Noel Puritan Preacher said, �There are just two things I desire to know. First, does God speak? Second, what does He say? God has spoken. He is a God who communicates, and our commitment as a local church is to attempt to communicate as clearly as we can the message of God.� As a church, we believe that message is right here in this book, the Bible. The Bible is the only book written by God to reveal Himself.
It is the only book written by God to explain man in terms of his origin, his present dilemma, his redemption, and his future destiny. The Bible is true in every detail. It is also believable, authoritative, reliable, and trustworthy. Having said that, why is there confusion in so many circles these days regarding Christian doctrine and conduct with regards to the issues of our day?
I believe the answer to that question is that unfortunately not all who claim to be Christians believe what we have said a few moments ago about the Bible. And then some of those who do claim to believe the same things that we affirm substitute other things in their church for the simple teaching of God�s Word.
There are those who substitute the worship and exaltation of man�s intellect, for example, Christian ideas, rationalism, and the result is inevitably liberal theology, which does not deserve the name theology. Then there are others who substitute meeting man�s needs for the simple, clear teaching of God�s Word, and thus they institute programs upon programs upon programs.
Of course, every church needs to have a certain number of programs, but those programs ought to be accomplishing something and not just wheels set into motion. So often our programs end up as entertainment for God�s people. I can guarantee you that one of our purposes here at Grace Church is to simply teach God�s Word, and through that the needs of man will be met. Then there are others who substitute bickering and division over human personalities for the simple, clear exposition of God�s Word.
And thus there is strife and division, sometimes translated into the term denominationalism. All of us have, I suppose, denominational backgrounds, and there are certain doctrines that we perhaps hold dear, taught by the denominations from which we�ve come. And yet I believe that when it comes to the essential, primary truths of God�s Word, we can lay aside our denominational titles for the moment and fellowship with one another.
And even on the non-essential, secondary things, we ought not to allow those to cause division among us as God�s people. That�s one reason that I�m glad to be here as a part of Grace Church. We are a non-denominational ministry. We have convictions about some of the secondary, non-essential doctrines. We don�t mind teaching those, but we don�t exclude others from our fellowship who may not agree with us on those things that are non-essential.
However there are some things that are very essential. They are primary, fundamental, central teachings of God�s Word, and those we emphasize and declare without any apology or hesitation. And one of them is in regards to the Bible. There is the hint among even God�s people these days as to whether the Bible is reliable or not. That idea seems to be pervading some circles. Can we really trust the Bible?
Before we get into the book of Romans, which is going to be our next big bite in expository preaching, I want us to spend some time talking about the Bible. Today can we trust the Bible? Is the Bible reliable? Now to answer that question, we need to define and to discuss two important terms dealing with the Bible. If you have your worship folder, you�ll find the outline in there. Those two words are revelation and inspiration.
I want to make this more than a theology class this morning, but we�re going to do some defining. I hope it will help clarify some things in the minds of some of you. We�re going to be looking at scripture of course as well to undergird what we�re going to say about these two important terms, revelation and inspiration. Now when I use the term revelation, please understand I�m not talking about the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, book number 66 in the Bible.
That�s part of it, but I�m talking about the whole revelation of God in the Bible. And then we�ll define inspiration too and talk about how that affects the Bible. But first let�s talk about revelation. A revelation is simply a disclosure of something or someone. The Bible is a disclosure of God, thus we call it the revelation of God. Actually there are three types of revelation which God gives to man. There is natural revelation for example, type number one, natural revelation.
And there are two aspects to this, there is external natural revelation and there is internal natural revelation. Let me explain what I mean. Externally God is revealing himself through nature. That is the voice of creation shouts to us that God is and it tells us something about his essential attributes or characteristics. Psalm 19, you quote it with me, �The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.� How much more clear could it be?
