Jeff Durbin: Sola Scriptura & Rome Pt. 3 | Biblical Support

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Jeff Durbin: Sola Scriptura & Rome Pt. 4

00:00

In Isaiah, Old Testament, chapter 8 and verse 20.

00:13

Because this is sort of a stand -alone series we have many texts we've been going to. Hopefully you're writing them all down and committing them to memory.

00:20

But here is an example through the prophet Isaiah of the centrality of the revelation of God in history.

00:28

Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 20. Hear now the word of the living and the true

00:34

God. To the law and to the testimony, if they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn or no light in them.

00:47

Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as God's people. Father, we come before you as your people, your church, bought and purchased by you through the blood of the eternal

01:02

Son. Lord, we know that we hold in our hands this infallible inspired revelation you've recorded in history.

01:12

You have preserved for us in history in a miraculous way.

01:17

We thank you for the gift of your word. We thank you for your truth. Lord, we yield to you and your authority and your word.

01:26

We pray, God, by your spirit you speak through the message today to the hearts and minds of your people that we would treasure up your words within us.

01:36

That we'd be able to draw on them, Lord, to glorify you in our own lives. But also help us to draw on these truths to be effective ministers of the gospel in your hands to all that we come into contact with.

01:50

And in particular those that we love who confess and profess to be

01:55

Roman Catholic. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Isaiah 820, powerful verse, easy to memorize.

02:04

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.

02:10

There is Isaiah, hundreds of years before the time of our savior and his earthly ministry, testifying to what is a core truth in the word of God, that the revelation of God in history is the reference point.

02:25

It is that rule of faith. It is that line. It is the thing by which you test all the other things, all the other claims.

02:33

These are the words of God. Isaiah 820, powerful text of scripture. And again, this is a short standalone series on the supremacy of the word of God over all things.

02:45

There are so many texts we can go to to illustrate just the centrality of the revelation of God in history.

02:53

And again, I hope that I have done well enough as your brother and pastor. I hope I've done well enough to demonstrate to us all that this doctrine of sola scriptura, the doctrine of sola scriptura, that the scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church.

03:11

I hope that I've shown you that really the heart of sola scriptura is bigger than our dispute with our

03:18

Roman Catholic friends and family. It is bigger, much bigger than our disputes with the Mormons. Actually, what's at the very heart of sola scriptura is that the revelation of God in history is supreme.

03:31

Here's the thing. Sola scriptura at the heart is about a revelational epistemology, meaning

03:37

God has spoken and that's how I know. That's how I have certainty.

03:43

And so it goes beyond, far beyond the conflict that you're going to have with the Roman Catholic as you're evangelizing them.

03:50

Let me give you an example of this, a very recent example. Some of you guys may have seen my friend, a pastor from Oklahoma, Dusty Devers, that Jimmy Fallon actually did a bit on Dusty Devers in the last two weeks or so.

04:06

If you don't know about this, I'll get you up to speed. Dusty Devers is a pastor and a friend of mine we've worked with for years on bills of abolition and equal protection.

04:17

As a matter of fact, Rolling Stone had an article on Dusty Devers this last week. And the picture that they selected was from Louisiana where Dusty came to join us for our bill.

04:27

And you see Dusty and you see your pastor sort of sitting there next to him. And Dusty is a faithful man, solid brother in the faith, preaches the gospel.

04:36

And Dusty decided that he would move into the area of the legislature to be a faithful legislator in the state of Oklahoma and to establish justice for the pre -born and a number of other issues.

04:49

But again, bigger than Sola Scriptura and the Roman Catholic controversy. This issue is about how do you know?

04:57

What's your standard? By what standard? Who's in charge here? Who says?

05:03

It's really a question of how do you know? How do you know? And you're going to ask that question and answer that question every single day of your life.

05:13

How do you know? The heart of it is a revelational epistemology. Here is some of Dusty's bills that he submitted as a legislator in the state of Oklahoma.

05:25

Listen to these. SB 1729, Abolish Abortion.

05:31

Abortion, creating the Abolition of Abortion Act, modifying applicability of provisions relating to homicide.

05:40

So he puts a bill in as a Christian to abolish abortion. Now, let's just consider that for a moment.

05:46

You have the culture around us and community around us with this as a national conversation.

05:52

And of course at the state level as well and town level as well, people all have differing ideas and opinions and they make knowledge claims about the issue of abortion.

06:02

But if you have a revelational epistemology, if you have what is at the heart of Sola Scriptura, you will view the issue of abortion through the lens of Holy Scripture.

06:15

So let's be honest. Why is Dusty as a legislator in Oklahoma presenting legislation to abolish abortion to consider it murder in the state of Oklahoma?

06:27

Why is he doing that? Because God said. Ultimately that's it.

06:33

Let me just show you what I mean by this. So you do have, for example, we were at the

06:38

Supreme Court. Dennis, when was that when they did the

06:43

Dobbs thing? I'm forgetting. I don't even remember half the trips we've been on. We were at the Supreme Court while the

06:49

Dobbs decision was being talked about. We were in front of the Supreme Court and you had all of the pro -choice groups.

06:55

They're the pro -abortion. There was arguing and there was fighting. And of course you had the national organizations who are, quote unquote, pro -life.

07:03

So you had National Right to Life, Students for Life. You had Live Action. All those major pro -life groups were there.

