Most Christians will quickly affirm the authority and even the inerrancy of the Scriptures. However, those affirmations - important as they are - are not the complete picture of what Scripture claims for itself or for what the historic Protestant belief regarding scripture has been. Scripture is authoritative and inerrant, and it is also sufficient. The sufficiency of scripture is the heartbeat of sola scriptura. The sufficiency of scripture is the doctrine that the Word of God alone is what the Church as a whole and Christians individually must turn to in order to learn God's will for Christian worship and daily life. All traditions and practices must be conformed to the scriptures, not the other way around.

Psalm 19, a psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words. Their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. It's rising as from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true.

They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them thy servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors?

Equip me of hidden faults. Also keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me, then I shall be blameless and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh lord my rock and my Redeemer will you bow with me as I pray Lord we thank you for your word Lord make your word to us more precious than gold much fine gold We pray that you would pour out your spirit on Scott Brown now as he preaches your word to us. Open our hearts that we are moldable before you.

We love you Lord in Jesus name, amen. Thank you, Peter. We begin this conference with the consideration of Psalm 19 because it's one of the foundational passages of Scripture that help us to understand what we really want to accomplish together during this whole conference. It helps us to see how good it is to have a guidance system from heaven not out of our own hearts, not out of our own experience, but out of the heart of God Himself. This psalm does help us to understand the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture.

This doctrine is, it also can be identified as one of the five solas of the Reformation. There is sola fide by faith alone, solas Christus, Christ alone, sola gratia by grace alone, sola deo gloria, glory to God alone for salvation, and sola scriptura by scripture alone. And Psalm 19 is critical to understanding this doctrine and it is the foundation for all the work that's done at the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. Our confession as an organization starts out this way. This is article one and it's article one for a reason.

It reads like this, we affirm that our all-wise God has revealed himself and his will in a completed revelation, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, which is fully adequate in both content and clarity for everything pertaining to life, salvation, and godliness, sanctification, including the ordering of the church and the family. And then it has a companion denial. We deny that God's people should treat his word as inadequate for church and family life by supplementing his completed revelation with humanistic psychology, corporate business models, and modern marketing techniques. So the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture states that scripture provides all that is necessary and there is nothing else that is really needed. Now this, please let's not just rest our minds on the intellectual issue here.

This is one of the most comforting doctrines in all of scripture. This should warm the heart as much as anything in scripture could warm the heart. It makes it clear that there's not a problem, there's not a situation, there's not a question that you'll ever face that God does not somehow illuminate through His Word. You will never be without help in this world. He will never leave you.

He will never forsake you. And that is such a comforting issue that flows from this doctrine. Scripture is sufficient. I asked my wife, Deborah, how can we compare this doctrine to something in life that is pretty satisfactory? And she said, Scott, it's like water.

Water is completely sufficient. She said, you may try Coke or coffee or punch, but water is completely adequate. It's more healthful. It's more refreshing than all the man-made drinks, and it really is all that you need to hydrate your body. And I thought that was a good way to say it.

And then it occurred to me this morning that I'm in a town where the slogan is, it's the water, right? But it isn't really the water, is it? No, there's something added to that water, and that makes all the difference in the world. Well, the sufficiency of scripture is put on display many times in scripture. And I had to cut so many of the wonderful examples of where this doctrine comes to the surface.

But you can see it on display when the devil came and tempted the Lord Jesus Christ. He was under privation and with each temptation the Lord Jesus Christ appealed to the sufficiency of Scripture and he said with every attack of Satan it is written and he was going back to timeless truth from the throne of God. The doctrine of sufficiency of scripture can be seen worked out many times in church history, particularly in the early centuries of the church when controversies were attempting to rip the church in two. Councils convened and meetings were held and it is written was the subject matter of the early councils. The ruling principle was the sufficiency of scripture.

We in our Christian tradition have created many confessions that describe this doctrine. The Westminster Confession has a beautiful statement. I'm not going to bring it to you this morning because I figured maybe many of you are already aware of the beautiful language that the Westminster Confession uses to describe this doctrine. Let me give you a couple here in history. In the 5th century, St.

Leo, what is meant by the deposit? He's referring to Paul's statement to Timothy to guard the deposit. Guard it, Timothy. What is meant by the deposit? That which is committed to thee, not that which is invented by thee, that which thou hast received, not which thou hast devised.

A thing not of wit, but of learning, not of private assumption, but of public tradition, a thing brought to thee, not brought forth of thee, wherein thou must not be an author but a keeper, not a leader but a follower. Keep the deposit." Fast forward in history to 1559, the French confession. We believe that the word contained in these books has proceeded from God and receives its authority from Him alone and not from men. And inasmuch as it is the rule of all truth, containing all that is necessary for the service of God and for our salvation, it is not lawful for men, nor even for angels, to add to it, or to take away from it, or to change it. Quince it follows that no authority, whether in of antiquity, of custom, or numbers, or human wisdom, or judgments, or proclamations, or edicts, or decrees, or councils, or visions, or miracles should be opposed to these holy scriptures.

But on the contrary, all things should be examined, regulated, and reformed according to them." These statements, I think, clarify this doctrine. And so we might ask, what's the contemporary significance of this doctrine, what's the contemporary importance of this doctrine. There are many things that I could say about this, but one thing that really maybe comes from my own experience, my generation, the baby boomers, have tended all of their lives to value personal creativity over biblical substance. My generation created many popular movements that had broad appeal. They were new.

And after 50 years of what I'm going to call creative Christianity, we now have a church that's almost indistinguishable from the world. In all of our creativity, in all of our brilliance and energy, to create something new and wonderful, to hear something new from God, to get something that would just fix everything. We've proposed many new things in the church. Many of our modern church leaders believe that it is okay to create the church in the image of modern culture and making it up as you go. Some call this contextualization.

We've become very good at creating a brand that works. And for our purposes today, in light of this doctrine, we want to identify this element in Christian culture that I'm going to call creative Christianity. It quote, it engages the culture. It connects with felt needs. It speaks the language of the people instead of teaching the people the language of God.

Creative Christianity says, let's find the best way to engage the culture. Find a need, meet it. The only problem with creative Christianity is that it started in the wrong place. It started with men, not with God. And so the question for Christian men and women should be, what does the Bible say that men ought to do and the church ought to look like?

This is why Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.15, he said, I write to you so that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. There is a way that God wants His people to conduct themselves in His house. It's not all up for grabs. It's not for us to make up as we go along the way. There is a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in the household of God.

Psalm 19 helps us to understand how absolutely wonderful God is to make it this way. That we would listen to God for how we would conduct ourselves in his household. There are two sections of Psalm 19. The first, Spurgeon said it like this, God speaks through his world. The heavens declare the glory of God.

And it's just an absolutely wonderful passage of scripture. And then the second half of the psalm is that God speaks through His Word. And We're going to spend the rest of our time diving in to every statement and phrase in this psalm to help us to understand more deeply this doctrine. Well, first of all, we learn that it is the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord is perfect.

That's how it begins. But I just want us to camp on the two words or the three words of the Lord. It's the law of the Lord. And then you'll see this repeated six times. It's a six-fold repetition.

There's, it's the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the fear of the Lord. This phrase is prominent, takes up lots of words in this Psalm. In this simple phrase, David exalts the law of the Lord above every other principle or law. It is not my law which the church needs. It is not the law of the reformers that the church needs.

It is not the law of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches that the church needs. The church needs something far better and far more wonderful. The church needs the law of the Lord. Now, drifting, drifting, religious circles drifting from the law of the Lord, of course, is not something new. Jesus himself arrives on the scene and sees very similar things in his day.

He poses a very profound question to the scribes and the Pharisees. He says this in Matthew 15 verses 2 through 8. Matthew 15, 2 through 8. And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? And the Lord is presenting one of the most important questions for all religious people in all ages why do you value your traditions above the commandments of God why do you value your culture above the commandments of God Why do you value what your neighbor is doing above the commandments of God?

When the Catholic Church had successfully added legends and dogmas and superstitions, stations of the cross, veneration of saints, indulgences, doctrine of Mary. Mary is the the co-mediator with Christ. The reformers rose up in a very similar way that the Lord Jesus Christ rose up in the in in rose up in his day. And they said sola scriptura, scripture alone. The Jews that were in the same predicament had been entrapped by the judgments and the cultural elements around them.

Their structures had been incarcerated by tradition. And Jesus says, in vain they worship me, in Mark 7, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Let's just stop. Teaching as commandments the doctrines of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.

You see the picture? You lay aside the commandment, but You hold on with all of your might the tradition of men. There's much at stake in the traditions of men, which is why we grasp so tightly to them. The washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things you do. He said to them, All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition.

For Moses said honor your father and your mother and he who curses father and mother let him be put to death. But you say If a man says to his father and mother, whatever profit you may have received from me is Corban a gift of God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father and mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down and many such things you do. This question, this statement should just cause us to stop and say, Lord what are the many things that we do that are handed down from men that that are departures from your law the Pharisees were the legalists of the day they imposed laws that were not the law of the Lord they made traditions their own laws personal preference ruled and reigned. This is the tendency to value tradition. It's one of the pitfalls that all of us have every day of our lives.

Well, it is the law of the Lord. That's the first point. Number two, it is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect. It is perfectly free from all corruption.

It is perfectly filled with all good and perfectly fitted for the end for which it was designed. James called it the perfect law of liberty. It would make the man of God perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, and it would perfectly accomplish the purpose for which it was intended, and it would not return void. It's perfect for the church. It is perfect for you and I, and it is exactly what we need, and any attempt to improve on it will fail.

It is perfect. It also converts the soul. It converts the soul. That old expository John Gill, says that it means relieving, refreshing, comforting the soul as it's revived by food, comforted and nourished. The Word of God is exactly what the soul of man needs.

Jesus of course said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You know this conference is not is not dedicated first of all to the principle of family integration. It is dedicated to a returning to biblical order of the church and the home, which converts and reforms and refreshes the soul. That's what this is all about. In one way this conference has nothing to do with family.

It has to do with the Word of God and a return to it. Of course, we must always be in a process of recovering, reforming, and restoring our practices to conform them to the Scriptures. We're born in sin, in a sinful world, we grow up not knowing our right hand from our left. There is no hope for us at all, except that we would be rescued by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then He takes us while we were yet sinners, while we hated Him.

And even when we were saved, the day we were saved, we weren't right. A year later, we still weren't right. And 20 years later, we still weren't right. And even the day we died, we weren't right. And this is our great difficulty and it's why we need this objective help from God.

We are always reforming. You know, what we're proposing here at this conference is not the end of it. You know, what we say at the National Center for Family Integrated Churches is not the end of it. It's only part of the Reformation that should go on in every soul, in every church, in every community for all time. The reformers had a term for this.

Semper Reformenda. Always reforming. Always reforming. And our message, our message this weekend is that now is the time for new reformations in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding its practices. That unbiblical methodologies have crept into the church.

And these unbiblical methodologies can so very easily be traced to worldly philosophies that have taken hold of the cultures of the world, the educational systems, the business methods and the churches of the world. The Reformation is always not something that happened. It's always something that's ahead. We're always reforming. You know Earlier this year we held a conference on biblical church government and we invited Alexander Strout to come and speak to a small group of men in St.

Louis, Missouri. He quoted during this conference, one of our elders was there and He wrote down this quotation that Alexander gave. It was a quote from John Robinson, who is the pastor of the pilgrims who landed in 1620. I have it here for you. Here's what John Robinson said, I am absolutely convinced that the Lord has other truths to impart to us through His holy word.

Personally, I cannot sufficiently deplore the condition of these quote reformed churches, which have acquired a certain degree of religion, but which do not wish to go beyond their reformation." He continues, the Lutherans can only see what Luther saw. They would die rather than accept certain aspects of truth revealed to Calvin. As for the Calvinists, they cling to the heritage left to them by that great man of God, who nevertheless did not know everything. It is a deplorable poverty, he continues. For even if these men in their time were lamps which burned and gave light in the darkness, they had not yet entered into all the counsel of God.

If they were living in our day, they would be ready to embrace a light which was more intense than the one which at first enlightened them. We are semper refermenda, we are always reforming, and the law of the Lord is the only resource adequate to refresh and to convert the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect and it does convert the soul every day of the year and every decade and every epoch of world history until the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Scripture is sufficient and it should always cause us to ask the same question that our Savior asked the people of His day, and why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? The law of the Lord converts the soul.

Thirdly, fourthly, it is sure and it makes wise the simple. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. This means that the law of the Lord is trustworthy. It means that it is sound, reliable, and dependable. It's why we hear these beautiful words from Solomon, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight." He can only say that because the law of the Lord is sure. David said that the Word made him wiser than all of his teachers. Scripture provides sure-footed travel throughout all of life. The herein is the beauty of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. Number five, it is right.

Even though most people in this world are relativists, there is right and wrong. And when it comes to the church, there is a right way, and there is a wrong way to conduct the worship of God's people. And the sufficiency of Scripture argues that there is a right way that Scripture provides. And this is the assumption behind the question of the Lord Jesus when he said why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? It also rejoices the heart.

The statues of the Lord are right, and what do they do? They rejoice the heart. There's no true joy apart from God. He is the fountainhead of joy. If anyone tries to seek joy or happiness apart from Him, it will wear them out.

And whatever joy, whatever happiness they might have had will wear out itself. Now, well this is a little bit of a boast, maybe. But down in North Carolina, we have the happiest women I've ever seen in church. By and large, by and large, not absolutely, but by and large, they're not stressed out back in our little church in North Carolina because they know who is in charge and it ain't them. That Christ is the head of the husband and the husband is the head of the wife, and they're at peace trusting that God is in the leadership of their husbands, even though they're imperfect husbands.

The church supports their occupation of homemaking. Their husbands aren't dragged all over town by church leaders from one program every night of the week to the next. The men do the teaching in the home and they lead the church so they're not bothered. And so they're the happiest women I've ever seen in the church in my life You know a woman-led church is always an unhappy church There's a reason for that It's because the law of the Lord rejoices the heart. When you follow the law of the Lord, it causes a happiness in the fellowship.

People desire to be with one another if The law of the Lord is the true center of the church. You put the family in the center of the church, you're going to have an unhappy church. You put anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ and His word in the center of the church and you've got big problems. I hate it when people say, I'm looking for a family-centered church. Please don't say that to me.

Nobody really wants a family-centered church. You want a God-centered church which exalts the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. My son and I are memorizing Psalm 16 11. It's one of my favorite Psalms. You have shown me the path of life.

In your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand there are pleasures forever it rejoices the heart. Number seven, it enlightens the eyes. Verse eight, the end of verse eight, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Because it is pure, it opens the eyes so that they might see it gives discernment for what should and should not be thought felt and done the Bible contains you know the Bible is so remarkable it is it's the most shocking book for young people. You have, you've got bloodshed, you've got malice, you've got family breakdown, You've got war, you've got divorce, you've got arrows, you know, you have everything.

You have graphic, brutal honesty, portraying alluring sinfulness. There's sexual sin, there's words about homosexuality. The Bible is the most honest book. It's really the only truly honest book. What's different about this book from the other books is it's the only one in which sin is not glorified or made to look attractive.

In the Bible, All of these difficult things, sinful things, have no beautiful side to them. But they are acknowledged and revealed for what they really are. The Bible is a realistic book that is pure, enlightening the eyes so that we will know how to understand what's going on around us. It is a lamp unto our feet, allowing us to see where we are going. Even when handling impure things it enlightens the eyes.

Number eight it endures forever. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. It is clean meaning that it is pure. Corrupt things decay, but not pure things like the Word of God. It's fresh.

The Word of God is new and fresh for every generation. We can implement the same old biblical practices and the same old biblical principles until the cows come home and they'll still accomplish what the Lord intended because it endures forever, because it is pure, it has no defect of any kind to cause it to decay and to become irrelevant for any situation that might arise from it. Jesus himself said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Solomon said, every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.

Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar." It is so pure that it endures forever, and we can trust it every day, every year, every generation. It endures forever. Number nine, it is completely righteous. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Righteousness as opposed to unrighteousness is one of the things that is put here in this statement.

And one of the important assumptions behind the belief in the sufficiency of scripture is that the church is not our invention but is an invention of righteousness and it is completely righteous We don't create the church by saying, well, now what will we do? Or how can we meet the needs of these people? You know, we should ask that question, but this is certainly not the first question. Jesus said, I will build my church in Matthew 16. And how will he build it?

He will build it on his word. He's chosen to build it on the instruction of the apostles. The church is not something we should try to reinvent in every generation for every generation because the judgments of the Lord were righteous and will always be righteous. You know, make no mistake about it, we have been given a clear testimony for the kinds of practices that we should engage in in the Church of Jesus Christ. And we should stay on task in every generation.

We should be satisfied with it because it is sufficient. It is enough. For instance, preaching of the word. The preaching of the word, well Paul said it was foolishness. And when you compare it, when you compare this with the dramatic media opportunities that are out there for communication, you can agree with Paul, yes preaching is foolishness.

This is one of the stupidest ways to communicate you can possibly come up with. It is foolishness. But preaching of the Word may not be the most stylish or engaging method for your visually stimulated generation, but it is true and righteous altogether. We have been commanded to preach the word in season and out of season. The public reading of Scripture may not be the most entertaining means of communication, but it is true and it's righteous altogether.

Celebrating communion may feel kind of strange to us, And it may not be the most popular thing the church does, hopefully every week. But it is true and righteous altogether. Prayer may not be the most exciting activity, And when you announce it, you may not have very many people show up, but you've got to know this, that it is true and it is righteous altogether. Church discipline may not be the most appreciated practice, but it is true and it is righteous altogether. Fathers may not have the inclination to be teachers, but God has commanded it, and it is true, and it is righteous altogether.

You know, a relational ministry where the body builds itself up in love and there are hundreds of commands toward this. Even though the church is to be a relational ministry, instead of a programmatic, CEO-driven kind of a ministry that grows to mega proportions for all its techniques. Even though it may be more difficult to maintain, It is true and it is righteous altogether. So when it comes to what God has prescribed for the church, our opinions don't matter. Our culture doesn't matter.

Our opinion polls do not matter. Our felt needs do not matter. Whether God's standards are acceptable or popular with Christians, scripture calls them to be practiced in the church. And when we honor cultural preferences over the commands of God, we've set aside the commands of God for the traditions of men. And we're guilty, And we should hear the voice of the Lord Jesus who asks, and why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your own traditions?

And why is it so dangerous to do this? It's dangerous because the judgments of the Lord are true and they're righteous altogether. Number 10, its value exceeds all earthly wealth. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much find gold." If this is true, then getting the Word of God into the hearts and minds of the people should be the absolute drop dead highest priority of leaders in the church. This is why God calls elders to devote themselves to two things, the ministry of the word and the prayer.

And they shouldn't be devoting very much of their time to business. They need to be devoting their time there. Everything, every pressure will work to steal the ministry of the Word and Prayer from elders and get them involved in building buildings and doing all kinds of business kind of things that have nothing to do with the direct ministry of the Word and prayer into the hearts of their people. The spiritual wealth in the church is dwindling and the only way to recover it is to plunge deeply into the Word of God. Number 11, its taste is better than honey.

Sweeter than the honeycomb. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth said David. Jeremiah said your words were found and I ate them and your word was a joy to me, rejoicing my heart. It gives us warnings, moreover by them is your servant warned. It warns against what?

It warns against lies and errors and landmines of worldly wisdom that are inconsistent with godly wisdom Warnings when heated steer us away from danger their boundary markers for us One of the vivid pictures of my father's experience on the island of Iwo Jima is he saw marines, 10 marines in front of a tank, a flame throwing tank with their K-bar knives out, stabbing the ground and crawling inch by inch in front of the tank so that they would find landmines before the tank. The tank was more valuable for the effort, and so they were there, ten in front of a tank. They were trying to keep safe the boundaries, And this is what the Word of God does. It keeps us from the landmines of life. You know, there are some areas in Scripture which issue warnings and our traditions have brought us into dangerous territory.

I've mentioned one already, church leadership and the way church leadership is managed in the church today. How about counseling? We've endangered the church in the area of counseling when we begin to adopt psychological terminology and categories. God's categories are sufficient. A biblical counseling is where the church needs to be.

It should reject everything else. The family, church practices, the abandonment of the sufficiency of Scripture in the gathering of God's people expresses itself in many ways. I'm just going to give you one example right here. There's, I could speak of this all day but let me just give you one. In many churches today, movie clips and dramas have replaced scripture reading.

And I just view it as a tragedy. No, music, Music videos and movie clips and plays should not replace the reading of scripture, no matter how much more entertaining they might be to the modern crowd. The Apostle Paul was absolutely clear when he said, "'Till I come, give attention to the reading of Scripture. Don't let anything edge that out. I heard a pastor who said the reason he doesn't read big sections of scripture anymore in his church services is because quote we notice that people zone out but they come to life when we show movies well the reading of Scripture should be one of the most honored and sacred parts of our gatherings.

It gives us warnings for church life. And it secures a reward, number 13, and in keeping them there is great reward. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does he prospers." It secures a reward for everyone in the church.

And then lastly, it requires a cry for help. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I will be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer." This psalm ends with a cry to God for help. Because I'm confident as David penned these words he realized how bankrupt he was in his heart before God. That he had been convicted by the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he was a wretched sinner on every single point of the law, and he violated so much of every point that we've just reviewed here today.

Reviewed here today. David cries out because of his errors, you see that in the text, his secret faults, you see that, His presumptuous sins and his great transgressions. We who navigate in the life of the church, are constantly, hopefully most of the time unwittingly, wandering out of the way of God with our words and our meditations. And like it was with David, trusting in the Word of God is almost impossible for us, particularly in view of the fact that we've been raised in a culture that isn't everywhere in rebellion against it. And because we're not even fully aware of how much we've been tarnished by the wickednesses of our culture, we should be overwhelmingly dependent upon God.

We should not be proud of anything that we're doing in the church today. Our churches fall short in spite of our sincere attempts to be obedient to God simply because of the fallen hearts that exist within us, which exist within the fallen culture in which we live. We are just like Isaiah. Woe is me, for I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. The gospel of Jesus Christ though comforts us here.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All are condemned under the law. And if we break one point of the law, we've broken them all. And so this discussion today should strip away any pride that we might have regarding our own righteousness. And it should bring us to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in His righteousness.

Jesus' statement that the law of the Lord is perfect and his question, why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? This should humble us and deliver repentant hearts so that we would cast all of our cares upon him and find all of our sufficiency in Him. Because we are a people of corrupt nature, and it is a blessing that since we are such, that we have a sufficient fixed point of reference through which to look at everything in our churches and in our culture. It is a blessing to have received salvation by grace alone through the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we trust in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is so very important that we are saturated with what God has revealed to us in Scripture, so that we can order our steps aright while we cry out to the only one who can help us and say along with our great mentor David, oh how I love thy law.

It is my meditation all the day. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, your word is beautiful. It has rescued us from a thousand sorrows. Oh, it has comforted us when we thought there was no hope.

Its words have come and caused our salvation. You, oh Lord, are wonderful. You have shown us the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And I do pray that in all of our doing, we would be filled with the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ as we seek to reform the church. And all of God's people said, Amen. Well thank you very much. We'll do a time check here.