Please turn with me to 2 Timothy 3, 16. 2 Timothy 3, and we'll be coming to verse 16 again. And the nature of these messages, we'll be dealing with various texts and portions. We will not stick in 2 Timothy 2, but really thinking upon what all is required in writings that are inspired of God. And so, we're turning our eyes to that text in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16. Let us read then verse 16 of 2 Timothy 3. Let us hear the Word of God. is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. Amen. We'll end the reading there. And trust the Lord to bless His word to us. Let's seek Him in prayer. Call upon Him for His help. Lord, we come before Thee with Thy Word opened and ask that You would indeed bless it to our souls tonight as we come to think upon the Word itself and what You have said about Your own Word in the various parts of this book we call the Bible. We pray, Lord, that You would bless this time to us that You would indeed use it to further establish us and equip us in the faith. Once for all delivered to the saints, Lord, help us to be contenders for such faith. Help us to be upholders of such faith. Help us indeed, Lord, to honor Thee as soldiers for Christ in this world. Lord, hear prayer. Fill me with Thy Spirit now, we ask, for the sake of Christ's glory and His honor, for His preeminence. Help, Lord, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we are focusing on that first part of verse 16 again, primarily, as we were last week, and yet coming at it from a different angle this week. But verse 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now, what would you expect to find in writings that claim to be from God? What would you expect to find in them? Well, one would expect to find consistency, one would expect to find fidelity, trustworthiness, reliability, all these various things. And to further develop that question, how can you tell Holy Scripture apart from other writings? You all, I'm sure, are well aware that the Bible is not the only book in the world that claims inspiration. You have various books like the Quran. You have the Book of Mormon. You have various other so-called sacred texts throughout the world that are claimed to be inspired. They are claimed to be from God. And we want to ask the question tonight, how do you tell the difference? How do you know when you read the Word of God as it is in our Bibles, how do you know that what you are reading is referred to by Paul as all Scripture? We have already noted, as you're well aware I'm sure, that this binding, this bound book full of the 66 books that we know of as our English Bible did not fall out of the sky bound in this leather cover. with all 66 books together. That's not how it happened. And so, how do you know that what you have within this cover is the Word of God, is all Scripture that has been God-breathed as Paul says here in verse 16? Well, it's interesting as we think upon it because God has given various qualities to His Word, various marks that really identify it and distinguish it from all other writings in the world. And to help us with an illustration, you might think of those who today we have what would be called counterfeits in terms of money. And you learn as you study real money and counterfeits, the most, the thing they do with people to help them discern the difference is that they handle the genuine money. They handle the genuine money so often, they get so familiar with the genuine that they then immediately recognize something that's false. And indeed, our government, at least here in the U.S., they do specific things to our dollar bills and all the various bills that we have. We'll see if the power stays on tonight. Hopefully, we'll not have to go into the dark. But if we do, we've done it before. We've seen even our government, they take special care to do certain things to the money to make it so that it's not able to be counterfeited. Well, in a certain sense, that is what God has done with His Word. He has so brought it together, He has so had it written and organized and put together that you can immediately tell the false from the genuine. In our standards, our substandards, the Westminster larger catechism They ask two very practical questions in this regard. The first is question three, what is the Word of God? And they answer, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience. And then question four they ask, how doth it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God? Their answer is very helpful, worthy of memorization. The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation. But the Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God. Now as I say, that's a very helpful question and answer. Because what it does is it shows us that there are distinguishing marks, and of course there's scripture proof for all of those statements. There are distinguishing marks in the Bible. There are definite distinguishing characteristics that help us to tell it apart from other things in this world, other writings, But at the end of the day, you can show someone all the evidence in the world, and if the Holy Spirit doesn't work in their heart, they will reject the truth. And so the fact that you believe the Bible tonight is not just a matter of reason and logic, it is that, but it is above all else the work of the Holy Spirit. But we're coming tonight to consider the qualities of Holy Scripture. The qualities of Holy Scripture. How do you tell it apart? What makes the Bible distinguished? What's significant about it? And we want to notice several things about it tonight, several qualities of the Bible taken together as a whole. And we'll move quickly, so trust that we'll make it through these things tonight, and it'll be helpful to us to think upon it. But the qualities of Holy Scripture. We read here verse 16, "...all Scriptures given by inspiration of God." Well, the first thing to mention then, as we think upon one quality of Holy Scripture, is that as you survey all the books that we have in the Bible, the 66 books we know of as our standard English canon, they are consistently about Christ. That's one of the first things that we want to note as a mark of divine inspiration. They are consistently about Christ. You survey other books and you do not find the same thing. And it is indeed remarkable that over the span of the many hundreds, indeed thousands of years that the Bible is written and compiled, that the same consistency is kept in terms of the focus being on the Lord Jesus Christ. They are consistently about Christ. You notice from verse 15 what leads into verse 16. We read this earlier regarding Timothy, knowing the Holy Scriptures from a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So here is just one of the many verses that are telling us the Bible's Christ-centered. It's God-focused, as in focused on God the Father and what He is doing through God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God-focused and Christ-centered all throughout. Indeed, we could say Christ is the key that unlocks the message of every book of the Bible. If you remove the Christ-centeredness, if you refuse to see the centrality of Christ in the Word, then all the books of the Bible fail to come together and make sense. But when you see Christ, as the key focus. He is the key that unlocks the message of every book. And we won't turn to all the Scriptures, but just to remind you of the claim of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the One who is risen from the dead, the One who we have all reason to believe in Luke 24-27. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. I know it's a verse you know well, but just to remind you, this is the teaching of our Lord, and it was also the teaching of His apostles, the Apostle Paul, namely, chapter 26 of Acts, in verse 22, he speaking of himself, saying, Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both the small and great, saying, catch this, none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. Now that's Paul, the apostle, saying of all the Old Testament, right alongside with the Lord Jesus Christ, that it's all about Him. They are consistently about Christ. In other words, what we're saying here is that the way that all of Holy Scripture points to Christ is profoundly beyond any human ingenuity. You couldn't work that out on your own. You couldn't get everybody together and hatch a plan hundreds of years removed from each other to make sure this all fits together. It's impossible. Even if just one example, Galatians 3.15, if you were to take the theme of seed or offspring and trace it through. Genesis 3.15, we're told, the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. Then Abraham's told, in thee and thy seed shall all nations be blessed. Well then Paul comes in Galatians 3.16 and said that the promise was not made to seeds as of many, but as to one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And here the Bible's telling us that from Genesis all throughout the rest of it, if you trace the theme of seed and the promise to Abraham, it was always about Christ. and we see it holding true from all the various portions you could look at. But, if someone was to object, as I've already alluded to, someone, when you assert the Bible's consistently about Christ, He's the key that unlocks the message of every book of the Bible. Oh yeah, He's not on every single page, as it were, but when you collectively look at the Scriptures, He's the point, He's the purpose. But the higher critics, may object and say, well, that's because there were changes made over all the years. And the people, they changed it all to fit together. They changed it all to make it appear that way. Well, the answer to such an objection, and really the way to test any conspiracy, is to see how plausible it really is. That would be an impossible conspiracy. the amount of people that would have to be involved in such a thing. Not to mention, all the people reading these Scriptures for all the many years, they would notice the changes. They would notice the differences. In other words, it would never work. It's an impossible conspiracy theory. The Scriptures, they are consistently about Christ. I say this is the main mark because when you read all Scriptures given by inspiration of God, you're going to expect it to be consistent. God's not going to say something different in Genesis than He's going to say in Revelation. He's not going to point you somewhere else. They are consistently about Christ. But as I say, we're going to hit these quickly. This is not exhaustive, but just noting the marks. Secondly, they are consistently clear about the way of salvation. Not only are they consistently about Christ, but in connection with that, they are consistently clear about the way of salvation. Again, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and you back up. They're able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, a profound mark of inspiration is the Bible's doctrine of salvation. It is a profound mark of inspiration that all throughout Scripture, it is the same message being proclaimed. Not only about Christ, but the way of salvation through Christ. What Paul says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You can trace by grace through faith all throughout all the books in the Word of God. The New Testament essentially does this, doesn't it? When you come to Paul in Romans and he's seeking to prove the doctrine of justification by faith, by the grace of God through faith in Christ. Where does he go as a historical example to prove it? He goes to Abraham, and He goes to David. Two of the main characters of the Old Testament spanning so much of the history of the Old Testament. And He uses those men to illustrate that God has always justified men by grace through faith in Christ alone. You can trace by grace through faith all throughout all the books. Hebrews 4.1, we have to note that there are people who we would consider Christians, brothers in Christ, and yet sorely misled when they begin to teach or say anything that seems to hint that God had a different way of salvation in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. These men would be called dispensationalists, some of them. But Hebrews 4 and verse 2, we read about those in the Old Testament Verse 1, Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Now that's referring to Old Testament saints, Old Testament people. The gospel was preached unto us as well as unto them. So here we have an explicit text among so many more that tells us every book of the Bible, every part of Scripture is teaching us the same thing about salvation by grace through faith, through the work of Christ. Now contrast that with a reference from the Apocrypha. Now, we'll get into the Apocrypha in some time, in a few weeks' time, and why that's not included in the Canyon. For those of you who don't know, the Apocrypha is a collection of books that are claimed to be inspired. The Roman Catholic Church receives them as inspired writings, and they use them for, obviously, various support of their various doctrines. But, there's a book called Ecclesiasticus, In chapter 3, verse 3, you can listen to this statement. It says, Whoso honoreth his father maketh an atonement for his sins. Whoso honoreth his father maketh an atonement for his sins. Now, there's really no way around that statement teaching a doctrine of works in order to atone for your sins. Verse 30 of that same chapter in Ecclesiasticus says, "...water will quench a flaming fire, and alms or good deeds maketh an atonement for sins." Now, if you know the Roman Catholic Church well enough, you'll see why Rome would happily embrace these books because they would lend to some of her teachings regarding the way of salvation. But when I read that, your ears should perk up. If you have any scriptural antennas, as it were, they should go off, they should ring. There's no way that God is going to use the word atonement. He's going to teach such a thing that is so different. No way reconcilable with the other statements of Scripture in the way of salvation. That's why I say this is noticing the genuine and the counterfeit. If you handle the genuine, if you read your Bible, if you know the scriptures that are given to us here, if you know the Word of God, you'll immediately notice the falsehood of such things. They are consistently clear about the way of salvation. Another mark for us, a third mark, is that they are brutally honest. They are brutally honest. Now in these final ones, I really want us to take some time with these and think about them because they are so helpful. The scriptures referred to here, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. God who is all truth. We would expect complete honesty and straightforwardness from God, would we not? Even naturally speaking, you would not expect God to lie. You would not expect any concept of God to be deceitful, and you certainly don't find that in the Scriptures. They are brutally honest. They are brutally honest in their history. In the record of history that we have in the Bible, what you find is brutal honesty, which is distinct. In other words, the ugliness of the record is a beautiful proof of its reliability. If you've ever studied history, you'll know one of the most difficult things when you think about history, especially someone's own account of their own history. Let's say you were to write a biography of your life and you were to be completely honest, of course, which means every sin, every deviation from truth, every ugly detail of something that you did, all of that was expected to be included. But most of us would have a hard time writing a straightforward and honest biography of our life. And yet what we find in the Old Testament is an ugly history of a nation that wrote its own history now. That's the point I'm making. Israel is responsible for recording their own history and we don't find a clean record. We find the record of their defeats. We find the record of their faults. We find the record of their trespasses against God. We don't find a record of someone who just said, well, we don't want to tell the world about all of that, so let's just tell them about the good things. No, you find an ugly history, not only regarding the nation as a whole, but regarding individuals and the writers themselves. Think of Moses. You read in the first part of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You read through there, and what you find is Moses has some good things highlighted about him, and Moses had some very bad things highlighted about him. And he's the one that our Lord says wrote those books. So if you needed something to verify, how do I know what I'm reading is true? No one records those ugly details of their lives by nature. It's the work of the Spirit of God. The ugliness of the record is a beautiful proof of its reliability. Think about David. David, the great, valiant warrior for Israel, the one who replaces that wicked man Saul. He rises to the top. and he defeats all his foes, he takes the throne, and now things are good as gold. But not so. We find of that man recorded one of the most heinous deeds in the Old Testament. We find that the great King David falls. And as I say, it's a record, an ugly record, If David were left in charge, or perhaps other men were left in charge, left to themselves, they would expunge that record. I don't want people to know about that. We've seen this happen in our own society, in our own day. People try to expunge the record. We don't want people to know about that. But the Bible doesn't do that. The Bible tells us all the horrible details about people's lives. Indeed, it's been rightly remarked when you read some of the accounts in the Old Testament and you think so critically about Abraham or David or anyone else. The remark has rightly been made. Imagine if your life was recorded in the Bible and people were able to read about the various things that you've done. It's quite a humbling thing. And as I say, it's quite a proof of the inspiration of the Bible, the brutal honesty in regards to its history. If anyone had a motive to change things, certainly it would have been those like Matthew who recorded the genealogy of our Lord. And you know when you read that genealogy, what do you find? You find a list of very wicked sinners. And if there was any motive to change things, and make it look different, it would have been there. Indeed, many have stumbled. How can the Lord have all these sinful people in His lineage? And yet, there it is, black and white in the Bible. Not tampered with, but left for us. They're brutally honest in their history and they're brutally honest in their doctrine. The straightforward and brutal statements about mankind and hell are repulsive to human nature that you find in the Bible. You and I have all had the experience, I'm sure, of reading the Bible, especially as you read it for the first time, and you read certain statements and they just strike you that something would be said about you. in such a manner. Think of Genesis 6-5, just a couple of examples before we leave this mark, this quality. Genesis 6-5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now I know I'm not the first one who read that when I was yet unconverted, reading it for the first time, and shocked that such a thing would be said about me. My thoughts, the imaginations of my heart are only evil continually. Is that true? I don't feel like they are. That's very bold and indeed it repulses. Human nature is repulsed at such a statement. You don't want to believe that about yourself. Think of Jeremiah 17 9, in case we think it's limited just to that time before the flood. What does Jeremiah say in 17 verse 9? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? But today, what do you see? And it's not different today than it has been. I just follow my heart. I just trust my heart. I have a relationship with God and He knows my heart and it's all good. That's how man naturally thinks. And that's why I'm saying to you, this is a mark of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Because men and women, we don't want to hear those things. Not only in regards to human nature, The doctrine about mankind, Romans 3.10, you could go to so many more. There's none good, no not one. No one wants to hear that. No one wants to believe that, naturally. But then you think about the doctrine of hell. Think about what the Bible says about hell. The Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 7, makes this statement, and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. It's a very graphic and hard statement to think upon people burning in hell for all eternity. Who would want to believe that? We're given another description in Revelation 21 8, But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Such statements, as I say, to natural man are repulsive. When the Lord Jesus says that out of the heart proceed all evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, wickedness, fornication, thefts, Natural man doesn't want anything to do with that. And the whole point that we're making here in looking at just those two areas, what the Bible says about mankind and what the Bible says about hell, the point that we're making is that if people could have changed it, they would have changed it. It's a mark of divine inspiration. If they could have changed it, they would have changed it. But the Bible is brutally honest because it is a book inspired of God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. So the next time or if ever someone comes to you and says they don't believe the Bible is inspired of God, ask them to point you to another book as brutally honest as the Bible. And it's honesty that flows from love. Because God is love, because He cannot lie, He tells us the truth all throughout Scripture. They are brutally honest. Fourthly, another mark for us, they are unashamedly complex. They are unashamedly complex. Now, not in every part before we dig into this. When it says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, the verse previous to that tells us the way of salvation is clear. So, we're not talking about that. They're not complex in terms of the way of salvation. Salvation is presented in the Bible in such a way so clearly that even a child can be saved. We know that. But at the same time, there's an unashamed complexity in some of the doctrines of the Bible. Just to remind you of the language of Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 3, when he writes of the writings of the Apostle Paul, he equates them with Scripture and then he says regarding them, 2 Peter 3 verse 16, As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood. Now he's referring to the Word of God. He's referring to all Scripture given by inspiration of God. He's equating Paul's writings with Scripture. And he's saying that there are some things in Paul's writings that are hard to be understood. that those who are unlearned and unstable rest or distort as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction." In other words, what he says about Paul's writings is applicable to other writings because he says the other scriptures have hard things to understand in them as well. And that's why I say there's an unashamed complexity. They are unashamedly complex. In other words, the lack of effort to smooth out, just for example, If we were to take the doctrine of God's sovereignty and the doctrine of man's responsibility. What the Bible has to say about those two things. What it teaches about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Just those two. The lack of effort to smooth out the doctrine of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is incredible. Just as an illustration, Matthew 11. Matthew 11. I'm going to have to move quickly here, but Matthew 11. And we're going to read this as a longer passage, but I want us to see this, just how starkly this contrasts. I want you to see what our Lord Jesus Christ says. And there's no effort to smooth this out. There's no effort to reconcile what He's saying. Think upon God's absolute sovereignty and yet man's responsibility. Verse 20 of Matthew 11, Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Now listen to this, at that time, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Now listen to this, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now there are three things there that our Lord Jesus Christ does. He condemns the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done. He condemns them for rejecting the truth. Then He says, I thank Thee, Father, because you've hid these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them unto babes. In other words, He highlights the sovereignty of God in hiding these things from these cities He's just condemned, and for revealing it unto His disciples, the babes that He's referring to. And then to top it off, He says now to those around Him, come unto Me. All ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Do you see what I'm saying about the lack of effort to smooth this out and to explain how God is absolutely sovereign and yet man is totally responsible? Those cities were completely responsible for rejecting Christ and yet we're told that God had hid these things from them. And then our Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledging that God must reveal these things, calls all those around Him, come unto me. It is one of the most stark examples of the complete lack of effort to smooth this all out and make it fit in a nice box, as it were. And I'm telling you, man doesn't naturally do that. If you or I If we were writing something and we felt even the slightest hint of a contradiction, this is not a contradiction, there are none in the Bible, but for the sake of illustration, if you were writing something and you felt that you had contradicted yourself, what would you do? You would go back and you would change it, wouldn't you? You would smooth it out. You would make it very, very nice and proper and you wouldn't think anything about it. But people have copied this for thousands of years now, and no one's ever smoothed it out. It's a mark of divine inspiration and preservation of the Word of God. They are unashamedly complex, not only in that regard, but if you think about it further, we won't dig into this one, but the greatest engineers an artist in the world could not devise or create a doctrine so complex as the Trinity. You begin to study the Trinity and realize the depths of profound truth that is presented to us in the Bible regarding the Trinity and how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one true eternal God in three distinct persons, co-equal, co-eternal, Man doesn't make that stuff up. That's why I say there's no engineer on earth or artist in the world that could devise or create a doctrine as complex as the Trinity. And yet the Bible's unashamedly complex about it. Unashamedly states these things and doesn't try to explain it all. It just states the fact. They're unashamedly complex. They're always accurate about everything. That's the fifth mark. They are always accurate about everything. We don't have time to dig into this. As I'm sure you're aware, there are countless objections to the Bible being an inerrant and an infallible book. There are countless things that people will say, that's an error, that's wrong, this is wrong, this is inaccurate. There are countless examples. And yet, whether the subject is history, biology, geography, anthropology, which is the study of man, or ethics, the Bible is always accurate. And if you ever deny that, you will destroy the authority of the Word of God. Because every major doctrine in the Scripture, every major truth that you think of is tied to historical events. Our salvation in Christ is tied to historical events. The Lord Jesus actually died on a cross. He actually rose again from the dead. He actually ascended into heaven. And if you begin to deny the historicity of those things, then you will undercut the very foundation of our salvation. But it's not only that, it's the Old Testament as well. If you begin to deny six-day creation, for example, then you're going to then contradict Moses. Moses wrote in Exodus 20 verse 11, We observe the Sabbath day, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is. This is the same Moses that our Lord testifies wrote Genesis. And so when the higher critics, they come to Genesis and they say, Yom, in case you're wondering, if that word day is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to long periods of time. So it may be that in Genesis when it says that in the first day and the second day, it's not actually 24 hours, it's maybe like a thousand years, two hundred years, a million years. And yet you read the inspired commentary of Moses, he says, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. That's why we observe a six-day, seven-day week. Six days of work, one day of rest. That's just one example. If you deny that, now you've contradicted Moses. Christ said that was authentic. Christ said that was the Word of God. So now you've contradicted Christ. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? You see, this is why this is so important and we're taking so much time with it. And I trust it is helpful to us. But they are always accurate about everything. And just to illustrate one for us, I trust quickly. Mark chapter 2. I'll read it to you. If you don't have time to turn there, that's fine. But Mark chapter 2. An event in the life of our Lord. that is often pointed to as a inaccuracy, historical inaccuracy. Our Lord is answering the Pharisees about the disciples taking the corn from the field on the Sabbath day. And He refers to an historical event in the Old Testament when David had need and ate the showbread. in the temple that wasn't intended for him. And he says in verse 25 of Mark 2, And he said unto them, Have you never read what David did when he had need, and was an hungred, he and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him. Notice Christ said in the days of Abiathar. Now in 1 Samuel 21, You read about that account, and it said, Then David came to nob to Ahimelech the priest. You notice Christ said in the days of Abiathar. But when you turn to Samuel, you read Ahimelech. So the higher critics say he was wrong. There's a historical inaccuracy in the Bible. See, the Bible's not inerrant. The Bible's not infallible. It has mistakes. And there's nothing to do about it. You have to deal with it. That's what they will say. Abiathar was Ahimelech's son. He was also a priest in those days. He was working with his father. And Jesus here says, in the days of Abiathar. So, what's the answer? Well, the answer is that men who want the Bible to have errors will do whatever they can to find them. The second answer is that if we just do a little bit of thinking and a little bit of study, we find that in those days, it was normal for the one who was the high priest, as he was nearing the time of stepping down, that his son would be ready to replace him or the one coming after him, and that he would be acknowledged to be co-priest with his father. And so when Christ refers to the days of Abiathar, not only is it the case that Ahimelech was about to die and Abiathar was the more well-known of the period, and they didn't have books or chapters and verses, I should say, when Christ is referring to that. So when He says the days of Abiathar, He's referring to that time period by referring to the one who was more well-known, and referring to the one who was very soon to succeed his father as the high priest. So there is no error. Our Lord is simply referring in a most accurate way to the days of Abiathar instead of Ahimelech And yet, so many will point to that. Even such a man as Bart Ehrman, which some of you may or may not know, who is one of the most vocal critics, wrote a book called, Misquoting Jesus, and the story behind who changed the Bible and why. A man who's so vocal, and yet he puts this up as an example of the Bible having an error. And yet, it's because he is ready to assume that it has errors. He has actually a very sad story that I won't go into at this time. He used to be a quote-on-quote believer and then turned away from the faith. But that's just one example. And you'll find in the case with every other alleged discrepancy or error in the Bible, there's always an answer. Even if you can't figure it out, even if the solution doesn't satisfy man's curiosity, who's the judge? Man always wants to exalt himself over God, and yet the Bible, we sit at its feet because it's the Word of God. They are always accurate about everything, and they are complete as a rule of life. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. In other words, what Paul is saying here about all of Scripture, all of the Bible, all parts that would be considered Holy Scripture, everything that is contained in what we consider our English canon today, it is so full a variety of example, illustration, precepts and promises that it conducts the reader to a way of life that is beyond all other books. What book can you pick up and read that if you just had the Bible as the foundation for a society, would not steer you wrong? It goes beyond all other books. It's a complete rule of life. Many of us know many of our laws in this very nation were established on the teachings of Scripture. And really the glory days of this nation in many ways rode upon the coattails of godly men and women who were largely constituting this nation. And the reason it was such a well-ordered society was because in a lot of ways, not perfectly, but in a lot of ways, they built it upon the Bible. They are complete as a rule of life. That's what Paul says here. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. There's never a place where we are in life when the Bible has nothing to say to us. Never an affliction, never a trial, a sickness, a death, never any situation or circumstance where the Bible has nothing to say. It addresses all of life and all for God. There's no other book like it. It's a book of books. And I trust each of us here can say When you read this book, by the grace of God, you can say like those temple officers did of the Lord Jesus Christ so long ago, no man ever spake like this man spake. May the Lord give us a heart for His Word and appreciation of all these qualities He's given to the Scriptures. Let's seek the Lord. Our Father in heaven, we do thank You for the Word of God. We do pray that You would bless it to our souls tonight. We ask, Lord, that You'd help us even to remember these things that when people would bring up objections or accusations about Your Word, Lord, help us to stand firm and steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, as it were, in seeking to show them the plainness of the Word of God and the genuineness and the authenticity of the testimony of the writers, and of the fact of the brutality and the honesty, the brutal honesty with which you testify of man and of heaven and of hell. Lord, help us, we pray, to remember these things, to take them with us. Lord, even as we open Your Word in our own private times, Lord, help us to remember that what we are reading is the very Word of God. and that we have no reason to doubt it. Lord, continue to speak through us, speak to us and speak through us with this blessed book. Lord, thank you for ears to hear. Thank you for eyes to see. Depart us tonight with your blessing.