Jesus believed in the fulfillment of every word of the Old Testament. He corroborated the great truths of the Old Testament as well. If you're going to believe in the deity of Jesus, you have no option but to believe in an infallible and inerrant Scripture because He did. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When a mason is building a brick wall, he starts by snapping a chalk line on the ground. The perfectly straight chalk mark is the mason's guide for keeping the bottom row aligned.
Without that line to follow, the whole structure can end up crooked and unstable. Well, when it comes to making decisions and seeking direction in your marriage or in parenting and how to serve your church, what's your chalk line? What's your guide? You'd probably say the Bible. But why are you so confident that Scripture is the right standard to follow? How would you explain to an unbeliever where that trust comes from? John MacArthur helps boost your confidence in God's Word as he continues his study, Making a Case for the Bible.
And now here's John with the lesson. The Bible is still the truth of God, the only truth of God and nothing but the truth of God. Now how do we know this to be true? We as Christians know this to be true because the Spirit of God has granted you the gift of confidence in the Word.
You understand that, but I want you to see how important it is to have the internal evidence of the Scripture to bolster that heart conviction that the Spirit of God has granted to you. Let me just give you two words to think about, infallible and inerrant...infallible. And I like to use that word maybe just in a personal way. You could argue a lot about what it could mean.
It's got a little flexibility in it, as does the word inerrant. But let's use the word infallible to say that God has so inspired Scripture that it is the sure, safe, reliable, eternally true rule and guide in all matters in total. Let's use infallible to speak of the totality of Scripture. It is the whole truth.
We're looking at it from the bird's eye view, the big picture. It is an infallible document. That is what it affirms in full is true. Psalm 19, 7, the law of the Lord is perfect. Psalm 18, 30, as for God, His way is perfect, or blameless. The word of the Lord is tried, or tested, proven. Psalm 119, Thy word is very pure. That is what it claims, that is what it demands from us as to confidence and trust.
One word is inerrant, inerrant. And that looks at it from the worm's eye view, not looking at the total, but looking at every word. Every word is true. Every word in the original autographs as inspired by God is free from error, falsehood, mistake, inaccuracy. Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6, every word of God is pure, every word. Psalm 12, 6, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tested in a furnace refined seven times. And the psalmist is looking for some kind of analogy to express the purity of the word. In Psalm 119, 140, the psalmist says, Thy word is very pure. So whether you're talking about infallibility, the big picture, or whether you're talking about inerrancy, the small picture, the combination of the two speaks of the Bible's truthfulness. It is true. Now I'm going to say some things to you and give you some Scriptures.
You might not want to try to look them up, but just listen. In Isaiah 65, 16, the Lord calls Himself the God of truth. That's where it all starts. He is the God of truth. Jeremiah 10, 10, the prophet writes of the God who is the true God. The New Testament agrees with the old, calling God a God of truth. John 3, 33 says, God is truthful. John 17, 3, Jesus said that they may know you the only true God. First John 5, 20, He is the true God. Three times the Scripture says God cannot lie. Numbers 23, 19, Titus 1, 2, Hebrews 6, 18. God cannot lie, it is impossible.
The Bible is therefore infallible and inerrant because it is written by God who is truth, speaks only truth, cannot speak anything but truth. The writers of the Old Testament make literally thousands of claims to the truthfulness of what they wrote. Over two thousand times they claim to be speaking the very words of God. That's just the Old Testament writers. Again and again they use phrases like, the Spirit of the Lord has spoken to me, or the Word of God came to me. Isaiah, for example, says in Isaiah 1, 2, Hear, O heavens, listen, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. And then He unfolds the great revelation that is the book of Isaiah. In the New Testament we find more of the same, focused particularly in the teaching of Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 5, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. The Law and the Prophets is a term used to describe the Old Testament.
I haven't come to change anything. I have come to fulfill the Old Testament. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen to spread out the meaning of jot and tittle, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is fulfilled. Jesus said, even the little tiny marks has the authority of God behind it. That's why James said this in James 2, 10, Whoever keeps the whole Law yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all. If you just violate one small part of the Word of God, it's as if you have violated it all because it is all true, it is all divinely demanded. The Old Testament writers refer either specifically or generally to what they're writing as the very words of God about four thousand times...about four thousand times. Two thousand times, I told you a moment ago, they make direct claims that the Lord spoke to them. But at least four thousand times they affirm that what they are writing is the Word of God. The writers in the New Testament quote the Old Testament as the Word of God about 320 times and make reference to the Old Testament at least a thousand times. So the writers of the New Testament affirm the infallibility and inerrancy of the Old. And New Testament writers also claim inspiration for the New Testament. Now I want you to follow me a little bit with this because I think this is really very wonderful. Galatians 1...Galatians 1, here is the Apostle Paul.
This is just kind of a general entry point here. Galatians chapter 1 and verse 11, Paul says, I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Here is Paul affirming that the message of the gospel came from God. Down in verse 15, when God had set Him apart even from His mother's womb and called Him through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in Him, he says, this was so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles and I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood.
