Speaker 1: Good morning, Saddleback. It's good to see you all, and
Speaker 1: if you'll take out your message notes, I want to
Speaker 1: welcome you to forty days in the Word we're starting
Speaker 1: this week. Yeah. We have been planning and preparing for
Speaker 1: this for about a year and I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 1: I want to say hi not only to our eight
Speaker 1: Saddleback campuses that are joining us in all of our
Speaker 1: locations this morning, but also to those of you who
Speaker 1: are joining us online. And there are about four thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred other churches here in America that are going
Speaker 1: through forty days in the Word with us, So I
Speaker 1: want you to welcome those sister, forty five hundred churches.
Speaker 1: Would you say hi to them too? And we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a great time. This is going to change your life.
Speaker 1: The next six weeks is going to change your life
Speaker 1: during the forty days. If you want to understand how
Speaker 1: it's going to change and why it's going to change,
Speaker 1: I would encourage you to go online this week and
Speaker 1: watch the vision message that I did Wednesday, Thursday, and
Speaker 1: Friday of this last week, and it gives the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes reasoning of why we do all the what
Speaker 1: we do now. The heart of forty days in the
Speaker 1: Word is going to be what we do in our
Speaker 1: small groups, and we're going to be looking at some
Speaker 1: material that's I'm going to teach you in your small
Speaker 1: groups how to unlock the Word of God for yourself,
Speaker 1: so you're not dependent upon me or anybody else, and
Speaker 1: you're not having to say, well, that's just your interpretation.
Speaker 1: I'm going to teach you how to interpret the Word
Speaker 1: of God yourself, how to feed yourself from the Word
Speaker 1: of God. So obviously you're going to want to be
Speaker 1: in a small group. If you're not in one yet,
Speaker 1: this is still not too late. You can go out
Speaker 1: on the patio afterwards and sign up to be in
Speaker 1: a small group. I'm very excited that already over one
Speaker 1: thousand people in our church have signed up to host
Speaker 1: new group. One thousand new groups are starting, and that's fantastic,
Speaker 1: And I say to those of you who are new hosts,
Speaker 1: who are joining the five thousand hosts who lead our
Speaker 1: existing groups, welcome aboard, and we're glad to have you
Speaker 1: part of that. You're just not going to learn as
Speaker 1: much if you're not in a small group, because that's
Speaker 1: the heart of what we're doing. For the next six
Speaker 1: weeks in the Bible studies, the DVD studies, and the
Speaker 1: small group curriculum we're going to be doing together. Now,
Speaker 1: the second component in forty Days of the World, I
Speaker 1: already mentioned this to you is a daily video devotional
Speaker 1: on the Word of God. I went out and I
Speaker 1: asked forty of the top Bible teachers in America to
Speaker 1: videotape a five minute devotional. Starting tomorrow morning, they're going
Speaker 1: to be available. And what you need to do is
Speaker 1: go to forty four zero ditw dot com forty days
Speaker 1: in the Word dot com and register and give me
Speaker 1: either your email or your cell phone where you can
Speaker 1: get a text and it doesn't matter to me which
Speaker 1: one you want to use. And then each day for
Speaker 1: the next forty days, I'm going to text you or
Speaker 1: email you a link to that devotional. Day Now, tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: I'm teaching the first devotional, so we kind of start
Speaker 1: with the Barlow and then we're going to raise it
Speaker 1: for the next forty days with these top Bible teachers.
Speaker 1: Then the third part of it, of course, is the
Speaker 1: six weekend messages. And I hope you'll be here all
Speaker 1: six weeks. Not only will I be teaching these but
Speaker 1: across America, forty five hundred other pastors will all be
Speaker 1: teaching the same text and the same topics from the
Speaker 1: Word of God. Now, the Bible is the most read
Speaker 1: book in the history, it's the best selling book in history,
Speaker 1: and it is the most translated book in history. Why
Speaker 1: is it the word of God? How do we know
Speaker 1: it is the word of God. We're going to look
Speaker 1: at that this weekend as we start in your outline
Speaker 1: two Timothy, chapter three, the Bible says this, all scripture
Speaker 1: is God breathed, and it's useful for teaching and rebuking, correcting,
Speaker 1: and training in righteousness. I'm gonna explain that in another week,
Speaker 1: so that the Man of God may be thoroughly equipped
Speaker 1: for every good work. We're gonna look at this verse
Speaker 1: again next week, but I want you to look at
Speaker 1: the phrase all scripture is God breathed. Circle that word
Speaker 1: God breathed. That word in Greek is theo nustos, theo
Speaker 1: meaning God nustos being breathed. The Bible is God breathed.
Speaker 1: Now what does that mean? Some of the translations translated
Speaker 1: the scripture is inspired, But we're not talking about an
Speaker 1: inspiring writer writing an inspiring book. We're talking about God
Speaker 1: inspired this book. It is God breaed theo Nustos. Right now,
Speaker 1: you are listening to the breath of Rick Warren. You're
Speaker 1: listening to my breath, because what my voice is is
Speaker 1: breath coming up over my vocal cords, vibrating those vocal
Speaker 1: courts and coming out a sound. If I didn't have
Speaker 1: any breath, I wouldn't have any voice. So the breath
Speaker 1: of Rick Warren is the word of Rick Warren. It
Speaker 1: is the voice of Rick Warren. And the Bible says
Speaker 1: that God's word is God's very breath. It's not just
Speaker 1: a good idea. It is God's word to us. And
Speaker 1: as a result of that, Psalm one nineteen tells us this,
Speaker 1: all of your commands can be trusted. Everything in the
Speaker 1: Bible can be trusted as true because it comes from God. Now,
Speaker 1: it's one thing for the Bible to claim that it's
Speaker 1: the word of God. It's one thing for the Bible
Speaker 1: to say it can be trusted. But how do I know, really, really,
Speaker 1: how do I know this is the word of God.
Speaker 1: It's not just some bunch of fables or a bunch
Speaker 1: of stories that were put together It's a valid, legitimate,
Speaker 1: important question, and we need to ask before we ever
Speaker 1: start studying the Bible. How do I know I can
Speaker 1: trust it? Time Magazine thought this was such an important
Speaker 1: question it put it on its cover twice. Look at
Speaker 1: this one. Here was a cover of Time magazine a
Speaker 1: while back that said, how true is the Bible? It's
Speaker 1: a good question. And here's another cover of Time magazine
Speaker 1: is the Bible fact or fiction? This morning, we're going
Speaker 1: to settle this issue because there are incredible proofs, evidences,
Speaker 1: and facts that you need to know to help you
Speaker 1: make up your mind. So you're not making up your
Speaker 1: mind based on what you've heard other people say, but
Speaker 1: what the Bible actually claims for itself, and what history, science,
Speaker 1: and all these other things teach us about the Bible.
Speaker 1: We're going to look today to start off forty days
Speaker 1: on inspiration. How do I know I can trust the Bible? Well,
Speaker 1: there are seven reasons. Pastor Tom's going to help me
Speaker 1: with these this weekend, but I want you to write
Speaker 1: down the first one. It is historically accurate. The Bible
Speaker 1: is historically accurate, and for that reason, I know I
Speaker 1: can trust the Bible. In other words, the Bible isn't
Speaker 1: just doctrinally correct. It's not just theologically correct. It's not
Speaker 1: just accurate regarding morals and regarding ethics. It's true history,
Speaker 1: real people, real places, real time. It is true historically.
Speaker 1: Now why is that even important? Because the Bible tells
Speaker 1: us this, God cannot lie. God cannot lie. A lot
Speaker 1: of people ask me all the time, is there anything
Speaker 1: God can do? Oh? Yeah, there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: God can't do. God cannot deny himself, God cannot not
Speaker 1: be God. God cannot lie because God is truth. In fact,
Speaker 1: the Bible says this on the screen Hebrews six eighteen.
Speaker 1: It is impossible for God to lie because God is truth.
Speaker 1: The only reason the universe works is because God is
Speaker 1: a God of truth, which means stuff is true all
Speaker 1: the time. Can you imagine, for instance, if the law
Speaker 1: of gravity only worked on Tuesday and Thursday, it'd be
Speaker 1: a pretty weird thing. But the laws of physics are true.
Speaker 1: God bought him up, He created the laws of mathematics
Speaker 1: are true. God created the laws of mathematics on which
Speaker 1: the universe runs. And so God cannot lie. If this
Speaker 1: book has one lie in it, it's not a godly book.
Speaker 1: It's not a book of God, because God cannot lie.
Speaker 1: Psalm thirty three, verse four says this, the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord is right, and it is true. Now that's
Speaker 1: not only true. And write about salvation it's true. And
Speaker 1: write about history. I want you to give a warm
Speaker 1: welcome to Pastor Thomas. He talks to us about this.
Speaker 2: So how do we know that the Bible's historically accurate? Well,
Speaker 2: by the same way you know any other history is accurate.
Speaker 2: You just go by the tests of good history. For instance,
Speaker 2: one of the ways that you test good history is
Speaker 2: is it from eyewitness accounts? And historian would go in
Speaker 2: and say, is this written down by somebody who saw it,
Speaker 2: or is it secondhand or third hand, or is it
Speaker 2: a legend written down one hundred years later. The Bible
Speaker 2: is primarily eyewitness accounts. That's why it's good history. Moses
Speaker 2: was there when the Red Seas split. Joshua was there
Speaker 2: when the walls of Jericho fell. The disciples of Jesus
Speaker 2: stood in the upper room, sat in the upper room
Speaker 2: and saw the resurrected Jesus appear, and then they wrote
Speaker 2: down what happened, and we read about it.
Speaker 3: Matthew was there and he wrote it down. John was
Speaker 3: there and he wrote it down. Peter was there.
Speaker 2: He told a guy by the name of Mark. He
Speaker 2: wrote it down in the Gospel of Mark, and Luke
Speaker 2: talked to all of them, including Jesus's mother, and heard
Speaker 2: about what had happened. So it's eyewitness accounts of what
Speaker 2: had happened. Now, the other test of history by which
Speaker 2: we know the Bible as accurate is the extreme care
Speaker 2: with which the Bible is copied. You may have heard
Speaker 2: people say, you know, I'm sure it was right when
Speaker 2: it was first written, but it's been passed down generation
Speaker 2: after generation, all these changes have come in.
Speaker 1: You ever heard that.
Speaker 2: If you hear that, you know someone hasn't just hasn't
Speaker 2: taken the time to study it, to look into it,
Speaker 2: because when you look into it, you find out the
Speaker 2: extreme care with which the Bible is copied. The Old
Speaker 2: Testament copyist the scribes, and when they would copy these
Speaker 2: scrolls from one to the other, they would copy it
Speaker 2: like we would copy a xerox copy. It had to
Speaker 2: be exact, and they had this long list of rules
Speaker 2: that had to go by to make sure that it
Speaker 2: was exact.
Speaker 3: Rules like when they.
Speaker 1: Had a scroll.
Speaker 2: It had had a specified number of columns throughout it,
Speaker 2: so it would always be the same, and the link
Speaker 2: of those columns always had to be from forty eight
Speaker 2: to sixty in linked, and it always had to be
Speaker 2: thirty exactly thirty letters white, so they could always check
Speaker 2: it out to make sure that it was always right.
Speaker 3: They had this.
Speaker 2: Rule that you had to copy letter by letter and
Speaker 2: not word by word, so that well, you know, on
Speaker 2: your phone, like it does text prediction and sends the
Speaker 2: wrong word to somebody, the word you didn't want to send.
Speaker 3: They wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
Speaker 2: So they could only copy letter by letter, and they
Speaker 2: went by these tests to make sure that it was right.
Speaker 3: After they copied it.
Speaker 2: They knew in a book how many letters of the
Speaker 2: alphabet were in each book, So for instance, like our
Speaker 2: letter A, they would know that there were one thousands,
Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty three a's in this book, and
Speaker 2: if it had one thousands, six hundred and fifty four
Speaker 2: when they counted it, they threw the scroll away and
Speaker 2: they started over. They were so exact. They knew the
Speaker 2: middle letter of the first five books of the Bible,
Speaker 2: the Pentitude. They knew the middle letter of the whole
Speaker 2: Old Testament, and after they copied all of this, they
Speaker 2: would go to that middle letter and count forward and backward,
Speaker 2: and if it didn't come out exactly the number.
Speaker 3: It should, they'd throw it away and they'd start over.
Speaker 3: That's how exact they were.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of reasons we can ways that we
Speaker 2: can see that they're exactly. But one of the ways
Speaker 2: we can see is through something called the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Speaker 3: We've all heard of those.
Speaker 2: What's so significant about the Dead Sea Scrolls? Well, the
Speaker 2: Dead Sea Scrolls were written about one hundred years before Jesus,
Speaker 2: and they have in them copies of all of the
Speaker 2: Old Testament books except Esther, all the other Old Testament books.
Speaker 3: When we found those scrolls.
Speaker 2: The earliest copies we had before that were from nine
Speaker 2: hundred years after Jesus of many of those books.
Speaker 3: So there's this thousand year gap.
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, we get to check out how
Speaker 2: much change came in in those thousand years. You don't
Speaker 2: wonder know how much, about five percent, and that was
Speaker 2: almost all and just in the spelling of words, the
Speaker 2: spelling of names.
Speaker 3: Over a thousand years.
Speaker 2: Those copies were proved to be right as they copied
Speaker 2: again and again and again and made it right. It's
Speaker 2: another proof of the historical accuracy of the Bible. Another
Speaker 2: proof is in archaeology. You look at archaeology and it
Speaker 2: proves again and again that the places and the people and.
Speaker 3: All that the Bible talks about are true. It's not fiction.
Speaker 3: You can go and find these places.
Speaker 2: We've dug up these places, the Areopagus where Paul was,
Speaker 2: the theater in Athens where there was this riot, We've
Speaker 2: dug them up.
Speaker 3: We can see them today.
Speaker 2: The pool of Saloon where the blind men was healed,
Speaker 2: portions of Herod's temple, all these places that are talked
Speaker 2: about in the Bible.
Speaker 3: They've dug them up. We can see them.
Speaker 2: The Book of Acts is all about historical accuracy. Luke
Speaker 2: an historian as well as a doctor. As he wrote
Speaker 2: the Book of Acts, he talks about fifty four cities,
Speaker 2: thirty nine countries, and nine different islands, complete historical accuracy.
Speaker 2: One of the great things about how archaeology it works
Speaker 2: with the Bible is how it's again and again shown
Speaker 2: that actually the Bible is more accurate than our ideas
Speaker 2: of history. There's been many times when we've had an
Speaker 2: idea of what's historical and said, well, the Bible must
Speaker 2: be wrong, and the Bibles.
Speaker 3: Proved itself to be right.
Speaker 2: For instance, for a long time, historians said, well, we're
Speaker 2: not sure that guy named Solomon lived in the Old Testament,
Speaker 2: and we're certainly sure they didn't have horses like it
Speaker 2: talks about. They only had camels back then, so that
Speaker 2: can't be right. In tell at Megiddo, they discovered one
Speaker 2: of Solomon's chariot cities with thousands of stalls for guess what, horses.
Speaker 2: So the Bible was proved right. One of the greatest,
Speaker 2: probably the greatest example of that, is an empire called
Speaker 2: the hit Tites. There's this whole empire called the hit
Speaker 2: Tites talked about in the Bible that was not talked
Speaker 2: about anywhere else. So for centuries historians said the Bible
Speaker 2: just made it up. Intel in the early nineteen hundreds
Speaker 2: of professor by the name of Hugo Winkler discovered at
Speaker 2: Boguskoy ten thousand clay tablets at the capitol of guess
Speaker 2: what the hit Tites.
Speaker 3: Now everyone believes in the hit Tits.
Speaker 2: In fact, during a break in the game today you
Speaker 2: can go on Wikipedia and you can read about the
Speaker 2: hit tites.
Speaker 1: Not only is the Bible historically accurate, it every time
Speaker 1: archaeology backs it up, but it is scientifically accurate. That's
Speaker 1: the second reason the Bible is scientifically accurate. Now, there
Speaker 1: is so much misunderstanding and belooney about this in the world.
Speaker 1: I want to spend a majority of time on this
Speaker 1: point because people who think the Bible is scientifically and
Speaker 1: accurate mean a they've never studied the Bible, and b
Speaker 1: they probably don't know science. Because the truth is God
Speaker 1: always sets up the laws of science, and he made
Speaker 1: sure that his word does not contradict the laws of science. Now,
Speaker 1: the Bible was not given to be a scientific textbook. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you don't study the Bible to build a rocket, and
Speaker 1: the Bible doesn't use scientific language. But the Bible never, never,
Speaker 1: never gives bad science quack science. Not once in over
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred years in which this book was written does
Speaker 1: it give bad science. In fact, it is always ahead
Speaker 1: of science. There are things in the Bible the Bible
Speaker 1: says were true that we just discovered one hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago, Johannes Kepler,
Speaker 1: the famous mathematician, the famous astronomer. You know. Kepler said,
Speaker 1: science is simply thinking God's thoughts after him. No other words.
Speaker 1: God established the laws of physics, and then we discover them.
Speaker 1: God established the laws of biology, and we discover them.
Speaker 1: God established the laws of mathematics, and we discover them.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why we know the Bible can
Speaker 1: be trusted is because it's scientifically accurate. And the reason
Speaker 1: it's accurate is because the laws of the universe were
Speaker 1: invented by God. So he obviously understands them, even in
Speaker 1: years past when we didn't, because for thousands of years
Speaker 1: we've misunderstood different things. See, the one thing about truth
Speaker 1: is it never changes. But the one thing about science
Speaker 1: is it constantly changes. There's nothing more worthless than an
Speaker 1: obsolete science book. I guarantee you that the science book
Speaker 1: you had in the third grade is not being used
Speaker 1: in the third grade today, and a lot of things
Speaker 1: in that book are no longer believed or even taught.
Speaker 1: Nothing is more worthless than a five year old computer book.
Speaker 1: You can find them on any garage sale, and nobody
Speaker 1: wants them because things get out of date. So fast.
Speaker 1: They get out of date so fast. Science things that
Speaker 1: we thought we believed, we now know more about it,
Speaker 1: and we go, oh, in fact, in medical science it
Speaker 1: happens all the time. I had to go to a
Speaker 1: doctor this week and he was talking to me about
Speaker 1: a particular condition and I said, oh, well, then I
Speaker 1: assume we're going to do this, this, and this, and
Speaker 1: he goes, oh, no, we don't believe that anymore. I said,
Speaker 1: you got to be kidding me. Everybody knew that. No, no,
Speaker 1: we don't believe that anymore, and we don't use that
Speaker 1: in medicine anymore. How many articles have you read that
Speaker 1: now say that something you thought was good for you
Speaker 1: now causes you cancer, or stuff that they said it's
Speaker 1: fine for a pregnant woman to take, and then ten
Speaker 1: years later it's not fine. Science constantly changes. Do you
Speaker 1: know if you've ever been to Paris, you've probably gone
Speaker 1: to the Louver, the famous art museum and library, world
Speaker 1: class library. Do you know that in the Louver Library
Speaker 1: there's one section that has three and a half miles
Speaker 1: of obsolete science books, three and a half miles because
Speaker 1: stuff they thought was scientifically fact fifteen hundred years ago
Speaker 1: was disproven a thousand years ago, and what we thought
Speaker 1: a thousand years ago was disproven seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: years ago. And what we thought twenty five years ago
Speaker 1: was proven ten years ago. And what we thought ten
Speaker 1: years ago is now changed to today. And if you
Speaker 1: had been reading the Bible a thousand years ago or
Speaker 1: seven hundred years ago or five hundred years ago, what
Speaker 1: the Bible says would not have matched the science of
Speaker 1: that day because it wasn't up to date. God understands
Speaker 1: stuff even when we don't, and his rules don't change.
Speaker 1: The Bible says this and saw one forty eight. Let
Speaker 1: every created thing that's the whole universe, give praise to
Speaker 1: the Lord, for he issued his command. God set these
Speaker 1: rules in motion, the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of physics.
Speaker 1: He issued his command, and they came into being, and
Speaker 1: he established them forever and ever, and his orders will
Speaker 1: never be revoked. The second law of thermodynamics doesn't work
Speaker 1: today and not work tomorrow. It always works because it
Speaker 1: was true and it was made by God. Truth doesn't change,
Speaker 1: you know. In eighteen sixty one, there was a very
Speaker 1: famous book that came out called fifty one incontrovertible proofs
Speaker 1: that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate. It's a very famous book.
Speaker 1: Fifty one incontrovertible scientific facts that we know this is
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one that the Bible does not agree with.
Speaker 1: And we know that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate. The
Speaker 1: only problem is today, one hundred fidy years later, you
Speaker 1: couldn't find a single science on the science on the
Speaker 1: planet who would agree with any one of those incontrovertible facts.
Speaker 1: They have all been disproven by science. Truth does not change. Now.
Speaker 1: One of the proofs that we know that this book
Speaker 1: is not simply man made, that this book came from God,
Speaker 1: that God directed men and women to talk and speak
Speaker 1: and wrote write things down, and we know that it's
Speaker 1: the word of God. Is what's not in it? What's
Speaker 1: not in it? Because if this were a human book,
Speaker 1: you would expect it to be filled with scientific facts
Speaker 1: of the prevailing day. But they're not here. They're not
Speaker 1: in the book. For instance, for thousands and thousands of years,
Speaker 1: people believed that the Earth was flat. It wasn't. Copernicus
Speaker 1: and Galileo and Columbus. The people realize the world's not
Speaker 1: flat it's round, it's a sphere, it's a ball. And
Speaker 1: so you would expect the Bible to say the Earth
Speaker 1: is flat, because it was in existence and being written
Speaker 1: during those thousands of years when everybody thought the world
Speaker 1: said not every single verse in the Bible says the
Speaker 1: Earth is flat, not at all. In fact, it says
Speaker 1: the exact opposite. Two thousand and six hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: God said this in the Book of Isaiah forty, verse
Speaker 1: twenty two. God is enthroned above the sphere of the Earth.
Speaker 1: Two thousand, six hundred years ago. The Bible says the
Speaker 1: Earth is round, the Earth is a sphere, the Earth
Speaker 1: is a globe. Long before anybody knew it. Everybody when
Speaker 1: that was written, nobody believed it. But God said it,
Speaker 1: and it was true whether anybody believed it or not.
Speaker 1: In thousands of years, people believed the earth had to
Speaker 1: be held up by something, and depending on the culture
Speaker 1: you were in, you got certain different beliefs on what
Speaker 1: held it up. For instance, if you were Greek in
Speaker 1: Greek culture, you believe that the world was held up
Speaker 1: by a giant named Atlas. Okay, we all know who
Speaker 1: Atlas is. Atlas held up the world Now part of
Speaker 1: the Bible's writen in Greek Atlas isn't in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Why because it's not true. So it's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: You would expect that during that time it would have
Speaker 1: somehow found its way into the Bible, but it's not there.
Speaker 1: For thousands of years, the Hindus believed that the earth
Speaker 1: sat on the back of giant elephants, and that when
Speaker 1: the elephants moved, that's what caused earthquakes. Now they said, well,
Speaker 1: what did the elephants stand on. I'm not making this up.
Speaker 1: You can find in any science or encyclopedia. They believed
Speaker 1: that the ella giant elephants stood on the back of
Speaker 1: a giant sea turtle, and the giant sea turtle stood
Speaker 1: on the back of a giant sea serpent who swam
Speaker 1: through a cosmic sea. Now, that was the prevailing attitude
Speaker 1: in the world for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Speaker 1: It's not in the Bible, even though the Bible was
Speaker 1: being written during this time. Why because the Bible leaves
Speaker 1: out the lies. The Bible tells us that Moses was
Speaker 1: skilled and schooled in all of the wisdom of the
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians. Because Moses was adopted as the son of
Speaker 1: Pharaoh's daughter, so he went to the best schools in
Speaker 1: ancient Egypt and was taught what was the prevailing science
Speaker 1: of that day. Now, the Egyptians were flat out brilliant.
Speaker 1: They built the pyramids, they were masters at architecture, at engineering,
Speaker 1: at astronomy, at a none other thing. But the ancient
Speaker 1: Egyptians were dead wrong on what held up the earth
Speaker 1: because ancient Egypt believed that the earth was held up
Speaker 1: by five pillars. Certainly Moses was schooled in that science
Speaker 1: because he went to the best schools in the land
Speaker 1: as Pharaoh's grandson. And yet not once in scripture do
Speaker 1: you find the earth is held up by five pillars? Why?
Speaker 1: Because it's not true, And so it didn't make it
Speaker 1: into the Bible. The prevailing science of the day didn't
Speaker 1: make it there. In fact, the oldest known writing to
Speaker 1: man is likely the Book of Job. It's the oldest
Speaker 1: literature in existence today that we know about. Job was
Speaker 1: the first book written in the Bible. Books the Bible
Speaker 1: are not in chronological order. Job is the oldest book
Speaker 1: and in Job twenty six, verse seven, the oldest known
Speaker 1: literature in the human race it says this God stretches
Speaker 1: the sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.
Speaker 1: Who told job? How did he know that everybody knows
Speaker 1: the earth is flat and it's on the back of pillars.
Speaker 1: It's not why, because the Bible only always tells the truth.
Speaker 1: I'm reinforcing this because I want you. It is sheer
Speaker 1: nonsense to say that the Bible is scientifically an accurate.
Speaker 1: That means you just don't know the Bible. For instance,
Speaker 1: for years, it was the accepted science that there were
Speaker 1: about a thousand stars in the universe, and that they
Speaker 1: could be counted, that the number of stars were finite.
Speaker 1: In fact, one hundred and fifty years BC, a guy
Speaker 1: named Hipparcas counted him, and he wrote a very famous
Speaker 1: dissertation one hundred and fifty years BC saying that there
Speaker 1: are one thousand and twenty two stars in the universe.
Speaker 1: That's it, And it was accepted for a long long
Speaker 1: time that there were only one thousand and twenty two
Speaker 1: stars in even but it doesn't say that in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Three hundred years later, one hundred and fifty years BC,
Speaker 1: a guy named Ptolemy does it again, and he comes
Speaker 1: out and he says that hipparcas. That guy's a kook.
Speaker 1: He's a nut. There are one thousand and twenty six.
Speaker 1: He found four more stars. Shoot, they found planets this year.
Speaker 1: I read an article just a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 1: where a guy said the number of stars in the
Speaker 1: universe is infinite. It is widely accepted today that there
Speaker 1: are more stars in the universe than there are grains
Speaker 1: of sand on the planet Earth. They cannot be counted. Now,
Speaker 1: we didn't know that. I mean, everybody accepted there are
Speaker 1: one thousand and twenty four twenty six stars. But two thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred years ago, in the Bible, God had said
Speaker 1: this Jeremiah thirty three twenty two, the number of stars
Speaker 1: are infinite. Hmm. I guess Tolemy didn't read that one
Speaker 1: or anybody else for thousands of years, but it was
Speaker 1: there because it is the truth. It is always the truth.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could go into so many different areas
Speaker 1: into biology and show you what the Bible says about biology,
Speaker 1: into chemistry, show you what the Bible says about chemistry,
Speaker 1: into medicine. You know, for many years, people believed that
Speaker 1: too much blood in your body made you sick. For
Speaker 1: thousands of years, this was an accepted custom, and they
Speaker 1: did what was called blood letting. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, how that they doctors would doctors would cut
Speaker 1: a sick person and bleed them, thinking that was going
Speaker 1: to make them healthy. That was accepted science. Everybody knew
Speaker 1: that was true. It wasn't, but everybody knew it was
Speaker 1: true science. And you cut the blood, and it was
Speaker 1: because of Hippocrates, And for two thousand years, in Hippocrates,
Speaker 1: they believed that all illness came from four bodily fluids
Speaker 1: yellow bile, black bile, red blood, or blue flim. And
Speaker 1: it also those four fluids also controlled your temperament. Nobody
Speaker 1: believes that anymore, but for two thousand years that was
Speaker 1: scientific proof, and so people thought, well, you have to
Speaker 1: bleed people to get the bad stuff out. Many people
Speaker 1: don't know that our first president, George Washington, was killed
Speaker 1: by doctors bleeding him to death. That's how he died.
Speaker 1: George Washington had a heart problem and doctors didn't know
Speaker 1: what to do, so they did the common science of
Speaker 1: the day and they bled George Washington. He didn't get well,
Speaker 1: so a few days later they bled him again. They
Speaker 1: cut him and bled him. He didn't get well, so
Speaker 1: a few days later they bled him a third time,
Speaker 1: and he died from blood loss. Today, we know you
Speaker 1: give people blood when they're sick. It's the exact we
Speaker 1: do the exact opposite of what they did for thousands
Speaker 1: of years. You give people blood because we know the
Speaker 1: life source is in the blood, and good blood makes
Speaker 1: people feel better that that's where the life comes from.
Speaker 1: It's called a transfusion. We give people blood today, but
Speaker 1: they didn't know that for thousands of years. But the
Speaker 1: Bible knew it. In fact, back in Leviticus seventeen thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of years ago lou Veticus seventeen eleven, God
Speaker 1: said this, the life of every creature is in its blood.
Speaker 1: How did Moses know that? That wasn't known for a
Speaker 1: thousand We didn't even know that blood circulates until around
Speaker 1: sixteen fifty. It wasn't until the seventeenth century when William
Speaker 1: Harvey discovered that blood circulates. For thousands of years, nobody
Speaker 1: even thought it circulated. Everybody bought into Dalen, who was
Speaker 1: the Greek doctor for two thousand years, except that his
Speaker 1: idea basically that the heart was the source of heat,
Speaker 1: but nobody knew that actually pumped blood. And yet thousands
Speaker 1: of years ago, the Bible says the life of every
Speaker 1: creature is in its blood. They should have just read
Speaker 1: the Bible. During the Middle Ages there was the Bubonic plague.
Speaker 1: The Bubonic plague killed one fourth of Europe. One out
Speaker 1: of every four people died during the Black Plague because
Speaker 1: we didn't understand germs, and we didn't understand contagion, and
Speaker 1: we didn't understand infection, and we didn't understand quarantining people.
Speaker 1: And so they had sick people with the bubonic plague
Speaker 1: who were contagious, sleeping right next to healthy people, and
Speaker 1: people just kept dying because we didn't know about germs
Speaker 1: and contagion, and it became an epidemic and then a pandemic.
Speaker 1: I should have read the Bible, because thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of years before the bubonic plague, God had said in
Speaker 1: Leviticus thirteen, verse four, this put an infected person in
Speaker 1: quarantine for seven days. That's thousands of years before we
Speaker 1: even knew what germs were. God was saying, here's how
Speaker 1: you take care of people who get infected with an illness.
Speaker 1: You put them outside the camp for seven days, and
Speaker 1: if they're still sick, he says in the experts to
Speaker 1: keep him out there for another seven days. Nobody understood
Speaker 1: quarantine because nobody understood germs. But God was right. I
Speaker 1: could go on and on. The Bible is always scientifically accurate.
Speaker 1: It is always ahead of science. The Bible says this
Speaker 1: Proverbs thirty verse five. Every word of God is flawless.
Speaker 1: Mine aren't, yours aren't. Human beings aren't. But every word
Speaker 1: of God is flawless. In fact, it's not only flawless.
