Reasons to Believe the Bible – 2

SPEAKER 02 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, September 29th. Scripture is not just a collection of stories filled with human ideas. It’s God’s Word and it’s absolute truth. Our series, The Book of Books, continues with more reasons to believe the Bible.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:20

A friend of mine told me this son who’s 10 years of age came to him and said, Dad, Suppose there’s no God. And he said, my 10-year-old son was depressed. He’d been reading and thinking. He said, suppose there’s no God. And so as a father, he began to explain to him. And so he knew that his father had listened to some of our tapes. His father’s a fine member of our fellowship. And he said, well, son, he says, is there something I can listen to? So he gave his 10-year-old boy a copy of the sermon, Our Unshakable Faith. He said, my 10-year-old son went to his room, put in his tape recorder, and he played it all the way through. Then he played it again. He said, he went to sleep playing it. He’d wake up listening to it, and he’d go back to sleep. He’d wake up listening to it. He said he played it to the wee hours of the morning. He said, the next morning, he said, he came to me, he said, Dad, it’s all settled. Now I’m sure there’s a God now. But suppose this father had not been a Christian, said, oh, son, well, you know, after all, everybody sort of believes in God, maybe. So what I would like to do in this message is give you some very specific, definite reasons for you to believe that this book, which we call the Holy Bible, is indeed the living word of the living God. It’s a book by which you and I can live. It’s a book by which we find forgiveness of our sin and every other need in our life. And it’s the book by which you and I are going to die by. if we are believers, because herein lies all the hope for life after this one, absolute eternal life, the gift of the grace of God, which belongs to every single person who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Well, what are those reasons? Well, one of the reasons I’d like to give today is the fact, the testimony of Jesus Christ Himself. Look in Luke 24. Luke 24 is the account of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. And you recall this was after his resurrection. These two disciples were walking along and they were sort of depressed because they were disappointed. They thought things were going to happen a certain way. They didn’t happen that way. And in the process of that, Jesus sides up with them, and the Scripture says in verse 18 to Jesus, he says, “‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?’ And he said to them, “‘What things?’ And they said to him, “‘The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who is a prophet, mighty indeed in word and the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to the sentence of death and crucified him.’ But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, beside all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed, and so they talk about what happened. Then He said to them in verse 25, Now listen to that. And listen to this next verse. Which was Jesus’ way of saying… here, that he believed the entire Old Testament, all the prophets, all the things, and all the prophecies about himself. What was he doing? Putting his stamp of approval and the fact that he believed that the Old Testament was indeed the living Word of God. Well, another reason that you and I know that the Bible is true is the inexhaustible depth of the Word of God. No one will ever be able to exhaust, listen, exhaust the truth of God’s Word. Scholars down through the years have given oftentimes their very life in studying one book, only to come to the end of their life or to the end of their study and realize they have only begun to scratch slightly the surface of all the meaning of it. Listen, if man writes a book, man can exhaust and master that book. But when God writes a book, because it is absolutely fathomless, because it is the infinite mind of God, no man will ever master the Bible. Now, you may know someone who can quote it from Genesis, Revelation, every verse of it. You know what? That doesn’t mean they understand it. I can quote some verses that sometimes I think, now, Paul, exactly what did you mean by that? And you see, just because you can memorize a verse, which is a great idea, doesn’t mean you understand it. You will never be able to exhaust the infinite truth of the Word of God because God is infinite, and we will never be able to exhaust the infinity of His absolute wisdom and knowledge about all things. One of the reasons I believe this Bible is absolutely true because I have studied it for over 50 years, and I’m here to tell you every time I come back to a passage, it doesn’t make any difference what passage it is, what it’s about. I discover something new. And listen, there’s nothing old about this. While it is all on the one hand, it is absolutely up to date. You can take this book and you could go back 200 years, 500 years, a thousand years, whatever it might be. And what happens? It was absolutely up to date in that day. It is up to date today. It describes society and every society. It describes man, no matter what’s going on, the same comfort in the Bible that it was adequate a thousand years ago is adequate today. And if this world lasts so long, 2000 years from now, if this world is here and people on this earth, this Word of the living God will be adequate to meet every single need that person has because it is the living, eternal Word of God. And if it were not, it would have been gone long, long time ago. Nobody could possibly exhaust it. And so when we come to reasons for believing it, another reason to believe it is the witness of the Holy Spirit. For example, let’s think in terms of what the Bible says about the work of the Holy Spirit when it comes to the Bible itself. And when you think in terms of the verses, you think in terms of the verse that we gave last week when the Bible says that the Spirit of God moved men, moved men to write the Word of God. Now listen to this. One of the reasons you and I believe this is the Word of God is because it is absolutely accurate. It is without error. And therefore, we come to read the Scriptures and we look at the Bible and we think, well, yes, this certainly is consistent with that. And so you go through the Scriptures. Why? Because God was controlling the men who wrote it. Now, because He did… It would be natural and normal for the Spirit of God to draw you and me to the Word of God. Now think about this. Look in Romans chapter 8, and you’ll find in this chapter a perfect example of this. That is, the Spirit bears witness. That is, when I say bears witness, that is, think about this. The Holy Spirit living on the inside of every single believer does what? The Spirit of God impresses our heart. That is, makes known to us. He impresses upon us truth. That’s one of his purposes. So what’s one of the things that he impresses our heart with? Look, if you will, Romans chapter 8, verse 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we’re the children of God. For example, when you trust that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior… And maybe you knelt to pray, and somebody gave you some scripture, and you asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins and trust Him as your personal Savior. Then that person says, well, are you saved? Yes, I am. Well, how do you know you’re saved? Well, here’s what God says, and here’s what I’ve done, and I just… Something’s happened to me. I just feel different. I know something’s happened. I’m not the person I was five minutes ago. What is that? That is the living Holy Spirit who just came to indwell you, impressing upon your heart, confirming and affirming and giving you divine assurance that now you’ve become a child of God. Would it not be normal and natural for the Spirit of God who control the writing of this? When you and I read it, something inside of us clicks. The light goes on. Something inside of us says, you know, this is truth. This is the Word of God. Can’t find any inconsistencies. Can’t find any errors. All these prophecies have been fulfilled. Jesus Christ said the Old Testament is true. And he guaranteed the New Testament would be true when he says, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth, and he will bring to your remembrance those things that I’ve told you. And he didn’t say this, but what he was talking about was, when you write them down, you’ll be able to write the truth. So when somebody says, well, why is it true? One of the reasons it’s true, listen, not only is it absolutely inexhaustible in its truth, but likewise, When you think in terms of all that is involved here, the Spirit of God living on the inside of us is doing what? Bearing witness. For example, when you’re looking for direction in your life and you get in the Word of God and you begin to read some passage, and all of a sudden you come across a passage, listen, you can’t explain this and neither can I. Something on the inside of us lights up. What is it? That’s when the Spirit of God interprets that verse for you or makes you realize God is saying something to you specifically and personally about what you ask Him for and is coming right out of that verse of Scripture. You just know it. And when somebody says, oh, that’s mythology, that’s a bunch of hogwash. You know what? They can say anything they want to say. But my friend, you and I have the most awesome sense of assurance that this God, listen, this God who wrote this book still speaks through His Word. So what does that mean? Simply this, that he takes his living word, which he’s given to us in his word, and what does he do? He speaks to us through that. When somebody says, well… I don’t believe God speaks today. Well, all you’ve got to do is open this book. And if you open your heart and you bring some questions, some difficulties, some heartaches, some fear to him, what happens? You begin to search the word of God. God delights in speaking through his word. Why? Because this is his revelation. He wants us to know the truth. And so what does he do? He’s going to affirm with the Holy Spirit, this is indeed my truth. He’s going to assure us. inexhaustible, but you know what? Not only is it inexhaustible, but God loves us so much. He’s get, listen, the truth is he’s given every single one of us the teacher to teach us and to give us understanding. And so certainly one of the reasons for believing is because the witness of the Holy Spirit. One of the reasons for believing the Bible is the word of God is because it is absolutely indestructible, absolutely indestructible. Now think about this for a moment. There’s not a single book that has ever been printed that’s been as hated as this book. No book in history, in all the history of mankind, has been so hated as the Word of God. None. From the very beginning in those early days, the New Testament, and those days after the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and God’s men began to pen the Scriptures under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, Roman emperors Diocletian and Domitian did everything in their power to hunt it down, to destroy it. Men have confiscated it. They have passed laws forbidding people to read it. They have burned it. They have chained it to the pulpit. Some churches back in history passed, chained it to the pulpit so that the common man could not have it, so that the only people who could have it would be the priests, and they would control it. Oftentimes, many years ago, people were forbidden to read the Word of God. Only the priests could read the Word of God. And so when we think about how it has been a hated book, A protected book on the one hand, but keeping it from the masses. Why? Because when men and women begin to read the Word of God, they become free. What you and I have in our hands costs a lot of people a lot. There have been many, many multitudes of people who’ve died because of their faith in this book, who have refused to denounce it, who have refused to give it up, who have hidden it, who have held pages as if it were gold. And there are many, many people today who would love to have a copy of this book, but they don’t. So when you think in terms of this Bible… You can buy them very cheap. You can buy them very expensive. But what I want you to know, listen, what’s inside of it has cost a lot of people their life. This is the living Word of God. And let me tell you something, friend, it didn’t come cheap. It’s hard for us to understand why the church would banish it, why the church would destroy a man who is making it possible for the Word of God to be spread. Yes, that is exactly. And in fact, there’s a whole history so bad that I wouldn’t even talk about it. There’s a whole history of the church and how it has done its best to keep the living Word of God from people. And then, of course, came the Reformation. And when the Reformation came and the printed page was available, what happens? The whole world felt the impact of the living Word of God as it was spread in those days. It costs a lot of people a lot for you and me to have a simple copy of the Word of God. As I’ve said to you before, you don’t own anything, stocks, bonds, money, gold, silver, precious jewels. You don’t own enough houses, enough territory in this country. You don’t own anything, and all of it together equals the weight and value of one single copy of the Word of the living God. You don’t own anything that can transform a person’s life except the book. The most valuable thing you own is the copy of this book. inexhaustible in its depth, never be able to exhaust its truth. No one will ever be able to destroy it because you can’t destroy God. But I’ll give you another reason for believing it, and that is the impact that it has had in this world on individuals and on nations. In fact, you can look at your own life for a moment, ask yourself the question, where would you and I be if it were not for the Word of God? None of us know. Do you remember the first time you ever heard the gospel? Probably most of us do not. You remember the first time somebody ever opened a copy of the Word of God to you? Probably do not. Remember the first time you ever saw a Bible? Do you realize that while they’re so familiar to us that there are probably millions of people in the world today who can tell you the first time they ever saw one of these? Can you imagine holding one of these for the first time and thinking, this is the message of Almighty God and there’s something in this book that’s going to tell me how to be forgiven of my sins and something in this book that’s going to tell me how to know God and something in this book that’s going to tell me how one day I can die and know for sure I’m going to heaven? What you hold in your hand is the most precious thing you will ever have as long as you live. What an impact it has made upon nations and upon people throughout the world. Now think about that. I think about, for example, as we have read letters week after week from people in different religions in the world, different aspects and different parts of society and how God has worked in their life, transformed them. You know what it was? They just heard the Word of God. Here’s somebody steeped, I mean steeped all of their life in another religion. And they begin to hear about Jesus Christ. They begin to hear the story of his death and resurrection. And they’ve been steeped, absolutely steeped in their religion and absolutely taught to hate the Bible and to hate Jesus and the things of the spirit that we Christians believe in. And what happens? They keep listening. They keep listening. And what happens? The Spirit of God takes the simple Word of God, drives it home to their, listen, to their heathen heart, to their pagan soul, and it penetrates and penetrates and penetrates until the light shines. And one day, what do they do? They fall on their knees and ask this Lord Jesus Christ that they’ve been hearing about to forgive them of their sin and save them and get up off their knees knowing, though they know so little about the Bible, that they have been saved and forgiven and they do believe the witness of Scripture that one of these days they’re going to have an only God in His infinite power through the infinite living Word of God can make that take place. We have the most valuable thing in existence in our hand when we pick up a copy of the living word. Friend, listen. If you don’t have a right relationship with God, and you don’t know how to have a right relationship with other people, you don’t have a right relationship with yourself, you can have all the money, all the prominence, all the prestige, and all the positions in the world, and you don’t know how to live uprightly before Almighty God, you’ll never be able to claim to be a success in the eyes of God. When we tamper with this, we tamper with God. You cannot tamper with God without feeling the effects of it. So I want to tell you something. We are bringing up a whole generation of precious young children. And what we are saying to them is, whatever you want to do, whatever feels good, whatever you desire to do, it’s all right. There are no consequences to your sins. We don’t want this messing up our lifestyle. We don’t want this guiding the way we live. We want to live our life, and we don’t want somebody shaking a Bible in our hands to remind us that we have a conscience, to remind us such thing as sin, to remind us there’s a hell, to remind us there’s a judgment. Shut the church up. Shut up the pastors. Shut up the prophets so we can live in sin and do what we choose to do. We don’t want anybody reminding us that there is a moral standard out there by which we live. And my friends, I don’t have to say a thing in the world about what’s going on today. This is the kind of society we have. You know where we are? Exactly where nations always drift when they lay aside the living Word of God, which is not only His law, but is His Word of hope to every single one of us. Here’s what that says to me. Mom and dad, you say, well, I work six days a week and on seventh day, I got the rest. I got to stay at home. Let me just ask you a question. How much you love your children? They’ll get along. You know how they’re going to get along? Watching the television, listening to music that has all kinds of suggestive ideas. I challenge any parent who does not take their children to Sunday school. I challenge you, tell me, what are you doing to fill up the mind and heart of your child with the living Word of God? Listen, your children can’t live off the junk that they’re watching. They need something that has solidarity to it. They need something that has life to it. what are you doing to build a wall a godly wall of defense around your children so they don’t get sucked up in drugs and alcohol and sex and rebellion against almighty God and rebellion against parents against teachers and all the rest this isn’t just the book this is the book of books and if you want to live a life that’s fulfilling you go by the book you want to live a life that will take you to heaven You want to go to heaven when you die? Here’s where you find the answer. And my friend, I plead with you in Jesus’ name, at least consider what you’ve heard for the sake of your children, your grandchildren, and your own future eternal destiny. And Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray that each one of us examine our hearts, repent of our sin, get our focus in the Word of God, get our focus upon you, raising godly children, raising godly grandchildren, raising up a generation of young people whose lives and whose testimony and whose witness will bear testimony to the living resurrected Christ, not on this nation but around the world. But we ask it in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:34

Thank you for listening to Reasons to Believe the Bible. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.