The Bible, the Whole Bible and Nothing but the Bible

I want to thank you, Keith. I really enjoyed that worship. I ministered to me. I'll tell you one that's really been a blessing to me is the song "The Church is One Foundation." I challenge you to maybe get those lyrics from Brother Keith. Put them in your Bible. Use them in your personal time. They're very fitting with where we are, not just in our study of the church, which we have moved on from in this series called "The Ten Pillars," but speaks to where we are going with the rest of the messages in the ten pillars of the church. We probably, most likely, will continue to sing that song. I really enjoyed that in my personal worship.

Thank you for that one. Well, go ahead and take your Bible and turn back with me to Psalm 19. I'm sure your Bible is turned there from our previous scripture reading, Psalm 19. Now keep your Bible turned there. I know we read verses 7 on down to verse 10, but we will only divide two verses this morning. There's just not enough time in one message, and there's too much scripture there. I'll reserve the right to go back one day and finish what's there before me. This would turn into several messages if we looked at all of these verses. But we are looking at each of the ten pillars in one message.

We will divide verses 7 and 8 about midway through the message. Now if you've kept up with our series, our study in this series called "The Ten Pillars of the Church," you know that we've really gotten them all rolling. We've gotten things started in this study. Besides the introductory message, we started off with pillar number one, which was the church. I do believe that our Lord is raising the bar in our understanding and in our approach to the church. I do believe that God is calling a people to this local church, this assembly. We are the called out ones.

We are called to pour our lives into this institution that he died for, and that is the church. And last week we examined pillar number two, and that was the gospel, the gospel. I do believe our Lord helped us grasp the true gospel message. It is both the good news and the bad news that comes together to form the true message of the gospel. And I do believe God is calling us to make the gospel the preeminent message of the church. Truthfully, it should be the preeminent message of our lives, wherever we go. It should be the preeminent message in our homes, and it, of course, should be the preeminent message in our church.

Now, you know that I have likened this study of the ten pillars to rooms in a house. I like to use analogies that helps us hold on to what we're learning. This morning we're going to move into the next room. We had an introductory message out of 1 Timothy 3.15. I called out the front porch of the house, and then the front room of the house was pillar number one, the church. And then the next room of the house was pillar number two, the gospel. And this just progresses. This next room in the house is pillar number three, and that is the Word of God or the Bible. It doesn't matter how you write it down.

You might feel more comfortable writing the Bible or the Word of God or both. But this is the next room in the house, pillar number three, the Word of God. Now before we progress, I need to make a confession. You know, pastors sometimes have to confess these "sins," and I say that tongue in cheek. A good portion of this message is a repriege. Now I don't get to do that very often, whether that's good or bad. You know, our traveling evangelist friends, they enjoy doing that. Now what I mean by that is back at our student camp in June, we took nine churches, 200 people, adults and students through a study on the Protestant Reformation.

And our preaching was focused around the five solas of the Reformation. Of course, we had other teaching and preaching that went along with those five solas and messages on the five solas. Now a good portion of the message this morning comes from a message that I preached on the authority of Scripture. It would be good for some of you, especially if you don't have a lot of background on the authority of Scripture, it would be good for some of you to go back and listen to that message. You can access that message on the Glory Days Student Summer Camp website. I can help you with that.

I think that would be good for some of you to go listen to what I share to so many. Now our message this morning, it will be in two parts. It will be in two parts. This will help you in your note taking. Part one, in part one we will look at the Word of God as a whole. The Word of God as a whole. And in this portion of the message we will look at the inspiration of God's Word, the sufficiency of God's Word and the authority of God's Word. Now in part two, we will divide verses seven and eight from Psalm 19. And those verses will speak back. Those verses will teach back to the truthfulness of those statements from part one.

We will see the inspiration, the sufficiency and the authority of God's Word in these verses. Now I will give you the outline as we move through the different parts, part one and part two. And I always urge you to take notes, make sure that you study and understand all that is being taught, especially these messages on the ten pillars. Now I will pause here to say one more thing. If you are missing any of these messages, make sure you go and you access them. You need to listen to them. And if you have missed a message, you really ought to get my notes because you need to get everything that is being taught.

