Join us as Pastor Adrian Rogers unpacks the profound truths of the Bible, demonstrating its unmatched credibility and divine inspiration. In this episode, we explore the scientific and historical accuracy embedded within the scripture, defying the misconceptions that the Bible lacks relevance in today’s intelligent discourse. Adrian Rogers passionately argues for the essential role of the Bible in ensuring salvation, sanctification, and usefulness, unraveling the unique harmony that exists across its sixty-six books, transcending centuries and continents.
Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
SPEAKER 02 :
Would you find in God’s Word, please, the book of Revelation chapter 22. Chapter 22. THAT’S THE LAST PAGE IN MY BIBLE. THAT OUGHT NOT TO BE HARD TO FIND, THE LAST PAGE IN THE BIBLE. LET’S SEE THE GOLDEN CLASP THAT GOD PUTS UPON HIS WORD. REVELATION CHAPTER 22. I’M SPEAKING TODAY ON HOW YOU CAN BE CERTAIN THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. IT IS ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE THAT YOU BE CERTAIN ABOUT THE BIBLE. YOU’LL NEVER GET MUCH OF ANYTHING ELSE SETTLED UNTIL YOU GET THAT SETTLED. YOUR SALVATION DEPENDS UPON IT BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS YOU’RE BORN AGAIN BY THE WORD OF GOD. YOUR SANCTIFICATION DEPENDS UPON IT. JESUS SAID, SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THY TRUTH. THY WORD IS TRUTH. YOUR USEFULNESS DEPENDS UPON IT. GOD HAS GIVEN YOU THE WORD THAT YOU MIGHT BE A WORKMAN THAT NEEDS NOT TO BE ASHAMED. YOUR ASSURANCE DEPENDS UPON IT. THESE THINGS HAVE I WRITTEN UNTO YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD, THAT YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. IF YOU WANT TO BE AN EXCLAMATION POINT RATHER THAN A QUESTION MARK, then you need to be certain that the Bible is the Word of God. Now listen to how the Bible itself concludes. Verse 18, “‘For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. THAT BOOK, MY FRIEND, IS THE WORD OF GOD, THE BIBLE. NOW THERE IS A WAR OVER THE WORD. THERE IS, IN A VERY REAL SENSE, A BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE. NOW THERE ARE THOSE WHO DESPISE IT. THEY JUST SIMPLY HATE GOD’S WORD. THEY ARE AGAINST ALL THAT WE STAND FOR. THEY ARE DESPISERS OF THE BIBLE. THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO DON’T DESPISE IT, THEY JUST DENY IT. THEY SAY, I DON’T BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. AND THERE’S SOME OF THOSE. AND THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO DISTORT IT. THE BIBLE IS PUT IN THEIR HANDS BUT THEY TWIST IT to their own destruction. Then there are those who dissect it. They come to the Bible with their measuring rod, with their scalpel, with their test tubes, and they treat the Bible more like a math book than a love story. And they’re ever learning, but they’re never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. There are those who disregard it. They say, well, it’s really not relevant. IS NOT IMPORTANT FORGET ALL OF THAT RELIGIOUS HOCUS POCUS WE HAVE GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SOCIAL SITUATION AND SO THEY SPEND ALL OF THEIR ENERGY MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO GO TO HELL FROM THEY DON’T HAVE THEOLOGY THEY HAVE MEOLOGY THEY’RE JUST SIMPLY THINKING ABOUT THEMSELVES NOT THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE BUT THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW AND EVEN NOT COMING UP WITH THE RIGHT ANSWERS FOR RIGHT NOW BUT I SUPPOSE THAT THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE WORD OF GOD is found in places like this one this morning. These are they who say they believe the Bible. These are they who give lip service to the fact that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authentic Word of God, but they don’t study it. They don’t know it. They don’t live by it. They don’t assimilate it. They don’t stand on it. These hath God married, and no man shall part. Dust on the Bible. AND DROUGHT IN THE HEART. NOW YOU’VE GOT TO BE ABLE TO SAY, I KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. AND ESPECIALLY IN THESE DAYS WHEN EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT NAILED DOWN IS COMING LOOSE AND THE DEVIL IS PULLING NAILS, AS FAST AS HE CAN. THERE’S SOME THINGS, REALLY NO THING, THAT HE WILL BE ABLE TO DISTURB YOU ON IF YOU CAN STAND ON THIS BOOK. GOD HAS GIVEN YOU THE WORD OF GOD. I WANT TO GIVE YOU FIVE REASONS THAT I KNOW THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD, AND FIVE REASONS THAT YOU CAN KNOW, K-N-O-W, THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. AND I WANT TO START WITH A REASON that is the point of attack by most people. I just want to turn it on its head. I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its scientific accuracy. Because of its scientific accuracy. Now, the skeptic or the atheist or the unbeliever or the liberal says, well, of course, the Bible has scientific errors in it. Before you say that, You’d better make certain that you know two things. Number one, that you know science. And number two, that you know the Bible. They say, well, you know the Bible is an old-fashioned book. It’s not a book of science. It’s a book of religion. Well, that is true. It is not a scientific textbook. It is not written to teach you science. It’s written to teach you God. It’s well been said the Bible was not given to tell us how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. But… THE GOD OF CREATION AND THE GOD OF SALVATION ARE THE SAME GOD. SCIENCE DOESN’T TAKE GOD BY SURPRISE, AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHECK YOUR BRAINS AT THE DOOR TO BELIEVE THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD AND INDEED IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE. NOW, EVERY NOW AND THEN SCIENCE MAY DISAGREE WITH THE BIBLE. WELL, JUST GIVE THE SCIENTISTS TIME, MAYBE THEY’LL CATCH UP. Now I don’t say that facetiously. In 1861 a French Academy of Science printed a little brochure. And in that brochure they gave 51 incontrovertible scientific facts that prove that the Bible is in error. 51 of these facts. They printed that. It looked bad for the Bible. That was about 130 years ago. Today, there is not a reputable scientist who believes one of their so-called facts. It’s not the Bible that has changed. It is science that is catching up with the Word of God. Now, there’s certain things that you and I take for granted scientifically. For example… In the world that we live in, the cosmology of our world, we take it for granted, don’t we, that this earth is suspended in space. I mean, we just take that for granted. This celestial ball, as we call it, is floating in space. Well, how did you know that? Did you figure it out or not? You simply stand upon the knowledge of other people. There’s no way that you could know that unless you’d been taught or you have learned through modern invention. If you had gone back, for example, to Job’s time, the oldest piece of literature known to man, you would not have known that. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS USED TO THINK THAT THE EARTH WAS SUPPORTED ON THE BACK OF FIVE PILLARS. NOW, THE EGYPTIANS, THEY WERE WISE, THEY WERE LEARNED, THEY WERE AREODITE. BUT THEY SAID, WELL, THE EARTH IS ON THESE FIVE PILLARS. THAT’S THE BEST THEY KNEW. WELL, THE GREEKS, THE SOPHISTICATED GREEKS, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY BELIEVED? THEY BELIEVED THAT THE EARTH WAS ON THE BACK OF A GREAT GIANT. HIS NAME WAS ATLAS WHO HELD THE WORLD ON HIS SHOULDERS. YOU’VE SEEN PICTURES OF ATLAS WITH THE WORLD ON HIS SHOULDERS. AND IN THE SACRED WRITINGS OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS, THEY USED TO BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH WAS ON THE BACKS OF ELEPHANTS. AND YOU CAN STILL SEE PICTURES DESCRIBING THE EARTH THERE RESTING ON THE BACKS OF THESE ELEPHANTS. AND WHEN THE ELEPHANTS WOULD SHAKE, THAT WOULD BE AN EARTHQUAKE. Well, somebody said, but wait a minute. That doesn’t answer the question, what are those elephants standing on? They had an answer. They said, well, the elephants are on the back of a huge tortoise. But a thinking man came along and said, but tell us, what does the tortoise rest on? Well, they had an answer. They said the tortoise is resting upon a huge coiled serpent. But then another thinker came along and said, But what is the serpent resting on? And they had an answer. They said, He is swimming in a cosmic sea. So it was settled. There’s the earth resting on a snake that is resting upon a tortoise that is resting upon elephants. Aren’t you glad you don’t pick up the Bible and read any of that in the Word of God? I’ll tell you what you can read. You can read in the Word of God in Job chapter 26 and verse 7 that He hangeth the earth upon nothing. DON’T YOU LOVE THAT? HE, GOD, HANGETH THE EARTH UPON NOTHING. NOW HOW DID JOB KNOW THAT BEFORE THE AGE OF MODERN ASTRONOMY AND SPACE TRAVEL? WELL, HOLY MEN OF GOD SPAKE AS THEY WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST. YOU AND I TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. NOT TO BE ARGUED ABOUT, THAT THE EARTH IS ROUND. 