All right, well we are working our way as a church through Paul's second letter to Timothy.
We've been doing that for a good part of this year because I took two months off this summer.
So we're still there and we are in chapter three.
And we're going to kind of pause here a little bit and we're going to consider two things.
So this morning's message and next Sunday's message will be a little out of the ordinary.
We're going to kind of widen the focus to the rest of the scriptures to see what they have to say on this thing that we've come to in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16.
This idea, this truth that God has inspired.
He has breathed out the scriptures.
So this is the passage that we came to last Sunday, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16.
Paul writes,
All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This is a passage of scripture that is so foundational to our Christian faith.
It explains why we here at the Bible Church take the Bible so seriously.
It is not just the words of men who lived long ago.
It is the very word of God.
As men like Moses and Isaiah and Peter and Paul were putting pen to parchment,
God was breathing out his own words, speaking through them,
so that what ended up on the parchment was God's own words to us, not just their own.
The Apostle Peter said it this way in his letter.
He writes,
We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying,
This is my son whom I love.
With him I am well pleased.
We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable,
and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place
until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Peter says,
Peter reminds the followers of Jesus that all of the teaching about Jesus that he's been proclaiming
isn't just some cleverly devised bunch of stories.
Peter says,
I was there on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured before us.
I heard God speak audibly from heaven.
I heard him confirm that yes, this Jesus was and is his son.
And so you can count on what I saw.
You can count on what I heard, says Peter.
It's reliable.
It's trustworthy.
And then he goes on to talk about how we can completely depend
and rely on the word of the prophets that we have in the scriptures.
They too are reliable.
They too are trustworthy.
He's basically saying God really has spoken through human beings.
The words the prophets wrote down, the scriptures,
you must understand, he says,
these words didn't come about because men just decided,
I'm going to sit down and write a book about what I think is going on in my day.
No, the prophetic words, the words of scripture came from God.
And the prophets spoke and wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit of God.
What Paul and Peter are saying here is that God acted supernaturally
over, under, and within the biblical authors
to ensure that his own words were written and communicated
just as he wanted them to be.
God's own spirit, God's own breath are in the words of scripture
that we have in our Bibles.
And this was the whole topic of last Sunday's message.
But now we want to consider a couple other questions related to this this morning.
To what extent is the Bible inspired by God?
We want to talk about this this morning.
Our church is now a member of the Baptist General Conference of Canada.
And our conference has a good statement about this in our affirmation of faith.
And this is the statement.
We believe that the Bible is the revealed word of God
fully and verbally inspired.
We believe that the Bible is the word of God.
Written under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
We believe it is without error in the original manuscripts
and is true and trustworthy in all that it asserts.
It has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
Notice the wording here.
We believe that the Bible is the word of God
and that it is fully inspired.
In other words, we believe that all of the Bible is God-breathed,
divinely inspired, coming from God himself as his own word.
And a lot of why we believe that comes from 2 Timothy 3.16,
which we just saw on the screen and which we looked at last Sunday.
It says all scripture is God-breathed.
And so from Genesis all the way to Revelation and everything in between,
all of it is inspired by God.
All of it comes from God.
It was breathed out by him as the human authors wrote on the parchment.
It's fully inspired, we believe.
Not only that, but we believe that it is verbally inspired.
Verbally inspired.
That is, that every word of the Bible is God-breathed,
comes from God under the direction of his Holy Spirit
as the human author wrote it down.
And I want to explore this a little bit more together this morning.
Why do we believe that every word of this book comes from God?
Let's look together at a few passages.
The first one comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
As he was teaching his disciples and later the crowd that gathered.
This is what he said.
He said,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.
Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands
and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
So there was some suspicion in Jesus' day that he had come to cast doubt
on the word of God, the trustworthy word of Moses and the prophets
that had been handed down to Israel.
But Jesus says,
Don't even think.
