Sermons

S. R. Galatians 1:6-12

Introduction

1. Our theme is Back to Basics – Bible – God’s book about Himself
2. In order to adopt God’s character traits He must first reveal those to us.
3. How would you get to know the character of someone you have never met and is not accessible in person?
   1. Read his letters or memoirs.
   2. Read an autobiography or biography of his life.
   3. Interview his relatives and friends.
   4. Note how he interacted with others.
   5. Getting back to His autobiography:
4. How I interpret and apply the Scriptures will be determined by what I think about the Bible.
5. Bible is constantly under attack:
   1. Newsweek Magazine, December 23, 2014, So Misunderstood It’s a Sin. Kurt Eichenwald.
   2. “They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch. They are joined by religious rationalizers – fundamentalists who, unable to find Scripture supporting their biases and beliefs, twist phrases and modify translations to prove they are honoring the Bible’s words.”
   3. “This is no longer a matter of personal or private faith. With politicians, social leaders and even some clergy invoking a book they seem to have never read and whose phrases they don’t understand, America is being besieged by Biblical illiteracy.”
   4. Their lack of knowledge about the Bible is well established. A Pew Research poll in 2010 found that evangelicals ranked only a smidgen higher than atheists in familiarity with the New Testament and Jesus’s teachings. “Americans revere the Bible—but, by and large, they don’t read it,’’ wrote George Gallup Jr. and Jim Castelli, pollsters and researchers whose work focused on religion in the United States.
   5. Not debating the existence of God…Rather, document is designed to shine a light on a book that has been abused by people who claim to revere it but don’t read it,”
6. “It is only through accepting where the Bible comes from— and who put it together—that anyone can comprehend what history’s most important book says and, just as important, what it does not say.”
   1. This document affords us the opportunity to clarify what we believe and to learn what we do not yet know.
   2. Ignorance of the Bible is apparent to the unbeliever.
7. This is not a study in the transmission of the text: Science of Textual Criticism.
8. Newsweek article: Fallacious claims regarding the production of the New Testament text.
   1. It is true that the Bible “was written, assembled, copied and translated by people.”
   2. “It is possible to find out which parts of the Bible were not in the earliest Greek manuscripts.” (Newsweek)

Outline

1. What some people believe about the Bible. “It’s:
   1. “Got a lot of good in it, but…” not all of it is good or right.
   2. “Not to be trusted because…” it’s got a lot of mistakes. Thousands of scribal errors
   3. “From God but doesn’t apply for…” it was written for different people in a different time
   4. “Got something for everybody…”
   5. “Incomplete, so we must add…” just a few ideas from a few men
   6. “Impossible to understand…” God does not expect us to understand it, or interpretation is dependent upon personal, subjective background.
   7. “Not intended to be a law or rule…” General guidelines, not hard, fast rules
   8. “Symbolic – interpreted personally…” Not intended to be understood literally.
   9. Or, it is God’s will for us today. He expects us to read and obey.
2. The Bible Claims to Be:
   1. Inspired – God-breathed … the product of the creative breath of God. God is the author of every original word, man is simply the instrument of God’s speaking.
      Note: All quotes from ESV unless otherwise indicated
      1. 2 Timothy 3:14-16 “¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”
      2. 2 Peter 1:20-21“²⁰knowing 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.”
      3. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
      4. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13 “¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. ¹¹For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”
   2. Complete – There is nothing to be added to it, no revisions, or updates. To take from it makes it less than the truth, to add to it makes it a lie.
      1. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV)
      2. John 14:25-26; “²⁵"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But 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.”
      3. John16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
      4. 2 Peter 1:2-3 “²May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,”
      5. Jude 3 “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
   3. Authority – It is the (only) standard & pattern for pleasing God. It governs people’s lives. We must live by it because we will be judged by it.
      1. John 12:48 “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
      2. Galatians 1:6-12 Read from your Bible
      3. 2 John 8-9 “⁸Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. ⁹Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
      4. 2 Timothy 1:13 “Follow the pattern (Form, standard, Sketch for imitation) of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
      5. 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 “⁶I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. ⁷For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
      6. 1 Corinthians 4:17 “That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”
   4. Eternal – It was, is truth and will always be truth and relevant. Its authority, relevance, application, and reliability are timeless and enduring
      1. 1 Peter 1:23-25 “²³since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, ²⁵but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
      2. Hebrews 4:12-13 “¹²For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” The living word, skillfully and critically judges.
      3. Jude 3 “once for all delivered” (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12 and 10:10)
      4. John 12:48 “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
3. If the Bible makes such claims for itself, we have two choices:
   1. It is everything it claims to be and therefore, must be accepted as the infallible, absolute standard of God for man.
   2. Or, it is lying in its claims and therefore cannot be trusted in anything it says.
   3. Conclusion: So, what do you think about the Bible? How will you read and react to the Bible?
      1. “There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘man’s search for God’) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?” (C. S. Lewis).
      2. 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 “¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;”