All-Sufficiency of the Bible

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Defend, from the character of God, why Scripture is sufficient for every spiritual need.
2. Name the four needs Paul says Scripture meets and how each is met.
3. Reject every supplement to Scripture — creed, council, or claimed new revelation — as both unnecessary and forbidden.

Thesis

Because God is all-wise, all-powerful, and good, He gave a book that completely supplies man's every spiritual need; Scripture is therefore sufficient, and the man of God equipped by it needs nothing added to it.

Burden

A congregation rarely denies the Bible outright. It simply acts as though the Bible were not quite enough — as though it needed a creed to organize it, a council to interpret it, a fresh word from heaven to update it, or the wisdom of the age to make it workable. Every one of those additions is a quiet vote of no confidence in God. Paul says the opposite: the Scriptures make the man of God complete, equipped for every good work. If that is true, then the question for us is whether we will trust the Book enough to stop reaching past it.

Introduction

Start with God, and the sufficiency of His book follows. He is all-wise, so He knows every need a man has. He is all-powerful, so He is able to supply it. He is good, so He is willing to supply it. A God like that does not leave His children half-equipped. Paul tells Timothy that "all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable" — and then names exactly what it is profitable for, ending with the claim that settles the matter: the man of God is thereby "equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Boles draws out how God gave this book and the four needs it meets.

I. The Bible Was Not Given All at Once — Yet It Is One Book (Heb. 1:1)

"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways" (Heb. 1:1), took some sixteen hundred years, from Genesis to Revelation, to give His word. He spoke at many different times through many different men, and yet it all harmonizes into one message. Mark Boles' careful statement about how this happened: inspiration does not make a truth truer than it already is; it guarded the writers so that they wrote only the truth, and all of it God intended. The unity of a book written across sixteen centuries is the fingerprint of the one Mind behind it — and the guarantee that what He gave is trustworthy and entire.

II. Scripture Meets the Four Needs of Man (2 Tim. 3:16)

Paul lists four uses, and Boles matches them to four needs every soul has:

1. The need of teaching. No creature is so ignorant at birth as man, and every class of every age needs knowledge of God. The word of God supplies it; a thorough knowledge of God is the education the soul most needs. Man's own wisdom cannot direct his steps (Jer. 10:23) — so God teaches him.
2. The need of reproof. Men do wrong both deliberately and ignorantly. Deliberate, known sin must be reproved (1 Tim. 5:20; Titus 1:13), and Scripture teaches not only that but how, when, and in what spirit to reprove. Given as God directs and received as God directs, reproof corrects the wrong.
3. The need of correction. Reproof exposes the wrong; correction sets it right, and it must be done in the spirit of meekness (Gal. 6:1). Scripture is profitable to put the straying back on the path.
4. The need of instruction in righteousness. Instruction builds a man up from within, in the things of God. A soul reproved and corrected must then be trained to stand and to grow.

Teaching enlightens, reproof convicts, correction restores, instruction builds. Between them they cover the whole life of a soul — and Scripture supplies all four.

III. The Sufficiency Itself: Equipped for Every Good Work (2 Tim. 3:17)

The grand purpose of it all is stated in one verse: "so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:17). Two words carry the weight — complete and equipped. If Scripture makes the man of God complete, then he is not incomplete without a creed. If it equips him for every good work, then there is no good work for which he must look outside it. To add to such a book is to insult its Author, and Scripture forbids it (Rev. 22:18-19). The all-sufficiency of the Bible is the foundation of the plea to speak where it speaks and to be silent where it is silent.

Application

Test your own practice against the sufficiency you claim to believe. When you face a question of doctrine or duty, where do you go first — to the Book, or to a commentary, a custom, a feeling, a respected name? Sufficiency is not proved by what you say about the Bible but by where you stop your search. Settle every spiritual question at the text. And do not starve in the middle of a full storehouse: a Bible believed to be sufficient but left unopened equips no one. Read it to be taught, reproved, corrected, and trained — that you may be complete.

Conclusion

An all-wise, all-powerful, good God gave one harmonious book that meets every need His children have and equips them for every good work. Nothing needs to be added; nothing may be. The man who will live by this Book is furnished for everything God asks of him. Trust it enough to need nothing else, and obey it enough to leave nothing out.

Invitation

A sufficient Bible tells you plainly and completely what to do to be saved; it leaves nothing for a man to guess or a council to supply. It says to hear, to believe, to repent, to confess Christ, and to be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Rom. 10:17). If you have been waiting for some word beyond the written word, wait no longer — God has already said all that is needed. Obey the Book today. If you are His child who has drifted from it, come back to the text and to the Lord. Come while we sing.

Word Study

• "Inspired by God" (2 Tim. 3:16, Gk. theopneustos): "God-breathed." Scripture proceeds from God's own breath — the basis of its authority and its sufficiency.
• "Equipped / adequate" (2 Tim. 3:17, Gk. artios / exartizō): fully fitted out, complete, lacking nothing — the language of a workman supplied with every tool the job requires.

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