James Renihan - The Authority Of Scripture

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It is wonderful to see you all here this evening. I've already met folks that I have not, some of you
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I knew, but had not actually met physically. That's something the internet brings about these days, an odd aspect of our existence.
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Today, and then of course tomorrow, through tomorrow evening, it is indeed our desire to equip you.
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You will be challenged. I am tremendously thankful for the fact that this conference has some tremendous speakers, and if I wasn't here, the whole conference would be great.
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I am so excited that we have speakers here that are going to be able to challenge you and lift you up.
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When I ask these folks to be a part of things, I am just privileged when they say, yeah, we'll be a part of that.
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We'd like to help the people. And so this evening, if you look at your schedule, and hopefully it's the current schedule, some of you were here an hour and a half early because we had a schedule from back in June, unfortunately.
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I apologize to you all for that. I hope you all were able to go get your Starbucks or something like that, which is the national chain here in this area, is it not?
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You have to go to Starbucks to live here, don't you? Seems to be somewhat of an addiction. But if you look at the schedule this evening, we have two presentations, and then
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Steve Camp is going to be ministering to us. You'll see that there is a common theme, and our theme is one that is truly not only forced on us by the reality of the culture that we live in today, but is also one that should be natural to the believer's heart.
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It should be one that our hearts beat for, one that we are encouraged by. We want to be focused upon the great gift of grace that God has given us in his word, and it is a gift of grace.
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God could have left us in darkness, he did not. He has given us a tremendous light that none of us will ever begin to plumb the depths of what is truly in his word.
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And so I am very privileged to introduce to you Dr. Jim Renahan. He is the head of the
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Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies in,
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I have no idea what was just being signaled at me, my phone. Oh, you want everyone's, before I finish introducing
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Dr. Renahan, we do live in a society where this is a good reminder. I've had to do it myself.
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Mine is on vibrate down here. But we all are connected digitally to one another, but we need to break that connection for a little while tonight.
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So if you could just double check that your phone is either off, as my wife's almost always is,
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I don't know why she has it, but it only turns on when she wants to call, not when we want to call her.
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Isn't that fun? Anyways, you could either make sure it is off. I'm seeing men looking at their wives going, see, see,
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I told you. Off or on that wonderful vibrate mode, unless you're one of those people who, when it vibrates, you go like that, and then everyone's gonna be very concerned that there's a problem there.
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So whichever works best for you, pagers, digital devices, if your
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Palm Pilot is going to scream at you in about half an hour, whatever you need to do, turn that off.
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So thank you very much, Mr. Pierce, for that reminder. If I may go back to introducing Dr. Renahan, he is the head of the
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Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido. I had a great privilege of speaking there just a few years ago, meeting the wonderful students there.
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He is a professor, he is a scholar. Last year, we had the opportunity at Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, where I'm an elder, to have
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Dr. Renahan speak there, which some of you don't realize is an extremely rare thing. We don't have a lot of folks from outside of our church preaching there.
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It's mainly because we can't get rid of Don Fry, but he's only been there 31 years and seems to have taken a liking to the place.
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So, but we had Dr. Renahan in and he preached in the Book of Revelation and I was just tremendously blessed.
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And so when the opportunity came up for this conference, and then please, if you're not aware of this, to be praying for Dr.
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Renahan and myself, because on the cruise, he and I will be debating Dr. Crossett and Dr.
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Borg on the subject of the resurrection on Tuesday around noon. And I honestly could not be more privileged than to have him doing that with me.
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We also have Dr. Tom Askell in the back who will be speaking tomorrow, who made it out of Florida.
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It's an unusual thing now since Florida is normally under a hurricane 360 days out of the year. And so they managed to make it out and we are just tremendously privileged that you are here and that they are here.
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With that, let us open our time with a word of prayer and then I'll ask Dr. Renahan to come. Our Heavenly Father, indeed, we are thankful that you, by your grace, have brought us together this day, that you have given us the opportunity to gather in peace.
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We ask that you would protect us from distraction, that you would help us to hear your word, that you would help us to concentrate and to honor you as your word is proclaimed to us.
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I thank you for the believers that are here this evening and for their desire to know you better and to know your word.
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We ask that by your spirit, you would draw out our hearts to you, that you would give us understanding and insight, for we know that without your spirit, we can do nothing.
