Battle for Truth | Dr. Ed Young

[Music] so [Music] our scripture is found in psalm 119 verse 105. your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path say that after me your word is a lamp to my feet and a light in my path in 1970 in petrograd russia now saint petersburg the second largest city in russia they were having a convention of all the priests in the orthodox church thousands came in 1917 russia was called by many holy russia because over a hundred million plus people claimed to be christians and their worship services and beautiful edifices with all their icons were packed every lord's day holy russia and these priests were meeting in a giant convention came from all over the land they spent two days talking about their liturgy do we have all the words right all the doctrines right and they walked through all their liturgy to make sure that they dotted every eye and crossed every t in their theology now the last afternoon they were there in this convention they debated over what color their surpice would be in different seasons of the year in different times of ceremony it'd be pink or red or brown and there were hot debates about the color that they would wear in their surface on their robes six blocks down the street there was a group of radicals called bolsheviks who were planning for a revolution that would absolutely change everything about russia the church was tremendously powerful but the church was silent and in eight months there was a form of government that in its very foundational documents says there is no god and there we have the roots of communism while the church which could have been powerful in this moment was virtually silent behind the stained glass and the icons and all of their pious accepted rituals ladies and gentlemen let me say something to you and you can believe it or not but i can assure you that we are at war we are at war and the problem is so many of us do not know who our enemy is some things we would say and some people would say well there is our enemy when that's not our enemy these are victims of the enemy we do not know the strategy of the enemy we did not know the weapons of the enemy we do not need know exactly where the battlefield is and we don't know what to do how to respond we don't know the weapons that we have available to us we don't know the fear of the battle that is going on and we don't know how to win this is where we are today now in light of this everybody agrees on one thing liberals conservatives democrats republicans uh socialists and capitalists you look at anybody everywhere in america and they all will agree that we're in a mess corona political divides family the business world education anywhere you go you say man we are in a mess we are messed up we are in a big big hole everybody agrees on that and everybody points blame and some who are really guilty of gross naivete they say well we can't blame anybody when there is no cause there's no solution and others say you know you can't turn back the clock if you've ever said that that's the dumbest statement that ever has come through your lips well you know you can't turn back the clock the clock is man-made and when the clock is not keeping the right time you turn it back the idea well you don't want to go against history i love that you know history you can't go against history and and we're in a progressive stance now we're not a part of progression we're a part of regression and when history is taking you the wrong way you have to do about faith and you have to go back up and reclaim and reset the clock so in light of all this in this sos moment i've done like i have so many times done all of us have done this we'd say lord this is so big all the different voices and all the different propositions the different philosophies the different theologies the different approaches the different backgrounds and we have a multiplicity of cultures coming together in this cultural war lord help me dear god give us a eternal perspective i lord i want your word to come and give guidance speak anyone who's sincere and knows anything of god you've had moments like that and many of us have moments like that right now lord give us some answers give us some direction give us some definitions give us some approaches at this moment in history and in the process of asking for god to speak he reminded me of something that i knew and at times of pain and sorrow and doubt and fear we forget sometimes what we already know and god said in my heart of hearts i've already given you my word you already have my word about all of this that you're so concerned about and you're questioning and i said sure i get it you've already spoken you we have his word the word of god came to us at christmas that was the word the logos became flesh and blood and dwelt among us so nobody had to wonder what god is like bang there he is jesus jesus the word of god also we have the word of god not only in flesh in jesus we have the word of god in wood and that's the cross how much does god care how much does god want to intervene in your life in my life there is jesus hanging on that cross and he took all of our shame and sin and hypocrisy and he took it upon himself and he died for you and for me so that now we have a straight shot to the father and because we've received him can you believe it god looks at you and looks at me as if i am perfect and you are perfect and you are complete and i am complete and you are righteous and i am righteous god's word was on wood also god's word is on paper paper the book the bible and now we come to the bible people say well what is the bible let's go back to the basics the bible first of all is something that we already know it's a library the bible has 66 books 39 in the old 27 in you you walk through the old it's not really that complex when you look at it from a whole perspective as a library you have first of all the five books of law and then you have history in the old testament then you have portrait then you have the major prophets and the minor prophets bang zip there we have 39 books go to the new testament not too complex we have four stories the biography of jesus we have acts the history of the early church we have paul's letters and then we have the general epistles and then we have revelation it is a library also the bible is literature people forget that and they forget the bible was written by 40 authors 1600 years and it is literature in that literature you have different forms of speech you have different vehicles to get the word of god out you have poetry you have prose you have hyperbole or you have parables you have didactic teaching you have all kinds of methods that god used in his get this word salvation history working uniquely through the jews and the old and the new always pointing to the messiah to jesus who would come it is a library it is literature and you don't read poetry like you do biography do you get that you don't read apocalyptic literature the way you do parables when people say well you know the bible it's so hard to understand and you can make the bible say anything you want to say somebody who makes that state statement is phi beta kappa on ignorance you read the bible and first of all there's that word exit jesus don't get lost in that you just read the bible and understand the words that are there the context that is there and you understand what the author was saying inspired by almighty god because it's a human book and a divine book ii timothy 3 16 theonus it it speaks god spoke through human beings who put down his word to mankind so we read the bible we look at that it is exegesis and what did it mean there and then you follow me what did that mean there and then and that's a whole part of another big word hermeneutics which is the science of interpretation and in this we see now what the bible meant there and then now we see what it means here and now and therefore you can't just say what it means no no no no we we approach it with these understandings and we see this is the word of god and it is a sword and the holy spirit applies it how important it is that we understand that because it just throws aside so many pseudo-intellectuals who try to discount it and put it on one side and say well how do you know this and how do you know that listen not not anything written as history in the bible has ever been refuted by anthropology or by archaeology over and over again the personalities and the history has been absolutely nailed down as true truth the bible is a library the bible is literature and the bible is law well we don't like that do we we don't like anybody who says thou shalt not we don't like anybody who says thou shalt well it's way too dogmatic but the bible is law and we look at the old testament we say well i don't know about all those laws see there was ceremonial law that's all the feasts the celebrations etc and that's been basically fulfilled in jesus there is civil law they had a theocracy and that civil law has been put aside but in the old testament there is moral law and that moral law still stands and is relevant today but some people are upset about that they look the ten commandments they say well in the old testament there is that jehovah god who was mean and legalistic and in the new testament we have jesus who is so sweet and nice and full of grace and there must be two different gods not so the ten commandments are based upon the principles of love for example love can love only one god you can have multiplicity of god love loves loves the true and living god alone and exclusively love does not steal love does not lie bear false witness love does not commit adultery so you go around all the law that we find in the old testament we say that it's just expressions of god how much he loves us so that we'll live lives that are relevant and powerful so the bible is a law it is a law book but primarily the bible is light i love that that's our scripture the bible lights us where we are now it gives lights where we're going here and there it is a light and light just eliminates all darkness and when we read and study and begin to understand the bible maybe just a little verse at a time all of a sudden light comes into your life and comes into my life but there are those skeptics out there who said well it may be myth who knows that all of this is true how can you stand there and say this is the inerrant word of god given from god and say we know that it is really true we could spend time with the bibliographical test we've looked at that we can look at the history we've looked at that but what i like to deal with and years ago i was in the basement of the hebrew university in jerusalem we had about a room half full of evangelicals bible believers and half the room of jewish rabbis and scholars and we debated as to whether or not bethlehem was the first coming and when jesus comes back will it be his first coming or his second coming interesting never forget that night we stayed up after one a.m in the morning in the process when dealing with this the best thing you can say to jewish scholars and boy they'll do flip-flops when you get in this area and you say simply let's look at the prophecies in the old testament and see if they're fulfilled by jesus in the new testament so that would be the coming of the messiah well let's just take eight prophecies okay eight prophecies that jesus could not have intentionally fulfilled concerning his birth his death and ate facts and let's take it to las vegas i know no one here has ever been there but uh let's just go to las vegas and go to the bookmakers and let's just ask a question what are the odds that just eight prophecies written man 800 a thousand years before they came to fulfillment would come true in one man eight prophets and one what are the odds and the odds were given by the way by dr peter stoner who was professor of mathematics at pasadena community college and other universities he took some 600 students that were under his tutoriage and they had this project they would simply decide mathematically what are the odds eight prophecies would be fulfilled written eight hundred a thousand years before in the old testament fulfilled in one man and the odds they decided was 1 to 10 to the 17th power now most of us have been out of school too long we don't understand that is one with 17 zeros after it that's the odds that eight prophecies would be fulfilled in one person well that's up to annie let's say what would be the odds of 47 prophecies in the old testament about jesus being fulfilled the odds are 10 to 157 powers that be fulfilled well let's take all the prophets in the old testament about jesus who would be the messiah so you could absolutely identify him let's take all 332 prophecies that were perfectly fulfilled in jesus christ what are the odds let's put it mathematically if you picked out one atom follow me one atom out of a trillion trillion trillion atoms from a billion universes the size of our universe you'd mark one atom and somehow you would accidentally pick up that one atom out of a trillion trillion trillion atoms on a billion universes the size of ours that's the odds that 332 prophecies would be fulfilled in one person does anybody want to debate with the truth and the authority of the word of god amazing so we can stand here confidently and say this is god's word and this is god's truth empirical evidence scientific evidence mathematical evidence how could this be it must be that god has written it down that day in that time theo needs us to individuals whom he touched and inspired and put it together now bring all of this the bible would instruct us in this moment of extremity but somebody would say well how do we know things are really as bad as they seem let me tell you some a sign that you perhaps do not realize before every revolution in modern times there has been a deterioration of music every revolution every one of them you can look at it and study it in modern times a sign that that country is in serious shape has been a deterioration in music you see music bypasses all logic in our mind music is the language of god question how for thousands of years did emperors rule china large hunks of territory thousands of years they rule what form of government did they use they let every city and every province virtually govern themselves but the emperors would disguise themselves and walk through these cities and through these providences and they would listen to the music and if the music was sinister cold minor key vicious the words harsh the emperor would know that there's a problem in this city and would send his troops and they would change leadership but as the emperor went through and listened to music it was sweet and positive and uplifting and and dynamic and powerful they never would know that that particular part of his reign was healthy and whole music is like nuclear power ladies and gentlemen it can be used for tremendous good and it can be used for devastating harm quickly i ran into a verse i'd never seen before isaiah chapter 56 verse 10. his watchman god is speaking to isaiah when they're in the middle of a cultural war in which they lost by the way isaiah the prophet lost the battle for the land but in the middle of that war god says my watchmen are blind all of them know nothing all of them are mute dogs dogs that don't bark dreamers lying down who love to slumber ladies and gentlemen we are god's watchdogs on our world on our society on our city on our families and the problem is we are not barking you

Channel: The Winning Walk

Views: 5,064

Rating: 4.9230771 out of 5

Keywords: Dr. Ed Young, Radio, Ed Young, Broadcast, The Winning Walk, winningwalk.org, SBCHouston, Television, ed young sermons, ed young ministries, TBN, Discover, bible, Gifts, Transformation

Id: GiFUt2NbNrc

Length: 25min 35sec (1535 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020