"Search For Truth - Part #1" - The Apostolic Connection

job 23 and verse number three job said oh that I knew where I might find him oh that I knew where I might find him search for truth home Bible study the theme of our Bible study is to open your heart when you open your Bibles open your heart when you open your Bible this search for truth study is not about us taking what we believe to the Bible to see if what we believe is correct but this is about going to the Bible to get what we believe it's not taking what we think to the Bible and making it say what we want it to say but it is going to the Bible the pure unadulterated word of God and there's a simple thing that you must do and that is you must open your heart when you open your Bible the next chart please the general view we know that our Bibles and and and before before I begin let let me say this to say this I know we're we we love to shout we love to praise God we love all the the excitement of telling me something relevant and and and I believe in that but it is of necessity everybody say necessity it is of necessity that you have a good handle of the word of God and so sometimes that just takes setting and listening and you have to disciple your mind you see Jesus God could have done anything he could have used his power to do anything he opened the blinded eyes with his power cause death to hear the lame to walk but one thing he would not do he would not bypass he would not bypass the natural teaching and receiving to impart his knowledge he could have just simply waved his hand or blinked his eye or even thought it and placed into our minds all the knowledge that we would need of him but he didn't do it because it takes the discipline of the hearer and it does it takes the discipline of the hearer to receive what God wants to say but once you discipline your ear and he deposits that in your heart oh my friend what a treasure what a treasure that you have inside you see the Old Testament the Bible the book is in two parts the Old Testament and the New Testament the word testament is another word for contract you could say the old contract and the new contract and this contract or Testament that God gave was his word to us much like contracts today contracts between two parties today State I will do this if you will do this if you will do this part of the contract then I will do the other part of the contract and let me say there is no better one to be in contract with than the almighty God the Old Testament the Old Testament has 39 n books although we put the Bible in one cover the Bible is really 66 books the entire Bible is 66 books with 39 of them being in the Old Testament now if you were to take each book give its own cover place it on a bookshelf it would look something similar to you see on the screen today these 39 books is really easy to read remember how many books are in the Old Testament because the word old has three letters and the word testament has nine slide them together and you have 39 so you you've learned something this morning already that there's 39 books in in the Old Testament now the first five books is what we call five books of law they're written written by Moses and uh they cover they cover creation and they cover uh the children of Israel uh in Egypt five books of of of law uh both civil uh and ceremonial and moral laws that were given God gave laws uh to the people uh there's 12 books of history there there's 12 books of History starting with Joshua and uh 12 books of history of the children of Israel and how God provided for Israel it's comforting to know that the same God of Israel is the same God of the church today there's five books of poetry from beginning at job to the Song of Solomon these books tell us how to praise and how to worship how to believe in God then there are 17 books uh and I will explain when it says five five major and 12 minor uh when we read the words major and minor please do not misunderstand don't misunderstand it's not saying one is more important than the other because all 17 books of Prophecy are equally important the reason that there's 12 minor is simply the length of them they're just not as large as the other there's five that are major that are more in cont content and then there's 12 that are short books but they are books of Prophecy now what is what simply is prophecy what what is prophecy prophecy is God speaking The God Who is eternal past present and future so God gives what we know of as prophecy today now not not not fortune telling please don't misunderstand I'm not talking about fortune telling I'm not I'm not talking about I'm not talking about some kind of psychic God when God speaks something God speaks it with Clarity and this is called prophecy this is called prophecy so there's there's 17 books of Prophecy and these 17 books of Prophecy and I'm just giving you an over an overview today these 17 books of Prophecy there's some things that the prophets who prophesied there's some things that were for that day and that God would tell them especially uh if they did not keep the ways of the law that God would foretell things that were going to happen to them and it happened to them then there is prophecy in the 17 books that prophesy of God becoming flesh God becoming Our Savior it was prophesied in these books that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb it was prophesied in these books long before the Roman soldier with that wooden Mallet walked up to break the legs of Jesus just prior to hasten death It Was Written long before this when the when when when that Roman soldier got there with that wooden Mallet to break the legs of Jesus he didn't do it he changed his mind but he didn't change his mind he was Spirit driven to change his mind he may not have known that because the script in these 17 books of Prophecy said that not a bone of his body would be broken now the Old Testament covers 3600 years of man's day it was written over a, 1400e period by 32 different writers 32 different writers and I hope this helps you to see the the the uh the validity of the Bible I hope this helps you to see how Dependable that the Bible is because it was written uh over a 1400 year period by 32 different writers and let me say many of them didn't even know each other they didn't even live in the same Century with each other many of them came from different backgrounds Amos was one Amos was a simple country farmer preacher just a simple country preacher while Isaiah was an extremely educated Court preacher there was Moses who was brought up in the schools of Egypt there was David who was a psalmist and a songwriter he was a shepherd and then there was Solomon he was the wisest man man to ever live and let me State this there are no contradictions in in the word of God there's no contradictions in God's word don't don't let anybody tell you that there are contradictions in God's word for example I've heard folks say well God says he would never again destroy the Earth with a flood and we have floods all over you're exactly right but you're not reading it you're not reading all the word of God he said I will never again destroy all the Earth with a flood and so there are no contradictions in the Bible but how in the world because when these different writers got ready to write they didn't have each other's notes to compare they didn't say well you know I'm about to write something I better make sure it fits with this one it fits with that one no they did not so how would they write over this over this time span 14400 years 32 different men not even knowing other how would they work in correlation with each other well second Peter chap 1 verse number 20 second Peter chapter 1 verse number 20 if you'll put that verse on the screen for me please that gives us the re this gives us the reason and it says knowing this first that no Prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation in other words this is saying that there's no prophecy of scripture No foretelling of what God Said No no telling of what God Said is of man's origin man did not come up with this is not man's interpretation how did we get the Bible look at verse 21 with me for the prophecy came not in Old Time by the will of man so our Bibles today is not the product of abund bunch of men that lived centuries ago that decided of what they wanted to write about God for the prophecy came not in Old Time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost so how could 32 different men living in a, 1400e Span right and never contradict one another it's simple they were simply taking down dictation but the Holy Ghost is the author and see although times come and go and people come and go God remains Eternal praise God he ever remains Eternal you know some have said that you know that the Bible is a is not a science book you know and and uh they say things such as uh science and and all this do you know that there's hardly a science book in the universities now in the world that's more than a year or two old because a science book is filled with Theory they have a theory of this is how it happened all right but as as time goes on they are lining more up with what the word of God says although they will not attribute God to Creation they said well it wasn't just a big bang and everything happened it was probably a a a a process of things that fell in into line for example those Sailors years ago who had a fear when they would set out and their fear was we may sail off the end of the world for they believe the world was flat held up by pillars by some Hercules being and so Sailors had the fear of sailing off the end of the Earth well if they could have read their Bible God plainly said I am he that sth upon the circle of the earth many things that man could find in in the word of God that are there see Satan loves to make a fool out of people when it comes to the word of God several years ago several years ago a man spent some great sum of money to disprove the Bible because he proved that apples apples could not grow in the Mesopotamian Valley and see his point was that's where Adam and Eve were and he proved that apples could not grow in in that area so therefore Eve did not eat an apple from the tree sir you need to study your Bible it wasn't an it doesn't say it was an apple it simply says it was fruit not an apple now I've often said it wasn't the apple on the tree it was the pear on the ground it's I'm sorry um and so all we need to know yes Cade's Cove is beautiful of the mornings yes I have set my own s and looked across Cades Cove and thought about the peace of God oh yes I've thought about God's peace I've sat at both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans and thought about how vast God is but can I tell you something it's not Cage's Cove or the Atlantic or the the Pacific God gives me peace through his word and God shows me his power through his word and all we need to know about God is found between the pages from Genesis to Revelation all we need to know about our God is in the word of God aren't we thankful for the word of God this morning now next chart please now we turn the very first verse in the Bible the very first verse is important and let's all read that verse together shall we verse chapter one and verse number one let's read it together in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth would you get me Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number three you see man is trying to look for The Missing Link the origin of the earth man's trying to look for some Stone some rock some bone something to link them back to the origin of the earth church I will let you in on a great secret they'll never find one because when God creates now you'll notice in Genesis he uses the word create and he uses the word made and many times when he uses the word create and made they're different and they're different because because when God says he creates that means that he made something out of nothing he made something out of nothing when he uses the word made many times that means he used something that he made from nothing he used a something and made something else that's right but everything that we see came from nothing that's why there's not a bone that's why there's not a rock that's why there's nothing you can hold to trace you back to the origin of the world is because through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear