A High View of Scripture - Part 1

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We've stepped away from the verse-by-verse exposition of God's word – I hope to start Matthew the week after Labor Day – but this summer, in between our study of the Book of Revelation and Matthew, we're considering two very crucial issues in the life of our church.  On August 8^th, in the year 1173, an Italian city began work on what would become its most famous building – it was to be a freestanding bell tower for its cathedral.  It was designed to be eight stories tall, about 185' in height.  Construction of this tower took 177 years – but, unfortunately, just five years after they began, when construction had only reached the second floor, the builders noticed a serious problem.  The Tower of Pisa had started to sink and to lean to one side – this was caused by two problems; the first is the weak, unstable subsoil was simply too soft to support a structure of this height; and secondly, the foundation was too shallow – it was only ten feet deep, for a 185' tall building. Today, of course, as you know, the tower has stood for over eight hundred years – but, at the top, it leans about 13' away from vertical.  Within the last twenty to thirty years, they've removed tons of dirt from the side opposite the lean, and engineers now say that, for the first time in its history, it has stopped leaning further, and that it should be safe for another couple of hundred years – but one day, the experts say, if further efforts aren't made, it will collapse.  The reason for the problems with the Leaning Tower of Pisa is that it was built on too shallow of a foundation.  Tragically, that is a metaphor for many churches that exist today – just as a church building can have a shallow, faulty foundation and therefore fail to endure, the living organism that is the church can also be built on an insufficient, shallow foundation – and, left unaddressed, that local church will eventually collapse.  Paul tells us that the right foundation, the deepest foundation for the church, must always be the word of God.

I want to start this morning in 1 Timothy, Paul's first letter to his young son in the faith who ministered in the city of Ephesus.  1 Timothy 3 – and look at verse 14; Paul here explains why he's writing Timothy this letter, and really, in a real sense, why he's writing the other pastoral epistles as well.  He says, "I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth."[SR1]   I want you to notice the word conduct in that verse – conduct.  The Greek word means to conduct oneself by certain principles – so, Paul wrote this letter so that, in case he wasn't able to come to Ephesus when he hoped to come, Timothy would know the principles by which he should conduct himself in the church that he pastored in Ephesus.  This is the purpose, as I said, of really all the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, the letters that were written to pastors. But notice the expression in the middle of verse 15 – "how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God" – I am struck, by that expression, that there are really several huge implications buried in that little phrase.  Let me just give them to you – I'm not going to expand them – let me just give you a little list.

First of all, that phrase tells us that how a particular church conducts itself matters to Christ – Christ is not indifferent with what goes on in each local church. Secondly, there are wrong ways to do church – he wants Timothy to know how he ought to; it means there are plenty of wrong ways to do it.  Thirdly, it means that Christians, even Christian leaders and pastors like Timothy, don't automatically know how to conduct themselves in the church – they have to learn, they have to be taught by the scripture.  Number four – no church or church leader gets to establish its own guiding principles or philosophy for doing church.  I don't get to decide; the elders of this church don't get to decide how we're going to make life at Countryside.  And that bring us to number five – God has told us how to do church, and every church is responsible to conduct itself in that way.  I'm not talking about methodology or style, although there are some methods that fit better with what the scriptures teach; I'm talking about a biblical philosophy of ministry, a set of non-negotiable, biblical principles that guide all the choices and decisions that are made in a church.  Every church has such principles – they may be carefully articulated; they may be simply assumed – but there are always non-negotiable principles in every church that guide the decisions that are made throughout the life of that church. Now, I'm dealing with two of those non-negotiables in our time together in these weeks, but online you'll find a series I did a number of years ago called "Five Hallmarks of a Biblical Church" – if you're interested in looking at the other three, you can do that – I've chosen these two because where these two are present, the other three will be as well.

So, out on the wall in our lobby, there are two expressions that summarize these two non-negotiable distinctives, distinctives that always mark biblical churches.  So far, we've considered "A High View of God," and I've explained to you over the last several weeks that, by a high view of God, we really mean that we believe, teach, and are shaped as a church by three biblical truths about God.  Number one, that God alone is great in His being, and therefore, He ought to be treated as such.  God is transcendent, He is magnificent, He is majestic, and therefore, we ought to fear God, we ought to love God, we ought to honor Him in our thoughts and words and in our worship.  Number two, God alone is sovereign over all things; there's not a stray molecule in His universe.  And then, last week, we considered number three, God alone is sovereign in our salvation. When we say we have a high view of God, that's what we mean.

