Living with Truth
2 Timothy 3:16-4:5
Turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
2 Tim 3:16-4:4 (LSB)
I suppose that if we were asked as Christians, what is the greatest threat to Christianity today? And I want to qualify the question, as there is no ultimate threat to Christianity, for those who know Christ will win … for Christ has already triumphed at the cross, and all who are “in Christ” will spend their eternity with Christ, worshipping Him as Saviour and Lord. And despite what we may see around us, God’s plan is in full force, as ultimately every knee will bow before Him, and what the Lord has said in His Word is being fulfilled. But if we could describe the greatest attack by the evil one, that we would be blinded to the things of God, I believe the answer would be, that it all centres, like it always has around truth. Anne sent me this quote by John MacArthur a while back:
“That is why man has invented evolution. It is the most effective blow against reason, and therefore against God, because reason says for every effect there is a cause; and for something as massive and complex as the universe and all that is in it, there has to be a cause. Evolution says there is no cause. That kind of idiocy has been accepted, because men will come up with idiotic things so that they don’t have to believe in the true God.”
John MacArthur
See, it does not matter whether it pertains to whatever area of life, the fact is this, God is truth and Satan is a liar. And therefore, when man does not listen to God, his thoughts, his directions, his plans are foolish. And while the world moves further away from the truth of God, and while many churches move further away from the truth of God, and while God’s Word is ignored more and more in our government, ignored more and more in our schools, and ignored more and more in our family structure, the Bible makes this rather bold statement about itself:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
2 Tim 3:16 (LSB)
That’s a powerful statement. Can the Bible claim that for itself? Well, this morning, we will look at this opposite-end statement of God’s Word, a statement that is foreign to our world today. And I say foreign to our world because the world so much questions the idea that one source could claim absolute truth for itself. Let’s pray. Lord, we have the privilege of holding high the Word of God this morning. So, may my words be honouring to Your Word. That each of us here would be amazed by the Bible’s power, truth, and authority, especially in the lives of we Your people, but also, in the lives of all people. And we ask this in Your great name, amen.
This morning as we gather there will be many other churches across our land, and millions of other folks gathered in churches throughout the world. And many of these churches will give full allegiance to the Word of God, and they will stand by the Word, and they will acknowledge the Bible as the Word of God. And one of these churches that do this in our world, holds firmly to this wonderful declaration in their doctrinal statement. Listen to these powerful words:
“We believe that in the Holy Scripture God claims the complete allegiance of our mind and heart; that the full persuasion of the truth and authority of the Word of God contained in the Scripture is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts; that, using the Holy Scripture, the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us for our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. So we acknowledge in Holy Scripture, the true witness to God’s Word and the sure guide to Christian faith and conduct.”
That is the doctrinal statement of the United Church of Canada, which at first thought is surprising. But we do notice within this statement there is no mention of the inerrancy of the Bible, only that the Word of God is contained in the Scriptures, giving the assumption that not all of the Scriptures are true, but that only God’s Word is contained somewhere in them. Now fortunately there are other churches, as there is another congregation this morning that will be standing together as they do each Sunday morning and will recite this statement:
“This is my Bible, I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, and I will never be the same; in Jesus’ name, amen.”
This is what will be recited this morning at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, the largest protestant church in the United States, pastored by Senior Pastor Joel Osteen. Two or three minutes into the message that I listened to after this was recited Osteen said:
“You know God has told you that you will be healthy again; that your family will be restored, and that you will meet the person of your dreams. When God puts a promise in your heart, when He speaks to your destiny … what He has spoken of over your life will come to pass.”
Joel Osteen
See, what has happened within our churches and in many of our homes as Christians, is to declare a statement about the Bible’s truth, significance, and trustworthiness, and then after making that statement, to close the book and proceed with life. Or after reading the truth of God’s Word, to then close the book and impart our own wisdom, as Osteen has done. Now we would not do that here in such a blatant way, but we too must be careful that we do not read the Scriptures, and then form our own thoughts, without the Bible giving us clear teaching. This can be a very human characteristic, to stand before a couple during their wedding ceremony and to say “do you promise to love for better or for worse until death do us part,” and both man and woman say “I do,” and then fifty percent of those same couples at some point will walk away.
