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Good morning, church. As you have just heard that we will be starting a series on Reformation as October is Reformation month. So this would be the first day. So our topic today is Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura is our sermon title. So it means scripture alone.
One of my first encounters with a senior in the Bible college goes like this. As I was walking to my dorm, I met a guy and I just introduced myself to him. And as we were chatting, I asked him what brought him to this Bible college, to that Bible college.
His response really stunned me. And I was seriously thinking whether to stay in that college or not. So he said that he came to the college to find out who the real God is. It's to a Bible college. He said he came to that college to find out who the real God is. He said he asked questions: is it Krishna? Is it Allah? Is it Jesus? He's not sure, it seems. He does not know, it seems. So he said that he's still searching to find out this truth about God. By the way, his dad, who was a pastor of a church, send him to this
college so that after him he can take over the church. Just imagine that situation. In the middle of a conversation he said that he believes that God speaks to all people through different means that includes the Quran, of the Bible. So I was arguing about that, and then at one point I just asked him this question, saying, “Do you believe that all other religious books are inspired by God as the Bible is?” To that question he just ran away, saying, “We'll continue our discussion some other time.” So sad, isn't it? That night I was wondering why I was there in that college.
But then it just dawned on me that, you know, it's my mission field as well. So I pursued that guy week after week. And over a year, he was convinced of the scriptures and that he grew strong in faith. Now he's pastoring a church somewhere in Tamil Nadu. So that was just one of many cases. What do people think about the Bible? What do people think about the Bible? It all starts here. So in October of 1517, Martin Luther — we all know that name, right? Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door. Church is called Castle
Church in Wittenberg, Germany. That marks or marked the beginning of the Reformation period, and it has been 508 years since then. We are still celebrating the freedom that the reformers fought for, but the battle is not over. We still need to fight even today, isn't it? Yeah. So today let us look at one of the five solas of Reformation, the Sola Scriptura, and I have drawn on much of my thoughts from the book called Scripture Alone by James R. White.
Let us turn to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. We'll look at some verses here. Matthew chapter 15 verses 1 through 6. Matthew 15, verses 1–6. “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.’ He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, “Honor your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.” But you say, “If anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God.”'”
“He need not honor his father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” So here in this passage we see Jesus confronting the Pharisees and the scribes about the laws and traditions. So the Pharisees were so concerned about their own traditions, their man-made traditions that they have formed.
And for their sake, what did they do? They set aside God's word. So Jesus confronts them here. Look at verse 3 and verse 6. Verse 3 and verse 6. For the sake of their tradition, what are they doing? Breaking the command of God, nullifying the Word of God, making the Word of God of none effect in their lives. Which one is more important, the Word of God or the tradition, man-made tradition? Which one is important? So it was, so it was Jesus in one sense who started the Reformation nearly 2,000 years ago against the Pharisees and scribes who were the Popes of his day.
As it is said, history repeats itself, we see the same pattern continuing throughout the history. There is always something that's trying to override the scriptures, that's trying to get above the scriptures and make scripture submit to them. So one article puts it this way about Sola Scriptura. It says Sola Scriptura, it declares that only scriptures, only scripture is our inerrant, sufficient and final authority. So only scripture is a inerrant, sufficient and final authority for the church. It is God-breathed and divinely inspired, and we get that from 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, and in some time we will just go to the passage. But then if you look at the context here in the 16th century, this directly contradicted the
teachings of the Catholic Church which elevated tradition and the Pope and the Magisterium's authority to the level of scriptures. They made the Pope's word equal to God's word. That's what happened in the time of Reformation. One word defines sola scriptura as “the freedom of scripture to rule as God's word in the church, disentangled from papal and ecclesiastical magisterium and tradition.” So in those days it was said, or it was believed, that it's a Pope or the Roman Catholic Church that has the ultimate authority as equals to Scripture. But then the Reformation is trying to separate that and say, “No, it's not the Pope, it's not the Roman Catholic Church, it's only God's Word that has the highest authority and nothing else besides it.” Just to give a short history, after the resurrection of Jesus, Christians in Rome were persecuted for
almost the next 300 years. They persecuted under Roman government, the emperors of Rome. Then in the fourth century, with Constantine becoming a Christian, probably is a nominal Christian, so him becoming a Christian, Christianity became Rome's official religion. So Constantine almost like kind of forced everyone to become Christian. It's a mandatory for people to become Christians or be Christians in that kind of a setting. So Christianity became Rome's official Christian official religion with Constantine becoming a Christian. But after the fall of Roman Empire in the 5th century, bishops or Popes in the church picked up the rule and balanced both the church and the government
or the state. As I said, so no more the Emperors who are ruling the provinces, but it's the bishops or the church leaders. They took it into their hands and they started to rule both the state and the church. Slowly the bishops' authority or the Pope's authority grew over Western Europe.
And in 1054 AD, that is in the 11th century, the Great Schism, in a sense, disputes over authority, theology, culture, and politics that happened between the bishops of different churches. So the Great Schism divided Christianity into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western or Roman Catholic Church. So the church got divided, and it's almost like, you know, having two different branches. So one rejected the papal supremacy while the other embraced it. So one branch of church, kind of a denomination, said Pope is the ultimate authority, while the other saying, “No, no, Pope cannot have the ultimate authority.” So how far did the Roman Catholic Church go in this matter?
We can see that in a conversation between William Tyndale and a priest. If you're all familiar with William Tyndale, such a life that he lived. And he's the one who gave us the English translation of the Bible from both Greek and Hebrew. So, in a conversation, in a regular conversation around the dining table, when William Tyndale was trying to show the Catholic priest the importance of having a Bible in the local language, the vernacular, the Roman Catholic priest responded to that saying, “We were better to be without God's law than the Pope's.”
You see the weight of that sentence. He said, “We were better to be without God's law than the Pope's.” So for them Pope's Word carries the final authority, not God's Word. So they are ready to set it, set aside God's Word. They were ready to set aside God's Word for the Pope's Word, just as the Pharisees did the traditions over scripture. So here it's Pope over scripture. To that Tyndale picked up and said, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life and in many years, I will cause a boy that drive the plow to know more of scriptures than
and daughters.” So that's a challenge that he raised to that priest. He's saying like, you know, God spares my life and a few years of the see to it that even the boy who plows the field knows more scripture than you priests and popes. What a vision it is, right? And I praise God for that kind of a thinking in William him Tyndale. And Tyndale lived his life and even give up his life for that mission, because he saw that the scripture alone has the ultimate authority and not the Pope's. I was defending the scriptures or that and the bed is with his life. So
let us go back to the definition of sola scriptura. Sola scriptura, scripture alone or Bible alone, does not mean that only scripture is what we need and nothing else besides it. That's not what it means. So sola scriptura does not mean solo scriptura. It's not only scripture and nothing else, but it means that scripture alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church. It's an infallible rule of faith for the church. A rule of faith is that which governs and guides what we believe and why we believe.
So it is a standard of measurement. It's a standard of measurement. Scripture is a standard of measurement for us and it decides, it leads us, it guides us in pertaining to life and godliness that's parted into faith and the church. On one hand, some people think that scripture is not sufficient in and out, in and of itself, and that we need other things besides it, like we need culture, traditions or confessions as equally as we need the Bible. On the other hand, people think that we just need the Bible and nothing else besides the Bible, that we do not need the church or pastors or leaders or other Christians too. It's me and my Bible. Have
you ever come across a person who said that “I will not read no other books than the Bible”? Some especially KJV version. So there are two different extremes which are flawed actually. So we stand in the middle. We see the importance of church and its leaders and its traditions as well that are passed down for us, but we will never elevate them to the scriptures level. Everyone and everything in the church should come under the scripture. It is a scripture that has a final say in the matters of faith and life. So why do we give such, why do we give scripture such a prominent place and the highest authority? What does scriptures, sorry, where the scriptures get that authority from? So we look at that. So I'm sorry, I have included a lot of passages from London Baptist Confession. I might have
to read them through, so please bear with me with that. So London Baptist Confession 1689, it says about the scriptures like this: “The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends upon the testimony” — sorry, dependent, not depends — “not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.” That’s what London Baptist Confession says. She says that no man gave the word authority, no man gave the word authority, and no share that authority with scriptures, not
just men but women too. Since God is the source of it carries God’s authority with it. In other sense, when we open the Bible we see the fingerprints of God in it. It’s God’s Word, that’s why it carries is God’s authority with it. When we say scripture alone, it is upholding scripture as a unique inspired revelation of God. It is God-breathed, it’s God-breathed. No other book in this world is like that. Since it is God-breathed, it carries with it all the authority of God, the absolute authority, the absolute authority that God has. As a matter of fact, we
believe that scripture is all sufficient for matters regarding faith and life, or rule of faith for the church. So there’s nothing on this earth besides the word that carried that kind of authority with it. Neither church nor its leaders have that kind of an authority. However, that does not allow Christians to say that they do not need the church or elders in the church. It simply — it is simply that the church or elders do not match up to the authority of the scriptures.
