Week 2: The Big Rocks - "No Book But the Bible"

2 Timothy 3:16-17


"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1


2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”.


The Scriptures are the words of human beings, but underneath and through them the Holy Spirit was at work to make sure everything was said just as God wanted—everything God said just as God wanted it to be. The whole Bible is inspired, every book, every paragraph, every line. The Spirit inspired the writers. We believe it is God’s perfect and holy word. The significance of this is we don’t get to weasel out of parts we don’t like by saying they’re not inspired.

Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.

I. THE BIBLE IS RELIABLE

But possibly the greatest evidence for the authority of our New Testament are the 1000’s of quotations taken from its pages by the early church fathers. Dean Burgon in his research found in all, 86,489 quotes from the early church fathers (McDowell 1990:47-48; 1991:52). In fact, there are 32,000 quotations from the New Testament found in writings from before 325 A.D. (McDowell Evidence, 1972:52). J. Harold Greenlee points out that the quotations of the scripture in the works of the early church writers are so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them without the use of New Testament manuscripts. The evidence for the New Testament's reliability is overwhelming!

Somebody asked Charles Spurgeon one time, "How do you defend Scripture?" His response was, "The same way you defend a lion. You just let it loose." The Bible is so reliable it doesn’t even need defending.

II. THE BIBLE IS RELEVANT

That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests. Andrew Jackson.

The N.T. is the very best book that was or ever will be known in the world. Charles Dickens.

It is impossible to righteously govern the world without God and the Bible. George Washington.

Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe. Ronald Reagan.


III. THE BIBLE IS REVOLUTIONARY

You take every book ever written in the history of the world. They have not had as great an impact on the human race as this single book. Still the best selling book of all time…Countless millions have been changed by it. When people suggest it’s unreliable, poorly documented or inaccurate, they’re simply wrong, and in the vast majority of cases they haven’t really read it.
The great movements for education in Western civilization were motivated more than anything else by the desire for boys and girls to be able to read the word of God for themselves. Countless millions have died because they believed this book.


I want to give you three metaphors from scripture for how the word of God forms us, and I’d like to suggest three prayers that you pray this week as you read it. I’m going to illustrate this with three visuals…this is not original to me…John Ortberg used these visuals to encourage these prayers.

The first one is a lamp. Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

As you read this week, think about the lamp and pray this prayer, "God, guide me. Use your word to guide me."

The next metaphor is this one. This is a sword.
Ephesians 6:17 “Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

The prayer to pray here as you read Scripture is, "God, pierce me. Penetrate my defenses. Cut through my self-deception. Convict me where you need to. Reveal where I need to change—judgmental attitudes, gossiping words, addictions and denial, apathy towards my marriage. God, do surgery on my heart."

Then the last visual is this one: bread. Jesus talked about this when he was tempted in the wilderness. He answered Satan, Matthew 4:4 "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'

Jesus is saying that what food is to the body, the words of God are to the soul.

The prayer here is, "Feed me, God. Feed me. Nourish my soul."

What is your life being marinated in?