08/19/2026
This is the message we are bringing to students at Lecanto High School this morning….
“The Authority of Scripture”
For the First FCA of the year we want to establish the “authority” of the Bible in what we do……If we don’t have a standard that we all adhere to, then we just have opinions, which really have no value…..the power comes from the Word of God…..
The very first tenant of FCA’s “Statement of Faith” says;
“We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, trustworthy and true, without error, Word of God”
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, Paul uses a word to describe the origin of the Scriptures—where it came from…..He says that ALL Scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Tim.3:16) ….. ”breathed out” or “exhaled” by God….The point here is not really ‘HOW’ He did this ……but WHO they came from….God —is the source of the Bible.
Yes, He used human authors.
Yes, those human authors retained their own writing styles and personalities…..
But, Paul told Timothy to “cling” to the Scriptures and to remember their source:
God —has revealed Himself in the words men have written down in the Bible…..
—But The claim Paul makes here, in 2 Timothy, is not so much that the Bible is “inspired”(breathing it into human authors)….but that it is “expired” (it’s breathed “out”….from God).
This is a unique claim of the collection of books we call THE BIBLE…..
It is a claim of the Bible’s ultimate source and the basis of its authority…. This short verse in 2 Timothy makes clear that the Bible CLAIMS to actually be the very words of God—it has a divine origin….and so it’s not really an argument of the “authority of ‘Scripture’”, but of the “authority of God”, as Creator…..revealed to us in the Scriptures.
If the “authority of the Bible” is established, “That” authority clearly affirms the things that the unbelieving world rejects…..like the “existence of God”, “the reality of creation”, the “deity of Christ”, and so on….so then, it always comes down to a matter of FAITH…..do we believe the Bible or not?
So it’s “God’s Word” that we are proclaiming,
not what “we” think……
When the apostles went out to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, they gave a
summary of key points about the person and work of Jesus —(how he was born according to the Scriptures, how he suffered on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead)…..That is the gospel and it is what is called the “content” of faith…..Jesus, as revealed in Scripture is the object of our faith….
—Before we can ask people to “respond” to the gospel, they must have “information” related to the subject…..
—we have to give them the “content” that we’re asking them to believe…..that involves clear communication of information that people can understand……
Before anyone can truly believe;
—they must understand their need for a savior.
—They must understand that they are a sinner.
—They must have some understanding of what sin is.
—They must understand that they (before they believe) are alienated from God, and
—that they are under God’s judgment.
John 3:18….. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
People don’t reach out for a savior, unless they are first convinced that they need a savior….that they are already in a state of condemnation….
So today, we want to encourage you to stick to the Word of God, “that” is what changes people……
2 Timothy 4:2, Paul tells Timothy to;
“Preach the Word”
The word translated “preach” is the Greek word which simply means “publish or proclaim openly.”….. To “preach the Word” simply means to communicate the truth of God’s Word with clarity and conviction….and then call people to respond.
The Scriptures are God’s primary appointed instrument to bring about “faith”, “save souls”, and nourish believers……and that is our foundation here at FCA.