Or even in churches where believers are baptized, to say to someone “is it your desire to follow the Lord all the days of your life?” And the candidate says “yes,” only to find a few years later that they have left the church and no longer follow Christ. Or to sit in a courtroom and be asked “do swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” and the witness responds “I do,” only to discover through later evidence that their testimony was full of lies and bias. This is the society we live in today and the same society that we have grown up in, a society that struggles with conviction of truth, the conviction to state something and then to honour what was said.
Now this is nothing new for we see this in the Scriptures as well, In Exodus 20, Moses came down from the mountain with the commandments of God. And in Exodus 24:7, the people say this, “All that the Lord has said, we will do, and be obedient,” and then 8 chapters later, they were worshipping the golden calf. Preacher Brent Trembley said, “I do not have to go to church.” But he said as a Christian, “I have to go church.” And I would say this regarding the Word of God, “what the church believes, has to be what the church believes.” What Trembley is reminding us here is not only the conviction of what we believe, but the conviction to live out what we believe. Our own doctrinal statement regarding the Word of God says this:
“We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, inerrant in its original documents, and it is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.”
Elim Bible Chapel “What We Believe”
Taking a couple of words from that statement and relating them to the passage before us I think we can safely say that since the Word of God is the “final authority,” Therefore, it is “profitable” for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. But what we believe will be proven by not only our confession of that statement and this passage, not only in our agreement with that statement and this passage but how we choose to live it out, in other words, by the choices we make. Now sometimes we might define the term “knowledge” as the information that we take in, as we might strive in various areas to try to absorb as much as we can about a certain area. My son Aaron has knowledge. He loves to read, he has a keen interest in many things. But his brothers would say to him, but Aaron, you don’t have any street smarts. And the only reason they say that is that they are jealous because they are not as smart as Aaron, and they enjoy that back-and-forth banter, believe me!
But we might go on after defining knowledge to defining “wisdom” as the application of that knowledge or as the street smarts. And if we could combine both knowledge and wisdom, we could say that it is the real truth both known, believed, and lived. We could subtitle today’s message: Living with Truth … for the Christian is called to a Bible-centred life. John Piper tries to make a visual application of this truth. He says that we need to get the truth of God’s Word inside of our heads. And to do this Piper says we need to bang our heads against the Word. Now I love doctrine and doctrinal statements, but with a doctrine of God’s Word, it can be derived directly from three passages. The first I want to give you quickly and that is found in Matthew 24:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
Matt 24:35 (LSB)
What do we learn from that statement?
- God’s Word is the Eternal Word
The declaration of truth that God has given will never pass away, therefore, we can say that the truth of God’s Word is what? Eternal truth. Now that fact alone should instill in us such a passion for Scripture, knowing that what we have been given to us by God is eternal. Nothing will ever change it, for its message is unchanging. Its message is universal, in other words, it applies to all areas of our lives, to every people group. And its message applies for all time, in other words, its message never becomes outdated, it never loses its relevance, and it is always effective for everything in life. God’s Word is eternal! But look at something else about God’s Word, Verse 16, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” Its direction is coming from God. In other words, it is not earthy, it is not man-generated, its source is outside of man.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
2 Tim 4:3-4 (LSB)
In fact, in 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul tells Timothy to have nothing to do (ESV) with “silly myths.” Who is the source of the silly myths? man. God gets credit for truth, knowledge, and wisdom. And what does man get credit for? silly myths. The other passage which I want to mention is in 2 Peter 1 where Peter writes:
“And we have as more sure the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
2 Pet 1:19-21 (LSB)
Peter too reminds us of the source of this wisdom. It does not come from man, as no prophecy was ever produced from man’s own interpretation. And so that God would make certain that we would get this into our little pea brains. He goes on to say that, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. Do you see how careful that God determines that no credit for wisdom is given to man? For what comes from man? silly myths. But Peter, like Paul, doesn’t leave us there, as he too states where this truth has been produced from where? but men spoke from God. So, God refuses to give credit to man, and claims one hundred percent truth, wisdom, and knowledge to Himself, and gives man credit for what? silly myths, now you’re getting it! Therefore, I believe that we could state point #2:
- God’s Word is the Only Truth and Wisdom
Good to be reminded this morning that there is no other eternal truth, but God’s, and there is no other truth or wisdom, except God’s. Do you see how when we study the Scriptures, when we really study the Scriptures, God sort of puts us in our place, as He expects us to humble ourselves before Him and His Word. And when we get a greater grasp of the greatness of God there is infinitely more pleasure in finding greatness in God than any pleasure derived from finding greatness in ourselves. For when we have discovered the greatness in God, we also have discovered truth, because this is exactly what the Bible teaches us.
But do we see the downward slope that we might experience today, as there is this great battle against the church? And it is the truth of the world, Satan’s lies, versus the infallibility of the Bible. And the result will be: fear within the church, and not a boldness within the church; resulting in an apology at times for the Scriptures; which can result in a shyness in declaring its truth, which is exactly what Paul addressed Timothy about; and this brings a lack of confidence in the Bible’s statements and therefore the Bible becomes effectiveness for us; result, a greater weight is placed upon the words of man. Thirdly, I want us to see something else about the Word of God:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Tim 3:16-17 (LSB)
- God’s Word is Necessary for the Ultimate Fulfilled Life
Listen to what the Bible claims about itself. It lists its effectiveness in things such as teaching, reproving, correcting, and training. But it does not stop there, for it claims that all this teaching, reproving, correcting, and training, results in something: that the man of God might be what? equipped, or as the ESV says complete, and the King James says perfect. Therefore, without the teaching, reproving, correcting, and training of God’s Word a person will never be complete. I guess what it is saying men, that without the Word, you will never be a full, complete man. And I guess that what it is saying women, that without the Word, you will never be a full, complete woman. For the assumption of the passage is that the Word of God is required for each of us to be all that we were intended to be, and without it, we are not.
That word translated “thoroughly” equipped or “complete” is the Greek word “eks-ar-te-zo,” which literally means to complete, to finish, or to perfect. So what Paul is writing here is that God who has made you and me, the God who knows us fully, specifically, individually, and has given us His Word for our betterment, completion, fulfillment, perfection, and therefore, we can say that God’s Word is necessary for the ultimate fulfilled life. So, now here is the challenge of not only “knowing this,” but to be convinced of its truth so that it now determines my thinking, my choices, and my direction. So, I want to leave you with three things this morning to think biblically in regards to the Word of God, the first thing which I would say is:
- Know God’s Word … be reminded of its truth.
Do you spend time each day in the Word of God? There is no substitute for a daily deepening of your faith. There is no limit of knowledge available from God’s Word, its wisdom is endless, for the Bible is not something that you can learn and then put down. We may learn some facts about the Bible that we will not forget, but the wisdom of the Bible is being tested and battled against every single day of our lives, and our perseverance in moving ahead with God is very much dependent on our effort in deepening our knowledge of God’s wisdom. You might say, Mark, I do not have a church background, or I have not been a Christian for very long, and there are so many who know so much more than I do. Now I will not deny that a grounding in Scripture from years prior is an advantage to us, but nothing replaces the day-to-day vibrant commitment with God in the study of His Word. And if you get into God’s Word on a daily basis, your life will be fresh spiritually, and you will be learning new truths about God every day.
Sometimes when you ask an “old crusty Christian” what the Lord is doing in their lives, their response is often, well, fifty-nine years ago, the Lord did this, and that is all well and good. But what has God been doing in your life this week? And part of having a fresh relationship with the Lord is enjoying His wisdom daily and therefore growing daily. But you also need to be disciplined. I keep track every day of what I have read and make some notes, and date it, and add some notes and prayer requests of the day. My dated journal quickly reminds me if I miss Sept 22. Without that accountability, I too would become sloppy in that discipline. Also, begin to read books written by those who hold to a high view of the Word of God, as we want to benefit from those who have gone on before us or those who are currently teaching the wonderful truths of the Scriptures. Christian, I promise you this, that if you are not consistently learning the truths of Scripture and you take up that challenge, it will not take you long before you are relishing in your new-found appreciation and excitement for the wisdom and the knowledge of God. So, know it, and be reminded of its truth. Secondly:
- Apply God’s Word … remember its profit.
Remember we said that one of the great dangers in the church is not believing what we believe. Yet the result of a real belief in the Word of God will be an application of its truth. I often say when Anne and I do marriage counselling is not that we as a couple have attained any kind of perfection, certainly I have not. But the exciting thing about our marriage, and one reason that we enjoy where the Lord has brought us, and where He is taking us as a couple is the very encouragement that we are both individually striving to do what the Bible says in regard to being a husband and a wife. So, in the case of our marriages, it is pretty simple to understand that we must not only know what the Bible says regarding husbands and wives, but we must also be convinced that biblical wisdom is best for us, and that it is profitable. David Platt said this:
“If Christians believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word, then they should naturally see it as profitable … People need God’s Word more than man’s observations and practical suggestions.”
David Platt, Christ-Centered Exposition 1 & 2 Timothy / Titus 201
William Mounce said this:
“… because Scripture comes from God, it is therefore true, and because it is true, it therefore profitable.”
William D. Mounce, Word Biblical Commentary – Pastoral Epistles 566
We said a few weeks ago, that when we do not obey the Bible we miss the opportunity to prove itself to us. In other words, if I have a major decision to make or something that I must do, and I know what the Bible says, and the Bible’s wisdom is hard and difficult, and I choose to be obedient though it may be extremely difficult; what I have done is to train myself to experience the effectiveness of God’s Word, that I can later look back on that decision and know that God’s way was hard, but it was also best. It would be foolish, wouldn’t it, to hold to our doctrinal statement, and yet not trust the Word of God so that it directs my marriage, and my family. As it would be foolish for us as elders to hold to our doctrinal statement, and then not insist that our church be directed by the Bible’s wisdom.
This is a weighty point because the application of the Scripture demands that I am convinced of its profit. For the effectiveness of God’s Word is not because it is a really good idea. No, the effectiveness of God’s Word is because it is true. So, my faithfulness as a husband, my honesty in the workplace, my commitment to ministry, my heart as a Dad, as well as all the situations and circumstances where you find yourself in, your reactions, directions, decisions, character will all be determined by your belief in the trustworthiness of God and what he has written, amen? Finally:
- Honour God’s Word … remember its source.
All Scripture is God-breathed by God, so honour it. Remember that wisdom is not you and me figuring things out, but wisdom is found in the riches of the Bible. For when we try to interweave man’s wisdom with Scripture, we actually steal from God His perfect revelation that He has given to us. And to those of you who may not see the value in Scripture or see the dire need of submitting your life to its direction, Romans 13:1 says that there is no authority except from God. In other words, there is no getting yourself outside of the accountability of God, whether you choose to ignore it, or not believe it, or follow another religion, or follow your own human intuition or follow your heart; His sovereignty is still over every living being, whether you like it or not, despite what you may claim or not claim to believe, there is no other authority except God. Therefore, the great need for us is to be quiet and submissive, and to listen to the heart and wisdom of God in all matters of life. Sometimes we spend a great deal of time lamenting the world’s reaction to the Word of God, but far greater than that is the need of the church to honour God’s Word.
One more thing that the Scriptures tell us. It says here (vs 17) that the Scriptures “equip us for every good work.” Paul is really stepping Timothy back to (ch 2) where he told Timothy that he was to be an honourable vessel, ready for every good work. Is it not our desire to be a vessel that the Lord wishes to use? Would it not be that if we believed in the Word of God, that we would desire to be a greater vessel, a vessel more usable.
Anne and I were involved in youth ministry for many years and I was working away in Chatham, and we really didn’t want to change anything, as the Lord was using us, and we were enjoying the ministry. But the Lord began to place on my heart a desire to get into ministry full-time and that conviction would not go away. And as I look back, now seventeen years later, I would say Lord thank You that You allowed me to make that choice, because if I had not, I would have regretted it. And so too for all of us, the Word of God pushes us, directs us, and challenges us. And yet at the same time, the things of the world want to keep pushing away that wisdom, to the point where we might say with regret someday, you know, I should have taken the wisdom of God more seriously. Well, I believe the encouraging word this morning is that whether you are fifteen or eighty-five years, you can pick up the Word of God with the confidence that its promises will prepare you for every good work which the Lord has prepared in advance for you. In closing, let’s stand together and read what God claims about His own Book.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Tim 3:16-17 (LSB)
What does man get credit for? silly myths, because all truth, knowledge, and wisdom is from the heart of our great God. Let’s pray. Lord, may we study your Word. May we understand it, believe, and live it. So that we would be equipped for every good work to which You have called us. And may we not find joy until we find the treasures in Your Word. And all God’s people said, amen.