07:10

And then lo and behold, behind me, I hear all of this yelling and sort of kind of craziness going on behind me.

07:18

And then we see this group of secular, humanist, atheist agnostics who are pro -life.

07:29

And you say, well, of course, because they're made in the image of God and that's just going to come through. And these people were forcefully arguing against abortion and for the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

07:40

They were arguing against it and saying we must protect human life on the basis of biology.

07:49

They were saying it is inescapable fact that what's in the womb from the moment of fertilization is a human being.

07:55

The only difference, of course, everybody says, is the difference of degree. It's just a growing human, but it is always that same human.

08:04

And they were arguing as secularists. They were saying it's human from fertilization. We've got to protect all the humans equally.

08:11

That was very interesting. And do you know what that's met with? With people who are hostile to God and hostile to human life, what it's met with is the same kind of resistance that we see every day in this nation where somebody could look down at their genitals.

08:27

They can look at their body that screams maleness biologically. And they will say,

08:33

I don't care. I don't care what the biology says. I don't care what the beard says.

08:40

I don't care what all of it says, the genetics, the chromosomes. I don't care about the biology because I know in my heart that I am actually a woman.

08:51

And, well, what is a woman? Well, it's whoever identifies as one. Well, that's not how you define a woman.

08:57

What is a woman? And we don't really know, but the point is, is that their foundation of how they know that they're a woman isn't the biology that is testifying from God to them about his unique creation of them as a man.

09:13

They don't care about that. The biology is irrelevant because what's really going on is a suppression of truth and a resistance.

09:20

And they say, I don't care what God has spoken in my genetics. I reject that revelation and I opt for another, my own revelation, my own testimony.

09:32

It's my word that will stand. And so in this issue of abortion, here's

09:37

Dusty Devers, faithful pastor, great man of God. Of course, we would disagree with him on holding two offices at the same time.

09:45

We think that actually is a violation of God's law, but that's a side issue. And we're thankful that God strikes straight blows with crooked sticks.

09:54

We think that he should probably take a break from being a pastor and focus on that. But that's another issue. He's still a faithful man of God.

10:00

Love him. But he puts this bill of abolition in on the basis of what? Of course, the biology says what it says.

10:07

There's no way out of that. You can't overcome that. Every biological textbook is going to tell you that what's in the woman is not feline.

10:14

It is human from fertilization. But it is a biblical worldview that says this is the unjustified taking of human life.

10:23

God is the creator of life. That's in the image of God. And so Dusty writes this legislation, ready?

10:29

On the basis of a revelational epistemology. And that's what's at the heart of Sola Scriptura.

10:34

God has spoken, and that's how I know. Do you see? When you are a believer who is standing on the word of God and his revelation, you will say

10:43

God says, and therefore I move this way. I'll give you another one. And I just love these.

10:49

They're delicious. Oh, this is fantastic. When I saw this, I messaged

10:54

Dusty. I said, hey, man, good work. If I was legislator, and it would be maybe 12 hours before, these would be...

11:09

I've legitimately thought of it. What would I do to immediately jump in and just try to establish some justice in the state of Arizona?

11:16

And I looked at this list, and I thought, that's precisely what I've done in my head 1 ,000 times. Here's this bill.

11:22

Listen to this. SB 1825. False report penalty.

11:30

Match the penalty for the crime accused. Crime and punishments. Modifying elements of misdemeanor offense.

11:37

Creating felony offense. You might be thinking, well, what's that mean? What he's doing there is he just put legislation in that is from the

11:46

Mosaic legislation. And what was that? And this, by the way, is a huge blessing to the world.

11:53

I wish we would get back to it as soon as possible. What does it say? The law of Moses taught

11:58

God's principle in courts and accusations. You must have how many independent lines of witness and testimony?

12:05

How many? Two to three, right? Two to three. And what else must actually occur within the context of accusation?

12:13

You still have to assume the innocence. Just because two or three people are saying something doesn't make it true.

12:18

It means now we can now review this and receive the accusation and actually assume the innocence.

12:24

But let's see if there's actual guilt here. Let's see if guilt exists. Not you're guilty, let's prove you're innocent.

12:30

But you're innocent, let's see if it's provable guilt. Well, there had to be cross -examination.

12:36

The law of Moses requires cross -examination. So if you like cross -examination in the courts today, you can thank a

12:42

Christian for that. And thank Moses specifically for that. But another thing that was a blessing in God's law was this right here.

12:50

If you falsely accuse somebody in a court. Let's say, for example, you accuse somebody of theft and you lie.

13:00

They're not really guilty and you're found to be a lying witness. You lied about the person to get them into trouble.

13:08

If you lie according to God's law as a witness in court, then whatever the punishment was going to be for the person you were lying about, you now receive that punishment.

13:21

Think about how that would bless our court system today with justice.

13:29

Can you imagine? Can you imagine? There are people who are truly guilty of rape.

13:35

And what should we do with them according to the law of God? If they're truly guilty of rape, they're found to be guilty, judiciously and all the rest.

13:42

What does God's law say about the value of the woman and the horror of rape? What does it say? Capital punishment.

13:49

You have so violated another human being, you deserve to lose your life. If you rape somebody according to God's law, you're found to be guilty.

13:57

You deserve capital punishment. Think about how much God's law values the woman over against our culture today.

14:06

Our culture today. When I was a teenager, a girl that I was seeing as a teenager, she was a victim of rape at 15 years old.

