A High View of Scripture - Part 2

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You know, most people in our culture think that we are unique, that the things happening in our culture are something innovative and new. The truth is, our culture is extremely Roman, extremely Greek. For example, most first-century cities where Paul ministered had theaters and regular theater productions. As I thought about that, I wanted to ask you just for a moment to imagine the apostle Paul in Ephesus, deciding that, for his summer series, he wasn’t going to preach the Word of God, he was going to invite actors from the local Greek theater to come in and to put on a scene from one of the leading plays, that were playing at the time. And then he would exegete that play, see if he could find something that was related to God in it. Now, if you're familiar with Paul in the New Testament, you know that is completely unthinkable to him.

Compare that to a ten second internet search I did this week that led me to a long list of churches across America whose summer series were entitled “At the Movies.” I’m not making this up, here's one example from a large multi-site church's website about their summer series, “During ‘At the Movies,’ we’ll watch scenes from powerful movies in church, and Pastor Craig will use them to teach us more about God, ourselves, and the life that’s possible for us. Our locations go all out, transforming the lobbies into movie sets from your favorite movies and creating photo ops and other fun for your family.”

As I read that, I thought, imagine the irony of that. We have a book given to us by God Himself, but instead, let's ignore that book and let's exegete a movie. That series tells you everything you need to know about that church's view of God, and also their view of the Scripture: they have zero confidence in the Scripture to do what God sent it to do.

This summer, we're studying our church’s two non-negotiable distinctives, they’re on the wall out in the lobby. First of all, a high view of God, and by that, we mean that we hold three biblical truths about God very dearly. One is that God alone is great in His being. Two, God alone is sovereign over all things. And three, God alone is sovereign in our salvation. We have a high view of God and that’s what we mean.

A couple of weeks ago, we began to consider our second distinctive and that is a high view of Scripture. And we're answering two crucial questions about that phrase. Last time, we considered the question, “What does it mean?” I looked with you at 2 Timothy 3, and the beginning of chapter 4. And in that passage, we learned that a high view of Scripture means that, like Paul, we believe in inspiration. Scripture alone is inspired by God, Scripture alone is the product of the breath of God. They're His words, just as my words are the product of my breath. Secondly, we believe in relevancy. Scripture alone is beneficial, profitable in all times and in all places to all people. There is nothing else I can share with you that would be more beneficial, more profitable, more relevant than the Scripture. Thirdly, we believe in sufficiency. Scripture alone is sufficient for every spiritual need. And then finally, we discovered that we believe in authority: Scripture alone is the ultimate authority in all things.

Now today, I want to answer a second important question about our high view of Scripture, and that is: How is it demonstrated, how is it expressed, how is it manifest? I mean, after all, many churches claim to believe in the Scripture, they claim to believe in its inspiration. So how can you know if a church, if we as a church, truly have a high view of Scripture? Well, let me give you a little list from the Scriptures that will help you understand how that’s demonstrated. Because we as a church believe that Scripture is inspired, breathed out by God, that it is eternally relevant, that it is totally sufficient, that it is utterly authoritative; because we believe those things about Scripture, we have made as a church several key commitments. Let me share them with you, and I believe that all churches that truly believe those realities about the Scripture, those qualities of Scripture, will ultimately make these same commitments.

Number one, Scripture is central in the worship of our church. Imagine with me for a moment that God Himself sent word to us as a church that He planned to be here personally next Sunday, and that He planned to speak to us. How do you think, in the week before us, we would structure next week's service? What would be the priority in that service? It would be making room and space for God to speak to us, since He has come among us. That's exactly what the New Testament says happens every time one of the gifted men that Christ has given His church, Ephesians 4, teaches God's Word. You see, if I'm preaching the Word of God to you, if I'm explaining the Scriptures, and if I've been qualified to do that by the Scripture and recognized by other godly men that that's my role, the role that Christ has given me, then when I speak God's words, when I teach and explain that to you, it's as if God Himself is speaking to you through me.

Since God has spoken in this book, the church's worship should be centered in the Scripture. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 4. You remember this book was written by Paul to Timothy, his son in the faith, to tell him how to conduct himself in the church. Paul wanted to come, but he said, In case I'm delayed, I've written this so that you'll know how to conduct yourself in the church, the household of God. Here's what it should be like, verse 11, “Prescribe and teach these things.” Now watch verse 13, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and teaching.” Don't neglect the spiritual gift that you've been given. Use it. Verse 15, “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.”

