Declaring Doctrine (Part 3) | The Doctrine of the Word of God
Alright well we’re there in 1 Thessalonians 2. We’ve been going through a series on Sunday nights called “Declaring Doctrine”. And we’re just simply going through a systematic study of theology of major doctrines in the Bible. This is the type of study that is usually done in Bible College or seminaries. I don’t believe in either one so I figured that we’ll do it in church which is what God actually established. You say why would you spend these weeks learning doctrine? Because I don’t want you to be carried about with every wind of doctrine. I want you to know what we believe but not only what we believe but also why we believe it.
If you remember, we started three weeks ago. And we’re going to spend many weeks in this series. But the first week we talked about the importance of doctrine. And then last week we started with the doctrine of revelation. And we talked about specifically general revelation and how God reveals himself to mankind generally just through creation and through conscience. Today we’re going to talk about the doctrine of the Word of God. And I’m going to give you 4 statements that I would like you to write down. And I would encourage you to take notes as we go through this series. I’ll give you 4 statements and we’ll learn about what we believe about the Word of God.
Here’s statement number one or point number one, the revelation of the Word of God. Because remember last week we talked about general revelation. God reveals himself through nature, through creation. And he reveals himself in man through conscience. But that’s not the only way that God reveals himself. That’s just a generic or a general way. And if you remember from last week, and I’m not going to re preach that sermon but God reveals his wrath. It is revealed, it is made manifest through the things that are seen. The heavens they declare the glory of God. When we’re talking about the revelation of the word of God, we’re talking about specific revelation. How God specifically reveals himself to mankind. So we’ve got the revelation of the word of God. What does that mean? Well it means a couple of things. First of all it means that the Bible is the Word of God.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 “13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because,” Notice what he says “when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”. So, I want you to notice that Paul said when you heard the word from us, when you got these epistles that we’re writing and we’re saying to you, you did not receive those as the word of men. And today many people say all the Bible was written by man and the Bible is just the documents that were read by men. But he says you received it as it is in truth, the Word of God. And as Bible believing Christians, here’s what you and I believe about the Bible. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God and we believe that the Word of God was given by specific revelation, that God revealed his word to man.
I debated whether I would even go here to Ephesians Chapter 3 because on Wednesday night, that just happens to be the chapter we’re in. But I felt like I needed to go here for this sermon as well. God must have orchestrated that or God wants us to look at it a couple of times. But I want you to understand that the doctrine of the revelation of the Word of God is this, that God revealed his word, that God revealed his word to certain individuals. Now here’s why this is important today. You’ve got the charismatic movement and the Pentecostals wanting to tell you about their word of faith, that God has revealed a certain word to them. “God told me to tell you that if you give a hundred dollars he’s going to give you a thousand or whatever”. All of that is a lie. All of that is false prophets preaching lies that they have not heard, preaching peace when there is no peace. Because of the fact that the Bible teaches that God revealed his word to certain individuals.
Ephesians 3:1 “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:”. And we’re going to cover that on Wednesday nights. Notice verse 3 “3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”. I’m just showing to you that Paul said hey, the mystery that I received from God, the writings that I’ve got from the New Testament, those were given to me by revelation. God revealed those truths to me. This is the doctrine of revelation. Go to the book of Revelation if you would.
The book of Revelation is referred to as the revelation of Saint John or the revelation of Saint John the Divine in headings in the Bible. Here’s why I always kind of chuckle when I read that. Because in Revelation 1:1, here’s what the Bible says. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”. You say what does that mean? Here’s what that means. That God revealed certain things to the Lord Jesus Christ and then he sent and signified it by his angel unto a servant John.
So, how did John get the book of Revelation? It was revealed to him through a supernatural process. How did Paul get a revelation? It was revealed to him through a supernatural process. See, we believe in the doctrine of the Word of God. And what that means is that we believe in the revelation of the Word of God. That God revealed his word and that what we hold in our hands as a Bible is not a book that was written by men. Men were used to pen it down. However, the Word of God is the Bible, the Bible is the word of God. And the Bible was revealed by God. We said number 1, the revelation of the Word of God. God revealed his word to mankind. God reveals himself generally to all mankind through creation and conscience. We talked about that last week. But then God specifically reveals himself to us through his word.
There’s a second aspect to this doctrine that you need to understand. When we’re talking about the doctrine of the word of God, there are certain concepts you need to understand about the doctrine of the Word of God. The first is the revelation of the Word of God. That God revealed himself specifically to mankind through his word. Secondly, you need to understand the inspiration of the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 “16 All scripture” The word scripture is just a Bible word referring to what you and I would call the Bible or the Word of God. “All scripture is given by” And I want you to notice this word “inspiration of God,”. Now what does that mean? Usually when you and I see this word inspiration or when you and I use it in our modern vernacular, when we talk about someone being inspired or I received some sort of inspiration, what we’re talking about is like an emotion that we received. For example, a certain song touches you in a certain way or you heard a poem or you heard something that you got inspired about. But that is not what the Bible or the biblical definition of the word inspiration means. The word inspiration has to do with your breath. One of the definitions of the word inspiration if you look it up is to breathe in air or to inhale. And here’s what the Bible means when the Bible says that all Scripture was given by inspiration of God. It means this, that it was given from the breath of God, that God’s breath or God’s inhale and exhale took process in giving us the Word of God.
You say what does that mean? Here’s what that means. It means that our Bible was not only given by revelation to man but that the inspiration of the Word of God means that the Bible was spoken by God. God spoke his word. See, when I stand up and I speak, I open my mouth and I inhale and I exhale. And there’s inspiration, there’s breath in the inhaling process of speaking. And the Bible tells us all Scripture was given by inspiration of God. Meaning God spoke, God literally opened his mouth and spoke his word. And he says “16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”.
Go to Exodus chapter number 20. We’re going to look at a lot of passages tonight. Exodus 20 is a famous chapter that’s known for the 10 commandments. It’s one of the two places in our Old Testament that we have the Ten Commandments. And it’s not just the 10 commandments, there’s a lot of information and descriptions. Exodus 20:1, the Bible says this “And God spake all these words, saying,”. And then we go on and he gives us all these verses. And here’s the point that I want you to understand and maybe you’ve never thought about this before. When the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai, God did not just give us a book that was written down or just tell somebody to write these things down. God actually spoke those words. That is the doctrine of inspiration. The Bible was spoken by God.
Psalm 68:11 “11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.”. Who gave the word? The Lord did. Who spoke the words? God did. 2 Timothy 3:16 “16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,”. The inspiration of the word of God means that God spoke those words. And here’s what it means and here’s what I want you to understand and you might want to jot this down, we believe in what’s called the plenary, verbal inspiration. And it is this, that God spoke his word. That all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That he opened his mouth and spoke but that he spoke those words through man.
2 Peter 1:21 “21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:” It did not come by the will of man. It was not man’s idea to write this book. Man likes to write books about how good you are and how great you are. Man comes up with religions. They say just be a good person and you will become a god and you’re going to go into some sort of a great state. Those are the sorts of books that man would write. The Bible would not have written by man. Man would not write a book that we are all sinners. “21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:” So, how did it come? “but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Holy men of God spake. The Bible says “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”.
Go to Hebrews 1. And here’s what I want you to understand. The Bible was spoken by God through man but man actually physically opened his mouth and spoke it. Whenever you read the Bible, whatever you were reading was actually first spoken by someone. “21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”. And by the way, I’m not preaching on the subject of the King James Bible tonight. We will hit that in this series. I’ll do a sermon on the doctrine in the King James Bible. But let me just say this, this is why you want to be careful about getting in arguments. Sometimes people like to argue about the King James Bible and they’ll argue about King James Bibles. They’ll say “It has a capital letter here and it doesn’t have capital letters there. It doesn’t have the same spelling here as there”. There are definitely arguments to be made there but just realize this, that when the Bible was given to man, it was given in oral form. It was spoken and none of these men were saying space, capitalized, the next word, etc…They were speaking the Word of God as it was given to them through Revelation. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners”. That’s just a fancy way of saying in different ways, at different times. Notice “spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,”. How did he speak? “2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”. So notice, God spake in time past by the prophets and in these last days God has spoken unto us by his Son. So, when we talk about the Word of God, what do we believe about the Word of God? Here’s what we believe. We believe that God revealed himself through his Word and that it was given through inspiration, that God spake the words.
I just want to give you some examples of this because this is something you’ll find throughout the Bible. In fact, if you’re aware of it, you’ll begin to see it throughout Scripture. Acts 1:16 “16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled,” Notice, they’re talking about a certain scripture that needed to be fulfilled. And he says this “this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake” Do you see how David was one of the writers of the Word of God? How did David write it? Well, he first spoke it and it was revealed to him through the Holy Ghost. In fact, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David. “which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.”.
Acts 4:24. The Bible says this “24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?”. Now hold on a second. That’s a quote from Psalm 2. And here the Bible tells us that God actually spoke those words by the mouth of thy servant David. So, when we’re talking about the doctrine of the Word of God, what are we talking about? What do we believe? Well, we believe in the revelation of the Word of God. The specific revelation that God revealed himself to mankind. And we believe in the inspiration of the Word of God, that God spoke those words and he spoke them through man and that God spoke his word through men.
2 Samuel 23:1. “Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,”. The Spirit of the Lord is what David said. David said, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and His Word was in my tongue. “David, did you write down the words of God?”. He would say no. He would say that he actually spoke the words of God, the spirit of God spake by me and His Word was in my tongue. This is called inspiration. The words of God were spoken. They were spoken by God and they were spoken through men. And it is after inspiration. God spoke his words through men, that the scriptures were written down, the scriptures were written down after they were spoken.
Let me give you an example of this. Jeremiah 36:4 “4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah:”. Notice what the Bible says. “and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord,”. What happened? How did we get the book of Jeremiah? Well, Jeremiah spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. And then Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which Jeremiah had spoken unto him. So, how did we get the Bible? It was spoken by God but it was spoken through the mouths of holy men of God. The Bible says they spoke the Word of God through the Holy Spirit. And then once it was spoken, then it was written down. Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken unto him.
Go to the book of Romans. Paul wrote Romans, right? It’s a trick question. God wrote the book. Well of course God wrote the book of Romans. We know that but did Paul write the book of Romans or did he just speak under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. At the end of the book of Romans, Paul is giving all his greetings and telling people to greet certain people. Romans 16:22 “22 I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.”. Now wait a minute. Did Paul write it or did Tertius write it? Well honestly, God wrote it. But I want you to notice that God spoke through Paul and then Tertius was like Baruch to Jeremiah. He actually wrote down the words. We believe in the revelation of the word of God, that God specifically revealed himself to mankind. And we believe in the inspiration of the word of God which means that the Bible was spoken by God. It was spoken through men. And then the scriptures were written down after they were spoken.
Now let me just answer a question that’s often asked. People will say “Well wait a minute, if God spoke the word, then shouldn’t the entire Bible just sound like one author”. Because the Bible doesn’t sound like just one person wrote it. In fact, you’ve got different literary styles in the Bible. The human author of the book of Acts was the same human author of the Gospel according to Luke. Luke physically wrote the Book of Luke and wrote the book of Acts. And if you compare those two books, you’ll find that there are similarities in how they are written. If you read the writings of Paul, you’ll find that there are similarities in how they are written. If you read the books that John wrote, you’ll find that there are similarities in how they are written. So, here’s what people will say. They’ll say “When you read Paul’s books, they sound like him but not Luke or John or Moses. ”. Here’s what you need to understand. Men were used as the tool to bring the Word of God in the same way that you and I if we were going to write a letter. In the same way that I would pick up a pen to write, God picked up men to write and give his word.
I don’t know about you but I’ve got a certain brand of pens that I like. If you were to come into my office, you would find three different types of pen or the same type of pen but three different widths in those pens. And the number seven is the one that I generally use if I’m just writing notes to someone. I generally use the number seven if I’m going to write notes in my Bible. I like to use the number five, which is a little thinner, if I’m writing notes in my Bible. Or when typing a letter, people use different fonts. Usually most people use Times New Roman if they’re just writing anything. But if you’re writing an invitation to a marriage, you’re going to use a fancier font, right. Here’s the point. The Bible is divided into all sorts of different sections. We’ve got poetic books and historical books. We’ve got apocalyptic books. We have all sorts of different writing styles.
And when God wanted to write a book like the Book of Luke which has an emphasis in it that Jesus was a human being, a lot of description about Jesus just being a person, when God wanted to write a book that emphasized the humanity of Christ, he picked up a pen by the name of Luke who was a physician who would kind of identify those traits in Christ. When God wants to write a book like the Book of Psalms which is a songbook, he picked up a guy named David who was a musician to write those songs. When he wanted a theological book, he picked up an intellectual like Paul. See, God chose different men to write different styles and different things. None of that disproves the fact that God wrote the book. Because here’s the point, you can’t deny that men’s styles are apparent in Scripture. In the scripture, God used men like we use pens or fonts, different types for different styles. Now look, we don’t understand how God does what he does or how all this works. But let me just say this, as far as I can tell, there are two options here. Either God spoke his word to match the men that he would choose to speak and write or God created these men to match the words that he would speak. But either way, it wouldn’t be difficult for an all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal God. I’m saying if God created all mankind, he already knows Paul’s going to write certain epistles. John’s going to write certain epistles. David’s going to write certain books. But the words of the Bible, God inspired and spoke through them. That’s clear. You say why does it matter? Here’s why it matters. Because if God spoke the words and the words are pure, if God spoke the words and the words are perfect, if God spoke the words and there’s nothing to add to them, they are everything that we need, this is the inspiration of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Its source is God. God spoke the words through men.
Go to Psalm 12. We’re talking about the doctrine of the Word of God. What is it? Well number one, we have to understand the revelation of the Word of God which God revealed himself to mankind. The Bible is truly the Word of God and God revealed it to certain individuals. Then we also believe the inspiration of the Word of God, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And what that means is that God spoke his word and that God spoke his word through man and it was written down after it was spoken.
Number 3, when it comes to talk of the word of God, we believe in the preservation of the Word of God. See, the Bible tells us that God was responsible for preserving his word. Psalm 12:6 “6 The words of the Lord are pure words:” They’re pure. They’re not corrupted. They’re incorruptible. “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”. Verse 7 “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”. Now hold on a second. What do we believe? Because up to this point, no one would disagree with anything that I’ve said. I mean if you talk to Christian scholars all over the place, they’ll all say “Yes we understand the doctrine of Revelation. Yes we understand the doctrine of inspiration”. And they might even give lip service to the doctrine of preservation. But please understand this, when we say that we believe in the preservation of the Word of God, what we mean by that is that we believe that God is responsible for preserving his word. The words of the Lord are pure words. And the Bible says “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them”.
And here’s where people are either just being dishonest, intellectually dishonest or they’re evil. Because they’ll say “Well, the reason that we don’t have a perfect Bible today is because man messed it up.”. And here’s what they’ll say, they’ll say “God gave us his inspired Word and it was perfect. But then when man began to translate it, they messed it up”. Wait a minute, God gave us his word perfectly, which everybody believes. Most Christians believe that. David was a man. Last I checked, Paul was a man. Moses was a man. John was a man. Last I checked, God used man to give us his inspired work perfectly. Couldn’t that same God use man to preserve his Word? Because whose job is that to preserve his Word? It is God’s job to preserve it. He says “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”. So, we believe in the preservation of the Word of God. That means that God is responsible for preserving his Word. And I want you to notice verse 7 “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them”. Notice what it says. This is David speaking through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. You often hear me say that. Maybe you never knew what I really meant by that. But here’s what I mean by that. That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And David said “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”. So, who’s going to keep the Word of God and who’s going to preserve the Word of God from David’s generation? God is.
Again, I’m not preaching the King James Bible. That’ll come not next week but the week after that. We’re probably spending three weeks just on the doctrine of the Word of God. Here’s the point, this is one of the reasons, the preservation of the Word of God is one of the reasons that we reject modern Bible versions. And I don’t have time to develop this and we’ll talk about it in detail in a few weeks, but here’s what you need to understand, the modern Bible versions are based on manuscripts that were recently discovered. And when I say recently, I mean the last couple hundred years. And those manuscripts are different than the manuscripts that all mankind has had for hundreds of years (the received text that Bible versions have been translated from since the time of Christ). And people say “Well we found these new ones. They were hidden. They’re older so they must be better.”.
But wait a minute, if you believe that these manuscripts that have been hidden for hundreds of years, if you believe that those are the Word of God and the Word of God was hidden then here’s what you have to believe, that for hundreds of years there were generations upon this earth that did not have access to the Word of God. The Bible said “7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”. Not from the 1800’s, forever. David said from this generation forever. So, here’s what we know. The Word of God has been on this earth since the beginning. And by the way, the devil has been attacking the Word of God since the beginning, since the Garden of Eden. But we believe in the preservation of the Word of God. What does that mean? It means that God is responsible, God is responsible for preserving his Word.
Psalm 119:89 “89 For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”. There’s no debate in heaven which manuscripts are right and which translation is the right translation. Because the preservation of the Word of God is something that God puts upon himself. Isaiah 40:8 “8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:” The things of this world are temporal. They’re going to wither away. They’re going to fade away. They’re going to die. They’re going to get corrupted. “8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”. So, what is that? That is the preservation of the Word of God, that God is responsible for preserving his word. And if you believe that then here’s what that means, that the originals are not necessary. If you truly believe that God, the same God who choreographed the inspiration of his Word through mankind, is the same God, then the originals are unnecessary. You must have a weak God if he can give us his Word through man but he can’t preserve his Word through man. How does that make any sense? But if you believe in the preservation, the same God that inspired man and made sure they got it right is the same God that can use man to preserve his Word. And in the King James sermon, we’ll talk about how God did that and how we know the King James Bible is preserved.
But here’s the point. What that means is that you don’t need the originals. What’s funny is that the originals are gone. They don’t exist. They’re not around. And even the modern Bible versions people will tell you the originals are gone. You say well what are we debating about? We’re just debating about the ones that we found in a trash can in a basement in a cave. For thousands of years it had never been used. The ones that we found are older than the ones you have. Now wait a minute, we’re not talking about the originals versus newer versions. We’re talking about translations that none of them are the original. If you believe in the preservation of the Word of God, you don’t need the originals. And you know, you don’t even need older or more ancient or older manuscripts. Let me prove to it you.
Jeremiah 36:27 “27 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,”. Now remember, Jeremiah spake and Baruch wrote the word. And then they sent it to the king. And the king burns the roll. “27 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,”. So, Jeremiah spake the Word of God. Baruch wrote the Word of God. And they sent the originals to the king. Now why would you do that? Jeremiah sent him a copy. Here’s what Jeremiah knew. Jeremiah knew God’s Word is preserved. The originals are not really needed. He sent the original to the king. The King reads it and doesn’t like it and he burned the role. And the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, the originals, were destroyed.
Jeremiah 36:28 “28 Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.”. Even when you had the original of the Book of Jeremiah, you didn’t have the original because it was destroyed by the king. But notice here, the Bible teaches us that the originals are not necessary if you really believe that God is powerful enough to preserve his word. They just write it again. Because the same God that can inspire men to give us his word in a perfect way can use those same men and guide those same men to give us a preserved word. So, when we talk about the doctrine of the Word of God, we’re talking about the revelation of the Word of God. Specifically we’re talking about the inspiration of the Word of God. That the Bible was spoken by God and that it was spoken through men and the scriptures were written down after they were spoken. We’re talking about the preservation of the Word of God. That God is responsible for preserving his Word. And if you believe that then God’s preservation means that the originals are not necessary.
There’s a 4th though in regards to the doctrine of the Word of God. And it’s this, the illumination of the Word of God. What does that mean? I don’t want to spend too much time on this because I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time on this recently. But let me give it to you. Unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 “13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man” The unregenerated man, the non-spiritual man. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”. The Bible is clear that unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. If you don’t believe me, go talk to unsaved people about the Bible. They believe all sorts of crazy things about the Bible. They don’t understand the Bible. It’s a spiritual book.
This is why in Acts 8 when you have Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, the Bible says “30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?”. The illumination of the Word of God is this, unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. And the only reason that you and I can understand the Bible is because the Holy Spirit illuminates the truth of God’s Word to believers. The Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures to believers. Notice 1 Corinthians 2:13 “13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;”. Who teaches the Word of God? The Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Ghost that teaches the Word of God.
1 John 2:27 “27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you:”. Notice “but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,” The anointing is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is represented by oil and anointing throughout the Bible. He says “and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”. See, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Word of God for us. John 14:26 “26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”. John 16:13 “13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he”. Who’s he? The Spirit of Truth. “he will guide you into all truth: The Holy Spirit is the one that will teach you the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the one that illuminates the truth of God’s Word to believers.
We’ve been talking about the doctrine of the Word of God. What does that mean? Well there’s four concepts to that doctrine. One is the revelation of the Word of God. That is that the Bible is the Word of God and that the word was given by specific revelation to specific people by God. Secondly is that we believe in the inspiration of the Word of God. That the Bible was spoken by God and it was spoken through men and then the scriptures were written down after they were spoken. Thirdly we believe in the preservation of the Word of God. That God is responsible for preserving his word and that God’s preservation means that the originals are not necessary. And fourthly we believe in the illumination of the Word of God. That unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. And if you don’t believe me, go talk to a Catholic. Go talk to a Mormon. Go talk to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Go talk to any false religion that thinks they understand the Bible and you’ll be shocked how much they don’t understand about the Bible. Because unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. But the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures for believers.
Because of this, we can agree with 1st Thessalonians 2:13. “13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”. I’m not sure if you’ve really understood or if I’ve done a good job at communicating the implications of the doctrine of the Word of God. But if you believe the things that I’ve showed you tonight, then here’s what you believe. That when you and I open this book, we hold in our hands the words of God. I mean here’s what I just said. The words that God spoke, these words that God gave you and I, are the words of God. God spoke and then wrote letters and instructions. And he tells us how to be saved. He tells us the need of salvation. He tells us how to be a good husband, how to be a good wife, how to be a good steward, how to be a good employee, how to be a good father, how to be a good mother, what he expects from us, what to do with our finances, what to do with our emotions.
And here’s what I’m telling you. Sometimes I think you and I just intellectually say “Oh yeah this was the Word of God”. But in application we don’t act like it. I mean when we open up this book, we are opening up the mind of God. That God has spoken his word and revealed himself to you and me. And yet we skip church for a football game. And yet we open up the Bible and we act flimsy about it and weak about it and we act like it’s not important. Look, this is not a book like any other book you read. When the Word of God is opened, there ought to be some respect, some reverence. He took the time to inspire the Word of God and preserve it and reveal himself and it’s everything you need for life. So yes, we do not accept the Bible as a book written by men. But we accept it as it is in truth, the Word of God. And you and I would be wise to live like it, to live like God has instructed us in his Word.
Let’s pray.