What the Word Says About the Word

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning to all of you. Thank you so much on this wintery morning. Glad you made it in safe today, so glad to see all of you. Would you do me a favor and welcome our Broomfield Campus who's worship been along with us this morning, so great to have you as well. And as we begin this new series today, about the word of God, I just want to encourage us to pray, keep our hearts and our minds attentive to what the Lord will have for us as we begin this study, which I think is foundational to everything else that we believe as believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ. So would you pray with me this morning.

Lord, as we have brought you worship and honor and praise. Lord, as we've celebrated your supper together. Lord, as we've honored you and all that we're doing, we want to hear you this morning, God. Lord, our prayer is that you would speak through your living and active Word this morning. And Lord, you would give us an understanding about what your Word says about your Word. Lord, that you would give testimony that your Word is true, your Word is reliable, your Word is without error, your Word is trustworthy and Lord that we can bank our lives on the truth of this book.

And so Lord, our prayer this morning is that you would have your way with us. So Lord open our hearts, open our minds to everything that you have to say to us about who you are and how by faith we're called to respond to you. And all God's people who are ready to hear His word, believe what He says and by faith put into practice what He shows you. Would you agree with me this morning by very loudly saying the word amen.

Amen.

Amen. Well, this morning we're going to start a new series called can I trust this book? And as your pastor, it's become increasingly aware to me that while so many people say, "Well, the Bible's true. The Bible's true." That many people even sitting in the pews or in the chairs don't truly believe what this book has to say. This book that I hold in my hand is the best selling book of all time. 5.6 billion copies of this book have been sold worldwide. Just to give you an idea. All the Harry Potter books combined about 500 million. This is 5.6 billion, been translated into many different languages.

And yet there's so many people when it comes to this book, you'll hear them say stuff like this. "You can't really believe this book. It's just a made up book. It's just a bunch of men that sat around and did this. Oh, by the way, it doesn't speak to our society today. It doesn't help us anymore, we've progressed so much as a society. This book is no longer relevant. Oh, by the way, this book puts down women. This book promotes slavery. This book shows a God that's mean and evil. And oh, by the way, this book knows nothing about science so you can't trust this book when it comes to those things. It's oppressive. Where are the dinosaurs? You don't believe any of this stuff."

And so for those of us like me, that stand up and say that our first pillar is to preach the authority of God's Word without apology. Many would say, "Why do you even believe that book in the first place?" And for many Christians who would say, "Well, I believe the story about Jesus is just not all that other stuff." Here's my question, how can you really believe this book?

This book is a fascinating book. This one book is made up of 66 books. We have 39 books that make up our Old Testament, we have 27 that make up our New Testament. Nearly 40 authors were used by God to author this book over the course of 1,500 years, Moses being the first author right around 1,400 BC, all the way up to John who wrote the book of Revelation right around 90 AD.

So you have all this span of scope, about three different continents with men that wrote this book inspired by the Holy Spirit, that all make the same claim that run the same line. It's a fascinating, fascinating book. However, I think it's fair for us to ask the question is this book reliable. Can I really trust this book? Because if you can trust this book, you're going to view it very differently than if you can't trust this book. And so we're going to spend five weeks taking a look at this book.

Now, today we're building a foundation. If you ever seen construction building the foundation is the most boring part to watch, yet it probably the most part. If your house doesn't have a foundation or where you work doesn't have a foundation, everything collapses. The foundation is the most important, but it's really unseen. Today, as we build the foundation, some of this today is going to feel more like a seminary class than preaching, okay? I'm just warning you in advance.

And I'm going to tell you there's such an assault on what I'm going to teach today that it's going to take your mind a chance to get around it. So even in your notes, just write down the verses, write down the verses, ask questions. Today, we're going to take a look at what does the Word say about the Word? What does this book say about itself?

Next week, we'll take a look at what does God say about this book? Then we're going to take a look at what does history say about this book? How did this whole thing come together and how can we truly believe it? And is there any evidence that what we're holding in our hand is true? And then what does this book say about you will be week number four and then the final series will be what do you say about this book?

My hope is when we're done, you will hold this book hand that you have, and you will say, "This is the inspired Word of God, and I can trust every single word of it. And I'm going to live under its authority." Or you would at least be able to say, "I know what the Bible says about itself. I know what God says about this book. I know what history says about this book. I know what this book says about me. I know what's true, but I'm not going to believe it."

But that you wouldn't find yourself in a camp that says, "I can't trust it. I can't trust it. There's no way it's true." Okay. So that is a backdrop. Let's take a look at what this book has to say. Now, the first thing you're going to feel is the temptation to not believe this book, that's the challenge. So if you open your Bible to Genesis 3, we're going to jump all over the place so just so you know.

In Genesis 3, we'll get to one and two in a second. But in Genesis 3, after God creates the heavens and the earth and all that's in it, things seen and unseen. We get to Genesis 3, God's created everything. God says everything is good. After each day God creates, He says what? "It's very good." It's almost as if God's like, "Yeah, I'm awesome. And look what I just did, because I'm good and what I create is good." After day six, when He creates humankind, here's what He says. "It is very good."

Why? Because human beings are the image bearer of God, human beings are created in the image of God and everything in God's creation at that point in time was complete. And He said, "Wow, look at all I've done. That's good because I'm good, and it's very good." He spells out in Genesis 2 what happened on day six. And he shows Adam as he's cultivating the guard and he's working and he's tending it, what he must do. And He basically tells Adam, "Serve me, serve this world. You dominion over it. There's only one thing you cannot do. There are two trees in the middle of the garden; one's the tree alive, one's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whatever you do, do not eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die." That's it.

In other words, "Adam, everything you choose, good choice. Everything you think about, it's good." Why? Because you're created in my image. You have everything you need. I've given you all things. You have dominion over everything. Rule over the animals. You are created in my image. I created a perfect world. I put you in the center of it. You're my image bearer, go have fun, go do this.

