Following that scripture reading, let's turn to the Belgian Confession, Article seven, page four in the back, appended pages, Psalter, hymnal page four. Article seven at the bottom of page four. We believe that those holy scriptures fully contain the will of God and that whatsoever man ought to believe on the salvation is sufficiently taught therein, for since the whole manner of worship which God requires of us is written in them at large, it is unlawful for anyone, although an apostle, to teach otherwise than we are now taught in the holy scriptures. Nay, though it were an angel from heaven, as the Apostle Paul says, for since it is forbidden to add unto or take anything away, take away anything from the word of God, it does thereby evidently appear that the doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete in all respects. Neither may we consider any writings of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value with those divine scriptures, Nor are we to consider custom or the great multitude or antiquity or succession of times and persons or councils, decrees or statutes as of equal value with the truth of God. Since the truth is above all, for all men are of themselves liars and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore, we reject with all our hearts whatever does not agree with this infallible rule. As the apostles have taught us saying, prove the spirits, whether they are of God. Likewise, if anyone cometh unto you and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house. Congregation of Christ, when it comes to the difference between true Christianity and every other religion, even deviations of Christianity, there's always two issues. There are, of course, the differences of faith and practice that we have. between what we believe and how we live and how they believe and how they live, the differences we have about how we are saved, about what is right morality and all of that. But beneath that, there's always another issue, the issue of how do we know what to believe? How do we know how to live? We have a different standard or authority than others who have a different religion. Think of that very practically in terms of the Reformation and the dealings with the Roman Catholic Church, the Belgic, written, of course, in that context, and very much having in mind here the Roman Catholic Church. There was, of course, the issues of how we ought to live and what we ought to believe and that key issue of justification. How are we saved? How are we right with God? Reformers saying, By grace alone, by Christ alone. The Roman Catholic Church saying by Christ, plus the works we do and his grace is infused into us and we do good things. But beneath that issue, of course, the foundational issue, how do we know how we're right with God? How do we know how we should live? How do we know how we should worship? What what's the basis? What's the ultimate authority? The cry of the Reformation was sola scriptura, by scripture alone. That's the foundation. That's the ultimate authority. But the response to the Roman Catholic Church was no, not just scripture, but also the tradition. Also, the teaching authority of the church scripture alone is not sufficient. The Roman Catholic Church said, but we must have the traditions, the oral traditions. We must have the interpretations of the church. We must have the teaching authority of the councils and of the pope. The issue before us tonight is of great significance, because in the end, you see, salvation is tied to your view of scripture. If we don't take Scripture as the ultimate authority, then our view of salvation and how to live a holy life will change. Our doctrine, our truth is tied to this, to what is our ultimate standard. Tonight, we confess that Scripture is sufficient. that we have in our hands the word of God, which is sufficient word for our salvation, for a godly life. And I would consider that under three points. First of all, the same point as the title. We look simply at the sufficiency of the word, the sufficiency of Scripture. Secondly, at the clarity of Scripture. And thirdly, at the unique authority of Scripture, the sufficiency, the clarity, the unique authority of the Scriptures. We begin in Article seven by confessing that we believe that those holy scriptures the ones we've been talking about in the previous articles, that they fully contain the will of God and that whatsoever man ought to believe into salvation is sufficiently taught therein. Scripture is sufficient to reveal to us the way of salvation and to reveal to us how to live a Christian life pleasing to God. Acknowledge that on the basis of the Bible's own testimony, that it is sufficient. And we're not confessing when we confess the sufficiency of Scripture, that everything that can be known about God is written in the word. We're not even confessing that everything Jesus spoke in his earthly ministry is recorded in the word. In fact, it's interesting, isn't it? What John writes at the end of or near the end of his gospel account that Jesus did many other miraculous signs that are that are not written in this book. But these are written, John says, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. John says, I haven't written you of everything, but these are enough so you can believe and be saved. It's sufficient for you. And what John writes can be written over the whole of Scripture. The Bible doesn't tell us everything there is to know about God and life, but it tells us all that we need to know to be saved, all that we need to know to glorify God. You can see what the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, competent, equipped for every good work. Our confession, as it insists that the word is sufficient, is combating a couple of different errors, two of them very prevalent in the days of the Reformation and still very prevalent today. The one, the Roman Catholic error, the Roman Catholic error, which. Is the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that the scriptures alone are not the ultimate standard, but the words of church councils, the word of tradition, the word of Pope, also have weight beside the Scriptures. It's interesting how even this doctrine of tradition has developed in the Roman Catholic Church. Ultimately, what happens when you insist that