The Wondrous Inspiration of Scripture — A.J. Higgins

Psalm 119 and verse number 18. Open thou mine eyes. That I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. And then one additional verse for the time being turn if you will the verse number 129. Psalm 119 verse number 129.

Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul. Keep them. Now we've been looking this week as you well Know most of you at least know at things that are spoken of in the Word of God as God's wonderful works.

At times the word is translated marvelous other times wondrous other times wonderful all the very same word from Psalm 136 we considered something of the wondrous work of God in creation. And then we considered on Tuesday evening from Psalm 139 God's wondrous work in formation in the formation of the human being formation of our bodies and personalities.

Last evening we considered from Psalm number 40 the wondrous work of God in incarnation and all of the fruits that has come because of the incarnation the Enfleshing of the Lord Jesus Christ as a genuine true man tonight in the will of God and with God's help.

The Wondrous Works of God and the Inspiration of Scripture

Consider something of the wondrous work of Inspiration the inspiration of the Word of God and then tomorrow evening as God helps. We'll look at what the psalmist refers to in Psalm 72. Psalm 1 18 as well the stone the builders rejected become the head of the corner.

This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous wondrous in our eyes the wondrous work of exaltation, but tonight it is the Teaching relative to the inspiration of the Word of God and I guess I have to almost ask the indulgence and patience of those who are older and Tell you it's going to be a little bit technical perhaps and maybe things that you wonder do we really need to go there with this information, but primarily for the benefit and sake of younger believers and When you get my age almost everyone is a younger believer than you are so We'll take in the majority of you here nevertheless.

But it will be a bit technical at times and just bear with me if that is the case and you find it a little roughgoing. He asked you to turn to three places in the New Testament. That will deal with the issue of the inspiration of the Word of God first of all 1st Corinthians chapter 2.

1st Corinthians chapter 2 and we will break in at verse number 9. But as it is written 1st Corinthians 2 and 9 I hath not seen nor ear heard. Neither hath entered into the heart of men the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searches all things.

Yea, the deep things of God for what man know what the things of a man say the spirit of man Which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God so there we have the necessity for Inspiration if we are ever going to know God it is only God who can reveal to us His mind and as we were to read further here in this section.

We would find we have the the mind of Christ. 2nd Timothy and chapter 3 these are all very familiar portions. 2nd Timothy and chapter 3 and verse number 15. 2nd Timothy 3 15 and that from a child thou hast known the holy or sacred or temple scriptures Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ.

Jesus all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and as profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be Perfect or complete truly furnished unto all good works the scope of Inspiration and finally 2nd Peter and chapter number 1 and Verse number 19.

2nd Peter 1 and 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. We're unto you. Do well that ye take heed unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in Your hearts knowing this that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.

For prophecy came not of old time by the will of men but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost the nature. Then if you will of Inspiration we trust God all at his blessing to the public reading of his word.

You're a long way from New York City right here tonight, and I'm sure most of you is saying I'm very thankful. That's the case but in New York City, there's a man by the name of Dale Henderson who lugs his cello down the steps of the Metro subway stations and there in the concourse underground as Subways come and go he gives free cello concerts specializes in many of Bach's cello concertos and He does it because he cannot imagine a world without classical music and so he goes to all that trouble to Keep classical music alive because the thought to him the thought of a world without classical music is Something he cannot bear.

Think for a moment of what a world would be like without the Bible. What kind of world would it be without the Word of God? Not only would we not have light as to the way to heaven but think of what your life in mind would have been like without this book.

I shudder to think. What I how I would have lived what I would have done how I would have self-destructed. Without this book to guide us a world without the Bible unthinkable to us to whom the Word of God is so precious and so valuable.

The inspiration of Scripture one of God's wondrous works the wonderful things of the Word of God. First of all, I guess it's necessary for us just to be clear what we mean by inspiration. Unfortunately We gather we think when we think of something inspired we think of breathing in.

And in actual conscious an actual reality. It's the exact opposite when we're speaking about the inspiration of Scripture and we turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 all Scripture is God breathed. God breathed out and as a result we have the the Word of God.

