The Amazing Word of God | Part 2

Listen closely as Adrian Rogers shares his personal history with the amazing Word of God.

Love, revere, study, and incredible book. One of the ways I know the Bible is the Word of God, it stood up under so much shoddy preaching. The Bible has a longevity to it.

It's amazing. Welcome to Love Worth Finding. Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers said, I've been studying the Bible for more than 40 years. I believed it when I began. But friend, I'm not finding hidden flaws.

I'm finding hidden beauties. In part one of today's message, Pastor Rogers discussed the wonderful unity of the Word of God, panned by people from all kinds of backgrounds. Shepherds, kings, soldiers, princes, priests, and fishermen. And yet, from Genesis to Revelation, it reads as one book. If you have your Bible, find 2 Timothy chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 16 as Adrian Rogers concludes, the amazing Word of God. We believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its scientific accuracy. Because that's where it's attacked mostly, at its science. And we talked to you about the fact that before you say the Bible is not scientifically accurate, make certain that you know, number one, the Bible. And number two, that you know science. And then we talked not only about the Bible and its scientific accuracy, but we talked about the Bible and its historical accuracy. And the spade of the archeologist has time and time again confirmed and affirmed the impeccability, the inerrancy of Scripture. So those are the first two reasons we gave the scientific accuracy of the Bible and the historical truth or accuracy of the Word of God.

Now, here's the third reason. I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of the wonderful unity of the Bible. Now, the Bible is a book that has a unified message. It is one book that has one theme which is redemption. It has one hero, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has one villain who is the devil.

It has one purpose, the glory of God. I've been studying this book for more than a half a century. Seriously. I'm not finding hidden flaws. I'm finding hidden beauties. I'm finding things that are amazing. The Bible is a remarkable book.

It's like a coat where you pull a thread here and it wrinkles way up here or over here somewhere. It is a seamless garment of proof. Why do I believe the Bible is the Word of God? Well, I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its wonderful unity.

Now, that's the third reason, okay? Here's the fourth reason I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Because of the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. Only God can prophesy. No one else apart from God knows the future.

No one. The only future that you know is the future that God has revealed in his Word. If we were to take just one subject, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the focal point and the spirit of all prophecy, and look in the Old Testament, the prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, there are more than 300 exact prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that are in the Old Testament.

Every one of them are absolutely correct. Do you know what the naysayer says about the fulfilled prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? And by the way, the mathematical probability that only eight of these prophecies could have been fulfilled is so mathematically astounding that the ratio of chance that comes up with a number that we don't have a number for in the human language.

But I'm not talking about eight. I'm talking about 300-plus prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how does the naysayer deal with that? He says, well, Jesus wanted people to think that he was the Messiah, so he just arranged to fulfill these prophecies.

Well, let's see if that's true. First of all, he arranged where he would be born. Pretty good arrangement, huh? He arranged that he would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5, 2 says he would be. Matthew 2, 1-5 says he was. Number two, he, quote, arranged that he would be born of a virgin.

Pretty good arrangement, huh? Isaiah chapter 7. Now, here's the classic arrangement. He arranged that after he was crucified, be raised again the third day. And that is prophesied in the Word of God that he would be raised again on the third day. Now, he arranged all of this. Well, the truth of the matter is he really did arrange it because he's God. And God caused all of this to come to pass in his infinite wisdom.

But there's no way that it was humanly arranged. These prophecies were not fulfilled for the most part by the friends of Jesus, but by those enemies who had nothing to gain, who really hated him, and would not want to do anything that would attest to the fact that he was indeed what he was and who he was, the Son of God. What does the Bible say about all of these prophecies? Well, I'll sum it up in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 56. But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

No other book knows the future, and no one knows the future except what God himself reveals, one of the undeniable affirmations of the Word of God. Fulfilled prophecy, if you had no other reason to believe that the Bible is the Word of God than fulfilled prophecy. So far I've talked about scientific accuracy. I've talked about historical truth.

I've talked about wonderful unity. I've talked about the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. Now, let me give you another reason because I believe the Bible is the Word of God, and it is the ever-living quality of the Bible. No book has ever had as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it. Men have scorned it. Men have abused it. Men have misquoted it.

Men have made laws against it. There was a time in Scottish history when even to own a Bible was a crime worthy of death. Voltaire was a brilliant man. He was a French atheist. Voltaire took out after the Word of God.

He lived about 300 years ago. Voltaire said, in my lifetime, 50 years from now, the world will hear no more of the Bible, quite a boast. 50 years from now, the world will hear no more of the Bible. Voltaire has been dead for about 300 years, but in the very house where Voltaire made that statement, the French Bible Society, the Geneva Bible Society, rather, did a wonderful business distributing Bibles.

They were stacked from floor to ceiling in Voltaire's house. Now, listen, there are a lot of people who pronounce the death of the Bible, but the corpse has outlived the pallbearers. The Bible is, as I've said, not the book of the month. It is the book of the ages.

Let me give you a verse, 1 Peter 1, verses 24 and 25. For all flesh is as grass. Hey, folks, you're going to wither, and so will I. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Now, I've had my share of education.

I went to school eight years past high school. I lived in the 21st century, but here I am believing and sharing a book that is millenniums old. Think about it.

Think about it. Think about this book that is alive and well in the 21st century, loved, revered, studied, an incredible book. One of the ways I know the Bible is the Word of God, it stood up under so much shoddy preaching.

It's amazing. The Bible has a longevity to it. Who else would go to a book as old as the Bible and study it and carefully analyze it in a new to modern age? It's one of the great, great proofs of the inspiration of the Scripture is the ever-living quality of the Bible. Now, there are those so-called theologians who want to re-examine the Bible today.

As far as I'm concerned, I just as soon trust a group of blind men with some lightning bugs in a jug in a cave trying to examine the noonday sun. These people to examine the Word of God. As far as I'm concerned, we need to re-examine these so-called theologians. The word theos means God.

Logos means Word. They're supposed to believe the Word of God. Theologians, they like grape nuts and neither grapes nor nuts. They don't know the theos.

They don't believe the logos. Friend, the Bible is a book that has survived the ages. You throw the Bible in the fiery furnace and it will come out without the smell of smoke in its clothes. The Bible survives. The Word of our God endures forever. The Bible is an indestructible book. Now, let me give you another reason. And this will be the final reason.

Not the only reason, just the final one here tonight. And I believe the Bible is the Word of God. And that is the transforming power of the Bible. The transforming power of the Bible. The Bible, this book, has incredible power.

I mean living power. The Bible says of itself in Hebrews 4-12, for the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. The word quick literally means alive. It comes from the Greek word zoan. It's a word we get our word zoology from, or zoo from. It speaks of living things.

And quick and powerful. The word powerful comes from the Greek word inergis. It's a word we get our word energy from. And what it literally means is the Bible is alive and it pulsates with power.

You read other books, friend, this one reads you. I have preached the Bible long enough to know that it has power in it. Romans chapter 1, verse 16, the apostle Paul said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. And the word he used for power there is the Greek word dunamis.

It's a word we get dynamite from. It is the dynamite of God is in this book. You could not preach the Bible as I have for as many years as I have without understanding that there is power in the word of God. You know, when I preach, I look at you and you look at me. For some strange reason, I often say this, people sitting out there have the idea that maybe I don't see them. Well, you see me, don't you? And I watch people. I try to look into the faces of people as I speak.

And I know that sometimes there will be a person who will come in and maybe his wife has badgered him to come and he'll come and he'll check out the light bulbs and he'll look around. Who are these people? Look at the size of this place. Why did they do that?

Who's that guy? You know, and they just kind of come to critique everything. Really, they're pretty much against their will, but they're. And they're not sure they believe what I'm preaching or not, but probably are pretty cynical and pretty critical. But they come and they listen and they listen and they listen and the Bible begins to do its work.

I'm not talking about my rhetoric. I'm talking about the word of God itself. The Bible says of itself, is not my word like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? You can take a hammer and begin to tap a rock. You don't have to hit it with a great heavy blow. Just keep tapping. The rock will split.

The rock will split. I've seen it happen so many times. I've seen people come whose lives are transformed by the word of God. I know one of our finest members here in this church.

I'll not call his name because I don't have permission to do that. Oh, he's such a wonderful man. He came to listen to me teach when we were down at the old church. He came to what I call then the pastor's discovery class.

I taught it on Sunday morning at 9.30. And he came and he went through the whole thing one time. I could tell he's sizing me up and everything. But he came back the next time. Went through it again. Began to wonder, could this be true? Went through it again.

