Necessity of Scripture

“Our desire, delight, and dependence on the words of Scripture do not grow inversely to our desire, delight, and dependence on Jesus Christ.”

As believers, we should be constantly in awe of the reality that the Living God has given us his Living Word. The scripture is meant for our upbuilding and encouragement, correction and reproof and through it we can know the heart of God himself. Please join us as we embark on a 5-week study of the great doctrine of Scripture entitled “The Word of God.”

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This week, Pastor Scott will preach from Matthew 4:4. The first message in this series is entitled "Necessity of Scripture." 

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*quote from Kevin DeYoung's book Taking God At His Word (p. 21). Crossway. Kindle Edition. 

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Good morning. I invite you to grab your bibles and open them and turn to Matthew, chapter four, verse four. In just a few minutes, we’ll be reading Matthew four, verse four. If you don’t have a Bible, as always, we invite you to grab one underneath a chair near you. We’ll be on page 809 in the chair bibles. While you’re turning there, I want to briefly mention that Pastor Jeff was on vacation last week. He and Celeste enjoyed a wonderful week of fun and rest, and then upon returning home, he came down with a fever and is sick today.

He fully intended to be here worshiping with us and preaching the word of God to you this morning, but unfortunately, he was unable to make it. So I’m filling in for Pastor Jeff this morning. If you’re new here, I’m Scott hand. I’m a local disciple making pastor. So I ask you to pray for me and with me this morning while I preach the word of God. We must be reminded this did not catch the Lord by surprise.

This was his plan, and so we trust him completely. But I get the privilege of preaching to you on the doctrine of the necessity of scripture. It is a wonderful and a glorious doctrine, and I’m excited to be here with you to study that together. So with that said, would you please stand now as we read the word of God, Matthew four, verse four. And he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we ask now that you will open our hearts and our minds to hear what you have to say from the scriptures. About the scriptures, God, I don’t care in a sense what I say. We should not care what I have to say. I pray that you will speak in me and through me and help us to understand the important doctrine of the necessity of scripture this morning. I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

You may be seated. So the idea of something being a necessity or of something being a need has kind of gotten lost in our modern world. I think we use the word need or necessity. Pretty flippantly or casually. In our world, we talk about things as needs. Right? My kids say, dad, I need the new iPhone. Right? We talk about food as needs. I need to go try the new restaurant that opened up downtown. Or we talk about hobbies as needs.

I have to play golf this Friday. Right. But the word need or necessity literally means this. It means the fact of being required or indispensable. In other words, you cannot live without it. So when we say the necessity of scripture, we are saying from the outset that you cannot live without the Bible. Spiritually speaking, you cannot live without the Bible. Now, how can I say that? Or how can we say that? What do we mean by that?

We have three main points this morning that are summed up in the main idea. Here’s the main idea. The word of God is necessary for knowledge of the gospel, spiritual growth, and knowing God’s will. So the word of God is necessary for knowledge of the gospel, spiritual growth, and knowing God’s will. First point, the word of God is necessary for knowledge of the gospel. Now, what do we mean by the gospel? We never assume that you understand or believe the gospel. So what do we mean by gospel? We mean good news of salvation.

This is the news that there is a God who is holy and righteous and just and loving and good, and he created everything, including you and me and the rest of mankind. But you and me and the rest of mankind are sinners, which means we’ve broken God’s law. And the punishment for that sin is death, an eternal separation from God in hell, which is a place of utter anguish and darkness and eternal torment.

But God in his love, did not leave us in this predicament or with this future. He sent his only son, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life of no sin. He sent him to die on the cross. His death on the cross paid the price for our sin. And then three days later, he rose from the dead, ultimately conquering sin and death. If we believe in this Jesus and place our faith and hope and trust in him alone, we receive the forgiveness of sins, and we receive eternal life in heaven with God. This is the gospel, brothers and sisters.

Now, the question is, if you believe this, how did you come to know it? How did you come to know the gospel? Well, for some of you, I think your parents taught you the gospel right from the time you were little. Your parents spent time teaching you the Bible, teaching you the gospel, preaching to you, if you will, as you grew up. And if that’s the case, praise God that you had parents like that. Some of you perhaps heard the gospel from a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, a growth group leader, someone else at your church.

If that’s the case, praise God. Some of you may have heard it from a friend or a coworker or a neighbor, maybe even a stranger. Praise God. Right? It doesn’t matter how or where or when you heard the gospel. Someone was faithful to proclaim it to you, and we should praise God for that. But we go back, ask a deeper question. Where did they learn the gospel from? Or if they heard it from someone else, where did that person learn the gospel from? The question is, what is the ultimate source of the knowledge of the gospel?

The answer is the Bible. The answer is the word of God. Because your mom and your dad, your pastor, your Sunday school teacher, your friend, your coworker, your neighbor, whoever it was that shared the gospel with you, the knowledge of the gospel that they know can ultimately traced back, as far back as you go, to the word of God. It is impossible to be saved apart from the knowledge of the gospel which is found in the word of God.

Turn with me to Romans, chapter ten. Romans, chapter ten, verses 13 through 17. This is one of the clearest teachings, the clearest passages on the necessity of the Bible for salvation. Romans 1013 through 17. Paul writes this for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So there’s a logical line of reasoning regarding salvation that we must follow here.

First, it assumes that we must call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Verse 13. Second, people will call on the name of the Lord if they believe in him. First part of verse 14. Third, people cannot believe in Christ unless they first hear about him. Middle part of 14. Fourth, people cannot hear about Christ unless someone tells them. Last part of 14. And then we use this missionally to say, how can someone tell them unless they are sent?

Then you have the summary statement in verse 17. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So saving faith to believe in and to call out to Christ for salvation is only possible when someone hears the gospel. And that gospel message that they hear comes from the Bible. The Bible, therefore, is necessary for salvation. Now, before we move on, I must address a couple errors or false teachings that abound in some circles regarding this issue.

First error is called inclusivism. It’s a fancy word, inclusivism. It means to include. Inclusivism says that anyone can be saved through Christ’s atoning work. But anyone can be saved through Christ even if they don’t actually believe the gospel, or even if they don’t actually have ever heard the gospel. They don’t have to trust in Christ. Christ’s work on the cross saved them anyway. This is commonly talked about as there are many roads to God.

You have to get to God, but there’s many ways to get there, and this is often used. The buzzword for inclusivism is sincerity. If you’ve ever heard someone say, as long as you are sincere in what you believe, you’ll be saved. It doesn’t matter what that is. You just have to believe it with your whole heart. If you’re sincere in your belief, you’ll get there. I remember talking to a young man many years ago who, although he didn’t know the word inclusivism, he was an inclusivist. He believed that he was going to be saved, and others were going to be saved, even if they’d never heard the gospel, even if they didn’t believe in Christ.

They were going to be saved because they were sincere. And I remember telling him that I had a stomach ache, a really bad stomach ache. And I went to the medicine cabinet, and I reached for the pepto-bismal, but instead I accidentally grabbed the poison, and I went home, and I said to him, what if I believed with my whole heart? I mean, I sincerely believe that what I’m about to drink is pepto-bismol, but it’s actually poison. What’s going to happen to me?

He said, you’re going to die. I said, you’re right, because it’s not enough to sincerely believe in something, you must sincerely believe in the right thing. Second, error or false teaching regarding salvation is similar, but it’s different. This is called universalism. Now, we’ve talked about universalism in here before, so I won’t belabor the point, but universalism says it doesn’t have to be God. It doesn’t matter. Everybody’s going to get in. In the end, God is a God of love.

Grace wins. It doesn’t matter. Believe whatever you want, because in the end, God, in his love, is just going to save everybody. Now, this doctrine is not outright taught much anymore. I don’t hear it. But the influences are still very prevalent, and sometimes they are also very subtle, that they influence you without you even knowing that they’re influencing you. There’s lots of books that flirt with this.

A lot of our christian songs on the radio flirt with universalism. You have to be careful when you hear language about winning. Love, winning grace, winning, anything like that. Yes, it’s true that christians win in the end. Ultimately, that’s good news. But we have to remember it’s the ones who have heard the gospel, believe in Christ, have placed their hope and faith and trust in him alone for salvation that win.

Those are the ones that win because of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. It’s not simply everybody, and that message is not always clear in our society. That message is not always easy to see. Our world wants the benefit of being a Christian without the commitment to be a Christian. They want to be able to live their lives however they want without putting in the work that is required to follow Christ.

They want heaven without the cross. That’s impossible. You can’t have that. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Second point this morning. The word of God is necessary for spiritual growth. The word of God is necessary for spiritual growth. In Matthew four four, going back to the passage we read at the beginning, Jesus is responding to Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus to sin.

Jesus answers, Satan responds to Satan. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So we have talked about this at length. Also, back in August of last year, I preached a sermon on Matthew 44. And here’s what we talked about. Here’s what we discussed. Jesus equates physical food with the words of God, and in doing that, he elevates the Bible to a matter of life and death.

Just as we need food to stay alive physically, we need the word of God to stay alive spiritually. To put it negatively, if we don’t eat food, we will die. If we don’t intake the Bible, we will die spiritually. Most of us are familiar with Donald Whitney’s book on the spiritual disciplines. He says this quote, no spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s word. Nothing can substitute for it.

There simply is no healthy christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of scripture. That’s true. That is absolutely, 100% true. But I want us to go a little bit deeper I want us to think about something just a little deeper here for a second. What does food do for us physically? Food. What does food do for us? I think two main things. Number one, it keeps us alive, right? It sustains us. If you don’t eat, you’ll die. We’ve already talked about this, so eating food sustains us. It keeps us alive, but it does more than that, right?

It helps us to grow. We grow because we eat as soon as we are conceived. Really. We begin to take in nourishment, right? And that nourishment, it certainly sustains us. It keeps us alive, but it helps us to grow. It causes us to grow. When I was born, I was seven pounds 8oz and 21 inches long. Guess what? I’m no longer seven pounds 8oz and 21 inches long. But why? Because I ate, right? Because I ate.

When I was a baby, I was fed milk, formula, baby food. And that caused me to grow. And as I grew up, I continued to eat. Brothers and sisters, it’s not rocket science. It’s the exact same thing. Spiritually. We feast on the word of God, and we grow spiritually. We’re no longer babies in the faith, child. We’re no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Why? Because we grow. We grow because we study the word of God. It is to our shame.

If we have been a Christian, 510 15 2030, 40, 50 years, and we’re still a baby in the faith, that is to our shame. That means we’re not eating the word of God, and we’re not growing because of that. There’s lots of good books out there. There’s lots of good books that we can read to help us grow. But nothing substitutes for the word of God. Nothing. It ought to be the first thing we read in the morning for our quiet time.

It ought not to be the thing that we. If we have time, we read it is the word of God. We must have it to grow spiritually. Third point. The word of God is necessary for knowing God’s will. The word of God is necessary for knowing God’s will. Excuse me. When I was in seminary, I took an elective class called decision making in the will of God. It was a fascinating class. I loved it. It may have been my favorite one.

In four years of seminary, I learned a tremendous amount from the class. I remember driving Christine crazy, my wife, because I would come home from class and I would just talk her head off about everything I was learning and the things that I was wrestling with. I didn’t understand. She often jokes that she has a seminary education because I would come home and talk her head off about the books and the lectures and the things that I was learning.

But one of the assigned reading texts for this particular class was a very popular book by a very popular author at the time. And the professor had us read it as a practice, as a way to dissect and analyze books because it was not a good book. It had false theology, bad teaching. It was not a good book. But he assigned it as a way to help us be able to read something critically. Because here’s what the book taught. The book taught a method of discerning God’s will by looking for signs in the world.

And this could literally be anything. It could be anything in the world. It could be real or fabricated. It could be anything that you deemed was God speaking to you and therefore revealing his will to you. I remember one particular chapter in the book. There was a discussion about a young man in his late twenty s who had been dating this girl for quite some time. And he was perplexed. He was trying to decide if he was supposed to marry this woman or not. So he was uncertain if she was the girl that God had chosen for him.

He really wanted to know God’s will in this situation. So he prayed for God to speak to him, and this is what he did. He decided that he was going to call the girl on the phone, and he prayed that God would cause her to answer the phone after the third ring. And if in fact she answered the phone after the third ring, that was God saying, this is the woman you’re supposed to marry. So he calls her, and lo and behold, she answers after the second ring.

So he proceeds to break up with her, concluding that this was not God’s will for him to be with her. Folks, we can so easily get sucked in and wrapped up to this elusive, mysterious search for God’s will, as if it’s hidden, as if we have to search for it, like God’s trying to keep it from us when his will has been so clearly revealed to us. In scripture. Quoting from Wayne Grudem’s Bible doctrine book, he says this in the Bible. We have clear and definitive statements about God’s will.

God has not revealed all things to us, but he has revealed enough for us to know his will. Now, by God’s will, what we mean in this situation is simply what God wants us to do. How do we live a life that pleases God? So I want you to listen to these simple verses. There’s a lot more than this. I’ve pulled a few simple verses that show us how to follow God’s will. First, romans twelve two, do not be conformed.

One and two. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So do not be conformed to this world. Renew your mind, and then you will know how to live a life that pleases God. How about this one? Matthew 22, beginning in verse 35. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the law and the prophets. So you want to know God’s will? Love him with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That’s how you please God. Husbands, you want to know what the will of God is for you? For us.

Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. Husbands, you want to know how to please God? Love your wives sacrificially. Cherish her, nourish her, provide for her and protect her.

It’s not hidden. You don’t have to go find that. It’s clear right here. Children. No, sorry. Parents. Let me do parents first. Parents, you want to know the will of God? Deuteronomy six, four through nine. Here, o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down. And when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and your gates. This is a way of explaining that the word of God ought to be everywhere in your home. Parents, you ought to be teaching your kids the truths of scripture all the time, everywhere.

That’s the will of God for you as parents, children. Now we get to you. Ephesians six, verse one. Simple children, obey your parents in the Lord. What’s the rest of it for? This is right. It does not get any clearer than that. This is right. Right? You want to honor God? Obey your parents. You want to please God, obey your parents. You want to know the will of God for your life as a kid? Obey your parents. It’s not rocket science.

The Bible even goes so far as the simple things of life, like the way we talk. Ephesians 4:29, let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But only such is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Brothers and sisters, the Bible’s clear on what is the will of God. We got to stop acting like it’s hidden. We got to obey what we already know, obey what’s in the Bible, what’s clearly revealed to us. I’m going to end this point by quoting deuteronomy 29:29. Now, many of us have known this verse and use it in various situations, but I want us to pay attention to the end of the verse. I’m going to read the whole thing.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God. So there are some things the Bible recognizes that we don’t know and we shouldn’t know because we’re not God. So the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed. So there are things that are revealed. Everything I just mentioned, and there’s hundreds more. The things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever.

That we may do all the words of the law. That we may do all the words of the law. So the Bible is clear. Instruction to us on how to live, how to live a life that pleases God, how to know the will of God for our lives. Why? So that we may do it. So that we may obey. Which leads me to the so what? So what. This morning I have four simple statements. First, I must be exposed by the word of God. I must be exposed by the word of God.

Hebrews four, verse twelve is a common popular verse. Many of you know it. But as I read it, I want you to listen to how intimate this is, how. How personal this is, how confronting, confrontational this is. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I’m convinced that one of the main reasons that believers, people who trust in Christ, one of the main reasons that we don’t study the Bible as much or as seriously as we should is because it hurts. It hurts. It hurts to have the Bible pierce the division of soul and spirit and discern the true thoughts and intentions of my heart. The last time I checked my heart, Jeremiah 17 nine is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?

So here’s the deal. We don’t want to be confronted with our sin. We don’t want to be confronted with our pride, our selfishness, our laziness, our self centeredness, our anger, our self pity. So what we do is we pretend it doesn’t exist. You see, we’re not dumb. We understand that if we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit is going to convict us of our sin. He’s going to prune us, right? So we’re not dumb.

We go, okay, I don’t like that. Pruning is not fun. Sanctification in that sense is not fun. So we just say, I just won’t read the Bible, or I’ll read it. Very element, very surface level. I won’t go deep because that hurts. We must be exposed by the word of God. We must let the word of God prune us, cleanse us, dig deep to the root of our sin and kill it. And that hurts. I admit it. I’m the first to admit it. It hurts, but I promise you, it’s worth it.

Second statement, I must hear the word of God. I must hear the word of God. Remember where we began with Romans, chapter ten. Hearing the word of God is necessary for salvation. Kevin de Young, in his book on the Bible, taking God at his word, said this, all truth may be God’s truth, but all saving truth is revealed truth. What that means is it’s revealed where it’s revealed to you. You don’t naturally know it. It’s revealed to you where in God’s word.

So what this means, if you’re here today and you’re not a believer, which I’m glad, I hope you are here. I hope you’re listening. Here’s what this means. It means you’re not going to get saved by walking out in some meadow and being like, man, these flowers are pretty. You’re not going to get saved by doing that. You’re not going to get saved by walking up the top of some mountain and looking at God’s creation. Yes, that will reveal to you there is a God, but you get saved by hearing the gospel.

The gospel is salvation. Romans 116. And the gospel is found in God’s word. So we must hear the word of God to be saved. Third statement, I must study the word of God. If you want to grow as a Christian, we’ve talked about this. I’m just reiterating it. If you want to grow as a Christian, you must, and I repeat, must study the word of God. There is no substitute for the word of God. There are lots of good books.

We’ve talked about this, too. There’s lots of good books. And you can learn a lot about God from reading good books. Commentaries have been very helpful for us as we prepare sermons, as we write, the growth group material, as you prepare to lead your growth group. These things are all great, and it’s great to know about God. But the Bible, by reading the Bible, you know God. You see the difference?

The Bible, you know God himself. Number four, fourth point in the so what? I must obey the word of God. I must obey the word of God. Jesus said in John 1415, if you love me, you will what? Keep my commandments. You will obey my commandments. If you love me, obedience equals love. Psalm 119, one through eight. I’m not going to read it. It’s a great reference for you to go back and look at later. But it speaks to the importance of obeying and keeping God’s law.

I want to enclose this morning by turning to Romans, chapter one. So flip with me to Romans chapter one. This is the very beginning of Romans, and I want us to see how Paul begins his letter to the Romans. We’re going to read verses one through five. Romans, chapter one, verses one through five. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

That’s a lot. I want you to track with me here. The reason, first thing, we need to understand the reason for all of this. The reason for Paul’s apostleship, for the promises of the holy scriptures from beforehand, for Jesus being declared the son of God, for the resurrection of Christ. The reason for all of this is in the middle of verse five for the sake of the name. That’s the reason all of this happens.

The ultimate goal of God’s dealings with you, in your life, in your family, the ultimate goal is that Christ would be exalted, God would be glorified. That is the ultimate goal. That God would be glorified in your life, in your family, among your friendships, and that God’s glory would be extended all the way to the nations, to all languages, all tribes, all peoples and all tongues in the world. That’s why you and I exist, for the glory of God.

But how does this come about? How does this happen? It’s there in verse five. Through the obedience of faith. Through the obedience of faith. So obedience of faith in the gospel is what brings about salvation. If you’re not a believer and you hear the gospel and you respond in faith, your heart is regenerated, you call out to God for salvation, you are obeying the gospel. Call on your life and you’re saved.

But obedience of faith in the gospel is also what brings about a transformed life. You are not the same person today that you were before you were saved because you believed in the gospel and you have obeyed the teachings of the gospel. And your life is being transformed day by day by day. And that transformed life is how you continue to grow as a christian. And then that is how the gospel gets to the ends of the earth, through obedience.

Because you could sit here this morning and listen to this, you could listen to this teaching, listen to the word of God being taught, and you could choose to walk away unchanged. You could ignore it. You could reject it and walk away unchanged. And if you choose to do that, two things will happen. Well, two things won’t happen. Number one, your life will not be transformed. You will not be saved, and you will not be transformed from the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of life and light.

And secondly, you will not be someone God uses to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. You won’t. It can’t happen because you’re not obeying the gospel. You’re not obeying the word of God. You don’t have the obedience of faith. But I recognize there are many, many in this room and in this church who have been walking with Jesus for years and years. You are transformed. You know the word of God intimately, and you are being used by God to take the gospel to the nations.

Praise God. Praise God. I’m going to end with this. J. C. Ryle, who we quote a lot in his book Holiness, said this, happy is the man who possesses a Bible. Happier still is he who reads it. Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it and makes it the rule of his faith and practice. That is my prayer. That all of us. This can be said of every single one of us. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your grace in our lives. We’re grateful for the opportunity to gather this morning together with our brothers and sisters to sing songs of the gospel, to sing songs of worship and praise for who you are and what you have done. And we pray that the songs that we sing, that our voices are sweet to you, that they are worshipping you in spirit and in truth. And we thank you for the opportunity to open your word and to study it. God, I pray that we learned something this morning. I pray that we were convicted this morning. I pray that we have a newfound respect, not just from today, but over the last five weeks as we’ve dived deep into the doctrine of scripture.

God. May the authority of scripture, the inerrancy, the clarity, the sufficiency, and now the necessity. God. May that truth transform our lives. May we live according to your word. May it be our standard, our authority for all things pertaining to life and godliness. We’re so grateful for parkwood, that the stand we take on the scripture. May you be honored and glorified in that. I pray now as we sing this last song that will proclaim the truth that you hold us fast. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.