What Does the Bible Say About Authority #2?

We begin this episode on authority by noting what Paul said about our bodies being a living sacrifice and the need for us to yield as servants to righteousness and not iniquity. Our discussion moves on to look at what Peter said about our growth and adding to our faith. We talk about the list of sins that Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia about and the serious consequence resulting from them. We note that Ezekiel records God saying that all souls are His. Jesus noted the value of a soul and the Hebrew writer warns about doing what Esau did. We discuss this. We look at what Paul said about the judgment and note what Jesus said one must do to be saved which constitutes obeying the gospel. We again note that Jesus said He has all authority in heaven and in earth. We look at what Paul says about doing all in the name of the Lord and what that means. We close this episode out by noting the three ways  the Lord authorizes something to be done. Next week we will see those ways illustrated by Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ, meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com or to Glenn Landrum at scbamaboy2003@yahoo.com.

Arnie: 0:42

Good afternoon. This is what does the Bible say, brought to you by the church of Christ at Woodland here in Sumter, South Carolina, Fred and Glenn are with me. I'm Arnie Granke, and we want to talk about authority. Start up to start with a discussion of authority, where we left off in our discussion last week. And so with that, I'll pass it to Glenn.

Glenn: 1:15

The last thing we spoke about last week was first Corinthians, 6, 19 and 20. And it reads, What, know you not as your body is the temple of the holy spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own. For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So we see in this passage that even our bodies, even our what we consider our own bodies, do not really belong to us. They belong to God. And that equates to authority, that God has control over us in that he owns our bodies. So we need to honor God because of his authority. Now we move to Romans, 6, 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you are, yielded your members servants to the uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniquity, even so now yield your members, servants to the righteousness, unto holiness. And then Romans, 12 verse one says, I beseech you, therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Particularly, I'd like to linger on that last one, and particularly the last statement of Romans 12, one, It's acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. This is simply saying that it's our obligation to to honor God, to do what He has told us to do, to live how he has told us to live. We read a moment ago that our bodies, we belong to God. God created us, therefore it is our reasonable service. It's it's it's our obligation to serve Him and DO what He says.

Fred Gosnell: 3:25

Right, And then he he mentions that present our bodies a living sacrifice. Of course, under the Old Testament, they sacrificed animals and but under the New Testament, we are priests, and we are to worship God, and our bodies are a living sacrifice to be used according to what God says, Not according to what what we want to do. So Peter writes in first, Peter two, one through three. Notice. He says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice. And he's speaking to Christians here he says, In all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Of course, he's speaking to Christians, and at a time when they just obeyed the gospel, and they are babes in Christ. And of course, they are, he compares that to to a physical baby, that when they are first born, they desire milk. They desire milk and a lot of it, and when they don't get it, you you know about it. So he says, now, now Christians, when they first become Christians, obey the gospel, they are to desire the sincere milk of the word. So we are obligated to learn more, and we have to learn it from God's word, and that's the way we grow. Unfortunately, sometimes people obey the gospel, and they kind of think that that's all they have to do. They don't have to spend any time in the word, they just kind of float along. But that's not the case. We're to desire the sincere milk of the word that we might might grow. And then in second, Peter one, five and six there, Peter says that, Beside this giving all diligence, so he says, add to your faith virtue to virtue, knowledge to knowledge, temperance, to temperance, patience to patience, godliness. And of course, there's several more there, but, but that's the the goal that we have. And Peter tells those brethren he's writing to there to add these things. Of course, you can't add to your faith virtue, unless you learn what it is you need to do what it is you need to change, the habits you used to have before you became a Christian, unless you do a little study. And, of course, add to your virtue knowledge. Well, where you can get the knowledge from? Well, from the sincere milk of the word that we are required to study and then add to the knowledge temperance. Of course, Temperance is that's a word, that old word that people understood when they made alcohol illegal. But this is control your behavior more like. So, according to God's authority, we are given directions to learn more so we can serve him better.

Arnie: 6:29

You know, while we're while we're looking at how we behaved before we obeyed the gospel and and comparing that to things that God would have us to do. Paul writes to the Galatians in Galatians chapter five, and speaks really about our former behavior, what we hope is former behavior as as being works of the of the flesh. And he identifies some of those as well in Galatians, chapter five, beginning in in verse 19, he said, Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger or rage, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envies, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. Wow. What a list. It'd be take us the rest of the time that we're here on the air, just to even look at what those what those behaviors involve there, we probably won't do that. Just be aware that that's that's a lot of ungodliness, and hopefully our life has changed as we obey the gospel. If you haven't obeyed the gospel, we hope that your life will change when you when you do, and that you shall. Paul goes on to say, in verse 21, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's a pretty serious situation there. We don't want to be in that kind of a situation when we leave this life, we want to be with the Lord and and enjoy the blessings that that he provides that are available for us if we are godly in our conduct and and obedient in our In our attitude.

Glenn: 8:59

Yeah. So Ezekiel 18 four says, Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine, the soul of that sinneth it shall die. Well, we spoke a minute ago about this, about the souls, about being God's. They belong to God. And the important thing in this, it says, The soul that sinneth, or sins shall die. This is the result of sin. The result of sin is that that we will not go to heaven. We will we will die. We'll not live rather ever. And this is a serious thing that they were talking about, that if we can continue to sin, we will, we will not inherit eternal life. Matthew 16, 26, says, For what is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, many people try and try and try to gain much wealth, and many people do, and that becomes their goal in life, to attain great wealth, to attain land, to attain money, to attain things, and they continue to work towards those things. But this tells us that none of that will do us any good if we lose our soul and notice that it says, in exchange for our soul. It doesn't say that you can't have things, that you can't be wealthy and lose your soul. You can, you can be wealthy and you can, you can have things and you can still inherit eternal life. It's where you put the importance and the the accent in your life on. Matthew 6, 33, Jesus tells us, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given unto you. The things that he's talking about is the necessities of life, and that's what we need to do. We need to put God. We need to put Christ first in our lives. Even though we may be trying to have a life that is that is somewhat comfortable, we can still serve God, but we do not want to do it in exchange for that.

Fred Gosnell: 11:44

And, the Hebrew writer, was writing to to the Hebrews. And in Hebrews 12, 16, after talking to them about following peace with all men in verse 14 and and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And he says, Looking diligently, lest any man shall fail in the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. So he's talking to Christians here, of course, there's a possibility that they can stop being faithful to the Lord. Then he goes on and says, For verse 16, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. Of cource, a lot of people are familiar with with Esau, and what, what Esau did was he was out hunting, and he came in and he hadn't eaten anything, and his brother, Jacob had had made some would probably be something like chili, that we know of, a bowl of porridge. And so what Esau did was he wanted some of the porridge. And his brother said, Well, I'll trade you that for your inheritance. He was the first born son. So so Esau did that. He traded his inheritance for basically a bowl of chili and that he was a profane person. He was interested more in physical things than he was what he was going to inherit. And of course, that goes along with what Jesus said about profiting, gaining the whole world, and then losing your soul. You can gain the whole world if you want, but then if that's all you're interested in, then you have just traded your soul for all of the physical things in the world, and it's a bad trade, because at some point we're going to be judged for the things we do, and I think that's what the next passages are going to say, that Arnie is going to present to us.

Glenn: 13:48

Let me say something about that first. This, the story about Jacob and Esau. You can, you can read and read that, and it's interesting, because Esau why when he when he came back and he saw Jacob had made the the porridge, or the soup, or what it was, and that he wanted some it's he said that he was so hungry that he was about to die. Well, whether he is gonna, really about to die or not, because he is that hungry, we don't know, but we do know that he said that he was very hungry, and even though he was very hungry, it was not the right thing for him to do to exchange his inheritance for that bowl of soup.

Arnie: 14:37

That's a good point, and a lot of people make trades like that. They think that they can barter with the Lord and come out ahead. If we don't decide that we're going to do what the Lord has commanded, then there's no persuading Him. We're just going to lose out on the things that he's made available to us, if we are obedient. I think Fred mentioned that that I was going to talk about Second Corinthians, five verses, 10 and 11 are the the passages or the verses that I'm I'm looking at right now where Paul said, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Just keep that in mind, that that we're not just going to coast through this life and and then everything else from then on will be, will be okay. We're going to stand before Christ, and it's a judgment seat where we're going to be evaluated in the way that we live is going to be under consideration, and the outcome of that is, is what's going to be our future in in eternity. That then Paul goes on to say that, Everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. You know, think about, think about the good or bad as far as the things that we've done. And then just use the same term if, if it's appropriate for what eternity is going to be like. Frightful, or pleasant. Verse 11 says, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we need to honor that and recognize that, We persuade men, but are made manifest unto God, and I trust also, are made manifest in your consciences. And I think another passage that that goes hand in glove with with that is, is from Matthew chapter 25 and and verse 34 where Jesus said, Come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Are you looking for the kingdom and and anticipating that in the way that you you live, or you're looking for maybe something to be more akin to to a prison or maybe even a death penalty. Fred, you want to pick up from there?

Fred Gosnell: 17:29

Well, we've been talking about this judgment and the responsibilities that we have to to obey the Lord. So Jesus told the people what they needed to do in order to be saved, in order to inherit the the eternal life that that He had died for. And in John 8, 24, he said that You shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. But some of the translations add the word he in that passage that believe not that I am he? Well, the word he is not there, what Jesus is saying is that he is, I am. If you remember back when Moses saw the burning bush that wasn't burning up and he asked the individual speaking to him, Well, who shall I tell the people told me this. And the voice said, Tell them I Am said so. Of course, Jesus is, Jesus is God, and he is, he is I aAm. So he said, If you don't believe that I am, I'm God, then you'll die in your sins. Then, then in Luke 13, verse three, he said there that that I tell you, except you repent, you shall likewise perish. So we have to have a change of mind. We have to change our our thinking, turn it from thinking about what we want to do, to what we want to do, as far as what God says. And then once we do that repentance, we turn to God, and then we repent of those sins that we committed in our former time. Then if we don't do that, of course, that then makes sure that we have a change in our behavior, and if we don't do that, then we're going to perish. There's no repentance. Then Jesus said in Matthew 10, 32 he said that Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before My Father. And of course, he goes on says, If you deny me before men, then I'll deny you before the Father. And if you go to Acts chapter eight, you look at the portion there around verse 30 or so, where Philip was teaching the eunuch from Ethiopia, and he was reading from Isaiah 53 and eunuch asked Philip, well, who's that speaking of in Isaiah 53? Philip began there, and he preached Jesus to him. And as they went on their way, the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth he mean to be baptized? And of course, what that tells us is that Philip told the eunuch something about Jesus, told the eunuch something about baptism. And then what Philip told him he needed to do. He says, If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then you may, of course. Then the eunuch said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Of course, what he did was he made the, what we call the confession. He confessed Jesus as Lord. And then, of course, then he stopped the chariot, and then they both went down into the water, and then Philip immersed him, or baptized him. And of course, that's because what Jesus said in Mark 16, 16, he said, He that believeth and is baptized be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned. And of course, then he had told the people, the Jews on another occasion, I think it was John 8, 32, that if you continue in My words, then you're my my disciples indeed, you should know the truth and truth and make you free. So once we obey the gospel, we become Christians, then we have to live faithful lives. Of course, what Peter said, we need to desire the sincere milk of the word so that we'll grow. So that's the authority that Jesus had to tell us what we needed to do in order to be saved. And of course, that's the first portion of our study. And then we're going to move on to another portion here that will continue talking about Jesus authority.

Glenn: 21:40

Yeah, these last four points that Fred made are points that we would label as being the plan of salvation. These things that are mentioned that he had that he said, Believe in Jesus. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Believe that Jesus is God. That person would repent. How often have you as someone been telling you something that you needed to do, and they said the same thing over again? Well, that passage, Luke 13, three. Luke 13, five, just two verses later, the exact same thing is said again. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And then, of course, to confess that Jesus is, is the Son of God. And then, of course, baptism. Now we've covered this before. Baptism is, is the whole part of this that that many people do not accept, but baptism as being necessary for salvation is mentioned many times in the Scriptures. And it's not that it's not clear. It's mentioned not not only in this passage that that Fred just went read, but Acts 2, 38, Galatians, 3, 26, and 27. Romans, six, three and four. First, Peter 3, 21. It's very clear that baptism is required for for salvation. So we'll move on into our next part of this study, in authority. Matthew, 28, 18, Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All authority hath been given to men, unto me in heaven and in earth. How much authority was given to him, All authority. All authority includes every bit of the authority. There's nothing that's left out that Jesus does not have control over. You know, when we work for a company, we have, we have a a man, a manager, then we have probably a CEO, and then possibly there's an owner of the company. Well, that owner of the company is the one that has the the total authority over everything that goes on. And then each person below has a little bit less authority. Well, Jesus is like that head guy. He has all authority. Now his word the Bible, is where we read of Jesus's words, and it tells us what we need to do. Colossians, 3, 17 says, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So anything we do, anything we say needs to be acceptable to Jesus Christ, because He has authority and has told us that that is what that we do.

Arnie: 24:51

Just to kind of think back where we've been so far this afternoon, and thinking with regard to to authority, there are a number of points here that that Christians need to keep in mind. And if you're not a a Christian, you certainly need to abide by these and and keep them in mind as well. Number one is, of course, the fact that Jesus has all authority and in heaven and in earth, and we must do everything in his name. And that doesn't mean that, you know, we've got to say, you know something about Jesus, every, every breath we take or anything along that that line, it is just that we need to be constantly living in a in a manner that would be acceptable to the Lord, because that's going to be evaluated there all that we do in heaven and in earth. And in order to do anything in someone's name, one has to have their approval. So don't just say, Well, I'm going to do this for Jesus, or something along that line there, if Jesus didn't say it, and if it's not according to the standard that Jesus said, then we haven't done whatever Jesus has instructed in in the way that he would have it to be. And then we must know how to determine whether or not the Lord would approve of what we say or what what we do. And we can know that by what the Bible has has taught. And then, then, you know, how do we determine that? I'm going to pass that to Fred and ask if you'd like to explain that. How do we determine that? Well, now

Fred Gosnell: 27:08

Well now, we understand the Bible teaches that there's three, three ways to determine the authority that we have to do something well, if it's a direct statement or an express command. Well, when the Bible says it is written, of course that means that that's God's words. It is written. Or if it says this, do. And then we'll talk about those things here in a minute. Then the second way would be a Holy Spirit approved apostolic example. So, so that would be when we have talked about miracles. I think the last section here several, several weeks we talked about miracles. And if you remember the the reason that the miracles were performed was to confirm the words that were being preached. So, so whenever the apostles preached to it to a group, for instance, in Acts 20, verse seven, when, when Paul was there on the first day of the week, he was teaching the brethren there, and that they had the Lord's Supper and and there was a little individual there in the third story of a building, Eutychus. Eutychus fell asleep and fell down and was killed. So Paul went down to and he brought him back to life. So what that did was that was the Holy Spirit approved of what Paul was saying. And by the way, that's the one place that the example is given that the Lord's Supper is to be done on the first day of the week, and so of course, that's the only day that we are to do that. Then the last way that we establish authority is by necessary inference or unavoidable conclusion. The Bible gives us things to that we are to, certain facts, and we'll use one of those here, and probably be, probably be next week before we get to it. But there are facts presented in the Bible, and then based on those facts, there are conclusions that that must be drawn and so and they are necessarily inferred and unavoidable conclusions based on what the Bible says. So those are the three ways that we can establish authority or know whether or not something is it is to be done in the Lord's name. So, Glenn, I think it's about time to close this thing out.

Glenn: 29:37

Well, I think you're right. So we've, we've talked about a good, good a bit of stuff about about authority. And the things we need to take from this is that that Christ has all authority. We also need to understand that we read about what Christ and what God have commanded for us to do in His Word, which is we call the Bible. The Bible is very important for us, because through it, we understand the things that we need to do, how we need to worship. We need, how the church is established and set up. We read all the things we need to know, just as in Second Peter one, verse three, tells us that we have all things that pertain to life and godliness through God's word, and it's by His authority that He's given us that and we need to recognize that authority and submit to it.