Introduction
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
What a beautiful morning God has given us today! In spite of turmoil in the world, lockdowns, etc, there is so much to praise our Father in Heaven for.
In these times it is even more so important to feed upon God’s Word, the ultimate authority for our life and godliness. You may have heard of the Marie Kondo craze that swept the world at one stage; when you come to scripture and God’s Word let us not use that method of ‘discarding items that do not spark joy’ but rather feast on each and every word of God, which is in fact every reason for Great and Overwhelming joy. In place of today’s morning fellowship at DBC, attached is a sermon on The Authority of Scripture, and also the Bulletin (thanks Judith!). I hope you are blessed by both, and we will keep you updated as we discover how soon we can return to regular services and other events at DBC.
Until then, let us strive to encourage one another from the Word, pray for a swift end to the Covid outbreak, and give thanks for God’s many ongoing mercies to us in our part of the world and in Christ Jesus.
Yours Heartily in the Saviour,
Pastor Mark
Bulletin
Topical Sermon: On the Authority of Scripture
Key texts: Acts 17, 2nd Peter 3:15-18, 2nd Timothy 3:12-4:5, Psalm 1.
The Diet of Worms
This last week has marked exactly the 500th anniversary of the rather unfortunately named Diet (German word for Assembly or Parliament) of Worms (held in the city of Worms, pronounced Vorms, Germany). It was the occasion during the very intense moment of the Reformation when Luther stood before the ecclesiastical authorities of Rome to defend his position on Justification by Faith Alone, undergirded by the doctrine of the Authority of Scripture Alone. It was a signal moment in the history of the Reformation, the beginning of the Reformed and Lutheran Protestant churches; it is a key part of our heritage as Evangelical, Bible Believing Christians.
It was at that moment that the Roman authorities pressured Martin Luther that he would need to conform to all the doctrines of Rome, based on the authority of the Pope, of the Vatican, of the Church Councils, of Canon Law, of the Traditions of the church, of standard church consensus and practice. In reply, Luther uttered the famous Protestant statement, that he will not yield unless convinced direct from Scripture alone, or from reasonable implication thereof. To do otherwise is neither right nor safe.
Now I doubt that there would be many here that would disagree with Luther’s stance. We are at DBC somewhat reformed, we are certainly evangelical, we aim to be Biblical. We are Christian, and Christians, as everyone knows, are characteristically people of The Word. We pay little heed to the pronunciations of the Pope or of the Vatican, or of Church Councils or Canon Lawyers, for we hold that while those authorities are fully capable of error, the Scriptures as originally given outrank them all for thoroughgoing and perfect inerrancy and authority. God has not called upon us to submit to the authority of these other authorities, but He has called upon us to give heed to His written Word, and warns of the consequences if we do not.
Psalm 119:12-16:
“Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in riches. I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your Word.”
Proverbs 10:17
“Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who
rejects reproof, leads others astray.”
And yet I find it immensely comforting and strengthening throughout the Christian life to be periodically reminded of the wonder that God has supplied this very thing for our enrichment, his Holy Word that we may dwell in it, and to focus even on those doctrines by which we may be grounded back and back and back, into seeking more of Him through the Scriptures. This is especially important, as in Luther’s time, in our era of controversy, of social turmoil, where more light is needed from God, and where we can profit from the certainty of His Word and its revelation.
Let me cover, on this appropriate anniversary, just one aspect of Scripture that I hope should drive us to love Scripture, to cherish it, to study it and explore it, to take the Scripture to heart and to submit ourselves more thoroughly under it at all times, taking it ahead of every other authority in life. I will leave the Clarity of Scripture and the Sufficiency of Scripture to another week. But let me stick to this one aspect:
The Glorious Doctrine of the Authority of Scripture
I will explore this doctrine under 3 heads.
1. Other proofs are fine, but Biblical Theology affirms it.
2. What is at stake.
3. The Final Word: Plenary Inspiration, Blessed Application.
1. Other proofs are fine, but Biblical Theology affirms the Authority of Scripture.
Now if I were to make an argument for the Authority of the Scriptures, I could draw on many threads. There is certainly a compelling place for the argument that the Scriptures are extremely good historical documents of what actually happened, which may be deduced from both historiography and from forensic literary criticism, but that is for another day. There is a place for the philosophical argument that I first heard at Murdoch University that if a world view is internally coherent (it does not contradict itself in all its parts) and externally consistent (it describes, analyses and predicts the world we see very profoundly and accurately) then it has a high probability of being true and valid. That was a favourite of the Puritan divines during the English Reformation, and of CS Lewis post war, and of Vishal Mangalwadi in recent times. From a lifetime of experience of weighing the Scriptures against other worldviews in university contexts, I find that a very compelling argument. I have found again and again that the Scriptures and Christianity per se, outperform every other worldview for plausibility by an overwhelming span. There is a place for even the argument that there is no literature that approximates Scripture for profundity, glory or beauty, speaking to its authorship beyond human capability, as the Westminster Confession highlights. I could cite the long history of the recognition of the canon, according to all the rigorous tests which the ancient church used to assess what documents appear overwhelmingly to qualify as Scripture. We could look in detail at the process as they sought not to decide what they themselves would consider Scripture, but rather to recognise by a very rigorous process, what they believed God had already determined to be Scripture. I could affirm to you the certainty of those results, and of the certainty by which the very useful science of reasonable textual criticism affirms that the Scriptures we have now, are fundamentally unaltered to those we had in the first century.
All these things are compelling and useful in their place.
And yet for Christians who would grant Scripture any authority, it is the arguments of Scripture itself that must force us to grant Scripture ultimate authority, as the Word of God.
We see this immediately as we examine the testimony of Scripture itself, across the broad span of Biblical history.
We see this from the commission of the Pentateuch (or very nearly all the Pentateuch); Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, (almost to the end) from Moses to the Israelites early on as the very instruction (Torah) and self-revelation of the one true God to them, in fact as provided by the God who in all his ways and testimony is faithful and true.
Deuteronomy 31:9-12
“So Moses wrote this law (Torah) and gave it to the priests…Then Moses commanded them saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD….you shall read this Law (Torah) in front of all Israel in their hearing…..so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law…”
We have the testimony of the Prophets throughout the old testament who hold Israel and the world to account, and are commended as faithful prophets, only for faithfully passing on the very words of God, often according to the phrase “Thus Sayeth the LORD”.
We have the Psalms extoll the virtues of the Scriptures, the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes commending the wisdom of the Scriptures, and the Prophets quoting from both the Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the rest of the Scriptures as God’s inspired and authoritative Word.
We have the reformations of Josiah and Asa extolled and commended, grounded as they were in the serious rediscovery and direct application of the Scriptures.
Into the New Testament, we see Jesus himself affirm the entire Old Testament through His extensive quotation of it, always as authoritative. It is for this reason that He often precedes his arguments with “As it is written” or “Have you not read?”, in reference to Scriptural teaching as deciding the issue. We have Him affirm the timelessly authoritative teaching of the Old Testament in every detail, by citing that not the least jot or tittle of the Law shall by any means pass away until they are fulfilled and the end of the age has come (Matthew 5:17-19). Indeed, the Word of the LORD stands forever! For, as He teaches, the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35): no argument can stand against it, no action defeat it. The Pharisees are condemned again and again, for they substitute the traditions of men for the commandments of God in the Torah.
2. What is at Stake: a certain gospel, growth in Christ, guards against errors, training in righteousness
As we enter the period of the New Testament, it is evident from both Christ’s own teaching that the Scriptures are a great blessing in revealing God Himself, but also in understanding the gospel for salvation, and then growing in it for godliness. This is often expressed against a background of the way in which the authoritative Scriptures trump the beliefs of our own cultures, and preserve us from perhaps spiritually lethal errors.
Where much is at stake, it is important to know what is the key authority to listen to, and to use that as the standard by which to assess other truth claims.
Salvation in Christ at stake
It is no wonder that Paul’s teaching is consistently grounded in the Scriptures (Acts 17:2-3) while the Bereans are commended for testing everything according to the gold standard of truth, the Scriptures. Their very reception of the gospel, and so of eternal life, is at stake, and so they are wise to test a new word of God against the gold standard of that already received. So too, we later see of Timothy.
Growing in Christ at stake, against errors
It is equally unsurprising then that Peter (2 Peter 3:15-18) commends the reading and application of Paul’s writings as authoritative Scripture, to be searched carefully (never twisted or distorted) to the end of growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, rather than error leading to a fall from steadfastness:
“…and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Growing in Righteousness at stake
The Scriptures then, are God’s means both for our conversion and for our certainty, and for our establishment and sanctification, even glorification. For these reasons it is no surprise that Paul commends that Timothy should devote himself to the preaching and teaching and entrusting of the Scriptures, for the permanent salvation, edification, and sanctification of the church. Also you will notice, this is increasingly, not less, necessary in a world where the trend is for greater deception in the world; the Scriptures are also our preservative.
2 Timothy 3:12-4:5:
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
That is what we are up against, a world of determined error, myth-making, hatred of God’s truth. It is a world that coheres with Scripture’s “Not Even One” statements about the overwhelming evil bent of the human heart, that neither seeks God nor wishes to know him, without the illumination of the Scriptures to our minds and hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit (a study in itself).
And that is why I am so glad for the great and certain authority of the Scriptures, that stand against all the calumnies and errors and myths and false teachings and contradictions of the world, to instead affirm God’s truth and His gospel of salvation in Christ.
3. The final word: Plenary Inspiration, Blessed Application
Now you may have noticed the key phrase in 2 Timothy that guarantees the authority of the Scriptures, and it is the mention that All Scripture is inspired by God. It is inspired or breathed out from the God of all Truth, who is always faithful, ever reliable, utterly holy, and who never lies. We have a reminder in that very language of the God who is quite capable of making Himself known, and intends to do so clearly, as His breathed-out Word creates the universe in Genesis 1-3, and who declares that His Word will not return to Him void. It will accomplish His desire and will not fail to succeed (Isaiah 55:11). God’s Word is true and effective, for God is True and entirely competent to reveal Himself by His Word.
Indeed, it is a truth once understood that becomes self-evident, that an ultimate authority can only be the ultimate authority if it is prepared to be circular in ascribing its ultimate authority to itself. This is exactly what Scripture does here. It is the testimony of Scripture that it is ultimately true because God is ultimately truthful, and we know this for He has ultimately revealed so truthful in his ultimately true Word.
You will also notice that God’s testimony to the veracity of His Word is not only ultimate in quality, but unlimited in scope. ALL of Scripture is God breathed. The statement is plenary, all encompassing. If God is to be taken at His word here, then the Scriptures are not of variable truthfulness, or of patchy authority. We can rely on them. And that reliability means that we can be saved, we can be blessed, we can flourish by trusting in them, dwelling on them, making all recourse to them, delighting in them, knowing God through them.
I will leave that final word to Scripture: Psalm 1, a great Psalm to memorise, and for your meditation this week.
As it is written:
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His Law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
May we stand by the authority of God’s certain and inspired Word, believe it, submit to it, delight in it. To do otherwise is neither right nor safe. To do so is to prosper in our relationship with Him.
To God be the Glory,
Amen.