The Christian Handbook - What Is the Bible

We have been in a series called the Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the Faith.

So our goal, the reason why we've been going through this series is we

believe it's important and we know it's important that we as believers know what we

believe, why we believe it, and then also how do those beliefs transform

or shape our life? How we do what we believe, How does that

shape or mold how we live out our life? Right, So, what

we believe should have an impact and does have an impact on how we live,

and so we want to explore what we call ourselves Christians, what does

that mean, what do we believe? What does that look like? And

so what and in light of those beliefs, what should our lives look like?

So that's what we've been going over the last few weeks because we just

started this series about a month ago, and we started with the Godhead.

We started with looking at each person in the Trinity, father Son, and

last week was the last week when we looked at God, the Holy Spirit

Today and next Sunday. I am extremely excited. That's why I was shaking,

because I'm just so excited that we get to look out a fundamental belief

as Christians. And that well, if you've noticed over the last couple of

weeks, as we've been going over our fundamental beliefs as Christians as believers,

there's somewhere we've been looking, something we've been looking to, something we've been

pulling from to better understand our faith, to better understand what we believe.

Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Talking about the Bible? Right

right? So, which leads me to today's message, which is simply called

what is the Bible? What is the Bible? We're gonna spend today and

next Sunday with yours truly talking and going over what the Bible is. Today

will be a lot more theological in regards to like what the Bible in and

of itself actually is, and next week is going to be super practical,

going more over like what do we do with that? How do we handle

it? How do I? How do I? How do I use this?

How do I how do I use this? What do I? How

do I read it? How do I understand? Can I read it?

Can I understand it? Um? So, that's what we're gonna do next

week, But we before we do anything, we have to look at the

why right, we have to look at the reason our belief that drives us

doing anything. So um, today we'll look at it more in the regards

of our beliefs. Next Sunday will be way more practical. Today there will

be some practical bits and pieces. Next week is gonna just be super practical.

This week is gonna be it's gonna be information. It's going to be

theological and understanding what the Bible is. Now, before we jump into the

Bible theologically, I want us to take a few minutes to look at the

Bible on paper. This is kind of how I put it, the Bible

on paper. And what I mean by that is what is this thing?

What is it? What is this we can see? I think initially we'll

actually hold on before I before I continue, who brought their Bible today?

We're gonna we're gonna do some youth group children's shirt stuff. Who brought their

Bible thing? Unfortunately I don't have candy or like any gift cards to get

it out. I know it's maybe next week, maybe next week. Okay,

Yeah, if you brought your phone, that kind of counts. You

should have at least it downloaded the app, right, Not having to like

redownload it, but downloaded. Um. Okay, so I think that that's

a better place to start. Okay, what is this thing that we are

looking at the initial glance, we can see that it's a book, right,

it has words, it has pages, it has ink. But if

we look at it a little bit closer, we'll start to see something so

much more. What we're gonna see is we're going to see that it's not

just a book, but it's a book full of books, which is actually

kind of funny because the word Bible, coming from Latin, literally just means

book or books. That's all. It means Bible. You're like, all

right, the Bible, that's gotta have some crazy meeting. Nope, just

means books. So but what makes these books special, what makes these books

unique, is that they make the incredible assertion that they are the word of

God. That's a that's a big deal that they the books in here in

making up this one book, all of these books make the incredible assertion that

they contain and have the words of God, and not just the word of

God, but a collection of God's words. Right, I'm just kind of

saying the same way. But it's it's not just like, hey, this

is low word of God. There's You're not gonna open up and find one

word. You're gonna find God's words, all of his words. When I

say collection, that's exactly what I mean. It's a collection. It's not

just a single novel. It's not just one thing. We're gonna kind of

stroll through and we're gonna a b and see and it's gonna walk us all

the way through. But it's actually more of an entire library. You guys

have been to a library before, Yeah, than to a library maybe maybe

not today. I guess we can just use Google now. But if you've

been to a library, you can go there with me your brain. It

doesn't just hold one book, right, not just by one type of book

or one genre of book. But you walk into a library and what do

you see? You see signs that says history, You see in another sign

that says poetry. You see another sign that says anthropology. Right, you

can kind of go in. You're like, all right, what am I

gonna do here today? What am I interested in? What am I looking

for? It's the exact same thing with our Bible in regards that it's a

library of books, a library of God's words, and it contains just like

a library does, different genres. I wrote down a list. I was

trying to think of all the ones, like the technicalities that you can put

in there and everything. But this isn't an exhaustive list. But if you

were to walk into a library that is the Bible, here's some of the

different sections that you would see for the different genres. You would see that

there's sections on wisdom, law, parenting, theology, marriage, songs,

ethics, prophecy. Have you ever seen that one at the library local library?

No, there's cooking technically, there's cooking, how to how to prepare

a lamb? Okay, it's in there. There's philosophy, there's Christian living.

There's genealogies, which is basically they're like ancestry dot com back in the

day, and so much more. There's all kinds of things, right,

But that that's kind of just a glimpse, Like you would see all these

different sections when you walk into a library that is titled the Bible, Right,

there's all of these different things are in there. If you actually don't

have a Bible, I know I had. Some of you left the Bible,

so you're like, well, I don't have one or didn't bring one.

We actually have some in the back that are for you. We would

love for you to have the words of God in your hands. It's important.

It's free of charge, so please take it. Also, there's no

returns or late fees, so I feel like that makes it a little bit

more superior to your local library. Okay, this book, which we call

our Bible, I put it up here to kind of summarize a couple of

things, is a collection of sixty six different books with about forty different authors,

written over fifteen hundred years ago, with one unified message. How can

this be? Well, this is what we refer to as the Canon of

Scripture. The canon of Scripture. It's a collection of God's words that God

has spoken through his prophets and his apostles throughout time to give us his revealed

word. That God our creator. Right. We talked about that a couple

of weeks ago, talking about who is God? One of those things,

God is Creator. That God, the Creator, our Maker, has not

left us in the dark in this world or in our life, but that

God has spoken. Okay, that's that's what is being said here. Our

Bible. God has spoken, and not only has he spoken in kind of

a general way or what's called natural revelation. I've been talking about the Bible,

but I haven't We haven't used any Bible verses yet. So if this

is the first one, we're about to get to it. God has spoken

to the world in a in a general or a natural sense. Psalm nineteen

one says the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work

of his hands. In the next verse Romans one twenty, for since the

creation of the world, God's in visible qualities, his eternal power, and

divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,

so that the people are without excuse. God has revealed himself in a general

sense to the world to say I exist. You look outside, you see

a tree, and you go, my God, that's amazing, and that's

right. It's right to say that because God created that tree, and not

just for you to go like man that's a cool treat. But for his

glory, the heavens the skies declare his glory and sing his praises. But

that's not what we're talking about today. Today we're talking about special revelation,

that is God speaking directly to us through his scriptures. Now, there's a

lot that could be said in regards to like how we got our Bible,

which I don't have time for all of it today, but it is something

that I would love to talk about afterwards. If you have questions or anything

like that, or concerns you heard someone say something, because I get giddy

about that type of stuff. But we can address a couple of them,

and that's what we will do before we jump into the deep kind of theological

aspect of all these things. So upfront, let's settle a couple of claims

that we might hear today. First, the Bible can't be trusted. It's

just a big game of telephone and has been changed over the last two thousand

years. Who's heard that one, Yeah, it's a pretty common one.

This claim is ironic because it's false. And not only is it false,

but it's actually an example of the game of telephone, just people repeating things

that they've heard. Most people, if they make that claim, have not

gone to do any study, any research looked into the Bible whatsoever. If

you make that claim, you just need to go read you just need to

go do a little Google search or a big one. Both are helpful.

Most people who make that claim are just parroting what they heard someone else say,

or just parroting what their college professor told them, and it's incorrect.

The Bible, specifically the New Testament, is the most well documented ancient manuscript

from antiquity compared to any other work from that time period. The Bible isn't

like telephone because we can go back to the original language. It didn't jump

from this language to this language and just kind of get lost in translation.

No, we can just go back to Greek, which is the original language.

And it was coin a Greek, so you can't just type it in

today of like modern Greek. It's a different type of Greek, older Greek,

but it was the common tongue of the ancient world. Another popular saying

can be I don't need the Bible. I'm a believer, but I don't

need the Bible. I'll just follow Jesus. Well, I hope really quickly

all of us see how that falls apart. I hope really quickly we see

where the problem happens. Because as soon as they go, who's Jesus,

what did he teach, what is he say? Well, what are you

going to do? Unless you're making self up? You have to point me

somewhere. And where you're going to point me is scripture. The insertion that

I don't need the Bible but I just need Jesus implodes on itself if it's

pressed at all, because if you get rid of the Bible, you get

rid of the message, you get rid of the record, the eyewitness accounts

to any of the things that you're about to go on to assert. It's

a very place, and Greg Ken, I'm pointing this out to me,

and I appreciate that this is a good point. If you say I follow

Jesus, it's gonna take about five seconds for you to start listening to what

Jesus said, and he's just gonna point you back to the scripture. That's

all that's gonna happen. We're gonna see that today too. So the last

one, I think this is an important one to note, especially in regards

to like what is the Bible and how do we get in and how do

we know what it is? The last one is a popular claim of our

day that there was books of the Bible taken out that we don't have all

the books of the Bible. Well, there's claims that there's these lost Gospels.

You know what you see it in like you'll see it in the newspaper

or I guess I don't know how you use the needed paper anymore, but

you see like the online newspaper article that's like we founded lost book of the

Bible. But once again, all you have to do is a little bit

of digging history and Christianity the Bible to see that the other books that were

that are being claimed to have been these lost books of the Bible were written

hundreds of years later, hundreds of years later in comparison to any of what

of the of the manuscripts that we call our New Testament. And if you

go read them yourself, you see that they're kind of crazy. You'll you'll

kind of see really quickly like oh, that's that makes sense. That was

probably a good call that they didn't put that one in there. One quick

little example. I have a couple of big ones because I went and did

this myself and I was like, oh, all right, anyway, don't

mean that it's just kind of crazy. One of them was that it has

Jesus doing miracles when he was a child, and he's low key being deceitful,

right, I say low key because it was it was low key to

deceitful. It was he was. But but we know that's that's wrong.

And because we know that's wrong or contradictory, it's not only like kind of

like, oh, that's kind of a weird way to portray Jesus, but

not only that, but it contradicts one of the manuscripts, the Gospel of

John specifically, which was a well attested, well recognized gospel in the time,

and so as soon as you were to take this you'd be like,

oh, well, in the Gospel of John says that the first miracle that

Jesus performed was water into wine at the wedding at cana. That was the

first one. So all of a sudden, now Jesus is performing stuff.

Anytime before that it discredited itself. There's other weird things too, but it

doesn't matter because it's not what we need. So if you raised Catholic,

you may have an extra set of books that you remember seeing in your Bible.

It was between the Old Testament and the New testamentum. This is called

the Apocrypha which is said, it's between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now, during the Protestant Reformation from the Catholic Church, Protestants wanted to

go back to the source for their Bible, so they started translating their Bible

from the original language, which was coin A Greek, in contrast with Catholics,

who at the time favored the Latin vulgate and translation. On top of

that, the Protestants did not add the apocryphal writings into their collection of scriptures,

specifically for the simple reason that the Jews at the time of Jesus didn't

view them as scripture, and the early Church didn't view them as scripture.

And so the Reformers and the Protestants said, okay, we want the scriptures

solo script or just give me scripture. And so I need if I'm going

to live by scripture alone, I need to know what all is scripture.

That's what I need to know. So it was a big deal. And

without being settled, we have the book. We have our sixty six books

that we call scripture today. So ultimately the criteria for a book to go

that would the criteria for a book to pass or be qualified as scripture can

kind of be summarized in these three different ways. Sold this from Arcis bowl.

They must have apostolic authorship or endorsement, so I'd be written by someone

who was an apostle of Jesus, where new an apostle of Jesus who could

have said that's whack. To get rid of that, they must be received

as authoritative by the early church, so within a generation or two of people

who would have known the apostles been like, that's whack. And they must

be in harmony with the books about which there is no doubt, and that's

a big one right there. They must be in harmony with the books in

which there is no doubt. So finally, extra books like the Book of

Mormon, the Quran, or any devotionals claiming to have new revelation from God

on top of contradicting scripture, they all also fail this test and so do

not qualify a scripture and can't be taken in such. So that's the Bible

on paper. Let's take a deep breath, because that was a lot.

