Sola Scriptura #2

The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

It has everything that is needed. To know Christ, to trust Him, everything necessary is included in Scripture. Thanks for joining us on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. Today, Don continues teaching God's people God's Word with our series, The Five Solas, and part two of a message titled, Sola Scriptura. Last time, Don introduced the first of two basic principles of Scripture, the authority of Scripture. We were reminded that Scripture is inspired and inerrant.

We trust that God's Word is true, sure, and without error because it's God-breathed. On today's program, Don will move on to the second basic principle, the sufficiency of Scripture. So have your Bible open and ready as we join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit. Let's go to a second aspect of this doctrine, Sola Scriptura, rather quickly. And we'll look at the sufficiency of Scripture. The sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture is sufficient.

What we mean by that is this. The Bible contains everything that is necessary to find salvation in Christ, to trust Him, and to obey Him in a way that is acceptable to God. The Bible has everything that we need for that. That excludes other revelation. That excludes Catholic tradition. It excludes the Pope. It excludes their Magisterium.

It excludes everything else. It excludes the Book of Mormon. You know, I remember decades ago talking with a couple of Mormon missionaries before I was a brand new Christian, and I didn't, you know, I hadn't had opportunity to learn or study these things.

And their technique back then, I imagine, I suspect that it is the same today as that they'll talk this way. I'm about to describe something only to reject it. They say, you have a Bible, right? Well, you drive a stake through the Bible and you can turn it any way that you want to. And so what you need is a second stake through the Bible so that it stands firm. And they say that second stake is the Book of Mormon. God has given a new revelation that prevents people from twisting and turning the Bible around.

That's what they said to me at the time. Well, that is an utter denial of the Bible's own teaching about itself. We do not need another book of revelation. We simply need to study and to believe and to teach and to proclaim the 66 books of revelation that have already been given to us is what we need.

And again, our 1689 confession says this about the sufficiency of Scripture. I quote, The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. It is sufficient.

It is enough. It has everything that is needed to point us and to give us what we need to obey God acceptably, to know Christ, to trust Him. Everything necessary is included in Scripture. Now, you can see why false religions would have to attack this very doctrine because you are not going to find the Catholic doctrines about Mary, about purgatory, about priests. You're not going to find them within the four corners of the Bible. The only way that they can promulgate those satanic deceptions is by saying there is another equal source of authority.

They have to expand the authority in order to inject the error. If you exclude the additional revelation, the whole edifice collapses just like the twin towers came tumbling down on 9-11. And that's why this is so very important. Go back to 2 Timothy chapter 3 with me, if you would. 2 Timothy chapter 3. When we say that the Scripture is sufficient, here's what we mean. We mean that the Bible is sufficient for evangelism. It is sufficient to lead a man, Scripture alone is sufficient to lead a man to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul says in verse 14, he says, You, however, in contrast to the imposters who are deceiving and being deceived from verse 13, by contrast, Timothy, here's what I want you to do. You, however, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Paul told Timothy, What you have heard is already sufficient. The sacred writings that you have known from childhood are enough to lead a man to true salvation through faith in Christ. Scripture is sufficient for evangelism. It's as sufficient to bring a man to salvation in Christ.

What about when he's in Christ? Well, the Bible is sufficient for sanctification. That is, progress in spiritual growth and Christ-likeness. Verse 16, all Scripture is inspired by God.

And what? And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. As you walk through life and you encounter different relationships and different situations, there is within Scripture everything that is necessary to give you the wisdom to obey God and to honor Him acceptably through whatever may come to you. Through death, through joy, through adversity, through sorrow, through loss, the Word of God is sufficient to teach you. When you are straying into sin, it is sufficient to reprove you, to point out your error and then to correct you and to point you in the right path and having been put back on the right path to train you in further righteousness. Beloved, I thank God that you are faithful to be under the Word of God Sunday, Tuesday, week after week, I thank God for that because I know what the Word of God does in the hearts of those who believe and that attend the Word of God faithfully. It shapes you into the image of Christ and we don't need a bunch of other programs.

We don't need a lot of outside stuff to accomplish that result. The Word of God, when it is taught and when you receive it and believe it and read it for yourself and you study it for yourself, there is an intrinsic power in the Word of God to shape you into the image of Christ. It is the tool God gave us to that end and that's why it's what we focus on. That's why we emphasize it.

That's why it's central to us. You know, I mean, I get emotional thinking about these things because it's just so very vital. These words are your life. These words are your manna from heaven.

They are your sustenance. They are what will shape you into what God would have you to be. And the closer that we come to Scripture, the more that we expose ourselves to its truth, the more that we submit to it, the more that we believe it, the more that we obey it, the more fully its power is unleashed in our lives.

That's why we do what we do. The Bible is sufficient to guide you. Psalm 119 verse 9 says, How can a man keep his way pure? How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word.

Now, we just kind of touched on things. Evangelism, sanctification, guidance. You know, people claim that God speaks to them. And God told me what to do today. God told me where to go to find my parking space. God told me this. God spoke to me that.

Beloved, we should not talk that way. That is a denial of the sufficiency of Scripture. Everything that we need is found in the Bible. And the Bible is sufficient, and the Bible is finished. We should not be looking for some mysterious voice of God to speak to us as if we wanted private guidance for our lives today.

You know what? You already have the best guidance for your life given to you in the Word of God. It cannot be improved upon. The Word of God, Psalm 19 says, is perfect. It could not be perfect if we needed other outside revelation to help us in our daily life. Scripture would not be perfect if that was the plan of God for the growth and provision of his people. So we should not talk that way. I understand that some people speak loosely. Some people speak based on prior experience when they were thinking about things differently and they haven't fully, you know, grown into the fullness of what Scripture would say about itself. But, beloved, I want you to know for now just simply to point out to you that that is not the way maturing Christians should speak, and we should not think that way because we realize that we have in the Word of God everything that is necessary for life and godliness. As some have said, if you want to hear the Word of God, read the Bible. If you want an audible word from God, read it out loud. Now, the beauty of Scripture, the genius of Scripture, the wisdom of God in Scripture, it doesn't give us rules for everything that we do.

The Bible doesn't work that way, which just reminded me of something. Ten or fifteen years ago I was talking about this point and I made an off-handed statement. When I was talking about this point in a completely unrelated setting, when Truth Community Church was not on anybody's mind whatsoever, we've been at this for almost seven years. This was ten, twelve, or fifteen years ago. I don't even remember how long ago it was. I made the passing off-handed statement in a message that said, now God's not going to tell you whether you should go to Cincinnati or not.

I was in Los Angeles, California when I said that. I had no intention. I had no thought of Truth Community Church. I had no thought of being here. I just in this off-handed way said that. And now look at it. Here I am fifteen years later and I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio.

But you know what? God didn't need, and I didn't need, a voice from God to tell me that, to tell me to go to Cincinnati. I didn't need a verse in Scripture to whisper to my heart, Don, go to Cincinnati.

It doesn't work that way. God works, God directs us as we embrace, as we meditate, as we live by the broader principles of Scripture. And then in His providence, in relationships, in circumstances, He directs us where He wants us to go. He led me to Cincinnati without telling me to go there. Isn't that awesome?

Isn't that cool? And isn't it an amazing piece of providence that those words could come out of my mouth unprompted fifteen years earlier? And now here I am with all of you. I didn't know any of you, with the exception of my family and one or two others. I didn't know any of you when I said that.

I had no idea about Mount Carmel-Tobasco Road. And yet here we are. God guided apart from some kind of imaginary voice. And what we see in that is that Scripture guides us and helps us to fulfill the plan of God without specific words telling us what to do in specific situations. Now, the sufficiency of Scripture is also reinforced by its finality. Look at the last verses in the Bible. I said Revelation 22 verse 20 earlier. There's actually 21 verses in the closing chapter of Revelation. But in verses 18 and 19, in the concluding prophecy that is the capstone of all of Scripture and it is obvious by the content of the book of Revelation that there is no more to be said because it leads us into the eternal state. At the conclusion of a book like that, the Bible says, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book. The Bible ends on a warning. Don't add to this book.

Don't take away from it. Teach it all, but don't claim Revelation for anything else. We are not to look beyond the written word. Beloved, if something, if further revelation from God was necessary, Scripture would not be complete. If something else was necessary, Scripture would not be imperfect.

It would be lacking. And yet the whole of testimony, look at Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. It is perfect, it is complete, it is absolute, it is the final word from God.

And so we say that. You take the Bible alone or you do not take it at all because that is the testimony of Scripture to itself. Beloved, if you add to the Bible, if you say we must have other revelation, we must have a second stake as those Mormon missionaries told me so many years ago. If you add to the Bible, beloved, mark this, write this down.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. If you add to the Bible like that, you deny the Bible. You cannot have it both ways. God said about himself, I will not share my glory with another. Scripture says by all of its teaching about itself that it will not share its glory with another.

The Bible does not share its glory as the unique revelation of God with any other book, with any other claim by man. It preempts that. It forbids it. It states firmly, sola Scriptura. There is no new revelation. We reject all claims from other books, men, or religion that God has given them new revelation. We reject Catholic tradition. We reject the Pope. We reject modern revelations. We reject claims to modern prophecies in the same exact way.

Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is the teaching of the Bible. It is the teaching of the Reformation. You know, one of the things that I want to remind you of, one of the things that we were intentional about in the formation of this church is that the things that we are saying here, you know I quoted from the 1689 Confession, we're not saying anything new here. We are identifying with the streams of Reformation, Protestant understanding of the doctrines of Scripture. Even if what we are saying is in the minority position today, we are standing in the stream of what church history has taught ever since the great men of Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and others like them.

It's not that we have moved. It's that today's church has moved away from the rich tradition given to it. We are not the ones being divisive here. It is those who are denying what the church has taught over centuries that are being divisive.

They are the ones injecting something new, not us. It is crucial for you to understand that. Yes, they will make the accusation that we are being divisive by excluding their claims, but the truth is just the opposite. Scripture is a seamless cloth and they have come to rip it in order to make room for the figments of their own imagination. It is not divisive to reject that and to say no and to stand against that.

That's not divisive at all. That's just simply doing what we can in our humble, feeble way to be faithful. Now, let me finish with just some very brief clarifications here, just some very brief clarifications, three or four of them here just as we close.

This will just take a couple of minutes. Sola Scriptura does not eliminate the need for the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us understanding as we teach, as we study, we grow, we understand things that we didn't understand a year or two or ten years ago. We start to understand and grow in our understanding, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit, but we recognize that the Holy Spirit works through the word, not apart from it to help us in that way.

Sola Scriptura does not eliminate the need for human teachers. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 speaks about how God gave apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and others for the building up of the church. But those men explain Scripture rather than giving new revelation. You see the difference?

Critical distinction. I never come to you saying, God gave me a new word this morning. God gave me a vision for this church. We don't talk that way because God is not giving new revelation through men today. Rather, he equips men to teach the word that has already been completed and given and by explaining that, God gives us teachers to help us understand. They explain Scripture rather than giving new revelation.

And finally, Sola Scriptura does not eliminate the need for disciplined study of God's word. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15. If you want to turn there, I think you're in 2 Timothy 3. I don't know where I left you off.

I got off on my Cincinnati story and lost all sense of time. But in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, Paul tells his disciple as he passes the baton to him. He says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of truth. Timothy, be diligent. Apply yourself to this.

Take pains with it. Why, I ask you, why would Paul tell him that if the means of God's direction going forward was going to be new words of revelation, private words given day by day? Why the need for study if God was just going to bypass his word in order to direct his people?

You know why you need study? It's because God doesn't speak that way. He's given us a full, complete, accurate, inerrant, sufficient word, and now his call to us as individuals and as a church corporately is to study it. And so, in sola scriptura, we find that God has given us an authoritative and final book that has all we need to believe in him truly and to live a life that is pleasing to him. Let me close by reading Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, beginning in verse 10. Isaiah 55, verse 10. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth it bear and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Scripture calls us to a high view of God's word. You should have a high view of the Bible.

Do you? The backbone of our faith is Scripture. There is no other document that supersedes it as our infallible source of authority.

Indeed, we know about the rest of the five solas because we first recognize sola scriptura. Pastor Don Green will continue this series next time on The Truth Pulpit, so be sure to join us then as Don continues teaching God's people God's word. But Don, how does this doctrine manifest itself in your church on an ongoing basis?

Well, Bill, I guess there's a two-part way that I could answer that question. My friend, at Truth Community Church the authority of Scripture manifests itself in two different ways, you might say. First of all, it informs our philosophy. Everything that we do has a reason.

The things that we don't do have reasons. And those reasons are all found in Scripture. And so the entire way that we think about ministry is informed by the authority of Scripture because that's where God has spoken. The Church belongs to Christ, and we need to do ministry His way. When we gather together on Sunday morning and on Tuesdays for our studies, you'll find that the Scriptures are at the center of what we do. We preach for an hour. We sing some songs that are biblical alongside of those things. We read Scripture publicly, all designed to point people to the Word of God and to the God of the Word. Thanks, Don. And friend, be sure to visit thetruthpulpit.com to learn more about our ministry and to get free copies of this and other powerful series. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.