Series: We Believe
“We Believe in the Holy Bible”
(Sunday Morning June 5th, 2011)
Passage: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
O.S. As Most of You Know, This is the Fifth Sermon in a Series of Sermons That
I Have Entitled “We Believe”
-> This is a Sermon Series on Christian Doctrine
-> And I Have Entitled It “We Believe”, Because These are the Truths That All
of Us Who Call Ourselves Christians Should Believe
-> These are the Fundamental Doctrines of Our Faith; and Therefore, These
Truths are Not Optional or Negotiable; They are Absolutely Essential
-> We Have Also Been Using the Song “Because We Believe” as an Outline for This
Series, and This is Why We Have Been Singing It so Often
-> The Song Says “We Believe in God the Father;” Then, It Says“We Believe in God
the Son;”Then, It Says “We Believe in the Holy Spirit”
-> Now, We’ve Already Covered Those First Three Doctrinal Issues That are Related
to Our Belief in the Trinity
-> After This, the Song Mentions the Church; We Covered That Last Week
(All of These Sermons are Online),Then,It Says “We Believe in the Holy Bible”
-> And of Course, the Divine Inspiration of Scripture is a Fundamental Doctrine
of Our Faith
-> So, I Want Us to Begin This Morning by Reading Out Loud Together What
the Baptist Faith and Message Has to Say About the Scriptures
“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation
of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has Godfor its
author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.
Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. (Pause) It reveals the principles
by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world,
the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony
to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”
St = The Bible is a Fundamental Doctrine of Our Faith, Because All of the Other
Doctrines of Our Faith are Based on What the Bible Says About Them
-> We Believe in the Deity of God the Father, and the Deity of God the Son,
and the Deity of God the Holy Spirit, for Example, Because the Bible Reveals
That There are Three Members of the Godhead Who are All Divine
-> And for Those of Us Who are Protestants, the Bible is Our Authority for Faith
and Practice
-> So, if the Reliability of the Bible Itself is Questioned or Undermined in Some Way,
We Have no Other Source for Affirming Any of the Fundamentals of Our Faith
______
Ill: In a 1965 Article on Inerrancy, for Example, John Warwick Montgomery Referred
to a Statement Made by a Theologian Named James Orr
-> I Want You to Listen Carefully to What Dr. James Orr Had to Say; He Said This;
“…in each great epoch of its history the Christian church has been forced to struggle
with one aspect of the faith that has had a major impact on the ongoing direction
of the church. In the early church it centered on the person of the Godhead with
particular attention to the deity and humanity of Christ. The medieval church wrestled
with the atonement. In the Reformation era the struggle was over justification
by faith alone, and these issues were faced and solved. Today the watershed issue
has become the authority of scripture. If it should be finally settled that Scripture
can err, the church and its theologians will have no source and standard remaining
by which further doctrinal problems can be ultimately settled.”
-> Dr. Orr is Exactly Right, and Listen, THIS IS THE THEOLOGICAL ISSUE
OF OUR DAY!
-> In Ages Past, Attempts Were Made to Destroy the Word of God, and They Were
Not Successful
-> King Jehoiakim Tried to Destroy the Word of God (Jeremiah 36:20-32)
-> A Syrian King Named Antiochus Epiphanes Tried to Destroy the Word of God
-> And a Roman Emperor Named Diocletian Tried to Destroy the Word of God
-> In Ages Past, Attempts Were Made to Destroy the Word of God, and They Were
Not Successful; But in Our Day and Age, Attempts are Being Made to Discredit
the Word of God, and the Final Outcome of This Battle Remainsto be Seen
St = So, Like It or Not, We are Engaged in a Battle for the Bible
Q.n = Can We Defend the Bible?
Ans = Absolutely
Q.n = So, How Should We go About Defending the Bible?
Ans =We ShouldSimply Allow the Bible to Defend Itself
-> I Like What a Great 19th Century Preacher by the Name of Charles Haddon
Spurgeon Once Said About This Subject; He Said,
“Trying to Defend the Bible is Like Trying to Defend a Lion. All You
Need to do is Let It Out, and It Will Take Care of itself”
-> That Statement is Very True
-> In Fact, in Isaiah 41:22-23, God Spoke Through the Prophet, and He SaidThis,
Listen; He Said,
“22 Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; as for
the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider them and know
their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; 23 Declare the things that are
going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; …”
-> In Those Two Verses, God Invites Every Other Religion in the World to Accept
His Challenge to be Tested for Its Historical Accuracy as Well as Its Ability
to Accurately Predict the Future
-> It is an Open Challenge
-> Archeology, Let Me Add,Has Simply Affirmed That What the BibleTeachesAbout
History is Correct, and I Will Say Some More About That Tonight
-> And the Bible’s Accuracy Regarding Future Events, as We are Going to See
in Just a Few Minutes, is Nothing Short of Awesome
-> This Test, by the Way, Requires Absolute 100% Accuracy; 99.9% is Not Acceptable
-> Because if a Prophet in Biblical Times Was Not 100% Right 100% of the Time,
God Said in Deuteronomy 18:20 That He Should be Put to Death
______
T.S. So, We Believe in the Holy Bible, and We Have Some Very Good Reasons
for Doing So
______
I…Because It is a Trustworthy Revelation
-> The Big Question Mark That Satan Has Attempted to Placein the Minds of Many
Men and Women in Our Society Today Has to do With How We Got Our Bible
-> And Whether or Not the Method That Was Used Was Thorough and Unbiased
-> In His Fiction Novel, “The DaVinci Code”, for Example, Dan Brown Suggests That
the Roman Emperor Constantine and the Delegates at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
Were the Ones Who Decided Which Books Would be Included in Our Bible
and Which Ones Would Not, and That They Were Very Biased in Their Approach
Q.n = But is This Really How It Happened?
Ans = Not at All
-> In Fact, Listen to This, a Discussion About Which Books Would be or Would Not
be Included in Our Bible Never Even Came Up at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. .
-> And the Method That the Protestant Reformers Used to Determine Which Books
Were Divinely Inspired Was Much Different Than What Dan Brown Suggests
-> Technically, The Process That Was Used is Called “The Canonizing of Scripture”
-> The Word “Canon” Literally Means “Measuring Rod” or “Ruler”
-> It Refers to the Standard by Which the Books of the Bible Were Evaluated,
RECOGNIZED as Authoritative and as Being Part of the Word of God(Repeat)
Pt = Whether It Was the Israelites in the O.T., or the Church Leaders in the N.T.,
or the Early Church Fathers, or the Protestant Reformers, No Group
of Individuals Has the Power to Make the Bible Authoritative
-> These Men Were Only Qualified to Recognize the Power and Authority That
Already Existed in These Divinely Inspired Books
-> Roman Catholics, by Way of Contrast, Say That the Church Has Primacy Over
the Scriptures,and That Tradition Should be Given Equal Weight to Scripture
(Elaborate – the Rosary, the Exaltation of Mary – Mediatrix and the Kissing the Pope’s Ring)
-> I Adamantly Disagree With That Approach, and so Did the Protestant Reformers,
and TheirConviction Influenced How They Approached This Task
-> They Did Not Pick and Choose Which Books Should be in Our Bible on the Basis
of Their Own Subjective Views or Prejudices; They Used an Objective Approach
The Canonization of the Old Testament
-> As Far as the Old Testament is Concerned, These Books Were Immediately
Recognized as Authoritative and Therefore Preserved as the Word of God
-> Exodus 24:4, for Example, Says “Moses Wrote Down the Word of the Lord”
-> Right Then, His Words Were Recognized as Sacred and as Coming From God
-> The Same is True of Joshua’s Words
-> Joshua 24:26 Says
“And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; …”
-> And in Daniel 9:2, the Bible Says,
“…I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed
as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet …”
-> As Time Progressed, the List of Scriptures Seen as Being From God Continued
to Grow Until the Time of the 6th Century B.C.
-> And We are Told in Nehemiah Chapter 9 That During the Babylonian Captivity,
Ezra the High Priest Had a Copy of Both the Law of Moses and the Prophets
-> Ultimately, the Old Testament Canon Was Recognized by Jesus Christ Himself
as Being Authoritative in Matthew 23:34-35
Matthew 23:34-35 (Turn and Read)
-> Now, Listen Carefully, the Hebrew Old Testament in Jesus Day Was Different From
Ours Only in Its Chronology
-> And in Jesus Day, the Old Testament Scriptures Began With the Book of Genesis,
and They Ended With the Book of 2 Chronicles
-> In the Old Testament Jesus Read, the First Man That Was Murdered Was Cain
(Gen 4:8), and the Last Man Murdered Was Zechariah the Priest (2 Chron 24:20)
-> And So, if Jesus Were Speaking Today, He Would Have Said Something Like This
“From Genesis to Malachi Man’s Sinful Nature Has Been Revealed”
-> So, With That One Statement in Matthew 23, Jesus Himself Confirmed That All
of the Old Testament Scriptures are Divinely Inspired
The Canonization of the New Testament
-> Well, Let Me Say First of All, That “The Muratorian Fragment” Dates Back to 175 a.d.
(Before the Council Nicea) and by 393 A,D., Our N.T. Canon Was Fixed
-> But Nevertheless, the Protestant Reformers Did Have a Criteria for Determining
if These Books Did Indeed Have the Stamp of Divine Authority Upon Them
a. The Book Had to Have Been Supported by an Apostle (Ex. Luke Ex. Emanuensis)
b. The Person Who Wrote the Book Had to Have Seen Jesus Christ After His
Resurrection
c. The Book Had to Have Been Received, Collected, Read and Used in the Early
Church(Proof That It Was Already Viewed as Authoritative)
d. And if a Book Contained Any Words of Prophecy, These Were Checked
for Accuracy
______
Q.n = What About the Apocrypha?
-> As Most of Us Know, the Catholic Bible is Different From Ours (Elaborate)
-> Well, First, Let Me Say That Many, Listen Now, Many of the Early Church Fathers
Rejected the Apocrypha Including: Origen, and Jerome, and Athanasius.
-> In Addition to This, the Roman Catholic Church Did Not Canonize the Apocryphal
Books Until the Council of Trent Which Occurred Between 1545 and 1563 A.D..
-> And I Believe That They Did This Because These Apocryphal Books Contained
References to Controversial Doctrines Such as Praying to the Saints and Purgatory
-> Worst of All, They Accepted These in Spite of the Fact That Some of Them
Contain Blatant Errors
Ex. The Book of Tobit, for Example, States Incorrectly That Sennacherib Was the Son
of Shalmaneser, But He Was Actually the Son of Sargon II.
Ex. Listen to What Josh McDowell Had to Say About This; He Said,
“Tobit was supposedly alive when Jeroboam staged his revolt in 931 b.c. and was
still living at the time of the Assyrian captivity which took place in 722 b.c. – That
is a Span of 209 Years, but the book of Tobit plainly states that Tobit lived to be
158 years of age.”
II. …Because It is Totally Inerrant
-> Now, in 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul Said That All Scripture is Inspired by God
-> That Phrase “Inspired by God” is Just One Word in the Greek New Testament;
It is the Word “Theopneustos”
-> “Theo” Means “God”, and “Pneutos” Means “To Breathe”
-> So, It Literally Says That God Breathed Out the Scriptures
-> For This Reasons, Most Theologians Will Say That the Bible is Divinely Inspired,
But There are at Least Five Different Views About Biblical Inspiration
-> So, I Want to Give Those to You Very Quickly
a. The “Mechanical Inspiration” View
-> Some Call This “The Dictation Theory”, Because They Say That God Dictated
It to the Writers Who Were Merely Stenographers
-> I Suppose That Those Who Believe in Mechanical Inspiration Would Say That
God Spoke Through These Men in the Same Way That He Spoke Through
Balaam’s Donkey
-> I do Not Believe This, Because I Believe That the Personality of the Writers Come
Through to Some Degree
-> The Apostle Paul Had a Certain Writing Style, the Apostle Peter Had Another
Writing Style, as Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Etcetera
b. The “Dynamic Inspiration” View
-> This is a More Recent View of Inspiration That Says That God Inspired
the Thoughts But Not the Words of Those Who Wrote the Scriptures
-> Now, if You are Leaning in This Direction, I Want to Invite You
to do an Experiment
-> When You go Home This Afternoon, I Want You to Sit Down and to Try to Come
Up With Some Thoughts That Don’t Include Words
-> Personally, I Have Never Been Able to Think Without Using Words; So, if You
Can Find a Way to do This Please Let Me Know
c. The “Partial Inspiration” View
-> This is Very Popular in Our Day, and It Suggests That Only Parts of the Bible
are Inspired
-> This View Also Suggests That Some Parts May be More Inspired Than Others
-> And So, We Hear People Say Things Like “Well, Paul said that, but Jesus didn’t”
-> This Implies That What Paul Had to Say Was Not as Important as What Jesus
Had to Say
-> May I Tell You What I Believe at This Point, I Believe This
-> If the Apostle Paul Said It, and It is in the Bible, It is Just as Authoritative
as Anything That Jesus Had to Say, Because He Was an Apostle
d. The “Naturalistic Inspiration” View
-> This is an Heretical Approach in My Opinion
-> Those Who Believe in Naturalistic Inspiration Essentially Say That the Bible
is Like Any Other “Good Book” That Has Been Written by Brilliant Men
-> They Concede That It is a “Good Book,”But They Say It Was Not Written by God
-> My Opinion, However, is That the Bible is Not Just a “Good Book”;
It is a “God Book”
e. The “PlenaryVerbal”Inspiration View
-> The Word “Plenary” Simply Means “All”, and the Word “Verbal” Simply
Means “Words”
-> So, This View States That Every Word in the Bible ComesFrom God to Man,
and It is Perfectly True
-> This View Says That God Used Men to Write the Bible, Even Though All Men
are Imperfect and Fallible
-> But That God, by His Sovereign Will, Guided This Process , and He Used
It to Give Us an Infallible and an Inerrant Bible
St = Now, I Don’t Mind Telling You That I Believe in the “Plenary Verbal” View
of Biblical Inspiration, and I Believe in the “Plenary Verbal” View of Inspiration
for a Couple of Reasons
i. First, I Believe in the Plenary Verbal View of Inspiration, Because I Believe That
EveryWord in the Bible is Inspired by God
-> In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul Said “All Scripture is inspired by God…”
-> Hershel Hobbs Made a Statement About This Word “All” in the Baptist Faith
and Message That I Found to be Extremely Insightful
-> He Pointed Out That, When the Greek Word for “All” Appears w/o the Definite
Article, as It Appears Here, It Means “Every Single Part of the Whole”
-> So, This Doesn’t Leave Any Room the “Partial Inspiration View” or What
I Prefer to Call “Dalmation Theology” (Elaborate)
-> Also, in Psalms 119:160, the Psalmist Said This; He Said,
“The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances
is everlasting”
-> And in Matthew 5:18, Jesus Essentially Said That Every Letter
and Punctuation Mark is Divinely Inspired as Well; He Said,
"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest
letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”
-> The “Smallest Letter” Was the Hebrew Letter “Yod”
-> The “Stroke” Was a Line That Distinguished One Letter From Another
-> I Think We Should Also Consider How Jesus Used the Scriptures