Bible Authority
Fundamentals • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Last week we began our theme for this year’s Sunday morning sermons entitled “Fundamentals.”
As we said it is good to be reminded of those foundational doctrines that all other deeper study are built upon which is why Peter desired for God’s children to “desire or long for that spiritual milk.”
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Having last week studied “creation” from Genesis 1 (if you would be interested in those notes just let me know after services this morning) we will be continuing on to today’s lesson on “Bible Authority.”
The idea of “Bible Authority” has, unfortunately, lost its biblical definition in the church over the years.
The blame can only be laid at the feet of elders, preachers, and members for a lack of study on the topic or desire for study on the topic.
It’s unfortunate that far too many in the church today are like those of Hebrews 5:12, babes in their study habits.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
Today the hope in this lesson is to either “bring back to remembrance” or “learn for the first time” what it means to ascertain bible authority by first fully determining what we must be firmly established in before we can “dig deep” into the depths of God’s riches within his holy writ.
As Colossians 3:17 states…
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
If we are to have “Bible Authority” for everything we do, how can we be secure in knowing we are doing everything right?
This security is achieved by knowing two important facts, first…
The Bible Is Inspired
The Bible Is Inspired
What Does Inspiration Mean?
What Does Inspiration Mean?
Easton’s Bible Dictionary states…
Easton’s Bible Dictionary Inspiration
that extraordinary or supernatural divine influence vouchsafed to those who wrote the Holy Scriptures, rendering their writings infallible.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines it as…
The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, Volume 1: Revelation and Inspiration Chapter IV: The Biblical Idea of Inspiration
The Biblical books are called inspired as the Divinely determined products of inspired men; the Biblical writers are called inspired as breathed into by the Holy Spirit, so that the product of their activities transcends human powers and becomes Divinely authoritative. Inspiration is, therefore, usually defined as a supernatural influence p 78 exerted on the sacred writers by the Spirit of God, by virtue of which their writings are given Divine trustworthiness.
As always though the best source for determining the definition of a biblical word is to turn to the bible itself.
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we find this…
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
In other words the word “inspiration” in the bible is defined as those words breathed out by God to humans that then wrote down what God said.
Therefore, the Bible is literally, not symbolically God’s word.
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
How Can We Know It’s Inspired?
How Can We Know It’s Inspired?
First, the obvious, as we already noticed Paul declared it (2 Timothy 3:16) and that fact is continuously stated throughout God’s Word.
Peter would say in 2 Peter 1:19-21.
19 And we have 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, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 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.
Secondly, the inerrancy of the Bible is a clear indication of divine involvement.
The bible was written by roughly 44 different men over a 1500 year period yet without so much as a single contradiction.
Remember, a contradiction is a statement in the bible that contradicts another statement in the Bible without any possibility of harmonization.
There is no such thing in the Bible, every supposed contradiction has one or more ways of harmonizing it.
Thirdly, if these men were writing to create a religious hoax they would make every effort to avoid controversial issues that would drive people away instead of bringing them closer. After all hasn’t “Christendom” been proving this point for year with the “church of your choice” mentality. The bible, however, does not do this.
There is an “out-of-wedlock” birth (Matthew 1:19).
If the Jewish men that wrote the gospel accounts were trying to persuade other Jews to become Christians as a hoax why would they add this?
There is a despised tax collector as an apostle (Matthew 9:9-13).
Again, the Jews hated tax collectors why would anyone add this insight if they are trying to convert that majority of Jews to this “hoax they came up with?”
It’s recorded that rabbis wouldn’t eat an egg purchased on the same street a leper lived. It’s said they would throw rocks at them to make them keep their distance.
Jesus touched a man with leprosy and had compassion on them (Matthew 8:2-4).
The Jews hated the Samaritans as seen in there willingness to walk all the way around it or John’s willingness to destroy it.
Yet Jesus went strait into Samaria and talked with a Samaritan woman and eventually the whole town (John 4:8-45).
Summary
Summary
So, the bible is the inspired word of God, breathed out and put in written form for all of us.
It can be proven inspired and divine by it’s claims, inerrancy, and willingness to teach the opposite of Jewish tradition, the very people it was meant to convert in the beginning.
It’s this fact that lets us know where to find authority, in God’s word.
Not only is it necessary for us to remember the bible is inspired and thus our source of authority but also to remember why it is inspired and the source of our authority.
You see…
The Bible Creates Faith
The Bible Creates Faith
Defining The Word Faith.
Defining The Word Faith.
Over the years the word “faith” has transformed into something unrecognizable in the bible.
Faith has become known as that which is a “leap” after facts stop.
Hence what one man religious mans stated, “science takes us so far then we must take a leap of faith to believe in God.”
However, this is not the faith that the bible talks about or creates.
So, what does the bible say faith is?
The Hebrew writer would declare…
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In other words faith is that which is based in substance or that which builds assurance and evidence or that which creates conviction.
Instead of being a leap in the dark it’s based on facts and logical conclusion of such.
Knowing Abraham Lincoln existed or Japan exists, etc…even though we have never met him or been to Japan we know they existed and exist because of the facts and logical conclusion of such.
This faith is not a miraculous faith it is a…
Developed Faith.
Developed Faith.
Remember what Paul told the church in Rome?
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The only way one can “get faith” is through studying God’s word.
The man who “accepted Jesus into his heart” while dying on the road after a wreck, which is impossible.
So faith is developed through study.
This also means faith is “matured” or “further developed” through study.
When the Hebrew writer talks about “maturing” (Hebrews 5:12-14) or when Paul says he wants to present everyone as “mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28) they are talking about a maturing faith because the more we mature our faith the more we become faithful.
Thanks be to God that we have the written word that we may learn to “think mature.”
20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
Summary
Summary
We can easily see the importance that Bible plays in our faith and how we cannot have faith without it.
It being the source of our authority it is that which creates faith within us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Why is knowing the Bible is inspired and that it creates faith important.
That answer goes back to Colossians 3:17.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
If everything we “ought to do” should be based on the authority of Jesus, who is the Word (John 1:1), then knowing we are secure in our faith based on divine authorship of said word is everything.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.