Word of Salvation – Vol. 29 No. 07 – February 1984

God Has Spoken

Sermon by Rev. S. Voorwinde, v.d.m. on 2Peter 1:20,21

(Belgic Confession Art.3)

Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:97-112; 2Peter 1:16-21

Suggested Hymns: 183; 246; 246; 317; 251; BoW.702

Over the last few Sunday evenings together we have considered something of the might, the vastness and the wisdom of God.  We have seen it in the grandeur of the forests, the majesty of the mountains and the distance of the stars, which are billions of miles or thousands of light years away.  We have heard God speak through creation.

But the Creator of the furthest star has also spoken in another way.  He has spoken through His written Word which today we can carry around in our hip pockets.  Now just think of the marvel of it for a moment.  We learn about God as we consider the mountains, the oceans and the stars, but we learn far more about Him in that little Book that we can hold in one hand.  As the Confession says, "He makes Himself more clearly and fully known to us" by the Bible than in any other way.

Even as man-to-man communication Scripture is superb.  It is the most widely read book of all time.  It has been translated into every major (and almost every minor) language.  The Bible has an equally strong appeal to nuclear physicists and Inca Indians.  It is indeed God's Word to man.

But now we must ask the question: How did we get God's Word?  How did the infinite, eternal God of the universe undertake to communicate to mankind on Planet Earth?  How did the Creator bridge the communication gap between Himself and His sinful fallen creature?  Of course, He did it in several ways, but when it comes to written communication the clearest answer to this question is found in our text: 2Peter 1:20,21.  "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

Here are a couple of verses speaking very explicitly about the origin of Scripture and they deserve our careful attention.  So let's have a close look at these two verses - first verse 20 and then verse 21.

Now immediately as we look at verse 20 we are faced with a problem.  In the RSV it says that "no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation."  What does this mean?  Does it mean that you cannot interpret Scripture without the aid of the Holy Spirit?  That is true, but is that what our text is saying?  I would venture to say not.  Our text is not about the interpretation of Scripture, but about the origin of Scripture.  And that's the whole thrust of Peter's argument beginning in verse 16: "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...!"

The teaching of the apostles was not some human fabrication, but it stood on a par with the prophecies of the Old Testament, and those prophecies did not originate with man, but with God.  Now the same was true when Peter taught his readers about the second coming.

So that's the gist of Peter's argument in this passage.  His teaching, just like Old Testament prophecy, comes from God.  He is not talking about the interpretation of Scripture, but about the origin of Scripture.  So the word "interpretation" is a rather unfortunate and confusing translation in verse 20.  Personally I think that the sense if best conveyed by "The Living Bible": "No prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself."  That's what the verse means – the prophet didn't make it up.  His prophecy wasn't the product of human imagination.

Now what is stated negatively in verse 20 is said positively in verse 21: “...because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."  That's how God's Word came to us in the Bible – “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

These men were moved, controlled, impelled, carried along by the Holy Spirit.  They were like a ship carried along by the wind.  The prophets raised their sails, so to speak; and here we shouldn't think too narrowly of just prophets predicting the future, but we should have in mind all the Bible writers (the historians, poets and apostles).  They raised their sails – they were obedient and receptive and the Holy Spirit filled them and carried their craft along in the direction He wished.  Men spoke: God spoke.  The words of men were the very words of God: “....men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

And we have a special word for this process.  We call it inspiration: the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture.  Now what do we mean by this term, "inspiration"?  Well, there are three leading views that try to help us get at the meaning of this mystery of inspiration.

First, there is the dictation view.  The Holy Spirit simply dictated to them what He wanted written.  You can imagine them like glorified stenographers with their headphones on; they were getting heavenly messages and they were writing it all down furiously.  Or they were just like tape-recorders, with the Holy Spirit doing all the talking.  But this view makes it all very mechanical and it hardly does any justice to the real personal involvement of the human authors.  It eliminates the human factor.

Second, there is the dynamic view, which cancels the divine dimension of the Bible.  The Bible writers were inspired in the sense that Shakespeare was inspired.  The Bible is great religious literature written by pious men with valuable insights.  It ranks high among the masterpieces of human literature, but that is all.  This second view eliminates the divine factor.

Then, thirdly, there is the organic view of inspiration.  It confesses the Bible as fully and truly divine and at the same time fully and truly human.  God used the human writers with all their varied backgrounds, personalities and insights.  He revealed His Word in their words under the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit.  The inspiration of the Bible still remains a mystery, but we won't go far wrong if we remember that the Bible is both a divine and a human book totally divine and totally human.

So the Bible is unique in that it has a double authorship.  It comes to us as the Word of God in the words of men.  In this sense the Bible is like Jesus Christ the incarnate Word of God.  He was 100% God and 100% man.  In the same way the Bible is 100% divine and 100% human.  We can't understand that and yet it is true, and the Bible writers themselves talk about it in a most natural way.  We see it for example in the way the New Testament writers introduce quotations from the Old Testament: "....which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet... (Matthew 1:22); "David himself said in the Holy Spirit...." (Mark 12:36); "The Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah" (Acts 28:25).  In other words, what the prophet said, the Lord said; what Isaiah said, the Holy Spirit said.  And from this comes the inevitable conclusion that what the Scripture says God says.

"What the Scripture says, God says" – not merely what God said long ago, but what He still says.  It's not what He says to men in general, but what He says to each individual reader or hearer in particular.  In other words, Holy Scripture should be thought of as God preaching; God preaching to me every time I read or hear any part of it.  As Dr. J. I. Packer has said: "It's God the Father preaching God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit.  God the Father is the giver of Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author and interpreter of Scripture" ("God has Spoken", p.97).  So perhaps the title to my sermon isn't entirely correct.  It's not so much that God has spoken, as that God is speaking!

Now the question is: Are you listening?  As Reformed Christians I am sure that we would all agree that the Bible is the Word of God (from cover to cover); that Christ is its theme; that it has been written for our salvation.

But if we believe all of this do we give it the attention that it deserves?  Do we read it as much as we should?  Do we know it as well as we might?  On some days we read the newspaper more than we read the Bible – even though the Bible has been valid for thousands of years, whereas in a week's time we often use the newspaper only for wrapping garbage.

We have high beliefs about the Bible in our circles, but do our everyday habits really match our beliefs?  When we get to heaven there may be some people who we'll be a trifle embarrassed to run into; what if the prophet Obadiah came up to you and said: "Well, what did you think of my little book?"  Or what if Jude came up to you and asked you for your opinion about his letter?  Or if Philemon wanted to know how you felt about the letter he received from the apostle Paul?

Now I'm using my imagination rather freely, but I wonder what kind of answers you would give to these questions?  In other words, how well do you know your Bible which you believe to be the actual words of Almighty God?  Let's read it and study it and memorize it.  If I may quote again from Dr. Packer who says: "....a professed Christian who is able to dig into the Bible but neglects to do so, casts doubt on his own sincerity; for inattention to Scripture is right out of character for a child of God." (p.14).

Perhaps someone may argue: Why all the fuss about reading the Bible?  Isn't living the Christian life what really counts?  Yes, living the Christian life is definitely what counts.  But the question is: How do you learn this except by looking into the source of information on what the Christian life is all about?  One way of looking at the Bible is to see it as the rudder for your Christian life.  It gives you the direction that you need and it enables you to get to your destination.

Let me just illustrate this by telling you about an actual event that happened during World War II.  In the early years of the war the Nazis had a battleship the Bismarck, which was considered to be the most powerful fighting ship ever built by man.  She was considered unsinkable because of a honeycomb of watertight compartments below her decks.

On the afternoon of May 21, 1941, the Bismarck was sighted by a British reconnaissance plane in the North Atlantic.  Immediately, ships from the Royal British Navy sped to the scene.  The Bismarck was attacked first by the H.M.S. Hood, Britain's largest warship.  In ten minutes the Hood was headed for the bottom of the sea, a victim of the Bismarck's awesome firepower.  As the Bismarck headed South past the British Isles, she was attacked by British torpedo bombers, but apparently the torpedoes had little effect.  More British ships were closing in.  It was obvious the Bismarck was trying to make a port on the French coast that was held by the German army.  Then, to everyone's astonishment, the Bismarck suddenly swung around and re-entered the area where the British ships were massed in greatest strength.  At the same time she began to steer a haphazard, zigzag course.  British naval officers could think of only one explanation.  A torpedo had damaged her rudder after all.  The British Navy closed in with everything it had, and because she lacked a rudder, the "unsinkable" Bismarck was sunk.  Well, brothers and sisters, the application is obvious.  You may have a lot of ability that could be used for Christ, but if your rudder is out of commission you could end up being "sunk".  The Bible is the rudder of the Christian life and without it you lose your direction, and you may run aground on the rocks of apathy, doubt and indifference.  The Christian life cannot be lived without the regular study of Scripture anymore than a ship can get anywhere without a rudder.

If your Christian life is going to get somewhere, there is no substitute for regular, daily study of Scripture.  You can't "cut corners" by thinking that a couple of good sermons a week will make up the difference.  No amount of sermonising from the pulpit, no matter how inspiring or instructive it might be, will make up for your personal lack of regular Bible reading.

God has spoken, or rather God is speaking: are you listening?  Are you obeying?

If you are, then you will really learn what it means to enjoy your Bible.  The 119th Psalm was written by someone who knew what that was all about.  Twelve times he says that God's message was a joy and delight.  Eleven times he says that he loves it.

Bible-reading is not a chore to be endured, but a pleasure to be enjoyed!

Why?  Because it directs us to Christ!  The written Word of the Lord leads us to the living Lord of the Word.  The more we read, the more we learn; and the more we obey the Bible, the better we get to know Christ, and the better we get to know Christ the deeper our joy!

Amen.