The Bible The Word of God

So in the first overhead here, you'll see that we're going to look at the Word of God this morning, and there's four chapters that are in the cover of the Bible. The Word of God today, and we're going to look at what's called the internal evidence in Scripture, and then the external evidence. And then the next three weeks after that, we're going to look at the inspired of God, the fact that God has inspired the Bible. Here's the case in point. That word inspired in Scripture is used in the context, which is not what we might use in normal situations. So there's a case where looking, digging it out, what does that word mean, is very important.

The third chapter is the subject and purpose of the Bible. I think a lot of us who have I've looked at the Bible for a long time. We pretty well know what the subject is. It's our wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to talk about that in that chapter, also about the purpose. And the purpose of Scripture, as you'll find, is to really glorify God, to show who He is and what He's done.

And then the fourth chapter talks about the Bible as a divine revelation. So those four chapters kind of form the basis for that the Bible is truly the Word of God. Okay, so let's look at Okay, so let's look at the basis for Revelation. So those four chapters kind of form the basis for the Bible as truly the Word of God. Okay, so let's look at the next. Okay.

So typically in looking at scripture, people have kind of looked at what the Bible says about itself, what it declares about itself. And it says a lot about itself. In fact, that's one of the things that I know when I first started reading the Bible, I became a believer, I always would ask people, where did you find what you said? You told me something, but where is it in God's Word? The Bible talks a lot about itself and makes claims about itself.

So that's what's called internal evidence. And then there's something called external evidence, and I put a little note. It's not to mean that it's other writings that give us, and there are other writings, I shouldn't exclude, there are other writings that give us some insight into the culture of the times. External here means looking at the collection of scriptures, looking at how the Bible, the continuity of the Bible, how it unfolds. That's what's really termed external. Maybe the one exception the author points out is that the impact of that could be called external, if you think about it. How has God's Word affected mankind? How has it affected you and I? In my life it's had a tremendous effect. I came from a point where I can remember, this is a story that's that's kind of special for me.

I remember walking by a conference room at work for many, many years, and there was a gentleman there who was teaching about the Bible, and I go home and I talk to Vani, my wife, about that, and I said, this guy's talking about marriage and the family and all these kind of things, and that person is Hal Malloy. That's about 30 years ago. I walked by the conference room and he was teaching the Bible, and to me that was, well, I don't know, that seems kind of strange. I would personally study that book. I went from that state to a state where I said, wow, this is God's word. It has something to say to me. It's a pretty incredible book. Let's look at the internal evidence.

If you start in Genesis chapter 1, and if you have your Bibles, you don't have to necessarily turn there, but just kind of think about right in the very beginning of Genesis it talks about God said, let there be light. And God said, God saw, God saw that it was good. His creation, He thought it was very good. God called the, He called the lightness day and the darkness night.

So, right from the very beginning, the Bible talks about and assumes this is God's talking, it's been recorded, and this is to you. This is talking to you and God has said this. So, right from the very beginning, Scripture doesn't give you any justification, he just starts out and says, this is God's Word, and this is what it's all about. So that's what forms the internal evidence for Scripture. And there's a lot more, as you go through, like you get to Moses, and it talks about, so the Lord spoke to Moses. It talks about how God can talk to man, and then Moses would take God's Word and tell it to the people. Alright, so I was going to ask a question here. Hopefully, most of you had a chance.

Some of you couldn't come last week, but if you've read Chapter 1, are there some synonyms that you might have come across for God's Word and Scripture? I'm looking for other words besides the Bible or things like that. Other terms that you might have seen in your reading of Chapter 1, or the verses that you saw, be another term for God's Word. And this is probably one of those situations where if you see what I'm thinking about, it's really obvious. If you don't, it may not be as obvious. So I was just looking for words that you might come across as you read some of the verses that the author...

As you go through scriptures, there are words that talk about what God has said, but He doesn't always say God's Word. He'll use other terms for that. Anybody have any thoughts? There probably isn't a wrong answer. Marilyn? Right, right, good. The law of the Lord, right. Excellent, excellent.

So as you go through Scripture, you're going to see God's laws, God's commandments, God's precepts, His statutes. Largely, this is in the Old Testament, you're going to see that. And that's what formed the law that God gave to Moses, that God gave to Israel. So his word is described as law, commandments, judgments, statutes.

So with that in mind, let's go to the next overhead. So in that list of verses that the author spoke to, one of the key ones was in Psalm 19. So if I could get someone to read Psalm 19, maybe hold up your hand and read Psalm 19, 7 through 9. Anyone can read, you don't have to be, you know. Go ahead. Thank you. So you see it here in this passage, if you notice, it's the phrase of the Lord follows every one of the ones in Psalm 19, 7-9.

