The Authority of Scripture [B]

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Transcript:

Good to be back with you tonight. We’re going to be in the same place as we were this morning. If you were here, we’ll be in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and 2 Peter chapter 2.

We’ll probably not look at those passages as much in depth tonight, because I kind of went on a long time this morning talking about them. I did not, you know, I laughed out of here and thought, well, that was just kind of all over the place. I didn’t stick real closely to my notes and got ahead of myself in some places and already talked about some of the points that we’re going to talk about tonight because, as I mentioned this morning, I was kind of excited about the topic.

It’s a topic I care deeply about. And, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a kid who’s excited about a story they’re telling and they jump around from detail to detail and it’s not in any kind of order. That’s kind of how I felt this morning.

Even though I had notes here, I felt like I didn’t stick with them, but hopefully you were able to make some sense out of it anyway. We began talking about the authority of Scripture and what it means. We looked at these two passages, and I’m going to read them to you again if you’d like to read along with me, I’d encourage that.

But 2 Timothy 3, starting in verse 12, says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and seducer shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and thou hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

And to distill that into a shorter, to paraphrase that, if you’ll allow me, Paul is telling Timothy that in spite of the persecution you’re about to face, in spite of the false doctrines, in spite of everything that’s about to come at you that is going to cause lesser men to shrink away from the faith, He said, you stay with what you know the scriptures teach. He says, because the scriptures have been breathed out by God, they’re the very word of God, and they are beneficial to us for teaching what the truth is, for correcting our behavior, or for reproving our bad behavior, for correcting it, for instructing us on how to grow in righteousness until we get to the point where we are complete and thoroughly, complete in Christ and thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

So he tells him that the Bible is good for him, that the scriptures he had, and by extension, the full Bible that we have today, was good for him and is good for us and is authoritative in our lives because it is the word of God. Then we moved on to 2 Peter chapter 1, where he says, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came a voice to him from the excellent glory.

This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so to paraphrase this one and boil it down just a little bit, what he’s saying here is he’s making a contrast, again, between the cunningly devised fables, the same things that would have been taught when Paul’s talking to Timothy about the seducers and evil men who would wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. There are all sorts of fables and fairy tales that men will buy into. And some people claim that the stories of Christ are fairy tales or fables or legends or this or that, whatever.

And he says, we have not followed these cunningly devised fables. He said, but instead we were eyewitnesses to everything that we claim, everything that we talk about that Jesus Christ did. We were eyewitnesses and we know whereof we speak because we saw the things we saw.

We heard them. We heard the voice of God even saying, this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. But he says, beyond that, we have a more sure word of prophecy.

There is something that is even more authoritative than our eyewitness experience, and that is the word of God. And a lot of times people will have experiences, too, that conflict with the word of God. And they’ll say, well, I feel like an angel revealed this to me.

I’ve heard people say that. Well, that’s not what God’s word says. Well, the angel told me.

Okay, I’m not doubting that you believe that. I’m not doubting you had the experience, but what I am doubting is that the experience is consistent with the Word of God. And you might want to go back and check your experience.

Because just as I said this morning, if my opinions conflict with the Word of God, it’s my opinion that’s wrong. Not just your opinion that’s wrong. I’m saying that for myself as well.

If my opinion conflicts with the Word of God, I hold myself to that standard too. I need to change my opinion. If my experiences don’t square with what the Word of God says, with what the Word of God teaches, then I’m not understanding my experiences correctly, because God’s not going to reveal things to me.

God’s not going to speak to me in a booming voice or still small voice or send an angel of light into my room to tell me something that conflicts with what he’s already revealed. And so Peter says here, we have seen the things that we talk about. We’ve seen them with our own eyes.

They’re not just fairy tales. He said, but even as sure as an eyewitness account is, we have a more sure word of prophecy. We have the word of God.

We have the revelation in the scriptures. And he goes back to saying that no prophecy of scripture is given by private interpretation, meaning nothing is in there because some man thought, hey, this would be a good story to put in here, or this would be an important thing for people to understand. Every word that is between the covers of this book, I mean, as far as scripture, you may have notes in there.

