Love Worth Finding

Byron Tyler: From the Love Worth Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler here with Carrie Vaughn, the CEO of Love Worth Finding. Carrie, this month at lwf.org and across all of our broadcast outlets, you can know the one true God. That's our theme, that's what we're talking about.

Carrie Vaughn: To know Him and the power of His resurrection, that is available to anyone who will call upon the name of the Lord. And we know that sin has separated us and the Word of God says there is none righteous, no, not one, and for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, which you know, first you have to realize that you're lost before you can be saved. And what a great setup with the gospel that if we will confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, the promise is this, Byron, we will be saved.

Byron Tyler: And Carrie, you know, one way you can know the one true God is by learning the fundamentals of the Word of God, and the rest of this month, the signature series from the ministry of Adrian Rogers, it's Back to the Basics. And this is a foundational series that we're in.

Carrie Vaughn: Oh, I love it. When I was on staff with Dr. Rogers years ago, my job was the Discovery class. We also called it the new member class and we had it every week. And what this talks about is really getting back to the blocking and tackling of our faith. Are we doing the basics well?

Byron Tyler: Well, just like it's impossible to build a good building without a firm foundation, Adrian Rogers explains his concern to these back to the basic fundamentals.

Adrian Rogers: I'm amazed as I go about speaking in various places and I meet church leaders, deacons, and I hate to say it, sometimes pastors who are very shallow on the very basic rudiments of the Christian faith. And so whether we're coming back to the basics or up to the basics, rediscovering or discovering, it is time that Christians understood what they believe and why they believe. It is impossible to build a good building without a firm foundation.

Carrie Vaughn: You know, that foundation that he talks about is really the bedrock of our faith. And if we have that bedrock in place, then we can build on top of that. Today's message, Adrian Rogers looks at Revelation chapter 22, how you can be certain that the Bible is the word of God.

Byron Tyler: Well, Adrian Rogers thought that this was a vitally important thing when it comes to the Bible being the inherent, infallible word of God. And he says we can't afford to slip up here and gives us a very confident reason why.

Adrian Rogers: There needs to be no stutter, no stammer, no equivocation, no apology that the Bible is the inherent, infallible Word of God. And your confidence in your Christian life is rooted and based in the Word of God. And if a person is shaky about the Bible, I can tell you they're going to be shaky all the way through in their Christian life.

There's a great Adrianism that says the Bible is not the book of the month, it is the book of the ages. And we have to treat it as such. And we've got a great resource this month. It's a book entitled *Seeing Jesus in Unexpected Places*. You know, the Bible says in John chapter 1, speaking of Jesus, "The word was made flesh and dwelt among us." But that word literally is, "The word was made flesh and tabernacled among us."

And what this book deals with is that we see Jesus almost like the Old Testament tabernacle in unexpected places. All scripture is a picture of Jesus Christ, even in the Old Testament, and it's about His vivid glory. Adrian Rogers shares the meaning of the intricate details of the tabernacle and how they reflect Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in this great resource from Love Worth Finding.

It's based on 13 messages from Adrian Rogers. *Seeing Jesus in Unexpected Places* allows us to read along as the Bible reveals the beauty and symbolism of the tabernacle. Well, in this book also are links to the original audio messages from Adrian Rogers that he preached back in 1976. And for your gift for this month, we'd love to send you *Seeing Jesus in Unexpected Places*.

Call with your gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD, or you can give online at lwf.org. Well, with today's message, "How You Can Be Certain that the Bible is the Word of God," here's Adrian Rogers.

I want to give you five reasons that you can know, K-N-O-W, that the Bible is the Word of God. And I want to start with a reason that is the point of attack by most people. I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its scientific accuracy, because of its scientific accuracy.

Now, there's certain things that you and I take for granted scientifically. For example, in the world that we live in, the cosmology of our world, we take it for granted, don't we, that this earth is suspended in space. We just take that for granted. This celestial ball, as we call it, is floating in space. Well, how did you know that? Did you figure it out? No.

You simply stand upon the knowledge of other people. There's no way that you could know that unless you'd been taught or you have learned through modern invention. You can read in the Word of God, in Job chapter 26 and verse 7, that He hangeth the earth upon nothing. Don't you love that? He, God, hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Now, how did Job know that before the age of modern astronomy and space travel? Well, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You and I take it for granted, not to be argued about, that the earth is round. 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And when I was a little boy in school, they told me that they told Columbus, you better be careful or you will sail off the edge and fall into who knows what.

