Sola Scriptura - [2 Timothy 3:16]

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It was May of this year, Kim and I and the children were in Wittenberg, Germany for the
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Reformation 500 conference with Christian Andresen and the European Bible Training Center.
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It may be one of my all -time favorite conferences because the family was involved, and so Kim and the three girls, they helped with all kinds of registration with food and with books and all types of sundry tasks.
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And Luke was helping with the speakers, and then I was one of the speakers, so I made sure Luke helped me a lot. It's great to just be able to serve together as a family.
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So when we went, we said to Christian and Cheryl, whatever you need, we want to help you with that, and so just use the ebondroths and we would like to serve.
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Well, Christian took me at my word, and he said, by the way, we've got a lot of people who want a tour of the city of Wittenberg, Germany, and they're going to pay eight euros to do it, including some of the master's seminary faculty and other people, and we'd like you to lead that tour tomorrow.
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On the inside, I thought, oh, great. On the outside, I said, we'd love to. I'd love to do that. Rush back to the room and try to study.
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I mean, I know generally about the Reformation, but I've never given a tour of the city in Wittenberg.
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This is Luther's statue. This is Luther's house. This is Luther's chair. And as I was studying for that,
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I noticed that God, in a perfect way, a perfect, wonderful providential storm, put together everything he needed for the truths of the
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Reformation to come out. So in the 1400s, you had the Gutenberg Press, and now you can print things very quickly.
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You also had, in Wittenberg in 1503, a new university, the University of Wittenberg, Villa Correa, and that was a very wonderful thing, because the town is small.
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It's indescript. How can someone like Luther and Melanchthon and others come from such a small, little place?
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And so you've got the Gutenberg Press, and you've got a university there, and you've got the Elbe River for the transport of goods and flow of information, so these theological contagions and these theological viruses can travel.
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But at the center of the Reformation, God used something called the Erasmus Greek New Testament.
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And Erasmus was a Roman Catholic humanist, and he wanted to get the Bible in the original language that it was written.
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So up until this point, you have Jerome's Vulgate written in Latin, and that's what the church had.
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And if you're looking at the New Testament, if it's written in Greek, and it is, and you've got a Latin version, just how close can you get?
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After all, if I said to you, you're saved by grace through faith, that is proper doctrine.
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But if you were to say, you're saved by grace because of faith, that's heresy. So every little word is important, and so God puts together all these issues, including the
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Erasmus Greek New Testament. And you might know that the second edition is what
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Luther used to translate the Greek New Testament into the vernacular, the mother tongue of German.
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But what you might not know is that another man named William Tyndale used Erasmus' third edition to translate the
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Bible into English. We have the Bible now in English for lots of reasons, and one is because Tyndale, back in the early 1500s, wanted you to have the
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Bible so you could read it for yourself. You will stand before God one day, and wouldn't it be nice to know what he thinks, who he is, what his requirements are for heaven, how to meet those requirements, our trust in one who can meet them for you?
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Tyndale knew Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, and French, but he was a man who had a mother tongue with English, and he wanted the
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Bible in English. The problem is, when he said, let's get the Bible in English, people knew in England there's trouble in Wittenberg, there's trouble in Europe, there's trouble because of the
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Reformation. We want to squelch that. We don't want to have anything here. Tyndale said, it is impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the scripture were laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.
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And this is something we all take for granted. We have a Bible here in our own language. Matter of fact, in this little iPad,
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I probably have 2 ,000 Bibles. See, it's not that big a deal.
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We have the Bibles. But the Bible at the time when this is all happening with Luther and Tyndale and other
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Reformers is not supposed to be read. Pope Pius IV, in his book called the
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Index of Forbidden Books, any guess what's on that list? Quote, since experience teaches that if the reading of the
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Holy Bible in the vernacular is permitted generally without discrimination, more damage than advantage will result because of the boldness of men.