And right here I will give you a preview. You definitely don't want to miss next week. Oh mark on your calendar September the 30th. You need to be here for next week's message. Now as your pastor, I want you to see how important this teaching is. Again, all of this teaching around the ten pillars of the church. This is the direction of the church. Now this is not my direction. This comes straight out of God's Word. This is His plan for His church. And again using another analogy, if we get on this train, we will be a part of true Kingdom work.

And I will tell you as your pastor, if you let this train go by, we let true Kingdom work pass by us. And if we let this train go by, we might settle for a cheap substitute or even worse, a false church. Now I will go ahead and give you the first part of the message, the outline for the first part of the message. You see those major truths before you. I gave them to you earlier. But you see truth number one, the inspiration of God's Word. Then the sufficiency of God's Word and then the authority of God's Word. So let's get started in this first portion of the message and let's look at our first major truth, the inspiration of God's Word.

The inspiration of God's Word. Now whether we realize it or not, here we are dealing with a question. We are dealing with a question. This question is this. Where in the world did the Bible come from? Now you might not realize it, but that question is a legitimate question. But this is a loaded question. People have fought throughout the ages to try to answer this question. And I don't stand up here and try to tell you that I'm going to answer that question thoroughly just this morning. This stirs up much debate again. But what we're going to do is we're going to answer this question straight from God's Word.

Obviously in a simplistic but yet thorough enough manner. Now we need to look at one verse that helps us with this question. Starting off with one verse. One you're familiar with. This is 2 Timothy 3.16. 2 Timothy 3.16. Let me read you this verse. This is in the English Standard Version. All scripture is breathed out by God. All scripture is breathed out by God. And it is profitable for teaching and reproof and for correction and for training in righteousness. Now we know this because of one of the songs that we've sung in our children's ministry. Second Timothy 3.16. Whether you know it or not explains inspiration very well.

So there are just two observations I want to make here out of this verse. And I call these key phrases. Now our first key phrase is this portion all scripture. All scripture together. Maybe underline that in your Bible later. Highlight it. This phrase speaks of both Old Testament writings and New Testament writings. In the New Testament this word scripture is used over 50 times to speak of the Old Testament writings. Now the same word is used two times to speak of New Testament writings. This speaks of Genesis and the creation story. This speaks of the major and the minor prophets. This speaks of the gospels. Matthew Mark Luke and John.

This speaks of the book of Acts. And the book of Acts is the birth and the life of the New Testament church. This speaks of Paul's writings. Writings such as Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians. This speaks even of the book of Hebrews. We don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews. And this speaks of the mysterious and great book of the revelation. What am I trying to show you? All scripture means all scripture. All scripture means the 66 books of the canon of scripture. So this phrase, all scripture is the first key phrase. The second key phrase here is this phrase, breathed out.

Again I would ask you to note that in your Bible. Maybe underline it or highlight it and make note of it. The King James reads it like this. It is given by inspiration of God. Now this phrase actually means breathed out or breathed upon or breathed in. This tells us that God breathed out His scripture. He breathed into men to write His scripture. We see this in various ways. There were times that God breathed His words in the man and it was recorded as dictation. Word for word exactly what God said. But there were times when God's truth was poured into the mind and into the heart and even through the emotions of a man.

We see this especially in Paul's writings as he expresses his love and his concerns. We just see Paul's personality as he is pinning God's word. But we must see that God governed the work through his human instruments. We see a picture of this back in the creation account. We see a picture of this in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7. The scripture says that God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam. God breathed life into Adam and God breathed His words into men and on men and He inspired men to write them down. Now what do we see here just in this one portion of this verse?

Paul's scripture is breathed out by God and into and through his chosen instruments. Through this work and process, God gave his breathed out word. So this is called inspiration. I ran across this earlier in the week. I like how John MacArthur deals with this verse and he gives a synopsis here. Let me quote, "Together the biblical writers make some 4,000 claims to be writing God's word yet they offered no defense for being employed by God in such an elevated function.

Despite their realization of their own sinfulness and fallibility, they wrote with the utter confidence that they spoke infallibly for God and that His revelation itself is its own best and irrefutable defense." So what do we see? This is the inspiration of God's word and we have it in our hands. Let's move on. Notice our second major truth. It's the sufficiency of God's word. We see the sufficiency of God's word. Now before we progress, I want to ask you a question. What does it mean for something to be sufficient? Now think about that for a minute. What does it mean for something to be sufficient?

