Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: Why is it crucial that we know the Bible is the perfect Word of God? If I would ask you how many of you believe everything you read in the newspaper, none, except an imbecile, would raise his or her hand. If I would ask you how many of you believe everything you read in the Bible to be true, you would lift your hand.

But then if I would ask you thirdly, how many of you spend more time in the newspapers that you don't believe than you do in the Bible that you do believe, you'd be embarrassed. We disregard the Bible to our own hurt. You will not be any bigger, any better, any stronger than you believe the Word of God.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the dynamic teaching of pastor and author Adrian Rogers. There's an ongoing war over the Word of God. There are those who despise, dissect, and disregard it. But perhaps the greatest enemy of the Word of God is the one who believes in it but doesn't know it.

We will never be settled until we are settled over the Word of God. Our salvation and sanctification depends on it. If you have your Bible, turn now to 2nd Timothy, chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 16 as Adrian Rogers reveals how to know the Bible is the Word of God.

Adrian Rogers: Find, if you will, 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. Here is a rudimentary, fundamental verse in the Word of God. Listen to it: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." You will never be any greater in your Christian life than your conviction concerning the Word of God.

I've been a Christian now for more than half a century. What keeps me going is not how I feel; it is what I know. What I know that has come from the Word of God. The Bible is not the book of the month; it is the book of the ages. It has outlived, out-loved, out-lifted, out-reached, out-ranked all other books put together. There's no book like the Bible. We read the Bible, and the Bible reads us.

I was on an airplane. I went up to the front to get a newspaper. I met a man up there, well-dressed, button-down collar, a business suit on, and he was looking for a newspaper. And we got into a discussion. He said, "What kind of newspaper you looking for?" I said, "I'm looking for a conservative newspaper." I said, "Well, what kind are you looking for?" He said, "I'm looking for a liberal newspaper."

And I said, "What do you do?" He was a Washington lawyer. He said to me, "What do you do?" I said, "I'm a Baptist preacher." And so we got in a little discussion. He said, "What do you read, anyway?" I said, "Well, I read books and journals and news magazines, newspapers, devotional books, but I am primarily a student of the Bible."

He said, "Well, do you speak to people?" I said, "All the time." "A few?" I said, "No, a great many." He said, "Well, if you don't read any wider than that, how do you know what to speak about?" I said, "Well, mister, man only has three problems." "Oh," he said, "No, man has many more problems than that." I said, "No, he only has three." He said, "All right, what are they?"

I said, "Sin, sorrow, and death." "Oh," he said, "There are more problems than that." I said, "Well, you go think and see if you can give me a fourth problem." I said, "There's not a problem in the world that is not a subset of sin, sorrow, and death." He said, "I don't agree." I said, "Well, think about it and come up with a fourth problem."

After a while, he came back to me. He said, "Man only has three problems: sin, sorrow, and death." That's the only kind of problems there are in the world. Every other problem is a subset of one of those three problems. This is the only book in the world that has the answer to those three problems. No other book has the answer to the problem of sin. No other book has the answer to the problem of sorrow. No other book has the answer to the problem of death except the Bible.

We ought to be very grateful for the Bible. Now, there's a war against the Word of God today, and there are those who literally despise it. They hate the Bible. For whatever reasons, they would wish that the Bible were obliterated. But not only those who despise it, there are those who deny it. They don't hate it; they just say, "I don't believe it. I don't believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God."

There are others, like the cults, who don't despise it or deny it; they distort it. They massacre the Bible with their interpretations, and there are plenty of those around. One of the ways that I know the Bible is the Word of God, it has stood up under so much shoddy preaching. It has to be the Word of God.

Then there are those who don't distort it, but they dissect it. They come to the Bible like it is a math book rather than a love story, and they bring their minds to it and try and pick it apart piece by piece and pry out the treasures from the Word of God, and that cannot be done.

Then I suppose, however, the greatest enemy of the Bible are people who sit in our churches. They don't despise it, they don't deny it, they don't distort it; they just disregard it. Now, they give lip service to the Bible, but they don't really study it. I would not ask tonight for a show of hands as to how many people in this room spend more time with the newspaper and television than they spend with the Word of God. That'd be embarrassing.

If I would ask you how many of you believe everything you read in the newspaper, none, except an imbecile, would raise his or her hand. If I would ask you how many of you believe everything you read in the Bible to be true as God gave it, you would lift your hand.

But then if I would ask you thirdly, how many of you spend more time in the newspapers that you don't believe than you do in the Bible that you do believe, you'd be embarrassed. We disregard the Bible to our own hurt. These hath God married, and no man shall part: dust on the Bible and drought in the heart. You will not be any bigger, any better, any stronger than you believe the Word of God.

Why is it so important to understand the Bible's the Word of God? Your salvation depends upon it. Your salvation is based on the gospel, and the gospel comes out of the Word of God. Apart from gospel truth, no one is saved. If you want somebody to be saved, you've got to give them something to believe. And what are you going to give them? The Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Your growth as a Christian depends upon the Word of God. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Your sanctification depends upon the Word of God. Jesus said, "Sanctify them with thy truth; thy Word is truth." Your assurance depends upon the Word of God. "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."

Friend, I cannot tell you how important it is that you have a solid conviction that the Bible is the Word of God, distinct, different, better, higher, more glorious than any other book that was ever written. Now, I want to give you five reasons why I believe the Bible's the Word of God. And I pray God that he will write these five reasons indelibly upon your heart and so you can say with confidence, "I know the Bible is the Word of God."

I'm going to start with the first reason, which is where the Bible is so often attacked. I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of the scientific accuracy of the Bible. Now, there are those who will tell you, "Well, of course, the Bible is not scientifically accurate because it was written thousands of years ago." Now, before you say that, make certain that you know two things: make certain that you know science and make certain that you know the Word of God.

You see, the Bible does not always agree with science, and for that, I am infinitely glad that the Bible does not always agree with science. If you've ever been to Paris, you most likely have visited the Louvre, that great library and art museum there in Central Paris. In the Louvre in Paris, in one section of books, there are three and one-half miles of books on science. Three and a half miles. That's a lot of books. Almost every one of them obsolete.

Because science is changing. What is called a scientific fact in one era is not in this era. As a matter of fact, in 1861, there was a French Academy of Science that wrote a little pamphlet, a little book. It was an anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Bible book, but it was a scientific book in that day. And they listed what they called 51 incontestable facts that proved the Bible scientifically wrong. 51 scientific facts.

Let me tell you an interesting thing about that. Today, more than a hundred years later, there is not a reputable scientist who believes one of those so-called 51 facts. Now, aren't you glad the Bible, therefore, did not agree with the science of that day? Had the Bible agreed with that science, then the Bible would have been wrong. You give the scientists enough time, perhaps they'll catch up with the Bible. When a scientist says a good word about the Bible, that doesn't give me more faith in the Bible, just a little more faith in the scientist.

If you look at the Bible from a scientific point of view, it is miraculous what the Bible teaches about science. For example, you and I take it for granted that the earth is suspended in space. This celestial ball floats in space. But men didn't always know that. You would not know it unless somebody had taught you.

The ancient Egyptians, who were incredibly intelligent and had done great things in mathematics and science, who built the pyramids that were antiquities even in the time of Christ, they believed that the earth was supported on five pillars. Five gigantic pillars that held up the earth.

But that's ridiculous. Let me tell you about what the Greeks believed. The Greeks believed in their mythology that the earth was held on the back of a giant whose name was Atlas. Have you ever seen a picture of a man with the world on his shoulders? That man named Atlas? That's the sophisticated Greeks.

The ancient Hindus in their sacred text believed that the earth stood on the backs of huge elephants. And when the elephants shook themselves, that was earthquakes. Well, somebody said, "But now wait a minute, wait a minute. What are the elephants standing on?" Oh, they said the elephants, they're on the back of a huge tortoise, a great big turtle.

Then a thinker said, "But now wait a minute. What's the turtle on?" They said, "Well, the turtle is on the back of a huge coiled serpent." But now wait a minute. What is the serpent on? Not to worry, they had an answer. The serpent is swimming in a cosmic sea.

So that's the science of that day. Now, we would expect to find perhaps some of that mythology in the Bible, but in Job chapter 26 and verse 7, we read this: "He," God, "stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Hangeth the earth upon nothing. That's a great scientific fact. That the earth is there suspended in space.

How did Job know that 750 years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born? Perhaps the oldest piece of literature, written literature, known to man, that God hangeth the earth upon nothing. Job 26, verse 7.

Now, you and I take it for granted not only is the earth floating in space, but we take it for granted that the earth is a sphere, that it's a globe, that it's a ball. Men didn't always know this. By observation, you would think that the earth is flat, or relatively flat. There may still be some of you in the Flat Earth Society, but most of us believe that the earth is round.

I remember as a little boy being enthralled with the idea of Columbus who was sailing west to find the East Indies, and they said, "Columbus, you better be careful; you may sail off the edge." That always concerned me because I wondered what kept the water from pouring over the edge of the earth. And I remember learning in grammar school as you did: in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

It was not until that time that men who had conjectured that the earth may be round finally conceded that the earth is round. Of course, we have no difficulty with that today because our spaceships from outer space can look back and take pictures. Round. Floating in space.

But 750 years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born, Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 22, "It is God that sitteth upon the circle of the earth." And the word for circle that Isaiah used is not a circle like I would draw in plane geometry on a piece of paper; it's a word that means sphere or globe.

Now, you and I take it for granted that the stars are without number, that is, without human number, uncountable. There was a man who must have wearily rubbed his eyes when he laid down his pencil because he had made his charts. He had counted the stars. His name was Hipparchus. He was the noted astronomer of that day, and he had counted the stars, and there were 1,022 stars.

Science. 150 years before Christ. Hipparchus counted the stars, and he said there are 1,022 stars. Now, that was science, and that was the science 150 years before Christ. But 250 years later, another astronomer came along, and this astronomer whose name was Ptolemy decided he would check up on Hipparchus.

And so Ptolemy counted the stars, and he laughed. He said, "Did Hipparchus say there's 1,022 stars? Absurd. There are 1,026." So now we have upgraded science. And it wasn't until about 1,300 years later that a young scientist and inventor, Galileo, created his first crude telescope and turned it up to the heavens and gave a gasp.

For beyond the stars that could be seen with a naked eye were more stars, and beyond those more stars, and beyond those more stars, and beyond those more stars, and millions and billions, uncountable stars there in the canopy of space. And now with the giant Hubble telescope, men look out millions of light-years, and there's stars upon stars upon stars.

I was reading in a scientific journal where one astronomer said if you want to have some idea about how many stars there are in the universe, there are more stars in our known universe than there are grains of sand on all the seashores of all the earth. Did you catch that?

Now, if that doesn't astound you, just go to my hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida, cross the bridge, go over to Palm Beach and get a city block and start counting the grains of sand. No, I'm not talking about in one locale, one city block. I'm talking about all the seashores of all of the earth. Kind of ludicrous, isn't it, with Hipparchus saying 1,022 stars?

But what did Jeremiah say? In Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 22, Jeremiah said, "The host of heaven cannot be numbered." You can't count stars. The host of heaven cannot be numbered. Now, how did Jeremiah know that? How did Job know the earth is floating in space? How did Isaiah know that the earth is round?

How did Jeremiah know that the stars can't be counted? I'll tell you how they knew. We already read it: all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. God made all of that. God knows all of that. These men didn't have modern astronomy, but they knew that.

Now, let's move from astronomy; let's move into the area of physiology and biology. You and I take it for granted that the blood in our body is a red river of life, that it is necessary for life. I took a course in human anatomy and physiology, and I had to learn all the things that the blood does.

To name a few, it carries food to the cells, it carries away waste from the cells, it carries energy to the cells, it fights disease, it maintains a constant temperature in the body. Those are just a few of the big things that the blood does in the human body. But it was not until the year 1615 that a physician, William Harvey, discovered that the blood even circulates in the body.

That's fairly recent time that the blood circulates. Now we know with hematology and all of the study of this red river of life the incredible properties of the human blood. It is amazing. But men didn't know this until days of modern science and microbiology.

As a matter of fact, in relatively recent times, when men would get sick, they would often attribute it to bad blood, and they would bleed people for all manner of ailments that had nothing to do with blood. That barber pole, that's not a piece of peppermint candy. That represents a bandage because it was the barber who had the sharp instruments, and they would often take a sick person to the barber.

He would cut them, and they would bleed blood into a basin with the hopes that it would make them well. As a matter of fact, the father of our country, George Washington, got sick with a pulmonary disease, and of all things, they bled him. He didn't get well; they bled him again. He still didn't get well; they bled him the third time, and they bled George Washington to death.

That's the way the father of our country died. Today, they may have given him a blood transfusion. I think the politicians have tried to get even with us ever since that time and bleed us today. Well, it is a shame that they did not know the Word of God. Leviticus chapter 17, verse 14, speaking about the blood, says, "For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof." An incredible scientific statement that there is life in the blood.

Guest (Male): Isn't that a comforting thought that science doesn't take God by surprise? His Word stands the test of time, and we'll hear part two of this message coming up next time. But today, if you have questions about Jesus, who he is, what he means to you, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org/radio. There you'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you might have about your faith.

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