The Doctrine of the Scriptures- Part 3
Notes
Transcript
The Doctrine of the Scriptures III
Summary of Last Sunday:
How do we know the Bible is True?
I. By the claims of the Scripture themselves.
II. By the testimony of Jesus.
III. By the testimony of The Prophets and Apostles
IV. By the testimony of the Holy Spirit
V. By the evidence of Science
VI. By the evidence of Prophecy
Text: John 17:17 (KJV 1900)
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
I. By the claims of the Scripture themselves.
2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV 1900)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (KJV 1900)
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
* The wording of the Greek language behind this verse, pasa
graphe theopneustos, the literal translation being, all writing, God breathed, means that all Scripture carries the meaning that the Scriptures are “God breathed,”
* Or in other words, all Scripture is breathed out by God and thus is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.
* This is why the Bible is true, and we can count on it to be without error and accurate in everything it teaches.
II. By the testimony of Jesus.
John 17:16–17 (KJV 1900)
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
* Jesus said, when speaking about the Bible:
Matthew 5:17–18 (KJV 1900)
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
*The Bible is true. And that's very basic and very essential to our view of holy Scripture, it is the truth.
III. By the testimony of The Prophets and Apostles
1 Corinthians 15:3–8 (KJV 1900)
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
* All these writers actually claim to be inspired by God. You want to know how many times?
* Three thousand eight-hundred and eight times in the Scripture, and that's the Old Testament only,
* 3,808 times in the Old Testament the writers say what they're saying is the Word of God.
* Now how many times do they have to say it before we believe it? Three thousand eight hundred and eight.
* There are 2600 direct claims to inspiration. Somebody calculated 680 in the Pentateuch, 1307 in the prophets, 418 in the history books and 195 in the poets.
* So 2600 times they claim inspiration, 3808 times they identify themselves as speaking the Word of God.
* In the New Testament there are at least 1,000 references to the Old Testament.
* Now what does that tell us the New Testament writers believed? That the Old Testament was...what? True, and the Word
of God.
* Three hundred and twenty times they quote the Old Testament. James, I think, sums it up beautifully in James 4:5, "Think ye that the Scriptures speak in vain,"
* Any time you see the term "the Scriptures" unless it's qualified somehow, it's referring to the Old Testament...the Scriptures.
*The writers of the Old Testament realized they were speaking God's Word. The writers of the New Testament as well.
* So, you have the Old Testament writers, now follow my thinking, the Old Testament writers claiming to be inspired, you have the New Testament writers claiming that the Old Testament writers are
inspired by 320 quotes and 1,000 references and direct statements like those.
* Then you have New Testament writers claiming that they too are inspired.
* For example, Galatians 1 where Paul says in verse 11, "I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not from
man, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."
IV. By the testimony of the Holy Spirit
2 Peter 1:20–21 (KJV 1900)
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
* This passage says in verse 20 that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private origin or “interpretation.”
* Scripture is not from private origin and that is it isn't the result of some individual dreaming it up or postulating it.
* Verse 21, tells us "For the prophecy...that's speaking of that which came forth, that which came out of God's mouth...came not at any time by the will of man."
* So the Scripture is true, it is true because God breathed it, it did not come from any private origination, it did not come at any time by the will of man, "But holy men of God spoke as they were moved along by the Holy Spirit."
* The world moved here is the word used for a ship moved along with the wind in the water. As they were moved along by the Holy Spirit.
* Now that basically gives you a summation of the basic biblical doctrine of inspiration. The Bible is true, and it is true because God breathed it and He breathed it into men who were moved along by the Holy Spirit to write the very breath of God, not something of their own origination.
Illustration, Acts 1:16, Peter stood up and said, "Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled...watch this...which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spoke."
V. By the evidence of Science
Introduction:
*There are always people who come along and say, "Well, part of
the Bible isn't true."
* The current fad is to say that the Bible is true when it speaks on spiritual issues, but not true when it speaks on historical or geographical issues...
* I have a problem with those who make this claim.
* Why should we believe the Bible to be true when we can't verify it in geography , history, and science?
