Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): What makes the Bible such a supernatural book? Here is Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It literally means that the Scripture is God-breathed. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer said of the Bible, "It is not such a book as man would write if he could because it condemns him, or could write if he would because it surpasses him." The Bible is a supernatural book.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the timeless truth of the gospel found in the teachings of Adrian Rogers. The more we read the Word of God, the more it will reveal itself to be true. Pastor Rogers said the Bible is a wonderful book. As I read it, I am not finding hidden flaws; I am finding hidden beauty.

Psalm 119 reveals seven reasons why we can trust that the Bible is the wonderful Word of God. If you have your Bible, turn there now. We will begin in verse 18, as Adrian Rogers tells us the seven wonders of the Word of God.

Adrian Rogers: Would you take God's Word and turn, please, to Psalm 119. If you know anything of the Word of God, you know that Psalm 119 deals with the Word of God. I love this Psalm. As a matter of fact, I have a Bible in my office right near the door. When I walk out to preach, I can glance at that Bible and almost always, I will get a verse out of this Psalm to hide in my heart before I come to the platform.

I love this Psalm, and there is hardly a verse in this Psalm that will not put a fire in your heart just before you get ready to preach or whatever you do, if you are going to teach or share the Word of God. But look, if you will, please, at three verses. Psalm 119, verse 18, first of all: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Underscore the word "wondrous."

Then look, if you will, please, in verse 27 of this same chapter: "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works." Underscore again the word "wondrous." And then look, if you will, in the same Psalm, all the way over in the same chapter to verse 129: "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them."

Twice he speaks of wondrous things, and then he says they are wonderful. I want to talk to you tonight about what I am going to call the seven wonders of the Word of God. We have heard about the seven wonders of the ancient world, and some have tried to say the seven wonders of the modern world. I want to say there are seven wonders of the Word of God.

May I say that the danger is not so much from the infidels who attack the church from the outside. They do not bother me nearly so much. They are like woodpeckers pecking on the church, and we can see them and shoe them away. But there are others who are on the inside. I call them termites. They are on the inside eating away at the foundation.

We have the infidels on the outside, the woodpeckers, and the liberals on the inside, the termites. Sometimes I think that the termites are doing far more danger than the woodpeckers are. As a matter of fact, there used to be a man named Robert Ingersoll, who was a very brilliant man, who went up and down the land giving lectures as to why he did not believe in God, and he would lampoon and ridicule the Bible.

After a while, he stopped doing that, and somebody asked him why he no longer did it. He said this: "There is no more need for me to do that anymore, as many preachers in the pulpits are denying the Bible in the churches of our land and are accomplishing far more to destroy faith in the Bible than I could do by taking to the lecture platform."

Well, the Bible is being attacked today, and there are those who say you do not need to defend the Bible, the Bible will defend itself. That sounds good, but my dear friend, the Bible says also that we are to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

John Calvin, the great theologian, said this: "A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent without giving any sound." I think that is true. We would be cowards.

That great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said this: "The turning point of the battle between those who hold the faith once delivered to the saints and their opponents lies in the true and real inspiration of the Holy Scripture." He is saying that is the turning point. That is the continental divide. That is the point of difference: what people believe about the inspiration of the Word of God.

And then the great Spurgeon went on to say, "If we have in the Word of God no infallible standard of truth, we are at sea without a compass, and no danger from rough weather without can be equal to the loss within." He was saying the same thing in another figure of speech. It is not primarily the woodpeckers, it is not the waves, it is the loss of direction, it is the termites, or whatever the analogy is on the inside.

Now, there are seven wonderful things about the Word of God that I want to share with you tonight. I love the Bible. When I began preaching as a nineteen-year-old boy, I believed the Bible was the Word of God. I still believe it tonight. I believe it even more tonight than I believed it then. I believe it with all of my heart.

I got married when I was a nineteen-year-old boy. I love Joyce with all of my heart, but I love her more today than I loved her then, and I loved her then with all of my heart. But the more I see of the Word of God, the more convinced I am that the Bible is exactly what it says of itself that it is—that it is indeed a wonderful, wonderful book. I am not finding hidden flaws; I am finding hidden beauty.

I am finding authentication of that which I already believe and blessing upon blessing of the book that has already blessed me down through the years. What are the seven wonders of the Word of God as I see them tonight? Well, first of all, wonder number one: the Bible is a supernatural book. No other book was written as the Bible was written.

