The Judas Dilema

The Bible is the Word of God.
  

It's more than poetry or literature.
  

If its literature, it is no longer God's standard.

It is the very breath of God.  

Its like air.  

How long can you go without air?  

A few minutes.

We have a lot of Malnourished, Dehydrated, and Oxygen depleted Christians because they are not in God's Word.

2 Timothy 3:16 New King James Version (NKJV)

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 

and is profitable for doctrine, 

for reproof, 

for correction, 

for instruction in righteousness. 

These five underlined English words in the verse above are actually one Greek word, which is what the New Testament was originally written in.

It means God breathed.  

The Bible is God breathed. 

This Greek word "inspire" means to breath in. 

It means to breath an idea or motivation into something. 

It means that God breathed His thoughts into the writers of the Bible. 

The Greek word also means to expire or exhale. 

If we say someone expired, it means that he died, or he came to his end. 

Like an expiration date.

God inspired the people who wrote the Bible because He breathed it into them.  

He also expired it because He had to breath the Bible out to breath it into them. 

This is what Peter is explaining below.

   

2 Peter 1:20-21 New King James Version (NKJV)

20 knowing this first, 

that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, 

but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Let's talk about the inerrancy of the Bible.

If the Bible came out of the mouth of God, it can't have any errors in it.  

If you deny the inerrancy of the Bible, you also have to deny the inspiration of it. 

If you believe that the Bible has errors, you can pick and choose which passages that you think are right or wrong, which makes you God, and you're not.

  

I can't fathom the sheer arrogance of a person who thinks that they can judge the Word of God.

I think that you should be fearful for your life.

You can't judge God's Book, but one day you will be judged by God's Book.

  

The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, and we have to be careful not to speak against it.

  

Jesus taught...

Matthew 12:32 New King James Version (NKJV)

32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, 

it will be forgiven him; 

but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, 

it will not be forgiven him, 

either in this age or in the age to come.

There are people who need to shut up about the Bible. 

Please be careful about learning the Bible on the internet. 

There are atheist writing about the Bible on the internet.

  

Inerrancy refers to the original language of the Bible not the translation.  

The big thing that people write about is the apparent contradictions in the Bible.

The second law of logic is that there is no  contradiction.  

It means that there may be two accounts of the same event; 

however, if the account does not exclude the possibility of the other account, 

it is not a contradiction.

Here are two accounts that are being put forth as a contradiction in the Bible. 

Matthew 27:5 New King James Version (NKJV)

5 Then he (Judas) threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. 

The passage above was written by Matthew who was a tax collector before he followed Jesus.  

Tax collectors are known for going straight to the bottom line. 

Matthew just says that Judas hung himself.

Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts wrote this.

Acts 1:16-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

16 “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled,

which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas,

who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus;

17 for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.”

18 (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; 

and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.

The Bible's critics say that one says  that Judas hung himself and the other one says that Judas fell head long. 

Those two statements don't contradict. 

Let me show you how.

Judas did go hang himself.  

After Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver to the Priests for betraying Jesus, 

the Priests were not only uncomfortable to return the money back into the Temple treasury, 

but also to use the 30 pieces of silver on behalf of the Temple treasury to buy the field with the betrayer's money. 

Therefore, they went on behalf of Judas, and bought the field in his name that he hung himself in. 

They didn't want to buy it in the name of the temple. 

Judas went and hung himself the day before the Sabbath.

Therefore, it would have been work to cut him down on the Sabbath, so he hung there in the hot sun all day. 

When a person dies, gases begin to build up inside the body.

No one has ever just fallen and their intestines fallen out.

It'll never happened. 

The only way that this could have happened is that the body had to be bloated and the decomposition in the stomach liner had to have already set in.

Ask any doctor about this process. 

Some of you hunters have seen this in animals.

That's the only way for a stomach to burst, so Judas goes out and hangs himself.

His body decomposes because they didn't cut him down on the Sabbath. 

Now let me tell you why Judas fell headlong.  

It's simple.

  

A woman's center of gravity is from her waist down.  

A man's center of gravity is from his waist up because a man carries his weight in his stomach and chest. 

A woman gains weight in her hips and thighs not her stomach. 

If a woman falls from a branch or a cliff, a woman will fall feet down, and a man will fall head down. 

Matthew the tax collector said that Judas went and hanged himself; however, Luke, who was a doctor, explained the gruesome end of Judas's life. 

It was the same event explained, but from different people's points of view and backgrounds. 

We had better keep our mouths off the Bible.   

We are saved through it. 

Peter taught...

1 Peter 1:23-25 New King James Version (NKJV)

23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed (the Bible)

but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 

24 because

“All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,

And its flower falls away,

25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Listen to me. 

I can't make you believe in God.  

You have to choose.

I can't make you believe that the Bible is the Word of God. 

If you believe the Bible, you have a standard to live by.  

A book which gives life. 

Ezekiel 37:1-10 New King James Version (NKJV)

37 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, 

and set me down in the midst of the valley; 

and it was full of bones (not skeletons, but unattached bones). 

2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, 

and behold, there were very many in the open valley; 

and indeed they were very dry. 

3 And He said to me, 

“Son of man, can these bones live?”

So I answered, 

"O Lord God, You know.”

4 Again He said to me, 

“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 

‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 

5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: 

(This is when they became skeletons)

“Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, 

and you shall live. 

6  I will put sinews on you 

and bring flesh upon you 

(now they begin to look like human beings), 

cover you with skin and put breath in you; 

and you shall live. 

Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” 

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, 

there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. 

8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; 

but there was no breath in them.

9 Also He said to me, 

“Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, 

and say to the breath, 

‘Thus says the Lord God: 

“Come from the four winds, 

O breath, 

and breathe on these slain, 

that they may live.” 

10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, 

and breath came into them, 

and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

             

1. The breath of God brings understanding (Ezekiel 37:3 above).     

If you're going to judge the Bible by whether you understand it or not, 

I feel very sorry for you.

There are things that you're not going to understand in the Bible, 

but you believe it by faith.

What God said to Ezekiel in verse 3 was  logically impossible.

Ezekiel says, "I don't have a clue about this, but you do".

If God says, can a man walk on water? 

I don't know how, but God does.
  

Job 32:8 New King James Version (NKJV)

8 But there is a spirit in man,


And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. 

2. The breath of God brings order (Ezekiel 37:7).

Ezekiel spoke God's Word, and order came to the bones.

Psalm 33:6 New King James Version (NKJV)

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Genesis 1:2-3 New King James Version (NKJV)

2 The earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was on the face of the deep. 

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

The breath of God brought order to the chaos.

3. The breath of God brings strength (Ezekiel 37:6,8) 

A sinew is the muscles that moves the bones.  

The Word of God brings order to your life. 

The Word of God provides strength to do God's Will. 

It's the Word of God which connects you to the power of God. 

This is what Jesus taught...

John 4:23 New King James Version (NKJV)

23 But the hour is coming, 

and now is, 

when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;

for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

When you combine, reading God's Word with receiving the Holy Spirit.

You're going to walk in the power of God.  

Exodus 15:8-10 New King James Version (NKJV)

 And with the blast of Your nostrils

The waters were gathered together;

The floods stood upright like a heap;

The depths congealed 

(firm like a wall) in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, 

‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil;

My desire shall be satisfied on them.

I will draw my sword,

My hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with Your wind,

The sea covered them;

They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 

4. The breath of God brings life (Ezekiel 37:10).  

When you read God's Book, you get understanding. You get order.

You get the power of God, and you get life itself.  

Job 33:4 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 The Spirit of God has made me,

And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Genesis 2:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; 

and man became a living being.

Ask Holy Spirit.  

What are you saying to me?  

Make me hungry and thirsty for the Word of God?  

Help me to make time for you in your 

Word.

Forgive me.  

Be my Lord.

Save me.

You're the only one who can!   

Robert Morris, Gateway Church

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/more-than-words-a-gateway-series/session/2018/03/24/breath