1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,200
If you have your Bibles, I don't even know where to tell you to go.

2
00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:10,000
We'll read 1 Peter chapter 1 first, I guess.

3
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,280
We're starting a new series for the summer.

4
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:17,720
I know we're already into summer by several weeks, but we're going to spend the next,

5
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:25,320
I don't know, 12, 14, 15 weeks, just kind of giving you a breakdown of who we are, looking

6
00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:30,920
at our beliefs, looking at our core values, what makes us who we are as a church.

7
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,680
That's the plan this summer.

8
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:38,240
So today we're just going to cover the foundation of where we get all of our beliefs from, and

9
00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:39,320
that's the Bible.

10
00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:44,280
And so hopefully we walk out of here confident in that this morning.

11
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,960
Now there is a chance that this will be my last Sunday here at Cornerstone for a little

12
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,240
while.

13
00:00:53,240 --> 00:01:00,160
Over the past couple of weeks, I've received several letters and calls from the IRS.

14
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:05,920
They have informed me that I've not been paying my taxes, and if I don't rectify the situation

15
00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:09,600
soon they will have to issue a warrant for my arrest.

16
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:14,560
Well, that phone call came on Thursday that I have a warrant out for my arrest because

17
00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,960
I have failed to pay my back taxes.

18
00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:25,600
Now fortunately they are giving me the option to pay them over the phone with my credit

19
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:30,200
card or a prepaid debit card.

20
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:35,280
If I do it that way then they are willing to cut the amount that I owe in half, and so

21
00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:40,640
I will probably be doing that this week.

22
00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:46,560
Now I'm just kidding about that, but I'm not kidding about the phone calls and the letters

23
00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:48,680
that I have received this week.

24
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,000
Now I've seen enough of these kinds of things over the years to know that if I do a quick

25
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,600
Google search, I can figure out pretty quickly that this is a scam.

26
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:03,000
Plus I know that I always pay my taxes on time.

27
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,120
With these kinds of scams and hoaxes, there's all kinds of resources that you can use or

28
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:14,040
go to in order to figure out if something is true or not.

29
00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:20,360
But what do we do and how do we determine if something is true or not when we don't

30
00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:25,360
have the original sources anymore?

31
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:31,360
Especially when it comes to something like the Bible that's so crucial to our lives.

32
00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,120
That's the question I want to be addressing this morning.

33
00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:37,840
How do we know the Bible is true?

34
00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:39,440
Why can we trust it?

35
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,120
Why do we build our lives around it?

36
00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:49,040
Now there's a movement going around where people who grew up in the church, spent their

37
00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:58,440
whole life in the church, are deconstructing their beliefs and twisting the Bible to fit

38
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,960
whatever makes them feel better about themselves.

39
00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:08,520
Now when I have some quiet time and a long time, and I think we all know where that is,

40
00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:14,320
and I have my phone with me and I'm scrolling through my phone, I come across reels.

41
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:20,440
Now I don't know what your 4U page looks like, but mine for instance is filled with people

42
00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:26,800
telling dad jokes, people making furniture, people getting hurt because they're doing

43
00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:28,800
stupid things.

44
00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:34,160
It's also filled with what I'm assuming Instagram is considering Christian teaching.

45
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:41,480
Now one I saw the other day was a guy who was deconstructing Christianity and he asked

46
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:48,440
the question, how many times does the Bible say that a pastor spoke versus how many times

47
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,920
does the Bible say a donkey spoke?

48
00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:58,920
Now his point was that the Bible says that a donkey spoke more times than anyone that

49
00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:01,760
had the title of pastor.

50
00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:07,120
Now it's a ridiculous premise to base your whole argument on that fact.

51
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:12,600
So when things like that begin to take traction, and there's a whole lot of stuff out there

52
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:17,880
that's confusing a whole mess of people, when stuff like that begins to take traction it

53
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,440
will cause confusion.

54
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:27,240
So I want us to walk out of here this morning confident in the Bible and what it says and

55
00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:31,800
to put to rest some of the lies that we hear all around us all the time.

56
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:35,800
So here's rule number one when you are thinking about the Bible and learning about the Bible

57
00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:36,800
and reading the Bible.

58
00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:41,200
When you're discussing the Bible and learning about the Bible it is important to allow the

59
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:48,480
scriptures to interpret themselves because the Bible is never going to contradict itself.

60
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:49,800
Now Abby, she here?

61
00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,080
Fantastic, Abby stuck around for a second service.

62
00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,080
Abby's going to come up and read our passages this morning and we will see the harmony of

63
00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:57,800
the scriptures that she reads.

64
00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:59,120
We're going to start in 2 Peter chapter one.

65
00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:05,680
I invite you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.

66
00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,680
Second Peter 1, 20 through 21.

67
00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:13,560
Knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation

68
00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:19,040
for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but man spoke from God as they were

69
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,760
carried along by the Holy Spirit.

70
00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,400
Second Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

71
00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:29,000
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

72
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:33,600
and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every

73
00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:34,600
good work.

74
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:35,600
Amen, let's pray.

75
00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,640
Father God we thank you for your word and I pray God that we will take a vested interest

76
00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:40,640
in it today.

77
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:42,800
I pray that you will open our hearts to hear from you.

78
00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:47,920
I pray that you will open our ears and eyes to understand it better and so grateful that

79
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:53,080
you allow us to have it and to read it and to hold it.

80
00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:54,080
Father I pray that you bless our time.

81
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:55,080
Today we pray.

82
00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:56,080
Amen.

83
00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:02,760
Thank you, Abbey.

84
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:08,160
So that's the basis for, that text is the basis for our time this morning.

85
00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,680
So what I would like to do, just tell you right out of the gate, I want to give you seven

86
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,760
reasons why we know the Bible is true.

87
00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:17,880
Seven reasons why we know the Bible is true.

88
00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:25,320
The first one being the internal claims that are found between the pages.

89
00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:32,280
The Bible consistently and frequently claims to be the word of God.

90
00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:39,160
There are phrases all throughout the Scripture like God said, the Lord said, God spoke, the

91
00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:41,320
word of the Lord came.

92
00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:47,600
And there's other similar phrases like that and those occur nearly 4,000 times in the

93
00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:48,600
Bible.

94
00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:54,880
I know of no other book that claims to be the word of God that many times.

95
00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:01,680
In addition, both Peter and Paul claim that the Scriptures are in fact God's words that

96
00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,120
have been written down by man.

97
00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:12,160
Now even though the Bible is God breathed, there is both a human and divine element involved

98
00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:15,560
in writing the Scriptures that we have in our hands.

99
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:22,960
The 66 books of the Bible were written by men and each one bears the particular writing

100
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:25,080
style of that author.

101
00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:30,120
So a letter from Paul like we just went through is going to sound differently and have a different

102
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,720
structure than a Psalm written by David.

103
00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:40,440
But it is God who inspired every single word that each one of those authors wrote.

104
00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:48,680
Now that claim, that proof by itself in my opinion is not enough to base your entire

105
00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:50,160
life on.

106
00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:59,720
I could easily write a book that claimed 5,000 times that it was the word of God.

107
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,760
But that doesn't make it God's word, does it?

108
00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:09,360
I could easily claim and many have that they are sent by God to bring a new word to this

109
00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,600
generation that is contrary to the Bible.

110
00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:18,280
The internal claims are important in believing the Bible is true, but they cannot be the

111
00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:19,800
only thing.

112
00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,800
But as we build these things on top of one another and put them all together, I hope

113
00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,880
that you will see the value of these internal claims.

114
00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:34,840
The next proof that shows why the Bible is true is the testimony of Jesus.

115
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:41,160
Jesus testified directly about God's word, that the Bible is truth.

116
00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,680
He says in John 17, sanctify them in the truth.

117
00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:47,120
Your word is truth.

118
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:52,560
Jesus also testified to the truth of the Bible by publicly reading the Scriptures, quoting

119
00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:57,920
the Old Testament Scriptures, referring to actual historical events that are referred

120
00:08:57,920 --> 00:08:59,880
to in the Scriptures.

121
00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:05,720
Now if you don't have a starting point of the Bible, if that's not where you begin,

122
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:10,840
this one is not going to carry much weight by itself either.

123
00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:15,680
By saying I value the testimony of Jesus, when you're not a believer and the Scripture

124
00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:19,000
isn't your starting point, that's not going to carry a lot of weight.

