Psalm 12 | Finding Truth in a World Full of Deception

It’s hard to trust people and institutions these days.

It’s not very hard to relate to David’s world:

Deception

False flattery

Fraud

Propaganda

Double talk

Dishonesty from those in power and authority to control, abuse and destroy.

Who can we trust? What we can read that is nothing but the truth?

Psalm 12:6 “6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.”

Notice David doesn’t say, “I feel God’s Word is pure.” He speaks facts. The words of the Lord are pure words.

David uses the illustration of refining silver in a furnace. The process would remove impurities from the metal. The word of God is like silver refined: it is pure and perfect, hence, seven times which is the number of completion and perfection.

*This doesn’t mean that the Bible was at one point in need of purification. David is simply making the point that God’s word is pure and perfect.

MAIN IDEA: In a world full of deception, trust God’s proven Word.

Discipleship tool for families: God’s Word by Sally Michael

How do I know I can trust the Bible?

7 Reasons why you can trust the Bible (overlap)

(1) The Bible’s Internal Unity

The Bible contains a consistent message.

1,500 years to write the Bible

66 books

40 writers from different backgrounds (Kings, peasants, doctors, farmers and fishermen)

3 different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, & Greek)

1 consistent message: The Gospel (Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation

Imagine organizing forty authors with different backgrounds over the course of fifteen hundred years to write sixty-six books centered on one consistent theme.

Imagine having to organize this project without technology and therefore no ability to collaborate. It would take a miracle!

Illustration: 63,779 Bible cross references

A German Pastor, Christoph Römhild, and American tech wiz, Chris Harrison, made a chart to visually represent the consistency of the Bible. They connected different color lines to show the 63,779 cross references in the Bible. 

A cross-reference is a scripture that references another scripture.

The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible, starting with Genesis 1 on the left. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in that chapter (for instance, the longest bar is the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119). Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible are depicted by a single arc - the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

There is no other book in human history that displays this kind of internal unity specially given the fact that it took roughly 1,500 years to write the Bible with 40 different author. It would take a miracle to create this type of internal unity.

Which leads me to the second reason why I trust the Word of God

(2) The Bible’s Supernatural Author

40 Writers

1 Author

2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God.”

2 Pet 1:21 “21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

When men were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” we mean that “God has worked by his Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the whole personality, life experiences and literary talents of its human authors to produce the very words that God desired to be written to reveal himself and his purposes to human beings. EFCA (2011-03-01). Evangelical Convictions (Kindle Locations 1297-1299). Free Church Publications.

The source of Scripture is God himself; He is the author.

Men didn’t create revelation; they simply receive it and spoke from God as they carried along by the Holy Spirit.

You can completely trust the Bible because the author is perfect. Therefore the Bible is without error, it is perfect.

Jesus said to his Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Davie declared, “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” (Ps. 12:6).

The Third reason why I trust the Word of God...

(3) The preservation of the Bible’s manuscripts

We don’t have the original documents. All we have are hand written copies and yet the NT is the most reliably transmitted ancient document.

“Many of these are fragmentary, of course, especially the older ones, but the average Greek New Testament manuscript is well over 400 pages long. Altogether, there are more than 2.5 million pages of texts.” Daniel Wallace

In comparison with the average Greek author, we have roughly a thousand times as many NT copies.

Graphic: New Testament Manuscripts graphic (Empire State Building)

“If the average-sized manuscript were two and one half inches thick, all the copies of the works of an average Greek author would stack up four feet high, while the copies of the New Testament would stack up to over a mile high! ”Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace

Graphic: Comparing Ancient Manuscripts

Even though we don’t have the original writings, we can have confidence that we we hold in our hands is the Word of God.

(4)Jesus’ view regarding the Bible

I want to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus affirmed that the Scriptures was the Word of God and as such it is authoritative, decisive, and binding. In other words, he trusted the Scriptures completely. You’ll never find him once contradicting or questioning the Scriptures. Rather, you’ll find Jesus quoting the Scriptures saying, “It is written...”

