In this lesson, Pastor Joe Babij completes the introduction to the Bible by discussing the Bible’s inspiration, canonization, and believability. Pastor Babij also takes some time to talk about Bible translations.
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I think it’s time to go.
I think it’s time to go.
All right. Today we’re going to be on a subject, very important subject actually, um, in theology.
And, um, now I did say that I was going to have the, uh, that one person that’s going to check your homework, but I’m going to do it on an honor system today.
So, I’m trusting that you did your homework. And did anybody not get a Fundamentals of the Faith book?
I mean, you can uh get one because they’re pretty good. Uh, all right.
So, um, today we’re going to be looking at still we’re on lesson one. Lesson one had three parts to it. And remember, next Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. So, there’s no Sunday school next week.
Uh but it’s uh you know our regular resurrection Sunday service. So it’s a great time to invite people you know those people who would said you know I had one pastor said to me he used to have all these these special days like friend day you know uh bring a friend day this day that day and then you know one day uh he said we’re going to have someday sun Sunday. So everybody who said to you, “I’ll come someday.” You go ask them and you know it’s someday Sunday.
Uh but anyway, it’s a great time to invite people who don’t normally go to church. You don’t know what the spirit of God is going to do in taking the word of God to just bring it to their heart.
Sometimes convict them of sin, righteousness, judgment, and it could be that watering, that planting, it could be the increase, right? And uh so that’s it’s an important thing to do, you know, and then take them out to lunch or something, you know, and um so it’s it’s a great time to invite people.
So that’s remember next week and then your homework for next time is going to be lesson two. So start working on lesson two. So you have two weeks to do it. And um it’s uh it’s a lesson on how you know how to actually study the Bible. And we’re going to be looking at that next time. And then that’s I’ll be doing that lesson next time. And then after that, I believe um see I think it’s either Greg Elder Greg Hoe is going to be doing the next one. And then we’re going to be switching on between uh Greg and Elder Clee. And then we’re going to have Mark Twanley is going to be teaching and I’m going to be teaching again. Dave Dave’s going to be teaching, Pastor Dave. And so yeah, we’re going to be switching on and off like that. So it’s going to be good and it’s good. It’s a really good study. Fundamentals of the faith, right?
you’re get laying the foundation for what you’re going to build on the rest of your Christian life. So, that’s why it’s important. All right. So, some of it’s kind of a mini theology course uh on certain sections of this, but uh vitally important to know these things.
All right, let’s pray and we’ll get into it. Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you again for bringing us here today. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to um be blessed with and have the word of God in our hands. Um we thank you Lord that you have overseen and protected it from the beginning till now and you will to the end. And I pray Lord as we uh have this privilege that we would not ignore the word of God. It would always be a part of our daily life. It would be in our thinking um where the word of God and the principles of the word of God would would overtake our our our past thinking and replace it with a worldview that is God’s worldview. uh a worldview that is real uh that is based on the foundation of reality. And because you’re God, you tell us the truth. You don’t speak to us in uh a darkness, but on the rooftop, you proclaim the word of God. And thank you, Lord, for it. And thank you for bringing us to faith uh for estab now establishing us in the faith. And I pray that as we do this, we’d be able to even take what we’re learning and pour it into someone else that we may meet and come in contact with in the near future.
And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.
All right. So the the question is to today that we’re going to be looking at what the Bible teaches about uh its claim to inspiration.
Now when we begin there we we must of course ask the question what does inspir what does inspiration of the Bible mean?
Uh what does it mean? And of course what does it mean? Well, here’s the definition right here. Inspiration is God overseeing and directing men to write his words.
All right? It is really the process by which God as the instigator worked through human prophets without destroying their individual personalities and styles to produce divinely authoritative writings. All right. So that is really what inspiration is in a definition form.
And that means how do we know the Bible is actually inspired?
Well, there there are several points.
There’s two major points. And the first one is this that the scripture claims it claims to be the word of God.
So, we have to come to the word of God to find out if it’s the word of God because you’re not going to find that kind of proof in the world or in the world’s system or in the world’s thinking. All right? So, so take your Bibles and turn to a passage that is uh really does direct our attention to this point and it’s 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13.
And that means here in this passage, the Bible is really its best own source when the topic of inspiration is discussed.
