The Authority of the Bible - A Sermon on Acts 17:1-3

the words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in the book of The Acts of the Apostles in the 17th chapter the first three verses the book of The Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 and the ver first three verses now when they had passed through amphipolis and eponia they came to thessalonica where was a synagogue of the Jews and Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered

and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ now I call your attention to these words this morning in order that again we may consider together this great and all important question at the present time namely the question of authority I was indicating last Sunday morning that this is beyond any question one of the most urgent questions and problems that can be considered by Christian people today it's very important for us to be certain of the ground on which we stand the authority which we have even in

a personal sense we are living in a world where there are all types and kinds of teachings being propagated and offered to us and some of them we regard as false but the question is how do we know that they're false how can we Safeguard ourselves from being led away into error or into heresy how can we avoid many of these pitfalls of the soul and much unhappiness so it is important from a personal standpoint it is equally important from the general standpoint of the Christian Church confronted as we are with a Godless gainsaying world

how can we stand before the world and call upon men and women to listen to this gospel unless we are certain of this question of authority well now last Sunday morning we started with the supreme authority our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he is the ultimate Authority God has spoken to us finally in him so of necessity we had to start with him but as we do so and as we preach the Lord Jesus Christ we find ourselves of course in exactly the same position as the first Christian preachers were in they you remember went

round and they preached Jesus and the resurrection they went ground and preached Jesus as Lord Jesus as the Son of God Jesus as the only savior of men their theme was that there is none other name under him given amongst men whereby we must be saved so they preached him and they called men and women to him but you notice as you read this book of The Acts of the Apostles that they didn't do that as it were in isolation they didn't simply present the facts concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and leave it at that

no you will find invariably that they preached him in a given context and I take this particular text this morning because it shows us what they did here you see Paul is in thessalonica and we are told that as his manner was he went in to the Jews in the synagogue and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures and you noticed in that second chapter of the book of the acts where I read at the beginning Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost that he did exactly the same thing his sermon rarely

consisted mainly of an exposition of a number of Old Testament texts he has a definite theme he's setting out to develop a particular argument and his argument you remember was this that uh in the Old Testament there were prophecies and foreshadowings and for tellings of someone who was to come who was to be the Messiah now his whole case is that Jesus is that very Messiah and he is very anxious to be able to prove to them that this Jesus whom he is preaching is the one who corresponds in detail to the Prophecies of the

Old Testament script and clearly the Apostle here was doing exactly the same thing and you remember how in writing to the Corinthians you will find it in one Corinthians chapter 15 the first four verses he says that he delivered unto them first of all that which he had also received what was it well how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was raised again according to the scriptures still the same method you see well now this therefore is obviously something that we must pay careful attention to the case of

the Apostles was that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies and Adra and that therefore brings us to this position that God did not begin to reveal himself with the birth of the Lord in Bethlehem God did not begin to manifest himself to men there Christianity doesn't start at Bethlehem in a sense there was something prior to that as the author of The epistle to the Hebrews puts it God who at sunry times and in diverse manners in times past spake unto the fathers through the prophets as in these

last days the same God the same kind of Revelation a continuation of the same thing and yet it is unique but the point I'm making is that you cannot isolate the Lord Jesus Christ from that background the apostles and after all they are the only models and standards that we have of what is truly Christian preaching they always preached him in terms of the Old Testament background the Old Testament context and I say it was their great concern to prove that he is the one who is the Fulfillment of all this or to put it

the other way around they could see quite clearly that there was no hope for their message and no hope for the Christian Church unless they could show and could prove Beyond any doubt that their lord and savior whom they proclaimed rarely did fit into the Old Testament background and that it inevitably LED on to him in other words you cannot preach the Lord Jesus Jesus Christ without coming up at once against the whole question of the authority of the scriptures now I'm emphasizing this and putting it in this form for this reason that the whole

tendency at the present time is to divorce the Lord Jesus Christ from the scriptures now this is is is interesting because it shows knew the way in which unbelief has to resort to these various expedients from age to age and from time to time now 50 and 60 years ago and indeed even 30 years ago we were confronted by uh what was called a militant kind of liberalism or modernism which was concerned to deny the supernatural almost all together regarded Jesus of Nazareth as but a man abominated doct never talked about Doctrine at all it

