Acts chapter 2. And this is Peter’s first sermon as it’s recorded by Dr. Luke. We won’t read the whole thing. Let’s begin it at verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up. And of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. But all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brother, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you. In the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Amen. Let’s pray. Father and our God, we come before you on this morning that you have set aside for us a day of worship and seek to begin. Help us, Lord. We’re weak, we’re frail, we’re tired, and we need the guidance of your spirit. Help us to receive whatever you have for us this morning with joy and with rejoicing. Work in our hearts now, we ask this in Jesus’s name, amen.
Okay, what have we been studying? Ouch, the word of God, yes. I can’t read lips yet, I’m working on it. What did you say? Yes, very good, Westminster Confession of Faith, which teaches us, which helps us to learn about Yes, the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. Excellent. Good work. Thank you. So quickly review chapters one or paragraphs one through five of the first chapter, which is on the Holy Scriptures.
We’ve learned about general revelation. What is general revelation? Creation. Generally speaking, creation. Are we part of creation? Yes. And so we can learn a bit about God from ourselves, right, knowing ourselves. But creation doesn’t tell us exactly who God is and who we are, and so we need what else? Special revelation makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary. those former ways of God’s revealing his will to his people now being ceased.
All of which are given, meaning the scriptures, the Bible, all of which are given by inspiration of God. What is inspiration? All scriptures inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, training, and righteousness. So what is inspiration? Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. That’s kind of a good definition of inspiration, right? That’s 2 Peter. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
We talked a bit about the rule of life and faith, and that’s a reference to Scripture, right? That is our rule for faith and life. And we see it, right? Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. The rule of faith and life. That’s what the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas. What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. We also see that in the Old Testament, don’t we? You shall follow my rules, keep my statutes, walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them.
I am the Lord. So is that the way to salvation? Well, it kind of is, isn’t it? Not you personally, but Jesus Christ. And so if you understand this passage to say, well, you must keep the law perfectly. I mean, that’s right. If you were able to do that, you would be saved, right?
But the problem is, because you’re born in Adam, you can’t. Actually, I think Jonathan Edwards puts it very well. He says, you don’t want to. Because you’re born in Adam, you don’t want to keep God’s law. But if a person does them, he shall live by them. So that’s true. So who was it that did that? Jesus. Yeah, very good. OK, so yes, sir.
Back to faith in life, this is something I’ve been wanting to ask for a couple of weeks. I would submit that the rule of faith in life is the same thing as our first catechism question, how to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Because then, how do we know? It’s the scriptures of the Old and New Testament reveal what man is to believe concerning God and what is the duty God requires of man. Is that a fair statement to say that rule of faith in life is analogous to that first question?
I think so. I’m not going to argue against that. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s what they had in mind. Well, there is some parallel between the Shorter Catechism and Confession of Faith, certainly. And they started off the Shorter Catechism, which is for children, right, with that. And so I think you’ve got a good point there. All right, so how do you know? We studied this last week. How do you know that the Bible, the 66 books, is actually the word of God? We had a pop quiz on it, actually. The answer was other. Well, the answer was other. Are we redoing that? No, we’re not. We’re not redoing it. But the other is what? It wasn’t the church. It wasn’t your human reason. It wasn’t your parents.
Holy Spirit, yes, very good. You know because the Spirit has worked in you, right? Stephen, we must distinguish between recognition and establishment. We don’t establish the canon. We recognize it. Right? Westminster Confession of Faith says, we can look at the heavenliness, the majesty, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, the full discovery, the excellencies of it, the entire perfection of the Bible. We can use our reason, and that helps us. It’s an argument to be made that this is God’s Word, but our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, that’s the other, okay? All right, good, everybody convinced of that? Anyone wanna argue against it? All right.
John 16, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Why did Christ say that, you cannot bear them now? Because they needed the Spirit, right, they needed the Spirit. This is close to the end of the upper room discourse as Jesus is about to go to the cross. And he’s saying to the disciples, you can’t bear everything I have for you yet.
Because you need the spirit. He will guide you into all the truth. It’s an interesting passage. First Corinthians two nine. These things God has revealed to us through the spirit. No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. I hate to use this phrase, but it makes sense, doesn’t it?
I mean, God is a logical God. And so he works in us. He gives us the ability to reason. And this just makes sense. We can’t comprehend the thoughts of God unless we have the Spirit. Who does comprehend the thoughts of God? Okay. And then we talked about being born again, right? You need to be born again. You can’t even see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus thought he knew God. And Jesus said, wait, wait, wait, no, you don’t, you don’t even know God. You can’t see God.
You need to be born again. All right. So we’re going to try to finish up chapter one today. I know you’re thinking that’s a big chunk. You’re thinking, I don’t think you can do that. Maybe we can’t. We’ll see. But we’ll try. So we want to talk this morning about infallibility or inerrancy, sufficiency, and touch a bit upon interpretation of the Bible. So that’s a big, big ask, right? But we’re going to try. Who thinks we can do it? OK, good. I’m glad. It’s helped me. It’s encouraging. All right. So what is infallibility? What is it? Do I have the right thing here? Webster’s 1828. Why do I go back to 1828? Well, if you went to today’s Webster’s, you probably wouldn’t get this. That’s why. That’s why. So the definition of an infallibleness from Webster’s 1828 quality of being incapable of error or mistake, entire exemption from liability to error. Do you see how, as Webster’s defined infallible, he’s really paralleling it to inerrancy.
And so I’m just going to confess to you right now, there are many theologians that really don’t see a difference between infallible and inerrant. I’m having trouble distinguishing between the two. I think someone can make, someone who’s really smart can probably make a distinction between the two. And maybe some of you can, yes, yes sir.
I’m just curious. The definition of inerrancy, would that be being incapable of making error or containing no error? We’re going to talk about it here in a minute. Good question, though. I was thinking, too, it seems like, in theory, someone or something could be infallible in what they actually say or think, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re incapable.
Wow, you guys are getting to the next few slides here already. Jumping ahead, that’s good. According to Webster’s, this is an attribute of God-only infallibleness. Let’s continue to open it up a little bit. Maybe I have the wrong slide presentation here. I don’t know. Inerrancy, this is from Ligonier. Ligonier does make a distinction, or at least the folks that wrote this for Ligonier.
Inerrancy means that scripture does not affirm any errors. The Bible does not endorse anything untrue. When it tells history, it tells what actually happened. It may report on what a person said when he told a lie. So don’t mix inerrancy with, wait a minute, that narrative just contained a lie. And so there’s error in the scripture. No, no, no. Scripture is reporting history in parts. Scripture reports history, right? The fact that David took Bathsheba is true, it’s a historical account, is it something that God approved of? No, absolutely not. Was it an, I guess we could say, was it an error of David? It was a sin of David, right?
But it reports that truthfully, and that’s what inerrancy is according to Ligonier. When it tells history, it tells us what actually happened. It may report on what a person said when he told a lie to someone else, but it does not endorse the lie. It is merely giving an accurate report of what the liar said. Where it speaks to science, it does not contradict God’s revelation in the natural world. In sum, the Bible is entirely truthful. It has no errors at all in the original manuscripts.
Do we have any of those? No. No. Do we think we’re pretty close? Yeah, so you think we’re really, really, really close. OK, so that’s their definition of inerrancy. It’s important to note that inerrancy is not a property unique to Scripture. Now, hold on here. Human beings regularly make error-free statements. Now, they’re not saying that our statements are not mixed with sin. That’s not what they’re saying. But they’re saying if you take a test, Do you ladies take tests?
Do you ever get 100%? Yes. So you have an errant exam. 100%. You didn’t get anything wrong. Now, your answers might have been mixed with sin. But it was 100%. It was inerrant. And so that’s what they’re saying. You cheated. OK, we’re friends here. Yeah, wow. OK, so you see the point they’re trying to make? We can, if I say my name is Christopher Brian Cash and I’ve said a true statement, it’s inerrant, so to speak. OK, that’s the only point they’re trying to make. It’s a mix of sin. OK, so infallibility. has to do with possibilities. This is what you were saying, I think. And it means that the Word of God is incapable of erring. Just can’t. No way. Because God can’t sin. God can’t sin. God is pure. We’re going to look at some scripture verses.
I’m not sure I’ve got the right slide presentation, but we’ll keep going. Yeah, I don’t have the right slide presentation. Would you be upset if I started over? Good. Yeah, you will. You’ll know the answers. We’ll try to skip ahead. Yeah. Sorry. I knew something was wrong. Like your dog running away. Oh, wait a minute. Don’t talk about that. Or your wife having a toothache. OK. All right. Okay, you’re not supposed to share those kinds of things. Okay, wow. That’s true. We did want to share this with you, but I didn’t. Inspiration. So I’m going back a little bit, and then we’ll jump forward.
B.B. Warfield, Revelation and Inspiration. Biblical books are called inspired as divinely determined products of inspired men. Biblical writers are called inspired as breathed into by the Holy Spirit, so that the product of their activities transcends human powers and becomes divinely authoritative. That’s the idea of inspiration. Thank you, B.B. Warfield. Divine trustworthiness. Okay, all right, so. Okay. See, there were so many things I left out. So, Derek Rishmawi, I don’t know Derek.
Classic teaching on the inerrancy or infallibility of the Bible, and yes, I’m using the term somewhat interchangeably. See, some theologians use inerrancy, infallibility, interchangeably, he does. It’s also about the nature of the text God has inspired through the human authors in the past. It is roughly the idea that whatever the Bible speaks to, it speaks to with utter truthfulness, with no falsehood attached. I thought that was a good definition. Again, from Ligonier, the Bible does not endorse anything untrue. The Bible is entirely truthful, no errors in the original manuscripts.
Infallibility has to do with possibilities. OK, I think we’re back to where we left off with the wrong presentation. OK, so some scripture passages which really strike at this. From 2 Samuel chapter 7, after David is told that the Lord is going to build him a house as opposed to he building a house for God, now O Lord God, you are God and your words are true. That strikes at the foundation of infallibility.
Your words are true. From Psalm 119, the sum of your word is truth. Sum of your words is truth. Everything that God speaks is true truth. That’s how Francis Schaeffer would put it, true truth. Absolute truth. Psalm 12, the words of the Lord are pure words like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified how many times? And what is perfection usually in scripture? Seven. The words of the Lord are pure words, purified seven times.
Every, from Psalm, from Proverbs 30, every word of God is tested. The ESV translates tested as true. I think the NASB may get it more right with this. Every word of God is tested. And then the high priestly prayer, as Jesus is praying to his father, sanctified them, who are them? People of God, yes. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. You ever think of that? By and through the word of God, you’re being sanctified. OK, questions on inerrancy, infallibility? Yes, sir. Just an example.
Presbyterian, I would affirm that I believe the Westminster Confession is an errant, meaning that it contains no errors. But I wouldn’t say that it is infallible, meaning that it couldn’t contain errors. It has the possibility to contain errors. I just personally believe that it doesn’t. So could I say I believe that it’s an errant but not infallible?
It’s interesting, and I have to ponder that for a while. My initial reaction is probably no. And we don’t actually subscribe to the original version of the Westminster Confession. So as history unfolded and as this particular church adopted the Westminster Confession, I think the men who did so came to the conclusion that the original version did contain error. So I’d have to be careful before I would agree with you on that one. I tend to not agree with you. But I have to think through that.
Good question, though. Thank you for trying to make that distinction. Anything else? Yes, sir. The Chicago Statement, 1978, on vertical inerrancy. Do you have any problems with that? I’d have to read it first. I’m not sure I’ve ever read it. I mean, it appears to be a good, solid, faithful statement. OK. But it’s been under attack. You’re challenging me. I’m going to have to open it up and read it now. OK. Thank you. Anything else? OK.
920, are the scriptures sufficient? Can we move on to the next point? Do the scriptures include everything expressly? Yes, no. OK. We’ve got a yes to the first question, a no to the second. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man, salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture. All things necessary. Think they’re right?
Yes. Is it sufficient for that? Yes. Yes. OK. All right. That’s a very broad, seemingly all-encompassing statement. All things necessary. That’s really broad. I mean, you guys are really confident. But you must consider the words used to qualify or limit that broad statement regarding all things, right? All things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life.
So can I learn how to add two plus two from reading the Bible? No, thank you for answering. No, I can’t. But that’s not what this says. This says all things necessary for God’s glory, for your salvation, faith, and life. Now, you may say, well, for life, I need to know how to go to the grocery store and buy things and add up the bill and make sure it’s right. Well, that’s not what they’re talking about.
Example for man’s salvation, we actually read one this morning. Where did we read this morning? Something about faith and life. Acts chapter two. What did the brothers say to Peter? What are we gonna do? Wow, you just told us that we killed the Messiah. What are we gonna do? Repent, right? Very clear.
Then he brought them out, this is Acts chapter 16, this is the Philippian jailer. When the chains fell off of Paul and Silas, the doors swung open, the jailer’s about to kill himself because he thinks everyone’s gone. Paul says, no, no, no, turn the lights on, we’re still here, we’re still here. And so the Philippian jailer knows that these men have been singing hymns, that they’ve been in prison for preaching Jesus Christ.
He says, what must I do to be saved? And it’s so very clear. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. All things, all things concerning God’s glory, man’s salvation, right here in the Word of God. We don’t need to. We actually can’t go anywhere else.
That’s just one example. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture. What does that mean? By good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.
Kind of important. We know what? What? What? No. I was going to say comparing scripture to scripture is deducing. OK. That gets to interpretation. Yeah. Good. We know that God is one living and true God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Reformed theology, this is referred to as the Trinity. Where is that word in the Bible? What? It’s deducing. The word trinity is not found in scripture, so how do we get to the doctrine of the trinity?
Good and necessary consequence. Put simply, this means that not just the explicit text, but also those truths that unavoidably arise from the text are also part of the meaning of God’s word that comes from table talk. Unavoidably arise. deduced good and necessary consequence. And so the Trinity, it’s not in the Bible.
Consider a speeding driver. Is there a specific scripture on speed limits? No. Indirect. But there isn’t one. Like on 6a, what’s the speed limit there? I don’t know. What time of year? Right. So clearly not. If we consider our duty to obey those earthly authorities God sets over us, Romans 13, 1 through 7, we are justified in claiming that it’s not just the police, but God who wants us to obey speed limits. Table talk. We must learn to distinguish between good consequences and necessary ones. those two words are used, by the divines. And I think they’re good. Failure to do so will either lead to a legalistic or disobedient life. What is a legalistic life? What does that mean, legalistic? What is legalism? It’s the opposite of antinomianism. OK, so what’s antinomianism?
Anti means against. Nomian, the law. Against the law. So there are some who would say, you know what? The law of God is gone. It’s passe, so to speak. We’re under grace. I had a Mason that was working for us. He was working on Sundays, I think that was the issue. And I was talking to him about not working on Sundays. He said, no, no, no, we’re under grace. I had a hard time hearing that.
We are under grace. But does that mean the law is gone? No, no, no. But that’s an antinomian. Right? We’re under grace. The law is gone. We don’t have to obey that anymore. So what’s the opposite of that? Legalism. What’s legalism? Yes, sir? Not quite. That’s self-righteousness. Adding to scripture, how long is your hair? Yes. Adding to God’s word, and then saying, well, you need to do that. So all men should wear bow ties. OK. So I can’t do that. That would be legalism. That’s a fairly narrow definition of legalism.
And so good and necessary are two words that are helpful to us so that we don’t bend either way into legalism or antinomianism. So in short, unless a teaching we have derived from scripture is both good and necessary, we may not use it to bind others. It’s gotta be both. So Hebrews 10, 25 warns us not to neglect meeting together.
Does this mean it’s absolutely necessary to be a member of a home group? No. Home groups are good consequences of that text, but not a good and necessary one. Good one. But are they necessary? No. Therefore, they should not be made binding. So if the elders get together tomorrow night and say, we’re going to have home groups, and we’re going to force every single person to go to one, well, where is that in the scripture? It’s good to have home groups. It’s not necessary. That’s what they’re saying.
We’re setting a higher bar for membership of our churches than Christ does for his kingdom. Does that make sense? Sufficiency. Is the scripture sufficient? You already said yes. OK. Are there things that we need to deduce from scripture? Yes. How do we do that? By good and necessary consequence. Yes, sir. So would you say then a good and necessary deduction from scripture is infallible? Can we get it wrong? We can.
If it really is by the work of the Spirit, good and necessary, then yes, I would say that that’s infallible. So the Trinity, as we bring together various scripture passages and we deduce from multiple scripture passages that God exists in three persons, I think he has communicated that to us by and through his word with the help of the Spirit. Maybe that’s a roundabout way of answering your question, but I think so. But it’s got to be good and necessary.
It’s got to be the work of the spirit convicting us of that. I think you used the word unavoidable. I forget what slide you had the word unavoidable. Arise unavoidably, something like that. That would imply to me that in order for it to be a necessary deduction is infallible. Yeah. If it’s unavoidable. Yeah.
I like how Jesus used, when he was asked by the, who are the people that didn’t believe in the Resurrection? Sadducees. Sadducees, mm-hmm. He used, what I would say, or James LaBelle taught me this, that he used, well, the Lord is the God of the living, not the dead. So there’s, that’s deduction from Scripture. Mm-hmm. I’m taking it. That’s unavoidably infallible kind of statement. Good. Thank you. So how do we interpret Scripture? Yes, sir?
All things in Scripture are not plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded What does that mean, to propound? To be set forth in it. And open in some place of scripture or other that not only the learned, but the unlearned in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. OK.
So that’s paragraph 7, and the divines acknowledge that not all scripture is as clear as other parts of scripture, right? But for salvation, it’s clear. The doctrine of perspicuity, that’s a hard word to say. It means that the Bible is understandable with regard to certain aspects of salvation. Anyone can come to Scripture and discover how they can be saved. This is from Ligonier. Even children, those lacking formal education, the Bible is clear in its teaching about salvation and its basic principles for pleasing God. It’s clear. That’s what perspicuity means. Do you agree? Yes. OK. All right.
In fact, God’s Word is simple enough that it can be taught to children. Deuteronomy chapter 6, these words I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. Why would God say that if or unless the word was so clear that you could teach it to your children? Well, just that statement, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. I mean, that’s simple. It’s so clear. Yes. Yes.
But what about other passages of the scripture which may not be so clear? How do we interpret those? How do we understand? Second Peter, 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 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. Peter himself says, look, Paul is sometimes just hard to understand. Wow. Do you agree with Peter? Which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. So there are some things in scripture which are more difficult. So how do we interpret those? How do we understand? Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination. So is illumination different than inspiration? Yes. Okay, how? Oh, that’s okay, that’s good, that’s good. So inspiration in terms of biblical inspiration is God breathed into certain men his very word.
They became an instrument of God to inscripturate his word, and that’s closed, right? 66 books, that’s it, no more. God has revealed to us a special revelation, exactly what He wants us to have, and it’s not gonna be opened up anymore until we get the glory. Illumination, illumination is what the Spirit does with those who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, who put their trust in Him, to open your eyes to the meaning, to the understanding of Scripture. You, if you’re believing in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, have been and continue to be illumined. So illumination is for all believers.
It’s the work of the Spirit. Does it make sense? Difference? They both begin with I, but very different. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary The saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word.” It comes from, again, 1st chapter, paragraph 6. We acknowledge we need the work of the Spirit. OK, so how do we interpret Scripture? The infallible, this is what Stephen said, the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. Therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold but one.” What do they mean by that? Like, there are 66 books, right? 40-some authors. It’s a lot of different stuff, right? No, no, they’re saying no. They’re saying it’s one. There’s one author. Who’s that? God. Yes. So the true and full sense of any scripture must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.
So you come to a passage and you think, OK, I’m having difficulty with this, not understanding this. Do you have Bibles with cross-references? You know what a cross-reference is? You get those little numbers or letters by a verse, and you can go and they reference other verses which might help you understand that verse. So it’s cross. Does that make sense? That’s what they’re talking about here. Well, they’re not really actually talking about cross-reference, but we’ve been helped by others who provide those cross-references for us.
Scripture interprets scripture. All right, after they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name and with the words of the prophets. We agree, just as it is written. Can you see? Does that help? So what’s James doing? James is going back to the Old Testament, which wasn’t actually the Old Testament back then.
It’s just the scripture, just the Bible, so to speak. And so he’s bringing that forward. Listen to me, Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree just as it’s written. From James chapter 2, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? James is going back to what book? Genesis. You see that faith was active along with his works. And faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled. It says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works. What? What’s James saying? Well, how do you know that? He was sanctified by the truth. Yeah, he was. But is James really saying that it’s your work that justifies you? Well, it’s the works of Jesus in us, right? Well, how do you know? How do you interpret? We’re talking about interpretation. How do you interpret this verse? Because initially, some people didn’t think that this was part of the Bible. Stephen? Stephen, what do you think?
Paul says that you’re justified by faith alone. So if they’re both written by the Holy Spirit, then we can understand that, or inspired by the Holy Spirit, we can understand that what James is saying is not contradictory to what Paul is saying, but rather complementary to it. So you have to ask yourself the question, what does he mean by justified by words?
Yes. We need both. We need both. Because if we love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul, all of our mind, and we don’t love our neighbors, in other words, to present my faith is by showing my neighbor kindness. If he’s hungry, give him something to eat.
You know, so. Yes. You could. So we begin with scripture doesn’t contradict itself, right? If there’s one author and it’s God, and God is true, remember we’ve already studied that, the infallible portion, inerrant. He can’t be wrong. He does speak truth. He is pure. So if we begin with that, that’s kind of why we began, maybe that’s why we began with inerrancy and infallibility. Begin there, we say, okay, there can’t be contradictions in the Bible. If we find a contradiction, it’s not God’s problem, it’s our problem.
So we’ve got to figure out, okay, what’s going on? Why am I getting this wrong? So if we understand what James is writing as being, okay, you’re justified by your work, go work. That’s not what he’s writing. How do we know that? Well, in an argument in another church with a member, and saying, well, we can tell just from this passage itself. And I think you can. I think you can, just from this passage, understand what James is saying. But there’s lots of controversy about it, so we go to other passages. We go to other passages and see what other passages say to help us understand this.
So I have a question. Sort of like that, yes. So they go together. You really can’t separate. You can’t. You can’t separate faith and works. You can’t. So in that sense, if you can’t separate faith and works, then James is saying what Paul said. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah.
This is one thing that Martin Luther didn’t understand. Because he said, we are saved by faith and grace in Jesus Christ. But he Martin Luther was trying to work his way into glory. That’s what he thought the Bible was teaching. That’s what the Roman Catholic Church was, in fact, teaching.
You’ve got to do penance. You’ve got to walk upstairs on your knees. You’ve got to deny yourself all kinds of things. You’ve got to sleep on the floor until you get rid of the sin, right? Keep on doing it until you get rid of the sin. And he never could, right? And so the Lord finally illumines him Right. So that he then came to the conclusion that it’s by belief that you’re saved. Faith by grace. Right. So. We go to Romans. To say, hey, help me. What becomes of our boasting? It’s excluded by what kind of law? By law of works? No, but by the law of faith, for we’re told that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” So okay, so now we’ve got to read these together.
And so what James is saying is, look, if you say that you don’t have to work or you’re not showing anything going on in your heart because you’re not working, something’s wrong with you. I’m not sure that your faith is actually sincere. Because if you have sincere faith, you’re going to have works. That’s what James is saying. Not that you’re saved by your works. That’s not what James is saying. So we read these together. That’s how we interpret James. So is Paul saying that works are unimportant? Absolutely not. He’s not saying that. So we read them together. We interpret them together. It’s one. We have one author. So what if we disagree? What if we disagree? Hmm. Well, maybe you and I would disagree. I hope not. The Supreme Judge verse chapter, look at this, how many paragraphs are there in chapter one? I think there are 10.
The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees of counsels, opinions of ancient writers, writers, doctrines of men, private spirits are to be examined and in whose sentence we are to rest can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in scripture. So who’s the judge when we have disagreements? Spirit. How many spirits are there?
Just one. Just one. Just one. So, are we going to have disagreements? Probably. Who’s going to resolve them? The Spirit. There’s only one. Sometimes it takes hard-headed men like me, the Spirit working on me, working on me, working on me, to help me to get it right. So you can be praying for that. can be praying for that.
Questions? Yes, sir. Just a comment. Many years ago, I was told that, I don’t remember by whom, when you come across a difficult passage, park it in the back of your mind. And as you go through the scriptures, bingo, you’ll find it somewhere. Yeah, good. Good advice. Good counsel. Meditate, ponder, mull it over.
The Lord will work. Ask the Lord to help. Okay, we started late. We’ll finish a little early. Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. What a joy. What a privilege to have it. We thank you for preserving it for us. And we ask, Holy Spirit, even now that you’d help us illumine our hearts. For we are corrupt in Adam, but yet you abide in us. And so we ask even this morning that you would guide and direct us. Help us, Lord, to truly know you, to truly know your son by the work of your spirit. Help us. We ask all these things in Jesus’s name. Amen.