Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good morning, Villa church. Good morning. My name's Michael fueling. I'm the lead pastor here. And, uh, this morning we are launching a four week series on the Bible. Now don't get me wrong. Every single Sunday, we open up the Bible and preach it, but we're actually spending about four weeks talking about the very nature, the essence, the makeup of the Bible. So here, the, the four, um, different sermons, we're gonna be going after this morning. It's gonna be, what is the Bible? How do you explain it to somebody? Somebody says, what is this thing? Really? So we're gonna bring some clarity to that question next week. We're gonna be looking at where did the old Testament come from? How did we get the old Testament we have? What old Testament did Jesus use himself? What was the evolution of this process who actually got to declare this is the old Testament and it's final.
Speaker 1 00:00:51 Why do Catholics have extra books in their old Testament, et cetera, we're gonna have a blast. Look at all of that. The following week, we're gonna do the same thing, but with a new Testament, we're gonna look at how we got what we got. We're gonna look at the different translations. It's gonna be a blast. We're gonna go pretty deep into some of this. And so it's an opportunity to kinda get our head around. How did we get this book? The last message will be about the story of the Bible. Um, it seems that God is up to something throughout history that all of this isn't random and arbitrary. Amen. And so, um, we're gonna look at kind of the big story of the Bible and the story that God is writing throughout history. And thankfully the word of God brings clarity to that. All right.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 So I shared with you recently, um, some church trends post COVID, and it's not just village church, but churches all over America are experiencing increased curiosity from non-Christians about Jesus spirituality, eternal life, et cetera. And so over the last two years, we've had more conversations about the gospel with non-Christians than really ever before. Uh, not only that, but I also shared with you last Friday at our vision dinner, a really important statistic. And here it is only about 60% of Christian Americans are attending the same church, pre COVID as they are post COVID. That means 40% of Christians across America are not attending the same church going into COVID as they are coming out of COVID. So what does this mean for village church? It means at least two things. Uh, number one, as we emerge out of COVID, there are a whole bunch of people who are attending village church, who are either not Christians, brand new Christians, sincerely trying to figure this out, oftentimes coming with a spouse or what are their children.
Speaker 1 00:02:48 And they're here just trying to wrap their brains around what is happening. It also means that there are people from all different church backgrounds who've started joining us sometime during COVID and are here with us now. So if you've been around before, COVID you probably look to your left and to your right. And you're like, I've never seen this person before. I don't know who they are. And, and so that's been a pretty common experience and churches all over America are kind of taking stock and they're looking and saying, okay, who are we? What's going on? Who's here. But here's what almost everybody knows. The church that went into COVID is very different than the church that is emerged out of COVID. So, um, what I wanna, what I wanna do is I want to highlight two demographics who are engaging village church and asking really great questions.
Speaker 1 00:03:41 The first demographic are ex Roman Catholics. The second demographic are going to be ex mainline Protestant. Christians, if you don't know what a mainline Protestant Christian is, it is something like Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodist, Anglicans, uh, typically some of the more historic over a hundred years old, Christian denominations. Um, what we're finding is that people are leaving those denominations in record numbers, and just, we're gonna do a little, uh, survey here, a little experiment to show you the level of influence on ex Roman Catholics and ex mainline Christians on not just Christianity in the Midwest, but Christianity here at village church. Now I did this in the first service, and I'm gonna tell you what happened after we do this in the second service. Ready? Raise your hand. If you grew up in the Roman Catholic church or the mainline Protestant church, or spent a considerable mind of time or have deep roots in the Roman Catholic church or the mainline Protestant church RA raise your hand, just kind take a take stock here.
Speaker 1 00:04:46 Okay. Even more people in the first service raise their hand. And I, I'm just gonna like guess 70% of you in the room. I think in the first service, it was well over, over 80% of the people in the room came from Roma Catholicism or have roots in Roman Catholicism or came from the mainline Protestant church or have roots in it. Okay. Um, what I wanna do is I wanna show you some recent data. Uh, every two years, uh, the state of theology is released and the state of theology in America was just released. And what it does is it measures Christians all over America in four primary categories. Here are the categories we have, um, evangelicals. And that would be like, um, our church would be an evangelical church that ranges from Bible churches all the way to like secret friendly churches. That would be like the evangelical camp.
