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EBIs-09

201029AM

I want you to do something with me. We’ll be a little unusual. Take your Bible and hold it. I want to talk to you about what you’re holding.
You all are holding something that is unlike anything else that in 5,000 recorded years of human history has ever been produced on this planet.
This Book is the very breath of God breathed out.
This is the very voice of the infinite, endless of days, eternal, all-powerful Creator of the universe who has communicated to us and has intercepted, intersected and invaded time and space and spoken to us.
This book is unlike any book. It’s unlike any other piece of any part of this civilization of humanity that ever existed.
I hope you realize when you hold this book it’s different.
It’s special, It’s absolutely true in all 3,566,480 letters.
All 810,697 words, all 31,173 verses, they’re all the very word of God.
All 1,189 chapters and 66 books are true.
and there are seven reasons why I believe that the Bible is absolutely true.

Slides

Transcript

I want you to do something with me, it’ll be a little unusual. Take your Bible, if you have one, and hold it. I want to talk to you about what you’re holding. You’re holding something that’s unlike anything else in the 5,000 recorded years of human history. Nothing like this, that you’re holding in your hand, has ever been produced on this planet. This book is the very breath of God breathed out. This book is the very voice of the Infinite, Endless of Days, Eternal, All Powerful, Creator of the Universe.  He has communicated to us and He has intercepted, intersected, and invaded time and space; and it’s spoken to us. This book is unlike any book. It’s unlike any other piece or part of civilization or humanity that’s ever existed. I hope you realize when you hold this book, it’s different. All 1,189 chapters of the 66 books in that one book of books, the Bible, are true.

There are seven reasons why I believe that the Bible is absolutely true. The Bible, God’s word is flawless and the seven reasons I know it’s true are what I want to share with you today. Welcome as we come to the next lesson of Exploring the Book of Isaiah. Perhaps this lesson is the single most important issue of our day. Nothing is more vital today than the authority of the word of God, the inerrancy of the word of God, the sufficiency of the scriptures to speak God’s voice into this world that’s plunging, headlong into confusion, especially in this time. What we are living through, the pandemic days, the COVID-19 and all of the fake news that fills our world; we need the truth. That’s what we’re looking at. Let’s go on a journey today.

Look at your slides. I want to address the Bible, God’s word, as being flawless. That there is no error in it historically, scientifically, or theologically. I want to give you seven reasons for that. God’s word is flawless. Its inerrancy is what the theological term is about. There are no errors in it. Why should we believe that our Bible is true? Start in Isaiah 40 and verse 8. So, if you want to turn there with me, Isaiah 40 in verse 8 tells us what the God of the universe says about this book, this book that’s unlike any other book that we’re holding.

It says in verse 8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” Nothing around you, you see, do we ever think of lasting forever? My white boards are already wearing out. I’ve been using them since March, doing all these virtual classes. Everything that we know runs down, wears out, needs to be repaired, but there’s one thing that God has given us. He said, it’s never going away. The eternal settled in Heaven, word of God. That word of God, He tells us is inerrant.  I want to go through that with you, as we do this study.

Look back at your slides. This study on inerrancy is actually the ninth hour of 15 hours going through the book of Isaiah. As we explore this book, we’re exploring the key doctrines that are covered in this book. The ninth hour is the doctrine of inspiration. Then we’re going into theology, prophecy, salvation, the compassion of God that we are to reflect in our lives, the doctrine of future things, paradise, and then we’re going to end with sanctification. So, I hope that wherever you are, and if you look up from that slide, if you’re just joining us, I hope that you’ll go back… if you’re not actually in the East Asia classroom where this class is being beamed right now and the enrolled students are taking it and taking quizzes and tests and turning in their… if you’re just joining us through YouTube I hope you’ll go back and start with classes zero, which explains how to study through all of the details of this book. Then class one, that lays the foundation.

Looking back at the slides. Satan’s plan has always been to get us to doubt God’s word. Now, turn with me to the book of Genesis, to understand why this is such an issue. Genesis chapter 3. So, the very first book of the Bible, chapter 3. We’re right after creation, we’re in the events surrounding the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Chapter 3, verse 1. It says, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘you shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’ “ Now, that’s interesting. That’s the first question recorded in the Bible. Think about that with me.

The devil began his campaign to destroy God’s creation and to defile God’s creatures, man and woman, with a simple question; indeed, has God said. Now, if you look at the Hebrew order of the words, you could literally translate his words as: so, God has said, has he? There’s this definite undermining of what God had said, the creating of doubt here. We have the first question in the Bible, which introduces the first dilemma in human history. Up to this point, Adam and Eve had walked in perfect fellowship with God. They knew God. They walked around with their creator. They were in this beautiful place and they were just loving it. Then, there was that first question, and it was about the integrity, the honesty of God. This query was designed to start Eve down the path of doubting the trustworthiness of what God had said. Did you know, there’s nothing Satan wants more than for you to doubt the trustworthiness of what God has said.

This is the voice of God. These are the words of God. This is the communication from the Creator of the Universe to us, His creatures and Satan doesn’t want us to listen to God. For the first time that deadly spiritual force was covertly smuggled into the world. Eve fell for the great satanic lie. We fall for it too. If we ever questioned God’s word, we like Eve are falling for Satan’s lie. Look at your slide. Satan’s plan always is to get us to doubt God’s word and he’s very good at it.

So, the question comes for us. Why should we trust the Bible? What should be the basis that we put our trust in God’s word?

That comes to the seven reasons why I believe the Bible. If you look up, I’ve written them for you over here and I’ll keep alluding to them. The greatest reason why I believe the Bible, and I’m going to show you that today, is because Jesus did. In fact, I can comfortably say that the Old Testament part of this Bible I’m holding is exactly like what Jesus Christ used in His life and ministry and affirmed.  Jesus used a translation of the Hebrew manuscripts called the Septuagint that translated the Old Testament into a Greek language Bible that Jesus used, preached from, quoted, and so did his apostles. It’s exactly the one we’re holding today.

In fact, when the Hebrew manuscripts hidden in the dead sea caves, called the dead sea scrolls, were found about 70 years ago. They exactly matched the Old Testament manuscripts that we have in our possession today. So, the reason I trust the Bible is because Jesus trusted the Bible and His apostles and prophets trusted the Bible.

We’ll see there’s a supernatural unity to the Bible, I’ll talk about. If you think about it, and I’ll just draw that up here, the Bible has over 40 different writers that wrote over 1600 years.  They lived on three continents and almost none of them knew each other, they were singularly writing. Most of them did not have the rest of the Bible they were going to fit to. It’d be almost like designing a house prefab, in 40 different locations over 1600 years, on three continents and have all the pieces after 1600 years brought together, and to see them completely unite perfectly without anybody ever having read the other, or seen, or tested the other pieces. See, that’s one of the most unique parts of the Bible, the incredible unity.

Prophecy, the Bible contains specific prophecies of people, and places, and events. Isaiah is filled with them. The Bible is unique, and every prophecy has come to pass so far, literally as it’s written.

The Bible talks much about science. In fact, in just the parts of Isaiah and the book of Job, in just those two books, two of the 66 books, the scientific accuracy is unparalleled when you look at the details that are in the book of Job and we’ll cover some of those.

Now, the next reason is the archeological verification.

Finally, the endurance of the Bible through the ages.

So, back in your slides. Those are the seven reasons why I believe that the Bible is true. Let’s begin with the first one. I’m going to go through these and I would encourage you, I’m going to give you many references.

I believe the Bible is truly God’s word because our Lord Jesus Christ said so.

When did He say so? What did Jesus communicate? What did He say that He believed about the Bible? Here’s the first one and you can turn in your Bibles there. It’s chapter 5 of the gospel by Matthew. I’ll read that to you. Matthew 5:18. You can follow along in your Bible. This is what Jesus said, “For assuredly, I say to you,” this is right in the middle of the sermon on the Mount, which is chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7. Jesus said, “assuredly, I say to you, till Heaven and Earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Now, let’s just do a little Hebrew lesson. A Hebrew lesson? What are jots and tittles? When I took biblical Hebrew, they showed us that there are several Hebrew letters of the alphabet that are distinguished by only this little kind of handle that’s up on the corner. So, this letter and this letter are only distinguished by this. That’s the little handle, is called the tittle. That’s the first reference Jesus makes. The other is this, this is the jot, and this is the tiddle or tittle. Right there. So, what He says is, not only are the letters, even the smallest little scribal touches to them… Verse 18, now read that again thinking of those two little marks. “Assuredly, I say to you, till Heaven and Earth pass away, one, jot…” Actually, that’s a letter of the alphabet, a jot and “one tittle.” The difference between a hey and a tav. Those will not pass away until all are fulfilled.

