Jeff Durbin: Overcoming Objections to Sola Scriptura

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If you would please open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3, verse 16.

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Again, this is not a comprehensive series that we're doing on the

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Roman Catholic controversy and these essential doctrines. But we are in our fifth part to this series we're doing now on Sola Scriptura.

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And this particular text we've been going over because it's definitional as to what is the nature of these words on these pages before us.

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And so it's vital that we know that this is the Word of God and this is what the Apostle Paul says about the

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Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 16,

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. All Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray. Father, we recognize the gift that this is right before us.

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A gift that not everybody has had access to. But you've given us your word.

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You've spoken into history. You've preserved and protected your word throughout time.

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These are your very words. God, you're the creator of all things. We're the creatures.

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This is your creation. You're the sovereign. And so we yield and we bow before your throne and your word.

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These are the words of God. Lord, we rejoice in what you said,

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Lord Jesus. Have you not read what was spoken to you by God? You equated the reading of Scripture as God speaking to us.

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And so we're thankful, God, that you speak. And Lord, we want to listen, and we want to be healed, we want to be changed.

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We know that all of us are being sanctified by you because of Christ.

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And so we'd ask today, God, that you bless us. This final word we have for this series on Sola Scriptura.

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Bless, heal, renew, embolden us, and send us. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. So here we are again, 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17. Hopefully all of you have it mostly memorized by now or fully memorized by now.

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Or some of you guys may have even understood now the Greek behind breathe out by God. All Scripture is theanoustos.

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Theanoustos. It's unique. It's powerful. It's a gift that we have as a Christian church.

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God condescends. The creator of all things is not a distant, far -out, absentee landlord.

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He's not the God who just created things and sent them into motion and walked away.

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Not some deist version of God. He's not a God that cannot be understood. He's not a

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God who has not ever shown himself. He's condescended. In history, he's spoken.

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He's spoken through general revelation. He speaks in the heavens, declaring the glory of God.

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General revelation is revelation that God is testifying about every single moment of every single day.

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You cannot avoid the obvious truth about who God is. And Romans chapter 1 says that everybody knows the true

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God. They have the knowledge of God given to them by God. It says God has shown it to them.

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But the problem is that we have rebellious, fallen, sinful hearts, and we suppress that truth of God. We don't want the true

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God. We don't want to have him in our head, in our thinking. We don't want to know about him, even though he's made himself known to us through everything that's been made.

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It's constantly shouting to the world about God and who God is. But we suppress that truth, and we want the idol in place of God.

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We want a God that looks like us. We switch God for idols, but God speaks. And he's speaking every day.

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He's speaking constantly. It's a speech that's understood by everybody, but it's being suppressed because of rebellion.

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The problem isn't a lack of light from God. It's not a lack of evidence about God. But God is speaking.

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Scripture uses that terminology about general revelation. God communicates to every image -bearer alive.

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He communicates. He talks about himself through the things that have been made. But the problem is not, again, that it's not clear.

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It's that we don't want him. We don't want to know him. We want something less than him because we don't want to be accountable to him.

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That's Romans chapter 1. He speaks, but God hasn't only spoken through that. God has done something special.

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We call this special revelation. What we have in history where God has condescended and spoken himself through prophets and apostles.

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He's spoken in these miraculous acts of history, whether you're talking about something like the exodus out of Egypt and Israel and all the amazing things that happened in the plagues of Egypt.

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God has spoken in history through the miraculous feats of Israel in history against the opposing nations.

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God has spoken, especially in Israel, through miracles and prophecy. He's told us the future before it happens, and he gets it right every single time.

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But God has also spoken to us supremely, supremely in the

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Incarnation, in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal God condescending to walk among us, to walk among us.

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I was talking to my son, Stellar, recently. We were just reflecting together on how the

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Bible comes to life through archaeology and through the fact that we can go today to, well, we probably wouldn't want to go today, to Israel.

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And you can walk around, you can touch the ground, you can visit the sites. This faith that we have is a faith where God has condescended to come and chase the rebel.

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And we can actually walk in the dust, and we can ride on the waves of where God came to chase the rebel.

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You can go to where Jesus calmed the storm. You can go to where Jesus walked on water.

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You can go to where Jesus was crucified. This is speech from God that's actually happened in history.

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It's not some secret knowledge. It's not something that's a private experience. This experience of God speaking is something that is public.

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But God has spoken. And what we have here is an explanation in Inspired Revelation about the nature of Scripture.

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That's the key thing you want to get across right now. The nature of Scripture. What is this?

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What is it? We know that it's God speaking, but Paul says something about its nature. He says, all

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Scripture, and he's referring here to the Old Testament Scriptures primarily because New Testament revelation is still ongoing when this is written.

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Paul's an inspired apostle. He's literally giving continued revelation at this moment in 2

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Timothy 3, verse 16. Revelation is still happening, but he's primarily referring to what?

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The Old Testament revelation, what God had given to the Jewish people, to Israel.

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He says in Romans 3, they were entrusted with, don't miss this, the oracles of God.

