Let's turn together to 2 Timothy chapter 3,
this very famous passage in connection with our
subject tonight.
2 Timothy 3, and we read from verse
10 to verse 17.
Paul writing to his young son in the
faith, Timothy.
You however know all about my teaching, my
way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love,
endurance, persecutions, sufferings, what kinds of things happened
to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the
persecutions I endured.
Yet the Lord rescued me from all of
them.
In fact everyone who wants to live a
godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
While evil men and impostors will go from
bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But as for you, continue in what you
have learned, and have become convinced of, because
you know those from whom you have learned
it.
And how from infancy you have known the
holy scriptures, which are able to make you
wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is God breathed and is useful
for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1
verse 17, Christ sent me to preach the
gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest
the cross of Christ be emptied of his
power.
And he continues in chapter 2 of the
same epistle, verse 4, My message and my
preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,
but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,
so that your faith might not rest on
men's wisdom, but on God's power.
It's clear then that men by reason will
not know God.
We have been called to a life of
faith as Christians.
This is indeed the Christian faith.
But this doesn't mean that Christianity is unreasonable.
It may be well beyond human reason, but
that does not mean it is not reasonable.
We read continually in the Acts of the
Apostles how Paul sought to persuade men, of
how he reasoned with men.
And we're even told in Acts 9.22
that soon after his conversion, Saul baffled the
Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus
is the Christ.
Just two days ago, a young man came
to me and said, Listen, I'm unwilling to
take the blind leap of faith and become
a Christian.
And I explained to him how you can
go so far along the road of reason
in your search for God.
And then you come to that point, as
you walk along the road of reason, where
you have to step on from reason, not
out of reason, but you step on from
reason into the area of faith.
And of course it's in that area that
you find God.
But it's so important to understand that as
Christians, we don't step out of reason.
We step on from reason into another realm,
the realm of faith.
Now over the next four evenings, we're going
to look at the arguments for four of
the great Christian doctrines.
Now we don't accept these doctrines as Christians
merely because they appear reasonable.
We accept them because they are delivered to
us, revealed to us, in the Word of
God.
And that's quite sufficient for us.
If we were told something within here, such
as the Trinity, which is totally against our
reason, we would still accept it, because it's
revealed in the Word of God.
But there are many great reasons for believing
that, for example, the Bible is the inspired
Word of God.
And that's what we're going to look at
tonight, the authority of Scripture.
Surely one of the key issues for the
Christian church in this and in every generation.
As Christians, we proclaim that our beliefs and
our practices are not just the ideas of
men.
We declare that Christianity is unique amongst all
the religions and philosophies of the world, because
our faith has been directly delivered to us
by a revelation from Almighty God.
Jude, in verse 3 of his epistle, speaks
of this faith which he says was once
and for all delivered to the saints.
Our faith is not something that men works
out through their minds.
It is something which was once and for
all delivered to us by God himself.
Paul, writing in the second epistle to Timothy,
from which we've just read, pleads with Timothy
to guard the Gospel.
To guard that deposit of truth which God
has given to mankind, which is the power
of God unto salvation.
And of course, as Christians, we believe that
this truth, this faith, this Gospel, is revealed
in its entirety in the Bible.
And with that in our minds, we can
see the great importance of the Bible to
us as Christians.
It's the foundation of our faith.
Just what authority, then, does the Bible possess?
Well, authority can be derived from a number
of sources.
For example, if a Roman Catholic receives a
document from the Vatican, and on that document
there is the papal imprimatur, the Pope's stamp,
then that letter carries immediately for the receiver
total authority.
And this, for the Roman Catholic, is because
of who it comes from.
It comes to him from the Pope.
The Pope has given to it his blessing.
The authority of the document, then, is derived
from its origin.
Authority from origin.
Another source of authority is experience.
If you are regularly seeking advice, or regularly
seeking information from someone, and their advice or
their information is invariably correct, the authority of
their words will grow continually in your mind.
This is how we're going to look at
the Bible tonight.
In the light of these two important sources
of authority.
And we begin with authority based on origin.
How did this book, the Bible, come into
being?
Well, the Apostle Paul puts it like this
in the famous words of 2 Timothy 3
.16. He says, All scripture is given by
inspiration of God.
It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.
If you look at the verse closely, you'll
see that Paul is saying two simple things.
First of all, he's saying that all scripture
is God breathed.
That's what the word inspired really means.
Surely Paul could not have used a more
deliberate term.
Scripture was brought into existence by the breath
of God.
It was, if you like, exhaled by God.
All scripture is exhaled by God.
The second thing which the verse is saying
to us, is that because of this origin,
because of where scripture has come from, it
has total authority over our lives.
And this authority is in two particular areas.
First of all, authority over our doctrines, says
Paul.
Authority over what we believe.
Secondly, authority over our daily lifestyle.
It is, he says, profitable for correction, for
reproof, and for instruction in righteousness.
Now when you turn to the writings of
Peter, you'll see that he also describes how
the Bible came into being.
He gives us his definition or description in
2 Peter 1.21. He says, holy men
of God spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit.
In a sense then, there is this dual
authorship of the Bible.
There is a human element.
Men spoke, says Peter.
But they only spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit.
Which is why Paul, of course, can say
that all of scripture is God breathed.
In the original Greek of 2 Peter 1
.21, the writer is using a most fascinating
maritime illustration.
The picture is of a sailing ship raising
its sails.
And by their holy lives, the men and
the women who wrote the Bible, says Peter,
raised their sails.
And God, the Holy Spirit, filled those sails.
And carried them along in their writings, exactly
in the direction which he wished them to
follow.
Well then, how did this actually happen?
Did God just use these people like transcribing
machines?
Well, amongst Christians, there are a number of
different theories of inspiration.
And I want to mention just three tonight.
You will see them in your notes.
First of all, mechanical inspiration.
Those who accept this viewpoint suggest what I've
just mentioned to you.
That God literally dictated what the human writers
of the Bible had to express.
If this theory is true, the writers were
purely passive in this operation.
They were rather like a pen in the
hand of the writer.
The second theory is known as dynamic inspiration.
Those who hold this view believe that God
strengthened the mental and spiritual lives of the
writers.
So that they had a completely new and
very special insight on things.
And it was on that basis which they
wrote.
Then the third theory is the theory known
as organic inspiration.
You will find that this is the theory
which most evangelical scholars accept.
Lewis Burkhoff defines it as follows.
The Holy Spirit acted on the writers in
an organic way.
In harmony with the laws of their own
inner being.
He used them just as they were.
Their character, their temperament, their gifts, talent, education,
culture, vocabulary, and style.
Yet the Holy Spirit illumined their minds.
Aided their memory.
Prompted them to write.
Repressed the influence of sin upon their writings.
And guided them in the expression of their
thoughts even to the choice of the very
words.
I think this human element in the organically
inspired word of God is apparent to all
who read it.
Dr. Rendell Short comments on this in the
following way.
The traits exhibited by the books themselves entirely
bear this theory out.
Each author has his characteristic style.
Some writers are very plain, matter of fact.
Some, for example, the writer of Second Chronicles,
have a very ecclesiastical tone and vocabulary.
The writer of the book of Daniel loves
to pile up lists of nouns.
Paul is vigorous and impetuous.
John has a list of favorite words.
These differences have not been leveled out by
any supernatural influence.
Rendell Short also comments on the varying pictures
of Christ's life and sermons in the Gospels.
Because they're evidently seen through the eyes and
memories of independent eyewitnesses.
Then he concludes with the following sentence.
A vast load of intellectual difficulty, which people
have felt in accepting the Bible, is removed
if the fact that God has made use
of the human personalities of the writers is
fully grasped.
Well, whilst this human element is clear, I'm
sure we'd all contend that the divine authorship
of the Bible is unmistakable.
Of course, this is something which the Bible
claims for itself.
The Bible claims for itself that it is
divinely inspired.
Over and over again, in the Old Testament,
you read such phrases as, The Lord said.
Or, Thus saith the Lord.
Or again, The word of the Lord came
unto.
The New Testament writers, they claim divine inspiration
for the law and the prophets.
Most important of all, of course, Jesus makes
his position on Old Testament scripture abundantly plain.
In fact, some of the Old Testament incidents,
which scholars today pour the most scorn upon,
Jesus went out of his way to show
that he believed were clearly factual.
For example, you have Noah's Ark, laughed at
at many today.
But if you read Matthew 24, 37 and
38, you'll find that Jesus accepted that as
fact.
Jonah, in the belly of a whale or
of a large fish, again laughed at by
many today.
But Matthew 12, 39 and 40 shows that
Jesus accepted it as fact.
Possibly most amazing of all, Sodom and Gomorrah,
fire and brimstone raining down on these cities.
People would say, total folly today.
But again, if you read Luke 17, 29,
you'll find that Jesus accepted it as an
actual act of history.
Of course, in Matthew 5, 17 to 19,
Jesus makes his position on the whole of
the Old Testament quite clear.
Think not, he says, that I have come
to destroy the law and the prophets.
I have not come to destroy them, but
to fulfill them.
And he goes on to speak about the
punishment of those who take away just one
jot or tittle from the Old Testament law.
And in a very important verse in John
10, 35, Jesus, speaking of Old Testament scripture,
says, The scripture cannot be broken.
So there's no doubt about it, that as
far as the Old Testament is concerned, both
Old Testament writers and New Testament writers, including
Jesus himself, claim its divine inspiration.
But what about the New Testament?
Well, I think we need to turn together
to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and to a
very important verse.
1 Timothy 5 and verse 18.
1 Timothy 5, 18.
For the scripture says, the scripture says, Do
not muzzle the ox while it is treading
out the corn, and the worker deserves his
wages.
Now you might well ask, why is that
such an important verse?
Well, it's important for the following reason.
Paul is here taking two quotations and he's
putting them together.
One of these quotations, you shall not muzzle
the ox that treadeth out the corn, is
from the Old Testament.
It's found in Deuteronomy 25 and verse 4.
The second quotation, the laborer is worthy of
his reward, is in fact a statement which
Jesus made, and it's found in Luke's Gospel
chapter 10 and verse 7.
So here the Apostle Paul is taking Old
Testament writings and the statements of Jesus, and
he is calling them both scripture.
Now from this and other references, we can
see that the early church placed the spoken
words of Jesus, as they were collected in
written form, they placed them alongside Old Testament
scripture.
So the writings of Jesus were clear on
that.
But what about the epistles?
Do they claim inspiration for themselves?
Well of course often Paul would speak about
the word he was writing not being his
own word, but coming from God.
But turn again to a very interesting passage,
2 Peter chapter 3 and verses 15 and
16.
Here you can see what Peter, one of
the apostles, thought of Paul's writings.
2 Peter 3, 15.
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means
salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also
wrote with the wisdom that God gave him.
He writes the same way in all his
letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard
to understand.
I am encouraged by Peter's remark, I'm sure
you will agree with him.
His letters contain some things that are hard
to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort,
as they do the other scriptures, to their
own destruction.
So Peter quite obviously is placing the writings
of Paul in the category of scriptures as
well.
So I think you can clearly argue that
the whole of the Bible claims divine inspiration
and authority for itself.
Well is there any evidence to back up
such claims?
I believe there is.
I believe the evidence is abundant.
And we don't have time to look at
it all tonight.
But let's make a start.
And let's start with the argument of continuity.
Because the Bible isn't really one book.
It's a library of books, a collection of
books.
Sixty-six in all.
Written by more than forty different authors.
Their writings took place over sixty generations.
Spanning a time gap of at least sixteen
hundred years.
The writers came from an enormous variety of
background, culture, and education.
Just listen to this brief list for a
start.
Moses, a political leader, trained in the universities
of Egypt.
He was one author.
Peter, a fisherman, was another.
Amos, a herdsman.
Joshua, a military general.
Nehemiah, a cup bearer to the king.
Daniel, a prime minister.
Luke, a doctor.
Solomon, a king.
Matthew, a tax collector.
Paul, a converted rabbi.
And on and on you could go.
Showing the enormous variety of education, culture, and
background from which the Bible writers came.
Now, their writings took place on three continents.
Asia, Africa, and Europe.
And they wrote in three languages.
They wrote, of course, in Hebrew, Greek, and
Aramaic.
Many controversial subjects are dealt with by these
writers.
