“Our Biblical Worldview” (13) The sufficiency and authority of the Holy Scriptures 01/09/2022

Galatians chapter 2 Then after 14 years

I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me I went up because of a revelation and set before them though privately before those who seemed influential

The gospel that I proclaim Among the Gentiles in order to make sure

I was not running or had not run in vain But even Titus who is with me was not forced to be circumcised though He was a

Greek yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you and And from those who seem to be influential what they were makes no difference to me

God shows no partiality Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me on the contrary when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised

For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised Worst worked also through me

For mine to the Gentiles and when James and Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars

Perceived the grace that was given to me They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the

Gentiles and they to the circumcised Only they asked us to remember the poor the very thing

I was eager to do But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned

For before certain men came from James he was eating with the Gentiles but when they came he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party and The rest of the

Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel I said to Cephas before them all if you though a

Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew How can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law

Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners is

Christ then a servant of sin Certainly not for if I rebuild what I tore down I proved myself to be a transgressor

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer

I who live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then

Christ died for no purpose Let's pray Our father we thank you for this time together we thank you for the truth of the scriptures that we can gather together around the

Word of God and proclaim it and Lord we thank you that it is no longer we who live that it is

Christ who lives in us We thank you Lord for our deliverance from our from sin from Redemption that you reconciled us to your father through the work of Christ and that now our lives are in Christ Jesus our identity is in Christ Jesus And I pray

Lord that we would remember these truths that we would remember who we are in Christ Jesus and that we would live to your praise glory and honor

Lord, we pray that you would help us now as we open up your word And as we continue to study we pray that you would align our thoughts

You would align our thinking to what the scripture says. We pray Lord that we would be conformed to the image of Christ Help us

Lord in our study and thank you in Jesus name. Amen Well, let's turn in our

Bibles to Paul's epistle to the church at Colossae Colossians chapter 1

This is the 13th Lord's Day that we've given attention to this biblical worldview And in our consideration of this subject, of course, we have to underscore

The fact that we Have a conviction of the authority and sufficiency of Holy Scripture the

Bible as the Word of God The Bible alone is able to reveal salvation to us through Jesus Christ and The Bible alone instructs us in the will of God so that we might live righteously before him

And so this understanding of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible is affirmed by the scriptures themselves the

Bible itself claims its authority and sufficiency and although this truth had been lost to the churches for many centuries due to Roman Catholic influence and the dominance of its tradition over scripture really it was recovered by the

Protestant Reformation and It has been settled and foundational for Protestants ever since the authority and sufficiency of the

Bible in all matters of faith and practice and In order to introduce this matter to us,

I want us to consider Colossians chapter 1 but then we are going to move elsewhere and We also want to address a major threat that is

Really coming to the forefront in today's evangelicalism which is a challenge to the sufficiency and authority to the

Holy Scriptures and So here is Colossians 1 verses 9 to 14 and Paul is talking about from when he first heard that these people in Colossi had become

Christians. He had not visited this church As of yet and so from the day we heard it is heard of their salvation

We've not ceased to pray for you Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of him of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him Bearing fruit in every good work in increasing in the knowledge of God May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the

Saints in light He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

Son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins Before us we just read as a second major paragraph that follows

Paul's initial greeting to his church In the first paragraph which is found in verses 3 through 8

Paul stated that when he prayed to God he'd give a word of thanksgiving whenever he thought about these

Christians at Colossi They had become Christians because God had performed a great work of grace among them even sovereign grace in having brought salvation to them and so he thanked

God for having done so and Then in this second paragraph we read further that Paul prayed for this church we could describe this paragraph that we just read as Paul praying for their spiritual growth and And so before us in this second major paragraph

Following the initial greeting we have Paul praying for their spiritual growth in the first paragraph

He was thanking God for having brought them to salvation Now Paul's common style of writing was his construction of long detailed compound sentences not all writers of Scripture Followed his manner, but this was certainly his he would set forth the main subject and verb and Then he would string a number of subordinate supporting phrases and clauses

In order to complete his sentence and they were long sentences In fact

Colossians 1 verse 3 through 8 is but one sentence in the Greek text of Paul's original epistle

In this second paragraph Paul didn't change his style All of verses 9 actually through 17 we stopped at verse 14

But all of verses 9 through 17 is one sentence in the Greek New Testament In fact, there are 161

Greek words in this one sentence But the translators of the

English Standard Version or the New King James Version in order to Make the subject easier for modern

