The Bible
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Turn to 2 Tim. 3:16 - it will take a while to get there …
Our topic today from the Believe series is the Bible. Our main idea is -
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my belief and action.
That’s a powerful statement - especially in a world of pluralism, relativism and tolerance. To assert that the Bible is the ultimate authority is absurd to those caught up in the world’s system.
Pluralism: The belief in many ways to heaven. Relativism: The belief there are no absolutes. Tolerance: No one has the right to say what is right and wrong.
The Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my belief and action. I don’t have to ask who believes that statement because the evidence is in how one lives. One’s view of Scripture is evident in how one engages the Word and consequently, how one engages life.
The Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my belief and action. That puts the Bible in an entirely different category than any other piece of literature in the world.
The Bible is unique.
It is the number one bestselling book of all-time. It is the most loved book around the world, but also the most hated. It has been banned, burned and criticized, but also it has been translated into nearly every language and transported into almost every nation and tribe - sometimes even smuggled across borders illegally. Thousands throughout history have been tortured, imprisoned or killed while attempting to disseminate the Bible or defending its preservation.
The Bible - also known as the Word of God - it comforts, encourages, inspires, and transforms. It provides purpose and hope. It is a light unto our paths - it guides, teaches, corrects and trains. It convicts, challenges, judges and condemns. It divides families, friends, nations. But it also unites families, friends and nations. It reveals the best of humanity, and the worst. It reveals the wickedness of human nature. And it reveals the sovereign God of this universe - Yahweh. It reveals the supremacy and deity of His Son, Jesus Christ. It reveals the outpouring of His Spirit into the hearts of His people. The Bible reveals God’s character, His plans and His purposes - His love, His grace and truth.
The Bible is authoritative.
It contains wisdom for all life settings - relationships, finances, civil and moral laws - provides guidance for family structure, work ethic, right and wrong, good and bad, justice. The Bible tells us who created us, why we’re here and where we’re going.
It accurately reveals the past, present and future. It accurately reveals scientific and medical truths. It has led to hundreds of archeological discoveries that were once thought to be myths. And accurately reveals in great specific detail historical people, places and events.
The Bible: One volume, assembled in 66 books - 1,189 chapters. Written in 3 languages by 40 different authors all divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. Written over a period of 1,400 years by runaways, shepherds, kings, farmers, fisherman, poets, traitors, murderers, priests, prisoners and a doctor. From beginning to end it has one theme - God’s love for and redemption of humanity.
The Bible is not a book to put on the shelf or to just have an app on your phone. It is the Holy Bible. The Living Word; the revealed Word of God. Augustine called the Bible, “Letters from Home.” It has also been called the greatest love letter of all time and
God intends for His people to read what He has written.
When I write my wife a love note - there’s an expectation that she’ll read it. I anticipate her reading and responding to it. And through that note I hope to change her day - make it better, put a smile on her face, encourage her …. And when she reads my note, it gives me great please.
God expects us to read His written Word. And it pleases Him when we do. The Bible is to be read, studied, meditated upon. We are to know it, understand it, live by it and proclaim it.
See,
The Bible is personal - To engage the Bible is to engage the Living and True God. To ignore the Bible, is to ignore God.
A relationship with God is a package deal - Father, Son, Holy Spirit and His Word.
The Bible does not give us the option to pick and choose what we like and don’t like, what to keep and what to discard, what to believe and what to ignore. After a few hundred of years of councils and examination of texts, the Bible was finally assembled into one volume by the church leaders in the 4th Century - they called it the Canon, or kanōn in Greek. That comes from
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.
Canon (κανώνa, kanōn): ruler, measuring rod or a standard of measurement.
The church leaders recognized that the Bible is the standard of measurement by which all are called to live - hence the Canon. It tells us who to worship, how to worship, who to love, how to love and how to live. And there are no ands, ifs or buts about it - it is the standard for all.
Marin Lloyd-Jones, one of the greatest preachers of the 20th Century said,
“I am not big enough to be an authority; I am too fallible to be an authority. No man is capable of being such an authority. I either submit to the authority of the Scriptures or else I am in a morass where there is no standing.” ~ D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
He understood that the Bible is authoritative, and it has authority over our lives - our beliefs and our actions. We are to submit to its authority; learn from its teachings; conform to its truths. Our minds, our hearts, our attitudes, our actions, our worldviews are to be founded upon and transformed by the Word of God. When there is conflict between what the world says and what Scripture says, we are to go with God and His Word.
To pick and choose what to believe and what not to believe in Scripture is to disregard its authority and disrespect its author.
Martin Lloyd-Jones said,
“So we are entirely confined to the Scriptures, and we can add nothing to them. Neither must we take anything from them. We are in no position to pick and choose from them. We cannot say, I believe this and I reject that, I rather like the teaching of Jesus, but I do not believe in miracles; I admire the way in which He died, but I do not believe that He was born of a virgin or that He rose in the body from the grave.
The moment you begin to do that you are denying revelation. You are saying that your unaided human intellect is capable of judging revelation, and sifting it and finding what is true and what is false. That is to deny the whole principle of revelation, of the apostolate, and of this unique work of the Holy Spirit.” ~ D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my belief and action.
Let me ask, what are you and I to do with God’s Word?
We are to meditate on the Word.
The Word of God should be like a hamster wheel - going around and around in our minds throughout the day.
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Meditate - chew upon, digest, ponder, contemplate.
Martin Lloyd-Jones -
“If we want to be ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’, one of the first things we have to do is to read and to take in and to masticate thoroughly this Book.” ~ D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
We are to saturate our lives and our families with the Word.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,
so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
Just talk about the Word ….
We are to like the Word
- when you like someone, you enjoy them, and you’re inclined to be with them and take pleasure in their company.
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
It takes time and effort to like someone ….
We are to adjust to the Word
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Transformation isn’t something the Spirit does in our hearts only. Deep Godly transformation is the result of new thinking - of thinking like Christ and seeing the world through His eyes.
Dean Trune says,
“My thoughts determine my attitudes. My attitudes determine my actions. My actions determine my habits. My habits determine my character.” ~ Dean Trune
God is interested in our character - He desires for us to be men and women of integrity, morality, holiness …. And it begins in our minds - learning to think like Jesus through His Word.
We could go on - but I’ll summarize the rest. Through Scripture we can know God personally and intimately and know His will and His character. We can know true doctrine and distinguish between true and false religion. We are instructed to handle or interpret the Word correctly, to use it wisely, and to encourage, correct and instruct one another with it. We are to preach or proclaim the Word with great patience and careful instruction - 2 Timothy.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my belief and action.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Theopneustos (θεόπνευστος) - God-breathed, inspired. Theos - God - the Sovereign God, Yahweh. Pneuma - breath, wind, spirit.
The Sovereign God breathed in over 40 different men to record precisely what God wanted recorded and what we needed to know. Inspiration is a concurrent act of a holy God and a human author whereby the Holy Spirit so moved the author without overwhelming the author’s personality, that God got what God wanted - no more and no less.
Because the Bible is inspired and directed by God, it has inherent authority and sacredness, and deserves our utmost respect and attention.
The Bible has every right to tell me what to believe and how to behave. It has every right to teach me, rebuke me, correct me and train me, so that I may be right with God and right with people.
To those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ Savior are to so love Christ that they become servants of Christ. Every servant has work to do - places to go and people to see. And the only way to fulfil one’s duty and love for Christ is through the knowledge of Scripture. If we want to reach our full potential in Christ and help others do the same, then we must be men and women of the Word. Again, I say because the Bible is inspired and directed by God, it has inherent authority and sacredness, and deserves our utmost respect and attention.
And so I ask this morning, what are you and I doing with the Word of God? What will you do with the Word today, tomorrow, next week?
Major Influences upon and Early Translations of the Bible
Bede (675-735) – English Benedictine Monk / translated much into English
John Wycliffe (1329 - 1384) – Pre-Reformer. Believed everyone should have a Bible in their own language. Translated the first full English Bible from the Latin Vulgate (common language). As a result, he was labeled a heretic.
William Tyndale (1494 - 1536) – Contemporary of Luther. British Reformer. Post printing press. Killed at stake. Translated from Greek and Hebrew. Created the first “study Bible” – included study notes.
Miles Coverdale (1488-1569) – Responsible for first complete printed Bible in English. First to separate the Apocrypha. Reformer. Revised Tyndale’s work.
Thomas Matthew – Revised the Coverdale Bible.
The Great Bible – (Coverdale) – 1st translation authorized by a king. Known as the Great Bible because it was big - very big.
The Geneva Bible (1560) – Many English Reformers hiding in Geneva created the first Bible with number and chapter divisions.
The Douay-Rheims Version (1582 & 1609) – Roman Catholic Church’s public Bible. Council of Trent declared the only official Bible was the Latin Vulgate
The King James Version (1611) - King James of England ordered a translation based on Hebrew and Greek. Became standard for the English Bible - and the rest is history.
“The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” ~ A.W. Tozer