In other sense, our conscience or our lives are not bound to any church or any elder or any pastor, but to the Word of God, not to men. So our God is an awesome God, isn’t he? He’s just amazing. Have you ever noticed that? You take any aspect of God and you’ll end up in awe of him, and that leads to worship, isn’t it? We just can’t but worship him as you think about him. I always wonder about the eternity of God. That intrigues me always. Even today it amazes me, no matter how many times I think about it. It’s God, he just
exists. Isn’t that amazing? Nothing else is like his existence. From everlasting to everlasting he’s always there, he’s always — there’s no time in universe that he is not present, he’s always there. What a being he must be to be so. Sometimes I just get on my knees and think about his everlasting existence, and in my amazement I just stay silent and in awe. That’s it, I can do nothing. It humbles me to the ground. And another aspect of this that amazes me is the necessity of his existence, the necessity of his existence. It is necessary that God exists. You know, that thought is baffling actually.
there is no other option but for God to exist. He must be there, he must be there does the argument. Every other thing that exists is because of him. Every other thing that exists is a creation of God, and the creation’s existence is not a necessary existence unlike God’s. They’re just created things. So for, but for God there’s no other option for him but to exist. He must be there. He created everything, and their existence is bound up with his existence. Creation’s existence is not a necessity like God’s. As we said, only God’s existence is so unique that should, that it
should make us praise him and worship him. Along these lines, another thought that amazes me is that the God is a speaking God, the God is a speaking God. There is no other God like him. Even the Bible says he is uniquely a speaking God. Also this is a necessity as well. He must speak, God must speak, and his nature demands him to speak. Since God is a speaking God, or in other sense a communicating God, he made us as beings who communicate as well, he made us in his image. That means that we have this aspect or a nature of communication as well. God has been
speaking since eternity. There has always been communication between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and that communication is extended towards us humans. God speaks to us, God reveals himself to us. How? In words he reveals himself to us. In, through creation, which is called the general revelation — you know, looking at the creation the Bible says that everybody in this world can know that there is a Creator God, but they cannot know him through creation in detail. So God reveals himself to us through his written word, which is called the special revelation. So
as Christians, what we believe is that all these 66 books in this Bible are God’s revelation to us. He himself has given us his word that we might know him and enjoy him. So of course in God has revealed himself in the person of Christ at a particular time in the history, but no more does he do that until Christ’s second coming. What we are left with now between this first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus is God’s own word, the Bible, in our hands. So if we read the Bible, there are phrases like in the Old Testament, “thus says the Lord”
right and in New Testament we see it is written and passages like Hebrews 1 chapter 1 verses 1 & 2 and 2nd Timothy 3 14 to 17 and 2nd Peter 1 20 and 21 all these passages talks about how God has spoken to us and people who received God's Word passed it on to others who believed So that's how we got God's word. God spoke, it was written, and we have it today.
So, and about this word, again, the London Baptist Confession says this, “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 do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation.
“Therefore, it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diversified manners to reveal Himself and to declare that His will unto His church, and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruptions of flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing, which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now completed.” Sorry, there was a long passage, but then we can see that the authors of this London Baptist Confession is saying
that this Holy Scripture is sufficient, certain and infallible. And they say that even general revelation, the creation, can talk about God, but no more in detail. The only God’s word, God’s revealed word, can give us more and more about God. And this is the rule that God has given for the church to live by. So commenting on this passage, James White says, “Test any pretended contender for the throne of the church’s allegiance and you will find it isn’t sufficient in its scope and matter, certain in its nature and content, or infallible in its consistency and authority.” So there are three elements that he is saying that you know, compare anything, take anything that’s in this world and of this world and it cannot match up to the scriptures in such a way.
Nothing in this world can be sufficient for us to lead us in godly ways. Nothing in this world is certain in its content. Just take, for example, our words, our human words. We say one thing today, we change words tomorrow. Right? You're not certain about some things.
But the Bible is not so. And it’s infallible. The Bible never misleads anybody, and consistency, consistently shows the right way, and it has all the authority from God, from God. So again, the LBC says, “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men.”
See, those people believe that even today we believe that scripture is all sufficient. That means that we do not need anything else, or in the sense that we do not need extra new revelation from God to add to this, right? And we do not need any extra traditions as equally as important as scripture is authoritatively. And he continues saying, “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, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and the government of church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered in the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.” And whatever practices we do as Christians, the traditions that we have in our
churches, the good traditions, not the human. The traditions that has been passed down for us from the Apostles to us. So all these traditions, all these practices should only come under the Word of God, under the scripture. Nothing should be elevated to the level of Scripture or above the scripture. So where in the Bible do we see about scripture and its nature? Where in the Bible do we see about scripture and its nature? You know this famous phrase, scripture interprets scripture, right? Scripture interprets scripture. So we’ll turn to a few passages and look. Let’s turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16
and 17. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. So Paul is writing to Timothy and he’s saying, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” So what’s happening here? So Paul is writing to his beloved disciple Timothy. Paul is in prison at this time, waiting for his trial. He’s probably anticipating a death sentence. He knows that his days are numbered, that is going to soon face death. So he wants to give some final instructions to his disciple
Timothy. So he writes to Timothy to both encourage him and to give him a heads up it’s what’s next. So before mentioning the scripture, Paul warns him about the coming difficulties and sets the stage for action. Look at chapter 3, verse 1: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” And from verse 2 onwards till verse 9, you see the list of negative things that Paul mentions that people will go through. And all the negative or evil or sinful things that are mentioned here is not talking about the people who are committing this, these things in the world, but
the people who do those things in the church. So it’s just false Christians will arise from within the church. There will be a form of godliness among the people, but they are devoid of the Spirit. Timothy is to avoid such menaces. That’s what Paul warns Timothy. But then what should Timothy do for guidance? Paul does not point him to any church or Pope or a new revelation or gift of the Spirit, but he directs him to the scripture. It is this context Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” So one
other says what he does instead is perfectly in line with the teaching of Moses, the prophets, the psalmist, and most important the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, he directs Timothy to the God-breathed scriptures as a never-changing, always sufficient source of truth. So after Paul’s departure, what should Timothy do? Follow the scriptures.
Paul is pointing Timothy to something that he grew up with. Scripture is not new to Timothy. He heard it from his grandmother, he heard it from his mother, from childhood you do has been reading the scripture, still Paul reminds him, because it is all that Timothy needs for guidance in life and ministry. Even so far as today, even so for us today, God-breathed scripture is what we need for life and church. Acts chapter 20 verses 29 to 32. Acts chapter 20 verses 29 to 32. Again, Paul, you know, in the context, Paul as he was traveling, he calls Ephesian leaders to come and meet him at certain place, and there he tries to encourage them and also warn them. So it
is in this context, see what Paul is doing. Acts chapter 20 verses 29 to 32: “I know, I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” And now watch what Paul is saying here. “And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Once again, what we see here is just like Paul pointed Timothy to the scriptures, Paul is pointing the leaders of Ephesian church back to the scriptures. One more passage we’ll look at, 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16 through 21. 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16 through 21 is my favorite passage, as well, one of my favorite passages. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16. So this is Peter writing to Christians and saying, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For
when he glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on that holy mountain. And we have — and we have what? — and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all — what is that? — no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own
interpretation. But no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as ever carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Now I like this passage here. Peter, we all know Peter, right? What kind of man is he? He was with Jesus on that day of transfiguration. On that mount Jesus took three disciples with them, one was Peter. He saw Jesus transfigured right before his eyes, the glory of Jesus, he just witnessed it, he saw it. He also heard the Father speak from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son.” He heard the voice of the Father. And what is Peter doing? He’s
not coming and saying, “You see, look at me, listen to me, I have seen it, I’ve heard it, consider me.” Is it what he’s saying? No. Instead of pointing to his own experiences, Peter is pointing to somewhere else. Where is he pointing to? He said, “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention.” So Peter saying, you pay attention to the word, God’s Word, to the scripture, and if you do that you will do well, and it is a scripture that’s confirmed, that’s the one that you — Peter is not trying to point to himself.
He's not showing that he has any kind of an authority because he had these experiences with Jesus. But instead he's pointing to the Scripture which God gave. Peter calls his listeners to trust God's Word and pay attention to it. So we see in the scriptures the gospel as well.
So if we turn to 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4. It says, “For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.” Isn’t that interesting? Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus came into this world. Why did he come into this world? Because it was written in the scriptures that he should come. God beforehand revealed to his people that he will send the Messiah, would pay the price for their sins, and in according to the scriptures, according to God’s plan, according to God’s Word, Jesus came into this world
lived a perfect life in this world and he took all our sin upon him and died on that in our stead, bearing our sin and shame there, and experienced the wrath of God that belongs to us. He experienced our punishment on that cross.
He died shedding his blood for us. And after the third day, he rose again victoriously, defeating sin and Satan that binded us for a long time. And then God calls everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and put their trust in Jesus so that they can have forgiveness of sins in him and eternal life. Now, all those who truly put their faith in Christ will be saved, will be saved. And it’s so sure, it’s according to the scriptures. Man’s words, man’s words might fail, our promises might fail, but God’s Word and God’s promise will never fail. If he says something, he will do it. He said in the word that if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Christ, he will forgive you and he will give
you eternal life. And he means it. Now is there anyone here who still haven’t put their faith in Christ? Please take time to think about it. If you have any questions, please ask any brothers and sisters here. Or talk to the pastor of this church.
Please get to know who Christ is personally. And then Peter also warns about twisting the scriptures as well. So if you look at 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, says, “and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, and had as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant or unlearned and unstable twists to their own destruction, as they do to the other scriptures.” So Peter is writing here and saying that Paul is writing all this
letters, you know, there are some portions that really hard to understand. Even for Peter it was hard to understand. And then he says there are some people who are unlearned, ignorant people and unstable people who are not living by faith. So these people take those scriptures and twist them to use them for their own profit.
Do we see around us anybody like that? Have you ever come across either in YouTube or television or in the meetings across the cities, people who are twisting the scriptures, not interpreting them rightly? What happens when people do that? Think about it. The Roman Catholic Church feared this and thought that the common people cannot handle the scripture well and would misinterpret it and abuse it, as if they had handled it well.
When Martin Luther was faced with this challenge, he simply said, “If that is so, then let it be.” So it was fighting for, you know, what Martin Luther was fighting for is that the scripture should have freedom to rule over the church and nobody should bind that. So when people misinterpret scripture, when people do not give scripture to the people, to let it, let them interpret it, so they are trying to have this kind of an authority not only over the people but over the scripture as well. And that’s what papacy did. So on Martin Luther challenged that in the Reformation time. In Jesus’s time, the traditions of Pharisees challenged. In the medieval times, the papacy challenged scripture’s authority.
What about our times? What about our times? One author says, “even today, some of our own contemporary priorities, such as experience and culture, challenge the authority of the scriptures. Those two priorities are sometimes elevated to the level of Bible’s own authority so that we approach the Christian life and the church not according to what the Bible says but according to what the culture says or according to what our own spiritual experience says.” face, have you ever noticed that in our setting? You have a lot of traditions in our culture, right, in your Indian culture, and the people never question them. I say must be practiced, and even if it is against the Bible, they never question that. In other sense, when they practice that, through their
actions, they show God’s word that matters to them, but the culture, the tradition that undermines God’s word, right? Even our own experience, sometimes we give more importance to our experience, our feelings. I feel to do like this, maybe God is calling me to do this, even though if it is against the scriptures, we tend to side with our feelings and do what we want to do, what we like to do. So in those times, what are we doing? They’re nullifying the Word of God, pushing aside the Word of God and saying that, you know, I have the authority over the scripture. It’s not the
scripture is having authority on me, but it’s me having my authority on Scripture, and I will do what I like to do, what I feel like doing. And that’s a sad situation that we are all in. Scripture or the Bible should be the highest and final authority in our lives, in the lives of Christians.
So is that so, my dear brothers and sisters, in our lives? Practically, what else can take the place of scriptures in our lives? If today we have to sit and ask this question to ourselves, what can we think of that is overriding scripture in our lives, that is overriding the Word of God in our lives? I have a big list to name it here. Think about things that really undermine: secularism, relativism, skepticism, atheism, hedonism, materialism, individualism, pluralism, consumerism, narcissism, humanism, egalitarianism, feminism, modernism, postmodernism.
Well, it goes on and on, right? So that level, coming down to another level, there is church tradition, church polity, church leaders, false prophets — they can undermine the authority of God’s Word. And to a family level, parents, father and mother, husband and wives, children — it is their needs that are supreme over the scriptures sometimes. Self, nationality, caste, culture, education, jobs, money, comfort — they can all drive us away from the authority of the scripture. And there are other things as well: WhatsApp, Facebook
Instagram, Twitter. Just think about the place they occupy in your life. Are they driving you in your day-to-day actions? What dictates you, what dominates you, your life and your decisions, that is your authority. That is your authority and you submit to that authority.
Let us all be aware of these dangers. They’re all, they’re all good things, most of them, not every one of them, but most of them are good things that we can use for God’s glory. But if they take the place of God’s Word in a life and become authority, then they become evil things for us. So let us be careful, and let us always bring back the scripture to its place in our lives, the highest authority. A few more things and I’ll just close. There are some quotes that I just wanted to read through. And what others is the corollary of sola scriptura is
that all a person must believe to be a follower of Christ is found in Scripture, by the Holy Spirit, then it is binding upon the believer’s heart and conscience. We cannot pick and choose what we will and what we will not believe.
If it is the infallible rule of faith, it must be believed. The point is, if we know something is revealed in the scripture, we must believe it. We cannot reject what we know to be scriptural truth and at the same time claim to be a Christian.
And the non-negotiables, those things that define the faith, will be found only in the scripture. To reject them is to reject faith itself. To reject them is to reject our faith itself. So if you say we are Christians and if we live denying the scriptures, then it means that our confession as Christians is false and we are not Christians at all, and that’s a dangerous place to be. The Cambridge Declaration says this: “Today in the light of Reformation, today the light of Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The consequence is that the word evangelical has become so inclusive as to have lost its meaning. Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church’s life, but the evangelical church
today has separated scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided far too often by culture, therapeutic technique, marketing strategies and the beat of the entertainment world often have far more to say about what wants how it functions and what it offers than does the Word of God.” So today we can see a lot of churches in this world around us. They wanted to please the people and get more people into the church, so they put us at God’s Word and then applying techniques that can attract people and keep them in — the ungodly techniques, unbiblical techniques.
So the author says, “rather than adapting Christian faith to satisfy the felt needs of consumers, we must, we must proclaim the law as the only measure of true righteousness and the gospel as the only announcement of saving truth. Biblical truth is indispensable to the church’s understanding, nurture and discipline.”
So dear brothers and sisters, let us get back to the scriptures, to be under its authority, to follow its guidance, to obey its commands, to trust it promises, to trust its promises, and to propagate its teachings. It is not a one-man’s job, but it is a job of the whole church to do that. So church, let us lift up the scriptures so high in our lives that Christ will be displayed and people will be drawn to him through the scriptures. Let us pray.