The Centrality of the Word

Very good. As I said, we're going to be considering the centrality of the Bible or the Word of God for the Christian family, and we're gonna be reading together 2 Timothy Chapter 3 from verse 10 through Chapter 4 verse 5. Let us read together the Word of the Lord. Verse 10, you, however, Paul is speaking to Timothy, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live A godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Now pay attention to verse 14. But as for you, that is Timothy, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed. knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, or the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God, or given by inspiration by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for teaching or for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I charge you, Paul says in verse 1 of chapter 4, I 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, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Why? Verse 3.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having each in ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, Paul says to Timothy, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Amen. This is the reading of God's Word. And as I said today, I want us to focus our attention there in verses 14, 15, 16, and 17.

And what I want us to consider is the centrality, the importance of the Bible for the Christian family, the importance of the word of the Lord for the Christian life, and more particularly for the family. That is the life of the Apostle Paul. If you remember this apostle that was called to bring the gospel to the nations, for him, the center of his message was Jesus Christ and the words that were given to him. In other times, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. But in these last days, God has spoken to us through the Son, Jesus Christ.

And the Son has given His words to His apostles and prophets through whom we know what is the message of the gospel and of the kingdom of God. And Paul is one of those messengers, one of those witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ for whom the Word of God was central. not only for his message as he proclaimed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also for his life. And the ministry of the apostle was precisely that, to bring awareness and the light of the Word of God to the nations. to bring the gospel and the light of Jesus Christ to those who were in darkness.

And as the Apostle was ministering the Word of the Lord and the commandments of the Lord, he made many disciples in all of his journeys and all of the times that he went to different places. And one of them, perhaps the one that was closest to the heart of the Apostle Paul was Timothy. This is a man that was saved by grace through faith in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and became one of the closest friends of the Apostle Paul. He became a child in the faith the Apostle would say somewhere, someone that is to be trusted the Apostle would say somewhere, someone that is close to the heart of the Apostle. And just as the Word of God was central for the ministry of the Apostle Paul, the Word of God was also central for the life and the ministry of Timothy, who we know will become the pastor of the churches in Ephesus.

He will become the one that is entrusted with the teaching and the authority of the Scriptures for the brethren that were there in Ephesus. Just as the Word of God was central for Paul, it also became central for the life of Timothy. And here in verse 14 through 17, we learn that Timothy did not get to know the Scriptures only through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, but we're told there in verse 15 that rather Timothy from childhood was acquainted with the sacred writings, that from the time that he was a child, This man, Timothy, that is going to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord for the building up of God's people, that from childhood, this man was used by the Lord through the writings of the Holy Scriptures. And from very early on, he studied and he knew the scriptures. The scriptures were not central to Timothy because of his ministry, but rather, as we are going to see, God used the providence in the life of Timothy to make the scriptures central to his life later on for his salvation and later on for the ministry of the church.

I want us to consider then the centrality of the scriptures for the Christian life and more precisely for the family. and if there was just simply going to summarize my intention here with what we're going to be discussing this afternoon, brethren, I just simply want to encourage you to three important things. The first one is to know that we ought to be faithful with the Scriptures and with the Word of God independently of the circumstances. Christians are called to be faithful with the understanding of the Scriptures independently of the circumstances. Whatever is going on in our lives, whatever is going on of the situation, providential situation in our families or in the country in which we live, independently of the circumstances that sometimes may be adverse to the Christian, Christians are called to be faithful to the Scriptures and the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second thing that I want us to consider from here is that we should never underestimate the power of the Scriptures. We should not consider or just come to an understanding in which we say that the Bible is just simply a book that gives us some principles of life that are positive and good to follow, but rather the Christian needs to be faithful to the Word of God independently of the circumstances, and never underestimate the power that the Scriptures have to bring salvation to a person and to transform the life of that person. And thirdly, I want us to see that from the example also of Timothy. I will tell you that independently of the accomplishments that we have, spiritually speaking, which come by the grace of the Lord, We should always continue to abide in the things that we have received and the things that we have learned." That was the center of the message of Paul to Timothy, not only in the passage that we have here, but in 1 and 2 Timothy.

Paul encourages Timothy to remain faithful in the Scriptures independently of the circumstances. Second, to never underestimate the power of the Word of God to bring salvation and to change lives. And thirdly, to continue and to abide in that gift that is given to Him, the gift of the Scriptures. that we may see the necessity and the need of the Word of Christ in our individual lives and in the lives of our families. Christianity is not something that we do on a Sunday or just a little box that we tick by doing religious things.

Christianity is to have, by grace, Jesus Christ abiding in our hearts as our Lord and as our Savior, and then to give our lives to Him as we get to know Him through what He has revealed of Himself in the Scriptures. So in a sense, the call to the Christian is to love Christ, to desire Christ, and to take up our crosses and to follow the Savior as we get to know who He is, what He has done, and what He will do through the Word of the Lord. So we cannot have a real Christian apart from the work of the scriptures in that person. We cannot have a mature Christian apart from the work of the Word of God in that person. And we cannot have a fruitful Christian apart from the work of the Bible in that person.

Anything that disconnects the person from the words of Christ is religion that is in the flesh, because it's only God through the Spirit and His word, the one that changes who we are and makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ. the one that helps us to die, to sell, to mortify our sins, to decrease, so that Jesus Christ may increase. And that happens through the centrality of the Word of God in our lives and in our families. And that is what I want us to consider this afternoon. First, I want us to see from the text that Christians should be faithful independently of the circumstances.

Independently of the situation in which we are in our family or where we are, where we live, we should be faithful to the Scriptures. We see that example very clearly here in what we have in verse Timothy. Pay attention to verse 14 and 15. The exhortation of Paul is very simple. He says to Timothy, but you, as for you, verse 14, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings is the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The message of the Apostle is very simple in those two verses. Paul says to Timothy that he is to be faithful, that he is to continue in the things that he has learned and the things that he's certain was sure of, knowing from whom Timothy has learned those things. Of course, we know that he has learned many of those things from the example of the Apostle Paul. Actually, there we have in verse 10 the context that tells us that Timothy's an imitator, in a certain way, of Paul. In verse 10, it says, "...

you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Elisra, and so on, and so on." Timothy was an imitator, a follower of the Apostle Paul. The things that he had learned, he had learned them from the Apostle Paul. But also we know there from verse 15 that he had not only learned those things from the Apostle Paul, but also thank you so much. But also he had learned those things from childhood.

Pay attention to verse 15. It says, And how from childhood you have been acquainted from the sacred writings. Now we know that, yes, it is true that Paul was the mentor of Timothy. But Paul was not with Timothy when Timothy was a child. Yet we know that Paul was acquainted with the Scriptures before or prior to the time of Paul.

We know from the context that the way that Paul, or the better, Timothy, learned the Scriptures was through the ministry of his grandmother and his mother, if you come with me to chapter 1. In chapter 1, we learn There were two people that were vital and very important in the life of Timothy from their childhood. We have there in verse 5. It says in verse 5 of chapter 1, 2 Timothy 1, verse 5, it says, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith, he says, that dwell first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice. That is my pronunciation of that name.

And now I am sure dwells in you as well. Something very interesting here. Now we have an insight into the life of Timothy. We know not only that he's an instrument of God for the service of the gospel, that he was mentored by Paul, but also now we know that the way and the order in which salvation came to his household was to his grandmother and also to his mother, Eunice, Lois and Eunice. And we're told very clearly here by the Apostle that they became Christians first.

Pay attention once again to verse 5. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelled first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well." So we learn that those who became Christian in the Timothy household, if you want, was the grandmother and also the mother. So we can reasonably conclude that the way that Timothy learned from childhood. The sacred writings and the scriptures was through the ministry of his grandmother and his mother, who became Christians, and then the Lord used that to bring this understanding of the scriptures to Timothy.

But there's a very important detail here that is given to us in silence, and that is that there's no mention of his father. The Scriptures does not say anything there in 1 Timothy chapter 1 about the father of Timothy. Rather, there is silence. Perhaps the father of Timothy was dead, or perhaps the father of Timothy was not there. But we don't know anything about here from chapter 1.

However, we do learn information about the father of Timothy in Acts chapter 16. So if you come with me to Acts chapter 16 there, we are going to learn information about the father of Timothy. Now this is very important because in a household, the father is the head, and in a household at that time, the headship of the father will be even perhaps more preeminent as what it is in contemporary society. That is, that if whatever information we learn about the father of Timothy is going to give us a little bit of a picture of the environment in which Timothy grew up and he was, you know, growing. It says in Acts chapter 16, If we read from verse 1 through verse 5, here we're going to learn more information about the early days of Timothy and the life of Timothy.

It says in Acts chapter 16, Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there that is in Lystra. Okay, Lystra. Lystra is the city of Timothy. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a We're told now that this Eunice, 1st, 2nd Timothy chapter 1, the grandmother Lois and the mother Eunice that were believers, that they were Jewish, but we're here now given information about the father in contrast to the spiritual condition of the mother.

The mother was a Jewish believer. The father, he says, But the father was a Greek, implicitly speaking there that he was not a believer. It says in verse 2, he was well spoken of, that is Timothy, he was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem.

That's Acts chapter 15. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increase in numbers daily. a deeper insight we are given by the scriptures into the household of Timothy. Now we know that the mother Eunice, who is a Christian, she was a Jewish believer that became a Christian. And also we know that his father is a Greek, perhaps in contraposition to being a Jewish.

But also we know that even though the mother, and perhaps even his grandmother, were Jewish, Timothy was not circumcised when he was a boy. That is that independently of the religion that the mother had, in this case a Jew, and the requirement that Judaism had on the children to be circumcised when they were born, that household decided not to circumcise Timothy. Now we know that because Paul says that he required Timothy to be circumcised for the sake of the gospel later on. So we do know that the household in which he grew up, was a household that was divided in terms of worldview if you want the mother was a jewish with a worldview that was rooted in the scriptures of the old testament and the father was a greek a gentile whose worldview was not rooted on the scriptures of the jewish traditions of the Word of God. And we know that to some extent that household decided, we don't know whose influence is, but it's very likely the influence of the father, that they did not follow the things that the Old Testament said, namely, that the child will be circumcised.

Now, why is this important? This is important because we have this family that has this divided worldview, if you want. But more than that, also this family that lives in a city, Lystra, that was heavily opposed to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, Paul was stoned and almost killed at Lystra. And we know that people in that city were opposed to the message of the gospel and to whatever the scripture says about Jesus Christ.

But this woman, Eunice, who was saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the importance of the word of the Lord as they point to Jesus Christ, from childhood was the instrument in the hands of the Lord to make his son Timothy acquainted with the sacred writings. We don't know the type of pressure. We don't know the type of difficulties. We don't even know if the father was heavily opposed. But we do know that the father did not have the same worldview that she had yet.

She was the instrument that God used to instruct Timothy from early childhood in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. this boy acquainted with the sacred writings, with the holy scriptures. And the language that Paul uses during 2 Timothy chapter 3 is not that the mother would just simply sharing with the boy from time to time, but rather he says that Timothy was acquainted with the sacred writings. In other words, that the labor and the work that the mother was doing for his son was such that this young boy who grew up to be an instrument for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was immersed in the teachings of the scriptures, not by himself, but by the ministry of this woman. Now this woman did not know that this man was going to be saved at some point, yet she was faithful to bring the word of the Lord to her son.

Now this woman did not know that this man was not only going to be saved, but also that he was going to be a powerful instrument for the proclamation of the gospel, yet she remained faithful to bring the Scriptures to Timothy. This woman did not know that Timothy was going to be the right hand of the apostle Paul, the apostle upon whom in a certain way doctrinally the early churches built upon, of course, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. This woman did not know. that Timothy was going to be such an important brother in the extension of the gospel and in the proclamation of the Word of God and in the support and help of Paul. Yet she was faithful to it, not because of the expected outcome that she could get out of teaching this child the things of the Lord, but rather faithfulness before God, who is sovereign over all things and who controls all the outcomes.

This woman did not know that this man was going to be a pastor of a church, and that perhaps many people were going to be saved through the preaching of Timothy, and perhaps that brothers and sisters were going to be encouraged with the preaching of the word. Yet this woman remained faithful. in bringing the scriptures to the life of this boy from early childhood, and God was pleased to use the efforts of this woman to work in this man Timothy, not only for him to be saved at the time of the Lord when he decided that he was meant to be saved, but also to use what she deposited by the Spirit in the vessel of this man. To build up a church, to preach the gospel to the nations, to encourage the brethren, and to bring salvation to the lost. Brethren, we really do not know what the Lord can do with the feeble labors of people like us.

The only thing that we do know is that God is faithful, and He has promised that He will build up His church through the proclamation of the gospel, through the power of the scriptures, the exaltation of Christ, and hence our only duty. It is to love Him and to desire to bring that glorious message of Christ through the Word of the Lord. That is the centrality of the Scriptures. But here we also learn, my dear brother and sister, the importance of the household in the raising up, the final raising up of a person. The household is the immediate place in which your child, your wife, and the husband are formed with the things of the scriptures.

Yes, people ought to come to church. People ought to come with the brothers and sisters on a Sunday, on a Wednesday, whenever the church meets, but The responsibility of Christ in our hearts is initially individual because of the grace that has been granted unto us. And when the Lord blesses us with family, our wives, our husbands, our children, and the people around us, it is the responsibility of the household to bring the things of Christ to our wives and to our children. I'm not expecting that there is going to be a certain result, but independently of what the Lord can do with that ministry of the Word to be faithful, because He was faithful. He loved us.

He sent His Son to die upon the cross for us so then we can impart of Christ. to our children, to our wives, to our family, independently of the circumstances. Are you married perhaps to an unbeliever? Are you married perhaps to someone who has a different worldview? Well, your responsibility does not change.

You are to obey God before you obey men. You are to follow the things of God before you follow the things of men. You are to be faithful to the words of your Savior and to treasure them up in your hearts. Are you perhaps in a place or a city where there's high opposition to the things of Christ? Our responsibility does not change.

based on the environment in which we are and the city in which we live. Our commitment is contingent upon the transcendental character of God, who has manifested His grace towards us in sending His Son to die upon the cross for our sins. And that is done, and that is finished. He has already done for us what no one could have done to save our souls. So it is our duty to look to Him through the power of the Spirit to try to take up our crosses follow Him as we die to self and as we complete the amount of days that He has given us on this earth that are short compared to eternity.

And as we do so, the only things that matter are the things that we do for Christ. And the things that we do for Christ are initially to be given unto our wives, unto our husbands, and unto our children, and unto our brothers and sisters. But how was she going to be an instructor of this boy if she herself was not a student of it? How could Eunice, or whatever the pronunciation of her name is, to be an instructor of Timothy if she was not herself given to the Scriptures? How can one make someone acquainted and know the Scriptures if one is not acquainted with the Scriptures?

We see there that this woman was in the Word of the Lord. Even though her husband was a Greek, and even though she was living in a place where there was opposition to the things of God, this woman was in the word of the Lord, and hence she had enough grace in her vessel to communicate to her son. And the transferring of that grace was that from heaven to Christ and the spirit to this broken vessel of this woman onto these men. And then the same grace extended to others for the building up of the church purely by the merits and the powers of Christ through the work and the ministry of feeble, broken people that are allowed and given the privilege to participate in that glorious building up of the church. Christians are meant to be faithful with the scriptures independently of the circumstances.

Now, what about us? We don't live in Lystra. And by God's grace, many here have Christian wives and Christian husbands and children even that are Christians. And even though we live in a very secular country, we still have the freedoms. We don't have oppositions.

We don't have someone here outside the door trying to stone us because we're preaching Christ. How are we doing, brethren? Are we faithful to the centrality of the Scriptures in our lives? One thing is to speak about the sufficiency of the Scriptures. One thing is to speak about the Word of the Bible is the Word of God.

One thing is to say with our mouths that we believe what is contained here. One thing is to say that the Scriptures are the Word of God. But how is our lives on a daily basis when it comes to the things of Jesus? How are our lives? How did we do this morning when it comes to the reading of the Scriptures?

Or perhaps how did we do this weekend or this week when it comes to the things of the Word of the Lord? Sometimes, my dear brother and sister, easy times allows us just to go into this spiritual passivity into which we think that because we have all things given and granted to us so easily, no longer we ought to be diligent in the things of the Lord. But my dear brother and sister, we have a greater enemy than Lystra or a husband or wife that is Greek. We have a greater enemy that is found inside of us. While there might not be opposition to the things of God in the country in which we live or in the city in which we are, there is great opposition to the things of God within ourselves.

in our minds, in our hearts, in our passions, in our affections, against the things of the Lord. And that battle is not going to be won if we do not see the Scriptures as central to the Christian life and central to the life of the family. Second, if we return to our text there in 2 Timothy chapter 3, it's not only that we ought to be diligent in the Scriptures independently of the circumstances, but also, very importantly, we should never underestimate the power of the scriptures. We should never underestimate the power of the scriptures. Now, brothers and sisters, the Bible is not a book of morals that tells you how you can have a good life.

The Bible is not a book of ethical principles that guides a person on how to become a better person. The Bible is not a book that tells you how to be a better man or a better wife or a better woman. Of course, there are principles in there that if they are applied will deliver certain results, But the Bible is not a moral code that needs to be just simply followed, and results will take place. The Bible is the Word of God. And as the Word of God, it does not only communicate information, which it does, but more importantly, it communicates power to transform the life of the one who receives that Word.

The apostle says there in verse 16, let us read from 14 and 15 and 16, he says, But as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the holy scriptures and sacred writings. Now he says, so the scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All the scripture, all these sacred writings, all these holy scriptures, verse 16, Holy Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God might be complete equipped for every good work. Do we believe and experience the power of the Word of God in our lives, not only by informing us and telling us certain pieces of information that we can put in our brains, but have we actually seen, by the grace of God, the power of the holy writings, the sacred writings of God operating and changing and transforming our lives? Because the Apostle tells us here, first of all, that these writings here are sacred.

It says there in verse 15, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings or the holy scriptures. The category or the descriptor of the adjective that Paul gives to the Word of God is holy. And here is when we see that there is an intrinsic living connection between the book that we have in our hands and the one who has given us this book. The Bible is not just simply an external product of God's wisdom, but the Bible is the holiness and life of God that has been revealed unto us and given to us. Hence, the Bible can share the same characteristics and attributes of God.

God is holy and His word is holy. Why? Because God is holy and in the scriptures we have the life of God. Here we see the sacredness, the setting apart. No book that exists on history of men compares with the holiness and the perfection of the scriptures that is the Bible.

It does not matter how influential a book has been throughout human history. It does not matter how revered a book is through human history. No book that has been written and produced by the power of men compares to the holy writings that is the scripture that comes from God himself. And because these scriptures are the holy scriptures that come from God himself, we can be certain that heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God will never, will never pass away, brethren. We can be certain and assured that you will die, but the Scriptures will never pass away.

Generations will pass, but the Scriptures will never pass away. And here we are told not only that the Word of God is holy, but very particularly we're told that the Scriptures are holy. In a time when Paul and Timothy were experiencing the prophetic manifestations of the building up of the church, and in which there were many people that were speaking the oracles of God, he points to something very specific, the holy writings. Here, particularly referring to the writings of the Old Testament, that which God has given us in writing His words. And as I said to someone on Friday when we were doing evangelism, Nothing will be able to destroy the Word of God that has been given to his bride in the form of the written Bible.

There is no world that exists in which man, in all his efforts, may be able to destroy the Word of the Lord. The Bible from ancient history is the book that has been most attacked and tried to be destroyed in many different ways. is the only book that has made it victorious through all of those attacks and through all of those attempts of evil to destroy the work of the Lord. And this is not because of the abilities or the sacrifices of the scribes that shed the blood to copy the scriptures, which is true. This is not the efforts of the messengers that will take a portion of the Scriptures to bring to another church and give their lives and be taken.

These are not because of the Scriptures of the apostles that went on to the nations to bring the Word of God and to ensure that it will reach the outermost part of the earth. This is not because of the efforts of the church. This is because God, who is sovereign, has promised that no matter what happens in this world, no matter what type of world, happens appears the word of the Lord will endure forever and wherever there is the people of God there the words of God will be because the book that we have in our hands is not only holy but it's also perfect and is the means by which we are given life because the apostle there says in verse 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted from the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus the book that we have in our hands is not only informational in nature that tells us who Jesus Christ is and what he can do but it's transformational brethren The only way that a person can be generally saved is through the Word of the Lord. And salvation is not a mental assent of something that a person comes just to confirm a certain set of data or information and to agree upon that. But salvation is the transformational power of the Spirit that comes and changes the heart of a sinner that was a slave to his own deeds and works and sins and transforms them and gives them life.

now to hear and to follow the one who died upon the cross and by virtue of whom that person can be saved. Salvation is the transformation of the nature of the person by the power of the gospel. So a person who has been saved is not only a person who has changed his mind about something, it's a person whose heart, whose soul, whose lives, whose affections, whose desires and plans have been changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we're told there very clearly that this salvation for which Timothy was made wise even from childhood, it is through faith. Because this book here and the writings are close to the eyes of the person who has no faith.

A person can come and open the scriptures and read all the glorious things of salvation and the things that have taken place. But if that salvation is not through faith that comes from the Spirit, then the book is entirely closed. the power of what is contained here, it is covered to the eyes of the person who is faithless, to the person whose heart is hardened, to the person whose soul is wicked, or to the person whose spirit is deaf because they have not come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and in acceptance of the lordship of Jesus Christ. When a person comes to the realization that they are sinners, and that they deserve hell and that the only way that they can escape this is by the grace of God that is given to them then that person is not only changing his mind but his soul or her soul are entirely changed to behold the beauty of God in the person of Jesus Christ and then they hear the voice of the shepherd and they follow him because they become the sheep of the savior and that faith is the instrument by which Not only they receive of Christ, but they receive His words. This book is powerful because it's holy, because it grants salvation, and that happens through faith.

But not only that, this book that is all of those things is also usable or profitable. Pay attention there to verse 16. We are told there that all the scriptures, more particularly speaking here of the Old Testament, verse 16, all the scriptures is breathed out by God. and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. We have not only that the Scriptures are holy and useful for salvation through faith first, but second, and very importantly, we have that the Word of God that we have before us is usable or is profitable.

It brings profit to the one who receives it by faith. The person who receives this spiritually is going to be profitable for him or for her. And this work can be profitable for two things, either for building up the things that need to be built up or to destroy the things that are of the flesh. The apostle is going to group those two things with two on the things to build up and two on the things of removing from ourselves. But the scriptures that communicate the life of God, they have been given by inspiration of God.

They communicate the life of God. All the scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament are good for two things. To build up the things that need to be built up spiritually speaking, that is to build up, to construct, to elevate, to lift, and to form, and to shape. And second, to destroy. the things of the flesh that are preventing us from becoming like Jesus Christ.

In one side, we have the positive aspect of building up the spiritual things of God, and Paul presents that with two terms. The first one there in verse 16 in the ESV, the teaching and the training in righteousness. Perhaps you may have something like doctrine and instruction in righteousness. But these are the things that the living Word of God that communicates the life of God That's for the process of building up in the life of the believer. You remember how in the garden Adam received the breathing of God into his nostrils, and he was made a living soul?

Now under the new covenant, we have the last Adam, Jesus Christ, who is a life-giving spirit. And in other times when God spoke to the prophets, Now He has spoken to us through the Son, and when He speaks to us through the Son, the life-giving Spirit gives us the words of God that come through Him into us, and the words of the Savior are profitable for the Christian for building up, that is, either for teaching or training in righteousness or for destruction of the things of the flesh. The first one, in the building up, we have this word here in the ESV that is profitable for teaching. Some of you may have doctrine. This is the renewal of the mind.

What the Word of God does initially is that it gives you the right framework of thinking about the matters of life. This is the teaching, and this is the doctrine. They say, renewal and a changing of my mind. How can I have the mind of God? How can my head, my mind be in alignment with the mind of God?

It can only be done through the power of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are profitable so that my mind will be shaped in alignment with the mind of God. So the Scriptures is profitable for teaching, but not only for me to know assertions of truth in my head, it's also good for me to ask and live according to the things that we have learned. And that is the imparted righteousness of Christ that we see there. Also, when it says for training in righteousness, it says all the scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching and then the two negative reproof and correction and for training in righteousness.

First, doctrine, it changes your mind. Second, training in righteousness, it changes your behavior. Why? Because the Scriptures is not only a book that tells you ethically how you should be. It's a book that changes the life of the one who receives it, changes the mind of the person who receives it, changes the behavior of the person who receives it, changes the heart, the affections, the emotions of the person who receives it.

So that person is not trained, instructed in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. Another one that forgives us and makes us right before the Lord, that happens upon forgiveness and justification, but the imparted or practical righteousness of Christ by which we become like the Savior, in which we speak like the Savior, in which we think like the Savior. Why? Because the Scripture is profitable for building up either for doctrine or instruction in righteousness, but also, on the other side, is good for destroying. the things of the flesh that go against the spiritual building up of the Christian.

That's why we're given those two terms there in the middle that says reproof and correction. Reproof is on the other side of doctrine. Reproof is that the thoughts that do not align with the will of God, the scripture comes and aligns, reproves those ideas that against the will of the Lord. It teaches us that which is wrong. It reproves, it rebukes, the thoughts and the mentality that we have that is against the things of the Lord.

It changes, it shows us in our heads, it shows us in our worldview the things that are contrary to the things of the Lord. But that's not only point to the things that are contrary to the things of the Lord, also corrects that. When our behavior goes against the will of the Lord, The instruction and correction in rebuking and the exhortation of the Word of God is that which brings into alignment the one who has deviated. The scriptures points to the sins that we commit and points us not only to where we ought to walk, but is the instrument that God uses to bring us into alignment to the will of the Lord. If we are given to sin, if we're given to sexual immorality, if we're given to lies, if we're given to look to women with lust, if we're given to gossip and to have a pressure of bitterness, you know, hearts against another person, if we're given to any manifestation of immorality, The Word of the Lord is the one that comes, not only to point us and to tell us that that is wrong, but in the Word of the Lord we also find the correction necessary to come to the will of the Lord that is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is not only a book, that tells us externally what we ought to do. He has the power to change and to transform a person, to build up that which is spiritual and to destroy that which is carnal, so that we will receive the profitability of the life of the Lord. And finally, and with these perhaps I'm just simply going to finish, The Scripture is not only holy in the way that it is given to us by God and profitable to us, but it's also sufficient. Everything that we need for life and godliness is found in the Scriptures. We're told there in verse 17 that the man of God might be complete, equipped for every good work.

Here, of course, this is written for Timothy as a pastor and elder, but the principle is for all Christians. In the Scriptures, my dear brother and sister, you find everything that is needed to come to Jesus, to understand His ways, to know the will of the Savior, to die to self, to mortify your sin, and to come and to receive of Him so that we can be equipped with the good works that have been prepared beforehand in the decree of the Lord given to us through the Spirit in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we may be used by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Christ, to live Christ, to minister Christ, and to edify the people of the Lord, to be prepared for every good work, that we may be not perfect, but that we may be complete. That is, that the fullness of Christ may be in us ministering and leading us as we live our Christian lives. That happens with the ministry of the scriptures, with the centrality of the scriptures in the Christian life, with the centrality of the scriptures in our families, not underestimating, not underestimating the power of the scriptures, but knowing that the book that we have before us is a powerful book that can change and transform our lives and point us to the one who made us and point us to the will of the one who made us so that we can know how we can honor the one who loved us and gave his son for us. Let me finish with these very briefly.

I know that I've gone for long, but let me just finish with this. The scriptures are, we are not only to be diligent in the scriptures in under any circumstance, and we are not to underestimate the power of the scriptures, but third and very important, and he's the center of the admonition to Timothy, is that we need to continue in the scriptures and in the words of God every day of our lives. This man, Timothy, who was raised as a child and was acquainted from the scriptures very early as a boy through the ministry of his grandmother and his mom, this man that was then saved and was a mentor, if you want, a disciple by Paul, this man that became then a pastor This man that became a brother that was useful, a vessel that was useful for the ministry of the things of Jesus Christ, was in the need of continuing in the things that he had received. And that means that it does not matter what you think that you have accomplished spiritually, because when you actually look through the lenses of that which is from above, then you can realize that we never accomplish anything, brethren. If there's something that is in us, it's just purely by the grace of the Lord.

But the more that we see in ourselves, we see how far away we are from God. So we are never to think that we have achieved it already. We have never to believe that because we have been walking with the Lord for 10 or 15 or 20 years, or because I'm doing this or do that, that I do not have a need. to continue to abide in the things which we have learned and the things that we have received. There is a need, not only for Timothy, but for every single Christian to continue and to abide in the things that we have learned and to know from whom we have learned them.

That is what the apostle says there in verse 14, if we return to the first verse of our text. He says, but as for you, verse 14, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from you have learned it. If the message of Paul to Timothy could be summarized in one exhortation, that would be, Paul instructs Timothy to abide and to remain in the Word of God and to proclaim the Word of God. And why would Paul, knowing that this Timothy was a child in the faith, knowing that this Timothy had been acquainted with the Scripture since he was a little boy, knowing that this Timothy perhaps is better trained than many other men, why would Paul, knowing of the characteristics and the effort of this man who has given his life, perhaps even going against the things of his father, perhaps even going against the city in which he grew, going against and giving up the things of this world, Why would Paul continually and ongoingly encourage this brother to continue and to abide in the things of God? Of course, first, because independently of our lives, the things of God are always worth pursuing.

words of God and Christ himself is always worth pursuing. And if a person thinks that they have received enough of Christ, they have not tasted of the goodness of God. Because once a person tastes the goodness of God, then we know how separate and feeble and distant we are of who he is. And the more that we want to be at his right hand where there's pleasures forevermore, and with joy it abides forever. We want to remain at the feet of the Savior the more that we know of him through the scriptures and in the secret place the more that we want to abide in that.

But also, very importantly, the reason why Paul says this to Timothy is because Timothy was weak, very weak, Timothy was very weak, even though he had been trained from early childhood in the things of the Lord. Even though he was a mentor by Paul the Apostle, even though he was now a pastor of an important church in Ephesus, and even though he was ministering to many people, he was weak. not only physically, which we learned in 1 Timothy chapter 5, and we know that he had some problems with his stomach and with some infirmities in the flesh. That's why Paul says, do not drink water anymore, but drink a little bit of wine for your stomach and the infirmities of your flesh, but also that he had problems of fear. He was a youth, he was a young man, and it seems that people within the context of the church were despising the fact that he was young.

They were despising the fact that he was new in terms of physical age. They were despising the fact that this was a young man, and not only that, it was not only the despising of the brethren, perhaps, that was taking place, but also that there were conflicts in the church. that he was ministering, there were heresies, there were divisions, there were problems, there were difficulties in this church. And what we learned from the writings of Paul to Timothy is that Timothy was a fearful man, that he was perhaps even suffering through all of these things, not only the infirmities of his flesh, but the things that he was facing. We learn a little bit of that in 1 Corinthians 16, and I'm not sure if you've seen this, but in 1 Corinthians 16, we have an insight into what Paul asks and requires of the church in relation to Timothy.

One will believe that this man, who has been trained with the Scriptures from early on and has lived all of these things, is a man that is strong. But when we come and see in the Scriptures, at least from what Paul says, we can see perhaps something different. It says in 1 Corinthians 16, verse It says in 1610, when Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you. For he is doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him.

Help him on his way in peace that he may return to me. For I am expecting him with the brothers. Pay attention to verse 10. Here in the ESV says something like, see that you put him at ease among you. Literally means that you do not cause any fear to him.

The instruction that Paul writes to the Corinthians is, brethren, when Timothy comes to you, ensure that you do not cause any fear to him. that you don't put certain circumstances around him that he is inclined to be fearful or to be afraid. See that you, brethren, to whom I have called you to love one another and to strengthen one another, you, brethren, that you will not despise him. Why would people give an exhortation like that? Well, in the following exhortation of Apollos, it's completely different.

Well, because it seems that this young man who was acquainted with the scriptures was a man that was despised, even though he was used by the hand of the Lord to bring the gospel and the scriptures to the church that was an instrument of Paul. It seems that this man was despised because of his youth, and he was facing trials and tribulations in the churches where he was ministered. There was divisions and separations and heresies, and even though all of these things were happening, Paul says still that this is a man whom he esteems, and he says to the brethren in Corinth, please brethren, See that you will put these men at ease, that you will not cause any fear and anxiety on him." This gives a little bit more insight when we go into 2 Timothy, actually the portion of the text that we're considering where Paul says something very, very powerful there. Sometimes we might use this verse to apply it to ourselves and to speak of this spirit out of fear.

You know, if you go into 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, you may know this very well-known verse there that says, 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, it says, For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control, a sound mind. Sometimes we just easily take that verse and apply it to ourselves. But the reason why Paul is writing that verse there is because everything that he has said about Timothy, particularly in the previous verses, pay attention to what he says in verse 3. I thank God, whom I serve as I did my ancestors, Paul says, with a clear conscience as I remember you, and this you, of course, is Timothy, to whom the letter is written. He says, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.

As I remember, pay attention, your tears. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelled first in your grandmother, Louise, and in your mother, Denise, and now I am sure dwells in you as well, Timothy. For this reason, I remind you, my boy, my child in the faith, to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying of my hands. For God gave us, you and me, Timothy, a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.

Timothy was not a strong man. Timothy was a fearful man that was always in need of continuing to abide in the things of the Lord. The responsibility that had been given to him was bigger, much bigger than him. The commandment, the instructions that he had been entrusted were much bigger than Timothy. The only way that he could be a useful vessel for the kingdom of Christ, it was if the scriptures were central to his life.

Just like with the example of his mother that raised him from a child, with the acquaintance of the scriptures, when the words of the Savior, the Savior that she came to know by grace, the only hope that Timothy had, was not in the support of the brethren, was not in the proclamation of the gospel, was not in the provision of the church, was not in the words of Paul, was not in the instruction of the exhortation of the apostles. It was only found in Christ Jesus, whom he can know through the power of the Holy Spirit as he's revealed in the Word. So the ministry of Paul and Timothy is this. Die to self. You will be forgotten, and that is good.

But as you have 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years here, abide in me, and I will abide in you. Ask of me, and I will give to you, that your word will remain in you. and you will be a servant that is useful for the things of above. Do not seek the accolades of those who are around you. Do not seek the approval of those who are around you.

Do not seek the appreciation of men or the praise that is empty that comes from men, but rather seek the approval that comes from above. the one that you find in that which is written, because the scriptures are meant to be central to your ministry, to your life, and to the church. And if you advance a little bit towards that goal of the centrality of Christ's word, you would have been a faithful servant, and you would have done that which is required of you. That which was expected of Paul was expected of Timothy, and is expected of all the saints throughout the ages, and is expected of us as Christians today. That even though we do not live in Lystra, that even though we might not have a Greek or a Gentile or a pagan in our house, that even though we might not have a position, we might not have persecution, yet we are to be faithful to the word of Christ.

Because He loved us, He gave Himself for us, He died upon the cross for our sins, and that is the greatest gift that a person can receive. None of your possessions, none of your plans, none of your future past plans or your accomplishments compare with the fact that God so loved you that He sent His Son to die upon the cross for your sins. So whether you live 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 120, or even more than that, none of those days would have contributed for you to be received in eternal glory. The only thing that matters is what He did 2,000 years ago, and that has already been done. And here we have the testimony of that great accomplishment.

May God help us not only to be speakers and hearers of the Word, but to be doers of the Word that God has given us in the person of Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.