Please rise now for the reading of God's word. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter four. This is found on page 175 of the church Bible. Give all your attention now to the reading of God's holy revealed truth. Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of the heaven with darkness, cloud and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess." And now turning your Bibles to 2 Timothy, chapter 3, and this is found on page 1168. and reading verses 10 through 17. Again, hear the revealed truth of our God. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Thus far the reading of God's word, and let us remember that all flesh is like grass, all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's people said, amen. Please be seated. And let us go to our God once again in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can come before you now and look to your word. We can also consider our heritage in the Reformed faith as we draw near to a time when we can celebrate the Protestant Reformation, which in your providence you brought about, and we are heirs of that great treasure that was recovered, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of God. And we thank you again for the Bible that we have in our own language, in our own hands. And we can read it and study it and hear it proclaimed because of your great mercy to us. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. For almost a thousand years of theological and moral darkness, from the time of Augustine until the 16th century, there were only a few luminaries who kept the apostolic faith alive, centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. from Augustine in the 5th century to Anselm in the 12th century, to John Wycliffe and John Hus in the 15th century. We should also mention the Waldenses of the Alpine Valley in northern Italy. There were the Lollards and the Hussites as well. These were men and communities who kept the gospel light burning in defiance to the apostate anti-Christian papal church, and they were martyred by that apostate church. But the flickering gospel light continued until the 16th century, and the dawn of the Reformation broke with brilliant light on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. A Latin phrase at the time summed up what had happened, post tenebras lux, after darkness light. The beast received this mortal wound and the gates of Hades could not prevail against the power of God in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The 16th century Protestant Reformation was a powerful back-to-the-Bible movement. The Bible, which had been held captive by the apostate papal church, was now set free. That book which had been chained to walls, kept in an ancient unknown language, was now in the hands of the common people and in their common tongue. The Reformation spread like wildfire across Europe. and the British Isles, and a great harvest of God's elect was gathered in. With the recovery of the Bible and the explosion of the understanding of God's Word that came with it, the freed slaves were united under the common banner of what are called the Solas of the Reformation. Sola is the Latin word for alone. The five solas are scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and to God alone be the glory. Now it was this word alone which choked the papal beast. That church acknowledged scripture, grace, faith, Christ, and God's glory, but it could not tolerate that five-letter word alone. For it is that word alone that separates true believers in Jesus Christ from Antichrist. And it would be at the Council of Trent that the Antichrist would clearly reveal its true identity when it promoted or pronounced anathemas, curses, upon any who would believe that the word alone has any importance. Sadly, today when evangelicals, the heirs of the Reformation, are seeking to join hands with Rome in such documents as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, ECT, and The Gift of Salvation, ECT II, and other documents. And when we consider the appalling lack of understanding in evangelical churches regarding the gospel of Christ, regarding the solas of the Reformation, we might describe our time with another Latin phrase, post lux tenebras, after light darkness. So this morning and for the next two Sundays, I'm going to examine these five solas of the Reformation for the purpose of awakening us to the danger that surrounds us, to the gross darkness that surrounds us, and help us to have a better understanding of who we are as the heirs of the Reformation. And may God give us the zeal for truth which our forebears possessed and that enabled them to endure the flames of martyrdom which the papal inquisition brought to silence them. So this morning we shall examine the first of the solas, scripture alone, sola scriptura, which was the formal cause of the Reformation. Without this sola, the others are meaningless and would not follow. We shall examine this sola, this scripture alone, by using the preeminent confessional standard which the Reformation produced, the Westminster Confession of Faith and its first chapter on the scriptures. The Westminster describes eight characteristics regarding scripture which we shall examine briefly. And each one of these characteristics one could take a Sunday morning to cover. So you're getting but an appetizer just to whet your appetite for a deeper study of these characteristics of scripture. The first is the necessity of Scripture, then the identity of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the sufficiency of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, the transmission and preservation of the Scriptures, the interpretation of the Scripture, and then the finality of Scripture. On all of these points, the reformers differed from Rome, and Rome today still rejects this sola as heresy. Our text of Scripture is 2 Timothy 3, 15 to 16, and is really the source of these characteristics. Here again, that text. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, or as God breathed. God breathed it out. And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I want to acknowledge that I'm drawing heavily upon a book by W. Gary Crampton called By Scripture Alone, which, by the way, I believe the women will study in their women's study group after they finish the book that they are now pursuing. So you ladies, if you want, again, a further, deeper study on this, come to the ladies' study probably in a few weeks. All right, so the first characteristic is the necessity of Scripture. The Westminster Standard says, although the light of nature and works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men unexcusable, yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary unto salvation? Therefore, it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal himself and to declare his will unto the church, and afterwards, for the better preservation or preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing, which makes the Holy Scripture to be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people now being ceased." So the light of nature and works of creation, innate ideas, the idea of God implanted in all men, which Calvin called the sense of the divine, it leaves all men without an excuse. No one will have an excuse on the day of judgment that they did not know. We find that very clearly portrayed in Romans chapter one. But this of course is not sufficient for salvation or to understand creation correctly. Calvin said we need the spectacles of scripture, of special revelation to understand. So God committed his revelation to writing. The revelation is necessary if one is to be saved. The gospel of Jesus Christ is in propositions which we must believe. It is also necessary to establish and comfort the Church against her enemies in the world. The Word of God written is necessary for the justification of all knowledge, and this is necessary because the canon of Scripture is now closed. If we seek to add to God's revelation by Roman Catholic tradition or by charismatic prophecies, we deny sola scriptura. The second characteristic is the identity of Scripture. As Protestants, we believe the Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and the Confession lists all of those books. Now, we disagree with Rome that the Apocrypha, those books written in between the Testaments in that 400-year period, is also Scripture. They hold it to be Scripture. We do not. Christ validated the books of the Old Testament and then commissioned his apostles, his chosen messengers, to be his writers of the New Testament. Now, some of the men who wrote were not apostles, but were closely related to or connected to the apostles or actually wrote for them. When the last apostle laid down his pen and died, the giving of special revelation ceased. By implication, then, there is and can be no extra-biblical special divine revelation. like you might find in Roman Catholicism, in Mormonism, in other cults and so on, in the charismatic movement perhaps. There is no extra biblical special divine revelation because God has given it all to us and closed the canon of scripture. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2.20 that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. The Protestant view is that the Church is witness to, the recognizer of, and the servant of Scripture. That is, the Church was created by, and received, and acknowledged, and submitted to the Scriptures. The Church recognized the canon and was born from it. The church did not determine the canon and give life to it as the Roman Catholics view that. All scripture is God-breathed. The Scripture owes its origin and content to the creative breath of God. God alone speaks in the Scripture as the primary author. Peter says in 2 Peter 1 that the Scripture writers were moved along, and the word used there is like a sailboat on the water, moved by the wind, so that the writings were nothing other than the very Word of God. Peter claims that no biblical revelation had its origin in men's thoughts. The originator of all scriptural revelation is God. Yet, of course, these men were used in accordance with their own personal abilities and personalities and so on. But God moved them along by his spirit, breathed out his word infallibly through them. Thus God is the primary author of the Bible and the prophets and apostles are authors only in a secondary sense. Ultimately then we hold that the Bible is infallible, that is, it is without defect, that it cannot err, that it is inerrant, that it does not err. So the 66 books of the Bible is the Word of God alone and nothing else is. The third characteristic is the authority of scripture. Confession says, the authority of the holy scripture for which it ought to be believed and obeyed depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God who is truth itself and the author thereof. And therefore, it is to be received because it is the word of God. The Confession maintains that biblical authority does not depend upon the testimony of any man, popes or councils, nor does it depend upon the authority of any church, including the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, the authority of the Scripture depends solely on the fact that God, who is truth itself, is the author of it. Sola Scriptura teaches that Scripture alone is authoritative over every area of life. Since the Bible is God's Word, there is no higher authority. Scripture is self-authenticating. It carries within itself its own warrant and justification. This rules out all other sources of authority, such as the traditions of men, spiritual mysticism, or existential experiences. All doctrines and traditions are to be tested by the only authoritative standard of truth, Holy Scripture. Scripture governs all of this, as Paul stated in our text in 2 Timothy 3, that it equips the man of God for every good work, not some, not many, but every good work. And it is the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit which corroborates this authority. In the Confession, it gives also some statements about the Bible, not that we try to prove that the Bible is the Word of God. The Word of God is self-evidencing, self-authenticating, self-attesting, self-validating. It is the axiom, the basis of all proof and argument. The Word of God must be our axiomatic starting point and nothing else. Since there is no authority higher than God, God's word must be then our axiomatic starting point. So we refuse to start with our senses as the empiricist would, or we refuse to start with our own minds as the rationalist would, but rather we start with the word of God. The Bible often asserts that it is the word of God. Why then do some believe this assertion while others do not? Because the Holy Spirit produces that belief in the minds of the elect as they are gathered in, regenerated, the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit. Now in this section it gives these evidences which do not prove that the Bible is the Word of God to an unbeliever, but rather confirms it to the faith of those who believe. It says, in the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, The many other incomparable excellencies and the entire perfection thereof are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God." Now again, that's not going to convince any unregenerate unbeliever. They're not going to believe that. But for the believer, all of those evidences confirm and strengthen our faith that the Bible is the Word of God. The fourth consideration is the sufficiency of scripture. says in the Confession, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith in life, is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word. The Bible has a systematic monopoly on the truth. The Bible is sufficient for all the truth we need and all the knowledge we can have. John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, wrote, Look at the universal terms that he lists there and that I mentioned in the Westminster. Whole, all things, nothing at any time, all, complete, thorough or throughout, every. Those words show again the sufficiency of Scripture. Nothing else is needed. But the Confession doesn't restrict the teaching of the Bible just to the explicit propositions that we have in the Scripture. It also says, implicitly taught by these propositions, that that which can be logically deduced from the propositions of Scripture, by that good and necessary consequence, by a good logical inference from a proposition of Scripture, you can deduce what is true. Now, someone may say, well, the Bible is not a textbook, for example, on, say, mathematics. That's only because they haven't perhaps read the Bible careful enough. There are many Bible verses that teach the very basics of mathematics and from those axioms can be deduced the whole system of mathematics. And I would refer you to an article in the Trinity Foundation's website for more information on this on math and the Bible. You'll be astounded. And once you think about this and you start looking at texts in the Bible, you will see mathematics throughout, including pi. And if anyone wonders about that, I'll tell you later what that's referring to. Now the next consideration is the clarity of Scripture. It says all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves. nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or another, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." This section declares that God's revelation is clear. and comprehensible, although it doesn't deny that there are some difficult passages, as Peter himself said about Paul's epistles, many things which are hard to understand. The supposition is that the scripture is clear enough to be searched and understood. This section emphasizes the Christian's responsibility, of course, to read and study the Bible for themselves, and that God will reward such diligence with understanding, greater understanding. So we need all of us to be diligent in our reading, studying the Bible, and asking God to guide us by his Holy Spirit. And also reading books written by men who have devoted their entire lives to the study of scriptures, to the languages of Hebrew and Greek. So in reading commentaries and systematic theologies and other books like that by godly men who have devoted their entire lives to that. Of course, all of that we have to read as good Bereans. We have to compare what they say to the Scriptures, of course. We have to always bring it back to Scripture, but we can garner a lot more help and information. I've known people who have basically said, I don't need anybody else. All I have is the Bible and the Holy Spirit, and that's all I'm going to work with. I'm not going to read anybody else. No commentaries, no systematics, no anything. Well, God provides the church with teachers. That's clear in the New Testament itself, that God provides the church with people who are going to teach. And since the canon is closed, we're not going to have ongoing revelation coming. We have one document, if you will, if you look at the whole Bible, and Again, not all of us can devote our entire lives to the studying of the Word of God. We have to do other things to support men who are doing that, right? But then we can garner from their fruit of their studies. We can look at what they've read and come up with and so on. Again, always as good Bereans, though, and not just taking everything without that attitude. The sixth consideration is the transmission and preservation of the scriptures. It says the Old Testament in Hebrew, which was the native language of the people of God of old, and the New Testament in Greek, which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations, being immediately and inspired by God and by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical. We're seeing the idea that the original Bible manuscripts, the very manuscripts that were written when God breathed out through an apostle, those what are called the autographs, were immediately inspired by God. Now the copies that we have today are to be considered accurate as the Word of God, but only in the strictest sense is the original autographs actually inspired, because the author, the apostle, was writing that by that God breathing out through him. We have copies of copies of copies of copies, but as the Confession declares here, God in his providence has kept his word pure. And even though, and one example, by the way, of that would be the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery to show that God has done that. God has kept his word pure. Now there might be some very minor little copyist errors, but it has nothing to do with changing the message or the content of scripture. So when you run into people who say, you know, you've got so many different copies, so many different variations, translations, et cetera, et cetera. How do you know you have the Word of God? Well, we believe