2 Timothy 3:13-17 Understanding the Times Pt 2 - Pastor Ryan - Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM
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Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
All right. Well, good morning. Glad you all are here. It's good to see everybody. Glad you can make it out on this cold morning. I just want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. Father, we give you praise. We give you thanks for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house this morning, Lord. And thank you for those that
can make it out on this cold morning. For those that are not able to, I just pray that you bless them, Lord, and speak to them right where they're at, Lord God. We ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, may you be glorified this morning. Help us to lift a praise to you this morning. And may your word go out with power in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a seat if you like. We thank you
again for another day, Lord. Thank you for allowing us to be here. And Lord, a word says, who the son sets free. Lord, if you've set them free, they are free indeed. Help us to live.
Lord God, we just thank you for how good you are to us. Lord God, we know that you won't forsake us. We know that you won't abandon us. No matter what it is we're going through, whether we're on the mountaintop or we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, Lord God, you are there. You are with us. Would you guys go ahead and stand with me for the last
one? We just give you honor. We give you glory. We give you praise. Lord, you are king of kings. You are Lord of lords. God, you are holy. And we praise you again. And now as Pastor Ryan comes, I pray that you would just bless this time. Let your word go out with power. Lord God, and let it not return to you void, but a calling to you. Lord God, we thank you for how good you are to us. Lord God, we thank you for
the purpose for which you sent it. Lord God, give us ears to hear and hearts to receive it. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.
Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. You would take a look in your bulletin, a handful of things to take note of. First of all, over on the left-hand side are all the things that go on throughout the week. In the middle
section, first of all, the thing that I need to tell you is that, hey, can we get the lights back on? I feel like I'm at a concert. There it is. Oh, look, I can see all of you now. Okay, so construction update. We are, man, we're so close to just everything being finished, but everything's open now. I just ask that you be a little bit careful because there's a couple of trip hazards
in the open foyer area. But if you want to walk around and kind of take a look and see what things look like over there. I'm really excited with how this has turned out. So please just continue to be a little bit patient with us. It's going to take us a few weeks to kind of get things back to where they maybe need to be. So there'll be some things that are just maybe not quite like they usually are, but we'll
get them back there. It was a very, very busy week. And those guys killed it this week. I could not believe that they got to the place where all of that's open. I kind of thought you were going to have to use this entrance over here. We all thought that, but they moved really fast and did really well. That as a note, one thing that I don't know how much it's going to affect some of the people in
here, but as far as a couple of things that go on over there, if you are dropping kids off at a nursery or in the toddler room, you need to make sure that you hand them. We've got baby gates there. Hand them over the gates so that we don't lose any escapees because some of those tiny people move incredibly fast. So those gates are there for a reason. Don't remove them. So that's
kind of what's going on there. So the graduation Christmas child shoe boxes are due next Sunday. When do they do? That's right. That's right. So those of you that are procrastinators, you still have six more days until those have to be done. So make sure that you get those done. Fellows, we have a men's breakfast next Saturday morning at 8 a.m. down in the Agape room. And then there's one other thing
that I need to invite my mother to come up and announce. And I promise if there's a trip hazard, I will. So there is a women's retreat coming up the first Saturday in December. And women's retreats are great. Some of my greatest memories through the years have been from women's retreats. I've managed to get myself in trouble at a few of them. And we just have a great time together. It's so much fun
to just grab a group of women and go. This one's kind of a mini retreat. It's just one day at Calvary Chapel Wellington. And it's for me. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time.
