Equipping Eve: Perfect Perspicuity

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Ebendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello ladies and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benzinger, and this is the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word so we can stand strong in an age of deception, an age that is ruled by emotions and feelings and just subjectivism.

It abounds and we're seeing it more and more in the world, which is why, ladies, we love the

Bible. We love God's Word because it is objective truth. It is not based on our fleeting feelings and emotions.

It is based on the objective truths and Word of God. It is inspired, infallible, divine.

It is from our Creator to us and it is clear and wonderful and can be understood.

And that's what we are going to talk about today. You know, ladies, sometimes I feel a little bit like a broken record because I feel like we say every single show, you know, we talk about the wonders of God's Word and the clarity of Scripture and the importance of God's Word for you as a

Christian. But in reality, if I sound like a broken record, I apologize. But here's the thing, ladies.

These are foundational truths and these are things that never grow old.

We cannot lose sight of the importance of Scripture. We cannot lose sight of the fact that this is the foundation of our faith.

It is through the Word of God that Jesus Christ is revealed to us.

Is it not? You know, the hymn says, how firm a foundation, ye saints of the

Lord, is laid for yourselves in his excellent Word. How firm a foundation is built for us in this

Word. Ladies, if we stand on the Word of God, we can withstand anything because we are standing on the only thing that we can know to be true.

And that is why over and over again, we will affirm the importance of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the infallibility of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture.

And today, we're going to talk a little bit more about the clarity of Scripture.

Have you ever tried to, oh, say, assemble something, whether it's a piece of furniture or something smaller, and you open up the instruction booklet and all that is there is, say, pictures, you know, fuzzy pictures with letters and weird illustrations of something that, you know,

I think this is supposed to be a nail or a nut or a bolt and it's supposed to go here, but there's not a hole here on this actual piece, so I don't know how this thing goes together because all you have is this unclear picture or these unclear instructions and you don't know what you are supposed to do, as opposed to something else that offers step -by -step instructions and you can walk through it easily and assemble your item.

And it works once it's assembled, in theory. Isn't it frustrating when you can't understand those instructions?

Or isn't it frustrating maybe when you receive a letter from someone, but you can't quite make out their handwriting?

I don't know. Do people send handwritten letters anymore? I don't even know. But isn't it frustrating when we can't quite make it out?

You know, I have saved all the little notes over the years from my grandparents that they used to send me.

When I was a kid growing up, they'd send, you know, five dollars here or there for birthdays or whatever, and when

I went to college, I'd get little note cards from my grandma with a little treat in there to go buy myself some candy or cookies or something, and she would always write a little note in there.

And my grandmother had beautiful handwriting, and I'm so thankful because to this day

I can read those little notes, little one -liner notes from my grandma.

And I can make out every word, and I can hear her saying those words, and I can just picture her writing those notes to me as she prepared to put that in the mail, and it's so precious to me that I can make out those words, and they're clear, and they're unmistakable, and I can understand them, and I can cherish them and treasure them forever.

Ladies, clarity is so important, and that is why we have been given such an amazing gift in the

Word of God. As I said, this is how Jesus Christ is revealed to us through the

Word, and yet we hear from people that the

Bible is too difficult. I can't understand that. I tried to read the Bible once, and I didn't understand it.

We may hear from professing Christians, especially about the Book of Revelation, and oh, it's so confusing.

You can't understand the Book of Revelation. I don't even read it. I'm just so confused by it. That's not the way

God intended the Bible to be. God did not write his

Word in a secret code. He did not write his Word for only the priests to know.

He did not write his Word for only the scholars and the learned theologians to know.

He did not write his Word for only your pastor and your elders to know. He did not write his Word for only your husband to know.

He wrote his Word for all of his people to read and understand.

The Bible is clear. And I'm going to confess,

I'm stealing a bit of my material today from a recent message delivered by my pastor on the clarity of Scripture, or what is known in the theological realm as the perspicuity of Scripture.

And I have always loved that word, the perspicuity of Scripture. And it really means, it's a fancy way of discussing the clarity of Scripture, that the

Bible is plain and can be understood. Just to interject here, ladies, there is a resource out there, and we're going to mention a few others today on this specific topic, but there's a broader resource out there called

Drive by Theology. That's put out by Wretched Radio, that is Todd Friel's ministry.

And no, I don't get a kickback for the advertisement. But as I was preparing for this show,

I remembered the sessions of Drive by Theology on the perspicuity of Scripture, and I believe there were several, and very helpful lectures.

Drive by Theology is kind of bite -sized theological lectures, and there's a new version out that Wretched Radio has put out, and that's with Todd Friel, of course, and Steve Lawson, Dr.

Steve Lawson. So if you have opportunity to pick up a copy of that, I highly recommend it, it's great for the commute.

You can get one or two lectures in, get a little theology lesson in, and even if you think to yourself, oh, this is basic,

I know this stuff, no, listen, because you'll hear something a little bit new, or maybe you'll hear a

Scripture reference that you hadn't thought of in the context of that particular topic before. In fact, that might be the one downside to the resources, it's kind of designed to listen to maybe in the car, hence

Drive by Theology, that's when I listen to it, and Dr. Lawson and Todd Friel rattle off so many

Bible verses as they're talking, and I can't write them down because I'm driving, and that would be bad.

So I tend to miss all of the Bible verses, but every now and then

I think to myself, oh, I hadn't ever thought of that verse as speaking specifically about this particular topic as well, and so it's just adding to your

Scripture memory bank. So that's my recommended resource of the day.

So ladies, back to the topic at hand, the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture.

This is not a new concept, quite the contrary, it is throughout

Scripture itself, actually, but what do some of Christianity's great minds have to say?

Hermann Bovink wrote, "...is nevertheless presented throughout all of Scripture in such a simple and intelligible form that a person concerned about the salvation of his or her soul can easily, by personal reading and study, learn to know that truth from Scripture without the assistance and guidance of the church and the priest.

The way of salvation, not as it concerns the matter itself, but as it concerns the mode of transmission, has been clearly set down there for the reader desirous of salvation.

While that reader may not understand the how of it, the that is clear." Scripture is clear, especially for salvation, and we'll see that later from the

Scriptures themselves. The Westminster Confession of Faith says, "...all

things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all," and gives the example of 2

Peter 3 .16. It goes on, "...yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them."

Martin Luther wrote in his book, The Bondage of the Will, or his treatise,

The Bondage of the Will, "...but if many things still remain abstruse to many, this does not arise from obscurity in the

Scriptures, but from our own blindness or want, i .e., lack of understanding, who do not go the way to see the all -perfect clearness of the truth.

Let therefore wretched men cease to impute with blasphemous perverseness the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all -clear

Scriptures of God. If you speak of the internal clearness, no man sees one iota in the

Scriptures but he that hath the Spirit of God. If you speak of the external clearness, nothing whatever is left obscure or ambiguous, but all things that are in the

Scriptures are by the Word brought forth into the clearest light and proclaimed to the whole world."

Nothing is ambiguous, nothing is obscure. Yes, there are hard things in the

Scriptures, yes, some things are set forth more clearly than others, especially the way of salvation is so clear, but there is clarity in God's Word, even regarding things that are secondary or tertiary doctrines, they are clear if we read the text as it's written, if we don't sit there and try to allegorize it, and we don't try to spiritualize it beyond what is there on the page, and we don't need to know

Hebrew and we don't need to know Greek in order to get the fullness of the blessing out of the

Word of God. Now this does not mean, of course, that commentaries aren't helpful, this does not mean that teachers are not needed, it does not mean that exposition is not necessary, it does not mean that you don't need to go to church anymore and just sit there and read your

Bible alone on your island, no, no, no, no, no, in fact, quite the opposite,

Scripture itself teaches the importance of the teaching of the Word. And we'll go to the greatest teacher who ever lived, and that would be

Jesus Christ himself, and if you'll turn very quickly ladies to Luke 24, oh let's see, the verse

I'm looking for is not this early, but we're going to start reading at 13, verse 13, at this point we are after the resurrection of Christ, and here in Luke 24, 13, we are on the road to Emmaus, Scripture reads, and behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named

Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place, while they were talking and discussing,

Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him, and he said to them, what are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?

And they stood still, looking sad, one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting

Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? And he said to them, what things?

And they said to him, the things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word and the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him, but we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem

Israel, indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

Verse 22, but also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see.

And Jesus said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary for the

Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Verse 27, then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Jesus Christ explained and interpreted the scriptures for the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

And so we are not saying, by saying that the Bible is clear and can be understood by even the simple man, we are not saying that it is not important to have

Bible teachers and to have Bible exposition and to sit under the teaching of the word, quite the opposite.

Jesus Christ explained to these two men all the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Can you imagine learning about Jesus from Jesus himself? That would be amazing.

Ladies, we said that even the simple can understand the scriptures.

And this is because the word of God illuminates the understanding of men to understand the scriptures.

The word of God is often referred to as light. If you'll turn back in your

Bibles to Psalm 119, verse 105, very familiar verse, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

In verse 130 of Psalm 119, the psalmist writes, the unfolding of your words gives light.

It gives understanding to the simple. You do not need to be an educated scholar to understand the word of God.

And isn't that amazing? In fact, the very fact that the scriptures are clear, the reality of the doctrine of the perspicuity of scripture is that a simple person can live by what is written in the scriptures.

It is made for the common man. It was written for the common man, but the highest intellectual can never plumb the depths of the scripture.

That's the amazing quality of the word of God. Scripture is clear in essential matters, but it will only be fully illuminated for those who have the

Holy Spirit, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. We were talking how the scripture is called a light.

It's often referred to as a light. It illumines our path. Kevin Dion writes in his book,

Taking God at His Word, which is another resource that I recommend, Taking God at His Word by Kevin Dion.

It's a short little book, but it's talk about clear. Kevin Dion writes in a very accessible manner, and he writes about deep and wonderful truths, so I highly recommend this book as well.

And he writes, Since God is light, we would expect his word also to be clear and bright.

After all, God communicates to reveal, not to obscure.

Isn't that what we saw in the quotes we were reading earlier from Luther and Bovink and from the

Westminster Confession of Faith? Dion also writes, God's word is not inaccessible or esoteric.

As Calvin puts it, God does not propound to us obscure enigmas to keep our minds in suspense and to torment us with difficulties, but teaches familiarly whatever is necessary according to the capacity and consequently the ignorance of the people.

The word of God is clear. Dion also says,

The doctrine of the clarity of scripture is not a wild assertion that the meaning of every verse in the Bible will be patently obvious to everyone.

Rather, the perspicuity of scripture upholds the notion that ordinary people using ordinary means can accurately understand enough of what must be known, believed, and observed for them to be faithful Christians.

Think on those words again, ladies. The perspicuity of scripture upholds the notion that ordinary people using ordinary means can accurately understand enough of what must be known, believed, and observed for them to be faithful Christians.

Ladies, turn again in your Bibles to 2 Timothy, chapter 3, and we're going to turn to another familiar passage.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this, but it's such a wonderful passage and so pertinent to what we are talking about here today.

2 Timothy 3, starting in verse 14, Paul is writing to his son in the faith,

Timothy, and he says, You, Timothy, however, continue in the things 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.

All scripture is inspired by God 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 Dion says, we can understand enough of what must be known, believed, and observed to be faithful Christians, and we see all of that here in these few verses here in 2

Timothy 3. Just look at this, ladies. Look at what we see about scripture and its clarity and its beautiful characteristics.

Verse 14, we see that children can understand God's word. You, however, continue in the things 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.

From childhood you've known the sacred writings, Timothy. Even a child can understand the word of God.

Sure, your five -year -old isn't going to understand even perspicuity on the level that we're discussing it today, but they can understand that they read the

Bible, they read God's word, and they understand what it's teaching them on their level. And yet, as I said, ladies, the most learned, educated man can never plumb the depths of scripture.

And I love that we know how Timothy was learning these things from his childhood.

Do you remember, ladies, who was teaching him these things from childhood? 2

Timothy chapter 1, verse 5, Paul writes,

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother

Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. It was through his mother and his grandmother that Timothy was learning the sacred scriptures from childhood.

Ladies, also in verse 15 of chapter 3, we see what we've already talked about, what we've already touched on, that the scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation.

They give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is through the scriptures that we are brought to a knowledge of salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ.

And in verses 16 and 17, we see the sufficiency of scripture. We see the richness, the depths of everything that can be obtained through a knowledge of the word.

All scripture is inspired by God 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.

The scriptures are sufficient. And they are clear.

How many times, ladies, do we see either versions of the

Bible or devotional books or regular books that are encouraging us to long for more?

And I know we've talked about this at length here at Equipping Eve. The Bible is enough.

The Bible is the most precious gift. Why do we long for more?

Why are we always looking for more? All it takes is a walk into a Christian bookstore or, for the purposes of this show, getting onto, say, the

CBD website or Family Christian or Amazon, take your pick, and finding these specialty

Bibles. So you've got your regular Bible, and then you have the

Hunter's Bible, and you have the, I don't know, the

Betty Crocker Bible, I don't know. And I happened to come across the

KJV Homeschool Moms Bible. And this has 365 encouraging devotions for moms who educate their children at home.

With a full year's worth of insightful and empowering devotions written by a homeschooler for homeschoolers, this King James Bible will warm your heart and restore your soul.

Yeah. We don't need specialty Bibles for all special different groups of people.

You don't need your women's devotional Bible, because what is said in God's Word is applicable to all

Christians. That's why we've already said it's clear and applicable to the common man and to the intellectual elite, if you will.

If you think about it, ladies, and this I'm totally stealing from my pastor right now because he said this, and it was one of those moments where you go, oh, why didn't

I ever think of it that way before? And he made the point of the epistles, ladies, were written just to the church.

They didn't, you know, when Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, he didn't write one letter for the elders of the church and one letter for the teenagers in the church and one letter for the moms and one letter for the single ladies and one letter for the dads and one letter for the older women.

No, he wrote one letter. Now, in some of these letters, yes, does he address specific groups within the church for a verse or two?

Of course he does. But the whole church was to read the letter and hear the letter. All of this content was for everyone in the church.

Ephesians 1, verse 1, again, totally stealing this example, this is exactly the example my pastor went to, but if it's not broke,

I'm not going to fix it. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, to the saints, not to the lady saints and to the male saints.

No, to the saints, the whole church. You don't need a homeschool mom's

Bible. You don't need special devotionals just because you're a homeschool mom. I mean, where's the public school mom's

Bible, you know, for the mother who can't homeschool her children, maybe would love to, but she needs to go to work.

It's ridiculous. We don't need all of these little specialty devotionals. This is part of the problem in women's ministries, why we get pigeonholed into only learning about Proverbs 31, because people seem to think that women don't need the whole counsel of God.

We do, ladies. Why? Because you're the Eunice, you're the Lois who is training up the young Timothys.

That's why. The whole counsel of God is for all of God's people.

I'm going to go back to Kevin DeYoung's book, and he finishes this chapter on the clarity of scripture or the perspicuity of scripture with the following paragraph.

DeYoung writes, William Tyndale was often maligned and in danger for his efforts to translate the

Bible into the common language of the people. On one occasion, when in dispute with a learned man, he replied,

If God spare my life before many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of scripture than thou dost.

That's confidence in the doctrine of the clarity of scripture. And it cost Tyndale his life.

He died by strangulation and his corpse was burned in the city square. Fittingly, at the stake, he cried out these last words with a loud voice,

Quote, Lord, open the king of England's eyes, end quote. Yes, Lord, writes

Kevin DeYoung, open our eyes to see the power and privilege we have to read the scriptures in a language we can understand.

Open our eyes to behold wonderful things in your law. Open our eyes to see the truth you have clearly laid before us.

God has made it plain to all of us, if only we have the eyes to see.

And who has the eyes to see, ladies, we've already said this, every

Christian, man, woman, young person, who does not have the eyes to see?

I'm sure there are things in scripture that could be understood by unbelievers, but ultimately, as we said before, the

Holy Spirit has to illuminate the scriptures for you to fully understand it.

If you were saved later in life, especially, or you'll, I'm sure, identify with this.

If you ever picked up a Bible prior to your conversion, it didn't make much sense.

I mean, maybe you got the historical narrative portions of it or whatnot, but it didn't make sense to you.

And after you were saved, it not only made sense to you, it was so precious to you and you loved God's word so much.

And ladies, if you don't love God's word, I urge you to examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith.

So who has eyes to see? Kevin DeYoung prayed, essentially, in his book, you know, that God would open our eyes to see the truth.

And he says, God has made it plain to all of us, if only we have the eyes to see. Who has eyes to see?

First Corinthians 2, verse 14, but a natural man does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised, but he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.

The natural man does not understand the things of God, they are foolishness to him.

Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the

God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

It is not clear to them, their minds are blinded. The light, they hate the light, because the light is

Christ. Who has eyes to see? Those whom God has chosen to reveal himself to, those whom

God has granted the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit can illumine the

Word of God. What more do we need? What more do we need, ladies, when we have the

Word of God? And yet there is such silliness out there, such silliness in this quest for more.

One of the more recent headlines, if you can call it a headline,

I don't know if it was Baptist Press, yes it was, it was thebaptistnews .com,

Adult Coloring Books Emerging as a Popular Spiritual Practice, reads the headline, written by Jeff Brumley, he says,

Coloring as a Spiritual Practice has made the news recently. Yes, that's coloring, as in coloring books, crayons, colored pens and pencils, etc.

Ditto for drawing, sketching, and doodling as religious activities. One person told

Religion News Service she traded in church attendance for coloring. Apparently the practice of intentional prayer, prayerful coloring, produces enough spiritual insight and experience to render churchgoing unnecessary for some people.

This practice is compared to the prayer labyrinth, and this one woman who practices spiritual coloring says that just the sight of a coloring book and crayon filled her with peace after she was in an accident, or no, after she was having some issues with stress, some health issues due to stress.

Those puzzled by how drawing or coloring can be prayerful exercises, reads the article, need go no further than ancient and more familiar contemplative practices, says

Michael Scaretti, Jr., Minister of Spiritual Formation at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

And the article goes on and on. Coloring is now a spiritual practice.

Why? Because the Bible isn't enough for these people. Why would I want to go to church and hear the Bible taught when

I can sit with my crayons and color and feel so spiritual? Feel spiritual.

The article goes on and is quoting Blake Burleson, Senior Lecturer in Religion at Baylor University.

He says he teaches a Sunday school class that uses various forms of contemplative practice.

Quote, I'll bring in a mandala or something I have created. We will read scripture and I'll ask them to color the mandala.

He says it provides a different way of experiencing the Bible. It's a way to refocus our attention on scripture and takes our head and puts it in a more imaginal framework.

Is imaginal even a word? I don't know. Burleson said he recommends such practices as a way for churches to keep members, especially young adults, engaged in church life.

In our spiritual lives, we can get bored with certain forms, so using a different part of our brain to access scripture may just enliven us up a bit.

I don't understand what that means. How is this a different way to experience scripture?

You don't experience scripture, you read scripture and the Holy Spirit illuminates it to your mind and your heart and helps you apply it.

You don't experience it by coloring with crayons. That doesn't even make sense.

It's ridiculous. It's foolishness. It's nonsense. It's unclear and that's why it's not of God.

What more do we need? How firm a foundation is laid for us in the excellent

Word of God. Open it up ladies, read it, treasure it, learn it, cling to it, stand upon it, stand firmly upon it, stand with confidence on it.

Knowing that it is God's Word to his people. Ladies, as always,

I have enjoyed talking to you about God and his Word and our

Lord Jesus Christ who came, lived the life that we cannot, obeyed

God perfectly as we cannot, died an atoning, sacrificial death, the death that we deserve, bearing the wrath of God that we deserve to atone for the sins of his people, was resurrected three days later so that all who would ever believe, those who repent of their sins and believe upon the

Lord Jesus Christ, who trust in him and him alone for their salvation so that they might be saved.

That's the gospel and that is the most amazing truth and you know where you can find that truth?

In the Bible. Oh, how we love his

Word. So ladies, of course,

I could go on and on about the perspicuity of scripture and about the Lord Jesus Christ, but our time is coming to a close.

Thank you so much for tuning in. You can find Equipping Eve on Facebook. You can find us on Twitter, that's at Equipping Eve.

There are ways to contact me on both of those forms of social media.

You can also check out the Equipping Eve website, equippingeve .org or .com. Both will get you there and there's also a way to email me there.

I'd love to hear from you and hope to hear from you soon.

Ladies, until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.

Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no -compromise radio production.

If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com