Back at your slides, Jesus believed in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the scriptures. Now look up and let me explain to you what that means. Jesus used God’s word in His private life. When Jesus was facing the devil, when He was being tempted, He… actually, anything Jesus said would have been the word of God, because He is the living word of God. He is God in human flesh. When Jesus faced the devil, what did He do? He quoted from the Bible. Do you understand that? Jesus said, this is the word of God. This is what I use. I believe the Bible. In His public ministry, we see in the sermon on the mount, Jesus quotes eight passages from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Then when Jesus was explaining the future in Matthew 24, when Jesus explains in His longest sermon on the future, He starts quoting from Old Testament prophets, and from the book of Genesis, and from all these different, other portions of scripture. So, what does that mean? Look back at your slide, Jesus believed in the verbal, that means every word. Plenary, that’s the fullness. Inspiration, that means breathed out, of the scriptures.

 

Secondly, Jesus believed much in the inerrancy of God’s word. So much so, that now think about this, if you analyze Jesus’ recorded words in the gospel, one out of every 10 words that Jesus spoke in the recorded four gospels was a quotation from the Old Testament. One in 10 words, He was quoting. That’s how much, look back at the slide, He believed in the inerrancy of God’s word and that’s what He reflected in his ministry.

Next, Jesus completely believed and affirmed the historical reliability of the scriptures. Now, let me just share with you what I mean by that. Basically, His statements of the historicity of Adam and Eve, that’s in Matthew 19. Of Adam’s son Abel, Matthew 23. He said there was a literal man who built an Ark that saved all of humanity and the animals in a global flood, that’s in Matthew 24. He names him, he said he’s Noah. He said there’s a real person, 21 centuries before Christ birth named Abraham.  Jesus said, Abraham knew me, and I knew Abraham. Do you understand? Look back at the slide, Jesus completely believed in and affirmed the historical reliability of the Bible.

Look at this next slide. Jesus came to us to reveal Himself.  What He wanted to do is, He wanted to reveal Himself as the immense God of the Universe, the Awesome Creator, and the Endless of Days. What do I mean by that? Think with me. Jesus came to reveal Himself as the God who was vastly beyond everything we see. He was before the universe began and that’s why He revealed Himself in the scriptures. Do you realize that everything we know about God comes from this book? Now, we see Him reflected in His creation, but we cannot define what we see until we understand this revelation of the book. The Lord said, it’s this way before a person hears the word of God, they can just grope. That’s the word Paul uses in Acts 17, reach out blindly. We don’t know what God looks like, so we reach out in our blindness trying to touch Him. Then when we hear His word, it’s when we actually can touch the truth and believing what He said through His word is what saves us. So, in other words, we can reach after God, then He reveals Himself through His word. As He put it, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. He’s the Awesome Creator. He attests to His power of all the countless stars and galaxies that we see, and He opens them to us. That’s what He wants us to know.

So, looking back at your slides, Jesus revealed Himself as God the Creator and the Endless of Days, but what were Jesus Christ’s personal convictions about the Bible, God’s word?

The first one is this. Every word of God is eternal. That’s what He said. Remember what it says in Matthew 5:18, I just read to you? “For assuredly, I say to you, till Heaven and Earth pass away,” the smallest letter or stroke. The smallest letter, this is the smallest letter. This is the stroke. Those two, He said will not pass away until they’re fulfilled. Look back at the slides, every word of God is eternal, Jesus said.

Secondly, every word of God is authoritative. And Jesus showed that because he said in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Jesus said, this word is the authoritative authentic word of God and everything you see is going to pass away, but my word is not going to pass away. Doesn’t that bring confidence, that when you hold this book, that you realized that this is more enduring than anything in this world or universe? Heaven and Earth are going to pass away, this is not. That’s the inerrancy. That’s the authority. That’s the sufficiency of this book.

