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Lessons and Sermons from the Longmire Road church of Christ in Conroe Texas USA
Bible is infallible.
Upon that statement rests your salvation,
your hopes and your dreams.
Upon that statement, the Bible is
infallible.
Rests your marriage, your parenting,
your decisions, your direction,
and your final destination.
Upon that statement, the Bible is
infallible,
rests every promise you have ever claimed,
every prayer you have ever prayed,
and every morning you have ever gotten out
of bed with the conviction that
you were going to live for the Lord.
The Bible is infallible. It is not just
useful.
It is not just sage advice.
It is not just a beautiful, heartfelt
story,
but every word on every page is absolutely
and completely above reproach.
The Bible is infallible.
And that is a very lofty claim to make.
It's certainly a claim that has been
disputed by those in the world,
even by some in the body of Christ and in
the religious world,
that this book is not infallible.
This book does not or is not above
reproach,
that it contains many errors, and that
even some has some have said that
we should not wholeheartedly follow it as
the word of God.
And so it is a stop a topic that is hotly
disputed.
But yet it is not a statement.
The Bible is infallible. It's not a
statement without sufficient evidence
to say it with confidence. To say it with
grand confidence and to know that
it is true. And so tonight in our sermon,
we will endeavor to bolster that
confidence or strengthen it once again
by looking at three things. We will
consider the definition of infallibility
and how it relates to scripture then.
Number two, we will consider briefly the
detractors of infallibility,
those who say contrary to that statement.
And then number three, we will consider a
demonstration of infallibility,
some facts, just some facts, as it relates
to the scriptures and what
the scripture says about itself or what is
contained in it.
And so let's start with the definition of
infallibility.
A thing cannot be properly understood
until it is correctly defined.
And so let's see what the scholars,
the language scholars has to say about the
concept of infallibility.
When we consider Webster's English
Dictionary and also dictionary.com
together,
when we consider what they say about
infallibility,
it is not capable of erring. Entirely
exempt from liability to mistake,
not liable to fail or to deceive.
To be infallible is the prerogative of God
only,
Webster says.
If you go to dictionary.com and you type
in what is infallible
or what does infallibility mean,
it means absolutely trustworthy or sure.
Underscore that. Absolutely trustworthy or
sure.
Unfailing in its effectiveness or
operation.
Unfailing in its effectiveness or
operation.
That is when you type in the word
infallible.
And so that those are some very lofty
claims.
And so when we put the definition
together,
what we understand of the scriptures and
what is said of the scriptures,
we can rightly say that this can be said
of the Bible,
even though some may deny it. And so when
you consider the scriptures
and what is said about the scriptures,
notice then that the Bible, according to
the definition,
if it is infallible, the Bible is not
capable of erring.
The Bible is not capable of erring.
And this is Psalm 18 and verse 30.
This is what the psalmist says about the
word of God.
When we talk about the Bible, we're
talking about the compilation of 66 books.
We're talking about the revelation of God.
We're talking about the scriptures.
We're talking about the will of God.
And notice what the psalmist says about
the will of God.
As for God, his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried.
Tried. He is a buckler to all those who
trusted him.
The word tried there in the Hebrew,
very interesting. It means to refine.
It means to test. This word describes the
purifying process.
~ one who heats metal takes away the
dross,
and it is left with the pure substance.
So the idea is here is that the word has
gone through the purifying process.
The word has gone through the purifying
process,
and on the other end, you're left with
something that is without dross.
You're left with something that is wholly
pure.
You're left with something that does not
have any impurities in it.
That's the psalmist's claim about the word
of the Lord.
And so if you go to Psalm chapter 12 and
verse 6,
notice what it says: the words of the Lord
are pure words.
As silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times. Over and over,
that number of perfection. There are no
impurities in it,
the psalmist claims. It is unadulterated.
It is untainted. It is perfectly pure.
It does not contain mistakes. It is not
capable of erring,
according to the definition of
infallibility.
And that is great assurance for our
salvation.
Because we might ask the question:
how are we made pure in the sight of God?