That is a command not only to Timothy but to all pastors and elders in New Testament churches. But look at verse 13, what is the focus when the church gathers? Timothy's chief assignments, according to verse 13, when the church gathered publicly, were: number one, read the Scripture, number two, teach or explain the Scripture, and number three, exhort or apply the Scripture. That was his assignment, that's my assignment. That's the assignment of every true elder and pastor in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the text, explain the text, apply the text. Read the text, explain the text, apply the text. And repeat. That's our job. That's the focus of corporate worship.

You see, every other element of corporate worship originates with us and is addressed to God. But when we read the Scripture, when we hear God's Word taught, we are hearing and witnessing a divine work. In the other elements of worship, we speak to God, but through the Word, God speaks to us. That's why Martin Luther, speaking on behalf of all of the other Reformers, writes this: "The greatest and principal purpose of every church service is to preach and teach God's Word."

In a biblical church, the corporate worship will center in the reading and teaching and applying of the Bible instead of countless substitutes, including movies. Where there's biblical worship, the Word will be primary: the focus of the service will be Scripture, and the focus of the sermon will be Scripture. Let me say that again: the focus of the service will be the Scripture, and the focus of the sermon will be the reading and the explaining of Scripture.

Years ago, I remember being sorely upset, profoundly distressed, by watching a local megachurch pastor preach a sermon. First of all, the message was only 20 minutes of an hour service. But more troubling than that was in the 20 minutes that he was devoting to teach, he cited only three verses of Scripture, and he didn't even explain those verses. He just read them and moved on. In fact, I would say the portion of his message that was given to the Scripture couldn't have been more than a minute to a minute and a half, and the rest of his 20 minutes were spent with his own thoughts. They were disconnected from the texts he read. There's a man with a very low view of Scripture. Where there is a high view of Scripture, God's Word will be central both to the church's worship and to the pastor's sermon.

There's a second commitment we've made because of our belief in the Scripture, and that is that Scripture determines the elements of our worship. The only acceptable means of worshiping God are those means that the Scripture prescribes. This principle, sometimes called by theologians the regulative principle, grows out of sola scriptura. That is, Scripture alone is the ultimate authority. Since the Bible is the ultimate authority of faith, what we believe and practice, what we do and how we live, then Scripture alone determines how we worship God. This principle is laid down in the second commandment, back in Exodus chapter 20. You remember, God speaks from Mount Sinai and gives us the Ten Commandments. The first commandment we all know, right? "You shall have no other gods before Me." Don't worship any god but the true and living God. The second commandment comes in Exodus 20:4-5, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” Verse 5, “You shall not worship them or serve them.” Now, a lot of people think that's just a repeat of the first commandment: don't worship other gods. Second commandment: don't worship other gods. Not at all. You see, the first commandment says don't worship other gods.

The second commandment says don't worship God any way you choose. How do I know that? Well, in Deuteronomy 4:15, as Moses repeats God's law and he talks about this one—that you shouldn't make an idol—he says this, “You did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire [at Sinai.]” Since you didn't see a form, God doesn't have a form: don't worship Him with a form. Don't decide how you're going to worship God.  The regulative principle tells us that unprescribed forms of the worship of God—the second commandment—are actually idolatry. So the regulative principle then asks: where does Scripture command or sanction this practice in worship? And if it doesn't—if you can't point to a chapter and verse that says this is okay to do in worship—then you don't do it, because it's idolatry. You're making up your own way to worship God.

That's why our corporate worship as a church includes only the seven biblically mandated elements of worship. You understand, we only do in this church, in our corporate worship, what the Bible commands us to do, and we don't include anything else. That's why, even to kind of stress that—not that we have to do this—but to sort of stress that, we move the announcements up front so that once we start, this is what God has prescribed. This is what we're commanded to do. So we only include the elements that God has commanded. 

