In this sermon titled 'Why Sola Scriptura?', Robert Bosley discusses the key doctrinal point of the Protestant Reformation - the doctrine of Scripture alone as the sole and final authority. He explains the material principle of the Reformation, justification by faith alone, and the formal principle, which is the belief that Scripture should be the source of answers about doctrine and practices. Bosley emphasizes the unique nature of Scripture as the inspired and infallible word of God, contrasting it with the fallibility of traditions and declarations by church leaders. He also highlights the sufficiency of Scripture, stating that it equips believers for every good work and emphasizes the importance of reading, studying, and obeying God's word. Bosley critiques the Roman Catholic Church's elevation of tradition and the magisterium as equal authorities to Scripture, affirming the supremacy of Scripture alone.

Good afternoon church. If you would take out your copies of the scriptures and open to second Timothy chapter three. Now, immediately, you'll recognize this is not going to be on the parables. We're not going to continue the parables series today. Considering that early next week we will Mark the 506th anniversary of what is typically considered the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

I wanted to take a short break from the parable series and touch on one of the key doctrinal points, one of the key issues of the Reformation. It's especially appropriate, I thought, for this to be done today, and this was not coordinated between me and our elder, but we had another one of the essential Reformation doctrines clearly laid out before us this morning. The doctrine of salvation by faith alone, through faith alone, by grace alone. And this afternoon we're going to look at another one of the main sticking points from the Reformation, the doctrine of Scripture alone. Scripture as our sole and final and infallible authority.

When we talk about the causes or the the principal issues of the Reformation these things are divided typically into two different categories. We have what are often called the material principle or the material cause and the formal principle or the formal cause. This morning we had an excellent explanation of the material principle of the Reformation, the material principle or the matter, the content, the central issue that made up and spurred or spurred on the Reformation, that of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. As Luther said to Erasmus in their dialogues back and forth, Luther said that justification by faith apart from works is the hinge upon which the whole issue turns. So that's the material principle of the Reformation, but there was more to the Protestant Reformation than justification by faith alone.

There's also what is known as the formal principle, and that is The idea or the belief that gives form or gives shape to the larger debate, what sets the limits and the boundaries of what we're discussing, what we're looking at, the topic at hand, in this case the doctrine of justification. Well, the question is what sets that limit? It's what is your authority? Where do you go to get the answers to your questions about how we are justified? And the reformers following in the Renaissance, the Renaissance slogan of Ad Fontes to the sources, argued that we must turn to Scripture and Scripture alone to answer these questions about what our doctrine and what our practices ought to be as believers.

So this is what is known as the formal principle and what we're going to be looking at this afternoon. So the title is, Why Sola Scriptura? Or if we wanted to expand that, why we believe in solo scriptura. So I want us to look at two verses here in 2 Timothy, and we will look at this passage, though there are many others we could go to. But I think this is one of the more clear, one of the more helpful passages that we can go to to see why we consider scripture to be our final authority, but even more than that, it is our only infallible authority.

Second Timothy chapter three, verses 16 and 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this wonderful Lord's Day that you've given us. What a delight it is to be with your people and to sit under the instruction of your word.

Lord, I pray that you would help me to speak as I ought to speak, open ears, soften hearts to receive the truth of your word. Lord may you be glorified in our time together this afternoon. In Jesus name we pray, amen. So when we consider this idea of sola scriptura, we are making a positive claim about what scripture is. It's not simply that we're saying scripture is useful or that scripture is authoritative or informative.

We are making a claim beyond that. We are saying that scripture alone is to be the judge by which all other authorities are judged. It is the standard by which everything else is measured. It is in a category all to itself beyond any human tradition, the declaration of any council, or any church leader. Scripture alone is our final authority.

It is also an infallible authority. Traditions of men err often. The declarations of councils and church leaders err. Scripture is infallible, it does not err. It is perfect in all it communicates.

That is why we hold to this doctrine of sola scriptura, scripture alone. And I believe these two verses here give a reasonable defense of this doctrine. Now the context is immediately follows. You can look at the immediately preceding verses on why Paul turns to this passage, the sentence here to extol the goodness and the value of Scripture. It's because he's talked about Timothy's experience with the scriptures, that he has been taught them from childhood, and that they have been instructing him and they've been able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now often when this passage is preached on or you read commentaries on this passage, you will often find the idea that this phrase, that scripture is given by inspiration, applies only to the Old Testament. And that anything beyond that, applying it to anything beyond the Old Covenant scriptures, is a leap in logic. But I don't believe that is actually the case. Now yes, Timothy, as a young man, Presumably when Paul wrote this around the late 60s, he probably grew up reading only the Old Testament scriptures. That would have been the only scriptures he would have been familiar with because the rest of the scripture hadn't been written.

But that is not the case when Paul writes these words. If you take the traditional historic dating of the books of the New Testament, which I do, Second Timothy is one of the last books to be written. And I take what is granted a somewhat of a minority position. I believe all the New Testament was finished by 70 AD. Some people push the writings of John back into later decades.

But if it's correct that all of the New Testament was written by 70 AD, then this may have been the last book written of the New Testament scriptures. Even if it wasn't the last, it's one of the last books of the New Testament written. And Paul is aware that other Scripture is being written. In 1 Timothy, he cites the Gospel of Luke and calls it Scripture. And another apostle, Peter, as we went through a few months ago in 2 Peter, he calls Paul's writings scripture.

So it's not as if the idea of new scripture being written was something foreign to the apostles. Now, the New Testament Authors may not have known exactly what was being written as scripture, they might not have truly understood as their pen was going across the page that what they were writing was inspired by the Spirit of God, but they did have an awareness that new scripture was being written. And even if Paul himself was unaware of what was scripture, of what New Testament scriptures were being written, God infallibly knows the canon of his words. God knows what he has given to his people. And so when the spirit of God led Paul to write that all scripture is given by inspiration, God himself knew what was included in that category of Scripture.

So yes, Timothy grew up reading only the Old Testament, but that does not mean that this idea of inspiration does not apply to the New Covenant writings as well. So when we look at this, this verse or these verses give us two reasons why we ought to believe in sola scriptura, why we ought to believe that the scriptures alone are our final authority. In verse 16, Paul teaches us that the scriptures have a unique nature. Scripture has a unique nature. That's the first reason we ought to believe in sola scriptura because scripture is unique.

It is in a category all to itself. The scripture, he says, is given by inspiration of God. It is inspired. Now we can use this word inspired in many ways. We can see a great play or read a great book or watch a great movie and say that was an inspired story or an inspired performance and what we mean by that is it was just really good.

That's not what Paul means here. This is something unique. The word in Greek, theopneustos, it's a combination of the word for God and for breath. And it has the idea that it has been breathed out by God. It connotes the idea of you're so close to God speaking that you're able to feel the breath from his mouth.

That is the Scriptures. It is God speaking to you in such close proximity that you could, as it were, feel the breath from his mouth. That is the value and what it means when it says scripture is inspired. Tradition of any kind is never put in this category. This word is not used to describe anything else in our Bibles.

Only scripture is called inspired. Only the scriptures are breathed out by God. It is unique and we have an unbroken line of evidence and testimony as to the content of the scriptures. We can look at the manuscript tradition, we can look at what the church has taught throughout history and when they cite the scriptures, it is these scriptures. It has not changed.

It is an unbroken line of content. The same cannot be said for any tradition. There are many traditions that many different groups will tell you you need to believe, but if you look at history they arise at later points. Tradition rises and falls throughout history, but the scriptures have remained. There's an unbroken testimony.

They are unique. Tradition develops over time. For example, appropriate considering the Reformation, if you look at the traditions or dogmas that are required to be a faithful Roman Catholic today, virtually none of those traditions existed in the early church. Almost none of them existed even in the time of the Reformation. This is something, a little bit of an aside, but something for us to understand.

The Reformation is not over. Rome has gotten worse in 500 years. We are not closer today, we are farther apart. If we truly hold to the doctrines of the solas, if we truly hold to salvation by grace through faith alone, if we hold to salvation, or sorry, if we hold to scripture alone as our authority, we are even farther apart from Rome than the Reformers were. Consider, for instance, the Catholic dogmas about Mary.

There is a term that you may have heard called theotokos. It's actually a wonderful word and it's a term given to Mary and it means the God-bearer, sometimes translated as the mother of God. And we ought to regard Mary, and don't listen before you get upset, we ought to regard Mary as theotokos. We ought to regard Mary as the bearer of God or the mother of God, because that is a statement about who Jesus is, not a statement about any supremacy or goodness in Mary. It's the fact that the one that she gave birth to was truly even in his infancy, God.

