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Lesson 5: The Holy Bible, Necessity

Speaker
Mark Twombly

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The necessity of Scripture is the foundation upon which spiritual life is built and sustained. Just as physical food is essential for the body, the Word of God is essential for the soul—for knowing the gospel, maintaining spiritual life, and discerning God’s will.

Key Lessons:

  1. The Bible is the only means by which we can truly know the gospel—no one comes to saving faith apart from the seed of God’s Word being sown.
  2. God’s Word is not merely informational but life-sustaining; spiritual vitality depends on daily engagement with Scripture just as physical life depends on food.
  3. While the Bible is necessary for salvation, spiritual growth, and knowing God’s will, general revelation makes all people accountable before God even without access to Scripture.
  4. Obedience to what we already understand in Scripture unlocks further revelation and spiritual growth.

Application: We are called to prioritize time in God’s Word as our first and foundational daily sacrifice, recognizing that spiritual health depends on both hunger for and capacity for Scripture. This may mean sacrificing sleep, exercise, or other activities to ensure we are spiritually nourished.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do we functionally treat God’s Word as more necessary than physical food, or do we go days without spiritual nourishment while never skipping meals?
  2. How should we respond when taking Scripture seriously is dismissed as legalism by other professing Christians?
  3. What practical steps can we take to increase both our desire for and capacity for deeper engagement with God’s Word?

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 8:2-3 and Matthew 4:4 establish that life depends on every word from God’s mouth. 1 Peter 1:23 and Romans 10:17 demonstrate the necessity of Scripture for salvation. Psalm 119 repeatedly connects God’s Word with revival and life. Romans 1:19-20 shows that general revelation makes all people accountable before God.

Outline

Introduction

Well, good morning and welcome to October 19th, 2025.

I almost want to say 2026. Some of you may know that I’m a project manager by profession. So, I’m always thinking in the future. So at the beginning of the year, you usually are still writing the date of the previous year. I have the opposite problem. About this time, I start writing 2026. So, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but the Lord is God of of past, present, and future. Amen.

Well, as we get started, let’s let’s wet our appetites as we usually do with some words from our king.

Opening Scripture: Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone

Today, our topic is the necess or the yes, the necessity of scripture. The necessity of scripture. So, you’ll see that theme prominent in these verses that I’m about to read to you.

Deuteronomy 82 through3. And you shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with mana which you did not know. Nor did your fathers know that he might make that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.

Jesus would quote these verses here in the Gospel of Matthew. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But he answered and said, “It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Job would say this as he was going through his trials. He said, ‘Ive not departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Job 23:12: “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

And Jesus as an example for us, we see this in the Gospel of Luke. But the news about him was spreading even further and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But he himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray. There were times, this isn’t the only time, there were several times when the crowds were bearing in on Jesus, demanding much from him and he withdrew to spend time with his father.

Interesting. He was not driven by the needs of people or the perceived needs of people, but by his heavenly father.

“He was not driven by the needs of people, but by his heavenly father.”

So if Jesus needed to do that, if Jesus needed to be alone with his father and spend time with him, how much more how much more do we This emphasizes it as well. Familiar passage with Mary and Martha and Jesus.

Now as they were traveling along, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary who was also seated at the Lord’s feet listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations, and she came up to him and said,”Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone?”

Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” One more passage before I pray.

When the Lord says one thing, that’s something that should get our attention. And that’s the one thing that we are going to dive deep into today. David in his prayer in Psalm 27 said this. One thing I have asked from Yahweh that I shall seek that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life to behold the beauty of Yahweh and to inquire in his temple.

Let me pray and commit this time for us.

Father, impress upon our hearts by your holy spirit that the one thing that is necessary for us to have is the best possible thing that we can have. May we experience the beauty, power, and very nature of your word, exalted above your very name because it is of you and by it you speak to us perfectly, powerfully, and personally. Like newborn babes, may we desire its milk. As growing adults, may we digest its meat. May we know how much we need it, how much we need you.

That we would open our mouths wide, as the psalmist says, that you would fill it. Refine the appetites of our souls that nothing would be sweeter, more desirable, or more satisfying than your word. Increase both our desire for and capacity for it. Work in our hearts today, Father, as only you can. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Review of Previous Lessons

All right. Just going to walk through briefly the lesson outline and the topic outline. Today we are finishing our four-part module in defending doctrinal distinctives on biblology. That is the nature of the Bible. So we’ll walk through which doctrinal statements of Calvary are are relevant. We will define and demonstrate necessity and then we’ll walk through some implications and application and I’m hoping to have some time for Q&A afterwards.

And so the the attributes that we’ve talked about we started with inspiration and inherency moved on to authority last week was perspectu which means clarity and sufficiency and then today it’s on the necessity of scripture. So, I’m going to go just going to give a brief review kind of kind of a flyby of what we have what we’ve covered so far. Excuse me just a minute by way of review.

So, inspiration describes the process of divine causation behind the authorship of scripture. It refers to the direct act of God on the human author that resulted in the creation of perfectly written revelation. So that’s inspiration.

Inherencies related. The inherency of scripture means that scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact. And so we see verses that talk about God’s word not only being true and reliable, but being truth itself, a standard by which we measure other truth claims.

So because the Bible is inspired that is from God and inherent that is completely reliable we have a firm foundation from which to understand and respond to it’s really to his authority and so this is what we came up with or what we discussed with regard to what authority is. All the words in scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God. This is so important to think about because how we approach God’s word, how we talk about God’s word, really reflects how we think and how we talk about God.

I don’t know if you’ve ever come across this, but with professing Christians, being maybe a little bit dismissive of the scriptures as if to take them seriously would be being legalistic. Well, when we talk that way or when others talk that way, it’s a very serious thing because they’re saying that about God and we ought not be dismissive of him. Amen.

“How we approach God’s word really reflects how we think and talk about God.”

Perspecuity. Perspecuity means clarity.

The clarity of scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it, seeking God’s help and being willing to follow it. And of course, we know those attributes in the heart that unlock the meaning of scripture can only come about by the Holy Spirit, which would explain why otherwise smart people can’t seem to understand basic things from the Bible.

Have you found that really, really interesting? Highly educated people, people way smarter than me as I’ve talked to them about the scriptures seem unable to grasp the things in the scriptures because as it says in 1 Corinthians 2, they are spiritually attained, spiritually understood. And then sufficiency, we talked about the sufficiency of scripture means that scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history.

And that it now contains everything we need God to tell us for salvation, for trusting him perfectly and for obeying him perfectly.

And so that that challenges our understanding of scripture, but we have it today as a foundation for our lives.

Scripture as Both Faith and Practice

So because the Bible is clear and sufficient, we have a firm foundation from which to understand and apply its necessity. When I think about this this attribute of necessity, it almost goes without saying, but there’s a lot to this. The implications of what this means is is something we really need to dive into today.

Do we functionally act as if we really need the word of God? We notice what we read earlier. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Do you and I daily live in that reality?

I think today’s lesson will challenge our thinking and hopefully boost our our understanding and our practice of this truth. So we go back to this from Calvary statement of faith. This has come up with several of our lessons, but I want to unfold it just a little bit. We teach that it that is the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

So those two words are really important.

Faith is what to believe. We want to believe the right things, right? But practice is how to live. And it’s a common, I think, under a common view that it’s just okay to believe the right things and then to move on with our lives.

But as we’ve emphasized several times in this module, the words of Jesus, if these things, then you are blessed if you do them. We think about what the apostle James said in James chapter 1. Do not be merely hearers, right, who delude themselves, but be doers, doers of the word.

And so we understand that what we believe, what our minds are occupied with impacts our our actions. So as discussed last week, it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice and shows us, as I’ve said, both what to believe and how to live. And in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, 17 is an important verse to think about, right?

All scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. Why? So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped, equipped for every good work.

In other words, equipped not just to know certain things, but to do certain things, to do those good works which God has prepared before us. Psalm 119:105, a familiar verse to you. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Why? So that I will know the way to walk. So that I will know what to do.

“Equipped not just to know certain things, but to do certain things—those good works God has prepared.”

Proverbs 4 says that the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which grows brighter and brighter until a full day. Proverbs 6:23 talks about how the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life. So I think you’re getting the idea that the scripture not only shows us where to go but expects us to walk in it. And that gets back to back to the the authority of scripture. And then Psalm 16:11 tells us that he will make known to us the path of life. How does he make the path of life known to us? Through his word.

Defining the Necessity of Scripture

Through his word. And so that’s another association that I really want us to make this morning. Always associate the words of God with life. That is fundamental to our understanding of its necessity. So with that, let’s let’s give a definition of what we mean when we say necessity.

Wayne Grudum is helpful for us here. Once again, the necessity of scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for knowing God’s will, but is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about God’s character and moral laws. Let me just repeat that.

The necessity of scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for knowing God’s will. But it is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about God’s character and moral laws. And what this tells us is that it it puts an obligation on the believer, but also an accountability to the unbeliever.

And we’ll talk a little bit more about what that means as we get toward the end of our lesson when we talk about general and special revelation.

“The Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for knowing God’s will.”

Our Most Crucial Need

I thought this from John MacArthur and and John MacArthur from his commentary on Matthew was really helpful as I looked at Matthew 4:4 to try to circumvent or modify God’s revealed will not is not only unfaithful and fleshly but is based on the false assumption that our physical well-being is our most crucial need without which we cannot exist. Jesus contradicts that assumption which is so natural to fallen man. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

It is not food, Jesus says, that is the most necessary part of life. The creative, energizing, and sustaining power of God is the only real source of man’s existence.

“The creative, energizing, and sustaining power of God is the only real source of man’s existence.”

Do you and I live in that reality? We’re going to look at some of those verses that talk about God’s word specifically as food, right? And some of us Few of us would think of going through a day or many days without eating. Do we view God’s word as at least that important?

Would we go a day without eating spiritually? May God give us the right perspective about that.

Necessary for Knowing the Gospel

So with that, we we’ll talk about the first statement in in our definition that the word of God is necessary for knowing the gospel. We’ve talked about this before from the parable of the sewer. Very simply put, now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.

Faith Comes from Hearing

When we evangelize, we must use the scripture because that is the seed. And without seed, there can be no expectation of life. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance.

So it’s ours to faithfully sew the seed, but it’s God’s to work in the hearts of people to bring about eternal life. That is beyond our pay grade. We can be perfectly we can be perfect in our presentation and our expl and our in our explanation but unless the heart is prepared by God nothing will happen.

I think we see this even in the gospels don’t we Jesus there was nothing lacking in Jesus presentation of the gospel was there and yet not everyone believed interesting to think about that but the seed of the word of God must be there secondly from Romans 10 I think our friend Bruce has quoted this to me countless times reminding me about faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ so important that we recognize this just prior that how then will they call on him whom they have not believed?

“Without seed, there can be no expectation of life.”

How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.”

Have you ever heard somebody say something along the lines of it’s not really the word of God, the scriptures that are important, it’s the word Jesus.

So really, we just need to focus on him.

And I find that interesting because how would we even know about Jesus without the word of God? How would we have the correct understanding of Jesus without his word? Right? We don’t want to go on our impressions but on the truth of God’s word. That’s how we know who Jesus is. Further on knowing the gospel, I love this from first Peter 1. In him you also after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

This past week, Pastor Dave taught this this portion of Ephesians and just amazing what God has done. And then 1 Peter 1:23, you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, that is through the living and enduring word of God.

Preach the Gospel with Words

So hopefully we’ve established with just these few verses, and there are many more, that you can only know the gospel through the scriptures, through the word of God. The word of God is necessary for knowing the gospel. And I it seems almost too obvious to have to state that, but in this day and age, we have to state that.

I was interacting with some college friends this this past weekend, and one of my friends said that at his church, they they keep repeating this phrase, which I’m not sure what the origin of it was. It’s either St. Francis of Aisi or I can’t remember who else but you’ve heard this phrase preach the gospel and if necessary use words.

What silliness that is. It is necessary to use words. I get we get the idea that our lives and our words should be consistent. But no one’s going to come to Christ because you and I are nice.

“It is necessary to use words. No one’s going to come to Christ because you and I are nice.”

Not going to happen. It can’t happen.

Accusations of Legalism

Right? Because that’s God’s work through his word. So, we ought not believe such nonsense, right? So, we have to be careful. And so, and this is one of the things that I I mentioned I think a couple weeks both last week and the week before. And I want to really be careful about this because sometimes when you start taking the scriptures seriously, explaining the truths that we’re walking through today, people will accuse you of legalism.

Isn’t that so interesting? And I think that’s that’s really a satanic attack.

Then I guess Jesus was legalistic and in in his fighting temptation of Satan, he just he just kept rapidify scripture. That’s a great example to us how Jesus used the existing scriptures is a wonderful wonderful example for us. And he did not take them too seriously or he was not like a Pharisee replacing God’s words with his own with with human ideas but faithfully teaching God’s word. Okay.

“Jesus used the existing scriptures—a wonderful example for us.”

Necessary for Maintaining Spiritual Life

So that’s knowing the gospel. The second thing that the that the Bible is necessary for is for maintaining spiritual life. Maintaining spiritual life. We read part of this before but I’m going to I’m going to read a little bit of a longer section here.

The entire commandment that I’m giving commanding you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with mana which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make that man does not live by bread alone but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.

Why 40 years in the wilderness?

Isn’t it a merciful of God to explain this is why this is why what a merciful God that he would make you understand this wonderful truth that you need his word. Yeah. And so we think about that in our own lives. The things that God brings in our own lives to get our attention we must always recognize.

“What a merciful God that he would make you understand this truth—that you need his word.”

And look at that phrase right above that you may live.

We see this as a continual theme in the Old Testament. And God has given these commands not for your detriment but so that you might live. So that you might live. So we’re going to spend a good amount of time here in what it what it means that the Bible is necessary to maintain spiritual life because that’s really the most relevant thing for us as professing believers.

Jesus’ Example in the Wilderness

And we see we saw before what Jesus that Jesus quoted these same verses give a little bit more of the context here. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But he answered and said, “It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I have to mention this. I mean, maybe I’m dating myself a little bit. How many of you remember that song, We Are the World?

She said, do you remember that this this passage was referenced in this song?

No.

Willie Nelson, he said, ‘As God has shown us by turning stones to bread.

And I thought, where did that happen?

And I I I I literally yelled out, “No, because he didn’t, right?” yeah, he didn’t. He He He didn’t. He emphasized the word of God here. So Jesus after having fasted for 40 days proved this to be literally true, right?

He he literally lived on the word of God those 40 days. I find that fascinating and really interesting. And also Jesus demonstrated the sufficiency of scripture again by how he used it. Even when Satan tempted him with the misuse of scripture because he did do that, twisted it, Jesus responded with the scripture itself.

And really an illustration of what it says in Psalm 119:11. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you.”

What a wonderful example we have in Jesus.

God’s Word Equated with Life

Deuteronomy 32:46-7 46-47 again equating God’s word with life right and he said to them place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today which you shall command your sons to be careful to do even all the words of this law for it is not an idol word for you indeed it is your life and by this word you will prolong your days in the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You fast forward in the history of Israel in particular at the end toward the end of the of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi. What was Israel doing?

They were not treating the word this way. They were going through the motions. They were technically following it, following the ceremonies and the rules, but their hearts weren’t in it. They were going through the motions. Are you and I guilty of that sometimes? Just check the box. Go through the motions.

May God work in our hearts in such a way that we’re much more wholehearted than that. Yes, serving the Lord can be hard sometimes and we do need to push through our flesh. I get that we don’t always feel like doing the right thing.

But God would have us understand that following his word is our very life. It is both lifegiving and and to follow it enhances and sustains our lives. There’s a couple other verses there. Those verses in Leviticus 18 and Ezekiel continually make this they’re examples of of that theme.

If by if you obey them, you will live. If you obey them, you will live. And so I think we have to be careful in how we think about God’s word and particularly how we view the law.

“Following his word is our very life. It is both life-giving and sustains our lives.”

Psalm 119 says, “Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.” So, we understand that there are things about the ceremonial law and all the sacrifices that have been fulfilled, right, that we no longer have to have to follow today. But let’s never view God’s word as a as a burden, but as our source of life. May God work in our hearts in such a way that we get that.

God’s Word as Necessary Food

That we get that we read this earlier from Job. I have not departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Do you and I see God’s word as more essential, more necessary for us than physical food?

“Do you and I see God’s word as more essential, more necessary for us than physical food?”

It is. It is.

The Spirit Gives Life Through His Words

Jesus said this, “The spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and our life.” We’ve talked in recent weeks about the authority of God’s word.

How God has has created the world by his very word. But he’s also birthed new life in us by his very word. And he sustains that life in us by his very word. If you journey through Psalm 119, you see the word revive or revive come up quite a bit.

I counted nine 11 times. 11 times revive me according to your word. By your word you have revived me. And that’s a that is resurrection language. That’s spiritual life like language. And it means the word revive there literally means to come to life and to be kept alive.

So in the most fundamental sense, God has both birthed us and sustained us spiritually like he like he has and like he is with all of physical creation and he’s doing the same thing in us with the new creation. So that’s how important God’s word is to us.

“God has both birthed us and sustained us spiritually by his very word.”

Longing for the Milk of the Word

And then we alluded to this earlier, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

Hebrews 5 says something similar. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Do you have to tell a baby that they need to drink milk or a child that they need to eat? Do you have to tell them to do that? No. They want to do that because they’re alive.

“Do you have to tell a baby they need to drink milk? No. They want to because they’re alive.”

I find it interesting.

Hunger as a Sign of Spiritual Life

I’ve had a number of conversations over the years where someone has professed faith in Christ, but they have no desire whatsoever for the word of God.

And I hear things like, well, they’ve really come to Christ. They just need to be discipled. And I think, well, while that may be true, if they’re not desirous in some way from the milk of the word, they may not be alive.

They aren’t alive spiritually. Let’s just acknowledge that, right? You don’t have to tell a baby that they need to eat. And you don’t need to to tell a new Christian that they need the word of God. They will naturally hunger for it.

And that may be a hard truth, but I think that’s a real truth that we need to acknowledge. And so, hunger for and ability to eat solid food are signs of life and their signs of growth, both physically and spiritually.

“Hunger for and ability to eat solid food are signs of life and signs of growth.”

Growing into Solid Food

So, what do we mean when we talk about meat? There’s a lot here to it, but I think in short, it refers to the deeper truths of God as we study his word. We talked several weeks ago from 2 Timothy 2:15 that we are to study, to show ourselves approved, rightly handling the word of God. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second Peter 3:18. And look with me once more at Proverbs chapter 2, which I think is a is a great example for us about what it means to to grow and to mature.

My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you to make your ear pay attention to wisdom, incline your heart to discernment. For if you call out for understanding, give your voice for discernment. If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and find the knowledge of God. For Yahweh gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and discernment.

Proverbs 2:4-5: “If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Yahweh.”

Personal Dependence on God’s Word

This is the natural desire of someone who is alive spiritually. We recognize the need for it just for our very lives and the value of it. One of the things that I I’ve noticed over the years and part of this is I think because I’m I’m prone to anxiety and depression is I wake up some of you have heard me say this. I wake up desperate. I wake up and if I don’t get into the word right away, my mind just flies and I just spiral downward.

Now, I know that’s not everybody’s experience, but God has mercifully made me aware of how much I need him from the moment I wake up.

Necessary for Knowing God’s Will

So, that sense of inadequacy that I have is based in reality, right? And so, I praise God for that because my natural temperament is such that if I didn’t have that, I would just move on and act as if I didn’t really need God. So, he has mercifully made me aware of that.

And so, I don’t spend a lot of time in the Bible because I’m spiritual. I do it because I’m fleshly and I want to be more spiritual. That’s why. And I think that’s reflective of reality. May the Lord just open our hearts to know and to realize how much we need him.

We need his word. Okay. So I think we’ve established that the Bible is necessary for maintaining spiritual life. Amen. Are we convinced of that? Yeah. Let’s let’s walk more deeply in that. And then the last thing is for knowing God’s will.

For knowing God’s will. We we’ve been talking for a number of weeks now. I think this has come up a couple times that even though the scripture is clear, we have the perspuity. I have to work I have to be careful how I say that.

“I don’t spend time in the Bible because I’m spiritual. I do it because I’m fleshly and I want to be more spiritual.”

Somebody sent me an email where they use I challenge you to use perspu in a sentence. I think it was Keith. Yeah, that was great.

There you go. I used it in a sentence.

Obedience Unlocks Further Revelation

And very impressive. That doesn’t mean we understand everything about it, but we always understand enough to obey and to take that next step. We know we can know God’s will. The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may do all the words of this law.

And this goes back to our willingness. God is always going to reward obedience with more revelation so we can obey more. That’s just how that works. And so if you’re stuck, I’ve had so many conversations with people over the years and and I I’ve been told this myself that if you’re stuck and you don’t understand what to do, it might be that you’re spiritually malnourished.

“God is always going to reward obedience with more revelation so we can obey more.”

It might be because you’re not either not willing or not spending the time that you need in God’s word to seek him for what you need to do next.

I’m reminded, I think I quoted this last week. Mark Twain said, “It’s not the things that I don’t understand in the Bible that bother me, it’s the things that I do.” Right? Are we willing to obey what God has made clear to us?

1 John 5 2 and 3. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

That’s hard to believe sometimes, isn’t it?

I think if we’re walking with God and relying on his spirit and his strength, if we’re truly doing that and we’re we’re in that zone, then they’re not burdensome. Why? Because the Holy Spirit walks with us to enlighten our understanding and to enable us to do it.

I think you recognize that we’re not able to do this on our own. I distinctly remember the first time that I took a deep dive into the fruit fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5 and did word studies on each of those words and I was so discouraged because I thought I don’t think I have any of these truly in my heart and it made me realize how dependent I was.

What’s interesting when Jesus said that we would we should abide in him that we would bear fruit. You notice it doesn’t say we produce fruit. No, no, no. We don’t produce it. He produces it in us as we submit to him. And that I think is why his commandments are not burdensome. Right? And I am really challenged by this because sometimes it feels like they are. And if they are then I need to I’m not properly aligned with him.

“We don’t produce fruit. He produces it in us as we submit to him.”

God’s Will and Sanctification

Okay. For this reason also since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Colossians 1 have specific prayers that I recommend that you pray regularly for yourself and for others.

Do you and I need to be filled with the full knowledge of his will? Yeah. In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Yeah, we do. We do. So, we pray for ourselves and others that God would God would do that. And he does that through his word and as Romans 12 says, through the through the transforming through the transforming of our minds, right? We understand that that God works in our minds through his word. And then something very simple, right? This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

“God works in our minds through his word and through the transforming of our minds.”

I think very often God’s word might be clearer to us than we think. It’s again a matter of our willingness, our willingness to obey. So that is knowing God’s will. Well, I think we talked last week about the book of Revelation, which is interesting that probably the hardest to understand book in the Bible, but it’s not hard to understand how to apply it.

Remember in in in chapter one, it said blessed are those who hear and heed the words of this prophecy. Mean it doesn’t say blessed are those who hear and understand all of it because I don’t think that’s any of us. But it always but hear and heed obey what it gives us.

General Revelation: God Known Through Creation

And that’s a wonderful thing to think about. So we ought not focus necessarily on the things we don’t understand but on on obeying the things that we do understand. Okay. Now lastly the the definition said that that the Bible is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about his moral attributes. And we see this in Romans 1. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, both his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Romans 1:20: “His invisible attributes have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Anybody ever asked, “What about the tribes in wherever who’ve never heard the gospel? How can they be accountable before God? Is God really going to send them to hell if they don’t know if they don’t confess Christ?”

Yes, because they’re without excuses. God has revealed enough to them that they should seek him. Acts 17 talks about this. God has so worked. Ecclesiastes also says this that God has orchestrated all things so the people will seek him and if they don’t that is on them so they are truly truly without excuse and so the Bible is not necessary for people to acknowledge God’s existence or to take steps to seek him right but as we’ve talked about with the gospel they do need the gospel to come to faith which is why people are sent which is why we have missionaries because they do need to hear the word. We see this also interesting interestingly in Romans 2.

The Law Written on Hearts

For when the Gentiles who do not have the law naturally do the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves in that they demonstrate the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts, alternately accusing or else defending them. Right? Why does a little child hide when they disobey the disobey their parents?

Right? Why do most people believe the murder is wrong? Right? Because God has placed something in their hearts. So they understand a basic sense of right and wrong and often suppress it. So these things are real even without them knowing the written word of God.

So as we said the necessity of scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel for maintaining spiritual life and for knowing God’s will. But it is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about God’s character and his moral laws. And so that latter part speaks to both the obligation of the believer to obey the word of God and the accountability of the unbeliever whether they’ve heard the word of God or not.

“God has placed something in their hearts—they understand a basic sense of right and wrong.”

Does that make sense?

Questions and Discussion

Okay. So I know we’re going a little bit fast and we are already at implications and application. So we can really take our time and and maybe have some Q&A. I’m a little bit surprised because there’s a lot of content today and I apologize if I’ve gone too fast, but we’re happy to go back here. So before I get into this, I’ll just pause and ask if there are any questions.

Glenda I’m always wondering what it is that other Christians can see in that person that is bothering them.

Yeah.

So why did some some believers professing believers view other professing believers as legalistic?

Yeah.

Yeah. I think the big I think we’ve talked about this before. One of the one of the big passages that cited about that and I should have it by memory but I don’t. I’m looking it up where where Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but you refuse to come to me that you might have life.” And so the common view there is that the Pharisees loved the Bible but didn’t love God. They loved the Bible too much.

I think we’ve talked about this, but I’ll I’ll go through it again. They they love the Bible too much as if that were possible.

And I think the testimony of the gospels is that they didn’t love the Bible too much. They loved themselves and their own ideas too much because they invalidated God’s word by their tradition and they obscured it and they didn’t live it. So I think we have to be careful when we when we hear that accusation of being pheriseical because I’ve been accused of that in both legitimate ways and illegitimate ways.

I think legalism, and there’s a lot that could be said here, but legalism is really two things. One is applying standards that aren’t the word of God to self and others. And certainly the Pharisees did that.

And one example of that is so for example, there are things I believe about the Bible, but but I have some extra biblical convictions, if you will, for me in terms of how that I live my life, in terms of how I interpret the Bible. For me, that’s fine. I’m not free to apply those to others.

We see this in passages like Romans 14 where that that those are matters of conscience, not matters of what the word of God says. So when we do that, when we apply standards that aren’t God’s standards to others, that’s legalism, right? I think the second second aspect of legalism is when it it’s just flatout hypocrisy. You’re holding others to the standard of the word of God that you’re not following yourself.

And so we always have to look at that. Yeah, I I’ I’ve been guilty of both. But if I love God’s word and I’m simply presenting it to you, which will sometimes get a very adverse reaction even among professing Christians, we must speak the truth in love, right?

So, we always got to watch that. But we must never back back away from what God’s word says. I have suggested I have presented the word of God very gently to people and had it just absolutely blow up because the word of God pierces the heart.

It wasn’t me doing that. It wasn’t me being judgmental. It was just simply, hey, what about this? Does that make sense?

Because the reason I ask that question was one of my family members say that about another family me another of my family members and I to them. No, this that’s not real. It’s because they are living the word of God.

Yeah.

And if you if that’s bothering you is you have to search yourself and see why you’re calling this other family member legalistic.

Yeah.

Is it because of something that they said or how they’re living is bothering you? Why you do that? So .

Yeah. Yeah.

So, that’s why I asked that question because so many people Yeah. I was so surprised when they said that. Yeah.

About the family members. But yeah, I think there’s a lot of discernment there. I I know that I’ve been in situations where I may have said the right things, but not not in a loving way. I’m I’m I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve I’ve I’ve expressed the word of God with anger and arrogance.

That’s no good. That’s no good. And that’s that should get a negative reaction. Hopefully, I’m done doing that. But you get the idea. We want to both in word and deed reflect the author both his words and his attitude which is why we speak the truth in love.

Because they saw what he was doing they were they weren’t doing it and it was more upset.

Yeah. Yeah. Again, we look at the life of Jesus, right? Was Jesus doing anything wrong with how he addressed the Pharisees?

No. But it got quite the reaction, didn’t it? Yeah.

I have two questions.

Yeah.

General vs. Special Revelation Discussion

When when you talked about how God reveals himself like the Bible’s not God is people know when you were talking about general revelation like yeah the Bible is not the thing to show that God exists right. So, how does God reveal himself to like people who don’t have his word?

Like how do people come to that revelation?

Yeah. I’m going to go to Psalm 19 generally and then I’m going to address the question.

Psalm 19, we talked a little bit about this I think last week, right?

Begins with the heavens are telling of the glory of God and the expanse is declaring the work of his hands. That’s a that’s present tense. It’s happening.

The fact that the universe is expanding at an everinccreasing rate is an example of this. The heavens literally are telling of the glory of God. We have Mike here who’s who knows something about astronomy.

He could speak very specifically about this. I think dayto-day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are their 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. Its rising is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Then it goes on to say the law of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise and simple. That makes that transition from general revelation to progressive general revelation to special revelation. Right? And there’s nothing that’s not under its authority.

Psalm 19:1: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and the expanse is declaring the work of his hands.”

We talked about that a couple weeks ago.

What I would say is that each person is responsible to seek God.

Acts 17 talks about that that he would that they would seek him although he is not far from each of us.

And so when God puts that faith in someone’s heart to seek him, we have story after story in history of of someone showing up with the gospel.

That’s just what happens. That’s a a short answer to a bit of a complex question, but does that make sense?

Yeah. God never leaves someone without the witness that they need, right? If if he’s if he’s birthing new life in them, if if he’s if he’s working in their hearts to seek him, he’s going to send someone to bring the gospel to them. And there are many many examples of that.

“God never leaves someone without the witness that they need.”

Yeah.

Also, yeah, I also two question. Yeah.

About Oh, yeah. The necessity like how you’re teaching it and how that has to do with other churches and how like the importance of going through these directives.

.

Like about like the nature of God’s word and like you went over like the necessity of God’s word.

Sure.

And how that has to do with like the false teachings in the the other churches.

Yeah.

About how they see the word of God.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to know the importance and like Yeah, I think one of the things I mentioned in the last couple weeks was someone can state in their statement of faith what they believe about the word of God, but watch how they treat it, right? They might say that and then just give like a TED talk when they don’t actually wield the sword of the word of God. They don’t use it at all.

Others may might use it maybe in a way that’s not as robust as we’re used to here. I want to be careful not to have a critical spirit about that. Because God uses his word in the craziest environments.

He really does. I mean, I’m I’m looking at Lely here who who’s testimony to that. She came to Christ in a in a church like that. But the word of God was preached. Paul said this, “Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ has proclaimed in this I rejoice.”

Right? So, we have to be really be careful. I personally need to be careful how I view and and talk about those things. But again, no seed, no life, right? Someone can can explain the I I I’ve I’ve seen situations where people have really striven and worked really hard to explain the gospel in their own words and didn’t sew the seed.

Weren’t skilled weren’t skilled in applying the word of God in that situation. And so to me, I I find that particularly frustrating because use the word of God that God will use to penetrate the heart. Don’t strive to explain it in your own words.

That that to me is a real understanding of the necessity of God’s word. Why would I try to explain something in my own words when I’ve got scripture that already explains that? And you’ve got some really intelligent people who love to do that and I find it frustrating every time.

I think Arthur’s next here. Yes. I I wanted to go back to her first question and add to that question. I I’m not sure why that statement is held to be true that we don’t need God’s word to know that God exists.

Because that’s how it starts out.

It says, “And God said, let there be light.” He’s speaking.

I think what it refers to there, Arthur, is we don’t need the Bible to know that God exists.

What? But right, but everyone everyone knows that God Romans 1 tells us that everyone knows that God God exists whether they’ve heard the scriptures or not. Everyone knows that.

But again, is there any evidence in any culture that has ever to ever come to know the true God without the word I?

Yeah. So, let me just distinguish something there and we can we can talk maybe more about that afterwards. They they they can know that God exists, but they won’t know the gospel unless someone brings that to them. And and I was just trying to explain there are examples of that.

Well, yeah.

Yeah. Well, then but they did they did they don’t need the scriptures to know that God exists though.

Yeah.

But if I add the word true God, then that eliminates the Muslim faith, Buddhism to know the true God. We would need God’s word to know Christ.

We not for sure. Yeah. But to to know.

Yeah. Would we not not just to know Christ, but to know God himself? Because we’re not talking about knowing him personally in a relationship. We’re talking just simply about knowing that he exists.

Yeah. I I just think that’s a dangerous statement because I I was trying to as I was putting my notes in, I was trying to find a scripture that would defend that statement. I Romans 1 explains it, doesn’t it?

Yeah, we can talk more about that afterwards, but Romans 1, I think, is remarkably clear on that. Yeah, we have maybe one more.

So, let me just Yeah, let me just say this real quick. So, in Romans 1, ever since the creation of the world, his divine nature, right, his eternal power and divine attributes have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made. Not through the word, but through what has been made. So that’s what it says. Yeah.

But everything that was made was made by God’s word because by his decree, but not by his written word. That’s the distinction.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Mark. Yeah. Also, the fool says in his heart there is no God.

Yep.

So the person is a fool, whether they’ve heard anything about the Bible or not, they say there is no God.

Yeah. So by nature by what you’re talking about in Romans, it’s it’s it’s obvious that there is a God who created.

Yeah. I think that’s a great thing that that’s what we call presuppositional apologetics. I think fits into this category. When we talk to people, we we know because the word of God says so that they believe that there is a god whether they profess that or not. Right?

So, for example, a if you talk to someone who’s kind of a a very devout atheist, he rails against something that doesn’t exist, which is interesting because he knows that God does exist. Go ahead.

Thank you. It’s not a question. But because God spoke creation into existence, that’s why it does reveal Yeah. Who he is.

That’s right.

And that’s why Romans 1 says what it says.

Yeah. Yeah, because you can at least see and that reveals that there is a God, but then you need to seek him.

Implications and Application

Yeah. I think we’re getting back to I think it was maybe the first or second lesson we talks about when we we hear the phrase the word of God. There’s several meanings to that. One is his decrees. One of his oral his direct oral speech to people.

But the one that is the word of God to us today is is the Bible. Let me wrap up. We’ve got just a few minutes with some implications and applications. So the sufficient word becomes efficient in our lives as we recognize its necessity for spiritual life.

So I’ll go back to man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Similar to what Jesus said, apart from me you can do nothing. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that?

That your very existence the maintaining of your spiritual life in Christ is dependent on your time in the word of God. And some of us walk around woefully malnourished.

“Your very spiritual life in Christ is dependent on your time in the word of God.”

Your spiritual growth depends on both your hunger for and capacity for God’s word. So we pray for both. God, would you increase my desire and my hunger for your word and for capacity? Psalm 36 talks about drinking from the river of God’s delights that we can kind of gorge ourselves on him and his word.

And I find it interesting to think about it’s not healthy for us to eat too much food physically, but there’s no such problem with God’s word, right? You you can’t overindulge in God’s word, right? Isn’t that a beautiful thing to think about that it is sweet and the more the more we can we can receive the better off we are. That’s a wonderful wonderful thing.

Time in the Word as Our First Sacrifice

Time with God and his word is your first and foundational sacrifice as a believer. When we when we when we come to Christ and we share the gospel with people, we we talk in terms of repentance of and faith of counting the cost, right? Denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him.

That’s how we come to Christ. But what about our sac and we think about well what if I’m tortured for Christ? What if something remarkable happens that requires me to to sacrifice my health or my life?

Right? Well, there are small sacrifices that you and I make every day that will prepare us for that, right?

And that sacrifice is time in the word.

If you can call it that because the benefits are so great. But if you are not prioritizing this in your life as your number one priority, then you will not be well prepared for any future sacrifices. So, I would say this that it’s worth losing sleep over.

“If you are not prioritizing this as your number one priority, you will not be prepared for future sacrifices.”

In Psalm 119, it says, “I I I rise before dawn and cry for help. I wait for your words. My eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on your word.” yeah, I I and I’ve committed to some of you specifically, yeah, you may have to lose some sleep for this. But it is worth it. And then, sacrificing exercise. Sometimes I’ve woken up maybe a little bit sick or a little bit later than I wanted to, which doesn’t happen a lot. And I like to every weekday both spend time in the word and and do physical exercise. But sometimes I don’t have time for both. The choice is clear.

The choice is clear. First John 4 says that training physical training is of some benefit. But training in godliness is of benefit both in this life and in the life to come. So there are things just settle in your mind that there are things that we do have to give up to spend time in the word. The question for you and I is is it worth it? I hope that through this module on the nature of the Bible, it’s an emphatic yes. Not just an emphatic yes in your mind, but in your heart. Okay. So with that, I think we will wrap up maybe just a minute early.

“Training in godliness is of benefit both in this life and in the life to come.”

Okay.

Closing Prayer

Father, I praise you for your great patience with us. Thank you for the sweetness and the power and the nutrition we get from your word. That we get to to drink from the river of your delights and in your light we see light. With you is the the fountain of life and we get that through your word.

And father, yes, we do have to be in your word. It is a command. It is a have to. But I pray that you would mercifully bring us to the place where both the have to and the want to converge.

Help us to ingest your word to be healthier, stronger, and more joyful.

Father, make us strong that we might run in your word for our good the service and blessing of others and to your glory. Amen.

Thanks everyone.

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