[0:00] I'll turn back to the chapter we had. It's looking at a few verses. 2 Peter chapter 3. We're carrying on our study and confession.
[0:10] But for our scriptural basis, 2 Peter chapter 3. We take verse 15 and verse 16.
[0:23] And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of his matters.
[0:35] There are some things in them which are hard to understand, which we ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as we do via our scriptures. Last week we had a heavy session.
[0:49] I think it's fair to say we covered a lot of heavy ground. We went through in one half hour, 40 minutes, the whole of the translation history of the Old and New Testament, which is good going.
[1:02] I do say so myself for us in one half hour session. We'll be a lot lighter tonight. Not because we've got a meeting afterwards, but it's part of the reason. But we come up now to section 6 and section 7, which are no less worthy of time.
[1:19] But they really just tell us what we know already. But they're there to remind us and to encourage us. Quite simply, and our title for this sermon could be the section of a confession.
[1:32] What does the Bible teach? What does the Bible teach? Now, of course, that's an obvious question. I could, I won't, but we could go around one by one just now and ask, what does the Bible teach?
[1:43] How would you summarise what the Bible teaches? But this section, and two short very sections, section 6, section 7, a confession, asks or answers the question, what does the Bible teach?
[1:56] But also, how do we go about applying that? It's one thing, perhaps, knowing what the Bible says, but how do we then actually apply that?
[2:07] What does it look like to then live out Christian lives that reflect what it is God's Word is actually telling us to be or to do? So first of all, looking at section 6 together, what does the Bible actually teach?
[2:25] And quite succinctly, the confession tells us, I'll read it because it's brief, What does the Bible teach?
[2:49] Well, for all the answers we could give, the confession summarises it quite well into four areas. Scripture teaches us everything we have to know about God's glory.
[3:04] Now, it's most obvious at this point that Scripture doesn't tell us everything there is to know about it. It's everything we have to know about it.
[3:16] God's glory is far more than they can be contained in any work or any ten works or any thousands of pieces of writing.
[3:27] God's glory is infinite. We can't describe it fully. Scripture does not give a full explanation as aware of God's glory. It cannot. Mortal man cannot receive nor understand the fullness of God's glory.
[3:42] But it gives us, as the confession says, all we have to know. All we have to know. All things necessary.
[3:52] It gives us the important facts and figures, the important information, the important reality about who God is. And we know that from Genesis to Revelation.
[4:04] Every sentence, every verse, every interaction, every time and way God shows himself, God speaks. The very Scripture itself, it shows us in thousands of countless ways, God's glory.
[4:24] Are we ourselves, as Christians, when we read Scripture, do we not? You find yourself at times getting lost in the glory of who God is. And sometimes you'll read a passage and you've read it a thousand times.
[4:37] Even for myself, if I'm going to preach in a passage, you'll read it a thousand times and you'll put your sermon together and get the sermon points and you're praying through it all. But then, say a month later, I'll read the same passage, just in my own private devotions.
[4:50] And all of a sudden, you're just overcome with a sense of God's glory and God's majesty and God's eternality. I think, wow. There's more to this even simple book of ink and paper than we ever begin to understand this side of eternity.
[5:06] It reveals what is necessary for us to know about God's glory. It leaves plenty of questions unanswered. Of course it does. We're dealing in mortal things.
[5:17] We're dealing in a bit of book, a bit of paper, with the eternal God. It's His revealed, His living word, yes, but we are human. And this side of glory, we can only ever understand so much.
[5:32] But Scripture gives us all we have to know. His glory. Scripture also tells us everything we have to know about our salvation. Man's salvation, mankind's salvation.
[5:46] All we have to know, quite simply, to be saved is found in Scripture. And we know that. We all grow up knowing that. It's what we've been hearing and what we're taught all the way through our years in church.
[6:01] But there's something beautiful about that. Think for a second how different that is to so many of the world's religions. So many of the cults of this world.
[6:12] So many of the other belief systems of this world. Not that what we believe is the same, but just take it on paper. Everything you have to know to be saved is contained in these pages.
[6:26] There's no secret initiation. There's no song or dance. There's no levels to your Christianity. It's not like you become saved and then you become an elder and you get given a separate secret book only elders have.
[6:39] Or when you become a minister you get some secret laying on of hands which then gives you a secret knowledge. No. We all have the same book. We all have the same access to the same book. The only difference is and this is a good quote this is a Bob Ackroyd quote.
[6:54] The only difference between a minister and his congregation in many ways which are calling and everything else but is a minister has the time to study which those in the congregation just don't have.
[7:07] Again Bob is very blunt. He's very American. He's very simple to the fact. Gentlemen, you're getting paid to read the Bible make the most of it. In other words what separates to use the wrong word there a minister's congregation is I've got time.
