Psalm 119:105: Sola Scriptura: The Doctrine of the Word of God

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Intro

How do you know that the Bible is truly the Word of God?

The Word is the foundation of all our life.

The Baptist Catechism says it is the only certain rule of faith and obedience (Q4).

But how do we know that the Bible is truly God’s Word?

And what does it mean for us that God has spoken and given us this Book?

What change… what difference… what impact should that make in your life?

119 Background

Psalm 119 is a Psalm that delights in God’s Word.

It’s the longest chapter in the whole Bible and praises God for the gift of His Word.

As a song, the Psalm calls the people of God to thank God for His Word and to pray that all of their life… all that they are and all that they do… would be conformed to God’s Word.

That all of their life would be lived in the light of its Light.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The grace of God’s Word cannot be overstated.

Its one of God’s greatest gifts to us.

Without God’s Word… without God’s revelation… we would all be lost in darkness.

We would never know anything about God or the grace of His salvation.

His Word is the Lamp and the Light that points us to the True Light of the World, the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ (John 8:12, 1:1).

Do we love and treasure God’s Word as the grace that it is?

That’s my goal, Lord willing, over the next two weeks.

That we would treasure God’s Word like the Psalmist in Psalm 119, and actually live like it.

The theme verse of Psalm 119 might very well be Psalm 119:97… Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Do you love God’s Word?… Do you live like it?

Do you read it?… study it?… keep it?

Do prioritize the Word preached?

Do you hold fast to the Word?

Defend the Word?

Proclaim the Word?

Tremble at God’s Word and hold it as the Highest Authority and Greatest Treasure of your Life?

Psalm 119:103… How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Doctrine then Life

So here’s what we are going to do.

Next week I think is going to be a lot more practical of walking step by step according to God’s Word.

This week is going to be more doctrinal.

A Doctrine of the Word of God.

Reasons

Now… most of you already believe the Bible is God’s Word.

You take it as a given.

But there are several reasons this is still valuable for us.

Confidence

First… it gives you a confidence in what you believe.

God has given us something more than a blind faith.

Defense

Related to this… studying the Doctrine of the Word of God helps prepare you… 1 Peter 3:15… to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

If someone asked you how do you know the Bible is God’s Word and not just another book what would you say?

What makes the Bible different from all other religions?

Why should you trust the Bible enough to bank your eternal soul on it?

Authority/Proper Place

Third… having a biblical doctrine of the Word of God puts God’s Word in its proper place in our life.

If the God of the universe really spoke, what does that mean for us?

Do we care what He has to say?

Do we listen or do we just keep going on our own way?

If the Bible truly is the Word of God… and the only Word of God that we have… then the only proper response… the only reasonable response… is to treasure that Word with all of our heart and life.

A true Doctrine of the Word of God takes the Bible from just being a book on your shelf… to the most precious words in the whole universe.

God’s own words!.. to you!

The revelation of Himself and life’s meaning and purpose… true truth!… true Light!… all right here.

Does that change the way you see the Bible?

Doesn’t that take the Bible from a chore to a delight?

Worship

Finally… a true doctrine of the Word of God fuels our worship.

First it gives us the content of our worship.

How do you worship what you do not know? (John 4:22).

True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23).

But also… related to the last point… the Bible itself is a gift of grace and one of the things I hope you leave here with today is a renewed love for God’s Word.

A love that… Lord willing… will change your life today!

Is the Bible God’s Word?

So how do you know the Bible is God’s Word?

First, its the testimony of Scripture itself.

OT Testimony

In the Old Testament… the Prophets spoke the very words of the Lord.

Elisha said Hear ye the word of the Lord: thus saith the Lord (2 Kings 7:1).

All throughout the Old Testament God spoke through His Prophets (cf. 2 Kings 24:2).

In Deuteronomy 18 where God promised to raise up another Prophet like Moses… pointing ultimately to Jesus… God said… “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).

Written Word

Now… not everything the Prophets ever said was written down, but God commanded that some of what the Prophets said should be written down and preserved for future generations (1 Samuel 10:25, Isaiah 30:8, Jeremiah 30:2).

And that collection of works became the Old Testament and those words… written down… were also considered to be the Word of the Lord (Exodus 24:4, 34:27, Jeremiah 36:10-11).

For example, when King Josiah found the book of the Law given through Moses he said that the people of Judah were under God’s wrath because they had not kept the Word of the Lord (2 Chronicles 34:14, 21).

NT Affirmation

Then in the NT… Jesus, the Apostles and the other authors of the NT all affirmed that the Old Testament we have is the very Word of God by referring to them as the Holy Scriptures… Divine Writings (John 5:39, Romans 1:2).

In Acts 1 Peter said “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David” (Acts 1:16).

So the Scripture was spoken by the Holy Spirit… so Divine Revelation… the mouth of David… that’s God speaking through the mouth of a prophet.

And The Scripture had to be fulfilled… so its True.

That’s really the whole theology of Scripture in one verse.

Divine Inspiration… Human Authorship… wholly True and Trustworthy… inerrant and infallible.

We see this also with Jesus… the Word of God incarnate in human flesh.

Jesus affirmed the Divine Inspiration of the Old Testament when He said…

Mark 7:10–13 “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Now notice what Jesus does.

He quotes the Old Testament Scriptures and says they are the words of Moses… For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother.

But then He says that the Pharisees were “making void the word of God” by their tradition handed down.

So on the one hand the Old Testament Scriptures were the words of Moses but also the very Words of God.

Jesus and the Apostles and the leaders of the early church all affirmed together that the Old Testament Scriptures are the Word of God.

NT Testimony

Well, what about the New Testament?

The New Testament also claims itself to be the very Word of God.

Jesus’ Words = God’s Words

For example, speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures Jesus said in Matthew 5:17–18 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

And then said in Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Jesus’ words will not pass away just as the words of the Old Testament will not pass away.

Jesus says that His words, as recorded for us in the Gospels, are on equal footing with the Old Testament Scriptures.

They are the very Word of God.

Well someone might say, “That’s Jesus.”

You might call them “Red Letter Christians” that say, “Well, I like Jesus, I can believe that what He said is the Word of God, but Paul and all that… the rest of the New Testament… That’s not really Scripture… that’s not really the Word of God.”

“I’ll take Jesus and just leave the rest.”

But the New Testament doesn’t give us that option.

Peter

Peter says in…

2 Peter 3:15–16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Now what does Peter say?

That some of Paul’s writings were being twisted by False Teachers just as they twist quote the other Scriptures… the same word used for the Old Testament.

So you have Peter… the leader of the Apostles… saying in the 1st century… not hundreds of years later where the Church just made it up… that Paul’s Letters belonged to and were part of the Holy Scriptures… the Word of God! (Cf. 1 Corinthians 14:37).

Paul

And not just Paul’s words.

In 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul said…

1 Timothy 5:18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

So Paul here is quoting “Scripture”… for the Scripture says…

And the first quote comes from the Law in Deuteronomy 25:4.

But the second quote… the Laborer deserves his wages… are the words of the Lord Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 10:10, Luke 10:7).

So just like Peter said that Paul’s writing were part of Scripture Scripture… Paul says that the Gospels were Scripture too!

The New Testament testifies to itself that it is the Word of God.

Paul said in…

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Just as with the Prophets the words of Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament are the very words of God.

“External” Proofs

But here’s the kicker.

Someone might say, “Well of course the Bible says that!”

“Every religious book of every of religion in the world claims to be the Word of God… the ultimate truth!”

“The Bible can’t be the Word of God just because it says it is!”

“What makes the Bible any more the Word of God than the Quran or the Book of Mormon?”

What would you say?… How would you answer that?

This is where we can look at what we might call… the External Proofs for the truthfulness of Scripture as God’s Word (1689 1:5).

Number 1…

1. Jesus’ Resurrection

The greatest proof we have is that our God rose from the dead.

No other quote-unquote “Prophet”… religious leader… or spiritual guru can say they had the Word of God but also rose from the dead.

Only Jesus does.

How do we know the Bible is God’s Word?

Because Jesus said that He had the Word of God and that He was sent from God and then God rose Him from the dead (Romans 1:4).

Number 2…

2. The Bible’s Perfect Consistency.

The Bible was written over a period of 1500 years by at least 40 different authors with all kinds of genres, literature, and historical settings… and yet there are no errors or contradictions in it.

Its 66 voices forming one perfect book.

That’s not possible for mere Human Beings.

We could not do it if we tried.

The Bible’s perfection and beauty… that kind of glory cannot come from man… let alone 40 different men over a period 1500 years.

That kind of glory can only come from the Infinite Wisdom of One Divine Author.

Number 3…

3. History and Biblical Prophecy

The Bible is a historical book written in history about historical facts and events.

And the Bible is true history.

Extrabiblical sources line up with the Bible’s historical record and the Bible has even been used to discover Archeological digs of ancient biblical sites and archeology has proven time and again… the Bible to be true.

There is also the matter of Biblical Prophecy.

The Bible has hundreds of prophecies that have all been fulfilled written hundreds and thousands of years before they happened.

And they aren’t just to do with Jesus such as His virgin birth in Bethlehem or death on the cross.

There are also prophecies about major historical events such as the rise of the Persians, the Greeks, and Alexander the Great… not to mention what would happen after his kingdom hundreds of years before in the book of Daniel.

And Jesus himself predicted the Fall of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple in 70 AD by the Romans in Matthew 24.

These prophecies prove the Bible is the Word of God because Isaiah 46:9–10 I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Only God could sovereignly proclaim the future down to the smallest detail proving HIs word is the Word of God,

Number 4…

4. The Bible’s Miraculous Preservation

The Bible has a long and bloody history.

There have been men who have died to give you this book.

It has been attacked… persecuted… burned… made illegal… and even twisted by false teachers.

And yet… God has kept His Word through it all.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

One of the ways we know the Bible is true is that God has preserved His Word.

And someone might say, “Well, its all been corrupted… people changed it from its original message.”

But that’s not true.

Thanks to the science of Textual Criticism we have hundreds and hundreds and sometimes thousands and thousands of copies called manuscripts that prove the Bible we have is the Bible they first wrote.

Wo that while we probably don’t have Paul’s original letter to the Galatians that was penned by his own hand… we have so many copies of Galatians… and all the other books of the Bible that we know exactly what Paul said (Galatians 6:11).

Dead Sea Scrolls

This was proven with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In the 1940s a Library of Old Testament manuscripts were found in a cave and what’s amazing is that those manuscripts were a thousand years older than any manuscript we had and yet… when they translated it… it was the same Bible.

(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-dead-sea-scrolls/).

Even after a thousand years difference.

God has given and kept His Word throughout history.

Number 4…

5. The Heavenliness of Its Doctrine

The message and content of Scripture is something so other-worldly that it would not… and could not have been made up by any mere man.

Trinity

Take the Doctrine of The Trinity.

We worship one God eternally subsisting in 3 divine persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all co-equally, co-eternally God.

We can’t even understand the Trinity let alone make it up.

Incarnation

Same with Jesus’ incarnation… an inverse of the Trinity… Jesus is one person with two distinct natures… both human and divine… so Jesus is fully God and fully man… without any mixture, blending, or confusion of the two (1689 8:2).

Man Debasing/God Exalting

The heavenliness of its doctrine is also seen in how the Bible is man debasing and God exalting.

The whole thing is about the glory and goodness of God while man is utterly sinful and totally depraved.

No goodness… no righteousness in us (Romans 3:10).

Dead in our trespasses and sins… children of wrath… followers of Satan… lost, blind, destitute, and helpless.

If we were making the Bible we would have a much higher opinion of ourselves but as God’s Word it tells us honestly who we are.

Grace/Works

Related to this… the Bible is the only book that says we have no hope in ourselves… we cannot save ourselves by our good works… our only hope is God’s grace.

Those who are of the earth… John 3:31… belong to the earth and speak in an earthly way.

Every other religion, philosophy, and worldview preaches a works based salvation.

That there is something we can do to save ourselves.

Some work… some worship… some religious sacrifices… some level of being a good person or living a good life that can save us.

Only the Bible says our only hope is God’s grace.

When you look at the Bible its no book that any man would ever make up.

Its Wisdom… its Doctrine is too high… too lofty to not be revealed by God Himself.

Who would’ve even imagined the central message of the Gospel itself that God sent His own Son to die in our place for our sins.

The message of the Bible is one that is revealed… not one that’s made up by our own fancy.

Number 5…

6. The Bible’s Evident Truth

The 1689 calls this the efficacy of its doctrine.

The Bible is true and it is evidently true… its proven to be true by what we see and by our own experience.

Evidently here does not mean something is possibly true like we sometimes mean it today.

Evidently here means something is clearly or obviously true based on the available evidence.

Explains the World

For one the Bible explains the world around us as actually it is.

It just makes sense.

When you take the Bible and what it teaches about us… the world… what is good… what is evil… its obviously true.

Its the only thing that explains the whole world and every aspect of our life.

The Bible has the answers we are asking for in the world.

Experience

The Bible is also evidently true in our own experience.

People can reject the Bible all they want but everything in the Bible proves to be the True, Good, and Beautiful again and again and again.

Whether that is raising children, marriage, conflict, relationships, government, finances…

Anxiety… suffering…

The principles of Scripture all lead to a good and blessed life because that’s how God made the world.

So people might reject the Bible, but the Bible proves itself to be true by our own everyday experience in every area of life.

Its obviously true.

And Finally… number 6… the last “external proof” that the Bible Truly is the Word of God is the “External Proof” of…

7. The Inward Witness of the Holy Spirit

This is the most important.

After looking at all the other proofs the 1689 London Baptist Confession says, “Yet not withstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts” (1689 1:5; John 16:13-14; 1 Corinthians 2:10–12; 1 John 2:20, 27).

The Spirit testifies to those that are born again that the Bible truly is the Word of God.

Outside of the New Birth we are blind to the things of God.

We can’t see.

But believing the Bible is God’s Word is a mark of conversion (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

If you struggle with doubt and assurance this can be one of those things that helps you because if you believe the Bible is the Word of God that is a work of the Spirit and unbelievers don’t have that same belief.

