Is the Bible Reliable?.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] All right, welcome to Village Church once again. [0:02] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:04] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:06] As always, I’m thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:10] If you do have a copy of the Bible, go ahead and open it up to 2 Timothy chapter 3. [0:16] We’re ultimately going to be going from verse 14 to verse 17 this morning, but we’re going

[0:20] to be starting in verse 16. [0:23] This morning we’re continuing our series, Explore God. [0:26] What we’ve been doing over the past few weeks is answering questions that people and culture [0:32] in general have, but also questions that if you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re not [0:37] steeped in the Bible or steeped in church in your lifetime, these may be questions that [0:42] have gone unanswered for you as well about the purpose of life, about why do we believe

[0:48] that there is a God, why do pain and suffering exist, what’s the purpose behind all of that. [0:53] Then we talked a couple weeks ago about, is Christianity too narrow? [0:58] Christians sometimes have the, I believe it’s a baseless claim that we’re narrow-minded [1:03] people, and so we talked about that. [1:05] For the past two weeks, last week and this week, what we’ve done is we’ve actually began [1:11] to winnow Christianity down and actually narrow it down to what I believe are the two most

[1:17] important issues that you can deal with in trusting who God is and the person of Jesus [1:24] Christ. [1:24] Last week we dealt with the question of, is Jesus really God? [1:29] This week I think we’re going to get a little even more specific and talk about how is [1:33] Jesus, and better than that, how is God known? [1:37] How can I know what God wants from me?

[1:39] How can I know how God wants me to view him? [1:42] How can I know what my life should look like if I’m seeking to trust and follow Jesus? [1:49] In that, we’re going to talk about the reliability of the Bible. [1:54] The question that’s posed to us is, is the Bible reliable? [1:58] I want to actually go past that because I don’t think in answering that I will have [2:02] done a sufficient job for your life.

[2:05] I want to go with that. [2:06] I want to answer that question, but I also want to take a look at the question of, is [2:10] the Bible the word of God? [2:12] Because that’s another step that’s vital for you in knowing who God is, but more than [2:19] that, knowing how you should know God and what God wants from you in your life. [2:25] If I’m dealing with two issues as to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, as to

[2:31] what it means to be a follower of Jesus, the most important two questions that you can [2:37] deal with are, who is Jesus and what has Jesus done? [2:42] And also, the Bible.

[2:46] Because without the Bible, you cannot know God. [2:50] Apart from the Bible, you can know that there is a God, that there is a creator through [2:56] really the natural revelation that we talked about a few weeks ago and kind of just dealing [3:01] with the existence of God, but you cannot know specifically who God is. [3:06] You cannot know specifically how God has designed for you to know and view everything [3:12] around you apart from the Bible.

[3:16] And so it is vital in knowing what you should do with your life and in knowing how God [3:23] would have you to be. [3:25] So how can you trust, though, that that’s true? [3:28] How can you trust that this is the word of God? [3:30] How can you trust that it’s actually a reliable book? [3:32] When even inside of the church, so if we went outside of the church and people, not

[3:37] just this church, but any church outside of the Christian faith, people have a plethora [3:41] of views on the Bible. [3:43] But even inside of the Church of Jesus Christ at large, there are many different thoughts [3:49] as to whether or not the Bible is fully true, whether it’s partly true, whether just the [3:55] statements of Jesus are the ones that you need to pay attention to. [3:59] And so many people have differing views.

[4:01] So what is the correct view? [4:03] Is the Bible the word of God? [4:05] Is the Bible reliable? [4:07] Is the Bible vital to life? [4:10] Is it more important than air, as the video has told us? [4:14] And of course, you may have some assumptions, but if you don’t know me, maybe you’re like,

[4:18] well, I don’t know how he’s getting into that. [4:19] Some of you know what I’m going to say. [4:20] Of course it is. [4:21] Yes, to all of the above. [4:24] Yes, to everything about the Bible. [4:26] The Bible is reliable.

[4:27] The Bible is the word of God. [4:28] The Bible is vital to life. [4:29] The Bible is the way that you can know God. [4:32] The Bible is the only way that you can fully know who God is and fully know what God wants [4:40] from you. [4:41] Outside of Scripture, you’re going to be left wanting.

[4:45] And so I want to take a look at that. [4:46] And first, I want to take a look at the fact, and I believe that this is a fact, that the [4:50] Bible is the word of God. [4:52] The Bible is the word of God. [4:54] There is no other. [4:57] And so how do we know that?

[4:57] And I want to start by talking about what does the Bible itself claim to be? [5:03] And so I want to answer the argument against using the Bible to defend the Bible after [5:08] I make this argument. [5:09] So I want to start with just saying that it is the word of God. [5:13] Primarily, we can know that because it claims to be the word of God. [5:17] So you have to know what it says before you deal with whether or not it’s the word of

[5:20] God. [5:21] Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3. [5:22] I’m going to start reading in verse 16. [5:23] It says that all scriptures breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, [5:30] for correction, and for training in righteousness. [5:32] And verse 17 continues.

[5:33] It says that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [5:38] And so there is a clear truth claim from a verse in the scripture. [5:44] It says this is the breath of God. [5:49] And you can use it for teaching. [5:51] You can use it for correcting. [5:54] You can use it for what’s called reproof or making erroneous ways of living right.

[6:00] You can use it to be trained in righteousness. [6:02] More than that, you will be complete and equipped for every work that God will ever have for [6:08] you with this book. [6:12] But understand that the opposite is also true. [6:16] That if you don’t have the Bible, if you don’t know the Bible, then you can’t teach, [6:23] then you can’t reproof, then you can’t correct, then you can’t be trained in righteousness,

[6:29] and you will not be equipped for every good work. [6:35] So if the positive is true, you also have to understand then the negative. [6:40] That without the Bible, you’re not going to ultimately have every one of those things, [6:45] and you will be left wanting in all of those areas. [6:52] As that tells us that according to Second Timothy, according to the apostle Paul in [6:57] this writing, that the Bible is absolutely necessary if you’re going to follow Jesus

[7:07] and if you’re going to claim to be a follower of Jesus.

[7:14] So let’s look at a couple of words in there. [7:16] First, I want to look at the term, breathed out. [7:21] In some versions it will say inspired. [7:24] This is the term Theonustos, and what Paul is saying in this phrase is that the Bible [7:29] is literally breathed out by God. [7:33] So if you breathed something in, you’re taking something in.

[7:36] If you breathed something out, very clearly what you’re doing, it’s coming out of you. [7:40] So he’s making the claim that this is a book that finds its primary source as God. [7:50] And so, the two ways of dealing with the Bible, let’s call one way to believe that this is [7:56] not the authoritative word of God. [7:57] This is not 100% accurate, this is not 100% inerrant or without error, so it’s neither [8:03] 100% infallible, which just means that it’s completely correct in what it says.

[8:08] Those people would say, and that camp would say, that the Bible is a book by men about God.

[8:18] Then there’s the other way of viewing the Bible, and that is the way that here at Village [8:22] Church we view the scriptures, I personally view them this way, that is that the book [8:27] is from God to men. [8:31] And those are completely different ways of viewing it. [8:34] The first one says, yeah, it may have some inspirational sections, it may have some [8:38] good lessons for you to learn in life, it may be even a good way of learning about God,

[8:41] but to claim that it is directly from God, of course not. [8:46] But when you do that, you strip away the essence of the book. [8:53] You strip away the essence, literally, of what the book claims to be. [8:58] So if the book claims to be one thing and it is not that thing, then it is not profitable [9:04] in any way because it’s a book full of lies. [9:06] Because it claims to be the scriptures.

[9:10] And it claims it’s breathed out by God. [9:14] And that term for inspiration there means it’s literally from Him. [9:19] That doesn’t mean that we believe that angels used fairy dust to write the first version [9:24] of the Bible. [9:25] No, what it means is that we do know that, because we’re not Neanderthals, God used [9:31] people to write the Bible.

[9:35] But the process by which those people wrote the Bible was absolutely supernatural. [9:41] It was that God moved in them and through them, and the recordings that they made were [9:48] literally the words of God through men. [9:53] And that’s what the apostle Paul is claiming here. [9:57] He’s claiming that specific nature of what the Bible itself is. [10:01] Now, this is written in the era that the New Testament was written in.

[10:07] So many people say, well, Paul’s just talking about the Old Testament. [10:11] And many people accept that view. [10:13] But I personally, and many like me, believe that there’s far more to what Paul is saying [10:19] than just saying Genesis through Malachi, inspired by God, from God. [10:24] And that’s based on a few other things that he said. [10:27] But first, to begin to prove that, I want to use the term that he used previous to

[10:32] breathe out where he said the term scripture. [10:36] What does he mean there? [10:37] That’s the term Grafe in the Greek, which is used 51 times in the New Testament to point [10:43] to the Old Testament as the perfect revelation of God. [10:48] As the writers of the New Testament are quick to point to the validity of the Old Testament [10:53] for the purpose of revealing that the gospel was God’s plan for all time.

[10:59] Whenever they’re using the New Testament in the New Testament, that’s their purpose. [11:03] They want to connect the two and show the cohesiveness of the claims of Christ and [11:09] the claims they’re making about Christ with the prophecies and the nature of the Old Testament [11:14] to give it validity. [11:16] They want to show that this is not a break from the Judaism of the Old Testament, but [11:20] rather they are writing of the fulfillment of the covenant of the Old Testament in Jesus Christ.

[11:28] So in Acts chapter 2 verse 42, when it says that the early church, the first Christians [11:32] devoted themselves to learning the teaching of the apostles, they were learning the connection [11:38] of Jesus to the scriptures as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. [11:42] And this is then where the New Testament finds its source. [11:46] It was written by the apostles and their companions in order to point to the coming [11:51] of Jesus as the fulfillment and purpose of everything that had been written at that time

[11:56] in the Bible. [11:57] And this not only points to the Old Testament’s authority, but also reveals a conduit through [12:02] which the purpose of the New Testament will ultimately come. [12:07] And yet this same New Testament that authors who appeal to the validity of the Old Testament [12:11] twice used the same terminology for the Old Testament, which is graph a scripture in [12:18] referring to what we consider the New Testament.

[12:22] In 2nd Peter chapter 3 verses 15 through 16, Peter recognizes Paul’s writings as being [12:28] scripture and writes that they were given from him, from God, which is a reference to [12:35] the fact that God was writing through the apostle Peter. [12:38] But then in 1st Timothy chapter 5, 18, Paul then quotes two different passages in the [12:44] same verse. [12:45] He quotes Deuteronomy 25, 5, which is Old Testament.

[12:49] But then he quotes Luke 10, 7 word for word and calls them both scripture. [12:57] So the New Testament authors understood and knew that God was writing through them as [13:04] specific revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [13:09] And so the argument then would come, ah, but this is all circular reasoning. [13:13] You can’t use the source itself to prove its validity. [13:19] There is credence to that in many different ways, but to appeal to another source in

[13:25] this instance would elevate that source to the status as the word of God. [13:31] So it would be putting that source up above the scriptures. [13:35] Therefore the Bible’s claim at being the word of God is of great significance, but [13:40] it is not all that we have. [13:43] We literally have a few thousand years of history of people from peasants to scholars [13:51] pointing to the scripture as the word of God.

[13:56] And so as scholar and theologian John Frame puts it, he says, if the Bible is the word [14:02] of God, then it carries the same authority as God. [14:08] And that is what Paul is saying in 2 Timothy chapter 3. [14:11] He is saying that the Bible is authoritative as the voice of the authoritative God in your [14:21] life. [14:21] That is why when people make the claim that people who appeal to the Bible for everything,

[14:26] you say, oh, you’re just worshiping the Bible rather than worshiping the God of the Bible. [14:31] It’s ridiculous. [14:33] All right. [14:33] That’s like saying that you’re listening to the authority of the king’s words rather [14:38] than listening to the king. [14:39] What’s the difference?

[14:41] You’re listening to his edict. [14:43] You’re listening to his authority. [14:44] You’re listening to what he said. [14:46] You’re submitting to the words that came directly out of his mouth. [14:52] Therefore, when you look to the Bible and it corrects you, because I think that’s the [14:58] part of 2 Timothy chapter 3 that most of us would be uncomfortable with.

[15:02] We believe something. [15:04] We live a certain way. [15:06] And then the Bible contradicts what we believe and what we say. [15:10] And we say, well, I know the Bible says that, but I feel doesn’t matter.

[15:17] Doesn’t matter how you feel. [15:19] What did God say? [15:20] Well, if the Bible is the word of God, then all that matters is that what the scriptures [15:25] say. [15:26] So if the scriptures contradict you and you feel opposed to what the scripture says, well, [15:32] here’s the key.

[15:34] You’re opposed to God in that sense. [15:37] Or you appeal to something else. [15:39] You say, I know the Bible says, but cultures lead to me. [15:43] Stop.

[15:46] The culture isn’t God. [15:47] The culture isn’t from God. [15:48] The scriptures are God. [15:50] The scriptures come directly from his mouth. [15:53] It is a primary source, not from men about God. [15:59] From God to men, if the claim that it’s making here is true.

[16:06] So in any way that you paint it, John Frame is correct that if the Bible is the word [16:13] of God, then any disagreement with the Bible, any rebellion against the Bible, any attempt [16:20] to undermine the way the Bible would lead you to be, well, it is going against the authority [16:27] of God because that’s what it bears. [16:30] But secondly, the Bible is completely reliable. [16:34] Now, when we talk about this, I talked about the fact that it is the word of God before

[16:38] I talked about the reliability for a specific purpose, that just because it’s reliable [16:42] doesn’t mean it’s the word of God. [16:45] There’s a lot of reliable things out there that aren’t the word of God. [16:49] And so in this section, I’m going to appeal to the historicity of the text. [16:54] Did it come from where and whence it claims to have come from? [16:59] So that’s the issue of who wrote it.

[17:01] Is it telling the truth about who wrote the specific books? [17:04] Is it from the time period that it claims to have come from? [17:07] Or like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Q, was it written two and three hundred [17:12] years after it claims to have been written? [17:16] And so this is the reliability of the Bible as being historically what is claimed about [17:21] it.

[17:21] So first I want to talk about the Old Testament, then I want to talk about the New Testament. [17:24] The Old Testament and the authors do bear witness to its historical development. [17:30] And that begins with the Ten Commandments in the Ark. [17:34] That’s where we really start with the historicity of the Bible. [17:38] That Moses, with the nation of Israel, records the Ten Commandments, then he records what [17:44] he does with the Ten Commandments, how he does it, when he does it.

