You have been taught the holy Scriptures from
childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that
comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to
teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches
us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare
and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Timothy 3:15-17
The Bible has been
called The
Divine Library. I'm told that the Vatican in Rome has a Bible
that measures two feet thick. And they
have one that is only an inch square.
Guides there tell tourists that the big one contains everything Eve said
to Adam, while the small one has everything Adam said.
The Bible is a
collection of 66 books written by some 40 authors over a period of nearly 1600
years. It has been the most loved, most
hated, most argued-over book in the history of mankind.
I do not intend to speak to the problems of
debate over what others think about the scriptures; rather my purpose today is
to bring to you what the Bible says about itself.
Whatever it is NOT, the Bible IS the revelation of the God of creation and
glory to mankind. Our text displays the
revelation of God in the scripture's origin, operation, and objective. We’ll unpack that one phrase at a time in our
text.
The Scripture's
Origin
All scripture is inspired by God
Of the varying
interpretations of inspiration, two are most widely held:
ð One, that God spoke the words, and the
writers, like some heavenly secretaries, took dictation.
ð Second, that God somehow placed the thoughts
and principles in the minds of the writers, and they wrote God's book with
their words, including their personality, giving the true meaning God
wanted.
Nowhere in the
Bible is a definitive word as to which (if either) method God used. To tell you truly, I really don't believe it
matters. What matters is what we have,
preserved over the last 3500 years, is the inspired Word of
God.
Inspired means "God-breathed".
Whatever the method, the origin is Almighty God. I am not concerned if He used a stenographer,
hand-held cassette recorder, or email to send it; the place it came from is New
Jerusalem, and He wrote it to us, and for us!
Now, that does not mean I throw-out the tradition of the church to
investigate and authenticate what we have.
It means what it says; I trust God to preserve His word.
If, this morning,
you accept what I have said so far, the rest of this sermon will make sense to
you. But without the basic assumption
that the Bible is the Word of God, you might as well head for Bo Jangles now,
because everything I say is based upon the one fact that God's Word is just
that – His Word!
A preacher once
said that If
the Bible is true, nothing else matters…and if the Bible is false, nothing
matters. This is true, because the Bible tells of
purpose and meaning in life, and a life beyond this world. If the Bible is false, then there is no
meaning, no purpose for existence, and we are no more than a bunch of
meaningless blobs of protoplasm, fluids, and animal impulses with no hope
beyond this world.
On the other hand,
if you accept the Bible's origin as truth from God, there is light and true
purpose to be experienced in this life.
Jesus said He came to bring us life...abundant life. What
a bright outlook! The difference is in a
person, the person of this Book...Jesus.
When telling people
about the truth of the gospel contained in God's Word, I’ve often heard the
statement I'd like to believe that. It might surprise you to know Billy
Graham also had his doubts:
“When I began to preach...I had some doubts
about this book. One day in 1949 I
opened-up my Bible and said, 'Oh, God, I do not understand everything in this
book. But, from this day on, I am going
to accept this book by faith as the authority for my life and ministry.’" His life and ministry changed overnight.
If you have never
placed your faith in Jesus Christ, as His Word tells us to do, let me encourage
you to do that this morning. It will
change your life. The scripture's origin
is God.
The Scripture's
Operation
useful to teach us what is
true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we
are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
The operation, or
function of the scripture, is to be profitable, or serviceable, to be helpful
for us to know God. The apostle John
told the church not to be gullible, accepting everyone who calls himself a
teacher.
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the
Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For
there are many false prophets in the world.
1 John 4:1
The Scripture has a
four-fold operational function:
TEACHING – is helping us to
understand, or being able to know the pathway God
would have us walk, both in the way we have our relationship with Him, and with
all His created order…our neighbors!
REPROOF – is how the bible make
us realize us we’ve slid off the pathway. The word means to tell a fault.
CORRECTION - Correction is the
positive side of discipline in the life of the believer. The word literally means to set up straight. It's God's way to help his children learn how
to get back on the pathway of living, so that we are once again
blessed, and a blessing to others.
TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS - The Bible teaches
us how to do what is right so we can stay on the pathway – so that God will be
pleased with us. Instruction is like a
roadmap for life.
· We can find the avenue that leads to salvation
in the scripture.
·
We can travel the
highway of confident living when we "trust in the Lord" with all our
hearts.
The operation of the
scripture is to be profitable in doctrine, reproof, correction, and
instruction. A little girl was sitting
with her father in worship. During the
sermon she was drawing a picture of people coming into the church and of others going out of the church. The people coming in were short and stooped-over. The people going out were tall and
straight. When asked for an explanation,
she replied, When
we go to church, God helps us to stand up straight and tall.
And the Bible tells
us that the operation of the scripture is the best you can have in your life
when it comes to living a right life through spiritual strength:
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged
sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12
Finally, note
beside the origin and operation,
The
Scripture's Objective
God uses it to prepare and
equip his people to do every good work.
Everything about the
Word of God is designed to strengthen and encourage the believer. The derivative result of sound doctrine,
refuted error, corrected living, and instruction in righteousness, is that the
believer is strengthened for serving the Master.
Did you know that
God needs strong servants? Did you also
know that the Bible - IF STUDIED and its' PRINCIPLES APPLIED - will build strong
character that gives the follower of Christ the kind of power we need to meet
life’s challenges with faith and certainty?
You could fill your house with Bibles, and the Devil wouldn't
tremble. But if you studied, prayed, and
applied the principles of God's Word in your life daily, Satan would not only
tremble, but he would also crumble!
James Alexander said: The study of God's
Word for the purpose of discovering God's will is the secret discipline which
has formed the greatest characters.
Scripture has the
objective of building a man, woman, boy or girl into the kind of useable
servant that is a blessing in God's kingdom.
· Do you have a desire to be a strong
Christian?
· Do you look at others with strong faith, and
wish you could be like them?
· Do you look at overcoming believers who are
living the victorious, joy-filled Christian experience, and long for that in
your life?
The key is God's
holy Word, which tells us our pilgrimage through life is not all about if
we will have storms and tests and difficulties; it is all about
preparing for when the trials come.
That great preacher
Phillips Brooks told in a sermon the analogy of an old wooden sailing ship at
sea, fighting a great storm. The winds were
howling and the waves rolling. Will the
ship hold together? It seemed like a
terrible struggle. But really, the
battle is not on the ocean today,
· it was fought in the forest long ago where the
timber grew,
· and in the shipyard where the nails fastened
the wooden planks to the hull,
· and the seams that were caulked.
· The battle was fought in the care given to the
ship through the years guarding against dry rot and loose fittings.
We have this great
sign hanging over our front door that describes the attitude that succeeds in
preparing for the storms in accordance with God’s Word. It says
Life is not
about waiting for the storm to pass…
it’s about learning to dance in the rain
The storm today is
only the test...the battle was fought long ago in preparation.
- Beloved, if you
want to live the victorious Christian life, and
- be sound in your doctrine, able to refute the
errors of false teaching allow Scripture to correct you and stand you up
straight, so you will be
· a servant well-instructed in the righteousness
of God.
This can be your
future if you take the time NOW to accept the Bible as your teacher.
It will be because
you allow the Bible to operate in your life, and achieve the objective of
making you the servant of God, mature, ready to serve!
If you back up just
one verse from our text in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, you’ll see Paul
encouraging the young pastor to recall that he was well-taught in the scripture
since he was just a child. What did that
build in young Timothy? It brought him to
the point of knowing that salvation was available to him. The chief end of scripture is to point us
towards God's family.
3 Quick Questions
·
Do
you believe the Bible is true?
· Do you believe the Word of God operates in our
lives to teach us true doctrine, reprove false teaching, correct our living,
and instruct us?
· Do you believe the Bible?
I do! And when I placed my faith in the Author of
that Word, it changed my life forever.
It can do the same for you.
Our Prayer
Father, for the sake of
Your kingdom ….
May the inspired Word of God lead us
to follow the will of God this week, and in the coming months and years ahead,
as totally-equipped saints of God – instructed, reproved, corrected,
fully-trained to do all His leading, with Great JOY!
We pray in the name of Christ.
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