Back down to your slides, Jesus not only believed every word was equally authoritative. He also said every letter of God’s word is true. Do you remember the not one smallest letter? So, even the letters He said, of the inspired manuscripts are true. Wow, every word, every letter from God.

Back down to your slides, he had more convictions. Jesus said every word will be preserved to come to pass. Now, think about the implications of this because Jeremiah states it this way. The prophet Jeremiah, he said, God is watching over His word to perform it. When you read this book, you’re reading the actual plan of God and what He says. In fact, there’s a tremendous verse that affected me when I was just starting out in Bible college. I was memorizing verses and I got to this verse 2 Chronicles 16:9. Here’s what the word of God says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole Earth.” To look for one whose heart is completely toward Him so that, he may “show Himself strong” toward them. I was walking around campus at the Bible college where I attended Bible school and I had my verses. I was walking around saying, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole world to look for one whose heart is completely toward Him, that He might show Himself strong toward them. And I’ll never forget stopping at night under the beautiful stars. I just looked up and I said, if you’re looking this direction, I seek you with all my heart. See, I responded. See, God’s word, He’s watching over to perform. He really is looking for people. His eyes are really running to and fro throughout the Earth, looking for people who will with their whole hearts, seek Him so He can show Himself strong through them.

Now you might be great in sports, or great in business, or great in the arts, or maybe you’re an entertainer, or maybe you’re in finance, or you might be one of the students sitting in the classroom right now listening to yet another lecture.  You sit there and you think, what is life about? I’m having trouble paying for this and that. I have all these weaknesses and struggles. Do you realize that God has communicated His plan?  Right now, the God of the universe that created everything, His eyes are looking at your heart.  All you have to do is say, with my whole heart I seek thee, and God says, I’m going to show myself strong through you. There is nothing greater in life than serving the Lord and there’s nothing greater in life than the settled confidence that I know His plan, His will, and what He wants to do in my life by fulfilling His word through me. Look back at your slide, every word will be preserved until it comes to pass.

 

Number five, Jesus said every book of God’s word is true. Now, do you see that? John 10:35. Let me read it to you. John 10:35 and most of the time Jesus comments about the Bible when He was being attacked by enemies. So, that’s why we’re going to be attacked. My very first class, when I got to Michigan State University, my very first class, it was an English class. Do you know what the professor announced? We were studying Shakespearian Literature, English class. The professor walked out in front of all 600 of us and said, I want you to know that I’m going to convince you that the Bible is mythology. Do you know what that professor at Michigan State was, that year in 1976? Do you know what he was? He was an advocate of Satan’s lie, to make you doubt God. When you get faced with that, remember what Jesus said. John 10 and verse 35. “If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken).” This is right in the middle of a conflict between Jesus and His adversaries.

They were saying, how can you say that you’re God? He says, the word of God says that you are gods.  What he was talking about was that they were, and He used the word for judges and rulers, which is the same Greek word that was used for god. He said, if the Bible said that, the scriptures cannot be broken. Do you understand that when He was facing debate, when He was facing adversaries Jesus said, look back at your slide, every book of God’s word is true. The scriptures cannot be broken. John 10:35.

Number six, Jesus even believed the verb tenses in the Old Testament are true. Did you know that? Look with me at Matthew, it’s amazing what He says in Matthew 22:29. A lot of people say, what? Even the verb tenses? Yes. Jesus is having another debate in verse 29.  “Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures.” “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God.” “But concerning the resurrection,” verse 31, “of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying…” Wait a minute, look up from your Bible. Spoken by God? Moses wrote that. Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Moses wrote the first five books, but Jesus said it was God’s speaking. Jesus had a high view of inspiration and so should we. Look at the tenses. The next verse, verse 32, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” He didn’t say I was, that’s a different tense. I am, it’s present tense. Look back at your slides, every tense in the Old Testament is true Jesus said.

Finally, Jesus said, every biblical doctrine is true.

Now look at the next slide, I already went through some of these. Adam and Eve and the whole creation account is true. Noah and the global catastrophe called the flood is true. Abraham was a person who lived and knew Christ. It’s true. There was really an Abel. Moses was really by a burning bush. There was really a man after God’s own heart, David. Really a man who called down fire from God and Heaven, Elijah. Daniel was true and so is Jonah.

