If the YouTube video above is not available, here are two other ways to view:

080921AM

BYT-31

II Timothy 3:16

 

God has spoken. The words He spoke are God’s Word the Bible.

All Scripture—is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is profitable for doctrine. All Scripture is profitable for reproof. All Scripture is profitable for correction. All Scripture is profitable for instruction in righteousness.

God has declared that all Scripture, every word and every detail of the Bible, was given to us, supernaturally through inspiration. Inspiration means God’s Word is absolutely trustworthy, because it originated from God Himself; and He is the God we can trust. Perhaps the strongest statement of inspiration is the classic verse in II Timothy 3:16. Please look there with me in your Bibles, and note this verse if you do not already know it:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

 

God says that His Word offers to us, four eternally beneficial guideposts:

  • doctrine (God tells us what is right);
  • reproof (God shows us where we are wrong),
  • correction (God explains to us how to get right with Him),
  • and instruction in righteousness (God teaches us how to stay right with Him).

But even though God has said that ALL of His Word is true, perhaps the most attacked portions of God’s Word are those where God Himself explains the origin of the Universe and even more—the origins of mankind.

As we open to Genesis 1 this morning, we are in the midst of a look at the Absolutely Trustworthy Bible that God has written. We each need to have a firm confidence in the Bible. Absolutely, positively you and I hold in our hands and our hearts, the very Word God spoke through inspiration to His Apostles and Prophets.

The words God spoke are preserved and recorded in only one book—the Bible.

The Bible is God’s Word; and the Bible is the Book you can trust.

There are seven self-authenticating elements of God’s Word.

 

Seven Self-Authenticating Elements

The first which we have already examined is that only the Bible contains verifiable, specific prophecies. Not a few, but fully 25% of the Bible is prophetic.

Secondly, God gave another test to verify the authenticity of His Word–the scientific reliability of the Bible. Join me for a brief science lesson from the Bible. We will start with ornithology or bird-science.

We know that birds were created directly and specifically by God. That truth is contained in the only eye-witness account of creation, in Genesis 1:21 which says:

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Now, please turn with me to Job 12:7-9. Our Awesome Creator’s fingerprints upon birds can be seen in their amazingly engineered shapes and forms. Each time while Jesus taught, that He drew the attention of His listeners to the sparrows–He was pointing at Himself.

Even the lowliest or most common members of the bird family are engineered in a more advanced aerodynamic form than even our newest and most advanced, fighter jets. But more than that, birds are just one part of the chorus of nature declaring the Glory of their Creator, just like He told us they would.

Please stand with me and listen to God again speak in Job 12:7-9.

“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. 9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the LORD has done this, (NKJV)

Pray.

God has told us that the Heavens and the Earth are involved in a day and night testimony to HIM (Psalm 19). This morning, if you look closely, you will see that there is no way that this world or any of its creatures could have come into existence in any other way than by the finger of God.

 

Birds are Designer Dependent

One of the disciplines of science, ornithology (or the study of birds)–is a quandary to evolutionary thought. Here’s the problem: Did birds evolve first or second in the rise of animals?

It is almost unbelievable to watch a creature that can so uniquely adapt to the air, and become a “flying[1] wedges” that swim through the air as effortlessly as fish darts through the sea. But, for just a moment, ponder with me a look at “Designer Dependent” creatures we call birds. This world, filled with birds, cries out with the need for an Intelligent Designer, and loudly negates against chance.

A pretty American Dipper pauses briefly for a Photo

“If you could sail alongside a bird in flight and noticed its form as it flew you would be witnessing from beak to the last tail feather, an absolute study in complete streamlining. In all the world of biology no creature is more perfectly equipped to resist the laws of gravity than birds. A bird can float through the air like the down of a milkweed pod and yet weigh in at as much as twenty pounds! How? Nearly every part of a birds framework, anatomy and even some quills are hollow and air filled.

 

A bird has a much higher body temperature than the mammals and so this trapped air is heated and much like the power of the hot air balloons that float around the skies of Kalamazoo from time to time, the bird with air trapped at a higher than atmospheric point is buoyant!

Now think of water birds that can float atop water like oil because of this hollow air filled design. How can they sink to the bottom and feed off the materials they need for life? There is probably no more vivid signature of God upon any bird than there is upon the bird ideally fitted to live by Pacific Mountain streams–the Pacific Ouzel.

Out West where the streams run fast, the waters are cold and run white with the foam of waterfalls, if you were to watch closely you would find God’s witness to creation, the Ouzel. Of all the birds catalogued and studied in ornithology, none are more buoyant than the ouzel. Like grease poured into water it floats above even in the roughest waves at the base of waterfalls.

Looking closely the ouzel actually floats above the water in contrast to the partially submerged bodies of ducks and geese. Now, train your binoculars upon one floating ouzel out there by a rock in the stream. Watch carefully and try to figure out where he went because in a flash he disappears.

Straight down to the bottom like an oversized lead sinker on a boy’s fishing line the ouzel hits the bottom. And if you could see as the scientists have with underwater cameras, you would see the ouzel calmly walking along the bottom feeding on its favorite delicacies as firmly as if it were made of lead. How is this possible to be the most buoyant bird and yet walk firmly through the current of a stream on the bottom?

Watch now, with its beak filled to the brim with what it desires it wades out of the water onto the stream bank, swallows the feast and shakes itself off and in moments is back floating above the water like smoke.

All this happens only because of the Designer installed equipment the ouzel carries. Strong muscles surround its body so that at will it can completely expel the trapped air and cause its weight to be sufficient to sink to the bottom and walk about.

Now, to float like a cork or sink like a stone, at will is an impossible ability to evolve by chance. No human could conceive, design or even modify such an apparatus as this lowly member of the class of Genesis 1:21b!

Yet in the beginning God in a moment of Creation designed the magnificent Pacific Ouzel and countless other marvels like it which float about this Earth declaring the Glory of God their Creator!” [570 words]

 

We Worship and Serve our Creator

Every time that a hiker comes upon a mountain stream and watches the display of creative genius built right into every single Pacific Ouzel—that bird is shouting out the reality of God as the Creator. And if we will pause, and adjust our minds to the reality that the God of the Bible—is the God of Creation, we can expand our capacity to worship.

In Nehemiah 9:5 we find the start of one of the greatest recorded prayers in God’s Word. This worship filled prayer is also the longest prayer in the Bible. Starting midway through v. 5 listen to these words:

Stand up and bless the Lord your God . . . v. 6 You alone [are] the LORD; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You. (NKJV)

That is the second reason why I believe the Bible is true, because God’s Word exhibits complete authenticity though its absolute scientific accuracy.

 

God’s Word is Accurate Scientifically

The Bible is one book made up of 66 smaller books, written by over 40 different authors over a period of 16 centuries, on three different continents. Yet most of these writers never met, never knew each other, and hardly even knew what the others had written before them or after them—yet every single time they wrote down a scientific fact—that fact was absolutely true!

Now, look at the book you hold in your hands:

  • Not one word has ever been proven wrong.
  • Not one fact has ever needed updating,
  • Not one scientific statement ever needing correction,
  • Not one old hypothesis or theory needing adjustment due to new findings, because God’s Word has no theories or educated guesses,
  • Just truth, absolutely true facts.
  • Truth you can stake your life and eternity upon.
  • Changeless and enduring truth that will last forever.
  • And all that truth has been inerrantly transmitted from the presence of God to us via inspiration.
  • In essence, when we come to Scripture we find absolute truth.

Have you ever read an old biology book? It is really funny to see how vastly the biological sciences are changing. How about an old astronomy textbook, have you looked at any of those and seen how completely inaccurate they are? So much has changed. In fact in nearly every area of the Sciences there is flux, change, restatement and casting out the old and disproved statements. Often they are filled with complete errors and mistaken theories.

But not with God, His Word says it right—the FIRST TIME!

Psalm 119:89-91 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 90 Thy faithfulness [is] unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all [are] thy servants. (KJV)

 1 Peter 1:23-25 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24 For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (KJV)

Here at Calvary Bible Church, the fifth point of our doctrinal statement affirms: 5. Man and Sin: We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God from the dust of the ground on the sixth day of the creation week (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:7). Man was not in any way the product of an evolutionary development from lower forms of life but was created directly by God and for God (Isaiah 43:7; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11).

 

Scientific Reasons to Trust the God of the Bible

Why not join me for an incredible journey through the Scriptures. Look at the incredible scientific accuracy and authenticity of a book THOUSANDS OF YEARS AHEAD OF SCIENCE! If you have heard of some passages of the Bible that are in dispute . . . just wait, it takes a while for science to catch up with God! Here are the specific areas we will look at.

First, trust the God who explained astrophysics thousands of years before the first astrophysicist! Just two fascinating realms of the makeup of our Universe that these scientists study has to do with are the mysteries of dark matter and gravity.  What does the Bible say about Astrophysics?

  1. Dark Matter and Energy: Unlike the familiar ‘normal’ matter that makes up stars, gas and dust, as in particles called hadrons which are best know as protons and neutrons. Baryons are a subset of the hadrons (which are the particles made of quarks and anti-quarks. But, ‘dark’ matter and energy is invisible but its presence can be inferred through its gravitational influence on its surroundings. Physicists believe that it makes up 96% of the mass of the Universe (compared with the 4% of normal matter. But, despite its pervasive influence, no-one is sure what dark matter or energy consists of. What does God say about this fundamental part of the Universe?

Job 38:19 Where [is] the way [where] light dwelleth? and [as for] darkness, where [is] the place thereof, (KJV) 

God who knows all divides the entire Universe into the same two elements we have only recently come to explore: light (the visible universe) and dark (the invisible and mysterious realm of dark matter and energy).

 

  1. Gravity: is described as “the weakest of the four fundamental forces, yet it is the dominant force in the visible universe for shaping the large scale structure of stars, planets, and galaxies we can see.” What does God say about gravitation?

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? (KJV)

One of the major areas of study in astronomy is the gravitational tug of stars and systems; and it just happens that those two stellar objects are the only two visible to humans that are bound gravitationally to each other.

 

We can trust the God who through His Word the Bible, explained astrophysics thousands of years before the first astrophysicist!

 Next, trust the God who explained astronomy thousands of years before the first telescope! What does the Bible say about Astronomy? Just one feature of the vastness of our Universe has to do with the Number of Stars.

Up to the time of Galileo and Kepler (17th Century) most of the scientific world thought there were 1,000 stars. But God has always said that humans will never be able to catalogue and count the number of stars that there are out there.

Jeremiah 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. (KJV)

In fact, each year astronomers are more and more unsure about how many stars there really are. As our telescopic reach extends further into the heavens, what were thought to be stars are becoming galaxies, and what were thought to be galaxies are becoming clusters of galaxies. The result is that the number of stars has really gotten to numbers are beyond estimation or calculation. Yet we know three assuring truths:

We can trust the POWER of the Creator God who made them all. Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also. (KJV)

We can trust the PLAN of the Creator God who named them all. Psalm 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by [their] names. (KJV)

We can trust the PROMISES of the Creator God who sustains them all. Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (KJV)

We can trust the God who through His Word the Bible, explained astronomy thousands of years before the first telescope, astrophysics thousands of years before the first astrophysicist—and who is the only one who can lead us safely from this doomed planet.

 

A couple of weeks ago we were reminded again of 9/11.

One of the most moving accounts of that horrific day was the story of the firemen who guided people down the dark, smoke filled stairwells. Only those who trusted the firemen to guide them, only those who put their faith in another who knew the only way out—make it to safety.

Jesus Christ stands in this sin-darkened world, and cries out to anyone who will listen—I am the Way out, I am the Truth that can set you free, I am the Life that never ends, the Hope that never dies, the Peace that never gets exhausted.

 

Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

If you have never reached out and taken the Hand of Jesus, He is here this morning and has His Hand reaching out to you right now. Just trust in the One you can’t see. He has given you a trustworthy Book. Accept His Word that gives life today.

  • Trust His power to forgive and cleanse you from ALL sin.
  • Trust His plan for your life so that you can live the best life possible.
  • Trust His promises that He will never leave you, lose you, or fail you.

Trust Jesus today.

 

[1] Adapted from Rimmer, Modern Science and the Genesis Record, pp. 219-222.

Slides


Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, The Power of the Book You Can Trust 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.