947. The Inspiration of the Bible

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every school day, chapel is a time for the students to gather together around God's Word. Through faithful preaching and teaching, the students are challenged to know, love and serve God from the sermons preached from the chapel platform. Today, we're continuing a study series based on the creed that students recite each day in chapel services. This creed is a formal summary statement of foundational truths and summarizes the doctrines of our Christian faith. Today's sermon will be preached by Dr. Sam Horne, Dean of the Seminary. He'll be guiding us through the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible.

I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. As I got ready for the message today, I don't know why I started thinking about this, but I started thinking about math. I don't know how many of you wake up and you just start to have random thoughts, but it's pretty scary when you wake up and you're thinking about mathematics. You know, math is actually foundational to all of life as you and I know and enjoy it. Almost everything that we use, almost everything that touches our life, somewhere or another is rooted in a mathematical equation.

Let me give you some examples. Your iPhone that you maybe are reading your Bible on this morning, before it ever existed physically, it existed as a series of complicated mathematical equations. And this is true for almost everything else that we use in our daily life. I mean, think about the alarm clock that woke you up this morning and then you hit snooze and snooze and snooze. It was a mathematical equation that made all of that possible.

Think about the coffee maker that helped you jumpstart your love for Jesus this morning. That was a mathematical equation at some point. Think about the clothes you put on, the car you drove to school this morning, the money you earn and spend, the bank you put it in and from which it magically disappears. All of these things began somewhere as a mathematical equation. So make no mistake, math people make life happen. Math really is foundational to all that we do in life. And when you think about math, here's an interesting thought. There are foundational principles called axioms that really make all of math happen.

Every branch of mathematics that you can think of, whether it's simple arithmetic or plain geometry or algebra or calculus or physics or statistics or probability or complex number theory and all of the applied mathematics, all of them go back to foundational axioms that make all the rest of the mathematical family work. And this morning, I want us to consider the fact that just like there are foundational axioms in mathematics, there are foundational axioms related to our spiritual belief. And at the front end of all of that, at the foundation of all of those massive doctrines, nine of which are contained in the creed you recited this morning, there is one primary foundational theological axiom upon which all of the others rest. And it's the one that you recited this morning in the creed when you said, I believe in the inspiration of the Bible.

And by that, I mean both the Old and the New Testaments. So this morning, I don't intend to give you a deep theological lecture on the finer points of inspiration. But I do want to ask three questions this morning related to this idea that there is this fundamental theological axiom that stands at the base of everything else that we believe.

And so the three questions are very simple. What does belief actually look like when I say I believe in this? And what is it exactly that I'm supposed to believe?

And then thirdly, why does it matter? So three very simple ideas this morning as we think about the text before us. I ask you to go to 2 Timothy chapter three, because out of all of the places in our New Testament that speak to this aspect of belief and inspiration, I can't think of a better place than the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a young, passionate follower of Jesus Christ, not much further along in his journey than most of you are in this room. And so the Apostle Paul, beginning in verse 14, said to Timothy, continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And then this amazing text, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, it is useful, it is capable, it is able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so as we listen in on this conversation between Paul and Timothy, I think one of the questions I have and certainly I hope you have is this, what exactly does belief look like in Paul's mind when he says to Timothy, you need to believe this? And I think the text where we find some help with that is in verse 14 when Paul says continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. And maybe the best way to sort of unpack that little phrase is to note that whatever Paul has in mind when he talks about belief, it is something that is genuinely personal.

It is something that comes to the very heart of an individual where that individual in contrast to all of the other people around him has come to a settled decision about something. And that's exactly how you see verse 14 opening up. It's like this, but you, Timothy. And if you could step back and start reading 2 Timothy from the front end of the book, you would immediately discover the context of all of this is that Timothy is leading and mentoring a group of believers and there are other people who have learned things. There are other people who have believed things and in many cases it looks like their belief system is actually the better one.

And they have been making unbelievable progress in getting people to buy into their beliefs. And Paul says to Timothy, in the face of all of this, now you, Timothy, continue in what you have believed. You know, as you leave Bob Jones University and not even as you leave, as you live your life within the context of Bob Jones University, there are immense competing beliefs. And oftentimes it seems that those competing belief systems are going to have the attraction, they are going to be what everybody flocks to, but if the apostle Paul could sit down and look you in the eye, he would say to you this, but as for you, you believe, you continue. So belief for Paul is intensely personal.

And then I want you to notice that it is unshakably persistent. He said to Timothy, continue in the things that you have learned, knowing of whom thou has learned them. Timothy, it doesn't matter what anybody else says.

It doesn't matter how convincing it may be on the surface. You know something about your belief. And one of the things you know is you know the life and you know the character and you know the conduct of the people who taught you this belief from the time you were small. Timothy, these new people, these people that have this additional teaching, they may appear a certain way, but you know deeply, intimately, personally the character and the conduct and the consistency of the people who taught you this belief. And then he points to the two people in Timothy's life who taught him about the Bible.

It was his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. And then Paul said, in addition to these wonderful people that you lived with, you understood these truths and you saw them in action because you lived with me and you followed me and you watched what happened to me for these truths. You and I have learned the Bible in general and we have learned it specifically with regard to inspiration from our youth up.

We are like Timothy. And we have learned it from reliable and consistent and credible sources. For example, you have learned about the Bible's inspiration from Jesus himself. Because throughout his ministry, Jesus constantly verified the authority and the inspiration of the Old Testament and with regard to the New Testament that was coming, he promised that his Spirit would guide his apostles when it came time for that truth to be delivered. So you have learned this from Jesus. You have learned it from the apostles who wrote it because they claimed it. 2 Peter 1 is a very clear indicator of this where Peter says, let me tell you how all of this happened. Holy men of God were moved along by the Holy Spirit and they wrote these words down from us. And then on top of that, you, many of you, like me, have learned about this from godly parents and from pastors who loved us and shepherded us and prayed for us and cared for us. And we have a lengthy opportunity to look at their lives and to see their character and to see their conduct tested under pressure, tested by sorrow, tested in every way.

So we have learned this from unbelievably reliable sources and some of you right now for the next four years or wherever you are in your program are learning this same truth from very capable men and women who stand in front of you on a daily basis to teach you the skills and the knowledge that you will need for life. And in the context of what they are teaching at the heart of it is this foundational belief about the Bible and its inspiration. So Paul says it needs to be deeply personal.

It needs to be persistent. And then finally it needs to be passionate. Timothy, continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of. Timothy, this has got to be more than just accurate comprehension about the Bible's inspiration and its nature. It's got to go way beyond mental assent, just sort of I say the creed and I agree with it and I'm done.

It has to go deeper than just doctrinal orthodoxy. It has to be rooted in the very soil of your soul. It has to go deep into the roots of your heart.

It needs to resonate at the deepest level of who you are. It is a belief that should so soundly be anchored in you that it moves you in profound ways and you treasure it above all other beliefs. It is a living, moving, stirring belief, a conviction that brings you amazement, joy, and confidence that you have a book that contains on its pages the very breath of God. That when you open up this book, you are not just reading something that Paul wrote down. You are actually listening to the voice of God. When you woke up this morning and you got your cup of coffee and you sat down with your Bible and you opened it up and you began reading, you began reading something that God intended to say to you this morning. You didn't go through an intermediary. You didn't have to go to somebody to get this.

These words are God's very own words and when you read them he is speaking directly to you. This is an amazing reality. My ninth grade daughter taught me a word this year. It's the word meh. You know this word? Meh. You know what it means? It means a lack of enthusiasm. Uninspiring. Meh. I'm unimpressed by this.

You mean that's all? And you know sometimes I think we come to a doctrine like inspiration and that's what it's like for us. Because we've heard it our whole life. How many times as a senior have you said the creed at Bob Jones University? I mean think about the doctrines classes that you took and how those doctrines classes have driven this truth home in your life and you've filled out notes and you've done quizzes and you've written papers and here you are and here I am and I'm ashamed to say it very often when I think about the fact we're going to take time to talk about the inspiration of the Bible. I'm unimpressed.

It's a meh moment. And the Apostle Paul is looking at Timothy and he's saying to him, you cannot think that way about the Bible and its inspiration. So what is it, secondly, that I am supposed to passionately believe about the Bible? And so Paul is going to move now to that part of his comment to Timothy and he is going to say Timothy you need to believe two things deeply and passionately and personally and persistently about your Bible. Number one, you need to believe that these writings, these scriptures, these grafe are holy. And you can see that as Paul talks about the fact that you have known these from the time that you were a child.

In verse 15, from a child thou hast known the holy writings, the holy scriptures. So Timothy you need to understand that these writings and when he starts using the word holy for them, he's actually saying these writings are unique. They are set apart from all other writings.

There is nothing else, there are no other written down things that are like this written down document. What you're holding in your hand, these sacred writings are unique. They're unique in their source. They're unique in their nature. They're unique in their message. The writings that you hold in your hand, both the Old and the New Testament, Paul says to Timothy, these are holy writings. They are unique, set apart in a category from all other writings. And what makes them unique, Timothy, is the second thing that you need to believe. You need to believe that these writings are unique but what makes them unique is that they are inspired. All scripture, verse 16, is given.

Here's how it was authored, here how it was delivered. It was given by inspiration of God. And I said we weren't gonna go into a deep theological lecture about this but let me just say this. Inspiration as Paul is thinking about it is not so much that God breathed into these words some inspiring thoughts.

It's actually saying the very opposite. It is saying, just like when you speak, your words are carried out of your mouth by your breath. These words were breathed out by God. They are His own very words. They come from Him. They focus on His Son. They are guided and guarded by His Spirit. These are no ordinary words. Peter is gonna talk a little bit about the process of how all of this has happened. So how did inspiration happen? Holy, set apart men were actually the recipients of these words as the Holy Spirit guided them and moved them and protected what they wrote so that at the end of the day what they wrote in the original document that was produced was the very words of God.

And that's what you and I hold in our hand and so that means something. Timothy, because you believe these writings are unique and you believe that they come from the very mouth of God and they are the very words of God Himself, then you need to understand that they are infallible which means they are fully trustworthy. They are sure and reliable. They are a trustworthy record of what they claim so that you will never be misled by the Scriptures. They are inerrant which simply means that in the original written down record that was guided and guarded by the Holy Spirit, there were no mistakes.

There were no errors. The writers recorded and reported authentically and accurately — it's completely accurate in what it claims. And because of that, it is authoritative. It has moral, ethical, social, spiritual, personal authority over all of life. Every part of life. Every area of your life.

Every area of my life. The Scriptures become the authoritative standard because of what they are and how they came to be and what they claim. And all of this means that they are eminently useful.

They are eminently sufficient to address anything that comes up in the sphere of life that we encounter. So in other words, we could say this, because of what we are to believe, the Scriptures are an accurate record of what God wants me to know. They are a reliable record of what God wants me and you to believe.

And they are an authoritative standard of how God wants us to live. In other words, when we start to think through what is morally right, when we start asking questions, what is ethnically just, what is theologically true, what is spiritually beneficial, God says, I have given you an authoritative standard in my breathed out words that you hold in your hand. And that brings us to the final thing this morning and that is this, why is it so important that we believe this? I mean, we know what Paul had in mind when he said to Timothy, you need to believe. There has to be this deep, personal, persistent, passionate embracing of a belief.

And then he goes on to say, what you need to believe that way about is in the nature, the unique nature of the writings that came from God that you hold in your hand, the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament. But why is it important to believe that? Because if we don't understand the significance of why we believe it, it'll eventually just be doctrinal orthodoxy. There'll be some theological proposition that we kind of carry around in our brain so that whenever we get asked a question about our Bible, we go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a Holy Bible.

Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's like inspired. And then all of a sudden it's just words that come out of our mouth instead of a belief that deeply anchors itself in our soul. So why is it so important to believe this? And Paul says, there are three reasons that you should hold onto this with all of your might, with all of your soul, with everything that you have, you should not ever be moved away by anything from this or anyone. Reason number one, these unique writings have the ability to make you wise by enlightening you about salvation. Timothy, these writings that you have been talking about and reading, particularly the Old Testament, have opened your eyes and enlightened you so that you know the truth about how a man becomes right with God.

How does a person alienated by his sin or her sin come to a right relationship with a holy, perfect God? And Timothy, you have discovered that way. Your eyes have been enlightened by these writings and you have discovered that salvation isn't by works, it's by faith. And not just any faith, but faith that embraces the reality of what God told you to believe about Jesus and His finished work. Timothy, you live in a world, you live in a city where everybody is trying to figure out how to deal with their sins.

Everybody is trying to figure out in the end how they're gonna get to Heaven. And you have a unique, sacred book that is the breath of God Himself that has led you to understand something. That the way to salvation that everybody is looking for is through faith in a particular person, God's anointed, appointed Messiah who came and accomplished justification through His atonement. You have been made wise about this.

And by the way, so have you. And then Paul says to Timothy, Scriptures don't just make you wise with regard to salvation, they actually make you holy by instructing you in righteousness. And that's what you see in verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable. It is useful.

Here's what it does. These God-breathed words are profitable for you and your holiness because they teach you the truth. And when you are in a place where you have embraced error or you are being attracted by error or in some area of your life, you're living out erroneously, these words can bring you reproof.

They can expose that. And so, these words can also correct that. When you or when I fall off the path of righteousness, these words from God reach out and bring us back.

And then they don't just correct us and get us back on the path, but they train us. They build endurance so that we have the ability to stay on that path in the difficult days ahead. So these Scriptures make you holy. And then the words that God breathed out that are on the page in front of you make you profitable. They give your life significance because they empower you for something. They empower you for a certain kind of good works. Make no mistake that the words of God as they encounter your heart and your mind aren't just there to make you a better person.

There are plenty of people who reject the Bible and who want nothing to do with the belief system that you and I have embraced who do all kinds of good works. They build hospitals. They do relief work. They reach out to the uneducated masses. They are concerned about the injustice of life.

And they are moved to do something about that. But when they get done with that work, what happens is the watching people who see that work are pointed back to them or to that cause. Paul has an entirely different thing in mind. He says to you as a lawyer, or an accountant, or a nurse, or a missionary, or a marketer, whatever it is that God is equipping you and giving you passion to do. These words as they encounter your soul will make it so that when you live your life consistently under pressure, when you don't cave to what is going around you, when there is a gracious, contagious generosity about you, and people around you watch that under pressure and they see it under all kinds of circumstances that are adverse to you. When they get done watching the good works that you are doing before them, they aren't going to be thinking about you at all. They're going to be thinking about your Father who is in Heaven.

And they will give glory to Him. And Paul says there is only one set of words that have that kind of power to shape your life in that way. So, believe with all of your heart. Hang on with all of your soul to this amazing foundational principle.

I believe in the inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments. Father, thank you for the opportunity to talk about this, to come together around your word, around a topic that for most of us is not new, it's so familiar. The creed we say every day, and yet Lord for this moment, for these thirty minutes, we have stilled our hearts, we have opened our eyes, and we have listened to the words on your page that you have given to us about you. That lead us to the truth about you, that lead us in the path of righteousness, and that give to us our great significance as we do works that point men to you. Lord, I know that this has been a time when we could have done other things, so I pray for those in this room who are under pressure and who are struggling to find time today to do things.

Would you reward them? Would you bless them today unusually? And we'll thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Sam Horn about the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible. Thanks again for listening. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this study in the doctrines of the Christian faith here on The Daily Platform.