Establish The Bible As The Final Authority In Your Life
Tom Shrader begins a 12-part series on staying faithful in a changing world by establishing the Bible as the ultimate authority for life. Using 2 Timothy 3:16, he demonstrates how Scripture provides teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. He emphasizes that in a world where moral standards constantly shift, believers need the unchanging Word of God as their compass for truth and living.
“A timeless God does not produce dated material.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How Do I Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2006)
Recorded: 2006 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 55 min
Themes: authority, truth, faithfulness, guidance, foundation, wisdom, obedience, standards, facing moral confusion, struggling with culture, new believer, seeking direction, questioning truth, young adult, parent, navigating worldliness
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 3:1, 2 Timothy 3:5, Romans 1, Romans 3, Romans 6, Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 55, Isaiah 6, James 1
Theological Themes: biblical authority, scripture, inspiration, inerrancy, hermeneutics, biblical interpretation, sanctification, spiritual formation
Full Transcript
Good evening. It's great to see you, and I'm glad that you're here. Let me add to the welcome you've already received, and it's an honor for me to be invited to be here with you tonight. It's always interesting to come to camp. I used to do a lot of camps and a lot of traveling, and I don't do as much of that anymore.
There are a couple of challenges when you travel. Number one, you don't know me at all. I also know that there's probably not a person here who came this week because I was here. I mean, that's just true, other than Susan raised her hand in the back. Four people. Let's be honest about that. I happen to be here. This was the week that you were here, and you decided that, or you knew John was going to be here. That's why I came. I came to hear John. I know that, and I'm okay with that.
The second hardest part is to take this time knowing that and to know that not once or twice or three or four or five or six or seven or eight or nine or ten or eleven, but twelve times you're going to listen to me. Now, I'm my favorite teacher, and that's too much for me. So I'm asking you to hang in there, and we're going to get to know each other. The nature of the week is that you're going to get to know a lot about me.
Getting Acquainted
I went through the room, and I had a chance to just say hello to some of you. I had two different ladies say, "Tell me about you, do a biography." I said, "Well, let me just do that once up front, and we'll kind of get everybody up to speed." You have in front of you an outline, and that outline is going to be, if you will, our roadmap for the week. That's going to be really important to you. We're going to have those out tonight, and we're going to ask you to fold them and keep them with you. Maybe we give you a little place for notes, but that's going to be our outline for the week.
I was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa. A wonderful place. I'm sorry, did somebody from Iowa—did I hear that? Where are you from? Kenawa. I'm sorry? Kenawa. No, I heard you. I'm just sorry. It works every time. I've never heard of Kenawa. Where is it? North Central. Up by Green. Oh, up by Green. Well, now I know exactly where it is.
Iowa—I love Iowa. It's home for me, and I love going there. I get there about once a year, maybe. I moved out of there in 1975, so I love it enough but not enough to stay, apparently.
The Journey to Phoenix
I ended up in Phoenix, and landed down there. A friend of mine was moving down there and said, "Do you want to go?" I happened to be listening to a Cubs spring training game, and they were broadcasting from Scottsdale. I did not even know it was Arizona. When I put the two together, I said yes, and away I went. I went the day after Labor Day and went to Phoenix with really a desire to play golf and party until my money was gone, and it was gone pretty quickly. Then I had to go to work, so I started working.
I lived in an apartment building, and I was in apartment 202. That name and number is important as the story unfolds because 201 was vacant. One Saturday, I saw this chair coming up the stairs and navigating its way toward apartment 201, and all I could really see was this chair, and from here on down, and there were these great legs and this little skinny waist, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, God is good. Look at what's happened next door to us." Then I assumed there'd be a big old muscular guy to move in with that, and there wasn't. It was two girls. So I started hanging out in obvious places, and the stories are interesting from there on.
Susan and I then started dating. We had some rocky times. We had a lot of issues as we were dating, and she even pronounced at one point in time that she never wanted to see me again, which I'd heard that from so many girls I didn't even think she was serious. So I just figured that's what every girl said. I didn't know. We dated and had some hard times and ended up getting married, and we were married in 1978, and we've been married ever since.
Family Life and Career
We were in Colorado at the time, and not a believer. We were in Colorado exactly one year and went back to Phoenix. We started talking about having children, and we have two daughters. One's 26. One's 25, something like that. We had our first grandchild last year, which was pretty cool, last November. Both of our son-in-laws were born on the same day, November 22nd of the same year. That's kind of weird. My birthday's the 28th, and the baby was born on the 25th, and then our other daughter's pregnant and due in December 10th. So that's just a bunch of stuff. That's kind of a little bit about who I am.
My background is in commercial real estate, and that's what I did. In 1980, God saved me. I started—there's a guy by the name of Larry Wright, who some of you may or may not know. I don't know that Larry ever made his way up to Cannon Beach, but just a wonderful man. He was my mentor, and I met with Him every day for a year, year and a half. Then He said, "We're going to keep doing this, but you need to find some other friends as well and start doing this study." After about three years, He said, "I think it's time for you to teach." So that really launched a whole career for me, so that I was teaching and working at the same time.