It's a great time. It's a great time. It's a great time. Maybe he'll tell you how much we embrace it. Everyone was like, Oh, what's so우� mussa scrape our studio. Can't get some grounded infrastructure in. And so we're going to have to put in vending machines and other out of the whole life like you just that every minute of each day. It's going to be Stuffed up. We're going to be thinking a lot about the winter releases. And we're going to be
talking about the 50% zukpre of winter releases. It's all going to cross to insol nails last clutter and we're going to talk about the cotton fields and then all the things we're going to standard so hopefully we all sound the same if you need a copy should be one in a row around you and as you are turning to psalm 39 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 39 for the choir director for jedithoon a psalm of david i said i will guard my ways that i may not sin with my tongue i will guard my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence i will mute and silent and refrain even from good and my sorrow grew worse
my heart was hot within me while i was musing the fire burned then i spoke with my tongue lord make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days let me know how transient i am behold you have made my days as hand breaths in my lifetime as nothing in your sight surely every man at his best is a man of God and he is a man of God and he is a man of God and he is a man of God and he is a mere breath say la surely every man walks about as a phantom surely they make up an uproar for nothing he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them and now lord for what do i wait my hope is in you deliver me from all my transgressions make me not the approach of the foolish i have become mute i do not open my mouth because it is you who have done it
remove your plague from me because of the opposition of your hand i am perishing with reproofs you chase in a man for iniquity you consume a moth as uh you consume as a moth what is precious to him surely every man is a mere breath say la hear my prayer oh lord and give ear to my cry do not be silent at my tears for i am a stranger with you a sojourner like all my fathers and read verse 13 with me turn your gaze away from me that i may smile again before i depart and am no more and so father we do acknowledge the fact that lord our life on this earth is brief and so lord we want our life on this earth that is so brief to bring glory to you and so father may you teach us what that looks
like today as we spend time in your word and father may you draw us near to you and we just pray these things lord in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the book of second timothy chapter three second timothy chapter three well today we come to part two in our series understand the times and last week paul had told timothy as he's giving him his his faithful or final words from a faithful servant he had told timothy that that he needed to understand the fact to realize this that in the last days difficult times will come but the thing that will cause the difficult times is not necessarily the the outward circumstances of the world i.e wars and famines
and economic issues the difficult times will come because the people will be difficult because there will be evil in the world outside of the church and there will be imposters within the church and so he tells them to beware of these things and he went through a list of about 18 different things that he needed to take note of not the least of which is that persecution would continue to arise and so with all of those things that paul laid out with the the difficult times that were coming now he's going to tell timothy the only way to respond to those difficult times the only way that you can live as you understand the times the the way that our lives should be in light of what's happening in the world around us and so today we come to part
two which i've simply entitled remain faithful remain faithful and so we pick up in verse 13 and it says this but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived 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 is profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and righteousness so that the man of god may be adequate equipped for every good work paul had just told timothy that all who live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution
and he continues that theme as he tells him first of all evil men will grow worse evil men will grow worse this is an important thing for us to pay attention to because i do think that we can all live with a little bit of a happily ever after mentality but i do think that we can all live with this mentality on this side of eternity we can sometimes think you know i think we can make this world a better place i just want to leave this world a little better place than i left it listen we just need to know something this world is never going to be a better place because this world is dominated by sin this world will continue to grow worse and worse and the evil men in this world
will continue to grow worse and worse and this is not a doomsday sort of a message this is a reality message because i think one of the things missing in the church today is reality and because we've not been living in reality we've not been living in focus and because we've not been living in focus we have stopped making an impact on the culture instead the culture has impacted us and we need to understand that the times that we live in will continue to grow worse and worse and evil men will grow worse and worse notice what he says in verse 13 he says but evil men and imposters it's interesting because he mentions two groups of people here two groups that were addressed in the first portion of the scripture that we talked about in the first portion
chapter three first of all the evil men these are the out and out evil people these are the people that are of the world the enemies of christ we need to understand something the enemies of christ will not all of a sudden decide let's be a little bit easier on the truth let's stop hating the truth unless jesus comes into their life and absolutely changes them but those that are opposed to christ will continue to be more and more opposed to christ as a matter of fact i'm going to tell you this the closer that we get to the end the closer that we get to the end the closer that we get to the end the sharper the division will be between good and evil because the more satan will fight
against all of the things of god he knows his time is drawing to a close which is why i think we're seeing some of the things that we're seeing in the culture today which is why i feel like we're seeing the attack be heavier than it's ever been before at least in my lifetime because i think the enemy knows that the time is near i think he knows his days are numbered and so so the evil men of the world those who are blatant enemies of god are going to be the ones that are going to be the will continue to grow worse and worse but not only is it just evil men those blatant enemies of christ but he uses a second word imposters the imposters are what i have simply termed the false
brethren the ones that we talked about at the very end of that section who make a proclamation of godliness but they deny it by their lifestyles they have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof in other words their lifestyle denies their claim and those imposters will continue to grow worse and worse and we're seeing this again in the church today we're seeing quote-unquote churches that i don't even know why they have that name anymore other than the fact that they're a gathering of people we see churches that do nothing to promote the gospel of jesus christ we see churches that do nothing to to promote the truth even though it's going to hurt people's feelings isn't and as a matter of fact we see churches that are doing
the very opposite of that instead of instead of promoting the truth they are affirming the truth they are affirming the false and they are affirming sin and we need to know that will continue to grow worse and worse because the one thing that we'll see when the church is caught out of here the real church the true church is caught out of here is you will see the world prepared for an imposter church we call it the antichrist it will be prepared for that because he will affirm them in their sin and as days grow worse and worse as the last times continue to build an entity we will see the evil men and the imposters grow worse and worse and what do these evil men and imposters do notice what it says in verse 13 deceiving and being deceived i think it's
interesting that those two words are used there because not only are they the ones who are going out and doing the deceiving not only are they the ones who are deceptive in nature but ultimately they are the ones who are being deceived ultimately they are the ones who are being deceived by the enemy and and i want to give a challenge to us as a church it's very easy for us to look at at the at the church on the outside at the the church that's not affirming truth instead they're affirming sin and to look at them and judge and say oh my gosh those are terrible human beings no those are people that have been deceived those are people that have been deceived by the
enemy and rather than praying for their destruction we need to pray for their salvation because jesus is in the business of saving even imposter christians jesus is in the business of redeeming and restoring even those with a false sense of spirituality who deny it with their lifestyle turning them into true believers in jesus christ who have repented of their sins because they have been deceived i will continue to remind you our enemy is not people our enemy is the devil and he has deceived the nations and he has deceived the people and so he says these evil men and imposters will continue to grow worse and worse they are deceiving and they are being deceived
and so he says this he says number two continue in these things verse 14 you however continue in the things that 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 wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in christ jesus he says but you timothy you however he creates the contrast in other words in direct contrast to those who are evil and imposters in in direct contrast to those who are continuing to grow worse in direct contrast to those who are deceiving and being deceived you however timothy continue in the things that you have been taught that word continue
is a very interesting word and it's a very interesting word and it's a very interesting word that word continue means to remain in or to abide in it's the same greek word that's used in john chapter 15 when jesus told his disciples i am the vine and you are the you are the branches whoever remains in me whoever continues in me whoever abides in me will bear much fruit and so he tells timothy this is what you need to do in response to the to the growing intensity of the evil in the world here's how you need to live in response to the imposter in the church here's how you need to live in response to the fact that evil men and imposters will continue to grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived you continue in the truth
continue in the things that you have been taught i really appreciated the way that the new living translation translated this because it says remain faithful to the things that you have been taught which is where i came up with the title for the message this morning Remain faithful in the things that you have been taught. And so he tells them, continue in these things. Remain faithful in these things. Abide in these things.
Well, what's he to abide in? First of all, the things that you have learned and become convinced of. The things that you have learned and become convinced of. He'll describe it a little bit more in just a moment when he refers to it as the sacred writings. But he says, you've learned the truth. Continue in the truth. You have learned the truth. Continue in what you have been taught.
Continue holding on to those things. The things that you have learned. And listen, the things that you have become convinced of. One of the beautiful things about God's truth, about the truth of God's word is this. God's word will always defend itself. We've talked about this. God's word will always defend itself. And some people find themselves saying, well, I don't know if I believe that this is true.
And my challenge is always, then just ask God. Just ask God. Lord, I don't know if I believe this. I don't know if I really understand this. And I don't even know if I believe that it's true. Lord, would you show me that it's true? You know what I've seen 100% of the time? God always proves that it's true. Now listen, some people choose to believe it at that point in time.
And some people choose to rebel against it at that point in time. But they will still come to the place of knowing that it is the truth. Because God's word will always convince. Because God's spirit will always convince. And one of the most beautiful things that we can have. Happen in our lives. Is when we go to God and we say, Lord, I don't know if I believe that.
And God's not insecure. He's not like, well, I don't know what I'm going to do now. They may not believe in me. I just, I hope I can convince them. No, he just goes about the business of convincing you. Is that once you become convinced of it. Especially convinced of it. By God's work in your life. No one can change your mind at that point in time. There are things in my life that I don't care how good of an argument is given to me.
I don't care how philosophical the argument is. How brilliant the argument is. You will never convince me. The opposite. Because the things that I know in my life are not things that I read. Or that I learned just because I read them in the Bible. Or just because I read about it in a commentary. There are things that God has written on my heart. And I have become convinced of them.
A month or so ago I did a funeral. For a good friend of mine's dad. And I do a lot of them. So I kind of have a little bit of a patented service that I do. And I thought, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do the same service that I always do. I want to get creative about this. Because this is somebody that I really love. This is somebody I really care about.
And I want to make sure I give them my best. And so I sat in my office for a good long time looking over past notes from services that I've done. And looking up other scriptures. And just kind of working through things. That's sort of the process that you go through. Sort of working through things. And after about an hour or so of sitting there doing all that.
I thought, I've got to just go with what I know. And it really felt like the Lord ministered to me. He said, Ryan. Ryan, these aren't things that you've learned because you read them. This is the truth I've written on your heart. This is the truth about overcoming grief that I've written on your heart. This is what you're convinced of. And this is what you can deliver with power.
Because it's the truth that you've been convinced of. And so I got up in front of that group of people. And I told them that exact thing. I said, listen, I tried to go. A lot of you have been to services I've done before. And I tried to come up with all new stuff. And I couldn't. Because this is what's written on my heart. Because this is the truth that I'm convinced of.
And this is not just something that I read about. This is something I've learned for me personally. This is how God healed me. And so this is what I want to give to you. Paul says, Timothy. The things that you have learned. And the things that you have been convinced of. The truth of God that's written on your heart. Remain in those things. Continue in those things.
Remain faithful to that. The truth that God has written on your heart. What is written on your heart is this. It is the sacred writings that you have learned from childhood. The sacred writings which are able to give wisdom. And are able to lead to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, I want you to hold tight to the sacred writings. The writings that you have learned since you were a little kid.
You know what the sacred writings are? They're the Old Testament. It's the Old Testament. And some of the newer stuff that was coming out. Some of the epistles that were coming out. The gospel accounts that were being written at this point in time. He says, hold tight to those things. Because they can do two things for you. Number one, they give you wisdom.
I am convinced that if we would start seeking God through his word. For wisdom in how to do anything in our life. God will speak to us about how to do anything in our life. Because God's word gives wisdom. You know why? Because God's word takes us to the source of wisdom. Where is wisdom found? Wisdom is found in the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord.
So if I want wisdom, I start there. And as I begin to fear the Lord and seek God through his word, it's amazing how he lays out everything that you need if you will seek him through his word. It gives wisdom. But the greatest wisdom that it gives is it gives the wisdom that there is salvation in Jesus Christ. It gives wisdom that there is salvation in Jesus Christ.
You say, Ryan, how did he have all of that at this point in time? Mainly what they had was the Old Testament. You know how they had all of that at that point in time? Yeah, because all of the Old Testament declares Jesus. I was having a conversation with a kid the other day, and they said, I'm in the book of Exodus and working my way through the law, and it's kind of hard.
I'm like, just wait until you get to Leviticus. It's going to be great. You're going to love it.
I said, you know, here's the thing about Exodus and Leviticus and even Numbers and Deuteronomy is they all declare Jesus because in the Old Testament, Jesus is concealed, and in the New Testament, Jesus is revealed. And all of those things, all of those things reveal Jesus. And it's one of my favorite things to look at the Old Testament for is to see just how much Jesus is revealed. There's this great story at the end of the Gospel account of Luke, which, by the way, Timothy probably would have read by this point in time.
There's a great story at the end of the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is on the road to Emmaus with a couple of disciples, and he's like, hey, what are you guys talking about? And they're like, well, you've been living under a rock. We're talking about what took place in Jerusalem this weekend. The guy that we thought was the Messiah was crucified, and some of us, some of our followers are saying he's risen, but I don't know.
That's kind of a strange thing to believe. And he said, oh, that's kind of interesting. Well, let's talk about this Messiah. And it says that beginning with the Old Testament Scriptures, he walked them all the way through showing them that Jesus must suffer all of these things. Because from the very beginning, Jesus had to suffer, and it was pointed out in Scripture
that Jesus would suffer all of these things. And it's amazing to see all of the pictures of Jesus throughout. Throughout the Old Testament, and that all of those sacrifices all pointed to Jesus. I've shared this lots of times, but it's, I think, one of the coolest things that shows Jesus in the Old Testament, and it has to do with the flood. When Noah built the ark, of course,
the flood was judgment that was coming upon the earth, and the only people that were going to be saved from the judgment were those that were inside of the ark. And they were told to build this giant boat and to cover it with pitch. Now, that word pitch is a really interesting word because that word pitch in the Hebrew is the word kofar, or covering. We get our other word atonement from it.
And so in the picture of the ark, you have the atoning that covers, protecting from the judgment around so that anyone that is protected by the atoning cover is protected from the judgment. See what I mean? Jesus is all over the Old Testament. And it's one of the coolest things that you'll see. And so he says, hold on to those sacred, sacred writings because they give you wisdom.
But not only do they give you wisdom, just general wisdom, but they give you salvation wisdom. That salvation comes, how? Through faith in Jesus Christ. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Well, I got to thinking about this, and I thought, okay, so what does it look like to remain faithful? Yesterday, no, it wasn't yesterday, two days ago, I don't know,
this week's been crazy. One day, I sat down, and I thought, what does it look like to remain faithful? What does it look like to remain faithful to the sacred writings? What does he mean? How do we put shoes on that and make it walk? And so I wrote down four things. Four things that it looks like to remain faithful to the word. Number one, you need to be faithful to know the word.
You need to be faithful to know the word. We're going to talk about why that's important in just a minute at the end of this section, but you need to be faithful to know the word, to know what it says, and to study it out truly, like we've talked about before, so that you can know what God's word says. Listen, false is all around us right now, and the best way to, to identify the false is if you know the genuine. So know God's word.
Know what it says. Ask yourself questions. Ask the Bible questions, and get to know it as well as you possibly can, so that it becomes a second nature thing for you to get into God's word, so that you can know it. Number two, you need to be faithful to let the word know you. You need to be faithful to let the word know you. You know what that means? That means you have to be open
to whatever God's word has to say. That means that when you come to God's word, you have to lay yourself open before it, just like you lay it open before you. That means you can't come to God's word with your own preconceived ideas of who God is, and what God's going to say. You need to come to God's word and say, Lord, I don't know. You need to teach me. Lord, I'm open to you showing me the sin in my life.
I'm open to you revealing the lies in my life. I'm open to you revealing the hypocrisy that's in my life. I am open, Lord, to you knowing me. Knowing every aspect of me. So here I am before you under the microscope of your word, but we have to be faithful to let the word know us. The problem most people have is that they approach the word with this preconceived idea
that today I'm going to get an emotional devotional, a little inspiring word to keep me going for the day. Meanwhile, what God really wants to do is he wants to do surgery. He doesn't want to inspire you to be a better version of your sinful self. He wants to do surgery to remove the garbage so that you can be a better version of the holy self. He's already created you.
But you have to be faithful to let the word know you. Number three, you have to be faithful to live the word. You have to be faithful to live the word. Listen, God's word is only as good as you putting it into action in your life. God's word is only as good as the action that it begins to take in you. So you should ask yourself a question every day that you read God's word.
How am I going to obey this today? What does God want me to obey from this word today? What is the thing, that I need to take from this that is not going to change my life and put it into action every day? Otherwise, we become what James refers to as those who look in a mirror and walk away and completely forget what we look like. And we've never done anything to change it.
And so, we have to be faithful to live the word. But then number four, we have to be faithful to speak the word. We have to be faithful to speak the word. To speak the truth into the world around us. To speak it into our own lives. But then to speak it to the people that are around us. Because we live in a culture starved for truth. We live in a culture starved for real.
That's why we're seeing what we're seeing with Gen Z right now. It's because they are so tired of the fake. They're so tired of the false. They're tired of programs that put on great shows but never get to the meat or the heart of anything. And we have to be faithful to speak the truth. We have to be faithful to speak God's word. He says, He says, Timothy, in a world where evil,
men and imposters are continuing to grow worse and worse and will deceive and be deceived, Timothy, continue in these things. Remain faithful. The third thing he does is he just simply describes the scriptures. Notice what it says in verse 16. He says, All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. He tells us a handful of things about scripture here. The first thing that he tells us is that all of scripture, we've got to pay attention to that, all of scripture. Now again, we ask ourselves a question in this moment. What's the all of scripture that he's talking about? Why do you think he's talking about all of scripture?
Everything that we have canonized in these 66 books. I believe that's what he's referring to. You know why I think he's referring to that? Because if you look at the writings of Peter, he refers to the writings of Paul as scripture. If you look at some of the writings of Paul, he refers to the writings of Peter as scripture. They knew that what the apostles were writing at that point in time was scripture.
And Paul himself was referred to as one who was writing scripture by one of those apostles himself. And so when he says all of scripture, I think he's talking about all of the Old and New Testament that we have canonized in front of us today. He's talking about all of the Old and New Testament that we have canonized in front of us today. He's talking about all of the Old and New Testament that we have canonized in front of us today.
He's talking about the whole of Scripture. Well, when was Scripture sealed up? Well, Scripture was sealed up in the book of Revelation. What is the very last spoken revelation of Jesus Christ that we have in Scripture? We have it as the book of Revelation. John was the oldest living apostle. He was the last one to receive a revelation of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, seal up these words.
He said, if anybody changes these words of mine, if anybody adds to them or takes away from them, I will add to them the curses of this book, and I will remove them from the book of life. See, I think that's when Scripture was sealed up, was with that writing of the book of Revelation, because that's the last spoken revelation of Jesus Christ that we have received. And so if it's canonized in this book, I believe it, because I believe that all of Scripture. What does he tell about all of Scripture?
All of Scripture is inspired by God. Now, sometimes we can interpret that wrong, because we can think about someone being inspired, right? Like, I have a very good friend that's a songwriter. He's a very good songwriter. He's come up and led worship here for us before, my good friend Luke. And I love listening to his process. When he and I both were a lot younger, and he was in my college group,
and he'd be hanging out in my apartment until all hours of the night, he would talk about writing songs. And he even wrote some of them right in front of me, and then never wrote them down, and we can't remember them anymore, which is too bad, because they were great. But he is an inspired songwriter. That's not what he means by inspired. I don't know. I know people that are artists, and they can go to a canvas,
and they can paint something on that canvas, and it's beautiful. It's an inspired painting, and they're an inspired artist. That's not what he means by inspired. That's not what that word means here. This word inspired literally means God-breathed. God-breathed. In other words, all of Scripture has been breathed out, spoken by God. And God used all of these writers,
of both the Old and the New Testament, and He used their writing styles, although He didn't allow them to insert themselves into it. He gave them everything that they needed. He spoke to them, and He spoke through them as they wrote these words down. Well, Ryan, how do you know that? It's a fantastic question. I'm really glad you asked. Go over to 2 Peter.
Go over to your right. Hebrews, James, 1, 2 Peter. I want you to look at chapter 1. I want you to look at verses 20 and 21. I'm going to give you just a second to turn there. 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, and this is what it says. But know this, first of all. 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. See, that's how we know that these words that were written down were not just words that they dreamed up, or words that they came up with. These are words that were written down as God spoke them to these authors. So they couldn't insert their own thoughts. They couldn't insert their own ideas. And those that did were not canonized,
because they could tell what was and wasn't from Scripture. And so there's a great deal of understanding that this that we look at now, and this is why I can't imagine why we take it so for granted. This that we look at now that was breathed out by God, it's His very Word that's spoken to us. It's very spiritual in nature, it can only be understood under spiritual means, but it is His Word that's spoken to us.
And we should take it as that. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Now, I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture in the original autographs. In other words, the original documents that came out. What we have in front of us is a translation, and so we do need to make sure that we compare it with the original to make sure that there's no variations and translations,
because some of those take place. Although I will say this, our translations are very good, and they're written by incredibly smart people who took the time necessary to make sure that these are correct, and any variations that are seen often have no bearing upon the actual content of the Scripture. But in their original, I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, that there's no error in any of it, and that we can trust it. Go back over to 2 Timothy.
As we think about it being God-breathed, the fact that no one just did it of their own accord, or of their own will, or from their own thoughts, that God breathed it out, we are reminded of the accuracy of Scripture. Every now and then I see somebody, my favorite is when they post the YouTube videos, because I think, is that really the research that you did? You watched a YouTube video. Surely there's more research that we could have done than that.
Because if you really look at both Old and New Testament, they have tried to prove it wrong as often as possible, and the Bible always proves itself to be true. They have tried as hard as they can to prove it wrong, but they can't. As a matter of fact, there are two men living today, who will tell you that they tried as hard as they could to prove it wrong, and they ended up becoming great believers in Jesus Christ. Their names are Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel.
They both set out to disprove the Bible, and they, in the process of seeking to disprove the Bible, found out that actually the Bible is 100% true. As a matter of fact, you know what one of the greatest ways that we know Scripture is true? Is that it records all of the mistakes of its greatest heroes. That is one of the greatest proofs of the accuracy of Scripture, because no other ancient document records that many mistakes of its greatest heroes.
So you can trust it. You can trust what God's Word has to say, because it is truly God-breathed. And listen, we should treat it like that. He says, But the next thing he tells us is that it is profitable. It's profitable. In other words, it is, something that is of great profit for anybody that takes part in the reading of it. We need to understand something.
I'm going to get into four things about what he means by profitable in just a minute, but we need to understand something. Sometimes we can understand it by the intellect, and sometimes our spirit just needs it. There are times where you will read the Bible, and in your intellect, it won't make much sense to you. Keep reading it anyway, because it's still good for your spirit, because it is still changing who you are.
Because these are the four things that says that the Bible, is profitable for. Now, I didn't have them put these up there. They're in the Word, so copy them down from there. Number one, they are profitable for teaching. They are profitable for teaching. The word teaching means instruction or doctrine. Everybody gets really scared of the word doctrine, because they think,
oh, you know, that's not very spiritual to have doctrine. Really, because he just said that this spirit-inspired word, spoken, breathed out by God, is profitable for doctrine. What is doctrine? It's the teaching that you need. It's the instructions that you need. Yesterday, we came down here with two brand new, sweet little baby gates, and they came with all kinds of parts.
And you wouldn't think a baby gate would be that hard. You think, pull the thing out of the box, latch it down. Nope, we got the ones with instructions. And so, so we, so we got it out of the box, and we unpackaged the thing, and there were the instructions. There was the doctrine right there in front of us, of the baby gate. And so, I start putting it together,
and I'm not good at reading the doctrine. I'm not good at reading the instructions. That's where my wife comes in. Sidebar, if you ever really want to know what your roles in marriage are, put something together as a married couple. I've always said I should do this for premarital counseling. I've never done this for premarital counseling. There's a few of you looking at me
that I've done your premarital counseling, and you're glad I didn't make you do this. But if you want to learn what roles and responsibilities are in marriage, put something together as a couple. We have learned, I turn screwdrivers, she reads directions. If we go the other direction, nothing works right. I don't pay attention to the directions. She doesn't turn the screwdriver tight enough.
That's just all that there is to it, okay? I will have the thing put together 17 times because we didn't pay attention the first time, and it just isn't going to work. So, she reads the doctrine. The doctrine tells us how to put it together, and if we follow the doctrine, if we follow the instructions, everything works like it's supposed to. That's what the Bible is.
The Bible is the instructions. It's the doctrine. If you want to know who God is, if you want to know what God wants, if you want to know how God wants you to live, if you want to know the wisdom of life, get into the Scripture. I did not go to seminary. So, I don't know all of the big words all the time, but I talk to people that go to seminary sometimes, and they'll use really big words.
And when they're done using all of their really big words, I'll go, wait a second. So, is this what you just described? And they'll say yes. And I'm like, couldn't we have called it a smaller word? And they're like, probably. But this is the theologically correct, I'm like, this is why no one likes doctrine. Because you used a word people don't understand. It's a lot more simple than we want to think that it is.
But it is profitable for teaching. It's profitable for instruction. It's profitable for doctrine. Number two, it is profitable for reproof. Reproof. The word reproof means refuting error or bringing conviction. This is why you have to be faithful to, to let the word know you. Because when you let the word know you, it can do its work of reproof in your life.
It can do its work of bringing conviction and refuting error in your life. I bet there's an incredible number of ways where you're living according to error, because we have blind spots in our lives. Sometimes we get these blind spots of the flesh. We get the blind spots of that's what everybody else does. We get the blind spot of culture. And then we get the blind spot of religion.
We get the blind spot of just the sin that we really like that we don't want to let go of. That has been a part of our life for so long that we don't know how we can ever let go of it. And God's word is so good at going, that's the one. That's where you need work right now. That's where you're living in error. And I don't know how many times I've been in that place
where all of a sudden I'm like, ooh, I don't like that. That means I'm doing something wrong. That means I'm not seeking wisdom where I should be seeking wisdom. That's where I'm living in pride where I shouldn't be living in pride. Or that's where I'm allowing the flesh to dominate my life instead of the spirit. That's why I keep letting the flesh dominate my life instead of the spirit.
Because that's what's going on with me right now. And God's word is so good at reproving us, at bringing conviction into our life, at showing us the error in our life. I've put it simply as, the Bible shows you where you're not right. Reproof is the Bible showing you where you're not right. And listen, this is a really important part of our lives as believers in Jesus Christ.
Because when you came to Jesus, you came with all of your garbage, right? And while Jesus set you free from all of that garbage, now you need to be really set free from all of that garbage. Because you got set free from the penalty, now you need to be set free from the power. I read this the other day, I thought it was fantastic. It said, Salvation is getting you out of the world.
Discipleship is getting the world out of you. And that's exactly what daily Bible reading does for you. That's the reproving that takes place in your life as it gets the world out of you. It shows you where you are not right. But the Bible is so faithful because not only is it good for teaching, for giving us the instructions, for reproving and showing us where we're not right,
but it's also profitable for correction. The word correction means restoration, improvement of life and character, correction of error and restoring to obedience. I particularly like the word restoration there because I've watched God's word do that in so many people's lives. I've watched God's word do that in my life. I've watched God's word do that in my dad's life.
I've watched God's word do that in many of the people that I have helped disciple where the word, the word, the word, the word, the word, word of god brought restoration into their lives where the word of god restored what the locusts had tried to eat away what sin had tried to destroy in their lives whether that be a brand new believer who is coming to jesus christ for the first time and and now they need restored from all of the worldly things that brought them to the place of being so broken or listen whether it be an whether it be a believer in jesus christ who found themselves falling back into sin and the bible showed them where they're wrong and now it's restoring them back to the place of being right
i love what god's word is able to do because god's word brings healing where nothing else can bring healing god's word brings comfort where nothing else can bring comfort in and god's word brings that restoration where nothing else can bring restoration and i don't know who needs to hear this this morning but i do think there's somebody in here that needs restoration in their life like like you need restored by god's word right now and you need that power of god's word and what you need to know is it don't just show up one time and say it doesn't make sense but keep showing up every single day because i promise it's going to pay off i promise one of these days you're going to see that restoration and all of a sudden
everything's going to become clear the cloud's going to lift and you are going to truly get into god's word and it will speak to you on a clear basis i don't know who needed to hear that but someone needed to hear that this morning because god's word brings restoration and that's what it is so if reproof is where the bible shows you where you're not right correction shows you how to get right correction shows you how to get right and it's so it's so good that god's able to do that in our lives but not only is it profitable for teaching not only is it profitable for reproof not only is it profitable for correction but number four is profitable for training in righteousness very similar to teaching the
idea is education and and instruction education and instruction i love the way the amplified bible put this listen close it says learning to live in conformity to god's will both publicly and privately behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage that's what it trains you how to do it trains you how to behave honorably with personal integrity and moral courage let me put it to you really simply it shows you how to stay right not only does god's word show you where you're not right not only does god's word show you how to get right but then god's word shows you how to stay right and it's great because if you will truly take god's word and use it the way god intended then
when things come up you'll say but this is what the bible says about it but this is what god's word you know it's missing in the church today people using the little phrase but this is what the bible says about it because then somebody will go yeah but is that really what it says yeah it's really what it says the bible's incredibly clear i read this thing the other day it says you know people say all the time the bible's incredibly clear there are some things the bible's not incredibly clear on yeah but probably not what you're thinking about because when it comes to most things the bible's incredibly clear it's just us that don't like it you know we just don't like the tone of the bible
