Why We Believe - The Bible is God's Word

if you would open your bibles to psalm 14. psalm 14. we were just there so i hope we have it up psalm 14. starting in verse 1 hear now the word of the living and the true god the lord looks down sorry the fool says in his heart there is no god they are corrupt they do abominable deeds there is none who does good the lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand who seek after god they have all turned aside together they have become corrupt there is none who does good not even one have they no knowledge all the evil doers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the lord there they are in great terror for god is with the generation of the righteous you would shame the plans of the poor but the lord is his refuge oh that salvation for israel would come out of zion when the lord restores the fortunes of his people let jacob rejoice let israel be glad as far as the reading of god's holy and inspired word let's pray together as a church father we come before you and ask for you to bless today as we reflect on this important question and answer about why we believe that this is your word that it is the truth i pray that you'd bless us as your people to understand your glory in giving to us this revelation help us to understand the power of your revelation the certainty of your revelation the goodness of your revelation and i pray that you held me lord as a pastor to your people to speak to your people in such a way that i be led by your spirit guard my heart my mind and my mouth from error and i pray that you would lord allow this message to put our feet on a rock and allow it to give to us boldness as we confront the world and its love for error i pray that you would allow this message and these truths to sit into our hearts and minds lord i pray that we would teach it with passion and preach it with passion in jesus name amen so why do we believe that's the quick load series we're doing right now why do you believe we're doing right now three questions why do you believe the bible is god's word or the bible is true why do you believe the trinity and why do you believe that jesus is the messiah why do you believe it's an important question i mentioned earlier that it's important to have an answer to these questions not simply for the unbeliever and the antagonist of course we live in a time period in a nation in a section of the world in the west that was so heavily impacted by the christian worldview and we're just beneficiaries of all of god's word to the degree that at times you don't quite understand that well that came from christianity that came from the biblical worldview whether it's advancements in science or medicine or arts or beauty or law we don't even reflect anymore because we don't even know god's word or our own history where does this actually come from where's where do we get these ideas we don't understand they didn't come from atheism or agnosticism we think today about people talking about the importance of the constitution and all those sorts of things well i agree in many ways but when we think about foundational truths that are behind some of our founding documents people endowed with their creator creator with certain you know the thing i'm joking by the creator of certain inalienable rights life liberty the pursuit of happiness you think about things like this you wonder does this come from atheism does it come from agnosticism you think about things like you know in the what we have with blessings in terms of justice whether it's the fourth amendment the fifth amendment we talk about things like warrant lists searches and seizures right where'd that come from the whole idea of not being able to just rough somebody up and assume their guilt and start looking to see if you can prove them guilty or prove them innocence where do we ever get the idea of having a judge adjudicate and decide if there's enough evidence or eyewitnesses to actually pursue something against somebody we didn't get that from atheism as a matter of fact there's actually a track record back to that particular idea of justice and no warrantless searches and seizures that comes from the christians that were undergoing injustices and look to the law of god and say this isn't righteous before god his law says that you're not to bring a charge against somebody without two to three independent witnesses god's law says the assumption of innocence is the most important thing to consider at the beginning you have to have witnesses and evidence to bring charges everybody is to be assumed innocent where'd you get that idea of the assumption of innocence not from atheism not from agnosticism you get that from scripture explicitly from scripture where did you ever get the idea of being able to have as a person being accused the right to remain silent where'd that come from atheism agnosticism they come from the humanistic ideas we have today no that came from scripture you had to assume the innocence of every person and an innocent person isn't required to respond to somebody who's bringing charges against them all of those things the blessings of the christian worldview we have so much around us i mean it's just admitted that science gets its big pop in the world because of well just the circumstances no because of the christian world view you can think about the major universities today and the centers of learning that are the most revered and respected and you think all those were started by atheists well they're overrun by atheists today and marxists and unbelievers and humanists today for sure but you think about harvard and yale and brown university and cambridge and oxford and all these universities these were explicitly christian universities from the start created to advance the knowledge of the scriptures and the biblical worldview and the glory of god why do we believe you see this is such an important question to ask and and it's so important to have the answer again not just for the unbeliever but for you and your walk with the lord to know why you believe what you believe about jesus do you have an answer it's so important because we live in a day where people just take for granted all of the great benefits of the biblical worldview and we don't understand where they come from and when you don't understand where they come from or why you believe them in terms of an objective standard outside of yourself you get people in a culture and society that don't know their history don't know why they believe what they believe and they don't understand the objective nature of the system of justice that we have even today that we've benefited from and so they want to overthrow it you think about what's happening in the streets today with the marxists you think about what's infiltrating the church today with blm and all these marxist ideologies and intersectionality you think how could it be impacting us and here's the here's the real reason we don't know the word of god we don't know what we believe we don't know why we believe it and so we have people today who are professing christians in the west and we have a christianity that let's be honest is christian and name only it's christian and name only we have mega churches filled with people who make professions of faith in jesus they don't know what they believe why they believe if you ask them to describe what the bible teaches about the trinity they would give you heresy heresy if you ask them to believe why do you believe the bible is god's word you would get answers that are truly philosophically absurd answers and not biblical not coherence not strong answers and that is just in fact not our history brothers and sisters it is our current time we have churches filled with people who don't know what they believe why they believe if you were to ask the question why do you believe jesus is the messiah you would have modern evangelicals and others who would say well by faith well yes agreed amen to that i want the t-shirt we have faith in jesus as messiah but why do you believe he's the messiah why not any of the other false messiahs in the first century or the false messiahs that exist today one's in russia today calling himself jesus how come you don't believe in that guy blind faith that's fideism we reject that the bible would reject that so why do you believe what you believe and so i'll ask the question now for you and for those who are watching right now around the world don't answer out loud but why do you believe that the bible is true or the bible is the word of god why do you believe it do you have an answer because again two things one you need to have an answer because scripture commands you to to always be ready with an apologia apologia proper word there sorry uh to have a ready defense a reasoned defense to everyone who asks of you a reason for the hope that's within you had to do with gentleness and of reverence of course it's a command of scripture be ready as a christian to give an answer to give a defense for the biblical faith but also for your own walk with jesus why do you believe it because your faith will be tested in this life you live in a fallen world there's going to be antagonists there's going to be youtube videos there's going to be articles written trying to come against your faith will you be able to respond to those things there's going to be trials of life there's going to be suffering i mentioned a couple of weeks ago that before this very pulpit of the lord allows us to keep this location before this very pulpit are going to be some of your dead bodies i'll be preaching over your dead body to your family your friends your loved ones how are we going to manage that pain that grief the the pithy slogans don't work the 25-minute motivational speech sermons that are so common today they don't meet you in that hour of pain they won't but understanding what the bible says about god's truth who god is what the bible says about god's world and you and god's promises about the future that will transform those moments why do you believe what you believe why do you believe do you believe because of your parents right many of us raised in christian homes not me some of you guys raised in christian homes you have the tremendous benefit kids listen kids right now listening in the room you have the tremendous benefits the gift from god to be raised in a home with parents who love god that is a gift who have the word of god and they give it to you none of us are perfect parents but it is an amazing gift from god to have parents who love jesus and point you to jesus but why do you believe is it because your parents believed that won't save you it won't actually bring you to christ and ultimately it won't save you in your hour of pain saying well i believe this because mom and dad did it's not going to save you it's not going to help you ultimately and i would say it's not what god wants you to hang on to as an ultimate mom and dad said this well moms and dads say lots of crazy things right how do you know what they say is the truth what's it rooted in some people have said in answer to the question why do you believe the bible is god's word they say well because i've had a compelling experience i've had these amazing experiences with the lord i've had so many amazing experiences well i want to challenge that praise god for the experience if it's genuine with the true god i'm not saying that this is just merely intellectual the christian faith is deeply intimate it's deeply intimate and deeply experiential there's no question about that but saying i believe this book this revelation because i have had a compelling experience is the kind of thing that you'll hear from mormons and they have a false god and they have a false gospel that will not save led by a false prophet led by many false prophets but if you're out with us at the mormon temple to love our mormon friends and neighbors then you'll hear often the mormon will say i know this is true how do you know it's true because i have a burning in my bosom you know you're in mesa whenever we're going to answer that question because i have a burning in my bosom you see here's the thing i've prayed about the book of mormon and i know it's true because i've had it burning in my bosom listen if you get a representative from every religion up here whether it's islam whether it's the uh whether it's mormons jehovah's witnesses whether it's roman catholics or atheists and agnostics you bring them up here and say have you had a compelling experience in your commitments and all of them will tell their grand stories about their amazing experiences and what they felt and how closely connected they feel to the universe or to their god anybody can say that but why do you believe is it because you've had a compelling experience again if you had had a compelling experience in christ i don't want to discount it but that can't be a foundation for our faith in jesus christ it's very subjective some people say well i believe because there's a strong set of historical evidences so they have a collection of evidences that they say here is my standard these evidences are why i believe because of this set of evidences well what are you going to do when someone comes along and challenges those evidences and brings counter evidence that disproves it what if you're hanging on to a particular set of evidence and you find out that actually the person that told you that wasn't giving to the whole scoop it was kind of spurious evidence and now your faith is rocked and over and i'm no longer a christian because all those evidences that i had my trust in i found out they weren't that great and so i've abandoned the faith you see it happening today in droves in droves rhett and link good mythical morning right solid past in the christian church even did stuff for veggie tales right veggie tales and now coming out and saying we're not believers anymore right what we thought was good evidence we found counter evidence it doesn't make it so great anymore so i think i'll live as a happy agnostic maybe someone says or they go some different direction because their faith was in evidence that maybe it wasn't so great or what do you do in those cases where you have a set of historical evidences that you're putting all your faith in but in your moments of trial and trauma in this life that's not enough for you to continue your trust in god this world is a awful place at its worst when the fall really puts legs on it and in those moments of deep pain and suffering and trauma in this world having your faith rooted in a set of particular evidences well maybe you'll have an answer like say ben shapiro when he was interacting with william lane craig on the evidence for the resurrection of jesus i grant that dr william lane craig has amazing historical evidences for the resurrection don't get me wrong the evidence for the resurrection is overwhelming as an historical event i don't think that it can ultimately really be coherently disputed the evidence for the resurrection is incredible but here's what the unbeliever says to those evidences i just find them uninteresting that was his response uninteresting because the problem isn't ultimately a lack of evidence for the unbeliever the problem is the problem of the heart the problem is human sin and rebellion against god and sometimes you say well here's my evidences it's when i put my faith in this is why i believe something is true and you put it out before the unbeliever and you go look isn't that compelling isn't it amazing and the unbeliever retorts i just find that uninteresting you're like what uninteresting well it's uninteresting to the hardened heart it's very interesting and glorious to the person that's been changed by jesus or why do you believe that the bible is god's word and is true is it just blind faith right just cause there's a lot of us that have just cuz commitments there's atheists that have just cuz commitments i think it's the one year anniversary isn't it of our debate with uh it's the it's the antifreeze debate right a year ago in salt lake city there were so many it's not just christians and religious people that have just caused blind faith commitments i pointed it out to the atheists on stage it's a just cause blind faith commitments you believe in science and orderly universe but your system doesn't allow you to depend upon an orderly universe therefore you can't have science so why do you believe the future is going to be like the past so that you can do science and evidence and examination and he's just well it's just just cuz right it's just blind faith it's blind stupid faith when i say stupid by the way i know the kids are like and they're giggling i heard that when i say the word stupid some parents are like you know my kids aren't allowed to say that i'm not saying that as uh an insult i mean in terms of the intellectual stupid not thinking blind stupid faith it's just hanging on nothing suspended in air so why do you believe you see scripture gives us commands the whole history of the church is littered with this christian apologists defenders of the faith people that want to know the truth and defend the truth christianity is a religion of truth we love the truth we want the truth we want to propagate the truth we're committed to the truth we have a faith that says logical contradiction is wrong because to engage in logical contradiction is to engage in the nature of lying god cannot lie his image bearers should not be committed to things that are lies and contradictory we have a basis for truth and in the scriptures first peter 3 15 it says to set christ apart as lord first thing i'll say not a long sermon on this one today but before we start talking about defending the faith the apostle peter says this at the beginning of defend the christian faith he says to set christ apart as lord that means no christian apologetics no defense of the faith should ever be done should ever be done apart from a commitment to jesus lordship that means no neutrality no neutrality jesus says you're either with me or you are against me but it's the charter verse of christian apologetics that's the defense of the christian faith why do you believe what you believe the charter verse says to set christ apart as lord in your hearts always being ready to give a reasoned defense to everyone who asks of you a reason for the hope is within you yet do it with gentleness and with reverence our scriptures the standard of the revelation of god is that believers are supposed to be ready with an answer with a defense for why we believe what we believe but we don't do that apart from first a commitment to jesus christ's lordship but the scriptures teach us a pattern of the apostles themselves and the early followers of jesus just two examples acts chapter 9 and then acts chapter 18. you have two examples of how they operated they weren't coming into the culture all around them saying hey i've had this amazing experience with jesus you should follow this too they weren't saying hey just cause we believe in jesus because you really think he's a great guy they