The Defense of Inspiration A

The Bible contains history, and when it contains history, it's right. The Bible contains science, and when the Bible talks about science, the Bible is right. The Bible talks about ethics. The Bible talks about practical wisdom. And all throughout history, these things have been verified as true. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When it comes to finding a spouse, raising kids, and serving in your church, you'd probably say the Bible is a trustworthy guide. Certainly, if you're a Christian, God's Word should lead you in every part of life. But how would you explain that trust to an unbeliever? If someone asked you why you believe every word of the Bible, what would you say? Consider that on today's broadcast, John MacArthur's lesson just might bolster your faith in God's Word like never before as he continues his series titled, Is the Bible Reliable?

And with the lesson now, here's John. We're continuing in our study of a general subject, Is the Bible Believable? And we're studying our God-breathed Bible, the doctrine of inspiration.

We believe this book is the breath of God, that He breathed out even the words. And we said that in studying the inspiration of the Bible, we would study two facets. First of all, definition and secondly, defense. We would define it and then we would defend it.

Now I want to go to the second step and I want to defend it. And we're going to just kind of imagine that we're in a courtroom and we're going to call in some people to give testimony to the veracity and the truthfulness and the authoritative infallibility of the Bible. We're going to in fact hear from three different witnesses. The first is a multiple of people.

The second is a single one and the third again a single one. But there are three areas of testimony that are going to come into this courtroom to corroborate the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. Now we're going to begin, first of all, with the testimony of the Bible writers.

That's point number one. The testimony of the Bible writers, the first people that we want to hear from, and as I was studying this, I had to find a place to start. How do you go about defending the Bible? Well the first place to start would probably be with the guy that wrote it, the human instrument, because he would probably have some opinion about what was going on.

Wouldn't you agree? I mean it would seem to me that the writers of the Bible should have some idea about what inspiration was. They must know whether they wrote this, whether it came out of their minds or whether it came from God, so their testimony is extremely important. But as you begin to look at the testimony of these 40 plus writers who wrote over a period of 1,500 years, living in such separation, had really no opportunity for corroboration in many cases, you find some startling and astounding things that are true regarding these men. The writers of Scripture, for example, were often unlearned men. Very often they were the simplest kind of men without any formal education. They were not great classical philosophers for the most part. They were not brilliant geniuses at high levels in some kind of enterprise.

They were basically simple people, fishermen, farmers, tax collectors and so forth. Yet these men, and this is the amazing thing, these men wrote with an absolute confidence that what they were writing was the Word of God. Now that's astounding. Several thousand times in the Bible, in one way or another, the men who wrote the Bible claimed to be writing the Word of God. You say, well I don't understand what's so significant about that. It's only a claim.

But here's what's significant. When you study the Bible, you find that what is impressive about it is that there's no self-consciousness about their claims. I mean, if I were to sit down and write something that I would say, hey folks, this is the revelation of the Word of God. People would say, well I mean, who do you think you are?

I mean there would be a certain self-consciousness. I would probably say, well now, now, now this may sound ridiculous but this is the Word of God. Or you might say, you know, you may find this very hard to believe but God actually gave me these words. You know, a simple farmer out of the middle of nowhere sits down and writes the Word of God. If he made it up, you know, he's going to put in a little bit of self-consciousness about it to try to defend his right to do this.

You know the amazing thing, all through the Bible there is none of that self-consciousness. There is none of that effort to try to convince us that this really is the Word of God. They just crank it out, make the claim and that's it. And the absence of a defensiveness and the absence of a self-consciousness speaks of the fact that they weren't trying to bolster their claim. They weren't trying to get over some hump of credibility. They just confidently wrote it and signed it and that was it. It just says, thus saith the Lord and away it goes. And there's no disclaimer on it.

There's no self-consciousness about it at all. Such direct claims of inspiration on the part of writers are impressive in the view of their limited backgrounds. For the most part, they had very limited formal education. They were in no position to do exalted writing. How could such men ever pen something as magnificent as this? How could common men ever come up with anything to touch this? Why do you know that all over the world throughout history people have studied this for its literary value alone? It shows a genius that's not matched in any other writings in the history of the world.

You mean a bunch of farmers got together and did it on their own, a bunch of fishermen? How could men have known such great truths? How could they have made such unbelievable claims of speaking for God if God had not truly spoken through them? You know, and Peter and John were in Jerusalem and they were preaching. I mean, they were firing out all kinds of fantastic things. Peter went before the Sanhedrin, you know, and he gave them that wonderful message and they were expecting to bring him on trial and he really put them on trial.

He said, neither is there salvation in any other for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. And they couldn't believe it and they said, wait a minute, how can these people know so much? They're ignorant unlearned Galileans. What do they know? But Peter didn't go into the Sanhedrin and say, now I realize we're ignorant unlearned Galileans and you're not going to believe this, but can I speak to you from God?