* If the Bible isn't true where we can verify it in the geographical/historical/scientific dimension, how can we believe what the Bible says about spiritual truths?
* We can verify the truth of the Bible in all these ways, Spiritual, geographical, historical, and scientific!
* How do we know that the Bible is true?
* Let’s take a look at the testimony of science. Now I confess to you at the very beginning that I am not a scientist.
I live science. I in school I always made ana in science class.
* And I have found since that time a greater interest in science now than I ever had then because I understand how marvelously it manifests the truth of God.
* Science is nothing more than reverse engineering what God has made. Science is studying how God did what He did back there in the book of Genesis.
* I want you to know that whenever the Bible speaks related to science it is always accurate... the Bible is always accurate.
* Science is another wonder verification of Scripture this morning.
* Now, some of the critics of the Bible say, "Oh, the Bible is not scientific because the Bible says in Joshua was fighting the battle, the sun stood still." And they say, "See, that isn't scientific. The sun didn't stand still."
* Those kinds of arguments are all smoke and mirrors. That argument proves absolutely nothing!
* What really happened when the Bible says the sun stood still? Well, the earth stopped rotating, that's the scientific explanation.
* When the writer in the Bible says the sun stood still, give them a break! From his perception the sun stood still.
* I mean, when those scientists get up in the morning and throw open the window and look to the east they don't say, "Oh what a
lovely earth revolving." No, That's a sunrise. Everybody would describe it as a sunrise!
* And when they look at the sun in the west, the beautiful, "Oh
what a lovely earth revolving." No, that's a sunset.
* It's like when my mother-in-law keeps pushing the bowl of potatoes over to me and saying you need to eat this!
* I don’t reply to her and say miss Gerttie "Gastronomical satiety admonishes me that I have arrived at a state of deglutition consistent with dietetic integrity…
* No, I just simply say "No thanks, I’m full! I've had enough!"
* I mean, you don't have to talk like that all the time. And
the Bible perceives things from man's perspective, and when the Bible describes the sun standing still, it simply means that the earth stopped revolving, which made the sun to stay in the same place in the sky.
* Don’t let so called “scientific” arguments cause to doubt God’s world. It’s all a bunch of smoke and mirrors- double talk!
* But just as an illustration or two, and these are illustrations of the scientific accuracy of the Bible:
* A man named Herbert Spencer became a famous scientist, one of the most famous of all scientists.
* He was the one who discovered and identified classifications for everything that is knowable in the universe.
* All that is knowable can be classified, he said. And he was hailed as a genius for this development.
* He found that all knowable things, could be put into five classifications and he listed them for the scientific world. They are these:
1) time
2) force
3) action
4) space
5) matter
* Herbert Spencer put them in that order...time, force, action, space and matter.
* He said all that exists can fit into one of those categories...time, force, action, space and matter. And the scientific world hailed that as a great
discovery.
* What Herbert Spencer didn't know is that God had already covered this scientific principle in the Bible.
* On the first page of the Bible, where God begins to relate to mankind knowledge about the universe and how it is made, God had already stated this scientific principle. It’s all right there in the first words of the Bible:
IN THE BEGINNING--that's time--
GOD--that's force—
CREATED--that's action—
THE HEAVENS--that's space—
AND THE EARTH--that's matter."
* I was all right there at the very beginning fo God’s explanation of the universe! So Herbert Spencer he wasn't so smart after all was he?
* There is in science what is called the second law of thermodynamics which some of you know is the basic law that says “all matter is breaking down, tends toward dissolution.”
* Now it's interesting for us to note that that's exactly what the Bible says!
* Prior to the Fall that wasn't true, but as soon as the Fall came, God
cursed the earth, right? And death entered the scene and everything began to follow the law of thermodynamics. Now, everything is breaking down and returning to it’s simpler form.
* Now the law the second law of thermodynamics totally goes against the very foundations of the teaching of the theory of evolution, but scientists would rather juggle the tension of the law of thermodynamics and believe in evolution, than admit the Bible is true.
* Like one scientist said because they reject the idea of a God who simple spoke the world into existence, and continues to actively keep the universe running, all they are left with is flawed theories like that of evolution and the Big Bang Theory.
* I have a question for science- where the things that went bang come frome? Think about that for a while.
* In Romans 8 the Bible says the whole creation groans and travails, right? What for? Waiting for that time when the curse will be lifted from the earth and death and deteriation are reversed- the eternal state that the world was in before the curse of sin.
* Let me give you another illustration. I'm always fascinated by the study of hydrology which is the process of the cycle of water in the earth.
* You can go back to probably the oldest book in the Bible which is Job chapter 36 and you could do a whole hydrological study right there in the Bible.
* It says there , "He maketh small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to their vapor which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly." And so he's discussing the rain.
* You go to Psalm 135, verse 7, so now you've got the rain coming down and it's going to return, how? Verse 7 of Psalm 135, "He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth," there's the next phase of the study of hydrological process!
* When you go to the book of Job You don’t see silly stories that explain the earth and physical science like other religious books. The Bible doesn’t say things like the earth is held on the back of elephants who produce earthquakes when they shake like the Koran says! That's what the Koran says stupid things like that.
* The Bible never says things like that. The Bible is 100% geographically, historically, and scientifically accurate! Always!
* Job 26:8 goes on to say, "He binds the water in the thick clouds and the cloud is not torn." Isn't that amazing that God has designed the clouds in such a way as to transport billions of gallons of water, yet they float through the air?
* So now in the book of Job you've water coming down as rain, ascending up in a vapor, and then held in the clouds again. Job says the rain is evaporated from the sea, then transported by cloud and returns over the land again, and is distributed to the land that needs water.
* The twenty-eighth chapter of Job, tenth verse, "He cuts out rivers among the rocks and His eye sees every precious thing. He binds the floods from overflowing. He puts borders, doesn't He, on the
oceans."
* The whole hydrological process described here is is here, marvelous!
* Psalm 33:7, "He gathers the water of the sea together as a heap, He lays up the depth in store houses," He keeps the oceans in their places.
* And then you could look at astronomy. Well, there are so many things we could say about that.
* In Isaiah 55, verse 9 we read. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
* Now that is something to think about! How high is heaven?
* Scientists used to think the heavens were pretty high. They used to think we were inside a ball, did you know that?
* According to the Ptolemaic view, we were inside some kind of a ball. But the Bible says heaven is as high as God is!- high above man. Now that's not just a little ways, that's infinity. And we're now beginning to discover the infinite heavens with high power radio telescopes.
* Do you know that years ago people estimated there were 1,030 stars?
* Now scientist say there are a hundred billion in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxies!
* Jeremiah 31:37, "Thus saith the Lord; if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done." The Bible says that the depths of the earth, and the expanse of the heavens cannot be measured!
* Can you go down in the earth and search it out? No, we can't, because it's filled with something that our tools could never survive in.
* Can you find the measure of heaven with all of the telescopes in the world?
* No, no, and if you ever do then God’s Word would not be true. His Word wouldn't be true because He says I'll no more cast off Israel, than you could ever measure heaven. The heavens cannot be measured!
* The thirty-third chapter of Jeremiah adds another thought to that. It says, "The host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured."
* It helps me to visualize this truth to think that there are at least as many stars as there are grains of sand on every beach in every place in the entire world.
* That's a lot of stars. That's what God said!
* Jeremiah 31:35 says, "Thus said the Lord who giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by night, He divides the sea when its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever."
* God will no more overturn His covenant with Israel than the stars will go out, the moon will go out and the sun will go out.
* Psalm 19 talks about the sun and it says, "The sun goes forth from the end of heaven and His circuit unto the ends of it."
* Now this scientific information is just incredible! The critics of the Bible used to laugh at that and say the sun doesn't go anywhere, the sun stands still and the earth goes around the sun!
* Now we know the sun is in an orbit that takes billions of years to complete. Just like the Bible said, the sun really is moving!
* We are literally careening through space, not only as we go around the sun but as the sun careens through space at incredible speeds!
* And it has an exact and precise orbit which they have now discovered... just as the Bible said many years ago in Psalm 19!
* The Bible is geographically, historically, and scientifically accurate this morning!
* Let’s talk about geology for just a minute. Do you know what the science of isostasy is?
* The science of isostasy didn't really get started till 1959. It's the study of the balances of the earth.
* You have to have as much depth in the sea as you do height in the mountains or the entire earth would wobble as it rotated.
* So the earth has to rotate perfectly-- perfectly, it has to be in absolute balance. That's the science of isostasy.
* You have to have the weight perfectly balanced and God has perfectly balanced the globe.
*That's exactly what the Bible says! Scientists used to think it was flat to start with, and now we know that's just ridiculous. Science has not always been accurate, but the Bible has always been scientifically accurate!
* What about the science of geodesy- the shape of the earth?
* Isaiah 40 verse 22, "It's he who sits on the circle of the earth," for centuries, scientists went around thinking the world was flat!
* All the would have had to do was read in the Bible and they would have known that the world was in the shape of a sphere!
* In the past, when science has been wrong, the Bible remained scientifically accurate. So what makes you thing that something has changed? What makes you think that the scientists theory of evolution is right and the Bible’s account of creation is wrong?
* If modern science is in disagreement with the Bible, I would rather believe the proven track record of the accuracy of the Bible than the terrible track record of science when it comes to accuracy!
* Isaiah 40 verse 12 says, "He measures the water in the hallow of His hand, He measures the heaven with a span, He measures the dust of the earth, in a measure He weighs the mountains and scales
and the hills in a balance."
* Job says the world is turned like clay to the seal.
* If you had to sign your name on a piece of parchment, or you wanted to sign your name on a soft pallet of clay, you would have a signature cylinder with two sticks coming out of the end of it.
* And when you wanted to sign you name, you just roll that across the soft clay.
* Now what does that say about the earth? It's turned as the clay to the seal. It rotates on what? On an axis, so says Job 38:14, it is a sphere.
* And so the Bible had said for thousands of years that the earth was in the shape of a sphere, and it rotated on an axis! Amazing!
* Do you know if you read Luke 17 the parable there, you'll find that when Jesus comes some people are going to be sleeping and some people are going to be working? It's going to be night and day at
the same time when He comes.
* What does that tell you? That the earth is what? Round. Spherical,
has to be.
* And then you have gravity, Job 26:7, "He hangs the earth on nothing."
* Then you have meteorology, the weight of air, they didn't discover that till rather modern times yet Job, the oldest book in the Bible,
says "He imparteth weight to the air."
* What about physiology? They used to bleed people when they
got sick even though it says in Leviticus, "The life of the flesh is in the blood." You're killing them when you do that...and so on and so on and so on.
VI. By the evidence of Prophecy
How do we know the Bible is True?
I. By the claims of the Scripture themselves.
II. By the testimony of Jesus.
III. By the testimony of The Prophets and Apostles
IV. By the testimony of the Holy Spirit
V. By the evidence of Science
VI. By the evidence of Prophecy
* And I think without question this is the greatest evidence that the Bible is true, is that the Bible just constantly predicts things that come to pass.
* In the book of Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8-11, God makes and extraordinary claim about his Word:
Isaiah 55:8–11 (KJV 1900)
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, And the snow from heaven, And returneth not thither, But watereth the earth, And maketh it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
* I want to take a few minutes to mention just a few of the amazing fulfilled prophecies that give evidence that the Bible true, and is the Truth- The genuine word of God!
* Alexander the Great lived only about 33 years, from 356 to 323 B.C., but during that time he became one of the most successful military commanders in human history.
* Alexander the Great conquered a vast region that had been occupied by earlier empires – the Egyptian empire, the Babylonian empire, and the Persian empire .
* Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedon. In 336 B.C., at age 20, he assumed command of the Greek army.
* After putting down a rebellion in Greece, he began an eastward military campaign that quickly made him the ruler of the entire earth from Greece to India, where, according to some accounts, he sat down and wept because he had "run out of world to conquer."
