Sakura Information of Japan in the "Google Maps" is now available for circulation (2017 Limited)
Hello everyone
This time, I will discuss cherry tree information in Japan can now be circulated "Google Maps"
Than "Google Maps" on March 28, 2017, display of flowering information of Sakura of Japan has started
Sakura information of "Google Maps" is a mechanism that will be displayed based on a database of cherry tree information of KADOKAWA,
Spot that has been registered as a "cherry spot" real-time cherry tree flowering situation such as can be found in the "Google Maps"
In the area of "cherry spot" has been registered to display a list of "cherry spot" as the information card,
Also it can now be able to check each "Sakura spot" from there
This cherry tree information display is possible to check for same even "Google Maps" of the desktop version in addition to the Android and iPhone (iOS) version of "Google Maps" app
In the case of the iPhone version of "Google Maps" app at a glance is the flowering situation of "Sakura spot"
Also adapted to be displayed three types of icon of "before flowering" "full bloom" "Hazakura"
Display of cherry tree information of "Google Maps" is the limited time of just now
Please try to take advantage of the cherry tree information of all means "Google Maps" is such as those who are scheduled to cherry-blossom viewing now
Above, was the explanation for the cherry tree information in Japan can now be circulated "Google Maps"
For more infomation >> 「Google マップ」で日本全国の桜情報が回覧できるようになりました(2017 年期間限定) - Duration: 1:48.-------------------------------------------
Spider-Man vs. New Goblin - Spider-Man 3-(2007) Movie Clip HD - Duration: 5:08.
- Harry. - You knew this was coming, Pete.
Listen to me. I didn't kill your father.
He was trying to kill me. He killed himself.
Shut up!
I'm still here, Peter.
Hate those things.
Harry?
Harry.
Harry.
Oh, my God.
Harry!
Come on!
God.
- Defib. - Two hundred.
And clear.
No response.
-------------------------------------------
The Bible Is God's Word (Selected Scriptures) - Duration: 49:55.
Obviously, this ministry is totally dependent upon the word of the living God, the Scripture,
the Bible.
We are committed to the Word of God as absolutely true, and we are committed to every phrase,
and every verse, and every chapter, and every book as having come from God Himself.
The only way we can know God and His will is to have it given to us in a way that is
unmistakable, and God has chosen to do that in a book, the Bible.
The other night I had the opportunity again to be on CNN, and to be in another one of
those discussions with people who did not agree with me.
It seems to be my lot in life, and they are usually exceedingly disagreeable.
And whenever I am in that kind of environment with unbelievers, other religious leaders,
people with other moral viewpoints, I really only have two things to say, and whatever
the conversation is in one way is immaterial to me.
The subject doesn't matter a lot to me.
I'm just looking for ways to say two things.
One of them is that Jesus is the only Savior, and the other one is that the Bible is the
only authority from God.
And I want to say those in whatever way I can, calling people to the single authority
of the Word of God as over against all human opinion, and to the only Savior as Jesus Christ
as over against all human religion.
And the other night one of the other guests, who was a homosexual advocate and a self-confessed
Roman Catholic, said that I was so caught up in the words of the Bible that I missed
the entire message.
Now, that is a strange way of thinking; so caught up in the words of the Bible that I
have missed its entire message.
How else could anyone know the message of the Bible apart from the words of the Bible?
It is that kind of mystical nonsense that has captivated the hearts of millions of people,
who think somehow there is a subliminal message of love that transcends what the Bible actually
says.
God gave us a book, and in that book He spoke, and what He said is exactly what He wanted
to say and He desired to say it in a way that we would understand it, because we are accountable
for it.
God has spoken, and He has not mumbled, and He has spoken clearly, and He has spoken precisely,
and exactly, and directly to the matters that concern Him and concern us.
And God has sworn in His revelation, the holy Bible, that He has spoken the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth.
This is true, it is all true, and nothing in it is untrue.
It is also all the truth that God desired to reveal to us.
The rest is left for us to know in eternity.
And the Bible alone is the true word of the one true God, who does not contradict Himself,
who does not write other books that say other things that are contrary to what He has said
in this book.
There is only one God, and He has spoken in one book.
All other supposed revelations from God are not at all from God; they are the concoctions
of men, and for the most part, demon-inspired men.
From the Koran, for example, the Bhagavad-Gita, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, Patterson
Glover Frye, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, to all the false prophets, all the seers,
all the cultists, all the religious gurus, all the religious leaders, all the world religions
- it is all deception.
It is all fabrication, both human and demonic.
It is all wrong.
God has spoken, and He has spoken in one book, and that book is the Bible.
Now, that simplifies the issue.
It is not complicated to sort out the matter of religion.
Most people think it is complicated to sort out the matter of religion because there are
so many competing religions, and the idea today is to be tolerant of all of them, and
to allow everyone to embrace their own religion, feeling that it's all ending up in the same
heaven of heavens, no matter how you approach it.
But the Bible claims just the opposite; that anything that contradicts the Bible, anything
that is a competing source of revelation to the Bible, is not from God.
If it is not contained in the 66 books of the Bible, it is not the word of God.
If it's not in the 66 books of the Bible, God didn't say it.
For all generations through human history, what God has said He has put in this book
- one book made up of two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, 66 specific
books given to just over 40 writers over a period of about 1500 years.
The Holy Spirit authored it all, put it all together in what we know as the Bible, and
it is established as the sole divine authority on God's Word.
This is why it is the singular duty of man to respond obediently to this one book.
It is the response to this one book and what this book says that God requires that determines
everyone's eternal destiny, and nothing else determines it - nothing else.
What a person does with the Bible determines heaven or hell.
Years ago - many years ago now - Protestant denominations eliminated heresy.
You might think that was quite an achievement.
Protestant denominations eliminated heresy.
But the strange twist is that the way they eliminated heresy was not by crushing it with
the truth, not by overpowering it with the Word of God, but rather they eliminated the
idea of heresy when they eliminated the idea of absolute truth.
If there is no such thing as absolute truth, then there can be no such thing as heresy.
If there is no fixed truth, then there can be no discernable error.
If everything is up for grabs, and the words of the Bible don't matter, or are only suggestions,
or are at best equal to other religious books, and you can believe whatever you want, then
there is no such thing as fixed truth, and therefore there can be no such thing as fixed
heresy.
So they eradicated heresy by eradicating the idea of truth at the same time.
And now there is a comfort among old-line liberal Protestant denominations with anything
and everything.
That is why a few weeks ago when I was preaching in Calvin's great cathedral in the city of
Geneva, it was a big event.
The cathedral was packed from front to back and side to side, and I opened the Word of
God in that cathedral for the first time, we think, in 30 years, to give a message that
truly represented the Word of God.
And the last formidable event in that cathedral, which is a confessed Protestant Christian
cathedral, was Buddhist - it was Buddhist.
That worked, in a way, for us because they said, when asked if I could come and preach,
"I suppose if we had a service for Buddhists, we could have a service for a Bible."
And so I guess, in a way, the Buddhists prepared the way.
But the point is how can a church that is a confessed Christian Protestant church embrace
Buddhism?
That church is also the mother church that brought into existence The World Council of
Churches, the most ecumenical body on the planet.
They were happy to declassify heresy; it was easy.
All they had to do was eliminate absolute truth.
And in our day, I'm afraid the movement is spreading.
There is a new kind of inclusivism even in evangelicalism, a new kind of inclusivism
that threatens to eradicate truth, and therefore eradicate any classification of error, and
blur everything.
And the only hope, of course, in the midst of all of this, is to go back to the Word
of God.
And all this sinful rebellion doesn't change or alter what the Scripture is.
Whether it's attacked by rationalism, or whether it's attacked by liberalism, or whether it's
attacked by what is called neo-orthodoxy, or whether it is attacked by pluralism, or
mysticism, or inclusivism, or political correctness, or tolerance, or any other assault, it changes
nothing about the nature of this book.
It was Jesus who said, "Not one jot or tittle would in any wise pass from this book until
all is fulfilled."
It is an eternal book.
It is an unchanging book.
It is the anvil in the old story of the man pounding the hammers, the blacksmith, and
after many years the anvil stood, but many hammers had been destroyed.
The hammers that have hit the Scripture lie in the rubble; the Scripture still stands.
The Bible still is the truth of God, the only truth of God and nothing but the truth of
God.
Now, how do we know this to be true?
We as Christians know this to be true because the Spirit of God has enlightened us, and
we talked about that in our last couple of studies, and a couple of my very favorite
studies we've ever done.
You can get them on tape.
Who can believe the Bible?
It is true that the Bible is exactly what it claims to be.
We know that to be true, we know that to be true because the Spirit of God has convinced
us of it by a supernatural work of awakening our understanding.
But what we now understand is that the Bible is true, and as we look at the Word of God,
we find that that conviction is supported by what the Bible claims.
So what I want to do tonight is give you a look at internal biblical support to the Scripture's
inspiration.
I'm not calling into question whether you believe it's inspired.
If you're a Christian, you do.
The Spirit of God has granted you the gift of confidence in the Word.
You understand that.
But I want you to see how important it is to have the internal evidence of the Scripture
to bolster that heart conviction that the Spirit of God has granted to you.
If you were to set out to prove that the Bible was true, how would you do it?
You could - well, you could approach it a lot of ways.
You could say this, you could say, "Well, human experience is a good verifier of the
truth of the Bible."
If you do what the Bible tells you to do, you will experience the result.
If you confess your sin, and if you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be
regenerated.
Your life will be transformed.
God will change what you love, and who you love, and how you love, and you will see a
dramatic alteration in your life.
Biblical experience verifies the veracity of Scripture.
And it does.
But - but there are other people reading other holy books that are having other kinds of
experiences, and experience isn't always and never should be the final authority, because
experience can be falsified.
Drunk people have been known to see pink elephants when there are none, for example.
Somebody else might say, "Well we could verify the Bible by science."
Whereas other books made ridiculous outlandish, outrageous statements about the world, the
physical world, the Bible makes very, very scientifically accurate statements about the
physical creation, even when it was written before modern science discovered these things
to be true.
The Bible says the earth turns on an axis.
The Bible says that the sun drags the solar system, our solar system from one end of space
to the other.
The Bible says that there is a water system, a hydrological system that works in an incredible
cycle.
The Bible describes it.
I read you a passage this morning that talks about the weight of the mountains.
This is called isostasy, the whole world is balanced.
If you have, for example, a basketball that is out of balance and you roll it, it would
go like this, like this, like this.
If the world were doing that, we would be jumping, and jumping, and popping up at intervals.
It turns perfectly, because it's perfectly balanced.
That's the science of isostasy, and it is God, as we read this morning, who weighs the
hills in His balance.
We could go to science, we can look at science and say the Bible is amazingly scientific.
To show you how amazing it is, in 1903 a man died by the name of Herbert Spencer.
Herbert Spencer was a scientist.
He was heralded by the world; he was given all kinds of prizes as a ground-breaking scientist.
His greatest achievement was categorical.
It was Herbert Spencer who announced to the scientific world that everything that exists
in the universe falls into five categories - one of five: time, force, action, space,
and matter.
That's what he said, and he said it in that order: time, force, action, space, and matter.
Nice going, Herbert.
How about this?
"In the beginning," that's time, "God," that's force, "created" that's action, "the heavens,"
that's space, "and the earth," that's matter.
Right there in the first verse.
It's all right, Herbert, you were trying to find it without that verse.
We could go to science, and we could say that science verifies the Bible but while we would
get a general affirmation - a little better than experience, we'd get a general affirmation,
that's pretty amazing stuff, somebody could easily rise up and say, "Well, that doesn't
really mean that everything in there is true."
Somebody else might come along and say, "Well we could look at - we could look at prophecy.
There are prophecies in the Bible that did come to pass."
And we could say, "Well, at least the scientific parts of the Bible are true, and at least
the experiential parts of the Bible are true."
And certainly when God said certain nations were going to fall and they fell, and when
God said He was going to drown the world and He drowned the world, those things came true,
so there are certain prophecies that did come to pass.
And that means that somebody who wrote the Bible knows something more than we know, because
He understood physical science before anybody did.
He understood events before they even happened, so as to be able to predict them.
We could look at those kinds of things and they can support our understanding of Scripture.
You could look at archeology.
You can traverse the ruins, the tells of the Middle East, and you can go into the museums
there and you can find things from the Rosetta Stone on, and caves in Egypt with certain
drawings on them that indicate that Hebrews came there.
You can find in the Code of Hammurabi a code of law that even predates Moses, which indicates
that men were from the beginning under law, and they weren't free-wheeling apes swinging
from trees.
You can find a lot of archeological evidence and support for things that the Bible says
came to pass.
You can even find the crumbled walls of Jericho, in a strange configuration which fits perfectly
the idea that they fell outward, flat.
So you can look at that, and you could say, "Well, at least those parts of the Bible are
absolutely true, because archeology verifies them."
We have never found anything in the Bible that is scientifically incorrect - never found
anything in the Bible that is historically incorrect.
Science verifies everything it says.
You say, "What about the day when they said the sun stood still?"
Well, obviously the sun didn't stand still; the earth stopped revolving.
But from the perception of the person standing here, the sun stopped.
That's perception.
When you got up this morning, you didn't look out your window and say, "Oh, what a lovely
earth-revolving."
That was an earth-revolving.
The sun did not move in the direction you thought it moved.
The earth moved.
But from our perception, you say it's a sunrise, you say it's a sunset.
So there are those kinds of things in the Bible but nothing in the Bible contradicts
science, and nothing in the Bible contradicts history, and nothing in the Bible contradicts
a promise that God gave, as if it didn't come true the way He said it would come true.
And we're going to look at some of that in this little series we're going to do.
But before we look at any of those things as supporting evidences, it all begins by
listening to what the Bible claims.
Now, this is remarkable.
Let me just give you two words to think about: infallible and inerrant.
Infallible - and I like to use that word, maybe just in a personal way.
You could argue a lot about what it could mean; it's got a little flexibility in it,
as does the word inerrant.
But let's use the word infallible to say that God has so inspired Scripture that it is the
sure, safe, reliable, eternally true rule and guide in all matters, in total.
Let's use infallible to speak of the totality of scripture.
It is the whole truth.
We're looking at it from the bird's eye view, the big picture.
It is an infallible document.
That is, what it affirms in full is true.
Psalm 19:7, "The law of the Lord is perfect."
Psalm 18:30, "As for God, His way is perfect," or "blameless.
The word of the Lord is tried," or "tested," "proven."
Psalm 119, "Thy word is very pure."
"Thy law is truth."
"All Thy commandments are truth."
"The sum of Thy word is truth."
"Every one of Thy righteous ordinances endures forever, for all Thy commandments are righteous."
Psalm 111:7, "All His precepts are sure."
Romans 7:12, "God's word is holy, righteous and good."
And you have in Deuteronomy 4:2, Do not add to Scripture.
You have in Revelation 22:18 and 19, Do not add to Scripture, do not take away from Scripture.
It is, in total, complete and infallible.
In John 10:35, these words are given, and they are significant - if brief and to the
point - and as always, the Lord's economy of words is stunning.
In the tenth chapter of John's gospel, verse 35, Jesus says at the end of the verse, "The
Scripture cannot be broken - The Scripture cannot be broken."
It is like a chain; all the verses are linked, all the chapters are linked, all the 66 books
are linked, the testaments are linked, and there is nowhere where it can be broken.
There is no place where the chain could be broken.
It is in toto the truth of God, true in total.
That is what it claims, that is what it demands from us, as to confidence and trust.
The second word is inerrant - inerrant - and that looks at it from the worm's eye view;
not looking at the total, but looking at every word.
Every word is true.
Every word in the original autographs as inspired by God is free from error, falsehood, mistake,
inaccuracy.
So the total truth of the message of the Word is safeguarded by every word being a true
word from God.
The Bible is entirely true, because it is true in every part.
It is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6 - and we're giving you the confession of God in His own word
as to His word.
Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6, "Every word of God is pure - every word."
Psalm 12:6, "The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tested in a furnace refined
seven times."
And the psalmist is looking for some kind of an analogy to express the purity of the
Word.
In Psalm 119:140, the psalmist says, "Thy word is very pure."
So whether you're talking about infallibility, the big picture, or whether you're talking
about inerrancy of the small picture, the combination of the two speaks of the Bible's
truthfulness.
It is true.
And now I'm going to say some things to you and give you some scriptures.
You might not want to try and look them up but just listen.
In Isaiah 65:16, the Lord calls Himself the God of truth.
That's where it all starts.
He is the God of truth.
Jeremiah 10:10, the prophet writes of the God who is the true God.
The New Testament agrees with the Old, calling God a God of truth.
John 3:33 says, "God is truthful."
John 17:3, Jesus said, "That they may know You, the only true God."
1 John 5:20, "He is the true God."
Three times the Scripture says God cannot lie: Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; and Hebrews
6:18.
God cannot lie.
It is impossible.
The Bible is, therefore, infallible and inerrant, because it is written by God who is truth,
speaks only truth, cannot speak anything but truth.
The writers of the Old Testament make literally thousands of claims to the truthfulness of
what they wrote.
Over two thousand times they claim to be speaking the very words of God.
That's just the Old Testament writers.
Again and again they use phrases like, "The Spirit of the Lord has spoken to me," or,
"The word of God came to me."
Isaiah, for example, says in Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O heavens, listen, O earth, for the Lord has
spoken."
And then he unfolds the great revelation that is the book of Isaiah.
When God speaks, everybody listens, because He's God.
In the New Testament we find more of the same, focused particularly in the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus says in Matthew 5, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets;
I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them."
The law and the prophets is a term used to describe the Old Testament.
"I haven't come to change anything.
I have come to fulfill the Old Testament."
"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the
least stroke of a pen," to spread out the meaning of jot and tittle, "will by any means
disappear from the Law until everything is fulfilled."
Jesus said even the little, tiny marks has the authority of God behind it.
That's why James said this in James 2:10, "Whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking it all."
If you just violate one small part of the Word of God, it's as if you have violated
it all, because it is all true, it is all divinely demanded.
The Old Testament writers refer, either specifically or generally, to what they're writing as the
very words of God about 4,000 times - about 4,000 times.
Two thousand times, I told you a moment ago, they make direct claims that the Lord spoke
to them, but at least 4,000 times, they affirm that what they are writing is the Word of
God.
The writers in the New Testament quote the Old Testament as the Word of God about 320
times, and make reference to the Old Testament at least a thousand times, so the writers
of the New Testament affirm the infallibility and inerrancy of the Old.
And New Testament writers also claim inspiration for the New Testament.
Now, I want you to follow me a little bit with this, because I think this is really
very wonderful.
Galatians 1 - Galatians 1, here is the Apostle Paul - this is just kind of a general entry
point here - Galatians, chapter 1, and verse 11, Paul says, "I will have you know, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation
of Jesus Christ."
Here is Paul affirming that the message of the gospel came from God.
Down in verse 15, when God had set him apart, even from his mother's womb and called him
through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in him, he says, "That I might preach
Him among the Gentiles, and I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood."
He received his message and his mission directly from God.
Now, I know this is unique to him as an apostle, but this is a kind of model of how God spoke
to the prophets in the Old Testament and the other writers of the Old Testament directly.
So He speaks to Paul, who is one of the apostles, and one of the writers of the New Testament.
If you would look at Romans, chapter 4, you see how this - well, look at Galatians, chapter
4, first of all - just thought of that one - Galatians, chapter 4, for just a moment.
Here is Paul quoting Genesis - this is Paul quoting Genesis.
And what does he say?
Verse 30 - writing his letter to the Galatians: "What does the Scripture say?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with
the son of the free woman."
And that's taken out of Genesis, chapter 21, a couple of verses there, verses 10 and 12;
Paul quotes the Old Testament, calls it Scripture.
Now, if you look at Romans, chapter 4, you find another of these kinds of references
at the very beginning; verse 3 of this chapter, Romans 4:3, "What does the Scripture say?"
says Paul.
"And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
And now he's quoting Genesis 15:6.
He is quoting from the book of Genesis as Scripture.
He knows that it is authored by God.
He knows that Jesus has said the Scripture cannot be broken.
And it is affirmed that the Old Testament is Scripture by the inspired writer in the
New Testament, namely the apostle Paul.
Let me take you a little bit further along this path; 1 Timothy, chapter 5 - 1 Timothy,
chapter 5.
In this particular chapter, you have tucked into verse 18 two quotes - two quotes.
And this is a very interesting comparison to make.
The first quote, verse 18: "The Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle the ox while he
is threshing.'"
Now, the Scripture does say that.
It is in Deuteronomy 25, verse 4.
The simple meaning is, "Feed your animal."
But the analogy of it is, the application of it is that you take care of the people
who serve you.
It's a kind of proverbial statement.
If you want the ox to do his work, you feed him.
And if you expect people to do what you want them to do, you take care of them.
It's that kind of idea.
But he says the Scripture says it, and quotes Deuteronomy 25:4.
"And" - and here's the important one, verse 18 - "and the Scripture also says 'the laborer
is worthy of his wages.'"
Where is that in the Scripture?
Where is that in the Old Testament?
That is not in the Old Testament; as a matter of fact, it is in Luke, chapter 10, and verse
7, where Jesus said this: "The laborer is worthy of his wages."
So what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy is the Scripture, and what Luke wrote in his gospel
is also the Scripture.
Here you have the testimony, then, of a New Testament writer to both the Old Testament
as the Scripture and the New Testament as the Scripture.
Paul calls Luke's writing Scripture.
Now let's look at 2 Peter, chapter 3 - 2 Peter, chapter 3, and verse 15.
This is an interesting two verses, verses 15 and 16.
Now, the reference here is to "our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given
him, wrote to you."
He wrote about the patience of our Lord leading to salvation, as the beginning of verse 15
says.
Then Peter refers to "our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, he
wrote to you, as also in all his letters."
So now he's gone from a particular letter written to a particular group, to all the
Pauline letters; that's 13 epistles.
"Also in all his letters, speaking of them in these things, in which are some things
hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest
of" - what - "the Scriptures."
So what is Peter saying about Paul's letters?
They're a part of Scripture, just like the rest of Scripture.
Here again, as Paul called Luke's writing Scripture, this is the leading writer of the
epistles verifying a writer of the gospels.
So Peter calls Paul's writing Scripture.
In fact, all his letters are Scripture.
Turn to Jude, chapter 17, and we'll follow this path.
Jude, verse 17 - only one chapter, verse 17, "But you, beloved, ought to remember the words
that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying
to you, 'In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.'"
And just exactly where does this come from?
Second Peter 3:3: "Remember the words spoken and written by the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ," and he quotes Peter.
So Jude affirms Peter.
Peter affirms Paul.
Paul affirms the gospel writers.
The text of Scripture doesn't beg this issue.
It doesn't put a lot of fanfare around it.
It's just magnificently, almost quietly there, because it's such an obvious reality.
It doesn't need to be blown up, as if we had to prove a point.
In the book of Revelation, there is blessing, in chapter 1, verse 3, pronounced on one who
reads and hears the words of the prophecy and heeds the things which are written in
it.
"And this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants,
the things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel
to His bondservant John."
Here we know now that the book of Revelation is inspired by God.
It's inspired by God.
God is the author of it, and He gave it to John through angelic mediators, in this case.
In the 19th chapter of Revelation, in the 9th verse, John is given instruction from
a voice out of the throne of God.
"And he said to me, 'Write - write this, "Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb."'
And he said to me, 'These are the'" - what - "'true words of God.'"
Chapter 21 of Revelation, verse 5, we get a vision of the new heaven and the new earth:
"And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'
And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.'"
Chapter 22, verse 6, "And he said to me, 'These words are faithful and true.'
And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show to His bondservants
the things which must shortly take place."
So all the way from the Pentateuch, all the way from the New Testament writer quoting
the book of Genesis as Scripture to the Revelation being the true Word of God, the sweeping reality
of the testimony internally of the writers of Scripture is that they were writing the
Word of God unmistakably.
This is unmistakable powerful testimony internally to the Scripture being the Word of God.
But there's one other testimony that I want to take the time to talk about tonight; and
a lot more to be said, but always for another time.
I want to talk about the testimony of Jesus.
It matters to me what Jesus' view of Scripture was, how about you?
I think so.
Jesus is the one who said in John 10:35, "Scripture can't be broken."
Jesus is the one who said in Matthew 5:17 and 18, "Not one jot or tittle will in any
way be removed from this law."
Now in Matthew 26:24, He looked at His cross, and He said this, "The Son of Man goes, as
it has been written concerning Him."
A few verses later He told Peter that He didn't need the protection of Peter's sword, for
if He wished to, He could call down angels from heaven to assist.
But then He said this, Matthew 26:54: "How then will the scriptures be fulfilled?"
In other words, Jesus came to fulfill the law.
He also came to fulfill the scriptures that prophesied of His death and His resurrection.
It really is a staggering statement that He said, "Scripture cannot be broken."
He meant that what God said was true, and it would take place.
He said in Luke 16:17, "It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle
of the Law to fail."
In Luke 18:31, "All things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished."
So what was Jesus' view of Scripture?
It was that it was the word of God, that it was a true reflection of a true God, of a
God who could not lie but could only speak the truth.
And Jesus even called attention to specific words.
Illustration, Psalm 22:1 - and there are many of these.
Psalm 22:1 predicted that when the Messiah died on the cross, He would say this, "My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
While dying on the cross, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Matthew 27:46.
Jesus believed in the fulfillment of every word of the Old Testament.
He corroborated the great truths of the Old Testament as well.
He confirmed the creation of Adam and Eve.
He confirmed that it was a real creation, and they were real persons.
He said this, Matthew 19:4 and 5: "Have you not read that He made them at the beginning
and made them male and female?"
He made them, He made them at the beginning, and He made them male and female.
And He said, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife,
and they two shall be one flesh."
Jesus believed in the creation account as recorded in Genesis, and He substantiated
it.
Jesus also said repeatedly that the problems that people were having in not knowing God
was because they didn't know the Scripture.
"Search the Scripture; they are they which speak of Me."
"Has not Scripture said," He repeated again and again and again.
So you have a choice.
To sum up the testimony of Jesus, I'll give you a little set of options.
One of these three must be true.
The first is that there are no errors in the Old Testament, because that's what Jesus taught,
that the Scripture couldn't be broken.
The second option is there are errors, but Jesus didn't know about them.
Third possibility is there are errors, and He knew about them and tried to cover them
up.
So what option do you have?
That Jesus was a charlatan and a fraud and a cover-up?
If so, how do you explain His resurrection?
Or, that Jesus didn't know there were errors.
Then how do you explain His omniscience, because He said He knew everything.
If the second is true, that He didn't know - there were errors there, but He was unaware
- then He obviously is not God, and you can dismiss Christianity and just forget it altogether.
If the third alternative is true - He did know and covered it up - then Jesus is the
devil.
If you're going to believe in the deity of Jesus, you have no option but to believe in
an infallible and inerrant Scripture, because He did.
Now, that leads us to the question, "How are we to understand how God wrote Scripture?"
Does that interest you at all?
Good, come back next week.
I can't even begin.
Let me close with this: because the Bible is the divine truth, it is the source of blessing.
Proverbs 8:34 says, "Blessed is the man who hears Me."
Luke 11:28: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God and obey it."
Secondly, it is the source of virtue.
Psalm 119: "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You."
The source of purity, John 15:3, "You are clean by the word."
The source of victory: "By the sword of the Spirit we slay the enemy of lies and deception."
The source of growth: "Like babes, desire the pure milk of the word," 1 Peter 2, "that
you may grow thereby."
The source of power: "It is alive and powerful, more powerful than any other weapon."
Source of guidance, Psalm 119:105: "It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our
path."
The Bible is the most powerful book because it is the only divine book.
It can tear you to pieces, Hebrews 4:12, split you asunder, but it can also put you back
together again, 1 Peter 1, so that you are reborn according to the Word, and it can bring
you great joy, "These things I write unto you that your joy may be full."
Why is it so powerful?
Why is it so life-transforming?
Because it is not the word of men, it is the very word of God.
And next time we will look at how it is that God transmitted it through the great doctrine
of inspiration.
Our Father, we thank You for the testimony of Scripture to its own veracity, to its own
infallibility, to its own inerrancy, to its own inspiration.
And we know that that all is predicated on the fact that You are the living and true
God, the God who cannot lie, the God who is truth, and from You comes every true word
and only that which is true, so that the Bible is the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, because You are the God of truth.
How wonderful it is to know that truth, to understand that truth, and to live that truth,
by Your power.
We are profoundly blessed, in a world of people drowning in lies, to know the truth.
We praise You, we thank You, and we glorify You for opening our eyes and our hearts to
the truth.
And now that we have it, may we love it, may we hunger for it, may we learn it, may we
proclaim it, may we defend it, and may we use it to worship You.
These things we ask because of and for the honor of Christ.
Amen.
-------------------------------------------
Video: Areas could see half a foot of snow - Duration: 2:04.
TO BE A
SIGNIFICANT STORM FOR SO LATE IN
THE SEASON.
45 RIGHT NOW IN BOSTON.
AT LEAST SOME BREAKS IN THE
CLOUDS, WITH A NORTHWESTERLY
WIND.
IT'S AT 50 AROUND THE
CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY.
EVEN 57 IN NEW LONDON,
CONNECTICUT.
PRETTY MILD OFF TO THE WEST AND
SOUTHWEST.
A LITTLE CHILLY TO THE NORTH AND
WEST.
BUT IT'S GOING TO BE COLD
TONIGHT FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR AS
THE SKIES CLEAR SO STARTING OUT
TOMORROW MORNING AROUND THE
FREEZING MARK IN BOSTON, AND IN
THE 20s IN SOME AREAS TO THE
NORTH AND WEST.
BUT YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF SUN
TOMORROW.
NOT TOO MUCH WIND.
VERY PLEASANT DAY TO BE
OUTDOORS.
THEN WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS
SYSTEM AS IT STARTS TO MOVE
EASTWARD.
HERE'S THE WAY IT PLAYS OUT.
WE LOSE THE HIGH PRESSURE AREA
DURING FRIDAY THAT ALLOWS THE
PRECIPITATION TO OVERSPREAD THE
REGION DURING FRIDAY.
HERE'S A CLOSER LOOK.
A LOT OF SUNSHINE FOR YOU ON
- THURSDAY.
THEN WE BEGIN ON FRIDAY AS EARLY
AS THE MORNING HOURS AROUND THE
BERKSHIRES.
THEN MOVING TOWARD WORCESTER
COUNTY AND DURING THE AFTERNOON
IS WHEN IT'S LIKELY TO START
REACHING CLOSER TO BOSTON.
IT MAY ACTUALLY BE WET SNOW IN
BOSTON AS WELL.
NIGHTTIME HOURS WOULD PROBABLY
BE NEEDED IN BOSTON TO GET SOME
ACCUMULATION, AND THEN THE
RAIN-SNOW LINE WILL BE VERY
CLOSE TO THE REGION.
IT MAY LIFT UP NORTH OF US FOR A
WHILE.
IT MAY COME BACK DOWN ON
SATURDAY MORNING BEFORE ALL OF
THIS STARTS TO MOVE OUT FROM
WEST TO EAST SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
AGAIN, THIS IS JUST OUR
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THIS.
WE WANTED TO SHOW YOU THE AREAS
THAT HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF GET
AS MUCH AS SIX INCHES OR MORE OF
WET SNOW BUT SOME ACCUMULATION
IS POSSIBLE SOUTH OF THE PIKE
AND ALL THE WAY TO BOSTON AS
WELL.
SO WE'LL HAVE MUCH MORE TO SAY
AS TIME GOES ON.
LET'S CHECK IT OUT OVER THE NEXT
SEVEN DAYS.
FRIDAY WILL BE AN IMPACT DAY.
PROBABLY ADD SATURDAY TO THAT AS
WELL WITH THE STORM LINGERING
INTO SATURDAY ESPECIALLY
SATURDAY MORNING.
NICER WEATHER ON SUNDAY.
STILL LOOKS LIKE IT'S DRY FOR
THE RED SOX OPENER.
PROBABLY IN THE 40s FOR THE
ACTUAL GAME ITSELF AND THEN IT
LOOKS LIKE MORE WET WEATHER WILL
BE HERE BY MONDAY NIGHT OR
TUESDAY.
WE'RE NOW IN A VERY ACTIVE
PATTERN, BUT IF YOU WANT TO LOOK
-------------------------------------------
3 Ideas Increíbles que Puedes Saber - Duration: 11:14.
-------------------------------------------
'If you tell me he is dead, I will tell you why I did it' – Woman to police - Duration: 1:45.
MICHELLE: WELL, I TALKED TO THE
MANAGER OF THIS APARTMENT
COMPLEX, AND SHE TOLD ME T
-- SHE THOUGHT THE COUPLE WAS
ENGAGED AND SHE NEVER ROLLER --
YOU NEVER HEARD ANY COMPLAINTS
ABOUT THEM.
POLICE SAY IT WAS A 911 CALL
THAT BROUGHT THEM TO THE
ROSEMONT COUNTRY CLUB APARTMENTS
ON CINDERLANE PARKWAY, AND WHEN
THEY GOT HERE, THEY FOUND
63-YEAR-OLD EVERTT HUMBLE ON HIS
APARTMENT PORCH DEAD, CHEST
COVERED IN BLOOD.
ACCORDING TO OFFICERS, WHEN THEY
QUESTIONED HIS GIRLFRIEND PAULA
HOBBS, SHE SAID DON'T WORRY
ABOUT IT.
THEN LOCKED HERSELF IN THE
APARTMENT.
POLICE SAY WHEN SHE EVENTUALLY
CAME OUT, THEY FOUND BLOOD
SPLATTER IN THE APARTMENT AND A
REVOLVER WITH FIVE TO NINE
ROUNDS THAT HAD BEEN FIRED.
>> AND THEN WE JUST HEARD LIKE
FIVE GUNSHOTS ONE AFTER THE
OTHER, THEN IT WENT QUIET.
I WENT OUTSIDE TO SEE WHAT
HAPPENED.
MICHELLE: TWO WOMEN, WHO DID
WANT THEIR FACES SHOWN, SAY THEY
HEARD GUNSHOTS.
>> I WAS LIKE WHAT?
I DID NOT THINK IT WAS GOING TO
BE A WOMAN.
IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT DRUGS OR
SOMEBODY CHASING SOMEBODY ELSE.
MICHELLE: EVERETT LESLIE HUMBLE,
KNOWN TO HIS FRIENDS AS LES,
WORKED AS DJ AT A SMALL RADIO
STATION IN CENTRAL FLORIDA.
A POSSIBLE MOTIVE?
PAULA HOBBS ALLEGEDLY TOLD
POLICE, IF YOU TELL ME HE IS
DEAD, I WILL TELL YOU WHY I DID
IT.
AND ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO FURTHER
EXPLANATION, POLICE SAY THEY DID
FIND A DUFFEL BAG ON THE STAIRS
LEADING TO THEIR APARTMENT.
>> YOU TAKE OUT YOUR WEAPON AND
YOU START SHOOTING AT IT YOU
, DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BULLETS
ARE FLYING.
IT COULD INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S
APARTMENT, IT COULD HIT A CHILD.
MICHELLE: SHE WILL FACE A JUDGE
-------------------------------------------
Lawmakers scramble to find HB2 solution - Duration: 1:47.
THEY ARE FACING A FAST
APPROACHING DEADLINE FROM THE
NCAA.
BILL O'NEIL JOINS US LIVE IN
RALEIGH.
BILL, WHERE DO THINGS STAND
RIGHT NOW?
BILL: STILL NO DEAL, BUT NOT FOR
LACK OF TRYING.
THE PACE AT THE LEGISLATURE
TODAY HAS BEEN FRANTIC.
THERE HAVE BEEN MEETINGS ALL DAY
LONG, ALL OF THEM ON HOUSE BILL
2.
AT NOON, WE SPOTTED SENATE
LEADER PHIL BERGER COMING OUT OF
THE SPEAKER'S OFFICE WA
CAN YOU GIVE US A HEADS UP?
>> WE ARE WORKING.
BILL: MEMBERS OF BOTH PARTIES
REMAIN OPTIMISTIC, BUT LAWMAKERS
FROM FORSYTH AND GUILFORD
COUNTIES READILY ADMIT IT'S
ANYONE'S GUESS IF A DEAL CAN BE
STRUCK.
>> I SERVED IN THE SENATE, BUT
THERE ARE SOME THINGS ABOVE MY
PAY GRADE.
I HOPE THOSE FOLKS CAN GET
TOGETHER, THEN WE ALL CAN GET
TOGETHER.
>> THIS PARTICULAR BILL HAS
PEOPLE ON ALL SIDES ALL PULLING
IN THEIR DIRECTION.
WE HAVE GOT TO PULL THIS THING
IN THE MIDDLE.
BILL: THIS AFTERNOON, REPUBLICAN
LEADERS UPDATE REPORTERS ON
NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE GOVERNOR.
THE STICKING POINT IN YOUR MIND
RIGHT NOW?
PRIMARILY WHAT LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS ARE AUTHORIZED DO
, WHICH IS KIND OF THE BIG
PICTURE STICKING POINT ALL
ALONG.
WE DON'T HAVE AN ISSUE WHERE
CITIES CAN TRY TO FIND ANOTHER
WAY AROUND THIS GET INTO THESE
BATHROOM ORDINANCES.
WE DO NOT WANT TO BE BACK WHERE
WE WERE BEFORE.
BILL: ALL THE GOVERNOR HAS NOT
BEEN HEARD FROM TODAY, WE ARE
TOLD HE NEVER LEFT TOWN.
'S SCHEDULE HAD HIM IN
WASHINGTON, BUT A SPOKESPERSON
TELLS US THE GOVERNOR NEVER LEFT
TOWN.
HE HAS BEE HERE ALL DAY LONG
WORKING WITH REPUBLICANS ON THE
PHONE, TRYING TO GET A SOLUTION
TO HOUSE BILL 2.
-------------------------------------------
Adam Ruins Everything - One Fun Way to Not Swear on TV | truTV - Duration: 0:21.
♪♪
Jeff asks, "Where did the bird thing come from?"
Ah, so, Jeff, you've noticed
that sometimes we say the names of birds,
like "holy crow" or "mother falcon,"
in the place of swear words.
Well, our writers came up with this idea
for times when our characters might curse but can't.
[ Chuckles ] After all, this is a family show.
-------------------------------------------
Portland landlords upset after layoff of housing safety official - Duration: 1:27.
CITY LEADERS
SAY THIS IS A
WIN/WIN.
REPORTER:
IT IS A RELATIONSHIP
ALMOST UNHEARD O -- ADVOCATING
FOR A CITY OFFICIAL TASKED WITH
INSPECTING THEIR PROPERTIES.
THE CITY SAYS
WHAT THEY ARE
PROUD --
ELIMINATING THE
POSITION JUST REMOVES AND EXTRA
LAYER OF ADMINISTRATIVE
OVERSIGHT, ALLOWING THE CITY TO
HIRE ANOTHER INSPECTOR, BUT
ACCORDING TO THE SOUTHERN MAINE
LANDLORD ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT,
HE SAYS HIRING AND TRAINING
ANOTHER INSPECTOR WILL NOT FILL
THE ROLE THE FORMER
ADMINISTRATORS ARE.
>> IT'S
ALL ABOUT EFFICIENCY AND
COST SAVING
INSPECTING MORE PROPERTIES
AND
WEANT TO HAVE SAFE PROPERTIES
FOR PEOPLE TO LIVE IN.
>> THE DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE
REQUIRED AND REPLACE THE ONE WHO
WROTE A CAREER OF INSTIONS
AND HIRE ANOTHER INSPECTOR TO
CROSS TRAIN, WE WILL HAVE A
DEGRADATION IN UNDERSTANDING THE
FIRE CODE.
REPORTER: HE
SAYS HE'S PROUD OF
THE STRONG CULTURE AND IN ROSIE
MADE IN REDUCING THE FIRE RISK
IN THE CITY AND APPRECIATE ALL
-------------------------------------------
TIN MỚI 30\3 - Quá SỬNG SỐT khi Hillary Clinton LẦN ĐẦU XUẤT HIỆN TRỞ LẠI Công Kích Donald Trump - Duration: 14:34.
-------------------------------------------
Court: Man celebrated murder, used victim's credit cards - Duration: 1:22.
PICKS UP THE STORY FOR US.
TODD: THE VICTIM WAS FOUND DEAD
HERE AT HIS APARTMENT TWO WEEKS
AFTER THE MURDER - THE BODY WAS SO BADLY COMPOSED
THEY HAD TO USE DENTAL RECORDS
TO IDENTIFY HIM.
PROSECUTORS SAY NOT ONLY DID HE
CELEBRATE THE MURDER BUT HE USED
THE VICTIM'S CREDIT CARD TO PAY
FOR THE FOOD.
THE ACCUSED KILLER IS SEEN IN
COURT.
AS SEEN HERE.
HE KILLED THE PERSON ON OR ABOUT
FEBRUARY 10.
THE BODY FOUND TWO WEEKS LATER.
POLICE WERE CALLED BECAUSE
NEIGHBORS REPORTED A FOUL ORDER.
HE WAS STABBED 14 TIMES IN THE
CHEST AND HAD SEVERAL FRACTURES
TO HIS SKULL.
POLICE FOUND A LARGE METAL
ROLLING PEN FWLOEN HALF.
BLOOD AND HAIR WERE ON IT AND
FINGERPRINTS MATCHED HIM.
- THE PROSECUTOR NOW DESCRIBES
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT AND THIS
LEADS TO AN MOTIONAL OUTBURST.
>> HE ASKED HOW DID YOU FEEL?
HE SAID I CELEBRATED WITH
CHINESE FOOD.
>> YOU CELEBRATED KILLING BY
SON, YOU PIECE OF [BLEEPED]
>> MOTIONS WERE RUNNING HIGH.
PAPERS HAVE BEEN SEALED SO THERE
-------------------------------------------
Should Mass. raise age to buy tobacco to 21? - Duration: 1:12.
D AT THE STATEHOUSE.
>> THE LATEST EFFORT TO KEEP
CIGARETTES OUT OF THE HANDS OF
TEENAGERS.
>> GOOD AFTERNOON.
OUTSIDE COMMUNITY COLLEGES LIKE
THE ONES HERE IN QUINCEY YOU
STILL SEE PLENTY OF PEOPLE IN
THEIR LATE TEENS SMOKING BUT
ADVOCATES ARE HOPING TO CHANGE
THAT AND THEY RALLIED AT THE
STATEHOUSE.
FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW,
THEY WANT TO RAISE THE SMOKING
AGE FROM 18 TO 21.
LAST YEAR A SIMILAR BILL PASSED
EASILY IN THE MASSACHUSETTS
SENATE BUT NEVER CAME UP FOR A
VOTE IN THE HOUSE.
>> THERE ARE A LOT OF ISSUES
THEY ARE ALWAYS DEALING WITH.
A LOT OF TIMES, PARTICULARLY
ISSUES ARE COMPETING FOR
ATTENTION WITH A LOT OF OTHER
ISSUES AND SO IT'S JUST A MATTER
OF BECOMING A HIGH ENOUGH
PRIORITY BUT I THINK WE'RE
RAPIDLY GETTING THERE.
>> MORE THAN 140 CITIES AND
TOWNS IN MASSACHUSETTS HAD
PASSED LOCAL LAWS INCREASING THE
SMOKING AGE TO 21.
HAWAII AND CALIFORNIA ARE THE
ONLY TWO STATES THAT HAVE PASSED
SIMILAR LEGISLATION.
THIS NEW BILL NEAR MASSACHUSETTS
WOULD ALSO BAN E-CIGARETTES IN
THE WORKPLACE AND IT WOULD BAN
-------------------------------------------
Why We Believe While Others Reject - Duration: 52:57.
It was about 25 years ago in my life that I was asked to write a little book, and the
original title of that little book was Focus on Fact .
You've probably never seen it; it didn't last very long.
It came out in another edition with another title a couple of years later, and that title
was Why I Trust The Bible .
It was 1983.
And as I was preparing to write that book about why I trust the Bible, which is really
what the first one was about as well, I had to answer the question why did I trust the
Bible.
What was it about the truth of Scripture that made it believable to me?
Was I smarter than everybody else?
Had I been presented a more powerful set of evidences about Scripture?
And certainly such can be presented.
Why did I have such immense confidence in the Bible?
I can remember, in my college days, when very little appealed to me other than an athletic
event, when I found my greatest joy on a football field, that even then I had complete confidence
in the Word of God.
I actually couldn't wait to get to seminary.
And when I decided that I would give up an athletic career and opportunity on a professional
level to go off to seminary, some of my athletes, athletic friends and coaches, couldn't understand
the reason.
And it really wasn't that I had a drive to preach or a drive to teach.
I had this compelling longing to dig into the Word of God and understand what it meant
because I was unequivocally committed to its truthfulness.
Where did that come from?
Why was I so convinced of the truth of Scripture?
I hadn't studied apologetics or defenses of Scripture.
I hadn't read a lot of that.
There was just, in my heart, a complete commitment to the Word of God.
And when I sat down to think about why I trusted the Bible, I looked at some passages of Scripture
that came into play.
I remembered that Jesus had said to Peter in Matthew 16, "Flesh and blood did not reveal
this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."
And that the reason that Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, was because
of divine disclosure, divine revelation.
And then I looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in verse 3 which says, "No man can say
that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God."
It is reasonable to me to say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
It is reasonable to me to say Jesus is Lord.
But no one can say that, as reasonable as it now appears to me to be, unless the Father
discloses it and the Spirit reveals it.
I was also drawn to John chapter 6 where Jesus was speaking and many of His disciples, it
says, "went away."
And He said to those that stayed, "Will you also go away?"
And out of the mouth of Peter on behalf of the rest came these words, "To whom shall
we go?
You and You alone have the words of eternal life."
Another massive affirmation that what the Lord Jesus Christ says, what God says is true.
It had been, again, Jesus says given Him of the Father.
Jesus even says in that passage, "Have not I chosen you?"
And then I was reminded...and I might ask you to look at this passage...of Romans chapter
8.
In very clear terms we read this in verse 5.
"For those who are according to the flesh - " that is apart from God, apart from spiritual
life, spiritually dead, blind, bankrupt - "those who are according to the flesh set their minds
on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit."
You have two mutually exclusive dimensions.
The mind set on the flesh, verse 6, is death.
The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.
Verse 7, "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God."
And then this, "It does not subject itself to the Law of God for it is not even able
to do so.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
If you're in the flesh, you can't please God.
It would please God if you believed the Bible.
In fact, that would be at the top of God's list of things that please Him.
It would please God if you believed the gospel.
That would also be on the top of the list of things that would please Him.
It would please God if you affirmed the deity and the saviorhood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That would please God.
Those three things would be the top of God's list of things that please Him.
And the fact of the matter is, if you are in the flesh, you cannot please God.
You can't please Him at the lowest level, let alone at the pinnacle.
So how is it then that I came to have such confidence in the Scripture?
I was reminded again of Ephesians chapter 4 which says, essentially, what Romans 8 says
in a different way.
Verse 17 of Ephesians 4, "I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord that you
walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the emptiness of their mind, being darkened
in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them, because of the hardness of their heart."
Now that litany of descriptions is intended to give you the idea that this is an utterly
inescapable spot for the unregenerate apart from divine intervention.
And so I concluded that by the normal means of human insight and human understanding,
I could not have come to this confidence in Scripture.
That the only way that I could come to this confidence in Scripture is because God had
given it to me as a gift, that God in His sovereignty had given me the will to believe
the gospel, to believe in Christ and to embrace the authenticity, authority and veracity of
Scripture.
And so, in 1983, when I put out the second edition of the little book called Why I Trust
The Bible , this is what I wrote.
"Unbelievers cannot accept legitimate proof because they are blind to it.
The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness
to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned - " 1 Corinthians
2:14 - "only as the Holy Spirit does His regenerating work as He opens the mind, tears off the scales
of blindness, gives life and plants the understanding of God's revelation, only then do people believe
that the Bible is the Word of God and trust it."
I know the Bible is true because the Spirit of God has convinced me of it.
I wrote that 25-plus years ago.
In light of this, I said in the next paragraph...and you know you're in trouble when you keep quoting
yourself.
"In light of this I suggest a change in our approach.
We have been saying prophecy has been fulfilled, the Bible is scientifically accurate, miracles
were performed with eyewitnesses, the biblical message of salvation through faith in Jesus
Christ results in a revolutionary change in the lives of persons who believe.
Because of all these proofs, we reason the Bible is the Word of God."
And then I wrote, "Instead, I propose that we declare the Bible is the Word of God, therefore
prophecy has been fulfilled, miracles have taken place, scientific statements are accurate
and lives have been transformed."
Confidence in Scripture begins with the work of the Spirit.
I believe the Bible was written by the God of the universe to reveal Himself to humanity.
I believe the Bible is the only authoritative and absolutely reliable revelation from God
with regard to the origin of man, his deliverance, his salvation, the moral and spiritual standards
he is to live by, and his ultimate destiny.
I also believe that the Bible is true in every detail, even to the very words in the original
manuscripts.
God was the author.
And I concluded with this, "The Spirit has led me to this supportable confidence."
Now for me that was a really significant discovery.
And, later in my life, I was exposed to some of the writing of a well-known theologian
named John Calvin.
And being curious about what he believed in regard to this same issue, I began to discover
some very interesting things.
Listen to John Calvin.
"The Scriptures alone exist as the means by which God has been pleased to consign His
truth to perpetual remembrance.
The full authority, which they obtain with the faithful, proceeds from no other consideration
than that they are persuaded that they, the words of Scripture, proceeded from heaven
as if God had been heard giving utterance to them."
This he says in his Institutes .
He further says, "The Scriptures themselves manifest plainly that God is the speaker.
We are never established in the faith of this doctrine until we are indubitably persuaded
that God is the author.
Being illuminated therefore by Him - " that is the Holy Spirit - "we no longer believe
either on our own judgment or that of others that Scripture is from God, but in a way that
surpasses human judgment we are perfectly assured that it has come to us by the ministry
of men from the very mouth of God.
We feel the firmest conviction that we hold an invincible truth, this by the Holy Spirit."
Well Calvin got it right.
We're not surprised, are we?
William Niesel said that Calvin considers the word of the Bible, quote, "As a dead and
ineffectual thing for us if it is not divinely vivified - " given life - "and so soon as
it is separated from Him - " that is, Christ - "it becomes a dead body of letters without
soul."
He understood that you only believe the Scripture when the Spirit of God gifts you with that
faith and confidence.
Confident trust in the Word of God and the Scripture is then not the result of rational
arguments and the work of human intellect and reason or emotion.
It is the work of the Spirit in the heart.
Calvin further says, "For as God alone is a sufficient witness to Himself in His own
Word, so also the Word will never gain credit in the hearts of men until it is sealed by
the internal testimony of the Spirit.
It is necessary, therefore, that the same Spirit who spoke by the mouth of the prophets
penetrate into our hearts in order that He might persuade us that they faithfully delivered
what had been divinely entrusted to them."
So he says, "Let it remain then a fixed truth that those whom the Spirit inwardly teaches
firmly acquiesce to the Scripture."
Our confidence in the Word of God comes from the Spirit of God.
It is a component of the sovereign gift of regeneration.
Traditional approaches have been to try to prove the Bible to unregenerate people by
amassing all kinds of evidences that they can process through their fallen intellects
in the futility of their mental function and the ignorance that is in them and the darkness
of their mind and the hardness of their heart and the callousness and sensuality of their
soul.
We can amass all the prophetic evidences, scientific evidence, miraculous evidence,
historical archeological evidence, the evidences of transformed lives.
And in the end, while certainly all of those are reasonable and a true representation of
Scripture, they cannot take the scales off the blind eyes; they cannot give life to the
dead soul.
The Scripture tells us how this works in one of the great texts in the Scripture.
Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
There is too much here for me to say in one message.
And since I'm not going to be here to say it in two, I'm going to give you the condensed
version of this.
I do well to cover a verse, let alone two chapters or parts of two chapters.
But I do want you to look, beginning in chapter 1, at verse 18 and running through chapter
2.
And we'll touch lightly on these truths while maintaining the flow of thought and the main
point.
The theme of the section starting in chapter 1 and verse 18 and running to the end of chapter
2 is divine wisdom, divine wisdom.
The word "wise" or "wisdom" appears 20 times or so here, contrasted with "foolishness,"
which appears about a half a dozen times.
This is about divine wisdom.
And the whole section explains why people reject the wisdom of God and why other people
accept the wisdom of God; why people reject the Scripture, the gospel, the cross and other
people accept the Scripture, the gospel and the cross.
In fact, there are some phrases here, "the wisdom of God," "the word of the cross," and
even "the testimony of God."
But whether you're talking about the wisdom of God, the word of the cross, or the testimony
of God, you're talking about the divine revelation which is inscripturated.
This is the theme.
Now the simple way to break this up is to break it up into two sections which overlap
and recycle and restate things.
But, nonetheless, two sections are somewhat discernable.
Section number one, why non-Christians reject the Bible.
Section number two, why Christians accept the Bible.
Why non-Christians reject the Bible and why Christians accept the Bible.
And I will tell you at the outset, nothing is said about evidences, nothing is said about
human reason, nothing is said about how to manipulate people's will or how to move their
emotions.
This is not about evidences.
This is not about reason.
This is not about emotion.
This is about condition.
This is about the condition of a non-Christian and the condition of a Christian.
Let's look, first of all, at why non-Christians do not believe the Bible.
And I'll give you five reasons, which are laid out for us in the opening section.
First of all, the message is unreasonable.
That's the first cause for them to disbelieve.
It is unreasonable.
Verse 18, "The Word of the cross - " or the testimony of God, or the Word of God's wisdom.
That is to say the revelation of God inscripturated - "is to those who are perishing - " that
is their condition - "foolishness."
It is foolishness."
In a somewhat sarcastic way, that idea is repeated in verse 21, "God was well pleased
through the foolishness of the message."
Verse 23 says to the Gentiles, "It is foolishness."
And then in another sarcastic way in verse 25, "The foolishness of God is actually wiser
than men."
And so, clearly, there is this idea that the revelation of God in Scripture is foolish.
It is...the word is moron, moronic, stupid, pointless, unsuitable to human reason.
They treat the Word of God with contempt and disdain.
And I won't go into all the details about that, but a crucified God was ridiculous to
the Gentiles and, equally, if not more ridiculous to the Jews.
Salvation by faith in a crucified God was even more ridiculous.
The whole thing was frankly unreasonable.
Secondly, non-Christians do not believe the Bible not only because the message is unreasonable
but because the reality is unattainable.
You heard a couple of times in the baptisms tonight the people say, "I knew that Jesus
died, but I couldn't connect why or how that had anything to do with my life."
Or you heard someone say, "I grew up in the church and had all these disconnected stories
in my mind, and I wasn't sure how it all came together."
And that's essentially the idea here.
It just doesn't make sense to those who are perishing.
Verse 19, "It is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the mind and the cleverness
of the clever I will set aside.
Where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God - " that is to say God made it this way - "the world through
its wisdom did not come to know God."
In the fall, God cast the human race into a condition in which it is impossible by means
of human wisdom to come to know God.
You can't get there on your own.
And God designed it that way.
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise - " He says - "I will destroy the cleverness of the
clever.
I will turn the wisdom of this world in the direction of folly.
I will because it pleases Me cause that no man, no matter how worldly wise, can through
that worldly wisdom come to know Me."
In verse 19 he's quoting from Isaiah 29:14, from the Septuagint, the Greek edition of
that.
Isaiah had said at that time, Isaiah 29, that when Sennacherib was threatening Judah, threatening
to attack and pillage and plunder Judah, Isaiah said, "Deliverance will come from God, but
it will not come by the wisdom of the leaders, it will not come by the wisdom of the sages,
their cunning secretive treachery that was being laid against Judah would perish not
by human ingenuity but because of the power of God."
God would step in and deliver His people.
The wisdom of the wise couldn't save them.
The cleverness of the clever couldn't do it.
Only God could do it.
And as if to say, "So where is the wise man when you need him?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Line them all up, line the...the literate, the elite, the intellectuals, the philosophers."
And by the way, verse 20 alludes both to Isaiah 19:12, and Isaiah 33:18 and the supposed wise
counselors of Egypt who were turned into absolute fools in the 19th chapter of Isaiah.
And then the scribes of the Assyrians, who were all ready to record the record of the
spoils they were going to get when they came in, and all of a sudden they all looked like
fools because God intervened.
Where are the disputers, the debaters, the suzetetes...they're the philosophy debaters?
Line them all up.
And it pleases God by means of all their intellects and all their wisdom and all their erudition,
they cannot come to know Him.
In the wisdom of God, God made it impossible for men and women to come to know Him on their
own.
You cannot get there from here unaided.
You cannot get to a confidence in the Word of God, belief in the message or word of the
cross, the word of divine testimony.
So, people don't believe because it is foolish, unreasonable, because it is unattainable.
Thirdly, because it is frankly unbelievable, or I guess you could say ridiculous.
Verse 22, "They - " the Jews - "seek for signs.
The Greeks for wisdom."
The Jews were looking for signs.
You say, "Wait a minute.
Jesus gave them signs and signs and signs and signs."
Yeah, but they wanted the big sign.
Knock off the Romans, set up the Kingdom, reign in fulfillment of the Abrahamic and
Davidic Covenant.
And when He started talking about His death, He went to the cross, it was over.
Crucifixion came to the Lord Jesus because He condemned their hypocritical religion,
because He didn't display His power against the Romans and fulfill their own messianic
scheme.
And then even on the cross they said, "Why don't You come down off the cross?"
Maybe there was a last hope that He would do the sign that they were looking for.
But the crucifixion of God?
The crucifixion of the Messiah by the Romans?
Unthinkable.
On the other hand, the Greeks, they sought wisdom.
And what does that mean?
They sought intricate, complicated, profound, complex philosophies with fancy words and
esoteric concepts.
And they laughed at the simplicity of the gospel and the unbelievable idea that a crucified
God was to be worshiped.
That's why there is to this day a stone in Rome that shows a man bowing down to a jackass.
And it's a reflection of an ancient view of Christianity and it says, Alexamenos worships
his god."
And the interesting thing about it is, jackass is on a cross.
Who would worship a jackass on a cross?
It is frankly unbelievable.
Number four, its people are unremarkable.
Its people are unremarkable.
The Jews wanted a sign; the Greeks wanted wisdom.
Paul preached Christ crucified.
The Jews stumbled over it.
The Gentiles said it was foolish.
Verse 26 doesn't help.
"Consider your calling, brethren, there were not many wise, according to the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble."
Bottom line here is we're not too impressive.
They weren't then and we aren't now.
The majority of believers have always been unremarkable.
They have always been unimpressive to the world, especially to the world of elite minds
who...who treat us with contempt.
We're not the smartest and we're not the noblest.
In fact, verse 27, "God has chosen the foolish to shame the wise.
He has chosen the weak to shame the strong.
He has chosen the base and the despised and He has chosen the things that are not."
It just keeps getting lower and lower and lower.
He chose not the wise.
He chose not the noble.
Not wise, not the intellectual elite, not the mighty, not the great, the influential,
the movers, the shakers, the powerful, not the noble.
It's actually a Greek word that means wellborn, highborn, socially ranked.
"But He's chosen foolish, weak, base, agenēs , the no births, the nobodies, the no-names,
the John Does, the insignificant, and the despised."
And then it goes down even lower than that.
"The things that are not - " the present participle of eimi , the non-existent ones He's chosen.
That, by the way, that last statement that Paul uses, the things that are not, in verse
28, is the most contemptible expression in the Greek language to demean another person,
to treat them as if they did not even exist.
So, they don't believe.
And the fact that we are such an unremarkable lot adds to their resistance.
And then a fifth.
Not only are the people of this book unremarkable, but the preachers are unfashionable.
And I could have thought of a lot of words for that.
Unfashionable.
Come in to chapter 2, "When I came to you, brethren, I didn't come with superiority of
speech or of wisdom."
And that was a problem because they loved this esoteric kind of fancy, complicated,
mazelike teaching that brought in all kinds of complexity and profundity and titillated
their minds.
"I didn't come with superiority of speech, no tricks of wisdom.
I'm determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
There again is this repulsive, unbelievable, simplistic message.
Furthermore, he didn't help his cause any by his own persona.
You remember the Corinthians said about him his person was frankly contemptible.
And his speech was unimpressive.
He was with you in weakness, fear, much trembling.
My message, my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the
Spirit and power.
So you have a pretty...a pretty comprehensive look at why people don't believe.
You start with the fact that they can't, that they don't have the capability, that they
are void of the life of God.
They can't escape the natural.
They can't escape being in the flesh.
And one who is in the flesh minds only the things of the flesh.
And he cannot know the things of the Spirit, they are unknowable to him.
And you add the fact that all of these give reason to reject, and you understand something
of the dilemma of the unregenerate.
The message itself was offensive, unreasonable, unbelievable, incomprehensible.
The people were the lowly, and the preachers were the weak and the unimpressive and the
fearful and the trembling.
And you add the fallen condition, natural darkness, satanic blinding and divine judgment.
And non-believers cannot on their own believe the truth.
So the search for God and the search for Christ and the search for the truth, and the search
to discern whether the Bible is really true in what it's saying, cannot begin and end
with human reason.
That's why every time you see one of these deals on television, "The Search for the Real
Jesus," "The Search for the Truth," it always ends up in error.
Fallen mind can't get there on its own.
That's why non-Christians don't believe the Bible.
Now let's ask the second question.
Why do Christians believe the Bible?
In spite of all of this, go to verse 6 in chapter 2.
We'll spend a few minutes on this latter part.
"Yet - " that's a key word there, you ought to circle it or underline it - "Yet in spite
of what the world thinks about this, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are teleios
; teleiois - " actually, plural.
"Among those who are teleiois - " What is that?
Well, who have been made complete.
It's just a way to describe believers.
We speak wisdom, understood, comprehended, embraced and believed among those who have
been made complete.
We have come to Christ.
"We have come to the one - " Paul says to the Colossians - "in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
It isn't that we're more intelligent.
It isn't that we have been subjected to greater evidences.
It is that we have been made complete in Him.
Paul says it, "You are complete in Him."
And being made complete or mature in Him, you have been given with that divine work
of regeneration and conversion and transformation, not only confidence in Jesus Christ and confidence
in the true and loving God...living God, but confidence in the Word of God.
And so, verse 6 says, "We do speak wisdom."
Paul saying, "We" in an apostolic plural.
"We do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of
the rulers of this age."
This is a wisdom that I've just been telling you is unknown to the best of this world's
minds, the greatest of this world's leaders.
"We speak - " verse 7 - "God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom."
How in the world did we get to know it?
Oh, read the rest of the line.
"Which God - " what's that next word?
- "predestined before the ages to our glory."
Why do I understand the Bible?
Because God what?
Predestined me to understand it for my own future glory.
You say, "Oh, do you believe in predestination?
I believe in the Bible and the Bible tells me that the reason I understand the wisdom
of God is because God predestined me to eternal glory, and through regeneration and conversion
gave me faith in His Son, in the gospel and in His Word.
Does that mean that I'm now in a situation where I believe the Bible, even though it's
not reasonable?
Oh no.
Everything in it is reasonable.
Its prophecies are fulfilled.
Its miracles are true and attested to.
It is scientifically flawless and accurate.
Its history and archeology is verifiable down to the smallest detail.
But it's not that that convinces my natural reason.
It is that because God has given me faith in His Word that I now see all that to be
true.
Another way to view it, at this point, might be to look at 1 John chapter 2.
1 John chapter 2, just to give you a little break from the text we're in.
Sometimes people hang around the church for a while, they don't stay.
Verse 19 describes them, "They went out from us," that's pretty true in almost everybody's
religious experience, Christian experience.
"They went out from us."
"Yeah, you know, so-and-so used to come here, sang in the choir, served here and there,
showed up at church.
Don't see them anymore, what happened?"
"Well they went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they had been of
us they would have remained with us, but they went out in order that it might be shown they
are all not of us."
They went out, they left and it proves they never really belonged to begin with.
"But - " verse 20, love this - "you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know."
What do you know?
You know what he says in the next verse.
"I've not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you know it and
no lie is of the truth."
That means no lie leads you astray.
No lie leads you into apostasy.
Why?
You know the truth.
Why do you know the truth?
You have an anointing from God.
What is that anointing?
Or better, who is that anointing?
The Holy Spirit.
I believe the Bible because God gave me confidence in the Word of God as a part of my salvation
and regeneration.
I stay with the truth.
I believe the truth.
I embrace the truth.
I continue with the truth.
I stay involved with the truth because the Spirit of God has shown me what the truth
is and I know a lie when I see one.
At the end of that, or near the end of that same chapter, verse 27, "As for you, the anointing
which you received from Him abides in you."
Wow.
This is our security, the ever-present indwelling resident Holy Spirit who is our anchor to
the truth.
He abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you.
"But as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie and just
as it has taught you, you abide in Him."
That is just a profound subject to understand.
When you were saved you came to confidence in the Word of God and that's where you stay.
That's where you stay.
And the people who hang around a while and go away, give evidence of the fact that they
never really belonged and they never had the Spirit of God.
I believe the Bible because God gave me the gift of faith in His Son and faith in His
gospel and faith in His Word.
I continue to... that for my justification.
I believe the Bible for my sanctification, because the Spirit of God who abides in me
continues to lead me into truth and away from error.
That's why I believe the Bible.
Now, I understand, as verse 6 says, that this is different than the wisdom of this age,
the wisdom of the rulers of this age, the top minds.
All of that stuff is katargeō .
All of it is being rendered ineffective.
All of it is impotent.
All of it leads nowhere.
All of it is really foolish, really foolish.
But I believe and you believe because God predestined before the ages that we would
believe unto glory.
And we believe a wisdom, verse 8 says, "which none of the rulers of this age has understood,
none of them.
If they had, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory," and they wouldn't continue
to reject the Lord of glory who was crucified.
He sums it up in verse 9 by saying this, a very familiar verse by the way, drawn out
of a couple of passages that are being alluded here and Isaiah.
"Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the
heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him."
We know all that God has for us.
We know that.
We know it by divine revelation.
It can't be known any other way.
Eye can't see it and ear can't hear it.
And the mind which is in view in the heart can't conceive of it.
God's truth regarding salvation, God's truth regarding spiritual and eternal life is unheard,
unseen, unthought.
It cannot be known by empiricism; it cannot be known by rationalism.
It can only be known by divine revelation.
In John 8 Jesus said this, and He's talking to the recalcitrant Pharisees.
Jesus said to them in verse 42, John 8, "If you...if God were your Father, you would love
Me."
Wow!
"But since God's not your Father, you don't love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come
from God."
I'm not even come on My own initiative, but He has sent Me.
Listen to this, "Why do you not understand what I'm saying?"
Why don't people understand?
"It's because you cannot hear My word because you are of your father, the devil, and you
want to do the desires of your father.
He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth because there's no
truth in him.
Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he's a liar and the father
of lies, but because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me."
You can't.
And He sums it up in verse 47, well, in verse 46.
"If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me?"
Why don't people believe the truth?
"He who is of God hears the words of God.
For this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God."
Pretty clear, isn't it?
Who believes the Bible?
Those who are God's.
It is a divine work.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and we'll just wrap it up at verse 10 with a few comments
thrown in.
First Corinthians 2:10.
"For to us - " oh, this is such a great point of summary.
"For to us God revealed them."
Them?
What do you mean?
"The things that God has prepared for those that love Him, the things concerning salvation,
spiritual and eternal life, the Kingdom."
That is to say all of the wisdom of God, all of the word of the cross, all of the word
of God's testimony, all that truth that is inscripturated.
To us, God revealed them through the Spirit.
That is the critical thing to understand.
We believe because God chose, God predestined us to know so that one day we would come to
eternal glory.
In drawing this to some kind of conclusion that will grip your soul, let's just take
that idea that we know because God chose to show us, to reveal to us, to regenerate us,
to give us life, to take the scales of blindness off, to awaken our hearts, to unfold the mystery,
to bring the truth that was hidden out and reveal it to us, take that as the background
and reread starting in verse 24.
"To those who are the called."
Anytime you ever see that term, "the called," or "calling" in the epistles in the New Testament
is the effectual call to salvation.
We are the called, that is called out of darkness into light, called out of death into life.
In verse 26 he says it again, "Consider your calling," the divine call, the vivification,
the life-giving call, regeneration.
And why us?
Verse 27, "God has chosen, God has chosen."
Verse 28, "God has chosen."
Verse 30, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus."
Why are you in Christ Jesus?
Because you saw how clearly it should be apprehended and believed because you went through the
evidences, because your mind ascended to it.
You are in Christ Jesus by His doing.
He predestined, He revealed because He chose, and whom He chose He called.
And as Paul says in Romans 8, "Whom He called He justified and whom He justifies He glorifies."
So, back to verse 30, "By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, by His doing you believe,
by His doing you embrace the Word of God in your justification and your sanctification.
By His doing you are in Christ Jesus - " listen - "who became to us wisdom from God."
By His doing that we are in Christ.
And then Christ became to us -- by His presence and His power and His Spirit and His Word
-- wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Why did God do it this way?
Why did God do it this way?
Verse 29, "That no man should - " What?
- "boast before God."
Verse 31, "The just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
And so we are stunned by the confidence that we have in the Word of God.
And when somebody says, "Where in the world does it come from?"
You can say it is by His doing because He placed us in Christ and Christ became to us
the wisdom of God.
And it is our love for God through Christ that gives us confidence in His Word, and
we believe the truth because we are of God.
Martin Luther put it this way, "Man is like a pillar of salt, like Lot's wife, yea like
a log, or a stone, like a lifeless statue which uses neither eyes nor mouth, neither
sense nor heart, until he is enlightened, converted and regenerated by the Holy Spirit."
So I didn't invent this.
They were reading the same Bible I'm reading and the same one you're reading.
You believe the Bible, dear one, and you live in the light of its glorious truths, your
life is enraptured by its wonders because God for His own glory was well pleased to
predestine you and to choose you and to justify you and to sanctify you through His Word.
And when He gave you Christ, He gave you, in Christ, His wisdom for in Him are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I cannot separate my love for Christ from my love for the Word.
At the end, skipping down to verse 16, the last statement, "We have the mind of Christ."
What a statement.
What a statement.
In having confidence in the Word of God, we have access to the mind of Christ.
Grab that?
It's no mystery to me how God thinks or what He desires.
All that God wants me to know, He's put here.
I have here the mind of Christ, and I know how Christ thinks and what He wills and what
pleases Him and what He loves and what He hates and what He commands and what He forbids.
I understand it all because He has enabled me to understand it.
And I live my life embracing the wonder of such profound inexplicable grace on my behalf
as this is.
Let's bow in prayer.
Our Father, we know that the power of evangelism for justification is not found in clever methods
or music or culturally crafted entertainment, but in the Bible.
The power for edification, in sanctification is also found in the Bible.
We are to preach the Scripture, the word of the cross, the wisdom of God, the testimony
of God.
We are to present it, proclaim it, defend it, for this is the only hope and the only
means by which you will justify and sanctify Your people.
Always we must use the Scripture, not so that the non-Christian can see the reasonableness
of it but so that You may awaken the heart of Your own by the divine miracle of grace
through the Word.
We thank You, Father, that a life time of strud...of study will prove the Scripture
is reasonable, it is attainable, understandable, believable, stands every test.
And we know that because You have given us life and understanding.
We thank You that You heard the prayer of Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes that I may see
wondrous things out of Thy Law."
Lord, that prayer has been answered for us and we praise You and the wonders never cease.
Use us, Lord, as instruments in the proclamation of Your truth to awaken sinners and to sanctify
saints.
Thank You for the privilege of being so used in Christ's name.
Amen.
-------------------------------------------
Brutal allergies and how to fight them - Duration: 1:54.
MISERY
AND BEST WAYS TO FIGHT IT.
DAVE, WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
DAVE: IF YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE
PEOPLE SUSCEPTIBLE TO POLLEN
FROM TREES OR GRASSES, WHERE I
AM RIGHT NOW IS NOT WHERE YOU
WANT TO BE, BECAUSE EVEN SHORT
STINTS OF EXPOSURE CAN LEAD TO
SIGNIFICANT DISCOMFORT IF NOT
WORSE.
>> LET'S HAVE YOU BREATHE.
YOU ARE WHEEZING A LITTLE BIT.
>> THIS LADY IS NEVER FAR FROM
HER RESCUE INHALER AND ALLERGY
MEDS.
>> IT HAS BEEN HORRIBLE, BECAUSE
I'VE BEEN GETTING A LOT OF YOUR
INFECTIONS, A LOTS OF EYE
INFECTIONS.
>> IN THE WINTER, THE PLANTS AND
TREES NEVER REALLY WENT DORMANT.
THAT REALM MAY MAKE YOUR CAR
LOOK COMING, BUT IT MAKES YOU
FEEL WORSE.
>> THE DRY WEATHER YOU
THINK WOULD MAKE YOU FEEL
BETTER, BUT IT DOESN'T.
OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICINES ARE
AS GOOD AS THEY HAVE EVER BEEN,
BUT FOR MOST ALLERGY SUFFERERS,
IT IS ALL ABOUT STAYING INDOORS
WINDOWS SHUT.
EVEN THOUGH THESE EVENING
TEMPERATURES MIGHT MAKE YOU WANT
A NATURAL BREEZE.
>> YOU'LL START SNEEZING AND GET
CONGESTION.
>> MAKE SURE THE WINDOWS ARE
CLOSE, THE POLLEN COMES IN AND
DESTROYS ME.
>> CLEANING THE FILTER REGULARLY
IS A MUST.
THOSE TABLES AND CHAIRS ON YOUR
BACK PATIO OR POOL DECK OR
OUTSIDE THE RESTAURANTS ARE
INVITING THIS TIME OF YEAR WHEN
WE GETS COOL TEMPERATURES, BUT
EVEN IN SHORT MOMENTS OF TIME,
YOU WILL INHALE A LOT OF POLLEN,
-------------------------------------------
Bill's Afternoon Update - Duration: 1:15.
AN OMA
-------------------------------------------
Lixo Espacial: tesouro ou ameaça? - Duration: 5:30.
-------------------------------------------
When You Should Ask Your Ex To Be "Boyfriend/Girlfriend" Again - Duration: 6:54.
How's it going YouTube?
Brad Browning here.
I'm a breakup coaching and relationship expert from Vancouver, Canada.
And in this video, I'm going to address a topic that gets asked all the time…and
it's the topic of when you should be asking your ex to be in a committed "boyfriend/girlfriend"
relationship again.
I see a ton of my clients make big mistakes when they're trying to get their ex back…
they use my Ex Factor Guide program and experience incredible success… but they jump the gun,
get too excited, and blow it with their ex because they asked for commitment too early.
If you've read my Ex Factor Guide, you'd know that actions such as this lead to a tremendous
loss of attraction… so this mistake needs to be avoided at all costs.
So when is an appropriate time to bring this up to your ex?
Well, this topic is for people out there who are very far along in getting their ex back
– they've engaged in No Contact for an extended period of time, they've used several
psychological triggers and hints on their ex to get him or her to start wanting to see
you again, and they've met with their ex several times.
So in short, this video is for people who are following my Ex Factor Guide outline and
experiencing the success that so many other people have had.
So how should you go about in doing this?
Should you simply just pop the question to your ex boyfriend or girlfriend when things
are going well?
The answer is no.
In fact, the most powerful way to build attraction and force commitment from your ex is to actually
get him or her to ask you.
So how do you do that?
Well, you do it by being covert and mysterious.
See, you need to let your ex know that you're not sure whether to get back together with
them or not.
I know I know, deep down inside I know you absolutely WANT your ex back, but if you pour
your heart out too soon and tell them this right off the bat, you risk blowing it and
making him or her run for the hills.
What you need to do is act a bit elusive so that your ex begins to chase you even HARDER…
and at that point, it'll only be a matter of time before he or she is bending over backwards
to make you theirs again.
Sound good?
So what are some ways you can act mysterious and elusive?
Here are a few tips…
#1.)
Subtly say that you aren't too sure what's in store for you two – the most obvious
way to be mysterious is to say that you're on the fence about the whole relationship.
If your ex KNEW you wanted to get back together right away, the chase, the spark, and the
attraction will disappear and you'll be left starting back where you started.
So just because you're so close to winning your ex back doesn't mean you need to tell
your ex how you really feel yet… instead, say something like…
"I've really enjoyed the time we've spent together recently… but I'm still
not really sure what's in it for us in the future."
Or maybe something like…
"This feels like we're back together, doesn't it?
Too bad we aren't…"
And just leave it as that.
If your ex engages you and asks you what you mean or how you feel, be elusive and change
the subject.
If your ex asks you if you want to be in a committed relationship again, don't answer
right away.
Let your ex continue to chase you until he or she brings up the topic of commitment on
their own.
#2.)
Act like someone else is chasing you HARD… but be a little cryptic about it.
Whether it's true or not, you need to convey to your ex that you're a hot commodity and
that everyone's trying to get a piece of you.
Of course, you need to do this subtly otherwise you ex will know you're just trying to make
him or her jealous.
In my Ex Factor Guide, I outline several psychological strategies that you can employ to make your
ex jealous and feel attraction for you…. one of these strategies is called the Covert
Jealousy tactic.
If you wanna learn more about the Covert Jealousy tactic, just head over to www.BreakupBrad.com
and watch the full video presentation to the very end.
And you'll wanna watch that whole video because I'll have a little something at the end that
will make your ex ask YOU to be in a committed relationship again.
So that's BreakupBrad.com and you can watch that free presentation after you watch this
video.
#3.)
Act "hot and cold" with your ex.
If things have been going really well with your ex, you'll want to mix it up a little
bit and pull away every now and then.
I know I know, this may seem like you're playing games or being disingenuous, but if you really
want your ex to feel a long and lasting attraction for you, you need to use these psychological
tactics.
So playing hot and cold means that one minute you're super into your ex, you're being nice,
affectionate, and attentive, and then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason you act
cold and distant.
This does two things.
One, it creates a dynamic where your ex begins chasing YOU down.
I mean, picture how you felt when you were chasing your ex…
I bet the more he or she pulled away from you, the more you felt compelled to chase
you, right?
And the more your ex sent you mixed signals, the more you obsessed over trying to seek
his or her approval.
So what you're doing now is reversing the roles and making your ex chase you down.
It'll only be a matter of days before he or she breaks down and asks you about commitment.
If you need more help trying to seal the deal and make your ex commit to you, then I strongly
advise you to sign up for my personal coaching program.
You can find on the details at BreakupBrad.com/coaching...that's BreakupBrad.com/coaching.
For a very small fee per month, you'll be able to email me whenever you want and I'll
be able to give you custom-tailored psychological strategies that will make your ex chase YOU
down for a loving relationship.
That's all for today, folks!
Talk to you soon!
-------------------------------------------
Cockapoo Dogs 101 The First of the Designer Dogs #cockapoo - Duration: 5:08.
An adorable small dog with the personality of a clown, the Cockapoo is the first of the
"designer dogs", dating back to the 1960s.
Completely people-oriented, the Cockapoo is intelligent enough to train easily, hardly
sheds, and is so affectionate that you'll never feel alone.
He's happy running around an agility course, showing off his tricks to company, being petted
as a therapy dog, or just hanging out on your lap, which is his, by the way.
Hi, welcome to Animal Facts.
Here are 10 fun facts about the utterly adorable, trail-blazer among hybrid dogs, the Cockapoo,
Let's get started.
But before we start, take a moment to like and subscribe for more fun, fauna facts.
And let us know about your Cockapoo in the comments below.
10.
Also known as the Cockapoodle [rooster crowing], Cockerpoo, Cock-a-Poo, or Spoodle, he is a
cross between either an American or English Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle.
These charming dogs first appeared on the scene in the 1950's when it is thought that
breeders in the States decided to create a low-shedding dog.
However, some people think they came about by pure accident.
Today, the Cockapoo remains one of the most popular "designer dogs" around, thanks to
his charming looks and his kind, loyal and affectionate natures.
9.
Because Cockapoos are a cross-breed, they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes with
some dogs leaning towards the Cocker Spaniel whereas other inherit more Poodle traits,
whether it's their physical traits or their temperaments.
Some dogs may have the curly coat of a Poodle and others could have much straighter and
longer hair because they inherited more of a Spaniel's coat, so it really does depend
on the luck of the draw as to how a puppy Cockapoo turns out.
8.
Playful and affectionate, the Cockapoo makes a great family companion.
He is sturdy enough to play fetch and ball with the kids and cuddly enough to curl up
on your lap for a warm and rejuvenating nap.
The Cockapoo bonds quickly with his family and believes that his people should be with
him all of the time.
7.
The Cockapoo is an exceptionally intelligent dog.
He is easy to train because he has a strong desire to please his people.
New owners are always shocked to see how quickly this crossbreed learns and responds to commands.
Many enthusiasts report that by the age of six months, Cockapoos can sit, stand, stay,
come, heel and sit up on command!
This is a bright mixed breed, coming from pairing two of the brightest parents on the
planet.
6.
Cockapoos are active dogs and love to play and romp.
A brisk walk through the neighborhood is a good thing for this hybrid dog but he also
needs to run.
A fenced and secure play area is necessary for him to stretch out and play hard.
For those who don't have yards, dog parks are a great place for the Cockapoo to exercise
and they also excel in agility and obedience training.
5.
The American Kennel Club does not recognize the Cockapoo as a breed at this time.
The American Canine Hybrid Club, Designer Dogs Kennel Club, North American Cockapoo
Registry, Cockapoo Club of America, American Cockapoo Club, Cockapoo Club of Great Britain,
International Designer Canine Registry and the Designer Breed Registry do recognize the
Cockapoo as a viable breed.
4.
Since the cockapoo sheds infrequently, caring for his coat typically involves weekly grooming.
Little vacuuming is required, creating the ideal situation for someone who doesn't have
the time to vacuum every few days.
3.
Depending on the type, an adult cockapoo can weigh anywhere between six and nineteen pounds.
Cockapoo types include maxi, miniatures, toys, and teacups.
Maxi cockapoos are the largest ones, and they weigh in at nineteen pounds.
Miniature cockapoos typically weigh between thirteen and eighteen pounds, while toy cockapoos
weigh between seven and twelve pounds.
Teacup toys are the smallest type of cockapoos, and they are less than six pounds at adulthood.
2.
The cockapoo is often healthier than either a poodle or a cocker spaniel simply because
it does not have many of the genetic defects typically found in either breed.
Since the animal is healthier, it is often happier as well.
He is, however, predisposed to ear infections, simply because of his coated drop ears.
He is also prone liver disease, cataracts, and kneecap dislocation.
1.
You'll have a long-lived companion in a Cockapoo.
The average life expectancy of a Cockapoo is between 14 and 18 years when properly cared
for and fed an appropriate high-quality diet to suit his age.
Well, there ya have it, 10 cock-a-doodle cool facts about the charming, canine companion,
the Cockapoo.
We love hearing about your pets, so let us know about your Cockapoo in the comments below.
Before ya go, take a moment to like and subscribe for more fun, fauna facts.
We publish at least twice a week, so hit that notification button to not miss a single fact.
And as always, catch ya next time.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét