Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Statement Of Faith

Inerrancy Part 3

Intro: We have seen theses past few weeks that the Bible claims to be inerrant, wholly true in all that it teaches. We have looked at several proofs of Biblical inerrancy and today we will examine the last...God's providence. Think abut this, no book but the Bible has weathered the perpetual assaults of skeptics in their unceasing efforts to prove the Bible contains mistakes and contradictions. No other literary project in the history of the world has been subject to such meticulous scrutiny with the expressed purpose to expose discrepancies.Despite these relentless attacks, the Bible has constantly been vindicated and demonstrated to possess the unequaled characteristic of internal harmony, accuracy and consistency.

 How can the Bible stand up to such scrutiny? The answer Divine providence.

    E. Doctrine of Divine Providence
 Each copy of what the human authors wrote was not 'God breathed' as was the original so that inerrancy was not involved in the transmission from the originals to the copies. The copies we have are not the inspired inerrant originals, yet they can be trusted as the Word of God. How did that happen?

 In 302 A.D. the Emperor Diocletian ordered the complete destruction of the sacred scriptures and it may be that it was at that time the original autographs were lost. This was not a mistake in history, nor did God go  'opps, I didn't see that coming'. It was the providence of God. I don't know perhaps God didn't want us worshipping pieces of paper instead of God Himself.

 What I do know is that God has spoken very clearly regarding the longevity of His Word and His protection of it.
Turn to:
Isa. 40:8 'The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever'

Matt. 24:35 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.'

Acts 17:26 'And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling.'

Job 42:1-2 'The Job answered the Lord and said 'I know that You can do everything. And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.'

Isa. 46:11b ' Truly I have spoken, truly I will being it to pass, I have planned it, surely I will do it'

 God purposed that His Word would endure forever and He saw to it that it has. No further proof is needed.   God had a plan to preserve His Word even without the originals, so that we could rely on it as His authoritative, and inerrant word.

DEF: Divine Providence: God rules the universe to accomplish His own purposes and will. It is the divine outworking of all the divine decrees for the purpose of bringing glory to Himself. Divine providence expresses the fact that the world, our lives and  even  the transmission of God's Word through the centuries are not ruled or directed by chance, fate or luck but by God's sovereign hand.

 In divine providence, God's omniscience and omnipotence are joined as one. Being all knowing and all powerful, He is able to protect His Word throughout time so that it retains the same authority today that it held in the early church. God has faithfully preserved His word through the ages, by purposefully and actively working in and through people and history to assure an accurate copy.

Listen to the providence of God at work.

 95% of the OT is textually sound with the variations coming in scribal errors of spelling and grammar. None affect any OT doctrine of fact.

 99.9% of the NT is textually sound and there are only 345 variations that exist in the whole NT and not one affects any doctrine, or any fact.

 We have over 25,000 manuscripts, fragments and copies of the NT. This amount is overwhelming and unparalleled by any other document in history.

 God so sovereignty and providentially led the priests, scribes and copyist so that they were meticulous in their reproducing Scripture. That is why Reformed scholar Louis Berkhof can say  'Apart from the relatively few and unimportant variations in the thousands of manuscripts we have, we are in possession of the verbally inspired Word of God'.

 Remember Jesus has said in Matt. 24:35 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.'

 He has done what He said. Praise God!

Trans: Well, this has been a lot of factual information but hopefully it has been helpful to you as well. I want you to be assured that you have in your hands is  the inspired, inerrant word of God when you read the Bible. And as such is our absolute and complete authority for all matters of faith and practice.

 Let's get a bit more practical. How can belief in biblical inerrancy help us in our daily lives apart from knowing it is our authority for life? I want to look at two of the many ways it is practical to our daily lives. Turn to Ps. 12 Where we will see that there is protection through the inerrant Word of God.

III. Inerrancy: Applying the Truth
A. Protection through the Inerrant Word of God
Read: Ps. 12:1-8

 1. Background
  What is going on here in this text?
 David has recognized that there are less and less godly men and women around. Fewer and fewer faithful to the Lord in his time. He said that there are many ungodly men who lie and flatter to get what they want. These ungodly people defy God and His Word. They shout and say they are powerful and challenge anyone to try to control them, even God? They strut like peacocks everywhere as they promote evil.

2. Davids cry for help
  David calls out to God to protect him from the ungodly who surround him. He fears their evil intentions. He wanted God to show the evil men their place and to protect the godly who are left.

In PS. 119:113-117 David has the same heart cry. Turn there with me.

  Again he begins by talking about the evil people of his day whose words are twisted and have two meanings. But David says that he loves the Law, God's Holy Word to Israel. He tells God that He is his hiding place and his shield, David waits for the Word of the Lord which will save and protect him. He asks God to sustain him in the midst of evil people with His Word that he may live. There is life in the Word of God. He asked God to be upheld and made safe and that he would have regard or affection for God's Word. See the connection between cries for protection and safety and the Word of God?

 3. God answers
  God said because of the devastation of the afflicted and the groaning of the needy, because of the evil surrounding my people, I will arise and I will set him (David and the godly ones) in the safety for which he longs. How does David know that God will do this? Because God's word is true and by His word He will deliver. David says that God's word is pure, it is refined 7 times.  It is not like the words of the wicked which are a lie. There is no better certainty than the word of God.  What is His word to David and the rest of the godly? That God will preserve them from this wicked generation.  There is divine protection and salvation in the Word of God.

  Remember PS. 119:105 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path'  It is a light because the path is dark and dangerous and God's Word brings about protection from the evil along the way. If the Word of God, our Bible is not inerrant, we would not have the assurance of His divine protection as He has stated in His Word.

Trans: Not only is there divine protection found in the Word of God, we can become pure by His Word as well.

    B. Purity through the Inerrant Word of God
 1. Background
  Many Christians become frustrated because of personal failures in their spiritual lives. Some people do not want to go any further with the Lord and others do, but don't want to submit to God in a certain area. This area is almost always the area of purity, holiness.If you are a Believer, God's command to you is to be holy for He is holy.

 Now while we are pure and holy in Christ, there is a much needed practical aspect to our holiness and purity that God demands. And that is why, I believe, we have Ps. 119:9-16.

Read: Psalm 119:9-16

 2. How to be pure
  How can a man or woman keep his or her way pure? Isn't that one of the both frequent and frightening questions you ask yourself? Frequent because of our daily sin we are ever reminded of our lack of purity and holiness. Frightening because we fear what that implies and will mean to our lifestyles if we truly do desire to be pure.According to this passage, what is necessary for one to keep his ways pure? Way is a biblical metaphor for life.

How can we keep our lives pure?
a) By keeping it according to God's Word.

 By understanding that God's Word is the instruction book for life. The road map to the purity and holiness which God requires. When you face a moral decision such as...should I watch this movie or go to this place, my boyfriends been pressuring me, should I give in?The decision you make will affect your life, your purity and holiness before God and others. What will you do, what will influence your decision?

 The fear of getting caught or the shame of losing your purity, having someone find out, or knowing that God knows. Where will you go, what will you do? These are questions you face every day. Find help to make the right decision in the Word of God.Keep your way pure, by keeping it according to the Word of God.

How do we keep our lives pure
b) By seeking God with all your heart.

 Here we are talking about commitment. And this is where many Believers come up short. Yes, you go to church, maybe every week. Maybe you even serve on a committee or teach a class. But is God and His Word really first in your heart?
 Are you doing all that you can do to know more about God and His Word? Or do you think you know enough to get you by?
Be honest. We sang choruses and read Scripture about seeking the face of God. Well, we will find Him in the Word of God.

How do we keep our lives pure...
c) By treasuring God's Word in your heart.
 Let me ask you question. Would you rather watch your favorite 30 min. TV show for read the Word of God for 30 mins?
Many of you would probably say read God's Word but I bet many of you actually watch TV rather than read God's Word on a regular basis. Treasuring God's Word means that there is nothing more precious to you, nothing more desirous, nothing more pleasing, then the Word of God.

Psalm 119:72 'The law of Thy mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.'
Jeremiah 15:16 ' Thy words were found and I ate them, And Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart'

 Is God's Word precious, worth more to you than anything? We become pure when we treasure God's Word in our heart.

How do we  keep our live pure...
d) By rejoicing in what God's Word says.
 Not everything we read in Scripture will make us happy. We will see in the Bible what our real situation is before God. Pure and holy, clothed in the righteousness of Christ but stinking on in the inside. It is like our clothes are clean and downey fresh, but we haven't taken a bath in weeks.

 We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ but still sinful in our actions. That is the difference between our positional holiness before God and our practical holiness in life. We may not be happy but we ought to rejoice because God's Word says we are in Christ and then do something about taking a much needed bath by dealing with our sin according to the truth of God's Word.

How do we keep our live pure ...
e) By meditating on God's Word.
 Meditation takes time that we say we don't have.  We live such hectic lives that we don't have time for God. Maybe we quickly ready the Daily Bread before we go off to work for the day. But if that is all the Word of God you are getting, then you are malnourished. The Believer who desires to please God and be pure, the Believer who truly desires to have victory over sin in their lives will recognize that purity in life only comes from meditating and being obedient to the Word of God.

 And what is the result of these actions in the life of the Believer?

a) You will not wander or depart from the Word of God.
b) You will not sin against God.
c) You will be taught the statutes or truth of God's Word.
d) You will regard/pay attention to what God's Word says.
e) You will delight in God's Word
f) You will not forget the Word of God.

 Your life will be pure and holy and honoring to God and edifying to the body of Christ. Yes, God's Word produces purity in our lives when it becomes our life. If God's Word was not inerrant, we would not know how to be pure, holy and pleasing God.

Conclusion:
 It is often said in evangelical churches that Believers are well taught in the Scriptures, what they need now is to put that knowledge into action. Of course they are talking about evangelism. But, are knowledge and action really opposing forces as if the more you know Scripture the less you will want to share? Does that make sense? So the problem with evangelism or the lack of it is not that we know too much of the Bible, it's that we don't know enough of it to encourage us to share it with the lost and dying in the world around us.

 Place the blame where you will but I believe the Christian in the 21st century knows less about God's Word than those in earlier times.The biblical teaching on sin, the certainty of eternity in Hell apart from Christ, the character of God, the saving work of Jesus Christ on Calvary and the Spirit controlled life are only academic issues for some and far removed from the real world of others.With the world and now the church telling you that you can't really believe that everything in the Bible is true, is it any wonder we have such a low regard for God's Word.

 Folks, those first believers, in a physically hostile world and w/o all the Biblical helps we have, if they constantly devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles, are we to do any less? They believed that what the Apostles were saying was the very truth from God.

 But some Believers look back through history, through the eyes of the completed Scripture and still doubt the Word of God is entirely truthful.It seems many have regressed not progressed in their faith. God's Word is inerrant and totally true in all that it says. And it says that God's Word will deliver us from the pit of death and bring us to the throne of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son.It says that we can have daily victory over sin and that we are protected by God through His Word.

 But we have to live God's Word. To live God's Word we have to know it and to know it we have to read it and to read it we have to believe it...well, do you?

 Do you really believe it, that it is the very word breathed from the mouth of God?

 Inerrant, infallible and our ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice?