THE ESSENTIAL BOOK
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 2, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; August 2, 2020 from 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Theme: The Bible is the essential provision for our walk with Jesus Christ.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
This morning, we return to the on-going study that we started at the beginning of this year. At that time—back when we were all thinking of New Year’s resolutions—I shared a set of resolutions that are well-worth keeping. These are personal resolves that we need to revisit and remind ourselves of throughout the year; because they concern our spiritual life. They help us to set our own hearts right in our prayers for revival in our time.
They were:
1. TO GROW IN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.
2. TO GROW IN MY REPENTANCE FROM SIN.
3. TO GROW IN MY RELIANCE UPON THE HOLY SPIRIT.
4. TO GROW IN THE DAILY READING OF THE BIBLE.
5. TO GROW IN MY REGULAR ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH.
6. TO GROW IN THE RESTORATION OF RELATIONSHIPS.
7. TO GROW IN MY READINESS TO SHARE OUR FAITH.
There is a logical order to these resolves. The first is to grow in my relationship with Jesus—which is the basis of them all. And the more that I grow in that relationship, the more I will become aware of my own need for personal holiness; and so, I then resolve to grow in my repentance of sin. And in my increasing awareness of my own sin, I realize my need for God’s gracious help and guidance in life; and so I grow in my reliance on the indwelling Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us through the holy Scriptures, I resolve to grow in my daily reading of the Bible.
And so; this morning, we take up the fourth resolve, that I grow in my daily reading of the Bible.
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Throughout its pages, we find the Bible recommending itself as something for the people of God to read. The Bible encourages us—throughout the Bible—to read the Bible. In fact, it seems that the more the progress of God’s revelation unfolded through the ages, the more that it presented itself as something essential for God’s people to meditate on and obey.
Shortly after the first five books of Moses were completed, Joshua—who was to lead God’s people into the promised land—was told by God Himself;
Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:6-8).
Later on, after the people had been settled in the land, God gave them their greatest king—King David. David wrote in the very first of the psalms;
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper (Psalm 1:1-3).
The Book of the Psalms contains an entire psalm of 176 verses—written in acrostic form—with every verse being an exaltation to God of the immeasurable value of His word for daily life. It is one of the greatest poems ever written; and it contains such words of advice as this in verse 9,
How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word (Psalm 119:9);
or in verse 105,
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path (v. 105).
Later on in their history, after Israel began to be unfaithful and began to wander from God, God sent His prophet Isaiah to speak to them. Through Isaiah, He told the people;
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent (Isaiah 55:9-11).
After the people of Israel suffered a time of captivity, and when they were returned to their land, God raised up a scholar to teach them to obey His book. He gave them the scribe Ezra; of whom it was said;
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel (Ezra 1:10).
Israel’s darkest periods in its history were those times when it ignored and disobeyed God’s word; and yet, its greatest times where when it heeded and obeyed the Scriptures that God gave to it. The story of Israel is a living lesson to us of the value of God’s sacred word.
And then, in the New Testament era—when not only the Old Testament Scriptures were available, but also when further light from God was being given through the writings of the apostles—we find even further affirmation of the immeasurable value of reading God’s word for daily living. We find the apostle Peter writing in 2 Peter 1;
And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts … (2 Peter 1:19).
Or we have Pastor James saying this in James 1:21-25;
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:21-25).
And this morning, I’d like to draw your special attention to what I believe is the clearest and most powerful exhortation given to us concerning the power of God’s word in our daily life. You’ll find it from the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3.
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Paul had been writing to his young colleague in ministry—Pastor Timothy. He was exhorting Timothy to be faithful to his call to the ministry of pastor and preacher. He warned him that there would come a time in the last days—very much like the times we’re living in today—when people would no longer listen to a word from God. He said that it would be a time when
men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:2-5).
Timothy was to be on guard against such people, and keep himself from them. He reminded Timothy of his great heritage in the word and said,
evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (vv. 13-15).
In the spiritually dark days in which we’re living, dear brothers and sisters, there can’t be a better thing we can do to protect ourselves and build ourselves up in Christ than to be people who read and study and know and obey the word of God. There can’t be anything greater for a church to do in such dark times than to faithfully set God’s word before the world. Paul would go on to tell Timothy to do that very thing! In the first few verses of Chapter 4, he went on to urge Timothy—in the strongest terms possible—
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (4:1-5).
And in the midst of this great appeal to be true to the word—in the midst of expressing how Timothy must be faithful to proclaim it in dark and unbelieving times—Paul explained what it was about the word of God that made it so essential. And it is to these two verses—in 2 Timothy 3:16-17—that I want to draw your very particular attention. All that I have shared with you thus far from the word of God—in all that it tells us about the importance of daily reading from the word of God—is based on what these two verses tell us.
Paul wrote;
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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (3:16-17).
In these two verses, we see that the Bible is the essential provision for our walk with Jesus Christ.
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Now; let’s just take a few brief moments to examine these two verses and what they tell us about the Bible.
First, notice what they tell us about …
1. ITS SOURCE.
Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God …” When Paul speaks of “all Scripture”, we can know what he meant by what he said before and by what he said after. Before, he told Timothy that “from childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Timothy’s godly mother and godly grandmother had raised him in the faith; and they had taught him the Old Testament Scriptures. They led him in the way to faith to Jesus Christ. And then, after saying this, Paul urged Timothy to “Preach the word”; which he specified to be the word of “truth”. The writings of the Old Testament Scriptures—the books of Moses, the books of the history of the people of Israel, the Psalms and wisdom writings, and the prophets—all constituted the word of God. And this would also include the writings of the prophets of our Lord, who wrote according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And notice what Paul tells Timothy concerning the Scriptures. He said that they are “given by inspiration of God”. The word that Paul used, in the original language, is that the Scriptures are “God-breathed”. They are given, as it were, by the ‘breath of God’. And this points us to the divine source of the Bible.
Paul once wrote about this to the Corinthian believers. He told them that he was careful to come to them, not teaching the mere words of men—mere human wisdom. He and the other apostles came proclaiming the word of God to them; saying,
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:12-13).
It’s true that the different writers of the different books of the Bible show forth their unique personalities and styles. They themselves truly wrote the books they gave us—just as human beings would write any book. But it was God Himself who was guiding them in what they wrote—so that what they desired to write was what God Himself wanted to be said. As Peter put it;
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-22).
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So; Scripture was given to us by inspiration of God. It is a God-breathed book—fully human, and yet fully divine. And this is true not just certain parts of it; but all of it. This describes to us its divine source. It is from God.
And because God is its source, we can then know …
2. ITS VALUE.
As Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable …” It gives us certain things that we desperately need. Paul mentions four of them.
First, he says that it is profitable “for doctrine”; or as some translations have it, “for teaching”. It gives us the content of sound doctrinal truth. It gives us the content of what is to be believed by us. What a precious thing this is to have in a world such as ours today!—when so many people have so many contrary ideas, and so many contradictory systems of belief; or when so many people say that there is no truth.
Just think of what the Lord Jesus once said in His prayer to the Father in John 17:17. He prayed for God to sanctify His people by His truth; and then said to His Father, “Your word is truth.” What a precious thing it is to have true doctrine!—true teaching!—truth! It sanctifies us and cleanses us. We receive this from the God-breathed book.
Second, Paul goes on to say that the Scriptures are profitable “for reproof”. “Reproof” is not a word we use very much today. But the idea behind it is a rebuke of that which is error. It treats the matters and concerns of this world as if there are such distinction as true and false—right and wrong; and it points out that which is false and wrong and rebukes it.
The Bible exposes what is wrong in us. It shows us that we are sinners in need of a Savior. In Hebrews 4:12, we’re told,
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
But it doesn’t leave us in a rebuked and reproved state. Paul goes on to say that the Scriptures are also profitable “for correction”. The word that Paul uses here is a fascinating one. It’s one that speaks of setting things right. It’s the word that is used when we speak of “orthopedic shoes”, which set feet right; or the “orthodontist”, who sets teeth right, or “orthodoxy”, which is beliefs set right. The word of God delivers us from our error and sets us on the right path.
And the Bible even keeps us on that right path. It helps us to go forward to live in an increasingly acceptable manner before God; because, as Paul says, it’s also profitable for “for instruction in righteousness”. I love how a dear old Bible teacher from a former era—Dr. Warren Wiesbe—put all this. He said that the Scriptures, because they are God-breathed—are profitable for teaching us (1) what is right, (2) what is not right, (3) how to get right, and (4) how to stay right.
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So; in these two verses, Paul shows us the Bible’s source, and also its value. And finally, notice what Paul says about …
3. ITS PURPOSE.
He wrote that all of this is given to us through the Scriptures “that the man of God [or, we may legitimately translate this 'the person of God'; so that it applies equally to a woman of God or a man of God] may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work”.
To be “complete” speaks of the idea of being made fit for a thing—made well prepared for it. It’s much like when a mountain climber must be physically fit to be able to make the climb. Likewise, regular exposure to the word of God makes us ‘fit’ for every good work that God has for us to do. It builds us up. It edifies us. But more, it also makes us “thoroughly equipped” for every good work. It gives us what we need for those good works. It’s not enough that a mountain climber be physically fit before he makes the ascent. He also has to have all the right gear. And the word of God also gives us the necessary equipping for a life with Jesus.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are God’s workmanship—created in Christ Jesus—for good works “which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. God not only prepares the good works for us, but He also prepares us for the good works. And He does this through His inspired word. I am literally treating the original language of Paul’s words correctly when I say that the word of God not only ‘fits’ us, but also ‘outfits’ us for good works.
No wonder we need to read it daily!
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And so; dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you to renew your commitment to reading God’s word daily! Use the daily Bible reading journal sheets that we provide on our church website at https://bethanybible.org/downloads/bible-journal. Or use whatever method you can to keep you daily in the word.
Remember the exhortation of the apostle Peter:
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (1 Peter 2:1-3).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Click HERE for “Seven Resolves for Personal Revival”.
EA
