Psalm 56 verse 4. In God I will praise His Word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. As I mentioned this morning, I want to begin a small series considering the importance of God's Word in our life. we might entitle this series, In Praise of God's Word. Here, the psalmist says, in God I will praise his word. Part of how we praise God is not just by singing songs to him, not just in speaking well of him, but in praising his word, in recognizing his word as his word. And the way that we praise His Word, the psalmist goes on to say, is, in God I have put my trust. We praise God's Word by trusting His Word, by believing what God has said, that it is His Word, and that if it is His Word, we can trust it. We can trust what it says to us. And like everything that we do in worship of our Maker, It has side benefits for us as well. Notice in this single verse, the psalmist also goes on to say, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. When I am praising God by trusting his word, then I am not fearful. I'm not anxious. I'm not having to wonder and query over and over again what is the meaning of life and why are these things happening to me and is God in charge of this situation and is there a good purpose for this trial in my life. If I recognize that God is speaking to me in his word and I trust it therefore because God is trustworthy then it will drive fear out of my heart. So one consideration to begin with this afternoon is, do you wrestle with any fear? Do you wrestle with any anxiety about the future, about situations in your life right now? Do you wrestle with uncertainty concerning how these things that are in your life right now might work out? If so, to that extent, we are not recognizing God's Word as God's Word, or God as trustworthy when He speaks to us in His Word. And so I want to consider God's Word in this series together, and just as we considered prayer not long ago in a short series, I want to say that my goal with this study of what God's Word has to say about itself I want our goal not to just be some sort of theological apprehension, some sort of affirmation of basic biblical truth, we do agree together as Christians that God's word is inspired, but to genuinely be affected by it, so that we, in trusting God's Word, bring praise to God, and in trusting God's Word, we go to God's Word, and we say, I need this. I need this today, I need this tomorrow, I need this every day. I don't have the wisdom I need, and I am wrestling with fear and uncertainty, and yet God's Word has the answer for all these things. And so today, not just because it's my duty, not just because I know that I'm supposed to do this, but because God's Word is God's Word, I'm going to go to it. I'm going to run to it. I'm going to praise God by trusting His Word today. I want to begin, then, this afternoon just by laying some groundwork concerning Scripture, which hopefully will be somewhat review for you, but may not be. May be that you, even as a Christian, have not considered what it means for the Word of God, for the Bible to be inspired. But even if we do intellectually know what it means for God's Word to be inspired, I hope that it will build fresh trust in us to consider that this, this is God's Word when we open up our Bibles and read it. So first, I want to consider Scripture is inspired. Second, that scripture is clear. And third, that scripture is sufficient. Just some ground laying considerations this afternoon. First of all, that scripture is inspired. And I might add the additional qualifier, scripture alone is inspired. God does reveal Himself in creation. We know this from Romans chapter 1 where Paul himself says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. Those unrighteous men who suppress the knowledge of God. Those things that can be known about God in fact, he says in verse 19. Because, in verse 20, the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So there is no excuse for denying God and his claim upon our lives because Paul says in Romans 1, the creation is evidence of the creator and if there is a creator of us, we are answerable to him. So God reveals himself in creation, but also in the human conscience. He goes on in the very next chapter, Romans 2, To say that when the Gentiles, in other words, those who don't even have the holy scriptures historically before the Jewish people, when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, even though they don't have the law, Paul says, they are showing that they do have the law, in a sense. Why? How? It is because there is a law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. In other words, there are A set of basic realities that every human being recognizes. That there is good and that there is bad. And even elements of what is good and what is bad. Because our conscience tells us it's wrong to murder an innocent human being, or that it's wrong to lie and steal and cheat. We can certainly, the Bible goes on to say in other places, we can certainly sear our consciences, we can make our consciences less sensitive to the truth that we are trying to suppress there, but we do know that there is right and that there is wrong, and that there is a moral law giver, and his name is Creator. God. We know these things from our conscience. So God reveals himself to us in creation. He reveals us to us in our human conscience so that all are without excuse. But, but this revelation is not perfect and it's not complete like scripture is. Psalm 19 actually puts these two things next to each other and compares them. Psalm 19.1 begins with this majestic statement regarding the general revelation of God in creation and says, the heavens, in other words stars and everything you look at, the creation, the majesty of God's expanse of creation, the heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament is showing His handiwork. So, when you look at creation, you see the handiwork of God. It's obvious. They are declaring the glory of God. Day unto day, they are speaking. Every day. There's not a day that creation is not speaking the message of the glory of its Creator. Not a single day. Day unto day, they utter speech. Night unto night, they show knowledge. So you can't escape this reality. You can't escape the glory of God. It's staring you in the face. In fact, it's speaking to you in the face. Every day and every night. From the heavens, from the firmament, from His creation. There is no speech. There's not a single language where their voice is not heard. So it doesn't matter what part of the world you're born in, doesn't matter what your culture you may come from, the heavens are declaring the glory of their creator, God. Every day, every night, in a voice that is transcultural. That is translingual. In a voice that literally can be understood by anyone, anywhere, the psalmist says. Now that is an amazing statement. But what's even more amazing is the same psalmist goes on to say even greater things about the Word of God. In Psalm 19, 7, 8, and 9, this about special revelation, the Word of God, not just the translingual speech of the creation declaring the glory of God, but now God actually is speaking in His Word. Not just a voice that you can hear, but words you can understand. Information that is being transferred. The law of the Lord, he says, is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, it's certain, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. All these are different ways of describing God's Word, and he's saying God's Word is perfect. It's certain. It's wise. It's right. It's pure. It's clean. It endures forever. It's true, altogether. There's not a single piece of not-wisdom in the wisdom of God's Word. So this is not just a general revelation that there is a Creator and you're answerable to Him and there's right and there's wrong. This is the specific, special revelation of God and His Word. Of who He is. And of His interactions with us as His creation. What He expects of us as His creatures made in His image. Uniquely humans made in the image of God. This is what the psalmist says about this special revelation of God. Reminds me in Revelation, one chapter, in the first chapter there, the voice of God is heard by John, who is receiving this revelation. And he describes it in two ways immediately. One is, he said, I heard a voice, it was like a trumpet. I mean that's descriptive, it's loud, it's piercing, it's announcing. I heard a voice like a trumpet, and then he goes on to say, as if he's running out of ways to describe or to compare the majesty of this voice, he says, it was like many waters. In other words, it was like Niagara Falls. Standing next to it, hearing the voice of God was like Niagara Falls. It was just thundering next to me. It was impossible to ignore. It reminds me, when he describes the Word of God as many waters, it reminds me of the experience several years ago when I went to see Niagara Falls for the first time. And it was impressive. I really thought, I really kind of assumed, having heard so much about it, that it would be a letdown. You've heard so much about it. It's famous. You've read, memorized facts about it, even in science class in junior high. And I just sort of assumed, this is gonna be a tourist trap. It'll be interesting to see a waterfall, but how impressive could it really be? And then you're standing there next to it, and there's nothing not impressive about it. It thunders with a bigness that demands attention. Then we went on the little boat, I think it's called the Maiden of the Mist, down there next to the falls, in the water at the bottom of the falls. And looking around, just one person after another on the boat, just agape at the majesty that was around them as they watched these many waters pouring over, thundering next to them. But there was only one person on the whole boat who wasn't impressed, and it was the tour guide. The tour guide had been there so many times and seen this water, heard this water so often that the tour guide was bored with Niagara Falls. Had to sort of remember, had to sort of catch himself when it was time to speak on the microphone and say something about the history of the falls or something, but otherwise was in small conversation and petty talk and could not care less about the fact that he was next to Niagara Falls. And it does make me wonder if we oftentimes as Christians are so close to, so familiar with, so constantly in contact with God's Word that we become like the tour guide who's next to the majesty of God but not impressed with it anymore. Not in awe of it anymore. The psalmist says that the heavens are shouting the glory of God every day, every night, all day long, all night long. But even more, more glorious, more impressive, more perfect in its message, more clear in its trumpet-like announcement, The perfect Word of God is speaking to us, is speaking to us in the Word that God has given us in His special revelation. How can we not be excited to come and open the pages of Scripture? What does it mean for Scripture to be inspired? It is alone inspired. Even, we might say, the general revelation of God is not inspired in this same way. Yes, it's declaring the glory of God day after day, night after night, but it is not inspired in this same way that the message of God is inspired to the people of God, the humanity that God has made in His image. It is inspired, Scripture is inspired, word for word. Not just a general revelation that there is a creation, but word for word communication to us about God, about His creation, about ourselves. The inspiration of God through his messengers is expressed by David himself actually who wrote Psalm 56 that we just read in praise of God's Word. David describes what it means to be inspired, what it means to be speaking God's word. And he says this in 2 Samuel 23 2, the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. Think about that, that is so impressive. David is saying not just God gave me a general feeling this morning and I thought I should write it down and try to put it into words. No, David says when the spirit of the Lord was upon me as a prophet of God, sharing the Word of God, when the Spirit of the Lord is on me in this inspiring way, He, God, speaks by me. His Word is in my tongue. I'm not just trying to put into words a concept that God has put into my head. God's words are speaking with my tongue. This is what it means for the Word of God to be inspired, word for word. But also that God's Word is inspired from beginning to end. 2 Timothy 3.16 famously says, all Scripture is inspired. In other words, God breathed. God has breathed out Scripture. From beginning to end, it is inspired. All Scripture is inspired. Putting it in sort of the opposite way, of negation, 2 Peter 1 20-21 says, no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. It's not, in other words, just somebody thinking some great thoughts and writing them down. Four, 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. So Paul says all scripture is inspired. Peter says no prophecy of scripture is private or in other words just some private enterprise guy writing down scripture in his own wisdom. No. Holy men of God were speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost of God. And Peter, this is important to notice, is including New Testament writings in his definition of Scripture. In the very same book, in the very same letter, 2 Peter 3.15 and 16, Peter says, Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, so this is not Paul's wisdom, this is the wisdom given to Paul, he has written to you. as also in all his epistles. So not just what Paul wrote in this one little section is particularly wise or amazingly inspired, but everything Paul is writing in his epistles, speaking in them of these things, he says, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest or wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Peter, in other words, is saying, Paul has written epistles, admittedly hard to understand some of the things in them, but nonetheless, with wisdom given to him, he has written to you, and those who are unlearned and unstable wrestle not just other scripture, so not just the Old Testament scripture, but Paul's writings, like other scripture, unto their own destruction. To ignore Paul and what he's writing is to destroy yourself, Peter says, because it's God's word. It is scripture as much as anything else. So by God's leading and guidance, a human author, influenced by his own personality, yes, emotions, yes, intellect, yes, experiences, yes, But a human author wrote each word of scripture under the direct inspiration of God, so that God was breathing out His words through their tongue, through their pen. This includes even God's, of course, guiding Luke's historical research, for instance, when Luke says at the beginning of his accounting of the history of the Book of Acts, I've investigated these things, the Gospel of Luke, I've investigated these things. And I'm now going to relate to you what I have found, what I have discovered. God was perfectly guiding Luke's historical research and Luke's writing in order to give to us a perfect account of the acts of the Apostles or the acts of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke. Now, because God used men to write His Word, we can sweetly sympathize with David's agony, for instance, in Psalm 51. God did not inspire David. God did not lead David to commit adultery or murder or try to cover it up. But God did inspire sinful David to write Psalm 51, a prayer of confession of his sin and a begging for God's mercy so that other sinners could see God's willingness to forgive sinners. God used Paul's wrestling in Romans chapter seven God did not inspire Paul's old nature to keep rearing up over and over and over again, such that Paul said, when I want to do right, evil is always present with me. I'm never able to do what I think I ought to do like I want to do it. I'm constantly in this battle with my sinful nature. God is not inspiring Paul to wrestle with sin, but God is using Paul's humanity, his wrestling with sin, to then write Romans 7, who will deliver me from the body of this death? So that we can see that even the Apostle Paul wrestled with sin as we do. God is using men and their experiences, yet God is inspiring exactly what needs to be written. Not a word more, not a word less, not a word different. Now God's Word, it's important to say, is only inspired and preserved in its original languages. So that, as the London Confession writers so well put it, in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal to them, the original languages in which God's Word was written. Inspiration, in other words, and the preservation of Scripture does not guarantee God's Word to be translated into any other languages other than the languages it was written in. But, This limitation should lead us to desire to labor for translation into the common language of every people group. Think about this. Countless believers throughout history, because they believed that God was breathing through the pen, the tongue of David, of Peter, of Paul, Because they believed that God was word for word inspiring these men to write everything God wanted us to know about himself and about ourselves and about the world. Because they believed this so strongly, countless believers throughout history and in our day today, let's not forget, have given their lives in order to get God's inspired word into the common language of new people groups, including English. Have you ever thought about that? That English, once upon a time, was a new people group. That the Bible was being inspired into, the Bible was being translated, the inspired word of God was being translated into English. That's amazing. Hundreds of years ago, thank God, someone said, those people, barbarians though they are, speaking English, need to know what God has to say. Wycliffe famously being the first to translate the entire Bible into the English language and giving his life to do it. But even today, not just English, but the raw language of Vanuatu. Remember our evangelism prayer request last month for Laura Tolson and her family? They're living in a little island that most of us have probably never heard of, translating God's Word into the local language there so that these people can read God's Word for the first time ever. This is the obvious implication of inspiration of Scripture. If God is speaking to us perfectly, word for word, through these authors of the Bible, then we would desire to read it ourselves and to make it available for others to read as well. Scripture is inspired and Scripture alone is inspired. The glory of God in creation is not inspired word for word. It's not the message of God breathed through words of men so that we could receive information perfectly suited for our case. Scripture is also clear. And this is one of the ways that it is superior to the general revelation of God. And we'll speak more about this in another message to come in this series, but let me just say this. Scripture can mentally be understood by almost anyone. In other words, it's not that scripture is so complex, so intellectual, so theological, so amazingly difficult that we can't perceive its understanding. 2 Timothy 3.15 says, as Paul writes to Timothy, from a child you've known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And this doesn't mean that it's easy to understand God's word. It will require thoughtful study. It will require us reading and becoming familiar with it so that we understand all of scripture in relation to itself and how it interacts with itself. It requires carefulness on our part. But the point is, is that it's not some great big mystery where God is speaking up here and we're down here speaking normal English language, no. No, God speaks to us in ways that we can understand. God speaks to us on our human level. That's what's remarkable about Scripture. God condescending to us and to our humanity. To communicate through words, through concepts, through a message that humans can understand. So scripture is clear. Scripture is a clear window, we might say, to see God But the problem is, our vision is blurred. We are not clear in our thinking. 1 Corinthians 1.23 says, we preach Christ crucified. We're preaching a clear message unto the Jews, though a stumbling block. Unto the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. The thing that makes Scripture hard to receive is not its complexity. The thing that makes Scripture hard to receive is its message. It is a stumbling block for some, it's foolishness for others, but for those who are called, it is the power of God, the wisdom of God. But this has implications for us. This means that we are by nature wrong in the way that we look at God, in the way we look at ourselves, in the way that we look at the world around us. because God is communicating to us things that are different than the way we think about him, ourselves, or the world. And if God is speaking, breathing these words down to us to reveal himself to us and his will, his word to us, then by definition it means that when we have thoughts contrary to that, which is constant, When our understanding conflicts with that, which is constant, it means that we are by nature wrong in the way we look at God, the way we look at self, the way we look at the world. Now this may sound harsh to say, we're all wrong. God's word is right, but it's actually liberating. The solution to the problem is not beyond our reach, but can be found through genuine repentance, humility, hard work, reception of the Word of God. Deuteronomy 30, 11-14 points to this very thing. It's not as if Moses writes in Deuteronomy, it's not as if the Word of God is way out there somewhere and you just can't understand it because it's too complex or it's just too majestic for you. No, he says it's right here under your nose. The problem is, are we receiving it? Are we humbling ourselves to it? Scripture is clear. It makes wise the simple. It speaks to the simple person even with wisdom that will increase their wisdom, will remove their naivete, will add depth to their simplicity. because Scripture is clear. And third, Scripture is sufficient. The Bible is everything God wants us to know regarding Himself and our relation to Him. Scripture is sufficient. God's Word is our only authority, our only test for God's will and spiritual truth. The sufficiency of Scripture means, by implication, that nothing else is needed, that nothing else needs to be added to that. That's my number one concern. There's other concerns I have, but that's my number one concern about all these books that have become so popular among Christians about heaven is for real or other books like that that tell of personal stories of going to heaven and this is what heaven is like and so on. I don't need to know whether this person, boy, girl, man, woman, died and spent X number of hours unconscious in order to know, has God given me everything he wants me to know about heaven? Yes, yes he has, and it's in his word. We don't need any supplemental material to tell us what heaven is like. God has told us heaven is real. And we