Priority Living Ministry
In January of 1990, we started a ministry called Priority Living, and Jeff mentioned it. Priority Living is really nothing more than Bible studies that I do during the week in the marketplace. They have all been in secular settings until recently, and now they're all in churches, which is really interesting. But it really targeted toward the workplace.
I do three of them a week. I used to do six. Part of the reason for that change is also in 1980, we started a church, and that church is still up and running and functioning and takes more and more time each and every day. That's really a background. You'll hear more about me as we work through the week, but that's who I am.
My teaching style is an interesting style. I'm old-fashioned in that it's chapter by chapter, verse by verse, except this weekend. When I did the book of John, that's a wonderful story. There was a lady who had prayed and prayed and prayed for her husband to come to church. So finally he came, and he came the day that I was introducing the gospel of John.
They're driving home, and maybe some of you ladies or gentlemen have been in that situation. You're a little nervous. They're driving home, and she doesn't know exactly what to say. So finally she said, "Well, what do you think?" And he said, "Well, I didn't like him. He was kind of... I didn't like him. But I'll tell you what I'll do. He's starting this gospel of John. I'll go with you every Sunday until he's finished."
Well, it took me four years to get through the gospel of John. Like I said, we spent a lot of time on a verse. It was in John chapter 3 during a time of communion that God saved that guy. So it's a really interesting story. That's really my style. That's how I like to teach. But I also can do some topical things.
Overview of Our 12-Session Journey
What I want to do this week is what's on this page. I want to take you through... There are 12 sessions here. They build on one another. There is, at least in my mind, a logical progression to these. If you miss a session, you're going to miss something significant in the sense that we're moving in a direction. We start at what to me seems a very obvious place to begin. And then we build on it.
I also think that, at least for me, the best way I learn is through repetition. I had a great moment last night. I was coming around the corner. Evan Irwin was coming out. Now, Evan leads music up here. He led music last week. He was here two years ago when we were here. We worked our way through the book of Jonah. He walked around the corner. We made eye contact. He said to me, "There's a little bit of Jonah in all of us." That really was our theme for those six times together.
So we'll come back to this again and again and again because we really need to get this stuff figured out. Let me do a little bit of introduction. Grab that sheet. Let me take you through this. Then we'll come back and we will hammer away at tonight's point.
Building a Foundation for Godly Living
Here's where we start. We start at what to me makes a lot of sense. We need to establish the Bible as the final authority in our life. We'll come back and we'll talk about that more in a bit. Tomorrow morning we'll talk about developing a lifelong passion for learning. So now I understand it's the authority. I better learn it.
Now if I've learned it, session three, I need to make some godly decisions. Session four, if I'm making these godly decisions and I understand who God is and I have this final authority, I can live life confidently. I can live life boldly.
Now it's not enough, session five, to just leave it there. When they were introducing the kids' ministries tonight, one of them, and they were coming so fast I couldn't tell you which one it was, but one of them was to teach the kids that they are missionaries. What the scripture says is that we're ambassadors for Christ. So I can't take my faith and say, "Oh my gosh, that's great to have at Cannon Beach. That's great to have in a church, but when I get to work, no, it doesn't work." No, absolutely not. We have to integrate our faith into all of our lives.
Living Out Our Faith in the World
Session six, really important, our task is to make the invisible God visible. When Jesus walked the earth, He said, "I am the light of the world." But He also said to us, "You are the light of the world." What's He mean? We'll talk about it.
Session seven, we've got to speak the truth boldly, and I will just tip the hand a little bit. Session six, session seven, they come together. You cannot separate these. It's not enough to make the invisible God visible if you don't speak the truth boldly, nor is it profitable to speak the truth boldly if you haven't made the invisible God visible. They go hand in glove.
Session eight, I think it's the missing ingredient in most people's lives, and especially in the culture we're in, learn to be content. Session nine, rejoice in the freedom that we have in Christ. He set us free. We're free indeed.
Dealing with Life's Challenges
Session 10, we're going to talk about suffering, and I love the way I phrased it. Expect suffering and grow from it. Expect it. It's inevitable. It'll happen. Isn't that what James says? "Count it all joy" — what's the word? — "when you encounter various trials." Session 11, we'll talk about thirsting for daily renewal.
Then in session 12, a little over a... What is it now? Six weeks ago, seven weeks ago, my father died, and I want to talk about what I learned from my dad's death, and we'll talk about that on session 12. We have something else to get in there also, which I did not know, kind of a tradition, that there's a Q&A part on Friday morning, so I may not be here, but you just fire those questions away, and I'll mail in my answers, but we'll try to integrate it all. We'll try to get it all into every one of these sessions.
The Challenge of Authentic Worship
When you sang these songs, and here's what I've learned over the years, at least in my life, and maybe true in yours. I can sometimes sing those songs, especially if they're familiar songs, and never have really thought about what I'm singing. Here's the one I love. I love it when we sing, "I surrender all." That just makes me laugh. I surrender all, really, honestly, everything. Here's a line
That you sang a minute ago, Precious Lord, reveal Yourself to me. Let's pray. That's what we're going to ask.
Father, we prayed those words. We really mean them. We pray that You would reveal Yourself to us, that You would open our eyes and our hearts, that You would touch us, that You would teach us this word. Maybe it's familiar to us already. Maybe we know these truths. God, remind us, and for some, perhaps for the very first time, reveal Yourself so that we can see this truth. Apply it to our life. We pray that to You, in Jesus' name, amen.
Establish the Bible as the Final Authority in Your Life
Let's start at point number one: establish the Bible as the final authority in your life. What you'll see is that I've titled this series, How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World. Here's what I don't mean. I don't mean that the world is immoral, though it obviously is. I mean, how do you stay on target? How do you stay on course in a world that's constantly changing the roadmap? The things that were outrageous and edgy and bizarre 10 years ago are accepted today, and they'll be mainstream in five years.
Susan and I came in a day early, so we got here yesterday. We went into town, into Seaside, and then we were coming over, and there was a horrible car accident out here. Once they released traffic, the traffic was backed up from Seaside all the way back to the 26th. It was really bad. So we're in line, and Susan was getting a little impatient. I was doing fine.
I said, look, we're not going to get through. They have an accident. They said there's a fire. So we go back into Seaside, and we're walking along, and it's the volleyball tournament weekend. There's something like 20,000 extra people coming to town, and we end up in a little coffee shop. It was cool in that the magazines they left out were magazines that were 30, 40, 50 years old.
There were the Better Homes and Gardens from 1961, talking about the biblical implications of Christmas decoration. Can you imagine that? Chapter and verse, titles, all that goes in there. As you're looking at all this, you're saying, this has really changed. They showed a mom and her two girls in their little dresses and their little pearls and their little hair pulled back, and they were in there decorating the tree and smiling. It didn't look anything like the world I live in. The world changes, and it morphs. How do I stay focused in the middle of that?
The Need for Connection with God
I want to really grind you on this, if that's all right. Jeff used a phrase, to reconnect, reconnect with God. Here's the deal. Reconnection implies that there was at one point in time a connection. There's a distinct possibility, and I've got to believe there's somebody in this room who never has connected with God, who's never come to an understanding of who you are in God's eyes.
Not in your own eyes. I don't care about how you see yourself. As God sees you. As God sees us all. To come to that point where we understand that we come into this world a sinner in need of a Savior. Isn't that what Jesus said He was here for? "I came to seek and save the lost." Well, who's lost? What's lost? What does that mean? To save us, to deliver us.
Here's what we're going to ask you. You don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to answer out loud. I'm asking you. You need to answer this. This is between you and God. Are you a Christian?
Common Misunderstandings of Christianity
I have a friend who was sharing with his mom. She was getting ready to die. He said, "Are you a Christian?" And she said, "I pay my taxes." That's exactly what she said.
I've asked hundreds of people that question. "Are you a Christian?" "Born in America. Drive a Chevy." That just makes you a farmer is all that's making you at this point. "You're from Kansas." "Are you a Christian?" See, there's the question.
Here is my all-time favorite answer. I love this answer. This is just one of those wonderful moments for me. I said to a man, "Are you a Christian?" Here's his answer: "Not in the biblical sense." I said, "What does that mean? Not in the biblical sense. Well, in what sense?"
A Christian is not somebody that we define. It doesn't matter how you and I define it. What does God say?
The Biblical Truth About Our Condition
Here's what God says. God says we're lost. That we're separated from Him because of our sin. That in my life—I'm talking about me. Forget you for now. In my life, here was my problem. Not that I liked to drink. I did. Not that I liked to party. I did. Not that I was a huge jerk. I was. Those were symptoms of the problem.
The problem was this. I didn't know God. I wasn't connected to Him. I didn't have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. That was my problem. That's your problem. That's our problem.
There's a little grandson and he's eight, eight and a half months now. He really is cute. That's not just a grandpa talking because I don't, especially when they're little. I mean, can we get over that? These little newborns, they aren't cute, are they? They look like a cross between Gandhi and Churchill to me. They're just all fringed together and they're not cute. But this kid is pretty cute. He's got red hair, which is kind of weird. He's got this little red hair going and he's a really cute little kid.
We were talking to Haley today and I said, "How's the kid doing?" She said, "He's starting to get whiny. I need to teach him that whining isn't acceptable. And then I need to deal with this." Then I said, "Hey, here's the problem, Haley. What's the problem with the kid? I know. Do you know? He's a sinner."
Here's what he wants. He wants it his way right now. He wants what he wants when he wants it. He wants that food, not this food, that candy, not that broccoli. He's a sinner. He's just like you and me. The minute he gets the strength to fight back, he's going to.
I have to come in humanly. There's a great show. Have you seen that Dog Whisperer guy? I'm watching Oprah one day. I do that for you,
Not for me. Just so I have an illustration, I'm watching Oprah one day. I watch Oprah on Monday—that's my day off. She's got this Dog Whisperer guy on who's training these dogs. It is the most incredible parenting seminar I've ever seen. And now Haley's fighting that. Why? He's a sinner. We need to be saved.
What in the world does that mean? What does that mean to be saved? When I first came to Phoenix, Youth for Christ or Campus Crusade, one of them, had these bumper stickers that said, "I found it." I was lost as a goose. I have no clue. Finally, I've seen them all over town. There's a guy that pulls up at a Circle K in a Volkswagen van, and I said to him, "Hey man, I found it. What does that mean?" He said, "I don't know, it's my brother's van." So I never did find out what "I found it" meant.
Years later, I get the connection. Here's what I found: I found the answer to life. Here's what I love—we all got questions. That you have questions about this world is not unique. That there are problems and we've identified them, that's not unique. All you got to do is turn on the radio. Everybody's diagnosed we got a problem and everybody understands the questions. Here's what's different: you and I have the answers. Not because we're so smart—we aren't. We just know where to look. He's written this book.
We Have the Answers
Why don't you open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3, and we'll spend a little time there in verse 16. We have the answers. Even though I don't think it's entirely necessary, I want to spend a little bit of time just illustrating to you the points and the problems we have. We see it in business, right? We went through the whole Enron thing. By the way, as I use these illustrations, I'm not making judgment on any of this stuff. I'm just reporting to you what's in the paper. We have the whole Enron thing. We have corporations collapsing. We have guys going to jail who say they've cheated.
Politics? I don't even have to have a punchline there. All I have to do is say politics—from two Latin words: poly, many; ticks, bloodsuckers. Many bloodsuckers: politics. Just kidding.
What I've learned over the years as I travel is to be careful in certain things, so I don't want to get too far off base here. But in the year 2000, we had a transfer of power in the presidency from Bill Clinton to George Bush. The day that Bill Clinton left office, his last day in office, he struck a deal. I presume you know this—this is not new stuff. He struck a deal with an independent counsel, signed a letter that acknowledged that he accepted a five-year suspension of his law license and paid $25,000 in fines, all to avoid being disbarred.
A Leader's Moral Compromise
In this letter—and every once in a while someone says, "What about you take it out of context?" There's nothing out of context. This is the letter he wrote. In the last two paragraphs of the letter, he writes this. He, the president of the United States, the moral compass, the bully pulpit, here's what he said: "I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal."
We sit back, and this is like one of the great minds of all time. Did you hear what he said? Here's his goal. You have a goal. You got a goal. We have young kids here. You got a goal, you got a vision, you got a dream: act lawfully and testify falsely.
"I have to apologize for my conduct. I've done my best to atone for it with my family, my administration, and the American people. I've paid a high price for it, which I accept because..." Why? Why did he accept this? This is wonderful. "I accept it because it caused so much pain." No, because you were wrong. You were guilty. You lied. That's the problem. Not that it caused pain. Did it cause pain? Yep. He felt my pain. Why? He caused my pain. That's why he felt my pain.
Listen to that. Let that sink in. This is the bully pulpit. This is the moral compass of the country. And we said bye and said, "You know what, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter what he does in his private life."
Well, all of a sudden, we had a major mayor, one of the biggest cities in the country, who impregnated one of his staff assistants. She said to him, "Is this going to cause you a political problem?" He said no. And I quote: "No, this is a celebration of motherhood." Really?
Seeking Answers in All the Wrong Places
This is one of my favorites. Ann Landers used to get these letters. This is a great one: "I'm a 23-year-old college graduate, business major. I don't presume to speak for my generation, but I know what I feel. People wonder about us. They say we're all materialistic, we're out for ourselves. They say we're apathetic. But it must go deeper than that. Teens are committing suicide at record numbers. What is wrong with us? Just look around." Then this person describes the whole world that you know when you live in. They sign this letter this way: "Waiting for guidance in California."
Now that could be any of them down there, right? But here's Ann Landers' response. I want you to know millions of people every day write her for answers, right? Isn't that why they write Ann Landers? Here's what she writes back: "I see no sign of apathy or resignation in your letter. In fact, I sense you're deeply concerned. I too refuse to accept the fact that we are doomed." Now rather than give answers, she asks two questions: "But what is going to save us? Any answers out there?"
The Real Answer
Yep. Right here. I can tell you what will save you. I can tell you what will save the country. I can tell you what will change your life: the power of this Word applied by the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart or mind of a person and they become a child of God, it's never the same ever again.
The 2000 presidential election had all sorts of stuff. Florida, hanging chads. Remember all that? We had all this. We had local courts and then state courts and then the state Supreme Court and then the Court of Appeals.
Appeals and still we're arguing, right? Finally it lands in the Supreme Court. They issue their opinion. That's the end. There has to be the equivalent of that in your life.
The equivalent of that Supreme Court in your life, that final authority in your life is this book, the Bible. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it"? A third of the ink's a waste. It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. God said it. That settles it. That's the issue. That's the point. There's a whole bunch of people who think this book is a bunch of hooey. That doesn't change whether it's true or not, right?
The Bible IS the Word of God
I had a guy in priority living—I get a lot of non-believers, a lot of business guys. He had been there a while and finally he said this to me, "You're really into that Bible." I said, "Well, yeah, I think so." I said, "What do you think about the Bible?" Here's what he said. See if this sounds all right to you. He said, "I think the Bible contains the Word of God." Is that okay? No, that doesn't work.
What do you mean contains the Word of God? Where? What part? How do I know? No, the Bible doesn't contain the Word of God. The Bible IS the Word of God. It doesn't contain it. I've got to then go in and get my Ronco Bible detector and try to figure out, well, that verse is true, but that one's not true, and I think this one is true, or maybe this one is true.
Or that it's a changing document. Isn't that how lots of people want to interpret it? It's a changing living document. God certainly wrote this, but come on, it's 2006. You know they've been sitting around going, "Hey, come on, lighten up, it's 87." You know, "It's 712." A timeless God does not produce dated material.
We do not believe that the Bible contains the Word of God. We believe the Bible IS the Word of God. So God has given us in this book everything He wants us to know regarding life. If it's not in there, it's either A, according to God, not important for us to figure it out, or B, His infinite mind can't cram it into our finite brain.
How God Communicates to Us
But He communicated to us, right? He communicated to us, first of all, through creation. Isn't that what Romans 1 is all about? Look at the stars, look at the sky, look around. That very creation screams that there's a creator.
Here you go. Let's say I don't know a thing about Yamaha. I can prove the existence of Yamaha by looking at this keyboard. The very fact that this keyboard is here tells me somebody put it together. I don't think for a second that there were white keys over here and black keys over here and then the silver casing over here and then some electronic components over there and then some casing back here and then some cords over there and all of a sudden, just one day, they just went and became a keyboard. Do you believe that? No.
So how do we explain that? "Well, it happened over billions and billions and billions of years." No! It happened because Joe Yamaha came along and took all these parts and here's what he did. He made a keyboard. He didn't create one though. God didn't make, God created. All we do is assembly work. We take the components that are here, we bring them together and make pianos or keyboards or shirts or shoes or socks or buildings. God didn't do any of that. He created. There was nothing and He said, "Let there be light," bam, there's light. From nothing comes something. He is an awesome God.
He communicated to us through creation. He communicated to us through His Son. Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." Want to know what God's like? There He is. There He is. Come in the flesh. And then He communicates to us through this Word.
Living in Difficult Times
So all of a sudden we live in a world—in fact you're in 2 Timothy chapter 3, look at verse 1: "Realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come." Now what are the last days? The time from when Jesus left to when He comes back again. Are we living in the last days? Sure.
Here's the problem. He doesn't talk about circumstances and all this. He said, "For men," people, you, me, the little 8-month-old, "here's the problem, we'll be lovers of self." There's our problem. And consequently we'll be lovers of money and boastful and arrogant and revilers, we'll be disobedient to our parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable. We'll have neighbors suing neighbors over leaves that are falling in their yard.
"Malicious gossip, without self-control, brutal, haters of good." It's not that we're neutral. It's not that the world's neutral. They hate the truth. They can't stand the truth. They'll create their own version of a truth. They hate you. They hate this Word.
"Haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Verse 5: "holding to a form of godliness although they've denied its power." See these are not people without religion.
The Problem with Religion
You live in one of the most—here you go, quotes—"spiritual" countries in the world. You can walk down there, there's a cool little bookstore in the middle of town, and we visit it all the time we're here, and it's got just a bunch of stuff in there, and it's got obviously some decent books and then the majority of it is just stuff that's around and some of it is just crazy stuff. But you know what you'll find in there? You go to the back, you'll find a whole section on spiritual stuff.
If you get back really into the city, you get into Portland or Seattle, you go to a Barnes and Noble or you go to a Borders, you'll find these huge sections on spirituality. God doesn't say that these people are not going to be without spiritual questions and insights. He doesn't say they aren't going to be religious. They're going to be religious.
Here you go, stop for a second, very important, huge point. That's the problem. They're religious. They love religion. God hates religion. If by that we mean meaningless ritual, things...
that we go through to try to appease a holy God, everything other than biblical Christianity is religion. Everything else may have a little bit of Jesus and then a little bit of clean up your act here and a little bit of do this, but at its core—and this is so important and we spend a ton of time on that and you and I are going to understand this. As we work through that 12 sessions, there was a lot of things that we need to do and do this and do this. We need to understand that this is a religion where we do, where we do good works and by that we mean how we handle our time, energy, effort, money, but we are not saved or delivered by our good works, are we?
We are saved by grace, unmerited favor. First and foremost, biblical Christianity is about belief. It's not about behavior. It's about what you believe and it doesn't matter if you're doing all the right things if you have the wrong belief because our fundamental problem, though it may look like it, is not our action but it's our heart.
No one is good. That's what God says in Romans chapter 3, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 6, the wage of sin is death. If you say, here's the deal God, I won't bug you, you don't bug me. All I'm asking God is you give me what I've earned. Okay, here's what you've earned. What you get paid for what you've earned is a wage. The wage of sin is death. Not just physical death, death being separation. I'm separated from God. I don't know Him. The wage of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Bible as Final Authority
I have discovered over the years that in most of my discussions, both with Christians and with non-Christians, most of the time we can settle this if we'll just come back and say the Bible is the final authority. Now does that end all discussions? Obviously not. But do you see what Paul is writing to Timothy, what God is saying through Paul? In the last days we're going to be naturally lovers of self.
Verse 16, all scripture is inspired by God. This book that you have is inspired by God. You're not going to go into the bookstore tomorrow and buy a Bible that says updated, changes, new edition, postscript from the author. Beginning to end, alpha, omega, first to last. All scripture is inspired by God and look at it. It's good for four things here.