Speaker 1 00:05:36 And then they measure black Protestants. Then they measure Roman Catholics and they measure, uh, mainline Christian denominations. And they ask a whole bunch of cultural and theological questions. And so year in, year out, you can start to be, you can start to measure some of the trends happening all across America, but then you can kind of double click into the data and you can mine out some really interesting themes about what's happening in specific subsections of each of these. Uh, we'll say, expressions of Christianity. So what I wanna do with you is I wanna, I wanna show you, um, some of the most recent data on, um, really evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Roman Catholics on the Bible. And what I wanna do is I wanna show you this because is we kinda take stock of who's here. There are, as we just showed you a whole bunch of X mainline, Protestants, X Catholics who have begun attending.
Speaker 1 00:06:33 And what I don't want you todo to do for a moment is to assume that because you are sitting next to somebody, that they are coming in with the same set of assumptions about the Bible as you are. All right, so here's the first statement. And then I'll explain the graphs. The first statement is this, the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe. And the top chart shows, uh, the average across all different expressions of Christianity in America. It's roughly around 60% generally. Speaking of American Christians affirm this statement. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe, but the, the bottom graph shows you evangelicals roughly about 85% of evangelicals affirm this statement, which is actually expected. And that's actually a really good number. Now, let me show you the average American versus the average Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant. Now, the reason I put them together is because on the issues of the Bible, their answers are almost identical.
Speaker 1 00:07:38 And so here's what we see while 85% of evangelicals affirm this statement only roughly 65% of Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants affirm this statement that the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe. Here's the second statement. The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches. The top graph shows the average across all American Christians. The bottom graph shows the evangelical response, which is over 80% of evangelicals. Affirm the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches. Now, look at this next graph. It compares the average in America, but it also shows you the mainline Christian and also Roman Catholic. And here's what we find is roughly about 50% or only 50% affirm this statement. The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches. Here's the third statement. The Bible like all sacred writings contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not literally true.
Speaker 1 00:08:45 So you see in this first graph, the top is the average amongst all American Christians, but this is actually really encouraging around 75% of evangelicals disagree with this. No, the Bible, the Bible is, is not mythology. It's actually true. The history that it tells is accurate, but the next chart shows this mainline Christians, Roman Catholics, uh, only around 50% of them disagree with this statement. So what does this tell us? Um, it tells us is we kinda get stock of what's happening in America is we start to see different people from different backgrounds begin to engage village church. We need to make sure that together we are crystal clear and we are unified on some really important issues. Now, there are a million reasons why many from those different backgrounds don't believe in the Hyster, the accuracy and the authority of the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:09:39 Maybe for some of them, it's a lack of teaching. Maybe for some of them, they've just heard all of these different stories about the Bible, et cetera. They haven't thought about it deeply. They haven't studied it. There's a million reasons. But what I really wanna do is I wanna take this morning in the next few weeks and make sure we are on the same page. Now. Also, if you have kids, um, kids, ministry, village kids, they're gonna actually be teaching through some similar content, but if you have fifth graders and up, I really want to encourage you over the next, especially four weeks, if at all possible, have them come to church and hear some of the things that we're gonna be talking about. If you can't come to church, um, watch it online, watch the video and, and start to help encourage and train the next generation on how to think rightly about the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:10:21 So why are so many people struggling to trust the Bible? I'm gonna give you at least four reasons. There's more, but here are four big ones. The, the Bible grinds against almost every culture on earth. Like if, if you take the top 20 cultural trends of the last 50 years, the Bible is probably not gonna agree with a single one of 'em. And, and should we be surprised by that? No, because when, when God expressed his heart and his mind through the word of God, he wasn't at all concerned with how people are gonna feel. 2000 years later, his objective is to express reality and truth so that people might know. And we shouldn't be surprised that when culture moves away from objective truth in the word of God, it's not gonna affirm the Bible are gonna affirm the things that the culture teaches, but more and more, we see this discrepancy.
Speaker 1 00:11:14 Number two, the multiple city of options creates uncertainties. So psychologically when there are too many options on the table, um, most people just kind of give up and say, I guess we can never know, or they can't all be wrong. And so for like, if I was the evil one, I would definitely go out of my way to create as many holy book options as possible to create this kind of like, ah, I guess we'll just never know thought, uh, in the masses, here's the third reason people are struggling, sincere compassion for non-Christians. If the Bible is right, then every other holy book is wrong and every other religion leads people to hell. And, and I think people intuitively know when they pick up the Bible, it's an exclusive book. It doesn't posture itself as one of many, but it postures itself as the authority on reality.
Speaker 1 00:12:10 And then number four, pop culture myths about the Bible are pervasive. There are so many bad ideas, falsehoods and rumors about the origin and the nature and the contents of the Bible that most people don't even know where to go to kind of have these myths debunked. So let's, let's clear the air for a moment. Let's just debunk a handful of myths, right on the front end. Ready? The Bible was not dropped from heaven in a leather bound book. Amen. Some of you're like, nah, I never considered. I mean, now I know, all right, the Bible was not delivered by an angel. Like the Quran, the Bible was not dug, dug up in a farmer's field in the form of golden plates with special glasses that only one person can really see and interpret and write down like the book of Mormon. The Bible was not suddenly discovered.
Speaker 1 00:13:10 And clay jars with 66 books intact, the Bible is not even one book. It's actually a library, a collection of sacred books. The Bible was not written all at once, but it was written over around 16 plus centuries, 1500 BC to about 100 ad. The Bible was not written in English or Latin. Can you believe that <laugh> but in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, lastly, the Bible is not true because a council or a group of pastors or a spiritual leader says it's true. It is true because it is the revealed will of God and written form. All right. So what I'm gonna do is I wanna give you three big statements to answer the question. What is the Bible? And here's the first big statement. The Bible is God's word it's origin from beginning to end is the mind and the heart of God himself.
Speaker 1 00:14:20 And God has chosen to ensure that his heart, his mind is actually documented in written form and preserve from generation to generation. Oral tradition is not reliable enough. And so what God wanted to do was to make sure that this was documented so that people everywhere and every language could have the word of God for themselves. There are two adjectives that we use to describe this. Here's the first adjective. The Bible is God's inspired word and inspiration inspired simply means this it's written by men, but orchestrated by God. Uh, I wanna share with you two scriptures that kind of reflect this principle here. Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16. Here's what the apostle Paul says. He says, all scripture is here's the word? Breathe out by God. Okay. So what else in scripture is breathed out by God? So we go all the way back to the garden of Eden, um, Adam and Eve by the breath of God receive life.
Speaker 1 00:15:23 And so what God does is he takes this dead people. If you will, these people who are alive, he breathes life into them. And so it's interesting that when he even refers to the Bible, he throws them back to this. And this is animated by God himself. So what you find are men who are, are writing and they're writing with their own personality is their own temperaments, their own handwriting, their own fonts. And, but what's happening is that God behind the scenes is actually orchestrating the very words that he wants written. The book of second Peter addresses the same issue, says this in chapter one, verse 21, no prophecy, no word from God was ever produced by the will of man. Isn't that interesting because if you were to look at the apostle Paul writing any of his books, it seems like the apostle Paul would be in control of what he's writing.
Speaker 1 00:16:08 But what Peter's trying to tell you is that something supernatural is happening behind the scenes, but men spoke from God as they were watch this carried along by the holy spirit. Now there is no indication that they were possessed. There, there is no indication that all of a sudden they became robots. And then they wrote, you know, like I put onto Bo like, like it seems that God used normal men to write his word, but they were carried by the holy spirit. The words that they were writing were breathed out by God that the Lord himself was orchestrating this series of events to make sure that every word he wanted written, these men wrote, let, let me illustrate some of the, the uniqueness of this. So what we find all throughout scripture and all throughout history is that when God uses people, he doesn't erase their unique characteristics in order to use them.
Speaker 1 00:16:59 Does he? So he actually uses you with your personality and your temperament and the language you speak and the experiences you have and the training you've been given. And somehow God accomplishes his will through you. And it's the same with the authors of the new Testament. For example, uh, let me give you an illustration of this. So the, uh, apostle John, he wrote much of the new Testament. And if you're reading the Greek language that John writes in, it's very elementary. It's very simple. So anybody who's learning coin a or first century or biblical Greek, um, they're, it's really one of the easiest languages to learn. And they always pick up the book of John or first John or second John or third John. But then here's what we find. We find that the apostle Paul, for example, he is, he seems to write a much deeper level.
Speaker 1 00:17:43 We're gonna call this, uh, the vocabulary or the syntax of a senior in high school. Um, he is well trained. He's well thought he's very intelligent. We know that Paul's a lawyer by trade. So he brings a lot of this to the table, but he writes in a way that's pretty accessible for everyone. But if you're reading, um, any of Paul's letters, you're gonna learn pretty quickly. He uses much bigger words than John. Well, then there's another level deeper here, which is, which is the doctor, Luke, who wrote the book of Luke, who wrote the book of acts of the apostles. And he actually writes on more of a college level. As you start reading through and interpreting the book of Luke, you see that he actually uses even bigger words than Paul. This is like college level. And then the deepest, most difficult, challenging new Testament book to read hands down.
Speaker 1 00:18:26 You've heard me say this a hundred times is the book of Hebrews. In fact, the book of Hebrews has more words that are only used once in the new Testament than any other new Testament book. So when you get to this word, it's super long, you've never seen it before. And you gotta go to ancient Greek to try to figure out, um, where else in the ancient Greek literature was. This used to give us some kind of context of what he's talking about. It's like a PhD level book. And it's interesting that all of them are the inspired word of God, but God used their different intellect, their different personalities, their different handwriting, their different context, their different education level. And this is how God works. He takes the uniqueness of every person and he still uses them anyway. And that's how he inspired the scriptures.
Speaker 1 00:19:04 The, the, Bible's not just the inspired word of God. We say this, that the Bible is the inherent word of God. And what that means is this, it is accurate. And without error in the original manuscript, in other words, what God wanted written, the person wrote under the supernatural influence of the holy spirit to summarize whatever was in those original manuscripts. The original moment of them writing it is 100% the word of God. And at this point you should be thinking, but pastor Michael, we don't have the original manuscripts. So does that mean that I cannot trust the English translations of the Bible that I'm using here? In fact, come back in a couple weeks, we're gonna address this very subject. The opposite is true in light of the way the new Testament particularly, and the old Testament has been handed down our confidence in what you have and your English translation has never been higher.
Speaker 1 00:20:07 In fact, I'm gonna leave you with a little, little like, uh, uh, uh, our confusion. We, we don't just have a hundred percent of the original. We have 101% come back and you'll hear more. Here's the second big statement. The Bible is authoritative. The Bible is the definitive and final word on that, which it addresses pop quiz. Does the Bible address every single subject in humanity and history? No, not at all, but every subject that it does address, it speaks on that subject with finality and authority. And I have to say this when interpreted correctly and in context. Amen. Amen. Thank you for that. All right. Good. I wanna, I wanna identify five subjects on which the Bible is the definitive authority. Number one, the Bible is authoritative on God. Who's in charge who might blame for all of this? What is God's name? What does God think?
Speaker 1 00:21:09 What is God doing? What does he feel? What does he want from me? There is almost nothing that we can know for certain about God, unless God himself tells it to us. And when you open up the word of God, you have the self revelation of God, himself for humanity as an incredible gift. Deuteronomy 29, 29, uh, one of my favorite verses, here's what it says. The secret things belong to the Lord are God. In other words, has God told you everything there is to know about himself? No, you have barely begun to scratch the tip of an eternal iceberg. That is God. Like there is so much more to the depth and nuance and beauty of God than what he has revealed in creation in Jesus and the word like you're gonna spend an eternity, getting to know God, and he will never cease to be entertaining and engaging and interesting and mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 00:22:03 There are secret things and I'm hopeful over time. We're gonna be able to get to know most of them, but then he says this, but the things that are revealed, belong to us, they're for you, but not just for you and to your children forever, that you may do all the words of the law. If you want to get to know God, not all of God, but everything God is revealed about himself. You need to go to the Bible in order to get to know God, any person who stands up and says something about God that is not rooted in the Bible cannot be trusted. Because everything that I say is only good and right, and true. If it's about God, if it affirms or corroborates, what scripture already says about God, it is the standard by which all teaching about God is measured and defined.
Speaker 1 00:22:52 Number two, the Bible is authoritative. Not just on God, but on humanity. Why am I here? Who am I? What is my identity? What is the meaning of life? Like these are questions that humanity Gros for answers. And if God had not given us the Bible, we would have no definitive or certain way of knowing the answers to these. Uh, just for fun. I'm gonna share with you four definitive statements on humanity. And the only way we can know these four things with certainty is if we open up the Bible and we read them, here's one, every human being is designed in God's image, Genesis 1 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them from the moment of conception to the moment of death. Every human life is valuable and this principle and so many other scriptures, they frame the Bible, believing views, Bible believers, views on things like abortion, euthanasia, special needs, adoption, foster care, prisoners, refugees.
Speaker 1 00:24:06 The Bible is replete on, on how God feels about these subjects and these people. And so what we do is we say, you know what? We, we are going to look to the Bible for revelation about God, on how he feels about this. But every human being is designed in God's image. The second thing we know about humanity is that every person and I have to say this, except for Jesus, is born infected by sin, separated from God, dead, spiritually. And if you are still alive, dying, physically Romans 3 23, it's definitive, all have sinned. And they fall short to the glory of God. Um, pop culture says people are basically good. They should read the book of Romans chapter three, verse 10. Paul says this he's quoting actually the old Testament, but none is righteous. No, not one, no one understands no one seeks for God.
Speaker 1 00:24:59 All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. The Bible takes these pop culture ideas, crushes them and brings clarity to what we already know about people all around us. Roman 6 23, the wages, the cost, the payment for your sin is, is death. Here's the third statement on humanity. Every person has one of two destinies heaven or hell. Every person wants to know what happens when you die and how good of God, how gracious of him to bring clarity to this from Jesus himself. He says this don't Marvel at this for an hours coming. When all, all who are in the tombs, they will hear his voice and come out. And those who have done good by the way, in John we're teaching through John, by the way, right? So to, for John to do good is to believe, to do evils, to disbelief that's John's framework.
Speaker 1 00:25:57 Everyone who has done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Everyone is resurrected either to life or to judgment. Here's the fourth thing we see any person, no matter how evil they are, no matter how sinful they are, any person can be reconciled to God, but only through faith in Jesus while they are alive. Roman 6 23 started off. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, I, I don't know what brought you to village church this morning. I don't know why you walked through these doors, but every one of those four statements might be new information to you. And you might never have heard that you are made in the image of God that you are inherently valuable. Not because of anything. You have done that because of anything you're capable of doing, but because you are made by God in his image, and you've probably realized you're not okay, <laugh> that's called sin.
Speaker 1 00:26:52 And it has separated you from God. And, and you may not have any idea how God in humanity can be brought back together. And you know, you don't wanna go to hell. You're pretty clear on that. And, and maybe nobody's ever told you before that the only way anybody is ever going to make it into heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ period. And so God offers you today any day to trust in Jesus Christ, to believe in him. And you are given the promises of God with absolute authority, declared definitive. You will be saved forgiven, reconciled to God and given the promise of heaven, if you believe in Jesus Christ, the only way I can say that to you with confidence is because the word of God tells me. And so I can give you that confidence. Not because I'm smart, but because God told me, and now I'm telling you in behalf of God, the Bible is authoritative.