It is interesting that if you go back to Genesis chapter 2 God breathed out. Didn't he he breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. God breathed into a creature and set him apart from every other creature he had made the distinctiveness the uniqueness of Mankind humanity man-made relational man made rational man made reflective man made in a relationship.

God set man apart by Breathing into him and giving him the breath of life. God breathed out again and In doing so he set this book apart from every other book in the world. Now there are good books. There are books that can give us insight and intelligence and help in different areas of life.

But when God breathed out his word, he set this book apart from every other book in Our world so Inspiration then is God breathing out his truth. Now we We need to maybe just separate a couple of things.

Impartation is God giving a man knowledge. Inspiration is God causing him to write it exactly as he wanted it written. Illumination is when you and I read it and understand it. So there's the imparting The inspiring and the illumination and we're looking today at the the fact of God Controlling what a man put upon pen and paper as he recorded the Word of God For generations to to come now.

Four Questions About the Bible

I just want in the brief time we have to answer four questions Relative to this book number one. Is it reliable? Can I come to this book and Know that it's truth. Is it reliable number two? Is it a revelation?

I mean there are books you can read that are reliable if you're a mechanic you buy a book that helps you Know how to handle different cars or you buy a computer program. There are books that are reliable, but they're not revelations.

They're not truth from God. So is it reliable number one number two? Is it a revelation? Number three, there are lots of books out there in the world and they contain a lot of truth. But they have nothing to do with me.

I Would never spend money buying them. I would never spend time reading them. They're not very relevant to my life. But the third question is is this book relevant? Doesn't really have relevancy for your life and mine and lastly Does this book supply the resources that you and I need for every aspect of life.

I Am hopefully going to be able to show you that this book Contains the answers to everything You will ever face in life. You may say that's a big statement. You'll understand I'm saying there are principles here and there is truth here that were we able to grasp it.

The problem is not the book. The problem is the brother the problem I have when I do not fought when I cannot come to the Word of God and find the answer to a Difficulty or the answer to a problem or direction in a decision-making time.

The problem is not with the book. It's all here. The problem is with me and my inability to to know it and grasp it as I ought to. So is the book number one reliable number two, is it a revelation number three?

Is it? Relevant to my life and number four are its resources adequate for every aspect of my life as a believer now, that's a tall order in about 40 minutes and We'll seek God's help to do so. Let me talk to you for a moment.

Manuscripts and the Reliability of the Biblical Text

And here's where we get a bit technical about what we call manuscripts now you may never have been faced with this, but many of our young people in university and in Witnessing to neighbors and in trying to spread the gospel are frequently confronted with the fact they'll tell you that Friends will tell you what you have in your hand is not the original is it?

And It's not in fact. The best we can do is to go back about 200 years after the time of Christ and begin to have some Manuscripts that are available to us to examine but don't write that off too quickly.

You'll find that's a very very very strong argument for its authenticity. Just bear with me We have five thousand four hundred and eighty-eight manuscripts of the Word of God now some of them are complete some of them are partial and Some of them go back to as far back as 300 AD.

But let me tell you something else that's even more significant if you ever have trouble sleeping and Suffer from insomnia I suggest you by I think it's I forget how many volumes are in a 20-some volumes the writings of the church fathers and They're guaranteed to put you to sleep in very short order.

But what is significant it's letters that men wrote back and forth to each other in which they discuss different issues and if you take all of those volumes and other writings that we have from the third fourth fifth century together and You were to extract from all of those books all of those letters all of that correspondence scriptures they quoted to each other and passages of scripture they cited from those writings That go back now almost 1 ,800 years.

You could reconstruct the Bible minus about 11 verses to me, that's incredible 500 5 ,488 manuscripts and along with that the letters that we have that men wrote to each other all Giving us the the Word of God minus just 11 verses.

So we have an abundance of manuscript evidence and along with that along with the abundance the age of those manuscripts now those of you who have had to sit through college courses know the name Homer and the Iliad and the Odyssey and his writings.

Do you know there were only? 643 copies of Homer's writings and the closest they can get to Homer when he lived and when he wrote is About 500 years so we have nothing from the time Homer lived Until he died for 500 more years copies of things that he had written yet no one ever challenges the fact that he wrote it and We could say that we could go into the same about Plato and Aristotle and Pliny and others.

We have over 24 ,000 24 ,000 not manuscripts now, but what you would call copies or portions of scripture and If you ever travel the British Museum Dublin and the University there Portions of the Word of God that go back actually to the first century itself small snippets.

I know but nevertheless We have far more abundant evidence for the authenticity of the scriptures. You hold in your hand then all the met all the classic scholars that go back to Homer Plato Pliny the historian all of those.

This book stands on far greater authority and far greater reliability than all of that but not only that I don't want to get bore you but We often hear in terms of apologetics that defending the Word of God the evidence from archaeology.

Now we have to remember archaeology does not prove the inspiration of Scripture. It only proves the reliability of the of the record that what it is a recounted as history is Absolutely accurate and true.

Archaeology and the Historical Reliability of Scripture

It's interesting that today March 23rd 1899 so you do the math very quickly. That's a hundred and eighteen years ago as of today There was a man named by the name of called away a German I believe and today was the day he started Digging and Unearthed tremendous Relics of Babylon the walls of Babylon Inscriptions of the Hanging Garden some of the writings of Babylon some of the things that Substantiate what the Word of God says so clearly today's the hundred and eighteenth anniversary of that when he began his digging there in that land and he uncovered the walls of Babylon and all that came with it and Electrified the the world of archaeology with what he had found Substantiating everything that the Word of God said about Babylon even records of some of Babylon's battles and so on and even attesting to the fact that The king lifted up the head of Jehoiakim at the end of his reign and gave him food and so on all of that was confirmed 109 119 years ago 118 years ago rather by the spade the Word of God being confirmed by the spade.

Let me just mention a few things for example the walls of Jericho. Now if an earthquake had affected the walls of Jericho the city would have imploded on itself. When Jericho was excavated in 1930 they found the city wasn't Plundered but rather the walls fell out.

They found it was at harvest time. They actually found remnants of Of harvest that were being kept in bottles there in the city and it confirmed the fact that it was a unique Destruction of the walls that are falling in and crumbling it it fell out and became really the wall that that kept them out now Became a staircase to let them in.

It was all confirmed about a hundred years ago when Jericho was Excavated. The the name of Sargon mentioned once in your Bible in the book of Isaiah. Sargon was only mentioned once and for for many many years.

Men could not find his name in antiquity in the historic records. And of course immediately what occurs is men begin to deny the Word of God as a result and it was in 1843 a French archaeologist found Fragments of a of a steel they call them and on it was the name of Sargon.

And substantiated it. What about Daniel and Belshazzar again. Daniel on the lines then so Robert Anderson you can read it the Claims of men that Daniel was totally inaccurate because there was never a ruler by the name of Belshazzar over the land of Babylon.

Now of course they're partially right. His father who was the ruler had gone off to battle Had left his son Belshazzar a second-in-command of the city. They see doesn't that make sense when Belshazzar says to Daniel I will make you third ruler in the kingdom and Eventually archaeology Confirmed that there was a man named Belshazzar who was second ruler in the kingdom in the absence of his father the polytarchs of Acts 17 that Luke refers to again people said there never were such rulers over the city in Thessalonica, but again The spade confirmed that there were such rulers as polytarchs over the city, but we could go into many many other Many many other examples of how archaeology has confirmed the truth of the Word of God.

But I don't want to bore you too much. If you've never been assaulted with this by the skeptics you don't have to listen, but You will be told you know that there are 200 ,000 mistakes in the Bible now that sounds pretty impressive.

200 ,000 mistakes in the Bible really. Well, of course what they're saying is that if you look at a particular manuscript It will have one word and if you look at the King James Version our authorized version It might have a different word and of course when you analyze all that it's like the word upon versus on or a versus the or but versus yet and all of those 200 ,000 quote mistakes Have no bearing on any truth in the Word of God.

Now if you have a Newbery Bible You'll notice that mr. Newbery gives you Variant manuscript readings at the bottom of your at the bottom of each page and at least in your New Testament He very helpfully informs us about what other manuscripts might say and whether it has any bearing on how you would Understand a particular verse, but all of the mistakes allegedly are simply differences.

Minor differences between manuscripts. Hey, you got to remember Again it's another whole subject that the Bible originally this was before the day I know young people can hardly conceive but before the day of word processing and computers people actually did things by hand and The scribes who were the copyists of the day.

They would copy out the Old Testament by hand. They would know exactly How many letters on every page? They would count at the end and if One letter were missing the page was destroyed and they started over again.

They could tell you the middle verse of the Pentateuch. They could tell you the middle word of the Pentateuch. They could tell you the middle letter of the Pentateuch. Everything was absolutely Calibrated and and counted and they Meticulously copied out the Word of God.

But of course in those if you ever if you know anything about Hebrew words just little minor variations sometimes can change the Significance of a word in some measure and so there were differences that did arise.

But now you have to understand how they count those two hundred thousand differences. If your authorized version says but and Ten other manuscripts say yet. Then that's ten mistakes. You may say was only one now ten manuscripts are dead.

So and again all of those alleged mistake mistakes mean very Have no bearing upon the truth of the Word of God and its doctrine. So just to clarify that for us. But how how do we go about gaining confidence in the Word of God?

The Testimony of Christ and the Changed Lives of Believers

What what is there that we can look to that gives us confidence? This is the Word of God now. It's important to stress. We are not looking at scientific evidence scientific evidence. Now all of you that have been any any high school science class knows the essence of science is Reproducibility.

You have an experiment you get a result and you're able to reproduce it and prove it again and again and again so the essence of scientific proof is Reproducibility. Well God's not going to reproduce his word for us again.

He's done it once. How do you judge something that's historic? How do you judge something at a court of law? You don't reproduce something at a court of law. You bring in Expert testimony you bring in witnesses you bring in the the proof and it's then judged on its own merits.

So Let me just mention a few things. First of all, there is the testimony of the Savior himself. Now you may say well that's kind of circular reasoning. I Mean you're saying the Lord Jesus said it is the Word of God and yet It's the Word of God that tells us the Lord Jesus said it.

But in a court of law a man is allowed to testify on his own behalf and the character of the man Will give value or detract from his testimony now. I Think it was CS Lewis was the first person who? Postulated.

What I'm about to say you will find people who say Jesus Christ was a good man. Jesus Christ was a great teacher but Jesus Christ is not he can't be God and he can't be telling us. The Bible is the Word of God.

We see that's absolute madness to say that. How can you say a man is a good man if he claimed to be God and wasn't? How can you say a man was a great teacher? If he taught that he was the Son of God and that he was the only way to heaven and he really isn't.

So, I mean it was CS Lewis and again This is said with reverence. He said Christ is either a lunatic a liar or he is Lord of all either he didn't know what he was saying and was out of his mind or he intentionally lied or He is who he said he is.

He's Lord of all you can't you can't waffle on it and somehow Pigeonhole him and get away with saying well, I really think what he was. He was a wonderful man, and I don't want to offend you so he was really a great teacher but You know to claim he's the only way to heaven, but that's what he taught.

That's what he taught that he was the only he is the only way to heaven. So the testimony of the Savior Was that this book is the inspired God-breathed Word of God that will judge every man. You only have to go back and look at the various heat.

He alluded to the flood. He spoke of the flood. He alluded to various events in the Old Testament to creation in the beginning that he made them male and female and so on. He goes back to creation goes back to the flood goes back to Jacob goes back to Abraham.

Goes back to the book of Genesis goes back to the book of Exodus goes back to the book of Leviticus. He substantiates at all and. So he is either madman or Messiah. No middle ground for us to waffle in.

And the testimony of the Savior. We've mentioned already the the testimony of the spade of archaeology. So we'll just leave that for a moment. Could I mention to you as well? The testimony of sinners who've been saved by grace.

I had a I Had a professor in university when I was there ages ago. I know this works. There it is and she was an English professor and she was an authority on a particular author and she was mentioning a book that this author had written and in her Desire to praise the author and to praise the book.

She said she actually met a person. Who said that reading that book? Changed his life. One person how many people have had their lives changed by this book? This book you could fill well because they could fill stadiums.

Better still you'll fill heaven. It's going to fill heaven with the people whose lives have been changed by this book. We've got our brother Duncan with us tonight so he would he would know the name of Robert Moffitt one of Scotland's great heroes.

Robert Moffitt was a missionary to Africa and. And labored long and hard before he saw soul say but nevertheless on one occasion on one occasion as he was sitting in his Hut, whatever it was one of the chiefs one of the African chiefs came to him.

Absolutely. I rate and The chief was I rate because he said My dog will never hunt for me again and Moffitt, you know, what's that have to do with me? That your dog will never hunt again. What had happened was that?

The chief's dog had gotten into Robert Moffitt's one of Robert Moffitt's Bibles and had eaten away at some of the pages and The chief said my dog will never hunt for me again because everyone Who takes in that book it changes their life.

Humorous, but yet. How true? Everyone who takes in that book changes their life. My dog will never hunt for me again. That book has changed our lives hasn't it changed our lives now and it changed our lives for all eternity.

Resurrection as the Ultimate Confirmation of Scripture

God's wonderful work in Inspiration. The testimony of the Savior. The testimony of the spade. The testimony of sinners who have been saved by grace. I Think the ultimate proof of the inspiration of this book is the testimony of the stone and the sepulcher.

The resurrection of Christ. Ultimately if Christ be not raised Our faith is in vain. The Lord Jesus Christ himself said Destroy this body and in three days. I will raise it again. We're reminded in 1st Corinthians 15 not only that he died according to the scriptures, but it was burden he raised according to the scriptures.

His resurrection Verifies the truth of the Word of God. Everything really rests. I mean we speak of the cross as the basis of all and I'm not taking from that. But really everything rests on a resurrected Christ if Christ be not raised.

If there was no resurrection if we are just living in a fantasy world and somehow we are tragically tragically deceived. But the proof of resurrection is beyond doubt all those who have ever tried to approach it in a legal Historical manner of had to own the proof is overwhelming for resurrection for the reality of a resurrected living Christ and so His very resurrection is what substantiates the Truth of the Word of God.

It vindicates Christ and it vindicates all that Christ taught. There is as well the the proof of the seers this proof of the prophets themselves now. We all delight don't we to look at Isaiah 53 Psalm 22 Psalm 16 Psalm 40.

We love to go through those scriptures and look at Christ and all the scriptures and think of how all that was said of him Was so faithfully fulfilled in his life and in his death. Some have claimed that He self-fulfilled prophecy.

For example, we all know the Very very careful calculations of sir, Robert Anderson and the Lord Jesus Christ presenting himself to the nation In his entry into Jerusalem, but some say well he knew that and so because he knew it was going to happen he did it.

He self-fulfilled the prophecy. Well, they're right. He did know it and he did self-fulfill it. But let's just take prophecies that he had no way of fulfilling himself for example. The time of his birth the place of his birth the manner of his birth.

Those are just three. Think of his betrayal by Judas. Think of the manner of his death. Think of the treatment he received at the hands of men. The spitting the shame the scourging that the bruising. Think of all of that.

Think of the piercing of his hands feet and his side. Think of his burial by a rich man. He could control none of those things. They were all things that were done to him or done outside of his. Human control if we can call it that so there's just eight prophecies.

Now you ask someone who's had mathematical probability and statistics. To determine what is the likelihood of eight independent events? Occurring in the life of one person 500 years after they were written a minimum 700 years after they were written.

What's the probability of all that occurring in in one person's life? And they will tell you. It's equivalent to covering the state of Wisconsin with white golf balls and putting one black golf ball somewhere Amidst that crowd.

Blindfolding me and telling me to find a black golf ball. That's the likelihood of one person in his life. Fulfilling just eight of these prophecies. And actually if you were to take time and look at it.

The prophecies are far more than than simply eight. So the testimony then of the seers the testimony of its survival of this book's survival. This book has survived the passage of of time. It survived the prophecies of its enemies.

It survived the persecution from from its foes the passage of time. We live in a very very rapid paced society. Today's bestseller that everyone is reading and you must read and you must get it and you must devour it is usually forgotten in less than a year.

A good book a classic a Charles Dickens a Bronte. They survive a couple of hundred years. The truly great masters the Shakespeare's and the Dante's they may go 500 600 years. This book. What's it working on now?

When Malachi laid down his pen it was a d400 so it's 2400 years and When Moses took up his pen it was 1500 year 8 BC. So we're looking at 3500 years to 2400 years period that this book has survived. Not just survived but flourished.

This book has Survived the passage of time. This book has survived not just the passing of time, but the the prophecies of its foes and It has had many from the German critics To Voltaire to others all prophesying this book would soon be forgotten.

Was it one of the Beatles who said that he would be more famous than Jesus Christ. Men will forget Christ and think of him. You know who's forgotten, you know whose name will live on forever. This book has survived the prophecies of all of its foes.

This book has survived the persecution of its enemies whether you go back to Diocletian and The persecution against the Christians and the attempts to eradicate the Word of God. Antiochus Epiphanies. Requiring all Bibles to be burned.

All scripture to be burned whether you're looking at what occurred when in the time of men like Gutenberg and others Myles Coverdale Tyndale men who were burned at the stake for this border for the Word of God and Every attempt being made by its foes to destroy the Word of God.

I think there are. I should have checked this before coming. Maybe someone can correct me. I think it's about a dozen copies of what is known as the bloody Bible. It was when Mary Queen of Scots was on her bloody rampage against Protestantism.

The soldiers would come into a home and would slay kill Those who are professing believers and take their Bibles and dip it in their blood. And the Bibles became known as bloody Bibles. As a testimony and I think there's about 11 or so of them still in existence in the world today.

Attempts to eradicate it have all failed. This Bible continues to live on the testimony of its Survival, but I have to hurry. I want to speak not just of its reliability, but of its revelation. We read together 1st Corinthians chapter 2 that no one no man knows the spirit of a man except that man now what that simply means in everyday language is and It's very fortunate.

I don't know what you're thinking. And I'm glad I don't okay. The only one who knows what you're thinking is you. No man knows the spirit of a man. But that man we can't read each other's thoughts now if I cannot read the thoughts of another human being.

How could I ever discover God's thoughts and. So he says no man knows the spirit of a man, but that man neither Know it any man the mind of God, but the spirit of God. So if we are going to know God it must be through revelation.

He must communicate to us something of what is in his mind and something of what he would like us to know. So We're reminded now, that's just the necessity for it. If we are going to know God it must be through revelation.

We cannot by searching ourselves Find out God not a matter of our intellect somehow rising to the occasion not a matter of the the accumulated knowledge of men somehow being able to discover what God is like not a matter of a lot of philosophic speculation.

If we are going to know God he must reveal himself to us. And so we are told that No prophecy ever came from that prophet himself. But rather holy men of God were born along. Holy men of God were born along by the Spirit of God and they wrote now.

When a man wasn't now we don't. I should hopefully this isn't necessary, but let me just clarify it. We're not speaking of inspiration like you speak about a poet be a poet being inspired or a songwriter being inspired by Different things just to write something.

What we're speaking about is God controlling God controlling what a man wrote. So that when that man put his pen down put his period at the end of what he was writing. What he wrote was word-for-word.

What God intended him to write. Now God did not violate personality. He didn't violate intellect, but but he controlled what those men put to paper and so God has revealed himself. The Word of God attests that Holy men of God speak as they were born along by the Spirit of God.

The wording there in First 2nd Peter chapter 1 we didn't read the whole context. He speaks of being on the Holy Mount and Being with the Lord Jesus Christ when he received from God the Father honor and glory for there was Born along to him a voice.

Now he uses the same word. That there were that holy men of God were born or just like the voice that came from heaven to earth. Communicating God's message. Holy men of God were born along as well as they Communicated God's message to men and as they wrote it it was word-for-word the mind of God.

To us so we are. We are incredibly blessed and privileged to hold in our hands the inspired record of God. God breathed out his word. Accurate inspired. It wasn't really they. Again a technical difference.

It wasn't the men so much who were inspired, but it was the message. It was the message. It's not like You know a motivational talk and you get all inspired and then you go out and do something wonderful.

God didn't inspire the men to write. The inspiration was what they wrote the message the communication from God to us. And now we have the Spirit of God to illuminate us and to give us the help we need.