The apostle Paul claimed that the message he and other apostles were proclaiming was actually the word of God. All right? So look at it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse3 it says for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe. Now, that’s pretty clear that passage of scripture.
Paul is saying, “Listen, what I’m preaching is not my own words. What I’m preaching is something I received from God and I’m giving it to you.” And as the Thessalonians received it, they realized that the Thessalonian culture was was really steeped in a really a philosophical Greek philosophical mindset. So when they heard the word of God, they thought to themselves, “This is completely different than what I’m the way I’m thinking.” And they begin to they realized that moment that this was a word that was coming from a source that they never understood before it and that’s what happens when the word of God really becomes uh bring is it comes to us, we we realize this is God’s word.
men could not have written this. And not only that, the last part of that verse says that this word performs its work in you. That means it has a power to transform you to make you who you are, not were not, and who God wants you to be. So, but it only does it to those who believe. If you notice, it performs his work in those who believe. So if a person doesn’t believe, they’ll never know that this is the word of God.
They’ll never know that the power of the word of God to transform us and make us new is available to them. And that’s why everyone needs the gospel. And so that this is the passage of scripture it uh well in the sense that um in this passage of scripture that this is the source this is the source and this is what inspiration is that God is giving us his word it’s coming to us and then that word is going to be written down all right like we have it today.
Now of course answering that question how do we know the Bible uh is the inspired word of God? Well, one way is the re repeated Old Testament terms.
Like what are some of the repeated Old Testament terms that that tells us that the word of God is coming from God? What does the prophet say?
Thus says the Lord.
All right. Thus says the Lord. Right? In fact, in the Bible, thus says the Lord is used 3,800 times in the Old Testament. That’s a lot of times, right? The phrase God said in the modern translations, God said in the old King James is thus said the Lord.
And those were and remember the prophet’s job actually I think the prophet had an easier job than pastors do today because the prophets got the word directly from God and spoke it and that they weren’t to mess it up. Today we have to study it. We have we have the word of God already. So pro prophecy is studying the word of God to tell people what God already said not to come up with new things but just to say what God already said. So the repeated old testament terms like thus says the lord uh does give us the sense that this is the inspired word of god. This is coming from the word of god. Also a next thing would be that of the the divine nature of scripture. The divine nature of scripture. Uh again, if you’re right there in Corinthians or or you were in Thessalonians, if you turn to Corinthians uh chapter 2 verse 12 and 13 in this verse of scripture, Paul writes to Timothy and write in Timothy he says we already looked that verse. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In Timothy, he said, “Listen, all scripture is godly breathe.” We already mentioned that passage several times. So the scriptures are the communication that has been ordained by God’s authority and produced by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. So that that means that inspiration literally means God breathed. So what does this passage of scripture say? It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2:12, it says, ‘Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God in verse 13, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the spirit.
Chris, for some reason this is not working.
All right. Anyway, but if you look at that passage of scripture, you find that um here it is. It’s not the spirit from the world. It’s the spirit that is from God. And of course, these words are not taught by human wisdom, but those taught by the spirit. And of course, those are spiritual thoughts uh and spiritual words. So, they’re coming from God. This is another passage that just gives shows us the divine nature of scripture. And then the a passage that we already looked at um couple times already in second Peter chapter 1 verse 20. And it’s where it says, “But know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.
But what it’s it says for no prophecy was ever made by the act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So that is another passage where it just says that listen scripture originates with God and so therefore scripture is trustworthy because God is trustworthy. That’s the conclusion we make. So the word of God never has its origin in any kind of impul pulse or desire or whim or the will of men. Um but it simply comes from God. It’s not produced by human thoughts or genius or cleverness or even study.
divine revelation uh given to its authors and their interpretation of it was directed by the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit controlled every word. It controlled every uh smallest amount of the language even uh to the jot and tit or the smallest marks of the Hebrew language. So these words that God’s given us are they come from us and they definitely are inspired.
So that means the word of God is reliable and it’s reliable in several ways. All right?
Because inspiration refers to both the source and the quality of the written word and that includes verbal inspiration.
What do you think verbal inspiration is?
What’s that? The words, right? The words. So what it specifically means is that verbal inspiration means the very words that God gave are inspired.