Now, here's where you get in Genesis 3: 1. It says, "Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast in the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed has God said?" In other words, "Did God really say?" Okay, those are four of the most damning words that you can believe in the entire Bible. Now, in Acts 17, we're going to study a group of people called the Bereans. And if you look at them, every time Paul preached, they studied what he said to make sure it aligned with the scripture.

There is nothing wrong with doubting what a human being says to see if it's aligned with what God actually said. That's good. As I've told you many times, even if you hear things today and you're like, "I don't believe what pastor Jeff says." God's not going to hold you to account for what pastor Jeff says, God will hold you to account for what He says. So you can ask is what Jeff says really aligning with God's Holy Word.

But here's what Satan's trying to get you to do. Satan's trying to get you to doubt the very words that God said. Indeed has God said, did God really say? And what does Eve say? Eve begins to have a conversation. "Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree in the garden." Well, we know that God said that do not eat from any tree in the garden, He's made that clear. The woman said to the serpent from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it or touch it or you will die."

"God never said you couldn't touch it." That's the first legalism we have in the Bible. You ever notice when God tells us something and it sets up a law, we always make bigger laws around the law that God's set up because, "Well, we can't do this or we can't do this." It's not about what you can't do. God just said, don't eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat off it, you will surely die. Satan said, "Did God really say that?" So she begins to have a conversation.

And instead of saying, "Yes, He did. And that's what I'm doing." What does she say? "Well, He said, we can't eat it or touch it." So what does he say then? He says, the serpent says to her, "You surely will not die." God said you would die, Satan says you won't die. Why? Because every time Satan opens his mouth, he's lying. He's a deceiver. He hates the Word of God. And he hates what God has to say. So he tells Eve the exact opposite, "You will not die for God knows that in the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing both good and evil."

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and she gave it to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And sin entered into the world." Did they die?

Yeah.

They're not here. They're dead, right? Why? Because spiritually they died that very moment. And through sin set in the course what God never intended, which was for human life to end, right? That's why every time you go to a funeral and you know somebody that was in the casket or the urn, you weep because it's a perversion of everything that God intended. God is the author of life. So watch what happened.

Everything's good for two chapters, because when God's in charge and we're responding to God, everything's always good. It's always very good. But what does Satan get us to do? The enemy wants you to doubt four things. And what happened to Eve in the garden and Adam in the garden still happens today. And the first one is this, to get you to doubt God's Word. Doubt God's Word. You can't really believe this book. Can you? You really can't believe that this is true, can you?

You really can't believe that Ephesians 5 really talk about what marriage should look like today. You really can't believe that God established government. You really can't believe of what God has to say about... You can't believe this book. Satan will always work to get you to doubt God's Word. It's his number one work in your life.

If you doubt this book, it shows me this. You're giving Satan a foothold in your life. Doubt god's Word. Had Eve said, "Of course, we're not eating off that. Get away from me." Had Adam stood in and been the man he was supposed to be and not let her even talk to the serpent to begin with, we would be fine. "Indeed has God said, did God really say that?" We start having a conversation with the devil to doubt God's Word then you go down this path.

Number two is you doubt god's goodness. You doubt God's goodness. What did the devil tell Eve? "Here's why God doesn't want you to eat of it. It's not that you're going to die. He knows that you're going to be like Him. He knows that you're going to know both good and evil. You are going to be a God." When you doubt God's Word, you will always doubt God's goodness. When you doubt God's Word, you will always feel as if God is holding back from you.

If you are single, and you realize that celibacy is your only option and you doubt God's Word, you're going to feel like God is a kill joy trying to keep you from what you want to enjoy the most. When God is only trying to protect you. If you're married and you doubt God's Word and you think, "Well, God's just a kill joy. I should be able to sleep with whoever I want." You're doubting God's goodness. Everything God writes to us is for our own good. It's who He is.

The 10 commandments are for our own good. God writes for our good. If you doubt God's Word, the second thing you'll find in your life is you'll doubt that God's good. And the third thing you'll doubt is this, you'll doubt God's justice. "You surely will not die. Now, God said you're going to die, but I'm telling you you're not going to die." When you doubt God's Word and you doubt God's goodness, the next thing you're going to say is something like this. This is what all non-believers say. "If you're God's so good, how would He send people to hell? How could a loving God ever send buddy to help?"

Because He's so good, and because He's so holy and because He's so just He's telling you exactly what's going to happen. If you doubt God's Word, you will doubt God's goodness. If you doubt God's goodness, you will ultimately doubt God's justice. And here's what you'll finally doubt, you'll doubt His authority. You'll doubt his authority. The Word of God will be nothing more to you than just another book on the shelf. It's just like any other book. It's just a book.

There's no authority in it. I don't need to respond to this book. I don't need to answer to this book. This book isn't speaking to me. I've doubted this book. I know God's not all that good. You say you're God's the only way. There's a lot of gods out there and there's no way that there's one God who's completely just, who only takes righteous people through his son. I don't believe that. And I don't respond to his authority because I am the authority in my own life. I'm going to be my own god.

It happened in Genesis 3, it happens every day in our culture. When you find people that doubt God's Word, one of the first things they'll talk about when it comes to God is they'll start telling you why God isn't any good. If God is so good then why? Because here's why? Because they don't believe the Word of God. It's why all non-believers doubt god's goodness, right? It's even why in church when the Word of God is not aply being taught and we go through trials, Satan will be like, "See, look at the Word. God said He loves you. God said He had plans to prosper for you and look at your life. It's so hard. So God's not good."

