People are leaving the Word of God while affirming its truthfulness and chasing after all other kinds of things because they have the feeling that the Word can't meet their need and that is a lie of the devil that has arisen because they've never really lived a biblical life and they've never allowed, as Paul said of the Colossians, the Word of Christ to dwell in them richly. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. If there's one thing that's true about modern man, it's that he loves technology. For every problem that comes along, he creates a new electronic device or prescription drug or surgical procedure to fix it.
But how has man done with spiritual problems, the kind that computers and medicine can't touch? Can secular counseling really help people solve their toughest problems? When you're struggling with anxiety or depression or anger, or you're not sure about your purpose in life, where do you turn to for the answers you need? Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur shows you the one resource that can deliver and does deliver every time. John's study is called the Transforming Power of Scripture.
And now here's John with to day's lesson. It seems to me that one of the most subtle and dangerous threats Facing The word of God is coming from within. the category of evangelical Christianity. By people who claim to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but betray a lack of trust in its sufficiency. and therein speak evil of the word of God.
And it has forced me to ask the question: is the Bible really sufficient for matters of spiritual life? Is it sufficient for the people of God and all of the necessary resources for the fullness of living in the will of God? Or do we need to concede that the Bible has some rather glaring limitations that can only be overcome? By wisdom and technique developed by well-meaning people who want to help God out a little bit.
Now, to answer the question of scriptural sufficiency, I want you to look with me at Psalm 19. What I believe to be The most concise And direct treatment of the sufficiency of Scripture in all of the Word of God.
Now, to begin with, let's notice the sufficiency of Scripture, verses 7 through 9. Follow them as I read. The law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure.
Making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean.
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. and righteous altogether.
Now, I want you to note for a moment the structure of those three verses. There are six lines of thought. And each of those six lines has three elements. It has a title for the Word of God, a characteristic of the Word of God, and a benefit of the Word of God. Number one.
In verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The word of God then has the power of total transformation. It is so comprehensive that it can mold a soul, a living person, into precisely what God desires that person to be.
And that begins at conversion. Secondly, the psalmist says, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And he takes another step in building this tremendous, magnificent presentation of scriptural sufficiency. The Word of God can take a naive, inexperienced, undiscerning, uninformed, ignorant person and bring them to such wisdom that they can live out a godly life according to the will of God. Thirdly, would you notice verse eight of Psalm 19?
The statutes of the LORD are right. Rejoicing the heart. Where does a believer go to find joy? Where does a believer go to find relief, happiness? Deliverance from sorrow, anxiety, and depression.
Where does a believer go? Where is the resource? The testimony of the Psalmist is it's the word. It is the word that rejoices the heart. The scripture Is perfect enough to convert the soul, wise enough to make the simple profound.
and able to make the sad Joyful. Fourthly. You will notice at the end of verse 8, the commandment of the Lord is. clear The best translation is clear. enlightening the eyes.
And he uses here the word commandment.
Now commandment is another way to look at scripture. Yes, scripture is precepts. Yes, it's instruction. Yes, it's testimony. But it is also divine decrees.
And here we find the emphasis on authority, on the non-optional character of Scripture. The Bible is not full of a lot of suggestions, it is commandments, binding, authoritative commandments. This is what God requires. And for those who respond, there is blessing. For those who do not, there is judgment.
And the word of God, which comes to us as a commandment from God, he says, is clear. Is clear. That is to say, it's lucid. It's not mystifying. It's not confusing and puzzling.
Oh, yes, there are obscure elements of it. But the word of God in general, as read, is clear. It's easy to see. It gives clear direction for life. The Old Testament says, a wayfaring man, though he be a fool, need not err.
It enlightens the darkness. When there is darkness in the world and you can't understand what's going on and you don't know why things are happening the way they are, the word of God makes things clear. In contrast to the muddled, muddy musings of men who themselves are blind. To be able to see truth in this dark world, struggling to know what truth is, to be able to understand what is right and wrong, to be able to understand and be comforted in times when we can't comprehend what's happening, times like Job endured. All the knowledge of things not readily seen is revealed in the Word of God to the degree that our eyes can be sufficiently enlightened.
What a wonderful truth. The Word of God is all the revelation we need. It is clear, it is easy to understand, it leaves no doubt as to necessary truth. Proverbs 6, 23 says, The commandment is a lamp. and teaching Is light.
And so we would ask the question. Is the Bible so insufficient that it can't show us these things, that we have to depend on worldly wisdom? Do we have to go to men to ask them to explain what's happening? Do we need further revelation? Do we need psychoanalysis for spiritual problems?
