There is no higher appeal that you can appeal to than the Word of God. Dr. Tony Evans says the Bible isn't just a good source, it's the final word. What the Supreme Court is to the laws of our land, the Bible is the supreme authority of God's revelation in history. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. There's a difference between inspiring words and authoritative ones. Today Dr. Evans shows how scripture offers both hope and encouragement backed by the full authority of God. Let's listen. Once the Supreme Court rules, all other viewpoints become irrelevant.
That is, everybody else must adjust. There is no court in the land that can overrule the Supreme Court because it's supreme. What the Supreme Court is to the laws of our land, the Bible is the supreme authority of God's revelation in history. There is no higher appeal that you can appeal to than the Word of God. I want to talk a bit about the authority of scripture.
There are many ways we could go at it. I have chosen this one in John chapter eight because it brings together a number of facets. And I want to center in on one phrase that's located in verse 35.
Jesus says, if he called them gods, referring to a quote, I'm going to explain that in a moment, to whom the Word of God came. And then he throws in a phrase that's kind of like just thrown in, he says, and the scripture cannot be broken. It cannot be voided out. It cannot be overruled. It cannot be censored.
It is in fact inerrant. The Bible cannot be annulled. It doesn't matter whether you agree with it or disagree with it.
It doesn't matter whether you like it or don't like it. What this means is, Jesus says, which is an important phrase of itself, that either we will receive the Bible as completely reliable and trustworthy on every matter that it records, affirms, and speaks, or else we will look at it simply as a collection of inspiring words. Now, that distinction becomes very important because most people who go to church believe that the Bible represents words from God without it being the Word of God. Many people believe the Bible to be words from God, but not the Word of God. Now, God does not simply want to give you inspiration from His Word. He wants you to experience the authority of His Word. It is not only words from God, it is the Word of God.
The reason why I have confidence in prophecy, the reason why I could speak about things to come and the prophecies that the Bible speaks is because I'm not just telling you words from God, I am speaking about the Word of God. Everybody who's ever tried to destroy it has been destroyed first. Every culture that has banned it, the cultures died before the Bible died. That's because it can't be broken in the same way as I said that referees are the final authority.
They are only the final authority because they have a rule book that governs the game. So it is, the Bible is God's rule book, but it is also God's voice. This is a very important passage. Verse 30 says, Jesus is talking, He says, I and my Father are what?
Are one. He says, God and I are one. Verse 31, and the Jews took up stones to stone Him. They love to throw stones at Jesus.
They picked up rocks to throw at Him. Jesus answered and said, I showed you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you stoning me? Why you wanna hurt me? What have I done to you? I've only done good things. The Jews answered, now watch this, this is very important, for a good work we do not stone you.
We're not stoning you because you've done bad things. But for blasphemy, well, what did I say? Because you being a man, make yourself out to be God. Now here's the question, what did the Jews think Jesus meant when He said, me and my Father are one?
Well, you don't have to guess, they tell you what they understood Him to mean. They understood Jesus to say, I am equal to God, and they wanted to kill Him. Because Jesus was claiming a position and an authority that they said, no man should be able to claim. And you're right, no man except the Son of Man should be able to claim it, and He claims and establishes His own divine authority. He does this through our scripture, in Matthew 28, 18, He says, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.
He makes this claim to deity. In fact, even in Matthew chapter nine, I'll just read it very quickly to you. Matthew chapter nine, verse six, they get upset with Him. Jesus says in verse two, He says to this man, your sins are forgiven. And the Jews said, what?
They went off. Verse three, and behold, some of the scribes said to Him, this fellow blasphemes. And Jesus knowing their thoughts saying, why are you thinking evil in your heart?
By the way, please note that, Jesus knowing their thoughts. And then Jesus hits them with a bullseye. He says, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or rise and walk?
Okay, there's a man who can't walk. Jesus says, rise and walk, and all of a sudden man who can't walk can get up and walk. Jesus now turns around and says, your sins are forgiven. They get upset because Jesus is saying your sins are forgiven, because in their minds, only God can forgive sins. So Jesus says, wait a minute, wait a minute. You upset because I said your sins are forgiven, but you weren't upset when I told him to get up and walk. Jesus said, it seemed like to me, anybody who can say, you can get up and walk, and that man gets up and walk. You should have no problem with him saying, your sins are forgiven, because you need to be divine to do both, is what he is saying.
So they were always calling Jesus a blasphemer because of his claim to divine authority. In fact, even in this chapter, John 10, look at what he says, verse 18, he says, no one has taken my life from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. You can't kill me unless I want to die, and I have authority to lay it down if I want to, and I have authority to take it up again if I want to. So you can't kill me unless I decide to die today, and even if I decide to let you kill me, which is what I'm going to do, obviously, for the purposes of the crucifixion, I will decide when I want to get out.
Now, you ever tried that? I decide when I'm going to lie down, die, I decide this commandment I received from the father, and there arose, I guess so, verse 19, a division among the Jews because of these words, and many of them were saying, he has a demon, he's insane. Why do you listen to him? So he could say he can die only when he chooses to die, he could rise when he wants to rise, this man forgives sins, this man does all this thing, he had just made a blind man see, and now he had really gone out there because now he says, and I'm God. They object to this statement, which leads him to this statement about the Bible. The scripture cannot be broken because in their objection, he says, verse 34, has it not been written in your law, I said, you are God. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I say, I am the son of God. In other words, he's saying, God even recognized human people who are operating under his law, he called them gods, small g, he said, if you're gonna call human people who are only declaring the word of God, you're gonna give them a high status, how you gonna belittle me when I'm making blind people see? But the point about the scripture is this, Jesus argues his authority as the son of God using one word from the Old Testament, the word, the small G-O-D, and says the scripture it cannot be broken, it's authoritative.
Now what's the point? Here it is, if you can't even break one word of scripture, in other words, if you can't even nullify one word, if you can't make one word disappear, if you can't make one word ineffective, if you can't make one word take away its potency, then what's true of one word must be true of all words, all of the Bible, since it goes down, even the words cannot be broken, then scripture cannot be broken. If not a single word of scripture can be undone, then its authority stands firm forever. And when Dr. Evans returns in a moment, we'll see how Jesus himself affirmed that unshakable truth. First though, I want to let you know that the message you're hearing today is part of Tony's powerful series, The Glory of God's Word. This ten-part audio collection explores the depth, authority, and life-transforming power of scripture. And we'd like to send it to you as our way of saying thanks when you support the ministry of the alternative. If that's not all, we're also including Tony's insightful book, The Transforming Word, which helps you go beyond simply reading the Bible to actually receiving its truth deep in your spirit. Don't wait. This special double offer will only be available for a short time. Visit us today at tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222 to request yours.
That's tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. Right now, let's return to today's message from Dr. Evans. The Word of God will outlast you.
You won't outlast this. And Jesus claims that the scripture bears his authority. Let me read to you a verse in Matthew again, Matthew 24, verse 35.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. So what God is saying is the Bible or scripture, what he says, will outlast history. Jesus makes a claim of authority. His claim of authority is that he bears deity, therefore, if he has authority and the Bible is the Word of God, the Bible must possess his authority. How much authority does he have? All authority. So how much authority must his words have?
All authority. Then how come we're not seeing his authority through his word? Because we're not taking his word as authority. To reject the authority of scripture is to reject Christ. The Bible never loses its authority. It's always the Word of God, but you don't experience its authority.
It doesn't work. It doesn't seem to work for you whenever it gets diluted with human viewpoint. God is not looking for assistance. Everything he wanted said, he not only said, he preserved it.
But the reason why the Spirit is not free to work his supernatural activity in our lives is he's dealing with diluted truth. Do you remember the story of 2 Kings 4, Elijah, the prophet, and there was a famine in the land and the people were hungry and even the leaders were hungry and Elijah came and cooked some food. And then it says, and one of the guys went out to the field and found some wild cucumbers, wild gourds, but they didn't look wild to him, they looked like, oh, this will make the soup nice. And they put them in the stew. And so everybody started eating the stew and then it said, and they started throwing up and they cried out, there is death in the pot because some God thought he would help out what God had provided.
And you wound up worse off. Do you know you can come to church and be worse off? You can go to Bible study and be worse off because you don't know it, but you're putting cucumbers in the pot. And it's the cucumber of human opinion. Whenever you go to anything that is an addition to what God says, you are diluting what God says and therefore diluting the experience of its authority in your life and thus delaying your victory.
Because the word of God is sure, settled in heaven. Pinions come a dime a dozen. You'll notice there's talk shows everywhere now. Good Lord. I didn't know people had that much to talk about, and it's really not that much. It's like the same thing is just done different ways. Human viewpoint, babble by the hour. God can give you a bottom line quick. You want to have a one hour discussion.
Whatever you add to or take away from God's truth, you are diluting divine authority. There was an umpire in the old Negro baseball league named Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was a big, huge guy. And on one time, true story, the score was tied, it was the bottom of the ninth, there was a man on third, the batter hit the ball in the infield, it was the bottom of the ninth, so if this guy on third got in safe, then of course the home team would have won the game. So the ball was hitting the ground in the infield, the man on third blitzed home, he's running home hard as he could, and he slid. He slid in the home plate.
It was real dusty, so dust flew everywhere. Catcher tried to tag him out, catcher hit the ground too, and it was dust everywhere. The home team came out of the dugout cheering, save, save, save, because the visiting team ran out. He's out, he's out, he's out, and they're shouting. One team is shouting save, the other team is shouting out.
Bill Clinton, he took off his face guard and threw it down, and said, everybody shut up, because he ain't nothing until I say what he is. You got people on this side telling you to do this. You got folk on this side telling you to do that. You don't know which side to go to. Everybody be quiet, and let me tell you how it is.
I am the bottom line. So in closing, what do we say? Take your Bible out of your spiritual museum. It's not impressive because you carry it, or because you have it sitting in your car. Anybody have Bibles in their car? You ride with a Bible in your car, raise your hand, raise your hand, tell the truth. Don't mean a thing. Or because you got four of them, one for each room. Or here's the one, here's the one, you have it sitting on the coffee table.
Biblical authority means that the Bible possesses the right to supremely define your decision making, that God has the right to make up the rules for your life. You know, when I was growing up, you know, what I did from the time I could get out of the house till the time the sun went down is play football. That's all I wanted to do. Year round, no matter what other sport I was doing, I always made time to play football. But let me tell you something I always did when it was like in the community, I brought the football. I brought the football.
The reason why? I won the quarterback. And I wasn't about to, nobody tell me, get on no line, no, I'm going quarterback.
Why? It's my ball. God says, I want to call the shots, I got the ball.
This is my book. How do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? How do you say hallelujah and do not what I say? How do you say praise the Lord and do not what I say? How do you say I'm a committed Christian and do not what I say? How do you say I love the Lord, he heard my cry and do not what I say? God doesn't want your verbalization, he wants your response. He wants you to do like you do when you're driving your car, you come up over that hill and you see the police car sitting on the side.
That's authority sitting over there. But you act like it. He'll just say, 80 miles an hour, oh, hey, your heart starts palpitating, you start purse firing and you try to hit the brake, not too hard, because it'll become obvious. You try to act like you've been slowing down all the time, that ain't nothing but fear.
You know why? Because you've run into authority that you respect, so you respond. In other words, the presence of authority creates a response, not an analysis. You know who doesn't respect police cars or police criminals? Are you a spiritual criminal?
Moving right along, let's see, that's who doesn't respect authority criminals. In a word, the Bible is authoritative. It means what it says, it says what it means, and it works if you stop mixing it. The problem is people only want the parts of the Bible that they like. They want sermons to tickle their ears. That's why Paul told Timothy, preach the word, because people are going to be looking to have their ears tickled, because they don't want the truth, they want to feel good. There's nothing wrong with feeling good as long as truth is making you feel that way.
But when a lie is making you feel good, then it's illegitimate. We decorate it, we carry it, we acknowledge it, we open it, we read it, we talk to other people about it. It's got a high position. It just has no authority, because we don't allow it to veto anything in our lives.
We don't allow it to vote on things we don't like. So we don't see its authority, and we don't see its power. All we got is another religious book.
You got the position. Talk to me about the authority. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that God's Word is meant to rule, carrying real authority in every part of our lives. Don't forget, the lesson we heard today comes from Tony's sermon series entitled, The Glory of God's Word, a 10-message journey through the truth, power, and divine origin of Scripture. It's a great way to strengthen your understanding of why the Bible matters and how it can transform your life. And for a limited time, when you make a contribution to help support the alternative broadcast ministry, we'll send you this complete audio collection as our gift, along with a special bonus, Tony's powerful book, The Transforming Word, designed to help you experience Scripture spiritually and personally. This special package will only be offered for a few more days now, so visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 soon to make the arrangements.
Again that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. There's no doubt that words hold power. They can leave a mark on us for better or worse. Tomorrow Dr. Evans explains how God's Word goes even deeper, cutting through confusion to bring clarity and lasting change. Be sure to join us for this powerful look at the transforming truth of Scripture.
