The Bible is a unique book.
Actually it’s a collection of 66 books written over a period of 1500 years by 40 authors who were from 13 countries on 3 separate continents (Asia, Europe, Africa).
It claims to be the Word of God over 2700 times.
And it has been translated into about 1500 languages.
From this book comes all the information that we have about God, Jesus, heaven, hell, salvation and eternity.
It also contains numerous fulfilled prophecies about various men and nations down thru the ages, and (more importantly) it contains over 300 prophecies that declared that the Messiah was going to come to earth to live, die and rise form the dead.
It is truly one of the most powerful works of literature ever written.
And Satan hates it!
If it were just a history book, or a collection of rules and regulations Satan probably wouldn’t be too bothered by it, but this is God’s book. This is God’s truth. And this truth of God has the power within its pages to change us.
Now, of course, not everybody believes that.
ILLUS: When I was 12 years old I was deeply impressed by a great preacher named Ken Mathis. He was the embodiment of everything I wanted to be when I grew up, and even before he baptized me into Christ I determined I was going to be a preacher just like him.
But when I graduated high school my brother Jack convinced me to go to a secular college for a couple of years. Since I respected my brother – and my dad was willing to foot the bill – I went. And my brother was right, it was a great experience. I learned a lot while I was there. And one of the most important things I learned concerned the Bible.
You see, when I was a young man, I grew up in college town. I really loved – and still love - that town, but being a college town it had its share of people who were more impressed with the wisdom of men than they were with the wisdom of God.
Without realizing it, I picked up some very worldly attitudes towards Scripture:
1. I had heard & had come to believe that the Bible was a boring book.
2. AND I had heard, and believed that it was filled with errors.
So here I was at a secular college – far away from mom and dad and my home church - and I had to face the fact that those beliefs were not consistent with being a preacher. I also had to face the fact that I had never really determined for myself if those secular attitudes towards God’s Word were true.
My first objective was to see if the Bible was, indeed, a boring book. (I figured if I was going to be a preacher the least I could do is read the thing). I set the Bible, a Bible Dictionary and a Commentary out on coffee table and made a deal with God. I’d read it if and when He would give me the desire to do so. I also told Him I wasn’t going to read the prophecies, poetry or the who begat who’s.
Now, trying to make "a deal" with God can be a dangerous thing, but I believe God overlooked my ignorance and had mercy on me in this instance.
In less than a month I had read it all the way thru (with the exceptions of the poetry and prophecy and such) and I found that the Bible was NOT boring. In fact it was quite exciting! It was filled with people and situations that I could understand and identify with.
(Pause…)
But then I had to confront the more serious question–was the Bible filled with errors like the people I once had listened to had said?
Well, I was at a secular college.
There had to be somebody there who rejected Scripture and would have a few “inaccuracies” that they knew of. So I went looking. And I found there were a whole bunch of people - many of them were professors - who were more than willing to share with me their disdain for the Bible.
But most of the “mistakes” they believed were in Scripture turned out to be just empty accusations, based more upon personal prejudices and preferences than true inaccuracies.
Most of what I heard felt like a man throwing mud up on a wall to see how much would stick.
It was like someone seeing the mayor of town walking down the street with a pretty girl and accusing him of “fooling around” when in reality it was his cousin from out of town and he was simply showing her the sights of the city.
ILLUS: There came a day, however, when I was confronted with a Philosophy professor who told me something that nearly shook my faith, but ultimately confirmed my faith in God and His word.
But I’ll tell you more about that toward the end of the sermon.
What I want to do just now is point out the fact that the Bible is an extremely accurate book. For example, when Scripture says a city existed at a certain spot, archeologists can generally use the Bible like a map to find out where they need to dig. And when it says a city was destroyed in such and such a fashion… that’s just what archeologists will find.
ILLUS: A case in point involves the city of Jericho.
Back in 1990, Time magazine told about the archeological dig at Jericho.
