Title: The Voice
Date: 4/12/15
Place: BLCC
Text: 2 Timothy 3.16
CT: The Bible is the True Living Voice of God.
Play clip
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wGPxSwqIl8
Those Crazy Christians
FAS: A few years ago the Journal of Science published an article titled "On Being Sane in Insane Places." It described an experiment in which eight "fake" patients with no history of mental illness went undercover and checked themselves into a few psychiatric hospitals across the United States. All of them had the same complaint: they told the medical staff that they regularly "heard voices." Apart from this fabrication they behaved normally and recounted their own (normal) past experiences and medical histories.
Nonetheless, all of them were diagnosed as schizophrenic (except one, who was diagnosed with "manic-depressive psychosis"), hospitalized for up to two months, and prescribed antipsychotic medications (which they did not swallow). Once admitted to the mental wards, they continued to speak and behave normally; they reported to the medical staff that their hallucinated voices had disappeared and that they felt fine. They even kept notes on their experiment, quite openly (this was registered in the nursing notes for one of the fake patients as "writing behavior").
This experiment, designed by David Rosenhan, a Stanford psychologist and one of the fake patients, found that the single symptom of "hearing voices" could suffice for an immediate, categorical diagnosis of mental illness even in the absence of any other symptoms or abnormalities of behavior. In other words, "hearing voices" could only have one explanation—you're crazy.
Oliver Sacks, Hallucinations (Vintage, 2012), pp. 53-54
LS: Of course mental illness is a reality, but at times smart people in our society are quick to judge that Christians who hear from God are also crazy or deluded.
I. (Hold up Bible). This is one peculiar book. The words first written in another language. Actions done in a distant era. Events recorded in a far off land. Counsel offered to a foreign people who may seem strange to us. Yes, this is a peculiar book.
Maybe it requires a peculiar or crazy person to accept its message.
If you really think about it, isn’t it a bit surprising that anyone reads it at all. It’s too old. It’s too bizarre. It talks of earth destroying floods, fires, earthquakes and people with abilities beyond the people we see every day. It is way too radical. The Bible calls for the undying devotion to a carpenter who called himself God’s Son.
Logic and reasoning says this book should not survive.
The Bible has been banned, burned, scoffed, and ridiculed. Scholars have called it foolish. Kings have made it illegal. A thousand times over it has been buried and left for dead, only to rise again. The thing is it has not only survived all this time, but has thrived. It is the most popular book in all of history. Just look at how many tuned in to watch the Bible and this new series on the book of Acts-AD. I pray it stays that way.
How do we explain this? There is really no way on earth to explain it. Which actually is the explanation. The Bible’s perseverance is in the fact that it’s durability is not of this world; it is found in heaven. For the countless people who have tested its claims and claimed its promises, there is only one answer. The Bible is God’s book and The Voice of God.
Let’s look at the claim being made here.
2 Timothy 3.16, All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
What that is saying is the Bible is the Word of God and God alone. It is not a creation of man.
Now here is something to think about. With all the fuss about the reliability of the Bible, the internal contradictions, the tension in the translation along with other reasons some give to refute the Voice of God. All this anxiety on both sides of the debate begins with the assumption that the God who created the sun that gives us light, the human eye, elephants, and maintains our position in orbit without crashing cannot take care of getting His message to us. Come on. Now if you believe God doesn’t exist you can believe that, but if you believe the creator of the earth exists than His ability to communicate to us through His Word is a piece of cake. /
There is more evidence for the support of the Bible than any other manuscript in history. It is not even close. All this is to say the average man on the street has accepted the liberal notion that the Bible has been proven wrong by science and reasoning when it is the farthest thing from the truth. We must not swallow cultures assumptions without giving God’s Voice a day or two of personal investigation. /
II. The Bible is God’s Voice. Have you ever doubted the Bible? What is the Bible made up of?
39 Books in the OT. The OT was the scripture Jesus knew and used.
27 NT Books. Written from 50 AD to 95 AD
There were three criteria that guided the early church leaders in deciding what would be accepted into the Canon of the Bible.
1. Had to be written by the Apostles or a close friend.
2. Had to be recognized by the early church as Scripture with no question of authenticity. The later so-called gospels come up short on both of these. Like the Gospel of Judas and Thomas.
3. It had to be doctrinally consistent with all other Scripture.
God had all this figured out. His spirit guided it all.
Why didn’t he just drop it down to us all neatly packaged and ready to read? You see God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He gives us free will to decide.
Why so many translations? Used to not be, but God said He would reach all people. His Voice has to be in a form they will understand. God works the pulls and pushes of times and circumstances to make this so.
KJV didn’t come along until 1600s.
Guy who made the translation was burned at the stake for changing it from Latin.
There are and will be forces that resist the spreading of God’s word to other people.
We don’t talk like the KJV today. Example: Matt. 19.14. When Jesus in the KJV says for the little children to suffer to Him we get real confused don’t we. Suffer today means something much different than in the 1600s. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against the KJV, but imagine trying to read the Bible for the first time and not being able to understand the meaning for today.
Then there are the paraphrases. I use them sometimes. They make the scripture easier to understand, but I only use them with a good translation like NIV.
Example: our text today. 2 Tim. 3.16., All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. NIV
In the Message: Every part of Scripture is God–breathed and useful one way or another––showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way.
The only thing to watch with paraphrases is there can be a bias from the one writing the paraphrase. That is why you must use them with other direct translations.
No matter what translation or paraphrase you use you will discover this is a powerful book. Christ is the Living Word. The Bible is the written Word of God. His Voice guiding us.
III. So what time. The Bible is God’s Voice. All of it. Not just parts of it. We are not to approach it as a great buffet we can pick and choose from.
You may want a big helping of John 3.16, but might skip over Luke 9.23 the way people turn away from Brussel sprouts.
You might decide, “OK I will take 8 out of the 10 commandments, but you can keep the rest.
I like the part about inheriting a kingdom with Christ, but I don’t know about the sharing in His suffering part. I’ll leave that for someone else.
That tithing part is a little too rich for me.
We like the part about loving one another no matter what.
What about the times the Bible mentions marriage between only a man and a woman. Gen.2.24, Matt.19.4-5, 1 Cor. 7.1-6.
It’s all there and its all the Voice of God. I trust He means what He says.
As Christians we are called to witness to God’s truth. The whole truth. If we don’t witness the truth to those we love; is it really love.
God is revealing the ideal he has for us. The ideal that is only reached through His Son Jesus Christ.
So, what is He telling us.
1) He teaches us about faith. Romans 10.17, Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ .NIV
2) He shows us Jesus. John 1.1-2,14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. NIV
14. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one–of–a–kind glory, like Father, like Son, inside and out, true from start to finish. Message
3) He enables us to overcome temptation.
Matthew 4. The Temptation of Christ. Each time Satan tempts the Lord He gives the same answer. IT IS WRITTEN. ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God/ ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test. ’”/ ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. ’”
It Is Written. Get away from me Satan. Jesus had listened to the Voice of His Father God.
We are to do the same thing. With the Voice of God with us we can withstand whatever this world throws at us.
4) He comforts us. Think about it. What do we cling to in times of trouble? Words of man or the Word of God?
Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. KJV.
Is. 40.8, The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. NIV.
You can test it in times of doubt.
You can quote in times of difficulty.
You can grip it in times of despair.
You can trust it in times of dismay.
5) He reveals His love for us.
1 John 3.1, See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. NLT
Bottom Line -We can trust the Bible
There are 20000 manuscripts of the Bible as far back as 100 years after His walk on earth. Nothing else comes even remotely close. We believe in Alexander the Great and there is no mention in any document of him till 400 years after his death. We have proof of Jesus in documents written 17 years after His ascension.
Do you have a hard time answering questions about the OT. Flood and Jonah. Pretty wild stories aren’t they?
What is the best reason to believe?
Jesus believed. He referred to the flood and Jonah.
Jesus bled scripture. On the cross he quoted Ps. 22.1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I don’t know about you but my experience with just about anyone I know is when times get tough they will cry out to God. Even those who claim He doesn’t exist.
Revelation 22.18-19, I give fair warning to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book: If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book. Message
The entire Bible, all of it, is the Voice of God. Do not add or take away anything. Don’t mess with God’s Word! This is a powerful book written by a Powerful God.
Conclusion: There two things that too many Christians, let alone the rest of the world do with the Bible.
First they don’t read it.
Second they don’t obey it. And we wonder why our world is in such turmoil.
Get involved with the Bible. It’s more than a book. It is the living Word, the Voice of God. There is a reason God wrote the Bible.
John 20. 30-31, These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it. NIV
The Bible was written to speak to you of the love the Father has for you. Listen to the Voice of God. Hear, really hear, His Voice. Even if it causes you to be one of those “Crazy Christians”.
Won’t you come join this crazy bunch today? Know the true freedom and salvation that it will bring. God is still speaking. Listen to his Voice.