If something is sufficient, it means something is enough to meet the needs of a situation. I'll give you an example, most of you know that I'm going to the Philippines in November. I fly out the 5th and I come home on the 14th. I appreciate your prayer. Now in flying, my prayer is that the plane is sufficient to get me there safely, but not just get me there safely to get me home safely because I want to come home to be with my wife and children and with the church. Now this morning, we're not talking about an airplane, we're talking about God's word. Let me explain the sufficiency of God's word in this way. This is a definition.

Now I ran across this definition this summer. I tried to go back this week to see where I got it from. I really don't know. So if I'm quoting an individual, I apologize for not referencing who this comes from. But let me give you this definition. God history, Scripture, has contained all the words God has intended for His people in each stage of history. Now what about today? What about for us? Scripture contains everything we need from God for the salvation of man, for living the Christian life, and so much more. God's scriptures are sufficient for all matters of life.

You see this in another passage, 2 Timothy 3, verse 14 and 15, right above our verse 16 passage. Listen to what Paul is telling Timothy. But as for you, continue on what you have learned and what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learn. And then verse 15, "And how from childhood you have been acquainted with," notice, "the naked Scriptures," that's the Old Testament, "which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." What is Paul saying? Oh, Timothy, the word that you learn, it is sufficient. Now what have we seen here in these two verses? God's word is sufficient.

God's word contains the words that God has intended for His people, and they are sufficient for all matters of life. Two or three other verses that might help you in this, for your own study, Psalm 119, verse 1, Psalm 119, verse 9. You can go back to 2 Timothy 3, 16. You'll see sufficiency there, because Paul goes on to say, "It is sufficient for training in righteousness." So we see the sufficiency of God's word. And then truth number three here, notice the authority of God's word, the authority of God's word. Now about this word authority, to be honest with you, most of us, whether we know it or not, we do not like authority.

Now think about young people. Young people, if you're here, most of the time you do not like it when your parents tell you to do something. Maybe you don't like it when a teacher gives you an extra assignment. If you're involved in sports, you might not like it if the coach tells you to run an extra lab. What about us adults? We might not like it when our boss gives us some additional responsibilities at work. We might not like it when we're pulled over and we're given a ticket by the police. What am I showing you? Most of us in our flesh do not like being told what to do.

But if we do not have authority, then we have anarchy and we have pandemonium and we have lawlessness. Isn't that what we're seeing in our culture today? A move away from authority? Lawlessness. But for us, we must recognize, now listen, the authority of God's word, the authority of the holy word of God. All the words of God are scripture. And if we do not believe God's word, you can mark it down, we do not believe God. If we disobey God's word, we disobey God. Again, this 2 Timothy 3, 16 passage. All scripture, Genesis the revelation, is breathed out, inspired by God. Therefore, we are obligated to submit to what? God's word, all scripture.

No matter if you're a true Christian or if you're one who says you do not even believe in God, you're still accountable to the authority of God's word. Another verse that helps us here, this is from Peter's writing, 2 Peter 1, 21. Notice what Peter says, "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God." Notice this phrase for inspiration, "as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." What do we see there? Prophecy, Old Testament, was not produced by man, but from who? God. See, the authority of God's word is hinted out and seen there in 2 Peter 1, 21. Now this word, scripture, is another key word.

I want us to see this. It was a technical term that the New Testament writers used with a specific meaning. It was used 51 times in the New Testament to refer to the Old Testament writings. But what about the New Testament? Again, 2 times in the New Testament, the New Testament writings are called scripture along with the Old Testament writings. So what do we see here? God's word is from God. And to disobey God's word is to disobey God. All scripture, both Old and New Testament, are inspired by God and they have authority over man. So real quickly what I've shown you is this, sufficiency and authority. Sufficiency and authority.

Now I'll pause here real quick. I'll give you a history lesson. If you're a student of the Reformation, you know that those great men of God, what did they do? They discovered justification by grace through faith, but right behind that was the fact that they had moved away from church tradition to what? The sufficiency and the authority of the word. Those men did not adhere to the sufficiency and the authority of the word. They never would have had a great movement of God to reform the church back to biblical health. Now let's move on to our second portion of the message. This is where we will deal with Psalm 19.

