Thank you for joining us at Key Life Fellowship for our Pulpit
Ministry Podcast. Each sermon on this podcast is
from our 11:00 AM Sunday service.
We are glad that you have joined us digitally, but would love to
see you in person on Sunday mornings at either 9:00 AM or
11:00 AM. Now let's open God's word and
ask Him to reveal His truths for our lives it.
Would turn to John's Gospel and turn your eyes to the 21st
chapter and the last two verses. That's right, the last two
verses in the Gospel of John. And we have been traveling
through this gospel since October of 2021, if you will
remember back that far with me. We started in one one and we
have verse by verse, line by line, exposited the truth from
this gospel. The Holy Spirit has led us,
grown us as we close. At the Gospel.
Of John today, I want us to remember that how God has
challenged us. Many of you have been
challenged. I know myself included in that
he's challenged us, He's convicted us.
Some He has even converted you, and we're thankful for that this
morning, that he has taken the word of God and used it to bring
your attention to the fact that you needed a Savior.
That Savior is found in Christ and in Christ alone.
But I want you to not lose sight of these last two verses.
I don't want you to skip over them and think that there's no
real significance or relevance because we're.
Down to the end. I want you to hone in.
I want you to focus on these last two verses.
As John is going to lay these things out for us, he's going to
give us an extremely important lesson today.
So if you're not paying attention at this point, pay
attention. Now this is an extremely
important lesson, especially in the day and the time and we in
which we live in, because there are many, as we well know, who
are attacking the word of God on every front.
There is a fierce attack against biblical truth.
There's a fierce attack against biblical inerency and biblical
infallibility. Unfortunately, that attack is
not only isolated to the outside unbelieving Pagan world who
attacks the word of God. We are now divided, even in the
Church, on the infallibility and the inerency.
Of the Word of God. And we're going to see today, in
this lesson in these two verses, that the word of God can be
trusted over everything else. Though many of the liberal Pagan
God haters who live under the sun are attacking the word of
God, they are unjustly ridiculing the word of God.
Erasing and rewriting the word of God.
We must be a people who know that we can trust the word of
God more than we can trust. Our very selves.
We can trust the word of God more than we trust our feelings
more than we trust our opinions more than we trust our religious
denominations, our upbringings, our ideology, or any philosophy
of man that we may have adopted along the way.
John is going to make that so very clear as he closes out this
gospel that we have learned so much from.
My prayer is this that every St. who is in our presence today,
those who have been saved through the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and the work of Calvary. My Prayer for You, dear friend,
Your St. That you would learn to rest in
the sufficiency of God's Word today like never before, to
trust in it like never before and to the center.
My prayer for you is this, That you may find salvation in Christ
according to the. Word of God not in some man made
ideology or man made gospel, but that you would see the true
gospel according to Scripture this morning and that you would
turn from your sin and repentance and faith, trusting
in Jesus Christ as Lord. And savior to be saved forever.
More rescued from your sinful state, given the eternal life
that only Christ is promised. So as we begin, let's jump
straight to the text. John, Chapter 21.
Verse 24. It says this.
This is the disciple who testifies to these things.
Interesting note here this is the disciple who testifies to
these things in verse 23. Remember what happened last week
in our lesson? We know last week Peter started
worrying about John when he shouldn't worry about John.
What about him? Jesus says know your business
about him. If I want him to stay around
until I return, that doesn't concern you at all, Peter.
You worry about you. You stay in your lane.
You do what I called you to do. And John for the first time
refers to himself in the first person.
This is the disciple who testifies to these things all
this time. John has talked about himself
and the third person. I I don't know that there's any
real significance to that. But I think we need to pay
attention to that. And I think we need to pay
attention to the fact that when John referred to himself as the
disciple Jesus loved, he referred to himself as the one
who leaned against the Lord at the Supper.
He was referring to himself in the third person.
And here he is. He's saying I am in the first
person. I am the disciple who testifies
to these things. He's letting you know I am an
eyewitness. This is not someone else.
This is not someone who, 10 years removed from Christ,
writes this down because he's learned these things through
hearsay. I am an authority because I've
seen it with my very eyes. I am an eyewitness testimony to.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you can remember way
back to Marvin Zindler, Eyewitness News.
John is letting us know this. This is Eyewitness News, he
said. This is the disciple who
testifies these things and who wrote them down.
We know that his testimony is true.
We know it's true because he saw it for 3 1/2 years of his life.
He walked with Jesus. He talked with Jesus.
He ate with Jesus again. He reclined with him at the Last
Supper. He's saying I was there.
You don't have to convince me that this is true.
This is true, not right With authority.