Breathed Out

So from the internal testimony of Scripture from God who never lies… (Numbers 23:19).

And from the External Proofs that affirm that affirm the Bible is God’s Word…

We believe…

2 Timothy 3:16–17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

All Scripture… every Word.

This is what we call the Doctrine of Verbal Plenary Inspiration.

Verbal meaning words.

Plenary meaning all or absolute.

Inspiration… Divinely inspired by God.

Peter said that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

When we say that Scripture was breathed out by God or that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, what we are saying is that Scripture is just as much God’s Word as our own words are produced by the breath of our own mouths.

Just as our breath produces just exactly the precise words we want to say, so Scripture and all of Scripture is Direct Revelation and the very words of His mouth.

Authoritative

And that means Scripture is Authoritative… it holds the highest authority in our life (1689 1:10).

As the London Baptist Confession says it is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith , and obedience (1689 1:1).

Inerrant

It is Inerrant meaning it is without error or contradiction in its original autographs.

Infallible

It is Infallible meaning it is wholly true and absolutely trustworthy.

It can never and will never lead us astray.

It is a sure word of salvation and we can put all of our hope, all of our faith, and all of our trust in it because ultimately when we trust in the Word we are putting our trust in God Himself (Psalm 119:160; 2 Samuel 7:28, Revelation 22:6, Psalm 12:6).

Sufficient

And it is also Sufficient.

Again the 1689 says The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture (1689 1:6).

What that means is everything necessary for saving faith and spiritual life is taught in the Bible.

Its our life and in it God has given us everything we need.

Grace

So we go back to the questions we started with…

Is the Word precious to you?

Do you treasure it?

Do you love the it?

And do you actually live like it?

Listen… we could talk about a whole lot of applications when it comes to the Doctrine of the Word.

We could talk about its authority and how we need to submit to the Word in every area of our life.

We could talk about holding fast to the Word or keeping the Word…

Or Preaching the Word because God has spoken and the World needs to hear it.

We could talk about Faith in the Word because Paul said, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The Message of the Bible is the good news of Christ.

The only way to be saved… according to God’s Own Word… is by grace through faith in Him.

But I want to talk about something else…

Something that rarely gets talked about that I hope will change your view of the Bible today.

Because how do these sermons usually go?

Read more. Read the Bible and if you’re not reading the Bible your failing as a Christian.

And listen… you should read your Bible.

But that view of the Bible turns your Bible into a chore and not a gift.

What I want you leaving here today with is the Bible as God’s Grace.

Bible As Gift

Do you realize what a gift the Bible is for you?

God is invisible and dwells in unapproachable light (Romans 1:20, Hebrews 11:27, 1 Timothy 1:17, 6:16).

John 1:18 says No one has ever seen God.

God is Holy… and Other… and Outside of time and Distinct from His Creation.

Its like we are in a glass box and if God did not break in… if God did not reveal Himself… we would never know Him.

Well Paul says Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

Yes.

But we would not have a sure and true knowledge of God.

If the invisible God did not reveal Himself we might know about Him… but we would never know Him… at least not truly.

God is spirit so He is personal but He’s also invisible meaning He has no size, shape, color, or form in His essence that our eyes can see (John 4:24).

So the only way to know God is to hear Him.

And that’s the gift of God’s Word.

The Bible is God’s grace to reveal Himself to us.

Jesus is the Ultimate Revelation of God’s Word but how do we 2000 years Later know know the significance Jesus and His person and Work?

God’s Word.

God’s Word is God’s gracious revelation of Himself..

Its God’ breaking into our universe and communicating to us in a language we can understand.

Isaiah 55:8–9 says For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Do you understand that the Bible by being written in Human Words is God’s grace and condescension towards us?

God condescends to us because God wants us to know Him.

He wants to share His glory and the life He has in Himself.

God reveals Himself in His Word to us that we might know Him and His love!

And yet most Christians can’t be bothered to take their Bible off the shelf!

We don’t treasure it as God’s gift to us… as God’s revelation of Himself.

But Without it we would never know Him!

We would never know life!… And we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins.

My Prayer is that the Bible would be the most precious thing in the world to us, and that we would actually live like it.

Love the Word and Treasure the Word like the Psalmist did in Psalm 119.

The Bible is the Creator of the Universe and the whole Purpose of Everything… the reason for our whole existence… Revealing Himself to us.

Giving Himself to us…

And giving us life in His Word.

No wonder men have died for the Word!

Is God’s Word precious to you?

Do you live like it?

Conclusion

Psalm 119 gives us the believer’s heart for the Word.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces (Psalm 119:72).

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day (Psalm 119:97).

With God’s Word… we have the very words of God.

In our hands everyday… we have the Truth of God.

The Light of God.

The Glory of God

And Life in His Name.

Do you love the Word?

Let’s Pray

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