You know, I didn't wake up one morning and go, "Let's do this in our services." The elders didn't wake up and say, "Oh, let's do this." No. This is what God's commanded. Here it is: First of all, we sing the Scripture, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. We sing lyrics rooted in the truth of Scripture. Number two, we pray the Scripture. Our prayers are our response to the Scripture. 1 Timothy 2, when the church gathers, Paul says, have prayer. Thirdly, we read the Scripture. We saw that in 1 Timothy 4:13. Number four, we teach the Scripture. That's also in 1 Timothy 4:13 and 2 Timothy 4:2. Number five, we give free-will offerings so Scriptural worship is supported and extended; that’s 1 Corinthians 16, where Paul says, do this on the first day of the week when you gather, and 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Of course, Philippians 4 talks about supporting the ministry as well. And then two elements—the last two elements—the truth of Scripture is acted out in them. Number six is we baptize believers, as our Lord commanded in Matthew 28, as we see played out in the book of Acts. And number seven, we take the Lord's Table, 1 Corinthians 11, we're commanded to do it until He comes. That's what Scripture prescribes to be included in the corporate worship: all of those and nothing else. That's why we do what we do.

Now, the fact that those are divine directives for our worship adds a kind of solemnity, a gravitas to what we're doing here. This is what God told us to do. But it also adds a great joy, because we know that when we do these things with the right heart, the right attitude, that God is pleased, He's honored because this is what He said should be done.

A third commitment we've made in light of our view of Scripture is that Scripture is handled with great diligence, respect, and care. Where there's a high view of Scripture, the Bible will not only be central in the services, but will be studied diligently and interpreted carefully in its biblical context. Turn to 2 Timothy 2:14, Paul says, again writing to a pastor, writing to Timothy—this is what you need to do in church. He says, verse 14, I want you to remind your members of these things so that they don't get carried away with false teaching. Verse 14, “Solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.” He’s talking about what the false teachers were doing, as you can see throughout the context of 1 and 2 Timothy. Don't do that, instead, Timothy, here's your focus, verse 15, "Be diligent." That word implies concerted, wholehearted effort. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.” How do you do that? What’s he talking about? Look at the last phrase of verse 15, “You do this by accurately handling the word of truth.” In Greek, literally, it says "cutting straight the word of truth." Paul borrows a metaphor from his trade as a tentmaker and from other trades. You know, if you're in a trade and you're cutting a piece of lumber, you need to cut a straight line. And that's what Paul is saying to Timothy here. He's saying, “Timothy, be diligent to handle the Scripture carefully. Cut a straight line, interpret it accurately. Be committed to precision, be committed to complete and total accuracy in how you handle the Word of God.”

Listen carefully; when a pastor uses the Bible to say what that pastor wants to say rather than what the biblical author intended to say, that man and that church has a low view of Scripture. Doesn't matter if he's right,  doesn't matter if he's not speaking heresy; if he makes a biblical text say what it doesn't say, then he has a low view of Scripture, because he's treating that like it's not really important, it's not God's words. In that same 20-minute message I mentioned a few minutes ago, of the three verses that the pastor did quote, only one of them was interpreted in its context. The other two were wrested from their context to say exactly what he wanted to say. You ever wonder why pastors sometimes use all kinds of different versions of the Bible? Sometimes there's help from that—it helps you understand something a little better. But often, it's because they find one that says it the way they want to say it. It's about them, it's not about what the Bible says. 

John Broadus writes, "It is so common to think that whatever kindles the imagination and touches the heart must be good preaching, and so easy to insist that the doctrines of the sermon are in themselves true and scriptural, though they may not be actually taught in that text, that preachers often lose sight—listen to this—of their fundamental and inexcusable error: of saying that a passage of God’s Word means what it does not mean.” It’s the highest form of arrogance to pull verses out of their God-breathed context to make them say what God didn't intend for them to say. Now listen very carefully, because this is where a lot of people get confused. A church has a high view of Scripture not simply because there's a talk somewhere during the service that is related to the Bible. That's not a high view of Scripture. To be a church, there's going to be some version of that likely. No, what constitutes a high view of Scripture is if you leave that service understanding the authorial intent of the biblical passage that they studied. That shows a high view of Scripture. Where there's a high view of Scripture, those who teach will carefully and diligently study. Because I have a high view of Scripture, I'm not going to go to my study at 8:00 on Saturday night and say, "I guess I should think about what I ought to say tomorrow, and what is it I want to say, and let me find a couple of verses that support it." We're committed to a diligent study of the text.

