4-0-9
The fight is on
The drum is down
Bring it out
The guide to the war
The burden of war is near
The glory of Moses
Marching on to victory
This fight of war
The prize will come to near
The fight is on
A Christian soldier
Who makes the cases turn away
The heart is beating
The bell is ringing
The fight is on
It came too late
The fight is on
The king of kings
I'm here to lead
The strong invasion is my old friend
If God be for us
The men are over us
We'll sing the big curse song at last
The fight is on
The rowdy soul is brave
And true to all the peace
And victory will be sure
The blood go on
The uncle God has given
He's renewed his strength
Forever we'll adore
The fight is on
A Christian soldier
Who makes the cases turn away
The heart is beating
The bell is ringing
The light of dawn
It came too late
The fight is on
The king of kings
I'm here to lead
The strong invasion is my old friend
If God be for us
The men are over us
We'll sing the big curse song at last
The fight is on
The king of kings
I'm here to lead
The power of Christ
His grace he's returned
His glorious name
The Lord in me the poor will bring
The dawn of peace is nigh
The fight is on
A Christian soldier
Who makes the cases turn away
The heart is beating
The bell is ringing
The light of dawn
It came too late
The fight is on
The king of kings
I'm here to lead
The strong invasion is my old friend
If God be for us
The men are over us
We'll sing the big curse song at last
Song 180
1-8-0
There'll never be a sweeter story
Story of the Savior's lovely mind
I'm left crowded from the realms of glory
Just to save a sinful soul like mine
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful it is to me
At last as the universe around me
Reaching to the hardest soul away
Singing in love your love surrounds me
That is why my heart can truly sing
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful it is to me
Love me honorably comprehending
Love of God at last come getting me
This will be my theme and never ending
Great redeeming love of Calvary
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful
It's the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful it is to me
Alright this time we'll go through our announcements together
If you don't have a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high
We'll get to you with one
On the inside we have our service times
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service
Sunday nights at 6 and Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study
This week we're not going to be having our usual Bible study in Ezekiel
But rather Pastor Bruce Mejia is going to be visiting from First Works Baptist Church in Los Angeles
He's going to be preaching this Wednesday night
So you're not going to want to miss that even if you don't show up normally on Wednesday nights
Make a point to be here for Pastor Bruce Mejia as a guest preacher
So that's going to be this Wednesday just a couple days from now
And then below the service times we've got the soul winning times
We've got salvation and baptisms
The chili potluck that ship has already sailed
And then below that the donuts are before the service next Sunday morning one week from today
Church picnics coming up on the 20th so that's about three weeks away
And then the portraits it's over
That ship has sailed too
Who got your picture taken? Put up your hand
Alright very good
Who didn't? No I'm not going to ask that
I don't want to single anyone out or embarrass anyone just kidding
Alright and then at the very bottom there's that note there's a little misleading
There's a music emphasis night this Thursday night
Okay and that is at what time?
Seven
Seven o'clock this Thursday night right here is the music night
And then the normal five o'clock singing practice will start up again next Sunday
On the back we've got the birth announcement for baby Silas Emery
Born on October 29th and so be sure to congratulate the Kohlers
The zip lining if you have any questions about that be sure to talk to my wife
As it says in bold there you must sign up directly with her
And then other upcoming events tomorrow is a Mexico Monday soul winning trip
So if you're going on that be sure to get signed up
And then we've got a small town soul winning coming up in Globe on this Saturday
And other things that are listed there below so that's about it for announcements
Let's go and count up the soul winning from the past few days
So going back to Thursday anything from Thursday to report got it?
Anything else from Thursday? What about Friday?
Okay anything else from Friday? What about Saturday?
Got it
Anything else from Saturday? And then how about today?
Brother Scott? Three with brother Scott
We got one another three
Two
Okay is that a five?
Alright any other teams? Yep there we go
Alright anyone else? I see it
Anyone else? Very good keep up the great work on soul winning with that let's sing our next song
Is there a sign up sheet for the small town soul winning?
Sign up sheet for the small town soul winning
It doesn't look like it's up yet
So shoot the church an email
If you're going cause it doesn't look like a sign up sheet's up
That's brother Raymond Cooper's department and he is I believe not feeling well
So if you're planning on going just shoot the church an email
We'll get a sign up sheet by Wednesday night
In the meantime just shoot us an email
Alright come lead us
Alright we're going to do Psalm 96 should be inside your hymnal on the yellow sheet
Please raise your hand if you don't have one
Psalm 96
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth
Sing unto the Lord blessed day
Show forth his salvation from day to day
He declared his glory among the dead
His one verse among the people
For the Lord is great and great to be praised
He is to be feared above all for God
Give unto the Lord all ye kindreds of the people
Give unto the Lord for glory and strength
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth
Sing unto the Lord blessed day
Show forth his salvation from day to day
For all the ground of the nations are right
The Lord made the heavens
Honor and majesty are new for him
Strength and fury are in his victory
Give unto the Lord all ye kindreds of the people
Give unto the Lord for glory and strength
Give unto the Lord the glory he wants to take
Great is our glory in the victory's course
Oh worship the Lord with the beauty of oneness
For he did it before him and all the earth
Sing unto the Lord in the glory
The world also shall be established
And it shall not be proved
He shall judge his people mightiously
Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad
Let them see more and the fullness thereof
Let the field be joyful and all that's buried
There shall on the streets of the world rejoice
Before the Lord for he cometh
Before he cometh to judge the earth
He shall judge the world with righteousness
And the equal win is true
Oh sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth
Sing unto the Lord blessed day
Shall forth his salvation from day to day
Let's do one more song, song number 66, Matt Calgary
Song 66
66
The years have been in vanity and pride
Carrying up my Lord with truth and might
Knowing that it was for he he carried on Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
Hard and there was multiply to be
There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary
I got word of as my sin I learned
Then I trembled at the law I spurred
Till my guilty soul and glory turned to Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
Hard and there was multiply to be
There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary
Oh the love that drew salvation's plan
Oh the grace that brought it down to men
Oh the mighty hope that God did spend at Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
Hard and there was multiply to be
There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary
Now I gave my Jesus everything
Now I gladly own him as my King
Now my rapture soul can only sing of Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
Hard and there was multiply to be
There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary
Alright this time we'll pass the offering plates around
As the plates go around let's turn our Bibles tonight to 2 Timothy chapter 3
2 Timothy chapter number 3 as we always do
We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads 2 Timothy chapter 3
Starting in verse number 1
In 2 Timothy chapter number 3 the Bible reads
This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come
For men shall be lovers of their own selves
Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents
Unthankful, unholy, without natural affection
Truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good
Traders, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God
Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof
From such turn away
For of this sort are they which creep into houses
And lead captive silly women laden with sins
Led away with diverse lusts
Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth
Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth
Men of correct minds reprobate concerning the faith
But they shall proceed no further
For their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was
But thou hast fully known my doctrine
Manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience
Persecutions, afflictions
Which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra
What persecutions I endured
But out of them all the Lord delivered me
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
But evil men and seduces shall wax worse and worse
Deceiving and being deceived
But continued thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of
Knowing of whom thou hast learned them
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works
Father God, we want to thank you for the opportunity to fellowship today during the chili cook-off, Lord
Thank you for the service, Lord, let it edify us, Lord
We love you, we love you, Jesus
It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Divine Inspiration
Divine Inspiration
The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works
So the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God
The holy scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus
Where did they come from?
How did the word of God come to us?
Go if you would to 2 Peter chapter 1
2 Peter chapter 1, the Bible says it's given by inspiration of God
What does that mean?
It means that it is God-breathed
It is inspired by God, right?
This comes from the same root as our word for respiration, breathing, right?
And so this has to do with God spoke these words
The words that we have in the Bible, they're not just the product of human authors writing their opinions
Or just kind of just doing their own thing
Rather, the Bible is the work of God
It's written by God
God is the author of the Bible
The Bible is given by inspiration of God
Look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 20
The Bible says knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man
But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
So it's not man's will that shaped the Bible
It's God's will that shaped the Bible
That's the first thing that we need to understand tonight when we talk about divine inspiration
Or how we actually got the Bible from the human authors who penned it down
One of the first things we need to understand is that God's word is eternal
And what I mean by that is that God's word has always existed
You know the Bible says in Titus
In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began
So before the world began God promised eternal life
Where did that promise take place?
Before the world even began it's because God's word existed before the world began
And in God's word it promises what?
Eternal life to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
That already existed before the world began
God made that promise before the world began
That's why the Bible says in the beginning was the word
And the word was with God and the word was God
Of course we know it's referring to Jesus Christ
But it's also referring to God's word in general
As we find it in the Bible God's word
And so we know that forever
Oh Lord thy word is settled in heaven
You know God's word is settled in heaven
It's not just a book on this earth
It is something that exists in heaven
Outside of time before the world began
Eternally it always has been
Always will be the same
That's what it means to be settled right?
Forever oh Lord thy word is settled in heaven
Meaning that there's an unchanging eternal word of God in heaven
It was there before the world began
It will be there after the world is changed
And it will always be there because it's God's eternal word
So we don't understand that
This isn't just the product of human beings
Just by their own will
Or using their own private interpretation of things
Just kind of, well you know this is how I see things
This is what my walk with God is like
No no it's not of any private interpretation
Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
Now the Bible even explicitly talks about the fact
That God spoke through the prophets
Okay so let me just read a bunch of these for you
You don't have to turn there
If you would just flip over to Hebrews chapter 1
But I'll read for you a few places
Acts chapter 1 verse 16
Men and brethren this scripture must needs have been fulfilled
Which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas
So the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David the prophet
So that shows that even though David is the one writing the Psalms
Even though David is composing these things
It's actually God speaking through him
Because the Psalms were given by inspiration of God
So they're the product of divine inspiration
And David is writing what is actually the word of God
Even though he's composing the Psalms
And David even says something like that
In Psalm 45 I believe it is
When he says, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer
What does that mean? God is the writer
His tongue is the pen
He speaks as he's moved by the Holy Ghost
That's how God wrote the Bible
Through holy men like David, etc.
It says in Acts 28, 25
Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Esaias the prophet unto our fathers
So the Holy Ghost spoke by Isaiah the prophet
Again same concept
Luke chapter 1 verse 68
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
For he hath visited and redeemed his people
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us
In the house of his servant David
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets
Which have been since the world began
So it's not just David
It's not just Isaiah
God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets
Since the world began
I mean going back to the days of Abel
Or the days of Seth
These guys, many of them
Prophesied in the name of the Lord
Spoke God's word
Enoch also the seventh from Adam
The Bible tells us prophesied
And preached God's word
And we have some of his words recorded
In the book of Jude
So it's not just David, it's not just Isaiah
God has delivered his word
And it's written down in the history
By the prophets
Now it started out just being oral
Just prophets of God speaking
But eventually the word of God
Began to actually be written down
Starting at the time of Moses
Those are the first books that began
To be written down
The law of God delivered at Mount Sinai
And it began to be written down
It was written down over the course of some
15, 1600 years from Mount Sinai
All the way up to the first century
With the New Testament
Before that it was just preached orally
By prophets of God just speaking God's word
Look at Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1
The Bible says God
Who at, and this is what I want to really focus on tonight
Sundry times
And in divers manners
Spake and time passed
Under the fathers by the prophets
Had then these last days
Spoken unto us by his son
Whom he had appointed heir of all things
By whom also he made the worlds
Now I want to point out to you
That God spoke in time passed
By the prophets
But he did it in divers manners
He did it in different styles
Or different methods
It was not always the same way
Go to Numbers chapter 12
For a good example of this
Numbers 12 in the Old Testament
Numbers chapter 12
God in the past he said
Spoke by the prophets
But now in the last days he spoke by his son
Jesus Christ but throughout history
He spoke through the prophets
Now look what the Bible says
In Numbers chapter 12
Verse number 6
And he said
Hear now my words
If there be a prophet among you
I the Lord
Will make myself known unto him in a vision
And will speak unto him in a dream
My servant Moses
Is not so
Who is faithful in all my house
With him will I speak mouth to mouth
Even apparently
And not in dark speeches
And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold
Wherefore then
Were you not afraid to speak against
My servant Moses
Now according to this scripture that we just read
In Numbers chapter 12
God is not dealing with all prophets
In the same way is he
Because he says typically I'm going to speak to a prophet
Through a dream
Through a vision
But he says not Moses
Moses
I will speak to
As a man speaks to his friend
In the Bible this is not the only scripture in Numbers 12
Other places the Bible talks about
A special relationship that he has with Moses
Where he verbally
Talks to Moses as a man talks to his friend
Moses goes up in Mount Sinai
And God is talking to Moses
But let me ask you something
Is that how the entire Old Testament was delivered?
Is that how God
Always worked?
No, in fact that was the exception
Because typically
God is revealing himself through dark
Sayings, visions
Dreams
Remember what did it say in Hebrews chapter 1
He spoke by the prophets
In divers manners
In various manners in various ways
Not always the same way
And so the way that he spoke to
Moses was unique
We're studying Ezekiel on Wednesday nights right now
But the way that God is communicating with
Ezekiel is also unique
Totally different than in Isaiah
And Jeremiah
I mean he is just
Directly speaking to Ezekiel
Similar to the way he spoke
To Moses but it's not quite the same
Because it involves visions and other
Strange things
And so the point that I'm trying to make is that
We know that all
Scriptures give my inspiration of God
That's the common denominator
Right? It doesn't matter whether we're reading
Genesis, Exodus
1 and 2 Samuel
Whether we're reading Isaiah, Ezekiel
The common denominator that all Scripture has
Is that it's all given by
Inspiration of God
It's all the word of God
And it's all equally inspired by God
It's all equally authoritative
There's not one part of Scripture that's more
Authoritative than another
It's all God's word
But it was not all given
In the same way
It could be given in diverse ways
Through the prophets
But somehow, someway
Holy men of God
Spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
And at the end of the day it's God's word
The most important thing that we need to understand
Is that the Bible that we have today
Is the perfect
Pure, preserved, inspired
Word of God
And the best way to approach
This subject is to start
Start from the present
And work backwards
You know why? Because here we are
You know, this is reality
We're here
And what do we have in our hand? The word of God
Now we have to accept the Bible
By faith
Without faith it's impossible to please him
We've got to believe the word of God
We've got to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ
As a result of what we see in this book
Or what we hear from this book
And it's best
It's best to start
With that and work backwards
So let's start with that, okay
How do we know that this is the word of God
Like how do I know that this book that I hold in my hand
Is the word of God
And that something else is not the word of God
Or how do I know that I have
All of God's word in this book
You know, that there's not some other
Gospel of Thomas or something out there
Beckoning to me
Well let me give you a few reasons
First of all, number one
God's word
Authenticates itself
It's not authenticated by science
History
Or some council somewhere where someone makes that decision
God's word
Is the final authority therefore
Nothing can
Authenticate it
Because without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better
So
The Bible doesn't get
A stamp of approval
From someone else
The Bible authenticates itself
Because the Bible is the final authority
The Bible is the starting point
Okay, so we want to make sure we understand that
So how do we know
That the Bible is God's word
Well first of all
Because of its unmatched quality
Its power
Its perfection is unrivaled
In any other book
How do I know the Bible is God's word
Because there's no other book that has this power
That has this quality
That has this perfection
Because only God could write the Bible
And many have tried with their imitations
And they've all failed
Because the Bible is unique and stands alone
Not only that
But we as Christians
We that are saved
We can recognize the voice of the shepherd
And so when we read the Bible
We recognize the voice of the shepherd
And the Holy Spirit
Bears witness to the authenticity of the Bible
As we read the Bible
The Holy Spirit speaks to us
And we know this is really the word of God
This is absolute truth
That's through the Holy Spirit
Now when you give these kinds of arguments
People are like, oh, Pastor Anderson
It's so subjective
But hold on a second
This is often coming from people
Who don't have the Holy Spirit living inside them
So they don't understand what I mean by that
They don't understand what it means
To basically read the Bible
You know in your heart that it's the truth
Because God's Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit
That you're the children of God
And you're hearing the voice of the shepherd
And you're recognizing it
Yeah, you can't explain that to a scientist
Or something who doesn't believe
It's something that is accepted by faith
And it's something that is only understood by those who have the Holy Spirit living inside of them
So you can't explain it to someone who doesn't
Okay
So the quality, the power, the perfection
It's the voice of the shepherd
And then
If we look throughout history
This is the Bible that God has used throughout history
The tree is known by his fruit
So another way that we can look at the Bible and say, okay
Look at the fruit that is born
From this Bible
Look at the preaching that has come from this Bible
Look at the souls that have been saved
The lives that have been changed
The churches that have been established
Throughout the history of Christianity
What has God been using?
Has he been using the book of Enoch?
To spark great revivals
And get people saved
And the book of Thomas and all these other garbage books
That, by the way, they already failed the first two tests
They already fail on the quality, the power, the perfection
They fail on not being the voice of the shepherd
And they fail because they haven't been used by Christians throughout history
Christians didn't use them
They weren't preserved
They weren't passed down
They weren't used by Christians
God's people have used this book
And this is where the work of God has come from
Throughout history
This is what has borne fruit
So a good starting point is to know
Hey, this is the word of God right here
And it authenticates itself
You say, well that's circular
You know, I'm okay with circular as long as it starts and ends with this book
I like that circle
Start here, end here
Guilty as charged
Circular argument right here
God's word, my final authority, the Bible
Genesis through Revelation, okay
So I start with that
You know, that God's word is perfect, it's pure, it's preserved
We know that
His word, the Bible tells us
Is eternal
It's forever settled in heaven
God spoke by the prophets in different ways
In the latter days he spoke unto us by Jesus Christ
And it's all recorded in this book
It's all perfect, it fits together
It's complete, it's done, okay
So
How are some of the ways that God delivered us the Bible though, okay
We talked about one way
Which is the way Moses got the Bible
Which is where Moses is on Mount Sinai
And God's speaking to him verbally
That's not how most of the Bible was given
But that's how some of the Bible was given, right
Moses went up into Mount Sinai
And even some tablets
Written by the finger of God were there
Containing the Ten Commandments
And then you also have just the rest of those laws that are given in
For example, Exodus chapter number 21 and 22
And going through those laws
The Bible tells that it was written in a book at the time
So at Mount Sinai
And in the wilderness
Much of that was written down
Those laws were written down
And that's coming directly from the mouth of God
But is that how all of the Scripture came into existence?
Well, let's stop for a minute
And think about some of the books of the Bible, right
We've got the first five books
And, you know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
We've got Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel
And then we've got John, 1 and 2 Samuel
Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel
Let me ask you something, who wrote Joshua?
Who wrote Judges?
Who wrote Ruth?
Who wrote 1 and 2 Samuel?
We don't know
We have no idea who wrote these books
Who wrote 1 and 2 Kings?
Who wrote 1 and 2 Chronicles?
We have no idea
Now, what that tells me
Is that who the author was
Must not really be that important
We just need to believe by faith
That holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
We don't necessarily need to know
Exactly who they were
Or what their names were
Because like I just demonstrated to you
A huge chunk of the Old Testament is all anonymous
And we have no idea who wrote it
But not only that
If we specifically home in for a second
On the books of the Kings and the books of the Chronicles
1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles
How were these books composed?
Where did they come from? Who wrote them?
Have you ever noticed
That when you're reading in the books of the Kings
It keeps telling you
That if you want to learn more you've got to go to the book of Chronicles to get more
Okay, go if you would to 2 Kings chapter 15
2 Kings chapter 15
Now I remember reading the Bible as a kid
And reading all these verses that talk about how
If I go over to the book of Chronicles
Then I'm going to find out all this other information
And more details and all this stuff
And you know what? When I was a kid I started to realize
Is that I went over to the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles and none of it was there
What I thought was going to be there
Based on the Kings and then you get in Chronicles
And you know what it says over in Chronicles?
Oh man, you want to read more?
I mean all of his acts, first and last
Go to the book of Kings and you go there and you're like
Umm
It's the same stuff or less
What's going on?
Has anybody ever wondered about that or thought about that?
Okay, yeah
You should have because it's mentioned over 30 times in 1 and 2 Kings
It's like 33 times in 1 and 2 Kings
It says go to Chronicles to learn more
And after you've read this a few times
You start realizing it isn't there
Okay
Let me show you some examples
Look at 2 Kings 15, 6
It says
And the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did
Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
Look at verse 11
And the rest of the acts of Zechariah
Behold they're written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
Now those aren't even really sounding like for sure the same books
Because in chapter 6 we got
The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah
Or excuse me, verse 6
And in verse 11 we've got the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
That's probably two different sets of Chronicles, am I right?
Look at verse 15
And the rest of the acts of Shalom and his conspiracy which he made
Behold they're written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
Verse 21
And the rest of the acts of Menahem
And all that he did
Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
Let me tell you something
If you go over to 1 and 2 Chronicles
You're not going to find what Menahem did
You're certainly not going to find all that Menahem did
You're not going to find anything that Menahem did
In 1 and 2 Chronicles
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Verse 26
The rest of the acts of Pekahiah
And all that he did
They're written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
You go to Chronicles, you look for Pekahiah
Good luck finding Pekahiah
And all that he did
Same thing verse 31
The rest of the acts of Pekah
And all that he did
Behold they're written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
Verse 36
Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did
Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
I mean you tell me because I can't find them
Okay so what is going on here?
Why is this statement coming up
33 some odd times
In 1 and 2 Kings
Telling us
Oh this stuff, more detail
There's more information in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
Or the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah
Well as you've probably already guessed
We're not talking about the biblical books called
1 and 2 Chronicles
First of all
The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles are written way later
Hundreds of years later
How do we know that?
Because in 1 Chronicles
It gives us many generations after Ezra
It goes after they get back from Babylon
It's like this guy had this son
And this guy had this son
And you go many generations
So you probably go a few hundred years after getting back from Babylon
So in order to put that in Chronicles
That means Chronicles had to be written at that late date
Does everybody understand that?
It wasn't like foretelling the future about people's kids
It's just preserving genealogical records of people that had already lived
Okay
So why do we have a book in our Bible called 1 and 2 Kings
And another book called 1 and 2 Chronicles
And then Kings is telling us to go to Chronicles
And then we can do the same thing with Chronicles
You don't have to turn there
But it says in 2 Chronicles 1611
Behold the act of Asa first and last
Lo they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel
And again we can go through about 10 examples in Chronicles
Pointing us to the books of the kings
Now what does this mean?
What are we talking about here?
Well obviously this is what happened
Obviously when he talks about the Chronicles of the kings of Israel
Or the Chronicles of the kings of Judah
He's talking about the fact that they're basically keeping a log book
And writing down like everything that happened
That's why it says all of this guy's acts first and last
All that he did
And it talks about just this huge amount of information
Being in the book of the Chronicles
Because obviously the book of Chronicles that it's referring to
Is something that would probably feel like an encyclopedia or something
It'd be like a huge stack of documents
Because they're just writing down like everything that they did
Like day to day, blow by blow
Some guy rains for years and it's like every week
It's writing down what he did or every month
Now we have an example of this in the Bible
When we read the book of Esther
Remember how King Ahasuerus can't sleep in the book of Esther
And so he wants them to read him from the book of the Chronicles
Of the Medes and Persians
And so he's in the middle of the night
Having this read to him
And they read him the story about how Mordecai
Had turned in the conspirators that tried to kill him
And then the king says wow that was cool that Mordecai saved my life
Have we done anything for this guy?
And they said well actually we didn't do anything for him
And then he ends up rewarding Mordecai
You know the story from Esther hopefully
Otherwise go home and read the book of Esther
But then at the very end of Esther
In chapter 10 it says you know
All the acts of Ahasuerus
They're written in the book of the Chronicles
Of the Kings of Media and Persia
Why? Because all of these kingdoms
Whether Israel or Judah
Or Persia or whatever
They keep records
They keep chronicles
And they're writing down like way too much information
For what we need as Christians
In the Bible
I mean you know we don't want to have a Bible
That's like the size of an encyclopedia
We don't want it to be like okay
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth
1st, 2nd, 1st or 2nd Kings
Is the next like
7,000 chapters
I mean can you imagine
It's like you'd be bogged down in that
Oh it's 11,000 chapters of kings
And then 13,000 chapters
You know it just goes on and on and on
Just every detail of every king
Can you see why
God didn't think that we needed that
In our Bible?
It's too much
Okay
So obviously what the author
Of 1st and 2nd Chronicles did
Is he took these giant chronicles
He took stacks and stacks of material
Right? So he's got all this material
In front of him
Of just all the acts
He's got all the acts of Asa
He's got all the acts of Menahem
He's got all the acts of Pekah
And Pekahiah
I mean he's got all these guys' acts
And what is he doing?
He went through all that
And basically boiled it down
To that which is important
Or that which is
What he wanted to preserve
Basically in one volume
So that you could get the basic history
Of the nation of Israel
Or the basic history of the nation of Judah
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
He's taking like these giant volumes of source material
That contains everything that these people did
And boiling it down
To what we have
The condensed version
1st and 2nd Chronicles
Does everybody get that?
Same thing with kings
1st and 2nd Kings is taking all this
Other source material
Of just everything that this king did
Every battle
Every building project
Every expenditure
All the records, way too much information
And he's going through
And he's using that as source material
And then basically
Boiling it down
To the books of 1st and 2nd Kings
That we have today
Now, what do we make of this
From a perspective of divine inspiration
Or understanding that
1st and 2nd Kings is God's word
1st and 2nd Chronicles is God's word
Okay
These are not just history books
They're not just like an appendix
To tell us what happened
They are spiritual books of the Bible
That are profitable for doctrine
And there's a lot of great preaching
That comes out of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles
I mean, these books are filled with spiritual content
They're not just some kind of a history
Of kings and queens and princes
No, they're actually
Filled with important
Biblical doctrine and teaching
And preaching and everything
That's why we have them
And let me tell you how this works, my friend
God
Already knew the shape
Of what he wanted
Or what he had designed
Or what always existed in the books
Of 1st Kings and 1st and 2nd
1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles
Like, God's word's already settled in heaven
You know, it's
Supposed to be a certain way
The divinely inspired author
Of 1st and 2nd Kings
You know, he's compiling stuff
He's looking at all these sources
And he's talking about where he got
Stuff and saying, like, okay
Here are the basics, here's what happened
And, you know, the rest of the story is written in these books
He's basically telling us where he got
The information
He's basically explaining that that's where he got
The information, you know
The rest of it's found over here
So that's a little bit different, isn't it
Than Moses speaking to God
Face to face on Mount Sinai
Is that a little different?