Went through it again. And finally he said, yes, I believe. He's one of our finest leaders in this church.

Now what is that? That's the word of God. That's the power of the word of God. Is there a secret to the ministry that God has given me the privilege of having?

Yes, but it's an open secret. There's power in the word of God. If you take this book, pray over it, analyze it, organize it, illustrate it and apply it, it will change lives. It will change lives. There's power in the word of God.

The Bible is saving to the center. Billy Graham began, by the way, I knew Billy Graham. I have a picture of Billy Graham myself when Billy was in his 30s. I remember when Billy Graham began to speak and I heard him in the early 50s. Billy then was a flaming young evangelist.

Many times you wear these red ties. But if any of you remember Billy speaking in those days, Billy would say, the Bible says, the Bible says. And he would stand behind the word of God.

The Bible says. That was his authority for preaching. Billy Graham went to preach in England in a great arena there, the Haringey Arena. And this was unusual for an American evangelist to come to Stade Britain to preach. And all the newspapers were talking about this flamboyant evangelist. They had all kinds of stories about him and how he was a showman and a huckster and all of this. But Haringey Arena filled up to hear Billy Graham.

It was a big event in London. Sitting way up there in the stadium in the stands were two men and they were talking about the evangelist. Whether or not he was a money grubber, whether he was this or that, a huckster or whatever. But Billy opened the word of God and began to preach. One of these men was a medical doctor. And the medical doctor, when the invitation was given, and Billy said, come to Christ. The medical doctor turned to this man, who the two of them had been critiquing and criticizing, and the medical doctor said to him, I don't know about you, but I'm going down there to give my heart to Jesus Christ. And the man sitting next to him said, and I'm going with you, and here's your billfold. I'm a pickpocket.

What changed those people? The word of God. I've seen it happen so many times. I know that it is saving to the sinner. I'll tell you something else. It is sweet to the saint. It is sweet to the saint to delight in the word of God. One man said, I have no greater joy than to be in a nook with a book. I have an inner witness in my heart that the Bible is the word of God. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. Saving to the sinner, sweet to the saint, sufficient for the sufferer.

You'd have to be a pastor to go in and out of the hospitals to visit people, talk to people whose hearts are broken and crushed, sometimes with mental anguish, sometimes with great financial duress, sometimes with bodies that are wracked by pain. These people don't want to read from the seer's catalog. They're not interested in the book of signs.

They're not interested in some work by Tolstoy. They want a word from God. And I'm telling you that the sweet promises of the word of God can soothe a wrinkled brow, can speak peace, give satisfaction to the thirsty soul.

I've seen it happen so many times. I'll say something else. The word of God is sufficient for the scholar. I don't pretend to be the greatest scholar, but I've spent my life in this book. I want to reiterate what I said a while back. I believed it when I started it.

I believe it more now. No one who has studied the Bible would even dare say he's gotten to the bottom of the book. You know a little fear I have in the back of my mind? I'm afraid someday, somewhere, somebody's going to find out how little I know about the Bible.

I mean, I feel like I've just got my foot inside the door, and yet I've given my heart to this. Somebody says the Bible is like a pool, shallow enough that a little child can come and get a drink of water without fear of drowning, and so deep the scholars can swim in it and never touch bottom. The Bible transcends the mind of natural man because it contains the mind of God.

It is God's love ladder. Again, I remind you, the Bible has but one theme, and that is redemption. One hero, Jesus.

One villain, Satan. One purpose, the glory of God. And today, as we conclude this insightful message from God's Word, maybe you have questions regarding how to place your faith in Jesus. We'd love to offer you an insightful resource on the website. It's called our Discover Jesus page. You'll find answers there you may need about your faith.

We also have a response section. You can share how this message or others have made a difference in your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus.

Let us hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Mention the title The Amazing Word of God. This message is also part of the insightful series The Bible, The Book of the Ages. For that complete collection, all 12 powerful messages, call 1-877-LOVEGOD or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. We're so glad you could study in God's Word with us today. Remember, the Bible in all its wonder and majesty is summed up in this, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. We hope you'll tune in next time for more real truth that never changes right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener on Facebook wrote on our wall not long ago and I want to share what she said. These messages have helped me understand the Bible and how to apply it to my life.

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