In this discussion of Chapter 1 of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, Jason Dohm explains that the first chapter of the Confession begins with a study of Scripture. This wasn't an accident. The ordering of the Confession is intentional -- you have to start a study of systematic theology with Scripture.

When you take a position on Scripture, it sends you in a direction. The framers of the Confession are putting us on a path for our benefit.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes you to a series on the Second London Baptist Confession. This session is on chapter 1 entitled, Of the Holy Scriptures given by Jason Doan. Let's begin in prayer. Our Father, you are our shield and our very great reward. What a blessing it is to gather together as brothers and sisters in Christ, members of a family who never were a family but have been brought together through the blood of Jesus Christ and consider these things.

What a joy, what a privilege it is, God. We pray that you make us faithful with the privilege that we've all been given together this week to acquire as much knowledge and wisdom as we can under the tutorial of the Holy Spirit. We desire that the Holy Spirit would be here, would be completely unbounded to help us understand things in a deeper way, in a better way, help us to be faithful in our callings to defend the great deposit, the mighty deposit you've given to us in the Holy Scriptures. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

So one of the things that we notice right off the bat with the confession is that it's not ordered randomly at all. The ordering of the confession is very logical. It's very necessary. It's very required in many ways, particularly here where we start with the first one you have to start systematic theology with a doctrine of scripture until you have the doctrine of scripture settled in your mind you have nowhere to go next so this is chapter one it's chapter one for a reason and for Christians it all begins here and that's why these men who framed the confession began with the doctrine of scripture. When you take a position on scripture, it sends you in a direction.

So all kinds of Christians, professing Christians, false Christians, have a doctrine of Scripture and it takes them in the direction that you're going. And so the framers of the confession were very intentional to set a direction for sound doctrine by having a doctrine of scripture that's so consistent with what we see the scriptures actually teaching about itself. There's a marvelous deposit just of what the scripture teaches about scripture and about how Jesus handles scripture, about how Paul handles scripture. And it's important that before we get too far in our systematic theology at all that we find out how these giants of the faith and how these foundation stones for our faith viewed and used scripture so that we find ourselves acting accordingly. When we look at scripture and we look at the amazing claims that scripture has for itself, the decision tree becomes really simple because you're deciding, hey, are these claims real?

Do I accept these claims or do I reject these claims? If you accept them, it puts your feet on a path that takes you in a direction to take very seriously all things that scripture says. And we're just talking about looking at what scripture says about itself. It makes stunning claims about what it is to be the very voice of God, to be perfect. And so the first decision on the decision tree is, what do I make of these claims?

Do I accept and receive these claims? And if so, you are on a path that's very well bounded and this is what the frames of the confession are doing for us they are they're putting us on a path that has a fence on both sides of the path and it's for our benefit and it's a beautiful structure And so this is what we're deciding. Do I believe the claims of Scripture about itself? And if so, then we become blessedly dependent. We become blessedly dependent on everything else that it says.

And we have set the ground for all future discussions and debates on every other chapter that comes. So there's 32 chapters. Chapter 1 sets the ground for chapter 2, 3, 4, 29, 30, 31, 32. And all future debates will be had on this ground. So does that mean that Christians will never have debates anymore?

Of course it doesn't mean that. But it means that the ground has been secured for the basis of the debate. One thing we know for sure is this. There will be ultimate authority. Everyone has one.

And you ought to intentionally decide what your ultimate authority is going to be and the framers of the confession are helping us with that. You're helping us to determine what will be our ultimate authority because if you decide I don't accept the claims then you end up with the book of Judges. You end up with every man doing what's right in his own eyes. And so we all should keep this in view. Everyone has an ultimate authority and the frames of the confession and the Bible itself would give us an ultimate authority that is so much more solid than us just doing what is right in our own eyes.

So on your handout you have the summary of the ten paragraphs. I just want to confess, it is madness to summarize the paragraphs. It's insanity, and so I've engaged insanity as I often do. But for this purpose, we have an hour. We have an hour to get through this and I've got ten paragraphs.

But I did want to make clear, the cliff notes really cheats us because the writers of the confession didn't waste a word. They didn't waste one word. Their economy of words, when you look at the confession, is stunning. So make this useful for our talk today and then throw this thing away. The confession and the full paragraphs as they stand are really what we use as our resource.

