Congregation, I would invite you tonight to turn with me to three different texts in the scripture. We'll be turning to 2 Timothy 3, and the Hebrews 4, and 2 Peter 1. We certainly have tonight a topical sermon. We'll be gleaning different truths from different sections of the scripture. We want to look tonight at the uniqueness of the Bible. We will be covering not one or two articles from the Belgic Confession, but we're going to look at Article 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. We will be out of here by midnight. Maybe. So we start at 2 Timothy 3, 16. What are we focused on? Our focus tonight is on the Word of God, our Bible. And as we've said this morning, said previous weeks, this is a critical truth. Now listen, you remember last week we talked about Gideon de Bray and his life. Listen, he was a man convinced that this was the word of God. So much so that he was willing to go to the gallows over that question. As I said to you last week, this Belgic confession we're looking at, it's got blood all over it. People were dying standing on these truths, for these truths. And so we have a document tonight declaring something that was very powerful in their hearts. And I know it's in your heart too. That what we have is the word of God. We just can't dwell too little on that, or too much rather. So tonight, I want to just visit three texts quickly. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Very helpful teaching on the word of God. Let's begin there. All scripture, Paul says to Timothy, is breathed out by God. What scripture? All Scripture, every last word breathed out by God. Now, when you hear that breathed out, what do you think of? Of course, right back to Genesis 1, where God breathed these words out, and He breathed into their soul. He breathed into them. Well, here He is breathing His word out, inspiring His word out. And because it's breathed out by God, well, what is it? It's profitable. Boy, there's an understatement. Profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Now note those four words. Profitable for teaching. First of all, that's what the Word of God does, just teaches us. Second, the thing it does is it rebukes us, reproves us, calls us up short, says, hey, hey, wait a minute, that's wrong. That attitude, nope, nope, nope. That action, nope, can't go there. You should be doing this. We need that. It's the owner manual for our heart, for our lives. And so it reproves us. So we've got to come to the word of God humbly. Tonight, would you ask God to rebuke you? Would you come that way before Him tonight? If we will come to a sermon with humility, that, oh Lord, you speak to me tonight, and even if that means, Lord, that you gotta set me straight, Lord, do that, do that. Maybe that's a prayer you'd be praying right now as I'm reading this. So not only does it teach us and then rebuke us or reprove us, but it also corrects us. Aren't you thankful for that, that the Word of God does that? The Word of God does not come to you and say, hey, you're messing up, only. But it also comes and says, okay, you're messing up, but let me tell you how to get right. I always appreciate that. If I'm gonna be told I'm doing something wrong, please tell me how to do it right. That's what God does. And then finally, and for the training in righteousness, right doing to train you, it's the difference between teaching and training, God also trains us. He doesn't just teach, He doesn't just say it, but He even shows us how to do it. So beautifully, so powerfully in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we should be reading the Gospels and following the life of Christ all the time in our reading. It ought to be part of our reading, looking at Jesus. How did he do that? How did he say that? How did he respond to that? What was his wisdom there? How did he handle that situation, right? So that we can be trained. Training in what? Well, right doing, righteousness. 17, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. There's 2 Timothy 3.16. Is the word of God valuable to us as believers? Oh my, right? Oh, we just can't get enough when we want to be righteous men and women of God. People that are eager to be righteous men and women of God are hungry for the word of God. Amen, right? Okay, that's our first one. Let's go over to Hebrews 4.12. Let's see what we can glean from this teaching. Hebrews 4.12. I still hear pages turning, it's so good to hear pages turning, it's great. See, you're hungry for the Word of God, you're getting there, good. All right, let's go to Hebrews 4.12. and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. All right, let's back up again now. Let's try to absorb this verse a little bit. For the word of God, first of all, is what? It's living. Well, there's a statement. No other book on your shelf is living. Walk into the library and ask the librarian, do you have any living books in here? This one's living. It's alive. It's alive. But not only is it alive, like just laying there like breathing or something, but it's It's active, it's working to do something. It's on the move. The Word of God speaks life and it speaks into us with an action, calling us to action and empowering us to action and helping us to get moving in the direction of righteousness. So the Word of God does this. The Word of God is living and active, and just like we saw in 2 Timothy 3.16, it proves us it's sharper than any two-edged sword. What does it do? It pierces to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow. It is diving deep into your heart, deeper than anything else can dive into you. Now, you might get some advice from a friend, and that's so good. But the Word of God has a way of going right into the core of your soul. Open your heart up to the Word of God. It'll speak to the very core of your values, the very core of who you are, the very core of your soul. And it discerns. the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You know, sometimes I can't do that. I can't even discern. I'm wondering, why am I thinking that way? Why am I doing that? The Word of God can help me discern the thoughts and intentions of my heart. What is your intention? What is your intention? What do you wanna do? What's your priorities? What's your values? See, all that's dripping in this phrase. So the word of God is living and active, sharp enough to get down deep into your soul and will discern you and help you know yourself. Because we don't even know ourselves well. Our sin nature clouds us so much. Okay, so that's Hebrews 4.12. Let's go to 2 Peter. A couple of pages further in, 2 Peter 1, 16. through 21, this is 2 Peter 1, 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's a classic comment from the unbeliever, that the word of God is just a myth. This book has just been written by one or two people and, you know, that's just ridiculous things that they come up with. But Peter is saying here, look, we didn't follow myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We saw it, you can't deny Peter's, what he saw. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and a voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven. For we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention. What Peter is just saying here is, look, we had this experience of seeing Jesus Christ glorified. Could have been, he's talking about the transfiguration. Wonderful experience, amazing experience. Not only did we see that, we saw him rise from the dead. Amazing experience. But we got even something better. We've got the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention. As to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture come from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So congregation, here's three texts tonight to help us be like those believers during the day and age that the Belgic Confession was written and be so convinced that this is the word of God that we will give our life to it even if it causes our death as Gideon de Bray did. three good texts for us to consider. Now, if you'll turn with me to your form and prayer book, we'll look at the Belgic Confession on page 154. It's article three. It's entitled The Written Word of God. So I'll read this a moment, and then I'll read a couple of other sections as well. Article 3. Right? We just read it. Afterwards... our God, because of the special care he has for us in our salvation, commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit this revealed word to writing. He himself wrote with his own finger the two tablets of the law. Therefore, we call such writings holy and divine scriptures. Now, if you'll turn with me to, now, Article 4 lists those books. Now, Article 5, the authority of Scripture. We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical for their regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we believe, without a doubt, all things contained in them, not so much because the church receives and approves them as such, but above all, because the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they prove to themselves to be from God. For even the blind themselves are able to see that the things predicted in them do happen. And again, there's in article six information on the difference between the canonical books and the apocryphal books. Now, over to article seven, just the first paragraph. The sufficiency of scripture. We believe that this holy scripture contains the will of God completely. and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it. So some comments quickly from the Belgian Confession, and I direct you to read those more thoroughly. But tonight I want to speak to you about the uniqueness of the Bible, the uniqueness of the scriptures. And I'm doing so utilizing a lot of material from Josh McDowell, evidence that demands a verdict. Now you can get that in book form, you can also get it online, you can see him on YouTube, talk about some of these things. He's been a real help to me and so I bring it to you tonight hoping that as we see the uniqueness of the scriptures, It'll move us further in our faith to believe that we have the very word of God in our Bible. So now what do I mean by unique? Unique. The American Heritage Dictionary says, being the only one of its kind. Being without an equal or equivalent. So that's what I'm declaring tonight. And I believe that you believe. that this Bible, these books that we have before us contained in it, are unique. They are only one of its kind. Now, how so? So let me argue, using some of Josh McGall's material as well as some of my own, just on how that can be. Well, let's look at the uniqueness of the Bible. First of all, it's unique in harmony and continuity of message. It's been written over a span of 1,500 years. That's 60 generations it took to bring together the complete scriptures that we have before us today. 1,500 years. It has 40 plus authors. They were fishermen, doctors, lawyers, sheep herders, tax collectors, prime ministers, cup bearers, rabbis, philosophers, military generals, every kind of walk of life. And yet, even though all these guys, so different, so many, over 1,500 years, were so guided by the Lord as he spoke to them for them to record his word to us, always kept them on track so that redemptive history has one central focus, and that is always who? The Lord Jesus Christ. It's written during a time of war. It was written during a time of peace. It was written during a time of joy, times of depression and despair and torment, including physical stress, emotional disorder, right? Think of Elijah. Mental anguish and spiritual temptation. Written on three continents, written in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and of course, Koine Greek. It took on hundreds, the scriptures takes on hundreds of controversial subjects. Divorce, we spoke about that this morning in our catechism class. What we ought to be doing with our money. Boy, don't talk about money. Well, the Bible doesn't have any problem talking about money. Heaven and hell, the purpose of life, our priorities, what we're doing with our life. It's unique in circulation. To have a million copies of a book written is impressive. If you wrote a book and you've got a million copies out there, that's impressive, right? To have 10 million published is a rarity. So to consider that the number of Bibles sold is in the billions is astounding. Now, that doesn't mean that makes this the Word of God, but it's enough to make us set up and take notice, isn't it? The second book to the Bible in circulation is a book illustrating the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress. According to the United Bible Societies, In 1998, just that year alone, member organizations were responsible for distributing 20.8 million complete Bibles and another 20.1 million New Testaments. That's just one year. And that's just Bible societies. That's not talking about corporations like Zondervan printing them. Again, I say to you, that doesn't prove this is the Word of God. But it sure says something. It's unique in translation. The first book translated into another language, the Septuagint. You know, the Septuagint comes from 70 in the Greek, 70 men, 70 rooms, 70 days, written in 250 BC. The Old Testament into Greek, that's what the Septuagint was. Translated for Alexandrian Jews living in Egypt who no longer spoke Hebrew. Wycliffe Translators has 6,000 people. Now, I don't know how many they have today, but these numbers may be a little old, but 6,000 people working in the translation of 850 languages in 50 countries. Of these 850 languages, 468 are being written for the first time. They're working toward the goal of all languages to have a Bible. No other book can claim that, not even come close. I know that this is in itself no reason that the Bible is the Word of God, but it is unique. It's unique in survival. Josh McDowell points out it's unique in survival through time. If you take the top ten writings of antiquity, the amount of manuscript evidence does not come close to the manuscripts we have of the Bible. Almost every innovation in history that had to do with the scriptures was motivated by the preservation of the Bible. You remember that the Bible was first written on papyri from a reed near the Nile, a river called Papyrus. But it was also written on parchment and vellum from animal hides. It was handwritten, that's what we call manuscripts, written by hand. 5,366 manuscripts is what we have today of the complete New Testament, written by hand, 5,366. Well, how would that compare to other antique writings? Well, here's some numbers. The Iliad by Homer, 643 copies. The history of Herodas, eight copies, eight, eight. But nobody wants to deny that that's not factual writings. There's only eight of them compared to 5,366. The history of Lucidus, eight copies. Plato, seven copies. Demosthenes, 200 copies. The Gallic Wars by Caesar. How many copies do you think we got on that one? 10. The history of Rome by Livy, 19, compared to 5,366. Now that doesn't mean it's the Word of God. It says something. It's unique. There are 24,633 partial manuscripts of the New Testament. You say, where are all these? They're in many of our university libraries. When I was in England, in London at the library there, wow, they've got all kinds of copies there. Manuscripts, partial manuscripts. We have one manuscript, small little partial section of the book of John dating so close, we're with just in a few years of the original. That's how God has protected his word. So it's unique through persecution. We often talk about Nero, don't we, and the burning and the crucifixion of Christians in Rome during Nero's time. You remember he burned Rome and then blamed the Christians on it. He was bad. But there was another guy that was worse. His name was Diocletian. He lived around 303 A.D. Diocletian said all Bibles are to be destroyed. All manuscripts of the New Testament were to be destroyed. All manuscripts of the Old Testament were to be destroyed. That's 303 A.D. What happened in 313 A.D., 10 years later? Do you remember? Yeah. Constantine comes to reign and assigns 50 copies to the Royal Roman Library. It seems in history that when someone gets so passionate about destroying the Word of God, it only takes a little time. And God is fully preserving, fully protecting His Word so that you and I can be sitting here today with these wonderful copies. 1778, remember a guy by the name of Voltaire? He was a skeptic. He's quoted as having said that within 100 years of his life, the Bible would be extinct. But 50 years later, the Geneva Bible Society set up operations in Voltaire's house and used his printing press to produce Bibles. Tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor. The Nazis, USSR, North Korea, China, any nation that rises up against the scriptures will not be successful. Listen to Psalm 2. Why do the nations conspire in the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth, they take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. And they say, these nations, this is what they say, let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. We don't want God telling us what to do. The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king, and we know his name to be Jesus. I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son today. I've become your father. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance. Well, the Word of God is unique because it's been criticized more than any other book. Amen, right? Is there any book that's been more criticized than the Word of God? Well, if you can't burn it, if you can't bury it, then say something enough times that maybe somebody will start to believe it. The attack is thorough, to include the authors, the time of writing, the purpose of the writing, the language, et cetera, et cetera. There was a time when the non-believers of the word of God on the face of this earth laughed at those of us who believed in the word of God, because the Bible talked about a people group called the Hittites. Well, no one had ever found the Hittites. And so they laughed at us and they said, you see that? The Bible's got all this about the Hittites and there's no Hittites. Well, guess what they found? The Hittites. So now at Harvard, there's a special study group of not just one, but three people groups of the Hittites. Then they laughed at us because the Bible talks about giants in the land. People 12 foot tall. But now archaeologists have found 14 foot beds. Then the comment was it could have been written by Moses. There was no writing back then. But now they have found writing 300 years before Moses. Not just because the Bible has survived constant attack is the reason to believe it's the word of God, but it is unique in the constant attacks it has faced. It's unique in teaching, in its prophecy. Muhammadism cannot point to any written prophecy of the coming of Muhammad. Can Mormonism show any written prophecy of the coming of Joseph Smith or of his message? Not only is there numerous prophecies about the coming of Christ, but they all came true. How in the world is he gonna be born in Bethlehem, come out of Egypt, and be a Nazirite? How's all this gonna happen? It was no problem, was it? And now we look at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're scratching our heads wondering, how's this all going to work? And one of these days we're going to be going, oh, simple as that. It's unique in the teaching of history. Genesis 10 lays out the table of nations, as no other document does, to the point where an archeologist, Professor Albright, said, it stands absolutely alone in ancient literature without even a remote parallel, even among the Greeks. It's unique in the teaching of, you know, listen, the word of God is honest about key people in the scriptures. The life of Noah after the flood wasn't anything to brag about, was it? Where Lot went when he left Abraham and how his life ended wasn't anything to brag about, oh goodness. How Abraham lied, how Isaac lied, how Isaac excelled at lying. There's the story of David and Bathsheba. Did you have to include that, Lord, in the word of God? That David, the man after your heart, was a murderer? The gospel writers and their faults. Peter turns away from Jesus and denied he even knew him. John Mark ran from the missionary group when things got tough. The disorder of the church and the scandals of the first Corinthians. This is not a book of fantasy. It's a book of reality. It's honest about our failures as followers of Jesus. It's unique because it's penned by God through holy men, breathed out by God, recorded by men who heard his voice. It's unique because it's a book that's alive and active and powerful. It's unique because of what it has accomplished. God spoke and the worlds were created God spoke and He changed our lives. And I know the skeptics will say that's not good enough proof. And I get it. And some of you get it. Because there was a day in our life we didn't believe a word of it. We didn't really think this could change us. But then one day, God started to speak to us from his word. And look at us today, on a Sunday night, sitting here in church, listening to a sermon about this book. God has changed us, hasn't he? And God is changing us, isn't he? The sin that you used to be a little bit okay with, you've cut it out of your life now. Why? Because the word of God has penetrated into your heart. I was speaking to a man this week who used to sin in a particular way, but back then he didn't quite see it as sin or didn't want to see it as sin. But then God just started putting his finger on that sin in his heart. And he said, you know, I finally obeyed the Lord. And what a blessing it's been to me. How did that happen? The word of God got a hold of his heart. I remember in the United States Marines, you know, the Lord had saved me and got back to base. And I started to meet with this guy. He must have been, I don't know, he was huge. Six foot five, big old tough marine. And he finally agreed to read the book of John with me. John 1, who is Jesus? John 3, what did he want with this religious guy? John 4, what did he want with this not religious woman? And we started to read these texts and talk about it casually in his room there in the Marine Corps. And it was always, yeah, you guys, yeah, you guys, no, I don't believe that. And it was all that. And then that kind of simmered down as time went on and we kept working through the book of John. And then one night, I started to hear something I hadn't heard before. He started to say, we, instead of you. And finally, I called him out on it. I said, hey, hey, wait a minute here. What's going on? What's this we thing? He says, well, a couple weeks ago, I kneeled down on my knees and I asked God to save me. I said, well, you bugger. Why didn't you tell me that two weeks ago? What are you talking about? Yeah, that's what happened. See, that's the power the word of God has. It's unique in its ability to take an old burly marine and change his life. God spoke and changed lives like Abraham, like Moses. I think there was some change in Samson. Mary Magdalene. Think of the change. Think of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul of Christ. These characters went from bad, very bad, to amazing. Think of David, who found courage and strength to fight Goliath, and later became the king. And all of his failures, all of his mess, what a mess. But God has a way of untangling our messes by the word. Zacchaeus, there's a guy, climbs this sycamore tree, wanted to see Jesus Christ. Jesus said, hey, come on down. Today I'm going to your house. God changed his life. You get yourself in front of this book. It will change your life. Amen? It will be the priority of your life. You, like Gittel de Bray, will lay your life down in its teachings. Paul did. Most of the apostles lost their life over it. May God take our life from it. So young people, I lay before you tonight the Word of God, and I say to you, there's no better book for your nose to be in every day than the Word of God. It's inerrant, it's infallible, it's complete. It's the inspired Word of God. And may I add this to it tonight? And it's a gift to you and me, let's pray. Father, thank you for the Word of God and its power, for its ability to take us in our deadness, in our deception, and remove us from the pit and bring us upon solid ground. Thank you for how relevant the Word of God is to our everyday life. Give us an ever-growing faith, Lord, that this is your word to us. Thank you for preserving it down to the ages, that we can be here tonight and read it and study it and consider it and think about it. Lord, thank you that even though wicked men in the past have sought to destroy it, as they will continue to do tomorrow, We thank you that you have preserved your word for us. May we be found reading it, listening to it, studying it, memorizing it, and applying it to our lives. We want to thank you tonight for this powerful book in the hands of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. Increase our faith. Help us to love you. Help us to obey and follow Your Word, we ask tonight in Jesus' name.