2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” That is a unique claim that the Bible makes about itself and only itself. With that claim comes a responsibility on our part to hear the word and do the word. And as a church we find that there is no other foundation upon which we can stand. In and of ourselves we have no authority. We must be “people of the word.”
In some ways this was a difficult sermon to preach. I am confident that for the majority of people in my crowd this was almost a non-issue. They’ve never known anything but the authority of the Bible in our church. They’ve never looked for any other source of information to explain the things that we do. I wasn’t even sure I was going to preach this sermon but one of our elders encouraged it. He saw it as the place to begin before moving on to other messages in this series.
I have to say I think he was right. It makes sense to start with the foundation, right?
The series will continue with three more sermons on local eldership, baptism and The Lord’s Supper. I’ve got a couple weeks off in there, though, so it’s important that these sermons hold their own. I think they will.