Received not as the word of men . . .

Matthew 7 reports, “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

Jordan explains, “That word ‘scribe’ there means a guy who writes things. The scribes wrote down the Scripture, copying it out, but Jesus doesn’t teach like the scribes. He teaches with authority.

“The verse’s saying, ‘Not like the scribes where you can’t understand what’s going on.’ If you want a comparison in modern terminology, the scribe would be like Bible commentaries. The Lord teaches different than that. He teaches you out of the Book clearly and plainly.

“In Matthew 8-10, you begin to see a series of miracles by Christ. The Book of Matthew is not laid out in chronological order; it brings together a bunch of different things that happened at different times and lays them out here on the table for you to now scrutinize.

“Now, that’s a legitimate method of giving evidence. It’s not a method of giving a chronological story, but it is a legitimate method of giving evidence to prove a point, isn’t it? Matthew is more interested in the evidential value.

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“In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul, when describing his gospel and how his message is unique and distinct from those who were there before him, gives, as it were, a certificate of apostleship.

“He writes in Galatians 1:11-12, ‘But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

[12] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

“He’s going to document and give proof that validates that statement. If you go down through the rest of chapter 1, and then through chapter 2, there are at least 14 specific points Paul makes that demonstrate the distinctiveness of his ministry.

“He writes in Galatians 1:20-24, [20] Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

[21] Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

[22] And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ

[23] But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

[24] And they glorified God in me.

“Paul went out among the Gentiles where he’d lived and was unknown by face. They didn’t have enough contact with Paul to really know what was going on with him to know what he was preaching. They just had heard, ‘Well, he used to be persecuting the followers of Christ and now he’s preaching that Jesus is the Christ.’

*****

“You see, learning what God’s doing is not an issue of just learning a

bunch of doctrine. Somebody told me the other day, ‘Well, were in this predicament and we’re just glad to have the doctrine work.’ Now that’s true, but it’s not just the doctrine working.

“In the Scripture it’s really 'the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe,’ and when that happens, you know what’s really working in you? Christ is working in you. So when you talk about, ‘Well, it’s the doctrine working,’ remember it’s really the life of Jesus Christ working.

“There’s that personal intimate understanding, and when you come to Ephesians you’ve come to the place where God says, ‘Come in and let me have access with you; let me bring you into access to understand.’ What’s going on here is the Triune God.

*****

“Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:11 that God ‘gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.’ The prophets referred to here are the New Testament prophets.

“Paul was a prophet but he was also an apostle. He never wrote anything as a prophet; he wrote as an apostle. Paul warns in I Corinthians 14:37, ‘If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.’

“One of the jobs of a prophet all through Scripture is to say, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord.’ He spoke for God. One of the jobs of the prophets in those churches Paul established was to say, ‘This is God’s Word.’

*****

“From I Corinthians 5:9 (‘I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators’) we see that before I Corinthians, Paul had already written a letter and an epistle to the church of Corinth that did not wind up in the Bible.

“So do we have lost Scripture? Who’s to say one letter from Paul is Scripture and the other’s not? Well, hey, folks, that’s why God put a prophet in the assembly, giving him the gift of prophecy. So that that prophet could acknowledge that the things Paul’s writing here—‘This is Scripture; that one isn’t.’

“By the way, in II Thessalonians 2:2 there were some people counterfeiting epistles, writing them and saying they were from Paul when they weren’t. But, you see, the local church there had an office, a prophet, a God-empowe;red person with a supernatural ability as a gift of that church to say, ‘This is Scripture,’ and to speak for God.”