was simply interested in the social application of the ethical teaching of Christ in The Sermon on the Mount and it had no interest whatsoever in what is called Doctrine but you see that's no longer the case there is a great deal of talk today about Doctrine and considerable emphasis upon it but you note the way in which it's being done we are told today that the only thing that matters in the Bible is the doctrine and that the history doesn't matter at all that there's a great deal of error in the scriptures there is this

good Doctrine but it's mixed up with quite a lot of that which is simply ignorance of Science and things like that and therefore when you read your Bible you must only pick out the doctrine you don't accept all these facts of course things like the flood or the story of the creation and so on they say that's not history that's what they call myth so we are confronted by this new approach to the scriptures they say that they're now asserting the authority of the scriptures but that is the way in which they're trying to do

so they say there is that which is good and Noble and essential in the scriptures and there is that which is purely human very Val sometimes quite wrong and therefore in the last analysis worthless but their case is that all that doesn't rarely matter that it's the teach of the scripture that matters not the history not the geography and so on and so forth now that is the position with which you and I are confronted at the present time and I say it's important for our own Peace of Mind our own Assurance of Salvation and

especially if we want to help others that we should know how to answer that kind of position and rarely assert the authority of the scriptures and and therefore I want to approach it in this way there is an obvious preliminary question that one can ask who is it who decides what is important and what is unimportant who is to tell us what to pick out and what to leave behind where's our standard where's our Authority now as I want to show you there is no such distinction drawn in the scripture at all so that what

appears to be new today is really not new at all it still comes back to this that the ultimate Authority is man himself man's reason it is what I decide to believe and what I decide to reject we are back in the same old position in which human reason is put into the supreme position of authority and decides what is right and what is wrong so there is rarely nothing new there is no change at all sometimes they put put it like this and at first it sounds very impressive ah they say we don't regard

the scriptures as the authority our Authority is the Lord himself now you must have read that many times recently these people who say oh you evangelicals you worship a book you worship the Bible we don't we worship the person the Lord and we go they say for our Authority not to the scripture but to the Lord himself it sounds highly spiritual doesn't it until you ask this question how do you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ where do you find him how can be sure how can you be sure that your knowledge is true

and is accurate where do you find this Lord to whom you go and the answer is of course that you don't know him and you can't find him apart from the scriptures so that it is impossible to separate the Lord from the book The two must go together it is here I know all about him apart from this what do I know well simply things that I may imagine things that I may think that I'm feeling and I'm experiencing it's entirely subjective and I have no Authority whatsoever I may feel one thing and other men

feel something else and we both claim we are right and we've got no objective standard to which we can bring our respective experiences so that this new idea you see which sounds so wonderful at first that we're taking the teaching and leaving the rest and it seems to solve the problem of the antagonism of Science and scripture it doesn't touch the problem at all it leaves us exactly where we were and we either decide in terms of our own reasoning or else in terms of our own subjective feeling now then it is important therefore I

think you'll agree that we do approach and examine together again this great and vital question of the authority of the Bible the authority of the Holy scriptures obviously in one short sermon like this I can only just touch the subject but I do want to sketch for you a kind of approach to the problem and therefore I want to put to you certain principles now here's the first principle a general principle it is vitally important in these matters that we should start with the whole and not simply with certain parts now I mean this you

generally find I think if you have discussions with people about this matter that instead of starting with a whole Bible they say now wait a minute what about that question of creation are you not familiar with the evidence of the fossils the geologists say this and immediately you're arguing about a particular or they say what about this question of the flood they raise some particular points and as you're discussing the scriptures you find you spend the whole of your time upon some detail now I'm suggesting that that is a very fatal thing to do the

right way to approach a problem always is to start with a whole not with the parts and having seen the whole you can then come back and try to deal with the parts now there are certain difficulties there are certain problems it's idle to pretend that there are not there are some who find great difficulties as I say with regard to this question of Science and scientific knowledge how do you reconcile that with the Bible others take particular details in the Bible what appear to be inconsistencies or even contradictions on the surface they they're troubled

by those they take a little detail and they spend the whole of their life looking at details and while they're looking at details missing the hole in other words it's this old fallacy of missing the wood because of the trees it's the fallacy of missing the whole Grand Panorama and Landscape because of some particular little detail in which you happen to be interested now if we really want to understand this question of the authority of the scriptures I say the way to do so is first first of all to look at this book as a

whole take it in its entirety take a big view of it look at the big things that are demonstrated and manifested here now then you'll come to a certain conclusion then in the light of that take up your particular problems your particular details I like to think of this always in terms of this kind of illustration you remember from your history books that in s 1959 at the Battle of Quebec General wolf conquered Canada captured it from the French in one battle Canada was captured from the French but if you know your history thoroughly you'll

know this that it took many many long years and many local particular skirmishes before the whole of that great country was rarely possessed you see you can win the hole in one battle but then you have to go and come back to the details and mop them up as it were one by one a kind of mopping up operation now that's what I'm recommending with regard to this question of the scriptures don't start with particular points look at the whole view the whole case that the Bible claims for itself and I think if you only

do that you will find that your attitude towards the particular difficulties and problems will be greatly def in other words you may say this at the end well I see that there is a big case here there are particulars about which I'm still not clear and still not quite happy but I cannot reject the whole simply because of this one little thing which I do not understand now that seems to me to be the tragedy with so many people today because of some little particular difficulty the whole magnificent case present Ed here is rejected by

men and women they fail to see these big things because they stumble at a little thing there's a first principle then well let us come to a second and this I am anxious to emphasize particularly we must realize that ultimately our acceptance or rejection of the authority of the scriptures is not a matter of argument but a matter of Faith now I wonder whether we're all perfectly clear about that there are Arguments for the scriptures I'm going to produce a few in a moment but God forbid that I should rely upon these arguments finally I

say a man believes in the scriptures not as the result of arguments but as the result of the illumination of the Holy SP now that is Protestant teaching the Protestant fathers all asserted this that apart from what they called the testimonium spiritus internal the inward inner testimony of the spirit no man can rarely see that this is the word of God now there are these arguments I'm going to show them the argument of Prophecy which I've already implied and other arguments to me they marvelous arguments yes but they're only supporting arguments in other words you

must never when you're discussing these matters with an unbeliever come to him with this kind of attitude that after you've marshalled her arguments you will have prooved it so logically he bound to accept it not at all the Apostle Paul makes this perfectly plain and clear when he says this the natural men receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness under him neither can he for they are spiritually deserved in other words I don't hesitate to make this assertion no man can believe that the scriptures are the word of God unless

he is a Christian obviously if he believed that this is the word of God before he was a Christian well he'd have to believe the whole message and therefore he would already be a Christian so that it seems to me that there is a great danger here it's no use going to an unbeliever and sinner wait a minute do you believe the scripture is the word of God because if you don't I have nothing to say to you that was not the apostolic method they preached the Lord Jesus Christ and then in the light of

that they brought in their scriptures but they didn't start by asking men to accept the authority of the scriptures they cannot the natural man is incapable of this he must first of all be enlightened by the holy spirit in himself it is a matter of faith not of logic not merely of understanding and accepting particular arguments now I do trust we're all happy about that particular position look at it like this if you like there are men who Once Upon a Time were unbelievers and saw nothing in the scriptures at all and didn't believe that

they were the word of God and rejected the truth then they conver as the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit and what happens immediately they see that the scriptures are the word of God they see The Marvelous argument the wonderful exposition of Truth they accept the whole the same men with the same mind the same reason the same understanding my friends this is a spiritual book and therefore it must be approached with a spiritual mind and a spiritual understanding therefore don't be surprised that great men who are infidels do not believe that this

is the word of God they cannot believe that it is until they have received the illumination and the enlightenment my third point is this one that the authority of the scripture is not so much something to be defended as something which is to be asserted you remember how Mr Spurgeon used to put this in his own inimitable manner he said if ever you see a lion being attacked you needn't defend him all you need to do is to open the gate and let him out and I think that many of us have often forgotten that

we become so nervous for the word instead of preaching it instead of asserting it instead of proclaiming it and never was there such an opportunity for doing that as there is in the modern world because with the world as it is today the fact of the matter is that there is no explanation of our world as it is this morning which is in any way adequate save this how do you explain civilization soall as it is in this 20th century now there is no adequate explanation except this that man is a fallen creature that man

is in sin that man is a creature of lusts and passions that man is being governed by the God of this world the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of Disobedience it is the only explanation and I say we've never had such a glorious opportunity of asserting the message of the Bible it says it from beginning to end that things are as they are because man has fallen from God and is under the wrath of God now here is the interesting thing the world in general is

beginning to say that now there are men and women saying that now who would have scouted the very suggestion 30 years ago you remember how during the last war a man like the late Dr jod changed his opinion and was honest enough to say so he said he'd now come to believe in evil and he'd come to believe in God in the 30s he didn't believe in God nor in evil he didn't believe in sin nor any of these things at all he then wrote a book and said he'd come to believe in evil and

in God how would he come to believe it oh not because the Bible taught it he said the war had made him believe it that as he examined the phenomenon of hitlerism and as he saw the things that were happening in the in the world he said he was driven to believe that there was such a thing as evil an evil power an evil force sin and that in turn it led him back to God now there are many others who are saying the same thing but still you notice they don't believe the right things

because the Bible teaches them but because the war or circumstances or an atomic bomb or something else like that has made them believe it and thus we arrive at this ludicrous position you will find that these people say ah they say we have come to believe in these doctrines but of course we can't go back and believe the whole Bible we can't go back on what fire criticism has discovered for us they say we can't go back to the precritical position it's done such marvelous things it's given us such marvelous new insights they say and

then you read their books to discover what the new insights are and the new insights are the things that we evangelicals have always been proclaiming the men who denied our doctrine of sin and of men in a for condition the of the of of of of the devil and of evil spirits and of Salvation The Men Who denied all that 30 years ago and were now believing it still refuse to recognize the authority of the scriptures with all their bursting about their new insights they have simply had to come back by the pressure of events

and circumstances to what we have always asserted for the book and the doctrines which it teaches and proclaims very well then I said there was never a time when it is so easy to assert the authority of the scripture here it's been saying it throughout the centuries when men were saying that men was going from good to better and evolving towards Perfection that there'd Never Be Another War that man were so marvelous now he'd never do things like that again the Bible went on saying yes while he's in sin he'll still do it and two

world wars have proved that the Bible is Right preach it assert it don't defend it say this is the teaching Where Have You Been that's the way to assert the authority of the scripture well now then that brings me to a specific claim what is it that we claim for the scriptures let me put it like this we claim that the entire Bible is the word of God we reject This Modern deception which says that the Bible contains the word of God we say the Bible is the word of God and that we mean by

the authority of scripture that property by which it demands faith and obedience to all its declarations why do I thus refuse to divide the Bible into two sections that which is true and that which is false that which is divine and that which is human why well for these reasons there is no such distinction drawn in the Bible itself I defy anybody to show me any such distinction the Bible comes to us and offers itself to us as a whole nowhere does it say this is important that isn't the whole comes as one piece not

only that here's another very important point so often the Revelation that God has given us is a revelation in terms of History and through history that's why these incidents like the fall and the flood and the call of Abraham the crossing of the Red Sea all these things they're vital it's God revealing himself yes but through historical events oh the modern man says I believe in Revelation but I don't believe in your history but God has revealed himself through history and so thus you see some of them who are more logical than the rest they

even carry that principle into the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself there is this popular movement on the continent of Europe today which talks about the demythologizing of the gospel and of the scriptures they even take all the miraculous out of Christ they say of course we can't believe things like that science makes it impossible but we're holding on to the teaching but the teaching came in an historical person in historical events and if I reject the history how do I know that I mustn't also reject the teaching what have I it's all here

inextricably intermixed the Revelation is in terms of history and through history so if I throw out the history I'm throwing out the Revelation but still more important there are certain vital doctrines which are absolutely dependent upon historical facts let me give you just one illustration you go to the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans and there you'll find the Apostle in the second half of that chapter working out that amazing and most glorious doctrine of the Union of the Christian believer with the Lord Jesus Christ but you remember how he does it he

does it in this way he says as in Adam so in Christ he establishes this Doctrine by taking us back to the Garden of Eden and to the creation of one man Adam his whole case depends upon that history in other words I can put it like this if I reject the Biblical teaching concerning sin and the fall of men as given in the first chapters of Genesis I cannot see how I can possibly accept the Biblical teaching with regard to the doctrine of the atonment why was it necessary for Christ to come why had

he to die upon the cross If the fall isn't effect who fell how many fell was it one or was it many has men never Fallen at all you see simply stretching upwards you see you cannot separate the doctrine of the fall from the doctrine of the atonement and the moment you believe the doctrine of the Fall you're back in history you're back in early Genesis and ah but people say what about science I say I don't care what Sciences here is the teaching of the scripture here is the only explanation but you see that

leads to other vital arguments all this was accepted and taught by by The Inspired Apostles now we as Christians are established upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and if they're wrong at this point well my whole Foundation is shaky and I don't know where I am these men accepted the whole let me go further if you say that your Authority is the Lord Jesus Christ the son of God well then I say that you've got to realize this that he accepted the whole of the Old Testament he accepted the early chapters of Genesis

you needn't take my word for that I can I I you can find it in Matthew 9194 where he says God made the man and woman at the beginning and he said for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife he believed it he accepted it therefore if you're are going to take his authority how can you reject this you see the danger of thinking that you can pull out the teaching and reject everything that doesn't conform to science but finally at this point and under this heading

I would direct your attention to this there is nothing which is so precarious and so dangerous as to base your position upon socalled knowledge or socalled science did you know that 30 years ago these authorities who claimed that they they rarely did know and could prove it said quite definitely and categorically that there had never been such a person as Bel Shazer who mentioned in the Book of Daniel by today they have to admit that as the result of archaeological discoveries Bel shazzar was an historical person now that's only one there are many other arguments

read the latest books on archaeology now I don't want to claim too much for it but I can claim this much that these investigations that are being made in that part of the world are one after another supporting the Biblical history the flood the fall of Jericho and all these other matters they're being substantiated and yet you see clever educated people 30 and 40 years ago said of course we can't possibly accept that history science scientific investigation has proved that it's all wrong these things cannot be found but by today they're having to accept them

don't you see what a precarious thing it is to put on one side the authority of this book and to base your position upon what men teach let me give you one other illustration a 100 years ago and after biologists and others were teaching with an absolute dogmatism they were saying it was a fact that the thyroid gland had no function whatsoever the pituitary gland in the brain they said was nothing but a vestigal organ now they didn't say that they thought that they said this is a fact but you see by today we know

that you can't live without your pituitary and thyroid that they're absolutely vital to life my dear friends let me appeal to you as one who had a certain amount of scientific training beware of face basing your position upon the supposed certainties of modern knowledge or of science it's constantly changing these men put forward their theories they can't prove them so that as you face this whole question I say be very wary be very careful but come let me mention to you some of the detailed arguments to which I referred if you're interested in detailed arguments

these are the arguments that the Protestant fathers used to aduce in order to show the authority of scripture they said the Majesty of the God who speaks of himself in the scripture the truth of scriptures the Sublimity of the Mysteries revealed the Perfection of the teachings and the precepts the manner of speaking profound simple clear brief the power of scripture to move the hearts of sinful men its capacity to maintain its truthfulness in face of time and opposition and one of the best of all the remarkable Harmony between the old and the New Testament the

Fulfillment of Prophecy you remember how Peter used that argument he said we have not followed cunningly devised fables in preaching to you we were with him on the mount but I've got something better we have a word of prophecy made yet more sure 2 Peter 1:19 well here it is and this that though the Bible has been written by some 66 different persons there are 66 different books rather in the scriptures written over as long a period of as, 1600 Years yet the doctrine is the same in every one of them it doesn't matter where

you go you'll find the same teaching the same message the same Doctrine there are more than 40 writers 66 books 1,600 years duration in the composition and yet there's only one theme one argument one statement there is this Unity of the scripture Now isn't it a pathetic and a tragic thing that people can ignore all this evidence and say I can't believe your scripture because of this little detail this little problem that I've got here or there and his problem is raised by supposed modern knowledge now you see what I meant by talking about starting

with the whole and not with the parts you face the whole message the whole case of the Bible and then when you come back to the early chapters of Genesis you say well now what do I do now well what I do is this I say scientists geologists say this or that they can't prove it it's only a theory and until they can prove it I am believing this I continue to believe it I don't understand certain things I admit it frankly but I'm not going to reject the whole because I don't understand the part

I believe the whole message and I am certain that finally I and all others shall find that all the discrepancies vanish there can be no contradiction with between the scriptures and true science because both come from God you and I are not able to see we don't understand I'm almost tempted to make a reference I heard a man giving a lecture a few weeks ago and he talked about these billions and billions and billions of light years and the length of time it takes for light to come from the Sun to the Earth and he

spoke thus in these tremendous terms well I have only one thing to say whether you agree with it or not for myself I just don't believe it you see they're aware of what happens up to a certain point then they assume that it's the same from there on but they don't know and they're acting on an assumption and thus they can talk gbly about billions they don't know I don't know and therefore I don't believe their assertions here I find a complete case here I find I say the authority of the Son of God himself

and I cannot reject this while he believes it I trust to him and so I come back to the scriptures and this is how I approach it I go to my Old Testament and I find that everywhere it claims to be the word of God this is what I read the Lord said the Lord spake the word of the Lord came unto me do you know that that phrase the word of the Lord came is used 388 times in the Old Testament all the writers suggest it they're all saying this isn't my idea this isn't

my theory this isn't the result of my investigation they say this is what has given the Lord has revealed it to me the burden of the Lord and you know the Jews accepted it the Jews accepted the scriptures as the word of God the Apostle Paul a Jew himself puts that perfectly in Romans 3:2 he raises the question what Vantage then hath the Jew much everywhere he says For unto them were delivered the Oracles of God not the writings of men but the Oracles of God but I say towering above it all is this great

fact the Lord Jesus Christ patently accepted the whole of the Old Testament he says it is written he quotes scripture to Satan he quotes it to the people he says that heaven and Earth shall pass away but this word shall not pass away he hasn't come to destroy the law of the prophets but to fulfill he says all these things have spoken of me and you remember after his resurrection he took those unbelieving disciples through Moses and the Psalms and the prophets and showed how every one of them were talking about him and pointing to

him he accepts the whole of the Old Testament and you cannot read your new testament without seeing this from beginning to end the whole of the New Testament is on the assumption that the entire Old Testament is correct listen to the two famous statements of this all scripture says Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16 all scripture is given by inspiration of God is in breathed by God and is profitable for teaching Doctrine Pro proof Etc that's the attitude all scripture not bits of it not parts of it not teaching only but the entire scripture

given by inspiration of God and Peter again in 2 Peter 1 20 and 21 he says this that no scripture is of no prophecy is of any private interpretation but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and let's be clear as to what he means when he says that no no Prophecies of any private interpretation he does not mean and is not saying that no man can interpret scripture himself privately without the aid of the church what he means is this that when those prophets wrote they were not only

giving their own private view they were not expounding simply what they thought was the fact and as they understood and saw things they were not just giving their preview of history no no he says it's not any private interpretation it's not a human understanding what then holy men of God spake as they were moved carried along born by the Holy Spirit it wasn't the men it was the spirit using the men now there you see is the New Testament attitude towards the Old Testament and it regards it all as the inspired word of God as

the Lord Jesus Christ did very well then says someone but what will you say then about the authority of the New Testament that is a very simple matter and I can put at you like this the authority of the New Testament is the authority of the Apostles they were the men who wrote the New Testament most of it and indeed you remember that when the early church came to decide on the Canon of the New Testament what to put in and what to put out they'd only got one test and the test was the test

of apostolicity was the book written by an Apostle or directly under the influence of the Apostle if it was it could go in if it wasn't it stayed out it might have been an excellent book but it didn't come in if it hadn't Apostolic Authority now here is a thing I feel we often fail to realize even as Evangelical Believers our whole position in a sense depends upon the authority of the Apostles and that is why it's so clear so important that we should be clear as to what an apostle was an apostle was a

special men called by the Lord Jesus Christ himself who could bear witness to the resurrection and who was set apart by the Lord himself to teach and to preach with authority have you ever realized that listen to them in the book of The Acts of the Apostles they go around and they speak with authority they don't put forward theories they're not these philosophers like others are simply men speaking with authority Christ is commissioned he commissioned sa of tsus on the road to Damascus he said I've called you to be a witness and a minister go

and tell the people and the Nations and you know these author these Apostles claim that Authority they claim the authority in their preaching and in their writing listen to Paul putting it to the Thessalonians for this cause also thank we god without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which he heard of us he received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe Paul doesn't hesitate to say this though we are an angel from heaven preach any

other gospel unto you than that which we have preached let him be accursed is that just Paul's pride and egotism is just that is it just his natural arrogance is he just setting himself up not at all he's the humblest servant of the Lord that the world has ever known what he's saying is this look here the message that I preached un you wasn't mine I received it not of men I received it by the revelation of Jesus Christ it isn't my authority it his and therefore if an angel preaches something else let him be

a cursive that's not arrogance that's an assertion of apostolic Authority and you see what these men claimed for themselves was this that they were infallible that what they preached and what they wrote was the word of God that it was infallible and that it must be accepted so Paul writing to the to the Corinthians says be ye followers of me that's not Pride he says I have received this follow what I am Telling You therefore that's what he means I have the authority of the Lord not my own authority and of course the interesting thing

is that the apostles recognize this Authority in one another that is why Peter you remember in his Second Epistle tells those people as they read the Epistles of Paul to be very careful that there are some things in them hard to be misund hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable rest to their own destruction as they do also the other scriptures he refers to Paul's writing as scriptures on a par with the Old Testament scriptures but what is still more interesting is that the whole of the early church accepted this Authority the

word of the Apostles was always a final word it was recognized that Christ had called them ued them with insight and understanding he' promised it in John 16 he fulfills it there the spirit will lead you into all truth and he had done so and they believed it and they submitted to the authority and you and I have still got to do the same same thing the church is built and founded upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets if you don't accept the authority of the New Testament scriptures what Authority have you got what

Christ do you know how do you know you're right about him what you know about anything you must start with this and accept it the early church did hence I say the cannon hence all the teaching hence the history of the church yes and and hence also our answer to the Church of Rome which claims that the church has equal Authority with the with the scriptures and which claims that further Revelations have been made since to which we reply that is impossible because you can't repeat the apostles the apostles is a men who had to

see the resurrection had to be a witness to it hence Paul's special experience on the road to Damascus no man is an apostle and Le has seen the Risen Lord and the pope hasn't no Pope has none of the Cardinals have there is no further Revelation the Revelation ended with the apostles you can't add to the scriptures they alone are a complete and a final Authority so that you see my friends it in the end comes back to this we either accept this Authority and Trust ourselves to it or else we trust our own brains

our own minds our own reason and the socalled certainties of modern knowledge and modern science indeed it comes back to this you either believe and trust to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ or else you trust to the authority of men the authority of the critics don't imagine for a moment that you can pick and choose here and shed this history Christ the son of God in whom you claim to believe he believed it he accepted it so in rejecting that you're rejecting him you cannot separate the doctrine of the scripture from the doctrine

of the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so our Authority is the Lord the Lord as I know him and find him and as he comes to me and speaks to me and offers himself to me through the scriptures his own word the word of the Living God let us make certain of the authority of the scriptures and beware of being Carried Away by every wind of Doctrine and the specious arguments of men who whose ultimate Authority is human knowledge and not divine revelation amen we do hope that you've been helped by the

preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj trust audio library are now available for free download you may share the sermons or broadcast them however because of international copyright please be advised that we are asking first that these sermons never be offered for sale by a third party and second that these sermons will not be edited in any way for length or to use as audio clips you can find our contact information on our website at mlj trust.org that's mlj t.org