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The judgment of the bishops and the inquisitors is to serve as a guide in this regard. Don't let people read the
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Bible on their own. The Pope goes on, in accord with the counsel of the local priest and confessor, allow
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Catholic translations of the Bible to be read by those of whom they realize that such reading will not lead to the detriment but increase faith and piety.
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If a priest finds somebody that he thinks won't go off the deep end, fine. Tyndale wanted the
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Bible in the language of the people. Matter of fact, he died for that cause.
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I'd like to have you take your Bibles, please, and open to the Gospel of John, chapter 21, as we talk about this topic of sola scriptura.
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And I think at the essence, at the bottom line, driving Tyndale was the
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Bible alone. Not the Bible plus traditions, not the Bible plus the Pope, not the Bible plus experiences, not the
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Bible plus anything, but the Bible alone. That's what drove him. I know it was the glory of God, yes.
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I know it was Christ alone and grace alone in those songs we sang about. But the underlying, the foundational theme was the
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Bible alone. It has authority. It is sufficient.
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And it is true. And you should read it. He's on the run in England.
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He finally gets to Belgium and Germany, maybe studied under Luther himself, and ends up being burned at the stake for translating the
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Bible into English. And today, we're going to look at the Gospel of John and the topic of sola scriptura, the
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Bible alone. Not just for academic reasons, but for these reasons, so that you would have a
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Bible in your hand and say, thank you, God, that I can read what your word says. That you would actually read
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God's word. That you would hide God's word in your heart. That you would trust in the word and the word alone.
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And that's why we're going to look at this doctrine called sola scriptura. So far in our series, before we get back to the book of Hebrews, if you're here for Hebrews, that will be in two weeks, we're looking at the five solas, or the alones of the
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Reformation. And so we've looked at sola fide, trusting in Christ alone. You're trusting in only what
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Jesus did in His perfect life and His death, His resurrection,
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His soon return. You only trust in Him because if you trust in yourself, we know all of our righteousness is even tainted by sin, so we need someone else's righteousness.
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And that's faith alone in Christ. We also looked at grace alone. The only way you can get to heaven is by grace alone.
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It's not I hold God's hand and we cooperate. I do my part because God has done
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His part. It has to be by sovereignly initiated grace and grace alone.
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We also look at Christ alone. The only way to receive the benefits of God as mediator, as advocate, as savior, as friend, as helper, as reconciler, is not found in Christ plus baptism,
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Christ plus altar calls, Christ plus decisional regeneration. Raise your hand, walk an aisle, whatever it might be.
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It is Christ alone. He's the only mediator. There's one man between God and men, the man
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Christ Jesus. He's the only mediator. So the way I like to think about sola scriptura, it's like the foundation.
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So you've got the pillar of sola gratia, sola Christus, and sola fide like columns, but undergirding all of them because they all stem from scripture, is the doctrine of sola scriptura,
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Christ alone. You say, why study this Reformation stuff? Why don't we just study the
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Bible? Well, on a real practical level, what was important back in those days, is it not important today?
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How do you stand before God? How do you have your sins forgiven? Is the Bible true? Do you have other authorities? Very relevant truths.
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And in addition, I like to study the Reformation and the solas for this reason. Now, the detractors will say,
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Luther, he hated the Jews. He wrote bad things about the Jews. Calvin, that awful murder of Servetus, and he rubber stamped that.
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And Zwingli, what a warmonger. Look at all those people and how sinful they are. We'll resist the
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Reformation because they're sinful. Is that good thinking? Have you ever evangelized?
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Is your life perfect? Have you ever preached? Is your life perfect?
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Friends, to me, men and women have faults and large faults. Do they have?
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Yes. But what makes them so wonderful? Because Tyndale was Tyndale and Wycliffe was
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Wycliffe? No, it's because they were preaching the Word of God because the Word of God has power.
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To me, this is not a deficit or a deficient area. It's a liability. The Word of God works powerfully in those who believe.
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It's a living and active and powerful things. And even if less than perfect people preach it,
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God still gets done what he wants to get done. I hope that makes you happy because I could give you the list.
