Text: John 18:37-38
In our text, Jesus told Pilate that He came to testify to the truth. That truth is recorded in the Scriptures. Yet Pilate dismissed that. In the same way, many dismiss the truth in Scripture by denying inspiration. When we deny the inspiration of the Bible, we make it no different from any other writing. There are several problems that arise when we do this.
We Feel Free to Ignore It (Acts 5:33-39)
- Essentially, this was the advice from Gamaliel regarding how to handle the apostles – if their message from not true, their movement would fizzle out; of course, it was true, so no one could stop it and it continues today
- God wants us to pay attention to His word (Luke 8:8; Hebrews 2:1) – but if the Bible is not from God, why should we? … it becomes like every other book (we can use it if we want and ignore it if we don’t)
We Feel Free to Change It (Galatians 1:6-9)
- Man is always growing in his understanding and changing his opinions (the same is true of mankind in general) – if the Bible was from man, it could be revised with every new generation; this is what “progressives” do (in society, politics, and religion), they continually evolve their views
- Doing this means we will never have a solid foundation to build our lives upon – Jesus offers us this solid foundation in His word (Matthew 7:24-27)
We Cannot Know the Mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)
- God’s will was previously hidden – it was a “mystery” (1 Corinthians 2:7); we can only know what God has chosen to reveal to us (Deuteronomy 29:29)
- Creation tells us about God (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20) – but it does not tell us God’s will for us; without the inspiration of the Bible, we could never know how to please God
We Cannot Fulfill Our Purpose (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
- Our purpose in life is to fear God and keep His commandments – of necessity, fulfilling our purpose means God’s commandments must have been revealed to us
- When we forget God (or ignore His word), we are left wondering what our purpose is – this was the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3); there are many things we could pursue in life, but all are meaningless without knowing our purpose (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
We Are Left Without Direction (Amos 8:11-13)
- Amos described the people suffering from a famine of God’s word – they ignored it and lost it; once they realized they were missing something, they could not find it; they wandered aimlessly looking for it
- Similar to the last point, when we ignore God’s word (or deny inspiration), we do not know what to do – we cannot direct ourselves (Jeremiah 10:23); God’s word is the lamp we need to guide our path (Psalm 119:105)
We Have No Basis for Hope (1 Peter 3:15)
- Peter talked about having a reason for our hope – as Christians, we should be able to give an answer; we have been born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-4); we have faith in Christ that results in salvation (1 Peter 1:5, 7); we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19); we have been baptized into Christ (1 Peter 3:21)
- Without God’s word, what is the basis for our hope? – all we have is a wish, no real hope
Conclusion
- If the Bible is not inspired, we can ignore it – but that also leaves us without purpose, direction, and hope
- But as we have seen in the previous lesson, there is proof for the inspiration of the Bible
- Therefore, in it we can know God’s will, how to please Him, and what we stand to gain in eternity
