Sunday Sermon: By Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura)

You're listening to the Preaching Ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand?

As I read here from the English Standard Version, Romans 321, hear the word of the

Lord. Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance

He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we consider what we are reading this morning, as we consider even the history of what makes us a

Protestant church and why that's important, what is the basis of our faith?

What is it that we have staked even our very lives upon? I pray that you will bless this series and not as something that would just be a series of lectures over why we are the way that we are, but that it would be a concerted and heartfelt effort to search the scriptures and know what your word has said and what you expect of us.

That we give the glory to no man, but all the glory belongs to God. That we rely not on ourselves or on our works, but we rely solely upon the work of Christ and what

He accomplished on the cross for us. And we find these things stated by no earthly wisdom, but these things have been revealed to us by your spirit according to your word, which is our highest authority.

And so, Lord, that you would bless our searching the scriptures in these things, for it is by your word that we have come to faith and it is by your word that we are grown in this faith as well.

And may we continue, as Paul instructed the Philippians, to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, doing so to the glory of God.

It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and all God's people said, amen. So just to quickly show you, and as I said, we'll come back to this text again in the coming weeks and look at it more intently.

But perhaps as you were reading through it, you saw those five doctrines presented.

In the very beginning in Romans 321, now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, talking about Jesus Christ, but the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

And that is a statement regarding the word of God, that it is the scriptures that point to us the savior and how

Jesus fulfills all the law and the prophets. And this is only according to the scripture alone.

Next in verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe and that being sola fide, by faith alone, for there is no distinction.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God's glory being proclaimed here in this passage as well, being solid day,

Oh, Gloria. And we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The grace of God alone being what saves us. We considered that when we were in Titus chapter three, and that being the doctrine that we call a sola gratia verse 25, whom

God put forward Christ as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

And this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

And this is only in Christ alone. So we have solus Christus. And then finally, verse 26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

A statement regarding God's glory and that all credit and honor and praise go to him alone.

So you can see how even from this passage in Romans three, we can glean from it an understanding of even these five doctrines of the

Protestant Reformation. Number of years ago, I was sitting with a pastor at lunch, and I had just finished a series through this.

This was actually in 2017 because it was in that year that was the 500th anniversary of the

Protestant Reformation. And it was also by God's providence in that year that October happened to have five

Sundays. So I was able to use each one of those Sundays and go through all five of these particular doctrines.

You know, I was sitting with a pastor at lunch, as I said, and he, not knowing much about our church, had said something to the degree of, well, you're obviously a reformed church.

And we really weren't. We were Southern Baptists, but our statement of faith was not a reformed statement of faith.

I might have been Calvinistic in my soteriology, but that's different than stating that we were a reformed church on a reformed confession.

So I simply disagreed with him. I said, well, we're not actually a reformed church. We're every bit as Protestant as your church.

And he said, well, you just went through the five solas. I saw that was the teaching series that you went through in your church.

I said, right, but not because we're reformed, because we're Protestant. And he said, well,

I mean, that's more of a reform thing. I don't know about that. I said, hey, if you're Protestant, you have to believe those five doctrines.

Or what else are you going to do? Submit yourself back to the slavery of Rome? And that is the very thing that the

Protestant reformers sought to break away from, were those things that Rome was imposing upon people contrary to what

God's word said. It is widely accepted that the Protestant Reformation began on October 31st, 1517, when a monk named

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, or what is today called

Germany. But in fact, Luther had published two works. The first was published a month before, and it was entitled,

Disputation Against Scholastic Theology. That was 97 theses, which was critiquing the way that medieval theology had been done in the

Catholic Church for centuries. But that work gained very little attention, so he drafted his second publication in October, which was 95 theses against the power of indulgences, and to be sure that that document was seen and would be responded to, he walked up to the castle church door and nailed it to the door.

Now, when Luther mounted his protest, he was addressing a church that already accepted the authority of the scripture as being the word of God.

So what was the issue then that was so offensive to the Roman church that Luther would protest anything?

Well, because Luther dared to say that the scriptures are our ultimate authority, not the pope.

Or as one teacher summarized it, while popes and councils err, scripture alone does not.

And Luther used the example of the practice of indulgences that were going on in the

Roman Catholic Church at that time to show how popes and councils err, and that these very things could not be found in the word of God itself.

Today, the doctrine that we're going to be focusing on is the doctrine of sola scriptura, or in English, scripture alone.

We'll continue to reflect upon the importance of the Bible to the Protestant Reformation and the role of scripture.

Then we'll consider the authority of scripture itself. And lastly, we'll do application of scripture.

How is the doctrine of sola scriptura meaningful for us as a Christian? Why is this even important, and why would we consider it on a day such as this?

So first of all, let's consider the role of scripture. Luther's nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the church may be the act that we attribute to setting off the

Protestant Reformation, but a reformation of the church had been stirring for well over 100 years before.

Over 150 years before Luther was born, there was a man named John Wycliffe from England who became the first to translate the

Bible into English. Wycliffe knew no Greek or Hebrew, and those are the original languages that the

Bible was written in, but he did know Latin, so he attempted to translate his English version of the

Bible from St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. That word Vulgate, by the way, is the same word that we get the

English word vulgar from. Now, vulgar might have a different connotation today, but essentially, for Jerome to call his

Latin translation of the Bible the Vulgate was to simply mean that it was of the common people.

Jerome in the late 4th and early 5th centuries translated the Bible from its original languages into a common language, into one language that the church would use to teach the people.

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek.

So, Jerome translated it into one language, which was Latin, and any copied versions of the text were only in Latin for 1 ,000 years.

Anyone who wanted to read the Bible, they were permitted to read it if you understood

Latin. But by the 14th century in which Wycliffe lived, only the theologically educated could read and understand

Latin. The common person could not. So, 1 ,000 years earlier,

Jerome translated it into a common language, but it was no longer the common language among everyday people.

In the Western world, the reading and interpretation of the Bible was totally controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, who made it illegal to translate the scriptures into any other language.

In fact, they would consider it blasphemy. And so Wycliffe's effort to translate the

Bible into English was considered a blasphemous act. Now, Wycliffe was a

Catholic priest. Every once in a while, you might encounter a Roman Catholic who will try to claim that of some of these

Protestant reformers. Well, you guys claim Wycliffe was a Protestant. He was actually a Catholic.

Yeah, that's because there was nothing else at the time. But Wycliffe had an opposition to the things that the

Roman Catholic Church was teaching and was doing. It wasn't just his translation of the

Bible that upset the Roman Catholics, but even many of the doctrines that he taught as well. He was a priest, but also a professor at the

University of Oxford, and his desire was to translate the Bible into a language his own students and even his own countrymen could read and learn from.

But he didn't set about doing this till almost at the end of his life. By the time he finished his translation, it was in the year 1384, the same year in which he died, and had he remained alive, he surely would have been persecuted for his work.

In 1401, the Archbishop Arendelle fumed about Wycliffe, quote, the pearl of the gospel is scattered abroad and trodden underfoot by swine.

This pestilent and wretched John Wycliffe, of cursed memory, the son of the old serpent, unquote.

Though Wycliffe escaped persecution, his colleagues did not. And anyone who defended and fought to preserve

Wycliffe's translation was burned at the stake. Even 40 years after his death,

Wycliffe's bones were dug up, burned into ashes, and scattered into the

River Swift in England. Unfortunately for Rome, there was no book in England more popular than the

Wycliffe English Bible. To this day, his translation remains the most common manuscript literature preserved in Middle English.

An organization named in his honor, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, committed to translating the

Bible into every known language in the world. They have been instrumental in translating the

Bible into over 3 ,000 languages so far. 100 years after Wycliffe came

William Tyndale. He received a master's degree from Oxford, which allowed him to start studying theology.

