Sola Scriptura CICC

Sola Scriptura and the Need for a Strong Foundation

This morning, you can go ahead and turn to the book of 2 Timothy, Chapter 3. That's where we're going to be spending our time this morning, 2 Timothy, Chapter 3. For those of you who might don't know, my name is Ryan, and today is my first sermon as a pastor here at CICC.

So, thank you.

So, if you're new here, or you're visiting for the first time, you picked a wonderful morning, and that's not just because it's my first time preaching as a pastor here, but it's also because we are starting a brand new teaching series today.

A series that is going to take us through the next six months. And we've entitled this, yes, yes, yes, we're going to be here for a while. We've entitled this series, Basic, Revisiting Our Foundation.

And for today's message, the foundation which we are revisiting is the foundation known as Sola Scriptura.

Sola Scriptura.

For those of you who don't know me, I was a United States Marine, and I served in the Marines for 17 years. I'm medically retired from the Marines. And I enlisted right at 17 years old. But before you can wear the title of United States Marine, you first must undergo 13 weeks at a very pleasant resort known as Parris Island.

I know some of us have been there.

But those 13 weeks, if I'm quite honest, were probably some of the hardest weeks of my entire life. But there was something that was taking place during those 13 weeks. There was a foundation, a foundation which had to be linked, a foundation that would eventually see me through a 17-year career, which included two combat tours, which included several humanitarian missions, recruiting duty, and also countless of other joint service operations.

Throughout all of it, there was this foundation which was laid there in basic training that helped see me through successfully. Unfortunately, our churches today have done a very poor job at translating this principle, this principle of understanding and laying down a strong foundation.

It's hardly in existence at all, and when you do see it, it's still on very shaky grounds. And what we have as a result today is that when we look around, we see churches everywhere which are dying. They're dying largely because people don't even know what it means to be a Christian anymore.

They don't even know what the church is supposed to stand for. We have young people who grew up in the church abandoning the church to the very first sign of any opposition. They get to college, they have a professor challenge them, and before you know it, mom and dad get a phone call, mom and dad, I don't think I believe anymore.

The church has responded, and in a desperate attempt to reach people and to keep from becoming obsolete, unfortunately, many have decided the foundation is simply not important. That instead, what's actually needed is louder music, trendier speakers, better decorating, less scripture, and let's just talk more about how, you know, we could live a better life.

All the while, what has happened is we've created a Christianity completely built upon a mountain of sand. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus tells us of the man who built his house on the sand, that when the rain and the floods come, when the winds blow and they beat against it, great will be its fall.

So why are churches dying? It's actually quite simple. They're dying because the rains came, the wind blew, and now the inevitable is happening. But that will not be us. Over the next six months, we're going to be returning to the foundation of our faith, looking at those key doctrines of the Christian faith which have withstood the rains, the floods, the winds, all that can be thrown out at the church for centuries.

And hear me when I say we are at war. And much like my time in becoming a Marine, we, the people of God, must also be trained. The Marines have a saying, the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.

Our goal is to train, to grow, to learn how it is that we can fight for the Kingdom of God, that we would take dominion over His world to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. My hope for us as a church is that at the completion of this series, that we would be completely equipped to be a church that exists for the glory of God, the gospel of Christ, and the good of our community.

Now, I'm not going to promise you that the six months will be easy, because we're going to wrestle with scriptures that, to be quite honest, many in the church have completely forgotten even existed. See, we're going to be searching the scriptures to understand God, how He has revealed Himself, and not how we would like Him to be.

And then, by His power, by His Spirit, through His Word, we will seek to have our minds transformed and our lives conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, who is, in fact, our true Commander-in-Chief.

The Authority of All Scripture in 2 Timothy 3

So, to begin this process today, we're going to start with 2 Timothy chapter 3, and I'm going to be focusing on two verses, 16 and 17. However, I am going to read all of 2 Timothy chapter 3, that we would hear the context of Paul's words.

And so, if you have your Bibles, follow along. When we get to our verses for today, they'll be up on the screen behind me. So, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Listen to the Word of God. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, rude, not loving God, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but yet denying its power.

Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth.

Just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering that happened to me at Antioch and at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then here are our verses for today. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray. Lord, we come before you today to worship you and to hear from you. Lord, as we dig into your word, Lord, we ask that by your Spirit, you would convict us of areas where we have been inconsistent, that you would transform our minds, that we would conform to the image of your Son, that we would truly walk out of here completely changed, Lord, for we know you have already made us a new creation.