But Columbus proved to the satisfaction of many that the earth is a sphere, a globe. But men did not always know that. The scientists of Isaiah's day, and Isaiah wrote about 750 years before Christ, they didn't know that. But Isaiah said by divine inspiration in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 22, that God sits upon the circle of the earth.

Now, how did Job know that the earth is suspended in space? How did Isaiah know that it is a ball, a globe? Well, how? By divine inspiration. That is how. Here's a second reason I believe the Bible is the word of God. Not only because of the scientific accuracy, but the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Just as the Bible is not primarily a book of science, it is not primarily a book of history, but it records history and all of the things that we believe took place in history. And so, thank God for the historical accuracy of the Bible. Now, I have been quoting from what we call the Pentateuch. That's the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That's the Pentateuch.

And the Bible teaches that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Well, there's some scholars, like Dr. Driver, who was a linguist and a paleontologist, who said, well, it's impossible that Moses could have written the Pentateuch because people didn't even know how to write when Moses was supposed to have been on earth.

And so, the skeptics had a field day. But then one day, in Northern Egypt, Dr. Petrie and others unearthed some clay tablets. I studied about them when I was in school, called the Tel el-Amarna tablets. I studied about them in high school, the Tel el-Amarna tablets. And what they were were letters, transactions, business transactions, and others from people in Egypt to people in Palestine and people in Palestine back to people in Egypt centuries before Moses was born.

Not only did they know how to write, they had a postal system. They were sending letters back and forth, sending letters back and forth. But you see, you can trust the history of the Bible. Let me give you another example. You remember the story about the handwriting on the wall that's found in the book of Daniel? Remember that story?

Belshazzar is having a feast with a thousand of his lords and ladies. And suddenly, there on the wall, on the plaster of the wall, is a gruesome hand without an arm, and it's writing on the wall. And it says, your kingdom is divided and you, king, are weighed in the balances and you've been found wanting.

You remember that story. Well, the historians say that never happened. We know that didn't happen. Well, how do you know that didn't happen, Mr. Historian? Well, he says the Bible story gives the name of that king as Belshazzar, but we have the records. We have the Babylonian records. And these records tell us that the last king of Babylon was not Belshazzar, it was a man named Nabonidus.

And so, the Bible is in error. No one else has a record of any king named Belshazzar. Well, the spade of the archaeologist continued to do its work. And one day they uncovered a clay tablet, a cylinder, and guess whose name was on it? Belshazzar's. Now, the secular historian was right when he said that Nabonidus was the last king.

But the Bible was correct when it said that Belshazzar was the last king. Why? Because they were both kings. Nabonidus was the father, Belshazzar was the son. They continued to unearth evidence that showed that they were what we would call today coregents. Nabonidus traveled, Belshazzar stayed home to run the kingdom.

Now, suppose they had not uncovered that tablet. Would that have made the Bible any less true? Of course not. You see, let God be true, let every man be a liar. Whether or not they'd uncovered the tablet or not would not have changed the truth of God's Word. And incidentally, it helps you to understand in Daniel chapter 5, a very significant passage where Belshazzar said to Daniel, "Daniel, if you can read the handwriting on the wall, I will make you the third ruler in the kingdom." Get it?

There were already two, Belshazzar and Nabonidus. I'll make you the third ruler in the kingdom. Just a little neat thing that's tucked away there in the Word of God. The historical accuracy of the Bible. I want to give you another reason that I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Not only because of its scientific accuracy, not only because of its historical accuracy, but you can believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its wonderful, wonderful unity.

Now, the Bible is one book, but yet in a sense, it is 66 books. There are 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 books in the New Testament. They were written by at least 40 different authors over a period of about 1,600 years. They were written in about 13 different countries and on three different continents.

They were written by people from all kinds of backgrounds. Some were shepherds, some were kings, some were soldiers, some were princes, some were priests, some were fishermen, some were scholars, some were historians, some were business and professional men, others were common laborers. They wrote this book. They wrote on so many different subjects.

They wrote from different backgrounds in at least three different languages. On all of these subjects, and yet when they come together, they don't make 66 books. From Genesis to Revelation, it reads as one book. There is an incredible unity to the Bible. The Bible is like a garment. You can pull a thread here and it wrinkles way down there.

I have been studying the Bible now seriously for more than 40 years. I believed it when I began, but friend, I'm not finding hidden flaws, I'm finding hidden beauties. I'm finding things that are confirming my faith more and more in the Word of God. How do you explain the fact that the Bible has this unity?

Try to write any other piece like the Bible came together and try to have that unity when you're dealing with the kind of subjects the Bible deals with. The Bible has but one theme: salvation. The Bible has one hero: His name is Jesus. One villain: he is the devil. One purpose: to glorify God.