From sources that long have rejected scripture. as even a source of truth? Is the Bible so incomplete that we have to turn to science to explain origin, philosophy to explain life, and sociology to explain sin? No, all the light. of life.
is in the Word of God. And again, I draw you to Psalm 119. Notice, please. Verse 52. I remember thine ordinances of old, O Lord.
and have comforted myself In the midst of distress, I went back to the word and I was comforted. Notice verse 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I looked at the way I was going and got back in line with you. In verse eighty-one to eighty-three, we find.
And equally Powerful testimony to the clarity. Of Scripture as it lightens the way. My soul faints for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? For I am become like a wineskin in the smoke.
Yet do I not forget thy statutes. When you can't see and everything is covered with smoke, as it were, you look to the word. Verse 86. All thy commandments are faithful. All thy commandments are trustworthy.
Verse 92: Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. Verse 105, Thy word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. Verse 130. The entrance of thy words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
Verse 140: Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loves it. In other words, he's saying, The word is sufficient to give me the information I need. It lightens the dark way, it gives me understanding. Yes, the scripture is sufficient for salvation. Sufficient for skill in living, sufficient for joy and happiness and satisfaction, sufficient for clear understanding of things not easily understood.
It is also, fifthly, Verse 9, clean. enduring forever. And here he uses the term fear. As a synonym for Holy Scripture. Why does he do that?
Because the Holy Scripture intends to convey fear or the awesomeness of God to bring about a reverential awe to draw us to worship. It is used in the sense of what it seeks to produce. The scripture intends to produce fear or awe or respect or worship to God, and so it is said to be the fear of the Lord. And since the habit of the human soul is to worship, the scripture then instructs us who we are to worship and how we are to worship. And this scripture, which instructs us in the worship of God, he says, is clean.
Marvelous thought. The word Tahor is the root word. The word means The absence of impurity. The absence of filthiness, the absence of defilement, the absence of imperfection. That is to be unsullied with sin, without evil, without corruption, without error.
This again, in contrast to the evil imaginations of men, the word of God is clean. There's not a taint of evil in it. You can go to it and know that what it says is absolutely pure. The truth it conveys has no taint of evil in it. The testimony of the psalmist in Psalm 12, verse 6 is a marvelous one.
The words of the Lord, he says, are pure words. Like silver. Purified seven times in an earthen furnace. The word is so pure. Hallowed, holy.
Separate from sin.
Now that's in contrast to the words of men. You can't always trust them. You can, the word of God, and consequently, you'll notice it endures forever. That is to say, you can follow it always. It's trustworthy all the time.
It never changes. It's never altered. It doesn't matter what generation it is. And when I hear these people come along and say, well, the Bible isn't sophisticated enough for our high-tech society, they don't understand. The Bible is absolutely pure and without flaw and without error and without sin and therefore needs no updating and no editing and no refining.
It is perfect. Are we to believe all of a sudden that it's got inadequacies and errors and shortcomings? that need correction and addition. Are we to believe it needs to be bolstered by people who are more sophisticated than the Holy Spirit who wrote it? Are we to believe that it cannot purify a heart and a soul and a life?
Are we to believe that people have to go someplace to learn a formula to get rid of their sin, to have an inner healing, to have a soul cleansing by some practitioner somewhere, because the word of God is not sufficient to deliver people from sin? Do we no longer believe in its power to purify a nation of people?
So that we must turn to power politics to overcome the weakness of the eternal word of the living God. God forbid that we should believe that for a moment. The word is adequate and sufficient. As a clean word to clean the heart. to purge the heart.
I call you to the testimony of the psalmist in Psalm 119. It's all right there. Psalm 119. Starting in verse 3, and we could look at a lot of scriptures. Verse 2, rather, he says, Blessed are they that keep thy testimonies and seek him with the whole heart, they also do no iniquity.
They walk in his ways. People of the word are clean. People of the word are pure. Verses 9 to 11. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
How do you go about purifying your life? By having an inner healing? By having an encounter with somebody who can direct your problems because they've got some supernatural magical power. By calling on some Contemporary science of the mind? No.
By taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee, O, let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. In verse 38, establish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear or worship. Fill me with the word.
Verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I've kept thy word. The word and obedience going together. Verse 101. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word.
Verse 172, my tongue shall speak of thy word, for all thy commandments are right, righteous. Listen, the word is sufficient for cleansing. It's sufficient for purifying the life. It is eternally relevant. It is all that is necessary for the cleansing of the soul.