[17:49] Moses authored the first five books of the Bible. [17:53] And from that point forward, God instructed his people through prophets, through priests, [17:58] through kings, and Scripture records spoken revelation and written revelation through [18:03] these sources. [18:05] And so what you see, which is unique about the Bible, specifically from where it came [18:09] from and even in history at large, it does an exhaustive job of attesting to when it

[18:18] was written. [18:19] So if you read through the Old Testament, even the New Testament alike, in the book [18:22] of Acts and through the Gospels, there’s some things that they’re always pointing out. [18:25] Whose reign that this took place during, what the conditions of the world were like, [18:32] who was in power at that time, and then even significant things about things like aqueducts, [18:37] things like what was going on in the world and worldwide at that point.

[18:41] And so many things are recorded to show the dating of when it took place. [18:45] So we see Moses pens two additional books, puts them in the Ark of the Covenant with [18:50] the Ten Commandments. [18:51] And so, if you look at the book of Acts, that’s in Deuteronomy chapter 31, 24 through 26, [18:53] then Joshua adds to it in Joshua 24, 26. [18:57] Then throughout the history of the Old Testament, others continue.

[19:01] So in 1 Samuel 10, 25, 1 Chronicles 29, 29, 2 Chronicles 20, 34, 2 Chronicles 26, 22, [19:09] Jeremiah 30, verse 2, in many different places, they’re saying, here is what I wrote, and [19:15] here is what I did with what I wrote so that you could not fake it, so that you could [19:24] go to the primary source. [19:26] And so as the Old Testament books were being completed, the prophets and the priests discerned [19:33] what was God’s Word and what was not God’s Word.

[19:36] And this ended in 425, between 425 and 435 BC with the Old Testament being closed. [19:43] But then the New Testament, and also, there isn’t a great deal of argument as to the [19:50] historicity of the Old Testament. [19:53] With, you know, the book of Isaiah, sometimes the book of Ezekiel, some of the prophets, [19:58] when the books get larger, they say, oh, did one person write this, because the writing [20:02] style changes a little bit.

[20:04] And so there’s a little bit of an argument there, but specifically not in dating, not [20:08] in where it came from, not in how it was produced. [20:11] And so that is completely accepted across the board where the Old Testament is concerned. [20:16] Now, the New Testament, it is historically understood as part of the Bible. [20:20] There’s no argument there. [20:22] And I put forward to you that it’s also reliable in its dating.

[20:28] And whereas evidence is concerned, that’s becoming more aware even to those who reject [20:34] the Bible as the Word of God, which is a different argument. [20:38] It’s being accepted, historically speaking. [20:42] The New Testament consists of the writings of the apostles and their companions because [20:47] of the Messianic revelation of Jesus. [20:50] The point of the New Testament is to point to Jesus.

[20:53] John 14, 26 tells us that. [20:55] But the New Testament acceptance was based on authorship, but also on the basis of intrinsic [21:01] qualities of the books themselves as they fit into the whole of Scripture. [21:06] But then in John 10, 27, Jesus makes the statement himself. [21:09] He says, my sheep hear my voice and they’re going to listen to me. [21:12] So the early church should be trusted and is when you look at the way historical events

[21:19] are documented and accepted across the board, contemporary authors to the person that the [21:26] events are claimed should be paid attention to and trusted as not far removed from Jesus [21:32] because they were during his time. [21:34] Now by the fourth century, due to controversies, heresies, and a desire to preserve the faith, [21:41] councils were formed to approve and canonize Scripture. [21:46] So then in 397 A.D., the Council of Carthage approved 27 books of the New Testament as

[21:53] accepted canon. [21:54] Now when I say canon, I’m not talking about a weapon. [21:57] What I’m talking about in that sense is when they would close a book and say this is it, [22:02] they canonized it, historically speaking. [22:06] Now there is a thought that goes through some people that is not historically accurate [22:11] and it should be wholeheartedly rejected is that the early church did not have the

[22:17] Bible. [22:18] That’s just not true. [22:21] That’s to be rejected because it’s historically an unreliable thing to say. [22:25] What happened in 397 was not a room full of guys getting together and say, hey, what should [22:31] we include and what should we reject? [22:34] Because one of the arguments is that at that point when Constantine had come into power

[22:39] that he had all this authority and so he included that which would make him look good and he [22:43] excluded some of the Bible and so there’s a third Corinthians floating out there around [22:47] somewhere that we really need, but oh my goodness, we lost it so we can’t trust the Bible. [22:52] That’s not true at all. [22:53] And the reason that we can trust that that’s not true is because first, we know the early [22:59] But also we see what I already pointed out that they quote the New Testament within

[23:04] the New Testament, but then also in 180 AD, Irenaeus, which was one of the church fathers, [23:12] quotes many books from the accepted New Testament in his still readily available against heresies. [23:20] So we see even in 180, which is less than a hundred years after the final book of the [23:26] New Testament was written, he’s having to fight against heresy, against mistruths about [23:32] the Bible and about Jesus and he’s doing it in his book and that book is by everyone except [23:37] yeah, it came from 180 AD, but there’s less evidence of that book being accurate in its

[23:43] preservation than there is about the Bible being accurate in its preservation and Irenaeus [23:47] quotes dozens and dozens of New Testament books and the Gospels all through his work [23:56] Here’s what F.F. Bruce, a New Testament scholar, has to say about this. [23:59] He says,

[24:38] And so they recognize what had been going on inside of the church for over 300 years. [24:48] There was no question. [24:49] But then we must also look at and say, but how do we know there aren’t books left out? [24:54] How do we know that we have everything that is meant to be there? [24:58] And we get these questions currently from, you know, Brown’s book, the Da Vinci Code, [25:03] and then the movie that many saw afterwards.

[25:06] You know, should there be a gospel of Mary Magdalene? [25:09] Should there be a gospel of Q, a gospel of Philip, a gospel of Thomas? [25:14] Should these be included? [25:16] And in these books, you know, they doubt the divinity of Jesus. [25:19] So maybe that’s why they were left out. [25:21] That’s not why they were left out at all.

[25:23] They were left out because none of these books have any reliability of being written [25:29] before the year 200, 200 A.D. [25:33] And so these books were not contemporary of the time of Christ and of the time that those [25:41] who personally walked with Christ were written. [25:44] More than that, they weren’t even written by the namesake of those whose names are put on it. [25:50] Thomas did not write the gospel of Thomas.

[25:52] No one thinks he wrote the gospel of Thomas. [25:54] Mary Magdalene never wrote a gospel account.

[25:59] Someone else wrote it hundreds of years after her death and then placed her name on it. [26:05] Now, while the 27 books of the New Testament that were included would have been circulating [26:12] during the New Testament era, and there’s evidence and more and more of it all the time, [26:18] this actually took place. [26:20] We now have a gospel of Mark copy that was written during Mark’s life. [26:29] And so this shows that these books are dated to the time historically when they came out.

[26:34] There’s no suppression of truth going on. [26:36] But rather what happened at the Council of Carthage is that false books that were never [26:43] accepted like Q, Thomas, Magdalene, all these false gospels were beginning to be circulated [26:49] by people and they were false books and they were trying to protect the truth, preserve the truth, [26:56] and not suppress truth, but rid lies from the Church of Jesus Christ, [27:02] which is what we’re told to do in scriptures.

[27:05] Now, let’s talk about the translations that we have because we might hear the arguments, [27:09] oh, well, all you’ve got is a translation. [27:11] You can’t trust those English translations. [27:14] So if you can’t read the original Greek or the Hebrew, well, man, you’re in trouble. [27:18] Full disclaimer, I did go to seminary, taking Greek classes, taking Hebrew classes. [27:24] I don’t consider myself a scholar, especially in Hebrew, because, man, that’s I hated it.

[27:29] But but but I’ve done all that. [27:32] Here’s what here’s what you need to understand. [27:34] Historically speaking, though, you do not in any way need to be a linguistic scholar [27:39] to understand the word of God. [27:41] If that was true, we would all have to become Greek and Hebrew scholars to understand the Bible. [27:47] The English New Testament can be trusted because of the process that has been taken to to give us

[27:56] an accurate translation of God’s word. [27:59] We’re dealing with translations coming from copies that were contemporary to the times [28:04] when the original autographs were actually written. [28:07] I mean, we have in the 60s, we found the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave outside of Israel, [28:12] which contained Hebrew texts of many Old Testament books dating 200 years before the birth of Christ. [28:21] And so we’ve now found even older relics than that.

[28:27] They even recently found a toilet, one of the biggest arguments against the Book of Isaiah [28:31] and against Isaiah’s contemporary history that’s written of in the Old Testament is that they claim [28:37] that there was water and aqueducts going through Israel and there was some kind of plumbing. [28:40] Everybody like no way. [28:41] Well, recently they found a toilet from King Uzziah’s time. [28:46] Like, well, if you’re finding toilets, maybe the Bible was right.

[28:54] So they’re having to readjust to fit the narrative of scripture because they’re finding out all the time [29:01] that these archaeological artifacts actually do exist and the Bible’s being proven true historically [29:07] time and time again. [29:09] Now, I already said that the New Testament manuscripts were finding manuscripts that are [29:14] a hundred years from the original, some even closer to the time of the Apostles. [29:19] And so all of this history combined, you would accept the history.

[29:24] We have thousands and thousands of copies that the New Testament English translations are written [29:31] when you have thousands of copies that agree with one another as to what the text should actually say. [29:39] And so what you have when you have a version of scripture such as the ESV, which we’re going to talk about in just a minute, [29:45] you have an over 99% reliable translation of the original autographs of the New Testament. [29:55] Now, this is an extremely accurate translation. [29:58] And we look that the scribes that translated the Old Testament and the people who translated the New Testament

[30:04] from its earliest translations were historically understood as being completely meticulous. [30:08] And where the New Testament’s concerned, many of the translators were believers who went to meticulous [30:14] length and even courageous lengths, as many of them were burned at the stake and were killed [30:20] for their efforts to translate the Bible in a reliable and accurate way. [30:26] And here at Village Church, we use the English Standard Version. [30:29] Now, I know I got some NIV holdouts out there who are in love with the 80s.

[30:33] You probably still listen to Bon Jovi on your way to work in the morning as well. [30:36] And so you’re doing your quiet time with the NIV, but understand that we use the ESV because it is a more accurate [30:42] translation and it is a better translation. [30:45] And we’re preaching from the ESV. [30:47] We’re using the ESV. [30:48] Everything that we do is in the ESV because it is accurate, readable, and the Council gets together to constantly

[30:55] take a look at what new manuscripts have we found. [31:00] And, you know, should we use terms like slave? [31:02] Should we use terms like bond servant? [31:04] How should we adjust this? [31:06] Not based on current cultural climate, but based on the autographs that are coming in from [31:12] archaeological digs and from findings that they have all the time.

[31:15] So the ESV is the way to go, specifically if you want to read the same thing that I’m talking about from the stage. [31:24] But understand also, nothing more can be added to Scripture. [31:26] So you’re saying, well, why can’t more Revelation knowledge come? [31:30] Why aren’t Benny Hinn’s Revelations tapped on to the end? [31:34] Well, because he’s a heretic. [31:36] And in the book of Malachi, we saw the end of the Old Testament era.

[31:42] So in Malachi, it ceased and God was completely silent for 400 years. [31:47] Why? [31:47] Well, Malachi attests to the reason. [31:49] It says that the next thing that’s going to happen is the coming of the Messiah. [31:53] And so God was completely silent until the coming of Jesus Christ. [31:56] But then in Revelation 22, 18 through 21, we see that the next event in God’s Revelation is the coming of Jesus to judge and fully restore his kingdom.

[32:08] So even from an internal perspective, the Revelation of God speaking in an infallible and errant, authoritative way to men through other men, that era is over. [32:19] There is no more to be added on to the end of it. [32:21] So the next time the Mormons come and they say we got a new Revelation, no, you don’t. [32:29] It’s done. [32:30] The next event is the coming of Jesus. [32:33] And so understand that when we take a look at historical reliability, what we’re doing is we’re saying that all of the holes that are thought of to be punched in the Bible,

[32:41] where reliability is concerned, they don’t exist. [32:44] And we’re finding more and more that there’s no credence to the arguments against the reliability of Scripture. [32:49] But that’s not enough. [32:51] You can think it’s reliable and still not have the Word of God. [32:55] You must also take the other step to the fact that we believe that the Bible is the Word of God. [33:03] If it’s reliable and then wrong on its claim, then it isn’t worth more than any other book.

[33:11] But if it’s reliable and correct, then it is infallible, completely correct. [33:18] Then it is an errant, completely without any error. [33:22] And therefore it must be reckoned with. [33:26] But the culture of Christianity is one that centers upon knowing this book. [33:33] And it always has been. [33:35] From the very beginning, Moses wrote in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and he presented the Israelite culture at that time,

[33:41] saying that it must be built around knowing the Scriptures and passing it on to the next generation. [33:49] So Moses looks to Israel and says, it’s not enough for you to know it. [33:52] It’s not enough for you to read it. [33:53] It is your task, fathers and mothers, to teach this book to the next generation, [34:00] so that generationally we will not deviate from the pureness of God’s Word. [34:05] So when I look to parents and I say things like, your chief aim is not less than,

[34:12] and is completely seen to be teaching your children the Word of God. [34:17] It’s more important than math. [34:18] It’s more important than anything else in science. [34:21] Teach them the Word of God preeminently above absolutely everything else. [34:26] What I am doing is, is I’m using a truth claim from the Bible as to what your responsibility is, [34:31] because according to Deuteronomy, if you don’t do that, then you don’t believe it.

[34:37] And so if your knowledge of Scripture ceases when you die, [34:42] and you did not teach it to the generation coming up from behind you,

[34:48] then did you really believe it was the Word of God? [34:51] That’s something that we almost struggle with. [34:53] That’s something we almost fight with. [34:55] Specifically, when we’re dealing, many of us, and let’s just throw our cards on the table, [35:00] struggle to get up in the morning and just read one chapter.

[35:06] See, if that’s all the Bible that you’re getting, you can’t teach it to your children, can you? [35:11] You got to rely on someone else to do that. [35:14] And if you do not teach the Word of God to the next generation, [35:17] you did not believe the Word of God. [35:19] But then secondly, 2 Timothy chapter 215 from the New Testament presents to Christians [35:25] that you need to know the Bible in order to know how to live at every level.

[35:34] And Paul wrote, you can’t even know how to live without this. [35:37] Like if you want to be able to follow Jesus, you have to have the Bible.

[35:43] So what do we do? [35:45] What’s the answer then? [35:47] What do we do with the Bible?

[35:50] I think the way that we’re going to apply this to our lives is understanding that if it’s reliable, [35:58] and if it is what it says it is, and thirdly, the Bible is a supernatural book. [36:05] It’s completely supernatural. [36:07] And you need to apply it to your life and view it in your life as being of absolute supernatural power, [36:17] God’s tool to work you to following him as well as his power to get you to follow him and obey him through it in every way. [36:28] If it is true, the Bible, then it is the final authority in all things in life.

[36:36] It’s very hard for us to swallow sometimes. [36:39] Because what does it take away? [36:41] It takes away say.

[36:44] In other words, you don’t have say.

[36:48] Your wisdom is not the greatest wisdom that you need to appeal to. [36:52] Your wisdom cannot always be trusted. [36:55] There is a greater wisdom that exists, the wisdom of God in Scripture. [36:58] In other words, if you want to know how to raise your children, you need the Bible.

[37:03] If you want to know how to live a successful career, you go to the Bible. [37:08] If you want to know how to be a spouse, you go to the Bible. [37:13] If you want to know if you should be a spouse, you go to the Bible.

[37:18] It is exhaustively, if it is the literal word of God, then it is the final authority and primary source for everything in your life. [37:32] You must turn from say, because you don’t have any. [37:41] If the Bible is the word of God. [37:46] That’s the message that 2 Timothy 3 points us to. [37:49] This is the way that we build culture in our lives, in our marriages, in our education, in our careers, [37:58] in everything that we do in our lives as a church even, must be built out of the Bible.

[38:07] And not us putting into it what we want to be, what we want to have, and what we think would be the best way to do things. [38:17] So even the greatest missional longing and the greatest missional strategy that you can come up with in life, [38:24] if it is not obedient to the vision and way of Scripture, if you think, oh, but my way is going to be more successful. [38:32] Now, I have to subvert this way that the Scriptures calling me to live, but my way is good. [38:36] I don’t think God thought this through. I’ve got the strategy to win this. [38:40] No, you’ve got the strategy to fail and go into a life of sin.

[38:45] Because everything must be meted out and dictated by the Scriptures. [38:49] Why would I say something like that? [38:50] And I ultimately want to appeal to Jesus because that’s what our faith is based on. [38:56] What did Jesus think about the Bible?

[38:59] When John chapter 5 verse 39, Jesus tells a crowd, he says, the Bible is about me. [39:06] The Bible is my story. The Bible points to me. [39:11] Then after his resurrection, in Luke chapter 24 verse 27, [39:15] Jesus, to talk about his resurrection, what does he appeal to? [39:21] The Bible. [39:23] And he began to unpack the Old Testament with them, showing the prophets and the prophecies were all about him.

[39:33] You see, Jesus wants us to understand that the authority of the Bible is about whether or not he is God. [39:40] Because if he is, then the Bible has ultimate authority because it’s the book that leads to him. [39:48] Jesus himself used the Bible as a sufficient means to know God and trust the good news that he brought through his life, death, and resurrection. [39:59] And so if Jesus is right, then there is power in the words of Scripture. [40:07] Do I believe that when you read the Bible, do I believe those specific words that you are taking in have power in and of themselves? [40:20] Yes.

[40:22] I believe every time that you sit to read the Bible, every time that you hear the Bible preached, [40:28] every time you sit and speak of the Bible to another human being, I believe a supernatural action is taking place. [40:36] And you are literally speaking the words of God, reading the words of God. [40:44] And as John Piper has said, if you want to hear the voice of God, read the Bible out loud.

[40:53] It is that supernatural. It is that powerful.

[40:59] This is a supernatural work through a supernatural book, because that’s what Paul tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 2 Timothy. [41:06] The verse is just preceding verse 16, which is the one that we use for the most part. [41:11] He looks to a young Timothy and he says, As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, [41:18] knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, [41:25] which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. [41:31] So how does Paul tell Timothy to tell people how to get to Jesus and how to keep his fire burning for Jesus?

[41:40] He says, Go to the book. Go to the book. [41:45] Preach the book. Preach the Bible.

[41:49] See, you are not burdened with the responsibility of being a used car salesman for Jesus, [41:58] of coming up with tricky ways to get people to believe Jesus. [42:03] We cannot reduce it to that. [42:07] You are tasked with knowing the pure story, the pure gospel of Jesus Christ from the scriptures, [42:16] and then living in submission and obedience to the Word of God. [42:22] And that will leave an unbelieving world baffled.

[42:29] Because you’re saying that there’s an authority greater than you that you gladly submit to. [42:35] Yes, that means that when you sit down and read the Bible, powerful things happen, even if you don’t realize it at first. [42:42] That’s why 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16 through 21 states that the Word of God is the power of the Holy Spirit. [42:50] When you sit and read, something supernatural takes place. [42:54] So when I am asked, how do I become a disciple? How do I grow in my discipleship? [42:59] How should I disciple others?

[43:01] And you look at me as though there’s something on my face when I say, read the Bible, pray about it, then talk about it.

[43:12] Well, that…what? [43:14] Clearly, there’s got to be another book. [43:17] So we’re always looking for books about the Bible. [43:20] That would be something if we didn’t have the actual Bible. [43:25] Now, I love books about the Bible. Read them all the time. [43:28] But understand, they are not the Word of God, this is.

[43:31] And so if you could have the Bible, why wouldn’t you? [43:36] I would be like, you know what? I’d really love to know my wife more.

[43:42] I’ll spend a year taking some of her friends out to dinner.

[43:50] How successful would my venture be? [43:54] It would be a massive failure of epic proportions, lots of counseling going on. [43:59] I would take my wife out to dinner, friends.

[44:04] Trust God with His Word to teach it to you, so that you can have it. [44:14] But understand one thing, and this is the concluding point. [44:18] So if our thesis is that the Bible is reliable, the Bible is the Word of God. [44:23] The conclusion needs to be, friend, you cannot know God without the Bible.

[44:29] If Jesus is God, then I’m telling you, the Bible is true. [44:33] And so go back to last week, is Jesus God? Yes. [44:37] If He is, then the Bible is true and it does have the authority of God, [44:41] because Jesus thought that about the Bible. [44:44] It was His designated means and still is of how to know Him. [44:49] Therefore, if someone told you the gospel of Jesus in speech form,

[44:54] friend, it came from the Bible, originated with the Bible. [44:58] That’s the source. [45:00] God has chosen to be known by man through the Bible. [45:08] Therefore, you can have Jesus and the resurrection, [45:13] and you still don’t have salvation without the Bible telling you how. [45:20] Without the Bible telling you what the resurrection means, friend,

[45:26] you do not have salvation. [45:29] The Bible is that necessary. [45:33] It is God’s tool and His means to spell it out to you of how to know Him, [45:43] how to be known by Him, and how to make Him known through your life. [45:48] It’s necessary. It’s sufficient. It’s authoritative. [45:51] It’s all of those things.

[45:55] And we know Jesus because of the Bible. [45:58] Therefore, as we follow Jesus, we must know the Bible, [46:02] because it is God’s tool for making Himself known, [46:07] and by grace, He has made Himself known. [46:10] As the band comes up, I want to talk to both unbelievers and believers [46:19] in a crowd like this.

[46:21] If you’re an unbeliever, you may be thinking at this point, [46:24] probably thought about five minutes in, you’re like, I came on the wrong day. [46:27] This one isn’t for me. This one’s for people who already believe. [46:31] And what my message to you is, no, it’s for you. [46:35] What I mean by that is, is that I believe that the greatest service, [46:40] if you don’t yet believe in Jesus Christ,

[46:43] the greatest service you could do for yourself today is to go from here [46:48] and spend time in God’s Word. [46:51] Spend time reading it. [46:53] Spend time letting it teach you the way of God. [46:58] Start with the book of John, because it tells you the story of Jesus as God. [47:03] Go to the book of Ephesians, and you’re going to see why church is church.

[47:09] Go to the book of James, and it’ll tell you why Christianity is wisdom for your life. [47:16] Go to the Psalms and read some poetry of people worshiping God. [47:23] Go to Genesis and read the story of where it all began, where it all went wrong, [47:29] and how God plans to make it right again. [47:32] Go to Jeremiah, read a story of a reluctant prophet who struggled with sin his whole life, [47:38] and this word was like a fire in his bones, and he loved it and struggled with it.

[47:44] Go to Exodus and see God’s people receive God’s promises, [47:49] and then struggle to obey him, struggle to trust him. [47:54] Go to Isaiah and read the story of God working in miraculous ways, [47:59] and then God saying, this is the way that I’m going to save the world. [48:03] Go to Philippians, read a story of a sinner’s guide to joy in God.

[48:12] See, friend, no matter where I go, it’s all relevant. [48:17] Yeah, sure, if you try the point and click or turn and point method on a bad day, [48:21] and you get to the begats, it may not feel like chicken soup for the soul. [48:26] But if you spend time absorbing, reading, following the narrative, [48:32] it’s all relevant to believers, it’s all relevant to unbelievers, because it’s all true.

[48:40] If you’re in here and you are a Christian, you’re a follower of Jesus, [48:44] the Bible itself tells us that until Jesus comes back for his people, [48:48] we need to eat the bread and drink the cup, the bread representing the broken body, [48:53] the cup representing his shed blood. [48:56] We eat and drink as a church because it’s our way of proclaiming to one another, [49:00] I trust Jesus, I trust his word.

[49:03] And it’s a picture of God calling us to fellowship with him over a meal, [49:09] and also a picture of Jesus, his spirit, living in us as believers. [49:16] So if you’re in here and you’re a Christian, in just a moment I’m going to ask you to come, eat, drink. [49:21] If you’re not, at the same time, you can go to the back and go out in the foyer. [49:26] Somebody will pray with you, somebody will talk to you, somebody will answer the questions that you have. [49:31] But when you’re ready, come, proclaim the death of our King.

[49:44]