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That God sovereignly determines to give His own speech, His divine revelation, to Israel.

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He entrusted to Israel. He guards it with Israel. And the Jews had the oracles of God.

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And here Paul is saying, you've known the Scriptures. And what is he saying about them?

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That they are theanoustos, breathed out by God.

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Now I know in a series like this, you have to, because it's part of what we're doing, you have to think about the implications of that claim in Scripture related to, say,

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Roman Catholicism, the claims of the papacy, the teaching magisterium, maybe your

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Eastern Orthodox friends, or your Mormon friends, or the Jehovah's Witnesses. You have to think about it in the light of that conflict and go, okay, but Scripture is unique, it's distinct, it's the very speech of God.

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But we need to go beyond that if we believe in Sola Scriptura. The essence of it is that God has condescended and He's spoken, and this before us represents the very speech of God to me.

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And so this is something where I can go to the Word of God and say, God, I need to hear your voice. God, I need to understand,

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I need to have my mind changed, I need to be renewed. And you'll notice, and I hope I've done a good job of communicating this, because I think to me, especially at this stage in my life, knowing what

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God does in His people, and us being sanctified, and the wisdom we need to grow in, and the knowledge of God we need to grow in, when

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I was a young man, Sola Scriptura was the obvious doctrine from the pages of Scripture. Clearly, this is where we need to stand, and it was all about learning the apologetic arguments against those who would contradict.

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But if we really believe the essence of Sola Scriptura, that this is God speaking, then in reality, this series on Sola Scriptura should be the sanctifying moment in your life where you recognize this is

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God speaking, condescending, telling us what's true about the world, about Jesus, about ourselves.

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And that means that we have to yield to this truth. We can't just stand on Sola Scriptura to refute our

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Roman Catholic friends and family in terms of the doctrinal failures of Rome and say, essentially, see, that's what

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God says, you're wrong, you're refuted, gotcha. No, in reality, if you understand this, you should understand it, and I should understand it first in light of me, and my sin, and my failure.

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My failure as a father. My failure as a son. My failure as a husband.

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My failure as a brother. My failure as a pastor. These are the words of God to me.

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And I can't just stand on it so I can refute the ones who oppose out there. I have to say, if these are the words of God, then

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I need to be able to get my own emotions under control. I need to be able to see my own sin for what it is and actually repent of it.

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I need to be able to let this change me as a man, as a Christian, as a father, as a husband.

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Are you seeing it now? So I hope, as we depart from this portion of the series, that the most important thing you've gotten from this series is not just what we have to say to those out there in terms of what this biblical doctrine is, but I hope this changes us to the point where we say, you know what, this is actually

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God speaking. I really believe that. If I want a word from God, I'm going to open this book. And I'm going to believe what it says.

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And I'm going to let it challenge me in my deepest, darkest places. I may have been holding on to sin for the last 20 years as a follower of Christ.

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I may have been having secret sin buried away. Or just areas where I just thought, God's never going to get a hold of that.

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I'm always going to be a prideful person. I'm always going to be a gossip. I'm always going to have loose tongue.

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I'm always going to try to get over it on somebody. I'm comfortable with slander.

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I have unequal weights and measures in how I judge things. Whatever the case may be, we're willing to say,

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I've sinned. I've fallen down. God, forgive me. Jesus, I cling to you.

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And God, use me. Transform me and change me. Make me completely new.

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I just want to ask you to consider that as a final word on this point. If these are the words of God, and you're a follower of Jesus, these are the words of God.

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Which means we have to be renewed. All of us. Renewed in our minds.

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Transformed by these very words. And so I want to ask you to reflect on that. What areas of your life as a follower of Jesus, you know

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God has been trying to convict you of for years. As a wife.

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As a husband. As a son or a daughter. Whatever the case may be. What areas have you been failing in?

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And you've just accepted, this is just how I am. I'll ignore those verses that challenge me. I'm not going to let them heal me or renew me.

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This is just, yeah, I'm saved. I love God. I believe these are the words of God. But I'm not going to be changed in this area. Will you, will

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I be willing to let the words of God truly change us, transform us and make us new?

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Because again, if we're just learning this doctrine of solo scriptura to debate and fight out there, then your pursuit of learning this doctrine is arrogance.

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You want to win. Not be changed. We should want to be changed.

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And to proclaim the truth. Amen? So we've learned about the nature of Scripture in this series.

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And again, we could have done so much more. You know that I'd love to do a much longer series. But we have so much to talk about.

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But we learned about the nature of Scripture. 2 Timothy 3 .16 says something about the nature of Scripture. All Scripture is theanoustos, breathed out by God.

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We've learned about the origin of Scripture with the apostle Peter talking about holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. So Scripture is unique in history because it is God's speech.

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It is God talking to His creatures. And it is something that God is orchestrating and He is guiding.

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These are not the words of mere men. These are the words of God. I want to hold to the position of Scripture that Jesus himself held to.

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He said, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? He equated the reading of Scripture as God speaking.

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That's God speaking. And so we want to hold to that perspective. The perspective of Holy Scripture that the

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Lord of Glory held Himself in the Incarnation. We've talked about the sufficiency of Scripture. We've talked about the ultimacy of Scripture.

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Now I hope that there have been certain texts and sections that have sat with you the most through this short series.

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But one that we need to talk about as the most foundational in our conflict with Rome was that text that's in Mark but also

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Matthew 15 regarding the Korban rule. Right? That's one of the most important parts of this debate in terms of tradition.

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Here you have the people of God as the Jewish people who were entrusted with the oracles of God who were making the claim that we have this divine, not scriptural tradition.

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The Korban rule. And we want to know, they say to Jesus, how come your disciples are breaking the tradition of the elders?

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And they give an example about washing the hands. And Jesus, the incarnate

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God, the God -man, when revelation is still continuing in the first century, it's the

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New Testament era, words are still coming from Jesus, he confronts the people of God, the covenant people of God, over their tradition and he says they are the commandments of men and he says they make void the word of God.

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And here's how Jesus does it. He has Scripture as the ultimate. He says, God says. There it is again.

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Jesus referring to Scripture as God's speech. God is speaking. He says, God says. Moses says.

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And he says what? About honoring father and mother.

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And then he compares what Moses says in recorded Scripture, God's speech, he compares that with their human tradition and he says, you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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Now let me just say this with all humility and respect. That section of Scripture, that inspired section of Scripture, is the death knell to any claim to tradition that's supposedly divine, that comes down from the people of God that we are obligated to follow.

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It's a death knell in any tradition that contradicts the word of God. What did Jesus believe about the word of God?

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It was so clear, so sufficient, that it was easy to understand how their doctrine contradicted

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Holy Scripture and Jesus held them accountable for it. We also talked about the fact that Jesus, at points in his ministry, would confront people because they should have understood the

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Scriptures. Now you might be thinking, why are you addressing that? Well, here's what's important about it. Rome will make the claim that you can't truly understand the

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Scriptures apart from the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic communion.

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You can't understand the Bible without the church. Now Jesus, and by the way, we're going to talk about this, ask

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Rome which verses they have infallibly interpreted in the Bible and you're going to get answers from zero to maybe six verses.

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And so this idea that we need the church to infallibly interpret the Bible for us to understand it isn't even meaningful because they haven't actually done it.

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It's just a claim they make. It's an apologetic device of Roman Catholic apologists.

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They haven't actually done it. You can see that, by the way, in the recent debate with Pastor James. He did with Trent Horn, one of Catholic Answers' most important apologists, where they debated the issue of purgatory.

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And you'll see that Rome does not actually hold up to their claim about the necessity of the interpretation of the church because in that debate,

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Trent Horn, as they're addressing verses, just gives a bunch of options in terms of interpretation of a certain verse.

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And he even gives some novel interpretations and some interpretations given by Protestants.

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It could be this, it could be that, it could be this. So much for the infallible teaching ministry of the church. It's obvious, as the nose on your face.

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But Jesus would confront people in his day. For example, when he was raised from the dead and he's walking on the road to Emmaus with those confused disciples, what was his challenge to them?

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Let's see if you know. What was his challenge to the disciples on the road to Emmaus? What did he confront them over?

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Slow to believe what? All of the prophets have spoken.

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And he calls them something that none of us want to be called by Jesus. He says, what?

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Foolish. Now, how can he, as the incarnate one, confront people over being foolish and not understanding the scriptures if the scriptures really can't be understood by the common person?

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God can't really effectively communicate to the creature. You need some special person over here to truly give you certainty about what the

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Bible says. Jesus confronts them. You're foolish, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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Wasn't it necessary that Messiah would, and he names things, you should have known this.

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This is in your Bibles, boys. Why aren't you believing this? Why are you so surprised that I'm raised from the dead?

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Jesus told them in his earthly ministry he was going to Jerusalem, he would die and rise again.

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He said it to them live. But what he held them accountable for is that they should have known.

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Why? Because God spoke in history. You have the scriptures and you should have known.

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You're supposed to believe this. This is what God said was going to happen. Why are you so surprised? And so that's a glorious example of the ultimacy of scripture, the sufficiency of scripture, the clarity of scripture.

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Now, we've talked foundationally about important things. And one of the days we did this

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Sola Scriptura doctrine, I brought some gentlemen up on stage and we stood in chairs.

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And what I was trying to do there is explain that this doctrine of Sola Scriptura isn't simply a fight we have with Rome.

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It is about the question of by what standard? This truth in its heart is about epistemology.

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And I know everyone, when you throw a word like that, everyone goes, I'm checked out. I'm just trying to figure out how to be a better wife and a better husband.

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And so I don't know about this epistemology stuff. Epistemology is just the word that means how do you know? How do you know?

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This is a question of how do you know? And listen, this doctrine of Sola Scriptura at its heart is an epistemological claim.

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It's a revelational claim of epistemology. It's that I know and I have certainty because God has spoken.

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And so we talked and I wanted to give a visual to say this is how I try to view this conversation when

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I'm having a conversation with the agnostic at ASU or the atheist or the abortionist outside the abortuary or whoever we're talking to.