14:20

And the person was out and on the streets again in less than six months.

14:26

Less than six months. How much does God's law value the woman? Well, it says you deserve the death penalty if you actually engage in something as abominable as that.

14:36

However, there are also so many examples of people who have been falsely accused of rape.

14:46

Just in the last 20 years. There's a number of examples. Public examples of people who were brought together to accuse somebody of sexual assault.

14:54

That's happened even in the last 20 years. There's a number of examples of that. What does the law of God do to preserve the justice system against something like that?

15:02

It says, I dare you. Right? I dare you. I dare you to go into the courts and to build a false report and false witness testimony against somebody with something like murder or rape.

15:16

Because the penalties are so severe. If you're caught lying, you will receive what you would have gotten for that person.

15:24

Because what were you actually trying to do? Let's say, for example, it was the issue of murder.

15:30

Murder. What's the penalty for murder if it's proven? What's the penalty? Eye for eye.

15:37

Life for life. Tooth for tooth. It must be equal justice. Right? Now watch. In a court of law, according to God's word, if somebody is accusing somebody falsely of murder, that means that you are actually trying to murder them.

15:53

And so God's law would say, to protect justice in the courts, if you are a false witness in court and it's proven, you will receive the punishment that they would have received.

16:05

Tell me how that will bless our courts. Right? And so Dusty, Pastor Dusty, now

16:12

Representative Devers, puts in some bills into the state of Oklahoma that are based upon what?

16:21

His own preference? They're based upon the law, word of God. God's standards of justice.

16:27

He has a bill against abortion. Abolish it. He has a bill to protect the courts with witnesses.

16:33

He has another bill here, which he just hated for this. SB 1958. Abolish no fault divorce.

16:42

Oh, people don't like that. People don't like that. We've got a lot of Hillelites in our culture today.

16:48

That was a scholarly nerd joke. Most of you didn't even get that. Hillel.

16:54

No fault divorce, essentially. Any cause divorce. That's what our culture is sort of wrapped up in today.

17:00

You just got to have any reason, any cause divorce, and there's no penalty to it whatsoever.

17:05

He also has SB 1976. Abolish porn.

17:13

And that's what he's being mocked for and vilified for in the media, is that right there.

17:19

There's a number of them. There's nine right in front of me. By the way, can I just tell you, I love this. Again, if I was a legislator for 12 hours, these would be the ones.

17:28

SB 2030. Gold and silver standard. State treasurer requiring treasurer to submit proposal for use of Texas bullion depository.

17:38

Requiring legislative approval of agreement effective date. What's that saying? At least for the state of Oklahoma, we need to have our money being real money.

17:47

And not fake money. Not pretend money. Not fiat money. It must be based on an actual standard, gold and silver standard.

17:55

I love Dusty and hashtag Theonomy. If you like that, welcome to the club.

18:01

My point here is this, as we move through this. I hope you again can see that the issue of sola scriptura is at the heart of it, the revelation of God.

18:12

How do we know? Now, I want to just make sure that this is all before us.

18:18

We've talked about this a lot. The doctrine of sola scriptura is not an avoidance of church history and church tradition.

18:28

The doctrine of sola scriptura says that tradition can be very good, very healthy.

18:33

But it is a fallible, uninspired tradition. And the only way that you know something is in accordance with the truth of God.

18:41

And you can be certain about it is that you have the infallible and inspired written revelation of God.

18:48

We love church history at Apologia Church. We're confessional.

18:54

We have a confession of faith. We love the early creeds and confessions of the faith. The Nicene Creed. The Athanasian Creed.

19:00

These are wonderful moves of God in history. But how do you know the Nicene Creed is true?

19:08

How? Is it because the church pulled rank on us? And said, this is the creed.

19:13

You are to believe this on our say -so. Is that why we believe the Nicene Creed? How about the Athanasian Creed?

19:19

Why do we believe those creeds? Because they are in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. Tradition is amazing.

19:26

It can be awesome. It can be good. But if you look at church history, you will see fallible men face planting constantly.

19:33

That's not where you have a surety and confidence. It is only in the revelation of God in history.

19:39

So over the last couple of weeks we talked about the nature of Scripture. The Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God.

19:47

Is the source and origin of where Scripture comes from. Holy men of God, Peter said, spoke as they were carried along by the

19:56

Holy Spirit. We know that Scripture, 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, is theanoustos.

20:02

It is breathed out by God. These are the words of God. We talked about the authority of Scripture.

20:08

We talked about the clarity of Scripture. The perspicuity of Scripture. We talked about the effect and the power of Scripture.

20:16

And we last week talked about this is really resting on a revelational epistemology.

20:23

God spoke and that's how I know. Now, this week, a couple examples.

20:31

And I wanted to do my very best. And I even asked for counsel from Pastor James.

20:37

What can I do better? What do I need to communicate? What do you think? And he told me that the most important thing is that we make this something that is digestible for our people so we understand.

20:50

And so I really want to land on just a few points here. Come with me. Genesis chapter 2.

20:57

Where do we start this discussion about the supremacy of the revelation of God?

21:03

His inspired, infallible revelation? We've got to start at the beginning of the Bible. The beginning of the revelation of God.

21:09

And we see that this standard begins at the very start. In Genesis chapter 2, we'll go to verse 15.

21:23

The text says, So, there you go.