1492, COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE. AND WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY IN SCHOOL, THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY TOLD COLUMBUS, YOU BETTER BE CAREFUL OR YOU WILL SAIL OFF THE EDGE AND FALL INTO WHO KNOWS WHAT. BUT COLUMBUS PROVED TO THE SATISFACTION OF MANY THAT THE EARTH IS A SPHERE, A GLOBE. BUT MEN DID NOT ALWAYS KNOW THAT. THE SCIENTISTS OF ISAIAH’S DAY, AND ISAIAH WROTE ABOUT 750 YEARS BEFORE CHRIST, THEY DIDN’T KNOW THAT. BUT ISAIAH SAID BY DIVINE INSPIRATION IN ISAIAH CHAPTER 40 AND VERSE 22 THAT GOD SITS UPON THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH. AND THE WORD FOR CIRCLE THERE IS NOT THE WORD FOR CIRCLE LIKE YOU WOULD DRAW A CIRCLE IN PLAIN GEOMETRY. IT’S THE WORD FOR SPHERE OR GLOBE. IT IS GOD THAT SITS UPON THE GLOBE OF THE EARTH. NOW HOW DID JOB KNOW THAT THE EARTH IS SUSPENDED IN SPACE? How did Isaiah know that it is a ball, a globe? Well, how? By divine inspiration. That is how. The year was 150 B.C. The man, Hipparchus. WHAT DID HE DO? HE WAS AN ASTRONOMER. HE STUDIED THE STARS. ONE DAY, WEIRELY, HE RUBBED HIS EYES, PUT DOWN HIS PENCIL, GAVE A SIGH. HE HAD COMPLETED HIS TASK. HE HAD CHARTED THE HEAVENS AND NUMBERED THE STARS. HE HAD COUNTED THE STARS ONE BY ONE, AND HE CAME UP WITH THIS CONCLUSION, THERE ARE 1,022 STARS. NOW FRIEND, THAT WAS SCIENCE. A THOUSAND AND TWENTY-TWO STARS, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS BEFORE CHRIST, THEY HAD THOSE STARS NUMBERED. WELL, THAT WAS SCIENCE FOR TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS. BUT THEN ALONG CAME ANOTHER MAN WHO CHARTED THE HEAVENS. THIS MAN’S NAME WAS PTOLEMY. AND WHEN HE LEARNED THAT APARTIUS SAID THERE WERE A THOUSAND AND TWENTY-TWO STARS, HE LAUGHED. HE SAID, THAT’S RIDICULOUS. I HAVE COUNTED THE STARS, THEY’RE A THOUSAND AND TWENTY-SIX. FOUND FOUR MORE STARS. AND IT WASN’T UNTIL 1300 YEARS LATER THAT A YOUNG MEDICAL STUDENT named Galileo invented his first crude telescope and turned it up to the heavens and when he did he gave a gas. For beyond the stars that could be seen with the naked eye were more stars and beyond those more stars and millions and millions and uncounted stars and today with our great telescopes we peer into the nether realms of space and we find galaxy tumbling upon galaxy and stars upon stars and billions and billions and billions of stars. In a journal I read, one scientist estimated there are more than 12 octillion stars in our known universe. How many is an octillion? Well, he said, that’s more than there are grains of sand on all the seashores of all of the earth. Now, if you want to know how many that is, just go to my hometown of Palm Beach, Florida. AND GET A CITY BLOCK AND BEGIN TO COUNT. FIND OUT HOW MANY GRAINS OF SAND THERE ARE ON THE SEASHORE OF A CITY BLOCK OF BEACH THERE AT PALM BEACH. AND THEN JUST MULTIPLY THAT BY ALL OF THE SEASHORES OF ALL OF THE EARTH. OH, THE VAST OUTER REACHES OF SPACE. BUT HAD THESE MEN LEARNED WHAT THE WORD OF GOD SAID, THEY COULD HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR PENCIL A LONG TIME AGO BECAUSE JEREMIAH 33 VERSE 22 SAYS, THE HOST OF HEAVEN CANNOT BE NUMBERED. NO MAN WILL EVER COUNT THE STARS. YOU JUST CAN’T NUMBER THE STARS. LEAVE COSMOLOGY AND GO WITH ME TO BIOLOGY AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT THESE BODIES OF OURS. YOU KNOW, THE BIBLE SAYS WE’RE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE, BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL THE YEAR 1615 THAT WILLIAM HARVEY DISCOVERED THAT THE BLOOD CIRCULATES IN THE HUMAN BODY. PEOPLE DIDN’T KNOW THAT BEFORE. THEY DID NOT KNOW EVEN THAT THE HEART PUMPED THE BLOOD AND IT IS CALLED A RED RIVER OF LIFE. WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE, I TOOK HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY AND I LEARNED ALL OF THE LIFE PROCESSES THAT