Don't even think that I have come to do away with the law or the prophets,
to abolish them.
If you look at the law,
that's actually the short name for the law of Moses.
Referring to the first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote down,
Genesis to Deuteronomy.
And the prophets,
this is also kind of a shorthand way of referring to the rest of the Old Testament.
We tend to think of the prophets as only referring to men like Elijah and Isaiah and Ezekiel.
But the biblical notion of a prophet is much broader.
It would have included men like King David,
who wrote the Psalms,
and Solomon,
who wrote Proverbs.
It would have included anyone who truly spoke or wrote on God's behalf.
To the people.
And so when Jesus says,
The law and the prophets,
it's actually a reference to all of the scriptures that they had.
The scriptures of the Old Testament.
He says,
I've not come to abolish the law or the prophets,
all the scriptures that you have now.
I've come to fulfill them.
He makes it clear that those writings are not something he came to do away with or replace.
God doesn't intend to replace the Old Testament with Jesus.
He intends to fulfill what was written in those scriptures through Jesus.
But now let's look at the way Jesus speaks about the Old Testament scriptures here in verse 18.
The law of Moses,
the writings of the prophets.
Truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law
until everything is accomplished.
In other words,
according to Jesus,
every letter of every word
matters.
God intends to fulfill
all of what he has spoken.
Not just kind of,
not just essentially,
but down to the smallest stroke of the pen.
In other words,
not a single word of the revelation that God gave through Moses or the prophets
is unimportant
or irrelevant.
We believe that the scriptures are verbally inspired,
word for word.
Every word from God.
Let's look at another passage where we see this.
Jesus on another occasion had a run-in with the religious,
some of the religious leaders known as the Sadducees.
And the Sadducees,
who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus with a question.
So they denied the afterlife, essentially.
They didn't believe in many spiritual things.
And Jesus has a conversation with them.
They come to Jesus and they say,
Moses told us that if a man dies
without having children,
then that man's brother must marry the widow
and raise up offspring
for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers among us
and the first one married
and died.
And since he had no children,
he left his wife
to his brother.
The same thing happened to the second.
They married the widow,
had no children,
died,
and the third brother
right on down to the seventh.
Finally, the woman died.
Now then,
at the resurrection,
whose wife
will she be
of the seventh
since all of them were married to her?
This was kind of a hypothetical scenario
used to challenge Jesus' belief
in the resurrection.
And Jesus looks at him and says,
you are in error
because you do not know
the scriptures
or the power of God.
At the resurrection,
people will neither marry
nor be given in marriage.
they will be like
the angels in heaven.
But about the resurrection
of the dead,
have you not read
what God said to you?
I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
Jesus is quoting
from the book of Exodus,
chapter 3, verse 6.
God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living.
When the crowds heard this,
they were astonished
at his teaching.
So here Jesus uses
the scriptures
from the book of Exodus
to correct the Sadducees,
and he quotes it
word for word.
This is what God said.
And amazingly,
he makes his whole point here
on the tense
of the verb.
I am the God
of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
the God of Jacob.
As in presently,
right now,
I am still
the God of Abraham.
At this point in Exodus,
Abraham had died
long before this.
He's not the God
of the dead,
but of the living.
Is Jesus just nitpicking?
Is he being argumentative?
Far from it.
Jesus understood
that God was deliberate
in his choice
of every word
that he spoke long ago.
Even to the tense
of the verb,
it was significant.
It was accurate.
What was written
in the scriptures.
And so we believe
in the verbal inspiration.
We believe that
every word
is God-breathed.
One more quick example
from the letter
that Paul wrote
to the Galatians.
Galatians 3,
verse 16.
Paul is writing here
and he says,
the promises
were spoken to Abraham
and to his seed.
Scripture does not say
and to seeds,
meaning many people,
but and to your seed,
meaning one person
who is Christ.
Now I know we're kind of
jumping into the middle
of something here.