Please understand the notes that were added. You can see mine right here. I’ve got these articles underneath that talk about the Old Testament, how it was used in the early church, kind of give a history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and some things like that.

Or you may have notes explaining, okay, this word means this. Those are not part of the scripture. Those are not inspired.

Those are somebody’s opinion. Often very helpful to understand. But as far as the scriptures themselves that are between these covers, every word that is in there is in there because God revealed it.

And that’s why he says that the prophecies came not by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And again, I mentioned to you this morning that these two passages deal more with the inspiration of Scripture. The fact that God spoke them, that God breathed them, that they originated with God rather than man. They deal more with inspiration than authority, which is what I came to talk about today.

But I think you can’t separate the two because if it’s God’s word, it has authority. And there are other verses that we could have looked at that talk about the authority of God’s word, that he doesn’t just request us to do things very often, he commands them. And when God speaks, we need to listen.

But again, I get back to this point where I, in my mind at least, I can’t separate inspiration from authority. If it is the word of God, then it matters what it says. Then it is the final word.

And we talked this morning about some of the implications of this authority, what it means for us that the Bible gives us assurance. You know, there’s a lot of things that are, there are a lot of issues that matter where the world and all the opinions of man can’t come to any kind of consensus, can’t agree. Not only can the world outside of the Bible not agree whether they’re, you know, how you get to heaven, they can’t even agree if there is a heaven.

And yet the Bible speaks with an authoritative voice and gives us assurance of some of these things. I’m not going to go back through all of it, but it gives us assurance that sin is real. There’s right and wrong. It gives us assurance that judgment is coming, that God offers forgiveness, that we have a hope in a heaven that’s real because of what Jesus Christ did.

We can take these things to the bank because God said them. They’re not some man’s opinion. They’re not the preacher’s opinion.

Guys, the preacher’s opinion isn’t worth much at all. If anything, my opinion will not get you very far. Get to the pearly gates, which, you know, that’s just an expression.

But get to the, you hear all these jokes about Peter standing at the pearly gates and why should I let you in? I don’t see that anywhere in scripture. But if that was the case, get to the pearly gates and have somebody ask you why you should get to go to heaven.

And tell them, well, because my pastor said so, and see how far that gets you. My opinion doesn’t cut any ice with God. Okay, but there’s the assurance of God’s word that certain things are true.

And you know what, when it comes to the opinion of any man or all men together who really don’t know, or the God who laid down the law and set all this in motion, I’m going to go with God every time. And second of all, the Bible speaks authoritatively on all things concerning salvation. The world will tell you all roads lead to God.

The Bible tells us there’s one road that is through Jesus Christ. Again, I’m going to go with God. he knows. And if God says it, folks, it doesn’t matter how many churches proclaim otherwise.

It doesn’t matter how many TV personalities proclaim otherwise. It doesn’t matter what your family members or your neighbors down the street think about how you get to heaven. If Jesus Christ said, I am the way and the truth and the life and no man comes unto the father but by me, then that’s just the way it is.

And the world’s going to have to be okay with it because the Bible speaks with authority. God’s word speaks with authority that no other source has because it speaks with God’s authority. Third of all that we discussed this morning, the Bible provides an objective standard to which we must defer.

We don’t have to figure out whose opinion is true and whose opinion is not true. It doesn’t matter because it’s all opinion. If we want to know what the objective standard is against which everything else must be tried, folks, it’s God’s word.

And we can, you know what, this is more apparent to me this week than it has been before. I already knew this, but it occurs to me, it was a good thing that, what, 75, 76% of voters in Oklahoma said marriage is between one man and one woman. I think that’s a good thing that we voted and said that, but you know what?

Really doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if it was 76%, doesn’t matter if it’s 100%, doesn’t matter if 4% said it, and so, well, that’s not what marriage is. You know what?

The vote’s already been taken. The vote was already taken when God said, this is the way it is. This is right.

This is wrong. Regardless of, we think we get to vote on it. Regardless of what you say.

You know what, regardless of what the Supreme Court says or didn’t say this week, which was the problem, regardless of what the 10th Circuit Court said, striking down our state’s marriage law. You know, we can recognize, and again, if you were paying attention this morning, it was not a message of hate and still is not. We need to love those among us and pray for those among us who are involved in things that we would find sinful because we’re involved in things that are sinful as well that we need God’s love and forgiveness for.

But people among us can get marriage licenses in contrast to God’s law and they can call themselves married and some churches, some churches, and I use that term loosely, can validate that and recognize that all they want, but it still doesn’t change what God’s law has said. There is right, and not just the issue of homosexuality, that just happens to be at the forefront this week because of what’s happened in our state. But it doesn’t matter ultimately what 76 or even 100% of the voters in Oklahoma have to say.

It doesn’t matter what the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals or even the Supreme Court has to say. It doesn’t matter if every human being on earth got together and took a straw poll, whether it went the right way or the wrong way, God has already said. And ultimately, our opinions right or wrong don’t matter on the subject or any subject when it comes to sin, right and wrong.

Because we can say 76%, yes, we think it’s right. God didn’t need our validation. It was already right before we said.

But the Bible provides an objective standard. God’s Christians can’t make the world around us defer to God’s standards, nor should we. You know, I want to live in a godly country, but I also don’t want the government out rounding up people who are sinning, you know, if they’re not hurting people.

And understand what I mean by that. If somebody is, you know, if somebody’s doing something I don’t approve of, I don’t want the government rounding them up because I don’t want the government rounding me up if I’m doing something in my faith that somebody else doesn’t approve of. if somebody else becomes the majority.

We as Christians can’t force other people to act like Christians, but we as Christians have no choice but to defer to God’s standard of right and wrong, and to say that even if we stand alone, as Martin Luther said, here I stand, I can do no other. So those are some things that authority of Scripture means, that when the Bible speaks, it’s right. When the Bible speaks, it speaks with the authority that God gives it, and we have to defer to that.

We have to get out of the way if our opinions are wrong. Now, why it’s so important that the Bible, the authority of Scripture, is a non-negotiable? First of all, the Bible’s authority is non-negotiable.

I talked about this a little bit this morning because its instruction is for our good. Okay, there are all the other reasons that I gave this morning why God gave us the Bible, but we can’t escape the fact that the Bible is written for our good. It’s for our own good.

Now, that’s not always readily apparent to us. You know, you try to give a child a shot. They don’t like it, but usually they’re getting the shot because it’s for their own good.

I went a few weeks ago and bought some vitamins at one of the health food stores in Norman. And it was on a Sunday afternoon, as a matter of fact, on my way here. I stopped by there, and I got to school the next morning and went to open the vitamins.

And I was going to eat my breakfast while I’m getting papers ready for the day. And I went and opened this bottle of vitamins to take one with my breakfast. And the things were, they have something like 48 superfoods in them. Sounded like it would be a good thing.

I opened them. They’re the size of my thumb. And they are black.

And they smell and taste like dirt. I thought, I don’t want to take this. You know what?

I gritted my teeth and tried to bear it and took that first one. And it was awful. But you know what?

I felt better that day. I wasn’t falling asleep all through the afternoon. I have not fallen asleep at school.

But you know what I mean. getting drowsy and just dragging all afternoon. And the next day I went, I don’t want to do this because now I know what it tastes like.

But you know what? It was for my good, for my own good. And sometimes there are going to be things that are for our own good that we just don’t feel like doing, but they’re for our own good.

I don’t always feel like loving my neighbor. You know what? It’s for my own good.

I don’t always feel like treating people the way I want to be treated. It’s for my own good. I’ll be honest with you.

There are a lot of things the Bible says to do, and I know they’re right, and I don’t always feel like doing them. And it’s not that I’m rebellious. Sometimes I’m just lazy.

I think we all go through that at times. God, I don’t feel like getting up early and reading my Bible today. You know what?

Do it anyway. It’s for your own good. There are a lot of things that the Bible says that we’re supposed to do that God has said we’re supposed to do that are for our own good.

And that the world looks at and says, that sounds hard, or that sounds inconvenient, or that sounds unpleasant. You know what, when the Bible says, be ye not drunk with wine, we’re in his excess. He told us that for our own good.

You know what, I’ve never had to, and I’m just being honest with you, I’ve never had to wake up with a pounding headache wondering what I did last night, because I don’t drink. And because I don’t drink, I don’t get drunk. You know what, it’s been for my own good.

But I paid attention to what he said about being not drunk with wine. When it says that certain activities are reserved for marriage, The world says, no, we don’t want to listen to that, but you know what? It’s for our own good.

There are diseases and unplanned pregnancies and all sorts of things that get people all the time. And you know what? It’s for our own good that we listen to God when he speaks.

And it’s not just that the Bible’s true for me and that works for me. It’s that the Bible’s true and the principles that he teaches are for our own good. He says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness, to teach us what the truth is, to show us where we mess up and fall short, to show us how to fix it, and to show us how to grow from there.

It’s good for us. Following what it says is good for us. Not just the convenient parts like some churches would teach you, but even the parts that sometimes you don’t want to do.

Sometimes the parts that feel in the moment like swallowing that big black vitamin the size of your thumb because you’re going to feel better later. Now, I’m not saying the only reason to follow God is because you know there’s something in it for you. But we certainly shouldn’t overlook that where he tells us it’s profitable for us.

It’s good for us. The whole thing. The whole thing is good for us.

Second of all, the Bible’s authority is non-negotiable because anything else is just man’s opinion. I’ve harped on this already so much today that I feel like I’m just repeating myself. But if it is not God’s word, it’s man’s opinion.

And the Bible is the only place where we find God’s word. And you know what? The opinion of man has nothing on the opinion of God.

I’ve said many times before that none of us are as smart as God, and all of us are not as smart as God. I look back at the story of the Tower of Babel, where they had been told to disperse after the flood, that mankind had been told to disperse all over the earth again. And they didn’t do so.

they decided to gather together in the area of Mesopotamia and form their little kingdom there and be strong and be mighty. And they were going to build a tower to reach into the heavens. And I was puzzled by that story as a child because I thought, oh no, what if they’d gotten up there?

Were they going to try to fight God? But God destroyed their tower. And I now realize God didn’t destroy the tower because he was threatened by them.

God destroyed the tower because they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. And to realize that God, you know what, what if they had been able to build a tower all the way to heaven? I don’t see how they could do that.

But even if they could build a tower all the way up to the sky and somehow build it to wherever heaven is, and by the way, I don’t know exactly. That’s one thing little kids always want to know, and I don’t know. If they could build a tower and storm heaven, what’s going to happen when they get there?

God zaps us like the little ants that we are. God didn’t destroy the tower because he was threatened by us God is not, God and his word, God and his intellect God and his power are not threatened by any of us and he’s not threatened by all of us and as I mentioned this morning, as I really talked about just a minute ago all of man’s opinion cannot dethrone God’s opinion when God says it, that’s it I think I’ve told you before about the bumper sticker I saw years ago what Mardell’s and keychains and who knows what else that said, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Well, that sounds really good.

I mean, I’m not knocking the people who made that because it’s, their hearts were in the right place, but I think they had one saying too many in there. God said it, and that settles it. It doesn’t matter if I believe it or not, it’s still true.

Had a child fall this week because he was not doing what he’s supposed to. You know how kids like to lean back in their chairs, and I tell them six legs on the floor, four chair legs in theirs. He was not doing that.

I don’t know what happened when he fell out of his chair. I said, it’s called gravity and it is the law, whether you believe it or not. It’s called the law of gravity for a reason.

Well, you know what? God’s law is God’s law, whether we believe it or not. He said it and that settles it.

Anything else is just man’s opinion. And Peter draws the distinction here in 2 Peter 1, when he talks about we were eyewitnesses of his majesty and we have not followed cunningly devised fables. And he talks about no prophecy of scripture being of any private interpretation.

And he’s trying to draw a distinction here for those who would read it in his day and in ours, the difference between what God has to say and what man has to say. You know what? When God has spoken, it doesn’t matter what man has said.

It doesn’t matter which way Oklahoma voted on the marriage amendment. It doesn’t matter what the courts say because marriage is what God said it was going to be. It doesn’t matter what anybody says about any number of things that God has said are right or are wrong.

Because it’s either God’s word or man’s opinion. And I don’t care if it even sounds like a good idea. There are people who preach things that are not.

. . What am I trying to say?

There are people who preach things as doctrine that might be good ideas. They sound like good moral ideas, but they’re not found in the Bible. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do that.

You know, wash behind your ears. That’s a good idea. I don’t need to be preaching it as doctrine, though, because it’s not in the Bible.

As far as I know, you can correct me on that later if it’s in there somewhere and I’ve missed it. It’s a good idea, but it’s man’s opinion. We should not hold it on the same level of authority as God’s Word.

Man’s opinion is not always bad, but it should not stand next to God’s Word in terms of authority. Everything else is just man’s opinion. And we cannot base life, we cannot base doctrine on man’s opinion.

Or we get very wrong very fast. And so the authority of the Bible has to be non-negotiable because that’s the only way we determine truth from lies. That’s the only way we determine the validity of man’s opinion is by holding it up to the authority of God’s word. And finally tonight, the Bible’s authority is non-negotiable.

And guys, I know this point is going to blow your mind. You’ve never thought of this before. but the authority of the Bible is non-negotiable because it is God’s word.

That was sarcasm there. That seems like such an unnecessary statement to make, that it’s authoritative because it’s God’s word. But we live in a culture, we live in a world, I want to say it’s terrible today, but it’s probably always been this way.

You look back through the Bible and people disrespected God then. So let’s just say it this way. We live in a world where people don’t respect God.

So why would they respect his word? But when you realize that this is God’s word and you realize who God is and you put two and two together, you can’t not listen to what this book has to say. You can’t, you can’t, if you realize that this book is the word of God and you realize who God is, you can’t just ignore it.

Now, there are going to be people who read it and disobey it, but you can’t act as though it’s irrelevant. Folks, the God who spoke these words, the God who has preserved these words for 2,000 years, and that’s important as well, but the God who spoke these things is the same God who created the universe. And every time I think about this, I’m just awestruck, and I’ll try not to get off on a tangent here where we’ll be all night.

But in the beginning, it says he created the heavens and the earth. One of the very first things we see going on is him saying, let there be light. I was trying to explain this in the chapel service on Wednesday.

God, there was no such thing as light before him. I said, I don’t, I said, this is hard for me to imagine. And I probably messed some little kids up for a long time because I don’t even understand this.

But I say, it’s hard for me to imagine, but I’m not even sure there was darkness before creation. There was just nothing. There was nothing as far as I understand it.

And out of nothing, God speaks and says, let there be light. And suddenly there was something that there never was before. I told them it’s incredible enough that God took the dust of the earth and formed man out of it, but he created the dust of the earth.

None of us are powerful enough to take a handful of dirt and create a human being out of it. That’s incredible enough. But to create everything out of nothing just by the words of his mouth.

That’s power. I don’t know how the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is not quaking in fear over what they’ve said and done. Because that’s some power right there.

Let there be light, and suddenly this thing that not only has no one else ever conceived of, but there’s been no one else to conceive of it, light exists because he said so. The universe leapt into existence. We are the most superior species on this planet.

and we’re running around scared because of a tiny virus this week. And yet God controls the atoms that hold everything together. Folks, the God who speaks and the natural universe falls in line at his command is the same God who revealed this word to us.

And I don’t know about you, but I think we ought to listen. I’m not saying at that point, that’s not me saying, and I always listen perfectly. No, I sure don’t.

I wish I did. And there was one day this week I was in the car and I was praying. And I had some of my best prayer time in the car when the kids are not with me.

When they are with me, there’s no quiet. But I was praying and thinking about something I’d said earlier in the day and thought, God, I just hate myself when I feel like I’ve disappointed you. And I spoke on the sin nature a couple weeks ago.

I hate that stupid sin nature. I hate it because I know I’m going to sin. I know I’m going to mess up and I feel like I disappoint God every time.

And so even though I don’t do it, I really wish I obeyed his word all the time. Because you know what? It’s a good idea.

Because when he speaks, he speaks with authority. And if this book is the word of God, then we need to remember constantly who that God is who gave us this word and not treat his commandments, any of them, as though they’re an option or as though we get to pick and choose which of his commands we want to follow.