Speaker 1: Psalm twelve six says this, the words of the Lord
Speaker 1: are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay
Speaker 1: and purified seven times. It's like, is that the right
Speaker 1: word is that? The right word is purified seven times.
Speaker 1: My wife Kay wishes i'd speak like that, because thee
Speaker 1: Often my mouth gets in gear before my mind gets engaged,
Speaker 1: and I say words that are flawed. But God's word
Speaker 1: is flawless. We know we can trust the Bible because
Speaker 1: it is historically accurate, archaeology confirms it, and it is
Speaker 1: scientifically accurate. Number three, we know we can trust the
Speaker 1: Bible because it is prophetically accurate. It is prophetically accurate.
Speaker 1: What does that mean. It means that the promises and
Speaker 1: are the predictions in the Bible always come true. Now,
Speaker 1: the Bible is filled with literally thousands and thousands of
Speaker 1: prophecies where God says, this is going to happen at
Speaker 1: such and such a time, in such and such a way.
Speaker 1: And over all of the centuries, thousands of these prophecies
Speaker 1: have already been fulfilled, every one of them exactly as
Speaker 1: God said, and some of them are still yet to
Speaker 1: be fulfilled. You know, there are over three hundred prophecies
Speaker 1: in the Bible about Jesus the Messiah. Up to a
Speaker 1: thousand years before he was born, and up over a
Speaker 1: thousand year period, three hundred prophecies said things like this
Speaker 1: is when he'll be born, this is where he'll be born,
Speaker 1: this is how he'll be born. You can't control that
Speaker 1: if you're trying to make yourself the Messiah, don't. You
Speaker 1: didn't choose where you were born. This is how he'll die,
Speaker 1: and the manner he'll die, and what he'll die from,
Speaker 1: and all of the over three hundred prophecies. If what
Speaker 1: are the odds of me making three hundred addictions about
Speaker 1: you and every one of them coming true. The odds
Speaker 1: are so astronomical you couldn't write that number down. You see,
Speaker 1: it takes more faith to believe it all just was
Speaker 1: a coincidence than to believe that God planned it. It
Speaker 1: takes an enormous faith to believe it's all just random,
Speaker 1: that it all just happened without a designer, without a creator.
Speaker 1: Thousand years before Jesus came and died on the cross,
Speaker 1: David in one of his psalms describes what death by
Speaker 1: crucifixion is like. Now he doesn't use the word crucifixion
Speaker 1: because nobody knew that word. But a thousand years before
Speaker 1: the Romans are even thinking of crucifixion, David describes what
Speaker 1: the death of a crucifixion of life? How did he
Speaker 1: know that? Only God could have told him? Look at
Speaker 1: these verses. The Bible says in the Second Peter, no
Speaker 1: prophecy ever originated humans. In other words, guys did just
Speaker 1: said around, go hey, let's think this one up, write
Speaker 1: it down. No prophets he ever originated from humans. Instead,
Speaker 1: it was given by the Holy Spirit as humans spoke
Speaker 1: under God's direction. You know, during Bible times, nobody wanted
Speaker 1: to be a prophet. You know why, because the law
Speaker 1: was this in Israel, a prophet of God had to
Speaker 1: be correct one hundred percent of the time, and if
Speaker 1: you were wrong just once, then you were considered a
Speaker 1: false prophet and would be put to death. So nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to be a prophet because you had to be
Speaker 1: accurate one percent of the time. Now there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people claim to be prophets today. There are prophets,
Speaker 1: false prophets, nonprofits. Okay, I mean, by the way, let
Speaker 1: me just give you a little tip. Don't ever trust
Speaker 1: the psychic who asked for your name. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're so psychic, you shouldn't ask for how fast for
Speaker 1: my credit card? You should just know it and don't say,
Speaker 1: well I know all about you. Okay, then tell me
Speaker 1: what my credit card number is, then I'll believe you. Okay.
Speaker 1: It's prophetically accurate. Jesus said this in Matthew twenty six.
Speaker 1: But all this is happening to fulfill the words of
Speaker 1: the prophets as recorded in scriptures. Jesus said, it's all
Speaker 1: coming true, just like God predicted. Revelation twenty two. John says,
Speaker 1: the Angel said to me, these words are trustworthy. This prophecy.
Speaker 1: These words are trustworthy. You can trust it and they're true.
Speaker 1: Why because it from God, the Lord sent his Angel
Speaker 1: to show his servants the things that must soon take place.
Speaker 1: It is prophetically accurate. And the odds of all these
Speaker 1: prophecies happening and just the way they did over thousands
Speaker 1: of years, is astronomical. Number four. The fourth reason I
Speaker 1: know that the Bible is trustworthy is it is thematically unified.
Speaker 1: It is thematically unified. What I mean by that it
Speaker 1: has the same theme through the entire book, from cover
Speaker 1: to cover, from Genesis to Revelation. It is the same
Speaker 1: theme of redemption from Genesis to the end. Jesus is
Speaker 1: the star. And it is a thematically unified book. What's
Speaker 1: a big deal about that? I know a lot of
Speaker 1: books that carry the same theme from the beginning to
Speaker 1: the end, written over sixteen hundred years by forty different authors.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. You see, this book was written
Speaker 1: over one thousand, six hundred years, from the first book
Speaker 1: to the last, by forty different authors, on three different continents,
Speaker 1: in three different languages, and they didn't know about each other.
Speaker 1: How do you think they all got the same storyn't
Speaker 1: even collected in one book until a thousand years later
Speaker 1: after they died in the Old Testament. How do you
Speaker 1: think they knew that? You see, it'd be one thing
Speaker 1: if one person wrote this book. See the Quran was
Speaker 1: written by one person, Mohammed. The analects of Confucius are
Speaker 1: written by Confucius. The writings of Buddha are written by Buddha.
Speaker 1: You would expect them to be uniform. The Bible was
Speaker 1: written by forty different people, in every age and stage
Speaker 1: of life, as I said, on three different continents, in
Speaker 1: three different languages, over oney six hundred years, and they
Speaker 1: got the same story. This book was written by poets
Speaker 1: and prophets. It's written by princes and kings. It's written
Speaker 1: by sailors and soldiers. This book was written by attorneys
Speaker 1: and a doctor an MD. It's written by kings. It's
Speaker 1: written by prisoners. It's written by common people. It's written
Speaker 1: bys All kinds of people wrote the Bible, and it
Speaker 1: was written in all kinds of locations. Some of the
Speaker 1: Bible was written in a cave, Some of the Bible
Speaker 1: was written on a ship. On ships, some of it
Speaker 1: was written in homes. Some of us written in palaces,
Speaker 1: some of it was written in prison, and they all
Speaker 1: come up with the same theme. You got to be
Speaker 1: kidding me. It has the same theme of redemption from
Speaker 1: cover to cover over one thousand, six hundred years. You
Speaker 1: couldn't get a more diverse group fishermen and tax collectors
Speaker 1: and scholars and businessmen an over a period of over
Speaker 1: almost two thousand years coming up with the same story.
Speaker 1: I mean, let me give you an example of this.
Speaker 1: If I were to take fifty pieces of paper right now,
Speaker 1: and there's sixty six books of the Bible, but let's
Speaker 1: just say I were to take fifty pieces of paper,
Speaker 1: and I were to hand them out to people today,
Speaker 1: and I said to each of you, I want you
Speaker 1: to tear this piece of paper any way you want to,
Speaker 1: in any shape you want to. I'm not gonna tell
Speaker 1: you how I'm gonna use it, and I just want
Speaker 1: you to tear it into shape. And so you tear
Speaker 1: it up in a shape, and then I take the
Speaker 1: fifty pieces back. What would be the odds that all
Speaker 1: fifty of those pieces of paper would form a perfect
Speaker 1: map of the United States of America and the fifty states.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't believe it. You'd say, it's trick. The odds
Speaker 1: are too astronomical to just accept that they all unify
Speaker 1: and fit together. But the Bible's more than that. It
Speaker 1: was on many places, many people, and many centuries, and
Speaker 1: yet it all fits together with the same unified theme.
Speaker 1: Here's what Jesus said, Luke twenty four. Beginning with Moses.
Speaker 1: That's the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Viticus, Numbers, Deuteroni,
Speaker 1: first five books of the Bible written by Moses, beginning
Speaker 1: with Moses, and all the that's the rest of the
Speaker 1: New Testament, I mean of the Old Testament. Jesus explained
Speaker 1: to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
Speaker 1: Did you get that? See? Most people think the New
Speaker 1: Testaments about Jesus and the Old Testaments about Israel wrong.
Speaker 1: The New Testament wasn't even written when Jesus said that.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the Old Testament. It says he went
Speaker 1: through all the scriptures and showed what it said about him.
Speaker 1: The story is about Jesus from beginning to end. The pictures,
Speaker 1: the metaphors, the analogies, the illusions, everything in scripture from
Speaker 1: the beginning of the end is about God's plan to
Speaker 1: redeem people and build a family for eternity. It all
Speaker 1: began with him. The star of the story of Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can see him in every book and John six,
Speaker 1: verse thirty nine. Jesus says, you search the scriptures because
Speaker 1: you believe that they give you eternal life. But the
Speaker 1: scripture's point to me. Now, remember New Testament hasn't been
Speaker 1: written when he said this, He's talking about the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: All the scriptures point to me. Now, while we're talking
Speaker 1: about Jesus, Tom is gonna come and talk to you
Speaker 1: about the fifth way that we know we can trust
Speaker 1: the Bible is the word of God.
Speaker 2: Fifth way I know I can trust the Bible is
Speaker 2: because it's confirmed.
Speaker 3: By Jesus, because Jesus trusted the Bible.
Speaker 2: You may have heard somebody say, you may have even thought,
Speaker 2: you know, I trust what Jesus said. I'm just not
Speaker 2: sure about those other guys. Well, here's the challenge to that.
Speaker 2: Jesus trusted the rest of the Bible.
Speaker 3: So if I trust.
Speaker 2: Jesus, then I gotta trust the rest of the Bible.
Speaker 2: Because Jesus trusted the rest of the Bible. Jesus proclaimed
Speaker 2: the Bible as a unique book above all others. Look
Speaker 2: at this next verse in your outline, Matthew five eighteen.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, I tell you the truth, and tell heaven
Speaker 2: and earth disappear. The smallest letter, not the least stroke
Speaker 2: of a pen, will disappear from the law until everything
Speaker 2: is accomplished. Jesus looks at the Bible and says, it's
Speaker 2: going to last until the end of the time. It's
Speaker 2: going to accomplish what God wants to accomplish in this world.
Speaker 2: Here's what Jesus had to say about it up on
Speaker 2: the screen. John ten thirty five. Jesus said, let's read
Speaker 2: this one together. Jesus said, scripture is always true. Jesus
Speaker 2: proclaimed the truth of the Bible. And when Jesus talked
Speaker 2: about the truth of the Bible, I've got to listen
Speaker 2: to that in my own life. When Jesus says that
Speaker 2: every sentence and word of the Bible is true, that's
Speaker 2: why I believe that every sentence and word of the
Speaker 2: Bible is true. When you read how Jesus talked about
Speaker 2: the Bible with people, he would often base his argument
Speaker 2: about the truth of the Bible on a single sentence
Speaker 2: or even a single word from the Bible. So he
Speaker 2: believed every single sentence, every single word.
Speaker 3: So why wouldn't I? Because I trust Jesus.
Speaker 2: And when Jesus talks about the Bible, he doesn't just
Speaker 2: talk about poetry and history. He talks about it as
Speaker 2: something that's life changing. Look at this next verse up
Speaker 2: on the screen, Luke, Chapter eleven, verse twenty eight.
Speaker 3: Here's what Jesus had to say.
Speaker 2: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God
Speaker 2: and do what and obey it? And do it so
Speaker 2: not just read it like poetry, Oh isn't that nice?
Speaker 2: But obey it because God wrote it to our lives.
Speaker 2: Jesus as he talked about the Bible, he talked about
Speaker 2: it as a real book, talking about real people in
Speaker 2: real places, where the real gods who's really at work
Speaker 2: in our lives. Up on the screen, let me just
Speaker 2: put for you just a real quick list of some
Speaker 2: of the people and places that the Bible talks about
Speaker 2: is real, and that Jesus also confirmed as he taught
Speaker 2: that were real.
Speaker 3: Jesus believed in the prophets.
Speaker 2: If you want to write down a couple of these verses,
Speaker 2: I'll leave that up there for a couple of seconds.
Speaker 2: He talked about all the prophets being really talked about
Speaker 2: Daniel being real. Jesus believed in Noah, everything that happened
Speaker 2: with the flood he talks about that. He believed in
Speaker 2: Adam and Eve. Jesus believed in the tragedy of Sodom
Speaker 2: and Gomoron what happened there he taught on that he
Speaker 2: believed in Jonah and what happened there. Now here's the
Speaker 2: interesting thing, particularly those last four Noah, Adam and Eve, Sodomon, Jonah.
Speaker 3: Those are the.
Speaker 2: Most disputed stories in the Bible by people who say, oh,
Speaker 2: it's just a bunch of fables, and they're good stories,
Speaker 2: they're good moral stories, but they didn't really happen.
Speaker 3: Well, Jesus believed they really happened.
Speaker 2: In fact, he used some of these as illustrations of
Speaker 2: the fact of what was going to happen in his resurrection.
Speaker 2: If Jesus really believed in Jonah, I believed in what happened.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I don't know how God created a fish that could
Speaker 2: swallow a guy, but he did he did.
Speaker 3: I trust in it because Jesus trusted.
Speaker 2: In it, and it always It sort of makes me
Speaker 2: smile when two thousand or three or four thousand years later,
Speaker 2: we look back at the Bible and we go, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm going to trust that part, and I'm
Speaker 2: not going to trust that part based on my subjective
Speaker 2: or emotional feelings. I'm going to accept that part, and
Speaker 2: I'm not going to accept that part. Jesus trusted it.
Speaker 2: Jesus trusted it, and so I trust it. Augustine said,
Speaker 2: if you believe in the Bible what you like, and
Speaker 2: you don't believe what you don't like, it is not
Speaker 2: the Bible you trust, but yourself.
Speaker 3: And I don't know about you.
Speaker 2: I found that my emotion, my opinions are not always trustworthy.
Speaker 2: I trust Jesus. He trusted the Bible. That's one of
Speaker 2: the main reasons why I trust the Bible.
Speaker 1: The sixth reason that you can trust the Bible as
Speaker 1: the absolute authoritative word of God. God breathed Theonostus is
Speaker 1: that it has survived all attacks, and that makes it
Speaker 1: an unusual book. The Bible is the most despised book,
Speaker 1: the most derided, the most denied, the most disputed, the
Speaker 1: most dissected, the most debated, the most outlawed, the most destroyed,
Speaker 1: the most banned book ever in history. Millions of people
Speaker 1: have died because they refuse to give up their Bible.
Speaker 1: People were killed. It was illegal. It's still illegal in
Speaker 1: some countries like today. You take a Bible into Korea,
Speaker 1: you can get killed for it. North Korea, not South Korea.
Speaker 1: South Korea is a Bible country. North Korea. You take
Speaker 1: a Bible in you can get arrested, thrown in jail,
Speaker 1: and you can be killed for it. This Bible has
Speaker 1: been undertack for century after century after century by every
Speaker 1: imaginable thing you can imagine, and yet it is still
Speaker 1: the most read book in the world, the most published
Speaker 1: book in the world, the most translated book in the world,
Speaker 1: the best selling book in the world, and it is
Speaker 1: still making a difference in people's lives. The Bible is
Speaker 1: the source, the greatest source, single source of music. The
Speaker 1: Bible is the greatest single source of art, and the
Speaker 1: Bible is the greatest single source of architecture throughout history.
Speaker 1: If you take the Bible out of culture, you have
Speaker 1: basically destroyed most of the major music, most of the
Speaker 1: major art, and most of the major architecture. For almost
Speaker 1: two thousand years, it is the source of our culture.
Speaker 1: You speak the English language. You do because of the
Speaker 1: King James version of the Bible. If the King James
Speaker 1: Version of the Bible had not been written, you would
Speaker 1: not be speaking the way you speak right now. But
Speaker 1: four hundred years ago they published the King James version,
Speaker 1: and the words you use today most of those words,
Speaker 1: many of them were made up in the King James version,
Speaker 1: and most of those words came out of that book,
Speaker 1: out of the Bible. Jesus said this in Matthew twenty
Speaker 1: four to thirty five. Heaven and earth will pass away,
Speaker 1: but my words will never pass away. The only thing
Speaker 1: on this planet that's going to last is the Word
Speaker 1: of God. It's eternal. Everything else is going to burn up,
Speaker 1: but the Word of God is eternal. Be because truth
Speaker 1: is lasting forever. You know. Voltaire, the famous French philosopher,
Speaker 1: is a brilliant man, flat out brilliant man. He was
Speaker 1: an atheist, but he was flat out brilliant. He wrote
Speaker 1: a number of tracks deriding the Bible and Girltaire made
Speaker 1: a very famous statement in which he said, one hundred
Speaker 1: years from today, the Bible will be a forgotten book.
Speaker 1: Everybody's forgotten that quote. After Voltaire died for nearly one
Speaker 1: hundred years his homestead was used as the book depository
Speaker 1: for the French Bible Society. They sold bibles out of
Speaker 1: his house. It's now a museum. People have forgotten Voltaire.
Speaker 1: Nobody forgets the Bible. Heaven and earth will pass away.
Speaker 1: My word will never pass away. One Peter won twenty
Speaker 1: four to twenty five. The grass withers and the flower
Speaker 1: falls away. In other words, the contemporary stuff, it just wilts.
Speaker 1: Today's news is worthless tomorrow. You don't read last week's newspaper.
Speaker 1: It didn't worth anything. And so he said that that stuff,
Speaker 1: that the temporary, contemporary stuff, it doesn't last. It's for
Speaker 1: our faith. But the word of God stands forever. And
Speaker 1: the truth will always be the truth, whether I believe
Speaker 1: it or not, it's the truth. I could say I
Speaker 1: believe the moon is made of cheese. Now we know
Speaker 1: and have proven that the moon is made of rock.
Speaker 1: We've brought rocks back from the moon. And no matter
Speaker 1: how much I say I believe the moon has made
Speaker 1: of cheese, it doesn't change it. It's still made out
Speaker 1: of rock. I told you that I once saw a
Speaker 1: bumper Stickert said God said it. I believe it that
Speaker 1: settles it. Well, that's a dumb way to say it,
Speaker 1: because really what you ought to say is God said it.
Speaker 1: That settles it whether I believe it or not, Because
Speaker 1: whether I believe it or not doesn't change it at all.
Speaker 1: The fact is there are a lot of things that
Speaker 1: are true. I don't want them to be true. So
Speaker 1: I say, well, I don't believe it because I don't
Speaker 1: want it to be true. It doesn't make it not true, Isaac,
Speaker 1: I don't want that to be called immoral. Well, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter whether I want it or not. God says
Speaker 1: his moral is moral. What God says in moral is
Speaker 1: not immral, and it's he gets to make the choice.
Speaker 1: He's God and you're not. I could say to you,
Speaker 1: I don't believe in the law of gravity. It's just
Speaker 1: fine for you. And you may be a religious person,
Speaker 1: but I don't need the law of gravity. So you know,
Speaker 1: let's all be copasetic. What's good for you is good
Speaker 1: for you, what's good for me is good for me.
Speaker 1: I don't believe in law gravity. So you and I
Speaker 1: go up on the you know, the Empire State building,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to say I don't believe the law
Speaker 1: gravity applies to me because I don't believe in it,
Speaker 1: And so I jump off the Empire State Building. Now,
Speaker 1: as I'm floating down at a rather rapid speed, about
Speaker 1: the one hundredth floor down, a guy looks out the
Speaker 1: wind and goes, how's it going, Rick, And I say,
Speaker 1: so far, so good. And that's the way most people
Speaker 1: are living their lives. You see. God gives you the
Speaker 1: freedom to totally thumb your noe and rebel against Him
Speaker 1: your entire life. But that's not the end of the story.
Speaker 1: You can run from God the rest of your life,
Speaker 1: but then you can't run anymore. Sorry, You're going to
Speaker 1: come face to face with God one day, whether you
Speaker 1: believe in him or not. And all of the I
Speaker 1: don't believe him isn't going to stop that that event
Speaker 1: from happening. And the truth is, at some point, I'm
Speaker 1: my face is going to hit the ground. And the
Speaker 1: truth is, you don't break God's laws, They break you.
Speaker 1: When I ignore what God says in his inspired, in errant,
Speaker 1: infallible word, When I ignore what it says because I
Speaker 1: don't like that part, I only hurt myself. I don't
Speaker 1: hurt God, I only hurt myself. You see the fundamental question,
Speaker 1: the most important question you're going to ask yourself in
Speaker 1: life is what is going to be the final authority
Speaker 1: my life? What is going to be the final authority
Speaker 1: for my life? You need to decide that. I recommend
Speaker 1: you decide today. Is it going to be the word
Speaker 1: or is it going to be the world? Am I
Speaker 1: going to listen to what God says is true? Am
Speaker 1: I going to listen to public opinion or my own
Speaker 1: set of feelings? Who's going to be the authority in
Speaker 1: my life? God or me? Because see when I say
Speaker 1: I don't really accept this book, it's not that I can't,
Speaker 1: It's that I don't want to accept it. And the
Speaker 1: reason I don't want to accept it as my authority
Speaker 1: is because I want to be boss. I want to
Speaker 1: be Lord. I want to be God of my own life.
Speaker 1: And I don't want God telling me what's moral and immral,
Speaker 1: what's right and what's wrong. I want to do it
Speaker 1: my way. I want to be Lord. Okay, so let
Speaker 1: me ask you how's that working for you? Is that
Speaker 1: solving all your problems has all your stress and worry
Speaker 1: and and you know, irritations vanished because you're God. If
Speaker 1: You're God, You're in charge. How's that work in your life?
Speaker 1: Everything turning out the way you want? I don't think
Speaker 1: so to rebel against God is flat out stupidity. You're
Speaker 1: not going to win that battle. Your arms are too
Speaker 1: short to box with God. So the big question is
Speaker 1: what's going to be the authority of my life? Now?
Speaker 1: Why is the inerrancy and the infallibility and the flawlessness
Speaker 1: of God's words so important? Because, friends, if this book
Speaker 1: is not true, you're in a heap of trouble, and
Speaker 1: so am I because my salvation depends on this book
Speaker 1: being right, and so does yours. This is the book
Speaker 1: that tells you your life is not an accident. Science
Speaker 1: doesn't tell you that. This is the book that tells
Speaker 1: you there is an overarching purpose for your life. Science
Speaker 1: doesn't tell you that. This is the book that says
Speaker 1: God made you to love you. This is the book
Speaker 1: that says you can be forgiven. This is the book
Speaker 1: that says your past can be forgiven, you can have
Speaker 1: a purpose for living, you can have a home in heaven.
Speaker 1: This is the book that says, no matter what problem
Speaker 1: you go through, God can use it for good in
Speaker 1: your life. This is the book that says there is
Speaker 1: a reason for hope. If this book is a lie,
Speaker 1: you're in a heap of trouble, because this is the
Speaker 1: book that tells you how to get to heaven. The
Speaker 1: Bible says in Romans chapter twelve, this do not conform
Speaker 1: any longer to the pattern of this world. It's talking
Speaker 1: about the world's way of thinking, the world's worldview. It's
Speaker 1: the opinions and this you know, the attitudes of the world.
Speaker 1: Don't conform any longer the pattern of this world. But
Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You're either
Speaker 1: a conformist or you're a transformist. You're either conformed to
Speaker 1: the way the world thinks, or you're transformed by the truth.
Speaker 1: He says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: Then you'll be able to test, You'll be able to know.
Speaker 1: This is how you make good decisions and approve. What
Speaker 1: God's will is is good and pleasing and perfect will.
Speaker 1: God's plan for your life is good. God's plan for
Speaker 1: your life is pleasing, and God's plan for your life
Speaker 1: is perfect. But you're only going to know it through
Speaker 1: the perfect word of God. Let's bow our heads. I
Speaker 1: want you to settle this issue today, to accept the
Speaker 1: Bible as the flawless word, as the final authority for
Speaker 1: your life, because if you don't, then you're basically making
Speaker 1: it on your own opinions of what You're setting yourself
Speaker 1: up as the authority. And I would ask you again,
Speaker 1: how's that working, how's that working in your life? You
Speaker 1: find it pretty effective? I would pray this prayer right now,
Speaker 1: say it in your mind, Dear God, from this day forward,
Speaker 1: I will accept the Bible as your flawless word to me.
Speaker 1: I will make it the final authority for my life.
Speaker 1: Not what television says, not what popularity says, not what
Speaker 1: I feel like doing or what I think sounds best.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make the Bible the final authority for
Speaker 1: my life, even when I don't understand it, even when
Speaker 1: it's not popular, even when it's not easy, or even
Speaker 1: when I don't like it. You are God, and I'm not.
Speaker 1: Thank you God for loving me enough to speak to
Speaker 1: me through your word that you are not silent. Thank
Speaker 1: you that you spoke through about forty men and women
Speaker 1: over sixteen hundred years, on three continents and three languages,
Speaker 1: to tell me one story that you wanted me in
Speaker 1: your family, and you wanted me to know you and
Speaker 1: that you made me for a purpose. Thank you that
Speaker 1: you're not silent. I want to love your word. I
Speaker 1: want to learn your word, and I want to live
Speaker 1: your word. Use forty days in my life to set
Speaker 1: me on the right path in your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: Now do you see why we're going to do forty
Speaker 1: days in the word. Three things you need to do.
Speaker 1: Number One, if you're not in a group, you need
Speaker 1: to run to the patio in just a minute and
Speaker 1: sign up to get in the group. If you want
Speaker 1: to start a group, we'll help you with that. You
Speaker 1: can fill up fill out one of the cards, the
Speaker 1: registration cards in your program and take it out to
Speaker 1: the patio. Second, you need to go online to forty
Speaker 1: diitw dot com and sign up for the daily devotions.
Speaker 1: The first one starts tomorrow morning. It's a video that
Speaker 1: I do and I'm gonna explain it to you. If
Speaker 1: you're would you like me to do number seven? I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what I thought. We were running out of time,
Speaker 1: all right, Sit back, everybody, buckle up. The seventh one
Speaker 1: is the dearest one to me. It's the most subjective one.
Speaker 1: But it's the one I have seen personally the most,
Speaker 1: and that is it is transforming power. It has transforming power.
Speaker 1: Nothing can change the lives of people like the Bible.
Speaker 1: Your life has been changed by tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: lives been changed. I've seen flat out drunks, irresponsible addicts
Speaker 1: get their life clean and sober because they started reading
Speaker 1: the Bible. I have seen the most self centered, narcissistic
Speaker 1: it's all about me. Men who abuse and misuse women,
Speaker 1: think only of themselves and would rip off anybody simply
Speaker 1: to make themselves feel better. Read the Bible have their
Speaker 1: lives transformed and become godly husbands, wonderful dads, and upstanding
Speaker 1: citizens in the community. If I thought that you could
Speaker 1: change human behavior by laws, I would become a politician.
Speaker 1: But I have zero faith in politics to actually change
Speaker 1: the greatest problems on the planet. Because you can make
Speaker 1: all the laws in the world, it isn't going to
Speaker 1: change the heart. You can make a law that outlaws
Speaker 1: racism and bigotry, but no law is going to turn
Speaker 1: a bigot into a lover. God's got to do that.
Speaker 1: God's got to change his heart. And I've invested my
Speaker 1: life in the heart changing business. And I've seen it
Speaker 1: happen thousands of times because of this book. It changes people.
Speaker 1: You would never imagine it could change. Jesus said it
Speaker 1: like this, John on the Bible, on the screen, John
Speaker 1: eight thirty one. Jesus said, if you continue in my word,
Speaker 1: if you continue in my word, then you're my disciples indeed,
Speaker 1: and you will know the truth, and the truth will
Speaker 1: make you free. I want you to be free. Now.
Speaker 1: You know what's the most amazing thing is secular universities
Speaker 1: all around the world have the second half of this
Speaker 1: verse printed in stone on buildings. Universities all over the
Speaker 1: truth will make you free. And then they ignore God
Speaker 1: and ignore the Bible. They forget the first part. If
Speaker 1: you continue in my word, you will know the truth,
Speaker 1: and the truth will make you free. Not just if
Speaker 1: you go out and make up your own opinion, you
Speaker 1: watch Oprah and you write an article that'll set you free.
Speaker 1: If you continue in my word, you will know the truth.
Speaker 1: Because this book never lies to you. It always tell
Speaker 1: you even when I don't like what it says, even
Speaker 1: when I disagree with it, even when it hurts, and
Speaker 1: even when it's uncomfortable it will always tell me the truth.
Speaker 1: That's why it's called Holy Bible. Do you believe everything
Speaker 1: you read online? No? Do you believe everything you watch
Speaker 1: on TV? No? Do you believe everything you read in
Speaker 1: the newspaper and in People magazine? No? You believe in
Speaker 1: everything is written about me? Yes? Don't. Why do we
Speaker 1: spend more time reading and watching stuff we know is
Speaker 1: a lie than reading what we know is the truth.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask everybody who's going to be a host.
Speaker 1: I want to congratulate you in advance. We have over
Speaker 1: five thousand small groups and a thousand new groups. If
Speaker 1: you're going to be a host during forty days, I
Speaker 1: want you to stand up and stay standing for a
Speaker 1: minute so we can applaud you. Can you just stand
Speaker 1: up for a minute and applause you're going to be
Speaker 1: a host. Great day, Thank you guys. Now, stay standing,
Speaker 1: stay standing for this minute. I want you to look
Speaker 1: around at these people. Do these people look super spiritual? No,
Speaker 1: they just look normal. Anybody could be a host. You
Speaker 1: can go outside and say I'll be a host now.
Speaker 1: Because you hosts are going to need to get this
Speaker 1: box filled with all the stuff. I'm dismissing you from
Speaker 1: class early. You can leave right now and go on out,
Speaker 1: because I want you to get first shot at the
Speaker 1: table to pick up your materials for your small groups.
Speaker 1: The rest of you look up here on the screen.
Speaker 1: Colossians three sixteen is our memory verse for this week.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow morning, I'm going to teach on this in the
Speaker 1: first devotional. Colossians three sixteen says, let the Word of
Speaker 1: Christ dwell in you richly. I remember to memorize you
Speaker 1: always say the reference before and at the end, and
Speaker 1: you say it aloud we learn orally. So let's say
Speaker 1: this verse all out, Colossians three sixteen. Let the word
Speaker 1: of Christ dwell in you richly? And where is it?
Speaker 1: Colossians three sixteen. By the way, what is Colossum three sixteen.
Speaker 1: Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly? And
Speaker 1: where is that verse found? Colossians three sixteen. I want
Speaker 1: you to memorize that versus week. In fact, I want
Speaker 1: you to take sixty seconds right now to think about it.
Speaker 1: I want you to look at this. I'm going to
Speaker 1: ask our singer to come on out and just sing,
Speaker 1: and we'll sing and we'll give our offerings. But while
Speaker 1: we're doing that, I want you to look at this
Speaker 1: and memorize this verse, and then we will close