Last night was a beautiful night. I went out to take the dog for its little walk before bedtime and looked up in those stars in the heavens. I tell you it was crystal clear last night. Maybe some of you noticed it. The stars seemed to be very close to the earth because of the atmospheric conditions. The moon was beautiful. I was by myself. Did you see the northern lights a week and a half ago or something like that?
They were visible after the Wednesday night service for a while up among the north and then they disappeared. Beautiful. Now what are these things saying to us? They are telling us about the glory of God. They are telling us about God's eternal power, Romans chapter 1 verse 20. They are telling us about God's divine nature, Romans chapter 1 verse 20. And then we have this internal revelation of God that we call the conscience.
And just like the other, anybody in the world has this kind of revelation available to them. God has put within us the capacity to know the difference between right and wrong. And even though a person may not have the written law of God in his hands, he has God's law written on his heart and he is accountable to God for that. Every person in the world is God's natural revelation. It tells us about God's wrath according to Romans 1 verse 18, for that too is revealed.
God's wrath is not his fit of anger. God's wrath is his holy and righteous response to sin. That's what it is. And through natural revelation we learn something about the wrath of God. But then there is a second type of revelation I want to mention and that is written revelation. Of course this is the main focus of our thinking. Written revelation is the Bible. It is the progressive unfolding of God's person and his purposes.
In the Bible we see revealed to us the attributes or the characteristics of God. By these we understand more fully what God is like. We're talking about these on Sunday nights right now while I'm here with you on Sunday evenings. We're answering the question, what is God like? Tonight we're going to talk about the triunity of God, sometimes called the Trinity. What is that? How do we explain it? How do we understand it? But through the Bible we understand about God's person.
God sometimes revealed himself through theophanies or appearances on the earth. Those are recorded in the Bible. Of course he used the words of men, the prophets. Sometimes he revealed himself through miracles and they're recorded for us in the Bible. So God reveals himself through the written word. And then there's a third type of revelation and it is personal revelation of God. It is the fullness of his revelation found in the person of Jesus Christ.
God who in times past spoke to the fathers through the prophets has in these last days spoken unto us by his son. His son is the completion of his revelation, the fullness of his revelation. John said, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son has exposited him, is the word there in John 1, 18. He has led him forth revealed.
And thus Jesus could say also in John, he that has seen me has seen the Father. What a remarkable statement. And the Jews understood exactly what he meant because they picked up stones to kill him. They were going to kill him for blasphemy. Jesus said that the scriptures speak about him. Paul said in Colossians 2, 9 that in him all the fullness of deity dwells. If you want to know what God is like, look at the life of Jesus Christ and listen to his words and you will find out.
Because he is the personal revelation of Almighty God. God come in the flesh. We want to talk, as I've said, primarily about written revelation. But it's important to see how the three types of revelation work together. Natural revelation gives me an inner awareness of God. Man is a religious creature and that's why he creates religions, even if it be a philosophic religion or if it be a religion of sticks and stones that he makes for altars.
Man needs something to worship because he has an innate awareness of God, but that is not salvation, that inner awareness. Then written revelation takes a person a step further. It gives intellectual knowledge of God. Through the Bible we understand who God is, who we are. We understand about Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection for our sins. We understand what it means to be saved, but this intellectual knowledge is not salvation either.
For the Bible says that the demons have this kind of intellectual knowledge of God, but they're not saved. After we come to understand something about the written revelation, we go that next step and learn something about the personal revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Relation is a personal relationship with Christ. Christianity is not a philosophy in its essence. Christianity is not a good way to live.
We sometimes talk about the Christian life and I understand what's usually meant by that, but I get concerned that there are some people who think that being a Christian is just living a certain way. My friend Christianity in its essence, biblical Christianity, is a personal relationship with God. That can only be discovered through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the personal revelation of God.
The purpose of revelation then is to disclose God, to tell us about his glory, and then to bring us into a right relationship with this God of glory. That's what revelation is. I want to spend most of our time on inspiration. Inspiration is different than revelation. There is a distinction between the two. Revelation is the content. It's what God has said. Inspiration is how God brought this revelation to us. It's the method that God used. Do you see the difference?