Next slide, and look up over here, we’re moving to the next of the seven. There are seven reasons to trust the Bible. The most important, we spent the most time on it, is Jesus did. Guess what? His apostles and prophets did too. Look back at the slide. There is a harmony of conviction among all the 40 plus authors that God spoke through them. Thousands of times, all the writers of scripture said that they were totally convinced that they were sharing the words that were not originating with them. Let me take you to one, open in your Bible back to 2 Samuel, chapter 23 and look at verse 2. This is what David said, this is among David’s final words. He’s on his death bed. He’s giving his glory to God for all the blessings of his life. “Now these are the last words of David.” Verse 1. Verse 3, “The spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.” Did you catch that? Look over here. The apostles and prophets, the scripture writers were absolutely convinced that when they wrote under the inspiration of God, it was the very word of God. Back to your slides, number one, Jesus believed the Bible is true, so should I. Number two, all the writers said so thousands of times.

Here’s the third one, because of the incredible unity the Bible is supernaturally designed. Unity is demonstrated by the fact that from 40 men, on three continents, over 1600 years, and 60 generations, comes one integrated message. Every word, every detail of the Bible has one unmistakable fabric woven. From prison to palace, from desert to dungeon, hillside to holy place. One common theme. One united message. One system of doctrine. One plan of salvation.

Now, look up. What is that? The unity of the scriptures, the fact that these 40 plus writers, over 1600 years, all of them, when their pieces are put together into this book they perfectly fit. The most of them never met each other. Most of them never read the other’s piece before they wrote theirs. Amazing. That’s the unity of the Bible. It’s incredible.

Number four, because of the fulfilled prophecies. What’s the simplest yet most profound evidence the Bible offers? It’s the prophecy fulfilled element. It’s an irrefutable verification that’s only found in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Prophecy is the missing element of every other sacred scripture of all the world’s religions. There is no prophecy in the Koran, in the Hindu Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, The Book of Mormon, the sayings of Buddha, none of those by contrast.

Look at Isaiah 41:21 with me. Take your Bibles and look at Isaiah 41 and verse 21. Let me get there with you. Verse 21, “Present your case,” “bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.” Verse 22, “Let them bring forth and show us what will happen.” That’s prophecy, what will happen, what’s coming in the future. “Let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods.”

Do you know what the Lord says? My calling card is how you know who I really am. If you want to know who the true and living infinite creator God is, prophecy proves that. Prophecy. God is the only one that specifically declares the events that are coming in the future and He wants us to realize that. God says, present your case, bring forth your strong reasons, and I’ll bring forth My prophecies.

Next slide. Number five, because of the scientific accuracy. Just the last few chapters of the book of Job would be enough to prove that the Bible is not from this Earth, it’s extraterrestrial. Have you ever had an old biology book? Have you ever looked at an old astronomy textbook? So much has changed? In fact, nearly every area of science is in flux, change, restatement, casting out the old disproved statements. Often there’s complete error and mistaken theories, but not with God. He says it right the first time. So, the seven reasons to trust the Bible, Jesus trusted the Bible. All the authors affirmed thousands of times that they were speaking God’s word. It’s united, even though they’re so disparate and never seeing each other and reading. The prophecies.

But look at the scientific accuracy. Now, let’s pause in this one for a second. Because there’s so much in the news about science, and science disproving, and scientific study, and scientific experts. Let’s look at the truest scientific expert, God Himself.

In your slides the next one, the Bible has ultimate science. Job. 38:19 declares what we would call the astrophysics of dark matter. Did you know that 99% of the mass of the universe is dark matter?  We didn’t even know what it is. Now, look up. What did Job say? God divides the light from darkness. Now, wait a minute, Job? Job was writing way back. Job probably lived before Abraham. How do we know that? Because Job said he saw mountains of ice and we know where he lived. He lived in the middle east. Mountains of ice? What did Job seek? Glaciers, Job lived not too long after the flood. Job said, God divides light from darkness. Now, we’ve always been taught that darkness is the absence of light and all you do is bring light, and darkness is gone. But Job said, no. There is light and it can be divided from something else, something that exists, that is called darkness. Darkness actually, there are properties to darkness and guess what? In physics, they began to realize, as they were looking at the balance of the universe and the weight and the mass, that the things that we see, the visible in the light, is only a tiny fraction. The invisible part, look back at your slide, 99% of the mass of the universe is dark matter. We don’t even know what it is.

