Word of God Part Three
King James Bible Study Correspondence Course
An Outreach of Highway Evangelistic Ministries
5311 Windridge lane ~ Lockhart, Florida 32810 ~ USA
© Copyright kjbscc 2004 Lesson 11C The Word of GOD 07/08/2009 2:19 PM
1
Man knows God through the word that God has given him. God has used holy men to write and record the very words of God in order that we might know Him. We are not left to our imaginations or opinions. We are not left to follow tradition or superstition. Neither are we left in the darkness with nothing to follow. God has given us the written record that He has inspired, that we might have Him explained to us. We cannot spend enough time emphasizing the authority of the word of God.
In this lesson we will consider six reasons why we may safely and certainly stake our souls upon the truth contained in the Holy Bible.
1. While the test of the truth of something should not be experience only, yet the final test will often be just that. Does the thing work? That is what we want to know. In the case at hand, can we put the truths and promises revealed in the Bible to the test in practical personal experience?
We certainly can. The fact that we can do this is the culminating proof. The leading atheist of our generation (I won't even bother to give her name, as it is not worthy of repeating) has spent a lifetime trying to promote her unbelief. She once made the following statement: "There is no argument against a personal testimony."
The same opportunity is open to all. Is the Bible true or is it not? Try it! Live by it! Obey it! Do what it says! And see if it is indeed God's word? Thousands of people, in every Christian land, thousands of people in every decade have been adding their testimony to the long list of those who have found God's word to be the truth. Their lives have been transformed. They have had prayer unmistakably answered. They have had real fellowship with God. All by claiming and standing upon the promises of the Bible.
This testimony is fresh and up-to-date. I will gladly testify to you today that I have found God's word to be true. I have found every line, every verse, every passage, every chapter, every book, yea, the entire Bible from cover to cover, to be true and righteous altogether.
2. There is one line of proof strong enough in itself to prove that the Bible is the true testimony of God. That line of proof is fulfilled prophecy. Let us take but a few of these just for examples.
In Deuteronomy 28:63-65 This prophecy was spoken of the nation of Israel. God promised that He would lead them into the land of Canaan, and
2
that IF they would obey His commandments they could abide there forever. If they disobeyed His commandments God said He would drive them off the land and scatter them to all the nations of the earth, and in those nations they would be hated, persecuted, tormented, and abused in various ways. Now, my friend, I ask you, what is the history of the Jewish people?
Under Titus, under the Spanish Inquisition, under Hitler's Germany, how have they fared? To this day they are scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. Though many of them are being re-gathered to their homeland, even there they are finding no rest. Certainly they are finding no peace. And turmoil and war and bloodshed are looming on the horizon. Surely the Bible has proved itself to be true in this prophecy.
In Leviticus 26:32-35 These words have been exactly, and horribly, fulfilled. Then we have to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. What an amazing study are the numerous prophecies regarding His life and death. Not only was the day and time of His birth prophesied, but the land in which He would be born, the very city in which He would be born, the manner of His birth, the persons who would attend His birth, and the words that would be spoken at His birth were all foretold. My friends, this is a mathematical impossibility.
Someone plugged into one of the modern computers the number of prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that were fulfilled in His birth. This is not to mention those that were fulfilled during His lifetime and those hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled in His death, but just those concerning His birth. The computer did not have a number large enough to state the odds of those prophecies all coming to pass by chance. It was impossible.
Fulfilled prophecy proves that the Bible is indeed the word of God. Man cannot see and know the future. Man cannot hit it 50% of the time. But the Bible hits it 100% of the time. God never misses, never errs, and never is wrong one time. We know the Bible is God's word because of the testimony of fulfilled prophecy.
3. The moral and ethical teaching of the Bible is so high and so pure as to prove it to be a revelation from God. here is one example of many that we could cite Matthew 5:3-10.
No words ever spoken by any man can compare to the standard of righteousness and holiness, the beautiful manner of living, set forth throughout the pages of God's holy word.
The Bible says in James 2:10, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. What religion, what civilization, what
3
society, what government could ever establish such a righteous law? What people ever devised so demanding a set of decrees as to state that one simple violation made one guilty of the whole?
In the Bible, you have something so high, something so pure in its moral and ethical teachings, as to prove it to be indeed THE revelation from the most Holy God to man.
4. By placing personal faith in Christ, as taught in the Bible, individual lives have been transformed by a power that is assuredly supernatural.
