What is the Bible?
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
Basic Series
Help you understand the basics of the Christian faith.
Help you be prepared to answer questions unbelievers may ask concerning our faith.
Give you a foundation to help you understand deeper
ILL- What if you received a text from your kid, “I am hurt real bad and my phone is almost dead.” Then there is no response and every call goes to voicemail.
God didn’t prepare heaven and then let us guess on how to get there.
The Bible is God telling us his rules and what he has done to provide eternal life despite the fact we are all rule breakers.
Hebrews 4:12-13
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
The Bible’s Unity is miraculous
66 books
Written by over 40 authors over a 2,000 year span.
Across 3 continents in 3 different languages.
Shepherds, kings, scholars, fishermen, prophets, military officers, a cupbearer, and a priest all penned portions of Scripture.
It’s made up of history, laws, poetry, prophecy and proverbs.
It has a flawless internal consistency. It never contradicts itself or its common theme.
It does not try to make a certain group look better than any other. In fact, God’s chosen people, the Jews, are viewed as an enemy of God as much as they are on His side.
Man continually rebels against God and God continues to extend His love, grace and mercy to unworthy people.
Tim Chaffey, “Only the one truly holy God could provide us with a flawless Bible that reals such a matchless message: the Lord’s staggering love for His creation.”
4 Truths About the Bible
The Bible is God's Revelation
The Bible is God's Revelation
Perfect Revelation of himself to man.
Hebrews 1:1 -2
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Jude 1:3
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
2 Peter 1:20-21
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
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.
Man did not write about what they think God is like. Man wrote what God revealed to them about himself.
General revelation reveals there is a God
Romans 1:19-20
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
The Bible is God’s way of revealing himself to man.
The Bible is Truth
The Bible is Truth
Psalm 119:151
151 But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true.
Psalm 119:160
160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
John 17:17
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
3 Reasons the Bible Can be Trusted
A- Fulfilled Prophecy
A- Fulfilled Prophecy
Over 2000 prophesies in the Bible have been fulfilled.
Jeremiah 25:12
12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.
Jeremiah 29:10
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
Daniel foretold in great detail the coming of Kingdoms and their characteristics. Daniel 7 and 11.
Prophecies of Jesus, the Messiah
Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 53:3-9
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 22:14-18
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:
16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?
17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you
18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house.
David tells of crucifixion generations before it was invented.
B- Archeology
B- Archeology
In the early 1900’s Sir William Ramsay went to the Holy Land to refute the accuracy of the Luke and Acts in regards to geography and history.
Dig after dig the evidence without fail supported Luke’s accounts.
Governors mentioned by Luke were confirmed.
They confirmed the accuracy of Luke’s naming of 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands.
He was so overwhelmed by the evidence he eventually accepted Christ.
Archeology has confirmed many places of the Bible...
Tower of Babel
Sodom’s destruction.
Exodus
Walls of Jericho
C- Changed Lives
C- Changed Lives
When we apply its truths it changes our lives.
Its boundaries prove to be superior than no boundaries.
Its wisdom proves to be true.
Evidence and testimony of millions of changed lives over last 2,000 years.
Your story of a changed life is a great testimony of the truth of God through His Word.
The Bible is Our Guide
The Bible is Our Guide
Application
The purpose of Scripture is mostly for teaching.
It has historical value.
It has prophetic value.
It has scientific value.
But the reason it was revealed to us is to teach us about the God of creation.
Hebrews 4:12-13
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Psalm 119:105
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Luke 11:28
28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Blessed= fulfilled/ a life of meaning.
The Bible is Our Tool
The Bible is Our Tool
Tool for sharing the Gospel
Romans 10:14-17
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The Bible is sufficient for someone to put faith in Jesus.
Richman and Lazarus
Luke 16:31
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
Tool for overcoming evil
Only offensive weapon
Ephesians 6:17
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
We need to be prepared to use it well.
Study it diligently
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Joshua 1:8
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Accept its truth
2 Timothy 4:2-4
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Teach it to your children
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
What good is a tool if it is never used?
Imagine having power tools but building a deck using a manual saw and screwdriver.
Then complaining because it is taking so long.
Why would we ignore the greatest tool to life God could ever leave us and then complain that our life is not fulfilling.
CONCLUSION
God has revealed truth through His Word that helps us understand what is the problem with this world and what he has done to fix it.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Are you ready to stop living your life your own way and surrender to His way?
Are you ready to stop living your life your own way and surrender to His way?