weren't saying that that wasn't the nature of the defense of the christian faith in acts chapter 9 when the apostle paul is converted he takes a bee line to damascus go read it later and it says that he was found at the synagogues reasoning with the jews proving that jesus was the messiah how do you think he did that how do you think he did that proving that jesus is the messiah can you do that can you do it can you actually engage with people and demonstrate to them without question that jesus is the promised messiah that's what the apostle paul was doing and the kind of trouble that it caused is something that we should think about when he went to go preach the gospel uh the church was built up they grew it was multiplied and some people wanted to kill him that was the result of the defense of the christian faith in the public square and then of course apollos he was mighty in the scriptures eloquent and it says that he vigorously refuted the jews get this publicly proving that jesus was the messiah the nature of the christian faith has never been fideism blind faith commitments it has always been based on objective truth and our whole history here in this revelation is a history of the defense of the biblical faith based upon objective truth next the history of the christian church is littered with examples i won't give them all right now of the christian church defending the biblical gospel and biblical faith against all comers that's the whole history of our faith and we live in a time today where people don't want to live like that you know what it causes you know you know what happens it causes people when you when you have an expression of the christian faith where you don't teach what you believe and why you believe it when you don't give a biblical communication of the gospel you know it does it fills up a lot of churches that look like they are playing to the flesh of all the people coming it looks like a lot of churches built to cater to the unbelievers wishes and whims and it looks like a lot of churches that are filled with a lot of people who profess faith in jesus christ but don't know him they don't know him and it looks like a lot of churches that when stress and difficulty and suffering comes a lot of churches that have become empty buildings because those people didn't know jesus in the first place and they didn't know why they believed what they believed you see we have a failure in modern western christianity as i said before much of it can accurately be described as christian in name only we have the problem of a distorted gospel a gospel that doesn't call people to repentance and faith in jesus christ we don't clearly communicate that god is a holy god and you are a sinner worthy of his wrath and the call of the gospel that jesus would give would look something like turning to a crowd and telling people if anyone doesn't come if anyone comes to him and they don't hate and then naming the most favored people you have mother father sister brother wife and he says and even your own life he says don't come he says you've got to take up the cross come and die count the cost of following me we don't preach that message a lot anymore in the west and so we have a distorted gospel so we create a lot of false converts that don't know why they're following jesus in the first place they just really like coldplay concerts which is what much of these worship centers look like there's no call to come and die we have pithy 25 to 30 minutes motivational speeches not proclamations of the gospel so what do we create people who don't know why they follow jesus in the first place so the first instance of struggle or challenge to the faith they abandon the faith you have people today like famous christian rock stars they're like i'm now an atheist you're never a believer in the first place when they talk about why they have now left the faith and you know what did you believe before you're like well i don't believe that in the first place what you were hanging on that it was a fiction it was a fiction and any fiction lived like that will eventually close the story will end they'll come out of it and realize i don't know why i believe this in the first place so why do you believe that the bible is god's word why do you believe we don't know what we believe or why we believe it and that's a problem and i might add that it's not a problem that the christian church has had for 2000 years we've had a history and a tradition of christians that know what they believe and why they believe it want a good example of this to knock your teeth in go read the attributes of god by charnock go read it it'll make you feel very small and let you know about what some of our predecessors did with the word of god how they revered it and wanted to know god to know why they believe this about god is challenging stuff so here's the deal listen when we approach the question of why we believe why we believe the bible is god's word or why we believe that the revelation of god in scripture is true you can approach this a number of different ways think about it now by the way i love this about our faith i love this people will say well we can muster together these evidences of archaeology what does focus in upon biblical archaeology what's that mean i'll give you an example before kovid pastor james and i were supposed to speak um on a tour we were gonna go to goodness where we're going to jerusalem and we were going to athens right we're going to this amazing tour to go and and go to these places what were we going to do with these places we were going to go to the spots that the event happens how you like them apples try that with the book of mormon can't be done right we were going to go to the place we were going to talk about this is what happened in the biblical story this is where it happened look around you feel this look at where jesus this is where we can go where the crucifixion events took place and where jesus was you can go you can smell the air you can feel the dirt you can taste it touch it feel it biblical archaeology is massive and unreal so many things so encouraging these things still are there you can touch them and feel them and you can experience you can go to where jesus was in the sea of galilee i mean all this stuff is a matter of history and record of course you can talk about the evidence for the global flood some crazy stuff in biblical archaeology related to the global flood it's really quite compelling you could talk about evidence for the resurrection the history of the resurrection itself i mean that in itself is just really an incredible study there is no shortage of evidence for the historicity of the resurrection i'm not going to deal with it all right now but i want to encourage you as a believer who believes in the word of god this objective revelation in history look at some of the historical evidence for the resurrection of jesus it'll blow your minds very exciting you can approach the question is the bible god's word or is the bible true with extra biblical evidence for the historical jesus you can do that you can show that jesus is a real historical figure you can show that the events surrounding the resurrection of jesus people were talking about it who actually weren't in the bible so i'll give you some examples here just just to wet your appetite to look at this pliny the younger 62 ad to 113 a.d that's where he lived 62 a.d to 113 a.d so he was born when there were still some apostles you know around ministering there's a section from pliny the younger where he actually says about the christians that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to christ as to a god so according to this person in the first century he's referring to the christians and their practice of singing songs to jesus like to god so when people talk about well the early christians didn't believe jesus was god well jesus said he was god the bible teaches he's god people were talking about it knowing where the christians practice was worshiping jesus as god and he says this and bound themselves to a spy solemn oath not to any wicked deeds but never to commit any fraud theft or adultery never to falsify their word nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up after which it was their custom to separate and then reassemble to partake of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind one of the examples of this you can also of course go to tacitus 56 a.d to 120 a.d we could talk about the historical jesus and tacitus talking about the early christians actually says this he says consequently to get rid of the report nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures and a glass of classif hated for their abominations called christians by the populace tacitus of course is referring to the fire in rome and the blame put upon the christians and all the rest of that he says christus from whom the name had its origin suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of tiberius at the hands of one our of one of our pro procreators pontius pilate and a most mischievous superstition thus checked for the moment again broke out not only in judea the first source of the evil but even in rome so you have early people right in the history here surrounding this and they're referring to the christians and jesus being crucified and all the rest of course there's evidence for the historicity of jesus outside of the bible you have another example of course of josephus flavius josephus he gives a history of the war between the romans and the jews and in g of course