God: is the Bible really your Word? 2 Tim 3:14-17
*** Teenager Tries to Call the President
Access to the most powerful leader in the world—the President of the United States of America—is granted only to the few who have successfully passed through a series of detailed, cautious checkpoints. A Norway teen created quite a stir in the United States when he challenged the system, boldly dialing a secret phone number for the White House. Sixteen-year-old Vifill Atlason claims he called President George W. Bush out of curiosity. "I just wanted to talk to him—have a chat, invite him to Iceland, and see what he'd say," the teen told ABC News.
In order to get through security, Atlason pretended to be Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland. He was surprised when his initial call didn't pass through a switchboard, but went directly to a higher office to be screened by various security officials. Atlason was asked a series of personal questions in an attempt to verify his identification as President Grímsson, including Grímsson's date of birth, hometown, and even the names of Grímsson's parents.
"It was like passing through checkpoints," Atlason said. The checkpoints proved one too many—the teen never made it through to the president and was later taken from his home for questioning by local police. No charges were filed. He got hung up in all the questions!
1. You may not be questioning the existence of God, but I bet you have a spiritual inquiry nagging you from time to time. Don't fret. We know God personally but not perfectly, truly but not totally, experientially but not exhaustively. It is normal that finite creatures like us would have questions about an infinite Creator like God.
2. Here is the good news:God is neither surprised nor offended by our questions. In fact, the Bible is full of questions-3,294 to be exact. God wants us to bring our questions to Him and give Him a shot at providing an answer.
3. As a pastor of two churches over almost thirty-five years, I have fielded hundreds of questions from skeptics, seekers, sinners, and saints. Many of those questions pop up again and again. As it turns out, certain questions claw at us all.
4. I wish I could say that I always had answers, but I can't. Too often early in my ministry my answers ranged from the glib co the thought less. As a young minister, I was reluctant to admit ''I'm not sure," or worse, "I don't know." I thought that a pastor should always have an answer even if I didn't.
5. Now I'm ready co admit that no one can answer every inquiry about the God who bluntly tells us, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa 55:8-9
6. Yet, for the most frequent questions I have been asked, I have found certain answers that bring peace and satisfaction to questioning minds and breaking hearts. These answers are, like buried treasure, to be discovered and mined from the only One who can give us those answers.
7. In fact, you will see that much of God's Word was written in anticipation of the questions we all find ourselves asking. In the next few weeks we will wrestle together with some of the most frequently asked questions about God, faith, life, and the world around us. You will hear true stories of people I've encountered who sought an answer that will bring spiritual peace and intellectual satisfaction.
8. I make no promises that every answer will cure every doubt in your mind. I may just tell you…”I have no idea!” I am convinced that God knows every heart and every answer that may stump us. I’ll do my best to explore the Bible with you and try to find the answers right from God’s Word.
9. We are looking this morning at 2 Tim. 3:14. Paul is talking to young Timothy and he says, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
10. Now, Paul here is talking to Timothy about the Bible and he tells him several things about the Bible. First of all, he says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God in vs. 16. That literally means that all Scripture is the breath of God. As I'm speaking to you what you're hearing is my breath. My diaphragm is forcing my breath up through my throat and over my larynx and the voice box and my tongue and my teeth and my lips are taking the breath and making sounds and noises out of that breath and what you're hearing right now is what I am breathing out. I'm breathing out these words. Now, that's the word that Bible uses to describe itself. All Scripture is God breathed. When the Bible speaks God speaks. That's what inspiration means. When the Bible speaks God speaks.
11. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, but not only are the Scriptures inspired, they're instructed. Vs.16 says they're profitable for doctrine. What is doctrine? Actually the word doctrine means teaching. The Scriptures are there to tell you what's right.
12. Then it goes on to say for doctrine and for reproof. Not only does the Bible tell you what's right, it also tells you what's wrong. God doesn't want us to make a mistake. He doesn't want us to go astray. So on one side he tells us what's right, on the other side he tells us what's wrong so we can walk the straight and narrow.
13. But he also says in vs. 16 that it is necessary for correction--that is, when we get wrong, how to get back right. He shows us what's right. He shows us what's wrong and if we're wrong he tells us how to get right.
14. And then he says it's profitable for instruction in righteousness. What's right, what's wrong, how to get right, and then how to stay right. How just to be instructed day by day. How am I supposed to live? What am I supposed to do? What shall I do with my sins? Where does power come from? Everything that I need to know, that instruction and righteousness is there from the Word of God.
15. So, the Scriptures are inspired, the Scriptures are informative, and then the Scriptures are instrumental. That is, they work powerfully in our lives. Look in vs. 15. Paul told Timothy, "From a child you've known the holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise unto salvation." 16. You're saved by the Word of God. It is the message of the Bible, the gospel that saves us, that makes us wise unto salvation. That's the reason that every preacher must always preach the Word of God because the word is the seed. We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God. And so, the Scriptures are instrumental in salvation.
17. The Scriptures are instrumental in sanctification. Look in vs.17, "That the man of God may be perfect." Now, that word perfect means complete. It means mature. It means full grown. Do you want to be a little baby Christian or do you want to grow? "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby." You're going to be a baby Christian, you're going to be a weak emaciated Christian if you don't grow with the Word of God. "That the man of God may be perfect," mature.
18. Not only are they necessary for salvation and sanctification but necessary for service. "Thoroughly furnished," he says in vs.17, "unto all good works." Everything God wants you to do he furnished through his word. So, you're completely, thoroughly through and through, furnished of the Bible. All that I need to know, all that I need to have is revealed to me in God's word.
19. How important is the Bible? But friend, the Bible may be inspired and the Bible may be informative and the Bible may be instrumental, but if I don't believe it, what good is that going to do me? It's the devil's job to make people doubt the Word of God. The very first thing the devil did in the Garden of Eden was to say, "Yea, hath God said..." and to put a question mark on the Word of God. Well, you need to have a rock-ribbed, iron-clad assurance that the Bible is the Word of God.
20. That raises "the" big question - Why believe the Bible? It is one thing to say the Bible is true, but how do you know it is true? Now suffice to say it is an explosive question. Most of this world denies that it is important at all to believe the Bible or even to understand it as being anything as just another book.
*** Just a few years ago, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the sentence of a man given the death penalty because jurors consulted the Bible in reaching a verdict. The court said this constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on a "higher authority."
1. Now in essence, what the Supreme Court of Colorado was saying was it is improper to consult the Bible because it is just another book.
21.To many non-Christians the Bible is no more than an antiquated collection of myths and fables. To others it is a good book, but it is not God's book.
***On the other hand, 2 billion people, 1/3 of this world, claim to believe in the God of this book and believe that this is the book that God wrote. Indeed, even the men who wrote it believed they were writing the very words of God.
I. I Believe the Bible because of it’s Internal Reference.
1. The biggest single fact that people have to deal with concerning the Bible is this - it claims to be not the words of men, but the Word of God. In the Old Testament alone, phrases like, "God said" or "God spoke" or "The Word of the Lord came" occur nearly 4,000 times (700 times in the first five books, 40 times in one chapter.)
2. Hundreds of years later, the Apostle Paul said this about the Bible, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right." (2 Tim.3:16)
3. The ultimate statement was made by the greatest man who ever lived, by common consensus, Jesus Christ, and here is what He said about the Bible, "Thy word is truth." (John 17:17) Jesus believed the Bible was totally, completely, absolutely true and was indeed the Word of God. If that is true, then there should be compelling reasons why we ought to believe the Bible and indeed there are. I am going to share four with you today.
II. I Believe The Bible Because It Is Historically Reliable
1. Let me ask you a question. What would happen if you chose 10 different people from the same city, with the same culture, with the same educational level, speaking the same language, apart from each other, never talking to each other, never consulting with each other, to write a book about one controversial topic such as - the meaning of life. What are the chances they would be absolutely totally in agreement? You and I both know the chance of that happening would be absolutely zero.
2. Then imagine this. Here is a book that is actually 66 books in one, written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different authors, living in 3 different continents (Europe, Africa and Asia), writing in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic), writing on many controversial topics and yet they all wrote on one theme and they all said exactly the same thing.
3. Think about this. The first book of the Bible begins in a garden in paradise. In that garden is a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When you go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation written 1500 years later, you end up again in the paradise of God where there is also another tree - the tree of healing for the nations.
In Genesis, man is driven out of the garden, because of his sin and forbidden to eat of the tree. In Revelation, he is invited to come in and partake of the tree that he might live forever.
In Genesis, there is a river which flows from the garden. In Revelation, there is a river that flows from the throne of God.
The golden thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation is the redemption of sinful man, by the grace of God through faith in a Redeemer, named Jesus Christ.
4. So far, so good, but how do we know that all that the Bible says actually happened? How do we know it is fact not fable? How do we really know there was a Moses and a Rea Sea? How do we really know there was a Goliath that David killed? How do we really know there was a Daniel in the lion's den? How do we really know there was a Jesus, who died on a cross and came out of a tomb three days later?
5. I want you to understand, nobody can prove or disprove what has taken place in the ancient past. All I can do is present the evidence.
*** I can't prove there actually was a man named George Washington, who was the first President of the United States. I don’t know if he had wooden teeth? All I can do is present the evidence. Here you need to keep two things in mind.
1. The trustworthiness of any historical account is based on the evidence for that account.
2. The evidence must come from ancient documents and manuscripts. All ancient history is based on documentary evidence.
***Remember, 1000, 2000, 3000 years ago there were no videos, televisions, cameras or tape-recorders. There wasn't even any FOX news!
6. Furthermore, quite frankly, we are at a disadvantage because we don't have any of the original accounts. We don't have the original manuscripts that were first written when all these things took place, so the question is - how do we know we have the right stuff? In your teenager's high school history books they read about Julius Caesar. They read about Plato. They read about Homer and his story of the Iliad. No one questions any of those historical figures.
7. Have you ever thought about how many copies or manuscripts we have of these historical figures and how close they are to one another. Have you ever thought about what the time span is between the copies that we do have and the original copies that must have been written?
***Let me just give you the manuscript evidence for the ancient writings related to these 3 historical figures I just gave you.
Julius Caesar - earliest manuscripts 1000 years after Caesar lived - only 10 manuscripts exist.
Plato - earliest manuscripts 1300 years after Plato lived - only 7 manuscripts.
Homer - earliest manuscripts 500 years after Homer lived - 643 manuscripts.
In fact, Homer's Iliad is the most well supported overwhelmingly confirmed ancient text in the world next to the Bible. It has 643 manuscripts, the oldest of which comes 500 years after he actually wrote it.
Consider this, in the New Testament alone there are over 5,300 Greek manuscripts, the earliest just 35 years after the Book of Revelation was written.
*** Have you ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Fragments of almost every book in the Old Testament were found in these scrolls and they were dated approximately 150B.C. which is only 200 years after the last event of the Old Testament took place. There is no other book in the world that has as much manuscript support or is as closely tied to the original event than the Bible.
8. Putting together all of these manuscripts and comparing them with the version of the Bible we have today, we now know that we have at least 99.5% of what would be considered the original document. No other historical source or book in the history of the world can make that claim, but that still raises the question - How do we know they got their history right?
*** If I read a history book and it says that Custer's Last Stand took place at the Jack’s Barbeque while he was eating some ribs in 1998, I would be disinclined to believe that history book. There is one tool that we have to verify the historical accuracy of a document and that is archeology.
9. I could give you hundreds of examples of the historical accuracy of the Bible. I will just give you one. Everybody knows the story about Jericho and how the walls "came tumbling down". For many years critics laughed at this story. They said, first of all, you just don't walk around a city and have the walls fall down flat. Second, they said there is no way the Israelites could have marched around that city seven times in one day, because the city would have been too big and there was not enough time.
*** When Professor John Garstang, a British Archeologist, discovered the site of ancient Jericho, he discovered two things. First of all, he discovered the walls of the city had indeed fallen so completely that the attackers were able to climb up and over the ruins into the city. Why was that so unusual? Walls do not fall outward. When they are attacked, they fall inward, but for the only time the archeologist ever found, in this case, the walls fell outward - just like the Bible said, because God made them fall.
10. Furthermore, I have been to the ancient site of Jericho fifteen times. Jericho was actually smaller than the site on which this church is sitting right now. I can walk around Jericho seven times in one morning and then go play golf before lunch!
*** I can give you hundreds of examples of this, but let me just quote a man by the name of Dr. Nelson Glueck, the greatest modern authority on Israeli archeology, who said this, "No archeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference...archeology continues to confirm a clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible."
*** There was a man who lived a few years ago, Sir William Ramsey, one of the world's most brilliant intellects, and he was a noted scholar.
1. He lived in Aberdeen Scotland and he was a great historian and a great scholar of the history and geography of Asia Minor and the Middle East. And when this Middle East historian, this world-renowned man with more degrees than a thermometer studied the book of Acts, which is the history of the early church, he more or less ridiculed the book of Acts.
2. He more or less laughed at the book of Acts. Here's what Sir William Ramsey said of the book of Acts and I want to describe it or at least I want to give it to you in his own words. He described the book of Acts as a highly imaginative and carefully colored account of primitive Christianity. Highly imaginative, that is, it's not rooted in facts, it is rooted in imagination, that's what he was saying about the book of Acts. Carefully colored. That is, Luke just shaded his facts, he didn't tell you the truth, he just kind of shaped things and colored things to make it come out the way he wanted it to come out and so he said the book of Acts was not historically correct, you can't trust the history of the book of Acts.
3. Now, remember this man was brilliant, a professor in Aberdeen, Scotland. But do you know what he did? He made a mistake and it was a happy mistake and good mistake. He decided he would go to Asia minor and there carefully investigate and study the book of Acts and do you know what happened? He had a transformation, one hundred and eighty degrees he was turned around. He wrote a book entitled, The Beloved Physician. And that book was about Dr. Luke who wrote the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.
4. After he studied minutely the works of the great historian Dr. Luke, who gave us the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, and I'm quoting now, this Dr. Ramsey said, and I want you to listen to him: "I take the view that Luke's history is unsurpassed in regard to its trustworthiness." Did you hear that? "I now take the view that Luke's history is unsurpassed in regard to its trustworthiness. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian and they will stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment." Amazing! Here was a man who studied the facts and when he studied the facts he said you can trust the history of God's word.
11. Jesus said "Your word is truth." ( John 17: 17)
III. I Believe The Bible Because It is Scientifically Realistic
1. The Bible is not a science book, but if it is true and if it is God's Word, then just as you expect it to be historically reliable, you would expect it to be scientifically realistic. Another striking evidence that this book is truth and it is God's Word is found in the fact that many of the principles of modern science were recorded as facts of nature in the Bible long before any scientist every confirmed them experimentally.
2. For example, thousands of years ago most of the world believed the earth was flat. In fact, Columbus had to overcome this popular opinion in order to discover America. Do you know why Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain with no fear he would sail over the edge of the world? As a Christian, he knew what the Bible taught about this earth, that it was not a flat disk; it was rather a rounded sphere. Where did he get that idea? From this verse in Isaiah. "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:” (Isa. 40:22)
3. Thousands of years ago scientists thought that winds blew always in a straight direction. Of course, meteorologists now know that wind travels within circuits. They are called "jet streams". That is exactly what the Word of God says. "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits." (Ecc. 1:6)
4. In ancient times, doctors saw no need for washing their hands and many people died from the hands of doctors themselves, because they carried on those hands the germs that killed. Later on, doctors began to wash their hands in still water, but people were still dying because of infection they got from the hands of the doctor. Today, any doctor will tell you, you always wash hands in running water to make sure that every germ is totally washed away. Guess what we read in Lev 15:13, “And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.”
5. Jesus said, "Your word is truth." (John 17:17)
IV. I Believe The Bible Because It Is Prophetically Right
1. No other book on this planet can match the staggering accuracy of foretelling future events like the Bible. 30% of the Bible consists of prophecy and not one of its prophecies has ever been shown to be false.
2. In fact, the prophecies of scripture are so specific and so detailed; they have to be exactly fulfilled. Not only do many of these prophecies speak of things of which there was no likelihood that they would ever come to pass, many times they predicted the very opposite of what a human being would normally expect. In hundreds of instances, the fulfillment of the prophecy did not take place until after the prophet had already died.
3. In the Old Testament alone, there are over 2000 prophecies that have already come to pass. Nothing vaguely resembles this in any other book in the world. 26 volumes of books claim to be divine scriptures just like the Bible, but not one of those 26 volumes has any specific predictive prophecies. Jesus Christ alone fulfilled over 300 prophecies with His life, His death, His burial and His resurrection.
4. The Bible even gives detailed predictions concerning entire countries. Let me give you one fascinating example that I just came across. At one time, Egypt was the greatest nation in the entire world. It was the king of nations. It was the richest country on earth. In one prophecy about Egypt, the Prophet Ezekiel said this, "and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt” (Ezek 30:13b)
5. Until a few decades ago, before Egypt went through a more so called democratic form of government, Egypt was always ruled by a prince. But guess what? During the nearly 2500 years between this prophecy and Egypt's change to their present form of government, none of their princes were ever Egyptian. That would be like prophesying today that an American will never again be President of the United States and then having 2500 years go by with no American president. How could anybody ever have predicted something like that could happen - only God, who knows the truth before it even happened.
6. Jesus said, "Your word is truth." (John 17:17)
V. I Believe The Bible Because It Is Personally Relevant
1. I want you to understand exactly what I mean when I tell you why I believe the Bible is true. When I say the Bible is true, obviously I mean the Bible is factual, that is, it accurately records historical events. It is scientifically true. It is prophetically true, but truth goes beyond accuracy. Something can be true and factual, but have no significance. I can tell you the truth about how many buttons I have on this shirt that I am wearing right now, but who gives a rip? When I talk about the Bible being true, I mean it is significantly true, because it answers the three key questions of not only any worldview, but of life itself. In fact, how it does so is amazing. 2. The first two chapters of the Bible begin by answering the first key question - Who am I and how did I get here? The third chapter of the Bible answers the second key question - What is wrong with this world and why is there evil and suffering? The rest of the Bible answers the third question - What is the solution? How can this world be made right again and how can I be right with God?
*** If you doubt that this book has that kind of power, listen to what John Adams, the second President of the United States wrote in his diary. "Suppose a nation in some distance region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! ... What a utopia, what a paradise would this region be."
3. Who can deny that if every country in the world did what John Adams said this world would not be a radically different and far better place? I have been told the word, "Bible" is really an acronym that stands for -
B - Basic
I -Instructions
B -Before
L - Leaving
E - Earth
4. It is these basic instructions that teach us the truth both about this life and the life to come.
*** I love the words of the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, who said this, "I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God. Let me be a man of one book - this book, the Bible."
4. Everybody on this planet, including you, has to make a decision. Since you have all these religious books out there and they all say different things about God, heaven, hell, creation, and Jesus Christ, there are only two options. Option 1 is - they are all wrong. Option 2 is - one is right. The Bible could be just a bunch of myths and fairytales, but based on the evidence, I don't know how you can believe that. Some other religious book may be the real truth and not the Bible. Based on the evidence, I just don't believe that. All of these books may be wrong, but they cannot all be right. As for me, I am going to go with the man that came back from the dead, who said, "Thy word is truth". I am going with the Bible.
