2 Timothy 3:16-17
The Bible and Me
2Tim 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.
We must be careful to never forget the basics. Only with a strong
foundation can we build a sure future. Tonight, I want to speak on
the most fundamental basic Christianity has, the Bible.
Let me share three simple but basic thoughts.
I. The Bible is necessary.
A. The Bible is absolutely necessary to the Christian faith.
1. Let me read a statement that I wrote quite a few years
ago now.
2. The Bible is to the Christian what air is to the mammal;
what water is to the fish; what food is to the organic;
and what fuel is to combustion. Without the Bible,
Christianity ceases to be. The Bible describes our God,
our existence, our fault, our redemption, our future,
and our purpose. It commands our actions, our loyalty,
and our attitudes. Simply put: If the Bible is removed
from the Christian faith, there is no Christian faith.
B. But the Bible is not just necessary for the Christian. It is
necessary to everyone.
C. Consider that the Bible reveals the character of God.
1. God’s creation tells us of His power \\#Romans 1:20\\,
but only God’s Book tells us of His nature.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him.
2. God cannot be seen, probed, analyzed, or studied, either
with the human eye or any tool that man can create.
a. This is the very reason that some say there is no God
and others come away with a warped view of God.
(1) They try to understand God based on His creation.
(2) What they don’t know without the Bible is that
God’s creation has been corrupted so they end up
with a corrupted understanding of God.
b. Everything we know about God comes through written the
revelation of the Word of God.
c. It is the only way to know God’s character.
D. Consider that the Bible reveals our origins.
1. Without the Bible, we have no history; and if we have no
history, we do not know where we came from or where we
are going.
a. If you woke up tomorrow morning, standing in the
middle of the former Malfunction Junction, with no
memory; you would not know where you came from or
where you are going.
b. If you could see a trail of breadcrumbs marking the
path that brought you to that point, you would at
least know where you came from and might be able to
plot the direction you should go in.
c. But without a history, you would know nothing at all.
2. What people do not understand is our history also shapes
our philosophy.
a. If we have no Bible, the theory of evolution is as
good as any other notion as to where we came from.
b. That theory basically asserts that we are animals,
(1) that we have no soul;
(2) that there is no eternity;
(3) that life is only what we see before us.
c. But that false history also gives to mankind a false
philosophies
(1) i.e. If this is all there is, I might as well get
all I can by whatever means I can and make
myself the happiest that I can.
(2) And that is exactly the way the people in our
world are living.
(3) Why? Because their false history has given them
a false philosophy.
(4) They need a Bible.
3. But the Bible gives us a completely different history.
a. We were created in the image of God.
b. One day, each of us will stand before God and give an
account of what we did with the gift of life.
c. Biblical history gives us a completely different and
diametrically opposed set of philosophies for life.
4. Now, if you don’t think those two historical models are
going to make a difference in our behavior today and in
our future tomorrow, you are sadly mistaken.
E. Consider that the Bible reveals our fault and God’s
redemption.
1. Without the Bible, people can and have been persuaded that
they are okay and that things are not so bad.
a. Without a Bible, many actually believe that things are
getting BETTER!
b. To be honest, even without the Bible, I would hope to
have a hard time buying into that one.
2. But again, the Bible tells us something different.
a. Life is not what it was intended to be.
b. Sin has skewed it and skewed us.
c. Jesus Christ came to restore both us and our
existence.
d. By faith and obedience, we can become what we were
intended to be.
II. The Bible is not only necessary, it is necessary in its totality.
A. The Bible cannot be dissected into parts which can be accepted
or rejected individually.
1. Some do that.
a. They "believe the Bible," but not the part about
creation.
b. Or they "believe the Bible," but not the part about
Jonah and the great fish.
c. Or they "believe the Bible," but not the part about
the virgin birth, the substitutionary death, or the
bodily resurrection of Jesus.
2. The reason you cannot do that is because the same promises
and processes which have preserved one part of the Bible,
preserves all parts of the Bible.
a. If fault is found with any portion of the Bible, then
we must assume fault exists in all of it.
b. If any section of Scripture fails the test of
reliability, it all proves untrustworthy.
B. And so every Christians needs to know Bible 101.
1. The Bible was given to us by the means of inspiration
\\#2Tim 3:16\\.
a. It means "God breathed" and is explained in…
2Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man: but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.
b. God "moved" upon men—that means "brought them along."
(1) Did God give an idea and let men write it? No.
That has too much room for error.
(2) Did God give the Bible word for word and let men
only pen them? No. The Bible has too much
personality for that.
(3) Inspiration is somewhere in the middle.
i. God controlled the words written to the place
we can preach the very words of the Bible
with confidence and authority-just like I’m
doing now.
ii. But He allowed enough freedom that the
personality of the writer also came
through.
iii. Theologians refer to that as verbal, plenary
inspiration of the Scriptures.
2. After divinely giving us His Word, God has supernaturally
preserved the Bible.
Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words:
as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation for ever.
a. God’s Words are "given" pure by the process of inspiration.
b. God’s Word are "kept" from generation to forever by
God!
c. That brings us to the question of translation.
(1) If God gave the Bible in three language (Hebrew,
Aramaic, and Greek), but none of us speak those
languages.
(2) Has God preserved ALL of those translations? NO!
(3) Then the question becomes "Are any translations
preserved and if so which one?"
(a) That is a legitimate question and you need
to be able to answer it.
(b) What makes you think your translation is the
one and only translation that is preserved.
(c) Some will quote Ps 12:6-7 and say, "Because
the KJV says it is."
i. You can’t do that!
ii. Ps 12:6-7 is in there lousy
translation too.
(e) The answer to that question must come from
outside the Bible because the Bible does
not tell you that the KJ is preserved.
d. While there are literally hundreds—if not thousands—of
translations today, the King James Bible is unique
from all the others.
(1) The King James Bible was translated from
manuscripts which have been available since the
original was given God.
(2) That set of manuscripts came to be known as
Textus Receptus.
(3) All modern-day translators have set those
manuscripts aside as inferior and given
preeminence to manuscripts that were
rediscovered in the 1600-1800’s.
(4) Consider that the early church had ALL of those
manuscripts but chose not to use ALL of them.
(5) That is why SOME became LOST.
(6) Understand, those who hold to the King James
Bible and the Textus Receptus manuscripts are
NOT the ones turning from the view of the church
fathers!
(7) Those who turn AWAY FROM THEM are!
e. If you look up the Textus Receptus, you will find many
writers giving their many arguments as to why they
are inferior to the more recently re-discovered and
now-more-commonly-used manuscripts.
(1) However, the best argument I find for staying
with what the church has used for 1800 years is
the "results" argument.
(2) The manuscripts upon which the King James Bible
were translated have won millions of souls,
stirred countless revivals, sparked a
reformation, started the modern missionary
movement, founded countries, and kept the church
not only alive but pure and vibrant.
(3) Instead of adding to the church, the newer
manuscripts are the ones being used by the
modern-day, rock-n-rap churches, who are
cancelling their services for convenience, know
how to sing and dance but can’t preach, talk of
love but never of sin, and emphasize psychology
over obedience to the Word of God, in part
because they have no confidence that any
translation is accurate and trustworthy.
(4) If you think that the church of today is better
(more spiritual, more righteous, and more pure)
than the churches of yesteryear, then there is
really no reason for us to ever discuss this
topic because we are NOT going to see things a
like.
f. Anyone who advocates throwing away the manuscripts and
the Bible translation that God has used for 1800
years has a problem.
(1) If they think the Bible and the manuscripts God
used for first 1800 years is not the preserved
Word of God, would argument would you give that
what was found would be?
(a) You can’t say the re-discovered manuscripts
were preserved to all generations, because
clearly they weren’t! They were lost for
1800 years.
(b) You can’t say God just gave them because He
didn’t. They are as old as the ones that
have been used.
(c) What argument can you give than to say YOU
THINK they are better?
(d) And who are you to disagree with 1800 years
of church history?
(2) And if the King James Bible and the manuscripts
used to translate them are the preserved Word of
God, what argument will give that I should turn
from them?
3. The Bible can only be understood by illumination of the
Holy Spirit.
1Cor 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
a. The Bible:
(1) Is given by inspiration,
(2) is kept by preservation,
(3) and is understood by illumination.
b. I have heard people say of the King James Bible for
years, "I know what you are saying, but I can
understand the other translations better."
c. That does not fly with me for two reason:
(1) The King James Bible was used as a primer to
teach Americans how to read for around 150 years
or more!
(a) If kindergarteners could read and understand
it, why can’t we if we have a worthy
education?
(b) Studies on the King James Bible show that it
was written on a second grade reading level.
(c) That means that the average word is shorter
and has less syllables than other
translations.
(d) The only thing that makes the KJV a bit more
difficult to understand is the "thee"s" the
"thou"s, and a few words that have changed
in meaning.
(e) Folks, if you have a worthy education, it
won’t take you long to figure out the
"thee"s, "thou"s, and to find out the
meaning of the older words.
(f) Might I suggest the problem is not a lack of
ability but a lack of effort.
(2) The Bible is not understand by intellect and
education but by spiritual relationship.
(a) Now, of course you need to know how to read
to read and understand any book.
(b) But if you don’t read well, don’t avoid the
King James Bible.
i. Rather, get some phonic cards, and let
someone teach you the sounds.
ii. Then practice on the King James Bible,
and listen to what you read.
iii. The Spirit of God will both help you
learn to read and to understand what
you read.
III. With that in mind, what kind of relationship should we have with
the Word of God. Three possibilities:
A. We may scoff at it.
2Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall
come IN THE LAST DAYS scoffers, walking after
their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the beginning
of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that
by the word of God the heavens were of old, and
the earth standing out of the water and in the
water:
1. Obviously, these people doubt the reliability of the
Bible.
a. They may doubt God as the Author, or the Bible’s
inspiration, or the Bible’s preservation, or they
have no Holy Spirit to guide them.
b. And so they mock, ridicule, and scoff at God’s Word.
2. The Bible tells us about this type of person:
a. \\#3\\ Their motive is their LUST.
(1) They are lost, and the Bible deprives them of the
things they crave.
(2) Lester Roloff-"The Bible will either keep you
from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible."
(3) So they call themselves a Christian but cast away
the Bible that keeps them from their lusts.
b. \\#4\\ Their hope is that all things will continue as
it has.
(1) These people don’t want Jesus to come back.
(2) They don’t want to stand before Him, but He is
coming back and every person will stand before
Him!
c. \\#5\\ Their heart is willingly ignorant!
(1) That means they are ignorant not because they
can’t know but because they won’t know.
(2) Listen, it doesn’t take a genius to understand
these truths. It just takes someone who wants
to know them.
B. Some may believe but without zeal and confidence.
Luke 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all
this, today is the third day since these things
were done.
1. \\#Luke 24:21\\ "But we trusted"-past tense.
2. Circumstances had weakened their believe. Jesus was dead!
3. Sometimes arguments weaken our beliefs, especially when
there is no one to give a counter-argument!
a. That is the danger of worldly schools.
b. Modern-day education stifles the counter-arguments
and destroy the faith of the young!
c. That is the reason I am a "teaching" preacher.
(1) I know some do not like that kind of preaching.
(2) They would like the kind of preaching that causes
us to jump high and shout loudly. (I like it
too.)
(3) But I also want you to be able to walk when you
land, and to keep on walking whether I am there
or not.
C. Some will believe to the place they will contend for it.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you
that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints.
1. That means we believe it, read it, obey it, and fight for
it.
2. That is the kind of faith we need in the Bible and in the
world in which God has called us to serve Him.
May be have it.
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