Authority of Scripture

The first doctrinal message of the Here We Stand series treats the nature and authority of Scripture. Pastor Martin argues that a church's view of the Bible determines everything else in its confession, then expounds the necessity, nature, purpose, and proper attitude toward Scripture, grounding inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21 and drawing out the corollaries of authority, inerrancy, perspicuity, sufficiency, and Christocentricity.

Pastor Martin opens the study of Christ's prophetic office by first establishing the biblical concept of a prophet from Exodus 4, Deuteronomy 18, and Jeremiah 1 — a person supernaturally instructed and sovereignly commissioned by God to make known the will of God to men in the very words of God. He then shows from Acts 3 that Jesus is explicitly designated the prophet like unto Moses, and from John's gospel that Christ repeatedly claims the Father has put His words in His mouth.

Pastor Martin explores the corporate implications of Christ's prophetic office, especially in the realm of authority. Since Christ alone is the supreme prophet of His church, five enemies must be resolutely resisted: ignorance of the words of Christ (Matthew 22:29), indifference to the words of Christ (Hosea 8:12), unbelief (Luke 24:25), human tradition that negates God's commandment (Mark 7:8-9), and fanaticism that claims revelation beyond the closed canon. The whole application is intensely pastoral, grounding Trinity Baptist's commitment to systematic exposition, reading of Scripture, and progressive reform according to Scripture.

Pastor Martin expounds the remaining negatives of Psalm 1:1 -- 'nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.' He shows that 'standing in the way of sinners' means identifying with their course of life contrary to God's law, while carefully distinguishing this from Christ's deep friendship with sinners for redemptive purposes. 'Sitting in the seat of the scornful' describes the settled posture of contempt toward God's Word. He warns against the progressive descent from absorbing ungodly counsel to identifying with sinners to settled skepticism.