Scriptural Authority

Weekly Update – July 28th, 2022

As we continue to watch the downgrade of our culture, we must remember how important it is for the church to remain counter-cultural to all that we see around us.  There is pressure from many angles to capitulate to what are quickly becoming the norms of society in terms of the sexual revolution, the idolatry of self, and the general acceptance of immorality.  The only hope we have as the church to resisting these temptations is the truth that has been communicated to us by God himself.  Upon this truth, we must plant our feet firm so that when we are “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,” we are not cast down and assimilated into our culture, but instead we “grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:14-15). 

Here is an excerpt from a sermon given by Martin Lloyd-Jones describing the importance of holding onto the word of God as a church.  This was written over 50 years ago and it is still just as applicable today:

“There can be no doubt whatsoever that all the troubles in the Church today, and most of the troubles in the world, are due to a departure from the authority of the Bible. Human philosophy took the place of revelation, man’s opinions were exalted and Church leaders talked about ‘the advance of knowledge and science’, and ‘the assured results’ of such knowledge. The Bible then became a book just like any other book, out-of-date in certain respects, wrong in other respects, and so on. It was no longer a book on which you could rely implicitly.

There is no question at all that the falling away, even in Church attendance, in this country is the direct consequence of the departure from the authority of Scripture.  The whole situation is one of drift; and very largely, I say, it is the direct and immediate outcome of the doubt that has been cast by the Church herself upon her only real authority. Men’s opinions have taken the place of God’s truth, and the people in their need are turning to the cults, and are listening to any false authority that offers itself to them.

We all therefore have to face this ultimate and final question: Do we accept the Bible as the Word of God, as the sole authority in all matters of faith and practice, or do we not? Is the whole of my thinking governed by Scripture, or do I come with my reason and pick and choose out of Scripture and sit in judgment upon it, putting myself and modern knowledge forward as the ultimate standard and authority? The issue is crystal clear. Do I accept Scripture as a revelation from God, or do I trust in speculation, human knowledge, human learning, human understanding and human reasons Or, putting it still more simply, Do I pin my faith to, and subject all my thinking to, what I read in the Bible? Or do I defer to modern knowledge, to modern learning, to what people think today, to what we know at this present time which was not known in the past? It is inevitable that we occupy one or the other of those two positions.”

In order to be a people who fulfill our mission to speak out and live out the gospel, we must be grounded in scriptural authority.  God has spoken to us, and his very words are recorded for us in a book.  For it is in these words that we find, as we saw last Sunday, what God has given to us is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).  Therefore, we as the people of God must unite together around the truths contained in this book, because if we find ourselves clinging to anything else, then we are one step towards being overtaken by our culture.  God’s word and its proclamation is the means by which God has ordained for our faithfulness to him.  May we find ourselves abiding in Christ as his words abide in us (John 15:7).       

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson