God-Breathed - 1

We're going this morning of course to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 where we've already read from the Word of God as we embark upon a series of studies concerning the scripture itself, the Word of God. If you are anything like me, and I think you are much like me in many of these thoughts, you are looking at a world that is swirling with absolute confusion. As our brother praying this morning noted, you don't know who to believe. The authority sources from which our news used to come, from which reliable information used to be received, whether it be in the media or in political elected government or in the various administrative agencies of government, the healthcare profession, you go through all of it. There was a time when we had rather sound confidence in much of what we received.

But I don't know anyone who has that today. There is confusion abounding. And I think that there is a historical explanation for all of this and I don't want to get into all of the philosophical and certainly not historical events, but in 1962 and 1963, now I know many of you understand that to be ancient history.

You weren't around then, but listen to an ancient one talk a little bit about things I don't remember necessarily firsthand, but no happened. In 1962 and 1963, there were three Supreme Court cases which rendered the decision that there was to be no prayer or Bible reading in the government schools of this country. In other words, there was an official judicial decision to remove God consciousness from rising generations. And the success of that objective is on full display in our culture today. It's as if God was speaking in that decade for that very autumn November 1963 suddenly in a most gruesome and hideous public fashion, our president was assassinated. And within a year or two we were plunged into a Vietnam War where tens of thousands of our young men would be killed in a war we would not win in which we would ultimately withdraw in some measure of disgrace. And as that raged in Vietnam, there raged in this country the protests against it, a divided nation, confusion and bedlam, and you interject into that the race riots that rocked this country in an amazing way. And you consider how that in, I think it was 1964 or 65, the Beatles were introduced to this country to publicize and advance the rock culture with John Lennon saying that they would soon be more popular than Jesus Christ. It's to be noted that two of them are no longer alive. Christ lives forevermore worshiped and adored around the world by people who never heard the name John Lennon.

1973, the horrific Roe versus Wade abortion case. What I'm saying is that following the removal or the goal to remove God consciousness from the rising generations of this nation, there came upon this land a sequence of unprecedented events one after another, multiple assassinations of prominent visible people, and the course has continued on that trajectory since then. Until we come to this age where nobody knows who they can trust, what they can believe. And it is to be noted that when the scripture is excluded from a culture, the confusion and misunderstanding and deception, not simply spiritually, but in every venue will only abound and multiply. It is no coincidence that the most prosperous, productive, creative nation in the history of humanity was founded upon principles of historic reformed Christianity. This nation was established by people heavily influenced not by Islam, or Buddhism, or Judaism, but Christianity. Not by the Roman Catholic version of Christianity, but by Protestant Christianity. Protestant reformed Christianity. And it's to be noted the blessing of God upon that, but as we depart from the word of God, the decline in international esteem and respect, the decline in our ability to trust any of our leaders only increases.

Enough said. What are we to learn from all of this? We are to learn that the only thing we can trust is the word of God.

That's it. Let God be true and every man a liar. We come to the word of God. And thus I come to you in these five messages, God helping us with what we're calling news you can trust. And we've read from Second Timothy chapter three, that notable text in verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture given by inspiration of God. We think of inspiration as being someone who overcomes great obstacles and odds in order to succeed and what an inspiration they are.

That's the way that term is used often today. But the literal meaning here is all scripture is God breathed. In spirited, in spire, like the respiratory system, respiratory has to do with breathing. The respiration is breathing.

When someone has expired, they've breathed out their last. To inspire is to breathe into. And it's telling us all scripture is given by inspiration of God. God breathed into instruments of his choosing that which was to be written and preserved for us. And we will look this week, God helping us at various evidences of the fact that it is God breathed, God validated, God applied. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God breathed his very mind, his thoughts, yea, his words through human instruments who delivered them unto us in writing.

Think of it this way. A master musician enters into a room filled with wind instruments. He picks up a trumpet and breathes into it. And that instrument under his control brings forth the exact sound that he desires and is capable of producing with it. With all of the rhythm and all of the inflections and all of the accents and sound that he desires. Then having played that beautiful selection, he puts down the trumpet and picks up a trombone and puts it to his lips and begins to breathe into that instrument. And with his masterful abilities sets forth a piece of music that comes out of that instrument sounding exactly as he desires it to sound. And he goes then to the French horn and then to the clarinet and then to the flute. And when he has finished, he has produced a sequence of sounds which perfectly serve his purpose and his desire and his order. This but illustrates from a human standpoint how God himself moved.

He picked up a man who had been reared in the palace of Pharaoh destined for Egyptian royalty but then exiled to the wilderness where he lived for 80 years. And through that man, God breathed forth his truth. Yes, like the master musician playing the trumpet it sounds like a trumpet. And so when you read Moses it sounds like someone who spent 80 years in the wilderness, the terminology, the circumstances, all of it and yet as it comes forth it is the word of God. And then God picked up another instrument and breathed through that instrument and what do you know?

What comes out is distinctly the sound of that instrument. It sounds in fact like a shepherd who was also a warrior who also became a king and we read the Psalms and we find the personality of the shepherd king and triumphant warrior David through whom God is delivering truth such as Jehovah is my shepherd I shall not want. God speaks through such instruments unto us. All scripture is breathed forth by God through the instruments of his choosing. And so as these men wrote they were in fact setting forth the very word of God in human language which reflects their own life experience and all of it exhibiting the amazing diversity of divine creation and communication of the word of God, the scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

It is God breathed. This is why we can believe it. This is why we can take it for what it says. It is profitable for doctrine. And so we can learn what is true, what is true about God.

It is profitable for reproof. Ethically and morally it sets a perfect standard and then stands in judgment of man's activities in order to lead him in what is right. It is a word that is complete in order to furnish God's people for the work he has called them to do. And then another passage I would direct your attention to in the Epistle of Peter, 2 Peter chapter one. And I'm taking you quickly to two primary New Testament texts which deal with the scripture itself.

And I'm sure many of you have these memorized and know them well. The Apostle Peter is writing about that day when he with James and John met on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus Christ and Moses and Elijah joined them from heaven. An amazing scene. They saw Christ glistering in his glory and Moses and Elijah with him speaking with him of his coming death. And after observing all of that, Peter says, we have a more sure word of prophecy. He says to his reader, I was in the holy mount.

I saw that with my own eyes, but I have something more sure than my own experience or the perceptions of my own sensory organs. He says in verse 21, 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. And the picture here, if you can have it in your mind of the ancient ship out on the seas with the billowing sails which move it through the waters, wind powered.

But as those billows come and the sails catch them, the boat is moved along. So these holy men of old, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, you name them, they were being moved along by the Spirit of God. You understand that the word spirit and breath are one and the same. The Spirit of God moving them, the breath of God, moving them along so that what they recorded was in fact that which God was moving them through and into as he breathed through them and moved them along in truth. Consequently, they wrote as men who were writing the word of God. The theological liberals would have us think that the scriptures were simply religious writings that very gifted and inspiring men wrote.

And as with all of our dead heroes, they become larger in death than they were in life. Legends developed that way. So after they died, their writings began to be esteemed and what do you know, people even began to ascribe to those writings a divine origin. The fact of the matter is the writers themselves knew it was divine origin.

They spoke to that effect. Let me read just a couple of passages quickly. I read from Exodus chapter one where Moses writes, and God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. I read just a portion from second Samuel in chapter twenty three. Now these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my mouth. The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me, he that ruleth over men must be just. Hear these words from the prophet Isaiah in chapter sixty one as he writes, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the eyes to the blind.

Those are but three of many, many references where the claim is made. God is speaking through me. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And so Jeremiah says, Thus saith the Lord one hundred and forty seven times. Ezra says, Thus saith the Lord one hundred and twenty six times. The small book of Amos, Amos the farmer, the herdsman, says, Thus saith the Lord one hundred and thirteen times. Four hundred and thirteen verses of the scripture, it says, Thus saith the Lord four hundred and fifteen times. Likewise, the claim of it being the spirit of the Lord speaking is repeated thirty one times. Forty three times, the scriptures say, God said. One hundred and fifty five times, it calls itself the word of the Lord.

The claims of scripture and of the writers are that it is the word of God. And there are only three conclusions that we can draw from that. Two of them wrong, one of them correct, but only three. One option, they were all liars, deceivers trying to mislead people. And if that's the case, then their writings are not simply worthless.

They are worse than worthless. For they mislead and guide souls in the most vital elements of life. Or, a second option, they were confused and deluded men. They imagined themselves to be something they were not.

Sincere, indeed, genuine, but just confused and crazy. In which case, their writings are no better than if they lied, because they still mislead and misdirect in the most important elements of life. The third option is, they are exactly what they said they were, the word of God. And every soul must consider that option, those three. Which will it be to you?

Which will you take? I get ahead of myself a little bit, here in speaking of a matter that I believe is a sound validation, that's the last message, of the word of God. I want you to come with me and try to exercise an imagination with me concerning the writing of materials. Suppose in the year 521, now I don't remember that, but 521, there began to be a book written. Year by year by year passed, decade by decade, and the first writer died. But other writers succeeded him.

Most of the writers did not know any of the others at all. Many of them were separated by the earliest by more than a thousand years. And for 1500 years, that book was in writing. By people from diverse languages, diverse cultures, some of them living in the nomadic desert experience and culture, others living in the Mediterranean Roman and Greek era of culture.

People that spoke different languages, who lived over a time span of 1500 years, who never knew one another, and what do you know, who were writing about the most controversial subject known to man, religion. And today, in our own time, the book is completed. It comes off of the press, and what you know, there is a unity to it, a harmony to it, an agreement, the earliest to the latest, a consistency throughout. In fact, multiple themes that run through all of the writing, the tree of life, the lamb, the need for a sacrifice, all of these things with perfect consistency that you would have to say, that wasn't written by 40 different people over 1500 years of time from multiple cultures, it had to come from one author. And such is the word of God, such as the scripture. This is an example of its self-validation.

It is unique. There's not another book ever published in human history that came about in that manner, with so many things to tear it apart and take it opposite directions so that it would be nothing but confusion and bedlam. If you get 40 people living today on planet Earth, 40 people living in Burlington, North Carolina, forget the multi-cultures out there, and ask them to write on a certain religious theme, you will get 40 different collections of contradictions. But we come to the Bible, and whether you believe the Bible or not, this is extra biblical evidence you've got to look at and face and consider. We are not dealing with human genius. We are not dealing with righteous writers. Two of them at least killed a man. There's an adulterer in there.

They were polygamists. And yet, through such defective instruments, the master musician breathed forth his truth in a wholesome, coherent, and sensible tone that goes beyond mere human literature. It demands a response. How do you respond to the scripture? God breathed. The Old Testament writers refer to what they wrote as the very words of God over 3,800 times. The New Testament writers quote the Old Testament as the word of God 320 times, and refer to it at least a thousand times. The New Testament writers repeatedly claim divine inspiration, as did the Old, and Jesus himself claimed that both the Old Testament and the New Testament are inspired of God. It demands a response.

What is yours? Because it is inspired by God, we maintain that the scripture is inerrant. God makes no mistakes. Jesus said, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophet.

I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And till heaven and earth shall pass away, not one jot or tittle shall fail, till all be fulfilled. Christ believed it was totally truthful, inerrant. And on that day of his resurrection, as he walked with two disciples who did not recognize him, to the village of Emmaus, he ultimately said to them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Jesus Christ believed in the total reliability of the Old Testament scriptures, so that he chose Judas to be one of his disciples in order that the Old Testament scripture would be fulfilled.

And much more could be cited concerning the extent to which Jesus believed the Old Testament. It is inerrant, without error. A second matter we conclude from the fact of inspiration is that the scripture is infallible. There's a difference between inerrancy and infallibility.

Inerrant means there are no errors. Infallible means it will not mislead you or misguide you. You will not follow the scripture and come to the end disappointed and find that your faith was misplaced.

It will guide you aright. Jesus himself said, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall teach them the same shall be called the great great in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, Christ was affirming the total reliability of the scripture taught and followed. Third, we gather from what is stated that the scripture is authoritative. I have already recited to you the hundreds and hundreds of times when there is a phrase used such as thus sayeth the Lord or the spirit of the Lord spake by me. And when we consider the fact that this is the word of God, it has all of the authority of creator God.

Who spoke everything into existence out of nothing. And if that is the power of his word, then the word that he has given and recorded for us must be given heed. It is authoritative.

A fourth matter that we gather from this which we will touch on later this week is this. The scripture is also effectual. It will accomplish the purpose that God has given to it.

It actually changes hearts. I cannot but recall a dear brother, I'll not give you his name, but he was a part of the congregation I pastored in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a young man who had been a student at Georgia Tech, an engineering student, foul-mouthed, unconcerned about the things of God, but someone gave him a Bible and he began reading it. And as he read it, he knew this is the word of God. What is it that transforms a foul-mouthed young man living life for its pleasure into one who suddenly sees and perceives and reverences the word of God? Well, it is the fact that God with the scripture can write a new program for our computer, can rewire our thinking and has done so how many times. The fact that when these things that I am proclaiming are preached, many rejoice and others are hardened and angered, yet falls out to the confirmation of the fact that the word of God is effectual. It cannot be proclaimed without producing a result. Righteousness and faith, rage and unbelief.

It is effectual. It is the word of God. We cannot debate with Him and win the debate.

We cannot argue with Him and win the argument. His word is forever settled in heaven and will stand as our brother reminded us this morning forevermore. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God, it stands forever. We have said it is inerrant, infallible, authoritative, effectual and last. It is sufficient. It is sufficient for the saving of a soul. It is sufficient to reveal to us everything necessary for saving faith.

God has given us enough to satisfy our faith, but not enough to satisfy our curiosity, so that our faith is prompted to search and search and search. When John concluded the book of Revelation, which is clearly the capstone concluding book of the Bible, he wrote, Yea, God breathed forth through him. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book.

Which is another way of saying it needs no additions, it needs no deletions. It is sufficient. It is the perfect word of God. Let us pray together.

Most holy God and gracious Father, there was nothing in us that would compel a written communication from God. We receive your word, O Lord, as a manifestation of measureless grace, compassion, mercy. O Lord, having received your word, let us not harden our hearts, but let us give heed to the loving authority who therein speaks and beckons, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Bless this time together unto the spiritual nurture and fortification of your people, unto the conviction and salvation and life eternal of those without Christ. And may all praise be yours now and forevermore. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.