The Consistent Reading of Scripture

Introduction

Matthew 22:31 ESV

And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Jesus Himself had the highest view of Scripture. He literally viewed it as the Word of God. Here He quotes from Exodus and says that what was written by Moses generations before was God speaking to His immediate, 1st century audience. We must strive to attain and hold the same view of the Bible as our Lord Jesus did; namely that it is God speaking to us.

Paul challenges Timothy to work hard to rightly handle (or divide) the scriptures; this implies work on our part.

Truth be told, we ought to be led more by the Written Word than by subjective Spirit leading. The main reason that we do not is that we as a people are nearly and essentially Biblically illiterate. Given the glut of free ways to read the Bible, this falls under the category of WILLFUL ignorance.

1. Inspiration and Authority

Authority

Our own confession approaches if not communicates the view that Jesus espoused: The Bible is God’s Word to us!

Inspiration

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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.

2 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

knowing this first of all, 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.

Not all inspiration is dictation

1 Corinthians 7:6–7 ESV

Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

God Inspired these men such that their natural voice was not diminished, but rather serve to give a fuller expression of God’s Word; such as why we have 2 tellings of the law and 4 gospels

Translation - it needs just mentioning

Intro to the 1611

Now to the later we answere; that wee doe not deny, nay wee affirme and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set foorth by men of our profession (for wee have seene none of theirs of the whole Bible as yet) containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God.

The work of translation is NOT a work of inspiration as were the original manuscripts. It is a work of scholarship, not wholly apart from interpretation, but REQUIRES a high level of linguistic knowledge and experience. It is NOT the work of an average churchmen, but should be the work of teams of qualified scholars who profess the Christian Faith.

Reading the Bible for what it is

Genre

Psalm 75:3 ESV

When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah

John 4:1–4 ESV

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.

Acts 1:1–2 ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Revelation 1:1 ESV

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Not Proof Texting or Magic Spells

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

This said to Solomon about the dedication of the Temple, about Solomon receiving the covenant and following in David’s steps; it CANNOT be applied directly to these United States, or any other nation for that matter.

The Bible is about God, not about us

Adam did not repent to God and ask for animal skins - God corrected them and provided a covering.

Noah did not decide an ark was needed - God gave him the design and dimensions that would be needed and why

Joshua did NOT fight the battle of Jericho - God tore the walls down when they uncovered their lanterns, blew horns, and yelled.

We are not supposed to read 1Samuel 17 and ask who is the Goliath in our life - we are to see that Christ is the champion for us; we are to be seen as the cowering armies of Israel

The human characters in Bible stories sometimes act valiantly and/or righteously. Paul did say to imitate him as he imitated Christ in 1 Cor 11, but in all this: GOD is the primary actor, the Hero, the point.

More Word, More Word, More Word

Putting this all together into a conclusion: we must take great care with how we divide the scriptures

Sunday

The reason we begin with a Psalm reading is that I want us to hear from God first. It is His day. We are His people.

It is a sad thing; a wrong thing to attend a meeting of a church and either hear little scripture at all, or else hear a passage, but then a message not taken from that passage (even topical series like this MUST use references rightly, in context)

That is why the normative preaching here (with few exceptions) is the announcing of a single text, not as a mere launching point (as in this series) but as the boundaries of the message; My job, my duty is to expound week in and week out what the texts say. That is as John Piper recently put it at the ordination of his son: “Leading by Feeding the Sheep”. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word, this also means that while feeding the sheep, The Spirit is drawing the Lost to join the fold.

Songs

Martin Luther is credited with saying something like: “You can have the pulpit, but give me the hymnal”. He probably did not say exactly that, but he did lead in a recovery of congregational hymns, and they were not fluffy feel good tunes; more like apologetic manifestos that wrote the Word of God on the minds and hearts of even illiterate villagers.

We must both look to sing songs that are scripturally accurate and rich as well as stop singing and oppose those songs found to be scripturally vacuous or even in opposition to the Word.

We should additionally seek to sing songs where the styling not only fits the time and people, but the scriptural message. The setting of a song is akin to the tone of voice. One can take away the message with a wrong tone.

Personal / Family

No one can lead their family in devotion or worship who is not first acquainted with it themselves.

Scriptures must be the basis of how we conduct our marriages as well as parenting.

Children should be encouraged to be as familiar with the truths of scripture from the earliest of ages, as was Timothy.

When I say that one of my major emphases in ministry is the Consistent reading of Scriptures, it is to say that we must read and apply them for what they are and what they say; not seek to find justification for what we want to think. We are not God.