Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. So, for our one-hundredth podcast. This podcast discusses the heartbeat of our ministry – the sufficiency of Scripture. The world's cultures are insufficient to teach the people of God how to be saved and live. The sufficiency of Scripture is always the heart of the problem in our families and churches. Using Joshua 23:6-8 as a springboard, we recognize the continental divide between the church and the world and the need to cleave to God and His Word. The greatest danger to the church is syncretism-following the contemporary prophets. The most excellent help, however, is the Word of God alone.

Welcome. Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture, and that's really the focus of this session today. This is our 100th podcast of the Church and Family Life podcast, and we thought we would focus in on this seminal principle of everything that we do, that scripture is sufficient. So Jason, here we go.

This is the hundredth time around. I can't believe we've made it to 100. Yeah, well, I guess we're going to keep going. There's a lot to talk about under the banner of the sufficiency of Scripture. So, and frankly, I think we've understood for many years that this is a watershed issue.

It's the continental divide, first of all, between the church and the world, but it also has become a continental divide between the true church and a worldly church where scripture is not regarded as sufficient, where culture is regarded as sufficient for life and godliness, for being a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, and a church. I think trust the Bible is always a good message, always a needed message. And really, you know, the sufficiency of Scripture, it's nothing less than the sufficiency of God, which is the sufficiency of His Word, which speaks to, which tells us how to think about everything, which is such a blessing. I've been so taken by that over the last months, particularly just how kind God is to give us directions on what to do, how to think about it, how to think about my life, how to think about what's happening in the world. We know how to think about things because of God's Word.

It's amazing. God's revelation to mankind is at His own pleasure. He can reveal to us himself truth as he decides to. And he has given us a book that explains really all that we need for life and godliness. And this has been the battleground from the very beginning.

In the Garden of Eden, the battle really began with Eve thinking that God was not sufficient, that she needed another word of truth to guide her. And this battle has ensued until today. The battle for the sufficiency of scripture has always been the great battle in the Bible. The same words are still ringing in people's ears. Did God indeed say, you will not surely die?

Yeah, and here, you know, God had the very best things for Eve, but she wanted one thing out of the, what was possibly thousands of wonderful things in the garden. She just wanted that one thing out of a thousand. So it's so critical. We don't look to the culture to learn how to be saved. We don't look to the culture to learn how to be saved.

We don't look to the culture to learn how to live our lives in our houses or in God's house. And We look to the Word of God. So we just want to talk about that. Let's just discuss different sides of this. There are so many places in Scripture where we're urged to turn away from the ways of the Gentiles and turn toward God and live our lives out of the Word of God.

So our church has been working through the book of Joshua. We're in the very last chapter now. The last three chapters, Joshua 22, Joshua 23, Joshua 24, Joshua addresses the whole nation at different times and different places. And in Joshua 23, he really addresses this whole matter. I'll start reading in Joshua 23, verse 6.

Joshua is addressing the whole nation here and he says, Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them." and then he goes on and says more helpful things, we stop there. Joshua is telling us how we keep away from false gods, and it's by giving attention priority to the Word of God and being careful not to veer a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left, because even these small departures, you incur great risks by little compromises. Little compromises lead you to drift, which leads you to drift. Yeah, and God's agenda for the church is that she be a holy church.

You know, like in Ephesians 5, we learned that the work of God in the church is that the church would be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing and how is that church sanctified in that way by the Word of God, washed by the water of the Word. So we have this direction away from the ways of the nations. Now I wanna suggest that when Joshua was writing here, he was speaking of course of the nations around him, the pagan influences. He was talking about pagan influences. Right.

The nations in our times is the entertainment industry, it's Hollywood, it's this vast matrix of ungodliness through Netflix and just the whole industrial entertainment industry. And that's where the nations come to us. They come into our living rooms, they come into our bedrooms. The average person apparently checks their phone 343 times a day, which is like every four minutes. Ouch.

Ouch. Now, some of that is, you know, communicating with people and stuff like that, but we have these portholes into the nations, which are the ungodly philosophies of the day. I think that's where the nations impinge upon the church today. And it's interesting how Joshua speaks of this because there are new manifestations with technology, but at the end of the day, it is just pagan influences. The vehicles might be different, but the categories are exactly the same.

Joshua warns about some specific things in what I just read. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them. Most of the commentators on this verse point out that this is a progression. In other words, it's the third thing, the bowing down to them and serving them is the third thing.

It never starts with bowing down and serving the false gods. First, it's just taking them up on your lips, saying their name, not purging them from your vocabulary. Then the next step is swearing by them, and you can just sort of see the progression. One thing leads to another, is really the point that most commentators make about what Joshua is saying here. And that's really instructive Because it lets us know that, I mean, you ought to be on the lookout for bowing down and serving them, but just understand, it never starts there.

It progresses to there in ways that often you're insensible of. I know. This is a difficult subject, particularly in the conservative Christian world. I'll illustrate it. I was never in favor of having my children when we were schooling them to read Plato and Socrates.

They were the products and the promoters of a homoerotic society. They were both homosexuals, and I didn't want my kids reading the homosexuals. I didn't want to mention their names in that sense. I didn't want them to bore into their argumentation, into their lives, into their worldview. And I, you know, I know that many people apply this differently, but when Joshua says, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, I think he's saying, focus on the truth.

Don't find an untruth to make you remember a truth. This is what people often say, well, I'm watching this movie because it has some truth in it. Well, that's not what Joshua is saying. He's not saying go to the pagans to get some truth and correlate with the Word of God. He's saying, no, don't even listen to them.

Yeah. Listen to the Word of God. It's a completely different way of viewing writing and film and all that kind of thing. So the Apostle Paul says the same thing, but in a little different way, and he expands on it in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. So let me read that.

I mean, it is the classic passage. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning of verse 14, Paul says, Paul says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?

Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them I will be their God and they shall be my people Therefore so he gives us the conclusion of the matter here, "'Therefore come out from among them and be separate,' says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty." And I think for all of us, part of embracing the gospel and walking with God is understanding the need for separation in the appropriate ways. Yeah, James talks about it in James 4.

He says, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And I think it begins the way that Joshua talks about it. You become a friend of the world by mentioning their name, and then it moves on from there. You know, the Lord Jesus, through the apostle John, in 1 John 2.15 says, do not love the world or the things of the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever." Scott, when we look at this commandment, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, we immediately default to marriage. A believer should never marry an unbeliever, to which we would say a hearty amen, and that that is one of the key and primary applications, but certainly not the only application.

It belongs to other relationships outside the marriage relationship. Other close relationships need to be put through that filter. But also influences, and sources of truth, and systems that you engage in, practices that you engage in. Believers really should be careful about systems, influences of unbelief, etc. Yeah, and that's why I think in Ephesians 4, 17 to 24, the Apostle tells that church in Ephesus, a very really a pornified society.

If you've ever been to the city of Ephesus you can see it was just a highly sexualized society with gods everywhere and he says, I say therefore that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness." And he says, but you haven't learned Christ that way. Christ takes you in a different direction. This has me thinking of 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, where Paul says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. King James translates that, His own peculiar people, or special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. If you just reverse the order of that, we're a people who were in darkness and never would have found our way out, never would have really looked for a way out, but God has brought us into light.

And now We're a holy people. Holy meaning God set us apart to himself for his own pleasure and to be his and to walk with him. And we're his own special people and we are to be a peculiar people. It's a good way to think about it. The more we look like the unbelieving people and systems that are around us, the more that should bother us and worry us because we've been brought out of darkness to light to be set apart to God as his special people.

And that's why Christians, they start listening to different things, and over time they jettison things that they used to listen to. And I was struck a while back with Jeremiah, he talked about the prophets, don't listen to the prophets of the day. And the prophets have a message, right? Every movie has a message. Every movie is a prophet.

Every book is a prophet of some worldview, some angle, some moral category, some conviction. Nobody does these things for nothing. They do it because of their epistemology, because of their theory of truth. And what what Jeremiah says is, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless.

They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. And the prophets are everywhere now. The prophets of our day are in the entertainment industry, they're in the political machinery, they're in advertising. The prophets are all over the place. The prophets are in your phone, and they're yelling at you.

If you start seeking the wrong prophets, you'll just get more of them. The algorithms will send them to you. Scott, I think Solomon is such an instructive example, because he started well. The accounts of the beginnings of Solomon's life and especially the early years of him being king are inspiring, But he did not finish well. Well, what happened to him?

He married pagans. He joined himself to pagans, and he started well, but he ended up engaged in all kinds of idolatry. Why is he a particularly instructive example? Because he's wiser than you. That's why he was the wisest man who had lived before the Lord Jesus Christ came, and even he became entangled by these influences that he invited into his life.

Yeah, I like the way you said that influences that he invited into his life. That's exactly what Joshua 23 is talking about. Don't even mention their name. Don't even bring them into your thinking, but think the words of God. And you know, we over the years in trying to proclaim that Scripture is sufficient have tried to apply it to everything in life, from our work life to everything that we do.

And of course, nobody, we don't walk with God as closely as we even want to. And we're not proclaiming that we are the followers of the sufficiency of Scripture above all others. We're not saying that. But what we're saying is that the whole direction of your life should be defined by the Word of God and not by this world. Yeah.

So I've spent my time on this podcast, Cursing the Darkness, and there is a place for that, but I'm glad you're lighting a candle here. Thank you for that. And so just what are the things that are good that we should inflect towards to help us do more than just curse the darkness? Yeah, I think it really just begins with filling up your mind with the knowledge of his will to be filled, to saturate your whole life with that. And as you're raising your children, well, we're told what to do.

You shall teach the things of God When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up, fill your children with every good thing. Push aside the things that are not of God. Push aside the silliness. Push aside the things that really are contrary to the holiness of God. And explain the beauty of the Lord.

He's explained from Genesis to Revelation, his power, his love, his purity, his beauty, it's all there in narratives, in poetry, in didactic texts, It's given to us in so many different ways. I feel like in some ways we have the same answer to every question. Yeah, we do. Which is what the old writers would call the ordinary means of grace. It's hard to get people to be satisfied with the ordinary means of grace, meaning God uses certain things over and over and over and over again as a channel for His goodness and grace to flow into your life.

What are those things? Reading your Bible, meditating on your Bible, memorizing your Bible, praying, having fellowship with God, going to be with the people of God and worshiping together corporately, singing the songs of faith so that you have an outlet for joy in your heart towards the Lord. These things aren't compelling for thrill seekers, but they're compelling if you actually want to make progress in the faith and stand on rock. Yeah. And, you know, I think if, how do you know if that is happening?

It has to do with the meditations of your heart. Like if the songs that you're singing to yourself are the songs of the nations, are they the songs of the prophets, the ungodly prophets? And that's what comes to your mind, and that's what you're humming. If your children, If they're just singing the songs of the pagan films and things like that, if that's what's in their minds, just recognize, we have this treasure in earthen vessels to be filled up with holy things. And God says, don't even mention their names.

Mention my name and everything that goes with it. And that's where the sweetness is. That's where the happiness is. What is holiness? Holiness is every good thing.

That's what holiness really is. The fact that God is holy is the best news for us in a sense, because we're not holy. But the fact that He can make an unholy person holy by the sacrifice of His Son, taking all of the penalty, all of the punishment that we deserved so that we could be holy So he he would open up the door breaking the power of sin Filling us with the Holy Spirit giving us the Word of God so that we could experience every good thing from heaven. What a blessing that is to have. Last night at our prayer meeting, we were singing together, Jesus Shall Rain.

It's a hymn about how where the kingship of Jesus spreads to, that happiness spreads there as well. And that really is true. We really need to embrace that truth and understand that the fake kings actually bring unhappiness and emptiness. But wherever Jesus' reign, and I would say in the world, but also in our hearts and lives, where when his reign expands, it's an increase of happiness and wholeness, not the emptiness that you get from the false gangs. I think that's why David said in Psalm 101, I will set no unclean thing before my eyes.

He understood what it meant. He had suffered tremendously as a result of compromising in that way. And so he states this position that he would set no unclean thing before his eyes. Well I guess we're here to just say Scripture's sufficient. Set the clean before your eyes.

Satisfy your delights with the things of God. Fill your home with the Word of God. Saturate everything that is near you with God and the word of His grace. And have a family that is governed by Scripture alone. Have a marriage like that.

Have a work life. Have a church life like that. Amen. So scripture is sufficient for church and family life and everything else between. Okay, there you go, 100th Podcast.

Thank you, Jason. There you go. Pleasure. We did it. Okay, let's keep going.

101 next week. Okay, good deal. Hey, thanks for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. Hope you see us again next Monday. Thanks for listening to the Church and Family Life podcast.

We have thousands of resources on our website, announcements of conferences coming up. Hope you can join us. Go to churchandfamilylife.com. See you