1003. Sola Scriptura

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Just over 500 years ago, in October 1517, Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses, which is considered to be the beginning of the Reformation. For the next several days on The Daily Platform, we'll be studying some of these doctrines in a series called Truth Triumphs. Let's listen to today's message, preached by Dr. Mark Minnick, a Bob Jones University Seminary professor. Mark is going to help us understand the concept of sola scriptura, the sufficiency of scripture, as our supreme authority in all spiritual matters.

I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles this morning to the first psalm, the Psalter and the first passage. The issue that we are concerned with this morning has to do with the most important decision that we ever make in life. It's not a one-time decision, like our commitment of life and eternity to Jesus Christ. It's actually a decision that precedes even that one. It is not a one-time decision. It is a decision that we have to make again and again. You have to make it every time that the road of your journey through life comes to a fork. Or every time you come to one of those roundabouts and you realize that there are one, two, three, four, five possible ways to continue your journey. And that most important decision is the decision of who is going to govern. That's really it.

Who in the end is going to be the final determiner of my way? And folks, that decision is the personal, daily application of what has come out of the Reformation as the understanding of sola scriptura. What is sola scriptura? Well of course you're probably aware of the fact that that is a Latin expression. And the first of those words, sola, has reference to something that is unaccompanied.

It's all by itself. Shakespeare used that word in the margins of his plays when he gave the directions to actors or stagehands. He used that word to indicate that at this point in the drama, so and so was sola on the stage.

All alone. Or we would say, this is the solo. And that of course doesn't mean that there aren't any other people on the stage. And it doesn't mean that the other people aren't important. It just means that at a particular point, this is the voice.

This is the character. And of course when you apply that to sola, to the scripture itself, what it has reference to isn't on the one hand that there aren't any other important authorities in life. Parents, pastors, educators, people in civil position, all of these are authorities. But it actually is the scripture itself that tells us that. In other words, all of those authorities are recognized and respected by us because the solo voice tells us to do that. Scripture is the final determiner. It's called the norma norms.

The norm for all the norms. And that's the contention of sola scriptura. And it is a contention.

We do have to remember that. It is always a contention in a fallen world and for us as people who still possess the flesh. It's not just a concept, it's a claim in the face of opposition.

That's what a contention is. And for the reformers, this was a dogma. It's the thing about which they were dogmatic.

It was the foundation of their whole position. So that's what sola scriptura has reference to. That the Bible alone, in the end, is the final determiner.

It's the ultimate voice. It's the statement that ends the argument, closes the door on the controversy. What saith the scripture.

That's sola scriptura. And this morning what I would like to do is take up two questions that very naturally arise from that. And the first of them is one that I was confronted with as a student here. When I and a carload of fellows went down to Clemson University one night to try to evangelize.

And I find myself as a freshman standing underneath a street light talking to an upperclassman at Clemson University. And he really challenged me about continuing to speak of the Bible. And the issue in his mind was, why do you reference the Bible as being the authority?

That's a really important question. Does the Bible itself actually teach this? Is this a claim that the Bible makes for itself?

Well, we can approach that real broadly. You can look at it this way. When you open your Bible and you read just the first few pages. And Satan says to Eve, you will not surely die.

That's the issue. Is what God said the final voice? And you know, of course, that right through to this present hour, what God warned Adam and Eve would take place is taking place.

Many times, even as we're meeting right now. That's the beginning of my Bible. And if I go to the last book of my Bible and the very last chapter of my Bible.

It's the same thing all over again. It's God warning. And he's saying when it comes to this book, if you add to the words of this book, no matter how well intentioned you may be. If you add anything to this book, I will add to you the plagues that are written in this book. And it works the other way, too. If you subtract anything from this book, no matter how prudent it may seem.

No matter how much more in keeping it may appear to be with your peer group. If you subtract anything from this book, I will take away your part in the book of life and from the holy city to come. The point, folks, is from beginning to end, this actually is the whole storyline of the Bible. It isn't that we need proof texts, just a few specific statements here and there in our Bible. Proof texting is very, very helpful. Our Lord did it all the time. But actually, the whole Bible is about this. It's the issue of whose word is going to prevail with me?

To whom in the final analysis will I listen? But there are some very, very specific passages that are extremely helpful. And I want to call your attention to three of those today.

And I want to do it this way. You know, of course, that there are five great solas. And in our New Testament, four of those are dealt with pretty much by whole books of the Bible. There are book-length explanations and arguments for the other four solas.

We don't have that for sola scriptura. We don't have a whole book that basically is arguing that point. But what we do have is a book of our Bible that has major passages on this issue. And that's this Old Testament book of Psalms, the Psalter. The Psalter begins this way. That's why I've had you turn to Psalm 1.

We're going to look at it in just a moment. There are three great what are called Torah Psalms. That is Psalms about the instruction of the Lord. We would say Word of God Psalms. As soon as I say that, you can probably think of at least one other of those and probably the other two as well. Well, what I would like to do is just reference all three of those this morning in order to show us in our Bibles a different aspect in each Psalm, a different aspect of sola scriptura.

The first of those right out of the gate when you open your Psalter is in verses 1 and 2. Would you look at this wording? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but, and the but is a but of contrast. There's a great contrast here. In contrast to all of those other actors, their counsel, their ways, their parliaments, their sittings officially to decide, his delight is in the Torah, the law, the instruction of the Lord.

Folks, the contention here, I want to try to capture it in one word. In this Psalm, as you know, promises a universal kind of blessing to a man who delights in and meditates on the word of God, on the scripture. The contention of these two verses is the exclusivity of scripture. That on the stage there is an exclusive part that the Bible plays that nothing else plays.

Now, that has to be clarified. It doesn't mean that the Bible addresses every single subject. It doesn't mean that we don't learn from other sources. Your being here in all of the classes that you're taking in the subject matter is a testimony of the fact that you understand that there are things that the scripture doesn't directly address and that you learn in the classroom when it comes to various subject areas. There is, however, an exclusive place that the Bible has, and that is that whenever it does speak about something, anything, it is the voice. And if anyone else differs from it, he is referred to as ungodly. The word ungodly in the scripture doesn't just refer to somebody who is a notorious, conspicuous bandit or criminal in his sin. It just refers to people who aren't like God.

They actually may be very polite, nice people, the kind of people that you love to have live across you over the back fence. But they don't think like God, and their world view isn't God's. And if you listen to their counsel about any subject that the Bible touches on, you have to very clearly and carefully govern what they say by the scripture. The scripture has to be the filter on it, and the Bible is the only book like that in all the world.

It has an exclusivity to it. And your Bible, folks, never comes to you and tries to reach common consensus with you. Not with you or your church or your denomination, your mission board, your conclave of friends. It's never interested in doing that. It's interested in telling you the mind of God.

It's exclusive in that respect. And the value of all other books that have anything to do with the scriptures, the degree to which that they line up with the voice of God in scripture. Now, that was Luther at the Diet of Worms. When he stood there, he's 37 years old, he had testified later in life that he was 20 years old before he ever saw a Bible. But 17 years later, he's standing there before the emperor, this huge gathering of ecclesiastics. He knows that he's almost certainly facing death by fire if he continues to disagree with these people. And he stands there finally on the second day and he says with certainty, my conscience is captive to the word of God.

It's exclusive in its authority in my life. That's the claim at the very opening of our Psalter. I want to ask you to turn to the second of these great word of God Psalms. It's the 19th Psalm. And the portion that I want to call our attention to is one that perhaps many of you have memorized. If you've not, it certainly is a passage that every believer would do well to lock in his heart.

And it begins with the seventh verse and runs down through verse 11. And what you have here are statements about the effectualness, the use of scripture in a life. The law of the Lord, there it is again, the Torah, the law of the Lord is perfect.

That means it's complete, it isn't missing anything. So it can entirely convert the soul from everything that is wrong. The testimony of the Lord, the Lord's testimonies are when he bears witness to something. For instance, he bears witness to origins. Nobody else was here, so no one else can bear witness. But God was here and he did it, so he gives his testimony as to how it happened.

That's what this word has reference to. And whenever you find the Lord's testimonies to something, they're absolutely sure. And they will make you wise. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is clean, enlightening your eyes. This is reference to what happens to your conscience. So the lights go on in a world where there are hardly any absolutes anymore.

People are actually free now to self-identify what gender they want to be. The Lord will turn the lights on in people's heads about that. Now the point of this passage, I'm going to capture in this one word, sufficiency. If the scriptures take care of my soul, if the scriptures take care of my mind, they make me wise. If the scriptures take care of the emotional aspect of my life, they rejoice my heart. If the scriptures turn the lights on, if they actually recalibrate my conscience so it registers the way I have to do, then they're utterly sufficient because they meet every nook of my soul. The Bible is the exclusive authority in the end, and it is utterly sufficient for the entirety of my being.

It's a wonderful thing. And that brings me to the last of these Torah Psalms. And you would have known this when it's the longest chapter in your Bible. Which Psalm is that? Not Psalm 1, not Psalm 19, but Psalm 119.

And I want to ask you to turn there. But the portion I want you to turn to is the 128th verse. Psalm 128. This is a verse that many, many years ago, perhaps all the way back when I was a student, but certainly not long after that, that just lit up for me one day.

I think I probably have it underlined in every English copy of the Bible that I use. It is the writer of this passage giving to you his estimation. This is his viewpoint.

This is the conclusion he's reached. If the scripture is the exclusive governing voice, and it is all sufficient, then look at this statement. I esteem, as for me, this may not be the view of others, but this is my conclusion. I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things.

Notice those alls. Those are universals. All your precepts, no exceptions to that. Concerning all subjects that are addressed by the Bible, no exceptions to that. All your precepts concerning all things.

I esteem them to be right. Now folks, you know from your reading the 119th Psalm that this is just one of eight major words that are used in this Psalm for the scriptures. And every one of those words has a little different nuance to it. For instance, the word testimonies is one of those words that is used here. And you've got words like statutes and commandments and promises and so on. But what this Psalm and the rest of the Bible say about the scripture, no matter which of those terms is used, what this verse says about precepts is what the Bible and this Psalm says about all aspects of scripture. Whether it's God's promises, He will never ever fail.

Whether it comes to His testimonies or His commandments, it's all this. We are presented with this decision. It's the decision that I started the message with this morning. It's the most important decision of life, and you don't make it one time. You had to make it when you gave your life to Christ. And you have to make it again and again and again every time that you're rode for it. Every time that there are alternatives to your roundabout.

Every time. You have to ask yourself, does the Bible address this? Does it address it in any way in terms of what God testifies to?

His records of history, the precepts that He gives, the promises that He makes, the inclinations of His heart, the principles that seem to be displayed here. Does the Bible address this? If it does, I esteem it to be right.

It settles the issue. And I want to summarize this aspect of solo scriptura in the word inerrancy. Folks, the reason that the Bible is the exclusive governor, and that in the end it does meet every need of our human condition and our fallenness, is because it is absolutely without error.

There is an infallibility to what the scripture says that is taught here. And that is really what fueled the ability of the Reformers to stand and face whatever they had to. One of the most famous books that came out of that era, of course, is the record penned by an English Reformer of what those who were left behind in England faced when Henry VIII's oldest daughter Mary began to execute people for this position. And there were hundreds of English people who believed solo scriptura and the corollaries of solo scriptura, and they fled to the continent. Many, many of them went to Geneva to be underneath the ministry of John Calvin, and then John Knox, who set up an English congregation there. And one of those who fled the continent gathered the stories of the martyrs.

These people are being burnt, and their friends are sending the accounts. And this brother is recording them, what they said in the fire. The fact that when somebody said to them, God is within you in the fire, make a sign, and the man stands there and burns with his finger pointed to heaven, or he bathes his hands in the flames and then scrubs his cheeks.

If God's with you in the fire, make a sign. And John Fox records all of this, and when Mary dies and her sister Elizabeth comes to the throne, who allows the Protestant Reformation to go forward, he publishes all of this in one of the most famous books in Christian history. John Fox faced his own pressures.

They gave him a high position in the church, but he wouldn't fully subscribe to the articles of the Church of England. And he's called in before the archbishop, a man named Parker, and Parker just reasons with him very kindly, appeals to Fox's position and his influence. And finally John Fox just pulls a little Greek New Testament out of his pocket, and he holds it up and says, to this I will subscribe. That's it, folks. That is solo scripture. When you're pressured like that, and the Bible addresses the subject, and you strongly suspect that what you're hearing is the counsel of people who don't think like God, this is the exclusive voice on your stage. And it is right.

It is inherent. And that brings me to this lastly. What really do we do with this? I want to ask you to turn, same Psalm, but just turn back to the way it begins. And while you're turning back, I want to give to you the possibility of a little scriptural exercise. You know, when we read the 119th Psalm, we get the impression that it just goes around and around and around. That it keeps saying the same thing just in different ways.

Matthew Henry, wonderful English commentator, actually spoke of it that way. He said it's like a chest full of golden rings that aren't really attached to each other, but they are all about the same thing. That's why they're all in the same chest. But I think what you will find is if you study this Psalm is that there is connectivity between the stanzas, and that actually what you have from beginning to end is a kind of a spiritual journal of the journey that you will experience if you start out the way this Psalm starts out. If you will put your foot on the path of sola scriptura, this is the way it's going to work for your life. And there are some things that are going to be repeated all along the way. That's why sometimes the Psalm seems to say the same things, because what happened to me when I was a student here still keeps happening to me now.

But there is a progression to it. And if you ask the question of what do I do with sola scriptura, this is what you're faced with. Let's just read the opening of the Psalm. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.

What it's saying basically is this, it's like the writer and he's looking at other people, and he's saying, you know, I've observed this about those people. Those people who walk in the way of the word are blessed, just like someone said. So, verse five, this is what I come to.

Oh, that my ways were directed like that. Dear young people especially, I mean there are faculty and staff here as well, that's it every day. I can testify to you as a father and a grandfather and a pastor and a common ordinary Christian. That's what I'm faced with every day. And the pressures are great. And the voices are many.

One of our former respected colleagues on the Bible faculty here who went to be with the Lord used to commonly pray in his Lord's Day morning pastoral prayer, Lord, deliver us from the jargon of voices. And many of you are going out into business life and what you're going to be confronted with is something that doesn't seem right to you. But when you go in to talk about it, you're going to be told that this is the corporate standard. This is the industry expectation. Or this is just an executive privilege. Or young people, you're going to hear from your teenager what I hope you have not said to your own parents. You're going to stand there flat-footed on the linoleum of your kitchen floor and your 13-year-old is going to look you right in the eye and say, Dad, that's just generational. Well, it might be.

There are things like that. And that's when you need to do then what we need to learn to do now. And that is to go to the scriptures and see, does the scripture address this? What is the word of God about it? And when we find it in here, then, folks, this is the only position for you, I hope, for you and your house, for you and your house, for you and your marriage, for you and your kids, for you and your church. As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord.

Sola Scriptura. May God bind our consciences to the word of God. Let's pray together. Loving Lord, thank you for our time together. We pray that you would develop in us a deep conviction about this. We pray in Christ's precious name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Mark Minnich, a Bob Jones University Seminary professor. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue this series about the Reformation here on The Daily Platform.