Christianity 101 - The Bible

So has God really spoken to man? Can we know for sure?

Is the Bible trustworthy? You know, there's been lots of

years. Has it been changed over time?

Did man get in there and mess with it and tweak it?

Is this really all just a religious concoction today, with

the Bible being our subject and our theme?

Just like last week, we saw that there are many different

versions of Jesus, but there's one Jesus of the Bible today.

We'll see also that there are other versions of the Bible,

other teachings, other scriptures, and almost every

cult that deviates from traditional Christianity in the

sense of what does the Bible say, does so in the Scriptures.

Let me give you a few examples. Some of them have other

revelations. LNG White of the 7th Day

Adventist Church has some prophecies that they treat just

like Scripture and they, what do you know?

They help you understand and interpret the Bible through her

prophecies. There's another group of people

that they have additional revelations as well that would

say you need to have this book to understand that book.

You guys know what that one is. Can you tell maybe you've met

some of them before? There are others that would say

the Scriptures have been corrupted and we need to help

you know what the Bible really means.

You need to become a Muslim because the Bible's been

corrupted and we have our own revelation.

Or there are some that would say, well, we're Christians just

like you. We just updated the Bible so

that, you know, we took out all the things that make Jesus God.

But we want to keep some of the other stuff that Jehovah's

Witnesses produced their own distorted version of the Bible.

Or maybe there's some kind of orthodoxy that would favor human

opinion and tradition over what the Bible clearly teaches

playing on the face. The Catholic Church would say

that the Pope can speak and what he says is just as good as

Scripture, and all their councils over time have

developed a sick and twisted amount of tradition that

distorts the plain teaching of the Scriptures.

But the Bible is the most trusted book on the planet, no

matter what other people have done to it.

It's possible for you to know it, but I want to give you a

quick summary of what book we're talking about.

So the Bible is a combination of 66 books, 27 in the New

Testament, 39 in the Old Testament.

It's written by 40 different authors who range in their

experience from kings like David, Solomon, Hezekiah to

priests like Ezra, government officials like Matthew the

disciple, fisherman like Peter, and religious leaders like Paul.

And many of these, they've never met each other yet their texts

agree 100%. The Bible's written over 1500

years time spanning multiple continents.

Africa, Asia, Europe over multiple kingdoms and ages like

the Egyptian, Israeli, Babylonian and Roman rule in

multiple languages, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and yet the

Bible using all of these styles and personalities, it agrees

together in one completed revelation of who God is and

what he expects of man. So today our subject is the

Bible and we're going to treat it just like we would any other

Bible study. We're going to use the the

framework that I gave you a few weeks ago when we talked about

how to read the Bible and how to study the Bible and break this

down over the Scriptures. If you remember, I said that

there are three applications to Scripture when you read it.

There's a historical application.

What does it say? What happened?

There's a doctrinal or prophetic application.

What is it teaching me about God or is there something that it's

talking about that's yet future? And then thirdly is the one that

most people start with is the inspirational.

What is it saying to me? How's it directing me?

So those will be our three main points for today.

So, so let's look first at the historical application and let's

look for some evidence for truthfulness.

If this really is God's Word, then we should be able to tell

that by examining this book. So first we'll have three things

we'll look at. First is historical accuracy.

The Bible is full of tons of information.

If you've ever tried to read it, it has more names than you can

remember, right? And there's dates and there's

years. And if you're first time through

it, you're thinking, man, what? How does anybody care about all

this stuff? But all of that information

gives us so many clear pictures and understandings of times and

kingdoms that it, if those things really happened, there

would be some kind of record. And you don't have to look very

hard to find archaeological evidence or support for the

biblical narrative throughout the world.

I think you can. It can be so easy, in fact, that

you could just AI it. And you could ask Google AI,

hey, tell me, is there evidence to support the Bible being true?

And AI will come up with enough evidence, more than you can

study honestly. It'll come up with things like

the archaeological evidence of different things that have been

found that prove the kingdoms in the Bible were real.

Some of the characters were real.

Those places are real. It'll present you extra biblical

sources frequently. Josephus is a first century

Jewish historian that's quoted by a lot of Christian people.

Not sure if he was a Christian or not, but he wrote about the

events during the life of Christ.

We also historical evidence that we're going to see in a moment

about the New Testament. So there is so much truthfulness

in the world, in rocks and buildings and under the dirt.

It's all there if you'll go looking for it.

