Each And Every Word

Each And Every Word

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

(NKJ)

During the early days of World War II, when the Nazis invaded France, French citizens took down all signposts. As the Nazi armies advanced, they didn't know which way to turn or in what direction lay their objective. Does it seem to you that the signposts of life have all been taken down? They were not taken down by us to confuse the enemy; they were taken down by the enemy to confuse us. We don't know which way to turn until we open the Scriptures. The only reliable signposts are there.

I) Why Is The World Such A Mess?

Everywhere you look, the world is a mess. How did it all get this way?

Truth is, the world has always been, well, the world. But it does seem like things are much worse.

We are in perhaps the worst financial condition as a nation ever since the Great Depression. Crime continues to plague our nation, and locally it seems that gun crime is way up. Materialism rules in our country. It seems that every day we see some big corporation handing out big bonuses to their executives while asking for a hand out from the government.

If it seems that things are in a free fall, or better said, in a free for all, you wouldn't be far off target.

We as a country have lost our moral compass. The direction to right and wrong. And if this all keeps up, we will see more and more misery and pain. What our country needs is a return to THE moral compass...the Scriptures themselves.

II) Each and Every Word

From before creation, doubt was cast upon God's Word. By before creation, I mean

that time that Satan rebelled against God. Satan and cast doubt on God's Word by seducing the angels into a rebellion against Him. You can see this in passages in Ezekiel and Isaiah, where pride did Satan in; he thought more of himself than God, rejecting God's Word.

The first place in Scripture that the casting of doubt shows up is in Genesis 3:

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (NKJ)

Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. (NKJ)

If Satan can destroy belief in any part of God's Word, then all is suspect. How do we know it is all true? God's Word itself says so, and in no vague terms:

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...

All Scripture: In the Greek language, this can be interpreted as "all" or "every". Robertson notes in Robertson's Word Pictures that every is perhaps the better translation. This leaves no scripture out, in either way you translate it out.

Inspiration of God: This is one place that the translators of the NIV get it right, and the English Standard Version has it right too. The proper rendering should be "God breathed" or "breathed by God".

So then, we could read this part of verse 16 like this:

"Each and every word of the Scripture is God breathed"

So what does that all mean? The entire canon of Scripture is written by God!

My heart was broken a few years ago when discussing the Bible with a family member. This family member had gone off to college, and had gone from belief in Creation to a belief in evolution. I looked at him and said "but that's not what the Bible says!", and he flatly stated what so many other people have said: "The Bible was written by men", and he went on to say that men made mistakes.

One truth out of all of this is that men do make mistakes! Everyone knows the potential for men to do things to their liking, for their own interests. That is why God had to author His Word, and not men themselves.

Here is what "God breathed" means from Warren Wiersbe:

The Holy Spirit of God used men of God to write the Word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21).

2 Peter 1: 20 knowing 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. (ESV)

The Spirit did not erase the natural characteristics of the writers. In fact, God in His providence prepared the writers for the task of writing the Scriptures. Each writer has his own distinctive style and vocabulary. Each book of the Bible grew out of a special set of circumstances. In His preparation of men, in His guiding of history, and in His working through the Spirit, God brought about the miracle of the Scriptures.