Sola Scriptura
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Good morning, church!
I'm so glad you're here.
This morning we're continuing our Devoted series, where we're looking at the foundational truths every Christian should know.
Last week we talked about Solus Christus.
Christ alone.
We answered one of the most important questions anyone can ask:
Who is Jesus?
And we discovered that Jesus isn't just a way to God.
He is the way.
He isn't just another teacher or prophet.
He is the image of the invisible God, the Creator of all things, and the only Savior of the world.
But that naturally leads us to another question.
How do we know?
How do we know the Jesus we talked about last week is the real Jesus?
Because everyone claims to know the truth.
Every religion.
Every philosophy.
Every worldview.
Every generation.
Eventually every one of us has to answer one question:
Can I trust the Bible?
Because if the Bible isn't trustworthy...
Then everything we said about Jesus last week falls apart.
If someone asked you,
"Why do you believe the Bible?"
What would you say?
For many Christians...
The answer would probably come almost automatically.
"Because it's God's Word."
"Because I have faith."
"Because that's what I've always believed."
Those aren't bad answers.
But they're probably not very convincing to someone who doesn't already believe what you believe.
So here's the question...
Is there a reason we can trust the Bible?
Or are we just taking a blind leap of faith?
Most Christians know that they trust the Bible.
Fewer know why they trust the Bible.
This morning my goal is to help you with the Why…
Because here's the reality.
The Bible is the most printed...
Most translated...
Most distributed...
Most criticized...
Most banned...
Most influential...
And probably the most misused book in human history.
Millions have built their lives upon it.
Millions have rejected it.
But almost everyone has an opinion about it.
Some people believe it's God's Word.
Some people believe it's full of contradictions.
Some people think it was rewritten by emperors.
Others think books were intentionally left out.
Everyone has an opinion about the Bible.
But opinions don't determine truth.
God does.
So let's hear what God has to say.
Go with me to 2 Timothy 3:14-17
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
This morning we're going to talk about one of the foundational truths recovered during the Protestant Reformation.
Sola Scriptura
Scripture Alone.
pray
Have you ever noticed how many things the internet has convinced people are true?
I mean...
We have believed some wild things.
Have you ever noticed those videos that pop up online?
"What scientists don't want you to know..."
Every time I see one, I laugh.
Because have you ever actually met a scientist?
Scientists spend years trying to get people to read their research.
They publish papers.
They present at conferences.
They write books.
They aren't hiding their discoveries.
They're trying to get people to pay attention to them.
But those titles work because they make you feel like you've discovered a secret that everyone else has missed.
Then the algorithm takes over.
One person shares it.
Another person reposts it.
Before long...
Millions of people believe something they've never actually investigated.
We see it all the time.
"Scientists discovered a new color humans can't see."
"The moon landing was filmed in Hollywood."
"The earth is flat."
And people think...
"Well... I watched a one-minute video, so I guess it's true."
Church...
Too many people today are being discipled by their algorithm instead of the truth.
We don't even try to hide it anymore.
"TikTok taught me..."
"I saw it on Instagram..."
"I read a Facebook article..."
And I don't know who needs to hear this this morning...
But Facebook is not a research tool.
Just because somebody made a video...
Doesn't make them an expert.
Just because it got a million views...
Doesn't make it true.
Just because it confirms what you already wanted to believe...
Doesn't make it reality.
Truth isn't determined by what's viral.
Truth is determined by what's true.
Confidence doesn't make something true.
Charisma doesn't make something true.
Popularity doesn't make something true.
God does.
And that's exactly why Paul tells Timothy,
"All Scripture is breathed out by God..."
If God has spoken...
Then His Word becomes the standard by which every other truth claim is measured.
Look at what Jesus prayed in John 17
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
That's an incredible statement.
Jesus doesn't say God's Word contains truth.
He says God's Word is truth.
But that raises an honest question.
If we're going to claim that the Bible is God's Word...
How do we know?
How do we back that up?
Is it just because someone told us?
Is it just because we grew up in church?
Or is there actually good reason to believe the Bible is exactly what it claims to be?
So this morning we are going to first look at why we can trust the bible.
Number one:
God faithfully preserved it throughout history.
Think about this for a moment.
The Bible wasn't written by one person...
In one place...
At one time.
It was written by around 40 different authors.
Men from completely different walks of life.
Kings.
Shepherds.
Fishermen.
Prophets.
Doctors.
Tax collectors.
It was written over a period of roughly 1,500 years.
On three different continents.
In three different languages.
And yet...
It tells one unified story.
How is that possible?
Peter tells us.
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible has many human authors...
But it has one divine Author.
That's why, from Genesis to Revelation, it tells one story.
Different books.
Different people.
Different centuries.
One Author.
One Savior.
One story of redemption.
From Genesis to Revelation.
One Author working through many authors.
One of the most fascinating ways to see this is through the Bible's cross-references.
Scholars have identified OVER 63,000 cross-references connecting passages throughout Scripture.
Think about that.
One passage quotes another.
Explains another.
Builds on another.
Foreshadows another.
Fulfills another.
Imagine dozens of authors, living centuries apart, on different continents, writing in different languages, yet their writings continually point back to one another and ultimately to one central story.
Nobody could orchestrate that.
Not over fifteen centuries.
Not across three continents.
Not in three different languages.
Unless there was one Author guiding the entire story.
The Bible has many human authors...
But ultimately one divine Author.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
The Bible isn't a collection of disconnected books.
It's one story pointing to one Savior.
The God who spoke to Moses...
Is the God who spoke to Isaiah.
The God who inspired David...
Is the God who inspired Paul.
The God who opened the Bible with,
"In the beginning..."
Is the same God who closes it with,
"Surely I am coming soon."
One story. One Savior. One divine Author.
Now...
Some of you may be thinking...
"Okay, Pastor...
That's great.
But how do we know we actually got the right books?"
"Wasn't the Bible assembled hundreds of years later?"
"Didn't the church decide what made it into the Bible?"
"Didn't Constantine have something to do with it?"
Those are fair questions.
In fact, they're some of the most common questions people ask today.
So let's answer them.
Here's the second reason I can trust the Bible...
God's people recognized Scripture. They didn't invent it.
Before we talk about how the books of the Bible were recognized…
We need to ask an important question.
When Paul wrote to Timothy
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
What exactly did he mean by Scripture?
Timothy didn’t have a leather-bound Bible with sixty-six books.
The New Testament had not yet been collected into one volume.
So what writings was Paul referring to?
Paul Was Primarily Referring to the Old Testament
Look back a couple verses.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Those “sacred writings” Timothy learned from childhood were the Hebrew Scriptures.
His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, faithfully taught him God’s Word.
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
When Paul said,
“All Scripture…”
He was absolutely including what we call the Old Testament.
Genesis.
Exodus.
The Psalms.
Isaiah.
Daniel.
The Prophets.
The Scriptures Jesus Himself constantly quoted.
So Paul is affirming something remarkable.
The Old Testament isn’t merely Israel’s history.
It is God-breathed.
But here's what's fascinating.
Even while the apostles were still alive...
God was already giving more Scripture.
The New Testament Was Already Being Recognized as Scripture
Even while the apostles were still alive…
Their writings were already being copied…
Shared among churches…
Read publicly…
And recognized as carrying God’s authority.
Peter gives us one of the clearest examples.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
Did you catch that?
Peter doesn’t compare Paul’s letters to Scripture.
He places them among the Scriptures.
He says people twist Paul’s letters…
“…as they do the other Scriptures.”
That means Peter recognized Paul’s writings as belonging alongside the Old Testament as God’s inspired Word.
Now look at something equally fascinating.
18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
The first quotation comes from Deuteronomy 25:4.
Everyone agrees that’s Scripture.
But the second quotation comes from Luke 10:7, where Jesus says,
“The laborer deserves his wages.”
Paul introduces both quotations with the exact same phrase:
“The Scripture says…”
He doesn’t distinguish between them.
He calls both Scripture.
Even during the lifetime of the apostles, God was already revealing and His people were already recognizing the writings that would become the New Testament.
Church...
The New Testament wasn't invented centuries later.
It was being written...
Copied...
Shared...
Read in churches...
And recognized as Scripture...
While the apostles were still alive.
But maybe you're thinking...
"Okay, Pastor...
What about Constantine?"
"What about the Council of Nicaea?"
"Wasn't that where they decided what books belonged in the Bible?"
"Didn't Constantine change parts of the Bible?"
If you've ever heard those claims...
You're not alone.
They've been repeated in books...
Encliapedias…
Documentaries...
YouTube videos...
TikToks...
Podcasts...
And social media posts...
So...
It's myth-busting time.
Myth #1: Constantine created the Bible.
False.
Constantine called the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.
But the council wasn't convened to decide which books belonged in the Bible.
It was called because a man named Arius was teaching that Jesus wasn't fully God.
The bishops gathered to answer one question:
Who is Jesus?
Sound familiar?
That's exactly where we started last week.
The Council of Nicaea defended what Scripture already taught.
It didn't create Scripture.
Myth #2: Constantine rewrote the Bible.
False.
You'll hear this claim all over the internet.
Sometimes from skeptics.
And unfortunately...
Sometimes from Christians who sincerely believe it because they've heard it repeated so many times.
The claim usually goes something like this:
"Constantine changed Jesus' words in Matthew 28:19 from 'in Jesus' name' to 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' to support the doctrine of the Trinity."
It sounds convincing...
Until you look at the evidence.
Here's the truth.
Every ancient Greek manuscript of Matthew that we possess contains the Trinitarian wording of Matthew 28:19.
There isn't a single known manuscript that reads only "in Jesus' name."
Not one.
It gets even better.
Long before Constantine was ever born...
Early Christians were already quoting Matthew exactly as we have it today.
One example is the Didache, a Christian document written in the late first or early second century.
It instructs believers to baptize:
"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
That's over 200 years before Constantine.
So if Constantine changed Matthew...
He would've had the ability to time travel.
He didn't rewrite the Bible.
He didn't edit the Bible.
He didn't remove books from the Bible.
So what did Constantine actually do?
He commissioned copies of the Scriptures for churches in Constantinople.
That's it.
He asked for 50 high-quality copies of the Scriptures to be made and distributed to the churches in Constantinople.
He wasn't changing the Bible.
He was copying the Bible.
Now that raises another question.
If the church didn't create the Bible...
Then how did we end up with these sixty-six books?
That brings us to a word you've probably heard before.
Canon.
a Canon is a giant gun….
But that’s not what we mean with the canon of scripture…
The word canon simply means...
A measuring rod.
A standard.
In other words...
The question wasn't,
"Can we make this book Scripture?"
The question was,
"Has God already spoken through this book?"
The church didn't create Scripture.
The church recognized Scripture.
As these writings circulated, churches asked several important questions.
Was it written by an apostle or someone closely connected to an apostle?
Did it agree with everything God had already revealed?
Was it consistently recognized and received throughout the churches?
In other words...
The question wasn't,
"Can we make this book Scripture?"
The question was,
"Has God already spoken through this book?"
The church wasn’t deciding which books should become God’s Word.
They were identifying which books already were God’s Word.
And that's why...
Some of these so-called "lost gospels"...
Like the Gospel of Thomas...
Were never actually "lost."
They were known.
They were read.
They were evaluated.
And they were rejected.
The Gospel of Thomas wasn't left out because the church was trying to hide something.
It was left out because it wasn't written by the Apostle Thomas.
It was written long after the apostles had died.
It wasn't consistent with the teaching that had already been handed down.
And it wasn't recognized by the churches from the beginning.
In other words...
It failed the test.
The question wasn't,
"Should we include Thomas?"
The question was,
"Did God inspire Thomas?"
And after careful examination...
The answer was no.
“What about the Book of Enoch?”
The Book of Enoch is different from the so-called lost gospels.
What we call 1 Enoch today is actually a collection of ancient Jewish writings compiled over time.
It wasn't written by the biblical Enoch before the flood.
"But Jude quotes it!"
That's true.
Jude quotes a prophecy attributed to Enoch that is preserved within 1 Enoch (Jude 14–15).
But quoting a source doesn't make the entire source inspired Scripture.
Paul quoted Greek poets.
That didn't make Greek poetry part of the Bible.
Likewise, Jude's quotation doesn't make the Book of Enoch Scripture.
The early church respected Enoch as an ancient Jewish writing...
But it never recognized it as inspired Scripture because it lacked the prophetic and apostolic authority found in the canonical books.
So when was the canon officially recognized?
The answer is...
It happened over time.
As the apostles wrote...
Their writings were copied.
Shared.
Read in churches.
Quoted by church leaders.
And recognized as Scripture.
By the end of the second century, the vast majority of the New Testament books we have today were already widely recognized throughout the Christian world.
Then, in A.D. 367, a church leader named Athanasius wrote his annual Easter letter.
In that letter, he listed the exact 27 books of the New Testament that we have today.
It is the earliest surviving document to list all twenty-seven together.
A few years later...
The regional Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) affirmed that same list.
But here's what's important.
Those councils didn't make those books Scripture.
They recognized what the churches had already been reading and recognizing for generations.
Think of it this way...
Imagine someone hands you a $100 bill.
You don't decide whether it's real.
You examine it.
You look for the markings.
The watermark.
The security strip.
The printing.
You're not making it genuine.
You're recognizing whether it already is.
In the same way...
The church didn't make these books God's Word.
They recognized the books God had already inspired.
So where does our confidence come from?
Not from an emperor.
Not from a church council.
Not from internet theories.
Our confidence rests in the God who inspired His Word.
God inspired it.
The apostles wrote it.
The churches received it.
The church recognized what God had already given.
God's people didn't give Scripture its authority.
They recognized the authority it already possessed.
Now, there's one more question we need to answer before we move on.
We've talked about whether we have the right books...
But how do we know we have the right words?
Because here's the obvious problem...
Moses didn't write Genesis in English.
Paul didn't write Romans in English.
John didn't write Revelation in English.
And unless some of you have been holding out on me...
Most of us aren't reading Hebrew and Greek this morning.
We're reading translations.
So can we trust them?
Yes.
Modern Bible translators aren't taking an English Bible and translating somebody else's translation.
They're going back to the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts.
And because we have thousands of biblical manuscripts and manuscript fragments, scholars can compare them.
Which means when manuscripts differ...
We can see it.
And here's something I love.
They don't hide it from you.
Open your Bible and look at the bottom of the page.
You'll see things like:
"Some manuscripts read..."
"Some manuscripts omit..."
"Other ancient authorities add..."
That's not evidence that your Bible can't be trusted.
That's evidence of transparency about how carefully the text has been preserved.
And somebody is already thinking...
"Okay Pastor... then why did they take verses OUT of my Bible?"
If you've ever compared the King James Version with an ESV, NIV, CSB, or another modern translation...
You may have noticed a verse number seemingly disappear.
Matthew 17 goes from verse 20...
To verse 22.
WHERE DID 21 GO?!
Nobody stole your Bible verse.
Here's what happened.
When the King James Version was translated in 1611, its translators worked from the manuscripts and printed Greek texts available to them.
Since then, scholars have gained access to much older manuscript evidence.
And sometimes those older manuscripts don't contain a sentence that appears in later copies.
So modern translators have to ask:
"What did the biblical author originally write?"
They're not removing something God said.
They're trying not to attribute to God something the original author may not have written.
And again...
They don't hide it.
That's why the verse number is still visible.
That's why there's a footnote.
That's why passages like the ending of Mark or the woman caught in adultery may appear in brackets.
They're showing you the evidence.
And here's what's important:
No essential Christian doctrine depends upon one of these disputed passages.
The deity of Christ doesn't disappear.
The Trinity doesn't disappear.
The resurrection doesn't disappear.
The Gospel doesn't disappear.
Salvation by grace through faith doesn't disappear.
God's Word has been remarkably preserved.
Now, does that mean every book with "Bible" written on the cover is equally trustworthy?
No.
And Christians need to understand this.
There is a difference between a translation and a paraphrase.
There are also different translation philosophies.
Some translations stay closer to the wording and structure of the original languages.
Others prioritize communicating the meaning naturally in English.
That's why an ESV, NIV, CSB, NASB, NKJV, or NLT might word the same verse differently.
Different doesn't automatically mean wrong.
They're making translation decisions about how best to communicate Hebrew and Greek in English.
But there are also versions I would caution you against.
The New World Translation, produced by Jehovah's Witnesses, makes translation choices that reflect their theology, especially concerning who Jesus is.
And The Passion Translation takes significant liberties with the text, sometimes adding ideas that aren't actually present in the original language.
And then something like The Message is a paraphrase.
That doesn't mean it's evil.
It means you need to understand what you're holding.
I wouldn't build doctrine from a paraphrase.
Use a reliable translation as your primary Bible.
Because Sola Scriptura doesn't just mean we care about the Bible.
It means we care about what God actually said.
We don't need to improve it.
We don't need to update it to fit our culture.
We don't need to add to it.
We don't need to take away from it.
We need to hear it.
Which brings me to where I want us to land this morning...
If God Has Spoken... Listen.
We've spent our time answering the question,
"Can I trust the Bible?"
But now we're confronted with a different question.
If God has really spoken...
Will I listen?
Because here's the reality...
We rarely reject the Bible outright.
We just give something else the final authority in our lives.
Our feelings.
Our experiences.
Our culture.
Our politics.
Our favorite preacher.
Public opinion.
Whatever has the final word...
Is your authority.
If God has spoken...
Listen.
Think about the Gospels.
Whenever Jesus commanded a demon to leave...
It left.
Not because it wanted to.
But because it recognized His authority.
Yet how often do we hear God's Word...
Understand exactly what He has said...
And still say,
"No thanks. I'd rather do it my way."
Church...
The issue usually isn't that we don't understand what God has said.
The issue is whether we'll submit to His authority.
The Bible is God's written authority.
Which means...
If I believe something that contradicts God's Word...
Then one of us is wrong.
And it isn't God.
If culture tells me one thing...
And Scripture tells me another...
Scripture wins.
If my feelings tell me one thing...
And Scripture tells me another...
Scripture wins.
If my favorite preacher says one thing...
And Scripture says another...
Scripture wins.
If I think I "heard God" tell me something...
But it contradicts His written Word...
It wasn't God.
God will never contradict what He has already spoken.
The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures...
Will never lead you to disobey the Scriptures.
That's why every impression...
Every dream...
Every prophecy...
Every sermon...
Every tradition...
Every opinion...
Must be tested by God's Word.
Because:
Scripture doesn't answer to us. We answer to Scripture.
Now, can I challenge us with something?
One of the things that convicts me when I look at other religions is the seriousness with which many of them learn their sacred texts.
In Islam, there are children and teenagers who memorize the entire Quran.
All of it.
And yet...
How many Christians have been following Jesus for ten...
Twenty...
Thirty years...
And struggle to quote five verses of Scripture?
Think about that.
There are people who have devoted themselves to memorizing an entire book that was never breathed out by God...
While many of us barely know the book we claim was.
Think about that.
We say this is the Word of God.
We say God breathed it out.
We say it is truth.
We say it is the highest authority over our lives.
And yet many Christians barely read it...
Barely study it...
Barely memorize it...
And barely know what it says.
Church, there is something deeply wrong when we claim to have the very words of God...
and treat them casually.
That should bother us.
I'm not saying you need to memorize the entire Bible.
But if we really believe what we've spent this entire morning talking about...
If this is actually God-breathed...
If this is actually truth...
If this is actually the highest authority for our lives...
Shouldn't we know it?
Shouldn't we read it?
Shouldn't we study it?
Shouldn't we memorize it?
Shouldn't we treasure it?
We can't claim Scripture Alone while barely knowing Scripture at all.
Now listen…
We don't worship the Bible.
We worship the God who gave us the Bible.
The Bible is precious...
Not because of the paper...
Not because of the ink...
But because every page points us to Jesus Christ.
The written Word leads us to the Living Word.
The Bible isn't an end in itself.
It's God's revelation of His Son.
That's why Jesus said...
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
From Genesis...
To Revelation...
Every page whispers His name.
Every promise finds its fulfillment in Him.
Every sacrifice points to Him.
Every prophecy anticipates Him.
Every Gospel proclaims Him.
Every epistle explains Him.
And Revelation reveals Him as the coming King.
Church...
If God has spoken...
Listen.
Because the God who speaks...
Is the God who loves you enough to reveal Himself to you.
Now, before we finish...
Every week throughout this series, I'm giving you what we're calling a Devoted Challenge.
And I want to remind you why we're doing this.
This series isn't just about learning six doctrines so that six weeks from now you know some cool Latin words.
We're called Devoted because Acts 2 says the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
So every week we're taking the truth we've learned on Sunday...
And we're actually going to do something with it.
Last week, I challenged you to read Colossians 1 every day.
Now...
Some of you did.
Some of you did it a couple times.
And some of you just remembered that I gave you a challenge last week.
(Look around.)
Welcome back. 😂
No condemnation. But we're trying again.
Because church, we cannot spend six weeks talking about being devoted...
While refusing to devote ourselves to anything.
And especially after what we've talked about today...
We cannot say,
"This is the inspired, God-breathed, authoritative Word of the living God..."
And then leave it sitting unopened until next Sunday.
If we believe God has spoken, we should probably care enough to hear what He said.
So here's your Devoted Challenge for Week 2.
We're reading Psalm 119.
And yes...
Psalm 119.
All 176 verses.
Before anybody starts rebuking me...
I'm not asking you to read all 176 verses tonight.
We're going to break it up throughout the week.
It averages out to about 29 verses a day….
And there's a reason I chose Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is essentially a love song about God's Word.
The Psalmist doesn't merely believe God's Word is true.
He loves it.
He treasures it.
He meditates on it.
He delights in it.
He obeys it.
And after spending an entire morning answering,
"Can I trust the Bible?"
I want us to spend the entire week asking a different question:
"Do I treasure the Bible?"
Because I don't want us to become people who can win an argument about Scripture...
But don't actually read Scripture.
I don't want us to know why Constantine didn't create the Bible...
Know what the canon is...
Know why verses have footnotes...
Know which translations to use...
And still not open the thing.
That would completely miss the point.
So this week...
Read it.
Think about it.
Pray through it.
Obey it.
And ask God:
"Give me the kind of love for Your Word that I see in Psalm 119."