But let's look next at manuscript evidence because we

can't go dig up artifacts. We can find some manuscripts.

The Bible has the greatest collection of manuscripts of any

other document in history. It's just beyond comparison.

Nothing else compares to it. In fact, I have a list for you

manuscripts. Compared to other works, there's

a greater list. Obviously there's more

information. You could study this for days.

But in general, the New Testament is said to have about

5800 Greek manuscripts. Those aren't all entire copies

of the Bible. They're some of them are pieces

or fragments or whole books, and they're located in different

places. But there is so there are so

many references that all agree together.

Next up of historical sources is Homer's Iliad.

You know, maybe it wasn't written by Homer, but what we

would call the Iliad and the Odyssey, about 1900 manuscripts.

That's the great, the second greatest document that we have.

We have these others like Herodotus, Plato, Caesar and his

his Gallic wars. And we just have to ask the

question, did did Plato really exist?

When we read Plato, do we ever wonder is that what he really

said or did somebody change it? But somehow or another, when we

come to the Bible, that has even more credibility, we become even

more critical. It's honestly not fair and it's

not scientific. There is so much manuscript

evidence for the Bible it's crazy.

Thirdly, as we see a prophetic fulfillment in these three

things, we have historical manuscript and the fulfillment

of prophecy. If the prophecies in the Bible

were not fulfilled completely or correctly, we would just easily

be able to say it's like any other book.

It's all make believe, but there are so many things concerning

the fall of Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Jerusalem, all kinds of

things that have happened and we have the remnants.

We have the proof that they happened the way that they said

they happened. But even that, just to simplify

some of these prophecies for you, the prophecies that are

fulfilled in Jesus, He was born in Bethlehem, betrayed for 30

pieces of silver that he would bear mankind's sin out of Isaiah

53, that he was hated without a cause, suffered without the

camp, and just so many, many more.

The fulfillment of prophecy is something that no other book can

truly do. The Bible does it so well.

But I put it to you this way in your notes.

No amount of evidence or no amount of proof will take away

your need for faith. Evidence abounds.

It's without question, but there's no sense in which you

can go back and observe the translation or the preservation

over hundreds and hundreds of years.

You have to put faith that this book is what it says.

You cannot just be an intellectual Christian, but you

can be an intellectual Christian.

Hebrews 11 tells us through faith we understand.

We understand that the world's were framed by the word of God.

You see, faith is so important to God.

In fact, this chapter, Hebrews 11 says it's without faith, it's

impossible to please God. You cannot have a real

relationship with the God of the Bible without exercising faith

that He exists. But through faith we understand.

It's possible once you put faith in the Bible that you can have

understanding beyond what the natural man can know.

This may sound somewhat counterintuitive, but everybody

puts faith in something. Every atheist puts faith in

science and projections back into the past to say billions of

years ago that some things happened that they've never

observed. We all place faith in something.

You at some point have to choose to say God, I believe you and I

take you for your word. That's what makes you a

Christian. Secondly, we so first was

historical. Secondly is the doctrinal.

Let's look at some claims made by the Bible.

What does this book say about itself?

And this is where we would fix so many problems in the

Christian world. If we would just let the Bible

speak for itself, let it be the Bible, instead of trying to

figure out ways to make it work in our progressive culture

today. We would call this internal

evidence. What is it saying internally

about itself? So first is that it's divinely

inspired. The Bible claims divine

authorship, although men are involved.

There's no question if you read the Psalms, you see King David

writing about his experiences. It's there's no question it's

written by men, absolutely. But yet the Bible uses the

phrase Word of God 49 times, Word of the Lord 258 times, God

said 46 times. So it is no stretch to say that

God their their claims to be a God involved in speaking this

Bible and bringing it to existence.

One of the new New Testament writers, the Apostle Paul said

that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

That word inspiration is the Greek word Theo Neustas, which

is God and breathed for God giving life.

And we know that English word inspiration as to place thoughts

and ideas when you feel like man, I'm inspired.

I've got all these ideas about stuff I want to do.

That's how we use the word and what we have in the Scriptures,

what the Bible claims of itself is that there are ideas placed

into this book that are greater than the natural world.

God put his thoughts and ideas into this book.

They're not just the ideas of men.

The apostle Peter said the prophecy came not in old time by

the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by

the Holy Ghost. So divine authorship is what we

find from the internal evidence. But I put it to you this way in

your notes. The Bible will not always make

sense to you because it's written by a more superior

being. If this is true, if there really

is a supernatural powerful God outside of creation that knows

all things and he decided to give us some thoughts and ideas,

then it would stand to reason that we probably won't be able

to comprehend all of those. That's not to say that we'll

know nothing, but the Bible says in Isaiah 55 God speaking.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways

your ways. Have you ever found that to be

true? You read something in the Bible

and you think, well, that's probably not the way I would

have did it. I don't know that I like the

whole deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me apart.

I don't know that I would have said the first is last and the

last is first, or the elder shall serve the younger.

The old Ephraim and Manasseh swap or as a leader I don't know

that I really want to get down and wash my my disciples feet.

The Bible does so many things differently because God is so

much greater than us in this world.

He says my ways are higher, they're always better.

His ways are always better. The Bible says the natural man,

the unregenerate man hasn't been saved.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

And there is a sense in which this book is hidden until we

come to it in faith to believe what it says, and then we can

receive it and we can be taught by God himself.

But if we come at it as a skeptic, this is when we see it

as foolishness. We have no discernment about

what it says. So the Bible claims divine

authorship, but that's the origin.

What about all the years that have transpired since then?

Well, the Bible also claims to be divinely preserved, by the

way. Other religious texts claim

this. The Quran claims to be divinely

preserved and perfect and from God and all that sort of thing.

And this is where Christianity allows you to tests and prove

what is really true. You can do the math on the

Bible, you're allowed. It's not a cult, check it out

for yourself. But it claims to be divinely

preserved. The psalmist says in Psalm 12

the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a

furnace of earth, purified 7 times.

Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve them from

this generation forever. So the Bible claims that there

is a God who gave this book and that he is also preserving it

over time. It's precious to him.

He says these words are pure. But let's just listen to some of

the other Bible authors. Maybe you've heard of some of

these men. The apostle Peter, he was a

radical follower. You know, Peter was intense.

He was an eyewitness of Jesus, history would say he was

crucified upside down for his faith.

That's how radical he was for Jesus.

He said we have a more sure word of prophecy.

If you read this chapter, Peter says I saw Jesus with mine own

eyes, the mount of transfiguration, and we have

something even more sure in the scriptures than what I saw with

my own eyes. How about Jesus?

What does he say about God keeping his word till heaven and

earth pass? One jot or one title shown in no

wise pass from the law. If you're going to take Jesus at

his word, He says that his words going to be around until it's

all fulfilled. How about King David, one of the

greatest kings Israel ever had. He loved the Lord.

He says in Psalm 119, Thy word is true from the beginning.

Everyone of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.

Solomon claims that the Bible is the certainty of the words of

truth. Isaiah says that the word of our

Lord will stand forever. It's very clear that the

Scriptures would say there is a God that will preserve His word,

and we can trust it and we can know it.

So I put it to you this way, Christians trust in God to

preserve His word, not men. All right.

Lastly, your third thing in this doctrinal assessment of the

Bible is that it is to be applied objectively.

So it claims to be from God. God claims to be the one to keep

it together and preserve it over time.

But then we have to figure out what do we do with what it says?

And we need to start first with an objective understanding of

what does the Bible say. And if you remember a few weeks

ago when we talked about how to read the Bible and how to study

the Bible, we said the most important question to ask is

what does it say, not what does it mean.

We ask first, what does it say? So a few examples of this.

Jesus interprets his own parables.

If you want to know, wonder, I wonder what that means.

Frequently, if you would just keep reading, you'll find out

the Bible will tell you what those things mean.

The New Testament interprets the Old Testament and we compare

Scripture with Scripture. According to 1st Corinthians

213, we need two or three witnesses to let every word be

established. We can go back and forth and

cross reference, but we don't get to make it say.

Whatever we want, Peter says, knowing this first, that no

scripture is of any private interpretation.

You don't get to say, well, that's what it means to me.

Well, we'll talk about personal application in a moment, but in

general, you don't get to develop your own version of

Christianity based on how you feel or what you think.

It's not a privately interpreted book in Jesus's words in John

17, John 17, he says thy word is truth.

This isn't the kind of truth that we get to make it our

truth. This is the kind of truth that

is just objectively clear and true, and it is what it says.

If God's ways truly are higher than our ways, then we may not

always like it or agree with it, but we can't deny that it says

what it says. It doesn't say something else.

So at this church, we take a literal, historical, grammatical

approach to the Scriptures unless the context dictates

otherwise. There are poetic things or

exaggerations, if you will, in the Scriptures at times, but in

general, we're going to take it at face value for what is it

saying? What does it say?

So I put it to you this way you don't get to make the Bible say

whatever you want. You don't get to make the Bible

say whatever you want. Well, so far that's been

somewhat academic for you, right?

We talked about history, archaeology, doctrine.

Where'd the Bible come from? But let's talk now about the

inspirational. Likely the reason why most

people begin to read it in the first place is because they're

looking for answers. Is there a God?

Is there hope? Is that thing real?

We're not just always looking to find some textbook to read.

We want answers. So I'm going to give you a few

things on the inspirational application of the Bible.

First, the Bible will speak to you.

It is a living book, if you will let it.

It will speak to you and that's what we want when we open it.

We want to hear OK is this true? What does it say, What do I do?

The Bible says in Hebrews 412 the word of God is quick and

powerful, sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to

dividing asunder of soul and spirit, then of the joints and

marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the

heart. The Bible claims to be alive and

to be able to penetrate into your heart, into the intent of

your heart. What is your motivation?

What am I thinking? What am I doing with my life?

If you will let it, the Bible will speak expressly to you.

Perhaps This is why many people avoid reading it.

We're afraid of that moment. Maybe it's why we read it with

our barriers up. Like, I know it's not true.

Maybe we know that already. Secondly, we see that the Bible

will direct you. If you're going to make

decisions in your life, where are you going to go for answers?

Are you just going to scroll and hope I find something good, Hope

the algorithm treats me well. I was asking Siri questions last

night and she was not very smart.

I just got an iPhone and I was like trying out the Siri thing,

and I was kind of impressed with the lack of awesomeness.

Honestly. I was like, really?

Come on, girl, you got more than this.

I know you do. Somewhere, once Google gets a

hold of it, you know they'll make it better.

But where are you going to go for answers Is all you can come

up with in your own mind and the things around you.

Is that how you're making life decisions?

Well, this is just all I know. If you believe that this book is

true, then you have a duty to consult it.

It says in Psalm 119, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a

light unto my path. It says, it's able to reveal to

you which steps to take. And you know Psalm or I'm sorry,

Proverbs 36 And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall

direct thy paths. But we don't have to divine.

We can just go simply read the Bible.

We don't have to feel our way through life.

You can go open the scriptures and let them speak to you.

So I put it to you this way, Christians make life decisions

with an open Bible. If you want to know Christianity

one O 1. What do we believe about the

Bible? It's that we allow it to

influence our life and our decision making.

Things like who you marry or date.

The Bible gives clear evidence in the New Testament, clear

guidance. First Corinthians Chapter 7.

1 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

Go read it. It's it forbids A believer to

marry an unbeliever. Where you work, where you live,

what what do you do with your time?

Why do you exist? You can find answers to these

kinds of questions if you will simply seek what it says.

If you need help with those things, we'd love to read the

Bible with you. We have a Bible reading plan as

a church that's on your sheet. Read that together with us.

We have discussions about what we read Also, Bible study is a

great time to come together around the scriptures and let it

shed light on the the circumstances of our life.

The next we see that if, if we'll do this, if we'll let the

Bible influence our decision making, something is going to

happen is that we'll begin to change.

If we start agreeing with the words written by a God who says

my ways are higher than your ways, then essentially we're

able to live a life that's higher than we could on our own.

It's greater, it's supernatural. You could say, why wouldn't we

do that? Romans 12/2 tells us that we can

be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

The mind being renewed is to the mind that is washed with the

water of the word of God. It is constantly meditating on

what God says. It's a it's a mind that's

becoming new. It's putting off the old man.

It's putting on the new man. And when we do that, it says

that there's a transformation to change forms.

I can literally be a person that I have never been before if I

will simply read and study and apply the Christian Bible.

You can even know what is God's will, perfect will, but you

cannot grow spiritually without the Bible.

This is the hiccup for many Christian people, and we know it

is a large book. As we said, an introduction.

It spans many subjects, many kingdoms, many authors, and it's

easy to be intimidated by many people make New Year's

resolutions. I'm going to read the Bible and

we get apps that have streaks and all kinds of things going on

to try to help us, but really we're never going to grow

without it. Peter says that we are to desire

the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby.

If you will just nurse on the the Bible, you're going to grow

up big and strong, but spiritual growth is different for

different people. That isn't to say that you get

to develop your own objectives. The Bible's very clear about

what a Christian should be doing.

But when you first get saved, when a person says, I believe

what Nathan said, Jesus died on the cross and I'm just going all

in, I believe that I need to be saved.

I'll follow you. I want to, I want to change my

life for you Jesus, and you become born again.

The Bible says you're born into God's Kingdom as a babe and you

need to start nursing on the word of God.

But after you've known Jesus for a while, you need to develop

into strong meat. What Hebrews chapter 5 says.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

It's time for those that are of full age to continue to study

and go deep in the Word of God. You'll find that the book is an

endless supply of the riches of Christ.

You can study it for your whole life.

I continue to study it and read it and learn new things all the

time. But you need to be in the word

to be able to grow and be changed.

And lastly is that the Bible will save you.

This one may seem obvious. We've kind of Nathan already set

us up for that earlier, but there's no other book on the

planet that's going to give you the record that God sent his son

in the form of a servant to die on a cross, to exchange the just

for the unjust, your sin, his righteousness.

That whoever would believe in the resurrection, they'll be

saved eternally secure, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God-given

a home in heaven, placed into a church family.

There's no other record on the planet that's going to tell you

that it all comes from this book.

It's not a man's idea. In fact, this book is necessary

and us comprehending that all together.

Where else would we find this record?

I would never find it in the city.

I'll never find it at the office or wherever I'm at.

You're never going to hear people outside of the Bible

talking about the resurrection. Peter says that we're born again

by the word of God. So it is this book that is the

agent for us to be able to come into a relationship with the God

of this book. Paul says that faith comes by

hearing the word of God. So I put it to you this way, The

Bible is so necessary to the Christian faith that you cannot

be saved without it. You can't be saved without

hearing the Bible, whether it's quoted or discussed or preached

or whatever it is. Beautiful feet have to take the

book to people that will hear it and listen and receive it.

But you also can't be saved with the Bible while disagreeing with

it. If you don't think it's true, it

will do no no thing in your life.

So when it comes to salvation, we have to choose to agree with

God based on His word that I'm a Sinner, that my sin separates me

from God. That Jesus died on the cross,

was buried and rose again. That I need to accept his blood

sacrifice to forgive me. I need to accept that Jesus is

the Lord of my life and that I need to live to obey Him in His

Word. If you won't agree with that,

you can be whatever you want. You just can't be a Christian.

This is what Christians believe, and this is where that comes

from. Ultimately, this is the record.

So have you ever accepted that? Has there been a time in your

life that you said that's true? I want that to be true.

I receive it, I believe it, I confess it.

Well, if not, today's the day. Romans 10 says if you confess

with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that

God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Becoming a Christian doesn't look like joining an

organization, getting some kind of safety training, or, you

know, some kind of conversion ritual.

It is you agreeing with the Bible that Jesus is Lord.

He died for you. You're a Sinner, You need Him,

and you tell that to him. You don't have to tell it to me.

I'm glad to help you pray, but you tell it to him.

And the Bible says thou shalt be saved.

You can take that to the bank that's older than me.

Take that one to the bank. But how about us?

Let's wrap up. We've got one more song.

But while we're here, do you need more evidence?

Evidence abounds and you could seek some out if you'll do it

with an open heart. If you believe the Bible is

true, are you letting it speak into your life?

Are you reading it, studying it, or perhaps today?

There's one of these things, there's several points, maybe

there's one that you would just circle that and say I need to

check back into that. I need to pray about that.

How would God be speaking to you today?

I want to take another moment to pray in response, and then we'll

have a final song. So let me lead us in a prayer.

And Jay, you can come and sing. God, we come, We confess that

this word is true. And for those that still have

questions, God, I pray that you would open their heart.

You say that the hearing of your Word gives faith, and I pray

that would be true today. God as a church, would you give

us a hunger for your word? Would you help us to be people

of the book? Would you help us to give it out

freely? You say freely we have received.

We want to freely give. Help us to share the good news

with others. Use us and growing up training

up the Saints. I pray for your people today.

Would you bless them give them the courage, the strength even

starting tomorrow to just keep opening it and keep reading it,

studying it and for myself make me an example of reading study

growth. We know that it'll produce a

great change in US and God, when when times are tough and and we

waver, we come back and we just cling and say, I just believe

it's true. Would you give us a grip on your

word that nothing can shake? Thank you for Jesus, Lord, thank

you for all you've done for us. As we sing this next song, I

pray that it be the desire of our heart to know you and to

grow. I pray in Christ's name, Amen.