It talks about the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord. They're all, the source of all these laws, testimonies, precepts are all of the Lord. So again, the Bible is declaring that this is indeed God's Word. This has come from the Lord.

And that's important. And this is an observation you might make. As you look through Scripture, you'll say, well, the Bible is telling me all these things whose source is God. It's not saying that this came from anywhere else. This came from the Lord. And Scripture will go through and describe...

I actually thought about doing a word search. I mean, if you have a computer these days, I could search on the wall and see how many times that's mentioned of the Lord. I would venture to say it's many, many times. Same way with testimonies and precepts and judgments. Actually, one additional verse that is good to look at is in Deuteronomy. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. If I could have another volunteer, that would be great.

Do you know what I mean? Six. Go ahead. This is the commandment. Statutes and judgments of the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going to be resettled. Right. You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. Okay, good.

Okay, so you see in this passage that actually, you know, we have that list from Psalm 19, you know, law, testimonies, precepts. This mentions four of them right there, the commandments, statutes, judgments, and testimonies are mentioned in verse 1, and it talks about that, you know, this is Moses, There's a human author here who says, now this is the commandment, statutes and judgment which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you. So once again, the source is never in question. The source is always, this has come from God or the Lord. So where I'm heading here is that this is the Bible declaring that it is God's word in various ways, in various methods that it describes that.

So any thoughts, comments about that? I'd like to move on to the next part, which I found, you know, Isaiah there talks about very... Marilyn? Sure. Okay, so you're asking, and your question is, I think the claim, let me see if I can restate your question. Your question is, is it pieces?

I don't think the Bible is really talking about that it would be put together. I haven't seen that in the scripture. But when we look at the Bible, the Bible was, you know, Old and New Testament. We look at the Old Testament and we see the claims of the Old Testament, the law, the statutes, the judgments, and then we go to the New Testament and we see additional information in there, in fact, even more astounding information, talking about the mechanism, the mechanics of how Scripture was written. So I see them different revealing additional truth. The New Testament gives us additional information. The Old Testament just flatly states, this is God's Word.

I don't think it necessarily addresses the compilation of that. I'm open to other thoughts on that, but I can't think offhand of a scripture that talks about the Bible being compilated in this manner. I'm not a real good historian on the Bible being compiled here, but there were They sat down and they said, this book belongs in the canon of scripture, and this book does not. And some books were said, this book does not belong in the canon of scripture.

And that was decided at some point. Am I answering your question or rambling on here? Well, if you look through some of those, and you compare it with our Bible we have here, and many times it either seems like it's trying to copy the language or the format, it didn't meet the test of At that time period, I can't think what time period that was, but basically it had to be recognized by the apostles, by a certain number of people. So there was a decision made, and what you're saying is... Oh yeah, and this is still the test of time.

And what you're saying is, is there another book out there, or another chapter, or... Well, and I want to get to that point, and the New Testament is very specific about that. It doesn't leave any wiggle room. There's no wiggle room. Well, this part may be. Is there a jot or a tittle, as the King James says? Is there the smallest mark that shouldn't be there? The New Testament says there's not. Every...

You know, so it's pretty... I don't know. Can somebody help me here? I don't know, I don't know, 70 AD, I don't know, it's been a while. Yeah, the council, yes. There was the council and there were certain, and it's interesting to read that. I haven't, you know. That's your homework assignment for next week. And that's true. That's very true. That's very true. I'll just give you my personal...

When I first started reading the Bible, it came a point when I said, wow, this really is God's Word. And that's the point that I'm convinced that And it comes from God's Word, reading God's Word, and you say, this is truly God's Word. And that's something that really, you don't necessarily gin up within yourself, that's God, you know, the Holy Spirit working in your heart and mind. This is God's Word. I can remember a time when I was overseas in England, when I became a believer, and I can remember, and the Gospel of John was just coming out of my heart, and I can remember getting up about three hours in the morning and reading, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. and the word was God. I said, that's really true. That is really true. I can't explain it. So there is an aspect of you personally realizing that and owning that and believing it.

Let's move on here. In Isaiah 55, I thought this was a very personal testimony to this being God's word because it uses Isaiah 55, if someone would read, I'd like to read from verse 8-11, even though I have 9-11 in there. Thank you very much. Thank you.

So in this passage, I was just really struck with the fact that it talks about my thoughts. And once again, the Bible doesn't make any... It just comes out and states, this is God's thoughts, my thoughts, my ways, my words, my mouth. And I was just really impressed in this passage with the fact that You know, God distinguishes between his thoughts and man's thoughts, and his ways and man's ways. He says they're opposite. He says, you know, my ways are not your ways. He says that about his thoughts and about his ways. They're different. And he says that my ways are higher than your ways.

And that's really impressive. And the thrilling part is he makes this analogy between the rain and the snow and how it comes and it waters the ground and nourishes the ground. And he makes this wonderful statement about the facts. He says, So shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth, it shall not be turned to me empty without accomplishing what I desire.

So God's word has gone forth. And we have it here. It's gone forth. And it accomplishes man's salvation, ultimately. It accomplishes man coming to know him. And that's a tremendous statement. It will accomplish, and it won't come back to a nifty, just like you expect. We need rain desperately here, right? I mean, we'd love to have more rain. And when the rain comes, what happens? The trees grow, the flowers bloom, everything is nourished. There's no question that when the rain is provided, that will happen. And what's incredible is that God makes this promise.

He says, My word will go forth, and it will accomplish what I intended. I mean, to me, that's an astounding statement. And he backs it up. We're going to see more as he goes on from there. So I found this very thrilling, very encouraging. Okay, so that's the one from the Old Testament. You notice that he had a whole bunch. I mean, there must have been 20 or 30 he quoted from the Old Testament.

And a lot of those have to do with the law, the giving of the law. And the law is who God is. That's God's character. So a lot of it is from the law, and then when we move to the New Testament, there's more that are directed at how is this God's word, and how is He able to use men to present His word, or to give His word out.

So let's look at the next overhead. In this case I have about three verses, and I'm not sure we're going to be able to get through all of them. Let's go back to Genesis, just for a second. Genesis chapter 3. I just want you to make an observation here in Genesis chapter 3. And you'll notice in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1, you know, this talks about the serpent, you know, Satan. And it's interesting what Satan questions from the very beginning. It says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Indeed has God said. I just want to stop right there. So Satan's first words out of Satan's mouth was questioning what God had said. Indeed, as God said. Actually, I looked at a couple of other renderings of that passage, and one has it, is it true what God has said? Another has, can it really be? So Satan was bringing into question God's word.

So God's word is the very foundation that we have for everything we know about God, and that's the first thing that Satan comes, he says, he questions what God has said. In a way, God had given a law or a statute to Adam and Eve, right? You can do this and you can't do that. He gave them a law-based system. You can do this and don't do that.

And the first thing Satan says is, did God really say that? And I think that's what we find in our reading of Scripture. We say, well, I think Marilyn was mentioning it, are there some parts that we We say, well, is that really God's Word? That's a tough one to swallow. We're all faced with that many times. Sometimes we'll hear somebody expound a part of God's Word and we'll say, is that really true?

I really like the New Testament, the Bereans they were called. Does anybody know what the Bereans did? What was their mindset when somebody told them a truth? What did the Bereans do? to see if these things be so. I think I'll finish the rest of it with art. And that's where we come into play. I mean, a brother or sister can share part of God's Word and say, and they can explain it. But our responsibility is to say, you know, is that what God is really saying? Search the Scriptures to see if it be so, to understand what's being said. So that's part of the whole equation in God's Word.

It's just not, you know, it's not a passive book, it's interactive. Within a day, everything has to be interactive, right? You have to be online with everything. Well, we're online with the creator of the universe. It doesn't crash or die or blow up. Like poor Hal's computer, his power supply goes out and he loses his entire computer. Well, God's Word is not going to do that. So it's wonderful.

And it's in paper, too. Okay, so there's three verses I quoted here. Hebrews, this is a tremendous passage, talks about kind of two aspects, and it kind of gives a summary in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1, and can someone read Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2? Okay, great. Thanks, Hal.

It's probably pretty easy to grasp, you know, you think about, and we've mentioned quite a few already, you know, God spoke through the prophets. You think about the nation of Israel, how God spoke through, you know, in the beginning, Moses is important, Moses and Joshua, the beginning of the nation of Israel.

And then you go on in the Old Testament and you'll see that God spoke through the what's called the minor prophets, and many times there were judgments against Israel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and many times they'll say, now the word of the Lord came to me. I just started going through it yesterday, and looking through the beginning of every, not every, but many of the books in the Old Testament, and it has, the word of the Lord came to me.

It has, the Lord spoke to me. God spoke all these things, saying. So God spoke through all the human authors, in times past, but now he's kind of changed his, there's a change in his, change, be careful here, he had a plan from all eternity. So, in that plan, his son would come and die on the cross, and he would be able to speak through him, not necessarily, it's obvious the Lord Jesus came and people talked with him and interacted with him, and that made a tremendous difference, but also, It's made a difference in people writing about him. Think about the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they all wrote about the Lord Jesus. So, in a way, God is speaking through his Son. He's speaking through the Lord Jesus by people writing about him. The Scriptures record. So, God is speaking through his Son in the fact that things are written about him.

