"14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
Good Morning my beloved,
It is our nature, that as we grow older, we have a tendency to start thinking that we have it all figured out and that we don’t need to learn anything else. Not only do we have the tendency to think that way about our occupation, education,and many areas of our life, we also think that way concerning Scripture. There are some that have read the Bible from cover to cover of number times, having heard sermons from a variety preachers and numerous texts. There are some that have spent several years in seminary, studying the Old Testament in the original Hebrew language and the New Testament in the original Greek language.
Today, there are many critics of the Bible, who want to point out that Paul didn’t think
like James, or that John’s view of Jesus ministry was quite different than
Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s. This difference in focus and subject matter
does not mean there are contradictions or disagreements in the Bible.
God had a purpose for doing things the way He did.
However, allow me to boldly point out, there are no disagreements
between Jesus and Paul, or Paul and James, or between Peter and John or
anyone else. God chose to offer truth in and through different
perspectives. God oversaw the whole process of His thoughts being
communicated to us through the spoken, written, and Living Word. This is
why we can trust God’s Word to be true because He is true.
The
Bible is a cooperative effort between the Holy Spirit Himself and the individuals He
chose to write Scripture. The Bible is truly a human and Divine effort
as both contributed to its formation. While God used the individual
personalities of the men who first penned Scripture to explain what God
wanted to communicate to us, He alone, is the originator of the Bible.
It would appear that our culture has penetrated our churches with skeptics in
both the pulpit as well as the pew. Pastors and church leaders are chasing the current culture, so that its most recent trends show up in their churches. Consequently, there are many who proclaim to be Christians, while
doubting the absolute truthfulness of the Bible. Yet, it is from within its
pages we are schooled about the teachings and messages of Jesus and the
early apostles. As you well know, it is my conviction, that today we have many people in the ministry who have good priorities, however, there are very few who seem to be defenders of the truth. There's a great deal of relational preaching yet very little powerful preaching. Much of the preaching today attempts to make people feel better about themselves and even feel better about how God feels about them, but there's a lack of powerful preaching defending the truth. Nor is there a lot of doctrinal preaching, clear, precise, concise, confrontive truth from the Word of God. There are not many who seem to see as the priority of their lives, who are really standing for the truth against error, being faithful in the battle for God's Word and to its integrity. I boldly proclaim before you today, the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant authoritative Word of God.
Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word. We know that You have called us to love the truth, understand the truth, live the truth, proclaim the truth and guard the truth. Lord, help us that we would not be hypocritical, believing in a book we do not read, we do not study or even understand. Help us to faithfully commit to being in Your Word every day. Father, I pray that You would raise up a generation of men, with a fresh desire to proclaim the truth and battle to see it preserved, infused with strength, prepared to stand firm on their convictions, in these dangerous times.
Lord, we pray that You would prepare the hearts and minds of the unregenerate hearers, those adjoined to the teaching of satanic doctrine, we pray this for the exaltation of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and may it all be for Your glory.
In Christ's name
Amen
Today's Message: The Bible Tells Me So
As followers of Christ, one thing grips us firmly, enabling us to
run the race with confidence—we are assured of the veracity of the One
who redeemed us. It would be easy to conclude that consistency is in short supply among the faithful. However, because He is always true, we are confident of the
salvation He provides and which we now possess. We are certain that the
Word which He has given is truth. Through the Word, we are equipped to live without fear in the midst of a broken, fallen
world. We know that in Christ we have not only an ultimate victory—we
have victory today!
However, though this victory is ours, I find it it is distressingly, how easily the child of God can be
distracted by this dying world. Like Peter walking on the sea, our eyes
cannot help but to see the raging vortex, the turmoil and the restless
nature of mankind. Though we are redeemed, we are susceptible to the
world’s constant wicked enticing, rivaling for our attention.
The apostles, who walked closely with the Lord during His earthly ministry,
were still dependent upon the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth. And, it is that truth, that has been disseminated to us in the pages of Scripture. Throughout church history, the connection between faithful
preaching under the blessing of the Spirit of God and love for
Scripture, is a reciprocal action. Where the Bible is loved, true
preaching is esteemed, it produces congregations who are eager to
search the Scriptures for themselves. Times of spiritual decline have since followed, however, where the work of
God has been revived there remains an eagerness for the Word of God.
Psalm 19:7-11 teaches us "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; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward."
Open your Bibles with me if you would, to the Book of Second Timothy chapter 3. As we continue in our study of this wonderful epistle, we come to the final four verses, 14 through 17. I believe we cab clearly see that the number one priority, was to know Christ, and to love Christ, upholding the truth.
I would encourage you to follow along with me as I read to you from this rich portion of the Word of God, as we prepare our hearts. II Timothy 3:14-17.
"You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in
Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
Christians by definition acknowledge the authority of the
Scriptures, however, the hunger for the Word of God, in the Western world, is not
widespread. Today, doctrine is dismissed as a luxury not necessary whether for the man
in the pew or for the man who was once anxious to win souls. Public
prayers and the weakness of the church in the face of the challenges of
humanism, atheism, and non-Christian religions indicate a flickering
spirituality. Beloved, these are all dangerous, dangerous signals.
