Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. Now today
the message will be taken from the book of 2nd Timothy chapter
3 beginning at verse 14. 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 14
and the title of the message is Why I Believe the Bible. Why I Believe the Bible. Now
what I'm doing in this message is beginning a series of messages
that I'm going to preach. And I don't know how many messages
it will take to do this, but the series is going to be on
the subject of how to interpret the Bible. How do you interpret
the scriptures? You know, there's so many different
views concerning what the Bible means in certain passages or
what it means as a whole. But people need to realize that
whenever we read the Bible, there are certain rules of interpretation
that are set up. Many times you might see a book
on how to interpret the scripture. And there's several, or you might
search the internet, I've done that. You'll see different lists
of different rules stated differently concerning how to interpret the
Bible. There may be as many as five rules, or as few as five
rules, or as many as, I saw one site that had 16 rules. Well,
I'm going to give you the rules that I use when I study the Bible. Many people ask me, say, well
how do you derive at what you preach, how you see certain passages
of scripture? And I have eight rules. of scriptural
interpretation. I'm going to list them for you
later. And what I'm going to do in these
messages is I'm going to preach either one or two messages on
these rules and show you examples of that. But I want to begin
this way. I wanted to begin by showing why I believe the Bible. because that's what we're talking
about. And in 2 Timothy chapter three and verse 14, listen to
what the apostle Paul writes to Timothy. Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to write this, so that this is the word of God.
And he says, but continue thou, this is verse 14, continue thou
in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a
child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Now the holy scriptures
are the written word of God. He says holy scriptures which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. And then he says all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. Now that word inspiration means
that this word is literally God breathed, like the breath of
God. So what we're talking about is
the verbally inspired word of God. So all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. Doctrine
is the teaching of scripture. It's the truth, the doctrines
of Christ. He says for reproof, The Bible
was written to show us what's wrong. That's what it means,
to reprove. We're going to point out what's
not correct. And of course, we could summarize
the whole issue of what the Bible tells us is wrong in that three-letter
word, sin, S-I-N. That's the problem. The Bible
teaches that we fell in Adam, we were ruined by the fall, were
born spiritually dead, and therefore have no hope of salvation by
our works and our efforts to keep the law. And then he says,
not only for reproof, but for correction. Correction has shown
us what is right. When it concerns the way of salvation,
what is right is salvation by the grace of God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, are doing, trying to do, or promise to do,
but totally by God's grace in Christ Jesus. The gospel is the
good news of how God saves sinners. how God justifies the ungodly,
based solely upon the blood, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's totally by his grace.
And then there are other things that the Bible teaches. And he
says, for instruction in righteousness, that's instruction in right doing
according to God's standard and view. He says in verse 17, that
the man of God, that's a sinner saved by the grace of God, a
justified person, one who is in Christ. He's in Christ, and
being in Christ, he's not guilty. In Christ, he's righteous, and
in Christ by faith, looking to and trusting Christ, that the
man of God may be perfect. The word perfect there means
to be complete. It means to be furnished, because
it says thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Now that's
the passage that I want you to consider on why I believe the
Bible. And I have three points that
I want to bring to you. Number one, I believe the Bible
because the Bible is the verbally inspired, inerrant word of God. The verbally inspired, inerrant
word of God. It's inspiration of God. It's God breathed. We sometimes,
as we study the scripture, we'll speak of the human authors of
the Word of God. And really, the term human author
is a wrong term when applied to the writers of the Bible.
Because they weren't the authors of these pages, these words. An author is one who creates
the words on the page. God is the author of the Bible. When we speak of the human writers,
what we should call them is the human instruments, which God
used to record his word. And every writer of the scriptures
would agree to that. But these words are verbally
inspired, they're inerrant. I used to think the Bible was
full of mistakes and contradictions. In fact, my high respect and
regard for the Bible, my love for the Bible, the word of God,
came not through a process of me just willing myself into the
kingdom of God or to love scripture. I was actually trying to prove
it wrong when God brought me by His grace to see how wrong
I was. So the Bible is the verbally
inspired word of God. It's in Aaron. Any contradictions
that men see in the Bible is not in the Bible, it's in their
natural mind. And we'll see, as we go through
some of the rules of scriptural interpretation, why that's true.
But listen to the words of the psalmist in Psalm 12, beginning
at verse six. He says, the words of the Lord
are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times, that number seven symbolizes perfection, completeness,
Verse 7 says, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve
them from this generation forever. So we could also say the Bible
is not only the verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God, it's the
eternal Word of God. So that's why I believe the Bible.
Here's the second reason. The second reason I believe the
Bible is the Bible is the book of salvation. Now you remember
Paul wrote to Timothy here, he said, and that from a child,
verse 15 of 2 Timothy 3, thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. The Bible is the book of salvation. And let me tell you something,
it's the only true book of salvation. And it's the book of salvation
because it always leads sinners who are lost in their sins, it
always leads sinners to Jesus Christ for all salvation, for
all forgiveness, for all righteousness, eternal life, and for all glory.
This is a book of Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, Old
Testament and New, this is a book that speaks of Jesus Christ.
Next week, I'm gonna deal with this passage in John chapter
five and verse 39, but let me just read it to you here. In
John chapter five and verse 39, the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking
to the Pharisees. Now you understand the Pharisees,
they were members of the strictest, most zealous sect of Judaism. They were super religious. They
read their Bibles and what they had was the Old Testament. and
they searched the scriptures. In fact, it says in John 5.39,
he said, search the scriptures. The construction of that in the
original language would read something like this, you do search
the scriptures. In other words, he's recognizing
that they read and studied their Bibles. The Pharisees were known
for reading the scriptures, memorizing it, discussing it, and as they
claimed, seeking to live by it. And Christ said, you do search
the scriptures. He said in John 5, 39, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me. And he said in verse 40, you
will not come to me that you might have life. The scriptures
is the book of salvation because it leads to Christ, Jesus Christ,
who himself is salvation. Every every book of the Bible
every chapter every verse ultimately Leads to Jesus Christ as the
only way of salvation back in Genesis chapter 3 the first proclamation
of the gospel after the fall in Genesis 3 15 was of the victory
of the seed of woman over Satan the seed of woman there is Jesus
Christ who was born of woman and You see, he was born of the
Virgin Mary without the aid of man, conceived in her womb by
the Holy Spirit of God. That's Jesus Christ. And that's
how it starts. And you remember when Adam and
Eve fell, they realized they were naked. And they got fig
leaves, sewed them together to cover their nakedness. Now, nakedness
in the Bible is a metaphor or a symbol of being exposed to
God's wrath, ashamed of God. Can you imagine standing before
God without righteousness? You say, in your shame. And they tried to clothe themselves
in fig leaf aprons. That's an emblem of man's religious
efforts to hide his sin, cover his sin. by his works. But you see, the problem is sin
is not just a outward problem, it's an inward problem. We cannot
cure the disease of sin. In fact, you can look at the
Bible this way. You can look at it as a book
of diagnosis. It diagnoses our sin problem. That's the reproof. But it also
gives the correct, how to correct the problem, the cure, you might
say. Remember, Christ is the great
physician. He's got the cure. He is the cure. Well, after Adam
and Eve in Genesis 3 sewed their fig leaf aprons together, what
did God do? Well, He pronounced the curse.
upon the serpent, upon the woman, upon the man, and then he took
an animal, killed that animal, shed its blood, and made them
coats of skin. What was he doing there? Well,
he was covering their nakedness, but all of that in the spiritual
realm has to do with Jesus Christ and the Lamb of God who was slain
for the sins of His people and by whose righteousness His people
are covered. That's the righteousness of God
freely imputed, charged, accounted to them and which by the power
of the Holy Spirit we receive by God-given faith when we come
to Christ. That's the way of salvation.
When the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John, He made this
statement in John 20 in verse 31. He said, but these are written,
these things that he wrote, they are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through His name. Listen to what John wrote
over in 1 John chapter 5, beginning at verse 10. He says, he that
believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave his Son, of his Son, and this is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. Now, where is that record? Where
is it recorded? that sinners are saved by the
grace of God based solely upon the blood, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's recorded in God's word.
This is the book of salvation. And my friend, this book of salvation
is so unique. There is no other way that you
find among men that even compares to what the Bible teaches about
salvation. Every way of man, every religion
of man, is in some way, at some stage, to some degree, by the
works or the will, what they call free will, of man. The Bible
doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches one way of
salvation. That's the way of the cross.
That's the way of the blood. It's the way of grace. It's the
way of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and raised again from the dead.
This is the only book that teaches salvation truly, solely, 100% by grace. So that's the second
reason. First, the Bible is the verbally
inspired, inerrant Word of God. That's why I believe it. Secondly,
it's the book of salvation because it's the book of Jesus Christ.
That's why I believe it. Thirdly, the Bible is the only
foundation of true faith. Now, if I were to ask you what
is the most fundamental truth of Christianity, what would you
say? Well, we would probably get several different answers.
Some might say, well, Jesus Christ and Him crucified and raised
from the dead. And that certainly is a fundamental
of the faith. You can't be a Christian and
not believe in Christ as He's identified and distinguished
in the Bible. His name that identifies Him
and distinguishes Him from all counterfeits, His name is salvation. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Some might say the gospel or
salvation by grace. Well, those are certainly fundamental
truths. But the most fundamental truth of Christianity is what
I said at the beginning, that the Bible is the verbally inspired
inerrant word of God. Therefore, it's the only foundation
of our faith. So I believe the Bible because
it's the word of God. I believe the Bible because it's
the book of salvation. And I believe the Bible because
it's the only foundation of true faith. Everything a true Christian
believes is founded upon the word of God in the Bible. Everything
I know about myself. And you know, you could think
about it this way. When we, you know, there's a lot of ways you
can reduce truth and try to summarize it and make it easier to understand.
We know the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. So he may hear what I'm saying, but he don't love it.
He doesn't believe it. He doesn't want it. But the Bible
teaches, now listen to this, the Bible teaches the absolute,
utter sinfulness and depravity of all men and women born of
Adam, all without exception. That we by nature and based on
our best works deserve nothing but condemnation and wrath. Many of you may know that I wrote
a book and did a series of messages on this program called What is
Salvation? And I called it a biblical study
of God's greatest gift. And one man reviewed the book,
and here's one thing that he said in his review, and I'm quoting
him. He said, some modern Christians may also be troubled by Parker's
insistence on biblical inerrancy and the overall idea that humanity
deserves damnation. Well, my friend, why do I believe
in biblical inerrancy? Well, the Bible itself speaks
of itself that way, and I've studied it. And then why do I
believe that humanity by nature deserves damnation? Because the
Bible says that. We quote it all the time. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages
of sin is death. Now, why would we quote that
and not believe that if God ever gave us what we deserved or what
we've earned, it would be damnation? My friend, that's it. The Bible
teaches the absolute utter depravity of man, meaning we don't have
righteousness, we can't make ourselves righteousness, and
we don't want righteousness God's way. We want it our way, that
exalts self. The Bible teaches, secondly,
that there's only one way of salvation, and that's Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and risen. The Bible teaches that God's
people are to follow Christ, not as legalists or mercenaries,
but as willing, loving bond slaves motivated by grace, love, and
gratitude. This is the foundation of faith. Now, that being the case, How
do we interpret this book? Well, I know there are so many
different views, as I mentioned earlier in the program. So many
different denominations. So many different doctrinal beliefs
and belief systems. And I want you to know there
are rules of interpretation. I want to give you a list of
those rules. I'm going to begin preaching on them next week.
Each one by one, I'll give you examples. Because as I said,
people ask me, how do I derive what I believe the Bible means?
Well, let me give you, there's eight rules that I wanna deal
with. And the first rule is what I call the rule of Jesus Christ
crucified and raised from the dead. The rule of Jesus Christ
crucified and raised from the dead. Now, you could state that
rule different ways. We could call it the rule of
the gospel. We could call it the rule of
grace. But what I'm saying here is this,
that this whole Bible, and I've already mentioned this, this
whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the book of Jesus Christ.
Somebody said that the red, the scarlet thread that runs through
this book from Genesis to Revelation is the blood of Jesus Christ.
One way of salvation. Jesus Christ. If you read this
scripture and do not ultimately find comfort and peace in the
glorious person and finished work of Jesus Christ, you've
missed it. That's what Christ said, they
are they which testify of me. Second rule is the rule of first
mention. Now that applies to concepts
and truths of the Bible. It doesn't apply to words now.
I've heard people try to apply that to words. They say, well,
wherever a word is first mentioned, it means that all the way through.
Not so. A word may mean one thing in
Genesis and another thing in Revelation. But the law of first
mention refers to the concepts of truth. For example, I mentioned
Genesis chapter 3, which establishes that the only way of salvation
for sinners is by God's grace based on the blood, the righteousness
imputed of Jesus Christ. That's first mentioned in Genesis.
It never changes throughout the scripture. There's never a time
when God says, now salvation is by works. And so whatever
you read, you have to understand salvation is by grace. Here's
the third rule. Call it the rule of simplicity.
Usually people will say, or interpreters will say, well that means that
the simplest understanding of a particular verse is always
the right one. And a lot of times that's true.
But what I mean by it is this. When we read the Bible, we're
praying that God will teach us out of His Word and that we do
not bring our own preconceived notions and jam them into His
Word. And so we just want to know what
God says. The rule of simplicity. The problem with the rule of
simplicity is that the fourth rule shows us, and that's the
rule of revelation, that it must be revealed to us by the Holy
Spirit. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And so, when we come to the Bible,
we must pray, God, reveal your truth to me. The fifth rule is
the rule of language. Now that rule has to do with
the definitions of words and phrases. What does that mean? When I read a word, what does
it mean? One of the words that I often
think of in line with that is the word propitiation. Have you
heard that term? What does propitiation mean?
Well, it means a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction. Christ is our propitiation. So
you have the rule of language. Sixth rule, you have the rule
of context. Words, phrases mean different
things within different contexts. You have the context of a verse,
the context of a chapter, or a book of the Bible. You have
the context of the whole Bible. One thing I know is that you
have to understand who's talking, who they're talking to, and what
they're talking about. the context. And we'll see that. I used to joke sometimes that
the three main rules of interpretation are number one context, number
two context, and number three context. And context is important. So many people will take words
and verses out of their context. And it's even been known that
people have even tried to form a whole denomination based upon
a misinterpretation of a word or a phrase or a verse out of
context. So you have the rule of context.
The seventh rule is the rule of comparison. Scripture interprets
Scripture. Compare the Scripture with the
Scripture, the verses. And the eighth rule is the rule
of typology. There are types, there are pictures
in the Scripture. The Lamb that was slain back
in Genesis 3.21, that was a type, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. So when
we go through this, we'll see symbols, we'll see symbolic language,
we'll see all of that as we learn how, why I believe the Bible.
Well, I hope you'll join us next week for another message from
God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.