* Alexander died suddenly at age 33, from an unknown illness. After the death of Alexander, his kingdom was divided up by four of his generals.
* The prophetic book of Daniel was written approximately 250 years before Alexander was born, and yet it describes him in amazing detail, from his death at a young age, to his being succeeded by four of his generals.
* Daniel prophesied of Alexander the Great in the book of Daniel saying
"When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision."
"So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened and fell upon my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end."
"As he was speaking to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me and set me on my feet."
"He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation; for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram which you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the he-goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power."
* A story from Josephus's writings, considered the greatest Jewish historian, confirms that Daniel's prophecies were received centuries before Alexander the Great conquered the world.
* In 332 B.C. Alexander besieged and defeated the coastal cities of Tyre and Gaza in his march toward Egypt. During this campaign he turned toward Jerusalem.
* Alexander had already demanded men and supplies from the Jews, who were under the rule of Alexander's mortal enemy, the Persian king Darius. Because of this agreement with Darius, the high priest hesitated, saying that while Darius lived they would honor their pledge.
* Alexander was angry and began a move on the city.
* Josephus records the king's visit to Jerusalem and a meeting between Alexander the great and the high priest of Jerusalem.
* Well aware of the danger, Jaddua the high priest had asked the people of Jerusalem to pray to God for His mercy and protection.
* Then, according to Josephus, Jaddua had a dream as to how to entreat the angry Alexander.
* He and the other priests dressed in their priestly robes and, accompanied by others dressed in white garments, formed a pro-cession that went out of the city to a carefully chosen place to Alexander.
* Alexander then did the unexpected. Alone, he approached the high priest and members of the procession and greeted them.
* Josephus records that Alexander then accompanied the priest into Jerusalem and the temple, where he "offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest's direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests."
*During Alexander’s visit the priests showed Alexander the prophecy of Daniel, written several centuries earlier, which foretold the rise and conquests of Alexander.
"And when the book of Daniel was shewed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended; and as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present . . ." (ibid.)
* Ancient history says that Alexander had a most remarkable encounter there, not only visiting the temple in Jerusalem but also making a sacrifice to the God of Israel.
* Alexander left the Priests in peace and spared the city of Jerusalem from destruction.
Jesus prophecy of the Destruction of the Temple
* In a confrontation with the Lord near the commencement of his ministry, the Jews claimed the temple building project had been underway for forty-six years (John 2:20).
* It is one of the oddities of history that the temple project was not completed until A.D. 64 — just in time to be destroyed six years later as a result of Jewish rebellion.
* Herod’s enterprise was phenomenal. The king enlarged the platform area around the temple considerably, building massive retaining walls that were filled in with dirt and stone. The walls had huge stones (one measures 39 ft. long by 13 ft. wide). The area enclosed was about 172,000 square yards. The “Wailing Wall” was a part of the retaining wall system.
* The historian Josephus said that much of the exterior of the Temple was covered with gold that reflected the fiery rays of the sun. Moreover, he said that, from a distance, the Temple appeared like a mountain covered with snow. This was probably because those parts that were not covered with gold were made of white stone.
* No doubt, this is what Jesus decuples saw in the distance as they were sitting on the side of the mount of Olives and they looked down upon the temple in the distance.
* The disciples pointed out to Jesus the greatness and beauty of the temple and thus a conversation between Jesus and His disciples began. We read this conversation in Matthew 24, verses 1-3.
Matthew 24:1–3 (KJV 1900)
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
* Just exactly as Jesus had said, the Romans invaded Jerusalem in August of A.D. 70, after a five-month siege. A full account of the bloody conflict is found in Josephus (Wars V, VI).
* The temple was destroyed on the 10th day of the 5th month, according to Jewish tradition — which is ironically, the same day of the year upon which Nebuchadnezzar had burned down the first temple, some 656 years earlier!
* By the summer of 68 A.D., Jews were nearing defeat by the Roman legions and in 69 A.D., Vespasian was made emperor of Rome and gave his son Titus the honor of delivering the final death blows to the rebellious Jews and their capital city.
* In The Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Josephus notes that, on the eighth day of the of the Roman month Lous (Jewish month Ab), the ramps were finished and Titus ordered the battering-rams brought up and made ready for an assault on the Temple. With the battering-rams in place the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which began at Passover that year, would come to an end.
* As soon as the walls were breached on the 9th of Ab in 70 A.D., a Roman military force of about 30,000 troops under the command of Titus marched into Jerusalem and began a systematic slaughter of the Jews and the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem—exactly as Jesus foretold 40 years earlier.
* The Romans brutally slaughtered an estimated 600,000 people in Jerusalem including many of the Passover visitors who had been trapped there for the 143 days during the Roman siege.
* Many of the people who were not killed by Roman soldiers were shipped off to the gladiatorial games, Roman mines, and otherwise exiled from Judea and scattered throughout the Roman empire and other nations.
* By the year 73 A.D., all traces of a self-ruling Jewish nation had completely disappeared.
* Josephus records that the Romans put the city and the Temple to the torch and that these fires were still burning a month later!
* The magnificent Temple that Herod had built was completely destroyed as the fires raged inside and out.
* These fires were so hot that the gold fittings, and the gold plating inside and on it's outside walls melted and ran into the cracks between and in the stones.
* During the pillaging of the Temple these stones were broken up to get at the gold. Therefore, fulfilling Jesus' prophecy that no stone would be left on another—the destruction was total, just as Jesus foretold.
The prophecy against Tyre and Sidon
* The prophecies of the Bible are one of the greatest reasons that we know the Bible is true, and the very world of God!
* Again take, for example, the prophecy in Ezekiel 26 to 28 which is a prophecy of the city of Tyre.
* The Bible says, "Tyre will be destroyed." It says, Then many nations will come against Tyre in a series of sort of waves of attack.
* And then it says the place is going to be made flat and bare and desolate and fishermen will dry their nets cause no more city will be there.
* And then it says about it that all the rubble will be thrown into
the ocean. And then it says it will never be rebuilt.
* I mean, that's at least six specifics...destroyed the mainland city, nations rising against it in waves, finally it will be decimated, fishermen dry their nets, the rubble thrown into the sea, never rebuilt.
* That is exactly what happened, exactly what happened. And it was a great city.
* That would be like saying, Denver is going to go off the face of the map.
* I mean, that just doesn't make sense because it was a great city, it controlled the land Phoenicia from the time of Hiram the First, and it was strongly fortified.
* It had a wall 150 feet high, 15 feet thick. Had a tremendous navy fleet protecting it from the ocean side.
* Hiram, the king of Tyre, first began his reign eight years before Solomon...he overlapped David's reign. And David enjoyed help from Hiram in building his palace in Israel.
* You remember when they sent down the cedars from Lebanon that that was from Hiram?
* And so, he was at that period of time. But the story is marvelous as it unfolds.
* Just as the Bible said, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city of Tyre and left it in a total rubble.
* Only one part of Tyre was destroyed at that point.
* Later on Alexander the Great came along, and in that particular time, the people in the mainland city that was destroyed, had moved off to an island off the shore.
* They were living on the island. Alexander sent a boat out with some of his men and said I want supplies for my army- he was conquering the world at the time.
* He said I want supplies for my army. And they said forget it, you don't have a navy and we're out here on an island, we're not going to accommodate you.
* And so they came back and told Alexander. Alexander got mad. So he took all the rubble of the city and threw it into the ocean and built a causeway and marched out and destroyed the rest of the kingdom of Tyre that had moved to the island.
* Just exactly what the prophet had said, all the rubble would be thrown into the sea. Well who would ever bother to do that?
* No conqueror would bother to do that. But because the Bible had said that it woud happen- it happened! Just exactly like the Bible had foretold, the place where the great kingdom of Tyre was had become desolate!
* Today it's a place where fishermen dry their nets and it's never been rebuilt. Just exactly what the Scripture said.
* And there are such prophecies as that all over the Scripture. You have the prophecies relative to Sidon, and I'm just skipping along some things.
