Jeff Durbin: Sola Scriptura & Rome, Pt 1 | 2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Timothy 3:16-17 and the Claim That Scripture Is God-Breathed

Am I on? There you go. If you want to open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. We're actually going to start in verse 14. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14. Hear now the word of the living and the true God.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's praise God's people.

Lord, this is your word. Scripture is breathed out by you. We submit, Lord, to your inspired, infallible revelation. These are not the words of mere men. These are your words. And so, Lord, we yield ourselves to your truth, to your revelation.

We seek to glorify your name, God, by putting you and your word, your revelation as supreme, as ultimate. God, we pray that you'd bless, Lord, in this series. Bless as we open your word and learn from you.

Bless and transform us individually. Make us more like Christ. Make us more like Christ in standing on your word through trials and tribulations. In our spiritual warfare with the enemy, let us be like Jesus in the wilderness.

Let us stand on your word, God, as ultimate. Let it be our weapon. Let it be our hope. Let it be our foundation. And we pray also, God, that you'd bless in this particular part of the series. Help us understand your word and how it relates to opposing authorities and those who would contradict your truth.

We pray you'd bless, Lord. Get the teacher out of the way. May I decrease in Christ's increase. In Jesus' name, amen. 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17. If you're a child at Apologia Church, you probably know this.

In Greek, all scripture is, what is it? Theanoustos, theanoustos, breathed out by God. It is breathed out by God, theanoustos. All scripture is theanoustos, breathed out by God. This is the Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy talking about how from a young child, a young child, he was acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is breathed out by God. Here is the Apostle Paul, through inspiration, making a claim about scripture, the sacred writings. The revelation of God came in history. The revelation of God came through prophets, came through apostles, but the revelation of God is God condescending and God actually speaking, giving special revelation.

And the Apostle Paul here is making a claim to the sacred writings, that these are the very words of God. Yes, they're spoken through prophets. God condescends at a point in history. God speaks them. God sometimes even writes them in stone.

But these are words from God, and the Apostle Paul is making a claim there as to the nature of the sacred writings of the scripture. Now, this is vitally important to get because God does reveal himself in other ways.

God has another form of speech that we're going to learn about in a moment. But that form of speech is not referred to in this sense that we have in the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures, what you hold in your hands, your Bibles, whether it is on pages or it's in your tablet or in your phone, these are the very words of God.

That's the nature of scripture. This is God speaking to the degree that when the Lord of glory walks among us in this world, on this dirt, he walks among us. When the God-man, when God incarnates, walks among us and he has conflict with people around him, this is God himself.

He can speak by his own authority, and he often does. But when he's in conflict at times with religious leaders in his day, he would refer them to the Holy Scriptures. You do err not knowing the Holy Scriptures.

The scriptures cannot be broken. Have you not read what was spoken to you by God? Jesus refers to the Holy Scriptures as something as distinct. These are the words of God. And so that brings us to this discussion that is far broader than the discussion of our conflict between Protestant Christianity or Reformed Protestants and Roman Catholicism.

It is a much bigger discussion. It has to do with every aspect of our lives. At the heart of it is the revelation of God. But it gets us to the discussion as we dialogue with Roman Catholics, or with Mormons, or with Jehovah's Witnesses, or those who co-opt Christian language.

They borrow Christian language. They use our language. They sound like us. They say they believe in Jesus. But they have doctrines and teachings, traditions of men that contradict the scriptures, that gets us to the point of this doctrine, this historic doctrine of sola scriptura.

Sola scriptura. And again, I want to impress this upon all of us, each and every one of us. This is not just a doctrine that is about the conflict between Reformed Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

Actually, this is the essence of it all. This, at the heart of this issue, is not, again, the conflict only between us and Rome. It is how you will view the news. It is how you will go out into the marketplace.

It is how you will engage with your family and friends. It's how you're going to talk to your kids when they sit against you, dishonor you, and you bring to them the words of God and the standard. You're saying you're an authority in the home, but the ultimate authority here must be obeyed.

God says. It's the revelation of God that rules my home. How do I know? How am I certain when I tell my children things like you need to honor your father and your mother? Is that just my opinion? It's just like how I like to run my house.

I think this will go well if you honor your father and your mother. What's the standard in this home? You see, that's the essence of sola scriptura, the revelation of God. God has spoken. When we're talking about marital conflict between a husband and a wife, and you're saying, well, to the wife, well, here's how you're failing.

Upon what basis do I claim you are failing? My own personal feelings? My opinion? Or do I say that, well, here's what God says in terms of your role and the obligations you have as a wife? Or I say the same thing to a father when I say to the man, well, you're failing in this way because you're not loving your wife as what?

Christ loves the church. There's sola scriptura in action. See, it's not just about us and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and Roman Catholics. The essence of this is this.

Ready?

God said. God has spoken. And by the way, if we want to be like Jesus, if we want to be conformed to the image of Christ, we need to be like Christ in conflict. When he's in conflict with religious authorities who appeal to divine tradition passed down, Jesus refers them to the written inspired revelation of God.

That's how Jesus navigated controversy with them. Whenever they had a claim to divine tradition, he said, you say, but Moses says. Thus, you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Or when he's in a moment of where they're questioning and challenging him about the resurrection, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

Jesus clearly holds to the same position as the Apostle Paul here to Timothy, and that is that these are the very words of God. And so the doctrine of sola scriptura, you've heard it said across this pulpit before.

But the doctrine of sola scriptura, a simple definition but not comprehensive.

Get that.

Not comprehensive is that sola scriptura says the scriptures, the holy scriptures here in this book are the sole infallible rule for faith and practice for the church. Sole infallible rule for faith and practice.

Sole infallible. Now, this is really important as you get into the discussion because many times when we have conversations with our Roman Catholic friends and family, there are misrepresentations of sola scriptura.

Things that are said about sola scriptura that we aren't saying and we actually don't believe. Believing sola scriptura doesn't mean, does not mean, that you do not believe that there are other good authorities.

Get that, very important. We're not saying in believing sola scriptura that we don't love church tradition.

We do.

We're not saying in believing sola scriptura that we don't lean on the giants of the faith before us. We're not saying in believing sola scriptura that we don't need the councils, that we could care less about those.

We're not saying in believing sola scriptura that you don't need the church. That's not what sola scriptura says. Sola scriptura is saying that the sole infallible, without error, rule, standard there is for the church is the written revelation of God in the holy scriptures.

But it doesn't mean that we don't acknowledge other fallible authorities. Can I give an example? Are parents an authority in the home? Are they an authority in the home? Yes and amen. A few of you said yes.

We've got some trouble, OK. Are parents an authority in the home?

Yes.

Are they an infallible authority?

No.

Are they a fallible authority? But do they have an authority? A fallible one. The only way you know that as a parent you are operating in truth, and righteousness, and holiness, and justice, and love is if you compare your doctrine in your home, your praxis in your home to the infallible rule.

So we do believe that there are good authorities.

Very good.

Love the Council of Nicaea.

Amen?

Great stuff.

Athanasian Creed. Praise God for Athanasius, right? That's a fine authority.

It's a great authority.

But how do you know that they got it right? Is it just on the church's say so? It's because the church has said. I mean, brothers and sisters, church history is a glorious mess. There are moments of great glory, and there's a lot of messiness.

Why?

Because after the death of the apostles, there is no infallible, infallible revelation of God coming from any Christian.

Do you get that?

And so how do you test whether somebody is saying something that is actually true? So for example, let's give you a simple challenge right now. I want a lot of interaction here. If I was to say to you, which should we do, love our neighbor or eat our neighbor, what would you say?

Why?

Because God says.

It's as simple as that.

Your standard as to whether you should love your neighbor or eat your neighbor is because God says, and that's it. You don't push beyond that. It's the word of God. Like if somebody said, well, and I've heard this.

Oh, there's videos. If somebody says, well, I don't think we should love our neighbor. I don't think we should eat our neighbor rather than love them because it's gross. There's a lot of people in this world that do that that don't think it's actually gross.

There are tribes in the world today that do this practice. They actually eat their neighbors. And so if you say, well, I think it's gross, well, you know what, some people think salmon is gross. I'm in that number, OK?

It's gross. Some people think sushi is gross. Like, you know, it's just all a matter of taste, right? Exactly. So if we ask that question, if we impress that, how do you know the truth of this? Love your neighbor rather than eat your neighbor.

Christians immediately go, because God said. Or how about we do it differently? The Trinity versus Unitarianism. Well, how do you know? Is it because some church council pulled rank and told you? Why do you believe the councils about the Trinity?

Why do you believe that? Because the church pulled rank and told you? Or do you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity because when the councils are explaining the triune nature of God, they are appealing to the infallible rule of faith in the scriptures?

Do you see the points? We honor the councils that get it exactly right, because they just sound like Jesus. They sound like Paul. They sound like the prophets. Why do we believe in the Trinity? Is it because the church pulled rank?

No, it's because the church leaned on the infallible rule of faith. That's why we believe these things. Now, this is an important discussion, because, brothers and sisters, in church history, you see God moving through his word and his gospel within the church.

But you're seeing that happening through fallible and uninspired men. And so the question is, where do I go for authority? Where do I go for the ultimate? Do I go to church tradition? See, Rome will make that claim.

They'll say things like, well, we have these divine deposits. We've got the sacred scriptures. We believe these are the very words of God. This is God speaking. But we also have this sacred tradition.

We've got this tradition that's been passed down for 2 ,000 years to us. We've got sacred tradition to lean on, too. So we've got these divine deposits. We're really standing in two places, one foot in scripture and one foot in this thing called sacred tradition, the teaching of the church.

And so we're standing on those things. Here's the problem.

Here's the problem.

If you have integrity about church history and the fathers and Christians in history, you will have to recognize that you have fallible men handling the word of God. And at times, you see them sounding exactly like Jesus, exactly like Peter, exactly like Paul.

And so you know what they're saying lines up with the rule of faith, God's inspired word. But let's be honest. If we're honest, we won't try to be totalizing with the fathers. And that's what many Roman Catholics will try to do.

They'll try to pretend like all of church history is on the side of Rome. And if you study the issues, you'll realize that is not the case. Find me the papacy in the early church. You won't find it. Find me the belief that the Pope is infallible in the early church.

Find me the doctrine of Mary as mediatrix or co-mediator with Jesus within the early church. You're not going to find these teachings, these beliefs in the early church. You will not find them. You will find giants like Augustine or Augustine.

See, I always say Augustine because he's staring at me. I prefer to say Augustine, but I guess when you say Augustine, you sound not scholarly. So Augustine, OK? When you look at a giant like Augustine, you will see him without question, without question, standing on the same principle that the reformers stood on with reference to the infallible nature of the word of God and it as the ultimate rule of faith over against the words of uninspired men.

Without question, Augustine affirmed the doctrine of sola scriptura, but Augustine also did some face plants. Augustine was a fallible human being. He was not an inspired human being. Augustine said things that Roman Catholics can point to to say, hey, look, he's on our side.

And we could say, you're right. That does sound a lot like what you think and believe. But over here, he's on my side. When it comes to the grace of God and monergism and at these points of sola scriptura, the point is that church history is a glorious what?

Mess.

Why?

Because it's fallible human beings. But what's the infallible rule? Where's the only place where you have infallible words from God recorded for us? Where's the only place? The Bible, the Holy Scriptures.

So the claim of Rome is we've got these divine deposits. You've got the sacred writings. You've got the Holy Scriptures. And you've also got this thing of tradition over here in the teaching magisterium at the church.

And you've got some of it is nebulous. And like, well, what exactly is that? Where is it found? Show me that in history. Well, it's actually not there in history. It develops over time like an acorn becoming a tree.

In other words, it's not there in history. So you have this concept about these divine deposits. But here's the point, brothers and sisters, in this question about our love for Roman Catholics. It's dealing with a question of ultimates, the question of ultimates.

Now, let me just impress it upon you like this. And it's not, again, merely about Roman Catholicism and our dispute with them. But it's a question of how do you know? Now, just stop there for a second.

Just stop there for a second. How do you know? That's a big one. This isn't just some philosophy course where we're dealing with things that are just way up here in the atmosphere that have no real application to life.

I'm going to ask you that question. How do you know? How are you certain? Pick a subject. Pick a thing we're dealing with out there in the world not related to Rome. All right, let's take the popular stuff.

Let's take what's going across the globe. Let's take what's going across TikTok and all the apps right now and all of this. Amazingly, somehow the world in the 21st century turned gay.

Right?

Like, all of a sudden, numbers are skyrocketing. It's interesting, as social media advances and everyone can talk and share their world view, everybody's gay, right? So gayness is somehow connected to social media.

I don't know how that works. But think about it. The claim is made, I can do what I want with my body to whoever I want. I may look like a boy on the outside. I may look male. If you dug into my system and looked at my chromosomes and DNA, you might see maleness, but I feel like a woman.

Right?

I feel like a woman. You see maleness, but I feel like a woman. Now look, you can challenge that today on a number of levels. And I've talked to you guys about this before. Matt Walsh, great documentary, super entertaining.

I absolutely loved watching it. But I think it fell short in some ways. Matt Walsh is a Roman Catholic. He leans a lot on what we would call natural theology and general revelation. He leans a lot there philosophically.

So in his approach to the culture today in terms of saying, no, you can't say you are a female when you actually are a male, was his approach was to really appeal to what we just know instinctively or what tradition has brought to us.

All cultures throughout history have said maleness, femaleness, male, male, and that's it. We have a binary. And so he even goes at one point in the film and he goes to like a distant tribe and asks, what if a guy, he's a male, right?

And he wants to live like a woman. And he shows people just like laughing, right? Like this is hilarious. People really do this. And so his approach was to really say, well, to address this issue of transgenderism and genital mutilation and all that's going on at rapid pace, we just need to appeal to like the tradition of the world and how we've just sort of done this together and how everyone just sort of accepts this.

What's the problem?

What's the problem?

When you're talking to a person who, according to the scriptures, suppresses the truth of God and unrighteousness and they reject that general revelation, they say,.

I will not listen to God.

I don't want to know him. I don't want him in my knowledge. I'm going to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. When you're talking to somebody who's at war with God, biology doesn't matter.

Don't you see? You can talk to the dude in a dress and say, sir. And he'll say, ma 'am. No, sorry. You've seen that video, right?

That video was delicious, OK?

That guy just couldn't help it. Like he wants to show respect and he's just, sir, sir. And he's like, it's ma 'am.

Sorry.

When you talk to the guy in GameStop who's demanding that you refer to him as ma 'am, right? Or when you talk to the big dude putting his hand on Ben Shapiro when he's calling him, sir, and saying, you keep that up and you're going to go home in an ambulance, right?

Don't we understand that they know their biology is screaming? They know. They know that all creation is shouting about exactly what they are. And you're going to say to them, yes, but tradition has held and we've always believed and science says in your biology, you are male.

What do they say with a suppression of the truth?

What do they say?

I don't care because I feel like a woman on the inside. This is my truth. Who are you to stand on and against my truth? And so guess what? If it's just a matter of historic tradition and things that we've always done, if it's just a matter of like my little group right now that we've decided we can live like this, if it's just a matter of my own interpretation inside or my emotions or my commitments, that's not authoritative.

That is fallible belief from a human being. What is the infallible authoritative word to bring to our culture today? What is the infallible word? From the beginning, he created them what? Male and female.

From the beginning. By the way, that sort of does away with what is it? Believing like God used evolution over time and we can have this ages in Genesis where like God sort of like through seed form creates human beings.

No, Jesus didn't believe that. Jesus said from the beginning, he created them male and female. So it is the word of God that's supposed to be the authoritative rule there that we bring to the world. It's not to say you can't point to evidences of the destructive nature and consequences of this worldview.

It's to say there must be an ultimate word. How do you know? How do you know? It's the word of God. It's the revelation of God. It's a question of ultimates. Again, it's not denying that there are other healthy good authorities.

You can believe in Sola Scriptura and love the creeds. You can believe in Sola Scriptura and have an amazing confession of faith that is a rule, a fallible rule for your church. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, our Confession of Faith.

We believe in another rule, but it is not an infallible rule. Councils can be authoritative, but they're fallible. Parents in a home are authoritative, but they're fallible. Pastors in churches have authority, but they're fallible.

They must be tested.

Amen?

Your pastor must be tested by the rule of faith. I'll give you another one in terms of we all recognize you can be fallible, but also have authority. The Supreme Court, right? We like the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court's a good idea. Christians in history helped to develop these different spheres of government for checks and balances. We think about the law of God and justice and a court system that honors God.

We recognize the Supreme Court as an authority but it is a fallible authority, and it is not the supreme being.

Amen?

And so in history, with a Christian view of the courts, you can say praise God for the courts when the court is standing on God's standards of justice.

Amen?

But you can also praise God for the states that resist the fallible authority of the Supreme Court, say, for example, in the Dred Scott case, where the Supreme Court gives a wicked, abominable ruling and calls our black brothers and sisters property and says that they must be delivered back to their owners and praise God for the states that told the Supreme Court to go pound sand, that they reject that abominable decree.

They reject it. You are not infallible, Supreme Court, so we resist you because you are not standing on the truth and God's standards of justice. Do you see the point?

It's a good authority.

Amen for it. We'll uphold it when they are on the side of God. And you all, of course, know what's going on in the Lone Star State right now, Texas, right? State of Texas says we need to protect ourselves from their understanding from an invasion, they say.

We've got to protect our people. We need to protect our state. And so they put up razor wire. And so you've heard this week the news. It's happening as we speak. The Biden administration does what they do.

And so a decree comes from the court. You must let them in. You must remove the razor wire. And what did Governor Abbott say? Go pound sand. I don't care what you say as the president. I don't care what you say as the Supreme Court.

We are standing on righteousness and justice. We are standing on the law. And so we will flex the sovereignty of the state of Texas. We will flex as a lesser magistrate to say that it is, in fact, you that is defying the truth.

And so we reject your authority here. So we recognize you have an infallible authority. And then you have other fallible authorities. You can believe in Sola Scriptura and love the creeds and confessions.

But here's the point.

Are you ready?

This should be so easy for all of us. When you support the creeds and confessions, why are you doing that? Why are you believing that the creeds and confessions.

Are good?

It's the word of God. Because that reference point is the very word of God. That's why we love this confession. That's why we love this creed. Because it is with the infallible word of God. Now, quick thing.

Today's laying down the foundations. The foundations. We're going to move from the foundations into actual examples of Sola Scriptura in the Holy Scriptures and then to Sola Scriptura in history and in tradition.

But today's laying the foundation. We need to define this. This is vitally important to get. Scripture tells us that God speaks. God reveals himself. God is not silent. God is not far away. God is not an absentee landlord.

We don't have a deist perspective of God. God has spoken in history. God's spoken through his prophets. God's spoken through apostles. God has spoken to us supremely in Jesus Christ when God walked among us.

Here's the point. We believe in revelation from God, that God speaks. And that's how I can know. But Scripture does say that God has some different forms of speech. So we generally call this in theology, in theological reflection, we call it general revelation or natural revelation.

And we call it special revelation. So we've got general or natural over on this side. And we've got special revelation over on this side. Now, here's the deal. We all, as Christians, sort of understand this in a way instinctively.

But Scripture is clear. It's actually explicit. I want you to see it with your own eyes. Most of you have this memorized. You have it by heart. But let's go to it, Psalm 19, 1. Psalm 19, 1. The word of God says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out throughout, through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

There you go.

We know that one, right? And it's obvious, completely obvious, that God has a form of speech. He has a form of word, a form of revelation that looks like the heavens declaring the glory of God. It's called speech.

Well, who gave it? Well, God did it. So it's speech. God gives us that revelation. And one of my favorites, and many of you guys have heard me talking about this before, but I think it's great. I really encourage you to go see it.

I think that it's free now on YouTube at this point. But there is a film, kind of a documentary film, with our friend Pastor Douglas Wilson and my favorite atheist in history. It's Christopher Hitchens.

I love that film. It is so much fun to watch. When I was a chaplain at the hospital for four and a half years full time at the hospital, I had like a 30-day time period with every addict that came through for detox and was there for the 30 days impatient.

And so I had sort of like a Christian discipleship 30-day program, where it was like gospel, gospel, gospel, discipleship, discipleship, discipleship. And one of the things that I would do to start a fight with people in the hospital, I used to love to try to get the atheists all riled up so they would show up to get in a fight.

Sometimes that's good to do, because then they would turn to Christ, so win. But I used to play the film Collision. Hey, we're showing a film tonight of Christianity versus atheism, Collision. And so in that film, it's Pastor Doug and Christopher Hitchens going toe to toe.

And Christopher Hitchens actually ended up falling in love with Doug, because Doug is so sharp, so brilliant, and so kind, and loving, and gracious. They really developed a friendship. Well, at the end of the film, there's this moment where my friend Darren Doan is filming in the limousine as they're going back to the hotel.

And let's be honest, that night Christopher Hitchens had a couple drinks. And in the limousine, after obviously a couple drinks, he's really honest. And I don't know that he actually was thinking about the fact that the camera is on.

And Christopher Hitchens, the guy who wrote the book, God is Not Great, and calls God a tyrant, and all of this rails against the God of the Bible. He says there, sitting next to Doug, he says one of the hardest things as an atheist you have to learn to overcome is this issue that all of life is on a razor's edge.

One degree this way or that way, and life isn't possible. One degree this or that way, and none of this works. He says you've got to find in some way, and I'm paraphrasing here, you've got to find some way to contend with the obvious design of it.

All.

And he admits there in the limousine, it is the hardest thing as an atheist you've got to overcome, the fact that all of creation is screaming at you about God and his design, his handiwork, his glory.

Christopher Hitchens, the man who rails against God, admits you've got to find some way as an atheist to overcome this, because everything is hanging on a razor's edge of design. And that is what we talk about when we talk about general revelation, the heavens declare the glory of God.

This is God actually speaking. Now just to point it out, go to it later. If you read Romans chapter 1, you get another example there in scripture of general revelation, natural revelation, God making himself known, God giving revelation to every single human being alive.

It says in Romans chapter 1 that they know God,.

Although they knew God.

They did not honor him as God or give him glory. And it says, what did they do? They switched God for idols. They suppressed the truth of God and unrighteousness. It says that they know him, that he's made himself known to every single human being.

Get this, here it is, you'll get general revelation. The problem with fallen humanity is not a lack of light or knowledge or evidence or witness from God. God says it comes so clearly through what God has made and how he's made himself known to everybody so that they are left unapologetus, without an apologetic, without a reasoned defense.

Nobody in the history of humanity and redemption, apart from Jesus Christ, is able to come to God and say, I didn't know. Well, here was my excuse. Here was my reason. God says it's so clearly given to you in the natural order in God's revelation.

Everybody knows the true God. The problem is what? Suppression of truth. It's sinful resistance of God. But the point is that this is actually speaking. It's unavoidable. You can go today, this is the most amazing thing about the world that we live in today.

When these words were written thousands of years ago, or when Paul speaks to the knowledge of God that every human being has, we didn't have access to what we have today in terms of going down into the cell, going down into DNA and seeing that, oh, there's actually speech there in DNA.

There's word there in DNA. It's almost like God spoke the universe into existence and he speaks word into the world. And you and I have this amazing book, this letter about you this textbook of you down in your cells that tells the story of you, almost like it was speech, like someone spoke you into existence.

You see all that order there, all that beauty, all that design. You can see today, we can watch it happening in the cell, the cell operating with this amazing function and machinery. It's like a power plant.