Can I Trust The Bible? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 1, 2010

Date Preached: June 6, 2010

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Great Questions of Our Faith

Sermon Title: Can I Trust the Bible?

Sermon Text: 2 Tim 3:16-17 [ESV]

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Introduction:

Many people have doubts about whether or not we can trust the Bible as Scripture. Many people have asked the question, “Can I Trust the Bible?” And I will be the first one to tell anyone that this is a legitimate question. Scripture calls for our faith, but that faith is not a blind faith, but a faith in substantive evidence and revelation provided by God.

There are areas of our lives that we will have to trust God and take a leap out into the unknown trusting Him to lead us in the right direction, however, Scripture is NOT one of those areas.

This morning I want to share some insights into the reasons why we can trust Scripture and the reasons why we can have faith that it is “God-breathed” as Paul wrote in our passage this morning.

Can We Trust it to be TRUE? Psalm 18:30 [ESV]

30 This God—his way is perfect; the Word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

First of all in this category, we can ask the general question of “What is the Bible?” Many look at the Bible as a book of religion or a historical book about a certain people, but the Bible is so much more than history or religion.

The Bible is actually far more than just a book; in fact the Bible is a small library of many books and letters. In fact, the Bible is a collection of 66 books/letters that have been compiled by men of God who were led by the Holy Spirit to formulate what we now know as the Bible.

We know that there were basically 40 different human authors to Scripture, but all were guided by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. These authors ranged in station in life from kings to fishermen, from priests to gov’t officials, from farmers and shepherds to doctors and historians.

The Bible was completed in its entirety nearly 2,000 years ago and stands today as the best-preserved literary work of all antiquity with over 24,000 ancient New Testament manuscripts discovered thus far. Compare this with the second best-preserved literary work of antiquity, Homer's Iliad, with only 643 preserved manuscripts discovered to date.

Yet through all this diversity and apparent DIFFERENCE a book of unity is formed and written, with common themes woven throughout the entirety of Scripture!

The Bible is divided into 2 main categories, the OT and the NT. When we look at the OT it is a story of a people, a nation and their relationship with God.

When we look at the NT it is a story about one man, the God man Jesus, and about what His life, death and resurrection has done for humanity. The NT reflects the fulfillment of much of what the OT pointed toward.

In reading the Bible, one can find that the Bible has always been the best commentary on itself. It never pulls any punches or tries to hide the ‘ugliness’ of sin. The Bible is clear in its message… it is a message that is consistent from cover to cover in Scripture, and that is God reaching down to His creation… and the ultimate redemption of those who trust in Him.

The Bible is an ancient script that has weathered the ravages of time, and has not changed! God’s Word is as sure today as it was when it was being penned… Can we trust the Bible? When it comes to reliability and continuity, after over 2000 yrs it stands true to the test.

So pastor it survived over time, that is amazing in and of itself but is the message of the Bible trustworthy? Well what many people overlook when reading Scripture is the fact that Jesus Himself expressly trusted Scripture! When He taught in the synagogues He was exposed and used many copies and translations of Scripture!

Jesus trusted the accuracy and truth of Scripture, shouldn’t we? But there are those who not only want to know if we can trust Scripture’s accuracy but also…

Can We Trust its MESSAGE? 2 Tim 3:16

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Jesus knew the Scriptures thoroughly, even to words and verb tenses. He obviously had either memorized vast portions or knew it instinctively: John 7:14-15 [ESV]