************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 7 ************
Doctrine: The Sufficiency of Scripture
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on March 29, 1998
B.C. 7
Galatians 1:1-12
"Meet Christ"
I The Improper Use of Scripture
A A couple of years ago we purchased the game, Bible Trivia. Since then, the game has gathered dust because no one wants to play it with me. I looked through the game this past week. Here are some of the questions I picked out:
-the longest verse in the Bible (Esther 8:9; 91 words)
-the name of Pharaoh's magicians (Jannes & Jambres)
-the shortest verse in the KJV Bible (John 11:35; 2 words)
-a fat king of Moab (Eglon)
-how many chapters in the Bible (1,189)
-how many verses in the Bible (31,102)
-the Judge who killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad (Shamgar)
To graduate from Seminary and be eligible for the ministry, I had to know my Bible trivia in order to pass a Bible Knowledge Exam. A colleague of mine took the test 5 different times and never passed until he was in the ministry for over a year.
There is a danger to games like Bible Trivia: that they reduce the Bible and Bible reading to learning little known facts and figures and obscure names. If this is all we do with the Bible — reducing it to trivia — we are missing the purpose of our daily devotions.
B This past week I received an offer in the mail: "The meaning of Biblical Prophecy Revealed." The author poured through Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation making detailed time-charts of the last days. Again, if this is all we do with the Bible — reducing it to time-charts of the last days — we are missing the purpose of Bible reading.
C The tendency has always existed to make the Bible into a textbook for science, geography, geology, and culture.
-Perhaps you have heard of the Flat Earth Society? Like the name implies, they believe the earth is flat. They dismiss satellite pictures of a globe-shaped earth as being the fabrications of Holly Wood or NASA. Why would anyone believe something so ridiculous? Because they find it in the Bible. After all, the Bible does talk about the 4 corners of the earth.
-Or, consider what happened when Nicolas Copernicus said the earth revolved around the sun. He was branded a heretic because the Bible plainly indicates that it is the sun, not the earth, that rises and sets.
-Using the Bible as a science textbook leads one to believe in a 3-tier universe: heaven above, earth below, and hell under the earth (cf Ex 20:4 & Phil 2:10). Is it little wonder that the earliest Russian cosmonauts laughed at us Christians when they first went into space and saw no heaven and no God?
-Using the Bible as a science textbook, you would believe that somewhere above the sky is a mighty pool of water, what Gen 1:6 calls the water above the expanse (cf Gen 7:11 & 8:2). Yet, any science teacher in a public or Christian high school who teaches such nonsense would and should be put on automatic review.
D What is the point of all this? Why do I warn about using the Bible only for trivia?, what is wrong with reading the Bible merely to draw up apocalyptic time-charts?, and what is the harm in using God's Word as a science or geology text-book? Let me start off by saying there is nothing wrong with learning Biblical facts and figures. Nor is there anything wrong with drawing apocalyptic time-charts. And yes, Scripture does speak to our science and geology and astronomy, and God most certainly wants us to be Christian in these areas. The point, people of God, is that to limit Scripture to trivia or time-charts is to abuse and misuse Scripture. And, to force Scripture to say scientific or geological facts that it never intends to say, is to also abuse or misuse Scripture. When it comes right down to it, we are on the wrong track if Scripture is not read and studied for the purpose that God intended.
II The Purpose of Scripture
A What is the divinely intended purpose of Scripture? Why is the Bible preached? Why do we read the Bible for devotions, during worship, in Bible Study, and at the Christian School? Scripture itself tells us its purpose and therefore its use. Listen to the following texts:
(Jn 20:31) But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
(Rom 1:16) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes ...
( Tim 3:15) ... from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
( Pt 1:23) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
What is the divinely intended purpose of Scripture? Scripture's purpose is redemptive. God gives us Scripture so we can be saved. Listen to what Guido de Brés says in Article 7:
We believe
that this Holy Scripture contains
the will of God completely
and that everything one must believe
to be saved
is sufficiently taught in it.
In Scripture, God tells us what we need to know for His glory and for our salvation. Unless we approach Scripture from this point of view, both its message and its authority is misunderstood. Scripture is God's message of salvation.
In Scripture, God wants us to meet Christ. As we hear the Bible preached, God wants us to meet Christ. As we read the Bible for devotions, during worship, in Bible Study, and at the Christian School, God wants us to meet Christ. The written Word points to the Living Word and says to us, "Go to Jesus." If we do not meet Jesus to Whom it points, we miss the whole purpose of Bible reading.
Topic: Bible
Subtopic:
Index: 414-434
Date: 3/1998.101
Title: He didn't know God
There was a young man in Russia who studied for the Orthodox priesthood. He applied himself to his studies to the point that he could recite the entire Bible from memory. But something happened and he entered politics. He worked his way up the political ladder by killing opponents and entire villages of people. His nickname: The Butcher of the Ukraine. We know him as Josef Stalin.
Josef Stalin knew all about God, yet he didn't know God Himself. He knew all about God but never once met Christ.
Sometimes Reformed Christians, with their great stress on the Bible — Bible preaching, Bible teaching, Bible reading, Bible study — are accused of "bibliolatry," of being worshipers of the Bible. But we do not worship the Bible; we worship the Christ of the Bible. Think of a young man who is in love. He has a girlfriend who has captured his heart. He carries her picture in his wallet and often takes it out when they are apart. Sometimes, when nobody is looking, he might even give it a quick, little kiss. But, as the young man can surely testify, kissing the photograph is a poor substitute for the real thing. And so it is with the Bible. We love it only because we love Him of whom it speaks.
Scripture, then, is God's message of salvation. Scripture is about Christ and points to Christ. So, as we read and hear Scripture, we must meet Christ.
B Open Scripture, congregation, and meet Christ. Open Scripture, congregation, and come face-to-face with the Savior. Open the Bible, boys and girls, and you will see Christ. Open the Bible, young people, and you will find Christ and salvation. Open the Bible, single adults and parents, and you will discover Christ. Open the Bible, aged saints, and you will encounter Christ.
There are many parts of the Bible, as the Apostle Peter tells us (2 Peter 3:16), that are hard to understand. And, the message of salvation and of Christ is not equally clear on every page. Yet anyone — whether young or old, educated or uneducated, male or female, black or white, Dutch or German, Reformed or Roman Catholic — by reading and studying the Bible under the guidance of the Spirit, can easily obtain the knowledge necessary unto salvation. We have a theological term for this: we know this as the "perspicuity" of Scripture; in other words, Scripture is easily understood. In regards to its purpose and intent, the Bible is not obscure. Open the Bible, and the message of salvation and of Christ is there for anyone to read and see and believe.
We don't even have to read through all of Scripture to find its message. There are so many texts which, when taken by themselves, speak the message of salvation so loud and clear:
(Mt 1:21) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
(Jn 1:29) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"
(Jn 3:16) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(Acts 4:12) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
(Rom 8:1) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
(1 Tim 1:15) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ...
C In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul expresses his anger and amazement with the Galatian Christians. The Biblical message of salvation in Christ is so easy to see and hear and understand. Yet, the Galatians are being led astray by some who preach another Gospel, a Gospel of salvation by works and through the observance of the law. Paul cannot understand this. So he gives a warning:
(Gal 1:8-9) But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! (9) As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Paul's warning, a warning repeated by Guido de Brés in Article 7: anyone who obscures or hides or takes away from the clear message of Scripture about salvation in Christ is eternally damned.
III The Sufficiency of Scripture
A Guido de Brés also tells us that Scripture is all that we need. As he says in Article 7:
We believe
that this Holy Scripture contains
the will of God completely
and that everything one must believe
to be saved
is sufficiently taught in it ...
For since it is forbidden
to add to or subtract from the Word of God,
this plainly demonstrates
that the teaching is perfect
and complete in all respects.
In regards to its perspicuous message of salvation, Scripture is complete and perfect and sufficient. Nothing more is needed.
The Church of Rome disagrees with us here. In its Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church clearly teaches the insufficiency of the Scriptures. Something more is needed. That something more is tradition — the body of doctrine and customs supposedly coming from the apostles or based upon their teachings, taught by the early church fathers, and passed on through the ages. As the years go by, of course, things are added to or subtracted from this body of tradition. For instance, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (i.e., the teaching that she was conceived and born without the stain of Original Sin) was added to the body of tradition in 1854. And, the doctrine of the Bodily Assumption of Mary (i.e., the teaching that Mary did not die but was taken directly into heaven, just like Elijah and Jesus) was added to the body of tradition in 1950.
B The Reformation fathers did not do away with the teachings — call them "traditions" — of the church fathers. Rather, they held these teachings in high esteem. Someone like Calvin, for instance, often quoted the early church fathers in his writings. The Reformers dispute with Rome had to do with the place and authority and honor of the writings of the early church fathers. Should the teachings of these fathers be put on a par with the teachings of God's Word? Should the traditions of the church be as authoritative as the holy, divine Scriptures? To this question, all Protestants replied with a resounding "No!"
C Listen to what Guido de Brés says later on in Article 7 of the Confession of Faith:
Therefore we must not consider human writings--
no matter how holy their authors may have been--
equal to the divine writings;
nor may we put custom,
nor the majority,
nor age,
nor the passage of time or persons,
nor councils, decrees, or official decisions
above the truth of God,
for truth is above everything else.
By these words, Article 7 lets us know that nothing is above Scripture. Not that long ago, questions about doctrine and life were settled by referring to what the Christian Reformed Synod says or said. I want to believe this was done because the decisions and reports of Synod accurately reflected the Word and will of God. I don't think you hear anyone talking that way anymore because people realize it isn't what Synod says but what God says that counts.
In our American system of democracy we have rule by majority. And, the temptation often exists to bring the democratic ideal into the church. More than once I have heard someone ask for a congregational or a church-by-church vote on a controversial subject, as if that will somehow make a matter settled and binding. But the will of the majority is not above Scripture either and, often times, as we see in our political processes, is even opposed to Scripture.
More than once, in trying to justify something, I have heard someone say, "But we have always done it that way." We have to be careful about traditions and customs because, as times change, they often lose their meaning and purpose.
Topic: Traditions
Subtopic: Of Men
Index: 3652
Date: 10/1993.22
Title:
"Years ago, in Russia, a czar came upon a lonely sentry standing at attention in a secluded corner of the palace garden. 'What are you guarding,' asked the czar. 'I don't know. The captain ordered me to this post,' the sentry replied.
The czar called the captain. His answer: 'Written regulations specify a guard was to be assigned to that area.' The czar ordered a search to find out why. The archives finally yielded the reason. Years before, Catherine the Great had planted a rose bush in that corner. She ordered a sentry to protect it for that evening.
The rosebush had been dead for 80 years, but the sentry still stood guard.
Tradition or custom does not impress de Brés either. This too must come under the Word of God.
Conclusion
In Scripture, congregation, we are sufficiently and clearly taught all that we need for our salvation. We open Scripture, and if we do so with reverence and awe, we meet Christ.