125
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:25,120
Joseph Smith said the book of Mormon was from God and was true.

126
00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:30,320
And Muhammad claims to be a prophet of God and that we should read the Quran.

127
00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:36,680
So if you're trying to convince someone that the Bible is true, using the words of Jesus

128
00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:42,720
aren't going to carry much weight, really any more weight than those other guys.

129
00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:49,480
When you're not a believer, why would you care what the words of Jesus are?

130
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:54,520
But if you are a believer, you understand that the words of Jesus mean everything.

131
00:09:54,520 --> 00:10:02,480
I mean this is God in the flesh declaring that the words in the Bible are truth.

132
00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:05,160
That's a pretty good recommendation to me.

133
00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:11,040
Now when I'm deciding whether or not I'm going to read a book or not, I will generally

134
00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:15,080
turn over the back and I'll see who's recommending a particular book.

135
00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:19,360
And if I recognize the authors or recognize the people that are recommending the book,

136
00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:23,400
I have a higher, there's a more likely chance that I will actually read that book.

137
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,600
But if I turn it around and I don't recognize any of these people that are recommending

138
00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:31,240
this book, I'm probably going to put it down.

139
00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:36,960
When you're not a believer and you don't know who Jesus is, why would that matter to you?

140
00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:43,760
But when Jesus says this book is truth, that carries a lot of weight for me.

141
00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:50,280
So I'm going to take this book as truth and I'm willing to base my whole life around this

142
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,380
one truth.

143
00:10:53,380 --> 00:10:58,440
But now let's get to some of the proofs that will help others who don't know Jesus buy

144
00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,840
into why this book is truth.

145
00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:08,520
This next one is one that I've seen many times help people come to terms with the reality

146
00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:10,520
that the Scriptures are true.

147
00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:15,880
It is the internal consistency that the Bible has.

148
00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:23,040
So let's suppose for a minute that I chose 10 of you in this room at random.

149
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:29,480
And I gave you the task of writing a book on a topic like the meaning of life.

150
00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,000
And you had a year to complete it.

151
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:35,720
The only rules are you're not allowed to talk to the other 10 people about what you're

152
00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:36,880
writing about.

153
00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,200
You can't consult one another.

154
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:44,980
And at the end of the year, what are the chances that when we get those 10 books back together

155
00:11:44,980 --> 00:11:48,480
that they would even have the same theme?

156
00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,400
They would even have the same content?

157
00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:57,400
They would really concerning the specifics would have any sort of similarity.

158
00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,400
There's probably not a high chance that that would happen.

159
00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:04,720
And that would be true even though you're from the same community, you're from the same

160
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,160
church, you speak the same language.

161
00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:15,680
Now imagine another book written over a period of 1500 years, written by 40 different authors

162
00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:19,240
on three different continents in three different language.

163
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:26,800
What are the chances that you would find any consistency at all between the writings?

164
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:32,720
And yet that book, the Bible has a consistent theme from the beginning all the way to the

165
00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:33,720
end.

166
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,160
And all these pieces are interwoven perfectly.

167
00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:43,520
The Bible begins with a paradise that has this special tree in the middle of it.

168
00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:46,280
It's described by Moses and Genesis.

169
00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:52,280
And the book ends, the Bible ends with John writing about the special tree in the book

170
00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:56,360
of Revelation and this different paradise.

171
00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:03,400
And in between is written to show how God provides a way for sinful man who was banished

172
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:09,560
from the first paradise because of his sin and how they can live eternally in the second

173
00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:12,320
paradise.

174
00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:16,640
I'm going to show you this picture that I assume many of you have seen before.

175
00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:19,120
If not, maybe this is new to you.

176
00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:28,160
But this picture is one that shows the 63,779 cross references that are found in the Bible.

177
00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:31,960
And so I doubt you can see it, but on the bottom you see a lot of white.

178
00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:34,960
But if you were a little closer, I'd encourage you to Google this image.

179
00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:38,280
If you were closer, you would see that on the left hand side is white and then next

180
00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:41,760
to it's light gray and then dark gray and then light gray, dark gray.

181
00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:44,560
And that separates each book of the Bible.

182
00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:50,800
And the things that go down, the columns that go down are each book and how many verses

183
00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:52,640
are in each chapter of each book.

