Good morning. It's good to see you all and
we're delighted to be here. My wife Sarah is here with me
and and I'm delighted that she can be with me.
Sometimes we just get conflicted schedules there, her running
after grandkids and things such as that.
And and we don't get to be together when I go speak at
places. So it's delightful to have her
here and it's delightful to see all of you here.
I was scheduled to speak here. Well, I was scheduled scheduled
me in in at at the Memorial Day meeting here.
But the time before that when I was scheduled to speak here, I
sat at church here beside Bob Smith on the front row.
And that was in 2016. And then four years later in
2020, I was scheduled to speak here.
But there was a little bug that was going around and it got
cancelled. And so now I'm scheduled to
speak here in 2024. So we will see you again in
2028, I think on that schedule. That's what we're.
So that's what we're looking forward to.
But anyway, delightful to be here.
Delightful to stand in front of you and talk about something
that is is near and dear to my heart and near and dear to your
heart as well. Why, why I believe the Bible.
That's one of the most important questions that we can ask or
that we can answer, I guess why I believe the Bible, and it
comes up more and more these days in society and school, at
work, things like that. When we confront issues that
people have concerning where do we come from?
Well, the Bible says, why do you believe the Bible?
Why is that? Why should I believe the Bible?
Or maybe when you start talking about the family, a man and a
woman married, right, instead of other options that people want
to have. Or when you start talking about
what is a man or what is a woman, those things.
And you talk, well, the Bible says, and they'll say, well, why
do you believe the Bible? Why should I believe the Bible?
Things such as that. Or when you start talking about
morality and you say, well, the Bible says this and sort of it
happens not only in school, in universities, it happens at
work, it happens in society, it happens all around us.
People want to question the idea of that.
We have the faith in the Bible. And I would suggest also that we
as Christians have an obligation to be able to tell people why we
believe in the Bible. Recall the passage, and we're
all familiar with that in in first Peter chapter 3 and verse
15, a verse which has haunted me for years and used to haunt me
for years ago there where it says sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. So it says be ready always to
give an answer for the hope, the reason of the hope that you have
within you. And well, so who is that
addressed to? You know, that's the phrase in
which we get the word apologetics there where it says
the word reason give you a give you a reason, the one that asks
you a reason of the hope, that reason there.
That's the word applegia in the Greek.
That's where we get the word apologetics, which is a defense
as we use it oftentimes in the relationship to religion, A
defense of the faith, a defense of the faith.
Be ready always to give them a defense of the faith for the
reason of the hope that you have within you.
Is what he's saying there? Who's that addressed to?
It's addressed to you. That's what it says.
Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and if you look back up
there, you know Paul's Peter's been writing here in chapter 1
and chapter 3. He starts to servants.
He writes to people living under civil authority there.
He writes to servants living under masters.
He writes verse chapter 3, the beginning of that.
He writes to wives and he writes to husbands there and that's who
addresses it to and then also in verse 8 he says finally, all of
you be one minded having compassion for one another.
So then he spreads it out not talking about any specific group
of people, but he talks to everybody.
That's who he says so everybody as Christians, you me, we need
to have we need to have this always be ready to give an
answer to everyone that asked us a reason of the hope that is in
you with meekness and fear. We are all called to be
apologists according to what Peter says there.
Now what does that mean? Well, it's not quite as daunting
in many ways. It's very serious from
Scripture's sake, but it's not quite as daunting as sometimes
we want to make it to be. We think of that as being the
elite, the elite Christian to be able to get up and debate the
things of apologetics there. That's what he what we think of.
We think of these as being, you know, they the, the Delta Force,
the, the, the Green Berets, the, the, the, you know, the, the,
the, the people that go in and, and, and really solve the
problems there. It's not talking here about
limit any just to Frankie Brancato here or a, a Kevin
Presley or, you know, or, or, or, or any of these, any of the
brethren that we think of as being highly skilled in this.
But it says, notice what it says.
It says know what you believe. Know why you believe it and be
ready to tell people. That.
It really doesn't say to win the argument.
It doesn't say that. It doesn't say here that in
order to be an apologist, which God, which Peter calls us to
here, It doesn't say that we have to be able to debate and to
show that the Calvinist is wrong, that we have to show that
the Mormons are not on the right track on their faith.
We don't have to show the Buddhists that they're wrong,
the Islamics that they're wrong. We don't have to show anything
about this. What we have to do is we have to
know what we believe and know why we believe it and be ready
to explain that in a meek way with respect.
That's what Peter says. And So what will you say when
someone says, OK, you know, you're in school and you say, I
don't believe that teacher, because what you've said is not
what I believe. Why don't you believe that?
Well, because the Bible says and they said, oh, why do you
believe the Bible? What's the answer you give?
Well, common answer number one is, well, that's how I was
raised. Not that's probably an accurate
answer for most of or for many of us at too many times there,
that's probably not a very good answer.
It is not a good answer. That's how it was raised.
He's raised up your mom saying don't put your eyes, don't cross
your eyes. Your face will stick like that.
Well, it doesn't necessarily work.
Not necessarily the truth, not necessarily accurate.
Put a hat on. It's cold outside.
You'll catch a cold. Well, no, mom colds not hurt
caused by come through your head of not wearing a hat, things
like that. So how you're raised is not
necessarily how it is. If that were true, then what
about the Baptist or what about the OR what about the Catholic
that we they were raised that way.
So therefore their validity is just as valid as your validity
if that's all you have, if that's what you have about why
you believe the Bible. Well, the second common answer
that people gives is, oh, I've tried it and it works for me.
Well, that's wonderful. You tried it and it works for
you. There was a man who there was a
man who went to Alcoholics Anonymous because he had a
drinking problem. He was there and they told him
he needed a higher power. Well, he didn't, wasn't a
believer in God. So what he did, he looked
outside his house, saw a squirrel out there and he said
that's going to be my higher power.
And he watched that squirrel daily.
Watch that squirrel daily. And 12 years passed and he
hadn't had a drink. So that man's squirrel has as
much authority as your Bible, if that's the reason, he said.
I tried it and it worked for me. Need something a little better?
Need something a little better than that?
Need something a little better than that.
I would suggest that a valid answer that we could each give
is this why I believe the Bible? I choose to believe the Bible
because it's a reliable collection of historical
documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime
of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events
that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim
their writings are divine rather than human and origin.
Got that? Somebody says you.
Want to write that down? No, I'm not going to write it
down. But what I'll do, I'll teach it
to you and together we can learn this.
And together this is something that you can give to people as a
reason of the hope that is in you notice here.
And I'll show you how I show you where it comes from because it
does come from somewhere in the Bible.
Second Peter chapter 1. If you have your Bibles, and I
hope you do, please open them up to second Peter to the 1st
chapter. Now, you may not have a Bible,
you may have a, you may have one of these electronic devices and
you may scroll to it. That's fine too.
That's fine. That's just as valid as as open
in the paper. Sometimes I like paper, but I
use the electronic stuff too as well.
But anyway, open up your Bibles and to second Peter chapter 1.
It's kind of interesting in first Peter 3 verse 15, which we
just said, Peter said be ready to give an answer.
And I almost wonder if they might have written back to him
or someone communicated back to him and said, Peter, how do we
give an answer? How do we give an answer about
that? Because Peter tells them in
chapter 1 verses 16, verses 16 through the end of the chapter
there. Here's what Peter says here in
First Peter and Second Peter, chapter 1.
Now objection, You're going to use the Bible.
You can't use the Bible to prove the Bible.
That's circular reasoning, right?
Well, my goal here is not to prove the Bible.
My goal here, my goal here is to answer the question why I choose
to believe the Bible, and it has it here.
Charles Spurgeon once said this, and I agree with Charles
Spurgeon, I would no more defend the Bible than I would defend
the lion. You don't defend the lion.
You just let him loose and he'll defend himself.
And that's how it is. The person who says I'm not
going to use the Bible to defend the Bible, to tell somebody why
the Bible, to tell you someone why they believe the Bible.
It's kind of like the two nights in the days of yore.
Let's picture this. You know, they come riding up on
their chargers there. They get off, they dismount and
they're on their clanky, their, their, their clanky armor there.
And the first one reaches down and pulls the sword out of the
scabbard. And the second one goes, wait,
thou canst not use thy sword. I does not believe in thy sword.
Well, what's the first knight to do?
Well, he can put his sword up and then do whatever there, or
he can start cutting and things will happen when that happens.
That's what we do with the Bible.
The Bible, there's no higher authority than the Bible.