Jesus said, the scriptures cannot be broken. Not a jot, not a tittle will fail from the law till all be fulfilled. How did it happen? How did this Bible get written apart from divine inspiration? Absolutely impossible. Dr. Torrey gives this illustration. Suppose we decided we were going to build in Washington a monument to the 50 states.

And we would build that monument out of the native stone of the 50 states. For example, we would get coral from my state of Florida, we would get granite maybe from Georgia, we would get marble from another state, we would get gypsum from another state, graystone, brownstone, redstone, all kinds of stone.

And we would have these stones cut in the quarry in different shapes. Some would be square, some would be rectangular, some would be like pyramids, some would be like cylinders, some would be trapezoidal, some would have no shapes known to man with a name, and they would be cut in the quarry. Some big, some small, different colors of stone.

And then let's suppose they're all shipped to our nation's capital and the workmen begin to uncrate them. And all of those stones fit together. Not one stone too many, not one stone too few. No stone needs to be built up, no stone needs to be shaved down. They all interlock, they all fit together, and when you're finished, there is a magnificently beautiful symmetrical temple.

Now, you're a thinking person. Would you say that happened by chance? Of course not. Absolutely, totally impossible. The only answer to that would be there was a master architect who designed the whole thing and sent the specifications to the quarry. Isn't that true? I mean, you can use your head to figure that out.

How do you explain the unity of the Bible apart from divine inspiration? That's the reason we believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Now, let me give you the next reason that we believe the Bible is the Word of God. And that is the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. Did you know the Bible is the only book in the world that has accurate prophecy?

Read what the psychics and the seers say in the Sunday insert of the paper and have a belly laugh if you will. But friend, when you read the Bible and the prophecies of the Bible, you have to stand back in awe. And the subject of prophecy is so big that I could not even begin to deal with it.

It'd be like trying to dip out an ocean with a teacup. Let's just talk about the prophecies concerning the central character of the Bible, the Lord Jesus. There are over 300 precise prophecies that deal with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament. Already fulfilled.

And to say that these were fulfilled by chance is an astronomical impossibility, as the statisticians will tell us. Jesus infinitely fulfilled prophecy. Now, do you know what the skeptic says? Well, he was a student of the Old Testament, and so he just arranged that he would fulfill these prophecies. He just arranged to fulfill the prophecies.

Well, you know, in a sense, they're right. He did arrange it. He arranged where he's going to be born before he was ever born. Amen. And the book of Micah said that he's going to be born in Bethlehem. And he was the one who arranged where he would be born of a virgin. The Lord Jesus Christ arranged for the prophet Isaiah to write all kind of intricate details about the Lord Jesus 750 years before he was born.

The Lord Jesus arranged that the psalmist would write in Psalm 22 a death by crucifixion before crucifixion was ever even known as capital punishment. And then he arranged that the Roman government would crucify him upon that cross. He arranged that he would be buried in a rich man's grave.

He arranged that Judas would betray him for exactly 30 pieces of silver as the Bible prophesied. And here's the classic arrangement of all: he arranged that he would come out of the grave that third day. Hallelujah. Amen. He arranged it, yes he did. Be seen of 500. And so convinced these 500 that he had come out of the grave that many of them would pay for that truth with their lives with no hope of physical or material gain because they no longer afraid of death.

Listen, men may live for a lie, but none will die for a lie. They would not willingly, knowingly die for a lie. Some fool may die for a lie when he thinks it's the truth, but these people were convinced. They were convinced that Jesus Christ had come out of that grave. And by the way, I want to say this, that while he arranged it, most of these prophecies were not fulfilled by his friends, but by his enemies.

Those who had the most to gain to see that the prophecies were not fulfilled, they were not fulfilled by just one person, they were fulfilled by many people. Not just one prophecy, many prophecies. How do you explain that? There is no way, no way, no way, no way that you can explain fulfilled prophecy apart from divine inspiration. Say amen.

Now friend, I am telling you this truth. Now let me give you another reason that I know the Bible is the Word of God. Not only fulfilled prophecy, but the ever-living qualities of the Bible. The Bible is not the book of the month. It is the book of the ages. No book has ever had as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it, scorned it, ridiculed it, made laws against it, burned it.

There was a time in Scottish history when to own a Bible was a crime worthy of death. And many, many a time a man has preached the funeral for the Bible, but the only problem is the corpse outlived the pallbearers. These people die and here today, you're saying thank God for the Bible, the Word of God. It has survived and it is applicable.

It is more up to date. A man of God, a woman of God, a child of God can open this book and know more today what's going on in this world than all the wiseacres in the Pentagon and in the White House put together. By the Word of God, the Bible says the Word of the Lord endureth forever.

Forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven. Yes, there's the ever-living qualities of the Bible. I wish I had more time to talk about that, but let me give you the crowning reason that I believe the Bible is the Word of God. That is the life-changing power of this book. I have preached this book long enough to know it's not like any other book.

We read other books, this book reads us. God says that His Word is quick and powerful. Acts chapter 4:12, the word quick, *zoon*, means alive. *Energes*, powerful, it means it's full of power. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God. It is the dynamite of God. This Word is like a sword, it's like seed, it's like bread, it's like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.

I've seen people come to listen to me preach. Why they come? Maybe out of curiosity, maybe to come to find fault. And they'll sit down and look and say, well, let's hear what this fool will say. And looking out from underneath their brow, and if they look at me, sure they can find plenty to find fault with.

But you know, when you take the Word of God and Sunday after Sunday after Sunday use the Word of God, God says, is not my word like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? The hardest rock will break. I've seen it. I've seen it happen so many times. I preached long enough, mister, to know it's got power in it.

What kind of power? It's saving for the sinner. You won't be saved or you won't get anybody else saved apart from the Word of God because we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God. It's saving for the sinner. The gospel of Christ is the dynamite of God that saves.

But not only is it saving for the sinner, it's sanctifying to the saint. Do you know what keeps me going? Not what I feel, what I know. Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. You will never grow, you will never be strong until you begin to feed on God's Word. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

I tell you what else it is, it's sufficient for the sufferer. Oh, I've seen people hurt. You couldn't be a pastor the years that I've been and not see people in such torment and such trial and such pain and such agony. But I have seen them go to the Word of God and find comfort that they could not find comfort in any other place or any other way.

And as they've crossed the chilly waters of death, they've pillowed their head upon the Word of God and they've held it to their bosom when they needed help and strength because there's power in the Word of God and the promises of God's Word. I'll tell you something else, friend, it's satisfying to the scholar.

You could study the Bible and study the Bible and study the Bible and you'll never fathom its depths. You'll never climb its highest pinnacles. You'll never ever fathom the great truths of God's Word. It is a perennial spring, it's a bottomless ocean, it is a sunlit peak that you'll never climb up to. And all who've ever studied the Bible, none will ever say that they have begun to understand all that is in this blessed book.

Who hath known the mind of the Lord, and who hath been His counselor? Oh, I feel like I'm just standing on the brink of God's Word. There's so much there to understand, so much there to learn. Somebody said concerning the Bible, oh, it's so deep that the scholars can swim and never touch bottom, and yet so wonderful that a little child can come and get a drink of water without fear of drowning.

That is God's precious holy Word, the Word of God. All of the Bible is kind of summed up in this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The Bible tells me so. God loves you. This book tells me, tells you that Jesus left heaven, came, suffered, bled, and died for your sins. That God raised him from the dead.

He is ascended to heaven. And if you will trust him, if you'll believe on him, the same Jesus that saved me when I was a teenager and has kept me all this time will save you and keep you according to the Word of God. Did you know today the Bible teaches that if you'll trust Christ, He'll save you?

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. You say, pastor, if a man, a woman can know it, I want to know it. Well, God has given us His Word that we can know it. And so today, if you would ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, trust you and save you on the authority of the Word of God, I promise you He will do just that.

If you would pray, oh God, I'm a sinner, I'm lost, I need to be saved, I want to be saved. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you paid my sin debt on that cross. I do believe it. I believe it according to your infallible Word. I believe that you were raised from the dead.

And now like a child, like a child, I lay my pride in the dust and I trust you, you only and you always, to save me. And friend, he will save you. Father, I pray that many today will say an everlasting yes to Jesus and be saved in His wonderful holy name. Amen.

Byron Tyler: Amen. And if you've prayed to receive Jesus just now, let us celebrate with you. Go to our Find God's Love page at the website, and you'll discover answers you may need about your newfound faith. We have a response section there as well. You can share your testimony with us or how this message has helped you today.

Go to lwf.org/radio and click the tab that says Find God's Love. Welcome to His forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Well, thanks for joining us for this study in God's Word.

Carrie Vaughn: If you're uncertain the Bible is the Word of God, consider the reasons that Pastor Rogers gave today and come to a faithful understanding of scripture. Dig into it, knowing that once you begin to study it, you are never finished with it. And tune in next time for more timeless truth right here on Love Worth Finding.