We do not need practitioners. We need the word of God. And lastly, And so importantly, He says in verse 9, the word Called here. The judgments or the ordinances of the Lord are true. And as a result, they are altogether righteous.
The word ordinances means divine verdicts. Oh, what a statement. Do you know how hard it is for people in our society or in any part of the planet Earth to find truth? Do you know what a battle it is to discover truth? And we have the word that is true.
The word of the Lord is true. It's always true. Therefore, it's always dependable, always relevant, always applicable. In contrast to the lies of men who are victims of their father, the lying Devil himself It is always true. Listen, beloved, if the word of God is sufficient for salvation, if it is sufficient to perfectly transform the soul of a person, if it is sufficient for all the skills of spiritual living, if it is sufficient to bring full joy to overcome the sorrows and struggles of life, if it is sufficient to bring understanding to the dark things hard to see, if it is sufficient to purify all sin, and if in all of this it's always true, then it's got to be the source of everything in spiritual living.
And it is so trustworthy. The fact is that God in a scripture that we hold in our hands has given us a relatively perfect expression of his eternal will to establish all the necessary truth for spiritual life and duty. And I believe that with all my heart because that's the testimony of God himself. And that word in the life of an individual, energized by the Spirit of God, brings about consummate sufficiency. To believe anything less is to strike a blow against the integrity of the living God.
Now, notice the result of the truthfulness of Scripture in verse 9 is that it is altogether righteous. That is, it is totally right. And the idea of that phrase is to talk of its comprehensiveness. It is altogether righteous. There are no errors in it, yes.
But more than that, it is a complete, comprehensive, sufficient source of truth. Are we to believe? that we need more revelation? Are we to believe that we need more visions and words of prophecy? You see how ridiculous all of this is?
The word of God is sufficient. It is true and absolutely comprehensive. And I draw you one more time to Psalm 119. Verse 89. Let's start at verse 89.
Forever, O Lord. Thy word is settled. in heaven. Marvelous statement. to the sufficiency and the comprehensive completeness of Scripture.
Verse 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. Verse 137, righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Verse 138, thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. Unchanging.
Verse 142: Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Verse 151, Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth. Verse 160: Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous ordinances endures forever. Tremendous testimony. Utterly complete, comprehensive source of spiritual truth necessary for spiritual life and perfectly meeting all the spiritual needs of man.
Secondly, I want you to see as a result of that the value of Scripture. The value of it. Look at verses 10 to 13. I'm only going to mention them.
So listen carefully. It is so valuable. As a comprehensive resource for life, unequal in value because, number one, it provides the greatest possession. Verse 10. More to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold.
Listen, the word of God is the greatest possession. To have the word of God is more valuable than all the precious metal. It is The source of the greatest possession, secondly, the greatest pleasure. In verse 10, he says, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Nothing is as sweet, nothing is as pleasurable, nothing is as enriching.
Nothing is as personally meaningful. It brings the sweetest things of earth. What do you seek for? Where do you find your pleasure? I can honestly say to you, there's no pleasure in life like the pleasure and the joy, the lasting pleasure and lasting joy of hours spent in the Word of God.
You see, the resolution of all of our problems Is not a result of inadequacy of Scripture, it's the result of inadequate application of scripture. Inadequate Diligent study of scripture. Scripture is the greatest possession and the source of the greatest pleasure. Thirdly, it's the source of the greatest protection. Verse 11, moreover, by them is thy servant warned.
It's a source of protection. In the face of temptation and sin and ignorance, we need the word. It protects us. We hide it that we might not sin. And fourthly, it's the source of the greatest profit.
For in keeping of its truths there is great reward. The true reward is not here and now. The true reward is not positive confession, visualization of what you want right now. The true reward is the obedience to Scripture that brings about the glory to come. Instead of living for what we can amass here and now, like the Christian cultic preoccupation of health, wealth, and prosperity and immediate success.
We need to know the blessedness of living for the eternal reward. The scripture, yes, it is the one thing that gives us. Without question, the greatest possession, the greatest pleasure, the greatest protection, the greatest profit, and fifthly. Verses 12 and 13, the greatest purification. It is a purifier.
Look at the response of the psalmist. Even as he is going through all of this, he says, Who can understand his errors in the midst of this kind of statement about scripture? How can I ever understand why I sin, right? Why would I ever violate that which can transform me and make me wise and fill my heart with joy and enlighten my eyes? And purify my heart.
And comprehensively supply all my resources. Why would I ever violate such truth? How can I understand that? And in looking into the word, he cries out, Oh, cleanse me from secret sins. Those are the ones that I don't plan and I don't premeditate.
They're the hidden ones. And maybe I don't even remember. To confess. And then he says, And keep me also from presumptuous sins. Those are the sins I see and premeditate and plan and know about, the arrogant sins.
Keep me from the ones I don't know about, and keep me from the ones I do, and don't let those dominate me. Then I'll be upright and I'll be innocent from great transgression. Oh God, hold me back. The term great transgression is the idea of Freeing oneself or breaking past a barrier, escaping. The dominion of God, the realm of grace.
So you can see that a look at the scripture causes a backwash. A cry for purity in the heart. Yes, it is the source of the greatest purification. That little list ought to be something you keep somewhere. And when you study the Word of God and look at it, it'll remind you of what it'll do in your life.
It is the greatest possession because it gives you that which is needed for every issue of life. It is a glorious wealth. It is the greatest pleasure. It fills your heart with joy in all circumstances. It is the greatest protection because it warns you.
It is the greatest profit. It leads you to eternal reward. And the greatest purification, it cleanses the heart. The sufficiency of Scripture. The value of it.
Finally, the commitment to it. What is the response to all of this? It comes in verse 14. As the psalmist cries out, and I trust you will from your heart, let the words of my mouth And the thoughts or meditation of my heart. Be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
What he's saying is, oh God. May the things I think And the things I say be acceptable to you. Why? Because they're consistent with your what? Your word, your revelation.
He's saying, make me a man of the word. Make my thoughts biblical. Make my words biblical. Keep me in the word. That's the right commitment.
I really believe. That we're seeing sad things happen in the evangelical church today. People are leaving the word of God while affirming its truthfulness and chasing after all other kinds of things. Because they have the feeling that the word can't meet their need, and that is a lie of the devil that has arisen because they've never really lived a biblical life. And they've never really been noble like the Bereans who daily search the scriptures.
And they've never allowed, as Paul said of the Colossians, the word of Christ to dwell in them richly. They've treated it in a cursory way. and never enjoyed the power of its depths. And oh, how in this day we ought to call. the Church of Christ back.
to a preoccupation that consumes them with the living word of God. And let our message not be the message of the Bible plus the world. But let it be the message of the sufficiency of the Word of God alone. Mm-hmm. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's current study is called The Transforming Power of Scripture.
Well, friend, as you think about the amazing resource that God has given us in His Word, you might be wondering what are some practical first steps you can take to build a habit of Bible study and see the kind of transformation that John has been talking about.
Well, here are some of John's thoughts on that. You know, it's like anything else in life that's good and right and true. Uh it's a discipline you have to cultivate. Self-discipline is not a particularly natural feature of fallen people, even those that have been redeemed. You know, our flesh tends toward um ease and comfort and laziness.
There are people certainly who overcome that, but how hard it seems sometimes for Christian people to develop the discipline it takes to enrich their souls to the glory of God and for their own usefulness and joy. Fulfillment of God's purpose? We want to help you with that. We want to see your spiritual life cultivated.
So, I want to tell you about a devotional book called Remember and Return. Subtitle Rekindling Your Love for the Savior. It's about loving Christ. It's a one-month Meditation from Scripture focusing on the person of Christ. And how you must love and obey him.
Great resource for anyone who wants to make sure his or her love for Christ hasn't become cold. That's right, friend. If you want to build consistency in reading and studying God's Word, or if you felt your joy slipping away, or you've lost the passion you once had for Christ, let me encourage you to get a copy of Remember and Return. It will help you meditate on biblical truth and cultivate the kind of joy that can only be found in Christ. Pick up a copy of John's 31-day devotional called Remember and Return when you contact us today.
Call us at 800-55 GRACE. You can also order online at gty.org. Remember and Return is available for ten dollars and shipping is free. Again to order, call 800-55 GRACE or visit gty.org. Our website is also the place to go to download John's current series, The Transforming Power of Scripture.
In fact, you'll find all of the studies we've aired on radio plus hundreds of sermons that have yet to air. That's more than 3,600 sermons free to download in audio and transcript format. You'll find them at our website, the address again, gty.org. And if I could ask a favor, would you pray with us that God will use His truth? to strengthen hearts and minds through this broadcast for his glory.
That's the most important way you can partner with us. Pray for us. And thanks for doing that.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace to U television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378 and then be back Monday as John MacArthur looks at some of the most compelling truths about Christ's sacrifice for sinners from a book written 700 years before Christ came to earth. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
