The Bible is True | Uncommon Culture Series

All right, hey, let's grab our Bibles and let's go to 2 Timothy chapter three. 2 Timothy, we're starting a new series called Uncommon Culture, and what we're doing is we're looking at the values of new beginnings. Values are a shared common way of life and practice. Those values shape behavior, and culture is defined by the values we hold that drive the behavior that we live in. So culture is the byproduct of our behavior that's driven by our values. What we're gonna look at is the four values of new beginnings that we want to drive our behavior as a faith family that then dictates, or the byproduct of that is a culture. So these values are rooted in the kingdom of God from Scripture, and the behavior that we want to see is God honoring, living like Jesus, and holding truth that he held, so that we would engage in these kingdom values that would lead us then to having, as a faith family, a kingdom culture at new beginnings that ultimately would lead us to have a kingdom impact for the glory of Jesus. And so that's what we're gonna look at over the next four weeks. And you say, what do you mean, culture, values? I'm a little lost here. All right, so let me help you with this. So it was said, culture is shaped by behavior.

Behavior is driven by values. And let me demonstrate this for you. All right, how many of you have ever been in an elevator in your life? Raise your hand. Okay, almost everybody, everybody, okay. So you've been in an elevator. Now, in an elevator, there's really two primary values that are commonly shared, even though you've never talked to anyone about those values. Number one value is space. The other value is personal privacy. And here's how we know that's a value that we hold. It shapes the behavior in an elevator. So when you go into an elevator and you go by yourself, here's what you will typically do. You will walk over, you will push the button, and you will step back like if something's about to blow up, right? And what you're doing is you're creating space. If the elevator stops at a particular floor and it opens up and people come in, if you're standing more toward the middle, what are you automatically gonna do without anyone asking you? You're gonna step aside, right? So you're gonna get as far from them as possible. And the more people come in, the more you're gonna scoot against the wall.

Now, you're gonna look a certain direction. What direction do you look when you get on an elevator? You look toward the doors, right? And what's crazy about this is that we are so married to these values of personal space and personal privacy that we will hug the wall before we stand with someone or even say, I'll catch the next one, go ahead, right, if the elevator's too full, right? And so what happens is is that we're looking at the wall, we've lost our ability to speak. If we were speaking, one of the things that we do when people come on is that we stop speaking or we speak really, really quietly because, again, personal privacy is a value that we have. Are you with me? Has anybody played by those rules? No one ever taught you those rules. But because of behavior, it has set a culture within an elevator that's driven by these values. So now, even without thinking about it, you adapt to the culture that you're in because of those values that we commonly hold. Does that make sense? So if you wanna test this, here's what I would encourage you to do. Next time you're on a crowded elevator, when people get on, don't move away from them, move close to them, right? And don't even look at the door.

Just look at them. Just look and just stare at them and it's gonna get really awkward. If you're talking to your friend, talk louder, but talk at the person that's a stranger in the room. Here's what you're gonna find out after they punch you. You're gonna find out that there is a common set of values that determine behavior that set the culture and you just violated the culture because you broke the values. That make sense? So when it comes to the church, what are the values specifically at New Beginnings that we hold that we want to shape behavior that then sets the culture? Number one we're gonna look at this morning is this value. The value is the Bible is true. The Bible is true. Now how many of you have ever heard me say that at the introduction of one of my messages, the Bible is true? You may have heard that before, all right? And so in fact, we were talking about this last night and two of my kids pointed out the fact that they made the statement. They said, Dad, every week you say, we're gonna read this passage, you say, say the Bible is true and then everybody says the Bible is true and my son goes, and you make liars of most people.

I'm like, what are you talking about? He says, I look around, you say when you're there, say the Bible is true. Most people that say the Bible is true, their Bible's not even open yet. And so he says, you're making them lie and I'm like, no, lying's on them, it's not on me. I've given them plenty of opportunity. So 2 Timothy is where we're gonna be. If you're there, say the Bible is true. If you lied, that's on you, all right? 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, that's the scriptures, the sacred writings, which is able to make you wise. for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Verse 16, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So I wanna show you this morning in the text and then through some external evidence that the Bible is true. I'm gonna put this in two categories. The first category is this, I want you to see the divine nature of the Bible, the divine nature of the Bible. Look at what Paul says again in verse number 16.