believe it because he has said it in his word. And he's also told us exactly what he wants us to know about it. So that any other source that tries to describe it outside of God's word, through personal experience even, will fall short, will contradict. Nothing should be added to, nothing should be taken away from God's Word because it's sufficient. So therefore the warning in Revelation 22, 18 and 19 where We are famously warned not to add or take away in any way to change the revelation of God to us. And if we do, the curses that are in the book will be applied to us. I think we sometimes think of that in terms, perhaps, of some formal twisting, some formal argument, or some subtle plot, maybe, perhaps, to to add to God's Word, to change the understanding of God's Word. But I think it happens most often in our personal thinking about God and His Word. We think, perhaps, that we need something else than what God has written here. I need to research something else. I need to find something else than what God has already spoken in His Word. And in doing so, we, by the very nature of our pursuit, are adding to God's Word. It doesn't mean, of course, that reality can't coincide with God's Word. It does. But we don't need extra revelation than what God has already provided us in the Bible. The Bible has everything we need to know about godly living, 2 Timothy 3.16. Again, all scripture is given by God, but for this purpose that we might be thoroughly furnished, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So we are to test everything by God's word and hold fast only to those things that God says are good. 1 Thessalonians 5.21, Prove or test all things, hold fast that which is good. How will you know? By what standard will you test? By the standard of God's Word. We test everything else in this information age. We must test everything else, every other worldview, every other priority, every other promise of pleasure. We test them all through the filter of God's perfect, pure, certain, sure word. And we hold fast only to those things that God's word says are good. So let me conclude with just some questions for personal consideration, application. Some questions to perhaps ask ourselves in light of the inspiration of scripture. Do I trust God in precisely those places where my natural inclination is in opposition to his word? In other words, when everything inside me is crying out, this is worrisome. which is exactly actually what the psalmist is doing in Psalm 56. He's saying, Be merciful to me, O God. For man would swallow me up. Man desires to swallow me up. I am being persecuted. He is oppressing me daily. There are many things that would cause one to worry. If it were not, he goes on to say in verse four, in God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear, therefore, what flesh can do unto me. When my sinful nature is screaming to me that pleasure will be found in this pursuit, do I trust God and His Word that only death is there? That only death is there. That sin, when it has conceived, brings forth death. When the Bible clearly spells out His counsel, God's counsel to me, do I embrace it regardless of my preconceptions, regardless of my experiences, regardless of my prejudices? Do I say, well, I understand that God said that in His Word, but, I mean, this is my background, this is where I'm coming from, this is all the situation, this is what I'm suffering right now. Or do we say, God in His perfect wisdom wrote this for me with my background, with my circumstances, in spite of all my prejudices, I must believe Him. I must trust His Word. A second question, how do I read, how do I study the Bible? Do I open up Scripture expecting to hear the trumpet of God? expecting to hear many waters roaring with the awesome message of God, condescending to use words, but inspired by the wisdom of God Himself. Though I open up the Word of God expecting that kind of majesty on every page of Scripture. Or do I just pick some favorite verses, some pet text, in order to shape my own opinions, encourage myself in some little way? Am I being shaped by God's Word? The fullness of God's Word. Am I being shaped by God's Word? Or am I actually filtering the verses I want to hear, want to listen to, want to be influenced by, and rejecting the ones that are uncomfortable? Finally, do I hunger to know God through his word? The heavens are declaring the glory of God. You can go out on a clear night outside of the city, see the stars in all their majesty. That's not the glory of God, that's just the handiwork of God. But the handiwork of God points us to the glory of God. What a God he must be to make handiwork like this. A quilt made of stars millions of miles apart from each other. What a God. What a glorious God He must be. And yet, that is nothing. The psalmist himself says, who declares the glory of God in His handiwork? The psalmist himself says that's nothing compared to the perfect, certain law of God that has been given in words to us. This is how God reveals himself to us. He reveals himself to us in his word. Do we hunger to know God through his word like newborn babies? Peter says, hungering for more of God in his word. My hope is that through this series, we will come to deeper, greater hunger for God and seek the fulfillment of that hunger nowhere else but in a ravenous consumption of God's Word. In God, I will praise His Word. If you have come to see that God's Word is true and that He's spoken to us in His Word, the Son, Jesus Christ, who came as the image of God Himself, to live a perfect life, to die in our place, to take our sins on Himself, all these things according to the Scriptures. We give you the opportunity to publicly profess Jesus Christ as the Savior revealed in God's perfect holy word as we sing this song. May God bless you.