Today, I want to begin our study of the second distinctive, and that is "A High View of Scripture."  I'm going to take this in two parts – we'll deal with a part today and, Lord willing, next time we come back to this topic, we'll look at the second part.  But today, I simply want to consider the question, what does it mean – when we talk about a high view of scripture, what does it mean?  Scripture demands that every believer have a high level of respect not only for God's person, but also for His word.  Psalm 138:2 says, God, "You have magnified Your word according to all Your name" – in fact, scripture, that book you hold in your hand, is part of the foundational purpose of the church's existence.  In fact, look again at 1 Timothy 3:15 – Paul says, "I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church."  Now, the church is not this building; this is the worship center where we, the church, meet – but the church is people, it's the local gathering of believers, is how it's used most commonly in the New Testament.  It is, literally, the word church in Greek is ekklesia; it means the assembly – it's the assembling of believers together; that's the church. And Paul says it's "the church of the living God;" it belongs to God.  Listen, this church is not my church, it's not the elders' church – in a real sense, it's not even your church, although you attend here – this is God's church, or in New Testament terms, this is Christ's church; He is its head.

But notice how Paul goes on to identify the church in verse 15 – he says the church, which belongs to the living God, is "the pillar and support of the truth." Now, what does he mean by the truth? Well, the truth is found in only one source, and our Lord identified that source in John 17:17; He says, "Your word is" – what?  "Truth."  So, we're talking about the scripture here – the church is "the pillar and support of" the scripture.  First of all, the church is the pillar of scripture – a pillar provides support; it holds up the roof.  You can't see the pillars in this building; they're buried in the walls, but there are steel beams that support the roof of this structure.  As a pillar, the church exists to hold up the truth.  But he also says the church is the support of scripture – a support describes that which provides a firm base, the foundation. You know, we understand this in Texas, we always struggle with our foundations here in Texas because of Texas' clay – you may not know this, but this worship center that you sit in, it's 40,000 square feet, and it doesn't rest on a normal foundation, it's not just a thin layer of concrete beneath us.  It took a long time, but in fact, there are 106 pillars going down into the earth under the foundation of this structure; they're large around, and some of them go down as much as sixty feet into the ground to support this building. In the same way, the church is the support, it's the foundation on which the truth rests.  So, what is he saying here?  As the pillar of the scripture, the church holds the scripture up by teaching it; and as the support of the truth, the church provides a foundation on which the truth exists; that is, as a church, we defend the scripture, and we pass the scripture on to the next generation.  So, when we read that the church is the pillar and support of the truth, what Paul is saying is, the church is to teach the truth, and the church is to defend the truth, and the church is to pass the truth on to the next generation.

As a result of this foundational role that has been assigned by Christ Himself, every genuine, biblical church will have a high view of scripture – but what does that mean? Well, ultimately, to have a high view of scripture means that you hold the same view of scripture that scripture admonishes us to hold.  But, specifically, this morning, let me put it this way – ultimately, to have a high view of scripture is to share Paul's confidence in several truths about the scripture.  Paul touches on these truths throughout his letters, but they're all found, powerfully explained, in one New Testament passage – I want you to turn with me to Paul's second letter to Timothy, in chapter 3.  Now, during our study of 1 John, we looked at this passage – but, for this series, I need to remind you of these things again.  Let me give you context – Paul ends 2 Timothy 2 with these words, verse 24.  2 Timothy 2:24, "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged" – now, watch verse 25. "With gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" – he's talking about false teachers and their followers; they don't have the truth.  And, so, when you come to chapter 3, the first nine verses, Paul expands on that, and he talks, in these verses, about false teachers and their influence. False teachers are the chief source of attacks on the word of God – when you look in scripture, the two attacks on scripture come from the unbelieving, pagan governmental authorities, on the one hand, and on the other hand, those attacks come from false teachers, and that's what he's dealing with here.  Look at verse 8 – notice false teachers "oppose the truth."  In verses 11-12, Paul reminds Timothy that the persecution that Paul faced in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra came from false teachers.  And then, notice in verse 13, he says, listen, it's not going to get better – false teachers are only going to get worse. But notice the contrast in the beginning of verse 14 – "You, however," Timothy, "continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings."  Paul tells Timothy to remain confident in the scripture, and then he underscores certain foundational truths about the scripture.  Folks, a high view of scripture means that we believe these crucial truths about the scripture, what Paul is about to lay out for Timothy – if you want to have a high view of scripture, then these truths need to be truths that you believe and embrace.  Let's look at them together.

First of all, a high view of scripture means that we believe in inspiration – scripture alone is inspired by God.  Verse 16, "All Scripture is inspired by God" – now, by all scripture, we know that Paul means what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures.  Back in verse 15, he refers to "the sacred writings;" that's a technical term for what we refer to as the Old Testament. But he also means the New Testament – we know that because, back in his first letter to Timothy, in chapter 5, verse 18, Paul quotes Deuteronomy – Old Testament – and he quotes Luke 10 – New Testament – and he calls both of them scripture.  In addition, we know that Peter, in 2 Peter 3, calls Paul's letters scripture.  So, all scripture here includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament – and notice what Paul says, "All Scripture is inspired."  Now, if you've been a Christian any time at all, you've heard that word, the scripture is inspired – let me give you a little history of that word.  When Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate from Greek about 400 A.D., for this Greek word, he chose the Latin word inspirata – you recognize that word, inspirata – that word, that Latin word inspirata, eventually was translated into English, into our translations, as inspired.  That happened first with Wycliffe, the first English translation of the Bible, he translated from the Vulgate – so, he used that inspirata and made it inspired in English.  Tyndale, when he translated, chose that same translation, and so we got inspired.

But there's a problem, because the word inspired can easily be misunderstood, because it literally means breathed into; God breathed into the scriptures, is the idea with the word inspired – but the Greek word is theopneustos.  Theopneustos – two Greek words, which this one word, put together from two Greek words, appears only here in Greek literature; in fact, Paul may have coined this term – but what does it mean?  Well, notice the New American Standard marginal reference, if you have that version of the scriptures – notice it says, in the margin, "literally God-breathed;" that's what theopneustos means.  So, when Paul says all scripture is theopneustos, he means all scripture is not breathed into by God, but is breathed out by God – all scripture, then, is the product of the breath of God, in the same way that my words right now are the product of my breath, that your words, when you speak, are the product of your breath.  That's what Paul is claiming – every word of scripture comes from the mouth of God; it's the product of His breath.  Luke 1:70 says God "spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets." In 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, listen to this – Paul says that the words we speak, meaning the apostles who write the New Testament, are not speaking "words taught by human wisdom," but words "taught by the Holy Spirit."  2 Peter 1:21 [SR2] says "men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke" – listen to this – "from God."  That's the idea that Paul is communicating here – this book you hold in your hand, it is the product of the breath of God; these are His words.

Jesus develops this concept of inspiration back in Matthew – go back to Matthew 5, in His most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, He begins by making His point, once He's described, sort of, the characteristics of believers who belong to His kingdom in the Beatitudes, and then a description of our influence in verses 13-16, He comes in verse 17 to His own view of scripture – and I want you to look at verse 18.  Matthew 5:18 – "Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished." This is Jesus' view of scripture – if you want to, sort of, go through it thoroughly, you can go back and listen to when I taught through the Sermon on the Mount; I wrote a little book on Jesus' high view of scripture – but I want you to see a couple of things Jesus teaches, amazing truths Jesus teaches in this one verse.

First of all, Jesus teaches verbal inspiration.  Verbal inspiration – that means that God is not only the source of the thoughts in scripture, but also of the very words themselves.  I love what Jesus says in the temptation – you know, I'm preparing to teach Matthew's gospel; I've been reading through it a number of times, and I love how Jesus responds in the temptation in the wilderness in Matthew 4 – He says to Satan, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but" what? By "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."[SR3]   That's a great description of scripture; it's every word proceeding from the mouth of God. But Jesus goes further here in verse 18 than even every word – notice what He says, "not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law."  Literally, in Greek, "one iota or one little horn, no, not at all shall pass away" – that's how it reads in the Greek text.  Iota is the smallest Greek letter, and here Jesus uses that to stand in the place of the smallest Hebrew letter which is the letter yodh – it's equivalent to our letter Y, but it doesn’t look like Y; in Hebrew, the yodh looks like our apostrophe.  So, think of that – that's the smallest Hebrew letter; it looks like our apostrophe.  And there are – and by the way, I did not count them – but there are more than 66,000 yodhs in the Hebrew Old Testament; how bad could it be to leave one out?  Jesus says not one.  The Greek word translated stroke means little horn – it refers to a pen stroke that distinguishes one letter from another.  For example, think of English – picture in your mind a capital O and a capital Q; what distinguishes those two letters in English?  It's that little squiggly mark, that little stroke at the bottom of the circle – well, the same is true with several Hebrew letters. Jesus is making a remarkable claim here – He is saying that the original autographs of scripture, the original documents that were penned by the authors, were breathed out by God, not only in their individual words, but even their individual letters, and down to the smallest pen strokes; Jesus was saying that the scripture is letter-perfect.

Jesus also affirms, in this verse, plenary inspiration – look again at verse 18, "not the smallest letter or stroke," not one, "shall pass away from the Law until" – notice this – "all is accomplished."  In theological terms, the word plenary simply means all – not only is each individual stroke, letter and word of scripture breathed out by God, but all of it, in its entirety, is as well.  Jesus goes on to affirm, by implication, what we could call complete inerrancy – again, verse 18, "not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished."  The Greek word accomplished means to happen, to come to pass – the universe, Jesus says, will be destroyed before anything written in scripture fails to happen.  Jesus was emphasizing the utter trustworthiness, the truthfulness, the certainty of the scripture – what it says is so true that it will happen.

But Jesus here also affirms scripture's faithful preservation.  Its faithful preservation – the psalmist tells us that God's word is fixed, preserved in heaven perfectly[SR4] ,  But here, Jesus also claims that it's faithfully preserved on earth, because Jesus made these assertions about the scriptures when no original autographs of the Hebrew Old Testament still existed – in the first century, they didn't have the scrolls, the parchments on which the original authors wrote; they had copies, carefully made from copies, carefully made from copies.  But Jesus still regularly referred to those copies of scripture used in the first century as the word of God – that means Jesus affirmed, by implication, the faithful preservation of the scripture throughout history.  Brothers and sisters, you can have confidence in the scripture you hold; it is completely trustworthy, and we have it on the authority of our Lord Himself.  Let me ask you this morning – and this is not a rhetorical question – I want you to answer this question in your heart:  Do you believe what Jesus believed about the Bible?  If you're His follower, He demands that you believe the same thing.  Do you believe the Bible alone is breathed out by God – that every word, every letter, every stroke is the product of the breath of God? That was true in the originals, and it's been faithfully preserved for us – you must believe that.

Now, let's go back to 2 Timothy 3, because a high view of scripture means that we believe in the scripture's inspiration, but secondly, we believe in scripture's relevancy – scripture alone is profitable in all times and places.  Look again at 2 Timothy 3:16 – "All Scripture," the whole, the entirety, is not only inspired, breathed out by God, it's "profitable."  The word means useful, beneficial – scripture is always useful; that means in all times, in all places, in all people, it's useful.  Folks, we don't make the Bible relevant – it is eternally relevant.  If God breathed out these words to us, if these words in that book you hold are the product of the very breath of God, they're His words – what could be more relevant?

But – listen carefully – the fact that it's always relevant doesn't mean people always believe it's relevant or want to hear it.  Look at 2 Timothy 4:3 – professing believers, Paul tells Timothy, "will not endure sound doctrine, but … will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires."  Listen, there are churches across our city this morning, across the world, where the word of God isn't relevant – and instead, somebody is teaching their own ideas.  I shared with you, several months ago, a metaphor of that – a member of our church visited another city and visited a church where their family went, and they told me the story of the pastor had this little plant stand, that he had this tiny little Bible on, and he got up at the beginning of the message, and he read a couple of verses from the scripture.  And then, metaphorically – I mean, it's powerful; he didn't intend it this way, but it was – he picked up that plant stand with that little version of the Bible on it, walked it to the back, dark corner of the stage, left it there, walked back to the center of the stage, and spoke the rest of his message and never referred to the scripture again.  There's a man who doesn't believe the Bible is relevant.

Read through 1 and 2 Timothy, and notice how often Paul tells Timothy to teach the word instead of all of those things, even in the first century, that people were interested in.  He said, don't teach what people are interested in, don't cater to their desires – preach the word.  Mark it, brothers and sisters – a church with a high view of scripture won't try to make the Bible relevant; they'll simply believe that it is, and they'll teach it faithfully.  Romans 15:4 – listen to this; I love this – Paul says, "whatever was written in earlier times," he means in the scripture, "was written for our instruction."  It's eternally relevant; it doesn’t matter that it's 3,500 years old.  1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul is talking about the wilderness wanderings, which goes back 3,500 years, and he says, "these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come."  God gave us this book for us in every time, and in every place, for all people.  Look at 2 Timothy 4:2; Paul says, Timothy, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season" – in other words, all the time.  But that also implies preach when it's popular to preach the word and when it's not, just keep on preaching the word of God, because it is eternally relevant.  Let me ask you again – do you believe that the Bible, and all the Bible, is profitable in all times and in all places?  Or let me make it more specific to you – do you believe that it's that in all times and circumstances of your life?  Wherever you find yourself today, do you really believe that the Bible is relevant for you?

A third truth about scripture is that we believe it's sufficient in its sufficiency.  In its sufficiency – scripture alone is sufficient for every spiritual need.  Tragically, the Christian landscape is cluttered with cheap substitutes for the scripture – I mean, listen, there are very few people who would say the Bible isn't enough; they just say that with their actions.  Cults, of course, add other authoritative books and writings to the scripture, and the Roman Catholic Church adds tradition – but, sadly, there are also some very common add-ons to scripture among professing evangelical Christians.  Let me just give you a little list – here's what a lot of people in churches like ours or other professing evangelical churches substitute for the scripture. Number one, secular or Christian psychology – it's as if, before Freud, we couldn't understand man's true needs, how those needs could be legitimately met.  So, the gospel is sufficient for salvation, but we need psychology for real change.  Others substitute secular or Christian self-help books, self-help websites – it is astounding to me how many Christians are constantly looking for help for their lives and their souls from such sources.  Number three, charismatic prophecies and revelations – rather than focus on God's objective revelation in scripture, some think it's more helpful to focus on supposed extra-biblical revelation.  Recently I watched an elder in a charismatic church here in DFW seek to comfort and encourage a hurting church – the primary source of his comfort for that church wasn't the Bible, but rather, it was a couple of supposed prophecies about that church.  He may as well have started with these words – "the Bible isn't enough." Mysticism is another common substitute – some argue that the Bible speaks to us subjectively through voices, feelings, impressions, rather than solely through His external word.  Christians will say things like God told me, or God spoke to me, or God said this to me – listen, Christian, get that out of your vocabulary; the truth is what Luther said, and that is, "Let the man who would hear God speak, read holy scripture."  Number five, another substitute is the pastor's own ideas and life insights – again, very common for a pastor to get up and just share what he thinks; it's like glorified TED talks.  Interpretations and applications of biblical passages that are not based on authorial intent – in other words, one substitute for scripture is misusing the scripture to make it say what you want, rather than what it says.  Those are cheap substitutes for scripture.

In contrast to all of that, the Bible consistently, relentlessly maintains that it is enough, that it contains all necessary for our faith and practice.  We call this the sufficiency of scripture – both the Westminster Confession and the Baptist Confession say this, "The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life" – all things necessary – "is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence, may be deduced from scripture."  Brothers and sisters, everything you need is in that book you hold in your hand.  Scripture teaches that it contains all that is necessary; first of all, it is sufficient for salvation.  Look at verse 15 – "from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation," and to the salvation that is "through faith" which is found in the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.  Of course, he is referring to the Old Testament – think about this; from Genesis 3:15, from Genesis 3:15, the Old Testament prophesied the coming of the Messiah.  That's why Abraham looked for His day, Jesus said, in John 8; that's why Moses, Hebrews 11, made life decisions based on his devotion to the Messiah – and from Genesis 3:15, the Old Testament explained that the Messiah was coming to deal with human sin.  The sacrifices began to show how He would deal with sin, but by the time of Isaiah, seven hundred years before Christ, the Old Testament taught that Messiah would atone for the sins of His people by offering Himself as their substitute by dying in their place, Isaiah 53:4-6.  And, of course, the New Testament fills out that gospel message, that scripture is sufficient for salvation – listen, if you're here this morning, and you don't know God your Creator, you will never wander your way to God; this is the only way that tells you how to get to God your Creator.  It's found in the written word, but it's also found in the incarnate Word – Jesus said, John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me."  You have to come by repenting of your sins, putting your faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

It's sufficient for salvation – it's also, secondly, sufficient for sanctification.  Look at verses 16-17, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching," that is, it can impart the complete body of truth you need for life in godliness; "for reproof," it'll rebuke you of your wrong thinking and your wrong behavior; "for correction," it'll correct that wrong thinking and wrong behavior; "and for training in righteousness," literally for child-training; it's as if God gave us a book as if He is our Father, were holding our hand, and guiding us through the process of growing up in Christ.  And what's the result?  Notice verse 16 goes on, "so that the man of God" – that's a technical term, God's man; here, he's talking specifically about the elder, pastor, but by implication, it's true of all Christians – "so that the man of God may be," first of all, "adequate."  This Greek word is only here in the New Testament; it means capable, proficient, able to meet all demands.  Some of us have been watching the Olympics over the last couple of weeks – those athletes are adequate in this sense; they are proficient, capable, able to meet all the demands placed upon their bodies in that performance of that skill.  That's what the Bible is promising.  "Equipped for every good work" means fully equipped, completely outfitted – in fact, the word equipped is used in secular Greek to describe a wagon that's been fully supplied; it gives you everything you need.  The Bible teaches it is sufficient; no other resource is necessary.  I love what Paul says to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:32; he says, "I commend you to God and to the word of His grace" – the word which dispenses grace; he's talking about the scripture – "which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified."  That's what the scripture can do for you, Christian – do you believe the Bible is sufficient for your every spiritual need, and do your actions show that you believe that?  In other words, I'm not just asking what you, you know, write down as this is what I believe – if somebody were to video your life, every day, every moment, would there be enough evidence to convict you of believing that the Bible is truly sufficient for every need in your life?  The biblical view of scripture means that we believe it's sufficient for every spiritual need.

A high view of scripture means that we believe, fourthly, in authority.  Authority – scripture alone is the ultimate authority in all things.  Look again at 2 Timothy, but this time, look at verse 1 of chapter 4 – Paul writes, "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of the Messiah Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word."  There are at least 33 different verbs used in the New Testament to describe biblical preaching; the most common one, and the one used here, is kerusso – it means to proclaim after the manner of a king's herald; literally, that's the idea.  So, Timothy, when you preach in your church in Ephesus, you preach as though the King sent you with a message, and you're announcing that message. That's my job – you see, biblical preaching is not a conversation, but it is a proclamation from God Himself that must be heard and obeyed.  It's not because I have authority; I have no authority – it's because scripture is God-breathed; it's the product of His breath, and therefore, the scripture has intrinsic authority.  So, as long as I am faithful to explain the scripture, I'm coming to you as a King's herald, on behalf of God, proclaiming His word to you.  1 Timothy 4:11 – Paul says, Timothy, "prescribe and teach these things" – prescribe is literally command; be commanding these things of the people you minister to.  Titus 2:15, "these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you." Don't let people get around this; put it in their face, say this is what God says.  Scripture is the ultimate authority in all things – in fact, even over the preaching of the Apostles.  I love what Luke writes in Acts 17:11 – "Now, [the Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether" what Paul taught was true or not.  Listen, I don't have any inherent authority – you need to do the same thing with my message; is this what the Bible says?  Galatians 1:8, Paul says, "but even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!"  In other words, the scripture is the ultimate authority; it carries all the authority of God Himself – it's the only rule of faith, what we believe, and practice, how we live.

Let me ask you this morning, does your life reflect obedience and submission to the word of God; is the scripture truly your final authority in all things that it addresses? As a church, we're committed to a high view of scripture – it means that we believe and teach scriptures, this book, the book you hold in your hand, we believe in its inspiration – that scripture alone is inspired by God, breathed out by God; in its relevancy – scripture alone is profitable in all times and all places for all people.  We believe in its sufficiency – this alone is sufficient for every spiritual need you have.  We believe in its authority – it is the ultimate authority in all things because it's God's authority in our lives.  The Lord Jesus Christ taught, and He wants every person in this church, to have that view of the scripture.  In a couple of weeks, Lord willing, we'll consider how is it demonstrated in the life of the church.  Let's pray together.

Father, what a treasure we have in Your word – forgive us for having it and not treating it as we should.  Lord, every one of us here has to admit and confess that, while we treasure Your word, we don't sufficiently treasure Your word.  Lord, may these truths that many of us here already embrace; Lord, may we embrace them and live them more profoundly as a result of our time together this morning.  And, Father, I pray for those here for whom some of these thoughts are new – help them to have the same view of the scripture that our Lord had, and to live in light of that.  And, Lord, I pray for those who may be here this morning who don't know You – help them to see that it's in the scripture alone they will find their way to You; they're not going to grope their way there, find themselves there by their own reasoning, but rather, it's by Your revelation in the scripture.  Lord, I pray, even this week, they'd read the gospels; they'd read the gospel of John, see who You are, and may You use the truth about Jesus and His gospel message to draw them to Yourself.

We pray this for the sake of the incarnate Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.