#17 - Sermon

The Testimony of Scripture – Part 3

God Breathed – Chosen Men Wrote

2nd Peter 1:19-21

October 7, 2007

Sun Oak Baptist Church

Introduction

          A.      Please turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Tim. 3:16.  I also encourage you to take out your sermon notes.

          B.      Abraham Lincoln said:

                   “In regard to this great book (referring to the Bible), I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to men.  All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.  But for it we could not know right from wrong.  All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

                   Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer said this:

                   “For several years I have read the Bible through twice in twelve months.  It is a great and powerful tree, each word of which is a mighty branch.  Each of these branches have I well shaken, so desirous was I to know what each one bore and what it would give me.  And the shaking of them has never disappointed me.”

          C.      Throughout history believers and unbelievers alike have expounded the virtues of God’s Word.  But how did the Bible come into being?  How did we get such a marvelous work of literature?  Should we really be calling it “God’s Word?”  Look what the apostle Paul says here in 2nd Tim. 3:16.  Read.

                   The word “inspiration” here means “breathed.”  In other words, Paul is saying that all of Scripture; every word of every sentence; every paragraph; and every chapter of every book is literally “God breathed.”  But God is Spirit so we know that He didn’t write the Bible like we would sit down and write a letter – in some miraculous way, similar to the way that He breathed the breath of life into Adam, God breathed the Bible into existence.  At least 38 authors over the course of roughly 1500 years produced one unified message and theologians call this act the “doctrine of inspiration” – the doctrine of inspiration – God breathed and chosen men wrote the words.  Turn to 2nd Peter 1:16.

                   And before we go any further let’s pray together:  pray.

          D.      As we know in verses 16-21 Peter is defending the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.  Follow along as I read:  read 1:16-21.

                   In verse 19 he confirms the trustworthiness of prophecy and as we have established, by extension, all of Scripture; in verse 20 he clarifies the origin of prophecy – how it was determined; and finally, as we will see this morning, in verse 21 Peter explains the inspiration of prophecy – in a brief, succinct, and powerful statement Peter explains how we got the Bible – how God breathed and chosen men wrote.

          E.      Over the past few weeks we’ve sent that verses 19-21 tell us we can trust the testimony of Scripture; we’ve also seen that these verses are critical to Peter’s defense of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ; and as we will see today they are also critical to understanding the doctrine of inspiration.  In fact no theology book I know of leaves out 2nd Peter 1:21 when they discuss the origins of the Bible.  In this 3-part series I have summarized what Peter says about the testimony of Scripture into three (3) statements.

I.       First, we saw the trustworthiness of prophecy (of Scripture) confirmed.  See 1:19.

          Read 1:19.

II.      Second, we saw the interpretation of prophecy (or of Scripture) clarified.  See 1:20-21.

          A.      Read 1:20.  Last week we established that verses 20 & 21 belong together grammatically and a better translation of the Greek here would go something like this:

                   “Knowing this first that no prophecy (no portion of Scripture that foretells the future) originates or comes into existence as the result of any private (or personal) determina­tion – for prophecy has never come by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

          B.      So those are the first two (2) statements that summarize what Peter says in verses 19-21 – now let’s unpack the last statement.

III.    Third:  regarding the trustworthiness of Scripture as it relates to his defense of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ – notice Peter’s explanation of the inspiration of prophecy (or of Scripture).

          Read 1:21.  When I first became a Christian, I’m not sure where I got this idea, but somehow I had the idea that the Bible came into being because a long time ago a group of Godly men locked themselves up in a room with all kinds of books claiming to be the Bible and these men somehow mystically decided which books would be contained in the Bible and which books wouldn’t and that somehow God controlled that process.  But that’s not what happened at all.  Exactly how the 66 books that make up our Bible where “canonized,” decided upon, is for another day:  but today, we’ll see Peter’s explanation for how the individual books themselves came into being.

          A.      In order to understand this explanation there are a couple of things we need to see.

                   1.       First of all, Peter states that prophecy (and remember again by extension all of Scripture), prophecy is not the result of man’s efforts.  Read 1:21a.

                             a.       The writer’s of God’s Word did not sit down and decide to write.  The Bible did not come into being because any of the over 38 Biblical writers sat down and decided to write.  It’s not a collection of the thoughts and ideas of men.  This point is vital and fundamental, especially during the last 100 years or so of so-called “higher criticism” – which is the first time in history that scholars began to question the Bible.

                             b.       Just like the scoffers of Peter’s day liberal scholars today question the integrity of God’s Word.  In the majority of seminaries today liberal professors teach that the OT is nothing but the writings of men who had profound insight into life; exceptional wisdom and understanding; and were men who pondered the times in which they lived and expressed their insights in writing.

                             c.       But Peter makes it clear that what we have in our Bibles is not the insight of men.  Not one of the Biblical authors ever intended to write; they never set out to write; “prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.”  So when it comes to understanding the origin of the Bible we must first of all understand that it is not the words of men who decided to write what they think – it is much, much more than that.

                    2.       Secondly, to appreciate what Peter is saying about the origin of God’s Word we also need to understand the meaning of the word “moved.”  Re-read 1:21.

                             a.       The word “moved” here means “carried along” or “driven along.”  How did we get our Bible?  “Prophecy (God’s Word) never came about by the will of men, but holy men (chosen) of God spoke as they were ‘carried along’ or ‘driven along’ by the Holy Spirit” – that’s how.

                             b.       Turn with me to Acts 27.  A good illustration of what Peter is saying here is found in Acts 27.  The apostle Paul was being transported by boat to Rome in order to stand trial.  You may remember that a mighty wind arose and things became so dangerous that the sailors and the captain did everything they could do in order to save the ship and having done all those things, the captain made the decision to:  “let the ship drive.”  Read 27:12-15.

                                       The word “drive” that Luke uses here is the same word Peter used in verse 21.  Just like this boat was driven along by the current and the wind “holy men spoke from God as they were driven along by the Holy Spirit.”

                   3.       Flip back to 2nd Peter 1:21.  So what’s Peter saying?  The Bible did not come about by the will of man and the men God chose to record His Word were driven along by the Holy Spirit and that process was similar to how a ship in the ocean is driven along by the currents and the wind.  Now, we may not get this exactly; we may not precisely understand all the ramifications of this and have it crystal clear in our minds, but if we can picture a sailboat being driven along by the wind then we have a pretty good idea of what happened.

          B.      So with these two (2) thoughts in mind, the Bible is not the result of the will of man and the chosen men were driven along by the Holy Spirit we can answer our question:  how did we get our Bible?  How did God turn His words into the written word?

                   1.       Peter tells us here that the prophets and the other authors of Scripture were taken “hold of” by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came upon the prophets and the other writers of God’s Word and took hold of them and gave them a message.  The Holy Spirit then carried and drove them along as they wrote the message.

                             And if we had the time this morning to go through the relevant passages we would find that this is precisely the claim that the prophets themselves made.  They said things like:  “the Word of God came to me;” “the Word of the Lord came to them;” “Thus saith the Lord;” not “Thus saith Zechariah,” or “Thus saith Ezekiel,” but “Thus saith the Lord;” and sometimes what happened to them was described as having “the burden of the Lord.”

                   2.       The OT prophets never said:  “This is what I think;” or “this is what I believe;” or “these are my thoughts.”  It was always:  “Thus saith the Lord...thus saith the Lord.”  And this is the testimony of the Biblical writers that we find all the way through God’s Word.

                   3.       The captain of the ship carrying Paul wanted to go north into the Adriatic Sea along the eastern edge of Italy, but against his will the wind and current carried south towards the island of Malta.  In the same way sometimes the men God chose to proclaim His Word were called against their own will and against their own desires.

                             a.       God told Jonah to preach to Nineveh and Jonah ran the opposite direction – he didn’t want to go.

                                       In our Bible reading schedule we have started the Book of Jeremiah and we will be seeing that Jeremiah says things like:  “I don’t want to give that message.  I know it will lead to trouble and I will become unpopular.  I will probably be thrown into prison.”

                             b.       But has said:  “You must speak it – you are bound to speak this word” and He drove them along to do it.  God called Jonah and Jeremiah against their wills – they did not want to speak.  But God called them; He laid His Word upon them; and they were driven by the Holy Spirit – just like Paul’s ship was driven along in the Mediterranean Sea.

          C.      So in verses 20-21, in a very explicit and precise manner Peter sets forth the great doctrine of inspiration – he tells us how the Bible came into being.  He tells us how it was that men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Samuel and the other chosen men wrote down the very words of almighty God.  One of the amazing and humbling things about the doctrine of inspiration is that God has been pleased in His infinite compassion and condescension to speak to men.

                   The Bible’s claim that it contains the very words of God is absolutely unique – there is no other book in the world like it.  No other holy book of any religion claims to be the Word of God – the Bible alone makes that claim.  The Koran; The Bhagawath Gita which is the Hindu holy book;  The Tipitaka which is the Buddhist holy book;  The Book of Mormon; the writings of Confucius and so on do not make the claim that Judaism and Christianity makes.  Every one of the other so-called “holy books” are the production of man; they are the result of man’s will; man’s understanding; man’s insight – but not the Bible.  This is one reason why men and women have died for this book.  When we read 2nd Peter, yes it was Peter that wrote the words, but it was God that drove him along as he wrote these words.

Conclusion

          A.      There is much more that I could say about the doctrine of inspiration but this isn’t a seminary class.  I think for me, one of the most important things for us to take home this morning is the reality that when we pick up a Bible we have in our hands a miracle.  And just like so many other aspects of God – we will always fall short when we try to explain Him.

                   I can’t explain the parting of the Red Sea; I can’t explain how the widow kept pouring oil from one jar into other jars and the jar with the oil did not run out; I can’t explain how Jesus was born of a virgin; I can’t explain how a star that could be seen all over the Middle East for hundreds of miles in every direction guided the wise men to Bethlehem – anymore than I can explain gravity or electricity – we do our best but we always fall short.

          B.      But I can say this:  in the Bible God has revealed His own thoughts concerning man; His own thoughts about life; the world; the Bible tells us how man came into being; it tells us how all of man’s troubles are the result of sin; it tells us what God has done about sin; and it tells us what God will do about sin.  In this book we are told what is going to happen in the days that lie ahead – and that, you will remember, is Peter’s immediate point.  He’s been telling us about the Second Coming of Christ – about what lies ahead.

          C.      Turn with me to 1st Cor. 11.  How can we know for certain that Jesus is coming again?  My ultimate and only answer to this question and any others like it is this:  the doctrine of the Second Coming is stated in this Book, and I believe that this Book is not the imagination of man – but it is God the Holy Spirit speaking through chosen men.  As I read it I am confronted by these inspired, authentic records, and I believe what I believe about God and Jesus Christ because I find it here; and therefore I believe that Jesus is coming again.  Read 11:26.