we're like well that sounds really mean and god's like i kind of meant for it too right that hurts my feelings i know that was a bad thing but it's not a bad thing it's not a bad thing on purpose because if i don't hurt your feelings if i don't break your heart then i can't really heal you because that's what that's what the bible does is it is it brings training in righteousness there's a beautiful picture that's given to us and in the old testament that's the picture of the shepherd and that's what jesus is for us i read a book one time by philip keller called a shepherd looks at the 23rd psalm and he talks about how when the shepherd brings restoration and healing to uh to a lost sheep he does something very interesting
you see if a sheep has a tendency to continue to run away if it continues to want to run off away from the flock that's one of the most dangerous places for a sheep to be sheep will actually run off of cliffs and kill themselves on accident right the bible calls a sheep sheep will they can't defend themselves against wolves all they have are hooves and soft fur right or soft fur and they can't defend themselves against wolves and they can't defend themselves and so so if a sheep keeps running off it's the most dangerous thing the sheep could die so here's what the shepherd does for the sheep that keeps running off the shepherd will actually take and he will break one of the legs of the sheep and you go that's so mean you have to listen
to what the shepherd does next the shepherd then sets the bone and the shepherd carries the sheep on its shoulders until the sheep is healed and then the sheep learns to walk right next to the shepherd you see it is reproved it is corrected and it's now trained in righteousness the bible may speak hard things to you let me let me rephrase that the bible will speak hard things to you but you need to let it because those hard things that it speaks to you are the most important things in your life because as it does so sometimes it may break your leg but it's just so that god can bring healing so that you can truly be trained in righteousness and that's what god does for us that's what his
word does for us so god's word is profitable for teaching it's profitable for reproof to show you where you're not right for correction to show you how to get right and for training in righteousness to show you how to stay right and what result does it produce in our lives verse 17 so that the man of god may be adequate equipped for every good work that the man of god may be adequate i don't love that translation of that word i mean it's an adequate translation see what i did there but i don't love that translation this is what the word adequate means it means complete capable or proficient able to meet the demands or mature i think mature is my favorite word that's used for that
that the man of god may be mature that that we as believers in jesus christ would come to a place where we are fully mature listen again i i love kids i make a life out of working with them all the time but but here's the thing about kids kids are emotional and they are caught up with everything that comes along you know why because they're still they're still new they're still new at things and so so every new flashy thing that comes along they tend to get distracted by listen i get it i still get it i still get it i still get it i still get it i still get it i still get it i still get it i still struggle with that okay but but there's a steadiness that comes the more that you mature
there's a steadiness that comes the more that you walk with jesus christ to where you are not tossed by every new thing that comes along by every fear doesn't knock you off track every anxiety doesn't knock you into the weeds every every victory doesn't puff you up too much and and every defeat doesn't cause you to want to give up there's a maturity that god wants to produce in us where we become someone who can walk steady no matter what's going on around us where we can be where we can be those who who can meet the demands that are given who are capable and proficient in the things that we do and that's what god desires for us and that's what god's word produces in us is it produces a a maturity in our lives and it develops
us into who god wants us to be and why does he want to produce that maturity well not only for our good but notice what he says in verse 17 so that the man of god may be adequate and equipped for every good work the word equip means thoroughly furnished thoroughly furnished one of the commentators that i read said the idea is furnished to finish furnished everything that we need to finish everything that god has given for us to do and i love this because if we paint this with the brush that we understand that paul is at the end of his life and he is in the next sorry and he is in the next chapter gonna say
thought the good fight i finished the race and if we if we color it with that brush we realize that what he's telling timothy is i'm not telling you this because i heard somebody say it i'm telling you this because i've lived it and if you will allow god's word to do its work in your life you will be able to finish your race and if you want to finish you got to know the word if you want to finish you got to remain faithful i love the way the new living translation put that puts this it says god uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work he's called them to do and so brothers and sisters we need to realize something the times are difficult but god is good the times are difficult but god is faithful and this final
word from a faithful servant tells timothy to remain in the word to get equipped by the word and to remain faithful to the truth of god's word amen let's all stand and if you bow with me father you're so good to us lord your word is so powerful sharper than any two-edged sword able to pierce between bone and marrow and lord you are so good to us and so father i pray that we would take this truth and and we would allow it to strengthen us in you that you would use it to equip us that you would use it to empower us father that you would use it to furnish to finish father that we would know and understand that as we are in this race we simply want to finish strong and so lord help us to remain faithful
to remain faithful to you to remain faithful to your word and to remain faithful to what you've called for us to do we just praise you father in jesus name amen be blessed you are king of kings lord of lords for what you've done for us when nobody could have done what you've done nobody could have taken our rightful place on that cross just give you praise and we give you and let your holy spirit move mightily in us as we leave here today