traditions have authorities, that they end up having authority over the Word of God. At one point, they define tradition How do you know what tradition, church tradition is, as that which is believed everywhere, always and by everyone? That's church tradition. What's believed always, everywhere, by everyone. But then it becomes the question, how do you know what's been believed always, everywhere, by everyone? Who decides if that's faithful tradition in the church? Well, in the end, the church keeps developing and developing this doctrine until it ends up basically saying the Pope decides. The Pope decides. So you need tradition besides the word. Tradition has to complement or stand with the word and the Pope has to decide what tradition is in the end. It's their tradition. It's the Pope that stand above the word. In the end, the Roman Catholic Church does not confess sola scriptura, but sola ecclesia, not scripture alone, but the church alone. Because how can you know what the Word of God is? It's the church that decides what books belong to the Bible. It's the church that decides what's the right interpretation of the Bible. It's the church that decides what is church tradition. In the end, then, you may look at the Roman Catholic Church and see the multitude of errors on the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the intercession of saints, and in all kinds of areas, all these twistings and perversions, because they do not confess Scripture alone. So on the one hand, Article seven is combating that error. On the other hand was the heir of the Anabaptists, who also had a low view of scripture. Ultimately. That said, the word of God, the scriptures alone are not enough, but we need the inner light of God's spirit. We need that inner revelation. You see that continuing today among many charismatic of Pentecostals. God spoke to me. And they don't mean, you know, I was studying the Word and the Spirit helped me to understand the Word and so God spoke to me. They mean God spoke to me. I had a dream last night and God told me. I was driving down the road and I had this hunch that I just knew was from God leading me. God spoke to me directly apart from the Word. There are many who live and who operate in that way. But both these kinds of errors are exposed by the Bible itself, and it is very instructive to watch the way the apostle Paul prepares Timothy for the apostles departure. Apostle says the time of my departure is at hand, I'm going to die. He doesn't call Timothy an apostle. Until Timothy to expect that God will speak to him. He doesn't tell Timothy to close his eyes and to wait for a vision or a dream, some ecstatic experience. He tells Timothy to study the Word. He tells Timothy to look to the Scriptures. He tells Timothy to preach the Word. That's what he tells Timothy to do. He tells Timothy the Scriptures are sufficient to make you competent for every good work. To give you all that you need as a man of God. See, the Apostle recognizes that the days of the Apostles are coming to an end. The days of direct revelation from heaven are coming to an end. And now God has given to his church the written revelation. The Scriptures that contain God's Word. Timothy's to depend upon the Scriptures. He's charged before God, before Christ, before the judge to preach the word, to preach the Scriptures. And he's given this assurance that by them he might be competent, he might be complete for every good work. Also doesn't say to Timothy, you know, here's the word of the part of what you need to be done, but you have to look to other things, too. He says the word is sufficient for you. To perform your duties, to enable you to do the things God calls you to do, to meet the demands that God places upon you. And so it is for every one of God's saints. We are called in Ephesians 2. We are told that we've been created in Christ Jesus for good works, and the same thing is said to us, that this word makes us competent, equipped for every good work that God calls us to. The word in that way is sufficient. There's no situation which we are placed, no demand that arises for which the scripture as the deposit of God's wisdom is incomplete. That's our confidence. It doesn't mean now that Christian books are not of help. It doesn't mean that the wisdom of fellow Christians is not helpful, but it means that we have in the word of God that which is necessary and sufficient for us to be saved and to live a God pleasing life. Do we believe that as we confessed in Article seven of the Belgian Confession? Is this what we believe, that those holy scriptures fully contain the will of God and that whatsoever man ought to believe in the salvation is sufficiently taught therein? For since the whole manner of worship which God requires of us is written in them at large. It's unlawful to teach otherwise. There's an appeal also made, isn't there, to Revelation 22, which says we ought not to take anything away from the Word or add anything to the Word of God, lest God adds to us the plagues written in that book of Revelation, or He takes away from us our share in the tree of life. These are strong words, and they come and they speak of the book of Revelation, but they have application of the whole of Scripture, saying God's Word is complete. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Deuteronomy 12, 32, see that you do all I command, you do not add to it or take away from it. And because of that, then we confess, we know that the word is the most complete, most perfect in all respects, because God says, don't add to it, we know it's a sufficient word. We know God has given us what we need. We believe that and confess it tonight, that this book is the final authority for your life. You treat it that way, that God has revealed to me here, He's given to His church what we need to know to be saved and to live a God-pleasing life. See, we're living in days in which this Word is being pushed to the side and pushed to the side in many different ways. Sometimes in worship services of all places, the Word of God pushed aside and other things taking center stage. But also in many other ways, people are reading all kinds of other books and forgetting the book, the book of God. People looking for signs and for revelation. It's not surprising that people want divine guidance. That is the longing of the human heart. We want a word. We want the word. We want to know the way in which to walk. That people seek for that in horoscopes and astrological signs and in fortune tellers. That people are, their interest is piqued by those magazines in the checkout aisle that declare the secrets to this life or to that life. That's not surprising. Everybody wants guidance. But we confess as believers that we have it in the Word of God. That we ought not to be looking for signs. We ought to be studying the Word. It's an instructive song that we've sung tonight. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies. no sudden rending of the veil of clay, no angel visitant, no opening skies. I don't ask any of that. But take the dimness of my soul away. God, I don't need more revelation from heaven. Just open my dim eyes and my dim heart to behold the truth contained, revealed, spoken in Your Word. God's Word is sufficient. And as we walk in that word, the Lord leads us as we make those decisions about who to marry, about whether or not to move, about what school to go to. You don't find that written on some page of the Bible in terms of a person's name, marry this person. But we do find all the principles about what we have to seek for in marriage, about what kind of person we ought to seek. And as we walk in that, in submission to the word, the Lord leads us. But there are many who for their confidence, not in the word, but in looking for some sign. Depending on things other than the Scriptures. So the person who dates an unbeliever, but but insists it's OK because, well, the Lord led us together and he didn't want us to be together, we wouldn't be together. What is that? Or the person who unbiblically without biblical grounds gets divorced and then says, what? It's OK because the Lord has given me peace about it. Or it's OK because my minister said it was OK. The person who is dishonest in their job and in their work, but they say, well, you know, this is what you have to do in business, the Lord understands that. See, in all these ways we lift up some standard above the Word of God instead of submitting to the Word of God. The question for us tonight is, are we submissive to the Scriptures? Are we governed? Do we say everything about what I believe, everything about what I do, laid before your Word, O Lord, lead me? And do we come to this Word then to study it out and to see with much seriousness what the Lord says? It is a sufficient word. It doesn't mean it's a magical word. It doesn't mean that that we just flip it open into whatever verse it lands on. That's what God must be speaking to us. You know, there are people, maybe we ourselves have done it at times, used the book magically. I don't know what I should do here, Lord. I don't know if what I'm doing is right. I feel a bit guilty. Flip my Bible open. The Bible says, don't be anxious. Oh, thank you, Lord. I don't need to worry about this. Don't need to consider anymore if it's sin in my life. Don't be anxious. I don't need to worry about it. That's just pulling a word out of context. That's not at all how the word is to be used. It's to be studied. It's to be used as God intended in the vastness and the wholeness of its revelation. It's not a magical book in that sense. It's the word of God. So we pray that the Lord will help us to be students of that word as the apostle calls Timothy to be. We confess the sufficiency of the word. One of the other perfections of Scripture we acknowledge is the clarity of Scripture. Consider that in second place tonight. The clarity, the perspicuity of Scripture. When we confess it's a sufficient word, we have to confess it's a sufficiently understandable word. It does nothing to confess it's a sufficient word, but you know what? It's not sufficient for us because we can't grasp it. I confess it's a word that can be comprehended. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. The unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. I confess the clarity of Scripture. It doesn't mean that everything is equally clear. Peter himself says that, that there are some things in Paul that are hard to understand. The Bible says that. But it does mean that the message of salvation is sufficiently clear. That one who is owned of God's spirit, who is seeking to know the way of salvation, can find it there. Rome's view, at least back in the days of the Reformation, was that the Bible contains many things that are easily misunderstood, and therefore it's not really safe for the ordinary people to read the word. It often creates more air and confusion for them to study it out. Now, Vatican II contradicted that. It's given the Bible to the laity, as it were, to read. But still, this division between clergy and laity We believe the word of God is clear, the word of God can be comprehended. That doesn't mean that that we think it's good to put away office of teacher in the church, that we should shut down the seminaries. No need to study the original languages anymore to have scholars in the word. But it does mean we don't have a priesthood. Not even a scholarly priesthood, and they alone can comprehend the scriptures, but not the congregation. Even in the Old Testament days, God wanted his word read to his people. He wanted the law read to them. It's a comprehensible word. David says Psalm 119, I have more insight than all my teachers for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than my elders for I obey your precepts. Again, he's not diminishing the offices in the church. He is acknowledging that the word of the Lord brings understanding and brings light. Isn't it remarkable what happens in Acts 17 with the Bereans? That as Paul and Silas bring the Word of God, there we read in Acts 17, verse 11, Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. What was Paul's response? Did he say to them, hey, the scriptures are not clear. You need to listen to what I say. Did he say, hey, quit looking at your Bibles? That's an insult to my apostolic office. You should just submit to what I say, but there. They're praised for being ones who heard the message and went home and studied out the Bible to see if what was preached was true. The word of God rejoice tonight that God has given to us a word that is clear, not everything equally clear, not every page equally clear, but the message of salvation, the way of God, the living revealed so the saints can read and by God's spirit understand what a gift. But finally, tonight, consider the unique authority of Scripture. We confess not just the sufficiency of the word and the clarity of the word, but the authority of the word, even the unique authority of Scripture. The method of the Bereans of testing whatever was preached to them was right because they recognized Scripture as the final court of appeal. It differs from from everything that man of himself would say or write. The apostle makes clear in Galatians that if anyone brings a different gospel, be he man or angel, it's not to be believed. But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached, you let him be eternally condemned. First, John four, verse one, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have come out into the world. We're called to believe the Word of God. The Scriptures are infallible, but everything else is subject to failure. We acknowledge that men of themselves are liars and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore, we must reject anything that does not agree with God's Word. We must be jealous for the truth of God's Word. It means that we must regard no writings or decisions of men of equal authority with the Scriptures. It's instructive, isn't it, for even how we we use church tradition, including our confessions? You know, we don't, by rejecting the Roman Catholic view of tradition, insist that all church tradition is wrong then. Case in point is the Reformation. Our Reformed parents, when they sought to reform the church, they didn't say, hey, forget everything the church has ever said, let's start from scratch. But they said, look, the church is an error. And they went back deeper in history to their earlier days in the church to say here, the truth was held back here. But now we've deviated in past years. You read, for instance, Cowan's Institutes, he has frequent appeals to church fathers, we acknowledge church tradition matters that God and his spirit is working in his church. We don't each want to run off to our own closet to alone study out the word without any regard for what the church has ever said, without any regard for how the word has ever been interpreted. That's not right. This book has been deposited in the church. The spirit is given to the church. And there is a church tradition that matters as the spirit has led his church through the ages, but. Men are subject to error, and therefore that church tradition is always subject to testing by the Scriptures. It is never to be elevated above the Scriptures. It's instructive then, that as we make use of these confessions and believe them to be faithful summaries of the Word, as we give thanks to God, for spiritual parents that rightly interpreted the word, for confessions that are useful teaching tools and helpful guards against heresy and error. It's instructive to remember that the confessions are not above God's word, not even equal with God's word. But have authority insofar as they agree with God's word. You might take note sometime that in Article 36 of the Belgian Confession, there's a footnote that talks about the change that was made to the article when later on it was determined that what was written in the article was not a pure reflection of what the Word of God says about the duties of the civil magistrate. So the confession was changed. Men are subject to error. regard our confessions with. With much respect for they've had a place in the church, they've been tested, they've been tried, but we never elevate them above the word, but always test them in light of the word of Scripture. And that's our calling and that's our duty to test all things, to reject whatever does not agree, but to give always the final place to the scriptures that God has given to us. This is the last article in the Belgic, Article 7 on these matters of the scriptures. But hopefully, as we've studied them, we've been impressed again with the reality of the gift God has given to us in his word, that he's given to his church a rich revelation of who he is, of what he does for us, the way of salvation, of the way to live before him. May we be students of these scriptures, using them rightly, studying them out, prizing them, and above all, submitting ourselves to them. The Word of the Lord, written and recorded for us. Amen. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for your holy scriptures. We acknowledge, O Lord, that we far too often take for granted such a glorious gift. We pray that we might prize this book above all others, and that we devote ourselves to this careful study of it. We ask that you would enlarge the place it has in our homes and in our hearts, in the teaching of our children, in the worship of our families, that you would enlarge the place it has among the worship of your saints, among the guidance it gives to the office bearers, among the love in the hearts of your saints. For in the Lord you have revealed yourself, and you have revealed the gospel, and you have revealed the way to live a life pleasing to the Lord. We pray that we might not use your word in a superficial way, content with one verse, calendars, or model books, but might we be those who live by the whole of Scripture, who read it in large portion, and to love it. We pray, Lord, that you will bless us in your word. We acknowledge that it is our food, and we pray you will cause us to crave it as newborn infants crave milk, that we might grow thereby it. We pray you bless our office bearers as they instruct in this word and as they set by example a love for this word. I pray you will help them as they carry out their duties. May they be conformed to this word. I pray you'll bless this word as it's proclaimed. I pray for churches that have lost sight of the value of scripture. May they be called back to the simplicity of living by the word. I pray, Lord, that your word would also go forward into languages which has not been translated yet. I pray that all men might have this word, access to it. We thank you, Lord, for the abundance of Bibles and the faithful translations that we have in our own language. Make us, O Lord, good students of them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.