"God's Book for God's People"

Sermon Transcript for September 24, 2000

By Rev. Mike Beck

Scripture Reading: II Timothy 3:14-17

 

Let’s pray together. Lord, thank you for the way in which you’ve just spoken to us. Your Holy Spirit has touched our lives through the beauty of Sarai and Debbie’s music. We thank you for that. We want to know you, Lord. And one of the ways you’ve allowed us to do that is through the pages of your Word. So help us, Lord, as we focus on this subject today that we might understand more fully how you desire to speak to us. Then help us, Lord, to open its pages to allow that to take place. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together now be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, you who are our help and our redeemer. Amen.

We continue today a sermon series that will actually continue over the next nine months, as we look at the thirty basic doctrines being studied in the new "Christian Believer" series. Last week we spoke of the ways in which God reveals Himself to us. One of those being through the pages of Scripture. Many of you like me may have learned as a little child the chorus, "The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E."

Scripture is to hold a central place in our individual lives and in the life of the church. And in today’s message I’d like to revisit a series of sermons that was preached a little over two years ago. We’d also like this morning to experiment a little bit with our 9:30 a.m. crowd. We’re going to put the sermon points on the screen this morning. You then let us know if that is helpful to you or if that is distracting to you. Our desire is to communicate God’s truth. We don’t plan to use the screen extensively in this service but we’re going today, because of the nature of this message, to try it out on you.

Let’s begin with an attempt at a couple of definitions. First of all, to try to come up with a definition of the Bible. Let me suggest this one. God’s revelation of Himself to human kind through inspired written accounts of God’s acts in human history. We often speak of the Bible as one book, which it is. But it is also a collection of 66 individual books by numerous authors over a period of over 1,000 years in their writing. In the pages of these books, I would suggest we find five major themes.

1. Pages of Scripture are designed to reveal to us the character and nature of God.

2. As we read through Scripture, we find that God desires to be in relationship with His    people.

3. In many, many of the stories of Scripture we find repeatedly the problem of sin.

4. Through, in the Old Testament, what we called the old covenant--wrapped up in the

law--and then in the New Testament, what we will celebrate next week at World-Wide Communion, the new covenant of forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, we find God’s plan to restore the relationship broken by sin.

5. We find throughout the pages of Scripture the necessity of faith.

In our text for today, we speak of the Bible as being "inspired" by God. Now, what do we mean by that? Let me suggest humbly this simple definition. To use the words of the New International version, it says the pages of Scripture are "God-breathed" in contrast to simply being a collection of "our best thoughts about God". That’s philosophy where we come up with our best thoughts about God. But within the Christian church, we believe the Bible is not just an ordinary book.

But having said that, let me point out that it is not the Bible that saves us. It is possible for very devoted Christians to be guilty of what I would call "Bibliolatry". In other words, they begin to worship this Book. But, friends, this book is not the center of my faith. God is to be at the center of our faith! The Bible is not an end in itself. Rather this book is designed to point us to Jesus Christ in whom we find salvation.

This brings us to a further discussion of the purpose of scripture. And allow me to list three things here.

1. The accounts of Scripture are designed to awaken faith within the reader. Faith is a gift of God but the Bible tells us that faith comes through reading the Word, through hearing the Word, and through the preaching of the Word. So one focus of this book is to awaken faith.

2. The Bible is intended to guide us in our daily lives. That happens as we open the pages of this book to read them and we begin to apply the hundreds of promises in Scripture to our lives. It happens as we begin to find ourselves in the story of Scripture. How often have you had the experience of facing some kind of crises or decision in your life? In your daily devotions you open up the Bible and it’s as if, in the words you are reading that day, God let out of the pages to give His guidance to you.

3. We need to keep in mind, though, that the Bible is not primarily for information, but rather for transformation. Let me repeat that. The Bible is not primarily for information, but for transformation. I could memorize every word in these pages, but if my life is not impacted through it, what good has it done me? The Scripture does not, my friends, bear witness to itself. Rather this Book is a means to an end. It points us to the God who is in the transformation business. What I’m holding in my hand is not a science book. It is not a philosophy book. It is not primarily even a history book. Rather the pages of divine Scripture that I hold in my hand are pages for transformation of my life that I might become more like my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the world’s best-selling book, but perhaps it is also the world’s most mis-used book. For that reason, let me suggest some cautions in reading Scripture. Let me suggest four of them.

1. Be on guard against extreme literalism. I turned on one of the Christian TV stations this week and saw a man passionately arguing that the days in Genesis 1 and 2 had to be 24-hour days. And I wanted to say, "Buddy, get a life. Quit misusing the book I love so much." Because if you read the accounts in Genesis 1 and 2, lay them up against the other creation accounts of a similar vein, it’s like comparing springs of living water to a cesspool. But what was important to him was that it had to be a literal 24-hour day. Be on guard against this little cliche. "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." I wish it were that easy. You take the Bible literally and it will back you into some corners of which there is no escape. Dr. Ken Kinghorn, one of my professors in seminary, was so helpful to me one day with this quote. He says, "I cannot take every word of the Bible literally. But, I do take it very, very seriously."