God kept His Word pure. We believe God is in this process. We're not on our own just by ourselves. God has kept His Word pure. We can rest assured that we have the Word of God in our own language. And again, hence the importance of our studying. And for some of you younger people, maybe taking courses in Greek and Hebrew so you can have a fuller or greater understanding of things. but we can rejoice and thank God that he has kept his word pure and that we can have it in our, as the confession calls it, the vulgar tongue of the people, which is the common language of the people. I'm thankful that it's not required in order to read the Bible. You have to learn Hebrew and Greek thoroughly before you can read the Bible. Anyone else agree with that? Are you happy that you can read the Bible in English and you don't have to take years and years of Hebrew and Greek languages to be able to read the Bible? Thank the Lord. And that was part of the Reformation, right? John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English and paid a dear price for that. Martin Luther took the time to do that in his so-called captivity, if you will, translating the Bible, the New Testament in particular, into German, you know. And again, that was really what spread the Reformation across Europe because it wasn't like the United States where we all speak English in every state. Europe being fairly close together, how many languages are spoken in Europe? But God in his providence spread his word, bringing it into the language of the people so everybody could have the Bible in their language. And again, the Bible, the Roman Catholic Church chained the Bible to a wall in the monastery in Latin. which only the theologians or the scholars knew that language. But the Reformation exploded that idea with the translation of the Bible into the various languages of Europe. And then, of course, with the providential invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, at that time, the common person then could have the Bible in their own home, in their own hands, in their own home, versus having to wait for a copied copy of it, how long that would take and how expensive that would be, not many people could have that. But God in his providence brought his word to Europe and beyond by these providential blessings of the printing press. Thank God for that invention. So the light of God's word then flooded Europe. And the papacy vigorously opposed this new development, and it declared it a crime, punishable by excommunication or even death, if one possessed the Bible in their own language. Now the next, the seventh characteristic is the interpretation of Scripture. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself, and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly. So the Bible interprets the Bible. the scriptures interpret the scriptures. Now Rome claimed that if God gave to us his infallible word, he would surely give to us an infallible interpreter of that word. That office Rome claimed for herself. Now one reason why Rome opposed the idea of the common man having the Bible in their own language was that then men would try to interpret the Bible on their own and they would not submit to Rome's interpretation. And in reality that is what sparked the Reformation. is that back to the Bible, back to the sources. So men, scholars, were beginning to go back to the original languages, read the scriptures, and began to notice that what Rome had been teaching, what Rome was using, the Latin Vulgate, there were issues, there were problems. And so again, that was part of the process that God was using to bring his word to light and the Reformation part of that. So as we have seen in previous sections, believers have the responsibility to study the scriptures and the scriptures are clear enough for the learned and unlearned to understand. But in this section, we are given the scripture's rule of interpretation. Scripture interprets scripture. So clear passages shed more light on harder to understand or unclear passages. And it's important to keep in mind then that the whole of Scripture is the product of one divine mind. So we must always keep in mind the big picture. So I'm pretty sure all of you have heard the phrase, he can't see the forest for the trees. Well, what does that mean? It means that if a man is so focused on a particular detail, one tree, that he can't grasp the idea of the whole forest, the big picture. So as we study the trees of Scripture, the details of a sentence, paragraph, or passage, it is important to keep in mind the wider context. of that book, of that testament, of the whole Bible, the whole forest. That's why it's important for believers to read the whole Bible through on an ongoing basis. And I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. Robert Murray McShane has a Read Through the Bible system. And there are other systems set up that way where you can read through the whole Bible. Now, personally, I find that approach more difficult if you're just going to start in Genesis and you're going to just read through the whole Bible in like a year or thereabouts. You're going to, in my opinion, you're going to get perhaps focused on certain trees, if you will, and you're going to miss the whole forest. and you might give up. A lot of people end up just, by the time they get to Leviticus, they're like swimming in, oh my goodness, I don't get how all this connects with the Bible and so on. I have a method which I have done for close to 40 years, which I call the four cycle method. where I take four bookmarks. I put one bookmark in Genesis, one in Job, one in Matthew, one in Romans. And in the morning, you read in Genesis and in Matthew. In the evening, you read in Job and in Romans. And so throughout every day, you are in all of the parts of scripture, the historical narrative, the poetic and prophetical books, the New Testament gospel and Acts narratives, and then the epistles. So you're in a sense getting a upward view or aerial view of the whole book as you're reading through in these four cycles. And it kind of goes like that. It goes like cycles. And you'll end up reading through the New Testament at least twice by the time you go through the Old Testament. And then you start again. And if you've gotten kind of off kilter, you just finish up in those sections by the time you're getting done, and then you start again at those four points. Genesis, Job, Matthew, and Romans. And then you move through those cycles. I strongly recommend that approach versus a starting in Genesis and going to work your way all the way through just chapter by chapter and so on. And if you want to ask me more about that afterwards, I'd be glad to talk to you about that. I strongly recommend it. I think it's a better way of being in all of Scripture all of the time, instead of just spending nine months in the Old Testament, and then you finally get to the New Testament, and you're like, oh, you know, now I'm in the New Testament. Now things are clearer, which is true. Clear in the New Testament, but you could be in it all, all year round. I gotta find where I left off. Got off track there. So the point of this interpretation of scripture, letting scripture interpret scripture, prevents, hopefully, us from using it as the old metaphor, like a wax nose, where you can shape it into what you want it to be. And that's what Rome has done, that's what other cultic groups have done. But we have to keep in mind what's called the grammatical historical approach, where you have to look at the grammar. So parables are to be studied as parables. Allegories as allegories, metaphors as metaphors, history as history, systematic theology as systematic theology, and so forth. So although we would say the Bible is literally true, that does not mean that all parts of the Bible are true literally. And before you start throwing stones at me, what I mean by that is that when Christ said that I am the vine, that doesn't mean that he had leaves and grapes growing on him, right? That would be literally true. But what he said is true. So that's very important to keep in mind because people allegorize or metamorphize the scripture and come up with all sorts of, well, this is why we have such a, prevalence of false religions and doctrines and so on that are floating around the internet now, because people are just making it what they want it to be. So there's a harmony of the scripture since God, again, is the primary author. It cannot contradict itself. And if we don't understand a particular passage, the fault lies not with the scripture, but with us. So we must have the humility to admit that and to seek God for wisdom. And again, to read other men who may have a better understanding of something and talk about that to other Christian believers. Hey, you know, I'm struggling with this passage. What's your understanding of this? And not getting into, like I've been in Bible studies where it's like, okay, you read a passage of scripture and then everybody goes around the room and says, well, what do you think that means? What do you think that means? What do you think that means? And you're coming up with anything and everything under the sun. That's not what I'm talking about, but just garnering help from other believers in terms of, do you have a better grip on this truth that I have at this particular time? And the last consideration is the finality of scripture. What should be the final authority in all religious controversy? That's what this chapter is, or this article is looking at. It is not in man alone, whether in councils, in ancient writers, doctrines of men, or private individuals, including the Pope. It is the scripture. One cannot separate Scripture from the Spirit because the Spirit speaks infallibly, inerrantly, and eternally in the Scriptures. When the Scripture speaks, it is the Holy Spirit speaking. He is the author of the Word, and it is in his ministry to illuminate the Scripture and to seal its truth upon our hearts. So we must always be asking, whenever you pick up a Bible to read it, always ask the Lord to lead and guide you and open your eyes when you're doing that. John Murray wrote that there are two pillars of faith in life, the whole organism of scripture revelation, and the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. So this doctrine of the finality of Scripture then exhorts us all to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and to have our minds renewed and transformed by the Word of God, as Paul wrote in Romans 12. Every area of life is covered by scripture in a genuine Reformed theology. The Bible is the sole criterion of truth. It is our only textbook. Everything is to be judged by it as the supreme and final standard. So as we have examined the first sola of the Reformation, sola scriptura, by examining these eight characteristics of the scripture, necessity, its identity, authority, sufficiency, clarity, transmission and preservation, its interpretation, and lastly its finality, hopefully you have grasped with a greater understanding that this is the formal cause of the Reformation and as heirs of the Reformation to see the importance of guarding what has been entrusted to us. It is this sola again which will give the other four that we'll see in the next couple of weeks their basis. Now when Martin Luther had been summoned by Rome to the Diet of Worms, he knew that he was basically on trial for his life. He knew that he was being accused of the same heresy for which the papacy had burned John Hus at the stake. But Luther knew the truth and was willing to die for it. And when commanded to recant by papal rule, he declared the following, plain reason, for 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 will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious God, we do give thanks to you for such testimony as we've heard just now from Martin Luther and his stand for Sola Scriptura, and all the other Reformers as well, and many of them who died because of this truth. And we thank you for this great recovery of your word out of great and gross darkness. in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. And we thank you that we are heirs of that Reformation and pray that you would open our eyes in a deeper way to these truths and help us to stand fast by them, to defend them, and to be bold and willing even to lay down our lives for this truth, Lord. Help us in this time of gross darkness in which we live. to be those lights shining in a dark place by the proclaiming of your word, which again we thank you for. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name, amen.