Sermon
Why You Can Trust God's Word | May 11, 2025 AM
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
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You know, we're considering this idea of the word of God.
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This is a holy book that we have in front of us, isn't it?
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It's not just any book. It's a holy book.
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But you know, there are a lot of religions that are out there who
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would also say that they have holy books as well.
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Let's be honest that we know that this is the word of God,
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but yet there are other religions who would also try to
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lay claim to the fact that they have the word of God or that
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they have a holy book. Whether it's the Quran or
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whether it's the Talmud to Judaism, the Book of Mormon,
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Scientology, ecology, has Dianetics, the Mahayana sutras
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of Buddhism, and even others like universal Unitarians.
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They have no holy text per SE, but they believe that their
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sacred texts are all of equal value, whether they're poems or
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traditions or other writings. Basically, whatever is holy to
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you is what is actually holy. And so, sure, we can stand up
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here with some authority this morning and say we have the word
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of God. But someone in a mosque could
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say the same thing this morning. And someone in a Christian
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Science organization could say the same thing this morning, and
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someone in a Mormon church could say the same thing this morning.
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And so we ask ourselves, sure, we can trust the word of God,
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but why do you know that you can trust the word of God?
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Sure, we can trust the word of God.
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We looked at that last week, didn't we, that you can trust
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the word of God. But the question is why?
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How do we know it's God's words? How do we know it's not just the
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ramblings of 40 some men who wanted to put their spin of life
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on to parchment and somehow ended up into the book that we
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carry around today? How can we have hope in this
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word? How do we know that we can base
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our life upon this book and it's upon the very words of God?
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It's a important question, isn't it?
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I mean, if we're going to live our life after this book, we
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ought to know why we can trust this book.
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And so while last week, yes, again, we saw Peter who
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explained to us that this was no fable that we were reading, that
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this was the eyewitnesses of 12 men, 11 men who saw the majesty
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of God, of course, in the general sense.
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But then also how three of them saw him transfigured there on
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the mount and saw him and Elijah and Moses all together.
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And they're saying, but yes, but we have a more sure word of
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prophecy. We have something even better
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than eyewitness account, because eyewitness accounts can fail,
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can't they? They can diminish over time.
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But we have the word of God within us in our hands today.
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But why can we trust God's word? I hope that we can give you some
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answers to that here this morning.
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We stand pleased for the reading of God's word.
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We're in second Peter chapter #1 we'll read the same text that we
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did last week. Different message, don't worry,
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just the same text from a different direction.
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Second Peter chapter one, verse 18, or rather 16, says, For we
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have not followed cunningly devised fables.
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We may known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
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Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.
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For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when
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there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.
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This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased.
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And his voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were
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with him in the holy mountain. We have a more sure word of
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prophecy, where until you do well, that you take heed as unto
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a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and
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the day star arise in your hearts.
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of
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any private interpretation. You can't make it into what you
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want it to be, nor can I make it into what I want it to be.
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For the prophecy came out in old time by the will of man, but
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holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
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And much of the answer that we're going to see this morning,
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it's concentrated on verse #21 isn't it?
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For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
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holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy, the
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Ghost. We could trust the Word of God.
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But this morning I want to see why we can trust the Word of
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God. We'd be seated and let's pray
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together this morning. Heavenly Father, we do thank you
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for this morning. And I thank you for those who
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are here. I really do.
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I thank you for their attendance to your word and to your church.
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And I do pray that what I give them today will be worthy of
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their attendance, that it will be, it will be worthy of of
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their listening and, and for their for their to take heed to
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Lord, not because it's from me, but because it's from you.
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But Lord, may I say rightly what needs to be said?
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And Lord, may we know for sure by the time this message is
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done, without a shadow of a doubt, that we can trust your
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word, Lord, because we can trust you.
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And so thank you for this time. And we ask it humbly in Jesus
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name, Amen. Well, last week we did take a
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good long look at why you can trust God's Word, that this is
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no fable, as Peter said, that they were eyewitnesses of the
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glory of God. But this morning I want us to
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take what we see in our text and to examine it and to expand upon
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it from other Bible passages so that we can know not just that
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we can trust God's Word, but why we can trust God's word.
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And there's three reasons I want us to look at this.
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And the first is this you can trust it because of Revelation.
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You can trust it because of Revelation.
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And you say, pastor, so you're saying we can trust the Book of
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Revelation And yes, you can trust the Book of Revelation is
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the final book of the Bible is the 66th book.
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But I am saying more that in a specific sense that we can trust
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the word of God as a whole, all 66 books because of the Holy
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Ghost involvement in revealing to us the nature and the word of
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God. That's why it says at the in and
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verse #21 that these men spake as they were moved by the Holy
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Ghost. What does that mean?
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That the Holy Spirit revealed some things to these men, who in
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turn wrote these things down. These men in and of themselves
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were unaware of these truths until the Holy Spirit brought
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them to their light and inspired them, as we'll see in just a
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moment as well, to write the words of which they wrote.
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Well understand this. We have no way of knowing God on
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our own without Him revealing to us.
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We have no way on our own, with our own senses of truly
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understanding who God is without him revealing Himself to us.
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Now we can learn more about the world through observation and
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experimentation, and that's what the scientific methods all
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about. And by the way, I'm not against
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science. Sometimes people say, well,
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you're a Christian, so you must be against science.
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No, I'm certainly very much for science.
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I'm just against when science tries to remove God from the
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world, because you can't remove God from the world and come to
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any conclusion that is good and right because, well, he put this
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world into place, didn't he? And he didn't just evacuate this
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world after he put into place. Hebrews chapter one verse 3
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tells us he still holds every molecule in place in this entire
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universe that that we, our mind came in handle that.
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We can't even figure that out, but yet that's the God of whom
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we serve. But this world in many ways we
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can observe and we can experiment and learn more.
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For instance, I've had a piece of wood up here today.
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We could look at it, we could burn it, we could cut it, we
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could observe its rings, we could analyze its chemical
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compositions. In fact, I was thinking about
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taking a chainsaw and just going right down the, no, nevermind,
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we're not going to do that this morning.
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But the idea is you can learn a lot about, well, a piece of wood
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by observing it. And there's a lot of different
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ways to be able to observe it. And there's a lot of different
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things in this world that we can't observe and we can learn
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more about because God gave us the senses to be able to
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observe. And God gave us the mental
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capacity to be able to take those observations and to
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formulate them into thoughts and to be able to formulate them
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into truth. But, but listen, we cannot do
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that with God. We cannot do so in the sense
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that we observe Him for who He is and write down, yes, He is
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truth. We observe Him and say, yes, He
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is love. Yes, we observe Him and say,
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yes, He is our Savior in and of ourselves.
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Listen, we can't go to Him to make those observations.
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So what has He done? He has revealed Himself to us so
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that while we cannot go to Him, we could put it this way.
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He has brought those truths to where we are so that we could
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understand, because He wants you to know Him.
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Think about that. The God of the universe wants
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you to know Him. Now you say that, well, sure, He
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wants the world to know Him. Of course He wants the world to
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know, but He wants you to know Him.
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That He didn't just reveal these things for the world, He
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revealed them for Adam Rivero, He revealed them for Bethany
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Rivero, He revealed them for Victor Rivero, my father, we can
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go on and on with each and every one of us here that he wants you
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to know him. So he revealed himself through
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the word to us. We can't do this with our own
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human reasoning and senses. Job understood this.
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He said in Job 11 verse 7, can't thou by searching find out God?
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Can't thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
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You'll remember Job had a lot of questions, didn't he?
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And then once God came down and started asking a few of his own
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questions, Job said this, never mind, mind.
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I rescind all my questions. I see who you are Lord, and you
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are in control. First Corinthians chapter 2,
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verse 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
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Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto him.
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Neither can be known them because they are spiritually
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discerned So in and of ourselves, because these are
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spiritual things that we can't on our own in our flesh discern
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them. But God in his love, God in his
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mercy, God in his grace has revealed himself to us.
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And he's done this in a a couple different ways.
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First of all, there's a general revelation, a general
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revelation. He reveals himself through
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natural things. He's accessible to all men.
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He's revealed himself through creation.
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He's revealed himself through history.
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He's revealed himself through our consciousness that these are
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things and entities of which he's revealed himself to all
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mankind. Psalm 97, verse 6, the heavens
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declare the glory of God and the people see his glory.
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Psalm 19 one through 3 the verses we were right before what
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our brother Brian just read a few moments ago.
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The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show with
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his handiwork day on today utter a speech and night under night
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show with knowledge. There is no speech nor language
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where their voice is not heard, meaning this that God's general
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revelation through creation cuts across all societies.
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It cuts across all languages, it cuts across all races that all
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can look at this world and say this wow, there must have been a
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Creator who made all this if their minds and hearts are truly
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open to that of which they see. And even the truth of God is
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written under the consciences of man.
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Romans 215 which show the work of the law written in their
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hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their
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thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another.
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We can even look at the history of the world and we can see
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times and seasons where we say wow, only God could have done
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this. Of course we see through the
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history of Israel recorded to us in the word of God, but we also
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see through the history just in general.
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You can go all the way back to the times of the medieval ages
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and see Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours and consider the
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fact that if they had lost that battle, that Islam would have
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come across all of Europe and who we are as a country today
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would be very different and the world itself would be very
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different. I believe God had intervened.
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Could be the Spanish Armada back in their battles, or even some
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of the stories that we've heard from the Revolutionary War and
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how our country, I believe, has been uniquely placed for such a
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time as this. You know, I believe God reveals
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himself through all these different things in a very
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general way. The Bible teaches that.
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But what I really want us to get down to when it comes the Word
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of God is not just general revelation, but special
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revelation. And that's what's being talked
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about here when it says that we have a more sure word of
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prophecy. For the prophecy, verse 21 came
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not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
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as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
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You see that there were probably 40 or so authors of the Word of
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God who did not of their own dream up what we call the Bible
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today or in their own thoughts have just created this fable
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which turned into the Bible which people are following
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today. Don't know that the Holy Spirit
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directly revealed self to these holy men of old through dreams,
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through visions, through audible voices, or through angels.
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And this is how God spoke to men like Paul, or Daniel, or David,
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or Asaf, or Peter, that God spoke to them.
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He revealed Himself to them in a very real way.
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Hebrews 1 verses one and two. God, who at sundry times and
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divers manners spake in the time passed by unto the fathers, by
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the prophets, hath in these last times spoken to us by His Son.
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By the way, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
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God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
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with God. What do we see?
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That there were men who were given this special revelation
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from God and that these were penned for us to be able to read
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today. Now I will say this, this type
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of revelation is not how God communicates with us today.
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Well, why would that be, Pastor? It would be very dangerous for
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me to get up and say this. I have a special revelation from
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the Lord. Well, why would that be
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dangerous? Well, if I was to say something
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of that nature, what I'm saying is this.
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What I'm about to tell you is on equal standing with the word of
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God you have in front of you. Listen, I can't say that to you
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today in any way, shape or form. I can't tell you before that I
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have a new word from you, from God.
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No, what I can tell you is that we have a very old word.
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We have a very timeless word. This is the second week in a
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row. Drop this stuff.
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We have a very old word that I happened to stick some things in
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the back of it that I probably shouldn't do during the week.
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But we have this very old, very timeless word that we have
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before us and we have no new need for.
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Listen, you say, well, wouldn't it be great if we had something
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new today? We have a more sure water
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prophecy that's before us. Even Paul or Peter says this.
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Listen, I was on the mount. I saw those things.
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But I have something even more sure than that.
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I have the Word of God, that's why it says in First Corinthians
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chapter #13 and verse #10 But when that which is perfect is
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come, that which is perfect, not who is perfect which is perfect,
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what is that? The word of God.
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When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
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shall be done away. Now listen, to be sure, God
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still leads and guides and directs the believer today
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through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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But I will say this, he is not still speaking Scripture to his
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people today. Listen, that's where you get a
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Joseph Smith. That's where you get the cults
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that say, well, listen, I know what God said before, but he
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told me something new now. And if you want to hear what
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God's saying today, you've got to follow me.
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That's a very, very dangerous thing.
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Listen, we follow Christ and Christ alone.
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We follow his word and his word alone, that I am not giving you
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extra revelation here today. We're led by the Holy Spirit,
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but the Holy Spirit lead us through what?
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The word of God that He is our teacher, that He is our guide,
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and God reveals himself and we can trust His Word because of
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this revelation. Now not only can we trust the
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word of God because of revelation, but we can also
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trust it because of inspiration. So first we see revelation, but
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then we also see inspiration. And the word inspiration
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literally means this God breathed.
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It means God breathed. Look again at verse #21 For the
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holy, or rather the prophecy came out in old time by the will
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of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
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Holy Ghost. So what?
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What does that mean? They were inspired to be able to
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write the things of which they were right writing.
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And and this is a a doctrine that was affirmed not just in
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the New Testament but also in the old as well.
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For instance, Jeremiah chapter one, verse 9.
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Then the Lord put forth his hand, and he touched my mouth,
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and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in
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thy mouth. Psalm 86 or 68, verse 11.
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The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those
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that published it. What did the prophets always
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start their message with? Thus sayeth the Lord.
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Thus sayeth the word of the Lord.
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A burden that came from the Lord.
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It always was this. When the prophet spoke, it was
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always this. This has come from the Lord.
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It was ensured that what they were saying was inspired from
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the Lord. For Ephesians chapter 3, verses
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3 through 5. How that by revelation He made
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known unto me the mystery, as I wrote a four and a few words
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whereby you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
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mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known
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under the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy
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apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
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Second Timothy 316 all Scripture is given by inspiration of God
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and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
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correction, for instruction and righteousness.
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Meaning this everything you need in this life comes from the word
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of God. For doctrine, what's right, for
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reproof, what's wrong, for correction, how to get things
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right and for instructions and righteousness, how to stay
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right. Once you get right, that's
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everything you need in the spiritual life and how is it
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given to us by the inspiration of God.
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Now define biblical inspiration. Is this divine authorship using
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human penmanship? Divine authorship using human
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penmanship. Now, when we say that Peter
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wrote these words, he was using the pen and he was writing, but
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was he giving us his thoughts? No, he was inspired by the Holy
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Ghost. That's why we could trust.
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Listen, we know when Peter spoke on his own, and we can't trust
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those words, can we? Because he spoke a lot on his
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own. I'll never deny you, and that's
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just one example of many, but when he was filled with the Holy
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Ghost, in a very unique way, he was able to write these words.
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The revelation of God-given through inspiration to human
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penman. Now, there's a lot of different
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ideas about inspiration. I'll be honest with you.
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I've, I've, I write, I write quite a bit.
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There are times that when I write, it's just, can I tell
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you? There's times I write the, the
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word writer's cramp sometimes feels mild to the way that I
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feel in front of a keyboard because it's like I'm sitting
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here and nothing's working. The words don't, words aren't
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working. It's like I'm not even
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acquainted with the English language.
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There are other times I write and sometimes it's coming out so
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quick that I don't think that my 50 words a minute typing skills
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can keep up and I feel inspired. And is there a level of
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inspiration that can be said to that?
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Well, sure there is. Are Shakespeare's writings
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inspired? They could be.
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Are others types of authors and different things inspired?
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Sure they are. But that's called general
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inspiration. It's not the inspiration that
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comes because someone is writing down the very words of God.
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That's much different. You know, we're not just talking
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about Peter just felt this burst of energy and all of a sudden he
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started writing things which turn into the Bible.
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No, no, he was being moved by the Holy Ghost.
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That's much different than a general inspiration.
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There's also a thought process of partial inspiration that God
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only inspired part of His word. There are some that say the
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Bible contains the word of God, but they're not willing to say
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it is the word of God. Listen, this book does not just
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contain the word of God. It's the very word of God.
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We don't just believe in partial inspiration.
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By the way, if it's partially inspired, what parts were and
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what parts were? Well, I sure hope John 316 is in
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that list, or I sure hope Romans 10/10 is in that list.
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I sure hope Ephesians 289 is in that list.
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If it's only partially expired, then how do we know the parts
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that tell us that we're sinners in need of a Savior and the
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Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins?
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How do we know? They say, oh, you can know.
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And my answer would be how can you assure me this?
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There's this thought process of partial inspiration, even a
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thought process of neo Orthodox inspiration.
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Just the thought of that kind of gets sent shivers down my spine
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without even knowing what it means.
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Neo Orthodox inspiration. But there's a group of people
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out there that would even claim to be Christians who say
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something like this. The Bible is not the word of
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God, but when it's mixed with your own life experience and
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your own perspective, it then becomes the word of God.
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So my question is this. So God's word on its own is not
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God's word, and he needs my help to make a God's word.
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That doesn't sound like much of A God, does it?
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God does not need my help to be able to inspire His word.
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You know what he wants from us to read it, to live it, to learn
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it. You know, we don't believe in a
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general inspiration or a partial inspiration or a neo Orthodox
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inspiration, but rather what we would call a verbal plenary
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inspiration view meaning this, that God revealed these things
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verbally to these men. And plenary means, complete
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means from cover to cover that we believe it is all inspired.
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Well, Pastor, some of it's just unbelievable.
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You're talking about a flood that covers the whole world.
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You're talking about a creation in six days.
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You're talking about the Red Sea standing up in heaps.
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So you're talking about the blind seeing.
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We're talking about the the Book of Revelation.
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All the things that don't even make sense in the Book of
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Revelation, I don't even understand.
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Listen, it came from God, so I trust it because I know where it
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came from. I know the source, and that's
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got to be good enough for me. Listen, when my human reasoning
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does not line up with the Word of God, do I trust my human
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reasoning or do I trust the word of God?
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I have to entrust the fully inspired Word of God, which
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reveals God to us. I want to be careful how I say
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this. I want to be clear how I say
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this. There's a lot of churches today
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who will not stand upon that foundation of which I've just
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told you the last several minutes.
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They'll say something like this, that the Word of God was
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inspired. As far as the originals, well,
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may I remind you that we have none of the originals today.
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And if all we can trust was the originals, then we don't know
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that what we have in front of us today is actually the Word of
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God because we don't have the originals.
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We have the copies of copies of copies.
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You say, Pastor, that's troubling to me.
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And, you know, on its face, it would be troubling, except we
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don't just see that we can trust this word because of revelation.
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And we don't just see that we can trust this word because of
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inspiration, but we also see that we can trust this word
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because of preservation. Because of preservation.
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I heard somebody say once, well, you know, if you were to take a
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Xerox of a document, and then once that was removed from the
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copier, you put that up on the top and then you made a copy of
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the copy. And then you remove that and you
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took the copy of the copy and place that up.
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If you did that 10 or 20 times, what would end up happening?
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Eventually that copy would just probably turn about black,
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wouldn't it? Because every time it would add
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a little bit of an image to it. And over time you would end up
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losing what was there. And someone said, isn't that
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exactly what happens with the word of God?
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And my answer would be when you're talking about man, yes,
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but we're not talking about man. What?
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We're talking about man and his limited abilities and his
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limited machines. Sure.
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That's exactly what happens, that you're playing a game of
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telephone from this person to this person, this person, this
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person. And by the time you get around,
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you know, you started with that somebody like someone else, and
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you get to the end and you find out that they hate someone else.
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That's not what we said, but that's what makes the game
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funny. But we're not playing a game of
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cosmic telephone with the Heavenly Father.
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We're not here making copies of copies off of a Xerox machine
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that's somewhere up in heaven. But yet we believe that God is
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so big and we believe that God is so great, and we believe in
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God's promises that he's told us that we can trust the word of
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God today, not just the original copies quote, UN quote, but that
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you have the very word of God in front of you today.
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It doesn't make sense, pastor. You're really speaking.
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It doesn't. We're talking about God, and
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we're not just talking about God.
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We're talking about God's promises to man.
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Go to first Peter chapter #1 we're going to look at a couple
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places very close to where we are.
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First Peter chapter #1 the pastor.
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You're passionate about this. Well, listen, we're talking
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about the Bible. We're talking about the
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foundation of everything we believe.
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And there are so many churches that will tell you, you know, we
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believe the Bible, but only so much.
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And friend, if we don't believe the Bible for what it is, then
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what do we have here this morning?
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Why are we meeting here? We ought to just all go out to
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brunch together like everyone else is.
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But I don't like brunch, so I don't want to.
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You know why? Because we've got something
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else. We got a more sure word of
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prophecy in front of us and we can believe it from cover to
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cover. First, Peter chapter one, look
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at verse #23 it says it's being born again, not of corruptible
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sea, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and
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abideth forever. For all flesh is, is grass.
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In the glory of man is the flower of the grass.
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The grass wither at the flower thereof falleth away.
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But the word of the Lord endureth forever.
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And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
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He says this. The things of this world, they
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die with this world, but the words of God they endure.
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Go to second Peter chapter #3 Get a little ahead of ourselves
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here, because we'll be here in, you know, 3 or 4 years.
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But second, Peter chapter #3 that's not true.
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Verse #15 An account that the long-suffering of our Lord is
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salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to
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the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all
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his epistles Speaking of them. And those things in which are
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some things hard to be understood, which they that are
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unlearned and unstable, rest, as they do also the other
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Scriptures, unto their own destruction.
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Now, first of all, I just want to throw this in just for a
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moment. I love Peter's transparency
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here. And again, he's speaking by the
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inspiration of Holy Spirit. Peter is talking about Paul's
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epistles, and he says this, some of the things he says are hard
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to understand. So if you ever get into the Word
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of God, he said, you know what, it's a little bit difficult.
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It's a little bit hard for me to understand exactly what's going
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on. Do you realize that the apostle
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Peter says some of the things Paul says are hard to
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understand? I thought people be happier
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about that than that. He's like, maybe you all
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understand it. I don't know.
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That gives encouragement to me because sometimes I read some of
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these things. I should get more of this or I
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should understand more of this. Peter himself said, you know
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what, Paul, he looks at things a little bit differently, but I
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have trouble understanding that. But what is he saying?
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He's still saying this. He says that with the epistles
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that he wrote are what they calls them his epistle speaking
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them of those things in which things some are hard to be
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understood, which they that unlearned and unstable rest,
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which means they twist them as they do also the other
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scriptures. What is Peter saying here?
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He's saying this that all of Pete Paul's epistles are the
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scripture. Now let me ask you this.
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When he's talking about this, do you think he's talking about
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only the original letters that Paul wrote?
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How many people were reading the original letters?
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Well, Corinth would have read Corinths, the churches of
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Galatia would have shared Galatians, Thessalonica would
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have read Thessalonica. I mean the actual letter, but
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copies were made and circulated. Paul even reveals that that
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copies would be made of these things.
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And what is said here? Those are all the scripture.
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Why? Because God is big enough to
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preserve His word, preservation is promised.
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Psalm 12, verses 6 and seven. The words of the Lord are pure
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words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified 7
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times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
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Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
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Mark 1331 Heaven and earth shall pass away.
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My word shall not pass away. Isaiah 40 verse 8 The grass
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withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
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stand forever. Christ is the Word.
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Is He perfect? Yes.
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Is He preserved? Yes, then so is our word.
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By the way, and this isn't my message this morning, but I will
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say there's a reason we use the King James Bible that we use
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here at Liberty Baptist Church, because there are many modern
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translations today that come from much different manuscripts.
