Where Are The Leashes?
Defending the Bible
In An Age of Satanic Deceit

Bro. Charley Buntin
Sunday School Teacher
Trace Creek Baptist Church
Mayfield, KY 42066

--One of my favorite illustrations about the Word of God is a story attributed to Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, certainly the greatest preacher in the English language

--The Story goes that a young preacher boy came to Spurgeon and said, “Brother Spurgeon, don’t we need to defend the Bible?” Spurgeon is supposed to have answered—“The Bible is a like a lion, young man, if you unleash it, it will defend itself.”

--This story is has the ring of truth, and I love it, but there is a problem with this picture: Not all of the leashes that bind the Bible are easily seen. If we are to unleash the lion of the Word so it can defend itself, we just remove every imposition of man, including those of saved men who are unduly influenced by the world and its lusts,

--We need to unleash the Bible from all of the abuses and restraints that men have put on the Word, but we must find all of the leashes, all of the problems, and some of them might be on our shelf or in our desks, or in the television programs we watch.

1. What and where are the ties that Bind the Bible? What Are the Issues?

Of necessity I have preached on the sufficiency of Scripture that the Word of God is true, it is inerrant, it is inspired, it is complete. It brings all revelation to an end. Nothing more is needed than the truth of the of the Word of God applied by the Spirit of God. It is clear and it is sufficient...it is sufficient. Not all these attacks, by the way, come from people outside Christianity, most of them come from people who call themselves Christians, liberal theologians, experientialists, existentialists, pragmatists, occultists, cultists, etc., etc., all claiming to represent God and attacking Scripture’s inspiration, inerrancy, historicity, canonicity, uniqueness, power, clarity and sufficiency. And so we’re always going to need to go back and defend Scripture. (John MacArthur, sermon manuscript, God’s Defense of the Scriptures, Part 1)

a. Identifying the usual suspects (MacArthur’s List expanded and explained)

(1) Liberal theologians—“Liberal” in this case does not necessarily refer to the politics of the theologian, but to their theological beliefs, more more specifically, disbeliefs. Liberal theologians come in all shapes and degrees of heresy, but there are some common threads.

(a) Liberal theologians are more distinguished by what they don’t believe than what they do believe.

(b) Liberal theologians consider the Bible to have been written by the church, and by mere men, and not inspired (God-breathed) by God.

(c) Liberal theologians usually deny all or part of the Bible, and apply whatever meaning they want to apply to everyday life and Christianity.

(d) Liberal theologians tend to deny the supernatural and have some “spiritualized” understanding of all of the events that the Bible represents as miraculous.

(e) Liberal theologians usually don’t believe the central elements of “the faith once delivered to the saints…” Jude 3

(2) Experientialists—A experientialist is one whose who life and faith are dominated by experiences, with no way to test the validity of those experiences—and they always “spin” circumstances to make it seem as if they have something going for them. An experientialist doesn’t care how much Truth you have, he has his experience which in his mind trumps all Truth.

(3) Existentialists—This philosophical view teaches that we really can’t know for sure what is true, so if a thing or situation seems OK with us, then we are all right.

(4) Postmodernist—This philosophy goes one step beyond the existentialist.

(a) The postmodernist believes that we really can’t know any absolutes, because there are no absolutes except those that exist for us in our own little world.

(b) The Postmodernist believes that it is impossible to know the meaning of the Bible, and that those who do careful, verse by verse exposition are being “arrogant” to presume that the Bible can be understood.

(c) Many of us sometimes fall into this very subtly by the “God given verse.” The testimony in these cases goes like this: “I prayed to God, and He gave me this verse, and this is what it means to me.” This sound so wonderful, but the Truth is that it makes no difference what you think the verse means, it can only mean what it was intended by God to mean. It is true that sometimes prophetic scriptures have a present and later fulfillment, and that we can take various applications sometimes from a passage, but at the heart, if a passage means one thing for you and another for me, IT MEANS NOTHING AT ALL TO ANYONE.

(5) Pragmatists—A pragmatist designs a theology that works for them, and the guide point is always, “does it work?” and, of course that means the pragmatist writes his own criteria for success anyway.

(6) Occultists—those who combine New Age mysticism with some degree of Christianity

(7) The Adders. One of the most feared family of snakes in the world are the Adders, and in theology, this is greatly more important. Here what we mean is those who add to the Bible.

(a) Cults usually add a book or more to the Bible

(b) The church of Rome has added several books; these are books that were declared by their own great Doctor of the Church, St. Jerome, to be NOT part of the Bible.

(c) But in reality, any prophetic utterance or writing that claims to be in addition to God’s written revelation in the OT and NT is automatically heretical—the Bible cannot be added to.

(d) That is why all I have to read of Joel Osteen’s book is the title, and I don’t need to read what is inside. The very statement: Your Best Life Now, is a heresy—the rest can be no better!

(e) Currently there are at least two unusually poisonous Adders puffing around theological circles, probably more.

(i) One is The Journal of the Unknown Prophet, purporting to be a message direct from Jesus

(ii) The other is Don Piper’s “90 minutes in Heaven,” a Christless trip to a Christless place!

b. The Easy list of issues

(1) Mac’s List

(a) Inspiration—what is the origin of the Bible? Is it a man-made book, a man-made book guided by God, a God-influenced book with the errors of man showing through, or is it God-breathed, originated with Him?

(b) Inerrancy—Does the Bible contain actual factual errors, or is it fully without error in all that it teaches, narrates, or proclaims? [One of the subtle trickeries of men who oppose the word of God is to point out that characters in the Bible say things that are incorrect or sinful, “so the Bible has mistakes…”. ] A child should be able to deal with that bit of illogical fluff! If the Bible is narrating an event or relating a saying or discourse, what the Bible says was said, was said, and what the Bible says was done, was done, both just as the Bible said so.

(c) Historicity—Are the Bible histories accurate, or are they allegories to be interpreted any old way that we please?

(d) Canonicity—Are these the only God-breathed books, and who picked and how?

(e) Uniqueness (exclusive nature)—are the books of other religions equally valid?

(f) Power—Does the Word of God possess the power to change lives?

(g) Clarity—Does the Bible make sense, and can we come to understand it?

(h) Sufficiency—Is the Bible incomplete on any areas touching the human soul or Spirit?

(2) Biblical Infallibility

(3) Biblical Authority

(4) Is there continuing revelation?

c. A less obvious list

(1) Biblical relevance—is the Bible just a thing of the past, does it need to be re-invented?

(2) Cultural relevance—Is the Bible hopelessly wed to ancient cultures and therefore do we need to remove and slice and dice to make it appropriate for today? (This is a particularly problematic situation, because to get the full meaning of texts we do have to put them in the historical and cultural context in which they were written. However, those men who call for “cultural relevance” usually mean to re-define the Bible along the lines of modern morals and culture. The bottom line here is that Culture does not have a right to correct the Bible, the Bible should shape culture.

(3) Biblical Sufficiency—“the counseling question”—“Is the Bible missing some insights into human character and behavior that only psychology can supply?

(4) “Prophetic Words” Can we receive a different meaning for a text because of some mystical connection?

(5) Is the Bible the ONLY true way, or are there others?

(6) Is the Canon of Scripture Closed? Are there continuing revelations today?

(7) Can we prove the veracity of the Bible from outside the Bible? NO. That would create a standard outside the Bible that claims greater authority than God’s Word.

(8) There are those today who wrongly dividing the Word—many who claim to believe and defend the Bible have such irrational and incorrect hermeneutical schemes that they undermine the very Bible they attempt to defend. This often comes up when talking about the relationship to the OT Law and the NT, and when attempting to deal with the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most misunderstood parts of the Bible.

d. There are four books of God’s revelation Three of them are at best incomplete and they cannot save, and the fourth book must be everything to us.

(1) Nature—which can tell us much about God, but not enough to save us—Ps 19:1-6, Rom 1:19-21

(2) Providence—God has expressed Himself in History, but the revelation is far from complete and cannot provide sufficient information to save—Is 46:8-11, Acts 17:24-26

(3) Conscience—The Law written on the hearts of men (Rom 2:15).

(a) It cannot save, only convict

(b) It is filtered through our sin and corruption

(c) It can be seared nearly shut by wanton sin in a person’s life.

(4) The fourth, and only sure and reliable witness, is the Word of God itself.

(James 1:21) "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

(1 Pet 1:23) "having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,"

(1 Pet 2:2) "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"

(Heb 5:12-14) "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

(Acts 6:2) "Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables."

(Acts 6:4) ""but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.""

(Acts 6:7) "Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith."

(Acts 13:44) "On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God."

(Acts 13:48) "Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

(Acts 20:32) ""So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified."

(2 Tim 2:15) "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

(2 Tim 4:2) "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."

(5) From 19:7-9, there are six descriptions of God’s Word, six attributes of God’s Word, and six benefits of God’s Word.

(6) 19:10-11 give the value and usefulness of God’s Word

(7) 19:12-14 we see the benediction of the Psalmist

2. The Introduction to the Bible—Ps 19:1-6

a. This is the answer to the old saw that “I can worship God on the lake as much as I can in church—you can’t

b. What we can learn from The “book” of nature is sufficient to make us guilty but not sufficient to save our souls!

(1) The Glory of God

(2) Some of the Attributes of God (Rom 1:19-21)

(3) The universality of Creation—it is obvious to anyone who really looks that an almighty God created all things

(4) Only four possibilities about Creation

(a) Everything has always existed

(b) Everything created itself

(c) The Aliens brought it in (Where did they get it?)

(d) God created all things

c. What we cannot learn from nature

(1) From nature, we cannot learn the nature of the Triune God

(2) From nature, we cannot learn who Jesus is and what He has done

(3) From nature, we cannot learn of our sinfulness


(4) From nature, we cannot learn how God wants us to live (conscience helps a bit, but only from the Word can we learn what is right and wrong.)

(5) From nature, we cannot learn how God wants us to worship

(6) But most important of all, From nature, we cannot learn how to be saved

(a) The preaching of the Cross—1 Cor 1:18-21

(b) Faith comes by hearing the Word—Rom 10:17

(c) There are definite things you must know and must believe in order to be saved—Rom 10:9

d. Descriptions of the effects of God’s Word in 19:7-9

e. In General, these are not so much descriptions of particular types of Bible writing, but they all apply to all types of Bible writing.

f. The main message here is a celebration of the various effects the Word of God has on those who hear and obey the Word of God

g. What The Word Does

3. The Law of God Converts “…7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul…”

a. First, what is “law?”

(1) Law—the doctrinal teaching of The LORD—Yahweh, or Jehovah

(2) “Law” is used in different ways

(a) Sometimes, “Law” means the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses

(b) Sometimes “Law” means the whole Old Testament

(c) Sometimes, “Law” means the Whole Bible

(d) Sometimes, “Law” is talking about a general principle

(e) Sometimes, “Law” refers to the Gospel—

(James 1:25) "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

(James 2:12) "So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty."

(Gal 6:2) "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

(f) How do you distinguish? Context!


b. What do we mean by “perfect?” It means integrity, truth:--without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerely (-ity), sound, without spot, undefiled, upright
c. The Law of the Lord Converts—the word means to turn—it speaks of repentance to turn from sin and evil, to turn back to God—God’s Word has the power to bring about repentance.

d. This is perhaps the most neglected understanding of evangelism: “you can’t get them saved unless they realize they are lost!”

e. The most important purpose of God’s Law in all its forms, and throughout all the ages of time, is to cause man to see his sin and repent unto salvation—(Rom 3:19-20) "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

(1) Knowledge = epignosis, an overall and overwhelming experiential knowledge that we are lost and undone without Christ.


f. Conversion is the convicting power of the Word when wielded like a sword by the Holy Spirit—the Law “…converts the soul…”

(Acts 2:37) "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?""

(Acts 9:5-6) "And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.""


(Heb 4:12) "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

4. The Law of God Instructs— “…The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple…”

a. Testimony—another synonym for the whole of the written Word. It refers to the testimony of a good witness—God Himself witnesses, the Holy Spirit Witnesses, The Lord Witnessed, and His apostles witnessed. The testimony of a true and good witness cannot be refuted, and must be believed.

b. Sure—the word speaks of faithfulness, dependability, certainty—you can depend on what God’s word says, you can not only stake your life on it, you can build your life on it.

c. Simple—the word refers to “open minded,” not foolish. The fool, in the Bible, is one who does not believe and does not want to believe. The “simple” person is open to what God has to say, and they will believe it.

(1 Cor 1:27) "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;"

(Mat 11:25) "At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes."

d. In the book of Acts, there is a particularly pointed example of this—(Acts 4:5-13) "And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, "By what power or by what name have you done this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 "If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' 12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

(1) This passage has often been used by those who have an agenda against studying of the scriptures, to try to say that study and learning about the Bible is not important. Nothing could be further from the Truth

(2) These men had not been to the apostate and false schools of the Pharisees for sure, but they had been in the school of Jesus! For three years, these men had been taught by Word and by example; they were the prototypes for discipleship done God’s way.

(3) Truly in their case the testimonies of God had made the simple wise—not wise after the world, but wise in the things of God.

5. The Law of the LORD Brings Joy—“…8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart…”

a. Statutes—rules given by a properly constituted authority to guide us in our life

b. His Word is RIGHT!

(1) The word in the Hebrew refers to that which is straight as opposed to what is crooked.

(2) God’s Word is absolute

(3) God’s Word is true

(4) God’s Word is steadfast

(5) God’s Word is unwavering

(6) God’s Word is unchanging

(7) What is right is right, what is wrong is wrong, get plugged into His Word, and He will cause you to rejoice in HIM!

c. Christianity is NOT a conduct-neutral faith! God expects His people to live for Him

(1) What a mess the churches and professing believers are in!

(2) We have allowed Satan to creep in and convince us that obeying God is optional for the believer—when growth in Grace and Holiness are mandatory for every believer.

(3) God is not a cosmic killjoy—he is a wise parent, knowing the pitfalls and dangers in “the jungle out there…”, and His Word is not meant to kill joy, it is meant to bring joy.

(4) But if you think that Joy in God means living like the Devil and expecting God to pick up the tab, you are sadly mistaken.

(5) If you think, like the old Jazz song, that you can live on “one day of prayer and six nights of fun,” and if you can live that way without being constantly being convicted, then you aren’t saved anyway. At a recent youth conference, a nationally known speaker was lamenting the fact that a survey had shown that 75% of Christian youth nationwide did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. A much wiser and perceptive speaker corrected this data by saying this—“That is a lie and an insult to truly saved young people, because if the youth don’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ, then they aren’t Christian youth…”

d. True Believers rejoice at the teachings of His Word because they love His Word

(Psa 119:97) "Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day."

(Psa 119:113) "I hate the double-minded, But I love Your law."

(Psa 119:163) "I hate and abhor lying, But I love Your law."

(Psa 119:165) "Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble."

(1) Do you want peace and joy in your life? Then get into God’s Word

(2) Do you want true happiness and fulfillment? Then soak up all of God’s Word and let it be a light to your path and a lamp to your feet.

(3) Men, Young and old, to you want to put a rod of stainless steel into your spine and make your stand for Christ? Then you get into this Word and let it rock your world with Truth!

(4) Ladies, do you want to be able to minister to women in need around you? Get a handle on this Word, and you will have an endless supply of healing words, comforting Truth, and soul-changing power!

(5) Young people—do you want to be able to rock your school for the LORD? Do you want to have hope for the hopeless children around you? Then wear out your copy of this Word, learning it, cross-referencing it, soaking it up to your skin.

(6) Preacher boys, do you want to never have to worry about getting a message up or having something to preach? Then study and learn God’s Word until you bleed Bible.






6. God’s Word Brings Enlightenment—“…The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes…”

a. Commandment—The commandment of the Lord—A name of the law of God from the idea of setting up, appointing, constituting.. The idea here is not so much that the thing is right in itself as that it is appointed or ordered by God; that it is what he requires.

b. When we can’t see our way, He lights our way!

c. God’s Word is pure—there is no mixture of error in it.

(1) What God’s Word says is so, IS SO

(2) What God’s Word says is right IS RIGHT

(3) What God’s Word says happened, TOOK PLACE

(4) What God’s Word says was said WAS SAID

d. Trusting His Word brings the ultimate Light into our life: (2 Cor 4:6) "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

(1) “According to the expressive Hebrew idiom, it is to the soul what food is to the worn and fainting body…” Perowne

(2) (Eph 1:18) "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,"




7. God’s Word brings acceptance of and appreciation for His chastening Hand—“…9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether….”

a. There are two parallel statements here—one refers to the inner, unseen working of God’s Word, and the other to what we and others can see outwardly

b. Fear—of the Lord, based on what we read

c. Judgments of the Lord—God judges according to His word

John 12:48-50 ""He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 "And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.""


8. Overall Value of God’s Word.

a. Its worth

(1) It is worth more than the valuables of this world, even in large quantities

(2) It is worth more than the many small pleasures of this world, even those that are morally OK—honey and the honey comb

b. Its usefulness if observed and kept

(1) First—the depth of discipleship—Mat 28:19-20

(2) 2nd—it serves as a warning. The sense of the word here is of those who are so bright that they shine—those who take the Word seriously will be warned and see the dangers coming.

(3) Great reward

(a) For the lost person who hears, heeds, and believes, salvation is the reward, Heaven itself the prize

(b) For the saved person who makes the Word the only guide to his life, the reward is a fulfilled life here and great rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
9. Case Study—the Psalmist himself—Ps 19:12-14

a. The Psalmist fears the onset of secret faults and errors—

b. His prayer

(1) He asks God to keep him from moving away from God’s plan for his life

(2) “Do not let them have dominion…” Paul said that sin SHALL NOT have dominion over us, so the Psalmist is asking God for what God will promise to give.

(3) I shall be blameless and innocent—the man of God and the woman of God should see this as their greatest challenge

c. His Benediction—He wants his words and thoughts to be right, that he might please his Savior.