The Sufficiency of Christ and His Word — Bob Hoekstra

Well, our study for this morning is entitled, The Sufficiency of Christ and His Word. The Sufficiency of Christ and His Word. Let's pray together, shall we? Lord, we thank you again for the indescribable blessing of being found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We thank you for who you are and what you've done for us. We thank you for this great, great salvation you've given to us. Lord, it's mercy abounding and grace upon grace. Thank you for the joy of gathering in the name of Jesus Christ and being the people of God, the present kingdom of heaven upon this earth, the place where God rules in the hearts of men and women.

Lord, we're so delighted to be a part of that. We're blessed by one another's company, but above all, we are blessed by the reality that you are here with us. And Lord, we turn our expectation toward you.

Our hope of a fruitful, valuable, edifying time together is anchored in the fact that you are here and you are good and you are kind and gracious. We thank you for your word, Lord. What an astounding treasure you've given us in the scriptures.

And we thank you for the Holy Spirit given to guide us into all the truth and to take the things of Christ and declare them to us. So Lord, we give you thanks in advance for what you're going to do as we ask you to work according to your will and your good pleasure and your great glory.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. We'll begin in the book of Colossians in a moment concerning the subject of the sufficiency of Christ and his word. A few questions about that great topic and our lives. Where do we turn to find what we need for things like family responsibilities, which are huge, job demands, which are often intensive, for maturing in spiritual wholeness, which we're absolutely called to in the scriptures?

Where do we turn for the having of real hope, not wishing, not dreaming, but real hope? Where do we turn for the necessary wisdom that we need for life day by day? Where do we turn to get the counsel we need and the counsel we need to give to others who come to us for help?

Where do we turn to get equipped to minister to others as God has called us to do? In our family, at work, at church, out in the community, from prison cells to board rooms, ministry needs to take place.

Where are the people of God to turn to get equipped and find the supply for all of these things? Well, I think the scriptures are exceedingly clear on this and abounding in encouragement, that is, we are to turn to the sufficiency of Christ and His Word.

It is only possible, really, to underestimate what is given to us in Christ and what is found in God's Word. These realities are declared by the scriptures to be sufficient, you know, to be enough. Enough for what?

Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory

Fullness of life for which God has recreated us in Christ Jesus to grow in. Let's look at a few places in Colossians, some selective spots. It's a phenomenal book in declaring the sufficiency of Christ, that the Lord Jesus Christ is enough to make life all that God intends life to be.

Here is a great declaration to that end, Colossians 127, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The declaration here is about a gloriously rich mystery. Now, the exciting thing about mysteries in the Bible is that they are revealed in the scriptures. They no longer stay mysterious. You know, mysteries out in the world, the great mysteries in the world that the world wants us to marvel at, they're like unknown.

You can't explain, you can't find an answer to them, you know, it's that kind of a mystery. It's a mystery story, it's a mystery quest. Mystery in scriptures refer to this, critical, absolute, essential truths that you could only learn by God Himself revealing them.

And see, these are the things people really need, things that people can stumble across or discover on their own, really they're very elemental, they're very mundane, they're very temporal, they do not guarantee life.

But the mysteries of God hold life itself in them. And in the Word, the mysteries are revealed. God Himself has to tell us what they're about. Here's one of the gloriously rich mysteries that is being revealed among the Gentiles, that means among all the nations.

There's a great mystery declared here that God is enlightening people on around the world and has been doing it for these 2 ,000 years because the mystery is about Christ. Here is the mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

What a great mystery to be unfolded. And it tells us where we are to place our hope, how we are to get ready for glory someday, another word to use describing the eternal dwelling place of God, heaven above, but also where to turn to find glorious things happening on the way to glory, heavenly things happening on earth as we are trekking toward heaven.

And it's where to turn when your heart yearns to give glory to God. All of these are found in this great truth, Christ in you, the hope of glory. What an astounding truth that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to come and dwell in people and among all the people who know Him.

That's a phenomenal thing. Christ, the Messiah, not the New Age Christ, the Christ spirit that all innately have within them supposedly. No, the spirit we have is inherited from Adam and it's dead, non-responsive toward God when we start out in life.

But the gospel includes this great truth that the Christ, the anointed King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who would be the Savior of all who would believe, He longs to come and set up His dwelling place in the hearts of men and women.

Christ in you, the greatest one who ever walked upon this earth and the one who had a history forever before. He was born of a virgin, Emmanuel, God with us. Christ in you, in each one of us who become His people by embracing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, saved by grace through faith, Christ comes to dwell in us and He dwells among us too.

Not only working in us individually, but working between us and working with us together. Christ in you. And those who have Christ dwelling in them, they have resident in them the hope of glory. Put it another way, the guarantee of making it to glory someday.

How good is that? The philosophies of man cannot provide that. The religions of the world cannot provide that. This is only available in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And hope, used in this sense in the New Testament, is so much more than and other than.

We typically use the word. We typically give it the sense of wish, you know. Are you going to have a good day today? Well, I hope so. Do you have a good future laid out before you? Well, I hope so. You think you might make heaven someday?

Well, I hope so. That's not this word. Synonyms for this word would be words like certainty, expectation, and guarantee. That's this word. Christ in you, the certainty of glory. Christ in you, the valid, full expectation of glory.

Christ in you, the guarantee of glory. This is possible because of who He is and what He does. He takes those who deserve hell. When they call upon His name, He comes to dwell in their lives and works with them all along the way and takes them to glory someday with Him.

And along the way, along the way as we are hoping in Him, He can bring glorious things to us and through us to bless those around us. And the ultimate is along the way God gets the glory for that kind of life.

This is a gloriously rich mystery. Those who know this and have this mystery as the explanation of their lives that would be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, they are rich beyond measure in things that can never be taken away from us, never fade.

Certainly this verse speaks of the sufficiency of Christ. He's enough for these things to be our experience. But there's more. Let's go to chapter 2, Colossians 2, 3. In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That pronoun, in whom, refers back to the last person mentioned in the previous verse, which is Christ. Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, how much we need to know the things that God wants us to know.

How much we need the wisdom to rightly walk in the things that God is letting us know. What treasures those are. Well, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge reside in the Lord Jesus Christ. In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So many things to get to know that God wants us to know, that we need to know to walk in life the way He has intended. And then even more important than knowledge from God is wisdom from God. You know, a lot of knowledge without wisdom has just trouble waiting to happen.

In fact, knowledge puffs up. We learn in the wisdom of God, knowledge applied in love. Oh, love edifies, builds people up. Well, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, and people, they're out looking for knowledge.

They're trying to develop wisdom. And the programs of man, the educational systems of man, and you know what? They cannot get you to heaven. They cannot really even develop enough insight to live a godly life from here to heaven's door.

What do you need? You need a more sufficient source. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Man's philosophy cannot provide such. Human behavior modification programs are vain and powerless in comparison with this.

What we need to know and the wisdom to walk in what we're getting to know is found in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, a person. You know, people are used to looking to places, to principles, to programs.

Ah, here's where we're going to get what we need to know. Listen, this is where we need to go. Whether we're talking to people, whether we're relating to those who have an organized system of learning, or whether we never get involved with those things.

Here's where we have to go. This is what changes everything. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this is another one of those great mysteries of God. And here's, in fact, the previous verse refers to the knowledge of the mystery of God.

This is part of it. That all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hidden there. In other words, you're not going to find them someplace else. They're hidden there.

But they're not hidden from us. They're hidden for us. You know, when you have hide-and-seek games, or you have little toddlers and they want a toy and you play a game with them and you hide it, you know?

Then what do you do? You kind of go about the business of showing them where you hid it, you know? Oh, sweetie, did you look at the closet under the stairs? Well here we are, God's kids, and we need to know these things.

And He just says, listen, I'll tell you where I hid them. They're all hidden in my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's the implication for us? Be digging into that relationship with Christ all the days of our lives.

And all the while we're digging away in the Word, looking to who He is and what He's done and what He's said and what He's promised. We're finding all of these treasures of knowledge and wisdom. Well, I'd rather sit down with the sweetest little grandma, overlooked by the world and never in one program the world ever offered of education or development or whatever.

But she had been digging all of her life in the Word of God into a greater relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's someone you can learn great things from concerning knowledge and wisdom.

Why? Because she's been digging where the treasures are. And we can be doing the same thing every day. No one can prevent this, really. No one can do it for us, really. But if we're all doing it together, think of the treasures of knowledge and wisdom we have to press on in service.

Think of what we have to share with people who come to us for help. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, this covers all of life. This covers teaching the Word. This covers raising your children.

This covers counseling, which we all need and we're all to learn to give. This verse absolutely is another place in Scripture that just trumpets out the truth, the sufficiency of Christ. He's enough. He's enough to bring a fullness of life to which God has called us.

No wonder that very soon after these great verses, we come to a combination of two verses that declare more of the sufficiency of Christ, and at the same time, standing right on these two verses, a warning about human wisdom that wants to intrude into the place of the wisdom of God.

Colossians' Warning Against Captive-Making Philosophy

And I'm speaking of Colossians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. Beware lest anyone cheat you that could be rendered, take you captive. Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of man, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Why is this warning so important? Verse 9 explains it. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, implication for us, and you are complete in Him. What an astounding declaration of the sufficiency of Christ.

But tucked right in there is a warning about things that are not according to Christ. Oh, the messages of the world abound. People selling their ideas. People selling their speculations. People selling their perspectives and their programs.

Beware. Watch out for it. You say, yeah, but, you know, God created everything and God is true, and I'm thinking wherever you find truth, all truth is God's truth and all that. Listen, not everything that sounds like it's true had its source in God.

What are we saying? Well, the tradition of man, the wisdom of the world. Watch out for it. 1 John 5, 19, the whole world lies in the lap or under the sway of the evil one. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, the God of this world.

John 10, 10, the thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. Behind the unredeemed family of man with all of its good intentions and all of its plans and promised benefits, there's an enemy of our souls at work.

And people who are great in their intentions but don't know that the enemy is wanting to manipulate their thinking, they get trapped and we're alerted. Beware. Beware lest anyone take you captive. Through what?

Philosophy. Philosophy. Man's attempted explanation of what life is all about. We're not talking here about science, true science. Believers in the Lord and His Word do not have to be threatened by it all.

True science where you just do experimentations or whatever and every time you do it, it comes out the same because God made it that way. Boy, what's the deal here? Every time I add 2 plus 2, I get 4, you know?

Probably enough to shake up a relativistic world, you know? I'd rather have some options here, 3, 5, and 6, you know? And you put this chemistry, this chemical with that chemical, it always produces this reaction.

Why? Because God made it that way and it just declares the glory of God. But you get to man's messages. Oh, this is another world. On the one hand, the heavens declare the glory of God. But then on the other hand, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit.

The heavens declare the glory of God and everything revealed in even common grace insight to how God made it work declares the glory of God. But on the other hand, when man starts to explain what's going on in the heart of man, what's going on in the mind of man, what's going on in the immaterial reality of man and how they're going to help us and change it, one word comes to mind.

Beware. Just beware. Watch out. Be careful lest anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit. See, the God of this world is greatly deceived. He actually thought long ago that he could deserve and get the throne of God for himself.

Wow. He's a little off, don't you think? He's totally deceived. And he is the master deceiver. And he's now a banished rebel and he wants to captivate, dominate, rule our lives. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit.

Well, what kind of arenas would this appear according to the tradition of man? You remember when Jesus came? The religious leaders, Jesus said, were making the scriptures of no reputation by their traditions.

Well, how is that for confusion? The tradition of the elders, the religious experts of the society, of the chosen people, Israel, they had their traditions, things to do, things not to do, how to do them, how not to do them, from the Sabbath to everything else.

And they had their little manipulating games where they could even dedicate things to God and protect themselves from actually giving to their parents and their family and others and just say, oh, we can't touch that, it's dedicated to God.

And, of course, all the while they're slipping portions of it out to themselves. And the scriptures were just canceled out in people's lives by the tradition of the elders. Watch out for the tradition of men.

If people in a society generally count on it as how to get life, develop life, and settle eternal issues, you can know it's questionable. The tradition of man, mankind in general. And, boy, traditions, they get entrenched, you know?

Tradition. Why are we doing that? Well, it's simple, haven't you heard? We've always done it this way. Oh, well then, that settles that. No, that doesn't settle that. It raises another question. What sayeth the scriptures?

What does God have to say on this subject? Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of man, according to the basic principles of the world. I get a little edgy sometimes when people say, this is the way to do it, it's just common sense.

Oh, you mean a sensibility that's common to most everyone? Yeah. Okay, now, would that explain why the world's in the state it's in? You know? That everyone just commonly believes these things? God offers to us an absolutely uncommon sense.

An insight from above. You know what they said about Jesus? No one ever spoke like this man. And no one ever could or would. We want to be taken captive, controlled by, guided by, things that are according to Christ, not according to the basic principles of the world.

You know, the world says, here's a basic principle. Well, you know, our religious fiat, God helps those who help themselves, you know, and everybody goes, oh, yes, that's the way it works. But hold it a minute.

That's not the way it works. That's not the way it works. That's what man thinks. Because he works on a merit and deserve basis. God helps those who help themselves. Oh, look at that man helping himself so much.

You know, I guess maybe that's where the self-help programs come from. Look, he's helping himself so much that I, being God, I'm just stirred to give a little more help from above. Thank God it doesn't work like that.

Because where would it all hinge on our capacity to get something going? Well, then what on earth does the Bible teach if it's not God helps those who help themselves? It's this. God helps those who finally admit they can't help themselves.

You know, the one who says, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm guilty. I'm busted. I'm broken. I'm bankrupt. No resources. No hope. I can't help me. What I've done for me has messed me up. Now, Lord, yes, and me too, brother.

Amen. That's all of us, isn't it? We want to be taken captive according to things that are of Christ. Why is that so important, verse 9? For in Him, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

All that the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have for humankind to know and enjoy and grow in on earth below. All that fullness resides in Christ. It dwells in Him. It's just innate to who He is and what He can do.

So when we're getting taken captive by these things of humanity, they're displacing the things of deity, the things of the Lord God Almighty that are offered to us through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What a reminder of what He went through to make all of this available to us. That the everlasting Son of God, who always was before time began, became a man, became one of us, took our sin and our wrong upon Himself, died upon the cross, rose again victorious over sin and death, and forever after in heaven will have a body.

Yes, a resurrected body. Yes, a glorified body. But according to Revelation, a body that will still have the evidences of crucifixion, the death that He went through to pay our debt of sin. Oh, beware of the messages of humanity.

Don't let them take us captive because in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and the personal implication for living and serving, and you are complete in Him. The fullness dwells in Christ.

Those who dwell in Christ dwell where the fullness is. And when we are counting on Him, abiding in Him, looking to Him, hoping to Him, we can experientially walk more in the reality that in Him we are complete.

See, the philosophies and programs of the world is you've got to develop a full, complete life yourself. In the Kingdom of Heaven it is, no, that complete, full, whole life is already in the Lord Jesus Christ and we're connected with Him by faith, and that fullness of life becomes the very resource that by faith and dependence we draw upon each day for Christian living and service and growth.

We are complete in Him. Kind of a play on words, really. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ. This word translated complete can be translated filled up to the full. It's another play on the word fullness.

The fullness dwells in Him. We get filled up in our relationship with Him. Fullness of life is ours in Christ. The word that speaks of making full, filling to the full. Or you could say, too, causing to abound or supplying liberally.

That's the resource we find in Christ and we are connected with Him. These verses, they cry out concerning the sufficiency of Christ. And a warning about those things that are insufficient, inadequate, contradictory to, destructive to the message of the fullness of Christ.

Christ as the Believer's Life

Here's another one, Colossians 3, verse 4. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. A wonderful reminder to live in the expectation of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ to gather His people up to be with Him forever.

But for our study, right in the middle of the verse, a phrase that is so revealing concerning the sufficiency of Christ. When Christ who is our life. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been given eternal life.

Jesus said He intends for that life to develop in fullness as we walk with Him day by day in this pilgrim path on earth. Here's the amazing thing. This eternal life that is to grow day by day in abundance, in fullness.

It's His life He's sharing with us. Christ who is our life. Sometimes we say and think, oh, I want to be more like Christ. That is a tremendous goal and desire. It's a great confession of interest and direction.

But here's the wonderful thing. This is not left up to our best copying or mimicking or shadowing. He actually is our life. The life He's called us to, He shares with us as we seek after Him and trust in Him.

You know, there are great pictures of this in Scripture. The vine and the branches. We're the branches, don't forget. The philosophy is a man. They want to make us the vine. New Age gospel. Here's the New Age gospel.

It's all about self-realization. Oh, wow, what do I need to realize about me? You just need to know this. You are God. And we say, what a letdown. You're kidding me. I'm God? It's all over. It's all over.

He's the vine, that is the life source. We're just branches. You separate us from Him, we can do nothing. Nothing. He's our life. 2 Corinthians 4, you recall. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

Us, our lives, we're like a clay pot. Empty, a clay pot. Needing special content that we were created for. What is that content? Christ in us, the hope of glory. Galatians 2 .20, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. How do you do that? In the life I now live in these flesh and bones body, this vessel, I live by face in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Every issue of life, every day, every step that we take, trusting in the Lord Jesus to be at work in and through us, He does that because He's committed to that. Well, how do you explain all of that? Well, I can't explain all of that.

I'm just busy rejoicing that that's the way it works. The just shall live by faith. The just don't end up living by being able to answer every possible question they could ever raise or that the enemy could ever shoot at them or that the world wants to know before they budge an inch.

I'm not saying I learned that the first day I walked with Christ, but He has His ways of teaching you that you can't and He can. And it puts you on your knees before God and, you know, the picture kind of develops like, Oh, I need to be, let's say, abiding in Christ.

Amen. Christ is our life. Does that not cry out the sufficiency of Christ? He's enough to give us a real life. People say, get a life, and we don't have to be insulted by that anymore. We know we can't produce it on our own.

We can just sort of say, well, I know where to go to get it. Christ who is our life. In Colossians 3 .11, speaking of the new creation, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but here's the kingdom of heaven.

Here's how it works. Here's what it's all about. Christ is all and in all. What a statement of the sufficiency of Christ. You know, in the world, in the philosophies of man, in the way people try to develop life and make decisions and find hope, these are huge categories.

People want to settle. Are you Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free? Let's get your credentials, see where you're from, see where you're about, see if I want to bother with you.

See if you have any hope or not. You know, really, isn't that a pitiful way to think? Oh, and the kingdom of man. It's huge. Do you have a religious background or not? Are you a Gentile or are you a Jew?

What is your race? What is your nationality? What is your education? What is your wealth? You know, in the kingdom of heaven, these things do not matter, brothers and sisters. I mean, they don't matter to God.

And they can matter less and less to us as we grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. These categories aren't how we settle, whether people can make it in life, be significant in their contribution, whether we want to have anything to do with them or not.

These things have nothing to do with that. There's two categories. People who don't have Christ and people who do have Christ. And we who do have Christ should have a growing compassion that those who don't have Christ join us on the same terms that we started out.

Repentant. Admitting our guilt, our need, our shame, our debt. Here's what matters in the kingdom of heaven. Christ is all and in all. The Lord Jesus Christ lives in everyone who knows him, and he wants to be becoming all in all to all of us.

And then in joy and thanksgiving and appreciation for all of that, we want to encourage everyone else. Come into this wonderful place in Christ. There's serious loss and consequence without this. There's joy unspeakable and full of glory with this.

How's this for a statement of sufficiency? Christ is all and in all. Oh, my goodness. Isn't that what sufficiency means? He is enough for fullness of life. Now, just for a few minutes, for a few minutes, let's look at the other side of this great picture.

We've looked at the sufficiency of Christ. Let's consider for a moment the sufficiency of his word. Wait a minute. Are we adding to Christ? No, no. No, we're getting the message that tells us of all the fullness of Christ.

This is his word. When I say, my wife said the most wonderful thing to me this morning. Am I separating her words from who she is? No. I'm telling you something that touched me. That was a part of her.

And it came out in her words. The scripture, these are the words of God. In fact, this is where we go to learn about the sufficiency of Christ. We don't go off on a mountain and empty our minds and om a bit and meditate some.

Boy, an empty mind. What a disaster they're waiting to have. We know who would love to fill it with his own perspectives. The enemy of our souls. No, we want our minds filled with things God has said to us in his word and then meditation is thinking on those things, considering them and being built up in them.

The Holy Scriptures Make Us Wise for Salvation

Second Timothy chapter 3, the sufficiency of God's word. Verses 14 and 15. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, the sacred heavenly writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Chapter 3 talks about the last days, verse 1. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. Verse 13, evil man. Oh, there are evil men around. And imposters, that is religious pretenders.

And they will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you, child of God, Timothy, must continue in the things which you have learned. What's that? The Holy Scriptures. Timothy, raised from childhood on the Holy Scriptures.

If you have children in your home, if you have grandchildren in your lives, the most important thing they need to learn from us is the message of the Holy Scriptures. You say, well, nobody taught me that when I was young.

Well, maybe you're young in the Lord now. Let's learn together. Let's make up for lost time. Well, I didn't do that with my kids. Well, start praying that you'll have a new opportunity to do it. Pray that others will come into their lives and help them do it.

And pray that you will be an instrument for the next generation to learn the Holy Scriptures. Well, here's a tradition of man. I just want to raise my kids kind of neutral, and I'll leave all of that to be settled when they grow up.

Someone else will be settling it for them. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Oh, let's teach our kids the Holy Scriptures. Because they're able. There's an ability in the Scripture. There's a sufficiency in the Scripture.

It's not just a religious book to learn some facts. There's a dynamic from God there. These are the words of the living God. And they're able to make us wise for salvation. Do you remember when we were foolish concerning salvation?

I can remember it was the days and years before the last week of 1965. I was a fool concerning salvation. I thought Jesus was okay for my dad. He was a wonderful man and much respected and greatly used.

Chaplain Ray, they called him. Instrument that touched many lives in the prisons, and I respected him. But, you know, if he needs that or wants to help people in need, that's fine. But I'm too wise for that.

And if you could see the real picture, you know, there's a hat there that says fool on it. But the Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation. And praise the Lord, my folks gave us huge access to the Scriptures.

Around our house and the church we went to and others praying. Who do you think is going to win out? God or the devil? Word planted, seeds planted, watered by prayer. God will get you. And so glad he tracked me down.

So glad he busted me. So glad he made me willing to say I am a fool when it comes to the things of salvation. And the Scriptures are now making me wise for salvation. How? Through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

So salvation there. The Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation. This speaks of the sufficiency of the Word of God. It's enough to bring you from deadness and sin in Adam to new life eternal in Christ Jesus.

What an impartation of wisdom. It's the Scriptures. But there's more here. The next two verses speak of the Scriptures' ability not for bringing us unto salvation but equipping us unto fullness of life.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God, the child of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Those are words of sufficiency. We've read words like that applied to Christ. How is it that we now read words like this applied to the Bible? Because these words in Scripture are the words of God. Yes, recorded by man as the Spirit stirred holy men of old.

But God attended to be sure that what they recorded and said was the message on the heart of God. All Scripture, all the writings, every word in these great letters and books from history to poetry to theological exposition, all Scripture, every word written is given by inspiration of God.