A fourth commitment that we have because of our view of Scripture is that Scripture is taught using biblical language. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2, I love this passage. Paul is unfolding the reality of revelation, that God has spoken, and then he gets to inspiration, how God has revealed Himself. Notice what he says in verse 13, “We also speak.” He's here talking about, we speak in revelation—we speak the words of God, the inspired words of God. And notice what he says, “Not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” That book you hold in your hand is not merely the thoughts of God, it is the words of God. And because God gave us not only general ideas but also specific words, we're committed to using those words, to using biblical language. That means in this church and other faithful churches, you're going to hear biblical words like: sin, sanctify, justify, glorify. We love and seek to understand terms like propitiation, redemption, ransom, and salvation. 

Why? Well, first of all, because we think you're smart enough to understand them. Honestly, I think a lot of pastors treat their members like they're stupid. Sorry parents, I shouldn't say that probably, but they do. They act like they can't handle anything, "I have to spoon-feed them this sort of mushed-up peas like babies get because they're not bright enough to get anything beyond that." Look, I believe you're bright enough. I believe when it's explained, you can understand God and His Word. But more than that, we use biblical language because God Himself used those words. They're His words, and you need to understand them. In fact, the decline of a church can be traced to its use—or failure to use—biblical language. One theologian explains it like this, he says, “When a first-generation church is really healthy, it teaches biblical truth in biblical language. But as that church begins to decline, at first its pastors continue to teach the same biblical truth—they just do so intentionally in non-biblical, secular language.” It's like, you know what? That sounds kind of dated. I need to help God a bit and update His language a bit. So I'm just going to freshen Him up. I'm not going to use those old, tired words. “The third generation of pastors typically begins to abandon key elements of biblical truth. And then, in its final state of decline, a church's pastors abandon the truth altogether.” That's the progression. So make no mistake, when you go into a church and they're afraid to use biblical words like sin, justify, glorify—not only do they think their people are less than bright, but they are on the skids toward the ultimate rejection of the truth itself. Because we have a high view of Scripture, we're committed to using biblical language—God's language. 

A fifth commitment is that Scripture is normally, consistently taught following the biblical pattern of consecutive exposition. That doesn't mean there can't be topical sermons or series—obviously, I'm doing that this summer—but normally, consistently, we're following the biblical example of teaching expositionally. There are examples of topical messages in the Bible, and that's why it's okay. But the consistent, normal pattern was consecutive exposition. You can see this pattern begin with the ministry of Moses. Moses laid the foundation for consecutive exposition, listen carefully, by the consecutive reading of God's Word at Mount Sinai. Exodus 24:7 says Moses took the Book of the Covenant—this was the book he was commanded to write by God, taking the words God had shared with him on the mountain and putting them in written form; Moses read them. Don't misunderstand—he didn't read a verse here and a verse there; he read it consecutively from beginning to end what God had revealed. 

Then Moses established a pattern of consecutive exposition 40 years later with the first recorded sermon series in the Bible. Do you know what that is? It's the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 1:1, “These are the words which Moses spoke.” Then Deuteronomy 1:5 explains the contents of the book of Deuteronomy, “Moses undertook to expound,” or explain “this [God’s] law.” Moses set out not only to read the law of God consecutively but to explain it. The sermons in Deuteronomy are Moses' exposition of God's law. What I love about that is that Moses was God's instrument not only to initiate written revelation, but also to set the pattern for all future biblical preaching.

We see this same pattern in Old Testament corporate worship. The Old Testament worship of Israel was centered in the reading and the preaching of God's Word. Most Christians don't understand this—they think the Old Testament is just about the sacrificial system. Not at all. God commanded the descendants of Levi to teach His Word. Deuteronomy 33:10, “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, and Your law to Israel.” Do you realize that the priests only spent two weeks a year at the temple maintaining the sacrificial system, but 50 weeks a year were spread across the land of Israel teaching God's people on the Sabbath, God's Word? That was the focus of their lives and ministries. 

Some of the Levites were also scribes, the most famous of which was Ezra. And Ezra's ministry is a model of the proper use of the Word of God in worship. The Levites had neglected their duty to teach God's Word, so Ezra set out to correct it. The account of his reform is recorded for us in Nehemiah. Turn back to Nehemiah chapter 8, this is an incredibly important passage. This was what the worship of God was like in Old Testament Israel—or should have been like, verse 1, “And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly” of all those who could understand it.” Verse 3, “He read from it before the square which is in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday.” Now in verse 4, we begin to see some of the elements that we still have today. Verse 4, “Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for this purpose.” Why do you think we have a wooden pulpit, not a plexiglass plant stand? I mean, maybe that's a bit overdone, but you get my point. Notice verse 5, “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people.” He was on a platform like this because it pictured something. It wasn't just so he could be seen, it pictured the reality that God was speaking His words through the man He had chosen to His people. And the focus wasn't Ezra's words—it was the Scripture. Verse 7, middle of the verse, says, “The Levites explained the Law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” They read God's Word, and they explained God's Word, and they applied God's Word. They read the text, explained the text, applied the text. It's the same pattern.

This was the pattern of Old Testament corporate worship. That same pattern was true in the Jewish synagogues that arose during the 400 silent years between the Testaments and into the New Testament era. Consider Jewish synagogue worship; in Acts 15:21, here's how James describes it, “Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” What did they do? They did what Moses did. They read the Bible, they explained the Bible. Acts 13:15, “After the reading of the Law and the Prophets” in the synagogue, “the synagogue officials sent to them [Paul], saying, ‘Brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.’” They read the Bible, they explained the Bible, they applied the Bible—not always well, mind you—but this was the practice in Old Testament times and in the synagogues of the first century.

This was also the pattern of our Lord's teaching ministry; this happened in the life of our Lord. A key part of Jesus' ministry was teaching in synagogues every Sabbath. Matthew 4:23, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues.” Jesus told Pilate, "I always taught in synagogues.” Turn to Luke chapter 4, let me show you how this is punctuated. Luke 4:14, it says that “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.” Now verse 15 explains the focus of His ministry, “He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all” all around Galilee. Go down to verse 44, because here we learn that this was Jesus' regular practice, “He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea." So Jesus often taught during the week at all kinds of different venues, we have some of those famous sermons recorded in the Gospels. But the primary focus of Jesus' teaching ministry, week in and week out, was preaching in the synagogues. Why is that important? Because He participated in the normal routine of synagogue worship. And what was that? We just saw it—the consecutive reading and exposition of God's Word. Jesus was an expositor. He went into synagogues where, week after week, they read the next text in the Law and the Prophets, and then someone got up and explained it. That's what Jesus did. Jesus did what I attempt to do—not nearly as well—week in and week out. He trained His disciples to do the same thing. Mark chapter 3, He appointed twelve, verse 14 says, so “that He could send them out to preach.” That was the focus of their ministries. They also, as you know from the book of Acts, where did they start? They went to synagogues, where the next text was read, and they explained it and applied it. 

New Testament elders and pastors have the same pattern required of us. Paul demanded that New Testament elders read the text, explain the text, and apply the text. We just saw that in 1 Timothy 4:13 and 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word.” So the Word, folks, has always been central in the worship of God. And it is the key element of worship that informs the others. The others are very important, but the Word of God informs them. In addition, preaching has most commonly been the systematic, consecutive reading, explanation, and application of God's Word. That's why that's our commitment.

A sixth commitment that flows from our view of Scripture is that Scripture is interpreted using a literal, grammatical, historical hermeneutic. Hermeneutic just is the principles of interpretation we use: literal, grammatical, historical. You see, every biblical text has only one unchangeable meaning. There may be many applications, but only one meaning. And how do we know that? It's determined solely by the intent of the human author and ultimately the Holy Spirit. This is just the way it works. I mean, if you were to get a letter—and we don't get many letters anymore—but if you were to get a letter, you don't open that letter and look for many different kinds of meanings and sort of whatever meanings you want. No, your job as the reader of that letter is to try to understand what the person who wrote it meant. In the same way, the biblical text has only one meaning, and it's determined by the intent of the author. We are originalists—both with the U.S. Constitution and with the Bible. We believe that what matters is what the original author meant; that meaning is expressed in words and grammar. 

Jesus affirmed this, in Matthew 22:29, Jesus said to the spiritual leaders of Israel, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures.” Jesus said, “You’ve misunderstood what the writer intended.” And when Jesus said that, He was affirming both that a passage has only one meaning, and that you can understand it. In 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter writes: 

"Our beloved brother Paul…wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." 

Peter argues in that text that Paul's letters are to be interpreted in keeping with Paul's intent. And to conclude anything other than what Paul intended is to what? Distort the Scriptures. That's why we determine the meaning of a passage of Scripture by interpreting it, we say, literally. Don't be scared by that word. That doesn't mean we don't believe there are figures of speech in the Bible—of course there are, just like in all literature. What we really mean when we say literally, we mean normally. You should use the same normal rules for interpreting any literature in order to arrive at the author's meaning. To arrive at that meaning, we determine the meaning by looking at the words, the grammar, and the history. That's why this is called the grammatical-historical method. As with other literature, we interpret the Bible in its simplest, most literal sense unless there's evidence in the context to the contrary. So, this is how we interpret the Bible. It's not a mystical book, it's not a Ouija board where you can just kind of pull out verses and make them say what you want them to say. It has context and should be interpreted as such.

A seventh commitment that we've made is Scripture alone determines what we believe about contemporary issues. A high view of Scripture compels us to believe what Scripture says about all contemporary issues. And that's true even when a normal reading of Scripture disagrees with the prevailing views of the majority—whether Christian or secular. Let me just give you a few examples. Because we believe the Bible and we interpret it the way I just said, here's what we believe about creation. We believe Genesis is a straightforward, literal presentation of the historical events it describes. We teach, therefore, that God created everything in six literal days; that's what the Bible teaches. 

What about the role of women? Both men and women bear the image of God, and those in Christ enjoy equal spiritual standing before God. But Scripture teaches that God has assigned them different roles. In the home, the husband is to be the gracious, loving head, and the wife is to submit to her husband's leadership. There are many ways that women can and should teach and serve in the church, but Scripture forbids women from teaching and leading men or in any way exercising authority over men in the context of the church. That's what the Scripture says. 

The gift of tongues; we believe the gift of tongues was the miraculous, God-given capacity to communicate revelation in human languages the speaker had never learned or studied. That was in order to validate the gospel message the apostles taught, and to establish the early church. We believe, therefore, that ecstatic outbursts and private prayer languages share nothing in common with the New Testament gift of tongues and are patently unbiblical.

Human sexuality. We believe God created only two genders: male and female. The genders of Adam and Eve were established by God and defined by their physiological sex at creation. After creation, God determines the gender of other humans by their physiological sex at birth. All attempts to redefine human sexuality beyond the physiological male-female distinction, whether framed biologically or culturally, and all attempts to change one's birth gender are sinful rebellion against our Creator. Marriage; we believe that as the architect of marriage, God alone has the right to define it. And He has denied it in His Word as a formal, official, and permanent covenant between one male and one female.

Now those are just a few examples. But where there's a high view of Scripture, the first question on every issue will always be: What does the Bible say? If you're a Christian committed to God and to His Word—if you believe these are God's words to us—then that's the first place you will go to decide where you're going to stand on the issues of our time. Let God be true, we sang it a few minutes ago: "Let God be true, and every man a liar."

Now, as a church, we're committed to a high view of Scripture. But as an individual believer, you should be as well. You say, "Tom, listen, I'm here. I'm at Countryside Bible Church. Of course I have a high view of Scripture." Well, not so fast. Let me give you a little test. All right, let's see just how high your view of Scripture is. Are you committed to churches where God's Word is central in the corporate worship and the pastor's sermon? Or do you have other priorities in choosing a church? Number two, are you committed to churches where God's Word is treated with respect, carefulness, and diligence? Do you have a desire and appetite for the expositional teaching of God's Word, the way it's been taught since Moses? Number four, do you daily read, study, and meditate on God's Word? Number five, do you come to Scripture searching not for a devotional thought but for the author's original intended meaning? Number six, do you study the Scripture to determine what you should believe about contemporary controversial issues? And number seven, do you daily seek to obey God's Word in all of life? Are you committed to obeying what God has said in His Word?

That's the test. If you can say yes to all seven of those, you have a high view of Scripture. If you can't honestly say yes to all of them, then you need to go home and recommit yourself to a truly high view of God's Word. So now when you walk through the lobby of this worship center and you see those two phrases on the wall, you'll understand what we mean when we say that we have—and we want you individually to have—a high view of God and a high view of Scripture.

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the amazing treasure of Your Word. Forgive us, O God, forgive us for not taking it as seriously as we should, for not loving it and learning it and living it as we should. Lord, help us to defend it, help us to stand for its truth. And help us to pass it on to the next generation. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.