Directed by the Holy Spirit inspiration uh apply really applies only to the originally originally written words. So the very words are inspired by God. So that means when we look at the word of God, uh we see words, don’t we on the page, whatever language you’re you’re reading, there’s going to be words. And the words are, you know, it’s it’s God chose the written word. He didn’t choose a videotape or he didn’t chose uh he didn’t choose any kind of uh taped messages but he chose the written word of god that he he was able to uh the spirit of god put in print and so the very words are very important to us.
Secondly, there’s another uh word that determines the source and the quality of scripture and that’s the word plenary inspiration. And this word means the entire Bible every uh original word is inspired. That this also means the exact wording is in ex inspired. The Holy Spirit sovereignly moved, guided, directed, led the writers so that they wrote without error.
And of course, as he directly inspired the words and the sentences.
So the exact words and even letters that God directed, inspired are forever settled and cannot be changed. It says this in Psalm 119 verse number 89.
It says, “Forever, O Lord, the word is settled in heaven.” Forever it’s settled in heaven. So in other words, the very source of our Bible comes not from the earth. It comes from heaven, from God down to us. All right? And so that means we today have the word of God in our hands. And that means this word that we have in our hands is flawless because God who gave them is flawless.
And I I stress only in the original written words.
Remember, we don’t have any original manuscripts today. We do have thousands of manuscripts, but it’s not it’s the copies of those. A manuscript is really a copy of the autograph. The autograph is the original written word. All right? God in his sovereignty decided not to allow those documents to be available to us. uh but only the copies of those documents. All right. So that means let me just say a word about translations.
There’s a lot of translations, aren’t there? I I think there’s way too many.
It’s it gets confusing to people, right?
Uh but why do we have so many translations today? We didn’t always have a lot of translations. Uh now if if you notice in your book it has a kind of a list of things on where the original language were from and and all the way downs in the regular bi the Bibles that were used to to uh get what we have today. All right. Well, what really happened is that um the King James Bible um produc was produced one of the best English Bibles ever produced was the King James 1611. Now, of course, if you if you went back to try to read the King James 1611, you would not recognize it because we just don’t speak that way anymore. All right? So there were many revisions in the King James and the King James actually held the ground for 300 years. It’s still it’s still a good Bible. I’m not Right. And um it’s not the same one 1611. Uh it’s it’s been it’s gone through many revisions because of of the language that people speak changed. But in in about 1881, Wescott and Hort uh began to translate.
They found early first and second century manuscripts.
The King James is based on late manuscripts and some of those manuscripts weren’t even available to them like parts of the book of the revelation revelation. And so when we found when they found the new these early manuscripts uh it produced more Bible translations because what happened is that along with these manuscripts they found in an Egyptian actually it was a trash dump all these documents that were written in coin Greek and they realized that wait a minute the Bible is actually written in the at at the level of the street people, not the intellectuals, not the philosophers. So they began to now take a certain the translation of of the King James Bible and now the newer earlier manuscripts and they began to do a study and make um come up with newer translations. All right. So now the translations fall into two categories.
The first one is is the formal equivalence.
All right. Now, a formal equivalence translation is basically this.
Classically, it’s called the word for word translation.
All right. Now, the other translations would be the dynamic translations. All right? And of course they’re classically called the phrase for phrase translation.
Now if I just take some Bibles that we have today, we can put them in both categories. All right. The first one would be uh the formal equivalent would be the King James, the New King James, uh the American Standard Version 1901.
And then you have the NAS, the New American Standard Bible, 1963, 1977, 1995. Now, in our pews right here, we have the 1995 version of the New American Standard Bible. All right. I decided to choose that one uh because I I believe that it was closer to the original than other translations.
All right. So, that’s what I what I used. And of course then how many people use the ESV, English Standard Version.
All right. All right. Well, if you don’t use it, you probably read it. It is a good reading Bible. All right. And it and it it is it also Well, let me just go back for a minute. It also is a good translation.
Right. Now, the word for word translation would also be called the literal translation, but that’s a little bit um I think that’s hard to make. It’s hard to make a Bible super literal. The reason why is we have idioms, right? And idioms is hard to translate from one language to another. You have to add words to it to make it look clear. Uh that’s why a lot of times when you’re reading scripture, it’ll have words in italicize. It will be italicized. That means that that was not in the original.
They had to add that to give fuller meaning to the to the verse. But it doesn’t change anything. All right. Now all the Greek scholars that have done any work on the manuscripts will confess that 99 plus percent of the differences in the Texas receptive manuscripts which is the King James and the Nestle Alon and the Wescott and Hort manuscripts the early manuscripts 99 plus both agree. So we, in other words, we do have uh the word of God. Uh and so any of these Bibles I would recommend. Of course, the last one is the leg legacy standard Bible that was just done by um uh Master Seminary, I guess. Uh and what happened there is that um this Bible, the Lock, what was it? um Lochman Foundation uh they they wanted to revise the Bible, but they realized that listen, John MacArthur has preached through all the Bible and has been very accurate in sticking with the language. And so they decided to give Master Seminary and Grace Community Church the rights to um upgrade and make some different um good upgrades to the New American Standard Bible. All right. And the reason why they called it the Legacy Standard Bible is because a new a new American Standard Bible doesn’t go well if you’re in England or if you’re in Africa, right? or if you’re in another part of the world, right, where a lot of times people don’t even like Americans. So, the Legacy Standard Bible kind of takes that out of the way.
And so, now people could use this. I probably I mean, I read it. I probably will not necessarily uh go to the Legacy Standard Bible because I’m already embedded into the New Americ translate it now to Yahweh. Um and so and of course the word slave uh they upgraded it which is usually translated servant is really the word slave. Um and so they just made some really subtle changes uh and it made it more precise and accurate to the original language.
All right. So some of these things it just shows that we’re uh trying to make the word of God as clear as possible and as um readable as possible. Now of course under the dynamic translations you have the NIV. Now the NIV is I would say partly literal or partly formal equivalent but mostly dynamic but it’s the best of all the dynamic translations. And then you have the NLT.
Anybody ever read the NLT? The New Living Translation. All right. I I read in my daily Bible reading through the years, I read the NLT for about two or three years. Uh it is a dynamic translation. Remember, phrase for phrase. It wasn’t uh so concerned about the individual words, but the phraseology in any particular language.
Uh so I would say the NL NLT would not necessarily be many of these Bibles go way too far. Uh they become uh the Amplified Bible. Anybody ever read that one? The Amplified. All right. Uh they go beyond the Greek text. And so and then of course you have the good news for modern man is the last one. uh that was probably in the ‘ 70s late 60s early 70s you don’t even pretty much hear about that Bible anymore right so those are so and the reason why is if you go back and read it it was it was read like you know that partic the problem is is they lock in a particular segment of time and then once that time is passed you don’t even understand what it means you know and so one reason why when I started out preaching I I actually started out with the King James Bible and um the reason why I I moved over is because a lot of the things in the King James Bible we just don’t say anymore. Like if I said to you, you know, um you have super fluidity of naughtiness in your life. You would say, “What are you talking about?” Right?
Well, what I mean is that you have an overabundance of wicked wickedness in your life. Right? where when you read the newer translations they would read it like that. Uh so things like that have happened and and the big problem was that of of of the idioms in a particular language and um now you have people today who are you know staunch King James Bible only you know that’s the but that’s not true because if you look at your list in the book the King James Bible was actually translated from other Bibles right and if you didn’t have the Latin Vulgate if you didn’t have the Bishop’s Bible you wouldn’t even have the King James Bible because some of the things in the King James Bible they had to translate from another Bible. So they I don’t think that they’re always honest about the history about how it all came about. All right. The point is though in any of that is that we do have the Bible in our hands. We have the word of God. We don’t have to worry that we we somehow don’t have the word of God or doubt that this is the word of God. This is the word of God and we have to be thankful for that that God has given us the word of God in our hands.
Now just one particular example if I can find it uh was was that of um let me see if I had that in my notes.
Maybe not.
I was just trying to think uh about one of the idioms that they had concerning um the King James.
Oh, well, one of them would be that of uh where the Bible says that God flared his nostrils. Right? Now, what would you what do you think that would mean?
God is angry. Right? So, what would what would happen in the newer translations?
It would say God was angry. Right? And so stuff like that would take place. So the these things or like in the original Greek when Mary was with child, the Bible literally says she was having it in her belly.
