Why Biblical Authority Part 2 Series

I’ve been looking over my sermons for the past 9½ years and I seen that every year I have peached some sort of message or group of messages centered on the Word of God, emphasizing our need to read, study, memorize, meditate upon the Word of Scripture continually. I have over and over again stressed this need and outline where we as individuals and as a people have lacked in Biblical knowledge.

Hosea 4:6a (NKJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

As I had demonstrated in the “Science and Bible” Series last fall, the Bible can be trusted, not just as a source of truth, but the only source of real truth. Science through the ages have proven to be inadequate in its explanation of the physical world. Just from the evidence of past proofs of the Bible being right when the science of the world was wrong, I consciously choose to believe the Bible when Science and the Holy Scriptures disagree. I will wait for science to catch up to where the Bible has always been.

However, even among Christians, the question that comes up frequently is: "Is the Bible enough? Are there other truths out there I must know?" In matter of knowing God, knowing Jesus, knowing that you have eternal life and all that means, and in matter of how God expects you to live your life for Him, Yes, the short answer is that the Bible is enough.

The ability of the Word of God to address every area of human existence is called the Sufficiency of the Scriptures. An inerrant Bible is an authoritative Bible. Just as the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture logically leads to belief in its authority, even so the doctrine of the authority of the Bible necessitates the confidence that the Scriptures are sufficient. [1]

The sufficiency of the Scriptures will be our topic this morning as we pick up where we left off last week.

2 Timothy 3:14–17 (NKJV)

The world has a difficult time believing the Bible. Ill: A little girl was reading on an airplane when the man beside her noticed her storybook, entitled, "Jonah and the Big Fish." So, after saying hello, he asked her to tell him about her book. She said the book was about Jonah, and how he was swallowed by a great big fish. The man said, "You don’t really believe that do you?" The little girl replied, "Yes, I believe the story of Jonah is true." "You mean you really believe that a man can be swallowed by a very big fish, stay inside him for three days, & then come out of there alive?" The child said, "This story is in the Bible & we studied it in Sunday School today!" Then the man asked, "How can you prove that the story about Jonah is true?" She thought for a moment, and then said, "When I get to Heaven I’ll ask Jonah." The man smiled, proud of his superiority & asked, "What will you do if Jonah’s not in heaven?" The girl thought for a moment then replied, "Well, if he’s not in heaven, you ask him!" [2]

Yes, that story is funny but it’s so true. People who have never really read the Bible will tell you it full of nice stories with morals and that Jesus was just a good teacher of moral, but you can’t believe all that is in the Scriptures. But for the record let the say the following, I do believe the story of Jonah is literally true, i do believe God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days, and I do believe God stopped the sun from moving for a whole day (Joshua 10:13). I believe all the stories in the Bible are true.

Warren Wiersbe comments: “Whatever the Bible says about itself, man, God, life, death, history, science, and every other subject is true. This does not mean that every statement in the Bible is true, because the Bible records the lies of men and of Satan. But the record is true.” [3]

And if all the stories are true, so the words about God and how to find Jesus and obtain eternal life are also true. If the Bible is true in all that it says, being the very words of God, it is also sufficient. We do not need to add anything or take away anything. The Bible says as much:

Deuteronomy 4:2 (NKJV) You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Revelation 22:18–19 (NKJV) 18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.