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The Holy Scripture
II Tim.
3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works.
We are beginning a series that is of great
importance to our fellowship. The series is based entirely upon the Word of
God. God’s Word is the most thrilling piece of literature that this world
has ever been blessed with. It contains such things as history, poetry,
laws, various teachings for many situations … and it is in the light of the
Word of God that God’s people must live before Him.
One of the dangers throughout history was
articulated by Paul when he was writing to Timothy,
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee
therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be
instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in
all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full
proof of thy ministry. He gave
Timothy the responsibility to preach the Word in accordance with sound
doctrine. This passage of Scripture was preached at my ordination almost
seventeen years ago. I have come across self-appointed theologians and
self-appointed arbiters in theological matters, - people who have no
soundness in being able to truly and earnestly contend for the faith once
delivered to the saints.
There has always been and there are today so
many of these teachers with ‘itching ears’ who are causing havoc in
denominations and in local fellowships. Their ignorance causes them to use
the Word of God incorrectly; … so, how do you stand up against them
and refute their false teachings?
You can go away back to the Council of
Jerusalem (Acts 15) in 49AD; or to the Council of Nicea (325AD), or to
Chalcedon (451AD) or to a whole host of Councils where the theologians of
the day had to contend with error.
But rather than branch out into a history
lesson, - and by the way, if many Christians would know more about Church
History they would be more prepared to meet the errors of today, - instead I
want to introduce you to the Confession of Faith (1689) that is the
Confession the Particular Baptist movement was based upon.
(As you will know, other ‘Confessions of
Faith’ are the Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglicanism and the Westminster
Confession of Faith of the Presbyterians. If you don’t have a basis of
faith, people just simply believe anything they want to believe!)
Baptists, sadly, can be a motley crew but
this document sets out what we are supposed to believe. It is thoroughly and
soundly Biblical, and it differs only in two major areas with the
Presbyterians … and that is in the area of Baptism and Church Membership.
I have total confidence in this document as
being faithful to Scripture, - if you want to know what I believe you can
find it here. … I know too of other fellowships who have recently seen the
need to return to consider the basis of our faith. When you are surrounded
by error, the only way to confront it is with truth … and this is God’s
Truth!
We won’t be going through it laboriously (I
hope!J)
but I am concerned that God’s people know the fundamentals of our
faith.
The opening chapter is on the subject of
The Holy Scripture. Since that is the basis of all we believe, that is a
fitting place to start! The Confession says, “The Holy Scripture is the
only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge,
faith, and obedience.”
The Uniqueness of
the Word of God
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I have over 800 books in my study, and
easy access to hundreds more. I have books that would be ‘collector’s
items’ and some books that are keepsakes. I have some original editions,
and books and sermons by the greatest of preachers. |
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I also have over thirty translations and
versions of the Bible; I have different versions of the New Testament in
the Greek language and the Old Testament in Hebrew and in the Greek. I
also have the Bible in Latin, German, French and Italian. |
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Out of all the books, - precious to me as
many of them are, - there is one book that stands above them all. … There
is no book that compares with God’s Word. |
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He is its Editor, its ‘Proof reader’, its
Author, its Analyst … He is at the very centre of His Word. |
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This Word is not about man and his God,
this Book is about God and His dealings with men. Humanity is not the
focal point … God is the focal point. |
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You don’t read this Book to see what men
did … you read this Book to see what God did! |
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He’s not simply a ‘Hero’
of the Book; He’s the God of the Book! |
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You read it not to learn about the
prophets and the apostles … you read to learn about the God of the
prophets and the apostles! |
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It is unique in its Authorship,
no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, wrote Peter (II Pet. 1:20,21). |
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God directed the minds and the pens of
those who wrote the Book. He guided their thoughts; He told them where to
put the commas and full stops; He told them where to begin and where to
end; He told them to write down things they couldn’t understand (e.g.
Dan.12:8 And I heard,
but I understood not). God guided
the thoughts of these men to whom He gave the burden of recording His
Word. |
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It is unique in its character. It makes
claims about itself that no other book makes. Here are just a few
examples: |
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Ps. 119:89 O LORD, thy word
is settled in heaven. … 140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant
loveth it. … 160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy
righteous judgments endureth for ever. |
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Jn. 17:
17 Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth. |
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It contains absolutely no error or
mistakes. You hear people try to find ‘contradictions’ but when you
question them you soon discover they have an ignorance any fool would be
proud of! |
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God’s Word is pure, perfect and complete.
It tells you how the world began, - not as a consequence of a catastrophic
molecular and atomic crash in outer space, - but as the gentle controlled
and orderly creation in the hands of the Sovereign God. |
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If only the scientists would listen to
Isaac Newton who said, “No sciences are better attested than the religion
of the Bible”. |
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… Or even to Charles Darwin who, - in
later life, - it is reputed by a Christian, Lady Elizabeth Hope, that he
turned to Christ on his deathbed in repentance. |
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This same Bible tells you how sin entered
this world and the effect it had as it divided up people against people,
and nation against nation. It tells you about the development of hatred,
murder and killing; it tells you about adultery and divorce; it tells you
about government corruption; it tells you about the mismanagement of
financial institutions. It tells you all about the sins of the world, -
their beginnings, impact and their end … |
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For it tells you about the coming of the
Son of God in order to redeem unto Himself those whom He had purposed to
save. It tells you about the sacrifice of Christ for sinners, and the
resurrection from the grave, and His rising up into Heaven. It tells you
about one day when He will return again. |
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This Book is like none other because it is
infallible and it is inerrant, - there is not even a slight whiff of
inaccuracies; there is nothing unreliable or false about its claims. All
that it says is true … because, - simply, - it is the Word of God! |
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It is wholly and absolutely inspired of
God. His thumbprint and His seal of approval are in every page. |
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All that God wants to be there is there …
and all that He left out He left out for His own purposes,
Jn. 20:30 And many other
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name.
the uniqueness of the Book … |
The Completeness
of the Book
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It has 66 books, - 39 in the Old
Testament, 27 in the New. |
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It is complete and finished and it is
perfect. “No, it’s not!” the devil and his friends say. |
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He lines up alongside the 66 books what is
known as the Apocrypha and the Deutero-canonical books (e.g. Esdras,
Sirach, Maccabees, etc.). These are equal to the 66, - no, they’re not!
They might be useful for history or other types of historical reading
material but they are not the Word of God. |
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Neither can you set the Book of Mormon
alongside the Word of God, nor the writings of Mary Baker Eddy of the
Christian Scientists, nor the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation. |
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God’s Word is unique and it is complete.
It has a warning, Rev.
22:18 If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things
which are written in this book. |
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If you have a Bible that leaves verses of
God’s Word out (like all the versions based upon Westcott and Hort) it’s a
serious indictment, - I believe, - and perhaps one of the many reasons God
isn’t blessing the modern Church. (If the soldier’s weapon is tinkered
with, it is no good for the battle!) |
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If the true text of His Word is being
tampered with, not a bit of wonder God’s people are all over the place
when it comes to not knowing what they are supposed to believe! |
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Once upon a time the devil used to burn
and persecute the Christians to stop the spread of God’s Word; but he
eventually cottoned on to the idea of emaciating the Word of God and
bringing it down to the language and the level of the other ordinary books
in the bookshops. |
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Give a man a Ph.D. or a professorship and
he thinks he can tamper with God’s Word. The devil has done more harm that
way because he has got many Christians falling into the trap of treating
God’s Word like any other book. |
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But God’s Word is altogether different, -
it is indeed complete, it is perfect. |
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The modern-day prophets are only wolves in
sheep’s clothing; God’s Word doesn’t need to be added to the way they add
to it. You watch and you listen to the Benny Hinn’s and the Kenneth
Copeland’s and all their disciples and you’ll see the viciousness of the
wolves’ teeth underneath the sheep’s wool! |
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Martin Luther sometimes got it wrong, so
did Calvin, so did Spurgeon, so did every theologian no matter how hard
they tried to be meticulously careful. |
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God’s Word alone is perfect and
complete. It alone
is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. |
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The uniqueness of the Word of God, the
completeness … |
The Testimony of
the Word of God
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Ch. 1:4 The authority of the Holy Scripture, for
which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man
or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof;
… it is to be received because it is the Word of God. |
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The question of the Bible’s authority is
absolutely central to our historical Protestant faith. The Reformation was
built upon it. |
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Some three thousand times the Bible makes
the claim for itself, “Thus saith the Lord”. That is its own
testimony. … “The Bible is the Word
of God, but not because it says so. Rather, it says so because it is
the Word of God.” |
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To doubt God’s Word is a serious offence,
“Let’s leave that verse out” or “Let’s change that one” ... It has
developed to such a degree that liberal theologians and their offshoots
tell you it is naïve to think that all Scripture is inspired. |
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I heard about a Fraternal of so-called
evangelical Ministers who were discussing this very subject; they laughed
at and rejected a brother who believed as we do in the total and inerrant
inspiration of Scripture. |
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I was at a meeting when the first eleven
chapters of the Bible were described by a Minister of another denomination
as ‘myth’ and ‘fairy story’. (If you can’t believe the first verse, -
never mind the first eleven chapters, - why bother reading any further!) |
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Only a fool,
- even a religious fool, -
would contradict the wisdom and testimony of God’s Word for God is
jealous for His Word and will not suffer the rantings of the fools to
go unnoticed! |
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When Babylon and Rome and Communism and
every other anti-Christian society tried to destroy His Word He protected
it. |
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Where is Babylon today? Where is Communism
today? Rome is only coming to the fore because God yet has plans to use
her in the final assault before the coming of Christ … otherwise it would
be lost in the sands of some remote wilderness. |
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The history surrounding Augustine and the
Church Fathers, John Hus, John Wycliffe, the Reformers, the Anabaptists,
the Covenanters is that they faced opposition because of the Word. |
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Their legacy was blessed of God because
they testified to the Truth of the Word of God. |
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John Brainerd, Robert Moffat, Samuel
Marsden, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, David Livingstone took the
testimony of God’s Word to people who had never heard it … the reason?
They believed in its uniqueness, its completeness and its
testimony. |
Conclusion.
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Yes, it’s precious. It would be wrong to
idolise the Book as simply a Book; but yet we hold it in reverence
because it is the Word of God. |
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As such it should not occupy a place less
than a place of respect … that we would never put our most prized earthly
possession. |
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Would you throw your best clothes on the
floor? Would you throw something that is precious to you under a pile of
clutter? |
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The Bible should never be lying on the
floor, or under books or magazines, or in any place you would not want God
to find you being careless with His Book. |
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Away back in Josiah’s day they found again
the old scrolls of the Word of God … what a time of rejoicing and revival
came about as a consequence of that discovery! |
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Our Confession of faith reminds us that
God’s Word is exactly that … it is His. He has privileged us with
its keeping. With that privilege comes also responsibility to Him
for His infallible, inerrant and inspired Word. |
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