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  • Luke 18:1-8
    • Luke 18:7 - God wants us to keep praying.
  • Luke 18:9-17 - Don’t be lifted up with pride. Be humble.
    • Luke 18:14 - Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.
    • Luke 18:17 - We must receive the kingdom of God like a child.
  • Luke 18:18-30 - We must trust in God - not in our own riches.
    • It is not enough to just do the right things. It takes the right information and the right disposition to serve God correctly.
  • Luke 18:31-34 - Jesus was telling the apostles that he had a purpose - to die for our sins.
  • Luke 18:35-43 - We need to follow Jesus’ example of compassion and help those we can.

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  • Introduction
    • Commitment: the act of pledging yourself; to give over to another implying that the thing given over passes entirely into another’s charge
    • II Corinthians 8:1ff
    • II Timothy 2:19
  • True commitment to God involves commitment:
    • Of heart - Proverbs 23:7
    • Of emotion - Hebrewx 13:1; Proverbs 23:23
    • Of voice - Ephesians 4:29
    • Of body - I Corinthians 6:19-20
    • Of time - Hebrews 5:12
    • Of service - Romans 6:4
    • Of pocket book
  • Am I truly committed to the Lord?

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  • Matthew 23
  • Woe 1: You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
    • Matthew 23:13 - The Pharisees discouraged those who challenged their thinking.
    • John 7:45-53 - The Pharisees try to discourage Nicodemus from following Jesus.
  • Woe 2: You devour widows’ houses.
    • Matthew 23:14 - The Pharisees were acting selfishly in defrauding the widows.
  • Woe 3: You make them twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
    • Matthew 23:15 - The Pharisees were teaching their own traditions.
    • Matthew 15:9
    • Acts 8:35 - New Testament preachers taught directly from the scriptures.
  • Woes 4-5: You neglect the weightier matters.
    • Matthew 23:16-24
    • Matthew 5:33-37
  • Woes 6-7: You outwardly appear righteous to men.
    • Matthew 23:25-28
    • Titus 1:15-16
  • Woe 8: You say, “If it had been me …”
    • Matthew 23:29-36
    • Amos 7:14-15
    • We can’t imagine that there is some ideal time to serve God. We have to serve God in the time and state we are in.

For further study, see also:

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-- / --
  • Conclusion
    • That Bible authority is derived by statement of fact, command, example, and necessary inference is not a church of Christ formula, not even a religious formula. These are the ONLY ways that one in authority can make his wishes known to one who is under authority in ANY relationship
      • In family
      • In business
      • In government
      • In school
      • Ad infinitum
  • Authority, how to establish:
    • Introduction
      • A local church must have Bible authority for all it teaches and practices. The question is not “how long have we been doing it?,” or “does it seem right?,” or “do we think good will come of it?,” but DOES GOD AUTHORIZE IT? A thing must be authorized in the gospel or God’s people must leave it out (II John 1:9.
    • Two extremes as to how Bible authority is established:
      • A thing must be specifically commanded.
      • A thing has to be specifically forbidden.
    • It is a sin to bind where God has loosed and it is a sin to loose where God has bound:
      • Pharisees bound washing of hands (Matthew 15:1-2
      • They loosed “honor father and mother” (Matthew 15:3-4
      • God said it made their worship vain (Matthew 15:8-9
    • Christ has all authority (Matthew 18:8
      • He gave binding and loosing authority to the apostles (Matthew 18:18
      • The question is: “Is it from heaven or man?” (Luke 20:2-4
      • How then is Bible authority established?
    • A thing is authorized by:
      • Command: Lord’s Supper (I Corinthians 11:25
      • Example: First day (Acts 20:7
      • Necessary inference: How often (Acts 20:7
    • There is generic and specific authority:
      • Command: Build ark
        • Generic: Wood
        • Specific: Gopher wood
      • Command: Praise
        • Generic: Music
        • Specific: Sing
    • Things that help expedite the command without adding another coordinate element are authorized:
      • Command: Water of cleansing (Numbers 19
        • Generic: Heifer
        • Specific: Red heifer
        • Expedient: Breed, age
      • Command: Praise (Hebrews 13:15
        • Generic: Music (Colossians 3:16
        • Specific: Vocal
        • Expedient: Alto, tenor, bass, soprano
      • Command: Preach gospel collectively (I Corinthians 9:1-14
        • Generic: The saved
        • Specific: Local church
        • How large, number of elders
      • NOTE: For a thing to be expedient, it must be lawful. To observe the Supper on the first day of the week is lawful, any hour of that day is expedient. But observe it one hour before or one hour after the first day and it would not be lawful; thus, not expedient.

For further study, see also:

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© 2026, Mark Watson

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