“The Bible is a life book given for life purposes, so that the creatures to whom it is given would look for life in the only place where life can be found. The doctrines of the Bible are not so much ideology as they are living and divine tools of salvation, transformation, identity, and guidance.”
~ Paul David Tripp

“The doctrines of the word of God were not intended just to lay claim on your brain, but also to capture your heart and transform the way you live. Those doctrines are meant to turn you inside out and your world upside down. Biblical doctrine is much more than an outline you give confessional assent to. Doctrine is something you live in even the smallest and most mundane moments of your life. Biblical doctrine is meant to transform your identity, alter your relationships, and reshape your finances. It’s meant to change the way you think and talk, how you approach your job, how you conduct yourself in time of leisure, how you act in your marriage, and the things you do as a parent. It’s meant to change the way you think about your past, interpret your present, and view the future.”
~ Paul David Tripp

The Importance of Doctrine:
1. Provide a helpful shorthand for the grand redemptive story.
2. Explanation so that we can admit our need and reach out for God’s help.
3. We all make doctrinal statements.
4. The world makes doctrinal statements.
5. The enemy used scripture to promote false doctrine.

On the doctrine of scripture:
“Other than our salvation and his presence now living inside of us as his children, our Bible is God’s most precious and valuable gift to us.”

“All Scripture, every book in the Old and New Testament, penned by some forty authors and encompassing Biblical Literature, Narrative, History, Poetry, Wisdom, Prophecy, Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse, was written under and directed by the inspiration of God.”

"As we think about the doctrine of Scripture, it is impossible to overstate the importance of what we are now considering. The existence, inspiration, authority, and trustworthiness of Scripture is the doctrinal foundation upon which every other doctrine stands. If there is no such thing as a God -breathed Scripture, if it does not reveal to me the truths that are essential for a knowledge of God, knowledge of self, and the way of salvation, then I have no right or authority to say what is true to myself or anyone else. If there is no inspired, authoritative, and trustworthy word of God, then I am left to myself to decide, by my own experience, personal insight, or collective research with others, what is true.”
~ Paul David Tripp

“I not only need the content of God’s word, but I also need the help of the Holy Spirit to enable me to understand it, to assist me to apply it, to empower me to live it, and to equip me to take its message to others. God rescues me from my foolishness not just by handing me a book, but also by giving me himself to open the wisdom of that book to me.”
~ Paul David Tripp

The Word of God...
1. S_______
2. P_______
3. T_______
4. R_______
5. W_______
6. P________
7. E________
8. M________
9. C________
10. C_______
11. G_______

"None of us knows everything that the Bible has to teach us. If you think you have mastered this book, it probably means you haven’t been mastered by it."

“In every area of our lives, God blesses us with protective and preventative warnings. He does this because he loves us, and he knows the susceptibility of our hearts… And remember, he not only warns you, but He also empowers you with the grace you need to live inside of his warnings.”

“’Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.’ We are walkers through the city of this world, and we are often called to go out into its darkness; let us never venture there without the light-giving word, lest we slip with our feet. Each man should use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that he may see his way and see what lies in it. When darkness settles down upon all around me, the word of the Lord, like a flaming torch, reveals my way. Having no fixed lamps in eastern towns, in old time each passenger carried a lantern with him that he might not fall into the open sewer, or stumble over the heaps of ordure which defiled the road. This is a true picture of our path through this dark world: we should not know the way, or how to walk in it, if the Scripture, like a blazing flambeau, did nor reveal it.
One of the most practical benefits of Holy Writ is guidance in the acts of daily life: it is not sent to astound us wit its brilliance, but to guide us by its instruction. It is true the head needs illumination, but even more the feet need direction, else head and feet may both fall into a ditch. Happy is the man who personally appropriates God’s word, and practically uses it as his comfort and counsellor, a lamp to his own feet.”
~ Charles Spurgeon

CMC Statement of Theology: "The Bible"

“The Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, are the Word of God, a supernatural revelation from God to mankind, verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit through human instrumentality, without error in the original writings in all that they affirm. They are a God-given record of the incarnational revelation of God in Christ and a written disclosure of God’s will and plan for mankind. The Scriptures are the final authority for faith and practice, with the entire New Testament being the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the perfected rule for the Christian church.”

Now What?
•approach Scripture with a deep and abiding sense of need.
•approach Scripture with sense of joy.
•approach Scripture with gratitude.
•approach Scripture with commitment.
•determine to fight resistance to Scripture's message and call.
•covenant with God to apply scripture to our lives.

“’Great peace have they which love thy Law: and nothing shall offend them’ (Psalm 119:165). Yes, a true love for the great Book will bring us great peace form the great God and be a great protection to us. Let us live constantly in the society of the law of the Lord, and it will breed in our hearts a restfulness such as nothing else can. The Holy Spirit acts as a Comforter through the Word and sheds abroad those benign influences which calm the tempests of the soul. Nothing is a stumbling block to the man who has the Word of God dwelling in him richly. He takes up his daily cross, and it becomes a delight. For the fiery trial he is prepared and counts it not strange, so as to be utterly cast down by it. He is neither stumbled by prosperity – as so many are – nor crushed by adversity – as others have been – for he lives beyond the changing circumstances of external life. When his Lord puts before him some great mystery of the faith which makes others cry, ‘This is a hard saying; who can hear it?’ the believer accepts it without questions; for his intellectual difficulties are overcome by his reverent awe of the law of the Lord, which is to him the supreme authority to which he joyfully bows. Lord, work in us this love, this peace, this rest, this day.”
~ Charles Spurgeon

Reflection Questions/ Sunday School Discussion:
1. What is the role and importance of doctrine in your life?
2. What is the most important doctrine to you and why?
3. Of all the things that the word of God does, how has it most deeply impacted your faith in the last week?
4. What new vantage point on scripture have you received today and how will it impact your faith moving forward?
5. How might the doctrine of scripture impact how, when and why you share your faith with others?