Living with Truth (Part #2)
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3. I thought that we would spend some more time on the two verses that we looked at last week, as there is just so much given to us in these verses.
“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)
Last week, we could say that we looked at these verses to inspire us or motivate us, that we would be amazed at God and His Word. While this morning is a little more of the Bible school emphasis, the certainty and the truth of God’s Word. And before we somewhat think in our minds, Mark, of course, we believe in the Bible, the truth of the Scripture, and we are assured that it is true. But let us not dismiss this so easily, as our confidence in this truth is transformational in our lives, and therefore, its influence will then be transformational in the lives of the people we touch. In other words, the more I actually believe in what we are going to talk about this morning, the more influential I will be to those with whom, I interact.
And I notice that Paul brings these powerful statements to Timothy, who is a young pastor. Well, why does Timothy need to be told these things by Paul? Well the truth is that Timothy needed to be assured as well by someone like Paul who likely had a deeper faith than Timothy did at this point in his ministry. Admittedly, we can be so encouraged by the voice of someone else, especially someone that we look up to as a Christian, someone who is more mature spiritually. And we need those people in our lives, don’t we? For the Lord did not create us as islands, but to interact spiritually with each other. And this is why it is so vital that the Christian growth of Mom and Dad be so strong, or the spiritual growth of the Sunday school teacher or the godly depth of the youth leader or the deacon or the elder, because strong, confident voices say much to us. In short, there are two things that Paul is really telling Timothy. One, that the Bible originates from the perfect Source, God; and two, the Bible is the perfect resource, as it is the Word of God.
- The Bible originates from the perfect Source … God
Paul uses the term (vs 16) that the Bible is God-breathed. This is where we get our word “inspired,” though “God-breathed” is a much better translation, as the term “inspired” has lost some of its significance in our day and age. As this is not some sort of general inspiration, as someone might say, I was “inspired” to tidy the basement, or I was “inspired” to write this song or poem. Therefore, though many of our translations use the term “inspired” or “inspiration,” it is good to be reminded this morning that the Greek word the-on-nu-stass literally means “God-breathed.”
The word “inspired” can place the emphasis on the person who received the message, such as “I was inspired!” But the term “God-breathed” fully determines the emphasis, that this was God who acted, in other words, Scripture has a fully divine origin. Peter stresses this when he speaks about the Holy Scriptures:
“For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
- Pet 1:21 (LSB)
This reminds us too of the trouble we may have with the sin of great men of God in the Bible who wrote much of the Bible. True, we do not really see Paul as much of a problem here, for we see his sin as before his conversion, therefore it makes us feel better about Paul writing parts of the Bible. But understand that even after Paul was saved he spoke about his own struggle with sin in Romans 7. But what about the Scripture written by Peter, do we struggle with that? What about David? Maybe some struggle with David because of his adultery and murder. And then there is Solomon? Likely many of us struggle with Solomon. Now the question has often been asked, “Who wrote the Bible?” God? yes. Man? yes. As it is true that the Bible was written mysteriously by both. But do not lose sight that its message is God-breathed, and then written by the hand of men. And Paul is stressing here that it was breathed-out not by human sinful men, but it was breathed-out by a perfect God. John MacArthur said this:
“The Bible is not a collection of the wisdom and insights of men, even of godly men. It is God’s truth, His own Word in His own words. The psalmist declared, ‘Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.’ God’s Word is divinely revealed to men on earth and divinely authenticated in heaven.”
John MacArthur, 2 Timothy Commentary, 143
And I say this to emphasize that we do not need to look for perfection in human writers, for there are none. God’s Word is perfect not because it came from perfect writers, but God’s Word is perfect because it came from a perfect God who breathed into men what to write. The entire Word of God, the words written by Paul, Peter, David, and Solomon and all the other authors of the Bible were all given by God Himself. In fact, listen to what Peter writes before the verse we stated earlier:
16 For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—
18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 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.
20 Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
- Peter 1:16-21 (LSB)
Notice that Peter speaks of the words of the Bible as truth (vs 16), this is not about some kind of invented stories. Verse 18, Peter says that he heard God’s voice, he was an eye-witness to this. This is not about Peter waking up from a dream and thinking, “Wow! I imagined something so wild last night!” But he was actually there on the mountain. Verse 20, God did not give me some kind of mumbo-jumbo and I interpreted them as such and such, as he says this did not come about by one’s own interpretation. For the Scriptures did not originate in the fertile mind of men, but they spoke from God. How? (vs 21) as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Rick Baker reminds us that it was not like men such as Peter and Paul and John sat down one day and thought, we need to write some Scripture to help guide the churches. No, the Holy Spirit moved in the hearts of certain men to write. And Baker uses the analogy of a sailboat that will only sit in the water, that unless the wind moves the boat by filling the sail. And the boat is moved along by the wind. That is the work of the Spirit.
Now this does not mean that God dictated the words to these men, and they basically wrote as God began to speak word-for-word. We have said before that men like Peter used terrible Greek in his writing, and the apostle John was very simple. When Greek students begin to learn biblical Greek, they often will study the Gospel of John first, as he uses simple words over and over again. If you began studying Greek from Paul’s books or the writer of Hebrews, you would likely drop out in a hurry. Peter himself might say, you know James and John and I write so that people can understand, but guys like Paul, they can be very difficult to understand. Now if God was actually dictating, would not all these men write similarly. But that is not the case for scholars who study the Greek can identify various writers by their writing style. And yet God through the moving of the Holy Spirit came upon certain men and breathed into them what to write. And they wrote using their own personality, and their own intellect, as they wrote exactly what God wanted them to write.
Now Baker said if we want to compare that to other religions, we might want to look at the Quran, claimed to have been written by one man, Mohammad, received from the angel Gabriel, written 500 years after the last New Testament book, Revelation. One man, from an angel, 500 years later. A book which is supposed to be superior to the Bible. The Book of Mormon written by Joseph Smith around 1830, claiming to have a revelation of Jesus Christ. A book written by one man over 1800 years after the life of Christ. And then we also have men today that will take the Word of God and come up with all kinds of fanatical interpretations of dates and places and events that will take place. And they will tell you what certain events mean today, claiming to have had some kind of inspiration from God. And then we have God’s Word, written by at least forty writers, over a span of 1500 years, with a harmonious theme flowing through from Genesis to Revelation. The same message from the beginning to the end.
But then some might ask, “What about all the discrepancies in the Bible?” “How do we know that we hold the very words of God in our hands?” Again, as we looked at last week, our Elim statement regarding the Bible we read last week:
“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
The truth given here regarding the Scriptures is “in the original documents.” It is true, we do not have any original manuscripts of any books of the Bible. We do not have an original manuscript written by Moses or Paul. What we have today are copies of the originals. So, two reasonable questions to ask, is one, “How do we know that the copies of the originals are accurate? and two, “What about the differences in these copies?” Well part of the evidence, of the accuracy of the copies is in the amount of manuscripts which we possess. Did you know there are over 1300 Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament? That’s a lot! Plus, get this, there are many more ancient versions translated from the Hebrew. Ancient versions of the Hebrew translated into other languages. This is where you have heard the term “the Septuagint.” This is a version of the Hebrew Bible, translated into Greek. Paul quoted from it, this in itself is a great treasure. And the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947, did not cause confusion, but only confirmed the copies which we already had. These Dead Sea Scroll copies are believed to have been written in the first century and contain parts of the Old Testament.
And then the New Testament. Did you know there are over 5300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament? And for anyone questioning in today’s times regarding the validity of these manuscripts, if the secular world was honest, questioning them would be complete nonsense, for this amount of copied manuscripts of the Old Testament and New Testament is unsurpassed by any other ancient manuscripts that are fully accepted today among historians. And this is not by mistake, as this is very much part of God’s design. For the Jewish people were a nation that was known to be meticulous in recording word-for-word their documents. There was a method of making sure that a copy of the Bible was accurate. After copying a book like Genesis, the scholar would then have to count how many letters in the book and therefore determine the middle, not word, but the middle letter. Moody Bible Institute said this about the carefulness in recording each book:
“The middle letter of each book was identified, which would help ensure that not even one letter too few or too many had accidentally crept in the new manuscript.”
Moody Bible Institute, Bible Introduction, 117
We are not talking about finding the middle word in each book, but finding the middle letter. And Hebrew scholars have always cited a Hebrew letter in Psalm 50:12 as the middle letter in the entire Old Testament, Dads, maybe you can confirm that with your kids after lunch today, count each letter in the Old Testament.
The second question would be, “What about the differences in these manuscripts?” That’s a great question. Well, the differences in the Old Testament manuscripts are so few and far between, there is very little difficulty in determining the actual words that were written. This is so outstanding, considering the age of these writings. The New Testament however, does have more word differences to deal with. Yet when all the manuscripts are brought together, scholars state that the New Testament Scriptures which we hold today are 98.3% pure. And when considering the age of these manuscripts; when comparing them with any other ancient documents, their accuracy is unheard of, as these differences are so minuscule, and do not change the message. Because the Bible is “God-breathed” and has a divine origin, given to us through the various authors by the LORD Himself. And the LORD has preserved His word for us. Yes, the Bible comes from the perfect Source.
- The Bible is the perfect resource … it is profitable.
Some have tried to suggest over the centuries that as the Bible is pulled further and further away from the culture it was written, it becomes less and less relevant. But this argument is refuted in Paul’s statement in our passage this morning, that the Bible is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Now an important term which has been given to the Bible, is the term inerrant. P. D. Feinberg states inerrancy this way:
“Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.”
- D. Feinberg, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 156
Don’t miss the importance of this definition, as it confirms to us the eternality or the truthfulness of the Scriptures and the relativity of the Bible. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” Scripture will continue into eternity. Its message is unchanging, as it always has and always will relate to all peoples of all ages. Later in John 10:35, Jesus said that God’s Word can never be broken. So, we know that what the Bible says about history, is true; creation, is true; science, is true; salvation, is true; man’s sinful condition, is true; God’s righteousness, is true; and heaven and hell, is true. And when God says that His Word will stand for eternity and is relevant for all ages, it is true!
“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)
Then Paul says to Timothy that there are four key areas which the Scriptures perform which can make you complete and equipped. What does Paul mean by that? Well, the Bible has great value to both believer and unbeliever alike. As to the unbeliever it makes a person wise to salvation (vs 14). In other words, without the Bible you and I would have never known how to be saved. Therefore, to the unbeliever, it gives them the words of eternal life. Look what Paul had already said to Timothy:
“[A]nd that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
2 Tim 3:15 (LSB)
We do not come to salvation because we know the Scriptures, no, the Scriptures lead us to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Unbeliever here today, there is no other place for which you can find life, except through the teaching of this book, as it reveals to you your present standing before God, but also reveals to you how you can find forgiveness and righteousness through Jesus Christ. The value to the unbeliever. But also, the value to the believer, to those who know Him, it reveals how to become complete and equipped for anything that will be faced in life. That is quite a statement about itself, as it says that we will be equipped for every good work. It specifically speaks to the man of God, considering Timothy’s position as an elder. And as Timothy is equipped by the Word, he then can equip those under his care. So, think of this for a moment, that the people of God are able to teach the truth of God, so that we can encourage the strong and restore the weak, and we can lead unbelievers to Christ. So, what are these four keys to prepare us for such a ministry that all are derived from the Bible so that we as believers become complete and equipped? First, the Bible is:
- Profitable for Teaching
This is not referring “how to teach,” but it is referring to “what to teach.” In other words, the teaching of the Bible is necessary for us to know how to live before God, it is godly wisdom. And it is the responsibility of every believer to live his or her life before the world demonstrating the rightness of God’s Word. We do this by the way we speak and love, and show kindness, and are gracious with people, patient, we live purely, we strive for strong marriages, we have a commitment to God’s people, and we have a strong work ethic. All these things display before the world the rightness of how God desires us to live. But our world, is also affected by sin, as we are, and therefore, the world also needs to see and hear the gospel, to understand the reason why we live as we do.
But we also must understand that though we live in a sinful world, it continues to fall more and more into sin. And this too we lament, because we naturally feel for our children and our children’s children. During a Moody Pastors’ Conference, I attended, Moody president Paul Nyquist as he spoke about the changing landscape in our society, referring to his upbringing in the western plains of the US, and from a distance seeing the storm clouds coming said:
- Expect an increase in litigation.
- Expect continued erosion of religious freedom.
- Expect to experience further isolation. (don’t expect our government to stand
behind us, don’t even expect friends or family to stand with us)
- Stay godly and gracious through it all. (pray for our enemies)
Paul Nyquist, Moody Pastors Conference ’15
You see, the world does not have something to hold on to. It does not have the unchangeable message of the Bible. It can only go to human wisdom and human thinking when trying to respond to our ever-changing culture. But we have the Word of God, and we therefore must teach it. So, when you have opportunity to teach it to your children or at youth or in Sunday school or to a friend at work, cherish that opportunity because it is profitable. In other words, there is nothing better that you could teach than God’s Word. Secondly, it is:
- Profitable for Reproof
This refers to rebuking wrong behaviour or wrong teaching. The writer of Hebrews speaks about how the Bible pierces through us to convict us of sin in our lives. Its message is complete in that it affects every part of us, as there is no way we can read the Scriptures without feeling conviction. Some have called the Bible the divine plumb line with which everything must be aligned to see if it is right or wrong, and without it, my life easily can become derailed. David said that he had more insight than all his teachers. Why? Because he had made the Scriptures his meditation.
Easy to understand why the world can at times be so wrong, and it is also easy to understand why Christians, who are not entrenched in the Word, can so easily be deceived. For even within the church, when many speak of creation, marriage, parenting, church discipline, or whatever. There are many who will come with their own view. But Peter said in 2 Pet 1:19, that the believer would do well to pay attention to the Word. And the Bible is clear that there is right and wrong. This is not Christians being judgmental. Judgmental is when I give you my own opinion, but it is not being judgmental to share with someone what God has already judged. The Bible is profitable for reproof. Thirdly, the Bible is:
- Profitable for Correction
This specifically refers to the one who is able to accept the reproof given in Scripture, who now looks to the Bible to understand how to live and to act properly. The reproof in Scripture, is that we are sinners; the correction, is that we now confess those sins. Correction may mean areas in our lives which we have been convicted about, that we now respond to that reproof. The Bible speaks about the need for the branch to be pruned. Correction is the idea of being willing to prune areas in my life which are hindering me from becoming more and more like my Saviour. For the reality in our lives is that at times the Lord needs to trim away things that are sinful, but also, things that are useless, things in our lives that are not spiritually fruitful or beneficial. And the Bible does this, as it not only presents the right way, but in a sense, it presents the best way for us to live. Folks, it would be hypocritical to read God’s Word and refuse the correction. It would be hypocritical to correct a child or correct someone else, or to state that something is wrong, and not apply that same truth to our own lives. The Bible is profitable for correction. Finally, the Bible is:
- Profitable for Training in Righteousness
This can refer to training as bringing up a child or it can also pertain to disciplining. There is the emphasis here that we need to be accepting of the Word of God, even the times when the Lord disciplines us, that we would consider this to be profitable. There are times when we read God’s Word and our human tendency is to fight against it. How can I treat my enemy the way the Bible requires? Lord, you do not know my situation. How can I honour my husband, when he does not treat me properly? How can I be expected to work hard for a boss who doesn’t appreciate me? How can I love my Mom and Dad when they do not seem to care? How can I continue to love my child when they fight against me? Yet when we respond in obedience to God’s Word, we train ourselves of the profit of God’s Word. The writer of Hebrews wrote:
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb 4:12 (LSB)
That’s a great verse, many of us likely memorized it as a kid. We may all sit here and say “amen” inside, some on the outside, as its truth resonates in our minds. But do we know the verse experientially? Do we know by how we live that the Word of God is living and active? Do we know from life experience that its truth cuts to our very soul and spirit. If someone ever said to you that the Word of God is outdated, that it has no bearing today. Could we not respond, “Are you crazy?” Do you not realize that it answers the deepest questions of life? That by living by its principles and experiencing the salvation it offers, its transformational, because it is active and alive’ For when someone wants to challenge our faith and assurance of His Word, our reaction must be that we would be ready to burst out our hope in His Word.
When my Dad passed away twenty-one years ago, I had the privilege of being given his Bible. I call it the Lloyd Ottaway Commentary Bible, as my Dad was a careful studier of the Word, and his Bible is completely full of notes. Inside the cover it says, “A quiet time in life is like a spiritual shower! It cleans, relaxes, refreshes, and invigorates. We have time for just about everything that’s important to us. Yet nothing is as important as our private time with God. If we do not maintain that time, it is not because we are too busy, but because we do not feel it is important enough!” I can pretty much give you all of Pastor Phil Stairs and Pastor Rick Baker’s sermons by going through each passage in Dad’s Bible. Beside the passage where Paul commends Timothy’s mother and grandmother, my Dad wrote, “Faithful forefathers, grandmothers, mothers, it runs in the family! Praise the Lord!” Psalm 12:6-7, “The words of Yahweh are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times. You, O Yahweh, will keep them; You will guard him from this generation forever.” Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”
I have staked my whole life on this book, though many will continue to attack it. But this is our book. And if anyone ever tries to question God’s Word, we know that “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the WOG stands forever.” Amen? May we praise God for His Word as given to men and preserved for us. Let’s pray. Father, we praise You this morning for Your Word. May it become our guidebook in life, that you would humble us to follow Your clear direction for our lives. So, might we be faithful men and faithful women, faithful Moms and faithful Dads, faithful grandparents, faithful aunts and uncles, and faithful teens. That when people walk into this church, or when we intersect with people in the world, might our joy for Your Word run in this family. And all God’s people said, amen.