Jericho – as you may recall - was the 1st city destroyed by Joshua and the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land. The Bible tells us that each day, for the first 6 days of their assault on Jericho, the Israelites marched once a day around the city. On the 7th day, they marched around the city 7 times. When they’d completed that 7th trip, the priests were to sound a long blast on their horns, the people were to give a mighty shout… and the walls came a tumbling down.
When the Israelites took the city they weren’t permitted by God to remove anything … everything was to be burned. When they were to conquer other cities in Canaan, God allowed them remove anything they wanted. But Jericho was God’s. The city and everything in it belonged to Him for all time. In fact, God decreed that the city was never to be rebuilt again and uttered a curse on anyone who tried.
“ the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: "At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates." Joshua 6:26
Now Jericho was rebuilt nearby, but the original city was never allowed to be restored. And because of that – centuries later – archaeologists found a silent witness to God’s power and the Bible’s accuracy.
When Cities of that day were conquered, it was usually done in one of two ways:
1. The invader would storm the walls and break them down so they caved in.
2. OR the invader would simply wait outside the city until the people inside ran out of food.
But Time magazine explained that the lead archaeologist “found that the walls had fallen in a way suggestive of sudden collapse. Many scholars think the destruction was caused by an earthquake.”
In other words: the walls didn’t cave in. They fell down! Just like the Bible said.
“Moreover,” the article continued, the archeologist “found bushels of grain on the site…. A thick layer of soot at the site, which … supports the biblical idea that the city was burned, not simply conquered.”
In other words, the city hadn’t been starved out – there were BUSHELS of grain.
And the city had been burned to the ground as God had commanded Israel. (Time March 5, 1990)
Archeologically, the Bible has always been an extremely accurate book.
And, although the Bible isn’t technically a ‘scientific’ book it has always consistently upheld modern scientific Facts.
Now, someone might ask:
“What about evolution? Doesn’t the Bible contradict that?”
Yes, it does. And part of the reason is that Evolution is still less science than it is theory.
I could spend several Sundays talking about the weaknesses of Evolutionary Theory, but today I’m only going to focus on why Evolution is not (and probably never will be) considered a scientific FACT.
In order for a theory to become “scientific fact” it has to pass two significant tests
1. It must be observable and
2. it must be repeatable in a controlled setting.
Evolution still fails to meet those standards.
No one has ever "observed" one species of animal evolve into another. In fact God has deliberately erected a wall between the species that cannot be breached.
In the book of Genesis we’re gold that God created all things “according to their kinds” (e.g. Genesis 1:21). But God has created a wall between those kinds.
Consider the lowly mule. How do you get a mule? You mate a horse and a donkey. But once you’ve mated these 2 animals and conceived a mule there’s a problem. There’s something a mule cannot do. What can’t a mule do? It can’t have babies – it’s sterile. It always works out that way. That’s one of the walls God erected.
Then there’s a creature called a “liger.” Have you ever heard of a liger? It’s the offspring of a lion and tiger. Guess what? It’s sterile too. Ligers will never have offspring because God has created a wall between the species.
Additionally, after 100 years of fossil discoveries, the so-called “missing links” are still missing. There has been no legitimate find of the supposed “links” between the species that Evolutionists have always said should be there. They’re missing links because they simply don’t exist.
And, of course, the final reason Evolution is still a theory is: scientists have yet to even create a simple form of life in the laboratory. They can speculate all day long, but until they can repeat the supposed creation of life Evolution will never be legitimate scientific fact.
Evolution is still a "theory".
But when the Bible deals with scientific fact, it’s marvelously scientific.
Take the science of astronomy for example:
This science began in Greece by a man named Hipparchus. Over a period of 65 years (from 161 to 126 B.C.) he identified a total of 1,080 stars. It wasn’t until Galileo invented the telescope in the 17th Century that people began to realize there were far more stars in the sky than this.
Over the years, countless millions of stars have been discovered… and there even more they haven’t found yet.
