Introduction:
A. The story is told of a collector of rare books who ran into an acquaintance and they began to talk about books.
1. The man told the collector that he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box and he mentioned that “Guten-somebody-or-other” had printed the Bible.
2. “Not Gutenberg?” gasped the collector.
3. “Yes, I’m pretty sure that was it!”
4. “How could you be so foolish,” said the collector, “You've thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy like that recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!”
5. “Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth anything close to that much,” replied the man. “It was scribbled all over in the margins by some guy named Martin Luther.”
B. I’m pretty sure that is not a true story, because I don’t think anyone would be that unfamiliar with famous names like Gutenberg and Martin Luther.
1. Obviously a rare book like that has tremendous monetary value.
2. I want to declare to you today that any copy of the Bible has more value than a pile of money.
3. I believe the Bible is the Word of God, it contains the very words of life – eternal life.
4. King David, the OT Psalmist wrote: The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. (Ps. 119:72)
a. I hope that is the way you feel about the Bible!
5. Today, I want us to discuss the place and purpose of the Bible in the life of Christians and the church.
C. As you know, we are in a series called UR Church – Be the church of Christ.
1. I have been emphasizing that we are trying to be Christians only, who are a part of the New Testament church that Jesus built.
2. We began the series with the notion that Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18 that he would build his church and that the “gates of Hades would not overcome it.”
3. The inauguration of the church that Jesus built took place on the day of Pentecost, as is recorded in Acts chapter 2.
4. The church Jesus built has stood the test of time, and has overcome every attack of the evil one.
5. In every time and place, the church of Jesus has had to face the opposition of false teaching.
6. This seems to be a favorite tactic of Satan to keep the church at odds with itself, and to carry some into error.
7. I’ve tried to point out that unlike other groups and churches, our fellowship has striven to be the church of the New Testament and that alone.
8. We want to hold no other belief, nor practice any other rite than that which the NT church believed or practiced as found in the Bible.
9. For that reason we have looked to the Bible as our sole source of truth, and our only instruction from the Lord.
B. Today, I want us to explore our attitudes toward the Bible and its authority. To do so, I want to help us ask and answer two questions:
1. What is Biblical Authority?
2. How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
I. What is Biblical Authority?
A. If a person says that they believe that the Bible is divinely inspired and totally truthful, then they must also give it absolute authority, right?
1. Any approach to the subject of biblical authority must begin with God Himself.
2. God’s authority is based on who and what God is.
3. God is His own authority. There is nothing outside Him on which His authority is established.
4. When God made His promise to Abraham, He pledged His own name because nothing or no one was greater by whom He could swear (Hebrews 6:13).
B. Authority is the right or power to command obedience or belief.
1. God’s sovereign, universal, and eternal reign over the entire universe reveals His authority.
2. God establishes His purposes in time and does all things according to His will.
3. His providential direction over the events of history demonstrates His authority.
C. Men and women are creations of the self-revealing, eternal God.
1. Since He has created humankind, life's meaning is found in a relationship with God.
2. God exercises authority over His creation; and God’s people respond to His authority in obedience and worship.
3. Although God communicates His authority in nature and history, and through human conscience and experience, He primarily communicates His authority through the Bible.
4. Of course, God has also revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ (Jn 1:1-18; Heb 1:1-3).
D. The Bible pictures Jesus’ authority in terms of acting on behalf of God the Father.
1. Jesus is seen exercising all the rightful authority of God: He forgives sin (Mk 2:5-8), casts out demons (Mk 1:27), teaches with authority (Mt 5:21-48; 7:28-29), and raises the dead (Lk 7:11-17; Jn 11:38-44).
2. As the obedient Son of God, Jesus follows the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures and acknowledges and appeals to the Scriptures’ authority (Matthew 4:1-11; John 10:33-36).
3. Jesus declared that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Mt 28:18).
4. Jesus’ authority is exercised over the church as the Head of the church.
5. And Jesus’ authority is expressed through His personal ambassadors, the apostles.
6. In this way the apostles serve as the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20-3:5).
7. In fulfillment of Christ’s promises (John 14:26; 16:13), the apostles’ authority has been placed permanently in their writings.
E. The Bible, then, is the Book of God's truth.
1. Because it is inspired by God, it carries the authority of God, and is, therefore, our final authority in all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
2. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, we are told that it is our duty to obey God – Fear God and keep His commands for this is the whole duty of man. (Eccl. 12:13)
3. We are commanded not to stray from God’s commands - So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. (Deut. 5:32)
4. We are commanded not to add to nor take anything away from the Word of God.
a. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it (Deut. 12:32).
b. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Rev. 22:18-19).
5. Since the very creation of humankind, Satan has been trying to discredit the Word of God and has been trying to keep us from obeying the commands of God (Gen. 3).
6. But our goal and our job should be to know and follow the Word of God to the best of our knowledge and ability.
7. As Paul wrote to Timothy: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)
8. So the Bible clearly commands that it must be our authority and that we are blessed when we obey it.
II. How Do We Know the Bible is the Word of God?
A. As you know, there are many books or writings that are looked to for spiritual direction.
1. In addition to the Bible, there is the Koran (the Islam holy book).
2. There is the Book of Morman which claims to have divine origin.
3. The Hindus believe the Bhagavad Vita is the source of eternal truth.
4. Other people look to the writings of Confucius, or to Tony Robbins (self-help guru and motivational speaker), or to L. Ron Hubbard (who began Scientology).
5. So what sets the Bible apart from all these and other books and writings?
6. Can we be sure that the Bible is unique and different from all the rest? I believe that we can.
B. What evidence is there that supports the belief that the Bible is the Word of God?
1. I like what C.H. Spurgeon said after being asked if he could defend the Bible, he said: “Defend it! I would as soon defend a lion. Let it out, it can defend itself.”
2. That’s what we want to do today – allow the Bible to defend itself.
3. The evidence for the divine authorship of the Bible falls into two major categories: internal evidence and external evidence.
C. Let’s start with the Internal Evidence that the Bible Truly is the Word of God
1. The first piece of internal evidence is its’ claim of divine origin.
a. It might surprise you to know that there are relatively few books that claim divine origin.
b. One would expect that a book written by God would claim divine origin, but just making that claim does not make it so.
c. The Bible claims to be divinely inspired and to contain the very words of God.
d. Nearly 4000 times, expressions like “Thus says the Lord,” and “The word of the Lord came to me” are recorded in the Bible.
e. In 2 Tim. 3, Paul speaks of the Bible being inspired by God: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1. The NIV translation chose to translate the Greek word that means “inspired by God” in its more literal sense “God-breathed.”
f. The Apostle Peter explained something of the inspiration process when he wrote: 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).
g. God inspired or carried along 40 different writers over a period of 1600 years in order to complete the Bible.
h. So this is an important first piece of evidence. We would not even consider the Bible to be the Word of God if it didn’t claim a divine origin.
2. A second piece of internal evidence is the unity of the Bible.
a. The Bible was written by 40 different people over a period of 1600 years and yet the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, rather it presents a singular message or theme.
b. Such a miracle can only be explained by there being one divine Author, God himself, who was in control of all these human writers.
c. Imagine taking 10 contemporary authors and asking them to write their viewpoints on one controversial subject, or asking them to write parts of a story that will later be put together.
1. The only catch is that they can’t consult with each other and won’t have each other’s writings to work from.
2. We can only imagine how different each of their writings would be on any subject, and there is no way they could have a unified story.
d. Yet this is what we have with the Bible.
1. These 40 different authors lived in different times separated by hundreds of years, they wrote in 3 different languages, and were on three different continents.
2. The Biblical writers came from many different walks of life; including kings, philosophers, fisherman, tax collectors, doctors, prophets, and herdsmen.
e. But the perfect unity of the Bible, organized around the one theme of God’s redemption of humankind and of all creation could never have come about except by the hand of God.
f. So the unity of the Bible is just another important proof of divine inspiration.
3. A third piece of internal evidence is the fulfilled prophesy of the Bible.
a. Hundreds of prophecies of future events are recorded in the Bible – some of them were written hundreds or even a thousand years before their fulfillment.
b. No other book in history has dared to predict the future to the degree the Bible has and amazingly, Biblical prophesies are batting 1000!
c. The prophecies in the Bible are very specific and accurate.
d. Nostradamus claims to have made hundreds of prophecies that have come true, but if you read his prophecies, you will find them to be vague and unclear, not so with the prophesies of the Bible.
e. One of the more convincing biblical prophesies was made by Isaiah.
1. The prophet Isaiah foretold that a Persian king named Cyrus would take over the kingdom of Babylon and most of the rest of the known world at the time.
2. This same man, Isaiah said, would decide to allow the Jewish exiles in his empire to return to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; and 45:13).
3. Isaiah made this prophecy 150 years before Cyrus was born, 180 years before Cyrus performed any of these feats, and 110 years before Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were taken into captivity.
d. Amazingly, the king would accomplish these noble tasks even though he did not “know” Jehovah God (45:4, 5). He was not Jewish nor a believer in God.
1. In other words, even though he was a pagan, he was an unconscious tool in the hands of the Lord to contribute mightily to the Jewish cause which then allowed for the coming of God’s Anointed, Jesus, to be born in Bethlehem.
e. There are over 300 prophecies made about the Messiah in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by Jesus.
1. These prophecies were made hundreds of years before Jesus came, and they were things he could not have fulfilled just by knowing about them.
2. The prophecies include the place of his birth (Bethlehem), the tribe he would be from (Judah), how he would die, and that he would be crucified between thieves.
f. The verifiable track record of prophetic fulfillment is another convincing internal proof for the truthfulness of the Bible.
D. Let’s turn our attention to the external evidence that the Bible truly is the Word of God.
1. The first piece of external evidence is the Bible’s indestructibility.
a. The Bible is the most well-known book in the history of the world, and no book has been attacked more than it.
b. In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered all Bibles burned, but his effort failed.
c. Voltaire, the French enlightenment writer bragged, “It took twelve men to start Christianity. One will destroy it.” Voltaire failed.
1. Voltaire said, “In 100 years the Bible will be a forgotten book, only to be found in museums. 100 years later, Voltaire was dead, and his house was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society for printing and distribution of Bibles.
d. Robert Ingersoll, well-known 19th century atheist, said, “In 15 years I will have this book [the Bible] in the morgue.” Fifteen years later, Ingersoll himself was in the morgue and in his estate sale a preacher bought his desk and spent his life writing sermons on it.
e. The American Revolutionary Thomas Paine wrote, “Fifty years hence the Bible will be obsolete and forgotten.” He wrote that in 1795, but he was wrong!
f. Many atheistic dictators have tried to keep the Bible out of their empires, but it is not possible – the Bible is now welcome and available in China and Russia.
g. And so the Bible’s indestructability is a piece of evidence supporting its divine origin.
2. A second piece of external evidence is the Bible’s reliability.
a. Because skeptics have failed to rid the world of the Bible, they have tried to discredit and destroy the authority of the Bible.
b. The Bible has gone through every kind of scrutiny possible, from archaeology, to science, to philosophy and computers, yet despite all the attacks, the Bible proves itself again and again.
c. Many skeptics believe that the Bible cannot be trusted because the original manuscripts – those documents actually written by Matthew, Isaiah, Paul, etc. – do not exist.
1. This is certainly a good point – the original autographs, penned by the authors of the Bible, are indeed no longer available – they disappeared many centuries ago.
2. But we must understand that the originals of other ancient writings, such as those by Plato, Aristotle, and Caesar have also been lost or destroyed long ago.