Think about Paul. Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12 for a second. This is Paul's being caught up into the third heaven. And it just kind of really struck me here about... Let me just read it here first. It says, starting in verse 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 2, Now I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows, he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words. Basically, he had this thorn in the flesh, he goes on to say.

So it just really struck me that Paul was able to hear things that no man could hear. And if you think about the New Testament, he is the primary author of a majority of the New Testament. And he tells us the intimate things of our Savior, the intimate things that we know about the Lord Jesus have come through the human pen of Paul. And that was these inexpressible words, The source, again, was from God, but through the human author of Paul.

That just really struck me. This is another looking at what's the source? What is the claim? Paul doesn't say, I thought this up. No. I went into this incredible experience. I went up to heaven and heard inexpressible words. And then he says a statement that I might become boastful about that. And the Lord was wise enough to give me this point in the flesh so I wouldn't boast about it. I wouldn't puff myself up. And that's part of the problem we all have. We want to say, well, hey, I know this. Knowledge is power, you hear many times. If you know something, people will pay you lots of money. But in God's methodology, it's knowing Him, and that's what Paul is saying, is surpassing greatness of the Revelation.

I even thought also that you think about the fact that God has spoken to us in His Son. Think about the claims that when the Lord Jesus left, to go to the cross. He said, you know, I give you another helper, a comforter, the Holy Spirit. And the job description, to put it in the vernacular, the job description of the Holy Spirit is very simple. He's to focus on our Savior constantly, to show us Christ. It says take of mine and show it unto you. His total, the Spirit of God, has no other function, his primary function is to show us Christ. All of God's plans are wrapped up in His Son. There are two other verses here. 1 Thessalonians 2. Can I get someone else to read this one? 1 Thessalonians 2. So this is telling us that this is something that we'll come to realize. This is a verse that I felt I experienced in a way.

I recognized when I started reading God's Word and hearing people talk about God's Word and explain God's Word that it really wasn't coming from them. It was truly God's Word. I like the Weiss translation of this verse. It says, You welcomed it, not as words finding its source in men, but as it truly is God's Word. So this verse is making the claim that the source of these words are not in men, but in God. So here's another building block on this. The Bible says these are God's words in many ways, and it states the source of these words are not from men, they're from God.

And then additionally, it says here that you know, accepting it as God's word. They didn't accept it, think about it, they didn't accept it as Paul's words or Mark or Luke's words, they accepted it as God's word. And that's the bottom line in scripture, that it's truly God's word. Okay, and how about, the last one is Romans chapter 10. 1017. Thank you. Okay, so this is another verse. I like what J. Verne McGee says. He likes every verse. I mean, this is my favorite verse until the next one. It's just incredible.

I heard somebody talking in the lobby about, boy, I was reading the Gospel of Mark or Matthew. I never realized all these things that are in there. I don't know about you, but you start reading God's Word and you think, I never saw that before. Where was that? Where was I? I've read the Scripture all my life. I never saw that. It's there.

It's just these wonderful treasures. So this seems a very simple, straightforward verse, but I think this is a tremendous verse. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. So, let me just read you Weaft again. I kind of pick on him a lot. That's my favorite New Testament renderings. It says, faith is out of the source of that which is heard.

So it's saying the source of our faith is what we hear, or the message that we read. What we take in is the source of our faith. We read God's Word, and as we read it we see who we are, where we stand with God, our relationship to God. So it says that faith is out of the source which is heard, which is God's Word. And then secondly it says that That which is heard, that's what we hear, is through the agency of the word concerning Christ. So the word that we see, the second part of this, so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, it's the word, the message concerning Christ. That's what we That's what we're placing our faith in, the words concerning our Savior, what He's done, what He's accomplished, His death, burial and resurrection. That's what faith is all about, knowing a person and believing what He's done for us.

Okay, so now, that's kind of the section on the internal evidence, and there's a lot more, I mean, a lot more we could do, you could spend a lot more time with these verses. Now I'll just quickly go over some of the external evidence. So what I did here basically is there were like seven sections to the external evidence, So I just kind of put it, I tried to summarize. So, you know, the first one was the continuity of the Bible, you know, and that's one of the things that I think maybe answers, helps Marilyn's question.

Does the Bible hang together? And it does. I mean, it's incredible. Things that are presented in Genesis occur in the New Testament and are discussed and quoted. Often, you know, the Bible talks about other sects. This chapter talks about that chapter, even though different authors. You know, thousands of years, the book is one book. And I think that's part of the decision that was made why this book was put aside, and so that's not part of the canon of scripture. It doesn't form, it doesn't hang together.

You know, I just talked about the fact that just the wide diversity of human authors and historical sequences, Then, number two, the extent of the revelation of the Bible. It talks about the fact that God works like a telescope. It looks out and it shows the heavens. It talks about the three kinds of heaven, like the bird heaven, the stellar heaven, and the highest heaven.

And it goes down to the minutest detail. And the author uses this word stereoscope, which is maybe a little bit dated. It's a thing that your grandmas have. Anyway, it's up here laughing. It has like two pictures and you look through it. It's an attempt at 3D, if you will, to put things in relationship. So, it puts things in relationship. It puts man in relationship to man, man in relationship to God.

And it's up to date. I can remember when I first started reading scripture, I would go and say, wow. I'd go to work and say, boy, the Bible's right. You know, look at this. Look what's happening. It's just incredible. Okay, well, I'm going to have to, the bell just rang here, so we better, let's get on to our questions here. And if you don't have a handout, come up and we'll give you a handout.

Just look through the rest of them. One thing I'll just point out, I thought was just outstanding. in these seven different aspects of the external proof. The very last one, let me just flip to it here real quickly. The very last one, the similarities between Scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought that was just, I commend that to your attention.

So just think about the fact that we have a supernatural book and we have a supernatural Savior. We have human authors and the divine and God in the book. We have the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is just really an exciting comparison as he goes through that.

What I'd like to do now is Check up on you people. Actually, you can keep your homework. Question number two. The author is pretty easy on this. Every question I found in this book has a paragraph that answers the question. Maybe you've noticed that just to me. Sometimes, it's not always that way, but most times. So the first question, who would like to answer the first question?

Merlin. A plus. Easy. Okay. Number two. Actually, can somebody quote? I'll give you a hint. That's Psalm 19. We read the verses. The Americans sing it. Well, that's talking about the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. That's a transformation. The effect of God's Word. Well, okay, you're good. Excellent. That's good. That's good. Okay, how about number 11 there? Did people think about that one?

We have a Bible that... How does that work out? And actually Hal is going to address that a lot more when we get to the inspiration section. But from what Chapter 1 talked about, in fact we didn't actually cover that in our little external evidence, how does the human authorship relate to the unprejudiced authority of the Bible? You'd think that offhand, If I'm using a human author, I'm going to kind of plan it my way. I'm going to say, well, I'm going to make myself look kind of good, right? I mean, it's hard for you to, if you write a resume up, you usually don't put down all your negatives, right? So how come the Bible isn't planned man's way? How does that, you know? Right, it does. And so does somebody have a, somebody want to read me their answer for 11, if they did that? 11? What book would say, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? means, and I think of Halitel, that's every, none excluded, there's not one person that hasn't fallen short of the glory of God. I mean, it tells it like it is. And if we're honest, we say, that's me. That's talking about me. And then question 12.

In fact, this is the list I put up. This relates to the supernatural book, God's Word, versus the supernatural man, the Lord Jesus. And all those, that list where it says, you know, the God-man, and we have the divine and human authors. So hopefully, you know, and then the homework is on page one of the handout.

This is for next week. So the next week, read chapter 2, the Inspired of God, and answer questions 1, 12, 15, and 16. And Hal, put down there, I think it's good, write out the answers. I mean, it's good that you do that, just to, you know... And I'm going to collect them, and I'm going to grade them.

Oh, wow. He's a lot thinner than I am. So, anyway. All right, well, let's close in a word of prayer, then. And then we'll answer your question. We'll do that. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you, Father, for your word, Father. Thank you that you're the author, that it's your word, and it's your thoughts, and your plan will succeed, Lord. We're just thrilled, Lord, when we know that your word will go forth and not return to the empty, not return to your void, Lord. We thank you for that. We ask it in your name. Amen. Go ahead. Okay, sure.

Okay, number 12 basically relates back to... I'll show you. Number 12 is answered by his six things, basically. The question that was asked was, relate the Bible as a supernatural book to Jesus Christ as a supernatural person. The author points out that the living word versus the written word, and this list, you know, the Bible is supernatural in origin, came from God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the God-man, right? And that's actually number two.

The Bible is able to transform. As we read God's Word, we go from darkness to light. We come to know Him as Savior. And I'm just trying to point out the similarities between the God-man and God's living Word. That's the answer. It could be a combination of those points there. All right, thank you.