William Tyndale was strangled, impaled, and burned at the stake for translating the Bible from Greek/Hebrew into English. It's good for us to remember the cost involved in getting us the Scriptures and thank God for it.
Sermon Text: 2 Timothy 3:10-17
Context: Paul is writing Timothy and giving him advice on how to stay the course despite all the suffering, trials, hardships, persecutions and false teachers that abound. How will Timothy not get distracted and derail his ministry and church? The answer: by "continuing" in those things that made Timothy wise unto salvation: the ancient writings. The Scriptures.
1. The Word will keep Sovereign Grace Church wise.
- it's the Word that made us wise unto salvation.
- often times, leaders and organizations tend to "leave" and "forget" the VERY things that got them "where they are."
- churches sometimes forget the importance and priority of the Scriptures over time and begin to fill it up with the latest program, the latest teacher, the latest "whatever."
- the encouragement from the Scriptures is to "continue on" in the very thing that got us where we are: the Scriptures.
2. The Scriptures are God's Words
- this is a hotly debated topic. Are the Scriptures trustworthy? Are they authoritative? Are they really without ANY error?
- The Scriptures testify that they are in fact God's words and not from any man. Men were only the divinely appointed agents through which God spoke.
- The text in 2 Timothy says Scripture is "God breathed." Metaphorically speaking, this means God's voice (God's words) were put into writing (the Scriptures).
- Even though Scripture testifies to it's truthfulness and authority, consider that if the Word is not trustworthy, if the Scriptures are NOT God's words, then we have no hope. They are simply the creation of man and don't mean anything more than any other text book or novel.
- The Word is not primarily a book of rules. It is a true story about God's creation and redemption through Jesus.
3. The Scriptures are good!
- the text tells us that God's words are "profitable." Meaning, they "hold value." They are good. They provide a "return" to us should we invest in them.
- if you don't believe the Scriptures are good for you, then you will never truly love the Scriptures or read them with any consistency or enjoyment
- the Scriptures profit us by teaching us, reproving/correcting us, and training us to love what God loves and hate what God hates
4. Don't you want to be competent?
- if we believe the Scriptures are good, and we grow in our understanding of them, our text tells us we are "complete" and "ready for good works."
- "Complete" means being "competent." Being "ready" or "fitted" for a particular task.
- Like in Timothy's time, we must be steeped in the Scriptures or we will surely be distracted, derailed, confused and miss out on what God has for us.
Other Scriptures to Consider:
Psalm 1
1 Peter 1:23
2 Peter 1:21
1 Timothy 4:8
Illustrations:
Tim Tebow: everyone said he needed to change his throw to be good in the Pros ("leave everything that got him to where he is"). He had success this past year just doing the great things he always did.
Starbucks: "can I get a Pepsi Coffee please?" They went away from their best product and failed. They went back to making coffee and everyone loved them again. Organizations often tend to leave the very things that make them great when they should just continue the same mission they've always had.
Captain Herbert Sobel (Band of Brothers): he talked the talk when training Easy Company, but when it came to tactical and combat drills he turned out to be incompetent. In fact, he wasn't even taken to war! It's easy to "talk the talk" but something more to really be "fitted for the task."
Questions for Reflection:
- do you view God's Word as "good?" Do you really see it as profitable?
- do you see any correlation between your enjoyment of reading God's word or your time invested reading God's word and your view of the Word's "goodness" or "profitability" for you? How so?
- what kind of "good" does the Word do for you?
- why is it important that the Scriptures be "God breathed?"
- what is your current plan for reading the Scriptures? Can you share some things with your group that have worked for you? What hasn't worked?
- how do you get the most out of reading your Bible? Commentaries? Study Bibles? Group studies with other people?
- how could you make the Word more of a central focus in your life in the coming few months?
- do you regularly "use" the Word to encourage or reprove your brothers and sisters in Christ? How?
- do you view the Word as a book of rules? How would you know if you did?
- what does it mean to you that the Bible is primarily a true story? What is the central theme of the story? Who are the key characters?
- what part do YOU have in the story? Are you living out and enjoying your part in the story or are you sitting on the sideline?
- what bible topic or book of the bible are you most eager to study in the coming few months? How will you do that?
- in what ways do you see the Word being central at Sovereign Grace Church? Where do you think it could be more central?