It is nearly impossible not to compare our worth by how much of this
world’s goods we have amassed. We are inundated with the message that
only those with great wealth or those who are known by name throughout
the world have value or worth. Therefore, we often feel as though we are failures
because we aren’t part of some noble profession. We insult and berate ourselves, and others
because we are just housewives, or because we work with our tools, or
because we do not have a great portfolio of stocks and bonds representing
the great companies of our nation.
The same is true with being bombarded with the rawest forms of sexual titillation. One does not need, any longer to look
for pornography, it invades our homes through television, through music,
through literature and at every turn on the Internet. We are extremely vulnerable to the siren allure of forbidden fruit. Consequently, both
men and women are engaged in a strange dance of moving toward just
peeking at the airbrushed models, engaged in the most
private activities, then seeking forgiveness because we know it
contaminates our souls, destroys our marriages and dishonors God.
I believe it is a necessity for us to be reminded that we have a sure foundation for
the faith we possess. We need one another to encourage us to keep our
gaze fixed upon the Lord, Who has led the way into the glory. We have been
given three great gifts to equip us for eternity the Spirit of God, the
Word of God and the people of God.
In verse 14, the Apostle Paul writes, "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them." Paul tells Timothy here you’ve learned from me,
backing up to verses 10-13. You have "become convinced of"
these things, in fact, you have become confident of these things. These
are the things that Christians will lose confidence in, in the midst of the
apostasy, however you have, by contrast, become confident in these things,
and I want you to continue in these things. And beyond that I want
you to continue on in these things because you learned these things from
me. Because he Word of God actually had an impact on Paul. Most all of us are familiar with the biblical account that Paul was Saul, who was not a promoter of Christianity, he
was, in fact, a great persecutor of Christianity.
In I Timothy 1:13
Paul says this: "even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief." The point I'm making here is this, everybody has some kind of
background that they’re ashamed of. And, I am confident, that if we all shared our backgrounds, we'd have things in our past we are ashamed of. And, if anyone had reason to be embarrassed or ashamed, it was Paul. Paul changed. He was converted. And in verse 15 he says "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all."
I'd like you to notice verse 15 of our text, the conjunction "and" that follows verse 14 .
This conjunction is connecting verse 15 back to verse
14, because what does Paul start talking about in verse 15? The
Scriptures, the "sacred writings." So, what changed Paul? Certainly it
was his encounter with the Lord, on the road to Damascus, that had a huge effect on Paul. However, he is revealing something else that changed him from being a
blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent aggressor. It was the Word of
God. It was God's Word that impacted him, that altered the course of my behavior, and Timothy, I
want you to understand something, that this book has the power to
change lives. It has the power to transform a person’s character; it has the
power to transform a person’s soul. And Timothy, I myself, am an
example of it! "And that from childhood you have known the sacred
writings." We know from the Scriptures Timothy had a heritage; in fact, it was truly a glorious heritage.
I want you to understand, that church, youth programs, Christian seminaries, Christian schools,
Christian literature, the only thing they has the ability to do is to
reinforce what is being taught in the home, because if it is not happening
in the home you are shutting off the God-ordained
spiritual truth, which is to be disseminated to the next generation. I have had some ask,"Isn’t that like brainwashing? I mean, aren’t you
brainwashing these kids where they can’t even think for themselves?"
Allow me to ask you something: Why is it that no one asks that of the world? Do
you not think the world system is trying to brainwash our children? Do you
not think that Satan himself is trying to get them to think one way over the other? Parents, this is your opportunity to share with them the truth, the whole picture
before the world has the opportunity to start working on them! I encourage you to do quickly, very, very quickly. Children are never "too young" to learn about Jesus Christ!
John 6:63 teaches us that "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." And in verse 68, "Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."
I believe that this is a major problem which we are facing today. If you move away from the Word of God and fill it with something else,
like a sporting event, you can literally fill a room or large stadium with people. You can have a
crowd of people however, the number of actual born again Christians begins to significantly
shrink, because "faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the Word of God."
So in verse 16, Paul gives Timothy another reason you must go on preaching and teaching the Word of God, because "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;" This book, God’s book, is actually inspired by God. "Inspired by God," is from the Greek word "theópneustos," which is translation of a Greek word that we call a "hapax legomena," meaning it’s used once and only once in the whole New Testament, and that's right here in chapter 3:16.
In II Peter 1:20-21, a parallel passage, it says, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Scripture is God’s message to man. And the message that we have from God has come to us from God through
the Holy Spirit, Who moved the writers of Scripture to pen God’s message.
Now let's look at verse 17, "So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
"So that" connects verse 17 back to verse 16. The ongoing process of sanctification by being perpetually corrected by the Word of God. So that our lives are gradually being conformed and transformed into the moral character of Jesus Christ, that we might exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;"
In Closing..
Beloved, this is very different from the way our culture thinks today; as we look around, the world looks for talent
constantly. And, this is true, even in the church world we look this way, we look at
people that have a particular talent to do something, to preach, to teach, to sing,
to administer, some kind of talent, something we feel is beneficial to us. We then have a tendency to promote that
individual independently of what they’re like in their personal life. However, God
does not think that way. Therefore, such thinking is foreign to the Word of God.
In other words, just because someone is man of God does not mean that they’re qualified to do great exploits and
things for God. There has to be some kind of equipping process, and that is something in which only the Word of God can provide. Because the Bible tells me so!
May it be so...
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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