Establish the Bible as Final Authority
Tom Shrader addresses the need to establish the Bible as the final authority in life, especially as believers face an increasingly confused and changing world. Drawing from 2 Timothy 3, he emphasizes that Scripture is God-breathed and sufficient for teaching what's right, correcting what's wrong, and training in righteousness. He challenges listeners to resist the temptation to rely on cultural voices, personal feelings, or political perspectives, instead anchoring their lives in God's unchanging Word.
“The Bible says it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Tools for Finishing Strong
Recorded: September 19, 2018
Duration: 46 min
Themes: authority, scripture, truth, foundation, confusion, change, wisdom, reliability, facing cultural pressure, confused by world, senior adult, aging believer, preparing for retirement, spiritual maturity, long time christian, finishing well
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 4:12
Theological Themes: biblical authority, scripture sufficiency, god breathed, biblical inerrancy, divine revelation, hermeneutics, sola scriptura, biblical worldview
Full Transcript
It is great to have you here today, to be with you. I learned this week that I'm never going to be a Supreme Court justice. And I learned that was decided in 1967. So I don't even know what to say about all of that stuff.
I have, and I personally think this is amusing, gone through that age where sleep evades me. Then I can get to sleep, but I quit dreaming. I've started dreaming again. I have this reoccurring dream, and this is true. I'm not making this up. This reoccurring dream that I had last night is that I'm an undercover policeman, and my partner is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Every episode begins with Kareem and me in the car, and I'm saying, "Look, we're going in the bar. You go left. I'll go right. Just look inconspicuous. Just blend in." Then I wake up. It makes me laugh. I don't know what causes that, but that's where I am.
Getting Back in the Groove
If you missed us last week, welcome. The plan, and as of now we're still on the plan, is to meet every Wednesday and we'll record. We've changed PL a little bit based on really just my stamina, mental and physical, trying to get back in the groove. It was great for me last week to be able to do that.
We're in the process of retooling a couple of things, especially the website, so that it'll become a real tool that you can use and will have the current information on it. I've started writing an email a week, and this is brutal. My daughter Haley texted me last night and said, "I'm taking all four kids to the dentist tomorrow. Do you want to go with me?" I said, "I have to write an email, but yes, I'd rather go with you." That's how that feels. I appreciate your faithfulness and commitment to this, and hopefully it's worthwhile.
The Reality of Spiritual Unpreparedness
I want to remind you what we said last week. We're starting a series that we're going to call How to Finish Strong. For me, it's evolutionary, evolving in what I think this ought to be. It started with the discussion on aging. When we got into it, we found—and this is a giant point—that people are not prepared for retirement or old age. They're not prepared for it financially, which we kind of knew, and physically, but they're not prepared for it spiritually.
I got into all of this thinking and realized, and this sounds judgmental, which probably means it is, but we haven't done the things along the way, just like we didn't financially, spiritually. I was invited to speak to a group of young men, primarily 30 to 40 years old, and to talk about spiritual disciplines. I asked the guy leading it, "Tell me what you want me to talk about. I hear spiritual disciplines." He said, "Nobody does that anymore." I said, "We got an issue."
The Times Are Changing
We're in that time of change. John Wooden had an old saying: "All progress is change, but not all change is progress." I used the illustration last week that you used to find Christian men—I'm going to stay with men on this, though I think women did too—they had a packet of cards with them. They would have these cards when they were waiting to go in a meeting, or they were in the doctor's office, or index cards on the visor of the car with Bible verses on them. They memorized them.
Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that wasn't cool. "We can do it on this." Well, it's not the same. I have this. I'm on this. I'm Don Quixote in a bunch of these. I'm fighting this battle to say you need to bring a Bible to church. "Well, I have this." It's different. It changes the room.
I look around, and I assume you're checking email. I just assume you are. Here's what I know: if you aren't, by about the 20-minute mark, you will be. Sandy uses electronics, and I still bring a Bible. Sandy said, "Can you imagine being on your deathbed and saying"—because I read the obituaries every day on the Quad Cities, people back home. Every one of them says, "Tom was surrounded by his family." That's probably why he died. He needed space. But can you imagine on your deathbed saying, "I want to give you the family phone"? This is nuts, and it makes a difference.