There are some people who confuse the two terms and that can lead to doctrinal error. Revelation is what God has said about himself. Inspiration is how God brought that message to you and to me, how he brought it. Let's talk first about a definition of inspiration. To do that, it might be helpful to start on the negative side of things and to say what inspiration is not. I start there because there are false theories of inspiration being promoted in some circles these days.
Let's talk about what inspiration is not first. Inspiration is not defined by what is called the natural theory. You might want to jot that down. The natural theory, what is that? Well, it's the kind of inspiration that produces a good painting or composition or work of poetry. It is, in other words, the product of human genius, but the Bible is not that. Most religions have a book or writing of some kind in which are contained the writings of men about God, what they think about God.
That is not the Bible. The Bible is what God has said about himself. It is not natural in its definition. Inspiration is not defined best by the dictation theory. There are some people who place the writers of scripture into a role of being something like a secretary. They say that God simply dictated his word to these people who wrote the Bible, that they heard the words and wrote them down.
They were little more than passive instruments, but if that were true, we would expect the Bible to have the same kind of a tone throughout it. And it doesn't. Different cultures are seen. Different personalities come through. You know, if you go to the Greek, when you're reading the writing of Luke or John or Paul, it's entirely different. Luke is obviously the educated physician, and his Greek is tough, but very proper. Paul on the other hand was more casual about the way he wrote.
He comes through in every epistle he wrote the same way. So the dictation theory doesn't best describe it, because if God had dictated it, you would expect it to be the same all the way through. Then there is what is called the partial theory of inspiration. Those who teach this say that only part of the Bible is inspired. The moral and spiritual teaching of the Bible is inspired, but the rest of it is only the writings of men. Now among the problems with that theory is this.
Who is qualified to say what's inspired and what isn't, and what is the moral and spiritual teaching and what isn't? It seems to me a very difficult theory to follow through with if one believes in what is called the partial theory, only part of the Bible is inspired. And then there are those who teach what is called the existential theory. Don't let that word scare you. Existential theory, what does it mean?
Well the idea is that you open your Bible and read it, and when a passage of scripture leaps out at you and it becomes real to you, that at that moment God inspires that scripture to you, but it may not be inspired by somebody else. This is the position of the neo-orthodox theologians. And then there is a fifth and final false theory that we'll talk about, that is the conceptual theory. What does that mean?
Well it means, say these people, that the thoughts of the Bible are inspired, but not the words. In other words, God gave the thoughts to Paul or Peter, and they wrote down the thoughts in their own words. God wasn't really concerned about the words at all, as long as they got the point, the thought across. And we reject that as well, and we'll explain why in a moment. What then is the proper explanation of inspiration? It's what I call the superintendent method.
How did God deliver his word, his revelation to us? Through the superintendent method. What does that mean? It means that men were directed by God in the choice of words without violation of their own personalities. That men were directed by God in the choice of their words without violation of their own personalities, and one more phrase for those of you writing this, so that what was written was what God wanted said.
In other words, God was concerned for more than just getting the thought across. He wanted the thought expressed in the right words. So without crushing and suppressing the personalities of the writers of Scripture, he nonetheless superintended them so that as they wrote, even the words they chose to use within their own personality context were the words that God wanted them to use. Now that is important, and thus we talk about the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. Two more words.
Verbal means that every word is inspired by God. Plenary simply means that the thought, too, is inspired by God. So that's what the words simply mean. Verbal plenary inspiration. God superintended human personalities so that what they wrote were the words and thoughts that he wanted to be written down. It's very difficult, isn't it, to think of thoughts being transmitted without words?
What I think in my mind I'm saying to you, and if you were to respond to me by just thoughts, that wouldn't be very fulfilling to me, because I wouldn't know what you were saying. So you have to speak words to me to communicate your thoughts. So you see words and thoughts are inseparable. Professor Westcott said this, the thoughts are wedded to words as necessarily as the soul is to the body.
Dr. Ralph Kuiper made this statement, you can as easily have music without notes or mathematics without figures as thoughts without words. That's why we believe that both the words and the thoughts are inspired, are a part of inspiration. Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells a whimsical story, I'm sure, about a little girl who was taking singing lessons from a famous teacher. He, of course, was at her recital and after it was over she was anxious to know what his reaction was.
He didn't come back to congratulate her after the recital, so she rushed out and cornered a good friend of hers and she said, what did he say? And her friend said, he said that you sang heavenly. Well, she couldn't quite believe that. So she said a little bit more, she said, is that exactly what he said? And her friend said, no, but that's what he meant. The girl still wasn't pleased. So she insisted, well tell me the exact words he used.
And his friend being cornered, her friend being cornered said, well his exact words were that was an unearthly noise. A little bit of difference there, isn't there? You see you have to communicate thoughts with words, exact words. They are important. There's a difference between a heavenly noise, or a heavenly sound rather, and an unearthly noise. And thus we believe that God is vitally concerned and inspiration about both. Now what is the purpose then of inspiration?
It is to assure the infallibility and the reliability of the revelation. That's why it's important, and that's why we're talking about it. I recognize at this point it's been more like a theology class than a Sunday sermon. But I want us to look into Scripture now and to see some verses from this book to undergird what we've been talking about. The first one is 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20 and 21.
And some of you folks knew I would be getting there eventually because this is one of the key verses in Scripture regarding its inspiration. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20 and 21. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. Verse 21. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We see three important facts in that verse.
Number one, men spoke from God. God was pleased to use human personalities as the instruments by which he would reveal himself in the Bible. Men spoke from God. Number two, their words did not originate with themselves. In other words, Peter didn't sit down and say, well, what shall I say about God today? They didn't originate their words. Their words, number three, came from God because the Holy Spirit carried them along as they spoke. He impelled them.
Perhaps we can illustrate that by a leaf that falls from the tree down into the brook and then is carried by the power of the brook, or the sailboat that is put out onto the lake and then the sail is put up and the wind comes and fills the sail and moves it along. What this verse is saying is that there were men in days of old who were in a unique and special way carried along by the power of the Holy Spirit so that as they wrote what they wrote were the very words that God wanted communicated.
We have examples of that. Let's turn first to see the example of David. To do that, go back to 2 Samuel chapter 23 for a moment. Here we have the last words of this great man of God. It's described as the oracle of David, son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs. You talk about a multi-talented individual, you have to include David in the list somewhere.
Now in verse 2, here is the claim that David makes, 2 Samuel 23 verse 2. It says, the Spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue. What David is claiming here is different than what I'm doing now. Right now I am teaching you what the Bible says, but David is saying, when I spoke, the Holy Spirit put the words in my mouth. His word was on my tongue. He is claiming what Peter was talking about. The Spirit bore them along, he carried them along, these writers of scripture.
Now to see an example of what David is referring to, let's go back to the New Testament again to a prayer meeting in Acts chapter 4. Here's an example of what David was saying about himself. In Acts chapter 4 verse 25, let's back up to verse 24 to get the whole prayer. The context is that Peter and John had been released from their incarceration and they went back to the believers to share with them what had happened.
And after they had done that, it says, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. And here's what they prayed. Even Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. I want you to notice the prayer here starts with worship and that is a good example for you and me in our prayer lives. Verse 25, you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. And then he quotes from Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Psalm 2 verses 1 and 2. What is being said here? Well these believers are praying and they're saying, Lord, you spoke through David your word. And then they quote from Psalm 2, an illustration of what David was talking about when he says, the Spirit of the Lord put the words on my tongue to say. A unique thing folks, it's not happening today. It does not happen today.
