As our brother Kenny alluded to during the first hour, as many of you, if not most of you, are aware, tomorrow, October 31st, will mark the 494th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Although there were many precursors to Martin Luther, he wasn't the first person to reject some of the doctrine and dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. Although there were many who came before him, such as the Waldensians of the 12th century, the 14th century English pastor and theologian John Wycliffe, Czechoslovakia's Jan Hus and others. Although there were some that came before, October 31st, 1517 is generally regarded and distinguished as the fuse connected to the bomb known as the Protestant Reformation. Now, in case you're not familiar with Luther's 95 Theses, the formal title for this document is actually translated as the 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. In these 95 points, Martin Luther listed his protests against what would be viewed by him and others as clerical abuse. especially in the area of the sale of indulgences, depending on how much money one was willing to spend. Indulgences were little pieces of paper, little patents that could be used as a means of either limiting or eradicating one's stay in purgatory. If you received a plenary indulgence, that means that you would not spend any time in this fictional place called purgatory. You would instead go right to heaven. Those who fought in the Crusades were given this plenary indulgence as a means of them being able to skip purgatory altogether. Now the chief purveyor of these indulgences was a man by the name of John Tetzel. who is said to have coined the phrase, which I assume is equally poetic in the German language, but he said, when another coin in the coffer rings, another soul from purgatory springs. He honestly believed, and so did the Catholic Church, they believed that if you gave enough money to the Catholic Church, you could affect the outcome of your own salvation. Luther's bold action was soon followed by reformers in other areas of Europe in 1518 a man by the name of Ulrich Zwingli saw Reformation come to Switzerland. In 1530, John Calvin would leave France and would also play an important part in that Swiss Reformation. In Scotland, it was John Knox who was instrumental in leading that country out of Roman Catholic bondage in 1559 and 1560. Now let me say this, because I think it's something that's not really understood among Baptists, and it's a great shame that it's not really understood as clearly as it should be among Baptists, but if you are a Baptist, And this is not a statement of superiority, this is not an observation intended to project us over and above other denominations. But if you are a Baptist here this morning, you are not a Protestant. How many of you knew that? Good, good. Quite a few of you knew that. You are not Protestant. Why? Well, because the Baptist Church can trace its lineage, and some landmarkers would say we can trace it all the way back to John the Baptist himself. I don't believe that. John the Baptist was not a Baptist. He was a baptizer who had nothing to do with the Baptist denomination per se. But we who are Baptists can trace our lineage back to apostolic doctrine. That doctrine that was clearly taught in the days of the apostles, that was carried forth kind of in an underground church in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd centuries when the Catholic Church began to rise to prominence, we always had this undercurrent of those who believed in apostolic doctrine. Those like the Waldensians, those like the Albigensies, those like the people in France who many of them died during the French Revolution for their insistence on not adhering to Roman Catholic doctrine and principles. Baptists, by and large, whether they be Anabaptists or Waldensians or Albigensians, whatever the case might be, those holding this apostolic doctrine comprise the most persecuted group by the Protestants that the earth has ever known. Baptists were persecuted horribly at the hands of the Protestants. So let me make that clear. We are not Protestant. We didn't have anything to protest against. We were never part of the Roman Catholic Church, therefore we could never have protested against being subject to their erroneous doctrine and their erroneous dogma. Now, strictly speaking, Protestants are those who can trace their lineage back to a time when their particular group broke away. In John Knox's case, what denomination stems from John Knox? Presbyterians. In Calvin's case, what denomination was he associated with? Presbyterians. There are all kinds. Luther. Where do you find Luther spoken about most often? In the Lutheran church, and so on and so forth. Those are the real Protestants. They protested, they left the Catholic church, and they formed their own denominations. Now again, having said that, we are yet very indebted to the spirit of the Reformers. If you look on my bookshelf, I'm sure Pastor Ken can say the same thing. Kenny, you can say the same thing. If you look on our bookshelves, you'll find mostly Protestant authors. Those who were part of the Presbyterian Church, for example, and even a Lutheran guy by the name of Linsky. Many of us use his commentary, one of the foremost Greek scholars the world has ever known. So we do owe a great debt of gratitude to many of these people who broke away from the Catholic Church and protested against its unbiblical doctrines and practices. How are we indebted to them most of all though? Well, Kenny touched on it this morning. We are indebted to them most of all for their introduction or their encapsulation or their explanation of five areas of doctrine. We call