God’s Own Defense of Scripture, Part 2
Psalm 19
by
John MacArthur
Copyright 2007,
Grace to You.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Well, tonight we return to the subject, the sufficiency of Scripture. It is Job who said, “I have esteemed the words of God’s mouth more than my necessary food.” That is to say what Jesus said in the New Testament. “We don’t live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Taking in the Word of God, said Job, is more important than eating food.
The Apostle Paul said that the church is built on the scriptures that came through the Apostles and the prophets, Ephesians 2:20. Life in the church is built on the Word of God. It is the life of the church. It is the food of every individual believer. Thomas Watson, one of my favorite and most beloved of the Puritans was a very eloquent writer. He gave in his writings many tributes to the Bible. In one of them he said this, “Scripture is a beam of the sun of righteousness, it is a crystal stream flowing from the fountain of life, so pure that it purifies everything else.” Thomas Watson also wrote this, “The devil and his agents have been blowing at Scripture light but could never blow it out.” A clear sign that it is lighted by heaven.
So, on the one hand, we have the affirmation that the Scripture is indeed the Word of God. It is our food. It is the truth upon which the work of God depends and at the same time it is that which is under constant assault by the enemy of God, the enemy of God’s purposes, the devil and all who are a part of his kingdom.
In any period of time, Scripture will be under attack. In any period of time, in any place it will be blown at by those who want to extinguish its light. We find that going on throughout all the history of the church. We find it going on even today. We have to rise up to understand those who would assault the Scripture and we have to rise to its defense.
We are living in a time, as I pointed out in our last study together, when the sufficiency of Scripture is under unique assault. The move to psychology as a necessary component in solving man’s problems indicates that the Bible in itself is not enough. The search for methods found in the world’s economics and the world’s businesses and the world’s techniques, and the world’s strategies to apply in building the church are an indication that the Scripture itself is not enough for the life and growth and expansion of the church. The demand for political power as the key to the church’s influence, as the key to revival in a society and in a culture is testimony to the fact that among some people the Bible itself is not sufficient. The cry for miracles, the cry for signs, and wonders, and new revelations and supernatural activities is another indication that the Bible in and of itself is not enough to demonstrate t he great power of God. The invention of a synthetic gospel, aw pop gospel of prosperity and indulgence and sensuality and success and self-fulfillment and self-indulgence is another testimony to the fact that there is a lack of confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture to do its work of changing lives.
All of these really are a demonstration of the tragic worldliness of the church. When the church has to design its ministry around non-biblical things, it has abandoned its confidence in the Word of God and thus has brought reproach upon God who Himself affirms the absolute sufficiency of His Word. It forces us to ask this substantially foundational question...is the Scripture enough? Is it enough to do the work of evangelism? Is it enough to do the work of sanctification? Is it enough to solve the problems of the human heart? Is it enough to build and extend and advance the church? Or do we need to concede that the Scripture has its limitations that have to be overcome by psychology, by human wisdom, and strategy, by political clout, by new revelations, by wonders and signs? Do we have to somehow overcome the stigma of the gospel by inventing a more popular message that will be acceptable to people? Is the Bible so lacking in its own power and sufficiency that we have to apply human wisdom and human technique to help God overcome the natural resistance of a fallen world?
Well the answer to that question about the sufficiency of Scripture is given by God Himself in Psalm 19. Let’s return to Psalm 19. In fact, there are many, many places in the Scripture where its own sufficiency is attested, more than one could exposit, probably, in a lifetime. But here is one that is a great and rich and comprehensive summation. Here is God’s own witness, God’s own revelation as to the sufficiency of Scripture. Psalm 19 and we’re looking at verses 7 through 14. Let me read them for you.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous all together. They are more desirable than gold, yes than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Thy servant is warned. In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins, let them not rule over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
As I mentioned to you last time, the
opening six verses of Psalm 19 have
to do with God’s revelation in
creation...God’s revelation in
nature. We call that general
revelation. From verse 7 on it is
special revelation. God’s
revelation in Scripture in the
Bible, God’s revealed Word. God has
revealed Himself in creation so that
it may be known that He exists and
that He is powerful and that He is
wise and many of the attributes of
God, of course, are on display in
creation. But nothing in creation
tells us how God may be known, and
nothing in creation tells us
specifically what His will for man
is and therefore we turn to special
revelation. And God gives testimony
to the sufficiency of this special
revelation, this inscripturated
revelation here in these verses.
First of all, the sufficiency of Scripture, verses 7 to 9. Then the value of Scripture, verses 10 to 13. And finally our subsequent commitment to Scripture in verse 14. Now we are looking at verses 7 through 9, the sufficiency of Scripture. I remind you only briefly that there are parallels in these three verses, six statements are made, two in each verse, that are parallel to each other. They all have six titles for Scripture. They all have six characteristics of Scripture. And each one gives six benefits of Scripture. Scripture is called in verse 7 law and testimony, in verse 8, precepts and commandment, in verse 9, fear and judgments, those are titles for Scripture. Looking at it as a many faceted diamond, it is all of those things. It is God’s law, God’s testimony, God’s precepts, God’s commandment, God’s fear and God’s judgments revealed. And there are six characteristics. In verse 7 it is perfect and sure, in verse 8 it is right and pure, in verse 9 it is clean and true. And then there are six effects or benefits. It restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, and the final one in verse 9, it produces comprehensive righteousness. This then provides a complete understanding of the magnitude of the sufficiency of Scripture. And by the way, we are reminded as to who the author is six times, it is of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord. There is no mistaking the author of Scripture, it is divine. Six times the covenant name of Yahweh is used and He is clearly the one who is the source of this inscripturated revelation.
Now as we began last time, we looked at the opening three and I would just review them briefly. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. That is to say that Scripture can be viewed as God’s law for man’s conduct. It is the manual on behavior. It is the Torah, divine instruction for man’s life. And as such, it is perfect, meaning it is comprehensive, meaning it is full, meaning nothing is left out. It is perfect as opposed to incomplete, not perfect as opposed to imperfect. It’s not saying that it’s flawless, although it is that, but rather that it is completely comprehensively sufficient. For what? For restoring the soul. The word “restoring,” transforming, converting, renewing the soul, nephesh, the inner person. The Scripture then is comprehensive, totally sufficient to completely transform the whole inner person. That is to say it is all that is necessary to produce total complete transformation. It saves. It is the power of God to save. Remember the words of Peter, “We are begotten again by the Word.” By the Word. It is able to convert, it is able to transform. It is sharper than any other sword, it is a two-edged sword that cuts the heart completely open and produces conviction and conversion. It is the Word of God which alone saves. It does not need any assistance in doing that. We made a comparison, also, with some comments in Psalm 119 that enrich this statement and we’ll do the same as we compare Psalm 119 with the other points.
Thirdly, in verse 8, Scripture is
seen as the precepts of the Lord.
Precepts meaning doctrines, if you
will, statutes some translations
have, that is principles for life
and godliness, divine principles.
It is filled with principles, he
says, that are right. Literally in
the Hebrew, that set the right
path. Principles for walking down
the right path. And as one walks in
those principles, the effect is
rejoicing the heart. True joy fills
the inner person. And so we find
that Scripture is sufficient to
produce salvation, sanctification
and true lasting heart contentment
and joy. We don’t need voices from
angels. We don’t need conversations
with the supernatural, we don’t need
visions and miracles. We don’t need
mystical kinds of imaginations and
intuitions to be led by God. We
need only His Word. He leads us in
a right path, that path becomes our
joy. All our true pleasure, all our
true delight comes from following
the path laid out by the Word of
God. People who walk in that path
experience joy. Now
that leads us to the remaining
three. Number four is in verse 8.
“The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes.” The
commandment indicates that the
Scripture is a mandate. These are
not negotiable. They demand
obedience. Scripture is
authoritative. It is binding. It
is non-optional. It is not a source
of suggestions. The divine
revelation of God is a series of
commands. Disobedience brings about
divine judgment. Obedience brings
about divine reward. So Scripture
is the law of the Lord, the
testimony of the Lord, principles
given by the Lord, and commandment
as well. It is all of those things
at one and the same time.
As a
Christian, and you and I share this
in common, I see things clearly. I
see the world clearly. In fact, I
often wonder why I’m not on more
programs giving the right answer to
everything. It’s all very clear to
me, everything is clear to me. I
understand where the world came
from, where it’s going. I
understand all of that. I
understand why things happen the way
they happen. I understand life and
death and life after death and
heaven and hell and morality and
immorality. I understand it all. I
understand why the world is the way
it is, why people act the way they
act. Am I particularly
intelligent? No. Am I particularly
wise? No. I just have the mind of
Christ here in this book. I
remember one time years ago being
invited to Cal State Northridge to
speak to the philosophy class,
advanced philosophy class and the
professor was a formal rabbi who
liked to chew on an occasional
fundamentalist. And so I was going
to be the bone for that experience.
I went to the class and I was
supposed to talk on the subject of
Christianity and culture. Well I
didn’t want to talk about
Christianity and culture. I wanted
to talk about the gospel. So I
think I opened by saying, if I
remember right, something like,
“Well the great expert on
Christianity and culture is Francis
Schaeffer and if you want to know
about that, you can read Francis
Schaeffer.” But I said, “I’m here
to tell you this, I know this is a
philosophy class and I know that
you’re searching for the truth. And
I’m here to bring your search to an
end.” That was enough to lose them
all, they looked like somebody had
shot off a gun in the room. The
brashness of that, the egotism of
that was stunning. I said I’m here
to end your search. Now
that’s a problem for a philosophy
class because you’re supposed to get
a degree for searching. If you find
the truth, the search is over, you
can’t finish your degree. So if
you’re taking philosophy, don’t get
the truth until you get the degree
then you can get the truth. So I
said I’m here to tell you the truth,
to tell you the truth about the
origin of the universe, to tell you
the truth about why the universe
holds together things that Einstein
couldn’t figure out. I’m here to
tell you where the universe is going
in the future, how it will end. I’m
here to tell you about life, death
and the afterlife, morality,
everything you want to know I’m here
to tell you all of it. And
then I said this, and the rabbi
professor was as stunned as
everybody else, I said, “But no
matter what I say, you’re not going
to understand it and you’re not
going to believe it.” And one
student at that moment spoke for all
of them and said, “How do you know?
How do you know we won’t understand
it? We won’t believe it?” I said,
“Because there’s a prerequisite.
For you to understand this, you have
to have been transformed by faith in
Jesus Christ so that your
understanding is opened.” To which
he replied. “Well, how does that
happen?” And I said, “Good, now
we’ll talk about how...we’ll talk
about how you become transformed by
Jesus Christ.” And so I went into
the gospel which is no small
irritation to the professor.
One
more story comes to mind whenever I
come to this point. We had a number
of years ago some missionaries in
our church named John and Nora
Romanoski. John and Nora served the
Lord in Brigham City, Utah,
missionaries to the Mormons. John
and Nora were a precious, precious
couple. They had two beautiful
daughters and a son. And they
decided in the summer to come to
Grace Church and bring their two
daughters and son down with them for
a vacation and enjoy the church and
enroll their oldest daughter at the
Master’s College. They also decided
to bring two foreign exchange
students that had come to that town
from Italy, weren’t Christians,
bring them along for evangelistic
purposes. So they were all in this
car, they were coming down...they
had been to the college to go
through some registration and they
were leaving the college, pulled on
to Sierra Highway and for some
reason John pulled out against a red
light, they were hit by a truck
coming down Sierra Highway, full
speed. They were hit so hard that
it catapulted the two daughters out
the back of the car and killed them
both instantly. They were lying in
the street. The
boys were fraught with devastating
injuries. The blow was behind the
front seat where John and Nora were
sitting and so their injuries were
minor. But in one split second,
they had lost their two precious
girls and their son hung in the
balance at Henry Mayo Hospital. My
son Mark happened to be coming along
and word got to me what had happened
and I got to John and what do you
say? I said, “John,” I said, “I
don’t know what to say, I really
don’t know what to say.” People
would ask the question...this is a
missionary? Why would God let this
happen to a faithful missionary?
Giving his life to reach Mormons
with the gospel. I said, “John, I
don’t know what to say.” He said,
“Well, John,” I’ll never forget
this, he said, “First I thought
maybe this was a dream and it didn’t
happen. Maybe this just...I’m going
to wake up and it will all be okay.
But I know that’s not true.” Then
he said this. He said, “I brought
my family down here because I wanted
my daughters to have a big church
experience. Our church is very
small. I wanted them to hear a big
choir.” And he said, “I just didn’t
think that the big church would be
the glorified saints and the choir
would be the heavenly choir.” He
said this, “I know my girls knew
Christ and they’re in His presence.
I’m so thankful he took them and
spared those two unconverted boys.”
Now
when you can look at the holocaust
of your family and see it that way,
you see it clearly. Right? And
what enlightened his eyes? An
understanding of the hope of life
after death for those who are in
Christ. He saw it exactly the way
it was. They were ushered into the
presence of Jesus Christ. He came
in to this pulpit, kind of peace
together with his wife, they were
here for weeks waiting for the boys
to recover, which they did. He came
in to this pulpit and gave his
testimony to this congregation about
the grace of God in their life. He
went back to that ministry without
those two girls. It wasn’t long
until John had kept in contact with
me and told me they never had a more
effective ministry because they
could see the triumph of their
faith. The people around them could
see the triumph of their faith in
the way they handled the loss of
those two girls.
What
do these counselors that go to a
school after somebody shot up the
school and killed students, what do
they say? What kind of games do
they play with people’s minds that
don’t ever really lead them out of
the dark? Do we need to go to them
for the true knowledge of death and
life after death? Are we dependent
on some kind of psychoanalysis for
answers to our questions, from
sources that reject Scripture and
are invented by those who are
blind? Are the blind leading the
blind? Is the Bible so incomplete
that we have to turn to science to
explain origins? Life? Sociology?
Sin? No.
No. The light is turned on in every
dimension on every subject from
Scripture. It floods its glorious
truth on every dimension of life.
Psalm 119 reiterates this, verse 52,
“I have remembered Thy ordinances
from of old, O Lord, and comfort
myself.” In the midst of the
darkest times the truth becomes our
comfort. Verse 59, “I considered my
ways and turned my feet to Your
testimonies. I hastened and did not
delay to keep Your commandments.” I
saw the way I was going and I knew I
needed to turn to Your word to
enlightened me, to change my
course. Verse 81, “My soul
languishes for Thy salvation. I
wait for Thy Word. My eyes fail
with longing for Thy Word. When
will You comfort me?” All comfort
comes, all true comfort comes from a
true understanding and a true
understanding of things as revealed
in Scripture. He
goes on a number of times in this
Psalm to say the same thing in
another way. Verse 92, “If Thy law
had not been my delight, I would
have perished in my affliction.” I
couldn’t have interpreted my
suffering, I couldn’t have
interpreted my troubles if I didn’t
know Your Word tells me that in
affliction You comfort. In
affliction You perfect. In
affliction You mold me and make me
into the man You want me to be, the
woman You want me to be. I wouldn’t
know that if I didn’t have Your
Word. The
Word is sufficient for salvation.
It’s sufficient for skill in living,
sanctification. It is sufficient to
produce lasting deep-down joy and
rejoicing. It is sufficient to give
us a clear understanding of things
otherwise not understood.
The
habit of the human soul is to
worship, do you see that? The habit
of the human soul is to worship.
People worship. They worship
themselves. They worship things.
They worship heroes. They worship
adventures, experiences,
whatever.... Humans are made to
worship. Only in Scripture are we
instructed as to who we are to
worship and how we are to worship.
It is the manual on who to worship
and how to worship. We are to
worship the true and living God, the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ revealed in Scripture
incarnated in His Son and we are to
worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
We are not to make idols and worship
them. We are instructed how to
worship in Scripture. As a
source of worship, he says it’s
clean, without evil, without
corruption, without error. This is
in contrast to the evil imaginations
of men who worship other things.
The root of this word clean,
tahor, in the Hebrew, has the
idea of the absence of impurity, the
absence of defilement, the absence
of filthiness, the absence of
imperfection. It’s unsullied.
Psalm 12 verse 6, “The words of the
Lord are pure words, like silver
tested in a furnace of earth
purified seven times.” Its words
are holy, separated, hallowed.
That’s why David says, “Thy Word
have I hid in my heart that I might
not sin.” The word has a cleansing
effect. Jesus in John 15 says, “We
are pruned, purged, cleansed by the
Word.” Because of its purity, by the way,
here’s the effect, it endures
forever...it endures forever.
Because of its purity, it endures
forever. What do you mean by that?
Sin kills. The Bible lasts
forever. Jesus said, “My Word will
never pass away...never.” It has no
principle of sin in it, no error in
it, no death to it. It endures
forever. It needs, by the way, no
updating, it needs no editing, no
refining, no aid, no assistance. It
is eternally pure, eternally
relevant, eternally powerful. Are
we supposed to believe that all of a
sudden today it’s no longer true,
it’s no longer relevant? It’s no
longer able to be understood? All
of a sudden the light’s gone out and
it’s a dark book? It has
inadequacies, errors, shortcomings.
It’s inexplicable. It needs
correction. It needs addition. We
can’t trust it. Do we need some
people as the Jesus Seminar people
do to vote on whether something in
the Bible is true by rolling out
colored balls? No,
it is without error, it is without
stain, it is without pollution, it
is without corruption. And because
of that, it is unchanging, it is
unaffected by the Fall, if you
will.. It endures. And again,
Psalm 119 and I don’t want to go
through all of the verses there, but
just to remind you that many of them
address this...many of them
throughout this Psalm. Verse 9,
“How can a young man keep his way
pure? By keeping it according to
Thy Word.” If you want a pure way,
then apply a pure instrument to your
heart. Then verse 11, “I have
treasured Thy Word in my heart that
I might not sin against Thee.”
Verse 38, “Establish Thy Word to Thy
servant as that which produces
reverence for Thee.” The Word
cleanses me, makes me holy, makes me
reverent in my thoughts toward You.
“Before, verse 67 says, I was
afflicted, I went astray. Now I
keep Thy Word.”
And
finally, the judgments of the Lord
are true. They are righteous all
together. Judgments...how
interesting is that word. The
judgments of the Lord are true. How
does that view Scripture? That
views Scripture as divine
adjudications from the bench of the
Judge of all the earth, verdicts.
When the Bible renders a verdict, it
is true. Its verdicts are true.
Judicial determinations by the Judge
of all the earth from the heavenly
bench, the one who is the ultimate
and only final Judge renders true
verdicts. In contrast to the
injustices that prevail in human
life, in contrast to the lies of
this world, God’s justice, God’s
judgments are always perfectly true,
absolutely true, absolutely
dependable. And that last phrase,
what’s the effect? It
produces...what it means is, it
produces comprehensive
righteousness. That’s a summation.
It produces the total product, a
righteous soul, righteous in the
sense saved, sanctified, joyful,
understanding clearly the truth
about everything because the mind
has been enlightened by Scripture,
worshiping, embracing the truth, a
comprehensive complete soul before
God. It is
sufficient for salvation. It is
sufficient for all the skills of
spiritual living. It is sufficient
to produce lasting, deep-seeded
unassailable joy that overcomes the
sorrows of life. It is sufficient
for understanding of all the things
that are hard to see, it casts its
light on all the darkness. It is
sufficient to purify all sin. And
it is always true, true, true, true. One
television evangelist who is very
popular, said this, “Anything coming
through man is contaminated to some
extent. Therefore since the Bible
came through man, there must be some
errors in it so we must never equate
the Bible with the perfect Jesus.”
Is the Bible less than perfect, when
God in His own words says it is
perfect? Can God give us a perfect
text and not preserve and protect
it? Such statements depreciate the
Word of God, any depreciation of the
Word of God is a dishonor to God
Himself. When
it says the words of Scripture are
righteous all together, it means
comprehensibly right and
comprehensibly producing what is
right. I think it’s sufficient,
based on this text. I don’t know
how you could argue anything else.
This is reminiscent of 2 Timothy 3,
Scripture is able to make you wise
unto salvation, all Scripture is
given by inspiration of God and is
profitable so that the man of God
may be thoroughly or completely
perfect. Same thing exactly. It
meets all spiritual needs. That
is the sufficiency of Scripture.
And that leads to a second thought
in the text, the value of
Scripture. Since this is true,
since this is true, listen to the
value, verse 10. “They,” meaning
the judgments of the Lord that are
completely all together righteous
and true, they...the words of
Scripture, “are more desirable than
gold, yes than much fine gold,
sweeter also than honey and the
drippings of the honeycomb.” That is
to say, they are more precious, more
valuable than any thing else.
I
wish I had time to take you through
Psalm 119 on this. Do it yourself.
There must be twenty verses in Psalm
119 that say that one way or
another. It is our greatest
possession. It is our greatest
pleasure. Thirdly, it is our greatest
protector, “Moreover...verse 11...by
them Thy servant is warned.”
Moreover by them, Thy servant is
warned. Scripture is the source of
warning in the face of temptation,
sin, and ignorance. We need the
Scripture to warn us. Our greatest
possession, our greatest pleasure,
our greatest protector. It is
our greatest provider. Verse 11 at
the end, “And keeping them there’s
great reward.” Obedience to
Scripture produces reward in this
life and the life to come.
Obedience to Scripture brings the
believer his greatest provision, or
if you will, his greatest profit.
The Word is the source of reward.
The true reward comes not through
self-seeking, it comes not through
imagining, visualizing, trying to
speak it in to existence as the
Positive Confession people tell us.
The true reward comes to the one who
keeps the Scripture. The reward
literally in Hebrew the end...the
end. The eternal reward is in
view. Always the proper goal. You
obey the Scripture and it impacts
your eternal reward. You shouldn’t
even be looking for what you can get
now, here and now, like the
Christian cultic preoccupation of
health, wealth and prosperity and
success and happiness now. We look
to that eternal reward and obedience
to Scripture produces that eternal
reward. It is
our greatest possession, greatest
pleasure, greatest protector,
greatest provider and then our
greatest purifier. Verse 12, “Who
can discern his errors?” We’re not
really very good at examining our
own hearts unless we have some kind
of plumb line and some kind of
standard, right? What do most
people do? Oh they compare
themselves with other people,
right? I’m not as bad as most
people, I’m basically a good
person. Like Paul described the
false teachers in 2 Corinthians who
compared themselves with
themselves. You can always find
somebody worse than you, some mass
murderer. We’re all better than
those people. So
who really can access his own
errors? On your own, your pride,
your self-will, your
self-preservation instincts, your
blindness to reality and your
tendency to comparison is going to
cause you not to be able to honestly
discern your own errors. You heard
it in the testimony in the baptism
tonight. People don’t really see
the sin in their own lives. Who is
going to discern his own errors?
Only one exposed to the Word of God,
acquit me of hidden faults. Also,
“Keep back Thy servant from
presumptuous sins, let them not rule
over me, then I shall be blameless
and I shall be acquitted of great
transgression.” What he is saying
is I don’t even understand my own
wretchedness. I don’t understand my
own sinfulness. I don’t even know
my own secret faults as well as
presumptuous sins of deliberate
action planned and premeditated.
And I don’t know the rebellion and
the apostasy of my own heart unless
I know Your Word. It is Your Word
that purifies me, convicts me. Probably most of us could quote
that. “Let the words of my mouth,
the meditation in my heart be
acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my
rock and my Redeemer.” That caused
me to ask one question...what kind
of words and what kind of meditation
is acceptable in God’s sight? Fair
enough? If you’re saying, “let my
words and my meditations be
acceptable,” then the question is
what kind of words and what kind of
meditations are acceptable? David
knew, everybody knew. David didn’t
need to explain any more than that.
It would be like you quoting part of
John 3:16, “For God so loved the
world...” you wouldn’t need to quote
the rest, you could all quote the
rest. David gives a little bit of a
cryptic comment here. There’s a
little ellipses here, there are some
things left out but everybody knows
them...everybody knows them.
Because he’s reaching back to a text
of Scripture that everyone knew. Turn
to Joshua chapter 1. Everybody knew
this. Everybody in Israel knew
this. Joshua 1:8, listen, this is
after the death of Moses. God
speaks to Joshua, going to lead the
people in to the new land, this is
what He says. “This book of the
law, the Word of God, shall not
depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate on it day and
night.” Whoa...that answers the
question. Psalm 19, “Let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in Thy sight,”
and here we’re told that the book of
the law is to give the words to our
mouth and provide the meditation of
our heart day and night. So what
kind of words and what kind of
meditation is acceptable to God?
That which is centered upon what?
The book of the law...the book of
the law. “This book of the law
shall not depart from your mouth.
You shall meditate on it day and
night so that you may be careful to
do according to all that is written
in it, then you will make your way
prosperous and then you will have
success.” You
want your life to be a success? You
want your life to be spiritually
prosperous? Then understand the
sufficiency of Scripture for all
these areas, its comprehensive power
and let your words be words of
Scripture and let your meditations
be meditations of the Scripture for
this is acceptable in the sight of
the Lord who has by grace made
Himself your rock and your
Redeemer. This is the right
response, “O Lord,” says David,
“Keep me in Your Word so that when I
open my mouth it comes out and it
dominates my thoughts. May the Word
dominate my thoughts and my speech.
May it saturate my life. For it is
this Word which causes me to live a
life that pleases You and will be
eternally blessed.” Yes we have a
sufficient Scripture.
The second point we made here is to look at
verse 7 again, the testimony of the
Lord views Scripture as God’s own
personal testimony. God’s own
self-revelation. It is His law, it
is also His self-revelation. As
such, it is sure. In a world of
things that are not sure, not
reliable, this is utterly and
absolutely unwaveringly,
unmistakably accurate and true and
as such as the true and accurate
reliable testimony of God, it is
able to take the simple, meaning
those who lack understanding, lack
wisdom, those who are naive,
undiscerning, undiscriminating,
foolish and make them wise. Wise in
Hebrew means skilled in all areas of
living, skilled in the practical
aspects of holy living. Scripture
then is sufficient to save, it is
sufficient to sanctify, to take one
and make that one wise, skilled in
all practical aspects of holy
living. It is all that is necessary
for salvation, it is all that is
necessary for the sanctification
that is produced by the intake and
the application of divine wisdom.
Now as such, it is pure...is the word.
Literally that word means clear.
Sometimes when you use the word
“pure” you think more on the
spiritual side, this is really a
simple word that means lucid,
transparent, easy to see, giving
clear direction. That is to say the
Scripture is not mysterious. The
Scripture is not intended to be
unclear. It is intended to be
crystal-clear. You say, “Well why
then do people not understand it?”
Because the natural man understands
not the things of God. They’re
foolishness to him because he is
spiritually dead. And additionally,
he is blind. The god of this world
has blinded the minds of those who
believe not, lest the glorious light
of the gospel should shine unto
them. So you have the spiritual
deadness and the spiritual blindness
that limits someone’s understanding
of Scripture. But to the person who
has been regenerated, whose eyes
have been opened, who has been given
life, the Bible is clear. In fact,
our Lord even says you have to
become as a little child to enter
the kingdom, it is that clear. The
Old Testament says a wayfaring man
though he be a fool need not err.
And so God has given us clear
understanding. And as such, it
enlightens the eyes. In contrast to
the muddied, muddled, musings of men
who are themselves blind, and
themselves dead, who invent
concoctions of religion that are
inscrutable, the Bible is crystal
clear. You are able to see the
truth in a dark world, to
understand, to be comforted in times
when no one else can understand what
is going on.
I remember on an extended time of sharing
the gospel with some of the students
out in the hall after the class was
over, and if I remember correctly, a
number of them came to church and a
couple of them actually joined our
ministry here and professed Christ.
The Word brings light to absolutely
everything.
I don’t want to live my life in the dark,
do you? Proverbs 6:23, “The
commandment is a lamp and the
teaching is light.” I want to see
it the way it really is. Romans
15:4 talks about the comfort of the
Scripture or the encouragement of
the Scripture as the NAS puts it.
Are we dependent on worldly wisdom
to understand dark things? What
does the psychologist say to
somebody in that situation who has
no understanding of reality?
Number five in verse 9, “The fear of the
Lord is clean, enduring forever.”
Fear is a term in Scripture that is
synonymous with awe, reference,
wonder, respect, worship. This book
is not only the law of the Lord,
testimony of the Lord, precepts of
the Lord, commandment of the Lord,
but it is the fear of the Lord, it
is the manual on worship. It
instructs us how to worship. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. Scripture calls for and
instructs us in the true worship of
God. And you remember Jesus said
the Father seeks true worshipers who
worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
The bottom line is, when you obey the Word
it leads you in the path of
obedience and righteousness. Verse
101, “I’ve restrained my feet from
every evil way.” Why? “Because I
keep Your Word.” It’s sufficient to
cleanse your life. It’s sufficient
to purify your life, any person in
any culture in any age, in any
location. It doesn’t need to be
updated. It doesn’t need to be
edited. It’s not become
irrelevant. It is as alive and
powerful now as ever.
For that ancient world, gold was it, this
is better than that. Better than
fine gold, the sweet drippings of
the honeycomb, delicious to the
tongue, this is sweeter than that.
We could say it this way. It is our
most valuable possession...more
valuable than gold. It is our most
valued pleasure, sweeter, more
desirable than any other thing. It
is supreme in its value, it is
supreme in its sweetness.
And finally, what is our response to a
sufficient Word and a precious
Word? It should be commitment to
it, verse 14. This is just the
highpoint here, the herpunct(??) as
the Germans would say, “Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be acceptable in Thy
sight, O Lord, my rock and my
Redeemer.” What is he saying there?
Our Father, again the testimony of
Scripture is so compelling, so
rich. Thank You for this
magnificent tribute to Your Word
among many on the pages of the
Bible. We thank You again for the
privilege of hearing it. We now
stand responsible. Lord, help us to
know that all that we need is here,
all that we need. And when we ask
the question...what does the human
heart long for? What are the deep
agonizing longings of the human
heart? We might suggest that
transformation of the soul, real
wisdom in all aspects of life, true
lasting joy, the ability to
understand the dark things of life,
a permanent enduring source of life
and truth to go to that is forever,
true and never wrong. What
satisfaction we find in all those
things and all those things are
found in the knowledge of Your
Word. We thank You for this
precious gift, may we live our lives
in it as we have been instructed.
We live by every word that proceeds
out of Your mouth. Thank You for
writing it down for us by the
inspiration of the Spirit that we
may see it and know it and meditate
on it and speak it and live it. We
trust to the honor of You, O Lord,
our rock and our gracious Redeemer.
We thank You in Your Son’s name.
Amen.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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