A man whose hobby was collecting old books was talking to a friend, who mentioned he’d just thrown out an old, tattered Bible while cleaning out the attic. “Who printed it, do you know?” the book lover asked.
“Oh, someone named Guten- something,” he replied.
“Gutenberg?!” the collector gasped. “You threw away a Gutenberg Bible?!?” Do you realize one just sold at an auction for over $400,000?”
The friend was unmoved. “Maybe so, but this one wouldn’t have been worth anything. Some guy named Martin Luther had written all over it.”
No less a philosopher than Plato, Writing in the essay Phaedo, one of the most profound pieces of all Greek literature, he said through one of the characters, “I think a man’s duty is one of two things; either to be taught or to find out what the truth is, or if he cannot, at least to take the best possible human doctrine and the hardest to disprove; and to ride on this like a raft over the waters of life and take the risk; unless he could have a more seaworthy vessel to carry him more safely and with less danger, some word of God to bring him through.”
25, 26.John 14:25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
The Lord had revealed many things during His ministry. But it was evident by their question that they failed to grasp much of it. It would be unproductive to tell them more. Therefore when the Spirit came He would complete the revelation and confirm the things already taught. (26)
∙ Jesus, during his earthly ministry, frequently put his divine imprimatur on the Old Testament, which he treated as the word of God. He quoted frequently from all parts of the Old Testament, which he regarded as the plenary, verbally inspired word of God. Now he gave his authoritative endorsement to the (as yet unwritten) books of the New Testament.
I. The Holy Spirit and Inspiration
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
26. The Lord endorsed what we now have in the gospels (He would “bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”) The gospel of John, with its long intricate discourses, written by a very old man many years later, is an illustration of this. The Holy Spirit not only quickened John’s memory but enabled him to write down accurately the story and sayings of Jesus.
In this verse (John 14:26) also, The Lord endorsed what we now have in the epistles (“he shall teach you all things”).
Various theories of inspiration.
1. The natural theory. This says the Bible writers were inspired in the same sense that William Shakespeare was inspired. In other words, that spark of divine inspiration that
supposedly is in all men simply burned a little brighter in the hearts of the Bible writers.
2. The mechanical theory — that God coldly and woodenly dictated the Bible to his writers as an office manager would dictate an impersonal letter to his secretary. It should be noted here that the Bible is the story of divine love, and God is anything but mechanical or cold concerning this subject. The Holy Spirit therefore never transgressed the limits of the writer’s vocabulary. Thus, the educated Paul uses many of the “85 - cent” words, while the less educated John employs more of the “25 - cent” words. But both writings are equally inspired by God. (II Timothy 3:16).
Here Dr. Charles Hodge has well written:
“The Church has never held what has been stigmatized as the mechanical theory of inspiration. The sacred writers were not machines. Their self-consciousness was not suspended; nor were their intellectual powers superseded. Holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It was men not machines; not unconscious instruments, but living, thinking, willing minds, whom the Spirit used as His organs . . . The sacred writers impressed their peculiarities on their several productions as plainly as though they were the subjects of no extraordinary influence.”
3. The Concept theory—that only the main thoughts in a chapter are inspired.
Matthew 5:18, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
4. The partial theory—that only parts of the Bible are inspired. This is the position of liberal theologians who like the love and heaven passages but reject the future judgment passages.
Paul refutes this: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
5. The spiritual-rule-only theory. The Bible according to them is only reliable on religious matters but not scientific or historical matters.
One example to refute this:
Matthew Maury is called “The Pathfinder of the Seas.” This American is the father of today’s oceanography and responsible for establishment of Annapolis Academy set out on a scientific quest to discover the “paths of the sea” after reading Psalm 8:8. After years of carefully checking data from maps and from captains who were at that time sailing the seas, in 1841 he discovered the Gulf Stream. It is a body of water 40 miles wide and 2,000 feet deep that cut three weeks off the travel time to Europe of those ships that soon started utilizing it, and which warms the continent of Europe clear to the Arctic waters carried from the Caribbean. Over a period of time Maury discovered the California Current and many others, and redrew existing Naval maps. The state of Virginia erected a monument to him in Richmond, charts of the sea in one hand, and the Bible in the other, calling him a “genius,” but he himself gave credit to the Creator God who revealed His wisdom to us in the Holy Scriptures. His eldest son was reading to him from the Bible one day when he was sick. Maury stopped him and said “Read that again.” His Physical Geography of the Sea was the first textbook of modern oceanography.
The Bible is always correct on historical matters as well. God wrote history before it happened and calls it prophecy. Even after the events occur the history is accurate its just that God wrote it before happened. Our text refers to prophecy:
John 14:29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
An example of the accuracy of prophecy is found in the city of Tyre:
Ezekiel 26: 4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
14 And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
The following excerpt is from Dr. D. James Kennedy:
A few years after the writing of this prophecy, the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought his army to Tyre and laid siege to the city .For thirteen years the city of Tyre withstood the efforts of the king of Babylon. Finally the walls of the city crumbled and the hordes of the Babylonian army poured into the city and put its remaining inhabitants to the sword. Thousands, however, had fled into the sea by boat to form the new city of Tyre on an island a half mile out in the Mediterranean. The prophecy was fulfilled, therefore, only in part.
Some might say that Ezekiel wrote this prophecy after the events happened, but that is impossible. Centuries went by. Two hundred fifty years later, when Ezekiel had long been moldering in his grave, most of the walls of Tyre still stood jutting into the sky-mute testimony to the fact that the prophecy had not been fulfilled. Millions of tons of stone, rubble, and timbers were left, and yet God had said the city would be scraped clean like the top of a rock-that the stones and the timbers and the very dust of the city would be cast into the sea. What madman could possibly come along two hundred fifty years later and complete this unfulfilled prophecy? It seemed as if God was wrong; yet the Bible had declared, "I the Lord have spoken it.”
Then, like a bugle call, there came a thrill of terror out of the north, as a mighty conqueror appeared on the horizon. Alexander the Great was poised at the Strait of the Dardanelles readying his attack on the dominant Persian Empire. He crossed that Strait and gave to the King of Persia his first crushing defeat. The mighty Persian army turned and fled to the south, then inland to the east, with Alexander in hot pursuit. However, before turning inland to follow the fleeing army, Alexander, as a great strategist, decided to nullify the effects of the mighty Persian navy .He sealed off all the ports on the eastern end of the Mediterranean. One after another, the cities capitulated and surrendered. Finally Alexander came to new Tyre, built with impregnable walls a half mile out in the Mediterranean. He commanded the city to surrender. When its inhabitants laughed at his command, Alexander, with his chief engineer, Diades, conceived the boldest and most daring plan in the history of warfare: they would build a causeway across the half mile of the Mediterranean Sea to the island of new Tyre. Where would they find the materials for such a causeway? The order was issued by the great king: "Tear down the walls of Tyre, take the timbers and the stones, the rubble and the logs, and cast them into the sea. " So the great army of Alexander obediently began to fulfill the word of God.
A few years ago, I purchased a little book on Alexander the Great by Charles Mercer, with consultant Cornelius C. Vermeule III, the Curator of Classical Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This book contains a most amazing description of these events: "Mainland Tyre was leveled, and its rubble was carried to the construction site. Meanwhile, logs were dragged from the forests of Lebanon, and quarries were opened in the hills to supply stones for Diades’ fabulous highway. ...Alexander himself carried stones on his back. Rubble, logs, stones!" These are the very same objects that the prophet Ezekiel talked about thousands of years ago. The stones and the timbers and the dust were carried and cast into the sea. History tells us that they scraped the very city itself to get everything they could to make this highway in order to destroy the new city of Tyre. New Tyre was finally besieged, destroyed, and leveled.
But the prophecy still was not completely fulfilled. God had said that he would destroy the walls of Tyrus and make her like the top of a rock. He said that it would become a place for the spreading of nets. A member of my church recently visited the city of Tyre and returned with pictures of new Tyre. They showed nets spread out on the flat rock that once had been the proud city of Tyre. "For I have spoken it, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. 26: 5). Let any unbeliever explain those prophecies! —D. James Kennedy, Why I Believe, pp. 19, 20
5. The verbal-plenary view of Inspiration
1. Verbal inspiration: the very words were guided by the Holy Spirit. They are without error.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
2. Plenary inspiration is the equal and full inspiration of all Scripture. [The originals were inspired, however, I believe the King James Version is the best English translation.]
The Holy Spirit not only interpreted to these disciples the things that Jesus had said, which at the time they could not comprehend, but he also revealed new aspects of the truth.
II Peter 1:20, 21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
I. Inspiration
II. Illumination
John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
The gospel of John, with its long intricate discourses, written by a very old man many years later, is an illustration of this. The Holy Spirit not only quickened John’s memory but enabled him to write down accurately the story and sayings of Jesus.
Illumination is that method used by the Holy Spirit to shed divine light upon all seeking men as they look into the Word of God.
Remember the question of Judas, how can you be manifest to us but not the world? (cf. Verses 17, 21-24)
1 Corinthians 2: 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Why doesn’t the world see and understand what Christians see and understand? (17, 21-24)
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
The purpose of illumination:
1. Sinners are saved, Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of thy words giveth light. . . .”
2. Christians are strengthened, II Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (Also Psalm 119:105)
What causes the blindness? John 3:18
Sir Julian Huxley, one of the world’s leading evolutionists, head of UNESCO, descendant of Thomas Huxley “Darwin’s bulldog” said on a talk show, “I suppose the reason we leaped at The Origin of Species was because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.” The real reason modern man does not want to believe in God is that he wants no interference from the Creator.
He and others like him who daily use their penknives on the Word of God are like the heathen princess with a hideous countenance who was given a mirror by a missionary, but when she saw her ugliness, went into a rage and gave orders that no more mirrors be brought into her kingdom.
They are like the priest in India who believed that the waters of the Ganges were holy, and when an army officer showed him one drop under a microscope, he smashed the instrument. Yes, they are like the elephant who refuses to drink from a pool of clear water, but first riles it, because he sees his own ugly image in it.
But you can’t improve the weather by breaking the thermometer or relieve the soul by cutting up the Word of God.
I. Inspiration
II. Illumination
III. Insurance
1 John 3:24, “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”
How does the Spirit manifest himself to us? “Burning in the bosom?” Some feeling? NO!
Partly through Inspiration I John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” This is the record!
And partly through Illumination. Illumination of what?
1. That we are sinners who need a savior.
2. That Jesus is God in the flesh and a savior.
3. And “that whosoever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life.”
That provides peace.
And the Holy Spirit was coming to put down fear.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Jesus said, “Peace be unto you.” Shalom is the eastern word for “hello” and “goodbye.” But his goodbye would be the comforter’s hello. He was going. His peace would remain.
Romans 5:1, They would have peace with God because their sins were forgiven.
Phil. 4:7, The peace of God would guard their lives. The world is unable to give this kind of peace.
Fear of death and fear of the future are removed as Jesus’ followers trust in Him. Thus they need not be troubled.
“Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” The world talks about peace.
Major Osipovich, an air force pilot for the former USSR, planned to give a talk at his children’s school about peace. But he would need time off during the day to give his talk, so he volunteered for night duty. And that’s how Major Osipovich found himself patrolling the skies over the eastern regions of the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983—the night Korean Air Lines Fligh KE007 strayed into Soviet air space.
Soon the Soviet pilot was caught in a series of blunders and misinformation. In the end, Major Osipovich followed orders and shot down the unidentified aircraft. The actions of an air force major preparing to talk about peace plunged 240 passengers to their deaths and sparked an international incident that pushed world powers to a stand-off. Our talk is important. But our actions carry far more weight.
—Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3.
I want you to notice that Jesus says that the peace that He offers through the presence of the Holy Spirit, is “not as the world gives”.
So we must ask the question, what kind of peace does the world offer? Think about it. The peace that the world offers would be described as is a brief moment of escape. We understand the abuse of alcohol, drugs and even food this way. And we can see the escapism being played out at the casino as crowds travel to a paradise of fantasy, luxury and false hopes.
Mr. Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer in Chicago and a member of the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church in that city. In the financial crisis of 1873, he lost most of his property. In the stress and strain of the times, he prevailed on his wife and four daughters to take a trip to France—to get as far away from the scene of worry as possible. He booked passage for them on the Ville de Havre. They set sail November 15, 1873.
The trip was uneventful, and its hundreds of passengers were enjoying the indescribable uplift of an ocean voyage. That is, until the night of November 22.
Shortly after midnight the Loch Earn, bound for New York, collided with the Ville de Havre. In a few minutes, the French ocean liner sank beneath the waves. The Loch Earn, which was not damaged by the collision, rescued as many survivors as they could find. Of the 226 passengers on the Ville de Havre, only 87 survived.
Mrs. Spafford was among the survivors, but the four daughters perished. As soon as Mrs. Spafford reached land, she telegraphed from France to her husband: “Saved alone Children lost. What shall I do?”
The Chicago attorney left immediately to join his wife and bring her back to Chicago. It was in the depths of their bereavement that he wrote his one and only hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” The grief of his terrible loss and the peace he experienced as he and his wife submitted their lives to God’s providential dealings, he describes in the four stanzas of the hymn.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrow like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Though Satan should buffet, though trials
should come,
Let this blest assurance control;
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin not in part, but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall
descend,
“Even so,” it is well with my soul.
—How to Win Over Worry, John Haggai