josephus does mention james the lord's brother he does mention jesus uh this is probably a more accurate example of what was said he says this at this time there was a wise man called jesus and his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous many people among the jews and the other nations became his disciples pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die but those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship so what do you have there he was crucified he died but the people who were following didn't abandon him after his death why do you think that was they reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion that he was alive accordingly he was perhaps the messiah concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders and the tribe of the christians so named after him which has not disappeared to this day that's josephus so can you do that yeah can you get into that arena absolutely you can do the extra biblical evidence for the historical jesus you can look at the evidence in the bible for prophecy now this is one of my absolute favorites and we're going to do a lot of this on the question of why do we believe jesus is the messiah check this out you can go to your old testament and you can demonstrate the prophecy of jesus as messiah that will give you goosebumps it is so precise to the day it is so precise and so incredible only a sovereign god can tell you the future before it happens and you have it happening time after time after time in the scriptures you can talk about jesus in the old testament all the details necessary to know jesus as savior and as lord we know the who is prophesied before it happens who's coming it's very specific it's god himself we know the why he's coming we know the what what's going to take place what's going to happen he's going to die he's going to rise again we know when yes the bible predicts when the messiah is coming to the degree that listen there can be no other messiah the bible tells you the messiah daniel chapter 9 is going to come be cut off die of violent death before the destruction of the second jewish temple the second jewish temple was destroyed fully and finally when 70 a.d so if jesus isn't the messiah there is no messiah there is no messiah we know the where where is the messiah coming to we know in examples of scripture prophecy jesus saying in his generation that they wouldn't all pass away before that jewish temple was taken apart literally stone off of stone and it happened within a generation of jesus prophecy we can talk when we talk about the question of why do we believe the bible is god's word we can talk about the evidence of design the evidence of design this powerful it's powerful it really comes down to what scripture talks about when it says the heavens declare the glory of god and the fool says in his heart there is no god the evidence for design and god's handiwork is unavoidable it's unavoidable and so powerful and watch this the deeper we go into science and examination the lower we go down into the cell and looking at the human genome the more we see the fingerprints of god it is unavoidable it's the kind of thing that my favorite atheist in history referred to in the film collision with my friend douglas wilson christopher hitchens my favorite atheist in history i've said that many times before but at the end of that film go watch it doug and christopher hitchens are in this limousine together and they're having a conversation and i think christopher probably had some drinks in him so he was in vino veritas and wine there is truth and in this moment christopher hitchens basically is talking about the problem of design and he says even as an atheist he says you really have to work on it because it's not easy to get over he says all of everything all the universe he says if you change anything to one degree he goes no one hair life isn't possible nothing's possible everything is so designed and ordered it's this well-oiled machine if you move one degree over nothing is possible that's all the way from the top down to the bottom of your cells and even an atheist like christopher hitchens hitchens as hard as he works to war against the christian worldview admits this is a difficult one to get over the evidence for design is so obvious you see you can talk about the human genome give you some examples here talking about dna the human genome um here's some some quotes about dna it talks about how many feet long our dna from one of our cells would be if you uncoiled each strand and place them end to end if you do this for all your dna the resulting strand would be 67 billion miles long so in your body all the dna all the code you have the code that makes you you the code that makes you who you are that builds your body made your eyes all the details of you if you took that those strands and you pulled them all apart that strand would be 67 billion miles long 67 billion miles the same as about 150 000 round trips to the moon you might be thinking what's the big deal about that um it's information it's letters it's information it's code that describes how to build how to operate the systems the machinery the mechanics of you everything that makes you you all this design all this information all this ready word if you stretched all that information all the way out here's another way to put it if you stretched it all out it would be about two meters long and all the dna and all your cells put together would be about us twice would be about twice the diameter of the solar system and all of its information you might be thinking okay how is that awesome well if you haven't understood it yet here's how awesome it is you all have bulletins in your hands right now bulletins in your hands right and there there's some words in there there's information in there but how many pages is our bulletin this sunday what is it about maybe what 10 10 total pages of information there's not that many words in this week's bulletin but everybody when we opened up today i said everyone open your bulletins here's a note from me here's a verse here's some soul food here's the events that are coming up all that's in your bulletins is information it's information and the words are put in a particular order to express coherently what the thought is what the information is but your bulletin isn't very long but you expect the bulletin to be coherent what if i said everybody open your bulletins today i should have done this dang it i should have done this what if i said everybody open your bulletins today and when you opened it it was absolute gibberish no words it's just it was it's like a monkey on a typewriter just a blah blah blah blah and it just made no sense whatever right it just was just nonsense page after page on the page and it's certain i should have done this page after page after page of nonsense look and i and i look at you all and you're like jeff what do you want us to look at i'm like what's wrong with you right i i we kind of expected it to be in a coherent language to express a particular normal thought it's only a small bulletin but we expected it to be orderly so that you can understand what's being communicated now here's the deal your body's what's inside the system that you have right now is filled with so much dna and information that if you misplace words it doesn't work it doesn't build the thing that's what's all the way down at the bottom we could go for days we could talk about the evidence for designing your cells and the fact that there are rotors and pistons and engines i mean like well-oiled machines down there at the smallest microscopic level level and if anything is off it doesn't work and if it doesn't work you're not here you're not here you don't work the eye isn't an eye without information without building blocks it is so unbelievably amazing and powerful more words from the human genome project we're getting to some important points here check this out human genome project talks about the human genome as the genetic code the entire list of three billion letters required to create a human being the instructions are encoded in dna the four letters in the dna alphabet a c g t carry the instructions to make all living organisms the meaning of the code lies in the sequence of the letters all the instructions needed to make a human being are written in just these four letters just in these four letters here's some words from the human genome project they say there are three billion letters in the human genome three billion letters right now the human genome would stretch 5592 miles it would take a typist working eight hours a day half a century to type it it would fill one million pages 5 000 books stacked 200 feet high or 200 telephone directories read out for 24 hours a day it would take a century to finish reading this 24 hours a day a whole century to finish the human body has 100 trillion cells each contains a copy of the entire genome wow at latest belief the human genome contains around 20 to 25 000 genes some powerful things so you could do that you could say why do i believe the bible is god's word well because this gives me a foundation to to understand this design people say well i believe because there's evidence of design okay there's evidence for the bible and it's preservation some cool stuff here asked pastor james someday to tell you the details about what we know about the history of today of the bible it's transmission through time it really is unbelievable in comparison to other works of antiquity there's nothing that even comes close to it nothing that comes close the fact that you can look at the new testament documents themselves what's come up to us in the transmitted text we have texts of the new testament that go closest to the time of the actual composition than these normative things in history and there's times where something's written down you're studying it in college today but we don't have an extent copy of the thing you're studying until 900 years later because this stuff turns to dust after a while but we have documents from the new testament that actually come at times there's debate over this within even 50 years or 75 years or a hundred years of the actual writing itself there's nothing in in the history of antiquity that works like that just the new testament itself just the new testament we have nearly 6 000 manuscript pieces and copies of the new testament documents themselves that is a lot second place doesn't even come close to that nearly 6 000 and we think about the fact that we've got them coming closer to the time of the actual composition it is truly incredible you have the fact that we have early translations of the new testament documents themselves into other languages whether it's syriac coptic latin whatever the case may be we have over 19 000 translations of the new testament documents here's the deal you can take our new testament transmitted text and stack it on top of it itself and it would be over a mile deep of text and documents so we can get through that transmitted text that's been given to us freely transmitted text given to us in history we can get back to what the autographa or the original document said via the transmitted text it's truly incredible but that's not what we're here to discuss today ultimately because that those are some approaches to the question why do you believe the bible is true why do you believe the bible is god's word can i say this to you all those things are awesome archaeology the transmission of the text of the bible in history the historicity of the lord jesus histories of the resurrection the proof of design all of that is glorious and amazing stuff and it is meaningful and it matters to christians who have a coherent worldview to make sense of that discussion i want to argue this why do i believe the bible is god's word the foundation is actually stronger than any of those things in isolation or put together the foundation is actually stronger as to why we believe that this is god's revelation here's how the bible puts it we did it today as a start proverbs 14 1 the fool says in his heart there is no god that's how the bible puts it now here's the deal you got to get this right we have to really get this right when the bible uses that term fool it's not using it in the way that we would often think about it in terms of it's a slam against somebody or like mr t right it's not like that some of you guys are like who's mr t i'm sad for you a team he had a cereal and he destroyed rocky um when god describes somebody as a fool it's not just a jab it's a spiritual and intellectual assessment of a person who knows the truth refuses to accept it and goes the other direction it's actually listen calling somebody a fool in scripture is not merely intellectual it is that but it's also a moral indictment a moral indictment when you call somebody a fool and god says in his word that it's the fool who says in his heart there is no god that is where you're at intellectually morally you're a fool the bible talks about knowledge and how you can know things that it's a particular place this isn't an expansive study on this today but i want you to go see it in colossians chapter two in terms of how the bible puts this discussion number one the bible says that you're a fool to say there is no god when the bible talks about no god is talking about the true god then colossians chapter two here's what the apostle paul says in a discussion about knowledge people who are claiming secret knowledge and knowledge at all here's what paul says about it he says in verse 1 chapter 2 of colossians for i want you to know how great a struggle i have for you and for those at laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of god's mystery which is christ in whom christ in whom are hidden all the treasures in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge i say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments for though i am absent embodied and with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in christ therefore as you receive christ jesus the lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the humans according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ so there is a philosophy that is according to christ and one that is not according to christ and paul's argument here is that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in jesus that's a bold claim brothers and sisters you see this is actually a field of study it's a very important one are you ready for this how do you know what you know that's important people make claims all the time you could be watching the news and someone sees some atrocity happen on the news and someone is revolted by it and goes ew that's horrible that's disgusting what's disgusting what i just saw what that person did oh it is discussing discussing is it wrong to do such a thing and someone says yes do you know that it's wrong to do such a thing yes how do you know that's wrong seems like a simple enough question right but when you really get down and challenge it if you don't have christ as your central reference points if you don't have christ as a foundation of knowledge you can't ultimately know anything i want to argue that there is no justifiable knowledge no certain knowledge apart from this revelation none can i give you one example as a start it's more recent examples so you guys can go find this very quickly we had a radio show i think i discussed this recently but i think it's important for this subject to hear it we had a radio discussion recently unprovoked with uh desi and pastor zach and we had an atheist supposed to come on to defend pro-choice arguments and as we start getting into the discussion and challenging his position we started getting into well how do you know anything's wrong at all and he basically said yeah there is no ultimate objective morality in the first place you know it's just all subjective and it sort of just changes throughout time so he admits it so i continue to press him and challenge on on that this man does believe ultimately that we should love other people but as an atheist when he's challenged he can't make any knowledge claims about what's right and what's wrong because his atheism doesn't comport with claims that this is wrong so i challenged him and i said well really according to your worldview it isn't wrong to hunt kill dispatch and eat another human being is it and he basically said this and i'm not telling tails out of the schoolyard this is what he said you can listen to it yourself he said well basically as long as you clean your plate as long as you don't waste anything i guess it wouldn't really be wrong if that society said it's okay to hunt kill dispatch and eat a human being if their society says it's okay then i guess ultimately since it's subjective and based upon societal convention then yeah i guess they can't really know so yes it's fine for them i just think it's icky but as long as they clean their plates and don't waste anything you see there is no ultimate knowledge outside of jesus christ it's foolishness it's foolishness so we have the bible saying the fool says in his heart there is no god that christ is the very foundation of knowledge itself but we also have listen this don't think about it is just the word bible don't think about it as just a collection of different books and letters it is that but what does this represent actually revelation this is revelation from the true and living god so when we say bible what we're really talking about is the revelation of god special revelation revelation given to us in words on pages transmitted to us through history this is revelation from god you see we know scripture teaches there are different kinds of revelation there's revelation that's bombarding us constantly every moment of every single day it's happening to you right now it's the revelation of god through nature and it gets through psalm 19 1 says the heavens declare the glory of god it's unavoidable psalm 14 1 the fool says in his heart there is no god romans chapter 1 go read it later paul says that the revelation of god gets through hear this please hear it because it is fundamental the revelation of god gets through to every single human being in the world richard dawkins knows the true god christopher hitchens now he certainly knows but he knew the true god sam harris daniel dennett all the famous atheists the four horsemen of the apocalypse all these guys they know the true god what's the problem suppression romans 1 says they suppress the truth of god in unrighteousness that which is known about god is evident to them or plain to them for because god has shown it to them god has given to every image bearer of god the knowledge of himself and it says that they know this god is there through what has been made they can see it clearly and they are culpable paul says romans 1 they are without and apologetic they have no defense their mouths will not be flapping before god they know the true god but paul says they don't want to know him they don't want god in their knowledge so they switch god paul