Jeff Durbin: Sola Scriptura & Rome Pt. 4

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If you want to open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 15.

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Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 15. This is the fourth part in our series about the

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Biblical doctrine of sola scriptura. Matthew chapter 15, we're going to start in verse 1.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

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Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat.

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He answered them. And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

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For God commanded honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me as given to God, he need not honor his father.

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So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.

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You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said,

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This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as God's people. Lord, thank you for your word.

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Thank you for this gift. We pray, Lord, that through this series and what we've been examining in your word,

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God, that we would love your word, your revelation more deeply, that we would be in awe of your word and this gift that we have of you, the only

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God, the eternal God speaking. You've condescended. You've given us your word.

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This is your word. It's the standard. Lord Jesus, you said in your high priestly prayer, you said,

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

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And so we ask God that you would speak today by your spirit through the proclamation of your word, that you would renew us, renew our minds, firm us up in our commitments to the truth, that you'd use us for your glory and kingdom and to draw your elect people to yourself.

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We pray all these things in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. So here we are. Part four.

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If you missed the other ones, make sure you go back and pick those up. I'm not going to be going over everything that we've gone over before.

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And again, this particular little series that we're doing is not comprehensive.

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We could be doing so much more at length on this doctrine of the authority of God's word, the nature of God's word, the clarity or perspicuity of God's word, the power of God's word.

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God's word is the ultimate standard. But we wanted to make sure that we don't merely assume as your brothers and pastors that you know these truths or why we say that we believe them.

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Because it's important as Christians, and you hear this often from us as pastors, that we allow the adiaphora, the side issues in the

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Christian faith, right, those side issues that we can disagree on or maybe scripture isn't speaking on, that we allow those to be the side issues and we maintain a unified church with all the side issues.

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I'll make you uncomfortable right now. If you look in this room right now, you're going to see a lot of ladies with head coverings on. And then you see a lot of other ladies with no head coverings on.

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How do we pull that off? Right? You want to start a war? Let's have a church split. How's that sound?

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Right? Let's debate. Listen. Does it happen? It happens. It happens.

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We've got in this room right now, raise your hand if you are in this fellowship right now. Raise your hand if you are, you're

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Presbyterian. Raise your hand if you're Presbyterian. Hands up. Okay. All right. Okay. Raise your hand.

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Don't, why are you so sad about it? Raise a hand high. Raise it up. There you go. Okay. You're Presbyterian.

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You have Presbyterian commitments. But you're members of Apologia Church. You're part of a Reformed Baptist Church. So you've got

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Reformed Baptists here. We've got Presbyterians here. And yet we're able to maintain a unified church body where we're at peace.

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We fellowship. We serve God together because we do want to follow what scripture says in terms of when we have disagreements that we're allowed to have disagreements on, we have those with love and fellowship and essential unity.

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Amen? Scripture calls us to that. But when we're talking about something like sola scriptura, we're talking about something that is truly definitional of the

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Christian faith in terms of how do I know what I know? By what standard?

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We're asking the question as to whether God's Word is final and ultimate or there's some other voice that can come along and pull rank and say, no,

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I will give you the ultimacy with me or with us. Now you will find, brothers and sisters, this is obvious to all of us, you will find that broken position in every counterfeit

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Christian cult and religion. You will find an ultimate. It comes by way of the modern -day prophet.

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They come in, they say, well, I'm the prophet of God, I'm speaking for God, I will infallibly interpret the

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Scriptures, I will tell you what that Bible says, and when their words contradict the words of Scripture, you'll have something like in Mormonism, where they'll say, well, the problem is is that we actually are speaking for God, we're the ultimate authority, and that book is corrupted.

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You need us to tell you when, how, and where it was corrupted, and in the end, we're the ultimate.

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You'll notice that with Joseph Smith, with Charles Taze Russell, with Judge Rutherford, with David Koresh, or any number of modern -day false prophets.

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The ultimacy will be where? With the prophets. Or it might be today, they'll say, well, yeah, we have a modern -day prophet in Salt Lake, but we also have prophets and apostles as part of our organization.

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So to really know that this is true, you need to listen to our organization, and isn't it interesting, think about this for a moment now, isn't it interesting that when the

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Mormons come to your door in our community, they come to your door, of course, talking to you about a

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First Vision account, which, of course, we know historically wasn't a part of Joseph Smith's original revelation.

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We have numbers of First Vision accounts that contradict one another, so that's an issue all by itself, but the

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Mormon missionaries that are getting younger and younger, by the way, the Mormon missionaries will come to your house with a quad, and what's in the quad?

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What's in it? You've got the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version, by the way, you've got

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Pearl of Great Price, you've got Doctrine and Covenants, you've got some things in there that Mormons will say are authoritative, but they'll say, we believe the

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Bible is the Word of God. What's the problem? It's when we start talking to them about the

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Word of God, and where the Word of God contradicts Joseph Smith's revelation, Brigham Young's revelation,

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Orson Pratt's revelation, Joseph Fielding Smith's revelation, Ezra Taft Benson's revelation, they will say, here's the problem.

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Though we believe that's authoritative, it's not ultimate. If you want the interpretation or you want to truly know, you need to listen to our prophets and apostles because they know.

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So what do you have there? You have a conflict in how do I know? Is it the

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Word of God is ultimate, or is it your prophet that's ultimate? Is it your organization that's ultimate?

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And so this is a question in terms of essential Christian commitments coming from the

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Word of God. How do I know anything at all, and how do

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I have certainty? What's the standard? How do I measure it? If somebody says something, how do

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I test that claim? Do I test it based upon their own internal conversation with each other, see if it's consistent within itself?

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Do I test it upon my own feelings? It's the question of by what standard, and can we pause for a moment?

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It's easy for us, and by the way, Reformed folks are good at this, very heady, theological, we think thoughts way up here, right?

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We like to have those deep, long conversations, hard thoughts up here, theological, philosophical conversations, and that's all.

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It can be good, but in the end, I want to challenge you with this, and we're going to end with this today.

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Sola Scriptura is not simply a doctrine we need to know, believe, and be willing to die for in our disputes with those who counterfeit the

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Christian gospel, or our dispute with the Roman Catholics, or Eastern Orthodox, or Mormons.

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It's not merely a doctrine we need to know, and embrace, and understand as Christians for those conversations.

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I actually want to challenge you with this. What I think is more vital, what is more important to us as a church, and as individual followers of Jesus, is not to know this doctrine, believe it, fight for it, and live in accordance with it.

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For those conversations out there with them, I want to challenge us on this doctrine of Sola Scriptura for my own personal life and walk with Jesus, and us within the body of Christ.

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How do you live? Right, what's the doctrine of Sola Scriptura if we define it? We say that the scriptures of the

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Old and New Testaments are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church.

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That part of practice is vital. How will we live with each other?

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Because we can be really good. We can be really good at refuting those who contradict, and bringing the

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Word of God into conflict with Rome, or the Mormons. We can be expert apologists, and defend the

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Christian faith, and be so good at it. But if we haven't allowed the Word of God to challenge us in our sinful moments, in our prideful moments, in our moments of conflict with each other, if we haven't learned to allow this doctrine to actually renew our minds, and to change us as God's people, we have missed the point entirely.

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And I want to say, when we need to talk to ourselves and correct ourselves, we need to be humble enough to do it.

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I love the Reformed faith. I love the Reformed faith. I am a hardcore, pipe -hitting

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Calvinist. I love it. Right? Like Doug Wilson says, like, I wake up in the morning, I go, oh,

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Calvinism! Right? I love it. Because I believe it's an expression of what the grace of God truly is in the gospel.

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I love what the Reformation theology emphasizes. It is the truth. It comes from the scriptures.

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I'm fully committed. But we, as a Reformed community, have a reputation for having a great mind that thinks high critical thoughts.

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But we have a reputation, and Christians, of course, generally do. But let's speak to ourselves.

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As a Reformed community, we have a reputation of being arrogant, haughty, pompous people at times.

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The Reformed community, at times, I don't want to have anything to do with. I know Reformed people, I would rather eat with an atheist than that guy.

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We can't live like that. These doctrines should transform us and humble us. And I want to argue that the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, you need to believe, because the

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Bible teaches, and you need to master it for your sanctification. You need to say, these are the words of God.

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Which means, when it speaks to me, as a Christian, when I'm failing as a father, or I'm failing as a husband, or you're failing as a wife, or we're failing with one another, we need to be willing to let the

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Word of God change us, challenge us, correct us in our most stubborn moments. Why?

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Because what is the doctrine of Sola Scriptura? Ultimately, this is the revelation of God.

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Why? God speaks. God has said. And that's why I live in accordance with it.

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So I'm going to challenge us with that. As we wrap this this up today, this little sidestep in the series, let this doctrine of Sola Scriptura cause you to love

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God's Word more deeply, and to be changed by it. Don't just be changed by it in your personal relationships with each other, or our relationships.

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Let the Word of God shut your mouth. When you are having an internal dialogue, or monologue, where you are succumbing to anxiety, worry, fear of the future, when you are feeling lonely, when you feel guilt and shame, or you feel like God is far off, this doctrine of Sola Scriptura has the revelation of God at the center of your life.

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Meaning, when you have those moments where your mind, your fallible mind, is going a million different directions, you're dealing with death, or grief, or shame, or anxiety, whatever the case may be, you're letting the

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Word of God be the Word of God. You're allowing it to challenge you, and confront you.

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In your moment, you're having, with the husband and wife, difficult spat. That doesn't happen in your house, does it?

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No. No. But when you have it, when the conflict happens, will the husband allow the

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Word of God to be the Word of God in that moment? Will he allow the wife to bring the Word of God and say,

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God says, and he goes, you're right, I repent, I confess, I yield. Will the wife do the same when the husband says to the wife,

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God says, will the wife allow the Word of God to be the Word of God in the home, and to confront, no matter how you feel, no matter how much you want to resist it at that moment.

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You see, the doctrine of Sola Scriptura isn't merely about our fight with Rome. It is about our personal lives.

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Amen? So, we started this off talking about the origin of Scripture, the nature of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, the power of Scripture, the ultimacy of Scripture, and we gave an example,

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Matthew 15. This is a very, very important section. It is so important, and I hope we can all see why it is so important here in this conflict or conversation we're having with either

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Roman Catholic friends and family, or our Eastern Orthodox friends and family. Here's a moment with God Himself, the

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Incarnate One. God's walking among us. He's giving us new revelation.

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Mark that down. Sola Scriptura says at the heart, God speaks, and it's self -attesting, authoritative.

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It's the foundation. Here's a moment in redemptive history. Get this. Revelation is now alive and active.

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It's still coming. It's coming from Jesus. It's coming from the Apostles. Don't miss that.

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You'll understand why as this conversation deepens. Revelation is still coming.

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When Jesus is walking here in this moment, He's God among us. Every word is pure.

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Every word is authoritative. He's speaking, and more revelation is extending into time, and yet, here we have a moment where Jesus, God with us, is now dealing with, let's call them the church, the

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Jewish church, and He's dealing with what they thought were divine traditions handed down.

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Now, don't miss that. This is vital to get. We're talking about the gathering of God's covenant people with the

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Jews. They had the Scriptures. What does Paul say in Romans 3 about the Jews? Like, what benefit did the

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Jews have? If Jews and Gentiles are all sinners, Paul says, then what advantages did you have?

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And Paul makes the point. They, listen, this is key, and it's going to be important later when we talk about the

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Apocrypha. How come the Catholic Bible is different than our Bible? Paul says that the

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Jews, listen, were entrusted with the oracles of God.

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God sovereignly entrusted the covenant people of God with the oracles of God, the

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Scriptures, and that's why the Jewish people at the time of Jesus had laid up in the second

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Jewish temple the very books you have in your Bible today. Our Bible matches the

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Jewish Bible because historically the Jews recognized these as Scripture and the Apocrypha as, you know, helpful sometimes historical works, but not

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Scripture. The Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. Get it! The Jewish people, the

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Jewish church, right now coming to Jesus and saying, excuse me, you're the Messiah? You're the

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Son of Man? Okay, so if all this is true and you're the one we're waiting for,

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I'm filling out now the details, they're challenging now how come your disciples are breaking this tradition?

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Now what's interesting about that is you've got the Jews who in this moment would have affirmed that these are the words of God in the

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Old Testament. These are holy words, pure words. This is Yahweh speaking to his people.

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They would have recognized the authority of Scripture and yet they have a tradition running alongside the

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Bible that they say is binding upon the people of God. So they're coming to Jesus and they're saying, hey,

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I want to know how come your disciples are breaking the tradition of the elders? And so Jesus, God incarnate, actually gives us a principle here.

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He could have authoritatively as God spoken and his word was the rule and yet Jesus teaches us something here when it comes to what is allegedly divine tradition passed down to the church that's not in the

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Scriptures. Now get that. That's what the Jewish church was saying with these rules, is they were saying you've got

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Scripture and you've got the tradition of the elders, this is divine tradition, the Korban rule, this is binding upon God's people and Jesus says to them, ready, here's a standard,

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God says, and what's Jesus quotes? He quotes the

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Old Testament. He quotes the Scriptures and he says this, ready, you say, and then he quotes their tradition and he shows that their tradition that they said was divine tradition.

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This is required to believe and you got to hold to this. He says you've made void the

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Word of God for the sake of your tradition and he says something that is a powerful indictment that we need to wrap our minds around.

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He says, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you? And he quotes

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Scripture again and he says, this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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And so Jesus has two categories here. He has Scripture and then he has your commandments of men, things that are making the

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Word of God void. It's a tradition of the elders, it voids the Word of God, it's the commandments of men.

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These aren't from God. And how were they supposed to know? Ready, watch this, get this, you get the whole thing.

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How was Jesus delivering to them the punch? How did he knock them down that day?

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On what basis? He said, God said this, here's the words of God, he spoke clearly, your tradition contradicts

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God's Word, therefore your tradition is not from God, it's the commandments of men. Jesus delivered the knockout punch by quoting the previous revelation of God in history.

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That was the standard. Now this is vital because in our conversation with our

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Roman Catholic friends, they will say we have the Scriptures and then we have this alleged sacred tradition, church tradition that is this unified tradition throughout church history.

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By the way, that is a myth. Roman Catholic apologists are good at spreading the myth of this unified testimony of the church and throughout history.

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And you can see that conflict as obvious as it truly is. When Roman Catholics try to say we have

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Scripture and church tradition, Scripture and sacred tradition, this is how God has done this in history and that's how we know we have this unified voice throughout history.

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Just watch a conversation between an Eastern Orthodox and a Roman Catholic because they both say the same thing.

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We've got Scripture and tradition and yet the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have split over some very important doctrinal matters when it comes to the infallibility of the

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Pope, the papacy itself, doctrines about Mary, there's all kinds of splits between Eastern Orthodox and Rome.

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Apparently church tradition isn't as clear and unified as we are being told.

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Amen? Think about it. Roman Catholics will say we have the

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Bible and we have church tradition or sacred tradition and yet the problem is is that throughout the history of the church you see church fathers, bishops, pastors, you see church fathers, theologians, saying things that are incredibly consistent with Scripture.

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It is a blessing. And then you see those same church fathers and bishops and theologians absolutely face -planting.

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If you want an example of a major face -planter, just read Origen. Or you can see development even happening in their own theology with like Augustine or Augustine.

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You see in even his own theology where he will contradict what he said previous before because he is a fallible man.

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He is not inspired. He is not infallible. In church tradition you have people who argue with each other over what

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Rome now says you must believe De Fide. It is dogma. You must believe it to be faithful to God and in communion with the church.

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And so think about the standard. Rome says today we've got the Bible and we have church tradition.

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How did Jesus teach us as the Incarnate One to deal with the issue of the alleged divine tradition?

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What do we compare it to? What do we compare it to? Scriptures.

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We compare God's revelation to this alleged divine tradition. Now we talked over the last couple of weeks,

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I'm not going to go into all the details, we talked about Scripture. It is by nature

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God speaking. One of the verses was 2nd Timothy 316 and that is that all

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Scripture is what? Theanoustos. It is breathed out by God.

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There Paul is speaking about the Scriptures and he says they are Theanoustos.

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They are breathed out by God. This is the revelation of God. He's speaking. So Paul tells us something there about the nature of Scripture.

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What makes it different than all the other words of men and women is that Scripture is

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Theanoustos. Peter says in 2nd Peter 121 something about the origin of Scripture.

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How does it happen? And Peter says holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. So it is by nature God's own word. It is something that God himself orchestrates.

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He has authority over. He's the one that gives it to us. The Holy Spirit of God and next

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Jesus in conflict with others would challenge the

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Jewish people of his day using the Scriptures and he said things like Matthew 22 31 about their controversy.

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He says you do err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God and he says have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

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Isn't that interesting? Isn't that amazing? It's incredible that Jesus could quote

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Scripture to them. Words that were said to other people long before and he could say have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

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God's speaking. Reading Scripture is God speaking to you. He's talking to you. It's amazing because like let's let's let this be practical for us now as Christians.

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Like let it be what it is. Like I don't think that I or any of us treasure this book the way that God wants us to.

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That he calls us to. We don't see it as the gift that it is. It sits there in our home.

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It's the Word of God. The creator of the entire universe and all that is.

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The eternal God. The faithful God. The God that keeps his promises. The loving God. The God that condescended to save us.

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These are his words and we want to know like oh I just wish that God would speak to me. I just want to hear a word from God.

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Here's your word from God. Here's your word from God. You know people just want to have this new experience today, right?

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It's popular in evangelism, right? I want a new experience. I'm gonna like like a charismatic spirit -filled experience.

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I want to hear God speaking or even have people who want to get this gift of being able to hear

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God speak and deliver those words to others like current modern revelation.

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We love that idea of like hey I have a word from God for you. You know I was praying last night.

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I was thinking about you and the Lord delivered me some words for you and I just want to deliver those words.

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By the way anyone ever says that to you? That is you're in the danger zone. Because if someone says to you

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God spoke to me and he told me something to say to you and here's what he said to say to you.

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You should write it down and slip it behind revelation, right?

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Right? I mean let's be real here. The person who claims that God spoke to them and here are the words that God told me to tell you.

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Here's his revelation. If that person really believed that it was God speaking then they should slip it in the back of revelation because that's

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God's revelation and you're claiming that this is God's revelation. Do you see the point?

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I'd like to see the person brave enough to do that in the Christian Church or maybe we should stop doing that.

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I'm not saying that we can't as Christians have a word for one another as brothers and sisters but that word should be these words.

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Here's what God says. I don't have any problem and we shouldn't have any problem saying that God's within me.

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I'm his child. He's given me like a conviction, a desire, a passion to say something from his word to you and I need to say it to you but these are the words of God, not new revelation coming from God.

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If you want to hear God speaking, open your Bible and that's not me saying that.

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That's the Lord Jesus. He says, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? If we want God to speak, read the

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Scriptures. Next, we talked about that it's clear, God's word is clear, the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture and that we are accountable to it.

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Just one, two references here was Matthew 22, 26 through 29, that same text where Jesus is challenging them over a doctrinal issue.

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He says, you do err not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God. What standard does he hold them to, the

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Scriptures? And what is he actually doing? He's chastising them. He's saying God's word says this, you're supposed to know this.

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Isn't it amazing? Because, listen, you're wondering why? Why are you making this point? Because Rome will often say to Christians, to Protestants, to the

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Reforms, you can't really understand that book all by your lonesome. You need the infallible interpretation of the church.

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By the way, which verses has Rome infallibly interpreted? And they'll go, well, not many, maybe six.

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I mean, there's dispute on like how many they've actually infallibly interpreted. But they tell you, you can't really understand that book without the church infallibly interpreting it for you or telling you what it says.

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And it's amazing because Jesus says to people in his day, you do err not knowing the

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Scriptures. Apparently, their failure was that they didn't understand the Scriptures. That was the standard.

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And Jesus does it again in Luke 24, 25. On the road to Emmaus, the clarity of Scripture, Jesus indicts them.

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Jesus is alive from the dead. They saw him murdered on a tree, and now they're walking along the road to Emmaus.

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They think this whole thing is over. I mean, it's kind of unbelievable. I really thought he was the Messiah.

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Totally seemed like he was. That walking on water thing, that calming the storm, that raising dead people, that feeding the 5 ,000, that knowing our thoughts from afar, his perfect wisdom and righteousness.

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It seemed like he was legit the Messiah, but I guess not because he's dead. I saw him.

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There's no way to recover from that. And then when Jesus confronts them, what does he say?

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He says, foolish, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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He calls them foolish, and that they're slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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And so how does Jesus indict them? He says, was it not necessary that the Messiah die and rise again?

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So he points them to the Scriptures and shows them from the Old Testament everywhere it spoke of him. And so when

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Jesus indicts them, on what basis does he indict them? Think about it. It's critical in this conversation with Rome.

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He indicts them because they refused to go to the Scriptures to believe and understand, and he says they were foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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He challenged them. You have this word. You should have understood it. You're foolish and you're slow of heart because you didn't believe it.

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Scripture taught this. You should have known this. Apparently, the Scriptures are clear enough to be understood by the simple.

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Amen? Next, we talk about how

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Scripture is self -attesting. Self -attesting. Why? Because it comes from God's own mouth.

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God doesn't need your backup, right? So, for example, let's put it in the context of a conflict like, who says?

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Right? Like, who says? Now imagine for a second that you're pulled over by a police officer, and the police officer says, you're in trouble because you violated this law.

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And you would say something like, who says? Right? Where's that law come from?

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And the officer could ultimately say, well, it goes over here. Our legislature has said that this is considered lawless conduct, and so on that basis, our state says that this is lawless conduct, and that's why.

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And you could just go down another step, and you could say, well, who made them in charge? Who put them into power?

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And you say, well, we're part of the United States of America. We have the system of government where we have, like, states, and we have, like, lesser magistrates, and we've got a federal government.

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And you could push that back, and back, and back, and back, and it's always gonna be because they say. Because them.

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Because of them. And it's gonna get back to an ultimate, ultimately, where you've got to say, ultimately, how do

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I know this is wrong? And by the way, that is how the Christians built this nation.

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They did it on the basis of lax, rex. What does that mean? The law is what?

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King. They said, the Christians, the Covenanters, the Huguenots, those Puritans that came over, they were arguing that when we have government, the government is not

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God. It is not ultimate. The ultimate is going to come from the

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It's the law word of God that is ultimate. Here's the point.

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God says. That's why it's ultimate. It's self -attesting. Here's my point.

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If God confronts a creature and says, this is my word.

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You are to do this and not do that. Is it appropriate for the creature to come to God and say, who says?

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Just consider how foolish that is. He's the creator. I'm the little ant on the hill.

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I'm the bug. I'm the creature. I'm the one who is fallible.

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And it's completely insane and inappropriate for the creature to say to the creator, who says?

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On what basis? Here's the point. Because God is God and I am not, when he speaks, it comes with a self -attesting authority.

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God does not appeal to anybody or anything outside of himself to verify his authority.

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He speaks with final authority. Amen? And that's why when we started this conversation, we started in Genesis in the garden.

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And in the garden, you see the first conflict of how do you know and on what basis should we obey?

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And in the garden, what do you have? God says, eat, don't eat. The day you do, you die.

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And Eve comes along, Adam comes along, Satan comes along, and Satan goes, not die, eat and not die.

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And then you have that original conflict of how do you know? And it comes out in God's favor.

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God, it turns out, was right because his word is ultimate. He spoke and that should have been the basis that they obeyed with because God said.

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What they should have done is what Jesus did in the temptation in the wilderness. That's what they should have done.

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Have you thought about that for a moment now? Stop. Think about it for a moment. In light of Sola Scriptura, how does the

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Incarnate One, the perfect image of God, show us how to navigate conflict in the trial and temptation?

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When Satan comes with the trials and the temptations, what does the Lord of Glory do as a man with Satan?

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He quotes the Word of God. He rests on the revelation of God.

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That's our model. That's how we're supposed to be. Satan comes in, says, all right, if you're the

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Son of God, you know, throw yourself off of here. And Jesus quotes what? You should not, what?

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Don't test the Lord your God. And then Satan comes in one of the temptations and he says, all right, here's all the kingdoms of the world.

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I'll give them to you right now. What's that mean? No cross. No suffering. None of that condescension.

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None of the obedience to death. You don't have to do any of that stuff. I'll give you the kingdom you came for. You're the, you're the, you're the one bringing the kingdom of God.

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I'll just give them all. You just got to do this one thing. Bow down and worship me. And Jesus says what?

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You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Here is the Lord of Glory doing what our first parents ought to have done.

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Resting on the revelation of God. God says. So God's word is self -attesting and it is ultimate.

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It is authoritative. Now, the inspired revelation has always been the ultimate standard for truth and testing throughout redemptive history.

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In other words, when God spoke, that became the ultimate standard. Whether that revelation had been written down or if that revelation was ongoing, that was the standard.

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But it was still to be tested by the previous revelation. This is vital in our conversation with Roman Catholics.

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This conversation is going to come up a lot. In redemptive history, Deuteronomy 13, even if the prophet comes and he has signs and wonders, it looks like it's coming from God.

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But he leads you after other gods. Gods which you have not known. That's how you know he's a false prophet.

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You shall listen to God's voice. In other words, the Jewish people knew God already said this.

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He's already revealed this. So even if this religious leader, this prophet, looks like he's from God, his words must be tested by God's previous revelation.

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That's the standard for the Jewish people. That's in God's law, Deuteronomy 13. Next, you see it in Isaiah 820.

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It's happening now about 700 years before Christ. Isaiah 820 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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It's even there. You see it in the New Testament itself. Just think about this one point of reference.

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You're all familiar, right? If you read Matthew, you see it immediately in Matthew. I mean, right away.

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Matthew's just pulling scripture, drawing from scripture. He's saying this was to fulfill what the prophet

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Isaiah said. And he's pointing to scripture, quoting it copiously throughout Matthew.

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But then you see it in the pattern of the Apostles, right? You see, what does the scripture say? What does the scripture say?

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They'll just quote scripture and say, what's the scripture say? Like, there's the basis. But think about this critical point.

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In Romans, as Paul is writing this letter that gives this full, beautiful explanation of the gospel and its benefits to the church in Rome, that he's so excited to see and he wants to come and visit them.

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As he's explaining the gospel, he then is going into it, well, Jews and Gentiles, all fallen, all fall short of the glory of God.

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The only way to be saved and justified is through faith in Christ and what God has done in him. And now, listen, he then moves giving inspired revelation, this from God, into proving his point.

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And he doesn't do it simply on the basis of his own authority. He goes, in Romans chapter 4, to prove it.

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This is how God has always saved people. And he says, what about Father Abraham?

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And he says, what does the scripture say? And he proves his point of justification by faith, apart from works, by saying,

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Abraham believed God and it was what? Credited to him for righteousness.

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So the apostle Paul, an inspired apostle, giving inspired revelation, has the standard, this is what the word of God says and that's how you know that this gospel is

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God's gospel. It's not a novelty. I'm not giving you something different. This is how

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God has always done that, on the basis of the word of God recorded in Scripture.

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That's the pattern. That's the model. But, Matthew 15, we've already seen,

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Jesus says, you test these allegedly divine traditions by the rule of faith, by the word of God.

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Then, and this is by the way one of my favorites, I don't know if I did a good job last week of emphasizing it enough, but it really is amazing in terms of what's happening, if you think about it.

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In Acts chapter 17, 11, that's the moment we all know, church in Berea, Be -a -Berean, what are they doing?

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Well, it says they're more noble -minded than the ones in Thessalonica. It says because they were like excited to receive this word from God, but interestingly, they're still testing the words that are coming from an inspired apostle by the revelation of God they had already received from God.

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Can we stop for a moment? Can I tell you why? Because, listen, what do we know about the words of God? They come from the

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Holy Spirit of God. Amen? So, if somebody is claiming to be from the true and living

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God, and they're giving us words from God, then that would be from the Holy Spirit of God, and so the

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Holy Spirit of God wouldn't be contradicting himself over here and over here.

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The Holy Spirit of God would be consistent, and so you see those believers listening to Paul, excited about what he's doing, but still searching the

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Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was so. That wasn't arrogant.

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That wasn't mean -spirited. It wasn't disrespectful. It was glorifying and honoring to God to say,

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I'm so excited, and even Paul's words need to be tested by the

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Scriptures. God already said this, so if you're from God, your words are going to match this revelation.

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Amen? That's how it works. Acts 17. Even when divine revelation is being given orally in redemptive history,

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God's previous revelation is the measuring rod or standard.

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Is that clear, everybody? Even when revelation is actively being given in church, sorry, revelation history, the previous revelation of God is the measuring rod to test this new revelation coming.

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Get that? That's important. Now, here's what's important in terms of the dialogue.

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Both the Reformed and Roman Catholics have a sola.

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What does sola mean? Alone, right? It's a Latin word.

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It just means alone. We could just say Scripture alone. We believe Scripture alone as the sole and fallible rule of faith.

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Sola Scriptura is the historical way we say it, right? Now, Roman Catholics will often say, well, you guys believe in that sola

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Scriptura doctrine as though that was somehow insulting. I'm like, yeah, and I'll die for that truth.

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God's revelation is supreme. It is the ultimate, but they'll say, well, you just believe in this doctrine of sola Scriptura.

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You see, we have Scripture as authoritative and we have the history of the church, whatever that might mean.

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I dare you to actually read the Fathers and the history of the church and find this glorious unanimity that Rome alleges.

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It isn't there. You see moments of essential unity, some powerful teaching, but you also see some major doctrinal accretions and conflicts happening throughout church history.

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Now, get this. Rome says we've got Scripture and church tradition, but in reality, when we're talking about how do

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I know what the truth is, what's the standard? The Christian, the

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Reformed, says Scripture is the standard. It's the ultimate authority.

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It's the thing by which I measure everything else, but Rome says, well, we reject that. We've got church tradition and Scripture, but they actually have a sola because when the conflict ensues and when it gets down to brass tacks, in the end, if you say, well, how do you know that?

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They'll say, because the church says. The church has spoken, and what they mean by that is the

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Roman Catholic Church has spoken. The Eastern Orthodox want to have their say, too.

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There's the conflict. So, we believe in sola scriptura, that Scripture is the ultimate standard.

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It's the final resting point. It's that final word. Rome believes in sola ecclesia.

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That's the word from which we get church, that the church alone, it will give you the final word, the final authority.

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So, get this. Protestants, the Reformed, have a sola. It is the

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Bible. It's the measuring thing. It's the standard. Rome has a sola, too. Their sola is the church says.

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It will define for you. It will be the ultimate standard, ultimately, and epistemologically, that's what happens when you have two authorities running alongside one another, claiming ultimacy, is that one will eventually eat the other one up, and with Rome, that's what you see, and I believe that's why you see

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Rome fell officially into apostasy. I believe, with their declarations of the

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Council of Trent. Now, we must ask if the

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Roman Catholic Communion is necessary to understand the Scriptures, then has the

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Roman Catholic Communion infallibly interpreted the Bible? Because they claim you need the church,

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Rome, the papacy, the magisterium, you need church tradition to infallibly interpret the

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Bible, and then ask your Roman Catholic friends, which verses in the Bible has Rome infallibly interpreted?

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Now, you have, again, some disagreement on this point, but most people that I've heard that are Roman Catholic, and are good, solid, devout

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Roman Catholics, will say somewhere maybe around six. Six verses. So, we need the infallible interpreter, but we only have a handful of verses that are infallibly interpreted by Rome.

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The claim doesn't work. Has the Roman Catholic Communion infallibly interpreted the

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Bible? Where? Which verses? If sacred tradition is the standard, then whose interpretation in this sacred tradition?

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Again, when? Who? Where? Because the point is, is that in church history, church fathers, because they're fallible and uninspired, disagree with each other, and even contradict themselves in their own writings.

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The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic disagree on important elements of the

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Christian faith and practice, so much for this unified Christian tradition.

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Now, remember this. This is a key point in our discussion with the Catholic friends and family. Rome argues that no, get this, no new revelation has come after the time of the

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Apostles. So, Roman Catholics and Christians, Protestants, the Reformed, would agree that after the passing of the

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Apostles, this is all the church has that is the inspired revelation of God, the infallible revelation of God in history, from prophets and Apostles.

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Rome does not claim that new revelation is being given after the time of the

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Apostles. So, with that, we can agree that the only access we have today to inspired and infallible revelation is contained in the

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Holy Scriptures. Everything after this is uninspired and fallible and must stand up to the rule of faith in the

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Old and New Testaments. Now, this is really important. Listen, I had planned, and I just,

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I said that's not gonna be helpful. I had planned to basically have an entire service where we just went through the perspicuity of Scripture, that's the clarity of Scripture, the power of Scripture, the nature of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, and I was just gonna dump on us quotes from the

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Church Fathers for an hour, and then I thought you all will probably hate me after that service, and so what

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I will recommend to you is this, and there's a number of things like this. There is a three -volume set

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I highly encourage you to get. If it's not in your library, sell your shoes to get it. It's a three -volume set from David King and William Webster.

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It is on Sola Scriptura, different points of contact. Their third volume is the writings of the

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Church Fathers affirming the Reformation principle of Sola Scriptura. This is such a blessing.

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It is just a book filled with quotes from the Fathers throughout Church history affirming everything that I've said to you from Scripture throughout this series.

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It is overwhelming. It is encouraging. It's a blessing. They're all in context.

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You can read them for yourself. So rather than spending an entire Lord's Day just reading to you quotes from the

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Fathers on this point, I highly encourage you to get this and just start reading through the quotes of the early

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Fathers on this point, but I did want to point to at least a couple quotations because it is a blessing.

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Now some of my favorites in Church history, I've already told you before, Augustine, John Chrysostom is just incredible on justification by faith and in Christ alone apart from works.

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He is just one of my favorites in Church history. Athanasius, I love him so much I got a tattoo of him.

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Athanasius is like my favorite and I just I can't wait to meet him in heaven one day.

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There are great quotes from all these men in history, but I'm going to give to you some quotes from Augustine because both the

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Reforms and the Catholics love Augustine at different points. There's points where Augustine is on our side and there's points where Augustine is on their side and so you would expect that from a fallible, uninspired man.

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But he makes a point in his comments on Baptism 2 .3

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.4. He says this, But who can fail to be aware that the sacred canon of Scripture, both of the

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Old and New Testament, is confined within its own limits and that it stands so absolutely in a superior position to all later letters of the bishops that about it we can hold no manner of doubt or disputation whether what is confessedly contained in it is right and true but that all the letters of bishops which have been written or are being written since the closing of the canon are liable to be refuted if there be anything contained in them which strays from the canon or the truth either by the discourse of someone who happens to be wiser in the manner than themselves or by the weightier authority and more learned experience of other bishops by the authority of councils and further that the councils themselves which are held in the several districts and provinces must yield beyond all possibility of doubt to the authority of plenary councils which are formed for the whole

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Christian world and that, here it is, even of the plenary councils the earlier are often corrected by those which follow them when by some actual experiment things are brought to light which were before concealed and that is known which previously lay hid and this without any whirlwind of sacrilegious pride without any puffing of the neck through arrogance without any strife or envious hatred simply with holy humility

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Catholic peace and Christian charity by the way when you see our early Christians referring or using the word

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Catholic what's it mean universal we believe that we believe in the one holy

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Catholic Church we are not Roman Catholic we are Catholic in terms of if you get saved in Africa and then someone gets saved in Florida you're both part of the same universal body of Christ that's the

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Catholic Church amen so when we see pastor Wang Yi in China thrown into a dungeon in China for preaching the gospel our hearts are burdened for him he's a

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Chinese Christian but he's part of our body amen that's the Catholic universal

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Church when you see that in history just know what it means in Augustine's and I know some of you guys are like cringing right now who are much more erudite and scholar that scholarly than me yeah you're saying

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Augustine in your minds my sons I say Augustine I'm never gonna get rid of it now I'm stuck with it okay so I'm calling him

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Augustine all right and I know it's really bothering some of you who are smarter than me okay in Augustine's reply to Faustus 11 .5

53:46

he says this listen important as regards our writings which are not a rule of faith or practice but only a help to edification we may suppose that they contain some things falling short of the truth in obscure and recondite matters and that these mistakes may or may not be corrected in subsequent treaties for we are of those of whom the

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Apostle says quote and if you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even unto this unto you

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Philippians 315 such writings are read with the right of judgment and without any obligation to believe in order to leave room for such profitable discussions of difficult questions all right conversations within the church dealing with doctrinal issues but he says this there is a distinct boundary line separating all productions subsequent to apostolic times from the authoritative canonical books of the

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Old and New Testaments brothers and sisters my point here is we could do this for days the doctrine of sola scriptura or the rule of faith the

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Old and New Testaments as ultimate is not a novelty in church history you can find it in the fathers you can find it in your favorites however inconsistent

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Christians have been in history the rule of faith is there you can find it you can rejoice in their teachings it's not a novelty in history the standard is

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God's revelation in history you see everywhere but here we're gonna end on this right now more importantly circle back to what

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I said at the very beginning of the message today more importantly most importantly

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I believe and this is something that God used to change me because I was a young zealous guy

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I can remember being in my 20s wanting to master every apologetic arguments memorize all these scriptures and I'm memorizing them thinking about the conflict that I'm gonna have with this group or that group and I'm memorizing the points mostly for their benefit but not really for mine we can't live that way we can't live that way because this is the

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Word of God speaking to me I'm supposed to be changed by this of course

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I want to be used by God as a tool to lead other people to Jesus I want that I want to lay my life down so that so many people come to Jesus and so yeah

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I want to develop and I want to master these arguments and I want to be an effective tool in God's hands and I want to know this for their benefit yes but that should be secondary the ultimate really is

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I'm a child of God God loves me he saved me God lives in me

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God's conforming me to his image and I need to know this word and treasure it up my heart and I need to have this in my mind and I'm gonna have it as ultimate

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I want to yield to it constantly as ultimate because because I'm God's child he's my father he loves me save me

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I belong to him and God wants me to be holy he wants me to be wise he wants me to be like Jesus and so I think more important than all this discussion of like conflict with Rome and the standard here and church history is in the end for me this needs to change me

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I need to say well you know in reality the real punch to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is it should lay me bare should change my life should constantly be in a state of being made new should never be in a place where I'm complacent and going

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I guess God's done with me I don't feel it anymore or I just want God to say something to me you've got it right here in your hands are you hungry and feed on God's Word repent me to all of us of the indifference we have day by day or even seasons where we have the

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Word of God and we're complaining about God feeling like he's so far off and if I could just have God speak to me today have you not read what was spoken to you by God these are the words of God it's one thing to flex this truth in our dispute with Rome it's another to be sanctified by it

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John 17 17 so beautiful so beautiful the prayer of Jesus for his sheep he's praying about you do you trust in Christ do you trust in Jesus is here

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Lord and Savior yes you don't have to be quiet yes yeah so that prayer is about you this is

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Jesus praying for you and me and his here's his prayer he says this father sanctify them by your truth your word is truth that's his prayer for his people so we need to be sanctified we need to be transformed we need to be renewed that's his prayer for his people and so can

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I just give you a couple us as a body a couple things this is one thing to give you that in theory this needs to change my life and be the standard for all things in my life but let's get down to some specifics some real specifics

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I think we all struggle with as believers throughout our life to some degree or another at different points if the scriptures are

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God speaking and this is the revelation of God then we need to be willing to be confronted and changed right now today on into perpetuity this is my life now we think about things like forgiveness as we come to Jesus and it's this free gracious thing from God where he comes down to chase the rebel sinner he pays the price that we can never pay he shows a love that is incomprehensible it doesn't make any sense that I'm the hater of God I'm the enemy of God I'm by nature a child of wrath

01:00:20

I'm the one who falls short I'm that disobedient son and yet he comes as a holy

01:00:27

God to save me and we love that as God's people we say God praise you that you saved a wretch like me and then we go on in our

01:00:36

Christian walk or in our marriages or in our families or in our relationship with our siblings and we live a life of no forgiveness or like you've got to pay or it's not coming from me or we hold on to things and we're bitter and we let it grow we don't even act like we're forgiven by God we act like we have a higher standard than God right like God forgives me

01:01:00

I deserve eternal hell I am the one who is so guilty and he's condescended and he's saved me by his grace and then someone next to us sins and we just hold it tight we won't let it go and we're not pursuing them in any way for forgiveness won't even let it happen because we think that we need to have a higher standard

01:01:23

I suppose than God what arrogance and so Jesus says in Matthew 18 22

01:01:30

I won't read the entire thing because you already know it when he's asked how many times should

01:01:37

I forgive my brother what's the limitation so I could smash him like give me the number so I can beat him after that like give me the seven seven times like is it seven times and then

01:01:50

I could then I could take him down and Jesus says not seven but 70 times seven and so of course the literal person is going okay 490 times and then after that they're mine right there's something don't do that like Jesus like symbolism is important the

01:02:17

Bible numbers are actually important I would like to you know perfect creation seven days you know a thousand is like this perfect multitude ten times ten times ten it's these numbers mean a lot in Scripture and so he says not seven times 70 times seven you keep forgiving it doesn't mean

01:02:34

Jesus is saying get stepped on broken that no one needs to build trust he's not the Bible teaches all those things when it comes to forgiveness forgiveness is free forgiveness is something we should live like in light of our forgiveness and so Jesus says not seven times 70 times seven you guys are like Jesus you don't understand it has just been my wife failing or my husband failing or my kids failing or my father failing or my friend failing and it's like I gotta forgive him again they're broken they're crying their ass

01:03:02

I'm sick of forgiving them Jesus says 70 times 7 and there's the Word of God it's uncomfortable now let's admit it it's uncomfortable because there's the thing of solo scriptura that will wreck you and change you or do we live like that do we live as like gracious forgiving like freely pouring out forgiveness wanting forgiveness wanting to reconcile do we live like that or do we harbor bitterness do we create factions do we slander do we lie do we try to break down someone's dignity do we try to do any of those things rather than just say look the the principle

01:03:43

Jesus teaches is forgive forgive we should be pursuing forgiveness if this is truly impacted us as a church then we should say let it confront me like Jesus talks about leaving your gift at the altar in Matthew 5 23 through 24 there's another word from God where Jesus talks to me as his child he talks to you as a follower of Jesus and he says in Matthew 5 he says this look if you're coming to give

01:04:13

God something like you're coming to worship God you have a gift to like leave at the altar he says and there you remember that your brother has something against you he says first go and be reconciled with your brother and then come back and then come back when that's right and then give your gift to God in other words there's so much can be said here don't pretend to be in right relationship with God when you've got all this conflict with your brother next to you and you just won't resolve it which is by the way why when we come to this table every

01:04:52

Lord's Day we say come in a discerning way and we also say that if you can reconcile with someone next to you before you come to the table you should live like a forgiven person and reconcile first and then come to this table rejoicing in the forgiveness you have it's one of the ways we try to play that out in our relationships with one another within the church it's all the script

01:05:17

Torah is really changing you and you say okay God's Word that's the ultimate God said it I believe it then what do we say about our tongues as a church in James chapter 3 do we really believe that or do we just want the

01:05:31

Word of God to be authoritative to the transvestites to the

01:05:37

LGBTQ plus we just want to be authoritative to the guys out there to those were in conflict with like this is

01:05:44

God's Word to you or do we actually let God's Word be God's Word to me and where James the

01:05:51

Lord's brother says that your tongue is a fire and it destroys do we do we actually say

01:06:03

I need to be confronted by that like I I gossip I even take down people's dignity

01:06:11

I slander I say awful things about people I take swipes and jabs behind people's backs

01:06:19

I belittle others within the body of Christ and I try to do it looking like a sanctified person

01:06:25

I polish my gossip and my slander and I cover it in Christian garb

01:06:31

I make it look like Jesus is all behind it I don't don't we do that as Christians we justify our sin in our tongues that are just horrific and destructive we we cover it in Christian clothes and make it look holy but in reality it's a destructive evil thing and the

01:06:50

Lord's brother gives to us revelation and says your tongue is a fire if you are

01:06:55

God's person you must be wise you have to control and tame your tongue do you even care do

01:07:02

I even care if this is authoritative I have to or if sola scriptura has any meaning to us if it's the ultimate how about wisdom and how we live with each other we've been doing

01:07:14

Proverbs and I am so grateful for it the wisdom of God divine wisdom from above given to us here's

01:07:20

God speaking here's how you live here's how you live as my child here's how you live as my follower are we following it we actually letting it change us like not being a scoffer what's a scoffer it's an unteachable person right wisdom confronts the scoffer the person who just won't be confronted wisdom confronts the person who always wants to hear themselves talking wisdom confronts the person who actually creates factions who spreads lies about their brother or sister wisdom tells you to hear both sides of a conflict wisdom tells you to examine both sides of that conflict one person sounds right so another one comes to examine them wisdom tells us to have equal weights and measures do we do that or do we show partiality still as God's people listen listen

01:08:15

I don't care how good you are reform theology I don't care what a great apologist you are if you're not a person who wants to be wise in Jesus I'm not impressed and you shouldn't be impressed either it's not impressive to know a lot about God but not be able to live in accordance with this truth it's not impressive we should care about God's truth we should be committed to it we should live also in accordance with it we need wise

01:08:44

Christians not knowledgeable fools amen now finally you're like you already said that I'm in the same thing okay it's the final thing of the final thing it really is

01:08:57

I just talked about letting the Word of God be the Word of God to challenge us in how we live with each other but as I said at the beginning of the message today what about God's Word being

01:09:10

God's Word for you as you walk with Jesus look be honest don't put the

01:09:15

God face on and pretend like all is well and everything's right and big smile we're all being sanctified we're all being changed we're all being renewed

01:09:23

Jesus saves sinners he doesn't save righteous people so we all have work to do amen so for your own personal walk with Jesus what about those moments where you feel like God is just like a million miles away he's not concerned for you that he doesn't love you he's busy with other people and other more important things well you're lying about God you're lying about God stop lying about God to yourself you need to be confronted and I need to be confronted when we lie about God in our hearts and minds as much as the

01:10:01

Roman Catholic needs to be confronted over their doctrinal error and I would say it's more important that you are being confronted then you first then you go confront them so how about those times we lie about God that he's far off he's not concerned he's abandoned me you're lying about him how do you know you're lying about him because he said he's your father he'll never lose you he'll never forsake you he will be with you forever that's what

01:10:27

God says so stop lying about God let the scriptures be authoritative infallible and ultimate even in your own inner monologue the daily talk who talks to you more than you next fear

01:10:44

I'm so afraid how many times does God have to say do not fear do not fear do not fear go

01:10:52

I dare you to try that just Google search do not fear verses in the Bible and you're welcome

01:10:57

I think God is making a point do not fear right and then we yet we're just afraid little creatures and God says do not be afraid do not be afraid

01:11:06

I wonder if I should be afraid God says do not be afraid and so should we be challenged by that yes or how about the person that was an anxious soul they're constantly anxious they're constantly worried and you make excuses for yourself saying

01:11:19

I'm just an anxious person no you're a person struggling with unbelief put it to death stop making excuses and saying

01:11:29

I'm just an anxious person yeah we're all sinners in some way unbelief that's the core of anxiety trust him if Jesus says do not be anxious do you know what that means in the

01:11:45

Greek do not be anxious it means what it says stop being anxious it's a command not a request loneliness guilt shame honoring our parents husbands with wives wives respect your husbands obey your husbands husbands love your wives like Christ loves the church lays his life down for her how should we live how should we have intimacy let the