas.
[34:12] My job as the pastor is to do the work to figure out what those ideas are. But if I could get the closest I can to the words that were originally spoken, the greater chance I'm going to get it right.
[34:24] You with me on that one? If I go with the words, if I'm just going with someone else's inspiration or thought process on that, I'm getting a step away from what God could have originally intended.
[34:35] So back to this idea of inspiration, it says it refers to the direct act of God. So it's not just an inspiration through a dream or to write a book or to paint a picture like an artist would, but it refers to the direct act of God on the human author that results in the creation of a perfectly written revelation.
[35:01] It conveys the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit, whereby he used the individual's personality, the individual's language, style, and historical context of each writer to produce divinely authoritative writings.
[35:20] These works were truly the product of both the human author and the Holy Spirit. What is more important here is to recognize that the biblical claim of inspiration is one of divine word is superintendence.
[35:41] What that means is God produced the scriptures by influencing the author's own thoughts. And the result is we get a divinely authoritative inerrant autograph, which is the first copy.
[36:00] Now, it's all good for us to say that, but is that what the Bible says? You with me on that one? I want to show you. These aren't the things that we just say. I want to show to you what the Bible says.
[36:14] The actual process by which the books of the Bible were composed are many and they're varied. One, I'll show you a share with you. Moses, he wrote the first five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch under the direct supervision of God.
[36:31] At times, we read that God gave Moses specific words to write. And we see this in Exodus 34, 27. And in other cases, Moses even included his own thoughts.
[36:44] And we see this in Deuteronomy 3. David is another perfect example. David wrote many Psalms which were collected into the books of the Psalms.
[36:55] Some of those Psalms were written directly from his personal experiences, while others were drawn from general life experiences that God wanted him to capture.
[37:11] Some writers actually researched the books that they were going to write. If you begin the book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, Solomon searched out and collected many Proverbs according to Ecclesiastes 12, 9.
[37:29] He wanted to know what those sayings were. And then he and others compiled them into a book of Proverbs. Those sayings were inspired by God and he used them.
[37:41] Matthew and John in the Gospels. That was the, those books were written on their personal experiences with Jesus. You with me on that? So Moses, that's why when we look at the Pentateuch, Moses wasn't at the beginning, right?
[37:57] He wasn't there when Adam and Eve walked the earth. God had to tell him what happened at those events. When we finally get to the New Testament, we have Matthew and John who were there and they saw those events and, and they recorded those events for them.
[38:12] Then we have a situation like, um, the, the, the book of Mark, which is actually Peter sharing those events with Mark and Mark writes them out. And then Luke, which is kind of an interesting one.
[38:26] Um, Luke was not an eyewitness to the event, but it says that he investigated everything thoroughly before writing it out carefully and in order.
[38:40] And we see Luke adds these incredible quotes that he puts in. And then we remember like Mary, he, he asked Mary, like, what did you think when you were given this, this angel appeared to you and told you that you were going to bear the son that would redeem the whole world.
[39:00] And we get Mary's like heartfelt words of how she felt during that. And that's why it says multiple times, she treasured these things in her heart. And he knows that because she told Luke and Luke writes them down.
[39:18] And then we know that some biblical writers were given special revelation through a dream. We read about this in Jeremiah and I are sorry, Isaiah and Daniel.
[39:30] They had a vision and they just copied that vision down as they saw it. And of course, the ultimate vision is the apostle John in revelation, who I'm quite certain had no idea what he was writing down, but he wrote it down as what he saw in the vision.
[39:49] You see, even the writing process itself was unique from author to author and book to book. And then, like I said, Jeremiah actually dictated the words to a scribe.
[40:06] The apostle Paul, who wrote many of the books of the New Testament, sometimes he hand wrote them. Other times he used scribes. And as we're going to see in the book to the Romans, the scribe actually writes a greeting within that book to the saints.
[40:26] But the best definition that we have for the inspiration process is 2 Peter 1. So let's turn with me to 2 Peter 1.
[40:37] This will be the last text that I'll go over. And I'll look at that in a second.
[41:04] If you look at verses 12 to 14. So it says, In the context of Peter's imminent martyrdom, he first speaks of a need to hold fast to the truth.
[41:43] And you'll notice that in 2 Peter 12 to 14. What's interesting in this text that prior to warning of false teachers, Peter affirms the reliability of scripture because it is the product not merely of human authors, but of the Holy Spirit.
[41:59] And he begins his explanation by referring to his own experience as a witness of Christ's transfiguration. So take a look at 2 Peter.
[42:10] We're going to look at verses 18 and 19. Let me read them to you here. It says, He says, This is an important text.
[42:54] This is an important text. Because when you read, when Jesus Christ says the scriptures teach, or even some of the earlier in 2 Timothy 3.16 we looked at last week with Paul, when it says all scriptures, which scriptures are they referring to?
[43:21] It's the Old Testament. It's the Old Testament. That was the scriptures that they had. They did not have all of the New Testament. So they weren't affirming that. But what he was saying is that the Old Testament.
[43:34] Now what Peter is now doing is he's affirming what's newly been come. And he actually affirms Paul as Paul's writings as just like the Old Testament.
[43:47] Meaning they themselves also are the word of God. And how much more he says they're more sure. And what he's doing is he's talking about when he went on the Mount of Transfiguration and he saw Jesus transform before his eyes.
[44:03] An incredible experience. Peter does not use that as the source of his authority. He says the source of his authority is actually in God's word, not the experience.
[44:15] You with me on that? That's huge. Because we live in a day and age where people want to derive authority from experience. But what Peter is saying, no matter what my eyes saw, which was great and incredible, but what God has preserved for us in this word is so much more.
[44:35] This is what I trust, not my experiences. Now that word of prophecy used is a clearly reference to scripture, given the way it is expanded in verse 20 that I read to you.
[44:50] What Peter is saying is while I've had these many incredible experiences, the word of God, this prophetic word, is much more reliable.
[45:02] And he said it wasn't created by man, but by God's own word. So to sum up what he says, more specifically, the word of God is a more reliable revelations of the teachings about the person, atonement, and second coming of Jesus Christ, and even the genuine firsthand experiences of the apostles themselves.
[45:30] Peter describes the process of composition this way. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
[45:43] Never from the will of man, but by the Holy Spirit. In other words, human initiative was never behind the creation of the biblical books.
[45:59] You with me on that one? No man had an interesting thought and put it down. Rather, Peter affirms very directly that when the human authors wrote, it was God speaking through them.
[46:11] This is very similar to 2 Samuel 23.2, when David says, The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue.
[46:22] What we see here, it's a miraculous process that directly involves the personal attention and directed power of the Holy Spirit.
[46:34] And that's why we know the question is, Were the authors inspired or were the words inspired? And I state, it's the words that were inspired.
[46:46] Because everything that Paul wrote wasn't inspired. Paul wrote many letters to the Church of Corinthians, but God only inspired two of them, which we have. So it's not like this, that because he was the apostle, and any words that he wrote down became a part of the Bible.
[47:05] The only ones that were kept were the ones where they knew that the Holy Spirit was truly in that writing. So in that writing of Scripture, it was the prophet communicating God's word through his pen.
[47:22] And it was always the Spirit moving continually to convey God's word through the prophet. And the conclusion we draw is that the ultimate product is the divine, preserved, inspired, inerrant, and authoritative words of God on every page of all 66 books of our Bible.
[47:49] Now I want you to pay attention to two words that I just used. Inerrant, which is a debatable word, and the word authoritative. And those are the two words that I want to concentrate next week.
[48:03] Let's pray. Dear Holy Heavenly Father, I am just so thankful that just even the idea of Jesus is not a man-made idea.
[48:17] In fact, what man could come up with this story that God would deliver his own perfect, sinless son to live on this earth in perfect humanity, yet perfectly God, live a life so human that he could relate to us on every aspect of our own lives.
[48:44] and that ultimately this perfect son of yours would be given over to be the perfect sacrifice that only he could give.
[49:01] Man cannot make up these stories or these words, the stories of your incredible grace. man would write a story of God getting vengeance on the people who killed his son.
[49:19] And yet you were the one who killed your own son that we might be redeemed. that in that death you conquered death and sin so we might live.
[49:35] And not only does the text say that we are friends of God, the Bible, God's Word, says that we are children of God. we are adopted with full rights, with full privileges, as Jesus is, as we come into your family, O Lord.
[50:00] Father, I know some people think this is overly technical. Do we really need to know these things? And I pray that even today some of it might not make sense or be of interest.
[50:15] But at a later time you would use this teaching to defend the saints who hear this against the attacks of the evil one.
[50:26] Who will try to attack the doctrine of the preservation of God. Who will tell people that so many mistakes have been made. We've missed books.
[50:37] We've added too many books. And so corrupt the message of God. That we know others throughout time have attacked the inspiration of God.
[50:51] That it was really man just wrote these things and they're nice ideas on how man should live but they truly do not need to be abided by or obeyed or trusted.
[51:06] You're a good person. trust in your own heart are the lies that Satan tells us. Father, I give you thanks for this church who've held by your word, who believe your word, who trust your word, who defend your word.
[51:23] And I pray that you completely give them a wonderful understanding of the amazing things about your word and just the miracles that you did to preserve it for us. so that even now, 2,000 years after it was written, we can still know your truth and know how we should live and not only how we should live but how we ultimately give worship to you.
[51:46] That we can live in a Christ-honoring way. That we can bring glory to God. God, it's an amazing idea and we only know it because of your word.
[51:59] So, Father, I pray that our confidence would grow in every instruction that we learn about your word. And may we be a people who just aren't excited about God's word but that we'd be excited about reading it, knowing it, studying it because as we're going to see, it is indeed authoritative because the source is you.
[52:22] And because you are that source, we should know it all and live by it all. Forgive us for our laziness, our tardiness, for putting things in greater priority than your word.
[52:40] Let us give thanks as children for our parents who read God's word to us. Give thanks to our Sunday school teachers who are diligent to present God's word to us.
[52:52] Let us thank our grandmothers, our grandfathers who taught these truths, those that invited us to church, to Sunday schools, to Bible studies, all the different places that God met us with his word.
[53:10] The incredible stories that are revealed in our testimonies to how true God's word is. Thank you, Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen.
[53:21] Amen. Amen. I'll see you next time.