Inspired by God

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.

2 Timothy 3:16

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.

2 Timothy 3:16

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?

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,

Exodus 3:6

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,

Galatians 3:16

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.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

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

2 Peter 3:15

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,

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

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.