Christians are made pure or cleansed from
dross,
but how are we cleansed from the dross of
sin?
What could
possibly cleanse us well the blood of
Jesus the Christ,
one might say. But notice what the
scripture says in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses
22 and 23. First Peter chapter 1 verses 22
and 23 tells us how we come
in contact with the blood of Jesus the
Christ.
Seeing then that you have purified your
souls.
How? In obeying the truth. You have
purified your souls
by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ
Through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of
the brethren.
See that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently,
being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God
which liveth and abideth forever.
We are born again by our obedience to the
gospel of Jesus the Christ.
It is the blood of Christ that covers us,
and we come in contact with that blood
through baptism.
We understand baptism is necessary for
salvation through the preaching of the
word.
And so he uses this as a synecdoche.
He says, You are born again by the word of
God.
Without the word of God, you cannot be
born again.
How shall they believe if they have not
heard the glorious gospel?
Romans chapter 10, verses 13 through 17
illustrates.
And so if the Bible were corrupt,
if the Bible were corrupt, then it could
not cleanse.
If the Bible was full of errors,
then it could not make you clean.
Because how can that which is unclean
Make you perfectly clean in the sight of
God.
When we obey the gospel, we are following
a pattern.
We are following a form of doctrine that
is incapable of erring.
When you follow that form of doctrine,
when you follow the doctrine of salvation,
you can be sure that you are saved.
Why? Because the Bible is not going to err
in that fashion.
You can be sure that what you are doing is
according to righteousness.
Why? Because God's not going to lie to you
in this book.
It's going to be free from error.
And so the Bible is not capable of erring,
but then also we have to understand that
it is not capable of deceiving.
One of the traits of infallibility is the
idea that it is not capable of deceiving.
Because it is infallible, it will not lead
you astray.
Now, we understand this concept very well.
The idea of being deceived. I want you to
take your minds into your home.
It is maybe one o'clock at night.
You decide you're going to get a drink of
water.
You've lived there for a long time,
but it is completely dark. And then you
hear something and you decide
to take off running in the dark in the
home that you've lived in for
a very long time. What do you suppose is
going to happen when you
run through your house? What are the
chances that you would run into something?
Very great, right?
Even though you've lived there,
we understand that we're not going to run
with grand confidence through a home,
even the home that we've lived in,
with great confidence when it is dark.
But we would do that if there were light.
You see why? Because darkness deceives us,
so to speak. But light will illuminate our
path,
it will show us the way. And so light does
not deceive.
Where there is light, there is sight,
there is clarity, there is surety.
We can walk with assurance because we can
see.
And so the psalmist would then use that
analogy of light.
Supposed to darkness to describe the word
of God.
He says that the word of God in Psalm
119-105,
the word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my path.
The Bible, the Word of God, it's not able
to deceive you.
Why? Because it's lighting the way.
It is showing you the way. The Bible is
that lamp,
if you will, that you can hold up to be
able to see where to go.
And if you can see where to go,
you cannot or will not be deceived.
The Bible is not, is going to light the
way,
rather. It will bring clarity where there
was confusion.
It will bring surety where there was
doubt.
It will lead you in the right way because
it is incapable of deceiving you.
This book's not going to deceive you.
Now, individuals may try to deceive you
with the book.
Individuals may come and tell you things
about the book that are not correct.
Individuals may try to take verses out of
its context.
They may try to misapply scripture in
order to get you to do something or
get you to go somewhere. But in and of
itself,
the Bible properly interpreted and
correctly applied,
it will not deceive.
God, through the annals of history,
when we consider what man does through the
annals of history and just looking
at biblical history, when man leaves God's
way,
they get themselves into trouble.
Read through the annals of biblical
history.
It's every time man got himself into
trouble and God has to come rescuing him.
It's when we left the ways of God.
It's when we left the word of God or the
will of God.
At the very beginning, man got himself in
trouble,
plunged the whole world into sin.
Why? Because they left the will or word of
God.
God said, Do not eat, they ate.
And from then on onward, man has been
doing the same thing.
Man has been deceived by the lies of the
deceiver,
instead of being led in the right paths by
the Word of God.
You can't go wrong, and you can go the
wrong way when you are following
the Lord's ways.
And so this is what this book promises.
It is not capable of erring. There's no
errors in here that's going
to lead you astray or cause harm to you.
It is not capable of deceiving.
It's going to lead you in the right way.
The Bible's ways are correct. The things
that are mentioned in there are correct.
But then also we have to understand that
it is unfailing in its effectiveness.
That's one of the definitions of
infallibility,
to be unfailing in effectiveness.
Now we understand what it means.
unfailing in its effectiveness.
We understand the negative principle of
that.
Because many times we would buy something
and we think the thing is going
to be effective or it's going to work for
what we need and then it fails.
It is not unfailing in its effectiveness.
But the Bible claims to be unfailing in
its effectiveness.
In fact in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 10
through 11,
Isaiah records the following it says for
as the rain cometh down and
the snow from heaven and returneth not
thither
But water the earth and maketh it bring
forth and bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and
bread to the eater.
So shall my word be, the Lord says,
that goes forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void,
but it will accomplish that which I
please,
and it shall prosper in the thing
whereunto I sent it.
God's word, if you allow me to paraphrase,
God's word will do what it do.
God's word will do exactly what he sends
it forth to do.
Whether you obey the word of God or
whether you ignore the word of God,
God's word is going to do what it is
supposed to do.
That's God's promise. His word is
unfailing in its effectiveness.
You know, some say, well, you know,
the Bible doesn't work. I say,
well, we tried it the Bible's way and and
we tried it that way and it doesn't work.
I've heard this so many times.
The most pro popular thing probably is
church discipline.
When it comes to church discipline and
say,
Wow, we tried it that way. You need to
withdraw from this brother because he's
living in sin, and the only way to bring
him back,
the Lord says, is to withdraw from him.
And then what do my brethren say?
Well, that doesn't really work.
You know what you're saying when you say
that?
You're saying that the will of God is not
effective
to accomplish the thing that it says it's
going to accomplish.
The will of God, the wisdom of God,
is not effective.
To do what it says it's going to do.
But well, you know, we tried preaching the
gospel.
Maybe we need to bring in a band,
right? Maybe we need to bring in a light
show,
as the congregation down the street does.
We bring in the light show. We'll have
women up here as we talked about this
morning. Let's do all of those things
because the gospel is not powerful enough.
It's not effective enough to save people.
No, the gospel's effective. The gospel
will do exactly what God sent it to do.
The problem is.
That man is handling it incorrectly,
and they certainly do. They might be
interpreting it incorrectly,
they may be practicing it inappropriately,
but the Bible works perfectly.
It does not need fixing, it does not need
changing,
it just needs obeying. Because it is
perfect and it is unfailing
in its effectiveness. That's God's
promise.
That this book is going to do exactly what
I sent it forth to do.
And so the Bible will do what God wants it
to do all the time,
every time.
Therefore, the apostle Paul could write in
Romans chapter 1 and verse 16,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ,
confused about it. He says, For it is the
power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believed, to the Jew
first,
and also to the Greek. That is a powerful
statement.
That is a very reassuring statement,
and it's a statement based upon the
premise that it's unfailing
in its effectiveness. You want to be
saved,
obey the gospel. Plain and simple,
Paul says.
Of God unto salvation. Not a power,
it is the power. If you want to be saved
from your sins,
then this is what you need to do.
James also then says the same thing in
relation to the Word of God.
James talking to Christians. He says in
James chapter 1 and verse 21,
Christians who have forgotten that faith
without works is dead.
They've forgotten that, and and James had
to remind them,
brethren, you can't sit on your hands and
faith all day.
You actually need to do something because
faith without works is dead.
He says, therefore, lay apart all
filthiness and superfluity
of naughtiness and receive with meekness
what?
The implanted word. They've already
received the word,
the engrafted word, which is able to do
what?
Save your soul. James points them to the
word of God and he says,
The word of God can save your soul.