Here’s another thing Job said, the astrophysics of gravity. He talks about the gravitational tug of stars and systems. What did he say? We were just outside last night and looking up. Bonnie says, oh, there’s a constellation, I said, yeah that’s Orion. My son said, but what’s that one over there? I said that’s the Pleiades. Those are the only two that are mentioned in the Bible as being held together gravitationally. There is a gravitational tug between the seven stars of the Pleiades and between the stars that are in the constellation of Orion’s belt. Do you know what the Bible says and Job? Look back down at your slide. Job 38:31. It says, “who can bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades.” That’s a great description of gravity, the sweet influence.

Here’s another one, oceanography. There are teeming life systems surrounding the toxic hot springs two miles down in the dark ocean.  Job talks about those. Ornithology, the study of birds. Animal migratory navigation wasn’t even closely imitated until satellite navigation. Yet God talks about what He built into fish, birds, and even insects. How about zoology? What’s amazing for scientists is how do those Sockeye Salmon find their way home, 4,000 miles, every year. Here’s how, God has placed some nearly unbelievable senses into those animals.  Migratory birds, they fly thousands of miles exactly to their destination. How? Scientists think they must have a sense of Earth’s magnetic fields, like an internal compass.

Now, look up and think about this. If God made birds, and animals, and insects, have all of these incredible guidance systems, ask yourself this question. The King of the universe, our creator couldn’t have left us out. He gave us a compass. Our directional capacity far exceeds the animal world’s awareness of magnetic fields or as the salmons do, one part per billion of where we respond. We have a direct line to our creator. We have Him and He has everything we’ll ever need. We can know God through His word. When we open this up, we can actually have direction given to us from the very creator of oceanography, astrophysics, and of the migratory abilities of insects and birds and fish. That same creator says I want to live inside of you. I want to live out through you. I want to show you the path of life. I’m not just going to program in magnetic field stuff, I’m going to actually move in. I’m going to show you the path of life. Back to your slides, ultimate science is in the Bible.

Number six, archeological excavation. In the 19th century, Sir William Ramsay, an English skeptic set about to disprove the historicity of God’s word. He took as his target one of those great books of the Bible, the book of Acts. He started digging in ancient Asia minor, modern Turkey. Now look up, he actually took a Bible, this was a rich kid from England that was going to disprove the Christianity of the church that his parents had made him go to. So, this rich kid took an expedition to Turkey and said hey, I’m just going to take the Bible, the book of Acts and if it says that Paul sailed, and landed, and walked three days inland, and went to Pisidia Antioch, I’m going to excavate and see if there is an Antioch in Pisidia. That’s actually what he did. He took a boat to the same port where Paul sailed in his missionary journeys, that’s listed, and he walked with his little party of excavators for three days up the valley into the interior. When they got to the third day’s walk he said, put down the equipment, take out your shovel and start digging.

Guess what? They discovered for the first time, since Roman times, a city buried. When they excavated it, the name of the city was the same name that’s in the book of Acts. That was just the start. His books, the travels of Ramsey, he has a book this thick of all his archeological findings trying to disprove the Bible. Look back at your slide. What he found amazed the world of archeology, not only were all the cities of Paul, that he spoke of traveling through actually there, even the words that Paul used to describe the public officials were found beneath the ruins, exactly as recorded in Acts by Luke. Ramsey became a believer because of the profound historic reliability of God’s word.

Now look up for just a second. I was taking a group, not too many months back, on a journey through the journeys of Paul, the missionary journeys of Paul. We were in Greece and we did all the different regions and flew between them in Greece.  One of my favorite ones is this exact event. Up in Thessaloniki, the second largest city of Greece, there’s this giant museum. On the wall, they have the plate that was found on the gate of the city of Thessalonica. In the Bible, it calls the rulers of Thessalonica ethnarchs. That’s just their name in the Bible. Everybody said oh, that’s not even a word, until they excavated Thessalonica. There on the entryway to the city. It says the Ethnarchs of Thessalonica greet you. I took the people to the museum. I said look, there’s another one here, right here. Archeological verification of the reasons you should trust the Bible; Jesus did, the apostles, the unity, the prophecy, the scientific accuracy. That’s why we should trust God’s word. Back to your slide, Ramsey became a believer because of the profound historical reliability of the scriptures.