says for idols that describes really ultimately all of humanity and our idolatry but it says something about our knowledge of god we know the true god what's the problem no more evidence not enough light the problem is sinful suppression so we have natural revelation from god bombarding us we have the revelation of god in history his working through his people in history speaking to his people we have those of course here in this special revelation we have god actually acting in history you heard me say a moment ago we were going to go to those places stand in the dirt where this all took place in history god has worked in history we also have of course the ultimate the revelation of god in history in christ he walked among us god took on flesh and he walked among us lived perfectly died and rose again this is not a faith that is merely out there somewhere it's here in this world in this dirt breathing this air that's what our god did but ultimately what we're talking about here is this his revealed word his written word this is the revelation of god what's our catechism say all right let me test the kids here kids come back let's see who can get this one now kids please stand up if you know it okay and just raise your hand i want you to yell it out how do we know there is a god if you know it stand up mikey you gotta come here come on actually no one's gonna be able to hear you on here by the way why should you have kids in service all right come on over here i'm gonna i'm actually lift you up can you put this one on i'm gonna lift you up actually you know what i'll do make this easier i'm gonna need to share anyways so i think pastor james needs a chair today too so here we go just by the way i'm messing with you you gotta understand i think he drove across he he rode his bike across the country this week he did like 18 hours of bike riding he knows him messing with him you can stand up okay all right mikey how do we know there's a god the light of nature and man in the works of god plainly declared that there is a god but his word and spirit only do effectually reveal him unto us for our salvation all right thank you mikey so it's interesting when we used to go out to the abortion mill like i say this quickly we used to go the abortion when we first started you would not believe the amount of negative comments we got from profession christians when we started going out to the abortion mill put the stuff up live stream we're going to try save lives when we first started no no kidding you guys who were here you know it was non-stop barrages of professing christians you can't do that it's wrong this is not how you love these women it's not how you save these babies and we just kept doing it and kept doing it and then we started saving babies so at first we would try to like get into it people very graciously and give them like no god's word says this here's what god's word says and we still did that but we got to the point where all we really did when someone came on and said you shouldn't be doing this it's not how you love these women it's not how you stop abortion we would just start sharing pictures of the babies we saved and the arguments stopped they don't really happen anymore because when you save thousands of children from death and people see that fruit they go okay i'll i'll shut up okay and when people argue against having children and worship services there's my picture but our catechism question addresses this to some degree it says this how do we know there's a god the light of nature and man and the works of god plainly declares that there is a god get that that's what we're talking about all these evidences design men know god it's unavoidable the fool says in his heart there is no god so it's all there bombarding us but what's the problem our catechism says it but his word and spirit only to effectively reveal him unto us for our salvation what's the problem is it the evidence even our catechism expresses it's not the problem of the evidence it's there the problem is sinful suppression that's the problem you need a heart change you need to avoid that the hand move the hands away from the suppression so what's the problem it's suppression of truth but here's what we need to understand god as god has a self-attesting authority this i told you that the answer is better than mere design arguments the answer is stronger than mere historical evidences it's much stronger here's the deal god as god and we have to grant this as a philosophical consideration and and just granted yeah that's true if god is god then he has a self-attesting authority just grant it for the moment even if you disagreed with it if you were an atheist if god truly exists and he's the eternal god and he's the supreme being god he has no one above him or below him he has been here from all eternity and will be here he yields all authority and sovereignty god as god has a self-attesting authority self-attesting he doesn't need somebody's approval he doesn't need somebody to back him up when god speaks he speaks with authority can i give you the first instance we have genesis what happened in genesis great example of how do you know it's a big question of how do you know that's the truth are you certain about that in the beginning god created everything he creates human beings puts them in the garden and what's he saying he says you can do this but don't do this because he says the day you do you'll surely die so what do we have now a knowledge claim god says you can do all this but you can't do this the day you do you'll die well what happens on that fateful day what happens the deceiver comes in and what does he challenge he challenges god's claim by deception initially he says hath god said did god really say you see by the way that is exactly how this works and operates within history god makes claims with self-attesting authority in his revelation and man comes along and does what satan did in the garden and says did god really say and so satan says this to eve he says no no no you won't die you see he doesn't want you to do it because he knows that you'll become like him knowing good and evil what's that mean deciding for yourselves what is right and what is wrong god makes the claim as to what is to be done what is right and what is wrong satan comes and says no no no did he really say that no you see here's another claim i'll challenge it you see when you eat of it you'll be like him you'll decide for yourselves what is right and what is wrong and what happened that day exactly what god said was going to take place you see from the very beginning the problem has always been this god says god says god gives us revelation and it's a self-attesting authority he doesn't need your evidences your proofs to give him that authority he has ultimate authority and so i'll give an example this as a punch here it is why do i believe the bible is god's word why do i believe the bible is true well a couple ways this can be said apart from god's revelation you can't prove anything apart from god's revelation you can't know anything apart from god's revelation you become a fool philosophically morally scientifically logically mathematically apart from this revelation as your starting point you're a fool and that could be demonstrated and we'll do some of it today but i'll tell you one thing that's important about this in terms of evidences related to this and god's own self-attesting authority i had a online a radio debate with um a popular guy andy stanley and um it was on the unbelievable radio program very popular show and in that program he just couldn't quite grasp what i was saying and there's eclipse going around today um with with this particular moment in it andy stanley i just hadn't really thought through this i think he couldn't really grasp what i was saying so i'm challenging him on the fact that he's basing the truthfulness of christianity on the fact that somebody rose from the dead he says here's these evidences for jesus i just tell my kids if people say this weird stuff in the bible say yeah there is but jesus rose from the dead and that's why i believe because there was this miracle in history and jesus rose from the dead i said um i think that's the wrong way to do it he said well why do you believe what you believe i said the word of the living god because of the word of the living god and his response was that was really i don't know how to respond to that i believe what i believe because of the word of the living god my knowledge is wrapped up in the certainty of god's revelation and in luke 16 29 there is an example from the lord jesus himself it's the parable of lazarus and the rich man remember that parable or that story or whatever it may be there's dispute over that in this example that jesus gives when he's in torment he just wants so desperately to come have somebody go back to tell his family so they don't come to this awful place and what's the word that comes to him they have moses and the prophets if they won't accept that revelation neither will they believe if somebody rises from the dead if you don't believe god's own word and self-attesting revelation then miracles can just be explained away right i mean miracles i'll give you an example of this so um what time is it doesn't matter um i'll give you an example so at the debate one year ago pastor james and i debated two atheists in utah trying to find the best that utah had to offer these guys stepped up and one guy is brilliant he's a smarter man than i'll ever be he is absolutely undeniably brilliant he also hates god hates god and in the debate if you go online and see it you'll see this atheist this is what he says the whole time he says show me show me show me show me show me he just keeps saying show me show me show me uh pastor zach almost pounded him into the floor when he got a little too close to pastor james and um he's very protective of pastor james um but when the debate was over that's the whole debate the atheists kept saying show me show me show me he said here's some here's some coolants here's some poison and he poured it he's like coming if you believe in jesus if you believe in him drink this show me show me a miracle that's all he kept saying was show me the miracle show me the miracle show me the miracle after the day was over they lost badly and after it was over he came to get in my face show me show me and then in james face show me he just kept saying all i need is a miracle show me show me and it was like a month and a half later than my son was born without spina bifida which he had miracle bona fide genuine miracle i can show you the ultrasounds it's not a misdiagnosis there's a hole in his back we see it over and over and over again show me show me show me and god did it whenever he wanted to showed you right but the atheist what would they say if they saw the miracle what would this all of a sudden a conversion do you think if i went to dr clark and i said here's all the ultrasounds here's the doctors who are saying that i've never seen this before here are four months of all these plans and medical teams working on this here's the ultrasounds i showed you do you think dr clark would go i believe do you think he would what's the problem he hates god he hates god it's not a lack of evidence or miracles or any of those things it's also an example i just want to say one last time that i'll show you something ben shapiro i love this example ben shapiro when he was doing his discussion he's a jew who doesn't believe jesus is the messiah when he was doing his discussion with the premier person to talk about the historicity of jesus and the resurrection what does he say when he gets the evidences for the resurrection what's he saying he says i find it uninteresting it's a problem of suppression it's a problem of ultimate commitments it's a problem of world view god's revelation is the central reference point christ is the foundation of knowledge when someone says to me and this is just you could do this in different ways little bursts when someone says to me why do you believe that that's god's revelation why do you believe that's true that's god's word i can say if you reject it you can't prove anything if you reject it you can't justify any claim to knowledge if you reject it you become a fool because here's the deal you reject what god says about the world and us and himself from this revelation here's the answer there is no beauty nothing is beautiful stop and think about it for a moment we take it for granted all the time don't you listen to some beautiful music beautiful music when you see some beautiful work of art you think about the sistine chapel and the majesty and the power of all that when you think about michelangelo donatello not the turtles but when you think about the art we think about beethoven you think about things that are truly beautiful i'll tell you i have a i have a um a family member who's a hardcore hardcore atheist and one of his favorite things to do like every day is just stand out on the beach when the sun's rising and setting just stare and just take it all in i always find that so amazing when i see it happen i'm like look at you image bearer of god you know you know that's beautiful you know that's god testifying to you you know it you're trying to escape it but you know but you see outside of god and what he says in his word about the world and us there is no beauty because here's the deal take the take the other side atheism there is no god all this is time and chance acting on matter it's just chaos it's just stuff happening right there's no meaning there's no order there's no purpose you ever done this you ever gone in the middle of night to get something to drink maybe open the fridge and you know something falls out and goes plop it's like pudding and milk maybe just falls out you know what's in my fridge um just falls out nobody ever stomps in that moment and looks down and goes oh beautiful it's a work of art it's not beautiful it's an accident there's no intention there's no purpose there's no meaning there's no order it's garbage it's a mess it's not beautiful what do you call it a mess if god isn't who he says he is in this world is not what he says it is and if we are not who he says we are there is no beauty there is no truth without this revelation as your foundation there is no truth there's just whatever you happen to feel at the moment maybe whatever your particular huddle says is the truth all you have is just this three pound brain working in a cosmic accident firing chemical thoughts all you have is just meaningless matter in motion there is nothing true and by the way you know when i say that this is not jeff durbin the pastor really trying hard to misrepresent the other side if you don't believe what i'm saying listen to dr will provine very honest i like provine because he's a very honest atheist he's dead now he's a creationist dr will provine talks about the fact that there is no god of what it means and he says the same thing nothing is ultimately true there's no ultimate in ethics there's just what is so apart from this revelation and this god there is no truth there is no goodness there is no justification for logic and things to be coherent and meaningful and makes sense apart from god and his own character as the foundation in his own mind revealed to us in scripture we don't have a basis to call laws of logic universal unchanging necessary in other words watch this if you hear saying well if you see joe biden saying something crazy right why does everybody well this is actually a good moment okay i'm not just trying to pick on the man i pray for his salvation but if you see all these videos coming out of every time they put that man in front of the camera and he says something absolutely illogical or crazy like i think the one that came out yesterday he said that he's been in politics for 180 years i had to watch the video like 16 times to make sure it wasn't doctored in some way i sent it to pastor james i was like you gotta see this look why does everyone laugh at that why why can't you use that as political fodder how come because it doesn't make sense you haven't been alive for that long someone help him someone help the man if he has family they should be doing something but 180 years right and it's just one thing after another of illogical statement why is it used so often why because it's a contradiction and the reason it's used so much is because we are not supposed to hold to things that are contradictory that are false why do you think everybody assumes that things need to make sense and not contradict themselves why do you think every image bearer of god even atheists think that things need to make sense and be logical and orderly how come their worldview can't comport with that how come because they know the true god this revelation gives you a basis for laws of logic laws of thought as necessary universal immaterial big question very important one um have you ever tasted a law of logic you ever smelled one how much does the law of non-contradiction weigh where can i find it growing have you ever held one in your hand all of us recognize that these laws of logic which are laws of thought are binding necessary universal everybody's supposed to hold to them if you'd refuse to we call that laughable i was going to say biden but i'll be careful okay here's the point these laws of logic are universal if you reject god's existence if you go the atheist direction if you reject this revelation of god what's that mean it means that all you are is stardust you're a cosmic accident there is no meaning and purpose you have no justification for anything that's immaterial because atheists consistent atheists i believe are materialists like the guys we debated last year they're materialists they believe that all that exists is matter that's it so where are the laws of logic in a materialist world view why are they necessary why are they universal only the christian worldview can give you a basis for a material realm and a mature and an immaterial realm all under the mind of god if there is no god if this revelation is not true then you have no justification for mathematics ah i said this for years i said unbelievers have no justification for arithmetic they have no justification mathematics it is immaterial it is necessary to do what we do in the world and only the christian world we can give you a basis for mathematics now watch i said that for years and then this year people start saying because they reject god and they reject this revelation they start saying what two plus two may not be four it's not right here's what i would say about that uh try building a bridge like that and i challenge the person who says something so ignorant and so foolish which is what it is i challenge you to board a plane with a pilot who announces over the pa system uh just so you all know i'm an atheist strict materialist i do not believe in the laws of arithmetic or logic or morality have a nice flight everybody would be unbuckling their seat belts going to get their baggage and going to pop that thing open