1. Authority: Heaven or Men
Isa 22:15-21
Matt 21:23-27

2. Authority: Essential and Inescapable
God’s nature possesses it
(Neh 9:6; Rom 9:20-21)
Man’s nature requires it
(Jer 10:32; 2 Thess 3:3-5; Acts 26:17-18)
Rejecting it there is disorder
(Judg 17:5-6)
Accepting it there is salvation
(Heb 5:8-9)

3. Authority: Faulty Sources
Human Reason (Jer 10:23)
Doctrinal Statements (Matt 15:9)
Desires (Majority rule)
Long Standing Practice (Matt 15:6)
Elders or Preachers (“It’s their call”)
Silence of Scripture (1 Cor 4:6; Heb 7:12-14; 2 Jn 9)
Results (Num 20:7-12)

4. Authority: True Sources
God
(Gen 18:25; Heb 12:23)
Jesus
(Heb 1:1-2; Matt 28:18)
Holy Spirit
(The Spirit of Truth – John 15:26; 16:13)
Apostles/New Testament
(Luke 10:16; John 16:13; 2 Pet 1:21)

5. Authority: True Nature
Objective: “having to do with a known object as distinguished from something existing only in the mind…” (Webster’s).
(Jude 7; 1 Cor 1:10)

6. Authority: Understanding & Applying It
Direct Statement or Command
(Acts 2:38; 17:31; 1 Pet 2:11; Col 3:9; Gal 5:16-21; 1 Cor 11:22)
Examples
(Phil 3:17; 4:9)
Necessary Conclusions
(Acts 15:7-21; 1 Cor 11:26; Acts 20:6-7)

7. God’s Authority: His Word
The New Testament:
The basis of everything we do as individual Christians & as a church