He referenced the people and events of Scriptures as factual history (Adam & Eve, Noah and the flood, Sodom & Gomorrah, Jonah and the big fish, etc)

In John 10:35 stated that “Scripture cannot be broken.” God’s Word is the last word.

In John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

John 5:39 “39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

(5) The Bible’s Historical Accuracy

The 19th-century saw a rise of critics who denied the historicity of ethnic people’s group and cities mentioned in the Bible. Archeology has helped to prove that indeed the Bible is historically accurate.

“It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries– Nelson Glueck

(6)The Bible’s eyewitness testimony

In Matthew 17 you read about the transfiguration of Jesus.

2 Peter 1:16-18 “16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

Peter and apostles were eyewitness of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

What would Peter and the other apostles gain from making up stories? Riches? Comfort? Prosperity? They all ended up being mistreated, persecuted and murdered.

Luke (Luke & Acts) compiled a narrative of the events by interviewing eye witnesses

Why? Luke 1:4 “4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

The seventh and final reason why I trust the Bible is....

(7) The Bible’s Fulfilled Prophecies

The Bible contains thousands of fulfilled prophecies.

Jesus alone fulfilled more than 324 individual prophecies written hundreds of years before he was born.

Peter Stoner wrote a book called Science Speaks (Published in the 1950s)

Peter Stoner calculated the probability of just 8 Messianic prophecies being fulfilled in the life of Jesus. As you read through these prophecies, you will see that all estimates were calculated as conservatively as possible.

1. The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem ( Micah 5:2). The average population of Bethlehem from the time of Micah to the present (1958) divided by the average population of the earth during the same period = 7,150/2,000,000,000 or 2.8×10-5 .

2. A messenger will prepare the way for the Messiah ( Malachi 3:1). One man in how many, the world over, has had a forerunner (in this case, John the Baptist) to prepare his way? Estimate: 1 in 1,000 or 1×10-3 .

3. The Messiah will enter Jerusalem as a king riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). One man in how many, who has entered Jerusalem as a ruler, has entered riding on a donkey? Estimate: 1 in 100 or 1×10-2 .

4. The Messiah will be betrayed by a friend and suffer wounds in His hands (Zechariah 13:6). One man in how many, the world over, has been betrayed by a friend, resulting in wounds in his hands? Estimate: 1 in 1,000 or 1×10-3 .

5. The Messiah will be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12 ). Of the people who have been betrayed, one in how many has been betrayed for exactly 30 pieces of silver? Estimate: 1 in 1,000 or 1×10-3 .

6. The betrayal money will be used to purchase a potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13 ). One man in how many, after receiving a bribe for the betrayal of a friend, has returned the money, had it refused, and then experienced it being used to buy a potter’s field? Estimate: 1 in 100,000 or 1×10-5 .

7. The Messiah will remain silent while He is afflicted ( Isaiah 53:7). One man in how many, when he is oppressed and afflicted, though innocent, will make no defense of himself? Estimate: 1 in 1,000 or 1×10-3 .

8. The Messiah will die by having His hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16). One man in how many, since the time of David, has been crucified? Estimate: 1 in 10,000 or 1×10-4 .

Multiplying all these probabilities together produces a number (rounded off) of 1×10 2 8 . Dividing this number by an estimate of the number of people who have lived since the time of these prophecies (88 billion) produces a probability of all 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidently in the life of one person. That probability is 1 in 10-17 or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That’s one in one hundred quadrillion! [100 with 15-zeros)

In a world full of deception, trust God’s proven Word.

How will you respond to God’s Word?

How should we respond to such a revelation? We ought to begin with a humble and awe-filled adoration and gratitude. We do not stand over God’s Word as its judge, but under it as those willing to be taught, rebuked, corrected and trained (cf. 2 Tim. 3:17).

All that the Bible teaches us we ought to believe.121 All that the Bible requires of us, we ought to obey. And all that the Bible promises us, we ought to trust.122 For what the Bible says, God says, and it is all for our good and for his glory. For in the Scriptures God’s gospel of his Son has been authoritatively revealed to us. God has spoken! - Evangelical Convictions, The Bible