Anybody need one kids, kids as well.
I think he's got plenty of them. All right, so pastor mentioned
we are going to be starting into the discipleship course on the
Bible and tonight is going to be really, really, really basic.
We're not going to get into and I'm kind of glad because it's AI
don't know if heavy topics is the right word, but into the the
all the the different like the Texas Receptus and the
preservation and inspiration and all that that is there's a lot
to that. And so we're not going to get
into that at all tonight. We're going to be very much
doing an overview of the Bible tonight.
And I wrote a few notes down here in addition to the the what
we have in our discipleship book.
But I want you to remember and while you're remembering, you
can go to first Peter chapter 1 and verse 25.
That's where we'll start. But I want you to remember that
this discipleship book, it is for us, but some of the reason
it's so basic is this is this book is made for a new brand new
Christian to be going through this with you, a Christian that
has LED them to Christ or has found somebody who's newly saved
and is now discipling them. So there are some things that
are very, very obvious and basic to us that a new Christian may
have no idea. One of those things.
We'll get to it in a second being they may not even know how
to how to when you say first Peter 125, they may have no idea
what that means what it what is 1 and what is 25.
I think it's somewhat basic in you know, in books, but not most
books aren't broken down into chapters and verses like the
Bible is. So even something that simple.
They may not understand that that's what's going on when,
when somebody gives a reference and so say they're in church or
they're listening to a message on their own, trying to, trying
to learn and they, they can't find where they're at because
something that simple. So remember that as we go
forward here through the discipleship course, that some
of this is not for us per SE to say, Oh, I know this already.
It's to remind us and, and take notes in your book so that when
the time comes, and hopefully it will hopefully sooner than later
that you get to disciple somebody.
These, these are some things to make notes for yourself of how
to do that. Now we're going to get to 1st
Peter 125 here in just a second, but I'm going to ask this
question. We'll be a little bit
interactive tonight. Not too crazy and I won't put
anybody on the spot, but I want you to think about this.
This is a question you get or maybe a statement that you get
fairly often when you are maybe not even sharing the gospel, but
when you're in a conversation about something spiritual.
And what I mean by that is sometimes you'll talk to
somebody at work or, or you know, a family member or
something like that, and the gospel doesn't always end up
being given, but you're talking about biblical things or
spiritual things. And So what a question that
often comes up or like I said, maybe a statement that comes up
is, well, I don't believe the Bible because it was written by
men too. And so I want you to think about
as we go through this lesson is what is your answer to that?
Because it's pretty simple statement, but it but it if you
don't have an answer for it, it leaves you kind of, you know it.
It knocks your guard down because everything you're about
to tell them is from the Bible, right?
Well, the Bible says, and they just told you, I don't believe
the Bible is written by men. So, So what is your answer to
that? And we're going to, we're going
to talk about that. Not that's not the whole lesson,
but we will get to that at some, some point in the lesson.
But I want you to think about it before I just tell you what my
answer is in the, in those cases, because there's a, there
is a very clear answer in the Bible does answer itself.
But again, somebody says, I don't, well, I don't believe the
Bible. That's almost always their
reason, because it was written by men and you can't trust
anything that men wrote and, and religions were all started by
men and so on and so forth. But that is one that comes up
pretty often by somebody who doesn't ascribe to any religion
or, or whatever. And so think about that as we go
through and then we'll answer that.
If I forget to answer it or I'm not clear that I answered it,
somebody raised their hand and I'll give you what my answer is.
Typically when somebody when that comes up, but first Peter
chapter one, verse 25, we'll read this and then we will pray
and then we'll get into this lesson.
But you know, the, the Bible is by far no question about it.
I would, I, I wouldn't think anybody would even debate this,
that it is the most important and the most long lasting book
in the history of the world. I don't have the the stats in
front of me, but there there's definitely stats that the Bible
has been the best selling book in the world for decades and
decades indexed every single year.
They don't even list it in the top sellers because it's almost
a given it's going to be the top seller and why.
So why is that? Obviously it's important to
anybody that ascribes to Christianity, but why?
And the Bible even tells us the Bible itself in describing
itself tells us that it will last for all of eternity, not
just while we're here. Bible even says that the word of
God is, is esteemed even higher than the name of Christ.
So that's that's important. So first Peter chapter one,
verse 25 and then we'll pray. And then I've got a few more
verses I want to look at real quick before we really get into
it. But verse 25 but the word of the
Lord endureth forever. And this is the gospel.
This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
So that word of the Lord that endures forever is the same one
we're preaching to you is what Peter was saying.
So, but it but the point here is that the word of the Lord
endureth forever, not just while the world is here.
It's forever. And it does make me wonder what
role the word of God will have in heaven when we when we
understand and we don't need all the prophecy and everything
else, but it says it'll be there, but the word of God is
going to be there. And so very, very important book
to us and we're going to we're going to look at a an overview
of the Bible here this evening just for a few minutes, but
let's pray and we'll get into it.
Father, I thank you for this day.
You've given us God, I do thank you for your word.
God, I I pray that you would forgive us for oftentimes taking
your word too lightly that it's such an important book from you
and, and got so often we just we, we disregard it.
And so I just pray that you would help us as we look at this
at the Bible for the next few weeks in our course here, that
you would help us to really just put an emphasis on not just
reading it, but knowing what it says and and getting the answers
for everything we have in life. Every question that we get asked
about our faith, that we would get it from your word and God,
not just look to make something make sense to somebody, but we'd
go to your word and answer it from there And got in order to
do that, we need to study it. And so I pray that we just put a
high priority on the words that we find here in this precious
book that you've given us. Pray that you be with the lesson
tonight in Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8.
Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah is never not different
than Isaiah. So Isaiah 40 verse 8, just want
to read a couple more books here, verses here about the
Bible saying that it will be it will endure forever.
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 8, the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
And the key that these weren't forever means forever.
It's it's for eternity. Go to Matthew chapter 24 and
verse 35. I got you flipping around and
that's not very conducive to taking notes, but hopefully
we'll settle down here in a minute.
Matthew chapter 24 and verse 35, Heaven and earth shall pass
away. Interesting, but my words shall
not pass away. Never.
So an important book that we have in front of us, an
important an important book that we are holding in our hands.
And I told you this a few months ago, maybe, maybe even longer
than that, but Genesis chapter 1 and verse one, you can turn
there if you want, but you know this verse, but it's, it's very
important to remember. And we're going to look at this
just for, for a little bit. But Genesis chapter one, verse
one, first, first verse in the Bible, the Bible is not here to
prove that God exists, right? Because in verse 1 of chapter
one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. It does not give us any
background to who he is. It doesn't try to try to explain
who he is right there at the beginning.
So the Bible's not necessarily here to prove that He does
exist. It's just a given.
He's here, He exists. And so, but then you'll see here
in your lesson then. But what is the Bible?
The Bible is the book that God has given to reveal Himself to
mankind. It answers all of life's
important questions, such as who is God?
Where did man come from? What is the purpose of life?
Why is the world filled with suffering?
Why does man die? What happens after death?
How can man get into a right relationship with God?
Who is Jesus? Why did he die?
What will happen in the future? And these are all questions that
the the Bible answers. Now as you're going through that
list, hopefully you're thinking in your head of the answers.
But if you're because you will get asked these questions,
especially when somebody's going through a tough time, why is the
world filled with suffering? They might not ask that
particular question, but they're going to say why do bad things
happen to good people? Bible has the answer for that
Job in particular, but other places, why?
Well, that's that's what the Bible.
That's why we study the Bible. That's why we have it.
God gives us the answers to that here in his word.
You know, Pastor mentioned this just a couple weeks ago, but in
regards to this man, what was I going to say?
I'm sorry. I got to think about something
else here and why I think it had to do with why is the world
philosophering? Why does good things happen to
good people? Anyways, we'll move on.
So basically, if I think of it, I'll, I'll come back to it.
It'll it takes me a minute though.
All right, so moving on in our lesson here, though, the Bible
was written by 40 different prophets that God chose and they
wrote the words that God gave them.
And you can turn to second Peter one verse 21.
We'll go there in a second, but they wrote the words that God
gave them. It was written over a period of
1600 years from about 1500 BC to 90 AD, which we have.
That's that's John in Revelation, right?
He's that's the last book that was given to us.
I want you to think about this forty different prophets over
1600 years. Now, this isn't the answer to
our question when somebody asks, well, I don't believe the Bible
because it was written by man. But, but this is a this is a
really solid argument that 40 different men over a course of
1600 years were able to agree and not have one thing that that
that differs that you can that you can have a conflict in the
whole Bible. Think about this.
I'm sure if you, if you read history or you know history at
all, the Pope's right. I mean, the Pope's disagreed so
much that there was, I don't remember the Pope.
Maybe somebody does that knows history better than me.
When his predecessor died, maybe one or two before him, he dug
his bones up and had them burn because he disagreed so much
with him. That's within what, 50 years, 60
years, 100 years? This is over 1600 years.
There's not a syllable of disagreement.
How? Because God gave them the words
to say. And we see that in second Peter
chapter 1 and verse 21. I don't have these written down,
so I have to turn to them with you so I don't misquote them.
But first Pete, second Peter 121 says 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.
That is key to the entire Bible being written.
These weren't just 40 prophets that wrote whatever they felt
like writing as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
They wrote what God gave them over the course of 1600 years.
OK, well, if it's the same Holy Spirit that's guiding them, then
of course there's going to be no disagreements in the Scripture,
but very, very key argument for, for, for God's word and, and the
the authority that it holds. So then moving on in our in our
lesson here, the word Bible is from the Greek word Biblios,
which just means a book. The Bible is one book that
speaks with one voice, but it is divided into two major sections.
And this is the basics of it. But I'm telling you, somebody
brand new to brand, newly saved and not been in church, they're
not going to know this. OK, so it's divided into two
major sections, sections the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Further, there are 66 individual books in the Bible, 39 in the
Old Testament and 27 in the New. I was going to quiz you on this,
but it's right in front of you. So 27 in the new books are
divided into chapters. And this is where what I was
talking about. And each chapter is divided into
verses for ease in locating passages, for example, John 316
And we know this is the the book, the chapter and the verse.
And I already mentioned this, this is so, so basic.
We know this, but this is something we when you're
disciple and you need to to teach as part of their
discipleship, as part of their learning.
All right, So Testament means covenant or agreement.
And I want you to go actually, I'm going to give you a second
to think about this while I while I read this.
So give me a verse, think of a verse, maybe maybe not even the
reference, but think of a verse that tells us in that what this
next statement, OK, that agrees with this.
All right, So is God's, the Old Testament is God's covenant with
man through the law of Moses. And this is important because
when we get to the New Testament, we'll see what the
difference here is with the Old and the New Testament.
But the Old Testament is God's covenant with man through the
law of Moses. The law was given to prepare the
way for the coming of Jesus by revealing God's holiness and
man's sinfulness. So we have Romans chapter 3.
We'll read that. But while I'm reading that,
think of another verse maybe that tells us exactly this, that
the law was given to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus by
revealing God's holiness and man's sinfulness.
All right, and I'm going to read Romans chapter 3 while you think
of another reference verse 19. Now we know that what things so
ever the law saith is saith to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. So this is what it's saying is
the law is here to make every man guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin,
right? So I know of at least one other
that's very, very clear telling us this.
But can anybody think of 1, Miss Maxine?
Yep, Yep. Does anybody know the reference
to that, that the law is a schoolmaster?
It's Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24.
And I'll go there and read that the Galatians 324 if you want to
write that down again, this is this is for your notes later
when you're actually discipling. And I, I hope you're taking good
notes because this this is very helpful.
You will not remember back to the year long discipleship
course that you listen to pastor saying all these things when
you're standing in front of somebody trying to disciple
them. So it's good to take these notes
so that you can reflect back. But Glaciers chapter 324
wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
The whole point of the law was to show us you can't keep it.
It's impossible. And the Bible even tells us if
there, if you offend the law in one point, you're guilty of the
whole law, right, You're guilty. And and so the law was there not
to try to keep, but to show you can't keep it there.