But if you really know the Word, then you would be like consider it all joy when you face trials in many kinds, right? Because the Word of God teaches you that God's good no matter what your circumstances are. Now, this is foundational for us because there's a temptation and there's an assault on all of us to disbelieve God's word. Now, this book's fascinating. Because keep in mind, this book was made up by 40 different authors over 1,500 years. You got Moses who's a shepherd, you got David who's a king, you got Isaiah who's a prophet. You got Ezra who's a priest, you got John who's a fisherman. Paul's a tent maker, Luke's a doctor, on and on and on we go, living in different generations.

There's also several different genres. So you have historical narrative, you have poetry, you have wisdom. You have the law, you have genealogies, you have historical biographies. You have parables, you have letters. You even have apocalyptic genre. That's the unfolding of everything God's going to do. You have prophecy in the Bible, which God says before it's going to happen, exactly what's going to happen. And what you see in the Bible is every prophetic word that God states always happens exactly as God states. And if you come in week three, you'll see about 300 of these just relating to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

This book is unique in its testimony because while it's all scattered in 66 books, with 40 authors, over 1,400 years, they're all telling the same story that there was creation, that there was fall, that there's redemptive story. And that it's all going to culminate in the glory of God. This book is written by God for God, for how we can respond to God for what's true of God. Amen.

The temptation you're going to feel for the rest of your life, whether you're a believer or not is to doubt His Word. Now, there's nothing wrong with asking do I truly understand it. Is this really what this passage means. I need to wrestle with this. I need to grow in this. But if God says it, then at some point in time I need to bow my need to the Lordship of it and believe it. So the temptation is to doubt God's Word, doubt God's goodness, doubt God's justice, doubt God's authority.

Anytime you meet people that say, "God, isn't good." Anytime you people say, "God, isn't fair." Anytime you meet people say, "God's not in control." Here's what they're honestly saying to you. "I don't believe the word of God 100% of the time." Okay. And when it comes to belief, we can either believe or not believe. So that's the temptation to not believe. So let's take a look at the Old Testament testimony, then we'll look at the New Testament testimony, then we'll take a look at the living testimony.

Turn your Bible to Genesis 1:1. Here's the Old Testament testimony. Here's how this book starts. You hanging with me? I know it's heady, okay. You hanging? Everybody okay?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Says this, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." That's how the book starts. Well, where does it start? In the beginning, the beginning of what? The beginning of time. Why? Because God stands outside of time. We even studied in Jude and the book of Revelation. He was, He is, He is to come. He's always been, He is now and He ever will be. That's who our God is. So what's He telling us about in the beginning of what? There's no beginning to God in the beginning of what?

In the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the first statement in the Bible and it gets assaulted all the time. God created everything. It's interesting if you study this by passage, the Word God is in the plural Elohim and the word created is in the singular. The plural God created, singular. Isn't that interesting? It doesn't tell us there's a trinity, but it starts to foreshadow it.

And when you get down to Genesis 1:26 and 27, "Let us make man in our image." There's a hint to this Trinitarian God that we're going to see fully unfold in the New Testament, that the God that we serve is made up of Father, Son and Spirit. One eternal God in three distinct persons; the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And as we talked about on every day that God created whatever He created, woo, that was good.

Day one, whoa, that was good. Day two, all the way till day six when he created the animals and he created man and women in His image and He is like, "I'm done, baby. That's very good. I'm awesome." And on day seven it said, "He rested." Now, why'd He rest? He wasn't tired. He's God, what was He doing? He was my modeling for us how to model our week and to take a day set aside completely for Him to honor Him.

That's why when you get to Exodus 20:11, it says, "Well, I don't know that God really did that, can you really believe that God created the world in six days?" Well, it says in Exodus 20:11, "For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." So a couple things, whatever a day was in Exodus 20 is exactly what a day was in Genesis.

And we get to the New Testament revelation about creation and Colossians 1 and it says, "For by Him, all things were made. Whether thrones, dominions, rulers or authority, things visible and invisible, all things were made by Him and for Him." And in Genesis 1:31, "God saw all that He had made, everything visible and invisible," and here's what he said. "It's very good." I see it all. That's the story of creation.

So the first thing we see in the testimony from the Word about who God is, is He's a creator God, which means this, everything about this God that the Bible testifies about is completely supernatural because we can look at it and say, "Well, how could God do that? And how could that happen? And how is that really work?" Because he's God, and He's worthy of all our praise and worship.

In Psalm 19 it says, "The heaven declare the Glory of God." It's why when you go to the mountains or for some of you when you travel, you go to the beach and you look out at the ocean and you look at the landscape and everything inside is like, it should go deeper than just that's awesome. It should go to, "There's someone behind this that made all this that's even more awesome than His creation." That's what the Bible's testifying about.

That God's a supernatural creator God. Well, how did He do it so fast? Psalm 33 tells us, Psalm 33:6 says, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of His mouth, all their host." How did everything come into existence? God spoke and bam, there it was. That's the testimony of the Bible. Now, you don't have to believe that. That's what the Bible's testifying that the Bible believes about how everything came into being, right?

"Pastor Jeff, do you believe all that?" 100%, I do. And what it testifies about is God is not only the creator, but God is good. He's a good God. Think about how He created the world, everything He created. We had all of our needs met. You had a perfect world with a perfect structure and a perfect canopy over the earth. Everything is right, the temperature's right, the food's going to be right. Everything's good. You got to tend the garden a little bit, but work is a noble thing.

God provided all that we needed, everything's just right. And what did Satan say? "Did God really say that?" Are you really going to trust that all powerful, all creating supernatural?" Well, I don't know. Maybe I could be all natural, a supernatural like that God. Maybe I could be that. Man. And I see it with my eyes and it looks good to my flesh, it feels appetizing to me, that's what I want. We do the same in our life.