Now if I if we came to a passage of scripture says, well Mary was having it in her belly, you would think, what would you think? Somebody beat her up or something. Right. Right. What what would you say?
Said stomach problems.
All right. Stomach problems. Anything.
But really what it means is she was with child, right? She was pregnant. And so those are the kind of things a translator has to deal with uh when they’re translating the Bible. And believe me, it is no easy task. It’s no easy task. the steps that they have to go through to make sure at the end they’re accurate with what the pretty much the original uh manuscripts say or the the the manuscripts say is a trying and a testing process. Uh it takes many many people that have different skills and abilities that are are able to go through that process. uh but thank the Lord that they have and there there are that’s why when you come to the spiritual gifts right there’s the gift of of knowledge right and that means that God has given certain gifts to to people that are able to take complex things like languages the Greek the Hebrew the Aramaic and actually study it along with the original manuscripts and bring to us an accurate translation of the Bible And I’m I’m really thankful for the to the Lord that God has has done those things and he’s still doing those things. But I don’t think we need any more Bibles in America at least. What we do need is we need Bibles to be translated into other languages like in the in the tribes. All right. Some of the tribe tribal uh communities do not even have an alphabet. So many times missionaries have to go in there. They have to learn what people when point out things. What is this? you know, and they would say it, they would write it down phonetically and then they would have to develop a vocabulary and then actually trans get the words into use that vocabulary and take the word of God and then put similar words to it and then finally after five to seven years they may have the New Testament done and sometimes it’s longer than that. All right. But still we have languages that need to be translated. But we have we can’t forget that as even though there’s many language that need to be translated to the Bible, there’s languages that are dying every day too. So we really don’t know how many languages um with all the, you know, the media that we have today that’s going out. I I believe that the word of God is going to places it never went before, you know. And so anyway, we do have the word of God. It’s inspired. It’s given to us. So if you’re going to ask me what Bible you think now, any any Bible that the preacher is using, you should have and be following.
Uh but at the same time, all those ones under the formal equivalent, I I would recommend that you you should uh use. Uh the other ones are good reading Bibles and uh but I would not uh use them necessarily for teaching.
Yes.
Question. So how would you describe then the difference between a translation and a paraphrase?
Well, a translation would be in the it would be in the category of formal or dynamic of paraphrases goes way beyond.
It becomes like a commentary almost.
You’re making a commentary on the text.
And I think to me you should never call that a Bible. A lot of trans paraphrases are called Bibles and and people think well this is the Bible and it’s not.
It’s just it’s a lot of words added uh it becomes extremely dynamic you know so and I would say unt untrustworthy to the original yes I do I think to amplify the NLT? I think the NIV is probably the most closest to keeping with the uh bit of formal equivalence and being dynamic.
Meaning they were spending more times on the phrase for phrase instead of the words. Right? Now if you notice what I’ve been saying is that if the spirit of God inspired the words and even the order of the words then I think we have to be very careful that we keep that right and they have been the translators have been careful you know and uh because soon as you you have somebody who’s going off the edge off the cliff anybody who’s knows anything about the Bible says this is not this doesn’t sound right you know what I mean and it’s quickly dismissed So uh just to say that we are privileged in our day to know that we have the Bible in our in our hands. right now. I can’t say that for other languages within our culture because some of the uh languages that have been you know the word of God has been translated into are not good translations unfortunately you know and because they I think they have not had the scholarship to be able to produce good translations but it’s happening today that the Bible is being taken to you know you other languages are being translated more accurately And so people could be uh assured that they’re they have the word of God. All right. So how do we know that the Bible is inspired? The second thing was that the sovereignty of God in preserving the revealed word of God. What does that mean? That God’s in control. Right? God is in control of all things including his word. And God’s God’s purpose cannot be challenged in any realm. And this is true as as far as the word of God is concerned that God’s purposes and will uh and will will be preserved and his word will be preserved as it says in this passage of scripture on the screen. So Isaiah 46:10 says, “Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, my purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.” And then Isaiah 40 verse number eight, which is not up there. This is what it says.
It says the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.
The word of our God stands forever. So we do have the word of God. God has preserved his word and watched over it.
Now when it comes to the canonization of the Bible, anybody remember what canon means from last time? Rule, right? It means rule. And of course, a definition would be something that measures. It’s like a tape measure. All right? We measure something. We know exactly what the width and the height of something is by measuring with a tape measure. Well, canon is the word that means to measure uh something to a ruler that determines whether something is accurate or not accurate. Something that is uh in this in this case God’s word or not God’s word.
And so how was the Bible canonized?
Well, there are several uh things that we can say that God not only superintended the writings uh of the books but also providentially collected and preserved those writings that he inspired.
He that’s what he has done. And then also the church if you notice there is in no the church in no way determines the canon.
What the church does is the church recognizes and receives that which God has already inspired and preserved. All right. So so the church doesn’t make up the canon. The church receives the canon of scripture. That means the the 66 books that God’s given us, he re we receive them and we recognize that this is God’s word. This is the word that he already uh inspired and preserved.
Now there are there are several things uh that come up on why uh why the 66 books.
One of them is uh the testimony of God’s Holy Spirit to the authority in other words uh to the authority of his own word that the Holy Spirit uh testifies in scripture of the word of God. We have the prophetic authorship again in second Peter 1 20 and 21 already mentioned that the prophetic authorship that it’s not by the will of men but hol the holy men filled with the spirit led by the spirit wrote they didn’t come up with it on their own and then also god’s again providential care in preserving that which he desires to preserve according to his own will. Now, a couple passages of scripture. Uh, look at Matthew 5 verse number 18. Matthew 5:18.
Who wants to read that one? Anybody can read that.
Matthew 5:18. Yes. Leila. Leela. Truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass.
All right. Again there in scripture we have the providential care that God gives in preserving his word that not even the the smallest part of the word of God is going to pass away. Uh God’s going to preserve it until the the end.
All right? And of course that becomes important for you and I. And then of course number four would be that God’s people uh responding in recognition of God’s cannon in faith and submission.
Now, we’re going to look at that a little bit more, but just this is the basic comment here is that listen, people respond to the word of God, right? When they have faith and they submit to it, something changes in their life, right? That the word of God actually has the ability to reach down into the thoughts and intents of your heart and convict you right there and teach you right there and expose you for you and I for who we really are. But then it it breaks us down, but then it builds us up. Right? That’s what the word of God does. It breaks us down, builds us up. Breaks us down, builds us up. And the more we’re we’re built up, the stronger we get and the stronger we un uh we get in scripture and our minds begin to tra be transformed like it says in Romans 12, be transformed by the word of God, right? So we would know the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. That’s what the word of God does. So, a believer is going to be somebody who wants to know the word of God. That’s the first thing that happens when you become a believer. I want a Bible, right? I want to know what the Bible says. And then you start, you don’t know everything right away. You don’t you’re not familiar with a lot of terms right away, but when you stick with it, you begin to understand the whole the whole picture of what God’s done in salvation begins to take uh, you know, view in your mind. You say, “Wow, look what he’s done for me. You know, I don’t deserve this, right? You don’t never would have, right? I don’t deserve this. This is God’s mercy. He’s giving you He’s not giving you what you deserve. He’s giving you his mercy. He’s having compassion on you, right? He’s giving you grace.
See, that is something when you once you begin to see that and it gets gets in your mind and you’re thinking, it it does produce a a really a love for God. It produces a love. You want to worship God. It it also moves out of your mind all the lies that you’ve been taught and all the things that you heard from other people or you were taught in the classroom that just are not true.
You know, you think about evolution being taught everywhere, right? And um I had my my brother-in-law um he came to me one time and we had a large discussion about evolution because he was a he was in the sciences and so he that’s what he taught.
Uh and then years later we had a different conversation. He says, “Well, my my colleagues don’t believe that anymore, so I don’t believe that anymore.” But he didn’t never he never really wanted to believe what the Bible said. and uh which was you know it’s it’s discouraging when that happens but uh you know Satan we’re the people are blind right and it doesn’t matter how smart you are how many degrees you have if you’re blind spiritually you don’t get this stuff right it’s only it’s only people who believe that God begins to open their mind and they begin to take the word of God and they’re they’re they respond in faith and submission And everything changes. Everything changes because the spirit of God’s now in you.
Right?
Some other things we have. Number five, many of the books in the present canon claim to be the word of God.
They claim to be the word of God.
Uh let me see.
Christ actually Christ validated the Old Testament books. If you look at Luke chap 24 verse 44.
Luke 24:44.
Somebody read that.
Of course, this is one of the verses we had last week. Who who’s gonna read that?
Moses and the prophets and the songs must be fulfilled.
Okay, remember that’s what the Lord actually confirmed that he validated the Old Testament by using the law of Moses, prophets, and the psalms. That means the whole Old Testament. So he is confirming the whole testament is God’s word. Jesus said that. And then we also have uh in regard to the Old Testament again Christ validated the Old Testament which we just read that passage. And then in regard to the New Testament, Peter recognized Paul’s writings as being equal with scripture. Right? Let’s look at that that passage. Second Peter Mike, you can read this one. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 15 and 16.
What does that say?
Even as our beloved brother also wisdom unto him speak unstable rest. also other scriptures to their own destruction.
All right. Again, so Paul is uh writing as being uh is recognizing Peter is recognizing Paul’s writings as being equal with scripture, right? And so we have the we have the scriptures here.
The apostles are confirming with each other. Paul recognized in Luke chapter 10 verse 7 and as scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18 and that was the passage of scripture about uh the laborer is worthy of his wages. So they’re using scripture a lot of times they’re not quoting whole passages they’re they’re just taking the sections of it but they’re recognizing that this is God’s word right and they’re they’re writing it and using it back and forth.
Also, when we think of that, is the Bible believable?
Here’s a question right here.
Can you prove to unbelievers the Bible is God’s word?
Can you What?
Have you ever tried to Does it work? Well, no. It doesn’t work well. Right. Well, what why do you think that is?
What’s that?
All right. It’s foolishness to them.
Right.
What Jesus said to the Pharisees that you do not hear because you are not one of my sheep.
That’s right.
That’s right. So, it doesn’t see it doesn’t matter how who you are. If you if you don’t hear it, you’re just not one of God’s sheep, right? Your your ears are closed, your eyes are blind, your heart is dead. You’re just a dead corpse. Not until you believe.
You have to be come to the Lord and realize that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Right?
If you don’t seek him, then you won’t know who God is and you won’t know what his will is. All right?
So, what is the answer to that question?
The answer is because unbelievers, right? Because unbelievers are spiritually dead and thus incapable of affirming scriptures believability.
Unbelievers should be confronted with the gospel. That’s what they need, the gospel, right? So, in in other words, apologetics, proving to someone that the word of God is the word of God. You can do that for 20,000 years and have every book stacked around you and read everything to communicate to them. And if they’re dead, they’re dead, right? God has to raise them.
God has to raise them just like he had to raise you and I. We were dead too. I was dead in religion, right? I thought I was fine. I thought everything was fine well and dandy in my life.
And so, you know, when you’re in that condition, that’s a dangerous condition to be in. Now I know it. I didn’t know it then. I didn’t know it until God opened my eyes, saved me, and gave me the word of God. And now I see I see what God’s done, right? And I want to live for him and praise him because of that.
So, see, so once saved, notice the last part of that, the Holy Spirit will convict a person of the fact that the Bible is the word of God, right? The Bible is the word of God. Many atheists have tried to discredit the Bible and once they started getting into it, you know what happened to them?
They got saved and they have to change their mind.
You know why? Because God changed their mind.
and they realized that this this is true and what I was believing is false.
So when you when we think about the believability of the Bible, Jesus Christ himself confirmed the belie uh the believability of the Bible.
Um see what passage I want to turn there.
But just again ordinary men wrote the scriptures. The Bible is also internally consistent with each with itself. The Bible is a powerful and dynamic book that has not only changed the lives of millions of people, but it also convicts God’s people of sin and leads them down the path of righteousness for his name’s sake. The Bible also is historically accurate, giving credible evidence for creation, for the fossil record and so on and so forth, the Bible is definitely accurate. Now, when it comes to Jesus Christ himself confirming the believability of scripture, how does he do that? Well, we already read the passage in Luke and that passage is also recorded in Matthew chapter 5. But Jesus believed in Jonah.
Matthew chap 12 verse 40 and 41.
Just turning there.
Matthew 12 40 and 41. It says, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and so on and so forth.” In other words, Jesus is confirming that the Old Testament Jonah story is true, right? And of course he relates that uh to himself and in a sense in a prophetic way. And also he believed the historical narrative of also in Matthew chapter 10 verse1 15 Jesus speaking truly I say to you it will be more tolerable in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.
it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. In other words, what is he doing there? He’s confirming that there was such a place as Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And that it was a real place. And of course, we know in Sodom and Gomorrah, God did pour down judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah and destroy the whole city for their wickedness and sin.
And um and so God is confirming there that these things are true and are scripture. And of course then there’s there’s the various prophecies that confirm the bel believability of the Bible.
If we just stick with Jesus, we will see that the birthplace of Messiah was predicted how many years before Jesus was born? Anybody know?
700.
So 700 years before Jesus was born, the Bible says that he would be born uh and the birthplace would be in Bethlehem. That’s in Micah chapter 5 and verse number two. And it’s fulfilled in Luke chapter 4:7.
So 700 years. Can any could we get anything right from one week to the next, right? The story changes every day.
And yet in scripture, 700 years before a prophet is prophesying the birth of Messiah, and it happens exactly the way the Old Testament says.
Prophecy is a very powerful tool. If you’re going to give give any apologetics to anybody, prophecy is a good place to start because there’s no way uh people really can’t deny things that actually have happened historically, right?
Jesus is probably the most historic figure who ever lived and it’s documented not only in Bible but it’s documented in in Roman historical documents.
So the birthplace of of Messiah also what about in Isaiah turn to Isaiah chapter 7 verse1 14.
In Isaiah chapter 7 in chapter 7 in verse number 14 what does it say there?
7 verse number 14.
It says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she shall call his name Emmanuel.” Now, who would that be?
Who would that be?
Jesus.
All right, that would be the Christ, right? It was fulfilled. It was prophesied in Isaiah 7. It was fulfilled in Matthew 1 verse 18-2. Right? So this this has happened. And then of course Jesus’ triumphal entry Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, right?
How did when did that happen? 700 years before it occurred. Zechariah chapter 9 verse number nine. And it was fulfilled in John 12 12-15.
Christ’s crucifixion and suffering were also prophesied 700 years before fulfilled. All right. We have we have Isaiah 53.
We have Psalm 22.
And then of course Psalm 22 fulfilled in John 19. Isaiah 53 fulfilled in Matthew chapter 26. So all these things is showing to us that the Bible has been inspired by God. There are many in infallible proofs uh and that God inspired the very words. He’s protected those words. He’s put those words into print. And today you and I are confident that we have the very word of God in our hands. Right? So then we can go out and live boldly because this is the truth.
We can go out and proclaim the truth boldly because this is the truth. I can proclaim and anybody who preaches here can proclaim boldly the word of God.
Why? It is true. It is true. Like one tribe says it. when they heard the word of God the first time, they all yelled out, “It is true. It is true.” See, that’s that’s what happens when we become Christians. The word of God’s true.
Let let the word of God be true and every man be a liar.
Right? Okay. So, next time we meet, not next week. Remember, it’s uh resurrection Sunday. So, bring a friend, invite somebody, and then um the week after we’re going to be lesson doing lesson two. So, do your homework and then we’ll meet back here at 900 a.m. um on time, ready to go, ready to do the next thing.
Okay, let’s pray. Lord, thank you for your people. Thank you, Lord, that you have given us the word of God. You have protected us uh and the word of God and you have opened our eyes to see. You granted us faith and repentance to make us alive. So we when we hear the word of God know it’s God’s word. Thank you Lord for the many proofs that we have. For we know Lord that apologetics is maybe more for the believer than it is for anyone else. It it just bolsters our faith. It knows that it it teaches us that this is God’s word. It it it cannot be changed by men. That God has given it to us. He has uh has overseen every person that has written and the spirit of God has moved upon them. So uh we have uh in in our very hands uh the Bible and we thank you Lord for that. I pray that you would allow us to be faithful to uh study it uh to learn it, to live it, uh to tell to others. And Lord, thank you for this time again. I pray in Christ’s name.
Amen.