This is a sermon on the uniqueness and inspiration of the Bible taken from 2 Timothy 3:14-17.  The word of God is amazing, prophetic, scientifically accurate, without error, and the basis of Christians learning about Jesus and how they are to live.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” (2 Tim. 3:14-17).

1. Introduction
   1. The Bible is a unique book.
      1. 66 books, written by 40 people, on three continents, in three languages, over a 1600 period. It is consistent throughout and tells of the history of a chosen people, whom God appointed to bring forth the Messiah.
      2. The Bible’s influence extends not only into the hearts of individuals but also in the shaping of nations. It is full of wisdom and full of truth. It is the most published book in the world.
   2. It contains some amazing facts:
      1. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, (Gen. 5:27).
      2. A man was spoken to by a donkey, (Num. 22:28-30).
      3. The sun stood still for a whole day, (Josh. 10:13).
      4. An ocean was parted when Moses put his staff into the water.
      5. A storm was calmed when Jesus rebuked it.
   3. It is scientifically accurate
      1. It says that the Earth is suspended in nothing, (Job. 26:7).
      2. It says the Existence of ocean currents in the Seas, (Psalm 8:1,3,6,8,)
      3. It says the Stars are Innumerable, (Gen. 15:5).
   4. It teaches some amazing things
      1. It teaches that God created the universe out of nothing, that He made the heavens and earth, that God formed Adam and Eve from the dirt of the ground, that there is a devil and also demonic forces. It teaches us that there was a worldwide flood, that God caused the languages of the world to be dispersed. It says there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and it teaches that there is going to be a judgment day where all people who have ever lived will face the God of the universe.
   5. It is known also for what it does not teach.
      1. It does not teach that life on this planet is the result of accidental evolutionary processes where life formed by chance and developed into walking, talking, and reasoning people. It does not teach that morals are relative, that homosexuality, abortion, and fornication are values left up to individuals.
      2. It does not teach that truth is what you want it to be, or hope it to be, or feel it to be.
      3. It does not teach that you can compromise your position before God for the sake of convenience, popularity, or comfort.
      4. It does not teach that the Christian is his own, but that he belongs to God and that we must die to ourselves.
   6. If this weren’t enough, the Bible makes some amazing assertions.
      1. It claims to be the inspired Word of God.
      2. It claims to be without error.
      3. It claims to be authoritative in everything it addresses.
      4. It claims to be sufficient to meet all of our spiritual needs.
      5. It claims to tell us what moral truth really is and claims that it is the true and final standard of morality.
      6. It claims that Jesus is God in flesh, creator of the universe, the incarnate word who died on the cross for ours sins, was buried, rose from the dead three days later, ascended into heaven, and will once again return to judge the world.
   7. In short, the Bible is unlike any other book in the world. It assumes its own validity. It does not defend itself. It simply states what is and is not true. The Bible is either a joke or it is true. You either believe what it says or you reject it. It calls you to be hot or cold and calls you to examine yourself before its holy pages and before the holy Lord Jesus that it points to and proclaims. The Bible is the word of God.
2. We know the Bible is the word of God because it says so.
   1. We do not use logic and evidence to prove that the Bible is God’s word. otherwise, the Bible is subject to logic and evidence. It is sufficient that God’s word testifies of itself.
   2. This will not convince unbelievers, but the redeemed know the Bible is the word of God because the Holy Spirit who lives in us bears witness to this truth.
   3. We are enabled to know the truth of God’s word because of the cross of Christ that brings us to a saving relationship with God who then lives in our hearts and reveals the truth to us.
   4. Christians know and trust God’s word because they hear and know the voice of Jesus.
   5. John 10:1-4,27, ”Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 ”But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 ”To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 ”When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
   6. Christians know the voice of God because they know the voice of Christ.
      1. His sheep hear His voice in the Bible and they know it is from Him.
      2. The Bible is full of such statements as, “Thus says the Lord God….” and “The Lord has said…” and, “God declares…”
      3. The Bible assumes without defending itself, that it comes from God.
         1. Also, 2 Tim. 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God Inspiration is from God’s heart and mind to the writers.
         2. Inspiration means that God is the author of the text.
         3. He has moved through the writer to communicate to us his truth and will. the Bible declares its own inspiration as it properly assumes its truth as coming from God.
         4. But, there are other reasons that we can look to the word of God to help us discover the evidence to demonstrate that it is from God.
3. We know the Bible is the word of God because of prophecy Prophecy
   1. Psalm 22:15-18, (1000 B.C.), “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and Thou dost lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18 They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
      This Psalm was written 1000 years before Christ and 400 years before crucifixion had been invented. Yet, it accurately depicts the crucifixion. This is particularly important when we understand that while Jesus was on the cross, He quoted Psalm 22:1 when he said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Jesus knew the Psalm was about Him.
   2. Micah 5:2 (500 B.C.), “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” This was written 500 years B.C. and it prophesied the birthplace of the Messiah.
   3. Additional prophecies
      1. Born of a virgin, Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
      2. Rejected by His people, Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
      3. Preceded by a messenger, Isaiah 40:3, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.'”
      4. His side would be pierced, Zech. 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one mourns for an only son.”
      5. There are many more…
   4. Statistician Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) calculated the probability of Jesus fulfilling eight prophecies. He concluded it would be is 1 X 10¹⁷. That is one hundred million, billion, or a number having 17 zeros.
      Stoner illustrates it by supposing that “we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. “Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.”
      Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
      1. 10⁸⁰ electrons in the entire universe.
      2. The prophecies of the Bible are not by chance. They demonstrate a divine hand.
4. We know the Bible is the word of God because it is archaeologically accurate
   1. Nothing in the Bible has been disproven by archaeology. It is accurate in everything it states. Archaeology only confirms the accuracy of the Bible.
   2. There are many accounts of people seeking to disprove the Bible using archaeology but who were later converted to Christianity through examining it historically. Here is an example:
      Over 100 years ago, William Ramsay, a young English scholar, went to Asia Minor with the expressed purpose of proving that the history given by Luke in his gospel and in the Acts was inaccurate. His professors had confidently said that Luke could not be right.
      He began to dig in the ancient ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, testing for ancient terms, boundaries, and other items which would be a dead giveaway if a writer had been inventing this history at a later date as claimed. To his amazement, he found that the New Testament Scriptures were accurate to the tiniest detail. So convincing was the evidence that Ramsay himself became a Christian and a great biblical scholar.
   3. Archaeology has confirmed hundreds of cities described in the Bible such as Arad, Bethel, Capernaum, Chorazin, Dan, Ephesus, Gaza, Hezor, Hezbon, Jericho, and Ninevah and many, many more.
   4. Therefore, we see that archaeology confirms that the Bible is accurate in what is has said about history.
5. We know the Bible is the word of God because of its power
   1. Heb. 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
   2. The word of God has power. It is alive. It has the power to reveal to you the sovereign and holy God of the universe who loves you and desires your salvation and presence.
   3. It is powerful because it can come from God. It can cut into your heart and reveal yourself to you. It reveals your sins. It is like a mirror that enables you to see who you really are as it reflects yourself back to you compared to Jesus, the one who sacrificed Himself for you so that you might become more like Him as you study His holy word.
   4. It judges the heart of both the saved and the unsaved. If convicts both alike.
   5. Have you ever had the word of God move into your heart and open it up and reveal to you its secrets? Have you ever experienced the power of its word to expose your sin as well as comfort your soul? Have you ever experienced its ability to make you examine yourself?
   6. When the Bible says do not lie, do not cheat, do not lust, do not steal, be humble, consider others more important than yourself, then I have to face myself and see if I am living up to the standard.
   7. When I read where Jesus was being crucified and He asked the Father to forgive His persecutors, I am forced to wonder if I would be as gracious.
   8. When Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, I am convicted by His humility. Would I be able to do the same thing?
   9. Or when Jesus says to forgive 70 times 7, would I do that? Can I?
   10. When the Bible tells us to be imitators of Christ, am I doing that? The word of God makes me examine myself and in this, it has the power to force me to look deep into my own heart and my own motives.
6. Finally, we know the Bible is the word of God because of whom it testifies. Jesus said in John 5:39, ”You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me.”
   The Bible is about Jesus. All that was written before time was written in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the One who would die for our sins, be buried, and rise from the dead. Jesus who is God in the flesh (John 1:1,14), the one who became a sacrifice on our behalf before the Father, this is whom the Bible is written about.
   1. The Bible testifies of Jesus. It is about him. It discloses Him and reveals Him to us, and in so doing, it reveals us to ourselves as well.
   2. The Bible tells us about the One who was born of a virgin, who became a man, who taught about love, sacrifice, and service.
   3. The Bible reveals the son of God to us and we see in its pages the life and ministry of a perfect man. no one in all of history and in all the world compares to Jesus.
   4. Only in the Bible do we read about him from those who knew him and walked with Him. Only in the Bible do we find Christ. Only in the Bible do we find the words of 1 Cor. 1:9 which says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
   5. Only in the Bible do we find the words of Christ who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes the Father but by me,” (John 14:6).
   6. Only in Christ, whom the Bible is about, can we find rest. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 ”Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. 30 ”For My yoke is easy, and My load is light,” (Matt. 11:28-30).

Conclusion:

The Bible is the Word of God because it comes from God. It is self-attesting and true. We see that it makes prophecies and records their fulfillment. We see that it has the power to heal, to divide truth from error, and to convict us of our sin. And, we see that it reveals the One True Savior to us so that we might find redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, and a relationship with the one true God.