It Is Written: The First Principle of Scripture Alone | Matthew 4:1-11

Beloved, let's go ahead and turn to our in our Bibles to the gospel of Matthew.

The gospel according to Matthew chapter 4 beginning in verse 1.

Matthew chapter 4 verse 1. God speaks to us and says,

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him,

If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said,

It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him,

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.

Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Go, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the

Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began to minister to him.

This is God's Word. Amen. So beloved, here we come to a very important passage in the wilderness temptation of Christ, our

Lord, and before I jump into this I want to recall that last week, the passages that we read and that I preached through, they told us a story of how

God's providence and means of how he gave his

Word to us, how he gave his Word to us, to his people, the divine canon of Scripture.

And God providentially guaranteed that he would preserve his words by writing them down for us, making them permanent and final, and equip his church both then and now to not only recognize them as God's words, but also to receive them.

To receive them, read them, understand, believe them all, because the

Word of God reigns as our first principle for all our faith and life, all of it.

That through the perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures, we might also have hope back then and now.

And so our first principle, the

Scriptures, is powerfully illustrated and practiced by our Lord and Master in this very passage, when facing the enemy of all that is good and true, the devil, in his wilderness temptation.

This was a critical moment in the life of Christ when he was tempted and tested in order to satisfy the conditions that Adam failed in the garden.

Like we read from the catechism question, the covenant of works was broken, but Christ satisfied that covenant through his perfect life, righteous life, and by not heeding to the temptations of the devil.

So, notice carefully how Jesus responds to the devil every single time.

What does Jesus ultimately appeal to each and every time?

He appeals to what is written, to Scripture, rightly, logically, consistently understood, every single time.

Take note of that. Take careful note of that. Now, you'll also see that the wily devil responds with Scripture as well.

And in verse 6, he says, you know, he takes him up, he takes him up and he says,

If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the building. Throw yourself down, for it is written,

He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

He's basically trying to tempt Jesus to tempt God. He wants him to tempt

God. And to provoke him. Calvin has a helpful commentary on this, where he explains that if, what, in essence, what

Satan is bringing up the matter of angelic protection, his intention is to make Christ walk recklessly into any danger that comes along.

What he says amounts to this, If you throw yourself at death in defiance of God, to tempt

God, with arrogant presumption, as if God were some genie that is somehow obligated to heed every selfish, sinful, beckoned call, then his angels will come and defend your life.

It's a, it's a mockery of God's word. It's a twisting of God's word, obviously.

And, you know, my wife and I were on a date and we saw the latest

Mission Impossible movie. And, you know, it was, it was a very interesting movie.

Because in it, there was a lot of biblical themes. And one of them was that a lot of the bad guys kept saying, it is written.

It is written. And there's this AI software that's taking over the world. And it says, it is written.

What I have determined is written. That's, that's what it's, what they mean. The outcome, the future, is inevitable because it is written by him, by the entity, by the bad guys, by those who think they are

God. And so the fight, they try to fight the entity and all this stuff, and there's a line that says, this is, the entity is the anti -God who thinks it's

God. And so, but this, there's so many weird just contradictions in the movie because in a very twisted fit of irony, the movie ends by, with an utter rejection of God, with an anti -God philosophy of self -gods, of the self is

God, of we are our own gods. That's how the movie ends.

There's a line that says, this life is not some quirk of fate. This was your calling, your destiny, a destiny that touches every living thing.

It's almost making Tom Cruise like a messianic figure. Like it or not, we are the masters of our fate.

Nothing is written. Nothing is written. And our cause, however righteous, pales in comparison to the impact of our effect, to our effect.

Any hope for a better future comes from willing that future into being, from self -willing it into being.

A future reflecting the measure of good within ourselves.

So it's like, wow, this is utter existentialist blasphemy.

Okay, and it's so ironic because they're calling out the entity as this anti -God thing. It's like, this is more anti -God than the entity.

We are our own God. Nothing is written. We determine our own future. And this is what the existentialist philosophers taught and which many secular institutions and schools teach even our young ones today.

There's a similar famous poem by William Ernest Henley called

Invictus, Unconquerable or Unconquered. The last stanza of that poem reads, it matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll.

He's referring to the Bible, what is written, right? I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul. It is total, utter rejection of God as God.

