One of the core tenets of Reformation theology is sola scriptura, that is, scripture alone is the supreme and infallible authority of the church. A necessary correlation to scripture alone being the final authority, is the concept that scripture is sufficient. In this message, Dr. Joseph Morecraft argues that scripture is sufficient for all areas of life; that "the bible is divinely authoritative in everything about which it speaks, and it speaks about everything."
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At a conference on the sufficiency of scripture, it's always good to have a time in which we deal with this doctrine where it's found in scripture. How the Bible defines it. What's the biblical basis for it? What are some of the implications of it? And that's what we're going to do in the next 45 minutes.
And I want you to turn with me to a couple of passages in Deuteronomy where we're going to begin. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and Chapter 12. Let me read just a few verses from the first part of the 4th chapter, verse one, "And now O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord the God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you nor take away from it. That you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Peor, for all the men who followed Baal Peor the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. See I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them. For that is your wisdom and your understanding and the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on him. Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today. Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently. Lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But make them known to your sons and to your grandsons.".
What we have in those verses is the old testament doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Moses is telling the Children of Israel as they go into the land of promise and they begin to build a godly civilization, that they are to follow everything that God has commanded in every aspect of that civilization they're going to build. From worship to medicine, to agriculture, to businesses, to everything in between. And they're not to add to that word or take away from it because everything they need to know, in principle, to build a godly civilization full of godly families, is contained in Holy Scripture.
Now turn to the 12th chapter of Deuteronomy, we've looked at this in both of my sessions today. The 12th chapter of Deuteronomy is concerned with worship. It contains rules and regulations as to how Old Testament Israel was to worship God in the land of Canaan. Both with reference to the Tabernacle as well as to the worship that took place in their homes. And then after spelling out these details he summarizes everything in verse 32. And he says, "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do. But you shall not add to nor take away from it." So what you have in that verse is the application of Deuteronomy 4:1-6 to worship. Deuteronomy 4, the Bible applies to everything. Every aspect of life. It's good for building from building Christian minds, to Christian families, to Christian civilizations. And it's particularly sufficient when it comes to the area of worship. The most important thing we do in all of life is the worship of the Triune God. And just as the Bible is sufficient for every area of life, it is sufficient for the worship of God. For well over 100 years, most Christians have neglected or denied the truth of the sufficiency of scripture.
And it is that neglect and denial that have placed the church in such a weak, compromised, and irrelevant position today. Yet it is a doctrine of vital and crucial importance. An inerrant Bible as we've been told many times in this conference. An inerrant Bible that is not an all-sufficient Bible is irrelevant to our life in this world. Now, what do I mean when I use the word in inerrant.
We've had it defined several times, let me tell you what I mean when I speak of the scriptures as inerrant. I mean two things at least.
Whatever the Bible teaches as true on any subject is true. Whatever it teaches as true on any subject is true. Whether it's theology, or science, or politics, or whatever it is. Whatever its teachings on any subject is true.
Second. Whatever the Bible says happened. Just as the Bible describes it.
Now, what do I mean when I speak of the sufficiency of scripture. We believe in the inerrancy and the sufficiency of scripture. What do I mean by that phrase? Well, let me tell you first of all what I don't mean. And before I do, let me tell you that I'm getting out of town tomorrow. I'm not afraid of you. I'm getting out of here tomorrow. You can't fire me. So get ready.
Let me tell you what I don't mean by the sufficiency of scripture. There is today among evangelicals, a growing number of people in evangelical and fundamentalist, home church and home school movement, That have a view of the sufficiency of scripture that I believe is unbiblical and dangerous. And that is the view that all we need to live the Christian life and raise our families, is the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Period. That's all we need.
An all-sufficient Bible and a Holy Spirit. We don't need organized churches. We don't need the institutional church. We don't need the covenant community. My family can survive with only the direction of the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Period.
Forget the institutional church. Forget the preachers and teachers of the Word of God. Forget the God-owned books about the Bible that have been used down through the centuries. Just give me the Bible and the Holy Spirit and I and my family can survive. This is a biblical and dangerous and it is not what historic Christianity means by the sufficiency of scripture.
The roots of this extreme view are not in the Bible. They're not in the Protestant Reformation. Instead, they are a reaction to the Protestant Reformation. This view is a reaction against the reformed doctrine of the church and of church membership. Because of the failure of the church in our generation. Because so many churches are apostate and irrelevant. We have, many of us, have adopted the idea that it's useless it has no place in my life. Give me the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Period.
That's not what the reformers believed, that's not what the Bible taught. John Calvin said if you have God as your father you're going to want the church as your mother. And you she is your nurse throughout all your life helping you grow to spiritual maturity. This view is ultimately rooted in the belief in the autonomy of man. That gave birth to Unitarianism. And all the other false isms that have plagued and weakened the church for so long. This radical view is rooted in an American doctrine of rugged individualism. I can take care of me and myself and mine, all it needs is the Bible and the Spirit. Period.
That's rugged individualism but it's not the covenantalism of the Bible. It's not the interdependency, the bondedness of the people of God that the Bible speaks so much about.
Well what do I mean by the sufficiency of scripture. Scott Brown gave you a great definition the other day in our big first speech. Let me tell you what Van Til said it was. Cornelius Van Til, probably the Calvin of the 20th century, said and I quote, "The Bible must be identified in its entirety and in all that it says on any subject as the word of God." The great Westminster Confession of Faith that God used to bring reformation to Great Britain and to North America. In the late 1600s says this,
"The whole council of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture. Unto which nothing at any time is to be added. Whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men.".
Now that's as clear as you want it to be. It goes on to say that, "There are certain circumstances surrounding worship and church government that are left to the discretion of Christian prudence and the general principles of the Bible as applied by the leaders of the church." But that phrase has been used to sneak in to the church all kinds of new rites and rituals and liturgies in worship which God has not commanded. When it says that everything you need to worship God, to live for his glory you have in the Bible, and then it says but there are some circumstances connected with worship or around worship and around the organization of the church that are left open to Christian prudence and the general principles of Word of God. It is circumstances around to worship it says. In connection with worship. Not circumstances in worship, the church may has no discretionary authority to add anything to the worship of God other than what he is commanded. The church has no discretionary authority to add anything to the organization of the church other than what God has commanded. But there are certain circumstances around worship, not in worship. Circumstances around worship it says, that are left to Christian prudence. Like, what language are we going to have the service in today? What time of the day we're going to have this service? Are we going to sit in chairs, are we going to stand, are we going to lay on the ground? Are the communion and the offering utensils are there going to be wood, sackcloth, What are they going to be? Is the church going to be airconditioned or are we going to meet in a building or in a field?
All of these millions of decisions that if they were all in the Bible, the Bible would be from here down to that wall. But these circumstances that are not a part of the worship of God or the organization the church, but surround it, those things are left to Christian prudence in the work of the leaders of the church.
So I take all that time. To make sure you understand that when you hear this,
Cause, many liberals and unknowing evangelicals use this phrase to introduce all kinds of new things in the worship of God, that God has not commanded, that you will not be caught off guard.
The way I say it when I give messages at home on the sufficiency of scripture I say it very simply. The bible is divinely authoritative in everything about which it speaks and it speaks about everything. So that another phrase for the sufficiency of scripture is,
"The comprehensive and final authority of the word of God." Again the Westminster Confession of Faith says this, "The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees of church counsel and opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits are to be examined, in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other But the Holy Spirit speaking in the scriptures."
No matter what the issue, no matter how famous the preacher that expounds it, no matter how ancient and famous the document from which these doctrines come, everything must subject itself to the supervision, and critique, and authority of the Holy Spirit of God speaking in Holy Scripture.
Now, why did they say it like that?
They spoke of the Holy Spirit speaking in scripture, to leave the impression that the Bible is not simply a stale, antique book of dusty memories and ancient sayings. It is living, abiding, powerful. It's a life-giving word of the spirit of the living God that covers all of life and that's our final authority.
And that's our all-sufficient authority for every decision and issue we have to deal with in our lives today. The Bible then, is our sufficient, complete, and comprehensive authority for all of life and thought. It is our only rule of faith and obedience. Our only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God in this world. The Bible is void of any deficiencies. And there is no room for improvement or for additions to its contents. Nothing may ever be put forward by man that is either in contradiction to the Bible or that is in addition to the Bible as binding upon the consciences of man. Since the Bible is perfect, inerrant, and complete, it's applicable to every conceivable situation and issue in this life.
The Bible gives us a finished and completed interpretation of God and life from God. Which helps us understand every fact in this universe and how every fact in this universe relates to each other. The Bible is a sufficient system of doctrines. Explaining who God is, and God's relationship to man, and what God's will is to man, and man's relationship to God. The Bible provides us with a perfect gospel. An unchanging gospel. Its terms and its promises, its demands and its powers are unchangeable. It is A gospel that saves to the uttermost. The Bible provides us with true and workable solutions in Christ for any and every problem and conflict we will ever face in this world.
It provides us with a complete system of law. For individuals and families and churches and nations. A complete system of law and morality, and justice and ethics. That Serves as the only basis for liberty and justice for all men. You remember what we read in Deuteronomy 4:8. This is the challenge that Moses spoke to the world and we should still speak this challenge to the world today particularly to those who are critical of the Bible and the law of God. "What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I'm setting before you today."
Asked the nations of the world, the critics of the Bible. You don't like the Law of God of the Bible, you don't like the system of morality and ethics and justice of the Bible. Give me a better example! Anywhere, I don't care where you go. Go anywhere in all of history. Go anywhere in contemporary society. Show me another law that is as just and as righteous as this whole law that is contained in the Word of God. There is no alternative.
One time I was on a PBS TV show, on this very subject. On how the word of God applies to every area of life and we must seek to reconstruct every area of life by the word of God.
And they had on this also a man that was a leading evangelical. Today if I said his name you would know it. (You want to ask me afterwards and I will tell you.) But... He didn't like what we were saying. And so they interviewed him and he said to them, "Well I don't agree with these people. I don't believe that the law of God and the word of God should be applied to the political, economic, and social, and international issues that we have to face today." And so then they asked him, "Well if not the all-sufficient law of God then what?" And I'm telling you the truth when he said, "The code of Hammurabi." This is an evangelical Christian.
Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian and they found his code of law written something many many centuries ago.
That's the state of the church today. This is a leading evangelical. I don't want the all-sufficient Word to govern this nation. But I will take the Code of Hammurabi.
No wonder we are a long way from home.
I'll tell you two things in my life that brought me to appreciate the sufficiency of scripture. One is in 1985 and 86 I ran for the United States Congress. And praise the Lord lost. And, I had to give speeches on everything.
I had to give speeches on taxation, economics, international affairs, military. I mean you can imagine what somebody running for the U.S. Congress had to know and had to give speeches on. And I determined before I ran that I would not hold any political opinion, for which I did not have a good solid Biblical base. Without imposing my views on the Bible or reading into the Bible what I wanted it to say. I determined that I would take the direction either in law, in principle, in teaching, whatever, that I would take the direction of the Word of God to shape every political view I held and had to speak on.
And I'm here to tell you beloved, the Bible did not let me down. Even though it was almost 2000 years after the New Testament was written, the Bible speaks to every contemporary issue that we have to face today. And it provides the only workable solutions. Another way God impressed this on me was in counseling. For over 40 years I've been doing various kinds of counseling. Premarital counseling, family counseling, and all the like. And I have seen some cases. I've seen some cases that are bizarre, and weird, and make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. I've seen situations in cases that have been extremely complex. But in all those 40 plus years. The Bible has never let me down.
I have never seen a counseling situation in which the Bible did not give true and workable solutions. I may not have known the solutions at the time. I may have had to say to the counselee, "Excuse me for a few minutes, just sit here quietly while I look at the concordance." And I didn't always have all the answers and I would have to do some research. But the Bible gave true and workable solutions to every conflict that I had to counsel and deal with for 45 years.
That's what we mean by the sufficiency of scripture. It's not some intellectual thing. Oh, it does deal with intellectual issues. It can go as deep, and as high, and as far as you want to go. But it also deals with all the various practical issues of life in raising children, and having a church, and building a nation, and everything else we have to deal with in this life. The bible is divinely authoritative in everything about which it speaks and it speaks about everything.
Now I'd like to go through, very quickly, some of the verses in the Bible on which we base our doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Many of these are very familiar. They've already been referred to time and again. Scott Brown's first speech took half of my lecture this evening. But let me go through some of these passages of scripture and you write them down or turn with me. You'll recognize many of them.
2 Timothy 3:16,17. "All scripture is God-breathed. And is profitable for teaching ,for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. In order that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped unto every good work."
So we take verse 16 to get our doctrine of inerrancy. All scripture, scripture is something written down, all those written documents that are entitled Holy Scripture are God-breathed. That is their not apostle breathed, they're not prophet breathed, they're not man breathed, they originated with God, and God alone who used men to write down exactly what he wanted them to know. All scripture, not just the ideas contained in scripture, but the scripture. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that the Bible is comprised of spirit produced thoughts in spirit produced words. That the very ideas and thoughts that are expressed in the Bible, Paul says the Holy Spirit put those thoughts in my mind from the very mind of God, and then guided did me, without making me an automaton, guided me in the choice of the words that I made to express those thoughts so that the Bible is not only the word of God, the Bible in the words of God, and what ever Scripture says God says.
What did he mean by scripture, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for all these purposes. Well, normally people say he's talking about the Old Testament. And of course, he is. The books of the old testament that Jesus held in his hand are identical to the books that we have in our Old Testament.
They are other copies of the old testament, represented in the Roman Catholic Church, etc. with new chapters and new books, that do not coincide with the Old Testament that Jesus held in his hand. But it's these 39 books that you have in your hand that are the same books that Jesus read from in the Old Testament.
But it's more than the old testament. I love this phrase: Peter, at the end of one of his epistles, said, in so many words, he said: "I'm getting tired of all these people who are trying to twist and distort the Epistles of Paul as they do the rest of the scriptures." See what Peter just said?
He identified the Epistles of Paul with scripture. You go to Timothy, I've forgotten whether it's first or second.
And Timothy's talking about ruling elders and teaching elders. And he says they are worthy of honor and if they're especially hard working they're worthy of double honor. And then he says, "It stands written." Scripture says, "Don't muzzle an ox while he's threshing, and a laborer is worthy of his hire." Well, you can go to Deuteronomy 24 or something like that, and you can find the law that says, "Don't muzzle the ox while it's threshing." But if you go the Old Testament you'll never find the quote "A laborer is worthy of his hire." And yet Paul said that these are quotes from scripture.
"A laborer is worthy of his hire." is found in the book of Luke. And so here when Paul talks about scripture originating with God, he is not just talking about the Old Testament, He's talking about the New Testament as well. This whole book is God-breathed and therefore it's all you need to make you thoroughly equipped for living for God in this world. All you need. For living faithfully for God in this world.
How does he say it?
He says, "That the man of God may be thoroughly equipped unto every good work." All the Christian needs to be thoroughly equipped for service to Christ in any area of life, public or private, spiritual or physical, personal or societal, individual or institutional, is the Bible, and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to understand the Bible, along with all of the God-ordained aids to understanding the Bible.
So the sufficiency of scripture does not deny the value and the importance of those aides that God has given us, empowered by the Holy Spirit to help us understand this all-sufficient book.
What age are those? Well if we had time to go to the 4th chapter of Ephesians, we would see Paul talking about the ascended Christ giving gifts to his church, His bride. And among those gifts are the teaching offices of the church. Teachers, pastors, and the like. So that as we submit ourselves to the teaching ministry of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, We are able to be fully equipped. We're able to minister to one another. We're able to keep from being seduced and swept off our feet by false doctrine. We're able to develop the unity of the faith among each other. And we're able to grow more and more into the image and spiritual maturity of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here I say that to emphasize again, that the sufficiency of scripture does not deny the value and central importance of the preaching and teaching ministry of the institutional church in your family life as you seek to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then in Psalm 19, verse 8, We read this simple little phrase, "the precepts of the Lord are perfect, restoring the soul." The Hebrew word translated perfect is more literally translated completely. "The precepts of the Lord are complete, restoring the soul." The Bible furnishes us with complete wisdom and direction for daily living, is free from all corruption and deficiency. It's perfectly right and perfectly sufficient to restore us. That is to lead us and to bring us back to God and to ourselves.
I love Psalm 36:9. Where the psalmist says to God, "for with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light."
That is men are so destitute of the true and certain knowledge of life and of God that the only way they can see light and understand it the way God understands it, is by seeing light or anything else in life, from the perspective of the light of God. In Thy light. In the light of Your word, we're able to see and understand life and every other fact in the universe.
And Psalm 119 verse 105 goes with it. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." It gives us all the light and direction we need for our path in life wherever that path may lead us. Listen to what John Calvin said about this verse. He said, "Unless the word of God enlightens men's path, the whole of their life is enveloped in darkness and obscurity so that they cannot do anything else than miserably wander from the right way." So, it is a sufficient Bible or darkness.
Psalm 119:128. The psalmist says to the Lord, "Therefore I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. I hate every false way." That verse calls you and me to embrace the whole revealed word of God without exception or reservation because the Bible is an unerring rule concerning everything.
Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6. "Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you and you will be proved a liar." God's word is so complete that nothing can be added to it to improve it. To add to the Bible, to seek counsel and direction outside the Bible, is an audacious affront to God's infinite wisdom. It opens the door for us to follow an endless stream of errors.
Isaiah 8:19,20 have been quoted in this conference. It says, "when they say to you, 'Consult the mediums...'" Now. I love this particular if you do a study of this passage in Isaiah 8:19,20. In its context, the context is Jesus talking. So this is Jesus talking to you.
"When they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and spiritist who whisper and mutter.' Should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and the testimony: If they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no dawn." It's cause they're in the dark. The law and the testimony is the written revelation of the will of God. If that revelation had not been sufficient for all things comprehensively, the Lord would not have forbidden us to seek assistance elsewhere. And Calvin says this, "Hence we learn that everything which is added to the word must be condemned and rejected. It is the will of the Lord that we shall depend wholly on his word and that our knowledge shall be confined within its limits. And therefore if we lend our ears to others we take a liberty which he has forbidden and offer to him a gross insult. Everything that is introduced by men on their own authority, will be nothing else than a corruption of the word and consequently if we wish to obey God we must reject all other instructors.".
Why go to psychiatrists, and psychologists, and all the rest who have no understanding of life in terms of the word of God. They don't understand your spiritual and your Christian soul. They're going to give you advice as dead men would give you advice. Don't go to them. They have no light because the Bible tells you everything you need to know about your self.
Now I particularly love 1 John 2.
So let's turn there because this is one of those radical and controversial and difficult passages of scripture and I love controversial passages of scripture. And let me read some verses.
1 John 2:20 and following. "But you have an anointing from the Holy One. And you all know," or you know all things, "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anti-christ the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He Himself made to us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him."
Now you can see how that can be easily exaggerated and abused. It says that Christians are not wise because of their intellectual brilliance, but because the Holy Spirit enlightens their minds with the word of God. That word is so complete, that it gives us a proper perspective on everything as we study it being led and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The text must not be taken in an exaggerated, incautious, and unbalanced sense as if individual believers absolutely do not need any human aides or teachers in understanding the Bible. For such an interpretation flies in the face of numerous places in the word of God.
The idea that Christians do not need teachers of the church, all they need is the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the Bible contradicts what John is doing here in our text. John is an elder. John is a preacher. And he's doing for his hearers the thing that God has called him to do, of helping them understand the all-sufficient word of God. Here is a human being, John, though divinely inspired, assisting individuals in understanding God's will for their lives.
Now let's look at this text. It is so great, it's so wonderful, I don't want you to be afraid of it. I don't want you to miss the point. Its point is this, two safeguards exist against believing and practicing error.
Do you want to keep from falling into a false doctrine? Here are the two safeguards. The word of God and the anointing of the Spirit of God. In verse 24, John says you heard the word. Verse 27, it says you received the Spirit. The word came from the inspired apostles and the preaching of the Apostles, and the Holy Spirit came directly from God.
So we have the word of God in our hands, and the Holy Spirit, now we as Christians have received from God to help us understand this book. The role of the Holy Spirit is so vitally important in understanding the Christian life. There are two things you need, three things you need to understand to live the Christian life as Christians: Christ, the law, and the spirit.
And there are all kinds of books out there on the Holy Spirit. There are all kinds of books out there on the Holy Spirit and they're basically froth. You know what froth is? Basically froth. Go find these great old reformed books on the Holy Spirit that have been written over the past 400 years. All these modern books are like a stagnant, shallow, mosquito larva infested pond. The great books that come out of the reformed faith are deep, fresh, mineral water.
And what do we have, what is God given us to keep us from wandering off in error? An all-sufficient word and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Do you know that you would never have believed that the Bible is the word of God if the Holy Spirit hadn't convinced you of its divine authority? And now, having convinced you of its divine authority, the Holy Spirit is in your heart to help you believe everything that it says and to enlighten your minds to help you understand what it says in a saving way.
It's great to have the author of the Bible as our teacher. So we have an all-sufficient book. We have a teacher who is the Holy Spirit who came into our hearts and lives when we first became a Christian, and God made a Christian out of us, and He's there in our hearts to stay.
And so whenever we read the Bible, he opens the Bible to our hearts and opens our hearts to God's word. John Stott, the great English Anglican said this, "The word is an objective safeguard, while the anointing of the Spirit is a subjective experience. But both the apostolic teaching and the heavenly teacher are necessary for continuance in the truth. We know all things and are kept from error, if we depend on no other teacher but the Holy Spirit speaking in scripture and enlightening our hearts to understand that scripture. Who inspired that written word."
There are other passages that I have here, but I'll turn to a couple more, 2 Peter 1:3. 2 Peter 1:3 says, "God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."
So here you have the Apostle Peter pointing out that everything you need to live a life of faith and godliness you have in the knowledge that you acquire from the word of God.
And then the Bible ends with these words. In Revelation 22 verses 18 and 19. "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if any one takes away from the words of this prophecy God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which is written in this book.".
Now, you remember back in Deuteronomy 4, it said, "Don't add to the word of God." Well now the interesting thing about that phrase, that's in the fifth book of the Bible. There's still all the rest of the Bible to go. Is the book of Deuteronomy saying the rest of the Bible is an addition to the word of God? No it is the word of God. But now we come to the last chapter of this organic revelation. The book of Revelation is the last chapter of a book of an organism. There is a unity to the whole book and the whole scriptures. So that revelation 22 is not only the last chapter of the book of Revelation. It's the last chapter of the Bible. And there God says, "Don't add to the words" Plural.
There are no more words. 10-4, over and out, the revelation is completed. Everything you need to know now until Jesus comes. Even if that's next year or two million years from now, and I love to think about this, even if it's two million years from now. Everything you need to live the Christian life you have in the Bible. That's how rich, that's how full, that's how all-sufficient the word of God is. It's amazing how through the years this doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture has had many many enemies and many many critics and maybe another day we'll talk about all of these criticisms, but I don't want to leave out my final point.
Turn with me to Matthew 28. The Great Commission, Jesus has died on the cross, accomplished our redemption, He has arisen from the dead, now he's about to ascend to God's right hand to be the king of kings and Lord of Lords before whom, some day, every knee shall bow. And he's giving his marching orders to His church, the great commission. And he says to them in Verse 18. "And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"
What do I personally want to come out of this great and wonderful conference that we're having this weekend?
Well, there are several secondary issues. I want us to understand and practice the sufficiency of scripture more consistently.
But what I want to see come out of here, is a mighty army on fire for God, that's willing to go out and involve themselves, whatever the cost, in the carrying out of the great commission until we see what we are commissioned to do come to pass and all the world's nations become Christ disciples.
That we evangelize, evangelize, evangelize. Involve ourselves in world mission, world mission, world mission, and baptize the disciples of Christ and create strong churches all over the world and in those churches and through those churches into our culture, "Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you to the end of the age." That's what I pray comes out of here. I pray that you will be more dedicated than ever, to tell the whole world about Jesus and his sufficient Bible.
Until that day when the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.