Now one of the truisms, that is things that people say about Christians, or perhaps if we're a Christian, one of the cliches we use as a Christian is that the Bible is central to everything we do and are as Christians and as a church.
It's been a truism for years.
But I want to start off by saying this morning that I actually think it's no longer true.
The truism is still used, but it's no longer true.
In recent months, the now infamous Israel Folau tweet of two verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, actually verses from Scripture, exposed such a massive and vicious division among evangelical Christians,
mainline Christians, as to how to use the Bible and the place of the Bible in public life.
And underneath that, there's a lot of questions about how confident we are in the Bible, how embarrassed we are by the Bible,
how fearful we are of offending others by our use of the Bible.
Then this week, news has broken of Josh Harris.
Many of you will have read his book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye.
A very, very high-profile, conservative, evangelical Christian.
And it's now come out that he has decided to walk away from God and the Bible entirely.
His book sold more than a million copies.
In many ways, he was a pin-up boy of lots of evangelical churches over the last 10, 15 years.
Harris was caught in a dilemma.
He's lost confidence in the truth and relevance of God's Word for today's world.
And he says this, he says it's intellectually easier to reject God completely
than it is for him to try and justify modern views on sex, sexuality, gender, and parenting from within the Bible.
That's a massive statement, isn't it?
In an interview with a liberal, progressive Christian magazine,
which believes, which actually believes, the Bible can easily accommodate
all practices of the modern sexual revolution.
All right, hear that again.
This is an interview with a so-called progressive, liberal Christian magazine,
which believes, the Bible can accommodate all practices of the modern sexual revolution.
Harris said this,
if in one generation,
Christians can make such a radical shift with the Bible,
it starts to become silly putty
that is made to say anything.
You know what putty is?
Play-Doh type stuff?
You just shape it.
If you want a new nose in your face,
you just make yourself a new nose.
Harris is saying it's actually intellectually
easier for him to walk away from God and Christianity altogether
than it is to take the Bible
and try and make it say all the things our society want to make it say
about sex and sexuality and gender and parenting
and all those other things.
He was in a dilemma.
Didn't quite want to stand with the Bible,
but nor was he able just to make the Bible be what he wanted it to be either.
So we come up with a third solution
that some will pillory him for
and others will applaud him for.
Either way,
we have to wrestle
with the same issue
individually
and as a church.
So here's a question for this morning.
When you evaluate your church,
and if you're a local here,
as most of you are,
when you evaluate this church,
what do you,
in your mind,
think should be foundational
to us as a church?
What's the non-negotiable?
What do you think should shape us
in all the parts
that make up the whole
of our church family life?
Or again,
if a visitor coming in here this morning
were to ask you,
what is the key ingredient
that defines
us as a church family?
What would you say?
Or if they said,
what is our aim?
We talk about wanting to engage
with our local community.
Well,
what is our aim
in wanting to engage
with the local community?
Would you say
that the key ingredient
that shapes and defines us
as a church
is the Bible?
That it's central
to everything we are
and everything we do.
Would you say
the Bible
is the only really valuable thing
we have to offer
our community?
Because
it offers
the pathway
to the truly
godly life
that everybody
out there
craves
but is desperately
seeking in places
other than God.
and then
if you did say that
would you actually
be practically
committed to it?
See,
we live in an age,
a digital age we're told,
the age of digital knowledge.
Vast amounts
of information
available through
modern technology.
And as I said
last week
in our Grace Life thing,
the reality
for so many Christians
I'm not just talking
about non-Christians,
I'm talking about
Christians as well here.
The reality
for so many Christians
is that their first
point of authority,
reference and guidance,
is so often
the internet.
I think it's not
too much to say
that many Christians
doubt
that
what is taught
in the Bible
is even
worth reading,
let alone
learning
when compared
to the immediacy
and ease
of a Google search.
Now,
the result of this
is quite subtle
because
the result of this
sort of
view of the Bible
is not that God's
outright denied,
I don't hear
Christians doing that,
but that God
is actually
just considered
irrelevant.
He's not the
go-to person
for our knowledge,
for our guidance,
for our authority.
He's practically
irrelevant.
So,
a couple of questions
this morning
as we move through
this topic
and open it up
to look at it
then over four weeks
in the afternoons.
What is the Bible?
What should we
believe about the Bible
and what do we
actually believe
about the Bible?
That's two good
questions to ask
yourself.
Well,
of course,
the Bible's
many things.
We can say
the Bible's
a library
of books
in one book
written by
many different
people
over a period
of about
1400 years,
full of words,
each of which
is meant
to convey
a particular
meaning
and all of
which together
are designed
to convey
a particular
narrative,
a particular
story.
