The Scriptures (Part II)

Prayer for God to Speak Through His Word

Alright, well, you guys, we'll get started and we'll start by praying, so let's do just that. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you. Lord, I thank you for this day. Lord, I thank you for our brothers and sisters here.

Lord, I pray that you would be exalted and magnified in our gathering tonight. Lord, that as we open up your word, Lord, that you would speak to us by your living word, that you would bless us, that you would encourage us, that you would equip us.

Father, that you would teach, that you would rebuke, that you would correct, that you would train us in godliness, that we might be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So speak to us tonight through your word, and be exalted, O God, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, this evening we're going to continue to unpack the Grace Fellowship Church Statement of Faith. So, last week, you guys will remember, Elias took us through the first half of the statement.

So we looked at the first half this week, we'll look at the second half of our statement on the scriptures. And I know that for a lot of you guys, this is going to be review, which is good, and for some people, maybe people that are going to be listening on the recording, or other people that are present, it might feel like drinking out of a fire hydrant.

As I was going through, I was thinking, there are a lot of scripture references here. So we're going to be referencing scripture a lot, we're going to be looking at different texts, and so I found it actually helpful going back last week and listening to Elias' teaching on the first half.

It's almost like watching a good movie a second time. You realize there are little bits and pieces that you missed, and so it might be helpful, if you haven't, to listen to the teaching online again, and just let it soak in a little bit more.

So, in terms of a refresher from last week, just to look at a couple of things that Elias had taught on, I thought it might be helpful to look at the statement, to refresh our memories a bit, and then to continue on in the second half.

So, our statement reads like this, this is on the scriptures. The scriptures, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are the inspired word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of his will for the salvation of mankind, and the final authority for all Christian faith and life.

So, last week, if you remember, Elias took us through the canon of scripture. That is how the writings that consist of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments were measured and recognized. It's important that we don't say declared, but recognized as being God's inspired word.

We looked at the inspiration of scripture, how the Bible is God-breathed. Elias, I believe you used the term Theia Anustos, that it was Theia, meaning God, Anustos, that it was breathed, or that almost like a pneumatic pump gives a puff of air, it was breathed by God, and men were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write down, to communicate and record God's word.

We looked at inerrancy, that the Bible is without error, and while it's not exhaustive, it's not an encyclopedia, it doesn't cover every topic under the sun, every topic that it does cover, it covers perfectly, without fallacy, without error, and with complete accuracy.

We looked at the sufficiency of scripture, that it is sufficient for life and godliness, and we looked at the authority of scripture, that to disbelieve or to disobey the Bible is to disbelieve or disobey God.

The Bible’s Purpose: To Glorify God

So, that's what we looked at last week. This week, we're going to unpack the second half of that statement, and it reads like this, The primary intent of God's word is to glorify the triune God and testify of Jesus Christ in order to secure the faith, love, and devotion of his elect.

So, I'm going to pull that apart into three different sections. We're going to look at how the word of God glorifies God, how it testifies of Jesus Christ, and then how it secures that faith, love, and devotion.

And if we were to characterize, maybe oversimplify what Elias taught on last week, Elias more or less taught us the what and the how of scripture. So, what is scripture? How did we get it? This week, if we were to, again, oversimplify, we're going to look at the why.

The why of scripture. And we're going to ask and answer the question, what is God's purpose for the Bible? So, why has God given us this word? Why do we have this book consisting of 66 books as the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God?

So, as I was getting ready, I was thinking about the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. But the first question in that catechism is, what is the chief end of man?

What is the chief end of man? And do any of the kids here know what is the chief end of man? Do you guys know? Yeah, that's a very good summary. To glorify, if you were to answer according to the Westminster, it is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

What a wonderful purpose that God has created us for. Now, if we were to ask that same question relevant to the scriptures, you might say, what is the chief end of the Bible? And I think we'd answer that in a very similar way.

The chief end of the Bible is to glorify God and to facilitate, to enable our enjoyment of Him forever. So, to my knowledge, there is no passage in scripture that says that God has given us the scriptures to glorify Him specifically.

But nonetheless, I think that we can make that statement with a great deal of confidence because of what the scriptures tell us about the purpose for which we have been made. So, unapologetically, unequivocally, the Bible tells us that God has made every animate being, every animate being and every inanimate object in all of creation for God's glory.

So, like I said, we're going to go through a lot of scripture and I'll try to keep it engaging, but just stay with me as we do. So, Colossians 1, 16 is an example. So, it says, For by Him, Christ, that's Christ, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and all things were created for Him.

Another wonderful passage, 1 Chronicles 16. It says, Ascribe to the Lord the glory. Do His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. And it goes on later in that same chapter.

And I love these verses. It says, Let the heavens be glad. Picture this in your mind. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, The Lord reigns. Let the sea roar and all that fills it.

Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.

I'll mention one other one. Revelation 4, 11. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. And why is that? It says, For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

So God has made everything. God has made all of us. Every animate being, every inanimate object, ultimately to carry out its function. So whether that's the planets or the wind or the waves or the duck-billed platypus or human beings or the Bible, He has given this for His glory because He is worthy of that glory.

So at this point it's helpful to understand that God has communicated His glory and His divine attributes to us in essentially, to varying degrees, through two forms of revelation. So God has communicated to us through what theologians have called general revelation or natural revelation.

And God has communicated to us through special revelation or supernatural revelation. And I want us to take a few minutes to look at what these terms mean and how the Bible teaches them because that's going to be helpful for us.

So we'll look first at general revelation. Now, Louis Burkhoff, if anyone knows who that is, he was a systematic theologian in the 18th and 19th century. He gives us a nice definition of general revelation.

He says, General revelation does not come to man in the form of verbal communication. It is not verbal, but in the facts, in the forces, and in the laws of nature, in the constitution and operation of the human mind and in the facts and experiences of history.

So God has revealed Himself in very real, very perceivable, and in general ways, through natural means. And so He's designed the world and all of humanity with all of our God-given faculties, ultimately, that we might know Him, that we might know who He is, and that we might understand some things about Him.

Not all things, but some things about Him. And the Bible gives us a number of examples of this general revelation, just so you know this isn't something that was formed in the minds of theologians, but something the scripture teaches.

We see that in Psalm 19 as an example. Verses 1 and 2. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. So there's this proclamation that's happening. Verse 2. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

So God has spoken. He is revealing knowledge through His creation. And so you can picture this. Kids, I don't know if you guys know Mowgli from the Jungle Book, right? This guy that's raised by wolves, right?

In the middle of nowhere. Well, if we were to go to even the most remote tribe, find some Mowgli in the Amazon rainforest, or maybe in an island in the Indian Ocean, or something like that. If we were to go to the most remote tribe, we would find that they have the same general revelation that we have to a large degree.

So every time they look at God's canvas above their heads and they see the sun and the moon and the stars and the clouds and the deep blue sky and the flashes of lightning and the peals of thunder, ultimately what's happening is God's creation is speaking to them.

God's creation is revealing knowledge. It's revealing God's glory, and it's revealing God's creative handiwork. So God has made His creation in such a way that it inspires our curiosity and even our delight as we look closer, whether we're wearing a lab coat and we're looking into a microscope or maybe we're in the playground blowing on a dandelion.

God's natural world reveals God's splendor. It reveals His majesty, even His righteousness. Psalm 11 says,. So God has revealed all these things to us through His creation, but we know that man has not responded appropriately.

Man has not given God the praise that He is worthy of. He has not given God the glory that He deserves. Romans 1, 18 says,. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Why?

It says, For what can be known about God is plain to them. For in His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

Listen to this. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

So God's attributes, His inherent character qualities, are clearly perceived in His creation, and yet man has not responded. Now, I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about our students who aren't here tonight, but in terms of this idea of atheism, there is no such thing as an honest atheist.

I was thinking about Psalm 14. What does it say?

It says,.

The atheist says in his heart there is no God. The Bible has a special term for atheists. It says in Psalm 14, The fool says in his heart there is no God. There's no room in God's word or in God's world for an intellectually honest atheist.

There are only fools who know that God is, who know that God is good, and who knowingly suppress the knowledge of God's goodness and His attributes. I'll share a little illustration. I know Nicole's heard this story before, so she'll be patient with me, but when I was a child, I grew up in a functionally atheistic home.

I tell people the only time I heard the name of Jesus was as a swear word, when my dad would use it in that way. And so I did not grow up at all with a Christian worldview by any means, by any stretch of the imagination.

And not only did I hear the name of our Lord used as a swear word, but my dad would often take us on colorful and often dangerous adventures. And I remember one time, we went on a snowmobile trip. We went on snowmobile trips all the time, but my dad was a bit of a rule breaker, and so we never had insurance, we never had registration, and oftentimes when we did snowmobile, we were going to places that we shouldn't be.

And so I remember one time we were coming out of this field that we did have permission to snowmobile in, and there was a car waiting at the end of the road, and my dad thought, those are the police. They're there, they're waiting for us, and when we get there, they're going to write us tickets and take away our snowmobiles.

And so my dad thought, well, we're going to get home a different way. Well, the only other way home was to take our snowmobile down the train tracks. And so my dad thought he weighed the risks and thought that was the safer way to go, and so we rode our snowmobiles onto the train tracks, and if you've ever, probably you've never ridden a snowmobile on a train track, but you actually have to, in order to do it properly, you'll have to straddle both skis on the outside of the track or just on the inside of the track, depending on the size of your sled.

And then essentially you just ride the rails like a train, and you cannot go right, you cannot go left, that's right. And I remember, functional atheist, no Christian worldview, and I remember praying to dear God, Lord, if you will just get us through this, I promise I will never commit this sin again.

I will never do this again. Not only did I know that God was, but I knew that he was good, and I knew that I was not. There's no such thing as an intellectually honest atheist. And so God has given us this general revelation that we would understand him and that we would know him, and it says in Isaiah 42 that we might declare his praise.

So, we know that God has given us this, that man is spiritually blind and deaf and dumb and dead in his trespasses and sins. So God has also given us another form of revelation. God has given us special revelation.

So, in special revelation, God addresses his people personally in a way that far exceeds that which we get in general revelation. One commentator writes about this, it says, through special revelation we come to know the mystery of God's triune being and his purpose for the church in Jesus Christ by the illuminating power of the Spirit.

And so throughout all of redemptive history, we read in the Bible that God has revealed himself in special and supernatural ways. So what are some of these special ways that God has revealed himself? And he's revealed himself through personal address or direct communication.

So we see that, for instance, with Moses. When God spoke with Moses, he's communicated through visions and prophecy and angels and divine inspiration and apostolic teaching and then finally and ultimately God has communicated, he's revealed himself to us through the person of Jesus Christ.

So Hebrews 1 teaches us about this special revelation. Hebrews 1 says that long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to us, spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

So in many times and in many ways God has spoken and in these last days it is through his Son. And then by God's providence he moved these men not only to communicate this special revelation but to write it down.

So we see that in the Pentateuch. I like the way that Elias demonstrated that last week in terms of looking at first books and last books. We see Moses, the author of the first five books of the Bible, being told by God to record not only his words but historical accounts to write it down for future generations.

And we see that in Revelation with the Apostle John in Revelation 1 being told to write these things down and put them in a book, literally into a book. And so here we have in the closed canon of Scripture we have God's complete special revelation from God to man.

So we don't need any more visions and we don't need any more dreams and we don't need any more prophets because God has spoken to us. He has faithfully given us His word. So every morning if you're getting up in the morning and you're opening this Bible you're opening God's revealed will.

His revealed communication. Everything, as Elias said last week, everything that we need for life and godliness God has given us and it's completed in this book. Louis Burckhoff, if I quote him again, I was reading a lot of Louis Burckhoff in the last couple of weeks.

The whole Bible and the Bible only is for us God's special revelation. It is in the Bible that God's special revelation lives on and brings even now, even today, even tonight,.

Life, light,.

And holiness. So God has once for all delivered His special revelation. Now why has God given us this? I gave us the answer up front but He's given us this for this purpose to glorify and to magnify Himself.

To exalt Himself in our hearts and in our minds above everything else.

So,.

And the Bible does not do this. Some people might think when we say that we want to glorify God or that the Bible glorifies God that it somehow adds to or enhances His glory. The Bible does not add to or enhance His glory but what the Bible does to glorify God is it reveals His glory.

It reveals who God is and who He is in all of His splendor. It's in the Bible better than anywhere else in all of creation that we see God gloriously displayed. I'm sure all of us have driven through a mountain pass or maybe stood at the at the foot of a a giant mountain or a cliff or a waterfall.

Or.

On the shore of the ocean and have just been overwhelmed in awe with the beauty of that experience. I know that we went to Hawaii last year and I just kept it was breathtaking every time I looked out the window.

Well,.

We should have that same expectation of awe.

That same.

Same expectation even a greater expectation when we look at God's special revelation. When we look at God's Word given to us. The Bible alone fully communicates God's or I should say helps us to fully behold God's incommunicable attributes.

So if you know what incommunicable attributes are those are the attributes that God does not share with us. Those that for instance is his eternality his self-existence his omnipresence his immutability.

That he.

Does not change. It is in the Bible that we see God's communicable attributes. Those are the attributes that he shares with us and we'll probably hear about these over the next few weeks but it's in the Bible that we that we are able to read about God's holiness and his goodness and his righteousness and his justice and his wrath and also in his love and mercy and patience and grace.

It is in the Bible that we see God's great faithfulness to us consistently demonstrated to unworthy recipients. And it's in the Bible that we get probably our clearest glimpse of God's personality and his character and that's in the God man that is in Jesus Christ.

It's in.

Jesus Christ that we see the visible image of the invisible God. It's in Jesus Christ that we see the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. John 1 18. I love this verse. Maybe it's a theological geek thing and it's Greek language I'm not sure but John 1 18 tells us that no one has ever seen.

God.

The only God who is at the Father's.

Side.

He has made him known. And that expression made him known in the Greek.

Is.

Exegeomai. Jesus has exegeomied.

God.

And.

That word.

Exegeomai.

Is where theologians get the.

Word.

Exegesis. And so we can say that Jesus Christ has exegeted the Godhead. That he has interpreted God to us that we might understand who God is and what God.

Is like.

And he's done this for this reason. 2 Corinthians 4 6 says God said let light shine out of darkness and he has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So all of Revelation general and special was given that we might see God's glory and that we might respond to that.

Glory.

The Scriptures Testify of Jesus Christ

So,.

I think I beat that one to death. We'll talk about the next purpose for which God has given us his word. God has given us his word to testify of Jesus Christ. Last week Elias spent a good deal of time talking about the sufficiency of scripture, about the authority of scripture and a lot of theologians have identified four primary characteristics of scripture.

And you can use, if you're into memorizing things like this, the helpful acronym.

SCAN.

It's the sufficiency, the clarity, the authority and the.

Necessity.

Of scripture. And all of these are things that scripture teaches internally. So this week we'll look a little bit at the necessity of.

Scripture.

So I said earlier, if there was that.

Mowgli.

In the forest, being raised by wolves or this unreached tribe that has never heard the gospel, even though they.

Haven't,.

They've still been given light. They've been given light internally. Romans 2 tells us that they've been given light in their consciences and they've been given light externally in God's creation. And so they know enough of God to be accountable to God.

But,.

Apart from the special revelation of God given in the Bible, these men and women do not possess the requisite knowledge to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. They have the accountability piece, but they do not have the salvific.

Piece.

So the Bible is necessary to know the gospel. The Bible is necessary to know God's revealed will and the Bible is necessary to maintain a spiritual life that is pleasing to God. That is essentially a textbook definition of the necessity of.

Scripture.

The gospel, God's revealed will, and a spiritual life that's pleasing to.

God.

And the reason why the Bible is needed in order to do this is because the Bible ultimately is a story of God's redemptive purposes. God's plan of redemption for every sinful man through Jesus Christ. And so even though scriptures are filled with countless characters and stories, like a piece of mosaic art, almost, we were talking about art, but like a piece of mosaic art, as we step back, you see that these individual plots and these individual people ultimately point to one plot and to one person.

And that is the salvation that is available only.

Through the.

Lord, through.

Jesus Christ. And so in Christ, we see God coming, living, dying, defeating death, and reconciling to the world, the world, excuse me, to himself. Last week, we heard a little bit about the Old Testament being referred to in short form as the law and the prophets, or the.

Law and the.

Prophets and the.

Writings.

And in the law and the prophets and the writings, we see Christ. In Luke 24, when Christ appeared to his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he uses these.

Words.

It says in 24, 27, And beginning with Moses, that's the law, and the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning.

Himself.

So Jesus Christ can be found in all the scriptures. And just a few verses later, when he appeared to his disciples again, it says this, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms, so there's the writings, must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them,. Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

So Jesus Christ does not appear in our Bible in Matthew 1. Jesus Christ appears in our Bible in Genesis 1.

1.

In the beginning,.

God.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It says later in that chapter, Let us make man in our image. And so when we start to appreciate the scriptures are right, we see that all of scripture is all about Jesus.

All we have to do is look at, for instance, the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was writing to Jewish recipients and he made it his aim to demonstrate the absolute supremacy of Christ over all.

Things.

That Christ is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament.

Shadows.

And so he says that Jesus Christ is superior to angels. He is greater than.

Moses.

He offers a better and a purer Sabbath rest. He is the great high priest. He is the mediator of a better covenant. He entered the true tabernacle to offer a better and a singular sacrifice. His own blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin, it says in.

Scripture.

Consider this, once for all time. And then he sat.

Down.

He sat down because it was finished. It was finished on the cross. Whether it's Adam and Eve or Noah's.

Flood, it was.

Jesus Christ.

So.

Always in the tabernacle of.

And.

All of this points to Christ.

All.

Of this points to Christ.

I like.

Church history and.

I like.

Historical theology so I like to sprinkle in quotes from time to.

Time. This is a.

Quote from.

Jerome.

If you know anything about Jerome. He was a 5th century theologian. He says, ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. Thomas Watson, who is a Puritan, wrote the the book A Body of Divinity as one example.

He said, the word is called a hammer. He's referencing Jeremiah 23. The word is called a hammer. Every blow of the hammer is to fasten the nails to the building. So the preacher's word, and by extension God's word, are to fasten you more to Christ.

That is why God has given us his word, is to drive us nearer and nearer and nearer, deeper into the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God has given us his word for, for his glory, and to tell us of his Son.

The Word Secures the Faith, Love, and Devotion of the Elect

And lastly in our statement, we see that God has given us his word in order to secure the faith and the love and the devotion of his elect. So God has spoken his word to call his sheep and they will hear his voice.

So 2nd Timothy 3 verses 14 and 15. This is Paul writing to Timothy. He's saying, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.

What Paul is talking about to Timothy here is the Old Testament. You've been acquainted with these sacred writings. What do they do? He says, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The scriptures, the Old Testament, is able to make you wise for salvation. The Apostle John writes at the end of his gospel. So now we're looking at New Testament books. He says, these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So what I was saying was, some people are going to contend. Maybe some people who are more of an Arminian persuasion are going to contend that, you know, what is it, where does it say in the Bible that God is securing the faith of his elect, right?

It might say that God is, sure, God has given us the Bible. He's given us the Bible to make believers, but where does it say that God has given us his word to secure the faith of the elect? And so what I wanted to do is take us to a couple verses.

1st Corinthians 1 is a good one. So Paul says there, we preach Christ crucified. What is Christ crucified? He's a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. Verse 24, but to those who are called, he uses the Greek word kleitos, to those who are effectually called.

The definition of that word is divinely appointed. To those who are divinely appointed, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So when we preach Christ crucified, we should expect that many are going to turn away, but to those who are called, to those who God is effectually calling, it will be the power of God and God will use it.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek. Then last week we looked at 1st Thessalonians, Paul's experience with the Thessalonian Church. What does he say?

For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you. Why has he chosen them? Because our gospel came to you not only in word, came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

And so what God does is God uses his word to bring those whom he has called, those whom he has chosen, those whom are his elect, and he secures their faith through his gospel word. The word also secures our love.

So as Christians we find both our motive and our method for loving God and loving our neighbors in the scriptures. And so we find our motive, so if if someone were to come up to me and say, you know Shane I just I just feel cold, right, I just don't have don't have you know much love or I don't have really any love, don't feel anything for God.

I just don't have that desire. One of the first questions that I might ask is you know what is your relationship with Scripture? Like you know how how often are you reading Scripture? What are you reading?

When you open your Bible, when you meet with God, if you are doing that, are you really seeking to meet God, to seek the Lord, to know him, to meditate on his word, to draw near to him? In my experience nothing nothing has kindled my affections more when I'm feeling cold, when there's a lack of desire, than opening up God's word and reading God's revealed truth.