I hear some people talk, "Man, Eve blew it for us. What was Adam thinking?" You do the same thing. I do the same thing. I got an offer from God that's right, that's good, that's perfect. And what do I want to do? I want short change all that the supernatural creator, God that made all things out of nothing. That's able to do anything He wants. And instead I shortchange it for what my eyes see and what looks appealing and what I think would benefit me and what would be appetizing. And I go after that, that's the temptation. Rather than to believe the Word of God and submit to Him.

So here's who our God is. God is a creator. God is good, but man is sinful. And because God is just and God is authoritative, He has to punish sin. But I want you to see this, all the way back in the Old Testament, even in Genesis 3:15, you're going to see this about our God. God is redemptive. He's redemptive. Which means this, because God is holy, God can't just brush off sin. Because God is holy, God can't just say, "Well, I knew you were going to blow it, but don't worry about it, all humans blow it."

Now, What's the first thing God does? Adam and Eve are totally fine, they're both naked. They're not ashamed, everything's great. They're relating to God, it's all good. What happens when they sin, they begin to see their differences. They begin to be ashamed of their differences. First things they do is cover themselves up, and then what do they do? They dive in the bushes and play hide and go seek from God. And God comes looking and who's He come looking for? It's interesting He comes looking for Adam.

Why does He come looking for Adam? He comes looking for Adam because he gave Adam the command before He can created Eve from his rib. "Adam, where are you?" And Adam does what we do every time we sin. Well, he said, "Did you eat off the tree I told you not to eat off of?" "Well, it was that woman you gave me? Blames her and the woman's no better. Because then He goes to Eve, He's like, "Did you do this?" He's like, "Well it wasn't me, it was that serpent, that tricky serpent." We blame sin on everybody but ourselves because we don't want to be responsible, right?

So what does God do? God has to kill an animal. Blood has to be spilt for them to have clothing. You begin to see redemptive history put into play. You're going to see the blood come into play because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. It's why when God set up the Old covenant sacrificial system, there was blood that was shed to cover over sin. Fast forward, all the way to the New Testament. What do you have? You have the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Not many times, but once an and for all. God's a redemptive God.

Notice in Genesis 3:15 when God is doling out the punishment because of what He said was going to happen. The Lord not only punished women in their childbearing to make it hard. He not only punished men in their work, making it hard. Here's what he said in verse 14. "The Lord said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle, and more than every beast of the field and on your belly, you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life.'"

Now, watch this, watch this, watch this here's foreshadowing. "And I will put enmity," that's hostility. It's animosity, "Between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel." What's He doing? He's talking spiritually about ultimately what He's going to do, that through the seed of a woman, he's bringing a spiritual line through and through her seed, through an offspring that's going to come from her someday. The Messiah's going to come and He's going to crush the head of the enemy.

What's the enemy going to do? He's going to bruise His heel. Jesus is going to crush the head of the devil. The enemy's going to bite Him a little bit. And that's exactly what happened. You see the redemptive story begin to play out in Genesis 3:15. Now, here's what people will say. "That Old Testament God is mean. He killed everybody." We go to Jericho, "He's mopping them all out, He killed them all. New Testament God is nice." It's just because nobody's read the Bible.

There's way more people that are going to experience hell in the New Testament than have ever experienced in the Old. Why? Because God's just as holy in the New as He is in the Old. But what people don't see in the Old, unless they look for it is God is so gracious in the Old Testament. Before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah more, He was like, "If I could find just like one righteous person, I wouldn't destroy any of it, but I can't find anybody." If He could have found one righteous person in Jericho, would have saved them. Didn't He find somebody? It was a prostitute by the name of Rahab and her family who all came out before the walls came crumbling down on the city.

God is totally gracious. He's totally good, and yet He's totally just. Now, can we pause here for a second? We're head, right? Are you still with me? Are you still with me? It is like a seminary class. It's way better than a seminary class, I've been in a lot seminar classes. Okay. Listen. Now, this is where people get lost. "Pastor Jeff, I'm listening to you, but we got talking animals, right? We got supernatural stuff going on. We got sin, I can't catch up." Let's deal with talking animals.

You don't have to believe that, but the authors of the Bible believe that. Remember in Number 22, we talked about a couple weeks ago where there was a talking donkey that spoke with the voice of a man. You say, "Well, that's crazy. Nobody would ever believe that. Peter did. In 2 Peter 2:16, give me one second to find it. 2 Peter 2:16, here's what Peter says about that situation. He talks about Balaam, the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression for a mute donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of a prophet.

Peter believed that the donkey spoke with the voice of a man. Jude in Jude 11 believed that the donkey spoke with the voice of a man. You may not believe it, but all the biblical authors believe it. They have no trouble believing it. Why? Because they believe that the God they serve is a supernatural God who can do anything. But did He speak through a serpent? The apostle Paul tells us, yes, He did absolutely.

As a matter of fact, in 2 Corinthians 11, here's what the apostle Paul says in relation to that. 2 Corinthians 11:3, you can write the verse down. He said, "But I am afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray for the sincerity and purity of devotion to Christ." Did Paul believe that Eve was led astray by a serpent? 100%?, yes. The testimony of the biblical authors is there was an actual serpent that was empowered by the devil that literally spoke to a literal woman named Eve in a literal garden. And because of that, sin entered into the world.

And who's the serpent? Paul tells us. Paul tells us it's the devil himself. Look at what John says in Revelation 12:9, as well as in verse 20 in verse two. Revelation 12:9, here's what he says about that devil. He says, "And the great dragon was thrown down that serpent of old," there's the serpent word, "Who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him." John calls the serpent the devil.

Revelation 20:2, "And He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years that's forthcoming." So the biblical authors believe that there was a real serpent in a real garden with two real people, and that Adam and Eve were completely deceived. Even when you think about sin entering the world in 1 Timothy 2:14 Paul writes, "And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression." And yet at the same time, while Eve was the one who was deceived, here's what Paul says about sin in Romans 5:12.

"Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned." So what's he saying? The story in Genesis three is completely true. Eve was deceived by the serpent, but let me tell you how sin entered the world and entered through one man, Adam, because Adam was given the command of the authoritative Supreme God of the universe, and he didn't keep it. So sin came through man, even though Eve was the one that was deceived. It's totally telling the same story.

All the New Testament authors believe it. It's why it says the wages of sin is death. It's why it says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's why there's sin in your life. That's what the biblical authors are testifying to. So when it comes to the Old Testament, God's a creator. He's good, we're sinful. He's just, He's authoritative, yet He's what? He's redemptive. And what does He do? He begins to call a people for Himself.

If we had time this morning, you would see in Genesis 12 how God called Abram to come be the father of a great nation and three through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed. And through Abraham, we see the nation of Israel be formed. And through Israel, the purpose of the nation of Israel was so that all the nations of the world would be blessed, which is why Jesus was born Jewish in the nation of Israel to be part of the genealogical line of everything that God said so that through Him, all of the world would be blessed. Amen. That's the testimony.

And in Numbers 23:19, here's the testimony of the Old Testament, God is not a man like us that He can lie. God can't lie. So the testimony in the Bible is all of this is true because God can't lie. So when you see the words on the page that you have in your Bible, it is the word of God telling you, "This is my truth." And we don't have time this morning, but I'm just going to ask you to flip to Psalm 19:7-11. Psalm 19:7-11. Okay.

And as you're turning there, just think about some of these other verses that you can write down. The Old Testament authors in Psalm 119:105 says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your Word." The testimony is for the Word. Psalm 19:7-11, listen to what it says about the Word. We won't have time to go through all this morning, but just study these.

"The law of the Lord," that's the Word of God. The law of the Lord is what? Perfect. Now, listen to me, we live in a society we may not understand the word perfect. We've heard about perfect phone calls. We heard about perfect things, right? When the Bible says that the law of the Lord is perfect. It means my testimony about my Word is that it's perfect. It means it is flawless. It means there is nothing wrong with my Word. That's the Old Testament testimony.

The Word of the Lord is perfect. What's it do? It restores the soul. The Word of the law has the ability to convert the soul. The Word of the Lord has the ability to restore the soul and bring joy to the soul. The testimony the Lord is sure making wise the simple, it gives wisdom because you can count on it because this word is sure. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoice in the heart. It means there's nothing wrong in the word and of that, we can rejoice and that God speaks to us.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, there's no impurities in this Word. It's completely pure and because it is, it enlightens our eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean. When you read this book about the Supreme Creator, all-knowing sovereign being, there is a fear that comes on you like, "How could a God love me like that?" That's clean, that's a good thing and it what? It's enduring forever.

Isaiah 48 says, "The grass weathers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our Lord stands forever." Here's the testimony of this book, the testimony of this book is that every word in this book will always be true forever and ever and ever, amen. Even if you don't believe it, you'll be in hell knowing, "Yep, it was all true." And if you do believe it, you'll be in heaven saying it is all true, I just didn't know how true, it was awesome. That's the testimony of this book.

What else does it say? The judgments of the Lord are true, they're righteous altogether. Why? Because God is a righteous judge. So when God makes a judgment, everything God chooses to judge is always true. They're more desirable than gold, yes, even much fine gold. The words of this are more desirable than if you could have all the money in the world. Moreover, by them, your servant has warned and in keeping them there is great reward.

When you read God's Word, there are always warnings that go off in your life like, "Pay attention to that. Hey, watch this. Hey, don't do that. Hey, stay away from here. Hey, don't do..." There's warnings but there's also great reward in the Bible for those who go His way. We don't have time this morning, read Psalm 1, talks about blessed is the man who doesn't do what's wicked and blessed is the man who walks in the way of the Lord, because the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

There is a difference between following God's Word and not following God's Word. You get to choose whether you're going to follow his Word or not. But the testimony of the Old Testament about all of the Old Testament is that all of it is true, all of it's enduring, all of it is right, all of it sure, all of it is clean, it's better than gold, it's the best thing you can have, it can make you wise, that's the Old Testament testimony.

And it points to that one sovereign God. Isaiah 42:8 says, "I am the Lord, that is my name, I will not share my glory with another or get my praise to idols." You're still with me?

Yes.

This is hard. I'm just telling you, it's hard to teach this because this could be like a 31-week series just going through the Old Testament. I'm just trying to give you an overview as we go through to let you know the Bible is saying to you this, when it comes to the Old Testament Words of God, they're all completely true. When you read about a worldwide flood that covered the whole world, the Bible says, that totally happened. When you read about a guy named Daniel in a lion's den that survived, the Bible is saying, that really happened.

When you read about a prophet named Jonah who gets swallowed by a fish, the Bible is saying, that really happened. Everything the Old Testament is testifying to really happened. When fire was called down by Elijah, it really, really happened. When Noah jumped into an ark, it really, really happened. You may not believe it, but the Bible believes it. And the Bible is testifying that everything you would read about in the Old Testament is true.

When you read about a man named Jeremiah, that prophesied to the nation that judgment was coming, it happened. And everything that happens is true, and can be back in history. That's the testimony that the Bible makes of itself in the Old Testament. You can choose to say, "I'm not believing the Old Testament," that's your choice. But the Bible will say we believe every single word that took place in the Old Testament.

So let's go to the New Testament, what about the New Testament? Is that true too? Does the Bible make that claim? What's really interesting is when you get to the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you see the incarnated Christ becoming real. In Matthew's Gospel, you begin by seeing a genealogy that shows that everything the Old Testament promise came through the line exactly what God said was going to happen. It's amazing.

When you get into Mark's gospel, he jumps right into all the miracles and the preaching. When you get into Luke's Gospel, you begin to see this incredible orderly account, and a young girl named Mary, who an angel appears to and tells her she's going to bring forth birth to the Son of God. And she's saying, "How's it going to be? Never even been with a man." Said, here's how it's going to happen, because the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and conceive that son in you, and you will give birth to the Savior of the world. Incredible.

Well, how could that be? Because in the New Testament, God's still supernatural. And in John's gospel, it starts out probably better than any other to show the supernatural quality of God. It starts this way, "In the beginning was the word." In the beginning of what? In the beginning of time in Genesis 1:1, in the beginning. John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," He was with God in the beginning. And chapter one and verse 14 of John's gospel, here's what he said, "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

Here's where you got to get blown away. Now, we're not only talking about the written Word on the page, now we're talking about the living Word that that written word has now come to life. So everything that the written Word has testified about is fulfilled in that living Word, more on that next week, this is just a precursor. So that's supernatural that blows us away so when you see Jesus, you are seeing the written Word lived out in the living Word, the God man, Jesus Christ. That's how it starts.

And then you see all sorts of things. And what do people do in the life of Jesus? Well, they doubt that he's God's really eternal Word. And when they doubt His word, they doubt His goodness, they doubt His justice, they doubt His authority, and they doubt that He's redemptive. But if you think about what Jesus came to do, He came to be restorative. He came to be redemptive. So what did He do? He came as the living Word. By speaking and living, He demonstrated He was good.

He went to the cross to demonstrate God's justice. And before He left the earth, what did He say? "All authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to me." What did He do? He said the very same thing that He said when he started the book. Said, "I'm the same God that spoke everything into existence. I am the good God, I am the just God. I do have all authority and I am the way, I am the truth and I am the life and no one comes to the Father except through me."

There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled completely in Jesus Christ, it's amazing. That's the testimony of the New Testament. The testimony of the New Testament that Jesus said is heaven on earth will pass away, but my Words will never pass away. And John 17:17, He said, "Thy word is truth." And here's what He says in Luke 9:26, "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of him when He comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels."

What did Jesus say? He didn't say if you're ashamed of me, He said if you're ashamed of me and my Words". Because Jesus believed that all the Old Testament, you'll see it next week, Jesus believed that all the Old Testament was completely true. Jesus believed Jonah was swallowed by a fish. You may not; the Old Testament writers do, the New Testament writers do and Jesus did. You don't have to believe it, but the Bible believes it. Jesus is the living Word of what the written word testified about.

If you're ashamed of... Well, unlike Jesus I'm just not a big fan of the Bible. If you're ashamed of Him, the living Word and His written Word, the stuff He said, He will be ashamed of you. They all go hand in glove. You can't say, "I believe in Jesus, but I don't believe in the Bible." How could you even believe? "Well, I just had a feeling that he was right, I knew He died on the cross." How did you know? "Well, somebody told me." "Well, who told them?" "Somebody told them." "Who told them?"

If you're going to go back, here's how you're going to know. You're going to know because the Bible testifies in 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4, that He died according to the scriptures, and that He was buried and He was raised according to the scriptures. If we don't have the scriptures, we don't know who God is. It's only through the Word of God that you have revelation.

Now, the Bible talks about general revelation, there's a thing called general revelation where every believer or non-believer gets some sense of who God is. You wake up in the morning, you look at the mountains, "Oh there's got to be a God out there." Jesus said in the Sermon on the mountain, "God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust." God doesn't just have a cloud over Christian people's homes, like, "Yeah, your grass is looking a little dry here, you're going to get some rain, but nobody else."

Everybody gets general revelation, everybody can see the goodness of God. But there's specific revelation in the Bible and when we talk about specific revelation, whether we're talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament, we're talking about without the written Word, we don't know why this actually happened. Imagine sitting on the hill, somewhere near the Red Sea. And you're sitting there one day having a picnic, and all of a sudden, you're watching two million people, and you're seeing a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and the entire Egyptian army coming back.

And as you're sitting there eating your sandwich, you're like, "This is strange." You see this guy hold out his staff and the sea parts, and these two million people walk across it. And as the army's trying to take them over, wheels start falling off their chariots, they get swamped by the water, and everybody's sitting on the other side cheering and you're like, "Did I really see that? What was that? I don't know. That was the weirdest thing I ever saw."

But if you have specific revelation, here's what you saw. You saw that God is sovereign, and that He's good, and that He's just and that He has all authority. And what He was doing was He was telling the people of Egypt, specifically Pharaoh, "Let my people go. Because I'm going to get my glory through you." And what you saw over and over is that Pharaoh refused to repent and trust that God was sovereign and that He was good and that He was just and that He was authoritative.

Had he repented, the story would have gone different. Pharaoh would have said, "Get out of here," and meant it and Israel would have left and God would have got His glory. Because he didn't, what happened? In Exodus 14, that whole story we read about is God's showing, "I'm good, I'm sovereign, I'm loving, I'm all authoritative and I have all justice. And you need to know that's why I did what I did." Because every story in the Bible is not like a one-off.

King David didn't kill Goliath because you're learning how to slay giants in your life, David killed Goliath because it was a Philistine on Israel's territory, hurting God's people. And he's like, "What is this uncircumcised Philistine doing in our covenant territory, he doesn't belong. I'm not going to kill him, God is." Because the story of the Bible says God loves His covenant people, that's the story of David.

Now it makes for good made-up messages about how God will slay all the giants in your life and write books and all that stuff. It has nothing to do with what the Bible is about, right. So here's the New Testament testimony, so how do we know that through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus and everything in the New Testament is true? I'll give you two different verses; turn your bibles a 2nd Timothy 3:16. 2nd Timothy 3:16.

Here's what it says, "All scripture," that is the written Word. So how much is all of it? Okay, that would be Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21, it's all. "All scripture is what? Inspired by God. And it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work." So all Scripture is inspired by God.

Now, we hear the word inspired and we're like, "I totally know what that means. I heard this new song that came out this week. I was totally inspired." So yeah, the Bible sometimes inspires me. That's not what inspired means. It's the Greek word, theopneustos, it means literally God breathed; that all scripture is God's breath, that all scripture is God speaking, that all scripture is God telling you who God is and how we're called to relate. And because the book of Numbers tells us that God can't lie, it means that it's all true.

All scripture is God breathed, all scriptures His word. So when you take away from it or add to it, that's not a good thing. God says, "This is my word," all of it. From Genesis to Revelation, you can bank on the fact that I'm the one who's telling you all of this. All scripture is God breathed. And what's it useful for? Well, you can teach God's word so people can know this is what God says, and this is what God means. It's good for reproof. It's why when you meditate on the word and think about the word, there's oftentimes where God's like, "Dude, you are way off-court, get back. You are wrong, you can't divorce your spouse. You are wrong, you can't just go sleep. You're wrong, you can't cheat." You're wrong, it reproves you.

It corrects you. I think I'm going in God's way," and God's like, "Come over here, buddy," and corrects you. And it trains you in righteousness so you may be equipped, thoroughly equipped. That means adequate, it doesn't mean you're adequate or accurate. It means you have everything you need to do all that God wants you to do. Bible also says you've been given everything you need for life and godliness. Through God's Word you have everything and what does God tell you?

Everything I'm telling you is true. What do we tend to do in our human nature? "Yeah, I don't know that I believe that." What does the Bible say about marriage? The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, and that he should love her as Christ loved the church. What does the Bible say about wives in a marriage? Submit to your husbands as to the Lord and all things. "Yeah, I don't know that I believe that stuff."

You don't get the choice. And when I'm telling you this stuff that I'm telling you, I'm not telling you because there's non-believers out there that don't believe the Word, I know that. I'm telling you from all my counseling sessions, and for people I've met with over the years that say, "I want God's help. I want God to help me." "Hey, here's what God says." "Yeah, I don't believe that." Well, then God can't help you. It's through His written Word that his living Word comes alive and you'll see how that works next week. It's awesome.

This is foundational, hang with me, hang with me. But here's what the Bible saying, "All of the Word of God is inspired." Now, what parts of it? All of it. It's verbally inspired, which means the words that you have in your book are God's word. We'll talk about translation in week three, and why it's important for you to have an accurate translation of God's Word. And there's plenty of great options for you out there. But the actual words are inspired by God; well, which ones?

Because I believe the story about Jesus, but I don't know that I buy in that whole Genesis thing, I don't know. It's verbally inspired, it's plenary inspired, it's all the words. All the words, not one jot or tittle from this book will ever be changed, they're all true. It's also infallible, means it's completely trustworthy in all areas of life. When all the scope is laid back, whether we're talking science, geography, whether we're talking history, whether we're talking human relationships, whether we're talking money, this book is completely trustworthy in every single discipline.

And this book is inerrant, it has no errors in it. There's so many contradictions in the Bible, I'll share a couple coming up that I see. I don't know. I don't find any contradictions in the Bible. The ones that I don't understand are because to my finite mind, something's just not all that clear. Because we're serving an eternal, sovereign God. But I haven't found any contradictions in the Bible. Most of the people that say, "There's so many contradictions in the Bible," haven't read the Bible, haven't meditated on the Bible, haven't studied the Bible, haven't taken the contradictions to God and said, "How can it say this when this really happened? Because I believe your word's true, how does that work?"

God has a way of showing you that His word is true. Just so you know, as your pastor, I believe in the verbal, inspired, plenary, infallible, inerrant Word of God and I will go to my death believing that. Amen? Because if that's God's Word, and God's word has power, then for people that don't stand up and open God's word and preach God's word, they can have great clever stories. You can cry about that puppy story and it was so moving, and I don't remember anything about God, but it might have so moved churches great today.

But if there's no Word, there's no life. If there's no life, there's no power. If there's no power, there's no use to even gather in the first place. 2nd Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is God breathed." How about 2nd Peter 1:20-21? 2nd Peter 1:20-21. "Yeah it's just a man's book, man made all this stuff up." Can I just tell you this before we get to week three, if you put three of us in a room that voted in the same political party, that we're about the same age, that saw the world exactly the same and tried to write a book like this that had everything aligned, we couldn't do it.

You're talking about 40 authors that lived in different continents at different times, that saw the world completely different; farmers, kings, priests, and they're all writing the exact same thing and everything they say aligns. And some that were writing 750 years before Jesus like Isaiah, when he prophesied about the coming Messiah who was just as Isaiah prophesied 750 years before, it's amazing.

Men did not make this stuff up. And the Bible's going to testify that men did not make this stuff up. Because in 2nd Peter 1, starting in verse 20, it says, "But know this, first of all, when it comes to the Word of God, get this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." What's that mean?

Very simply put, the Holy Spirit empowered men to write God's Word. He didn't take away their personalities, He didn't make them dictate specific, "Here's what you have to say." Because if you read John, it reads different than Paul. And when you read Peter, Peter's saying about Paul, "Yeah, he writes a lot of things that are hard to understand." And when you read about David, you read about his passion, and you read about his being a king, and you read about his courage.

And when you read Joshua, you're reading from a military leader's perspective, you see all their personalities come out. But behind all the words on the page, they're God's word telling us about who He is, how He thinks, how we're to respond to Him. No scripture is a man-made-up deal. All scripture is God-breathed, all of it. Okay?

The Bible that you hold in your hand, this book here, this is God speaking; there's no errors in the New Testament, there's no errors in the Old Testament. It's all true, it's all right and it's all worthy of all of our praise. Amen? Now, the temptation is to doubt His word and the Old Testament says you can't because all of it's true and the New Testament says all of it's true. Then let's talk about this living testimony and we'll pick up here next week too.

But there's living testimony because the Bible makes clear that we're not only talking about words on a page, we're talking about the inspired Lord Jesus Christ. And in Hebrews 4:12, it says this, "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." What is God able to do? Through His Word, when you're studying it for yourself, when you're hearing it proclaimed accurately, when you're meditating on it, when you're memorizing it, His word, He has the ability through His word to divide both soul and spirit.

Well, what's your soul? Your soul is your personality, it's your likes, it's your dislikes, it's everything that you are. And God has a way to get you out of the way so he can talk directly to your spirit. You ever had that happen before? "I think I'm doing pretty good. I think I'm doing the way God wants me to do," and God's Word has a way to come in and divide that and take that out. Why? Because Jeremiah tells us that our heart is deceitful above all things, and who can understand it?

"But I'm a Christian so I have a good heart." Yeah, you think you have a good heart but even your best day seeking the Lord, God will show you things in your life that aren't totally right. Because we have a proclivity toward sin even when we don't want to, and God's Word because it's clean, and it's pure, and it's perfect, and it's righteous, and it's enduring forever; when you hear the Word of God preach, it divides both soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it can judge your attitudes.

You can even say, "Man, according to the word I know I'm doing right. I don't have to forgive them, I don't have to do this." And God can come in, in a second be like, "I'm asking you to forgive them because I forgave you and I don't really care how you feel." I don't want to hear that. That's God's Word, it's living and active. God's word is so powerful that if we truly submit to the authority and justice and goodness, and honoring of His Word, He has a way of living through us.

And the Bible says, because His Word is living and active, this is different than any other book because Mormons will make a claim that the Book of Mormon is good. And Islam will make a claim that the Quran is good. "So Pastor Jeff, how can you make a claim that your book's exclusive?" Because this book claims it is, this book claims you either believe all of this or you don't. In Revelation at the very end. In Revelation 22, in the very last chapter of the Bible; two verses from the end, He says, "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book," talking specifically about the book of Revelation, but also the Bible as a whole.

"If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book, and if anyone takes away from the Words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his part of the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book." What is God saying? "Please don't mess around with my Word; don't add to it, don't take away from it." Does that mean Pastors shouldn't write books? No, you can write books, just know this, they're not inspired, inerrant, infallible, trustworthy words of God. It's just a book that may help you understand God's word better. That's okay.

But if you ever see Pastor Jeff's treatise on what you really need to know about Jesus, and it's just as important as the Bible, run as fast as you can and get away from that, it's nonsense. There's this book and then there's all the other books. John said, "If everything was written about Jesus, there wouldn't be enough libraries to hold everything he did." And yet God saw fit to put these books together.

Now, I know you're going to say, "What about those other books like the Gospel of Thomas?" I saw the Discovery History Channel, they're always talking about that, we'll talk about that week three and why no New Testament author believed it and why it's so goofy, and people will write a whole documentary about the Gospel of Thomas, they're missing out when they never even read the book that tells them everything they need to know.

You can trust this book. And people I'm going to tell you because you're going to see me get fired up here in about a week or two. Because when you don't believe the written Word, you can't believe in the living Word. Because the living Word is the embodiment of the written Word. So if you don't believe the Bible, then whatever your view of Jesus is, is wrong. Whatever your view of salvation is wrong. And ultimately, when you go to live out your life, you can't live out what God wants you to do and to be because you go back to the foundation you don't believe any of it.

How do you believe it? You believe it by faith. Hebrews 11:3 says, "By faith, we believe that the world came into being through God." By faith, we believe His Word. But faith doesn't mean I'm dumb and my pastor told me to believe it so I believe it. Faith means there is so much evidence to demonstrate that every word is true. So know this when you get to heaven, God's not up for debate, like, "Hey, that part in Old Testament, that part in New Testament was kind of sketchy."

God's going to say, "There's not one part of this that I'm taking away, I'm going to show you more revelation on it that you didn't even know. But all of it's true." And if you believe that, you'll have a true picture of Jesus and the God of the Bible, and you will have a true picture as to how to live which is where we're going.

Now, thank you, thank you, thank you for listening today. I knew before I did, this was going to feel more like seminary than it was going to feel. Yeah, praise God for his word, amen. This is foundational. This was the basement. This was like, "Man, it's not fun just building, piping in and all this." We built it. Come back, I'm telling you when we put some of the house together, you're going to see things that you've never seen in the Word of God, and you're going to be able to use God's word like you've never been able to use God's Word before. And your joy for God, your love for God, your belief in God, your growth in God are going to accelerate like never before.

So when I tell you, "Hey, get your Bible opened up to this," you'll be like, "Of course, I can't wait to hear what God has to say." That's going to be your testimony. And that's what I believe God wants to do in our church. Amen? Amen. Would you stand with me as we pray? Lord Jesus, thanks for this. Lord, it is hard in one morning to put together all of this, and Lord, I know it's completely incomplete. And Lord, I know I'm not sufficient for such things.

But Lord, use your word to teach us that your Word is true, that it's trustworthy, that it's inspired, that it's inerrant. Lord, help us build a foundation upon what you say and to not doubt you. And Lord in the areas of your Word that we doubt, in the areas of your Word I'm not so sure yet, Lord, let us wrestle with that until we wrestle to the ground what you mean, so we can own what you say. So Lord we give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor, we love you so much. We thank you for your living and active Word. Your written word that is revealed in the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ. We give you all the praise and glory, amen and amen. Can we give God praise as we take our offering this morning?