That's why I sent a Savior to fulfill the law.
Anybody think of another reference?
OK, that was the one I was thinking of as well.
Galatians, chapter 3 and verse 2024.
All right. Yeah. 24.
OK, so moving on. The Old Testament was written
primarily in Hebrew. And what other language?
Anybody know? Primarily Hebrew, but it was it
was in something else as well. Aramaic.
Very good. So primarily Hebrew, but some
Aramaic, the Old Testament is divided into the following major
sections. And I, I assume everybody knows
this, but maybe not. And so I'm not going to ask you,
did you know this? But if you didn't know this,
this is very, very, this is the reason the Bible is compiled the
way it is. OK, so the book of Job, as far
as we know, and it's pretty, pretty clear that that is one of
the first books, if not the first book that was, that was
written. So why is it in the middle of
the Bible, right next to Psalms? Well, we're going to look at
that. OK, so the Old Testament is
divided into the following major sections.
And obviously you can divide it up a little bit more.
These are the major ones. The law, which is the
Pentateuch, which penta is five. So there, that's the first five
books of the Bible is called the Pentateuch.
And now very interesting. But the, he, the Jewish young
boys, by the time they were five years old, memorized all five
books, memorized all five books of the Pentateuch.
It was the law. It's what they had to go on.
And so they, it was so important to them, they would memorize all
five of those books. By the time they were young, 5-6
years old, they knew what the, what the Bible said, which is
why when you now have Jesus coming in and debating with the,
with the doctors in, in the temple, it wasn't so crazy that
he would have understood the law because they memorized it.
They knew it. Now debating, it's a different
story, but they didn't know what it said anyway.
So those are the first five books, the Pentateuch, meaning
five books. It describes the creation of
heaven and earth. And, and as you go through,
you'll, you know, this describes creation of heaven and earth and
man, the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, the worldwide
flood of Noah's day, the Tower of Babel, and the multiplication
of the languages, the call of Abraham in the beginning of the
Jewish nation through Abraham's sons, who were over his two
sons, Isaac and Ishmael, Right. And to this very day, they're
still fighting. That's that's what we have in
the Middle East, where there's no peace.
It's Abraham's sons. Ishmael and Isaac, but Israel's
Egyptian bondage and Exodus and the giving of God's law,
including the 10 commandments. So that's the law.
The first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
And then we have history, which is Joshua to Esther.
So remember, these books are not all in order of, of
chronologically of of when they were written, but they're placed
here because they're history books.
So now you have Joshua to Esther.
This section contains the history of Israel, the Jewish
nation from the time of the conquering of the promised land
to the Babylonian captivity. And I won't belabor any of these
points because it's these are just facts.
But this is this those Joshua to Esther is the books of history
in the in the Old Testament. Then you have the poetic books,
which is Job to Song of Solomon. This section deals with the
worship of God and profound questions of life, such as the
purpose of suffering and the seeming vanity of earthly
existence. And again, This is why Job is
here, because it's in this section the poetic books of the
Bible. So Job, Job falls here.
Most importantly, the profound questions of life, such as the
purpose of suffering. I was just talking to Gray
today. I think he's probably watching
online, but he just finished the book of Job and there for a
little bit he was confused about what what do we what does Job
even say it? I don't understand what's going
on. And and that is why it's helpful
that maybe have in get a Bible that has little titles, because
you know, mine doesn't. But in a Bible that has titles,
it'll tell you, OK, now this friend is responding back to
Job. OK, now Job is responding back
to that friend. And, but, but at the end of Job,
the big, some of those big questions come up and God tells
Job, where were you when I, when I created the world?
I can have mercy on whoever I have mercy on.
And so those are some of those big questions.
But that's the poetic books. Then you have the prophets,
Isaiah, the Malachi. This section contains prophecies
concerning Israel, mankind as a whole, and Jesus Christ.
And this is where we have so many of the prophecies of Christ
that he ended up fulfilling perfectly in the New Testament.
But that's in these books, Isaiah to Malachi some another
interesting point there is, you know, if you the Jews do not
believe the New Testament at all, right?
