2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith Exhortation, Sunday January 9, 2022
“This little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule, or code of faith, whereby you are to be fettered, but as an assistance to you in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification in righteousness. Here the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity in small compass, and by means of the scriptural proofs, will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them.”
—Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Isaiah 8:20 – To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to God’s word, it is because they have no dawn.
In many circumstances in life a second opinion is a good thing. To have multiple sources of input or evidence may lead to a wise choice or a better outcome. If you are wondering where you should take your car to be worked on or maybe if you should undergo a medical procedure or what career path in college to choose. Certainly, these are decision that require prayer, counsel, and wisdom. These are the kinds of decisions that we make every day and therefore gathering multiple sources or authorities is prudent.
However, when it comes to the Holy Scripture, the Word of God alone is sufficient and certain. We do not need another authority for faith and obedience. We need only to ask what does the Word of God tell us? What does God’s Word say? We do not need any other authority or validation. The light of nature, reason, intuition, or our feelings do not add to the sufficiency or authority to God’s Word. In matters of faith and obedience, we need not ask what our neighbor thinks or what we feel to obey. We need only to find what God’s Word directs.
The authority and sufficiency of the Word of God becomes the foundation for all knowledge and wisdom. In matters of faith and obedience one needs only to consult God’s Word. In other matters, the Word of God is a foundation. One may choose to go to graduate school or drop out of school and start a business but all the education in the world cannot speak to what education and vocation for. What is its purpose? Obedience to the Word of God in matters of faith is the foundation for life, science, vocation, and all wisdom in the Word. The Word of God is the only sufficient foundation up on which we may build a life worth living.
Romans 15:4 - For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Ask yourself this morning, in matters of faith and obedience do you appeal only to the authority of God’s Word? As you gather around your table this week ask one another, how does the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God affect your day-to-day decisions? How is God’s Word foundational to every inch of life?