that brother did preach didn't he let me say I'm honored to be here tonight um but let me give you a little bit of the back story Dr Gaines contacted me a while back and and invited me to come preach there at this church there in Gardendale later this summer and uh after that invitation was sort of extended tentatively he said I need to check you out first so what do you do in June 19th so I'm I'm sort of here in view of a call to see if I'll still be able to come later this summer I want to share something with you tonight that is a burden for me mainly because of the back story that was shared with you about my life about my having come to Faith length in life not having grown up in church not having grown up around Christians or around Christianity I was raised in the projects in South Central Los Angeles by a single teenage mother who was a practicing Buddhist and I never heard the gospel until I got to college and I had questions numerous questions questions that needed to be answered and I met someone who took the time to answer my questions and the wall that I want to talk about tonight is not necessarily a wall that we usually think about it's a wall in fact that hasn't been torn down necessarily by our adversary but in many instances it's been torn down by us you see we responded to sort of rationalism and logical positivism and secular humanism and in responding to those things that that were that were so heady that they led us away from the passionate pursuit of a holy God we have come almost full circle now the pendulum has swung in the other direction and now in many instances we have become anti-intellectual and we've moved Beyond anti-intellectualism to now we've almost moved into mysticism we are at a place where Theology and Doctrine are bad words we are at a place where there's a generation coming up that will believe anything if you say it with enough feeling so there is an intellectual wall that needs to be rebuilt we need to be a people who continues to love the Lord Our God with all our heart all our soul all our mind and all our strength so I want to do three things for you tonight one thing is this I want to answer what I believe is the most important question that we can answer in our culture today and secondly I want to make an observation about that answer and then issue a challenge if you would open your Bibles with me please to the book of second Peter second Peter chapter one let me give you the question here is the question that I believe is the most important question for us to be able to answer because legitimate questions deserve legitimate answers Peter says in First Peter that we are always to be ready to give an apology an apologia a reasoned response to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is within us here's that question that question is why do you choose to believe the Bible that's the question we must be able to answer that question in our culture today it's a legitimate question that deserves a legitimate answer but you see because of anti-intellectualism we hear that question and usually we'll sub something like well I believe the Bible because because I was raised like that will bless your spirit if that's your answer but please don't go out of here and say that to anybody I I beg you please don't don't do that because that is not a reasoned response I was raised that way just doesn't cut it or sometimes because we live in this culture of experientialism sometimes because of this post-modern culture where what's true for you was not necessarily true for me and the experience is King there is another answer with which we have become accustomed that we think is a great answer to the question and it goes something like this why do you choose to believe the Bible Well I choose to believe the Bible because I tried it and it worked for me we say that and then we sort of back up a couple of steps you know kind of let the answer sit there like we really just did something you did what you did was open a logical hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through that's what you did because if your only answer is you believe it because you tried it and it works for you what about that individual who used to be an alcoholic 10 years ago and he went to an AAA meeting they told him he had a higher power he couldn't find a higher power there's a squirrel that came outside of his window every morning he decided that squirrel was going to be his higher power hadn't had a drink in 10 years guess what he tried the squirrel the squirrel worked for him according to your logic his squirrel has as much Authority as your Bible in the words of Regis Philbin is that your final answer I hope it's not let me give you an answer to that question that I believe is better than I was raised that way or it's better than well I'm Southern Baptist and that's the way we believe or it's better than I tried it and it works for me I want to tell you why I choose to believe the Bible because I don't believe the Bible because I was raised that way because I was I I don't choose to believe the Bible because I tried it and it worked for me my mother's Buddhism worked for her that's why she was a Buddhist I need something more than just because it works here's the answer I'll give it to you and I'll unpack it for you I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses they report to a supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are Divine rather than human and origin [Applause] in case you think I just made that up second Peter chapter one beginning at verse 16. somebody gonna come get me when these lights go off I'm nervous already lights haven't even started going off yet all right for we did not follow cleverly devised Tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and Glory from God the Father such an utterances this was made to him by the Majestic Glory this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased and we OBS and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the