That day, when evening came, he said to
his disciples, let us go over to the
other side.
Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along,
just as he was in the boat.
There were also other boats with him.
A furious squall came up, and the waves
broke over the boat, so that it was
nearly swamped.
Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a
cushion.
The disciples woke him up and said to
him, teacher, don't you care if we drown?
He got up, rebuked the wind, and said
to the waves, quiet, be still.
Then the wind died down, and it was
completely calm.
He said to his disciples, why are you
so afraid?
Do you still have no faith?
They were terrified, and asked each other, who
is this?
Even the wind and the waves obey him.
May the Lord add his blessing to that
reading from his word.
Who is this?
Or as the King James Version puts it,
what manner of man is this?
That even the wind and the waves obey
him.
Let's pray.
Father, as we come around your word this
evening, will you just speak to all our
hearts and direct the truths of Scripture, so
that not only our minds comprehend, but our
emotions, our total being, respond to the claims
of the Gospel upon our lives.
Grant to us an ability to concentrate, and
we ask, O Lord, that you will pour
into our hearts your Spirit, just quicken us,
and we ask that you will cause those
of us who know you through the Lord
Jesus to be confirmed more in our faith,
and those who are at the edge of
spiritual things, may they be given an abundant
entrance into your kingdom, as we consider the
essentials this night of the Christian faith.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
When I was in Argentina, traveling through to
Uruguay last year, I met up with quite
a lot of lovely Christian folk on board
an ocean-going liner known as the Dulos.
And one of the directors of that ship,
where I was to stay for some four
weeks, had in his office a little motto,
which I thought was so interesting, that I
asked him if he'd photostat me a copy,
so that I could put it in my
office, so that when I had the same
problems as he had, I would get some
inspiration from it.
Now, it's absolute nonsense.
It's nonsense doggerel.
But listen.
It says simply this.
And I've got it in my office, so
you can't see it when you come in,
because I'm too shy to let you all
have a look at it.
It's just behind my filing cabinet.
We the willing, led by the unknowing, are
doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long,
with so little, we are now qualified to
do anything with nothing.
Nonsense doggerel, which strains after an ability to
do more than you possibly can, with absolutely
inadequate resources, on behalf of folk who, even
if you were, and I'm not referring to
people in the tabernacle, were able to do
all that they wished, you would never fully
satisfy.
We the willing, led by the unknowing, are
doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long,
with so little, we are now qualified to
do anything with nothing.
I don't know who put that together, but
at the back of his mind, he was
straining forward to a character, to a quality
that nobody, really, no ordinary human being has,
and it's the quality of infallibility.
And that leads me into my subject matter
for tonight.
Infallible?
Who is?
Is there anybody?
The year 1870 was a very interesting year
for a man by the name of Pius.
Eight people had got in with that name
before him, so he was known as Pius
IX.
And it was said of him, he was
a clergyman, a bishop in Rome, it was
said of him that he was infallible.
And those who followed in his office as
Pope also would be infallible.
Particularly, indeed exclusively, when they spoke in respect
to faith, that is, doctrine and morals.
Now the interesting thing about the Bishop of
Rome, and I'm not going to be laboring
on this this evening, just by way of
introduction, is that only twice since that decree
have two infallible pronouncements been made, by Pius
IX and later on by one of his
successors in 1950-odd.
And both of those pronouncements were wrong.
They really were.
Because they made pronouncements about the immaculate conception
of Mary.
There's no biblical evidence for that.
And as I tried to show you last
week, that when she died, after a few
days her body was taken into heaven physically,
literally, to be with God.
There's no biblical evidence for that either.
So the whole concept of infallibility as narrow
and as restricted as perhaps it's put across
these days in Catholic theology really doesn't add
up, not even in that particular area.
So I want to address this subject at
a wider level.
Indeed, what I want really to do is
to bring it back to biblical concepts and
biblical times.
Infallible?
Who really is?
And should we be looking for someone who's
infallible?
Well, I reckon to answer the latter question,
yes we should because we want someone on
whom we can rely, someone who can give
us guidance, someone who can plot our course
through this world.
And there are many, many people who are
looking for such a guide in the 20th
century.
Just a month or so ago, a man
spent in excess of 100,000 pounds buying
space in the major newspapers in the West
heralding the fact that someone called the Christ
had come back to this world.
