Hi friend, this is Carl Miller and you've tuned to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. For more than five decades, John was the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. And he was Grace to U's one and only Bible teacher for that entire time. Grace to U continues to be the media ministry of John MacArthur. During John's decades of studying, preaching and teaching the Word of God, some consistent themes in his pulpit ministry have been clearly seen.
Call them distinctives of John's ministry, an outworking of his commitment to clear, authoritative, God breathed Scripture. John MacArthur recently went to heaven, and the leadership of Grace to You thought it would only be the right thing to bring you a number of messages that highlight some of John's ministry distinctives. It would be impossible in such a short time to cover all the key themes, but we wanted to hit some of the most significant ones. Today's message is a good example.
So follow along now on Grace to You. Here's John MacArthur with the second half of his lesson called Scripture is Sufficient. Open your Bible, if you will, to Psalm 19. Let me read it to you. The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.
Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun.
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned. In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors?
Acquit me of hidden faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock.
and my Redeemer. In verses 7, 8, and 9, you have six statements about Scripture. Six. statements. In a sense, they're parallel statements.
Six lines of thought. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. 6. Parallel statements.
Now, there are six titles for scripture here. It is called Law, Testimony, Precepts, Commandment, Fear, and Judgments. There are six characteristics of Scripture. It is perfect, sure, Right. Pure, clean, true.
There are six benefits. It restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever. and produces comprehensive righteousness. This is an absolutely stunning Summation. of the full sufficiency of the word of God.
It is paralleled By the 176 verses in Psalm 119 which expand this. Here is God's own word concerning his Word. Let's start at the beginning. Verse 7. The law of the Lord.
is perfect Restoring the soul. The scripture From the Lord is divine instruction. That is so complete that it can totally transform the entire inner person. That's what that one line is saying. It's a stunning Line.
That's just one of six. Second statement, verse 7. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. This book Takes the naive, inexperienced, undiscerning, immature, uninformed, ignorant person whose mind is an open door. And everything comes and everything goes, and it teaches him how to shut the door, close the door.
Be discerning. That's how you live skillfully, navigate through the world. Mastering the art of living is accomplished by the knowledge and application of the Word of God. Then we come to verse 8, two more. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
This looks at Scripture as doctrines, precepts or doctrines. These are not suggestions, these are not nice ideas, these are not sort of. Floating truths that become reality when you existentially experience them. These are absolute truths. They are The precepts, or most translations might say the statutes of the Lord.
That's a very strong word. They're divine doctrines. They're not just suggestions for life. They are absolute principles for behavior. Principles for living life.
People say, well, you're too theological. You're too doctrinal. Everything in the Bible is doctrine. Doctrine simply means a truth. A truth.
A truth. The truth established, the truth communicated, a truth understood. You don't want to live your life. Without that. Divine precepts.
And he says, Scripture is divine doctrine. And it is It is right.
Now this is not right as opposed to wrong in Hebrew, it's a right path.
So it is doctrine that lays out a right path. In Psalm 119, we read that the law of the Lord is a light unto my path, a lamp unto my feet. It is a light, it is a lamp, but it's also the path. It's everything. It's the path.
It's the lamp. It's the light. This is the way. Walk you in it. This is how you go through life's maze.
This is how you navigate the world. You wander through this dangerous world, this deadly world, this deceptive world, this confused world with all its pitfalls, all the horrors that are out there, and you navigate this thing, and in the process, You do it with a joyful heart because you stay on the right path. Scripture, the doctrines of Scripture, create a right path, a way to think and a way to walk that produces joy. True joy comes from following God's Word. Jeremiah 15, 16.
Everybody rejected Jeremiah. Everybody rejected the word of God through him. He said, Your words were found, and I did eat them, and your word was in me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. He found joy, and he was the only one who obeyed the word. Everybody disobeyed, everybody rejected him, they threw him in a pit.
But the word was the joy of his heart. 1 John 1:4, these things are written that your joy may be full. 1 John 1:4, these things are written that your joy may be full. Where do you get your joy? Joy comes from the word of God applied in living a right kind of life, walking the right path.
Letting the word of Christ, Colossians 3.16, dwell in you richly. Joy in life is not from what you possess. From what you possess. Man's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses. It doesn't come from self-indulgence, doesn't come from seeking self-gratification, self-promotion.
It doesn't come from some ambition fulfilled. True, lasting, unassailable, impregnable joy comes through the Word of God. known and obeyed. Luke 11, 28, happy are those who hear the word and obey it. That's real happiness.
That's genuine bliss, genuine joy. When Jesus explained the Old Testament to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, they said, Didn't our hearts burn within us while he walked with us and talked with us and explained the scripture to us? I love the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip in Acts chapter 8. And after he had been reading Isaiah 53 and didn't understand it, and Philip explains it to him, and he believed, and he was baptized, he went on his way. Rejoicing.
Because the word of God had become the path in which he walked. Scripture is Our joy. There's another statement in verse 8. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The commandment of the Lord.
That speaks of Scripture as divine decrees, divine mandates. They are authoritative, they are sovereign, they are binding, they are non-optional demands by God on man. Disobedience means judgment and obedience means reward. These commandments, the NAS says, are pure, but the better translation is clear. Clear, lucid, transparent, easily understood, accessible.
Theologians would say the perspicuity of Scripture, its clarity. It gives clear direction for life. There are people who would like us to think the Bible is dark and muddy and ancient and out of date and even irrelevant and we can't grasp its meaning because it's far too old a book. There have been many movements in more modern times against the clarity of Scripture. And yet, our Lord expected the unbelieving Jews of his day to understand their Old Testament because he repeatedly said to them, have you not read?
Have you not heard? Have you not read? Do you not search the scriptures? It was all there. It was all clear, and they were all responsible for it.
And the writers of the New Testament wrote these massive epistles that we love and cherish. Take the epistles of Paul and sent those epistles to Gentiles with no religious history and no Old Testament knowledge and wrote them these profound epistles like the book of Romans and Galatians explaining the intricacies of the doctrines of grace and salvation to a bunch of first generation believing pagans. There are no excuses for people who don't understand Scripture. Especially those who have been redeemed and sanctified and set on a right path and who are now illumined by the Holy Spirit. The commandment of the Lord is clear.
It's clear. And It enlightens. Our eyes. We see We see the truth. It really escapes us, I think, sometimes.
We Christians. are the only people in the world who see things the way they really are. We get it. We get it. We see it for exactly what it is.
Because we see it. biblically. That means we have the mind of Christ. We think about things the way God thinks. thinks about things.
We understand life and death. We understand origins, consummation. We understand the purposes of God unfolding in history. We understand goodness and evil, sin and righteousness. We understand.
We understand God has to restrain sinners, and so we understand how the law of God in the heart and conscience works. We understand the role of family in the world and what happens to society when families start to break down. We understand the role of government and what government's responsibility in the world is and what happens to the world when that breaks down. We understand the church and the function of the church in the world. We understand what the gospel can do and only the gospel.
We understand why people hate the gospel. When I was asked on a Fox television program, why are people persecuting Christians? I only had two or three answers, two or three minutes to answer that. I could have given them an hour on why Christians are persecuted. I get that.
I understand that because Satan, the God of this world, hates the truth and hates the gospel and finds every means possible to persecute the church.
So, what's new? What's new? They killed Jesus. Jesus said they hated me, they'll hate you. We get it.
Unfortunately, the people in charge of everything don't. I wish you were all in charge. The world will be a better place.
Well, that'll happen in the millennium. Come to verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean. Enduring forever. This looks at scripture as divine worship, fear meaning worship or awe or reverence.
It's a manual on worship. Your Bible is a manual on worship. Have you ever noticed, I'm sure you have. When I read the scripture like I did this morning, What do I do after I read the scripture? I pray, right?
And what do I pray when I pray? I pray the scripture. Why? Because the scripture is the manual for worship. I pray back to God what he's revealed.
That's my amen, amen, amen, amen. I'm simply declaring back to God what He has revealed. I'm affirming, I'm confirming. My own soul, and gathering you all up in that same Confirmation. This is the manual on worship.
I wouldn't know how to worship God without His Word. Because we have to worship in spirit and in what? Truth. Fear is a metonym For worship. Just another way to say worship.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10. Everything starts with a true worship. toward God.
So here's our manual on worship. And it's clean. It's clean. What does it mean clean? Free from error.
Free from Corruption. This, if there is any singular statement that speaks in the Bible of its inerrancy, that's it. This manual of worship authored by God is free from defilement. It's free from defilement, free from corruption, free from error. Impurity.
filthiness, imperfection. Psalm 12, 6 tries to make that emphasis by saying, the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tested in a furnace seven times. Pure. And the evidence, it endures forever. Anything defiled, anything corrupt, anything tainted with sin.
is tainted with death. This is forever. I know there are people who think the Bible is antiquated, out of date, irrelevant. That is not what this is saying. What did I read at the beginning of the scripture?
Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Do we really believe that or do we think we need to update the Bible? The word of God. The manual on worship. is free from error.
and consequently it's eternal. And then a final statement in verse 9. The judgments of the Lord are true, they're righteous altogether. Judgments means adjudications from the divine bench, divine verdicts. The judge of all the earth.
Has recorded in his word his verdicts from the holy. tribunal. And they are true. They are true. Just to say that.
Uh just to say that I love to say that the Bible is true. True, absolute truth. It's a hard sell, isn't it, today? In an age of relativity and postmodern rejection of absolute truth, it is. True.
That one Simple four-letter word. Cannot Cannot ever be yielded up by the church. This book is absolutely true. Many people, Paul says, are ever learning. But never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
He calls it science falsely so called. This is True. What it says about creation is true. What it says about consummation is true. What it says about Sin and righteousness is true.
What it says about everything is absolutely true. Consequently, what is it able to do? The final statement could be translated The judgments of the Lord are true. They produce comprehensive righteousness. This book of Truth.
Complete divine truth. can produce An altogether righteous person. person. You don't need anything else. Listen.
Listen. This produces comprehensive righteousness. This is it. That's why it ends by saying, do not add to this book. Revelation 22, 18 and 19.
If you do, shall be added to you the plagues that are written in it. It's sufficient. It is The power of God to transform to make wise To give joy. Complete understanding. It is eternally Relevant.
It is absolute truth. What a gift. Right? I mean if if you're Looking at life and saying, What would I want out of life? You might say, Wow.
I'd sure like to be a different person than I am. I'm sick of my sin. This book can transform you. I wish I could navigate life. I wish I knew what to accept and what not to accept.
This book provides that wisdom. I wish I had joy in the shifting sands of circumstance. I wish I could live above it and have lasting joy. This book provides that. I wish I could see the dark things clearly.
I wish I had a deeper understanding of the mysteries of life. This book does that. I wish I had something I could go to in every circumstance, in every situation, and know that it was absolutely relevant. This book is that. And in the end, it is true.
True. There's nothing else. It is the most valuable. And that's why the psalmist then says this. The words of this book are more desirable than gold.
Yes, then much fine gold. Sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. He's trying to find words. First he says, this is our greatest truth. Treasure.
our greatest treasure. More desirable than gold, much fine gold. Then he says it's our greatest pleasure. It's sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. And then he says it's our greatest protector.
It's by the words in this book that your servant is warned. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin. It's the book of warning. It's our greatest provider. In keeping the truths of this book, there's great reward.
It is our highest treasure, our highest pleasure, our most. Protective Source of truth. It is the Pathway to our greatest reward And then he It says in all honesty It's our purifier. We have a hard time understanding our errors. We're not very good at.
Seeing the sin that's in us.
So we're liable to Stumble into sin. We would miss an awful lot. If we didn't have the spark. But this book exposes everything. And so the psalmist says, Acquit me of hidden faults.
Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and acquitted of a great transgression. He means apostasy, defection. He says, I look at my own heart and And I would stumble, I would defect, I would become an apostate, I'd wander off if I didn't have your book.
It's everything. It's everything. So, in light of that, there's the final commitment in verse 14. This is a prayer. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. How does this connect?
Well I think he has in mind Joshua 1.8. Listen to what Joshua 1.8 says. This book of the law Scripture. shall not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate on it day and night.
That's what he just said, didn't he? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Well, what are acceptable words and what is an acceptable meditation? Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
That's an acceptable meditation.
So what you're thinking about and what you're talking about ought to be what? The Word of God. That's like Deuteronomy, that's like the Shema. Talk about this when you lie down, stand up, sit down, and walk in the way. Teach it to your children.
So that you may be careful to do, says Joshua 1:8, according to all that is written in it, then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have success. You want a flourishing spiritually Affluent life? Then let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart be acceptable in God's sight, and what is acceptable in God's sight is that your thoughts. And your words are biblical. Think on these things.
Let your affections be on things above. You ought to be living in the in the biblical realm. with thoughts and words all the time.
Sooner or later, however, it It needs to show up in your life, and it will. I promise you it will. When I was just a young student, I found a little poem by Maude Fraser Jackson. She wrote this. What if I say The Bible is God's holy word, complete, inspired, without a flaw.
But let its pages stay unread from day to day and fail to learn therefrom God's law. What if I Go not there to seek the truth of which I glibly speak. For guidance in this earthly way. Does it matter what I say? I'm happy that you would say, I believe all this.
I'd be more happy if you. stayed in the word. Job said in Job twenty-three: twelve, I have treasured the words. of his mouth. More than my necessary Food.
Father, we thank you that we have been able to look again into this wonderful psalm, have our hearts. renewed again to the joy and privilege. of proclaiming This Glorious truth. Give us a love for it. Never to take it for granted.
Never to wander away. Never to substitute anything else. But to live and move and have our being in your word. Therein lies all the blessing. Thank you for giving us such a gift.
We pray that you will use it today. to convert souls. to make Naive people. Wise. to bring joy.
to bring clarity. to induce Worship. to produce that comprehensive righteousness. that honors you. Do your work, Lord, we pray.
In Christ's name, amen. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm Carl Miller. In today's special program, we've showcased one of the distinctive themes from John's 56 years of Bible teaching ministry. John's focus today, the sufficiency of God's Word.
Well friend, as we remember the life and legacy of John MacArthur, we continue to find comfort and strength in the knowledge that John is now rejoicing in the presence of his Savior. And hopefully, you'll be encouraged to know that for however long God sustains grace to you, through the support of his people, we'll be here unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. And this ministry will always and only feature the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Speaking of being encouraged, we've been so encouraged by the notes that we've received from many friends like you. And if you have a story about how God has used grace to you in your life, we'd love to hear it.
It doesn't have to be anything long. If John's Bible teaching has made a difference in your life, let us know that when you contact us today. Reach us by email, letters at gty.org. Again, that address, letters at gty.org. Using the regular mail right to GraceTU, Post Office Box 4000.
Panorama City, California, nine one four one two. If you prefer, you can call our special remembrance phone line. It's 661-295-6288. You can record a message letting us know how John's teaching has strengthened your walk with Christ. You can also express your condolences to the MacArthur family.
Leave your message on the remembrance phone line at 661-1. 295-6288. And again, if you've benefited from John's verse-by-verse Bible teaching, let us know when you contact us. Thanks, too, for praying for John's family, for the congregation of the Grace Community Church, for the team at this radio station, and for the staff of Grace to You. Your prayers are crucial.
In fact, taking us before the throne of grace really is the most important way you can support us. Thanks for your prayers. And now, on behalf of the entire Grace to You staff, I'm your host, Carl Meller, inviting you to join us for another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on the next Grace to You.