with the slide right why because you all recognize the pilot has to believe that the laws of arithmetic are universal and necessary you can't build bridges without the laws of math actually universal and fixed and firm i i saw incredible it's so amazing years ago when we used to go to vegas uh at family in vegas and everything and you used to you guys some of you guys are older you you know that's no offense by the way okay you know that you used to if you went to vegas you had to go north and you had to go down to the hoover dam and then you had to wait for all the people they were like oh hoover doom you know and it it took like an extra two hours like you're like please get park your car stop taking forever sorry you see i'm being sanctified um but then they built that bridge they built that bridge and i remember that at a certain point when you saw it being built wasn't it terrifying like i literally parked my car to watch it looked so high i was like i will never ride on that bridge it looks so terrifying but they built this bridge for years between these two mountains and when they built it they built it like that you understand what kind of precision there must be with the laws of mathematics to be able to build from opposite sections and to come together pink two plus two better before right you reject this revelation you don't have a basis for the laws of math atheists use the laws of math but if you challenge them on it they'll say yeah well you just sort of made these we hope they work do you launch rockets into space going we hope let's see it happens here's the deal you reject this revelation you become a fool you can't prove anything you have no justification for morality no justification for human value no justification for science we could spend all day on this but i think it's important listen to the man himself dr richard dawkins famous atheist he says in his book river out of eden this there is no good there is no evil there is only blind and pitiless indifference that's atheism reject this revelation become a fool reject this revelation have no basis for morality what african apes do to other african apes is morally irrelevant if we were out in the sahara right now or some place the congo or some out with out with the elements and nature and we saw creatures attacking one another and eating one another none of us run up to the fight and start throwing cuffs on them all right now you have an obligation to love your neighbor where does that come from the law of god the law of god so i'll just show you quickly i'm going to just make sure it's it's here as a reference point i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but you've seen this before maybe some of you hopefully you can all see me why do you believe the bible's the word of god apart from it you can't prove anything apart from it you can't know anything apart from it you'd become a fool morally philosophically intellectually scientifically apart from it there is no beauty there is no truth there is no goodness take for a moment the opposite commitment the atheist the unbeliever he stands on a worldview too he makes knowledge claims she makes knowledge claims but they're standing on a world view a view of reality a view of how they can know what they know a view of ethics how they should live what do they say there is no god no goodness no truth no beauty no ultimate anything there's only blind and pitiless indifference what are human beings well stardust is there any meaning or purpose in human beings created no none cosmic accidents all of them we live we die and we're gone we're absolutely gone when we die that's what will provine says about human experience you live you die and you're gone you're absolutely gone when you die that's it that's atheism no god no meaning no purpose no beauty no truth no goodness no order no reason to believe that the future will be like the past and you have the christian worldview that stands on that revelation we have a god who's revealed his character to us why do we believe in justice and loving other human beings because we're made in god's image we are not just cosmic accidents we're reflections of the immortal invisible god we're in his image god cannot lie he doesn't engage in logical contradictions god is love here's what scripture says about love love does no harm to its neighbor do we have an absolute objective standard to love neighbor and to make sure that justice is upheld according to god's revelation we do do we have a basis in the christian worldview to engage in art and beauty and song and science and truth and beauty and goodness yes why because of god because of his revelation we know we can have certainty why do i believe when i get up in the morning and put my feet on the ground then i'm not going to float away to the ceiling if there is no god there's no governance of the universe there's no purpose and there's no meaning and there's no order there's no basis to believe the future will be like the past maybe tomorrow we all wake up stuck to the ceiling people walk their dogs expecting an orderly walk somewhat with the dog but they expect a certain pattern in the environment because of past experience there's an orderly universe christians gave science it's pop because we have a worldview that made sense of it but isn't it interesting the unbeliever says all those things about the universe but what do they have to do to live in god's world borrow the unbeliever says there is no god no meaning no purpose no beauty no truth no goodness and then someone steals their car stereo and they'll go hey hey that's wrong you can't do that you can't take my stereo without permission and you go excuse me what are you doing they go oh there's no goodness there's no beauty there's no truth there's no nothing you see this is a commitment of ultimate world views and we need to look what we're standing on the feet and when we talk about the question why we believe the bible is god's word here's a quick answer because you become a fool when you reject it only god's word can provide a foundation for all of these things but and these are my final thoughts truly this is very personal it's just beyond the debates on a personal level this is big this is i told you it's two ways the unbeliever and then personally yes when you have god's word as reference point it takes the unbeliever's legs off there's no question about that but when you have god's word as the revelation and your foundation personal suffering has meaning and purpose your personal suffering has meaning and purpose here's the deal if atheism is true if unbelief is true your personal suffering is nothing it means nothing you can cry all you want it has no real meaning or purpose stop crying feel the weight of that you lose a loved one you live you die and you're gone you're absolutely gone when you die it's not like your loved one had any meaning or purpose it's not like love is a thing it's not like love is an ultimate thing you don't have god who is love but if you are a christian you have god's revelation to your feet personal suffering has meaning and purpose we have a basis to cry you see this revelation gives you a basis to cry in this world tears make sense if this revelation is true but more importantly if you have this revelation we have a savior who meets us in our pain so there's more to this than just intellectual it's a savior who meets you in your pain because this revelation says that the god of all creation despite our rebellion he entered into the creation and he suffered among us we forget that a lot don't we about jesus we think what he did for us we don't often think about the fact that he meets us in every inch of our pain he wept at the tomb of a loved one even though he knew he was going to raise him from the dead jesus has experienced the people closest to him abandoning him when he needed them the most jesus knows what it's like to have people slander you and to bear false witness about you jesus knows what it's like to have people out for your life jesus knows what it's like to have somebody to take your body and to do things to it without your permission he knows what that's like jesus has experienced that but here's the glorious thing he did it for his people he meets us in our pain with god's revelation we can make beautiful things with god's revelation we can do math for the glory of god i'm not very good at math but you can still do it for the glory of god with god's revelation we have a basis for truth and caring about it with god's revelation we have a basis for love as a meaningful thing with god's revelation we have an answer for our shame our guilt our shame that every image bearer of god feels with god's revelation we have his good news let's pray father i pray that you bless the word that went out today i pray that you use it for your glory i pray that you would allow us to be the kind of church that treasures your revelation hides it in our hearts and puts it in our mouths proclaiming it to the world in jesus name amen

Channel: Apologia Studios

Views: 52,399

Rating: 4.9034905 out of 5

Keywords: jeff durbin, apologia studios, apologia church, jeff durbin sermon, is the bible true, jeff durbin debate, can we trust the bible, christian apologetics for beginners, greg bahnsen sermon, greg bahnsen debate, james white sermon, james white debate, how to defend the bible, best sermon on youtube, shocking youth sermon, christian apologetics, cornelius van til

Id: hvvb5UqM9bk

Length: 86min 50sec (5210 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020