these the five solas of our faith. And as Kenny pointed out again this morning, he said these are the five onlys. of our faith. We have sola fide, which Kenny spoke about this morning, which means that salvation is by faith alone. We have sola gratia, which is salvation by grace alone. Sola scriptura, which is salvation by the word of God alone. Sola Christo, which is salvation through Christ alone, and soli deo gloria, which is to God alone be the glory. And we have these Protestant reformers to admire and to owe our gratitude to for formulating these particular truths in a very understandable way. The development of these five resolutions illustrates what the Reformers undoubtedly viewed as a need for continued vigilance. They wanted the church to hold these dear from that point until eternity. They held these things very dear because they saw this as a very real need in the church, this need for continued vigilance lest the doctrinal and theological malpractice of future generations be the cause for yet another Reformation. The only way we can avoid the need to reform is to conform to these truths, these principles that are illustrated here. Let me just say this about that as well. Some of you may think in your own minds, well, you know, we're more civilized than that. We are much more advanced in our understanding of history. And we are those who remember history as a means of not repeating it. If you look around what's going on in the church today at large, and I'm not just talking about the Roman Catholic Church, if you look at the things that are going on with regard to New Age spirituality, with regard to the emerging emergent church, the missional church, all these little buzzwords, if you look around at what's happening to the church at large today, I guarantee you there's coming a time when we will yet need to reform again. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. But the need for us to conform to these principles now has never been greater. We need to conform to these godly, biblical principles now in order to avoid, or at least somehow dampen the need for reformation in the future. Now in our time together this morning, as was advertised in the last hour, I want to take a look at what has become one of the more controversial of these five points, sola scriptura. Now to set this up, let me draw your attention to your hymnals. You can turn to page 670 in your hymnals. If you're looking at it in the order of sequence with the hymns, don't look at hymn number 670. Go to the back. And oddly enough, the back portion of the hymnal starts with page 670. I don't know why that happened or how that happened, but just look back there. You'll see it is right before all the indexes or indices. Anyway, back there you'll find the London Baptist Confession of 1689. Now there may be some small difference in the language here. I'm using actually a modern English translation, so don't get too confused when you read along with me. But if you'll look at Chapter 1, Paragraph 1 of our Confession, we read as follows, The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God so much that man is left without any excuse, they are not sufficient to provide that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary for salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal Himself and to declare His will to His church. And afterward, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church, protecting it against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, it pleased the Lord to commit His revealed truth wholly to writing. Therefore the Holy Scriptures are most necessary, those former ways by which God revealed His will unto His people having now ceased." Now look at paragraph 7. I believe it's on the opposing page. The next page, paragraph 7 of chapter 1, we read this. All things in Scripture are not equally plain in themselves, nor equally clear to everyone, yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and revealed in some place of Scripture or other that not only the educated but also the uneducated man may attain a sufficient understanding of them by the due use of ordinary means." Now I want you to reflect on that phrase there, the use of ordinary means. This particular point indicates what theologians have determined is necessary. It's a necessary tension between what is called the inherent perspicuity of Scripture, that is the clarity of Scripture that the Scripture itself is known for, and the need for those who have been specifically and specially equipped to exegete that Scripture and to explain it to you. That's the ordinary means that are often necessary. God has gifted certain men. We're told this in Ephesians 4. God has gifted certain men to be pastors and teachers who will then stand before the people of God and deliver the Word of God in such a way that it's understandable by all. These are what the writers of the Confession were referring to when they said this is the use of ordinary means. If you'll look at Ephesians 4, Beginning in verse 11, just to make this more vivid in your minds, I know you've read it a million times, but beginning in verse 11 of Ephesians 4, We're reminded that God gave to the church these pastors and teachers for what? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. This is why pastors exist. This is why teachers exist. We exist as those ordinary means by which we can all understand the Word of God. So simply put, we believe that the Word of God is clear in its overall context, And where it is not clear in one place, it is equally verifiable in other places. And we also believe that it's the only sufficient resource for all saving knowledge. For all saving knowledge. While this may seem like a no-brainer to those of you who have grown up in the tradition of understanding the Word of God as sufficient, as all-sufficient, you need to remember that there are people in this world who do not view the Word of God as such. referring to the Roman Catholic Church. This is close to Reformation Day, tomorrow is Reformation Day, so we need to understand what it is that we actually reformed from, that is speaking of the Protestants, and that which we have held for centuries as the truth of the Word of God. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 80 reads as follows, The church to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the Holy Scriptures alone." Now let me read that again. to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the Holy Scriptures alone." It goes on to say, "...both Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." Think about that for just a minute. Both Scripture and tradition. Enjoy equal authority. Paragraph 97 of that same catechism reads as follows, Sacred tradition and sacred scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God. They put them together. Scripture and tradition. In other words, in the Roman Catholic Church, God's Word is not all sufficient. But it must be translated through that lens of tradition to be of any value at all. Now in all fairness, it is important to note that in Scripture there are certain passages which commend the use of tradition. Tradition is not a bad thing. We all have traditions. We have them in our families. We have them in everything that we do in our lives. We have them here in the church even. Tradition is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these passages, 1 Corinthians 11, 2. The Apostle Paul says, now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. Paul was commending them for adhering to those important traditions that he had passed down to them. 2 Thessalonians 2.15. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us." Again, Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians to pay heed and remember those traditions which had been passed down to them. 2 Thessalonians 3.6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you receive from us." So there is somewhat of an indication that tradition is not always a negative thing. That tradition does have a very important place, or else the Apostle Paul never would have conveyed this to the churches that he loved so dearly. Elsewhere, however, we see tradition put in an entirely different light. Look at Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15, beginning in verse 3. Speaking of the Lord here, we read, And He answered and said to them, And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, Honor your father and mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, whoever shall say to his father or mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God. He is not to honor his father or his mother. And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition." Mark 7, verses 8 and 9. Mark 7, verses 8 and 9. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying to them, you nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. Colossians 2, verse 8. Colossians 2 verse 8, "...see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." So what are we to make of this? On the one hand, tradition is viewed as an important element for those to whom the Apostle Paul wrote. while on the other hand it's seen as a negative thing. How do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory ideas? Well, the real question here concerns the role that we allow tradition to play in our Christian experience. That's the real test. The role that we allow tradition to play in our Christian experience. Whether we allow tradition to be interpreted in the light of Scripture, or whether we interpret Scripture in the light of tradition. That's the question. That's the test. If we interpret our traditions in the light of Scripture, we will avoid error. If you take your traditions and you measure them up against the Word of God, and you find satisfaction there, you find reconciliation there, you find harmony there, you will avoid error. This is what's known as the regulative principle of worship. This is another Presbyterian thing, largely. They believe in the regulative form of worship. What does that mean? Well, it means that our worship is regulated by the Word of God. In other words, what we do, we do in accordance with the Word of God. There's a safety there. There's a sensibility there. There's sanity there. When we seek to apply what we do, and measure it up against the Word of God. Where the Word of God is silent, we remain silent as well. With the possible exception, of course, of those things which have no real doctrinal implications. There are things that we do that are not in Scripture. But guess what? Those things are virtually harmless. I mean, the way we sit, the way our service is structured, some of the ministries we do, some of the things that we do in and of ourselves as a local church, they can't really be found anywhere in scripture. The songs we sing, things like that. But really, there are real no doctrinal implications there. The error in the Roman Catholic Church, however, is that they do just the opposite. They insist that Scripture be interpreted in the light of their tradition. And what's the ripple effect of this? How does this approach work itself out practically in the Roman Catholic Church? Well, since only the leadership of the church is authorized to determine what constitutes holy tradition, That's another thing, the magisterium, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church alone determines what is considered a holy