Some of this sermon is influenced or taken from Bob Russell's sermon on The Bible as the Absolute Standard of Truth.
It sure is good to be back in the saddle. Not being here on Sunday mornings was definitely the downside of being on a sabbatical for 6 weeks.
Stacey and I both missed our church family. We were able to go out and visit some other churches while we were away… and while we worshipped there, it helped us to remember what a special place East Columbus Christian is.
And as my mind turned toward what to preach when I got back from sabbatical… I thought it would be a good idea to maybe dive into why this place is so special.
Now… we cannot just point to one thing. There are a plethora of reasons. Such as a very friendly church. A great worship team. The fact that the preacher can be gone for six weeks and not have to worry about what will happen in the pulpit.
We could talk about a caring group of elders and deacons. Great facilities, a thriving school that we started 50 years ago.
Those are all wonderful things… but I think what makes this place special is what we have at the core of what we are trying to do here.
If you’ve ever noticed the big sign just outside the doors here, you will know that it is a list of our core values.
These 8 statements provide a framework for decision-making, they create a shared identity, help us to gauge why we do what we do.
They basically serve as a compass for making choices that are consistent with our principles, aligning actions with goals, and fostering a sense of purpose and unity.
Without these core values, it’s very easy to just do a lot of unnecessary and wasteful things.
And it all starts with this belief. The Bible is the absolute truth. Everything else is built on that belief. It’s why we believe in Jesus because we see the truth in it.
2 Tmothy 3:16-17 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 corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
The other day, I went to McDonalds and there was a notice on the drive thru sign that said, “We are currently not offering Big Macs”.
I’m like… what? This is what I came here for. I came to McDonald’s to get Big Macs. That is the core of who McDonald’s is.
So I say to the young lady who took my order in the drive through… “do you really not have Big Mac’s”. She said, “we just got them back.”
And I’m in this like cynical mood now think… ‘wow… that was a close one.’ How do you not have Big Macs? It briefly put me in a mood.
Honestly, when the lady said, “That will be “$17.53… would you like to round up for Ronald McDonald House?”
I wanted say, “No… would you like to round down for Ronald McBridgewater’s House?” I didn’t say that… Jesus wouldn’t let me.
Can you imagine a McDonald’s without a Big Mac? Me either. And I can’t imagine a church not having the core value that the Bible is the absolute truth. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
I believe that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is true. 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 corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Here are some reasons why I believe it to be the very word of God. Seven reasons to be exact.
Hey, I haven’t preached in six weeks so buckle up. This might be a little long. Sorry… not sorry!
1. It has a reasonable conclusion.
To me, it makes a lot of sense that when God created the universe, His desire was to communicate with them. He didn’t just create the world and then say… I don’t want anything to do with it.
The closest we come to creating is when we have children. When the new baby arrives you instinctively want to communicate and get close to the child.
You say, “Goo, goo” and “Gah gah” and “Meemaw and Peepaw” and make a fool of yourself trying to establish communication and a relationship.
In fact, there is something wrong with a parent who gives birth to a child and then abandons it with no care.
It would be unnatural for God to create a being with the capacity to think and feel and not try to communicate with us.
The message of the Bible is that God wants to have intimate fellowship with His creation so much that He came to the earth and visited us in the flesh for thirty-three years.
If God is capable of creation and incarnation, He’s certainly capable of writing a book. In fact, a verbal communication from God is essential for understanding the mind of God.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
Obviously, the One who created this universe is much more powerful and brilliant than we are. “Who can know the mind of the Lord?”
How could we ever understand what He is thinking?” We can’t even understand what other human beings are thinking unless they express it in words.
I’m going to think of something right now and I want you to tell me what I’m thinking…
Any ideas what I’m thinking. Let’s try this… maybe this will help.
(show video clip of Brooks going down waterslide at Great Wolf)
I was thinking what a hilarious kid my grandson, Brooks, is and how much fun we had at Great Wolf Lodge one day during my sabbatical.
Did any of you get that? The video revealed maybe a little bit about what I was thinking but it still didn’t let you see everything that was going on in my mind.
We don’t know completely what’s on each other’s mind. And we can’t possibly know what God thinks just by our own will power.
Creation gives us a general idea of God’s power, but we need communication to understand the heart of God and the general mind of God.
Some try to guess about God from their own intuition. “My God wouldn’t ever judge anyone.” Or, “The God I believe in will condemn all who don’t interpret every detail of theology just as I do.”
If God is a God of omnipotence and compassion, it’s reasonable to believe that He would communicate His will to us in written form.
But these are written so that you may continue to believe[a] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. John 20:31
The second reason I believe the bible is absolute truth is.
2. It has a unique composition.
It really isn’t put together like any other book in history. It’s really not even a book. It’s a library of 66 books written by 40 different authors from divergent backgrounds, over a period of 1500 years. It was written from three different continents.
Can you imagine a medical journal carrying the advice of 40 different doctors dating back to A.D. 500? It would be so contradictory; it would be comical.
One cure for disease 200 years ago was bloodletting with leaches. Today the cure is often a blood transfusion! Yet the Bible spans a 1500-year period and is remarkably consistent. It carries a consistent and coherent theme of a coming Messiah.
The reason the Bible is consistent is that it has one ultimate author, God Himself. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says this…
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding,[h] 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.
Just like a sailboat is carried along by the wind, so the writing of the Scripture was “God-breathed.”
God didn’t etch it out in stone the way He did the Ten Commandments. God didn’t dictate it the way the Muslims say Allah did for Mohammed—God didn’t put the writers into a trance and take total control of their hand.
If you could take a quantum leap in time arriving in a cell block in Rome about A.D. 66 and could see the Apostle Paul writing and ask him,
“Hey Paul, what are you working on there.” I don’t think he’d say, “I don’t know, I think I’m going to call it 2 Timothy!”
Each writer used His own memory, his own style, but God guided the results. Jesus said, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13).
Sometimes I hear the question… Well… Who determined what books should be included in the Bible and which should not be included?”
You may have heard about the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip which are not included in the Bible. Why not?
In the Third Century church leaders made reasoned choices as to which books had been inspired by God. They used three criteria.
First, it had to be written by one of the apostles or a close associate of an Apostle, such as Luke and Mark.
Secondly, it had to be recognized by the First Century Church as authoritative. Thirdly its teaching had to be consistent with the doctrine of Christ.
With those criteria they arrived at the solid list of books that now make up the New Testament.
The Gospels of Thomas and Phillip weren’t found until 1945 in northern Egypt. It’s speculated that both were written late in the Second Century, long after both Philip and Thomas had died. So they don’t meet any of the three qualifications.
I believe that God guided the writing of the New Testament and that He went to great lengths to preserve the books He intended to be included for the past 2000 years. Its unique composition is evidence of its divine authorship.
A third reason I believe it is absolute truth is…
3. It has been incredibly durable.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.” Matthew 24:35
Here’s a book that has survived for 2000 years. It has not only survived, it has thrived! The Bible is the most popular book in the world.
According to the “The Top Ten of Everything” (2019 edition by Russell Ash), the Bible is listed as first with more than 6 billion copies distributed.
The second most widely distributed book is a book of quotations from Mao Tse Tung—900 million. But the Bible is unsurpassed in status. If you’ve never read the Bible you are not educated in the most popular book of all time.
The Bible was originally written on material that perishes… papyrus… and yet the words have survived.
It was written long before the printing press and copy machines, and it had to be copied meticulously by hand, and yet it has survived.
The Bible has been analyzed, scoffed at, and attacked more than any other book. Yet it has survived every attack for nearly 2000 years.
In the beginning of the church the Romans attempted to confiscate and burn every copy of the Bible. Yet it endured.
Voltaire, the French skeptic, predicted that Christianity would be an extinct religion within 100 years of his death and that the only place you’d find a Bible would be in a museum.
Voltaire died in 1778. He’s become extinct and the circulation of the Bible continues to increase around the world!
You want to hear a great, “isn’t that just like God story?”
Within fifty years of Voltaire’s death, the Geneva Bible Society bought his home and used his printing press to print Bibles. I’m sorry but I think that’s awesome.
Isaiah predicted in chapter 40 verse 8
The grass withers and the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.”
Think of the attacks against the Bible today. One of the most prominent attacks was by Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code… which has been at the top of the bestseller list for 55 weeks and has sold over seven million copies.
The Da Vinci Code is like a chocolate milkshake that contains fentanyl… it’s appealing but deadly. Dan Brown is a skillful writer but attempts to poison belief in the Bible.
On page 341 we read, “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication…Faith is the acceptance of that we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.
Every religion describes God through metaphors, allegories and exaggerations…the problem arises when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors.”
Believe it or not, the Wall Street Journal ran a story not long after the DaVinci Code came out basically debunking it. And it even went so far as to say…
“The Bible has survived Galileo and Darwin and it will survive Dan Brown.”
- Andrew Miller, Wall Street Journal
There are a lot of people in the media and the entertainment industry who put it down and call it a book of fairy tales and they say we don’t want to hear that stuff.
But let me tell you something… there are a lot of people who do want to hear it… the word of God will endure.
Fourth reason I believe the Bible is true…
4. It is incredibly complex.
The main message of the Bible is so simple that a child can understand it. But there are parts of the Bible that are so deep that scholars are still contemplating the meaning.
Predestination, sanctification, Armageddon are deep subjects that continue to challenge the most astute minds.
Man has not developed any teaching that surpasses the Ten Commandments, the golden rule, the prodigal son, the Good Samaritan.
These days, we are reading about college football teams and basketball teams and fraternities and sororities… who are getting together for Bible in order to discuss and try to understand the Bible better.
We don’t read or hear about football teams getting together for Moby Dick book clubs. We don’t read or hear about sororities getting together for War and Peace study.
Can you imagine going through those books line by line, exegete the meanings and trying to come see what the author is saying?
I mean… they might exist somewhere but I’m sure there are not a lot of them. But I am reading about and hearing about Bible Study groups all over the United States on College and even High School campuses.
And the result??? Did you know that the largest group of people who attend church in the United States is no longer Baby Boomers?
It’s not Gen X… It’s Gen Z!!! Gen Z has more people who attend church each week than any other generation. This includes people aged 13-28. Can we just give a hand for Gen Z worshippers here!
You know who number 2 is on the list. It’s Millenials!!! This includes people aged 29-44. Another hand for them, please! Do you know what this means church?
The enduring word of God is having an incredible impact on the younger generations. They are hearing the word of God and they are responding.
Only God’s Word would be worthy of that kind of analysis and study because it is milk and meat for the soul and, those who hunger for God, keep hungering for His Word. It is challenging in its complexity.
The fifth reason I believe God’s word is true.
5. It is incredibly accurate
Josh McDowell points out that the historical accuracy of the Bible can be proven by subjecting it to three generally accepted tests for determining historical reliability of ancient documents.
The first is the Bibliographical test. This is the test of the accuracy of the ancient manuscripts upon which Scripture was written.
We don’t have any original manuscripts of the New Testament. The autographs, written by the apostles have not been found.
That’s why the earliest manuscripts along with a multiplicity of manuscripts are important. The manuscript evidence for the accuracy of the New Testament is very impressive.
Did you know that there are now more than 5,600 ancient manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Add to that nearly 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 other early versions and we have nearly 25,000 early manuscripts of the Bible.
No other document even comes close. The next most commonly copied document is Homer’s Iliad with 643 manuscripts—all of them partial.
Thus the Bible manuscripts outnumber those for Homer by nearly 40-1.
Now… If you challenge an English professor who studies ancient literature, by saying… “I don’t believe we have a reliable version of Homer’s Iliad, he would say,
“Of course we do, we have 643 manuscripts.” That’s sufficient.
With over 25,000 manuscripts, how could anyone seriously doubt that we have the original text of the Bible?” It’s amazing the way God has preserved His Word.
Lee Stroble in The Case for Christ points out the earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., yet historians consider them to be generally trustworthy.
The gospels were written from 30 to 60 years after the life of Jesus—that assures their accuracy.
The Bible passes the bibliographical test with flying colors!
The second test for accuracy is the internal test. The internal test asks the question, “Is there anything in the writing itself that would cause us to suspect its trustworthiness?”
One of the impressive things about the content of the Bible is its honesty. The heroes in Greek mythology are exaggerated in power and goodness to the point that it’s obviously imagined.
But the main characters of the Bible are presented with human frailties. Noah got drunk, Abraham lied, David committed adultery, Peter denied Jesus. There’s an authenticity about the Bible that comes through when it’s read.
Some who despise the Bible go to great lengths to attempt to find internal contradictions to discredit it. People say, “I don’t believe the Bible because it’s full of contradictions.” “Really? What do you have in mind?”
“Well, one account says Judas hung himself and another says he fell headlong on a pile of rocks. Which was it?”
“The answer isn’t complex. I think he hung himself and when the rope burst or the tree limb broke, his body fell on the rocks below.” You see it’s not a contradiction at all.
The fact that the supposed contradictions in the Bible are so shallow and often easily explained, illustrates its reliability. Here’s a book that is 2000 years old and it’s without error or contradiction. It passes the internal test.
The third test of accuracy is the external test— which is the corroboration from reliable sources outside the New Testament. I wish I had time to document the archeological discoveries that have confirmed the Bible.
There has been the discovery of the name of Belshazzar as King of Babylon when historians claimed no such king existed,
archeologists have discovered King David’s name in stone, the ruins of the walls of Jericho that for some strange reason had fallen outwardly, and the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah verifying they were destroyed suddenly by molten ash.
One of the most interesting to me however, happened in May, 2003) Robert Cornuke published a book titled, The Lost Shipwreck of Paul, that is fascinating.
In Acts 27 the Bible says the Alexandrian ship on which Paul was sailing was caught in a ferocious storm and ran aground off the coast of the Island of Malta.
In order to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboard, including the ship’s four anchors.
Cornuke and companions went searching for those four anchors over 1900 years later. They studied Luke’s description and calculated he was describing what is now St. Thomas Bay in Malta.
Just off the coast in thirty feet of water (as Luke had described), they discovered four ancient Roman anchors.
Professor Anthony Bonanno, University of Malta, verified the anchors could have existed in the time period 100 B.C. to A.D. 100 and were used by Roman grain ships of that era.
Finding four anchors in such close proximity indicated a sudden cut in the lines caused by a crisis at the time.
The Bible’s manuscripts are amazingly accurate! The 6th reason I believe the bible is true is…
6. It’s prophecies are fulfilled.
No human being can predict the future. The weatherman isn’t always accurate. The Las Vegas oddsmaker, the stock market analyst, the best psychics fall woefully short.
Goodness, every March, we can’t even get past the first round of our brackets during March Madness.
Only God can see the future and predict it accurately.
The Old Testament contained all kinds of predictions about the coming of the Messiah. They were all fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), have a ministry in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2),
ride into the city of Jerusalem in triumph (Zechariah 9:9), be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9), for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:13), be falsely accused (Psalm 35:11), be silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7),
have His hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16), be crucified with thieves (Isaiah 53:12), His garments would be the object of the casting of lots (Psalm 22:18),
not any of his bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20), he would be buried in the tomb of the rich (Isaiah 53:9), and He would come back from the grave (Psalm16:10).
With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it can now be proven those Old Testament predictions predate the birth of Jesus. Every one of those detailed prophecies came true exactly in Jesus.
There’s no way that could happen accidentally or by chance! It could only be directed by God
And finally, I believe the Bible is true because.
7. It has an incredible effect on those who read it and believe.
Isaiah 55:10-11
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
God’s Word promises to accomplish its purpose. When read with an open mind, it convicts of sin, it convinces of the deity of Christ, it leads to salvation by faith in the blood of Christ.
After we become Christians the Bible helps transform our lives because it is milk and meat for the soul, and it helps us mature in Christ.
Many of you here today would say, “My whole life is different because of the Bible.
God’s Word has transformed me into a more honest worker, a better spouse, a more consistent parent, a more gentle sibling, a more generous giver, a more self-controlled party-goer, a deeper and more spiritual person.
Deuteronomy 32:47 These instructions are not empty words—they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you will occupy when you cross the Jordan River.”
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
Look at us! Why are we here? Why are you spending precious time, money, and effort to participate in this church? It’s because of the message of this book.
It’s 2000 years old, and yet it words are the source of life for us. It’s alive in us! It’s still a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Someone once said that many people are just eighteen inches from the Kingdom of God—that’s the distance between their head and their heart. Jesus said we needed to humble ourselves and become like little children.
It’s so hard to swallow our intellectual pride and accept by faith what God has revealed to us in His Word.
But I’ve taken a half hour or so today to try to convince you what little children know instinctively when they sing, “Jesus loves me.”
In fact, can I just share one more quick video? It’s of Brooks and Avett this time. We captured this at the house a few days ago and I want to share it with you.
The gospel realize is pretty simple. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, be baptized for the washing away of your sins, and live your life for Him
So… as our song of decision today… I’m going to ask you to humble yourself and sing it with me. And if you’re willing to accept God’s truth revealed through the Bible, then we invite you to respond by faith to Christ today.
