Why I Believe - Why I Believe in the God of the Bible, Part 2

You know, I've spent the last 40 years asking and answering some of life's most important questions. Where we came from? Why do we exist? What is truth?

What happens after we die? And all these issues have led me to one very clear conclusion. And today, I want to share that with you.

That's today. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drury, and in this message, Chip wraps up his series, Why I Believe. Now, for the past several programs, he's walked us through the basic beliefs of the Christian faith, and why it's reasonable and intellectual to believe in Jesus' resurrection, creation, the Bible, and life after death.

So if you've missed any part of the series along the way, you can catch up any time at livingontheedge.org or by listening on the Chip Ingram app. Well, with that, let's join Chip for part two of his message, Why I Believe in the God of the Bible. I have a friend named John. He's actually an author, quite good one, John Dickerson. And I asked him to do a little bit of research for me.

And he is like a head down, dig deep. And he had these lists of all the amazing things that Christians have done. I mean, in science, you know, Newton, Kepler, Pascal.

And then he gave me reams and reams of amazing material. Let me just read a quick list of this is the impact of Christians with regard to universities and education, and what's happened as a result of it. They launched the scientific revolution. They launched the industrial revolution. They created the first society in which girls were provided equal education. They created and spread Western democracy as we know it. It was Christians that invented eyeglasses and thousands of other life changing inventions. The laws of planetary motion were discovered by Christian scientists, germ theory, modern hospitals, education, life saving vaccines.

They fought for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. All of that occurred because there was a Christian worldview that said the dignity of man and this is who God is and there is only one God and we are compelled to make a difference. The fifth reason that I believe in the God of the Bible as the one true God is what I call the pragmatic evidence.

The teaching of Jesus and the New Testament, are you ready? It works in real life. It promotes healthy relationships, strong marriages, honest business people, positive parenting, racial reconciliation, cultural kindness, and they champion the value and the dignity of all human beings regardless of creed, race, sex, nationality, or orientation. I mean, even people that I completely, totally disagree with, I am compelled by the God of the Bible to love them and to serve them and to treat them with dignity.

I mean, it works. I mean, I didn't grow up as a Christian and I will tell you, I can't believe the marriage that I have, but it's based around Christ. My wife came from an alcoholic family.

I came from an alcoholic family. What I can tell you, the pragmatic reason is when believers come together, Jesus is more important than race. I was teaching in the Middle East on a series called The Invisible War and I was doing it to leaders from about 22 or 23 Arabic countries and there were people from Iran and people from Iraq and they were all believers and they were going to learn this and take it to their countries. And as we were teaching it, this guy stood up in the middle. He goes, I have something to say. And then he turned and he said, I was a part of the military in Iran and when we went to war, I killed many of your people and I feel ashamed. And the other guy got up and he said, I have done the same.

And in the middle of this, more than race, more than background, these two men came, hugged one another, forgave each other and tears streaming down their face. And you know what that is? That's the power of the gospel. Jesus changes lives from the inside out. He changes relationships. He restores marriages.

He helps parents know how to model the kind of life that raised kids that are active. The sixth evidence is the uniqueness of the Christian message and the uniqueness of the Christian messenger. The message of the New Testament is different than any other religion in the world. It's a message of grace. Let me give you a picture.

Grace is literally receiving what you do not deserve and it's unconditional. I want you to imagine if you will that we went to a bowling alley and all across here, you know they come in and they have all the balls stacked and you go get your ball and then you go back over to your lane and I want you to imagine that there's like 10 balls, they're all black and there's a white one in the middle, then 10 more and they're all black. And you get to turn each one.

Usually we turn them over to find out, you know, is it the right size or how much does it weigh? And each bowling ball represents, I could do a thousand of them and there would still be one white one in the middle, each bowling ball represents a religion. And as you would turn it over, it has two letters, do, turn, do, do. It can be Islam, it can be Taoism, it can be pray five times a day.

