Is The Bible the Word of God?

“IS  THE  BIBLE  THE  WORD  OF  GOD”

John 1:1

“¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) The same was in the beginning with God.”

 Introduction

   A) In the beginning

  • First of all I believe that we need to start at “The beginning” where it all started.
  • God was in “The beginning.” (Genesis 1:1) Notice here in Genesis 1:1 it says that… “In the beginning God…” this means that there was no other being before God. No creature or being created God, God has always been, and always will be. BUT… not only was God at the beginning, but His word was also at the beginning.

  B) What others have said about the Bible

  • George Mueller- “The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.”
  • Charles Haddon Spurgeon- “Nobody ever out grows scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”
  • Robert E. Lee- “In all my perplexities and distress, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength”
  • Woodrow Wilson- “I am sorry for the men who do not read the Bible everyday; I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and of the pleasure”
  • John Bunyan- “I never knew all there was in the Bible until I spent those years in jail. I was constantly finding new treasures.”
  • Sir Walter Scott- “The most learned, acute, and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of the Bible. The more deeply he works the mine, the richer and more abundant he finds the ore.”
  • John Quincy Adams- “So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country, and respectable members of society.”

  C) All Scripture

  • Turn to II Timothy 3:… “16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
  • When we read… “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God…” This means… that the Bible is God breathed, IT IS  THE WORD OF GOD!
  • The Bible is …1) The only reliable source that will tell me who God is and what He is like. 2) The Bible is the History book of God Himself and His Son. 3) The Bible also tells me what God wants me to know (not everything that God Himself knows). 4) The answers to life’s problems. 5) Is the book that tells us where we came from and why we are here. 6) Also tells me of the future, my future.

   D) Satan hates the Bible

  • In 303 A.D., the Roman Emperor Diocletian  declared that he was going to remove Christianity and remove the bible from the face of the earth. He ordered that every copy of the Word of God be destroyed and every Christian killed. Two years later, he erected a monument that stated, “Christianity has been extinguished from the face of the earth.” A few years later in 312 A.D., the Roman Emperor, Constantine, declared that the Roman Empire was Christian. Of Course, Constantine’s declaration was not accurate, but the point is that it is impossible to remove God’s Word and God’s people from the face of this earth until God Himself gets ready to take us out.
  • Satan Hates the Bible because…it contains the Word of God, it is the Word of God, it is God!
  • Centuries ago, a man called John Wycliffe wanted the common man to read the Bible. He translated the scriptures so that the common people could read the Word of God. Wycliffe was so hated for doing this, that the Catholic church ordered during the Inquisition that he be killed. They hated him for putting the Bible into the hands of the people themselves. Before they could reach him, he died. But they had such hatred for what he had done with the Word of God, getting the message to people, they ordered that his body be dug up and his corpse burned. Satan Hates the Bible and Christians.

   E) What would the world be like without the Bible?

  • Turn to Genesis 6:5… “5) And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6) ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7) And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
  • Why was the world in this condition? There was no written revelation of God and His Word. We see here “A world without a Bible”.
  • Today, we live in a world that has “neglected the Bible”

I. The Testimony of the Bible Concerning Itself

   A) What does the Bible say of itself?

  • II Timothy 3:16… “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
  • When god breathed his word… He chose over 40 different human instruments to pen His Word over a period of 1,500 years or more.
  • II Peter 1:21… “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
  • I Corinthians 2:13… “ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
  • IT SHALL STAND FOREVER… Isaiah 40:… “6) The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7) The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8) The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

   B) It is the Truth that sets men free

  • Psalm 119:89… “¶ For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.”
  • Before the Word of God was ever penned by human hands, it was settled in heaven.
  • John 5:24… “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” The only way to escape this condemnation is to hear and believe the Word of God.
  • WE MUST NOT FORSAKE OUR POSITION ON THE BIBLE!

II. The Testimony of Jesus Christ Concerning the Bible

   A) The Story of Jonah and the whale

  • Many skeptics say that they do not believe the story of Jonah and the whale as it is given in the Bible. They do not believe that a fish could swallow a man, and the man could live.
  • Matthew 12:35 … “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36) But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
  • 37) For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. 38) ¶ Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 39) But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40) For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41) The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
  • After reading this passage here directly from God Himself I would dare say that the skeptics are calling Jesus a liar!
  • Jesus was speaking here and He is telling the story of Jonah!
  • In verse 40 note that Jesus was talking about His death (Being buried in the tomb for 3 days and 3 nights).

   B) The story of creation

  • One of Dr Sexton’s professors at the University stood and said to the class … “All that “baloney” about the creation of the world should not be believed by sensible people. There is no scientific accuracy in the account given in the Bible.
  • Again our Lord tells us of this in Matthew 19:3… “1) ¶ And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; 2) And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3) ¶ The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4) And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5) And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
  • People of the world need to wake up and realize that Jesus is “The Truth”, and uttereth not lies.

 C) The story of Noah and the flood

  • Many idiots scoff at that story also… but again we see Jesus telling the story right out of God’s book in Matthew 24:35… “35) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36) But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37) But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38) For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39) And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
  • They laughed and scoffed at Jonah also… but who had the last laugh?
  • They laughed at a man for building an ark, and now they are trying to find the Ark to substantiate the Bible.
  • We don’t need the Ark or anything to substantiate the Bible.
  • For a person to say that these stories are not true is to also say that you know more than God, More than Jesus and you have accused God of being a liar.

  D) The testimony of Jesus Christ

  • The testimony of Jesus Christ is that everything that the prophets have spoken should be believed. All of it is the Word of God!
  • Look in Luke 24:25… “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26) Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27) And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 IV.  The Testimony of Those Who Have Trusted the Lord

   A) The apostle Paul

  • Paul wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 3:15… “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
  • Paul is writing to Timothy saying… “Timothy, I am writing to you about the Bible because it is the Bible that made you wise unto salvation.”
  • It was God’s word that convicted Paul heart as he accepted Christ as his savior.
  • If you asked Timothy, he would tell you that his mother and grandmother taught him the Bible and a direct result of that is his salvation.

  B) Every saved individual has a testimony

  • Everyone that has accepted Christ as their Savior should be able to say that they were convicted by what the Bible had told them.
  • Those same people should also tell you how reading God’s Word, “The Bible”, changed their lives.
  • John 7:16… “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17) If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”