The following message is by pastor John Piper. More information from desiring God is available at

W.W.

D. D. desiring God. O.R-G.

Thank you so much, Mark, and thank you all for the warm welcome.

To be able to talk to church planters and pastors and others about the three biggest things in the world

is really remarkable. God in his Bible and God in his gospel and God in his preaching is amazing and I am thrilled to be with you. Thank you so much for the invitation

and for your willingness to listen. The law the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony

of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the

heart. The commandment of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The fear of the Lord is pure, enlightening the

eyes. The fear, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. I hope that you love your

Bibles. I hope that you believe that the Bible is one of a kind. It is the very word of God.

So our task in these next minutes is to pose the question why I and why you should trust the Bible.

Let me give you where I'm going and then we'll go at it. I have these steps in mind, one, trust it for what?

The topic assigned to me is why I trust the scriptures.

Trust it for what? To be what? That's the first question.

Second, why does it matter? Why would you even pose this question? Was it up for grabs or is it assault or is there some confusion? Why does it matter?

Third question, two assumptions, what are they?

Because the way I'm coming at this may not be the way somebody else would come at it,

so I want to give you two assumptions for how I

approach it and then the lion's share of the evening will be five steps that I take toward or into a justified, warranted confidence in scripture.

So that's where we're going and it's weighty, it's difficult, it's rewarding, it's

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