If you have a Bible, just look down at it for a second and just think what exactly is it and how did it get in your hand tonight?
!
What is the Bible?
Next week, Daniel is going to talk about a topic we call Bibliology.
It means like what does the Bible tell us about itself, which is really cool.
We don't make up stuff about the Bible.
The Bible actually tells us what it means and what it's for and etc.
So it will be kind of a follow-up from this.
But just think about this though.
What you have in your hands didn't just get there.
Remember, it's been a long, long process of even thousands of years to actually make it into your hand.
And there's a lot of countries, nations, languages even today that don't actually have anything what you have in your hand.
And so we're going to talk tonight just about how the Bible is a gift of grace.
It's grace. It's something that we don't deserve at all, but God has richly lavished it on us.
So just roll ahead.
Yeah.
Most people...
How many of you actually like to read, be honest?
Like to read.
I should have said, how many don't like to read?
Wow, that's what I thought.
No one was going to say that.
But, man, there definitely is like a trend these days where it's actually cool to actually not read.
Anybody ever picked up on that?
Like it's like you say you read books, you just automatically kind of sound like nerdy.
But we need to learn that reading is a gift.
It used to mean a lot more than it would now.
And we need to take advantage of this.
We need to dive into the Word.
And I hope that just even coming here and hearing the Word taught and et cetera is going to give you a desire to dive into God's Word even more.
So let's just talk just briefly about what the Bible's not.
Some misconceptions about what it is.
It's not a lucky charm.
It's not a magic eight ball where you just need a quick answer to something.
And you look and just pick some random verse out and then you start rolling.
That's not what it is.
It's not a lucky charm.
You don't read it to get something you want.
A boyfriend, a girlfriend, a car, money.
It's not something you go to for those things.
And it's not just going to have an answer that just pops up to you to any random question.
It's not those things.
It's also not an encyclopedia, a dictionary, a textbook, something like that.
It's much more than that.
It doesn't just have just random facts and information.
It has something a lot more important.
And a big one is it's not a big misconception.
It's just an outdated book.
Like it's not relevant to us today.
And nothing could be more untrue.
And the Bible speaks very clearly.
It's timeless.
Even an example of the Proverbs are filled with daily wisdom about how to live your life, which can apply to anybody today.
So let's say really quickly, just some things the Bible is not.
But let's go into what the Bible is.
So what is the Bible?
It's God's book.
If you want just a simple definition without a long explanation, I'll just give it to you.
It's the Bible is God's written revelation of himself and his mighty deeds.
The Bible is God's written revelation of himself and his mighty deeds.
It contains the knowledge of, the true knowledge, I'd say, of the living God.
It's in this book.
So does the Bible actually claim to be God's word?
Yeah.
Over 2,000 times you'll hear the phrase, the word of God, throughout scripture.
As if it was like him actually saying it.
And it appears 40 times in the New Testament alone, the word of God.
And thus says the Lord, you know, a lot of the times in the Old Testament as the prophets spoke.
So if you're still in 2 Timothy, just look at just a part of this.
2 Timothy 3, verse 16 says,
All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
So all scripture, it says, not just parts of it, is, some of your translations might say inspired,
which is not necessarily a bad way of saying it.
It can cause some confusion, though.
So what the word really is for inspired is God-breathed.
Theophanoustos is where you get your word pneumonia or pneumatic from.
And it's only used here, not in the rest of the scripture and nowhere else in classical Greek is it used.
It's only used right here as if Paul was like being very specific about what he meant.
He wanted to show you that the word of God had a divine origin.
So he puts those words together.
It's breathed out by God.
It affirms that it is God who gave us his divine origin.
So in scripture, though, the person of God and the word of God are used, are interrelated, they're interchangeable.
So much so that what is true about God's character is also true about his word.
God is truthful.
He's not a liar.
So when he speaks, he's not dispensing nonsense.
It's true, powerful, and relevant stuff.
And if God wrote it, then it also is without error because God does not make error.
And so one word that you're going to talk about maybe later is, Daniel may revisit this next week, but the word inherently, we believe in something called the inerrancy of scripture.
And what it doesn't mean is that here it says Jesus had a purple robe and here it says Jesus had a red robe.
Contradiction.
Now, that's not what it means.
It means that ever since the term was invented for the Bible, inerrancy has meant that the Bible is true in its message and what it's trying to say is consistent throughout the whole thing.
That's what it means.
It means that God's word is true and consistent in what it's saying.
Not that little random things that really don't change the point of the message at all.
That's not what it means.
So, God is true, perfect, and reliable, and therefore His word is.
So, flip just quickly over to 2 Peter.
Let's look at something there real fast.
As I'm looking at this, I'm trying to think of some things that kind of not include.
But 2 Peter 1, verse 19.
Let's just start there.
I might just start at the beginning, but let's just start at 19.
He says,
What he's saying here is God's word didn't come about by some man just saying, I want to speak for God today.
He just began talking, and then it happened.
It was God that moved them, not by the will of man, but God spoke through them.
And so, when we say that Scripture is inspired, which we were talking about just a minute ago.
All Scripture is breathed out by God.
Have you ever heard anybody say, God inspired me to write this song?
God inspired me to write this book?
Or have you ever heard that kind of phrase from people?
There's a level of truth to that.
Maybe God did.
But at the same time, there are certain levels of inspiration.
And no one is as inspired as the Bible writers themselves when God communicated what He wanted them to put down in words.
And what it doesn't mean also, inspiration of Scripture, doesn't mean that God is like, someone's just going about their business during the day, and then He just like takes them over, and they just mechanically just write something down.
God did it in such a cool way to where He used their own personalities, their own experiences, their own vocabulary, their own writing style.
You have so many different writing styles in the Bible, which we'll look at a little later.
It says they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and that He used even their personalities and such to put out what He wanted on paper in Scripture.
So there definitely is mystery that abounds as to how He did that.
But I know a lot of you might say, man, if I could have just seen the Red Sea part, or seen Christ risen from the dead, I would have a lot more faith than just having this book in my hand.
And go back and look.
Maybe you can start at verse 16, where we are in 2 Peter, just read that later.
But Peter is like, we saw Christ in all His glory on the holy mountain, the transfiguration.
But then later on he says, but we have something now that's even better than that.
We can look back now and see how all those things were coming together into a bigger story.
They couldn't see that.
They didn't know how the stuff that they were writing was going to fit into the overall bigger picture.
So it's a blessing, it's a grace to have the Scripture.
And could go on and on about it.
But basically just remember those things, the inspiration of the Scripture.
That God Himself spoke through men, put it down on paper, what He wanted them to say.
God created the heavens and the earth by the power of His Word.
He definitely can get what He wants into a book.
He's not in heaven saying, man, Paul messed it up.
Or I tried to get this in there and they forgot.
He's not that kind of a God.
He'd be very angry.
And we'd be experiencing His anger if that was the case.
So, on to some fun stuff for sure.
How do we actually get the Bible?
Like, what was the process?
Some of you might have been here in the last few years where I'd probably lecture for an hour and a half on all that.
We're not going to go over all that tonight.
We're going to just revisit some of it.
So, how do we get the Bible?
Let's start.
Wait a minute.
I can't remember how I did this.
Go on.
Oh yeah, let's just read this.
This is something that Martin Luther said, talking about how the Bible is grace to us.
Oh, how great and glorious a thing it is to have before one the Word of God.
With it we may at all times feel joyous and secure.
We need never be in want of consolation, for we see before us in all its brightness the pure and right way.
He who loses sight of the Word of God falls into despair.
However, the voice of heaven no longer sustains him and he follows only the disorderly tendency of his own heart and the world, world vanity, which lead him to destruction.
Scripture tells you not to follow your heart.
It says that your heart is deceitful.
I can definitely speak for myself that my heart is lied to me.
I need like a more sure guide for life and to know God.
So, go on, John.
Sorry.
All right.
Books of the Old Testament.
How did you get...
Why is the Old Testament the Old Testament?
Go ahead.
Oh, that's funky writing.
Sorry.
It's a change of font when I move it to what that is.
But this is how the Old Testament is broken up.
You get the books of the Law, the Torah, the Instruction, Genesis through Deuteronomy, the History books, Joshua through Esther, books of poetry and wisdom, Job through Song of Songs, and then the writings of the Prophets.
That's how it's broken up.
Go ahead and flip to your table of contents if you know where that is.
Just use it in the front of your Bible.
Some of you might be new Christians and like, don't ever be ashamed to be like, table of contents.
We see you turn to the table of contents.
So, it's okay.
Go ahead and go to the next slide.
Okay.
So, the background.
So, when were these things written?
Okay.
Roughly between 1445 B.C. to 14...
Or, excuse me, 424 B.C.
Huge span of time.
And the authors, unlike a lot of other sacred books out there like the Book of Mormon or the Koran, etc.,
the Bible has a lot of different writers from different time periods and from different walks of life.
Really cool.
And there are prophets, kings, soldiers, poets, shepherds, historians.
You have different men writing in different ways.
Really cool.
So, just think about it.
Some of you are very poetic and artsy.
Like, God communicated truth to you.
Some of you don't like any of that.
Just tell me what it means.
And there's...
You have the law.
Men wrote that way.
Just clearly what they meant.
So, the main language, yep, Hebrew.
Maybe some Aramaic thrown in there.
Something about the Hebrew scribes really quickly.
Hebrew scribes were pretty incredible.
All they would do is just copy the scripture.
Copy the scrolls.
And they cared about it so much.
It was so sacred that even if they just...
Let's say that they were at the end of a scroll of papyrus or whatever and they messed up.
Like, they made like a little glitch or they spelled something wrong.
They'd rip the whole thing up and throw it away.
Like, it was that serious of a deal to them.
So, you can be sure that, like, what we have is what was there.
They didn't change it as time went on.
So, the canonization of the Old Testament.
The canon doesn't mean a big piece of artillery.
It means like a collection of books, accepted number of books into something.
So, go on to the next one.
Really quickly, there is...
This is Josephus Flavius.
He was captured by Titus in around 70 A.D.
When Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, burnt to the ground by the Romans,
as Christ prophesied about.
And he was a Pharisee, but he was taken to Rome as a prisoner.
He actually was allowed to write.
And so, in the first century...
So, he had access to information that we don't now.
And this is what he said about the Old Testament scriptures.
For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us,
disagreeing from and contradicting one another, like the Greeks have.
So, he's, like, making fun of, like, the ancient writings of the Greeks
and how they don't really connect or make sense at all.
But only 22 books, which contain the records of all the past times,
which are justly believed to be divine.
And of them, five belong to Moses, verse 5,
which contain his laws.
The prophets who were after Moses wrote down what was done in their times in 13 books.
And the remaining four books contain hymns to God,
precepts, and conduct for human life.
So, you may think, we have more.
Look at your table of contents.
There's more than, you know, 22 books.
And the reason we do that is we break up books where they wouldn't have.
We say, like, 1st, 2nd Samuel, 1st, 2nd Kings, 1st, 2nd Chronicles, etc.
So, also note, there are some Bibles out there.
The Roman Catholics have this included in their official canon.
A group of books called the Apocrypha.
And the reason that we don't include those in the Protestant canon
is because they're not named anywhere else in Hebrew tradition.
They're not cited as those books divinely inspired by God.
Even in the Hebrew Bible today, those books aren't included.
And no New Testament writer, apostle, Jesus himself,
they never quoted from it at all.
And so that's a really big deal.
And they have some value, but we just don't put them on the same level
as what we have divinely inspired here.
So, next slide.
So, what about the Old Testament manuscripts?
We had a problem for a long time because one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts
was 900 A.D.
That's bad, you know, because we have prophecies and things like that
that talk about Christ's coming.
So, it could be just all a scam, right?
So, how do we know about this?
And we need to know, how was it accurately translated since before the first century?
We need to know that.
So, God provided a really cool way.
Go to the next slide.
Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 discovered in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea.
And they contained books from the Old Testament, all of them except for Esther.
And a lot of them date back to 125 B.C.
Really cool.
So, even cooler, you can take the ones that date that far back
and you can lay them right beside the ones that date 900 A.D.
They say the same thing, the exact same thing.
It's really cool.
So, it shows you how seriously they took the transmission.
So, they've been preserved for that long, 1900 years.
This is Josephus again.
They didn't play games with the Scriptures.
It was very, very serious to them.
He says,
We have given practical proof of our reverence for our own Scriptures.
For although such long ages have now passed,
no one has ventured either to add, to remove, or alter a syllable.
And it's instinct with every Jew from the day of his birth
to regard them as decrees of God,
to abide by them, and if need be, cheerfully die for them.
Time and again near now pass,
The site has been witness of prisoners, enduring tortures,
death in every form in the theaters,
rather than utter a single word against the laws and allied documents.
So, what he said about this is think about Rome.
They were seeing guys killed in the arenas.
The Colosseum wasn't built at this time.
It actually was built by Jewish slaves that happened after this conquest.
But they were being put to death,
and they would not back down from the Scriptures.
So, take them very seriously.
Go on to the next slide.
That's the Old Testament.
Let's get to the New.
Okay.
They date around the first century A.D.
Again, a variety of authors.
You have fishermen, rabbis, tax collectors, scholars, physicians.
I mean, really cool.
The language, Koine Greek, and some Aramaic, maybe here and there.
That was the language.
So, I go on.
That's how it's broken up.
The history books, letters of Paul, and then letters from other apostles.
This is a cool chart.
Don't lose yourself in all the stuff.
But what this is basically trying to say is,
you ever had someone say,
well, you don't have any of the original New Testament documents.
So, like, what's the point?
You don't really know that what's there was actually there.
So, they just kind of want to cast it aside.
The problem with their argument is that we don't have any, you know,
original copies of any ancient writing at all.
They're written on materials that decay and rot and have been destroyed.
So, but look at this, though.
We'll just do one example.
Most of you have heard of, at least, like the Iliad, Homer's Iliad.
It was written in 800 B.C.
A long time ago.
The earliest copies of it that we actually have in our hands today
are from 400 B.C.
There's a 400-year gap.
See that from the originals and the ones that we actually have?
And then there's the total number of copies we have
from all different time periods.
643, sorry, I need glasses.
So, then go down to the New Testament at the bottom,
written between 50 and 100 A.D.
The New Testament has the smallest time gaps
between the originals and the ones we have now,
and we have 5,366 different fragments and pieces
and whole books of the New Testament.
So, if you're going to throw that away, you've got to throw it all away.
It just doesn't work that way.
So, really cool.
We have, like, the biggest collection of writings of all ancient documents,
more than Plato or anything else.
So, go ahead, John.
So, how do we get the New Testament?
You hear people say,
well, the church left certain books out,
so I had that talk with a guy the other day
and didn't even know what he was talking about.
And so, how do we know that?
Some tricky church councils leave out certain books.
Well, the answer is, darn right they did.
There's a course like Wrong Teaching out there and Heresy
that really tried to corrupt the Gospel.
So, there are several councils that discuss this,
but the last one was Council of Carthurs, 397 A.D.
Carthurs was in Northern Africa.
And this was the criteria they used.
And so, all motives aside,
I couldn't personally come up with better criteria
for why we have what we have.
The first one was whether or not the document was written by an apostle
or one in close association with an apostle.
So, he was either Peter writing it or he talked to Peter.
It wasn't he said that he said that he said.
It was first or second hand and that was it.
Pretty cool.
So, there's a lot of books that don't meet that.
So, we don't really include it.
Secondly, whether or not the document was recognized as authoritative
by the early church.
So, there was, while the apostles were writing these books,
they would be aware if certain other writings were being taught
that were not true and that were corrupted.
And so, they would have kept them down.
I said, these are the books that we include.
Peter actually writes about Paul and says,
our brother Paul wrote to you about these same things I'm writing to you about.
Maybe it all kind of put together.
Then, thirdly, whether or not the document conformed,
let's put it right now, yeah,
to the highest standards and truths taught by already recognized Scripture.
So, we can say, we know that these are good.
Okay, we know that the Old Testament,
you know, these are consistent.
We know that the Gospel of John, Matthew, etc.
And we know that they teach the same things over thousands of years.
They all teach the same thing,
that there's this God who is holy and righteous and graceful
and that man is sinful and is in need of a Savior,
taught over thousands of years.
So, does it go against what we already know to be true?
And then they would exclude it if it was.
So, really good.
That's how you got the New Testament that is in front of you.
Good stuff.
Next.
I don't have time to get into all this, I don't think.
But, remember the Latin, okay?
Sola, scriptura, it means Scripture alone.
And during the time of the Reformation,
and arguably the end of the 1400s and the 1500s,
Martin Luther, John Wyclef, etc.
The Roman Church taught that an infallible book
needs an infallible interpreter.
And he's the only one that can interpret it.
And that was the Pope, the vicar of Christ,
the one who stands in the place of Christ.
And so, they stood against that.
And they said, no, the Bible is the final and ultimate authority.
And if we want to know what the Bible means,
we look at what the Bible says about a certain topic.
We don't, we don't, basically, Scripture is its own interpreter.
Scripture interprets Scripture.
And then finally, yeah, balance of Scripture and historical interpretation.
So, they didn't totally throw aside, like what,
of, like the method of historical interpretation.
If that was true, none of us would believe anything that was taught way back when.
So, you have to kind of weigh things as to what the Church has always taught.
If you come up with a new idea or a new thought
that's escaped the mind of every believer for the last 2,000 years,
you know, and then you look back and it's kind of been taught by
different heretics throughout the history of the Church,
then it's a good chance that you probably need to, like,
can your interpretation.
Probably.
A good example of that, a long time ago,
around the 400 AD, something like that,
there was a guy who taught, a name of Arius,
who taught that Jesus is not God.
He was just another creation.
Sound familiar?
It's the same thing that Jehovah Witnesses and other groups teach today.
It's not anything new at all.
It's the same thing in different form.
So, yeah, Soda Scriptura,
the most refreshing drink on the planet.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
Oh, man.
Last year, I lectured on each one of these people.
We're not going to do that.
But these people were all instrumental in getting us the English translations
that you have.
John Wakeliff,
William Tyndale,
he was the first one to really translate from the original Greek and Hebrew
and Latin text.
John Knox,
Scottish reformer,
great beards back then,
incredible beards.
Then, monarchs,
that also played a very instrumental role.
Whether they're believers or not,
quite debatable.
Maybe we'll be surprised.
See Henry eating the turkey leg in heaven.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
But they were both instrumental
and kind of saying,
at least to Rome,
no,
like we're going to have
our own Bible
for our people
in the common tongue.
And they made it law.
So,
all those people were instrumental
in bringing us English translations.
Go ahead.
One translation,
particularly,
was the Geneva Bible.
Really,
really cool.
The Geneva Bible came
in 560.
That's before the King James Bible.
So,
King James Bible,
not a bad translation,
but it wasn't the first
English translation.
So,
the people with the signs,
you know,
in the King James only.
Just the language
that Jesus spoke in
kind of thing.
It's,
at the beginning of
the preface of the Geneva Bible,
awesome words.
It says,
the Bible is the light
to our paths,
the key of the kingdom of heaven,
our comfort and affliction,
our shield and sword
against Satan,
the school of all wisdom,
the mirror in which
we behold God's face,
the testimony of his favor,
and the only food
and nourishment
of our souls.
Really awesome.
That was written by people
who were exiled from England
during the reign of
Bloody Mary
after Henry
had passed away.
So,
it had study notes,
chapter breaks,
it's quoted by Shakespeare,
it was the Bible
of the pilgrims
that came over.
Really awesome translation.
That's actually a picture
I made
of the Geneva Bible
in Scotland.
It's pretty cool.
Next.
English Bible translations.
Okay.
Here we go.
So,
I'm going to try not to hate
on anybody's translation
tonight,
but there's
basically four kinds
of English translations.
The first is what's called
the formal equivalent.
And that means
they tried to like
get the closest
English word
that would correspond
to either the Greek
or the Hebrew.
It's more of a word
for word translation.
Literal,
if you want to call it that.
The most literal
we can be
in the English translation.
And that's
example,
so you see it over here
to the left,
word for word.
Intelnir means
like the Greek below.
So that's why
it's there.
But then,
the most literal
English translation
is the New American
Standard Bible.
And right over
from that
is ESV,
English Standard
Version.
Gosh.
Then,
even the King James
Version is a literal.
But,
we have more resources
available to us today
to come up with
a better,
more accurate
translations
than
the limited resources
translators had
in the past.
The dynamic equivalent
is,
example,
that is NIV.
That means that
the translators
look at
the Greek or Hebrew
and they say,
what are they,
what's the idea?
Like,
what are they trying
to say here?
What's the thought
they're trying to communicate?
And then they
wrote it out.
So,
it's not,
definitely not bad.
It has value.
But,
NIV is
an example of that.
And then,
then you have
the paraphrases.
New Living Translation,
the message,
and,
I'll say this to you,
because I do believe
that even the Trent,
the guys who wrote this,
would tell you that
this isn't
the Bible.
They would say
this is a paraphrase.
It's just kind of
talking about
things that
went on.
You can't really
get into a,
there's some passage
in the Bible
you need to look at
like the most literal
you can to understand it
because you can't
paraphrase it
in today's English.
It needs to be understood
where it was.
But,
as our culture
becomes more and more
illiterate
and we don't read anymore,
et cetera,
translation is going to get
dumber and dumber
further down the road.
And,
so,
if you don't have
a literal
numeric standard
or ESV or something,
I recommend you buy one
just to read alongside,
just to,
just to follow.
So,
next,
oh yeah,
I don't know why
I put that in there.
I thought it was funny.
Yes,
we typically use
the ESV here.
Next,
next slide.
man,
I had a cool
thing prepared for this.
I don't know if I have time.
Anyway,
I grew up in the 80s.
I actually remember
the latter part of the 80s.
I was born in 82,
but I remember
the latter 80s.
A big movie
that I actually still own.
I actually watched it
a few months ago
just for laughs.
Neverending Story.
Who's seen that movie?
Okay,
I don't feel stupid anymore.
Good stuff,
but it's about
this little boy
named Bastion
who's kind of
going through
a rough time in life
and he's being chased
by these bullies
that are hating on him
and he runs
into a bookstore
and he meets
this cool dude
that looks kind of creepy
and then
has a conversation
with him
and he's reading
a book
called
Neverending Story
and he
kind of like
sneaks it out
and he's like,
I'll return your book
later after I read it.
And then he goes to school
and he actually goes up
to the school attic
and he starts reading
the book.
He reads the rest of the day
and through the night actually
so he just couldn't
back off of it.
Pretty cool.
But he was told by
the guy at the bookstore
this book
is not safe
for you to read.
Like,
you'll see what I mean
if he was to read it.
So he
begins reading it.
It's about this magical world
called Fantasia
and he
goes on into it.
But anyways,
what ends up happening
is that
as he reads it
he finds that
the book is like
talking about him.
It's speaking to him.
He's actually one of the characters
inside of the book
and he's
kind of freaking out
at different parts
like,
whoa,
how did they
know that about me
as he read on?
And
he was kind of drawn
further and further
into it
and then eventually
he's brought into the story
as one of the characters
at the very end.
Pretty cool part.
Anyway.
And
so
on
not to sound cheesy
or
make a cool connection here
but
the Bible is not
a fake book.
It's
that actually happens
when you read the Bible.
You'll see that it's
talking about you
and talking to you.
You'll be like,
man,
that's me.
Like,
I'm like that.
One of the biggest things
that we know
is
that the Bible
is not myth
and it's not just legend
because people
are actually like
real people.
They have real problems
and serious,
nasty things
they get into.
They're not made out
to be invincible
characters at all
and the only one
that's,
the only character
that is invincible
is God himself.
So
that's what happens.
We
read the Bible.
We see that,
man,
we see how sinful
we are.
We see the need
for redemption.
We see the need
of a Savior
and it'll move you
and stir you
like no other book.
And so much so
that as you
start reading it,
you may not want
to put it down
and it
is literally
like a never-ending story.
It'll go on and on
through eternity.
Really cool.
So
why should we
read the Bible
real quickly?
Why study it?
I'll go back.
Sorry.
John,
Kyle,
yeah.
first of all,
turn to John 17
real fast.
Why should we
study it?
First off,
to know who
God is.
And
no better
person to tell us
about God
than
God himself.
He doesn't really
care what you
think about him.
he is a certain
way.
He's not going
to change.
And so
really cool here.
John 17
this is Jesus
praying.
He says,
When Jesus
has spoken
these words,
he lifted up
his eyes
to heaven
and said,
Father,
the hour has
come.
Glorify your
Son.
The Son
may glorify you
since you
have given
him authority
over all
flesh
to give
eternal life
to whom
all you
have given
him.
So,
look at that.
He's like
talking about
eternal life
here.
He says,
And this
is eternal
life,
that they
know you,
the only
true God,
in Jesus
Christ,
whom you
have sent.
So,
the good
news of
the gospel
is not
just we
all get
to go
to heaven
and have
a mansion
in heaven.
The gospel
is that we're
brought back
to God.
And without
that,
you don't
have a gospel
and you're
believing a
false gospel.
God is the
good news
of the gospel
that we're
brought back
into relationship
with him
and can glorify
him again
like we
could not
do before
that.
So,
to know
God,
that's the
ultimate goal
of the Bible.
Secondly,
to know
ourselves.
And like I
was saying
a minute ago,
as Bastion
was reading
that book,
he was being
drawn into it
and he thought,
this is about
me.
This book is
speaking to me.
And as you
do that,
you're going
to really
see who you
are in light
of who God
is.
And see
that you're
really not all
that and God
is everything.
He is glorious
and we're not.
And we're
in need of
him and
he's graciously
provided all
we've needed
to be brought
back to him
through Christ.
So,
Psalm 139,
some of you
turned there,
but I'll just
read it.
Search me,
O God,
and know my
heart.
Try me and
know my
thoughts.
And see if
there be any
grievous way
in me.
And lead me
in the way
everlasting.
Really cool.
So,
to know
ourselves.
Thirdly,
to bring us
eternal joy.
This is part
of the gospel.
It says,
it says,
in Jeremiah
15,
16,
your words
were found,
talking to
God,
your words
were found
and I
ate them.
And your
words became
to me a
joy and
delight of
my heart.
For I am
called by
your name,
O Lord,
O God of
hosts.
And in the
Psalms,
it also says
that in
God's presence
there is
fullness of
joy,
and at
his right
hand there
are pleasures
forevermore.
Forevermore.
So,
it's not just
something that
you have and
it ends like
the pleasure
here.
So,
to know
God is
to have
eternal joy,
to have
hope and
peace.
So,
go ahead
for the next
slide.
So,
God has a
goal and
a purpose
that he will
achieve to get
his word into
the hands of
all the
nations and
every tribe,
language,
and tongue.
And he will
do it.
He promises
that he will
do it.
He'll get
the truth of
his word
to the hearts
of people all
around the
world.
And so,
I was going
to just mention
one other
thing that I
forgot that I
just breezed
over that I
thought I
would.
This is going
to be like
in your group
time.
We're speaking
about the
inerrancy of
scripture and
how scripture
is without
error.
What we
mean by that
also is that
we're saying
that the
original
manuscripts are
completely
without error.
And so,
you might say,
well,
what about our
English translations
then?
Do they have
errors in
them?
And I guess
this is a
good example
of that.
I didn't
come up with
this on my
own.
But,
like,
we all could
go to
Washington,
D.C.
right now,
go to a
museum,
and see,
like the
Constitution,
like the
original
Constitution,
or Declaration
of Independence,
or whatever.
We can see it
right there.
That's the
original document.
But let's say
that a fire
happens and
it gets
burned up.
You know,
would we,
at that point,
go into a
panic and
say,
we don't know
what the
Constitution
says anymore?
Like,
would that be
a true reality?
No.
Well,
the government
doesn't obey
the Constitution
anyway,
typically.
Sorry.
But,
they would do
good to you.
It would be
out of a lot
of messes
that we're
in.
But,
anyway,
because why?
Because we
have copies
of copies
of the
copy of
the copy.
The same
thing.
And that's
the way it
is with
the Scripture.
We have,
we can be
sure that
99.9%
of what we
see is what
was intended
to be there.
Really cool.
So,
let's just
close in
prayer.
I know
there's a lot
more to say.
I was trying
to cram some
stuff together.
Then,
Alex and
Rishi can go
ahead and come
up.
Let's go.