English readers broke up this one long sentence in the Greek text into a number of shorter sentences in fact, they made two paragraphs rather than one and They set forth

Paul's words in six separate sentences for the benefit of modern English readers

We are going to give our attention to the paragraph contained in verses 9 through 14 Even though we know the same sentence continues down through verse 17

We'll not have time to emphasize those verses that are set forth in another paragraph entirely in the

English Translation we're going to give attention to verses 9 through 14 and we might describe the theme of this paragraph as the

Christians growth in grace In verse 9 Paul again declared to this church, he was continually praying for them whenever he thought of them

Paul wrote and so from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the

Knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding Again the

Apostle had made a similar declaration in verses 3 and 4 We always thank God the

Father for our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the

Saints But again, whereas in verses 3 and 4 Paul's prayer was directed to God and thanking

God for having brought them to salvation Here in verses 9 and following Paul was asking

God to assist these Christians to live as Christians should live Paul was praying for their spiritual growth

It is the will of God that Christians grow in the Christian faith God would have his people develop in their maturity as Christians It's not enough just to come to Christ initially in faith we were to grow in Christ as well

Peter wrote about this you therefore beloved since you know this beforehand beware lest you also fall from your own

Steadfastness being led away with the air of the wicked but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ And this is what we were to give ourselves to do throughout life to grow

Grow in grace grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Children, of course have a natural desire to grow up And so it is that new young Christians who are children of God have the desire to grow or should have

But whereas a physical child will grow physically even without much attention or effort a young Christian will not grow

Unless effort is put forth Unless prayer is put forth So this is why it's necessary to pray to God that Christians grow for they will not do so.

Otherwise There are many that should be mature

Christians by this time that they've been in the Lord, but they're not and There are verses of Scripture that rebuke them for their failure by this time

You ought to be teachers But you were in need of being taught again some of the most basic things of the

Christian faith Is what the writer to the Hebrews wrote rebuking his readers

Only God can give increase enabling a Christian to grow to become spiritually mature in Christ We should always be praying toward this end for ourselves and for others within our church

The Lord of course has given church leaders the task of enabling his people to grow from spiritual childhood to mature adulthood

Spiritual growth is necessary in order to protect them from being vulnerable as Children in the faith and so in Ephesians 4

Paul set forth the purpose of church leadership He himself that is

Christ the risen and thrown Christ gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers

For the equipping of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ until Here's the goal until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God to a perfect man to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ we've got a ways to go and Then in verse 14, we have the purpose clause so that We should no longer be children, it's not

God's will That people continue to be children in the faith, but to grow up That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine and there's certainly a lot of Christians that Are vulnerable here

By the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting There's there there are people in the churches that through their deceitful plotting

They're trying to keep people in ignorance and as children rather than enabling them to grow in the faith but rather these ones called of God equipped by God or to speak the truth in love that They may grow up in all things unto him who is the head that is

Christ From whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working

By which every part does it share that is in the body of Christ? causes growth of the body for the edifying or building of itself up in love and So God gives gifted men to his churches to enable his people to grow but it's

God himself who gives the growth Colossians 1 that's why we have to pray to God God alone can enable his people to grow from immature

Christians into stable informed mature Christians and This is why

Paul prayed to God the Father on on their behalf He wanted the brethren in this church to know that he prayed for them to this end

I thank God when I heard you were saved became safe, and I'm praying to God always that you grow from childhood to adulthood in the faith

In verse 9 we read of the arena in which spiritual growth takes place Paul wrote and so from the day we heard we've not ceased to pray for you asking and here we have

The end to which he was praying Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

These Christians were already established in the basics of the Christian life They had faith in the

Lord Jesus and they had love for all the Saints. We Read that back in verses 3 and 4, but they had much growing to do

They needed to grow so as to know fully the will of God Again Paul prayed that God would enable them to be filled with the knowledge of his will

Now at this point we might bring to the forefront the heresy that was plaguing the people in Colossae in this church

Which the Apostle Paul was correcting in his epistle There Was a false religion that was emerging in that region of the

Roman Empire which is today Western Turkey and This error would later become known as Gnosticism and This error became a great threat to Christendom in the second and third centuries

Gnosticism The word Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis

Which Is the word meaning knowledge Gnosis in Greek means knowledge in English Two characteristics of Gnosticism might be helpful for us to remember first the false religion was based on Greek dualistic philosophy

