You can turn your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17, though we'll be looking at a number of texts this morning. And as we continue through our series in being a good church member, this morning we're actually going to be looking at the first vow of membership that we have here at Christ Reformed Church. And as I've said before, these vows are nothing but an expression of what the Bible commits every Christian to when it comes to the local church. Indeed, when we are identified with Christ and his church in baptism, these things are supposed to be true of us. These are things that we are supposed to biblically be committing to. So let me begin with a word of prayer and we'll jump into this. Gracious Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon us this morning as we will preach from your word, Lord, about your word. I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive the truth. God, I pray that your word would be sweet to our taste. that it would be effective and powerful in our lives and in our church. God, that you would have your way in and through us to glorify the name of Christ. For we pray this in his name. Amen. Last week, as we began with an introduction to this series, being a faithful church member, We talked about the importance of faith and love and how that faith and love are really central to all the rest of it. Without faith and love, we're not going to be a faithful church member. As a matter of fact, we're not going to be a very faithful follower of Jesus Christ. And those things that biblically we're committed to when it comes to the visible church or an outworking of our faith in Christ and our love for Jesus and his people. So when individuals would join Christ Reformed Church, after hearing their testimony, and having them read our confession and our constitution, kind of knowing about us and how things work here and such. They give a testimony before the church and then they take these vows from membership. And this is the first vow that we're looking at this morning. All of you should be familiar with it, who are members of the church, because you've taken this vow. Do you believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and its doctrine of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, to be the perfect and only true way for man to be saved? And a prospective member will answer in the affirmative that yes, indeed, They believe in the Bible consisting of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired word of God and its doctrine through faith in Christ to be the only way of salvation. So in other words, to sum that up, there is no other word than the scripture. There is no other teaching regarding Christ and our great salvation in Him apart from the sacred scriptures. There's no private prophecy, no private revelation, there's no science, there's no other human learning, it comes from the scripture. And we're clear on what we mean by the scripture, it's the Old and the New Testament, as we understand what that is, the books of the Bible. This is the biblical teaching of scripture that the Bible is indeed the inspired and inerrant word of God. That means it does not err. I like the word infallibility. It doesn't err because it cannot err, because it's the very word of God. As we just had in our scripture reading, 2 Timothy 3, verses 14 through 17, Paul writes to Timothy in this way. He says, but continue thou the things which thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them, and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Perfect there is complete. The word of God here is the Holy Scriptures. This has been that which Timothy was taught since a child that has then subsequently made him wise unto salvation through faith in Christ. And interestingly enough, the scriptures that Timothy would have been taught would have been the Old Testament because there wasn't a New Testament when Timothy was a child coming up. In Timothy's time, the New Testament was coming into being. and yet we see Christ declared throughout the Old Testament. Speaking of scripture, verse 16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture, so not some scripture, not some scripture has this level of authority and some scripture isn't quite as authoritative or is more authoritative. All scripture is given by inspiration. So there's no second-class scripture in the Bible. There's no second-class canon, second-class authority. If it is scripture, it is the word of God. When it mentions inspiration here, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, that word inspiration is theopneustos, which is God-breathed, you'll read in some modern translations. It is the very word of God. It's not inspiration in the sense that I was thinking about my wife's pretty blue eyes and I was inspired to write a poem. It's not simply some artistic sort of inspiration that that we talk about with that word. I actually had a person tell me that years ago that she believed that, well, poets are inspired, songwriters are inspired, but that's not what the word means here. It's really not even up for debate as far as what the Greek word there means. These are the very breath of God. They are his words. And scripture is such that It is profitable for our doctrine, for teaching, for correction, to correct us, reprove, to show us we were wrong. It's not that we bring to scripture our own ideas as sort of, you know, my understanding is sort of my thing and the scripture and making the scripture work for me in my times. No, it's to correct us because we think wrong things. We think incorrect things. The Bible is infallible, not we ourselves. The scripture teaches us and it corrects us when we're wrong. So reproof and correction here kind of go together as far as the idea. It rebukes us. It's for instruction in righteousness. And what a great banner that is set forth. We think of all the different ways for us to be instructed in righteousness, instructed in the ways of God, instructed in how we ought to live, how we ought to worship, how we ought to live a life that is to the praise and the honor and glory of God. And in this place, as Paul's writing to the preacher, verse 17, that the man of God might be perfect or complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It's not that the man of God needs to know the scripture and then he needs to know. the philosophy of the Greeks, and he also needs to know the science of the modern age and all of these different things. I'm not saying there can't be value in knowing those things. I'm not saying, and the scripture's not saying that there's not value in the knowledge of various other things and subjects, but it is the scriptures alone that thoroughly furnish a man of God for his call. See, it's not just, it furnishes, it equips him in part. No, it thoroughly equips him. So then we think about what it is that we have in the scripture, that if it is the scripture that is the infallible word of God, and it's all scripture, and it is effective enough to thoroughly furnish the minister who hears and learns of it for the task of ministering in Christ's church, as Timothy was. There's a very lofty, high view of scripture here, in both its source and divine authority, and in its ability, or its efficacy, I should say, in our lives. Certainly, if it can affect and it can thoroughly furnish the minister unto all good works, again, in this case, Timothy, then how much more for you and I to look to the perfect word of God for our instruction? And this is this vow that we ask when people would join the church. Do you believe that? Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe the Bible that way? And you would think, well, it's a good question to ask. And yes, Christians should believe this. Are we just going through the motions? But the reality is there are an awful lot of people today who profess the name of Christ who don't believe that. Sometimes they'll just write out, tell you that they don't believe that, that they believe the Bible has errors in it, or the Bible is, has a multi-tiered canon, different authority for different books, or that the Bible was corrupted over time, and what we have today doesn't represent what was originally written, again, which is utter foolishness by any approach to that subject. Or they'll say they do believe that, but when it comes right down to it, when challenged, they actually don't. And I would dare say I've seen more of that last category personally than the former. I mean, even popular preachers who preach the prosperity gospel wave the Bible around and says, I believe in the Bible. We believe in the Bible and we believe all that it says and then proceed to do an awful lot that is completely antithetical to what the scriptures actually teach. It's not uncommon at all in our land. But we really mean it. And to the degree our flesh is in the way, we want to really mean it. That we would be corrected by scripture and not bring our ideas and worldly philosophies and ideology in to corrupt the word. Because that's what happens when we bring the world and man into the text versus hearing what God has to say from the Bible. Our confession of faith, chapter one, section one, has a very important confessional statement on this most important subject, when it confesses this. The Holy Scripture is the only certain infallible rule of all saving knowledge and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation. meaning we can know there's a God by the creation, but we don't know the gospel by the creation. Nothing tells us out there in a microscope, telescope, or a laboratory experiment are viewing the order of nature or the rest of it that Jesus died for sinners, but it tells us there's a maker. So in that way, that revelation, natural revelation isn't sufficient for our salvation. So therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diversified manners. different times and different ways, to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church. And afterwards, after the better preserving and propagating of the truth and for a more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same holy underwriting, which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God revealing his will unto his people now completed. That is a mouthful. We could do a whole series just on chapter one, section one of the confession and drawing out from the scripture these various commitments. But understand, in essence, what this has said is God who created everything has not been silent. We could ask the question, what if God has never spoken? What if all we could ever know about God is from what we can see in the creation? What is God ultimately like? What does he desire from us? How do we serve him as his creature, as his creation? If God didn't speak, we would be left in the dark. But we confess that God did speak. God did speak, and he spoke. We say, how did God speak? Well, he spoke in different times and in different ways. It's not always scripture, the written word, that God is speaking. Our confession recognizes that. We see that throughout the scriptures as we see prophets coming and prophesying and some prophesying in some very strange ways. where God told them to bring the word in different ways. So in different manners, not just in writing and through the mouth of prophets, but even in the things that prophets did. There's a variety of ways that God communicated his word historically. But this says in, towards the middle here, and after, so after God spoke in all these ways, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for a more sure establishment and comfort of the church, it gives the corruption of the flesh to the malice of Satan and of the world to commit the same holy unto writing. See, the scriptures, this was Peter attested, is a more sure word of prophecy than even those former means. or prophets would speak with their lips and be called by God to do various things to deliver his word. One of the difficulties in a world where God only speaks through prophets and there is no scripture is the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan. So what do you mean? I mean false prophets. You have to discern who is speaking for God and who isn't. Where is there an evil spirit here versus the spirit of God? How can we be assured the world isn't mixed up in this message that this prophet brings? So God committed his word to writing, to be a safeguard against all of that, to give us a more sure word of prophecy, the Apostle Peter would say. And those former ways of God revealing his self, as this statement ends, have Those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people having now been completed. And there's a more modern rendition of our confession of faith, but those former ways have been now, they've ceased, they've been completed, which is kind of a good modern rendition of that. It's not simply that they ceased, they're complete. God's purpose in all of that is done, and God has committed his word wholly into writing so that in the, Age of the New Covenant, we have the infallible word of God, his revelation to man completed in the form of a divine text. A text that section eight of the confession will speak of it having been kept pure in all ages. God's word has come down to us faithfully, so we have a faithful witness of sacred scripture in our Bibles. Consider the great blessing it is then to have God's word, to be able with certainty, pick up the Bible and say, right here in my hand, I hold the very words of God. I don't have to search for it. There's not a quest I have to go on. There's not secret knowledge with help. There's not secret books locked away. to be discovered one day, that should be in here too, but somehow were left out, or that are hidden from me by the church, like some sort of cult or something that gives you a little bit of information and you don't get the rest until you work your way up within the cult. Now the Bible is right there available to everybody. Believer and unbeliever alike. We have a wealth of Bibles in our day, while at the same time, perhaps one of the greatest periods of illiteracy in it, in Christian history, just stunning. When we speak about the Bible and our faith in the Bible, it's important to understand from which the authority for that claim comes. So why believe the Bible? Upon what ground do you believe in the scripture? This is important. In section four of chapter one of our confession, it says, the authority of the holy scripture for which it ought to be believed depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, the author thereof. Therefore, it is to be received because it is the word of God. Now, sometimes this has been reported to mean that you're saying you believe in the Bible because the Bible says it's the Bible, that's circular. You could write your own book and say, this is the word of God and say, you have to believe it because it says that. That's not the point here. The point is here, whatever authenticates scripture, whatever the ground of the reason we would see it as the authority is, that authenticator is an authority. So if we say on the ground that the church said so, or some scholar said so, or whatever, it puts their authority over the scripture. If they can tell us what is or is not the Bible, that authenticating authority becomes the ultimate authority. And we've already confessed that no scripture is the ultimate authority. So nothing can stand over scripture to authenticate scripture for itself because it is the very word of God. It would be illogical to say otherwise. Section five goes on to put it like this. It says, we may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to a high and reverent esteem of the holy scriptures and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy or power of the doctrine and the majesty of style, the consent of all its parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God and the full discovery of it, makes of the only way of man's salvation and many other incomparable excellencies and entire perfections thereof are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God." So real quick, if I lost you in all those words, there are lots of reasons to believe that the Bible is the word of God is what that just said. There's a lot of reasons, a lot of evidence as to why we can believe the Bible is the word of God. But it goes on after saying that, to say, yet notwithstanding, even so, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts. Hmm. So there's a lot of evidence, there's a lot of reasons we can say that encourage us in our belief that the Bible is the word of God, but that's not the ultimate ground. What is the concern here? The concern is if we say it's our reason, looking at the evidences, we've just placed human reason over the scripture. So now scripture is only authenticated by man's reason, making man's reason. ultimately the authority. So this is affirming that, hey, yes, there are good reasons to believe the Bible is the Word of God, but because it is the Word of God, our full persuasion ultimately comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is authenticated. That's not just some sleight of hand that it's foolish to believe in the word of God, but like the Mormons, I just got a burning in my bosom and now I know that it's true. It's not that argument. This is from a Protestant reformed understanding of scripture, a very critical piece of information. Very important for us because the concern is, is that nothing become an authority over scripture. or even an authority alongside Scripture. Scripture stands on its own as the Word of God and is it its own best authenticator. How do you put something as judge over God's words? Thus we have the Holy Spirit, its author, who confirms it upon our hearts. And this is the belief of those who wrote scripture. This is the belief of Christ, it's the belief of the apostles, it's the belief of Old Covenant believers. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, 17 through 21, Peter would speak of scripture like this. He says, for he received from God the father that he is Jesus. Jesus received from God the father honoring glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice came from heaven when we heard and when we were with him on the holy mount. Peter is talking about the transfiguration. When he and James and John went upon the mountain and Christ was transfigured before them and his glory showed forth, that's what he's talking about. That is the revelation that he is speaking of. And he brings this forward in his letter to make this point. And the point is, verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. He takes one of the most amazing revelations he had received through his senses and through his eyes and through his ears to see the transfiguration of Christ and the Father speak from a cloud to make the point we have something even better than that. We have something even more sure than that. where unto you do well to take heed, and you should listen to this thing that is even better than that, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. What is he talking about? Verse 20, he tells us, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time, but by the will of man. but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Peter affirms that all scripture is the inspired word of God. He's right there with Paul on this. And he recognizes scripture is a more sure word than even his experience in regards to the transfiguration. How is it a more sure word? Well, it's more sure word because the scripture is objective. It's something we can all read and understand together. It's that which I see with my eyes, for instance, maybe I'm having a strange day. Maybe I had a hallucination. Maybe I misheard with my ear. See, Scripture's not like that. Now, we can't misunderstand something in Scripture. Right? I mean, we were fallible in our interpretation, but the scripture itself is perfect. And it's not subject to the kind of problems that our senses can be subject to. And it also doesn't call upon you to have to discern and believe that this person really get this word from God. Have you ever had somebody claiming to be a prophet come into your life and say, the Lord told me to tell you. And he hits you with something. Well, what do I do with that? I mean, do you have any sense at all? At the very least, you wonder, okay, did God really say this or not? With a scripture, you never have to do that. Did God say this or didn't he say it? We know. We know and we receive the scripture in that way, just as Christ and the apostles and all the believers before them received the scriptures in that way. The scriptures represent the culmination of God's revelation to man. His special revelation, I should say. God's speaking to man. The culmination. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 and 2. God who in sundry times and divers manners... Let's start over. God who in sundry times and divers manners spake in times past by the fathers. Our confession was using that language before. He spoke in times past by the fathers, unto the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. God spoke in different ways and at different times to our fathers, the author of Hebrews writes, but in these last days, he's spoken by his son. And he'll go on to the book of Hebrews to say that Christ is the everything of all. Christ is the culmination of everything that God has said. He's the reason we talk about Christmas being the reason for the season. How about he's the reason for everything? And when Christ came into the world and he commissioned the apostles. And then finally, that apostolic age would be passing on into history. But through the apostles and those close to them, God inspired the New Testament to complete sacred scriptures. God's purpose in speaking is fulfilled. Why is it fulfilled? Because he was speaking ultimately in Christ. Ultimately, it all points to Christ. And now with the New Testament, we have the final scriptures pertaining to Christ in the new covenant. And now there is no need for further prophecy and revelation. Its purpose has been completed. And that's why as a church, we only look to the scripture for our teaching. We only look to the scripture for our direction, for our instruction in righteousness, to seek what is God's will for my life, to plumb the depths of the mind of God to try to determine how am I to think about this issue or that issue? How am I to love my brother? How are we to worship God in this church? We look to the scriptures and what is instituted in holy scripture. Isaiah chapter eight verse 20 wrote this, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. That in a time when prophets still spoke new revelation. But even at that time, Anything not according to the word is already written. Anything that would contradict or go against, he's saying is a lie. Any teaching we receive today, if it's not according to the testimony of God in the sacred scriptures is a lie. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And we live in days where much is spoken of that is not according to this word in the name of God. It's common and it is systematically problematic in the Christian witness in our country. But we recognize that everything that we believe about God and our salvation and our duty before him is right here. And this is what we commit to as members of Christ Reformed Church. This is what we're saying that we believe when we take that vow in regards to our belief and our faith and confidence in sacred scriptures. And it ought to be true of each member of this church then. But it also ought to be true of every single solitary Christian. Anyone professed in the name of Christ that denies this about the scriptures has a very weak grasp and faith in the God of Christianity. Many who reject this actually serve a completely different God. They give him the name of Jesus, but the voice that they're listening to is not the word of God. And again, we see these things running through many churches. I mean, how on earth do you hear the scriptures at all and talk about an active practicing LGBTQ community within the church? I mean, from a biblical standpoint, that'd be like saying, you know, we have some professional bank robbers. It's what they do. You know, we have some professional adulterers over here. It's just ridiculous. It's taking the word of God and setting it up on its head. No, we must stand upon the scriptures, believing the scriptures, ordering ourselves according to the scriptures, being encouraged in our faith in God from the scriptures. I mean, what a benefit it is to know that here God speaks to me. I don't have to wonder whether or not he speaks. He speaks here to me. What a blessing. What a great privilege it is to have the scriptures. And this should be something that encourages us about our particular church, that we are committed to this. We are committed to the scriptures and desire to be holy. and I say holy there is W-H-O-L-L-Y, wholly committed to the scriptures. We want to be holy too, but we want to be completely committed to the scriptures as best as we can. And that has led to us doing things in our history and in the order of our worship and such to be really kind of out of step with the contemporary Christian movement and such, but so be it. People would say, you can't hold the scriptures that way and your practice that way and ever grow a church. I don't have a desire to grow any other kind of church. You know, let us be biblical. Let us be biblical in the church because the Bible is all of that. Let us be biblical in our homes and in our marriages. Let us be biblical with the commitments that we make. Let us be biblical in our communion with the Lord, in our encouragement with him and let our faith be biblical. May we hear from God. May we walk with him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. What a rich testimony you've given us from Genesis to Revelation. God, your many powerful teachings, the great salvation of Christ, the wisdom that you give, the rebukes and corrections, which we so often sorely need, and Lord, the instruction for your church and the ordering thereof. God, we thank you that you have given us your word in such a way that we can be thoroughly equipped therein. So bless us, oh Lord, as a church. Grant us your spirit that we might be faithful with this charge, Lord, as those who would take up your word and follow Jesus. For we pray this in his name, amen.