184
00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:57,680
You'll see the long one, that's Psalm 119, that's the longest chapter in the Bible.

185
00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:02,920
And the lines that go in across are the 63,000 cross references where Genesis is referencing

186
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:09,200
Revelation or Revelation is referencing Genesis and all these things in between.

187
00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:15,280
There's no other book on the face of the planet that has that much consistency whatsoever.

188
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:20,600
And everything in between there shows how all of this is connected.

189
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:26,280
There are thousands of examples that we could go through, but this is just a good visual

190
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:31,120
of the internal consistency that we have in the books that we are holding.

191
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,080
I think that's pretty cool.

192
00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:39,800
If that isn't enough, let's look at some historical evidence.

193
00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:45,000
Over the years, many people have claimed that the Bible is inaccurate because there's no

194
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:50,360
historical or archaeological evidence to support the biblical accounts.

195
00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:51,920
But guess what?

196
00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:59,640
Every single year, every single year, there continue to be new discoveries that actually

197
00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,560
verify the biblical accounts.

198
00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:04,920
There's thousands of examples that we could go over.

199
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,440
I don't think you want me to do all of that this morning, so I'll just give you a couple

200
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:09,440
of them.

201
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:13,320
Now, most of us, if we grew up in church, we know about the story of Jericho and how the

202
00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:19,000
walls came tumbling down when the Israelites marched around the city seven times in one

203
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:20,160
day.

204
00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:25,080
For many years, Bible skeptics laughed at that story claiming that walls just don't

205
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,300
come tumbling down.

206
00:15:27,300 --> 00:15:32,280
They also claimed that the city was too big, that there's no way an army could march around

207
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,440
that thing seven times in one day.

208
00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:41,520
But archaeological discoveries in the early 20th century by British professor John Garstang

209
00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:47,120
and others give evidence that the walls actually fell outward.

210
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,960
Not inward like we would expect, but they fell outward.

211
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:54,920
When they fell that way, they essentially formed a ramp so the Israelites could just

212
00:15:54,920 --> 00:16:01,000
basically walk right into the city just as the biblical record records.

213
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:06,200
In the size of the fortified city, once they discovered it, they realized was small enough

214
00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:10,640
and it would have permitted the Israelites to easily march around that city seven times

215
00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,840
in one day.

216
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:18,000
In the Bible, there's a group of people called the Hittites, and they're mentioned nearly

217
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,600
60 times in the Scriptures.

218
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:25,680
You may remember that Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, was a Hittite.

219
00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:31,600
Up until the start of the 20th century, Bible critics claimed that there is no evidence whatsoever

220
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:37,720
in any material that they had that the Hittite people actually even existed.

221
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:45,040
But in 1906, Hugo Winkler discovered a huge storeroom filled with over 10,000 clay tablets

222
00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:46,520
in Turkey.

223
00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:51,960
After completing the difficult task of deciphering the tablets and translating them, he discovered

224
00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:58,080
that there were numerous references to the Hittite people on those tablets.

225
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:03,560
And every single year, more and more evidence is coming through that's showing the biblical

226
00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,320
account is true.

227
00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:10,120
Before I leave this point, I also want to mention that there are more than 30 sources

228
00:17:10,120 --> 00:17:16,600
other than the Bible written within 150 years of Jesus' life that also testified more than

229
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:22,720
100 facts about his teachings, about his life, about his crucifixion, and of course about

230
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:24,400
his resurrection.

231
00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:30,360
The fact is that there is so much external evidence that verifies the truth of the Scripture

232
00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:36,120
and the body of proof continues to increase each and every year.

233
00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:41,400
It's getting harder and harder and harder to deny the truth of the Scriptures.

234
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,320
Now let's consider the ancient manuscripts.

235
00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:51,520
As you've heard people claim, that the Bible has been copied so many times and translated

236
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:58,960
so many times down through the centuries that we just can't trust that what we have today

237
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:04,600
is actually trustworthy and it accurately reflects the original writings.

238
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:12,280
First, I need you to hear, it is true that we do not have the original autographs.

239
00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:17,640
Nobody has the original of any of Paul's letters.

240
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:23,720
What we do have today are what we call manuscripts, handwritten copies of ancient documents that

241
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,760
predate the invention of the printing press.

242
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:33,560
This is a proof and this is a topic that deserves its own sermon in reality.

243
00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:37,680
There would certainly be more than enough material for at least one message.

244
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:43,360
So I encourage you to study this some more on your own and I'd be happy to direct you

245
00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:46,200
to some good resources that will help you do that.

246
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,560
But here's the bottom line.

247
00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:58,120
We have more manuscripts of the biblical text that exists than any other ancient writing.

248
00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:04,040
That fact alone should tell us something about how God has preserved his word throughout

249
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,760
several millennia.

250
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:13,320
The manuscripts that we do have give evidence that there is an amazing degree of consistency

251
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:18,200
among them that isn't even approached by other texts.

252
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:23,920
When a shepherd boy was tending his father's sheep, he discovered a cave in Cumran which

253
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,360
is northwest of the Dead Sea in 1947.

254
00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:29,760
He found the Dead Sea Scrolls.

255
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:35,800
And in those caves, those scrolls gave further evidence in the accuracy of the manuscripts

256
00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:37,600
that we have.

257
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:44,000
Those 800 scrolls contained fragments from every book of the Old Testament except for

258
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:51,800
Esther and it included a copy of the entire book of Isaiah that was dated back to 75

259
00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:53,800
B.C.

260
00:19:53,800 --> 00:20:00,640
Scholars were able to compare those scrolls to the Mesoretic text from around 1000 A.D.

261
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:05,840
which is the primary source of our current day translations.

262
00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:12,640
And when they compared those two, they found that 95% was word for word accurate over a

263
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:17,880
period of almost 1100 years of hand copying the text.

264
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:24,120
And that extra 5% variance most were nothing more than just omitted letters or misspelled

265
00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:26,000
words.

266
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:35,000
And today we have 25,000 partial or complete New Testament manuscripts.

267
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:40,520
About including 6,000 of those are in Greek, 10,000 of those are in Latin, and another

268
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:44,920
almost 10,000 are in ancient languages.

269
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:51,320
But even if we didn't have those, even if we didn't have those, we could still reconstruct

270
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:57,520
most of the New Testament using just the writings of the early church fathers who quoted the

271
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:04,080
New Testament Scriptures over 86,000 times.

272
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:07,600
That's incredible.

273
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:13,020
If that doesn't help you next, let's consider some prophecy.

274
00:21:13,020 --> 00:21:18,280
If I haven't already given you enough evidence to convince you that the Bible is true, this

275
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,720
should do the trick for sure.

276
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:27,880
Now many of you will know this, but every year in March, millions of people will fill

277
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,240
out a bracket during March Madness.

278
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:38,760
What I find interesting about this every single year is that you have these people who study

279
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:43,760
college basketball, who know college basketball, who know what teams, who know the stats, who

280
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,480
know the players, they know all that.

281
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:49,760
And they'll form their bracket and think they have a really good chance.

282
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:55,240
What I find interesting though is those people don't do much better than the people that

283
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,120
choose, and some of you all are guilty of it, some of you all choose which team is going

284
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:05,800
to win based on which mascot can beat up which mascot, right?

285
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:10,000
Or these colors match better than those colors, so I'm going to pick that team.

286
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,200
Many of you all are guilty of that, and you do just fine.

287
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:18,120
There's been an offer on the table for several years now that if anyone will complete a perfect

288
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:22,560
bracket, you will receive $1 billion.

289
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,080
That's a B.

290
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,640
Nobody's ever done it.

291
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:34,560
The Bible, on the other hand, has had a much better track record of making predictions.

292
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:39,080
Considering how much of the Bible consists of prophecy, the fact that not even one of

293
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:44,560
those prophecies has ever been proven to be false is remarkable.

294
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:51,280
Now for me personally, the accuracy of biblical prophecy was really driven home for the first

295
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:57,000
time when I really began to study the book of Daniel, and saw how the prophecies of Daniel,

296
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,800
regarding the future of Israel, and how they were fulfilled literally as the Babylonians,

297
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:07,920
and the Persians, and the Greeks, and the Roman empires ruled over them, exactly how

298
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,320
Daniel predicted.

299
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:17,760
And Daniel had even predicted the very day that Jesus would enter into Jerusalem on his

300
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,880
way to die on the cross for us.

301
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:26,840
That was just one of roughly 300 prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the first

302
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:34,000
come in of Jesus, and every single one of them was fulfilled by Jesus.

303
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:40,400
There's a mathematics professor named Peter Stoner, and he decided to have his students

304
00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:44,840
calculate just how incredible that idea is.

305
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:51,920
So in his book, Science Speaks, Stoner describes how he had all of his math students calculate

306
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:58,640
the possibility that any person could fulfill just eight of the prophecies that are included

307
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,040
amongst the 300.

308
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:05,320
So you just got to do eight, and using very conservative assumptions, they calculated

309
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:10,760
that the odds of one person fulfilling eight of the prophecies from the beginning of time

310
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:19,000
up until this book was written in 1948 was one in ten to the 17th power.

311
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,120
That's a big number.

312
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:30,000
To put that in perspective, the odds of winning the power ball are roughly one in 259 million.

313
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:38,920
If my math is right, that means that the odds of Jesus fulfilling just eight of those prophecies

314
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:44,960
is something like 50 billion times less likely than winning the power ball.

315
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,800
But Professor Stoner came up with a much better illustration.

316
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:56,720
If you could take ten to the 17th power, and you took that number in silver dollars and

317
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:02,320
dumped them on the state of Texas, I don't know if any of you all have been to Texas.

318
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,120
It's big.

319
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:11,920
You could cover the entire state of Texas in silver dollars two feet deep.

320
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:17,800
And fulfilling the prophecies would be like blindfolding a man, telling him he can travel

321
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:24,840
as far as he wants to, but he has to go find one marked silver dollar.

322
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:32,960
The chances of fulfilling eight prophecies is like that blind man looking for one silver

323
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:41,040
dollar in the state of Texas two feet deep.

324
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:46,360
But Jesus fulfilled more than eight prophecies.

325
00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:51,640
He fulfilled more than eight prophecies of his first coming in the Old Testament.

326
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:58,120
He did that and many more and he did that because he is God.

327
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:05,120
Finally, we can know the Bible is true because of application.

328
00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:06,720
And now I know this book.

329
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:11,720
I know this book has the power to transform lives.

330
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:16,440
And up until now, I've presented you with a lot of reasons that I can know the Bible

331
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,200
is true.

332
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:22,760
But this last reason is both a proof and a challenge.

333
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:28,960
No other book in the history of the world has had the transforming effect upon the individual

334
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,760
lives and upon the culture as the Bible.

335
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,560
That alone doesn't prove it's true.

336
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:40,560
But when considered with these other proofs that we've already looked at this morning,

337
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:42,960
I think it's a compelling argument.

338
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,960
I can certainly testify to this last point personally.

339
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:55,440
Like many of you, my life has been personally transformed by the Word of God.

340
00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:00,440
For many of my early, for many years of my early life, I wasn't openly hostile towards

341
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:06,360
God, but I really wasn't interested at all in having anything to do with him in particular.

342
00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:11,760
But when I really began to study his Word for myself, for myself, not because I was in

343
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:16,600
a Sunday school class, not because it was expected of me, but I really wanted to study

344
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:17,760
it for myself.

345
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,560
It changed me.

346
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:25,000
And the Word of God began to really reveal some really important things about my life

347
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,440
that I'd never seen before.

348
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:34,520
Although I wasn't what most people would consider a bad person, I began to understand that from

349
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:41,360
God's viewpoint I was a sinner, and that my sin separated me from a holy God.

350
00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:47,600
And then I learned about Jesus and about his sinless life and how he willingly gave up

351
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:53,360
his life on the cross for me to pay the penalty for my sins.

352
00:27:53,360 --> 00:28:00,480
And as a result of that story, as a result of that truth, I put my faith in Jesus Christ

353
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:01,480
alone.

354
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:07,440
And as I've spent time over the years studying and reading and applying the Bible to my life,

355
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,480
it has transformed every single area of my life.

356
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,640
It's transformed my marriage.

357
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,400
It's transformed my parenting.

358
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:16,920
It's transformed my job.

359
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,840
It's transformed how I interact with people.

360
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:27,720
And as God does that in the lives of individuals, his Word has the ability to impact entire

361
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:29,760
communities.

362
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,640
His Word has the ability to impact entire nations.

363
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:38,680
I mean, that was certainly true when the United States was founded based on biblical principles.

364
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,760
No other book can do that.

365
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,960
No other book can change communities.

366
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:46,960
That's the proof.

367
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:48,920
Now, here's the challenge.

368
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:58,520
My guess is that most of you that are here this morning already believed, already believed

369
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,360
that the Bible is true.

370
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,400
This is not new news to you.

371
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:10,760
So probably all that I've done is to give you some things to think about that will confirm

372
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,240
your confidence in the Bible.

373
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:19,320
But if the Bible is indeed true, if you really believe the Bible is true, then the decision

374
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:27,260
you have to make is whether you're willing to change your life to live out what it says.

375
00:29:27,260 --> 00:29:34,880
You have to decide if you're going to take the time to read it, to study it, to apply

376
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:39,840
it to your life on a daily basis and allow it to transform you.

377
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,920
You have to make that decision.

378
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:51,120
If all we do this morning is leave here with a better understanding of why the Bible is

379
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:56,600
true, but it doesn't make any difference in your life whatsoever.

380
00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:01,520
Then our time together this morning really won't be of much value.

381
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:07,840
But if having more confidence in the reliability of God's Word causes you to let the Bible

382
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:14,720
transform you, then this is time well spent.

383
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:24,320
So as we close this morning, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to ask all of us to spend

384
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:29,400
a few minutes thinking about the value of the Bible in your life.

385
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:31,880
And here's how we're going to do that.

386
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,280
I would love for you to take out your Bibles.

387
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:40,320
If you don't have one, there should be one in front of you.

388
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:47,000
And I want you to turn to Psalm 119.

389
00:30:47,000 --> 00:31:12,000
And we're very close to the middle.

390
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:18,640
Once you get to Psalm 119, it's the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses.

391
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:23,440
And what you'll notice when you get to Psalm 119 is it's broken up into different paragraphs.

392
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:30,640
And each paragraph has a heading that is one of the Hebrew letters.

393
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,760
And so every paragraph is labeled by a different Hebrew letter.

394
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:41,840
So if you want to learn Hebrew on the side, that's your alphabet.

395
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,960
And I want you to pick out of the 176 verses, I didn't count how many chapters or stanzas

396
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,480
or whatever you want to call it.

397
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:50,360
But I want you to pick one of those at random.

398
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:54,600
It doesn't matter which one, just pick one of those at random.

399
00:31:54,600 --> 00:32:01,960
Since the entire Psalm is about the benefits of God's Word, I can assure you that no matter

400
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:06,240
which stanza of that Psalm you pick, you will be able to do what I'm about to ask you to

401
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:10,120
do.

402
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:13,360
Once you've picked out the stanza, once you've picked out your paragraph, whether it's four

403
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:18,760
verses or six verses or whatever, I want you to spend a few minutes here and just a minute.

404
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:23,920
I want you to spend a few minutes reading it over several times, read it two times,

405
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,880
three times, four times.

406
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:32,160
And then I want you to pray and thank God for His Word and the benefits of His Word

407
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,160
that you just read about.

408
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:35,480
So here in a minute, I'm just going to pray for us.

409
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,000
I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up here.

410
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,840
And we're going to give you a few minutes to kind of read through that.

411
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:44,560
Read through that several times.

412
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:46,760
How does that impact your life?

413
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,080
And then I want you to give God thanks for it.

414
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:50,080
Let's pray.

415
00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:58,280
Father God, I pray right now that as we hold your words in our hand, as we look at a Psalm

416
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:05,200
that declares the benefits that you've given us because of it, I pray, Father, that you'll

417
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,200
speak to our hearts.

418
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:14,240
I pray that the words will come alive to us.

419
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:21,080
I pray that the words that are read and prayed over will have a far greater impact than anything

420
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:23,080
that I've said.

421
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:32,160
Father, I pray that your spirit will fill this room.

422
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:33,160
Help us understand it.

423
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,920
Help us see the value in it.

424
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,080
Help us see the purpose of it.

425
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:44,840
Help us know without a doubt that your word is truth.

426
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:51,840
And it can benefit every single area of our life.

427
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:58,160
So I pray, Father, that as we read that your Holy Spirit will empower us to understand it.

428
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:02,360
We give this time to you.

429
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:09,360
That's your name you pray.