Biblical Authority and the Uniqueness of Christ

Well, thank you very much, Chris, and a special thanks to R.C. for including me in this. Thank you, my friend. You are unfortunately out of sight, being down there in Florida and me in California, but you're never out of mind. Daily I am thankful for you and the impact you've had on me and so many, for the clarity of the true faith. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for including me this week. [00:00:03]

I want to say two things: I want to say that the Bible is the only source of divine truth, and Jesus is the only Savior. I don't care what the questions are, those are going to be the answers. So I'm just always looking -- I said to Larry so many times, "Well, I don't know about that, but I do know Jesus is the only Savior and the Bible is the only authority." It's an old formula. [00:01:28]

The issue of biblical authority is the bedrock of truth, so we're going to talk about that a little bit, and I hope that the approach I'm taking to this will be an encouragement to you. There are so many, many ways to speak to the issue of biblical authority, but let me just kind of introduce it a little bit and then I'm going to take you to a place you might not expect me to take you and we'll really work a little bit on enriching our understanding of biblical authority from, perhaps, an unexpected point of Scripture. [00:02:47]

Our authority is God and He has spoken in one book, the Bible. One book. That is what we believe. That is what we affirm. That's where our convictions come from. And we reason out of the convictions that are provided for us on the pages of Holy Scripture. We believe in an inspired Bible. We believe that it was authored by the Holy Spirit over a period of 1,500 plus years by 40 different authors, but it has perfect unity. [00:04:19]

We believe in its inerrancy, that, in the original autographs, every word came from God. We believe in its perspicuity, its clarity. It is a revelation, not an obfuscation. We believe in its sufficiency, that it is sufficient to accomplish everything that God intended it to accomplish; and, in fact, it will because it never returns to Him void but always accomplishes the purpose to which He has sent it. [00:05:00]

There is, in the heart of a true believer, a confidence in Scripture. They believe the Bible. They believe the Word of God is true. I've had a most interesting experience: for 43 years I taught through the whole New Testament, verse by verse. 43 years. I never defended the Scripture. I didn't do apologetics, reasons to believe the Bible. In all those 43 years, I never did that on a Sunday morning in our worship service. [00:06:28]

But, even given that fact -- that true believers have a confidence in the Word of God, in its inspiration, in its veracity -- it's still important to strengthen our confidence, because we can be assaulted, and we can be attacked. And, more importantly, we do need to give a reason for why we believe the Bible to people who don't believe the Bible and aren't given that confidence by the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. [00:08:19]

The Bible says things are going to happen, and they happen. And there are many prophecies in the Scripture that came to pass; many of them that came to pass in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is the most powerful evidence of divine authorship and, thus, the divine authority of Scripture. Because only God writes history. Only God knows and determines the future. [00:21:37]

Isaiah 53 is the most detailed, complex prophecy that has full, historical verification 700 years after it was written. Isaiah 53 is so consistent with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that it has been called the 'Fifth Gospel.' But I don't think that's the right title. I think it should be called the 'First Gospel.' 700 years before Christ. [00:23:41]

This chapter answers that question. This chapter is to the Old Testament what Romans is to the New Testament. This chapter answers the question that no false religion can answer. And the answer is so full and so complete that it rivals the New Testament, and not just the Gospels, but the epistles. And let me tell you something: this has to be from God, because what you have in Isaiah 53 -- listen to me -- is vicarious, substitutionary, sacrificial atonement. [00:24:55]

And they not only recognize their sins as behavior, but they recognize their nature, in verse 6: "All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way" -- drawing on the analogy of a sheep who goes astray, wanders off independently, on its own because that's its nature. They recognize that sin is not only evident in their behavior, it's embedded in their nature. [00:45:04]

Father, Your word is alive and powerful. We embrace that with great joy. What confidence we have in its testimony. We believe it because we belong to You. That's really the bottom line. The bottom line is You have awakened us. That's why we believe. That's why new believers embrace the Scripture -- because You awaken their hearts. [01:01:15]