Chapter three, he says, all scripture, how much scripture? All scripture is inspired by God. Now, some of your translations have breathed out by God, all right, breathed out by God. It's kind of the same thing. In fact, breathed out is probably most accurate. This phrase, inspired by God, comes from a compound word in the Greek language, theos noustos, theos, compound word with God or theology, so it's the idea of God, theos, and then noustos is the idea of air or breath, like if some of you guys here own a pneumatic tool, which means it's a air-driven tool. So this idea of theos noustos is God air, God breathed. That word specifically, most oftentimes, when referring to God or something he's done, is referring to the Spirit of the Lord. So the equivalent of this would be in the Old Testament in Genesis when it says that God breathed life into the nostrils of Adam. What he's saying is that God breathed his Spirit and gave life to him. So what Paul is saying here, when he says all Scripture is inspired by God, what he's saying is that God exhaled the Scriptures. God has given life to the Scriptures. They are alive because they are inspired or they are breathed out by God himself. This is Paul's way of saying that the Bible is divine in its nature.

It is a supernatural book that has been supernaturally written. Now in 2 Peter, Peter is gonna show us again this whole idea of inspiration of Scripture or God breathed the Scriptures. And he's gonna show us how this happened with the human authors of the Bible. 2 Peter 1, verse 20, Peter's gonna show us this. He says, knowing first of all that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. In other words, the origin of Scripture doesn't come from a human. Even though humans penned the Bible, the origin of the Scriptures don't come from the human that penned it. Does that make sense? Look what he says in verse 21. He says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So Peter says that when we see the Scriptures, when we see the prophetic words of the Bible, understand that these are men who authored this are speaking from God. Again, Peter is telling us this book is not man's word, it's God's word. But then he shows us how God spoke through these human authors to give us this book. Notice this, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So this phrase carried along by the Holy Spirit, it gives us a mental picture. Think about a sailboat at sea hoisting its sails up and what happens? The wind blows and it catches the sail and then the boat is carried along by the wind. Does that make sense? It is driven by or carried along by the wind. So the boat is moving, but it's not moving itself, it is being carried along by a force outside of itself that's making it move. Does that make sense? So what Peter is showing us here is this, is that so how did these men write the Scriptures and this being the word of God? They were carried along by an outside force, by the voice of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit moving them to write the things that they wrote. And so you can have a human author who pens a book of the Bible, but what they're writing is actually something that's happening through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God through the Spirit is moving them to write his words. And this is how amazing God is. God can use personalities, circumstances, giftings, types of genres of literature. God can step into space and time, use people and personalities, times and events

in order to communicate his message. But what Peter and Paul both want us to understand is that the message of the Scripture is not the message of man, but the words of God. You follow me? So here's why this is so crucial. This is so crucial because you see, when we say the Bible is true, what we're saying is is that the Bible is not just true, it is the foundation of all truth. And why is it the foundation of all truth? It's the foundation of all truth because it finds its origin in God. And God, the Bible says, does not lie. So when God speaks, he always speaks truth. So if God has revealed something in this book, listen, we can trust that is trustworthy because it is the words of God who does not lie and all truth in the world finds its origin in the truth that God has revealed. And here's why that's important. When we say the Bible is true, we're not just saying the Bible is accurate, although the Bible is accurate. We are saying it is the filter through which all truth in life must be filtered. So it means that if there is something, messages outside of the Bible that you're hearing that is contradictory to the Bible, you have to choose the Bible.

Why? Because it's not just true, it's the foundation of all truth. Why? Because it finds its origin in God. This book is important. Now, what happens in our culture today is that we have intellectualism that has crept in and here's what the external, the world outside the church will say. Oh yeah, okay, so you have blind faith in the Bible and here's the critique that they'll give and I wanna put this in front of you because I want you to be able to stand with confidence. They'll say, oh yeah, the Bible is a self-testifying document, therefore, how can you trust if it's self-testifying? In other words, the Bible says it's true so you say the Bible is true because the Bible says it's true, but you know, so you're really, it's blind faith that what is in here is really what is true, right? So that's the argument. And so what the world tries to do is they try to tell us as Christians, well, you have blind faith and they tell you as Christians, you check your mind out at the door when you receive Christ.

So while Christianity is built upon faith, it's not blind faith that it's built upon. That when you actually study the claims of the Bible and this declaration that it is inspired by God, here's what we know. We know that you can look at both internal and external evidence that doesn't make this book divine, but it does verify the divine nature of the book. And let me give you a couple of those. I'm gonna give you two categories this morning to help us understand the divine nature of the Bible. Number one is this, we're gonna look at the preservation of the Bible. The preservation of the Bible. The preservation of the Bible is one of the things that testify to the divine nature of it and its reliability for us to embrace as true. Let me give you a couple of things about this. So no other ancient document has been preserved with such precision as the Bible. Like no ancient literature that's ever been pinned on planet earth in all history has greater evidence of its reliability based upon its preservation alone. Let me show you this. When it comes to analyzing ancient literature, there is a scientific method used called the comparative analysis.

And what they do is they do a bibliographical test. Now here's what that is. There's three criteria for this. What they do is they say, okay, how many documents, how many documents do we have of that ancient literature? That's number one. Number two is what are the dates of those writings that we have in relation to the original writing? Does that make sense? Like how far removed from the actual writing are these ancient documents that we have? Number three is how consistent are they in their translations or in their copies? In other words, if you find one that's here and one that's way back here, do the two of them line up with their messaging or is there variances that disrupt the continuity of them? Does that make sense? So here's what we find. When it comes, let me give you an illustration of this first. When it comes to this idea of comparative analysis, Homer's Odyssey, anybody heard of Homer's Odyssey? Some of you studied it. And so you have professors that will walk you through this ancient literature and they will teach this literature as if they can trust that this is exactly what was written back when it was written. But here's the crazy thing about this.

Based upon comparative analysis, here's what we know about Homer's Odyssey. There are only three ancient copies remaining today, three ancient copies. Those three copies, the earliest is 2,000 years after the original was written. And just based upon the comparative analysis alone with three copies, 2,000 years removed, most scholars would say it passes the test and is reliable to be taught in the classroom. When it comes to the New Testament, it is not even close with what we have in the comparative analysis realm with any other ancient literature ever written. So let me give you some numbers here. When it comes to the New Testament alone with the various languages that it was written in, we have more than 20,000 ancient copies or portions of copies inexistent, more than 20,000. The closest ancient literature in regards to the number of manuscripts that we have today is Homer's Iliad. And here's what the number is there, a whopping 640. 43, so what you can see is using the science of comparative analysis, there is a massive gap between the evidence in the manuscripts that support the reliability of the New Testament and Homer's Iliad, which by the way, next to the Bible is the closest, the closest of all ancient literature.

Okay, so what about the timeframe that it was written in? How close to the original writings? Let's look at that. When it comes to the New Testament, there are more than 5,500 full or partial Greek, so the 20,000 is when you count the Greek and the Latin and other languages, but just the Greek alone, it still trumps all other ancient literature and the number of manuscripts, so there are 5,500, some scholars say, more in the 6,000 range manuscripts, many of which, watch this, is dated back as early as 100 years after the original. Now, this is fascinating to me. The New Testament is believed to have been completed by 100 AD, which means that what we have in the New Testament, all of the writings were finished within the lifetime of eyewitnesses who walked with Jesus or saw him walk on planet Earth, so within 100 years, 180, the Bible was completed. You know what this means? If we have a copy 100 years later that we have the closest of all ancient literature of any copies to the original time of their writing, the second, Homer's Iliad, look at this one, was written around 900 BC. The earliest manuscripts are around 400 BC, a 500-year gap with only 643. The New Testament Greek copy is nearly 6,000

and it's written within 100 years. In fact, there's been some archeological discoveries in recent years. They actually found a portion and pieces of the Gospel of John that actually dates back to around 130 AD, which is fascinating because John's Gospel was believed to have been written right at around 90 AD, which means within 40 years of the original writing, we have portions of the Book of John and they coincide in detail with the other copies that we have. This is amazing. So whenever somebody tells you, oh, I had to believe in Jesus and have this faith and believe the Bible is true, you gotta check your mind at the door. Here's what I would do. If you want to debunk Christianity, that's where you gotta check your mind at the door because all of the secular evidence points to the reliability of the Bible by using the world standards. What about the way it's been copied? How about the accuracy of the translations as they've been copied? So here's what the world will tell you. All right, you believe the Bible, okay, all the manuscripts are great, but man, the Bible is full of errors. Anybody heard that?

The Bible is full of errors. The Bible is full of mistakes. Has anybody heard that before, by the way? Okay, all right. So here's the answer to that. No, it's not. In fact, when you study, when you do analysis of linguistics and when you look at the copies of the manuscripts that we have, what you find is is that most scholars that have been taught the Bible, what you find is is that most scholars that have any kind of reputation, both Christian and non-Christian, will say to you any variances that we have within the old manuscripts compared to what we have today in the Bible are so minor that almost all of them are just grammatical changes, which by the way, over time, grammar changes, structures of sentence changes, right? Changes in regards to names, spelling changes. So most of them are all grammatical in nature. And by the way, every scholar that has any reputation whatsoever, Christian and non-Christian, will say that any variant within the manuscripts bear no weight on the meaning, theology, or the truth that's revealed. Let me give you one of my favorite case in points. In 2007, I got to go to Israel and I saw, there was a discovery back in 1943

where a shepherd boy discovered a cave and he threw a rock in it and he heard something break. It was pottery. Eventually, they discovered that there were thousands upon thousands of ancient manuscripts. Up to this date, when they discovered this, it was the earliest manuscripts of the Bible that they had ever discovered. And this was revolutionary, one of the greatest discoveries in our lifetime. So in 1943, or in some of y'all's lifetime, 1943. So they discovered this, but one of the scrolls that they found was a complete, watch this, a complete copy of the book of Isaiah. Now, before this discovery, the earliest manuscript of the book of Isaiah that they used to translate the Bible that we have today, the book of Isaiah was 700 AD. And so this kind of caused everyone to go, okay, we found one, watch this. They found one in the cave dating back to 100 BC. 800 years earlier. So now they said, okay, let's compare the 700 AD to the 100 BC. You know what they discovered when they tried to compare these two full copies of the book of Isaiah? They found 17 letters that were different with over an 800 year span of time and almost all of them had to do with spelling or sentence structure.

You say, what's the point? The point is, is that somehow there has been a supernatural preservation of this book and it's in a category all its own. No book in all of history that's ever been written has more manuscripts, has been copied with more pinpoint accuracy. It is a supernatural preservation. You know what that means for us? It means that when we hold this book today, the words that God meant then, listen, is the words that we have now and we can trust him and we can read this and know that when we hear it, we are hearing the very voice of God. So that's with preservation. I wanna look at prophecy. Prophecy, this is another category that helps us see the accuracy and the reliability of scripture. When it comes to the prophecy within the Bible, no other document's ever been written has more detailed prophetic things that have been predicted that actually were fulfilled in its detail years later. I'm talking about hundreds and thousands of them. So I wanna swim through all of that. Let me just give you the prophecies relating to Jesus. Scholars believe there are around 322 prophecies of the Old Testament that were in detail describing who the Messiah would be and what he would be like and what he would do

and details about his life. Of the 322, and these are not like abstract or ambiguous prophecies, these are detailed prophecies. Of the 322 prophecies, every single one of them were fulfilled by one person and that is Jesus of Nazareth. 322. Some of you are like, okay, that's great. This should blow your mind. So we're talking about prophecies like the virgin birth, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, would go to Egypt. He would be crucified. They would cast lots for his clothes. Details that Jesus would not have been able to control himself, all of them were fulfilled in him and him alone. So when you use the science of probability, here's what's crazy about it. So just use Psalm 22, for instance, and then we'll get to the science of probability, Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is one of those fascinating chapters of Psalm and here's why. It gives detailed description of what was happening around the cross as Jesus is on it being crucified. Even down to the language that is used by the Roman soldiers and the religious leaders. The casting of the lots for his garment. The fact that he would be put in a, they would mock him for being the king of the Jews. All of those things are found in Psalm 22. Now watch this.

It even describes, they would pierce his hands and his feet and Psalm 22 describes in detail Roman crucifixion. You say, what's the big deal with that? Psalm 22 was written 800 years before crucifixion was even invented. So we're talking about specific things that were fulfilled. So when you use the science of probability, experts tell us that if you were to take all 322 prophecies and you put that into a probability model, it would create a number that would be too high for our comprehension. It would overwhelm us. So what they do is they break it down to more of a understandable number. So here's what they did. They broke it down and said, okay, let's just take eight of the miracles, or eight of the prophecies regarding Jesus. Let's just eight. What's the likelihood of one person fulfilling eight of these prophecies? Like one person in their life fulfilling eight of these. The number is this, this is crazy. It is one in 100 quadrillion. There's a one in 100 quadrillion chance that one person in their lifetime could fulfill eight of the prophecies. So let me give you a mental image here of what that looks like.

So they're going, okay, one in 100 quadrillion. How many of y'all have ever heard of that number before? Like I've never heard of that number before I read these things, right? So here's what they say. Okay, so let's break this down, all right? So Texas is a big state, right? It's one of the largest countries in America. Texas is one of the largest countries in America. So we have this massive state, right? Let's say that you pile up silver dollars two feet high across the entire country. entire state of Texas. And we're gonna try to find one in 100 quadrillion, right? So the state of Texas is vast as two feet high. Then you take one of the silver dollars and you put a mark on it. You randomly put it back into the pile that's covering the state of Texas. You find a machine that would stir all of the coins until they level out at the two foot line, and then you blindfold someone, you randomly drop them in the state of Texas and tell them you get one chance to grab the one coin in the two feet of coins all over the state of Texas to find the one coin with the mark on it. The chances and the probabilities of a person blindfolded dropped in a random place to find the one coin is the same probability of one man fulfilling eight of the prophecies in his lifetime.

And Jesus did not fulfill eight, he fulfilled over 300 of them. What is that saying to us? Two things, Jesus is who he says he was, and this word is reliable because we know that it is divine in nature. How do we know it's divine in nature? Well, there's evidence of it. You see, the prophecies don't make it divine, the prophecies reveal the reality that it is divine. So let's move on to number two. So I want us to see the divine nature of the Bible. Now let's look at the divine message of the Bible, the divine message of the Bible. And this is amazing, again, more evidence that gives us confidence in the word of God and helps us understand what it is that we read and study. The divine message, look what he says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. He says, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you learned it. He's talking, this is Paul talking to Timothy, and how from childhood you have seen, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. Sacred writings is a reference to the Bible. And specifically, and this is important to understand the text and the power of it, specifically to the Old Testament. So Paul, because at this point,

the New Testament hadn't been completed yet, so Timothy, the scriptures he's acquainted with are gonna be the Old Testament scriptures. Now watch this. So he's acquainted with the scriptures, and what is the purpose of the scripture? Which is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to the divine message what Paul has communicated to Timothy. Timothy, you're familiar with the scriptures, specifically the Old Testament, and you're familiar with this message, and what is the primary message of the Bible? It is a book that reveals the salvation that God wants to give to humanity through faith in Christ Jesus. So what is the Bible about? What is the divine message of the Bible? The Bible is a story from Genesis to Revelation of God's great love for humanity, and their sin against him, and his desire to reconcile the relationship by sending a singular person, Jesus Christ, to redeem and restore us. That's the message of the Bible, and it is a divine message. And from Genesis to Revelation, this is the story. God wants us to be wise for salvation through the person of Jesus Christ.

Everything points to him, and I'm gonna show you something I think that's miraculous about this. There's two aspects of this I want you to see. The first is this. I want you to see the continuity of structure. When we talk about the storyline of the Bible, and its divine nature that gives this divine message, the continuity of structure just gives more evidence to the trustworthiness, or the reliability, or the truthfulness of the Scripture. The continuity of structure. You say, what do you mean? So let me explain like this. The Bible has a very powerful way of communicating events in the beginning of the Bible that make a difference and shape the outcome of the end of the Bible. It influences, it weighs in, and it impacts the end of the Bible. And there are certain events in the middle of the Bible that help us understand events that happened earlier in the Bible. They cross-reference those things and help us have understanding, and so we think something is one thing, and in the middle of the story, we go, oh, that's not what it is because this is talking about that, and so now I understand the beginning of the story better

because I'm in the end of the story. It also has the ability to have the end of the story influence our understanding of the beginning of the story, and there's all this interconnectedness that is so complex. So it's like this. So when we think about literary masterpieces like the Lord of the Rings, and if you've read the books or watched the 97 hours of movies, it's amazing, right? But what you have is is that this one massive story in multiple parts, and as you watch the Lord of the Rings, there's events at the beginning of the story that you understand better as you get further into the story, and at the end of the story, you're like, oh my gosh, I never saw that, and now you're referring back to this event that happened earlier in our understanding. So not only does the beginning influence the end, the end influence the beginning, and it's all connected so that the middle even comes to light based upon the beginning and the end. You follow what I'm saying? So there's this interconnectedness, and we look at that literary masterpiece, and we go, man, he's a brilliant writer. Tolkien is a massive, he's a brilliant writer.

He's written this masterpiece. How in the world could someone have a mind? to think of something so interconnected that the beginning weighs the end, the end weighs the beginning, and all in between, and here's how. If an author is writing the book, he knows in the beginning where he's going, and he knows in the end where he's been, and he's able to take things at the end and influence the beginning and everything in between, and it has to happen through an author who understands the story. And if our minds are blown with the Lord of the Rings, and we call it a literary masterpiece by a brilliant author, I want you to see this with the Bible. This was developed by a man by the name of Chris Harrison, and what he's doing in this, he's showing us the interconnectedness of the scriptures. He's showing us how the continuity that you find, this is a list of cross-references in the Bible where certain events are speaking to other events and influencing other events across the storyline of the Bible. So let me explain this to you. This bottom line here, there's different colors, these shades of this bottom graph, those are representing books of the Bible. The links of these little bars that come down,

they are the number of verses in the chapters in the individual books of the Bible. Now something interesting, I think, is this, is that this long bar right here, say, what is that? Well, that's the dead middle of the Bible, it's Psalm 119, and I'm not gonna speak too much into this, but Psalm 119 is anchored in the trustworthiness and the reliability of God's word as the guide of our life. So right in the middle, the longest chapter is devoted to the Bible itself. Pretty crazy. So what you have, though, is all of these little lines that are hyperlinked, again, it's what Jordan Peterson says, this is the most hyperlinked book that's ever been written, because what you have is these little blue shades, and it kind of turns down to where this little pink haze up here, the darker the lines, the closer they are in proximity to other writings, and the more frequently they're going back and forth. And then the further you get, the lighter they get up here, this green and going into this pink, this is showing us the connectedness from the beginning of the story to the end. So this is Genesis, this is Revelation, and all of this in between, and this is showing us the complexity in which the Bible was written. So you've got this massive story made up of 66 books that are telling independent stories, and all of those stories are dependent upon one another,

speaking to one another, and influencing the way we understand each of them, so that all the way down from Genesis to Revelation, there is an influence back and forth from the beginning to the end. There are almost 64,000 of these, this is what this is representing, by the way, 64,000 of those cross-references, where parts of the story is influencing in our understanding of other parts of the story. And this is, by the way, only the obvious cross-references. They say there's at least another 64,000 cross-references that are more ambiguous than this. Do you see the complexity here? So think about this. What's crazy about this is that the Bible was not written by one human author. What makes this even more unbelievable, the continuity of structure is this, is that what this represents, watch this, is 40 different authors, most of whom who never met, who lived in different time frames, who had different walks of life. Some were prophets, and some were kings, some were peasants, some were fishermen, different walks of life, 40 different authors, watch this, over three different languages, three different continents, three different genres, over a 1,500-year period of time, and yet the interconnectedness is testifying something beyond our understanding, and that is this,

is that these 40 different authors did not write them themselves. There was another author who was outside of time, who knew the end from the beginning, who was working behind the scenes, moving all this together so that you would have the continuity of structure that we have right here. This book right here, if we call Lord of the Rings a literary masterpiece, then what do we call this? There's only one explanation. This is God's book, and it reveals God's message. The continuity of structure leads us then, watch this, to the continuity of story, continuity of story, so what do you mean? The Bible is telling one big story from Genesis to Revelation. Here's the story, it's in four parts, creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, and so look, if you're in here and you think the Bible is a rule book or a guide book or some book that just tells us religious behavior, you're missing the point of the Bible. The Bible has a storyline from Genesis to Revelation. It's creation, fall, redemption, so what do we find is in Genesis, God creates, in Genesis one and two, he creates, and everything was good as it was supposed to be. Man and God walked in harmony, everything was beautiful, and it was perfect, but in Genesis chapter three, the fall occurred,

man rebelled against God. sin entered the world. But before you get out of Genesis chapter three, there is this promise, God promises in Genesis 3.15 that through the seed of the woman, there would be one who would be born who would crush the head of the serpent, the one who brought sin into the world. And what God is promising is that there is now a new storyline, and that is the storyline of redemption. And so watch this, from Genesis chapter three, verse 15, all the way until Jesus shows up in the Gospels, here's what you find, here's the story of the Old Testament leading up to Jesus, redemption is coming. Redemption is on its way, and redemption is anchored in a person, a Messiah, a deliverer, a savior, a hero who's gonna show up. And so Moses shows up, and Abraham shows up, and the nation of Israel is formed, and David shows up, and the prophets show up, and all of them are testifying to this redemptive work that God is doing that is ultimately gonna be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. And then Jesus shows up on the scene, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And Jesus shows up and he lives the life we couldn't live. He died the death we should have died. He was resurrected three days later

so that the redemption that God promised is in Genesis 3, 15, we might be able to be redeemed back, forgiven of our sin, reunited with a relationship with God. And then that begins on Jesus's resurrection, a work of restoration. Now, through the redemptive work of Jesus, God is restoring humanity to himself. When we come to faith in Christ, we are restored, and now God is in the process of restoring all of creation, and there is a day coming, don't miss this, there is a day coming when Jesus Christ will return again, and everything will be put back as it was and even better. Restoration of all things. In Genesis, watch this, in Genesis chapter one, you have God and a garden and humanity and fellowship and worship and enjoying one another to the fullest possible way. In Genesis chapter two, you have this fellowship and intimacy of this garden between God and man. In Revelation, it ends and there's another garden, and God and man are together again, reunited once again to have fellowship and intimacy that we were created for. And everything in between is taking us from one garden to the next garden. Only God can write a book like that. Only God can write a story like that. So hear me say this, Jesus Christ is at the center of all of this. He's at the center of all of this.

He is what the Bible is about. It is not about rules, religion, relationship with one another, it is not about all of that. Does it influence relationships? Does it influence religious behavior? Absolutely, listen, it is not about rules or religion. It is about the person of Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation, and I'm gonna show you this. In Genesis, he is the seed of the woman. In Exodus, he is the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he is the high priest. In Numbers, Jesus is the cloud by day and the fire by night. In Deuteronomy, he is the prophet greater than Moses. In Joshua, he is the conquering warrior. In Judges, he is our deliverer. In Ruth, he is our kinsman redeemer. In 1st and 2nd Samuel, he is our trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, he is our reigning king. In Ezra, he is the rebuilder of life. In Nehemiah, he is the restorer of the broken. In Esther, he is our advocate. In Job, he is our living redeemer. In Psalms, he is our shepherd. In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he is our wisdom. In the Song of Solomon, he is the loving bridegroom. In Isaiah, he is the suffering servant. In Jeremiah, he is the giver of the new heart. In Lamentations, he is the weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, he is the river of life.

In Daniel, he's the fourth man in the fire. In Hosea, he is the faithful husband who pursues his unfaithful bride. In Joel, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. In Amos, he is the restorer of justice. In Obadiah, he is mighty to save. In Jonah, he is our great foreign missionary. In Micah, he is the one who has the feet that brings good news. In Nahum, he is the stronghold in the day of trouble. In Habakkuk, he is God my savior. In Zephaniah, he is the king of Israel. In Haggai, he is the signet ring. In Zechariah, he is our humble king riding in on a colt. In Malachi, he's the son of righteousness. In Matthew, he is God with us. In Mark, he is the son of God. In Luke, he is the son of man. In John, he is the word become flesh dwelling among us. In Acts, he is the savior of the world. In Romans, he is the righteousness of God. In 1 Corinthians, he is our resurrection. In 2 Corinthians, he is our comfort. In Galatians, he is the liberty that sets the captive free. In Ephesians, he's the head of the church. In Philippians, he is our joy. In Colossians, he's the firstborn of the creation. In 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he is our hope. In 1 and 2 Timothy, he is our faith and stability.

In Titus, he is our truth. In Philemon, he's our benefactor. In Hebrews, he is our perfection. In James, he is the power behind our faith. In 1 Peter, he is our example. In 2 Peter, he is your purity. In 1 John, he is your life. In 2 John, he is your pattern. In 3 John, he is your motivation. In Jude, he's the foundation of your faith. And in Revelation, he is the alpha, he is the omega, he's the beginning, he's the end, he's the lamb that was slain, he is the... King of kings, he is the Lord of lords. He always was, he always is, he will always be. He is unmoved, unchanged, undefeated, and never undone. The world can't understand him. Armies can't defeat him. Schools can't explain him. Leaders can't ignore him. Herod couldn't kill him. The Pharisees couldn't confuse him. The grave couldn't hold him. Nero couldn't stop him. Hitler couldn't silence him. New age can't replace him. And our culture cannot cancel him. He is the way, he is the truth. And no one comes to the father except through him. And one day, one day, every knee will bow in heaven

and on earth and under the earth and declare, every tongue will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the father. He has given us a book and it centers on his name, the name of Jesus. Let's exalt him in this place right now. Let's lift our voice in worship. He is the king of kings and Lord of lords. Let's tell him.