[7:24] You're paying me. The church is paying me to spend time in God's word. There's no secret revelation that the minister receives that isn't open to other Christians.
[7:35] to believe that is to go against the very basics of reformed thinking. That's almost Catholic in its roots and that's a different chat for a different section of the confession.
[7:46] But reformers are big on that. There is no secret knowledge given to some believers over others. Now of course it comes through study. It comes through time with the Lord. There's different levels of understanding. But in short we all have the same Bible.
[8:00] It's all in front of us. The same access to this information. All we have to know about salvation is found in God's word. We're all equal before the word of God.
[8:14] All we have to know also about faith. All we need to know to trust in the Lord to have that real living faith in the Lord is to be found in scripture.
[8:26] Of course we all have different circumstances. The Lord deals with us all differently. Some of us have stories that are so perhaps dark and so difficult. Others here perhaps we've had easier lives of it.
[8:39] But God uses means, yes. And God uses different ways to build our faith and to help us to grow in faith. But again we all come in the same way to God's word. It teaches us everything we have to know to trust in him.
[8:53] It's not about secret revelations. It's not about extra-biblical revelations. It's all about God's living word and what it teaches us. His glory our salvation faith and finally quite simply confession just sums up by saying life.
[9:09] All things we need to understand and know about life. Well it's a broad question a broad topic. And again scripture we'll see in a second scripture is not an encyclopedia it's not there to give us facts and figures of what times it does.
[9:25] What it does if they are correct but that's not the purpose it serves. It is there to teach us always know how to live a life that glorifies God. When you ask the question how do I live a life that pleases God that glorifies God it's not some secret answer it is revealed to us in the life of Christ it is recorded in scripture revealed to us in the life and the dealings of the prophets and God's people over the years both good and bad either as a lesson to follow a life to follow really or a lesson on how not to live your life it's all there all contained his glory our salvation our faith and our life the four glorious purposes of scripture within that there's hundreds and thousands of other reasons we could find but as four broad overarching reasons that's enough for one lifetime I would argue to work with so that's what scripture teaches these four categories these four areas the next question then logically to be asked is how do we actually understand scripture if it teaches these four things then how do we begin to understand it well confession gives us two main ways two overarching principles of how we understand what scripture teaches quite simply first of all the first category is those things which are expressly set down in scripture the very as it were basics of what we believe for anything but basics but the very basics the very foundation block of what we believe who God is who his son is what Christ has done for us the very basics of scripture the very building blocks the very foundations of our faith the things which are expressly set down we could well we have tried to codify to collect to group these things the apostles creed and the seene creed and all these things up to our own confession that are work trying to make clear that God's word is clear about what God's word is very clear about there are some things which when you argue with it puts you outside of the faith of course we have different denominations and different groupings we're not talking about that we're saying do you believe that Christ for example to give a recent example do you believe that Christ was created if you say yes to that well done you're no longer out of the faith you're now so far out of the faith you're now
[12:08] JW or Mormon or Islamic or something else but you're no longer part of the faith the very essentials the very basics that is expressly clearly set down in scripture that's understandable we're in the second level here of understanding those things which can be it says here deduced by good and necessary consequence can be deduced from scripture these are things which scripture clearly teaches if it doesn't perhaps clearly express it in one singular way the best example is the trinity where in scripture do we find the trinity even being called that of course we don't we won't that exact word it's a common if you ever speak to someone who belongs to the islamic faith they speak to a muslim even a mormon a jw they love asking you well you believe in a bible where it says god is free and three persons one god you believe that you see yes i do well where in the bible does it say it where is the word trinity in the bible and they love that one where is the word trinity i don't know the word isn't there does the word have to be there no because the very doctrine of our trinitarian theology is not based on the appearance of a word no it's based on the whole of scripture time and again from genesis to revelation we see god reveals himself as a trinitarian god father son and spirit all the way through there's a thousand studies to be done there there's thousands upon thousands of textual parts that shows us god one god three persons we know that that can be deduced by good and necessary consequence it's an inescapable truth that we see when we look at the whole of scripture fine so far so good what about now everything else how do we understand how do we teach how do we learn everything else if that's the essentials that's the basics what about every other single thing we want to see and do and learn about from scripture well thankfully for us this is summarized for us here quite beautifully the confession gives us three areas in which we find these issues arising three areas in which we have to ask well what does the confession what does scripture actually teach us about x y or z these are issues of church government these are issues of worship and these are issues of human society when it comes to church government how do we order our churches how do we worship god well how do we order ourselves and how do we plan out our services and how do we seek to serve god in this world when it comes to worship how do we worship god in a way that glorifies him that pleases him that gives him ultimate glory and human actions and societies how as
[15:29] Christians do we live in their everyday life at work and study how do we go about our villages being Christians what does that look like how do we understand these things basically how are we Christians at home in public in church how should our lives be ordered how should our churches be ordered these are areas we could say are often described as areas of secondary issues they are still vitally important to call them secondary isn't to make them less important but it's just to qualify that there are those in Christ's kingdom and those in the church who believe very differently from us in these things ourselves and a Baptist for example we will believe two very different things in general about the covenantal nature of the scripture two very different things more often than not about church government and of course two very different things about how
[16:31] God reveals that covenant explicitly in the baptism of children of babies are they therefore not part of the kingdom because we disagree with them on these issues oh no I certainly hope not they have the essentials they believe the essentials they love the Lord as we do and so on but their understanding of church government their understanding of worship and the time their understanding of their place in society as Christians it is so different sometimes to our own question then is how do we understand these things what guidance does the confession give us drawing from scripture how do we begin to understand the bits in the Bible that we differ on with others how do we come to our own conclusions we have three ways of doing that first of all the light of nature we covered this before didn't we that innate divinity that is placed inside us as God breathes into us as God brings us to life that innate sense of divinity that innate understanding of who God is of course as Christians then that is made use of as the spirit comes and tabernacles in us as he makes his home in us it leads us and it guides us also and I always love this section the confession includes
[17:54] Christian prudence Christian common sense Christian understanding of the world to decide how you should do what you're doing there's no scripture passage in how we should run a prayer meeting there's no scripture passage in how often should we worship on the Lord's day there's no passage for ourselves on how to run a deacon's court you know what issues do we discuss first we use sanctified common sense Christian prudence God gives us divine light of nature he gives us a brain to think he gives us a thinking mind he gives us a spirit sanctified understanding of scripture of his word of his world yes we get it wrong of course we do but we're to go to that and think well how do we honour God in this situation and then we think just now what issues need to be discussed to keep the lights on in the church to keep things warm and comfortable for a crack session what issues need to be discussed to keep
[19:02] God's people growing in the Lord in church government what Bible translation do we use what scripture do we sing from again of course in our own denomination there is individual choices across Kirk sessions do you include man-made worship or not there is in a sense there is freedom in these things and there is Christian prudence in these things light of nature Christian common sense and finally general scripture principles what is the general whole of the Bible point towards which direction does it take us on these matters how do you understand what God is saying well we look to what the Bible says as a whole it sounds obvious it sounds simple it's certainly not if we were to decide to change Bible translation to what we won't but say we were if I woke up this morning and called him emergency car accession we're going to move now to
[20:10] XYZ translation and I had a great idea and I really wanted to I really enjoy that translation I think it's really just the best one our elders and your elders would be failing us all if they just went along with me wouldn't they if they think well fair enough we're glad you enjoyed it but why should we move the light of nature it tells them well that doesn't make sense we just changed recently why change again Christian prudence and common sense the congregation might revolt but to buy a whole set of new bibles that's a waste of time a waste of money it wouldn't make any sense and general scriptural principles is Donald's brand new translation he loves so much is it any better than what we have just now is God's word still clearly displayed in it if I wanted some Greek translation we all want to use then of course not silly example but it makes sense why does this matter to us well every day we live our lives as Christians every day we wake up every morning we go into the village spend time in our homes or go to work we have to think to ourselves how do I glorify God today well how do I bring him the most glory in what I say what I think what I do how do I decide what I believe about these things how I act about these things we have to ask ourselves is it clear in scripture if it is we believe it we trust in it can it be deduced through wider scripture principles yes if it is we believe it we do it and finally if these two things aren't quite there we say what does scripture say as a whole what does my own
[21:47] Christian common sense tell me that's how we apply these three levels to actually living out our faith day by day week by week if scripture doesn't give a clear answer to our questions look to the general whole if there is still nothing to our precise question we take it to the brothers and sisters light of nature general scripture principles and our own sanctified common sense god gives us a scripture we can understand just briefly that's what section 7 summarizes for us scripture can be understood we read in 2 Peter chapter 3 a great verse there as a younger believer I always wondered I always found it a bit strange that the lord included this verse when poor Peter says the congregation he's writing about Paul's writings second half of verse 16 there are some things in them that are hard to understand which ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction there's things that Peter himself is saying there's things in Paul's letters that we find very hard to understand we can't quite match
[23:03] Paul's ability and we struggle with parts of things he says not struggle in terms of unbelief but struggle that Paul was a lawyer writing great smart high level wording and high level syntax high level grammar of things and sometimes what Paul said was so smart it took a wee while for them to actually understand it and brothers and sisters I think we'd be lying to say there's times also we think and we struggle with things Paul writes in his letters how can that be true why is that there and the confession clears up for us all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor alike clear unto all there are mysteries in scripture there are things perhaps we will never understand there are sections we will have questions about for years if not decades if not all our lives even even our preaching here there are some sections in scripture where all the commentators many of them skip over it or just say we don't know what was before us didn't know the church fathers didn't know the reformers didn't know there's mystery in scripture and that's fine we're dealing with
[24:18] God's living word but it has to be mystery this is God's living word it can't be fully understood we said it those things which are necessary to be known believed and observed for salvation are clear in scripture there's bits we can chew into and we'll chew into them for all our lives but in order to be saved in order to grow as Christians to grow in our love and knowledge of the Lord these things are made clear to us and quite beautifully the confession makes clear to us here not one of us has an excuse the information in scripture that we have to know it says here is not only for the learned but also the unlearned who can using a due use of ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them who is scripture for is it just for those who know the history and the context and the culture it helps but no the very understanding of who
[25:30] God is and what salvation means for his people is there to be understood by his people God it it it is an arrogant faith and it is a puffed up of pride faith which will say you must have x amount of study in x amount of ways you must be learned in this or that to understand God's word truly no that's not just wrong it's against very reformation principles reformers would have no time for that kind of preaching that kind of teaching we saw last week the Greek and the Hebrew Bibles our three or four years studying the languages it's not there to give us some superpower and understanding scripture it just helps us with the nuance with the small bits and pieces which help us get a slightly better understanding in parts but a brand new Christian saved tonight can read say the gospel of
[26:32] John the same way do you remember dear sister that we can if we read the same scripture the same spirit as a work in us yes of course our understanding our knowledge our intellect grows over years of study over years of reading we're not saying that to grow we're
[30:33] reading every time we do so through his living word he reveals that bit more of himself to us again I'll close with the thing we always say but it's good to be repeated if our theology does not lead to doxology, then we're failing.
[30:52] If our study of God does not lead us to praise in God, we're failing. If every time we close a Bible that we have just now and we say, well, that was great.
[31:03] I learned absolutely nothing. The question is why? We just say, well, I perhaps don't understand all of that, but Lord, I praise you for your goodness to your people. I praise you how you maintained your people over the years.
[31:16] I praise you how you brought your people from darkness to light. I praise you for your dealings with Samson or Gideon or whoever else you're reading. Understand what you can, but praise God for all of it.
[31:30] And bit by bit, as we all know, he opens his word to us and he makes it beautiful to us. Very heads in that quick word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your word.
[31:41] We come this evening and we give you praise that we confess just like these early Christians. We confess just as Peter wrote. Sometimes parts of your word are unclear to us.
[31:55] Sometimes they're parts of your word which we simply have no understanding of. We give you praise that we come to you this evening, not to a cryptic God, not to a hidden God.
[32:06] We come to a God of light, a God of life. We come to a God who declares that all who come to you will be seen by you, but you know all. There is none beyond your understanding and none beyond your power.
[32:19] Lord, help us as we come around your word each time we do so in public and in private to open up your words to us, to open up, Lord, that the truths contained within to us.
[32:30] So even when we find it hard to read, we will still be blessed by the reading or the listening of it. Help us, Lord, for a timeless evening to leave this place having not just grown in understanding, but having grown in love.
[32:42] You're a God who has revealed yourself to us and you do so in ways that are manifestly understandable. We give you praise for that. We have a God who cares enough for us to make himself known.
[32:54] We ask for your help and your leading just now as we come to even lead this final item of praise. We give you praise that we can sing your praises from your word, knowing as we sing it, we do it without blemish, without fault.
[33:07] Yes, perhaps it may be many faults in our singing abilities as individuals, but as we sing your word back to you, there is no fault in the content of it. Help us, Lord, never to grow tired of doing so, praising you, our holy God.
[33:20] Ask all these things in and through and for Christ, his own precious name's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's conclude by singing in Gaelic. Sing in Gaelic.
[33:31] And sing in Psalm 16. Gaelic, Psalm 16. We can sing verses 5 and verse 6 of the psalm.
[33:53] Cairan moch oub, is mairoch iye, to hessas ho moch raan. Psalm 16, verses 5 and 6. To God's praise. Airoch iye, to hessas ho moch raan.
[34:31] O... Airoch iye, to hessas ho moch raan. Cairan moch raan. Airoch iye, to hessas ho moch raan.
[34:47] Now now now we yet New Dayykwohk wearkwoh aphkkkkkkkkkkkkk
[36:14] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit for you now and forevermore.
[36:49] Amen.