Then we can say,
well,
the Bible's
a really old
book.
It's a best
selling book
still.
It's been
translated into
hundreds of
languages.
Well,
that's true
about the Bible.
Yet,
again,
we have to
say unbounds
that it
remains a
very
neglected
book.
Christians,
churches,
who say
the Bible
is their
book,
often have
very little
knowledge of
what it
says.
Even
reject much
of its
contents,
if they
bother to
read it
at all.
The word
Bible
simply comes
from the
Greek word
for book.
That's what
it is.
It's
Biblos,
book,
Bible.
But our
Bible is
more than
just an
ordinary
book that
happens to
be about
God.
Bible,
the Bible
claims to
be
scripture.
Scriptura,
that word
means the
writing of
God
himself.
The
scripture,
the Bible
claims to
be the
written
record of
what God
has said
to his
world and
his people
in the
Old
Testament and
the New
Testament
periods.
Well,
if that's
what the
Bible is,
why did
God need
to speak?
If he
speaks in
the Bible,
speaks through
the Bible,
why did
he need
to speak?
The answer
is simple,
as Dave
introduced
this morning.
It goes
like this.
It's a
since then
argument.
Since
God fills
our universe,
as Rob
talked about
last week,
in his
character,
in his
presence,
in his
creative
ability,
since God
fills our
universe,
and since
he is so
different to
what we
are,
even though
we are
his creation,
his created
beings,
and even
though we're
made in
his image,
he's still
so different
from us,
so other
than.
And since
his desire
is to relate
to us
personally,
then we
actually need
God to
tell us
what he's
like.
because
unless God
takes the
initiative to
tell us
what it's
like,
to tell us
what's in
his mind,
to tell us
what his
purpose is,
we could
never,
ever know.
Now,
God didn't
need to
reveal himself
to us,
but in an
act of
mercy,
and kindness,
and grace,
he has done
so in
great detail
by speaking
into his
world,
in his
word.
Now,
as you
know,
words are
essential to
building
relationship,
good
relationship,
deep
relationship,
that is.
Now,
there's a
certain amount
you can learn
about a person
just by
observing them,
so if I
brought a
stranger in
the midst
this morning
and stood
them up
here,
there's a
certain amount
of things
you could
learn about
them,
or at least
guess about
them,
by simply
observing
them,
or we
can learn
more about
somebody by
observing what
they do
in certain
circumstances,
but to
get to know
them deeply,
to understand
their character,
to build that
sort of
relationship,
then we
need to
speak,
we need to
communicate
with a
person,
and that's
exactly what
God's word
is.
God's word
bridges the
gulf, the
great gulf
between the
otherness of
God and his
character and
our finiteness,
and it
allows us to
know him
personally.
So revelation
then, my
friends, which
is what we
call the
Bible,
revelation is
God expressing
himself.
God's
expression of
himself.
Now that
expression comes
both in the
words that
describe his
greatness and
his beauty and
his desirability,
the words we
like, but
also it's an
expression of
himself as he
describes his
holiness and his
justness and the
awesomeness of
him in
judgment, the
words we tend
not to like.
Both are an
expression of
God's character.
Both need to be
heard equally.
They tell us
precisely why he
does what he does
in his world so we
can understand his
character and purpose
and be in
relationship with
him.
So the Bible
bridges the
gulf, but the
Bible also links
the past to
the present.
It records
God's purposes
and intentions
as experienced
in history.
This is what
this is.
It's the record of
God's purpose and
intention as it's
been experienced
in history.
And so it
becomes for us
then in 2019
the template
by which we
also now in
our turn can
encounter God
and come into
relationship with
him in our own
right, in our
own time and
space.
Now, let me
just say this.
Revelation does
not mean that
the only knowledge
we have in our
world comes from
the Bible.
In fact, the
Bible is actually
very clear that
rebellious humans
may reject God
totally and still
know and discover
lots of amazing
things about our
world and how it
operates.
The Bible itself
teaches that.
Chemistry,
physics,
biology,
geology,
psychology,
medicine,
all those other
things, they all
have a part to play
in our world of
discovering it and
directing it.
They help us
know our world.
But the Bible is
also really clear
that knowledge of
which we have
much is not
wisdom.
And the Bible
distinguishes the
two because
wisdom is the
ability to take
that knowledge
and put it into
the big picture
narrative
and discover a
true understanding
of life and a
true understanding
of how we live
the good life
and how we fit in
the universe.
And the Bible
is clear,
therefore,
that not
withstanding the
knowledge we can
discover quite
apart from God,
that we can only
know our universe
in its fullest
and truest
context as we
bring that
knowledge and put
it in the context
of God who
created all.
this ultimate
wisdom,
says the Bible,
is God's
alone.
And this
wisdom,
he generously
shares with us
in his written
word so that
we might know
how to use our
vast and
increasing
knowledge
wisely
and know
how to live
well.
Now,
that's a really
big check for us,
isn't it?
Because for
generations,
we've actually
been told,
we've been
sold the line
that humans
can find
ultimate truth
and wisdom
for living
without need
for God.
But I don't
need to argue
the point that
the hard evidence
for that
proves the
Bible's point
that there's
an awful lot
of knowledge
out there
in our
world,
but very
little wisdom
as to how
to live
well.
So,
next question
then.
What is the
Bible?
Why did God
need to speak?
The question
then is,
how has God
spoken to us?
Now,
we look at
2 Timothy 3,
16.
It says
there,
all Scripture
is breathed
out.
by God.
My friends,
the Bible
is God's
words
in human
words.
All Scripture
comes directly
from God
as he breathes
out,
as he speaks.
What the Bible
says,
God says
just as
really
as if
God himself
was standing
here in front
of us
this morning
speaking.
That's what
the Bible
claims about
itself.
All Scripture
is God
breathed.
The same
idea is
in
Hebrews
chapter 1.
Let me
just read it
to you
when I
find it.
Hebrews
chapter 1.
Long
ago,
at many
times and
in many
ways,
God spoke
to our
fathers by
the prophets.
prophets.
But in
these last
days,
he has
spoken to
us by
his son,
whom he
appointed the
heir of all
things,
through whom
he also
created the
world.
How has
God spoken?
Well,
God communicated
with ordinary
people
through
ordinary
words
in
language
which is
ordinary,
propositions.
That is,
sentences,
statements,
questions,
commands.
So,
in one
sense,
God has
spoken in a
really ordinary
way.
Yet,
the process
was also
supernatural,
too.
The word
breathed,
in Greek,
contains the
root word for
Holy Spirit,
theonistus.
God
communicates
his wisdom
to the
mind of
ordinary
people by
his Holy
Spirit,
whom he
superintends.
And he
superintends
both the
recording of
that word
initially
that God
puts in
their mind,
God's
word.
He
superintends
that,
and also
superintends
the process
of passing
it on to
others
through
teaching,
which is
why we
have God's
word in
its original
form come
down to
us with
accuracy
and
completeness
in 2019,
2,000 years
after it's
written,
3,000 years
after someone
that's
written.
So God
superintends
the process
from start
to finish,
and yet
we got his
slide back
and forward.
It's an
ordinary
process because
God didn't
reduce the
writers to
robot status.
He didn't
put them
into a
trance.
We can
see the
different
personalities,
the different
contexts,
the different
styles of
the different
Bible writers,
writers,
and yet
we're told
that God
superintends
both the
original writing,
the original
thinking,
and then the
transmission of
it.
But equally
clear in 2
Timothy 3,
15 and 16
is the
Bible is
God's
living and
transforming
word.
My friends,
the Bible,
whatever else
you say about
it,
is the
God's
way of
bringing
life to
people,
to his
people,
and to
growing his
people,
to be the
people he
wants them
to be.
Though
written in
the past,
it is
equally
applicable to
us now.
Look at the
way the
tenses change
in verse
15.
I, from
childhood,
you have
acquainted
with the
sacred
writings,
which are
able.
So,
Timothy,
you've
learned
these
in the
past.
They've
come
down
through
the
generations,
which are
able,
that is a
present tense,
which are
able to
make you
wise for
salvation
through
faith in
Christ Jesus.
All
scripture is
breathed out
by God
and is
profitable
for teaching,
for reproof,
for correction,
and for
training and
righteous,
that the
man of God,
that the
person of
God,
that the
believer,
may be
competent,
equipped for
every good
work.
God's
word brings
life.
It is able
to make us
wise for
salvation.
It is
useful now
for growing us
into his
likeness.
God's
word is
how God
makes his
people and
grows his
people.
Put it in
Timothy's
context.
Timothy's
work was
of teaching
the gospel
and building
the church.
It was a
cultural
context like
our own.
You see
that in the
beginning of
chapter 3 and
then the
beginning of
chapter 4.
A cultural
context we
recognize.
People were
chasing the
good life.
How?
Through their
own wisdom
and apart
from God.
verse 8.
They were
making a
mess of
it.
Look at
the way
it is
described in
there.
It is
relationships
gone viral
in the
sense of
gone bad
that is.
Verse 8.
Men who
oppose the
truth, men
corrupted in
mind and
disqualified
regarding the
faith.
Sorry,
verse 7
rather.
Always
learning and
never able to
arrive at
knowledge of
the truth.
See, people
chase the
good life
under their
own wisdom.
They chase
knowledge.
They are all
the time
learning about
this so-called
good life but
they can never
quite get it.
They can never
get it onto
the ground.
They can never
make it real.
They can never
discover truth
to actually
free them
into the
life they
crave.
So what
Paul's
encouragement to
Timothy writes
this young
preacher?
What's the
tool he gives
Timothy for
changing lives
and hearts
filled with
their own
foolishness and
determined to
pursue their
own foolishness?
Chapter 4,
verse 2.
Preach the
word.
The living,
transforming word
of God.
That's your
tool,
Timothy.
That's why you
can be
encouraged in
a cultural
context where
people are
totally committed
to their own
foolishness and
don't even
realize how
foolish their
foolishness is.
preach the
word.
That's your
tool for
changing lives
and hearts.
Both the
Old Testament
scripture he had
learned as a
child and the
New Testament
scripture coming
to him through
Paul and other
apostolic writers.
Friends, our
Bible is a
unique book because
it comes directly
from the mind
of God.
It is God's
wisdom to
his world.
Now, again,
the Bible never
claims that it
says everything
there is to say
about God.
It never claims
that at all.
But it does
tell us that in
the Bible we
have God's
word which is
everything we
need to free
us from
emptiness, from
empty living,
and to make us
God's people and
to grow us into
Christ's likeness.
everything we
need.
And even more
directly, going
back to the
Hebrews 1
quotation, we
have all of
that personified
in the person
of Jesus.
John 1, 1-4,
the word became
flesh.
God's living,
breathing word
came to us
for what
purpose?
To bring
life, to
move us from
darkness and
death to
relationship with
him and
life.
God's written
word makes us
wise to salvation
by pointing us
to Christ, who
himself come into
the world to
complete God's
purpose and
actually deliver us
into the good
life he wants
for us, the
good life we
crave.
And God's
spirit grows
us in our
new life in
Christ.
God's spirit
renews our
mind and our
hearts from the
inside out so
that we not
only recognize
this new life
in Christ, but
we desire it.
And we see
ourselves being
equipped by
God's spirit as
we understand
more and more
how God wants
us to live and
what it is to be
true image
bearers.
To
Timothy 3.16,
to become
competent,
well equipped,
highly functioning
servants of God
who look like
him, who
sound like him,
and who act
like him, and
ultimately who
have hearts like
him.
Now, let me
finish up
reasonably
quickly.
I'm running
out of time
here, so I'll
rush over these
things.
We can talk
about them more
this afternoon.
Given that the
Bible is such a
gift, given it
is so powerful
for bringing
life, especially
to us as
Christians, what
stops us from
making it central
in our lives and
in our church?
I've got three
things here I'm
just going to run
over real quick.
The first is, I
think, that the
God of our
Bible is too
small.
Rob spoke last
week about the
character of God.
He's so profound.
He's so other
than us.
When we forget
that the Bible is
God's unique
communication,
to us, or
when we have a
small view of
God, then
what happens is
that we easily
get into the
position where we
stand over God's
word, the Bible,
just like arrogant
teenagers who
will roll their
eyes when mom and
dad give them
wisdom and
treat it as the
most idiotic thing
has ever been
pronounced in God's
world.
words, and I
speak there as
remembering my own
teenage years.
What happens?
Well, we take that
attitude with God.
We get too small a
view of God.
The problem is not
the clarity of God's
word.
It's my arrogance,
thinking that I know
better, or I don't
like that, so it's
got to be over here,
or I don't understand
that, so therefore I
won't believe that.
It can't be true.
The Bible's always
saying to us, believe,
and understanding
will come.
Believe.
Why?
Believe, because it's
God's word.
And how dare we
reject God's word
and throw it back
on us then, well
actually God, I'm
pretty sure you made
a mistake here.
Had you been
thinking clearly, you
wouldn't have said
this.
God must always
evaluate me.
And my culture
must never be the
other way around.
And yet I fear
that's what it's
become for us as
Christians.
Secondly, we think
the Bible is not
relevant or not
sufficient for the
problems we face.
And the argument
goes like this.
Well look, the fact
of the matter is
that we face
problems on a daily
basis that people
50 years ago
couldn't imagine,
let alone people
2,000 years ago.
So therefore, how
could the Bible
possibly be
sufficient for
every aspect of
life and practice?
We tend to think
therefore the Bible
has nothing to say
on these modern
issues.
And so then, if the
Bible's got nothing
to say, the Bible's
not our authority,
then where will we
turn?
We need help with
these issues.
And so we turn to
Google.
We turn to our
peers.
Or if we're older,
we perhaps just fall
back on comfortable
tradition.
But the problem
here, you see, is
that we've
sacrificed wisdom
for knowledge.
Paul didn't need
to, well, sorry,
Paul didn't have to
negotiate the
internet or social
media.
He didn't have to
decide what sort of
car to buy.
But he was a
student of human
nature.
And he knew only
too well how we
naturally tend to
take the good
things that God
gives us in his
world and fill our
lives with those
things and
exclude God, the
giver of them.
He knows how
these, that sort of
thinking then,
becomes an idol,
how these things
become equally or
more important to
us than God.
And he knows the
consequences of
this idol worship
when we are
created to be
worshippers of
God.
It brings
disaster.
He didn't need
to know the
workings of
the internet to
be able to
speak wisely
into our lives
as to the
dangers of the
internet and a
million other
things beside the
internet.
We think that
because the
Bible doesn't
mention the
internet by
name, therefore
the Bible has
nothing to say
in respect of
how we approach
these things.
We've got a
wrong idea of
the Bible.
And Paul not
only knew how
to analyze his
society and his
culture and his
own heart, he
knew where to
look for truth.
He knew the
heart was looking
for freedom,
freedom from the
emptiness of ways
handed down by
the forefathers,
and he knew
where to go to
look for that
truth.
My friends, the
Bible still speaks
the same to us
today because the
names change, the
faces change, the
issues apparently
change, but in a
sense there's no
change.
And finally, we've
got a mechanical
view of the
Bible.
Now this is
probably the one
that will get
most people upset
if anything gets
you upset, but I
don't mind getting
you upset, at
least you're
thinking then.
Just don't take
it out of me,
that's all.
We have a
mechanical view of
the Bible.
Now what I mean
by that is that
sometimes Christians
get into the
mode of thinking
that simply reading
the Bible or
learning sections
of the Bible by
rote is the
important thing.
My friends, we're
only using the
Bible properly when
we're reading for
understanding, when
we're reading for
transformation.
That's why I've
always, over my
years, had a real
problem with the
old quiet time
mentality where you
just read a portion
of Scripture every
day.
And I know
Christians who did
that religiously.
They wouldn't go to
bed every night
before they read
their portion of
Scripture.
But it might only
be three minutes
like Marty was
doing, half
falling asleep or
checking their
phone at the
same time.
But, you know,
we've ticked the
box, we've read
the Bible.
Or parents get
children to
memorize lots of
Scripture.
And again, that
can be so
dangerous.
If we think that
by somehow
memorizing Scripture,
our children have
used Scripture
well and we've
taught our
children to use
Scripture well.
Memorizing is a
great thing.
but only if our
memorizing comes in
the context also
with their children
of teaching them
to life and
transformation in
that which they
learn.
And again, you
see, again, it
applies to the
internet.
It is so easy
today to find a
verse, to find a
quotation, to find a
commentary by a
famous preacher at
the press of a
button on Google.
And so again, we
quickly go to that
and we think, ah,
yes, I've got that.
Isn't that a really
good sentence there?
And so again, we
fill our minds with
knowledge.
But are we using
those things for
transformation?
Are we
understanding how
God brings life
through His word
and grows us
through His word?
Are we struggling
for wisdom that
changes the heart?
or are we just
gathering knowledge?
Somebody once
said, I think it
was Spurgeon, I'm
not quite sure,
said this, make no
mistake, Satan is
clever.
If he cannot keep
you out of the
Bible altogether,
then he will keep
you in it, but
focused on minor
details of doctrine,
so as you're
distracted and
making a big fuss
about very little,
or he will keep
you in it, but
with a dull mind
which is happy
just to read the
Bible in a year
or something like
that, more than
desire to be
changed by it.
Friends, I
finish my first
sentence again.
Is the statement
that the Bible is
central to
everything we are
and do, as
individuals here,
as Christians here,
and as a church,
is that a
practical truth
for you?
or is it just a
cliche?
Let me pray.
Lord, forgive us
for sitting loose
to your word.
Forgive us, Lord,
for zeal
towards you,
as Paul says in
Romans chapter 10,
zeal that's not
directed by knowledge
of your word.
forgive us, Lord,
for those things
that we've offered
you in worship
which would be
offensive to you
when you call us
first and foremost
to give our hearts,
to give our whole
minds, to give our
whole bodies in
response to you.
Help us to
know your word,
help us to know you
through your word,
and help us to value
and treasure that word.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.