Sunday School | Scripture is Authoritative

Introduction

Well, we're going to continue our study through all things of every doctrine known to man. And we are in, what section are we in, you guys? What is it? Dan? We're down anthropology. Anthropology's over. The doctrine of man. What did you say? The word, yeah, bibliography, the doctrine of the Scriptures. So what we kind of are doing is similar to when we studied our theology proper and we were looking at the attributes of God, basically what we're doing right now is we're talking about the attributes of Scripture.

Last week, of course, we kind of took a pause on our normal series, but two weeks ago, do you remember what attribute of Scripture we focused on? Inerrant. Very good. Okay. So what that means is that there is no error in the Scriptures. The Bible, it is my contention that the Bible says nothing contrary to fact, it's trustworthy. And as we talked about, this doesn't suggest that it doesn't use, it's all literal, it doesn't use metaphor and variety of different forms of speech, of course it does, but it's accurate.

The Authority of Scripture

Today, I want to talk to you about the authority of Scripture, which is not the same thing as saying that it's an errant. When we say that it's an errant, it's merely that it's true. And there are plenty of people walking around saying true things, and you don't have to obey them, right? When we say the authority of Scripture, I'm not talking just that it's trustworthy, but that you owe your allegiance to it. So my contention is we have to obey this book, and I'd like to just kick me off here. If that's true, if you agree that it's true that we must obey it, that the Scripture is authoritative, why? Why would we believe that this book has the right to tell you what you may and may not do? In fact, to tell you what you must do. What do you think? Chris, you want to take a shot? Is that only true if you care about what's good? Is it? Wait, what's that? Say it again? It's not true, only if you care about what's good. Okay, are you saying, is my claim that we must obey it only true if we care about what's good? I would say no, that whether you care about what's good or not, God cares about what's good, and he has the right to tell you what to do, and your lack of interest doesn't free you from your obligation.

Okay, so you chew on that, all right? Come back, I see you're having an aneurysm right now. Linda, did somebody say something?

In the Word of God.

Pam, okay. But that's axiomatic, why is the Word of God authoritative? Just because it is, okay. I'm going to suggest an answer that's actually Pam really close to that. I'm just going to unpack it just a tiny little bit. First, Gina?

Because it tells us, and we believe it's true.

It tells us what?

It tells us that it has all authority, and so then if we believe that the Bible is accurate and true and it tells us that it's authority, then that's true.

So actually, a lot of what we understand about the Scripture is regarding the claims that it makes about itself, and sometimes people get kind of wigged out about the circular reasoning of that, and we probably won't chase that today, but it is true that it claims that we should, and that is there is something fundamental to its own claims for itself. Excellent. Yeah, Rick?

Let's say that he's divine authorship.

Okay, divine authorship. Okay, that's very similar to what Pam said, right? Divine authorship, it's God's Word, let me expand what you guys are saying a little bit because you're giving us syllogism, but you're just, you're missing a line, I think. Here's what you're saying. The words of this book are God's words. We must obey God, therefore we must obey this book. I think that's what you guys are saying is when we say, when I say why do we need to obey the book, you're saying, well, because it's God's Word, you're just not saying out loud, we have to obey God. We have to obey God, and this is his words, then we have to obey these words.

And I think it's really pretty much that simple, right? But what that requires of us, if we're going to say is this book really authoritative in order for it to be authoritative, it has to actually be God's words, right? My words are not authoritative because I'm not God, and I'm not a prophet of God, and God hasn't, I mean, I'll tell you things that might be true, but I'm not a spokesperson. I'm not an authorized spokesperson of God. Now, to a limited extent in a lesser way, we are representatives of him, there's a degree of that, but this is a different order, right? So we're going to have to, if we're really going to understand why the book is authoritative, the key linkage is are these actually the words of God? Because if they are, and if he is authoritative, then this book is authoritative.

Brenda?

Well, I mean, if he's my Lord, then I'm writing his authority and submitting to it.

That's right, absolutely. If and only if, this is actually his word, right? So just to kind of give you a parallel, some doctrinal statement from the Westminster Catechism is not authoritative, some doctrinal statement from the Methodist Church, some doctrinal statement from like the 39, you know, the 39 articles from the Anglican Church, those things are not authoritative. They might be accurate. They might be. We hope that they are, but God's word is in a purer form, is trustworthy in a ways that the digested words of men are not, right? So we really got to establish, is this actually God's word, or is it just similar to adjacent to, right? Heric?

The scripture confirms it's God's word, because it says that all teacher is God, all scripture is God-breathed.

Yes. Okay. So Heric's quoting 2 Timothy 3, 16, 3, 15 to 16, 16 to 17, something like that. It's in there that all scripture is God-breathed, right? And we're going to look at about, I'm going to show, we're going to strap in because we're going to look at a ton of scripture on this, because the Bible affirms over and over from every conceivable way and angle that this is God's word, and therefore, it is authoritative.

Kelisue?

Do the apologetic briefs about the reliability of scripture, like, you know, written over so many years, so many different options, and we come here in consistency in the prophetic words that have come to pass, that all kind of support the reliability of scripture. Does that help?

Yeah. Establishing. Okay, great. So Kelis is asking, if we're trying to establish the authority of scripture, would it be helpful to also make a case for the reliability of scripture? And that tends to break into two different categories. First of all, is this, when it was originally written, were these people authorized to speak for God? And then second, was it transmitted to us in a faithful way? And there's all these different arguments that we can make from within the scripture, which is what we're going to chiefly do today. But there's also a lot of arguments you can make from outside of the scriptures to look at its internal consistency, to look at the great diversity of speakers, from a diversity of cultures who all speak with one voice, there's a number of different questions that we can ask to say, even to a skeptical audience, like, seriously, it's a pretty unique book. What's the best explanation for this? If you rule out that God is the author of this, then you've still got to explain how it came to be. And you're going to have a hard time doing that in light of its remarkable characteristics. And I do think that can, to answer your question, yes, I think that contributes to this question.

The Self-Claims of the Bible

Okay. So let's do a quick survey, okay? I mean, you guys, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times, the Bible claims this. Jeremiah, I'm going to give you a blitz of this. And I could, I could maybe, if you want this, I could email this out to you. I just, this is, this is not comprehensive. This is kind of like self-organized by me. But here's a bunch of stuff. Jeremiah 1-9,

Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth."

Jeremiah likes this imagery. He's very particular. I'm not making this up. I'm simply telling you what he told me to tell you. He put his words in my mouth, and now I'm spitting them out, okay? It's Jeremiah 29. It's going to say the same thing. Listen to this. Send this message to all the exiles. This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the hellomite, and you don't really care about that is. But then in verse 32, this is what the Lord says. And then at the end of that verse, declares the Lord. He's very redundant in saying, he put these words in my mouth. He told me to say this. This is what he says. This is his declaration.

Ezekiel, another prophet, does the same thing. Ezekiel 2, 7 says,

"You must speak my words to them, my words, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious."

Or Ezekiel 13, 13, 1,

"The word of the Lord came to me, son of man prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are now prophesying. There's others who claim to speak for God," right? And say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination, that's a very different thing than from the Lord. What's the word of the Lord? This is what the sovereign Lord says. What are the foolish prophets? Your prophets, oh Israel, are like jackals among ruins, which is to say, there are those who claim to speak in God's name. There are phonies, and there's a real thing. There's something that we have to learn to do to discern, is this reliable and trustworthy? Jeremiah and Ezekiel both claimed that their words were.

Or there was this, from Moses in Deuteronomy 18,

"I will raise up for them a prophet." They're a prophet like you, from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

This came up, by the way, in our series on John the other day, when they're asking, "Who are you? Are you the prophet? Are you the Messiah?" This is the prophet they're talking about, this Deuteronomy 18. So there's multiple places where the Old Testament is going to claim, "I'm not making this up. There's not coming out of my own imagination. There's revealed this." What are some others? I'm curious for you, if they're passages that you can think of, there are hundreds of these, but where the Bible attests to being itself of divine origin. Fetser?

Just a quick question on what you just said, "Don't the full prophets also say that?"

They do. Yes. So I think the key there, and I think you said is the discernment from us, but that's the hard part. It is. I think of reading the Bible and say, "Well, of course, they're going to say that." Everybody says that if they're trying to convince you so. Yes.

Okay. So then this is why I'm grateful that you're kind of like saying, "Hang on, slow down." Because you just said, "What are the implications of this?" The Bible itself does not affirm that every time somebody claims they're speaking for God, they are. Right? Quite to the contrary. It's very clear that there are real guys and there are phonies, and so the mere attestation that is the divine origin isn't sufficient. We have that, but we're going to need more than just you claiming it to be the case. Right? So it's good. And we'll see. Hopefully by the end of this hour, we'll have kind of built up a matrix of this, but it's absolutely the case.

Book of Mormon claims to be divine origin. Right? And it's not. Right? The Koran claims to be of divine origin, and it's not. Right? So the claim alone is not sufficient. Right? Great. That might, from the scripture, we'll stay internal to the scriptures. Yeah, Craig?

So, 2 Timothy 3, 3, 13, 16, all scripture is God breathing as you will continue to be correct in training and right.

Absolutely. Now, when Paul says that, what is he talking about? When Paul says all scripture is God breathed and is useful, 2 Timothy 3, 16, use of teaching your beacon correcting and training and righteousness to the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. What's he referring to?

Yeah, what we would call the Old Testament, what he would probably call the Tanakh, right? The Hebrew scriptures.

He's talking about that. We affirm that. It's a great kind of like sweeping passage on this. Excellent. What else? That this book is of God. Kelly?

Well, maybe now, I was going to say Exodus, just to give me another 10 commandments.

That's not the whole Bible, but that's...

Yes, and that's absolutely in balance. So the 10 commandments, the claim of the 10 commandments is not that Moses is making this up. I mean, literally, he's like, God wrote this with his finger. He's rather particular about that. And you backed off a little bit because you're like, you weren't saying, well, it's not comprehensive, it's just about part of it. Most of the attestations are about part of it. The 2 Timothy 3, 16, there are other places we'll show you, but usually it's just talking about one thing at a time. That's totally in balance. Others that give you that you'd return to, Andy?

Yeah. Is this a trick question because it's all over the place? It's hundreds and it's not a trick question.

I was like, well, I don't want Tim to just, you know, he's sitting up there and nobody says anything, but I just turned to Hosea, which I haven't read in a while, but it's the word of the Lord that came to Hosea. Yes.

So, in case you couldn't hear it, he's like, is this a trick question? And I think what he meant was this is a stupid question, right? Because he's like literally all of it. And I think that your two examples weren't things you were looking for. I think you just opened your Bible to a random page and look, oh, there it is. Oh, look on the other page. There it is. Is that what you're telling me? That's right. You guys, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times, it claims this. And it doesn't just claim this about itself at any given moment, but it cross checks itself over and over. I'll give you a handful of these, so you don't have to keep playing this game first. But these, I mean, I picked 3% of the things that I could have picked here. Most kings, 14, 18, listen to this,

They buried him and all Israel mourned for him as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet.

Okay? So, it's not just that the prophets say, hey, I'm speaking for the Lord, but it said other people later on reflect back and said, hey, that was the Lord speaking through the prophet, right? It's affirming it from others. First king, 16.

So, Zimri destroyed the whole family of Basha in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken against Basha through the prophet Jehu.

So, he's looking back, again, it's somebody else who said this prophecy and he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that wasn't just prophecy that was the Lord speaking through prophecy. First king, 16, a little bit later on. In Ahab's time, heel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid his foundation at the cost of his firstborn son and he set up its gates to the cost of its youngest son in accordance with the word of the Lord, spoken by Joshua, son of none, over and over again.

Then it'll be like this. Later on in the prophets, Zechariah 7, 7, says,

Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous?

Zechariah's going to say it again.

That made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.

So, the Lord Almighty was very angry.

Okay? So, what we have in the Scripture is we are not, okay, how do you do this? There's a million books that have been written and I'm going to quote from them all the time on this stage. I'm going to say, take a look at what Jonathan Edwards said. Listen to what C.S. Lewis says. I've got all my favorites, right? Guys, never ever ever ever ever ever ever do I say, listen to what the Lord said through C.S. Lewis, right? If anybody would be tempted to do that, it would be me, right? But we never say that because C.S. Lewis didn't write Scripture, right? Jonathan Edwards is brilliant, but it wasn't divine authorship, right? So, when these guys are affirming, they're not just saying, hey, here's a really good book, you ought to read this. What they're saying is there is something different going on here, over and over and over again. Not only does the Old Testament do it, but listen to how Jesus describes the Hebrew Scriptures, over and over and over. He's going to do this. So, here's Matthew 22, affirming divine authorship.

But about the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

Now, what is he quoting when he says that? It is Exodus, right? It was in Exodus that Moses wrote, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Jesus said, hey, do you remember what God said, and he quotes Moses. Do you hear the letter, what I'm trying to communicate to you, right? Or Jesus does this. Listen to this.

In Mark 12, 36, David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand until I make your enemies put your enemies under your feet."

He's quoting, do you guys know what that is? I've told you this before. Do you know what? It's in the Psalms, do you remember which psalm? Psalm 110. Psalm 110. Who said that? God bless you, right? That's Psalm 110. That is the New Testament's favorite Old Testament chapter. And Jesus says that David wrote it, quote, "speaking by the Holy Spirit." Jesus is affirming not just that David was a really good songwriter, or that David had really strange prescience, but that David wrote, inspired, carried along, influenced by the very words of the Spirit, right? Or how about this? What's that? And Jesus would know, right? And this Andy is where we begin to go past, we're not done yet, but we begin to go past, well, talk is cheap. I could claim to speak the words of God, right? And that would be, you know, maybe pay attention, but maybe don't. But then if Jesus says, "As the Lord said through Tim," well now you might want to pay a little more attention, right? So it's not just the self-claims, but it's these crossed claims.

How about this one? Matthew 4.4, Jesus answered, "It is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from," which is the next line, "from the mouth of God," right? So Jesus himself is affirming this claim that these aren't just human origin, but there's divinity behind this, okay? And then, here's what's maybe even more interesting. It's not just the explicit claims that are made in the Old Testament. He's affirming. But Jesus affirms passages of divine origin that don't themselves explicitly claim divine origin.

Here's what I mean by that. Listen to this. Follow the reasoning here. Matthew 19.4,

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said," quote, "for this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh."

So they are no longer two, but one, therefore, where God has joined together, let man not separate."

Now, this is a couple layers on this. What's he quoting? When Jesus says, "Have you not read that at the beginning the Creator made the male and female and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife'," what's he quoting? Genesis. What chapter?

Close. Come up a little bit.

Genesis 2. Okay. Genesis 2 is this whole kind of marriage picture. And if you go back and you read Genesis 2, there's nowhere in that, in this passage that Moses says, "For the Lord told me to tell you," blah, blah, blah, blah. Moses just says it and he doesn't claim, "Thus saith the Lord." You feel me? Nevertheless, even though Moses is the one writing it and Moses is not claiming, "God just told me to write this down," Jesus says that the Creator made the male and female and the Creator said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife." He is claiming that even the narrative, you could have a view that like Moses is recording the words of God at the bricks, but then the mortar between the bricks is just the words of Moses, his explanatory comments about the things that God said. So God said, "Let there be light," let me tell you what that meant. And Jesus is saying, "Uh-uh, the mortar between the bricks is also divine." Am I belaboring this? Does this make sense?

You see? Jesus is affirming all of it, okay? Or how about this?

And he said to them, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." But you say that if a man says to his father, "Mother, blah, blah, blah, blah," verse 13, "Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and you do many things like that."

Once again, he is affirming divinity to the words of Moses. He's affirming the entirety of the Pentateuch. He's saying, "Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, all of it is superintended by God, is the word of God, is a command of God."

Remember, we're talking about the authority of Scripture, all of it. Would you say that this word of God came to the prophets or whoever in the Old Testament through the Holy Spirit? I would absolutely say that, or more of the point Peter would say that, and we'll come to that. Yes. Now, there's different ways this happens. The Scripture, there are passages in the Scriptures that are dictation. Write this down, Jeremiah. I'm going to put my words in your mouth, and I want you to say this. And then there are other things that are not dictation. In fact, most of it is not dictation. God did not tell David, "Hey, write this psalm." David just wrote the psalm, but he wrote the psalm under the influence of, and guided by, and directed by the Holy Spirit. So...

Say the Holy Spirit was present in the Old Testament. Every word, absolutely, in every word, I would say the Holy Spirit is present.

And Peter's going to describe this kind of in a little bit of a technical sense, so we'll see that before we end of the hour. Dan?

Also, God says throughout Scripture, "I will show you," you know, it's not his words. He's saying to people, "I will show you" to Moses to know when in the New Testament goes all the way through Scripture.

Okay. This is such a great comment. So, it's not just that God is telling people, "Hey, write this down," but God frequently says, "I will show you," right? It's not just, "I want to hear these words." This is actually kind of an interesting and important thing to understand about the Scriptures, because we do have, in the Scriptures, we have things that are prescriptive, and we have things that are descriptive. Sometimes if I was like, "Hey, do this, don't do that," it prescribes behavior. Sometimes it just says, "This is what happened," it's just merely a description. But both the prescriptions, "Hey, do this, don't do that," and the descriptions, "Hey, this guy did this," and this was the consequence of it, both versions, the prescriptive and the descriptive are meant to be instructive for us.

Now, the prescriptions are easier, it's more simple and straightforward, more didactic, but the descriptions are meaningful, right? And so, when God is showing things, it says later on, Paul's going to say that everything that was written in the past, all of it, everything that was written in the past, was written to teach us so that through the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

So, those things that God showed them, he then made a record of so that we also could be shown, right? It's not just the direct commands, but the total picture. I would not have written a Bible like this. I would have written a systematic theology textbook, right? Here's the things I want you to know, and then I want you to know this, right? That's what I would have done. What God has done is he writes a narrative, he writes a story, he gets a giant section of poetry. He's got all these weird things that would not have crossed my mind, right? But that is the way that he's revealed himself to us. Yeah, Judy.

So, and I don't know how the whole Old Testament came to be a grouping. I know the New Testament, there were lots of writings, and it was very, I'm assuming, God inspired that decisions were made, both in the Old Testament and the writings fared because they come from peace and unity, and then I know there were several conferences that were they decided what the New Testament are, and so, and then you have like the Apocrypha and the writings and things, so I assume that God was in that place overseeing the decisions that were made because those were very much man-made, sort of like Moses Road, but with God, you know.

Yes. But God threw him road, and I'm assuming God works for these people as long as that's the other thing that just is sort of like, they didn't just organically come together, they weren't written in front of the Revelation, and so, you'd have to have man in their head somewhere doing it. Yes. Okay. So what Judy is saying is the Bible, were you here two weeks ago, we talk about the head of cabbage? Okay. So what you're talking about is what we talked about two weeks ago. So the scriptures, we didn't get like, here's the book, here's 39 books in the Old Testament, and then like 400 years later, okay, here's 27 more. It was very much, the illustration I used last couple weeks ago, Judy was like, it's like a head of cabbage, like you could peel off the leaf and the leaf and the leaf get down to the core. It was built like in reverse order of cabbage. There was just this, and then there was added this, and we added this, and we added this, and you're absolutely right. It's not just, we often want to say that the scriptures have two authors, a human author and a divine author, and I think we could absolutely say what you're describing is that there are also two compilers. There's a human compiler and a divine compiler, because a lot of things are being written. What gives added to the head of cabbage? What is worthy to be added to this collection? And that is a whole, so if you want to go back and listen to it, it's two weeks ago, no, no, it's great, I'd love anything we can do to review stuff, it's great. So there's, you're absolutely right, it wasn't just handed down, like, here it is, but we're adding and adding and adding to it over time, and God is superintending, not just the writing, but the compilation of it. Okay, let me give you a couple more of these things.

There's not just that Jesus says things like, "These things are all divine," Peter does it. Listen to what Peter says, this is maybe the, maybe the, one of the central passages on this. 2 Peter 1, 21,

"For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

That is Peter's claim that Jeremiah wasn't just writing this down, Isaiah wasn't just making stuff up, but he was being carried along by the Holy Spirit. Or this is how Peter describes it in Acts 3, 18.

"This is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer."

And then a minute later, he says,

"He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as He promised long ago through His holy prophets."

Or a chapter later in Acts 4,

"You spoke," he's praying, Peter's praying, and he says, "You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father David, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain?"

What's that one? Do you recognize that psalm? Psalm 2. That's a super important psalm, and he's saying, once again, not just that Psalm 110 was David speaking through the Holy Spirit, but Psalm 2 was David speaking through the Holy Spirit.

Over and over, they're going to attest to this. Paul gets in the same game. Paul most famously gets 2 Timothy 3, 16, which we've already said. Paul said the same thing in Acts 13, he's talking about the servant songs of Isaiah, these four, one of my favorite texts, and he speaks of it, quotes Isaiah, and he says,

"For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I've made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

That one's so fascinating because when Isaiah wrote it, he was talking to the Messiah, and Paul not only affirms the divine authorship but he applies it to himself.

What was a description of the Messiah has become an instruction for the church. Verse 13, 47, as Paul says that, and he's quoting, let's see. That's one of the servant songs.

"I made you a light for the Gentiles."

Let's see that Isaiah, 49 or 50, so you'll look that up if you want to see it. Or Peter, I'm sorry, Paul is going to say this, in Acts 28, 25,

"They disagreed among themselves, and they began to leave after Paul had made this final statement."

There it is, the Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet, blah, blah, blah, right? It's the Holy Spirit doing it. Or Romans 1, 2, Paul refers to the gospel that God promised beforehand through the prophets in his holy scriptures, that he, you're like, well, I didn't hear me mention God, who's the antecedent for he? It's the gospel that he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Over and over and over in the Psalms, in the history books, in the prophets, they're going to constantly do this. Not just that. It's not just Jesus, not just Paul's, not just Peter, but other writers. Here's how Matthew does it, Matthew 1, 22,

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet,"

and then he quotes Isaiah 14. According to Matthew, Isaiah was writing with divine imprint. Or in Acts 1, 16, Luke says this,

"Brothers,"

well, again, Luke is using Peter's mouth,

"the scriptures had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David,"

concerning Judas, who serves as a God for those who arrested, right? Paul then is going to do something different. By the way, everything we've said so far is all about the Old Testament. Have you noticed this? All the Old Testament claims about this, and then the New Testament writers, whenever they're affirming it, they're talking about the Hebrew scriptures, they're talking about the Hebrew scriptures, they're affirming the Lord wrote that, the Lord wrote that, the Lord wrote that, but they go beyond that to start making some pretty extraordinary claims about the contemporary writings of not only themselves but of their peers.

So, Paul is going to say this, in Galatians 1, 11, how much time do I have? Okay, we're getting there,

"I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."

He's beginning to make a completely new claim, or how about this one, whoever wrote Hebrews is going to do both simultaneously. He's going to say, in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

He's affirming, that was divine, and then we had this long, silent period. He has more to say, right now, and once again, divine authorship, right? He looks back into the past, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says that all gains angels worship him. And speaking of the angels, he says,

"He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire."

He's all about, that was divine, but now something else is happening. It's not just the Hebrew scriptures that are authoritative and are of God, but the new Greek-written, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, that stuff is also divine. Here's how they affirm one another, Peter, 2 Peter 3, 16,

"He, talking about Paul, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand."

Do you sympathize with that? If you've ever read Paul and thought like, what? His letters contain some things that are hard to stand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.

What did he just do? He is equating Paul's writings with scriptures. He says we've got Paul's writings and people screw around with those just like they do the other scriptures, the unmistakable import of that is that Paul's writings are on the same level now with the books of Moses. Do you know what a freaking huge deal that is? Can you imagine if Dave Sloop wrote some letter and we're like, yeah, you know, people don't understand that. It's the same way that they do the other scriptures. Would you be alarmed if we were putting something that Sloop wrote on the level of Romans? That is exactly what Peter's doing, okay? Or how about this one? This one is interesting. This is a little bit less obvious.

"This is why I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

It's a direct quote from 2 Timothy 1, 6, and he's affirming that what Paul wrote is scripture.

This one is quite startling. 1 Timothy 5, 18.

"For the scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'the worker deserves his wages.'"

The first quote was Leviticus. It says, "Don't muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain." Where does it say that the worker deserves his wages? Do you know? Luke 10. That is Jesus. Stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

In the same way that Peter just took the writings of Paul and put them on a level with Moses, Paul is going to take the writings of Luke and put them on the level of the Old Testament. Two scriptural passages. As the scripture has said, the worker deserves his wages. He is affirming Luke. By the way, this is exactly what Jesus had predicted would happen.

In John 14:26, this is Upper Room discourse. Jesus said, "But the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name," and I'll just say parenthetically, "and who wrote the Old Testament," that Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

Then listen to this. In 16:13, "But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

The same Spirit who inspired all of the Hebrew scriptures, he's saying, "He's about to do it again, and he's going to do it again through you." And then Peter confirmed it.

In 2 Peter 3, 16, he, talking about Paul, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand. Do you sympathize with that? If you've ever read Paul and thought like, what? His letters contain some things that are hard to stand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.

What did he just do? He is equating Paul's writings with scriptures. He says we've got Paul's writings and people screw around with those just like they do the other scriptures, the unmistakable import of that is that Paul's writings are on the same level now with the books of Moses. Do you know what a freaking huge deal that is?

Can you imagine if Dave Sloop wrote some letter and we're like, yeah, you know, people don't understand that. It's the same way that they do the other scriptures. Would you be alarmed if we were putting something that Sloop wrote on the level of Romans? That is exactly what Peter's doing, okay?

Or how about this one? This one is interesting. This is a little bit less obvious. This is from 1 Timothy 5:18.

"For the scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'the worker deserves his wages.'"

The first quote was Leviticus. It says, "Don't muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain." Where does it say that the worker deserves his wages? Do you know? Luke 10. That is Jesus. Stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you for the worker deserves his wages.

In the same way that Peter just took the writings of Paul and put them on a level with Moses, Paul is going to take the writings of Luke and put them on the level of the Old Testament. Two scriptural passages. As the scripture has said, the worker deserves his wages. He is affirming Luke.

By the way, this is exactly what Jesus had predicted would happen.

In John 14:26, Jesus said, "But the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name," and I'll just say parenthetically, "and who wrote the Old Testament," that Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

Then in 16:13, "But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

The same Spirit who inspired all of the Hebrew scriptures, he's saying, "He's about to do it again, and he's going to do it again through you." And then Peter confirmed it.

In 2 Peter 3, 16, he, talking about Paul, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand.

Do you sympathize with that? If you've ever read Paul and thought like, what? His letters contain some things that are hard to stand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.

What did he just do? He is equating Paul's writings with scriptures. He says we've got Paul's writings and people screw around with those just like they do the other scriptures, the unmistakable import of that is that Paul's writings are on the same level now with the books of Moses. Do you know what a huge deal that is?

Can you imagine if Dave Sloop wrote some letter and we're like, yeah, you know, people don't understand that. It's the same way as the other scriptures. Would you be alarmed if we were putting something that Sloop wrote on the level of Romans? That is exactly what Peter's doing, okay?

Or how about this one? This one is interesting. This is a little bit less obvious. This is from 1 Timothy 5:18.

"For the scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'the worker deserves his wages.'"

The first quote was Leviticus. It says, "Don't muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain." Where does it say that the worker deserves his wages? Do you know? Luke 10. That is Jesus. Stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you for the worker deserves his wages.

In the same way that Peter just took the writings of Paul and put them on a level with Moses, Paul is going to take the writings of Luke and put them on the level of the Old Testament. Two scriptural passages.

As the scripture has said, the worker deserves his wages. He is affirming Luke. By the way, this is exactly what Jesus had predicted what would happen.

In John 14:26, Jesus said, "But the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name," and I'll just say parenthetically, "and whom wrote the Old Testament," that Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

Then in 16:13, "But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

The same Spirit who inspired all of the Hebrew scriptures, he's saying, "He's about to do it again, and he's going to do it again through you." And then Peter confirmed it.

In 2 Peter 3, 16, he, talking about Paul, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand.

Do you sympathize with that? If you've ever read Paul and thought like, what? His letters contain some things that are hard to stand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.

What did he just do? He is equating Paul's writings with scriptures. He says we've got Paul's writings and people screw around with those just like they do the other scriptures, the unmistakable import of that is that Paul's writings are on the same level now with the books of Moses.

Would you be alarmed if we were putting something that Sloop wrote on the level of Romans? That is exactly what Peter's doing, okay?

Or how about this one? This one is interesting. This is a little bit less obvious. This is from 1 Timothy 5:18.

"For the scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'the worker deserves his wages.'"

The first quote was Leviticus. It says, "Don't muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain." Where does it say that the worker deserves his wages? Do you know? Luke 10. That is Jesus. Stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you for the worker deserves his wages.

In the same way that Peter just took the writings of Paul and put them on a level with Moses, Paul is going to take the writings of Luke and put them on the level of the Old Testament.

Two scriptural passages. As the scripture has said, the worker deserves his wages. He is affirming Luke.

By the way, this is exactly what Jesus had predicted would happen.

In John 14:26, Jesus said, "But the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name," and I'll just say parenthetically, "and who wrote the Old Testament," that Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

Then in 16:13, "But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

The same Spirit who inspired all of the Hebrew scriptures, he's saying, "He's about to do it again, and he's going to do it again through you." And then Peter confirmed it.

In 2 Peter 3, 16, he, talking about Paul, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand.

Do you sympathize with that? If you've ever read Paul and thought like, what? His letters contain some things that are hard to stand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.

What did he just do? He is equating Paul's writings with scriptures. He says we've got Paul's writings and people screw around with those just like they do the other scriptures, the unmistakable import of that is that Paul's writings are on the same level now with the books of Moses.

Would you be alarmed if we were putting something that Sloop wrote on the level of Romans? That is exactly what Peter's doing, okay?