Sermon Tone Analysis

“As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and 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.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

[1]

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man.

It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction.

It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true centre of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.

All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

[2]

The foregoing is the generally accepted view of the Word of God among Baptists.

Our lives are constrained by the Word of God.

We cannot go beyond what is written in Scripture.

By the same token, we dare not neglect that which God has revealed since it is a perfect revelation of the mind of the True and Living God.

Foundational for Baptist faith and practise is the authority of the Bible.

Though cognizant of traditions, we do not appeal to tradition for our faith and practise.

We look to the written Word of God.

It matters little what I may think, or what some other preacher may think, when formulating our faith and practise.

We must be guided by the sacred Scriptures, and when there is a question of how we should act or a question of what the will of God may be, we submit to the Word which He has given.

WHAT ARE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES?

When the Apostle drew this particular missive to a close, he pleaded with Timothy, the young theologue who pastored the Ephesian Church.

“When you come, bring … my scrolls, especially the parchments” [2 TIMOTHY 4:13].

When you come, bring tà biblía málista tàs membránas.

Bring tà biblía—the scrolls— málista tàs membránas—especially the parchments.

Two words are in view which must occupy our attention— tà biblía and tàs membránas.

The words likely refer to copies of the sacred Scriptures which the Apostle wished to have to read in his final days.

The books of the Bible were first written on scrolls made of animal skins, or more commonly, papyrus stalks wetted and beaten to form paper.

The pages would be pasted together, forming rolls which were wound around sticks forming a scroll.

As you read one column of print, the scroll was rolled onto the leading stick and the following stick would be unwound by one column.

It was difficult to carry around the scrolls due to their bulk and due to the extensive library of materials which composed the sacred writings.

Very early in the history of the churches, Christians began to cut the scrolls into strips—one column to each strip.

They then bound these strips together at the back, and this strange creation they called a biblíon—a Bible.

That is how we came to have what we recognise as modern books—Christians wanted a handy means allowing them to read the sacred writings.

The common name for those scrolls, and later for those bound copies of the sacred writings, has come into our language as identifying the Scriptures by the term Bible.

This is the Book; this is the Bible.

Therefore, the Apostle asked that Timothy bring the scrolls, but especially [málista] the Apostle wanted the parchments [tàs membránas].

This is a Latin word [membránas] which came into the Greek tongue.

Especially important writings, information which would be kept for long periods, were penned onto animal skins which had been scraped until they were smooth.

Today, historians would speak of such skins as vellum, but the Greeks borrowed a Latin word— membránas.

It is immediately obvious that we obtain our English word membrane from this Latin word.

We are reasonably certain that the Apostle was requesting copies of the Old Testament.

In our text, the Apostle refers to these texts as hierà grámmata—“sacred writings.”

Later, he will speak of “all Scripture” [pâsa graphā;] as being “breathed out by God” [theòpneustos].

The Scriptures are the sacred writings of the Faith.

They are those documents which we have received as being given through the intermediacy of the Spirit of God.

We understand the Scriptures to be a perfect revelation of the mind of God.

Later, Peter will struggle to explain his deep concern that believers understand all that God meant to communicate.

He speaks of his personal efforts to teach the full will of God.

So, he writes, “I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

Then he makes a bold assertion.

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” [2 PETER 1:12-21].

Peter testifies that the New Covenant constitutes eyewitness accounts.

The words of the Son of God were remembered and copied down, as John testifies.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” [1 JOHN 1:1-3a].

Moreover, Peter makes it clear that all which has been written and received as Scriptures were uncontaminated with human opinion.

“No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” That which was written originated in the will of God; and that which the various writers penned was superintended by the Spirit of God to ensure that precisely what God intended to be communicated was written.

This book is not simply another book; it is the revelation of the mind of God.

The Spirit of God so superintended those individuals who wrote Scripture so that what they wrote did not violate their own personality, and yet revealed precisely the truth God intended to convey.

As you read these books and letters, these songs and pithy sayings, you realise that the personality of the writers shines through.

Each of the writers is an individual, and the individuality of each is apparent as you read what each has written.

However, God’s Spirit superintended each writer to ensure that only that which was true and accurate would be revealed.

This is the reason we say that the Word of God is inerrant and infallible, and thus it is authoritative and true.

Therefore, where God speaks, we obey; and where God is silent, we enjoy liberty.

How did we receive our Bible?

Who determined what books should be included in the Bible?

What criteria were applied as books were selected for inclusion?

The answers to these questions will encourage us in study of the Word of God.

The Hebrews accepted the thirty-nine books which comprise the Old Testament as Scripture, believing that the Law (the Pentateuch) was given by Moses, the various Prophets wrote their inspired prophecies as God directed, and that the writings were given as God directed.

One exceptional argument for authenticity and accuracy is Jesus’ own Word.

He quotes the Old Testament, demanding acceptance of those writings as God’s Word.

Jesus repeatedly appealed to the writings of Moses from every book of the Pentateuch, thus authenticating what Moses wrote.

Moses wrote… Moses commanded… Moses said… These phrases were a constant refrain of the Master’s teaching.

Moses’ writings condemned the Jewish leaders.

Jesus warned, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words” [JOHN 5:45-47]?

We now have portions of the Old Testament Scriptures which are older than anything we have previously had available.

The Isaiah scroll is one such ancient text.

Written on beaten copper plate, this copy of Isaiah’s prophecy is over four hundred years older than any ancient Scriptural text previously available.

What is fascinating is that the text agrees substantially with that which has come down to us through the Masoretes.

That this is true is no great surprise to those familiar with the care with which the Masoretes prepared copies of the Jewish Scriptures.

As a page was written, the scribe would say a letter and copy that letter—one letter at a time.

He would then count the number of letters in a line, comparing what was written to that which was copied, and then he would count the lines on the page.

If the lines failed to have the same number of letters, or should the page have an inexact number of lines, the entire page was destroyed.

Should the writing have been on metal plate or vellum, of course the entire portion was destroyed.

Whenever the Name of God—the tetragrammaton—was encountered, the scribe was required to bathe and write the name with a new pen, which was then destroyed before proceeding to the next word.

The purpose of recounting these laborious steps is to demonstrate the great care that was taken to ensure that the Scriptures were copied precisely.

The Jewish scribes were convinced that what was written was the Word of God.

They were, therefore, cautious neither to subtract nor to add to that which God had given.

Thus, scholars are not in the least surprised at the accuracy of the transmission of the Hebrew Scriptures.

With respect to the New Testament Scriptures, the canon was not so much determined as it was accepted.

The books of the New Testament which were received as canonical were those which were either written by an Apostle or written under the supervision of an Apostle.

These were the books which were generally accepted among the churches as Scripture.

Can we trust the New Testament we have received?

We have available over five thousand ancient copies and portions of the New Testament, plus citations from multiplied church fathers who wrote throughout the early centuries in Greek and Latin primarily.

In addition to manuscripts in these languages, there are many ancient translations of the New Testament writings in a variety of ancient languages, including Latin, Coptic and Syrian, among other languages.