Infallibility: Where Located? Where Demonstrated? Where Donated? — Ian Paisley

You will find an authorized version of the Word of God in front of you in the pew. Pick it up and turn with me to the third chapter of Matthew's Gospel. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3. The only you use the authorized King James Bible in our services.

And if you want to know the reasons, there is a little booklet on all the tables of the doors of the church. Pick up a copy of this, pick up a copy for your friends too, and take it and read it. It is important that we know why we use and stick to the authorized King James Bible.

Jesus' Temptation and the Authority of “It Is Written”

The third chapter of, or the fourth chapter rather, of Matthew's Gospel. And we're reading from verse 1 to verse 11. Let's read it together, taking your time for me. Don't mumble like Episcopalians. Read like a separated, free Presbyterian.

And forget about your false teeth, they'll stay in place alright. Amen. Fourth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus saith unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All of these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Ending our reading at verse 11, and God will bless this holy and precious word to our hearts. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take. Thank God.

Thank God He undertakes for me. And the people of God say, Amen. I want to speak this morning to you upon the great subject of infallibility. Where locate it? Where demonstrate it? And where donate it?

Turn with me to the portion of scripture which we read together on the fourth chapter of Matthew. And when Christ met the devil in the time of his temptation before he entered into his full ministry, after his baptism in Jordan, he answered each temptation.

With the words, It is written. It is written.

And women and boys and girls are never really happy when they're at sea. Would rather be on the land. Terrafirma is man's aim and the planting of his feet is on the solid rock. Now all around us in the religious world today the world of the oceans, delusions, we have deceptions and we have the devil's been on a quest for infallibility in religion in every generation.

He pretends he is the great judge and jury decide all the difficulties of thought and all the questions that are produced in this world. It is one of the mysteries of mankind's wickedness that they turn to themselves knowing how frail and how sinful and how foolish men are yet they still turn to man and lift him up and heal him as an oracle of infallibility.

One of the most interesting books is a book written by an ex prime minister of England, Israeli and he calls it The Curiosities of Literature and he refers to a book that was published by the Pope VI's V.

The Pope himself carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through the printing press but to the amazement of the world the work remains without arrival it swarms with mistakes. So many mistakes were found in this volume so carefully planned and seen through the press by the so-called infallible Pope that they had to print a series of corrections and every page in the book had a whole sheaf of corrections and yet it was declared to be printed with the authority of people infallibility.

The copies had to be called in various attempts were made to suppress the volume and destroy it but the volumes are still seen in Biblical collections in all museums. The folly of VI who claimed to be infallible.

A book with thousands of blunders no man has infallibility. You can scarcely read a page of what even Catholics admit to be authentic without discovering that the Popes were men and not God. Sinners and Nazis and their official bulls as they called them have been as blundering and erroneous as the decrees of ordinary worldly.

It is an imagination of the depraved religious heart of man to think that the Pope is infallible. Others just as foolish speak of the church as being infallible. To them a multitude of fools is more wise than just one simple fool.

If each of these fools claims infallibility what sort of debate do they expect to have? What sort of conclusion do you think they'll come to? The very writers of the Bible were not infallible at all times.

It was only when they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and were actually writing the Bible that they were infallible. It was only when they were inspired of God to do the job that they had that infallibility.

The Bible as the Infallible Standard of Truth

Where then shall we look for the absolute sure word of prophecy? The rock of infallibility the everlasting standard of eternal truth. It is here. It is this book the Bible the only religion of Protestants.

I say of this book and of this book alone this alone is a judge that ends the strife when wit and reason feel. I want to examine three inquiries on this subject today. I want to ask the question infallibility where located?

I want to ask the question infallibility where demonstrated? And I want to ask the question infallibility where donated? One infallibility where located? Where is infallibility? There is nothing earthly about infallibility.

The earth is the birthplace of.

Fallibility and unreliability.

But not of infallibility. It is a place where the intellect of man stands on sinking sand and not on solid rock. Search the floor of the oceans. Search the tops of the highest mountains. You will never find infallibility there.

All instead is as the great King Solomon said, vanity and vexation of spirit. Go into the great open spaces of the world of ours. Search them all and you will not find infallibility.

There. All is vanity.

And vexation of spirit. Go to where the great crowds congregate and continue your search for infallibility. Nowhere will you find it among the sons of man for all is vexation and vanity. Go to the seats of learning where the wisdom of the scholars of all ages are researched.

Search the studies of all the great historic manuscripts of long research and look and look and look again for infallibility. You will not find it. All is still vanity and vexation of spirit. No, the world cannot discover to your heart or the heart of any searcher infallibility.

Infallibility is not of this world. Infallibility is of another. God our maker alone is above it all. Let us leave this world for another. Let us search the world above. This wretched globe can't give you a pinhead of infallibility.

But from the infallible God of heaven, the maker of all things, there proceeds absolute infallibility. He alone can give the people the wisdom that they seek. He trades in nothing else but the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

God has recorded his truth in a book. Nay, what we should call the book of books and the king of books. It is the book to which our glorious Lord referred. The Bible of which he said to Satan, it is written first in the hearts of the holy man of God by the finger of God and then written by the fingers of the God's chosen scribes as moved by the Holy Spirit they wrote the scriptures of truth.

There is but one book which claims to be such a book as I have described and that is the Bible. God's self revealed truth about himself, about his divine purposes and his divine plans, his divine program and his divine power.

The book which whispers into our ears the concealed things about God, things we could never have imagined or found out in any way except God had revealed them to us. The book which reveals to us the greatness of God, our maker and the almightiness of his purpose and his power.

This volume is God's self revelation. This Bible is a book the infallible book which contains the infallible revelation of the infallible God in infallible speech. It is. No power will ever erase it. No power will ever change it.

No power will ever destroy it. No power will ever win any victory over it. It is written perfectly. The psalmist tells us it converts. It is written surely. The psalmist tells us it makes wise the simple.

It is written rightly. It rejoices the heart. It is written purely. It enlightens the eyes. It is written cleanly. It endures forever. It is written truly and righteously altogether. Psalm 19 verse 7 -10.

The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold. Yea, than much fine gold. Also sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

Oh, let us take up this book. Let us read this book. I will not be long reading this book until we will be forced to say there is none like it. Give it. Robert Hawker the famous Cornish vicar and great evangelical preacher wrote these words.

We bless thee, O thou great Amen. Jehovah's pledge to sinful men confirming all his word. No promises are doubtful then for all are yea and all Amen in Jesus Christ our Lord. Sweet ordinance of God to bless by him the Lord our righteousness.

By him I say again this mighty hymn makes all things sure through life and death and evermore in him the great Amen. O faithful witness of our God who came by water and by blood proving the holy one. The record must forever stand of life eternal from God's hand and all in thee his Son.

Sweetly thy verilies we hear for God's Amen dispels all fear thy righteousness it proves and while such grace from God is shown to God's Amen we are our own. God loves ye saints of God in age or youth who swear by him the God of truth by him I say again make him whom God hath made to you your Alpha and Omega too God's Christ is your Amen.

Nor less above ye heavenly hosts to Father, Son and Holy Ghost give praise through him with men for of him through him by him sure the church shall glory evermore in him the great Amen. Christ is the great Amen.

The infallible Amen. The unchangeable Amen. The God who never slumbers nor sleeps and in him is no shadow. Let me ask the other question infallibility where demonstrated Christ had many weapons that he could have employed to fight the devil in the hour of his temptation by Satan himself.

Christ Demonstrates Infallibility Through the Written Word

First if you turn over to Matthew 26 and verse 23 he said thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels. And many were in 12 legions of angels.

72 ,000 he could have called to his aim but he didn't do it. He didn't do it. Before such a crowd of angels Satan would have been scattered like Apollyon in Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress he would have been sent back to hell loud yelling and groaning from the anguish of such a chattering.

But Christ did not use that weapon. Secondly, Christ could have called into action his Godhead as he did in Matthew 16 verse 23. You remember he dismissed Satan from his presence in the twinkling of an eye.

He said, Get thee behind me Satan for thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of man. And behind him Satan was quickly driven. But he didn't use that power when he himself was tempted.

Thirdly, Christ could have used a flash of his glory which would have struck Satan to the ground. Look at John 18 and verse 6 and when he was in Gethsemane the crowd came inquiring for Jesus of Nazareth.

And he and as soon as Christ met them and said I am he they went backward and fell to the ground. God struck them to the ground. Why did Christ not use any of those weapons to defeat the devil? I'll tell you why.

Because Christ knew you had no not one of those weapons. But Christ knew that he could give you a weapon that would destroy the devil and that weapon would be the written word of God gifted to his people.

The word of God the mighty sword of the Spirit it is written that word is as much ours as it was our Lord's. This weapon is in the hands of God's people and by it they can conquer the prince of hell every time and get the victory.

Cast away the wooden toy sword of carnal reasoning and fleshly wisdom child of God and sheath the sword of the Spirit. Drive it with all your force into the devil and Satan will soon fear and Mr. Spurgeon used to say to his people, fear not to fight the devil he is already a broken headed adversary.

This was the only weapon which our Lord used when there were no onlookers. He used it in the most terrible temptation when he was bodily weak after forty days and nights without any food passing his lips.

He used it on all the occasions as his sole weapon and he used it in each of the temptations as his sole weapon. He did not change it. He would not exchange it. He used it to defend his sonship. He used it to defeat the hunger of the flesh.

He used it to smash the presumption of Satan who cried to him to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. But Christ refused the crown from Satan's filthy fist. He used it to exalt the true Godhead of Jehovah.

Where was this weapon infallibly demonstrated? By the Son of God in His hand and from His lips. He who is the very person of God God incarnate in the flesh. Quick and powerful is this sword sharper than any two-edged sword.

In the Lord Jehovah's hand nothing can its voice withstand. How its power was felt of old, they who felt its powers have told. Many were the wonders wrought. Multitudes were fed and taught. Mighty God whose word it is, hear our prayer and grant us this.

What thy power has done before, now descend and do once more. One final thought and I am through. Infallibility, where is it donated? It is donated to all those who treat it with the deepest reverence.

Christ defined it thus, the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. I was greatly struck by the fact that the verb there, proceeding, in the Greek text, is in the present continuous tense. It is literally the word which is proceeding out of the mouth of God.

Because the word doesn't come to you steel. There's no steel bread in the Bible. It's fresh from the very lips of God. It's always passing. When you read any word in the scripture, that word is still passing from the lips of God.

It's fresh. It has the very heart of God's love in it and the very strength of God's omnipotence in it and the very wisdom of a God who cannot lie. Stand by the book, brethren and sisters in Christ, and the book will stand by you.

Don't read the book and you'll be lost in the turmoil of this world's illness. Remember the chapter we have been considering was spoken by our Lord after he was filled with the Holy Spirit and his baptism.

The Holy Spirit is the author of everything that's written in the Bible. If in difficulty when reading the scriptures, don't run to Matthew Henry's concordance. Don't run to Cruden's concordance. Don't run to any man's concordance.

Go to the author of the book, the blessed Holy Spirit, and he will show you the inner meaning of his precious word. Don't dare to draw this sword until you're filled with the Spirit. When that happens, it will be a wonder weapon in your hand.

Receiving the Word and Finding Salvation in Christ

The book is infallible. Its words stand forever. Heaven and earth may pass away, but my word shall never. If you're building on sinking sands, you're not converted, you're on the road to hell, you've got religion, you've got baptism, you've got the church, and you're lost!

Thank God if you turn to the word of God and imbibe it in your heart and cry out for he who is the eternal word, he will come to you and when he says it is written, it'll be written in the book that your name is written there.

And the page, bright and fair, yes, tell me Lord Jesus, my name is written there. Amen. Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank thee for thy holy, precious and inspired word. We thank thee what a book thou hast given us, what a volume of truth, the book of books and the king of books.

Oh, may we love it, may we read it, may we obey it, may we hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against thee. And those who do not know its author, may they meet its author today and find his perfect peace and his perfect salvation, the gift of God without money and without price.

And the people of God said, Amen.