Boast in Christ

Here's an excerpt from a sermon I preached recently on James 1:9-11. If you aren't a Christian consider how a person could possibly boast if he or she is poor. If you are a Christian meditate on the riches that are found in Christ alone, and try to look into your life and see the ways that you boast about Him.

Christian if you are poor you have riches in Christ. Consider the fact that before God created the world He had a purpose. The gospel was the secret wisdom of God which He decreed before the ages for our glory (1 Cor 2:7). This isn’t to say that you will not face any trials in this life, and James lays out that poverty is one of those trials, but one day the Lord will raise us up in the twinkling of an eye, and we will be glorified along with Christ. We have inherited much, even if we do not have the material riches of a monarchy here in this life. Take heart if you are struggling with poverty and delight in the glory of Christ, your rich inheritance. This is how a poor brother or sister is to boast, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14).” So if we are in need it is to serve a purpose, to help us see our riches in our dependence on Christ. As the hymn Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy states, “Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream, all the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of Him.”

Inerrancy & Infallibility of Scripture

Today some people can nuance these terms so that they can affirm one and deny the other. That being said it's interesting how Christians before our time used the term infallibility to describe the concept that many now describe by using the term inerrancy. That the Scriptures are without error seems to be what Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) wrote about as "infallibility" (this was first published in 1862-1864):

"As an apostle he spake divine truths, and was guided infallibly by the Spirit of God; he delivered truths without all conditions and exceptions...And you must know this, that God, as he used the apostles and excellent men to write his book, to write the word of God, to be his penmen, yet he hindered them not be men. As he hinders not godly men to be men, but at once they may be saints and men; so St Paul as a good man, desired to see them, with a reservation; but as an apostle, he spake in the certainty of divine truth...So the prophets and apostles, as men, they might be alterable without sin. For God will allow men to be men, and subject to mistakes...But as an apostle, his doctrine was without ifs and ands, without exception, as we say, 'if God permit,' &c. 'No,' saith he; 'as God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' So in the apostles, we must consider a difference of divine truths that they delivered as apostles, from those things that they purposed as men, and as holy men."

Sibbes, Richard Works of Richard Sibbes Volume 3: An Exposition of 2nd Corinthians Chapter One (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), 356.

Was the Concept of Biblical Inerrancy Invented in the 1970's?

Have you ever heard this statement? "The concept of biblical inerrancy was invented in the 1970's." If you have the person saying it was probably referring to the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy's statement called The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy written in 1978. Folks that say this are mistaken, and it is saddening that they discourage trust in the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture by saying things like this. The term inerrancy simply means "without error" as it applies to the original manuscripts of the Old & New Testaments of the Bible. Here's how B. B. Warfield described inerrancy before 1921:

"The Church, then, has held from the beginning that the Bible is the Word of God in such a sense that its words, though written by men and bearing indelibly impressed upon them the marks of their human origin, were written, nevertheless, under such an influence of the Holy Ghost as to be also the words of God, the adequate expression of His mind and will. It has always recognized that this conception of co-authorship implies that the Spirit's superintendence extends to the choice of the words by the human authors (verbal inspiration), and preserves its product from everything inconsistent with a divine authorship - thus securing, among other things, that entire truthfulness which is everywhere presupposed in and asserted for Scripture by the Biblical writers (inerrancy). Whatever minor variations may now and again have entered into the mode of statement, this has always been the core of the Church doctrine of inspiration."

Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge The Works of B. B. Warfield: Revelation and Insiration, Volume I (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, 2003), 173. [I didn't make any changes to the original quote. We took the pictures above of Warfield's grave at Princeton, NJ earlier this summer.]

Good Enough for Paul and Silas, Good Enough for Me!

I've been doing some work on genealogy, hopefully in a way that will promote stewardship of the gospel (so I don't conflict with 1 Tim 1:3-4, and Titus 3:9). It has been great! I've been reading through Grandma Braymen's diaries and the quote below was at the back of the one from 1964. This year was filled with journal entries about conflict over the children's Sunday School curriculum. She noted in her journal that Grandpa read through some of the curriculum with her and after pointing out some errors in comparison with what the Bible teaches he encouraged her to write a letter to the pastor. Here is what she wrote:

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15)

It was good for Paul & Silas - it is good enough for me.

July 14, 1964

Greetings to Rev. --

I am a Bible teacher, a Bible student - unfit spiritually to teach otherwise. God wants me to teach - & I believe it (she taught children's Sunday School).

Why I object [to the new curriculum]. [There is] no comparison to Bible lessons.

Omission of risen Christ, conversion, parables, prayer, Holy Spirit, salvation, sin, virigin birth, Easter, resurrection, ascension, miracles, Pentecost, "born again", ...1st church at Jerusalem, Christians 1st at Antioch, many more.

[The] Bible is [the] study of God's relation to man. (She then listed out some of the content of what they were studying and then wrote the following.) [This is] making Jesus in man[s] image.

I'm with Grandma on this one! The Baptist Faith and Message puts it well when it describes the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible by saying the following:

"The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a the perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation."

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.