For example, look at Acts 16:25-34 Now, here is a man who within a matter of minutes has actually gone from a hardened Roman jailer, ready to commit suicide because of his despair, to someone who is happy, rejoicing and believing in God. He has washed the stripes of one of his prisoners. He has set him at the table in his own house and is feeding him a wonderful meal. What made the difference in this man's life? Believing the word of God. You know this very Paul, who was singing down in the jail had quite an experience as well. In Acts 9:2-7, 20-22 the Bible says something dramatic happened in the life of this man. He is heading to Damascus for the purpose of killing, jailing, destroying, and persecuting those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But by the time he reaches the town he preaches publicly that all men should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What has made such a tremendous change in the life of this man? I'll tell you what it is. Believing the word of God. Oh, I do not know what hatred, what pride, what selfishness, what anger, what habit, what vice, what sin is binding you. I do not know what evil influence is controlling you, driving you farther and farther from God each day - driving you nearer and nearer to hell with each passing moment. But I do know that if you would believe the word of God your life would be so wonderfully changed that men would marvel. They would say, "Is not this the man who used to be so hateful? Is not this the man that used to be so proud? Is not this the man that used to be so lazy? Is not this the man who used to be so selfish? What has happened to him?"
You will be hard-pressed to explain it yourself. All you will know is that God by His gracious power has changed your life.
5. By applying the Biblical teaching on prayer and by claiming the promises made therein to those who pray, men and women have seen prayer answered so often and so miraculously as to pass almost unnoticed. By that I mean that each and every day, hundreds of thousands of times. God performs miracles in answer to the petitions of His children. He heals sick bodies. He saves sin-sick souls. He gives sound minds to those who were
4
once afraid. He gives peace and joy and happiness to those once in despair. He provides material needs. He changes men's way of living.
And of all this is done because individuals who find promises in the Bible, believe them, and come boldly to the throne of grace to pour out their heart to the One who made the promises. Because the word of God is true, the prayers are answered. The Bible record is filled from the very first book to the very last one with accounts of God hearing and answering prayer.
Reading from James 5:16-18 we find: Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit What a marvelous thing! One man, and a man just like you and me, prayed. He took God at His word and believed what He had said. He prayed on the basis of what God had promised. And God heard and God answered those prayers. This man was told by God that his prayer would stop all rainfall and that the rain would not return until he prayed to that end (1 Kings 17:1). So he prayed that God would withhold the rain, and no rain fell for three-and-one-half years (James 5:17). Think of that! The Bible also says that this same man prayed again and it rained (James 5:18, 1 Kings 18:41-46).
Do you know where rain comes from? It doesn't come from storm fronts and high-pressure areas and low-pressure areas and wind drafts and such. The rain comes from God. Do you know when it rains? When God's people pray. Do you know when it doesn't rain? When God's people pray. The regular continual answers to prayer granted God's people are proof that the Bible is His holy word.
You may say, "I just can't believe the Bible. I just don't see how it could be true." Have you ever prayed and sincerely by faith from the depths of your heart asked God to save you, to give you faith, to change your life? Until you have done that, you have no right to say that the Bible is not God's word.
6. One of the greatest claims of the Bible is that it brings those who believe on Jesus Christ into conscious fellowship with God. Multitudes who have believed the Bible, called upon the Lord, and trusted Him for salvation all testify to this truth. Almost every one reading this lesson knows someone who has trusted the Bible record, acted upon its decrees, and found that they have entered into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
5
The Bible tells us in John 14:21-24, He that hath my commandments (Do you have them?) and keepeth them (Have you done as you were instructed?) he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Jesus Christ said that if you will hear, believe, and obey God's word you will know of a certainty that it is God's word, because He and His Father will come to dwell with you. If someone came and moved into your house you could not help but know it. There would not be any possible way that someone could live in your house and you not be aware of that fact. Just as surely, there is no possible way that the Lord Jesus Christ can come to dwell within your heart and you not know about it. It is up to you to believe God's words. If you will believe them they will prove themselves true. In Romans 8:15-16 the Bible says. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
You will never know the Bible is true until you believe the word enough to obey its command to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour.
Teaching that parts of the Bible are the very word of God, but that others are not, leaves the reader in the dilemma of not knowing which part to believe. Gradually, such thinking completely destroys faith in the word of God. Either every word of God is true and can be trusted, or we must abandon our confidence in the whole, for the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, stands or falls together. The Jews were scattered to every land and to the isles of the sea, yet retained their racial identity. Their Jerusalem was in Gentile hands for two thousand years but portions of this ancient city are once more in Jewish hands. All this was foretold in the Bible with great accuracy. The testimony of people whose lives were totally transformed when they trusted Jesus Christ as there Saviour stand before you.
Answered prayer is testified to by thousands of men and women.
But the deep abiding peace that you will find when you obey the Biblical command to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour will most certainly prove to you that the Bible is the word of God.
An Outreach of Highway Evangelistic Ministries
5311 Windridge lane ~ Lockhart, Florida 32810 ~ USA
© Copyright kjbscc 2004 Lesson 11C The Word of GOD 07/08/2009 2:19 PM
1
Man knows God through the word that God has given him. God has used holy men to write and record the very words of God in order that we might know Him. We are not left to our imaginations or opinions. We are not left to follow tradition or superstition. Neither are we left in the darkness with nothing to follow. God has given us the written record that He has inspired, that we might have Him explained to us. We cannot spend enough time emphasizing the authority of the word of God.
In this lesson we will consider six reasons why we may safely and certainly stake our souls upon the truth contained in the Holy Bible.
1. While the test of the truth of something should not be experience only, yet the final test will often be just that. Does the thing work? That is what we want to know. In the case at hand, can we put the truths and promises revealed in the Bible to the test in practical personal experience?
We certainly can. The fact that we can do this is the culminating proof. The leading atheist of our generation (I won't even bother to give her name, as it is not worthy of repeating) has spent a lifetime trying to promote her unbelief. She once made the following statement: "There is no argument against a personal testimony."
The same opportunity is open to all. Is the Bible true or is it not? Try it! Live by it! Obey it! Do what it says! And see if it is indeed God's word? Thousands of people, in every Christian land, thousands of people in every decade have been adding their testimony to the long list of those who have found God's word to be the truth. Their lives have been transformed. They have had prayer unmistakably answered. They have had real fellowship with God. All by claiming and standing upon the promises of the Bible.
This testimony is fresh and up-to-date. I will gladly testify to you today that I have found God's word to be true. I have found every line, every verse, every passage, every chapter, every book, yea, the entire Bible from cover to cover, to be true and righteous altogether.
2. There is one line of proof strong enough in itself to prove that the Bible is the true testimony of God. That line of proof is fulfilled prophecy. Let us take but a few of these just for examples.
In Deuteronomy 28:63-65 This prophecy was spoken of the nation of Israel. God promised that He would lead them into the land of Canaan, and
2
that IF they would obey His commandments they could abide there forever. If they disobeyed His commandments God said He would drive them off the land and scatter them to all the nations of the earth, and in those nations they would be hated, persecuted, tormented, and abused in various ways. Now, my friend, I ask you, what is the history of the Jewish people?
Under Titus, under the Spanish Inquisition, under Hitler's Germany, how have they fared? To this day they are scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. Though many of them are being re-gathered to their homeland, even there they are finding no rest. Certainly they are finding no peace. And turmoil and war and bloodshed are looming on the horizon. Surely the Bible has proved itself to be true in this prophecy.
In Leviticus 26:32-35 These words have been exactly, and horribly, fulfilled. Then we have to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. What an amazing study are the numerous prophecies regarding His life and death. Not only was the day and time of His birth prophesied, but the land in which He would be born, the very city in which He would be born, the manner of His birth, the persons who would attend His birth, and the words that would be spoken at His birth were all foretold. My friends, this is a mathematical impossibility.
Someone plugged into one of the modern computers the number of prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that were fulfilled in His birth. This is not to mention those that were fulfilled during His lifetime and those hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled in His death, but just those concerning His birth. The computer did not have a number large enough to state the odds of those prophecies all coming to pass by chance. It was impossible.
Fulfilled prophecy proves that the Bible is indeed the word of God. Man cannot see and know the future. Man cannot hit it 50% of the time. But the Bible hits it 100% of the time. God never misses, never errs, and never is wrong one time. We know the Bible is God's word because of the testimony of fulfilled prophecy.
3. The moral and ethical teaching of the Bible is so high and so pure as to prove it to be a revelation from God. here is one example of many that we could cite Matthew 5:3-10.
No words ever spoken by any man can compare to the standard of righteousness and holiness, the beautiful manner of living, set forth throughout the pages of God's holy word.
The Bible says in James 2:10, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. What religion, what civilization, what
3
society, what government could ever establish such a righteous law? What people ever devised so demanding a set of decrees as to state that one simple violation made one guilty of the whole?
In the Bible, you have something so high, something so pure in its moral and ethical teachings, as to prove it to be indeed THE revelation from the most Holy God to man.
4. By placing personal faith in Christ, as taught in the Bible, individual lives have been transformed by a power that is assuredly supernatural.
For example, look at Acts 16:25-34 Now, here is a man who within a matter of minutes has actually gone from a hardened Roman jailer, ready to commit suicide because of his despair, to someone who is happy, rejoicing and believing in God. He has washed the stripes of one of his prisoners. He has set him at the table in his own house and is feeding him a wonderful meal. What made the difference in this man's life? Believing the word of God. You know this very Paul, who was singing down in the jail had quite an experience as well. In Acts 9:2-7, 20-22 the Bible says something dramatic happened in the life of this man. He is heading to Damascus for the purpose of killing, jailing, destroying, and persecuting those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But by the time he reaches the town he preaches publicly that all men should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What has made such a tremendous change in the life of this man? I'll tell you what it is. Believing the word of God. Oh, I do not know what hatred, what pride, what selfishness, what anger, what habit, what vice, what sin is binding you. I do not know what evil influence is controlling you, driving you farther and farther from God each day - driving you nearer and nearer to hell with each passing moment. But I do know that if you would believe the word of God your life would be so wonderfully changed that men would marvel. They would say, "Is not this the man who used to be so hateful? Is not this the man that used to be so proud? Is not this the man that used to be so lazy? Is not this the man who used to be so selfish? What has happened to him?"
You will be hard-pressed to explain it yourself. All you will know is that God by His gracious power has changed your life.
5. By applying the Biblical teaching on prayer and by claiming the promises made therein to those who pray, men and women have seen prayer answered so often and so miraculously as to pass almost unnoticed. By that I mean that each and every day, hundreds of thousands of times. God performs miracles in answer to the petitions of His children. He heals sick bodies. He saves sin-sick souls. He gives sound minds to those who were
4
once afraid. He gives peace and joy and happiness to those once in despair. He provides material needs. He changes men's way of living.
And of all this is done because individuals who find promises in the Bible, believe them, and come boldly to the throne of grace to pour out their heart to the One who made the promises. Because the word of God is true, the prayers are answered. The Bible record is filled from the very first book to the very last one with accounts of God hearing and answering prayer.
Reading from James 5:16-18 we find: Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit What a marvelous thing! One man, and a man just like you and me, prayed. He took God at His word and believed what He had said. He prayed on the basis of what God had promised. And God heard and God answered those prayers. This man was told by God that his prayer would stop all rainfall and that the rain would not return until he prayed to that end (1 Kings 17:1). So he prayed that God would withhold the rain, and no rain fell for three-and-one-half years (James 5:17). Think of that! The Bible also says that this same man prayed again and it rained (James 5:18, 1 Kings 18:41-46).
Do you know where rain comes from? It doesn't come from storm fronts and high-pressure areas and low-pressure areas and wind drafts and such. The rain comes from God. Do you know when it rains? When God's people pray. Do you know when it doesn't rain? When God's people pray. The regular continual answers to prayer granted God's people are proof that the Bible is His holy word.
You may say, "I just can't believe the Bible. I just don't see how it could be true." Have you ever prayed and sincerely by faith from the depths of your heart asked God to save you, to give you faith, to change your life? Until you have done that, you have no right to say that the Bible is not God's word.
6. One of the greatest claims of the Bible is that it brings those who believe on Jesus Christ into conscious fellowship with God. Multitudes who have believed the Bible, called upon the Lord, and trusted Him for salvation all testify to this truth. Almost every one reading this lesson knows someone who has trusted the Bible record, acted upon its decrees, and found that they have entered into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
5
The Bible tells us in John 14:21-24, He that hath my commandments (Do you have them?) and keepeth them (Have you done as you were instructed?) he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Jesus Christ said that if you will hear, believe, and obey God's word you will know of a certainty that it is God's word, because He and His Father will come to dwell with you. If someone came and moved into your house you could not help but know it. There would not be any possible way that someone could live in your house and you not be aware of that fact. Just as surely, there is no possible way that the Lord Jesus Christ can come to dwell within your heart and you not know about it. It is up to you to believe God's words. If you will believe them they will prove themselves true. In Romans 8:15-16 the Bible says. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
You will never know the Bible is true until you believe the word enough to obey its command to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour.
Teaching that parts of the Bible are the very word of God, but that others are not, leaves the reader in the dilemma of not knowing which part to believe. Gradually, such thinking completely destroys faith in the word of God. Either every word of God is true and can be trusted, or we must abandon our confidence in the whole, for the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, stands or falls together. The Jews were scattered to every land and to the isles of the sea, yet retained their racial identity. Their Jerusalem was in Gentile hands for two thousand years but portions of this ancient city are once more in Jewish hands. All this was foretold in the Bible with great accuracy. The testimony of people whose lives were totally transformed when they trusted Jesus Christ as there Saviour stand before you.
Answered prayer is testified to by thousands of men and women.
But the deep abiding peace that you will find when you obey the Biblical command to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour will most certainly prove to you that the Bible is the word of God.