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And so we rely upon you. We thank you, we praise you and we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Dr. Renahan.
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Well, good evening. I want to thank Dr. White for that kind introduction.
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It really is an honor and a privilege to be here and to stand alongside of him to uphold the glory of Jesus Christ as revealed in the
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Holy Scripture. Would you please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter three? I want to focus especially on verse 16.
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But let's begin reading in verse 10. And read all the way through verse five of chapter four, pretending that there is no chapter division in front of us.
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First, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy chapter three, beginning in verse 10. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long -suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions
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I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
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But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the
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Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
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All scripture 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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
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I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
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But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
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May God's blessing be on this reading from his holy word. Creation testifies to the reality of the living
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God in abundant ways. There is no moment, there is no place from which this testimony is absent.
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God is everywhere. His handiwork is evident all around us. Creation tells us that he is great and powerful and it calls us to worship him, but how do we worship him?
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Creation tells us that he is real, but it leaves us essentially there.
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The light of nature is insufficient to give us the saving knowledge of God. Now we look around and we notice that humanity has always perverted the knowledge of God, which is given in general revelation in the creation that is around us.
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Humanity has tended to make God like a carved image, crafted with the hands of men.
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To counter this problem, God has further made himself known to us in what we call special revelation.
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At first, this revelation was direct. It was given to women and to men immediately, but for its better preservation and propagation, he determined to commit it to written form.
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And these are the holy scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now we begin tonight with a consideration of the subject of the authority of scripture.
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Let me give you a couple of definitions and then we will plunge into our study of the text that is before us.
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Richard Muller has defined authority in theological terms in this way.
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Authority is the power, dignity, or influence of a work which derives from its author.
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Authority is the power, dignity, or influence of a work which derives from its author.
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And then a page or two later in his dictionary of Latin and Greek theological terms, Dr. Muller defines the phrase the authority of scripture in this way.
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He says it is the power or genuineness of scripture which rests on its inspiration and therefore on the absolute authority of God, the primary author of scripture.
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Now I find that definition tremendously helpful and it will guide us as we move forward this evening.
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Now what we will do is focus on two things. I think we'll probably spend the most of our time on the first.
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I wish that we could spend as much time on the second but time is limited. The first will be the divine source of scripture and the second will be the divine testimony to scripture.
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Those will be the two main heads for my sermon this evening. Now you have before you 2
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Timothy 3 opened in your Bible. If you've closed it, please open it up again. These words of Paul need to be considered in detail in order that we might understand the doctrine that is set before us tonight.
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We notice at the beginning of verse 16 that Paul says some very familiar words. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
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Now we want to stop there and ask the question, what did Paul mean by these terms?
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What is the apostle seeking to convey to us? What does he want us to know as he writes these words first to Timothy then to the church where Timothy served and ultimately to us as well?
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What is his intention? Well it's interesting that in the original language there is no verb here. He doesn't use a verb, we have to add a verb in order to make out exactly what he says.
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But let's talk about the words that he uses. The first one that we need to notice is the word inspiration or perhaps inspired.
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Now that word is used very broadly today in our own culture. Up here in the Northwest you might use it to speak about a ride through the country where you go to look at the mountains and they are inspiring.
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It's one of the things that I love to do when I come to the Seattle area is to ride around and look at the mountains just in awe at their beauty.
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And one could say that it is inspiring to look at the beauty of the creation that God has made around us.
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Sometimes we might use the word to speak of an athlete, maybe one who struggles to finish a difficult contest and is said to be inspired and we are inspired by his diligence in fulfilling that task that has been set before him.
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It might also be used to speak about one of the great Renaissance master painters who seemed to be inspired because they so poignantly portray the subject that is set before them.
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We stand before their portraits, we stand before their paintings and we are in awe of that which they have put down on the canvas.
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We can say that we are inspired by these things. But we have to be very careful because that's not the meaning of the word as it is applied to scripture.
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You see, we can say that all of these things and many others are inspired in their own way.
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But none of them can claim the kind of inspiration that we find here in the text before us.
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It is something that belongs exclusively to the word of God. Now the word that Paul uses in this place is very unusual.
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This is the only place where it is found in all of the Bible. In fact, it may be the case that Paul actually invented this term in order to describe exactly what he meant to say.
