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Key verse: Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Biblical truth: The Word of God (the Bible) is a living book that works like a sharp sword that can discern or shine light on all the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is the judge of all that is in the heart. The Word of God is the words that God said to us with His own breath (inspiration) that we have written down on paper.
What separates Bible-Christianity from all other types of Christianity is its claim to an absolute, written authority from God. Most "Christians" only use the Bible, but do not believe it completely. Having the word of God is essential to a Christian's growth because the basis by which a Christian is to govern his or her life is only found in the pages of the Holy Bible.
The word infallible means that all that the Bible says is true. Every subject it speaks about, it speaks about without error. The purpose of this lesson is to help the Christian to know what it is that they holding their hands, and how they can trust it as the very words of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13)! We don't just "believe" the Bible is God's word, anybody can PROVE it just by checking out the accuracy of its prophecies.
Bible Facts
a. The human authors wrote each portion of the Bible by the "inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). This means God "breathed" (spoke) His very words into the human authors of the Bible as they wrote it - they were not invented by human imagination. They came directly from God (Matthew 4:4)!
b. The Bible therefore came not by the will of man (2 Peter 1:21), and yet God chose to use over 40 human authors to pen the books of the Bible. So, no one just sat down and decided to write a book for the Bible. It was always directed, and controlled by God. Some of the writers that God, the author, used to pen this Book of books:
i. Deuteronomy 31:24-26 Moses
ii. Luke 20:42 David
iii. Proverbs 1:1 Solomon
iv. Isaiah 1:1 Isaiah
v. Romans 1:1,7 Paul
vi. 1 Peter 1:1, Peter
c. According to Jesus Christ, heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word shall not pass away (Matthew 24:35).
d. The Bible is superior to all philosophy because it was not given by man's wisdom but by the teaching of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 2:13).
e. The Bible is ONE Book made up of 66 separate books.
f. The Bible is now completed. It was finished in about 95 AD, when the apostle John completed the book of Revelation. No one can add anything to it through personal revelations, visions, or prophecies, and no one can take away from it (Revelation 22:18, 19) - anyone that claims additional prophecies over those that are contained in the Bible is false.
g. Overall, the Bible is divided into two main sections. The second section is called the New Testament (2 Corinthians 3:6). The first section is called the Old Testament (2 Corinthians 3:14). A "testament" is a written testimony about God's will in the form of a covenant (agreement).
h. The Bible is holy, and perfect, having no error because it is both inspired, and preserve by God (Psalms 12:6, 7). God wrote the Scriptures through men (that is inspiration, 2 Timothy 3:16), and then bound Himself to keep His word from error (that is preservation, Matthew 24:35) That means that God's word is still here on earth today as He promised. Though men have tried to corrupt the Bible and change it (even in Paul's day -- II Corinthians 2:17) God has preserved it for all generations.
What the Bible is
a. God's revelation of the origin and destiny of all things (Isaiah 46:9, 10).
b. God's will or testament to people of all ages, revealing the plan of God for mankind here and now, and in the next life.
c. A record of how God dealt with man in the past, present and future.
d. The message of eternal salvation for all who believe in Christ, and eternal wrath for all who reject that Gospel (John 3:36).
e. The most remarkable Book ever! Of its divine library of 66 books, there is history, biography, poetry, proverbial sayings (true sayings), hymns (songs), laws, parables (stories that teach truth), riddles, allegories (symbolic language), prophecies, records of birth, and death, mysteries, adventure, recipes, blessings, cursing, and all other forms of human expression!
f. Psalms 119 deals particularly with the subject of the Scriptures in great detail. Of the 176 verses, all but three specifically mention the Scriptures and their importance in the life of the believer. The Bible refers to itself in Psalm 119 using eight different words:
i. The Law - God's definition of right and wrong (1)
ii. The testimonies- a record of what God thinks (2)
iii. God's ways- a record of how God works (3)
iv. Precepts- Truths that apply to life - principles (4)
v. Statutes- fixed truths of God (5)
vi. Commandments- clear commands and instructions (6)
vii. Judgments- God's conclusions about various subjects (7)
viii. The words - the very words of God (9)
g. Psalms 119 teaches that the Bible is eight things to every believer:
i. It provides spiritual cleansing (Psalms 119:9; Ephesians 5:25, 26). The word of God cleanses the life of the believer as we obey it!
ii. It is like having wealth and riches to the one who has it (119:14)!
iii. A companion and friend to the one who lives in it (119:24)!
iv. A song to sing (119:54) - it fills the heart with such joy!
v. Words as sweet_ (119:103) as honey.
vi. A light (119:105, 130)
vii. A heritage - something passed on like an heirloom (119:111).
viii. Great spoil and treasure (119:162)
How does the Bible differ from every other book? What major ways?
Since we have the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, we naturally have responsibilities attached to that.
Your responsibility concerning the Scriptures
a. To love them (119:97,159) - How much do YOU love them?
b. Prize them (119:72,127) as you would treasure!
c. Memorize them (119:11) - learn God's words as He wrote them.
d. Meditate on them (119:15, 23, 48, 78) - understand each word!
e. Study them (119:12, 18, 26, 27, 2 Timothy 2:15!
f. Trust them (119:42) Faith comes by hearing this Bible (Romans 10:17)
g. Obey them (119:8, James 1:22) Live this Bible every day!
h. Declare them (119:13) - tell others of God's word on life!
The four basic things God wants you to learn from the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16, 17):
a. Doctrine - learn what is right and true, and actual
b. Reproof - learn what is not right in our life, and in the world
c. Correction - learn how to get right - most important
d. Instruction in righteousness - learn how to stay right
e. These four foundations prepare you so that "...the man of God (the mature Christian) may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
What the Bible is not
a. It is NOT a charm or good luck piece.
b. It is NOT a book of "heavenly utterances" in a supernatural language. It is God's revelation in the simplest human language possible.
c. It is NOT a book of mysteries. It is self-interpreting, explaining all the mysteries of life, so that no mysteries remain.
d. It is NOT a book that says one thing and means another.
e. It is NOT a book that should be constantly criticized and attacked simply because you don't like what it says, or how it says it! It is God's words!
In what way does II Timothy 3:16-17 affect the believing reader of the Bible?
How we know the Bible was given by God?
It's Unity. Over 40 authors wrote the 66 books of the Bible in different lands (Job in Mesopotamia, Moses in Jordan, Paul in Rome and Greece, John in Turkey, Peter in Babylon), and at different times, covering a period of over 2,100 years (from 2000 B.C. to 95 A.D.), and yet never contradicting each other! Try to duplicate that! No matter what you have been told, none of the writings were "sanctioned" by some church council, or commanded to be written by some church leader. They were all written by the direct inspirational hand of God (2 Timothy 3:16), and preserved from any human error, in spite of the fact that myriads of religious efforts were made to destroy both the prophets and their message!
It's Influence on the World. No other book has so influenced the course of human events like the Bible - it has never been imposed upon a people. No matter what culture a person lives in, one thing has always been true - Religion has always been forced upon people on a collective basis, while Biblical Christianity has always been chosen on an individual basis. This one piece of "literature" has brought about the greatest nations, and greatest freedoms no sword or any other means could! Notice the effect the word of God had upon the people of first century A.D. (Acts 17:6), the people of the Reformation, the Renaissance, and compare those people's lives with the effects of the Dark Ages (when the Bible was banned from being read or believed), and the effects of Humanism, Stalinism, Marxism, and all other forms of tyrannical dictatorship (all banned the Bible)! Since the Bible's truths are individual in nature, no dictator, pope or prince can allow it to turn their subjects away from complete devotion to THEM, so they ban it! Don't let someone take away your access to God's written word!
Its Supernatural Preservation. As it has already been said, whole kingdoms and religions have sought in vain to destroy the influence of the Scriptures, and yet it still reigns victorious, and indestructible (Matthew 24:35). It has, and always will out-last all religions and kingdoms of this world, simply because, it is God's pure word (Psalms 12:6, 7)!
Fulfilled Prophecy. One of the most important areas of proof that God wrote the Bible involves the fact that almost 3,300 verses of prophecy have been fulfilled to the letter. These prophecies were predictions made hundreds and even thousands of years before their fulfillment (i.e., the prediction in Micah 5:2 of the birthplace of Christ was made 750 years before the event - see Matthew 2:1-6). Not one detail has failed, and there are some 3,000 more verses yet to be fulfilled! See Deuteronomy 18:20-22, where God promises that everything that His prophets speak will be fulfilled, and if not, then the prophets were false prophets, and should die. No human authored book would dare to make so many predictions, so far in advance, and therefore subject its authenticity to such chance - yet God did.
Scientific Accuracy. The Bible describes the earth as a circle (like a sphere, Isaiah 40:22), suspended in space (Job 26:7) hanging upon nothing. And it told us this without the aid of an orbiting satellite. The Bible expressed this as FACT and not conjecture over 2,200 years before Columbus discovered it was right! The Bible also explains the division of the languages into confusion at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). It reveals that there are "paths," or currents in the seas (Psalms 8:8). Again, Columbus "discovered" that this was true when he sailed to the New World on one ocean current, and then back to Spain on another. The Scriptures in (Psalms 102:24-27, and Hebrews 1:10-12) declare the Second Law of Thermodynamics (which states that everything wears out)! It also reveals the process by which all of life occurred on this planet (Genesis 1 and 2), and much, much more! You can't beat the Bible, no matter how much education you obtain - it's always years ahead of science!
Historical Accuracy. Noah's flood (Genesis 6-9) is attested to by Babylonian tablets written in 650 B.C., as well as in 250 ancient world histories. Most of the places named in the Bible have been identified through archeology, thus validating the historical accuracy of the Bible again and again! The same cannot be said however about other religious books.
Claims of the Bible Itself. Over 3,800 times the writers of the Bible claim God spoke what they wrote (i.e., "thus saith the Lord"), and that what we hold in our hands is the very words of God (2 Timothy 3:15,16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13)
It's God's word - Read it; believe it; study it; obey it; preach it!
What notes or questions do you have?
Reading: The systematic reading of the Bible daily begins with a belief that the Bible is what it says it is. The Bible describes itself with many different labels all of which give us a glimpse of how it works on both the saved and the lost. Review these verses and write the descriptive word for the Bible and what effect it has.
Jeremiah 23:29 (two words that describe it)
Ephesians 5:26
Psalms 119:105
Luke 8:11