Scripture

Stay in the Word

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Series: The Doctrine of Scripture

Speaker: Pastor Justin Wheeler

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:12-15

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2 Tim 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “The honeymoon is over.” This is really a discouraging thing to hear, but we know what it is intending to communicate. It means that the excitement and the emotional high of being newly married has worn off. It doesn’t mean the two people aren’t married any longer, it doesn’t mean that they don’t love each other anymore; it just means that life has settled in and the reality of living with another imperfect person has made its presence known.

We even use this phrase to describe aspects of our life that have nothing to do with marriage. “The honeymoon is over,” could refer to the fact that the excitement we felt about the new car we purchased 6 months ago has worn off. When you first brought it home you couldn’t quit thinking about it. You cleaned it regularly, drove it more than you really needed to, bought weird new accessories for it; but now it’s just a car, sitting in the driveway and costing you money.

Whether it is a new car, a new phone, a new job or even a new relationship; we all know what it feels like for the excitement to wear off and for the “honeymoon phase” to come to an end. This can happen in our walk with Christ as well. As a new believer everything about Christ is fresh and exciting. Reading the Bible is like a new adventure every day. Going to church is more meaningful than it has ever been and the desire to learn the Bible and share it with others is strong. But as the years go by the emotion that accompanied your conversion begins to fade.

The excitement about coming to church, singing to God, hearing the Bible taught, and spending time with other Christians is subject to the same, “the honeymoon is over” mentality that plagues the rest of our life. When that happens, or now that it has happened, the temptation is to move on to something else, something new, something different. But in our text this morning the Apostle Paul encourages us to do the opposite.

Transition…

Paul is warning Timothy that the pattern of this world is for people to move on, to advance from one thing to another, from bad to worse. They will get bored with one form of sin and move on to another and the temptation will be for us to do the same thing. The temptation will be for us to move on from the faith, to move on from a sincere devotion to the gospel and the Word of God that marked the early days of our faith. To this temptation, Paul says, 

“But as for you, remain in what you have learned (v. 14)” 

They will move on from one sin to another, but we must remain in the truth.

This summer we’ve been studying the doctrine of Scripture and we have learned amazing things about this book. It is the very word of God, inspired by God, free from error, sufficient, authoritative, clear, necessary and true in all its parts. In this final sermon of the series, my purpose in preaching is not to rehash all of the previous sermons, but to encourage you, to challenge you and to plead with you not to turn away from God’s Word but to continue in what you have learned.It would be a waste to learn all about the Bible and in the end not grow in our love for it, our appreciation of it, our consumption of it and our faithfulness to it. So this final sermon is a plea for all of us, all of you to Continue in the Word.

Sermon Focus…

I. Continue in what you have learned (V. 12-14)

2 Tim 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

If you want to live a godly life of trusting and following Jesus, then you will face persecution. That’s a pretty sober way to kick things off.If you want to live for Jesus it is not going to be easy, in fact, it is going to cost you. Jesus warned us about this... (John 15:18-21). He was persecuted for what He said and for how He lived; so, His followers can expect in some degree to face the same thing that He faced. 

But, our natural human instinct is to avoid persecution and, in some cases, it might be the right thing to do. Fleeing political persecution and/or ethnic persecution is a fact of life for many people all over the world.But there is a type of persecution that most of us should not only expect but we should also refuse to abandon the way of life that brings it about. The persecution that Paul is talking about here is the direct result of our desire as believers to live like Jesus. 

When a person comes to faith in Christ it is not simply the result of them changing their mind, it is more so a result of the Holy Spirit changing their heart. The Spirit of God changes our heart and opens our spiritual eyes so that we see the truth of our sin and long for the forgiveness of Jesus. The Bible calls this being born-again and it turns our whole life upside-down. It makes us want to turn from our sin. It causes us to want to put aside the life we once lived chasing sin and we grow in our desire to live a godly life that honors and obeys Jesus.