A typical a a actual Jews. So there's Messianic Jews, but
the Jews that hold to the Jewish religion, to Judaism, do not
believe the New Testament is, is the Bible.
And because they don't believe Jesus actually has the Messiah
has come yet. So that naturally they wouldn't
believe any of that. But if you read Isaiah chapter
53 to them, they are convinced that's not the old test in the
Old Testament. And it is because it's so
prophetic of exactly what happened to Christ and all those
prophecies that he fulfilled. And they're shocked when they
find out that's in their in their part of the Bible that
they believe because they don't teach it because they have no
explanation for it. But it's a prophecy of Christ.
So that's the Old Testament and I told you it's this is
highlights, this is high overview and and we're not going
to get anything, anything deep tonight.
But now the New Testament. So refer back to that first
sentence. Old Testament is God's covenant
with man through the law of Moses on that first page.
Now the New Testament is God's covenant with man through the
salvation purchased by Christ. New Testament contains the
account of Christ's miraculous birth, life, death, resurrection
and ascension to heaven, the teachings of Christ's apostles,
and the prophecies of the future.
And again, we know all this, but somebody new to church or, or
newly saved is probably not going to know anything about
what they're looking at here. And so this is really good to
help them understand why the Bible's broken up the way it is
and, and where they can find certain things.
But the New Testament was written in the Greek language.
New Testament is divided into the following major sections.
And so we'll look at these real quick.
The Gospels, and we're very familiar with these Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. The four gospels give the birth,
life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
They also contain prophecies of his second coming.
But Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you're going to find
almost the exact same stories, right?
Because they, because they were apostles that saw the exact same
things and then just write it in their own, in their own style as
God gave them liberty to do that.
So you have the gospels and then you have the Acts of the
Apostles, which is the name of the book of Acts.
It's actually called the Acts of the Apostles.
The book of Acts contains the history of of the establishment
and spread of the first churches.
And that is a good book to go just read straight through
because if you break it all up, it gets gets to where you can't
remember what you read the day before exactly.
But if you read straight through the book Acts, it's makes a lot
of sense and it really flows like it like a book.
They're just giving you a history of the establishment of
the church, which is pastor mentioned that a while ago where
the the church was conceived in the Gospels and then actually
birthed in Acts. And I think that's a really good
way to look at it. But then you have Paul's
epistles. The Pauline epistles is what
they're often referred to, which pretty naturally natural
explanation that Paul wrote. Paul wrote those epistles or
letters epistles, just a letter, but those are the books of
Romans to find Lemon. And it says here, these are the
letters written by the Apostle Paul to instruct various
churches and individuals in Christian doctrine.
And you could think very clearly there First and Second
Corinthians where he was instructing, he was exhorting
and, and, and, and fixing problems in the churches.
So those books are Paul's epistles to churches.
And, and very likely, and I'm no expert, but the experts say that
they would have gotten those books or those letters and then
spread them around to the other churches in the areas and they
all would have read those letters.
They weren't only for the Corinthians, but it was written
to the Corinthians where he addressed some of their issues.
And then they would pass them around and, and use what was
important in their church from them.
But that's where Paul was writing to the churches.
And then you have the general epistles, Hebrews to Jude, and
these are called the general epistles because they were not
written to churches, but they were written for Christians in
general. And so it says here they were
written by Paul, James, Peter, Jude and John and I, I wrote
this down, but it's not, it's not really, it's not really
separated this way. But with the Pauline epistles,
this is where we get a lot of instruction concerning how the
church should operate. But as I started thinking about
it, there's a lot of that in the other epistles too.
So it's not a clear mark, even though those books were written
to churches and the other ones were written to individuals or
Christians in general. There's a lot for individuals in
the in the Pauline epistles and a lot for churches in the
general epistles as well. But that's where we get when
pastor says we hold to the Bible as close as we know how.
That's where we're getting what we do in our church from those
books right there. And and you'll also hear them
say, if there's anything we're doing that is not in the Bible
or it disagrees with the Bible, it needs to be brought up.
We're trying to do exactly what God has us to do and what he
gave us to do. Remember at the very beginning
there we said this is this is God's book for us, for our
lives. And so if we're doing something
because it's tradition and that's the only reason and it's
not biblical, then we will change it anyways.
So then the last book is Revelation, which is the book of
prophecy in the New Testament. It's the only book of prophecy
in the New Testament. And this book contains
prophecies about the end of the age.
So, and then you see there the relationship between the Old New
Testament can be seen in the following comparisons.
In the Old Testament, we have promise most most importantly of
the coming Messiah. In the New Testament, we have
fulfillment of those prophecies. In the Old Testament, we have
preparation, New Testament, we have presentation in the Old
Testament, we have the foundation in the New Testament,
we have the building and, and that can refer to a number of
different things. But I, I think of the foundation
for the church that was coming, right?
The church age was coming. And then in the New Testament,
we actually have that being built by Christ himself and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it.
So Bible is very, very, very important.
This is obviously if you look, I don't have my book up here, but
I think in there's two more, at least two more sections on the
Bible. That's where we get into the
inspiration of the Bible, the preservation of the Bible and
and all of that, how it was written and and what happened so
that it could be written. And pastor will get into those
in the in the coming weeks. He entrusted this easy one to
me. So and anyways, so back to our
question then. Does anybody want to raise their
hand and give me their answer on what you would say if somebody
said, well, I don't believe the Bible because it was written by
men, Miss Maxine? Yeah, but I don't believe that
that's in the Bible. OK, Now just remember when
you're giving them Bible verses, and I don't disagree with you
and those are good, good verses, but I've had this happen before.
I've literally been said, well, the Bible says in and he's like,
I don't believe that. I don't.
What do you say? The map because everything in
the Bible. OK, yeah, sure.
All right. And I'll maybe to to good
answer, but maybe to steer us kind of back.
I I think maybe I'm, I'm I'm thinking even more of it was
written by men. OK, So what do you say to that?
Yeah, it's and that's why that's why I mentioned it's a really
solid argument that there's no disagreement.
There's OK, good, Daniel. That's extremely important That
that I think is the key. But go ahead.
Anybody else? Is that Diana I truly believe?
We have the proof all when you see all around.
For example, the nature, the science when discover things is
already the Bible. How they knew if it wasn't the.
You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean it.
And you've heard this, I'm sure. But anywhere the Bible's not a
history book, but anywhere it references history, it's right.
Even if it takes millennia for them to figure out, wow, this is
David was real. So anywhere it references
history, it's right. That's a good argument.
Science same way sometimes, in fact, often science that man
hasn't even figured out yet, but it's referenced in the Bible.
And then we finally figured out and we go, whoa, the life is in
the blood. They killed George Washington
letting his blood out and then finally realized, oh, the life
is in the blood. OK, we need to stop doing that.
So I was not a science book, but it's it's accurate in all
science. Any anybody else Trey best
selling book 1000 years in a row can't just be made by men.
OK anybody else miss my Lisa? One thing that actually is that.
The best was a point is watch movies
about Caesar and you believe that, but they only have a
couple hundred major groups that proved that they existed.
The Bible is over 5000. That alone tells you there's a
lot of cross referencing happening that it does exist.
And then another thing that I've seen people use is around like,
well, you, you trust a pilot to fly you and go off the, the, the
the airplane vehicle to be able to fly the plane, but you won't
trust the Bible just teaching you about your salvation.
So yeah, I've seen different rules like that.
Sure. And that's one of the that's a
good argument to make when somebody's saying, well, how do
we know Jesus existed? We have history books of George
Washington. You never saw him.
You don't know anybody who did see him.
You have no eyewitness is still alive.
But we believe that, right? Why?
Why is Jesus any different? It's a good argument for, you
know, some of the things in the Bible, Brother John, they all
match. Up to everything about?
Town inquired. That doesn't matter.
Sure, it's all you know. Almost 100%, yeah.
Yeah. And he'll get into some of that,
I'm sure, with preservation and all of that.
OK OK. Anybody else?
Oh, man, we're going to go all night.
Yes. Yeah.
That is, it's a solid, solid. I mean, you have to honestly
have to be an idiot in in the real sense of the word idiot.
You have to be an idiot to see all the prophecy, all the
fulfillment and say, I don't think I think man came up with
that. It's impossible by any
statistic. It's impossible.
But I saw another hand up somewhere.
But Johnny, yeah, I would, I would say, is to truly prove to
us how loving God is, how patient he is and how compact.
Yeah, yeah. And so are we good or does
anybody have a really good point they need to make?
All right, I don't want to keep us here too late, but I'm going
to close with it and mine is actually so this is a very
simple answer, real close to Daniels and and brother Johnny's
because some of the and nobody's, I'm not saying
anybody's wrong. Those are all great arguments
for the Bible. But the what I was really
picking at is when somebody says, I don't believe it because
men wrote it and that and they're putting an emphasis on
that. Usually when they say that men
wrote it, they could have wrote anything any man could.
The key is right there from from first second Peter 121 that holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
It's very important. So my argument is I liked
Brother Gary always teaches with an object lesson.
It gets your attention, but it also gives you something to
remember. I always use that.
If you wrote a book, you use a pen, right?
And so it would be silly for somebody saying, Nah, the pen
wrote that book. So therefore that pen could have
made a mistake. The pen wrote it, but the pen
didn't think, the pen didn't articulate.
You did. It's exactly what God did with
men. He used the men as the tools to
write his book. He gave them exactly what to
write, gave them a little freedom in giving their style or
maybe like the gospels giving their version of events.
But he told them right this, this is what I want us 2000
years later to know. That's what I want them to know
is in the New Testament and and much older than that with the
Old Testament, but they were just the pen that God used to
write the word of God. And I mean that in in as much
respect as as you can give. They weren't.
And and the proof of that is in Daniel.
Daniel even says, I'm not exactly sure what I'm talking
about here in this prophecy, but this is what God told me to
write. How can you write about write a
prophecy of some of you have no idea what you're talking about.
And and it comes to pass because God gave them what to write.
They were just the tools actually writing it, physically
writing it down. So when somebody says, well, men
wrote that, yeah, but not not really.
God did, God wrote the book and he used men to do it because if
you said, well, God wrote this book, they, they would argue
about that too. How could God write the book?
God's not even a physical person.
So, but that's that's and hopefully that's not too simple
of an argument, But I was, I was that specific question though,
or that specific statement. I don't believe it because men
wrote it, but they didn't. God gave them.
That's the word the the word Theopnoustos.
It's God breathed life into this book, but through the men that
he inspired or that he breathed those words through.
John is another one. John's trying to write
revelation and he doesn't understand what he's seeing
because God gave it to him and gave him exactly what to write.
And so I, I've told you all about the guy that is proud of
his atheism at work, but that was one of the one of the
arguments he made. And when I, when I said this to
him or we, we got to talking about this, he kind of was like,
I can see that because it's silliness to argue that.
Well, the pen wrote that book and, and actually have that as a
legitimate argument, right? Pen wrote that.
So I don't believe it. But they do that with the Bible
and act like it's a good argument.
Yeah, yeah, men wrote that, but God gave that to them.
To write. But anyways, so we're we're
done. But the Bible so important it it
is not the reason we spend so much time on the word of God and
so much time studying it. And because it is the answer for
everything we have. And it is the only answer we
have for the lost the world around us.
And you know, sometimes I hear people talk even on, on YouTube
or podcasts or whatever, and they just talking and talking
and talking good arguments, but not biblical.
I mean, that's, it's fine to philosophy and everything else,
but you're just philosophy. We, we need the truth to go grab
a hold of because somebody can tear apart an argument you make
from a common sense standpoint. They can, they can pick that
apart, but they can't pick apart the truth, the eternal truth of
God's word. And so we need to know what it
says and, and know how to articulate questions from it and
answer according to what the Bible says.
So anyways, we'll have I think next week, I think next week
we'll be in Part 2. I think it's a normal Wednesday
faster. We'll be back.
So, but anyways, let's pray. We're not going to have an
invitation. We'll pray.