Why We Believe While Others Reject (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16) John MacArthur

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• published: 19 Jun 2012
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http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-322 It was about 25 years ago in my life that I was asked to write a little book and the original title of that little book was Focus on Fact, you've probably never seen it, it didn't last very long. It came out in another edition with another title a couple of years later and that title was Why I Trust The Bible, it was 1983. And as I was preparing to write that book about why I trust the Bible, which is really what the first one was about as well, I had to answer the question why did I trust the Bible. What was it about the truth of Scripture that made it believable to me? Was I smarter than everybody else? Had I been presented a more powerful set of evidences about Scripture? And certainly such can be presented. Why did I have such immense confidence in the Bible? I can remember in my college days when very little appealed to me other than an athletic event. When I found my greatest joy on a football field, that even then I had complete confidence in the Word of God. I actually couldn't wait to get to seminary. And when I decided that I would give up an athletic career and opportunity on a professional level to go off to seminary, some of my athletes, athletic friends and coaches, couldn't understand the reason. And it really wasn't that I had a drive to preach or a drive to teach. I had this compelling longing to dig into the Word of God and understand what it means because I was unequivocally committed to its truthfulness. Where did that come from? Why was I so convinced of the truth of Scripture? I hadn't studied apologetics or defenses of Scripture. I hadn't read a lot of that. There was just in my heart a complete commitment to the Word of God. And when I sat down to think about why I trusted the Bible, I looked at some passages of Scripture that came into play. I remembered that Jesus had said to Peter in Matthew 16, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." And that the reason that Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, was because of divine disclosure, divine revelation. And then I looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 3 which says, "No man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God." It is reasonable to me to say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is reasonable to me to say Jesus is Lord. But no one can say that as reasonable as it now appears to me to be unless the Father discloses it and the Spirit reveals it....