Word of Salvation - June 2018

 

B.C.6&7 – The Sufficiency Of Scripture

Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp

Bible readings: Galatians 1:1-12; 2John; Revelation 22:18,19

Belgic Confession: Article 6 & 7

 

BC stands for Basic Christianity.  What are the fundamentals of the faith?

BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.

When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.

Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.

 

Introd:  Andrew Kuyvenhoven, author of Daylight, made the point that a threat is not the same as a warning.

A WARNING is intended to keep us from evil.
A THREAT is an announcement of evil.

For example: We generally give our children warnings rather than threats.
In fact parents are forever giving warnings to their children!
It begins with little toddlers: don’t touch the stove, its hot, it burns.
When they get older it’s, “Make sure you cross the street at the lights.”
            Don’t talk to strangers... don’t accept rides from them.
            Make sure you eat all your lunch at school.

When we grow older we may sometimes even joke about those warnings.
I recall that once, in my late teens, I was going away for a weekend.
            As I left home I said goodbye to Mum and Dad with the cheeky words:
            “Yeah, yeah, I know!  Be careful on the road... and don’t pick up hitch-hikers.”

Generally we do appreciate the warnings our parents gave us.
They demonstrate the love and concern of our Mum and Dad.
Even on our wedding day we probably left home with a hug....
            and a last word of warning that Mum or Dad couldn’t resist.

As we get to the end of the B.C.’s study of the doctrine of Scripture...
and just before we wind it all up we suddenly have a warming... not a threat but a warning.
            In fact it’s there right at the end of our Bibles too.
                        “Don’t mess around with this book!  Don’t tamper with it!
                                    This book is sufficient as it is.
                                    Don’t add to it!  And don’t take away from it!”

This am/pm all our Scripture readings contained some very solemn warnings.
John said:        There are people who move away from this book and its teachings
                        Don’t even welcome them into your homes.
Paul put it even stronger in Galatians 1.  Twice he repeats the same warning
                        If anyone should preach another gospel let him be eternally condemned.

When Revelation 22 speaks about ADDING to this book
                        then it tells us that God will add to them these plagues.
And when it speaks about TAKING AWAY from this book
                        it tells us that God will take away their share in eternal life.

IOW: God issues some very strong words of warning.  He warns us... and He warns us in love.

He knows that this book is so important
     that we mess around with it at our own peril... at the risk of our very salvation.

A]        ALL THAT IS NECESSARY.

1. God is showing us in these verses that He wants the boundaries of His Word to be respected.

When we talk about Scripture we need to get it right.

That means that we have to be scrupulously honest when we talk about Scripture.
We must say no MORE about the Bible than the Bible says about itself.
Nor may we say any LESS about the Bible than it says about itself.

And both of those are possible.
            We can say too much about the Bible... or we can say too little about the Bible.

OTOH it is possible to claim too MUCH for Scripture.
We need to remember that not everything about God is revealed in the Bible.
It doesn’t even tell us everything He has ever said and God has many secrets He never shares.
            So we must never treat the Bible as if it has to answer our every question.
            God did more and He said more than the Scriptures record.

Let’s look at an example of that... from the end of John’s gospel.  John 21.
Some key verses there show that God’s revelation is far wider than Scripture.

<<< READ JOHN 21:25 and John 20:30,31 >>>

God has revealed far more of Himself in history than is written in the Bible.

So we could ask many questions that the Bible never sets out to answer.
Where did Cain get his wife?  How did Peter die?  What is heaven really like?

Many more questions like that could be asked.
            But the Bible isn’t like a set of cards in game of Trivial Pursuit.
                        Where for every question there is an answer.
                        And where there are answers to a thousand and one questions.
            It’s not like Google on the Internet where you can look up anything you like.
                        And where what you search for is limited only by your imagination.

We mustn’t claim TOO MUCH for Scripture.

2. OTOH we mustn’t claim too little for the Bible either.

It fully contains God’s will for us.

It may not answer ALL our questions but it does answer our most important questions
It may not tell us everything... but it does tell us everything we need to know.
It doesn’t tell it all... but it does tell us enough.

“All that we need to believe is sufficiently taught therein.”

Here John 20:31 is very much to the point.
After telling us that Jesus said and did much more than is recorded in Scripture
            John adds this telling statement:
                        BUT these things are written so that you may know
                        that Jesus is the Christ
                        and that by believing you may have life in His name.

IOW – God’s great goal in giving us the Bible
is NOT to give us a book that will answer all our questions...
but a book that will give us the answer to these great questions:
            -  What must I do to be saved ?
            -  How can I live a life that is pleasing to God?

God tells me in this book about faith in Jesus and in His doing, dying and victory.
And God tells us all we need to know as to how He wishes to be served.
Everything that you and I really need to know is there... you have it in your Bible.
And the simple fact is that if it’s not in the Bible then you either don’t need to know it...
            or else you work it out for yourself using your brain and some good Bible principles.

This is why our Belgic Confession quotes Paul and says:
Therefore anyone who teaches otherwise, whether apostle or angel... let him be-accursed...!

B]        DON’T ADD TO IT.

1. Our text tells us not to add anything to that Word.

Whatever you add to the Bible is too much.
You are not required to believe anything that God has NOT revealed.
You don’t have to submit to rules God has NOT made.

Let me put it even more strongly:
We human beings may never take any other writings
            and treat them as having the same authority as Scripture.
Right at the end of our Bible... before we close it.... that is God’s warning.
If we do ADD then God will ADD the plagues written in this book.

We have already seen the REASON for that.
Scripture is sufficient.  What is revealed is totally adequate.
All we need for our eternal wellbeing is there – we need nothing more.
This and this alone is the inspired word of God.

And no human writings may ever be put on the same level.
Nor can any other writing ever compare to the sacred Scriptures.

Today I could mention lots of other human writings.  Good human writings.
There are many inspiring works by great authors.
For starters there are our Creeds and Confession that have stood the test of time.
I could mention books by Luther and sermons by Calvin.
Or today... if you’re into poetry... even the poems of Helen Stiener-Rice.

But even the most wonderful of these writings cannot compare with the Divine Word of God!
Not adding to Scripture means: we never put any other writing on the same level as Scripture.
No other book or writing – no matter how good – has equal authority to the Bible.

2. That’s why Art. 6 of the B.C. speaks of the Apocryphal books.

They are still received by the Roman Cathjolic church today as having authority.
In fact the Roman Catholic church bases some of its teachings... its doctrines on those books.

The B.C. suggests that we read them for our instruction and for our enjoyment.
But only in so far as they agree with the 66 books of the O.T. and N.T.
IOW they may be interesting and even helpful.
BUT even these may never be added to the Word of God.

We must not ADD anything to the Word of God.

This is why I have a problem with the Mormons when they come to the door.
They want to leave their BOOK OF MORMON whenever they visit.
            They believe that God’s revelation went on past Revelation 22
            That God made special things known to their prophet Joseph Smith.
                        Smith is supposed to have found some golden plates in Reformed Egyptian.
                        They supposedly tell the story of Jesus visiting the American Indians.
            The Book of Mormon is an attempt to add to the Word of God.

Therefore when all is said and done the Mormons are preaching another gospel.
A gospel in which, I believe, Jesus Christ is not given His full rights, glory and honour.
In their gospel you can be baptised on behalf of deceased relatives who were unbelievers.

The apostle John has some strong words to say to any people who add to God’s word.
John says: Don’t receive them into your homes.

That may seem unloving and uncaring... even plain rude.
Fancy leaving such nice “clean-cut” young men standing on your doorstep.
What John means is that we should not let them think we are one with them.
Don’t extend Christian hospitality to them as equals.

John didn’t mean that we should not talk to them about our faith.
But the point is that the content of our faith is found between the covers of our Bible alone.

But others are out to convert us to that which is not found within the covers of your Bible.
So John sounds a strong warning not to embrace them in Christian fellowship.

The gospel of Jesus Christ as contained in the Old and New Testament is sufficient.

We may not ADD to it.

Now you may ask: But don’t we do that too?
What about our Creeds and Confessions?  What about Bible study outlines and commentaries?
Are they not also adding to the Scriptures?