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Who's your favorite missionary? Adoniram Judson? Do you know what he said sometimes? William Carey.
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Do you know how he treated his wife? Mary Schleser. Do you know what she said about that chief? And the list goes on and on and on and on.
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So I'm not commending Rahab for her lie. I'm commending
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Rahab for the object of her faith, the Messiah who is going to come. So when you go to the
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Gospel of John, this Gospel that is highlighting Jesus Christ, there's a lot of chapters in the
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Gospel of John. If you ever try to memorize it, you will realize there are a lot of things about Jesus. Great things about Jesus from the wedding in chapter 2 to the eternal prologue in chapter 1,
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Jesus with Nicodemus at chapter 3, the Good Samaritan and Jesus in the inner... Not the
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Good Samaritan, the Samaritan at the well. There's fascinating things.
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And we come to the very end, the last sentence written, or rather the last verse, helps us with the doctrine of sola scriptura.
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If you'd like an outline today, let me give you three words that help buttress the idea of sola scriptura so that you will trust your
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Bible more and read it more. The first word is sufficient. Sola scriptura teaches the
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Bible alone is sufficient. You don't need anything else. All essential revelation is found there.
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Chapter 21, verse 25. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did.
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John 21, 25. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
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Oh, John, that's so sweet of you. Prone to exaggeration, aren't you? A little hyperbole.
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The whole world would be filled with those books. Do you think he was exaggerating? Do you think he was using a figure of speech?
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John really doesn't do that type of thing. How many books would it take for you to write and to read and to understand that talked about the eternal relationship of Jesus before he takes on a body with the
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Son and the Spirit pre -Genesis 1 .1 and what they thought about and what they communicated and how they loved one another.
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How many books would that take? How many books would it take to describe how can the eternal
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Son add to himself humanity and be less than God? How many books would that take?
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How many books would it take to talk about Jesus touches the leper and instead of getting defiled by the leper, he cleanses the leper instantly.
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How does that happen? What are the atoms like for that? How many books would it take to be written when
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Jesus goes up to Lazarus and says, Lazarus, arise. Can you imagine when you're dead? And by the way, was
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Lazarus truly dead? I think he was in the tomb so many days that he what? I don't know why everybody knows the
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King James, but they do. It just softens a little bit. He stinketh. What does it take to make somebody be raised from the dead?
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Every molecule dead. Every atom dead. You know, I read this week about people who are wanting to freeze their bodies.
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You get your head chopped off and they freeze you. Once you freeze a body, every molecule, every atom is destroyed.
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They're not gonna revive you. And Jesus just says with a word, how many books would be written for Jesus's word to just be said, get up.
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And all of a sudden the dead man gets up. I don't think John is exaggerating at all.
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Jesus says so many things that are written in the scripture. Yes, and John lays them out in a systematic fashion.
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The great I am statements and the great statements about how he's the eternal son by doing the signs.
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But I don't think he's exaggerating at all. There are other things that Jesus did that aren't in John.
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That is true. But what's John's take on that? You better know them or else.
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We better wait for tradition to come along in 300, 500, 700 when the
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Catholic church says, this is the new doctrine, that's the new doctrine. Do we need to do that? Well, back up a hair,
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I don't think that is what John is saying at all. John 20, verse 30 to 31, he says the exact opposite thing.
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The exact opposite thing he says. John 20, 30 to 31. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.
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But these are written. These particular things in the gospel of John are written for a purpose.
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So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Messiah, the anointed one, the very son of God. And that by believing you may have life in his name.
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God wants you to believe in him so that you might have eternal life. And if you only have what's in the gospel of John, that is sufficient.
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You don't need anything else. Nothing was left out so that you can say to yourself, well, you know what?
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I would believe, but I just need a little bit more information. Now, if you look at chapter 20, verse 30, it starts off with an
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English word. It's a connecting word. It's a particle. What's it connecting? Well, the last section.
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Go back up to verse 24, John 20. Now Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin was not with them when
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Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands, the marks of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side,
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I'll never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.
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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.
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Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my
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Lord and my God. Now here's the tie in. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me?
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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
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There are a sufficient number of miracles. There's a sufficient amount of data in the gospel of John so that you believe.
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You don't need anything else. Nothing that is necessary for salvation and standing before God is left out of John.
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He's not talking about there's a secret doctrine, there's a Gnostic doctrine, there's an unrecorded doctrine that one day maybe if you figure out, no, these things are written in the
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Bible so that you'll say it is sufficient for me to believe. You need no information added to your faith that is outside of John's gospel to believe and therefore outside of even scripture itself.
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Look at chapter five of John, please, if you go back a little bit and see the Lord Jesus when it comes to how he talks about the word.
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I mean, what if we said we have three authorities, then the first one's not sufficient and how much do you study the first authority versus the second versus the third?
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This is a major deal. The written word of God is sufficient to reveal to you everything you need to know about Jesus so that you might have your sins forgiven, have eternal life.
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And look at how Jesus talks in John 5, 37 to 40. And the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, his voice you have never heard.
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That's interesting. Moses heard God's voice, but you haven't. His form you have never seen.
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That's the language of Jacob seeing God's form. His form you haven't seen.
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And you do not have his word abiding in you. You're not like the psalmist who says,
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I've hidden God's word in my heart that I might not sin against you. You're not like him at all. You're not like them at all.
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For you do not believe the one whom he has sent. Jesus indicts them.
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And then he says in verse 39, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
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By the way, you do study. You diligently study. You are students of the Bible, but you've missed the hermeneutical key.
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You've missed the centerpiece of the Bible. It is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
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The scriptures bear witness to Jesus, the son. And you might study the
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Bible all you want, but if you don't see that scriptures from Genesis to Revelation speak of the
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Messiah, you've missed the point. You read the scripture, but you don't read the scripture as it's meant to be read.
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One writer says, so this passage teaches that the written word of God is sufficient to reveal the way to eternal life, which is none other than Jesus Christ.
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It is as true today as it was the day it was written. The Bible teaches that the word is sufficient.
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Everything you need to know, how to believe in God, the object of your faith, and even with sanctification is found in the word.
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So if I said to you that the Roman Catholic doctrine of infant baptism didn't happen until 431, where they said you sprinkle the infant, they're regenerate.
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What would you say? What I say is I immediately go back to the gospel of John.
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Prayers for the dead and for Mary and for angels, AD 600. Worship of the cross and relics,
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AD 786. Canonizing dead people, 995.
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A mortal sin if you don't go to mass, 1000 AD. Celibacy for the priesthood decreed by Pope Gregory, 1079.
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Pray the rosary, 1090. Sale of indulgences, so you don't have to spend more time in purgatory, 1190.
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Transubstantiation turned into the blood and body of Christ, 1215. Now here's a very interesting one.
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If the Bible says it's sufficient for everything you need pertaining to life and godliness, 2 Peter 1, verse 3, and we start adding these things to scripture, then what are you gonna have to do?
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You're gonna have to elevate tradition to scripture because all these traditional things aren't found in scripture. And so in 1545, tradition is claimed to have equal authority with the
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Bible by the Council of Trent. Isn't the Bible sufficient?
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Let's go to the most famous passage, 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, 16, and 17.
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If you believe the doctrine of sola scriptura, you will say to yourself, everything I need is found in the
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Bible pertaining to life and godliness and worship. You say, well, it doesn't have anything about quantum physics.
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Well, that's not the point. The point is for spiritual life. 2
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Timothy 3, verse 15. Let's pick it up there because it's interesting. Just how sufficient are the scriptures?
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Do you need anything else? If I can convince you that scriptures are alone sufficient, then you don't need any other additions.
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And this is a needed message. I just read yesterday that the chasm between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestants keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
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Verse 15, and how from childhood, Paul's writing to Timothy, you have been acquainted with the sacred rites and the
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Bible's writings. Commentators talk about teaching your children the Bible. And what do these scriptures do?
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What do these sacred writings do? Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
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The false teachers in 2 Timothy, when they talk disputes, dissensions, ungodliness, they just quarrel on and on and on.
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But when you study the Bible's writing, it can make you wise unto salvation and believe in Jesus. Now, you know the verse, of course, in verse 16, but no
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Sola Scriptura message is complete without this verse. All Scripture.
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By the way, what's he talking about there? Be careful before you answer. All Scripture. Paul is saying that to Timothy, and what's all
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Scripture? See, nobody's very loud, because I said, be careful.
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If I wouldn't have said that, you're gonna, Old Testament! Yes, the Old Testament, the
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First Testament, but also, I think, 1 Timothy. That's already been written, and Paul knew that was Scripture.
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This Scripture is breathed out by God, and it's profitable for all kinds of things.
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God breathes life into Adam's nostrils. Jesus breathes onto the disciples and the apostles, and here, this is breathed out, and it's profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training for righteousness.
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The Scriptures themselves. Paul wasn't saying, I'm inspired in everything I say. No, these writings are inspired for what reason, under what end, what's the result?
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Verse 17, that the man of God, the preacher, might be complete, equipped for every good work.
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If the Bible is sufficient for the pastor, that means it's not deficient for the pastor.
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Nothing's missing. Years ago, I thought, when I came to New England, 20 years ago,
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I thought, I don't know about Robert's rules of order. I don't know much about the
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Patriots. This is pre -Brady, right? I knew he had some tight end,
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Fred somebody. What am I gonna do?
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I don't know the lingo. I'm not a townie. I don't know what jimmies are.
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I don't know what fluff is. I have no idea. These people, I mean, I thought, I'm a missionary,
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I just at least can speak English, and there's a B of A down the street. That's what I was thinking. It's like I'm parachuted in with what?
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What do I have? What kind of wisdom do I have? What kind of training do I have? How am I supposed to shepherd the people?
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And here the Bible says, in a pastoral epistle, if you've got the spirit of God in his word, guess what?
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You've got everything you need because the scriptures are that sufficient. There's nothing lacking.
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There's no deficiencies. You need to not study tradition. You need to not study the history of New England to help in a spiritual way.
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You can study that if you'd like, but you don't need to because this will equip you for every good work.
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And that word there, to equip, basically means when God put everything into Scripture, it was like he was packing.
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Have you ever packed a car when you've got a bunch of kids? You can go for one day or three months and you have to pack the same amount of stuff.
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I'm so happy now my kids are older. Did you forget the wipes? Did you get the
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Desitin? What about the strainer for the food? What about the extra clothes when the kids throw up on themselves?
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What about the extra shoes? Do you have the spare tire? No, I got the stuff you just spray in there, the lame thing.
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All these things. How can I make every contingency? You've got people in the hurricane.
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They tried to make every contingency for what happened until they realized how big it was. This is nautical language that Paul is using.
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So when God puts everything in the boat for the pastor, he doesn't forget citrus for scurvy.
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He doesn't forget the extra mast. He doesn't say, oh, you know what, psychology is gonna come along with Freud and I don't really know what to do with that, so we'll just kind of guess.
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No, everything is completely rigged out. That's sufficiency. That's sola scriptura.
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That's the idea. All necessary truth for salvation and spiritual life is in the
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Bible explicitly, or as a reformer said, implicitly. The Westminster Confession of Faith, quote, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture under which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the
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Spirit, he was talking about charismatics back in the day, or traditions of men, the
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Roman Catholic Church. The Bible is sufficient.
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Second word for sola scriptura to help us, and let's go back to John, please. John six, authoritative.
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Sola scriptura. The Bible is sufficient and not deficient, therefore you can devote your time to study it and not tradition and the magisterium or anything else.
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Number two, authoritative. The Bible itself is authenticating, it's self -authenticating, it's authoritative.
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And the way Jesus, our Savior, treats the Bible, you will see he treats it as authoritative.
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Now, I don't know about you, but when I meet people and they say, well, you know what, I don't believe the Bible to be true and prove the
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Bible to be true, and you use the Bible to prove the Bible to be true and that's circular reasoning. And we begin to debate, if you say something like, the only way to heaven is through Jesus, he's the only sin bearer.
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Well, men wrote the Bible, that's kind of the first default. I don't spend my time ever defending the
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Bible, but I do say to people, my view of the Bible is Jesus's view of the
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Bible, and I'm trusting in the object, Jesus, my sin bearer, who was raised from the dead, and here's what he thought of scripture.
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And he always thought of it as sufficient and authoritative. We're not gonna look at this passage that I'm thinking about right now, but you would have thought
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Jesus would have hedged a little bit with the Bible if there's all kinds of metaphorical things and wild allegories.
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You think he would have come along and said, these poor scribes, you know, they wrote something about this fish, Jonah, and Jonah's not the fish, that would be wrong.
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They wrote about this fish and Jonah, and Jonah lives in the belly of the fish, and like this
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Sodom and Gomorrah and fire and brimstone, this whole thing about one man,
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Adam, God makes alive, and then he makes Eve alive, those are the first two people. Yeah, Jesus said,
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I affirm all those. He never corrected them. He would have if they were wrong, but they weren't.
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The way Jesus thinks about the Bible is the way you should think about the Bible, John 6, 43.
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Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. Remember, they're freaking out about Jesus and he's the only mediator and God's sovereign, you can't control
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God. No one can come to me, we looked at this two weeks ago, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on that day.
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Here's Christ's view of the Scripture. You're grumbling, you're arguing, you're complaining, you're contentious.
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Here's my response. It is written. It sounds like we're in the desert again, doesn't it?
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When Satan is coming to Jesus, and three times from the book of Deuteronomy, it is written in the prophets. They'll all be taught of God.
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God does not come along and draw people like a caveman with his wife.
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As some people think, some kind of divine rapist who just attacks. Here's what he does. He woos, he draws, he persuades.
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How? The answer is found in the text, by illuminating Scripture. This is the illumination of Scripture inside of a person, so they might say, you know what, how are you drawn?
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You're drawn by the Word of God as God uses the Word to draw you. Chapter 7, you see the same kind of authority that Jesus gives to Scripture as he's talking to people.
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Scriptures are sufficient, but they're authoritative. Jesus believed both. John 7, 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day,
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Jesus stood up and cried out. This is amazing. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
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Want to back that up, Jesus? Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, full stop, authoritative, no arguing, out of his heart will flow rivers of living waters.
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Jesus uses the Word of God to argue the fact that what he says about himself in the
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Feast of the Tabernacles, probably with a huge candelabra behind him, and he says,
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I'm the light of the world. Now, when it comes to Rome, a theologian,
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John Eck, said this, Scriptures are not authentic except by the authority of the church.
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So you're not allowed to interpret the Bible, but if the Roman Catholic Church looks at the
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Bible and tells you what it means, that would be fine. Vatican II, Roman Catholic doctrine, quote, it is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, sacred
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Scriptures, and the teaching authority of the church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others.
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Are you listening? And that altogether and each in their own way under the action of the one
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Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls. Did you listen to that carefully?
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And here's what Rome is saying. How do you know what Scripture? The church will tell you.
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How do you know what's tradition? The church will tell you. And if you don't have tradition, the church and the
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Scriptures, there's no effective salvation. No wonder
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Pope Pius IX said at the first Vatican Council in 1870, I am tradition.
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And so instead of sola scriptura, the Catholic Church said sola ecclesia, it is the church alone.
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Luther knew the problem. He said, here's the problem. I go to church, hear what my priest says, and him
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I believe. At least the
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Roman Catholic Church knew this. If we let people read their Bibles, it's dangerous.
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They'll become reformed and leave the Catholic Church. When you have to solve a problem, theologically, or you need a truth to be undergirded in your life, you should go to Scripture alone.
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You should be like a Berean who says, I'm gonna see what the Scripture says. You don't need to study tradition or what the church says.
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John chapter 10. Does not Jesus say something very similar here? He thinks and talks and confirms that the
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Bible is not only sufficient, but authoritative. John chapter 10. The Jews are picking up stones to kill him because they know he's talking like he is
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God and he is the good shepherd and he gives eternal life. Of course,
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Ezekiel talked about how God was the shepherd. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd.
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And he says in verse 34 of John 10, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods?
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If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said,
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I am the son of God? You notice a tie in? Don't miss it. Verse 35, the word of God and Scripture linked together as the same, with the same import.
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How does God speak? Through Scripture. You can look at his meaning another time.
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And finally, we've got to speed up a little bit. Sola Scriptura, the Bible is sufficient, it's authoritative and go to John 17, please.
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It is true. Francis Schaeffer said, the Bible is true truth. Scripture alone, it's sufficient, it's authoritative and it's true.
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Remember Pilate said, what is truth? Here's what Jesus says, sanctify them in truth.
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Your word is truth. The Bible is sufficient, it's authoritative and it's true.
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It can lead to salvation and it can sanctify you. Now that's kind of all data.
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And since I am a preacher and not just a teacher, I should probably preach some. Do you read your
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Bible? Or do you act like a functional person who denies
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Sola Scriptura? Or are you a functional Catholic is what I was going to say, but I wanted to soften it.
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If you have the Bible as sufficient and authoritative and true, then you should be reading it.
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And by the way, I know many of you who read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize the
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Bible, and I am very pleased to be your pastor of a very biblically literate congregation.
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We want to learn, we want to grow, we want to be sanctified. It's only through the Bible. There's nothing missing here at all.
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There's no other way to grow. Like I would like to grow in my Christian faith. I'd like to say no to temptation more and yes to righteousness more.
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And then we turn into pietists. We just lay back and let God just somehow make me that way,
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God. It is through the scriptures. Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth. George Gallup did a little poll.
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And here's the survey conclusion. Americans revere the Bible, but by and large, they don't read it.
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It's like Patrick Henry. He was on his deathbed, quote, here's the book, the
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Bible, worth more than all the others that were ever printed. Yet it is my misfortune never to have found time to read it.
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Similar to what Jesus said in John 17, 17, did not Jesus' disciples say, under the inspiration of the spirit of God, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word that by it, you may grow in respect to salvation.
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You have to read the word of God. Matthew Henry said, we shall not only be called into account for the truth we know and did not apply, but also for truth we might have known, but did not.
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There's so much in the Bible that we could learn. And the Bible, Jesus said in John 5 and in Luke 24, it all speaks of Christ and who he is.
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It all points with sacrifices and shadows and types and anticipation of the
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Lord Jesus. And he will be your eternal focus for heaven. We might as well begin to enjoy his presence and the wonderful grace of Jesus as we look at him now through the eyes of faith.
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David Livingston trekked across Africa and he carried like any good theologian, a lot of books.
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Kim and I, I love Kim and everything and you probably get a dollar for this, but if I go overseas to a strange country, she says to me, please don't bring home any idols.
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I usually do. Said to the kids once, you know, hey, here's this
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Indian idol for education, Saraswati. You can either study for your exam tonight or you just bow down to her and say, great is thy faithfulness.
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What do you wanna do? They're like, dad. What Kim does do is all the idols in the house, they're all laying down on their face.
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Those of you that are laughing, know the Bible story regarding that. And she also says, please just no more books.
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Now, if they used to have, in the old days, you used to have neutron bombs and the safest place to be, if there's a neutron bomb attack, is in a library.
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Livingston, he had 180 pounds worth of books as he goes across Africa, 300 miles in.
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He's gotta throw some away because his porters are so fatigued. He finally gets to his destination and he's got one book left.
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It's the Book of Mormon. It's Doctrine and Covenants. It's the
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Catholic Catechism. It's the history of the Reformation. It's the Bible because he treasured that.
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It's sufficient. Everything I need to know about God. Can you imagine? I'd like to know about God. It's in the
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Bible. I'd like to know about how to go to heaven. It's in the Bible. What about hell? Is there only one way of salvation?
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How could Jesus be eternally the son and add humanity? It's all there for you. And the thing about it is it's exciting.
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It not only transforms you, but it's exciting to think about the object of salvation. It's exciting to think about the object of your faith. I was in a
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Jacuzzi up with some people in York years ago when we did that little
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Memorial Day deal. And I got in the Jacuzzi. There was a young kid. He was about 14. And he acted like he owned the
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Jacuzzi. And so I got in the Jacuzzi. Like, you know, may I please? This is a hotel.
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And he's like, my dad's a policeman in Newton. This is the most amazing thing ever.
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And I said, no, I'm a pastor. You read the
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Bible? He goes, the Bible's boring. I said, well, you got me there.
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That time when that general came into the tent and the lady said, you just have a little curds and whey and here's a little blanket.
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You just put your head down here while she gets the hammer out and a tent peg and drives it through his temple with the blood and the brains going everywhere.
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That part, he goes, I guess I never read it. Now, there are stories like that for the young people, but the story of redemption.
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You like movies that have a problem and a conflict and then resolution and you watch and you realize, listen,
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I'm the problem. I know me. There's empirical evidence in my life that I am filthy and sinful and condemned and under the wrath of God.
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How can God, without tossing away His holiness and His righteousness, ever love somebody like me?
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And you begin to read the Bible and you think, you know what? Before I got married, I flew to Los Angeles. I remember my mom at the airport crying, saying, you know what?
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Basically, Mike, you're flying to Los Angeles in a city of 10 million people and you don't know anybody well enough for them to pick you up from the airport.
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Nobody in that city even loves you. Well, she was right, but it wasn't because they were so unloving.
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It was because I was unlovable. And you begin to watch the redemption and what's found in Scripture. What's truth?
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Well, if it's true to you, it's true to me. Here we have true truth in the Bible. You have it in your hands.
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That's the doctrine of sola scriptura. My last exhortation, if you think that God speaks to you outside the
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Bible with revelations, with insights, with things that He talks to you in a still, small voice, you are a functional
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Roman Catholic and you deny sola scriptura. It is
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Scripture alone. The Catholics believe in prima scriptura. Scripture is primary, tradition, magisterium.
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And the modern evangelical charismatic says, I believe that the Bible is primary, but I have these other insights and God speaks to me outside the
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Bible. Number one, He didn't. And number two, you shouldn't listen to your own gizzard because it's tainted.
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It's you talking. The Scripture has plenty in sufficiency and adequacy and authority and truth.
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The Bible says of itself, as David says in Psalm 119, I have more insight than all my teachers for I meditate on my statutes.
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I have more understanding than all the elders for I obey thy precepts. The word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.
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The unfolding of thy words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple with the centerpiece, the
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Lord Jesus Christ found in Scripture. I commend you for your Bible reading. Let's pray.
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I thank you Father for this day when we can turn to the Gospel of John and see how the Lord Jesus dealt with Scripture.
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I'm even thankful that for the days we don't read our Bibles like we should, it doesn't affect our status.
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We have the Savior who was the most wonderful student of the
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Bible. And we know you see us in Him. I thank you that the
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Bible is enough because the work of Christ is enough. Tied together, the
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Son's work and the Spirit's involvement with the word of God. Sufficient, complete.
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So I would just ask that you would help us to just love your word more, to respond to you with, we'd like to know more about you.
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I could think about spouses, I think about myself and first meeting a young lady and wanting to know every little thing about her, the object of my affection.
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So increase that in us. It's difficult Father, we are distractible people and so we need your help.