Bristol Conference 1964 (Apostasy) - Part 3 — William MacDonald

We're taking a series of studies in the second epistle of Peter. We have a mimeograph outline, but I realize that there are some who are here for the first time. You haven't got a copy of the outline and would like one, would you raise your hand, and Brother Suit will pass one to you.

Anybody who didn't get a copy of the outline? One or two over on the other side. There are some books up here, but I think Mr. Tatum picked them out, and he'll be speaking about them to you tomorrow. I think I kind of stole his thunder last night by speaking about the books that were here.

Peter's Call to Remember the Truth

I would, however, remind you to browse through the bookstore and bring home some good ministry of the Word of God with you. Now, shall we turn in our Bible tonight to 2 Peter, chapter 1, please, and we'll begin reading with verse 12.

Verse 12 through the end of the chapter. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it neat, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.

Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my deceit, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.". Going back to your outline for just a minute, you'll notice that Peter's salutation is in the first two verses.

Then he tells us that God has made provision for his people in a day of false teaching, in a day of apostasy from the Christian faith. And in verses three and four he tells us the wonderful provision that God has made, that he's not left us without resource, but that we have all in him, in his Holy Spirit, in his precious word, that we need for such days of darkness.

But then in verses five through eleven he reminds the believers that they have a responsibility. And the great responsibility of the believer is to grow up into Christian maturity, not to remain in spiritual infancy, but to develop, to eat well, to drink well, to breathe pure air and to exercise well in the things of God and be conformed to the image of Christ.

In verses five through seven he tells us those personal qualities which should be developed by the child of God. In verses eight through ten he tells the benefit that this type of development will save a man from falling or from stumbling, from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord, from suffering from severe short-sightedness, blindness, not being able to see things that are afar off, and from a practical forgetfulness of the fact that he was purged from his sins.

And then he goes on to speak of the future rewards of a life of Christian development, Christian growth, and that is an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Need for Constant Reminders

Now, in verses twelve through fifteen, the apostle Peter speaks of the need of constant reminder of known truths. He says, first of all, in verse twelve,. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the truth that is with you.

Really, the present truth, that is the truth that is with you. Now, it's a curious thing in Christian life that a person may know the truths of the Bible, and yet as time goes on, practically they may slip, and we all need constant reminders.

I've noticed even this last year, things come up in the Christian life, and maybe I go to the prayer meeting on Wednesday night. Some brother gets up and brings forth a certain portion of the word of God.

He didn't know it was just for me, but it was. And yet it was something I had known before. It was something I had known before, but it's something that the Spirit of God brought forward in power at that particular time of need in my life.

Have you ever noticed that? Things that you knew very well, yet heard them over and over again, and yet somehow or other that practical application wasn't there. Then a particular need came in your life, and the Spirit of God brings it.

Why the page just shines with a holy luster when the truth is brought back to you? We all need to be constantly reminded of the truths of the word of God. And incidentally, I think that's a very strong argument, not only for our personal, systematic, consecutive study of the word of God, but also for faithful attendance at the meetings of the assembly.

I've often said that the person who only attends that worship meeting once a week isn't really in full fellowship, and we're robbing ourselves. Oftentimes, perhaps you're tired when that midweek meeting comes along, and you're tempted not to go.

But in spite of all that temptation, you decide to go anyway, and you find that the Lord Jesus was there, one of the thrills of life. And so Peter says, I make no apology for going over and over the great truths of the Christian faith.

I know you know them. You're established in the truth that is with you, and yet I know, too, how the Spirit of God can take those precious truths and drive them home with fresh power to the heart of a Christian, and how very precious that is.

Then he says in verse 13, yea, I think it meet, or that means right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, and the tabernacle, of course, is his body, as long as he's still in the body, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.

Peter's Martyrdom and Continuing Ministry

Now, this is an interesting thing. Here is the Apostle Peter looking forward to his martyrdom, because that's what it was going to be, and the Lord Jesus told him that's what it's going to be. What would you think?

What would be the thoughts of your heart at martyrdom, or just a short way ahead? What would be my thoughts? Maybe that would be a better question. I wonder if I would have the calm and the poise and the unselfishness of the Apostle Peter, because all of those things are evident in this verse.

Here's a man about to die, and he's thinking of others. Isn't that beautiful? Others, yes, Lord, others. Let this my motto be. Help me to live for others, that I might live like thee. And so he's looking forward to that day of which the Lord Jesus had told him.

He said, as long as I'm still in the body, I'm going to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. In other words, it seems that the burden on the heart of the Apostle Peter, as his life was drawing to a close, was the spiritual welfare of the people of God.

It's really wonderful. Now he speaks here of the fact that the Lord Jesus had told him that the putting off of his tabernacle would be soon. Where did the Lord Jesus tell him that? Well, we don't exactly know.

Perhaps the closest we can come is in John chapter 21, and you might like to turn over to that. I know it's a familiar verse to you. But you remember that interview with the Apostle Peter in the latter part of John, when the Lord asked him three times if he really loved him.

And you have that wonderful conversation between the risen Savior and the disciple who had denied him. And Jesus said unto him in verse 18 of the last chapter of John, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest.

But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hand, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. Well, certainly the Lord Jesus gave him a preview there of his approaching martyrdom.

He didn't say in that particular passage of scripture that it would happen soon. Perhaps by the communication of the Holy Spirit, it was revealed to the Apostle Peter that shortly he would put off this tabernacle.

But then there's a third nice point in verse 15. He said, Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. He's not only going to stir them up as long as he's with them, but he's going to make provision for them spiritually after he has died.

How did he do that? Well, perhaps one way he did it was in the second epistle of Peter that we're reading. We're going over those very things 1900 years later. Some people believe, too, that the gospel of Mark, that Peter really had quite an important part in the preparation of the gospel of Mark, that Mark was his helper in that.

Whether that's so or not, I do not know. But I do think it's interesting here that the Apostle Peter took steps to ensure a continuing ministry after his body was lying in the grave. I wonder how many of us have ever thought of that.

Somebody said, Everybody owes it to himself to provide himself some respectable work while his body's lying in the grave. And I can see Peter doing that here. Most of us figure, well, we'll work up to the time that the Lord calls us home, and that will be it.

But I tell you, it's wonderful. It's wonderful to think of the ministry of a man like Charles Haddon Spurgeon or the ministry of a man like Harry A. Ironside or the ministry of a man like Arno C. Gableyne.

These other giants of the faith who committed their ministry to writing, and they're working very respectably these days as people all over the world are reading those books and being blessed by them.

It's the written word that lasts. And so this is something we could think about, too. What am I doing to perpetuate my ministry here? It's a nice thought, isn't it, that the grave doesn't have to mark the end of your ministry or mine here on earth.

And so the Apostle Peter goes over this lovely thing, the need of constant reminder, I'm going to do it as long as I'm living, and I'm going to make provision for it after I've departed from this scene.

And he certainly did. What a privilege that we have his writings 1900 years later. And now he comes to the great subject of the trustworthiness of the word of God, the trustworthiness of the message concerning the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture, Prophecy, and the Rejection of Myth

We learned earlier that the Apostle Peter is speaking about false teachers in this epistle, and there were three principal areas in which these false teachings would center. One had to do with the inspiration of the scriptures.

Another had to do with the second coming of Christ. Another had to do with a whole subject of morals, the whole subject of morals. Well, here he's going to introduce us to the first two, and he binds them together.

The inspiration of the scriptures and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Now I'd like to just look at the first part of that verse. We have not followed cunningly devised fable. Look at that word fable. Another word that would fit in there just as well is the word myth. In fact, the word myth comes from the word that's in the original language of the New Testament.

Myth. We have not followed cleverly devised myths. Now I emphasize that tonight. Why? I'll give you two reasons why I emphasize that tonight. One of the prominent liberal theologians of this century is a man named Bultman.

B-U-L-T-M-A-N. Bultman was a man named Bultman. He has started a craze among theologians and seminarians that centers around what he calls demythologizing the New Testament. What he says is, the New Testament is full of myths.

That's the very word he uses, myth. And the average young person in this country attending a seminary today is being fed Bultman and the demythologizing of the New Testament. And when that young fellow gets through seminary, he knows more about Bultman and Bruner and Barth than he does about Exodus or Ezra or Ezekiel.

That's one of the tragedies of our day. Secondly, in 1963, a bishop of the Church of England published a book. The book is entitled Honest to God. It's not for sale in the bookstore. I don't recommend that you read it.

The Bishop of Woolwich, John Robinson, a high churchman in the Church of England, denies a personal God in that book. And I'd like to read to you tonight a passage from his book, just to show you how timely the word of God is.

Peter says, we have not followed cunningly devised myths. Is the word of God up to date? Listen to what the false teachers are saying. This is John A. T. Robertson in the book Honest to God. In the last century, a painful but decisive step forward was taken in the recognition that the Bible does contain myths, and that this is an important form of religious truth.

It was gradually acknowledged by all except extreme fundamentalists that the Genesis stories of the creation and fall were representations of the deepest truths about man and the universe in the form of myth rather than history, and were nonetheless valid for that.

Indeed, it was essential to the defense of Christian truth to recognize and assert that these stories were not history, and not, therefore, in competition with the alternative accounts of anthropology or cosmology.

Those who did not make this distinction were, we can now see, playing straight into the hands of Thomas Huxley and his friends. Now, what he's saying in that quotation is this. It's been a great day for the Church that we've come to acknowledge that the Bible does contain them.

Mind you, these myths are very valuable. They contain deep representations of spiritual truth, but we're not able to argue successfully with atheists like Huxley unless we're willing to admit that the Bible does contain them.

Now Peter said that in the last day false teachers would arise, and that this was the type of thing they would be teaching. Where do you think we are tonight in God's program? That's the question that faces us as we come to this portion of the word of God.

We have not followed cunningly devised myths when we may know and view the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The power and coming. That's another way of saying the coming in power. This is a coming accompanied by power.

Mind you, the Lord Jesus' first coming, you'd never speak of that as the power and coming of the Lord Jesus. You'd speak of it as the humiliation and coming of the Lord Jesus. That was his coming in lowly birth in deathly hell's stable.

But Peter says, we weren't following myths when we told you that that same one who came to Bethlehem's manger is coming again in power and great glory. Now just let me give you a little summary of Peter's arguments in this passage of the word of God.

Old Testament Prophecy and the Coming Kingdom

He speaks here of the prophecies of the Old Testament scripture. He goes back to the Old Testament and reminds the people, who incidentally were well familiar with the Old Testament, that the prophets in the Old Testament looked forward to a golden era of peace and prosperity when the Messiah would come back to the earth, when war would be abolished, when poverty and disease would be a thing of the past, when a king would reign in righteousness and all graft and corruption would be put down, and when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

This was one of the great burdens of Old Testament prophetic scriptures, the fact that the Messiah would come, that he'd come back to this very earth in a personal coming, that his feet would touch the Mount of Olives in that day as prophesied by Zechariah.

Now something happened in the New Testament in connection with that glorious prophecy. One day the Lord Jesus Christ took Peter, James, and John up onto a mount, and when they were there on that mount, he was transfigured before them.

They saw Christ in the glory of his coming kingdom. They had a preview of the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's just pause there and turn back to Luke chapter nine, verse twenty-seven, so that we can see this for ourselves.

Luke chapter nine, verse twenty-seven. This is right after his experience at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter made that wonderful confession of him as the Christ of God. The Lord Jesus said in verse twenty-six, For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's, and of the holy angels.

Here's the coming. The Lord Jesus coming in his own glory, and in the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. Then he said, the Lord Jesus said, But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.

Now those, all those fellows that were standing there with the Lord that day, they've all died. And yet the Lord Jesus said to them, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.

Did they see the kingdom of God? Yes. The next verses tell you how they saw the kingdom of God. Came to pass after an eight days, about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and James and John and went up into a mountain to pray.

And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered. And his raiment was white and blistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his deceit, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake, they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias, not knowing what he said.

While he thus spake, there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone.

They kept it close, and told no man of those days any of those things which they had seen. Jesus said, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God. He took them up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and Peter, James, and John were, as it were, carried forward to the thousand-year reign of Christ.

They saw Christ there in all the glory of his coming kingdom. And they heard a voice from heaven saying, All right, other men have held sway in the earth up until now, but the time has come when my beloved son is going to have the preeminence.

I have decreed to set my son upon the holy hill of Zion, and the earth is about to see it. And so, Peter is saying in this passage of scripture that we have before us tonight that were all those prophecies in the Old Testament pointing forward to the glorious reign of Christ.

We had an experience, Peter, myself, James, and John. We had an experience of the holy mount, and we saw the prophecies of the Old Testament scriptures concerned. And I want you to know that we are not following cunningly devised myths when we speak to you of the powerful coming of the Lord Jesus.

He says in verse sixteen, We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. What does that mean? It means they saw the glory of the Lord. During most of the Lord's earthly lifetime, his glory was veiled in a body of flesh.

Sometimes it shone out. Sometimes his glory as the Creator shone out when he gave sight to a man who was blind from birth. Sometimes his glory as the master of the elements shone out when he rebuked the wind and the waves of the Sea of Galilee.

But for the most part, during his earthly life, his glory was veiled. But there are an amount of transfigurations. The splendor and moral excellence of the Lord Jesus Christ shone out. Peter, James, and John were eyewitnesses, three of them.

In the mouths of two or three witnesses shall everything be established. And Peter takes special note in verse sixteen of the fact that the Lord Jesus received from God the Father honor and glory when that voice came to him from the excellent glory,.

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And Peter saw in that a preview, a pre-picture of what it was going to be like in the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what he says in verse eighteen,.

And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. Mind you, it was a wonderful experience, wasn't it? A wonderful experience to be there with the Lord Jesus and Moses and Elias.

Moses, I suppose, speaks to us of those who reached the millennial kingdom of Christ by the way of death. Moses died. He was buried by the hand of God on Mount Nebo. No man knows his sepulcher. Elijah, no doubt, speaks of those who reached the by way of translation.

The Lord took them without passing through the article of death. Peter James and John, no doubt, speak to us of those who will be alive when the millennial kingdom is set up. Those who will pass from the tribulation period into the kingdom.

Then perhaps those waiting down at the bottom of the mountain would speak of the nations that will participate in the glory and splendor of the wonderful reign of the Lord Jesus. I'd like to just spend a moment in verse nineteen, because it's very important.

The Prophetic Word as Light in Darkness

It says in verse nineteen, We have also a more sure word of prophecy. For unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart.

The first part of the verse, We have also a more sure word of prophecy. I'd like to suggest another translation of this. It's suggested by Mr. F. W. Grant. Perhaps you'd like to write it down in the margin of your Bible.

We have the word of prophecy confirmed. And then I'll explain to you why the change. We have the word of prophecy confirmed. Why do I mention that? Well, for this reason, the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming reign of Christ were inspired of God.

And for that reason, nothing could ever be more sure. Nothing could ever be more sure. If Zechariah said it, God said it. If Isaiah said it, God said it. It was the very word of God. And nothing in the New Testament could ever be any more sure than anything in the Old Testament.

It's one book, the word of God. It stands or falls together. Incidentally, that's one of the weaknesses of what we call a red letter edition of the Bible. You know, you can go to the bookstore and you can buy Bibles where the words of the Lord Jesus are written, are printed in red.

And I don't know what kind of an impression that creates in people's minds, but it's apt to create the impression that those words of the Lord Jesus are more sacred than any of the rest of the book. Of course, that isn't so.

The Bible is the word of God. And the thing that I'd like to emphasize here in connection with this verse is that nothing could be more sure than the prophecies of the Old Testament with regard to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, did the experience of Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration when they had a preview of the coming king, did that make the prophecies of the Old Testament more sure? It couldn't, but it confirmed them.

Do you see? It confirmed those prophecies. Those men in the Old Testament said, it's coming, that great period of peace and splendor for the earth when all the marks of the curse will be largely set aside, when wild, ravenous animals will no longer be carnivorous, but will eat hay and vegetables and the like.

And what happened to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration? That didn't add an iota more surety to the prophecy of the Old Testament, but it certainly did confirm it. Because Peter, James and John on the Mount, they saw, they saw a glimpse of the glory of what the prophets in the Old Testament had been talking about.

And incidentally, I couldn't help thinking of this. We mentioned before about the poise and the calm of this man as he was facing death. And how he could say, well, I'm about to die, my death is coming soon, my thoughts are with you, I'm going to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance and I'm going to make provision that after I die, you'll still have these things to be reminded of.

How did he have such poise? I can't help thinking that it was linked with this whole truth of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know anything that gives stability to the Christian. Isn't this the helmet of salvation?

It's really the helmet of the hope of salvation, the ultimate salvation, the consummation of all the promises of God. And so he says here, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, for unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.

Well, I want to tell you the world in which we live is a dark place. If you don't believe it, read your newspapers. It's a dark place. And I wonder tonight if we realize what a privilege it is for us to have the word of God, and to have God, and I say this reverently, to have the Lord as it were put his arms around us and say, look, my dear child, I'm going to take you into my counsel.

I'm going to share with you my secrets concerning the future. I'm going to tell you, for instance, that in a dispensation of the fullness of times I have decreed and I have determined and I have proposed that I'm going to head up all things in my beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's what God does. That's what God does in the word. He takes us into his counsel. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and mine gives us his wonderful panorama of what's ahead. Think if you were on say tonight, think if you were out in the world, in the darkness of the world tonight, what it would be.

No home, no hope beyond, no harbor waiting where your storm-tossed vessel you might steer. And so he said the prophetic word is like a light shining in a dark place. May the Lord enable us to appreciate it.

You know, prophecy is being downgraded these days. Prophecy is being downgraded, and you'll be shocked to know that the assemblies in England have largely abandoned the hope of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why do you say that? I say that so that as we read these things, we'll never have the thought in our mind, it can't happen to me. This book was written to us, and we must be on the alert. It says, unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawns and the day star arrives.

Now there's another change in this verse I'd like to suggest, and I believe there's good manuscript authority for doing it, and that is this. Add those words in your heart after take heed. I believe that Mr. Darby's translation does this, although I'm not positive.

I should have looked it up, so that the verse would read like this. Where unto you do well that ye take heed in your heart, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arrives.

It isn't so much that the day star arises in your heart, but it's that you take heed in your heart. Now what does that mean? Well, it means that the prophecy is a lamp that lightens the darkness of the world for the child of God, and will continue to do so, I believe, I would suggest anyway, until the millennial day dawns, until all of those wonderful prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled, the millennial day dawns and Christ appears.

The day star rises in power and great glory. And then he says in the last verse, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

The Inspiration of Scripture

And here we have one of the most wonderful statements in all the word of God concerning the inspiration of the scripture. Now first let me say a word about verse twenty. It says, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

What does that mean? Well, the Roman Catholic people would sometimes use it to mean this. You don't have the right to interpret the scriptures. Only the church has the right to interpret the scriptures.

The scriptures should not be interpreted by any private individual. We have the monopoly on that, and so the people are not encouraged to read or especially to interpret the scripture. Well, it's true that no individual has the right to interpret the scriptures.

The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the scriptures, but he can do it through individuals. But it's certainly blasphemous and false to suggest that that church has the exclusive right or any church for that matter, and it doesn't mean that.

Well, we commonly take this verse to mean that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation. You can't take a verse and interpret it by itself. This is the common explanation. You every verse must be considered in the light of the whole word of God.

You can't build a doctrine on a single verse of scripture. Well, that's true, but that really isn't what this verse is teaching. This verse has to do with how the scriptures came to be written, not how they're to be interpreted after they're written.

This verse has to do with the original writing of the scriptures, and what it's saying is that when Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Zechariah, when all of these men wrote in the Old Testament, they didn't write down their personal interpretation of current events.

They weren't current news commentators who were just all too glad to tell how they looked upon the picture. No, that isn't the way the scriptures came to us. No prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation.

Those men didn't give us their private ideas as to what was taking place and what would take place, and the next verse proves that that's the right meaning of that verse. It says, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men.

It wasn't their own idea. It wasn't their own thought. It wasn't their own interpretation. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Wonderful, isn't it? How did you get your Bible? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

In the area of inspiration, the great battle is being fought today. It is not that men outside the church are attacking the inspiration of the scripture so much, but men inside the church are raising doubts concerning the inspiration and infallibility of the word of God.

And I'd just like to go over one or two points at the close of the meeting tonight in connection with the inspiration scriptures. We believe in the inspiration of the Bible, the word of God. 2 Timothy 3 .16.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God. I believe with all my heart tonight as I stand here that every scripture in this blessed book is God-breathed. I pay tribute tonight to men unto whom I sat in the assembly back home, and I can still hear their voices crying out about the inspiration of the word of God, and I owe a debt to them that I can never repay.

Verbal Inspiration and the Words of Scripture

Secondly, we believe in the verbal inspiration of the word of God. We believe... You know, there are some who are quite sophisticated about the whole thing, and they'd be willing to admit that the ideas were inspired and the general thoughts were inspired, but they're not willing to admit that the very words of scripture are inspired.

I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 2 .13. 1 Corinthians 2 .13. This is the key verse, I believe, to show the verbal inspiration of the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 2 .13. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

Now, if you read that right, you'll have to add the word words again after the but. I mean, that's the flow of thought. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.