Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: Does the Bible contradict itself? Listen to Adrian Rogers. 66 books written over 1,600 years that has one story from Genesis right on through to the Book of the Revelation. Friend, it is amazing. It is a book that does not contradict itself historically, scientifically, ethically, doctrinally. It is one book.

It has one theme, which is redemption. It has one hero, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has one villain, who is the devil. It has one purpose: the glory of God. I'm not finding hidden flaws. I'm finding things that are amazing.

Cary Vaughn: Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truth simply stated by Adrian Rogers. We will never be settled until we are settled over the Word of God. Our salvation and sanctification depend on it. There are many reasons to consider why the Bible is the amazing Word of God, not only for its scientific and historical accuracy, but because of its wonderful unity.

In spite of its many authors and all sorts of backgrounds, it reads as one book from Genesis to Revelation due to its divine inspiration. If you have your Bible, turn now to 2 Timothy chapter 3 as Adrian Rogers reveals more about the amazing Word of God.

Adrian Rogers: Look at the scripture, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. It is a key seminal scripture on the Word of God. Listen to it. "All scripture," not some, "all is given by inspiration of God." That means it is the breath of God. It doesn't mean that the scriptures are breathed into. What that literally means, that word theopneustos, means that the scriptures are the breath of God. All scripture is given by the breath of God.

What you're hearing right now is the breath of Adrian. You see, my lungs have air, and my diaphragm and my chest muscles are pushing that air up over through my esophagus, over my larynx, and my tongue and my teeth and my lips are forming that into particular sounds. By the way, it's passing over my vocal cords that are vibrating. And so what you're hearing literally is the breath of Adrian.

Scripture is the breath of God. It is as true as if God Almighty stood in the pulpit and spoke those words. That's the reason Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word," now listen to this, "that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

Now, when you read the Bible with that in mind, that what you're hearing is really the breath of God, the words of God, over and over and over again in the Bible, the Bible calls itself the Word of God, literally thousands of times. The Word of God. So look at it again. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.

That means what is true. For reproof, what is wrong. For correction, how to get right. For instruction in righteousness, how to stay right. That the man of God may be perfect. That word perfect, teleios, means mature. You want to be a full-grown Christian? That you may be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. All good works.

Your Christian life depends upon your assurance that the Bible is the Word of God. Your salvation depends upon your understanding the Word of God, for the Word of God is the gospel. If you want people to believe the gospel, you've got to give them the gospel to believe. And the gospel is the Word of God. Your assurance, it comes from the Word of God.

How do I know I'm saved? Not because I feel it, but because I know what God has said. 1 John 5:13, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life." My growth depends upon the Word of God. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby."

You come and you say, "Pastor, I'm just so weak. I can hardly get out of bed." I say, "Have you been to see the doctor?" "Yes, but he doesn't seem to know what's wrong with me. I'm just so weak I can hardly move. I just don't have any strength." I say, "Well, what are you eating?" "Nothing. I come, I eat once a week on Sunday mornings at 11:00. That's all I eat." Poor thing.

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And then the Bible speaks over there in Hebrews 5 about the meat of the word. Your spiritual power depends upon your knowledge of the Word of God. There is awesome power in this book. Evangelism, all of it goes back to the Word of God, your usefulness. You cannot be shaky about the Word of God and be a great Christian.

The Bible is not the book of the month. It is the book of the ages. Now, I was in the process of giving you some reasons why I personally believe the Bible is the Word of God. And by the way, I believed it when I started preaching with all of my heart, and I believe it more now than I did then. How could that be if I believed it with all my heart then? Well, I loved Joyce with all of my heart when we got married, and I still love her more now than I did then. Friend, I am telling you, you can be assured that the Bible is God's Word.

Now, we believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its scientific accuracy. Because that's where it's attacked mostly, at its science. And we talked to you about the fact that before you say the Bible's not scientifically accurate, make certain that you know, number one, the Bible, and number two, that you know science.

One woman said she knew the Bible wasn't the Word of God because the Bible says that Adam and Eve ate an apple in the Garden of Eden, and apples don't grow in the Mesopotamian valley where the Garden of Eden was. That's superb ignorance. The Bible doesn't say anything about Adam and Eve eating an apple to begin with. The Bible doesn't mention the fruit on the tree, just the pair on the ground.

It's amazing. Make sure, number one, you know the Bible. Make sure, number two, that you know science. And we gave you some wonderful illustrations of the science of the Bible. We talked about the astronomy of the Bible, how the Bible shows that the earth is suspended in space, how the Bible shows that the earth is round, how the Bible teaches, before the days of modern telescopes, that the stars are without number.

We dealt with that. We won't redo that again. We talked about not only the astronomy science, but we talked about the physiological science in the human body. We talked about how the Bible gives rules of health and hygiene, how the Bible discusses the power life-giving elements in the human blood and all of these things. And then we talked not only about the Bible and its scientific accuracy, but we talked about the Bible and its historical accuracy.

How men for years doubted that Belshazzar ever existed as the Book of Daniel tells that he existed, or how that people knew how to write in the days of Moses and so forth. We dealt with that. We said that the Bible is historically accurate, and the spade of the archeologist has time and time again confirmed and affirmed the impeccability, the inerrancy of scripture.

So those are the first two reasons we gave: the scientific accuracy of the Bible and the historical truth or accuracy of the Word of God. Now, here's the third reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God: because of the wonderful unity of the Bible. Now, the Bible is a book that has a unified message from beginning to end. You say, well, that's not unusual.

Now, let me tell you something about the Bible. The Bible is one book, but it is more than one book. It is 66 books. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. And the Bible was written over a long period of time, over about 1,600 years. You think of that. The Bible was written by 40 or more different authors. The Bible was written in about 13 different countries.

The Bible was written from people from all kinds of backgrounds. As you look at the various authors of the Bible, some were shepherds, some were kings, some were soldiers, some were priests, some were fishermen, some were scholars, some were historians, some were professional men, some were common laborers. What a plethora, what a panoply, what an immense number of occupations and backgrounds make up the people, the 40 different authors who were the human penmen of the Bible.

And these people who wrote the Bible wrote on at least three different continents. And they wrote in all kinds of places. Some of the books of the Bible were written in prison. Some were written in fields, some were written in deserts, some were written in caves, some were written in palaces, some were written on ships, some in homes. You could not get a greater variety of people and places. And indeed, you could have a greater variety of languages, but you still had a great variety of languages of those who wrote the Bible.

And not only that, but they wrote on all kinds of subjects and in different styles. Now take all of that. Say you've got 66 books written over 1,600 years and put them all together. They make one book that has one story from Genesis right on through to the Book of the Revelation. Friend, it is amazing. It is a book that does not contradict itself historically, scientifically, ethically, doctrinally. It is one book.

How can you explain that apart from divine inspiration? Dr. R.A. Torrey gave this illustration, I think it's a classic illustration. Suppose we were to build somewhere in the United States, we'll say built here in Memphis, Tennessee, a monument to honor all 50 states of the United States. From my home state of Florida, perhaps we'd have coral stone. From Georgia, granite. From another state, marble. From another state, gypsum. From another state, gray stone, brown stone. All of the various kinds of stones.

And let's suppose these stones are cut in the quarry and boxed and shipped to Memphis, Tennessee. They are different sizes, different shapes. Some are square, some are cylindrical, some are trapezoidal, some are rectangular. Some have shapes for which there is no name. And some are shipped by rail, some come by plane, some come on boats, and some by trucks. And these stones all come here to Memphis, Tennessee.

And the workmen begin to uncrate them and assemble them. And they come together. Every piece begins to interlock. All of the hues and the colors begin to match. There's not one stone too many, not one stone too few. No stone needs to be built up and no stone needs to be shaved down. And when it is finished, there is an incredibly beautiful temple, a monument.

Let me ask you a question. Would you say that just happened? Just happenstance? No. If you're a thinking person, you would have to say that was not an accident. There had to be an architect who designed it and sent the specifications to the quarry for that to happen. Is that not right?

Now, when you have the Bible that it comes together from all of these backgrounds that I have described to you, and you put it between leather covers, no longer 66 books but one book that has one theme, which is redemption. It has one hero, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has one villain, who is the devil. It has one purpose: the glory of God.

I've been studying this book for more than half a century. Seriously. I'm not finding hidden flaws. I'm finding hidden beauties. I'm finding things that are amazing. The Bible is a remarkable book. It's like a coat where you pull a thread here and it wrinkles way up here over here somewhere. It is a seamless garment of truth.

Why do I believe the Bible is the Word of God? Well, I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its wonderful unity. Now, that's the third reason. Okay. Here's the fourth reason I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God: because of the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. Only God can prophesy. No one else apart from God knows the future. No one. The only future that you know is the future that God has revealed in His Word.

All of these so-called psychics on television, I hope you don't call those pathetic people. Let me ask you a question. If they know the future, how come none of them win the lottery? Only God can prophesy. Now, God in the Bible has predicted thousands of events that have already come to pass and have been fulfilled, and others that will be fulfilled.

Therefore, you can take a child of God, lock him away, put him in a dungeon with a Bible and a candle, and he will know more about the future than all of the wiseacres and the prognosticators put together apart from the Word of God. If we wanted to spend time talking about fulfilled prophecy, we couldn't do it in a half an hour. We couldn't do it in a day. We couldn't do it in a week. We could not do it in a month. We could not do it in a year to do justice to the fulfilled prophecy in the Word of God.

If we were to take just one subject, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the focal point and the spirit of all prophecy, and look in the Old Testament the prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. There are more than 300 exact prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that are in the Old Testament. Every one of them are absolutely correct.

Do you know what the naysayers say about the fulfilled prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? And by the way, the mathematical probability that only eight of these prophecies could have been fulfilled is so mathematically astounding that the ratio of chance it comes up with a number that we don't have a number for in the human language. But I'm not talking about eight. I'm talking about 300 plus prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

How does the naysayer deal with that? He says, "Well, Jesus wanted people to think that he was the Messiah, so he just arranged to fulfill these prophecies." Well, let's see if that's true. First of all, he arranged where he would be born. Pretty good arrangement. He arranged that he would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 says he would be. Matthew 2:1-5 says he was. Number two, he arranged that he would be born of a virgin. Pretty good arrangement, huh? Isaiah chapter 7.

Moreover, he arranged that he would be crucified, and it was prophesied centuries before crucifixion was even known. If you read Psalm 22, Psalm 22 is written, and I remind you it was written by David hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born here upon this earth. You read Psalm 22. Psalm 22 reads as if a person was standing at the foot of the cross.

It talks about the piercing of his hands and his feet. It talks about the casting of lots for his garments. It talks about the words that people would say to him as they scorned him and mocked him on the cross. It talks about the very words that Jesus Christ would utter from the cross before crucifixion was even known as a form of capital punishment.

The Jews had stoning for capital punishment. But we read in Psalm 22, "They pierced my hands and my feet. They cast lots for my garment." Yes, he arranged all of that. Yes, if you believe he just arranged it. He also, as this arrangement, he persuaded two thieves to be crucified with him, one on the right hand and one on the other, as is prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53 and fulfilled in Matthew chapter 27.

Also, he arranged that Judas would betray him for 30 pieces of silver. Zachariah 11:12, fulfilled in Matthew 26:15. Now here's the classic arrangement. He arranged that after he was crucified, he'd be raised again the third day. That is prophesied in the Word of God that he would be raised again on the third day. Now, he arranged all of this. Well, the truth of the matter is he really did arrange it because he's God. And God caused all of this to come to pass in His infinite wisdom.

But there's no way that it was humanly arranged. These prophecies were not fulfilled for the most part by the friends of Jesus, but by those enemies who had nothing to gain, who really hated him and would not want to do anything that would attest to the fact that he was indeed what he was and who he was, the Son of God. What does the Bible say about all of these prophecies? Well, I'll sum it up in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 56. "But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."

That the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. No other book knows the future and no one knows the future except what God Himself reveals. One of the undeniable affirmations of the Word of God. Fulfilled prophecy. If you had no other reason to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then fulfilled prophecy.

Cary Vaughn: And coming up next time, we'll hear part two of this message. Maybe today you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus. We'd love to offer you an insightful resource on our website called our Discover Jesus page. You'll find answers there you may need about your faith. We have a response section as well. Anyone can share how this message or others have made a difference in their lives. So go to LWF.org/radio and click on the tab that says Discover Jesus. Let us hear from you today.

Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1-877-LOVEGOD. That's 1-877-LOVEGOD. Or write to us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You can also connect with us online by going to LWF.org/radio.

There, we offer helpful resources inspired by the timely teachings of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Additionally, you can sign up for daily emails, donate to the ministry, and learn more about how to become an ambassador of the word. Thank you so much for listening today. Be sure to join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.

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