I can come over here, do, do, do. Every single religion is rooted in here's what you need to do to appease the anger of that God or to get on his or her good side. But religion is based on do, do, do, do, earn, earn, earn and you never know if you measure up. And then you come to the white ball and you turn it over and there's four letters, D-O-N-E, done.

It's mind boggling. The Christian message is not this is what you need to do to earn favor with God. This is the God of the Bible that saw your hurt and your sin and knew it was coming and sent his only son and he lived a perfect life to explain what the father is like. And after living a perfect life, he would unjustly hang on a cross and pay for your sin and my sin and the sins of all people in the world.

And as the sins came upon him, the father would turn away and he would become our sin offering for that split second and he would take your sin and my sin upon him and then he would die and he would conquer death and conquer Satan and he'd be raised from the dead and then he'll sit at the right hand of the father and now he's our elder brother. And he says whosoever would believe, you can have eternal life. It's the message of grace. It's different than every religion, every philosophy, every system.

And not only is the message different, the messenger is different. Jesus was not just a great teacher. He wasn't just a good moral person.

He didn't set just a good example. He said I am the way, the truth and the life. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And we beheld him and it talks about in grace and truth no one has known God at any time but Jesus explained him. Jesus is God. He's the word itself. Fully man, fully God.

It is a unique message and a unique messenger and I believe it. He rose from the dead. He proved it's true and all of life and all of history is now before and after the solitary life of one rabbi who came claiming to be God and offering freely the forgiveness of sins and that when a person turns from your sin and in the empty hands of faith recognizes that only he and what he's done for you can save you, receive him by faith, the Spirit of God actually takes up resonance inside your mortal body and you've been taken out of the kingdom of darkness, you've placed in the kingdom of light and he actually lives within you. And he walks with you and you walk with him.

And it's a relationship, not a religion. And this may be the most important reason why I believe in the God of the Bible. The final reason that I believe in the God of the Bible is I call it the existential evidence. Millions of lives have changed over the last 2,000 years and they experientially will declare that Jesus is alive, that he is who he said he is.

I'm one of those people. Every day 85,000 people worldwide are putting their faith in Christ. People are admitting I was blind but now I see.

I was lost but now I'm found. And their testimony with all the ups and all the downs that we all have in real life is peace, forgiveness, joy, purpose, significance, love, guilt removed, new relationships, new life. If any man, if any woman is in Christ, you become a new creation.

The old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. And so it raises a question, I don't know about you, but just logically, this is a pretty hard deal to say no to, right? It's free. It's given.

It's life changing. I mean, most of all the gods in antiquity were cruel and mean. And most of the religion was trying to figure a way where they wouldn't come visit you and hurt you. Actually a good god, a kind god, a benevolent god was almost an oxymoron.

And Jesus plays the trail through all of that. So here's the question, what in the world could keep people from receiving this free gift of eternal life, of knowing he's prepared a place for you in heaven and having a completely new life? I'm gonna close with these top three reasons why people do not receive the gift that God has purchased for them.

Number one is ignorance. Some people, they don't know. Romans chapter 10 verses 14 and 15 is, how can they know if there's not a preacher? And how can they preach if no one has sent?

And he goes on to say, blessed are the feet of the peacemakers. Some people in your life, you know why they haven't received Christ? They don't know about him. Or all they know is like people I talk to. I literally talked with a man on a plane recently. If it sounds like I'm on planes, a lot is true. I talked to a man recently and he kind of sheepishly said, you know, I don't really know the difference between Judaism or Christianity. I mean even historically.

Could you help me kind of understand when stuff happened and even the basic beliefs? Do you know there's people in your world? There's people in your coffee shop. There's people where you drop off the dry cleaning. There's people in your neighborhood. There's people in the cubicle next to you. There's someone on the job site where you're out there doing your plumbing or electrical work.

They don't know. And that's why you're there. You are God's ambassador. And my prayer is that through this series, you'll have a boldness because you would believe, not just here, but here, and have a boldness and a conviction because you realize you're not throwing your brains in the trash.

You're being wise and shrewd and doing what really counts. The second reason why people don't believe is pride. Let me ask you to open your Bible and actually read this because I want you to see it with your own eyes or open your phone.

That works. I'm in John chapter 12 and Jesus has been preaching and teaching about being the light of the world. He says, nevertheless, many of even the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they were not confessing him.

In other words, they weren't believing to the point of going public. Lest they be put out of the synagogue, now listen to this, for they love the approval of men rather than approval of God. You know, there's people in your network and actually some of you listening right now that you're so afraid of what people would think, oh, you became a Jesus freak or you got religion or what about this or what about that? I got news for you, ma'am.

I got news for all of us. There'll come a day when you will really care less what anyone else thinks except God the Father and the judge, Jesus Christ. So can I encourage you, forget what people think, but that pride, boy, that kept me back. All I could think of was, oh my gosh, what are the guys on the basketball team going to say? Or, you know, my family, what will they think? I will tell you what they think. They saw a change in my life that led the rest of my family to Christ after my sister, then me, then the rest of the family.

And it changed our whole family and the trajectory of our whole future both now and forever. The third reason that people do not believe is a moral problem. You know, we often read John chapter three verse 16, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life.

But we don't usually read much farther. Let me read as it continues in John because Jesus is going to point out at the heart of why some people don't believe. He goes on to say, he who believes in him isn't judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten God. And this is the judgment, listen carefully, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light lest his deeds be exposed. You know, I talk to people sometimes and they have all these apparent intellectual reasons about Christianity or about this or about that. At the heart of a great many people, the reason they don't believe is they're living in a way that they know is wrong and it's morally wrong.

And they're unwilling to confess that that is wrong, turn from their sin and receive the free gift of God. Can I ask you, where are you at? I mean, where are you at today?

I don't mean did you pray a prayer or, you know, raise your hand somewhere. Does your life and lifestyle demonstrate that the living God by the person of the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and your values and your love and your capacity and your future and your priorities reflect you are a followers of Jesus Christ? See, I had this great fear, especially for American Christians.

I have a fear that people have intellectually agreed with almost everything I've said. But if we looked at your life, it is so dissimilar to Jesus that I would question, are you really in the faith? Because what I can tell you is people that genuinely know him and genuinely love him, we have our struggles, but our life changes. Father, I want to pray right now. And I want to ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that your spirit would move powerfully, that you would convict of sin and righteousness and justice, Lord, that you would convince people in their heart of hearts even as they're listening, that you love them, that you want them.

And if you're one of those people that have never received Christ right now at this moment, you can cry out to God, Lord Jesus, I believe, I believe you died in my place rose from the dead. I'm asking you come into my life, be my Savior, and give me the power to follow you. Make me your son.

Make me your daughter. And Lord, I pray for those of us that are followers of Jesus, would you give us a holy boldness and a concern for others, some that haven't heard and some that haven't seen a real Christian live out the life so they would ask about the hope that's in us. Lord, we know that's your will, so we pray powerfully in Jesus' name.

Amen. Before we go on today, I want to pause because in the message I talked about the three reasons why people don't believe. And I believe I'm speaking to some people right now that as I went over those three reasons, you literally self-identified. It's not an accident that we're having this conversation. And so in this moment, I'd just like to review, one is ignorance. For some of you, you're listening and you're thinking, even if you're a moral person or maybe you went to church or maybe you don't see yourself as religious at all, you would say, up until today, I was ignorant.

I didn't know this. And I want you to know that God wants you. He loves you. He's for you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to come into your life. He wants to direct you. He has a plan.

It doesn't mean it will be easy, but He'll be with you. The second is there's others that, down deep, as I was speaking, it was hard to admit, but you're proud. You're this independent, I don't want anyone telling me what to do, and it's couched in, you know, you're more scientific or you're more intellectual. But the fact of the matter is, is God's breaking through and He's saying, you know what, you can't handle all of this. You don't know everything. I made all that there is. I made you.

You know your failures when you're honest. I want to forgive you and love you and receive you. And then there's some that you really know the story, but your appetites currently, they're drowning out God's voice because the guilt that comes when you think about really following Jesus the way that you know how and how you're currently living, it's just like, it's a train wreck.

And what started out as pleasure and freedom, now you're a slave to it. And Jesus would say, I want to deliver you. And so I want to pray for all three of these groups and those of you that God has destined on this day in this moment that we would have this conversation. And I would invite you to say, Lord Jesus, you know everything about me.

There's no use hiding or pretending. I want to tell you, I need you today. I desperately need you. I admit I, I fall short. I've sinned.

I've done things wrong. But today I want you to know I'm turning from my way and I'm asking you right now, almighty God, will you forgive me of all my sins based solely on what Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection. And I take up your offer where you say that you're knocking at the door of my heart.

And if I would open the door that you would come into my life and live with me and guide me and direct me. So today I ask you, forgive me, come into my life, make me your son, make me your daughter. And Lord, thank you for your forgiveness. Now help me to grow and help me to follow you all the days of my life. In Jesus name. As you have prayed that with me, it's not some little spiritual activity. If it is the intent of your heart, the Bible says when you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you shall be saved, delivered, forgiven. You need to text the best Christian you know or give them a call and tell them exactly what you did. And you need to go to our website at Living on the Edge, all one word livingontheedge.org. And we don't want to sell you anything. We just have some free information that will help you understand this new step and to help you grow. Now find a good Bible teaching church this weekend and you don't have to know anything.

Just go and let some people love you. God bless you and keep pressing ahead. Thanks Chip.

And before we go on, let me take just a quick second and talk a bit more about the resource Chip just mentioned. It's called Starting Out Right and it's absolutely free. This tool will help you gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to put your faith in Jesus. And that's our whole mission here at Living on the Edge, helping Christians really live like Christians. So let us help you get started in your faith journey. You can request this resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingonttheedge.org and clicking on the New Believers button.

That's livingonttheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Well Chip's still with me in studio and Chip through the series you've been helping us to develop a deeper understanding of our faith so we can share it with others. Now you know most people immediately jump to sharing our faith with strangers when in reality we really need to focus on a group that's much more important.

That's so true Dave. I believe that the most important group for apologetics in our day is our families, our own kids. And I think one of the reasons I wrote this book, Why I Believe, was first my own journey. My experience with apologetic books is they're very thick and they're usually written by really, really smart people with a lot of language that a lot of us normal people don't understand. And so this is a pretty thin book that's really sort of simple and basic.

And it's the kind of book that I could sit down with my pre-teens or teenagers or young adults or any friend and say, you know something, this is why you don't throw your brains in the trash. You can actually believe the Bible and here's the evidence. Or Jesus made this claim of being God. Well, let's find out what the outside sources outside Christianity say and what he claimed.

And I just went through all the various things. This is why in terms of science and religion, why there is not a conflict and this is what the Word of God says and this is scientific discoveries. And in the back of the book, I put tons of footnotes so those that want to go way, way deeper and know where to get some highly intellectual academic reasons, then they can go and get those. But I long for families to train their children about what your faith means, why you can believe it and how you can defend it in a very hostile culture.

There is great reasons to believe and we need to teach our kids what those are. Thanks, Chip. Well, to order this book, Why I Believe, go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Chip's motivation for this resource is to reveal the concrete facts that Christianity is built on and how you can take that proof and winsomely defend your faith. During this series, we've discounted Chip's book, so be sure to order yours today.

For complete details, go to livingontheedge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. App listeners tap special offers. Hey, before we go, let me remind you of an easy way to listen to our extended teaching podcast. Hear Chip anytime on Amazon's Alexa Echo and Echo Dot. Just say, Alexa, open Living on the Edge and you'll hear that day's extended teaching anytime you want. Well, for Chip and everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.