We know that his testimony is true, and verse 25 says Jesus
did many other things as well. If every one of them were
written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not
have room for the books that would be written.
What a statement that John makes there.
He says in this one statement that I know in what I've
written, you've seen a lot. You've seen that in John 11 in
the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.
He he said, you've seen the deity of Christ.
In all of my writings, I've included that you've seen the
miracles of Christ. In my writings I've included
some of them, but not all of them.
You've seen the preaching of Christ and the teaching.
You've seen the gospel clearly laid out by Christ himself.
You've seen all these things, and this really doesn't even
scratch the surface in comparison to all that he did.
But these are the things that the Spirit has led me to write.
These are the things that you have.
These are the things that God has sovereignly decided.
Are of great importance. Pay attention to these things
that I have written. He says, because if I would have
taken the time to write it all down, the world couldn't hold
the number of books. What John is doing here in these
last two verses, he is giving us great confidence in what we have
read the last several months, even years as we've studied the
Gospel of John and as we have studied the word of God in
reference alongside of the Gospel of John.
Week after week, as we have looked at Scripture after
scripture, after Scripture, confirming that the words of the
Gospel of John are true, and what John wants us to see is
that this word, the word of God, can be trusted.
You can count on it, you can hang your hat on it.
It is more true than anyone sitting in this room this
morning. John wants us to understand that
and he makes it very clear. The first thing that we need to
look at this morning in that first part of verse 24 as we are
going to break this down, is this.
The Bible can be trusted because the Bible is supernatural in
testimony. Look at verse 24 there at the
first part of that verse again for John makes this so ever
clear. As he says, this is the disciple
who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.
Many would look at that and they would say, well, Kirk, how can
this be the word of God if John wrote this down?
I want you to pay attention to something.
When we talk about the word of God #1, write this down as we
look at the supernatural nature and supernatural testimony of
the Bible, the word of God. It's authored by God.
I made no mistake about that just because John pinned it,
just because he wrote it down, Just because John, nearly 2000
years ago, sat down at a desk or a table of some sort with a
parchment of some sort and a writing utensil of some sort, it
does not mean that this is just John's writing.
This is the very word of God. How do we know that?
We know that because Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 says
this all scripture is God Breathe.
How much of it? All of it, all Scripture, is
God. Breathe and useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting, and training, and righteousness, so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every
good. Word, Paul's first letter to
Thessalonians. He says this in chapter two, he
said. And we also thank God
continually, because when you received the word of God, which
you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but
as it actually is. The.
Word of God, which is at work. And you who believe, I want you
to understand this. What John penned was authored by
God in eternity past. God is not limited to time and
space. This wasn't a Plan B and God
said OK, now we're going to have this guy named John write this
down. This was God's intended purpose
the whole time. He has authored every single jot
and title of his word. He wrote it in eternity past,
and he revealed it in time, and men then were.
Entrusted to write it down. This book is not just another
book as many in error think. Wasn't it just like any other
book? No, it was just like any other
book. You could just pick it up and
read it. But if you've studied the Word
of God for any amount of time, you know this.
You can just pick it up and read it like any other book.
The Holy Spirit must be active and present in your life because
it is the Holy Spirit who reveals the truth that He has
written. In this book, Or shall we
clearly say 66 books put together by the hand of God?
It's His word, not just another book.
Not just a book full of man's opinions, as the skeptics would
say. Madam, say that to me.
Why would I believe a book that sinful man wrote?
I wouldn't believe a book that Sinful Man wrote.
But what I would do is I would believe a book that's authored
by God. Because there is no sin in God.
He is holy in all of his ways, and his word is precise and
perfect. He is the author of the
Scripture. The Bible's not sinful man's
effort to try to somehow define or describe a holy God, as many
people think, but it is a holy God.
Revealing Himself to sinful man. When we pick up the pages of
this book, it is God desiring to reveal Himself to us.
Why would He ever reveal anything to me?
Besides his judgment that I deserve is beyond me.
Yet in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, He reveals
to us and opens up for us to understanding and illumination
into His very word. This is the Word of God.
Is authored by God from Genesis to Revelation, though it is
authored authored by God. I want you to see this important
lesson and looking at the Bible as supernatural in its
testimony. It is the testimony of God of
himself to man, and God used instruments to accomplish this.
He is the author. This book is authored by God,
but it is accomplished. Through inspired men who
inspired men of God. In fact Second Peter says it
like this verse 21 of chapter one.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man.
But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the third
person of the Triune God, carrying, yes, sinful man along.
So that they would not make any error, so that they would not
cause any contradiction. He perfectly orchestrated it
according to his plan and accomplished it through these
inspired men of God, men who belonged to God, men who were
write this down, superintended by the Holy Spirit.
