Each And Every Word
2 Tim 3:16-17
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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
(NKJ)
During the early days of World War II, when the Nazis invaded France, French citizens took down all signposts. As the Nazi armies advanced, they didn't know which way to turn or in what direction lay their objective. Does it seem to you that the signposts of life have all been taken down? They were not taken down by us to confuse the enemy; they were taken down by the enemy to confuse us. We don't know which way to turn until we open the Scriptures. The only reliable signposts are there.
I) Why Is The World Such A Mess?
Everywhere you look, the world is a mess. How did it all get this way?
Truth is, the world has always been, well, the world. But it does seem like things are much worse.
We are in perhaps the worst financial condition as a nation ever since the Great Depression. Crime continues to plague our nation, and locally it seems that gun crime is way up. Materialism rules in our country. It seems that every day we see some big corporation handing out big bonuses to their executives while asking for a hand out from the government.
If it seems that things are in a free fall, or better said, in a free for all, you wouldn't be far off target.
We as a country have lost our moral compass. The direction to right and wrong. And if this all keeps up, we will see more and more misery and pain. What our country needs is a return to THE moral compass...the Scriptures themselves.
II) Each and Every Word
From before creation, doubt was cast upon God's Word. By before creation, I mean
that time that Satan rebelled against God. Satan and cast doubt on God's Word by seducing the angels into a rebellion against Him. You can see this in passages in Ezekiel and Isaiah, where pride did Satan in; he thought more of himself than God, rejecting God's Word.
The first place in Scripture that the casting of doubt shows up is in Genesis 3:
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (NKJ)
Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. (NKJ)
If Satan can destroy belief in any part of God's Word, then all is suspect. How do we know it is all true? God's Word itself says so, and in no vague terms:
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...
All Scripture: In the Greek language, this can be interpreted as "all" or "every". Robertson notes in Robertson's Word Pictures that every is perhaps the better translation. This leaves no scripture out, in either way you translate it out.
Inspiration of God: This is one place that the translators of the NIV get it right, and the English Standard Version has it right too. The proper rendering should be "God breathed" or "breathed by God".
So then, we could read this part of verse 16 like this:
"Each and every word of the Scripture is God breathed"
So what does that all mean? The entire canon of Scripture is written by God!
My heart was broken a few years ago when discussing the Bible with a family member. This family member had gone off to college, and had gone from belief in Creation to a belief in evolution. I looked at him and said "but that's not what the Bible says!", and he flatly stated what so many other people have said: "The Bible was written by men", and he went on to say that men made mistakes.
One truth out of all of this is that men do make mistakes! Everyone knows the potential for men to do things to their liking, for their own interests. That is why God had to author His Word, and not men themselves.
Here is what "God breathed" means from Warren Wiersbe:
The Holy Spirit of God used men of God to write the Word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21).
2 Peter 1: 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (ESV)
The Spirit did not erase the natural characteristics of the writers. In fact, God in His providence prepared the writers for the task of writing the Scriptures. Each writer has his own distinctive style and vocabulary. Each book of the Bible grew out of a special set of circumstances. In His preparation of men, in His guiding of history, and in His working through the Spirit, God brought about the miracle of the Scriptures.
We must not think of "inspiration" the way the world thinks when it says, "Shakespeare was certainly an inspired writer." What we mean by biblical inspiration is the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Bible's writers, which guaranteed that what they wrote was accurate and trustworthy. Revelation means the communicating of truth to man by God; inspiration has to do with the recording of this communication in a way that is dependable.
In short, God put the thoughts into these men, and used them to write the Scriptures, all the while watching over them to allow their own particular style of writing while not going any farther or falling short of what God intended.
But how can we prove that the Bible is really the Word of God? In short, there are four areas of examination:
A) Manuscript Evidence
1. The number of existing manuscripts
There are more than 5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, over 10,000 in Latin and over 9,300 other early versions totaling 24,000+ manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today, ranking it first in manuscript evidence.
The Iliad, by Homer, is second ... with 643 surviving manuscripts.
2. The dating of the manuscripts
The New Testament autographs date to between 40 100 A.D. Until 1995, the earliest extant manuscripts dated to the fourth century (a 250 300 year difference). Norman Geisha states that the average gap between an original composition and the earliest available copy is over 1,000 years for other works of antiquity.
3. Variant readings
Through the proper application of textual criticism, comparing all the available manuscripts with one another, we are able to confidently reconstruct the original reading. Let's briefly compare numbers on variant readings. The New Testament contains approximately 20,000 lines, of which 40 lines are in question. This equals .5% (one half of one percent).
The Iliad contains approximately 15,600 lines, of which 764 lines are in question. This equals five percent. That's ten times more variants than the New Testament in a document which is only three-quarters its length. The sheer number of extant NT manuscripts we possess narrows tremendously the margin of doubt on the correct reading of the original documents (known as autographs).
Of the 0.5% of the New Testament variant readings, only one eighth of those amount to anything more than a stylistic difference or misspelling.
An example of a fairly typical variant reading:
MSS. 1 Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole worl.
MSS. 2 Christ Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.
MSS. 3 Jesus Christ s the Savior of the whold world.
MSS. 4 Jesus Christ is th Savior of the whle world.
MSS. 5 Jesus Christ is the Savor of the whole wrld.
(from bibleoutreach.net)
B) Archeological Evidence
The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1947, included an ancient copy of the scroll of Isaiah. This scroll, dating to approximately 100 BC was found to be identical to the Modern Hebrew Bible in over ninety five percent of the text. The remaining five percent consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen or variations in spelling.
Prior to that discovery, the earliest manuscript of Isaiah was the Masoretic Text, dating to 900 AD (from bibleoutreach.net)
In addition, some questions have been raised about certain books of the Bible being accurate--for instance, the book of Daniel. One question that came up was how Belshazzar could have been king of Babylon when Nabonidus is shown in history to be the king. Archelogical finds showed that Nabonidus was the king, but shared his kingdom with his son, Belshazzar as co-regents.
Another find was the mention of Sargon being an Assyrian king in the book of Isaiah. This was not confirmed until an archeological dig a few years back that revealed a column that showed him to be the king during that era.
C) Prophetic Evidence
Other religions cannot claim prophetic accuracy. The Bible can.
One such example is this passage:
Matt 24:1-2
1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (NKJ)
(Story of Titus destroying the temple)
The return of the Jews following the Diaspora, or dispersion:
Zechariah 8:7-8 This is what the Lord Almighty says: "I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God."
D) Changed Lives Evidence
The Apostle Paul:
1 Tim 1:12-15
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
(NKJ)
David Berkowicz--Son of Sam murderer
III) The Bible Is For Your Profit...
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
The word for profitable is better translated "useful". But it is profitable, or to your gain, to study God's Word. It makes you a better man or woman of God, and your life makes more sense. You have a moral compass to go by.
Warren Wiersbe notes, in a memorable way, what each of these words means in this section:
doctrine (what is right),
Doctrine simply means what is taught. For instance, the "doctrine of Christ" is what is taught about Jesus Christ and what He Himself taught. It is also a system of theology... For instance, there is Catholic doctrine, Baptist doctrine, Presbyterian doctrine, etc. In short, we teach doctrine that is from God's Word, and though we may be more Baptistic in our teachings we find them to be the most trustworthy. In short, a churches doctrine must be based upon the Scriptures only.
for reproof (what is not right),
It is a common thought in many churches to allow each and every person to believe what they believe and accept it as what is right for them.
Problem is that the moral compass of the Bible is thrown out the window! I know a major denomination that teaches their Sunday School teachers to ask "what does this mean to you" instead of teaching what the Scripture ACTUALLY means. This is the equivalent of letting the animals run the zoo!
There are times when someone disagrees with me on a matter of doctrine, and my job is to reprove them if they are in error. The Scripture is the only source for reproof. In fact, Vincent states that this word is better translated "conviction"--in other words using the Word of God to convict the heart of the person in error.
for correction (how to get right),
Let's face it, we all mess up at times. We all need to be drawn into correction. The Bible provides the proper course of correction.
The word for correction means to "set right" or to be set upright. If we lean the wrong way we can easily fall.
For instruction in righteousness (how to stay right).
Perhaps you have heard the saying "closing the gate after the horses have escaped". In my 10 years of ministry I have found this to be true spiritually. Saved people get themselves in some real messes because they do not study God's Word and know how to stay right.
A Christian who studies the Bible and applies what he learns will grow in holiness and avoid many pitfalls in this world.
IV) Entire
17 that the man of God may be complete,
As we have talked before, the most important 3 words in Bible Interpretation are context, context, context. 2 Timothy is one of the pastoral epistles, or one written with preachers in mind. The term "man of God" usually refers to a preacher.
How tragic it is that some so-called men of God do not use the Scriptures this way! I know I pick on Joel Osteen and some of the other televangelists that are of the Health, Wealth and Prosperity cloth, but in Osteens case he never mentions sin. He never clearly states that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Again, each and every scripture is for doctrine (what is right), for reproof (what is not right), for correction (how to get right), and for instruction in righteousness (how to stay right). Our faith should never be an entirely feel good comfy cozy message. Surgery on our hearts does hurt, but it is needed desperately.
A preacher is to be complete and to preach the entire counsel of God. But the other truth here is that each and every truth, each and every precept is to be sought by men and women of God so that they may be complete. Our goal is perfection... (give example--Pens practice)
V) Christian Outfitters
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
See this picture here? This is what comes to my mind about being outfitted.
A Christian is outfitted, or equipped, by God's Word. Gossip is not part of the vocabulary. Jealousy and envy are out the door.
Love is in the heart, help is in the hands are works are in the arms of the well outfitted Christian.
In order to be ready, we must be equipped for every good work that God has sent our way. If we are not equipped as such, then we will fail in our duties given to us by God.
Sometimes I wonder if what I teach actually sinks in, even with my own family. What a refreshing thing to see what Kay told me about this last week
(tell story)
VI) Summary
Inspired--Profitable--Completing--Equipping