21:50

There's what we have recorded for us in Holy Scripture. Is this moment in history.

21:56

This is our history. This is the history of humanity. God creates all things. He's the creator, the loving creator, the holy creator, the all powerful creator.

22:06

He creates all these spectacular things. He's innovative. He's creative.

22:12

He's good at what He does. He is loving and gracious and powerful. It's all on full display in this moment at the beginning of human history.

22:21

And God condescends. He is there walking with Adam and Eve in the garden. Heaven and earth at this time in the beginning of creation are together.

22:31

They are unified. Heaven and earth are not broken. There's no sin and curse and fall.

22:36

And God says to the man, He says, You can eat of every tree.

22:43

But you cannot eat of this one. And He says, The day that you do, you shall surely die.

22:50

These are the words of God. So I want you to get this now. It seems simplistic. And it really is in many ways.

22:57

God is the creator. He speaks. He says, This is my world. I'm God. Here's what you can do.

23:03

Here's what you cannot do. It's this one. Don't eat of it. The day you do, you shall surely die.

23:11

There's the revelation of God in history. Now I want you to stop there for a moment. Pause. Back away from the story for a second.

23:18

Ask some questions. This is God Himself. He created everything.

23:23

All this is new creation. And here they are. God's with them. And He's speaking to them.

23:29

And He says, All this, but not this. Now I want to just suggest something. Many theologians have agreed that that command of God there in the garden, don't let it trip you up.

23:40

It could have been anything. God could have said, You can walk this direction, but don't walk that direction.

23:46

It was God being God over His creatures saying, He is in authority. He's in control. Here's what you can do.

23:53

Here's what you cannot do. God is exercising His authority as the Creator. You're my creatures. I'm telling you what you can do and what you can't do.

24:01

It could have been anything. It was a time of testing. They were not complete in their righteousness yet.

24:08

The book of Ecclesiastes says that God created man upright, but He sought out many devices.

24:14

So here they are, not perfect yet in their righteousness. They have not gone through this time of testing, but God says,

24:20

This, but not that. Simple as that. There it is. Now I want you to put yourself there in the garden for a minute.

24:27

Technically all of us federally were in Adam. So it's appropriate to do this. Put yourself in the garden for a moment.

24:33

Ask some questions. On what basis ought morally, ethically,

24:40

Adam and Eve to obey that commandment? On what basis?

24:47

What if... What if they said, You know,

24:52

I know He said that, but this is all new. Right?

24:58

This is a whole new order. It's a brand new system. You know, I know that He's God and He's the

25:05

Creator. I'm the creature. But really, how does He know? Right? What if Adam and Eve had said,

25:12

Let's test this claim. And by the way, they did. What if they said, Let's test it by experiments.

25:19

Or maybe let's work through this logically and develop some hypotheses and figure out if He's actually telling the truth.

25:26

But let's test Him. I mean, who is He really? I mean, how does He know? This is brand new.

25:31

He's never really experienced this. How does He really know? Or should they have actually analyzed

25:40

God's claim by human reason? Like saying things like,

25:45

You know, let's complicate it. Right? Let's think through this.

25:52

Is the tree actually not good for food? And you know, in reality, did

25:58

He really mean that that day we would die? I mean, let's think through it. Is He being consistent?

26:03

Let's work through some formal, logical equations here to see if God is actually telling the truth.

26:10

Or should they have approached the question of obedience through their own personal experience, their feelings, their likes, their dislikes, or their own perception?

26:24

Like for example, and this is, by the way, there's a great example of a conversation on this issue in terms of ultimates.

26:31

And for those of you guys that love philosophy and epistemology, ultimates and epistemological foundations,

26:37

Dr. R .C. Sproul debated Dr. Greg Bonson on apologetic methodology.

26:43

And this particular section comes up. And that's where you see, as much as I love

26:48

Dr. Sproul, you see the wheels kind of fall off of Dr. Sproul's apologetic methodology as a

26:54

Reformed guy. Now listen. What if Eve, what if Eve said, as Dr.

27:06

Sproul said, nah, when the serpent says, you shall not die, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

27:15

That is determining for yourself what is right and wrong. Who's this God telling you what to do?

27:20

If you do it, you'll know for yourself what is right and wrong. You'll do it for yourself. You'll be the sovereign.

27:26

What if Eve had said, you know, I don't like that fruit. It doesn't actually look very appealing to me.

27:34

And Eve said, I'm not going to eat of the fruit because it actually doesn't look tasty.

27:41

Now, would Eve have been obedient if she walked away from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

27:48

If she walked away from that tree, would she have been obedient if her motivation was,

27:54

I don't like the way it looks? Would she have been obedient? She would have been in external conformity to the will of God, the prescriptive will of God, what he said to do.

28:06

She would have walked away from the tree, not eating the fruit and Adam alongside of her. But what would have been true about her internal motivations?

28:15

She didn't trust in God. She wasn't being obedient. And you might say, but wait a second. That's a technicality, right?

28:22

That's just a technicality. God said, the day you eat of it, you'll die. But if she had walked away and said, no,

28:28

I'm not going to eat it because I don't want to get fat. She would have been in external conformity to the law of God, but she would have been internally sinning against God.

28:40

On what basis? God said, and that's why you don't eat of that tree.

28:50

If she had obeyed externally for any other reason than the voice of God, she would have actually been in sin.

29:00

On what basis should she have not eaten the fruit? On what basis? There's one.

29:06

God said. He has a self -attesting authority. But here's the problem. It's an epistemological question.

29:14

And I hate that people go, I don't like that word. It's an important word to know. It's how do you know? That day, here's the voice of God.

29:24

Don't eat. You'll die. And here's the voice of the serpent. No. Not die.

29:31

Actually, you'll be like God. So God says die. Satan says not die.

29:38

And so now we've got these two claims coming in. And here's the challenge. One claim is divine.

29:45

It comes from God. And there's yet another claim. And this is kind of challenging to be honest.

29:51

These are human creatures. And snakes don't typically talk. So maybe you could argue on a philosophical ground that maybe

30:03

Adam and Eve were a little thrown by this talking creature and they thought,

30:09

I don't know. Seems kind of like heavenly and divine to me. I mean, you know, it's just talking serpents.

30:17

Maybe there's some kind of, you know, level of divinity and understanding that this creature has that I don't.

30:23

How does God know? Here's the point. Ready? We've got a couple voices that day. God, eat and die.

30:32

Satan, eat and not die. And then Eve's like, oh, it looks good to me.

30:39

Right? Looks good to me. Let's test that claim. So you've got all these voices. You've got the voice of God, the voice of the devil.

30:46

You've got the voice of Eve. Now, ready? What ought our first parent

30:53

Adam to have done in that moment? He should have killed that snake.

31:00

He should have crushed its head. He should have defended his wife, protected her.

31:05

He should have stood in the way. He should have said, no, thus saith the

31:11

Lord. The day we eat of it, we will surely die. And now watch. When that test was over, who was right the whole time?

31:22

God. And why was He right? Because God is the truth. Because God cannot lie.

31:28

It's against His own character. Because God is the final authority. He has a self -attesting, authoritative word.

31:34

And so, ready? The beginning of the discussion of Sola Scriptura begins at the very beginning of our

31:40

Bibles. This question about certainty and knowledge is at the very inception of the human story of redemption.

31:51

The fall occurs ultimately because, ready? God spoke and human beings said, let me test that claim.

32:00

Not sure if I believe that. Let me find out. Let me figure it out.

32:05

That's the story of humanity. I know God has spoken, but I'm not going to stand on those words.

32:12

I mean, in reality, how does He know? And who made Him the sovereign over me? Do you see the point?

32:18

Is the very beginning of human history has this conflict. And here's the deal. Are you ready? Again, outside of the conflict of us in Rome, this is going to meet you and I every day of our lives.

32:30

It's going to meet you when you're angry with your spouse and you don't feel like obeying God. It's going to meet you in your family conflict where you need to forgive one another and confess sin.

32:40

You're going to be stubborn. You're going to be holding on to things. It's family conflict, right? Brothers and sisters.

32:46

Mothers and fathers. And you're going to have to come to the point where, ready? The word of God comes into the conflict and you need to decide whether you're going to follow your feelings, your emotions, your perceptions, or you as a family are going to yield and actually rest on the word of the living

33:04

God. How do you know how we should manage this conflict? Right? What's the word of God say in this?

33:12

Or church life. In our body life. We're going to be walking with each other, serving the

33:18

Lord together. And there's going to be times where we're sanctified as a church body. There's going to be conflicts between couples.

33:24

Conflicts at reach group. Conflicts within the church body. How are you going to navigate that? Are you going to navigate it based upon your own feelings?

33:32

Are you going to regard the face of your best friend within the church body? Show personal favoritism?

33:40

Are you going to do what God says is an abomination and use equal weights and measures because it is your best

33:48

Christian friend within the body in conflict with another and so you're just going to pick a team? Or will you use the standard of God's revelation and say,

33:58

I will be like Jesus. I will be like Jesus. His reputation was that he was in the truth and he did not regard the face of another.

34:08

Meaning this, ready? He did not show partiality. He did not pick a favorite.

34:14

As much as you love one another and we love each other in the body, we do not have before God the right to show partiality.

34:21

Do you see how this works in healing church splits and broken relationships within churches?

34:28

You see, we can avoid the church splits and the hurt relationships if, if, and only if, brothers and sisters, we are willing to let go of our feelings and our emotions and stay committed to the law word of God and the wisdom of God.

34:44

We don't show partiality. We hear both sides of a conflict. We need witness and evidence.

34:50

We'll hear the whole story before biting down and choosing a side. We don't show partiality.

34:56

We have equal weights and measures. Do you see the point? This doctrine of Sola Scriptura is at its heart, revelational epistemology.

35:03

How do you know? And then beyond that, are you ready? For faith and practice, how will

35:11

I then live? And on what basis? Now, next.

35:18

That was Genesis. Next, there's another example in the law word of God.

35:26

Go to Deuteronomy chapter 13. Now, you guys are all familiar with this, right? In our evangelism with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses.

35:39

What do we do? When we go out to the Mormon temple, we go out to do evangelism handout tracts.

35:45

We go out to the Mormon wards. We're out evangelizing them. We have a couple things we want to try to get before them.

35:52

We want to get before them who God is, what the gospel is, how they can have peace with God. But then we also want to challenge them with, have you ever tested

36:01

Joseph Smith by God's test of a prophet? And two of those verses we go to are

36:07

Deuteronomy chapter 13 and Deuteronomy chapter 18. And here we go.

36:13

Ready? Deuteronomy 13, verse 1, says this. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.

36:27

And if he says, let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them.

36:33

Here it is. Word from God. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

36:40

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

36:46

You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey what?

36:53

His voice. And you shall serve him and hold fast to him. So ready? This is at a time in Israel's history where there is still inspired revelation coming from God.

37:10

And the people of God at this time are told this is the standard.

37:15

Even if it looks legit. I mean, I'm talking like legs are growing.

37:22

Legs are extending, right? People are experiencing some moves of the spirit, right?

37:29

It looks wild and crazy stuff and spiritual things are going on. Miracle healings and all this stuff.

37:36

God says even if the prophet comes and he has signs and wonders, it appears to have the spirit of God all over it.

37:45

God says here's the standard. It's not what you see. It's not your perception of whether this is from God.

37:53

It is based upon you must obey the voice of God. That is to say the previous revelation of God that God had given of himself was the standard they were going to go back to to say this.

38:07

Here's what this prophet is saying about God. Does that match the voice of God that was previous to this?

38:14

What is that principle? That is in essence the principle of Sola Scriptura that I test the words of the prophet by the previous revelation of God.

38:25

Now, brothers and sisters, I'll ask you it again. Where do we have access to the infallible inspired revelation of God today?

38:34

Where do we have access? Only in the written scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

38:40

And so ready? Genesis. First conflict of how do we know? Another example,

38:46

Deuteronomy 13. In the law of God, God says his previous revelation of himself is the standard.

38:54

Next, Isaiah 820. We did to show you that later on in Israel's history it's understood that the law and the testimony were the standard for the people of God.

39:08

And Isaiah the prophet says about 700 years before Jesus, he says to the law, the

39:15

Torah, and the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it's because they have no light in them.

39:22

What's that mean? It's a beautiful way of saying if someone doesn't speak according to the law word of God and his voice, they are in darkness.

39:34

That's what it's saying. Now, again, I wanted to give you a handful of things to hold on to and understand as a standard.

39:44

The next thing is, you move into the New Testament and you see something that is a common formula throughout the

39:51

New Testament. Did you notice this? The formula throughout the New Testament, when the apostles and the writers in the

39:57

New Testament are writing and they're quoting scripture, they will often say things like, what does the scripture say?

40:05

Or this was in fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah and then they'll quote scripture.

40:11

Or Jesus in Matthew 22, when he's in conflict over the issue of the resurrection, like whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection?

40:20

How's this all going to work out? Jesus says in Matthew 22, we did this two weeks ago, you do err not knowing the scriptures and the power of God.

40:30

And then he says, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? He equates the reading of scripture as God speaking and watch.

40:41

This is important. Don't miss this. When the son of God, the incarnate one, is walking among us, somehow he believed in the perspicuity of scripture and the clarity of scripture.

40:54

Because when he's confronting their misunderstanding, what does he say? He says, you do err not knowing the scriptures.

41:05

Apparently Jesus believed in the clarity of scripture that it could be understood and that it must be understood.

41:12

Can I give you another example of that? You know one of my favorite scenes because I've talked about it so much with us as a church is in Luke 24, 25 through 26.

41:23

Go there. I want you to see it again. Hopefully I can make it one of your favorites too. In Luke 24, this is on the road to Emmaus.

41:32

Jesus has risen from the dead. They're confused. They thought, you know what? I saw him bloody on that tree.

41:38

I saw him dead. There ain't no way that that dead man's coming back. In Luke 24,

41:45

Jesus confronts these people who are so sad and broken and dismayed.

41:55

Now there are a bunch of sad saps walking on the road, as I've said often before. You know, we thought, we thought he's the one.

42:02

We thought he's Messiah. You know, he's dead. Where have you been? How did you not know this? And Jesus' response to them is this.

42:11

Luke 24, 25. And he said to them, oh foolish ones.

42:22

I don't want to be called a fool by Jesus. That'd be the worst thing, right? To walk with Jesus and then him say to you, you're foolish.

42:30

You're foolish. But why does he call him foolish? Are you ready? They thought he was dead.

42:37

They didn't think he was coming back. Jesus told him he's coming back. The scripture said he was coming back from the dead. He says, oh foolish ones.

42:45

And slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

42:51

Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

42:59

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

43:11

What did the Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, hold these disciples to?

43:18

He held them to the scriptures recorded in the Old Testament revelation.

43:24

Can you imagine being there for that Bible study? Can you just imagine?

43:29

Jesus himself walking you through the Old Testament scriptures to show you everywhere it talked about him.

43:36

But can I just point us to something? When the incarnate one is there facing their unbelief, he challenges them and calls them foolish for not believing what the scriptures said about him.

43:50

And you might be saying, Jeff, why are you harping on this? Here's why. Because Eastern Orthodoxy and Rome will tell the world that these are the words of God, but you cannot really understand them without us telling you what it says.

44:06

Jesus did not hold to that perspective. Yes, God has given to the church teachers.

44:14

Amen. We're thankful for that. We love that gift from God that we have teachers in the church.

44:22

We have apologists and defenders of the faith who know the truth of God and that can defend it. However, those teachers are not the authority.

44:32

The word of God is the authority. And Jesus believed in the perspicuity of scripture because, ready, he's indicting them as foolish.

44:42

Why? You were supposed to know this. You're supposed to understand this.

44:48

How did you miss this? Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die and rise again?

44:55

Isn't that what the scriptures said? You should have known this. Oh, but wait a minute. No, Jesus, I'm sorry.

45:01

They couldn't have known it without an infallible interpreter. Jesus didn't believe that.

45:08

Jesus didn't believe. He gives the church teachers, but he didn't believe that God is unable to converse with and speak with his creatures with clarity.

45:18

Are there hard things to understand in scripture? Yeah. Yeah. Peter says that about Paul's writings.

45:25

He says that Paul says lots of things in his writings that are hard to understand.

45:31

But then Peter says it is unstable and untaught men who twist those scriptures to their own destruction.

45:39

It's not the problem of the scriptures. It's the problem of the untaught and the unstable.

45:46

God can communicate clearly with his creatures and Jesus in the New Testament holds people to the revelation of God in history over and over and over again.

45:58

We did it last week. I'm just going to highlight it so you go back to it. It's in Mark and it's in Matthew.

46:03

But we did Matthew 15. What is the rule that Jesus is confronting in Matthew 15?

46:09

Let's see if you know. The Korban rule. Now what did the Jews of Jesus' day believe about the

46:15

Korban rule? What did they believe about it? Did they believe that it was just some silly local tradition?

46:25

They believed that God had given this as a divine tradition. I mean the allegation even saying that this tradition was passed down from Moses.

46:35

Get it? It's not in the Bible. And they were saying you must obey this. Why? Because the church has handed this down over centuries.

46:45

The people of God have received this oral tradition. This tradition has come down from Moses.

46:53

Yeah, it's not in the Bible. It's not in the Old Testament. But you still got to do it. That's from God.

46:59

It's divine. The church has passed this down. It's from Moses.

47:06

We're the covenant people of God. We've had this tradition. We've passed it down. Who are you to defy it?

47:12

Jesus says this in response to their tradition. He says this. Ready? Here's the standard. Moses says, and then he quotes the recorded written scriptures.

47:22

And then he says, but you say. And then he quotes their tradition.

47:27

And he shows that their tradition conflicts with the recorded words of God. And he says, thus you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

47:37

So for Jesus, the incarnate one, he held people and their traditions to the recorded scriptures and said that if your tradition conflicts with the words of God, it is your tradition that is making void the word of God.

47:56

So for the incarnate one, his standard was sola scriptura.

48:03

That the recorded, inspired revelation of God was at that moment being applied to them as the standard they were supposed to apply.

48:11

And yes, I know that revelation was still coming through Jesus and the apostles.

48:19

But the point is, is that the standard he held them to was that these are the words of God and your tradition must comport with it.

48:27

If it doesn't, it needs to be rejected. That, brothers and sisters, is the principle of sola scriptura in action.

48:38

And it's in the best person to show it, Jesus. Jesus. And so what we say as Christians, following the principle that Jesus gives there, is this.

48:49

Church history is amazing. Church tradition can be incredible. It can bless the church.

48:55

We hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. We love our Confession of Faith. But we recognize that those confessions and those creeds and that Confession of Faith is only to be authoritatively held to and preached and taught so long as it matches the scriptures themselves.

49:16

Amen? Now, one final, and you already know this.

49:25

Acts 17, verse 11. Go there quickly and we'll finish on this. Now this is unique because let me see if you guys, let me see if you're all with me on this.

49:37

Hopefully I've been doing a faithful job in explaining this in such a way that we can all understand.

49:44

But Acts 17, 11 is the famous verse because everyone knows the bookstore. That's an old 90's contemporary nerd

49:52

Christian joke. Berean Christian bookstores. Okay.

49:58

Only I understand that one. Yeah. It's just me. Am I that old now? You guys are like, I wasn't even alive then.

50:04

Sorry. Berean Christian bookstores.

50:11

Just be a Berean and look and see. Okay. All right. All right.

50:20

I'm dating myself here. I am. Acts 17, 11. It says, now let me just start in verse 10.

50:30

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they had arrived they went into the

50:35

Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

50:41

They received the word with all eagerness examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

50:50

And so you have a tradition within, you know, Christian churches where you say, be a Berean.

50:56

Be a Berean. More noble minded. Examine the scriptures to see if these things are so.

51:03

Be a Berean. I mean, that's incredible. There's a word from God about these people in Berea.

51:11

There's a word from God that says they were more noble minded. Than the ones in Thessalonica because when they receive the word they're so excited but they're examining the scriptures to see if what

51:24

Paul is saying is so. What principle are they applying there as Jews?

51:30

Oh, Deuteronomy chapter 13. Something like that. And the law word of God where even if there's signs and wonders which were coming from Paul and the apostles that New Testament era was filled with signs and wonders.

51:44

God said it was going to be before the destruction of the temple. So they were seeing signs and wonders but these believers in Berea were not just simply receiving what

51:53

Paul said and just biting down and running with it. They were more noble minded than the ones in Thessalonica because they were excited to receive it and they were examining the scriptures to see if what

52:04

Paul was saying was so. Now why is that interesting? Well, number one, they're following a clear biblical pattern and the law word of God is how you're supposed to examine things.

52:15

But what's amazing is this. Ready? Was Paul...

52:23

I'm tripping over words here. No sleep, twins, have mercy. Was Paul an inspired apostle?

52:36

Don't be afraid. It's not your question. Was he an inspired apostle? Was he giving revelation from the true

52:42

God? So we know that about Paul. He comes into Berea. He's giving inspired revelation.

