The Bible claims to be the inerrant and final revelation from God, supernaturally directed by the Holy Spirit through human authors. Although written over sixteen centuries by many individuals, its message is cohesive and authoritative, with Jesus Christ Himself bearing consistent witness to the Old Testament's reliability. The Bible's central subject is Christ, with all scriptures testifying to Him, and its contents provide a comprehensive account from creation to consummation. Ultimately, the Bible is not for our criticism but for our obedience, revealing ourselves to ourselves and presenting the vision of Christ.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.87 → restored 4.40
Welcome to the Emmaus Bible Hour. This is a program for you and your family, a time to open the Bible and see what God has to say to us through His Word. We're glad you're listening this Sunday morning. We have something special for you.
We're going to take a look at one of our most popular correspondence courses in the weeks ahead. In one country alone, more than a million people have been enrolled in this study. Moody Press in Chicago of the famous Moody Bible Institute by permission printed this course in book form. It's called What Christians Believe. And so you can buy this course in book form at the Good News Bookstore right here in Abilene. But while we're teaching the series on the air, we offer it to you as a correspondence course, as a gift. Also, as an added feature, the material we're using on these broadcasts is available on cassette.
So write to us for information on the cassette and your free copy of the course. Our address, chapel, box four, five, four, abaline. That address again, chapel, box four, five, four, abaline. Now I'm going to play the cassette for you. Hello, everyone. This is your teacher, Ken Ingle. We're happy to be with you. today to begin a new series of studies that I believe are going to be helpful to each of us, enriching to our spiritual lives and providing us with fresh stimulus to serve more acceptably our Lord and Savior. Now you have in your hands, I presume, the Emmaus Bible School course, What the Bible Teaches.
I might just say that in studying this course, what the Bible teaches, you are one of an immense family of Bible students all over the world. This course has been translated into more than eighty languages, and the course is being studied by tens of thousands throughout the world. So we belong to a large Bible class. Now if you'll turn to the table of contents at the beginning of the course, you'll notice the rich variety of subjects that we have in these twelve lessons. First of all, we begin with the Bible itself, and then a study of God, of man, sin, Christ, the new birth, salvation, grace, and so on.
Twelve of these all together. Now, of course, it's not necessary to say that they are not exhaustive, but they are definitely introductory to these great themes that go to make up our glorious Christian faith. Now, you're going to need not only this manual, which will form the basis of our studies together, but you will need, of course, a good Bible. The common version known as the King James Version is excellent. Now, if you have access to an American Standard Version or the New American Standard Bible or one of the more modern critical translations, it's well to use one of these by way of comparison with our reliable King James Version.
It's not necessary, but it's a good idea to have an extra translation or two just for comparison purposes. Today we're beginning with Lesson One, pages four, five, and six in our course. It concerns the subject of the Bible. You will notice in glancing at lesson one that there are four or five simple divisions. There's the introduction and then the question who wrote the Bible followed by what is the subject of the Bible and then what does the Bible contain and finally the conclusion. How does that apply to my everyday life? Now first of all I would like to turn with you to the New Testament, Luke's Gospel Chapter Twenty-four.
Let's open our Bibles to Luke Twenty-four. I'm reading the words of the risen Christ. He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. And then we'll turn over to Second Timothy chapter three, verses fifteen to seventeen. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. 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.
Our third and last text is II Peter I, and it's the last verse, verse twenty-one. 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. These great basic texts set forth what the Bible claims for itself. It claims to be a revelation, inerrant and final from the living God. And it not only makes these claims, but it abounds with eternal truths and external proofs that it is what it claims to be, a revelation from the living God himself." Now this book is really not given to us for our criticism, it's given for us to obey.
The story is told of a certain tourist who was visiting a famous art gallery in Italy some years ago, after completing his hurried tour He stopped to converse with the director of the museum, and as he was there he pointed to the picture-filled walls and said with rather sneer in his voice, Are these your great vaunted masterpieces? Why, I really don't see anything very wonderful about them at all. The director, after a dramatic silence, said, Sir, these paintings are not on trial before visitors. It's the visitors who are on trial before the paintings.
And this can be said precisely of the Word of God itself. The Word of God is not on trial. It's we who are actually on trial. Now in the scriptures that we have read, we were introduced to these momentous claims of the Bible. We read, first of all, Luke, twenty-four, forty-four, and we noticed the risen Christ. gathered in the upper room with his beloved disciples on that Easter Sunday evening, and he honored the Old Testament by pointing out that the Old Testament consists of the Law of Moses. It consists of the prophets, which included the historical books, and then the Psalms, or the poetical books. And he says here that these scriptures bear witness to him.
They are written, said he, concerning me. Now the question as to who wrote the Bible finds its answer in the fact that although it was written over a period of about sixteen centuries and by no fewer than thirty-six different authors or penmen, yet the Holy Spirit Himself was the great guide who took these men and breathed His thoughts into their minds and controlled their writings, so that although He did not remove their personalities, He did not impose upon their existing vocabulary but he did superintend so that out of their writings came a one single cohesive whole.
I like the definition of inspiration given by Dr. John Walford. He puts it this way, God so supernaturally directed the writers of Scripture that without excluding their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings or any other human factor, his own complete and coherent message to man was recorded in perfect accuracy. The very words of Scripture bearing the authority of divine authorship. One cannot read the four Gospels without being conscious that the Lord Jesus Christ bore consistent and full witness to the accuracy and the historicity of the Old Testament.
He constantly quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures, and never on one occasion did he raise the slightest doubt as to the reliability of the Old Testament autographs. On the contrary, he referred to the Old Testament as being the very word of the living God himself. Peter sums it up in the last verse, the first chapter of his second epistle, with these words, For the prophecy came not in old time, that is, in the Old Testament period, by the will of man. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now this word moved here really means to carry a burden, and it might be illustrated by a passenger ship carrying passengers who are free to move within the ship without losing their human characteristics.
So holy men, various writers in both Old Testament and New Testament times were the passengers, as it were, who moved along on board the Spirit of God's power so that they wrote, that what they wrote is the very word of the living God himself, human penman indeed, but supervised and controlled by the Spirit of the living God. Now the subject of the Bible is Christ. In the fortieth Psalm we read, In the volume of the book it is written of me. Now link these two thoughts together. The volume of the book and me. The book is the written word, me.
That's the living word. And the volume of the book, that's the Holy Scriptures, bear witness constantly and consistently to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Acts ten forty three we have these words. To him, that is to Christ. Give all the prophets witness. that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. All the prophets then speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now moving on to the third, what does the Bible contain? The answer is found in the paragraph near the middle of page five. Look over this paragraph, give heed to it, and you will get a very brief that very clear sketch of the breakdown of the contents of the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis and going right through the consummation as spelled out in the Book of Revelation.
Yes, here we have a book, then, that satisfies the heart and convinces the mind. The greatest intellects that have ever been produced have found in the Scriptures a source of fascinating study. And the more one puts the Bible under the microscope, the more its accuracies and its beauties are revealed. But above all, it speaks to the heart. It reveals ourselves to ourselves. And then it brings within our range the vision of the living Christ. For he has said, Ye search the Scriptures. They are they that testify of me. I suggest that you go over your lesson carefully again. Look up all the Scriptures.
that are indicated in the text. And I'm sure, friend, that your soul will be enriched and prepared for lesson two when we come together again. Thank you for being our guest, yes, in listening to the Emmaus Bible Hour this Sunday morning.
We've been looking at the course What the Bible Teaches. This was lesson one. If you would like this course of twelve lessons, we'd like to send it to you free of charge. But we need your name and address. Our address is real simple. Chapel, Box four, five, four, Abilene, Kansas. If you would like a cassette to help you in your study or for use in a home Bible class, write to us for information. Our address again, Chapel Box four, five, four, Abilene. And tune in again next week at the same time for another Emmaus Bible Hour.