“Divine Authority”

• All that we do or teach originates:• “From heaven, “

– Or “of men” Matthew 21:25• Authority: “The Power or Right to Command and

Act.”

• Lessons Presented:– Our need for Divine Authority– The Source of Divine Authority– The Proper Attitude toward divine authority

Review of “The Proper Attitude TowardDivine Authority”

• Authority to Act determined by what is said, not by what is not said!

• A good emotional feeling must not supplant the actual doing of what God has required.

• Christ’s law is unchanging.• Christ’s law is fully inspired.• Christ’s law is perfect and complete.• It provides the remedy for sins and ills of society.• Must be received with meekness and obedience!

How God Speaks to Man Today:• God I Cor. 11:3

• Christ Matt. 28:18

• Holy Spirit John 16:13

• Apostles John 13:20

• The New Testament, Eph. 3:3-5• Man

Human Authority is Determined By:

• Precept or Command.

• Approved Example or Precedent.

• A Necessary Conclusion or Inference.

Divine Authority is Determined By:

• Command, or Precept.– Exodus 20:12; Luke 13:3,5; Acts 2:38; 10:48; I

Cor. 16:1-2

• Approved Apostolic Examples.– Not all examples approved! Acts 5:1-11; Gal. 1:11-– Others are approved, Acts 2:42; 14:23; 20:7

• Necessary Conclusion or Inference.– Sabbath every week under the law, Exodus 20:8– Going down into the water, Mt. 3:16; Acts 8:39

These Three Ways Illustrated WhenDiscussing Question of Circumcision

• Direct Statement or command, Acts 15:11-21.– “My sentence is, that we trouble not them, which

from among the Gentiles are turned to God,” v.19.

• Approved Example, Acts 15:12.– “…declaring what miracles and wonders God had

wrought among the Gentiles..”

• Necessary Conclusion or inference, 15:7-11.– “God put no difference between us and them,

purifying their hearts by faith,” v. 9.

These Three WaysIllustrated in the teaching of Jesus Christ:

• Command to love both God and man.– Matthew 22:35-40.

• Example.– Luke 10:29-37 – “the good Samaritan.”

• Necessary Inference.– Matthew 22:31-22 – “I am the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob?” “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

These Three Ways Illustrated in the Lord’s Supper

• Command – “this do in remembrance of me,” I Corinthians 11:24-25.

• Example – “And upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together..,” Acts 20:7.

• Necessary Inference – As often as “the first day of the week” occurs.– Note: If God wanted us to partake once a year, He

would have given the day and month; If He wanted us to partake once a month He would have given the day of the month. Cf. Exodus 20:8

Divine Authority is Not Determined:

• By What the Bible does not say!– We must walk by faith, 2 Cor. 5:7.– Faith comes by hearing the word, Romans 10:17.– Whatever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14:23.

• By what feels good, Prov. 14:12.

• The voice of the people, Exodus 32:1.

• By what others do, Ex. 23:2; Matt. 7:13-14.

• Human tradition, Matt. 15:2-3,6.

Conclusion:

• God wants us to be united, I Cor. 1:10, but unity cannot exist if everyone goes his separate way, Amos 3:3.

• The religious world is splintered beyond imagination; at the root of this is the issue of divine authority.

• Today many are looking for a “new hermeneutic”

• To go to heaven we must do the will of God!