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Now the Greek word is an interesting word that is made up, it's an adjective that is made up of two words that are combined together, the
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Greek word for God and the Greek word for breath. And literally it means something like God breathed.
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In fact, I think that we have at least one English translation that renders the word in that sense,
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God breathed. What Paul wanted to emphasize to Timothy as he uses this word is that scripture is so important, its authority is so fundamental, that Timothy as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ should regard it as the words of the breath of God.
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Did you notice as we read through the context here how Paul focuses the attention of this young man on the word of God?
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Verse one of chapter four is very important because it puts us in the courtroom of God himself.
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He uses the strongest language in the charge that he makes to young Timothy. I charge you before God and the
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Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, preach this
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God breathed word. Timothy, let this be the center of your ministry.
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Let this be the stuff of your ministry. When you stand before men and women, when you stand before boys and girls, when you have the opportunity to be in a pulpit in a
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Christian assembly, preach to them the word of God because the word of God is inspired, it is
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God breathed. Now the word inspiration is slightly misleading when we come to this text because it seems in itself to point to an action which is brought upon another object.
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Someone has suggested that a better translation instead of inspiration might be expiration because it means
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God breathed. It means that which has come forth from the mouth of God.
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Expiration points more to the source of the scripture than to the product. You see, we have to say this.
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There was not a book of writings that existed about which God said, this is my word.
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Rather, he gave writings which were his word and which came to be collected in what we call the
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Bible. Do you see the difference between those two things? That's a very important distinction to keep in your mind.
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And that's what we must say. Inspiration, or if you'll allow me to say it, expiration is the fundamental quality of scripture by virtue of which they are the very words of God.
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Scripture is God's breath which takes the form of words. It has its sole origin in God and it is the means by which
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God himself ensured that his word was true. He is the one who is intimately active in giving the scriptures to his people.
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And Paul wants Timothy to think in those terms, to reckon in those terms. And as he stood before them to preach the word, to remember that that is the case, that he stands as a representative of the
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God who has spoken to men and women. And as he speaks to them, he must speak the very words that God himself has given.
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There is no place for anything less. There is no place for anything else.
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Now, what is Paul describing when he uses this word God breathed? Well, if you look at the text, he says that this is a quality of scripture.
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Scripture is God breathed. Now, the word that Paul uses here literally means writings.
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It's used approximately 50 times in the New Testament and it always refers to the same thing, which is the word of God.
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Uniformly, it refers to that which was always regarded as scripture. And there are no exceptions in its usage in the
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New Testament. Excuse me, turn over with me just a couple of pages in your Bible to the book of James.
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Let's get an illustration of this and how it works. Now, in James chapter two, he does a couple of very interesting things.
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He cites some texts from the Old Testament and he uses our words in reference to them.
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Notice, for example, verse eight of James chapter two. If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.
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As James would set before the people of God the responsibility to live ethically in this world to the glory of God, the fulfillment of the royal law, the second great commandment, is referred to as scripture.
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And James here is citing for us Leviticus 19 .18. A little bit later on in the same chapter, over here in verse 23,
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James does the same thing again. The scripture was fulfilled, which says
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Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.
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This is Genesis 15 .16. Here in these cases, we have
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James looking with a very narrow lens upon specific passages in the
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Bible and calling these things the scripture. James is able to look at the specific parts of the
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Old Testament and delineate each one of them as the scripture. But now keeping your finger in 2
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Timothy 3, let's look back at Luke 24 because there's something else that needs to be noticed about scripture.
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Now Jesus appears to his disciples in a closed room beginning in verse 36.
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He says, peace to you. Luke tells us that they were terrified. He asked them why they were troubled, why they had doubts and he stands before them and holds before them his hands and his feet and he says, come and touch me.
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When he had said this, verse 40, he showed them his hands and his feet, but while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here?
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So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and ate it in their presence. Imagine what must have been in their minds as they watched him, their savior, their
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Lord, who had just hung upon the cross and they knew he was buried. Hither he was risen from the dead and eating with them.
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Then notice what he does, verse 44. Then he said to them, these are the words which
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I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the
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Psalms concerning me and he opened their understanding that they might comprehend, what?
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The scriptures, that they might comprehend the scriptures. Now this is very interesting.
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It's very different from what James did. Remember we said that James used a narrow lens and he focused on individual verses and he called those things the scriptures.
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But what Jesus does here and what Luke comments on what Jesus does here is of great interest because now the lens is opened up to take in the whole
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Old Testament canon. In fact, Jesus uses the threefold designation for the books of the
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Old Testament that would have been familiar to every Jew. The law and the prophets and the
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Psalms. This is a threefold designation that refers to the whole of the canon of the Old Testament.
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And Luke looking back on this tells us that he understood these three things, these three aspects of the canon as the scriptures.
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You see in James the word is applied to an individual verse. Here at the end of Luke, through the mouth of the
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Lord Jesus and Luke's comment on it, we have it applied to all of the Old Testament. When Paul writes these words, he wants us to think in these terms.
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Everything that God has given to us that is scripture is inspired by God. Whatever it is that the
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Jews regarded as the Old Testament must have been characterized as God breathed, having its origin in God and accurate according to his will.
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Now come back with me to 2 Timothy chapter three because there's something else that we need to notice in the way that Paul expresses himself here.
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We see that clearly scripture has reference to the Old Testament. But is that the full extent of the sense of the word?
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Well, there's more that needs to be said because probably he means to include the books of the
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New Testament as well. And there are two reasons present that we need to give. The first of them is the contrast between verse 15 and verse 16.
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Now I've used the New King James version here and the New King James sort of covers up the contrast that exists in the original.
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Because in verse 15 and in verse 16, we find the word scriptures and scripture in the
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New King James. But that's not exactly what Paul says. I wonder if you have a different translation that might render this slightly differently.
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In verse 15, he uses the word grama. In verse 16, he uses the word grafe.
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And there's a distinction between the two. The word grama was a word that had specific reference to the
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Old Testament. You may have heard of the Jewish historian Josephus. Josephus used this term to refer to the books of the
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Jews and he listed them. And the ones that he listed are the same as our
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Old Testament books. He uses this word grama to describe the Old Testament. Josephus said this, everyone is not permitted of his own accord to be a writer, nor is there any disagreement in what is written.
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They being only prophets that have written the original and earliest accounts of things as they learned them of God by inspiration.
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For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us disagreeing from and contradicting one another as the
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Greeks have, but only 22 books. Now remember that books like Kings and Chronicles and Samuel and the
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Minor Prophets were counted as one each. And that's how you get the number of 22. That's a very typical designation.
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It's not a denial that of the 39 books that we have, it's just a different way of enumerating them. Now to hear what
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Josephus says, he calls these books of the Old Testament grama. In the context of his writings, it is certain that it was the
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Old Testament. And here in this place, it is likewise certain that it's the Old Testament that Paul refers to when he uses the word grama, because it was the
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Old Testament that Timothy knew from his infancy. His mother was a godly
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Jew and would have instructed him in the truth of the grama as he grew older and older.
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This would be the religious context of his life. And when Paul uses that word in verse 15, it is clear and plain that that is what he refers to.
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Now, if there is a contrast, grafe must mean more than grama in this place.
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You see, scripture is more extensive than just the writings of the Old Testament.
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Now, the second reason why Paul probably intends to think also of the New Testament books is that twice in the
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New Testament, the word grafe here is used to refer to New Testament books.
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Turn back with me to 1 Timothy 5 .18. The scripture says, now this is a citation like in the book of James, isn't it?
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The scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages.
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Now, you have to pay close attention to what Paul is doing here. He has two citations, which he clearly designates as scripture, right?
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You see that? There are two citations clearly designated as scripture. Now, the first of them, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, is a citation from Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse four.
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That's the first quote. But the second of these quotes, the laborer is worthy of his wages, is not found anywhere in the
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Old Testament. You will not find it there. But you know where you will find it?
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In Luke chapter 10 and verse seven. In Luke 10 .7. In fact, in my
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Bible, which is a red letter edition, I don't know if you can see this if I hold it up, that little phrase is printed in red because it is a word that came from the
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Lord Jesus. Paul here refers to Luke chapter 10, words that came from the mouth of our
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Savior. He probably had a copy of Luke's gospel before him, and he regarded it as scripture.
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And he is able to designate it in the same way that he would Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse four.
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Now, it's very interesting to notice this, isn't it? The other place that we need to notice that Grafe refers to the
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New Testament is in 2 Peter chapter three. Please turn over there. I don't like to pick things up in the middle of a sentence, but for the sake of time, we'll do that.
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Notice verse 15. And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.
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As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also.
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Look at what Peter wrote. They twist to their own destruction, as they do also what?
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The rest of the scriptures. Now, into what category does the apostle
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Peter put the epistles of Paul? You see what he does? Here, he is claiming that the epistles of Paul are on the level of the rest of the scriptures.
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Even at the time when Paul was writing to Timothy, it was recognized that God was again putting his word in written form.
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And so there is every reason to believe that when Paul wrote these words that we are studying, all scripture is
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God -breathed. He is intending to refer to the Old Testament and to the writings of the apostles as well.
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Now, the third thing that we need to notice in 2 Timothy 3 .16 is the little word all.
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The little word all. All scripture is God -breathed. All scripture is
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God -breathed. This is an adjective that modifies the word scripture. And it simply sets out for us what we've already noticed.
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That scripture individually and scripture as a whole in every one of its words has come forth from the mouth of God.
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That is that inspiration or expiration is a characteristic of scripture.
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It is not just that it is generally inspired, but all of it shares the same characteristic.
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Each part of it and the sum total of it, everything is inspired. And this is why
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Paul and James can refer to single verses, why Jesus can refer to the whole Old Testament, and both of them can use the very same word.
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All, each and every scripture is inspired by God. None have been forgotten.
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None have sneaked in without warrant. Scripture is inspired in its entirety. Now, this is what
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Paul wants us to understand here in the text before us. This is the meaning of the words.
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Scripture, the word of God, is God -breathed. And all of it is God -breathed from the first to the last.
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Now, if that's what the text says, then let's draw out some implications from these words.
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This passage causes us to reflect upon the nature of Holy Scripture and draw out some applications which will assist us in understanding its nature.
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And the first of them is this. Scripture has its origin in God, and this is the basis for its authority.
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This alone is the basis for the authority of the word of God. If the
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Bible is God -breathed, if it was expired by God, its source can only be found in God.
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Now, if we were to take the time, we would see that this is explicitly the teaching of the Apostle Peter in his second letter, chapter one, where he speaks about holy men who are carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. The holy man, the prophet, did not stand up and declare on his own, these are the words of the
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Lord, but rather he declared these things because the Holy Spirit was actively moving him to do so.
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The Spirit used the speaker or the writer's own personality and vocabulary and experience, yet the finished product was always the word of God.
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Whatever it is, whatever is Scripture, is always inspired by God and thus is authoritative.
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Now, the Bible is very different in many places, isn't it? You go to Psalm 150, it's like an exclamation point at the end of the book of Psalms, it's full of jubilant praise.
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You go back to Psalm 88, almost in the middle, and what do you find? You find the depths of despair.
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You turn to Galatians and you see Paul's fiery letter where he is so concerned about heresy that is undermining the very nature of the gospel itself.
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Then you read John's three letters and you get a very different sense of emotion that is present. Every one of them and all the rest are equally inspired, equally the word of God, and all have their source in his mind and in his will.
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They would never have been written apart from the activity of the Holy Spirit.
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Paul would not have sat down and written the book of Romans if it were not for the Holy Spirit to move him.
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You see, we must regard the Bible for what it is, as the authoritative word of God.
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It is different from every other book, from all of the millions of books in the world.
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Only this collection of 66 books can claim to be God -breathed.
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Let me read you something that John Calvin wrote from chapter seven of book one in the Institutes.
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When that which professes to be the word of God is acknowledged to be so, no person unless devoid of common sense and the feelings of a man will have the desperate hardyhood to refuse credit to the speaker.
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But since no daily responses are given from heaven and the scriptures are the only records in which
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God has been pleased to consign his truth to perpetual remembrance, the full authority which they ought to possess with the faithful is not recognized unless they are believed to have come from heaven as directly as if God had been heard giving utterance.
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To them. What is the basis of authority in scripture? It is the fact that they are
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God -breathed. The second thing that we can say about scripture is this. Since scripture is
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God -breathed, it represents the exact words of God. Now, this is what the old writers called its authenticity.
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It is errorless and completely trustworthy. Now, there are those who deny this fact and state that the
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Bible contains errors and matters that are incidental and unimportant. But this cannot be.
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That undermines its authority. The apostle makes it explicit that inspiration is distributive to every scripture.
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It applies to every part. And our Lord Jesus called it jot and tittle. Even to the minute strokes of a pen, the scripture is true.
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Now, why is this important? Why must we make this assertion? Well, it is because if it is an error on one matter, then it cannot be trusted on any matter.
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Who can know what is right or wrong? Who can come and decide that this is true and this is not true?
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Interpretation becomes completely subjective. You like what you like. I'll like what I like.
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True of the critics, each one has the answer and none of them agree. But if we say that scripture is right with reference to salvation, then it must be right in all things.
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And we must assert the authenticity of scripture. The third thing that we need to say about its authority is this.
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Since scripture is God -breathed, we can be sure that it expresses all that God wants us to know.
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It is complete. At each stage when revelation was being given to Moses, to Elijah, and the prophets, through Jesus and the apostles,
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God was giving His complete will to His people. Now, that's not to deny that there was a progression of revelation.
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It is simply to say that scripture always expressed all that God wished to say to His people at the time in which it was given.
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We can be certain that nothing has been left out of the book by accident. Now, is it possible that mysteries still remain?
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Well, of course they do. It is our darkened minds that keeps us from understanding all that is written in scripture.
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But we can be certain that these things are hidden because God wants them to be hidden and He keeps them to Himself.
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Didn't Moses say that in Deuteronomy 29 .29? That the secret things belong to the
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Lord. There are no lost books of the Bible which give us further insight into God's plan.
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Now, the flip side of that is that we must insist that all of scripture is God's word to us, not just the
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New Testament. Paul does not pit one against the other or pick one and neglect the other.
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And it's very important for us to make this assertion. When he says all scripture is given by inspiration, remember how we've opened this up.
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We've said it incorporates grammar, it incorporates the Old Testament, it probably incorporates the
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New Testament, but that's what Paul is referring to when he writes these words. And we must keep that in our minds.
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When we read Genesis through Malachi, we are reading scripture that is just as important as words that we read when we read
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Matthew through the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we must make that assertion. And so we can say that scripture is authoritative because it comes from the mouth of God.
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Now, as I thought, my time has run away from me and I can hardly even begin to open up my second point, which is the divine testimony to scripture.
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But it's very important to at least try to make this and perhaps point you in the direction of some things that will help you.
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I can imagine that some will object to the doctrine that I have set before you already and they'll say something like this.
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That's fine for you Christians, but that's the insider perspective. And there are many who do not and cannot agree with you.
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The scriptures of the Christian Bible are simply ancient religious writings. They are not the product of divine inspiration.
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Have you ever sat through a church service where the man of God who was standing before you by the help of the
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Holy Spirit was opening up to you the glories of Jesus Christ and your heart was deeply moved as the gospel was proclaimed to you.
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And yet you knew that sitting next to you on one side or the other or in front of you or behind you was someone who wished that the service would end so that they could go home and watch the football game.
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Have you ever noticed the difference? That's true. That's the way that it works. The gospel just takes over your mind and your heart and you recognize its glory.
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But other people say, I don't get it. I just don't see it. What's the difference? Well, that's where we have to speak about the divine testimony to scripture.
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Why is it that men do not recognize what Christians have seen clearly for 2000 years? Well, what needs to be said is that the reformed confessional expression of scriptural authority has always, always insisted that there is another component necessary to speak of when we think of the authority of scripture and that is the testimony of the
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Spirit of God. Listen to these words from the Second London Confession of Faith.
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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.
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Therefore, it is to be received because it is the word of God. That's the doctrine we've been opening up, right? Now, the next paragraph in chapter one says this.
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We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to an high and reverent esteem of the
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Holy Scriptures and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole which is to give all glory to God, the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation and many other incomparable excellencies and entire perfections thereof are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God.
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We could have worked our way through all of these arguments, but notice that's not the end of the paragraph. Yet, yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the
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Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.
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I'd like to quote again from John Calvin. Listen to the way that he phrases this.
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It is necessary to attend to what I lately said, that our faith and doctrine is not established until we have a perfect conviction that God is its author.
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Hence, the highest proof of Scripture is uniformly taken from the character of Him whose word it is. The prophets and apostles boast not their own acuteness or inequalities which win credit to speakers, nor do they dwell on reasons, but they appeal to the sacred name of God in order that the whole world may be compelled to submission.
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That's what we've been arguing, isn't it? But then Calvin goes on. Still, however, it is preposterous to attempt by discussion to rear up a full faith in Scripture.
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True, were I called to contend with the craftiest despisers of God, I trust though I am not possessed of the highest ability or eloquence,
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I should not find it difficult to stop their obstreperous mouths. I could without much ado put down the boastings which they mutter in corners were anything to be gained by refuting their cavils.
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But although we may maintain the sacred word of God against gainsayers, it does not follow that we shall forthwith implant the certainty which faith requires in their hearts.
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Profane men think that religion rests only on opinion, and therefore they may not believe, and the,
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I'm sorry, profane men think that religion rests only on opinion, and therefore that they may not believe foolishly or on slight grounds, desire and insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired.
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But I answer that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the
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Spirit. The same Spirit therefore who spoke by the mouth of the prophets must penetrate our hearts in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted.
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This connection is most aptly expressed by Isaiah in these words. My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which
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I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed seed, saith the
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Lord from henceforth and forever. Isaiah 59, 21. Some worthy persons feel disconcerted because while the wicked murmur with impunity at the word of God, they have not a clear proof at hand to silence them, forgetting that the
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Spirit is called an earnest and seal to confirm the faith of the godly, for this very reason, that until he enlightens their minds, they are tossed to and fro in a sea of doubts.
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Now what I really wanted to do right now is turn you to 1 Corinthians 2, 6 -16. If you're taking notes, you can write down that text and make reference to it later on.
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It is a wonderful text in which Paul clearly lays out for us the fact that those who are natural men, those who have not yet been brought to faith in Jesus Christ cannot understand, they cannot discern, they cannot see the glory of God as revealed in Christ in the
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Scriptures. It simply is impossible for them to be able to see the things that you and I see in this wonderful book.
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And it ought not to surprise us when we sit down to witness to our friends who are not yet Christians, and we speak to them of the beauties of this book, that they look at it and they say, it's just like any other religious book.
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What makes it so different? Well, brothers and sisters, you and I have a testimony of the Holy Spirit that they do not have.
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The Spirit of God testifies to us in our faith, the reality of this truth of the
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Scriptures. Let me just quote from Calvin again. Let it therefore be held as fixed that those who are inwardly taught by the
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Holy Spirit acquiesce implicitly in Scripture, that Scripture carrying its own evidence along with it deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the
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Spirit. Enlightened by Him, we no longer believe either on our own judgment or that of others that the
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Scriptures are from God. You hear what he's saying? We're not depending on the testimony of the church. We're not depending on the testimony of scholars who can say, trust me,
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I know what I'm saying to you. I've worked hard at studying this. Believe it because I tell you. But we're believing it on the basis of the fact that God Himself is telling us by His Spirit that these words are true.
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In a way superior to human judgment, we may feel perfectly assured, as much so as if we beheld the divine image visibly impressed on it, that it came to us by the instrumentality of men from the very mouth of God.
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We ask not for proofs or probabilities on which to rest our judgment, but we subject our intellect and judgment to it as too transcendent for us to estimate.
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This, however, we do not in the manner in which some are wont to fasten on an unknown object which as soon as known displeases, but because we have a thorough conviction that in holding it we hold unassailable truth, not like miserable men whose minds are enslaved by superstition, but because we feel a divine energy living and breathing in it, an energy by which we are drawn and animated to obey it willingly indeed and knowingly, but more vividly and effectually than could be done by human will or knowledge.
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Let us now understand that the only true faith is that which the
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Spirit of God seals on our hearts. Nay, the modest and teachable reader will find a sufficient reason in the promise contained in Isaiah that all the children of the renovated church shall be taught of the
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Lord, Isaiah 54 .13. This singular privilege God bestows on his elect only, whom he separates from the rest of mankind for what is the beginning of true doctrine, but prompt alacrity to hear the word of God.
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Why is it authoritative? It's authoritative because it comes from God himself. And how do we know that it's authoritative?
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Ultimately, because the Spirit makes it known to us by faith. Well, do you see the scripture like this?
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You recognize its greatness, its glory. Do you recognize that it's different from all the rest of the books on the earth?
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Let us recognize its authority as God breathed. Let us receive its truth.
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And let us ask the Holy Spirit to make us more and more like its author to the glory of God.