Many Infallible Proofs Program No SPEAKER: John Bradshaw SERIES: TruthQuest WRITERS: John Bradshaw, Ken McFarland, Mark Finley

Transcription

1 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 1 Many Infallible Proofs Program No SPEAKER: John Bradshaw SERIES: TruthQuest WRITERS: John Bradshaw, Ken McFarland, Mark Finley One thing I love to do is to gaze at the night sky. But I found out back in 1986 that I m not much of an astronomer. I spent some time one evening peering into the heavens trying to locate Halley s Comet, and I was so excited when I discovered this little white dot traveling along with a tail jutting out behind it...until I looked in another part of the sky and saw something else that looked exactly the same. And then in another part, and then in another part. Before I knew it, the whole sky was filled with millions of Halley s Comets. I thought, Maybe I ll have better luck seeing it when it comes back next time in I ll probably use an app to help me identify exactly what I m looking at. It seems to me that there s something about the night sky that you just cannot argue with. You live in your own little corner of Planet Earth, but you just have to look up to see the sun, millions of stars, and a full moon with human footprints on its surface. We re part of an incredibly vast universe. Our Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years across. That means if you could travel 186,000 miles a second 300,000 kilometers a second and if you traveled that fast for 100,000 years, that s how long it would take to get across our galaxy. They tell us there are probably 200 billion galaxies out there maybe as many as 500 billion. And that s just mind-boggling. So we look up and we wonder: Where did all those galaxies come from? Where did our Earth come from? And where did WE come from? Back in 2001, NASA partnered with Princeton University and launched the Wilkinson Probe, which spent a year observing the universe from its orbit a million miles from Planet Earth. Almost two years later, NASA shared the probe s stunningly detailed composite photos with the world, calling them the best baby pictures ever taken of the universe. Dr. Charles L. Bennett the mission s principal investigator said this: We ve captured the infant universe in sharp focus, and from this portrait we can now describe the universe with unprecedented accuracy.

2 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 2 The data are solid a real gold mine. The new portrait, NASA said, pegged the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years old, with a remarkably small one percent margin of error. Many scientists felt that the data returned by the Wilkinson Probe provided strong confirming evidence for the so-called Big Bang the theory that the universe began billions of years ago in a single colossal explosion. Proponents of the Big Bang idea say fragments of that massive explosion eventually cooled and became billions of spinning galaxies made up of even more billions of suns and planets. And as the eons of time passed, on at least one of those planets, life appeared and evolved into a nearly incomprehensible variety of forms plants, sea life, insects, animals, and finally, man. So that s how we got here? We re the result of an explosion out of nothingness? That idea would make human life essentially meaningless. Following its own rules, the investigations of science have led to a theory of how the universe began but that very theory supports the obvious conclusion that the beginning itself had to have a cause. Something never comes from nothing. So the results of the very best in scientific inquiry provide one of the most compelling evidences that the created universe had to have a Creator. And that s just what the Bible tells us in its very first sentence in Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So is there really a Creator? Does God really exist? If you ve never been certain that there is a God, or if you d like to know how you can tell others that God really exists, then in just a moment I m going to give you several reasons why you can be certain that there really is a God, and why you can trust the Bible as the Word of God. But first, it s time for today s Bible question: I believe in God and read my Bible, but I haven t found a church I really like going to. Do I need to go to church in order to be saved? I get more out of reading my Bible then listening to preachers including those on TV. I m hopeful you re including It Is Written in that! Now, there isn t a verse in the Bible that says explicitly, Thou shalt go to church. It doesn t say that. But does a person need to go to church to be saved? No, of course not. You can accept Jesus on a boat, in a forest or in a coalmine. I accepted Jesus and salvation in a bathtub!

3 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 3 But that s not really the question. The question is, What do you do once you are saved? And the Bible is pretty clear about that. The Biblical model is to worship together with believers of like faith. All the way back in the Old Testament, the temple services gave people the opportunity to do that. Corporate worship was the Biblical manner. Even Jesus attended church every week in fact. Luke 4:16 says, As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day... The early Christian church had churches. With congregations. And they were organized. I believe the Bible is clear, God wants people in church and not just for worship, because the church is like a place where you come not just for common worship, but also for common MISSION. Rightly understood, the church is the training center that God s people come to in order to be fed, filled, commissioned, and then sent forth into the field as workers for Jesus. If all we did was stay home and do what sort of felt right as we believed God led us, Christianity and the spread of the Gospel, would be in a sorry state. I can t think of any significant organization that flourishes without organization. Now, if you re not getting anything out of the churches you have attended, here s what I d recommend: Go to your Bible, find the truth the message of the Bible. And then find a church that is teaching that truth as much truth as you can possibly find. You might even have to move on to another place as you grow and learn more. But God will lead you to the church that is right for you, where you can grow and help others to do the same. I told you a moment ago that I d share with you some solid reasons as to why you can believe there really is a God, and why you can be certain the Bible is the Word of God. This gargantuan universe had to come from somewhere. It had to have a cause. And it s reasonable and logical to believe that the ultimate first cause of the universe was an all-powerful Creator God. Here s why. The universe gives evidence of order and complex design the most obvious example of that being the human body. And if creation suggests a Creator, then design suggests a Designer. A friend of mine was studying science at a university when the professor announced to the class: If you go way back, there was nothing at all except a few specks of dust.

4 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 4 Then he said, One day those specks of dust exploded in the Big Bang, and the universe was the result. Now, what he did next was interesting. He paused, looked at the class very sternly, wagged his finger, and said, Now, don t you ever ask me where those specks of dust came from! You know, I just don t think that kind of thinking cuts it, and honestly, I m surprised anyone would go for it. The world around us suggests it didn t get here by itself, and the complexity of design in so much of what we see suggests there had to be a designer. Now, consider this with me. The book of Acts starts like this (Acts 1:1, 2): The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. Now notice what he says in the next verse (Acts 1:3): To whom also He showed Himself after his passion, that is, after His death by many infallible proofs. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, says you can believe in Jesus because He demonstrated He was back from the dead by many infallible proofs. He says, You just can t argue with the fact that Jesus is the Messiah because He proved it by MANY infallible proofs. His thinking is that if Jesus really came back from the dead, that would establish Him as the Messiah, who of course would then be the Son of God, and so therefore there s very clearly a God. Many infallible proofs, Luke says. And what were they? Well, He was seen by the Marys at the tomb after His Resurrection from the dead. That s one. Then He was seen in the Upper Room, that s another. Then He taught, He was seen by others, He made the disciples breakfast one morning down on the lakeshore... However you stack it, He was very definitely dead after dying on the cross, and He was very definitely alive from the dead and He spent about six weeks with His friends to prove it. Even Doubting Thomas had to admit He was back from the dead. This would validate the Bible story. And keep in mind, Dr. Luke is regarded by some to be one of the most accurate historians you could ever read. The people who were there at the time testified that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter preaching at Pentecost said (Acts 2:32):

5 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 5 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Then in Acts 3, Peter spoke of Jesus as the One whom God hath raised from the dead. Now, I imagine somebody responding, What does that prove? Well, let me tell you what it proves. The eyewitnesses said He worked miracles. The eyewitnesses said He healed people. They said He died on the cross, that He rose from the dead, and that He ascended to Heaven. The eyewitnesses were certain He was the Son of God. Now someone s going to say, Well, I don t believe these eyewitnesses! That s all a lie. Okay, fine. So let s transfer that line of thinking into another part of a person s life. Mr. Smith, you have cancer. I m the oncologist, and I ve seen the evidence. You re probably going to believe the oncologist, even though you ve never seen the cancer yourself. If the people who say that they ve seen your cancer say you have cancer, there s not a very big chance you re going to argue the point, is there? You re going to take their word for it, even though you ve never seen it yourself. And a friend says to Mr, Smith, How do you know you ve got cancer? Have you seen it? And he says, No, I have not seen it but the experts have seen it, and I m taking their word for it. But the minute someone says, I was there, and I saw Jesus after He rose from the dead, someone else says, Oh, I could never believe that. What? If you were driving through town without a GPS, got lost, and asked a perfect stranger, Hey, where s Main Street? And he says, Second right! and you say, Thanks, you go on your way without even questioning whether you re going in the wrong direction. She lives here, why would she lie to me? is what you re thinking. So a person would trust somebody just like that? You do it all the time. But then at the same time, you can t trust someone who said, I was there when Jesus appeared after His death. It s true He really is the Messiah! You can t trust that? A lot of experts say the Bible isn t true. But it isn t always smart to blindly trust the experts. CNN.com reported about a woman who was told her baby boy needed a hearing aid. She didn t really think so, but she went along with it. She then noticed that her child was uncomfortable with the hearing aid it was like everything was too loud for him. The doctors told her she was in denial and said she ought to stick with the hearing aid. But she got a second opinion and was told that she should remove the hearing aid immediately before they totally destroyed her son s hearing.

6 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 6 Now, when someone makes a claim that is IMPORTANT dealing with your safety, or the health of your kids, or especially with your eternal life you owe it to yourself to investigate those claims intelligently, and then act on what is true and what is right. When someone like Dr. Luke writes that Jesus demonstrated He was the divine Son of God, you owe it to yourself to check that out not to just dismiss the claim as if it were a hoax. And I m certain that if you DO check, you ll be satisfied the Bible is absolutely true. In a moment, I ll share an unforgettable story that will help you be certain that Bible really is the reliable word of God. But first, let me give you two other reasons why you can have confidence in God and in the Bible. Until the 19th century, very little was known about the ancient past except for the Biblical record. History seemed locked forever behind strange picture-writings, such as the hieroglyphics of Egypt. There was not a person in Egypt, or anyone else in the world, who had been able to decipher the markings of the ancient language. In 1799, one of Napoleon s soldiers unearthed what became known as the Rosetta Stone, which you can now see in the British Museum in London. In 1822, a brilliant young Frenchman by the name of Jean-François Champollion cracked that ancient code. Scholars were now able to verify Biblical passages dating back farther than any for which historical corroboration had existed before. Then came the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls very old scrolls which contained portions of every book of the Old Testament, except for the book of Esther. The Isaiah scroll was complete from the first verse to the last. An extraordinary find, the Dead Sea Scrolls were 1,000 years older than any complete Biblical Hebrew manuscripts in existence. Scholars around the world were amazed to learn that the Old Testament has come down to us through the centuries practically unchanged! Evidently, dead men do tell tales. And archaeology confirms the accuracy and the reliability of God s Word. A second compelling piece of evidence that the Bible is God s inspired Word is the Book s ability to foretell the future. Look at this description in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 46:9, 10): I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Before the ancient kingdom of Babylon reached the height of its power, God s Book foretold its fall in Isaiah 13:19: And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

7 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 7 In the book of Jeremiah, the Bible identified ahead of time the power that would overthrow Babylon. And the Bible gets even more specific! The name of the man who would lead the armies against Babylon was prophesied 150 years before his birth, along with the very way he would do it (Isaiah 45:1): Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, [I will]...open before him the double doors. I don t know about you, but I m impressed by that. When I was a teenager, a friend of mine told me he thought the Bible was on the same standing as the tooth fairy. Now, the minute the tooth fairy starts accurately predicting the future, be sure to let me know! I wish I had more time to talk about the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, but we ll go deeper into that on another occasion. The third and perhaps greatest evidence that the Bible is what it claims to be is the power of the Bible to change lives. Listen to this incredible true story. Sam Tannyhill spent his early life in and out of prison. Then two weeks after one five-year stint, he robbed a small restaurant in Ohio, forced a waitress into his car and fled town. Her badly beaten body was discovered the next day. Eventually, Sam was captured and sentenced to die in the electric chair. But he was visited by several Christians, and was given a Bible. He eventually opened it out of sheer boredom. Soon, he became absorbed. His own words reveal his spiritual journey: I found a place where a man named Jesus sent some of His gang to bring Him a mule. For this I thought Him a horse thief. Then I ran across a place where He made wine. For this I called Him a bootlegger. Then I found a place where He raised the dead, healed all manner of sickness, and cast out evil. Now I wondered, What manner of man is this? So I started at Matthew, and I read all the part called the New Testament. By that time I found Him not a horse thief or bootlegger but the Son of God. I knew of people who prayed and served that God and who lived up to His law, but that wasn t me. I was a convict on death row, a murderer, but I read where people in the Bible were also outside of the law. Then I was troubled; I wanted that peace of mind this God was giving away, but how could I get word to Him? Can He really hear you when you pray? And will He answer a man who has never heard of Him?

8 It Is Written Script: 1201 Many Infallible Proofs Page 8 Sam prayed long and earnestly for forgiveness of his sins, and finally found peace with His God. Shortly before his execution at the Ohio State Penitentiary in 1956, he wrote: There are just four of us on death row at present, but I am glad to tell you that three of us are under the blood of Christ. Please pray that we will be able to get the fourth one before it is too late. His last audible prayer was, Lord, don t hold against these guards what they are about to do tonight. It is what I have done [that] has forced them to do what they are about to do. And if it is a sin, Lord, then please charge it to my account, and forgive them as You have forgiven all the rest of my sins. Amen. Never has there been a Book that could so dramatically change the lives of men and women. How is it with you? Have you given the Bible the opportunity to demonstrate to you whether or not it really is the Word of God? Sam s life was completely changed. I believe yours will be, too. Why don t you take the time to read what the Bible says to take it seriously and to ask God to show you His love and His plan for your life? Let s ask Him right now. Please pray with me, would you? PRAYER: Father in Heaven, we thank you today that you truly are and that your Word, the Holy Bible, truly is what you say it is. And I pray that in our lives right now it would have power, and that you would make us what you want us to be saved, secure, confident children of the Most High God of Heaven. We thank you and we believe today, trusting in you and praying in Jesus name, Amen. It Is Written Box O Thousand Oaks, CA USA Tel: (805) Fax: (805)