Okay, this morning I am continuing on to teach on the five solas of the Reformation, because this is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. And of course, because of what happened there, basically Martin Luther posting his yet, as I said, unanswered 95 thesis on the door of a Roman Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany to just trying to reform the Catholic Church. That was his intention back then. But what he did there and what he wrote in those 95 thesis ignited a Storm that he wasn't even planning on himself and of course out of that rises From that Reformation five solos and solo really means alone of course I already covered sola gratia, saved by grace alone, and then sola fide, saved by faith alone, and then sola Christus, in Christ alone, and today I'll be looking at sola scriptura, according to scripture alone, and then one after that I'll pick up next week, sola de gloria, for the glory of God alone. So today, we'll be examining maybe one of the most ridiculed of the solas, and that's Sola Scriptura, saved according to Scripture alone. Now, the question at this particular point would be, are the Scriptures the only source of truth for bringing a sinner to the knowledge of salvation? Are there other just as reliable or of equal value sources of bringing a sinner knowledge of how to be right with God? In other words, is it just the Bible alone or are there other sources? Now, let me just remind you that the rules followed by the Roman Catholic Church to measure truth is scripture plus tradition plus the magisterium, or the teaching body of the church. Excluded from start to finish, though, is really the principle of scripture alone. So then how the Roman Catholic arrives at the salvation of a sinner is radically different than the biblical view of the salvation of a sinner. The Roman Catholic does believe and teach that salvation is by grace, through faith, because of Christ. However, as I mentioned already, what the Roman Catholic Church does not believe or teach, even up until this day, in regards to the salvation of a sinner is that it is by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, and of course, according to scripture alone. The Roman Catholic formula then for salvation is by grace plus merit, through faith plus works, And by Christ, plus the sinner's contribution of inherent righteousness that they accumulate on their own by keeping the sacraments, that is what equals justification. The Roman Catholic rules for the measure of truth flies really squarely in the face of the words spoken directly to the religious leadership of Jesus' day in Mark chapter 7, where it tells us that Actually, Jesus exposes the damage done by the self-invented human tradition imposed in that day that really kept people away from the Word of God. It really moved people away from the Word of God instead of bringing them into the Word of God. And so Jesus said to them, You invalidate the Word of God by your traditions, which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that. Invalidating, meaning to leave the Word of God without authority, to empty it of its authority and of its source, the source being God itself. He says, and of course, you do similar things to rob the word of God of its authority. So the real deception in human tradition, in other words, man-made rules and counsels that do not run things through the grid of scripture to find out whether it is true or not, And then equate that with teaching that comes from God. That's the real deception. And of course, that's where Satan is really working. And he wants to rob the Word of God of its authority. Or he just wants you to say, I believe it, but never read it, never study it. Set it aside. Let it become a dusty book. on your coffee table or wherever, your bookshelf. You never really read it. And so if that takes place, then Satan has his hands all over that. He wants you to remove yourself from the scripture. Because remember, we're sanctified by truth. And of course, the truth is found in the Word of God. Now, there's one passage of Scripture I want to look at, and I'm going to take some time to get to the passages of Scripture I'm going to look at, but one of them is 1 Timothy chapter 3 in verse number 15. Now, of course, this passage of Scripture is familiar to us because it is on our sign outside. It is on the front of the pulpit here, and yet it is an important passage of Scripture when it comes to this particular subject. And, of course, This is mentioned by Paul in the context of saying, talking about elders, and then talking about deacons, and then he's talking about order in the church, and then notice what it says in verse number 14, 15, and 16. He says, I am writing these things, 1 Timothy 3, verse 14, these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you, specifically the elders and the deacons, will know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God. And then it says, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of truth by common confession. Great is the mystery of godliness. He was revealed in the flesh. was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the Word, and taken up into glory." And the point that I would like you to focus in on is that this household of God, which is the gathered church, That gathering of people in local assemblies all over the world, constituting the universal church, is the very support and pillar, it is the very thing that upholds and supports the truth, and that is the word of God. And that becomes a very crucial passage of scripture for the reformers. Now, it has been the strong conviction of God's true ministers that scripture is the only source of