Navigating a Changing World
You have these things that are changing, and they're changing so quickly. The world is changing, and the rules are changing. We had a dinner last night with five of us, and we were trying to unpack the Brett Kavanaugh thing and the race issue. The person of color was Japanese. The women were staking out their ground. Every old white guy was saying, "I don't mean it the way it sounds." The conversation was impossible.
Fundamentals for Finishing Strong
In the midst of this, how do I finish strong, which is what we talked about last time? I finish strong by starting strong and staying strong. There are basic fundamentals. We're in the fourth week of football season, and you've got all sorts of plays being run. It boils down to this: if you don't block and you don't tackle, you don't win. If you've got a runner on first and you can't move him to second with a bunt, you're just going to hope you can knock it out of the park. I guess that's how the game is. Everything changes, but for us, some things don't.
I want to gear the series toward us in this room, but I want it to be broad enough in its nature that you can say to your kids or grandkids or neighbors, "Hey, you ought to listen to this." Now, let me just tell you up front, they're not going to. But you're going to say, "I wish somebody would have told me this at 35." I'm going to say to you, "I'll bet they did, but you didn't listen." But here's a tool for you.
I was reading a book on growing old, the practice of growing old. The author writes this: "In light of a survey of biblical vision of..."
Establish the Bible as Final Authority
What can we say about how the scripture might inform our understanding of aging? We conclude this chapter by offering a few reflections on the Christian practice of growing old. The weight of biblical witness is on the side of similarity rather than difference between aging and younger Christians. What he's saying is it's the same thing. The Bible doesn't give us a whole bunch of growing old stuff.
We made a point last week, Jesus is our role model, but you never think of it this way, but Jesus never grew old. He got taken out in His prime. So what do we do? When I say how to grow old, it's very similar to the stuff we did when we did a series called How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World.
The number one thing that we look for if I'm going to finish strong is I have to start strong. That means converted. I come to Jesus in repentance and faith. There's a moment of time where I may be able to go, it was this place, this time, this date. Or it may be that all of a sudden, I'm aware that I've morphed into this. But all of a sudden, I understand that I'm a sinner and that I need a Savior and that I can't do it.
Our goal, the simple phrase, is we want a transformed heart and an informed mind that leads to a radical life. So, here's point number one in how to finish strong: Establish the Bible as the final authority in your life.
The Supreme Court Illustration
One of the rules, and probably one of the great illustrations of this is the 2000 presidential election. If you remember, that's hanging chads. That's 400 votes. It's Broward County. And you had each precinct and the judges rendered a verdict. And then it went to the state court. Then it went to the state court of appeals. Then it went to a district court. And this just kept going on until it got to the Supreme Court. When it got to the Supreme Court, they issued their opinion. And that's the end of it. Now, the discussion still goes on, but the battle is done.
There's an old bumper sticker that's probably not around anymore that used to say, "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it." A third of that ink is a waste. This is so hard, but once it's resolved, it's life-changing. The Bible says it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not.
Biblical Truth Over Human Opinion
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. "Well, I think man is basically good." I think you've been educated way beyond your intelligence, because the Bible says we're not.
I'll give you a little tip. I wrote an email for this weekend. And it was just an article about Ancestry.com. Now, I will confess, I'm not very interested in that. I know who my immediate relatives are. I can't imagine it gets better if you go further back. I don't think I'm related to George Washington or Rockefeller. I don't need to know.
Here's what I do know about my ancestry. If you trace it back far enough, you'd get to Adam and Eve. I know that. And I know they sinned, and when they sinned, I sinned, and that plunged me into darkness. Now, how do I know that? Not from the Washington Post, or Fox, or MSNBC, or Kavanaugh, or Ford. I know it from the Bible.
I'm never going to understand myself. We're on this trip for self-awareness. I'm never going to understand it apart from the Bible. I will tell you this, and I think, and I don't know that the people closest to me would agree, but I think I'm way kinder, way gentler, far more loving than I've ever been. Far less judgmental. But I can tell you this, the only person that I give the benefit of the doubt to is myself. But the Bible tells me that while I was helpless, while I was a sinner, while I was an enemy of God, that's me, Christ died for me.
God's Word in a Changing World
You live in a world that is confused, befuddled, bewildered, changing. I don't even know the rules anymore. Changing every day. I watched this morning some sports show, I don't even know what it was, and they're arguing, I think Jim Harbaugh started it, with the targeting, and you can't hit here, and you can't hit this, and we don't know how to interpret it. All these rules are changing, and you're changing the game. And the world changes around us, but the thing that's constant is God's Word.
The Maze Illustration
So I'm one day with the kids at Knott's Berry Farm, and I'd never been, always been a Disneyland guy, but they wanted to go to Knott's Berry Farm. And it was fine, it was okay, not Disneyland, but we went. I was always the one that would take the rides, and they had some particularly hazardous rides.
But they had a feature that was a maze, it was a human maze. And it were these bushes that were high, obviously higher than me, and you would get in this, and then you had to figure your way out. You walked your way out. And the best part is, they had a walkway, where you could go up on the walkway and observe these people. So there's this little kid in there, and he's absolutely lost. He's running into bushes, now he's panicked, now he's confused. Well, the lady next to me, who ends up being his mom, is saying, "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, mommy's here. Go to your left. Go to your right. Go straight, Johnny, no, no, no, go straight." And then within seconds, Johnny's out of the maze.
The Bible is the tool that gives us our ability to navigate our way through this. God says to us, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways." And the Bible is the one that's going to answer the huge questions in life.
The Reality of Our Need
Who am I? I am in physical therapy to get healthy enough to go to rehab. That's a bad place to be. And my physical therapist deals exclusively with homebound people, which I'm right on the border now. I'm starting to get out. I drove here today, which in six months, they didn't take my car away, but they took my car key away.
Looking at the problems facing our world today reminds me why I'm so careful about my physical limitations now. I fell down recently - knocked a kid over in the process, but he bounced right back up since he had a backpack on. I think I broke his fall. I joke about that, but I'm really serious about being careful. I'm essentially homebound now.
I have a physical therapist who's a really talkative man. He loves to talk, and I'm not shy about talking either. One day he's monitoring my heart rate while I'm doing this simple exercise - and then telling me to slow down. Out of the blue, he said to me, "You know the most frequent question I'm asked by my patients?" These are all old people who are measuring their lifespan in months, maybe a year, but certainly not decades.
I had a doctor say to me, "Here's what's going to happen to you. You're going to have an incident. You're going to fall over, and you're going to die." I said, "Well, okay. When do you think this incident's going to take place?" He said, "I don't know. There won't be decades. Maybe a year." I'm not trying to make this dramatic - I'm just saying this is reality.
So this physical therapist is dealing with people like me or sicker all day long. He said, "The number one question I'm asked by my clients is, 'Why am I still here?'" That's a question you ask as a teenager. It's a question you ask in your thirties, forties, fifties. The only way you're going to know is through the Scripture.
A Cry for Guidance from a Lost Generation
Here is a letter from a newspaper dated March 23, 1989, from a column to Ann Landers. Now, if I was teaching at GCU, I would explain who Ann Landers is. But I did a Watergate reference with a group of college kids and they didn't know what Watergate was. Ann Landers - you know who she is. People write to her asking for advice.
Here's the letter: "I'm a 23-year-old college graduate, business major. I don't presume to speak for my generation, but I know how I feel. People wonder about us. They say we're materialistic."
Let me pause here because my mind's all over the place. I have a new favorite channel on DirecTV - it's 387, the American Wealth Network. They're selling yachts, selling jets, selling mansions. They're taking this couple through this house to buy, and it's eight or nine bedrooms. They're downsizing. They go into this one bedroom and the lady said, "This is a pretty small room. I think I'll make this a shoe closet." You're talking about materialism - if you want to see it, watch that channel for a little bit. I'm not condemning it, just saying they think we're materialistic.
The letter continues: "Just out for ourselves. Apathetic." Now this was in 1989 - it's got to be more true now. It talks about homelessness, the national debt. This is 1989, when the debt was at incomprehensible levels - and it was a fraction of what it is now.
The letter concludes: "It sounds hopeless, but I love this country and I think there's hope. I don't believe my generation is apathetic. We just don't know where to start." It's signed, appropriately enough, "Waiting for Guidance in California."
When the World's Advice Givers Have No Answers
Now this is Ann Landers, who millions of people turn to every day for answers. Here's her answer: "I see no sign of apathy or resignation in your letter. In fact, I sense you are deeply concerned. I, too, refuse to accept the fact that we are doomed."
But this is the lady that you go to for answers, and she ends not with answers, but with two questions: "What is going to save us? Any answers out there?"
In this world - and I can build all sorts of cases, I don't even need to - all you've got to do is watch fifteen minutes of news and things are bad. The answer to this, I'm going to give it to you, is not to elect Republicans, not to elect Democrats. I'm not putting that down, I don't want to argue politics with you. It's not to cut taxes or raise taxes.
The answer is Jesus. The solution to the world today. Now, let me make a twist here, because you're going to go "yes" and then you're going to go "hmm." The answer is the church taking the Bible to the world. And when I say church, I don't mean Redemption or Grace or Bethany. I mean Christians. You're the answer.
You Are Adequate Because He Is
You're going to say, "I don't feel adequate." I can help you out - you aren't. But He is. You get made fun of. People are going to ask you questions. You're going to say, "I don't know, but the Bible says it." What I ought to see as I come to Christ is I ought to see my life begin to change.
John Perkins - some of you may be familiar with that name - is an African-American pastor who's 85 years old now and writing probably his last book. He's writing to the church on racism. I don't want to talk about that because you're going to want to argue with me and I'm going to want to argue with you. But tucked in the middle of this, he had a brother who was a war hero who came home and got killed by a cop.
He said this - and he's mad. He's mad at God. He's mad at Jesus, the church. He said, "When I heard this verse" - and it was Galatians 2:20, "not I that live, but Christ live in me" - "I said to myself, if there's a God in heaven who loves me enough to send His only Son into the world to die for me, I want to know that God."
"I want to know Him, and I came to know Him. I believe the purpose of man is to know God, the God of the universe who made everything, who holds everything together. That big God, that all-encompassing God, the God who makes Himself known to humanity. And I came to know that God, and I believe the purpose of us knowing God is to love Him and make Him known to others."
That's you. I mean, that's us. That's into the world. My life is changed, and now I live it. What's compelling in a marketplace that's filled with selfishness, pride, arrogance, greed, sexism...
Racism, ageism—what's unique in that is the love of Jesus. It's a transformed heart.
I gave you last week that our hope is in the promises of God and the character of God and the faithfulness of God and the sovereignty of God. That's our hope. Our hope is in God and who He is. And not God—and this becomes key now, and this comes from personal experience, but I'm sure you've had it too—if I talk to people about God, but I don't define it, we can get along pretty well. But if I start to talk about Jesus, we just went through the celebration in 9-11. I'm sure you'll remember after 9-11 in Yankee Stadium, they had this service, and Oprah presided over this service. They did everything but sacrifice a goat at this thing. They had everybody you could have there. It was like, this is this beautiful moment. We're all saying the same thing. We aren't saying the same thing. The majority of them are, but you're in a different place.
God Reveals Himself Through His Word
R.C. Sproul writes this: if you wish to know God, you must know His Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works through His Word. If you wish to know His purposes before they come to pass, you'll discover Him in His Word.
The great thing about teaching now is you don't have to teach. You can just say, you Google it on your own. But you Google facts for Bible authenticity, and there's all that stuff. If I read them to you, you're not going to remember them or even care. But here's what I want you to see, and I print it out for you.
Paul's Description of the Last Days
It's 2 Timothy chapter 3. It's Paul writing about the last days. Again, emphasizing to you that the last days aren't just those days that Jesus is coming—it's the time from when Jesus was here until He comes again. So are you living in the last days? Yeah, we have been now for a couple thousand years.
What Paul does is almost give us from the front page of the newspaper, 6 o'clock news—give us what the world is like. So look what he says: "Realize this, in the last days"—so that's September 19, 2018—"men will be lovers of self." That's where this whole thing starts. I care about me.
For a long time, the criticism I would hear of the younger generation is, they only care about themselves. Well now I hang around with old people and I can tell you, all they care about is themselves. Here's how you know: watch the political ads. If you support candidate X, your electric bill will rise $1,000. Your health premiums will rise. It's all about you. Now I'm not saying those aren't important, but they know that's the way to your heart is through your pocketbook. Be lovers of self. What's it mean to me? And immediately it becomes lovers of money.
The Reality of Our Self-Centeredness
If there was a hypocrisy meter like a Geiger counter, and you held it up to me right now, it would be going nuts. Because I don't know I'm a lover of money, but I'm a lover of what money does for me. I'm a lover of comfort. I don't want to hassle.
I'm deaf in this ear, and this ear is not very good. For conversations, like I'm going into a meeting today, 120 people in the meeting, I'll miss half of it. About halfway through, somebody's going to say, "Tom, what do you think?" And I'm going to look like a total idiot. I sit at dinner and I just smile and laugh and say, "Yeah." Tom's hand, he'll say, "You just agreed to move to China." No, I didn't know that's what we were saying. But I don't know what to—I mean, I'm no fun going, "What, what, what?"
But the good thing about this is, if I'm home, and the neighbor's dog is barking, I just take this baby off. That's all stuck in there on a magnet—there's a magnet in my head. I take that off and this out, and I can't hear anything. I love comfort.
The Breakdown of Society
That's you—they're lovers of self, they're proud, they're arrogant. And that arrogance doesn't just mean I'm something, it's the other side, and you're nothing. They're abusive, they're disobedient to their parents. There's the breakdown of the family. It's the world you live in.
Barry Asmus, years ago, I had a conversation with Barry Asmus about the economy. He would say, not all of it, but so much of it is driven by demographics. So if you have a bunch of baby births, you buy Johnson & Johnson or whoever makes diapers. Thirteen years from now, buy potato chips, because they're going to eat potato chips. Numbers tell a big story.
We told you last week, 10,000 people a day, every day, turn 65. 7,000 kids a day. This number is staggering to me—7,000 kids a day drop out of high school. So that has to mean something. There's reports done on poverty, and it says two ways to virtually guarantee poverty for you is to not graduate from school and have a baby without being married. You have to fix that. You aren't going to fix it by saying, "Just say no." That isn't going to work. I need to have the mental and physical, emotional, and spiritual strength to say yes and to say no. But you have the breakdown of the family. Doug Ducey can't fix it, David Garcia can't fix it, and Tim Mahon can't fix it, but Jesus can fix it.
Living in a Dark World
This is the world you live in. They begin to treat each other unholy. It's an unwillingness to observe even the basics of decency. You celebrate sin. And the beat goes on.
So here's the connect for today. Paul says, in the last days, people will have these characteristics: unloving, irreconcilable. Does that not sound like the world you live in? They'll be religious. Look at verse 5. They'll hold to a form of godliness, but they deny its power. What's the power? What's the death and resurrection of Jesus?
So you'll live in a world, and I think even that little bit there builds the case, that's a lost, dark, confused world that thinks primarily about itself. That tips its hat to God—a God they create. I did that for years. If there is a God, by the end of the conversation, He's going to let me in. He's going to like me.
So in the midst of all of that, to answer Ann Landers' question, what do I do? Well,
Paul gives you the answer when you look at verse 16. All Scripture is inspired by God. This Word is God-breathed. And it's profitable. It means beneficial. It's productive. It's sufficient for four things: for teaching, for correction or rebuke, for correction and training in righteousness.
So the Bible, here's our old—we're going back. The Bible tells me what's right. Look at the verse. It's profitable for teaching. The Bible tells me what's right. For reproof, the Bible tells me what's not right. For correction, the Bible tells me how to get right. And for training in righteousness, the Bible tells me how to stay right.
Years ago, Ray Steadman wrote these words: the Bible will instruct your mind about things that no one except God knows anything about. It will tell you things about yourself. What can happen to you? What will happen to you? Stuff that only God knows. It's reproof. The author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:12, it's sharper than a two-edged sword. It convicts me.