It's a little different when a guy sits down
With stacks and stacks of Chronicles
And basically puts together
A short version
Chronicles, you know
He's writing down
Just basically
The need to know stuff
But here's the thing
Was he just up to his opinion when he did that?
Or was God
Divinely directing that?
And he's basically
As he writes, God is guiding
That process and he's writing the book
That God wants him to write
Now, who is that guy?
Was it one guy?
Was it multiple guys? We have no idea
And God
Apparently doesn't see fit to tell us
So apparently it doesn't matter
So what am I trying to drive
In with this when I explain this? Because I mean
I just proved to you beyond a shadow of a doubt
That 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd
Chronicles are from
Longer source material
That's being boiled down
And if you don't believe me then go home and read these books
And you're going to see it like literally 50 times
You know, and eventually
It'll click with you
This is coming from bigger volumes
And bigger works
The idea that I'm trying to drive
In with this, what I want to get across to you
Is that only the finished product
Matters
Only the finished product matters
Okay, what matters
Is that what was the finished
Product is God's word
So I'm not going to sit here and
Worry about, oh man, I wish I had
That long version
You know, I wish I had the extended
Chronicles, extended Kings
The whole set
I'll tell you why, because the whole set
Was never God's word
Because here's the thing about God's word
God preserves his word
If it didn't get preserved
It's because it's not God's word
There were not
Books in the past
That were God's word that are lost unto us
That is wrong
Because I just preached about it, what, a week and a half ago
The preservation of scripture
Is a biblical doctrine
God's word is preserved
And if, if some book
Disappeared, it's because it wasn't God's
Word, so when the Bible
Talks about these other books
It's just telling us source material
That went into the composition of the
Inspired biblical book, but those other books
Are not God's word and they never were
It's what was
Written here that's God's word
But does the fact
That it was based on source material
Make it any less divinely inspired?
No, because
The biblical authors are often drawing
On their own experiences
Things that they witnessed themselves
Or they're drawing
On written records that they're
Using, like, you know, books of chronicles and kings
And so forth. Let me read you a couple more of these
Just to drive this in, okay
Because not only does
The book of chronicles point to the book of kings
But, for example,
2 Chronicles 32, 32, it says
For the rest of the acts of Hezekiah
And his goodness, behold they are written in the vision
Of Isaiah the prophet. Now we have
That book, don't we? We have the book of Isaiah.
But it says, and in the book of the kings
Of Judah and Israel.
And then elsewhere
It says that things are written
In the book of
I gotta find this other part because it talked
About other prophets, like, oh
The book of
You know, I don't think I
Pasted it in here because I had so many
I was running out of room with all these
Like, are they not found in the chronicles?
But, anyway, you know
There are other examples, like, for example
In Joshua, the Bible will
Refer to, oh, is it not written in the book of
Jasher
This story is written in the book of Jasher
What's the book of Jasher? And then people are like
We gotta find the book of Jasher
But just because something's
Written in a history book because it actually happened
Doesn't make that book divinely inspired
The only books that are
Divinely inspired are the ones that are right here
Within the pages of God's word
Now, I hope we understand
That about the Old Testament, right?
What have we learned? We learned that
A lot of the authors in the Old Testament
Are totally anonymous
They're not all being divinely inspired
In the same way
Some of them, God's speaking directly to them
Others are having visions
Others are having dreams
Others have written source material
Where they're looking at Chronicles
They're looking at Kings
They're looking at books of the prophets
And they're compiling it and just putting it together
And editing
And compiling and consolidating
And they may or may not realize it
But guess what? God is working
And they are writing a divinely inspired text
Even though they have source material
In front of them
They're divinely inspired to write
Samuel and Kings and Chronicles as is
Does everybody understand that?
Okay, so now
Let's think about the New Testament, okay?
Uh, but before we do
Before we get into the New Testament
And if you would flip over to Luke
Chapter number 1, Luke chapter 1 in the New Testament
Before we get to the New Testament
Let's talk about one more thing in the Old Testament
Are the biblical authors in the Old Testament
Are they always
Always talking about things that they have
First hand knowledge of
Or that they witnessed
Cause I mean think about
Think about how many things in the Bible
Are being written way after the fact
Okay?
Obviously 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles
The stuff at the end
Probably just happened recently
But the stuff that they're talking about at the beginning
Happened centuries earlier
Yet they're writing about it with authority
Okay?
Not only that, but think about Genesis chapter 1
And Genesis chapter 2
Where the world's being created
You know, who wrote that?
Was somebody there watching
Creation take place?
Because humans
Didn't even exist until the 6th day
And yet the 2nd day is being written about
The 3rd day, the 4th day, etc.
Um, now
Here's the thing
Let's say that Moses wrote the book of Genesis, right?
Let's say for a minute that Moses
Wrote the book of Genesis
Was Moses there for
Noah's ark?
Was he there for Abraham?
Was he there for Isaac?
Was he there for Jacob? Was he there for Joseph?
He was there for literally nothing
In the book of Genesis
Does everybody understand that?
So getting hung up on this idea
That everything has to be written
By an eyewitness
Is bogus
Because that doesn't work
Not at all
Because the Old Testament is often being written centuries later
So at the end of the day
You have to believe that God's
Word is God's word because the authors
Are divinely inspired
Not necessarily because they have first-hand knowledge
Of the things that they're writing about
It's divinely inspired
It's God giving them revelations
Of what to write
And God guiding and directing them
God speaking through them even
The Holy Ghost speaking through them
Not necessarily because they were there
And it's so funny when people
Try to make this case
That Moses wrote the book of Genesis
And that he had all these written records
Where Adam wrote it down
And Enoch wrote it down
And Noah wrote it down
Folks, that's nonsense
There's no evidence of that at all
Okay
And not only that
I hope that this doesn't freak anybody out
But the bottom line is there's no place in the Bible
That says that Moses wrote the book of Genesis
Okay, now obviously
Moses received the laws from God
He wrote the book of the law
And he wrote down a lot of laws
But do we really know
For sure that he wrote the book of Genesis?
And here's the bigger question
Does it really matter?
Because did he have any more first-hand knowledge
Of Genesis than whoever wrote it?
At the end of the day
If Genesis is God's word
Written by divine inspiration
A holy man of God wrote that book
That's all that matters
Now another thing is
People will try to claim that
Deuteronomy is written by Moses
Even though Moses dies in Deuteronomy
Okay
And the thing about that
Is that in Deuteronomy
I kid you not
I've literally heard preachers
Get up and say
Moses wrote about his death
And then went and died
Like he's writing like
Moses died in the mount
And he's just like oh man
Is it gonna hurt? Well I gotta keep writing to see
I mean just look
Why? Why though?
Why would we
Bend ourselves in circles
And jump through all these
Mental hoops and all these acrobatics
And try to prove something that the Bible never even says
Okay
And look you can go on Answers in Genesis website
And they have some
Super duper long article
Proving that Moses wrote the book of Genesis
Moses wrote the book of Genesis
Super long
And you know what they never do in that article
They never show any real proof
That Moses wrote the book of Genesis
They pretty much tell you if you don't believe that
Then you must worship Satan or something
You know
And then they show
They show some of the reasons why
It's kind of obvious in certain places
That Moses probably didn't write the book of Genesis
It's probably written later
And then they're like
Well that just means this part was written later
It's like well okay
But why does it matter?
At the end of the day
I don't really care
Who wrote the book of Genesis?
Because I have zero doubt
That Genesis is God's word
Genesis is the most powerful
Amazing book
That we all love
And it's the word of God
And the Holy Spirit will tell you that as soon as you read it
So I don't really need to know
Well and they keep talking about it in this article
Well Moses you know he's the one who's qualified to write it
You know because you know
He knew stuff
But you know what
Anyone who God anointed with the Holy Ghost
And in some cases
Anyone who God anointed with the Holy Ghost
And inspired could have written that book
Any holy man of God could have written it
And who wrote Deuteronomy?
And here's the thing about Deuteronomy
Most of it's a direct quote from Moses
Because Moses said
And that's pretty much the whole book of Deuteronomy
But obviously somebody's putting together the book of Deuteronomy
After the fact
Because it's talking about him dying
And people are like well
Just that part about him dying was written by someone else
But then just chapter 34
And then you go back up to chapter 33
And it's like well this is the blessing
Where with Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death
Dang it I knew I was about to die
You know
It's just like
I mean yeah okay
Maybe he wrote chapter 33
But I really doubt it
I don't believe it for one second
And I don't think it matters
I think people are getting hung up on the wrong thing
Because it seems like maybe their faith and divine inspiration
Is a little weak
It had to be Moses that wrote this
Or it had to be this guy that wrote this
Because if they understood divine inspiration
They would understand that most of the books are anonymous anyway
So it really doesn't matter who wrote them
As long as they're God's word
Because they're divinely inspired
That's what matters
I don't want to go off on a big tangent with that
But I'm just pointing out the fact
That the Bible
In the Old Testament
Is often writing about things that were centuries earlier
And the only way
That the author could know those things
Or write about those things
Is through divine inspiration
He could not do it from his own knowledge
Because of the fact that he wasn't there
Okay
And so at the end of the day
You have to accept the Bible by faith
Now look at Luke chapter 1 verse 1
For as much as many have taken in hand
To set forth an order
A declaration of those things
Which are most surely believed among us
Even as they delivered them unto us
Which from the beginning were eye witnesses
And ministers of the word
It seemed good to me also
Having had perfect understanding of all things
From the very beginning
Or from the very first I should say
To write unto thee an order most excellent Theophilus
That thou mightest know the certainty
Of those things wherein thou hast been instructed
Now notice here that Luke
Here is right from the get-go
Stating
That he got these things from eye witnesses
And you know what that means
That you're reading something that's second hand
Is he claiming eye witness these things?
No
He's saying that we
Received these things
As they were delivered to us
Which from the beginning were eye witnesses
The witnesses delivered this stuff to Luke
Because I don't remember Luke being one of the 12 disciples do you?
Okay
Now who wrote the gospel of Matthew
Well that's one of the 12 disciples
Right? Matthew is a disciple
He was a tax collector guy
Sometimes called Levi
And he's collecting the taxes
And Jesus calls him and he stops being a publican
Okay that's Matthew
Who's Mark?
Mark?
Now obviously it's pretty clear
That it's probably John Mark
But you can't really say that for sure
You can't really prove that 100%
But it's like okay, John Mark
Right? Who's John Mark?
You know, John Mark is a relative
Of the apostle Peter
A younger relative
He went on some missionary journeys with Paul
And with Barnabas
But I mean was this guy
One of the 12 disciples
Was this guy there for a lot of the action
That he's writing about in the gospel of Mark
Was Matthew there
On the Mount of Transfiguration? Because stop and think about it
When Jesus goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration
He only takes with him
Three people, Peter, James, and John
Okay?
But we read about that incident
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke
Guess who weren't there?
Matthew, Mark, and Luke weren't there
Peter, James, and John are there
Matthew, Mark, and Luke were not there
Does everybody understand?
Okay?
And then of course we have the gospel of John
Obviously that's the apostle John
So the point that I'm making is
That the apostles
Who wrote
In the New Testament
Are also not always writing
From their own first-hand knowledge
They're getting it second-hand from people
They're getting the reports
Luke is collecting the reports from the eyewitnesses
Mark is getting reports from eyewitnesses
Matthew has some of his own experiences
But he's also getting reports from other people
And he's putting this stuff down
And folks, it could only be
Accurate if it's through divine
Inspiration
Because think about this
What happened?
It's not like Jesus rose again from the dead
And they're like, alright guys, sit down
Let's write some gospels
Because when we read the book of Acts
What are they using to preach God's word in the book of Acts?
They're using the Old Testament
They're not, nowhere will you find
Someone in the book of Acts
Opening up the book of Matthew
And preaching the gospel
Opening up John, opening up Mark and Luke
Do we? No
They're using the Old Testament scriptures
Because these books hadn't been written yet
Now imagine writing about something
Even if you were there
Writing about something 20 years later
You think you're going to remember everything that was said
Oh man, remember that Sermon on the Mount
20 years ago? Yep, I remember
Every word of it. Let me write it down
Think about it, my friend
If you don't believe in divine inspiration
Then how can you believe anything that the Bible says?
Okay?
The Bible has to be approached by faith
And the reason I'm preaching this
Is because you've got so many people out there
That try to use all these arguments
From history and science
Well, you know, the Bible is so reliable
Because, you know, I mean, these people
They were eyewitnesses, and you know
I mean, Moses, he was so qualified to write Genesis
Because, you know, he was just there
When it was created
It's like, what?
He wasn't there for anything in Genesis
But my faith is not based on
Moses' memory
Or Moses is witnessing something
My faith is based on
The divine inspiration of Scripture
The Bible authenticating itself
Do you see the difference there?
Between trusting the word of God
By faith
It's a spiritual book
It came down from heaven
It's forever settled in heaven
It came from God
And the human authorship
Really doesn't matter
At the end of the day
What really matters is the fact
That it's God's word
And we have to just trust it by faith
And if you're looking for archaeology to validate it
Or science to validate it
Or history to validate it
You're barking up the wrong tree
Let it validate itself
People that are weak in faith
They're just on some eternal quest
To prove the Bible's true
By digging up some artifact
I believe the Bible's true
I'm already done
I already believe the book of Genesis is true
I don't care who wrote it
I don't care what year it was written in
I don't care who wrote it
I believe every word of it
Every word of the Old Testament
From Genesis to Malachi
I believe all of it
I believe it's all perfect
It's all exactly as it should be
It's all according to God's plan
God's will
And we need to prove that
Because of who wrote it at what time
And what was going on in the archaeological dig
Or whatever
But you know it's funny how people
Approach the New Testament differently
You know, you have to approach the Old Testament by faith
Because of the fact that it's so far removed
It's so old
And the manuscript evidence for it
Is so many years later
You know, I mean, until the Dead Sea Scrolls
Were discovered, the oldest manuscripts
Of the Hebrew Old Testament
Were from a thousand years after Christ
But then, when they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls
Now all of a sudden it's like
Wow, here's the book of Isaiah
From around the time of Christ
So now we found it a thousand years earlier
And it says the same thing
But can I explain something to you?
My faith in the book of Isaiah
Before and after the Dead Sea Scrolls
Would have been the same
See, I'm not going to go all excited like
The book of Isaiah really is God's word
I already believed it was God's word
I didn't need the Dead Sea Scrolls to tell me that
You understand what I'm saying?
And there's a problem
In Christianity today
When we're going to base our faith
On what's being dug up in the Middle East right now
Because then they could dig up something else
And then our Bible could change
Or our faith could change
Whereas if we go with
The traditional text
Because it's divinely inspired
Preserved, passed down to us
Self-authenticating
The Holy Spirit bears witness to this book
This book has borne the fruit
And Christianity has been preserved
By God's people
It doesn't change
And it doesn't matter what archaeological discovery
Pulls out
You know, the Gospel according to Bartholomew
Or whatever
Because of the fact that we, you know, it's not
Look, there is nothing that they could dig up over there
That will change what I believe about the Bible
I don't care if they dig up
Some document and they say
This is from the first century
This is the original copy of Matthew
Here, look, Matthew signed it at the end
Like a John Hancock at the end
Matthew
If it said something different
Than the traditional
Greek Matthew that's been passed down
I would say it's fraud
Not interested
I'll go with the one God has used
The one that God has preserved
The one that God has passed down
We need to make sure that our faith is in God's word
And that that's the starting point
And the ending point
And that we're not putting our faith in man
Okay
And look, when I say don't put faith in man
I'm not even going to put my faith in Matthew
Or Mark or Luke or John
I'm going to put my faith in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
That I have here
Not because of Matthew
Well, I trust Mark
I trust Mark
Who is he?
Who is Mark?
You mean the guy who bailed out early
On a mission trip?
Because he couldn't take the heat?
Look, folks
Don't get too hung up on the human authorship
It doesn't really matter
Okay, now look at John chapter 21
Go to John chapter 21
Let me give you another example
John chapter number 21
Because the people who doubt God's word
Or cast doubt on God's word
People like James White
Let me give you a little quote
From James White that I've heard
If I had a nickel for every time I heard him say this
I'd be a wealthy man, he says this a lot
This is what James White always says
About these giant chunks
That are missing in the modern versions
Or they're bracketed and they say
Oh, these are not original or whatever
But they're in the King James
Okay
Here's what James White will often say
Well, I want to know what Mark wrote
I want to know what John wrote
I don't want something that was added by someone else
I want what Mark wrote
I want what John wrote
Okay
And so, you know, he claims that
The ending of Mark
Mark 16, 9 through 20
That's not original
Mark didn't write that
You know, I don't want it
And he rejects that giant
Chunk of Mark there
Okay, verses 9 through 20 of chapter 16
Very important scripture
I don't have time to get into that
Also, the story of the woman taking an adultery
Remember the woman that's caught in the act
And Jesus is riding on the ground
And he makes the famous statement
He that is without sin among you let him first cast a soneter
James White and all these modern Bible people
They reject that entire story
And say that it's not real
And that it shouldn't be in the Bible
So they not only reject the ending of Mark
But they reject John chapter 7 verse 53
All the way through John chapter 8 verse 11
So those 12 verses
They want gone
And that's why the modern Bibles
Have these notes that say
Oh, this isn't original
This isn't part of it
And whenever James White talks about this
Well, I want to know what Mark wrote
I want to know what John wrote
But you know what, a better way of saying that would be
You know, I want to know what's
Divinely inspired and I don't really care
Who the author is
How about that?
Now, let me be clear
I do believe that the ending of Mark
Is written by Mark
Because there's no way that book ever ended in verse 8
Because verse 8 is an absurd
Ending
And it creates an untruth
And I already preached about that multiple times
I'm not going to revisit that
But
I will say this
If we look at John chapter 21
I think it's clear looking at John chapter 21
That this is not
This particular part at the very end of John
Is not written by John
And I'm going to prove that to you
Look if you would, keep your finger in John 21
Look at John chapter 19
And look at verse 35
This is the Apostle John
At the cross
Looking at Jesus on the cross
And blood and water comes out of the side of Jesus
Right?
So the blood and water issues forth
Which is obviously incredible
That's not normal
It's a miracle
Because typically a dead body
If you stab it with a spear
Water is not going to come out
Fluids will come out
But this is like blood and water
Coming out of Christ's side
And so John emphasizes
The fact that he personally
Witnessed this
And so he says in verse 35
And he that saw it bear record
And his record is true
And he knoweth that he sayeth true
That he might believe
Does everybody get that?
He saw it
He knows it's true
He knows what he saw
And he's bearing record to you
What he's saying is the truth
Now look at John chapter 21
And look at verse number
24 of John 21
John 21, 24
And notice the difference
This is the disciple which testifieth
Of these things
And wrote these things
And we know
That his testimony
Is true
Now are we and he the same person?
Now over in John 19
It was all he, he, he
That's all one person
He saw it
He's testifying of it
He knows it's true
Whereas when we get to chapter 21
What is it?
It's, well, we know
That his testimony is true
So who's the we?
We is first person
He is third person
These are not the same person
Notice this, look at the last verse of John chapter 20
Actually look at the last two verses of John 20
And many other signs truly did Jesus
In the presence of his disciples
Which are not written in this book
But these are written that you might believe
That Jesus is the Christ, the son of God
And that believing you might have life through his name
You know what it sounds like right there?
You know what that sounds like? The end
Sounds like an ending
And isn't it interesting
It's almost the exact same ending
At the end of chapter 21
Look at 21, 25
And there are also many other things which Jesus did
To which if they should be written every one
We're in chapter 21 verse 25
I suppose that even the world itself
Could not contain the books that should be written
Amen
Now go back to chapter 20 verse 30
And many other signs truly did Jesus
In the presence of his disciples
Which are not written in this book
But these are written that you might believe
That Jesus is the Christ, the son of God
And that believing you might have life through his name
Sounds like an ending
A viable ending
For the book here
A viable ending
But it's not the end is it?
Because chapter 21
Is an extra additional story
That's added on
At the end
It's really not
Something that we find in the other gospels
Because in Matthew, Mark, and Luke
We've got the death, burial, resurrection, resurrection
Witnesses, guess what, we have all that in chapter 20
It's all there
It's all wrapped up, put a bow on it
At the end of chapter 20
But we have this extra chapter
At the end
Chapter 21 telling us another story
About Jesus appearing to his disciples
Another time
By the sea of Tiberius
And Peter gets restored
And look, let me say this, I love chapter 21
I absolutely love it
In fact
I like chapter, I mean obviously
All of God's word is perfect and it's equally
Authoritative and inspired
But personally, I love chapter 21
More than I love chapter 20
I mean, chapter 21 is a
Powerful chapter, it's one of my favorite chapters
In the whole book of John
I absolutely love it, and let me tell you something
I do not for one second
Doubt that John 21
Is God's word
John chapter 21
Is God's word
In fact
How do I know that?
Because it's God's word, because it's powerful
The Holy Spirit tells me that
It's clearly the word of God
And it's been accepted by all Christians everywhere
It's borne fruit
It's always been in the Bible
Every Bible on this planet
Contains chapter 21
You cannot find a Bible on this planet
That stops at the end of chapter 20
It doesn't exist
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Nobody of John on the planet
Contains chapter 21
Is there any doubt that chapter 21 is God's word?
No
There's absolutely no doubt
Yet I think it's pretty clear
That it's added on afterward
By someone else, and in fact
I'll take it a step further
It's probably added on after John is dead
Because it explains
The fact that, well, Jesus didn't really say
He wasn't gonna die
It just said, if I will
Jesus said
If I will that he tarry till I come
What is that to thee?
Which makes it seem like, probably
John has died
And this is being tagged on
And it's being put out
Now obviously
The Bible is saying
Look what it says in chapter 21 verse 24
This is the disciple which testifieth
Of these things
And wrote these things
So look
John wrote these things
And testified of these things
So I believe that he wrote
Chapters 1 through 20
And he testified of chapter 21
Obviously this is based on
John's testimony
But we know
We, the people who are writing this down
Know that his testimony is true
That can't be the same person
We know that his testimony
Is true
Now some people would probably, you know, say
I think John wrote chapter 21
Hey, I'm not gonna argue with you
There's no issue there
But I think that
The plain understanding of the text
Is that we know that his testimony is true
There's two different parties there
That's what I would say
Especially when you compare it to chapter 19
Where one party's involved
Cause that's what John actually wrote
But I wanna know what John wrote
I wanna know what John wrote
Okay, well then James White, should we get rid of John chapter 21
Which every bible on the planet has
Which is such an awesome chapter
But you see where the stupidity of his logic leads
But I'll tell you this right now
That whether or not
John or some other holy man of God
Who was moved by the Holy Ghost
Wrote chapter 21
Amounts to nothing
Because all that matters
Is that it's divinely inspired
Scripture
Okay, I don't care who wrote
Chapter 21 of John
Any more than I care who wrote
2 Chronicles
And at the end of the day they're both God's word
I'm gonna get on my knees and read them every single day
And thank God for his power and his word
And so
You know
Maybe some of these things that I say might be like
Whoa, what are you talking about?
But maybe you should evaluate
Where is your faith placed?
Is it in men?
Is it just because you think
It's all scientifically backed or something
Or that, or you think that you know
It's all written by these eyewitnesses
And I trust Luke
To have been there and wrote what he saw
You know, I trust God
To have divinely inspired his word
And that men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
And at the end of the day
You know, if something was added
If something was added
To the book of John
Tagged on the end
At the end of the day
As long as it was God that added it
As long as it was divinely inspired
As long as it was part of the plan for the book
As long as it's supposed to be there, it's fine
And you say, well how do you know it's supposed to be there
Because it's there
Because I'm pretty sure that God is able to give us the Bible
That he wants us to have
And that if in 2021, this is what we have
This is what we're supposed to have
This is what he preserved
This is what he used
This is what's been preached
This is what we're supposed to have
So basically, is it possible that they
looked at the book of Mark, and then just
wrote their book
and as God inspired
them, as God led them, wrote
the Gospel of Luke, incorporating
stuff from Mark. Who cares?
At the end of the day, it doesn't change anything
Okay
And so
you know, you may not necessarily
agree with everything that I said tonight
Maybe you think, you know, no, I just think
Moses wrote Deuteronomy and I think
and I'm not even making fun of you because
that's a valid viewpoint
If you think that Moses
wrote every word of the first five books
and John wrote chapter 21, like that's
a valid viewpoint. I'm not mocking that or anything
I guess I am kind of mocking the part about
him writing that he died and stuff
That's a little weird for me
But my point is
whether you agree with me or not doesn't really matter
What really matters at the end of the day is that we all
agree that the finished product is
the inspired, perfect Word of God
The reason that I'm challenging
some of these things
is because I want to make sure that we have
our faith in the right place
Okay, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord
and thank you that it's all
inspired and that it all is
your word
and not just the words of men, Lord
and please help our faith
to be in the right place so that it will be founded
on a rock so that it can be
something that never changes
and Lord God, I pray that every single person
in this room would spend time this week
reading your word
and that all of us, every single day
would open the Bible and read it
every single morning before we do anything
else, Lord, that we would read your
word because it is
where the power is and
Lord, help us to be less hung up on
what the archaeologist says
and focus more
on what the Bible says
and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Song books to song 316
I have decided to follow Jesus
Song 316
316
I have decided
to follow
Jesus
I have decided
to follow
Jesus
I have decided
to follow
Jesus
No turning back
No none will
with me still
I will follow
No none will
with me still
I will follow
No none will go with
me still
I will follow
No turning back
No
turning back
The world behind
me
The cross before me
The world behind me
The cross before
me
The world behind me
The cross before
No turning back, no turning back