We thank you, Lord, for this day as we conclude your Lord's Day. We thank you that we have the privilege, as was preached this morning, to come into your very presence. Help us to always understand that when we gather together as the saints, that indeed where two or three are gathered in your name, you are here among us, and that you do walk among the candlesticks of the churches. And so we ask that you would be with us, that you would teach us, by the Holy Spirit, the true teacher. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, last week we concluded going through what are the essential elements of the gospel. And having concluded what are the essential elements of the gospel, when someone is brought into the kingdom of God, we have to ask the question, what are some of the most important things that a new Christian needs to know. So the next several weeks, that's what I'm gonna be addressing. What are some essentials that a new Christian needs to believe in and to emphasize? As you know, I'm working in the ministries of Reformation Christian Ministries at Jeff Donnan, started many years ago, and Again, I encourage you to go online, take those free courses. They're well worth your time. His gospel course is fantastic. And before the Lord took him to glory, he and I, we had envisioned 10 courses down over the years to come, but we said, what is the next most important course to do? And it was scripture, scripture. Our understanding of scripture is paramount. There is a reason why the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith is on scripture. And the reason it's the first chapter is because your view of scripture governs everything. And a person's understanding of the Bible is paramount. And so I want to touch on that this evening so that when someone comes into and to the kingdom of God, we should be dealing with them, working with them to understand the value, the authority of scripture, that it is sufficient for everything for good works for the believer. And we're gonna take a look at various passages tonight regarding that. As we understood and learned several weeks ago that how do we come to the saving faith anyway? Understanding that we are dead in our sins and that as Isaiah says, no one arouses himself to take hold of him. And it says, God has delivered us over to the power of our iniquities. He has hidden his face from us. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. So how is it that we can come to faith? Well, one thing that's guaranteed is it's not by our own works, it's not by our own power. Because we understand, as 2 Corinthians chapter four says, that the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbeliever so that they cannot see the gospel. And the only way that someone sees the gospel is that the scales have to be removed. A heart needs to be changed. Let's turn with me again to that great passage in Titus, Titus chapter three. And let's look at verses four through seven again. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, keep your hand there, but turn it over to John 3. I meant to read John 3 first, where Jesus is encountering Nicodemus. John 3, beginning at verse 5, because Nicodemus asked the question, Or Jesus had told Nicodemus, unless one is verse three, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's an old, he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. Kenny Jesus answered truly, truly. I say to you. Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who was born of the spirit. There we have it. If we are dead in our trespasses and sins, if we don't have the power to reach out and grab a hold of Jesus, then it takes an external force to do it. And that is the Holy Spirit. In fact, turn over to another passage in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, look at verse 23. For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding Word of God. So here we have it. The Word of God is the instrument that God the Holy Spirit uses to bring people to saving faith. It is the Holy Spirit who takes that Word and drives it home into our hearts. Now that seed which is imperishable is none other, if you look at 1 John, it's none other than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that seed which is imperishable. And it is that by which we are born again to a living hope. So without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there's no hope for us. But with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, everything changes. And it is the Holy Spirit that brings about the saving faith in the believer. It is the Holy Spirit that removes the scales from our eyes. Remember when Jesus came and he preached in Galilee of the Gentiles, it says he came to people who were sitting in darkness, sitting in darkness under the shadow of death, they saw a great light. Therefore, Jesus says, therefore repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. So in one sense, people can see a light and there's two responses. You can see a light and nothing happens or you can see a light and everything changes. For the person whom the Holy Spirit is going to save, when the light is shining, they see it and they are delivered out of their blindness. See, the scripture presents us again with a very deplorable situation without Christ. It says that the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbeliever. 2 Timothy 2 says that we are enslaved by the devil to do his will. that we have walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of that spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, as Ephesians 2 says. So the devil has a grip on unbelievers. And it is only in Jesus Christ, remember Jesus says that he is the truth, and that he has come to set men free. And he says, if the son sets you free, you are free indeed. Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. But he says, I have come to set you free. And so only the Holy Spirit can do that. Now the word of God being preached is vital. Let me mention to you a couple of things of how, just how important, as I said, our Westminster Confession of Faith in its chapter one tells us of the importance of scripture. And I just wanna read just two sections to show you the value of what the Spirit does as it relates to the Word of God. In our Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter one, section four, it reads, The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man or any church, but wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God. Sometimes I ask people, why do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God? That's an important question. Do we believe the Bible to be the Word of God because the evidence out there demonstrates that it is? The evidence is there to demonstrate that the Bible is what it claims to be. But the emphasis is why you and I believe the Bible. It should be because the Bible comes to us with what we call self-attesting authority. Because it says it is the very Word of God, it ought to be believed because it is the very Word of God. Section five of chapter one says this of the confession. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give glory to God, the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, or arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God. Yet, it goes on to say, yet notwithstanding our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. How do we know the Bible to be the Word of God? Because it says it is. And how do we become fully persuaded that it's the Word of God? The Holy Spirit is that. Turn with me to a passage 1 Thessalonians 2, beginning at verse 13. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. Paul had been coming through Thessalonica. As I've said before, he wasn't the only preacher to ever go through Thessalonica. there were other itinerant preachers. But nothing happened. Now keep in mind, I've read this before, we've talked about repentance and understanding the gospel, that what God expects of us is to repent of our sins and embrace Jesus Christ by faith, And it says that Thessalonians in chapter one, verse nine, turned from their idols to the living God. Remember, as I said, Thessalonica was only 50 miles from the famed Mount Olympus, the mountain of the Greek gods. Thessalonica was full of idolatry. How do you account for the fact that these Thessalonians believed? And notice what chapter two, verse 13 says. And for this reason, we also constantly thank God when you receive from us the word of God's message, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. Why did people believe Paul as opposed to some of these other preachers? Because when Paul preached the gospel, here's what happened. These Thessalonians heard Jesus speak to their heart. Remember Jesus says in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Many times you may have run across in the scriptures where Jesus would be preaching and he says, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. So it all comes down to this. Do I have an ear to hear? And the only way that the Thessalonians, when they heard Paul, They knew immediately it was God speaking to them. They knew it in their heart. It was God. There was something different. Now get this, it wasn't because of the great oratorical skills of the Apostle Paul. In fact, he says, if you read through Corinthians, he says, I was not very impressive in my speaking. So his sermons were not some masterful presentation of the scripture as it were. He wasn't, as we would think, some great preacher. He wasn't of like a George Whitefield, centuries later, who I think was probably the greatest evangelist that's ever lived. He wasn't even like this. What made the difference? It was the Holy Spirit. That's what made the difference. Taking the Word of God and driving it home. I thought of that in my own testimony. Why all of a sudden, after all these years of being an agnostic, why should I come to believe that when these people came through, that this Jesus was true? In one sense, it didn't make any sense. But when the Holy Spirit goes to save a person, they will save him. And so what they did, they heard Jesus preaching to them through the preacher. In fact, turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Look at verse 14 and 15. Well, actually back up to verse 12. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, is the same Lord, Lord of over all, abounding in riches to all who call upon him, for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not heard, believed? And how shall they believe in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things. How will they believe in Him? Who's the Him? Jesus. How are they gonna believe in Jesus whom they have not heard? And how are they gonna hear without a preacher. Someone has got to tell them. And what happens is the Holy Spirit is that dynamic. You know, when Jesus was with his disciples, he said in John chapter 14, he says, I'm gonna send you a helper. He says, it's more expedient for you that I go away. If you ever wondered about that, the reason he says it's more expedient, because when I go away, I'm going to send you the comforter. I'm going to send you the teacher. In fact, Jesus said in John 16, verse 13, he says, when he comes, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And then in his high priestly prayer in John 17, we see that Jesus said, praying to his father, he says, father, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Everything boils down to the scriptures. And it's because the Holy Spirit is the dynamic agent who takes that scripture and drives it home into people's hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who takes the word of God and instructs people. So the Holy Spirit never, never teaches people apart from the scriptures. Now, there's out there in the Christian community, there's a lot of differing beliefs, a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit, or I feel led of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches us that we are led of the Spirit. But let me tell you, being led of the Spirit is not some nebulous thing up here, and being led of the Spirit is not a feeling. as such. It is not a feeling. And so when we say, someone says, well, I'll trust my heart. You know, if you listen to any, watch any Hallmark movies, they're always emphasizing, trust your heart, follow your heart. Well, that's a dangerous thing to do if you're in unbelief, because your heart is in darkness, unless, until Jesus quickens us, We can't depend on our feelings. We can't depend on virtually anything else. And you know, one of the problems in terms of apologetics, which is defending the faith, I use evidences at a certain point to help in my talking with people, but it's not the basis. It's not the basis of why I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. I don't believe the Bible because the evidences say it is. No, the evidences are what they are because the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the foundation. How do we know about the fact that Jesus died, was buried, and then rose again from the dead. Well, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, take a look at verses three through four. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, does that sound familiar to you of what we recite in the Nicene Creed? It says, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, was made man, and was crucified also under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures." That is where the Nicene Creed derived that statement, but from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We believe Jesus is who he is. We believe all the work of Jesus because the scripture says it is. That's why we believe it. Turn with me over to Luke chapter 24. Turn to Luke 24. And we're going to pick up at verse 25 and following. Now this is the day of resurrection. And Jesus is on the road. And he comes up and joins two disciples. Now these aren't the 12. followers of Jesus who were not part of the 12, but they all obviously were called disciples. Now he says, as he was meeting them, he says, and he said to them, oh, foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Remember that context there, they were disappointed and dejected because Jesus had been crucified. They just didn't understand. And Jesus rebukes them for not believing the scriptures. He says, you should have known better. If you had read the scriptures, you would have known I had to die. Then look at verse 45 and following, same chapter, Luke 24. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name in all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. You know, our minds are open to understand the scriptures. It's exactly the same way. Do you remember when Jesus asked his disciples, who do men say that I am? And the disciple says, well, some say you're John the Baptist come back from the dead. Some say you're Elijah having returned. And then Peter says, well, no, he goes and he asked them, he says, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter just, he immediately says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus did not say to Peter, Peter, the reason why you're a spokesman of disciples, because you're smarter than everybody else. That's not what he said. He says, Peter, the reason you understand that is my Father has revealed that to you. If we know any truth at all, it's because the Holy Spirit has revealed that to us. Now again, remembering, we're talking about when a person becomes a Christian, What is one of the most important things that we need to do with them? Help them understand how they came to saving faith through the scriptures. Help them understand this is gonna be your guide the rest of your life. This is your authority. You can trust, you can trust this book. You know, one of the red flags, anytime someone may profess faith, if they don't have a thirst for the Word of God, or if they don't have a desire to say, well, we need to get together and have a Bible study, if they don't have an interest in the Bible study, a red flag should go up to go, well, hold on now, let's back up. I don't need to ask him this. Why wouldn't you not want to study the Bible? See, the Holy Spirit, none of us can be a Christian, right? We looked at that last week. None of us can be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. If I don't have the Spirit, I'm not a Christian. And if the Spirit is present with me, here's what you can count on, a thirst for the Word of God. That's what you can count on. When Jesus in his ministry, some Sadducees came to him and they were testing him. You can follow it with me in Matthew chapter 22. In Matthew 22, here was the question posed to Jesus. Verse 23 and following, on that same day, some Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him, questioned him, saying, teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother or next of kin shall marry his wife, raise up an offspring to his brother. Now there were seven brothers with us, and the first married and died, having no offspring, left a wife to his brother. So also the second and the third down to the seventh. And last of all, the woman died in the resurrection. Therefore, whose wife of the seven shall she be? For they all had her. But Jesus answered and said to them, and notice how he addresses their question. You are mistaken. not understanding the scriptures or the power of God. First of all, I'll go on and say there is no marriage in heaven. But he says, here's where you err. You err because you don't know the scriptures. That's your fundamental problem. Now the scriptures, what we need to convey to people as they come, as they grow in the Christian life. They need the Bible, we gotta drive home the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, nothing else but the Bible, the Bible alone, that's it, nothing else, not your feelings, no counsel or whatever, it's the Bible is your guide. Now, how do we grow in the Christian life? Remember, 1 Peter talked about, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. See, as we mentioned last week, you don't have to teach a baby to desire its mother's milk. It comes natural, it comes natural. What comes natural to someone been born again by the Holy Spirit? A thirst for the word of God. That's what comes natural. You don't have to teach them this. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter five. Now here's the difference, while some people grow in their faith as a Christian, and other people remain stunted in their growth. Here's the reason, we're gonna look at it. Hebrews chapter five, beginning at verse 14. Well, let's back up to verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. So as you're dealing with this new Christian, and you're gonna talk to them, and you're gonna help them as they go through the Christian life, and you're gonna say, you're gonna be faced with many challenges. You're gonna have many temptations. So what's gonna see you through these temptations? How are you gonna grow? How are you gonna grow from a, notice what it said. You grow from a babe who only can take milk, and how do you end up being able to eat solid food? It says, the person who remains a babe is not accustomed to what? Not accustomed to the word of righteousness. not accustomed to the word of righteousness. Meaning, they're not studying the Bible. That's what that means. But how do you move from an infant to a mature man? And how are you able to discern between good and evil? Now the Bible tells us It defines for us what is good. It defines for us what is evil. And we have no right to decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil. As was preached earlier this morning by Dr. Curto about the fear of God. One of the aspects about the fear of God, the man and the woman who fears God will keep his commandments. And as Psalm 1 says, that we grow the one who's planted by the rivers of water are constantly being nourished. And we, the way that we train ourselves to know the difference between right and wrong is by the practice of having our senses trained. Now that practice there, that's an athletic term that's being used here. The only way that an athlete can improve and become skilled in their particular sport is they train themselves. They go through rigorous training in order to excel. You and I, if we're going to move from infancy As a babe in Christ to a mature man in Christ, we have to train ourselves in the scriptures. So that's one of the most important things that we can convey to people that they need to do. Now, one last verse before we conclude here. Turn with me to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. We've talked about the authority of Scripture. Now here's a verse about the sufficiency of Scripture, that it's all that you need, in other words. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, there's that training in righteousness that we saw in Hebrews five, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. This is all you and I need for any decision at any time in our life. And it's to be the only guide Now, we've talked about the value of prayer, haven't we? And that's fundamental for the Christian life. But if someone says, and I've had them say to me about certain decisions, well, I'll pray about it, I'm gonna pray about it, and then decide what I ought to do. Well, in one sense, you do need to pray about it. But if you leave it at prayer only, and you leave out the scriptures, all the praying is not going to help because what's happening is we are circumventing the method that God in his word has designed for us. The Holy Spirit teaches us and gives us wisdom as we are in the word of God. And as we are in the word of God, especially in the book of Proverbs, That's where we learn about good and evil. That's where we learn about the wise man as opposed to the foolish man. It's the word of God. It's the law of God. Therefore, The most important thing after a person confesses Christ is that we get them in a Bible study on various topics that'll help them grow, but we want to drive home to them the authority and the sufficiency of the Word of God.