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Sunday School

Lesson 2: The Holy Bible, Inspiration and Inerrancy

Speaker
Mark Twombly

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The Holy Bible is God-breathed, inherent, and self-authenticating — not merely inspirational but the very words of God himself. We are reminded that God and his word are inseparable; to encounter Scripture is to encounter God personally. This lesson walks through the meaning of inspiration (divine causation behind authorship) and inerrancy (without error in the original manuscripts), demonstrating from Scripture itself what the Bible claims about its own nature.

Key Lessons:

  1. God’s word is not merely true — it is truth itself, the ultimate objective standard by which every other truth claim is measured.
  2. Inspiration means divine causation: the Holy Spirit superintended human authors so that they composed God’s words without error through their own personalities and styles.
  3. The inerrancy of Scripture is ultimately proven by its results — transforming lives, birthing salvation, and equipping believers for every good work.
  4. Believing the Bible requires God-given faith through the Holy Spirit, not merely intellectual assent to historical evidence.

Application: We are called to prioritize daily engagement with God’s word, forsaking a “cafeteria plan” approach to Scripture, and instead submitting to all of it — including its correction and reproof. We should wield Scripture skillfully in evangelism, using God’s actual words rather than merely our descriptions of them.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Where does your personal view of Scripture fall short of what the Bible claims for itself?
  2. What objections to the truth of Scripture do you find most challenging, and how does understanding inspiration and inerrancy help you address them?
  3. How would your daily life change if you truly believed that God’s word is the ultimate standard of truth and that encountering it is encountering God himself?

Scripture Focus: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (all Scripture is God-breathed), 2 Peter 1:19-21 (men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God), Isaiah 55:10-11 (God’s word accomplishes its purpose), Psalm 19:7-11 (the perfection and results of God’s word), 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (spiritual understanding through the Spirit).

Outline

Introduction

We’re about to get started as we continue in defending doctrinal distinctives and really appreciate what Pastor Dave has brought to us so far and just want to remind us that this is not about cold knowledge. This is about knowing God, right? We never want to lose sight of that. As we proceed, let me give us a few scriptures that will set the tone for us and whet our appetite for what’s next.

Today we’re talking about the Holy Bible, the concepts of inspiration and inerrancy.

God’s Word Is Truth

Jesus said this in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.” Something about how Jesus both viewed and used the scriptures is an example for us that we ought to pay attention to.

John 17:17: “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.”

In Psalm 19, the author writes, “I have not turned aside from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me.” Reading or hearing his judgments and God himself teaching him are the same thing.

I don’t want this to go without saying, but we need to keep coming back to it. We’re not relating to a book only. We’re relating to God himself. Again, never losing sight of that as we approach the scriptures. And this verse really expresses both.

Near are you, oh Yahweh, and all your commandments are truth. God comes to us wonderfully in his word. So we recognize that God and his word are not separate things. He comes to us personally and perfectly through his word. And also that God’s word isn’t simply true. It is truth.

We see that in two of those verses. Your word is truth. Your commandments are truth. What does that mean? It is the ultimate objective standard by which every other truth claim is measured. That’s somewhat adapted from Wayne Grudem. It’s a helpful definition.

“God’s word is the ultimate objective standard by which every other truth claim is measured.”

I’ll repeat that. God’s word is truth. It is the ultimate objective standard by which every other truth claim is measured. If you read the book of Amos, the minor prophet in the Old Testament, he refers to God’s standard as a plumb line. You understand this concept if you’re a carpenter, if you’re in construction. A plumb line is a line that’s lined up against the wall to see if it’s straight. It might look straight to you, but until it’s measured by something that is straight, you just don’t know. And that’s how it is for us with God’s word.

When it says that God’s word is truth, this is also stated in 2 Samuel 7:28, 1 Kings 17:24, Psalm 119:142, and Psalm 119:160.

All right, one last verse before we pray.

The Word of God on the Emmaus Road

Probably my favorite sequence in the Gospels, at least one of them. As we approach resurrection day, I love to read the resurrection accounts. This is from when Jesus was walking with two of his disciples along the Emmaus road. They said to one another after Jesus had left, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

With that, let me pray for us. Father, praise you for the beauty and the intimacy of your word. How you draw near to us and transform us by it.

Luke 24:32: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

Like your people of old, may we examine all things by it like the Bereans. Receive your word for what it truly is, like the Thessalonians. And may our hearts burn within us as you speak to us personally through your perfect words, so that we reflect your character in how we live it out. Amen. Amen.

Lesson Overview

Well, with that, let me give an overview of where we’re going today. We’ve got several weeks ahead of us, and if we don’t get to everything today, you’ve got some time to ask questions and for us to address some things. Please do that.

There’s a lot to cover here. We’ll cover the word of God. What does it mean when we say the phrase “the word of God”? I’m going to unfold that a little bit. Then we’ll look at a topic overview of the nature of the Bible. There are really five attributes of the Bible that are classically used to describe it that we’ll go through today.

We’ll go through some of Calvary’s doctrinal statements, which some of you may not have looked at since membership. It’s some really good stuff, so I encourage you to do that. We’ll define inspiration, define inerrancy, and then we’ll walk through a few implications and applications for our lives because as our Lord said, if these things—what did he say?—you are blessed if you do them. So these are very actionable things for us in our lives.

“You are blessed if you do them. These are very actionable things for our lives.”

What Is the Word of God?

What is the word of God?

As we research this, we recognize it is used for several things, but it’s going to be one primary thing as you may suspect as we talk about it today. First of all, it’s Jesus Christ, right? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God in John 1:1. He is the full representation and the expression of God himself. And Revelation 19:13 says that his name is the word of God. So that, first and foremost, it’s Jesus Christ.

“First and foremost, the Word of God is Jesus Christ — the full representation and expression of God himself.”

Secondly, it’s speech by God. It’s decrees and acts of personal address and we see that as God speaks directly to people in the Bible. The example that’s given there is God speaking directly to Adam and Eve.

Then it’s also God-given speech through human lips. We see this with Moses in Deuteronomy 18 and Jeremiah 1 where God says, “I will put my words in your mouth and you were to speak them.” It’s interesting as you look at the history of prophets in the Bible, they were obligated to speak God’s words and not make things up.

Very important that they transmit God’s words accurately. And in 1 Peter 4:11, it says this of us: let him who speaks speak as it were the utterances of God, the oracles of God.

When I have this role today, when any of us have this role to teach, we are bound to teach what the word of God says and not make things up, right? You understand that? And like good Bereans, please pay attention today and if I’ve missed or misstated something please point that out.

It was really interesting, Mike. I appreciated how you, when I preached, I gave the wrong reference to the passage on the Bereans which is really kind of funny. You would think that I would have done that on purpose.

But in God’s providence he did that. And that’s a wonderful thing, that we always examine whatever is coming at us. We don’t trust people only, right? We try to be trustworthy leaders and teachers for you, but we are under and not over the word of God.

We’re going to get into that more when we talk about the authority of God’s word. And then the main thing that we’re talking about today is God’s word in written form, the Bible. And we’ll go through those verses in just a little bit. That’s our primary focus today. As you may imagine, God’s word in the Bible.

God Has Spoken in His Son

I love this in Hebrews. God having spoken long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days spoke to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who was the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power who having accomplished cleansing for sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. In many portions and in many ways, right, we just talked about a few of those—how God has spoken to us historically in various forms of written and spoken speech.

Now when it says that God has spoken to us in his son, we notice how Jesus behaved. Jesus does not invalidate the Old Testament but he affirms and fulfills it. In fact, as I said earlier, how Jesus uses scripture is a model for us.

“Jesus does not invalidate the Old Testament but affirms and fulfills it.”

Amazing. And the New Testament is referred to as the testament of Jesus Christ. So when we read the New Testament, we are reading the word of God.

The Foundation of Apostles and Prophets

Also, we see Ephesians 2:19-22. This is so important for us. If you’ve been through membership, I think this was emphasized.

Paul says this: “So then, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being joined together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit.”

When it uses the phrase apostles and prophets, it’s referring to those writings in both the old testament with the prophets and new testament apostles, right? The word of God is our foundation. So what we would say is that the only thing that you can know for sure is God’s word is the Bible, right?

Today, that’s the only thing that you can know for sure. So if someone says they have a word from God, be really careful. As I heard one pastor say, if you want to hear God speak audibly, read your Bible out loud, right?

That’s the only way that we know and that’s the only way we have regard for what God has given us. I hope today’s lesson helps to unpack and demonstrate that for you today.

“The only thing you can know for sure is God’s word is the Bible.”

The Serpent’s Attack on God’s Word

Now, I have to give a warning, and this is something that I think is worth repeating and emphasizing. Genesis 3:1.

Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” That’s not exactly what God said. He said, “There’s just one.” You could eat from all of these trees, this wondrous creation.

There’s just one you can’t eat of. And rather than emphasize the great freedom that they had to eat all of that, they focused on the one thing they couldn’t do. And they didn’t pass that test. Paul would say later in Corinthians that he fears that as the woman was deceived, so your hearts may be turned away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

And these attacks keep coming at us in many forms and many ways. Did God really say that? Has God said that? Did he mean that? Does that really mean this? And we have these study groups to study. Let’s go back and examine that to see if it really said that.

No, it really said that. God really did say what he said about marriage. God really said what he said about identity, about salvation, all of that. And we can refresh ourselves and ground ourselves in that. But we need to be very careful that we not question it. And these attacks come in many ways.

With that, let me walk through the five qualities or attributes of God’s word that we’ll be covering in the next several weeks. Today is inspiration and inerrancy.

“God really did say what he said about marriage, identity, and salvation.”

Five Attributes of Scripture

Next week we’ll have Dan Sured from Jews for Jesus to give a presentation. We won’t be doing this next week, but the week after we’ll pick up with the authority of scripture. The next will be perspicuity and sufficiency.

Perspicuity is a confusing word, which means clarity, which I find funny. Then following is the necessity of God’s word. I don’t want to give away too much. All of these kind of overlap, and I get excited when I think about each of these.

But I think what you’re going to see today is that these are not man-made categories for the Bible. These are descriptions of what the Bible asserts for itself.

Today, I’m going to do as Spurgeon said: the Bible is like a lion, right? You don’t talk about how powerful the lion is. You let it loose, right? The Bible is a sword, right? It is a sword of the spirit. You don’t imagine someone having a sword, a beautiful sword in a glass case, telling you how great it is and how powerful it is and how sharp it is. Take it out and show us, right? That’s what I’m attempting to do today: using the word of God to defend itself and to demonstrate itself.

“The Bible is like a lion — you don’t talk about how powerful it is. You let it loose.”

Calvary’s Statement of Faith on Scripture

From our Calvary statement of faith, this is called biblology. What is the Bible?

We teach that the Bible is the written revelation of God. The 66 books of the Bible constitute the plenary, which means complete or full word by the Holy Spirit.

“The 66 books of the Bible constitute the plenary, complete word by the Holy Spirit.”

Let me pause right here and look together at 1 Corinthians 2. This is important for us today. We’ll come back to this, but I want to at least read this section because it sets a tone for us about how we know the Bible is the word of God and how we receive it. I will start in verse 6.

The Spirit Reveals God’s Wisdom

1 Corinthians 2, starting in verse 6.

Yet we do not speak wisdom among those who are mature. A wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being abolished, that we speak God’s wisdom, in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory, for to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. But to us God revealed them through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the depths of man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the depths of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

Now we’ve received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who’s from God, so that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God, of which depths we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual depths with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined. But he who is spiritual examines all things, yet he himself is examined by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will direct him? But we have the mind of Christ. As much as we can objectively defend the veracity of the Bible, it is ultimately understood and appreciated by God’s spirit.

You see in that first verse, it says it’s not of this age or the rulers of this age. One of the beautiful things about the scriptures is they’re not time bound.

“A natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.”

The Bible is more current than next week’s news, right? Because it comes from an eternal source.

And we do well to recognize this, but also do well to recognize that as much as we want to persuade people that the Bible is true, if they don’t have the Holy Spirit, they will not acknowledge that. That is a work of God that must happen in their hearts. We’ll talk more about that a little bit later.

Couple other verses that I think will help us today.

Every Word of God Proves True

Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and you be proved a liar. In Romans, it says, “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.” Interesting.

Proverbs 30:5-6: “Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words.”

The Canon of Scripture

When it says every word of God is tested, the literal sense of that is every word of God proves true. It proves true, right? And if we oppose it, we will be proved to not be true. His word is a standard.

As revelation closes, as the written revelation of God closes in the book of Revelation, John says this: “I bear witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.”

So to add or to take away is a serious thing. This verse in Revelation refers, yes, to the book of Revelation, but more broadly as we look at it, to all of scripture as it is revealed by God. I think we may be guilty of adding or taking away in maybe subtle ways that we hadn’t thought of, and maybe God will point some of those things out to us as we apply these lessons today.

With that, we mentioned the 66 books of scripture, and I want to give you just a quick overview of what’s called the canon of scripture. Why do we have these books in the Bible and not others? How do we know that the 66 books of the Bible are complete? You’ve got the Roman Catholic Bible, which adds to it. You’ve got the Eastern Orthodox Bible, which adds even more to that. How do we know which Bible is true?

In the Old Testament, the Old Testament was recognized by the Jews as the Hebrew scriptures. In Jesus’ time, when they talked about the scriptures, there was no controversy about what that meant. Those 39 books—they might have numbered them differently, but that content was just known and understood both by the Jewish leaders and by Jesus.

These are quoted and affirmed by Jesus and the New Testament. If you look at some of these apocryphal books, for example, this is not true of them. Things in the intertestamental period between the Old and New Testament—no one in the New Testament talked about those or talked about them as scripture.

Let’s look at the New Testament, right? 27 books. They’re apostolic in origin, which means each of the books can be traced to the words of an appointed apostle, one of the 12. It has consistent internal cross-referencing. It kind of is self-validating in that way. Generally accepted by the churches, these 27 books were then codified by Eusebius under Constantine at the Council of Carthage. That’s when it became official.

But recognize this: how many of you saw or read the book The Da Vinci Code? If you’re a historian of any merit at all or know anything about history, it is so false, particularly when it talks about this issue. It will give the impression, as many people do, that the Catholic Church or the church at that time voted and determined which books would be in the Bible. They didn’t determine that. They recognized that as being from God. That’s very different.

So the canon was not created by men but recognized by men as God’s word. That’s a big difference, right? I don’t know if any of you have read any of the apocryphal books. My impression when I read through them was nice try, right?

“The canon was not created by men but recognized by men as God’s word.”

It’s interesting and good history. It’s poorly written, I think, compared to the Bible. As someone with the Holy Spirit, and hopefully you are too, it just reads differently. It’s like this is not—this is different. There are inconsistencies both within and with the revealed scriptures. So to me, if your Bible, it’s really easy to recognize these extra-biblical books as just that: extra-biblical.

Verbal Inspiration and Inerrancy Defined

So, again, from Calvar’s statement of faith, item two, we teach that scripture is God’s verbal revelation to man and is objective, inspired, and absolutely inherent in the original documents. And infallible. We teach that an accurate understanding of scripture requires that we what has come to be known as grammatical historical exesus which affirms the belief that the opening chapters of Genesis present creation in six 24-hour days.

And we would say that you really have to do violence to the text to believe something other than that about Genesis. You have to ask yourself when does actual history kick in, right?

Well, it kicks in from the very beginning. And and Dave, thank you for doing such a good job explaining that the last couple weeks. I thought that was so helpful and such a boost of boost of confidence.