Now, there are other people who haven’t been changed the same way we have. The evil people and imposters, as Paul refers to them here, simply continue on in their sin. Their hearts haven’t been changed, their minds haven’t been changed and therefore their lives don’t change. They avoid the persecution that believers face, because they continue to live in the ways of the world, going from bad to worse. 

But let’s notice the contrast between the Christian and the non-Christian in this passage by looking at the verbs. The non-Christians go on, this word means that they advance and make progress. In what? In sin and deception. They move on from where they are now but the end result is worse than where they started. 

But the Christian is to continue or better yet, to remain.Paul tells Timothy, and us by the way, to stay right where you are. He doesn’t want us to abandon our gospel hope, nor the desire to live a godly life. He wants us to hold on to our trust in God’s Word and not let it go, even in the face of persecution.

Paul knows that Timothy’s life is anything but easy. He is a young pastor, surrounded by false teachers and enduring serious harassment from unbelievers. But so is Paul. Paul is in Rome about to die at Nero’s hand. Many of his friends have abandoned himand he is writing this letter to Timothy, urging him not to abandon the faith but to stay rooted in it. 

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

In Timothy’s case, he learned the Scriptures from his grandmother and mother. 

1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Paul is pulling out the grandma card and that is not a bad thing at all. Did you know that it is God’s design for the faith to be handed down from one generation to the next? He even instructs us as Christian parents to raise our children to know and trust the Lord. In other words, we are to teach our children a Biblical view of the world, we teach them to trust the Bible and to believe the gospel. It is God’s plan and design for our natural family to play the major role in our faith.

Yes, I know that our cultural sensibilities mock such a thing. In the name of progress, our culture teaches us to question what we were taught as children and encourages us to abandon our upbringing in order to discover our true identity. Young people in our culture are taught to question every authority except their own, which is both inconsistent and foolish. 

Even within the church, we have been led to believe that the most important thing is the most contemporary thing and anything remotely traditional is wrong. The church has become enamored with novelty and in the name of progress many have moved on from faithfulness to Scripture because it smacks of being too old-fashioned. But, God wants us to hold fast to the truth that we have been taught.

Maybe you didn’t learn the gospel from your parents because not everyone is blessed to grow up in a Christian family and healthy church. But somewhere along the way you were taught the Word of God. Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher, a youth minister, a pastor or a coach. Maybe you had a neighbor that invited you to church or a boss who encouraged you to take Sunday off and go to church. 

None of those people were perfect but they were faithful. They didn’t know everything, but they weren’t morons either. They were kind, patient, knowledgeable and they were faithful to share the truth with you. Don’t abandon that truth. Continue in what you have learned and believed.

Don’t abandon the faith of your childhood simply because some professor told you the Bible wasn’t true. Don’t turn away from the gospel because some modern author made fun of you for believing it. Don’t move on from the Scriptures because you too are grasping for something new. Continue in what you have learned and believed.

John Piper was once asked, “Why did you conclude that inerrancy was true?” He surprised everyone when he responded, “Because my momma told me it was true.” What an amazingly Biblical answer. He believed the Bible was true and he continued to study it, believe it and follow it, in part, because his mother told him that it was true. 

Now there are many more reasons for us to stay committed to the Word of God and we have been learning those reasons all summer, but I also want you to be encouraged to stay faithful to the good things your mother, father, grandmother and other imperfect but faithful teachers have taught you. Continue in what you have learned.

II. Consider where it will lead you (v. 15)

from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The sacred writings, the Scriptures, which Timothy had been acquainted with since childhood, are able to make us wise leading us to salvation from our sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the outcome of our devotion to God’s Word; wisdom from God that leads us to eternal life with Jesus as Savior, Lord and King. 

Being faithful to the Bible will not make us cool in the eyes of the world. Being faithful to the Scriptures will not make the world rush to our doors, at least not in a good way. But coolness and popularity have never been the goal of the Christian life. We want to know Christ and to be saved; the Bible leads us to this end.

How does it do this?The Bible doesn’t simply tell us what we want to hear, it tells us what we need to hear. The purpose of Scripture is not ultimately to make you smart, successful, powerful, or relevant. The purpose of the Scripture is not to make you feel good about yourself and help you to live your best life now. The purpose of Scripture is to reveal the truth about God and man, sin and judgment, grace and forgiveness. 

The purpose of Scripture is to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. 

But why can it be trusted? 2 Tim 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” This book is the Word of God. Our Creator has spoken to us and He still speaks to us. His word is without error, unchanging, complete, sufficient and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. And the chief domain of knowledge to which it speaks is the salvation of men.

The Bible reveals to us the story of all things.It reveals that we are not the product of time and chance; but are the unique creation of the Triune God. We are creatures fashioned in time and space by our divine and eternal Creator. He gave us life, He sustains our life, and He watches over our lives as both a generous provider and a just judge. 

Oh, and He is holy while we are rebellious and sinful. We have sinned against our Creator and we continue to sin against Him. We sin whenwe break the law of God. We sin whenwe fail to acknowledge the glory of God. We sin whenwe fail to cherish the love of God, fail to appreciate the goodness of God, when we failto obey the word of God. We sinin word and in deed. We sin in omission and in commission, and unless something changes we will be judged for our sin. 

But God, because of the great love that He has for us, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin, to live a perfectly sinless life, to teach us the truth about our own hearts, and then to die in our place so that by His sacrifice our guilt would be washed away. He was raised from the dead appearing to His disciples and several hundred other people as well. 

He calls us to embrace Him as the Savior we need. He calls us to turn from our lifestyle of sin to follow him. He calls us to live a godly life and not to turn from the Word that He has given us. He promises that if we trust in Him we will have eternal life. The word of God is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Continue in what you have learned and Understand where it will lead you.

Conclusion…

When we started this series on the doctrine of Scripture we kicked it off by looking at Psalm 119 and we have been reading that Psalm together ever since. It is a song of love about the Word of God and my goal in starting this series with a love poem about the Word of God was to try and stir our emotions about the Bible. We have God’s Word in our hands. We can trust every word on every page. We can read and hear Gods voice every time we open it. 

We know these things to be true, because we know the doctrine of Scripture. But the reason most of us struggle to read the Word and apply it to our lives, is not the result of insufficient doctrine. It’s most likely the result of our hearts being cold to it. We don’t get excited about the Word the way we once did. We aren’t longing to know it and apply it the way we once were. 

In this passage, Paul is urging Timothy to stand firm in the faith despite the persecution he is experiencing, but for many of us the temptation is not so much about persecution as it is about the way we feel. For some of us the honeymoon phase of our faith has been over for a long time. We just don’t get excited about reading and studying the Bible anymore. We haven’t stopped believing the gospel, but we aren’t allowing the Word of God to impact our daily lives the way it once did.

We need the doctrine in our head to warm the devotion of our hearts and fuel a renewed commitment to God’s Word. It’s not enough for us to say we are a people of the book, we need to be a people of the book. 

Maybe you need some help. I have provided a reading plan that will take you through the entire New Testament in two months. You can pick that up on your way out. 

Maybe you need to be challenged. Select a book you don’t understand that well (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Revelation) and spend the next month reading, studying, and journaling through that book. 

Maybe you need some accountability. Find a friend, a sibling, a spouse, a co-worker, or some other acquaintance and commit to reading the Bible then meeting up in some way to discuss it. 

Let’s strive to be Christians who know, love and are actively committed to the Word of God. Let the words of Psalm 119be our prayer as we close.

172  My tongue will sing of your word, 

for all your commandments are right. 

173 Let your hand be ready to help me, 

for I have chosen your precepts. 

174 I long for your salvation, O Lord, 

and your law is my delight. 

175 Let my soul live and praise you, 

and let your rules help me. 

 

 

 

The Authority of Scripture

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Series: The Doctrine of Scripture

Speaker: Pastor Justin Wheeler

Scripture: Acts 17:10-22

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We are in week 7 of our series on the doctrine of Scripture. In this study we have learned about the inerrancy, inspiration, sufficiency, clarity, and necessity of Gods Word. A few weeks ago, Josh Wagner was here and he helped us understand the relationship between the Bible and Science, or the two books of God and how the book of revelation is what helps us interpret and understand the book of creation.

Today’s sermon is an application of all principles we have seen thus far; if the Bible is true in all of its parts and without error, if the Bible has been given to us by the inspiration of God, if it is clear, necessary and sufficient, if it stands as the infallible foundation for how we interpret the natural world; then this Bible stands in a place of unique authority in our lives as believers.

Why do we go to Haiti? Why do we, as a church and as individuals, engage in the mission of going to the nations to preach the gospel and make disciples? We are notsimplybeing driven by a human impulse of concern for the well-being of others. It is notbecause we believe that we are better than others and therefore we need to help them become more like ourselves, which is what one of our team members was accused of. We are not fueled by the religious belief that our going earns us some spiritual merit toward our entry into Heaven. We are not simplybeing guided by a burden for social justice.

We go because Christ commands us to go.We go because the one who commands us, the One who sends us, was Himself sent. Jesus obeyed the command of His Father. In obedience to His Father, Jesus came, lived, and died to set us free from our hopeless bondage to sin. We go because of our love for Jesus, our love for our neighbor, and we go in submission to the authority of God’s Word.

It is in Scripture and from the lips of Jesus that we see the command to go into the world, preaching the gospel, in order to make disciples of Christ. It is in the Word of God that we hear the command of God to go. It is in Scripture that we come to realize that just as God the Father sent His Son, so the Son has sent us. We go in obedience to the authority of God’s word.

The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.[1]

Transition…

If you are a Christian, then you believe in the authority of Scripture; at least in some sense. But the question is how should we understand the Bible’s authority? What is the source of the Bible’s authority? Are their limits to the Bible’s authority? Why do many people reject the Bible’s authority? And then finally, how does the Bible’s authority impact our lives as believers? 

Let’s look at some of these questions together.

Sermon Focus…

I. What is the Source of the Bible’s Authority?

The ultimate reason why the Scripture is authoritative is that it is God’s Word. Divine authorship gives the Bible it’s inherent authority and we see this truth born out in the historical statements of faith.

 The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 1 article 4 reads, 

The authority of the Holy Scriptures obligates belief in them. This authority does not depend on the testimony of any person or church but on God the author alone, who is truth itself. Therefore, the Scriptures are to be received because they are the Word of God.[2]

The Scriptures have absolute authority because God has absolute authority, and scripture is His personal word to us.From the very beginning of the Bible we are told that it is God, our Creator, is speaking. He spoke to create the universe, to bring order and direction to His creation, and then He spoke to decisively establish His authority over mankind. He spoke to Adam, to Cain, to Noah, to Abraham and in each case the authority of His word is unquestionable.

As we move on in the Scriptures we see a recurring phrase letting us know that God is still speaking. “Thus says the Lord” appears hundreds of times and the cumulative force of these statements demonstrate that what we are reading is the written record of God’s own words. When this phrase occurs God is speaking.

But what about those times when we don’t see this phrase? What about those historical records, those poems and psalms, or those proverbs? How are we to understand the authority of the words that aren’t directly related to those, “Thus says the Lord” passages. 

Well, as we move on to the NT the apostles help us answer this question definitively. The burden of the Apostles was to preach the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus, the messiah of God and Savior of the world. They declared that, “There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved (Acts 4:12). They proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God and the final and supreme authority. 

Furthermore, they rested this message upon the authority of the OT Scriptures. In other words, they weren’t simply declaring Christ as king on their own authority, they were declaring it based on the authority of the OT Scriptures. ANDthey understood their own apostolic writing/preaching to fall into the same category of being Spirit-Inspired Scripture (2 Pet 3:16).     

The OT and the NT must be viewed as a whole and both of them together make up what the Bible calls Scripture.

2 Tim 3:16 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. 

2 Pet 1:20No 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.

The ultimate source of every word in the Bible is God himself. Yes, the Bible was written down by human authors, but every word is from God. Since this is God’s word from beginning to end, it carries His authority. 

The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God (Grudem). 

II. Are There Limits to the Bible’s Authority?

There are a lot of voices in this world each claiming to be the final word on any number of subjects. Sometimes the focus is history and the claim is made that Biblical history is inaccurate. Sometimes the focus is scienceand the claim is made that Biblical teaching has been disproved by modern science. Sometimes the focus is traditionor human reason and from this standpoint people make the claim that the Bible cannot be trusted. 

All of this brings up the question, “What is our ultimate authority?” Are there limits to the Bible’s trustworthiness and therefore it’s authority? 

Roman Catholic author, theologian and apologist, Peter Kreeft answers this question from the RC position. 

The Church gives us her tradition like a mother giving a child hand-me-down clothing that has already been worn by many older brothers and sisters. But unlike any earthly clothing, this clothing is indestructible because it is made of…truth. It was invented by God, not man. Sacred Tradition must be distinguished from all human traditions…as part of “the deposit of faith”, which also includes sacred Scripture.

Did you catch his answer? Scripture has authority in Roman Catholic life but not sole authority. Tradition reigns at its side. For the RC, the authority of Scripture is limited by Sacred Tradition.

Liberal theology has elevated human reason and experience over the Scriptures in terms of final authority. LT already undermines the accuracy, inerrancy and trustworthiness of Scripture; and in the realm of authority it simply continues that trend. 

Gary Dorrien writes, 

The essential idea of liberal theology is that all claims to truth must be made on the basis of reason and experience, not by appeal to external authority (ie. The bible). Christian Scripture may be recognized as spiritually authoritative within Christian experience, but its word does not settle or establish truth claims about matters of fact.

What this means is that the Scriptures can speak with authority on matters of faith, so long as we want them to; but in their system there is a difference between faith and truth.For the liberal theologian, who has supplanted God and replaced Him with man, final authority comes down to man’s reason and experience, not Scripture. 

As your pastor and an elder in this church, we absolutely reject both of these views. We believe that Bible is the final and only authority. It stands in judgment of human reason. It reigns over all tradition. We learned a few weeks ago from Psalm 19 that God has given us two books; the book of nature and the book of Scripture. Nature reveals much but Scripture reigns as the authoritative book of God. 

From the Cornerstone Statement of Faith…

God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. God has also inspired the words of the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone constitute the Word of God, which is authoritative and without error in the original writings, and is complete, sufficient, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks.

This paragraph makes clear our position on the authority of God’s Word.

III. Why Do So Many People Reject the Bible’s Authority?

We really have to answer this question in a couple of ways: biblically and then practically. Biblically, men and women suppress the truth and authority of God’s Word because of their sin (Rom 1:18). All of mankind has some innate knowledge of the truth of God because God has written it on our hearts, but we suppress that truth. We know it is true, but we choose to believe the lie of sin rather than the truth of God.

But practically there are several reasons why people reject the authority of Scripture. Some reject it because they have legitimate intellectual concerns. Some reject it because they prefer the wisdom of man to that of God. Atheists reject it for obvious reasons; if there is no God then the Bible has no authority for them. Some reject it because they don’t fully understand it, but others reject it because it gets in the way of their sinful desires, and on the rare occasion you can find people who are willing to admit it.

Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World,once wrote,

“For myself, as for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom…”[3]

Huxley, like so many, rejected the truth and authority of Scripture because it interfered with his sexual freedom. He, like so many, rejected the Words of eternal life for the fleeting pleasures of a few years of sexual sin. He didn’t reject it because he studied it and found it to be untrue in some empirical way. He didn’t reject it because of deep intellectual convictions. He rejected it because it confronted him over his immorality.

This notion is alive and thriving in our culture today. Many people aren’t interested in a reasonable consideration of Christian faith because they have already made up their mind that their chosen lifestyle, which the Bible addresses as sinful, is more valuable than anything the Bible might teach them. They haven’t studied the Scriptures for themselves, they’ve simply decided that the Bible is antiscience, antipleasure, anti (fill in the blank) without ever bothering to investigate the Bible with an open mind.

Christians have long been accused of being closed-minded and in some cases that may be true, but the same is also true of many unbelievers only they aren’t willing to acknowledge their own inconsistency. 

This is nothing new, in fact this has been happening since the time of the early church. Jesus was rejected becausethe authority of His word threatened the authority of the Pharisees and Scribes. The apostles and the Word they preached were rejectedbecause they threatened to undermine the status quo in Jerusalem. Paul and His band of early missionarieswent throughout the Roman Empire preaching the Word of God. The authority of his message was rejected in many towns because the Jews were filled with jealousy(Acts 5, 13, 17).

The gospel was rejected in Philippi and Ephesus because it interrupted the revenue stream of idolatrous men. In these cases and many others, the authority of God’s word was rejected simply on the basis of sin. But we do have a Biblical example where the authority of the Word was not rejected but nobly considered.

Acts 17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

IV. How Does the Bible’s Authority Impact our Lives?

These men and women were eager to examine the Scriptures in order to check the accuracy of Paul’s message. They didn’t simply take Paul’s word for it nor did they reject it based on their own sinful presuppositions; instead they relied upon the authority of Scripture to help them decide if the good news was true. This passage demonstrates what it means to affirm the authority of Scripture.

If Paul’s message could be supported from Scripture they wanted to accept it. They were willing to hear the gospel and believe the gospel so long as it was consistent with the Scriptures. Their submission to the authority of God’s Word led to them embracing Jesus as Messiah and following Him as Lord. If the Bible said it, they would believe it and obey it.

Conclusion…

The Scriptures have the last word, the final word and our posture is to understand it, believe it and submit to it. So, let me ask the obvious question, how are we doing in our application of the Authority of Scripture? Fox News does not have the final say in how we are to live our lives. Nor does CNN. Hollywood is not our final authority. The current moral (or amoral) climate of our culture does not have the final word in our lives as Christians. That position belongs to God’s Word.

Is your life continually being shaped by God’s Word? Are you growing in your understanding and application of it? Are you progressing in your struggle against sin by repenting, confessing and battling according to Scripture?

Are you growing in your love for Jesus and in your love for your neighbors? Are you serving in ways that are consistent with the Word? Are you praying, giving, and going? Are you allowing the Scriptures to be the final authority in your life or are you simply giving lip-service to this doctrine?

These are tough questions, hard hitting questions, but they must be asked. Theology must not simply remain in the pages of our books, it must jump from those pages and impact our lives.

When the Word of God tells us who God is we believe it. When the Word of God tells us who we are we accept it. When the Word of God tells us of our need we trust it and when the Word of God tells us of the Savior we need, we receive Him. When He commands us to repent we repent, when He commands us to love we love, when He commands us to go we go.

Scripture’s authority functions in our lives to guide, sustain, convict, compel, save and sustain us until Christ comes again. 

 

 

[1]Grudem, Wayne A.; Grudem, Wayne A.. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (p. 73). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2]https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-1-the-holy-scriptures/(2 Peter 1:19–21; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 5:9.)

[3]Aldous Huxley, in Robert S. Baker and James Sexton, eds., Aldous Huxley: Complete Essays Volume 4 (Pg 369).