Four Purposes of Scripture
Number one, teaching. Some of your translations may say doctrine. Teaching here doesn't mean the act of communicating. Teaching here means the content itself. All scripture is the doctrine that we need.
Secondly, for reproof. It means rebuke. Rebuke for wrong behavior, wrong belief. So that if all of a sudden you're sitting down with somebody and you're saying, listen, what you're doing is wrong, their natural flinch is going to say to you, who made you king? Who made you queen? Who made you God? No, no, no, no. It's not based on what I think. It's not based on what the world thinks.
If you're out there, and we always love to talk about the sexual sins because they're easiest, but let's leave those. We'll beat that up some other session. How about this? Let's say you're just out there and you just gossip. You just gossip, gossip, gossip, gossip, gossip. And you find little ways to cover it up. You'll go to a friend and say, oh, I wouldn't even trouble you with this, but I know you'll want to be knowing how to pray for her. And you just gossip. It's a sin. It's a sin. And you just don't stop it. Who am I to come to you and say that's wrong? I'm nobody, but God says that's wrong.
This is really important. It's good for doctrine. It's good for reproof. Look at this. It's good for correction. It's the only time that the word appears in the New Testament. In extra Greek literature, it means to correct. So if I were to take, let's see, something that is stool. Stool is a good example. Here's what it means literally. If I were to correct a stool, the implication is that the stool is not being used for its purpose. If I correct it, I put it back in its upright position. So the word of God comes along, it teaches me, it rebukes me, but it also corrects me.
And do you see the last one? And it trains me for training in righteousness. It's the idea originally, the idea of training a child. So if we want to say it in a way we can remember it, here we go. The Bible tells us what's right, that's doctrine. What's not right, that's rebuke. How to get right, that's correction. How to stay right, that's training in righteousness. It's the word of God. It's the absolute authority.
Evidence for Scripture's Authenticity
Now there's several ways to look at the scripture and to try to argue for its authenticity. I was not a follower of Christ and a guy was talking to me and I said, listen, I know the Bible is filled with errors. And He did something brilliant. He said, listen, I'm really busy now. You go home and get your Bible. Why don't you find about a dozen of those errors, we'll meet tomorrow morning and talk about it. A couple of problems here. Number one, I didn't have a Bible. Number two, I've never read it and I couldn't have found an error. He exposed me right away.
The Bible is infallible. It's not that it doesn't err, it cannot err. Now one of the great proofs of the authenticity of scripture are the fulfilled prophecies.
There's a gentleman by the name of Hugh Ross, Dr. Hugh Ross. First time I ever met Hugh Ross, a friend of mine called me and said, Hugh Ross is going to be in your town. Why don't you use him at one of your studies? I said, all right. So this guy comes in. He's an astrophysicist. So I'm not the sharpest guy in the world. So I introduced him to Dr. Hugh Ross. Here's what He did. Here's exactly what He did. I'm not exaggerating. Thank you for having me here. Since I was seven years old, I've wanted to be an astrophysicist. I said to the guy next to me, what's an astrophysicist? What do they do? Hugh Ross, let me just, let's net it out for you. Hugh Ross is S-M-A-R-T.
Well, that day he passed out this little piece of literature about the authenticity and reliability of the Bible. Let me read this to you. I'm just going to read you like two paragraphs.
This is what Ross did. He was an unbeliever, and he realized that every great religion had a Bible at its core. So he figured out that if he could find one error in this book, he could throw them all out. He started with the Koran, went through the Book of Mormon, and did all these books. He said, literally, bam, bam, I can find errors everywhere. He gets to the Bible. He spends years studying it, and he can't find an error. Not only does he not find an error, he becomes convicted in the midst of it that it is the Word of God. Once he reads it, it becomes clear to him that this is the way he should be saved.
The Mathematical Impossibility of Biblical Prophecy Occurring by Chance
Here's what he writes: "Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events in details many years, sometimes centuries before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which have been fulfilled to the letter with no errors. The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and unfold in days to come. Since the probability of any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than 1 in 10, and he adds that figure's conservative, and since all the prophecies are independent of one another, the odds of all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error are less than 1 in 10 to the 2,000th power. That's 1 with 2,000 zeros written after it."
He then looks at 13 prophecies and writes this paragraph. I love this paragraph: "Since these 13 prophecies cover mostly separate and independent events, the probability of chance occurrence of all 13 is about 1 in 10 to the 138th power. 138 equals the sum of all the exponents of 10 of the probabilities estimated above. For the sake of putting the figure into perspective, this probability can be compared to the statistical chance that the second law of thermodynamics will reverse in a given situation. For example, that a gasoline engine will refrigerate itself during its combustion cycle, or heat will flow from a cold body to a hot body. That chance is 1 in 10 to the 80th power. Simply stated, based on these 13 prophecies alone, the Bible record may be said to be vastly more reliable than the second law of thermodynamics."
Now here's my favorite sentence: "Each reader should feel free to make His own reasonable estimates of probability for the chance fulfillment of these prophecies." I haven't got a clue what he's writing. Here's what I know. Here's what I know what he's saying.
The Simple Truth Behind Complex Statistics
When you take all these prophecies and you see them fulfilled to the letter of the law over thousands of years, you see the Messiah prophesied. You see the fulfillment, not just in things that He did, but where He was born, how He was born. Here's the deal. Net it all out. Don't need thermodynamics. I don't understand 10 to the 2,000th power. I got no clue what he's saying. I know what it is. He's saying this: The Bible is the Word of God. That's the point.
Finding True North in a Lost World
In a world that's lost its confidence, I was at Forrest's home years ago. You may not know what it is. It's in Southern California. It's a camp similar to this. I'm doing a men's conference. They do this exercise. It was really interesting. It was the first night. They had all the men stand up. It was in a room about like this. He said, "I'm going to count to three. When I count to three, I want you all to point to true north."
Well, we had driven in through these roads and these canyons and all this. So I go, one, two, three. There were arms going and guys ducking and things flying. He said, "Now I want you to reach under your chair. You're going to find an envelope. When you find that envelope, you're going to find an object in it. Open your hand. Put that object in your hand." It was a compass. He said, "Now I'm going to count to three. When I count to three, I want you to point to true north." He went, one, two, three. And every hand went in exactly the same direction.
Here's my point. One, two, three. It's true north. In a world that's lost its direction, in a world that has no clue anymore, in a world where what was wrong five years ago is okay today, a timeless God doesn't produce dated material. We can look in a physical mirror. This is the equivalent of it spiritually. If you want to understand who you are, here's what you do: open this Word and you're going to find out. You know what you're going to find out? It's not a very pretty sight.
The Universal Problem Scripture Reveals
I don't know you all from a post. I know you a little bit. I'll know you a little bit more by the end of the week. I know John some. John has been in our house and stayed with us over the years, and I love John. I know Jeff. Especially, we were here at Labor Day a few years ago and Jeff and I had that afternoon to spend a couple hours talking. Susan's in the back. I know Susan. Other than that, I don't know that I'm... Marty, I've met a couple times. I don't know another one of you hardly at all.
I can tell you this. I don't know you from a post, but I know your besetting sin. I know your besetting sin. This isn't even hard to figure out. I can tell you what it is: Pride. That's your problem. That's your besetting sin. That's what Scripture said.
The Root of All Sin: Pride
It all goes back. What was the whole deal with Adam and Eve? Haven't you wondered about that? At first, because I didn't know anything about Scripture, I just figured they're in this area and there's this one tree and God says don't eat from that tree. I thought it was more nutritional than anything else. These poor people are going to starve to death. I mean, that's the only tree.
No, they're in a garden, right? It's paradise, right? It sounds like a good place, paradise. There's all these trees and all these things. They can have plenty of nourishment.
from anything they want, but there's the one tree. God says I don't want you eating from that tree. And the minute He said don't do it, their eyes went right to it. And you know what Satan said? "Really Eve? Come on. Did He really say that to you? Did He really say that?"
We've got it to this day, don't we? I can put this pulpit down there and 200 of you will walk by it and never give it a second glance. If I put a sign that says "wet paint" on it, you're going to walk by and go, "Yep, it is." The minute you say don't do it, that's your pride.
And then what's the problem? Here's what God said. Listen, what was the attraction there? Satan said you'll be like God. You'll control your own destiny. You'll make your own rules. You'll be your own person. That's what it's all about, isn't it? You're like my little eight and a half month old grandson. You want what you want when you want it.
The Problem of Pride
C.S. Lewis defines pride this way: "a complete anti-God state of mind." That's our problem. And along comes the Bible, the Word of God. We establish it as the final authority in our life.
And you know what this Word does? Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, it lays you buck naked before God. It lays you bare. It exposes your thoughts.
I'm teaching a Wednesday night study years ago. There's a lady that comes in. She's there all the time. She said, "I'm so excited. I've got my sister here tonight. Now she's not a believer, but she's here." I said, "Well, it's very nice to meet you. We're glad you're here."
I start talking. This lady is sitting there, the guest, the unbeliever. She's sitting there. And as I start to talk, she just starts to close up. You can see her just closing up. Her legs are coming. She's almost in a fetal position. She's just closing up. I thought, well, you know, that didn't work so well.
They leave. I'm going out. There's a light in the parking lot. My car's over here. I could have walked directly to my car. But these two ladies are standing under the light, and they've got a discussion going on. I thought, there has to be an illustration here. Let me walk over and just see what's going on.
So I walk over. I said, "Ladies, having a good night?" "Nope." The one that's been there for a while says to the other one, "Tell him." And she said, "I'm not going to tell him." She said, "Tell him. Go ahead. Tell him. He can handle it."
I said, "Really? I know what you did tonight." She said, "Really? What did I do?" "I know what happened." I said, "Really? What happened?" She said, "She, my sister, called you. And she told you I was coming. And she told you exactly what to say, exactly how to say it, all of my problems, all of my issues, all of my stuff. She told you. And then you took that whole message and customized it for me."
I said, "Well, I didn't. But the Spirit of God did." That's what the Word of God does. That's what the Word of God is.
The Power of God's Word Applied
Remember, we've already said it twice. When the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart and mind of a woman or to the heart and mind of a child of God, there's something very powerful that takes place.
There's teaching. There's rebuke. In other words, it's correcting me in the midst of that. There's correction. The Word of God doesn't just tear me apart and leave me there.
Does God tear you apart? I think He does. Does God break you down? I think He does. Not for the purposes of disassembling you and leaving you in parts all over the room, but He breaks you down to put you together to train you how to live. Isn't that right? This is life, isn't it? Real life. That you know the Father, the One who sent me.
Point one, session one, the only point tonight. When you understand that the Word of God is indeed the truth, you've established it as a final authority. You have a map for living.
A Map for Life's Maze
Years ago, Susan and I and the girls were at Knott's Berry Farm, and there was a thing in there that I'd never seen before. It was a human maze. They had the coolest thing. It was my favorite thing, maybe. They had this walkway where you could walk up and observe these people trying to get through this maze. You would just see people. They were dead end.
There was a little kid in there, and he got in, and he started trying to get out. He could not get out. He could not get out of this maze. Then he started to panic. I didn't realize it, but his mom was standing right next to me. Here's what she said to him: "Go over there. Go to your left. Go to your left. Now walk up here. Now go to your right. Go to your right real quick. Make another right. Now make a left." Walked him right through it.
Life can be confusing. Life can be a maze. There you go. He says, "Go to your left. Go to your left. Go a little more. Whoops. Go right real quick. Move over there."
Isaiah 55: "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways," says the Lord. "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways." This world without this book is a very, very confusing place. This world with this book is fairly easy to understand. Fairly easy to get your arms around. Fairly easy to comprehend.
Finding Your Identity Through God's Identity
Here you go. One of the things that happens, maybe the most powerful thing, is not that you figure out who you are, but you figure out who God is.
I mentioned that bookstore downtown. You go down to that bookstore downtown, it's just filled with books that are self-absorbed. "You need to figure out who you are." In fact, you probably got people walking all up and down the beach, eating taffy at Cannon Beach, trying to find out who they are. Just walking around. "I wonder who I am. I'm trying to figure out who I am. I need time. Sweetheart, I need my space to figure out who I am. I need to figure out who I am."
No, you don't. It's real easy. Figure out who God is. The minute you understand who He is, we're going to see who you are real quickly. Right? Isn't that what happened to Isaiah? Isaiah
He said, "Oh my gosh, I've seen the Lord. High, lifted up, lofty. Twain wrote, fills the temple." And when he sees God, he sees Him for who He really is. All of a sudden, what's Isaiah say? "Woe to me, for I'm undone." I thought I had it together, and I did, compared to you.
Isn't that a game we love to play? I'm better than her. I'm better than him. One night, I was feeling particularly low. I wasn't a follower of Christ. I was a mess. I'm in this bar talking to this guy, and I said to him, "I have no meaning in life. I have no purpose in life. I serve no role or function in life." He said, "Yes, you do." I said, "Really?" He said, "Absolutely, Tom. I want you to know you can always be used as a bad example." I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah. I tell my wife all the time, I'll say, I'm not as bad as Tom." I go, "Oh, well, that's my purpose in life, to make everybody else look better."
That's what we do. I'll go, "I'm better than her. I'm better than him. I'm better than them." That's not the standard. The standard here is not to be better. The standard here is to understand what God says are the rules. What God says are the standards. That's what I need to understand.
The Mind of God in Scripture
Here, J.C. Ryle writes this: "This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, and the way of salvation, the doom of the sinner, the happiness of the believer. Doctrine is holy. Its precepts are binding. Its histories are true. Its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise. Believe it to be safe. Practice it to be holy." It's this book.
Open book test, my friend. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Not that hard. The answer's right here. Here's who you are. You're a sinner separated from God. Where are you going? I don't know. We're going to find out at the end. If you know Christ, heaven. If you don't, hell. I mean, this isn't hard to figure out. Why are you here? You're here to be the person that God's called you to be.
The Heart of the Gospel
Here's the deal. We're done. Are you a Christian? Are you a follower of Christ? Have you come to that point where you understand who God is, who you are? There's a huge gap that you can't close. No religion can close. There's nothing you can do. You're saved by grace through faith.
Have you come to that point? Have you come to Him in repentance and faith? Have you opened your heart to Him? Have you acknowledged Him as Lord and Savior? If you have, you're a Christian. You're a follower of Christ. You're as certain of heaven as the saints that are already there. Because nothing can separate you from the love of God. That's what it means to be a Christian.
Living with Your Compass
Now I've got to figure out this world. Oh my gosh, it's a confusing world. Well, I need the roadmap. I need true north. I need the compass. I established the Bible as the final authority in my life and now it affects the way I live.
That's what we're going to talk about these next 11 sessions. This is in place. There's the roadmap. Now we're ready to go. What does that mean? And we're just going to build on these, morph these, come back to these, and unpack them.
Let's pray together. And then Wade comes to close us. Father, thank You for Your Word and for the truth, for Your Son Jesus. Thank You for this wonderful, beautiful place where we can assemble. But what a shame it would be to come to this place, talk about its beauty, marvel at the hospitality, and walk away and be unchanged by these moments with You. Father, open Your Word, open our hearts and our mind. We pray that to You in Jesus' name, amen.