Let's look at another illustration in Isaiah and go back to chapter 1 and I'll show you something here. There's a phrase used in verse 18 which is found or a facsimile thereof is found some 2500 times in the Bible. Verse 18, I suppose many of you could quote, Isaiah 1. Come now, let us reason together for the next three words. Says the Lord over and over again in the Bible, thus saith the Lord, not Isaiah. This is what the Lord says.
Look again in verse 20, but if you resist and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Go over to Isaiah chapter 5 for a moment. But here's something different to illustrate what we're talking about. Jesus wasn't the only one to use parables. Isaiah in verses 1 and 2 gives a parable. It is the story of a man who planted a vineyard, but the vineyard didn't produce good fruit. The story represents Israel.
Israel is the vineyard and the husbandman of the vineyard is God. In other words, God is communicating here his displeasure with Israel. And so Isaiah goes on to say in verse 3, Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. You see what Isaiah is doing here?
He is speaking in the first person. He is so identified with the words coming through him that he speaks as God. That would be a blasphemous thing to do. Who would dare do it? He goes on to speak about God and says, I will take away the hedge. It will be destroyed. I will break down the wall. I will make it a wasteland. I will command the clouds, not to rain. My friend, only God could make those statements and only God has the prerogative of judgment.
Who would dare write these words unless he believed that he was uttering the very words that God was putting into his mouth? You see that is what Isaiah believed. That is what was happening. Now we could look at Jeremiah 1, verses 9 and 17. We don't have time. I am just giving you the references. We could look at John 14, verse 26, in which Jesus pre-authenticates, if you please, the writings of the apostles.
He says the Holy Spirit will bring these things back to your minds and he did and they wrote. We have the New Testament. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, 13, what I am writing unto you is the word of the Lord. Peter says about Paul in 2 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16 that his words have the same weight as scripture.
Peter would never say that about that Old Testament that he so revered as a Jew unless he believed with all of his heart that what Paul had said was the very word of God as were the Old Testament scriptures. So what I am saying to you is this. What we have in this revelation here is a unique book inspired by God. God used human personalities to communicate his word to us. We could talk about 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is what? Inspired by God. Literally it says all scripture is God breathed.
And because it is, Paul says that the scriptures are holy, Romans 1 and 2. Romans 3, 2 he says he calls them the very words of God. 2 Timothy 3, 15 he calls them sacred. Those words could never be used if the Bible were less than what we claim it is, the very word of God. Now what are the implications of this? We have to close. Dear people, inspiration is critical to the authority of the Bible. There are people who talk as the Indian used to say with a forked tongue.
On the one hand they talk about believing in the inspiration of the Bible, but they define it as something less than what we've talked about today. On the other hand they say the Bible has authority. In fact that's become the big word to use now. There are some people embarrassed by the word inspiration so they talk about the authority of the Bible. Because we believe the Bible is inspired in the sense that we've defined it this morning, we have an authority that is number one, trustworthy.
It is wholly true, it is inerrant in whatever subject it speaks about, it is infallible. There are some people who do not believe that. But I like the words of Dr. Edward J. Young who is now with the Lord but who was for a number of years professor of theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. There is no such thing as inspiration which does not carry with it the correlate of infallibility. A Bible that is infallible, and we speak of course of the original, is a Bible which is not inspired.
A Bible that is inspired is a Bible that is infallible. There is no middle ground. Dr. J.I. Packer, what scripture says is to be received as the infallible word of the infallible God and to assert biblical inerrancy and infallibility is just to confess faith in number one, the divine origin of the Bible, and number two, the truthfulness and trustworthiness of God. My friend, it's impossible to believe in the God who cannot lie and to say that the Bible has mistakes in it.
Whether those mistakes be claimed to be in the area of history or science or some other area. But he is the God of truth as he has revealed himself to be that it mandates a Bible that is inerrant.
How can one say he believes in the virgin birth, the sinless life, the blood atonement, the resurrection of Christ and so on, and yet deny the inspiration of the Bible, the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible because it takes away his authority to believe those other doctrines if he does not believe in the doctrine of the Bible. You see the two are inseparable. But because we have a Bible that's inspired, we have an authority that's trustworthy. We also have an authority that's durable.
There are churches and denominations who base their doctrines on the counsels of men and the teachings of religious leaders. These teachings do not have lasting authority. Why is that? Well, because there's a new generation that rises up and they have different ideas and so they pass them along to those people in those denominations or churches. And it brings a great deal of confusion.
I have talked to many people within the last ten years of my ministry who are disillusioned in the places where they've been in the religious world because they say everything is changing. What I was brought up to believe is now said to not be true. Why is that? Well, because unless one has the authority of the inspired Word of God as the basis for his teachings, his teachings can change. But the Bible doesn't change. Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away, but what?
My words shall not pass away. It is a durable foundation for our beliefs. And finally, because the Bible is inspired, as we have said, it is an authority that is final. Let me just give you three references to look up on your own if you're interested in studying that point. Deuteronomy 4.2, Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6, and Revelation 22 verses 18 and 19. We have in the Word of God an authority that is final. Thus the Bible condemns critics who take it away, take away from the Word of God.
Sometimes that's done through human intellect that leads to liberal theology, as we've said. They subject the Bible to higher criticism, but I tell you what educated theologian in the world is worthy to stand as a critic of this book in that sense. The Bible condemns those who add to the Bible. There are many cults in our world today, and most of them claim to have some further revelation from God. The Bible closed in its revelation in the first century. God said it all then.
He doesn't have to say anymore now, and he's not. We may have further light in what God has said in the Word, but revelation ceased. Inspiration ceased in that first century with those who wrote the words. And then there is even a more subtle and deceitful way in which the Bible's final authority is being undermined these days. And that is through the emphasis upon the cultural background of the Bible to the exclusion of what the text itself says.
There are those who study so hard the background of the culture of that day that they begin then to explain away what the Bible has to say very clearly. Now it's true that there are some things that are written in a cultural context, but listen to me. When you find that true in the Bible, beneath that cultural issue is almost always a principle that is timeless, and it is not to be limited to that particular culture.
And yet there are those today who are subtly and I think deceitfully undermining the authority of God's Word by just looking at the culture and explaining away what the Bible says. Dear people, I want you to know that we as a church are committed. I don't mean a little bit. I don't mean 99%. I mean we are 100% behind teaching simply and clearly what God has to say in his Book. That's why we're here.
I believe it's one reason that God has been pleased to do the work he has in our midst in this last year. That's not to the credit of me or anybody else. It's to the credit and glory of God. God has promised to honor his Word, and as we are careful to honor it, God promises to prosper us. And that's true if it would be our church or if it would be us personally. Are you honoring God's Word in your life? You understand what this Book is? You understand? It is God revealing himself to you.
That means that God wants you to know him. He wants you to know him. You couldn't if he had not taken the initiative. How precious this Book is. Is it precious to you? How much time have you spent lately? Do you see the face of God in the words of this Book? God wants to meet with you and to show you himself. He wants to explain you to you, too. He does it right here. I'm talking to some people who know what it is to every day have a time with God in the Word.
But I'm talking to some other people who don't. Some of you have slipped away from patterns that you've established in the past. Others of you have never yet established a time when you were with God. Will you do that? There's not an appointment in your week more important than that one between you and God every day. If it would be five minutes to get started, then do it faithfully, or ten minutes or fifteen minutes, but meet with God in this Book. Then obey it.
Do what he tells you to do, and his prosperity will pour into your life. His spiritual blessings will make so real to you, life in a new dimension will open up if you honor this Book. Let's pray. God our Father, we thank you for this unique Book that we have, that you've given to us by grace. We thank you for the special way in which it was delivered. Forgive us for the casual attitude that we've had so often toward the Bible.
I pray that as a church and as individuals, we will honor and obey your word as we ought, that thus we may know your blessing in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.