Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. It's the foundational, essential truth of the Christian faith that the Scripture, the Holy Scripture, the Bible, is the living Word of God. We believe in the authority and the accuracy of Scripture. On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can have confidence in God's Word.
Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, Can You Trust the Bible? I want to invite you to take God's Word and turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning in verse 14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, i.e. the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. The Bible is true. The Bible is trustworthy. But the question is, what is your relationship to God and His Word?
Some people hate the Bible, despise it. We see that every day.
Some deny it.
Some distort it and twist it and manipulate it to seek their own end.
Some doubt it by saying things like, well, I just can't accept it.
Some minimize it by saying, it's just not all that important to me, or it's just another book. It's an antique. It's antiquated. It's old. It's outdated.
But in my view, the greatest need is not among those who doubt the Bible or deny the Bible, distort the Bible, deplore the Bible, but rather mostly from those who ignore the Bible. Those of us who know better and say we believe the Bible, and yet our Bibles are distant to us. We hang out with our cell phones and we consume media. But how often do we turn to God's Word? How often do we truly trust in the Word of God?
What would your Bible say about you and your relationship to the Bible? I read this years ago. It's called the Diary of a Bible. What would your Bible say about you? January 15th.
Been resting for a week. A few nights after the first of the year, my owner opened me, but no more. Another New Year's resolution gone wrong. February 3rd, owner picked me up and rushed off to Sunday school. February 23rd, cleaning day, dusted and put back in my place.
April 2nd, busy day, owner had to present the lesson at a church meeting, quickly looked up a lot of references. May 5th, grandma's in town, back in her lap. A very comfortable place. May 9, she let a tear fall on John 14. May 10, grandma's gone back in my old place again.
May 20, baby born. They wrote his name on one of my pages. July 1, packed in a suitcase, off for vacation. July 20th, still in the suitcase. Almost everything else taken out.
July 25th, home again, quite a journey, though I don't see why I went. August 16th, dusted again and put in a prominent place. The minister is here for dinner tonight. August 20th, owner wrote grandma's death in the family record. He left his extra pair of glasses between the pages.
December 31, owner just found his glasses. Wonder if he will make any resolutions about me for the new year. What would your Bible say about you? Do you trust God's Word? you say I read the Bible is your Bible reading you let's talk about some reasons that you can trust the Bible now this is a long study and we don't have the time in just a few minutes to talk about all the reasons to believe in the Bible there are many you don't have to check your intellect at the door to say that you believe the Bible many many smart people have believed and trusted in the authority and the accuracy of God's Word.
The evidence is clear. And obviously, I'm speaking as someone having read the Bible since I was a boy and studied the Bible most of my life that I am thoroughly and completely convinced that the Bible is the living Word of God. Why? Number one, because it is inspired, the inspired Word of God. Inspired here in 2 Timothy chapter 3 literally means breathed out by God.
God breathed. The life of God is in His Word. When you have breath, you have life. When you have life, you have breath. and it is in the breathing out of our words that we communicate.
When you speak, you breathe. And in this case, the Spirit of God, the pneuma is the Greek word. It means breath or wind. It is the breath of God that gave us the Scripture. The Bible is inspired.
I didn say the Bible is inspiring though it is inspiring but there a difference in an inspiring book and the inspired book There are many inspiring stories and books but this book is unique and distinct among all others and above all others because it is breathed out by God. There are many descriptions, great descriptions of the Bible in the Bible, in the internal evidence of the Scripture's inspiration. For example, the Bible is called a hammer that breaks to pieces. I've seen God's Word break down every excuse and alibi in the hardest of hearts. Your Word, O Lord, is like a hammer that breaks to pieces.
The Word of God is like a seed. 1 Peter chapter 1 tells us that the incorruptible Word of God is like a seed that lives. There is life in a seed, and this life, the seed of the Word of God abides forever. The Bible is described as light. One of my favorite verses, Psalm 119, 105.
I memorized it as a child. Your Word, O Lord, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You're seeking guidance? Then God's Word gives you guidance every step of the way. The Word of God is called a sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God in Ephesians 6, James chapter 1, that the Word of God is a mirror.
We see ourselves in the mirror of God's Word, and we see God in that mirror. The Word of God is like food. It's like bread. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The Word of God is like milk.
1 Peter 2, verse 2. Like a newborn babe, we are to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God. Again and again and again the Bible is described, but the best description of the Bible is the Word of God. Literally, literally thousands of times in the Scriptures the Bible is called God's Word, the Word of God. Let me give you just a few examples.
God claims this regarding His own Word. Acts 4.31, they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Romans 10.17, are you looking for faith, a real faith, a meaningful faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. When you face Satan and satanic attacks, Ephesians 6, the sword of the Spirit, which is what?
The Word of God. Hebrews 4.12, the Word of God is sharp, quick, like a two-edged sword dividing asunder between the soul and the spirit. This is the Word of God. And one of the most important verses on the Word is 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of man, but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you as believers.
The Word of God. And if you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then there are several implications that we see. One, the Bible is a perfect book. Without error. Inerrant.
Infallible. If this is God's Word, then God speaks only truth.
Now, were there human authors? Absolutely. over 40 human authors, designed and created by God, their vocabularies, their backgrounds, all of it. Not mechanically, but miraculously, supernaturally, sovereignly to write the words of God, to speak the words of God that were recorded. But this Bible is not just another book.
It is God's perfect book.
So he never speaks with lies. Every promise is true or errors. God never makes a mistake. All Scripture, the Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All means all.
Old Testament, New Testament, the Law and the Prophets, the Gospels and the epistles and the revelation. The Pentateuch, the prophecies, the writings, the Word of God, all of it. Proverbs 30, verse 5 says, every Word of God is pure. That is, every Word of God is true. I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible.
What? That means the Word of God is verbally inspired, not just in cerebral thoughts or in general thoughts. God put a thought in someone's head and they wrote their own words. No, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus said, not a jot or a tittle of my word, not even the smallest comma, will be separated from my word.
Every word of God is pure. all the words of the Bible just like mathematics have to have numbers words represent thoughts and therefore we believe not only in the plenary or the verbal inspiration of the scripture but the plenary meaning all of it God's word is breathe and when you speak as you speak and breathe God speaks the life and the breath of God you can believe the Bible. Challenge to 59789. And we'll get started. Again, that's Challenge to 59789.
We'd love to send you a powerful resource from Dr. Jack Graham called The Jesus Book, a Christ-centered journey through scripture that shows how every part of the Bible reveals the person and work of Jesus. This book will help you understand how the entire Bible points to Christ, from Genesis to Revelation and how his living word can bring peace, confidence, and clarity to your daily walk with him. The Jesus book is our thanks for your gift of $10 or more. To give your gift and get your copy of the Jesus book text the word book to 59789 Again text book to 59789 Now let get back to today's message.
Can you trust the Bible? This one of the evidences that I want to mention today is the preeminence of the Bible is perfection, but also is preeminence, preeminent in circulation. Think about this. The Bible has been read by more people in more languages over more centuries than any person or any book in history. translations over 400 languages and portions of the Bible in 2,500 languages or dialects.
And the total circulation of the Bible and copies of the Bible exceed tens of billions. It's not just the book of the month. It's the book of the ages. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
So in circulation, just the mass production of the Bible. But not only its circulation, but its influence. The Bible influences, has more influence upon history, nations, governments, laws, including the laws of our own nation, than any other book. Universities, literature, all the rest. More books have been written about the Bible than any other book.
So the Bible stands alone. The Bible stands above it all. It is a preeminent book. It is a perfect book. But we can also believe and trust in the Bible because of its preservation.
No other book has been so burned and banned and outlawed as the Bible. from the very beginning when Satan crawled into the garden and said, has God said? Mankind has put a question mark on the Bible and tried to destroy the Bible. From Roman emperors to communist leaders to intellectual elitists to apostate churches and I might add an awful lot of really bad preaching through the years. the Bible has been under attack for centuries and yet it has withstood every attack I'll tell you something else the Bible has survived the attacks of time and translations people want to know is is the Bible that we have today is this the Bible many want to reject the Bible because they say well you can't count on the words of the Bible it was it was translated in so many ways we don't even know if we have the original Word of God.
Oh yes we do. There is a study, a scholarship called textual criticism in which Bible scholars, both believers and unbelievers, have examined the Scripture, scrutinized the text over the generations, and with all the textual examination we now know, because there are more ancient manuscripts of the Bible than any other kind of book or ancient manuscript. It is remarkable how many we have. And you say, are there eras, are there differences in the manuscripts from a thousand years ago to what we have today? There are minor textual issues, a word here and there.
But you know the Bible was copiously copied again and again and again. When we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in the middle of the 20th century, we compared manuscripts that we had to manuscripts that were then the oldest, are still the oldest copies of the Old Testament that we have. And they compared them beautifully, favorably, small, minor details, but no major doctrine, no major truth, no major issue has been raised. And you can count on the fact, due to the manuscripts that we have, due to the scholarship that we know, that the Bible that you hold in your hand today, even that one on your little fake Bible on your phone, is the living, just kidding, is the living Word of God. It is God's Word.
And you can have confidence that the Bible you have is what God wanted you to hear.
Now, I could go on and on. I could talk to you about archaeological evidence. The deeper we dig in the Middle East, and Israel in particular, more evidence is surfaced that supports the teaching, the history of the Bible. I could talk to you about scientific evidence in the Bible. Did you know the Bible long before man, William Harvey in 1513, discovered the circulatory system, that the Bible said that life is in the blood?
Scientific evidence, historical evidence, prophetic evidence, that is fulfilled prophecy. The evidence that Jesus himself believed the Bible. Jesus submitted himself to his own word. He spoke of the history of the Bible and some of the stories that are the most questions, like the story of creation. Jesus affirmed the story of creation and of Adam and Eve.
He talked about Abraham. He talked about Moses and the law. Jesus spoke, oh yeah, here's a big one. He spoke of the historicity of Jonah and the story of the big fish. Believe what Jesus believed about the Bible.
Jesus embraced the moral law of God and lived according to the law of God. He said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I've come to fulfill the law. I am the fulfillment of the law. But ultimately you have to know that all the Bible is about Jesus.
And if you don't see Jesus in the Scriptures, you're missing the point. The Bible is the story of salvation. How man has been separated from God because of sin. And the red river of redemption flows through the pages of Scripture like a red river. everything in the Bible is pointing to a hill outside of Jerusalem, the place called Calvary where Christ died on the cross for our sins and to an empty tomb where Christ rose again and this is the gospel message we preach.
And where do we get it We get it in the Word of God And that why there power in the Word of God As a pastor countless times I been with families in hospitals intensive care units in homes where there is death, where there is sorrow, where there is tragedy. I've been with wives so many times when they've had to say goodbye to their husbands and death. I've been with parents when their children have died or been tragically killed. I've been there in those situations many times. But I've seen the Word of God bring hope instead of despair.
Victory, where there was such defeat. Healing, where there's such pain. comfort where there is great sorrow the Bible speaks of the comfort of the scriptures hope where there was so much despair no this is not an irrelevant book this is not an out of date outmoded archaic antique it's the living breathing word of God it's the life of God is in this book this is the reason I do what I do is to preach Jesus and teach the Bible when someone stands up and delivers God's word in the power of the Holy Spirit we know mighty and miraculous things happen in people's lives the scriptures here tell us that this word of God is not only for unbelievers but it is for believers to equip us verse 17 that we would be equipped that the word of God is for doctrine truth and for rebuke correction and instruction in righteousness God's word disciplines us and directs us equips us that we would be literally super equipped, that you would be a man, a woman of God. It's the message of the Bible. Trust the Bible.
The Bible is the truth of God's Word. It will break every chain. Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. What a thrill it is to be liberated by the life-giving Word, to break habits that we cannot break on our own to move from darkness to light and then having been so moved by the power of the gospel the power of God's word to share that message with others you're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message can you trust the Bible in a time marked by confusion, anxiety and spiritual compromise Your support of PowerPoint helps point others to the source of unshakable hope, God's word. Through your generosity, we're proclaiming the gospel across the airwaves, on digital platforms, and through daily devotionals, reaching hearts in living rooms, prison cells, and far beyond.
And with every broadcast, more people are discovering the Bible not just as a rule book, but as the living voice of God that speaks with clarity, power, and grace.
So to thank you for your gift of $10 or more, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's powerful book, The Jesus Book. This life-changing resource walks you through every book of the Bible and shows how each one points to Jesus. It's a tool to deepen your confidence in Scripture and help you experience Christ in a fresh and personal way. To give your gift and receive your copy of The Jesus Book, text BOOK to 59789.
Again, book to 59789. How would your life change if you applied a bit of practical wisdom each day of the month? Find out by joining Dr. Graham in October as he dives into practical wisdom from the Bible. Each day we'll send a short teaching from God's Word to help you grow in wisdom and live the life he desires.
If you're ready, text CHALLENGE to 59789 and we'll get started. Again, that's challenge to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? It is so very important to realize that the power and truth of the Bible doesn't depend on any of us, you or me. God's Word spoke and the universe came into being.
When God spoke, He parted the Red Sea. And God's Word has outlasted empires and those who want to ban it and burn it. And of course, God's Word has transformed the very history and the destiny of the world. It's important that we defend God's Word. But, you know, our defense of Scripture doesn't make or break God's truth.
No other book in history comes close, not even close, to comparing to the Bible. In terms of its geography, its historical record, its dates, its textual reliability, it is far and away the most authoritative and accurate work in the history of the world, today and forever. And from the sheer standpoint of academic assessment, nothing comes close to the reliability of the Bible. You can trust the Bible. The Bible is what it claims to be, timeless, truth-telling, the inspired Word of God.
And that's my word for you today. That's the PowerPoint for today. The Bible isn't just another book. It's not just an ancient document. The Word of God penetrates our hearts.
The work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds, our hearts, our wills, and change us comes through the Word of God. The very gospel that we preach is from God's Word. How can we even know the gospel apart from the Bible?
So believe the Bible, trust in the Bible, and know the God of the Bible through Jesus Christ. Trust in the Lord and you will trust in God's word. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of $10 or more to PowerPoint, we'll send you a copy of Dr. Graham's book, The Jesus Book, as our thanks.
Text the word book to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how God can redeem any life, no matter how broken. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
