Porch Notes 10/25/2011

Blake Holmes, Equipping Director

Shows a picture of Bernie Madoff

-Defrauded people of millions of dollars

-People had incredible trust in him

-If you knew about Bernie Madoff you would probably tell your friends to stay away. However, many people would have argued with you and showed you his history of results.

-Many people have bought into the lie that the Bible can not be trusted.

-In Genesis 3 the original lie was that you can't trust God's word.

Don't be defrauded:

-Whenever we doubt God's word it leads to sin, death, and isolation.

Psalm 1:1-6

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

What is the Bible?

God's inspired word to us.

2 Peter 1:20-21

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

21 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.

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

If one doesn't know what is the central theme of the Bible, how can they say they don't believe it?

Why is it God's word?

1. Profession

2. Production

3. Preservation

4. Prophecy

5. Personal Testimony

The Bible itself proclaims that it is the word of God.

The Bible is composed of 66 books by authors written over a timespan of 1500 years in two languages.

When rightly understood the Bible is without contradiction.

Dan Wallace (Watermark radio) did a good series about this subject.

Preservation

-Books by Plato, Sophocles, Aristotle, Homer, have time spans between 500-1200 years between the writing and the earliest copy.

-The new testament has only 25 years between the writing and the earliest copy.

Error Examples:

-Confusion on similar letters

-Wrong word division (Godisnowhere)

-Etc.

Dead sea scrolls

-Confirmed that the old testament texts we have, even after 500 years of copying, is accurate.

Prophecy:

The details of Jesus' life were accurately predicted.

Five things you have to do the understand God's word:

Read it

Listen to it

Meditate on it

Memorize it

Study it (different from reading it, the difference is having a pen in your hand)

Matthew 7:24-27

24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

The storms are coming. We need to trust in God's word and not live like it's a lie.