That was a lot for me. That's just informations. It's like, ah,

all right, there's a lot of a lot of stuff because before we

start looking into what this is dropping stuff, Um, we need to just

what is this thing? Why are we looking at this thing? What is

this? Why do we care? What's the significance? So, um,

you should look more into this. If you want more resources, please come

ask me, Please come ask some of our elders too. Um. There's

lots. We'll talk about it a lot more next week as well of just

different resources in different ways of like how do we engage us, how do

we know this stuff? But also like how do we get our Bible?

What does any of this stuff mean? Um? Lots of really really great

resources, and it's really helpful for us as believers and Christians to know how

we got our Bible right. Honestly, it's one of probably the weaker points

of Christians today that we don't know anything about history. We don't know our

history. We don't know our history of all of the Christians who came before

us, all of the Christians who died so that we would have this in

our hands, who would literally go like, you know what I'm not telling

any where, it's that you can take my life. Because they knew what

this was. They recognize what this was, and so for us. If

we don't know what this is, if we don't know how we got this,

why would we ever go to this? Why would why would ever have

any importance? Or why would we care to read what it says or to

have it be authoritative or have someone up here opening it and talking from it.

We won't care. We shouldn't if we don't know what it is.

So it's the Bible on paper. We're gonna look at the theological aspect.

Theological Oh my gosh, this page will mob tern uh huh, sure,

all right, there we go, the theological portion? What is the Bible?

How are we going to answer this question? That was it on paper?

That was just facts about the Bible? Just stuff about the Bible?

How do we know? How do we answer the question of what is the

Bible? And we're gonna do it. We're going to do it by looking

at what the Bible has to say about the Bible. We're gonna see what

it has to say about itself. So we're the way I wanted to summarize

this because I want this to be a little bit like memorable, right just

as it so it's easy, not that we can be like all right,

things rhyme, but so that how do we remember how how can we remember

ourselves of Like, what is scripture? Why is it important? What's the

meaning behind it? I tried to summarize, summarize it and kind of a

sentence that can kind of be broken down into three big points which we'll look

at today. So the answer to the question of what is the Bible,

we can respond by saying, the Bible is God breathed, Jesus believed in

the Christian's greatest need. I was really happy about this one. I'm not

gonna lie. I like I like, I like writing songs and stuff like

that. So little fit rhymes and makes just enough sense, sould. But

we're gonna take time to break it down that the Bible is God breathed Jesus

believed in the Christian's greatest need. So should we start with the first one?

Yeah, let's do it first one, God breathed. You all know

the most famous Bible verse, right, I hope John three sixteen. Right,

we're all familiar with that. We've we've heard this one before. Well,

I want to contend that for the second the second spot of the most

well known Bible verse among Christians that's what I think we should do. I

want to contend that there should be a second Bible verse, a second memory

verse that you should have in your back pocket as a Christian. I got

John three sixteen, right, But I think that there's a second verse that

we should hold dear to our hearts. If you don't know John three sixteen,

go learn it first, and then we'll get to the second one.

Okay, But I think, by God's grace and his providence, that the

second one should be easy to memorize, because we're gonna look at another three

sixteen verse in the Bible. Right that's already kind of that already, that's

half the job right there, that's half. That's half the job right there.

It's a lot easier. So this is the second one I would contend

that you should memorize. In Second Timothy, Second Timothy three sixteen says all

scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, buking, correcting, and

training in righteousness. All scripture is what God breathed. Now what does that

mean? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about today. It means that

everything that we call scripture or consider a scripture needs to be understand as the

breath or the very words of God. So, like we talked about a

couple of weeks ago, when we're talking about who God is, we recognize

our need as creatures, as dependents, as finite knowledge. We don't know

very much, and what we do know, we usually we don't make the

best use of that. So when it comes to who is God and answering

that question, we need him to tell us who he is. What that

means for today is that not only do we need him to tell us who

he is, but that means that when He speaks to us, he's actually

revealing who he is. He's revealing a part of his nature. When he

speaks to us and clues us in it or gives us information, we can

learn to understand who he is. So to kind of summarize that, when

God speaks, he reveals to us who he is. The reason that this

is important for us to recognize is that when God tells us who he is,

that means we can also understand the nature of his words. Does that

make sense? We understand who he is. We can understand the nature of

his words to help us understand how we are to view God's words. We

need to know who he is and what he has said about his word.

So for scripture to be defined as God breathed. It tells us that God's

word is inspired. It's called the inspiration of scripture. God's word is inspired.

Let's open some Bible. Let's start looking into what it has to say.

Second Peter one six through twenty one, or sixteen through twenty one.

All right, that'd be a lot longer. For we did not follow cleverly

devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and

Power. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory

from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory,

saying, this is my son whom I love with him, I am well

pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with

him on the sacred Mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely

reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to

a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star

rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of

scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things, For the prophecy never

had its origin in the human will. But prophets, though human, spoke

from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We remember this,

remember last week, Pastor Greg, He taught us about the Holy Spirit.

He taught us about God the Holy Spirit. And one of the roles

and one of the things that the scripture tells us about God the Holy Spirit

is that he directs, and he guides and he inspires scripture. Let's look

at a couple of those verses, John fourteen twenty six. But the advocate

the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach

you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you,

And can go to the next verse he Brews one one. In the past,

God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various

ways. God used ordinary men with their own writing styles backgrounds, to write

and deliver his inspired word to his people. Being the scripture is God breathed

and comes from God. A God who is truth never lies. Means that

God's word is Innerrand God's word is innarrant and infallible. We'll talk about what

that means. Well, let's get let's look at some Bible to get some

clues. Number is twenty three nineteen. God is not a human or God

is not human that he should lie, not a human being, that he

should change his mind? Does he speak and not act and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfill? This means that when God speaks,

he is good for his word. He will not contradict himself nor lie,

which means neither will his word. Does that make sense? Titus one one

through three. Paul a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads

to Godliness and the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not

lie, promise before the beginning of time, and which now, at his

appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the

command of God our savior. Paul is carrying God's message saw him eighteen thirty

ask for God. His way is perfect. The Lord's word is flawless.

He shields all who take refuge in him. Another one John seventeen something straightforward.

Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Now, if

you remember from a few weeks ago and learning about who God is, we

remember, like we said, even just a couple of minutes ago, one

of the big things about God is that he is the creator. What does

that mean? He's the creator. It means he's the author of life.

He's the author of everything, which means that he has all authority. Right,

if you think about it, authority, He's shorten it down a little

bit. You've got the author right there in the beginning of it. So

God's word is authoritative, which means that he has all authority and the final

word on all matters period. Isaiah fleven, So is my word that goes

out from my mouth, It will not return to me empty, but will

accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. He

says it with authority. He speaks as one who can say these things and

be sure of it. We see a good example of this and kind of

how authority so one can speak something and have it be so and be sure

about it. We see an example of this in Jesus's life when Jesus had

entered Caprinium. A centurion came to him, asking for help. Lord.

He said, my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said

to him, shall I come and heal him. A centurion replied, Lord,

I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, But just

say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am

a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one go,

and he goes, and that one come and he comes. I say

to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard

this, he was amazed and said to those follow him, true, that

tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

I say to you that many will come from the East and the West,

and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in

the Kingdom of Heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside

into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And

Jesus said to the centurion, go let it be done just as you believed

it would. And his servant was healed. At that moment we catch that,

the man come, says heal My servant, Jesu says, I'll be

right there. He said, no, no, no, to say it.

Your word has authority. So the centurion he gets it. Jesus response,

he's amazed. He's amazed at his faith. God is the author of

life, gives him the right and authority to settle all matters pertaining to the

world, the universe, and even our own life. Us over our own

life. God says it. That settles it, right. That's kind of

like kind of an easy way to put it and have it be more straight

forward. And we can trust God has preserved his word because he is sovereign.

Ass two twenty three. This man was handed over to you by God's

deliberate plan, and Foreknoledge he's talking about Jesus, and you, with the

help of wicked man, put him to death by nailing him to the cross

Isaiah forty eight. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word

of our God endures forever. Luke twenty one thirty three. Heaven and earth

will pass away, but my words will never pass away. He can't talk

like that unless you can make sure that's going to happen. God's plan,

intention, words, purpose will come to pass because God is sovereign over everything.

So God's word scripture is God breathed. God breathed. Got that the

Bible is God breathed. Let's look at the next one. Jesus believed.

Jesus believed. Now, what I mean by this is that Jesus believed that

scripture, specifically the Old Testament scriptures, were the inspired, authoritative words of

God. Now why do I differentiate, Why do I say specifically the Old

Testament. Well, because the New Testament wasn't written when Jesus was alive.

The New Testament wasn't around. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do what

remind you, lead you into all truth, teach you every remind you of

what I've taught you. And that's what ends up being made up of our

making up our New Testaments. It's the testimony and the account of Jesus's life.

So the New Testament scriptures, which are the teaching an eye witness's account

of Jesus, tells us the view Jesus's view of God's word, which is

that Jesus believed that scripture was the word of God. Let's look at Matthew

four four. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on

bretta alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

This verse comes right after Jesus being tempted by Satan. Satan is trying to

twist God's word to make Jesus sin. And so what does Jesus do.

He gives him scripture right back, okay, and a note to say about

this. We'll talk about this more next week specifically, but this is kind

of all. This is always the tactic of Satan to twist the truth and

authority of God's word. It's the one thing he attacks, go all the

way back to the beginning. So personally, I think one of the trademark

slogans of Satan is did God really say? Did God really say? The

reason I point that out we'll talk about it next week. The reason I

point that out is so that as you go into the world, where maybe

you're even reading your own Bible, you hear that voice in your head.

Remember who said it first? Okay, remember who said it first. Secondly,

we need to be like Jesus, so if we hear that voice,

we know how to answer back. We just answered back by Jesus did,

and that's by knowing scripture. The answered with scripture. Jesus believed the scripture.

He believed everything they taught. He believed everything they prophesied Luke twenty two

thirty seven. It is written, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

And I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what

is written about me is reaching. It's fulfillment. Jesus believed that scripture was

clear, and this can be referred to as the clarity of scripture. The

clarity of scripture. Now what this means. It doesn't mean that everything in

the Bible is easy to understand, because if you've tried reading your Bible,

you also realize that there's some things that you're like, I'm not getting this

one. I'm not getting this one. Read it over and over again.

I'm not I'm not getting this one. But the clarity means that everything that

is necessary to live, grow and glorify God as believers and as his people

is clear. Everything we need to know is clear. We see Jesus pointing

to the clarity of scripture. And I could have chosen lots of places.

I chose this some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked,

is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?

Haven't you read? That's Jesus, haven't you read? He replied that

at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and said,

for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and will be

united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they

are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, well, God has

joined together, let no one separate. They why, then, they asked,

did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and

send her away? Jesus replied, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because

your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.

They want to find excuses. She's like, no, go back farther.

You want to point to Moses. How did God make it? Just be

clared? Moses also wrote Genesis, which is where we find we find that,

you know what I mean. So they're pointing to Moses later and be

like, well, he said that we could divorce. Jesus like, look

at what God declared. So he believed that Scripture was clear on this matter.

If you read the Gospels at all, you will quickly see the amount

of times that Jesus points to scripture saying things like, it is written.

Haven't you read what is written? Jesus loves saying that. Jesus loves to

say that. This also means that Jesus believed that scripture was sufficient. Okay,

the sufficiency of scripture just like with clarity, and even more so,

the scripture is sufficient for all things necessary to live, grow, and glorify

God. It's believers, that makes sense. Sufficient. In the Gospel of

Luke, Jesus tells the parable of this rich man in this and Lazarus.

This one's brutal. And I'm really sorry for doing this to you, guys.

I'm like, not sorry, but I'm so sorry for doing this to

you guys, because this this text is brutal. This text is so brutal,

especially in regards to the sufficiency of scripture. The rich man and Lazarus,

Jesus tells us parable is a rich man has a good life, this

poor man has a terrible life. They both die. The rich man is

being tormented after death. The poor man's at peace with Abraham. But there

man and torment. The rich man can see, can see Abraham and Lazarus

at peace, and there's this giant chasm between them, and he calls it

out to Abraham basically for help. Let's pick up there, Luke sixteen.

He answered, Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,

for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so that they will

not also come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, they have Moses

and the prophets. Let them listen to them. No, Father, Abraham,

he said, but if someone will, someone from the dead goes to

them, they will repent, he said to them, Or he said to

him. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will

not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead. So Jesus parable,

and it is brutal these Jesus and his parable is clear. He says,

if they won't believe scripture, then they won't believe at all. If

they don't believe scripture, then they won't believe at all. This one,

this one messes me up. Jesus himself, after rising from the dead,

when he is on the road to amais with his disciples. The disciples don't

know it's him yet, they don't recognize him Luke twenty four, twenty five.

He kind of he points back to this in a sense. He said

to them, how foolish and you are, How foolish you are, and

how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah

have to suffer these things and then enter his glory and the beginning and beginning

with Moses and all the prophets. He explained to them what was said in

all the scriptures concerning himself. I didn't put this in my notes, and

I can't believe I didn't. But that's because the Bible is all about Jesus.

He went through scriptures. It's because the Bible scripture is all about Jesus.

A little later on in that same chapter, he's talking to his disciples

again. He said to them, this is what I told you while I

was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in

the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. That's basically,

that's the Old Testament. Then he opened their minds so that they could understand

the scriptures that you guys have fun with that. First he told them this

is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on

the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in

his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things,

and who are the you. It's the same people who would go on

to write the New Testament, the same people who would go on to write

the account of Jesus's life. Jesus believed the scriptures. He believed in their

clarity and their sufficiency, and so should we. So we have seen that

the Bible is God breathed Jesus believed. Makes sense, and you're checking with

me. And now finally the last one, the Christian's greatest need, the

greatest need. I struggled with this one personally because I was like, Oh,

can you say that the Bible is the Christian's greatest need? Yes,

you can't. You can't say that. You want to know why I at

this at this point on for basically the rest of whatever we're doing right now,

we are going to read a lot of scripture that's going to tell us.

It's going to tell us why it's a Christian's greatest need. First,

let's look at first Peter one twenty five. For you who have been born

again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and doing

word of God, which I can't I don't have time for any of this,

but I was thinking about it today when Jesus tells us the parable of

the sewer, what's what's the seed? It's God's word, right. I

can't believe I missed. That's so frustrating. For you've been born again,

not a perish will see, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word

of God. For all people are like grass, and all their glory is

like the flowers of the field. That grass withers and the flowers fall,

But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that

was preached to you. We need God's word. We need God's word,

which could be called the necessity of scripture, the necessity of scripture. And

I need the band to come up, please and thank you. Let's look

at Romans ten nine through seventeen. This is the Bible talking, this is

God's word. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe

in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And

it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved all or,

as Scripture says, anyone who believes in Him will never be put to

shame, for there is no difference between you and gentile. The same Lord

is lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on him. For

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Those are

in quotation marks because they're quoting scripture. How then can they call on the

one they have not heard or believed him? Get ahead of myself? And

how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And

how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone or

where am i? How can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it

is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news, For Isaiah says Lord,

who has believed our message. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,

and the message is heard through the word about Christ. What are you gonna

believe in? What are you gonna believe in? If there's no message?

What are you gonna believe in? If there's no word? What if you

what are you gonna believe in? If there's no good news, we have

nothing without God's word, the message of hope, the message of the Gospel,

to be set free from our sins. First Corinthians five three or fifteen

three. For what I received I passed on to you as as of first

importance, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Next

next verse, Romans fifteen four. For everything that was written in the past

was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and

the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. First Thessalonians two thirteen.

And we also thank God continually because when you receive the word of God which

you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, because

as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at work in

you who believe. Romans one sixteen. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel,

why because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who

believes. First to the Jew, then to the gentile. We need God's

word to know who He is, who we are, and ultimately to hear

the Gospel. We need his word. Now. I know that we've gone

over a lot of verses today, but do you guys remember the memory verse

earlier? You guys remember that the Bible memory verse? Yeah. Second Timothy

three sixteen, we're gonna look at that, and we're gonna look at a

little bit of the broader context. Second Timothy three fourteen through seventeen says this,

But as for you, continue in what you've learned, and it become

convinced of because you know that you know those from whom you learned it,

and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make

you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God breathed

and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness,

so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is the real Christian handbook. Okay. That's why. Well,

as we're talking about our beliefs, our practices, what we do. What

that looks like is because the Bible contains everything that we need to live,

everything that we need for life, everything that we need in order to glorify

our God, which means, as believers, you can't afford to not know

His word. You can't afford to not know His word. That's what it's

for. It's your greatest need. You need to know. You need Like

if you're like I've heard the Gospel good you need to hear it again.

You need to hear it again because we forget really quickly. So to summarize

God's word, the Bible is God breathed, Jesus believed, and the Christian's

greatest need. So Christian, we're friends, stop neglecting your word. Next

week we're going to learn how to handle it, read and apply it,

which I am so excited for. You should be too, and show up

next week if you are. If you're not a believer yet and somehow I've

missed the Gospel message today, then I want to talk with you afterwards personally.

And second of all, let's look to scripture. Let's see what God's

word for you is. What is his good News Acts seventeen. In the

past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to

repent, for he has set a day when he will judge the world with

justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to

everyone by raising him from the dead. One more second Corinthians five through twenty

one. We are there for Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his

appeal through us. We implore you, the unbeliever, on Christ's behalf,

be reconciled to God. There is a way to be reconciled. God made

him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in

him, putting our faith, in our trust in him, we might become

the righteousness of God. Let me summarize, turn to Christ, repent of

your sins. He has made a way for you to be right with God

by living the life that you could never live, that I could never live.

This isn't just about you. What I need too. And then he

died on the cross. He lived a perfect life, and he died to

satisfy the wrath of God that was due your sin and my sin. And

as we read earlier, for all that call on the name of the Lord

will be saved. And I pray, and I plead that you do that

His word will be sufficient for you today, and that you will put your

faith in your trust in Him. You will find a body of believers to

be a part of, cared for and loved, and be brought into the

fold in the family. Would you guys please stand, We're gonna pray.

I'll be on the side to pray with you. Guys, we have elders

who when they're done leading worship, will also be available if you would like

some extra prayer. Also, if you need to just grab him a believer

and say will you pray with me? Do that. We have these connect

cards. Part of this is just so we can get to know you,

so we can connect with you so you don't get missed. But on the

back there's need prayer or have a question, I'll be the one that calls

you if you fill this out. So yours truly once again, but we

want to be able to pray for you. And also just as a church

body. I'm not just talking to unbelievers here, but I'm talking to you,

our church body, people who belong to us, who we are responsible

for caring for in loving. We need to be better in praying for each

other because we don't some of us do you guys are good okay, but

we want to be praying for you and your needs at the church as a

body of brothers and sisters in Christ, and this is one of the ways

that we do it. Just be helpful. We send these out to all

of our community groups so that they can be praying during the week. We

send this out to ours and our leaders in the church so they can be

praying. If you don't want them to say, if you just wanted to

be seen by the elders, please just mark private. We'll make sure that

it doesn't get sent out to anyone in the community groups, just for the

whole church to know. But we'd love to be praying for you. I'm

so stoked that we got to talk about the Bible today, and I'm so

stoked that I get a second week to do it next week. Less shaky,

actual moment just about it is the same. It's okay, let's pray

and the more worship Great God, and Lord, we thank you. We

could hear your word or we ask that it would be effective because of your

spirit, the same spirit that inspired it, Lord God, would ignite something

on our hearts and renew our life. Lord God, Lord, as we

feel any kind of pull towards you, as we feel any unsettledness. Lord

God, we just asked that we would not leave you unsettled, but that

we would be ready to set all accounts with you, Lord God, and

put our faith and trust in you, having fixed our issue, or gored

that you would die in our place, that we could call on you as

our Lord, as our father, or gored you meet away where there was

no way. We were hopeless without you, and we always will be hopeless

without you. Look God, So drive us to be dependent on you every

second of our life. Or God, and please don't let us turn aside,

or help us call on your name daily. Help us remember who we

are because of what you've done. Help us remember who we are because of

your blood covering us, and how we extend that, how we treat others,

how we view ourselves, and how we walk out our life and live

out our life. Lord God, here on earth until you raise it from

the dead to spend eternity with you in perfection and in your glory, or

you give this time to you, Please do what only you can do.

Please save We love the Lord. We thank you for this time and Gus

immigrated. Everyone said Amen,