There's no ambiguities about it.
James doesn't say, We'll see whether it
can save your soul.
We'll see what it can. I want you to take
the word of God.
I don't know whether it can save your
soul.
But we're going to see whether this is
going to work or not.
No, he says you need to receive it with
meekness because it will.
It will save your soul. You do not need
extra creeds and prayers to save your
soul.
You simply need the word of God.
Why? Because it is unfailing in its
effectiveness.
But for how long will it be effective?
Let's just say that we are 2,000 years
removed.
we are. Let's just say that cultures have
changed.
it has.
For how long will this book be effective?
Notice what Peter says again in verses
twenty-four and twenty-five
of first Peter chapter one. It says,
For all flesh is as grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass,
the grass withers, and the flower thereof
falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word by which the gospel
is preached unto you.
You don't have to worry that the word of
God will lose its efficacy.
You know, some things lose its efficacy
over time.
It's not as effective as it used to be.
It used to be very effective in doing
this,
but it's no longer effective. The Bible
will not lose its efficacy.
You don't have to worry that it will have
a change or have to
be changed when culture changes.
That listen, we you know, I this book was
good for the Jews.
It was good for first century Christians
and for Gentiles,
but our culture has changed so much.
This book doesn't work for us anymore.
That is an attack on the wisdom of God.
It's an attack on the omniscience of God.
And it's certainly an attack on the word
of God.
Because what people are saying when you
say that is that God gave us
a book that wouldn't last. But not only
did he give us a book that wouldn't last,
Peter's a liar. Because he said the word
of God will endure forever.
And here we stand and we're going,
well, this is not working.
This is not working. It's unfailing in its
effectiveness.
The Bible is infallible, not capable of
erring,
not capable of deceiving. It is unfailing
in its effectiveness.
That statement is true as the day is long.
Can you think of any other book that can
boast this definition in its entirety?
Any other writing that can perfectly
assure its readers of the veracity
of its content, the efficacy of its
instruction,
and the timeless dependability of its
doctrine.
Is there any other book? You see,
books have to be updated. Every year
they're updating courses,
and you go to college and you get a book
and you pay a ridiculous amount
of money for the book, and then two years
later,
a year later, they come up with a revised
edition because we had
to update the thing.
Because we found out some new things.
We added some things. We had to take some
things away.
We're no longer calling this, this,
and we're no longer calling that,
that. That's what happens in society when
man writes books.
They have to constantly change.
The Bible doesn't have that problem.
Doesn't have to be changed. Doesn't have
to be updated.
Doesn't have to pull pull the retraction,
if you will. But some are not convinced.
Those who constantly look.
For a hair in the soup, if you will.
If they somehow made it to paradise,
the first thing they'll do is look for a
complaints department.
You know the type. They complain about
everything,
and then they will certainly complain
about paradise once they get there.
They have an issue with the Bible and the
statement that the Bible is infallible.
Not everyone shares the Lord's view of his
own words.
Some have sought to attack the book's
credibility and have devised doctrines
that
either directly or indirectly promote.
The idea of its fallibility. And so the
first subject is that of contradictions.
You may have heard it, you may have talked
to someone.
Well, the Bible's full of contradictions.
That's what they say. Name one.
Name me one contradiction.
You see, if the Bible is
self-contradictory,
then it cannot be infallible. For the
definition of infallibility demands that
it be free from mistake or error.
That's the definition of infallibility.
So, yes, if you could find the
contradictions,
then certainly you might have something to
talk about.
But pray tell me, name me one.
If there are so many contradictions out
there,
you just can't go two pages without
running into a contradiction.
But for some reason, you're standing right
here.
You can't name me one contradiction?
No, you heard somebody else say that and
you're repeating it.
As they say, you're repeating the talking
points of the news media.
And so that's what you're doing.
You're repeating the talking points.
Time will not permit us to delve into
every alleged case of contradictions.
I don't want us to spend our time there
tonight.
I would encourage you to read Brother G.
W. Dehoff's book, Alleged Bible
Contradictions Explained.
I have it in my library. It's a good book.
It goes through some of the more popular
contradictions that people give
and answers them. But I like what BC Good
Pasture says.
In the preface of that volume,
he said the following The enemies of the
Bible speak glibly,
volumously, and repeatedly of the
so-called discrepancies in the Bible.
The modernist thinks of the alleged
contradictions of the Bible as
a discovery and as an assured result of
superior scholarship.
Careful students of the Bible have known
since it was completed by
the Apostle John that there are some
seeming discrepancies in the Bible.
But they have also known that these can be
explained in the light
of more mature study and investigation.
And that when properly understood,
they are not examples of discord,
but illustrations of marvelous harmony.
You see, it is the case that individuals
look at it and they and usually where
the discrepancies come in is dates.
Right? They say, Well, this date over here
says this,
and this date over here says this.
But when you look at it, when you study it
a little bit deeper,
you go, Well, actually.
The what he's saying in the context is
right.
That usually happens, but they don't care
about that.
I want you to consider this illustration.
Take 40 men. Take 40 men.
You cannot let them meet. You cannot let
them correspond.
You cannot let them read each other's
work.
You are going to scatter them across 16
centuries.
That's 1600 years. There are con three
continents and three languages.
Some of them will be kings, some will be
fishermen,
some will be shepherds, one will be a
physician,
one will be a tax collector, one will be a
prisoner on an island,
an enforcer for the Sanhedrin,
and one will be a shepherd boy turned
fugitive in a cave.
Now give them one subject,
one theme, the nature of God, the
sinfulness of man,
and the redemption of the human soul,
and then come back in sixteen hundred
years later and read what they wrote.
What would you expect if we did that
today?
If we have the lifespan to live 1600
years,
what would you expect to read when we did
that with 40 different men?
We would expect chaos. We would expect
chaos.
You would expect contradiction.
You expect 40 different gods, 40 different
moral systems,
40 different answers to the question,
what happens when we die? That is what
human reasoning produces when you remove
Communication and coordination.
We can have that illustration or that
experiment in this very audience where
we could just send everybody to a separate
corner and say,
let's all write, let's write about why the
US got involved in the Second World War.
Why did the US get involved in the Second
World War?
Let's all go to our different corners,
let's all write, and then let's bring it
back and let's compile it into one book.
See, we are all contemporaries.
You know, some are older and some are
younger,
but we are all have access to history.
We all are contemporaries, we're here
right now,
so certainly we should be able to come up
with a volume that is continuous just like
they did. No. The Constitution of the
United States was written
by fifty-five men in the same country,
in the same language, in the same decade,
who could all read each other's work,
sit in the same room, argue face to face,
and then vote on an outcome.
We have amended it 27 times and we are
still in court arguing about what it
means.
Fifty-five men, one decade, one language,
one room, and they could not produce a
document free of ambiguity.
Yet, when it comes to the book that was
written over a period of 1600 years
by 40 different men in three continents
and three languages,
you have a hard time finding just one
contradiction?
You would expect to find thousands of
them.
But you can't even find one. The truth of
the matter is,
they are not looking for contradictions.
They are looking for justification.
They're not looking for a contradiction in
the scriptures.
They're looking for a justification not to
obey the scriptures.
Because if I can prove to you that this
book does not come from God,
then I can sleep soundly at night,
knowing that I don't have to obey it,
then I don't have to listen to it.
You know, people are not dumb,
they get it.
They understand that if this book is from
God,
that they're amenable to it. And so a
seeming discrepancy is
a confession of ignorance, not an
accusation of God's against God's
accuracy.
And so there are those who say there are
so many contradictions in Scripture,
but the Bible cannot be infallible and
contain contradictions.
But then there are those who say that the
Bible is full of corruption,
the text is corrupted.
I've heard this so many times.
You can't trust the Bible because it was
copied so many times and
you just don't know what's in there.
Well, you've heard it said that the book
has been copied and translated
so many times that nobody can know what it
is said originally.
Well, first, to assume corruption of God's
only communication to man
is to assume God's inability to foresee
and prevent this.
This, what else do you have from God?
Are we receiving revelation right now?
No. This is it. So we have a book that has
the potential of being corrupted,
and God didn't foresee that? No,
he did. He did. Second,
every scholar in every university on the
planet accepts the text of Homer
on the basis of 1,757 manuscripts.
With a gap of four to five hundred years
between the original and
the oldest copy that we have of Homer's
the Iliad.
They accept the text of Plato on the base
of 210 manuscripts with a
gap of 1200 years. Not one of them has
lost a night of sleep about Homer's
the Iliad and about Plato. They don't go,
I just don't know that we can trust Plato.
I mean, 210 manuscripts.
Only 1,757 manuscripts of Homer.
I just don't know that we can trust Homer.
I think we need to re-examine Homer
because the copies may have been
corrupted.
They don't lose a night of sleep about
Homer and Plato.
But yet the New Testament has nearly
25,000 manuscripts.
That's across languages. And the oldest
fragment,
the St. John's fragment, we can hold in
our hands is dated within 30 years
of the original.
25,000 manuscripts.
You know what that does when you have
25,000 manuscripts?
25,000 manuscripts makes it very hard to
change something.
Because if you change something like the
NIV and others have done,
as soon as you change words, guess what
happens?
We go to the copies and go like,
no, no, that's not in there. No,
you change that word.
We can do that. Why? Because we have so
many copies that have been preserved.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, probably one of the
most magnificent finds in modern history.
And by the way, the Dead Sea Scrolls is
going to be on display at
the Museum of Houston in November.
~ we shall go there. At least some of us,
hopefully, will go there. For those who
are in our teenage class,
they will be subject to me.
In the next quarter, and maybe after that,
as we get into the Bible and its
inspiration,
is gonna be a grand class. We don't have
the time to dig into
the manuscript credibility and to come to
an understanding that this book
can be proven to be sound and true,
and has been proven to be sound and true.
And these individuals, what they have is
selective outrage.
It's an apt description for them.
Who always attack the infallibility of the
Bible,
they are not upset with its credibility,
they are terrified of its content.
They are terrified of what is said in it,
and so we have to say it is full of
contradictions,
and and the text is corrupted.
We simply do not have the time to get into
all of those,
but I at least wanted to mention it
tonight.
And then last and in no wise the least,
consider this a demonstration of
infallibility.
You know, claiming infallibility is one
thing,
proving it is another matter.
Altogether. Well, the first thing we
certainly have to consider
is the credibility of its creator.
If God cannot boast a flawless reputation,
then the Bible cannot boast an infallible
accreditation.
You know, I know I cannot boast.
Well, listen, this is a flawless
reputation that I have.
Every time I write something, it is
perfectly flawless.
You've seen my PowerPoints, especially
when my wife doesn't look over it.
You've seen the misspelled words.
God doesn't have that problem.
You see.
We are not plagued with such a problem
with God because Numbers chapter
23 and verse 19 says, God is not a man
that he should lie,
neither the Son of Man that he should
repent.
Have he said, and shall he not do it?
Or has he spoken and shall it not make
shall he not make it good?
It says God does not lie. He does make
mistakes like we do.
Titus chapter 1 and verse 2, God cannot
lie.
Cannot lie.
It is impossible for God to lie.
Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18.
God is immaculately credible.
If that could not be said of God,
then it could not be said of the
scriptures.
We can confidently say that Muhammad is
not immaculately credible,
and therefore his book is not infallible.
We can confidently say that Joseph Smith
is not immaculately credible,
and therefore his book.
Cannot be said to be infallible because
both of those books
are riddled with plagiarism and all sorts
of ~ content that cannot be verified.
But the Bible is immaculate because it was
written by the immaculate God.
But then also we have to consider the
supernatural accuracy of its content.
It accurately records the future.
The prophet Micah predicted the birth of
Christ.
We've heard this so many times,
but it is so remarkable. He predicted the
birth of Christ.
To the exact town, seven hundred years
before it happened.
Micah chapter five and verse two,
it says, But thou, O Bethlehem Ephrata,
though thou be little among thousands of
Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me,
that is ruler in Israel, whose goings
forth have been from old,
from everlasting. He says that Jesus is
going to be born in Bethlehem.
Big deal. It could have been a guess.
Well, wait a second. There are two
Bethlehem there are Bethlehem Ephrata
and Bethlehem Zebalon.
He narrows it down to the exact Bethlehem,
tells us that Jesus is going to be born
there.
Joseph Smith said Jesus was born in
Jerusalem.
And he had the Bible to copy from.
This man got it wrong from the angel
Moroni.
Listen, it is what it is. This man is a
fake.
And he got it wrong. Micah lived 700 years
before the birth of Jesus the Christ,
and he got it right, down to the exact
town.
Accurately predicted the future.
But not only that, the Bible is
scientifically accurate.
The Bible is not anti-science,
it was composed by the creator of science.
Job chapter 26 and verse 7, he stretches
out the north over the empty place
and he hangeth the earth upon nothing.
How did Job know the earth hangs upon
nothing?
Because for a long time we thought the
earth was sitting upon a turtle.
You've heard the story where the teacher
asked the question or the student asked
the question.
Well, what's the turtle sitting on?
Well it's sitting on another turtle.
Well what's that turtle sitting on?
Well it's sitting on another turtle.
And what's that turtle sitting on?
Well it's sitting on another turtle.
And then the student raised his hand again
and the teacher was frustrated
and he asked, Well, what does that turtle?
It's turtles all the way down.
How far down?
You see, Job had no telescope with which
to see that there was a void in the north,
number one. But we had to use a very big
telescope to find out,
wait, there is a void in the north.
There are no stars up there. How did Job
know that?
Job had no telescope or rocket to go out
into space to look back to
the world and see, wait, the earth
actually,
there's, it doesn't hang upon anything.
There's nothing that it sits on.
How did Job know that? Let me ask this
question:
how do you know that?
Have you ever thought about that?
How do you know the earth hangs upon
nothing?
Have you ever been out there? So you're
taking
the credible testimony of people who have
been,
and you're saying that the earth hangs
upon nothing,
right? Where did Job get that testimony
from?
Got it from the great God of heaven,
the one who made the earth. Isaiah said
the following in Isaiah 40 and verse 22:
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of
the earth.
And the inhabitants thereof are like
grasshoppers that stretches out
the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth
them out as a tent to dwell and
he sits upon the circle of the earth.
Wait, wait, Isaiah, the earth is flat.
Thought that for a very long time.
You sail far enough, you're gonna fall
over the edge.
How did Isaiah know the shape of the
earth?
It's spherical. Time will not permit us to
speak of its medical accuracy
and its historical accuracy. The Bible is
medically accurate.
The Bible is historically accurate.
Every time the archaeologists they dig and
they s their spade turns,
they discover something that the Bible has
already mentioned.
Because for years and years they say,
Well, the Bible got it wrong. There are no
people like the Hittites.
The Bible got it wrong. And guess what?
They found the Hittites. Well,
the Bible had it wrong. The walls of
Jericho couldn't possibly have fallen
down.
And guess what? They go excavate the walls
of Jericho,
and what the walls fell outward.
All of them, and what did they say?
Well, it was an earthquake where all the
walls,
the entire wall, just fell outwards.
All of it. The Bible is supernatural in
its accuracy,
but then also consider this the flawless
unity of its composition,
written over a period of some sixteen
hundred years by 40 different men
who lived in different cultures and
hundreds of years apart.
Yet there is continuity of morality.
From the beginning to the end,
every one of them spoke of the same thing.
I don't know that we can understand how
incredible that is.
We're talking about 40 different men,
40 different culture, three different
continents,
three different languages. The Jews are in
captivity and out of captivity.
They are back and forth and back and
forth.
Moses and Noah, Moses lived at the
beginning of that stage.
We have Noah living way before that,
and Job living in that time as well.
And yet when the Pharisees came to Jesus
in Matthew chapter 19,
what did he do? When they asked him a
question about marriage,
what did he say? Well, let me look at the
culture of the day.
That's not what he said. Well,
let me look at what the law of Moses said.
That's not what he said. He said,
Go back all the way to the beginning.
Go back all the way to the beginning.
Why? Because you can look at from the very
beginning that the moral principles
of this book are steadfast.
It was the same in Eden as it was in Ur of
the Chaldees.
It was the same with Job as it was with
Noah.
It was the same in Egypt with Joseph as it
was in the promised land with Israel.
It was the same in the days of the judges,
the kings, and the prophets. And when
Jesus came,
he taught the same moral principles that
you find all throughout this book.
This book has a flawless, a flawless
continuity of moral principles.
But not only that, there is continuity of
thought.
All 66 books are written with one central
theme.
All of them. We think that the Bible is
one book,
not 66 books. You know why we think the
Bible is one book?
Because it reads like one book.
You know why it reads like one book?
It's because it has one author.
You couldn't get the Bible from 40
different men thinking
40 distinct different ways. You couldn't
get it.
But you can get it when only one has
inspired them to write.
Peter and Paul did not hold differing
views from Moses.
This entire book points towards one
individual,
and that's Jesus the Christ. The entire
book points towards one individual,
Jesus the Christ. From Job all the way to
the end.
Jesus is coming, Jesus is here,
Jesus will come again. This entire book.
All of them in perfect agreement.
The Bible is flawless in its unity.
There are no disunity in the scriptures.
Peter didn't say different things from
Paul.
Paul didn't say different things from
Matthew and from Jesus.
They all spoke the same thing.
Why? Because they were inspired by the
Holy Spirit.
The Bible is infallible. Whether you
accept the evidence now or concede your
views
at judgment, the Lord will emphatically
prove to every man that he wrote this
book.
Everyone will know that this book comes
from God.
And everyone will know that what is said
in it is absolutely true
and can absolutely be trusted.
But question for us, what about us?
Do you trust this book? Do you trust it
with your life?
Do you trust it with your decisions?
Do you trust it with your hopes and your
dreams?
Do you trust it with your salvation?
You can. You can trust that lamp that will
never fail you.
This word will guide you.
And will guide you all the way to
eternity.
And so tonight, as heaven's invitation is
extended,
as a Christian, if your trust in the
scriptures is not where it should be,
the answer is a lot of prayer and a lot of
study.
Get back into this book and once again
study it for what it is.
Not something written by man's hand,
by something, but something rather that
comes from the mind of God.
That's how we study the Bible.
And recommit yourself to once again
trusting it,
but not only trusting in it, but doing the
things that are contained
in it and telling others about it.
Maybe it is the case that you're not a
child of God here tonight.
This is God's infallible plan for your
eternal salvation.
This plan is sure you can trust it.
When you go through the scriptures,
this is the plan that you're going to
find.
You're not going to find any other plan.
God's plan is for you to be saved from
your sins.
He sent his son, Jesus the Christ,
to come to earth and to preach his
glorious kingdom.
A kingdom in which you can be saved.
And he spent his earthly ministry going
about preaching the kingdom of Christ,
the kingdom of Christ. And how will he
establish this grand kingdom?
Matthew chapter 16 tells us that he is
going to build his church.
How? He's going to build it through his
death.
His burial and his resurrection.
You see, he is going to enter into the
realm of death.
He's going to defeat it. And then he is
going to be risen a third day,
in accordance with the scriptures,
so that you might be saved, and so that
kingdom might be established for
you to be added to it. And if you tonight
are willing to believe
the glorious gospel of Christ,
if you're willing to repent of sins,
to confess the good name of Jesus,
and to be immersed in water for the
remission of sins,
you will be saved.
Not could be.
Not might be. You will be saved.
Why? Because the gospel is unfailing in
its effectiveness.
It is the power of God unto salvation.
And so you can walk out of here tonight,
a saved individual. But that choice is
yours while we stand and as we sing.