Paul's making
some big points here.
He's laboring to show
that the promises
which God made
to Abraham
and his seed,
his offspring.
He's laboring to show
that those promises
are fulfilled
in one person.
And that person
is Jesus Christ.
And so here Paul,
under the direction
of the Holy Spirit
as an apostle
of Jesus Christ,
makes his case
on the singularity
of the word seed
as opposed to
the plural,
seeds.
think of this.
This was a word
penned in the scriptures
by Moses
recording what happened
with Abraham
thousands of years
prior to this.
And Paul's saying,
yes,
whether the word
was plural or not
mattered to God.
When he made that promise,
God had a particular
fulfillment in mind
the day he said this
to Abraham.
And that fulfillment
would be Christ.
And so his word,
the scriptures,
said,
say,
seed,
and not seeds.
So as we look
at how Jesus
and the apostles
handled the Old Testament
scriptures,
it becomes pretty obvious
that they understood
the scriptures
to be verbally
inspired by God.
every word.
They understood them
to be God-breathed
and accurate
down to the tense,
down to whether
the word was plural
or not,
and every word
authoritative
and important.
And so that's
what we believe.
Not just that the
general gist of ideas
that God had
in his mind
are essentially
intact
in our Bibles,
but that every word
comes from God
under the direction
of his spirit.
And so this
has big implications
for how we view
this book,
the Bible.
It necessarily
follows that
if every word
in this book
is supernaturally
selected
by God
and spoken
by God,
then it necessarily
follows that
this book
is without
error.
it also
follows that
it's true
in all that
it asserts
and trustworthy.
And it also
follows that
it has supreme
authority
in everything
that we believe
and in everything
that we do
for all of life.
But here's one
caveat that we
have to notice
here,
especially when
it comes to
looking at the
inerrancy of
Scripture.
we believe
it is without
error in
the original
manuscripts.
So we do
not believe
that every copy
that has ever
been made
over the
centuries
has no mistakes
or words
accidentally
left out
or accidentally
added in
over the
centuries.
We believe
that the
original scroll
which Moses
wrote under
the influence
of God's
Spirit is
100%
without error.
We believe
that the
original letter
that was penned
by the
Apostle Paul
on the
parchment
was 100%
without error.
That every
word that he
wrote was
God-breathed
and was
exactly as
God wanted
it to be.
And this is
a place
where the
devil has
worked to
cause all
kinds of
trouble
amongst
Christians.
his goal
has always
been to
get us
not to
trust the
word of
God.
Did God
really say
were the
words of
the serpent
in the
garden that
fateful day?
And so for
centuries the
devil has
been trying
to cause
people to
doubt whether
God has
really spoken
to us,
whether we
can really
be sure that
we have
his words
intact in
our
scriptures.
One of the
questions he
loves to
poke us
with is
isn't it
possible that
so many
human errors
and mistakes
have crept
into the
Bible over
the centuries
that now
it hardly
resembles the
original
manuscripts?
Isn't it
likely that
the truth
of the
Bible has
been lost
in
translation
over the
centuries?
And so
we're going
to take
next Sunday
Lord willing
just to
talk about
this issue
of transmission
and translation
from the
originals
to today
because there's
a lot to
talk about
there's a lot
to look at
and we do
not want to
give the
devil an
opportunity
or a
foothold
in our
church.
yes we
believe that
every word
penned by
the biblical
authors is
breathed out
by God
is without
error
true in
all that it
asserts
and trustworthy
in the
original
manuscripts
and I'll
give you a
spoiler for
next Sunday
we can be
absolutely
confident
that the
best English
translations
that we
hold in
our hands
today are
very accurate
and that
the overwhelming
majority of
variances between
the manuscript
copies that we
have do not
affect any
major Christian
doctrine
whatsoever.
More about
that next
Sunday.
For the rest
of our time
here I want
to look at
some examples
of how different
genres in the
Bible are
inspired by
God.
How they are
God breathed
and we're going
to start right
at the end
and kind of
work our way
backwards a bit.
Let's go to
Revelation.
chapter 1.
How did
Revelation come
to be in
our Bibles?
This is what
John wrote
right at the
beginning.
He said
the revelation
from Jesus
Christ
which God
gave him
to show
his servants
what must
soon take
place.
He made
it known
by sending
his angel
to his
servant
John
who testifies
to everything
he saw.
That is
the word
of God
and the
testimony
of Jesus
Christ.
Blessed
is the
one who
reads aloud
the words
of this
prophecy
and blessed
are those
who hear
it and
take to
heart what
is written
in it
because the
time is
near.
God
So the
apostle John
identifies
himself as
the recipient
of this
revelation.
He says
that it
came from
Jesus
Christ
himself
through
an angel
and John
as he
writes this
now he
says I'm
testifying to
what I saw
everything
he saw
and then the
rest of
revelation is
his vision
which Jesus
gave him
through this
angel and
if you've read
the book of
revelation you
know it's
quite the
vision.
But we
notice also in
revelation there
are numerous
times where
Jesus tells
John
write and
then tells
him exactly
what to
write.
In other
places he's
told to
write what he
sees or to
write what he
hears.
And so
there's two
ways here that
we see God
causing his
word to be
written down.
Sometimes he
dictates it
word for word
and he told
his chosen
man write
this and
then told
him what to
write.
We see this
all over the
prophets in the
Old Testament
too.
Say to
so and so
and then God
tells him word
for word what
to say.
The other way
that we see
inspiration happening
here is just
the vision itself
that John
sees that God
gives him.
He's told to
write it down
and that this
is inspired by
God means that
John is
accurately describing
exactly what
he really saw
as Jesus gave
this vision
through this
angel.
Sometimes in
this book John
gives some
explanation about
the meaning of
certain things in
the vision.
That this is
inspired by
God means
that his
explanation is
true.
The spirit
was influencing
him as he
was writing
this so that
he understood
what he was
writing about.
That's
revelation.
Let's consider
one of the
letters of
Paul.
What does it
mean for this
genre to be
inspired by
God?
Paul was an
apostle,
sort of the
New Testament
equivalent of
a prophet,
specifically
though, a
spokesperson of
Jesus Christ.
Jesus said on
the night of
his betrayal
that his
spirit would
give his
apostles the
words to
say.
And then he
enabled the
apostles to
perform signs
and wonders
just like Jesus
did to
authenticate
those men
as his
messengers.
And Paul was
one of those
men.
Paul wrote
letters to
the churches
that he
helped to
establish all
around the
Mediterranean
world.
And his
letters are
full of
teaching and
instruction for
followers of
Jesus.
But we also
notice that
his letters are
not devoid of
his own
personality.
Paul had a
fun tendency to
take some
things to the
extreme, to
make a point.
And it just
shows up in
his letters and
we kind of have
to laugh when we
get to those
points.
If you're new
here, you're
probably thinking
that that verse
right there is
really strange.
But if you
read all of
Galatians in
context, you'll
understand what
he's saying
there.
The Holy
Spirit did not
bypass Paul's
personality
altogether as
Paul wrote the
scriptures that
he wrote.
His personality
shines through at
the same time.
We see the
authenticity of
Paul's love for
the people in
the churches.
We see how
he really cared
for people, how
he related to
people.
We see his
frustration over
the division, his
personal frustration
over the division
and the damage
caused in the
church by false
teachers.
And so as God
breathed the
scriptures that
Paul wrote, he
did so in a way
that kept the
humanity of Paul
and his
relationships fully
intact.
I love this
reference to
Paul's letters
that Peter makes
in his letter.
Peter writes
this in 2 Peter
chapter 3
verse 15.
He says,
bear in mind
that our Lord's
patience means
salvation just
as our dear
brother Paul also
wrote you with
the wisdom that
God gave him.
Paul writes the
same way in all
his letters,
says Peter,
speaking in them
of these matters,
his letters
contain some
things that are
hard to understand
which ignorant
and unstable
people distort
as they do
the other
scriptures to
their own
destruction.
Notice how
the apostle Peter
spoke of Paul's
writings as
coming from
God's wisdom
and how he
lumps Paul's
letters right
in with the
other scriptures.
letters.
Peter recognized
the letters of
Paul as God
breathed scripture
on the same
level as the
other divinely
inspired writings
that they had
in the Old
Testament.
Next, let's look
at the gospel
of Luke.
Luke admits
right at the
beginning that
he was not
one of the
first eyewitnesses
of all that
happened with
Jesus but
that later on
once he heard
about it,
he made an
effort to
carefully
investigate
everything
about Jesus
right back
to the
beginning.
And then
Luke took
everything that
he had
gathered from
these eyewitnesses
and compiled
this account
of Jesus'
story,
of Jesus'
life and
death and
resurrection.
And he did
this for a
man named
Theophilus.
That's who he
was writing
at this for.
And so that
Luke's gospel
account is
God breathed
means that
as he did
this work
God's
spirit was
directing him
to the
right people
to have
the needed
conversations,
to ascertain
the precise
words and
details of the
events of
Jesus'
life.
And then
ultimately that
Luke's gospel
account is
God breathed
means that as
he sat down
to write it
out,
the spirit
of God
supernaturally
influenced him
such that the
final product
was 100%
true and
accurate to
every detail
of what Jesus
said and
did and what
happened during
his life.
What about the
Psalms in the
Old Testament?
If there's any
part of
scripture that
we may wonder
about how can
that be the
word of God,
it could be the
Psalms.
Many of them
are prayers that
are written by
men to God.
And so we
might wonder
about that.
Let's look at
how Jesus quotes
the words of
David from
Psalm 110.
Jesus is
having another
encounter with
the religious
leaders.
He's teaching
in the temple
courts and he
asks this
question,
why do the
teachers of the
law say that
the Messiah is
the son of
David?
David himself
speaking by the
Holy Spirit
declared,
the Lord said
to my Lord
and then he
quotes Psalm
110 right
there.
Now Jesus
is making a
big point here
to the religious
leaders.
We're not going
to get into
that but notice
what Jesus says
about David's
Psalm which
was written a
thousand years
before this.
David himself
speaking by the
Holy Spirit
said and
then he
quotes.
So when David
wrote this
Psalm it
wasn't just
some uninspired
his own
thoughts.
No, the
Psalms are
God breathed
too.
And there are
lots of
examples of
this attributing
the words of
the Psalms in
different places
to the Holy
Spirit.
Which means
that we have
a God
breathed
collection of
prayers,
poetry,
wisdom,
songs.
That the
Psalms are
God breathed
means that
when the
writer of
the Psalms
intends to
teach us
something about
God or
asserts
something about
him in
praise,
that they're
inspired by
God,
breathed out
by him,
means that
this is
true.
God is
really like
that.
He's really
worthy of
praise for
that reason.
But it
also means
that where
the Psalmists
lament and
groan and
cry out to
God and
wonder if
God's
forgotten
them,
that these
words are
God breathed
means that
their words
genuinely
describe the
kind of
anguish or
anxiety they
felt, even
the kinds of
doubts.
that they
wrestled
with.
We might
look at
verses like
this and
say, how
can that
be the
word of
God?
It tells
us in
other places
that God
is always
with his
people, that
he never
abandons his
people, that
he always
keeps his
promises.
These words
being inspired
by God, it
doesn't mean
that God
actually abandons
his people or
that he fails
to keep his
promises.
of course
not.
Rather, God
breathed leaves
room, even
for the people
who wrote the
Bible to
speak truthfully
about how
they felt in
the moment,
even if their
thoughts were
feelings where
they were just
lacking faith,
or they were
afraid, or
they doubted.
had a
conversation
with, where
is he, Rob,
last Sunday, and
he brought this
passage to my
attention.
Word for
word inspired
by God does
not mean that
every single
utterance by
every single
person in the
Bible is
true.
For example,
when the devil
speaks, is that
true?
Or when the
wicked rulers of
the nations
around Israel
blaspheme God,
those words are
not true.
Or when Job's
friends, as Rob
pointed out,
speak wrongly
about God,
later on in
the book, God
himself says,
they did not
speak the truth
about me.
We have whole
chapters of
these characters
not speaking the
truth about God
in the Bible.
God breathed
means that,
not that what
they said in
those moments
was good or
true, it
just means that
the biblical
author accurately
recorded exactly
what they said.
God breathed
means that we
have a trustworthy
account of what
Job's friends
said and what
Satan said and
what the rulers
of the nations
said when they
taunted at
different times.
God's friends.
God's friends
said and what
God's friends
said.
On the flip
side, let's
consider that the
divine inspiration
of the scriptures
is the only
explanation for
how many of the
declarations of the
prophets made
about the future
could be fulfilled
so exactly.
Some of the
predictions made
by the prophets
had a specific
day or year
attached to them
and God
fulfilled them
in the time
that he specified
to the year,
to the day.
This is one
example on the
screen.
That can only
happen as
consistently and
plentifully as it
did in the Bible
if the words the
prophets penned were
inspired by God
word for word.
In fact, God even
told the Israelites
to discern whether a
prophet was truly
speaking on his
behalf based on
whether or not the
thing that they
were predicting in
the near future
came true.
So I hope that
this has been an
encouragement to
you.
Not just from
Paul in his
letter to Timothy
but from all over
the Bible, from
Peter, from
Jesus, from the
fulfillment of
prophecy.
All scripture is
God-breathed and
is useful for
teaching, rebuking,
correcting, and
training in
righteousness so
that the servant
of God may be
thoroughly equipped
for every good
work.
The scriptures are
God-breathed down
to the word, even
the tense, even
the plurality of
the words.
And because the
scriptures are
God-breathed means
that they are
trustworthy.
It means that we
can build our lives
on these words.
And when we
start to read our
Bibles in this
way, it changes
everything.
The disorientation
that we find from
all the voices in
our world speaking
at us, that
disorientation just
begins to lift.
We begin to see
clearly what's going
on in our world,
where we stand,
with God, what he
desires for us,
how he truly does
love us with a
love beyond measure.
I want to close
with the words of
Jesus himself from
Matthew chapter 7,
Sermon on the
Mount.
Jesus said this,
he said,
therefore everyone
who hears these
words of mine and
puts them into
practice is like a
wise man who built
his house on the
rock.
the rain came
down, the streams
rose, and the
winds blew and beat
against that house,
yet it did not
fall, because it
had its foundation
on the rock.
But everyone who
hears these words of
mine and does not
put them into
practice is like a
foolish man who
built his house on
sand.
The rain came down,
the streams rose,
the winds blew and
beat against that
house, and it fell
with a great crash.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we
want to say thank
you for your word.
The amazing thing
that you've done in
preserving exactly
what you said all
those thousands of
years ago for us,
so that today we can
look in our Bibles and
we can read and we
can have confidence
confidence that you
spoke this, and we
can know how we
need to respond and
what we need to
believe and how we
need to think and
how we need to live.
Thank you for this
incredible gift.
I pray that our
hearts would be good
soil, that we would
all respond whole
heartedly to your
word in whatever
ways we encounter it,
whether it's at home
reading our Bibles,
whether it's on
Sunday mornings,
whether it's listening
as we drive on the
road.
Do your work in us.
Cause us to bear
much fruit for your
name and for your
glory.
Amen.