But Lord, as we walk out as new creations, may we walk out more identified with your Son,.

By whom you have transformed us.

Lord, may we look more like him, may we act more like him, may we speak more like him, that there would be less of us, that the community around us would come to know you and come to see you. And so we thank you, Father.

I pray that you would use me today as a tool in your hands for your glory alone. And it is in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

So we have Paul here in our text today, giving his final instructions to his beloved disciple, Timothy, the one whom he considered like a son. And he describes here in chapter 3 kind of the state of the world.

If we're honest, it sounds exactly like the world we live in today. There's nothing new under the sun. But when he gets to the point where he's going to exhort Timothy, what does he go back to? What is the foundation that Paul tells Timothy that he is to lean on, that he is to rely on, that he is supposed to depend on?

See, I know today we're beginning this series on the foundation. And one would probably think that in discussing the basics, the foundation of Christianity, that we would begin with perhaps the doctrine of God or the doctrine of salvation or Jesus Christ.

And I want you to hear me. Yes, absolutely, 100 percent, each of those are foundational to our faith. And in fact, throughout the next six months, every week, we're going to be touching upon each of those key doctrines because without them there is no Christianity.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is where do we get this information about God? Where do we get this information about salvation? Where do we get this information about Jesus, who he is, what it is that he has accomplished?

How do we know we are even saved in the first place? Why come here and worship? Are we just going to formulate sort of our own versions of the good news? Are we going to seek to have our emotions alone lead us?

You want to come and hear me talk just about what I think? I'll be honest, you'd be a fool to do so.

No.

See, instead, what we are going to do is go to the one place where Christians for centuries have gone in order that they would answer these questions. We're going to go to the same place that Paul tells Timothy to stand firm, to hold fast to.

We are going to the Word of God. But what is it about the Word of God that sets it apart from any other religious book? What is it that makes it so foundational to our faith? At the root of the Reformation, which was over 500 years ago, at the root of it was this foundational doctrine.

If you're not familiar with the Reformation, it was that moment in time where the Protestant church separated from the church in Rome because of major doctrinal differences. The church in Rome had begun to teach that salvation was not merely by faith alone, but rather there's a way in which you can earn it and remain in God's good graces by works.

And the doctrine which separated us was that of justification by faith. But the question is when Martin Luther, who was the father of the Reformation, when he came to this understanding of justification by faith, it was by the Word of God.

And as he sat at his trial, being challenged, being called upon to abandon this idea that we are justified only by faith alone, his response to them was, only, only if you can change my mind by the Word of God.

Otherwise, here I stand. I can say no other. This doctrine has come to be known today as Sola Scriptura, the Scriptures alone. And it's here that we, in our text today, that we see this doctrine laid out.

And so here's what the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is. And it's also going to be our main idea to lead us through the text today. And all it states, Sola Scriptura states that the Bible alone is our inherent and infallible rule for faith and practice.

The Bible alone is our inherent and infallible rule for faith and practice. For centuries, this doctrine is what has been challenged the most by man. Where many people want to proclaim a Christianity that can exist apart from the Word of God.

That somehow there has to be another authority, one that we place even over the Word of God. But Paul here, in some of his very last words, this is the last letter which Paul wrote right before he was executed.

And in these last words, he tells his disciple that he would continue in his footsteps, tells him what should forever end the debate for us, that there is absolutely no other authority for the Christian outside of the Word of God.

That it is the Bible alone that is our inherent and infallible rule for faith and practice. And what I intend to do today is show just how this Scripture pulls that out for us. The very words which Paul penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And so let's go ahead and turn to our text today. And so the very first thing that I said in our main idea was the Bible. I used the word the Bible. And so where do we see that? You'll notice our text begins with the words, all Scripture.

But what do we mean here by Scripture? Do you have any history at all? Do you understand at all the history of the church and how our Bible sort of came about? There are probably objections already going off in your mind.

Probably something like, Ryan, are you telling us that when Paul says all Scripture that he means Bible? Did they even have the Bible when Paul wrote this? And the answer to that is, to be honest, no, not in the way that we had it.

They did not have it in the way that we had it. I want to admit, there's actually some validity to this objection. Now that I've admitted that, it's up to me to make my case because the truth is, I am, in fact, saying when he says all Scripture,.

It means our Bibles.

So without proper context, an argument could be made that Paul is simply talking about some random Scripture. But that's why I read the whole passage. Because if we look just one passage, one verse prior to verse 16, what we have is Paul using the word the Holy Writings or the Holy Scriptures.

