I want to talk to you today about
the Word of God. The Word of God. Here's the title
of this message. Is the Bible the Word of God? I've chosen as my text a passage
of scripture from John 17. You'll recognize that John 17
is the Lord's prayer when our Lord Jesus Christ was praying
that great high priestly prayer to the Father. And he said in
John 17, 8, he said, I have given them the words that you gave
me. I've given them the words you
gave me. And they have received them,
your words. And they know surely that I came
from thee. And they believe that thou hast
sent me. Now to give men the words of God, the words of God. That's the calling and responsibility
of every true preacher. To give our heroes, not our words
altogether, but the words of the Lord. That's what Paul told
young Timothy. He said, Timothy, preach the
word. In season, out of season. There's
no season for preaching the word. Every season is the time to preach
the word. And we have the promise of God
that he will bless his word. He said in Isaiah 55, 11, he
said, so shall my words be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
My words, my words shall not return unto be void, but my words
shall accomplish that which I please. And my words shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it. Preach the word. A young man
asked me several years ago, Preacher, is the Bible really the words
of God? Is the Bible really the words
of God? Or is the Bible only the writing of religious men?
Well, I answered in this way. The words of the Bible were actually
written by men. The words of the Bible were written
by 40 different men over a period of 1,500 years. But those words
which those men wrote were given to them by the Spirit of God.
Men wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God to write.
They wrote what God inspired them to write. The Scriptures
indeed are the words of God. Now here's what Peter said in
2 Peter 1. The Scriptures That is all of
the scriptures, Old Testament, New Testament. The scriptures
came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men. And these men were men like you
and me. But they were men sanctified
by God and chosen by God and sent by God special prophets,
holy men. Holy men wrote as they were moved
and taught by the Spirit of God. And then Paul said in II Timothy
3, all Scripture, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. You know what that word means?
God-breed. That's right. All Scripture is
God-breed. So young man, is the Bible truly
the words of God? Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. The words of God. God used men
to write them. But they're the words of God.
You listen, I'm going to give you several reasons today why
I believe the Bible is indeed the Word of God. The title of
the message is, Is the Bible the Word of God? Now you listen
carefully, and then you order this tape, and you play it for
your children, or your friends, or your neighbors, or your family.
First, I'm going to give you some elementary, logical reasons
why I believe the Bible is the Word of God, not the words of
men. First of all, the Bible has overcome the barrier of time. You hear expressions like this,
well, time changes everything. No, it doesn't. Time changes
most things, but time has not changed the Word of God. The
passing years have had no effect on the Word of God. Some of this
Bible was written by men, God inspired them, over 3,500 years
ago. The Bible Moses wrote 3,500 years
ago, back in the days of the Pharaohs. And the last entry
in this book was written 2,000 years ago by John. Moses and
the prophets wrote the scriptures in Hebrew, and John completed
the book writing in Greek. And the Bible has been preserved
in its entirety over a period of 3,500 years. Where are the books of men 500
years old or 1,000 years old or none 2,000 years old that
you know about? Secondly, the Bible is the word
of God and has overcome the barrier of nationality. The Bible has
been translated into over 1,000 languages and dialects all over
the world. The Bible has been translated
into English, French, Spanish, Russian, tribes in Africa, and
a language called the pidgin language in New Guinea. The Bible
has been translated. The Bible is read and loved by
people of every kindred, every tongue, every nation on earth. You know, there are not many
Chinese books that you and I read as Americans, and there are not
many American books that Chinese people read, or the Russians
don't read the Japanese books. The Japanese do not read books
from India. They read the books written by
their people. But this Bible is read by all
nations. It's overcome the barrier, not
only of time, but of nationality. And though it has been translated
from one language to another by fateful men, It's been remarkably
and supernaturally and providentially preserved by the hand of our
God. Martin Luther was in exile and kept in a castle in Germany. And he took the Word of God in
the original language and translated it over a period of eight months
into German. It's been preserved. That Martin
Luther's translation is still preserved. The Bible has overcome
the barrier of time, the barrier of nationality, and the barriers
of age and station and class. Where are the books that are
read by children, young people, and senior citizens? Yet the
Bible is read by all three. Where are the books read by presidents
and paupers? Where are the books read by professors
down at the university and prisoners down at the local jail? The Bible
is. The professors read the Bible
and the prisoners, the presidents and the paupers, servants and
masters, rich men, poor men, women and men, children, old
folks. The Word of God is read and loved
by all classes, ages, people all over this world. It's the
same. It has the same message for every one of them. And they
all embrace it and love it and walk in it. It's overcome the
barriers of time, nationality, and ages, and classes. And the books of men, now listen
to me. The books of men are written by either good men or bad men.
They're good books and bad books. They're books written by bad
men and good men. But the Bible could not have
been written by either one, not by bad men or good, so-called
good men. First of all, somebody wrote
this a long time ago. He said the Bible is a Jewish
conspiracy written by evil men to deceive other people and to
promote their kingdom. Well, that can't be so. The Bible
cannot be written as a conspiracy against anybody. It cannot be
written by evil men at all because this Bible condemns deceit. This Bible all the way through
from Genesis to Revelation condemns hypocrisy. It condemns lying
and false claims. It does. In Proverbs 6, the message
is clear all the way through the word. Six things God hates. God hates a proud look. God hates
a lying tongue. God hates hands that shed blood.
God hates a heart that devises wickedness. God hates a false
witness. Now that's written. So evil men
didn't write those things. God, evil men didn't write those
things. The Scripture condemns evil words and evil ways and
promises eternal condemnation to everyone who continues in
this type of life. No, the Bible cannot be the work
of evil men. Cannot be, because it condemns
their very thoughts and words and ways. Secondly, the Bible
could not be the works of good men. That's right, it couldn't
be. For all the way through the scripture,
every writer holds forth the truth that they're sinners. That's right. There's none good.
The Bible says, no, not one. A good man thinks he's good,
claims to be good, self-righteous. He's not going to call himself
a sinner. And yet every writer of the scripture says man at
his best state is altogether vanity. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Every man used of God to write
this Bible declared in no uncertain terms, I'm a sinner. Listen to
David. My sins are ever before me. Against
God and God only have I sinned. Listen to Isaiah. I saw the Lord
and I cried, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people
of unclean lips. Listen to Peter. Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. Listen to the
Apostle Paul. The Lord Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. None of them claimed
to be good men. None of them claimed to be good
men. None of them allowed people to call them good men. They said
none good but God. And these men that wrote the
Bible, they condemned self-praise and self-righteousness and self-glory. They claimed that's the chief
offense against God to profess to be good. If evil men didn't
write the Bible and good men didn't write the Bible, who did? God did. God did. All Scripture is God-breathed. And we'll tell you another logical
reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God. This is elementary
to me. I believe the Bible is the Word
of God because it's a supernatural book. It continues to stand 3,500
years to 2,000 years ago. It continues
to stand and prosper, although most people do not believe it. That's right. It continues to
stand, although most people do not believe it. In fact, down
through the years, many people have spent their lives denying
this book. Spent their lives, time, effort,
money. Powerful men and nations have
tried to destroy it. The Russians tried for 70 years
to destroy it. Religious leaders have tried
to hide it from the people to keep them from reading it. They
burned translations of the Bible. They discouraged people from
printing the Bible. They discouraged people from
reading the Bible. Religious leaders. Dishonest
preachers have misquoted it, misused it, misapplied it, twisted
its words, taken them out of context in order to gain themselves
using the Word of God for their own gain. And they're all dead.
And the Bible still stands, still stands, still stands. The grass withered, the flower
faded, but the word of God still stands. I read a poem years ago
about a fella came at a blacksmith's shop and all around there were
hammers, chipped and broken and laying around, useless hammers. And he looked at the blacksmith
and he said, how many anvils have you had? Got all these broken
hammers around here. How many anvils have you had?"
He said, just one. The anvil never wears out. Only
the hammers that beat on it. And I'll tell you this. This
is a supernatural book. This is God's book. This is God's
Word. And it never wears out. And it's never destroyed. It
cannot be defeated. It cannot be broken. It goes
on. On. The Word of God. Now then. Those
are logical reasons. Now here are logical reasons,
but they're spiritual and they have to be revealed. Those others,
anybody with just a little bit of sense can see them. But this
takes divine revelation. This takes some understanding
of the Word to see these reasons. God used, here's the first one,
must be revealed. God used 40 men to write the
Word of God. Old Testament, New Testament,
over a period of 1,500 years. And from Genesis to Revelation,
most of these men never met one another. They knew about one
another and they quoted one another and they read the writings of
those who preceded them, but most of them never knew one another.
Moses never met Peter. Isaiah never met John. David
never met Paul. Those men never met one another.
But they wrote as God inspired them to write. And when all of
these books came together, 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament
books, 66 books. When all of them were brought
together, written by 40 different men inspired of God, all of them
formed a clear revelation, a clear portrait of one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every one of these men. Moses
wrote of me, Christ said. Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
Job talked about my Redeemer. David talked about the Lord,
my Shepherd. And when all of these men, when
their writings were brought together, there was a clear revelation
and a portrait of one person, the Messiah, the Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Suppose you took 40 men over
a period of 1,500 years and gave each one of them a stone, just
a large stone, or maybe two, See, Paul wrote several of the
books and David wrote several of the Psalms. Just give them
all a stone and tell them to chisel it and shape it and do
what they want to, sculpt it like they want to. And then when
all of them had finished, all 40 men had finished their stones,
and you brought them all together, had 66 stones, and you stacked
them up together, what are the odds that they would fit? What
are the odds that they would form anything that looked pleasant
to the eyes. What are the odds that they would
form a wall with a picture of one person, the Son of God? One talked about this facet,
another that, this attribute, that, this characteristic, that
characteristic, and when you brought all of these together,
they showed us the portrait, a revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, our King. What are
the odds? Well, you wouldn't even quote God on a thing like
that. And yet the Bible, in Genesis, the Lord Jesus Christ is the
woman's seed. God said, woman will bear a son,
be the seed of the woman, and he'll bruise the serpent's head.
In Genesis, he's Abraham's promised son, miraculous son. He's Abel's
lamb. In Exodus, he's the Passover
lamb. That God said, I see the blood, I'll pass over you. In
Exodus, he's the smitten rock. In Leviticus, he's the tabernacle.
He's the high priest. He's the mercy seat. He's the
atonement. In Numbers, he's the brazen serpent
lifted up. As Moses lifted up the brazen
serpent, so must the son of man be lifted up. In Deuteronomy,
he's the city of refuge. In Joshua, he's Rahab's scarlet
lion. That's Christ. In Ruth, he's
our kinsman redeemer. In the book of Kings, he's the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the Psalms, he's my shepherd. In Matthew, he's Jesus, who'll
save his people from their sins. King of the Jews. In Mark, he's
the serpent, burying our sins and our sorrows in his body on
the tree. In Luke, he's the son of man,
became flesh, walked this earth, tempted in all points as we are,
yet without sin. In John, he's the son of God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. Yes, sir,
this book reveals Christ, and this book is all a person needs
to know this Messiah. All I need is His Word. All I
need is His Word, that I might know Him whose name is Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince
of peace, the child born, the son given, and who he is, and
why he came, and what he did, and where he is now. Listen to
me. This book, listen now carefully
right here. This book, this Bible, and this
person, Jesus Christ, about whom this book is written, are so
in oneness and union This book and this person, that they're
both called the Word of God. Did you hear that? This Bible
is called the Word of God. Jesus Christ is called the Word
of God. The word incarnate, the word
written, are the one and the same. That's right, one and the
same, the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, And the Word was God, and all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory, the Son of God. Peter says, The Word
of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by
the gospel of Christ is preached to you. John 8, 32, the Lord
Jesus said, You know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
Who is the truth? He's the truth. He said, I'm
the truth. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. He's the truth. The words of this book, now listen
to me, they're so, the words of this Bible and Jesus Christ
are so in oneness and unity, they're both called the Word
of God. You can't have one without the other. And the words of this
book are the words of life. These words give life. What I'm
doing right now has the power to give life. The Word of God,
the Gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. Listen to this in James 1.18. This word gives life. This is
the Word of life. It's not just words on paper.
This is the Word of life. This is God's Word. Of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. Peter said, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed by
the word of God, which lives, lives and abides forever. The
words of this book received and believed will not only give spiritual
life, but it'll change people into new persons. Let me tell
you something. This Word will change your life. It takes the Word of God. If
any man be in Christ, the Word of God, he's a new creature.
That's right. This Word changes people into
new persons. Paul said to Timothy, From a
child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation. Through this word, fools become
wise. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Fools become
wise. Through this word, thieves become honest. I've seen that.
Through this word, wickedness gives way to holiness. Through
this word, hate turns to love. Intemperance turns to patience.
Love, joy, faith, humility. gentleness, goodness, patience,
and grace. Old John Newton described it
well. He said, I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I want to
be. I'm not what I will be someday. But by the grace of God, through
Jesus Christ the Lord, I'm not what I used to be. This is the
word of life. It reveals him who is life. And it gives life, and it changes
people. And the words of this book are
so powerful. They give faith. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. They're so powerful,
they comfort. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. They're so powerful, this book
gives understanding of the spiritual things, of the deep things of
God. Of the character of God, will
of God, understanding. We, the Son of God had come and
given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true,
and we're in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God. This is eternal life. This Word
brings hope to the hopeless, peace in the conflict. Oh, the
power of the Word of God. It is the Word of life, the Word
of life. It gives life. It changes men
from thieves to honest men. It changes men from liars to
men who tell the truth. It changed a blasphemer named
Saul of Tarsus into a wonderful preacher of the grace of God.
My friends, get acquainted with the book. It is the words of
Almighty God. And by this book, here are four
things I want to leave with you. This, only by the words of this
book can a man know God. Now, I know creation reveals
the power of God and the glory of God in one sense, the
heavens declare the glory of God, but only by the word of
God can you learn of the grace of God and the mercy of God and
the purpose of God in redeeming sinners through His Son. You
learn who God is by His word. Only by the words of this book
can you come to know the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Like I
said, starting it in Genesis. He's the Lamb. He's the priest
forever like Melchizedek. He's the Passover Lamb in Exodus. You learn who Christ is by reading
the Word. And He became a man and fulfilled
righteousness and died for our justification. Only by the Word
can you learn who you are, human nature. human nature, we've got
to find out what kind of shape we're in so that we will call
on our God. And only by this word can you
learn the revealed will of God, how to live, how to love, how
to give, and how to forgive. This is the word of life. I leave
you with a little poem written by one of the old writers. The
moon and the stars shall lose their light The sun shall sink
in endless night. Both heaven and earth shall pass
away. The works of men shall all decay. But what our Lord has said will
be fulfilled. On this firm rock, believers
build. His word shall stand, his truth
prevail, and not one jot or one tittle will ever fail. Is the
Bible the Word of God? Indeed it is, the living Word
of God. Till next week, may God bless
you and your family, is my prayer.