None of that. There is just an air of infallibility. There is an air of authority. Thessen said, and I quote from him, how could uninspired man write a book that commands all duty, forbids all sin, including the sin of hypocrisy and lying, denounces all human merit as insufficient for salvation, holds out as man's only hope, faith in the atoning death, physical resurrection and present intercession of Christ, condemns all men to hell for all eternity who reject this one way of salvation and persist in sin. End quote. You mean somebody was a hypocrite and wrote a book about hypocrisy and said all hypocrites spend forever in hell? No, men don't write books that damn themselves. The Bible is a library of 66 different books written by 40-plus authors over 1,500 years. All of the authors with perhaps the exception of one and maybe two were Jews.

All of them are writing out of the Jewish background and yet the Bible has universal appeal. Two Bible writers were kings, two were priests, one was a physician, two were fishermen, two were shepherds. Paul was a Pharisee and a theologian. Daniel was a statesman. Matthew a tax collector. Joshua a soldier. Ezra a scribe.

Nehemiah was a butler. And on it goes. All different people, all different times, all writing with the same authority, brought together a whole, never contradictory, developing the same perfect theme. And that whole is the Word of God. The Bible contains history and when it contains history, it's right. It can be historically verified and we'll get into that in our later study. The Bible contains science and when the Bible talks about science, the Bible is right.

The Bible says He hangeth the world on nothing and the Bible is right. The Bible talks about medicine and it gives laws of health far back as Exodus. And you know, doctors today can verify that particular prescription for healthy life. The Bible talks about ethics. The Bible talks about practical wisdom.

And all throughout history, these things have been verified as true. Now the writers claim to be inspired of God. They claim to be writing from the breath of God. And if that's true, then it's easy to understand the Bible.

Do you know that? If in fact God did write this, it's easy to understand it. Now if He didn't write it, man is it hard to understand this.

You know why? Can you believe 40 different guys in 40 different times all writing their own thoughts agreed? Can you believe that all those people wrote 66 books over 1,500 years and all came out with the same answer to everything? Now you may not want to believe the Bible, but if you don't believe God wrote the Bible and you tell me who did, it is astounding. I mean, it wasn't until William Harvey that we discovered that the circulatory system was what kept you alive in the Bible. In the oldest book it says, the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Bible has a lot of interesting things to say scientifically.

It's right. All the higher critics used to say, oh, the Bible can't be true. The Bible can't be true.

Why? It says such and such and such. And that never happened. And then somebody discovers an archeological dig and there they find that the Bible was right.

Now if God didn't write it, you tell me who did. And then there's prophecy. How are you going to deal with that? How are you going to deal with it when you go to the city of Jerusalem and you stand there and you see the Eastern Gate all sealed up and then you read the prophet in the Old Testament that said this gate would be sealed up and there it is sealed up? Or how do you handle the prophecy that Babylon would be destroyed and Babylon was the greatest city in the world? That kind of a prophecy would have been pooh pawed as an irresponsible statement, as I said before.

That would be like saying the Boy Scouts are going to knock off New York. I mean, it just couldn't happen. Babylon couldn't be destroyed and you know what it was and is and it isn't anymore. If God didn't write this book, you tell me who wrote it. You've got a worse problem if God didn't write it trying to figure out this mystery because this is a toughie. But if God did write it, it's easy to understand, right? Now let's look at these writers.

What did they claim? Let's look at the Old Testament writers. Did the Old Testament writers think they were writing the words of God? Let's call into our little courtroom here the Old Testament writers and hear what they have to say. 3,808 times they said that they wrote the Word of God.

How do you think they were trying to get a message to us? 3,808 times they refer to their words as the very words of God. Once would be enough. 3,808 times is plenty.

If you had a trial and you brought in 3,808 witnesses, you probably would have a pretty substantial release. After the giving of the Law, Moses said, and I quote, Deuteronomy 4, you shall not add unto the Word which I commanded you, neither shall you diminish from it. This isn't my Word.

Don't you add anything to it and don't you take anything away from it. Deuteronomy 4, 2. Listen to Deuteronomy 6, 1, now these are the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded to teach you. He says these are from God, that you might fear the Lord your God and keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you. In other words, Moses said, I'm only telling you the Word of God. Verse 6, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.

Thou shall teach them diligently to thy children, shall talk of them when the citizen thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, shall bind them for a sign upon thine hands and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. These are God's words and these are to be treated with sacred care. This is the Word of God, says Moses. And again in Deuteronomy 12 32, whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it.

You cannot add to the Word of God, said Moses. In Amos 3, 7, the prophet says, Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing but He reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets. Amos says God reveals what He's going to do unto the prophets, revelation from God. What about the New Testament writers? Did they believe what the Old Testament writers believed? Did they really think they were writing the Word of God?

Did Paul really think that when he wrote his letters? Well first of all, what did they think about the Old Testament? What did the New Testament writers think about the Old Testament? Did Paul think the Old Testament was inspired?

Listen to this. There are at least 320 direct quotes in the New Testament, directly out of the Old Testament. 320 times New Testament writers quote the Old Testament. Now listen, at least 1,000 times they refer to the Old Testament.

So there you have it. They believed that the Old Testament was the revelation of God. They directly quoted it 320 times and referred to it at least 1,000 times. Peter said, Holy men of God wrote as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. Peter believed the Old Testament was inspired. The writer of Hebrews says, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets. The writer of Hebrews believed the Old Testament Scripture was the Word of God. James...James describes the authority of the Old Testament when he says in James 4, 5, think ye that the Scriptures speak in vain. In other words, he's saying you better believe what the Old Testament says. Paul gave witness to the perfection of the Old Testament when he said regarding the Law of God in Romans 7, 12, he said the Law of God is holy, just and good. And he said he loved the Law of God, he delighted in it. The author of Hebrews does the same thing. He presents the Word as living, effectual, penetrating and he goes so far as to say it judges us, we can't judge it. Now there are many illustrations in the New Testament of how New Testament writers use the Old Testament and how they referred to it. Now look at Acts 7, 38, just to show you that these things are every place.

Well you have to go to 37 first. This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, the prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like me, him shall you hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him in Mount Sinai and our fathers who received the living oracles to give unto us. God wanted to give His Word, He gave it to an angel who gave it to a man who gave it to us.

That's the sequence. Now it goes further than that, just to give you another illustration, Acts 13, 34. And as concerning that He raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said in this way, I will give you the sure mercies of David, wherefore he saith also in another psalm, thou shalt not allow thine holy one to see corruption. David said that, but here it is attributed by Paul to God. So in one reference of the Old Testament, David speaks in the New Testament, Paul says God said. It is God who speaks. It is David who speaks. It's the same thing.

That's inspiration. That goes on in the book of Acts. I'll just give you one more, 2825, the last page of the book of Acts.

And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word. Here's what he said, listen, well spoke the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet. Now again, it is the Holy Spirit speaking through a human instrument. Now there, just in a simple look, I gave you five indications that the New Testament writers, the New Testament preachers believed that the Old Testament word of men, the word of the prophets was in fact the word of the Holy Spirit.

And there are many more. They're all written by men in the Old Testament, all spoken by men in the Old Testament, all attributed to God in the New Testament. And this is interesting, Genesis 12 I think might serve. Genesis 12, and the Lord said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I'll show thee and I'll make of thee a great nation, bless thee, make thy name great, thou shalt be a blessing, I'll bless them that bless thee, curse him that curses thee and thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The thing you should notice is, prior to the Abrahamic Covenant, the Bible says, now the Lord had said unto Abram...who said this?

The Lord did. Now to show you an interesting little comment on that, Galatians 3.8, listen to what it says. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, indeed shall all nations be blessed. Now here Paul says, the Scripture says it. In Genesis 12 it said, who said it? God said it. Now watch this, whatever the Scripture says, what? God says. And very often in the New Testament, and there are other illustrations of it, when you look at a scriptural passage, it is indicating to us in the New Testament that this is what Scripture says.

And if you compare it in the Old Testament, you'll find it's what God said. You know why Paul did that? The only reason that we could ever allow for Paul to do that was because he habitually in his mind identified the voice of God with the written Scripture.

You understand that? The reason Paul would call a statement by God the statement that Scripture says is because he in his mind equated the Word of God with what? Scripture. That's basic. Beloved, when you open the pages of that Old Testament, you are reading what God says.

Is that exciting? I mean, that's a communication. Now there are also other examples where New Testament writers refer to Old Testament. Let me give you another thought. Do New Testament writers ever say that other New Testament writers are inspired?

What about that? Is there any testimony from New Testament writers to other New Testament writers? There is.

There definitely is. Let me give you one. You ready for this? First Timothy 5, 18. This is interesting. First Timothy 5, 18. And you've probably read this verse many times and never thought of it in this light because maybe you never looked it up. Listen, verse 18, for the Scripture says...and here's Paul and he quotes it...thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain.

Now you know what that principle is? That's a principle that comes from Deuteronomy 25, 4. So what is Paul saying about Deuteronomy 25, 4?

What does he call it? Scripture. Now you say, what's the point of the verse? The point of the verse here is pay the preacher. Don't muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. In other words, if you want the ox to do the job, you've got to stick something in his mouth.

Feed him. That's the point of the passage. But he says this, and the Scripture says thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads and the Scripture says the laborer is worthy of his reward.

