Skip to content Beth Jones - Is The Bible Really God's Word Aug 9 · 23 min ...more
Beth Jones - Is The Bible Really God's Word
August 9, 2022 · 23 min
Series Pray TV August 9, 2022 · 23 min · Pray TV
...more Show the full description Show less Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
613K followers
Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
613K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
0:14 Welcome to the basics with Beth TV, and I'm so glad you joined me today. We are doing something really fun. We are getting a grip on the basics of the bible. We are0:26 going back to the bible, line upon line, precept upon precept, and really truly getting a grip just on basic things. And so I hope you've been enjoying our series and each episode. What we're doing0:38 for those of you that have just tuned in today, what we're doing is for the next several episodes, I'm taking you through this book. It's called Getting a Grip on the Basics. This is a book I wrote some 30 years ago,0:50 which is hard to believe, but 30 years, God has been using this book around the world. And in fact, he has touched people's hearts and just prompted them to want to translate it into a variety of languages, up1:02 to 20 languages now around the world, and 17 of those languages we have available for a free download. So if you speak another language other than English, check out our website, the1:14 basics with beth dot tv to download the book for free in 1 of those languages. If you'd like to order the book in English, then you can purchase that either at your local bookstore or some online1:25 outlet or at the basics with beth dot t v as well. Alright? So we're having fun because there's nothing like going back to the basics of the bible. And in fact, I'm I guess you would agree with me on this 1,1:37 that in our culture, globally in our culture, perhaps we are as biblically illiterate as we have ever been. I know there were some recent studies done in America, and if1:49 it wasn't so sad, it would be funny. But the research came back that they did surveys of young people to find out who they thought different people were, and the the the survey came back that people thought Joan of Arc2:01 was Noah's wife. I mean, hello, Houston. We have a problem. When we're thinking Joan of Arc is a bible character married to Noah, then it's just evidence. We2:13 have got to get the basics. We've got to go back to the bible. So that's what we're doing, and we're just digging in. And today, we're in how to hear from God. Like, God is still speaking. His2:25 word is living and active, and he is still communicating with his people. We're gonna find out in today's episode how. How does he speak to us? Like, how can we be certain we're hearing2:37 from the Lord? It's not just our own thoughts or it's not just, you know, the voice of the enemy, but it's truly God speaking to us. And thankfully, he has given us so many safety nets and confirmations2:49 and reassurances. Now here's why it's important. Okay? So imagine the telephone rings, your cell phone rings, and you answer it, you go, hello. And on the other end of the line, you3:00 hear this voice. It says, hi, honey, and you know right away. You recognize the voice, and you know right away, oh, hi, mom. How are you? And you have a conversation because3:12 you recognize her voice. Why do you recognize her voice? You've heard it 1000000 times. Right? You've heard her call you by your first, middle, and last name at times. You've heard her talk to you3:24 sweetly. You've heard her give you guidance and instruction. Same thing's true with your dad. You're familiar with your parents' voice for this illustration. Well, over time, you just get so familiar. All you have to3:35 hear is, hi, honey, and boom, you know who it is. Well, do you know the more acquainted we get with God hearing his voice through his word, the more versed you are in the bible and hearing3:47 God's voice as you're reading the bible. Then in life, you're traveling through life and you need to make some decisions, and so you have a quick conversation with the Lord. Lord, what do we need to do here? What's your3:58 wisdom on this? And you sense God's leading. You sense that you hear God's voice. It won't be like, God, was that you? I don't know. Was that me? Was that the devil? Who was that? You'll be so versed in4:09 the Bible and so familiar with his voice and how he sounds to you when you're reading the bible, when you're spending time with him, that when you hear his still small voice on the inside, then you'll be like, oh,4:21 yeah, know. I know that's God because I'm familiar with his voice. That's why today's lesson is really important because when we get comfortable knowing how to hear from God, then we will hear from him4:33 as we're reading the Bible and then as we're going on through our day being led by the spirit. Okay? Does that make sense? So let's dive into it, and let's talk about it. Go over if you've got your Bibles out, go ahead4:45 and go over to second Timothy 3. Here's what it says. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for4:56 correction, and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God, the woman of God, may be complete, thoroughly furnished for every good work. All scripture is inspired5:08 by God. We're talking about the Bible now, how to hear from God. And the primary way we hear from God is through his word. So then the Bible tells us about itself that all scripture is inspired by God.5:20 God breathed. And then we have to determine, does the Bible verify that? Like, it do you believe that? The Bible says it's true, and now we you and I get the choice to believe it.5:32 But our belief isn't just based on nothing. Our belief is based on something, and that's, again, what we're gonna talk about today. Because ultimately here's the deal, guys. Ultimately, everything comes down to 25:44 things. Everything comes down to what do you believe about Jesus. You know? It's funny. People are okay sometimes if you talk about God, or if you talk about spiritual things, or if you talk about angels, or if you5:56 talk about certain spiritual things. But as soon as you start talking about Jesus, man, that separates the men from the boys, doesn't it? And so that's why it's really important. It comes down to what do you believe6:06 about Jesus. And we talked about that in previous episodes. But in this particular lesson, it comes down to the number 2 thing, which is what do you believe about the Bible? Do you believe it is God's inerrant,6:17 infallible, living word? Or is it just a dusty book? Is it just ink on pages that some people put together thousands of years ago? Or is it a God breathed book where6:29 God in present tense is still speaking to us? Well, the Bible tells us it is God breathed. And in my own personal experience, I'll vouch it's God breathed. It certainly has been in my life, and I'm imagining many of you6:40 would also say, oh, yeah. God has spoken to me many times through his word. But that's what we want to just lay that really strong foundation in today so that you know because you know because you know. You can trust6:50 God's word. You can take it to the bank. You can build your life on it. It becomes the plumb line. Literally, it becomes the plumb line for your life. In fact, I'll never forget. It was the summer of 19 79,7:02 and I remember I'd I'd been on a summer project with a ministry that summer, and God got ahold of my heart. And I'll never forget at the end of that summer, I made a decision. I said, Lord, I am convinced now that this7:13 is your living word. And so from this moment on, I'm making a decision, and it is a decision, that from now on, I'm gonna base my life to the best of my ability on the standard of your word. It will be the plumb line for7:25 the decisions I make, who I marry, the jobs I take, my career, where we live, and just my life. My my lifestyle choices is gonna now be based on the plumb line of your word because I came to that point, man, I7:37 believed 100 percent that this is God's inspired word. And that's, of course, what Timothy tells us. Let's look at another. Jesus. Okay. This is awesome. Jesus believed that the Bible was the inspired7:49 God breathed word. And especially the Old Testament, of course. Here's what he said. In John 5 39, Jesus said, you search the scriptures for in them you have eternal life. And they8:00 are these, and these are they which testify of me. He says to the religious leaders of the day, you search the scriptures because you're searching for eternal life, but the scriptures speak of me. The whole bible is a8:12 revelation of Jesus Christ. He is the hero. He is the central figure of the whole bible. Jesus, our lord, our savior, our redeemer. I mean, the whole bible8:24 is about who Jesus is and then our relationship with him and with the father and with the holy spirit. The cool thing is Jesus believed the old testament was inspired by god. Well, that's evidence. That's proof. I8:36 mean, that's a good starting spot. Okay. Well, praise the Lord then. There's something to this Bible, and yes, there is. Alright. What else did he say? John 5 verse 46. Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you would8:47 believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you how will you believe my works? Again, Jesus is just putting his stamp of of approval, his endorsement on the God8:59 breathed quotient of the Bible. Alright? So who wrote the Bible? God did. God breathed on men, holy men of old, the bible tells us, who wrote the bible. In fact, look at9:10 this. In second Peter 1 20, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.9:23 For prophecy, the Bible, never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In other words, we know humans wrote the9:34 Bible, described it, but they were inspired, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So again, God breathed, but he used men, just like he does today, as a matter of fact, when it comes to the Great Commission. It's9:46 God breathed, but he's using you and I to preach the gospel to the whole world. Alright. That was a little parenthetical thought. Okay. How reliable is the Bible then? If God breathed it,9:58 great. How reliable is it? Let's look at this in Matthew 24 verse 35. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.10:10 Forever, o lord, your word is settled in heaven. Wow. Think about this now. Think about if it's true, heaven and earth, everything you and I see in the physical realm, heaven and earth will pass10:22 away. Like 1 day it will pass away. There'll be a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words, Jesus said, concerning God's word, concerning his word, would never pass away. God's word10:33 is eternal, which means investing God's word into our hearts. Like you're spending time in a in a watching a program like this, spending time getting a grip on the basics. Man, listen.10:45 It is an eternal investment. I mean, I think it's fun to think about. 1 day in heaven, y'all, 1 day in heaven, we're still gonna have god's word. So the investment you make in putting god's word in your heart10:57 now has an eternal lasting value. It helps you in the here and now, but I just think it's interesting. In heaven, for eternity, God's word is settled, and it's still gonna be11:09 appropriate. It's still gonna be in effect. So, man, take all the time that you can to put that word in your heart just like the bible tells us. What about Isaiah 40 verse 8? The grass11:21 withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. How reliable is the bible? How how will it become obsolete? Absolutely not. It is a11:32 timeless truth. And it's so interesting. Even over time with invention and with all the technology and with all the things that change in our culture, isn't it funny that the Bible is still relevant?11:44 Isn't it funny that the bible is this timeless word of truth? The good old fashioned gospel is still relevant no matter what age you live in and will be relevant11:56 for eternity. So it's a good investment. Now what about the bible? Here's some facts, bible facts. The bible was written by 40 different men who had various occupations. It was written during a period of12:08 1500 years in 3 languages, in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. The bible has 1 central theme, 1 consistent theme, I mentioned, in Jesus Christ. From12:19 Genesis all the way to Revelation, all the way to maps, Jesus is the central theme of the bible. So then let's talk about why did god give us the bible? Okay. So why?12:31 What's what's the benefit you and I are supposed to be getting out of the bible? Let's take a look at second Timothy 3 16 and 17. Why did God give us the Bible? What's the point? Here's what it says. All12:43 scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness that the man or woman of God may be thoroughly furnished,12:55 equipped for every good work. Okay. So why do we have the Bible? It does 4 things for us in this particular passage. 4 things. It gives us good doctrine. Like, it gives us our belief system.13:07 It gives us good doctrine. And even as you're watching these episodes, getting a grip on the basics. In essence, we're just we're just getting doctrine. This is a doctrine study. We're getting into the basic13:18 fundamental foundational doctrines of the bible upon which we can build our lives. What else? He says here, the bible gives us reproof and correction. They're the same but a little different.13:30 Reproof is like when we're completely making bad choices. We're off course. We are just living in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord. We're making lifestyle choices, attitude choices. We're saying13:42 things. We're living in a way that we have got to stop. And so the Lord, as we're reading the Bible, reproves us. He rebukes us in that most loving way to say, stop. Don't do that. Turn around.13:54 Go the other way. This is not gonna help you. This is not my best for you. The bible does that for us if we have ears to hear it. Then the bible corrects us. Sometimes it's not like some dramatic, like,14:06 ungodly lifestyle or something, but it's just we're off course just a little. We just have a little attitude problem. We just have a little off course. If we kept going in that direction, we'd be way off course. So we14:17 stay in the word, and the bible corrects our course. Course corrections really throughout our whole life, just course corrections 1 after another. What else? Instruction in righteousness and right living.14:29 Like you say, I don't know how to live this Christian life. Keep reading the bible. God will help us just to have good instruction for right living, to live in a way that pleases the lord, that produces14:41 fruit in and through your life, eternal fruit. So that's what the bible does for us. Isn't that awesome? I love it. Okay. What else? Well, here's what else the bible does in our lives. Hebrews 414:52 12 says this, the word of god is living and powerful, sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints15:04 and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Okay. So let's talk about a couple of things as it relates to God's word is living and active. Like, it is15:16 alive. The Bible is living. It is not like any other book. It's not like reading somebody else's autobiography or somebody else's biography. This is God's living book whereby he still speaks living15:28 words in present tense time. He's still speaking to us through his word. So so if you've read somebody else's autobiography, let's say, or somebody else's biography, as you're reading the book, you're learning a lot15:39 about that person, but you're not getting to know that person personally. You know, you don't know that just because you read their their story doesn't mean you know them personally. But the bible, when you read the15:50 bible, because it is living, you not only learn about God, you get to know God. He like literally through his word personally speaks to you. I mean, you've read16:02 a biography or an autobiography of a famous person, I guarantee they personally did not speak to you as you read in their biography. But when you read the bible, God is, he is personally talking to16:13 you. It's living. It's active. And then here's the thing, it is able to divide. The bible is the best divider in the in in the best sense of the word. It is able to divide between soul and spirit.16:25 What does that mean? It means you and I have a soul. Our mind, our emotions, our will, and it's and it's a good thing. But sometimes our emotions, our mind, our will isn't exactly in agreement with God's16:37 will, with his word. And then sometimes you're like, Lord, I don't know. What do you want me to do? Or what do you want me to think? Or what choice should I make here? Because I want to do this. And I think you might16:49 want me to do it, but I don't know. I can't divide between my own soul and what the holy spirit is speaking to my spirit through the word. How do you divide that? How do you divide out between your soul and your17:01 spirit? You can't just do it mentally because it's not a mental thing. It's a spiritual thing. That's why when you read the bible, it divides it for you. The bible's the best divider. I heard somebody say this 1 time, if17:12 you're feeling confused or you've got a decision to make and you're just not sure what to do, what do you do? Double up on the divider. That's how they put it. I thought that was a great way to say it. Just spend more17:21 time in the word and let God's word divide between your soul and your spirit so you can make the right choices. It also goes on to say it's a discerner of the thoughts that we have in the intents of17:33 the heart, which again, sometimes it's hard to discern between your own thoughts and what's going on in your heart. How do you discern that? How do you divide that out? The word. It's the discerner. It's the 1. As you17:45 read the word, it'll say to you, oh, see? Yeah. That was just your thought, but here's what God's saying to you. Here's the intents he's putting in your heart. Those other things were just thoughts. Not bad thoughts17:54 necessarily, but not God's thoughts. And that's how the word helps us just to live every day this faith adventure, this Christian life. Can you see this? I mean, I hope it makes you go, man, I didn't know that. I didn't18:05 know the bible was so alive. I wanna spend more time reading my bible. The other thing the word does, both from what we saw here in Hebrews 4 and what we saw in Timothy, the bible gives us18:17 safety bumpers. You know, it really does. It's like it puts up the guidelines. If you've ever seen the construction of a house and how a house is built on a foundation and then the 2 by fours go up, the18:29 studs go up, Those studs really give the house structure and something for the whole rest of the construction project to hang on. All the drywall hangs on those studs. Right? All the electrical wires go18:41 through those studs. It is a framework by which that house is built. God's word is our framework. It is the thing by which everything else hangs. The rest of our life hangs on the18:52 structure, the framework of God's word in our lives. I heard somebody say it this way once. They said God's word is like the riverbanks. It's like the river of your life is flowing in lots of different directions, but19:02 what are the safety guards? What's the safety banks so that you stay right in the flow with God? It's his word. It's those riverbanks that keep you and I right in tune with what God's wanting us to know and19:14 to do and to be. Okay? Make sense? Let's talk about another. What else does God's word do for us? And I'm sharing all these because it may be that you've been told, you should read your bible. You should spend time with19:25 the Lord. But maybe you're like, I know, but I don't know why. What's the bible supposed to do for me? Well, hopefully, you're getting a little bit of a glimpse of all the things god wants to do, but let's look at19:37 another in Psalm 1 19 verse 1 0 5. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And then in verse 1 30, he says, the entrance19:49 of your words give light, and it gives understanding to the simple. I love both of these in Psalm 1 19. In fact, if you wanna read a great Psalm to get your heart stirred up in the20:00 word, in reading the bible, man, read Psalm 1 19. Because he says right here, your words are a lamp to my feet. In other words, you're you're walking a path. You're walking your life path, and you need wisdom20:12 and direction to know what to do. Where do you get that direction? From God's word. I don't know how he does it. I don't know how he customizes his word to answer the questions you and I face in our everyday20:24 life. As moms, as dads, as employees, as employers, as students, as people just living life somehow or another, God's word lights up our path. It it helps us know what20:36 next steps to take. And then it says here, it gives understanding to the simple. Like sometimes we don't understand what decisions we're making or why, but the Bible gives us that understanding.20:48 So again, reasons, more great reasons to get into the word. 1 other 1, I wanna talk about 1 other 1 in our time remaining. I wanna talk about Matthew 4 4. Jesus21:00 said this, you know, the enemy, the devil was tempting him. This is in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. And the devil came to him with a temptation. He had been fasting for 40 days. He's hungry. And the devil21:11 says, hey, if you're the son of God, why don't you just turn these stones into bread and, you know, endeavor to tempt Jesus to get out of the will of God? But I love what Jesus said in Matthew 4 4. He said, man does21:23 not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. Man lives by every word. And we're gonna come back and talk21:35 about this in our next episode, but I wanna plant the seed now. You and I, we can live by I mean, literally, you can live by God's word. Jesus said that's what man lives by. Every living word, every spoken21:47 word, every word that's alive that he is speaking to your heart as you read his word. You can live by that. And my husband and I made that decision many, many years ago, and the truth is if we look back and when we look21:58 back, we can chronicle our lives. Honestly, we can chronicle our lives and major decisions and the pathways God's led us on more by scriptures he's given us to live by than by22:10 dates on a calendar. Like, you can chronicle your life by what God has spoken to you through his word. I just think that's I think it's fun. It's awesome. It's supernatural. It's this faith adventure. Man does not live22:21 by bread alone, the natural things. But man lives by you can lit you can take God's word to the bank. What's he said to you? What's he speaking to you now? Well, thing is, God quickened to you as you've been reading the22:31 bible. You can live by it. Literally, live by the word. Alright. Well, our time's up. So we're gonna dig back into this in our next episode, but I hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you're getting stirred up about the bible22:43 and wanted to spend time with God as you read his word. Alright? So I'll see you in our next episode right here as we get a grip on the basics. Hey. Thanks so much for listening to today's22:55 message. I hope you were encouraged. Be sure to hit the follow button so you can binge on all the Bible Basics throughout the week and stay encouraged in your faith. And don't forget to share these23:07 messages with your friends. If you'd like more information about our ministry, you can always go to the basics with beth dot com. That's the basics with beth dot com. It's been great23:19 to be with you, and I will look forward to seeing you next time right here on pray dot com.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.