And so here we as believers in the Bible, we use the Bible
actually to explain why we believe the Bible.
Second Peter, chapter 1. All right.
Second Peter chapter 1, verses 16 through 21.
I'm reading from the English standard translation here.
It says for we Peter says, this Peter says, for we did not
follow cleverly, cleverly devised myths when we made known
to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of this majesty of His Majesty.
For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and
the voice was born to him of the by the majestic glory.
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
We ourselves heard this voice born from heaven, for we were
with Him in the holy mountain, and we have the prophetic word
more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay
attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day
dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
Knowing this. First of all, that no prophecy
of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation,
for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but
men spoke from God as ever carried along by the Holy
Spirit. That verse set of verses right
there is the basis for the response.
I believe the Bible because it is a reliable collection of
historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime
of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events
that take place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim
that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.
Now we'll unpack this here for you this morning, step by step.
First of all, it is a reliable collection of historical
documents, a reliable collection of historical documents.
If you take a note, you can write that down because you're
going to learn this whole phrase here today.
We're going to learn this whole this morning here.
A reliable collection of historical documents.
That's important. It's important that it's a
reliable, It's important that it's a collection.
It's an important that it's historical.
That's what Peter says here in verse 16.
He says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when
we've made known to you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The Bible is unlike any other
holy book. It is a collection.
It is a collection, not just one individual wrote this who said
he heard it from God and everyone then has to listen to
him. It is a collection of writers.
The Bible was written on three different continents, Asia,
Africa and Europe, in three different languages, Hebrew,
Greek and a little bit Aramaic. And and it was written by more
than 40 different writers, 40 different authors from all walks
of life. There were kings, there were
national leaders, there were generals or prophets.
There were fishermen, there were shepherds and many of them were
in prison and many of them were in different kinds of
circumstances. There, there were doctors, there
were historians, historians, tax collectors as well. 66 volumes
in all, and these 66 volume covered hundreds of issues and
subjects and they were written over a period of 1500 years.
Some 1500 years. Recap is this. 3 continents, 3
languages, more than 40 authors, hundreds of subjects and topics
over 1500 years. It's not just one individual
making a claim, but it is a reliable collection of
historical documents. Turn there from your Bible.
We're going to come back to second Peter, but turn to the
left and your Scriptures there to the book of Luke.
And look at the 1st chapter of the book of Luke, the first few
verses there. And Luke says this in as much as
many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that
have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, I have
delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also,
having followed all these things closely for some time past, to
write an orderly account to you, most excellent, Theophilus, that
you may have blind faith in what I have to say.
No, that's not what he said. He said that you may have
certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
Interesting. Luke himself was not an
eyewitness. He didn't claim to be an
eyewitness. He's a historian who claims to
have traced the information from eyewitnesses.
And that's what he says here in these verses.
Notice what Peter says. What Peter says is we did not
follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the
power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, these weren't myths.
They weren't made-up. It was not a collection of
myths. These were facts is what Peter
says. But secondly.
But secondly, it was written by eyewitnesses.
Peter's next phrase is that, but we were eyewitnesses of His
Majesty. And so the second part here is a
reliable collection of historical documents written by
eyewitnesses. Notice what John says.
And we turn to the the writer in our Bible, to the book of first
John, first John, chapter 1. Here's what he says here in
these first few verses. He says that which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life. So what do you think John is
trying to say? Is he trying to make a point
here? Well, maybe verse 2 helps us
understand this point. The life was made manifest, and
we have seen it and testify to it, and proclaim to you the
eternal life which was with the Father and has made manifest
unto us. How about verse 3?
This ought to maybe give us some idea of what he's aiming at.
That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so
that you may have fellowship with us.
They say we have 5 senses, seeing, hearing, touching,
tasting and smelling. Peter hits three of them here,
right? He says we touched him, we saw
him, we heard him. And also if you want to go to
Acts, the 10th chapter, Acts 10, verses 34 and 243, verse 41 says
we ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead.
And so there they tasted, they ate with him, didn't taste him,
but they tasted the same food that he tasted.
They smelled the same food that he did there.
They used all of their senses. He says we know this, we saw it,
we witnessed this. So they were eyewitnesses, but
it was written during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.
And that's very, very important. Let's all look at it together.
A reliable collection of historical documents written by
eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.
And so now we go to 1st Corinthians, the 15th chapter,
turn over to the left in your Bibles there to what Paul said
in First Corinthians chapter 15. Here's how he expresses it.
He says this is incredibly important.
Many don't like this here. They don't believe it.
They want to date the Bible at a late time.
But Pete, but Paul here says the Bible happened during the
lifetime of eyewitnesses. These things are written during
the lifetime of eyewitnesses. So what I said First Corinthians
15 verses one through 8. Now we remind you, brethren, of
the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you
stand, and by which you're being saved, if you hold fast what I
preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I
delivered unto you first of all, first importance, what I also
received, that Christ died for sins according to the
Scriptures. That he was buried, that he
rose, was raised the third day in accordance with the
Scriptures. That he appeared to Cephas, then
to the 12. So these are witnesses of Jesus
after His resurrection. This is proof of Jesus
resurrection. He appeared to Peter and then to
the 12. He appeared to Peter to the 12
and got lost here. And then he appeared to me into
more than 500 brothers at one time, the most of which are
still alive, but some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James and to all the apostles.
And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared
untimely born born. He appeared to me.
Now, if you do the math. If you do the math from what
Paul has just laid out here, you come up with at the very, very
least there were 251 because he said among there were 500
brethren, most of which are still alive.
So if you do the math and bring that to it's very, very minimum,
there were 251 eyewitnesses to the resurrection who were still
alive. From First Corinthians was
written. That was about 8050545455.
That's 21 or 22 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It says there were still people here.
And that's very, very important that he puts this here because
that means that the claim that Paul was making here in his
writing of Jesus being resurrected from the dead.
Is. Falsifiable.
That's not a word which we use a
lot, but what that means is that you can go and you can hear and
you can you can, you can find the testimony that someone gives
and you can bring other people in to testify about that as
well. And they can falsify that
person's testimony. If what they're saying is wrong,
they'll expose it. Now, if someone makes a claim
that cannot be falsified, oh, I was in my backyard and there was
a space saucer came down and I aliens came and talked to me and
told me some things there. Well, who else?
That's interesting. Who else saw that?
Nobody. Nobody did.
It's a claim that cannot be falsified.
It can't be proven, as we would say there, and so that's not a
very strong claim there. But Paul's claim about the
resurrection was falsifiable. You can go and ask these people
if it's wrong, they can tell you.
That's what Paul is inviting here by saying they're still
alive. They're still alive.
You can do that. That's.
Strong. That's a very strong.
And so there's the claim that people says that no, the Bible's
translated in too many times. It's like a game of telephone.
It's like a game of telephone that the ultimate answer comes
comes out different from the original.
There. You know what the game of
telephone is. You start here, I tell you
something, you tell her. Tell.
Chris, you going down the line there, you tell, you tell it all
the way through and you come down here and then finally gets
to Terry at the end. And then Terry says this is what
I heard, and you say this is what you heard, and you know
what they are. Miles.
Apart that's how that goes gossip, that's the term.
That's that's the name of it. Sometimes there telephone is a
better, you know, maybe a higher fluten term there on that.
Of course, telephones are different now.
So anyway, anyway, that's how that is.
But that's not how the Bible was translated.
It wasn't written from one translation to the next to the
next to the next to the next. Translations are made like this.
The English standard version was, was was made in the early
2000s. And they did not go just go back
to the prior translation and translate from that.
They went back to the Greek, the Hebrew, the Aramaic manuscripts
themselves, which means the game actually goes like this.
I speak to you and tell you. I speak to you and I tell you.
I speak to you and I tell you I speak to you and I tell you all
down the line. And then I finally, after we go
through everybody talk to Terry. And then you compare what you
said with what you said. You know what or what you.
Heard. It's the same thing.
That's how translations work. And so people who want to
squeeze it and make it not valid because it's been translated and
it's been translated many times, that's not a valid argument
there. It would be, you know, if, if,
if you had bothered to go learn to read Greek and Hebrew and
Aramaic, he could do this. Be the go to the source
yourself. These translations, though, they
can be tested, but there's another claim then that people
come up with, and that is the documents that they're
translated from are late documents.
They're written way and been revised so many times.
These manuscripts are revised so many times that we don't know
what was in the earlier documents.
Well, I'm claiming that the Bible was written early, that
the New Testament was written early.
The New Testament is complete, was completed around the end of
the 1st century and we have very early manuscripts close to that
time. It's true we don't have the
original, the original paper that the apostles wrote on there
because of the material of those originals were written on.
They, they, they just have not been able to last and would not
last. But we do have documents that
date back as early as one, 2100 to 120 AD.
That's about just a few decades, a few decades after the
completion of those written accounts by the apostles there.
And not only that, but we have 6000 / 6000 manuscripts or
portions of manuscripts of the New Testament.
And when you complain that, compare that to other writings,
writings of ancient, of ancient form.
If you look at Aristotle's Poetics, there are less than a
dozen manuscripts, and the earliest is over 1000 years
after the original writing. Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars,
less than a dozen copies. And it's over 900 years between
the last writing and the first manuscript that we could put our
hands on. Homer's Iliad, we have a few 100
manuscripts, but the earliest one we can put our hands on is
written some 2100 years after the original.
Here this is 6000 manuscripts, and the earliest ones were
written just decades after our our the earliest our earliest
ones. Earliest manuscripts were made
just decades after the original was written.
So it's also a claim that there were overzealous monks during
the time of Constantine, Roman emperor, about three O 6 to
3:37, that he had some overzealous monks to come in and
change the manuscripts, change the things in the scripture
there to fit the picture that we have today.
Now that fails that claim. That has a problem on three
different levels. Number one, you have a
manuscript problem. There's 6000 Greek manuscripts
or portions of manuscripts. So we have these monks during
the time of Constantine. You're going back and they're
going to change the New Testament.
They would have to find 6000 Greek manuscripts and portions
of manuscripts. Change them all in exactly the
same way. Don't show your ink work.
Don't get caught. Don't ever tell anybody what you
did and put them back where you got him.
Second level, Second level problem there is Jesus said to
go and make disciples of every nation.
And the problem is that when people of every nation, every
ethnic group if you will, they speak different languages.
And so within the first couple of centuries, the New Testament
was translated into Syriac, Coptic and Latin.
And so now these overzealous monks, they have what they have
to do during the time of Constantine.
They have to go find the 6000 manuscripts, make them all, make
all the changes, make all the changes.
Don't show your ink work. Put them back where you got them
there. Don't tell anybody.
And then also they've got to learn how to lie in Syria.
Coptic and Latin as well. Change all of those, put them
back where they got them there. Because if you.
Don't. There's going to be a problem
and because now the manuscripts will match the translations.
Of the to. These other language, so you got
to change those. And then again, don't show your
ink work. Don't get caught.
Don't tell anybody. There's a third level.
And the third level is this, that the writings of the early
church fathers, as they're called, the early church fathers
had a horrible habit of quoting and writing commentaries in the
New Testament, so much that all if all we had.
Were the writings of the early Greek Fathers.
I haven't verified this this. Is what I understand that we
would be able to produce the New Testament, all of it except
about 11 verses. Bruce Metzger has a little more
conservative estimate. He says 95% of the New Testament
can be, could could be duplicated from the early church
father's writings there. And so now what you have is the
Greek manuscripts that have to be changed, the translations
that have to be changed. And then you have to go find all
the early church fathers that had those things, change them
all. Make sure their commentaries now
match the lies that you told in Syria, Coptic, Latin and Greek
and do that. It's a fantasy.
It's a fantasy that that could happen.
So we have a reliable collection of historical documents written
by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.
Right now all we have is a good history book.
Now it gets good. Now it gets good.
Verse 17 says Second Peter chapter 1.
For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and
the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
We ourselves heard this voice born from heaven, for we were
with Him on the holy mountain. Now we have a reliable
collection of historical documents written by
eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, and they
report to us supernatural events.
No, it's not superhuman events, that's Sports Center highlights,
but these are supernatural events, things like the Mount of
Transfiguration where Moses, Elijah appear and talk with
Jesus. Jesus is transformed, voice
comes from heaven. This is my beloved son whom I
well pleased hear him. These are supernatural events
that we see in the gospel that that that are claimed in the
gospel accounts. They claim Jesus raised people
from the dead, that Jesus healed lepers, people with leprosy,
that he healed people who were born blind.
He healed people that were deaf. He walked on water and Peter
could say I walked on water with him there for a little bit
there. And then there's the favorite,
the favorite. Friday dead, Sunday risen.
That's the greatest miracle of all there.
Supernatural events in the Old Testament creation, the world,
the part of the creation of the world, the part of the Red Sea,
the drowning of favours, army giving, man in the wilderness,
other supernatural events. These are types of things that
we see in the Bible there. But these are not just
supernatural events, but they are supernatural events that
took place in fulfilment of specific prophecies.
And so we have a reliable collection of historic documents
written by a witnesses during the lifetime of other
eyewitnesses, and they report supernatural events that took
place in fulfillment of specific prophecies.
Now these are not general Nostadromics.
Nostradamus, whatever it is how you pronounce that his name.
Nostradamus type prophecies and they're not modern day faith
healer prophecies. I went to see a faith healer one
time and he said someone over here.
Has a back. Problem.
There's five people raised their hands there and he healed them
there in the audience. Supposedly someone over here has
a heart problem. Somebody raises their hand
there. Somebody over here has lost a
job and you know, all this kind of thing there.
And finally he got down to something.
He said there's someone over here that has that has a problem
with their leg and nobody raised their hand.
Well, if you don't want to be healed, that's your business.
You know, if you know the human condition, you can say all kinds
of things and make all kinds of prophecies like that.
This is not what we find in the Scripture there.
I'm going to look at 1:00. I'm going to look at 1:00.
But Jesus in Scripture fulfilled at least 300 predictive
prophecies in his ministry, more than 300.
There. One we want to look at in
particular here. Turn back to the left, to the
Old Testament, to the Book of Psalms, to the first part of the
Book of Psalms, Psalm 22, and there you have.
If I wanted to turn to Psalm 22. In the 1st century, here's how I
would do it. Let's say we were Jewish people
and we were talking an Aramaic and I was going to say turn to
Psalm 22. Well, we didn't know what Psalm
22 was because the chapters and verses are a recent vintage in
scripture there. So how would identify Psalm 22
was, I would say the first line of the Psalm.
I would say scroll, open your scroll, turning your skull to.
Ili ili. Lama Sabachthani, does that
sound familiar? You're familiar with the Gospel.
That's what that's what Matthew 27 verse 46, Mark 15 verse 34
says that Jesus said on the cross, he said.
Ely. Ely Llama Sabachthani, which is
the first line of Psalm 22. So Jesus quotes Jesus expresses
his the the the the burden of his heart.
But in doing that, he quotes the title of a song that he right
before he's crucified. Now songs are interesting
because they speak to other parts of other things there.
What if I said some glad morning when this life is over, what
would you say? I'll fly away, right, Terry?
What if I said? What can rush away my?
Sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's what he said. I saw his lips move there.
So here's what's happening here. When Jesus does this, if someone
is about to be executed, if I were about to be executed and I
said the first line of a song and you watched me then die,
suffer and die after that, you'd probably think about that The
rest of the time, that song, the rest of the time while I was
dying. These Jews at the crucifixion,
they knew their Old Testament, they knew the songs.
They knew the songs, perhaps they would remember that for the
rest of their life. Here's what Psalm 22 says.
Ili ili lamasabakthani Verse one says, My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? The very words of Jesus on the
cross. Why are you so far from saving
me, from the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer by by night.
But I find no rest. Look at verse 6.
I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised
by the people. All who see me mock me.
They make mouths at me, they wag their heads.
He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him, Let him
rescue him if he delights in him.
These are the very things that happened that the people that
Jesus that witnessed the resurrection of Jesus did and
said there in the Gospel accounts.
Now that's why that's how he's being mocked while he's being
crucified. Go down to verse 12 and you read
and you read here. It says many bulls encompass me.
Strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring
lion. I'm poured out like water.
All my bones are out of joint. Why?
Because he's hung on a tree. That's why all of his bones are
out of joint. My heart is like wax.
It is melted in my breast. Interesting that after Jesus
dies, they Pierce him in the side, thrusting upward,
thrusting inward and upward. They Pierce the pericardium in
blood and water. Rush out.
His heart looks like wax. What it says my verse 15.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd.
My tongue sticks to my jaws. All of that would make you say I
thirst words of Jesus upon the cross.
There you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me. Dogs encompass me to the Jews.
That was a reference to the Gentiles.
And guess what? Roman soldiers were Gentiles who
crucified Jesus, He says further there in the Psalm, a company of
evil doers encircles me. Yes, he was crucified between
two of them. They have pierced my hands and
my feet. By the way, not everybody that
was crucified was pierced in the hands and feet.
Some were just tied to the cross and it took them days to hang
there and die. He says in verse 17, I can count
all my bones. They break your bones in order
to haste your death on the cross there.
But Jesus was crucified right before a high holy day.
He, he needed to die quickly. So his body wasn't hanged on the
cross during the Passover, but that is so.
But they didn't have to break his bones.
He could count all of his bones because he said into my hands, I
commit my, I commit my spirit. And so none of his bones were
broken when he was crucified. He goes further.
We read further in verse 17. They stare and glowed over me.
They divide my garments among them for my clothing.
They cast lots actions which were done by the Roman soldiers
there when Jesus was crucified. All of that was written.
Psalm 22 is written over 1000 years before Jesus was ever born
into this world. And it was fulfilled
specifically there as Jesus hung up on the cross.
He didn't make it happen. The fulfillment that happened,
it was foretold by the wisdom of the of God through the through
the, through the psalmist there. And you know, it was written
also by a man who never once in his lifetime saw crucifixion.
How do we know? Because crucifixion had not yet
been invented. It was invented by the Romans.
That's how we know. And so we have a reliable
collection of historical documents written by white
eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.
They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment
of specific prophecies. And then Peter says in verse 19,
and we have a the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which
you do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining the dark place
until the day dawns and the morning star rise in your
hearts. He's saying, listen to these
fulfilled prophecies because they're important.
They validate the truths that they proclaim.
Maybe you're here, Maybe you're here and you say, well, I hear
all of that, but I still don't believe Peter would say, pay
attention to it, though. Pay attention to fulfilled
prophecy like a man out in the night who sees in the dark, who
sees a lamp shining off of the distance.
You ever do that? See the lamp out of it?
You look at it, it's dark everywhere.
You see that light. There he goes, that light
moving. Is that light coming towards me
or what? You sit there and watch it.
You sit there and watch it because it's going to stand for
something, that's going to do something.
And then eventually, you know what happens?
The sun comes up, the sun comes up and you can see everything
that happens around where that light is, right?
You can do that. That's what Peter is saying, and
that's what you are called to do, asked to do.
If you say, if you say, I'm not sure that I believe this.
We'll just keep watching that. Just keep watching that light.
Just keep watching that light and as the day dawns, it'll
become clearer and it can become clearer.
There's a man in a congregate in our congregation in Auburn, CA.
He came to church, didn't believe in the Lord, didn't
believe, didn't believe in God, and sat there on the bench with
his family for about 7 years to finally he came to faith in
Christ. He watched that light dimly
until it dawned in his heart. And that's what Peter's talking
about. We're talking about he is a
faithful member of that congregation.
Today he said, if nothing else, you sit there long, say, well,
I'm not convinced, that's fine. Just watch like you're watching
a light in the distance. If the day dawns, the morning
star arise in your hearts because that's what you need.
The need the day to dawn, you need the morning star, the faith
in Jesus and self to rise in your hearts.
That's what you need. Because the Bible says faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Don't take your eyes off of this.
But read more about it Next. The verse says in verse 20,
knowing this, that first of all, no prophecy of Scripture comes
by comes from someone's own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man that
men spake from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit. Finally, they claim that their
writings were divine rather than human in origin.
Now here's what we have. We have a reliable collection of
historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime
of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events
that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim
that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.
They claim that this is from God thousands of times the Bible
says and the Lord said and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, and
the Lord spoke to and the Lord said and thus saith the Lord all
over the Bible over 2600 times the Bible claims divine
authorship. This is God's words.
This is not man's words. They're claiming that these are
God's words. And by the way, when these
prophecies are filled fulfilled, it gives credibility that God is
speaking. Objection, objection there.
I just can't get there because men wrote the Bible.
Men wrote the Bible. So it's not reliable.
I can't do that. Well, men wrote that.
That's. I just can't believe it.
Then you can't believe anything written in any book because men
wrote it. How Can you believe your your
birth certificate? Some men wrote it, maybe some
woman wrote it, whatever, doesn't matter.
But some human wrote it there. Yeah.
You don't believe that men wrote
the Bible because you believe that men may be fallible and you
know that you are valuable, but yet you are making your claim on
your words there. So it kind of double S back on
you there. How do you know that you own
your car? It's a document that comes that
was produced by men. How do you know that you own
your house? Men wrote that.
How do you know you know that that's that not a very good
objection there in that another objection is OK, that you know
this is a big one. Well, I am a man of science.
Unless these types of things can be proven to me scientifically,
then I just have wait a minute there.
People say they believe that they are so super intelligent
that they actually demonstrating their ignorance by this.
You understand the scientific method don't you?
In the scientific method, something has to be observable,
measurable and repeatable, right?
That is the scientific method. History is not observable,
measurable, or repeatable. You don't use the scientific
method to prove historical events.
You use the evidentiary method to prove historical events like
you would in a courtroom. You ask about reliability of
sources. You ask about corroboration of
sources. You ask about the internal and
the external evidence that supports those sources.
These are the kinds of questions you ask.
Who are the witnesses? Are they reliable?
Are they trustworthy witnesses? Is this falsifiable?
Is what they say falsifiable? Are there other things that
might be contradicting this, or are there other things that are
confirming this? These are the kind of questions
that you ask for the evidentiary, evidentiary method
for historical events. And when you ask these questions
about the Bible, you come away with three continents, 3
languages, over 40 authors, most of whom had never met one
another. 66 volumes, hundreds of different subjects and topics
that come together in a cohesive unit that tell one redemptive
story written over more than 1500 years.
And we haven't even talked about the corroboration of of some
25,000 archaeological digs that related that relate directly to
matters discussed of the the Bible that has confirmed
confirmed it as written there. So therefore the intelligent man
is not the one who says I simply can't believe it.
That's the fool. But the intelligent man says I
choose to believe the Bible. That's one thing we haven't
talked about here because at first I said I choose to believe
the Bible because it is a reliable rest of it.
Choose to believe the Bible. That's the first part of the
statement we haven't commented on, but let's comment on it
right now. Belief in the Bible is to a
great extent a matter of choice. It is based upon it is.
It is a willful thing based upon faith.
We don't pray to God, as the Mormons suggest, and get a warm
burning within the bosom you. We don't do that.
That's not why that is. Feelings can be misleading.
Homer Gay once heard a sermon and got a feeling.
The preacher told him that meant that he was saved.
He had they. Later he saw two dogs in a fight
and he got that same feeling when he saw those dogs in a
fight there. And then later he saw a woman, a
young woman. He got the same feeling He saw
that woman that later married her there.
He realized feelings do not tell the story there.
You can't rely on feelings. There may be emotion, there may
be overwhelming emotion when you read the Bible, when you
understand the truths that are in it there.
But belief needs deeper and stronger roots than just emotion
there. And it is not God giving us
belief directly like the Calvinists argue.
They say you can't believe if you wanted to.
You can only believe only if God tells you and God allows you to.
There that belief is entirely the decision of God.
No, He appeals to us all through what he has made and what he's
revealed. Romans 1017.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing by the word of God, or by hearing by
hearing by the Word of God. We may be overwhelmingly.
Convinced by reading the Word, by hearing the word there, but
ultimately we choose to believe it.
And so I choose to believe the Bible because it is a reliable
collection of historical documents written by
eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses that
report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of
specific prophecies. And they claim that the writings
are divine rather than human in origin.
And if you want to put some gravy on that biscuit, I tried
it and it changed my life. That's my lesson this morning.
That's something that you can, you know, you don't have to
defend that because Peter doesn't say you have to defend
it. He says, know what you believe,
know why you believe it and be able ready to explain it.
You know what that does that invites other people to also
believe it. That's what that does.
And so folks, we need to be able to defend our faith.
We need actually, we need to be able to explain our faith.
That's it. And that's what we're calling
people to do. We never know the minds of those
who are here, who perhaps you're here.
You need to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Believe on Jesus, repent of your sins, confess that Jesus is the
Son of God. We'll be delighted to wash you,
to immerse you in water for the remission of your sins.
The Lord will wash you from your sins.
That's what Jesus will do. That's the gospel, That's what
it says, and then you live for him after that.
If you're here and you've obeyed the gospel and you strayed away
from the Lord, you need to come back and make things right.
We'll give you that opportunity to today also as we stand and
sing the imitation song.