Systematic Navigation: Authority
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "
Matt 4:1-4 (NKJV)
Matt 4:1-4 (NKJV)
When my friend, Alan Levine, shares the impact of Scripture in his life and reads it out loud during our men’s Bible study he will start with, “Thus saith the Lord…” It does not matter the book or the verse, “Thus saith the Lord…” It is his way of getting across to us the authority of God’s Word. Alan is a unique man as he was a Hebrew’s Hebrew (and my accountability person post Colony). Now he has Jesus Christ as Lord over everything in his life and his reverence for the Old Testament shines through when he shares the New Testament with everyone he encounters. Alan has been a great source of application knowledge when he speaks to young Christians. Needless to say, Alan can be quite an evangelist.
So it is of no coincidence that Jesus would use Old Testament or “Deuteronomical” citations against Satan during His time of temptation in the wilderness. The words in the Book of Deuteronomy are “from the mouth of God” and are intended to give answer to every temptation. They do not just show how to have reverence for God but they are the true expression of the authority of God. When we hear, “Thus saith the Lord” we are to understand that the words that come next are not to challenged; they are simply to be obeyed. It was quite often that God spoke through a prophet and that what a prophet said in God’s name, God said. So when a prophet spoke in God’s name he had better start off with, “Thus saith the Lord” or be prepared to play a serious game of “Dodge Stone” with the nation of Israel thus as it was in ‘dem ole’ Testament days.
I wonder how awesome it must have been to hear not just a prophet but The Prophet. In Deuteronomy 18:18 God promised to raise up a Prophet from the tribe of Levi and He would have His words in His mouth. The Sermon that Jesus preached on the shores of the Sea of Galilee may just have been the kind of authoritative interpretation the Law needed. Like a breath of fresh sea air, the Deuteronomical thread is woven into the very fabric of everyday life with all the grace and mercy of a loving Savior. “You have heard it said but I say to you…” We hear the authority of the Father’s word spoken with meekness. Put your stones away you who are double-minded these are the new covenant days.
As Paul is raising up Timothy he stress’s to his young cohort that those sacred writings we have been going over are theopneustos or breathed out by God. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17; ESV) But it isn’t just the Old Testament getting the respect it so rightly deserves. Peter acknowledged Paul’s writing’s as theopneustos as Paul acknowledged Luke’s writing. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells the church in Corinth that if there is a prophet among you he should know that what he was writing to them was a command of the Lord. And when he was just giving his opinion on other matters he simply stated out rightly, “To the rest I say, not the Lord…”
So as you read your Bible are you convinced of its claim to God’s Words? We can in one sense affirm that this is claims to be the words of God but it is another to be convinced that the claim is true. If the Holy Spirit indwells within you will have that inner assurance that these are the very words breathed out of the mouth of the Creator Himself. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:14-16 ESV) So if you are His sheep, you hear His voice and trust the authority of His word. – Chris Hughes contributes regularly to Freedom Fighter and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy
Compass Pointers: “Everybody is writing and everybody is talking, but for dying men there is not one word of authority anywhere, except as you hear the sure, true, terrifying words of Jesus Christ. Literally millions of words are printed every day, but the only authoritative word ever published is that which comes from the Holy Scriptures.” The Quotable Tozer II A.W. Tozer
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 7:1-2; Level 2: Proverbs 7:1-6
Anchored to the Rock: What a fearful canopy the prayers that do not get beyond the atmosphere would make it they turned brown with age. George MacDonald
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