That's what it means when the early church called Mary the bearer or mother of God. But that's degenerated over centuries to now elevate Mary. She's now considered the queen of heaven. She's considered the Ark of the New Covenant, she is a mediator between us and Jesus, according to the Roman Church. And even in some sects of the Roman Church, she is a co-redemptrix with Jesus.

These blasphemous traditions have developed over time, but Scripture has not changed. Scripture alone is breathed out by God. Peter says that men were moved by the spirits. They were carried along by the spirits. That no scripture was given by their own interpretation of the world around them, but they wrote as the spirit moved them.

No other source of doctrine or belief or practice is given by God speaking. And that's what Jesus said the scriptures are. You go to Matthew 22, 31, Jesus rebukes the religious leaders of his day and he says, you are wrong, you do not know the scriptures, have you not read what God said to you? And he quotes Genesis. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees in the first century, says God is speaking to you when you read the book of Genesis.

The scriptures is God speaking. Tradition of any form is not in that same category. The scriptures alone are God's very words to us. God speaking. So we have the unique nature of the scriptures.

It is inspired, it is the very voice of God to his people. Secondly, we also can consider in verse, the end of verse 16, but primarily in verse 17, the sufficiency of Scripture. Another reason why we say that Scripture alone is our final authority is because Scripture is sufficient. He says that the inspired scriptures are given and they're profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And other believers, even sadly many Protestants, will say yes, but we need more than that.

The Roman Church will say yes, but you need more than that. The scriptures are given by God, but you need more. If all we had was verse 16, you wouldn't be able to argue with that Because it says it's profitable for doctrine. And we even say there are other things that are profitable for doctrine. We read good books.

We have a confession that is profitable for doctrine. For reproof, it's good for instruction and righteousness to read good books and to hear these other sources of authority. However, Paul does not stop there. Verse 17 is where we really see the sufficiency of scripture. These things are given so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul is saying not just that the scriptures are good for doctrine and good for instruction and righteousness, but that they are enough by themselves to equip you for the work of ministry and for a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped. He is saying that a man with the scriptures already has all he needs to be fully prepared for the work of ministry. And yes, Paul is writing this to Timothy, who isn't exactly an elder, but it's kind of the idea that he's in a pastoral role. But this doesn't apply just to pastors, not just elders.

Those are not the only people who are involved in ministry. All the church, every believer is intended to minister their gifts one to another. And you are fully equipped to minister to others by scripture, and scripture alone. You do not need any man-made tradition to make you complete and thoroughly equipped. It is the scriptures that equip you.

Traditions can be useful. They can rebuke, they can correct, they can train, but they cannot do it in the same fashion as the scriptures. They cannot make you fully trained. You will not be fully equipped. You will not be complete if you rely only on tradition or only on the declaration of church leaders.

Tradition does have a place. I've mentioned our confession, that is a kind of tradition. But it must all be regulated by scripture. And that is why, for instance, our confession has a lengthy section, I believe, if I remember off the top of my head, it begins with what the scriptures are. All tradition must be subordinated to scripture.

This is the great error of Rome and sadly many other Protestants today, that they make tradition equal to Scripture. They say, no, the Scriptures are not sufficient. The Scripture alone, they ultimately reject what this says that no, the scriptures do not make a man complete. They do not make him thoroughly equipped for every good work. You need something else.

They say you need tradition, or you need, in Rome's case, both tradition and the magisterium of the church. Rome claims that there are two kinds of tradition. There's capital T tradition and lowercase T tradition. The lowercase T tradition per Rome's teaching is fallible and can be rejected and modified as time goes on but capital T tradition goes back they say to the apostles and is equal with Scripture. And also equal to the Scriptures and equal to the capital T tradition is the magisterium of the Church.

Magisterium meaning the papacy and the bishops and the church leaders of Rome. And this is not me as a reformed Protestant misrepresenting our opponents of the Reformation. Listen to the very words. This is probably going to be a first here, this is a quotation from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, probably never been said behind this pulpit before. Hopefully it doesn't burst into flames.

Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church says, quote, sacred tradition and sacred scripture are bound closely together and communicate one with the other, for both of them flowing out of the same divine wellspring come together in some fashion to form one thing and move toward the same goal. Sentence later, as a result, the church to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted does not derive her certainty about revealed truth from the Holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and capital T tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. Exactly, it's heresy, it's blasphemy. No, Tradition is not equal.

They claim that their tradition goes back to the apostles and it's simply a historically laughable idea. No one at Nicaea believed anything that you have to believe to be a devout Roman Catholic today. Another quote from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, quote, in the light of tradition these lowercase T traditions, local church practices, can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of, and what would we say if we were going to finish that sentence? What does local church practice get modified by? Scripture.

Lower case T tradition can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the church's magisterium, the pope and the bishops. The magisterium is the final authority for practice in Rome, ostensibly under the light of capital T tradition. So in reality, while Rome will criticize us for rejecting sources of authority, they'll criticize us for sola scriptura and they say, no there's this three-legged stool and you need all three legs to hold up the stool of truth You need the tradition you need the magisterium and yes, you need scripture You cannot have three equal final authorities It does not work In the debate about men and women in headship, you've heard the phrase, anything with two heads is a monster. I would say the same applies to anything with three. Three heads is a monster.

You cannot have three final authorities. And so what happens when you say that there are other authorities equal to scripture? Scripture is functionally abandoned. And so Rome will criticize us for sola scriptura And we can look at what Rome does and say, you practice sola ecclesia, your church is your final authority. And that's not really working out very well for them so far.

Consider the simple fact that the current head of the Roman Church is so far at odds with even the last one, let alone historical Roman belief. But in the midst of all this confusion about authorities and the disorder of Rome and even some of our Protestant brothers and sisters, we can have confidence because we have a more sure word. We have the scriptures inspired, breathed out by God that are unique, the only authoritative word given to God's people, the only thing that in and of itself is able to equip you for every good work. All other authorities must bow before it. The unique nature and the sufficiency of Scripture put it in a category all to itself and that is why we say sola Scriptura.

Scripture alone is our authority. So if this is true, what do we do? How does that affect our lives and our thoughts and our worship? Well, as individuals, we must be knowledgeable of God's Word. It is God speaking to you and I don't want to lay a law down and say that you must read the scriptures every day.

That's historically we're in a very unique situation. I hope everyone understands that we have such a tremendous blessing. I mean I've got a paper Bible here, I've got my Greek New Testament in my bag, and I've got about 15,000 different Bible versions on my phone. We have such a tremendous blessing. We are in such a unique situation.

So I don't want to say that you're not a Christian if you're not reading your Bible every day, but You ought to be reading your Bible every day. It is God's word to you. You have such a treasure in your hands. Do not let it go neglected. Do not let it sit unread and unstudied.

What a great treasure you have to have the very inspired words of God in your own language ready for you to pick up and read. Do not neglect that gift that you have. And when you hear the scriptures, when you hear it read, when you hear it preached, hear it not simply as the communication of information, hear it not simply as some kind of a lecture, hear it as God speaking to you. God has given his word. We have a God who has spoken And he commands it to be read and preached every Lord's Day.

So when you come here, you're not coming merely for a download of more information. You're coming to hear God. And understanding that, when you read it and when you hear it, receive it as God speaking to you. Submit yourself to it. Put yourself under the authority of this final infallible authority.

Examine your life and your practices, what you do, what you think by scripture. Is there something you believe that is at odds with the scriptures? Is there something you're doing that the scripture says you ought not to be doing? Submit yourself to God's word. Hear it and obey it.

Because God's ways are the best ways. And as a church, we ought to always be looking at, are our practices as a body in submission to scripture? Yes, we have some freedom, we have some flexibility, we have places where tradition can inform and help, but everything has to be in submission to Scripture. That is our authority. So understand, your Bible is not just another book.

It's not just another source of doctrine. Your Bible is not on the same category as Calvin's Institute's or any systematic theology or any set of commentaries you have. Scripture is unique. It is in a category all to itself and you must obey it. Let's pray.

Well, Father, we thank you for being a God who has spoken. What a delight it is to have your word. Lord help us to love it and to rejoice in having it and God forgive us for not not treating it with the reverence it deserves, not taking it up when we have opportunity. Lord forgive us for taking for granted this wonderful treasure you've given us in your words. God may you be at work in this church and cause us to love your word even more.

May we rejoice in knowing that we have your words to us. May you, by your Spirit, help us to understand it, to believe all that it says, and to submit and conform our lives to it. Until that day we see our Savior face to face. In His name we pray, amen.