The Infallibility of Scripture (sermon 2013)

There are a number of sermons which touch on this topic, or deal with it directly, during this season of Spurgeon's ministry. It is not a change of emphasis so much as a change of tone. He often, throughout his ministry, celebrates the reliability and clarity of the Word of the Lord. In the background here, though, is the Downgrade Controversy, the increasing theological liberalisation of Christianity, revealing where real faith and mere nominalism divide. That context means that some of Spurgeon's sermons, while remaining essentially pastoral, also become more polemical. Some take on an edge, as this one does, as the preacher considers what it means that "the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." This is our warrant for teaching scriptural truth; this is the claim of God's Word upon your attention; this gives to the Word of God its distinct character; this makes the truth of Scripture a ground of great alarm to many; and, this makes the Word of God the reason and the rest of our faith. While there is conviction to establish and comfort the child of God, so there is a persistent resistance to and assault upon the errors that were becoming current, and sadly remain so, undermining the confidence that we may and must have in the Scriptures as the breathed-out and written-down Word of God.