But long before Hipparchus and Galileo, Genesis 15:5 declared that there were far more stars than you could count. God challenged Abraham: “Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them."
And later in Jeremiah we’re told: "I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as COUNTLESS as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’" (33:22).
Then there’s earth sciences:
In the days of Job, learned men taught that the earth was supported on the backs of elephants which stood on the shell of a great turtle, which swam in the waters of a great sea.
Things hadn’t gotten much better by the time of the philosophers of Greece. People of that day believed a mighty Titan named Atlas supported the heavens on his shoulders.
But by contrast, Job 26:7 declared that “(God) suspends the earth over nothing.”
Exactly what modern science has revealed.
In addition, for centuries men believed that the world was flat. Sailors would often refuse to sail beyond the strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean because they thought their vessel would drop over the edge into nothingness.
What did the Bible teach?
Isaiah 40:22 refers to "the circle of the earth." The Hebrew word rendered "circle" does not speak of a flat circle on a plane surface, but of a vaulted arch or sphere.
(Excerpt from the booklet, "From Our Wonderful Bible" by Dr. S. Maxwell Coder; Publisher, Moody Press)
You could go on and on about the ways in which the Bible portrayed a world that was totally in agreement with modern scientists understand.
But what’s even more impressive than the archeological and scientific precision of the Bible, is the integrity of the story line within Scripture itself. Where every little piece of information feeds into the main theme in amazing ways.
ILLUS: I told you earlier that one of my Philosophy professors at that secular college challenged me with what he said was a discrepancy in the Bible … a challenge that nearly robbed me of my faith. His comment was this: He could prove that Jesus didn’t die on the cross. He had merely swooned and awoke later in the tomb… and he could prove it.
He explained that when a person dies their heart stops pumping and gravity takes over. So, if you were to die there in your seats, your blood would gradually drift to your waist and below. But on the cross, the Bible tells us that after Jesus “died” a Roman soldier wanted to confirm that diagnosis and so he pierced Christ’s side with his spear and blood and water came out.
But if Jesus was dead (the professor said) that blood shouldn’t have been there. He wasn’t dead!
Well, that shook me. I went home to my dorm, sat on my bunk and explained to God that He had to come up with an answer for this challenge or I was going to go sell insurance or something.
Now I can’t tell you why I didn’t go ask someone for an explanation to this challenge, but God gave me the solution me anyway. About a month later I was in another Philosophy class. The class had ended and the professor was at his desk surrounded by some of the students. I joined the group, curious as to what was being said. Imagine my surprise when the professor was sharing about something he’d found out just that last weekend.
“Do you remember where the Bible talks about Jesus dying on the cross?” he asked. “And do you remember where the Roman soldier pierced Jesus side and blood and water came out?” Now he really had my attention!
“There is something known as Cardiac tamponade,” he explained. “Cardiac Tamponade is a rare condition that occurs when a person is under so much stress that the heart literally bursts. Around the heart is a sac known as the pericardium. When the blood of the heart mixes with the fluid of the pericardium it would look very much like the mixture of blood and water.”
That made sense on a couple of levels.
1st, if I were to pierce your arm with a knife, blood would come out… not blood and water.
2nd, the Bible tells us that Jesus bore all of our sins on the cross. It also tells us that it wasn’t the cross that killed Jesus. When Jesus died He “…called out with a loud voice, ’Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:46
If Jesus bore all the weight of all of our sins in His body on the cross and suddenly gave up control of that body… it would have been like snapping a rubber band. His mortal body would have been unable to stand the strain of all our guilt and sin, and the heart could have easily have burst.
When I went to Bible College I was eager to show off my marvelous insight to one of my professors. But of course, he already knew all about it. In fact there was far more to this story than I had yet discovered. The professor noted that the week of Passover (when Jesus was crucified) was one of the great times of sacrifice for the Jewish people. Worshippers would line up for blocks with their lambs for slaughter – one estimate was over 200,000 offerings a day.
The gates of the Temple opened at 9 in the morning and closed at 3 in the afternoon.
Do you remember what time of the day Jesus was put on the cross? 9 in the morning.
Do you remember what time of the day He died? 3 in the afternoon.
So the Temple gates were open from 9 til 3 on the days of sacrifice. That meant there was a lot of blood covering the altar, the floor and the utensils. How would you clean all that area? Well, the Temple had been built in such a way that water could be pumped up from beneath the temple floor and wash down the altar and all that surrounded it. They then would drain that water out beneath the walls of the city into the Kidron valley. According to a Jewish work (Pesachim 2a) the blood was often “redeemed” by farmers to fertilize their fields. And I’m told that the banks of the Kidron are still red from centuries of sacrifice.
Now, if you’d been standing outside the city of Jerusalem during the days of Passover in the area of the Kidron valley some time after 3 in the afternoon, what do you think you would seen coming out of the pipes that ran beneath the city walls? Blood and water.
What’s more impressive than anything else about this, to me, is that this incident is only recorded in the book of John… and John’s not even all that concerned about this reference to the blood and water. All John is concerned about is proving to his readers that there was no need for the Romans to break the bones of Jesus. You see, no sacrifice was acceptable to God if it’s bones were broken. So John was trying to explain why the Romans didn’t break Jesus’ legs as they had the legs of the robbers on either side. He was already dead. And the proof of Christ’s death was that the Roman soldier pierced His side and blood and water flowed out. John was there. He’d seen it. The issue of blood and water was just a side comment as far as he was concerned.
But God placed that reference there so that one day we’d realize this powerful teaching. And we’d also see how intricate and wonderfully interwoven God’s Word is. It’s not something a mortal man could have invented. It could only come from the mind of God.
Now this is exactly what you’d expect from a Book that Jesus said was Truth.
Jesus prayed that God would “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17
But there’s something even deeper in Jesus’ words in that verse, for the Bible is far more than just truth. And it’s far more than just a history book with some interesting stories. No, the Bible has the power to sanctify us, to make us live a purer life.
“Sanctify them by the truth” Jesus said.
Hebrews says it this way: “… the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
The Bible is a living tool.
It is as sharp as finest surgical scalpel.
And it has the ability to penetrate our hearts
It has the power to reach into our very souls and expose our hidden thoughts and motives and lay bare our sins and excuses.
But, how can it do that?
Well, it’s God’s Word.
It was designed - with you and I - in mind.
It was designed to strip us of every pretense of being “nice enough” to buy our way into God’s presence.
In every corner of Scripture you see the indictment:
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23
Essentially God says: You can’t be good enough to be good enough to get into heaven.
But, that’s ok. You don’t have to be.
You and I couldn’t do it – so God did it for us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.
Jesus came to die for sinners… just like you and me.
And all we need to do to is follow the Bible’s clear instructions to belong to God
• Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16)
• Believe that you are a sinner in need of changing your life (Acts 3:19)
• Confess that Jesus will now be your Lord and Master (Romans 10:9)
• Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38)
• Then live for Jesus with all of your heart (Hebrews 3:14)
CLOSE: A minister friend of mine related how his brother had been a man who would have nothing to with church. He preferred to "enjoy" life, party, drink... and drink... and drink. He was a salesman for "84 Lumber" and not only drank while at meetings, but also had his home well stocked.
One day, as Bryan’s brother was in a fast food restaurant, he was approached by a seedy looking man in a long black trench coat and scraggly hair. He just knew it was a beggar looking for a handout. Instead, it turned out that the stranger asked if he could give him something. Taken back, he said "sure." Out of his trench coat, the stranger took a witness Bible and said "read this."
Quietly, Bryan’s brother took the Bible and later, at home, he began to read it being convicted by what he read as it advised him to turn from one page to another to read the underlined scriptures. The final reference shook him. It was found on page 84 of the Bible - and he himself worked at 84 Lumber.
He ended up pouring all of his booze down the drain and turned his life over to Christ.