Now, the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. 2 Timothy 3:16. And the word "inspiration" is the Greek word *theopneustos*. And it literally means that the Scripture is God-breathed. Now, what you are hearing tonight is my breath that makes my voice.

As my diaphragm pushes up on my lungs and the air comes out of my throat, it comes over my larynx and causes my vocal cords to vibrate, and my tongue, my teeth, my lips form sounds, and these sounds go into the air in the microphone and come into your ear. There are vibrations that are set up in your ear that send signals to your brain, and your brain interprets these sounds. But what you are hearing really as I speak is my breath.

I could not speak without breath. Now, the Bible is the breath of God. That is literally what the word means. It literally means that God breathed the Scriptures out. The Bible is as much the Word of God as if God were up here in a physical body speaking words. It is the breath of God.

And that Scripture, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, not part of it. That is the reason we believe in what I call the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible. "Verbal," from the Latin *verbum*, means word. We believe in word-by-word inspiration.

Matthew 4:4: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." We believe in verbal inspiration. That means word-by-word inspiration of the Bible. You say, well, what is the point? What difference does it make? Well, you see, some people say the Bible is inspired in its thoughts but not its words.

Very frankly, you cannot have accurate thoughts without accurate words, anymore than to try to have mathematics without numbers. Words mean something. Our Lord Jesus taught that even a jot or a tittle there in the Word of God was important. And in the original manuscripts, every line, every point, every pen stroke, every jot, every tittle was placed there by the will and the purpose of Almighty God. I believe that.

The verbal inspiration of the Word of God, and the plenary inspiration of the Word of God. The Latin word *plenus* means full, that it is fully inspired. It may not be as fully inspiring. If I had to be shipwrecked on an island, I would much rather be shipwrecked with Romans than 1 or 2 Chronicles. Nothing wrong with 1 or 2 Chronicles, but some of it reads like a Hebrew telephone directory.

I would rather have, of course, the book of Romans. Sure, that is fine. That is wonderful. But I want to tell you, 1 Chronicles is as inspired as the book of Romans. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And you will find as you read the Bible, 3,808 times a phrase like this: "God said," or "The Lord said," or "Thus saith the Lord," or "The Lord spake."

Thousands of times it says that. Now, either the Bible is the Word of God or it is a big bundle of lies because over and over again, it says that this is what God said. Now, having said that, somebody says, well, how do you know that God gave all of the Bible? If all of the Bible is the breath of God, how come it sounds so different?

Why, if you are reading, for example, James, it does not sound like what Paul wrote? And if you read Peter, it does not sound like James or Paul. So if God wrote it all, why is it all so different? And why is the language so different and the style so different, if it is all given by inspiration of God? That is a very interesting question.

I have asked Carter Threlkeld—Carter, where are you? I want you to come up here tonight. Get a trumpet for me and hit a few notes, would you? Make it pretty, Carter. Thank you. Now Carter, get a trombone and hit a few notes for me. All right, thank you. Now let's give him a hand.

How many of you, if your eyes were closed, could tell the difference between a trumpet and a trombone? Let me see your hand. Most all of us. Even me, I could do that. I could tell the difference between a trumpet and a trombone. All right, now, the trumpet has a personality of its own, has a tone, a tenor of its own.

And the trombone has a characteristic, a personality, a tone, a temper of its own, right? But who was playing both instruments? One man, Carter Threlkeld. You pick up the Bible, and you can see the personality, the temperament, the characteristic of the Apostle Paul. Or you pick it up, you can see the personality, the characteristic, the temperament of Simon Peter or the others.

But who is behind both of them? Almighty God. And you see, as these instruments were used of this man, human instruments wrote the Bible, but behind these human instruments was Almighty God. The Bible says holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

And so as you read the Bible, it is a very human book. You see the prayers, the praises, the fears, the victories, the yearnings, the frustrations of the men who wrote this book. It is marked by their personalities, yet God, in and through these men, was the one who was doing the speaking, the leading.

Dr. Lewis Chafer said of the Bible, "It is not such a book as man would write if he could because it condemns him, or could write if he would because it surpasses him." That is a great statement. So the Bible is a supernatural book. It is not like any other book.

Robert E. Lee, the great statesman and general, said, "The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others in my eyes are of minor importance and which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength." That is what Robert E. Lee said about the Word of God. It is, my dear friend, a supernatural book.

Second wonder of the Bible: not only is it a supernatural book, but my dear friend, it is a spiritual book. Now, what I mean by that is that the Bible, written by the Holy Spirit, must be interpreted by the Holy Spirit. Now, revelation is God's communication of truth to man. Inspiration, in a broader sense than the narrow sense that I gave it just a few moments ago, is the recording of that revelation.

But you see, revelation and inspiration is not enough. We still need illumination to be able to understand the Word of God. And in these Scriptures that I read to you tonight, notice that they were prayers: "Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things in thy law."

I love that passage in Luke chapter 24, where the Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, was walking with two disciples, forlorn and dismayed on the road to Emmaus. And He walked with them and talked with them and conversed with them. And then there is a very wonderful part there in Luke chapter 24, verse 45. The Bible says, "And then he opened their understanding."

My mind has camped on that verse many a time. I thought, oh God, do that for me. God, do that for me. He opened their understanding so they could understand the Scriptures. You see, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned."

What does that mean, the natural man? It means the soulish man, the psychological man, the man apart from the Spirit of God. He cannot understand the Bible. He may be able to give you the names of the kings of Israel. He may make an A in a history test on the Bible. He may even be able to articulate the doctrines of the Bible in his own way.

But friend, he will never know the real message of the Bible until the Holy Spirit of God turns the light on in his soul. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. That is the reason that when we come to this book, we must come to this book and lay in the dust our intellectual pride and say, "Lord God, speak to me."

Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 7 says, "Let the wicked forsake his thoughts, and the unrighteous man his ways: and let him return unto the Lord." Just forsake your thoughts. You put away your slide rule, you put away your microscope, you put away your intellectual pride, and you come and ask the Holy Spirit of God to teach you.

This book is a spiritual book. Now, you will not rip truth out of it. God will reveal it to you. You won't have it. I mean, you may have a perfectly inspired Word of God, but until the Holy Spirit uses it as His convicting, cutting sword or until He illumines you as His student of it, it will not be real in your heart.

Thirdly, third wonder of the Word: not only is it a supernatural book and not only is it a spiritual book, it is the Savior's book. The Savior's book. I say it is the Savior's book, number one, because He believed it. And it is the Savior's book, number two, because it presents Him. Jesus Christ is the hero of the Bible.

If you read the Bible and you don't find Jesus Christ somewhere, somehow, standing in the shadows or presented in plain view, go back and read it again, because the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me just say, reiterate those two things again. First of all, Jesus was a believer in the inerrancy of the Word of God.

Even the liberals have to confess that Jesus was a believer in the inerrancy of the Word of God. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 35, "The scripture cannot be broken." That is what Jesus Christ said about the Scripture. And by the way, just turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 5. I want you to see what the Lord Jesus said about the Word of God.

John chapter 5 and verse 39. Jesus said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." And by the way, what Scriptures was He talking about then? The Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written.

And Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees and others, said, "You search the scriptures; these are they which testify of me." Don't ever get the idea that the Old Testament is about Israel and the New Testament is about the church, or the Old Testament is about history and the New Testament is about the Lord Jesus. Friend, Jesus said concerning the Scriptures, the holy writings, that they testify of Him.

And then I want you to look down in verse 45, John chapter 5, verse 45. "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust." And when He said Moses, He was talking about what we call the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, called under one heading "Moses."

Now Jesus believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. And then notice what He says in verse 46: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he," Moses, "wrote of me." Do you see that? Friend, that is powerful. Now, we have people today who don't even believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch.

And they would laugh at the idea that Christ is in the Old Testament, in the first five books of the Bible. But you know what? I'm going to line up with Jesus, who said that Moses wrote it. He didn't say some priestly redactor wrote of Me. He said, "He," Moses, "wrote of me."

And then I want you to notice this, that Jesus put the writings of Moses and His sayings on the same plane: "But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" Do you see that? Do you see what He did? You see, He endorsed what Moses wrote, and He put what Moses wrote on the same level as His own words.

I'm just trying to show you Jesus' view of the Bible because why? Well, He is your Master. And the servant's view of the Bible must be the same as his Master's, right? You see, what I'm trying to say is, my dear friend, this supernatural book, this spiritual book, is the Savior's book. He believed it. He said the Scriptures cannot be broken. And He said, "You search the scriptures, for these are they which testify of me." Jesus is the theme, the hero of all of the Bible.

Guest (Male): And with that, we'll conclude today's portion of the message. Don't miss part two next time. If you have questions about who Jesus is, or what He means to you, or how to place your faith fully in what He accomplished for you, go to our Discover Jesus page at LWF.org/radio. There, you will find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith.

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