The Christ who would be recognized as the
Jewish Messiah, as the greatest of Hindu gurus,
as a prophet, a great prophet as far
as the Muslims were concerned and as far
as the Christians go, would be indeed Jesus
Christ.
Well, we've been waiting for the actual person
to be recognized.
He's supposed to live in one of the
immigrant communities in South London.
But it's all a big mistake.
I tell you that quite categorically.
It's another attempt, and one does not doubt
the sincerity of the people who are endeavoring
to find a being with inerrancy, with infallibility
in whom they can have utter trust.
It's just an attempt to find an anchorage
in this world which is so full of
change and difficulty with many people who've got
fears.
And when this immigrant to our country eventually
reveals who he is, even though his disciples
recognize him to be the Christ, you will
discover him to be no more than another
Sung Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification
Church, one of the many claimed messiahs and
gurus of the 20th century.
It's a shame that people are getting taken
in so much in these days, but I
do understand how people want someone to rely
on.
That's why, and though I've got sympathy for
the young people, I question that they should
have used that hymn in this context.
They were singing in Cardiff Arms Park, was
it, or wherever that mass Catholic open air
was in the capital of Wales a few
days ago of the Pope.
He's got the whole world in his hands.
How wonderful it would be if physically we
could see someone who was utterly, absolutely infallible,
who could be a lead for us today
in the complex areas that we have to
negotiate as young people and as older people.
It's good to look for infallibility, but you'll
never find it in 20th century man.
You'll not find it in 19th century man,
nor 18th century man.
I want to try to show you this
evening that there is only one being and
one alone who has infallibility, who never makes
a mistake, for that's what infallibility means, who
is never found to be in error, who
is absolutely trustworthy.
When I was working out something of my
address this afternoon, I tried logically to discover
what are facets of infallibility so that you
could recognize such a being.
And it seemed to me that there were
four or five.
Anyone who was to be infallible would first
of all have to have a life without
error.
Secondly, speech without fault.
Thirdly, prediction without mistake.
Fourthly, intuition without flaw.
And fifthly, influence without parallel.
Now you've got all those safely memorized, haven't
you?
Well, I'll try again.
First of all, life without error is basic
to a claim for infallibility.
Speech without fault.
Prediction without mistake.
Intuition without flaw.
Influence without parallel.
Now in the Scriptures you had the question
read to you already twice of our Lord
Jesus Christ when the disciples said who is
this?
What manner of man is this?
Let's test Jesus alongside these five facets which
taken together seem to me to be a
reasonable definition of what infallibility is.
And if our answer indicates that Jesus has
indeed this quality then let's logically make some
commitment to Him and work out the consequences
ourselves.
First of all, if someone is infallible they
must have a life without error.
Do you know on one occasion the Lord
Jesus Christ said to a group of people
who were standing by Him and they weren't
His friends which one of you convicts me
of sin?
That was a tremendous challenge.
Could you say it to your teacher?
Could you say it to your mum, your
dad?
Those of you who are married could you
say it to your husband?
Could you say it to your wife?
Is there anyone here who can point out
anything wrong in my life?
Any error at all?
Well, I guess you just wouldn't dare to
put that challenge because you know so well
that there are many, many things that you
have done which are wrong, which are in
error.
But the Lord Jesus Christ said look, take
a telescope and review even the infancy of
my life.
See it all in perspective.
Take a magnifying glass and scrutinize every particle
of my activity and see if there's anything
that I have done which is wrong, which
is in error.
And the interesting thing is this that those
who lived most closely alongside Jesus they had
to agree that there was nothing wrong in
what He did.
There was nothing wrong in any activity in
which He engaged.
And it wasn't just those who lived closely
to Him who were His disciples.
It was other people who had some encounter
with Him.
There was the wife of Pontius Pilate when
she knew that her husband had the responsibility
of judging Jesus in our terminology she sent
Pilate a telegram and she said have nothing
to do with that just man.
And when Pilate eventually has Jesus in front
of him he says to the Jewish accusers
I find nothing amiss that he has done.
And even Judas who was responsible for betraying
Jesus as he rushes out into the night
his last recorded words as he flings the
money that he's been paid for his betrayal
is this are these I have sinned inasmuch
as I have shed innocent blood.
Whether you accept what Jesus' friends say or
just His mere acquaintances or Judas who you
might take to be His enemy you get
exactly the same conclusion His life is utterly
absolutely without error.
And I don't think in fact I'm dead
sure that there's not one person in the
tab there's not one world leader on the
international stage there's not one politician in Westminster
who would dare to say this there's not
one clergyman there's not one bishop nobody who
is absolutely living a life without error.
But the second thing that I suggested to
you was part of in the concept of
infallibility not just a life without error but
speech without fault.
Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away
but my words will never pass away.
You ever known anyone who's had the cheek
to say that?
Always felt sorry for Mr. Nixon the president
of the US a couple of presidencies ago.
Sorry for him because I believed him to
have been an able man.
But I became even more sorry and so
did he but for different reasons when I
heard that every conversation he ever had in
the White House was taped.
Several years he was president a double office
he did.
And on one occasion Kissinger who was really
his nearest confidant said to Nixon my, they've
got to live seven years just to listen
to all those tapes.
And who'd spend that amount of time?
And when those tapes have rotted in the
archives of some museum or library in the
states in a hundred or two hundred years
if the world continues that time everything that
Nixon said will more or less be forgotten.
And a lot of what he said needed
to be forgotten instantly.
Indeed.
But not Jesus.
Heaven and earth will pass away but my
words will never never never pass away.
Now he wasn't a sort of equivalent to
Nixon in the White House.
He didn't even get a position in the
Senate in Rome.
Jesus was just a carpenter just a carpenter
if you please.
Never went to college never to university never
had a big sponsorship of businessmen never got
into the public media never controlled the equivalent
to the press in these days and yet
this man from such an obscure origin as
Nazareth can anything good come out of Nazareth?
He says, my words have got so much
import built into them that when heaven and
earth pass away the universe will still know
the words which have fallen from my lips.
And you know people began to realize even
in the days when Jesus was alive that
his eloquence was something spectacular.
No man ever spoke like this man.
And that was Roman soldiers who made that
particular comment.
You can read it through and through again
in the Gospels the magnificent words of Jesus
and the response that these words bring statistically
it can be demonstrated that the Gospels are
the greatest literature that was ever written read
by more people quoted by more authorities translated
into more languages represented in more art set
to more music than any other book or
books written.
But the words of Jesus are not just
remarkable because of those statistics which I quoted.
They become remarkable because when Jesus spoke he
addressed his remarks to questions that people were
asking.
What's life all about?
What happens when I die?
How can I deal with the sin that's
in my life?
I've got a guilty conscience.
I feel utterly inadequate.
I've been a prostitute.
I've sold myself, Jesus Christ.
And I feel as dirty within as what
I sometimes look without.
Can you help me?
And Jesus addresses his remarks to those questions.
No wonder that these Gospels have been grabbed
by nations around the world and down the
centuries.
No wonder that men and women have risked
their lives to have them translated into hundreds
of different vernaculars.
Because Jesus is inspired, you see.
Never man acted like this man.
His life is completely without flaw.
His life is completely without error.
No man ever spoke like this man.
His speech is without fault.
But then, it seems to me, there's another
aspect of infallibility that needs to be examined.
Prediction without mistake.
Now, it's no discredit to the Admiral who's
leading the British task force down there in
the southern Atlantic to say that his prediction
about it being a walkover to regain the
Falkland Islands was a little untimely and he
swallowed his own words after saying them and
a day or two later you might remember
two weeks back he said we're in for
a difficult time.
Jesus never had to swallow his words because
when he made a prediction that prediction was
without mistake.
He made minor predictions and also major predictions.
As for minor, well, on one occasion he
sets up a a place where he's going
to have a meal with his disciples.
They don't quite know what room to book
and so Jesus says look, when you go
down that road and into that village you'll
find a colt that's tethered by an ass
and you're to ask the owner for the
use of that so that I can ride
into Jerusalem and what's more you'll find a
man doing a very unusual thing.
He'll be carrying a jar of water.
Follow that man and book a room in
his household because it's there that I want
to hold a Passover meal with you.
When Jesus predicts even minor events they come
through to the very letter.
But major events why, they are equally magnificent.
He speaks in terms of his own death.
Lord, you're not going to go to Jerusalem.
Yes, I am.
Why are you going?
Well, I'm going to Jerusalem to die.
And that didn't turn the disciples on at
all.
They thought it was a terrible business.
And what's more they began to believe him
by now because everything else he predicted had
come true and they got that unusual feeling
of his uncanny accuracy when he stilled the
winds and the waves and they by this
time surely had logically come to the conclusion
that if he could handle that situation then
it could be right that at Jerusalem he
was in for a nasty time.
And they weren't exactly looking forward to sharing
it with him.
And he was dead right accurate.
The Sanhedrin they got it all together the
arrest in Jerusalem the treachery of Judas.
But all these things Jesus predicts and they're
fulfilled to the last letter.
Then later on he told his disciples after
his death he'd come back.
He reminded them of Old Testament history.
You know that fellow Jonah?
Three days.
The belly of a big fish.
So as he was there incarcerated in that
submarine fish so I will be in the
heart of the earth for three days and
on the third day I'll be brought back
again.
And that is one of the most remarkable
events of history with so much positive evidence.
Jesus predicted the fall of Jerusalem in AD
70.
Jesus had some idea of the armies of
Rome coming around Jerusalem in 140.
Jesus said that his gospel would circumnavigate the
globe.
And everything that he said to the minutest
detail came true.
That's what you would expect if you postulate
infallibility.
This is where it's a bit of a
laugh what happened in 1870 in Rome.
You can't conceivably imagine a man ever being
infallible.
Not to this degree when you take the
word infallibility and squeeze it work out all
its meaning.
Who on earth is infallible?
Is anyone like Jesus here today?
You take your trade union leaders when Arthur
Scargill comes on the television set does he
fill you with inspiration or perspiration?
And you could say the complimentary thing about
the management of British affairs.
All our leaders do you find anything like
the Lord Jesus Christ and ability to predict
and to deliver the goods?
I've yet to find in my relatively short
life a political party that's kept its manifesto
promises.
They mean well and they predict what they're
going to do and then when they get
into office they tell you well it's a
different ball game because now they've seen the
books and they can't give you just what
they've promised because they're not infallible.
But Jesus delivers the goods and when you
test his life the minor areas the major
areas of his predictive ability there's truth that
rings through.
This is no hoax this gospel it's not
like the piltdown man that forgery you remember
that was skillfully put together to try and
deceive others that we'd found the missing link.
Jesus and what he had to say and
his predictions were accurate to the last letter.
Well you would expect that of infallibility.
So what points have I given you that
infallibility demands a life without error speech without
fault prediction without mistakes and intuition without flaw.
You know what intuition is?
If I say I can read you right
now and I really can do it then
that's intuition.
If I know what you're thinking just now
and again I pick up the vibes if
you're yawning but by and large I do
not have the ability to be intuitive.
But Jesus he's completely different he spots a
man by the name of Nicodemus and he
ministers to Nicodemus you can read it in
John's gospel and the first chapter and this
man is so amazed you know me and
yet we've never even been introduced.
Says Jesus yes I know I know all
about you.
And even for Judas Jesus wasn't caught by
surprise when this man engaged in the greatest
treachery that history has ever known.
Jesus knows what is in men.
He knows what is in their heart.
Look at Peter I'm not going to deny
you oh yes you are Peter I've seen
it all I can see right through you.
Peter you're a transparent book as far as
I'm concerned I can turn the pages over
one by one and I can read it
all.
Matthew or rather John's gospel has a remarkable
comment it says of the Lord Jesus Christ
that he never entrusted himself into the care
of man because he knew what was in
a man.
Have you ever thought that if Jesus is
utterly infallible he knows all about you.
You see you can fool me that's relatively
easy.
You can fool your parents you can fool
your loved ones but if Jesus has the
ingredient so to speak the characteristic of infallibility
then he sees through you just like he
saw through Peter and that's quite an embarrassing
business if you've done things that you are
as most of us if not all of
us have ashamed of.
Jesus' infallibility was an intuition without flaw it
was a prediction without mistake there was speech
without fault there was life without error but
the last thing and I promised last week
that I wouldn't speak too long so I'm
keeping my promise the last thing about the
Lord Jesus Christ if he is infallible is
this he will have influence without parallel influence
without parallel the infallible life will be an
influential life and it's interesting is it not
that when you read the Bible today it's
got relevance to the lives that we live
when you study Jesus and his sayings you
know full well that he's got something that's
very important to share with you and to
share with me you look down the centuries
and you discover that Jesus bisects history A
.D. B.C. you find that most of
the vanguard of improvement that there has been
here in Europe can trace its inspiration back
to the Lord Jesus where did we get
our hospitals from where did we get our
schools from where did most of the philanthropic
organizations come from and by and large you
find that the majority are traced back to
the ethical teaching and the way that that
has influenced men and women down the down
the centuries his influence is incomparable listen he
was born in an obscure village the child
of a peasant woman he grew up in
still another village where he worked in a
carpenter shop till he was thirty then for
three years he was an itinerant preacher he
never wrote a book he never held an
office he never had a family or owned
a house he didn't go to college he
never visited a big city he never traveled
two hundred miles from the place where he
was born he did none of the things
one usually associates with greatness he had no
credentials but himself he was only thirty three
when the tide of public opinion turned against
him his friends ran away he was turned
over to his enemies and went through the
mockery of a trial he was nailed to
a cross between two thieves while he was
dying his execution a gamble for his clothing
the only property he had on earth when
he was dead he was laid in a
borrowed grave through the pity of a friend
nineteen centuries have come and gone and today
he is the central figure of the human
race and the leader of mankind's progress it
might be said of all the armies that
ever marched of all the navies that ever
sailed of all the governments that ever reigned
all these compressed together have not affected the
history of mankind like the life of that
peasant from Nazareth a man who is infallible
will have an influence without parallel and that's
exactly the case with Jesus now I ask
you once again take my points lay them
alongside any philosopher that you might know or
any great person here in Worthing lay them
alongside any politician any charismatic figure that comes
across the television screen that you hear of
in radio that you read about in the
newspapers and see if they have these qualities
a life without error speech without fault prediction
without mistake intuition without flaw influence without parallel
but I'll tell you right now that your
quest would be in vain because there's only
one person like that there's only one who's
infallible and that is Jesus Christ do you
know him?
has his influence taken hold of your life
to the extent that you have placed yourself
under his control there's a question in the
Old Testament that says this you'll not understand
it when I quote it but you will
when I explain it what will you do
in the swelling of the Jordan tomorrow I
have to conduct the memorial service for a
deaconess of this church she died just a
few days ago I saw her hours before
she died and she was full of faith
in the Lord Jesus knowing that the surgeon
was gambling with her life with the best
intents in the world as far as he
was concerned and she wasn't afraid to die
what will you do in the swelling of
the Jordan can you say as the psalmist
says in the 23rd Psalm yea when I
walk through the valley of the shadow of
death I will fear no evil why?
because I've come under the influence of the
infallible Christ who died to save my soul
and promises me life eternal now and ultimately
reception into his father's house what will you
do when you stand in front of almighty
God this life that you live was given
you it's on loan it's on trust God
if you like is the bank manager one
day you have to give an account you've
messed it up we've all messed it up
so what do you do when you stand
before God embarrassed?
nothing to say for the sins that you
have committed no excuses to proffer that will
hold any water at all listen having come
under the influence of the infallible Christ I
can sing from the depths of my heart
bold shall I stand on that great day
and who ought to my charge shall lay
why?
because Jesus influenced me by his great love
and example he took my sin he bore
it on the cross and he pronounced me
whole he absolved me from my guilt do
you need someone who is infallible you definitely
do because only such a being can minister
to your need but such a being will
have to be God what manner of man
is this?
man truly but not all man only he
is the son of man and he is
the son of God let's bow our hearts
in prayer and
let's just make that commitment total commitment again
perhaps by all this congregation and certainly on
the part of those who are not sure
whether they are Christians let's pray quietly in
our hearts something like this Lord God we
come to you we have a quest to
find someone who is infallible who can help
us someone whose life was without error speech
was without flaw predictions absolutely accurate influence
without parallel we find your son fulfilling all
this and he tells us to come and
so we ask that you will because of
what he has done forgive our sins you
know who we are and what we are
like and through Jesus we are beginning to
discover who you are and what you are
like take us into your family accept
us as we confess our sin and fill
us with your spirit and enable us to
go through life trusting in you through our
Lord Jesus Christ Amen Holy,
Holy, Holy The infallible
Christ was in very nature God not considering
equality with God something to be grasped made
himself nothing taking the very nature of a
servant being made in human likeness and being
found in appearance as a man he humbled
himself and became obedient to death even death
on a cross therefore God exalted him to
the highest place and gave him the name
that is above every name that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow in
heaven and on earth and under the earth
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father
Lord we thank you for your infallible Son
we praise you for his inerrant word help
us to respond to all that you make
available to us through him and by the
Bible for Jesus sake Amen