THE NEW TESTAMENT IS
GOD’S FINAL AUTHORITY - 8
The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans
16:16)
1. The Lord Jesus Christ holds all authority in the universe (Matt. 28:18).
a. All men living today are under (amenable to) the Gospel of Jesus Christ (John 12:48).
b. Whatever the law
of Christ says, it says to those who are under that law.
c. This principle
is plainly set forth
in Romans 3:19 and 4:15.
2. Thus, what He commands we must do;
a. where He sends we must go.
b. Everything we do, say and even think must be according to His Word (Col. 3:17).
3. In
order to be pleasing to God,
a. every man living today must have New
Testament authority
b. for the Plan of
Salvation (POS) which he obeys.
4. Your POS cannot involve, for example,
a. instruction to be
baptized because one has
already been saved.
b. That is one of
the devils greatest false teachings of today.
5. The New Testament authorizes only the penitent believer,
a. who is still a lost man, to be baptized in
order to be saved (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38) -
b. that is, in order to become a saved person,
a child of God
(Acts 22:16; Rom. 6:3-5; Gal. 3:26-27; 2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet.
3:20-21; etc.).
6. Every person who seeks to be saved by the blood of Christ
a. by obeying a
humanly-invented plan of salvation
b. is doomed to
fail in attaining that
salvation.
1. He must repent of
his denominational error
2. and obey the POS
which is authorized in the New Testament.
7. Jesus Himself made clear that many people
a. who think they are saved are horribly mistaken. Why?
b. Because they
have obeyed mere human
plans of salvation
c. rather than the one Divine plan of
salvation (READ Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23).
8. Being a sincere, conscientious religious man will not save
a. without obeying the
Gospel of Christ in being baptized
b. (see the account of Saul of Tarsus,
Acts 9, 22, and 26).
9. Some men have invented the false doctrine that lost men are
saved
a. the very moment they believe on Jesus
Christ as the Son of God.
b. At the point of
belief, they say, Christ is accepted into the heart.
10. Many say that one is saved "by faith--plus nothing, minus
nothing."
a. But the Bible teaches that faith without
works (acts of obedience to Christ)
b. is dead (and compares it to the body
without the spirit - James 2:24, 26).
1. Even the devils
believe (James 2:19);
2. yet they are NOT saved because
they do not obey.
11. Men must be honest (Luke 8:15).
a. Men must learn
God's will and do only what the Bible authorizes.
b. No one can be
saved by faith
1. "before
and without any further acts of obedience;"
2. such is dead
faith (James 2:17).
12. To be saved, a penitent person
a. who believes that
Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God (Luke 13:3; John 8:24)
b. must be immersed into Christ (Rom.
6:3-5; Gal. 3:26-27)
1. to
be saved by the death (blood) and resurrection of Christ (1 Pet.
3:20-21; Rev. 1:5).
2. He must then live
faithfully before God even unto death (Rev. 2:10).
Conclusion
1. Jesus
said,
“All authority (power) has been given to me in heaven and in earth.”
(Matt.
28:18).
a. When it comes to
matters pertaining
to the soul Jesus is sole authority.
b. As our High
Priest, Jesus is the only one who can regulate our moral and spiritual
affairs.
c. We will face
Jesus as our judge in the last day (John 5:22).
2. The authority of Jesus is universal in scope (in heaven and in
earth).
a. No angel,
priest, pope, or preacher
has power like this.
b. Jesus is supreme
in authority.
3. The claim of Jesus is an exalted one:
a. all legislative,
judicial, and executive authority is given unto Christ in heaven and on
earth.
b. No one in human
flesh had ever claimed so much.
4. He was clothed with authority after God “raised him from the
dead,
and made him to sit
at
his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and
authority, and power,
and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that
which is to come” (Eph. 1:20-21).
5. Jesus is the “King of kings, and Lord of Lords” (1 Tim. 6:15)
a. and the ruler of the
kings of the earth.
b. He will exercise
this authority as King of His kingdom until the last foe is conquered,
c. and then He will deliver up the kingdom to
God, even the Father (1 Cor. 15:24).
6. The word of Christ is the only authoritative voice in the
church.
a. There is no
legislative authority in the church today.
b. We execute and
obey His laws, but we cannot make laws for the church.
1. Since Christ has
“all authority,”
2. there is no place
in the church for man’s programs.
7. The Scriptures reveal that God’s Word is everlasting (1 Peter
1:25).
a. Jesus says,
“Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
b. A truth that
must never be forgotten in respecting the authority of God’s Word is
this:
“For
ever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalms 119:89).