Week Two: Where do we learn how to glorify God?

AN UNCHANGING WORD FOR CHANGING TIMES

Where do we learn how to enjoy and glorify God?

The Word of God, given in the Old and New Testaments,
 is the only authority by which we are taught how we may enjoy and glorify God.

Once we have understood that God has created each of us for the purpose of glorifying and enjoy Him, we must ask ourselves how we glorify Him.  Right away, we are driven to the Scriptures.  From the Scriptures, we learn that God’s Word, given to us in the Old and New Testaments, is the only authority – and note the word “only” – given to us by which we may learn to glorify and enjoy God.

What is your authority for what you believe?  That is a vital question and it is one that many never adequately consider.  Am I the final authority for what I believe?  Do I trust some combination of the church and of my own beliefs?  Some combination of science and religion?  The “experts?”   Do I base my faith on what “seems” to be right?  And if truth is constantly changing – which it is not – then how do I ever conclusively know what is right?

Remember, too, that we are not discussing trivial matters, matters on which a wrong decision has few consequences. We are dealing with matters of the soul, with eternal matters, and with knowing how to do what God has created us to do.

It makes sense that we should ask the Creator, doesn’t it?

When we do so, we find that the Creator has spoken His Word and has given that Word to us as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

At New Covenant Presbyterian Church, we are bound to the Constitution of our wonderful denomination, a Constitution that states that it too is “subject to and subordinate to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the inerrant Word of God.”   The first vow required of every pastor (teaching elder), every ruling elder, and every deacon is this: “Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as originally given, to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice?”

 We gratefully affirm the truth of God’s Word as a congregation!  As a pastor, I stand on the absolute and perfect truth of God's Word.  I have believed Scripture to be this in spite of the changes of my former denomination (the Presbyterian Church in the United States) as it and many of its congregations moved further and further away from Scripture.

It is wonderful to discover the depth and power and riches of God’s Word.  It is life-giving to know that we commit ourselves to its authority. Everything we need to know about God in order to glorify and enjoy Him is found in the Bible. We can trust the Bible fully because it is the Word of God, who is never wrong. The Bible always has the final word, for it is God’s Word.


All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 
2 Timothy 3:16-7

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin I the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  2 Peter 1:20-21

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching….”   Acts 2:42

“Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who way their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord.  “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lives, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,’ declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:31-32



Additional Insights....

Those who wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith – the doctrinal standards of the Presbyterian Church in America – made the topic of “The Holy Scripture” to be the first chapter of the Confession, as well as one of the longest chapters.  This priority reflects the importance of Scripture as well as the fact that the Assembly made Scripture the final authority for all their deliberations.

A painting of the Westminster Assembly by John Rogers Herbert (1810 - 1890)
The Assembly affirmed Scripture to be the final authority for all their deliberations.

The rule to guide the members of the Assembly in all their discussions was this:

What any man undertakes to prove as necessary,

He shall make good out of Scripture.

Every member was to take the following vow,

a vow that was read to all the members every Monday morning:

I do seriously promise and vow, in the presence of Almighty God,

that in this Assembly whereof I am a member,

I will maintain nothing in point of doctrine

but what I believe to be most agreeable to the Word of God;

nor in point of discipline,

but what may make most for God’s glory and the peace and good of His Church.

What is your authority?

Are you willing to base your life now and the life to come on it?