Spring Camp Meeting 2017

Is the Bible Just Fiction?

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Nathan Renner

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Series Code: 17SCM

Program Code: 17SCM000002A


00:14 Welcome to 3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 2017:
00:25 We want to welcome you now to hour number 2
00:29 of our very first night of Spring Camp Meeting 2017.
00:35 And you're a pretty good looking group.
00:38 And we praise the Lord.
00:41 We welcome you; this is going to be a wonderful sitting together.
00:44 We are not going to curse the darkness.
00:47 During the next several days we are simply going to let
00:49 the Lord's light shine.
00:51 And the darkness will cease to be as we bathe in the sunshine
00:56 of God's love. I want you to smile.
00:58 Look like you're happy in the Lord
01:01 because you never know when we're going to put that camera
01:04 on you. So if you don't want the camera to see you,
01:07 then don't smile... just look mad,
01:09 look sad, look like you don't want to be here.
01:12 You may be running from the law
01:14 or in the Witness Protection Program
01:17 and you don't want your face on camera.
01:19 Well, then just don't smile. But if you're smiling
01:22 and you've got your Bible open you just may end up
01:25 seeing yourself on camera.
01:27 So we welcome you. It's going to be a good night
01:29 of preaching and teaching. The Spirit of the Lord is here
01:32 and you are here. We welcome our in-house guests
01:36 and we welcome those from around the world
01:38 that are sharing this wonderful Camp Meeting with us.
01:41 Got some news from the weatherman.
01:43 The next several days: sunshiny and fair.
01:47 Amen! So it's going to be sunshiny outside
01:50 and sunshiny inside
01:52 as the love of Christ shines out in our hearts.
01:55 Our music is coming from Tim Parton.
01:57 We call them happy feet.
02:00 You ever see those feet going while he's playing
02:02 and those hands are going?
02:03 He's just happy in the Lord. Amen.
02:05 So Tim... we'll turn it over to you.
02:07 Yes, and I want the congregation to sing with me
02:09 on this beautiful hymn.
02:23 So grateful for the Word of God.
03:14 Now I hope you'll make this your prayer:
03:17 Open our eyes, Lord - yeah, sing it -
03:23 we want to see Jesus.
03:24 We want to see Jesus. To reach out and touch Him.
03:30 To reach out and touch Him -
03:35 and say that we love Him -
03:37 and say that we love Him.
03:43 Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen -
03:49 and help us to listen.
03:55 Open our eyes, Lord,
03:57 Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus -
04:03 we want to see Jesus.
04:09 Oh, sing that again... open our eyes:
04:11 Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus...
04:18 we want to see Jesus.
04:23 To reach out and touch Him -
04:25 to reach out and touch Him -
04:30 and say that we love Him -
04:32 and say that we love Him.
04:37 Open our ears...
04:39 Open our ears, Lord,
04:44 and help us to listen -
04:46 and help us to listen.
04:51 Open our eyes, Lord,
04:54 Open our eyes, Lord,
05:00 we want to see Jesus...
05:09 Lord, open our eyes,
05:14 Lord,
05:17 we want to see
05:21 Jesus.
05:32 Amen. Thank you, Tim, so very much.
05:35 Someone said to me back stage
05:36 "You didn't introduce yourself"
05:38 to which I responded: "I already know who I am. "
05:43 My name is C.A. Murray. I'm the Proclaim! general manager
05:48 here at 3ABN, and whatever else I am asked to do
05:51 I do joyfully in the name of the Lord.
05:55 But in all seriousness now
05:57 we move into the meat of the meetings
06:02 for this particular sitting.
06:05 Our speaker is Pastor Nathan Renner.
06:09 He currently pastors the Discover Life SDA Church
06:14 in Sonora, California.
06:17 He is the husband of one wife: Becky,
06:20 the father of two children: Levi and Laurel.
06:24 He has pastored at Discover Life for eight years.
06:28 He grew up as it were in South Dakota.
06:34 Nathan tells me that he was the first convert
06:39 of David Asscherick.
06:42 And how interesting that David should baptize his clone
06:48 because they do look remarkably similar.
06:53 Nathan has changed just a little bit.
06:56 He and I share the same low-maintenance hair style.
07:04 But he has the energy of a David Asscherick
07:07 and the power of a David Asscherick
07:09 and speaks for his Lord with passion and with grace.
07:15 He was baptized in 1997
07:18 so he's been at this a little while now
07:20 and God has blessed his ministry.
07:24 His topic: Is The Bible Just Fiction?
07:29 He is from the Central California Conference
07:32 but he comes to us tonight to preach the Word of God.
07:38 Hear ye him. Amen!
07:45 Good evening. Good evening! It's a joy to be here with you
07:50 and a joy to share God's Word
07:53 with you here and with our global audience.
07:56 Let's pray together, shall we?
07:59 Our Father in heaven, thank you so much
08:03 for this... this time that You've given us
08:05 to open Your Word and to seek You from Your Word.
08:10 God, as we open the Word we ask that You would speak to us
08:14 and bless us and draw us close to Christ.
08:19 We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.
08:24 As C.A. just mentioned our topic this evening is
08:29 Is The Bible Just Fiction?
08:33 We live in a world where the truthfulness of scripture
08:36 is almost universally questioned.
08:39 I know this because I was a skeptic.
08:44 I was raised as a young child going to church
08:47 and through a series of kind of tragic events
08:50 in that church my mom and my family... we kind of
08:54 left the church and left Christianity
08:57 and began to embrace a more secular world view.
09:01 By the time I was in my teens and early 20's
09:05 I considered myself an atheist.
09:11 In fact, the language that I used to use about Christians
09:15 I don't even use those words any more.
09:19 I was passionately secular in my thinking.
09:24 I doubted Jesus; I doubted the Bible;
09:27 I doubted religion in general.
09:30 And I imagined that if you were a person
09:35 who had respect for the Bible,
09:38 who had convictions about Jesus,
09:40 that you were likely suffering
09:42 from a deficiency of intelligence.
09:46 The dominant secular world view today,
09:49 the dominant secular philosophy today
09:51 believes that there is no world view with absolute truth.
09:57 They believe that everything is shaped by our perspective
10:02 and so everything is relative.
10:07 And it is true that everything is shaped by our perspective.
10:11 Every human world view is conditioned by humanity.
10:18 That's why in a humanistic world,
10:21 that's why in a scientific world
10:24 there can be - and I want you to listen carefully -
10:27 in a humanistic world view, in a scientific world view
10:30 there can be no absolute truth.
10:37 You know, it's interesting because the scientists
10:40 would like us to think that if you're a Christian
10:43 you can't believe what is true. But the reality is
10:46 in a scientific world there is much less truth
10:51 than in a Christian world view. "What do you mean?
10:54 What do you mean, Pastor? "
10:55 There's a philosopher of science: his name is
10:59 Karl Popper.
11:00 He is the single greatest philosopher of science
11:06 of the 20th century. If you were to go to any university,
11:10 any college, and you were to take a philosophy of science
11:13 class, Karl Popper would be the #1 person
11:18 that you would study and read. I want you to listen
11:21 to what Karl Popper said about science's ability
11:26 to tell us the truth.
11:27 Follow:
11:29 "The old scientific idea
11:32 of episteme, of absolute certain
11:36 demonstratable knowledge has proved to be an idol.
11:43 The demand for scientific objectivity
11:46 makes it inevitable that every scientific statement
11:50 must remain tentative forever. "
11:56 Did you hear that?
11:58 This is the man that teaches scientists how to think.
12:03 And what he says is is that the idea that science
12:06 can tell you absolute truth, absolute knowledge
12:10 he says: "that is an idol. "
12:12 He goes on... he says... he says that: "every scientific
12:17 statement must remain tentative forever. "
12:23 He goes on: "That is why
12:26 absolute truth... Excuse me. He goes on: "It may indeed be
12:31 corroborated, but every corroboration is relative
12:36 to other statements which again are tentative.
12:38 Only in our subjective experience of conviction
12:43 in our subjective faith can we be absolutely certain. "
12:49 So I want to unpack this statement for you.
12:52 Here you have one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th
12:55 century. Here you have a person whose job it is
12:59 to help scientists think about how they do science,
13:02 and what he says to the scientists is this:
13:05 "You can never arrive at absolute truth
13:09 because the way science works everything that you believe
13:13 is always tentative. And yes, it can be corroborated
13:16 with other things, but the other things that
13:19 it's corroborated with are all tentative
13:22 so you through science can never arrive at bedrock. "
13:28 In fact, he says in another place...
13:30 That was from The Logic of Scientific Discovery.
13:33 He says in another place: "Science is not a system of
13:38 certain or well-established statements
13:42 nor is it a system in which knowledge steadily advances
13:47 toward a state of finality.
13:50 Our science is not knowledge episteme.
13:54 It can never claim to have attained truth
13:57 or even a substitute for it such as probability. "
14:02 Now again, notice what he says. He says that...
14:05 that what we understand scientifically is not certain.
14:10 It is not well-established.
14:12 It is not a system that arrives at finality.
14:16 In fact, what we get from science is not "knowledge. "
14:21 It's not even probability.
14:25 And then he says this:
14:27 "We do not know - we can only guess -
14:32 and our guesses are guided by the unscientific,
14:37 the metaphysical faith in laws,
14:41 in regularities which we can uncover and discover. "
14:46 Now what I want you to get from this statement is this:
14:50 the secular world will come to you and they will say
14:54 "We have science, you have religion.
14:56 The science gave you computers and trips to outer space.
15:00 Religion? What did that give you? "
15:02 And they will then say that what we have in science
15:05 is more certain than what we have in scripture.
15:09 But what I want you to understand is that
15:12 what we have in science is tentative ideas that are
15:17 kind of piled on other tentative ideas...
15:20 so much so that science can never arrive
15:23 at absolute truth.
15:27 Now, John chapter 17 verse 17.
15:32 If you have your Bible, you're welcome to come there with me.
15:35 John 17:17 says these words.
15:39 Jesus is speaking and He says:
15:42 "Sanctify them by Your truth:
15:46 Your Word is truth. "
15:50 You see, science is a human project of understanding.
15:55 Science is a human project of understanding
15:57 and so because it is human it is always weak and tentative.
16:02 But Jesus claims that God's Word is truth.
16:08 And I want you to think about this with me for a moment
16:11 from a philosophical perspective.
16:14 God in the Word claims to have spoken
16:18 His thoughts and His ideas and His way of thinking.
16:23 And so, yes, any human idea
16:27 is conditioned by a human perspective.
16:30 But this book does not claim to be a human book.
16:34 This book claims to represent the thoughts and the feelings
16:39 of God. Amen! Therefore this book actually
16:44 has the capacity to do something that science can't.
16:48 Science cannot tell us absolute truth.
16:52 It's not capable of that; it's not designed to do that.
16:56 It's not possible for it to do that
16:58 because it is a human project.
17:01 But this book - God's Word -
17:04 is not a human project. It claims to have come from God.
17:09 And if it does indeed come from God,
17:11 then it is in fact possible for it to tell us
17:15 not just little-t truth.
17:17 It is possible for it to tell us absolute Truth,
17:21 final truth, capital-T Truth. Amen!
17:26 In the book of II Timothy -
17:28 you're welcome to go there as well: II Timothy
17:32 chapter 3 the Bible claims about itself
17:37 something dramatic. It claims it is not merely
17:41 a human book but that it is a book that is inspired
17:46 by God. II Timothy chapter 3.
17:50 Paul is writing to a young minister
17:53 and nothing is more important for a young minister
17:57 or an old minister than the Word of God.
18:00 So Paul says to Timothy in chapter 3 verse 15
18:06 "that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures
18:11 which are able to make you wise for salvation
18:15 through faith which is in Christ Jesus. "
18:19 Paul reminds Timothy that the scriptures
18:23 teach us the way of salvation through faith in Christ.
18:28 And then Paul says these words... verse 16:
18:32 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God. "
18:38 The fundamental idea that we have in scripture
18:41 is not that man wrote but that God inspired
18:47 this Word. Certainly humans wrote the message
18:50 that God intended for them to communicate
18:53 but this message is not a human message
18:56 it is an inspired message. It is a message
19:00 infused and enthused with the power of God.
19:06 And it goes on to say: "All scripture is given by
19:09 inspiration of God and is profitable for
19:12 doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
19:16 for instruction in righteousness
19:19 that the man of God may be complete,
19:22 thoroughly equipped for every good work. "
19:26 Now there's a couple of things that we need to note here.
19:29 Paul wrote II Timothy; it's a New Testament book.
19:32 At the time that Paul wrote this there was no New Testament.
19:37 The New Testament was in the process of being written.
19:40 So when Paul here is referring to all scripture
19:44 being inspired by God he's actually referring to
19:48 the Hebrew Bible: Genesis through Malachi.
19:51 He's referring to what Christians often call
19:53 the Old Testament.
19:55 Now what Paul says about the Hebrew Bible -
19:58 the Old Testament - is that it is profitable
20:01 for doctrine. If we as Christians
20:06 want good doctrine, it ought to be built on the whole Bible
20:11 not just a part of the Bible.
20:13 And so Paul says: "All scripture is given
20:16 by inspiration of God. " That this book,
20:19 the whole of it, is not a human product...
20:22 it's a divine product.
20:24 And because it's a divine product
20:26 it actually has the ability to tell us the truth
20:30 in the way that no human intellectual product
20:34 ever could. All throughout the scripture
20:37 the truthfulness and the voracity of scripture
20:41 is proclaimed. In the book of Psalms
20:44 Psalm 18 says it in the following way.
20:50 Psalm 18 verse 30 says:
20:53 "As for God? His way is perfect. "
20:57 It goes on: "The Word of the Lord
21:03 is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in Him. "
21:10 Here Psalm 18 speaks of God's Word as being proven,
21:15 tested. The language there comes from a refiner's fire.
21:19 And so the idea is that if you put this book
21:25 into the refiner's fire nothing will be burned away.
21:30 There's no dross in this book.
21:33 This book is proven Word of God.
21:37 The next Psalm - Psalm 19- describes the Word of God
21:42 in lots of language, a variety of language,
21:46 but it's all driving at the same concept.
21:49 Psalm 19:7. In this context he says: "The law of the Lord
21:54 is perfect. " The word law there refers to
21:57 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy:
22:00 the Torah. "The law of the Lord is perfect
22:04 converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord
22:07 is sure. " That's what the prophets write.
22:10 That's the rest of the Old Testament.
22:12 That which is not law in the Old Testament
22:14 is the testimonies. So: "The law of the Lord
22:19 is perfect, converting the soul. "
22:20 That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviti- cus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
22:23 The testimony of the Lord: that's the things the prophets
22:26 say. "The testimony of the Lord is sure,
22:29 making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
22:32 are right, rejoicing the heart.
22:35 The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
22:40 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
22:44 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
22:48 all together. More to be desired are they than gold...
22:54 yea, than much fine gold.
22:57 Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. "
23:02 This Word - this book - claims to come from a divine origin.
23:09 This book claims to come from a transcendent perspective:
23:13 the perspective of God.
23:15 A human perspective can never tell you capital-T Truth.
23:18 But God's perspective CAN tell you capital-T Truth.
23:23 But that leads us to a very important question.
23:28 What are the evidences that this book came from God?
23:34 What are the evidences that this is indeed
23:38 a book that has God's Word in it, that is God's Word?
23:44 Now, I thought of several arguments,
23:47 sort of different reasons why I believe that this...
23:52 this book is God's Word.
23:54 And I'm going to kind of...
23:56 I'm going to start in the most basic way and then we're
23:59 going to expand and expand until we get to the
24:02 final argument which I believe is the most compelling argument
24:06 for why I believe this book is God's Word.
24:10 And the first thing I'd like to bring to your attention is -
24:13 and maybe you've heard this or maybe even you've said this -
24:17 that "How can we believe that this is what God said
24:23 when this book is so old?
24:27 How do we know what it actually said when it was written? "
24:30 Number one, and number two: "It's been translated so many
24:33 times how could we even know what it really says? "
24:37 Maybe you've heard that or maybe even said
24:40 "I said both those things a lot when I was a skeptic. "
24:45 Now... share a couple of ideas with you.
24:48 Number one: in 1946 a shepherd boy was looking after
24:54 his animals and one of his animals wandered into a cave.
24:58 And he, being a wee little lad,
25:02 didn't want to go into that dark scary cave
25:05 to get his little animal out.
25:09 And so he picked up a rock and he threw it at...
25:12 at the entrance of the cave. The rock goes into the cave
25:16 and he hears the sound of breaking pottery.
25:23 And he thought to himself: "Well that's an unusual sound. "
25:26 And so he and his fellow tribe
25:32 started kind of investigating.
25:34 And they discovered something that is called
25:38 the Dead Sea Scrolls.
25:41 In the caves around the Dead Sea
25:44 there are perfectly preserved copies
25:47 of the entire Old Testament minus one small book
25:52 that date from the days of Jesus.
25:56 Fascinatingly enough, as they went through those documents
26:03 meticulously - and it took them decades to go through all
26:06 of the documents... And by the way, I've had the
26:08 privilege of seeing many of those documents
26:10 with my very own eyes. It's absolutely incredible
26:13 to gaze on a 2,000-year-old scroll
26:17 and imagine the Essenes - that's who did the copying,
26:22 a group of people called the Essenes.
26:23 They lived in the Qumran community.
26:25 And so it's just incredible to see those 2,000-year-old
26:29 scrolls and imagine these Essene scribes in the Qumran community
26:35 copying meticulously Isaiah, Jeremiah,
26:39 Ezekiel, Daniel. And here's the amazing thing:
26:45 what we now know is that the Old Testament
26:49 that Jesus Himself had access to
26:51 is identical to the Old Testament
26:55 that we have in our Bibles today. Amen!
26:58 There was an absolute science
27:03 to copying scripture in the days of Jesus.
27:05 Now I want you to imagine: you're copying and you make
27:09 a mistake... And when they copy they count every syllable.
27:13 They count every letter; they count every word.
27:16 Everything has to be perfect
27:19 and if there is any mistake at all
27:23 the whole thing went in the "trash bin. "
27:31 So what does that mean?
27:33 What that means is... is that there is not a real question
27:38 as to what the Bible actually says.
27:43 We know that the Bible that we have today
27:47 came down through 2,000 years of history
27:51 to us today, and the words that we have
27:55 are identifcal to the words they had in Jesus' day.
28:01 Now... what about the translation?
28:03 Sometimes people... people say: "Well... but... OK, OK,
28:07 we'll grant that Hebrew and the Greek and the Aramaic
28:11 are all the way they were, but the Bible has been translated
28:14 so many times, you know, how could you ever
28:18 ever trust it? "
28:23 I was talking to a friend of mine.
28:25 She and her husband were under- cover missionaries in Turkey.
28:31 OK? There's less than 5,000 Christians in the entire
28:37 country of Turkey. Millions... there's 200 million people
28:42 in the country of Turkey and there's less than 5,000
28:45 Christians. So they went there to plant a church.
28:49 And they worked very hard and God blessed them
28:51 and they were successful. When she first moved to Turkey
28:54 she got pregnant, she had a baby.
28:56 She didn't speak a "lick" of Turkish.
29:02 So how did she communicate with the doctor?
29:07 A translator.
29:09 Now, if you... if you were having a baby
29:13 or maybe you were in some foreign land and you had
29:15 some kind of injury, would the fact that you had to use
29:19 a translator to communicate with the doctor...
29:21 would that keep you from going to see the doctor?
29:26 If I broke my leg in Mexico
29:30 and I needed a translator to get some help,
29:33 you'd better believe I'm going to be happy
29:35 to have a translator.
29:37 If I get hit by a truck in Paris, I'd be happy to have
29:41 a translator to help me get put back together.
29:44 So, so yes... the Bible has been translated
29:48 and yes, I thank God FOR it!
29:51 'Cause I don't read Hebrew very well and I don't read Greek
29:55 very well and I don't read Aramaic very well.
29:58 And so I thank God that there are translators
30:02 that can help me understand what it was that God said.
30:06 Now it's interesting because I don't speak much Spanish
30:11 but I do know if I say ¿Cuántos años tienes?
30:17 that means how many years do you have?
30:21 Right? But when we translate it we say what?
30:26 How old are you? That's right... that's right.
30:29 So some Bible translations will translate it
30:34 "Well... how many years do you have? "
30:36 OK? Another might say: "Well how old are you? "
30:39 And then another might say: "Yeah, what's up, homie?
30:41 When's your birthday? "
30:48 I try not to go into those translations
30:51 'cause that's a little interpretive, right?
30:54 But if one says: "How many years do you have? "
30:56 I have to scratch: "Well that's kind of weird but I think that
30:58 means how old are you, right?
31:00 And another says: "How old are you? "
31:04 they are different... but are they that different?
31:08 I don't think so.
31:12 So number one: the first idea here about why we believe
31:16 the Bible. Number one: we can believe the Bible
31:18 because the Bible that we have - even if it's translated -
31:21 is essentially the same in every meaningful way
31:25 that it was in the days of Jesus.
31:28 That's the big idea. You follow that? Yes or no?
31:31 Yes. So what I want you to understand is you don't have to
31:34 be afraid when you pick up this book
31:37 that this isn't the message that God sent to you.
31:42 It is the same. There's been no meaningful change
31:46 in thousands of years.
31:50 Now, the second reason to believe, second important
31:54 reason: major things in the scriptures, major and minor
32:00 things in the scriptures have been verified
32:03 archaeologically, OK?
32:06 So for example, we found the Dead Sea Scrolls.
32:08 We would call that an archaeological discovery
32:11 that verifies the reliability of scripture.
32:15 I'll give you another one: for years... for years people were
32:18 saying: "Oh, that Old Testament. It keeps talking about
32:21 King David, King David, King David. "
32:23 "Who is this King David guy? We can't find anything about him
32:28 anywhere else. " Until they found
32:34 the Tel Dan inscription. They found a little statue
32:38 not in Israel actually... in one of their neighboring countries.
32:43 And in there it refers to a military victory
32:47 that corresponds to II Chronicles chapter 22
32:51 where David gained a dramatic military victory
32:54 over their enemies.
32:56 Now what I want you to under- stand is for years the skeptics
32:59 were basically looking at Christians saying:
33:02 "Nanny nanny boo boo, " right?
33:03 They're like saying: "Hey look, you guys keep talking about this
33:07 King David guy. He's a myth... he never existed.
33:10 There's no such guy. Archaeology's never found
33:13 anything about it. " And then all of a sudden
33:16 we find a little inscription
33:21 that one of Israel's neighbors had
33:23 that records the time when they got "whupped"
33:26 by King David. OK? Now, look, look, look
33:32 do you make monuments to when you got "whupped"
33:35 when you really didn't get "whupped? "
33:42 So all of a sudden we went from thinking - the secularists
33:45 went from thinking - King David's a myth
33:49 to King David's the real deal
33:51 and exactly what II Chronicles 22 said
33:56 actually happened.
33:58 Here's another one: there's a man in Jeremiah chapter 39
34:02 verse 2. And he's just a total minor figure. I mean,
34:07 he's just an extra cast member in the book of Jeremiah.
34:12 But they're out there digging in Babylon
34:15 and they find a receipt... How many of you have ever given
34:18 a gift to a non-profit organization
34:21 and they sent you a little receipt in the mail
34:23 telling you: "Thank you so much for your donation to 3ABN?
34:27 We couldn't do what we do if you didn't give us that gift. "
34:30 You've received one of those receipts in the mail
34:32 or from your church or from some other organization?
34:36 We've been doing that kind of gift receipt for thousands
34:40 of years. Five hundred years before Jesus was born
34:44 this man from the book of Jeremiah
34:47 made an offering to the Babylonian temple
34:51 of gold, and there's an offering receipt.
34:53 And somebody's out digging in the desert
34:55 and lo and behold, they find his receipt
34:58 for the offering that he made.
35:00 And it's the same guy in the book of Jeremiah.
35:06 People would have read the book of Jeremiah and said:
35:09 "Come on! Who's this guy? Did he really work for the
35:12 Babylonian court? Was he really alive at this time? "
35:16 And sure enough, we now have archaeological evidence
35:19 of his existence. Here's another one...
35:22 I think you'll like this one. In the Old Testament
35:25 there's this king. His name's King Hezekiah.
35:28 Again, people wondered if he was a real guy.
35:30 King Hezekiah began a great reform, and he began to
35:33 overthrow the false worship in Israel, and he began to
35:38 bring about revival and reformation.
35:40 And things began to go a lot better.
35:43 And there's this funny thing that they decided to do.
35:47 If they found a temple to a false god named Baal
35:51 they would turn it into a latrine.
35:58 Some of ya'll don't know what a latrine is?
36:00 That's all right.
36:04 That's the polite way of referring to the outhouse,
36:08 all right?
36:10 Now I don't know about you but I actually find a little joy
36:13 just in the fact that they would turn a false god's home
36:17 into an outhouse. That just makes me think
36:19 that it's kind of nice some people in the Old Testament
36:22 had a sense of humor. Amen!
36:26 So long story short, again they're out there in the desert
36:29 digging. And they're digging and they find a latrine
36:36 in a temple devoted to Baal
36:40 dating from the days of Hezekiah
36:43 in the very city that Hezekiah turned a temple of Baal
36:48 into a latrine.
36:53 Now, what I'm telling... by sharing these things with you
36:57 and these are just... I mean there are dozens and dozens
37:00 and dozens of these archaeological findings.
37:02 By sharing these archaeological discoveries with you, what I'm,
37:06 what I'm trying to say to you is number 1: the Dead Sea Scrolls
37:10 say that the book that we have is the same as the book
37:14 Jesus had. That's number one.
37:15 Number two: that this book is a historical book
37:19 and it tells a historical story. And many of the events
37:24 in that story have been verified
37:27 through actual on-the-ground data.
37:30 Real live... like they found the toilet
37:36 in the temple of Baal
37:39 that Hezekiah had built. I mean, they found it!
37:45 OK?
37:47 Now... the second kind of major...
37:52 So the first is we would say archaeological evidence:
37:54 whether it's the Dead Sea Scrolls or all these other
37:56 things I've mentioned. The second one is Bible prophecy.
38:01 And I'll have to tell you: Bible prophecy was probably
38:04 the most compelling evidence that I personally experienced
38:09 very early in my Christian life.
38:12 Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah.
38:15 Isaiah chapter 44... Isaiah 44.
38:19 In Isaiah 44 beginning in verse 6
38:29 the Bible says this:
38:36 "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
38:40 and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts:
38:42 'I am the first and I am the last;
38:46 besides Me there is no God. ' "
38:54 Verse 7: "Who can proclaim as I do?
38:57 Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me
39:01 since I appoint the ancient people and the things that are
39:05 coming and shall come.
39:08 Let them show these to them. "
39:12 Now I don't know if you follow the argument there.
39:15 God is saying: "Look, look! I am God.
39:18 There's nobody like Me... I am the only God.
39:20 I set up things in the ancient past.
39:23 I am the Creator, and I actually tell things that are coming
39:28 in the future. If these other gods -
39:31 these other people who claim to be God, these idols -
39:34 if they're really God I want them to... I want
39:37 them to do what I do.
39:40 I want them to be a Creator God in the past
39:43 and I want them to be a predicting God in the present. "
39:49 You see, what God says is that He has the ability to predict
39:53 the future, and that ability to predict the future
39:58 is actually evidence that He is the one true Creator God.
40:04 Isaiah chapter 46...
40:08 just a couple pages over.
40:11 Isaiah 46 verse 9.
40:19 "Remember the former things of old
40:21 for I am God and there is no other.
40:24 I am God, and there is none like Me,
40:28 declaring the end from the beginning
40:32 and from ancient times things that are not yet done
40:37 saying: 'My counsel shall stand
40:40 and I will do all My pleasure. ' "
40:45 Here in the book of Isaiah God makes it clear
40:48 He is unique among all so-called gods
40:53 because He can declare the end from the beginning.
40:56 He can declare things that have not yet happened
40:59 and then they do happen.
41:01 And we have many examples of this tonight.
41:04 We don't have time to actually go look at them
41:07 but I am certain that 3ABN has many wonderful resources
41:11 on this available online.
41:13 And I'll give you a couple examples.
41:16 In the book of Daniel - in Daniel chapter 2-
41:19 there is a vision. And in that vision
41:23 it predicts the rise of four great empires:
41:26 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
41:29 It predicts that that fourth empire would break apart
41:32 and that there would never be a fifth empire to replace
41:37 that Roman Empire in modern Europe.
41:41 In Daniel 7 you have the same thing.
41:44 Four beasts arise up out of the earth...
41:46 out of the sea, actually.
41:48 And those beasts represent Babylon, Medo-Persia,
41:52 Greece, and Rome. And then that Roman beast has 10 horns
41:56 and out of those 10 horns comes a little horn.
42:00 And that little horn represents the rise of the Medieval church.
42:06 I mean, these prophecies: hundreds and yea, even thousands
42:11 of years in advance articulated what was going to happen.
42:16 And it happened just like it said it would.
42:20 In the book of Ezekiel - Ezekiel 26-
42:23 there is a phenomenal... phenomenal prophecy
42:26 about this city of Tyre. It was on the Mediterranean Sea.
42:31 It was a little coastal town, and God predicted
42:35 through Ezekiel that that city would be judged
42:38 by Babylon. And just as God had predicted
42:42 it was judged. But then the prophecy gets interesting.
42:47 It says that that town would be "scraped into the sea. "
42:54 Now I don't know about you, but scraping cities into the sea
42:58 seems like a waste of time.
43:02 Right? So Babylon overthrew Tyre
43:05 and they never took the time to scrape them into the sea.
43:09 And then along comes a guy named Alexander the Great
43:13 and there's a little island off the coast of Tyre.
43:16 And Alexander wants to overthrow that little island
43:20 but Alexander has no way. He has no boats;
43:22 he has no ship. How is he going to overthrow that little island?
43:25 "Let me think... You know what I'll do?
43:28 I'll scrape the city into the sea. "
43:32 And so that's what he did. He had his soldiers
43:35 scrape the city into the sea. And they marched across
43:40 that little... that rubble and overtook the city.
43:44 Now the prophecy took time to be fulfilled
43:48 and for a time it looked like it wouldn't be fulfilled.
43:52 But then it was fulfilled just as Ezekiel had predicted.
43:59 And there are countless others.
44:01 Probably the best ones are concerning our Lord and Savior
44:04 Jesus Christ. In the book of Micah chapter 5 verse 2
44:09 it predicts exactly where Jesus would be born.
44:14 In Hosea 11 it predicts that Messiah would flee to Egypt.
44:20 In the book of Daniel - Daniel chapter 9-
44:23 incredible time prophecy there that predicts the exact
44:27 date of the beginning of the ministry of our Lord and Savior.
44:31 Daniel 9 also predicts the exact time of His crucifixion.
44:36 It also predicts the time when the gospel would begin to
44:40 spread to the Gentile nations.
44:43 Daniel chapter... or excuse me, Leviticus 23 beginning in
44:47 verse 5 predicts the time when Jesus would be crucified
44:51 on the Passover... on the date of the Passover.
44:55 All throughout the Old Testament there are dozens and dozens
44:59 and dozens of prophecies that have met a precise
45:03 fulfillment in history and in the life, death and resurrection
45:08 of Jesus Christ. These prophecies proclaim
45:12 that this book is not a book of human origin.
45:17 This book comes from God.
45:20 This book is inspired by God
45:24 and it is the Truth... capital-T Truth...
45:28 in a way that no human philosophy or human speculation
45:32 ever could be. Amen! Now...
45:36 the greatest, the single greatest evidence
45:42 for the truthfulness of scripture
45:45 is found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
45:49 And it's going to take me a while to get there.
45:52 I want to just summarize though.
45:54 Why do I believe this book is true? So far
45:57 we talked about archaeological evidence,
45:59 whether it's the Dead Sea Scrolls or events that are
46:04 verified through history.
46:06 We've talked about prophecy and now we're going to talk
46:10 about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
46:15 In Mark chapter 8- you can go there if you'd like -
46:18 Mark chapter 8 verse 31
46:19 Jesus predicts His death. Mark chapter 8
46:24 beginning in verse 31.
46:27 In fact, Jesus predicts His death three times:
46:31 Mark 8, Mark 9, and Mark 10.
46:36 Mark 8 verse 31, it says: "He began to teach them
46:41 that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected
46:45 by the elders and the chief priests
46:47 and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again.
46:52 He spoke this word openly
46:55 and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. "
47:00 Here Jesus begins to teach about His death, burial,
47:03 and resurrection. Mark 9 verse 31 again:
47:07 "Jesus, " it says, "taught His disciples
47:11 and said to them: 'The Son of Man is being betrayed
47:15 into the hands of men and they will kill Him.
47:19 And after He is killed He will rise the third day. ' "
47:24 And they did not understand this saying
47:26 and were afraid to ask Him. "
47:28 The third time is in Mark chapter 10 verse 33.
47:32 Mark 10 verse 33.
47:35 Jesus says: "Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem.
47:39 The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests
47:43 and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death
47:46 and deliver Him to the Gentiles.
47:49 And they will mock Him and scourge Him
47:51 and spit on Him and kill Him.
47:54 And the third day He will rise again. "
47:59 In John chapter 14 verse 29 Jesus tells us
48:04 why He makes these consistent prophecies
48:08 of His death, burial, and resurrection.
48:11 In John 14:29 He says exactly what Isaiah says.
48:17 He says: "And now I have told you
48:21 before it comes to pass
48:24 that when it does come to pass
48:26 you may... " What? "believe. "
48:30 Jesus consistently articulated the truth:
48:34 that He was going to die, be buried, and resurrected
48:37 on the third day. He consistently communicated that
48:40 before His death, burial, and resurrection
48:42 and then we get to the punch line. And the punch line is
48:45 "I am telling you this... I am telling you this
48:49 so that when it happens you might believe. "
48:54 Now... this leads us to the most important question
49:00 that Christians must ask them- selves. And not just Christians.
49:04 This is the most important ques- tion that confronts the world:
49:09 "Did Jesus Christ really die and rise again? "
49:15 Did He really die and rise again?
49:19 And I will tell you there are three reasons
49:21 why I believe that Jesus died and rose again.
49:25 Number one: the historical evidence
49:28 indicates very clearly that Jesus actually died
49:33 on the cross. Now you might remember in the gospel of John
49:36 when Jesus is on the cross. He dies, and then to make sure
49:40 that He's dead, the soldier takes a spear
49:43 and he plunges that spear into the side of Jesus.
49:48 And the spear goes through His lungs
49:51 and into the pericardial cavity there.
49:55 And then through that sac - that pericardial sac.
49:58 It goes through that... punctures the heart.
50:01 And out of that wound
50:05 pours blood and water.
50:09 There is no question that Jesus died on the cross.
50:13 Whether it's extra-Biblical sources like the Roman historian
50:17 Tacitus, the Jewish historian Josephus,
50:21 and the Talmud. All of these non-Bible sources
50:26 confirm the fact that Jesus lived and died.
50:31 You know why it's so important to know that Jesus died?
50:35 'Cause you can't rise from the dead if you're not dead first.
50:39 Amen! Right?
50:43 And there is no question that He was dead!
50:49 Number two: on Sunday morning
50:54 the tomb was empty.
50:56 OK. Now... how do we know the tomb was empty?
50:59 OK? Number one: the women
51:03 showed up at the tomb and He wasn't there...
51:05 which today isn't a big deal but back then
51:08 saying the women showed up and He wasn't there was a big deal.
51:14 You know why it was a big deal?
51:17 'Cause women weren't a big deal.
51:20 Now don't... Look... now don't stone me.
51:23 I'm not saying they're not a big deal today.
51:25 I'm just saying they were not perceived as a big deal
51:28 back then. In fact, in the days of Jesus
51:31 women were not even allowed to testify in court.
51:36 Since the Bible says the first witnesses of the empty tomb
51:40 and the resurrection of Jesus were women
51:42 we have... that's not the sort of crazy talk you'd make up.
51:49 You follow me here this evening?
51:52 Now again, I'm not talking in the 21st century.
51:55 I'm talking about in this time.
52:00 Probably the most compelling reason that I believe Jesus
52:03 rose from the dead is found in I Corinthians 15.
52:05 In I Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul says
52:08 that... he says this, and I'll read it to you.
52:11 I Corinthians chapter 15.
52:13 Oh, it's absolutely incredible!
52:16 Paul says, I Corinthians 15 verse 3:
52:18 "I deliver to you first of all
52:23 that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins
52:27 in accordance with the scriptures. That He was buried,
52:29 that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures,
52:33 and that He was seen by Peter - Cephas -
52:37 then by the twelve.
52:38 After that He was seen by over 500 brethren at once! "
52:45 Now I want you to follow what Paul says.
52:46 He says: "Look, church... I'm telling you...
52:49 I'm telling you what I always told you. Number one:
52:51 Jesus died for your sins just like the Bible said so.
52:55 That He was buried and He rose again
52:58 just like the Bible predicted. And then He was seen
53:02 by Peter and by the twelve
53:06 and then" - whew! mind-blowing!
53:09 "He was seen by more than 500 people at the same time! "
53:17 Now, this is where things get incredible.
53:20 What did those apostles do?
53:22 They began traveling the world preaching and teaching
53:26 and telling the story of the risen Christ.
53:28 And let me tell you... let me tell you:
53:31 I'm here, nice comfortable room, air conditioning,
53:34 lights, cameras, nice people.
53:36 It wasn't like that when Paul went to Rome.
53:39 It wasn't like that when Thomas walked all the way to India.
53:43 He got there, preached a little while,
53:45 and they decided to stick him with a lance.
53:50 Now look, how many of you ever told a lie?
53:53 If you're not raising your hand, you're lying.
53:56 OK... all right.
54:01 Most of the time people tell lies to get out of trouble.
54:06 Right?
54:08 They tell lies to get out of trouble.
54:11 You don't run around telling people that Jesus was "risen"
54:14 from the dead as a lie if it's going to get you
54:17 in more trouble.
54:19 Listen to this: Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia.
54:24 John was thrown into a pot of boiling oil in Rome,
54:29 survived, and was exiled to Patmos.
54:31 Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.
54:34 James superior was decapitated in Jerusalem.
54:38 James the less was stoned and beaten with a mallet
54:41 until he died. Thomas was pierced to death with lances
54:44 in India. Philip was hanged from a pillar in Asia Minor.
54:49 Bartholomew was cut apart alive in India.
54:52 Simon the Zealot was crucified in Persia.
54:55 Andrew was crucified in what is now Russia.
55:00 Matthias was burned in Syria.
55:03 Barnabas was stoned to death in Cyprus.
55:05 Paul was decapitated by Nero in Rome.
55:09 Mark was drawn through the streets in Alexandria in Egypt
55:12 until he died. Luke was hanged from an olive tree
55:16 in Greece. Now I want you to just get this, my friends.
55:19 All these earliest closest friends of Jesus
55:23 gave their lives... not for some silly lie.
55:27 You know, it's not a fairy tale. It's not a tooth fairy,
55:32 Easter bunny kind of lie.
55:33 They saw Jesus ALIVE! Amen!
55:38 They saw Him raised from the dead, and they were willing
55:41 to give their lives... they were willing to give their lives
55:46 because they knew the One who had conquered death
55:50 completely. Amen!
55:52 Man... I get excited about that!
55:54 Amen! Jesus is alive!
55:57 And you know what? His resurrection proves
56:00 that He is God - Amen! in the human flesh.
56:04 Now listen to what He said.
56:05 Jesus while He was alive referred to Adam and Eve
56:09 in Matthew 19. He referred to Abel in Luke 11.
56:13 He referred to Noah in Matthew 24.
56:15 He referred to Abraham in John 6.
56:18 He referred to Sodom in Luke 17 and Lot's wife in Luke 17
56:22 and Isaac and Jacob in Luke 20 Moses' calling in Mark 12
56:27 and the law given by Moses in Matthew 19.
56:31 And the Ten Commandments in the book of Matthew
56:35 and the manna in John 6 and the brazen serpent in John 3
56:39 and David eating the showbread in Matthew 12
56:41 and the Queen of Sheba in Matthew 12
56:44 and the wisdom and glory of Solomon, and Elijah
56:47 and the widow and the role of Elijah in the future.
56:50 And Jonah and the whale
56:52 and the judgments on Tyre and Sidon.
56:54 In other words, Jesus believed this book! Amen!
56:59 Jesus - the risen One - our Lord and Savior
57:03 who hung on the cross and rose from the dead
57:06 He... He believed this book!
57:09 And so, so, so... this book tells us the truth
57:13 in the way that no human ever could.
57:16 Because this is capital-T Truth; it comes from heaven!
57:20 And I want you to know, brothers and sisters,
57:22 I want you to know... I want you to know
57:24 that when it comes to this book
57:26 I am with the Man who rose from the dead!


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Revised 2023-04-09