Follow with me as we read. Paul, a servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of the elect and
their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness
in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promise
before the ages begin. And at the proper time manifested
his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted
by the command of God, our Savior. Titus, my true child in a common
faith. Grace and peace from God the
Father in Christ Jesus, our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete,
so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders
in every town as I have directed you. If anyone is above reproach,
the husband of one wife, And his children are believers and
not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer
as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant
or quick-tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy
and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and
sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate,
empty talkers and deceivers, especially those who are of the
circumcision party. They must be silenced since they
are upsetting the whole families by teaching for sameful gain
what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet
of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore,
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not
devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people
who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure,
but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their
minds and their consciousness are defiled. They profess to
know God. But they deny him by their works.
They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for any good work. I pray that as you hear the words
of Titus today, that you would be stirred. Stirred as I am stirred
in my spirit as I stand before you today, not prepared to be
doing that which God has called me to. Not prepared to have the
fullness of All that God would have you hear from his word shaken
to my core. Shaken to my very soul. Because standing and seeing. The word of God. And seeing. The reality thereof. Is not something to be taken
lightly. And friends, I'm here to speak
to you today in the essence of the gospel. And so many of us
would take this text and we would say that, oh, last week you did
enough in that. Last week, you got through four
verses. And so this week, let's move
on to look at the qualifications of eldership. Some of you may
say then, as I began to speak on this matter, He's expounding
superfluously from the text. There are things that he's talking
about now which are not necessarily directly being preached there.
And I would say that maybe you are right in one sense, but in
another, you must be prepared to see that which Paul is arguing
for. So by the Lord's grace, I pray
that I may pull out something that may not have really resonated
with you. I pray that you would be open
and willing to hear the word of God, that you would see that
the measure of the message would be so much more than just a study
of a particular text. That we would not rest in the
assurances of our own understanding of the gospel, that we would
not come in our own power, in our flesh, that we would not
stand before our own souls in the mirror of our reflection
and say, oh, we're OK and we have that which we know. Because
we are here among these people. We are in among those who are
indeed reformed. We are among the Baptists who
have sound theology. We are in the church of Jesus
Christ. Therefore, we are safe from false interpretation. Friends,
if you understand that Paul is writing to the elect of God here. You will know that he is writing
to the elect of God here. And I shudder before you in several
ways, because I do believe that what has happened is that we have failed to let
the Word of God do its work in our lives. I think we rely too
much upon our own knowledge, wisdom, understanding of the
word. We take the Bible and everyone
who is anyone in our world today says, I believe the Bible. It is the word of God. I believe
it is true. It is. So we are the same, are
we not? Are we? Are we really the same? As we saw last night and last
week, as we looked at Paul, when he says, I am a slave of God. Not a slave of Jesus Christ,
as he is so accustomed to say, but a slave of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ for the sake of God's elect. Do not forget
that the purpose for which God saved Paul is for your sake,
church. And one of the very key texts
here in this introduction is very prominent in that where
we see in verse two and hope of eternal life is preached to
us, the knowledge of truth which accords with godliness and the
hope of eternal life with which God, who never lies, promised. before the ages begin. Now, here
we have something that this is where we're going to get confused.
And this is where I'm fearful. I'm fearful that I will theorize
too much today and not preach what the text has said. I am
so focused there on that I cannot put my mind around playing notes
on a page. It's just it seems so ridiculous. It really does. I just. What's
needed for worship as a church? As I woke up this morning, the
first thing that I do is open my eyes and the second thing
I do is wonder why. I wonder what time it is, so
I look at my phone, which sits by my bedside table, I don't
have a clock visible in my room because if I do, I wake up in
the night and I look at it and I keep time all night. And I look at
my. phone to see the time. And then
when I see the time, what happens then as I see the time is something
very strange. It's something that is a phenomenon
only to our age. It is only for the people of
this country that I believe have fallen in prey to some weird,
innate, uncanny, unholy ritual. And we do one of two things. We either look at our Twitter
feed or we look at our Facebook updates. Not purposely. And I've always made fun of people
who did that. What is wrong with those people
walking in the walls and poles? Why are we doing this? But this
morning I looked at my phone and there on the screen, as it
was flashing before me, was a word, a sentence that said, what is
required of worship? And I thought, that's a good
question. I'm not a fool when it comes
to washing myself in the waters of fodder prior to worship. I do not wallow in an argument
or nor do I read commentaries, nor do I listen to sermons, nor
do I read Facebook posts on Sunday, nor would I prior to coming to
worship, because I will see something. That will tag me on the shoulder
and go, you better mention that. You better preach that. And then
social media and your devotion will push then my preaching to
the church and the church will get some meal that they weren't
intended to get or worse, a mixture of something that doesn't go
together. And if you've ever eaten such
concoction with your mouth, you know that it's not very healthy
for your soul. But I find it very interesting
that that question is posed to us because it is the very nature
of what Paul is showing us here in these first four verses of
Titus. God is not a liar. And he has
promised something for his people. And because he has promised something
for his people, we need to take very, very Very careful note
of that, for as the writer of Hebrew says, how much more awful
will it be for those who rejected the words from the prophets to
reject the one who comes from heaven? What must it be like
to stand before the holy of holies and to see the affectionate,
merciful, loving, gracious God? And say, I spat in your face,
God. And I spat in the face of your
son who you sent. I will not believe. What must it be like? I do not want to know and I shudder
to consider. Friends, the bottom line is in
the world today. And I hate to say bottom line
because it sounds so it sounds so what's the word? Dogmatic. Here's what I think
is happening in the world today, which happened in the day of
Luther, which happened in the day of Paul. And it's happening
forever until the world comes to an end as we know it, when
Christ is king over all things and all things will be under
his feet. Here's what happens. The word of God and its authority
is washed down. As we saw freezing temperatures
last week and for 48 hours, it never went below freezing. For
those of us who are hyper paranoid about bursting pipes, brother,
We prayed for you this morning. Praise God. We were worried about. So we dripped those pipes and
I don't drip pipes. I let them run. I'll pay the city to keep bursting
pipes from happening. It's interesting, as I walked
out there the next morning and my patio was a skating rink for
ice. And then up from the grounds
where the water had been dripping, there was still a little drip
coming out, but there was this, I don't know. obelisk pyramid
looking rocket ship fire looking thing that had formed and then
around the pole had formed this beautiful splatter of ice capades
and this amazing just picture of as if someone had dropped
some large object into this massive body of water. And for a moment,
I felt like I had a little winter wonderland out in my yard. And
by the dog kennel, I went and I saw where the dog has a faucet
of his own so he can drink. So the dog kennel was dripping
and where the water had splashed down there and splashed along
the kennel and it was frozen and it was like a prison of ice
there on one side. And it was beautiful. And I thought
to myself, I want to I want to rinse this down. So I went out
there with my hose and I sprayed the patio. Physics, I studied
it immensely. It really didn't work that day,
but I wasn't thinking, I will just water this ice down and
melt it. And so my intention was to take
that which was frozen on my patio and just through the process
of air temperature water, which was 17, I decided to melt away
the ice. Well, it didn't melt much of
anything, but my intention was to melt it. Woe unto me as I
walk back out there an hour later and nearly ate concrete for brunch. But friends, that's not what
happens when the Word of God is eroded. When we think that we can come
with something else and we can add to the Word of God and we
can spray it with this beautiful array of ideas and creativity
and flash videos and pictures and all of this stuff and we
can come and say, well, you know, we live in a different world.
We live in a different time and we can we can think differently
about the Bible now because we're not them. And so then we take the immortal,
immutable, amazing God of the universe and his perfect revelation
to us, and we put it in a box and we fold it as origami and
we unfold it as something new. And we say, well, look how much
more beautiful it is now that we have made God's word palatable
for those who now can see it. And when I sprayed that, it just
made more ice. When we try to spray the Word
of God with such flavor, friends, it doesn't make more ice. It
makes nothing. And that's what I believe is
happening in the world today. I believe that the authority
of Scripture is eroding and has been eroding. And it's not just
I'm not this wise fool that come around and go, ah, epiphany.
It's just open your eyes, church. I'm no more smarter than you
are. See that improper grammar. You see, I'm not smarter than
you. I ain't got no more sense than you do. I'm not more educated
than you are, no matter how many papers I pay for. I just see it. I hear people at
the gas pumps, at the restaurants, in the churches, on the Facebook
and everywhere else and on the phone and in person. And I hear
them say stupid, stupid, stupid things. And they attribute it
to God Almighty and to the gospel of his son, Jesus. And they say,
don't you love it? And I'm like, I don't know what
you're talking about. Where did you learn that? Where
did you learn that the Apostle Paul wasn't really an apostle? I saw it on YouTube. I think the exegetical expression
of YouTube explains it all. It's yours. It's your opinion,
your video, your creativity, your illustrations, your everything
on someone else's server, making money for another big corporation.
And you think that it's true because you saw it there and
that someone had good. You know who has a lot of money?
The wicked of the world. You know who can put together
the most beautiful arguments on film? The wickedness of the
world. Why the argument was brought
to me years ago in the church growth age when it was said to
me that the church needs to come to the world with better. With
greater, with more grand schemes, with more grand pictures, with
grandiose ideals and with more beautiful buildings and with
better cinematography and better sound design and all of these
things. And we need to come and woo the
world with the glorious magnificence of what we have with in comparison
to that that the world has. I say garbage. And Paul proves
it here. And we believe it here at Grace
Truth Church. We don't hang these solas on
the wall because they're pretty. They're not. Sola Scriptura,
by the Word of God alone, is the foundation of all that we
are. And it's not just some cool historical
click. And then we get in and we grow
some beers and drink coffee and sit on stools and look cool.
This is a serious thing. And every man today in the Lord's
day across America who stands in a pulpit says, thus sayeth
the Lord, whether he says it or not, he stands yielding the
word of God or some Variation thereof. And he says these things
and he says, do this church and see this church and believe this
church and hear this, oh, children of God. And then he stands down
and people wonder what the world's going on. And I think, well, this Christianity
is pretty hipster. But this church, I'm not really hipster, so I
need to go somewhere that's sort of grungy. So they go to First
Grunge Church down the street and then they find that, you
know, that you've got to get a tat before you can come in. I mean,
it's one of those things where, you know, well, you just need
to put Soledad Gloria beside your eyeball up here and then
you're cool. Then you'll reach people. You
need to read some Rob Bell and some Joel Osteen to become culturally
relevant. Those men are false teachers
from the devil's lips. Do not put that garbage in your
eyes and in your ears. Well, there's some truth. The
devil speaks truth, too. Well, I just I learned about the gospel
from TVM. Good. Learn a new gospel. Man, those are dogmatic, nasty.
I didn't pay attention here, but I'll tell you what, church.
I have been inundated with improper teaching in the last six weeks. And I fear for the sheep of Jesus
and I fear for the snakes of the world who will feed and prey
on people. and feed them a feel-good, sweet
cupcake of message that is no message at all except a seal
of death over the coffin of ignorance. Picture that. The Word of God alone is it.
It's it. Why do you want to beat up? I'm
not beating it up. I fear for the souls of men.
I fear for the glory of God. I fear the wrath of God, and
yet I do not shirk back. For perfect love casts away fear,
and God's love for me and God's love for you, beloved, is perfectly
affected in the sinning of His Son, who lived a holy life, who
fulfilled the law, and who died and was raised to life to propitiate
the Father's judgment against us. We are in Christ, yes, and
amen, but we have learned Christ not through the images of humanity,
not through the creativity of garbage cans. We have learned
Christ through his word. And if we haven't, we have not
learned Christ. Makes me want to go teach Galatians
right now. I just jump in there and we dive
into Titus. We swim to the deep end of Galatians.
We tread water there and then we come back to Titus. But I
just, I can't. There's no need to read Galatians
1. Had a brother send me a link
this week saying, hey, here's this pastor. who has done some
research about the writing of Paul and the teaching that Paul
was not an apostle, he's not authoritative. In response to me sending something
out of Paul's teaching. See, that was messed up and then
Paul talks about my gospel, my gospel. So that's Paul's gospel,
not my gospel. Well, I pray that you would understand
the power of God's Word and the authority of God's Word, and
whether you see it or not, beloved, you are under its authority. And why do I get so aggravated
and spontaneously excited about such as this? Because if you're
living the Christian life apart from the true scriptures, Apart
from seeing the true God, you have nothing but the judgment
of God awaiting you. And that's what the Scripture
teaches. If you're living your best life now, you are not going
to see the face of Christ. So where is this message going?
I've entitled today's sermon, The Message of Grace. Hope is true because God is not
a liar. The word apostle review from
last week means sent of God. Therefore, the one who is sent
of God speaks of God, not just of God, but speaks the voice
of God. And so that one who speaks the voice of God, if the one
is who is speaking is rejected, then God himself is rejected.
This is the fullness of what it means to reject the New Testament.
This is the fullness of what it means to say, well, that's
just your interpretation. No, the Bible interprets itself. And if what I say about what
it's saying isn't what it says, then it's not what it says. It's
wrong. And so here's a little history
lesson for just a moment. Sola Scriptura in 1521, when
Luther was at the Diet of Worms, he was there. And he was being
pounded and interrogated. And he was like, where are you
going with this? Why do you believe it? Why would
you say this? What are you going to do? Are you renouncing your
faith? Would you renounce this nonsense?
And Luther says these words. Unless I am overcome with testimonies
from Scripture or with evident reasons, He says, for I believe
neither the pope nor the councils, since they have erred and contradicted
one another, I am overcome. So let me take out that parenthetical
and let me read you the whole quote there without the parenthetical.
Unless I am overcome with testimonies from Scripture or with evident
reasons, I am overcome by the Scripture text, which I have
abused and my conscience is bound by God's word. What's he saying? He said, you can argue all you
want to. God's Word has held my conscience captive and I am
bound, therefore, by it. And that, friends, is where sola
scriptura was birthed. It is by and through the Word
of God alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone. What's else? Grace alone, for
the glory of God alone. And you sit here born again because
God used this and began a reformation and brought the word of God back
to the hearts and the ears and the souls of the lost. That's why we are a church that
is confessional. One of the biggest complaints
that we had as we started in this area. Well, why do you need
to go back to a 1689 document as your confession of faith? Are you a credo fellow? Well,
you call it what you want to. Yes. Well, I thought you believed
the Bible. I do. But what do you believe about
the Bible, people? Most people who say, I believe
the Bible is God's word and it's the final authority and I believe
everything in it. They're the ones who would then
say, and God says he won't give you more than you can handle.
No, he doesn't. In fact, Jesus says, unless you
unless you pick up a cross and follow me, you cannot. You cannot
be my disciple. Can you handle a cross? The Scripture
says that while we were dead in our sins and our trespasses,
God made us alive in Christ. Can you handle death? Can you
handle the weight of sin? Can you handle the falling away
from the fullness of the glory of God and his holiness? No. God will never give us more than
he can handle. Some people would say, well, there is, you know,
God helps those who help themselves. It's the contrary. In the Gospels
where Jesus tells the story about the one who praises him for helping
himself and for walking in discipline about tithing and loving and
giving and serving and praying correctly. And then the Republican
who beats his chest and dares not look to heaven and says,
oh, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus says that man goes home
justified, the other condemned. God only can help those who cannot
help themselves. Jesus says, I come for the sick,
not the righteous, not the will. I came to seek and save the lost,
not those who are already found. Friends, if you rest in the assurance
of what you think you know about who God is, you may very well
be ill informed. So the scriptura, I will plagiarize
here for a minute, many different places. It's the doctrine that
the scripture is the ultimate authority and what's called the
quote, formal principle of the Reformation. And as Luther expounded
that. It became standard for the people
of God, for the Protestants. The Belgic Confession states,
We believe that the Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God
and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is
sufficiently taught therein. Neither may we consider any writings
of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value
with those divine scriptures, nor ought we to consider custom
or great multitude or antiquity or succession of times and persons
or councils, decrees or statutes as of equal value with the truth
of God. Therefore, we reject with all our hearts who whatsoever
does not agree with this infallible rule. So what is the implication of
trusting in the fullness of God's word? Here it is. The Holy Scriptures. And the
1689 confession, that which we believe, let me pull out just
a few quick things and show you the necessity of this first is
that the word of God reveals the divine power of God and that
the power of God is only revealed through the word of God alone.
And the word of God is sufficient and infallible as the rule of
saving faith and the knowledge thereof, including the will of
God. Here, Paul says that he has been
saved for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge
of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal
life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching
with which I have been entrusted by the command of God, our Savior.
What is he saying? He's saying that God in his word
alone has saved me through his word, has saved me to continue
to perpetuate his word so that you may be saved. That means
you may know the knowledge of truth, that because of that from
his word, you may be holy people. And because of that, then you
may understand the hope that is yours in Christ before the
world began, that God promised with his word, through his word
and by his word. So you see why the word of God
is so important. It is only through the Word of
God that you have hope. The Word of God is complete.
The Word of God is measured by that which the first church adhered
to a scripture, what we call the canon. No other books, no
other writings, no other discoveries, no matter how old or precious
or decrepit or interesting they may be, are the Word of God.
We do not hold to the apocrypha, non-apostolic writings. They
are not the word of God, nor should they govern the word of
God. Those things are not God's word. Men's ideas, men's experiences,
the attitudes of the heart, the feelings and the esoteric things
that the people experience, these are not the word of God. These
are not revelation. God's revelation is full and
final and complete. There is no more. It is only
through his word. And Paul did not say anything
but that if there is hope for eternal life, apart from his
word, it is no hope. Because of this, the authority
and truthfulness of Scripture is not measured by the mind of
man, but the truth written. Now, listen to me, church, the
truth of God's word written in syntax by God through the hands
of his apostles and his prophets who reveal the full word. He
was Jesus Christ, John one. And the word became flesh and
dwelt among us, among us, and we have seen his glory, glory,
glory, glory. The truth of who God is, no one
has seen him. He and his side has made him
known. The living word of God is Jesus Christ. And God saw
fit with proper language to put his word out and preserve it
in writing, not burning bushes. He didn't say, Moses, take this
and put it on YouTube, film my bush burning here and put that
up. He said, write this down. God on Mount Sinai, when he went
up and was there in the presence of the mountain with the Spirit
of God, Moses was not told, make a play and act this thing out
all over the world. To write it down. John and Peter and James and
Paul and Matthew And Dr. Luke, when they wrote, it was
not them deciding. I think it'd be real cool to
just sort of write this stuff. It was the Spirit of God moving
through them and writing in them His Word. The mind of man does not measure
the Word of God. So therefore, our assurance of God's word is
true, comes from the working of God through the scriptures,
by the power of the Holy Spirit who bears witness to it in us. I can argue and my ministry started
as apologetics and I love to debate and I love to answer Like
you said, Brother Jesse, in Jamaica, I love to answer arguments against
the proper teaching and it gets me thrilled. But how do we answer
that to the word alone? We don't philosophize about that
which is brought against the word of God. We go to the word
of God. We answer the what should I do about this? What does the
word of God say? And quit thinking so pigeonholed.
Well, I don't see anywhere that socks are mentioned in the Word
of God, so I don't know if I should wear socks. Grow up, church. And for you children who think
that, you will grow up in time. But until then, listen, whatever
you do, wherever you go, whatever you say, whatever you eat or
drink, do it for the glory of God. Do it for the glory of Jesus
Christ. So when you put that sock on,
Are you doing it so that Christ may be glorified? Are you grateful
that you have socks? Are you going somewhere that
you can give him honor and glory? It's not that difficult. And because the word of God is
true and it works through the working of the Holy Spirit, we
have assurance. And because the word of God is
the measure of all things, it is the absolute sovereign government
over the church of Jesus Christ. So if I were to look at whatever
that thing said today, when I get home, going to look at some of
my family, putting it out there, I'm going to look at it and I'm
going to see if it says if the word of God is not the one thing
that's required for worship, it has to be there. It has to
be. Without the word of God, there's
no faith. Without faith, there's no church. But a church, there's
no people of God to give Him glory. And even if there is a
church, if there's no word there for them to praise God for and
with and through and from, then there's no worship. There's no
instruction without the Word of God. So the Word of God, even when
it's not explicit on certain things, there's a measure of
understanding about what is knowable that should be utilized for the
teaching of the Spirit of God. And those who are learned and
those who are unlearned. In First Corinthians, Paul teaches
very clearly that those unlearned men. Are who God uses most most
effectively in the first century, and it says that the people were
astonished that these unlearned ignorant people were so versed
and so wise after being with Christ. Now, that's not an excuse. I use that an excuse for years
to not study. And I could come up with a sermon
in about five seconds, just extemporaneously. Give me a topic. Got it. Let's
do it. And it was no more the word of
God than that microphone cover. So there is a need for study,
but you don't have to be a scholar to see. You don't have to be a scholar and
an academic to understand. The Spirit of God will teach
you, how does it do that? Read it, hear it, listen, sit
under the preaching of it. For if it is your hope, you see
how frustrating this can be for some of us? Is this really exposition? Yes, it is. It is exposition
because here the promise that came before the ages begin came
through the Word of God. And so if you don't understand
the foundation of God's Word, you don't understand the reality
of His promise. And we're probably not through
with this this week either. So what does it really mean about
my translation? What about the Bible? I was reading
something different when you read that, Pastor, and my translation
is a little different. OK, well, what do we believe
about the Word of God? Have you had the argument before
that that's not the Word of God? I was in alarm cells and I went
to a house one time, 19 years ago, and I sat in this man's
office and on in my bag was a Bible. And he says, is that the Word
of God there, son? And I pulled it and I said, yes,
it is. We're about to have church. This is great. And he said, what are you doing
with the Word of God? And I explained to him I was
in ministry I was selling alarms to make tent making right now
for three different companies, two or three different things.
A lot of stuff was going on. Oh, that's great, son. It's good
to see. Let me see your Bible a minute. He looks and he goes,
you came close, son, but this ain't the Word of God. Hands
it back to me. I'm like, what is this? First
time I've ever come across it. And he pulls out this huge, big,
thick, rawhide hair on it from the cow, it was so raw. And you
know, it had hoof marks on it where the cow before him had
kicked him. It was good stuff. And he opened it up and I could
hear it go. And it was a translation, it
was about 100 years old at the time, a translation of the 1611
or reprinting of the 1611 King James. He says, there you go,
brother. That's the word of God. Your little book contains some
words of God, but this is the Word of God. And I'm like, man,
I've got to get with the program. So I spent an hour there, scared
to death. What am I going to do here? This
is the Word of God? And so he gave me this book and that book
and this literature and that literature, and I walked out with a bunch
of chick traps and everything else. And I was just, my gosh, I'm
going to hell. I don't even have a Bible. And he said, this is the Bible
that God has authorized through the King. And those other Bibles
are not authorized by God. The King was sovereign. God is
sovereign. This Bible is sovereign. And
I thought to myself, oh, dear, I'm in trouble. I don't know
how to answer that. I mean, I did not know how to
answer that. And so I began to think about
it. And through the years, God showed me there is a word of
God and it's written in Greek and Hebrew. It is written in
those original language, so even this English standard version
that we care so dearly for and we love and for those of us that
have the hardback version of the study Bible, you know, you
have to have a concealed weapons permit to carry that in your
car, I promise, because it weighs 27 pounds. And it is it is a
shield is considered a bulletproof vest. We love it and we love
the English there. Sorry, I just popped out. But in reality, the Greek that
Paul wrote to Titus is that language in which God gave it to him.
And so, though our English can do the best it can, the Greek
is indeed the trueness of meaning. And so the syntax that God put
forth in the original languages are what we call the infallible
language. But then even then, it's only
the original autographer that are not there that we would consider
the original. So who do we trust in the infallible
word of God? We trust in God through his infallible
word that through the millennia, he preserves the writing and
we see it. And the original tongues are
the final arbiter. They are the arbitration that
rested. Well, does your Bible say whosoever
will or whoever will or? I mean, you know, this is the
biggest debate I get in down here in the South. Whosoever!
Whoever so what? Yes, whosoever is an older English
formal expression of the word whoever. But where's the verb? The verb is be. So. Whoever what believes. Has eternal life. How do we know
how to do that, because we've got people through the years
whom God has allowed to study and to translate, and you might
not want to know the original languages. I pray that you can
learn at least to use the tools. Friends, it is our responsibility
as the church to study the Word of God, not to eat the buffet
of our pastors and the self-fed baby bottles of TV preachers
and YouTube videos and commentaries and study Bibles and devotions
and daily emails. Those are good sprinkles on the
icing. But if you're not in the Word
of God, you're not seeing God. I quote this straight from our
confession of faith, the scripture is, quote, the infallible rule
for the interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself. And
therefore, whenever there is a question about the true and
full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold, but one,
it must be searched by other passages which speak more clearly.
The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are
to be determined and by which must be examined all decrees
of councils, opinions of ancient writers and doctrines of men
and private spirits can be no other than the Holy Scripture
delivered by the Spirit. And in the sentence of Scripture,
we are to rest for it is in Scripture delivered by the Holy Spirit
of God that our faith is finally resolved. That's just so much
more than we believe the Bible and God wrote it. That's enough.
Friends, this is biblical authority. This is where from which the
message of grace comes. And as Paul, because I just went
on and on and on, I hope you get the picture. As he says there
to Titus, my true child and a common faith, my true child and a unified
faith, my true child. What is it that a true child
actually sees about the word of God, about the gospel? Let me give these to you. A true child. recognizes things. First, a true child of God recognizes
that God has covenant truth, that God has promised through
his word to save a people through Jesus Christ, whom he promised
through his word to send to propitiate for them through his word for
centuries. So if it's not through the word
of God, then where is it from? And if it is through the Word
of God, we cannot take this relative idea to say, oh, we're relative.
We're going to make you feel good about where you are today.
Friends, I don't want you to feel good about where you are
today, except ye be in Christ alone. Do not fall prey to feeling
comfortable because of that which you've established out of your
own understanding, out of your own version of Scripture. Who's right? God is right. The
spirit is right. You don't need me to develop
the arguments to show you the truth of Scripture. You need
to hear it as it's preached. You need to read it with your
eyes. You need to pray over it and expect God to show you something. And if you are born again, you
will see the kingdom of heaven. A true child in a unified faith
recognizes God's covenant truth. He also recognizes the apostolic
authority of the Scripture, that the apostles were sent by God
and only the apostles were sent by God to reveal himself to the
world. No one else. And I hate to bust
your bubble, Church, but there are no apostles today. There
may be people that do apostolic-like things. I don't know, Brother
Dave, are there samurai today? No? There are no samurai today
in Japan, but there are people who do samurai, ninja-like stuff,
but they're not samurai. That's how there are people who
may do apostolic like stuff. They may call themselves apostle
and they may have the title on their desk. They may print it
on the back of their car. They may even actually use it
in their own greeting to you when you stand out in public.
Hi, I'm Apostle John. Boy, you look good to be so old.
That's what I said to the last guy that said that to me. The word of God is clear that
the apostles were sent in the flesh, in the face by Jesus alone,
and he has not sent anyone after he sent Saul of Tarsus. To preach
that the scales may be lifted off the eyes of those who were
blinded, so that his glory may be seen and he would be praised
from all people, of all walks, of all nations, of all wealth,
of every gender and every tribe. Sing glory, glory, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come
forever and all dominion is yours. Wealth is yours. Power is yours. And we lay before your feet because
you laid your life down before the throne of God to suffer our
sins against Him. We need to start a church in
Jamaica. Because there will be Jamaicans
worshiping God. And friends, if the apostles
authority is not sufficient, you cannot know Christ. Thirdly, a true child in a unified
faith and a common faith recognizes God's hope for his people. The
faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, what
does that mean? It means they have hope in that
God has revealed Himself to them. They have hope in that they realize
that God has shown them His holiness. And they have hope in knowing
that they are justified in Christ Jesus. And then they stand before
God, holy and set apart. Even though they fight the fight
of faith, one day they will be glorified. There will be hope.
And that hope is as certain as if it has already been done.
Romans 8.30. For they are glorified in the
past. Paul is so absolutely confident. Friends, the better title for
this sermon is the confidence of grace through the Word of
God. There's a hope. There's a hope
in restoring the law of God, not the precepts of the priesthood
and all of these things, not the following of the ceremonial
law, but the law of God and the commands given to Moses on Mount
Sinai to love the Lord your God, to have no other gods before
you, to keep the Sabbath. All of these things are not just
required. They are in you. You are in love with the Word
of God, for it is the very epitome of his heart. You love that. John said that in his first epistle,
for the law of God is not burdensome to the child of God, as a paraphrase. Don't ever think that someone
would say, well, we don't have to obey the law. We don't have
to sacrifice goats. But we must walk holy. This is
the command of God before there was man to be holy. He put Adam
and Eve in the garden and told them to obey him. Jesus says
that they will know that you are my disciples, for they have
love for one another. Where does that come from? To
love your neighbor as yourself. The scripture teaches that, Jesus
says, if you love me, you will obey me. Where is the holiness in the
people of God? Friends, I fear that it's not even concerning
them because they do not hear the word of God. God has given hope to his people
and a true child recognizes this hope and that the law is restored. The commandments are restored
in us because we receive the righteousness that is Christ
who fulfilled those laws and gave them to us. And then because
of that, we long for the day as we practice and fight and
rest in the fullness of the gospel that we are not indeed ready,
but we are being made ready. Not sinless perfection, but one
day it will be not in this life, but in glory. How? through His Word. This is
the One who sees and knows and holds fast to such things as
good and clear and certain because they are the promises of God. Do you see that? Because finally,
biblical authority is the judge of us all. And the Scripture
teaches that God will come and He will judge. He would judge
every human being that has ever lived or ever will live. And
he will hold us to the test of Jesus Christ, the righteous.
And if we do not match him in righteousness, we are condemned. So where's the hope? The hope
is that because God has shown us in his word, because he has
promised in his word, because he has promised to never forsake
us and because he is not a liar, We are given life through Jesus
Christ. So what does that do for you? I pray that it would well up
in you a sense of awe, a sense of repentance, a powerful faith
that cannot be shaken in such a way that you would absolutely
and eternally trust in His fullness. Knowing that God has manifested
his pure promise before the world began, he's made it very clear
for us to see just as Paul teaches Timothy. And which now has been
manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,
who abolished death and brought life and immortality to life
through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and
an apostle and a teacher. And as Paul teaches to the Romans,
this mystery but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic
writings has been made known to all nations according to the
command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of
faith. See, God works in this world through His Word to take
His Son to you and to others who are blind and dead and lost
that you may have eternal life. Do you have eternal life? Do
you see Christ? Do you worship him? Do you love
him? Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your
faithfulness. Without it, there is no hope. There's no hope for
what I've said to even make sense. There's no hope for us to hear
it. There's no hope for us to believe.
But because you are a faithful God who promised and you do not
lie, we have hope. And that hope rests fully in
Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that. Though I feel
I have probably belabored the foundation of Sola Scriptura
so long today, I've eroded maybe the function of that text. But
God, please, by your mercy and grace, would you see fit to plant
it there in a way that it would put us in a place where we would
see and savor and desire to cherish more and more and more the fullness
of your glory in the face of Christ. I thank you for allowing us the
privilege to freely assemble with a sign on the wall as a
church, as the people of God, that we're freely able to leave
and depart without fear of death, without fear of persecution. So, Lord, in that, let us go
and proclaim the message of the gospel to the world, that all
your sheep would come that all who are lost would come. And
Father, when those who reject it don't come, we keep preaching.
We keep praying. We let that work be up to You. But we preach to all. And we thank You for loving us
with a love that is absolute, that is forever, that is true
because You promised it in Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen.