Psalm 145:13 – Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is TRUSTWORTHY in all He promises and FAITHFUL in all He does.
2nd Corinthians 1:20 – For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
One of the ways God fills our cups to overflowing here at Redland is through our music ministry—wouldn’t you agree? I have served at churches where we struggled to find even one pianist—but here at Redland we not only have an EXCELLENT pianist—we are also blessed with a large, talented Sanctuary Choir, a growing orchestra, several hand bell groups, an amazing Gospel Choir, a praise team, a Youth Choir and several children’s choirs. And—this is nothing new—God has always blessed this church musically over the years—and that continues under Bill Archer’s gifted and dedicated leadership.
Tonight we will “drink from this cup again” as we gather to hear our KFP1 choir sing and our KFP 2 and 3 choirs present a musical entitled The Bible Tells Me So Show. Louise Brinkman directs KFP 2. Paula Pursel directs KFP 3—and I always look forward to when they combine their groups to present their spring musical. It is always VERY well done. God consistently uses our children and their directors to lead us closer to His Son through these presentations. I encourage you to make plans to be here!
Tonight’s musical proclaims the truth that God’s Word can always be trusted. Our kids will use their musical and acting talents to testify to the fact that the Bible is full of promises that we can rely on. For example, they’ll sing about the fact that, in His Word, God says He will forgive and forget our sins—He will answer our prayers—He will provide for our needs—and of course the greatest promise of all—He promises to love us. They’ll remind us that we can KNOW God loves us because He kept His promise to send His Son, Jesus, the Christ, to save us. Our kids will sing the truth that since the Bible is absolutely true—since the BIBLE TELLS US SO—we can anchor our lives to Its promises. We can build our lives on the SOLID ROCK TRUTH of God’s written Word.
This is a great thing to do on Mother’s Day—because the children who will proclaim this message obviously have moms who live up to Proverbs 31 where it says: “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” One of the most important lessons we can teach our children is that God’s Word—the Bible—is absolutely trustworthy—and I’m so thankful we have moms like that here at Redland.
Unfortunately many of today’s seekers don’t have moms like that and so they tend to resist this way of thinking. They tend to question whether or not the Bible really IS trustworthy. When asked WHY they feel this way, they list several reasons—beliefs they hold about the Bible that are NOT true.
This morning, as groundwork for tonight’s musical message, I want to begin by reviewing—and countering—a few of these faulty opinions.
(1) The first misconception many seekers hold is their belief that the Bible is full of CONTRADICTIONS and ERRORS.
They point out things like—the Gospel writers’ accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection don’t seem to agree. For example, Matthew says there was ONE angel at Jesus’ tomb while John says there were TWO. Others cite the fact that, whereas the GOSPELS say that Judas hung himself, the book of ACTS says that his bowels gushed out. But—these seeming “contradictions” are easily reconciled. Concerning the angels, Matthew didn’t say there was ONLY one—so his account doesn’t really conflict with John’s. John was just providing more DETAIL by saying there were two. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but whenever you have two angels, you always have one. And—as for Judas’ suicide—when you put all the Biblical accounts together you get a complete, non-contradictory story. The betrayer apparently hung himself from the branch of a tree that grew on the edge of a cliff. It was against the law to touch a dead body in those days. So, somebody came along later, found his body, cut the rope and the bloated body fell on the rocks below. When this happened his bowels gushed out, just as the Bible said—so these two accounts are not contradictory. In fact, they are complimentary.
Norman Geisler wrote a book entitled, When Critics Ask, and in it he devoted nearly six hundred pages to setting the record straight when it comes to every one of the Bible’s supposed contradictions and errors. He writes, “Of the over 800 allegations I’ve studied, I haven’t found a single error in the Bible, but I’ve found a lot of errors [made] by its critics.”
(2) Another objection many seekers raise when it comes to trusting the Bible is their belief that it is HISTORICALLY and SCIENTIFICALLY inaccurate.
Over the years many people have said that, in their opinion, the Bible is basically a huge collection of FABLES because modern archeology doesn’t support the events that it chronicles. For example, they say it lists the names of the kings of Israel—when there is no proof that these kings ever really lived—much less ruled. But over the years as archeologists have dug and dusted their finds, they have discovered concrete proof of the existence of every one of the forty-seven kings of Israel in the exact places the Bible said they had reigned.
In fact, there have been THOUSANDS of ARCHEOLOGICAL FINDS in the Middle East that support the Biblical record. For example, the narratives about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were once considered legendary—but as more has become “dug up” these stories have been corroborated. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was thought to be mythological—until evidence was uncovered that these cities were situated just as the Old Testament says. Archaeologist Clifford Wislow writes that he has found, “…permanent evidence of the great conflagration that took place [in Sodom and Gomorrah] in the long distant past.”
The Bible makes about three dozen references to the Hittites and critics used to charge that there was no evidence that such people ever existed. But in recent years archaeologists digging in modern Turkey have discovered the records of this wicked nation.
The existence of King Solomon and his thousands of horses and chariots used to be questioned. But in Meggido—which was one of five chariot cities—excavations have revealed the ruins of thousands of stalls for his horses and chariots just as 1st Kings 10 describes. By the way, last fall we toured Meggido and saw the ruins of those stalls. Here’s a picture of me actually riding in one of Solomon’s chariots. Seriously, here’s Ann Michael standing in the ruins of some of Solomon’s horse stalls.
In his best-selling book, The Bible As History Werner Keller writes, “In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well-attested evidence now available, as I thought of the skeptical criticism which from the eighteenth century onward would fain have demolished the Bible altogether, there kept hammering in my brain this once sentence: ‘The Bible is right after all.’”
The more we learn about the people and the times that the Bible describes, the more we see that its history is absolutely accurate. By the way, we don’t have archeological evidence like this for any other religious book from the ancient world. The book of Mormon is a great example.
Other seekers steer clear of the Bible because they think its teachings contradict SCIENTIFIC fact—but this is just not true.
Now—the Bible is not a book of science—but whenever it deals with scientific information it always does so in line with proven scientific truth because truth doesn’t contradict truth. I’ll cite a few examples.
The first concerns this man—Herbert Spencer—who was a somewhat famous scientist who worked in the latter part of the 19th century.Spencer was an avowed atheist and did not believe that God created this world. In fact, it was he, and not Darwin, who is known for the quote, “survival of the fittest.”Spencer became renowned because he discovered and identified the way to classify all knowable things. Spencer came up with five classifications: time, force, action, space, and matter.Spencer taught that all that exists can fit into one of these categories—and he was hailed as a genius for this discovery.But, it is interesting to note that this is exactly how the Bible described the creation of the world. In the beginning (time), God (Force), created (action), the heavens (space), and the earth (matter)! So Spencer didn’t come up with something as original as he thought!
Another example from science is the 2nd law of thermodynamics which says that “all matter is breaking down…all matter tends toward dissolution.” Well, this is exactly what the Bible teaches. Now—prior to the fall this law did not exist. Things were eternal. Nothing was breaking down. There was no such thing as rust and decay—aging or death. But after the sin of Adam and Eve, death entered and this law came into force. Romans chapter 8 describes this 2nd Law when it refers to the “bondage of decay” that all of creation has been subjected to because of sin.
When I was in seminary I came across a great illustration of this bondage of decay. One day while studying on the top floor of the library I found where they had hung a picture of every graduating class from Southern Seminary—the first class right up to the most current, which I thought was pretty cool. As I walked along looking at all those photos I saw pictures of W. O. Carver and remembered my dad telling me how when he was at Southern in the early ‘50’s he was wheeling me around in my stroller and he “introduced” me to Dr. Carver who was one of Southern’s most famous faculty members—and was an elderly man by then.
Well, I found the picture of the graduating class in 1899—the year Dr. Carver first came on the faculty. He had jet black hair parted down the middle. No matter how hard I “goodgled” I couldn’t find that picture but here’s Dr. Carver in 1923…still a very young man in the prime of life. Well, I walked around looking at the picture of each graduating class for the next fifty years and saw how Dr. Carver aged year by year. It was obvious that his body had been subjected to the 2nd Law of thermodynamics—the bondage of decay that plagues all of us—decay we all see progressing every morning when we look in the mirror.
One more example of scientific truth found in the Bible is the fact that God’s Word teaches that the earth is not flat but round. It took a long time for Christians to understand this but that is exactly what the Bible says. Scripture records that Jesus said when He returns some will be sleeping and some working, a teaching that recognizes the fact that the earth is round because it is always day on half of the sphere and night on the other half—as you can see in this WORLD CLOCK.
(3) And then another objection many seekers have when it comes to the Bible is their belief that it promotes things like SLAVERY and the SUBJUGATION of women.
People who think this must understand—there is a difference between what the Bible REPORTS and what it ENDORSES. For example, Peter denied Christ. But just because the Bible reports that does not mean that it recommends that we do the same. And—the Bible DOES make reference to slaves and masters but nowhere does it say that it is God’s will for one human being to OWN another. In fact, Paul made a rather radical statement for his day when he said in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus.” By the way, the Abolitionist movement was propelled forward by Christians—people who understood and lived by teachings like this that are found in the Bible.
In the 18th century, almost 100 years before slavery ended in the U.S., John Wesley wrote, “Have your father, have you, has any man living a right to use another as a slave? It cannot be. Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes vital air, and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature.”
The horrible truth is slavery still exists in our day and age but not in countries that are predominantly Christian. In fact slavery tends to thrive in countries most noted for their OPPRESSION of Christianity. Sudan is a good example. So—contrary to the opinion of some, the Bible teaches that every human has a God-given right to live in freedom.
And—the Bible also has a very high opinion of WOMEN.
In the New Testament Jesus and Paul both treated women with a sense of dignity, respect, and equality that defied the cultural norm of their day. Women were a part of Jesus’ inner circle. In fact the male disciples admitted in their Gospels that the women were last to leave the Cross and first to arrive at the tomb. Acts 21 refers to four women who prophesied. Romans 16 says that Pheobe was a deacon.
Now—people who want to “keep women in their place” may quote some Bible verses out of context, but the systematic teaching of Scripture is that men and women are equal in God’s eyes, and should be treated equally.
And again—this is not true of other faiths.
I’m sure you heard that this week 276 school girls were kidnapped in Nigeria. Armed members of a Muslim group called, “Boko Haram” overwhelmed security guards at the all-girls school in Chibok, pulled the girls out of bed, and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon. Boko Haram’s name translates to “Western education is a sin,” and the group especially opposes the education of women. Under its version of Sharia law, women should be at home raising children and looking after their husbands, not at school learning to read and write. Now—you may rightly point out that this is a terrorist group but the fact is, even non-extreme versions of the Muslim faith tend to subjugate women.
I’m saying people who criticize the Bible in any of the ways I’ve mentioned don’t really understand it. They have bought into misconceptions about Scripture that just aren’t true.
Well, what can we who know that God’s written Word is trustworthy—what can we tell seekers to help them discover how precious, how priceless, how authoritative and reliable the Bible really is?
(1) Well, first of all, I would recommend that you point them to the UNITY of its message.
I say this because the clarity of the Bible’s central message IS truly amazing, especially when you consider how it was WRITTEN. It was written in three different languages—Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic—written over a period of fifteen centuries. During this period empires rose and fell and cultures came and went but miraculously this did not affect the message of the Bible. That in itself is a miracle! As Irwin Lutzer points out, the Bible was written by 45 different human authors who came from a wide variety of occupations: kings, fishermen, a tax collector, a pastor, shepherds, farmers, prophets, and even a physician. I mean, it would be difficult to find a more diverse collection of writers for God to use. These writers run the gamut from Moses—who was highly educated—to Peter, who was an unschooled fisherman. Though they wrote at different periods of world history, their writings dovetail with one another, not superficially but intricately and brilliantly.
The books were penned under different circumstances and different places. Paul wrote from a dungeon in Rome. James wrote from Jerusalem. Moses wrote from the Sinai and Daniel from Babylon. The Bible discusses diverse theological matters, such as the nature of God and His purposes, the characteristics of both good and evil angels, and the nature of man and God’s plan of redemption.
Now—it would be difficult enough to get ten men to agree on so much as one single theological issue, much less forty-five men—most of whom never knew each other—yet that is what happened. I mean, not a one of these men knew that he was writing what would become a part of the Holy Bible. Yet when gathered together into the canon of Scripture, they tell a complete story. If someone should read the New Testament without knowledge of the Old they would ask, “What came before this?” If one should read the Old Testament without knowledge of the New, he would ask, “Where is the rest of this story?” When properly understood no book contradicts the others. No book adds to previously written truth except to enlarge upon it or explain it. And these things cannot be said about any other set of books. The only reasonable explanation for the Bible’s unity is that they have a common author—GOD through His Holy Spirit. It is obvious that these 45 men were inspired by the same Source.
(2) Another thing I would point out to seekers who question the reliability of God’s written word is the unprecedented RELIABILITY of the Bible’s oldest manuscripts.
Now—most intelligent people don’t believe the headlines that they read in papers like the NATIONAL INQUIRER. They know their sources are just not trustworthy. But you can’t say that about the Bible. It is AS reliable as the NATIONAL INQUIRER is unreliable. Let me explain why this is so. Experts judge the reliability of a historical document according to two STANDARDS.
- The first is how long of a span of time there exists between the original document and the oldest copy.
- The other is how many of these old copies or MANUSCRIPTS there are in existence.
Now, of course we don’t have the original copy of the Old or New Testaments. Those crumbled to dust long ago. But the Bible still passes both of these test standards better than any other ancient writing. For example. Homer’s Iliad—remember the story of the Trojan horse? Well, it has the greatest manuscript authority of any non-Christian ancient work. There are about 650 surviving ancient manuscripts of the Iliad and the earliest dates back to the third century. The Iliad was written in 650 B.C. so that means there is a 1000 year span between the time it was written and the earliest surviving manuscript—but it is still considered authoritative. Aristotle’s POETICS was written in 343 B.C. The earliest copy in existence is dated 1100A.D. That’s a span of 1400 years—but no one doubts its authenticity either. I remember in my High School Latin class we translated Caesar’s HISTORY OF THE GALLIC WARS. It was written around 50 B.C. There are less than a dozen existing manuscripts of this work dating 1,000 years after Caesar’s death at the hands of Brutus and the others.
When we compare the manuscript authority of these classic works to that of the New Testament—well, let’s just say the comparison is almost embarrassing in contrast. Over 20,000 copies of the New Testament manuscripts are in existence today. And, the earliest fragments date back to the second century—a span of not dozens of CENTURIES but of only a few DECADES from when the original copies were penned. Sir Frederic Kenyon, who was the director and principal librarian at the British Museum and second to none in authority when it comes to issuing statements about manuscripts concludes: “The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were originally written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
All this goes to show that the New Testament has more manuscript authority than any piece of literature from antiquity. And thanks to the discovery of the DEAD SEA SCROLLS the same can be said about the Old Testament.
(3) A third thing to point seekers to is the fact that the Bible’s PROPHECIES always come true.
There are literally thousands of examples but in the interest of time I will mention only a few.
- Ezekiel chapter 30 accurately prophecies the fall of the mighty nation of Egypt.
- The prophet Nahum, Jonah’s successor, said that Nineveh would be destroyed by a flood
This was a huge city with a 100 foot high inner wall—fifty feet thick—half mile out is another wall. Archeologists have studied this site and found that Nineveh fell in the month of AV and there is a strand of pebbles that show it was destroyed by a massive flood just as Nahum prophesied.
- Here’s another. How would you like to predict who will be the president of the U.S 150 years from now?
Well, in the case of Cyrus, king of Persia, that is exactly what God did through His prophet Isaiah. When Isaiah was writing (700-680 BC) Babylon was just barely coming to its own yet he predicted that this nation would eventually surround Jerusalem and take the Jews captive. That is what happened about a hundred years later. But not only did Isaiah predict Babylon would conquer Jerusalem. He went on to say that the Persians, in turn would conquer Babylon. Keep in mind that when this prediction was made, Persia was barely in existence yet Isaiah predicted that Persia would become a world power and conquer Babylon and of course that’s what happened.
But that’s not all! Isaiah also said the King of Persia would allow the captive Jews to return to Jerusalem. But that’s not all! Isaiah, speaking for God, actually named the king who would rule the Persian Empire and let the Jews return. In Isaiah 44:26ff it says, “It is I who says of Jerusalem ‘she shall be inhabited.’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again. It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of her temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’” This was prophesied well over a hundred years before Cyrus was born.
But the greatest example of the Bible’s fulfilled prophecies concerns the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Jesus, the Christ. One of my favorites is found in the 9th chapter of the book of Daniel where he predicted to the day when Jesus would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. Of the more than 2000 prophecies found in the Bible, 333 deal with the coming Messiah. There is no other individual in the history of mankind whose entire life has been so prophetically and predictively detailed. As I said last week, these prophecies include the date when He would be born, the exact place, and that He would be born of a Virgin. They set forth the details of His ministry, His character, His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet, His burial in the grave of a rich man, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to heaven, His proclamation to the Gentiles, and scores of other particulars.
Mathematician Peter Stoner says that the chance of any ONE person fulfilling even EIGHT of these Old Testament prophecies is one in ten to the 17th power. That’s one with seventeen zeroes after it or one in one hundred quadrillion.
Now—to show you how IMPOSSIBLE those odds are let’s go back to this year’s March Madness. As you no doubt remember, billionaire Warren Buffett said he would give a billion dollars to anyone who could fill out the perfect bracket for this year’s NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. To get all that money all you had to do was accurately predict the winner of each of those 67 games. Nearly 8.7 million people accepted the challenge. Nobody WON but if there had have been a winner—he or she would have had the option of taking 40 annual payments of $25 million or a lump sum of $500 million. Multiple winners would have split the money. As he made his challenge Buffett said, “This will be the most fun. Just imagine if there’s one person left at the last game! I will go to that final game with him or her and I’ll have a check in my pocket. However, I think we’ll be rooting for different teams.”
Do you know what the chances were of winning that billion? I looked it up. It was one in four billion, two hundred ninety-four million, nine hundred sixty-seven thousand, two hundred ninety-six. But when it comes to statistical probability that’s nothing—because it is 23 million times LESS LIKELY that one person would fulfill EIGHT of the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Or to put it another way—you and I were 23 million times more likely to pick the 67 winners of this year’s NCAA games than for one person to fulfill eight of the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. If you’re like me all these numbers gives you a headache and I’m sorry to add to it because Jesus didn’t fulfill only EIGHT or even only FORTY-eight of these prophecies. He fulfilled all 333 of them!
Well, the accuracy of the prophecies of the Bible is in itself is a powerful testimony to the veracity of Scripture because as Geisler says, “The Bible is the only book that is supernaturally confirmed in this way.”
So when seekers question the trustworthiness of the Bible tell them about the amazing unity of its message and about the reliability of its oldest manuscripts and make sure they hear about its prophecies. But the best thing to tell seekers when they question God’s written Word is…
(4)…that in your experience it WORKS.
Tell them you have found its promises to be trustworthy in YOUR life. I certainly have! Since I became a Christian 52 years ago, I have tried to live according to the principles of this book. There have been many times when I have failed to live up to this commitment. But I have learned a basic truth. When I do live according to the teachings of the Bible, my life is better. That doesn’t mean that these past 52 years have always been easy because sometimes obedience is the hardest path to follow. As the Bible says, the narrow road is the most difficult to traverse. But when I live according to the principles taught in Scripture—when I rely on God’s promises—I experience the presence and the power of God in my life. I have found that just as God says in Philippians 4:6-7, when I am anxious or worried, if I talk to Him about it, if I pray, “…the peace of God which transcends all human understanding…fills my heart and mind.” I have discovered that if I “trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding…” well then just as Proverbs 3 promises, “God makes my paths straight.” He tells me what to do and what to say.
My marriage is best when I obey the teaching of Ephesians 5 and “…love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” In my conversations with people who are angry with me I have found that “…a gentle answer really DOES turn away wrath…” just as Proverbs 15:1 says it will.
I could go on and on reciting verse after verse but suffice it to say that I have not come across a single promise or precept or principle in the Bible that does not do what it says it will do. God’s Word WORKS! In my opinion it is completely trustworthy—one hundred percent reliable. And I am not alone in this. Over the centuries millions and millions of people have discovered the same thing. In fact, thousands of faithful Christians have given their lives rather than reject the teachings of this Book. Why? Because it DOES work! They have found it to be absolutely trustworthy. Like me they have found that when we read it, and believe it, and apply it to our lives, we are never the same.
Let me put it another way—if you were stranded on a street alone at night, your car had broken down, say at 2AM in Los Angeles—on a road with no streetlights and you got out of your car and suddenly you saw ten big burley motorcycle gang men coming out of a house and walking toward you, would it or would it not be comforting for you to know that they were just coming out of a Bible study? God’s Word WORKS. It changes lives.
You know, I think the best way to summarize the make-up of this Book of books is to say that it is an INVITATION from Creator to creation. In this book God invites you and me to live our lives according to His wisdom. He invites us to give this Book authority in our lives—to adopt it as our guidebook—our instruction manual for life. But the most IMPORTANT invitation you will find in these pages is God’s written offer to know Him personally—to walk with Him daily. And, it is only in accepting THIS invitation that we can understand the Bible completely for when we become Christians God’s Spirit comes to guide us in our study.
Well, like all invitations God’s Word calls for our response. This morning you may want to do so by bowing your head silently and committing to center your life around the teachings of the Bible.
You may want to come publicly and join this church pledging to help us as we OBEY God’s Word and work to fulfill our great commission. Or you may want to walk forward and publicly accept God’s invitation to a personal relationship by deciding to become a Christian and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord. However you feel led, won’t you come as we stand and sing?