In other words, they viewed all of existence to be in the realm of co -eternal opposites There was good and evil, but they were co -eternal

Flesh and spirit light and darkness that were equal in power and eternal in nature and second

Gnosticism was very syncretistic. In other words, it tended to adapt other beliefs and religions and It adapted to Christianity to a great deal and so Gnosticism adopted and adapted to Christian teaching

Gnostics claimed that they were true Christians and they joined the churches Even though there were some terrible heretical doctrines that they espoused

They denied that Jesus Christ had two natures that he is God Eternal Son of God and that he is also truly human and This is because they didn't think

Spirit which is good Can inhabit the same body as flesh which is inherently evil

And so they would either deny the humanity of Jesus or they would deny the deity of Jesus This was not

Gnosticism They also taught that salvation was was earned through the merit of good works

And they taught that their good works were the product of acquiring secret knowledge of God that only they knew

Only They had access nobody else did so you had to embrace them and their philosophy and they would impart to you this knowledge of God that nobody else could acquire and So through their inside knowledge of God that was made known to members of their cult

They thought they could better understand and live within the world And their presence and influence had troubled the orthodoxy of many churches

And both the writings of Paul and John Addressed this emerging pernicious error in the churches and again in the second third centuries

It became a real problem Now when Paul countered false teaching he would commonly use play on words

To make his point and they would have understood this when they read this letter in Greek And So where the

Gnostics taught it was needful to attain true knowledge Gnosis of God Gnosticism Which was actually falsehood

Paul declared here in verse 9 that he prayed that God would give these true Christians full knowledge.

In other words. He upped them one They say come to us. We'll give you knowledge of God Paul said no.

I want you to have full knowledge And he used the word Epigenosis and you might see the similarity between Gnosis and epi gnosis epi is actually preposition that is put on the front of the word to Heighten it to show greater emphasis to it.

And so it's full knowledge The Gnostics claim to have high knowledge of God, but Paul upped them one claiming that Christians should acquire

Epigenosis full knowledge of God's will and it wasn't going to be found by going to them

Now Paul prayed that this full knowledge of God's will may be realized in two ways Again verse 9 reads and so from the day we heard that is heard that you became

Christians We've not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will notice in all spiritual wisdom and secondly understanding

Christians need to grow Through Attaining the full knowledge of God's will in the arenas of first spiritual wisdom and second spiritual understanding

Now it may be that these two words are synonymous wisdom and understanding but if there is a difference in meaning and I think there there is

The acquiring of spiritual wisdom would be the ability to understand and interpret the world from God's vantage point from God's perspective

That's spiritual wisdom Spiritual understanding however is to know how

God would have you to live according to the truth of his person in ways So we might say spiritual wisdom is knowing what

God is like and what he's doing in the world spiritual understanding is knowing what God would have you do in his world and This is a part of growing in spiritual maturity

You increasingly Understand who God is what he's like what he's doing in the world and you increasingly understand

This is what he would have me do This is how he would have me live And so spiritual wisdom is what we think about God and ourselves in his world

Spiritual understanding is knowing how he would have us live in this world And so the way to grow spiritually is to increase in your knowledge of God To walk with him and hear from him and then to order your life according to that understanding and to the degree that you do

That you and I are able to do this and to do this increasingly through life

Will be to the degree that we mature Spiritually grow from being children in the faith to mature adults

Why Was it that Paul desired these Christians Be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding verse 10 answers his question

And so from the day we heard again of your faith We've not ceased to pray for you

Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding and then verse 10

We have the purpose clause. This is why he was praying So as to walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord fully pleasing to him buried fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God That was his goal for them

Paul desired that they would grow so that their lives would be fully pleasing to the Lord Paul desired these

Christians to learn of Jesus Christ more fully so that they might live for Jesus Christ more fully

FF Bruce I Said this well in his comments on this verse his prayer for them then is that they may attend to the full knowledge of God's will through the insight that his spirit imparts and Thus be able to please him in everything and live in a way that befits his children

But the knowledge of which the Apostle speaks is no merely intellectual exercise.

No Theosophical gnosis there's a word for knowledge Such as was affected by the teachers who were leading the

Colossians astray He wishes to impress his readers with the character and the importance of true knowledge

Before drawing their attention to the dangers that knowledge falsely so -called which was being pressed upon them

True knowledge is founded in practical religion It is that knowledge which according to the

Old Testament Starts with a proper attitude towards God the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

Right knowledge according to Paul leads to right behavior Here right knowledge is contrasted with wrong teaching and so what we see from these words is that the aim and end of attaining wisdom and Understanding in the will of God is so that we might live rightly before the

Lord The end of full knowledge is good conduct If Increased knowledge does not result in better conduct good conduct improve conduct

Then that knowledge will only aggravate one's condemnation before the Lord There's a lot of people who know a lot of things about the

Bible But if it's not translated into their life, it's not bringing benefit to them. It actually aggravates their condemnation and That's what

Paul wrote or Peter wrote about false teachers in 2nd Peter For if after they've escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ He's not talking about true Christians. He's talking about false teachers who had cleaned up their lives through their knowledge of Jesus Christ in a measure

But they are again entangled in them and overcome the latter end is worse For them than the beginning now look at verse 21

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness Than having known it to turn from the

Holy Commandment delivered to them. And so even unsaved people May for a while experience some moral improvement in their lives from hearing and learning the truth about Jesus Christ But if that knowledge is not fully acted upon It only condemns them further before God And many people that are gonna stand before the

Lord on the Day of Judgment Who had quite a good understanding of the things of God maybe early in life, but they turned away from those things

And they might still look back on those things as somehow giving them credit or credibility in their life

No, if it's not acted upon lived upon that knowledge is actually going to aggravate one's condemnation on the

Day of Judgment before the Lord Jesus May the Lord help us to live consistently according to the knowledge of God that he reveals to us in his

Word Right thinking as a Christian leads to right living as a Christian As one wrote the more

God's children know him the more they will also love him and the more they love him the more they Will also wish to obey him in thought word and deed

So it would be good to ask ourselves Would it not is it my desire to walk in a manner pleasing to the

Lord If so, then we will need spiritual wisdom and understanding

That only he can give and therefore we should be as Paul Praying always continually to our

God that he would grant us this grace Now how does a

Christian walk in a manner worthy of The Lord pleasing to the Lord and our passage sets forth four ways in which we can please the

Lord We again versus read verses 9 through to 12 and so from the day we heard again of their salvation

We've not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all Spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord fully pleasing to him Bearing fruit and every good work Increasing in the knowledge of God May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance Inheritance of the

Saints in life. So here are the ways that we may please the Lord first That we may live in a manner pleasing to the

Lord by bearing fruit in every good work any kind of work you do You can bear fruit as a

Christian Second we may live in a manner pleasing to the Lord by increasing in the knowledge of God Knowing the

Bible more thoroughly Third we may live in a manner pleasing the Lord when we live in endurance with patient and patience with joy

You continue to believe on the Lord regardless of the way the world's going or everybody else is going you resolve that God enables you by his grace to continue in faith

Endurance and patience with joy and for we may live in a manner pleasing to the

Lord when we're giving thanks to the Father Who has qualified us to share the inheritance of the

Saints in life. In other words we're always cognizant and Acknowledging the only reason that we're in a favored place is because God himself has been merciful and gracious to us

He could have left us in our sin Well now let's next depart

From the direct passage of Colossians 1 and Consider the causes of our growth or the means that God has given us to grow in Christ And that of course would be his written word the

Holy Scriptures Which gives us a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ which results in our spiritual growth

And so let's consider the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures To teach us the will of God God has declared in a number of places in the

Bible that it's through the instrument of his word his written word That he causes Christians to grow in their knowledge of God Peter Instructed all

Christians to desire the Word of God just as a baby desires its mother's milk

He's not talking about young Christians talking about all Christians here We ought to love the Word of God just as a little baby loves the mother's milk

And that's the most important thing to a baby, of course first Peter 2 2 and 3 like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up on to Salvation if indeed you've tasted that the

Lord is good. We're to love the Word of God the Bible The important role of the

Word of God is to reveal to us the will of God in Jesus Christ This is embodied in the first paragraph of our

Confession of Faith over 20 articles The very first article and each article has paragraphs the very first article and the very first paragraph

States the authority sufficiency of the Bible Here it is.

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

Although the light of nature look out at creation you look at the stars at night Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence we can see

God's work through history Do so far manifest the goodness wisdom and power of God as to leave men inexcusable

Yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary on the salvation

You can't find God out in the woods You might see evidence of God out in the woods

But you're not going to find God in a saving relationship out in the woods or on the seashore anywhere else

It's in the Word of God in Jesus Christ himself and so These things are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will necessary under salvation

Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times different times and in diverse manners different ways

Describing here the Old Testament times to reveal himself and declare his will unto his church and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church

Against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world to commit the same holy underwriting

That's what the Bible is Which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary Those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people be now ceased

God's not going to speak to you now in dreams and to you know, the end tales of animals or Some prophet who claims to speak on behalf of God.

It's in the Bible and the Bible alone It's the only sufficient source of information true information about God Jesus Christ and salvation and so the

Holy Scriptures are true and true Christians believe this Paul could write to the church at Thessalonica for this reason

We thank God without ceasing again when he'd heard they had become Christian Because when you receive the

Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth the

Word of God, which also effectively or Works in you who believe it's the

Word of God The Holy Scriptures alone are the means that God has given his people by which they may learn of him and of his will this was recognized with the

Protestant Reformation Martin Luther Calvin early 1600s as the formal principle of the

Reformation This is what ultimately led to and resulted in the Protestant Reformation The belief in Sola Scripture of the

Latin phrase means scripture alone Scripture alone is our sole source and final arbiter in all things regarding what we believe about God and how

God would have us live in The world and so when we say we hold the soul of Scripture We are asserting that the

Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God and as such

It's the only source of true Christian doctrine And we also assert by the expression

Sola Scriptura the Bible is understandable and self -interpreting We believe in what's called the perspicuity of the

Scriptures Which means that anyone can understand the Scriptures if they read them prayerfully carefully and the

Holy Spirit blesses their effort And so our statement of faith asserts his truth in this way all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves

Not all easy nor alike clear unto all 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 ordinary means

May attain to a sufficient understanding of them and that's why Protestants have always advocated

Translating the Bible into the common language of the people and that's why Rome made that illegal persecuted and and killed

Trans Bible translators, they wanted in Latin so nobody could read it or understand it

But you had to go to a priest to get an interpretation And so when Wycliffe Tyndale, you know translated the

Bible into English They were hunted down and declared heretics by Rome The Holy Bible was a forbidden book to be read by Roman Catholics until 1963

When they changed but even since then yes, you can read the Bible But you should only interpret it as we tell you what it means

According to the Magisterium in Rome being the Cardinals and the Pope or they alone they claimed have the right

Interpretation we would argue that the Bible is its own interpreter In other words, any one verse of Scripture is best understood by other scriptures would speak to the same subject

The Bible does not need an interpreter outside of itself to make it known to its readers

The Doctrine Sola Scriptura is a conviction that directly opposes those

Denominations that claim someone or some source outside or other than the Bible must interpret the

Bible before common people Can receive or understand it's true And so this doctrine is directly opposed to the teaching of say

Eastern Orthodoxy Coptic, you know the Egyptian formal

Christian Denomination Anglo Catholic Roman Catholic traditions that say the

Bible can only rightly be interpreted by the apostolic tradition Whatever that means or specifically by the

Roman Catholic Magisterium However, and this is the point that we wanted to emphasize today

That just as Rome Eastern Orthodox as well as certain radicals rejected the principles of Sola Scriptura We have similar problems today in evangelicalism

There are some who simply go to church and listen accept whatever the preacher says Regardless of whether or not it's truly biblical and this is bad wrong

Their biblical knowledge is appalling in effect. They've made their pastors little popes or Magisterium accepting their word as authoritative rather than the scriptures alone

One described it this way Today the same process of dumbing down has meant that we are in George Gallup's words at Polster a nation of biblical illiterates

Perhaps we have a high view of the Bible's inspiration 80 % of adult Americans believe that the

Bible is a literal or inspired Word of God But 30 % of the teenagers who attend church regularly do not even know why

Easter is celebrated 30 % The decline in Bible reading says

Gallup is due in part to the widely held conviction that the Bible is inaccessible That's what

Rome taught for a thousand years. It's inaccessible to less emphasis on religious training in the churches

Just as Rome's infallibility rested on the belief that the Bible itself was difficult obscure and confusing

So today people want the net breakdown from the professionals What does it mean for me and how will it help me and make me happy and that's usually the questions that people ask when they go to church

But those who read the Bible for more than devotional meditations know how clear it is

At least on the main points it addresses and how it ends up making religion less confusing and obscure Again today the

Bible especially in mainline Protestant churches is a mysterious book That can only be understood by a small cadre of biblical scholars who are in the know and a lot of people think that And that's wrong

But then there are those churches and there are many of them that believe and emphasize direct revelation of God apart from the

Bible This is also denies the principle of sola scriptura

John Calvin said of these people when the fanatics boast Extravagantly of the spirit the tendency is always to bury the

Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods He had a rather direct way of saying things

The authority and sufficiency of the Word of God suffers when the self -proclaimed prophets

Stand forward and claim to speak to us directly from God And these guys who stand up said

God told me to tell you this You know beware run run for the hills

God speaks through his Word I Can tell you what God has said and therefore what he's saying to us

But it's not because I heard it in the hearing of the ear. It's on the page the written

Word of God 18th century pastor theologian

Jonathan Edwards who pastored out in Northampton wrote about these matters This was what was going on in the 1740s

I would therefore treat the people of God to be very cautious how they give heed to such things

And he's talking about these people who claim direct revelation I have seen them fail and in very many instances and know by Experience that impressions being made with great power and upon the minds of true

Eminent Saints now, there were true Christians are no sure signs of there being revelations from heaven.

I Have known such impressions fail and in some instances attended with all these Circumstances the

Bible and the Bible alone This is good advice

The Bible alone is a revelation the very words of God God speaks to his people today through his written

Word that was recorded long ago However, there is a new threat

To the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures to teach us the will of God And it's only been coming along the last 10 15 years a

New threat to the sole authority and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures to reveal the truth of God to his people in some ways

It's like the problem of Gnosticism back in the first century Gnosticism Had been a religious and philosophical worldview among the

Greeks not Christian But had encroached on the thinking and practice of in professing

Christians in the churches Toward the end of the first century and well into the second and third

Similarly there is a worldview that has emerged in the wider world today That is encroaching on the churches of this generation and it's a very

Serious threat to biblical Christianity It's subtle a lot of people don't recognize it

Early Gnosticism claimed to be a new and better way to gain knowledge That was from a source different from the

Bible and distinct in its beliefs regarding the spiritual realm As professing

Christians increasingly gravitated toward and adopted the teachings of Gnosticism Reinterpreting and reasserting its principles and biblical and Christian categories the errors became pronounced

And so what resulted was an apostate Christianity an apostate message that departed from Jesus Christ So it is today

There is a movement that has become quite popular in the broader culture and has unfortunately become quite influential in many evangelical churches and seminaries

It is resulting in a significant departure from formally affirmed strongly defended

Understandings of God the nature of mankind and how Christians are to relate and regard themselves and all others in the world about them

One of the leading reformed voices that have confronted this very significant threat to biblical and evangelical

Christianity is body Baca He is a great man of God He drew the parallel between the

Gnosticism of the early Christian era and the error that we are facing today Ethnic Gnosticism is

A term I coined several years ago to explain what I see is a dangerous and growing phenomenon in the culture that is creeping into the church

Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word Gnosis And it's based on the idea that truth can be assessed through special mystical knowledge the

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Calls it a heresy far more subtle and dangerous than any that appeared during the early years of the church ethnic

Gnosticism is The idea that people have special knowledge based solely on their ethnicity

It Is the hallmark of both critical race theory and its predecessor critical theory

CRT critical race theory recognizes that the experiential knowledge of people of color is legitimate appropriate and critical to understanding analyzing and teaching about racial subordination

Wrote University of California scholar Tara Yosso in race ethnicity and education

Of course the knowledge yielded by the standard of the proletariat It's a word common, of course with Marxist philosophy stands on a higher scientific

Plane objectively in other words This is a higher and more pure form of knowledge based on what you've what what people have experienced

Than what you may think is true say what the Bible records This is what

Gnostics taught in the first century We've got a source in a way of you coming to know

God and Jesus Christ. It is not found in the Bible and If you come and move in and be with us

We'll we'll inform you as to this knowledge how you can best understand God and Jesus Christ It Does after all apply a method that makes the solution of problems with the greatest thinkers of the bourgeois era have mainly struggled to find

It's a new form of knowledge Body Bacchum Who happens to be a black reformed

Baptist pastor raised in East Los Angeles educated in Southern Baptist seminaries

Is a leading voice among reformed leaders who's pushing it back against evangelical leaders and organizations that have adopted principles and practices of critical race theory and the so -called social justice movement and So he refers to the present battle to be against a new religion

This is what we're struggling with he wrote these words regarding the nature of this new religion at the epicenter of the coming evangelical

Catastrophe is a new religion or more specifically a new cult While some may consider the term cult unnecessarily offensive

It happens to be the most accurate term available to describe the current state of affairs John McWhorter Was the first observer

I'm aware of to refer to it as a cult of anti racism Others have used similar terms and I think they're right to do so The Anti -racist movement has many of the hallmarks of a cult including staying close enough to the

Bible to avoid immediate Detection and hiding the fact that it has a new theology and a new glossary of terms that diverge ever so slightly from Christian orthodoxy at least at first in Classic cult fashion they borrow from the familiar and accepted then infuse it with new meaning

This allows the cult to appeal to the faithful within the dominant orthodox religions in other words in churches

From which it draws it con its converts. This is where The evangelicalism is getting its converts from the churches in subtle ways

This new cult has created a new lexicon in other words dictionary That has served as a scaffolding to support what has become an entire body of divinity in other words systematic theology

In the same manner this new body divinity comes complete with its own cosmology in other words understanding the world and that's critical theory critical race theory and Independence that's another term

Original sin. What is the original sin racism? That's the predominant sin of mankind different law definition of law anti racism gospel racial reconciliation

Martyrs Saints Trayvon Mike George Briona priests being oppressed minorities means of atonement

The way you atone for racism, it's through reparations new birth Is it wokeness being awakened to this truth?

Liturgy is through lamenting, you know who you are and what you've been.

It's got a new canon Which would be the critical social justice in social science theologians and it names a number of non -christian secular

Proponents of this D 'Angelo Kendi Brown and and others and then it has its own catechism

You say their names. This is the new Catechism that you recite these authorities and their books that present these new philosophies

Now let's just pause and let's first let's anyone misunderstand what we're saying at this point

Let's affirm the biblical teaching against racism We despise it We despise and repudiated devaluing or even hating any person or group because of their ethnicity

Every human being is a created image of God whom we view and value with great regard and respect

No matter the age no matter the sex any human being But this present -day movement is not a corrective to racism.

It's actually based upon and promotes racism Dividing and devaluing people fomenting hatred while elevating one racer group above another

Nevertheless its principles and practices are being embraced by Christian leaders and churches

Even among sadly those who claim to be reformed Later in his book body bachem, and it's his book fault lines.

It's an excellent book. I recommend it speaks of the new priesthood of anti -racism

Like Israel's priesthood in the Old Testament. This one requires belonging to the proper tribe in This case however, the notion is flipped on its head instead of being required to be a

Levite from the tribe of Levi Read white In other words, they're not qualified.

This cult accepts priests based upon they're not being Levi's hence all oppressed minorities people of color women

LGBTQIA plus Non -citizens the disabled the obese the poor non -christians anyone else with an accepted oppressed status qualify for the priesthood in the cult of anti -racism

This is common it's in our literature. It's on TV. It's in a culture everywhere you turn

The philosophical underpinnings of this worldview hold these principles to be true First there is a source and form of knowledge that is accessible only to oppressed and marginalized people

Which no one can understand or truly relate unless they are members of that oppressed group

You cannot relate unless you're one of them You can't even be some even if you're sympathetic

That that you don't qualify because you cannot know What they know therefore they must be elevated and be put positions of political educational positions of power and authority and And their and their their assertions are not to be challenged because you are ignorant and you do not know they alone know

It's a Gnostic insider group of which you and I or many of us may not have access and Secondly the oppression experienced by these oppressed people was a result of white dominated culture laws education government social cultural values institutions through which they the oppressors have perpetrated their injustice upon these groups through history and Third the remedy of this social condition is the full and complete

Disintegration and replacement of the current order of society Is religion educational system content government law enforcement indeed all institutions that have existed

Have perpetuated this their white ways of domination upon oppressed groups For reparations by the oppressors are essential in order for true justice to be realized and fifth

The ultimate goal is equity they say Which is not the same as equality We're in favor of equality

Treating all people alike but equity is the achievement of the same outcome of all people which is basically a

Marxist worldview a socialist worldview And so even though it may be commonly asserted as above in 0 .5

The ultimate goal is equity Actually can be said that this is not the actual goal of the proponents of this new form of acquiring and applying knowledge

Having been enlightened by the truth of social justice critical race theory one of the leading opponents

Interestingly of critical race theory is a secular scholar who happens to be an atheist John Lindsay who once said

I was a militant atheist he hated Christianity. He's still an atheist But when interviewed some time ago by a

Reformed Baptist pastor Lindsay said had he known back then back in the 90s About critical race theory he would have done what he could to introduce it to the churches

For he knew it would end in their ruin and their destruction And he says if this ruins anything everything

He was from the academic it ruined his university and everywhere. He'd look literature the news media

Every aspect of culture and So it was Lindsay who wrote this author description of author

Mathematician, dr. James Lindsay told by Breitbart news in exclusive interview that the goal of critical race theory activists is to dismantle the

United States Establish a total dictatorship of the so -called anti racist

Lindsay told Breitbart News editor -in -chief Alex Marlowe at Turning Point USA's recent America fest conference in Phoenix The Marxist had to find issues that are less easily

Stabilized in order to keep people radical and that right racial identity sexual identity and so on became the target

That became a very fruitful wheel of acquiring power for them because it all comes down at the end of the day to how do you?

feel He explained by moving it fully subjective They've made it absolutely impervious to the ability to be stabilized

Reason history doesn't have any effect Lindsay continued if you can just make people feel like there's a suppression against them

They can blame the system for everything and then they're going to permanently be radical and then race is so sensitive

We have a long ugly history with race in the country That's certainly true a long struggle to achieve the dream of the

Declaration of Independence as Jefferson wrote it And so it's very easy to find places to inflame and so it's perfect If you want to tear down a country

Lindsay affirmed to which Marlowe asked, is that the goal? Yeah Absolutely. The goal is to dismantle the

United States as the United States Constitution Bill of Rights Declaration of Independence everything that flowed from that and to replace it with a regime rooted in critical race theory analysis

That is the ultimate Goal, Lindsay went on to explain the goal of critical race theory proponent

Abram Kendi Abram Kendi famously said the remedy of all Inequality in the

United States is to pass an anti racist constitutional amendment that will establish a department of anti racism that will make illegal all racial iniquity over a certain threshold

He said and it will give that department absolute dominion over all federal state and local level policy as well as private company policy wherever racial in equity surfaces and so a total dictatorship of the anti racist

Lindsay said which by the way parallels perfectly the Dictatorship of the proletariat in other words

Marxism and that's what it is folks Let's close affirming the teaching of the

Holy Scriptures respecting these matters Paul wrote to young Timothy and second

Timothy three he was preparing to young Timothy to go to Ephesus To pastor the church there.

He was going to have all kinds of problems and opposition there, but he told Timothy You're equipped you have all that is necessary to address and deal with any problem might possibly arise because you have known the scriptures from a youth your mother and your grandmother taught you this and you have the

Holy Scriptures and With the Holy Scriptures you have all that you need to address confront and correct the error

And so this is the need That we use the Word of God it is the it is the very words of God the

Holy Spirit uses to convert people and ultimately, it's our Proclamation of the gospel it which is the answer to a fallen world not this whole philosophy of oppression and deliverance but rather the true liberty and freedom by which

God sets people free from their bitterness and their hopelessness through Jesus Christ and So may the

Lord help us To adhere and affirm the sole authority and sufficiency of the

Holy Scriptures to deal with all matters within this world We want to see oppressed people, you know to be delivered from their oppression and we want to confront true oppressors of their of their sin, but we do so in a biblical way not through some new

Gnostic means That's coming down and encroaching upon the churches. May the

Lord help us And so we see before us this statement of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture to deal with any spiritual

Contingency that may arise in this life respecting ourselves Our relationship with God as we engage a hostile and evil world, but you can bet folks that that this whole

Situation that we've described is is put the target upon the upon the churches and upon the those who proclaiming a biblical message that in their minds has to be defeated and silenced for them to further their cause and Again, as we've always emphasized the

Lord has called us at this time in history in this place To be faithful to him regardless of what comes down the pike and may the

Lord help us to do so. Amen Let's pray Thank you father for your word

We thank you our God that it is sufficient to address and deal with all matters it for this is your world our

God and this is your written word that you've given to us and So help us our

God to be assured and confident Of this wonderful Spiritual weapon the the sword of the

Spirit that you use to accomplish your good purpose in Christ Help us our

God to be people who are not Deceived or come to false teaching and false teachers

But help us our God affirm the truth that is in Jesus Christ or our father in his name.