tradition. And if that's the case, then they are at liberty to interpret scripture in any way necessary in order to take the church wherever it is they want the church to go. Think about that. When you put the proverbial cart before the horse, when you understand that your tradition actually interprets Scripture, this is what you get. You get men who can make up traditions in order to take the church anywhere they want to go. That's why it's so dangerous. This is why the Roman Catholic Church has always frowned upon its membership seeking to read and interpret the Word of God for themselves. For centuries the church would not allow the scriptures to be translated into the vulgar or common language of the people. Why? Why? Because if the common citizen could read it for themselves, they would have seen that there's a huge difference between what they were taught and what Scripture itself actually said. That was the leading fear of the Roman Catholic Church. There's a movement afoot right now to actually take the Roman Catholic Church back to the original Latin Mass. Now that's kind of suspect. Why do you think that is? I think it's very odd that this movement coincides with the fact that more and more Catholics today are actually reading their Bibles. And they're actually leaving the Roman Catholic Church in droves. Because they're seeing in Scripture what they've never been taught from the pulpit. In the military right now, there is an extreme shortage of Roman Catholic priests. Why? Because the Roman Catholic Church is shrinking. And it's shrinking because people are learning to read and study the Word of God. And they're finding out that what they've been taught all their lives will not stand the test of Scripture. Very interesting. This is one of the reasons that feudalism was the societal arrangement of choice in those days. In case you're not really familiar with what feudalism was, it was a societal structure in which there was a clear line drawn between the aristocracy and the peasantry. The aristocracy being those people with land, those people with money, those people with influence, those people with literacy. These were people who could read. They were educated people. They formed this group of society known as the aristocracy. The peasantry on the other hand, that was the working class. That was the poor class. These were the illiterate people who would be subject to the aristocracy. And they found themselves oppressed at every turn. Now which side in this societal structure do you suppose the Roman Catholic Church sided with? The aristocracy. One of Martin Luther's greatest shortcomings, one of his gravest errors, if you know anything at all about church history, is that during the peasants' revolt, he sided with the aristocracy. He saw it as a means of preserving the peace. He knew that if the peasants got their way, total chaos would reign all across Europe. And there is some measure of honesty in that. We need to understand that all things happen for a reason. God providentially orchestrated it that way. But it was nonetheless a mistake on the part of Martin Luther to not side with the common people, the common people that he had actually translated his Bible for. He did not side with them. Instead he sided with the aristocracy. What did this mean in terms of what the church did? It meant that the church did the bidding of the power players in society. Literally making things up as they went along and interpreting the scriptures for the people. The church even went so far as to include in their dogma a rule that continues to be in effect today. To this very day, this is a rule. If one disagrees with how the church interprets and directs the application of Scripture, choosing instead to interpret and apply it for themselves, that person is to be considered a heretic. That person is anathema. If you reject what the Roman Catholic Church says about the Scriptures, or the way they apply the Scriptures, you are a heretic. You are cursed by God. Now it was this wholesale dependence on the church for the interpretation and application of the Word. This is why Roman Catholics are still to this day, by and large, ignorant of what the Bible actually says. I don't mean ignorant as a pejorative. I mean ignorant as in they don't know what the Bible says. Let's be clear on that. I saw Kenny's claws come out already. He was probably going to talk to me afterwards about that, weren't you? But think about the ripple effect of this ignorance. Think about the damaging effect of this ignorance. If the church says that Mary lived her entire life as a virgin, as pure as the driven snow, it must be so. Regardless of what Scripture says about Jesus having brothers, And Roman Catholic theologians will tell you, yes, it says in most Bibles that Jesus had brothers, but what you don't understand is that word for brothers in the Greek could mean cousins, Adelphoi. But can the word Adelphoi mean cousins? No. Not in any universe that I'm aware of, can the word Adelphoi mean cousins? What's the word Adelphoi mean? Brothers. So when the Bible says Jesus had brothers, He had brothers. But not if the Catholic Church says otherwise. If the Magisterium says that Jesus had cousins instead of brothers and that Mary was as pure as the driven snow all of her life and sinless, then it must be so. If the church says that Mary is to be considered the co-redemptrix with Christ, that is, she is equally important in securing the salvation of the lost as Christ himself, then that's the way it is. And there is a move afoot that's been going on for several years now to promote Mary to the position of co-redemptrix with Christ. In other words, your salvation and mine could not have happened unless Mary willed it to be. If the church back in the 16th century declared that souls could have their sins atoned for in this fictional place called Purgatory and stay there for any length of time, and it was possible to buy indulgences and get people out of Purgatory through the sale of indulgences, it must be the truth. This is why Reformation was necessary. They had become so twisted in their interpretation of Scripture. They had abandoned Scripture altogether and replaced it with their own traditions. This is why Reformation was necessary, according to Luther. the integrity, the consistency, the infallibility, and the inerrancy of God's Word were at stake, and it was high time that those who claimed to be Christians returned back to that fundamental truth. They had gone astray. They had gone astray. They had strayed away from apostolic doctrine. They had strayed away from what was once a widely held, universally held principle, sola scriptura, God's Word alone. They had strayed from that so far, and Luther was one of those brave souls who stood up and said, enough. We must go back. One of the highlights of our ten years in Germany. was to be able to go to the cathedral in Worms, which is where English-speaking people call it Worms. It's not Worms, it's Worms. Luther did not have a diet of worms. He attended the diet of Worms, which a diet was a meeting of the Roman Catholic Church with detractors from the Roman Catholic Church other people who would seek to have things clarified, and so on and so forth. He was called by the Pope to meet with the Magisterium in Worms, and what did he say? I've stood on the very spot, and let me tell you, I just got goosebumps. knowing that I was standing in the very spot where Martin Luther, when commanded to recant his position against the Catholic Church, said this. He said, Unless I am convinced by Scripture or by clear reasoning that I am in error, for popes and councils have often erred and contradicted themselves. He said, Unless I am convinced by Scripture, I cannot recant, for I am subject to the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the word of God. He said, it is unsafe and dangerous to do anything against one's conscience. Then he uttered those most famous words, here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. So help me God. Ask yourself the same question. when you're caught in compromising positions where you know the truth has to be told. What do you do? What do you do? I was telling John yesterday, John and Kara, about a gentleman who walked into my office not long ago. He said, encapsulate for me this thing called Christianity. Just give me the short version. I kind of looked at him like, are you sure? He said, yeah, just give it to me. I said, I'm a Christian. And according to the truths I hold dear, if you don't believe what I believe about sin and salvation, you will go to hell. That was difficult to do. He jumped back like I had shocked him with a cattle prod. He acted like I'd smacked him right across his face. Now luckily, he stuck around and I could tell him, look, I love you as a fellow human being. I care for you. One of the most loving things you can do for people is to tell them the truth. And then when they question you, you don't mollycoddle them. You don't water down the Gospel. You don't give them milk toast in return. What do you do? When they question you, you say, here I stand, so help me God. What's the old saying? If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. What was it that enabled Luther to stand so firmly on the fact that this scripture was worth his very life? Like every one of those who sought to return the church of the living God to her original, apostolic, God-honoring moorings, through diligent prayer and study, Luther, as was mentioned this morning, had that tower experience. He had become convinced by the Word of God. By the Word of God, that the Word of God alone was the all-sufficient source for everything pertaining to salvation and holiness. Everything! With what time remains this morning, I'm going to give you six. Scriptural reasons why we are to believe that God's Word is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all-saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Six points. Number one, we ask ourselves, why is the soul of Scripture so important? Why is it so important that the Word of God take preeminence in our lives as the only infallible, inerrant rule of all-saving faith and practice? Number one, Scripture is God-breathed. It's God-breathed. I know some of your translations in 2 Timothy 3.16 say all Scripture is inspired by God. And you know the whole idea of inspiration, especially in our day and age, gets us all warm and fuzzy. We think of our great musicians out there who say, I wrote this song because I was inspired by little fishies and flowers and things like this. We toss the word around inspiration like it's really just some little warm and fuzzy thing. When Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.16, he said, all Scripture is theonoustos. It's literally breathed out by God. The Scriptures are the product of the creative breath of God Himself, the same breath that said, let there be light, That same breath breathed the Scriptures into being through the human instrumentality of those writers. And as such, they're not only inerrant and infallible, but are of absolute, unarguable, and inviolable authority, and they are worthy of our love and trust. No other supposed revelation of God to man. I don't care whether it's the Book of Mormon, I don't care whether it's the Talmud, I don't care whether it's the Apocrypha, I don't care whether it's the Bhagavad Gita, I don't care whether it's the New World Translation of the Scriptures, which is horribly flawed. No other supposed revelation of God to man can make this claim. God breathed out His Word. And providentially, He has allowed it to be preserved for generation after generation after generation after generation. And guess what? Through all of that manhandling, through all of those interpretations, the most common of which we have in our possessions today, through all of that, all of that that possible twisting and maligning and things like that. You look at all the modern translations that are credible today, you'll not find one-tenth of one percent doctrinal variation in all of it. Folks, that's not man preserving the Word of God. That's God preserving His Word for man. It's God breathed. In the second place, In addition to being God-breathed, the Word of God alone is eternal. It's eternal. We read this in John 1, right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then we read other places where this Word of God, Jesus Christ, while He was here on this earth, Jesus Christ expounded on or exegeted God for us. And this is what we find in the 66 books of the Bible that we have in our possession. We have in our possession in the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, we have in our possession the entirety of God's revelation to man. It astounds me. It befuddles me like nothing else. When I consider that even this day there will be many people who will go home and they will take this book and they'll walk into their house and they'll throw it up on the shelf and they'll say, well, day is done. See you next week. It's the Word of God. Don't you treasure it? Don't you love it? Don't treat it like yesterday's newspaper. I'm not saying that you'll go home and line your birdcage with it, but my goodness, it's the Word of God to man. the eternal Word of God. Isaiah 48, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Psalm 119.89 Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119.144, your testimonies are righteous forever. Psalm 119.153, of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. Only the Word of God, as the breathed out communication of God to man, only that Word is eternal. The third reason we believe God's Word to be the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience is because when Jesus and the apostles are placed in positions in which they have to defend their actions or their teachings, they repeatedly turn to the authority of God's Word. Repeatedly, they turn to the authority of God's Word. In every circumstance, in every situation, regardless of how dire it is, regardless of how much people need convincing, regardless of how humanly impossible the situation might be, in every case we find the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles and all of the disciples turning to the Word of God. Look at Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12, verses 3-5, Jesus and His disciples, you'll recall, are accused of breaking the Sabbath by picking and eating grain. This was a fairly significant charge. Breaking the Sabbath was punishable by death. And they're accused here of breaking the Sabbath by picking off these heads of grain and eating. How did Jesus respond to His accusers? He said, have you not read? What does that indicate? He's talking about the Word of God. Have you not read what David did when he became hungry? He and his companions, how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? Matthew 19.4. We read this. Some Pharisees came to Jesus testing Him and asking, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And He answered and said, Have you not read? Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And on and on He goes, explaining this concept to them. In Matthew 22, beginning in verse 29, Jesus is once again confronted by the Sadducees and asked a question about how marriage works in heaven. You know the passage, you're familiar with it. They thought that they would be able to stump Jesus, but how did Jesus respond? He says, you're mistaken. On what basis were they mistaken? not understanding the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." When confronted with life's difficulties, When confronted with those dark providences, when confronted with all manner of things that you don't understand, you can't comprehend, you can't deal with, you can't focus because of, you can't contain yourself. Whenever comes your way, by way of providence, I would ask you the same thing. When you question God's goodness, have you not read? When you question God's justice, have you not read? When you question God's purpose, have you not read? That's the problem with most of us. The reason we find it so difficult to cope with the curveballs that are thrown our way by providence, the reason we find it so difficult to cope with these gut-wrenching circumstances in our lives is because we have not read. Because if we have read, having the resident Holy Spirit in us. If we have red, guess what happens? God applies that balm of Gilead, as it were, to our souls. He quietens our hearts. He gives us that courage of David. That courage of Job. Job was a righteous man. Job knew the Word of God like no other. And one of my favorite passages, and you all know this, I've quoted it ad nauseam many times, but if you don't know this, you're going to know it now. One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is where Job, at the height of his persecution, when his own wife said, curse God and die, Job said, though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Read and know. In the fourth place, the sufficiency of God's Word can be seen in that the church is actually commended to the Word of God as a means of ensuring our sanctification. You recall not long ago we were in Acts chapter 20 and we were reading about Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders. Notice what he said again in verse 32 of Acts chapter 20. As He departed them, He said, and now I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace. Why? That's an odd thing to say. I commend you to God and the Word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Person to pick on. You all know him. Joel Osteen. He's selling books by the droves. Books that tell you how you can have your best life now. Right? And in that garbage, are all these pseudo-religious psychological quotes about how God wants you to be happy in this life. Tell that to the martyrs who gave their lives for this very truth that we hold dear. The Word of God alone is able to build us up. You don't need Joel Osteen's books. You know, I wish I had a nickel for every time someone came to me for counseling, and at the end of the counseling session, they said, oh, Pastor Tim, by the way, do you have a book on... fill in the blank. Sadly, I've yielded to them and given them books on fill in the blank. I have plenty of them. But I think from now on, having studied what I've been studying, when someone asks me, do you have a book on... I'm going to say, yeah, I do, here. You might have one of these laying around yourself. Right? It's all sufficient. It's all we need. Sorry John MacArthur, but we don't need you. Sorry not to put them in the same camp. Sorry Joel, but we don't need you. Now certainly books are great. I own tons of them. Literally tons. It's one of the big things shipping my stuff around in the military. They'd come into my office and my study and they would be like, what? They'd put the truck on the scales and the scales would go, it's all my books. So I'm not downplaying the importance of books. They're wonderful. Kenny used the examples this morning of gleaning much information out of these books. But let it never be said that you go there before going here. This is your primary fountain. of all saving knowledge as it concerns your walk with the Lord. Make this the priority, not your secondary source like so many people these days do. Jesus in His high priestly prayer of John 17 said this in verse 17. And the wonderful thing is He's talking about you and me. Jesus in this portion of John 17 is praying for you and me. And what Jesus prayed for, Jesus got. And He said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Notice He didn't say, your word contains truth. That's really the mantra today. you know, among the new evangelicals. God's Word contains truth. Is it infallible? Is it inerrant? Well, the jury is still out on that. I don't really know. You know, they'll say, well, you know, it contains a lot of truth. It's a great thing. Jesus didn't say that. He said, your Word is truth. All we need is the Word of God. We don't need gimmicks. We don't need entertainment. We don't need celebrity preachers. We don't need to conform to the society in which we live and operate as a means of becoming more relevant. We need not cater to these so-called seekers by becoming more like them and tailoring our messages to meet their felt needs. I've said this before and I've offended some people, I'll say it again and maybe I'll offend some more people, but at least it will get you thinking. As your pastor, I don't care about your felt needs. Now how can I make a statement like that? Because the only felt needs I care about in your life are the real needs that you have. There are so many people out there with these so-called felt needs. They just have itches that need to be scratched. And these are sometimes realistic, sometimes not, but your felt needs are not what's at stake here. When you come to the Word of God, you come to it to meet your real needs. What are those real needs? Those real needs are that you're rescued from your sins by the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ, who is able to present you blameless before the Father on that day, and you'll spend eternity with Him. That's what you need. Oh, but we need so much more. No, you don't. You really don't. Now, there is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I'm not dismissing that. You do need to belong and you do need food and shelter and water and air and things like that. But those are just a given. But your real needs are what Scripture is able to meet so well. As our Lord God Himself testifies in Isaiah 55, 10 and 11. He says, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Amen. What does that do to your felt needs? It causes you to relinquish your felt needs to a sovereign and holy and loving God who knows every fiber of your being. And who has promised such wonderful things to you and me. Reason number five for our belief in the sufficiency of God's Word is closely related And that is that it alone contains all that we need in order to live lives which please, honor, and glorify God. You see how the train's gotten off the tracks? Today's common understanding of what Scripture is to be used for, it's to be used in order that we can gain the information necessary in order to live lives that please us. How much farther afield can you go than that? We need it because it contains all that we need in order to live lives which please, honor, and glorify God. A minute ago I quoted from the first part of 2 Timothy 3.16 where we see that all Scripture is breathed out by God. But if we read a little further, we find that on the basis of its origin, Paul tells us that it is profitable for what? for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Why? Now grasp this. It's profitable for those things so that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. Fully equipped for every good work. And what are those good works? Those good works are those things which please, honor, and glorify God. Well, finally, and I intentionally saved this for my last point, because I think this is far and away the most important of them all. The reason we believe that the Word of God is the only sufficient, certain, An infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience is that it alone is able to bring about salvation. Nothing else will do it. Nothing else will do it. Going back yet again to Paul's statement in 2 Timothy chapter 3, he tells Timothy in verse 15, from childhood you have known the Scriptures which are able to do what? Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. The Scriptures. The Scriptures alone are able to make one wise unto salvation. Let me see a show of hands. How many of you in here today got saved apart from hearing what is recorded in God's Word? None of you. If you did, we need to discuss your salvation. Because I can guarantee you it's in error. As Paul told the Romans in Romans 10 verse 17, Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now I realize there's some versions that actually translate this, and I think it's a little more appropriate. They translate this as saying the Word of Christ versus the Word of God, but no matter. In either case, whether Paul is talking about the Scriptures of whom God is the author, as being that agent for salvation. Or whether he's talking about the object of those scriptures, which is Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter. The saying holds true. What Paul wrote holds true. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word. Again, no one has been saved apart from the Holy Spirit's application of the message contained in God's Word. Where am I told? Where else am I told that I'm a sinner in need of a Savior? Where else am I told that I am at enmity with a thrice holy God in my innate condition? Only in the Scriptures. Only in the Scriptures. Where do I find the only possible remedy for my sinful condition? The way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ. Where do I find that? Only in the Scriptures. Where can I find that precious scarlet thread of redemption? that runs from Genesis all the way through Revelation. Where can I find this consistent portrayal of both my condition and the remedy for my condition? Your condition and the remedy for your condition. The condition of Adam and the remedy for his condition. The condition of those who will live in the latter days and the remedy for that condition. Where do I find that? Only in the Scriptures. Where can I find the explanation of how God has sovereignly orchestrated the events of history to bring about my good and His glory? Only in the Scriptures. Where do I find those glorious assurances that He who has begun a good work in me will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus? Not until I disappoint Him, not until I send myself out of my salvation, but until the day of Christ Jesus. Where do I find that? Only in the Scriptures. Where can I become convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord? Where can I find that? Only in the Scriptures. Where do I find the wonderful truth that I don't have to resort to means and methods? That I don't have to water down the truth or compromise what I believe simply to be more relevant to those outside the household of faith? Where do I find that I can rest confidently and comfortably in Christ's assurance, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it? Only in the Scriptures. Where do I learn that when this life is over, and I, as Shakespeare wrote, when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, where do I find that I'll enjoy an eternity with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Only in the Scriptures. If you're without Christ, my prayer for you is that God would reveal Himself to you this morning from His Word. And if that happens, I pray that you, along with the rest of us here this morning, would spend the remainder of your days in utter dependence on the Word of God as your only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Some of you here this morning looked at your watches and looked around and probably counted the boards in the ceiling, probably counted the divisions on the paneling back here, thinking, when oh when will He finally shut up? Not giving a care in the world about your soul, you're standing at enmity with the thrice holy God of the universe. And if you've been doing that and you've just checked out on me early on in this message, let me say to you this morning, there is nothing more important that will ever be said to you than what I've just said to you. If you continue to neglect this Word of God, which again is sufficient to save your souls, you will spend eternity in hell. And guess what? You'll have no one to blame but yourself. That's the wonderful thing about grace. Those of us who will arrive in heaven that day will have no one to give the credit to but the Lord Jesus Christ. Those of you who end up in hell will have no one to blame but yourselves. Let me close. I just want to read a few verses to you. Turn to Psalm 19. And I want this to be reverberating in your minds, not only the rest of today, but I want you to begin to cultivate in your own lives this idea of what sola scriptura really means. How precious the Word of God truly is. Psalm 19 beginning in verse 7. Reading to the end. And we'll close with this. The psalmist writes, the law of the Lord is perfect, perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward." Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer.