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Jan 14, 2024

My Relationship With The Word

My Relationship With The Word

Passage: 2 Peter 1:12-21

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Rethink Your Life

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, faith, jesus, god, sermon, christian, bible, christ, gospel, hope, sermons, word of god, relationships, religion, jesus christ, the bible, christianity, relationship with god, relationship, bible study, christian lifestyle, the gospel, study the bible, bible teaching, how to get closer to god, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, motivational video, truth of the bible, motivation video, jesus message

In continuation of our sermon series called Rethink Your Life, we explore our relationship with the word of God. We know we can trust the word of God because not only is it a reliable collection of historical documents and is written directly by eyewitnesses, if fulfills so many specific prophecies. As Christians, we can place faith in the fact that its ultimate author was God, not man. Even Jesus himself fully trusted it and quoted it back so many times. Because it is so reliable and written by God, we can have full trust in its authority to deliver to us the truth of God. Do you trust the God of the bible? Have you placed your faith in Jesus and asked Him to be your savior? If you’ve got questions or want someone to pray with, we’d love to connect with you. Reach out today! As always, you can let us know about the next step you want to take in your faith journey by visiting burnthickoyr.com/next.

Well, good morning, Church. Last week we started off our New Year in our new Message series with a time of prayer, a time that we just looked back at what God did over the last 2023, just praising him just for overall what he did. And then we looked forward and just really asked God to step into the year 2024. Well, last week I didn't give any specifics. I just said that God had done some incredible things over the course of the year. But with this being January and with this being a time of kind of celebration and new starts and looking back and looking forward to this week, I just wanted to start the message time off by bragging a little bit about what God has done over the last year in this church. Here's what I know about most of us that are just even super active in this church. We have our kind of group of people. 

 

We've got our life group, we've got the things that we do, the passions that we're in. And a lot of us, we really don't have an idea about what happens holistically, even in other areas of the church that we might not have a kid in or serve in. So I want to spend just a couple of minutes walking you back through what God did in 2023 and just bragging on him a little bit and then we celebrated over it. Listen to this about the kids ministry last year in the last season, they had our vacation Bible school last summer and had 1700 kids involved with it with 99 salvation in that one single week. One week. Catch this. On top of that, their fall outreach pumpkin fest had over 4000 people in attendance on this campus, inviting them in to show us who we are. When you look into the specific ministries there, their adult volunteer base is growing every single week. And then also just in their preschool, it’s all growing just in their preschool department alone, I'm talking under two years old. They have had a 25% growth in the last season of ministry. Two weeks ago, they had a hundred babies underneath two years old. Amen, that's a lot of diapers. Amen, that's incredible. 

 

Let’s look at student ministry just for a minute. Student ministry over the past year, saw 99 teenagers give their life to Jesus. Last year, they saw 20%. Yeah. You can clap all you want, but I will keep talking. They've seen a 20% increase in their life groups in their Wednesday nights. They launch their D-groups. They're kind of small groups, accountability groups last year that they're calling them, and they had over 200 students jump into that. They had their best actually their biggest fall retreat that they've ever had in the student ministries history last year. What about adults? Our adult ministry, catch some of this stuff. They are watching their mentors, their men's mentoring and their women's mentoring. It is absolutely exploding. And the people walking out of those things are changing people's lives. They are watching their life groups grow over the course of the last season of ministry. They've had a couple of different Sundays where they have had over a thousand men and women in life groups here on campus on Sunday morning. And that's incredible. They're seeing a 100%, they saw a 100% increase last year in people taking the place assessment to find out where God is pointing them into areas of service. That's over 200 people in this church, adults that have done that. And listen to this. 

 

They told me this on Thursday. They tell me that over 40% of active adults in this church are serving in some kind of ministry. That's massive. That's huge. When you look at churches across the world. Worship ministries are pumping out music not only for us to worship, too, but across all the streaming platforms during the week. They're putting on services all every single week and special things like Christmas Eve and Easter and those kinds of events. But let's look at overall what's happened, not just in ministries. We saw over a hundred people baptized last year in this church. We finished listening to this. We finished the Kenya Resource Center last year, $850,000 given to that area and launched it. We launched our counseling center internally in December last year with pastoral and clinical counseling. We've started the construction on our special needs adult space behind us in the main auditorium behind us here. That will be finished in March. And we started our major front community space and counseling center remodel all of that in one year last year, and we did all of that. Listen to this. We did all of that in the construction world. As I came to you at the beginning of last year and just asked that you commit at least $3 million from this church into the building process, into the building campaign. At some point, I've asked you and your family to see where you're at and to give that before the construction is finished. Let me give you a little update. We have already received the foundation, yet we have already received 2.8 million of the $3 million that you guys have committed. How incredible is that? On top of that, catch this, last year's fiscal budget, last year's fiscal budget, we exceeded it by 20% at year end. That is $1.9 million over what was budgeted last year. Last year we gave over $1.8 million to community ministries and missions and global missions across the world. 

 

And church, I think all of that is worthy of saying thank you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes, I know that I've been stewing on this. I know you're like, well, that's not a big deal. No, it's huge. That is massive. And all of that is done Just watching God's hand work. And I'm just going to say this as honestly as I know how I think as good as all of that was that God has something incredibly, incredibly big in store for this place, even more so in the future. I believe as good as the past has been that God has an even greater plan for this group of people. So, listen, if you are fully engaged with us, man, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you're new to Burnt Hickory, if you're just checking this thing out, if we're just casually dating on the DL, come on, let's do it. Let's jump into the mission of God. The work of God, the mission of what He has called us to. And let's change this community. 2024. I'm fully believing that God is going to do some incredibly big stuff. Amen. All right. We got to jump into the messages because they tell me I only have 40 minutes, but this is the last service. All right, here we go. All right. 

 

Last week, we started a new message series called Rethink Your Life. And we gave the premise last week that so goes our thoughts, so goes our life. Why? Because our thoughts really do shape our actions and our actions shape the direction of our life. And the direction of our life shapes basically our identity. And we said it all starts with our mind and it moves into our souls and it's walked out through our feet. Last week we said that we are going to, over the course of these next weeks, ask ourselves to rethink some major things in our lives, some major things that God wants to press into and to put his thoughts into. And we said, we're not rethinking this from a deconstructionist mindset, but we're rethinking it to ask God, God is my life in congruence with your thoughts and is my heart moving in the direction of your mind? And we asked all of us last week to just commit to rethink some of the things that we bring up. Last week we looked at the topic of salvation and we asked ourselves last week to rethink our relationship with Jesus, to rethink our walk with Jesus, and quite frankly, to rethink and ask ourselves, do I know that I know that I know that I have a relationship with Jesus, that He has redeemed me, saved me, and set me on a path to spend eternity with him? And we did all that from Ephesians chapter two last week, pointing at the idea that it is only when we know what we've been saved from that we will ever fully walk out what God has saved us to. If you weren't here last week. You kind of laid the foundation of this whole idea of rethinking my relationship with Jesus. Well, this week we're going to look at another, just massive topic to think about. And this week I'm just going to ask you to rethink your relationship with the Word of God. Rethink your relationship with the Bible, with God's Word that he's placed in our hands. If you've got a copy of Scripture, I want you to turn with me to Second Peter, the Book of Second Peter today. And I want to show you today an amazing description of God's word of His word to us. And I want you to ask yourself, is this my thinking of God's Word? Is this how I describe God's Word? I want you to compare your description to Peter's description, and we're going to deal with some common doubts and some common struggles. And the reality is, are we going to walk out of here seeing why in the world can I trust this book that I hold in my hands? Now, I'm going to warn you, on the front end today, there's going to be some incredibly technical things today. So those of you that are thinkers, those of you that love to be challenged, today is your day. 

 

Those really just come for the fluff. You struggle a little bit. I'm just going to tell you today, there it is on the front end now, if I were to ask the question in this audience, do you trust the Bible? Chances are about 90 plus percent that's going well Matt, absolutely. 5% of you just argue with everything so you would have something to say. And then 5% of you are just not sure how you would answer that question. But the reality is that's not where the world is today. In history, there has been times that the Bible has been seen as a book of sacredness and a holy book that unifies us under the voice of God. But that's not where we are in our culture today. In fact, the days of people like me, pastors just walking around and holding the Bible in the air going, You need to trust this book. And people falling on their faces and salvation. Those days are over. But really and truly, it takes more to help people understand what this thing that we hold in our hand is than probably more now than any other point in history. There needs to be some substance. There needs to be some argument. And here's the good news behind it. The good news is that God has given us the evidence. God has given us the proof, and God has laid out the evidence of why it is that I can trust the Bible. Now, listen, why can you trust the Bible is probably one of the top two or three questions that every single Christian needs to be able to answer. Why? Because if you're ever sharing your faith, I can just about guarantee you this is going to come up and we need to be able to give a defense of that. We need to be able to share why it is that I trust the Bible. Now, why do I trust the Bible? I've heard a million different answers to these questions over the years, and some of them are said with the right heart, but they're just not good answers. Kind of like this. 

 

I asked somebody not too long ago, Hey, why do you trust this book that you have in your hand? And then they just said to me with a perfect heart. They said, I trust it because I was just raised that way. Listen, I get the sentiment of that. But that's not a good answer. Why? Because that same answer could be true for any kind of Mormon, any kind of Buddhist, any kind of Hindu or any kind of Muslim. They were just raised that way. And it's not a good defense of why you trust this book. I heard another person say this when they were asked why they trusted it. They said that I just tried it and it worked for me. And I get the heartbeat behind that. I get the sentiment behind it. But listen, every cross fitter I've ever met has said that every essential oil salesman says the same thing, Right? I just tried it and it works. It's not a great answer. A third answer of why I can trust the Bible is as well, Matt. It's just faith. I just have faith that it's right. Listen, I get the sentiment of that, but that is not logically a great answer and it can go so much farther. And that answer opens up this huge crack that people can get into. So this morning, I want to give you an answer to why you can trust the Bible. And I want to do it through the voice of the apostle Peter. Second, Peter, chapter one. I'm going to read it all to us and then we're going to work our way through it. I'm just going to warn you, it's a lot of verses. Here we go. So here's what Peter says. It’s at the end of his life, he said, So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are fully established and the truth you now have, I think it's right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside as the Lord Jesus Christ has made it clear to me. In other words, 

 

Hey, God told me I'm about to be out of this world and I'm giving you some of my last words. Verse 15, and I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. Verse 16. For we, he's talking about himself, Peter, and the rest of the writers of Scripture and the disciples, for we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power. But we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. He received honor and glory from God. The Father, when the voice came to Him from the majestic glory, saying, This is my son, whom I love, and with him I am well pleased. We ourselves, Peter said. We heard this voice. They came from heaven when we were with him on the Sacred Mountain. We also had the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it as a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Verse 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the Prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will. The prophets, though they were human, they spoke from God, and as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Now pause there because what you just heard was a lot of verses, a lot of words, a lot of arguments. But I would say it is probably the best argument and the best description of what it is that we hold in our hands more than any other description that has ever been made. But I know we got to do some work to kind of pull out where it is talking. I know it's a lot of words, but I love what Peter says here about the gospel, what he says about the truth of Scripture and what he says about how we can trust it. Now, remember this, Peter is the apostle Peter. He's later in his life. He is speaking from a position of authority. He's speaking as one that walked with Jesus, had his life changed by Jesus, and now there is nothing more in him that means more than to see these people he's speaking to, these Christians that are scattered all across Rome that are being persecuted. There's nothing that he wants to see more than for them to fall in love with Jesus that can change their lives. So he's speaking here to these Christians that are being incredibly persecuted. But the biggest thing that they were being pushed into and challenged to is that they were being challenged to think that what the disciples and apostles told them, they were being challenged to think that it was not true. It was just a story then. It was something that they shouldn't believe in. 

 

The reality is, Peter is coming back with an argument to tell them that they can trust these words and here's why. And here's why this makes so much sense to us. Because the reality is what we hold in our hand specifically as the New Testament, is what Peter is describing here as what they are passing down to them. So Peter is giving us an argument from the people who wrote it why we can trust this word. So I want to give you five things that as pointed out in Scripture of why we can trust the Bible today. You need to write these down somewhere, because if you are a soul and if you share Jesus, there will be some point in your life where somebody will push into you with this. Here's what Peter says. We can trust them. We can trust the word of God because of this. Number one, Peter said this. We just read it because it's a reliable collection of historical documents. He says it's a reliable collection of historical documents. Peter's saying, listen, there is evidence, there's evidence in the word, it proves itself, and then there's evidence in history. It's going to continually prove it. And Peter is saying, we have written down the exact things that we have seen. In fact, look at our 16. Again, it says this for we, Peter said, did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power. Here's what he means by that. Peter is saying, Listen, this is not a once upon a time language. No, this is the language of names and places of events and orders that things happen. This is so specific, Peter says, that not only does history back it up now, not only does geography back it up now, not only does lineage and people's voices back it up now, but it's going to back it up over and over and over throughout history. 

 

And guess what Church? That's exactly what we have seen. Do you realize that over and over again history proves the Bible true? There is a constant archeological trail for 2000 years that proves what is in the Bible is true. Whether it's the ruins of Jericho or Ephesus, Herod's temple, or the poor Bethesda. The Book of Acts has 39 countries, 54 cities, and nine different islands that we know are true. Did you know that there are countless biblical figures that are mentioned in Scripture that are validated by non biblical literature as true? Did you know there's 2600 names, specific names in the Bible that are mentioned and we get to see that. I love what one non-Christian archeologist named Nelson Glueck says, I put this in your notes because I thought it was such great quotes. Listen to this. He says, I've been accused of teaching that the Bible is the word of God. This is from a non-Christian. Listen to this. I wanted to be understood that I've never taught this. All I've ever said is that in all my archeological investigations, I've never found one artifact of antiquity that contradicts any statement of the Bible. He goes on to say this second quote, He says, As a matter of fact, however, it may be more clearly stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever contributed a single Bible reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made, which confirm in clear outline or exact detail the historical statements of the Bible. Church, listen to this. The Bible is not some just weird book that was out there that's been disproved by modern day archeology. No, there's been over 23,000 archeological digs around the world, and none of them have disproved the words of what you had in your hand. If they had, you can guarantee you that the skeptics and the critics would have crammed it down our throats forever and ever and ever. But it never happened. You know why? Because it can't happen. Because this book is true. Peter is saying in this, we have received the same message. We didn't make it up. It's not a fairy tale. You can take out your phones, Peter says, and you can fact check everything I'm saying because it is true and you can trust it. We see the same message in Luke's gospel. Luke opens up the Gospel of Luke by saying this Luke 1:1. He says many have undertaken to draw an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. Verse three With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus. Verse four. Why? 

 

So that you may know with certainty. You know Scripture, when you look at Scripture, it is so specific that history backs it up and listen to this church. It is not a legend, it is not a myth. For some reason, the Bible being a legend, seems to be one of the greatest comebacks of skeptics of all time. For some reason, the Bible being just this book of myths seems to be what they lean on. I hear people say all the time, Well, Matt, the Bible is like all the other legendary Greek mythology in Greek myths and all of these things from that time period. Didn't Constantine and maybe a couple of monks take this guy named Jesus That might have been a really cool guy and just elevate him up to give his followers a little more power, to give a little people hope? No, they didn't. How do we know? Because Peter, in verse 16, when he says, We didn't follow cleverly designed stories, is literally saying these are not myths. The word stories is the Greek word mythos. And guess what comes from that? The word myth he's saying that the Bible is true. It is not a myth. It's not a legend. You know how we know the New Testament is not a legend? Because people were grabbing onto it, people were believing it, and people were following it as it was being written. Think about it with me. Not just that Peter says it's not a myth. It can't be a myth because the timings of the writing of the New Testament are way too early to create a legend. They were written within 20 to 60 years post Jesus dying. There were people still alive when it was being written that could verify the accounts. Also on top of that, the content was far too negative and counterproductive to be a legend. If you follow Jesus, you rarely came out on top. You rarely came out as a hero. But that's how all mythological language was put. On top of that, the content was way too detailed to be a myth. You start reading mythology, you start reading the stories of old, and it's not detailed. It was like there was a castle in a far off land. It wasn't that there was the house of Herod on Sixth Street on 32 A.D. That's a lot different language, but that's what Peter's saying right here. He said, In church, you can trust the word of God because it's reliable and historical. But that's where he starts. He doesn't. That should be enough. 

 

Secondly, Peter says this. You can trust the word because it's written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. And that's important, right? Because if it's just an eyewitness, you can make that stuff up, unless there's other eyewitnesses that can look at it and go, no, no, that's a lie. You see, that's the point, right? How many of you like a good crime drama? Anybody in the house like a good crime drama? Oh great. There's three of us. Come on. You like them. There wouldn’t be 900 of them on TV, right? You like them, I like them. And we all like them. What would happen in a crime drama if you're the you know, you never want to be the first person on the scene in the crime drama, Right? They're going down right? It’s just what happens. What would happen in a crime drama if before the detectives got there, there were 40 people standing over the deceased person and said, hey, we saw it all happen. Here's our cell phones. We know exactly what happened. Well I'll give you our account. That would be the most terrible crime drama ever, right? It'd be like a three minute show, right? Why? Because you got evidence. You've got people that are standing there that all saw it. There will be no suspense, no ambiguity. Look at verse 16, what Peter says. He says, for we do not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his testimony. In other words, there is no mystery when there is agreeing eyewitness testimony. John says the same thing in his gospel verse, chapter one, verse one. John says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at with our hands and have touched this, we proclaim concerning the word of life. The word of life appeared and we have seen it and we testify to it. Paul goes a little bit further, but he says the same thing First Corinthians 15 four. What I received, I passed on to you as first importance. Watch what he says. Christ died for our sins according to Scripture, he was buried. He was raised on the third day, according to Scripture. And then he appeared. To whom? To Peter, then to 12. And after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time. I love this last time, most of which are still living, though some have fallen asleep. I love that he puts that in there. Right. What is he saying? He's saying these are all eyewitnesses. There's Peter, there's the 12, there's a 500. If you do the math, when Peter, John, Paul, Matthew and Mark were writing, guess what? There were over 300 people that were still there, still alive, still agreeing and would corroborate the story and exactly what happened in these events. Or they could have turned on them and said that it's not true, but there's not one writing that has ever been said that has happened. Why? Because it's true. It's true. 

 

This is why so often the Bible is so specific with names and places and events. Why? To make you really confused, Abraham, that that many people in his family in your Bible reading plan this week? No. So that you could go back and you could follow it historically and watch it. The names of people matter. It's almost like the names are, it's almost like the writers were saying, Listen, I saw it and I know that you're maybe not even going to believe some of this stuff. I was there. But you want to know it, go back and talk to that guy, Bartholomew. Bartholomew, right. Go back and talk to that guy Bartimaeus, man that joker was blind, but he ain't anymore. He'll tell you. Go back and talk to that lady Mary. She was crazy, right? It's almost like she was a demon possessed. Right? But now she's a follower of Jesus. Go back and talk to old Lazarus. Remember Lazarus? He was literally dead. He'll tell you his story. He'll bring it up, go back and talk to those 500 people that were in the city that day. They will tell you what Jesus did. They were saying I was there. So were they. The writers were looking at these people going they will tell you. Now. But here's where the skeptical comes in. Well, man, I get that. And and and if if that was what the Bible said originally, I might would jump on to that. But Matt, I know that the Bible been changed. I know the Bible's been molded. I know that's been kind of readjusted over the years. I know this is probably not the same thing in our hands that it was in that time. What if they just kept changing it to fit the cultural moment of the day?

 

 Look, I get what you're thinking, but I want you to just think about, just for a minute, what they would have had to do to change scriptures. What would they have had to do? Well, first of all, you got to realize that that all of the copies of Scripture that come after the first one, they don't come from the copy before they always go back to the original manuscript. It's how it always worked. You just got to know that. But secondly, you also got to think that this changing process of scriptures would not have been a one and done activity one because every single year, listen to this. Archeology continues to find more and more original manuscripts. Remember the Dead Sea Scrolls? Remember the caves of Qumran? And if people were trying to change it back then, there would have to be some secret society passed down through 2000 years that was sitting outside of every cave when every fragment comes out to take the changes from now and put them on to the original documents of then, it just can't happen. It just can't be. I mean, think about it. If this was to be true, think about the levels of conspiracy that would have to go on to change scripture. First off, they would have to round up this major manuscript. Right. So, Matt, what do you mean by that? The New Testament has over 6000 manuscripts that we still have today that were written within 100 years of Jesus being born. The Old Testament has over 20,000 of them. They would have had to round all of those up within the first hundred years that are still in existence. Right. People would have had to take those manuscripts, steal them from the scribe, right. Match his hand writing, sneak them back into the scroll roll with nobody knowing it. Second, they would have had to find all the languages that these manuscripts were in. There was no Google to kind of change a word document at this point. No, you would have had to go and find the Cyrillic ones, the Greek ones, the Latin ones. You would have had to find all of these, find who wrote it, sneak in, match their handwriting style, find them and put them back, all while connecting all the references in Scripture and knowing the Bible well enough to be able to do that. 

 

So, Matt, what kind of big deal is that? Listen, Scripture is a unit. It is a unit. It is constantly pointing to itself. It is constantly crossing line. In fact, check out this picture I got for you this morning, this picture shows 63,000 plus cross-references in scripture. One proves the other one leads to the other. It is names mentioned in different places. It is locations mentioned in different places. It is promises listed in different places. And the Bible cross-references the left side Genesis the right side Revelation. The long line in the middle is Psalm 119, and these guys would have had to sneak into all of these manuscripts, change them, remember the lies, get them back where they are. If one person could do this, this would be the greatest conspiracy of all mankind. Let me just say this. I believe it takes more faith to believe the baloney that Scripture has been changed and molded through the years than it takes to see the incredible majesty of what God has given us. Talk about faith. If this was written by one person, it would be an incredibly glorious document. But we know that the Bible was written by 40 authors over 1500 years on three continents and three different languages. There's 31,000 verses, and they all point to one central truth: that God loves you enough that He died for you and He gave you life. Conspiracy. On top of all that. If that's not enough, I got one more for you. They would have had to somehow, in this level of conspiracy, find all of the writings of the early church fathers for the first 200 years. 

 

So, Matt, what difference does that make? It makes a lot of difference because the early church fathers study these manuscripts and have over 95% of the New Testament written in their commentaries about the word of God. Here's what that means. They had to find every single one of these commentaries and rewrite these commentaries to say the Bible is not the same now as we had then. The early church fathers have all but 11 verses word for word in their writings that are the original manuscripts of God. Listen Church, you can trust this is the Word of God. It was written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of eyewitnesses and has been faithfully handed down to you. That's huge. And here's number three. If that's not big enough, number three, you can trust the word of God because it gives and fulfills so many different specific prophecies, so many different specific prophecies. Now, I know prophecy is this weird word that only church people kind of talk about. But prophecy literally just means a specific telling of the future in a specific way. And that's exactly another key of why we can trust the Bible, because this is what the Bible does over and over and over again. This is not a day about prophecy, but listen to what Peter says in verse 19. He says, We also have the prophetic message as something to complete that is completely reliable and you would do well to pay attention to it as a light shining in the dark place until the day dawns in the morning Star rises. That's just a reference to Jesus, by the way, in your hearts. One of the scariest scripture for skeptics and they don't know it is Isaiah 41, that chapter, it's where God, he's getting a little bit sparky. And he looks at all of these worshipers of these little-g man made gods, and he looks at the followers of God and he says, Hey, you want to know which God is the big-G God? It’s the one that proclaims things will happen, and it really does happen. It's the one that says he loves you and he shows you His love. It’s the one that proclaims that a messiah will come and the Messiah does come. And listen Church, prophecy is an incredibly big test of Scripture. That's what it says in verse 19 and the Bible is the only holy Scriptures, right? It's the only Holy Scripture that is out there that fulfills the prophecy challenge. Our book is the only one that does that. Islam's, the Quran doesn't do it. Buddha's writing doesn't do it. Confucius's writing doesn't do it. They all claim to have a divine writer and divine inspiration, but none of them have predicted prophecy like our book does, and it sets it apart. The Bible is very clear with prophecy about who Jesus is. The prophecy would be very clear about the prophecy that it would be born in Bethlehem, that He would be escaping to Egypt. He would ride back on a donkey one day, that he would teach in parables, that he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. It is very clear in Psalm 22, when David is describing the crucifixion of Jesus 400 years before crucifixion was ever even created in a thousand years before our Messiah in Matthew 27 was crucified. It is very clear what specific prophecy, specific fulfillment, specific prophecy, specific fulfillment. In fact, Jesus alone fulfilled 60 major prophecies, 270 minor prophecies that were all given 400 years before it. 

 

Church, you can trust this book. No other book has ever claimed this. No other book has ever fulfilled this. No other book has ever achieved it, because no other book has been written by God for Man to Give Life. Which leads me into number four. You can trust this book. Why? Because the ultimate author is God and not man. It's God. It's God. Well, wait a minute, Matt. What do you mean by that? You just told me there's 40 authors. What about all these eyewitnesses? I get it, Luke. Verse 20. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things, for prophecy never had its origin in the human will. The prophets, though human, spoke from God and they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Carried on. What did Peter just say? Peter just said very plainly that the writings that you hold in your hands are divine writings. They're not human writings. These are not man's words. They're God's words that men just spoke as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for carried along is the word fero. It’s the word fero. It is a word used as a ship as in full sailing capacity that the wind is feroing it along. And that is exactly what God did to give us His word. God feroed these men to write the very words of God, the very voice of God for your life, for my life, for all of our lives, to direct us. Did God use their personalities? Yeah He uses their personality. Does God use their style and perspective? Yeah, but every word is from God. This is why we can have a perfect book given to us by unperfect man. Have you ever heard that argument before? If it's a holy book. It was written by a sinful man. Yeah, it was. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was feroing them. He was using them. He was moving them. This is why in Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is God breathed. That means it's from his heart and from his mind, from his soul. It comes from God to us. 

 

It's historically reliable. It's given to us by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of eyewitnesses, it proclaimed specific prophecies and fulfilled them. And it is authored by God. And if that's not enough, let me give you number five. It's not in the text, but I think it's the icing on the cake. We can trust the Bible because Jesus himself fully trusted it. I hear people all the time go, well, I love Jesus. I don't agree with the Bible. Or how about this one? Matt, I love the Bible. I just don't love Jesus. I’m like, well that's a contradiction. But okay, right. You see, Jesus upheld it and he lived by it. When he was tempted, he appealed to it. When he was confronted, he quoted it when he was preaching, he preached it and taught it. When he's experiencing pain on the cross, he prayed it. In fact, in Matthew chapter five verse 17, Jesus said, Don't think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. That’s the whole Old Testament He's talking about. I may not have come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Verse 18 For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the smallest stroke of the pen by any means will disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. You see it? Jesus preached the word. Jesus loved the word. Jesus upheld the word, and the word preached. Jesus upheld. Jesus followed Jesus. Since all about Jesus, they cannot be separated and they both need to be trusted. Why do I choose to fully trust in these words I have in my hand? It's not because I was raised that way. It's not because somebody told me I should. It's not because I was pressured or I was born in the South or I was born into a Christian family. I trust the word of God because it's reliably historical. It's written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of eyewitnesses. It gives specific prophecies and fulfills them. Is author by God and not Man and by God. Jesus loved it, and I'm going to love it. Church, that's your answer, why you can trust the Bible. 

 

So here's my question as we close up, here's the walk away today. What is your commitment to that look like? Now, look, I get it. It’s a fickle commitment if you just think that it's just a fairy tale legend that's been changed a whole bunch. But what is your commitment look like when you fully understand that what you hold in your hands is the very word from God to man? Let me ask you something. Is your commitment just showing up at church and hoping somebody preaches it over you? Is your commitment just a scroll the gram and hope you get a good quote for the day. Is your commitment just to when you have time to get there or listening to K-love in the afternoon? Believer, just let me beg you, fall in love with the Word of God. Give your life to the Word of God. Make the Word of God a priority. Study the word. Apply the word. Why? Because it brings life. It gives and paves the way to salvation and the Bible is the standard in which we judge everything else. I love what Augustine said when he said that the Holy Scriptures are letters from home. Do you treat them like that? Believer: Is it just when you get round to it? Is it just another deal? Man, I'd love to know one thing. How many games are we playing opposed to how much scripture we are reading? How much are we scrolling social media as opposed to how much we're reading? How many reels are we watching, opposed to how much we're letting the Word of God change us? How many stories are we posting opposed to how much of the Word of God we're soaking in? The Word of God is His word to us. Are we trusting it? 

 

Skeptics, let me speak to you just for a minute. Let me just challenge you that I believe it takes more faith not to believe it than to believe it. In this week skeptics, would you just do me a favor this week? This week, would you be willing to test God? Whoa, Matt, that's dangerous stuff. Okay, I get it. I get it right. Would you be willing to test God by doing this for me this week skeptics? Maybe you've never, ever, ever, Never Really been engrossed with God's Word, Would you be willing to do this for me this week skeptics? Would you be willing to take God's word? Matt, I don't have one. You got the Internet. You got the Bible. All right. Come on. Right. Would you be willing to take the book of John this week? The book of John the Fourth Gospel. Right. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. A two thirds way through. Would you be willing this week to take John's gospel? Would you be willing to open it in a quiet space in your life and say this to God, God, if you are who you say you are and you love me how you say that guy that yells a lot tells me you love me, right? God, if you are who you say you are and you love me how you say you love me God, would you show yourself to me? Would you be willing this week? Would you be willing skeptics to do that this week? After hearing what you heard today, would you be willing to at least put your toe in the water to say, God, if you are that, show yourself to me? I'm going to read this book this week. Listen, they tell me a 200 word count reading. It would take you less than 2 hours. Most of you are a little more than hooked on phonics. I think you're going to do it a little faster than that. Would you this week, skeptics just say, God, if you are who you say you are and you love me, how you say you love me, show yourself to me. The book of John. 

 

Lord Jesus this week, God help us to rethink our relationship with the Word. God, The word is a lamp unto our feet. It's a light unto our path. It's the message of salvation that saves our souls. It is the very voice of God to my life. And Lord Jesus, this week help me fall deeply in love with it and have it change my heart. Lord, I just pray that you deal with those hearts that are in the room. They're still just not sure, God show yourself to them. Thank you, Jesus. It’s in your name. Amen. 

 

Would you stand with me and sing this morning? And here's the invitation this morning. Number one, if you need to give your life to Jesus today, maybe some things clicked in your mind. We're going to be standing right over here. We'd love to share Jesus with you. Number two, though, maybe today you have never taken a step to make the word of God a part of your life, and you don't even know how to do that. You want somebody to walk with you in that man. I've got some people with me over here that would love to pray with you, follow up with you this week and walk with you in that. Number three, maybe today, you just need somebody to pray with you and over you today. We'd love to do that. Man, use these next couple of minutes just to say thank you, Lord.

 

Follow Along with the Message

My Relationship with the Word

January 14, 2024

2 Peter 1:12–21
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. 19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
We can Trust the “Word” of God Because:

1. It is a reliable collection of documents.

2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power…

“I’ve been accused of teaching [that the Bible is the Word of God]. I want it to be understood that I have never taught this. All I have ever said is that in all of my archaeological investigation I have never found one artifact of antiquity that contradicts any statement of the [Bible].”
— Nelson Glueck

“As a matter of fact, however, it may be clearly stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a single biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.”
— Nelson Glueck

Luke 1:1, 3–4
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us… 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty…

2. It’s written by during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.

2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
1 John 1:1–2
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it…
1 Corinthians 15:3–6
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

3. It gives and fulfills so many specific .

2 Peter 1:19
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

4. The ultimate author is , not man.

2 Peter 1:20–21
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

5. Jesus Himself fully it.

Matthew 5:17–18
17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
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