The word for Scripture and the word for Writings is the same word in the Greek as the word graphe. And all it means is writing for Scriptures. And so Paul, the context in which Paul says all Scripture is in the context of Holy Scripture.

That Scripture which is set apart from all other Scripture. And Paul, as a Jew, when he says Holy Scripture, has very specific writings in mind. Those writings which are referred to as the Torah, the Prophets, and the Sacred Writings.

To the Jews, it was actually quite common to refer to the Holy Scriptures as simply the Scriptures. We see this throughout our entire New Testament. And so the question is not simply what did the Jews think, but what it was Paul intending to imply.

Because Paul qualifies Scriptures with the word all. With the word all. And so the question again is whether or not Paul is only referring to the Old Testament, but whether or not there is reason for us to believe that there are other writings which are also to be considered Holy Scripture.

And I believe the answer to this question can be found right in our New Testament. And to do that, I want to give us just two arguments for why I do believe, in fact, when Paul pens the word all Scripture, he has in mind the fact that Scripture was even unfolding before him.

In his day.

The first place we want to look at is 2 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16. And here's what those verses say. Here's the Apostle Peter speaking to the church. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.

As he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters. So we see Peter is already familiar with the letters that are circulating around the church, that the churches are reading Paul's letters.

And he continues, there are some things in them that are hard to understand. Some of you are saying amen, right? You read the Scripture, some of it's hard to understand. Hey, we can sympathize with Peter, can't we?

But then he continues. He says, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. As they do the other Scriptures. Peter here is placing Paul's writings on par with the holy Scriptures.

He had already recognized that what Paul was writing was not of Paul, but rather it was of God. Peter goes on to encourage the church. He tells the church they ought to stick to what is in the Scriptures, that they wouldn't be carried away.

By error.

So that's argument number one. Secondly, I wanna look to the words of Jesus. Jesus gives us this great commission there in Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse around 18. And we use this often as the great commission to the entire church.

But when you look at the context, not that it's not, but he's giving it specifically to his apostles. That he is sending them out, he is issuing them a charge. And in this charge, he tells them that they are to teach the world to observe all which he, Jesus, has commanded.

And so the question is this, where do we find that which Jesus has commanded? Did the apostles fail to execute that which Jesus commissioned them to do? Of course not. We have that which Jesus has commanded right here in our New Testament.

It's exactly all of what Jesus has commanded laid out for us in scripture. The late B .B. Warfield, who was a professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, once stated that the Old Testament books were not the only ones which the apostles imposed upon the infant churches.

In other words, the apostles themselves were not only using the Old Testament to teach the church, but rather they were going to the writings of their fellow apostles that they were already counting it as Holy Scripture.

That they used it as their authoritative rule of faith and practice. B .B. Warfield continues, no more authority dwelt in the prophets of the Old Covenant than in themselves, the apostles, who had been made sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant.

He was quoting from 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6. So when Jesus sends out the apostles, he sends them in his authority. They don't have an authority of their own, right? I have no authority of my own. None of us have any authority of our own, but Jesus says very specifically there in Matthew, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth.

Was given me, him, Jesus. Now therefore, go.

So Jesus sends them in his authority.

That they would teach, therefore making.

Their very teaching filled with divine authority. And when the apostles got sent out, when they went out, they understood this. Paul, who was commissioned later, understood this as well.

And here, at the end of his life,.

He points Timothy to the scriptures that he grew up with and the scriptures which he now had in his possession, which has come to be known today as our holy Bible. Now, I do want to deal with an objection that often comes up.

And this is the objection that many would use against Protestants in saying, and I would like to refer to it as the which came first objection. And here's how it goes. If the church came first, then the authority must actually lie in the church,.

Not the scriptures,.

Because then didn't the church actually decide what writings are actually scripture? And the answer to this might surprise some of us, but the church did not come first. The church did not come first, but rather the church was born out of scripture.

And in order to see that, we go to Ephesians chapter two, where in verse 20, where we have again, the apostle Paul describing the church using a metaphor as a building. He says there in verse 20, that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

See right here in this text, we have the apostles, prophets, same levels, both speaking the very word of God and Jesus, the chief cornerstone, the one who holds everything else together, the one in whom all else is completely dependent.

So what is our new Testament, but a collection of the teachings of our apostles, who are the foundation of the church. And our old Testament is that of a teaching of the prophets and together being held together by Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone.

The old Testament points forward to Jesus and the new Testament reveals Jesus. See, without their teachings, there is no church. Therefore, at best, the question that one might be able to ask is, how do we know these teachings are in fact theirs?

To answer that question, I've given you all on your bulletins this morning, two resources that you can look up because this is a much deeper question. It's a good question, but we have mountains of evidence as to why we can believe the New Testament is reliable.

We have more evidence for the New Testament than we do any other writing, any other writing in antiquity. And the amount of evidence isn't just minute, but rather mountains of evidence more for the New Testament.

It's almost like it's divinely inspired. Just saying, right? So those two resources that I gave you on your bulletin, feel free to pick them up. If you wanna borrow, I have them both. Just keep in mind, if you're gonna borrow them, other people may wanna borrow them as well, but I'd be more than happy to lend them out.

But that's where I would point you. If you're interested in that kind of information, how do we prove the reliability of the New Testament?

That's where you can go.

Why Scripture Is God-Breathed, Inerrant, and Infallible

All right, so let's move on.

So first we have that our Bible alone, only our Bible alone is our inerrant and infallible. What do we mean by inerrant and infallible? We mean that the Bible is completely without error, without any error in everything that it speaks to, and that it's completely true in everything that it says.

The reason we make this claim is because the Bible has been breathed out by God. The word in the Greek is theonoustos, and what it simply means, theo, God, noustos, breathe out. So the ESV, if that's what you have, is a very literal rendering of this word.

The reason the scriptures are infallible and inerrant is because the scriptures are simply not the work of men, but they are the work of God, that God has spoken. And when God speaks, listen, God does not lie and God does not make mistakes.

God says what he intends to say, and he says it with the clarity that's necessary. And the truth about this is, is that often we too, like Peter, we have difficulty understanding. We do, but the problem is not the word of God.

The problem is us. We're talking and speaking of an infinite God. When we speak of an infinite God, it would be foolish for us to assume that we would ever completely comprehend him. There is enough God for us to seek him, not only for our lifetime, but for all of our lifetimes put together and then still continue for all of eternity and praise him because we will be with him for eternity.

And we will never grow bored of learning of him in eternity.

Amen?

This is why it is the Bible alone, because only within our Bible do we have God speaking. Listen to what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter one, verse one. He begins, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he created the world. So here's what he's telling us. Once, God spoke by prophets.

That is our Old Testament.

That's how God chose to speak to his people. If you've read through the Old Testament, you'll find that it is often, begins and ends with the phrase, thus says the Lord, right? Thus says the Lord. God is speaking through his peoples.

But in these last days, now, this is the time of the actual apostles, he has now spoken through his son. See, in scripture, we have these teachings which have been reported for us and passed down that the church would rest securely upon that which Jesus, the one who God spoke through, has taught and given for our edification, for our building up.

That's why there is no other authority for the church other than scripture. And it is authoritative because the author is God himself. He has spoken. He spoke by people, yes, but he spoke through a specific people.

Prophets, apostles.

And he does this for a very specific reason. And here's the reason. First, I know that there are people today who claim to hear directly from God. To go so far as to say, thus saith the Lord. And this creates a bit of a problem.

Because according to scripture,.

We have otherwise.

According to the verse I just read, it says that God has spoken. That's past tense. That he's spoken through the prophets and through his son. No where does it say that there will continue to be a specific people that God is going to use to continue to speak to us, but that he has spoken.

This is not to say that the Holy Spirit is not at work in the life of the believer. Absolutely, 100 he is. But it does mean, when we're speaking of the category known as special revelation. What is special revelation?

We mean new revelation. Revelation, that is, which has been revealed, which was previously unknown. All that God wanted to make known of himself has been made known by the prophets and the apostles who both point to Jesus.

Jesus is who we need to know. Jesus is what we need to know. And so it creates a problem when we have others who claim to speak and say things which God has not previously revealed.

And the thing that we need to understand.

Is the Bible is very clear about the heart of man. That the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. And though, yes, we have been made new creations, I would ask you, just look at your own heart.

And how many things do you desire that you know are completely forbidden.

By the word of God?

And the idea that we would still hear from God, why is it that when we claim to hear these audible voices from God, they always seem to line up so much with what it is we really want? The reason God has given us his word is because now we have something that is not subjective, but objective.

Something that we can take those thoughts and those desires that we have, bring them to the word of God and say, Lord, if this is of you, then let me find it in here. And if I don't find it in here, allow me to die to myself that I will become more like you.

Amen? Amen.

There is no new or special revelation. What we have is all that God needed to say for us as a rule for faith. That's the next part. As a rule for faith. So we have that the Bible is alone, is the word of God, new and old testaments together, that they are completely without error and they are completely true in all that they say.

And what does it say? Well, it gives us a rule for faith.

What we mean by that is that within the Bible, all that is necessary for us to be in relationship with God is contained. All that is necessary for us to live a life of faith is contained. As a rule, that there is an expectation that what's in the Bible is actually meant for us to follow.

That the Bible is not just good advice.

Okay?

There are God's, it's filled with God's commands. This is what we are to actually be doing. And this is Paul's point when he states that it is all profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

I wanna walk through these terms really quickly. He begins profitable for teaching. What's meant by profitable? Simply, it is useful or beneficial. That's what he means by profitable. Useful or beneficial.

And the point is this. Not that all of scripture is applicable in the same way it once was, right? But rather that it is profitable for teaching. And here's what I mean by that. When we look at the Old Testament, we see things like the sacrificial system, right?

That we learn all about the sacrifices.

That need to be given.

The sacrifice for atonement, right? And this had a very specific purpose. And so we still should be reading about the sacrificial system. But we no longer read about the sacrificial system that we would go and actually do sacrifices.

That's not the purpose of it anymore. But now when we read of the sacrificial system, what we learn from it is who our God is. That we learn that God is a just God. We learn that God is also a wrathful God, one who demands punishment for sin.

We learn that God is a merciful God because he has provided a sacrifice. And the most important thing we learn when we look to much of what we have in our Old Testament is who Jesus is. In the case of the sacrificial system, what we realize is that Jesus was the last and final and ultimate sacrifice.

There is no longer a need for another. Regardless of what some modern day preachers might tell us, we must teach and learn from all of Scripture. New and Old Testaments must be preached from because it is all useful for teaching.

Amen?

But then Paul says, in addition to teaching,.

That it is also useful and profitable for.

Reproof and for correction.

What is reproof?

Reproof, another word some of your Bibles might say rebuke is another word for it. And it is separate for correction, for good cause. Because the very first idea of rebuke or reproof is actually the idea of exposing someone's sin.

Uncovering sin.

Now, the thing about this is it begins.

With ourselves.

That before you go out and rebuke those in the world, you must allow yourself to be rebuked.

By the very word of God.

You must allow your own sin or our own sin to be exposed by the very word of God. Being a Christian begins with recognizing our own sin. Where we see that we have betrayed a holy and good God. How we actually deserve hell for all eternity to be separated from Him.

That's where it begins, but it doesn't end there. You see, the idea is that this rebuking also must happen to others. That we are looking to also expose sin in the life of others. Now, I know that in the culture we live in today,.

This is considered unloving. It's considered foolish.

We are told often, mind your own business. Who are you to judge? And the thing about this is, according to Scripture, we're the only ones who can judge rightly. Because our judgment is not based on feeling.

It's not based on what I think. But it's based on what God has spoken. On what God has actually said. And when God calls something sin, there is no weaseling out of it. There is no making excuses for it.

But rather we confront it. And it is out of love that we are called to do so. So we uncover sin. We rebuke one another in love. Exposing where there might be sin in each other's lives. But then we are also to correct.

That's the second part of this. That not only do we rebuke, not only do we expose, but now we give new direction. Now we want to point people in the right way to live. So you were once sinning, now this is how to live your life without sin.

Now in the biggest sense, this correction is given for us in Jesus Christ. That there is this idea that Jesus is the one who actually accomplished everything. And the way we are to live our lives.

Is through faith in Him.

But it doesn't end there. It doesn't end there. Because in addition we see also that the Word is a training tool. That it prepares us. The word translated as training gives us this picture of disciplined preparation.

See that's what the next six months for us are all ultimately about.

Training.

And we're going to do so by being in the Word of God, which was given for exactly this purpose. So I'm not calling us to do anything that is not in the Word of God, that the Word of God has not been given for.

But this idea to train us in all righteousness, righteousness means right living, just living. We have been declared righteous. We have been declared just also in Christ. To be declared righteous is to be declared without guilt or to be declared innocent before God.

Now this is where people get confused.

Because you see the thing is,.

The righteousness that we have is not our own. That we have been given a righteousness.

That is alien to us.

And that righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. That we are saved because of His righteousness and His righteousness alone. But Paul said we are also to be trained in righteousness. So that we have a righteousness of our own by which we are made right with God is the means by which we can now be trained in our own righteousness.