All right, so we are in question three this afternoon. What do the scriptures principally teach? And we'll go through this little by little, starting with the scriptures principally teach. Matthew chapter 23 verses 23 and 24. Our Lord says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. This is not your average sermon of God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and you know your best life now. No, he's telling them what they need to hear. He says for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." Now that phrase, straining a gnat and swallowing a camel, is kind of a common phrase in English. This is where we get it from, from our Lord. His point here is that there are matters in the scripture that have first order, principle teachings, the main points. So here he identifies weightier matters of the law. There are things that are principle within the law. There are secondary teachings as well, and we ought to follow them. He says, these you ought to have done and not to leave the other, that is the principle matters, undone. So the point being there are principle versus subordinated teachings of scripture. Letter B, Jeremiah 7, 22 and 23. The prophet, in the word of the Lord, declares, For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you." Now hear the Lord, He does this several places through the prophets. He tells them that He has absolutely no interest in their observance of the ceremonies, the sacrifices, the temple worship, burnt offerings or sacrifices, He calls it here. And this is a figure of speech by which someone declares in an absolute form what is true in a relative sense. In other words, he says he did not command them about burnt sacrifices, burnt offerings or sacrifices. But he actually did command them when he brought them out of Egypt. He did say things about that. But what he means is if you're going to rank in priority and say, obey God's voice, that's his moral law, or offer this offering, prepare you this sacrifice, this type of grain in this circumstance. If you had to rank those and say, which one is more important? What is the principal teaching of scripture? It is not the offering of burnt offerings and sacrifices. It is obedience to the voice of God. The moral law is supreme. It is weightier. It is primary. It is a principle teaching of scripture as opposed to the manner of the burnt offerings that was a lesser teaching of scripture. And so it's a figure of speech where God uses the absolute. I didn't command you about burnt offerings when what he's saying is it is not the priority. It is a lesser teaching. Part two there. The Scriptures principally teach, just establishing first that there are principal teachings of Scripture, and then, what man is to believe concerning God. 2 Timothy 1.13, under letter A there, says, Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Now the form of sound words, that's a very important phrase that he uses. He's talking to Timothy and he's telling Timothy that I, the Apostle Paul, am a preacher, a teacher. I have been ordained by God as an apostle and I have passed on to you a pattern or an outline or a system of words. Now words here is not just a list of like a dictionary list where there are words listed in order. Words in the New Testament is Logoi. It's like, it can mean a sermon, it can mean a discourse, it can mean a doctrine. So here, this form or pattern has to do with doctrine, teaching, the things that Paul was ordained as an apostle, a teacher, and a preacher. Now, in this form of sound words, the Apostle identifies two things that make up. And the two things that make up this form of sound words are faith and love. And Timothy heard these from the Apostle Paul. Faith and love. So these are the two parts. And this is the form of sound words. This is the basic summary of the Bible. What am I to believe? That is faith. And what does God require of me? Duty. So this is the credenda, what is to be believed, and agenda, what is to be done. God sets the credenda, God sets the agenda, and that's the basic teaching, the form of sound words of the Bible, a summary of Bible teaching, in other words. Letter B there, John 20 verses 30 and 31. says, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. Here the apostle John is summarizing the gospel of John. Why did he write it? Well, here's one thing. He could have written a lot more, and he omitted all kinds of things. They're not written in this book. Verse 31. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name." That's the purpose God gave the Gospel of John. And on a broader basis, that's the purpose of the entire Bible, is to form properly our faith so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of God. Prophet, priest, and king, that's the Christ. The Son of God means He is fully and eternally God. And that by believing in this Jesus, who is the Christ, who is the Son of God, we may have life through His name. So the purpose of scripture, the primary points, faith in love, faith in Christ as one of those primary points. Romans 10 verses 10 and 11 and verses 13 and 14. The Apostle says, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Then verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" This is the importance of faith. Faith is the entryway. It is, in the biggest sense, one of the major principle teachings of Scripture. What am I to believe? That's why the Word is preached, so that people can hear, and when they hear, they can believe, and when they believe, they will not be ashamed. They will be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Second page there, letter D at the top. Thomas Vincent, in his explanation of the Shorter Catechism, he asks, what is it to believe? He gives an answer. To believe is to assent or give credit to truths because of the authority of another. Now last week, we looked at how God is the author of scripture. It is the word of God. He is the source of it. It came from him through the prophets. So, God is the author of scripture, and to believe, then he asks, what is it to believe what the scriptures teach? So, if we're giving assent or credit to truths because of the authority of the one who reveals, What does that mean about scripture? He answers, to believe that which the scripture teach is to assent or give credit to the truth thereof because of the authority of God, whose word the scriptures are. This is divine faith. Now, assent, you can see this by dissent. Dissent is where one of you kids says, no, you're supposed to do dishes. And the other one says, no, you're supposed to do the dishes. You do not assent to the other person's statement. You dissent. You have different opinions. You say the other person's wrong. They say you're wrong. There is dissension. Assent is where you both say the same thing. You agree together in your minds. So faith is to say, what God has revealed, I'm going to give credit, I'm going to say he's right. I'm going to give assent to what he says. Because he has authority and he's revealed these truths, that's what it means to believe the scripture. God has spoken in his word, I assent to it, I agree with it, I give credit to it because God has authority to speak infallibly about anything he speaks about. That's divine faith, he says. Thomas Boston asks, why is faith put before duty? Why does the Catechism say what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man? Why is faith first and duty second? He says that faith is the foundation of duty or obedience, and not obedience or duty the foundation of faith. besides Titus 3.8, and that the things to be believed are placed before the things to be practiced. Now this is important. What you're to believe is first. What you're to practice is second. Now, if you read the epistles of the New Testament, what do you find that they start off with? What does Ephesians start off with in 1, 2, 3, and 4? Doctrines. Things that we're to believe. He lays out clearly. These are the statements concerning your salvation concerning God himself concerning the nature of the church think of again of Ephesians dead in your trespasses and sins He made you alive together with Christ and then after he finishes the doctrinal part. What does he then do the practical part? Then he gets into how you ought to live your life. Not as the Gentiles. Put off the old man. Put on the new man. Live according to God's righteous standards. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, submit to your husbands. Children, obey your parents. Slaves, obey your masters. So he does all the practical stuff second. And that's because faith is first and practice is second. And he goes on here. He says that God does this in order to distinguish between the order of things in the covenant of grace and what they were under the covenant of works. Now remember, we'll get into this later, but the covenant of works is where God told Adam, do this and live, don't do it and you die. So works comes first, the reward comes second. In the gospel, that is inversed. In the covenant of grace, that's not the way it is. In the covenant of grace, it is God teaches you to believe in Jesus Christ, and you'll be justified by believing in his name, and then he says, here's your duty. All the grace and salvation and eternal life are given to you first. And then the duty comes second. That flows out of that. So faith first, duty second. And that's why the catechism recognizes that order that the scripture itself teaches. Point three there on page two. The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God. and what duty God requires of man. We looked earlier, 2 Timothy 1, 13, hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is the pattern of doctrine, faith and love. Faith first, love second. B, Romans 13, Verses 8 through 10, the apostle commands, owe no man anything but to love one another. Now duty is what you owe to someone. You have an obligation to someone, like a debt. That is a duty. You owe something. Here he says, don't owe anybody anything except, here's the one thing that you must owe to others, to love them. That is your duty. That is the debt you owe to others. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So this is the duty that we have. A duty of love, a duty of obedience to God's commandments, a duty to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This is the fundamental duty we owe to our neighbor. Letter C, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." Notice here, when he lays out the scriptures, he gives you the principal teachings of the divinely inspired scriptures. And again, it comes down to faith, the doctrines that we're to believe. reproof when we stray and need to be corrected and shown and warned set on the right path with correction and then after we have our doctrines straight after we have our faith properly formed then instruction in righteousness so that we may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works so duty is second faith first duty second page three there at the top Letter D, Matthew 22, verses 36 through 40. Jesus is asked, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? So here is, hey, what is the principle teaching of the law? What's the main point? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." So this is summing up, you might say. What is the principal teaching of the law? Sit down. What is the principle teaching of the law? The duty of love. God binds and obliges us to love God primarily with all that we have and are, and then secondarily, in a similar way, we're to love our neighbor as ourself. And then he says, these two commandments, Everything else the law and the prophets say, you could summarize as these two commandments. Now again, he's not even talking about the articles of faith. What are you to believe from the law of God? No. This concerns the duties, the commandments of the law. What are the most important commandments? That's the question. What are the greatest commandments? Or what is the great? And he gives two in answer, rather than just one. But notice again, the principle teachings are concerning our duties. Letter E, Micah 6, 8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. That's another statement that summarizes the two tables of the law, to do justly and to love mercy, To do justly is to render to every man what is their dessert. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. To love mercy is an interplay between God's forgiveness of you and your forgiveness of others. God's shown you mercy, therefore you should love mercy and you should practice it toward your neighbor. And then, walk humbly with thy God, that means submit yourself to God, believe what he says, and obey what he commands. That's the idea of walking humbly with thy God. But notice, it's what God requires of man. O man, the Lord requires this of thee. And so here we see this is the duty that God requires of man. It's not optional. It's not maybe. It's not if you feel like it. If it's a good day, sure, I require it of you. But if it's a bad day, don't worry, you don't have to do this. No, no, no, no, no, no. God requires this duty of man. even though man is a sinner and has disabled himself to obey God, God's requirements don't change. And Jesus dying on the cross didn't change these requirements. He still requires and says, you must do this thing. In fact, The word in Hebrew for requiring is often where someone inquires of a god and asks for his favor. Here though, God is inquiring of you and he's demanding is another translation. He demands this of you. He requires that you do these things, oh man. This is the duty of man. And so God has made requirements, not requests. He's inquired and required that we respond with obedience to these commands. Letter F, Ecclesiastes 12, 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Okay, what's the summary of this whole book? What's the summary of what man is to do? How his life is to be framed? Here it is. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. There's the summary statement. The fear of God is where we tremble at God's words. We have proper respect and reverence for his word. We don't think it's a joke or it's to be made jokes of. We don't think we can defer it and put it off till later. I can ignore that part of what God says. No, the fear of God means you embrace with faith all that he promises. You tremble when you hear him threat. You obey and strive to do what he says when he gives you a command. This is fearing God. And then, he has this list of duties he requires of us. Keep his commandments. Fear the Lord. Keep his commandments. This is the sum. In fact, the word duty here is not in the Hebrew. It actually literally says, for this is the whole of man. This is what makes you human, in other words. You are subhuman if you don't fear God, and you're subhuman if you don't keep his commandments. This is what it means to be human. Fear God, keep his commandments. And that's why Ecclesiastes, the whole theme, you might say, is vanity. Because what he's looking at, what is life like for man if he doesn't fear God, if he doesn't keep his commandments? Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. But this is the solution. Fear God, keep his commandments, faith and duty. James 2.26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. These are the two basic categories, faith and works. That's what God principally teaches in the Bible, faith and duty. Now just to make a couple of applications here concerning this. There are many schools of thought where people will say, This is the basic teaching of the Bible. It's duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. And then they'll have a whole system of belief and living based off of what they think is the main thing the Bible says. And it sometimes is actually taught in the Bible. Sometimes it's not. But sometimes, let's say for the sake of argument, it is something taught in the Bible. Some people say, for example, that the basic teaching of the Bible, the core of the Bible truth, is the covenant that God made in Jesus Christ. No, that's not true. The basic teaching of the Bible is not covenant. The basic teaching of the Bible is not predestination. The basic teaching of the Bible is not creation. Those are all truths that God teaches in the Bible. But if you have to distill and summarize and say, this is the big picture, this is the main point of the Bible, or the two main points of the Bible, these are correct. What am I to believe about God? God declares things about himself and commands us that we believe them, that we give credit to his assertions about himself and about how to be reconciled with him. He also says we're supposed to believe things about what he's done, like the works of creation and providence, the work of redemption, what Jesus has done on the cross. Yes, we're to believe all those things. And then the duty that He requires of us. Here are His commandments. Here are His demands. Here's what He requires of you, O man. These are the basic teachings of Scripture. As much as those others are important, as much as they are valuable, as much as they are saving, great, but they're not the principal teachings of Scripture. They might be subcategories of the principal teachings of Scripture, but they are not the basic and principal teaching. Jesus said you could summarize the whole law and the prophets based off of the duty God requires. John said he wrote his gospel for the purpose that you might believe. Faith and obedience. Faith and duty. These are the two basic teachings of scripture. And this really keeps you from getting lost in the weeds, so to speak. Because, as I said, some people have, well, this is the main teaching of the Bible, and so we'll emphasize this instead of saying, well, no, look at the scriptures and find out what God says you're to believe about Him and what He has done and what He has promised. Find that out. When you read the Bible, that's what you should be looking for. What does this passage teach me about God? What I'm to believe concerning him. And then on the second place, what does this passage teach me is my duty to God, whether that's to him directly or to him indirectly through your neighbor. All obedience is ultimately to God, whether rendered directly to him or to your neighbor. So the second table of the law is also obeying God indirectly through his creature, through the neighbor that he's put around you. But that's what we have to find out. When we read the Bible, we're not looking for, how do I have a happy life, successful marriage? How do I get rich? How do I have this doctrine of the covenant? How do I raise my kids properly? No, no, no, no, no, no. Those may be subservient, but the main points When we read the Bible, what does God want me to believe concerning Him? And, does this passage teach me some specific duty? So this is a model for how we study the Bible. This should be reflected in preaching. I should do this as a pastor when I preach the Bible. I should be looking at it from the perspective of what does God say I should believe about Him in this passage? And what does He require of us in His Word through this specific passage? This is faith and love. These are the two basic teachings of the Bible.