HH #3.5: Family Discipleship

HH #3.5: Family Discipleship

Season #1 Episode #3

Family Worship - Divine Inspiration of the Bible

In our last family worship episode, we talked about studying the Bible. Remember, we are called to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And, since God’s Word is the only way to learn how to glorify and enjoy Him, we need to make sure to study the Bible, so that we may learn how to do so. We even went through some great ways to study God’s Word, such as always reading it regularly, memorizing Bible verses, and reading Bible studies and listening to sermons.

Now, all of this begs the question why. What is it about the Bible that makes it the source we should use and trust so that we can live our lives to glorify and enjoy the Lord?

If the Bible is just a really old book written by some smart people a long time ago, then we probably wouldn’t care too much about what it said. We certainly wouldn’t need to study it, and try to live according to what it said.

But that is not the case. The Bible was divinely inspired by God, and what I mean by that is that every word in the Bible came from God. It is God’s own Word. And that is why we can trust it, and use it to glorify and enjoy the Lord.

Let’s look at some verses in the Bible that help us understand this. You should recognize this first one, since it’s part of our memory verse from last time. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” It says right there at the beginning that all Scripture is breathed out by God, meaning that it all came from God.

2 Peter 1:21 says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” We can see here that none of the Bible came from man’s will, but from God’s.

Let’s look at the Psalms for a moment. Here’s a good one. We see in Psalm 12:6 that “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” What does this mean? It says that God’s words are pure, which means they have no flaws. They are all God’s words, and they are all true.

Now, as we like to do here in these lessons, let’s take a look at some of the historical catechisms, to see what they have to say about the inspiration of Scripture. First, let’s check the Catechism for Boys and Girls, question 15:

15.Q. Who wrote the Bible?
A. Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit

This is confirming what we’ve read in the Bible verses. God taught the men who wrote the Bible exactly what to say.

Let’s move over to Keach’s Catechism next. In Question 4 it says:

Q. 5. How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
A. The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, its power to convert sinners and to edify saints; but the Spirit of God only, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in our hearts, is able fully to persuade us that the Bible is the Word of God.

Before we conclude, we’re going to look at one of the great historical confessional documents. Chapter 1, Section 1 of the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) says, “We believe and confess the canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both Testaments to be the true Word of God, and to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men. For God himself spoke to the fathers, prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures.”

Okay, so what does this all tell us? We’ve seen from Scripture itself that God divinely inspired all of the Bible. It is literally “God’s Word.” The catechisms agree, that God recorded His words through holy men that He taught.

So when we consider the Bible, we don’t have to wonder if it was just written by humans and doesn’t actually contain the Truth we need to live by. We know that it is God’s Word, His own words, that He made sure were written down so that we can read them and study them and learn how to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. I don’t know about you, but I find that very encouraging and comforting.

Memory Verse

2 Peter 1:21 - For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Catechisms

The Catechism for Boys and Girls
15. Q. Who wrote the Bible?
A. Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit

Keach’s Catechism
Q. 5. How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
A. The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, its power to convert sinners and to edify saints; but the Spirit of God only, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in our hearts, is able fully to persuade us that the Bible is the Word of God.

Worship Song

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Credits: Words by Fanny Crosby (1873), Music by Phoebe Knapp (1873)
Public Domain

Resource Recommendations

Blessed Assurance - Celtic Worship: https://youtu.be/LOuw3rLY7Zg
The Untold Story behind the Author of the song "Blessed Assurance" - https://youtu.be/g3keZTYkwQw
How is the Bible divinely inspired: https://youtu.be/6Rt0tIOosg8