THE INSPIRED, PRESERVED WORD
By Dr. Jeffrey J. Fugate
Bible Text:
John 1:1-3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”
II Timothy 3:16
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:”
I believe that I have a copy of the inspired, preserved Word of God in my hand. I want you to know why I believe that. I want you to know why you believe that. I don't want you to believe it because I do. I want you to believe it because the facts, truths and proofs are available. I want you to be able to give an answer. It's not good enough to say, "Well, I believe it because the old-timers believed it." That's a good reason to study it and know it, but you don't have to worry about proving God, His Spirit or His Word. The more you study it, the more proof you know that He is God and this is His Word.
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:14 says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..." This is the Lord Jesus Christ here, "...(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." II Timothy 3:14-15 says, "But 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." I want you to notice that he didn't say, "Now that you are a Bible scholar you know the Bible is the Word of God." He said, "You knew the Bible was the Word of God when you were a child." I'm tired of folks saying, "Well, if you don't know the Hebrew and the Greek, you can't know the Bible." Don't believe that. Don't believe that at all. Paul said, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." II Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." That is a very powerful statement about the Bible right there, "...and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect..." That word "perfect" there means "complete". When a little baby is born and you say the body was perfect, what does that mean? That meant all of its fingers, toes and every part of the body was there. It was perfect, or it was complete. "That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
Every institution of life has a foundation or has a final authority. Actually, every activity that we do in life is based on something that we believe in our hearts and in our minds. For example, when I say that America was founded as a Christian nation on the principles of the Word of God I mean that our founding fathers took the Word of God as their final authority for their decisions and directions of life. Let me go further than that. There have been several cases where the United States Supreme Court has said and concluded in their writings that America is a Christian nation. Those conclusions were based on the fact that America was founded on the Scriptures, the Word of God. After doing a study of our founding documents beginning with the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the influence of the Ten Commandments on America, the United States Supreme Court declared in writing that the United States was in fact a Christian nation. The very Ten Commandments are engraved on the walls of the Supreme Court building.
I began by saying that every institution of life has a foundation or has a final authority. One of the ways America is being hurt today is by the chipping away or the redefining of the Constitution of the United States. There are those that say that the Constitution is a document that evolves and so there are judges that say they determine what the Constitution says rather than upholding the Constitution. I don't believe that the work of the judge is to interpret the Constitution. I believe it's their responsibility to uphold the Constitution. By the way, the Constitution of the United States never gives a right that supersedes the Word of God. If you believe that it does, then you know nothing of American history prior to that of 1890 or 1900. If you knew American history before that, you would understand that the Constitution never gives a right that supersedes the Word of God. The liberty that it speaks of is liberty that is within the bounds of the Word of God. For example, the Constitution gives no right to abortion. That is outside the limits and the laws. The Constitution gives no special rights to sodomy. Why? It doesn't because sodomy is outside the bounds of the Word of God. The Constitution was highly and most influenced by the Word of God.
When I say that this church is founded upon the very Word of God, I mean that all of our practices, beliefs, and behavior are based on the words and the truths of the Bible. We get our purpose from the Word of God. We get our behavior from the Word of God. We get our manner of living from the Word of God. So when the Devil works to destroy an institution, he works to destroy its foundation. The Bible says, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" There is a move and always has been a move to destroy the Word of God and to destroy our faith in the Word of God. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, Satan didn't deny the existence or the words of God. He sowed doubts in the mind of Eve and he deceived her with doubt. He said, "Hath God surely said." What he was doing was getting her to doubt what God meant in what He said. The Devil works to destroy the foundation and if the foundation is destroyed the institution is destroyed.
The Word of God is to be the final authority for our lives. All that we say and do, our conversation, our purpose for life, our moral and civil codes of our laws, the final authority should be the Word of God. By the way, some don't mind the Word of God being attacked and belittled because it brings a lot of conviction to their lives It is convenient to get rid of the Word of God and so they allow it to happen without a fight. With all of my heart, I believe God's promise that He has given the inspired and preserved Word of God. There is no way that I could give a complete introduction let alone an exhausted message on the inspired, preserved Word of God. I'm going to make some very bold and strong statements that will cause you to believe it's true. If you don't believe it, I challenge you to study it further. I can give you from 1 to 5,000 pages of proof that the Bible I hold in my hand is the inspired, preserved Word of God.
If I say the word or phrase "Word of God" I mean it to be the same thing as Scriptures or Bible. That phrase is used throughout the Bible in that way. Let me give you three main statements:
1. The Bible is Eternal.
What does that mean? That means it always has been and it always will be. Many like to say that the Bible is just a book about God, Jesus and history and would like to reduce this Bible to nothing more than the equivalent of a math, English or history book saying that it is a good book about good people with good principles. It's more than that. This book is the eternal Word of God. It always has been and it always will be. John 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Psalm 119:89, "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Let me emphasize right here that He did not say, "My thoughts." He did not say, "My ideas." He said, "My words." He said that Heaven will pass away and earth will pass away, but "...my words shall not pass away." 1 Peter 1:24-25, "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." Luke 16:17, "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." I love the good choir song, "The Bible Stands." It not only stands, it has withstood the attacks and the tests of time. It stands because it is eternal. It is eternal not only in its existence. The Bible is eternally alive. Don't miss it! The Bible not only is eternal, it is alive. It is not limited to facts and figures. It is not limited to history. The Bible is not a book limited to numbers, genealogies, types and figures. I hold in my hand the living Word of God. The Bible is alive.
1 Peter 1:23 says, "Being born again..." I'm glad I've been born again. The Bible says, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed...." I was born in 1964 of corruptible seed. This body is going to die. But I was born again "...not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible." How? ".. .By the word of God..." don't miss it,"...which liveth and abideth for ever." It has not died. The Word of God is alive tonight. John 6:63 says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Acts 7:38 says, "...who received the lively oracles to give unto us." The Bible is not only eternal but it is also eternally alive.
It is important to recognize the promise of 1 Peter 1:23 where the Bible says the word "liveth and abideth for ever. "It was not given in life and then got old and died. Some like to say, "Well, it was given in inspiration." The Bible doesn't say "was" given. It says it "is" given. Not "was" alive, but "is" alive. Not "was" inspired but "is" inspired. Not "was" filled with the Spirit, but "is" filled with the Spirit. It was not given in life and then got old and died. It is alive and will stay alive and will abide forever. The spirit and life of Scripture are what enables us to bring forth the spiritual new birth. I am alive in Christ because of the living Word of God. Only living things can reproduce themselves. That's a miracle of God. Only living things reproduce themselves. Things that God put breath and life in and that He gave the miracle to reproduce. 1 Peter 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abidethfor ever." Jesus said His Words are life. I'm glad according to this Bible that I can hide that Word in my heart. I'm glad it's nigh unto us even in our mouth. One day we will be judged by it. Thank God I don't have to worry about my salvation because I already read what it takes to be born again. I've already been judged at Calvary when I put my faith in Christ and He put my sins under the blood. Heaven is my home. I'm secure in my salvation because of the Word's of Life. If the Bible is dead, we can't get life from it. We must have the living Word of God.
A frog or a toad's lungs are living, breathing things that God created. Why would God continue to make a toad's lungs perfect to breathe out only a croak of a toad's breath but not be able to keep His Bible alive? Did the Bible croak? I declare that it did not. I declare that the Bible is the living Word of God. Let me go further. I believe that I hold in my hand and I have the King James 1611. I believe this book that I hold in my hand is the living Word of God. I like what Wycliffe said when he said that the English words were drawn from the inspired Scriptures in tongues. That is why I declare, and I will go further, I believe that this book, the King James Version is the living, preserved, inspired Word of God.
2. The Bible is inspired.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration. What an important passage of Scripture here. Young people, get this settled in your heart right now. I promise you that there will come a day when someone will try to get you to doubt the Word of God. If we begin to doubt the Word of God, then we begin to doubt which miracles are true and which are not true. Then we begin to doubt the virgin birth. Then we begin doubt the coming and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before long we are atheists in our hearts and lives. We must believe and understand by faith that the Bible continues to be the inspired, preserved Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:14, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of..." Did you notice that his grandmother didn't give him doubt by saying, "Well, most of this book is the Word of God."? She assured him that the Bible is the Word of God. She assured him. "...and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Notice the phrase and underline it in your Bible. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." This is one of the most important verses in the Bible concerning our understanding of the subject at hand - the Bible being the inspired, preserved Word of God.
Let me pause right here and point out some of the attacks Satan is using to bring doubts to the fact that God did in fact inspire and preserve His eternal and living Word. Some say only the originals are inspired. Some say only the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek are inspired. Some say that we cannot have an inspired, preserved Word of God. Please recognize that Satan has been attacking the words of God since the Garden of Eden. Satan did not deny that God's words existed. He simply worked to bring doubt to them in Eve's mind. "Hath God surely said!" "Did He really mean..?"
The word inspired means to be filled with the spirit or to be alive, "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." If only the originals are inspired, then that means what I have is dead. Nobody has originals. Where did God originally give the Ten Commandments? What did Moses do with them? He broke them. Are they talking about the originals in Heaven or on Earth? How far do you want to go back with "originals"? I believe and I will show you from this passage of Scripture that it is not just the originals that are inspired and preserved. I believe it is THIS Book that is inspired and preserved. Notice in 2 Timothy 3:16. First he says, "All Scripture." That modifies or defines the word "scripture". He doesn't say that most of the scripture is inspired. He said, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." In a moment we are going to see how that word "scripture" is used. I believe that I have an every word Bible. And if I don't, show me after church which words are not.
By the way, you be careful about new age versions that are on the market today. The New International Version, alone, has 2,000 changes and omissions. If I bought a new car that had 2,000 parts missing or wrong then I wouldn't take it. You couldn't give it to me. I'd take your version back and say, "I paid full price. I want a full Bible." I want you to notice that in the context of this verse that Paul was speaking to Timothy and telling him that he had been assured of this since he was child not since he had become a theologian. It is a dangerous statement to say, "Well, common or ignorant people can believe that, but once you study the Greek and Hebrew...." What they are saying is that once leave what God said about the Bible and find out what men are saying about the Bible you will doubt it. I'll just stay with what God said about the Bible.
Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? Why do we believe it? We believe it because the Bible says so. We do not believe it only because the Bible says so, but we believe it by faith. You can give me the proof and stack it up, but I believe, by faith, if God can create the world and sustain the world then He can give His Bible and preserve it as a living Word.
Notice an interesting word in 2 Timothy 3:16. It says, "All scripture is given..." He could have said, "...was given...," but he didn't. There is a difference because the Bible doubt-sowers are trying to say that it was given, but that is not what the Book said. The Book said, "is given by inspiration..." That means it is still alive today. It didn't die after inspiration into preservation. It is still alive. God promises to preserve His word. When you preserve something you keep it in its current form, and what God gives in inspiration loses nothing by preservation. Inspiration without preservation is useless. Preservation without inspiration is useless.
I want to show you something about this word inspiration, and I want to challenge you to do a study. If you don't accept this as true when I give it to you then I want you to study it on your own. If you are studying the King James Bible that came from the Received Text or Majority Text you want to make sure that you use the same dictionary or lexicon that is also from the Textus Receptus. A Greek teacher recently said, "According to these four Greek lexicons this King James Bible is not right." A Bible teacher responded, "According to this Bible your four books are not right." The word "inspiration" comes from the Greek word "theopneustos." The first part of that word is "theo" which means God. "Theocracy" is "God-government." "Theology" is "the study of God." "Monotheism" is "one God." The second part "pneuma" is almost always translated in the Bible as "spirit" and not "breath."
I have through the years made the statement or given the definition of "God-breathed." I don't believe that particular definition is a total error, but I also don't believe that is what this word means. The Greek word "pneuma" is translated in the Bible as "spirit" a total of 322 times. It is translated 91 times as "ghost." We use the phrase "Holy Ghost" or "Holy Spirit." It is translated once as "wind," once as "life," and never as "breath" or "breathed." The Greek word "pnoe" is translated as "breath." There is a difference. The Bible says, "All scripture is given by inspiration..." Inspiration means "God-given by His Spirit," not necessarily by His breath. John 6:63 says, "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." In other words, the Word of God is not just ink on paper like other books, but its words are spirit. Since the Spirit of God is alive then His words are alive. John 6:63 concludes that the Word of God is life.
Let me go a step further. Breath is tangible, which means you can feel it, smell it, etc. Spirit is non-tangible. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance - all are non-tangibles. Do you see the difference between breath and spirit? It's important to understand because some conclude that the Bible was God-breathed, or the words were spoken and only when they were spoken were they inspired. However, the Bible says inspiration means His words are given by His spirit. I had someone tell me recently that there is no way the English version could be inspired because God doesn't speak English. He spoke Hebrew and Greek. I wanted to tell the young man, "Maybe when you get to Heaven you can teach Him English and He'll appreciate that." God is not limited by language!
He says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." I want you to understand something that is very important. It is not just the Originals that are inspired. Deuteronomy 17:18 says, "...he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites." Joshua 8:32 speaks of writing a copy. Proverbs 25:1 says, "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out." If only the Originals are inspired then what happened to the copies. Don't believe the statement that says, "Only the Originals are inspired." If I didn't believe that I had a copy of the inspired, living, preserved Word of God I would quit. God promised He would preserve His inspired words. I believe if God can create and sustain the world, He can give and preserve His Bible.
The word "scripture" or the usage of the word "scripture" in the New Testament never refers to an Original. The word "scripture" simply refers to copies of the Word of God. Acts 17:11 says the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily. Did they have the originals? No, they didn't have them. They were reading copies of the Word of God. Acts 18:28 says Apollos was showing the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Matthew 21:42 has Jesus asking the question, "Did ye never read in the scriptures!" In Matthew 22:29 Jesus rebuked, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures." If the scriptures were only accessible in the Originals then why would He chide them for not know something that wasn't available. Do a study of the word "scripture" in the New Testament and see how many times it appears.
God promised to preserve His Word. When God makes a promise, I have no reason to doubt it. You can give me a stack of evidence against His promise, but I won't agree with it. I'm always going to believe in God's promise. You may say, "That's foolish faith." Call it whatever you want to call it, but I believe in the promises of God. The Bible says in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Psalm 12:6-7 says, "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Notice that He doesn't say "thoughts," but He says "words." Proverbs 30:5-6 says, "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."
I believe the King James Bible that I hold in my hand is the inspired, preserved Word of God. This book comes from what is called the Textus Receptus or the Majority Text. Out of all the copies of the Bible that were collected 95% were identical and referred to as the Textus Receptus. When you study the history of the Scriptures you will find that the Jews were very careful and meticulous in copying the Word of God. All of the new versions are supported by or come from the 5% of the copies that did not agree, or the Corrupted Text. These are corrupt 4th Century manuscripts known as Vaticanus or Sinaiticus. These manuscripts are filled with text alterations to meet the demands of the Roman Catholic tradition. The Received Text, from the King James Bible came, can be traced to Antioch, Syria where the disciples were first called Christians and where Paul and Barnabas taught the Word of God for a whole year according to Acts chapter eleven. The other Bibles do not come from there. They come from Alexandria or Rome.
God is not the author of confusion. It is men that cause confusion. We shouldn't be a part of the doubt and confusion. We ought to approach the Word of God by faith and study the Scriptures and search the Scriptures. I promise you that you will conclude that this Book is the Word of God. I had the privilege to sit under some great preachers. I had the privilege to hear Lester Roloff preach on the Bible. He called the Bible his mother. He said, "I was begat by the living Word of God. Don't mess with my mother. Don't go cutting up and taking out parts of my mother. I love the Word of God!" I had the privilege of sitting under Jack Hyles and hearing him preach a sermon called "Keep Your Stinkin' Feet Out of My Drinkin' Water!"
A couple of years before he passed away he said, "The biggest split that has ever come will come in the next ten years, if not sooner, over the King James Bible." He added, "It couldn't come soon enough for me. I'm tired of colleges and universities advertising that they use the King James Bible. Tell the whole story! Tell everyone that you do not believe that it is inspired word for word!" He also said, "I'll not give my loyalty to institutions. I’ll give my loyalty to principles and support the institutions that embrace those principles. Don't be surprised because I've dropped my loyalty to some institutions. A new generation of whipper-snappers who didn't fight the war have come on the scene. To me, it is like teenagers rebelling against their parents to have their own thinking and not embracing what is handed down to them by somebody else. There is more to the King James Bible issue than a bunch of independent Baptist, Fundamentalists, trying to cause a raucous."
We must believe and understand that the Bible is the inspired, preserved Word of God. Let's not just believe it, but let's live it, teach it, preach it, and practice it.
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