Talk 4. God speaks to us through the Bible
So far we have seen that God speaks to all people through creation, that in Old Testament times God spoke to Israel through the prophets, and that now God has spoken finally and definitively by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We now turn our attention to another way that God speaks to us. He speaks through his written word, the Bible. In this talk we will consider why we should believe that God speaks to us through the Bible. In the following talks we’ll look at how he does so.
Why believe that God speaks to us through the Bible
How can we be sure that we can expect God to speak to us through the Bible?
- The Bible shows us the way of salvation
- The Bible tells us about Jesus
- Jesus made it clear that God speaks through Scripture
- The apostles taught that God speaks through Scripture
- Christian experience confirms that God speaks through the Bible.
The Bible shows us the way of salvation
It’s important to believe that God speaks to us through the Bible because it’s the Bible that shows us the way of salvation. The Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).
Peter tells us that we … have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23) and Paul tells us that faith for salvation comes from hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).
If you’re like me, your first experience of hearing God speak to you was when he spoke through the preaching of his word challenging you to repent and put your trust in Christ as your Saviour. He spoke to you through the Bible then, and he will continue to do so throughout your Christian life. And closely connected with the fact that the Bible shows us the way od salvation is the fact that it tells us about Jesus.
The Bible tells us about Jesus
We saw in the last talk that God speaks to us through Jesus, showing us what God is like, teaching us what to believe, and demonstrating through his example how we should live. But how do we know all these things about Jesus? Because they are recorded in the Bible.
Admittedly, our first acquaintance with the facts about Jesus may not have come directly from the Bible, but from someone telling us about Jesus – maybe our parents, or a Sunday school teacher, a Christian minister, or a friend. But, of course, whoever it was who first told us about Jesus, they first got the information from the Bible.
So God speaks to us through Jesus who is his final word to the human race (Hebrews 1:1), and he speaks to us through the Bible which is his record of who Jesus is, and what he said and did. The Bible is all about Jesus. Even the Old Testament scriptures, written long before he came, are about him:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
So God speaks to us through Jesus and it is through the Bible that he tells us about him.
Jesus made it clear that God speaks through scripture
Another good reason for believing that God speaks to us through the Bible is that Jesus himself believed this. With regard to the Old Testament, Jesus stated that the scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). The Sadducees were in error because they were ignorant of the scriptures (Mark 12:24). It was easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law (Luke 16:17).
As far as Jesus was concerned, when the Bible spoke, God spoke. For example, in Genesis 2:24 the Bible says:
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
But in Matthew 19:4-5 Jesus says:
Haven’t you read… that at the beginning the Creator… said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?
So for Jesus, when the Bible speaks, God speaks. It is surely enough for us, as Jesus’ disciples, to believe as he believed.
The New Testament, of course, had not been written at the time of Christ. But Jesus promised his disciples that the Holy Spirit would accurately remind them of his teachings and would lead them into further truth for which they were not yet ready:
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26).
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. …He will tell you what is yet to come (John 16:13).
In a later chapter we’ll be talking about various ways that God speaks to us by his Spirit. But the primary way the Holy Spirit speaks to us is through the Bible.
The apostles taught that God speaks through scripture
As we read the New Testament we discover that the first Christians believed that God spoke through the scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments. Paul tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
Peter tells us that he and the other apostles did not follow cleverly devised stories when they spoke about Jesus. They were eyewitnesses of his majesty. They heard the voice of God saying, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. But he then goes on to say:
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:16-21).
This shows us that the Scriptures are completely reliable. The people who wrote them were speaking from God. The writings of the Scriptures are as much the voice of God as the experience Peter had when he heard God’s voice in audible form.
What’s more, the New Testament writers were aware of the inspiration that Jesus had promised. Their writings were not a product of their own wisdom or ability. They were conscious of direct guidance and authority from God. The things they wrote were the commandments of the Lord taught directly by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13, 14:37) and their writings were acknowledged as equal to those of the Old Testament.
Notice how, in 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes the New Testament alongside the Old Testament and evidently considers both as an integral part of scripture:
For the scripture says, Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain (Deuteronomy 25:4) and, The worker deserves his wages (Matthew 10:10).
The same attitude is adopted by Peter in 2 Peter 3:16, where he refers to all Paul’s letters as part of the scriptures:
He (Paul) writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
It is clear, then, that both Jesus and his early followers taught that the scriptures are the written word of God and that, therefore, as we read them he will speak to us. The message is simple. If you want God to speak to you, read the Bible!
Christian experience confirms that God speaks through the Bible
I’m sure that countless millions of Christians can testify that God has spoken to them through the Bible. It may have been through reading the Bible, or someone else preaching from it, or through a verse of Scripture that has suddenly come to mind just when it was needed. Perhaps, like me, you’ve heard God speak to you in all of these ways. As we’ve just seen with regard to Peter’s experience, the writings of the Scriptures are as much God’s voice as when he heard it in audible form. But let me give you just one example from my personal experience of how God spoke to me and through me from two Bible passages in a very unusual situation.
Some years ago I was invited by the Christian Union of a college in Chester to conduct an evangelistic mission among the students. When I arrived just after lunch on the Monday, a member of staff conducted me to the bedroom they had allocated for me. I hope you don’t mind, he said, we’re putting you in a room that was occupied until recently by a student we have had to expel from the college. He had been practising witchcraft.
I was rather surprised by this, to say the least, but I put a brave face on it and said, as casually as I could, Oh, that’s fine. No problem! But when I entered the room, I confess I began to wonder what evil presence might be lurking there. The half-burnt candle on the windowsill didn’t help. Had that been part of his devilish paraphernalia? Or had they just had a power-cut recently?
Then I remembered what Jesus had promised to his disciples as he sent them out on the task of world evangelisation:
Surely, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
I reminded myself of other Bible verses like
Behold I give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19)
and I began to take courage. I settled into my room and started to prepare myself for the meeting at which I had to speak that evening.
After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. Two men stood there. They had seen the light on in my room and wondered who it was that was in there.
Are you a new student? they asked.
No, I replied, I’ve come to conduct a mission for the Christian Union.
That’s interesting, said one of them. It’s strange they should put you in my old room.
It was the man they had expelled for practising witchcraft! He had come back to visit his friend. Of course, I invited them to the meeting that evening and the ‘witch’ said he might come. And sure enough, when the time for the meeting came, there he was sitting in the audience.
I preached the gospel and I would like to be able to say that the man gave his life to Christ, but he didn’t. Instead, he came and argued with me! This went on for some time after the meeting had closed, and after about half an hour, feeling that we were getting nowhere by arguing, I decided to invite him to come to the meeting the next day.
I think you’ll be particularly interested tomorrow, I said. The subject is Jesus the way to power. How real is the supernatural? Is it safe?
I don’t think you know the first thing about the supernatural, he replied.
What a challenge to a Pentecostal preacher!
Well, I don’t know much about what you get up to when you practise your witchcraft, I said, but I will tell you one thing. When you come under the control of a familiar spirit, you can’t say Jesus is Lord, can you?
I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me! I had said this on the basis of my understanding of 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, but I was not prepared for the effect it had on this young man. He went visibly pale and said, How did you know that?
Taking courage by his reaction, I said:
Because the Bible, which is God’s word tells me so. And I’ll tell you something else it says. You may not acknowledge that Jesus is Lord now, but the day is coming when you will have to, whether you like it or not. For the Bible says that one day at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father
As I quoted these verses from Philippians 2:10-11 to him, he retreated out of the room! I went to bed at around 11pm and fell asleep straight away, sleeping soundly until about 7 the next morning. While the students were having their breakfast, I went down the corridor to the washroom to shave. While I was shaving, I saw in the mirror the face of the ‘witch’. He was standing right behind me.
Good morning, he said. Did you sleep well?
Yes, thank you, I replied.
Are you sure?
Yes, perfectly sure. I went to bed around 11 and slept soundly until about 7.
Really? I can’t understand that!
Why? What’s so unusual about having a good night’s sleep?
Well, you see, he confessed, I was so annoyed with what you said last night that I stayed up all night practising my witchcraft. I was trying to get a poltergeist into your room to disturb you. I’ve done it many times before and it’s never failed. That’s why they expelled me from the college. I can’t understand why it didn’t work this time.
Oh, I said, ‘I wish you had told me. I could have told you not to waste your time. Don’t you know that Christians are immune to such things?’
Later that day he was seen leaving the college with his bag packed.
Leaving? said one of the Christians. Aren’t you coming to the meeting today?
No, he replied, that fellow knows too much about the supernatural.
Now how does all that relate to God speaking to us through the Bible? Please notice five things:
- The Bible passages I quoted were passages I had memorised.
- They came into my mind as the Holy Spirit reminded me of them.
- They were directly relevant to the situation.
- They brought glory to Jesus.
- They had a powerful effect on an unbeliever.
The word of God is powerful and the Holy Spirit who inspired it can use it to speak to us and through us as we allow him to. Christian experience really does confirm that God speaks through the Bible to Christians and non-Christians too.