The Bible
Why we Believe
what we Believe
(The Baptist Faith and Message)
(Message 2)
Introduction: Tonight we continue our series of studies into the
foundations of our faith. We will be studying some of the foundational
principles and teachings which guide our faith and practice.
One of the things most lacking among
Christians today is a firm grasp of the doctrinal truths whereupon their faith
should be built. Now, I know, when someone mentions the word doctrine, many
things come to mind. For some the very word conjures up images of stuffy
classrooms where men in bad tweed suits rant on endlessly about theological
ideology. For others, doctrine is frightening because they feel that they are
somehow academically inadequate to grasp the complexities of theology. And for
others doctrine is well and good but to them it seems far removed from their
everyday experience where they struggle to live out their faith in practical
ways. But nothing could be further from the truth. Doctrine teaches us how to
think and how we think always determines how we act. If we do not think right
we cannot act right. Doctrine is the foundation whereupon our practice is
built.
The Bible tells us that Jesus preached
doctrinally.
Matthew 7:28 says that after Jesus finished
preaching the Sermon on the Mount, that the people were astonished at His
doctrine.
Doctrine, simply put, is nothing more than a
systematic way of understanding scripture. Doctrinal studies give us a
panoramic view of scripture, allowing us to gain a comprehensive understanding
of scriptural teaching on any given subject.
In the original language the word translated
“doctrine” literally means teaching, instruction or that which is taught. In
the New Testament it also carries the idea of a more developed set of truths or
practices which are to be learned and followed. This is the foundation of our
understanding of what doctrine is.
We begin where all good theological studies
should begin, with scripture itself.
If one were to look over the course of
Church history one would notice that the first few centuries of the Church were
preoccupied with the question: Who is Jesus? It was the council of
But since the reformation the questions have
shifted from the Son of God and the Family of God, to the Word of God. The
raging battle during the last several centuries has been over the nature and
authority of scripture. What is scripture? How can we know it is God’s word? Is
it reliable? What evidence is there that scripture is reliable and why did God
give us His word?
Let’s begin by examining the nature of
scripture, what is it. Then we’ll look at the
witnesses to scripture and finally we’ll take a look at the purpose of
scripture.
1. Nature of Scripture – Gods Word
The Baptist Faith and Message, states that:
“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 God for its author, salvation for its end, and
truth, without any mixture of error for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is
totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us
and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the truth 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.” (The Baptist Faith and Message
2000)
As we learn the nature of the scripture,
that is, what the bible is, there are three
terms we should understand. The first is the term,
“revelation.”
A. The Bible is Divine revelation
Revelation is the direct divine influence which communicates truth from God to
man.
There are two types of revelation: General
revelation and special revelation. General revelation is where God reveals His
nature and purpose through creation and through history. Psalm 19:1 says that
the “Heaven’s declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of His
hands.”
Romans 1:20 assures us that, “For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead, so that they are without excuse,”
That’s why the scripture says that the fool
has said in his heart that there is no God. One has but to look at the
intricacies of nature or of the human body to realize that there is a Creator.
Only a fool or a person with an atheistic agenda could come out and say that
the universe was an accident. I’ve seen many accidents in my day and never had
I seen one of them create a flower, a puppy, a child or a galaxy.
You see, God has revealed Himself to all
humanity through creation. But general revelation, by itself, is insufficient
to tell us all God wanted us to know about Himself and His plan for humanity.
That’s why He gave us scripture. Scripture, at its core, is God’s written
revelation of Himself to us. It is the only source available to us of certain
knowledge about God. Without scripture, each of us would be left on our own to
figure out Who He is, what He is like and how we can relate to Him. Scripture
is God’s written revelation of Himself to us.
The ancient Egyptians had no written
revelation of their gods like we have from our God. They did not have the
certain word we have about Who God is and how we can
relate to Him. That’s why the ruins of their temples are filled with depictions
of their gods as half animal and half man. In their fallen state they imagined
God’s after their own image and after the image of created things. Because we
have Scripture, God’s revelation of Himself to humanity, we are not left to
wonder. We don’t have to grope in the darkness trying to imagine who God is and
what He is like. Scripture tells us all these things. The Bible is God’s
written revelation of Himself to us.
The second term we need to understand in
“Inspiration.”
B. The Bible is Divinely
Inspired -
When the bible says that all scripture is
inspired by God, it is speaking about a special kind of inspiration. It’s not
the kind of inspiration Mozart or Beethoven had when they composed musical
masterpieces and it’s not the kind of inspiration you have when you see a
sunset and are moved to write a poem. This is a different kind of inspiration;
a unique type of inspiration.
In 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible says All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness,
We hold to an understanding of inspiration
known as the verbal plenary theory. Simply put this means that as a musician
blows air through his musical instrument to create a specific sound, God’s
Spirit blew through the instrumentation of humanity to produce a certain and
perfect word. Every word of the Bible is fully inspired and is exactly what God
intended it to be.
Can you imagine how much God had to dumb it
down for us to be able to get it? And the thing is, even though there is much
we can understand, we will never understand it all. God’s word is like its
author: We can know Him truly but we can never know Him fully. Even when we get
to heaven, when we are able to see more clearly and to understand more fully,
we will ever be the creations and He will ever be the Creator. We will never
fully understand all there is to know about God.
But there is a wonderful verse in
Deuteronomy 29:29 which says, “The hidden things belong to the Lord our God,
but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may
follow all the words of this law.”
The divine inspiration of scripture assures
us that it is the word of God not merely the words of man. It is exactly what
God wanted us to know, nothing more and nothing less. It is inspired, or
breathed by His Spirit. This gives us a confidence and a certainty that we can
rely upon.
The third term we need understand is the
word “Canon.”
C. The Bible is a completed Canon -
You may have heard people speak to the Canon
of scripture. What they are talking about is the completed record of God’s
word. A canon is a list or a catalogue of books. As Christians we have
inherited the Old Testament from the Jews and the New Testament from the
apostolic age. One scholar describes the canon as, “the collection or list of
Bible books that are recognized as genuine, inspired Holy Scripture. The
collection is complete with thirty-nine Old testament books and twenty-seven
New Testament books in the canon.” (Swindoll, Growing
Deep in the Christian Life, Pg. 413)
Jude 3 says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you
concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting
you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the
saints.
Once for all means just that. God gave it
and we are not to add to it. It is complete.
So scripture is God’s completed and inspired
revelation of Himself to humanity and through the providence and sovereign
direction of God through the ages, God has preserved for us His inerrant and
infallible word. The Bible we have is the complete canon or catalogue of books
He wants us to have.
Understanding something of its nature, what
witnesses do we have to the veracity of scripture? If we were in a court of law
and were required to call witness to the stand to testify that the scripture is
what we claim it to be, who would we call upon?
2. Witnesses to
Scripture
A. Historical witness –
The first witness I would call to the stand
would be the historical witness to scripture. History itself has proven that
God’s word is true and can be trusted.
According to one scholar (G. Frederick Owen,
the Thompson Chain Reference Study Bible, Archaeological Supplement)
Archaeological investigations have been used to refute radical skepticism
concerning the historical accuracy of the Bible. For example, it used to be
alleged that the Hittites, mentioned over fifty times in the Old Testament,
were an invention of biblical editors during a supposed lengthy evolution of
various books of the Old Testament. Excavations of several Hittite cities and
recovery of many of their written records demolished every one of the critic’s
arguments. It used to be assumed that
It is important for us to note that
archaeology cannot prove that the Bible is true; it merely serves as a witness
to the truth already set forth by scripture. It is also worth mentioning that
no archaeological discovery which was properly understood has ever refuted the
words of scripture but has only served to support scriptural claims. History
speaks loudly to the trustworthy nature of Scripture.
The second witness I would call forth would
be scripture itself.
B. Scriptural witness -
Scripture clearly claims to be the timeless word of God and to be true without
any mixture of fault or error.
In the Old Testament:
Psalm 19:7-9 says, The law of the LORD is perfect, converting
the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment
of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 The fear of the
LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true
and righteous altogether.
Psalm 119:89 says, Forever, O LORD, Your word is
settled in heaven.
Psalm 119:160, The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
And the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 40:8,
“The grass withers; the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever.”
The New Testament:
2 Timothy 2:16, “All scripture is inspired
by God and profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, for training
in righteousness;”
2 Peter 1:21 says, “Because no prophecy ever
came by the will of man, instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from
God.”
And Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:35,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will
never pass away.”
Friends, the Bible is not ambiguous, it does
not leave us wondering about what it claims to be. It clearly claims to be
God’s inerrant and infallible word. It clearly claims to have God as its
Author.
C. Human Experience -
But there is a third witness I would call to
the stand, and that would be the witness of human experience. While all human
experience must be measured by biblical truth, we have but to look behind us,
around us and within us to see that God’s word is true and can be
trusted. What have some of the great men of our country said of the
Bible?
George Washington, the first president of
the
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of
the
Abraham Lincoln said of the Bible, “In
regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given
to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this
book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable
for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”
Clearly, our great Republic was chartered
and founded by men who understood the bible to be the Word of God and to be
true. But your own experience should tell you that the scripture is
trustworthy.
It contains the mind of God, the state of
man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
Were it not for scripture you would not know of Jesus and if you did not know
of Jesus you would be hopelessly lost in your sin.
If I were to call upon each of you to stand
and give witness to the scripture, to its fidelity, to its impact on your life
and to the way God has used it to bring you to Himself and make you who you
are, we would be here all day, for each of you who have been born again would
surly give witness to the power of the word.
So we have studied the nature of scripture,
that it is God’s inspired revelation of Himself to humanity. We have heard from
witnesses to scripture, who have spoken to its power and its impact, but the
final thing I would have you consider this morning is the purpose of scripture.
What is the purpose of scripture?
3. Purpose of
Scripture – Revelation toward application
It is true that the Bible is the bestselling
book in
Consider three things then which will help
as we seek to apply the Scripture to our everyday lives.
A. Know it –
God expects for us, as His children, to know
His word. The man who will not read his bible is no better off than the man who
has no bible to read. How can a person claim to be born again, to be filled
with the Spirit of God who inspired the very words of scripture and have no
appetite for the word of God? How can a person claim to have Jesus on the
throne of their heart and have no desire to receive instruction from the One
they claim is their Master? It doesn’t add up. If you have no desire for the
word of God, you need to take a long hard look to see if you are a child of
God.
If we are truly in love with God, if we have
really been born again, then we will say with the Psalmist who says in Psalm
119, “I have treasured Your word with all my heart;
don’t let me wander from Your commands. I delight in Your
commands, which I love…Instruction from your lips is better for me than
thousands of gold and silver pieces. How I love Your
teaching! It is my meditation all day long. Your word is completely pure and Your servant loves it.” (Psalm 119:11,47,72,97,
&140)
Colossians 3:16 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Know it. But secondly, understand it.
B. Understand it –
Many people read the scripture like
literature, but fail to understand the spiritual significance of what they
read. But such should not be the case for Christians.
Jesus promises us in John 14:26 that the
Holy Spirit will, “…teach you all things and remind you of everything I have
told you.”
In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 says, But the natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged
by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he
may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
So as Christians who have the Holy Spirit,
we should be able to see clearly into the spiritual truths of scripture.
But you see here’s the problem. Our ability
to understand the scripture will ever be dependent upon the degree to which our
hearts and lives are surrendered to the influence and control of the Spirit of
God. The more control He has, the more illumination or insight we have. The
less control He has of our hearts and lives, the more opaque and obscure the
scriptures will become.
I believe one of the reasons many Christians
have difficulty understanding scripture is because they need to get things
right with God in their lives. If you are walking with Him, he will give you
light; He will give you understanding so that you can obey. But if you
are not walking in fellowship, then you will find little joy in reading
scripture and its depth and profundity will be hidden from you.
To understand it you must be right with God.
But not only are we to know it and understand it. The ultimate goal of
scripture is for us to put it into practice.
C. Practice it –
Somewhere along the way we got the idea that
all we had to do with the bible was to study it and understand it. We
substituted knowing for doing, illumination for application. But the purpose of
scripture, at the end of the day, is action oriented. It was given so that we
can do it.
James 1:22 says, But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves.
Our problem is not that we don’t understand
what it says; our problem is that we don’t want to do what we understand.
Jesus puts it about as plainly as it can be
stated in Matthew 7:24-27. Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken
him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 "and the
rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and
it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 "But
everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a
foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 "and the rain
descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it
fell. And great was its fall.
What about you? Are you like the wise man or
like the foolish man? What is it that God has told you to do? What is it that
would keep you from obeying Him today?