divine revelation given to mankind for knowing God's will in matters of salvation, life, holiness, and godliness. So in other words, the reformers wanted to reform the church, but what happened is that they brought the church back to the holy scriptures as the only true guide for life and godliness. In the writings of the works of Martin Luther, on the book of Romans, Luther warns against the doctrines of men, which are put alongside the doctrines of the gospel, Luther, this is what he wrote from what he saw happening from Rome would come the seductive and offensive canons and decretals, and the whole squirming mass of human laws and commandments, which have now drowned the whole world and wiped out the epistle, and of course he's talking about the epistle of Romans, and all the holy scriptures, along with the spirit and with faith, so that nothing has remained there except the idol. That's what he calls what remains after you remove the scripture. Luther also wrote in his preface in his German works in 1539 edition, he said this, I would gladly have seen all my books forgotten and destroyed if only for the reason that I am afraid of the example, for I see what benefit it has brought to the churches, that men have begun to collect many books and great libraries outside and alongside the scriptures. and have begun, especially, to scramble together, without distinction, all sorts of what the fathers say, what counsel says, and what doctors of divinity or theology say. Not only has, he said, good time been wasted and the study of scriptures neglected, but the pure understanding of the divine word is lost. until at last the Bible has come to lie forgotten under the dust of the bench. So an unread, dust-laden Bible is the result of adding all kinds of stuff to the Word of God and making it equal to the Word of God. So it is always good to keep learning, especially learning about scripture and the things that relate to a greater understanding of the historical context of events that have actually shaped the church. One such event was the Protestant Reformation. What I did not know is what exactly did they mean by tradition? And what was the reason there was such a strong call in the Reformation for the mantra, Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone? In my reading, I came across a chapter written by a man named Matheson, Keith Matheson, and he really helped me understand not only a better grasp of what the reformers meant by sola scriptura, but also shed more light on how others throughout history viewed tradition. as it related to Sola Scriptura. And really, I came to understand that if you don't understand this, you don't understand when you're reading what they mean by tradition. Because tradition is a word you can kick around and it can mean all kinds of things. All right, so that becomes a very, very important word. So I want to look at some of the historical background of this world, the historical background of tradition and Sola Scriptura. Now, there's four main views of tradition. The first view is called Tradition 1. Now, this view said that it was the one source theory of revelation. which sees the content of scripture and tradition as identical. Now what is meant here by connecting scripture and tradition is that the Apostolic doctrine, which had been orally preached for decades after the death of Christ, was eventually written down in the books of the New Testament. The New Testament scripture, along with the Old Testament, is the source of inspired revelation. and is to be interpreted by the church within the context of the apostolic rule of faith. Now, that is what it started out being. Then came a second view of tradition. That would be tradition two. It was a two-source theory of revelation. According to this idea, scripture and tradition are two equally authoritative and supplementary sources of divine revelation. On that view, the content of scripture and tradition are not identical. And then there is a third view, and that is tradition three. And this view understands that the real source of all revelation that comes from God is to be the living magisterium or the teaching office of the church, priests, bishops, cardinals, popes, and so on. And then there was tradition four, and this was called tradition zero. And tradition zero, this view rejects any role for tradition in any sense and argues that every individual is able to interpret scripture correctly for himself according to his own private judgment. And then they interpret it apart from the church, apart from the creeds, and apart from any other human help. Now, of course, if you think of all those views, view one, two, three, and four, the last one being tradition zero, tradition zero would have been sola scriptura. This is the problem, though. If you picked view zero, you would be wrong. All right? Now that's what you don't get. So this is what happened. To understand even more of that, let's take a little jet tour through the history. of this word tradition and how it relates to scripture alone and just to scripture itself, right up to the Reformation and even beyond. So there's a development of the understanding of tradition throughout the centuries. It kind of grows. In the first three centuries of the church, the church understood the source of revelation and authority, that the early church fathers generally understood tradition to be the body of doctrine that had been committed to the church by Jesus and his apostles, whether orally or in writing. And for the first few decades, the church's existence, this apostolic teaching, was communicated, of course we know, orally. Of course, there was no written New Testament at that point in time. However, once the New Testament began to be inscripturated, it was the same apostolic proclamation. Now, in written form, the Old Testament, along with the New Testament, was the church's source of divine revelation. In other words, for the first three centuries, the church taught The concept of tradition described in tradition one. The church came before the written New Testament. The apostles orally preached doctrine before it was actually written down. But once it started getting written down, what the apostles preached, of course, moved by the Holy Spirit and first Peter, those men wrote down what they saw, what they heard, what they were taught from Jesus, and they wrote it down exactly the way God wanted it to be written down. So that would be in the mind of the apostles, the disciples of the apostles, up into the third century. And then we come to the fourth century. In the fourth century, hints of the two-source concept of revelation, tradition two, emerged in the writings of certain church fathers like Chrysostom, Basil, Augustine. But for the most part, right up into the Middle Ages, tradition one was adhered to. We come to then the 12th century, and the two-source theory of revelation began to expand. Now, what is interesting at this particular point, at this time also the allegorical method, the spiritualization of Scripture was paramount in the minds of people who interpreted the Word of God. It was in full swing, in other words, at this particular point. So for someone to defend an allegorical or a spiritual interpretation of the Bible, Secondary extra-biblical sources had to be posited in order to defend the medieval doctrines and practices. Now, what is interesting is, at this time, there was also a gradual rejection of the allegorical, hermeneutical, spiritual method of interpreting scripture in favor of the historical, grammatical method of biblical interpretation. In other words, we can't ignore the history in which the Bible was written, and we cannot ignore the original languages, the Greek, the Hebrew, and the Aramaic, in which the Bible was written. You can't ignore them to get a correct interpretation. And then we come to the 15th century. Now, remember, we're heading to the 16th century, or the 14th century. By this time, the two-source concept of revelation, tradition too, was in full gear because of the 14th century, because of a 14th century theologian named William of Ockham. This continued on to the 16th century. So in other words, scripture plus tradition was equally authoritative. And then we come to the 16th century, right up to the Reformation. By this time, men like John Calvin, Martin Luther were on the scene, and they started to examine the abuses and the apostasy in the Roman Catholic Church. They began to see it, and they began to talk about it and write about it. Now, initially, in the beginning, Luther was not at the place where, in the beginning, not until he went and became a doctorate that he started studying scripture. But the Roman Catholic view of tradition is this, that the Roman Catholic Roman Catholics were adamant defenders of the two-source concept of tradition. The two-source concept of Revelation, Tradition II, was eventually made official church dogma in the Council of Trent. It was held strongly by the Roman Catholic Church for 300 years. However, During the last 150 years or more, a new view emerged in the Roman Catholic Church. And the Roman Catholic Church moved towards a one-source revelation. But this one-source revelation was not scripture alone. It was the Roman magisterium alone as the ultimate authority. Or so, in other words, they moved to view number three. And that view number three, it was the view that they understood the real source of revelation is the living magisterium, the living teaching office of the church. Now, what was the logical progression from them moving away from scripture almost completely to now putting all the authority in the teaching body, well, It led to the infallibility, the papal infallibility. All right, that's where it led. So that means the logical implication of this move places all authority in the hands of the magisterium of the moment, leading to the doctrine of papal infallibility, where the pope, with all authority, can speak what they call ex cathedra. He sits on his throne, and whatever he speaks, it comes directly from God to the people. And of course, what did he speak in the last several 150 years, well, the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854. the definition of what papal infallibility actually is in 1857, and then the pronouncement of the bodily assumption of the Immaculate Version in 1950. Now, of course, this is the view of the Roman Catholic Church today. It is that all the authority comes from the magisterium, and of course, that is all centered in Rome. Right? Now, of course, what happens is the scripture is lost. It's placed completely out of the picture. And so that's why they don't teach the Bible. They don't expound the word of God. So that would lead me to the classical reformer's view of sola scriptura. Now, Luther was a classical reformer calling the church back to sola scriptura. by Scripture alone. But his understanding of Sola Scriptura was to call, was a call back to tradition one. the one-source theory of revelation, which sees the content of scripture and tradition as identical, not the man-made rules, traditions, councils that appear to be the teaching that comes from God, yet robs God of its authority. See, the classical reformers' view of tradition included the New Testament scripture, along with the Old Testament as a source of inspired revelation and is to be interpreted