Holy Mountain so we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day Dawns and The Morning Star arises in your hearts but know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God now let's unpack this first of all the Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents look at what he says here in verse 16. for we did not follow cleverly devised Tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ we did not follow cleverly devised Tales we did not follow myths or fairy tales or Legends we did not follow things that were made up Luke puts it this way in his prologue in as much as many have undertaken to compile and cattle the things accomplished Among Us just as they were passed down to us by those who were beforehand eyewitnesses and Servants of the word it seemed fitting to me having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order most excellent Theophilus so that you may believe God on Blind Faith no so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught we have a reliable collection of historical documents not myths not fairy tales not Legends this is not the Gilgamesh epic here these are things that actually transpired in history and were recorded for us not only do we have a reliable collection of historical documents but they were written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses look at what he says but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty we saw anybody love crime dramas I love crime drama you know when I was a kid I used to watch Quincy you know I used to watch Quincy you know growing up you know nowadays they got this what is it CSI or whatever everybody's all excited about CSI CSI is just Quincy on crack that's all that is y'all Quincy was the man I mean he'd figure that stuff out you know you know what would mess up an episode of Quincy or CSI or whatever else you want to watch if early on you have corroborating eyewitness testimony you got no mystery then that's what we have when we read the Bible corroborating eyewitness testimony turn with me to the right if you will and look at what John says in his epistle look at what John says what was from the beginning what we have heard what we have seen with our eyes what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life look at verse two the life was manifested and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us verse 3 what we have seen and heard we Proclaim to you also eyewitnesses a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses but I also said during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses in First Corinthians chapter 15 Paul says that Jesus was resurrected after he was resurrected he appeared to Peter then he appeared to the twelve then he appeared to all the disciples at once then he appeared to over 500 Brethren at one time and he says these words most of whom remain until now when you do the math you realize that when First Corinthians was written there were over 300 eyewitnesses at least of the resurrection of Jesus Christ who were still alive during that time oh I hear you you're well educated people you've heard the arguments yes brother I understand that but you see what happened was there were individuals who came and doctored the Bible up and it's been translated so many times and it's been changed so many times and when I talk to college students sometimes they tell me about this myth of these overzealous monks who went out and changed the Bible so that things would match up so that it would look like we have older documents than we actually have and in fact and I think they're really telling me something when they tell us you know we don't have any of The Originals like I'm supposed to be shaking my boots when they tell me that listen to me if overzealous monks want to change the Bible can I explain to you what they would have had to do three levels of conspiracy level number one they would have had to have a manuscript conspiracy when we're talking about just the New Testament itself there are over six thousand manuscripts or portions of manuscripts for the New Testament itself now that may not sound like a lot to you but can I compare to a couple of things Julius Caesar's gallic Wars that's how we know about Julius Caesar in this Conquest we have around 10 manuscripts Aristotle's Poetics we have nearly five manuscripts when it comes to the writings of Herodotus we have less than 10 manuscripts when it comes to the writings of Homer less than ten of each of his writings when it comes to the New Testament we have six thousand manuscripts or portions of manuscripts for the New Testament folks that's not even close well you don't have the originals no we really don't but guess what we can get earlier than ad 120 with some of the copies that we have when it comes to Julius Caesars galic Wars the earliest thing we can put our hands on was red 900 years after the original but nobody's tearing down the walls in college because they're reading Caesar when it comes to Aristotle the earliest thing we can put our hands on was written 1400 years after the original but when it comes to the New Testament we can put our hands on documents that were written within Decades of The Originals so if these overzealous monks wanted to doctor the Bible what they would have to do is find over 6 000 manuscripts change all of them not show their ink work get them all back where they stole them from and never tell anybody what they did that's just level number one here's level number two Jesus said go and make disciples of ethnay every people group funny thing about people groups they tend to speak different languages So within the first few centuries we have the bible translated into Syriac Coptic and Latin so now these overzealous monks have to find six thousand Greek manuscripts change those doctor Em Up don't show your ink work get them back go find all the Syriac Coptic and Latin translations of those Greek manuscripts change those to match the lies that you told in another