SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/21/2017
8:56 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: The
Extent of The Holy Spirit’s Revelation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 16:13a
Message of the
verses: “"But when He, the
Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;”
John MacArthur write the following on this verse stating “The
agent of Christ’s further revelation to the disciples would be ‘the Spirit of truth. In addition to activating Christ’ promises in
the disciples, convicting the world of sin, and comforting Jesus’ followers,
the Spirit would also ‘guide’ the disciples ‘into all the truth.’ That promise, like the one in 14:26, refers to
the Spirit’s supernatural revelation concerning Christ’s person and
teaching. It serves as the Lord’s
preauthentication of the New Testament writers; the Holy Spirit, who inspired
the Old Testament, would also inspire the New.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 Paul wrote of the Spirit’s inspiration of the
New Testament writers,
‘Just as it is written, ‘Things
which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the
heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who live Him.’ For to us God
revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the
depths of God.’
Only the Holy Spirit, since
He is God, knows all that God knows, and thus is qualified to reveal divine
truth to man.”
I mentioned that I have read this passage many times and
even studied the book of John in a Sunday school class along with when studying
it when I first went through the New Testament beginning in the 1990’s, but
have never understood the truth of Christ telling His disciples that some of
them would be involved in writing the New Testament.
Notice that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “The Spirit of
Truth” in this passage and because He is God He is Truth and cannot lie as it
is not in His nature to sin and lying is a sin.
So what He has inspired in the entire Word of God, both OT and NT is
without error. Jesus prays to the Father
in John 17:17 “"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” What we have in the Word of God is God
speaking to us and because God cannot lie, His Word is truth. MacArthur writes “To argue otherwise is an
affront to the holy nature of the God who inspired it [The Word of God]. Inspiration includes all of Scripture (2 Tim.
3:16), and extends to the very words used by the writers (1 Cor. 2:13; cf. 2
Sam. 23:2). Thus, as R. C. Sproul illustrates,
it is absurd to claim to believe in the Bible’s inspiration while denying its
inerrancy:
‘On numerous occasions I have
queried several Biblical and theological scholars in the following manner.—‘Do
you maintain the inerrancy of Scripture?’ –‘No’ –‘Do you believe the Bible to
be inspired of God’ – ‘Yes’ –‘Do you think God inspires error?’ –‘No’ – ‘Is all
of the Bible inspired by God’ –‘Yes’ ‘Is
the Bible errant?’ – ‘No’ ‘Is it
inerrant?’ – ‘No!’ – At that point I usually acquire an Excedrin headache.’”
There is another thing that we have to look at concerning
the Bible and that is that the Bible’s inspiration also excludes all
extrabiblical writings as there are 66 books of the Bible alone as this
comprises God’s complete and final revelation to man. The following is a solemn warning against
tampering with or adding to Scripture:
“I testify to everyone who hears the
words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him
the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from
the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the
tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book (Rev.
22:18-19).”
“2 "You shall not add to the word which I
am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of
the LORD your God which I command you (Deu. 4:2)” “32 "Whatever I command you, you shall
be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.” “5 Every word of God is tested; He is a
shield to those who take refuge in Him. 6 Do not add to His words Or He will
reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.”
(Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; and Proverbs 3:5-6)
The book of Revelation describes all of history from the
end of the apostolic age, (for John was the last apostle alive as Revelation
was written around 90 A.D.), to the eternal state, therefore to add to it would
be to add to Scripture. John MacArthur
quotes from Robert L. Thomas, who writes
“The predictive portions project
from John’s lifetime all the way into the eternal state. Any type of prophetic utterance would intrude
into the domain of this coverage and constitute either an addition to or
subtraction from Revelation’s content.
So the final book of the Bible is also the concluding product of the NT
prophecy. It also marks the close of the
NT canon since the prophetic gift was the divine chose means for communication
the inspired books of the cannon.”
I want to look at 2
Timothy 3:17 which says “so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for
every good work.” This shows us why
Scripture was given.
We need to look at one more quote in order to finish the
thoughts given in our verses for today: “The
Lord’s promise that the Spirit will guide believers into all the truth has
primary reference to the writers of the New Testament. But it also extends in a secondary sense to
the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-16). He instructs and teaches believers from the
inspired Scriptures, as John notes:
‘But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and
you all know…As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in
you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches
you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught
you, you abide in Him (1 John 2:20, 27).’
We
as believers surely need to continue to diligently study the Word of God and if
we need help in understanding it then the Holy Spirit will help us understand
it, and also we can find good commentaries to also help us understand. I usually find help in my studies by consulting
Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” book commentaries as he has one on each of the books
of the Bible although he may combine more than one Bible book in his “Be”
series. I also as you can tell read from
the commentaries of John MacArthur, especially for the New Testament. It took John MacArthur 45 years to preach
through the entire New Testament, spending 10 years alone on the study of the
book of Luke, so I know that he is dedicated to explaining the truths found in
the Word of God. He stated on one of his
sermons that most of the people he reads for help in understanding are all ready
with the Lord so their writings are older.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John” (John 1:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘I have need to be
baptized of thee, and comest thou to me’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/21/2017 9:59 AM
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