52:50

And get this. Even though Paul is giving inspired revelation from God, he's giving them words from God.

53:00

Guess what God says about them? More noble minded. Because they even examined the scriptures in light of what an inspired apostle was saying.

53:14

He's an inspired apostle? That's great. Let me make sure that what he's saying is matching up with the words of God.

53:22

What does the word of God, written recorded word of God do? It preserves us in the area of false teaching and from false teachers and false prophets.

53:31

Even if somebody is from God, we are to test their words by the revelation of God. And here's an important thing.

53:38

If Jesus... If Jesus had healed the blind, had fed the 5 ,000, had walked on water, had calmed the storm, had raised the dead, had given legs to the lame, if He had given hearing to the deaf, if Jesus had done all these things and Jesus contradicted the previous revelation of God, you would be obligated under God's law to reject

54:11

Jesus as the Messiah. Even with the signs and wonders, even with the walking on water,

54:18

Jesus had to testify in accordance with the written previous revelation of God and Holy Scripture.

54:27

That's the standard. Jesus isn't permitted to violate God's previous revelation.

54:34

Jesus speaks in accordance with God's previous revelation. And listen to this. That's how you know

54:39

He's the Messiah. That's how you know He's God in human flesh. So, finishing on this point, so much more can be said.

54:50

And next week again, we're going to go over the points, the clarity of Scripture, the power of Scripture, the supremacy of Scripture, and demonstrate that this has been taught throughout church history.

55:01

However inconsistently at points, it's been taught throughout church history. The principle of the supremacy of Scripture and the rule of faith is throughout the history of the church.

55:10

But my... I'll speak to you from the heart here.

55:16

The most important thing, and I've announced it several times already today, is not simply in our dispute with Roman Catholicism or Mormonism, but it's in reality, now that you've heard this about the revelation of God, will you live like that?

55:38

Will you live in accordance with it? Because this is not, and it can be for a lot of Reformed folks that you get very zealous, young, zealous Reformed folks.

55:47

Or honestly at the beginning we say cage -stage Calvinists and stuff because you want to throw them in a cage and keep them away from other human beings for a little while until they get wise and understand what all of this really means.

55:58

But oftentimes young, zealous Reformed folks can act honestly like rude and jerks and it becomes this big heady thing up here, right?

56:11

It doesn't have any legs on it. There's no flesh to it. It's just up here, right? I hate, most of the time,

56:18

I hate getting involved in like Reformed groups that are filled with young, zealous guys that are

56:24

Reformed because all they want to do is argue, argue, argue and talk about things that are way up here, right?

56:30

And it never gets flesh. It never gets down to the world and around you to bless the people around you. Let us never be like that.

56:37

Listen, this doctrine of Sola Scriptura is essentially this. God's spoken in history. These are His words.

56:43

Stand on them. Stand on them. Stand on them as authoritative in your life.

56:49

Stand on them as ultimate in your life. Be willing to yield. There's the final point.

56:55

Be willing, brothers and sisters, to yield to the Word of God no matter what your passions are, no matter what your trial is, no matter how emotionally committed you are in a situation.

57:08

Be willing to yield to the words of God. If God says this is the standard, this is what you do, then yield to the

57:17

Word of God with your spouse, husband and wife. Lots of tension at times in marital relationships.

57:24

Emotions and failures and ups and downs and face plants and victories. There's going to be moments, brothers and sisters, in our marriages where you don't feel like obeying

57:33

God. Right? You don't feel like obeying God. Whether it's the wife or the husband or both.

57:41

You're in a conflict. You're going to let that thing carry out because you don't really want to obey. You want your voice to win.

57:48

In those moments, we have to yield as husbands and wives. What does God say?

57:55

How are we supposed to navigate this? It doesn't matter if I like it. It doesn't matter if it feels good. This is what

58:01

God says. So we can't live like that in our relationship with our kids.

58:07

Same thing. No matter the conflict. No matter the emotions. No matter how charged. No matter how badly

58:12

I need something, want something, think something. What does God say?

58:18

This is His world. We're His creatures. He's spoken. Now, we can defy it.

58:25

Right? Yes. You can defy it. You can have the standard of God's word hovering over your head, and you can say,

58:32

I don't feel like it. I don't want to. I think, or it's my feelings or my passions, my desires.

58:38

And you put yourself right back in the garden again. Right? God spoke.

58:43

He says, do this and die. And they go, hmm, let's test it.

58:50

I don't know if I really believe that. And really, in reality, how does God know? You know, maybe my wisdom's a little bit better.

58:58

Maybe I believe or kind of like, you know, naked and dumb. And maybe that's why they failed is because they don't have the wisdom that we have here in 2024.

59:06

I have access to Google and AI. Right? And you can do all the excuses and all the rest, and you're still in the same situation.

59:15

God said, the day you do, you die. And they tested that claim.

59:21

They listened to another voice. And it ended in condemnation and death.

59:26

And it always will. And so, brothers and sisters, the core of this is this.

59:32

By what standard? Who's in charge here? Who said? And our answer has to be, every single time,

59:41

God said. If we want the blessings of life, if we want the blessings that the book of wisdom tells us about, about staying out of the pit, being protected from the evildoers, and the blessings and the thriving and all those things, and a light, if we want that, we'll yield to the written revelation of God in history.

59:59

Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth.