Sola Scriptura, Part 2

Sola Scriptura

I. Introduction

A. Sola means “Alone” or “Only”.

1) Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.

2) Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.

3) Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

4) Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.

5) Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.

B. Application

1) to repent of our worldliness;

2) to recover the great salvation doctrines of the Bible as the Reformers did five hundred years ago; and

3) to live a life transformed by the essential truths of the gospel.

C. Casting Crown lyrics for the song titled, The Word is Alive

1) The word is alive And the world and its glories will fade But its truth, it will not pass away It remains yesterday and forever the same The word is alive

The Bible was inscribed over a period of 2000 years In times of war and in days of peace By kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers Fishermen, singers and shepherds

The marvel is that a library so perfectly cohesive Could have been produced by such a diverse crowd Over a period of time which staggers the imagination Jesus is its grand subject, our good is designed And the glory of God is its end

The word is alive And it cuts like the sword through the darkness With a message of life to the hopeless and the frail Breathing life into all who believe

D. This psalm praises God for his Word, the Bible, because God has given us the Bible and it is only through the Bible that we can come to know who God is and how to praise him.

E. In his Treasury of David Charles Spurgeon devotes 349 pages to it, which is virtually a book in itself. Charles Bridges, a Church of England evangelical of the last century, wrote 481 pages about it (Banner of Truth Trust edition). His book contains a sermon for each of the psalm’s twenty-two stanzas [1]

F. The most striking feature of —one that every commentator mentions because it is so important to the psalm’s theme—is that each verse of the psalm refers to the Word of God, the Bible[2]

G. Whatever the case, at least 171 of the Psalm’s 176 verses refer to the precepts, word, laws, commandments, or decrees of God explicitly.[3]

H. There are at least eight synonyms for Scripture that dominate this psalm: “law” (torah), which occurs twenty-five times; “word” (dabar), twenty-four times; “rulings” or “ordinances” (mispatim), twenty-three times; “testimonies” (hedot), twenty-three times; “commandments” (miswoth), twenty-two times; “decrees” or “statutes” (huqqim), twenty-one times; “precepts” or “charges” (piqqudim), twenty-one times; and “sayings,” “promise,” or “word” (ʿimra), nineteen times.[4]

I. is the Bible’s most thorough exposition of the beatitude of , which it indicates from the start by its opening lines:[5]

1) ​1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.

2) 1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord! 2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!

3) How can a person find happiness? The Bible tells us that the path to a happy life—the Bible’s word for it is “blessedness”—is conforming to the law of God[6]

II. The Word of God is Permanent ()

89 Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. 91 They continue this day according to Your ordinances, For all are Your servants.

A. This stanza concentrates on the enduring nature of God’s word. The Psalmist praises God for the permanence of His word in the opening statement that: Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven

B. Regardless of what else may change in all the universe, God’s Word remains firm (). Like the heavens, it continually attests God’s unfailing power and unchanging care

1) Peter understood this 22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

2) Sufficient for Evangelism (verse 23)

i. The first thing the Word of God is sufficient for is evangelism. In fact, it is the only thing that really works in evangelism.

ii. Everything else—captivating music, moving testimonies, emotional appeals, even coming forward to make a personal commitment to Jesus Christ—all that is at best supplementary.

C. Jesus says, 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

D. Our feelings can mislead us, but God’s Word tells us the truth. The whole world will change but the permanence of the World of God allows us to steady ourselves when everything else seems to be spinning out of control.

III. The Word of God is Precious ()

92 Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. 93 I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life.

A. The psalmist now reflects on the encouragement and support that came to him from God’s laws. By God’s word he has been preserved (cf. v. 88), and those statutes that he took delight in (cf. the same or similar expressions in vv. 24, 77, 143, 174) have been his stay in times of affliction (cf. v. 77 regarding the link between delight(s) and affliction).

1) 24 Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.

2) 77 Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight.

3) 143 Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, Yet Your commandments are my delights.

4) 174 I long for Your salvation, O Lord, And Your law is my delight.

B. As we learn and trust the Word of God, we are prepared to withstand whatever pain may come our way. In His Word God shows us the secret of suffering. Sufficient for our Suffering

C. He shows us Satan as our true enemy. He shows us what sin has done to ravish His earth. He shows us that He is not distant from our sorrow, but in His Son He is a participant in it. He also shows us how suffering can become redemptive, and He gives us hope that He will come and save us and heal us from evil.

C. He shows us Satan as our true enemy. He shows us what sin has done to ravish His earth. He shows us that He is not distant from our sorrow, but in His Son He is a participant in it. He also shows us how suffering can become redemptive, and He gives us hope that He will come and save us and heal us from evil.

D. ​1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,

E. Scripture is the record of how precious we are to God. To forget that fact is to forget His love for us and to do that is an insult to the one who gave everything for us.

IV. The Word of God is Preserving ()

94 I am Yours, save me; For I have sought Your precepts. 95 The wicked wait for me to destroy me, But I will consider Your testimonies.

A. In Hebrew the emphasis here falls on the psalmist’s relationship with God: ‘I am yours; save me.’ As a consequence, he directs prayer to his God, and asks for preservation in the midst of present dangers (). The preservation of life is related to the covenantal relationship, as the psalmist knows that he belongs to God.

B. The verb “sought out” in verse 94 means “to consult, to inquire, to beat a path, to read repeatedly.

C. Here is a believer who beat a path to the Bible, read it over and over, studied it, and when he had to make a decision, consulted it carefully.

D. Philosophies change, political expedients fail, promises and contracts are broken, but the Word of God still stands.

E. 1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

F. Sufficient for Sanctification

1) This has nothing to do with either a method or an experience. It has everything to do with knowing and living by the sufficient Word of God.

G. In we discover the sufficiency of God’s Word in temptation, for it was by quotations from , , and 6: 13 that Jesus withstood Satan.

1) 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus did not reason with Satan, though his powers of reason certainly surpassed those of the tempter.

2) 7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” 16 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.

3) 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” 13 You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.

4) Jesus did not resort to supernatural power to escape this trial or somehow get rid of Satan, though he had that power as well.

5) He did not ask God for some special sign or angelic intervention to tell him what he was to say to Satan.

6) The issue was far simpler than that. Jesus knew the Bible, stood on it, and used it forcefully.

V. The Word of God is Perfect ()

96 I have seen the consummation of all perfection, But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

A. As he looks around him, the psalmist sees the limitations of earthly things, as everything fits within the boundaries that God has allotted.

B. This verse could well be a summary of Ecclesiastes, where every earthly enterprise has its day and comes to nothing, and where only in God and his commandments do we get beyond these frustrating limits

C. Sufficient for Guidance

a. There are also many specific matters related to guidance—the Ten Commandments, for example. It is God’s will that we have no other gods before him; that we do not worship him by the use of images; that we do not misuse his name; that we remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy; that we honor our parents; that we do not murder or commit adultery or steal or give false testimony or covet (cf. ).

b. Jesus amplified many of these commandments and added others, above all teaching that we are to “love each other” ().

c. It is God’s will that we be holy ().

d. It is God’s will that we should pray ().

VI. Conclusion

15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

A. Path of ministry he had been walking because “from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 15).

B. Why is the Bible able to do that? It is able to do that because it is “God-breathed” (v. 16). That is, it is the very Word of God and therefore carries within it the authority and very power of God. Yes, and it is useful too.

C. It is useful for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv. 16-17).

[1] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (p. 970). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[2] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (pp. 970–971). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[3] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (p. 971). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[4] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (p. 971). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[5] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (p. 971). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[6] Boice, J. M. (2005). : An Expositional Commentary (p. 972). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.