We Believe. . .
The Bible is the Word of God
2 Timothy 3:16
I want to begin this morning a series of studies on some eternal truths that will change your life that I want to entitle "These Things We Believe." And really all that we're going to be doing here on Sunday mornings is taking some time to go through and find out what we believe as Southern Baptists. Now, just in case you didn't know it, this morning you are sitting in a Southern Baptist Church listening to a Southern Baptist preacher. We didn't trick you by changing the name. We didn't try to pull the wool over your eyes, but just in case you missed it somehow, this is a Southern Baptist Church and I am a Southern Baptist preacher, and I say that without apology or reservation.
I'm kind of like the story of the old Baptist preacher who had preached the Bible and loved the Bible for years and years and years, and one day a young man asked him what he'd be if he weren't a Baptist and he said, "Ashamed."
Well, that's kind of the way I am. I'm a Baptist. As a matter of fact, I'm a Southern Baptist, and I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to say so. And the reason why I'm so proud of being a Southern Baptist is because I don't know of any other denomination or faith group or entity that follows what the Bible says that a Christian ought to be and a church ought to be and our commission ought to be than we do as Southern Baptists. I’m not saying that others don’t believe the Bible and seek to live it. I’m just saying: I’m a Southern Baptist by choice and conviction.
Now, you'll hear me say this over and over during this series of studies, but we as Southern Baptists are not what you would call a "creedal people." In other words, we don't have to conform to some creed that somebody came up with. We don't have a binding creed like some other groups do.
For one reason, nobody ever saw the day that you could tell a Baptist that they had to do something and they did it. Usually if you want to get a Baptist to do something you tell them that they have to do the exact opposite and they'll say, "Huh, you're not going to tell me what to do," and they do the opposite which is exactly what you wanted them to do in the first place.
Another reason is because our sole basis of authority is the Bible itself. Now, even though we don't have a creed per se, we do have statements of faith, confessions of faith and these are simply ways of gathering for fellowship instead of coercing fellowship. And as Southern Baptists our statement
of faith is what's called The Baptist Faith and Message.
You should have a stack of them at the end of your pew. And I'd ask that you take one and bring one during the rest of this series, because we're going to use this little statement of faith as a guide to some tremendous truths that I really believe if you'll understand them and get them down deep and strong, they will totally transform your life.
Now, this morning as we begin this series of studies, I want to start where we have to start and that is with the Bible. That is always the beginning point.
And by the way, not everybody starts there.
Some start with the teachings of a man or woman. It might be Joseph Smith or Ellen White or Sun Yang Moon or Buddha, but Baptists start with the Word of God.
Listen to what we believe about the Bible:
Baptist Faith and Message, Article 1: "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation."
Now, aren't you glad to be a part of a denomination that believes that the Bible is the infallible, inspired, inerrant and eternal Word of God? Aren't you thankful that we believe the Bible? And that we aren’t ashamed to proclaim that publically?
I thank God for the Bible and I believe it cover to cover. In fact, I believe the cover. Mine says Holy Bible, and I even believe inside the cover where it says "Genuine Leather."
The Bible has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. I was brought up in a Christian home and so it was not uncommon to see copies of the Bible around our house.
My mom and dad both kept their Bibles there by their bed on the night stand. Very near their bibles would be Open Windows, a Southern Baptist devotional , and they would read their Bible every day.
We would go to church on Sunday and we would take a copy of the Bible with us. It was not uncommon for us to receive Bibles as gifts.
In fact, a most unusual things happened recently when Falls Creek gave to us their lost and found Bibles, and in those Bibles was one that my mom and dad had given to my brother for Christmas in 1967.
Back in those days in Sunday School we had what was known as the "six point record system." When you came to Sunday School you would check that you were present, that you were on time, and also on that record system there was a place to check that you had brought your Bible. I was taught at an early age to bring a copy of the Bible.
I remember as a boy going to church, and without exception, our pastors would preach from the Bible.
One of the most exciting things that ever happened when I was in elementary school is when the Gideon's came. The Gideon's gave every one of us a little pocket New Testament if we would make the promise that we would read through that pocket New Testament. I can remember as if it were yesterday leaving school that day with my brand-new copy of the New Testament.
All through these years as a boy the Bible was a very, very special book to me.
I remember at Vacation Bible School we would have the opening assembly and we would have the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States. We would also have the pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag.
Then we would also have a pledge to the Bible. Then we would sing, "The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-l-E." In fact it is my great privilege to lead those pledges at Children’s Camp, and you’ve not lived till you hear 5 or 6 thousand singing the BIBLE.
The Bible has been a part of all my life.
I believe that it is absolutely essential if you are going to be the kind of Christian you want to be to have a right relationship with the Bible, the Word of God.
I believe the Bible and I love the Bible and one or the reasons why I love it so much is because I believe that the Bible will transform your life. I believe that with all of my heart. I've seen it.
I've experienced it personally. And I'm praying that we'll see it and experience it even here this morning.
Now, Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:16 is talking to Timothy about the Bible and he tells him several things about the Bible. Listen to what he says:
TEXT
Paul is talking to Timothy about
1. What We Believe about the Bible
First of all, he says that all Scripture is
- Inspired
When the Bible says that all scripture is inspired by God, the word literally means, God-breathed.
The doctrine or teaching of the inspiration of scripture simply tells us that the scripture is an accurate transference of truth from God to man in language which we can understand.
We hold to an understanding of inspiration known as the verbal plenary theory. Simply put this means that as a musician blows air through his musical instrument to create a specific sound, God’s Spirit blew through the instrumentation of humanity to produce a certain and perfect word.
More to the point, as I'm speaking to you right now what you're hearing is my breath. My diaphragm is forcing my breath up through my throat and over my larynx and the voice box and my tongue and my teeth and my lips are taking the breath and making sounds and noises out of that breath and what you're hearing right now is what I am breathing out.
That is the truth behind every word of the Bible. It is fully inspired, God-breathed, and is exactly what God intended it to be.
Why is that important? Because divine inspiration of scripture assures us that it is the word of God not merely the words of man.
It is exactly what God wanted us to know, nothing more and nothing less. It is inspired, or breathed by His Spirit. This gives us a confidence and a certainty that we can rely upon.
All Scripture is God breathed. When the Bible speaks God speaks. That's what inspiration means. When the Bible speaks God speaks.
By the way, while I’m here, let me mention another couple of terms that will help you understand how we got our Bible.
The first is the term, “revelation.”
The Bible is Divine revelation
Revelation is the direct divine influence which communicates truth from God to man.
There are two types of revelation: General revelation and special revelation. General revelation is where God reveals His nature and purpose through creation and through history. Psalm 19:1 says that the “Heaven’s declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.”
Romans 1:20 assures us that, “From the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, that is His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen,
being understood through what He made. As a result, people are without excuse.”
Only a fool or a person with an atheistic agenda could come out and say that the universe was an accident. God has revealed Himself to all humanity through creation.
But general revelation, by itself, is insufficient to tell us all God wanted us to know about Himself and His plan for humanity. That’s why He gave us scripture. Scripture, at its core, is God’s written revelation of Himself to us. Jesus said, Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Me.”
It is the only source available to us of certain knowledge about God. Without scripture, each of us would be left on our own to figure out Who He is, what He is like and how we can relate to Him. Scripture is God’s written revelation of Himself to us.
Because we have Scripture, God’s revelation of Himself to humanity, we are not left to wonder. We don’t have to grope in the darkness trying to imagine who God is and what He is like. Scripture tells us all these things. The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself to us.
The third term we need understand is the word “Completed.” We have all that God wanted us to have. The word used to refer to that, while not a Bible word, it is nonetheless, an important word. It is the word “canon”. A canon is a list or a catalogue of books. So when someone refers to “the Canon of Scripture”, they are referring to the completed record of God’s word.
The Canon is the collection or list of Bible books that are recognized as genuine, inspired Holy Scripture. The collection is complete with thirty-nine Old testament books and twenty-seven New Testament books in the canon.”
Scripture is God’s completed and inspired revelation of Himself to humanity and through the providence and sovereign direction of God through the ages, God has preserved for us His inerrant and infallible word. The Bible we have is the complete canon or catalogue of books He wants us to have.
So when Paul talks to Timothy about Scripture, he is referencing the Old Testament Scripture, even as he is speaking New Testament Scripture. Here he is being inspired and what is being revealed will eventually become a part of the canon of Scripture that you hold in your hand this morning. Amazing!
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, but not only are the Scriptures inspired, they're
- Instructive
Verse 16 says they're profitable for doctrine. What is doctrine? That's to tell you what's right. The word doctrine means teaching. The Scriptures are there to tell you what's right.
Then it goes on to say for reproof. Not only does the Bible tell you what's right, it also tells you what's wrong. You see, God doesn't want us to make a mistake. He doesn't want us to go astray. So on one side he tells us what's right, on the other side he tells us what's wrong so we can walk the straight and narrow.
But he also says in verse 16 that it is necessary for correction--that is, when we get wrong, how to get
back right. He shows us what's right. He shows us
what's wrong and if we're wrong he tells us how to get right.
And then he says it's profitable for instruction in righteousness. What's right, what's wrong, how to get right, and then how to stay right.
How am I supposed to live? What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to feel? What shall I do with my sins? Where does power come from? Everything that I need to know, that instruction and righteousness is there from the Word of God.
So, the Scriptures are inspired, the Scriptures are
instructive, and then the Scriptures are
- Instrumental.
That is, they work powerfully in our lives.
They are instrumental in salvation.
For example, look in verse 15. Paul told Timothy, "From a child you've known the holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise unto salvation."
You're saved by the Word of God. It is the message of the Bible, the gospel that saves us, that makes us wise unto salvation. That's the reason that every preacher must always preach the Word of God because the word is the seed. To fail to preach salvation is to fail in our calling. For a church to fail to teach and practice evangelism is to deny its very purpose for existence and the Bible we say we believe.
The Scriptures are instrumental in salvation.
The Scriptures are instrumental in sanctification.
Look in verse 17, "That the man of God may be complete.” It means mature. It means full grown. Do you want to be a little baby Christian or do you want to grow? "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby." You're going to be a baby Christian, you're going to be a weak emaciated Christian if you don't grow with the Word of God.
Not only are they necessary for salvation and sanctification but necessary for service.
Thoroughly furnished," he says in verse 17, "for every good work."
Everything God wants you to do he furnishes through his Word. So, you're completely, thoroughly through and through, equipped by the Bible. All that I need to know, all that I need to have is revealed to me in God's word.
Now that is a little bit of what Paul tells Timothy we believe about the Bible.
In the time we have left, let me share with you a little about
2. Why We Believe the Bible
Did you ever think about WHY we believe the Bible?
Let me tell you why I believe the Bible to be the Word of God.
And by the way, if you choose to believe the Bible, then understand, that is a faith decision.
So let me give you three things about faith, and what they have to do with why we believe the Bible.
Number one,
Faith is Rooted in Evidence.
People sometimes accuse us Christians of practicing blind faith. Now, friend, blind faith is not faith at all. Don't ever think that I'm asking you to just blindly believe something. If somebody tells me to believe something, first thing I want to know is why should I believe it.
The Christians faith is not blind faith, and certainly not when it comes to the Bible. The Christian's faith is rooted in revelation and facts and evidence. Notice I said evidence and not proof. And there's a
difference.
Sometimes somebody might come and say to you, Prove there's a God. Don't let that intimidate you. If you were to say to me, Bro. Terry, prove there's a God, do you know what I'd say to you? I can't. Does that shock you? I can't prove there's a God. Oh, I know there's a God, I have no doubt about it. I have no doubt whatever, I can’t prove it.
By the way, if you doubt there’s a God, you can’t prove there is no God either.
So what’s the difference? One believes there is a God; one doesn’t.
You see, all people are believers. Everybody lives and dies by faith. One believes there is no God. Another believes there is a God.
And by the way, neither proves anything by what they believe. It’s just that one is a negative believer, the other a positive believer.
What’s the difference between the two? Here's the difference: the positive believer has the evidence.
You see, God has not just told us to believe without giving us evidence and so God has given us some evidence and that evidence is rooted in God's Word.
Now, if you're going to know the God of the Word, you've got to know the Word of that God. And so, God has given us his Word and God has given us some evidences that the Bible is indeed the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word from a God who cannot lie.
What are some evidences? Not proofs, but evidences, that the Bible is the Word of God? Remember, faith is rooted in evidence.
For example, there is
- the physical evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.
The Bible is a history book. It tells stories. Now, are these stories true or are they not true? Did the things recorded in the Bible literally happen or did they not happen? Is this actual history or is this the figment of someone's imagination? Well, dear friend, the Bible is so historically accurate. That's one of the great evidences of its inspiration.
Many historians love to study secular history and then ridicule the Word of God. That used to be done with the book of Daniel because of the supposed errors in the book of Daniel.
The book of Daniel tells of the Babylonian empire and it tells that the last king in Babylon was a king
named Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the one who saw the handwriting on the wall.
So the historians said, "Well, that's obviously a fabrication. Obviously this is not real history because we have the records of the ancient Babylonians and we know that the last king of Babylon was not a man named Belshazzar at all, it was a man named Nabanitus. We have the archives, we have the records and we have all of the artifacts. Belshazzar was no king, there was no king named Belshazzar.
Obviously the Bible is a fake, obviously a fraud, the book of Daniel is in error."
But the spade of the archeologists continued to do its work and one day they turned up a clay tablet, a cylinder, and guess whose name was on it? Give you three guesses, first two don't count. Belshazzar. And you know what it said?
They found out that Belshazzar was indeed the last king of Babylon, but so was Nabinitus. The truth of the matter is they were co-regents. There were two kings at the same time. Nabinitus was the father, Belshazzar was the son, but Nabinitus didn't stay home. He loved to travel and he was a big game hunter and was often gone and so the kingdom was in the charge of Belshazzar.
In fact, in the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel, we can now understand a passage that we might not have understood before that because Belshazzar said to Daniel, "If you can read the handwriting on the wall," I'll make you what? "The third ruler in the kingdom."
Why did he say third ruler? Because there were already two, Belshazzar and Nabinitus.
Now, suppose we'd not found that clay cylinder with Belshazzar's name on it. Would have that have meant the Bible was wrong? No, it would have just meant we didn't have enough evidence, isn't that right? See, friend, be careful before you let some
historian or someone tell you that the history of the Bible is not correct.
Our faith is rooted in evidence. And that story can be repeated over and over and over again as man keeps trying to catch up with God. It’s repeated in the historical realm, the scientific realm, the medical realm, the archaeological realm and the spiritual realm.
Everywhere you look, you will find physical evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.
In fact, just the fact that it is still here is evidence that it is the Word of God.
William Tyndale wanted to get the Bible printed so the English-speaking people could red it for themselves. They hounded him and they ran him out of England. He went to Germany and began to set up the type to print the Bible.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, setting that type, setting that type, painstakingly, to get the type set so people could have the Bible in their mother tongue.
He finally finished the job and went to bed and that very night vandals came in and wrecked the printing press and destroyed the type and ruined the whole thing. He had to start again from the bottom and to build it and to set the type again and he finally got it done. He printed those Bibles and in order to get them into England, he put them in barrels of flour and shipped them into England and the Word of God came to England.
They hated William Tyndale, some of the clerics and the leaders. In fact, they hated him so much that they strangled him to death. And then, as if that wasn't enough, they burned his dead body, just because he wanted a Bible that you could read.
As they were strangling Tyndale, he prayed, Oh God, Oh God, open the eyes of the king of England, God, open his eyes.
They killed him in 1536. In 1611, we received the King James Version of the Word of God.
William Tyndale, a man who loved God's Word, a man who died for God's Word because the Word of God lives and abides forever! I ask you, is that not evidence that this book is the Word of God?
Men have laughed at the Bible, men have scorned the Bible, men have made laws against the Bible, men have ridiculed the Bible.
There was a time in Scottish history when to own a Bible was a crime worthy of death, but the Word of God lives on and it is bright and vibrant and relevant today. That's an evidence that it is the Word of God.
Let me give you another evidence. I'm just telling you that faith is rooted in evidence. There’s physical evidence. What about
- Prophetical Evidence?
If we were to start today and talk about fulfilled prophesy, just the prophesy of the nations, what is happening in the nations of this world, what is happening on the world map, the last days, what we call the signs of the times, why, we could take a Bible conference for several months and just talk on
that one thing.
But let me just narrow the prophesies and let's just talk about the prophesies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know that there are more than three hundred exact, minute prophesies concerning the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, enthronement and second coming of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament?
And I'm not talking about the New Testament. I'm talking about hard, fast, substantial, clear Old Testament prophesies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
The chances of those prophesies being fulfilled by chance is astronomically impossible. Billions to one would be the chance that they would have been fulfilled by chance.
Do you know what the enemies of the Lord Jesus say about this? Here's the way they answer that. They say, Well, he just arranged to have the prophesies fulfilled. He just rigged it so the prophesies would be fulfilled.
Is that possible? Did He really just arrange for the prophesies to be fulfilled? Yes, I believe He did!
In fact, that’s the only explanation. He arranged it all before it ever happened!
In fact, He arranged it before he ever came to this earth. Now, listen, I was born right here in Ardmore, OK, but I didn't arrange it. Jesus arranged His own birth. He said it would happen in Bethlehem. He wrote it down hundreds of years before it happened in the book of Micah. He supernaturally arranged it.
I'll tell you something else, he arranged for Isaiah seven hundred years before he was born to give a biography of his life in Isaiah chapter 53. You go home and get that Old Testament chapter of the Bible and read Isaiah chapter 53. You're going to find the amazing story, the entire biography of the Lord Jesus Christ before he was born, not after he was born, before he was born.
Go home today and read the twenty-second Psalm, an amazing Psalm, the twenty second Psalm is a Messianic Psalm. It is written about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and the twenty-second Psalm is written as a graphic description of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was written centuries before Jesus was born.
And let me tell you something else. In Psalm 22 the words that Jesus would say from the cross are prophesied. The words that his enemies would say when they ridiculed him were prophesied. The very fact that they would gamble for his garments was prophesied.
But here's one of the most amazing prophesies of all. In Psalm 22 it says they "pierced my hands and my feet." That's what happens when you crucify; there are nails through your hands and nails that go through your feet. But this was written hundreds and hundreds of years before the Roman Empire.
Crucifixion was the Roman way of capital punishment. The Jews at that time knew nothing of death by crucifixion. Do you know how the Jews executed people? You should know if you’ve read your Bible. It was stoning. They stoned people to death.
Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution and hundreds of years before the Roman Empire comes on the scene you read there in Psalm 22, "they pierced m my hands and my feet."
Now, you explain that. Do you think Jesus arranged all of that? Do you think Jesus arranged the Roman Empire? Do you think Jesus arranged the cross?
I do, but he arranged it before the fact, he arranged it while he was still in glory. Yes, he arranged it all.
He arranged that he would be sold for thirty pieces of silver as Zechariah the prophet said. He arranged that he would be betrayed by Judas as the Bible says. He arranged that he would be buried in rich man's tomb.
He arranged that he would be raised from the dead the third day and seen by five hundred people who were so convinced that they sat out to convince others that he was raised from the dead.
And I want to tell you something, friend, these people with no hope of material gain became followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, so convinced were they that Jesus Christ came out of that grave.
Many of them paid with their life's blood for their conviction that Jesus Christ was alive.
Now, you're reasonable people. A man may live for a lie but he will not knowingly die for one. These people died, sealed their testimony with their blood, so convinced were they that that grave was empty and that Jesus Christ came out of that grave.
Over three hundred exact, precise prophesies in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New Testament.
Matthew chapter 26 verse 56, "But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be
fulfilled."
Listen to me. Faith is rooted in evidence. And we don’t have time today to talk about the mountains of evidence that underscore the Bible as the Word of God.
But also,
2. Faith Goes beyond Evidence
It has to or it wouldn't be faith.
Now, God is not going to prove Himself to you, but what God will do for you is this--God will reveal himself to you. God will give you facts. God will give you evidence and then God will give you faith to believe those facts.
It must be by faith because faith is a moral response to the character of God and the Bible says in John chapter 17 verse 7, "If any man wills to do the will of God he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God."
Now, what does that mean? That means if you want to know whether this evidence is true, then you can know it.
God on the one hand gives you the facts and then God on the other hand gives you the faith to believe those facts. It is not blind faith, it is rooted in evidence, but nonetheless it is faith. God does not prove it to you, God shows it to you and then from the inside God gives you his force.
Then I want to say the last thing and I'm hurrying.
3. Faith then becomes its own best evidence.
I believe because I believe.
You see, there is that objective revelation of God, but then there is that subjective inclination to believe the revelation. That's the reason Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice."
I don't know about you, but there's something in me that when I read this Bible it tells me it's the Word of God.
Not just because of these facts that I've been giving you, but there is just the voice of God. God speaks in his book. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Let me give you a wonderful Scripture. Psalm 34 verse 8. "0 taste and see that the Lord is good."
How many of you have ever had a big ol’ fresh peach?
Now suppose you've never had a big ol’ fresh peach and somebody comes with a peach and says, That's a peach. It looks good and it's beautiful and it smells good. You ought to have some. Thus far it's just evidence. He says it's a peach, he says it's good, it smells good, it looks good, all of the rest of it, other people seem to be enjoying it, other people testify--that is all evidence.
But there's something in you that impels you, you just feel drawn toward it, you go beyond that evidence and then you do something, you take a bite and now, folks, you've got the evidence on the inside. That's what the Scripture means when it says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good," taste and see that the Lord is good.
One of the ways that I know and believe that the Bible is God's Word is because the living reality, the truth of the God of that Bible, lives within my heart.
Faith is rooted in evidence, faith goes beyond evidence, faith becomes its own best evidence.
If you want to know it’s real today, you can.