But he quickly became frustrated with his courses, because they did not permit a systematic study of the

Bible, which was what he wanted to do. He wrote, quote, they have ordained that no man shall look on the scripture until he is modeled in heathen learning, eight or nine years, and armed with false principles with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the scripture, unquote.

Tyndale was much more learned than Wycliffe. Having become fluent in eight languages, including

Greek and Hebrew. He was accepted to the University of Cambridge, where he became a chaplain in the home of Sir John Walsh, and began to tutor

Walsh's children. This was in 1521, now four years after the start of the

Protestant Reformation. Tyndale taught Walsh's children things that angered his fellow clergymen, things that were contrary to the teachings of the

Roman Catholic Church, and especially Tyndale opposed the primacy of the

Pope. In Fox's Book of Martyrs, John Fox wrote of an exchange that Tyndale had with another clergy who said, we had better be without God's laws than the

Pope. And Tyndale replied, I defy the Pope and all his laws.

And if God spares my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the scriptures than thou dost.

Tyndale would later journey to London before coming to Germany, where he settled for a time in Wittenberg, the same place where Luther nailed his 95 theses just seven years before.

It was there that Tyndale began working on his own English translation of the New Testament, which he completed in 1525.

It was printed in Worms, the same city where Luther had been put on trial.

And then was smuggled into England and Scotland. In October of 1526, the translation was condemned by Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, the

Bishop of London, and almost every copy of Tyndale's New Testament was seized and burned at Paul's Cross, which was the open air pulpit at St.

Paul's Cathedral. Now, this did not have the effect that the bishop hoped that it would.

The very idea of burning the word of God made the people just repulsed by it.

And it ignited in their hearts a fire that would continue to burn in those early years of the

Protestant Reformation. These guys are willing to burn the word of God? And so the people recognized there was a problem here.

Nonetheless, Tyndale was condemned as a heretic, and he would eventually be betrayed by a friend into the hands of the authorities.

Even while in prison, Tyndale continued to work on translating the Old Testament from Hebrew into English.

Refusing to recant on his work or his words, as Tyndale was a staunch proponent of justification by faith alone, he was sentenced to death.

And on October 6, 1536, 488 years ago today,

Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake in Vilvoord, which is today in Belgium.

Before being strangled, it was said that his last words cried out with a loud voice were these,

Lord, open the king of England's eyes. And less than 70 years later,

King James VI commissioned a new English translation of the Bible, which would be completed and printed in 1611.

And it all began with courageous, God -fearing men willing to risk their lives for the word of God.

You have a Bible in your hand today, thanks to the Protestant Reformation.

I can't even begin to tell you the number of times that a smart Alec Romanist has said to me that Catholics gave us the

Bible. Nonsense. If Roman Catholics had their way, you'd be put to death for owning a

Bible and for owning one in a language other than Latin. Now, the church in Rome is obviously adapted to how ubiquitous the

Bible has become. Not only can you own many printed editions of the

Bible, you probably have more than one translation in your home. But you have it even right there on your smartphone.

One of the most popular podcasts in the world is a Roman Catholic read -through -the -Bible -in -a -year podcast.

So sure, they'll let Catholics read the Bible, as long as you listen to what they say that the

Bible says. In answering Luther's declarations, Pope Leo X appointed

Dominican theologian Sylvester Pireas to offer a response. And so concerning the power of the

Pope, Pireas said, quote, he who does not accept the doctrine of the

Church of Rome and the Pontiff of Rome as an infallible rule of faith from which the

Scriptures too draw their strength and authority is a heretic, unquote.

In other words, the Pope himself has primacy over the word of God. According to the

Council of Trent held in response to the Reformation, it was said in session four, quote, no one relying on his own skill shall in matters of faith and of morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, resting the sacred scripture to his own senses, presumed to interpret the said scripture contrary to that sense which

Holy Mother Church, whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the

Holy Scriptures, unquote. More recently, the Second Vatican Council held in the 20th century said the following in their doctrine on divine revelation called

De Verbum. They said, it is not from scripture alone that the church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed.

Therefore, both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same devotion and reverence, unquote.

Now, that might be what they say, but that's not what they mean. Again, any interpretation of the scripture is subject to the tradition of the church.

Therefore, the tradition is over the scripture itself. So sure, you can study the

Bible, but you can only believe what Rome tells you to believe. The Roman Catholic Church, under the

Pope, with his cardinals and bishops and priests and all their traditions, they believe that they hold greater authority than the word of God itself.

To them, Jesus has said, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?

As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men,

Mark 7, 6 -8. And as we go on, even through this series, you'll see that more and more as I will draw examples from the

Roman Catholic Church as to what they teach and impose upon people and how contrary it is to the word of God.

So having considered the role of the Bible in the Protestant Reformation, let's consider next what we mean when we use this term sola scriptura.

What does it mean and what does it not mean? And also the authority of scripture itself.

So we're considering the authority of scripture and what it means that it has authority over us and even over others.

But first of all, what is sola scriptura? What does it mean to believe in scripture alone?

Very simply, it means that the Bible, which we would agree is God's word, is our only chief, supreme, and ultimate authority.

There is no word higher than God's, even as it pertains to not only our faith, but the church, to our traditions, as it pertains even to the governing authorities, as it pertains to the existence and salvation of our very souls.

God's word alone has authority over all, and that word is written down in the 66 books that we call the

Bible. As scholar Michael Kruger defines it, sola scriptura is the conviction that the scriptures alone are the word of God.

I got into an exchange with a Roman Catholic just about a month ago in which he was ripping on the whole concept of the doctrine of sola scriptura.

And I just simply responded to him, and I said, do you believe the scriptures are the word of God? And he said, yes,

I believe that. And I said, that's really sola scriptura. That that's the word of God, and therefore being

God's word is authoritative over every other word, and we are to be subject to that word.

And he said, that's what I believe, that's what the Roman Catholic Church believes. I said, really? That's not my understanding.

And I'm arming myself with references that Roman Catholics use to reference tradition, but he goes ahead and offers up his own defense and says, tradition itself is the word of God.

I said, tradition's the word of God? Yes, and I tried to understand, so where does that end?

Like, you just basically, you call it tradition, and therefore it's God's word? How do you justify what belongs in tradition and what does not?

There are things that Roman Catholicism has said was tradition, and then later jettisoned that tradition. So did it stop being the word of God?

As we read earlier this year in 2 Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is breathed out by God.

There's nothing in the Bible that says all tradition is breathed out by God. Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This we affirm in our own confession. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Isaiah 40 verse 8 says, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our

God will stand forever. In Matthew 5 .18,

Jesus said, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

In Mark 13 .31, Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away.

In 1 Peter 1, 22 to 25, Peter said, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls. But the word of the

Lord remains forever. My friends, our traditions will rise and fall.

But it is the word of God that remains forever. And our traditions, whatever they may be, not all traditions are bad.

The very order of service that we have this morning is a tradition. But may our traditions be subject to what

God's word says. May we never try to elevate our tradition and put it with the word of God, lest we actually take

God's word and put it beneath our tradition. In Psalm 19, 7 through 11, we read, the law of the

Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the

Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the

Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the

Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the

Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the

Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.

Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned.

In keeping them, there is great reward. About these words,

Puritan John Bunyan wrote, the word of the Lord is called the fear of the Lord, verse 9, because it is the rule and directory of our fear.

For we know not how to fear the Lord in a saving way without the guidance and direction of the scriptures.

Psalm 138, verses one and two say, I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.

Before the gods, I sing your praise. I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Now, Rome would have you believe that this doctrine of sola scriptura is a relatively new invention, a fabrication of the

Protestant Reformation, but was not in any way held by any of the great theologians who came before.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In a letter to Jerome, who we learned wrote the

Latin Vulgate, Augustine said, I have learned to hold only the holy scripture as inerrant.

And many other such words Augustine said about the scriptures, fully affirming that he himself would have held to the doctrine of sola scriptura.

The early church fathers believed it. If you stop and think about it for two seconds, it's just common sense.

If the Bible is God's word, it alone is the highest word. It alone is without error.

And far be it from any man to ever claim his authority could be equal or higher.

Stating that the Pope's authority is higher makes the Pope an antichrist.

Now, in proclaiming sola scriptura, we're not professing solo scriptura, as if there can be no creeds or confessions, but the

Bible. You know, there are many denominations today that will say something like that. No creed, but Christ. Well, you just uttered a creed.

So congratulations. We read from a creed or a confession almost every

Sunday. We're also not saying that there are no other authorities to which we must be subject.

Just going through 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, we considered briefly how we are to be subject to the governing authorities on earth, which have been appointed by God.

There are even pastoral authorities, the elders in the church that we are supposed to be subject to.

You're supposed to be subject to the authority of your boss. Slaves be subject to your earthly masters.

And children, you are to be subject to the authority of your parents. Children, obey your parents in the

Lord, for this is right. What we are saying when we profess sola scriptura is that the scripture alone is the highest authority that governs and rules over all other authorities.

Now, it also does not mean that the scripture is therefore the authority on every single subject.

For not every subject is covered in scripture. You can't learn how to bake bread necessarily, bake a good bread by reading the

Bible, although some have tried. And you can go to the freezer section in the store and find that wonderful Ezekiel bread.

And I've always wondered if it's truly Ezekiel bread, are you baking it over dung? Because that's what

Ezekiel had to do. You're not gonna learn how to repair a car by reading the

Bible or learn rocket science, literally brain surgery. You can't learn that from reading the Bible. But whatever the

Bible speaks about, it is the highest authority over any of those subjects.

And we are to be subject to every other authority so long as that authority is subject to scripture.

So if your government orders you to do something that defies God, if your church elders go against the scriptures, even if your boss or your parents tell you to do something that would be disobedient to God, then our answer must be with the apostles in Acts 5 .29.

We must obey God rather than men. Scripture alone is supreme.

And scripture alone is sufficient. The Bible gives us all that we need to test all things according to the truth and to grow us in faith and in godliness.

There would have been no Protestant Reformation without the devotion to the scriptures as our highest authority.

But how do we know that the Bible is the trustworthy word of God?

Don't we need a church to tell us that we can trust the Bible? Do you need to turn to scholars, to priests?

Do we need a Pope? The first reason that we can know that the Bible is trustworthy is because it is self -authenticating.

It proves to be what it claims to be. It claims to be the word of God.

And it proves to be the word of God. As I heard one preacher say,

I've read many other books, but the Bible is the only book that reads me.

As John Calvin said, quote, scriptures authority may be established as certain and to banish all doubt indeed.

Scripture exhibits fully as clear evidence of its own truth as white and black things do of their color or sweet and bitter things do of their taste.

The sacred scriptures breathe something divine, unquote.

As John Owen argued, scripture speaks of itself as a lamp and a light and light authenticates itself.

You don't need to prove that light is light. I don't need to prove to you that there is light in this room.

You know that, it requires no evidence. It proves itself for what it is.

And so isn't it all the more fascinating that the scripture refers to itself over and over again as light?

As we read in Psalm 119, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the light of the gospel. The apostle

Peter said in 2 Peter 119, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

But if the scripture is so self -evident, my brethren, then why isn't everyone a

Christian? Shouldn't everyone then just automatically know that the Bible is the word of God?

Well, the Bible gives us the answer to that question as well. As the apostle Paul said to the

Corinthians, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Mind -blowing to consider that the very voice that spoke into nothing and said, let there be light, and it was so, is the same voice that spoke to the prophets and the apostles who wrote down the words that we have today in this book.

The very words of the creator of the universe himself, which we have in the

Bible. Ultimately, you know that the Bible is God's word because God himself has revealed this to you.

As we state in our own profession of faith, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the

Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.

As again, referencing John Calvin, he said, quote, it is a wicked falsehood that scripture's credibility depends on the judgment of the church.

Scripture, he said, has its authority from God, not from the church, unquote.

So even the church must be subject to this word. The church did not come up with this word.

As Michael Kruger had pointed out, we didn't invent canon. We discovered it.

We discovered which books were written down that were divinely authorized. And again, being self -authenticating, knew that these books were from God and these other books were not.

So these books were included in the canon and there were others that were excluded because they were not divinely inspired from God.

Calvin taught that if the scripture requires something else in order to give it authority, then that other thing becomes its supreme authority.

And we've already considered that with Roman Catholicism. Their tradition reigns over the scripture in their eyes.

You cannot truly know what the scripture says and means without the church. But the

Bible tells us that you cannot know what the Bible says without the

Holy Spirit. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter two, 1

Corinthians 2 .10. These things, Paul writes, God has revealed to us through the

Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the

Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the

Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

Let me stop there for a moment. What was going on with the Corinthians at the time that Paul was writing this to them is that they were boasting in themselves.

We see that from chapter one, boasting in what they knew or which teacher they followed.

And there was separation. There was disunity in the church because of their boastfulness.

They thought that they had found the next hot idea on the street. The Greeks, they love the next new philosophy.

And so here is this teacher named Jesus who's proclaiming this thing called the gospel.

And so I'm going to start believing that because now I've got something that's better than what the rest of the

Greeks were teaching. It wasn't that they believed it to glorify God. They believed it to glorify themselves.

Now this wasn't of all the Corinthians that were in this church, but Paul treated them as infants, as those who were not mature in faith because they thought this way.

They still thought from their flesh instead of thinking from the Spirit. And Paul is directing them. And if you're going to understand the word of God given to you, it takes the

Spirit of God to get it. For Paul goes on to say, look at verse 14.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

For who has understood the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Previously in 1 Corinthians 1 .18, it is said, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Our understanding of the scriptures even comes from God himself. To hear the gospel and be blown apart by it.

And to be filled with tears and to rejoice in God and to be looking forward to a hope that we have not yet seen.

All of this is by the Spirit of God working in our hearts. I do not need a pope to tell me that the

Bible is God's word. The scripture itself tells me that it is God's word.

And the Holy Spirit reveals to me its divine truthfulness. Like the light, the scripture evidences itself.

It reveals things unknown to me, except by the light of this word.

It reveals to me my sin. It reveals my need for a savior.

It reveals that Christ is that savior. It reveals the glory of God to me.

It reveals the promises of God that by faith in Jesus Christ, I'm forgiven my sins.

I'm no longer under the wrath of God. I'm not gonna perish because of my rebellion against God, because Jesus took the penalty of my sin upon himself when he died upon the cross.

And by faith in him, there is laid up for me a glorious and eternal reward.

I get to know God himself, the creator of the universe, through the pages of Holy Scripture.

And this proof is stronger than any external evidence. As Romans 8, 16 says, the

Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

I can't tell you the number of times that a person has come to me and has said, pastor gave him,

I saved. And we'll talk about that. We'll look for fruitfulness in that person's life.

There's a temptation in my own flesh to just popishly declare you saved. But I can't do that.

It is not my authority to declare that that person is saved. But I will say to that individual,

God does indeed want you to know that you are his.

He doesn't want you to be in mystery of it. What kind of father would

I be if I said to my children every day that I walk out the door and I come to the office, guys,

I'll see you later. Maybe, maybe you'll never see me again. Maybe I'll never come home.

What kind of father would I be if I said that to my children? But they have an assurance of my love for them.

And though I'm gonna depart for a few hours, daddy's gonna come home because daddy loves me.

And so the spirit says to us in 1 John chapter five, I have written these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life.

In 1 John 3, 1, how great the love the father has lavished upon us that we might be called the children of God and so we are.

In 1 John 5, 6, the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth.

Now, this is the supreme evidence of the truthfulness of the scripture, but it is not the only evidence.

In fact, John Calvin lays out other proofs which may be authenticating of the scripture to us.

We may also consider the coherence of the Bible. This is not a collected work of a bunch of jumbled thoughts.

And most of the time when you pick up some wise work, whether it's the Hindu works or the writings of Buddha or Confucius or otherwise, that's really what you get.

You get a bunch of confusing, confounding thoughts that are just kind of scribbled down and fit together and some of the stuff doesn't even make any sense.

But when we read the Bible, it does not contradict itself. It is consistent throughout.

There are also the miracles that are spoken about in scripture confirmed by eyewitness testimony.

The most prominent of those miracles being the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which the apostle

Paul testified in 1 Corinthians 15 was observed by more than 500 brothers and said to the

Corinthians at that time, many of whom are still alive, go talk to them about it. Yeah, I saw him. After he was put to death, rose again from the dead, was wandering around talking with us and eating with us for 40 days.

Then there is also the matter of fulfilled prophecy. The scriptures made claims about Jesus hundreds of years before they happened and all of those prophecies were fulfilled in the

Savior and he is still fulfilling prophecies, in fact, on our behalf. Can you try to predict the birth of a person 500 years before it happens?

This person is gonna be born from this line, from this tribe on this day in this town.

Can you do that? The Bible did and Jesus fulfilled it. It is an impossible prediction, but only

God could do it. Ultimately, we have the faith that we have because God's word by its nature proves itself to be true.

We can be confident that we can translate this word into other languages, we can distribute

Bibles all around the world and people will read it and be saved because as Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

And James 1, 18 says, of his own will, he brought you forth by the word of truth.

You came to faith in Jesus Christ because the gospel was proclaimed to you.

Now, of course, and I know that I don't have to tell you this, but men wrote the Bible. God did not reach down with his hand and give us the 750 ,000 words that make up the

Bible that you hold in your hand. True, God wrote the 10 commandments in stone with his own hand before Moses, but it was

Moses who wrote them down in the scripture. God's hand wrote on King Belshazzar's wall, meenie, meenie, teckle, parson, but it was

Daniel who wrote these words down in scripture. Jesus, God incarnate, he himself did not write in his own hand any word of scripture, but commissioned his apostles to do so.

By the voice of God or through angelic messengers or through the spirits leading, many divine and prophetic words were proclaimed or revealed to men and to women, but God used specifically appointed men, his apostles and prophets to write down in scripture what he has said.

As 2 Peter 1, 20 to 21 says, no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. The Bible is made up of 66 books written over a span of 1 ,500 years by 40 different men on three different continents in three different languages.

These men were anywhere from farmers to kings, rich and poor. Some were highly educated, others not so much.

Yet the Bible consistently tells the same story. It speaks of man's sinfulness and need for a savior and that Christ is that savior.

And no one but God could have guided men to write the incredible, mind -blowing, earth -shattering things that are contained in his word.

And so as we have considered the authority of the Bible, if we know that it is authoritative, not just for us, but for every other person, then what is our response going to be to it?

We can be confident that the Bible is God's word. It is true and it is our authority. And if it is without error, and it is the word that was given by the creator of the universe himself, then it has authority over all people whether they believe it or not.

By this word, all kings and rulers and governors and presidents and lawmakers should make their laws and govern their people.

By this word, a man should lead his family. By this word, a person should live their lives.

And so with that, let me conclude by providing five practical applications of this doctrine that we call

Sola Scriptura. Application number one, to know

God. How else can we know God but through his word that is given to us?

There are many people out there that will say something to the effect of, I love God, I'm a spiritual person,

I love Jesus. He was a great teacher and a great prophet. But I don't really read the

Bible all that much. And it'd be like a husband saying, I love my wife, I don't really like listening to her.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. And if you were to hear someone say that, you would doubt the first part of his claim,

I love my wife, I'm not so sure that I believe you when you say that. So how else can we know

God except by listening to his word? Psalm 910 says, those who know your name put their trust in you, for you,

O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Jesus prayed in John 17 three, this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true

God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Men like Andy Stanley will try to teach things that will be like we can unhitch ourself from the

Old Testament. Or the thing that we really need to believe is just that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

That's what our faith needs to be built upon, not upon the scriptures, that's what Stanley will say. I mean, the rebuttal to that is just very, very simple.

How do you even know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because the

Bible says so. And so it is the word by which we come to know

God. Not through cultural Christianity. Although God can certainly use that as an avenue to bring us to a hearing of and a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But cultural Christianity doesn't bring us to God. The Bible is how we know

God. Second application that we can make from this, first of all, to know

God, secondly, to know God's will. In Ephesians 5, 17, the apostle

Paul said, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. In John 14, 21,

Jesus said, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

Another common question that I'm asked as a pastor is, Pastor Gabe, what is God's will for my life?

And I know when a person asks that question, they probably wanna know, what career should I have?

Where should I live? What tax bracket should I be in? Or a person could be asking me, who is it that I'm supposed to marry?

And so they're probably a little surprised when I respond with 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is

God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Well, that wasn't really what I wanted to hear.

I wanted to have my fortune told. But the Bible is not a collection of fortune cookie sayings.

It is through scripture that we know what God's will is. Now, there's answers to all of these other questions.

Certainly, you can find wisdom through many counselors, as said in the book of Proverbs. But there's not a verse in the

Bible you're gonna be able to open up and point to and say, you should go live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Lucasso Grand, Arizona.

Was it because I found that in the Bible that I knew our family was supposed to move here? Might be careful because you could open up the

Bible and accidentally put your finger on Sodom and Gomorrah. So it is not the

Bible that will tell us plainly, this is where you should live, here's who you should marry or otherwise, but it will give us the wisdom to know what decisions that we can make so that in those decisions that we make, we know that we are in the will of God.

So the application of scripture, the application of this sola scriptura is so that we may know

God, secondly, that we may know God's will. Number three, so that we know good and abhor evil.

In Isaiah 1, 16 to 17, God said to his children Israel, cease to do evil and learn to do good.

Ephesians 5, 10 to 11, he says to the church, try to discern what is pleasing to the

Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Again to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 21 to 22, test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

Romans 16, 19, be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

And as Hebrews 12, 14 says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

Lord. So how may we orient our lives and live in such a way that is pleasing unto

God, loving that which is good, hating that which is evil, doing that which is holy, staying away from those things that are unholy and ungodly.

We know it because of what the scripture tells us, how the scripture says we should live our lives.

So in application of sola scriptura, we know God, we know God's will, we know good and abhor evil.

Number four, we know the scriptures to share God's word with others.

Something that you'd talked about in Sunday school today, the great commission in Matthew chapter 28,

Jesus saying to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And how do we know what Jesus taught to observe that he commanded? It's in the

Bible. And lo, I am with you always, Jesus says, even to the very end of the age.

Romans 1 .16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

And as we read in 1 Thessalonians 2 .13, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

And so we need to know it, that we may teach it to others, that they too may come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Finally, why study the scripture? Number five, because God commands us to.

As God told the children of Israel, lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul.

Deuteronomy 11 .18, he said to Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1 .8. And so the things that we have heard in the word of Christ, may we be diligent to study those things and not just be hearers of the word as James talks about in James chapter one.

We'd be hearers of the word and then we go away and forget it and then we deceive ourselves.

Don't be hearers only, he says, but do what it says. And so we desire to know

God's word, his will for our lives. We desire to love good and abhor evil.

We desire to share this word with others. And we do so not only because we love it, but even because he commands us to.

And his command is not burdensome, it is because he loves us that he has told us to read his word.

For we learn of God's love for us in these pages, in the scriptures, which we so love and cherish and our entire faith, our church, our love for one another is built on this.

As we have heard in the gospel proclamation of John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

You have heard the gospel, believe the gospel and be saved.

♪ Age, he changes not the cross ♪ ♪

His love not trusting place, his truth not...

♪ You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again