ARE CARRIED ON THROUGH THE BLOOD. But men didn’t always know this. As a matter of fact, they often had the idea that if a person was sick, it was probably bad blood. Now, there are indeed diseases of the blood, but the way they would treat even unrelated diseases would be to bleed a person. And that barber pole that you see, that’s not a peppermint candy. That stands for bandage because they would bring these men to the barber with his razor sharp instruments and he would cut the individual and bleed the individual in a basin to see if he would get well. THAT’S THE WAY GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY, DIED. HE HAD A RESPIRATORY ILLNESS. THEY BLED HIM. HE DIDN’T GET WELL. THEY BLED HIM AGAIN. HE DIDN’T GET WELL. THEY BLED HIM THE THIRD TIME AND BLED HIM TO DEATH, THE FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY. TODAY THEY MAY HAVE GIVEN HIM A BLOOD TRANSFUSION. TO GET EVEN, THE POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN BLEEDING US TO DEATH EVER SINCE. These people, if they had gone to the Word of God, could have seen in Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 14, that the life of the flesh is the blood. Now, no hematologist on earth can say it any better than God has succinctly said it. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Now, there came in Europe a thing called the plague, the black plague. in the 14th century. It decimated the population. One out of every four people died. Count them. One, two, three, dead. One, two, three, dead. One, two, three, dead. One, two, three, dead. An estimated 60 million died in the plague. They did not know what to do. They tried everything, laughable ideas. People were frightened to death. The stench of death was everywhere. And nobody knew what to do. And it was not the scientists who brought the plague to an end, it was the church. They learned from the Word of God finally what you and I take for granted, and that is the principle of quarantining. Leviticus chapter 13 verse 46, God says this, All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he is unclean, he shall dwell alone without the camp, or outside the camp, shall his habitation be. Now those people did not know microbiology. I mean, they did not know what a microbe was, a germ is, what a virus is. They had no way of knowing that. But Moses, through divine inspiration, said, listen, this man is to be separated. He is to be quarantined. How does the Word of God come up with that? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. There was a physician in Vienna whose name was Simmelweis. Simmelweis was in charge of a hospital in Vienna. And in that hospital they were having difficulty with women who were coming in for examinations as they had conceived and getting ready to deliver a child. And physicians would do these examinations. But one out of six of the mothers would die from infection. Semmelweis tried to find out what was wrong. And he noticed that the doctors were going from the morgue where they would do pathological studies and postmortems and autopsies. And they would go from the morgue into the maternal examining room without even washing their hands. Semmelweis said, there’s something wrong here. There’s a connection there. He said, from now on, you must wash your hands when you leave Oh, what a hue and cry went up. That’s going to slow us down, too difficult. But they washed their hands and then they went in and the death rate dropped from 1 in 6, the death rate dropped right down to 1 in 84. But then there were 11 out of 12 mothers who died, mothers to be, in a row. Semmelweis got to thinking about that. He said, now not only will you wash when you come from the morgue, but you will wash between every examination. Now what surgeon today, what doctor today would not scrub? Of course he would. Why? Because he knows about germs. He knows about microbes. He knows all about that. But they didn’t know that in that day. But listen to what the Bible says in Numbers chapter 19, verse 14 and following. This is the law. When a man dieth in a tent… All that is come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. And verse 19, And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, bathe himself in water, and shall be clean even at even. Do you see what he’s talking about here? There’s running water. There is the quarantining. There’s the setting aside. There is the change of clothes. There’s the time interval for the bacteria to die. Why? They didn’t understand about germs, but germs did not take God by surprise. And in case after case, we could show you these are only illustrative of many things. Now, why did not some of this business slip into the Bible about elephants and about snakes and about pillars and all of that? Why? Because holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Here’s a second reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Not only because of the scientific accuracy, but the historical accuracy of the Bible. Now just as the Bible is not primarily a book of science, it is not primarily a book of history, but it records history. And all of the things that we believe took place in history, and so thank God for the historical accuracy of the Bible. Now I have been quoting from what we call the Pentateuch. That’s the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That’s the Pentateuch. And the Bible teaches that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Well, there’s some scholars like Dr. Driver who was a linguist and a paleontologist who said, well, it’s impossible that Moses could have written the Pentateuch because people didn’t even know how to write when Moses was supposed to have been on earth. And so the skeptics had a field day. But then one day in northern Egypt, Dr. Petrie and others unearthed some clay tablets I studied about them when I was in school called the Tell El Amarna tablets. I studied about them in high school, the Tell El Amarna tablets. And what they were, were letters, transactions, business transactions and others from people in Egypt to people in Palestine and people in Palestine back to people in Egypt centuries before Moses was born. Not only did they know how to write, they had a postal system. They were sending letters back and forth. But you see, you can trust the history of the Bible. Let me give you another example. You remember the story about the handwriting on the wall that’s found in the book of Daniel? Remember that story? Belshazzar is having a feast with a thousand of his lords and ladies, and suddenly there on the wall, on the plaster of the wall, is a gruesome hand without an arm, and it’s writing on the wall. AND IT SAYS, YOUR KINGDOM IS DIVIDED, AND YOU, KING, ARE WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES, AND YOU’VE BEEN FOUND WANTING. YOU REMEMBER THAT STORY? WELL, THE HISTORIANS SAY, THAT NEVER HAPPENED. WE KNOW THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN. WELL, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN, MR. HISTORIAN? Well, he says, the Bible story gives the name of that king as Belshazzar. But we have the records. We have the Babylonian records. And these records tell us that the last king of Babylon was not Belshazzar. It was a man named Nabonidus. And so the Bible is in error. No one else has a record of any king named Belshazzar. Well, the spade of the archaeologists continued to do its work, and one day they uncovered a clay tablet, a cylinder, and guess whose name was on it? Belshazzar’s. Now, the secular historian was right when he said that Nabonidus was the last king. But the Bible was correct when it said that Belshazzar was the last king. Why? Because they were both kings. Nabonidus was the father. Belshazzar was the son. They continued to unearth evidence that showed that they were what we would call today co-regents. Nabonidus traveled. Belshazzar stayed home to run the kingdom. Now, suppose they had not uncovered that tablet. Would that have made the Bible any less true? Of course not. You see, let God be true. Let every man be a liar. Whether or not they had uncovered the tablet or not would not have changed the truth of God’s Word. And incidentally, it helps you to understand in Daniel chapter 5, a very significant passage, where Belshazzar said to Daniel, Daniel, if you can read the handwriting on the wall, I will make you the third ruler in the kingdom. Get it? There were already two. Belshazzar and Nabonidus. I’ll make you the third ruler in the kingdom. Just a little neat thing that’s tucked away there in the Word of God. The historical accuracy of the Bible. I want to give you another reason that I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Not only because of its scientific accuracy, not only because of its historical accuracy, but you can believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its wonderful, wonderful unity. Now the Bible is one book, but yet in a sense it is 66 books. There are 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 books in the New Testament. They were written by at least 40 different authors over a period of about 1,600 years. They were written in about 13 different countries and on three different continents. They were written by people from all kinds of backgrounds. Some were shepherds, some were kings, some were soldiers, some were princes, some were priests, some were fishermen, some were scholars, some were historians, some were business and professional men, others were common laborers. They wrote this book. They wrote on so many different subjects. They wrote from different backgrounds, in at least three different languages, on all of these subjects. And yet, when they come together, they don’t make 66 books. From Genesis to Revelation, it reads as one book. There is an incredible unity to the Bible. The Bible is like a garment. You can pull the thread here and it wrinkles. WAY DOWN THERE. I HAVE BEEN STUDYING THE BIBLE NOW SERIOUSLY FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS. I BELIEVED IT WHEN I BEGAN, BUT FRIEND, I’M NOT FINDING HIDDEN FLAWS, I’M FINDING HIDDEN BEAUTIES. I’M FINDING THINGS THAT ARE CONFIRMING MY FAITH MORE AND MORE IN THE WORD OF GOD. HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT THE BIBLE HAS THIS UNITY? TRY TO WRITE ANY OTHER PIECE LIKE THE BIBLE CAME TOGETHER AND TRY TO HAVE THAT UNITY WHEN YOU’RE DEALING WITH THE KIND OF SUBJECTS THE BIBLE DEALS WITH. The Bible has but one theme, salvation. The Bible has one hero, his name is Jesus. One villain, he is the devil. One purpose, to glorify God. Jesus said the Scriptures cannot be broken, not a jot, not a tittle will fail from the law, till all be fulfilled. How did it happen? How did this Bible get written apart from divine inspiration? Absolutely impossible. Dr. Torrey gives this illustration. Suppose WE DECIDED WE WERE GOING TO BUILD IN WASHINGTON A MONUMENT TO THE 50 STATES. AND WE WOULD BUILD THAT MONUMENT OUT OF THE NATIVE STONE OF THE 50 STATES. FOR EXAMPLE, WE WOULD GET CARL FROM MY STATE OF FLORIDA. WE WOULD GET GRANITE MAYBE FROM GEORGIA. WE WOULD GET MARBLE FROM ANOTHER STATE. WE WOULD GET GIPSUM FROM ANOTHER STATE, GRAYSTONE, BROWNSTONE, REDSTONE, ALL KINDS OF STONE. AND WE WOULD HAVE THESE STONES CUT IN THE QUARRY IN DIFFERENT SHAPES. Some would be square, some would be rectangular, some would be like pyramids, some would be like cylinders, some would be trapezoidal, some would have no shapes known to man with a name, and they would be cut in the quarry. Some big, some small. Different colors of stone. And then let’s suppose they’re all shipped to our nation’s capital and the workmen begin to uncrate them. And all of those stones fit together. Not one stone too many. Not one stone too few. No stone needs to be built up. No stone needs to be shaved down. They all interlock. They all fit together. And when you’re finished, there is a magnificently beautiful, symmetrical temple. Now, you’re a thinking person. Would you say that happened by chance? Of course not. It would be absolutely, totally impossible. The only answer to that would be there was a master architect who designed the whole thing and sent the specifications to the quarry. Isn’t that true? I mean, you can use your head to figure that out. How do you explain the unity of the Bible apart from divine inspiration? That’s the reason we believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Now let me give you the next reason that we believe the Bible is the Word of God, and that is the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. Did you know the Bible is the only book in the world that has accurate prophecy? Read what the psychics and the seers say in the Sunday insert of the paper and have a belly laugh, if you will. But friend, when you read the Bible and the prophecies of the Bible, you have to stand back in awe. And the subject of prophecy is so big that I could not even begin to deal with it. It’d be like trying to dip out an ocean with a teacup. Let’s just talk about the prophecies concerning the central character of the Bible, the Lord Jesus. There are over 300 precise prophecies that deal with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament. already fulfilled, and to say that these were fulfilled by chance is an astronomical impossibility, as the statisticians will tell us. Jesus infinitely fulfilled prophecy. Now, do you know what the skeptic says? Well, he was a student of the Old Testament, and so he just arranged that he would fulfill these prophecies. He just arranged to fulfill the prophecies. Well, you know, in a sense, they’re right. He did arrange it. He arranged where he’s going to be born before he was ever born. Amen? And then the book of Micah said that he’s going to be born in Bethlehem, and he was the one who arranged where he would be born of a virgin. The Lord Jesus Christ arranged for the prophet Isaiah to write all kind of intricate details about the Lord Jesus 750 years before he was born. The Lord Jesus arranged… that the Psalmist would write in Psalm 22 a death by crucifixion before crucifixion was ever even known as capital punishment. And then he arranged that the Roman government would crucify him upon that cross. He arranged that he would be buried in a rich man’s grave. He arranged that Judas would betray him for exactly 30 pieces of silver as the Bible prophesies. And here’s the classic arrangement of all. He arranged that he would come out of the grave that third day. Hallelujah. Amen. He arranged that. Yes, he did. Be seen of 500. And so convinced these 500 that he had come out of the grave that many of them would pay for that truth with their lives with no hope of physical or material gain because they’re no longer afraid of death. Listen, men may live for a lie, but none will die for a lie. They will not willingly, knowingly die for a lie. Some fool may die for a lie when he thinks it’s the truth. But these people were convinced, they were convinced that Jesus Christ had come out of that grave. And by the way, I want to say this, that while he arranged it, most of these prophecies were not fulfilled by his friends, but by his enemies. Those who had the most to gain to see that the prophecies were not fulfilled, they were not fulfilled by just one person, they were fulfilled by many people. Not just one prophecy, many prophecies. How do you explain that? There is no way, no way, no way, no way that you can explain fulfilled prophecy apart from divine inspiration. Say amen. Now friend, I’m telling you it is true. Now let me give you another reason that I know the Bible is the Word of God. Not only fulfilled prophecy, but the ever-living qualities of the Bible. The Bible is not the book of the month. It is the book of the ages. No book has ever had as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it, scorned it, ridiculed it, made laws against it, burned it. There was a time in Scottish history when to own a Bible was a crime worthy of death. And many, many a time, a man has preached the funeral for the Bible, but the only problem is the corpse has outlived the pallbearers. These people die, and here, today, you’re saying, thank God! For the Bible, the Word of God, it has survived and it is applicable. It is more up to date. A man of God, a woman of God, a child of God can open this book and know more today what’s going on in this world than all the wiseacres in the Pentagon and in the White House put together. BY THE WORD OF GOD. THE BIBLE SAYS, THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOREVER. FOREVER, O LORD, THY WORD IS SETTLED IN HEAVEN. YES, THERE’S THE EVER-LIVING QUALITIES OF THE BIBLE. I WISH I HAD MORE TIME TO TALK ABOUT THAT, BUT LET ME GIVE YOU THE CROWNING REASON THAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. THAT IS THE LIFE-CHANGING POWER OF THIS BOOK. I have preached this book long enough to know it’s not like any other book. We read other books. This book reads us. God says that His Word is quick and powerful. Acts 4.12, the word quick, zoon, means alive, energase, powerful. It means it’s full of power. I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. It is the dynamite of God. This Word is like a sword. It’s like seed. It’s like bread. It’s like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. I’ve seen people come to listen to me preach. Why they come? Maybe out of curiosity. Maybe come to find fault. And they’ll sit down and look and say, well, let’s hear what this fool will say. And, you know, look out from underneath their brow. And if they look at me, sure, they can find plenty to find fault with. But, you know, when you take the Word of God and Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, use the Word of God. God says, it’s not my Word like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. The hardest rock will break. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it happen so many times. I preached it long enough, mister, to know it’s got power in it. What kind of power? It’s saving for the sinner. You won’t be saved or you won’t get anybody else saved apart from the Word of God because we’re born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God. It’s saving for the sinner. The gospel of Christ is the dynamite of God that saves, but not only is it saving for the sinner, it’s sanctifying to the saint. Do you know what keeps me going? Not what I feel. WHAT I KNOW, JESUS SAID, SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THY TRUTH. THY WORD IS TRUTH. YOU WILL NEVER GROW, YOU WILL NEVER BE STRONG UNTIL YOU BEGIN TO FEED ON GOD’S WORD. AS NEWBORN BABES DESIRE THE SINCERE MILK OF THE WORD THAT YOU MAY GROW THEREBY. I’LL TELL YOU WHAT ELSE IT IS. IT’S SUFFICIENT FOR THE SUFFERER. Oh, I’ve seen people hurt. You couldn’t be a pastor the years that I’ve been and not seen people in such torment and such trial and such pain and such agony. But I have seen them go to the Word of God and find comfort that they could not find comfort in any other place or any other way. And as they crossed the chilly waters of death, they pillowed their head upon the Word of God and they held it to their bosom when they needed help and strength. BECAUSE THERE’S POWER IN THE WORD OF GOD AND THE PROMISES OF GOD’S WORD. I’LL TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE, FRIEND, IT’S SATISFYING TO THE SCHOLAR. YOU COULD STUDY THE BIBLE AND STUDY THE BIBLE AND STUDY THE BIBLE AND YOU’LL NEVER FATHOM ITS DEPTHS. YOU’LL NEVER CLIMB ITS HIGHEST PINNACLES. YOU WILL NEVER EVER fathom the great truths of God’s Word. It is a perennial spring. It’s a bottomless ocean. It is a sunlit peak that you’ll never climb up to. And all who’ve ever studied the Bible, none will ever say that they have begun to understand all that is in this blessed book. Who hath known the mind of the Lord? And who hath been His counselor? OH, I FEEL LIKE I’M JUST STANDING ON THE BRINK OF GOD’S WORD. THERE’S SO MUCH THERE TO UNDERSTAND, SO MUCH THERE TO LEARN. SOMEBODY SAID CONCERNING THE BIBLE, OH, IT’S SO DEEP THAT THE SCHOLARS CAN SWIM AND NEVER TOUCH BOTTOM, AND YET SO WONDERFUL THAT A LITTLE CHILD CAN COME AND GET A DRINK OF WATER WITHOUT FEAR OF DROWNING. THAT IS GOD’S PRECIOUS, HOLY WORD, THE WORD OF GOD. All of the Bible is kind of summed up in this. Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. The Bible tells me so. God loves you. This book tells me, tells you that Jesus left heaven, came, suffered, bled, and died for your sin. That God raised Him from the dead. He has ascended to heaven. And if you will trust Him, if you will believe on Him, the same Jesus that saved me when I was a teenager and has kept me all this time will save you and keep you according to the Word of God, the Bible. Did you know today the Bible teaches that if you’ll trust Christ, He’ll save you? These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You say, Pastor, if a man, a woman can know it, I want to know it. Well, God has given us His Word that we can know it. And so today, if you would ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, trust you and save you on the authority of the Word of God, I promise you He will do just that. If you would pray, Oh God, I’m a sinner, I’m lost, I need to be saved, I want to be saved. Jesus, I believe you’re the Son of God. I BELIEVE YOU PAID MY SIN DEBT ON THAT CROSS. I DO BELIEVE IT. I BELIEVE IT ACCORDING TO YOUR INFALLIBLE WORD. I BELIEVE THAT YOU WERE RAISED FROM THE DEAD AND NOW LIKE A CHILD, LIKE A CHILD, I LAY MY PRIDE IN THE DUST AND I TRUST YOU, YOU ONLY AND YOU ALWAYS TO SAVE ME. AND FRIEND, HE WILL SAVE YOU. FATHER, I PRAY THAT MANY TODAY We’ll say an everlasting yes to Jesus and be saved in his wonderful holy name. Amen.
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