2. Be aware of the cultural context when reading Scripture. We believe within the Christian faith that the writers of Scripture were inspired. But that doesn’t mean that they were just mechanical pawns in the hands of God. Every writer brings their own unique personality to their writings. They are influenced by the cultural context of their day. If you want an example of this, let me just go back to the book preceding the one we read from this morning, to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2 where Paul says, "I want women to dress modestly with decency and propriety. Not with braided hair." Okay, I’m alright pretty much so far. "Or gold, or pearls or expensive clothes." Now, friends, if we don’t take cultural context into account, all of you ladies with gold or pearls on this morning or with a dress over, let’s say $150, needs to leave now because this is what the Scripture says to us. Or how about this one, if we go down a little further. "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man. She must be silent in the church." There’s some cultural context behind those words. If I take those words literally, I’d better go down the hallway right now and fire most of our Sunday School teachers. Be aware of cultural context.

3. Be on guard against proof-texting when using the scriptures. What do I mean by that? Let me answer it briefly. Selected verses taken out of context and strung together, I would suggest, you can prove any position you desire! Take isolated versus out of Scripture, throw away their context and string them together, and you can prove about anything you want to prove. Which is why, as we read Scripture, we must look for the "big themes" that run throughout the pages of Scripture.

4. Be cautious about turning the Bible into a book of rules. Be cautious about turning the Bible into just a book of rules. Now, hear me carefully. Without question, the Bible provides us a design for how we are to live our lives. Yet it is not a simplistic reference book to cover every situation or circumstance in life. If you’ll remember, the Pharisees tried to use it that way. And they received Jesus’ harshest criticism. And He said, "Your turning faith in God into only a matter of keeping the rules when the most important thing you’ve forgotten about is the relationship." For you see, the Bible is not so much just a rulebook. Perhaps it is better to say, more than anything else, it’s a love story of God’s love for you and for me.

And then, finally, what do we mean when we say the Bible is the "Word of God"? That’s an extremely important, but also an extremely difficult question to answer because well-devoted Christians will answer that question with differing definitions. So what about the interpretation and authority of Scripture? John Wesley spoke of himself as a man of one book. But nothing could have been further from the truth. Wesley read exhaustively. He reflected on all kinds of subject matter. But what Wesley meant by his statement, "I’m a man of one book", is where his authority was found. Within the United Methodist Church we often talk about what is called the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral".

1. In other words, first of all we have the pages and words of Scripture that the Bible says. But then as we seek to understand that we use three other things.

2. We use, secondly, tradition. What has the church taught concerning this for the past 2000 years.

3. We don’t throw our minds away. We use our reason, our intellect.

4. We bring to the Scripture life’s experiences.

We believe that all of those things are helpful and ought to be used in interpreting Scripture. And having said that, we do not believe that all four of those things are equal in their authority. Each has their place, but when "push comes to shove" in matters of interpretation, the words of Scripture ought to be our final authority for matters of faith and action. Our challenge to us as believers today is to hold to the authority of Scripture, but to do it in a manner where we remain persons of grace.

I am sometimes asked the question, "Reverend Mike, do you believe persons of other religious faith are going to make it to Heaven?" I seek to answer that question this way. I say first of all that my Bible teaches that "God is merciful and just". And that I believe God will deal with all persons in a manner that is consistent with God’s nature. Perhaps there is some way in which Jesus is "the way" for persons of other faith. But if you push me into a corner on that issue, I must finally answer the question, "Is everybody going to make it to heaven?" I have to answer that question, "No". Why? Because this book is my final authority--not political correctness or what I might "like" or "reason" to be the truth. And on this issue, my Bible says these troubling things: "There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is death." It says of Jesus, "I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father but through Me." And the last words of Jesus were, "Go and make disciples of all nations teaching them everything I have commanded you." Why in the world, I must ask, would Jesus say that if every religious faith were equally valid? In "working out my faith", I have a choice to make in terms of what will be my final authority. I can make human reason or the latest theology or philosophy my authority. But to use the words of Jesus, that ground seems awfully shaky! Or, and not in an overly simplistic way, I can let this book by my authority.

The Bible is indeed "God’s Book for God’s people". It has endured for thousands of years. It has transformed millions of lives. Countless persons have died to see it preserved. And in every time of renewal within the church, you will find a priority placed on the Word of God. But the Bible can only accomplish it’s purpose if it is opened and read. Are you doing that?

I close with these words from Alan Richardson; "A cloud of witnesses in every Christian century bears unanimous and unbroken testimony to the fact that God speaks to men through the Bible. The only thing required of those who would hear is that they should come to their study of the Bible in an attitude of expectancy, that they should read it in a spirit of prayer. He that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. This is a truth which has been confirmed over and over again in the prayerful and expectant approach of Christians to their Bible; had it not been proved true, Christianity would long ago have perished as an imposture and the biblical promises would have been discredited long before the twentieth century. The trouble with most of us is that we do not come really expecting to hear and to receive: the law of the spiritual world abides, "Be it unto you according to your faith."