Like I said, we're going to divide those verses, verses seven and eight. We'll be looking at three major truths. I've got them before you. Again, this will help us see. This will speak back to inspiration, sufficiency and authority. This all builds together. Let's go back and I want us to read just these two verses, verse seven and eight. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making the wise simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Now let's dive right off into these verses and let's notice our first major truth in this outline. The titles for God's word.

Now at the beginning of these verses, you see these titles. Look back with me at the verse. The law of the Lord. The testimony of the Lord. The precepts of the Lord. You see those titles? Maybe mark them in your copy of God's word. Maybe you underline them or note them for your own personal Bible study. So let's look at these three titles or three observations if I can continue with the language that I use so often. Notice first, God's word is God's law. Isn't that what it says? The law of the Lord. Now this word law, it speaks of the written laws of God that are contained in the scriptures. These are God's instructions.

These are God's teachings which are to be applied to personal behavior or personal conduct. This speaks of the directions from God that are meant for man. Then our second observation, notice God's word is God's testimony. What do we see? The testimony of the Lord. This word testimony, it speaks of God's word as God's testimony or you can say it like this as God's witness to mankind. From the Bible, God speaks, from Genesis to Revelation, He speaks His testimony to mankind and His written and spoken testimony is found written in His word. And then third, we see God's word. God's words are God's precepts.

Notice verse 8, "The precepts of the Lord." This speaks of God's mandates. God's orders, His rules that were given to mankind for man to follow. And these orders or rules are meant to govern the people of God. Now what have we seen here? If you've really paid attention, you see God's authority. God's authority and God's authority in God's word. His words are law. His words are rules for man to live by, His testimony to man about himself and His ways and even His people and about mankind. His law is meant to govern His people. It is authoritative and it's right there in those titles. Then notice truth number 2, the description of God's word.

Now we see this in the middle of the verses, "The law of the Lord is perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure. The precepts of the Lord are right." See we have descriptions of God's word and after each title there's that descriptive language. I'd like you maybe to mark that or note that. Now let's look at all three of these, three observations. First we see God's law is perfect. Isn't that what we see? The law of the Lord is perfect. This word perfectly, it simply means perfect. Now this is not as much as opposed to flawed. This perfection speaks more of a completeness. God's word is complete. God's word is not lacking in any way.

So God's word is perfect. And then we see in our second observation God's testimony is sure. The testimony of the Lord is sure. This word tells us that God's word is firm. God's word is established. It is not shifting. It is not unsettled. It is not evolving. God's word is so firm. It is so established that it cannot be shaken. It cannot be disturbed in any way. And then third we see God's precepts are right. The precepts of the Lord are right. This is very simple. God's words are just and they are proper. They are simply right as opposed to what is wrong. Now what do we see here? God's word is accurate. God's word is truth.

God's word is trustworthy. And all that speaks to the sufficiency of God's word. This descriptive language really brings out the sufficiency, the trustworthiness of God's word. So this is becoming plain for us to see. God's word is authoritative just in these two verses. God's word is sufficient. And notice that this is speaking back to the first portion of the message. But then let's move on to our third major truth in this second portion. The work of God's word. The work of God's word. Now we've seen the titles. We've seen the descriptions of God's word. We've seen the sufficiency and the authority of God's word just in these two verses.

Now we move to the practical. Go back to the verse. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. So now we see how the word works in a person's life. Three observations here. Simply dealing with these words. First, God's word restores the soul. His word restores the soul. Now there are two key words here. The word restores and the word souls. Mark those in your copy of God's word. This word restores. It can be translated converts. We understand that man is sinful. Man is guilty. Man is in need of salvation.

I remind you of that short little series we went through. What the Bible says about man. Go back and look at those messages. From Genesis to Revelation, we learn the sinfulness of man. And so this word speaks of changing man's sinfulness to holiness. This is salvation. Now this other word soul, it speaks of man's heart. It speaks of man's spirit or man's soul. This speaks of the inner man. So this is the change in that inner man. And what do we see? We see God's word is sufficient to change a lost sinner. And then second, God's word makes man wise. Go back to the verse, second part of verse 7.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. This word simple here is the key word. This speaks of simplicity and thinking, but it speaks of being open minded and open to persuasion, easily persuaded to wrong behavior. But God's word can change a person's thinking from simple to wise, from being open minded to sin and close minded to sin, from being open minded to rebellion against God, but then close minded to obedience to God in His word. And then the third observation, God's word makes the heart rejoice.

When the soul is converted, when the sinner is made right with God, the mind is transformed from being simple to wise, then joy comes in the heart. This is the result of the work of the word in obedience to the word. This produces joy and happiness. The heart is rejoicing. The heart is rejoicing over the work of the word in the heart and in the mind and in the life. Now notice what we see here. God's word has a tremendous effect on a person. It is God's word that is used to convert the soul. That is salvation, the conversion of a sinner. It is God's word that makes the foolish mind wise.

That is the work of sanctification, the growing of the saint, and it is God's word that has the power to give joy and rejoicing in the heart. See the work of the word? Now in summary, what have we seen here in these two verses? Just two. We see that God's word is authoritative. It is His law. It is His testimony. These are His precepts. Second Timothy 3.16 shows us that these laws, this testimony, these precepts were breathed out by God. And they are also sufficient for all matters of life for converting the soul and making the foolish wise. It is sufficient to bring joy to the sin sick, broken and bruised life. And listen church.

Listen church, listen brothers and sisters. Listen friends. We have this word that David is speaking about in verses 7 and 8. We have this word at our disposal. And I hope you see just how precious His words are. Now as I have done from time to time in this series, I want to move to the application part of the message. Sometimes I hold on to the application for the end. It's just the way the Lord has worked the message out in my mind and in my heart and in my study. This is applying what we've learned to our life. Now let's move or transition from the verses and move to the application.

Now here this morning as a church, we must see that the church is to operate in every way under the authority of God's word. We've learned that this is His church. It's not ours. And this is His word. So to remove the church out from under the authority of God's word in any way, it is disastrous. To do so will lead to the damnation of souls and the demise and even death of the local church. And sadly, it happens way too often in our day. And sadly, this is happening around us more than you may know. As your pastor, I want to show you how we are operating under God's word here at NOLA. Take the ten pillars of the church.

These flow out of God's word. Remember the list that I have given you? The ten pillars, they all come out of God's word. And if we study God's word and seek to be thoroughly biblical in these ten pillars, listen, we will do church according to God's word. I'll give you a couple of examples dealing with the ten pillars that might help you see this. Number four, the fourth pillar is saving grace. Conversion, salvation. Oh, if we blow it on salvation, if we miss conversion, what happens? The damnation of souls, we lose even our own sons and daughters.

But if we go back to the word and we know that we must have salvation as a pillar in the church and we diligently study God's word and don't worry about what tradition is, God will bring sinners into the fold, born again, and into the life of the church. Now I want to move away from that example and I want us to see on a week to week basis how we are seeking to be under the authority of God's word. We're fleshing this out as individuals and as a church that called out words. I want us to look at our pulpit ministry. Look at our preaching or our pulpit ministry. We are faithful to be good expositors of God's word.

We don't come up here with an opinion and just stick a verse on it. No, we dove into God's word. We explain God's word. We let God's word speak. Primarily, we are in a verse by verse series most of the time in the pulpit ministry. We've been in John for over three years. We've looked at books like James and 1 and 2 Timothy and Ezra and Nehemiah and many more. What are we doing? We are taking our time and letting God's word speak. Now there are times when we do need to deal with subjects. That's just normal in the life of the church. But anytime we deal with a subject, we go to the word and let the word speak. And what am I trying to show you?

The pulpit ministry here is thoroughly, thoroughly biblical. And we work really, really hard to teach you God's word Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday, Sunday evenings when we assemble in the night. No matter if I'm preaching or Brother Keith is preaching, what do we see? The pulpit ministry is teaching God's word. And I won't say this to you as your pastor. You need to do whatever you can do to be faithful. Oh, adjust your schedule. Do whatever it takes. There's always something that will pull you away. I'm telling you, but reorganize your life. Raise it to the priority it should be and be faithful to be here to hear God's word.

And then second, what about our small group ministry for adults that we have on Sunday nights? Now I know that this is fairly new. We have been studying faithfully God's word on Sunday nights. We went through a good topical lesson, expository listening. Now we're started really well in the book of Colossians, but I remind you of our goals with our small group, adult small group Bible study. We had five immediate goals. First to teach the word of God and meet spiritual needs. Second to create fellowship over the word. Third to develop life connected to life discipleship. Four to facilitate ministry within the body of Christ.

And five to promote outreach and evangelism. Notice three of the five are centered around the word. If you've been faithful to those times of Bible study, you will look back and see and notice we take over an hour every Sunday night to do what? To study the word. We're not talking about events during the week. We're not talking about problems at work. We're studying the word of God. And let me say this to you as your pastor. You need to be there. You need to be in that setting. You need to be fed by the word of God and listen to other people share and question. It is a very healthy environment to learn God's word. You need to be there.

Now I want you to think about what we did. You do realize we moved away from teaching God's word in a corporate manner on Sunday night to dividing up. We did that purposely because we're being very efficient and working hard to teach God's word. But what about on Wednesday nights? You know we gather on Wednesday nights for prayer meetings, but what do we do with our children and our teenagers? Listen, we work really hard to teach our children and our teenagers. We teach quality material and if you study the material we're giving them, we take three years and go through the word of God. And look, they need to be here.

They need to hear gifted people in the life of the church teach the word. This fourth way in which we are dealing with the word might surprise you. What about our music ministry? The primary purpose of the music ministry is to teach truth. We're teaching truth. We're not singing about our feelings or a man's emotions. Our emotions come and go. The way I feel comes and goes. We are singing truth and what is sung is in support of the truth of God's word that is going to be taught. That's our approach in our music ministry. But then fifth, what about our events and our ministries? There are things that we do.

Now there are times that we gather together for fellowship and things like that, but many times when we gather with our teenagers, especially in my home, we're studying God's word. What am I trying to show you? On a week to week basis, we are being faithful to be under God's word and do whatever you can do to be faithful. We're working hard to give you the word of God. As your pastor, I want to speak to you a little further here. I want you to see that for me and for Brother Keith, we work very hard to do two things. Very hard. We're working hard to teach you and your family God's word.

You might say, "Pastor, you said that." I can't say it enough. We are working hard to teach you the word. And second, we are working very hard to do the work of the church God's way according to God's word. And look, in my eyes, there's no other way. There's no other way. If you'll allow me, I'm going to tell a little quick story and then we'll close. I think this might help us. To tell the story, I have to make a little bit of a confession. Truthfully, I'm kind of a news junkie. I don't watch the news. I really don't like watching the news. I read it. I like to read certain news outlets. I read Christian news outlets and some secular.

But there was an event that happened quite a few years ago that really gripped my imagination. I kept up with it for a long time. Some of you might realize the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370. Remember that awful catastrophe? That flight left Malaysia and it was bound for China on March the 8th of 2014. Anyone I saw that, I just kept up with it. Specifically there were 227 people on board, passengers. There were 12 crew members. Now I ran across an article this summer, some specifics here. On January the 17th of 2017, it was determined that the Malaysian Flight 370, it was the most costly aviation disaster in history.

Millions have been spent to discover the wreckage with no success. There have been only a few pieces of confirmed wreckage that have washed up on the shore. And you know they really don't know what happened. But most authorities, experts, they speculate that it was one man that could have done this, the pilot. But you know when you study, you look at what he did, he did one thing. Oh he did a lot to do this one thing. He simply left the flight path. See when those men pilot those large airplanes, they don't just fly as they want. No they have a flight plan and it's punched into the computers and they are to obey that flight plan.

But somehow, someway, that pilot, experts think, chose to deviate from that flight plan. Now what happened? Death. Catastrophe. Over 200 people are dead. None accounted for. Now what am I telling you this story for? When we deviate from the sufficiency and the authority of God's Word, that's exactly what happens. In personal life and in the life of the church. If we deviate from God's plan, it is death and disaster. And that's why you must be faithful to the teaching of God's Word. You must be faithful to God's Word in your own life and we must work our fingers to the bone to do this work of the church God's way.

That's what the ten pillars are all about. Now what's the title of the message? Some of you might have guessed by now. It's one we've been using quite a bit. Third pillar of the church is the Bible. The whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. It's got to be our heartbeat people. It's the Word of God. It's the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. May God help us to live that title in our personal lives and in the life of this church. Let's pray.