* You have the prophecies relative to Egypt.
* You have the prophecies relative to Capernaum, right? Chorazin, Bethsaida, cities to this day have never been rebuilt. And there are cities popping up all the way around the area of the Sea of Galilee, but not there, not where those places uniquely were and not in their unique identity.
* Sidon was like, I don't know, 20 miles away from Tyre and the prophet said in Ezekiel 28, "Tyre...Sidon would be attacked, it would be burned, it would be sacked and it would be rebuilt."
* That's exactly what happened. And it exists to this very day as the seaport city, it's called today not Sidon but Saida and it still exists.
* Why did Tyre go away and Sidon stay? Because that's what God said would happen!
* Then you have 330 plus prophecies of Jesus Christ. And it just goes on and on. Read Ezekiel 30 some time and the prophecies of Egypt.
* And I'm giving you these because we all know about the Messianic prophecies, we all know about the prophecies of the nation Israel.
* We all know about the prophecies of the Second Coming and the earth and the world around us and we can see all of the Revelation type prophecies, but I think these others are just as amazing!
* There's one in Nahum. It says that Nineveh will be destroyed by a flood. And that was a marvelous statement because Nineveh was one of the largest of all the ancient cities.
* Just to give you a little thought on this. It had 100 foot inner wall, 50-foot thick towers, 200 feet high, 15 gates, 150-foot wide moat and seven miles circumference. Just like a fortress.
* It had...beyond that, an outer wall. So here's this inner wall, get this, 100-feet high, 50-feet thick. Now a half mile off of that is another wall.
* Nineveh was its high point in 663 B.C. , then boom! 51 years later, absolute oblivion!
* That little obscure prophet Nahum chapter 1 verses 8 to 10 said it would happen, it happened!
* There is no Nineveh, nor has there been for centuries.
* And you know what? Students of history and geography have studied that place in their archaeological studies and they have found that it fell in the month of Ab, A-b, and that is the rainy month.
* There's a stratum of pebbles and sand around the sight that verify that it was flooded out.
* Students of history and geography determined either the Tigris or what is called the Khosr, K-h-o-s-r River, probably caused the flood.
* And then Isaiah 13 talks about Babylon. It just goes on and on, just marvelously accurate prophecies.
* Well, that's more than you can handle, probably. Let me just sum it up.
* The Scripture claims to be true. It claims to be the Word of God. It claims to be God-breathed. It verifies those claims by internal
evidence that is both objective and subjective.
* By external evidence that is experiential and that's subjective and scientific and prophetic and that's objective.
* You see, every way you cut it, inside, outside, objective, subjective the Scripture verifies itself.
* Now tonight I want to ask you a question. We have went to great lengths in the past couple of Sundays to show why we can have confidence that the Bible is true:
How do we know the Bible is True?
I. By the claims of the Scripture themselves.
II. By the testimony of Jesus.
III. By the testimony of The Prophets and Apostles
IV. By the testimony of the Holy Spirit
V. By the evidence of Science
VI. By the evidence of Prophecy
* Now its up to you to decide what you are going to do with all this proof.
* If the Bible is really the truth, then Hell is real! Are you going to live and act like Hell is real, and do everything you can to make sure that people are warned about Hell?
* If the Bible is true, then “whatsoever you sow, that will you also reap! Are you going to continue to ignore the truth and continue to live in a backslidden condition?
* If the Bible is true, are you going to continue to ignore the Bible? Never read it, never try to understand it, never obey the instructions that are found within its pages?
* Do you think you can really live against and deny the truth of the Word of God and not reap what you sow?
* If you think you can ignore this book, and life work out just fine for you, you are badly mistaken!
* If you are a Christian, and you have so little love or concern for the truth of God’s Word that you won’t even read it- or come to church every time the doors of the church are open and hear it taught, then my friend you are headed for the judgment of God in your life! And you can take that to the bank!
Let me remind you again of the words in Hebrews 12 concerning backsliding Christians:
Hebrews 12:4–13 (KJV 1900)
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet…