“WHY SHOULD I TRUST THE BIBLE?” 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 4:12
FBCF – 9/30/23
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Kids’ song – “The B.I.B.L.E., yes, that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God. The B.I.B.L.E.”
Or the old hymn written in 1787: “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”
This “DEEP-Construction” sermon series is designed to help us stand strong & build our lives on the firm foundation of the “excellent Word” of God. We believe & teach & preach that the Bible is the Word of God. We believe:
- It’s a living book – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV) We will come back to this verse later.
- It’s an authoritative book – “The authority of Scripture means that all the words are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.” (Wayne Grudem, https://gracequotes.org/topic/authority-bible/)
- It’s a powerful book – “God’s Word is His supernatural power for accomplishing His supernatural work…Preaching the content & intent of God’s Word is what unleashes the power of God on the people of God, b/c God’s power for building His people is in His Word…” (https://gracequotes.org/topic/bible-power/)
- BF&M – “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”
EXPLANATION – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (996); Hebrews 4:12 (1003)
While most of us will agree & even “Amen” the statements I made about the Bible, there are many who don’t hold the Bible in high regard, don’t agree w/ those statements, & have chosen to base their lives on some authority other than the Bible. Many, if not most people who are deconstructing their faith are doing so b/c they’ve decided that the Bible is not God’s Word, is not trustworthy, is not true, is not the final authority, & should not be followed.
- Joshua Harris – used to be pastor of a strong evangelical megachurch – now says he doesn’t believe any of the stuff he used to teach.
- Bart Campolo (was an evangelical Christian youth pastor. Now an atheist. Son of Tony Campolo) – “I passed through every stage of heresy. It starts w/ sovereignty going, then biblical authority goes, then I’m a universalist, now I’m marrying gay people. Pretty soon I don’t actually believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead in a bodily way.” Sad snowball effect!
Many people who have deconstructed their faith or are in process of deconstructing have done so due to their beliefs about the Bible.
- We as evangelical Christians hold to what is known as the historic view of the Bible. We believe that Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is inspired by God & trustworthy in what it affirms. Some folks like to say, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Better to say, “God said it. That settles it whether I believe it or not.”
- The opposite view of the historic view is known as the progressive view. Those who hold to this view would say that the Bible is not the fully inspired Word of God, but rather it contains God’s Word. They would say that “Many of its teachings [do not reflect] God’s view of things, but the culturally conditioned views of the people who wrote it.” (Sean McDowell, Set Adrift: Deconstructing What You Believe Without Sinking Your Faith, p. 66-67).
- And then there are those who simply reject the Bible completely. Don’t care what it says. Not going to read it. Have no desire whatsoever to even think at all about what it says about how to live one’s life.
There’s no doubt that there are sayings & teachings & stories in the Bible that are hard to understand. But that’s not a reason to reject it & consider it untrustworthy. Why trust the Bible?
APPLICATION – There is no other & has never been another book like the Bible.
WHY TRUST THE BIBLE? Many strong, scholarly reasons given by trusted pastors & theologians.
- Voddie Baucham: “I choose to believe the Bible because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies & claimed that they writings were divine rather than human in origin.”
o We have 6000 NT manuscripts written only 25 yrs after the originals were written.
o One argument – Myth of overzealous monks who changed the Bible so it would match up & LOOK like we have these older manuscripts. These monks would have to go steal all the manuscripts, change 6000 of them the same way, lie the same way in each language, don’t show inkwork in doing so, and get them back where they stole them from without getting caught. Then do the same thing with all the commentaries by church leaders, which quoted the New Testament so often we can reproduce all but 11 verses with these commentaries alone.
- Dr. Jason Lisle, Christian astrophysicist: “The Bible is uniquely self-consistent and extraordinarily authentic. It has changed the lives of millions of people who have placed their faith in Christ. It has been confirmed countless times by archaeology and other sciences. It possesses divine insight into the nature of the universe and has made correct predictions about distant future events with perfect accuracy.” (https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/how-do-we-know-that-the-bible-is-true/)
- Adrian Rogers: “The Bible is a supernatural, spiritual, sovereign, surviving, sustaining, super-charged book about my Savior.”
When we consider the verses that we are looking at today, we see:
THERE IS NO OTHER BOOK THAT IS “GOD-BREATHED” LIKE THE BIBLE IS – 2 Timothy 3:16a
“breathed out by God” (ESV) “God-breathed” (NIV) “inspired by God” (CSB) “given by inspiration of God” (KJV)
- Faulkner’s words not “God-breathed”…John Grisham’s…Mark Twain’s…Shakespeare’s…Hemingway’s…
What does it mean that the Bible is “God-breathed” or “Inspired by God”? Notice that Paul didn’t’ say the writers of Scripture were inspired, but that the Scriptures themselves are inspired by God.
- The very breath of God is in the words of this book.
- God oversaw the entire process of the writing of the Bible by choosing the authors & guiding them to write exactly what He wanted them to say w/out error.
- Used their minds, talents, language, style, but wrote exactly what God wanted them to write as His Spirit guided them.
o Paul different than James…Peter different than John…David different than Moses…Solomon different than Daniel
- Bible is completely trustworthy b/c God was in control of its writing. Its words are completely authoritative for our faith & life. Its teachings are completely life-giving, life-changing, & life-altering.
- “inspiration” – “…the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Bible’s writers, which guaranteed that what they wrote was accurate & trustworthy.” (Wiersbe)
“Breath of fresh air” – Bible is a breath of fresh air to us b/c it’s GOD’S breath. Brings excitement, joy, peace, comfort, inspiration.
“Take a deep breath.” – Relax – Rest – We can relax & rest when we trust God’s breathed-out Word. It contains promises that drive away our fears & anxieties. Promises of purpose & direction for life here, & eternal life in His presence in our life hereafter.
THERE IS NO OTHER BOOK THAT SHAPES OUR ENTIRE LIVES LIKE THE BIBLE DOES – 2 Timothy 3:16b-17
“ALL Scripture is beneficial” “profitable” (KJV) “useful” (NIV)
“ALL Scripture is useful” for ALL of life – our entire life. Its principles & commands & teachings inform every area of our lives. Look at the NIV translation of these verses:
- “teaching” – Shows us what is right
- “rebuking” – Shows us what is not right
- “correcting” – Shows us how to get right
- “training in righteousness” – Shows us how to stay right
This why we hold it up, take it in, & live it out b/c it shapes every aspect of our lives.
- It shows you the right way to be a husband or wife…
- …to be a parent…a son or daughter…a friend…
- …to handle your money…conduct your business…
- …to be the Church in our world today…
- …to express sexual intimacy in the context of a committed marriage between a man & woman…
THERE IS NO OTHER BOOK THAT PIERCES LIKE THE BIBLE WILL – Hebrews 4:12
What is a sword used for? To fight – to defend & protect yourself – to defeat an enemy by piercing them.
That’s what the Word of God is used for, too. It’s our offensive weapon against our enemy. Use it to fight against him, to defend & protect yourself from his attacks, to defeat him as he attacks us.
And although this verse doesn’t speak specifically about Satan, we know that he attacks us in our mind – our thoughts, intentions, desires, passions. That’s why we need the Word to pierce us & get to the heart of the areas where he’s attacking us.
- It pierces b/c it’s the living Word.
- It pierces b/c it’s active – Gk energes – It has energy. It is effective. It has the ability to bring about what God wants it to bring about.
- It pierces b/c it convicts as it goes deep within our heart & mind & emotions & will.
- It pierces b/c it evaluates our thoughts & motives & intentions.
- It pierces b/c it discerns & exposes what is in our hearts, good or bad.
- It pierces b/c sometimes it burns us & it smashes us!
o Jeremiah 23:29 – “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, & like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”
It pierces to protect us – from ourselves, from temptation, from Satan.
It pierces to provide for us – direction, guidance, counsel, comfort, peace.
It pierces to position us – to be stronger, wiser, more loving, more Christ-like.
It pierces through all the deceitfulness of sin to point us to the only Truth that will save us.
CONCLUSION – Airplane off course as a result of 1 zero being out of place – entered longitude as 01519.8 instead of 15109.8. If pilot had continued, airplane would have ended up being nearly 6000 miles away from original destination. Would have been disastrous!
If you & I choose to set the course of our life with any other source than the Bible, we will end up far away from God’s intended destination for our lives. Disastrous consequences! Choose today to stand on & trust the unchanging Word of God!
