Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: The dictionary defines the word “unique” as follows, “1.

only one: being the only one of its kind 2. better than others: superior to all others 3. unusual: different from others in a way that makes something worthy of note.”

We have met this week to study the Bible.

Specifically, we are going to delve into a realm of doctrine known as “Bibliology”.

That is a word that means “The study of the Bible.”

I think a good word that we can use to describe our Bibles would be the word “unique”.

It is the only book of its kind in existence!

Several features point out its uniqueness, and by way of introduction, I want to share those features with you today.

• The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years

• The Bible was written by over 40 different authors (Among them were kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, statesmen, musicians, scholars and shepherds.)

• The Bible was written in many different places, at many different times and by people experiencing many different moods.

• The Bible was written on three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.

• The Bible was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

• The Bible is written with many different literary styles: Prose, poetry, historical narrative, romance, law, biography, parable, allegory and prophecy.

• The Bible addresses hundreds of difficult issues without a single contradiction.

• The Bible is a book of great diversity, yet, in spite of this, it unfolds a single continuous story, and it does so without ever contradicting itself.

• The Bible has for its main character God Himself, made known through the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, the Bible is a unique book!

But, this uniqueness was not accidental, it was purposeful.

How can this be?

The Bible achieves its uniqueness through a process known as Inspiration.

It is that process that I would like for us to investigate together today.

Our test, verse 16, says that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”.

The word “inspiration” literally means “God breathed”.

If God has given His Word, delivered by His very breath, then it stands to reason that the scripture He has given us is absolutely perfect.

Let’s look into the matter of inspiration and think together for a while about The Perfection Of The Holy Scriptures.

I. THE PROCESS OF BIBLICAL INSPIRATION

Just how did God go about getting His Word into that hands and hearts of men?

There are three terms that must be addressed as we deal with this matter of Inspiration.

A. Revelation—The first step in getting the word of God on paper is the process known as revelation.

This is the process whereby a man hear from the Lord just what the Lord wants written down.

At varying times, God used varying means to give His revelation to men.

• He spoke through angels—Gen.

18; 19; Luke 1–2; Matt.

28; etc.

• He spoke through an audible voice—Gen.

3:9–19; 6:13–21; 12:1–3; Ex. 20:1–17; Josh.

1:1–9; 1 Kings 17:2–4.

• He spoke in a still, small voice—1 Kings 19:11–12

• He spoke through nature—Psalm 19

• He spoke through animals—Num.

22:28

• He spoke in dreams—Gen.

28:12; Matt.

1–2; Matt.

2:19–22

• He spoke through visions—Isaiah 6:1–6; Daniel 7; 8; 10; Acts 16; 19

• He spoke through Christophanies—Ex.

3:2; Dan.

3:25; 1 Kings 19:7

We do not know the exact process by which God spoke to the original authors, but we have God’s Word on the fact that He did, 2 Pet.

1:21.

So, revelation is God telling a man what He wants written down.

B. Inspiration—The second step in the process is inspiration.

This is man writing on paper what God has told him to say.

As we have already seen this process is said to be “God breathed”.

• The Bible clearly claims inspiration for itself, 2 Tim.

3:17; 2 Pet.

1:20–21; Heb.

1:1.

• Paul believed his writings were inspired, 1 Cor.

4:2; 15:3; 1 Thes.

2:13; 4:15.

• Peter believed his writings were inspired, 2 Pet.

3:2.

• Peter believed the writings of Paul to be inspired, 2 Pet.

3:15–16.

Somehow God superintended the process of getting His word into a man and then through that man onto paper.

Inspiration has been defined as, “God’s superintendence of the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original autographs.”,

Charles C. Ryrie.

But, the question comes, how did He do this?

Well, of course, there are many different views, but only one correct view.

Let me share a few of those with you.

• Natural Inspiration—Nothing supernatural involved.

Men just wrote the Bible like Shakespeare wrote his plays.

• Spiritual Illumination—People who hold this view believe that people and not words are inspired.

They believe that any devout Christian can be inspired to write more Scripture.

• Partial Inspiration—This view says that only the elements in the Bible related to faith are inspired.

There may be scientific or historical error, but God has preserved the massage of salvation.

The problems with this view are clear!

If you cannot believe even a part of the Bible, how can you believe any of the Bible?

• Conceptual Inspiration—The concepts of scripture and not the words are inspired.

God just gave a man an idea and he wrote what he thought about that topic.

• Divine Dictation—The biblical writers were merely automatons in the hand of God.

He came upon them and overrode them.

He moved the pen and merely used their body as a vehicle to write His Own Words.

If this is true, then why do John, Paul, Peter, James, Matthew, Moses, etc all have differing styles?

All of these, among others, are false views of inspiration.

Allow me to share with you the biblical view of inspiration.

Most fundamentalists believe in what is called the “Verbal, Plenary Inspiration of the Bible.”This

simple means that we believe that “all” (plenary) the very “words” (verbal) of the Bible are inspired.

This is the claim of the Bible, 2 Tim.

3:16; Matt.

4:4; John 6:63, and it is the position we gladly affirm this evening.

What this means is that God gave His Word to human authors.

He did not override their personalities, but He did guide their choice of words.

When they had written down all that God had given them in His revelation, they had produced an inspired record of that revelation.

God breathed His Word through human vessels giving the world a perfectly inspired statement of His Word to men!

C. Illumination—The third process is getting the Word of God to men is the process known as illumination.

This is the process by which God uses the inspired written record of His revelation to speak to the hearts of individual people.

This is when the light comes on in the human heart and men see themselves as they are and Jesus as the need of their heart.

Thus, the cycle of inspiration is complete.

Since inspiration is our topic this evening, we will leave the subject of illumination until a later time.

II.

THE PROOFS OF BIBLICAL INSPIRATION

Now that we have something of an idea of what inspiration is, how can we be sure that our Bibles are genuinely spired by God?

Well, the bottom line is that it does come down to faith, but faith is never a blind leap into the dark.