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And those who translated them say this.
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We can't know if we have the Bible today, but we're just
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going to do the very best we can.
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And so this is an amended attack.
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I hope you know my heart well enough to know my thought
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process with that and to know who I am.
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I'm certainly always glad to answer questions about that.
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But I will say this, from the beginning of the garden, Satan
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has done nothing but try to attack God's Word.
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And we're foolish to think that he won't do the same thing
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today, changing a word at a time, a word at a time, a little
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bit here a little and there a little.
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You know, he's always trying to attack God's Word.
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And so that's what we see here say.
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Well, pastor, I've never really thought about that before.
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We're not, we're not just throwing that out there for you
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to think about it, to pray about.
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But God has promised to preserve his word and we can know that we
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can trust God's Word. And again, like last week, I, I
-
have to come to the same conclusion that when it comes
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this issue of revelation and inspiration and preservation,
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probably everyone in this room just about, if you're a
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believer, you're saying, Yep, I agree with that.
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I agree with that. In fact, I get in the feedback
-
here this morning, I've learned as a pastor over the 12 years
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that I've pastored and preached 3 * a week, sometimes four times
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a week with Sunday school, to not always take the feedback,
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either good or bad that I'm being given during the message.
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Because sometimes I think people aren't listening or don't agree.
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And then they meet me at the door and say, that was
-
incredible. And there's, sometimes I see
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people nodding their heads and they nod them all the way their
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car and they drive off and I never see them again.
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So I've learned not to necessarily trust that, but I
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imagine just from what I see this ward is a lot of people
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say, yeah, I, I believe that. I believe God revealed himself
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to us. I believe it's inspired.
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I see what Peter said about that.
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I believe in the preservation. Maybe if you don't even
-
understand all the thought processes about that, you just
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trust that God said he would preserve his ward and that's
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good enough for you right now and praise the Lord for that.
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But I would say this to you as an admonition to those of you
-
believers and unbelievers. But this can only bring us to 1
-
conclusion. And that conclusion is this, if
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you can trust God's word, then you can trust the God of the
-
Word. If you can trust God's word,
-
then you can trust the God of the Word.
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I found it often to be the case that if I was to ask someone
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theologically, do you believe this is the word of God, they'd
-
say absolutely. But I'd say this, do you trust
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God with your finances? They'd say, well, not really.
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Do you trust God? But this is His Word,
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Absolutely. Do you trust Him with the
-
difficulties that you're going through, the trials that you're
-
going through right now? Do you trust what He says about
-
holiness? Do you trust what He says about
-
prayer? Do you trust what He says about
-
burdens? Do you trust what He says about
-
encouragement? Do you trust what He says about
-
training children? Do you trust what He says about
-
marriage? Do you trust what He says about
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church? Do you trust what He says about
-
being a servant? And most importantly, do you
-
trust what He says about salvation?
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Do you believe that He can do what He said He would do?
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Do you believe He did what He said He did?
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Do you trust in Him for salvation?
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And if you don't know him as your savior, friend, the Bible
-
tells you how you can know for sure that you're saved.
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Listen, we're not talking about the Book of Mormon.
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We're not talking about Dianetics.
-
We're not talking about the Quran.
-
We're not talking about any other book.
-
We're talking about the Word of God tells us what we can know
-
about salvation, that we're sinners and need of a Savior,
-
but that Jesus shed his blood on the cross, just like we heard in
-
Psalm just a few moments ago. So that we have blessed
-
assurance that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
-
shall be saved. And if you don't know that
-
you're going to heaven today, or you're trusting in a church, or
-
you're trusting in a philosophy, or you're trusting in a
-
sacrament, know this. There's only one you can trust,
-
and that's Jesus Christ. Why trust Jesus Christ through
-
the sacrament? No, it's Jesus Christ through
-
nothing. It's Jesus and Jesus alone.
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But for those of us who are believers today, listen.
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Has God-given us his word? Yes.
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Has God ever broken his word? No.
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Then why don't we trust him more?
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Because if we can trust God's word, then we can trust the God
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of the Word. I'll leave you with this
-
illustration. I had an uncle for many years.
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I've I've mentioned him before and and I loved him dearly.
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It's on my father's side. He was a relative that I would
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see maybe two or three times a year.
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And from a very young age, I, I maybe from four or five, I
-
remember he would come to our house and he would always say
-
this. He said, Adam, he says, next
-
time I come over, I'm going to bring over a fishing pole.
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He said, you know what we're going to do, we're going to go
-
fishing. He would say this to me all the
-
time. And you know, it's hard for a 7
-
year old to be jaded, but by about age 7, I'm thinking, I
-
don't think this is going to happen.
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And, and I don't fish today. I, I, I still don't fish.
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I blame my uncle because all this time he promised me to
-
bring the fishing pole. He never bought the fishing
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pole. We never went fishing.
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We never, we never even went past a body of water together.
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I'm afraid if, if we did, he probably would have said, hey,
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oh man, about that fishing thing.
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He's like, he didn't want to bring me near a body of water,
-
either large or small, because he knew he hadn't done it.
-
Listen, he would have been better not saying anything and
-
it would have been fine, but he kept saying it over and over and
-
over again. And I don't know why, but you
-
know, it ended up being that in his life that he would tell me
-
other things and I would struggle believing the other
-
things too, because he kept not telling me the truth about the
-
fishing pole. Even if you just said, look, I
-
forgot, I, I never remember. I need to write it.
-
It was never that. It's like, hey, the next time,
-
take it to the bank. We're going fishing.
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And today the only fish I know is from the Gordon's fisherman.
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That's all I know. He's up in Gloucester.
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He's doing a great job. All right, I don't know.
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I've never been fishing. Not, not in the last 15 years.
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You know, I didn't trust a lot of the other things that he said
-
because he kept breaking that promise.
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May I remind you that God's Word has never been wrong in your
-
life. Ever.
-
There's never been one time this word has taken you the wrong
-
direction. There's never been a time it was
-
wrong in reference to salvation. There's never been a time it's
-
been wrong in reference to trials.
-
There's never been a time it's been wrong in reference to
-
anything. May I remind you this book is
-
not a history book, but when it speaks of history, it always
-
speaks truly. This book is not a book of
-
archaeology, but when it speaks of archaeology, always speaks
-
truly. It's not a book of science, but
-
when it speaks of science, it always speaks truly.
-
It's amazing to me how the world is always catching up with the
-
Bible. I just got an article a couple
-
days ago from brother Vince sent me about the world saying, wow,
-
there are really sellers of purple that that there's this
-
big place where they would make purple die.
-
And it was very expensive and it was very luxurious.
-
And wow, it's really surprising because the Bible talked about
-
that for about 2000 years and history just comes in the Bible.
-
It's right. And you're like, wow, it really
-
it's right. We know this.
-
It's, it's never steered you wrong ever.
-
So then why don't we trust him like we should?
-
If my distrust in my uncle's word caused me to distrust him,
-
then how much more so should our ultimate trust in the Word of
-
God cause us to trust him? Pastor, I can't tie.
-
I won't make it. That's not what he says.
-
Trust him. Pastor, I can't give my burdens
-
to the Lord because I have to be able to figure them out myself.
-
That's not what he says. Do it.
-
Pastor. I I couldn't share my faith with
-
somebody because I I don't even know what to say.
-
That's not what he said. Just do it over and over and
-
over. He's proven Himself to be true.
-
So believe him and live in that belief that God is who He says
-
He is because He has a Word that tells us who He is through
-
revelation, through inspiration, and through preservation.
-
So as we add to our faith this week, let's remember that the
-
only way we can add to our faith is through the Word of God.
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And we have the promise that through inspiration and
-
revelation and preservation that you can trust God's Word.
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Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
-
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
-
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
-
know by contacting us at [email protected].
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Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
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MA. May the Lord bless you as you
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grow in His Word.