Blueprints: Scripture

Good morning everyone, I hope that you all are having a great day. At this time we will welcome our kids to join their teachers in the back of the room and they will take you to your class this morning. Do you guys ever wonder what they are learning back there? I know I do…I think you should ask them, parents especially, be sure to ask your kids what they are learning in their class…I bet you will be surprised at how much they are learning.

Hey, let’s also welcome those of you that are joining us online this morning. We love that we get to include you in our extended family this morning. If you are in Ogle county and you are looking for a strong Biblical church then I want to encourage you to come on out any Sunday at 9:30 am. I know its cold now, but its warm in here and we even have hot coffee and hot chocolate waiting for you every Sunday morning.

Now, we are in the second week of our series called Blueprints…Why did we call it Blueprints? Well, becuase what we are talking about over the course of the next several weeks is the blueprints for a growing church. Its the beginning of the year and we are focused on where we are going as a church. If you were here last week then you heard me talking about the vision for 2022, and where we feel like we are going, and some of the things that we are hoping to accomplish over the course of this year. I want to encourage you all to grab a copy of Blueprints on the welcome desk after service before you go home and take that home and read over it and pray over it and think about how you can personally be involved in what the church is doing this year. There are needs from organizing to construction and teaching to hosting....there is something that God is calling you to do this year within the life of LRBC.

You know, I can remember back in 2015 when I was serving in Lafayette. We had just purchased a building and we were looking into how we can remodel it in order to fit our needs as a church. Well, we decided to meet with an architect becuase they are experts at space and making things work and fit using the best options. It is really interesting becuase as we talked and met with some folks prior getting the blueprints back we had some great ideas about how to best utilize the space. I saw it pretty clearly…we can just remove this wall and build a wall here, then we will be all good. We looked at this and saw how this would look really nice. Well, then we got an expert involved so that they could get all the details taken care of. They looked at our ideas and very politely told us they were junk…You see, our ideas didn’t account for codes, and various electrical demands, and plumbing needs…Our ideas were just back of the napkin kind of ideas. They took what we had and made it into something pretty great. Why do I tell you that story? Did I tell you just so you would know how bad I am at drawing up plans? Nope…I tell you that story, becuase I think that is frequently what God thinks about our plans, or our blueprints. You and I will come up with amazing plans and then we will go to God and let him know that we have all it figured out and we just need him to take care of the details. Then, God will very lovingly tell you your plans are junk becuase you didn’t account for codes, or various other issues that will come up.

So, in this series we are taking a step back from our plans and we are asking God to do the best with the materials we have. However, we have to be prepared to follow his direction in order to become a growing church, or really…a growing Christian. So what we are looking at are the blueprints for 2022 that we have developed after prayer and conversations. Those blueprints will only be doable, if we are focused as a church on the things that we are talking about over the next few weeks. Last week was our first week in the series and we saw that Prayer is the first and most important aspect of a growing Christian. We saw that Jesus went out to be alone and spend time with the Father, and we saw that Paul instructs Christians to not stop praying, in other words, have a heart of prayer at all times....don’t stop the conversation with God. Sometimes you are talking, and sometimes you are listening. This week we are looking at ...

Scripture

We are going to briefly look at the legitimacy of Scripture and then the purpose of Scripture. In order to look at the legitimacy of Scripture we have to be ready to answer some tough questions and be honest with ourselves about various claims made. The

Legitimacy of Scripture

is a real concern for millions of people. Actually the whole Mormon faith was created based on the lies that were made about the legitimacy of Scripture. That led Joseph Smith to “correct”, or actually rewrite Scripture to fit with what he was telling people to believe. He actually wrote himself into Genesis, it’s crazy. But that is able to happen becuase everyone knows that the Bible is full of contradictions and false claims. I mean that is an irrefutable fact, right? Well, if you listen to the claims of the progressive “Christian” then you will believe that to be the case. However, when those claims are scrutinized they are always cleared up and the one making that claim backs down. The reason for this is that the claim is made becuase someone needs to justify their own belief, or their own sin. So, let’s take a quick look this morning and answer a couple of these claims.

Claim #1: The Bible can’t be accurate.

This is a claim that is widely accepted by many skeptics and progressive Christians. They will say that while the translations are trustworthy as the original writings, the original writings aren’t accurate to what was actually happening. This is a claim that is easily debunked becuase of the vast amount of evidence that exists for the historicity of the Scriptures. I will start by sharing that most books of antiquity, meaning really really old that we consider to be authentic, have between 10-20 copies. While that is true about most books, some of the more well known works such as Homer’s Iliad have under 1,800 manuscript copies. That is enough to consider those books as authoritative on the subject that they have written about.

With the NT alone, there are over 5,686 handwritten copies, some from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. There are 9,000 major early translations of the NT into other languages. There are 36,289 quotations that make up all but 11 verses of the NT. Many of these manuscripts and copies would have been written while the first eye witnesses still walked ther Earth…if this was untrue information, then there would not be this large amount of artifacts. Not to mention the vast amount of archeological evidence that supports the events of Scripture.

Claim #2: The Bible can’t be trusted.

This claim is made because people claim there is no way that a book written over the course of a couple of thousand years and completed 2000 years ago could possibly be what we have today in the English translation of the Bible. Basically this is the idea of the telephone game. Well, first let me tell you that these claims are made almost exclusively about the New Testament. There are no reputable scholars that would claim the Old Testament is untrustworthy. That is becuase they would have to go against the Jewish scholars that have studied the passages far longer than Christian scholars have been studying.

Now, let me tell you that there are New Testament scholars that would greatly disagree with the claim that the Scriptures can’t be trusted. Specifically I will point to 3 scholars, I will not bore you with their scientific data. First there is a scholar named Metzger. Metzger claims that the NT is transmitted with 99.5% accuracy . Then he goes on to say that the .05% inaccuracy is due to scribal errors like misspellings, or extra notes on the side. None of these would affect the doctrine of the Scripture. There is another scholar named A.T. Robertson that says the NT is 99.9% accurate, with the same errors as Metzger. Finally there is a text called the Nestle-Aland NT. This is a Greek text and it was created using the texts by other scholars. What Nestle did was take the most highly respected texts and put them together using a third text to discern any disputes between them. Nestle-Alund say that what we have today are 96.84% accurate correct to the original manuscripts. Again, the discrepancies would be simply spellings or spaces, nothing of doctrinal value.

Claim #3: The Bible is full of errors and contradictions.

Ok, this really is the big one isn’t it. I mean, when people question the Bible, this is where they hang their hat…Well, let me just give you a few quick facts about this claim. There is a common claim that there are 200,000 errors in the Bible. However, that claim is a misrepresentation. You see, these are not errors, but variants…spellings, word changes, scribal dots, things like that which have no significance. Additionally, if you have the same error in 1000 manuscripts, then that is counted as 1000 errors. Let me be clear, when you remove the over counting of what is described as errors, the truth is less than 40 variants in the NT, or .02%, and none of these have any doctrinal value, they are seen as language difference, or scribal mistakes. Meaning these are easily explained when you look at original language.

So, next time you are talking to someone and they make one of these claims of Mistakes? Ask them to name one.—There are no mistakes...

So that is some good information and I am afraid I might have gotten into the weeds a little bit, but its actually important for us to all understand that the book that we place our faith in actually holds to the standards of the secular world. The reason that is important is that it offers you the opportunity to have a discussion with confidence with someone who makes these claims. As a believer you should never back down from a question of Scripture. But, if I can agree that the Scripture is legitimate, then I need to understand the

Purpose of Scripture

In order to do that, we are going to turn over to

2 Timothy 3:10–17 (ESV)

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 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.

Now, that is a bit of a long section because I wanted you to understand the context of what was being said here. Paul is a man that endured massive persecution, and he had a message for Timothy, who was a young pastor in a place called Ephesus. At this time Paul was sitting in a Roman cell under the Emperor Nero. Christians were being blamed for massive Roman fires and so shortly after Paul wrote this letter, he was beheaded. That context is important…Paul knew he did not have long on this Earth, and this would have been his last chance to set the record straight and let someone know that it was all a lie…however, it was not a lie, so Paul did not say that. Instead Paul gave Timothy some encouragement and told him that the Scriptures, which were breathed by God, specifically were useful for 4 things. Those four things are what I would like to briefly look at this morning.

Scripture is for teaching

This is important. You see, when Paul wrote this he has already reminded Timothy that the Scripture he is talking about is the Scripture that he has been taught and learned from childhood. In fact, for Timothy, Scripture brings salvation. So, Paul is telling Timothy that Scripture, all of Scripture is breathed by God and it is useful for teaching others. The question though is what are you to teach? I guess the answer to that would be to teach all that Scripture contains, right? I mean, if all of Scripture is God breathed, then that means the content of all of Scripture should be learned, that is its purpose. Thats not all though becuase he also says

Scripture is for reproof

Ok, now that is a weird word…that is not the language most people use today. So, what does reproof mean? Reproof means to confront sin. Paul is telling Timothy here that Scripture is to be used to point people away from sin and towards Christ. You see, there is another passage that is used by many progressive Christians, or social Christians, and that is

Matthew 7:1 (ESV)

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

The problem with the use of this passage is that it not an overarching concept. You see, in

1 Corinthians 5:12 (ESV)

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

You see, as believers we are called to judge fellow believers. I know that is not a popular concept, but it is a Biblical concept…It is a concept that many wish was not there becuase it means that as believers, part of our job is to hold other beleivers accountable to Scripture. That means, if I see you sinning and I say nothing, I am sinning…Ouch, its not me being nosy, it’s me attempting to follow Scripture. Now, there is a way and there is a process, so don’t everyone just start calling everyone today to tell them everything they have ever done wrong…make sure this is a Biblical issue and that you are following Scriptural teaching on how to confront sin, becuase Scripture is used to confront sin and false teaching.

Scripture is for correction

We just saw that Scripture is used to confront sin, well when we confront, we better offer correction along with confrontation. You see, it is one thing to point someone to what they have done wrong, but it’s also true that we should be correcting that behavior. That means that Scripture is useful for correcting behavior. Let me give you an easy example…You see your spouse is about to kill you for not doing something. So, you stop them and you point them to Exodus where God says, “Thou shalt not commit murder”. Now you have just corrected that behavior…Actually it much like a parent that stops their child from doing something wrong and then explains why that behavior is wrong. That is the heart behind the correction…Lastly we see that

Scripture is for training in righteousness

Well thats pretty cool. So far we have seen some good stuff about learning, confronting and correcting, but now we are really focused on our own lives again. Scripture is useful for training. But not just any training…training in righteousness…what does that mean? Here we see the more positive side of teaching… What Paul is referring to here is how righteousness is describing the observable Christian life. The application of Scriptural truth to our lives enables us to better live a life that is pleasing to God.

So now we have the final question…

Who is all of this for?

We see in this passage that Paul says this is so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. Actually it would be better stated the person of God here. In other words, Studying God’s Word equips Christians to follow God, because it contains the will of God.

So, how does this apply to us as a church and you and me individually? Well, are you studying God’s word, or are you simply looking at Scriptures when you come to church on Sunday? Are you studying Gods word or are you simply reading a verse a day email? Are you studying God’s Word to be better like him, or are you relying on everyone else to tell you what Scripture says? Listen, it is actually important for you to be in the Scripture yourself. If you don’t know where to start, let me invite you to join me and a number of others as we strive to read through the Bible this year. This is the second year we have done it as a church and so far we do have a larger group of people this year. Its really easy, you download an app and you simply read along with the plan that is right there. Let me encourage you to take part in this journey as we all strive to get a little closer to God by studying his Word this year…Now, maybe for you getting a little closer to God means starting a relationship with him right now this morning. If you have never commited your life to Christ, and submitted to the authority of the Scriptures, then let me encourage you to make that decision today. Its really easy…admit that you are a sinner, you are not enough, believe that God raised Jesus from the dead…and commit your life to the Lordship of Jesus. That is the essence of the Christian faith.

If you are here this morning and you are interested in learning a little more about the Christian faith, church membership, or maybe you are experiencing some hardship in your life right now, I want to invite you to connect with me either online, or physically today and lets talk about what the Scriptures mean to you, or what the Scriptures could mean to you...

Prayer