The Power of God's Word in Conviction
I taught one night at Grace Community Church. And I was doing a little—it was maybe a group about half this size. And I showed up and I pretty much knew or recognized everybody that was there. There was a lady and I recognized her with another lady. And so I went over and I introduced myself and she said, this is my sister and she's visiting from somewhere and she's with me tonight.
So I started teaching and this—I don't know body language, but this lady, I started her arms folded, her head dropped. I mean, by the time I got to 45 minutes, she's in a fetal position on the floor. I know there's something going on. So I said, let's pray, amen. And she's out the door like a shot.
So I clean up, get my stuff. I'm walking to the car and there's a light in the parking lot. And these two were standing there like this. I can't leave this alone. My car is over here, but I took this way over. I said, hi ladies, how are you? And the gal that is a regular to the study said, tell him. And she said, no, I don't want to do that. I said, no, tell him, he can handle this.
And I said, that's fine. And she said, I know what you just did in there. I know what that was all about. I said, really? My sister called you today, and she told you I was going to be here, and she told you what was going on in my life. And you took that whole message, and you customized it to me. And I said, you think way too much of yourself. I'm not going to waste 45 minutes on somebody I don't know.
I said, but I can tell you what happened. The Holy Spirit convicted you. And it may be something you didn't know. I didn't know it was wrong. But the Holy Spirit gets a hold of you. What happens is when the Word of God is taken by the Spirit of God and applied to a person's heart, stuff happens. He knows you better than you know yourself. Because you can confuse yourself. You can kid. You can hide. You can run. But you can't—we used to say it this way—you can't fool God with a fooling machine. That Word of God opens you up.
Trusting God's Word Over Human Wisdom
And you can quote statistics. I got into a gender conversation the other day. And I'm just not equipped for the conversation. They started talking science, and they gave neurology, and all this stuff. And I'm going, I don't know. I can't argue with you. I don't know what this is. But I know God does. God is not making mistakes.
And whatever that is, your tool—God's way, hang with me now. We've got to stop. God's way of changing this world is through you. It's not redemption's job. It's your job. And it's not a job, it's a task. And it happens by you just living this stuff out.
I was reading an account yesterday of a man who totally rejected the Scripture, totally rejected God and everything in it. And finally, somebody gave him a Bible and asked him to read through the Gospels. And here's what he said: At last I found, in the Bible, someone that understands me.
The Bible as Our Guide
If I need a road map, how would you like to be a road map salesman? That'd be harder than selling Cardinal season tickets. I wouldn't want to be selling road maps. But I punched this thing in, and it's like amazing to me. It tells me—Sandy and I were out somewhere, some dirt road going somewhere, and there wasn't even a sign. But this thing said 400 feet turn left. And there it did. That's scary to me.
Here, this Bible, that's what the Bible does. 400 feet do this. Make a U-turn and retrace your steps. It's this. If you want to finish strong, here's what you have to do. You have to resist, and it's been there all your life and you know it. You have to resist the temptation to go with your gut or what CNN or MSNBC or Fox says or what Chris Matthews says or Sean Hannity says or what your best friend says, maybe what your mom and dad taught you, maybe what your kids say. But what does God say?
The Bible as Our Complete Resource
Let me close. Old quote, J.C. Ryle. He's talking about the Bible, and he says this: The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the outcome of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you. It's the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, the Christian charter.
That's how you're going to understand the world. You're going to see mirages around you, and this might look right. But if the Bible says do it, do it. If the Bible says avoid it, avoid it. If it doesn't have direct, specific instruction, then wisdom comes into play.
So step one on how to finish strongly is establish the Bible as the final authority in your life. Next week, step two. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this truth. We can say it, and we can nod our heads, and I know how to do that, but God, help us believe it and let it change the way we live. Father, I pray for the men and women in this room and those that will listen to us, that
You'll give us courage and boldness and confidence, not in ourselves, but in You, in Your promise, in Your faithfulness, in Your sovereignty, in Your character. God, we pray You change this world, and we pray we're part of that. We pray to You in Christ's name, Amen.
Have a great week. I'll see you next week.