The Authority of God’s BOOK
2 Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work .
“We owe to Scripture the same reverence as we owe God, since it has as its only source in him and has nothing of human origin mixed with it.” –John Calvin
OUR PURPOSE: God’s speaks in creation, in history, in miracles, in visions, in the Incarnation, and in the written Word to carry out his will. When God speaks, he reveals his power, his authority and his presence. In Jesus Christ, God reveals the fullness of His glory. In the written Word, the Bible, Christ the Word speaks to us. Our goal is to see why we can have unqualified confidence in what it says about life and the pathway to joy.
I. REVELATION: God speaks and reveals his glory to men:
Hebrews 1:1-2, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
As God’s act, revelation is the personal self-disclosure whereby He brings us actively and experimentally to know Him as our own God and Savior. As God’s gift, revelation is the knowledge about Himself which He gives us as a means to this end. –J. I. Packer
A. He speaks generally in the things He has made. Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:18-20
B. He speaks specially in his words to men. Psalms 19:7-11; Hebrews 1:1-2
C. He speaks specially in the Incarnation of His Son. John1:14
D. He speaks specially through the inspired written Word. 2 Peter 1:19-21
II. INSPIRATION: God writes a book and establishes truth: 2 Timothy 3
2 Peter 1:19-21, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 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.
OUR PURPOSE: The God of truth wrote a book of truth. By the Holy Spirit he guided his prophets to write his message to people in such a way that it is without error and fully reliable. What the Bible says God says. What it affirms is true and binding upon men. It alone describes the way to God and stands as the final authority over all of mankind’s beliefs and practices. If we want to know God and enjoy his blessing, we must believe and obey what God is speaking to us in his Book. Our purpose is to gain a new and firm confidence in the truth and the power of God’s Word.
A. God’s Word is authoritative and powerful in every culture and in the darkest of circumstances. 2 Timothy 3:1-17
B. Our trust and dependence upon God’s Word will be attacked by hostile forces. 6-13
C. We must “continue” to hold on to the truth, convinced of its truth and power.
D. Our confidence rest upon historical truths that we have personally witnessed:
1. Godly witnesses who have persevered in the truth to the point of death.
2. Your witness of the transforming power of the Scriptures to create faith in Jesus.
3. The Scriptures’ witness to its own divine inspiration through the Breath of God.
E. Five Affirmations Concerning The Inspiration of the Bible:
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God determined to inspire a Book that would proclaim His glory and preserve His truth.
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God spoke revealing truth to men and enabled them to write His words without error.
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Men wrote, using their own uniqueness, without distorting the divine message.
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God guided the writing of the Scriptures so that they are the very words of God.
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Therefore, the Scripture is “without error in all that it affirms.” It is inerrant.
D. The God-breathed words of Scripture equip believers to win the battle for faith and to glorify their God in the face of persistent and painful attack from the enemy of our joy.
1. The Scriptures are profitable because they equip us to do what pleases the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:14-17, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
a. It instructs us in God’s truth: It is profitable for teaching. Ps. 119:99
b. It confronts us in our sinful ways: It is profitable for rebuking. Ps 119:71
c. It directs us back to God’s way: It is profitable for correction. Ps 119:67
d. It disciplines us in God’s way: It is profitable for training. Ps 119:33
2. God uses Word to thoroughly equip us to please him in every situation. Ps 119:165
III. ILLUMINATION: GOD OPENS OUR EARS SO THAT WE CAN “SEE” HIM
Psalm 119:18, Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. C. S. Lewis
OUR PLAN: Because our eyes have been blinded, because we are dead in our sins, God must enable us by his Spirit to discover [with head] and delight [with heart] in the glory of God revealed in God’s Word. Even after we have become Christians we still need the illuminating work of the Spirit in our hearts. Thus, we must combine prayer and study of the Word in so that we may mine the rich treasures God has hidden in his Word.
A. God illumines our heart so that we may see and savor the wonderful things in God’s law.
1. The Father opened the heart of Peter to enable him to confess Jesus as the Christ. Matt.16:17,
2. Jesus overcame the foolishness of his disciples by explaining to them the centrality of Christ in Scriptures. Luke 24:25-27,
3. Jesus sent the Spirit to enable his disciples to teach and remind them of Christ’s words. John 14:26,
4. Only the Holy Spirit can open the minds and hearts of people to enable them to overcome the foolishness that is embedded in their hearts so that they might accept the things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10-14,
5. So, let us pray that we may be able us to uncover the treasures God has for us in his Word. Psalm 119:18, 27, 34, Ephesians 1:15-18.
Before and after you read scripture, pray earnestly that the Spirit which did indite it, may expound it to you, and lead you into truth. –Richard Baxter