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Main Idea

The Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Luke 6:46–49 ESV

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Today, we will discuss the nature of this foundation. We will see how you and I can be the wise builder who constructs his house on this firm foundation so that it will remain unharmed through many storms and flood waters.

That foundation is the Bible or the Holy Scriptures. So, let me start by asking you this: What is the Bible? Do you know what you hold in your hands?

The Bible isn’t one, book, but a collection of books and letters inspired by God and written by humans.

This is an image of the number of cross-references in the Bible, with the books of the Bible being the alternating shades of gray along the bottom (and the chapter lengths being the varying lengths of the gray sections). Each strand of color arch is one reference from one book of the Bible to another. My point is not to show you how many times the Bible references itself, but rather, to show you how it formed. The Bible is is made of up these elements:

• Written in 1,500+ years of composition
• Contains 66 Books
• Written by 40 Authors
• Written in 3 Languages
• Written on 3 Continents
• Contains 63,779 cross-references
• Tells 1 Story

It didn’t come to us with golden edges and leather binding. It came over the course of time through oral tradition, then later written down on papyrus leaves and animal skins. First, it was individual copies of letters, and then later collated into a codex (or a book). To have a full collection of the scriptures would have been an incredible rarity because you have to remember that the printing press wasn’t invented until the 1,500s!

So, that is what the Bible is.

Now, let me as you another question. Why do you believe the Bible? Why do you think that it is relevant, that it accurately communicates truth, or that it has any measure of authority over your life?

The problem with our culture is that we have conflated objective and subjective truths, like in the scene from Inside Out, where the fact and opinion blocks get all jumbled up.

From the time of my High School years, I saw the fight for the Christian faith as being one on the battleground of facts. Apologetic strategies were centered around the debate between Christianity and atheism, or Faith vs. Science, where we lay out truths on the table to examine them. That isn’t the prominent view in 2022. Now, the prevailing worldview is the post-modern mindset where all truths are relative to the individual person. There is no absolute truth. Truth is what you believe in your heart and understand with your mind.

This means, the discussion really boils down to worldview. Today, we are looking at the foundation you are standing on. How do you know what is real about yourself, the world around you, and the existence of a supernatural Deity? We call this a worldview, which is what biblical authority really is. The Bible is like a carpenter’s level. It is the objective, authoritative source of what is true, meaning it tells you what is or isn’t level, not the other way around.

The Bible is where we begin the conversation, and if you don’t know what it says, then why do you stake your eternity on it? We need to know why we believe what we believe, or else, why on earth do we believe it? And, this discussion is more important than ever, because if you can’t answer this one question, then the unbelieving world will destroy your faith. Because they have plenty more questions for you, like:

• How can you believe a book that is full of errors and contradictions?
• Don’t you know that the Bible was written by Church leaders to control the people?
• Surely you don’t think those fallible humans could actually write down God’s words, do you?
• The Bible is full of myths and lore, right?
• Isn’t the Bible just outdated information from an ancient civilization and has no cultural relevance to us today?

Today is going to be just a light scratch on the surface of the iceberg that is Biblical Authority. I can’t possibly equip you with all the answers in a 35-minute sermon, but I can at least begin to help you dig a well. I can mark out what you need to know and understand, and then encourage you and equip you for a lifetime of filling that well with clean, pure water to quench the driest of souls.

Here are the pegs of truth that we hang our faith hats on:

1. The 66 books of the Protestant Bible represent God’s complete revelation to mankind.

a. 39 books of the Old Testament

b. 27 books of the New Testament

2. Because these books are divinely given, they are inspired by God, they are without error, and are in authority over the church. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

3. Once the final letter of the final book in this list was written, the Canon of scripture is not closed. There will never be further additions.

4. They are sufficient for me to know how to live a holy life that is pleasing to God and fruitful for me.

My desire for us today is to see the Bible for what it really is and to begin to develop a deep love for it. So, to aid us today, I am going to explain Biblical Authority like a 4-layer cake that is structurally sound and sweet to the taste.

Outline

I – Reliability

II – Inspiration

III – Inerrancy

IV – Sufficiency

I – Reliability

What does this mean? It means that we can have confidence that the text of scripture we hold in our hands is trustworthy. What I have here is the same text that was written down 2,000+ years ago and is an accurate representation of historical fact.

I must be able to trust the sources

For the sake of time and argument, let’s assume what Jesus assumed… that what the Jews held as authoritative scripture in the 1st century was indeed the correct collection of what we call the Old Testament scriptures. What is hotly debated today is the reliability of the New Testament scriptures, which were written down after Jesus’ time on earth.

First, let’s look at who actually wrote these books.

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

¹ Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

How do we know what was spoken by the Son? Because we have the writings from his disciples. The New Testament scriptures were written directly by:

1.     The Apostles themselves.

2.     Close associates of the Apostles (Luke was Paul’s traveling companion, for example).

This means that the text we have come from primary sources. They were first-hand witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus and the very ones who sat at his feet during his earthly ministry. You don’t get better sources than primary sources. And, because these books are limited to primary sources, there will never be more authentic sources. We have what is called a closed Canon (canon simply meaning the full collection of inspired writings), meaning, what we have in our hand is the fullness of God’s revelation.

I must be able to trust the written records

This is where a deep dive into the surviving manuscripts and a close study of history come in handy.

Surviving Manuscripts. Have you ever questioned the validity of Homer’s Iliad? Have you ever in your life heard anyone else scrutinize the existing copies of Homer’s iconic work and come away with a complete distrust that the surviving copies we possess are the real words he wrote down? I bet not.

Yet, that is all we hear about the New Testament. We hear all about the thousands of errors it has. Most discussions center around the fact that all we have are copies of copies and translations of translations. How could you ever trust it? You are such a fool!

If you have ever heard that, allow me to provide some much-needed perspective. We have many copies of many different works from many different authors of a similar time period. Take these for example:

Plato – We have 27 existing copies of his work. He wrote from approximately 427-347 BC and the earliest copy we have is from 900 AD. That is a rough span of around 1,200 years between his original writing and the copy we have!

Homer’s Iliad – There are around 1,700 copies of this famous work. It was written around 900 BC. The earliest copy we have is from around 400 BC, which is a span of 500 years.

Surely, if the New Testament had stats anywhere in the ballpark of the Iliad, then we should be able to have a fair amount of confidence in it, right? I mean, if you don’t question that, then it’s reasonable to think you wouldn’t question something that is close to that, right?

The New Testament. Here is what we know about the New Testament documents so far.

• We have over 5,600 GREEK manuscripts and over 24,000 manuscripts counting copies in Syriac, Aramaic, Coptic, & Latin! (That’s over 220% more manuscripts than the Iliad in Greek alone and over 1,300% more in all languages!)
• The originals were written down in the 2nd half of the 1st century (40s-90s AD). Many manuscripts date within 100 years of the originals (dated to the 2nd century) and one has even been dated to the end of the 1st century!
• The sheer number of hand-copied documents means there are differences, but because we have so many, we know what is real and what is a mistake. And, even though there are mistakes in the copies, we still have an accuracy rate of 99.5%… of hand-written copies!!!
• Only God could have preserved His word in such a stunningly accurate way.

Historical records. History also continues to reveal the authenticity of what we find in the scriptures.

From the existence of the Hittites, to an inscription confirming Pilate as the Prefect of Judea, to the discovery of the Pool of Siloam, archeology continues to unearth and confirm the details recorded in scripture.

It is great to see how the rich manuscript tradition and historical fact give us confidence in what we hold, but the authority of scripture depends on much more than just historical accuracy. To be fully authoritative, it must also come from a source that is in a high position of authority.

Inspiration

Inspiration means that, while human beings wrote down the words of Holy Scripture, they were not the ultimate authors of those words. God is the author of scripture and he inspired human writers to pen His words.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

These are God’s words

Do me a favor. On the count of 3, say your name as loud as you can, only you can’t breathe out. How’d that work for you? It didn’t, did it? In the same way that you couldn’t pronounce your name without breath behind it, the words of the Bible would not have come into existence without it being God-breathed. He is the breath behind the words written down by these men. God breathed His Word to the authors so we have a book that is coherent, inerrant, and non-contradictory.

Let’s see another scripture that speaks to this truth.

2 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

As we can see, the Bible makes a truth claim of itself that it is the word of God. We’ve seen the supernatural continuity of these writings and how 1 single story is told over 1,500 years by multiple authors on multiple continents communicating in multiple languages. And we just discussed how the text is reliable, so now we are faced with a decision to accept the supernatural origin of this amazing book. It is impossible to think it could have happened through human planning.

These words are God’s revelation

Revelation. The product of inspiration is revelation, which is the information God wants us to know. In essence, the Bible is God’s revelation since inspiration gave it to us through human hands.

 
Paul tells the Ephesian church that the knowledge he is passing was given to him by revelation. He didn’t sit at Peter’s feet to learn about Jesus. He was taught directly by God through revelation and that is what we hold in our hands.

Ephesians 3:3 ESV

³ how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

How do we know what God is like? Because He told us in scripture. How do we understand ourselves in light of this amazing God? We know it because God told us in the scriptures.

We don’t have the right to create a version of God that seems right to us and worship that god. That is the definition of an idol, and yet, how much misinformation do we see in our world about who God is? If God, wanting to make Himself known to his creation, communicated the truth about His attributes, the world he created, and the standards by which he expects his creation to live by, then we have no excuse to think or do otherwise. He has made Himself known. Now, it is our responsibility to align ourselves with that standard.

So, the next time someone asks how you know a particular thing is true, all you need to say is simply, “God said so.”

If God has used inspiration to communicate His revelation to His people, then there is only one more thing that needs to be done. We have to be able to understand the things of God, which don’t come naturally to a carnal mind.

Illumination

This leads us to illumination, which is the work of the Holy Spirit to assist us in understanding the Word of God, which is the revelation. We see this truth all over the New Testament, but for the sake of time, I will highlight three passages today:

John 16:13 ESV

¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

1 Corinthians 2:10–14 ESV

¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. ¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Luke 24:45 ESV

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

If this truly is the spiritual wisdom from God, then we will need His help to understand it. Until God raises us to new life, bringing us from death to life, His holy word will remain confusing to the darkened mind, but it is life to those who have been redeemed.

This also means that the 66 books of the Bible have an intrinsic quality to them. It’s a common misunderstanding that a church council or meeting of church leaders gathered together to develop the approved list of writings that would become the Bible we hold today, almost as if the theological heavyweights of the time silenced any opposing voices so that only what they wanted to be scripture became scripture.

Instead, let me encourage you that because these are God’s words, they will naturally stand out from human-inspired words. By virtue of their very nature, they are uniquely set apart and can be recognized as divine by humans but not declared divine by humans. Wayne Grudem likens this to how a cop can recognize counterfeit currency by knowing how it differs from the real thing, but he or she cannot declare it to be so, they can only recognize it for what it is.

For a book to be in the canon, it must have divine authorship, and these 66 books show themselves to be inspired because they all have the same divine author and we simply acknowledge them.

That is inspiration in a nutshell, but there is another requirement that the scriptures must meet in order to be authoritative over our lives.

Inerrancy

In order for us to fully abide by what scripture says, we must be able to trust every word of it. We call this, inerrancy, or infallibility, meaning, Scripture was without error in the original translation AS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN.

The hand copies had typos and variants, but the original writings were perfect, not containing a single error. This is crucial, because without it, how do you know what part to keep and what part to throw out? Which parts can you trust?

And worse, that position puts you in the Judge’s seat over scripture, instead of Scripture pushing you toward truth, and that is a dangerous place to be.

Consider these words from the Psalms and the Gospel of Matthew:

Psalm 12:6 ESV

⁶ The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

Psalm 119:89 ESV

⁸⁹ Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

Matthew 5:17–19 ESV

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 24:35 ESV

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Sufficiency

1689 London Baptist Convention – Chapter 1. Of the Holy Scriptures

1. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

When it comes to living the Christian life, there are no other supplemental resources necessary. Our scientific method or philosophical thought doesn’t guide our thinking about scripture. That would give those other sciences a higher authority than scripture and prove that it is deficient somehow to give us sufficient knowledge. That doesn’t mean that other writings and resources aren’t valuable, but it does mean that all we need to know is found in scripture. It is completely sufficient.

The Bible doesn’t tell me how to rebuild an engine, plumb a bathroom, or explain the newest features of the most recent iOS update. That isn’t what sufficiency means. However, it does tell you everything you need pertaining to Salvation and Sanctification… saving faith and growing faith.

You read scripture, and scripture reads you… it changes you and is completely sufficient to change you fully.

It is sufficient to guide you through:

• broken relationships
• depression
• destructive habits
• loneliness
• anxiety
• all manner of sin

…so that you can be made new in the likeness of Jesus, being restored and complete, equipped for every good work.

Conclusion

Scripture is the Highest authority. It is the firm foundation on which we build our worldview and the carpenter’s level that confirms what truth is. And we know it is a trustworthy foundation because it is reliable, it is God’s inspired word, it is completely without error, and it is sufficient to live a life pleasing to God and worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.