GOD HAS A CHAIN OF AUTHORITY - 5
The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans
16:16)
1. To
understand this
point, there are some other matters with which we must be familiar.
a. All authority
inherently
resides in God,
b. by virtue of
the fact that
God is the creator of the world and all things therein, including man
(Genesis
1-3; Romans
2. He (God) gave all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus
Christ,
His Son (Matt. 28:18-20).
a. In turn, Christ
sent the
Holy Spirit upon the apostles to guide them into all the truth
(John
b. Thus, Christ
delegated
God’s authority to the apostles
c. so they could reveal His word (truth) to
man.
3. The apostles laid hands on other men of the first century
a. that they might
receive
miraculous power from the Holy Spirit, thus becoming prophets,
b. with the power
to also
reveal the word of God by inspiration (1 Cor.
1. For a time, then,
the word
of God was in inspired men,
2. who
were able to infallibly preach the Gospel of Christ.
4. With the passing of time, these men (the apostles and
prophets)
a. wrote the
various books of
the New Testament.
b. The word of God
was then
in the inspired book (Eph. 3:5; 2 Tim.
5. Today, there are no inspired men;
a. there is no one who has any miraculous gift
of the
Holy Spirit.
b. Today, we have
the
inspired book, the Bible,
c. and no religious act is pleasing to God
which is
not authorized by this book (2 John 9-11).
6. The truth
of the
Bible was recognized as authoritative by the early church.
a. They obeyed this
truth in
becoming Christians (Acts
b. They then lived
their
daily lives in harmony with this truth (Acts
c. They recognized
that any
action not authorized by the truth - the word of God - was sinful (Gal.
1:6-9).
7. Not only is the Bible authoritative; it is also sufficient
(READ 1
Cor. 13:10; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; James 1:25).
a. There is thus no
need for
any further revelation (cf. Jude 3).
b. There is no need
for the
Book of Mormon or the Catholic catechism.
c. There is no need
for the
Baptist manual or the Presbyterian confession of faith.
d. Men must learn
not to go
beyond the things which are written in the Bible (1 Cor. 4:6).
8. Among other things, the Bible is sufficient to teach man what
to do to
become a Christian,
a. and how to live
the
Christian life,
b. including all
Christian
work and worship.
9. Since no man can be pleasing to God unless he does what the
Bible
authorizes
a. (whether it be a
matter
which is obligatory or is merely optional),
b. another
important question
is, How Does The Bible authorize?
10. Lord willing, we will answer that question in section VI,
a. but the crucial thing to note is that to
reject
Biblical authority is to reject Christianity.
b. To reject
Christianity is
to reject Jesus Christ.
c. To reject Jesus
Christ is
to reject the only way of salvation from sin which exists
(John 3:3-5;
Acts
11. No matter how sincere and religious he may be,
a. no man who rejects the inspiration, the
inerrant,
the all-sufficiency,
b. and the authority of the Bible can be
regarded
rightly as a faithful child of God (cf. Matt. 7:13-23).
12. The Bible is the word of God, and TRUE Christianity is the religion
of
Biblical authority.
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