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It's that we are standing on commitments of I know because.

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I'm standing on a worldview. I know because, and then they answer.

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So the Roman Catholic will say, well, I know because Rome says and Scripture says.

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Two authorities. Rome says, Scripture says. We have the word of God and we have divine sacred tradition.

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We've got both of these things. Now the atheist also has an ultimate. He's standing on something else.

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Maybe he's the ultimate. Maybe he bases it off his own private experience and feelings.

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I know because I feel this way. And we all recognize that, right? Today it's very popular.

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We've abandoned some more rigorous historic standards with unbelievers where you could have somebody that was like into rationalism or empiricism.

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I've got to test it. I've got to see it, taste it, smell it, touch it. I've got to see it under a microscope. I've got to see the pattern, the statistics.

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Or someone says, it's got to be reason. Today the popular unbelieving strategy is just to go for the throat and say, nah, none of those things really matter to me.

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Biology doesn't matter to me. The testing doesn't matter to me. The science doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is my personal feelings.

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I feel like a woman, right? Biology is irrelevant.

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It's irrelevant because I know, because I feel, right? When we're having this debate, and it happens often, when we're having the debate in the area of abortion as our church's ministry, we've made the claim that only with Christ can you talk about science in a meaningful way.

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Only with Jesus can you talk about reason in a meaningful way. Only with Jesus can you talk about ethics in a meaningful way.

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And so we can't play neutrality in this fight against abortion and the abolition of abortion. We've got to stand on Christ and stand on God's word.

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Amen? And we've tried to make the claim to those who want to do the neutrality thing that if you abandon

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Christ, you lose all the ground. And they'll say, well, no, no, we don't want to talk about Jesus.

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We don't want to talk about repentance and faith. We're fighting as pro -lifers on the basis of biology, to which you look at the modern culture, and you say, does it look like the culture around us cares about biology?

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I dare you to look at TikTok and see if you think that's true. Right? People brag about the fact that they don't care about what biology says.

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And what people say today in our culture, because it's so rebellious, is they'll say, I know it's a baby.

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I know it's human. And I believe that every woman has the right to kill her child in the womb.

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It's not a biological question. It's a moral question. It's a question of authority.

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And so I've tried my best to demonstrate to us as a church that this doctrine of sola scriptura is, again, not simply about the conflict with Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy or Mormonism.

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It is about what is ultimate. How do you know? By what standard?

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By what standard? That's the question. How do you know? And so God's revelation is supreme.

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It's the ultimate authority. And can I share something with you that just happened this last week? It was so encouraging to me.

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So there's a bill in Missouri for equal protection. I flew out this week for a quick turnaround with Carmen.

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We flew to Missouri. And we go to the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. And let me just tell you right now,

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I've been around the country now as a representative of our church to fight for these bills of abolition and to proclaim

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Christ's excellencies and his gospel across the country. I've been in so many capitals across the country. And let me just say that we need to petition to flog somebody who built

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Arizona's Capitol. We've got the worst Capitol in the

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United States of America. It's like it doesn't even, I don't think it qualifies as a Capitol building because you come into these other states where they have

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Capitol buildings and it's like this old, I mean, it's like the Sistine Chapel. It's like paintings and glorious Bible scenes and just a structure that's magnificent.

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It's magnificent. It's like they're building a church. It's absolutely stunning stone and marble.

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And it's glorious and beautiful. And I was in one of those this week. And we held a rally over one of the bills that we're assisting with in Missouri.

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And so here's what was so amazing as an experience. I'm in this

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Capitol with this glorious dome above me with these beautiful scenes painted into the walls and around the

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Capitol surrounding me in a circle are verses from Holy Scripture carved into the walls.

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Carved into the walls. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

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Verses that testify to the glory and authority of God. Righteousness exalts a nation.

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A verse from the Proverbs that we know well at Apologia Church that talks about if you don't have the prophetic vision, the word of God, the revelation of God coming, then you fail as a nation.

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But happy is he who keeps the law. This is right here in the Missouri State Capitol.

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And what was stunning is this question of knowledge. By what standard? Because here's the key.

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Today, in that Capitol, there are professing Christian legislators who have bought into the lie that the word of God and its authority is for the walls of the church, it's between your ears and behind your eyes.

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You can't bring the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords into the public square and into the government.

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There are Christian legislators, not just in Missouri, but around the country, when they fight for their positions and they are trying to legislate, which is a moral thing.

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It's a moral question about what we ought to do as a state. They are so afraid today to actually say,

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God says, and that's why we're doing this. But I thought it was so amazing that here we are in this glorious old

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Capitol building that is a testimony to the Christian worldview about beauty, truth, and goodness, and the authority of God.

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Those legislators there are afraid to stand on the word of God as the basis of truth, and they're doing it within the halls of a building that has the words of God inscripturated around them.

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We have come such a long way. The people who built that building knew the essence of what we're talking about here.

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How do I know? What am I standing on? These words of God.

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Apparently, the people who built that building understood that it was the triune God of Holy Scripture that was over the

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Capitol in Missouri. We've come a long way, and I wanted to say to you, what's the failure?

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Well, the failure clearly is in the area of ultimacy and authority. How do you know? What are you standing on?

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It's supreme. It's the standard for testing. Jesus said in John 17, in his high priestly prayer about us, about God's people, he said,

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Father, sanctify them in your truth. Thy word is truth.

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Thy word is truth. That's the standard. That's how God does it. Now, here's the key thing.

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Even during times of continuing revelation, God, in his previous revelation, was the standard for testing.

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Now, if you get this, you will get much of what Roman Catholic apologists tried to use against Sola Scriptura.

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You will get much in terms of a complete refutation of it. When God's prophets were speaking in the

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Bible, the standard even then, when revelation is ongoing, is that God's previous revelation was the standard by which you test even the incoming revelation.

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So, one of the verses is Deuteronomy 13. Deuteronomy 13, verses 1 through 5.

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What's that text say? That even if someone comes with signs and wonders, it looks legit.

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They're saying they're speaking for God. God says, but they lead you after other gods. That's how you know they're a false prophet.

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You shall listen to God's voice. So God had given a disclosure of himself, a revelation of himself, and yet he has prophets that are still coming.

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And he tells you the way that you test the prophet who's coming to know if they're really from me and they have my words, is you test them by my previous revelation.

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If they contradict what God said about himself before, that's how you know they're a false prophet.

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And you see that in the ministry of Jesus. Here you have Jesus holding up Scripture as the ultimate standard to test these new claims.

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And you see it in Acts 17 .11, one of my favorites. Acts 17 .11 with the church in Berea, where they were more noble -minded than the ones in Thessalonica, because when the apostle

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Paul was coming to them, talking to them about Jesus, it says that they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what

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Paul was saying was so. Was Paul an inspired apostle, everybody? Was he?

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Was he giving revelation from God? Yes. And the believers there were saying, this is awesome, this is great, but we still need to make sure that what you're saying matches what

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God has already said, and so what they did was more noble -minded than those in Thessalonica, and they searched the

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Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was so. It is not arrogance to have a prophet coming to you with revelation and you being critical as that revelation is coming, are these truly the words of God?

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That is God's standard. That's what he gave to his people. In Isaiah 8 -20, in Israel's continuing history, even up to that point,

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Isaiah 8 -20, it says, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them.

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That, listen, was said by a prophet who was giving continuing revelation, and he says as it's ongoing, to the law and to the testimony.

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If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them. Now, this is important.

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Here's why. Ready? Rome argues. Rome argues today.

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They agree that there is no today continuing revelation.

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That's important. That's an important point. There is no continuing inspired revelation like we have in Scripture happening after the time of the apostles.

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This is important. This is where Roman Catholics and Protestants, Reforms, agree.

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That after the closing of the canon, after the death of the apostles, there is no more continuing inspired revelation coming forward today.

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We agree completely on that. So, it gets us to this foundational point. If you get this, you'll get a lot.

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If I need today to get access to the inspired, infallible words of God, where is the only place

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I can go today for the inspired, infallible revelation of God? Where?

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The Holy Scriptures. And Rome essentially has to agree with you on that point.

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Everything after the canon, the closing of the canon, the inspired words of God, is given to us by fallible and uninspired men.

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Now, this was a key point, and it's critical in our conversation with Roman Catholic friends and family.

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When we believe Sola Scriptura, we believe that the revelation of God is ultimate. That's the heart of it.

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God's revelation, that's the ultimate standard. That's the reference point. We are not, however, saying that we can't have traditions, that we can't have proper, ordered authority within the church or in the world.

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We're not arguing that because we believe Sola Scriptura, we can't have a confession of faith, we can't have a standard or a tradition.

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What we are saying is that every other authority is an authority that must bow and yield itself to the ultimacy of God's revelation.

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So I made the argument, is the Supreme Court authoritative? Some of you guys are afraid to say yes to that right now.

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Let's talk about the institution, okay? Is the Supreme Court an authority? Is it a fallible or infallible authority?

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Fallible meaning it's fallible. They can make errors, and they have made some doozies.

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One of the most rotten, rotten things that ever came to the Supreme Court, ever, and it's a travesty and an abomination, was the

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Dred Scott case. That's one of my favorite hated in our history. Our Supreme Court had the audacity had the sinful nerve to say that our black brothers and sisters were not persons, but they were property, and that they needed to be returned to their masters.

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That came from the United States Supreme Court. It's an abominable decree. If you read it, it'll make your hair stand up.

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Now, thank God that states, when they received that decree from the court, told the court to go pound sand, and that it was wicked, and they weren't going to participate in it.

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Thank God they recognized the Supreme Court, not the Supreme Being. You are not the ultimate. There is a standard above you.

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And so we reject what you're saying. We must obey God rather than men. That's the standard.

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God says, and that's how I know. How do you know? Well, let's put it this way.

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Another authority. Within the home, we did this. Are parents authoritative in the home?

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Are they fallible or infallible? Fallible. How do you know that you ought to obey your parents?