Let’s look at a couple of these verses. When we say that that it’s objective in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, God says of the Thessalonians that when you receive the word of God, you received it not as the words of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. It’s inspired.

We’re going to dive deep into this, right? And all scriptures inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, right? Ian, as you prayed for me before this lesson, you prayed this for me.

So, thank you. It’s infallible. Original documents, Isaiah 38, we’ll get into that later, talks about how God directed the some of the writers to write some specific things down. It’s infallible. Isaiah 55, we’re going to dive more into that later, says that God God’s word always accomplishes what he intends and succeeds as it says in the matter for which he sent it. Anybody else have words like that? You just say things and they they accomplish what you say.

“You really have to do violence to the text to believe something other than six literal days about Genesis.”

None of us are like that. It’s a we have a very bad track record, I think, of our intentions compared to results. God does not. So, we say we see here what God claims for himself in his word.

And some struggle with this, but I’m going to unapologetically say that God’s word is self- authenticating because the Bible is supreme and the authoritative standard of truth. I seek to demonstrate that in our lesson today, primarily by using the Bible itself and not not outside sources. Outside sources will confirm the truth of the Bible.

If anything about biblical archaeology, we keep finding things that people said didn’t exist, but the Bible said that did exist. Right? Even at that people don’t believe but that the track record record continues but we would expect that right the Bible does not need this eternal external evidence to be shown as true and that’s an important thing for us to recognize.

I’m going to get into that as we talk about there’s a thing called the there’s an exogetical fallacy that’s associated with that we’ll talk about a little bit later.

The Power of God’s Spoken Word

I love this passage here. Psalm 33 is a is a great one for memorization. And this is one that really talks about what the word of God is and does. Let me read it. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts.

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it was done.

He commanded and it stood fast. Amen. What a worship verse that is. No human words match this. Right? Some people talk about we can we can speak reality. We can speak things into existence. No, you can’t.

No, you can’t. Only God can do that. And notice what it says in that last phrase. He spoke and it was done.

Psalm 33:9: “He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.”

That means it was established. Doesn’t say, and this might be might hurt some of you, but he spoke and it was done.

It’s not. It didn’t say he spoke and it kicked off a process.

Right? If you believe that God worked through through evolution, it’s like, well, what does it mean that and he said and it was and it was all very good.

What does that even mean? Right? He spoke and it was done and stood fast and he declared it good. And that’s the testimony of the word of God itself.

This one’s huge and I would commend this to you for for greater consideration and memorization.

God’s Word Is Infinitely Superior

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him and to our God. For he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For your ways and my thoughts from for sorry, for our so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sewer, and bread to the eater, so will my word be, which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

I hope you see in this passage that God’s thoughts, God’s words, and God’s ways are infinitely superior to ours.

Let me repeat that. God’s thoughts, his words, and his ways are infinitely superior to ours. So that we need to forsake ours and adopt his.

“God’s thoughts, his words, and his ways are infinitely superior to ours. We need to forsake ours and adopt his.”

Again, no human words match this. And my my question to you today is, do you trust him? It’s not just simply do you trust the words in the on these pages, but do you trust him? And they’re the same thing, by the way. Do you trust him?

Okay. Again, from Calvar’s statement of faith.

Defining Inspiration: God-Breathed

What does inspired mean? This word has been used in many Bible translations for the Greek word theoptos.

Maybe I pronounced that right, which literally translated means God breathed.

Therefore, when we say that the scriptures are inspired, we mean that they have come from God himself and that he is their source. And inherent simply means without error.

“When we say the scriptures are inspired, we mean they have come from God himself. Inerrant simply means without error.”

Dual Authorship of Scripture

There we go. And then this next statement is important. We teach that God spoke in his written word through a process of dual authorship.

The Holy Spirit so superintended the human authors that through their individual personalities and different styles of writing, they composed and recorded God’s words to man without error, in the whole or in part.

“The Holy Spirit so superintended the human authors that they composed and recorded God’s words without error.”

Was the Bible written by God? Yes. Was the Bible written by men? Yes. If you can fully figure out how that goes together, it’s something of a mystery, but we do have some explanation for it in the scriptures. In second Peter. We’ll get there in just a minute.

So, famous verse for us, and this is a great example of a good translation.

Most translations of this say, “All scriptures inspired by God.” Here in the LSB, we have it spelled out with the literal meaning. All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I’ll give away a little bit of what we’ll talk about later. God’s word is validated in no small part by its results, by what it does in us, equips us for every good work. So inspiration means from God, not merely inspirational. I think a lot of people would say of the Bible that’s really inspirational. I get something from that. But they don’t regard it as coming from God because if they did, they would need to submit themselves to it. And so few are willing to do that.

Even us as believers sometimes don’t do that as we ought. So inspire inspiration means from God. And so as I often like to say with with God’s commandments, they are not optional.

Not optional. None of them are optional.

You ever been on the cafeteria plan with with regard to the Bible? I like this. Not so sure about this.

Right. Yeah. No, in part and in whole, it is all from him. This is the verse that I think describes inspiration probably better than any other verse, right? And we have as more sure the prophetic word. And what he’s referring to in context is he just explained that they were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty, Peter, James, and John. This is written by Peter. They saw the glorified Jesus on the mountain along with Moses and Elijah. Having described that, he said, “We didn’t make that up. We actually saw him. And then he says this, we have more sure more sure than that.

Interesting. The prophetic words. So to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the morning star rises in your hearts. Know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes by one’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This unpacks for us how it can be both from God and from man. Right?

Kind of like Jesus was fully God, fully man. Jesus says the word of God was that. The written word of God is that.

MacArthur and Mayhew say this about inspiration. It describes the process of divine causation behind the authorship of scripture. It refers to the direct act of God on the human author that resulted in the creation of perfectly written revelation.

Defining Inerrancy

It’s really interesting. Some of this, as we’ve seen in other verses, was dictated directly or spoken directly, but not all of it. Yet in the same way, God superintended and guided and directed by his spirit the authors to write what they wrote. So that’s inspiration. And let’s go on. Let’s move on to a related topic and that is inherency. Inherency. I’m sorry I didn’t give you that. You’ll see the slides later. Yeah, divine causation. That’s such an important thing to think about.

Divine causation.

Isaiah 38.

Now go write it on a tablet before them and inscribe it on a scroll that it may be in the time to come as a witness forever. That was God speaking to Isaiah. Isn’t that interesting? Even though the original papyrus or paper that Isaiah wrote that on doesn’t exist, we we don’t know where that is yet. The testimony of it is to exist forever.

Isaiah 30:8: “Go write it on a tablet before them and inscribe it on a scroll that it may be a witness forever.”

Going to unpack that a little bit later about preservation. What does that mean?

God’s Word Stands Forever

And so this next verse expresses that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever.

Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever.”

Many people throughout history have tried to destroy the physical records of God’s word. Well, they haven’t been successful.

But even more than that, God’s word abides beyond the physical materials. We have the records for us, which is great. But I love when the scriptures talk about his law being written in our hearts. It does last forever. It is indestructible.

It’s important for us to remember that. God has given his word as an eternal, unalterable testimony. It’s really helpful to recognize—I don’t want to say a lot about translation, but it’s important that the scriptures were written in dead languages. Why do I say that? Because the meaning is fixed. Right? Modern Greek is not the same as Koine Greek. Modern Hebrew is not the same as ancient Hebrew. But we can discern what it meant and it means what it meant. So we have a very fixed record of what these words meant that we go by.

Praise the Lord for his wonderful preservation of these records.

We read this before: “So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what pleases me and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

In Psalm 119:140, the words of Yahweh are pure words as silver tried in a furnace on the ground refined seven times. They are without error. Without error. Wouldn’t it be great if all the things that we read were without error? If you read the news, you have to be very discerning, very careful. Sometimes there are some real obvious errors in journalism—maybe intentional, maybe not. I won’t go into that. But I think we have to be very careful. The only fully reliable words are the words of God. Amen.

So God’s word has and will accomplish its intended purpose. And that is the bottom line proof of its inerrancy. Let’s go to a formal definition here. The inerrancy of scripture means that scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact. It seems like a dilemma is developing here that I want to address. Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact in what was originally written down.

MacArthur may say this: inerrancy means literally without error. When applied to scripture, it means that the Bible is without error in the original copies. It is therefore free, when properly interpreted, from affirming anything that is untrue or contrary to fact. The term infallibility has historically been largely synonymous with an evangelical view of inerrancy.

Infallibility means unable to mislead or fail in accomplishing the divinely intended purpose.

The Manuscript Evidence

Okay. I think you see the dilemma that is developing. If we don’t have the original manuscripts, what use is inherency? That’s a great question. There’s a lot of research that you can do on this. I’m going to recommend some resources for you that I think will be really helpful if you want to dive into this. But I’m going to give you a brief summary today.

While the tracing of manuscripts and translation of the biblical text can be complex, it is far more reliable than the translation and preservation of other ancient texts. I won’t lie to you, it can be really messy if you look at the preservation and translation of early text. Particularly, Jeremiah is complex. Those things are challenging for us.

But if you look at some historical things like the Dead Sea Scrolls, I think you have to say that the preservation is consistent and amazing beyond anything else that we have in history. The total number of New Testament manuscripts was just under 6,000 and growing as of 2017. It continues to grow. The earliest is AD 30.

Number of years ago, I had an opportunity to see an ancient manuscript display at the University of Michigan. I went there with my brother-in-law who went to the University of Michigan and he knows Koine Greek. He can read it. We were looking at physically looking at a manuscript from the late 2nd century and he starts translating it for me.

It’s part of Galatians and Ephesians. You think about our brothers and sisters in Christ who were blessed by that, right? That’s pretty amazing to look at that. I saw it not simply as words on a page, but as the word of God. Really exciting just to be able to see something like that.

The total number of extant Old Testament scrolls and codices is over 40,000 and growing as of the same date. The most of any other major classical work is Homer’s Iliad, which has about 1,800 of those, and some 300 years after Homer’s lifetime. There are many records of ancient civilizations, ancient Greece, ancient Rome in particular that we just take as fact as historical fact and they are not nearly as historically objectively reliable as what we have in the Bible.

They are much fewer and much later than the events than the Bible and yet we take those things as fact. So I would say that the Bible stands alone both in terms of its historical reliability and its historical attestation.

Isn’t that interesting? It is more reliable than anything else out there. Yet it is attacked more than anything else out there. Why? Because if you come to grips with this, it is authoritative over your life.

And the question is, what do you want to be true? We’ll talk about that a little bit later. Some of the book evidence that demands a verdict. This graphic gives just kind of a little view of how the Bible stacks up to other ancient documents.

If you were to stack up the available documents from the average classical writer, that’s four feet. But if you stack it up with what we have in the Bible, it’s 2.5 miles.

“The Bible is more reliable than anything else out there, yet it is attacked more than anything else out there.”

Faith and the Holy Spirit

So that gives kind of a little sense of what we have in the reliability of the Bible. Still we have a dilemma. We don’t have the ancient manuscripts. So I think what this tells us that God still requires some faith of us. Think of the things that historical pe people historically people view as reliable, right? And yes, the Bible has much more than that, even without the original manuscripts.

But believing that the Bible is inherent still requires God-given faith, even with the overwhelming evidence. I believe that God has designed this so that there would still be a measure of faith involved for us. That is a part of God’s providence for us. And we read that in 1 Corinthians 2. But to us, God revealed them through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

“Believing that the Bible is inerrant still requires God-given faith, even with the overwhelming evidence.”

So we would expect the Holy Spirit within us to affirm what is historically pretty strong. But ultimately, it’s a spiritual exercise, believing the word of God.

Psalm 19: What God’s Word Is and Does

Psalm 19 7-11. Love this.

The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of Yahweh are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of a honeycomb. Moreover, by them your slave is warned. In keeping them there is great reward.

Psalm 19:7: “The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple.”

What a wonderful description of what the Bible is and what the Bible does. And I would commend this passage to you for memory.

Proven by Its Results

So ultimately the inspiration and inherency of scripture is are proven by its results. They’re proven by its results. And for those of us who know him and are in the word, we know this.

“The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture are ultimately proven by its results.”

We know how it has transformed and is transforming us. First Peter 1, it talks about our very salvation. You’ve been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding word of God. In the parable of the swer and the various soils in the in the gospel of Mark, Jesus says this something very simple.

The seed is the word of God. Right? It is the source. It is the means by which God births new life in us.

The Seed Is the Word of God

No seed, no life. I’ll just say this real quick since we I we have a little time.

I’ve seen this conversation come up throughout my life. Can you share the gospel without using the scriptures?

I just read a book that was really good right up to the point where this guy said, “Here is the gospel.” And he went through this long explanation. Didn’t use a word of scripture.

Brother, the seed is the word of God.

You can have no expectation of coming to Christ through your descriptions of God’s words. You can’t. Right? Or as I like to say, if you’re not spreading seed, you’re just spreading fertilizer.

“The seed is the word of God. If you’re not spreading seed, you’re just spreading fertilizer.”

You can take that however you want, right? There’s a difference. In Jeremiah 29, I get a little excited about this, as you can tell.

The prophet said, “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but the one who has my let him who has my word speak my word in truth.” What does straw have in common with grain? Is not my word like fire and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Right?

Seed versus grain. It’s that they’re they’re qualitatively two different things. And so I think God would have us be very skillful with the sword of the spirit. We know we need to know how to wield it. We need not need to know not just how to talk about it but to speak it to others in various circumstances.

Takes really takes spirit-ledd skill to do that. In Colossians 4, when it talks about evangelism, it says that that that we pray for an open door for what? For your testimony. Well, that’s good. Open door for the word. Because the word sown in someone’s heart is going to be what brings life. Now, as I’ve had this conversation with people, I’ve been accused of legalism. Well, that’s kind of strict. That’s kind of legalism, right?

I think it’s just acknowledging what we’ve been given here for what it is, right? As the Thessalonians were. You received it not as the words of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.

Objection: The Bible Has Been Corrupted

And so when we know that, when we’re convinced of that, we’re going to we’re going to receive it and talk about it differently. That make sense? And I’m I’m saying this just so that we understand that what we’re talking about today aren’t abstract theological categories.

These have very direct and very profound implications for our lives. Okay, with that, let me let me go through just a couple of objections that may sound familiar to you. One is the Bible has been corrupted.

I have several Muslim friends say this is big for them. Yep. And I’m still waiting for an example of where they can show me that. I’ve not seen it. And so, you’ve heard of this. So many people say this this I don’t know if the younger folks would know what the telephone game is, but the idea is that you sit in a circle, right?

And you have something written on a piece of paper that you transmit to the next person and that person transmits it to the next person and it goes around. By the time it gets back to you, it’s it’s often different and sometimes in a very humorous way quite different. And they say, “Well, a Bible is like that, right?

Translation upon translation upon translation, right? And it’s been lost the original meaning has been lost in translation and nothing could be further than the truth. It is actually the opposite. Right? Over time, older manuscripts closer to the original have been found which enable us to confirm and refine the translation from the original languages into the vernacular, the common language. Right? For example, what we have in the 2021 Legacy Standard Bible is much more accurate, more refined than the 1611 King James Bible.

“Over time, older manuscripts closer to the original have been found — translations are getting better, not worse.”

Now, I love Elizabeth in English and and I love reading the King James Bible. I think it’s it’s it’s held up well, but there are some pretty significant inaccuracies inaccuracies in it because of the manuscripts that they had available at that time. And so we just recognize that if anything the translations are getting better and we’re getting closer to the original not further.

I have to say that when I’ve when I’ve shared this with people in many cases this has been a conversation ender because people want to believe this and say I because of that I can dismiss the Bible as untrue. Again it comes back to what do you want to be true? Are you really looking at this objectively?

And we know as we’ve talked about the Holy Spirit, it’s a spiritual matter. It’s not simply an intellectual one. Right?

And then the Bible itself, this is beautiful. Models the validity of translations, right? How Jesus and the New Testament authors used the Septu Septuagen, which was a Greek translation of the Old Testament. That is so interesting. And then we talk about at Pentecost the word of God going out in all these languages and we see that’s why Bible translation is so important.

And and that it’s translated from the original languages. What Luther did with the German translation and what Tinddale did with the English translation was so important went back to the original languages translated it into the the vernacular. I remember describing this to my son Lee.

Because Tinddale, yeah, he’s one of my heroes. And and I said I said this is what Tinddale did. And Lee said to me, he was I don’t know, a young teenager. Did he did he make a lot of money for doing that?

I said, “No, son. He got killed for doing that.” Right? Because people wanted to control the message, in particular, the Latin Bible, which had some significant mistransations in it.

Right? Now, we go back to the original.

We want to give people the unvarnished word of God. And I will say this also about translations that it’s always good to do some original language studies. The pastor who married us, Jim Miller, would say that reading the Bible in English is like kissing your bride through the veil. Just not not the same.

So, the more you can learn about the original languages, the better, right?

And I can’t speak coin Greek or ancient Hebrew, but I have some good study tools that really help me with that. And it’s amazing when you see some of those patterns that don’t come through necessarily in English.

Objection: The Evidentiary Fallacy

Second objection, the what I call the evidentiary fallacy. You may know the parable of Lazarus from Luke 16. And at the end it says, “If if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” this wasn’t theoretical, right? People did rise from the dead and people knew that and they still didn’t believe, right? So we recognize that you can present what you think is an airtight case for the rassity of the Bible.

And if they won’t listen to the Bible, it just doesn’t matter because that’s a spiritual work of God enlightening their eyes to see it, right? No amount of evidence. Jesus Jesus did everything right. And what did they do? They killed him. They silenced him, right?

Luke 16:31: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”

You can think about that in our modern times. So we recognize that it is not while we work living in the fear of God. It says in in 2 Corinthians 5, we persuade men.

We really work hard at doing that, but we recognize that ultimately that’s above our pray pay grade. God has to do something in someone’s heart by his spirit so that they believe.

Objection: Bibliolatry

Here’s one that I hear a lot. Biblatry.

We don’t worship the Bible.

We worship God.

If we understand what the Bible is, that’s kind of a nonsensical statement.

“If we understand what the Bible is, the charge of bibliolatry is a nonsensical statement.”

We think about it.

This accusation comes from this passage with Jesus talking to the Jewish leaders. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him who he sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that bear witness about me and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

So the the the accusation, the thought that I hear from so many people is they loved the Bible too much really.

Psalm 138:2 is worth mentioning here, right? I will worship toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word according to all your name. I hope we’ve established that God and his word are not separate things. They come together personally. And so the Pharisees dismissal or additions to God’s word reflected their dismissal of God himself. Right?

The Pharisees and God’s Word

Did they love God’s word too much? They knew more about it than anyone or at least so the people thought. And with some hesitation, I’ll I’ll quote myself.

This was really helpful as I work this through. Where I would say they didn’t how confusing it must have been for the people of Jesus day to observe those who apparently knew God’s word best reflect God’s character the least.

What a serious thing that is, right?

They knew the book of life but refused to draw near to its author. How could this be? Much could be said here, but suffice it to say that the Pharisees focus was not on God’s word, but on their own man-made traditions by which they invalidated it. You can see that in Matthew 15. They worshiped not God, but themselves.

“Those who apparently knew God’s word best reflected God’s character the least.”

They love God and his word not too much, but too little. This is really important because if if you get if you live enough life and you take God’s word seriously, there are people who are going to come at you with this. You worship the Bible.

You don’t worship God. And I think we have an answer for that. It’s like I God speaks to me personally. He transforms me by his word. It’s not it’s not a separate thing. Right? Now, that’s not to say that I think that challenges us in how we we treat the Bible. One of my one of the great examples of teaching is Ezra in the Old Testament, Ezra 7:10. And it says that Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. What that tells us is that as we teach, we must must be examples of what we’re teaching.

Objection: The Bible Contains God’s Word

We must demonstrate that it has transformed and is transforming us. And if we don’t do that, we do not reflect God and his word well. And it shows that it hasn’t impacted as it should.

Okay, I’ve got another one. The Bible contains the word of God. It isn’t the word of God, but there are some words of God in it. How do you right? You going to tell me which ones meet your approval? I don’t think God appreciates our judgment of his word. I think he appreciates the judgment of his word on us. That’s probably more appropriate.

We’re going to get into that when we talk about the authority of God’s word and what that means. In Psalm 19, it says, “Therefore, I deem all your precepts concerning everything to be right. I hate every false way.” Right? We want to shine the light of God’s word into every area of our lives, even those hard things.

Right? We’re not, again, we are not on the cafeteria plan, right? We’re not picking and choosing what we believe will be right or beneficial. All your precepts concerning everything. And then in verse 160, the sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous judgments is everlasting.

Psalm 119:128: “I deem all your precepts concerning everything to be right. I hate every false way.”

It’s interesting when we talked about the attributes of God in Iron Man a couple years ago, I think we recognize we tend to like some attributes better than others, right? Similar with God’s word. It’s natural, I think, in some ways to like some passages or some truths more than others, but if it’s all from God, it’s all perfect, right?

We need to love it. We notice what it said at 2 Timothy 3:16 that God’s word is for our teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. Right? We like the teaching and training. We don’t like the correction and reproof as much. We need to love that just as much because it is an expression of God’s love for us.

A lot to think about there and I hope that is helpful. So we are not above the Bible in judgment. The Bible stands above us as God stands above us. I think as we established from Isaiah 55, his thoughts, his words, his ways are infinitely higher than ours. And we need to trust that.

I love this quote from the Casting Crowns song. The word is alive. What a great song that is. It reflects a lot of what we’ve talked about today.

It says this: “The Bible was inscribed over a period of 2,000 years in times of war and days of peace by kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers, fishermen, singers, and shepherds.” The marvel is that a library so perfectly cohesive could have been produced by such a diverse crowd over a period of time, which staggers the imagination.

Jesus. Yes. Jesus is its grand subject. Our good is its design and the glory of God is its end. Amen.

Yeah. That is the word that God has given to us. The treasure that we have in it.

Implications and Application

Well, as we wrap up, let me just give you just a few implications and application. Again, I’ve challenged us a few times and I’ve asked,”What do you want to be true? What do you want to be true?” Jesus said in John 7:17 that if any man’s will is to do his will, God’s will, he will know if the teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. Right? The willingness of the heart unlocks the truth. There’s no way around that.

Where does your view of scripture fall short of its claims for itself? Right?

“The willingness of the heart unlocks the truth. Where does your view of Scripture fall short of its claims for itself?”

This is something we have to continually come back to. Do I believe what God has said about his word? Do I really believe that? Right? Not just theoretically, but has my heart grasped it? Right? What objections to the truth of scripture impact you the most and how should you address them?

I think we might have a couple minutes to ask you guys to give some feedback on that. And then finally, I would say that a daily portion of Psalm 119, this has been revolutionary for me, will remind you of what God’s of what God’s word is, what it does, and what our posture should be toward it and toward God should be. How we treat the word of God is how we treat God.

I get a little bit impatient and maybe unkind when I ask someone how they’re doing in their daily devotional life and when they tell me, “I just don’t have time for it.” Wow.

Prioritize God’s Word Daily

Really? Really? When we understand who God is and what his word is, this might sound legalistic to you. Put this front and center. Prioritize everything around it. Right? One thing Jesus said to Mary is necessary: to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him. We don’t find time for it. We make time for it because of who God is and what his word is.

And I think as I started doing this a number of years ago, just taking a portion of Psalm 119 at the beginning of my devotions, it shocked me. As I like to say, it captured my attention and inflamed my affections.

“We don’t find time for God’s word. We make time for it because of who God is and what his word is.”

It was like, oh, that’s what I’m dealing with here. That’s what I’m about to read. Oh, that’s really gotten my attention. It’s made me that much more attentive, I think, to the word of God. So I would really commend that to you. And then if you have any questions, feel free to email me.

I’m happy to do that. We’ve got four more weeks of this and we can fit some things in there. I will just put a slide up with some recommended resources.

Most of these are reference resources. You’ve got the biblical doctrine book, systematic theology by Grudem, evidence and verdicts, coming to grips with Genesis, the word of God in English, thy word is still truth, and God and his word by some twe character. But you’ve got three of those books I think are in the book nook. The Bible doctrine book, the Genesis book, and the Psalm 119 book are all in the book nook if you’d like to take advantage of those.

Questions and Discussion

With maybe a minute or so that we have, let me just ask you what objections to the truth of scripture do you find the most challenging to you as you interact with people? Maybe one or two can chime in on that.

Alexi, the woman caught in adultery. Yeah. So Lexi’s talking about those passages that don’t appear in earlier manuscripts, primarily in the book of Mark, and then the one I think is in John with the woman caught in adultery. Yep.

Yeah, that’s a great one.

I’m going to maybe spend a little time on that next week. Evidence that some things were added. Yeah. This might sound controversial to you, but I have less regard for those passages because I’m just not sure, and I wouldn’t emphasize them as much as I otherwise would because it would appear that they were not in the original scriptures. Yeah, Dwayne?

Yeah.

Those passages are well identified, and they are few. I think in the ESV at least some of them are actually excluded, which was a bit controversial. But it’s interesting. We could say a lot about translation, and maybe I’ll say a little bit more about that in the coming weeks. The variance in the translations is so minor. You could say that they’re numerous, but they’re so minor and they do not change the meaning of scripture at all.

With that, any other questions? Talk to me or email me. We’re in for a treat the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to learning a lot with you. So let me pray.

Closing Prayer

Father God, what a treasure your word is to us. Sweeter than honey, more valuable than the finest gold. Father, may it be both to us.

May you work in our heart in such a way that both our desire for and capacity for your word would grow and our intimacy with you and our love for you would grow along with it.

Transform us, Father. Do what only you can do through this series as your word does its work in us who believe. Sanctify those of us who believe. Save those who don’t through this series. We pray.

Amen.

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