It was not just men freely taking the pen and writing their
opinions or their philosophies or their ideology.
It was the Holy Spirit revealing to men.
What God wanted them to know. And then they would write these
things down in accordance with God's will.
And the Holy Spirit would superintend the whole process so
that it is without. Error accomplished through these
inspired men. Men superintended by God
according to John. Chapter 14 he explains this
process. Verse 26, John 1426.
John wrote this down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
According the words of Jesus. Remember when Jesus told them
that the Counselor, the Holy Spirit would be coming?
Look there with me. But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
all things and will remind you of everything I have said.
To you I. Want you to go back with me to
the day of Pentecost when Peter Peter preaches that?
Fiery message there at the hula gate South of Jerusalem.
I want you to go there, and I want you to think about this.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the early Church, the Holy
Spirit came upon John. And when the Spirit came up on
John, know this, that immediately there was this
download of information that he could not have remembered on his
own In the Holy Spirit called to His remembrance everything that
Christ had told him, everything that Christ had done.
Even John says this in this text that we just read this morning.
Not only the things that I've written down, I remember things
that I can't write down because the world can't hold the books
in the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus proclaimed in John
chapter 14, verse 26 indwelt John and then carried him along
on that day whenever that day was.
It was the Spirit who stopped John in his tracks and he said
sit down at the desk. And take out the pen and take
out the parchment. And you began to record the
things that I am calling to your remembrance.
You record those things because those things are true.
They are the testimony of a supernatural God.
The Bible is supernatural in testimony.
These men who were superintended by the Holy Spirit, we're also
men who were selected by God. These men were handpicked.
Selected by God from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
Every single one of the men who pinned the books that we have,
every single one of them handpicked by a sovereign God
for sovereign purpose. He chose the prophets, He chose
the apostles, He chose all who he would use to pin his holy
word. He accomplished.
The task of His Word through these inspired, called and
selected men as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit
Church. Never, ever, ever forget, never
forget that the Bible is God's supernatural testimony.
This is not just words from a book.
These are words from God. When you open the pages,
wherever you open it, wherever you land, when you read it, it
is words from God. You can count on these words.
You can count on these words because God authored these
words. God accomplished the writing of
these words through His handpicked men who wrote the
truths that are now revealed in Scripture.
Word of God can be trusted because the Bible is
supernatural in testimony. Secondly, John says it there in
verse 24. This is the disciple who
testifies to these things and he wrote them down.
We know that his testimony is pay attention to this word.
True. Not only is the Bible
supernatural in testimony, the Bible is solid in truth.
What do I mean by that? I mean this, first of all, that
the Bible is infallible. Oh, many have tried to destroy
it. Many have tried to get rid of
it. Many have tried to burn it.
Many have tried to remove it. But it will never, ever, ever go
away. It is infallible.
Everything that the Word of God was designed by God to
accomplish, he will accomplish. Through his infallible word.
Matthew chapter 24 The Lord Himself says this in verse 35.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass
away. All of heaven and all of earth
pass away. My word will stand.
It is infallible. It doesn't matter how the world
attacks it. It doesn't matter the armies of
the wicked who come against it. My word will stand.
Why? The prophet Isaiah said this
under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit that John is
under here as he writes this gospel.
Isaiah said this. Listen Isaiah 40, verse 8.
The grass Withers, the flowers fall or fade, but the word of
God stands forever when you trust in the Word of God.
You trust in the infallibility of God.
God has never failed us. God does not fail.
Everything that He seeks to accomplish he accomplishes.
He will not fail and His Word will never fail.
See, because it is solid truth when all the world falters.
And all the world fails, His Word remains.
You can hang your hat on the promises of God because the
Bible is solid and truth, infallible, but not only
infallible, but there are many who will say this.
Yeah, I believe the word is infallible, but but there's
still errors and contradictions and they mean this.
By this they mean that it's infallible because it ultimately
accomplishes what it seeks out to accomplish.
However, there are some errors and there are some
contradictions in the Bible. Let me just stop you before you
jump off into a big pool of heresy.
There are 0 errors. There are 0 contradictions.
If you find one the Bible is not wrong, you are.
You write that down. You haven't done your homework.
Many will come to me and say, well this seems like a
contradiction. It seems like a contradiction
because you took it out of context.
The enemy is very crafty and causing people to doubt the word
of God. Isn't that what he did way back
in the garden when he tempted Eve and then Eve let her husband
into sin? Isn't that what happened?
They had received a word from God and then Satan came along
and caused them to question the word of God.
And when they began to question the inherent infallible word of
God, what did they do? They fell off into sin.
Every major denomination who questions the inherency of
Scripture falls to sin. Pay attention to that.
So we see that being revealed here.
Bible Solid truth. Truth that we can count on.
Truth that we can believe beyond the shadow of a doubt because it
is inherent. John Chapter 17, verse 17.
Remember what the Lord said when He was praying for his own
disciples? He said Sanctify them, set them
apart by truth. And then he said your word is
truth. He didn't say it.
Your word is partially true. He didn't say your word contains
some truth. He didn't say you can get a
glimpse of truth from the Bible. He said set them apart by truth.
Your word is truth. An errant, perfect truth.
In fact, Psalm 119, verse 160, The Psalmist said this.
All your words are true. How many?
All of them. Open your Bible and just put a
finger on the page and it's true.
All of your words are true. All your righteous laws or are
eternal. They're never going to go away.
They're true and errant, and they're eternal, infallible.
They're in that one verse and Psalm 119.
You see the infallibility and the inerency of scripture all in
that one verse. Proverbs chapter 30, verse five
says this. Every word of God is flawless.
He is a shield to those who take refuge.
You know His word is flawless. We look at that.
We say, well, of course this word is flawless because he is a
holy God. Did you know this holy shows us
that he is flawless. And so the words that he speaks
are true. They are flawless.
And you can count on today that the Bible is solid in truth.
I know I risk losing some friends for saying what I'm
about to say, and that's okay with me.
I'd rather have Christ than have anything that the world offers,
even friends. But a Christianity that is
founded upon anything other than the Holy Word of God and it's
infallibility and in its inherency, is no Christianity at
all. You have bought a bill of goods.
You have bought a live from the enemy.
He has done the bait and switch on you.
The word of God is solid. In truth it is infallible.
It is inerrant. It is perfectly inspired by the
Holy Spirit. There is not one flaw in it.
Find the flaw and then point the finger back at yourself, because
you've only seen it with flawed eyes.
His word is perfect and it is flawless and it will stand
forever. Everything that we believe,
church, listen to me. Everything that we believe as a
whole and everything that we believe as individual Christians
must be based on the principle of sola scriptura.
That principle is Scripture alone.
When one would ask you why do you believe that, don't say I
believe that because I've always believed that.
I don't believe that because I've always believed it.
I believe it because the word of God says so when they say, why
do you believe this? Well, because my pastor said
what if your pastor is a quack, We're a heretic.
You've now believed heresy just because your pastor said no.
What you need to realize this morning is we need to trust in
the word of God, and the Word of God is.
True, and every man a liar, and everything that we believe must
be built upon solo Scripture, His Word alone.
Nothing else. Not his word.
Plus our feelings. Not his word.
Plus our philosophies. His word and his word alone.
That's where we find solid truth.
Any belief system that is not built upon the word of God, it's
an errancy, and it's infallibility.
Any belief system that is not built upon that is not a
Christian belief system. You write it down.
You quote me. You get angry with me if you
like. That is the truth.
According to the word of God, His word is perfect.
In fact, I had someone just this last week Facebook jabbed me.
It hurts so bad. I can still feel the sting.
They Facebook jabbed me for last week's message where I said
boldly, and I do not make apology for that.
I said boldly that a woman is not permitted to teach her to
have authority over a man in the church, that there is never room
for a woman in the pastoral office.
And when she ribbed me, all she could say was, well, I've
preached and I have women pastors in my life.
What can I tell you? Both of you were in sin and
violation to the word of God. Just because you've done
something doesn't make you that thing.
I can work on a car, you can get in it and drive it after I work
on it, and you'll find out real quickly that I am not a
mechanic. I can do carpentry work, but if
you inspected it closely. You will realize very quickly
and God called Kirk to preach. He didn't call Kirk to do
carpentry work. So you can call yourself
anything under the sun, but it doesn't make it right just
because you call yourself that thing.
Because the scripture is very clear, First Timothy chapter 2.
It makes it clear just in case you don't understand this
reference. 1st 12 says it this plainly.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.
This is in regard to how we conduct worship.
I don't permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.
She must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then
Eve. And Adam was not the one
deceived, it was the woman who was deceived.
He tells you why. He tells you exactly why.
He didn't need to give you an explanation.
You should have just taken it at face value, he said.
She tells you why she's the one who was led astray by the
deception of the enemy. And then she was used by the
enemy to lure her husband into sin.
And here we are. So I had someone upset with me.
But here's what I came to the conclusion.
You know what if I lose all the friends that I have going to
stand on the solid truth of the word of God.
I'm going to stand on the solid truth of the word of God all the
way to the end. So the scripture, scripture
alone, even if it cost me my very life, I'm going to stand on
the word of God and you should do the same.
You see that the Bible can be trusted because the Bible is
supernatural and testimony and the Bible is solid and truth.
Excuse me. Thirdly, the Bible is
sufficient. In totality it is sufficient.
In totality. Look at verse 25, verse 25.
Back to John's Gospel verse 21. Jesus did many other things as
well. Every one of them were written
down. I suppose that even the whole
world would not have room for the books that would be written,
even the whole. World wouldn't have room, but
I've written these things down. You know why he wrote these
things down? These are the things that the
Holy Spirit inspired him to write down.
These are the things that he was supposed to write down.
John says. There's a whole lot more, but I
wasn't allowed to write those things down.
These things are enough. If anyone asks, does the Bible
include everything that can be known?
Absolutely not. My doesn't include, doesn't
include everything that can be known.
You can't fully known the mind of God.
You will never fully know the mind of God.
You will never fully known his. Know his.
Try unity and and make that make sense in your human mind.
Those things are beyond our understanding.
Those things are infinite. We are finite.
It doesn't contain everything that can be known.
But I want you to understand this.
The scripture contains everything that you need to
know. Everything that you need to
know. In fact, Second Peter, chapter
one, verse three, it says this. His divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge
of Him. And how did we receive knowledge
of Him? How did we receive knowledge
from Christ? Through the preaching and the
teaching of the Word of God? And He's saying this in the Word
of God. His divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge
of Christ Who? Called us by His own glory and
goodness. How does this happen?
How? How does this work?
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word.
As you hear the word and you're challenged and you were
convicted, you grow and you mature.
In the faith you grow and you mature in your understanding of
who God is, His attributes, His characteristics, His power, his
glory. You begin to learn these things
and you begin to grow. I know it's not exciting, right?
The the world and and all of their ideology that is
infiltrated. The Church would say, not really
entertaining, oh, I pray that God would raise up a people that
didn't want to be entertained, the people who want to grow in
knowledge and grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ that he would raise up. Those people who say, thus say
it. The Lord, the word of God is my
sufficiency. I find all of my answers there,
and all of the answers I need are contained in those 66 books.
Be content with that though, you may not be able to answer every
question, you will be able. To answer every question that
God sees fit for you to answer, the Bible is sufficient in
totality. There's not one thing left out
that you need. He gave you everything that you
need in His word. When you hold this book up, put
it in your hands. Go ahead, Go ahead and try it.
Come on, it'll be fun. And you hold this book up and
you put it in your hands. You're not just holding the all
time bestseller. No, it is if you were.
Holding the sufficiency and totality of the word of God that
he desired to give you. What a privilege.
What a privilege to know that the God of this universe has
entrusted me with this, that He has given me this.
And in this I find all of the answers for life and godliness
in Christ Jesus. Don't miss out on that.
Oh, let me just say this to you, dear friends, dear brothers,
dear sisters. If you are missing out on that,
today was the first day all week that you dusted this old thing
off. You've missed out on so much,
missed out on hearing God. Let me look at His sufficient
word. Being sufficient in its
totality, I want you to write this down.
It's sufficiently collected that throughout the ages, God
collected everything that he wanted to include in His word.
There are no amendments. There will never, never be any
amendments. You can go to the back.
You'll find an index. You won't find an appendix.
Anything added to it? In fact, be very careful in
trying to add to it. We'll see those warnings in a
moment. It is sufficient in its
totality. These 66 books contain the very
word of God that He wants you to hear, and you will not hear it
as it lays on a bookshelf. You will not hear it as it stays
in your car all week. Until you come to church the
next Sunday, you will only hear it if you open the pages of
Scripture and you begin to read, or someone else opens the pages
of Scripture and begins to read it for you, it was sufficiently
collected. Every single thing here was
collected because it was God's will that you see it.
It's God's will that you see it. I wouldn't dare ask this
question, though. I'm going to ask this question.
I would ask you not to answer it.
If we were to ask this group of people in this room who call
themselves Christians, how many of you have read it from cover
to cover? Be a sad show of hands.
I'm afraid those of us who have read it from cover to cover, you
don't know the will of God. You can't understand why you
don't know the will of God. A person comes to me and says I
don't know the will of God. You know what my first question
is? How much time have you spent in
the Word? Because when you spend time in
the word, he shows you everything that you need for
life and godliness. He shows you in His word who you
should marry. When that person comes and says,
hey pray for me, I need to know who I should marry.
He gives you a look at who you should marry in His word.
Read it. A man or a woman who seeks after
the heart of God, who desires to serve him and to live for His
glory. That's who you need to marry.
Don't be an unequal yoked with unbelievers.
That's who you need to marry. What gives you all that you need
to know for life and God in this?
This is sufficient in its totality.
Should I take this new job? Have you been to the Word?
Should I start this ministry to help reach others?
To show the love of Christ to others?
Get in the Word. What does the Word say?
Well, the Word says for me to go and make disciples, then get
after it. Stop asking questions.
You know what it says. Be obedient to it.
It's sufficiently collected everything that we need for life
and godless Genesis to Revelation and everything in
between. You want a word from God, right?
All the people today and all the kooky movements wanting a word
from God. You want a word from God?
Open the pages of this book. Open the pages of this book.
You have a word from God. Every word and every sentence
that you read. Stop looking for outside
revelation and outside words. He's giving you all that you
need for life and godliness. It's sufficient.
He's put together 66 books of
complete revelation. He did it accomplished this
through 40 some odd authors from Moses.
The John who we're reading now and he used these men of God, as
we've already learned, who were carried along by the Holy
Spirit, this was pinned over 1500 years ago.
This stood the test of time. It was originally pinned in
three different continents in three different original
languages, all the while keeping the 1 theme, all the while
keeping the one thing, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who
would come to redeem people for God.
From Genesis to Revelation, we see Christ.
His word is sufficient, sufficiently collected and
preserved. All you need to know about God
is attributes, characteristics. All you need to know about the
Christian life and how to live it were found within these
pages. Sufficiently collected.
He made sure of that. Oh, I'm thankful today that a
sovereign God has made sure that everything I need, I have in my
hand what a gracious God. Or did you know throughout
history God has went to great extent to preserve this word so
that we could sit here today and learn it and hear it?
Through the blood of many, many, many martyrs do we have now the
English Bible in our hands so that we can understand.
And the English is not your native tongue.
More than likely there is something in your native tongue
that many people gave their lives.
They died for it so that you can have it at the hands.
Those who have persecuted the church throughout the ages he's
collected. He's gone to the extreme great
extent so that we can have it. Don't just let it collect dust
on a shelf. It is a gift.
On our country we take it for granted so much we can go out
and buy one every day. But did you know this?
In third world countries? Many believers covet the fact
that those among the church where they live have a New
Testament or portion of the Old Testament, or maybe just several
pages of some parchments that they snuck throughout time and
hidden. Yet we take it for granted.
We have the complete sufficient word of God in our hand all of
the time, sufficiently collected by God sovereignly for us.
Not only is it sufficiently collected, when we look at it
being sufficient in its totality, it's sufficiently
closed. What do you mean by that,
pastor? There's no new revelation.
None. Someone comes up to you and says
that they received a new revelation.
Step away from that person. They are teetering on heresy.
There are no new revelations. I'll show you that in scripture.
If it's new, it's not true. He's not revealing his word
through dreams, visions or experiences, as many heretical
teachings adhere to. Where would we be if everyone's
dream counted as Scripture and everyone's vision counted as
Scripture? How how would we even know?
There's no Apostolic authority in the church to tell us as
exactly by God's design, when the Apostles era ended, the Word
of God was completed. It is sufficiently closed.
There are no longer any prophets or apostles in the true sense of
the word. These people who are going
around claiming to hear these things from God, they are not
hearing these things from God. They ate bad food.
They ate too much food. They went to sleep on a really
full stomach. The period is over.
Scriptures have been closed. The cannon of Scripture is
complete. He's not still writing his
story, as many would be. Christian artists want to sing
about the story's written It's done.
Oh, you can believe all of the people who want to believe those
foolish things, or you can believe the word of God.
But Hebrews chapter one says this verse one.
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through through the
prophets, at many times and in various ways, dreams, visions,
etcetera. But in these last days he has
spoken to us by His Son Jesus. The Word.
John made that very clear in one one in the beginning it was the
Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.
Verse 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
Logos, the Word of God, Christ. But in his last days He has
spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,
and through whom he made the universe.
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by His
powerful Word. And after he had provided
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
majesty in heaven. It is closed.
The Canon of Scripture is no longer being collected.
It's written. It's written once and for all.
Scripture gives us much warning about adding to the Holy Writ.
Pay attention to it. What do you think that he would
give us these warnings because he knew that there would be
these people? Who would think, because they
were under the influence of demonic heresy and demonic
powers that they were receiving a word from the Lord?
Someone comes to me and says I have a word from the Lord for
you. I'm going to say that.
Show me chapter and verse, please.
If you can't show me chapter and verse, it's not a word from the
Lord. It's a word from you that
probably came from Satan, one of his demons who influenced you.
Scripture gives warning about adding to and taking from His
word. Did you know this when you have
outside Revelation and you add that to the cannon?
God said you're adding to the word of God.
You fall guilty of this sin. Let me show you how serious this
is. Proverbs chapter 30.
The author says this and verse 5.
Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take
refuge in hell. We've already read that.
But look at verse six. Do not add to his word and he
will rebuke you and prove you a liar, but add to his word.
You know why people are doing this?
Adding to the word of God? Because they won't do their due
diligence and studying the true word of God.
It takes time. It takes experience.
It takes motivation. It takes sacrifice.
Right. When you're tired, you're in a
hurry. Who knows?
You have to stop and you have to feast on the word of God.
Why? So that truth is poured into you
because you're going out into a world full of lies.
Word of God is true. Don't add to it.
It's complete. Don't add to it.
He's already told us that his word is perfect.
He's already told us that his word is true.
Why would you need to add anything to it?
Deuteronomy 4. He gives another warning.
Verse two, do not add to what I command you and do not subtract
from it. Ooh, here we go.
Adding and subtracting. No, we don't do that, Pastor.
Yes, you do. You embrace the things that you
like and Scripture, and then you don't embrace the things that
you don't like. That's erasing the scriptures.
Are you listening? It's erasing the.
Scriptures, you say? Well, I don't agree with that.
It doesn't matter what you agree with.
Thus saith the Lord, here's what God says, what is plain and
clear, what God says. Your argument does not stand.
Don't add to it. Don't subtract from it, but keep
the commands of the Lord of your God that I give you.
Deuteronomy 1232. He reiterates this again.
See that you do all I command you do not add to it or take
away from it, right. Don't take the 10 commandments
and say I like eight of those. You can keep the other two.
Or maybe you're real spiritual, I like 9.
You can have the one back. Don't understand.
But they're all sufficient. They all have a purpose.
Inscriptors have closed. The cannon is closed.
Don't add to it. Don't take away from it.
Revelation 22 You men who went through the Revelation study you
know of this warning. What a harsh warning it is.
He doesn't. Verse 18I warn everyone who
hears the words of the prophecy of this book.
Please understand this. The same Holy Spirit who
inspired John to write Revelation as the same Holy
Spirit who inspired the same John to write the Gospel of John
who is the same Holy Spirit who inspired Moses to write the
first five books of the Old Testament.
So Revelation is equally the word of God as anything else.
It's equally the Word of God as the first five books, as the
Psalms, as the Proverbs. When he says, I warn everyone
who hears the words of this prophecy of this book.
If anyone adds anything to them, add anything to the word of God.
God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
You've ever studied the plagues described in Revelation.
You want no part of that. And if anyone takes words away
from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his
share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are
described in this book. What is he saying?
Is he saying that you'll lose salvation?
No. He's saying that you've never
had salvation. You never had a part of the tree
of life. The true believer would never.
The race scripture. A true believer would never take
away from the scripture. A true believer would see the
scripture and it would hurt. It hurts sometimes, does it?
We see the scripture and then you're not in line with it and
it cuts you to the quick. It hurts.
Aren't you thankful that we have a kind and loving God who comes
back and he takes that hurt and he heals that hurt and he makes
us stronger through the healing process so that we can now stand
against the thing that once brought us down, that
contradicted the Word of God? Bible is sufficient in its
totality, sufficiently collected, sufficiently closed,
everything that we need. There's no sense adding to it.
There's no sense thinking away from it and doing it either.
You bring upon yourself a curse. Oh church, my prayer for you is
this, that you would rest in the sufficient totality of
Scripture. Because when I raise this Bible,
I hold in my hand the complete word of God, the complete word
of God passed down through the ages so that we can have it and
learn from it and be challenged by it and be saved through the
preaching of it, even in our day.
So what do you do with all this? Let's wrap it up.
How many of you believe that this is the infallible,
inerrant, Holy Spirit inspired Word of God in that it can be
trusted? How many of you believe?
If you believe in agreeance with me, you just raise it above your
head right now and let me see you do it, you say?
Well, I got my cell phone. That'll work.
If you don't have a Bible, come see me afterwards.
I'll get you one today before you leave.
But this is the word of God, and the Word of God can and must be
trusted if you believe that. Pay attention to this.
Then you should, number one, write this down.
Surrender to its author. You raised your Bible a second
ago, and you said, I believe this is the word of God.
Surrender to the author. Have you surrendered to Christ
as Lord and Savior as defined by Scripture?
Have you surrendered to the author in faith and repentance?
Today is He calling you out of darkness and into light.
Even now as you sit in your seat, is He showing you that you
never have truly known Him and you never have truly surrendered
to Christ as Lord and Savior, and that today He would grace
you? With that, He would sovereignly
save you from your sin and your self deceit today, rescuing you,
forgiving you, washing you, cleansing you, and granting to
you eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Have you surrendered to the author?
Oh, you say you believe it? Do you really?
Is Lord Jesus himself said in this book that you say you
believe that if you love me, you'll keep my commands.
Do you love him? Have you surrendered to Christ
as your Lord and Savior? Secondly, not only should you
surrender to its author, you should you should submit to its
authority. This should be the final
authority in your life. Please listen to me.
I am no authority. The pastors on staff at this
church, no authority. The elders here serving this
church and leading this church have no authority apart from the
Word of God. The only authority that we have
is the Holy Word of God, the Bible, the Scriptures, the Holy
Writ, However you choose to refer to it, as that's the
authority that we have. Are you submitting to the
authority of the Word of God? Because this should be the final
authority. God's Word said it, therefore
it's settled. Are you submitting to that?
Are you submitting to that in every area of your life?
In your doctrine, your theology, your opinion, your philosophy,
your feelings? Oh, what?
Would happen if we began to submit to the word of God
instead of our feelings. Are you submitting to the
authority of the word of God in your life as a believer?
Oh, unbeliever. You can't submit to the
authority of the word of God. You're not yet under that
authority. You're still under the yoke of
sin. Turn today to Christ.
Be set free then and only then will the Spirit empower you to
submit to the authority of the word of God.
Are you submitting to it as believers?
Then thirdly and lastly, you really believe that the word of
God can be trusted, That it is infallible, inherent and
inspired by the Holy Spirit and study to show yourself approved.
Study it to show yourself approved justice, Paul wrote to
young Timothy and Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15.
He said do your best to present yourself to God as one.
Approved documents one. Approved when he was handling
the Word of God in accordance with the will of God, under the
inspiration and the illumination of the Holy Spirit of God.
He said handle it properly. A Workman who does not need to
be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.
Are you handling the Word of Truth by studying it, learning
it? So I think so.
Let me just tell you this, I'm going to interject this just
hopefully spur some of you along.
And I say this out of love. If you're not actively involved
in the Bible studies that we offer here, you're not actively
involved In a small group that we offer here, you're not
actively involved in learning how to know more about
Scripture. Don't lie to yourself any
longer. Don't lie to yourself any
longer, you're not really desiring to.
Study to show yourself approved a Workman who rightly handles
the word of truth. You're showing yourself as a
mediocre Christian, and isn't it sad?
The only institution in the world who accepts mediocracy is
the church, and we ought to be excellent, except mediocre.
You have a desire. Are you obediently following
that desire to study, to show yourself approved?
It weren't when you rightly devised the word of truth.
Studying, learning, growing, helping others, study and learn
and go. Isn't that what we're
commissioned to do by the Lord Jesus himself, as defined in his
word? Go make disciples.
You're going to have a hard time making a disciple without
knowing this. You know what you're going to
make at best. Little weak infant Christians
for their entire life. Don't take the word of God.
Learn the word of God and make disciples.
How Jesus said to make disciples.
What did he say? Teaching them Everything that I
have taught you. Everything.
John writes those things down. He says, I'm writing you
everything you need so that you can make disciples.
But if you're going to do that, you better study the word to
show yourself approved of Workman who rightly divides this
word of truth. You really believe the Bible,
The word of God can't be trusted.
Or do you just say it because it's the clicheic Christian
thing to say. Because when all else falls for
the grass Withers, the flowers fade.
All your friends leave you, all your family members forsake you.
Word of God will remain and it will remain forever.
Let's pray, Lord we thank you for your word God.
I pray now that it would do is only it was designed to do that
you would Pierce the hardest of hearts with this doubleedged
sword, exposing them to their need for Savior, enlightening
them to their sinful condition and through the power of your
Spirit, bringing them to faith and repentance as you
sovereignly save their wretched soul.
God, I pray for the Saints who are here today.
They would be encouraged and fired up.
They would hunger for your word like never before, and that way
you would use them mightily as you have men and women in the
past. And we give you all the praise
for what you're going to do now in Jesus name.
Amen. Thank you for listening to the
Key Life Fellowship Pulpit Ministry Podcast.
If you would like to talk with one of our pastors, please
e-mail us at info@keylifefellowship.org or
call us at 281-689-1604. You can also visit our website
at www.keylifefellowship.com. We hope and pray you have a
blessed week and remember you are light in the darkness.