He received His message and His mission directly from God. Now I know this is unique to him as an Apostle, but this is a kind of model of how God spoke to the prophets in the Old Testament and the other writers of the Old Testament directly. So he speaks to Paul who is one of the Apostles and one of the writers of the New Testament.
If you would look at Romans chapter 4, you see how this...well look at Galatians chapter 4, first of all, just thought of that one, Galatians chapter 4 for just a moment. Here is Paul quoting Genesis. This is Paul quoting Genesis.
And what does he say? Verse 30, writing his letter to the Galatians, what does the Scripture say? "'Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be in error with the son of the free woman.'" And that's taken out of Genesis chapter 21, a couple of verses there, verses 10 and 12. Paul quotes the Old Testament, calls it Scripture. Now if you look at Romans chapter 4, you find another of these kinds of references at the very beginning.
Verse 3 of this chapter, Romans 4, 3, what does the Scripture say? Says Paul, and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And now he's quoting Genesis 15, 6. He's quoting from the book of Genesis as Scripture. He knows that it is authored by God.
He knows that Jesus has said the Scripture cannot be broken. It is affirmed that the Old Testament is Scripture by the inspired writer in the New Testament, namely the Apostle Paul. Let me take you a little bit further along this path, 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter 5. In this particular chapter, you have tucked into verse 18 two quotes, two quotes.
And this is a very interesting comparison to make. The first quote, verse 18, the Scripture says, "'You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.'" Now the Scripture does say that.
It is in Deuteronomy 25 verse 4. Now the simple meaning is, feed your animal. But the analogy of it is, the application of it is that you take care of the people who serve you. It's a kind of proverbial statement. If you want the ox to do his work, you feed him. If you expect people to do what you want them to do, you take care of them.
It's that kind of idea. But he says the Scripture says it, in quotes Deuteronomy 25, for, and...and here's the important one, verse 18...and the Scripture also says, the laborer is worthy of his wages. Where's that in the Scripture? Where's that in the Old Testament?
It is not in the Old Testament, as a matter of fact, it is in Luke chapter 10 and verse 7 where Jesus said this, the laborer is worthy of his wages. So what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy is the Scripture and what Luke wrote in his gospel is also the Scripture. Here you have the testimony then of a New Testament writer to both the Old Testament as the Scripture and the New Testament as the Scripture. Paul calls Luke's writing Scripture. Now let's look at 2 Peter chapter 3...2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15.
This is an interesting two verses, verses 15 and 16. The reference here is to our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. He wrote about the patience of our Lord leading to salvation, as the beginning of verse 15 says. Then Peter refers to our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, he wrote to you as also in all his letters.
So now he's gone from a particular letter written to a particular group to all of Pauline letters, that's 13 epistles. Also in all his letters, speaking of them in these things in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of...what?...the Scriptures. So what is Peter saying about Paul's letters?
They're part of Scripture, just like the rest of Scripture. Here again, as Paul called Luke's writing Scripture, this is the leading writer of the epistles verifying a writer of the gospels. So Peter calls Paul's writing Scripture.
In fact, all his letters are Scripture. Turn to Jude chapter 17 and we'll follow this path. Jude verse 17, only one chapter, verse 17. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, in the last time there shall be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts.
And just exactly where does this come from? Second Peter 3, 3, remember the words spoken and written by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ and he quotes Peter. So Jude affirms Peter, Peter affirms Paul, Paul affirms the gospel writers. The text of Scripture doesn't beg this issue. It doesn't put a lot of fanfare around it, it's just magnificently, almost quietly there because it's such an obvious reality.
It doesn't need to be blown up as if we had to prove a point. In the book of Revelation there is blessing in chapter 1 verse 3 pronounced on one who reads and hears the words of the prophecy and heeds the things which are written in it. And this is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His bondservants the things which must shortly take place and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant John. Here we know now that the book of Revelation is inspired by God.
It's inspired by God. God is the author of it and He gave it to John through angelic mediators in this case. In the nineteenth chapter of Revelation and the ninth verse, John is given instruction from a voice out of the throne of God and he said to me, write...write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and he said to me, these are the...what?...true words of God. Chapter 21 of Revelation, verse 5, we get a vision of the new heaven and the new earth and he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. Chapter 22 verse 6, and he said to me, These words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bondservants the things which must shortly take place. So all the way from the Pentateuch, all the way from the New Testament writer quoting the book of Genesis as Scripture to the Revelation being the true Word of God, the sweeping reality of the testimony internally of the writers of Scripture is that they were writing the Word of God unmistakably. This is unmistakable, powerful testimony internally to the Scripture being the Word of God. But there's one other testimony that I want to take the time to talk about and a lot more to be said, but always for another time. I want to talk about the testimony of Jesus. It matters to me what Jesus' view of Scripture was. How about you?
I think so. Jesus is the one who said in John 10, 35, Scripture can't be broken. Jesus is the one who said in Matthew 5, 17 and 18, Not one jot or tittle will in any way be removed from this Law. Now in Matthew 26, 24, He said this, The Son of Man goes as it has been written concerning Him.
A few verses later He told Peter that He didn't need the protection of Peter's sword, for if He wished to, He could call down angels from heaven to assist. But then He said this, Matthew 26, 54, How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled? In other words, Jesus came to fulfill the Law.
He also came to fulfill the Scriptures that prophesied of His death and His resurrection. Really is a staggering statement that He said Scripture cannot be broken. He meant that what God said was true and it would take place. He said in Luke 16, 17, It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to fail.
In Luke 18, 31, All things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished. So what was Jesus' view of Scripture? It was that it was the Word of God, that it was a true reflection of a true God, of a God who could not lie but could only speak the truth. And Jesus even called attention to specific words. The illustration, Psalm 22, 1, and there are many of these, Psalm 22, 1 predicted that when the Messiah died on the cross, He would say this, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? While dying on the cross, Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Matthew 27, 46. Jesus believed in the fulfillment of every word of the Old Testament. He corroborated the great truths of the Old Testament as well. He confirmed the creation of Adam and Eve. He confirmed that it was a real creation and they were real persons. He said this, Matthew 19, 4 and 5, Have you not read that He made them at the beginning and made them male and female? He made them.
He made them at the beginning and He made them male and female. And He said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they too shall be one flesh? Jesus believed in the creation account as recorded in Genesis and He substantiated it. Jesus also said repeatedly that the problems that people were having in not knowing God was because they didn't know the Scripture. Search the Scripture, there they would speak of Me. Has not Scripture said He repeated again and again and again?
So you have a choice. To sum up the testimony of Jesus, I'll give you a little set of options. One of these three must be true. The first is that there are no errors in the Old Testament because that's what Jesus taught, that the Scripture couldn't be broken. The second option is there are errors but Jesus didn't know about them. The third possibility is there are errors and He knew about them and tried to cover them up.
So what option do you have? That Jesus was a charlatan and a fraud and a cover-up? If so, how do you explain His resurrection? Or that Jesus didn't know there were errors? Then how do you explain His omniscience? Because He said He knew everything. If the second is true, that He didn't know there were errors there, but He was unaware, then He obviously is not God and you can dismiss Christianity and just forget it all together. If the third alternative is true, He did know and covered up, then Jesus is the devil. If you're going to believe in the deity of Jesus, you have no option but to believe in an infallible and inerrant Scripture because He did.
Let me close with this. Because the Bible is divine truth, it is the source of blessing. Proverbs 8 34 says, blessed is the man who hears Me. Luke 11 28, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and obey it. Secondly, it is the source of virtue.
Psalm 119, Thy Lord have I hid in My heart that I might not sin against You. The source of purity, John 15 3, You are clean by the Word. The source of victory, by the sword of the Spirit we slay the enemy of lies and deception. The source of growth, like babes desire the pure milk of the Word, 1 Peter 2, that you may grow thereby.
The source of power, it is alive and powerful, more powerful than any other weapon. Source of guidance, Psalm 119 105, it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The Bible is the most powerful book because it is the only divine book. It can tear you to pieces, Hebrews 4 12, split you asunder, but it can also put you back together again, 1 Peter 1, so that you are reborn according to the Word.
And it can bring you great joy, these things I write unto you that your joy may be full. Why is it so powerful? Why is it so life transforming? Because it is not the Word of men, it is the very Word of God. Why trust the Bible?
Why stake your entire life on it? John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, is helping answer those questions, showing you why the Bible and the Bible alone is God's authoritative Word. His current study here on Grace to You is titled Making a Case for the Bible. Well, friend, we're seeing in this series that the Bible is authoritative and reliable.
But maybe you sometimes wonder if it is sufficient for all of life's problems. Along that line, we'd like to offer you a copy of John's booklet called God's Sufficient Word. This booklet answers some of the most common questions people have about the Bible. So if you're not sure the Bible is error-free and it's everything you need for salvation and happiness and instruction, this booklet will help you put those doubts to rest.
The title again, God's Sufficient Word. Free for a limited time, just get in touch today and ask for your copy. Our number here, 855grace and our web address, gty.org. Again, we'll send you a copy of God's Sufficient Word, free of charge.
All you have to do is let us know you want one when you call 855grace or go to our website, gty.org. And while you're at the website, gty.org, keep in mind that you have access there to thousands of free study tools. If you're looking to grow in your love for God and His Word, if you're wondering what Scripture says about how to serve the church, if you're wondering how to interpret a particular Bible passage, you will most likely find a sermon or a blog article or a devotional that will answer your questions. Again, all of those Bible study tools are available for free at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You television this Sunday on Direct TV channel 378. And join us again tomorrow as John shows you that the most amazing power source in the world is the one you carry to church each week. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