And this will be a tool to just help us manage our time for the hour. Okay, so paragraph one. Paragraph one boiled down to the bare essentials as this, that scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule. And it ties that to certain categories, but the categories are really broad, so I felt free to just leave it at that. It's the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule.

So it is setting aside scripture as something that has no other parallel, it doesn't have any rivals, It gets its own shelf on the bookshelf, and it's the top shelf. And all the other books have to go underneath it, because it's the only book that will ever possess that's sufficient, certain, and infallible. It goes on to say that it's necessary for salvation. And when you look at the full paragraph, it talks about the light of nature and all the things that you can learn from the light of nature. We can learn a lot from just looking at the world that God created.

But the light of nature is not sufficient for salvation. Direct revelation is required for that. Specific revelation is required for that. And that's what the word of God is. So that's what the confession affirms.

And then finally, in it, God reveals himself and declares his will in writing. 18. Who God is is also something that cannot be deduced from natural revelation, from looking around. That God is can be. That there is a God is obvious from going out and looking at the stars.

The heavens declare the glory of God. But who God is, what he's like, his eternal attributes cannot be known by going out in the woods and doing a study of the woods. And this is what the confession is teaching. And that God has been pleased to reveal himself in his word and that God has been pleased to reveal his will what he wants from man, what he requires from man and of course all that lines up with his perfect character He desires us to be in His image. So, He gives us His image and He gives us His will in His Word.

16. So, here's what we find in paragraph 1. 17. Christians are people of the book. They're the people of words.

God has not given us images to walk by. God has not given us oral traditions to walk by. He's given us words etched in stone. He has given us a law chiseled out of granite so that we might have something that is firm and that is lasting. Paragraph one, the confession talks about the things that war against the people of God.

It talks about essentially the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the argument that paragraph one is making is that nothing other than solid words is enough to combat this war from our side of it. And so God has given us a sword. God has given us something to conduct this war, all these things that war against the purposes of God. 26 And it is solid.

It is written. It is in black and white. 27 That could have been referred to a century ago. It could be referred to by us. 28 It will be referred to by our great grandchildren a hundred years from now if the Lord should choose to tarry.

And so it gives us a firm ground. Other critical things that we see in paragraph one. It is affirming inerrancy and sufficiency. That the word of God is perfect, that it's been given to us in a perfect form without error without flaw and that it is sufficient that it's enough that we don't need anything else but the things that are revealed to the word of god Those things are so connected but they are distinct concepts. Now let's talk about some of the attacks against paragraph one.

I'm going to give you two but they fall under a single heading and it's the heading of Genesis 3-1, Has God indeed said? The attacks against paragraph one started all the way in Genesis 3. It's been around since almost the left hand cover of the Bible, Genesis 3. Has God indeed said? And that in various subtle forms is still around today in 100 different forms.

Here's a couple of them. Liberal scholarship, where the debate is what in Matthew 11 is authentic and what has been added by church tradition. When you read broadly the commentators you'll encounter that. Scholars postulating on this part of verse 12 is authentic but this other part had to have been added later on because of this reason or that reason. There is a lot of that in Christian academia today.

So-called Christian academia, professed Christian academia. The problem with that is that the Word of God itself is at war with that concept. And so here's one of the places we would go to defend against that. Psalm 19, 7 through 9. The law of the Lord is perfect.

Maybe we could stop there. What God has given us, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes 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 judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. 26. The liberal theologians... By liberal, we're talking about people who are liberal theologically, not people who want to raise your taxes.

These are people who do not embrace the inerrancy of the scripture. They're painting a picture that has God nowhere in it. God's not in the picture that they're painting. And so They don't serve a God that cares about his word and that super intends the protection of his word for his people. And so they have a world where apart from the sovereign hand of God, scribes can insert things after the fact and distort the revealed will that God intended for us to have, but it went off the tracks because humans did something.

That's the essence. There God doesn't care about the preservation of His word, but the God of The Bible cares intensely about His Word and the preservation of His Word. Consider this. This is a mind blowing half verse from Psalm 138, the second half of verse 2. For you, O God, have magnified Your Word above all Your name.

Think about the things that scripture says about the name of God. 27 All that's wrapped up in Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-jehovah, Jehovah-jehovah, Jehovah-jehovah, all His character and worth wrapped up into His name. 28 And then Psalm 138, second half of verse 2 says that God has actually magnified His word above His name. This is a God that cares very intensely about His word and about him being able to give it in the right form to his people and preserve it through history. So the liberal theologians have a picture that has God nowhere in it.

Well the real picture, the picture of the Bible, is a picture where God is everywhere. God is able. God is active. God is always superintending things for His own glory. Here's the second attack, and it's a twist on that.

It's a close cousin. And it's the denials of the inerrancy claims of scripture. So the first one was a denial of the inerrancy of scripture, saying it's not really inerrant, things have been added, things have been changed. The second is a denial that even scripture claims that. So there's a subtle difference, but it's really important.

So who does this? Well, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is an example. If you're not familiar with them, they're the Jimmy Carter wing of the Southern Baptist Convention. They really kind of are ashamed of Southern Baptists now, so they're a subset of Southern Baptists because they don't like the Southern Baptists that actually embrace the scripture. Here's what they say on their website.

We want to be biblical, especially in our view of the Bible. So far so good. That means we dare not claim less for the Bible than the Bible claims for itself. The Bible neither claims nor reveals inerrancy as a Christian teaching. Bible claims must be based on the Bible, not on human interpretations of the Bible.

So we'll go right back to Psalm 19. What about perfect? What about true and righteous altogether? Are we not reading the same Bible here? The Bible absolutely, unequivocally claims to be perfection, to be true and righteous all together.

So that off the website of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is outrageous to deny that scripture actually claims for itself. One of the important things about the doctrine of scripture is that it's self-authenticating. Anything that is the word of God to be useful to us, for us to know that it's the Word of God must actually claim to be the Word of God. So an attack on the Bible is not claiming to be the Word of God is very, very insidious and you may encounter that. Here's a couple of other verses that are critical to the defense against claims like these.

2 Timothy 3, 15 and 17, I wonder how many times we're going to see this verse this week, many times. 22. That from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, this is Paul to Timothy, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. 13. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

14. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. 15. And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Here's another one, Hebrews 4-12.

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We could go on and on with the claims that scripture makes about itself, but they're all in the same vein, and this vein is this. The word of God is incomparable. The Bible, what God has revealed of himself and his will is not like any other book we'll ever own or be able to acquire. It is in a class by itself and it claims to be perfect, holy, righteous altogether.

It claims that all of it is given by the inspiration of God and that it can make a man complete thoroughly equipped for every good word. 13. If you're not familiar with the chicago statement on biblical inerrancy there's a rising tide of liberal theological assault on the inerrancy of scripture and in nineteen seventy eight in response to that time over two hundred theologians met in Chicago to hammer out a statement to defend against these attacks. And there are people like James Montgomery Boyce, people like J.I. Packer, people like R.C.

Sproul, people like Francis Shaffer, but there were 200 theologians that came together and crafted this. And it's a very concise, it's like the confession in the sense that the economy of words is amazing, they chose them very carefully, and it is specifically pointed at attacks against paragraph one. So of course every paragraph of every chapter of this confession could be a semester class in a seminary course depending on how deep you want to go. So just because we have paragraph one doesn't mean that there aren't also very, very useful needful things like the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy that unpack and help us to defend certain portions of this. So get your hands on the Chicago statement on biblical inerrancy.

Here's another attack against paragraph one. Very common. Neutral territory or its close cousin areas where the Bible is silent. I'm all for following the Bible but the Bible doesn't really speak to this. So we have complete freedom to do whatever we want in this category, because this is neutral territory.

The Bible doesn't even speak to this, so we can just do whatever we want. This is running rampant in the church today, and it leads to an environment in the church which we've all seen where the most creative and influential person in the church advances the agenda because we're on neutral ground and so now the best idea wins And we're soliciting charismatic people with great ideas to help us to fill up this neutral territory. And it goes hand in hand and perfectly with the radical pragmatism that we have in our day, Where the focus then shifts from faithfulness to God being the target to things that work. Things that work and the definitions of things that work then get very skewed. But things that work are now the target.

It used to be that We thought that we just needed to do our duty and be faithful to God and that he would bless as he decided to bless. He would give fruitfulness as it pleased him to give fruitfulness. But now we're somehow in charge of the ends and So the means are up for grabs, and we'll take this ship in any direction that we have to to produce the defined end that we've said is good. And usually that is numerical, either financially or in people sitting in the pews. So that is a tack.

