“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” – Jeremiah 29:13
Sermon Title: THE BIBLE (PART 1)
Sermon Text: VARIOUS TEXTS
Sermon Series: ICYMI: BACK TO BASICS
By: PTR NIC SY
Sermon Notes:
PSALMS 34:8 NIV
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
JEREMIAH 29:13 NIV
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Where there is love and relationship, there are words.
“How is the Bible different from every other religious books?”
“Wasn’t it written by people like you and me?”
“It’s just so hard to understand.”
I. REVELATION: From God to Man
A. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE
1. The Attack of Man
“No other book has been burned, banned, outlawed and reviled as the Bible.”
James MacDonald
2. The Attack of Time
“There are now more than 5,600 ancient manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Add to that nearly 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 other early versions, and we have nearly 25,000 early manuscripts of the Bible… No other ancient document even comes close. The next most commonly copied document is Homer’s Iliad with 643
James MacDonald
manuscripts, all of them partial.”
3. Historical Reliability.
B. INTERNAL EVIDENCE
1. Eyewitness Accounts
2. Consistency & Agreement
“The Bible was written over a period of about 1,500 years in various places stretching all the way from Babylon to Rome. … The human authors included over 40 persons from various stations of life: kings, peasants, poets, herdsmen, fishermen, scientists, farmers, priests, pastors, tentmakers and governors. … It was written in a wilderness, a
“Evidencce That Demands A Verdict” by Josh McDowell & Sean McDowell
dungeon, inside palace and prisons, on lonely islands and in military battles. … Yet it tells one story from beginning to end, God’s salvation of man through Jesus Christ. NO PERSON could have possibly conceived of or written such a work!”
3. Prophetic Accuracy
The likelihood of 8 prophecies of Jesus being fulfilled is 1 in 1017.
ISAIAH 44:28 NIV
28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’
(Probability of fulfillment: 1 in 1015)
ISAIAH 13:19-20 NIV
19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there.
(Probability of fulfillment: 1 in 109)
JEREMIAH 31:38-40 NIV
38 The days are coming, declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah.
JEREMIAH 31:38-40 NIV
40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the LORD. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
(Probability of fulfillment: 1 in 1018)
C. Personal Evidence
1. Life-transforming Power
1 SAMUEL 16:13 NIV
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
1 SAMUEL 16:19 NIV
19 Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is
with the sheep.”
God’s revelation must be experienced personally.
PSALMS 34:8 NIV
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
JEREMIAH 29:13 NIV
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.