You want to hear something interesting? You say, what Scripture says that? Now listen to this, Luke 10, 7.

Now hold on to that thought, you got it? He says the Old Testament Deuteronomy 25, 4 is Scripture and so is the New Testament Luke 10, 7. Here is New Testament writers corroborating New Testament Scripture as Scripture. And that's a quote from Luke 10, 7. Paul calls Luke Scripture.

Isn't that exciting? And so when Paul says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God later on in his second letter, he not only means all Old Testament, he means Luke and everybody else that's New Testament Scripture. So he calls both Old Testament and New Testament Scripture.

Let me give you another one. This is really exciting. Second Peter 3, 15, tremendous statement. And Peter is going along here and he says, And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Aren't you glad that the Lord is patient? Aren't you glad that the Lord hasn't brought judgment?

It isn't because He can, it's because He's gracious, isn't it? Not willing to initiate prayers. So the longsuffering of our Lord means salvation. The longer the Lord tarries, the more it can come to Christ. Watch this, Even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you. Now listen, he says, I'm just telling you what our beloved Paul said, as also in...how many of his epistles? All his epistles, speaking in them of these things which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned at an unstable rest, watch this one, as they do also the...what?...other Scriptures.

Now wait a minute, wait a minute. What is Peter saying? He's saying all the epistles of Paul do what the other Scriptures do. What is he then saying about the all the epistles of Paul? That's other Scripture. That's Scripture. Here is one of the great statements on New Testament inspiration. Peter said, all of Paul's epistles are inspired just like the other Scriptures. That settles the issue, doesn't it? For Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon.

That's pretty good. The credibility of the Gospels is accorded already in the passage we saw in 1st Timothy 5 18 where Luke is credited as being Scripture. So you've already got the credibility of the Gospels, you've already got the credibility of all of Paul's epistles, and now he just took care of 1st and 2nd Peter. You see, the New Testament is very careful to substantiate itself.

That's John MacArthur, pastor, author, and chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. John's current series here on Grace To You is titled, Is The Bible Reliable? Well, John, thinking about the issue of inspiration, how God communicated to and through human authors, something that comes to mind is this. It's pretty common to hear Christians say, God spoke to me, or the Lord told me. What would you say about that sort of phrasing?

Is it plausible, or is it dangerous? Well, it depends on the rest of the phrase. If someone says, The Lord spoke to me through His Word today, I say, Amen. If someone says, The Lord showed me this truth on the pages of Scripture today, I say, Amen. But if you're telling me God spoke to you outside of Scripture, the Lord told you something outside of Scripture, audibly or inaudibly, that's dangerous.

That's very dangerous. Because you don't want to add to Scripture, because if you add to Scripture shall be added to you the plagues that are written in it. That's how the Bible ends in Revelation 22.

And you don't want to be chasing some kind of imaginary revelation that's floating in the air out there as if Scripture is not enough. Everything that pertains to life in godliness is ours in Christ. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable so that the man of God may be completely furnished unto all good works. Now that's the statement of Scripture itself, Paul to Timothy. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, God-breathed, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

In other words, the perfection of the believer, completely equipping the believer, is the work of the Scripture. Now I believe that God directs our lives through providence. He orders circumstances, and we can look back and see those, but I've never had God speak to me.

I've never heard his voice. I don't have a red light that goes on when it's God speaking to me as opposed to when I just get a strong idea or intuition or impression. It's a very dangerous way to live, and it's especially dangerous if you think that some supposed voice is more important than Scripture. The most important thing is the Scripture, to know the Scripture, to walk in the Scripture. Yes, the Spirit leads us.

As many as our Christs are led by the Spirit of God, but you don't have a mechanism to feel that or to know that. You do have the Word of God before you to learn to obey. Thanks John, and friend, if you have questions about how God speaks to his people through his Word, let me encourage you to download John's current study, Is the Bible Reliable? See why the Bible is the supreme source of divine truth and the ultimate test of every truth claim.

Get in touch today. All 12 messages from Is the Bible Reliable are free to download from our website, that's gty.org. This is a great series to review on your own or with your family using the MP3s or the transcripts or both. And when you visit gty.org, you'll find thousands of other free Bible study tools that will help you better understand God's Word and see it transform your life. That includes blog articles by John and the staff, daily devotions, and all of John's sermons.

That's more than 3,600 sermons in all. Also remember the Grace To You Sermons app. It's an app that gives you access to John's entire sermon archive from your smartphone or your tablet, and it's free of charge. The Sermons app and so much more are available free. Just go to gty.org.

Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace To You television this Sunday, that's DirecTV channel 378. And then be here Monday to learn what you should say to someone who believes that the Bible is a good book with wise moral teaching, but that it isn't from God. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.