3. We only have copies of all the great, ancient writings; we don’t have any originals.
f. To judge the accuracy of ancient documents, experts look at a number of important factors; including, how close in age they come to the original, how many copies there are, and how close the content of the copies are to one another. This is a science of its own.
1. With most of the ancient writings, relatively few copies are available and the time span between the original and the oldest copy is great.
2. Works of Plato: 7 copies exist, the closest to the original is 1,200 years removed.
3. Works of Aristotle: 37 copies exist, time span 1,400 years.
4. How does the New Testament compare? We have almost 25 thousand copies and there is only an 80 year span between the original and the oldest copy!
5. Furthermore, we have a fragment of the gospel of John that dates back to around 29 years from the original writing (John Rylands Papyri 125 A.D.).
g. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, which are the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament ever found, confirmed that the scribes who painstakingly copied the Bible did so with the utmost of care and accuracy.
1. The Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts were a thousand years older than the then-oldest-known Hebrew texts of the Bible.
2. And when they compared them they found only minor misspellings and variant words, but there was no substantial difference.
h. The reliability of the biblical text is a remarkable story, and the fact that the text has been so accurately preserved is another evidence of its divine origin.
3. A third piece of external evidence is the Bible’s historical and archaeological accuracy.
a. The Bible is historically correct, and no one has ever proved it otherwise.
b. The more we learn of history, the more the Bible is validated.
c. Nelson Glueck, a renouned Jewish archaeologist, states, “No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.”
4. I want to conclude this sermon with one final piece of external evidence – it is what I call the dynamic impact of the Bible.
a. The difference that the Bible makes in the lives of those who sincerely seek to apply its message points to its divine origin.
b. The Bible says this about itself: 12 For 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 (Heb. 4:12).
c. The apostle Paul said: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32)
d. The Bible’s power and authority is unlike any other book ever written.
e. Countless lives have been transformed by the supernatural power of God’s Word.
f. Have you ever heard someone say: “I was an outcast, a wretched man, a disgrace to my family, and a nuisance to the world, until I began to study mathematics and learned the multiplication table, but since that time I have been as happy as the day is long. I feel like singing all the time; my soul is full of joy and peace”?
g. No you probably have never heard that, but you have likely heard someone say: “I was wretched; I was lost; I was ruined, reckless, helpless, and hopeless, until I heard the words of the Bible.”
h. Drug addicts have been cured by it, derelicts have been transformed by it, hardened criminals have been reformed by it, the hopeless have been encouraged by it, sinners have been sanctified by it, and skeptics have been convinced and convicted by it.
Conclusion:
A. The journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped by Shiite Muslim fundamentalists back in March of 1985 and was held captive for 6 ½ years.
1. In the first weeks of his captivity, his captors gave him a Bible.
2. During the ensuing 6 ½ years he read it more than 50 times from cover to cover.
3. Listen to his testimony about the Bible, “I found consolation and counsel in the Bible. Not other-world, ‘this is just a test’ kind of consolation, but comfort from the real, immediate voices of people who had suffered greatly and in ways that seem so close to what I was going through.”
B. Maya Angelou, who died in May of this year, tells about a profound experience in her life.
1. One day, when she was 24 and very worldly, a teacher asked her to read out loud to him a section from a book called Lessons in Truth.
2. The section ended with the words, God loves me.” Maya read the words and closed the book.
3. The teacher told her to read it again. So she did. He said, “Again.”
4. After about the seventh repetition, she began to sense that there might be truth in the statement, that there was a possibility that God really did love her.
5. Then Maya Angelou began to cry at the grandness of it all.
C. Whether read directly from the Bible or from a secondary source, the truth that God loves us is a grand and overwhelming thought.
1. “God loves you” is the profoundly simple message of the Book of Books, the Word of God.
2. The Creator who made us, and has all authority in heaven and on earth, wants us to know the truth of His love.
3. Today I hope all of us will take that message very personally, it will change our lives!
4. I also hope that all of us will give the Bible the authority and place it deserves in our lives.