Speaker 1 00:27:43 Number three on morality, what is right? What is wrong? Who are you to tell me that what I'm doing with my life is sin or bad. I'm nobody, but the Bible tells us specifically, what is moral? What is good? What is true? Psalm 19 nine, the rules of the Lord are true and they are righteous all together. Uh, I'm gonna make a, a statement that might be new for some of you. 100% of the Bible's new Testament claims are universal law and all humanity is required to obey them. Every human being is required to believe in Jesus Christ. Uh, if the new Testament identifies something as good and right or sin, we are obligated to obey its laws and its rules. Somebody might say, but I'm not a Christian. Why would I have to obey the Bible or God's word? If I don't believe in it, let me give you an illustration.
Speaker 1 00:28:46 I want you to imagine that you go Rob a bank and you take some cash and you're pretty excited. And then you get pulled over and arrested and they put handcuffs on you. You stand before a judge, he finds you guilty. You end up going through an entire process where you go to jail and you say, but I don't believe in your law. I don't believe that the judge exists. I don't believe in America. It doesn't matter. Guess where you're gonna spend a long time in jail because here's, what's so challenging for so many. I think Americans to understand your belief in God, doesn't make him any less God, your belief or lack of belief in the Bible, doesn't make it any less true or authoritative. And when you stand on the day of judgment and you are judged by the standard written in the word of God, it doesn't actually matter what you, you think because the judge who is the sovereign has all power in authority will sentence us based on the laws written in the Bible. And then here's what we're gonna find for every single human being. Without exception, everyone will be guilty, deserving of hell, but anybody who trusted in Christ will be saved and released from hell because that is the promise God made. And that's what he teaches in his word. And the only reason I can look at you and say, you can be saved is because this word says it. Number four, the Bible's authoritative on reality. How did we get here? How many gods are there? Is there a spiritual realm who's in charge?
Speaker 1 00:30:20 Did, did you know that no other gods actually exist? They're not real like this idea that we have, that there's like a Pantheon of gods because there's different religions in our world is actually false. A law doesn't exist. The Mormon Jesus is fictional. The book of Mormon is fiction. Just read it. You'll figure it out quickly. The Muslim afterlife is a fairytale that is not meant to be offensive. Their objective because the Bible is the authority on reality. And if somebody says something is reality, that contradicts what the Bible says is reality. We say, that's, that's actually not true because God has already told me what is real. There are angels and there are demons. And if for some reason you have an experience with a quote, God, the Bible already tells us it's a Demonn Masra to trick you into deceive you because other gods, they aren't real.
Speaker 1 00:31:26 Other religions are fabrics and fairy tales. They're not, they're made up. They're not rooted in objective reality. How gracious of God to tell us reality and find the number five, the Bible is authoritative on history. How did I get here? How is the earth created? What's happening? Where are we going? How does all of this end? Is there gonna be a nuclear Holocaust? Well, the, the Bible helps us begin to frame history and what God is up to. And again, in, in, in three Sundays or four Sundays, we're gonna dig deeper into this question. Uh, this idea of authority, it can tend to scare people because again, most people don't like being told what to do or have ex authority exerted over them. But when that authority is God and he is so kind to reveal all of these answers to us so that we don't have to gro and wonder for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 1 00:32:24 How good is our God? If you grew up not wondering whether or not God made you for a purpose, he loves you. How to talk to him, how to be forgiven. Like if you had any semblance of answers to those questions, what a good gift you have because there are boys and girls growing up all over the world who have no idea where they come from, why they're here, whether or not there is a God, how many there are, does he love them? Is there a way out of this mess? What happens when I die? These, these answers for so many, our lingering out there is unaddressed. And we have the most clear kind gracious answers from our good God. Big statement. Number three, the Bible it's miraculous. I wanna look at two aspects of this. Number one, the Bible is a miraculous library. We said this earlier, but the Bible, isn't a book.
Speaker 1 00:33:20 It's a collection of books. It's a library of books. If you will. It's a library of books that have been identified through history as scripture. Again, we'll dig into how we know that. And as you begin to engage the Bible personally and deeply and consistently, you're gonna experience the following. The Bible's miraculous in its unity. It is miraculous in its preservation over millennia, despite war and despots and persecution and book burnings galore. It is miraculous in its historical accuracy, validated through archeology time and time and time again, the last 20 years of archeological discoveries have done nothing but affirm the historicity and reliability of the Bible. It, it is miraculous in its theological consistency and themes. It's miraculous in its unity of thought, despite multiple cross-cultural and cross millennial authors and cross con continental authors, not knowing one another. It's miraculous in its sheer organization and flow.
Speaker 1 00:34:24 It's miraculous in its power to change lives. And it's miraculous and it's power to change cultures and nations. Uh, I wanna read you what one author wrote about the miraculous nature of the Bible. He said this. So the Bible's a miracle. The Bible's comprised of 66 books written by more than 40 authors. These authors were Kings peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, scholars, historians, profits, tax collectors, tent makers, military leaders, prime ministers, and doctors. They wrote from Dungeons, palaces, roads, islands, hillsides, and deserts across Africa, Asia, and Europe. These authors wrote these books and their original languages, which included Hebrew Aramaic and Greek, their literary styles included poetry, history letters, prophecy, Proverbs, and biographies. The, the timeframe of its writing occurred over 1500, 1600 plus years with no material inconsistencies or contradictions. The Bible remains one unified masterpiece from beginning to end, the impossible consistency screams of a divine architect who purposely and seamlessly moved men to record his words throughout confidence, cultures and history.
Speaker 1 00:35:54 The, the Bible is an utter miracle. And the fact that we have this library written from this many people in different places and over centuries, and it speaks with one common dominant theme. It is impossible that this would happen without the divine orchestration and oversight of God himself. The Bible isn't just miraculous in its origin. It's structure, it's integrity, it's consistency. It's also miraculous in its power. Uh, I wanna show you two ways that it's miraculous in this way. Number one, it is miraculous enough to save your soul. Now the Bible itself won't save you, but what it contains in it is the message by which you can only be saved if you hear the gospel message. And so I love this second, Timothy three 15. He says the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:36:45 If you have believed the gospel, you heard about the gospel in one of two ways. First, someone told you the gospel and do you know where they got that information from somebody else or from the Bible itself? The other way you got the gospel is you opened up the Bible and you read the story. And the me, the way of salvation through the words of scripture, everybody knows how to be saved because the Bible tells us nobody has been saved in any other way, accepted the gospel. And we know what the gospel is because of the word of God. And I'm so grateful to God that he has given us his word, but it also has miraculous power to change and transform your life. There were so many scriptures I wanted to use on this one. I'm gonna pick one, John 17, 17, Jesus is praying.
Speaker 1 00:37:33 The disciples are listening. They're learning how to pray. He's actually teaching them in his prayer. He says, this, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth to sanctify means to make holy or to make one more like God, or to continually set apart for a holy purpose. And, and here's what Jesus is communicating. If you want to be made more holy and be transformed, what he says is sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. That when you take a person made in the image of God and filled with the spirit of God and you put the word of God in their midst, and they will think deeply on this over time, the Bible has the power because of the spirit in you, because it's divine origin, because God wants to transform you more and more to the image of Jesus. The Bible has the ability to transform your life.
Speaker 1 00:38:36 What most people do is they open it up. Once they're bored, they don't understand it. Oh, they didn't do anything. The power of scripture is typically not in the one offs, but it is in the discipline of reading and engaging the word of God and asking God to help you apparently to, to neglect God's word is to either forfeit or to halt progress in your spiritual transformation. All right, I want, I wanna close with three. So whats, if, if the Bible's true, expect the demonic realm to cast out on it. If, if the Bible is true and there is an evil one and he hates God and he hates you, and he understands inherently the power of the Bible for non-Christians to hear and read about the good news of salvation for Christians who have the spirit of God to be transformed by the word of God, as the two interact together, you can bet your bottom dollar.
Speaker 1 00:39:33 He wants you nowhere near this buck. You, you can, you can guarantee that he will do anything in his power to keep you away from it. You, you can also guarantee that if you're like trying to do a Bible study with different non-Christians in your life, will every single possible obstacle come up so that they don't actually have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ through the word of God. You better believe it. And, and so what you have to understand is that one of the greatest, greatest agendas of the evil one is to keep you away from the word of God. Let, let me just share with you. I think one of the most common ways he does, this is such a ridiculous age, old strategy. The evil one takes a good thing that God made for your good and your transformation and your enjoyment.
Speaker 1 00:40:17 He takes fools who wield it as a tool of abuse to create trauma in you so that you don't ever wanna run back to it. How evil that there are, there are people that the evil one have used to exploit you with the word of God, to abuse you with the word of God. And what this actually does is it makes people want to leave church, the people of God, and to put the word of God on a shelf, the issue was never the Bible. It was the fool who used it to, to take things out of context, to exploit you, to abuse you. And, and this is honestly one of the most age old strategies. He takes the good things that God has created, raises up fools to use those things, to abuse you so that you stay away from the good gifts that God has given you for your transformation.
Speaker 1 00:41:07 And when it comes to the Bible, do not let a fool steal your opportunity to be connected with God, to learn his heart, his mind, and to experience transformation that happens as you regularly consistently engage the word. So at number two, it's may sound a little strange, but you, you must trust in Jesus to really fully understand the Bible. So anybody can open up the Bible and they can understand what it's saying, right? Like if you have a, a mind that can read things and then put it together and have thoughts, like you're gonna be able to read the Bible and understand it intellectually. But I, I wanna read two passages of scripture. The first is from Jesus on the unique gift that he gives you as a follower of Christ with the Bible. He, he, he says, these are my words, which I spoke to you, Luke 24, 44, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.
Speaker 1 00:42:07 That must be fulfilled. And, and again, like the disciples, they understood some of these prophecies. They understood them up here, but they didn't quite understand them in their heart. Verse 45 says, then he, Jesus opened up their minds to understand the scriptures. This is a deeper level of understanding. They didn't just know the scriptures, but they began to actually understand them, internalize them. And it began to actually make sense, not just to their mind, but to their soul. The combination of the word of God, with the spirit of God over time is lethal to sin. Now, let me show you how the apostle Paul takes this principle and he goes deeper with it. Second Corinthians chapter three, verse 14. He says, but, but their minds, these are unbelieving Israelites. Their minds were hardened. Okay. Let's just clarify. Can the Israelites hardened minds read the Bible?
Speaker 1 00:43:02 The answer is yes. Could, could you give them a test, a hundred facts from the Bible and could they pass the test? Yes, nobody's talking about, he says for this day, when they read the old covenant, that veil remains uplifted because only through Christ, is it taken away? Yes. To this day, whenever Moses is read a veil, lies over their hearts, listen to what he says next. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. When you take the spirit of God in a genuine believer and they pour their minds and hearts over the word of God, it moves from intellectual factual, understanding to heart transformation, which is why the evil one wants, you know, near the Bible. And so village church, uh, our desire of this semester is that you would maybe anew open the Bible and you would get to know God in a way that you haven't before you would maybe create regular disciplines in your life.
Speaker 1 00:44:12 Because honestly, you're still trying to just get your head around reality, post COVID and work and life and kids in school. And the list goes on and on and on. And you're overwhelmed and you've neglected the Lord for a period. And maybe this semester is just kind of this reset where you say, God and I we're gonna spend consistent time together. I'm gonna open your word. Uh, I may not have my life transformed every single time I open it. But the transformation happens in the process of faithful discipline. When the person filled with the spirit of God, engages the word of God over time transformation happens. So for a third. So what I wanna invite pastor Dean up, and then here it is very simply. Let's read the Bible together. Uh, pastor Dean is gonna finish my sermon for me. And then pastor, Dean's gonna talk about something he's been working on throughout the summer.
