The Christian life - Life..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So this week we will be looking at the topic that is the life or at the life of the Christian in the Scriptures. So really, fundamentally, we're looking at Bible reading.

That the Christian ought to be engaging in the activity of Bible reading, of Bible study, of Bible meditation. I'm going to be careful with that word. Meditation simply means to spend time in the Word and let it soak into your soul, thinking it through, engaging with the text, so the Lord will actually feed us deeper, and that we can get an insight of what He's saying in His Word. Not simply just perusing or reading. Sometimes reading God's Word is good, and reading it in large quantities is good, because then we can have that high view.

We can look at the book and know what the author, which is the Holy Spirit ultimately, where He's taking us. We can get an understanding of the narrative, or the teaching, or whatever it is. But it's good sometimes to come in and narrow down into a particular text or paragraph in order that we spend time there meditating upon that text, stewing on it, thinking it through, praying it through, that the Lord will engage our hearts with our and our minds to be able to receive from other places in the Bible that can feed into that text and give us more clarity as the Spirit of God illuminates our heart. Bible reading and Bible study is foundational to the Christian life. In fact, I would I would be confident to say that if a Christian came to me and said, I am a Christian, but I spend no time in the word, then I would have to look at that person and say, look, the Lord knows the heart.

But according to my understanding of scripture, you cannot be a Christian and not spend any time in the word. Because the Bible teaches us that the Word of God feeds our soul. Without the Word of God, you cannot remain alive spiritually speaking. It is the Word of God that brought you to life originally in the Spirit. We're dead in our transgressions and sin, and God spoke through the proclamation of the gospel.

He taught our hearts, and now we're in Christ alive spiritually. And He retains, He keeps us, and He sustains us, and He feeds us, and He nourishes us through the Word. Reading, meditating, studying in the Word of God is foundational to the Christian life. And I hope and pray, I know all of us, and I've had the pleasure of engaging in discussion with many of you, so I know your habits. I know that you are very much seeking to open the Word, and to learn from the Word, and receive from the Lord.

But this ought to be something that we do not weekly, but daily. We can't survive, or we can, but we choose not to go through a day without physical food. We eat three meals, some of us four, maybe some of us less, but we eat every day. I mean, most of us look pretty healthy. I'm sure we do.

Brothers and sisters, what makes us think that we can survive spiritually if we don't come to the Word every day and feed upon the Word? we ought to. Because if we know what is out there, if we know when we open our eyes in the morning what will confront us, we don't know, but we do know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. That we know that we have enemies in this world. The enemies, we know that we have the flesh within us.

We know Satan, we know the world and the system of the world, everything is tugging at our hearts to pull us away. to make us fall into sin and entrap us away from the Lord Jesus Christ, away from His truth, away from His promises. We are so needy, we are so dependent that we must feel that in the very core of our souls, that apart from spending time with His Word, time with the Lord to nourish us, that out there we are defenseless. And we are susceptible to much, much sin. The Word is foundational to the life of the Christian.

I want to begin our study this evening by simply reading a few verses in the book of Psalms. In fact, it's the first Psalm. You don't need to open there. I'll read it for you. But it's Psalm chapter 1, and I want to read the first three verses there.

This is what it reads. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. This is a glorious word.

the Lord. I want us to see, and this is what I want to shape our minds around, or prepare our hearts for, receiving what the Lord has prepared for us by God's grace this evening. And that is that what we have before us is we have a distinction between two people, two categories of people. The psalmist is bringing two categories of people before us. One is the righteous, the blessed, the righteous, and the other is the wicked.

And in fact, the only three verses I read here, but the whole of the first Psalm, is very much on those two things. The righteous and the wicked. The blessed and the wicked. And I want us to realize that the unrighteous, the wicked, is the one who, the righteous, my apologies, the blessed, is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of scoffers. He's not engaging in the wickedness and the wicked activities of the world, but he does something else.

But we have that but in verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on the law or on his law, that's God's law, he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water and yields his fruits. He's fruitful. This blessed, the righteous, is fruitful. And he's fruitful because not only is he not engaging in the wicked activity, but he's filling up with something.

He's filling up with the law of the Lord. And the law here, Torah, means instruction or direction. It is God's revealed instruction to his people. It's the Word of God. The Word of God.

And brothers and sisters, before we move on, I just want to make this point. He, the blessed, meditates. Before that, let's go to verse 2. He delights in the law of the Lord. You see, the delighting is an engagement of the heart.

It's an engagement of the emotions. To delight in the law of the Lord. So you have an engagement of the heart, and you also have He meditates day and night on the law of the Lord. That's an engagement of the mind, of the will. You see, what the psalmist is telling us is this blessed, this righteous man engages his whole self, his whole being, his emotions, his mind, his will, his intellect, all, he engages that in order to study and to meditate on the law of God, the Word of God.

This is not simply an intellectual exercise. This is not just something that I read in order to attain some knowledge up here. No, there is an embracing of the heart. A love towards God's Word. A desire, a longing to be fed by it.

May God give us to be that blessed man, that blessed woman who desires nothing more than to be able to engage and say, Lord, I love your word. I meditate upon it day and night because of what Christ has done in me. The Word of God, beloved. The reason why this blessed, the righteous delight in the Word of God is because the Word of God is absolutely foundational to the Christian life. Without it, as I said, we will die, spiritually speaking.

We're talking about Bible reading. We're talking about the importance of the life of the Christian in the scripture. And there's many things we can say, many things. I mean, this Bible study could have gone in so many different directions. But what I want us to do is I want to build some foundations and then we'll move on.

And by God's grace, we'll look at some of the practical things of how we benefit in reading and meditating and studying God's word. But we need to build some presuppositions. As Christians who engage in the Word of God, first of all, if you've got your notes, it's point two. We must acknowledge that the Word of or the Bible is the Word of God. We have to acknowledge that this book is God's Word.

that when we open this book and we read this book, God speaks, because God is a speaking God. He speaks through His Word. We have to acknowledge that truth. Now, there are reasons why I'm not going to get into that this evening, because that would just take too much time. But we as Christians ought to acknowledge that God, this Bible, 66 books, 39 in the old, 27 in the new is all God's Word, not some of it, not parts of it, but all of it.

That's the presupposition that evangelical Christians must have and must begin with, that this is God's word. It is given in a revelation from the very heart of God to the heart of his people. This is God's word, breathed by God, directly from the being of God to his people. Beloved, if this is indeed God's word, If we acknowledge this Bible to be God's Word, then we must acknowledge that the Bible is eternally true. The moment that Word came out of God, He breathed that Word.

Then out of His being, then He carries with it the authority of God and the truthfulness of God. So in other words, because our God is true, there is not a lie found in Him. Let man be a liar, but let God be true. He lives in unapproachable light. He is the epitome of purity and truth, and everything that is pure and clean.

Therefore, when God speaks, He only speaks truth. Therefore, when God has opened His mouth and declared to us His Word, we must be completely confident. If it is the Word of God that's a presupposition, then this is truth. Truth, not because of the basic writing, or the pad, or the ink that we have before us. Truth, because of the origin of the Word.

And if the origin is divine, and God is true, then His Word is true. Beloved, if we believe that, like Christ believed in John chapter 10, Jesus said the Word, the Scripture, cannot be what? Broken. It cannot be broken. If God has spoken it, it's eternally true.

It cannot be broken. That was Jesus's view of all the Scripture, all the Old Testament. And that's Jesus's view of the whole Scripture that we have before us. It cannot be broken. Therefore, if we now have that presupposition that the Bible or the Scripture that we have before us is the Word of God, that it's from the being of God, it carries the truth of God, there are consequences.

There are consequences to believing that way. And the consequences are these. How do we approach this Word? How do we read this Word? How do we handle this Word?

We're talking about the breath of God. We're talking about the Word of God. The Word that carries with it the authority of God. We ought to respect His Word as we respect God Himself. It comes from the very being of God.

Then how are we reading this Word? How do we speak about His Word? Beloved, when we do read the Word, we're having an encounter with God. Do we listen? And do we obey?

Do we come to the Word with the right reverence? This is where I want to start before we go any further, that if we acknowledge, we do, we're Reformed Baptists. This is one of the tenets of the Reformed Baptists, that we acknowledge this is the Word of God, the Being of God. And when we read it, how dare we read it flippantly? How dare we handle it flippantly?

No, we handle it reverentially because we know we are now having an encounter with the living God of the universe who is pleased to speak and continues to speak through the word that he's given us. How we handle his word ought to be with the utmost reverence. We ought to respect his word as we respect God himself. And if he reveals in his word a truth, then we ought to submit and obey that truth. So beloved, why is it important that when we read the word, As we read, as we meditate upon the Word, why is it important that we recognize and acknowledge that it is indeed God's Word?

Why is that important? Well, we do acknowledge that it is God's Word. But why is it important that we recognize that it is God's Word? Look down at number three. That's the number three.

I've given you four basic points. These aren't exhaustive. These are just some points. There are many more we can add there. But these are the ones I want our minds to think about as we progress through the study.

You'll see the first one is that opposition. Is that the way? The world is hostile to God and opposes the truth of God. Romans 8, 7. Beloved, it is so clear as we read through Scripture.

Scripture itself testifies not only that it is the Word of God, it's infallible, it is the epitome of truth, but also that the world hates the truth. The world hates the light. This is the light. And when the light shines, what happens to those who love darkness? Because their sins are evil.

They flock back into the darkness. They hate it. Why? Because this word reveals sin. It reveals wickedness.

It reveals the untransgression. It actually exposes the heart and reveals the content. No secrets. Everything in the heart is laid bare when the Word of God is revealed upon it. So the world hates the world.

There is a hostility between the world and what this book speaks because there's a hostility between the world against God. We know that that is biblical. Jesus said that the world prefers the darkness rather than light. Why? Because their works are evil.

He said that in Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Beloved, This word confronts their sin. It confronts their pride. And if you carry the word and quote it to the world, they're going to hate you for it. This is what Jesus said.

They'll hate you, but don't be surprised, they hated me first. The student is not better than the teacher. But we can expect the world to oppose us. because we carry this word and this word is revealing, it is truth. But I hate to say, and it saddens my heart to say this, that much of the opposition to the word comes from the so-called church today.

They'll give lip service, we are biblical Christians, and they'll quote the Bible. However, when it comes to teaching and standing on the difficult truths of the Bible, remember how I said before the presupposition, if this is the Word of God, it carries with it the authority of God, then when they come and they're confronted with the truths of God, then they have a decision to make. Do we obey and please God, or do we please man? Do we keep the peace with man? Do we change it?

Do we negotiate with it? Do we alter it? Do we manipulate it in order to give, to preach, and to teach what is more pleasing to the ears of men? Or do we retain the fact that this is God's Word, we cannot touch it, you cannot add to perfection, and we simply obey? Beloved, this is the sad fact is that many in our day will say or give at least lip service that this is the Word of God, that it's spoken from the being of God.

However, when it comes time to teach, they only simply give what the tickling ears want to hear. And people, we're told, are going to surround themselves in the last days with teachers who are prepared only to give them what they want to hear. They don't want to be exposed. They don't want to be confronted. They don't want to be convicted of their sin.

No, we want you to tell us what our ears want to hear, and that means you need to manipulate this word, because this word is a double-edged sword that cuts between the spirit and the soul. This is a word that reveals the very intention and the thoughts of man's heart. You cannot stand before this word without being exposed before God. And what you do with that exposure is up to you, but it exposes. It exposes.

And I would rather not be confronted by the Word and die rather than submit to the Word and live. But the bubble is very clear. The only people that can receive the Word, the only people that can accept the Word, are those who are born from above, those who are born from God, those who have the Spirit of God in them. Otherwise, they cannot accept the Word. Otherwise, they repel from the Word.

They push the Word away. As I was preparing for this study, I was thinking about people's response to the Word of God. A story from the Old Testament came to mind, so I'll share it with you very quickly. In 2 Chronicles 18, It's a time of the divided kingdom. If you remember, the kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon, and this was about the 9th century BC, and you had the two kingdoms.

You had the kingdom of the north, Israel, and the kingdom of the south, and both had separate kings. The north, the king Ahab. We know King Ahab. He was the most wicked king that the Bible speaks of, and he was a king to the north and to the south. There was a king called Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat was, for the most part, a righteous king, although he did some silly things. But for the most part, he was a righteous king. A good king, you could say. Now, there was an alliance between the two kings. For the most part, the north and south had a lot of problems.

There's a lot of conflict between the two kingdoms. In fact, they would be allies with other nations against one another. But through this time, there was peace. And the simple reason was because Jehoshaphat and Ahab had an alliance of a marriage, the Bible says. So their relatives were married and they were friends, even though Ahab was a very wicked man.

So the King Ahab comes to King Jehoshaphat, who is in the south, in Judah, and he says to him, would you ally with me to go into battle against one of our enemies? The Ramoth Gileads across the east side of the Jordan River, they're harassing us, they're threatening us. Would you come so we can get rid of this enemy? You and I can collate and we can go against this enemy. And of course, Jehoshaphat, being a friend, says, our people are your people.

Of course we will. However, Let's see if we can get a prophet of the Lord to come to speak a word of the Lord. Will he approve or he disapprove? We want to go, Jehoshaphat's saying this, we want to go with the blessing of God. So Ahab comes back and he brings 400 of his prophets, 400 of his prophets, and every one of them says, yes, the Lord God says, go in, go battle Raim of Gilead and you will get the victory, tells Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat says, wait a minute. Probably senses something going on. 400 prophets. He says, no, is there not another? Do you not have another prophet that we can speak to who can bring to us the word of God?

And this is Ahab's response. Ahab says, yes, there is another prophet. His name is Micaiah. Micaiah is the son of Imla. But listen to what he says.

This is a quote. But I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil." Listen to those words. I don't like Micaiah. I didn't ask him.

400 prophets came and said, yeah, go ahead. I didn't get Micaiah because I hate him. I hate him. I hate him because he always prophesies. Brothers and sisters, what is it to prophesy?

to prophesy by definition. A prophet is the mouthpiece of God, speaking the words of God, and so if this prophet prophesies against you, then shouldn't you listen? You can't change the nature of the prophecy. This prophet is speaking through God and if he's warning you of your wickedness, what's your response? I hate him.

I don't want to get him. He doesn't speak well of me. You see the point? He doesn't speak well of me. This is the response of the world.

If you're going to preach the gospel to the world and bring the truth of God that is found in the Word of God, then it's going to reveal, it's going to convict, and it's going to bring them to their knees because it breaks their pride and says, you're not good enough, you're under the judgment of God. I don't like that. That's evil towards me. My pride is wounded. I'm going to walk away.

I'm going to walk away. That's what this king did. He didn't want to hear you, Micaiah. He wanted to hear the 400 other prophets who spoke falsely, who were liars. Tickling ears.

Tickling ears want to hear what will pamper them, but they don't want to hear the truth. Beloved, this is the truth, and this is a revealing truth. It is the sword of God, and this is why as Christians we ought to come, recognizing it is the word of God, recognizing it is also the truth of God eternally, and recognizing it cannot be changed because perfection, you can't add to perfection. God has spoken and it cannot be The second point I made was God is true. We already touched on that.

The Bible, if God is true and he spoke, then everything he has said is absolutely true. You might remember Psalms 119 verse 160. It says, the sum of your word is what? Is truth. And beloved, that means, remember how I said there's consequences?

Because these are presuppositions we're building. So there are consequences for everything. When we say yes, then there are consequences. If the Bible is true, that means it all can be trusted. Right?

If it's true, that means we can trust what is written in the Word. And if it is true, then we don't try to change it. We don't try to manipulate it. Whatever it says, we accept from the hand of God Himself. Authority.

The third one is authority. The Bible carries with it the authority of God himself. Beloved, if God has spoken it, then he carries with it the seal of God's authority. When that prophet Micaiah came to King Ahab, he came in the authority of God. King Ahab's response to Micaiah for the words of Micaiah when he opened his mouth and prophesied on behalf of God was to honor the words as though God himself was before him speaking.

He's the mouthpiece of God speaking the word of God. Do you know what Ahab ended up doing? He didn't hear his words. Instead, he seized Micaiah and put him in prison. He took him away and then he went against the will of Micaiah and against the prophecy where Micaiah said, if you go into battle, you will not come back.

And he goes into battle as a coward. He doesn't wear the king's garb as they normally do. No, he went as a civilian. So he's disguised and one man on the other side shoots an arrow at random, the Bible says, and finds its way between his piercing armour and finds a way and kills the guy by sunset. Beloved, this is the point.

You can muffle the word of God if you want, but it is true and it will always, always accomplish that which it was intended to accomplish. Micaiah said to Ahab, the word God has said, that you will die, don't go, he went. Thinking by muffling him, seizing him, imprisoning him, he'll be okay. He's not going to be okay. God's word, once it's spoken, cannot be retracted.

God's Word is true. God is true, and He carries with it the authority of God. And so when we approach God's Word, we ought to also be acknowledging that God has spoken. He has spoken truth, that truth cannot be changed, and He carries with it the authority of God. And the last thing I wanted just to bring forward to us was the obedience factor.

If we do have those presuppositions, then beloved brothers and sisters, what is the only response of a creature towards a Creator God? It is one of obedience. If we do recognize, if we've been nodding and recognizing all these truths, then when we open the Word and it speaks to us and it pierces our heart, what we do with that is telling of the state of our soul and it's also telling with how we see God and whether we really love Him or whether we really honor Him or not. Because when the Bible reveals to our heart a truth, It carries with it the authority of God, from the mouth of God, then our only response, only rightful response, ought to be one of obedience. And that is so critically important.

The other thing I want to say this evening about the Word of God, we'll get into the practical side of things very shortly. Our God is a transcendent God. Our God is not part of His creation. He always was. Everything that is created, including Satan himself, is a creature.

They have a creaturely aspect to them. God is outside of his creation. He created everything, but he always was. Everything created has a time where it began. God is eternal.

I am the great I am. He always existed. Therefore, you and I, the only things we know about this God is what this God reveals to us. That's it. That's it.

We cannot know more or beyond that what God has revealed to us. Remember, He's outside creation. You and I have senses, we have eyes, we have ears, we can see at the created order, and we can determine certain things, but we cannot know about God unless He has revealed Himself to us. And I've really briefly put there the two ways that God's revealed to us, or He's revealed Himself to us. The first is general revelation, that is, that everything that He has created, even though it's a fallen world, is stamped with His fingerprint.

So it declares the glory of God, Psalms 19 verse 1, right? So we look at the creation and we say, there is a creator. There's a creator. Romans 1 tells us that in this world we can see his divine nature and his eternal power. And that's clear to us.

You can suppress the knowledge of God in unrighteousness, but this created order can point us quite clearly that there is a divine creator God. But how? Who this God is? His will? His plan of redemption?

His being? We cannot know through general revelation. We can't know his plan of salvation. but we can know something of God that he exists. But the other way he reveals himself is through special revelation.

We've said this on many occasions. And special revelations in times past is God revealing himself in a special intimate way where he's revealing details and truths about himself that you will otherwise never ever ever know. And He reveals those things in different ways. So we have He reveals them through the prophets, through dreams, through visions of the past, but now that final revelation has come through Jesus Christ and His Word. Hebrews chapter 1 is very clear about this.

Verse 1 and 2. This is what it says. It says, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He's spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the Heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." You see? That's what it is.

Now, the special revelation is what we have here. The final product of what God has revealed, He has been pleased to give us in the canon of Scripture. given us his word and that's what we said earlier the presupposition this is God's word and he has been pleased to give us his word so he is the sovereign of the universe and he's the one who has given us his word he's made sure that his people have his word impurity as he has spoken it now we might say but wait a minute the word is written by human authors true 40 maybe 40 plus authors over a long period of time, right? 1,500, 1,600 years. But Peter tells us, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they didn't ride through the origin of themselves, of man, but they were carried along by whom?

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself. So, beloved brothers and sisters, they're the presuppositions we must have before we can move on to the importance of reading our Bibles, to how we can benefit in reading our Bibles, unless we recognize these absolute truths. Special Revelation is how God has revealed to us so many things. He revealed Himself to us in detail. He's revealed to us the sinfulness of man, the fall of man.

He's revealed to us the inability and the helpless of man to get himself out of the predicament that is sin, that we are all infected by sin. He's revealed to us His plan of redemption through His Son. He's revealed to us the elect and the love of God for the elect from eternity past, before He created a single atom. He's revealed to us all these things. And so when we meditate and study upon Scripture, in this special revelation that He's given us, we acknowledge that We know God through the Word of God.

Now I said earlier, the only way we can know God is by what he has revealed to us through general revelation and special revelation. And that means, beloved, this is a very important point we need to make. That if we acknowledge God is unknowable apart from how he reveals himself, he's chosen to put his fingerprint on creation. So he's revealed himself in that way. He's chosen to give us his word, so he's revealed himself in this way.

If we acknowledge that and we have that as a presupposition, then there is a consequence. I said there's always consequences to all our beliefs. And the consequence is this, if we cannot know God apart from how he's revealed himself to us, it means that we cannot know anything of God unless we go to his revelation. In other words, we can't go to science. We can't go to mathematics.

We can't go to the philosophers. Because in and of themselves, creatures can only give you what they perceive with their eyes. They cannot give you the specifics or the intimate detail that God has revealed through his word. So that means scripture becomes our final authority on what we know about God. and what we know about ourselves, and what we know about the plan of salvation that God has in his heart from eternity past.

We can't go anywhere else. We come to Scripture. Can we see how important Scripture is? The Bible is so, so important for our hearts. That's all I want to say about the origin and the nature of God's Word.

Let's get practical. Let's have a look at why we read God's Word. Why do we read the Bible? Why all we commit time and study every day? I hope that's the engagement of our hearts or the engagement of our time that we've set aside some time every day to open up God's Word and to read and to meditate upon it.

Now, we could quite easily go to Psalm 119. You really can't do a study of God's Word without going to Psalm 119, because that Psalm is so rich, so rich about the benefits of the Christian, of the man of God, of the woman of God, to come to the Word of God and to derive so much blessing from reading His Word. So much. But we're not going to go there tonight. Even though it was so tempting, but I could not possibly be able to go through that psalm in the one Bible study, but I do recommend this.

When you get a chance, it's the longest psalm in the book. Read it. Meditate upon it. Think it through. Because the exaltation of the word of God is seen in this psalm.

In fact, the word Torah, the instruction of God, or the law of God as it's translated, occurs 36 times in the book of Psalms. 36 times. That's probably on average of one time every four chapters, but that's not exactly the case. In Psalm 119, it occurs 25 times alone. That psalm is really a psalm of how glorious and wonderful to the soul the Word of God is for that man or that woman who loves Him.

In fact, if you go through Psalm 119, you'll see one thing stands above the rest, and that is that it's the delight of the heart of the blessed man or the righteous man to come to the Word of God. Remember how I said earlier there's an engagement of the heart, not just the mind? Psalm 119 is very much evident of that. And although we can go to so many places to do this study or to look at the practical elements of reading God's Word, we're going to open our Bibles to 2 Timothy, and we're going to read three or four verses from chapter 3. So 2 Timothy 3, from 14 to 17.

As I said earlier, brothers and sisters, there is so much we can say about the benefit of the Christian to come to the Word of God. to be fed by it, to meditate upon it. There's so much that can be said, and we are not going to exhaust, even just skim the surface this evening on what we study. In fact, when I sat down, I'm thinking about this study, I just write down some of those benefits. And just in the space of a few minutes, I wrote down far more, far more than we could even discuss maybe over the next five, six weeks of studies.

So we'll do a handful this evening, but by God's grace, I trust that he'll bless us. So I want to frame what I'm going to say next around these four verses. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 and verse 17. But as for you, continue 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 which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

And that man of God, although the Apostle Paul is speaking to Timothy in particular, that man of God speaks to really any Christian. This is the effect that the Word of God has towards any Christian anthropos, that is, humankind. But he is speaking to Timothy in particular. We'll be equipped for every good work. So what can we Christians learn about the importance of reading and studying the Bible from this passage?

Well, let's begin from the back first. It's odd that we do this, but we'll begin from verse 17. And I want to see that scripture is sufficient. This is why we go to God's Word. As I said earlier, scripture is sufficient.

It says here, man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Complete, that is mature or made perfect, otherwise translated in the Bible like mature or made perfect. And it says equipped for every good work, not some, every. Beloved, we know that very popular verse in Ephesians chapter 2 that speaks it is by grace we've been saved, by grace through faith we've been saved. But you remember the end?

We've been saved unto or to good works in Christ Jesus that God has preordained for us to do. We've been saved by grace, through faith, but saved unto good work. And here Timothy is saying, the Apostle Paul is saying, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that Scripture is sufficient to bring a man or a woman of God that is a Christian to completeness or to maturity, equipping them for every good work. So there is no exception. Everything without exception, that God has saved you, brothers and sisters, to accomplish in your saved life everything that you require.

Every tool that you require is found in His Word. Of course, that's because you're entwined by the Spirit of God that brings this Word to life. But that means you don't need to look anywhere else. The Scripture is absolutely sufficient. Let's have that in our minds.

It's sufficient. How do I live my life? I come to the word and the word teaches my soul. How can I live a godly life? How can I live in a way to please God?

I come to the word. How can I make this decision or that decision? Well, the principles are found in the word. The next thing is all scripture is God-breathed. I'm going to go through these quite quickly because I'm just looking at my time and I can see we're flying and we need to fly because we've gone So I'm going to go through them quite quickly.

Bradley, were you going to ask a question? Oh, yes, go ahead. Yes. Just that verse 17, leading then to chapter four. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

Yeah, preach the word in season and out of season. Amen. Amen. And that's what the Apostle is giving to Timothy, to continually preach the word, since it is sufficient to all things. Why would you go to vain philosophies?

Why would you go to the human intellect and human understanding? Stick to the word of God, because the Christian will not be fed by anything else. It is complete. It will bring him into completion. But also, Scripture is God-breathed.

Verse 16, it tells us that Scripture is God-breathed. What does it mean? What does it mean that Scripture is God-breathed? Now, earlier, the Apostle Paul said, in verse 15, that Timothy has been acquainted, well acquainted, with the sacred writings. Now, we know the sacred writings he speaks about here is what he had available in Scripture.

And what he had available is what? The old. Testament, right? So there is something called progressive revelation that God has revealed himself over the epoch of history, and as he reveals his word, it's sufficient for every epoch. In other words, in the time of Moses, whatever God had revealed for them, for these people, was sufficient for that time.

But the time of the end of the Old Testament, the time of Christ, when He came with His earthly ministry, they only had the Old Testament. That was sufficient for them to live a life for their lives and to live godliness. The progressive revelation of God is sufficient for every era. Now we have the complete canon of Scripture. And I think that's why the Apostle Paul writes here that, hey, Timothy, you've been well acquainted with the sacred writings that are able to make you wise for salvation in Christ Jesus.

But then he goes on to say, says, Scripture, all Scripture is God-breathed. He uses a different word, because Timothy wasn't well acquainted with all Scripture. You see, Apostle Paul's writing Scripture. Timothy's just receiving it right now. He wasn't well acquainted with that.

But now that God has revealed Himself progressively through more Scripture, then that Scripture is also God-breathed. All of it. And it's necessary to equip the man or the woman of God for every good work. God breathed. It's God breathed.

He says all scripture, not some, that means every part of it. Sometimes you hear that the Bible contains the Word of God. It could be well-intended. We have to be careful. Because it contains the Word of God means that sometimes they mean that some of it is the Word of God and some of it isn't.

It is the Word of God. Now, we have to be careful not to be overly critical because sometimes people use words and they mean the other way. They mean it is the whole, the fullness. But there are theological constructs out there that would say the Bible contains the Word of God. There are portions that are.

God-breathed and portions that are not. That's not the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That's not his view here, right? That's not what he's saying. He's saying all Scripture is God-breathed.

It's not contained, but it's all in its fullness. So brothers and sisters, the question I want to ask is this. If we believe that, are there any books in the Bible that you avoid? Don't answer that. Are there any books that we avoid?

Any chapters that we avoid? If there is, then we need to recognise that if all scripture is God-breathed, then all of it is profitable. All of it is profitable for the saints. All of it. Some more than others.

I will give you that. Some declare the high and lofty doctrines that are absolutely essential for salvation, and others may not. But it's all beneficial for the life of the Christian. The question is, do we have faith? If we believe this is true, then we approach the scripture and we say, you know what, I'm not going to skip any of these books.

I'm going to believe that God will indeed bear fruit in my life as I read and meditate upon those books that may have been neglected, whether the old or the new, all scripture is God-breathed. God breathed. That's such a wonderful word. He says all scripture is God breathed. It's the breath of God.

Those men who are at the I think the last of the study of the men study before that our brother Nelson brought that point up which is which is when scripture is God breathed. It's the breath of God. It comes from the being of God. It is the life of God. Actually, if we follow through scripture, we go back and we look at the times that God breathed, we will quickly see that His breath brings forth It is the word of life.

That's what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2. It is the word of life because it's breathed out by God from His being. It is the life of God being communicated. Think of Genesis chapter 2 verse 7. God had just created Adam in the dust of the ground and Adam was inanimate until God breathed Think of Ezekiel chapter 37, the valley of dry bones, bones, every death upon death.

And he says, son of man, prophesy, prophesy, speak the word of God. He did. He prophesied. And then, the breath of God. He breathed and brought life.

So this is really important that we get this. Because there's no empty words in Scripture. If the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, the Scripture is God breathed, we can sit here and park here and think about what that really means. Because brothers and sisters, Scripturally, the breath of God brings life. We saw that in Adam.

We saw that in the Valley of Dry Bones. And we know that we as sinners are dead in our transgressions and sins. That's the default. We are spiritually dead. We don't have a spiritual heartbeat.

And the breath of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, He breathes into us and brings us from death to life. We were dead and now made alive. Brothers and sisters, we recognize that truth. We all recognize that truth. But the Apostle Paul is saying Scripture, all Scripture is God.

That means not only are we made dead to living by the breath of God, but his breath sustains us in that spiritual life. If you and I want to remain spiritually alive, now I want you to understand that we know our theological construct, we know that those who are in Christ were eternally in Christ, but I want to see it from the point of Scripture. that practically speaking someone who does not engage and come and meditate and read God's word and longs to receive from God's word because he understands that life is imparted to the soul to the spirit through God's word then to refrain from that is simply either you will become an anemic Christian under the discipline of God susceptible to the flesh and to the world and sin and temptation or you are not a Christian at all they're the only alternatives because God has breathed in us if we are united in Christ to bring us to life, but also He continues to breathe through His Word to sustain us in life. You see the importance of us coming to the Word and reading in faith? You see, this is not a physical activity, simply.

This is not an intellectual activity. This is an engagement with God. Every time we come to the Word, we ought to recognize it being an engagement with God. God, will you breathe into me today as I open your Word? Breathe into me.

Life, feed my soul. I can't go very long without feeding my body. How well would I expect to go very long without feeding my soul? Lord, breathe into me, continue to do so as I engage by faith in the activity of reading and studying your word. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that what?

Every word. It feeds our soul. It brings life to our souls. We'd be dead without it. The other point I want to make is all scripture is sufficient to teach.

Verse 16. So we've seen that it's sufficient, we've seen it's God-breathed, we see all scripture, not just some of it, but now all scripture is sufficient to teach. Wow, there's so much that we can go through here, right? There's so much. Why is it important that we as Christians engage in our Bible study?

Why is it important to engage in opening God's Word and reading and meditating and spending time with the Word? Why? Because the Scripture teaches our soul. You see, when we're born again, it begins by God teaching our soul. It's very interesting, because if you might not remember, about a year ago, I preached on John chapter 6.

In John chapter 6, the Galileans had followed Jesus across the other side of the Sea of Galilee, because he just fed them with this great bread, 5,000 men. Huge miracle. But they followed Jesus for the wrong reasons. They wanted their bellies to be continually fed and Jesus knew this. And their unbelief was starting to show.

And then Jesus says, don't pursue that bread that perishes, but pursue the bread that endures until eternal life. Faith is what he was talking about. But then he says to them, no one comes to me. No one comes to me unless the Father draws him unto me. As Reformed Baptists, we know that verse, because that's the verse that tells us how you're dead in your transgression and sins.

Jesus says no one can come to Jesus in and of his own will. He needs the Father by his Spirit to bring you into Christ, to drag you into Christ. And that word is actually used towards the end of John by dragging the net out of the water. Those fish don't want to come out of the water, but there's a dragging action in and of ourselves. We don't come to God.

He drags us to Christ, and when we come, He gives us faith, and we embrace Him in faith. However, there's a dragging. Jesus says, no one comes to Me unless the Father draws him unto Me, and we think that far. But did you know Jesus explains how the Father draws a sinner unto Himself? Because a few verses later, this is what Jesus says.

He says, no one comes to Me unless the Father who sent Him draws him to Me, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Now Christ says everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. No one comes unless drawn. What does draw mean?

It says you've come to me if the Father teaches your heart and if you've learned from the Father. You know, our Christian life begins by our hearts being taught by the Father, who is the agent, the Holy Spirit, who draws us unto Christ and teaches us, you're a sinner, you're a rebel, you are under the wrath of God, but this Jesus, he dies on the cross to shed his blood for people like you. Look at this Jesus in faith. Embrace him in faith and believe. It begins.

Our life begins by being taught. That's how the Lord brings life to us, the born again experience. He brings us to life and then He teaches us. He teaches our soul about Jesus, about our state, and He continues to teach us. If our Christian walk begins by being taught by God, then He continues and is sustained.

by being taught by God. And the age and the means God teaches us is this, through his word and by his spirit. What else does the scripture teach us? It teaches us that we're not going to spend too much time here because our brother did a great job a few weeks ago explaining to us genuine salvation. explains to us what genuine salvation is, why we need genuine salvation, how do we know that we've been saved.

The assurance of our faith explains to us these things. It teaches us also on the other side what is false salvation, so we can examine our hearts and our minds and we can examine whether indeed the Lord has indeed saved me. Do I have the spirit of God testifying to my spirit? Abba, Father, do I belong to him? Do I see that spiritual fruit?

The Word. These questions can't be answered by just human talk. I can't give you an answer to those questions apart from the Word. I can only give you from here. Remember, the only truth we know about God and about our salvation is revealed to us in the Word.

So we study the Word. The Scripture teaches us about these things. We grow in our understanding and our knowledge. through the scripture. It teaches us that a true disciple, what a true disciple looks like, not only what genuine salvation is, but what a true disciple looks like.

A true disciple receives the word and keeps the word. You remember the series we're doing in John chapter 8. We've been there so long and Jesus says that if you abide in my word you will be truly my disciples and you'll know truth and the truth will Set you free. A true disciple abides in the Word. A true disciple receives the Word.

A true disciple keeps the Word of God. To abide is to dwell in. It's to continue. It's to maintain. It's to endure.

To continue in. The Word. Beloved, that's what it is to be a disciple. The Word tells us, the Bible tells us that we need to endure. The true disciple is one who endures until the end.

That's what Jesus said in Matthew 24, that he who stays firm until the end will be saved. And so there's two things we can do. We can wait until the end and say, I hope we're saved. Or we can seek the Word. And then we can know, as the Apostle John says in 1 John 5.

We know that we are saved. How do we know? The Bible teaches us how to examine our hearts. They're written for us. Absolutely.

That we may know. Exactly. The Word tells us that we can know. The Word tells us that we can know. It teaches us that the Lord is using this means to sanctify our hearts.

Not only have we been brought into the life of God by the breath of God, but the breath of God is making us more like who? Christ. The perfect man. The true Israel. The last Adam.

This is Jesus, the one who is eternally pleasing to God. Do you brothers and sisters want to be pleasing to God? Then by faith we come to the word. And we trust that as we engage in the study of the Word, that He sanctifies our hearts. He purges us, and purifies us, and He cleanses us.

And as we grow in maturity, day upon day, He grows us into the likeness and the image of Jesus Christ. He teaches us truth from error. How important is that in this day and age? We have with our phones, we have access to the world. We have access to sermons, blogs, we have access to seminaries, we have access pretty much to everything in this world.

And brothers and sisters, we listen, we watch, we read. What is going into our minds? Do we have filters? Are we able to discern truth from error? Have we trained our powers of discernment, as he says in Hebrews chapter 5?

Through the word that we're no longer on milk, but we're on solids now. We're digging deeper into the word so that we can train our powers of discernment to know what is good and evil. Because if we don't, then the preacher, the seminary professor, so convincing. Would you believe it? That's why there's a bit of a danger.

There's a blessing, there's a place for these, but there's a danger if we're not familiar. If we're not familiar with this scripture, if we haven't read this book cover to cover several times and really absorbed it into our hearts, and now we know the Word, the Spirit has taught us the Word. If we haven't done that, engaging in these high-level academic studies, can be actually quite harmful for us. There is a place for that. Don't get me wrong.

There's a place. It's a blessing that the Lord has given us. But unless we're familiar with the word, then we're going to be tossed and blown by every wind of doctrine. Because that can be very convincing. Very convincing.

And if we don't know how to stand and say, wait a minute, but the word says, Wait a minute, the word that I treasure in my heart has told me this and you're saying something else. Alarm bells, I don't think you're saying truth. The word teaches us truth because his word is truth and that truth then now enables us to fight off error. So that we're stable in Christ and we're not tossed and blown by every wind of doctrine. It teaches us so much more.

We won't go into much more than that because of the sake of time. But even just so quickly in that little paragraph I've got there, it teaches us to fight the flesh, how to love our wives, how to bring up our children, how to serve our brethren in love. Brothers and sisters, it teaches us how to pray. Listen to that. The Word of God teaches us how to pray and why we ought to pray.

Could it be, if we're lacking in that area, that we just don't know why we ought to pray or how to pray? The Word teaches us how to pray. The Word informs us of the will of God. It informs our conscience. It protects us from sin.

It tells us about heaven and hell, of course. It strengthens our hope. It empowers me to resist temptation. It purifies my thoughts. It encourages my soul.

Brothers and sisters, the Word gives us the tools to be able to exalt our brothers and sisters in Christ. Because we're not saved to be on our own, right? We're saved to be part of a community. And I serve my brothers and sisters. How?

How's the best way I can show them love is to come alongside them and exhort them in the Word and they exhort me in the Word. There's no true fellowship. Like there is no true fellowship apart from the Word. There's no true fellowship apart from that which unites us, which is Christ and the body of faith that He's given us that we learn through His Word. We can have acquaintances.

We can have a good time. But true fellowship has to be centered upon the Word. Has to be. Love that list goes on and on and on. As I said, there are many things we can bring to the table, but we've missed something.

We've missed something major. And I haven't written it in your notes. What have we missed? We've come and we've said, what is the benefit? We've laid down the foundational aspects and the presuppositions that we must have as Christians in order to approach this Word.

Otherwise, if we have doubts in these areas that we said before, if I doubt that this is completely the Word of God, if I doubt that it's the truth, if I doubt that it is sufficient, that it is God-breathed, that it's all I require, if I doubt any of these things, we'll come to the Word lacking faith. We'll come to the Word and we'll pick and choose, and that will never work. It dishonours God and we will not grow in our Christian faith. We've spoken about presuppositions. We've also spoken about the practical elements.

How the word, how and why it's important that we as Christians should come and embrace the word and read it daily. That it is the life of God is feeding us and sustaining us as he brought us into life through his breath. He also continues to sustain us by teaching our soul through his word. We've spoken about all the All the individual aspects, some of the collective church aspects help to exhort our brothers and sisters. But what else?

What have we missed? Brothers and sisters, sanctification is one, but we've mentioned that. But brothers and sisters, what were we created for? The glory of God. Worship.

Do you know you and I don't know how to worship God unless it's revealed by God to our soul. You see the word reveals to us first and foremost who this great God is. tells us of his attributes, tells us of his power, of his love, of his mercy, his grace, of his justice, of his wrath, of his faithfulness. Beloved, as we meditate upon who God is, how can we not fall on our knees and worship this great God. That you, the God of the universe, hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one, one God, no other, created everything we see.

He created it all by the word of His power. That this God of the universe would come and desire to commune with a wretched man like me. How can that not bring us to our knees in worship? How can that not spur our hearts to to praise Him, to love Him, to walk in His ways, to seek Him every moment of our lives. That's what we've been called to.

To our shame, we don't do it. But that's what we've been called to. You hear a preacher speaking these things, and I believe it with all my heart, but don't think for a moment that I've got it all together. I don't. There's a desire in here, but I know the struggles.

But you know, every time we come to the Word of God, every time we open this book in faith, and we read, are we falling in love with Him? Do we see Him as all glorious, as wonderful? Does our heart warm towards Him? Do we delight in His Word? Because we delight in the One who spoke the Word.

We learn how to worship Him through His Word. We learn how to engage our hearts, our minds, our souls, and come before him and say, I want to be completely devoted to you. I want to exalt you in all your goodness because of who you are and what you've done. But also when we come to his word, the other element is we learn of what this great triune God has done through the Son, Jesus Christ, for a wicked sinner like me. And that, beloved, drives us to our knees.

It ought to drive us to our knees. You see, the worship of a Christian towards this great God is not predicated on simply just looking around the world and saying, wow, it's wonderful. It is. It's stamped with his fingerprint. It declares his glory.

Amen and Amen. Even in its fallen nature, we know, biblically speaking, that the world is corrupted. This is not how God made everything. But we see imprints of His glory everywhere, and we praise Him. But you know what?

Our hearts will not be kindled towards Him. He will not be completely in love, and He will not be the treasure of our souls, unless we take what is written here and put it in here. And we know that's an activity of the Spirit of God, but it begins with us being disciplined in love and by faith, and opening His Word, and meditating upon His Word, so that we can say with the psalmist, oh how I love or delight in your Word, in your law. I meditate upon it day and night. You know, the Spirit of God is the one who authored this word.

We said earlier 40 plus authors, but we know that the Apostle Peter tells us under inspiration that they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Can I ask you, According to Jesus in John 16 verse 14, what is the function of the Spirit of God? You remember he's leaving the disciples, I'm going to leave you as orphans, I'm going to give you the spirit of truth. This is what he says. Do you want to say brother?

Sorry, I thought you wanted to say something. Jesus says, that he'll send the Spirit. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. This is the word of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of God is the author of that word truly through the apostles.

Now we have the written word. But beloved brothers and sisters, When we read this Word, when we treasure this Word, when we delight in this Word, do you know what we do? When we abide in this Word, and this Word abides in our hearts, we enthrone Jesus as King. That's what we do, because we recognize that Jesus is the author of the word. And we recognize as we bring his word, and we meditate upon it, and we read it, and we study it, and the Spirit of God begins to open our hearts and our minds to the truths, Jesus Christ is exalted.

The function of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Christ by making known what is Christ to his people. Christ is exalted. Christ is enthroned as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Is there a better reason to come to approach His Word in faith? Because when we do, we exalt Jesus Christ.

We enthrone Him as our King. We need to be constantly reminded of these things. We're fallible human beings. I'm a fallible human being. It doesn't matter how good your memory is.

We forget. And when we forget, or we withdraw, in that slight separation, even for a season, there are so many spiritual enemies in this world that are just looking and tugging at our heart, that our eyes are taken off the glories of the cross, the glories of our Lord, the glories of His Word. Beloved brothers and sisters, may the Lord really give us just a heart that really comes to His Word, recognizing the treasure that it is, and being a people of faith to embrace it, knowing that we have an encounter with God, that God is glorified when we do it with faith in Christ Jesus. Very quickly, all Scripture is sufficient to reproof. How does Scripture reproof?

Well, by shining the light, we said that earlier. shining the light into our heart. He says that your word is a lamp unto my path and a light unto my feet. I might have got it the wrong way around, but you know what I mean. It is a light and it reveals to us any unrighteousness that is within.

It convicts us of sin. John 16 7. And beloved, what you do with that rebuke is another story. But the purity and the peace in nature of the word of God confronts us and it reveals and it convicts. And this is grace.

That is such a grace. That when we're rebuked by the word. You know that King Ahab? He didn't want to be rebuked. When Achaia came and said, he didn't want to hear it.

I don't want to get that guy because he says nothing good about me. Only speaks, I hate that guy. Sometimes we open the Word and He does rebuke our soul because we are caught in sin, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, any forms of unrighteousness. Praise God when we're rebuked by His Word. Praise God.

That is such a grace that we're able to come before the Lord and know there's an abundance of grace for those that He rebukes. It rebukes error and false teaching, we know that. It discerns the thought and the intention of the heart. It brings awareness in order for us to recognise truth from error, so that as James says in James chapter 5, that when we know that our brother has wandered from the truth, we're able to go and exhort him back gently and lovingly. Why?

Because we know truth and he's departed from it. And James says that it is like bringing that person from death. to life. You know, there's a selfish aspect of being in the Word because it's such a glory and blessedness in being in the Word of God because of what it does to us. It sanctifies us, makes us like Christ, it purifies our eyes, our thoughts, our hands, our thinking, everything.

But also there is a selfless aspect that the more I come to the Word, brothers and sisters, we're a community, we're a family, that when we come and we neglect our time in the Word, it's not only that you're neglecting your own soul, It's that you're neglecting your brothers and sisters as well. You know, that thought hit me a few years ago. And it was piercing. That Bernie, if you neglect time with the Lord, and particularly in His Word and in prayer, you're neglecting your brothers and sisters. That's the truth.

How can we exhort one another in the Word if we neglect our own soul? Brothers, if you or sisters, if you tell me that you're struggling through something and it's a spiritual thing and I'm not concerned about my own spiritual life, then how am I going to really have a burden to pray for you and to come alongside you and encourage you in the Word if I'm not even worried about my own spiritual soul? There's a selflessness in this. What's the summary of the culmination of the whole law? It's love.

Love God and love neighbor. There's a love aspect to coming to the Word of God. We can gather sometimes or bring back a wandering brother and it's like bringing him from death to life. And those words are so true. Corrects.

Scripture is sufficient to correct. You see, rebuke is in the negative. It tells us that we're in error. We've sinned. We are in error.

Correct is in the positive. How does it correct? Well, firstly, he tells us it reveals our heart. It convicts us of sin. That's the rebuking and the reproofing.

But the correctiveness is this, and it's so glorious. Once it brings the details and it brings the awareness of sin, it also takes us to the truth of the word. And that is, there is one who is faithful and just. If you confess your sins to cleanse you, to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Beloved brothers and sisters, when this word brings forth to your light and reveals the sin that you have in you.

It might be a pet sin, it might be a sin that you've stored for many years, or it might be something you've just fallen into, or even a sin that you weren't even aware of, but He makes you, reveals to you that sin. Then He brings, it's corrective. The Word then teaches our heart that, I know that I have one in Christ who can forgive my sins. I confess my sin and there is an abundance of grace in Christ Jesus." Brothers and sisters, you have no idea how my heart breaks when so many Christians believe the first aspect.

They believe that the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, rebukes and reproofs the soul. But they don't believe the second that He corrects. In other words, they fall under this burden of sin, but they don't realize that there is one in Jesus who can forgive our sin. The same faith that is required to believe that this Word reveals and exposes what is within. The same Word tells us that once you know and are aware, you should come on your knees before the King of kings, your Savior, who can cleanse you from that sin.

That's the glorious reality of the Word of God. It's truth that He can forgive our sins. He's the one who says, come unto me. Come unto me." Do we believe it?

We know our sin. We know the enemy is very good at poking and saying, you know what you did last week? How could you speak that way? How could you think that way? How can you see that thing?

All these thoughts. And then you find yourself under the weight of sin. And he'll also say, you're beyond fixing. You've done that way too many times. He's pure and holy.

He's not going to have anything to do with you. And then we begin to believe. No. No, God forbid. God forbid we would believe.

May we believe everything that is in this book. And by faith, Lord, I know I've sinned against you. But I know that if I come into repentance, that there is an abundance of grace in Christ Jesus that will cleanse me. And though my sin be like scarlet, you make me white as snow. You see, we need to believe this.

That truth is only revealed in Scripture. And we're able to say, Satan, depart. Depart from me. I have a Savior who has forgiven me of all my past, present, and future sins. How do we know that?

The Word tells us. The Word tells us. If we don't meditate upon it, if we don't study it, if we don't spend time in this word, the world will defeat us. Our flesh will defeat us. The enemy will defeat us.

Finally, all scripture is sufficient to train in righteousness. Training in righteousness, you know that word training is really, it's translated here training, however it's used only six times in the New Testament and four of those six times it's actually used in Hebrews chapter 12 and that should probably light up your mind, the passage on discipline. It is the word that is used for discipline. I think training is better here, but it's the same word that is used for discipline when we discipline a child. You discipline a child so that child will correct his sinful behaviours, his hurtful behaviours, so that child can be brought into maturity, into perfection.

Beloved, who does God discipline? his sons and those he accepts as those he loves and those he accepts as sons. The word God uses this God breathed word from his being from his life to train us in righteousness, to train us in righteousness, to make us more like Christ. purge and purify the filth and the wickedness. I said that before.

When we're saved, we have a long way to go. We're babes. There's an abundance of grace, but we're babes. We go from milk and then we go into the solids. And those solids are that we will train our powers of discernment to know good from evil.

And then as the Lord does that, he, through his word, purges us and purifies us to make us more like Jesus, producing the fruit of the spirit that we heard about last week. He trains us in righteousness. We have a Heavenly Father who's concerned in your life and mine. It's not like just go out there and just do what you know. No, He's always there.

And He's always at work, fashioning every trial, every test that comes our way, so that you and I would become more and more like His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. Some of it is difficult, some of it is painful. Hebrews 12 tells us. We don't like to go through discipline when we're going through it. But the end result is a harvest of righteousness.

We can end with that. The goal of the word, verse 17, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Why do we come to the Bible? Why do we spend time reading, studying, meditating? All the reasons that we discussed this evening.

And beloved, if our hearts have been taken, the heart of stone and the heart of flesh being given, a heart that is disposed to love God, to love Him, a heart that now recognises that we've been united in Jesus Christ by faith, then that same heart that God has given us is a heart that looks at His Word and says, I love Your Word. I know, recognise that I ought to be a person who lives by your word. I fail, I fall. Yes, we do. But may the Lord give us a faith to embrace this truth and to be responsible with how we read our Bibles.

Not to go there just as a law, to be just basically playing in rules, just to think, if I do this, then this. No. But by faith we're coming to the word because our heart desires to engage in God's Word because we know the benefits and we will seek to glorify God and we seek to be the people, the men and the women that God wants us to be so that we as individuals and as a church would mature into what Christ wants us to be without spot and without blemish for his glory. I'll end with this, Ephesians chapter 4. This is basically the life verses, the motto verses for this whole series.

From verse 12 it says, "...to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be tossed My apologies, no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head. into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint and with which it is equipped. Equipped how?

Through his word. When each part is working properly makes the body grow so that he builds itself up in.