And yet, though they're written over so many
years, from such a large geographical area, and
though many of the subjects normally create such
opposing opinions, there's an undeniable agreement and continuity
throughout their writings.
The unfolding story of God's plan to redeem
mankind is taken up by one writer.
He adds his little piece.
He passes it on to the next.
He adds his, and so the process continues.
Many of these writers would never ever meet
each other.
They would have absolutely no idea of what
the others wrote.
This continuity and agreement is quite remarkable.
And I believe it certainly points to the
divine authorship of Scripture.
You can add to the argument of continuity
the fact of the continuing popularity of this
book around the world.
The Bible has been translated and re-translated
and paraphrased more than any other book in
existence.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says that by 1966, many
years ago now, of course, By 1966, the
whole Bible had appeared in 240 languages and
dialects.
One or more of the whole books of
the Bible in 739 additional languages.
A total publication of over 1,280 world
languages.
When those figures were compiled, a further 3
,000 men and women were busily at work
translating the Bible into fresh languages.
Well, if its translation is amazing, its production
and its distribution is equally amazing.
Overall, there is absolutely no book that reaches
or even begins to compare to the circulation
of the Scriptures.
Take just one Bible publishing house, that's the
British and Foreign Bible Society.
About 30 years ago, for the British and
Foreign Bible Society to meet its demands around
the world, it had to publish one copy
of the Bible every three seconds, day and
night, just to meet the orders that it
had around the world.
And they're just one of numerous Bible societies,
and the Bible Society is one part of
the massive operation of producing Bibles around the
world.
Add to that the amazing romance of the
preservation of the Scriptures down through the centuries.
The preservation of the original documents is quite
amazing in itself.
These books, of course, were originally written on
highly perishable materials.
Papyrus, parchment, vellum, and so on.
They had to then be copied and re
-copied by hand for hundreds of years.
Yet the Bible has more manuscript evidence today
than any other ten pieces of classical literature
combined.
Extraordinary how when you're arguing the case for
the Bible to someone, they may well say
to you, well how do you know that
what's written down in the Bible is what
actually Jesus said?
I mean, so many years passed until it
was put down in written form, and until
we have the first copy of the Bible.
I always say to such people, have you
ever read the writings of Plato?
Many haven't, of course.
Some have.
I say to them, if you did read
the writings of Plato, would you question that
what you read were actually the words of
Plato?
Most normal people would say no, they wouldn't
question it.
When did Plato write?
About a hundred years before Christ.
What's the first manuscript we have of Plato's
writings?
It's in the 10th century.
The very first manuscript evidence of the Bible
comes within a hundred years of the last
author writing.
The original manuscript evidence for the Bible, confirmed
over and over again by recent discoveries in
the desert, of course, is quite extraordinary.
And consider its preservation from destruction by world
powers.
Emperor Diocletian's Edict of A.D. 303 is
typical of many which have been issued throughout
history all around the world.
His edict demanded the destruction of Christians and
of their sacred book.
Twenty-five years later, Emperor Constantine, the very
next emperor of the Roman Empire, demanded the
preparation of fifty copies of the scriptures at
the expense of the Roman government.
Many of you will have heard of the
famous boast of the French philosopher Voltaire and
the resulting irony.
He boasted as an atheist that in one
hundred years Christianity would have been swept from
existence and would pass forever into history.
Only fifty years later, the Geneva Bible Society
were using his old house to house a
press which was producing thousands and thousands of
Bibles.
Then consider the preservation of scripture amid so
much criticism.
No other book has had to face the
amount of critical scrutiny that the Bible has
faced.
Time and time again we've heard of discoveries
which have finally disproved the Bible.
Yet always, as time takes its course, it's
the discoveries which prove to be invalid.
The validity, the authenticity of scripture is still
to be disproved.
Our time is passing, but I think it
would be wrong of me to close this
section without mentioning the argument of prophecy.
This subject could in itself, of course, have
kept us busy for the whole of the
evening, indeed for our four evenings.
So let's consider just one line of Old
Testament prophecy and its fulfillment in the New
Testament.
And we'll look at messianic prophecy.
If you read through the pages of the
Old Testament, you'll see that Old Testament scripture
speaks of a prophet who would arise just
before the birth of Christ to point people
to Christ.
Of course, in the New Testament, we meet
John the Baptist.
The Old Testament speaks of Jesus being born
of a virgin in the small town of
Bethlehem, Judea.
He would be a descendant of King David.
He would enter Jerusalem on an ass.
He would be betrayed by a friend for
30 pieces of silver.
The money obtained for the betrayal would be
given to a potter who would buy a
field with it.
Jesus would be struck on the face by
his enemies.
His friends would forsake him.
He would be persecuted, finally muttered.
Yet he would face it quietly, calmly, without
attempting to justify himself.
All of this we read in the Old
Testament, and we continue.
His executioners would gamble for his clothes.
His bones would not be broken, though his
body would be pierced.
He would be offered a bitter drug whilst
hanging on the cross.
That's just a small portion of Old Testament
prophecies concerning the Messiah.
When were they written?
Between five and seven hundred years before the
birth of Jesus Christ.
And every one of them has been found
true and has come to pass in the
New Testament.
In fact, if any of you are interested
in making a thousand pounds, there is a
foundation in America who offer one thousand pounds
for anyone who can find an Old Testament
prophecy concerning Christ, which was not fulfilled during
his lifetime.
What's the probability of these prophecies being fulfilled
in one man?
Is this just an amazing stroke of chance
which we're dealing with?
Well, a very famous mathematician, Dr. Peter Stoner,
has done a study arguing, if you're a
mathematician, you'll know the argument, from the science
of probability as to how possible it is
for eight, just eight, of the Old Testament
prophecies concerning Christ to be fulfilled in one
man.
When he got his calculator out and he
tried to put a number on paper, it
was so large the paper would not contain
it.
So he said the best way to describe
the possibility would be as follows.
Go to the state of Florida, one of
the largest states in the United States of
America, and cover it in silver dollars, a
coin of about that size.
And make sure the silver dollars are two
feet thick throughout the whole state.
And then take one man and blindfold him.
Then mark one of the dollars, throw it
into the state, get a large spoon and
stir the whole thing.
Then send the man anywhere he likes in
the state of Florida, tell him he can
pick up one dollar.
What's the possibility of him picking up the
marked dollar?
Dr. Stoner says, about the same as just
eight of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ
being fulfilled in one man.
The continuity of the Bible, the popularity of
the Bible, the preservation of the Bible, the
prophecies of the Bible point clearly to its
divine authorship.
It's apparent that the human authors only spoke
and only wrote as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit.
And this is the foundation of the Bible's
authority.
Authority based on origin.
These writings are quite evidently God-breathed.
But secondly, we spoke of authority from experience.
And we'll have to deal with this much
more briefly.
But just what has been the experience of
people who have read this book?
Many would testify to the amazing moral power
of Scripture.
Of what other book could it be said
that its entry into a nation or a
home or an individual's life has effected a
moral and spiritual revolution for the better?
The testimony of Charles Darwin, the author of
the book, The Origin of Species, from which
came the theory of evolution, would not be
suspected of any undue bias towards Christianity.
And yet this is what he writes in
his book, The Voyage of the Beagle.
He gives in that book a dismal account
of the misery, low estate, and dangerous wickedness
of the people of Tierra del Fuego.
When he returns to the island, many years
later, after the Bible has been distributed throughout
the island, the change for the better is
so incredible that he not only testifies his
astonishment and his admiration, but he became a
regular subscriber to the missionary society which was
working there.
Near a home in his own village, the
preaching of the Bible had such a good
effect on people who met in a hall
which he had loaned for the purpose of
preaching that he wrote to the preacher the
following letter, Your services have done more for
the village in a few months than all
of my efforts for many years.
We have never been able to reclaim a
drunkard.
Through your services, I do not know that
there is a drunkard left in my village.
Those are the words of the founder of
the theory of evolution.
I could keep you here all night giving
you examples of the amazing impact which scripture
has had upon people of all kinds.
Many of you will know the story of
Frank Morrison, the leading lawyer who set out
to disprove Christianity.
And as we'll see on Saturday night, I
think it is, he went to the right
place.
He said, if I want to destroy Christianity,
all I have to do is destroy the
resurrection.
There's no resurrection, there's no Christianity.
And he's quite right.
So what did he do?
He went to the scriptures.
He went to Galilee, he went to the
towns and villages in which Jesus lived and
where the crucifixion and resurrection was supposed to
take place.
And he wrote his book.
But of course it wasn't a book to
disprove the resurrection.
The book can be bought in any Christian
bookstore today.
It's entitled, Who Moved the Stone?
And it's an argument for the validity of
the resurrection.
And he testifies in that book how as
he read the scriptures, they became the living
word of God to him and changed his
life entirely.
A friend of mine who's a missionary in
West Africa did a very unwise thing one
day.
He went walking through the streets of the
town with a wallet in his back pocket.
It's something you shouldn't probably do in Britain,
but you certainly shouldn't do it in Western
Africa.
And sure enough, his wallet departed.
But a couple of days later, the man
returned who had stolen it to his home.
Because inside the wallet, there was just a
fragment of a Christian tract containing a few
Bible verses in the authorized version of the
scriptures.
This man only spoke pidgin English.
And yet he read this glorious Elizabethan English.
And he was dramatically converted.
And like Zacchaeus before him, he wanted to
restore that which he had stolen.
The amazing impact of scripture, the authority of
the Bible, is not only based on its
origin, but it's backed up by experience.
Well, very quickly, let's just deal with two
common criticisms of the Bible.
First of all, people say science has disproved
the Bible.
What do we say to such people?
Well, in reply, it's important to recognize that
the Bible is not written from a scientific
viewpoint.
This is not a science textbook.
And as Christians, we must not treat it
as so.
Its language is that of the common people.
And it was written for common people.
Its subject matter is primarily religious and spiritual.
But nevertheless, one of the most marvelous things
about the Bible is that although it was
written in a day of ancient ignorance and
superstition, it does not contain the popular errors
and fallacies of that day.
Take Moses as an example.
We're told that he was the crown prince
of Egypt.
And he would attend the best of their
schools.
The Bible tells us he was instructed in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
Such wisdom today is considered pure nonsense.
But not one of those ancient theories can
be found anywhere in the writings of Moses.
Take the prophets.
Many of them, when they lived and wrote,
may well have believed that the world was
flat.
But nowhere in their writings do they teach
this.
On the contrary, they teach the very opposite,
describing the greatness and majesty of God.
Isaiah says in chapter 40 and verse 22
of his prophecy, God sits upon the circle
of the earth.
And many ancient travelers, if only they'd read
Isaiah's prophecy, would have traveled with much less
fear and worry.
Skeptics, of course, have been saying that science
has disproved the Bible for many years.
Don't get the idea that this is something
new.
And they've given many examples.
But it seems that as science progresses and
advances, it's the Bible which stands and previous
scientific thought constantly collapses.
Let me just give you one example.
In 1861, the French Academy of Science, a
national institution, published a list of 51 scientific
facts, each of which, it was alleged, disproved
some statement in the Bible.
Today, any scientist who knows his salt will
tell you that the Bible remains as it
was in 1861, but not one, not one,
of those 51 established facts is today held
by men of science.
Well, of course, another common objection is that
the Bible disproves itself.
I'm sure you've been told, as I've been
told, that this book is full of errors.
You must have heard people say that.
It's amazing, though, isn't it, how when you
try and get them to detail, they have
so little to say.
The majority of documented errors are so unimportant
that it's not really worth spending time on
them.
Critics say, for example, that in Mark's account
of the inscription which Pilate placed over the
crucified Jesus, the wording was, the King of
the Jews, whilst Dr. Luke says it was,
this is the King of the Jews.
People have actually used that as an argument
against the Bible.
You can see how they're having to clutch
at the very smallest straws.
More meaningful critics, for many years, said that
Dr. Luke's statement that the island of Cyprus
was ruled by a proconsul and that Lysanias
was a contemporary tetrarch with the Herodian rulers
was definitely wrong.
Archaeology, we were told, disproved that point.
But comparatively recent archaeological discovery has absolutely vindicated
the biblical statements.
It's been truly said that the enemies of
the Bible have met no more relentless foe
than the science of archaeology, allowing them for
translation errors, and there must be some of
them, allowing for copyist errors, and there must
be some of them, allowing for the fact
that the Bible is organically inspired, that it's
seen and expressed through the personalities of the
writers.
I would still argue that there is not
one statement of the Bible which can be
proven to be erroneous.
In my estimation, there is no doubt whatsoever
that there is abundant argument for this cardinal
doctrine of the Christian faith, that this book
is the word of God, God breathed, exhaled
by God, carrying with it divine authority.
Well, you've sat marvellously well.
I've only noticed two or three people nodding
off to sleep, which is a great encouragement
to me.
I expect it many more.
I just want to end with five practical
points.
If this Bible is the word of God,
what are we to apply?
What are we to say in application?
Number one, we must continue to fight for
the foundational truth of the inspiration and authority
of Scripture.
And let me tell you, this is going
to be a tough battle in the 1980s.
I don't know whether any of you get
the international news magazine Newsweek.
If you do, you'll know that on January
the 1st, 1980, the beginning of a new
decade, the centre page article, and in fact
the front of the magazine as well, was
entitled The Search for the Real Jesus.
And we were told within the centre page
article that in 1982 there is going to
be a world conference of theologians and scientists.
And together they are going to finally decide
which statements of the gospel attributed to Christ
were actually spoken by Christ.
And they're going to use all the modern
sciences available to us.
And they give a list of the sciences
which will be used.
The interesting point is that there are only
ten sentences under discussion.
Everything else has already been discarded by the
scientists and the theologians.
Modern science, we are told, proves that all
but ten of the so-called statements of
Christ are not the words of Christ.
Modern science proves it, we are told.
I was very encouraged to read in the
article that when God said, or when Jesus
said, they're pretty sure that's authentic.
Now that's nice, isn't it?
And when he said, that really sounds like
the genuine Jesus of Nazareth.
It's going to be a massive fight for
us who are evangelicals in the 1980s.
The article ended with the paragraph, Who is
most threatened by these discoveries?
Answer, conservative evangelical Christians.
Those who base their beliefs upon the word
of God.
Now how are we going to react to
this?
Well, if you know anything about the evangelical
theological world, you'll know that there's already been
a reaction.
There's now a book on the market entitled,
This I Cannot Believe.
This is the English book which describes a
strong move amongst American evangelicals.
Moving away from what they call the inerrancy
of Scripture, merely to the infallibility of Scripture.
Now what do they mean?
Well, they mean that the Bible is infallible
as far as doctrine is concerned.
But it's not inerrant as far as science,
history, numbers, geography is concerned.
Many evangelicals now hold that view.
If they can remain evangelicals holding that view.
The Bible is no longer without error.
It has errors we are talking.
It's merely authoritative for faith and doctrine.
The problem is of course, if this book
is exhaled by God, and it's not entirely
true, what kind of a God do we
worship?
Is he really holy?
Is he really righteous?
And can this book really be trusted in
the final analysis?
I believe we have a great fight in
the 1980s for the authority of Scripture.
And if we appear to be fools for
Christ's sake today, then by the end of
the decade, we certainly will appear to many
to be much more foolish.
Secondly, we must recognize the authority of this
book over our lives.
To do so, of course, is to recognize
the lordship of Christ.
Because this is his word, and it's here
that he is revealed.
We're living in the age of situation ethics.
We're told that things aren't right or wrong,
it all depends on the circumstances.
As Christians, we need to rejoice in the
total authority of Scripture.
Not only over what we believe, but over
our lifestyle, as 2 Timothy 3, 16 shows
so clearly.
Of course, to live truly under the authority
of Scripture today will be to live a
radical life in our generation.
We need to accept the guidance of Scripture
for our lives.
I'm not suggesting the verse mentality necessarily, although
that has been helpful to some.
But what I'm suggesting is that we need
to soak ourselves in the word of God.
Particularly whilst we're young.
We need to spend hours in this book
so that we will be able to think
theologically.
So that we'll respond to the many situations
of life biblically.
Many things being poured into your mind today.
Particularly through the television screen, right there in
the center of your home.
The mind of the world is being poured
into your mind.
Now unless you saturate your mind in Scripture,
you've no hope.
You will respond to the situations of life
in a worldly sense rather than in a
biblical sense.
We need to get to know Scripture so
that we're truly guided by it in our
lives.
Thirdly, we need to recognize the authority of
the Bible in our warfare against the devil.
I suppose there's no way in which you
can see Jesus' view of Scripture more clearly
than in the Temptations.
There in the barren wilderness of Jishamun.
After 40 days and nights without food, the
tempter comes and tempts Jesus in these three
separate directions.
And it doesn't matter how the devil seeks
to get at him, Jesus, whose mind has
been soaked in Scripture, responds biblically.
He doesn't use human logic, though he could
have done so.
I'm sure he could have sent the devil
running by his human logic, untainted by sin.
He could have called for angelic assistance.
But no.
He chooses to rest in the power of
Scripture against the devil.
Hide God's word in your heart.
And when Satan comes, there's no greater shield
of defense against him than Scripture.
How I thank God that when I was
18, I lived two miles from where I
worked, and buses were not convenient.
I had to walk to work, and I
had to walk back again.
And the quickest way was over a park.
And you would have found me, morning and
evening, rain, hail, or shine, walking across the
park with a book open, often covered in
polythene.
And you probably thought I was completely insane,
because I'm a very slow learner.
And I had to repeat these Scriptures which
I was trying to learn over and over
again, vocally, out loud, just to get them
into my thick skull.
But I thank God that over 400 Scriptures
were indelibly fixed on my mind, it would
seem, through that process.
And so often, not always, but so often
now, when temptation comes, there's immediately a Scripture
which comes into my mind.
And I don't have to decide whether this
is right or whether this is wrong.
I know from Scripture that it is so.
Can I encourage all of you to spend
time memorizing Scripture?
Set yourself a program.
Maybe just a couple of verses a week.
Memorize Scripture.
Jesus did it.
Even though He was the Son of God,
He was, in a sense, a normal human
being.
And He had to spend time memorizing the
Old Testament.
If He needed to, how much more do
you and me?
Fourthly, we need to recognize the authority of
the sword of the Spirit, which is the
Word of God, in our evangelism.
We need to preach the Word.
Let's preach biblically.
Let's soak our sermons in Scripture.
So often today, we're hearing the experiences of
men.
Often humorous and exciting.
Well, it's great to listen to.
But what authority does it have?
Your experience has no greater authority than my
experience.
If you're comparing experiences with an atheist, you've
got very little to stand on.
We need to preach.
We need to teach our Sunday school scholars.
We need, in our personal witnessing, to be
biblical in our conversation.
It amazes me that so many churches today,
when they choose to display something on the
notice board, do not display Scripture.
They display some pleasant little poem by some
human author, or some famous statement.
The Word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, pierces into
the soul and the spirit of man.
Let's preach the Word of God, the sword
of the Spirit.
And a fifth practical conclusion, which I don't
think is contained in your notes, is that
therefore, we should be men and women of
faith.
You know, if we really believe this book,
as I'm sure you all do, we should
be men and women who know how to
stand upon it.
Who know how to believe when all the
circumstances are against us.
I had to preach at Dundee University last
Friday on faith.
And in preparing the message, I re-read
some of the biography of George Muller of
Bristol.
This great...
one of the founders, I suppose, of the
Brethren Movement.
George Muller of Bristol, the man who had
all those orphanages down there.
In one of the biographies, he tells the
story of how one day he came down
to breakfast and there was not a cornflake
in the larder.
And all the children came to their seats.
One of the staff who was due to
say grace on that occasion came to Muller
and said, what are we going to say
grace for?
There's nothing here to thank God for.
Muller quietly said to her, go and thank
God for what He is going to give
us for our breakfast.
She looked at him in utter astonishment.
And he said, haven't you read Philippians 4
.19?
My God shall supply all your needs.
Does the Bible say it or does it
not?
She agreed, the Bible said it.
Then go.
God will provide.
She prayed.
And sure enough, there was a knock on
the door.
God sometimes uses unusual circumstances and I'm not
sure the grocer van driver believed it was
God's hand.
But outside of the door, there's an accident.
Not a serious one.
But groceries from a grocery van were strewn
all over the road.
And the man saying it was an orphanage
said, I can't sell this.
Please come and take anything you need for
your children.
Do we believe this book?
When all the circumstances are against us, is
it the infallible, inerrant word of God or
is it not?
If it is, we should be men and
women of extraordinary faith.