No!      We must always remember to evaluate those writings carefully.
            We have to weigh them up by the standard of the Word of God.
            And then only accept those things if they agree with the infallible rule of Scripture.

We need nothing more that that – and all that contradicts it is to be rejected.

C]        DON’T TAKE AWAY FROM IT.

1. Our text also says that we may not subtract from Scripture.

This Word must be kept whole and in its entirety.

We must resist the temptation to take stuff out of the Word of God...
for example: that which we don’t understand or that which we don’t like.

Our confession speaks of Scripture as being... “COMPLETE AND PERFECT IN ALL RESPECTS”.

At times that isn’t always easy to see... There are often difficulties with portions of Scripture.
The Reformer, Martin Luther, already questioned whether ‘James’ belonged in the Bible.
He didn’t like the emphasis on “works” in James...
            and felt that it contradicted Paul’s emphasis on grace.

And I could mention quite a number of other problems.
- The book of Esther is in the Bible but it doesn’t even mention the name of God.
- Neither does the book of the Song of Solomon.
- And if you’ve read the early chapters of I Chronicles
            then you probably wouldn’t mind chopping those chapters out.

At this point we have to admit that some parts of Scripture are much more clear than other parts.
Not all of it portrays the gospel of Christ with equal clarity.
There are some very clear prophecies that predict the coming of Jesus:
But there are other Scripture passages that are obscure, to say the least.

And yet it is all there for a reason.

We confess together that somehow all the various parts form a perfect and complete whole.

So we may not take away from it.
In fact, when we really struggle with the difficult passages for a time
            then often the Lord shows us how they too fit in the overall picture.

2. God also warns that this tampering with the Bible by subtracting from it is something we do at our peril.

God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and of the Holy City.

But let’s be a little more practical at this point.
We can see that it’s easy to ADD to the Bible... many religious groups have done that.
The Mormons with the Book of Mormon.  Christian Science with Mary Baker-Eddy’s literature.
The JW’s with their Watchtower literature.

And there’s certainly a danger that we do that too...
            if we put our Creeds and Confessions on equal footing with the Bible.

It’s easy to ADD to Scripture.
But how do we SUBTRACT from the Bible?
Surely all of us accept the Bible as fully 100% the Word of God.

Well, there’s a danger or SUBTRACTING from Scripture by ignoring parts of it.

It’s OK for us to say:  Yes, it’s 100% the Word of God.
But have you actually read it for the full 100%?  Or are their parts you’ve never read?
And what about when it comes to actually doing what that Word says?

It’s easy for us to SUBTRACT from that Word simply by ignoring it.
            And we certainly do it whenever we refuse to bow before some parts of it...
                        when we will not allow some parts to be our infallible rule for faith and life.

Let me give you some concrete examples.
In Hebrews 13 we read:
            Remember your leaders who spoke to you the Word of God.
            Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

But if we say, “No!” to that faith of our leaders and go our own way...
            then we are taking away from the Word of God
            and God will take away our share of eternal life.

In the same chapter we read: Marriage should be honoured by all and the marriage bed kept pure.
But when we treat marriage vows lightly
            then are we not in danger of SUBTRACTING from the Word of God...?
            Yes!  And in the process we are endangering our very salvation.

Today many Christians ignore or explain away what Scripture says about same-sex relations.
Or they discard what Scripture says about the respective roles of men and women in church.
As I see it they are effectively subtracting from the Word of God.

We may not stand in judgment of the Word of God.
As though we can pick and choose the bits we’ll obey and the bits we won’t.
Instead that Word of God must judge us... our beliefs... our morals.

Today all of us will have some questions... or some problems with Scripture.
Not one of us will ever understand all of it fully for 100%.
Yet the Lord warns us that in this book alone is all you need to know for salvation.
            Here is all you need to know how to serve and worship Him.

            Revelation 22:18,19 warns us:
                        Your life and your future all depend on what you do with this book.
                        Why?  Because this book is the book about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
                        And God has given us this book so that we might know Jesus and live for Him.

Amen.