Number seven, I’ll read this to you, because of the endurance of the Bible through the ages. God’s word has endured through ages, despite being the target of empires, armies, and infidels. Like the children’s songs says the Bible stands like a rock undaunted to the raging storms of time.

The next slide inerrancy. Inerrancy: trusting that God’s word is true gives to me a biblical framework to understand the Bible. I want to give you my personal biblical framework and you can look up for a second. If you have the scriptures as an anchor, if you know that the Bible can be trusted, if you know that what God says is true, if you know what we read in Isaiah 40 verse 8, let me get there. That “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” If you know that, then all of a sudden it starts giving to you a framework. When you look at the Bible, here’s the Bible, it has 31,100 and some verses. All of a sudden you can start making sense of what it says, because you don’t say we’re not sure that this verse is true, we’re not sure of that verse true.  As soon as you start having parts of the Bible, that aren’t true then it’s almost if I had a sweater on that was a knit sweater and I started pulling a thread. If I kept pulling long enough, it would make the whole sweater come apart. That Satan’s goal. If he can make you distrust Genesis, like God isn’t quite sure about creation, or the Romans about moral standards, and whether or not homosexuality is right or wrong, or the book of 1 Timothy, whether or not God’s roles for men and women are right or wrong. If he, if Satan can make you doubt any part of the Bible, he started a thread that will unravel the whole thing.

So, what’s the result of believing the Bibles inerrant? Let me just show you, I call it my personal framework. If you believe the Bible, then you believe that people must be saved. You must share the gospel. People aren’t going to Heaven because of their family or their church. They have to call on the name of the Lord. Then you understand how salvation works, because the Bible says it’s not by works of righteousness, but the imputed work of Christ. Then you start realizing that every part of the scriptures is inspired. So, you believe creation and that explains everything, because God says everything was recently created.

Look up for a second. I just read this morning, let me look at the date, it’s Sunday the 25th of October, do you know what it said in the news this morning? That scientists looking for climate change have gone down to the furthest most southern islands on Earth, off of the coast of Chile.  They said they have dug through 1500 feet of the remains, the droppings of these polar or Antarctic birds that live there. They said, look what they said, they said that those birds have only lived 5,000 to 9,000 years on that spot. There is no record that they lived a minute longer than that.

Look back at your slides, wow. Catastrophists say there wouldn’t be any record of anything above ground because Noah’s flood really happened. It would have washed away all the bird droppings. I’m a cessationist. Don’t look for any more revelation of scripture because the Bible says it’s done. I’m a maximalist because God’s historic and scientific facts are true. Then if you really believe the Bible, you know Israel is not the church and God has a future plan for Israel.

So, the next slide. The Bible: God’s word is flawless and there are seven reasons why I know it’s true. What are they?

  1. Most important Jesus affirmed, declared, and had the unyielding conviction that this book is true.
  2. So did all of the authors, and the apostles, and prophets.
  3. Every piece of the Bible fits together with divine unity.
  4. Every time God declares the future, it happens like He said.
  5. When God interacts with science He’s ahead of science.
  6. Whenever you dig up any part of the historic details of the Bible, you can verify them.
  7. No matter what that man throws against the scriptures, the Bible has endured.

You can trust the Bible.

Let’s bow for word of prayer.

Father, I pray that everyone that’s watching this video will have a settled conviction that; if you Lord Jesus believe this Bible is true, I will too. That faith comes by hearing the word of God, that they would read and study your word and their faith would grow. That they would come to a settled conviction that you can be trusted because your eyes are looking throughout this Earth, looking for someone whose heart completely trusts in you. Then you can show yourself strong through us. That’s what I pray you do, in the name of Jesus we asked for that. And all God’s people said, Amen.


Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, Exploring The Book Of Isaiah here.

Looking To Study The Bible Like Dr. Barnett?

Dr. Barnett has curated an Amazon page with a large collection of resources he uses in his study of God’s Word. You can check it out here.