And are erecting ourselves in the place of God. And needless to say, you know, and there was a there's a blatant contradiction there because you see in the movie it refers to destiny and yet it says no, but we we write our own future.

It's like, well, then there's no, that doesn't make sense. Destiny means it is written.

It implies that it is written. And this is the same exact lie of the devil himself, right?

Just make God your genie that serves your own ends apart from his will. This is what the devil tempted

Christ with in the desert. In other words, make yourself God apart from the one true

God. He's even telling Jesus to do that apart from God.

And this is a flashback to the garden, right? The same temptation that he gave to our first parents. You will be like God if you eat the forbidden fruit.

Even though, so even though the devil did say it is written, he ended up profoundly twisting scripture to make it utterly contradict

God's meaning and purpose and ends to satisfy our own ends, his own ends.

Nevertheless, what did Jesus say? Jesus said it is written in that one exchange, not once, not twice, beloved, not three times, was it four times?

Four times, three or four times he said in that same exchange, it is written.

Why? Because the God who made the world and all things in it, since he is

Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.

He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined, having determined, predestined, having written, you might say, their appointed times and boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek

God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and exist, as some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man.

I am the captain of my fate. That's the craft and thought of man right there, utterly contradicting what is written, what truly is written by God.

But there's more, therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance,

God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because why?

He has fixed a day in which he will judge, he will determine the final destination of the world in righteousness through a man whom he determined, having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead.

Amen. That's from Acts 17, the famous discourse there.

So beloved, this subject matter of scripture is being attacked all around us, from the latest movies to the latest music, even churches are undermining and attacking this the supreme first principle that God has given us.

The principle of scripture alone, the first principle of scripture alone, the very principle that Christ illustrated for us in his exchange with the devil.

So I want to continue addressing some of these objections to the doctrine of scripture alone and for us to understand the normative authority and what it means in the life of the church before we continue on to the

Old Testament canon. Now, recall chapter one of the our

London Baptist Confession of Faith. The holy scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule for saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence give such clear testimony to the goodness, wisdom, and power of God that they leave people without excuse, yet they are not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and his will that is necessary for salvation.

Therefore, it pleased the Lord to reveal himself at various times in different ways and to declare his will to the church to ensure the preservation and propagation of the truth.

Key phrase there. And to establish and support the church against what, beloved?

Against human corruption, the malice of Satan, the malice of Satan and the world.

He committed his complete revelation unto writing, wholly unto writing.

The scriptures are therefore absolutely indispensable. Our first principle for God's former ways of revealing his will to his people have now ceased, ended.

Amen. This is a brilliant summary of what scripture teaches regarding scripture as our first principle.

It is so important for us to know this, not just for knowing the truth, but also to fight against the corruptions and the errors of human, fleshly corruption and distortion and the malice of Satan, just like Jesus did, and the world.

Gordon Clark has a very good comment to say about this first chapter. Several creeds and confessions, especially the

Westminster confession and our Baptist confession, state the doctrine of scripture at the very start, at the very beginning.

Why is that? The explanation is quite simple. Our knowledge of God comes from the

Bible. Our knowledge of everything comes from the Bible, of God and of everything else, is grounded in the

Bible. We may assert that every proposition is true because God thinks it so, and we may follow

Stephen Charnock, the Puritan, in all his great detail in his writings, but the whole is based on scripture.

It is true because it agrees with scripture. Because remember, in Christ, beloved, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not some, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This is from an excellent article called God and Logic, which I heartily commend to your reading by Gordon Clark.

Scripture is our first principle, beloved. So, one of the main theses here for this message is that Christ's encounter with the devil is an important object lesson for us, an important object lesson for us, this encounter, because it illustrates and teaches us what our first principle of knowing and of living is, of knowing and living.

Our foundation for all truth and our ultimate authority, it is what

Jesus said, is written. It what is written, scripture alone.

That is what is written. That is what Jesus quoted against the devil and rebuked the devil powerfully, not with signs and wonders and with miracles.

The devil was the one that pulled all these miracles on him and took him to the pinnacle of the temple and showed him all the stuff that he had and Jesus, he did nothing but simply the ultimate authority of God's written word.

It is also, this encounter is also an object lesson that warns us. It warns us that there are other competing first principles outside of and contrary to what is written, which is obvious, right?

The world is very evil. Like the hymn says, the world is full of error and there are many who try to supplant or supersede or make something equal to scripture, to what is written.

Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy with popes and church councils and so on.

Other books, other writings that are not scripture, other teachings, other heresies that are not scripture.

But the doctrine of scripture alone, beloved, rightly understood does not contradict scripture, rightly understood, because scripture teaches it to us as we are seeing even in this very passage.

But that same sly serpent tempts us to both question the final authority of God's word.

Remember, what did he tell Adam and Eve? Hath God really said? Did God really say?

And also he tempts us to question and also he tempts us to depend on other authorities that contradict

God instead. He tempts us to do both things. In that encounter with Adam and Eve, he tempted them to doubt

God's word and to depend on his word instead. Right? And they were deceived by it.

Eve was deceived by it. And fell by it. The devil also uses religious antichrists.

There are worldly antichrists and religious antichrists, which the apostles repeatedly warned against, repeatedly warned against, who claim to speak authoritatively for God.

Right? They claim to be God's mouthpiece. They claim to be equal to or above scripture.

Does that sound familiar? Right? The popes, all these traditions from false religions.

They will say things like, don't you need another infallible authority besides God to know for certain what the canon of scripture is?

Don't you need a living guide? A living authority to guide the church?

As if scripture itself wasn't alive and powerful and a two -edged sword. Amen? So, this is a small sample of the many attacks that plague us today.

And there is a reason for it, because scripture is powerful and sufficient. It was good enough for Jesus, and it should be more than good enough for us.

Because my words, Jesus said, are what? Spirit and life and truth.

So, this is the question of normative authority in the church.

The question of normative authority in the life of the church. Again, many propose other normative authorities that basically override the

Bible. You need to have a pope to tell you what to do. You need to have a magisterium.

A council of churches, of church fathers to tell you what the

Bible teaches and says. Definitively, you need other normative authorities equal to or equally inspired and infallible besides scripture.

Normative authority to define our terms, is authority that has the power to bind the conscience, to bind our conscience, and to direct us to what we ought to do, to command us to what we ought to do.

That is normative authority. Now, with respect to the church, normative authority speaks to all matters of faith in life.

All matters of faith in life. Now, the assumption behind this common objection to scripture alone is that scripture alone is obviously not sufficient to rule as the ultimate normative authority for the church.

You need something more. You need something else that's infallible or that's equally authoritative to tell you what to do or to tell you what the

Bible means or to give you what the Bible is to tell you what the Bible is.

So, there's a problem though. How do you know that any other extra biblical authority is the supposedly true, correct, infallible one?

How do you test that? How do you know? Naming it and claiming it ain't gonna cut it, right?

I'm sorry, but you know these false prosperity heretics are heretics for a reason. Naming it and claiming it doesn't make it so, doesn't make it true.

Contrary to what these movies and these philosophers say, you know,

I am the captain of my fate. I write my own destiny. That's false. You know, the

LGBT agenda and thinking yourself into a man or a woman doesn't make it so.

You are what you are and you are what God wrote you down to be.

And people obviously claw and gnash their teeth at that because it shows that we are utterly dependent upon God for everything.

Just like we read from the discourse in Acts 17. So, that's the problem.

How do you know that they are what they are saying is true? In other words, requiring another infallible authority to tell you what scripture is or what it teaches or to guide the church does not solve the problem at all.

And not only that, but in every single case, the authorities that have been proposed by others, like Rome, like the

Eastern Orthodox Church, like the Mormon Church and Jehovah's Witnesses, in every single one of those cases, they make matters worse because these so -called infallible authorities contradict themselves and God's Word.

Even their own Bibles and their own teachings. They contradict it utterly. The most basic doctrines in scripture, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone.

You need works. You need sacraments of penance. You need all these other things. They confuse law and gospel, the most basic distinction in all of scripture, among other things.

So, that only makes matters worse because, like Jesus said, told the

Pharisees, you nullify God's Word and power with your own traditions for the sake of your traditions by replacing it with your traditions.

And so, worse yet, beloved, this was very interesting when

I found this out that the Roman Catholic Church did not officially dogmatically define their canon of scripture until the

Council of Trent in 1546. 1546.

And it was in response to the Protestant Reformation. It was because of the Reformation that they did that.

Beloved, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, similarly, did not really define their canon until the

Council of Jerusalem in 1672. And even then, the canon they defined is not the larger canon that they use now.

So it's utterly, it's utterly inconsistent and confusing. So what then?

For 1 ,500, 1 ,600 years, the Christians before then did not confidently know what God's Word was?

This is utter nonsense. These popes and councils that so often contradict themselves.

By contrast, by contrast, Jesus, the Apostles, and the

Reformation response is that scripture alone is the ultimate normative authority for all our faith in life.

It is scripture that is the normative authority, the ultimate normative authority, both for believers individually and for the church corporately in all cases.

Scripture is always the final normative authority. This is what the

Bible teaches us. It is our first principle, just like it is for Jesus, the

Apostles, the Bereans, the Reformers, etc. The London Baptist, our

Baptist Confession of Faith says once again, the first chapter, the supreme judge, the supreme normative authority by which all religious controversies are to be settled and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and individual thinkers, private spirits are to be examined can be none other than the holy scriptures delivered by the

Spirit of God. In the verdict of scripture, in the judgment of scripture, our faith is finally determined, is finally determined.

Amen? Or in the words of Martin Luther, I am bound by the scriptures

I have quoted. My conscience is captive, is bound to what?

To the word of God. That is the principle of the scriptures alone as the normative, the ultimate normative authority for believers and the life of the church.

It is the written test. It is written test. It is the scripture test, the same principle that the

Bereans and the Apostles and Jesus exercise, and the prophets of old exercise. Scripture is our supreme court.

That's really a good analogy to what normative authority means.

Scripture is our supreme court because God alone is

Lord of the conscience and has left it free from obligations to human doctrines and commandments, which are in any way contrary to his word or not contained in it.

If it disagrees with scripture in any way or is not in scripture, cannot be deduced from scripture, it is not binding, it is not authoritative, and it should be rejected in most cases.

Again, our Baptist confession masterfully, masterfully summarizes these principles for us.

That's why we encourage you to read them, beloved, and study them. They help us to understand the scriptures themselves.

We can only trust God himself, beloved, and the means he has revealed to us.

Only God and the means that he has revealed and given to us. And if God is true, then no, not one thing he reveals to us is false or contradictory.

That's how we test it. If something is false or contradictory, it's not from God. Right? This is what

Luther at one point called in that same speech, clear reason.

Unless I am convinced by scripture and by clear reason, logic, internal and external consistency with scripture.

This is the other means that God has given us in order to understand the scriptures correctly.

It's not by what church councils and popes and other traditions of men might say.

It is what scripture teaches us logically, consistently, without contradiction.

Because all scripture is logically, consistently true.

And it teaches us to discern truth from error, right from wrong, to judge men, doctrine, councils, and councils.

All other opinions of men and ancient writers like the confession says. Because God, who is the source of prophesying and truth, is not a

God of confusion, of contradiction, of error, right?

That's the devil. But and of and of confusion and of disorder, but of peace and order.

As is the practice in all the churches, all the churches of the saints, of God's people.

It's 1 Corinthians 14 .33. There is only, and remember, beloved, there can only be one first principle.

There can only be one first principle. It is scripture alone.

And now you might think, well, somebody might object, well, wait a minute, you just said scripture and logic, scripture and reason.

No. Scripture and reason are not two first principles, because God and his, but they are one.

They are one principle. Not two, but one. Gordon Clark explains for us here.

God and logic are one and the same first principle, because John wrote that the logos, the logic, is

God. In John 1. The logos of God, the logic of God, the wisdom of God, the reason of God, is

God. They are one and the same. That is mind -blowing.

This is powerful, beloved. And besides that, we cannot presuppose

God, or rather, we cannot presuppose the Bible, apart from logic either, because God and his word are both true, logical, and consistent.

God is the logos. He is the author. He is the eternal logos.

He is the eternal logic, the eternal wisdom, the eternal reason.

That is why the Bible alone is our first principle, because the laws of logic are embedded in the scriptures.

They are our foundation, because it is, it defines, the scriptures define who

God is for us and is logically coherent. Clark also says,

Right? The laws of logic are clearly there, even in the sayings of Jesus himself.

Not in the same time and in the same sense.

These are the laws of logic, and the Bible teaches them. So, as consistent

Protestants, confessing consistent Protestants, we also do not seek to prove our first principle.

We assume it. We assume the scriptures as our starting point, because scripture is our infallible source of truth and authority.

There is no higher authority. We can't prove the scriptures with anything else, because there's nothing else higher to prove it by.

That's our starting point. We thus do not try to prove scripture with any other authorities, because they are all lesser authorities.

Whether it's science, or history, or emotions, or pietism, or councils, or magisteriums, or popes, it doesn't matter.

None of those are greater than scripture. None of those are above the written words of God, because scripture is the ultimate source of truth.

Our axiom, in logic, it's called our axiom, our first principle, our starting point, and it defines, and grounds, and accounts for everything else.

All our other knowledge, our faith, our life, our doctrine, our morals, everything, who

God is, comes from the writings, the sacred writings. However, we can use both internal and external evidences, including

God's use of means, like his prophets, apostles, miracles, etc.,

and many other historical witnesses and evidences, to confirm and to demonstrate the validity and consistency of our principle, our first principle, of scripture alone, and of our canon, of the protestant canon, with internal and external consistency throughout all of scripture, the whole counsel of God.

I love how our baptist confession, once again, puts it in chapter one, section five.

We may be influenced and persuaded by the testimony of the church of God to hold a high and reverent regard for the holy scriptures.

Moreover, the glory of its contents, the efficacy of its doctrine, the majesty of its style, the logical argument,

I mean, the illogical agreement and argument, you could also say, among all its parts, the consent of the whole, is the old

English, the expanse of the whole, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, the full revelation it gives of the way, the only way for human salvation, together with many other incomparable excellencies, and its complete perfection.

All these arguments provide abundant evidence, not proof, you don't prove it, but you can evidence it, that it is indeed the word of God.

Yet, notwithstanding this, our full persuasion and assurance of its infallible truth and divine authority comes from what, beloved?

From the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word itself in our hearts.

Amen. So, although there be many evidences and witnesses and arguments for the divine authority and infallibility of scripture, and the veracity, the truth of the scriptures, nevertheless, the

Holy Spirit must grant us the gift of faith, the regenerating gift of faith, to believe them, to receive them, and accept them as true.

Just as Christ told Peter, he revealed to Peter, that flesh and blood did not reveal this to you,

Peter, that is, that Jesus is the Christ, but my Father who is in heaven.

Only God can grant us ultimately faith and trust in his word, no matter, even though it is abundantly self -attesting, that it is true and the word of God.

So, God uses, we're seeing here, a system of checks and balances. He uses various means, and they all play a vital part for how we receive and believe and live by the truth of his word.

Now, there's another major objection to our doctrine of scripture alone.

Another major one is that, well, but, how do you settle, how do you settle competing interpretations of scripture?

I mean, if you have, if you have different understandings, who's to say who's right and who's wrong, right?

I mean, one person says this, another says that, they don't agree.

So, you still need a supreme court outside of scripture, such as a hierarchy of popes, church councils, etc.,

to finally settle matters in the life of the church, practically speaking. This is what they claim, like the

Church of Rome, the Eastern Church, etc., and many others. What should our answer to this be, beloved?

The answer is a resounding no. It is a no. You settle all these matters with the most logical and contextually sound interpretation that harmonizes with the scriptures.

That is how you settle disagreements, both in the immediate context of scripture and the ultimate context of the whole counsel of God.

In other words, whose interpretation is the most consistent, internally consistent, and harmonious with what the

Bible teaches? Do you agree with what the Bible teaches? If so, then your interpretation is authoritative.

It's binding. Do you disagree with it at any point? Then it's wrong. It's wrong.

It's not binding. God cannot contradict himself.

Scripture cannot and does not contradict itself. It must be logically consistent with all the propositions and doctrines of scripture, all the statements of scripture, all the commands of scripture.

For God is not a God of confusion, beloved, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

He cannot lie. He is the God of truth, the Lord God of truth. So in the other words of Luther, unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures and by clear reason, for I do not trust in the

Pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves.

Meaning what, beloved? That they are therefore false. They are false.

That's the logic test. That's the Logos test. That's another name for the same test.

The scripture test, the Logos test. I should make a shirt out of that.

Take the logic test, the Logos test. How do you know what's true?

By the Logos test. So, another axiom here, a very important principle for us.

Not only can we not go beyond what is written, we cannot contradict what is written either.

Right? We cannot go beyond what is written, and we cannot contradict what is written either.

That is the Logos test, the logic test, the scripture test, the scripture, the

Jesus test, the it is written test, and the do not go beyond what is written test.

They are all extensions of the same principle of scripture alone. Remember, remember, beloved, when they encountered the teaching of the apostles, the teaching of the apostles themselves, the

Bereans did not appeal to anything else. They did not appeal to church councils or to popes who didn't exist back then unless you want to count diatrophies as a first pope.

He was a very bad guy. Or to church fathers. But what did they appeal to?

They appealed to what was written by God himself, to the scriptures, and to clear reason, to logical consistency.

Why? Because they logically compared and examined the scriptures daily to confirm what?

Whether these things that the apostles were preaching were so. It was to confirm that those things were so, beloved.

Besides, contrary to Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy and all these other traditions, how do we know what the true church is anyway?

Again, it's the same question. How do you know what the true church is? What is it?

Who defines the church? Where is the church defined? Is it in popes and councils and church fathers?

No, beloved. It's defined by scripture alone. Scripture alone defines it and all other authorities had better agree with it.

Otherwise, it's false. That is what you see, the principle of scripture alone in scripture, in Christ's encounters, in the apostolic encounters, in the

Bereans, in all of these areas. That is what you see all throughout.

The Bible rules all other human authority including church authority, including church authority.

Now this further begs the question too, how do you know which church council is inspired?

If any, if there are inspired church councils and there's non -inspired church councils, how do you distinguish them?

How do you know which one is which? Which, as Luther aptly put it, have often erred and contradicted themselves.

How on earth do you tell if they're even inspired? The short of it, the biblical answer, is that church councils are not infallible unless they were breathed out by God himself, by his spirit, and written down under the original apostolic ministry.

That's the only way a church council could have been infallible and breathed out by God.

And even those councils recorded in scripture were subordinated to, were submitted to the scriptures by the apostles themselves, because they appealed to the scriptures.

They simply applied what was already written to the issues at hand. That's what the church councils did in the council of Jerusalem and so on.

Extra -biblical church councils are lesser authorities at best therefore, insofar and only insofar as they agree with the ultimate authority, the normative authority of scripture alone.

Beloved, we as confessing protestants nevertheless, we not to go too off base here and lose our balance, we do nevertheless believe that we have other legitimate normative authorities in the life of the church and of believers.

We do. That's what creeds are, and confessions, and catechisms, elders, and pastors, and church discipline, and even church councils.

But scripture is supreme over all of them.

All of them. This is God's spiritual system of checks and balances that He has instituted for us.

This is so important to understand. We cannot simply rely on any one thing.

We need a variety of means that God has given us rightly understood with scripture at the top of it, because scripture is the ultimate normative authority, period.

However, the spirit -led church is another normative authority, a lesser secondary authority, insofar as it agrees with scripture, because it is also subject to the scriptures.

And believers are likewise subject to the same scriptures, and are instructed by scripture to also judge for themselves, even apart from churches and church councils, although not completely by themselves, right?

As if they were the only, oh, it's just me and my Bible in a tree, in order to congregate in a true local church, to find and congregate in a true local church, okay?

That's the checks and balances that God has given His people, has given us. Scripture is the ultimate normative authority.

The spirit -led church is a secondary authority, subject to the scriptures. And believers are likewise subject to scripture, and are instructed by scripture to judge for themselves, and determine, though not completely by themselves, they should agree with the testimony of the historic church, as a guide to understand scripture rightly, and in order to find and congregate in a true church.

That is the balance that we need to have, beloved. And so many people get it wrong. So many people over -rely or over -extend one area, and they lose their balance in the other.

This is where you get misrepresentations of solo scriptura. Oh, that we just need the Bible and nothing else.

False. That is false. We need other authorities. You cannot preach to yourself, beloved.

You need God -ordained means to have somebody qualified, ordained to preach and teach you the

Bible. That's what God says. That's what His word says. And that's what we must appeal to and live by.

So as believers, we must judge for ourselves whether a church is true or false, whether a teaching is sound or not.

Not by our feelings, not by our emotions, or extra -biblical traditions, but by examining it logically with and against the scriptures.

And by using the historic, faithful, and living church of God that is most consistent with scripture, to guide our understanding and application of scripture.

Okay? Very important that we understand this principle, beloved. As believers, we must judge for ourselves.

The Bible says that repeatedly. Jesus and the apostles repeatedly said this. We have to judge certain matters for ourselves, determined for ourselves, because we are responsible for what we believe.

Nobody else is responsible for what we believe. We as elders are responsible for what we teach you, but you are responsible for believing and receiving the truth and discerning it as a truth, just like the

Bereans did. So, and to judge whether teaching is sound or not.

Not by anything but examining it logically with the scriptures, and also by using the historic, faithful, living testimony of the church that is most consistent with scripture.

Most consistent, which is why, beloved, we are Reformed Baptists. That's why we adhere to the

Reformed tradition, because it is the best expression of what the

Bible teaches and what the church has handed down to us. The sound doctrine.

And because it guides our understanding and application of the scriptures themselves. Because these are the means that God has ordained and appointed for us and given us.

Amen. And we know who belongs to the church likewise, because of the criteria that scripture gives us.

Because God's word defines the church and defines the marks of the true church and of the true believer.

The church of Christ upholds and preserves the truth in the world, because God's spirit indwells them and governs them according to the scriptures.

And the Protestant confessions have defined for us these things. How do you know what a true church is?

Well, does it preach the word of God faithfully? Does it administer the sacraments, the baptism in the

Lord's Supper, rightly? Does it administer church discipline? The three basic marks of a true church, beloved.

Likewise, the marks of a true believer. Do they believe the true gospel? And does their profession agree with their lifestyle?

Right? That's what scripture teaches us. Now, I need to clarify something here.

As we begin to close out today's message, I want to clarify something that I said previously.

Because I mentioned that our own interpretation of scripture is not the final authority, because it can be wrong or contradictory.

Our own interpretation of scripture is not necessarily the final authority, because it can be wrong or contradict itself, right?

Or contradict the scriptures. However, when the interpretation of scripture is correct and logically consistent with the rest of scripture, then it is binding on our conscience.

It is a normative authority for us as believers. That's what preaching is.

When men who are qualified and called by God preach the word, they are binding consciences with the word of God and teaching it to us.

Now, church leadership, which is qualified male elders and deacons, men only, amen?

Beloved, we're not feminists here. We're the anti -feminist church. Not because we hate women, but because we fear

God and seek to do what he says. Male qualified elders and deacons approved by the church, by the majority of the church, also function as God -ordained normative authority for the local church, right?

The ordained elders of the church are responsible for teaching and for upholding what they teach, for maintaining decency, order, and sound doctrine in the local church.

And believers need to respect their authority. But listen carefully, beloved, even when they disagree with the elders, okay?

This is very important to not misunderstand. Because even the purest churches under heaven are subject to both mixture and error.

All churches are subject to some degree of mixture and error. Not everybody's perfect because there's no infallible church out there.

Only the scriptures are infallible. But the infallible spirit guides the church and reforms the church according to the word.

That's what church discipline is for. It's necessary because we sin. We believers sin, including elders.

We sin. We all sin. And even the purest churches may still teach things that are false.

That's the balance that we have to maintain carefully here. So believers can and should reason, should reason with the elders and settle disagreements with scripture.

And both parties should be willing to accept biblical correction. But the believer or church member cannot usurp or violate or disrespect the local authority of the ordained normative authority of the elders in the local church.

Even if the elders are wrong. Okay, and we have to be careful with how we walk this out.

Because many churches get this wrong. They either abuse it or they neglect it. And they allow sin to run rampant.

You may have to accept the decision of the elders when you disagree. And not because it's also said to be schismatic or divisive.

Or to disrespect. Again, the bible says that we must submit to the elders, right? We have to submit to them respectfully.

But, and if you cannot in good conscience submit to the decision of the elders when you disagree with them, if you think they are wrong, then you might otherwise need to consider leaving depending on how serious the disagreement is.

Okay? We can have disagreements over certain things that are not critical, vital, important matters that are not heretical.

Okay? But this is where we have to be very careful. And according to God's perfect system of checks and balances, if an elder is guilty of sin, that must be confronted then even believers and church members that are not elders are instructed to confront them biblically, right?

According to God's order. There are orders, orderly ways of doing that.

In the end, we must all be and are commanded to be discerning Bereans and join a church that teaches and practices these things faithfully from scripture alone as the ultimate guide.

Amen? Amen. Because some churches have degenerated so much that they have ceased to be churches of Christ and have become degenerated into synagogues of Satan.

This is a very scary warning, a very important warning for us.

Because this is partly based on the reality that God can and does remove.

He can remove his lamp stand from unrepentant churches, right?

Turn with me to Revelation 2 .5. Beloved, as we see this playing out, to the church at Ephesus.

Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for judging the apostles, the false apostles, but he also rebukes them severely.

And our Lord tells them this in Revelation 2 verse 4. First love, you have strayed from the truth.

Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the things you did at first.

But if not, I am coming to you and will what, beloved? I will remove your lamp stand out of its place unless you repent.

Unless you repent. In other words, beloved, in other words, churches can start out as true and faithful churches.

We may have been to some churches that were true at one point.

But if they do not stay the course and if they persistently and sinfully deviate from scripture,

God will remove his lamp stand from it. God will remove his lamp stand from it and he will no longer call that church his church.

He will no longer approve of that church he formally approved of. Right? This is very important for us to be to be aware of, beloved.

Therefore, the reason I say this, I bring this up, we need to beware of any and all religious claims to a church that claims to have a continuous, unbroken line of infallible apostolic succession or tradition.

Going back all the way to Peter, supposedly, the first pope, right? Or to the apostles, whatever it may be.

These other oral traditions or whatever they might be. Whether it's

Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy or any other tradition that claims these things. Because even churches that were once true and faithful can become false dead churches.

Synagogues of Satan, when they persistently stray from the truth in doctrine or practice or both, when they no longer bear the marks of a true church, when they no longer preach sound doctrine, especially the biblical gospel,

God, man, salvation, the word, the most important doctrines of scripture. Or they fail to apply biblical church discipline to themselves.

This is what God rebuked the church at Ephesus for, because they did not repent. They did not apply biblical church discipline to themselves.

And that is why, beloved, a biblical church, a true church of God, must apply church discipline to themselves, to each other.

Right? And sadly, many churches fail to do that. They fail to do that.

They may not teach overt heresy. The Ephesian church did not necessarily teach heresy, but they did not repent.

They needed to repent of straying, for straying.

So then, beloved, this brings us to a close now.

And it is yet another reason. This is one of many other reasons why we must continue to contend for the ultimate authority of scripture alone.

Rightly understood. The ultimate normative authority. There can only be one first principle and only one ultimate normative authority.

Scripture alone. All other authorities, normative authorities, and likewise or otherwise, must be subjected to and corrected by the scriptures themselves.

God's inscripturated word and doctrine is unmistakably clear for us, beloved.

We are all personally commanded by God to understand what scripture is and what it teaches, but we are also commanded by God in his word to judge and to discern what a true church is.

And to join and submit ourselves to a true local church with lawfully ordained ministers to receive the means of grace, including, especially, the faithful preaching and teaching and correction of God's written word.

Amen? Amen, beloved. Let us now bow our heads and close out with a word of prayer.

Our gracious, precious Lord, we thank you, Father, for the mighty hammer of your word.

We thank you so much, Lord, for giving us the objective measure, the rule, the canon of your books, your writings,

Lord, to help us get outside of ourselves, Lord. To have something to appeal to that is objective and extranos, outside of ourselves, not just in our justification, but in all matters of truth and of faith in life,

Lord. You have given us your writings of truth, of pure, pristine, unadulterated truth,

Lord, that we can have and we can use to judge all other teachings and men and councils of any other, stemming from any other church or traditions of men,

Father. We thank you, Lord, for these wonderful, amazing truths, Lord. Help us to rightly understand them and balance them and keep them in proper harmony,

Father God. We thank you, Lord. We ask that you help us and guide us and that you would bless our church,

Lord, as we continue to seek your will in all, in all our ways, according to the ultimate authority, the normative authority of your words alone.

And in Jesus' precious, mighty name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.