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Well, God tells you, honor your father and your mother. Children obey your parents in the

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Lord. But are children to obey their parents in the Lord in absolutely everything with no qualification?

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No, sometimes you've got some sinful, horrible parents, and they may actually be encouraging children to sin.

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Are children obligated to obey parents that are telling them to sin? So you can reject even a good authority on the basis of the revelation of God.

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Or how about husbands? Do husbands have authority over wives? Let's say that louder.

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Do husbands have authority over wives? Okay, clearly not a feminist church.

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But, and this is where unbelievers will actually misrepresent Christians on this point.

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When we say that husbands have authority over wives as the head of the house, that comes in a story.

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There's a complex around it. We are to submit to one another in love. He has to love his wife as Christ loves the church.

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He lays his life down for the wife. He nourishes his wife. He cherishes her like he cherishes his own body.

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That's the standard. And it says to the wife in scripture, it says, obey your husband in everything.

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And so of course people seize on that and they go, in everything? Even if he tells you to do something evil, like go kill that guy?

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No, what is the standard? No, the wife is to submit to her husband in everything as a godly authority who is ruling in the home on the basis of the authority of scripture.

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If the husband is sinning against God and he's calling his wife to sin or not obey

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God, the wife has an obligation to defy his authority, amen? She must defy because she must obey

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God rather than men. God's word is the standard above that fallible authority.

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And we have a fallible authority here at Apologia Church by way of our confession of faith.

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Fallible not meaning that it's not in accordance with scripture, we're saying that it is an authority that doesn't match the authority of scripture.

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Scripture is ultimate. And the only way that you and I know that that confession is true and in accordance with the truth of God is if it actually stands on scripture and is in accordance with scripture, amen?

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This is key. Why do you believe in the Trinity? This is part of our debate and dispute with Rome.

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Why do you and I believe in the Trinity? Do you believe in the Trinity because the church says?

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Is that the standard by which you believe the Trinity? No. The people who are actually defining the

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Trinity and defending the Trinity, whether it's Nicaea or the Athanasian Creed, whatever we're talking about, we believe those creeds and we believe in the triune nature of God because it comes from the

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Bible. They were fighting against modalism and Sabellianism and they were fighting against all of these errors with the word of God as the foundation and so I'm a

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Trinitarian. And I'm a Trinitarian because the Bible teaches that God's nature is triune.

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One eternal God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. But scripture says that they are distinct persons from one another.

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They are co -equal. They are co -eternal. That's what the Bible teaches. You can demonstrate it from the very words of God.

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We do not believe in the Trinity or any other essential doctrine because the church pulls rank and says because I say and that's why.

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We believe in it because God says and thank God the church agrees.

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Amen? That's where we are on this. Now, just some quick answers we could do and James is gonna do much more on this.

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So quick responses. The Bible doesn't say sola scriptura. Can I say that's one of the stupidest objections

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I've even imaginable. When someone just says it like that, not every Roman Catholic apologist will say it like that or even use that at all but some do.

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Bible doesn't say sola scriptura. Well, the Bible doesn't say Bible either. Find the word Bible in the

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Bible. Okay, so stop using it. Stop saying the word Bible because it's not in the Bible or how about with the

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Trinitarian? The Bible doesn't say the word Trinity either but don't you believe in the

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Trinity because the Bible teaches the Trinity conceptually that it's clear on the nature of God and the persons of the

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Trinity. So this argument the Bible doesn't say sola scriptura is a silly one and we just need to get away from people that say things like that but they'll say the

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Bible doesn't teach sola scriptura and that can be refuted easily in terms of what we've already been doing.

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The nature of Scripture, the origin of Scripture, the sufficiency of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, the ultimacy of Scripture.

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The Bible teaches through and through. It does teach that the Scriptures, the speech of God is the supreme revelation of God and it's the supreme standard.

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Now people in Rome will say without the infallible teaching of the church you can't truly understand the

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Bible. Well, again, Jesus confronts people in his day for not understanding the

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Scriptures. Apparently Jesus thought the Scriptures could be understood but we need to ask that question again.

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How many verses has the Roman Catholic magisterium or papacy or Roman Catholic tradition, how many verses has the

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Roman Catholic church infallibly defined? And you'll see an answer.

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Maybe a handful. Maybe a handful. But there's another thing that needs to be added to that today in terms of this is why we also wanted to do this series as a church body.

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One more reason that we need to confront the errors of Rome is you see the modern

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Roman Catholic papacy talking about Scripture in a way that indicts

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God. So you'll know recently Pope Francis began to actually denigrate the idea of capital punishment and now he's claimed that capital punishment is unjust.

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Now get this, the vicar of Christ on earth, the one who is the infallible papacy when he speaks on these things, he says that capital punishment is unjust.

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Now that's a problem because Scripture is clear from beginning to end that God calls his people when somebody rapes, when somebody murders, when somebody kidnaps and enslaves, he calls his people to do justice on behalf of the victim and he says in those instances there is no other way of real justice other than eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life and God says in those cases capital punishment.

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Now, these are the words of God. God has condescended and said in this case where somebody murders, you must, in a judicial way, you must take their life.

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That's what God says. He calls that just. You see that theme running from the

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Old Testament into the New Testament. Paul says in Acts 25 after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus while on trial, he says if I have done anything deserving of death, worthy of death, he says

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I don't object to dying which is an inspired apostle saying in the New Covenant era that there are things that are worthy of death in a court system and he says if it's true that I've done it then

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I don't object to dying because that's the right thing to do and did you know throughout the entire history of the Christian church including

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Roman Catholicism they used to teach that capital punishment was actually a blessing from God and a gift from God when it comes to justice on the earth and now

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Rome's Pope says that God gave us a system that is unjust.

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So who do I believe? Scripture or Francis?

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I'll take Scripture every day baby. Every day. Or when Francis today is starting to move

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Rome towards the blessing of same -sex unions. This is obvious even to devout

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Roman Catholics. Something is wrong here. The vicar of Christ is leading us away from what is not only tradition but Scripture itself.

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We know what Scripture says about these things and Francis is denying them today. So when we are told by Rome you need the church to infallibly interpret the

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Bible you can see the immediate face plant in Francis today.

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He rejects what Scripture says and not just what Scripture says but what the tradition of the church has always taught in some of these matters.

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Also, one word. When someone says to me Jeff, you need the infallible teaching of the

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Roman Catholic communion to understand your Bible. I'm going to say fantastic and what about Eastern Orthodoxy?

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Because Eastern Orthodoxy they claim the same thing. The tradition of the church and the Bible. And Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy if you didn't know they're split.

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There's the great schism. Eastern Orthodox priests go watch some videos when they talk about the papacy when they talk about some of the

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Marian dogmas of Roman Catholicism you have to believe these these are dogmas you must believe these to be a faithful Christian in communion with the church.

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Eastern Orthodox make the same claim about tradition. You need tradition to understand the

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Bible you need this standard over here but they can't even agree on what that tradition actually is.

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Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy also disagree. And so when someone says you need the church

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I'll say when, where, who, what? Which guy is the standard?

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Because in church history when you have fallible and uninspired men talking about God you see moments where they're just sounding like scripture praise

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God, sounds like the Bible I believe that because Jesus said that Paul said that, and then you see moments we gotta be honest you see moments where your favorites are doing some pretty dumb things and saying some things that are completely inconsistent you'll see your favorites believing one thing and teaching it very strongly at a point in their life and coming back later and denying it so which one do

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I believe in the same guy? Or you see some guys disagreeing with one another you'll see popes condemning other popes for their teaching right?

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We're told today that the apocrypha now is defined as scripture the deuterocanonical books are part of scripture but you have people in the past in Rome including a pope that didn't believe the apocrypha was the word of God so who do

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I believe? Which tradition? Where? Who? What do I believe? So this claim of a unified tradition throughout the history of the church is just not consistent and isn't true and if you want to be a person with integrity you have to look at church history and say, yeah my favorite taught that, and he also taught this and I don't believe him there he contradicted scripture here here's what

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I'm saying to you, ready? This is awesome one of the things I love about being reformed is you can be honest with church history you can be honest about church history because you don't need to pretend like you have this divine tradition running alongside the bible with this unanimity throughout it, you don't have to lie about history, you don't have to lie about your giants of the faith you don't have to lie about any of them you can just be honest and say, yeah this guy said some amazing stuff here totally consistent with scripture and he completely face -planted here you can be honest with Augustine you can say

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Augustine is on the side of the reformers he was monergistic, baby he taught the grace of God he taught it in a way that sounds just like Calvin just like the reformers and he said some stuff that sounds kind of Roman Catholic he said both, and you know you kind of expect that with fallible people that's the nature of being fallible you tend to be fallible and do some things that you have to correct later someone will say the bible mentions tradition and that the whole history of the church has the church passing on tradition well the easy way to respond to this is simply to say, as a reformed person we don't have any problem with tradition tradition is good apology at church has tradition every time you come into apology at church, we have liturgy, we have a way that we do church, you guys are some of you guys can just come up here and you can actually give the announcements for me, you're like,

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I know what Jeff's going to say next, I know exactly how this is going to go, we have an order of service we get to our knees to kneel before God, we have a way that we do all of this liturgy, doxology at the end of the service, we have traditions, we follow these things and listen, we do these things because we believe that the bible gives us a reason to do them and so we order our church service in a way that we think honors

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God because of his word, that's a tradition we hold to the 1689

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London Baptist Confession of Faith, but the reason we believe these things is because we believe on the basis of the word of God that they are good and true, we love tradition,

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I love the Nicene Creed, I love the Athanasian Creed, believe all of that but why do we believe it?

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Because it's consistent with the word of God and they'll bring up passages like 2

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Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 15, go there this is a favorite of Roman Catholics because, did

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I write down the wrong reference? No, here we go, good starting at verse 13

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Apostle Paul says, but we ought to always give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the

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Lord because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth, to this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, so then brothers stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter now, the word tradition is there and so we go, oh, see, there are traditions over here that are inscribed over here letters, scripture, and we have these other traditions they're being called to hold to, well, this is what's important about this moment, is that scripture and divine revelation is actually being given at this time, so you have the oral teaching of the apostles that's being given, and you have letters that are going that are inspired revelation because right here revelation is active, it's ongoing, but here's what's important to recognize if you're claiming that there are these traditions that Paul gave to the church that are not in accordance with what he already taught in scripture, it is up to you to demonstrate that and what

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Rome cannot do, is they cannot demonstrate these alleged apostolic oral traditions that go back to the early church, you actually see, at many points the early church disagreeing and teaching against modern

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Roman Catholic dogmas, you actually see the opposite this alleged oral tradition, somehow it's in the church, but we don't know where it's at, who's teaching it you can't see it in history it's just a claim of Rome, we have an oral tradition something that was handed down by the apostles it's not in scripture, and you say okay can you demonstrate that in history to me and it can't be demonstrated

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Rome will make claims today about their tradition, that yeah you can't find that in church history, we don't have an example of that in church history so they have like a development idea that really this is something that developed over time, it wasn't necessarily given to us early on in the beginning and we've had it there it develops over time so much for this apostolic tradition also,

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I just want to point out that the apostle Paul here is clearly talking about the gospel whether it was oral, or whether it was written hold fast to it, he's talking about the gospel so, if we believe our

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Bibles and we want to stand on what it actually says the context is about the gospel and the word and teaching that Paul was giving now this is an important one and we're wrapping up here, you wouldn't know what the

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Bible is without the tradition of the church so they'll say things like, how do you know

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Matthew wrote Matthew, how do you know Luke wrote Luke how do you know John wrote John honestly, those questions are not even relevant to the most important essential parts of this debate and I want to just say quickly on this point that you wouldn't know what the

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Bible is without the tradition of the church it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how we got the

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Bible it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how we got the Bible listen, we don't believe these books because the church came together and declared them to be the word of God that is not how this came together and anybody who believes that does not understand the history of the

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Bible and how it came to us we don't believe this is the word of God because the church declared it to be the word of God it was not the church who created the word of God it was the word of God that created the church in other words the word of God was given the word of God was proclaimed the word of God created the church formed the church, grew the church and so the early church their part in the revelation of God was reception it was a reception the word of God was being delivered the word of God was given the

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Christians received the word of God the Christians shared the word of God but it was the word of God that formed the church their role, the church's role was passive it was receptive with the word of God the church did not come together and make the determination we declare these are the words of God it was an organic process just like it was with the

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Jewish people of the Old Testament it was organic and it was sovereignly guided actually the way that God gave us the

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Holy Scriptures Old and New Testaments is a way that is distinct from all other religious systems, it was an organic process where God gave

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His word, preserved His word and there was no controlling authority over its transmission and we don't believe the word of God because the church stood up and said we're telling you these are the words of God therefore they're the words of God the word of God created the church the church's role was passive it was receptive it's a glorious story we don't have time to go over it all today

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Pastor James and I will when we talk about the Apocrypha how the Christians finally came together with a full understanding these are the things that God gave to the church now final word here no one in church history taught

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Sola Scriptura that's the claim being made no one in church history taught

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Sola Scriptura all I would encourage you to do is again, if you want copious amounts of references and quotes, pick up a copy of Webster and King's book on Sola Scriptura, three volumes the third volume on Sola Scriptura in history will blow your minds as to how much the church fathers, church theologians, pastors, bishops taught exactly what we're saying here from this pulpit this is not a reformational doctrine that's novel in history, you see it in Athanasius, you see it in Augustine you see it in all your favorites in history, this is something that has been throughout the history of the church however inconsistent at points this has been taught in accordance with the scriptures from the beginning, but finally here's the word, so what?

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so what? I have failed you as a pastor if at the end of this series you don't recognize that the main point here is that this is

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God and His word communicated so I just want to ask you very personally to now take yourself out of the realm of the conversation with Roman Catholic friends and opponents and put yourself squarely before the throne of God and ask yourself the question what has

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God been convicting you over? how has God been revealing

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Himself to you through His word? and have you been submitting to Him are you the kind of person that's been repentant in your marriage?

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in your personal relationships? what do you need to confess? what do you need to repent of?

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where do you need to be confronted? where do you need to be transformed? the most important element of this series is by what standard and that God has spoken

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I pray that God changes us makes us more like Jesus, conforms us more to His image through this series let's pray

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Lord thank You for Your word thank You for Your truth I just pray

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Lord even in this short ending to this series that You would use it to transform us as Your people help us to Lord stand more on Your word and to be submissive to it these are the words of God help us to treat it like that, help us to have reverence for Your word and a joy over holding it let us be the kind of people that carry our

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Bible's places because this is such a treasure it's such a gift let us be the kind of people that are brave and bold to stand on it and proclaim it even in the midst of hostility because these are the words of God this is

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You speaking Lord use us as a church to proclaim Your excellencies Your supremacy and Your word to the world, we pray this in Jesus name