by the church within the context of the apostolic rule of faith. So in other words, Luther said it is dangerous and terrible to hear or believe anything against the unity, the united testimony, faith, and doctrine of the entire holy Christian church. He went on to say, I believe in a holy Christian church, Christ namely, and went on to quote, the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3, in verse number 15, where he said, the church of God, which is the pillar and the ground of truth. Now, with that in mind, Luther was summoned in front of a hostile Roman Catholic council, ready to condemn him to death. And his, of course, his famous saying, which really set the church ablaze, separating it really forever from the apostate Roman church was this, and I quote, I am convinced by scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. But what you have to realize is that in that statement, Luther essentially rejects tradition two, tradition three, and tradition four, that is tradition zero. by scripture alone, all right, in this sense, that he doesn't agree with the radical reformer's view of Sola Scriptura, thus calling the church back to tradition one. Now, okay, what is the view of the radical reformer's view of Sola Scriptura? It's this, the radical reformers had a wholly negative approach to tradition and a completely different take on Sola Scriptura. The view of the radical reformers, that's view four, tradition zero equals Sola Scriptura, this view rejects any role for tradition in any sense and argues again that every individual is able to interpret scripture correctly for himself according to his own private judgment apart from the church, apart from any human help. In other words, this view places the private judgment of the individual above the corporate judgment of the church. So tradition, zero. in the radical reformers' mind was a view of sola scriptura, but it was not the view held by men as Martin Luther and John Calvin. And I would have to say that it would not be the view that we would hold even today. Because we don't believe, and I don't believe from scripture, every individual has the ability to interpret scripture correctly for himself. by private judgment, or by apart from the church, and all who have gone before us, and apart from human help. That would be also to deny scripture. So when we say, I believe in sola scriptura, We are not saying that the individual conscience is over the collective conscience of the church. And somehow, we divorce from, are divorced from everyone and everything that has gone before us. To believe in Sola Scriptura is not like, to believe in Sola Scriptura is the way the radical reformers believed it is a lot like with the Christian movement that from days gone by under the leadership of Alexander Campbell, who he said that this movement, it called for every person to read the Bible as if no one had ever seen its pages before, and apart from the mediation of any pastor, teacher, creeds, or theology. See, actually, there is a very similar thing going on today. We have in this 21st century a democratic, pragmatic, individualistic Christianity somewhat divorced pretty much from all that's gone before. For most today, there is a distortion of Sola Scriptura in which historical fundamental doctrines of the Christian church are being reinterpreted and even denied in favor of the individualistic doctrine of Sola Scriptura that equals tradition zero. Now remember, we stand in a long, long line of those who have been faithful to Christ and His Word before us. We cannot step out of that line and get in the short line. And that's what essentially people have done in the past. Now, that brings me to some passages that Kind of like, can we say that the classical reformers were correct in their assessment of views of tradition and as it related to the Sola Scriptura? Well, let's look at some of those passages. Ephesians 2 in verse number 20. Ephesians 2.20, I want you to see how emphatic the scriptures are when they mention things like this. Ephesians 2 and verse number 20, it says in verse number 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into the dwelling of God in the Spirit. Now, in other words, in that passage of Scripture, especially verse number 20, that We have a foundation that we're building on and that foundation, we're not relaying a foundation every time a new generation comes along or every time somebody becomes a new believer. We are building upon the foundation that has already been laid and that foundation was laid Right? Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and of course Christ himself being the cornerstone of all that. He keeps everything together and from falling apart. So if you read over this particular passage quickly, you might miss that very important point. It's actually drawing the line in the sand between what is true and what is false. So a proper foundation could be measured by truth, God's truth found in the Word of God. And everything that is being built must be built upon the foundation of God. the apostles and the prophets because they were given direct revelation from God and they spoke in behalf of God and the Spirit of God superintended what they not only spoke but what they wrote with complete accuracy. So an apostle is really a delegate, an envoy, a messenger. For example, the Caesar would appoint others to speak for him in other parts of the Roman Empire, and the words these delegates had The words that these delegates had had the same authority as Caesar. So these delegates were known as apostoloi, or apostles. So Jesus' apostles, in a similar fashion, represent the authority of Jesus himself. And to deny apostolic teaching is to deny the teaching of our Savior. See, what these apostles teach is what Christ teaches, for he inspired them by his spirit. To be an apostolic church is to be a church that is faithful to the teaching Scripture now again the formulation of the new church in Acts chapter 2 take your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 and notice again, there is a Something very emphatic and it's pointing to something very important that the church cannot miss We can never get around this All right in Acts chapter 2 In verse number 41, it says, so then, those who had received his word were baptized, and that day were added about 3,000 souls. Look at verse 42. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. So when you see this newly forming church, they were giving priority to something they never gave priority to before. They were now joined together after initial conversion and became members of the Christian church. Now, why did they gather and assemble together? What was the first primary thing they gathered to do once they were converted? Well, the common language is pretty clear in verse 42. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. They wanted, in other words, sound doctrine. The question is still the same for us today. What do we want? Do we want the apostles' teaching? I believe that's what all true Christians want. The church exists to be the repository of divine truth, whereby people can grow through the expositional teaching of the word of God. In other words, that when you become a new believer, you actually get a new appetite, a new spiritual appetite, and you want spiritual nourishment that only comes from the word of God. Like it says in, 2 Peter 2, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. So here is given the most instinctive characteristic of a newborn babe. They want milk. They do not understand why they want milk. They are born alive with a strong desire for their mother's milk. If a baby doesn't have this desire, well, then we start asking the question, what's wrong? What's wrong with the child? The baby will not grow or stay alive if they don't have milk. It is exactly the same with real Christians. because their new life in Christ, they long for and must listen to the pure milk of the word. They do not want substitutes. They do not want any old junk food or fast food. No, they want the apostles' teaching. That's what they want. They want the unadulterated spiritual food of the Word of God. And if they don't get it at first, they will search for it until they find it. And when they find it, they will drink away because it is so wonderful and they are afraid of missing anything. That's usually one of the first signs of real conversion. It's also the last sign of continuing conversion. I don't ever want to get away from this book. I do not ever want to lay it aside, ignore it, let it become dusty on my shelf. I want this book in my mind and in my heart. And not for the sake of solely knowledge, for the sake of knowing God, for the sake of knowing Christ. That's why God has given us this book, for that very purpose. Another passage I'd like you to turn to is in Ephesians chapter 4, back to Ephesians again, verse number 8. Answering the question, can anybody interpret the scripture apart from any human help? Well, if you look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 8, it says this. This is, this passage of scripture is talking about the victorious Christ who now is resurrected and he gives gifts to the church, right? It says in verse 4a, therefore I, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives and gave gifts to men. Now, In other words, Christ led a triumphal procession as a sign of destruction over his foes, and the conqueror, Christ, then distributes in token of his triumph the spoils of his foes and gifts among the people." So Christ's foes had been, in other words, defeated by his redemption, and those who were held in bondage by sin are now set free and have been given the Spirit of God and gifts of the Spirit from the victorious Lord to his church. Now, notice in verse number 11 what it says. In fact, he gave five gifts to his church in verse 11 of Ephesians 4, and he gave some apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and of course, some as teachers. Some people put pastors and teachers together, but it could also be separated that these are five different human gifts given by Christ to the church. For what reason? Well, in chapter 4 and look at verses number 12. It says, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, and then verse 14, as a result of that, him giving gifts, to men that teach the word of God and propagate the gospel to build a mature church here's the result in verse 14 we are so we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming. And verse 15, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all respects in him who is the head, even Christ. So in other words, that the Lord has given these gifts. I'll say it this way, we have a tradition. And the tradition comes right out of the pages of scripture. The church's authority comes from apostolic teaching, which is our tradition. We have a tradition where Christ has given the church gifts so that These gifted men can build up the church on the foundation that has already been laid by the apostles and the prophets, Christ being the cornerstone, and that's going to take place until Christ comes. So we do have a tradition that is given to us in scripture, and we can't move away from that tradition, but that tradition is squarely found in the word of God. Now, just by way of a reminder, and without turning there, it also tells us in Scripture, in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse number 15, listen to what it says. It says, which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us." There it is, that the apostle Paul is challenging the church that what was passed down to you from the Old Testament, from the prophets, and then when the apostles came on the scene, what they heard and saw and what they experienced from Christ, once they preached that, it was scripture. All right, of course. It became inscripturated on pages with words in the original Greek. And so we have the word of God in our hands today, and that is our tradition. Now, that also means that certain gifts were necessary in the beginning stages of the church that were not needed later on. Apostles and prophets were assigned to a very early stage of the start of the church, approximately 70 years of church history. And the reason why is that the Holy Spirit chose to use direct revelation to communicate to the body of Christ. But upon the completion of the written word of God, the New Testament scriptures, These gifts were not needed for further special revelation. And because the canon of scripture had come together, there was a closed revelation. So from Genesis to Revelation, we have a closed Bible. There's no more revelation coming from God. We have all we need right here until Christ comes again. Now, the church has to be firm on that. If they don't, they start adding things to the Bible. Or they, and then once they start adding things to the Bible, they start ignoring the Bible. And as they ignore the Bible, the Bible, we can say we believe the Bible day and night, and we really don't know the Bible. We can say we believe the Bible, but we don't have a high view of the Bible. We have a very low view. It's just one of many books. It's just a book like any other book. It is not, and any Christian who reads it understands that the whole responsibility of instructing the body of Christ did not fall on the apostles and prophets alone. See, the church interprets the scripture because the church has been given gifts of God. All right, let me wrap it up. Only one of the four options can make a plausible claim to be the teaching of the apostolic church. And I must conclude that the evidence concerning Sola Scriptura points to Tradition 1. And that Tradition 1, again, is the one-source theory of revelation. We have one source. It comes from God. It comes from God, it's God-breathed, right? It's God-breathed, he's our source, all right? And which really sees the content of... Scripture and the tradition that has been delivered to the church as identical. That's what we mean by tradition. That's what I mean by tradition. That's what the reformers in the first three centuries of the church meant by tradition. Not the man-made rules and traditions and councils that appear to be teaching that comes from God, but is not, and yet robs the word of God of its authority. But the classical reformers' view of tradition, that includes the New Testament scripture along with the Old Testament as the source of inspired revelation as interpreted by the church within the context of the apostolic rule of faith. We stand again in a long line of faithful Christians from the Old Testament saints to the prophets, to the New Testament saints, the apostles, and everyone who has come after them and who have laid the foundation of the church in which the New Testament prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers continue to build upon that foundation that was laid by Christ until he comes again. We're supposed to do that. That's what the church is about. So the Christian church must insist You must insist, not just elders and deacons, you must insist as a believer that scripture is the sole source of revelation and the final authoritative norm for doctrine and practice as interpreted in and by the church, interpreted within the context of the apostles' teaching. We have to insist that. Why? Do we have to insist that? Because in our hands we have the inspired Word of God, that it is God-breathed. God Himself is the source of Scripture, like it says in 1 Peter 1. So we have the prophetic Word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning arises in your hearts. But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is the matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit of God, spoke from God. And the metaphor there is the Holy Spirit filled the sails of the apostles and raised up the prophets to carry out and carried them in the way God intended to carry them. And in doing so, God has given us an infallible word. In other words, it has an inability to err. in their original autographs. It's plenary. In other words, it's full. It's complete. Nothing needs to be taken away or added to it. It is inerrant. It's without error. God conveyed truth to divinely chosen individuals. And what they wrote, they did not stray from the original foundation of truth. as existed in the mind of God, as it says in Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And we have an authoritative word, the authority that comes from God. In other words, what it says I must do. And so any kind of Bible ministry The Bible is completely authoritative for all beliefs and practices. So that means that the church need not derive its methods from the culture of the day, nor conform its message to that which is acceptable in the eyes of the world. We don't have to be politically correct in the church when we teach the word of God. rather ministry, whether a sermon, a Bible study, a program, an activity, must be dedicated and directed by the principles taught in Scripture itself. That means also that we hold in our hand a Bible that is sufficient It's sufficient for the rule of faith and all necessary parts of doctrine, that the Word of God is sufficient for all areas of ministry, and therefore the primary focus of every sermon, Bible study, counseling opportunity, and must be the teaching of Scripture. Anytime the church gathers, the emphasis must be on the proclamation of the Word of God and the exhortation to obey it. as it says in Timothy, until I come. Paul told Timothy, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. That's everything the church ought to do. So the proper view of Scripture demands our obedience and our belief. It demands our affections, our faith, and our understanding. A belief in the sufficiency of Scripture forbids any attempt to integrate it with psychology or worldly philosophies or anything that's flying out in the world of teaching out there. And you think this is not a big deal? Just walk on any college campus and try to talk to somebody about the authority of the word of God. And I tell you what, it's not going to be a pleasant conversation, if there's a conversation at all. they'll run you out of town. But the church cannot give it up. That means the Bible is also relevant. It's always the Bible plus nothing. Not management skills, not psychology, not tradition, not church fathers or other books. Nothing is needed to make the Bible relevant. The Bible may not give an explicit answer to every specific problem. But it will always give the principles by which we can, through obedience, glorify God and do his work. Where, of course, the Psalm tells us the word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And also, the word of God is perpiscuous. That means it has doctrinal clarity. In other words, the word of God is clear. It takes study, it takes hard work to find out the meaning of Scripture, but it is clear. And it is definitely clear on the Gospel and what it means to be right with God and what it means to obtain salvation. Now, just a note, a failure To recognize the inspiration and inerrancy, authority, sufficiency, perpiscuity, and relevancy of the Word of God leads to a pursuit of comfort rather than obedience. It leads to personal experience as your authority rather than the authority of God's Word. It leads to contemporary thinking as your guide for living rather than principles of divine truth. So in other words, pluralistic thinking Many roads lead to God would be incorrect, of course, in all political correctness. Don't offend this group or that group. Don't talk about judgment or sin or hell or anything like that that will offend anybody, because we can't do that. We can't go there. And the results will be the church produces people who pursue their own desires based upon ungodly standards. And then you know what? The bottom line is you don't have a church anymore, you have a social club. And have many churches gone that way throughout history? Yes, they have gone that way. But it is our job not to go there. It is your job to keep my job, doing what I ought to be doing, and you ought to be doing what you ought to be doing as a Christian from the Word of God. And because we know the Word of God has power to bring faith for salvation, to sanctify in holiness and godliness while producing joy and peace, and has power to judge the thoughts and intents of the human heart in order to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So the church does not speak with inherent authority of God himself unless that authority rises from scripture. For this reason, scripture alone, sola scriptura, is the supreme norm and standard for the church's infallible rule of faith and practice. So tradition one. is the proper way to understand sola scriptura, the one source theory of revelation which sees the content of scripture and tradition as identical, New Testament scripture along with Old Testament scripture as the source of inspired revelation interpreted by the church within the context of the apostolic rule of faith. All I can say is what Luther said, here I stand, I could do no other. I know that was a lot, but I felt I had to do that to get you to have an understanding of what that means and how important it is to not let that go. That's where we have to fight the battle, right? We have to fight the battle to keep the word of God where it ought to be, central in our Christian life and in the church. Let's pray. Lord, thank you again for Thank you again for everyone who's gone before us, Lord. Thank you for all the battles that were fought so we can sit here today. Thank you, Lord, for the fights that people were willing to get into for the sake of defending the faith, even by possibly losing their own life, and many have. We stand in a long line of martyrs, Lord. Martyrs have gone before us. And they lost their life because they weren't willing to give up scripture. They weren't willing to deny Christ. And I pray, Lord, that you would raise up in these days young men and women that enter the church, that have a strong conviction and a high view of scripture and a high view of God. So Lord, we can remain the pillar and the support of truth. And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would help us to recognize when that is attacked. Recognize when we are giving it up. Because I know, Lord, it could be very subtle, the way these things happen. It doesn't always happen overnight. It happens over years and decades. It happens from generation to generation where one generation is not passing down the truth to the next generation. So I pray, Lord, help us to be sound of mind and aware of what's going on so we don't give up Sola Scriptura. And I pray this in your name. Amen.