Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt Audio Podcast Dr. James Merritt

A man named Aleph wrote the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. In this psalm, he makes a very bold statement about God. “You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:68). He said unequivocally, “God is good and God does good.” So why should we believe him? I can tell you in one simple sentence. There is good because God is good. On the other hand, let me put that negatively. If there is no God, there is no good. With that in mind, I want to give you some reasons why we should believe in Good God Almighty.

Many of us remember the song, “Jesus Loves Me.” If you remember the song you know that famous line, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” I want to change that slightly and give you this sermon in a sentence. Here it is, “God loves me, this I know, for the cross shows me so.” In a book called “Romans,” an apostle named Paul wrote down one of the most incredible sentences in the entire Bible which forever puts to rest the question as to whether or not God loves us. God’s love is not just a “say-so” love. It is a “show-so” love. I can say with 100% confidence, “Yes, God loves us, for the following reasons…”

As we continue to address different doubts that people struggle with, today we’re going to tackle the existence of God. I love the way Albert Einstein said it when he stated, “You look at this world and you will see outstanding evidence for God.” I am going to show you today why I believe that is true and that he knew what he was talking about.

Today, we are going to be addressing this specific doubt that so many people have: “I doubt the Bible is the Word of God.” If that is a doubt you’re struggling with, you should at least consider the case of why 2 billion people absolutely believe the Bible is the Word of God. My point is this, “The word of God is as good as God’s Word.” Jesus Himself believed you not only could take the Bible as God’s Word, but God is as good as His Word because he said, “Your word is truth,” (John 17:17). So, if the Bible is God’s Word, there are certain reasons why we should believe it is when we examine it. Let me give you five of those reasons right now.

There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt asks questions while unbelief won’t even listen to answers. In this message, we are going to study a man in the Bible who had such a problem with doubt he was even given the most famous nickname of any disciple. He is called “Doubting Thomas.” I feel sorry for Thomas because I think he has gotten a little bit of a bad rap. He was a doubter, but he teaches us how to deal with doubt. He is able to starve his doubt and feed his faith and he shows us exactly how to do this. If you’re struggling with doubt today, I would encourage you to take notes on these five steps.

Today, we are going to deal with the doubt people have about Jesus being raised from the dead. Either like every other person who has lived and died, Jesus is still dead or he is physically still alive. A man named Paul went through unbelievable torture, hardship, and finally a beheading because he preached and believed and would not deny that Jesus Christ was alive. In a letter he wrote to a church in Corinth, he laid out what would be true if Jesus was not alive and if everything he said was either an intentional lie or a bad mistake. If Jesus is not alive it has a tremendous impact on whether you are a believer or not. If Jesus is dead nothing else matters, but if He is alive it is the only thing that matters. Knowing that either He was raised or He wasn’t, I want us to answer two questions in this message. When we are finished, I can assure you that your doubt will be destroyed and your faith will be fortified.