language and get those back where you stole them from and that's just level number two now you got level number three the early church fathers had this terrible habit of writing commentary on the New Testament so much so that Bruce Metzger argues if all we had of the New Testament was the quotations and citations by the early church fathers we could reproduce over 95 of the New Testament just from their writings so now these overzealous monks have to find six thousand manuscripts and portions of manuscripts steal them change them don't show your ink work get it back without anybody finding out they got to find Syriac Coptic and Latin translations change those to match the lies that they told in the six thousand manuscripts get those back where they stole them from and then find all of the writings of all of the early church fathers change those to match the lies that they told two layers ago get those put back never tell anybody what they did and never ever get caught help you if you believe that we have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses so far we just got a good history book now it gets good they report to us Supernatural events look at what he says here verse 17. for when he received honor and Glory from God the Father such an utterances this was made to him by the Majestic Glory this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the Holy Mountain now we got the Mount of transfiguration now I got Supernatural events not superhuman events we have Supernatural events stuff you can't get good enough to do we're not talking about psychosomatic healings we're talking about a woman with an issue of blood who is healed instantly we heard earlier about the man with a withered hand healed instantly men who were blind from birth death from birth mute from birth men who were lame from birth healed instantly one of my favorites Jesus tells the disciples y'all go over to the other side of the lake I'll meet you later on on the boat somebody I don't know who they say hey um did Jesus say how he was coming know why because he he coming [Applause] or my favorite of them all Friday dead Sunday risen we have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses they report to us Supernatural events and those events took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies we're not talking about General Nostradamus type stuff specific prophecies for example when Jesus is on the cross interestingly when he's on the cross I don't know let's just imagine go back shall we if we will let's go back on your first century and we're Jewish people and we probably talk about our Old Testament maybe we use Aramaic when we speak to one another and I want you to open your Bible for example to Psalm number 22 which is where we're going here for a moment if I wanted you to do that I couldn't tell you to open the psalm number 22 because we've only had chapters and verses for a few hundred years if it was the first century and I was speaking to you in Aramaic and I wanted you to turn to Psalm number 22. I would have to tell you to turn to the title of Psalm number 22 which would have been the first line of Psalm number 22. so I'd have to tell you to open your scroll to Ali Ali or my God my God why have you forsaken me now that ought to sounds familiar because it's exactly what Jesus said while he was being crucified I know you know this but I like it so much let's do it anyway Psalm number 22 verse 1 my God my God why have you for taking me look at verse 6. I'm a worm and not a man to reproach of men and despised by the people all who see me sneer at me they separate with the lip they Wag the head saying commit yourself to the Lord let him deliver him let him rescue him because he Delights in him sounds familiar that's what's being said to Jesus while he's being crucified look at verse 12. many bulls are surrounded me strong Bulls of Base in heaven circled me they open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion I'm poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like Wax it is melted within me interesting Pierce them in the side puncture the pericardium blood and water rush out look at verse 15 my strength is dried up like Potter and my tongue clings to my jaws how about this wine vinegar on this sponge Jesus because you did say I thirst verse 16. dogs have surrounded me folks that's gentiles a band of evildoers has encompassed me one on the right and one on the left they pierced my hands and my feet I can count all of my bones why because nobody had to break your legs to hasten your death they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots folks that was written a thousand years before Jesus was born it was written by a man who never once saw crucifixion in his life because crucifixion had not yet been invented that is why Peter can say back in our passage verse 19 so we have the prophetic word made more sure we have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses they report to a supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies we just looked at a couple of examples of that and then here's the kicker they claim their writings are Divine rather than human and origin look down with me at verse 20. but know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God they claim these are God's words and not theirs that's why these prophecies were fulfilled hundreds or thousands of years afterwards that's why they use phrases like and thus says the Lord and the Lord spoke to Moses saying and God said to Abraham they say these are God's words and not men's words oh I hear you but see that's the problem nobody wants to believe that because they know that men wrote the Bible and when we say it's the word of God they said no it's the word of men because men took in the paper and you cannot trust things that were written by men that's always interesting to me you know why because back in school I don't remember anybody you know in the math class well you got something wrong you know you're supposed to use Pythagorean theorem there you know that a squared plus b squared equals c squared thing you know you didn't use Pythagorean theorem there you got this wrong you can't Mark me off for that that came out of a math book a man wrote that math book that means it's fallible just because man took pen to paper doesn't mean you can't trust what's written the question you ask is this is what's written reliable is it internally consistent is it corroborated well what's corroboration I don't know maybe three languages Greek Hebrew Aramaic three continents Asia Africa Europe over 40 authors most of whom never met one another who wrote over a period of some 1500 years until one singularly woven together story how's that for corroboration here's another one and I just have to admit I like it when people use this one because there's part of me that you know I don't like to talk about in Sunday School his name is bad voting I try to let him out at least once a week late at night when nobody's around he loves this one when people say you believe that Bible but I'm a man of science and unless you can prove it to me scientifically I just can't believe that see at that moment I try to grab on the bad voting and hold him real tight and not let him go because I know what he'll do if I let him go he won't be Christian he just won't sometimes I think he's not even saved because of the stuff that he wants to say because I would be gentle with the people bad voting would need to be gentle he'd say you foreign look at him and he'd say something like this listen you don't even deserve to remain in this argument but I'm going to let you stay in the argument because I'm going to like what's about to happen to you because intellectually I'm about to beat you like a tied up goat so hold on right where you are all right how you gonna sit here and tell me you're a man of science and you'd believe it you know if I you know proved it to you scientifically why do you want me to use the scientific method do you not realize that you don't use the scientific method on historical events that proves you don't even deserve to be in the argument here's the scientific method in order to use the scientific method something has to be observable measurable and repeatable folks you can't use the scientific method to prove that George Washington was our first president why because his presidency is not observable measurable and repeatable see they messed around let me go to school you don't use the scientific method there you have to use a more evident you're in method there so what you do is like what we do in a courtroom you say do we have any eyewitnesses well I just told you we got some of those do the eyewitnesses tell the same story yep Friday dead Sunday risen [Applause] they say something's going to happen and it happens exactly the way they said you see we have no external evidence that would argue against the Bible's claim to be the word of God none so the real intelligent thing to do to believe what it says so I don't choose to believe the Bible just because I was raised that way I wasn't I don't choose to believe the Bible just because I tried it and it works for me I choose to believe the Bible now say this with me if you will because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses they report Supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their writings are Divine rather than human and origin I told you I wanted to do three things number one I wanted to answer this question that I believe is a pertinent question in our culture that we have to be able to answer it's a legitimate question that deserves a legitimate answer secondly I told you I wanted to make an observation Pastors in the room listen to me I just shared an expository sermon I preached the text in its context I did not try to be more creative than God it's what I like to call expository apologetics the Bible answers every relevant question all scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching rebuking correcting training in righteousness all of it his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness to our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and Excellence here's what I'm worried about there's a lot of us who believe in the inerrancy of scripture but some of us Don't Preach like we believe in the sufficiency of scripture don't let anybody tell you that Exposition is a thing of the past I hope I didn't bore you because a lot of people say Exposition is boring I hope you weren't bored a lot of people say Exposition is irrelevant I believe I just answered what I would argue is the most relevant question that our culture is asking and did it verse by verse precept upon precept lied upon the line which brings me to the third thing and that's the challenge we have got to to teach the people of God number one that the Bible has the answer and number two how to learn it and give it anybody who can memorize this passage of scripture in its context can learn how to give the answer that I just gave you anybody anybody folks that's why that's why we wrote the ever-loving truth that's why I wrote The Loving Truth Bible study that's what it's all about for people to get this into their minds so that when somebody asks them a question like why do you choose to believe the Bible they don't have to Fumble around and him in the hall they don't have to give some lame answer like you know I was raised that way or I tried it and it works for me they can look people in the eye like a young lady from Dartmouth College where I was teaching this who looked a science professor of hers in the eye and for the first time in her life felt confident enough to speak up in the classroom and looked at him and said well sir I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses they report Supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are Divine rather than human in origin and by the way if you want to you can put some gravy on top of it I tried it worked for me [Applause]