Theological term
Infallibility
25 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures (Paragraphs 1-3)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith opens with the doctrine of Holy Scripture because all subsequent confessional theology stands or falls on this foundation. This session works through paragraphs 1–3 of Chapter 1, establishing first the necessity of Scripture — grounded in the insufficiency of general revelation for saving knowledge and the cessation of direct prophetic revelation — and then the identity of Scripture, treating the question of canon (which books belong) and the exclusion of the Apocrypha. Three criteria for canonicity are examined: the providential exposure of books, the divine attributes Scripture bears, and apostolic origin broadly understood.
The Rebellion of Korah & Company
Numbers 16:1–40 records a combined ecclesiastical and political mutiny against God's ordained leaders: Korah, a Kohathite Levite, challenges Aaron's exclusive priesthood, while Dathan and Abiram challenge Moses' civil authority. The rebellion is not merely an internal dispute but an act of treason against the living God, who appointed both men to their offices. God vindicates Moses and Aaron by a catastrophic judgment — the earth swallows the ringleaders and fire consumes the 250 who offered incense — and the bronze censers are hammered into an altar covering as a perpetual memorial against unauthorized priestly intrusion. The passage warns that malcontents misrepresent truth, recruit the influential, and ultimately reap divine judgment when they resist God's ordained authority structures.
Book recommendations related CTF 2024 and the Holy Scriptures
Two teachers discuss book recommendations for those preparing for or following up on a conference treating the Holy Scriptures, with particular focus on expositions of the relevant confession chapter and works on the doctrine of Scripture. Recommendations span classical Reformed confession commentaries, treatments of divine inspiration and inerrancy, and a sixteenth-century disputation on Scripture by William Whitaker. The conversation is a brief supplementary resource guide rather than an expository sermon.
The Psalmist's Prophetic Anticipation of the Apostolic Proclamation of Christ
Psalm 19 is read not merely as a declaration of general and special revelation but as a prophetic anticipation, interpreted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10, of the apostolic proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Working through seven points across the psalm's three movements, the sermon traces the symbol, referent, and message of each image: heavens and firmament pointing to the apostles, the sun pointing to Christ the Bridegroom and Son of Righteousness, and the law, testimony, statutes, and judgments pointing to the gospel itself. The Word of God is shown to be perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous — qualities that belong to the gospel, not the Mosaic law — and its effects of conversion, wisdom, rejoicing, and enlightenment call both believer and unbeliever to rest in Christ, the Son of Righteousness, whose glory has gone out to the ends of the earth.
The Infallible Rule of All Saving Knowledge
Second Timothy 3:16–17 grounds the authority and sufficiency of Scripture in its divine origin: God breathed out these words, making them infallible, inerrant, and profitable for every purpose of the Christian life and ministry. The sermon works through the identity of Scripture (the whole Old and New Testament canon), its authority as the God-breathed word that admits no human arbitration, and its fourfold utility — doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. The specific profitability of verse 17 is shown to fit the man of God for every good work, with the primary work being the preaching of the word commanded in 2 Timothy 4:2. The practical summons is to receive Scripture's reproof and correction without shrinking, and to value sound doctrine as the very means by which God shepherds, sanctifies, and equips his people.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures, Part 1
The necessity of Holy Scripture, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 1, paragraph 1, arises from the insufficiency of general revelation to communicate saving knowledge. While creation and providence manifestly display God's goodness, wisdom, and power — leaving all men without excuse — they do not and cannot reveal blood atonement, the incarnation, or justification by faith alone. It therefore pleased God to commit His will to writing, producing a Scripture that is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The session closes with extended discussion of cessationism, the distinction between inerrancy and infallibility, and the hermeneutical principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.
The Unsurpassed Value of Scripture
Second Timothy 3:16–17 grounds the entire ministry of the Word in two foundational claims: that all Scripture is God-breathed in its origin, and therefore profitable in its use for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. The sermon establishes the identity of Scripture (Old Testament and apostolic New Testament writings), defends verbal, organic inspiration as distinct from mere human literary inspiration, and distinguishes the attributes of inspired, infallible, and inerrant as three interlocking properties of Scripture. The practical force of the passage is pressed on both the congregation and the minister: a church that neglects biblical doctrine, reproof, and correction will be stunted and vulnerable, while the man of God who saturates himself in the Word is thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Sunday School Study - July 18, 2021
The self-authenticating authority of Scripture cannot be separated from sound principles for reading it. This 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Sunday school study works through chapter one, paragraphs five through ten, drawing out the hermeneutical principles the divines embedded there: the scope of Scripture (all glory to God through Christ), the sufficiency of Scripture (confined to God's glory, man's salvation, faith, and life), the perspicuity of Scripture (salvation truths are plain even to the unlearned), and the availability of Scripture in translation. The session also addresses textual criticism, the transmission history of the biblical manuscripts, and the distinction between necessary inference and explicit statement as sources of scriptural authority. Hearers are called to come to the biblical text with humility, the illumination of the Spirit, and a due use of ordinary means rather than intellectual pride or lazy avoidance.
2nd London Baptist Confession (Chapter 1) - June 20th
What makes Christian faith in the Bible something more than a blind leap? Working through the first five paragraphs of Chapter 1 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this exposition unpacks Sola Scriptura under three headings drawn from the Confession's opening line: the certainty, sufficiency, and infallibility of Holy Scripture as 'the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.' The sermon establishes that the Bible's authority rests on God himself as its author — not on church tradition, human reason, or self-referential claim — and that full persuasion of its divine origin comes through the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit (2LCF 1.5). Rational evidences — manuscript attestation, historical reliability, eyewitness testimony to the resurrection, and the fulfillment of prophecy — are presented not as the ground of faith but as means to bolster the believer's confidence and equip him to give a reasoned defense of the hope within him.
The Purity of God's Word
Proverbs 30:5–6 presents two inseparable claims: every word of God is pure, and God is a shield to those who trust him. This sermon expounds the purity of Scripture as an attribute derived from the character of God himself, extends it across every genre and testament, and anchors it in the New Testament's own witness to its inspiration and authority. The warning of verse 6 — that adding to God's words brings divine rebuke and the verdict of liar — is applied not only to unbelieving Judaism, Roman Catholic tradition, and Charismatic continuationism, but to the Reformed believer's own temptation to bind consciences where God has not legislated. Hearers are called to read the whole counsel of God daily, to rest in its sufficiency, and to resist every impulse to place human words on a level with or in competition with divine revelation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - June 9, 2019 AM
The Christological unity of Scripture — the truth that the Old Testament prophets testified to Christ by the Spirit of Christ — grounds the believer's hope under suffering and shapes a properly Christocentric hermeneutic. Drawing from 1 Peter 1:10–12, this sermon argues that the Spirit of Christ was personally present in and through the prophets, disclosing the sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow, so that the Old Testament is not Israel-centric but Christ-centric in its ultimate focus. The sermon calls believers to read Scripture not merely for cognitive information but as a supernatural encounter with Christ himself, whose revealed glory transforms the reader into his likeness and sustains eschatological hope in the face of suffering and persecution.
2LCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
What is saving faith, and where does it come from? Working through 2 LCF (1689 LBCF) Chapter 14, paragraphs 1–3, this study traces the origin, object, and nature of saving faith. Saving faith is not a human contribution to salvation but a sovereign gift of the Holy Spirit, ordinarily wrought through the ministry of the Word and increased through the means of grace. The principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ alone — receiving and resting upon Him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace — and though faith may be weak and assailed, it cannot ultimately be lost, because its author and finisher is Christ himself.
The Final Charge to Timothy, Part 1
Paul's final formal charge to the church, delivered through Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1–2, consists of a solemn charge and a specific command: preach the Word. The solemnity of the charge is grounded in the presence of the triune God as divine audience and in the coming judgment of Christ over the living and the dead, which simultaneously weighs on the minister who handles the Word and on the people who will one day stand before God. The command itself, rooted in the image of the herald (Greek kēryx), demands faithful proclamation of the Word — not creative substitutes, not life-coaching, not entertainment — through conviction, rebuke, exhortation, longsuffering, and teaching. The sermon closes with a call for biblical preachers, biblical preaching, and biblical hearers, arguing that the church's abandonment of the pulpit is the root of her contemporary crisis.
A Sure and Proven Creed
First Timothy 1:15 presents what Charles Spurgeon called 'the whole gospel in one verse' — a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. This sermon expounds the verse under three headings: the introduction to the creed (its truthfulness and trustworthiness), the creed itself (Christ Jesus as champion, his incarnational coming, and his consummate saving work), and the demonstrable confirmation of the creed in the conversion of the Apostle Paul, the self-declared chief of sinners. Believers are exhorted to ground assurance not in inward experience but solely in the person and finished work of Christ Jesus, the Lord.
The Christocentric Gospel
John 20:30–31 gives the purpose statement for the entire Gospel of John: that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they would have life in His name. This sermon examines, first, the deliberate divine design behind gospel revelation — that God superintended the inscripturation of Scripture not to disclose all things, but to set forth with clarity the saving knowledge of Christ — and, second, the Christocentric character of that revelation, tracing how the whole of Scripture, from Moses through John, has Christ as its intended terminus. The sermon closes with a direct call to believe on Christ, warning that rejection of such a glorious Savior issues in eternal condemnation, while faith issues in spiritual life now and eternal life in the age to come.
Sola Scriptura: The Bible Alone
Hebrews 1:1–3 opens with the declaration that God has spoken — a claim the author of Hebrews treats not as background noise but as the controlling fact of redemptive history. This sermon works through six attributes of Scripture drawn from those opening verses: its divine source, its authority, its finality in the Son, its intended beneficiaries, its perspicuity, and its sufficiency for faith and life in the new covenant community. The Reformation's sola scriptura is shown to be not a negative protest but a positive testimony: Scripture alone is God's last, best, and sufficient word, complete in Christ, requiring no supplement from tradition, continuing prophecy, or moralistic self-help.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 27, 2015 PM
What makes the Bible the word of God, and how should that conviction shape the way believers read and live by it? This expository sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16–17 examines three interconnected questions: what Scripture is, where its authority comes from, and why it is indispensable. Working through Paul's claim that 'all Scripture is God-breathed,' the sermon establishes that this includes both Testaments, defends the unique apostolic authority that underwrites the New Testament writings, and argues that the doctrines of inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy are inseparable. The sermon closes with a call to imitate the psalmist of Psalm 119—hiding the word in the heart, meditating on its precepts, and rejoicing in its testimonies as in great treasure.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures
The doctrine of Scripture (1689 LBCF Chapter 1) is examined through twenty aspects drawn from paragraphs 1–10, arguing that the Holy Scriptures alone are the sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Beginning with the principium cognoscendi — Scripture as the epistemological foundation of all theology — the study moves through the limits of general revelation, the cessation of special revelation, the canon, the self-attesting authority of Scripture, and the role of the Spirit in producing genuine belief. The session closes with the Reformation axiom that Scripture is its own infallible interpreter and the supreme judge of all religious controversy, against Rome's claim that the magisterium validates the canon.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures, Part 2
What does it mean to interpret Scripture rightly, and why does it matter? This Bible study exposition of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (part 2) builds on the prior week's treatment of the doctrine of Scripture to address the discipline of hermeneutics — the principles, laws, and methods of biblical interpretation. Eight basic principles are set forth: Scripture's interpretation is a spiritual exercise requiring Spirit-dependent prayer; the text's meaning is objective, not reader-relative; the grammatical-historical method governs exegesis; context is paramount; Scripture is its own best interpreter; literary genre must be recognized; the relationship between the Old and New Testaments must be understood; and the interpreter is not alone but stands within the community of the church's gifted teachers across the centuries. The governing application is that every believer, not merely the ordained minister, must handle the Word of God accurately rather than twisting it to suit preferred meanings.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures, Part 1
What does it mean that 'all Scripture is given by inspiration of God'? This study of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 examines the doctrine of Scripture under three headings: its extent (the full Old and New Testaments as God-breathed canon), its character (Theopneustos — God-breathed, not merely humanly inspired), and its utility (profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness). The apostolic authority undergirding the New Testament canon is traced through the writings of Peter, Paul, and the early church fathers, establishing that the closed canon is the sufficient and final Word of the Covenant Lord. Hearers are called to give themselves to private Scripture reading, memorization, family worship, and faithful attendance upon the preached Word.
John 1:12-13
What is saving faith, and how does it relate to knowledge, truth, and the new birth? Expounding John 1:12–13, this study argues that saving faith is not a leap into uncertainty, a vague encounter with a divine person, or something greater than opinion but less than knowledge — it is genuine knowledge of revealed truth, specifically the propositional truths of Holy Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. The study establishes four foundational principles: regeneration must precede faith, truth is the instrumental cause and object of faith, Jesus Christ is the central content of that truth, and faith ordinarily comes through the preaching of the word.
The Historical Veracity of the Resurrection
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral doctrine but the vital, non-negotiable centre of Christian faith and proclamation. This exposition of Matthew 28 examines the historical veracity of the resurrection through three general arguments — the character of Scripture as inspired and inerrant, the straightforward historical precision of the Gospel accounts, and the authors' own stated commitment to eyewitness certainty — followed by two specific evidences: the empty tomb and the post-crucifixion appearances of Christ. The sermon applies these evidences to call believers to find their chief comfort not in self-examination or works but in the crucified and risen Savior, and to call unbelievers to bow the knee to the risen King who alone saves sinners from their sins.
God in a Feed Trough
Luke 2:1–14 presents the incarnation of the Son of God not as myth or legend but as a historically verifiable, prophetically grounded event. The sermon traces four features of the nativity narrative: its veracity, its condescension, its proclamation, and the angels' hymn of praise. The central burden is that 'God in a feed trough' — the Word made flesh, born in Bethlehem, lying in a manger — is not a sentimental image at which thought terminates, but the inaugurating moment of the redemptive mission that ends at the cross and empty tomb, and therefore the proper object of unceasing wonder, proclamation, and praise.
The Most Important Question
Psalm 119:9 asks what is in fact the most important question any person can face: how can a sinner cleanse his way before a holy God? The sermon establishes total depravity as the unavoidable presupposition of the question — every person, from infancy, stands in need of cleansing — before setting forth the Word of God as God's own appointed answer, which furnishes both justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone and ongoing sanctification by the Spirit through that same Word. Drawing on the psalmist's own eightfold example in verses 9–16, the sermon calls hearers to obedience, whole-hearted seeking, Scripture memorization, dependence on divine instruction, witness, joy, meditation, and holy determination — all while ending where the psalm ends: casting oneself as a straying sheep upon the seeking, saving grace of God in Christ.
The Attributes of Scripture
The attributes of Scripture — its extent, character, and usefulness — form the doctrinal foundation the Apostle Paul sets before Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 as the antidote to the godlessness of the last days. The sermon argues that 'all Scripture' encompasses both Old and New Testaments, that the word 'God-breathed' (theopneustos) denotes divine inspiration rather than human religious sentiment, and that an inspired Bible is necessarily infallible and inerrant. Believers are therefore called to immerse themselves in the whole counsel of Scripture, to develop a consistent systematic theology, and to be ready to proclaim and defend the gospel without hesitation.