The Book you think you know

0:00 OK, so I need to tell you a story picture this third year university, it's Valentine season. So the vibe, everything, it's a bit different. You probably get it. And so someone in my department has a brilliant idea gift exchange, picking in from your ballot, get a gift for that person. You will know who is getting a gift for you. You won't know what they're going to get for you, but you're going to come on that day, on the day of the gift exchange expectants. So the whole element of mystery and surprise is what I like.

0:31 I love the idea. So I was down for it. Now here's the thing. I'm so far away, so I know that I don't want to get a gift that I will not end up using or I wouldn't like. So I said it out loud that day, clearly, clearly for anyone to hear. If you pick my name, I'm very, very open to having a conversation about what it is that I want. Like you picked my name, you're giving me a gift, or you could ask somebody to ask me if you want to keep the mystery however you want to do it. I don't mind. I'll tell you exactly what it is.

1:03 I want no stress. And then it happened. Someone came to ask me after days, different days, when we meet at the department, guys, just just saying, you know, reminding you. Anyway, I was needed. Finally someone understood the assignments, so I told them this is what I want. Nothing extravagant, I just want a pack of joy fries from a Pascal. There's a particular cafeteria I wanted it from on campus, and I wanted a very cold bottle of saucer to go with it. Saucer is in this drink that was raining. Then preferably I wanted the cranberry flavour, but I wasn't picky.

1:42 Anyone was fine. My whole idea was that I can leave like on the day of the gift exchange, it's in the evening that we meet as a department. So I can leave the meeting, I can leave that day and I can just go straight to my room, straight to my hostel instead of having to battle long lines and having to greet different people while I'm hungry. So what's the perfect plan that etched out to my head and this person looks at me and says and I goes no, why would I give you food? I should get you something you can use.

2:13 Hello. Something I can. Who told you I cannot use food to satisfy my hunger anyway? She didn't agree. I don't know what exactly she told the person who was to give to me, but the day of the exchange came and I received a journal. A journal which would have been lovely, except that I did not journal. I was not someone who wrote or did much of that. I tried to be optimistic. I genuinely try to, I even try to use because while I don't journal, I have sermon notes. I tried to use the journal as my sermon notes, but it wasn't very comfortable.

2:52 Like the way out, the journal was structured and everything. So eventually it just sat there accumulating just. And then I say I was sad, not just because I didn't get what I wanted, but because I had spoken. It was a different thing. If you had no idea at all and nobody asked me and you decided to go off of what you thought, I think it would not have been as disheartening. Maybe that's maybe that's too deep a word, but I probably would not have felt somehow about it. But because I had communicated, I had given someone the exact information they needed and they set it aside in favor of what they thought was better.

3:27 And for the person I was gifting, I went to find a person who I knew was friends with her. I asked him, oh, what do you think this person would like? She apparently she journals, right? So I got a very nice journal parent. She also likes planting chips. I got her the particular brand of planting chips that her friend said she likes, you know, put in a nice gift bag. But it got to my turn and it was a different case. So her intentions were pure, no doubt. Like I have no doubt about that. But then pure intentions do not automatically produce the right results.

3:58 Now, I'm not telling you all of this, so maybe I want to rant or to drag anybody. It was a long time ago. We've all moved on, but I'm saying this because it's a perfect picture of something that breaks God's heart. You can be passionate, you can be heartfelt, you can be fervent. You can genuinely be well meaning. You can pour your whole heart into something for God and be completely convinced that you're pleasing because you're putting your whole heart into it. It's like you're doing this from the right motive, you know, with everything within you.

4:28 And so you're so convinced that, yeah, you're pleasing God. Or you could still be getting it wrong because you're relying on your own knowledge as opposed to his knowledge, right? Or maybe you're not even relying on your on your own knowledge, you're relying on the wrong knowledge of Him. Hebrews 11 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. And in Romans 10 you see that faith comes by hearing. That's hearing the word of God, which means that the knowledge we have of God determines whether what it is that we are doing with our passion and with our fervency actually pleases Him.

5:00 Like someone John 19 says, I delight in your command because I love them. First John 2 talks about how if we claim to know God. I think what I I think first John 2. I also think John 1415 talk about like, if we claim to know God, I would not keep his commandments were liars. Like if you love me, you keep my commandments. And so a sign of false faith, I dare say, is a disregard for God's Word. And when I say his word, I don't just mean his voice. I don't just mean the prophetic. I don't just mean the convictions or the inner workings of the Spirit of God within you.

5:30 I also mean his written word. If anything, I most assuredly mean his written word. And that brings me to what I want to talk about today. Hi, welcome or welcome back to the rated podcast, right? And here we talk about the faith in a way that's clear and that hopefully leaves you loving God and in all of him more than you can. So this is part of a series that I'm going to do in the Bible, and I think it's quite necessary. I didn't plan to have this series. I didn't plan to talk about this like I, I literally decided to change it to D, right?

6:04 Because some things that have been on my mind and before you maybe maybe think you already know what it is I'm going to say or maybe just click off and everything. I want to implore you to stay with me because I think a lot of us, myself included at some point have been holding this book or have had access to this book without fully knowing what it is that we are holding. Alright, so let's dive into it. First of what is the Bible? I'm not asking for the textbook answer. I want you to actually think about it, OK?

6:33 You know, what if somebody asks me what is the Bible? What would I see? What would you see? I, I, I want you to know that the Bible is first and foremost the written word of God. Like it's literally God's word written down. Second Timothy 3, verse 6 tells us that all Scripture is God breathed, right? So it's inspired by the breath of God, by God. Every word originated from God himself. And it's necessary that you know and remember this, this God's Word communicated through human writers who were moved or carried along by the Holy Spirit.

7:10 I think Second, Peter says that these men did not speak of their own accord, did not speak of their own will. It might have seemed like that at the time to them, but really the way writing or speaking as moved by God's Spirit. So it means that the Bible is not a human document that contains divine ideas. It is a divine document, First off, that came through human hands. Like sometimes you have to remember the Bible is divine. It's also historical and we will look at that next week. But the Bible is divine.

7:41 It's divine because not because it has divine ideas. It's divine because the source is divine. The source is God himself. But beyond what it is, I also want to talk about what it is for and what it is not for. Sometimes if you want to know what The thing is, might want to know what it is not. I hope we get the logic. But anyway, the purpose of the Bible ships how we approach it, and so we need to know what it is for. And so the primary purpose of the Bible is to reveal God's words. I can't remember the particular verse now, but talks about the scriptures make us wise on to salvation.

8:13 Salvation is God's story of pursuit for us. It's not a history textbook. While it's contains history, it's not something that we go to. Maybe we want to get motivated, like maybe a collection of motivational speeches. No, it's not even a manner for successful living. While the Bible might speak to all of those things, that is not what it is primarily for. It's primary purpose is to show us who God is, what He has done, what He requires, and how we can be in the right relationship with Him. The entire narrative of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is ultimately the story of God pursuing humanity.

8:53 It's a story of redemption. And you want to do well to remember that. So now that we've talked about what the Bible is, let's also know what it is not because I think a lot of misuse of the Bible of Scripture generally starts from not knowing what it's for, right? So it's like, OK, we come to the Bible with an agenda, something we want to see, something we want to get from it, and then we find a way to make it seem like the Bible is saying that. And that's very, very dangerous. Like it's so dangerous.

9:24 It's so, so dangerous. So the Bible is not a fortune cookie. It's not a lottery machine. You don't come and just open a random page and then maybe you need a word for the day. And then you just build a major life decision on the verse you just pulled out of context. Like you just opened your Bible and you saw the first verse and you decided, OK, because it's remotely relates to what it is that you were thinking about. That's the word for the day. No, the Bible read in pieces outside of context. It becomes a very different book from what it actually is supposed to be.

9:56 The Bible is also not a tool for manipulation, right? Many times we see people use the Bible over time. I didn't want to I'm I'm still going to talk about this more, but people who have been so we can have used the Bible out of context to control people, to silence questions, to justify things that God never intended. I'm definitely sure that all of them will get what is coming their way. But anyway, this happens when the Bible is in the hands of someone who has not handled it honestly, who has not handled it with the respect they also handle it with the Bible is also not a book of magical words.

10:31 It's not something that you know, you just go, oh, I want to claim something, you know, claim it, name it, you receive it. And so you just use particular verses in the Bible to get the things that you want or to sort of sponsor the lost of your flesh or maybe of your eyes, maybe pride of life, I don't know. The Word of God is powerful, yes, deeply, genuinely powerful, but it's power is in its truth, not in being recited to get what it is that you want or to get particularly material things. And most importantly, the Bible is not something you come to confirm what you already believe.

11:04 You come to it to be corrected, to be instructed in righteousness for a proof, for correction. That's what Second Timothy 3, verse 16 tells us. So you come for correction, you come for reproof, you come to get doctrine right, which means that sometimes it will tell you things that you don't want to hear, or things that you don't particularly like, or things that you're not particularly in agreement with. And because it's the Word of God, you must treat it as such, and you must honor it and must be in submission to it.

11:32 Which brings me to a very, very foundational truth about the Bible. The Bible is inerrance, which simply means that in its original writings, the Bible is without error. It does not contradict itself. It does not mislead. It does not lie. Now, I know it sounds like such a big claim, like, oh, how, Nathan, how are you so sure? You know, especially in the world where people are constantly pointing out contradictional supposed contradictions about the Bible. And I'm going to address it more in the next episode of now I'll just talk about why it matters.

12:02 You see, if the Bible contains errors, then we have a problem, because someone can decide or can choose which parts are true, or can try to choose anyway which parts are true and which parts are not true. And when the human being becomes the decider of which verse of Scripture is reliable, you replace God's authority with human opinion. It has to be God's Word and God's Word alone. That way you can stand and you can bank on it, right? Psalm 12 or 6 says the words of the Lord are like silver refined in a furnace, purified 7 times.

12:36 Provides 30. Verse 5 talks about how every word of God is flawless. Not most words, not the important parts, every word. That is the God we serve, One who does not speak in half truths. So if the Bible is the word of God, and if it is without error, then it follows that it must be the final authority on which we rely on for every matter. Not tradition, not culture, not what your pastor says, not what your denomination says, not what do you feel is right in the means, not even your personal experience.

13:05 Experience is powerful. There are things you might have explained. There are things I've experienced. You know that sometimes I find difficult to articulate. I believe God meets us in our experiences. But your experience will never be the standard. My experience will never be the standard. The Word of God will be because experiences can be misread, emotions can be misled, feelings can be deceitful, But the Word of God stands forever. Your experience must be interpreted through the lens of Scripture, not the other way around.

13:36 You want to start making the Bible to fit your experience? You're entering dangerous waters and it's why we can see that the Bible is sufficient and supreme. It's because the Bible tells us that it contains everything that we need pertaining to a life of godliness. Everything that you need for life and for godliness, the Bible provides it. And then it stands above every other voice, every authority, every other claim to truth. So I want to bring this all back to where I first started from. The consequences of a wrong relationship with the Bible are in no way small.

14:09 I don't know how to emphasize this. I think some of the people who have left the faith today live because they had the wrong relationship with the Bible. Someone maybe told them something that was wrong about about the Bible. Or maybe someone who themselves had the wrong relationship with the Bible tried to teach them about the Christian faith and so they hear some things that when I explain the proper context, maybe verses were misinterpreted and then they just felt like this whole Christianity thing is a scam.

14:36 Christianity needs truths. When practice properly is not a scam, right? But when misinterpreted it can lead to false conversions. It can also lead to people live in the faith. So the consequences of a wrong relationship with Bible are not small. When people don't know what the Bible is, they are the mercy of whoever is telling them what it says. So when people don't believe in its inherency, they pick and choose and in the end up with a watered down version of Christianity that is shipped by their preference.

15:04 When people do not hold onto the final authority of God, they follow personalities, they follow emotions, they follow movements, they follow men of God and they can feel very LED, very in tune with God, but they actually are not. And that's the thing about wrong knowledge. It doesn't always feel wrong. It can feel passionate. It can feel spiritual. Sometimes it can feel like conviction, fire in your bones. But if it is not rooted in the truth of God's Word, if it's contradicts what God's Word, when rightly interpreted, has said, it's not leading you where you think it's leading you.

15:39 Remember the journal. Pure intention is genuine care, but a complete disregard for the information that I gave and as a result, something I could not use. So God has not left us without information, He has given us His Word, He has spoken, and our job, our responsibility as believers is to know it, trust it, and let it need. So the Bible is not as a book you keep on your shelf, it is the written word of God, breed by Him, carried through human writers you know, through history, given to us as the primary by which we know Him and are shaped by Him.

16:13 Its purpose is to reveal God, not to confirm your preferences and should not be used for something was not designed for. It's definitely without error. It's final authority. And I know that sounds crazy how you should show that it's final authority. How can you even trust the Bible? I implore you to stick around for the next episode. I'm going to address all of that. So yeah, in the meantime, picked up and read it a bit. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for being here for this one.

16:40 And it's a bit different from what you might have seen recently, but I believe that this series is definitely something that you need. You might even know these things. Then it means that you need to share it with other people as well, right? It's so, so important. I'm so sure of that. So if it helps you, please share this with someone, right? Especially someone who maybe has been with God for a while but maybe has not thought deeply about these things or maybe has even had some of these questions.

17:05 Sometimes the people who have been in church the longest might be the ones who need this conversation the most. Leave everything if you haven't and follow right so you don't miss Part 2 and maybe three. I'm not sure yet, but until next time, stay with it. Bye.