The ABC's of the Christian Life #8: Following Jesus Rightly #4: Authority & Sufficiency of Scripture

The Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture for Christian Living

Working through these ABCs of the Christian life, and since they are the foundational and simple, not simplistic, but simple, things of the Christian faith, I'm hoping for most of you that you see nothing new here, but it just reaffirms for us what we already know to be true.

And this is such an important matter. It's foundational, is it not, to living rightly, following the Lord rightly, and that is a recognition and submission to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.

This is one of the most important matters of the Christian life, and ultimately, most of the problems you come across that people have professing Christians, it's because they have either neglected or failed in this area looking to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures alone, as a source of all authoritative information about the Christian life.

How we might know God and how he would have us live before him is taught in his Word. God's Holy Word declares itself that the Holy Bible is the sourcebook of all authoritative information about what we are to believe about God and our relationship with him, and how our God would have us live in the world.

That old watchword, Sola Scriptura, the Protestant Reformation Scripture alone, we acknowledge and confess. The opening words of our confession make this statement, the very first paragraph, the Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, in other words, it's the only objective source that we have, the only certain and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation, and therefore please the Lord at sundry times and diverse manners, that's words from Hebrews 1 .1, to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church, and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, to commit the same holy underwriting which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people be now ceased.

And so that is a statement on the authority and sufficiency, the finality of the Holy Scriptures, and we affirm that. We would argue the Holy Scriptures themselves declare that good summary statement in our confession.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself of course declared that life in the truest sense, life from God before God comes through the Holy Scriptures. When the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread when he was near in a state of starvation, the Lord said to him, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

This is how his people live, through the word of God, from the mouth of God. And in contending with the devil, our Lord quoted Scripture of course. The Lord dealt with the devil there in the wilderness in the same way that you and I are to deal with the devil.

He did no more than what you and I can do, and that is to rely on the Holy Scripture, to govern how we act and react to situations and how we are to respond. The Lord Jesus used Scripture, quoted from Deuteronomy.

And so as Christians we are to affirm and we are to employ the Holy Scriptures alone, we underscore that word alone, to determine all matters of truth, respecting our faith and practice as Christians.

You deviate from here, you will have problems, I guarantee it. But it is a sad and lamentable problem that Christians will tend to either substitute something else other than the Holy Scriptures or augment the word of God with other sources of information about God and his will, how he would have us live in the world.

And more often than not the substitute for the authority and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures lies in some impression or inward sense of what is true or right. Regardless of what the Scriptures say, the Lord led me.

I just felt it in my heart. I knew it was so. And the Scriptures aren't cited or looked to, but rather some inward impression. They are wholly subjective in this. In other words, it is not objective, like the statement above said, it is the only certain source of information we have about God.

For the Bible is the word of God. It is the only objective source of information we have about God and his dealings with us. All other claims to hearing from God are subjective and unverifiable. The essence of their error is that they do not believe that God's revelation of himself and his will to direct his people is limited to the written word, the Bible.

But there are other ways that God communicates his will to his people. They claim that through their devotion, their prayer and meditation that they receive direct communication from God. This is so common among professing Christians.

It is a rarity really to have a church of people to confess all the Scripture in these days. Or similar to this, they believe that some holy man or woman has received direct communication from God. How many men and women who purport to be church leaders or parachurch leaders assert themselves as having some direct discourse with God.

God told me this and now I am telling you. And it serves to elevate that man or that woman in the eyes of the people. Well, the thought or idea that God directly communicates with people in this fashion is really the error of mysticism.

Mysticism is a common error of evangelicalism. It is commonplace of course in many Pentecostal denominations but it is not only common with them. For example, the Quaker denomination is characterized by mysticism.

They look for an inner light. Oftentimes sit quietly as a congregation until someone is moved by, not the Holy Spirit because they do not believe in the person of the Holy Spirit, but they have an inner light and then they stand up and make a declaration, this is the Word of God.

And so mysticism is seen in the common belief and practice by many television preachers for example. But there are very many churches and Christians that combine mysticism with biblical teaching. Yes, the Bible is the Word of God, but in addition God speaks to us in other ways.

And you have to know and be able to be trained in how to listen to the voice of God so that you might live rightly before God. This is common teaching. I hear it all the time. And so the evangelical scene is rife with the idea that God communicates directly with your spirit.

And when I talk about spirit, what they are saying by that is that a person, an individual, has this heavenly spiritual self that is distinct from the soul, distinct from the body, and that God communicates directly by revelation or by the Holy Spirit with my spirit, bypassing the Holy Scripture.

It is the Word of God. And so they believe that this spiritual aspect of the individual is a higher and more desirable way to receive communication from God than even the Holy Scriptures. And oftentimes they downplay doctrine, biblical teaching, as secondary.

And many times they even say unspiritual. Years ago I was in Guatemala with my good friend, Jason Austin, and we were standing up in front of about a dozen Pentecostal pastors primarily, a few Baptists, but they were very similar in their understanding.

This was up in the mountains in northern Guatemala among the Mayan Indians, and many of them were illiterate. Most of their members were illiterate. The pastors could hardly read. And primitive conditions.

And they didn't read the Bible. In fact, they encouraged their people not to give any attention to the Bible, but rather they were totally subjective and they began to recount all the miracles they claimed that God was doing in their midst and whatnot.

And I remember Jason having brought a number of study Bibles and handing it to them, and we just spent our time trying to reinforce to them as the Scripture as a sole authority for matters of faith and practice.

And the Lord broke through in a wonderful way, and I was really pleased at that. In fact, one of them concluded by saying, fellas, we have to change everything we've ever taught and done. Because the Lord broke through and revealed to them the authority and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures in bringing about His work among His people.

But they thought, you know, what's the value of doctrine? God has spoken to my spirit. And this is what's really important, they claim. Scripture says, well, that's what God said thousands of years ago.

We need a fresh word today. And they claim that God gives them that fresh word. And they turn around and declare it to people and people believe it and embrace it. And it's evangelicalism is rife with this kind of belief and teaching.

But it's not biblical. And I would argue it's not even Christian. It's pure mysticism. And yet many, many are deceived by these silly and foolish ideas of spirituality. And what matters to many people, again, is not the word of God, but rather they're looking for an impression, a feeling that God spoke to my spirit.

And then they go with it. Well, may the Lord deliver us from that kind of error, the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone. May we look to the written authoritative inerrant word of God and the Scriptures for it is through the Scriptures alone that the Lord speaks to His people.

It is the only objective source. Certain source. Everything else is subjective. The Bible alone is objective. And yet there are so many evangelical voices that say something counter to this, particularly in the last generation.

They call themselves Bible believers, but they reject the teaching of Sola Scriptura, again the Latin phrase, Scripture alone as the source of all information about who God is and what He would have us believe and how we should live before Him.

I've cited in the past, I'll cite them here again, Jack Deere, a former seminary professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and yet he was surprised on one occasion by the voice of God. And he developed his ministry accordingly.

And he wrote this, in order to fulfill God's highest purposes for our lives, we must be able to hear His voice both in the written word and in the word freshly spoken from heaven. See, he's adding to the Scriptures.

A word freshly spoken from heaven. All Scripture is the word, but that's what God said 2 ,000 years ago. We need a fresh word and He gives it to us. Satan understands the strategic importance of Christians hearing God's voice, so he has launched various attacks against us in this area.

Listen to this. One of the most successful attacks has been to develop a doctrine that teaches God no longer speaks to us except through the written word. Ultimately, this doctrine is demonic, even though Christian theologians have been used to perfect it.

And so what we're advocating this morning, he says, is demonic. When we advocate the sole authority of the Scriptures, he says that's of the devil. And yet so many people follow after him. There are others who are less overt in their assertions.

One of the most popular writers in the last generation was Henry Blackaby. There was an entire arena of books and church programs that were produced out of his original book entitled Experiencing God.

And he basically was trying to teach people on how to experience God in life. And the book, and I have a copy of it, I've read it, although it has a lot of very good information in it, he was a Southern Baptist pastor, nevertheless he goes beyond Scripture and he advocates that you have to hear from God apart from Scripture to really experience God.

That's what he advocates. And so Blackaby speaks of a will of God outside of the Scriptures that's found by properly reading day by day events that occur in one's life. And so God controls all things and therefore, you know, like me the other day, I get in an accident, a lady comes out, totals my car, what was God saying to me through this?

And then draw some conclusion. Now the Lord wasn't telling me anything, you know, other than I'm to act and react in a biblical way to what just happened. And, you know, this is how the Lord reveals himself and this is how we're to respond.

We're to take everything that happens to us and attempt to interpret it and apply the Scriptures to it. One of the best descriptions of the Christian life I ever read was in the title of a little pamphlet.

And it was, the title of it was the Christian life, a life of principled obedience. And that's what the Christian life is. The Scriptures set forth principles and then we apply these in life in addressing and dealing with situations.

And they're set forth in the Holy Scriptures. But Blackaby says no, if you really want to experience God, you're going to have to learn how to listen to the voice of God. That is mysticism. That is not Christianity.

Bill Bright, who's with the Lord now, founder and director of Campus Crusade International, worldwide, they developed that Jesus film project, which is aired throughout the world. He declared there will be an awakening in America.

Now this is 25 years ago. Our world center will be erected. We will see the International Christian Leadership University develop where Vonette and I will take the basic truths and messages of Campus Crusade to thousands.

I'm telling you what God told me and I'm willing to stake my life on it. See, there's a declaration, you know, that God gave him an inside message, as it were, and he's declaring it now to the world. That is in conflict with, contradiction to historic Protestant understanding of Sola Scriptura.

In one of his books, Bright declared that he had gone through a 40-day fast and that God spoke to him through this fast. If he could get 100 ,000 Christians to fast for 40 days, God would send revival.

And so this is what this book that he wrote advocated, that revival is contingent on 100 ,000 Christians fasting for 40 days. This is mysticism. It's not Christianity, biblical Christianity. But let me make a possible, or correct a possible misunderstanding when we're asserting that the Bible alone is the sole rule in all matters touching what we're to believe, how we're to live.

We're not saying that God doesn't presently lead us. He does lead us through his providence at times. And evangelicals have always affirmed that God guides and directs his people by the Holy Spirit as the scriptures are illuminated to them.

And so the Holy Spirit prompts actions, brings to remembrance scriptural principles, places upon our hearts a desire to do good works. But these evangelicals are saying something entirely different. I have a book in my library, I don't know if I can remember the exact title, Remarkable Incidents and Answers to Prayer.

I think it was copyrighted in the 1890s or something. It's a little book filled with firsthand accounts from a number of different Christians and Christian leaders, Spurge and whatnot in there and whatnot.

But I remember one in particular that made a great impression upon me years ago about a man living in New England in the 19th century. And there was a storm brewing, but he became very burdened about a couple living in a house, some neighbors not far away.

And so he went out and he went up to their house, stepped into the porch. He didn't knock on the door, but he prayed for them, prayed out loud, Lord, if there's someone here that wants to do them harm, a hand raised up, I pray you paralyze that arm, that hand.

And years later, this man was preaching in a prison. And a prisoner came up to him and said, I know you. And I was in that porch and was intending to do harm for that family. And you prayed that prayer and he showed his shriveled arm and said it's shriveled up then, it's been paralyzed ever since.

You know, the Lord does remarkable and miraculous things, but that's not what we're dealing with here. We're talking about ways in which God communicates, you know, truth about himself and how he would live before us.

That's in this Holy Scriptures alone. But we certainly do not deny the miraculous and remarkable things that happen in people's lives. The corrective to Christian mysticism is restoring the role of the mind as the arbiter of truth as God has set forth in the Holy Scriptures.

The mind, when God created Adam and Eve, the mind had the role of the leader of the soul, mind, emotions, and will. The mind was to govern the soul, the hegemony, the leadership of the mind. But when man sinned, Adam and Eve sinned, the role of the mind suffered and became subordinate to the affections, to the lusts.

And so the fallen man is governed by lusts. But when God converts people and causes them to be Christian, he reaffirms and reasserts the role of the mind, that the mind is to be the governing aspect of the soul.

And that's expressed here in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, where Paul said, I beseech you brethren, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, or worship, ministry, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

How are people transformed? They're transformed by the renewing of their mind so that you may prove or test or validate what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's the mind that is to be shaped and informed by the scriptures, the word of God, and this results in a transformation.

And so Paul appeals to the need for the Christian to experience transformation. In other words, the believer's sanctification. And so the mind needs renewed through acquiring truth, correcting error, informing ignorance, so that the believer is able to order his life according to that truth that his mind has acquired and has retained.

And so the domination of the mind is restored or should be restored in the life of the Christian. Now there are any number of places in scripture where we can look for the authority and sufficiency of the scripture.

Not just the authority, but the sufficiency of scripture. It alone should govern our thinking, our lives. And I thought we would look at 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 17 in order to see how this is played out.

Paul was writing to Timothy. Timothy was being prepared to pastor. He was going to be set there in Ephesus to pastor the church there in Ephesus. And so Paul was instructing him. And he was telling Timothy, you're going to have all kinds of problems.

And not just outside the church, inside the church, you're going to have all kinds of problems. But Timothy, the Lord has equipped you to deal with every possible contingency that you're going to have to face.

And we'll see of course that the basic equipping that the Lord gave Timothy was the holy scriptures. And that Timothy was fully equipped to deal with any issue that would confront him with the holy scriptures.

So 2 Timothy 3, verse 1 and following. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, from such people turn away.

For of this sort are those who creep into the households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

So knowledge puffs up unless it's knowledge of the truth. Knowledge of the truth builds up. Knowledge apart from the truth puffs up. But they're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth although they're always learning.

Now as Jannies and Jamborees resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapprove concerning the faith, but they'll progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was.

But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, were persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me.

Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, of knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture, and I've emboldened this, italicized it for emphasis, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul is asserting sola scriptura to Timothy. You've got the holy scriptures. You've been taught, you've been trained, even from a youth, you followed me, you learned from me, but you've got the scriptures to govern you and to guide you to address all the problems that you're going to have to deal with in that church in which you're going to pastor.

And so God tells us in this portion of his word that he's given resources to his people to stand strong and stay true to him even in the perilous times that will come to them. Now the apostle Paul's reference to, in verse 1, to perilous times shouldn't be viewed as the end times.

I have an acquaintance in this area. He's visited church once or twice, maybe a couple years ago. Pentecostal fellow, we have mutual friends. Nice guy. Loves the Lord, witnesses to people on the street all the time.

But he called me yesterday afternoon, wanted to talk for about a half an hour about what I thought about the end times and all the difficulties that are going on in the world. And he made mention of the perilous times here.

And I tried to affirm and assert to him, no, Paul was talking about perilous times throughout this church age. Not talking about problems right before the second coming of Christ. He was declaring perilous times that Timothy was going to have to face.

And he was telling him he was equipped to deal with this. So Paul was declaring that the entire church age, what the New Testament describes as the last days, this last 2 ,000 years, the last days will be characterized by periods of great difficulty for Christians.

And although Christians are living in the age of fulfillment in which they enjoy God's salvation through the Messiah, they would have to endure periods of great peril. Perilous times will be upon us. And down through church history, the people of God have had to suffer through great seasons of trial and persecution.

There are some that claim that there have been more Christians martyred just in the last generation or two than throughout the entire church age. Perilous times exist, even though we in America have been wonderfully and largely preserved from it.

Nevertheless, Paul assured Timothy that God had equipped his people, or more precisely him, to stand strong in these difficult times. And so we read of Paul encouraging Timothy in these ways, instructing him to be courageous and confident that he had what was required, what was necessary to serve the Savior among his people.

And so he said before Timothy that you had no reason to be fearful or timid, for God has provided everything for you, Timothy, in order to live godly and godless days, serve him rightly, and serve his people.

And we see what equipped Timothy. First we see in verses 10 and 11, Timothy had a spiritual mentor to learn from and an exemplary model to follow. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like the Apostle Paul to teach us and to observe?

But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me.

And so Paul could cite himself as an example to Timothy. And here we see implied, of course, in these verses the value and the importance of having godly Christian mentors to teach and guide younger Christians in the way of Christ.

I think there are many believers who have not grown as believers because they have not had personal spiritual interaction with more mature Christians. Oftentimes we regard our faith as personal, a private matter, and so we keep to ourselves.

And that's not healthy for the Christian. We do not voice our questions or make known our doubts and struggles. We do not seek the counsel of those who could help us. And so our Christian walk, therefore, is hindered, is stunted.

Most mature believers in the Lord, I say most, not all, are so because they have been taught by others who have brought them along in the faith. Timothy had a great mentor, the Apostle Paul. And Timothy heard Paul preach and teach.

Timothy heard Paul counsel others. He spent time with Paul, learning from him as they traveled about throughout the Roman Empire. He observed Paul as he encountered hardship and difficulty. And Paul could appeal to Timothy due to their close interaction and mutual experience.

You've watched me. You've observed me. You've learned how it's done, Timothy. What were some of these things that Timothy observed? Well, Timothy had followed carefully Paul's doctrine. Timothy was taught doctrine by the Apostle Paul.

Doctrine is an expression of one's understanding of truth as taught in God's Word. Another word for doctrine is teaching. There are many people that are very down on doctrine. They think it's deadening to spirituality.

No. Paul puts this at the head of the list. Doctrine, true doctrine, correct doctrine, is biblical truth understood. That's what doctrine is. One must have a thorough understanding of the teaching of Scripture if the Scriptures are to influence your life.

And the fact is, everyone holds doctrine. Even those that don't like doctrine, who say they hate it, they too are doctrinal creatures. You cannot be otherwise. If you believe in God or if you don't believe in God, you hold to certain doctrines about God, who He is, what He's like, what you believe about Him, what you don't believe about Him.

Every rational person in this world holds doctrine. You can't escape it. The question is whether it's good doctrine in accordance with the Bible or bad doctrine in conflict with the Bible. But every one of us is by—if you're a thinking person, you're a doctrinally minded person.

We may have weak doctrine, understanding of the Word of God that is not rightly informed according to the Scriptures. Then Timothy had followed carefully Paul's manner of life. Paul didn't just teach the Word of God, he modeled it for him.

I recall Spurgeon once said, the lives of some Christians are so little like their words, they would do better saying less about spiritual things. But Paul, he modeled, he lived what he preached. Timothy had followed carefully Paul's purpose in life.

And Paul lived for three primary ends. He sought to know Jesus Christ more fully. Secondly, he sought to defend the truth of God before others. And thirdly, he sought to serve others in Jesus' name. That was his purpose in life.

And Timothy saw that, and modeled before him, and no doubt embraced that purpose for himself. Timothy had followed carefully Paul's faith. And I take this to be the observance of Paul's subjective faith, his faith in God and his Lord.

In even difficult times, Timothy sought what it was to believe on God, to believe on Christ. Timothy followed carefully Paul's long suffering as he endured such difficulty. And really a true test of Christian maturity is bearing up under prolonged trial.

It's one thing to have a difficulty that'll last a day or two, it's another one to have a difficulty that'll last two or three months. Isn't it, Dave? But this is how the Lord purifies our faith and confirms our faith to ourselves and to others.

Timothy had followed carefully Paul's love. Paul was not as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, but having many gifts but no love. Paul's love was shown in that he suffered long and was kind. He was not envious of others.

He didn't parade himself as somebody before others. He did not behave rudely, nor was he self-seeking. He was not easily provoked. All those things that Paul himself wrote about in 1 Corinthians 13. And then Timothy had followed carefully Paul's perseverance.

Paul stood firm through his trials until the Lord granted him relief or victory. And Timothy had followed carefully his afflictions and his persecutions. And Paul could cite these things. Timothy, you were with me.

You saw this. You followed me through all this. And he could say, out of them all, the Lord delivered me. What may we say concerning this preparation of Timothy? Well, we see an overarching principle for being used of the Lord even in perilous times.

We can perhaps learn best how we might live before God in an ungodly world as we interact, say, with a more mature believer while he's encountering problems. And there's where the lessons will be displayed before us.

How may we apply this in our own church? If you desire to grow strong, become mature. Find someone whom you respect and follow him or her. Proverbs talks about if you want to be wise, follow a wise man.

Elisha wanted to be used of the Lord. He would stick to Elijah, even though Elijah tried to discourage him. If you cannot find someone whom you can follow, a great substitute would be to walk with others through their life, as told by biographers.

My five favorite books are biographies. They're absolutely wonderful as they describe and testify to their ministry and their lives. The two volumes of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, absolutely wonderful. The two volumes of a biography by Arnold Alamore of George Whitefield is transforming, absolutely incredible.

Spurgeon's two volumes, put out by Banner Truth, Ian Murray, wonderful biographies. And biographies of less noted persons also, but they can serve as your mentors as well to encourage and instruct and guide you and motivate you and inspire you.

And then we can certainly see the great need for people to step forward and disciple others. At some point in your Christian life, you need to stop only being a follower and increasingly become a teacher of the word, that you can model and instruct and guide others in the way they ought to live.

As a fine young Christian, the writer of the Hebrews rebuked them. He said, by this time you should have been teachers. Every one of us at some point, hopefully, have learned something through life and from the Lord that we can impart to others.

And we ought to try and develop those relationships with others, particularly younger Christians, by which we can model this and help them along. Well, Paul next in verses 12 -13 declared that persecution comes to the godly when living among the worsening ungodly of the world.

Yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. It started out bad in the days of Paul and Timothy, and it's only gotten worse through the centuries.

All your times of reprieve, thankfully, and revival, but there are perilous times. Perilous times would increase, become more difficult with the unfolding of history. And Paul was declaring this would occur in the churches, by the way.

Deceivers themselves are deceived by error, and they reap what they sow. Those who attempt to deceive others will in turn be deceived, either by themselves or by others. And because times are difficult, godly people will suffer persecution and difficulty in life.

And again, we are pretty much preserved from this, thankfully, in a free society, but things are getting a little worse. The last generation used to be a pastor in a community who was pretty highly regarded.

He's taken a fall as far as estimation as to the character of a clergyman in the community now. Oftentimes they're suspicious, suspicions, rather than an assumed respect. And that's experience. I've experienced that.

It's different than it was 30 years ago, 40 years ago. Calvin wrote, however, that, you know, well, don't feel bad if you're not being persecuted terribly. That doesn't necessarily mean you're not godly.

I wrote this paragraph from Calvin. It's asked, must all men be martyrs? For it is evident that there have been many godly persons who have never suffered banishment or imprisonment or flight or any kind of persecution.

I reply, it's not always in one way that Satan persecutes the servants of Christ. But yet it is absolutely unavoidable that all of them shall have the world for their enemy in some form or other, that their faith may be tried and their steadfastness proved.

For Satan, who is the continual enemy of Christ, will never allow, suffer anyone to be at peace during his whole life. And there will always be wicked men that are thorns in our sides. And moreover, as soon as a believer manifests zeal for God, it kindles the rage of all ungodly men.

And although they have not drawn sword, yet they vomit out their venom, either by murmuring or by slander or by raising disturbance or by other methods. Accordingly, although they are not exposed to the same assaults and do not engage in the same battles, yet they have a warfare in common and shall never be wholly at peace and exempt from persecution.

John Calvin was a godly man and a great pastor in Geneva. You know, he was coming out of the Dark Ages and, you know, he didn't reform everything, but he was one of the great leaders of the faith. But there's probably no name through church history more hated than John Calvin and the doctrines he taught.

I remember before I was very informed regarding the Reformed faith, I had a very negative conception of John Calvin. It just came with being in church. Well, we next read, Timothy was to continue in the faith taught him from the Holy Scriptures.

And this is really what we wanted to focus on, of course. A few minutes we have. Verses 14 and 15. But as for you, continue in the things which you've learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you've learned them, that from the childhood you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

And so Timothy was to continue in the faith. And this is not subjective faith, the faith that Timothy had. It was the faith entrusted to him. Continue in the faith, in his doctrine. The strength to endure hardship and continue to live for Christ in perilous days and found in one's own understanding of who God is, what his will is, respecting salvation, God's overthrow of his enemies, and the confidence that the Lord will accomplish his purpose through us.

The one who is not informed in these matters will become discouraged and easily foiled by the opposition he encounters. But a man such as Timothy who had been taught well, who had been assured that he had been taught was indeed the truth of God, that man will stand strong in the faith even on to his final salvation.