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Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.
We have the Bible, God's Word, in written form. How could men write that much material without making some mistakes or leaving out something that is important? That's a question that a lot of people have. The answer to that question is inspiration.
The apostles and prophets put God's Word in written form as the need arose and guided by the Holy Spirit.
They would write letters to individuals and to churches, usually dealing with some problem or giving some instruction about certain things. And as each of these writers wrote, and they gathered their material, and these books circulated, they soon were gathered up so that they became one complete book. And as many try to find fault with parts of the Bible, they'll talk about mistakes, and they'll talk about errors, or they'll talk about Paul's opinion or some things like that.
They don't understand the power of God in inspiring men to write correctly. I want to read today several passages about the inspiration of the Bible and explain what the Bible is talking about when it says that the Bible is inspired. In John 14, 26, Jesus made this promise to the apostles, and I want to read it to remind us as we start this great subject.
He said in John 14, 26, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Jesus said this to his apostles on the night when he is going to be betrayed. He is preparing them for the fact that he's going to be gone, but I'm going to give you a Helper.
That Helper is the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit will guide you and direct you. He goes on in that same conversation that's recorded in John 16, beginning in verse 7, but I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.
For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come.
Notice several things in here. Jesus was ready to leave his apostles. He's going to die.
He buried, he resurrected the third day, and after 40 days of sin into heaven. They were sad about that, but he said, I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. I'm going to give you a helper, and that helper was the Holy Spirit.
And he said he'll remind you of everything that I've taught you. And you think about the challenge of remembering. Jesus associated with the apostles basically day and night for three years.
He talked to them all the time. It probably would be humanly impossible to remember everything that he said. But he said, the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind all that I've said to you.
And he'll also show you some things that are going to come, that I've had some things to tell you, but you're not able to bear them now. But when he comes, he will deliver those things to you, and that he will guide you into all truth. Now, that process of being guided by the Holy Spirit, as the apostles and prophets wrote, is called inspiration.
Now, technically speaking, inspiration, the Greek word means God breathed. God breathed. In other words, God was breathing through these men, the words that he wanted them to receive and to write down.
Now, the unique thing about all this is God let every person write in his own style. Paul wrote like Paul, and John wrote like John. Paul was an educated man.
And when you read his Greek, you can see that. John was a very simple fisherman. He used simple vocabulary, and you can see that as you read his material.
But God directed both men using their personalities and their vocabulary to convey the message that he wanted them to convey. We may not fully understand just how that happened, but we'll read some passages that help us to explain it and how that God did guide and direct these people in the writing of the material they wrote. I want us to read a familiar verse, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.
And this declares what inspiration is or the extent of inspiration. He said, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I want us to particularly note the accomplishment of inspiration so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
That's what inspiration did. God had a message for us. He wanted to make sure that it was recorded accurately.
So he chose apostles and prophets to be the ones who would write it down. But he gave them the Holy Spirit to guide their writing and to make sure that it was correct. I want us also to look at a couple of passages that explain some of this.
2 Peter 1, 20 and 21 deals with inspiration, tells us a little bit about how it worked. He said, but know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will.
But men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God. Notice this. Notice the very first statement.
No prophecy of scripture, you might say no scripture, is a matter of one's own interpretation. Now when he used the word interpretation, he's not talking about us interpreting it. He's talking about the writer.
That writer that wrote it down did not take the events of the day and interpret them and write a message about it. No, that message did not come through that man's own interpretation. But how did it come? He explained.
But man, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God. Men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God. This word, moved, tells us a great deal.
It is the word that was used to describe a sailboat sailing on the sea. That sailboat does not go by its own power. That sailboat moves because the wind moves that boat.
And so it is with inspiration. The man is the boat. The Holy Spirit is moving that man to write the message that God wants revealed.
Again, God allowed each man to write in his own style using his own vocabulary. But at the same time did not allow that man to put into place anything that the Spirit did not accept. And so the man is writing the message of God, but not using his own knowledge and ability, but writing the message using his own vocabulary to convey the message of God.
He is moved just as that sailboat is moving along. I want us now to look at 1 Corinthians 2, 6 through 13. Here, Paul explains about inspiration.
He's writing to the Corinthian church, and he says, yet we do not speak wisdom among those who are mature. And wisdom, however, not of this age, nor the rulers of this age who are passing away. Notice that he said, we speak wisdom.
But he said, it's not human wisdom. It's not because Paul was a smart man, and Paul was educated by the rabbis, and that Paul had great education, and therefore he sat down to write a great message. No, he said, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature.
And wisdom, however, not of this age, not for man, nor the rulers of this age who are passing away. Verse 7, but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. God's wisdom, but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery.
And he said, it had been hidden before. There are a lot of things that God did not want revealed until the time was right. One of those things was about how the Gentiles were going to be saved.
And God did not reveal that clearly until the time was it. So there's some things that God, in a sense, kept hidden until the time was right. Now, let's continue reading what he said.
And he gives an illustration about God hiding a message. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, where if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Think about that. He said, the rulers of this age, they didn't understand, or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. What did the leading Jews and the Romans think they were doing when they killed Christ? We're breaking this up.
We're destroying this movement before it ever gets started. We can look at Psalm 2, which is that Messianic Psalm about that event taking place. And it said, God laughed.
He's not laughing because his son died. It is a grin or a smile that says, you're doing exactly what I need for you to do. When they kill Christ, they put into effect God's plan of saving man.
Had they not killed Christ, we would still be lost in our sins. And so you see, he said, this was a mystery that God kept hidden. The rulers of this age did not understand it, but they were fulfilling God's will.
And he goes on to say in verse nine, but just as it is written, things which I has not seen and the ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. They didn't understand all the details as to how God was going to express that love and save mankind. Now then, Paul began to explain about inspiration.
For to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. Remember what we read in John 16, that the Holy Spirit was going to guide the apostles and prophets. And so he says to us, that is those inspired men, God revealed them through the Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, even the depth of God. He said, this didn't come from our Spirit. This came from the Holy Spirit.
And he said, just to remind us, that the Holy Spirit knows the depth of God, because the Holy Spirit is God. And then he goes on in verse 11 to say, for who among men knows the thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? Or he's going to give an illustration. And that illustration is, nobody really knows what goes on inside of a man's mind, except that person himself.
And so he's going to apply this to God. Nobody knows the mind of God, except the fact that the Holy Spirit was going to reveal the mind of God. And so that's his illustration.
And now his application, verse 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. See, again, he denies, it's not human spirit.
It's not my knowledge. It's not my understanding. It's not what I've learned in school.
But he said rather, it's the spirit. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God, no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit, Holy Spirit, who is from God.
Why? So that we may know the things freely given to us by God. That's how we know the mind of God. The Holy Spirit revealed it to the apostles and prophets for them to write it down and to guide them as they wrote.
And then he goes on to describe how detailed it is. Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Notice the degree of inspiration.
He said, which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but words taught by the Spirit. It's not the idea that God gave Paul some kind of idea and he let him develop it as he thought best. No, God guided the very words that Paul wrote, or that James wrote, or that John wrote.
It's not thought inspiration, it's word inspiration. And that's the reason technically speaking this is called verbal, plenary inspiration. Verbal means every word.
Plenary comes from a Latin background that means full. So what we're saying when we say verbal, plenary inspiration is to say every word is inspired. And plenary, not anything has been left out.
It's full. It's complete. Nothing to be left to the imagination.
And so he says, then we compare spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. We can see this illustrated when Paul makes an argument in Galatians 3 and verse 16, when he said, and he saith not unto seeds as of many, but unto thy seed, which is one, which is Christ. You see, inspiration is to the point that if a word is singular, that's what God meant.
If a word is plural, that's what God meant. Inspiration is to the very word, the exact word. If it's male or female, that's the word or sex that God's intended when he wrote that word.
And then he goes on to say, but a natural man does not accept the thoughts of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. The natural man is the uninspired apostles and prophets. They don't have that power to do this.
And so as we see this, we can appreciate how the Bible came to us and why Paul could say to say to Timothy, all scripture is inspired of God and is proffered for doctrine, for a proof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly finished, under all good work. Inspiration is a valuable tool that God used to guide his people, the apostles and prophets, to deliver us the message he wanted us to have. And I want to assure you we have God's word completely and accurately.
Nothing's been left out. There are no mistakes. I want to close by reading 1 Peter 1, 22 and 23.
Peter said, since you have an obedience to truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God. Think about that, the living and enduring word of God.
We've had the New Testament in written form for almost 2,000 years. What a blessing. God gave us that word, protected that word, and we hold that word of God in our hand when we hold that Bible in our hand.
Let's be thankful for inspiration and what it can do for us at the trust we have in the Bible. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and Lightway Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible.
If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center. You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit LightwayMedia.com slash meditating on the word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study.
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Until next week, keep meditating on the word.