Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

We do not judge ourselves correctly or one another apart from sound doctrine. Many gather around Scripture but it is not the straight-edge that corrects our naturally crooked way of thinking. Scripture is used to affirm feelings, and private revelations, to silence “critics” and other such deviations and dangerous mishandlings of God’s Word. It is used to pervert justice, and holiness and to launch false teachers into prominence whereby many are deceived.

We don’t just need teaching; we need sound teaching. We don’t just need pastors; we need Biblically qualified pastors who faithfully exposit the Word. There are qualifiers and not all are qualified. Some, when told they are unqualified, instead of repenting, write books about it (Steven Furtick and his book Unqualified).

When we say that God’s Word is like a straight-edge many who are used to clapping at anything, true or false, will agree. They test nothing. They are not discerning. They are trained to agree with whatever is said and to suppress any thought that dares to be sound in a moment of such excitement. Nothing ruins a euphoric high and lofty view of ourselves like sound doctrine.

When we say that God’s Word is like a straight-edge it is not for claps and shallow amen’s. It is not that God’s Word bends to what we feel or believe or desire to be true. God’s Word is the perfect, immutable standard that judges our thoughts, our desires, and our motives and transforms our way of thinking to what is right, holy, and pleasing to God. It judges us; we do not judge it! It changes us; we do not change it. It conforms us to the will of God; we do not conform it to our supposed private revelations that agree with our sinful desires. It stands firm, unmoving, unyielding, and perfect. It is the standard. It is the truth. It is objective. This gives comfort to the child of God and troubles those in rebellion to God.

“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The best conversations about God do not come out of the imaginations of men’s hearts and supposed extra-biblical revelation but out of the More Sure Word of God, which is like a straight edge that corrects our natural bent toward errant thinking and reveals who God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture.

It is natural for sinful man to be confident in error. He thinks himself wise, basically a good person, and considers the wisdom of God foolish. The Word of God reveals the sinful confidence of man, his errant thinking, his evil inclinations, his corrupt desires, and his hatred toward the God he may even claim to love or know or “be good with”.

The Sufficiency of Scripture

“Through His ministry of inspiration, the Holy Spirit has given us the Word of God. And through His ministry of illumination, He has opened our eyes to understand and submit to biblical truth.” ~ John MacArthur

What does the pastor preach? Many pastors claim that Scripture is sufficient and then claim extra-biblical revelation. He uses Scripture to support what he claims God spoke to him and told him to preach; he rejects in practice what he claims to believe. He claims to believe in the Sufficiency of Scripture while he preaches what he claims is a word from God just for you that has been given to him outside of Scripture. He relies on personal stories, subjective experiences, and manipulative tactics to move you into a decision or get you on board with his vision, or to get you to change your life. He is not relying on the sufficiency of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. He has gone beyond Scripture and trying to lead you to the same end by different means.

Meanwhile, the pastor full of the Holy Spirit and truth, having labored many hours in the Word and prayer, steps to the pulpit with fear, recognizing the immense responsibility and privilege to preach the Word of God. He sets forth the text and expounds the meaning. He stands confident not in himself but in the power of the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. If it were entirely up to him, he may as well go home, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. He doesn’t rely on schemes or manipulative techniques. He trusts in the sufficiency and authority of the Word. He has nothing to say apart from this Word. He trusts in God’s means of grace by which the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men in regeneration and sanctification.

The saints assemble in fellowship, prayer, and worship, in the correct administration of the sacraments, and the Word of God faithfully exposited.

God has not commanded the pastor to preach private revelations, what is in his heart, or the imaginations of his own mind; He has commanded him to preach the Word and trust Him with the results. That’s faith!

Man, in his fallen condition does not need to hear the Word so that he may see where he needs to improve upon his condition. He stands justly condemned before a holy God. Scripture does not command him to come and see how you can be a better you; it commands him to come and die. It commands men everywhere to repent and believe. Scripture, rightly exposited, reveals the perfect holiness of God that leaves men in despair recognizing that they deserve all the Holy and righteous wrath of God. Scripture, rightly exposited, reveals God’s plan of salvation, His grace, and mercy toward sinful man accomplished in the Person and work of Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit.

Any man who trusts in any scheme or plan to reach sinful man apart from rightly proclaiming the Word of God shows himself an enemy of God.

We don’t need pastors who preach to our felt needs, give motivational speeches, or preach the imaginations of their mind; we need pastors who labor in the Word because they not only claim to believe Scripture is Sufficient, but they demonstrate that belief as they set forth God’s Word each week and trust God to do what only He can do.

In our Justified and Progressively Sanctified condition, we must not think so highly of ourselves as to think there does not remain in us a natural bent toward evil and a natural bent toward error. What then straightens our crooked way of thinking, believing, behaving, and living contrary to our Lord? His Word! What now; do we think God sends an evangel to declare His Word by which we may be saved and now we progress in our sanctification by means of extra-biblical revelation? If it is by the means of God’s Word rightly exposited that we hear the Gospel and that we are saved, do we now grow in Grace and knowledge by private revelations? If God has given pastors and His saints His Word by which means the Holy Spirit works in regeneration and sanctification, what then may the enemy attack? The Word of God More Sure!

“Inerrancy is not the most critical issue facing the church today. The most serious issue, I believe, is the Bible’s sufficiency.” ~ James Montgomery Boice

Counterfeits

The enemy offers counterfeits. He offers counterfeit worship, prayer, administration of the sacraments, fellowship, and men who oversee them. There are cults, often more obvious, and there are also men who are dangerously close to the truth, but have a bent toward error. It is less discernable to those who are not faithful to study God’s Word and have their minds changed by the truth.

False teachers take what is beautiful, Holy, and good and they desecrate it. They bring in false doctrines that bring division and then blame those who correct them according to sound doctrine as being divisive and attacking them. False teachers are cunning, coy, manipulative, and very successful in what they do. Their works will stand to condemn them. They heap condemnation on themselves. Their destruction is not asleep.

Many follow the “man of God” in error and some after heretical teachings cloaked in biblical language and just enough truth to deceive many. He promises peace in God’s name where there is no peace. He promises life where the stench of death remains and is repugnant in the anthropomorphic nostrils of God. He heaps up wrath for the day of wrath. He comforts the dead in their sins and promises all their sinful hearts desire. He robs widows’ houses and exploits the poor and they in their desperation give him all they have because he has promised lies in God’s name if they do. He hates the truth. He hates the holiness of God. He offers them a Jesus and a gospel that is powerless to save them and leaves them rotting in their corruption while blind to their own stench of death and boasting in what they claim is theirs and to be theirs though they are delusional and bring reproach on the name of Christ. Their dead hearts are oblivious to their wretched and condemned state and their warped minds are not straightened by God’s Word but are guided in error by the imaginations of their own minds of who they think God is. They remain governed by their sinful passions cloaked in their own righteousness. They do not put to death their sinful desires, they baptize them in biblical language and are worse than they were before. Only now, they do it in God’s name.

How may we be deceived? We naturally follow what appeals to our sinful nature. We are naturally bent toward error. We naturally do not want to hear what corrects us, but rather what agrees with us.

False teachers are not faithful to the preaching of the Word but to preaching what the people want to hear. They may even share the Gospel from time to time such as in spite of them some may be saved. God will bring His own out from among them and to safe pastures. However, these false teachers go from bad to worse. They do not genuinely repent and turn from their egregious error, they conform as they need to, feign humility, and use Christian language so they may offer what people want from God without truly knowing God. They have a god, but it is the god of their imaginations; it is not the God of Scripture.

Life And Peace

False teachers promise life and peace but their doctrine is the wide way to destruction and eternal punishment. They promise now what God has promised when we are glorified. They take descriptive passages where God has done something before and claim that because God has done it before and He can do it again, if you will just believe enough then He will do it for you. They lay burdens on people and make promises on behalf of God that He has not made. They promise what sinful men want and they do it in God’s name. Why would you go where the pastor faithfully exposits the Word every week if the pastor down the street is getting new words from God every week and God has been brought so low that “He gets you” and He just wants to give you all your heart desires? People don’t go to false teachers because they know they are false; they go because they promise all their sinful heart desires and it is done in God’s name. They have a god, but it is not the God of the Bible.

People want peace. They want a good life. They want health, better finances, and success. False teachers promise them these things if they’ll just come ask Jesus in their heart. They walk away with a Jesus, a gospel, and a more positive outlook on life because they believe their Jesus is going to make all their dreams come true, fix their marriage, bless them financially, and heal their bodies. They did not hear the Gospel. They don’t know Jesus. They are worse off now than when they came in.

However, we must not think that all we need is to be under sound teaching and we are safe. It is the most dangerous place to be if we remain enemies of God or walk in rebellion to the truth. We are now accountable for the Word we hear rightly exposited.

What do we mean by “sound” teaching? Sound teaching is teaching that is healthy and life-giving. If Scripture repeatedly points us to sound teaching and warns of false teachers and false teachings, what then is the end result of sitting under such dangerous doctrines? Sound teaching is life-giving; what is the result of false teaching? It promises life but leads to death. It makes us feel good, boosts our confidence, encourages pride disguised as humility, and leads away from the More Sure Word of God. It leads to trust in what one feels is true, believes God wants for them and to pursue what they desire and call it good. It promises peace but opposes anyone who confronts them with sound doctrine. They protect “their peace” at all costs, even at the cost of truth.

God’s Word, rightly exposited exposes our hearts and minds and commands us to repentance and faith and the result of saving faith is a desire for truth and obedience. To the lost soul, he hears the truth that commands him to repent and believe. To every saint, the exposition of that text goes forth and sets straight our crooked way of thinking and living. Sound doctrine produces sound thinking, sound believing, and sound living. It is health and life. It is life and peace no matter what we endure in this world. Things that are alive grow and those who are truly regenerate grow as we hear the life-giving Word of God rightly exposited.

False teachers promise life and health while administering poison that slowly kills and gives only the appearance of life and peace.

Sound doctrine produces life and peace for all who are being saved and who are saved. To those dead in sin it gives a proper diagnosis; they are dead. They are condemned. An evangel proclaims the Gospel of Christ whereby the Holy Spirit works in regeneration. To the regenerate, it—sound doctrine—properly diagnosis the disease of our hearts and minds whereby the Holy Spirit works in sanctifying us, bringing health to our way of thinking, feeling, believing, and living. It is not a medicine to make us better people. It calls us to die to self and life in Christ. It calls us to die to ourselves daily. We need God’s Word every day. It is pride to think we don’t. It is death to trust in anything else.

There is no life and peace apart from Christ. And there is no life and peace in the counterfeit messages of ministers of satan who preach messages that sound good, appeal to the sinful desires of men, and lead many on the broad road to hell.

A More Sure Word

Discernment is not a feeling or impression as so many have been falsely led to believe; it is going to Scripture to see what God’s Word says and means and testing all things according to that perfect standard. Discernment is not “that bears witness in my spirit so it must be true”. Discernment is “let’s take it to the perfect standard, the straight-edge, the authoritative, inerrant, infallible, immutable, sufficient Word of God and see if this is true, good and pleasing to God. If not, Scripture is right and we will have our minds transformed by the truth and submit to this perfect standard”.

If we know we are naturally bent toward error even as born-again children of God, then it ought to be our great desire to hear the More Sure Word of God opened and exposited so we may have our hearts and minds changed by the truth. God’s Word is the straight edge that corrects our perverse, corrupt, sinful, arrogant, boastful, confident in error way of thinking. If we recognize our weaknesses and our sinful inclinations, then we know that we cannot trust whatever we feel in our hearts, our impulses, or whatever pops into our minds but we run to the Word of God and we test everything according to His Word. Our desire is not to be right or be first or be the best, but to know the truth so that we may honor our Lord in what we believe, what we say, how we live, and how we represent Him in all we do.

If I recognize that my way of thinking still has a bent toward evil then as a born-again child of God—adopted into the family of God, justified by faith alone through Grace alone in Christ alone, positionally sanctified and growing in sanctification by God’s means of grace whereby the Holy Spirit works in me—why would I ever trust anything that is less sure than the more sure Word of God? He has saved me from the penalty of sin—justification— and the power of sin—sanctification— and what my heart longs for and is confident in is that He has promised to save me from the very presence of sin—glorification. How then can I trust in any other means than what He has said is more sure?

God has saved me. God has given me His Word. It is enough!

Grace and Peace

Soli Deo Gloria

April J. Buchanan