Sermon for Sunday Evening, October 6, 2024 at Unionville Presbyterian Church, BPC
Scripture reading:
[Isa 40:1-11 ESV] 1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” 6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Sermon text:
[Isa 40:8 ESV] 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Introduction
Wouldn’t it be amazing to be on an archaeological dig in Israel and find a first century copy of a New Testament book? Or wouldn’t it be amazing to look in the basement of an old century monastery and find an ancient and complete copy of the Bible? And then we would know exactly what Jesus said to his disciples, and what his disciples said about him.
You know what? We have that Bible already.
God has PRESERVED His word for us.
That is the subject this evening. The Preservation of the Scriptures.
I. The Doctrine of Preservation
When it comes to the doctrine of Scripture we often speak about
innerrancy
infallability
and
even perspicuity. (my personal favorite).
That is, the Bible is without error, does not lead anyone into error, and is clear (perspicacious) in its teachings.
Perhaps less commonly discussed is the doctrine of the preservation of the Scriptures.
This is not “perseverance of the saints” or “preservation of the saints” that I’m speaking of but the “preservation of the Scriptures.”
This is the idea, simply, that the Scriptures (the Bible) that we have today is an accurate copy of the originals. I say originals plural because there are 66 books of the Bible, written mostly in Hebrew and Greek in their own times.
And all the inerrancy, infallibility, and perspicuity are empty and meaningless if we don’t have the true revelation from God. If the Bible has been changed, then it is not the Bible. And if we don’t have confidence in having the words of the original text preserved in our own Bibles today, then we suffer greatly in doubting “did God really say?”
But, fortunately, we have the Word of God. He has preserved his word in his Holy Scriptures through the centuries among the people of God — His church — that we have THE Bible today.
II. A Confessional Doctrine
And we hear about this doctrine of the preservation of Scriptures in our confession.
Chapter 1, Part 8
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and, by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal unto them.
The final appeal is not to ANY translation of the Scriptures, but to the original language.
But that immediately brings up a problem. We don’t have any original writings of Paul or Jesus or anyone else. And I think it is a good thing that we don’t. People would worship the paper, you know they would.
So what the confession says is that “by God’s singular care and providence, he has kept pure in all ages” the text of the Scriptures.
This seems to have been written, in part, because the Roman Catholic church largely relied on the Latin Vulgate translation. The Reformers, say (while translations are important to reach the people in their native languages), NO translation is to be looked at for the final appeal, but the originals.
But again, isn’t there a problem? How do we know the originals?
Well, the texts that have been brought down through the ages, the copies we have, they have been KEPT PURE IN ALL AGES.
It is not that each and every scribe was perfect in his copying. There are plenty of mistakes made by every scribe.
But the whole — the mass of texts — thousands of fragments and whole copies of the Bible, when we look at them TOGETHER we can see where the mistakes are and where the correct readings are (by comparison and through the use of common reasoning) and therefore know the originals.
We have the very word of God; the faith once delivered to the saints.
III. A Biblical Doctrine
This is not just a confessional Westminsterian doctrine, but a Scriptural teaching as well.
God PRESERVES His word for the benefit of His people.
[Mat 5:18 ESV] 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
“the Law” is not only the 613 laws of the Old Testament, but is often used to mean the whole of the written word which is the old testament.
Then there is another text:
[Mat 24:35 ESV] 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
So not just “the law” or “the Old Testament” but the words of Christ. And, you know, this is not just the words he spoke to the Apostles, but because He Himself is the Word of God, Jesus is speaking of All of the revealed and written revelation from the beginning. It is all His words.
So we come then to our text:
[Isa 40:8 ESV] 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
I pray this verse often after reading other verse. Many ministers do. It is a good reminder of truth that God’s word that came “yesterday” is applicable “today” and valid forever.
In the context of the chapter we find that this is written for the comfort of God’s people. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” And it is indeed of great comfort to know that God’s word will stand forever.
And it also is to lead us to proclaim the Gospel and sing God’s praises. Just after our scripture verse, it says this:
9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Because God’s word will stand forever, do this:
Go on up to a high mountain
Lift your voice with strength.
Be a herald of good news.
Say “behold your God.” He comes with might. He rewards and he “recompenses”; he compensates those who have suffered. He tends his flocks, and gather His lambs, carrying them in his bosom and gently leads those that are with young.
This is all great comfort.
IV. History of Preservation
How have the Scriptures been kept pure? By the grace of God. And by his hand. And also through the scribes with their many many copies. Especially for the New Testament are there many ancient copies. And sometimes a copy disagrees with another and it is pretty clear that the copyist in one case made a mistake. In other cases it takes some work. But it is not likely for two Scribes in two different places to make the same mistake. So there are logical ways to find and remove errors. And the early church scribes, and scribes throughout the centuries, likely employed some of these types of methods to find out what the original text said.
And so it is that often an older copy is better than an earlier copy. Those older copies were written with access to many earlier copies and so the scribe could avoid copying any errors.
Of course early copies are of great value. But many of the earliest copies of the Bible that we have today are inferior copies. It was exactly that poor state of copying with many errors that kept them from being used and worn out.
So we can truly say “Thus sayeth the Lord” and “This is the word of God.”
Churches, ministers, who deny the inerrancy of the Scriptures, or the preservation of them, or even the truth of them cannot say “This IS the word of God.” Perhaps they skip that phrase entirely. If they say it, it is only of habit, and not something they believe. And all preaching is in vain if it is just the word of man. But we say, with power, THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD.
And a wonderful treasure it is.
Paul tells us that “the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.” (Romans 3:2)
And he says that the church of the living God is to be “a pillar and buttress of this truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)
So God HAS preserved His Word … AND this is in line with what we know of God. “God does not does change.” And His Word does not change. And God is all-powerful, which is plenty powerful enough to preserve his word through the centuries, and indeed even through all time.
Application 1: Some Bible translations are better than others.
What are the ramifications of this idea? The preservation of Scripture.
One ramification is that some Bible translations are better than others. Here I’m not talking about the ability of translators, but the premises that they start with. Do they believe the text has been kept pure through the ages, or not?
There should be a preference for the text that has come down through the ages, in the churches. So Bibles like the Geneva Bible, the King James Bible, and the New King James Bible fit that criteria. Other Bibles like the ESV, NASB, NIV, etc. are still largely great Bibles, but you have to be careful because there are some places where modern scholars have decided against the traditional readings in favor of readings that were not generally preserved in the church through the ages, but known from discarded fragments found in the deserts. One could argue that these fragments too have been preserved, but the problem is that they have not been preserved through the ages. It was only in the 1800s and now until the present that such fragments of Biblical material have been found.
Because the Scriptures have been preserved we have the word of God.
Am I advocating the KJVO position? No. There is something similar. I’m advocating that the Lord has kept pure in all ages his word. And so the text that underlie the KJV are largely good texts; better in many cases than the critical eclectic text compiled by the experts today.
But KJVO itself is quite silly. Some of them seem to believe that the KJV was given directly from God, rather than being a translation. And so they would recommend other languages be based on the KJV! Imagine that, a Greek New Testament back-translated out of the KJV! Or a Hebrew OT back-translated from the KJV!
There is a naive nostalgia with the KJV. It was THE Bible in the English speaking word for many years. And a great service it did. But we have to understand the context. It might help to understand that King James wasn’t the greatest guy. And there was already the Geneva Bible (English translation of 1560) and other good translations. What was King James’s motivation? Well, for one, the Geneva Bible had Puritanistic footnotes that King James wasn’t fond of.
Then today we have the problem that many people can’t understand the KJV. Well, I think they should try harder. But, even better is the NKJV because it avoids the problem of archaic language. It is written in the vernacular.
Conclusion
Isaiah 40:8 is about more than just preservation.
Isaiah 40:8 says “The Word of our God will stand Forever.”
This means more than just preservation of the text. It means at least that. But it also means that, just as God does not change, so neither does His word change. His truths are forever true. Even if every physical copy of the Bible ceased to exist, His word still stands. It is what is true. It stands, and all bow before the Lord. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord indeed.