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The Bible Possesses Divine Qualities (Part 2)

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 18, In the year of our Lord, 2018

Prelude:

  1. I do not want to be like the guy
    1. who went all around the barn
    2. shooting at this and shooting at that,
      1. then later coming back and
      2. drawing bullseyes around all of them,
        1. making it look as though he was a perfect shot.
  2. Last Lord’s Day, I presented the following argument:
    1. If the Bible possesses divine qualities, it is the word of God.
    2. The Bible possesses divine qualities.
    3. Therefore, it is the word of God.
      1. Someone could say that I made up some points
      2. that the Bible already covers and
        1. that I came back and drew bullseyes around them,
        2. making the claim that the Bible is the word of God.
  3. Therefore, I must demonstrate the minor premise:
    1. The Bible possesses divine qualities.
    2. I am asking if God were to deliver to us a message,
      1. how would we know that it came from Him?
      2. Last week I argued that it would have these qualities:
        1. It would last forever.
        2. It would be unbreakable.
        3. It would reveal our future.
        4. It would transcend all cultures for all time.
          1. Do you agree that those are not just a Bible friend, me,
          2. drawing bullseyes around random shooting?
  4. Today I want to advance four more qualities that the Bible has,
    1. which show that it has divine qualities.
    2. Those four divine qualities will be:
      1. The Bible Reveals the Past
      2. The Bible Has Perfect Insight into Man
      3. The Bible Lifts Us from an Earthly Life to One Closer to the Author
      4. The Bible Has an Inexplicable Unity

Persuasion:

  1. The Bible Reveals the Past
    1. Consider Noah’s Flood and how it explains what we see in the world today.
      1. Listen to any geologist and they will tell you that the strata was water laid.
      2. Listen to any paleontologist and
        1. they will tell you that fossils come from animals
        2. that were rapidly buried in mud.
          1. What happened?
          2. The Bible presents a worldwide flood.
    2. Consider the disappearance of Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria.
      1. Nahum 1.9–11:

        9 What do you conspire against the LORD?
        He will make an utter end of it.
        Affliction will not rise up a second time.
        10 For while tangled like thorns,
        And while drunken like drunkards,
        They shall be devoured like stubble fully dried.
        11 From you comes forth one
        Who plots evil against the LORD,
        A wicked counselor.
        (Nahum 1.9–11)

        1. God would end Nineveh so thoroughly that it would never rise up.
          1. Has Assyria risen up again?
          2. Where is Nineveh?
        2. Those conspiring against the Lord were drunken like drunkards.

          “There is an account from secular history concerning the destruction of Nineveh which relates that after the Assyrians had repulsed the enemy they then gave themselves to drunkenness and feasting (e.g., Belshazzar, Dan. 5:1), and as a consequence were surprised by the Medes and the city was taken. If true, the words in 1:10 may have reference to this occurrence…” (Hobart E. Freeman, p. 230).
      2. Nahum 1.14:

        14 The LORD has given a command concerning you:
        “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer.
        Out of the house of your gods
        I will cut off the carved image and the molded image.
        I will dig your grave,
        For you are vile.”
        (Nahum 1.14)

        1. The name of Nineveh and Assyria would no longer continue.
        2. The Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians
          1. attacked the city of Nineveh unexpectedly and
          2. were so thorough that the city disappeared.
        3. At the end of verse 14, God said
          1. that He would dig a grave for Nineveh and
          2. that is exactly what He did.
            1. Two hundred years later Xenophon,
              1. a Greek historian and general,
              2. only saw mounds where Nineveh once had been.
            2. When Alexander the Great fought close by
              1. he did not realize
              2. that a great world empire was buried under his feet.
        4. As Nahum had prophesied here in verse 14
          1. that the name of Nineveh would be perpetuated no longer,
          2. leading many critical unsuspecting scholars to deny
            1. that Assyria and Nineveh even existed,
            2. until 1842 or 1845 when an archaeologist discovered the site.
        5. What is amazing about this total destruction of Nineveh is this:
          1. It had existed since the time of Nimrod (Gen 10.9–11).
          2. Its protection made it seem invincible:
            1. The city walls were one hundred feet high for
            2. seven and a half miles around the city.
              1. Three chariots could ride abreast on the top.
              2. The wall had 1200 defense towers.
            3. The moat outside was 140 feet wide and 60 feet deep.
        6. Can protection like that keep God from destroying a city?
          1. Verse 14 says that out of the house of Nineveh’s gods
          2. the Lord would cut off their idolatrous images.
            1. The false gods of the nations had not stopped Nineveh
            2. as it hammered away at other nations, but
              1. its own gods could not deliver it.
        7. Isaiah 37.38 reveals how worthless
          1. the gods of Nineveh were
          2. when the king was killed before his gods,

            38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place (Isaiah 37.38).
        8. History records
          1. that from that point on
          2. it was downhill for Assyria,
            1. until they were finally conquered in 612 bc.
      3. Nahum 3.11

        11 You also will be drunk;
        You will be hidden;
        You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
        (Nahum 3.11)

        1. Nineveh would be hidden,
          1. hidden so well that for 2,457 years
            1. (from 612 bc to ad 1845)
            2. the city’s location was a complete mystery.
        2. How could a world-famous city vanish so easily?
          1. Nineveh had existed for over 2400 years,
          2. making the people think that the city was eternal,
            1. able to withstand anything.
        3. However, there was one catastrophe
          1. that the Ninevites never counted on,
          2. at least during the days of Nahum: The Lord.
  2. The Bible Has Perfect Insight into Man
    1. Hebrews 4.12

      12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4.12).

      1. Those who read and meditate upon the contents of Scripture,
      2. will tell you about this phenomenon.
        1. Readers discover that this is no dead letter.
        2. Have you not read some story about an ancient nation or culture, but
          1. it did not move you to change.
          2. It did not move you to live as they lived.
            1. Yet, when I read the Bible,
            2. something very different happens.
    2. Ecclesiastes 3.11

      11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3.11).

      1. Where do we get the concept of eternity?
        1. Why do we want to live forever?
        2. What is this longing inside of us?
      2. Augustine of Hippo provided this insight:

        “…thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee.”
    3. Romans 1.20–32 provides the insight that our culture needs…
  3. The Bible Lifts Us from a Mundane Life to One Closer to the Author
    1. It seeks to move us
      1. from living as we do when estranged from the Author
      2. to one that is closer to the kind of life that He lives.
    2. Obviously the Creator of the universe
      1. is greater than the universe and
      2. is beyond the universe.
        1. We cannot see Him.
        2. Yet, if He created us and our environment,
          1. it appears from the way He provided for our bodies,
          2. that He wants the best for us.
    3. Has He done the same for our minds and our manner of living?
      1. I believe that He has and
      2. that is what the Bible does.
    4. I invite you to learn more about the people who call themselves Christians.
      1. They had previously lived in ways of which they are now ashamed.
      2. They now live lives that they love.
        1. Romans 6 has a question
        2. that you can ask a Christian,

          21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? (Romans 6.21).

          1. Then ask the Christian about his current life.
          2. He or she is not ashamed of it, but glad to live it.
  4. The Bible Has an Inexplicable Unity
    1. The evidence within the Bible is overwhelming, but
      1. I will only give you one today.
        1. This one is super easy to find.
        2. You just have to open your Bible at any place.
          1. When you do so, you will see this thing all over the place.
          2. Do you see the cross references?
      2. Cross references show the harmony of the Bible with itself.
    2. In spite of the various writers,
      1. from Moses to John
      2. the Bible writers were separated by as mush as 1600 years.
      3. The Author, God, used
        1. shepherds,
        2. generals,
        3. judges,
        4. prophets,
        5. kings,
        6. scribes,
        7. servants,
        8. poets,
        9. wise men,
        10. nobility,
        11. priests,
        12. farmers,
        13. tax collectors,
        14. fishermen,
        15. physicians, and
        16. scholars.
      4. They lived
        1. in the wilderness Sinai and Midian,
        2. Israel,
        3. Babylon,
        4. Asia, and
        5. Europe.
    3. Are you familiar with Encyclopedia Britannica?
      1. Are you familiar with The Great Books of the Western World?
      2. Mortimer Adler has been a major player and editor in both sets.
        1. Brother Steve Lloyd told me that he saw Mr. Adler on TV, saying,
        2. something to the effect
          1. that the Great Books are filled with more error than truth.
          2. His justification for reading them
            1. was that they represent the best of the minds of men, but
            2. that the error contained actually makes truth shine brighter.
      3. You will not run into that problem with the Bible.
    4. When you use those cross references,
      1. you are crossing time zones and ages,
      2. you are crossing languages,
      3. you are crossing kingdoms,
      4. you are crossing so many different backgrounds, but
        1. somehow, someway, they have an inexplicable unity,
        2. inexplicable only if you fail to see the Bible as the word of God.

Exhortation:

  1. What more can I say?
    1. The Bible is lasting forever.
    2. The Bible is unbreakable.
    3. The Bible reveals our future.
    4. The Bible transcends all cultures for all time.
    5. The Bible reveals the past.
    6. The Bible has perfect insight into man.
    7. The Bible Lifts us from an earthly life to one close to the Author.
    8. The Bible has inexplicable unity.
  2. What do you think about it?
    1. Are you persuaded that it is the word of God?
    2. Are you ready to start living as your Creator instructs you to live?