Where else does this lead? This leads to business methodologies showing up in the church. Instead of a family, we are now a business to be well managed and to be structured so. So we have our CEO at the top and he's directing us to the end now and helping us with creative means and so our practices are going to look a lot more like General Electric than they are the churches during the Puritan era. But The truth of the matter is that 13.

There is no neutral territory. There is no area of life where the Bible does not speak. 14. There may be areas where the Bible does not have explicit commands, but the Bible gives us principles that govern every area of life that help us to navigate any area of life that we can conceive. The principles are there in the Bible, which is why 2 Timothy 3 says that the man of God can be complete, not waiting for the next creative idea, but he can be complete.

He can be thoroughly equipped for every good word. Paragraph 2, 66 books of the Bible, 39 plus 27. And they list them one by one so there will never be any doubt exactly what's in and what's out of Scripture. Next paragraph three, the Apocrypha not part of the canon. Now in our day I've never encountered personally an attack on the canon of scripture.

I'm typically engaged in discussions among Protestants who are satisfied on what's in and what's out. But in 1689, when The Catholic Church was still in high gear and still forcing the issue on the Apocrypha. Now things are potentially more separated than during the time of the Confession. This was a big issue. So here's a couple of attacks.

Well, first of all, the Apocrypha itself is an attack on scripture. It is actually an adding to scripture. Most of us Protestants aren't very versed on even what the Apocrypha is. And it's essentially books that were written in the intertestamental period between Malachi and the birth of Jesus Christ. And they're never quoted or acknowledged by Jesus in the New Testament.

So they have a radically different history than the other New Testament books. Here's a critical verse dealing with the New Testament as part of the canon and also it has a relationship to the Apocrypha. It's 2 Peter 3 16. Peter writes this, as also in all his epistles, he's speaking of Paul and Paul's letters, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures. Two things that are noteworthy here and that I really appreciate.

One is that Peter thought that some of the writings of Paul were hard. I'm glad to see that. That is an encouragement to me. And secondly, that Peter acknowledged that The letters that Paul had written were being circulated and used as scripture, as scripture, even at the time when Peter was writing his letters. This is really important in how we defend what's in and out of scripture.

Peter himself, the disciple of Jesus Christ acknowledges that Paul's letters were authoritative as scripture. Instrumental 4. And again this is boiling down. The authority of Scripture depends wholly on God the author. This is really, really important to assert that though there might have been many human instruments through the centuries that through which this book was given to us that actually there was an author behind every single one of the human instruments and that the author is God himself and that the authority of the scripture doesn't rest on Isaiah or John or Paul or Moses but the authority of the scripture actually rests upon God himself because he's the author.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, right? And so there is an author behind every man who held the pen and it is God himself. Here's an attack on this doctrine. Evolution. Elevating science or history or archaeological finds above scripture so that, with the practical application of that being, that we now reinterpret scripture.

We thought it meant this, but now this archaeological site has been found and we're looking at the stuff. And So now this is how it was then. So we need to look at this passage. And it can't mean what it seems to mean. It now has to mean this, so that it jives with our archaeological find.

And so evolution is a poster child for a broader problem that will never end, as long as there are archaeological finds, there will be renewed attacks in this category. As long as there are new scientific theories, there will never be an end to this type of attack. So evolution is one that caused and is causing today theologians to go back and say Applying the normal principles of interpretation Genesis 1 through 11 would mean this but we're gonna put a group set aside all the normal interpretive principles that we would use anywhere else in the Bible because we have rock formations that look like this. And so now we're going to find other interpretations that mesh well with our rock formations. No, no, no.

So that is an attack. So here are a couple of verses that tell us attacks to take in defending those doctrines. The first is from Isaiah 8, 19 and 20. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on the half of the living?

To the law and the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah equates the seeking of God with running to the law and the testimony. They're one and the same to Isaiah. Should not a people seek their God?

To the law and the testimony. These are one and the same. This is what scripture affirms. And so when there are any number of whisperers and murderers who want to contradict, the people of God do one thing. They seek the Lord by going to the law and to the testimony.

And then he ends by saying, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Another stunning claim of scripture that all the light is contained in the word of God and everything else needs to be consistent with it if it is to be acknowledged as having light. Secondly, Colossians 2, 8, very famous, you're very familiar with it. 23. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, 24.

According to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 25. Paul in his letter in the Colossians sets up the weight and on this side he puts philosophy, he puts empty deceit, he puts the tradition of men, he puts the basic principles of this world, and on this side, he puts Christ. And Christ tips the scales. To Paul, everything else is tipped by Christ and his words and his thoughts as they're revealed in Scripture.

We live in an age of evangelicals where people don't even think biblically anymore because we've been so used to the scales. We consider this, we consider that, we weigh it against the Word of God. But Paul says that scale does this. The scale does this. Christ always rules the day and Christ is the Word.

He's the Word of God. We live in a day where we can't even use the language of Scripture anymore. The Ten Commandments is banned and we can't speak against homosexuality. This is exactly a manifestation of what we see in Colossians 2.8. And it's an attack on the Word of God but more specifically on the authority of God as the author of the Bible.

Here's another attack on paragraph four. Authoritarianism. Because I said so. When fathers and elders and public officials says, because I say so, and they make themselves the reason, the standard, it is actually an assault on the authority of God through his word. And I would just say, I think we have a lot of church leaders in the room, I would just say, brothers, we need to be so careful.

And I say that because I've felt the same thing rising up in me when you're challenged on doctrine or practice or anything. And it makes you tense up and hairs on the back of the neck raise and there's a fight or flight reaction, right, when you get challenged because you feel like there is so much at stake. May it never be that the fight or flight reaction causes us to say because I said so. Our authority comes from the word of God and the authority of the word of God comes from God Himself. That's why it's called the word of God.

And so we should actually be encouraging a Berean spirit. Scott said that, but I think it will be said a lot this week. Said of the Bereans, these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness 31 and searched the scriptures daily to find out 32 whether these things were so. 33 We should encourage, not discourage this 34 through setting ourselves up as some kind of authority 35 unhitched from the word of God. 36 Any authority that we'll ever have in any jurisdiction we are derives itself from the authority of God and we never want those things to become disconnected.

And so we should encourage people as long as they're willing To have the ground of debate be the word of God, we should always be willing to open up the word of God and prove out the things that we're teaching and the things that we're doing by the word of God. Paragraph five. There is abundant evidence that scripture is the Word of God. Now go read the whole paragraph here for this because it talks about the style of scripture, the consistency of scripture, the beauty of scripture, and it piles up objective reasons why we ought to accept the Bible as the Word of God. When you study the Bible, the more you study it, aren't you convinced?

Don't you just see the evidences, the fingerprints of God everywhere? And so the Confession actually talks about the fingerprints of God, that a believer will see the more they study, the more they'll be convinced that this really is the Word of God. And so paragraph five starts this way. There's abundant evidence that the scripture is the Word of God. However, full assurance is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it's very reasonable to accept the claims of Scripture about itself. We don't do this in spite of reasons and rationality. We do this in wonderful harmony with reasons and rationality. 15. And yet these are things that are spiritually discerned and you'll never ever regardless of the 14.

Million objective things that you can come up with that would say that this is reasonably to be expected to be the Word of God, that will never be enough. It requires the ministry of the Holy Spirit because these things are spiritually discerned. So the natural man will never receive it. So there are these things that we can observe in scripture and say, can you see that? Isn't it obvious that this would be the Word of God?

To an unregenerate man he'll say, no, it isn't obvious. 22. 22. 22. 22.

22. 22. 23. 24. 25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

Is the other part of this. Paragraph 6. The whole counsel of God is contained in Scripture. Nothing is to be added to it. Inward illumination of the Spirit is necessary for saving understanding.

That's very related to what we were just talking about. And some circumstances concerning the worship of God are to be ordered by Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word. That is not backpedaling on the whole counsel of God being contained in the Scriptures. That's just simply stating that this was never intended to be a step-by-step instruction manual on everything that was ever to be encountered in the universe. That's not what scripture is.

That's not what scripture purports to be. So the whole counsel of God is here and the principles that we need to address every area of life are contained. We have it. We have it in hand. Nothing can ever be added to it.

It is perfect as it is and yet it doesn't tell you what time your church ought to meet or what temperature it ought to be on, or whether it's okay to use a microphone or not. Those things are circumstances that surround the essential things that scripture gives us and there are principles to govern all these other things. And so the confession talks about ordering things according to Christian prudence. That take those principles from the word of God. Here's an attack on this paragraph adding to the word of God.

23, and it happens in subtle ways and not so subtle ways. 24, how about Mormonism? That's not very subtle. 25, we love your Bible. Oh, and by the way, there's this other book.

26, A is as good as B, B is as good as A. 27, we got our book, and man, is it a great companion to your Bible. That is classic adding to the word of God. Deuteronomy 4 verse 2, You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, but You may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 13.

If we had ten minutes and a concordance we could make this five different verses that say exactly the 14. Same thing. Do not add. Do not add. Do not add.

Do not add. Right at the end of Revelation is the final one. And so they're early in the Bible, in the middle of the Bible, at the end of the Bible. Do not add to the words that God has given us. And there are many, many, many instances where the Bible becomes not complete and must be added to and that should always be resisted and strongly defended against.

13. Paragraph 7. 14. All things in Scripture are not equally plain, but things which are necessary to be known are clearly propounded. 14 So the Bible isn't an easy book from cover to cover.

15 Amen. 16 And yet the things that are essential to be known are clearly taught in various places of scripture. 18. 18. 18.

18. 18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 33. 34. 35.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 25, most uneducated person, if they're literate, they can read and understand wonderful things, what it takes to be saved through the Lord Jesus Christ. They can understand that because it's so clearly taught. And yet the most godly person who has been saturating themselves in this book for 50 years feels more feeble and weak than when they first started because the mysteries, they just can't plumb, they just can't get to the bottom of it. Person who has been 17 The simplest person can benefit in the most profound ways, certainly to the point of salvation and knowing the character of God.

And yet, the greatest theologian, the most godly, will never get to the bottom of it. Here's an attack on paragraph special interpretations from special people I will now reveal the mysteries hidden from time past to you about the holy scriptures. 001 001 001 And by the way, I'm the only one who's ever thought this thought and I have my special interpretation. 001 001 001 I mean the Jehovah's Witnesses, take the cake on this one. They got their own translation.

001 001 001 They can tell you exactly what it means only nobody else can see what it means. You can't go derive these things yourself. You have to be part of the special club. That's usually how it works is you have to know the secret handshake and then we can tell you what it means. Deuteronomy 29, 29, The secret things belong to the Lord our God.

But those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. That's what the Bible affirms. There are secret things, but those things belong to the Lord. These aren't the secret things. These are the revealed things.

25 They belong to us and to our children forever. And they've been given to us that we may do all the works of the law. Inherent is that is we can understand it. 26 It doesn't mean it's easy to understand. The Confessions already address that.

There are hard parts of the Bible that are difficult things to understand, but they can be understood. God has given us things that can be understood. We don't need a special person with a special handshake to tell us the things that need. We need the help of the Holy Spirit and we need to be very consistent with applying our principles of interpretation. Number eight.

The Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek, being inspired by God, are therefore authentic and have been kept pure by God in all ages. So the original languages are important because words mean things. And so what God has given, the exact words that he chose were Hebrew words for the Old Testament and Greek words for the New Testament. 26. And he's preserved that so that the church today thousands of years later has access to what he's revealed about himself and what he's revealed about his will.

23. Secondly because the people of God are commanded to read and search the scriptures they are to be translated into the language of every nation. 24 I was born in the United States of America. I don't know Greek and though I can learn them, I have commands of God today that tell me to handle His words. And that means that the Bible ought to be translated from Hebrew and Greek into what the confession calls the vulgar languages.

You didn't know you spoke a vulgar language, but your language is very vulgar indeed, according to the authors of the confession. So here's an attack on paragraph eight. Bible translations, translation philosophy is very, very, very, very, very important and critical. 22, and a wrong philosophy of Bible translation can serve as an attack on paragraph 8. 23, So here's two Scriptures that if you consider them are worth the price of admission for the whole week.

First is Matthew 22, 31 through 32. Jesus is arguing with the Sadducees about whether there is a resurrection from the dead in Matthew 22. And here is 31 and 32. Jesus says, But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

23. Now what's happening here? 24. Jesus is arguing against experts. 25.

And the argument that he makes is based on a single verb tense, one word, one tense. And Jesus believed that the Word of God was accurate and dependable down to one word in the tense of that word. Wow! I want my doctrine of scripture to line up with Jesus' doctrine of scripture. Here it is.

Here's Jesus' doctrine of scripture dependable down to a single word in the tense of that word. Here's another example, Galatians 3 16. 22. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He did not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ.

Paul is arguing that the promises to Abraham were actually promises to Jesus Christ, his seed singular. 25, and he rests his whole weight on whether one single word was plural or singular. 26, What's the rest of his argument? There's not a rest of his argument. 29.

That's it. The word of God is dependable not down to the word but down to whether the word is singular or plural. 30. I want my doctrine of scripture to line up with... However Paul thought about scripture, I want to think about scripture that way.

However Jesus thought about scripture, I want to think about scripture that way. These are how these men approached scripture. Paragraph 9 and the race to the finish. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is Scripture when there is a question about the sense of any Scripture which is not manifold but one and must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. Now this gives us hermeneutics, principles of Bible interpretation.

18. 18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

42. 43. 44. 45. Means you go to other places in scripture.

Scripture interprets itself. That is the first. The second is that the more clear places interpret the less clear places. More clear texts bear on, set the parameters for the less clear text. And thirdly, that a text, though it might have a million applications, You might be able to think of 100 things this text applies to and outworks to, it has one meaning.

22. Now, when we look at the assaults of scripture, the doctrine of scripture or anywhere in scripture, if you just apply these three, and there are 28, many, and they're all helpful principles of 29, Bible interpretation, but if you just apply 30, these three, how many heresies just fall off 31, the table if you just apply these three 32, principles of interpretation? And so, so many attacks against the scripture, 33, If we just apply sound, supportable principles of interpreting the Bible, we just apply them consistently. 14. We find ourselves knowing what the Scriptures actually teach and being able to refute unsound doctrine.

15. 2 Timothy 2.15, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need 18. 18. 19. 20.

21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

Word of truth. 21-10 The brothers, this is our calling, that we are sound in our doctrine, that we're able to rightly divide the word of truth. 21-12 And we don't need to be ashamed of our conduct, but that we're approved by God because we handle the word of God so carefully. This is what we want to be. Paragraph 10.

Scripture is the supreme judge of all controversies and external sources. At the end of the day, Scripture tips the scales. And it is the end of the discussion once we know what the Scripture teaches. Here's an attack on this. This is a subtle one.

This is one that we're actually very exposed to. Great resources. Great resources can be an attack on this. Matthew Henry can unwittingly be an attack on paragraph 10 in that he's fantastic. He's so quotable.

He Says things that are so profound. 14. But if we elevate Matthew Henry and we're always quoting Matthew Henry and it's Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry, now I assure you never desired to be that, intended to be that. He's a resource But it's so much under the Word of God and we can unwittingly elevate these fantastic resources by these great faithful men of God to be something they never intended them to be. The Word of God is incomparable.

It will not have any rivals. The word of God doesn't want anything else beside it on the bookshelf. It wants to be on the top shelf all alone. 28 And we need to set a culture where we have such an honor of the word of God in how we handle it and in how we preach our sermons that people know that for us the Word of God is by itself on the top shelf. 37 In conclusion, Titus 1, 9 is the last of the qualifications for an elder.

38 The last on the list. Holding fast the faithful Word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine, 25 both to exhort and convict those who contradict. 26 And I'll close with a quote from Alexander Venet, 27 who was a Swiss Reformed theologian of the mid 1800s. 25 He says this, The Reformation is still something to be accomplished, something for which 24 Luther and Calvin only prepared an even ground and a wider door. 25 They did not once and for all reform the church, but they affirmed the principle and laid down the terms for all future reform.

25 To continue the work of reformation, do not consider it complete, but return without delay to the large, pure spring of all truth, the word of God. 26 Alexander Venet would have us set the ground for reform. 26 Not settle all future reform, but set the ground for it by elevating the word of God so that we know that there is a large pure spring of all truth and that it is the Word of God. The people in our churches need to be brought again and again and again and again to this pure spring, and it must be defended so that poisons and pollutants aren't put into this spring. And there's always somebody trying to dump poison into the spring and it's our job to put up a fence and say, no, the Word of God says this and the Word of God must win the day.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We pray God that you give us a sound doctrine of scripture. That we would think about scripture like our Lord Jesus Christ did, like Paul did, like Moses did, like all your servants did. Help us, O God, to defend the things that need to be defended in order for your church to be held in Jesus' name.

Of God. Ncfic.org