Sola Scriptura: Its Meaning and Ramifications (2 Tim 3:10-17)

The Authority of God’s Word in Worship and Religion

I invite you to take your copy of God's Word and open to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. It is a great joy and privilege to be with you, to have had the number of days I've had with you, and many of you I've come to have conversations with, you're just the most amazing.

People.

I'm just very, very glad to be here. I send you greetings from my home church in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. And I'm hoping the church will still be there when I get back because I have one of the elders who informed me that the message, the sermon he's going to preach is about hell.

And I thought, that's great for Thanksgiving. So, it reminded me of a bulletin announcement I heard years ago, it went like this, next week's sermon, what is hell? Come early and hear our choir practice.

Unlike anything you're doing here, this is beautiful worship, beautiful music, and thank God for you. Thank God for your pastor, who's ministered to my own soul many, many times. Many times I'm sure he's not aware of the influence he has beyond the walls of this church, but I'm one of the people affected, and it is a real privilege to be here and to fill this pulpit.

I don't give up my pulpit easily, and I thank you for this, so, so appreciate it. Have you found 2 Timothy? Chapter 3, and we're going to begin reading in verse 10. Reading through to the end of the chapter, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 10, and ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God.

You however have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued.

Me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, 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. Let's pray together.

Gracious God, unveil your truth to us. We are blind unless you give us sight. We don't see what you wish us to see unless you open up our eyes, and we trust you to do that for each of us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

General Revelation and the Limits of Human Religion

I am a pastor, and when I'm asked the question, what is it that you do in conversations, I answer with, I'm a pastor. And that can open some doors, it can close others. Oftentimes it means extended conversations, at other times it means that's the end of all conversation, it's over.

But I remember one such occasion, someone asked me, what is it that you do? And I said, I'm a pastor, and they said immediately, I'm not into organized religion. And without thinking about it, I might not have said it if I did think about it, I said, so you're into disorganized religion, are you?

And again, that was the end of the conversation. When it comes to religion, here in the United States, the Constitution gives us the legal right to be wrong. The legal right to get things wrong about how to serve God, and who the true God is, and what the gospel is, and I pray that that right continues, but have you noticed God never gives us the right to get things wrong?

He never says, it's okay what you believe, as long as you are sincere. Find me that verse in the Bible, I've been looking for it and I can't find it. But the U .S. Constitution gives us the right to believe strange things, and once we say, well, I don't want strange things to be taking place, or believed in America, just realize what you're asking for, whose definition is it of strange things are strange things?

And it could be that once we preclude one group from operating, it might be us that are next in line, so think about that. I don't know how long we'll have that right, but I'm enjoying the freedom, and we enjoy that freedom in the United States.

So the Constitution gives us the legal right to believe any silly thing we like, but God never does. God never says, in matters of religion, believe and practice what you like, as long as you're sincere, that's okay.

From as early as Genesis chapter 4 in our Bibles, God makes it clear, he does not accept all sacrifice, all worship. God accepted one brother's sacrifice and rejected the other. He accepted Abel and rejected Cain.

Fast forward to the tabernacle, and Moses was told, see that you make all things according to the pattern that I've shown you here on the mountain. You'll find that in Exodus chapter 25 verse 40. According to the pattern I have shown you.

God did not ask Moses for advice. God did not say, what do you think would really work in the culture? When Israel was functioning under God's ordination, there was never a time when God said to Moses, go to the tents of the Amalekites and ask them, take a poll, what it is they'll come to, what kind of music they like, how long a message should be.

What they want is very, very important. God never did any of that. Have you noticed? People say, well, God's not like that today. No, no, no, he's exactly the same. He says, I will be holy, and I will be seen to be holy, and he designs in Scripture the way we should worship.

He wishes to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. That's the Gospel of John chapter 4 verse 24. If you remember the golden calf, there was passionate worship. There was sincere worship, lively, wholehearted worship.

But as I recall, 3 ,000 people lost their lives over it, and the Lord then sent a plague on the people. You'll read that in Exodus chapter 32. What we have in nature is something theologians call general revelation.

Romans chapter 1 tells us that there is a God, God has made himself known, and creation itself tells us something about God and his attributes. We're told his invisible attributes are clearly known. His divine nature, his eternal purpose, Romans chapter 1 verse 20.

And Psalm 19 verse 1 says the heavens shout something, they declare something, the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. So, we might ask, well, why is the universe so big? I don't need it to be so big.

I don't need certain stars to be out there. They don't affect the tides here as the moon does. They have no real bearing on our lives whatsoever. I don't need them. And the message in that is this, it was never about you.

It was never about how you feel, your feelings, how you feel about things. The universe exists for the glory of God. God was showing off the fact he is bigger than even your conception of what he can make, let alone who he is.

I can't even conceive of the size of the universe, and God made it. It was never about us. There are billions of stars in billions of galaxies, and if there's one star that wasn't about us, everything was not about us.

You've got a painting, it's proof of the painter. If you've got a book, it's proof of an author. And if there's a creation, there's a creator. And God doesn't believe in atheists, general revelation. And with it, it brings something called gravitas.

Do you know that word? It means weight. It means solemnity. It means a high degree of seriousness. There are weighty implications that there is a God. God believes you know it. There is a God, you know there's a God.

There are no such things as honest atheists according to God. He has made himself known. God exists, and we know it. Yet, there are limitations with general revelation. It can tell us a lot, but it can't tell us all we need to know, especially regarding salvation.

By itself, general revelation is enough to condemn us to a lost eternity. So, we have knowledge of the existence of God through general revelation, but in order to be saved, we need more than that. We need special revelation, and that's what we have before us in the Bible.

Scripture is God's self-disclosure. It's his self-revelation. And because of the nature of Scripture, there are implications for everything God has revealed. Because of what it is, it is the very Word of God.

We'll come to that in verse 16. Man has a responsibility to live according to it, to regulate his thinking by it. All that he thinks needs to be in line with it, because this is God's self-disclosure.

This is the way it is, and it comes with gravitas, with weight. All that man does is to be done according to the revelation of both the general revelation in creation, but the specific, also, the specific revelation in the Word of God.

Jesus said it this way, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Live by it. The Word of God has the right to bind the conscience of every man, woman, boy, and girl.

You must, Scripture says, you must not.

Why?

Because God has spoken, God has revealed himself and his will. You may not like organized religion, but unless you regulate your religion according to the Word of God, all your worship is false worship.

All my worship is false worship. Worship is to be done according to the one who's made us and has provided for us his special revelation. That's a massive rock that is now in your theological pond. Hear the splash of that.

There are ripple effects. I want to talk about the ripple effects of the fact that God has spoken. You and I might surmise that religion can be this, it can be that, and the service can be this long or that long, and we don't want sermons, we want people to share.

We don't want music about him, we want music about us, and you can do that, the Constitution gives you the legal right to do it, but God never does. God never does. And when God has spoken, all our ideas need to vacate the room.

God's on the throne. Grasp the gravitas, the weightiness, the seriousness of that. All of your life, all of my life, is to be lived under the revelation that he has disclosed concerning himself, who he is, how he is to be worshipped.

Scripture as God-Breathed and Sufficient for Salvation

God's inspired Word. What we have before us in 2 Timothy is the final words of Paul to Timothy. The next chapter reveals that Paul suddenly thought it was the time of his departure. He'd finished his life mission on planet earth.

The time of my departure has come, 2 Timothy 4 verse 6. As we read verse 10, Paul instructs Timothy in this way, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord delivered me, he rescued me, and all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus have a 50 chance of being persecuted.

Is that what your Bible says? No, they will be persecuted. If you're not being persecuted, let me introduce you to some people who can persecute you. I can give you their phone numbers. While, he says, verse 13, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Do you see that phrase? Deceiving and being deceived. Let me tell you, deceived people deceive people. You ever heard hurt people hurt people? Deceived people deceive people. I used to be a guest, well, actually a host of those who were guests on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

There's used car salesmen, and then there's TBN hosts. That's kind of the way it is, and it's just recognition of the fact that God can reach anyone, and I'm serious about that, such as our sovereign God.

And people ask me, do you think they were all crooks, and they knew it? I said in answer to that, and I say, I think some definitely knew they were deceiving people, but some of them sincerely believed the deception they were propagating.

They were deceived, but believed the deception, and therefore were deceiving others. Look at verse 14. But as for you, this is instruction again to Timothy, continue in what you've learned and have firmly believed.

Now, think of the setting of this, a last word from Paul to Timothy, and last words are very vital words. I've been at the bedside of some people who know that they don't have long on planet earth, and they do not talk about trivial things.

They don't say, like a father to a son who's not in the room, but will hear of the death that's coming any moment. No one as a father says, I always wanted our front door and his front door to be green.

It was red. It really bothered me. They don't talk about little stuff. They talk about big stuff. Will you tell my son I forgive him? These are important times, and this is an important letter because Paul is riding with that knowledge.

I'm about to leave. This is it. I'm going. Timothy, I'm not asking you to find something new that's going to work in the culture. I'm asking you to stay with what you know. Continue in what you've learned and have become firmly convinced of, knowing from whom you've learned it.

Knowing from whom you've learned it, well, we recognize that there was a grandmother involved and a mother involved, and certainly Paul had been involved. Timothy had learned a lot from those sources.

Grandmother Lois, mother Eunice, we read of that in 2 Timothy 1 verse 5. But Paul's message is, you know these things. You believe these things firmly.

What things?

Well, he goes on, from childhood, literally from infancy, you have knowledge of the sacred.

Writings.

The sacred writings. This is a reference to what we now call the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the Tanakh of Israel. We know this because the New Testament was still being written. The Old Testament scriptures.

And so, Paul was saying to Timothy, you know the Old Testament, as we would refer to it. You know the scriptures, Genesis to Malachi in our English Bibles. You know it. You know the source. You know the sacred writings.

Notice this, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Let me say this to you. Don't believe. Don't buy into the lie that salvation and the message of salvation is unclear.

It's a little bit fuzzy. There's different opinions out there. Respected people disagree on certain things. It's not altogether clear. No, no, no. There's scripture. In fact, this, in reference, is the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is so clear, you can't miss it. It is able. It has the ability to make you wise for salvation so that you know how to stand before God and be saved. And what is that message? Salvation through faith in Christ.

That's the Messiah, Jesus. It is clear. It's abundantly clear. Just the scriptures by themselves are able. They have the ability to give you the wisdom necessary to be saved. You don't need anything else.

You don't need an angelic visitation. You don't need a dream. You don't need some kind of, quote, supernatural message. This is supernatural. God has spoken. This is all that is involved in this disclosure from Paul to Timothy.

So God has given knowledge of salvation. Question, so what is it that it says? What does it say? What is the message it conveys? Answer, salvation is through faith in the Messiah, Jesus. And it's the Old Testament that teaches us this.

Now, of course, the New Testament will also teach this same truth. There's not two ways of salvation. There's not going to be a service in heaven, and the first service is for Old Testament saints. They'll be singing about how they came to God by observing the law.

No, never. Romans 3 .20, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So we'll all be singing the same song. There's not going to be a 9 a .m. service and an 11 a .m. service, and the 9 a .m. is for the Jews, and the 11 is for the Gentiles.

They'll be singing their songs, and we'll be singing our songs. No, we'll be singing the same song, because the message is the same in Old and New Testament. Jesus Christ saves by grace alone, through faith alone in that Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ alone, based on the sure foundation of Scripture alone, all to the glory of God alone.

Romans chapter 3 brings this out. Justification is by faith alone, Romans 3 .20. We conclude, therefore, that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. People say in opposition, the word alone isn't in there.

But the concept is, it's faith alone that justifies apart from works. Faith alone saves without works. So the message is there, even though the word alone isn't there. The message is there. And then what Paul then does in Romans 4 is to say, this is not anything new.

Exhibit A, Abraham. That's how he got in. Exhibit B, David. Imputation of his sin was not credited to him. And such is the message. And so he's saying, this is not anything new. No one's bigger really in Israel than people like Abraham and David.

And they got in the same way you got in, through faith in Christ Jesus. It's one message. And the Old Testament can teach us that, even if we didn't have the New. But we do have the New. Praise the Lord for that.

Hits this entire point. No one gets to God by what we do. Romans 4, 4 and 5. Back to 2 Timothy chapter 3. All scripture is breathed out by God. Here, Paul is not addressing the extent of scripture, but the nature of scripture.

Notice that in your Bibles, all scripture is. Talking about the nature of scripture. Scripture, all of it, wherever you encounter it, wherever you find it, all scripture is. It's speaking of its nature.

Jesus had that view in Matthew 22, 31. He said to Sadducees, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? Matthew 22, 31. He was talking to people who were living hundreds of years after God had spoken in the book of Exodus.

But in reading Exodus in the present time, hundreds of years after it was first written, Jesus' view was this. When you're reading scripture, God is speaking to you now. It's a living thing. It's not a dead book.

Whenever you hear scripture read, God is speaking. That's why often churches will say, let's stand for the reading of God's Word. This is different. This is different verbiage. This is different vocabulary.

These are different words. These are holy words. This is a holy Bible.

So it is.

What's your view of the scripture? If you believe in Jesus, wouldn't you want to have Jesus' view of scripture? I don't know anything clearer than what we read in 2 Timothy 3 here about the nature of scripture.

Let's continue reading. All scripture is inspired. Some translations put it, breathed out by God. The one in front of me. All scripture is God breathed. Whatever and how many words we have in English, it expresses one word in the Greek.

Theopneustos, theos means God and pneuma means to breathe. God breathed. This is the breath of God. This is God speaking, inspired by God. God is breathing out His Word and has done so. And it's been captured in scripture.

All scripture doesn't merely contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy, just for a moment. 1 Timothy chapter 5, look at verse 18. Paul writes this. For the scripture says, and then he makes a quotation.

It's actually from Deuteronomy chapter 25. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. So Paul is making the statement, when you're reading Deuteronomy, it's scripture. And in other words, the scripture says, and he quotes Deuteronomy.

And the scripture says, the laborer deserves his wages. Well, where's that from? You won't find that verse in the Old Testament. You find it in the Gospel of Luke chapter 10 and verse 7. And so Paul's view was, when you're reading Luke, you're reading scripture.

2 Peter 3, verse 16. No need to turn to it for the sake of time. But Peter calls Paul's writings scripture. So all scripture is breathed out by God. Ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing on planet Earth like your Bible.

It is God breathed. It is inspired. And really, that word is the word we use in English, inspired. But a more accurate translation would be expired. Because inspired means to breathe in. Expire means to breathe out.

But it would be confusing if your Bible's read, all scripture is expired. So it's the best we can do with our English language. But if we could understand the Greek, it's all scripture is breathed out by God.

And because of its nature, there are ramifications. Let's look at four that I mentioned here. And profitable, that word means beneficial, productive, and sufficient. Profitable for teaching. Didaskaleia means doctrine.

It means divine instruction. You want to know what the will of God is? Scripture is more than enough in the way of sufficient for that purpose. It's profitable for teaching, for reproof. That means to rebuke, to tell off, to convict of misbehavior.

That would be sin. Or a false doctrine, that would be falsehood. It's profitable for teaching, reproof, or correction. That's really a word that means restoring something to its original condition, its proper condition.

And then we have the phrase, and for training in righteousness. That means, again, instruction. Just as you would give children instruction and training. So the Bible is sufficient for the training of anyone for righteous purposes.

Look at verse 17. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Every good work.

The Bible’s Sufficiency for Ministry, Guidance, and Counseling

Years ago, I heard an illustration and it has stayed with me, and I want to share it with you. I come from the Grand Canyon State, though my accent does not reveal that now. But I've lived in Arizona for some time and we're called the Grand Canyon State because that's where the Grand Canyon is.

And I heard this illustration. You're about to take a hike. You ever had that advice from people? You're about to hike the Grand Canyon and you find out that to really have everything you need, you have 29 items you have to get before you take the hike.

You need good boots. You need a bottle of water. You need water supply. You need probably a hat and sunglasses and you definitely need a compass. 29 items. And then at the top of the Grand Canyon, there are two stores.

Imagine that. Two stores at the top of the Grand Canyon. And the first store has 14 of the 29 items you need. And the second store has all 29 of the items you need for the hike. And what Paul is saying is, Scripture equips and fully equips you as the man of God for everything you need in your life and ministry.

All 29 items you get in Scripture. You don't need anything else. Don't even go to the other store. Why would you go there when you've got all you need in the second store? The Bible has everything we need.

That's the message here. That the man of God may be complete, equipped, thoroughly equipped for every good work. No matter what the task before you, Timothy, you don't need anything other than the Scripture.

All Scripture is inspired of God and it's profitable for those four things and it fully equips you for everything you need. I'm not here going to give you Big Pete's email address. You know what I mean by that?

I'm being anachronistic. But there weren't emails, you understand? There weren't emails back then. But I'm not giving you access to Peter. You don't need that. You don't need a special counsel. You don't need a magisterium.

You don't need a prophet. You don't need any kind of information that's flowing between your two ears. You're fully equipped by the Scripture. You don't need the Scripture Plus. You got it all when you got Scripture.

It fully equips you. It fully equips you for evangelism, for pastoral ministry, for counseling, for anything you need. Every good work. Every task of ministry. I'm leaving, but I'm leaving you fully equipped.

What a message. There's no need for a pope. There's no need for further revelation. There's no need for anything but your Bible, Timothy. It's not necessary. And it's the Holy Spirit that has shown us this truth.

And because the Bible is sufficient for ministry, it's sufficient for guidance. As a charismatic, I didn't understand this. In fact, I probably would have denied it if you pressed me. I don't know how the conversation would have gone.

But I thought you needed the Bible plus something to happen between your ears and get an insight from God that's outside of Scripture. But I began to realize over time, and now I want to save you the time by telling you what I've learned over time.

And that is, what happens between my ears and your ears has no gravitas. No weight to bind the conscience. When God speaks, God speaks. He speaks with all his authority every time he speaks. Let me wrap this up with a story.

There was a man who was trained for ministry, and he was a young man, fresh out of seminary. And he was now serving, having been placed just on the Sunday as the new second in line to the pastor, the associate pastor.

And Monday morning was his first real day on the job. And it was assigned him the wonderful opportunity of counseling an older couple who were having marriage issues. And here he was in his mid -20s, and he was pacing up and down.

I actually know the fellow. He was pacing up and down, thinking, I'm not ready for this. What if they ask me questions and I don't know the answer? And they know so much. And they've been married longer than I've been alive, and I've got to tell them something.

And the pastor could see that this man was in great distress. And he said, what's wrong? He says, I've got this counseling appointment. He says, yeah. He says, well, they're older than me, and I'm even a single person.

I shouldn't be counseling a married couple. And he was like that. He was inspiring and expiring. He was doing all of it. So he asked, well, what do I do? What do I say? And the pastor said, tell them what the Bible says.

He said, is that it? He says, yeah, you know the Bible. You've been training in the Bible for years. Tell them what the Bible says. He was completely set free. And he enjoyed the counseling session. I'm not sure they enjoyed the counseling session.

You know why? Because he told them what the Bible says. Christian, the will of God is that you and I submit to Scripture. And we don't need to submit to anything else between our ears or from any other source.

Timothy, all you need is found in the Word of God. And that's true of you and of me. The message of the Bible is the message of the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is that we're saved by faith in Christ Jesus.

Why do we need to be saved? Saved from what? Saved from the anger of God due to us. We are sinners and we've defied a holy God. And God could have wiped us all off the planet. But in His love for this world, He sent His Son, born of a virgin, into this world who lived a flawless, perfect life.

The law giver became the law keeper to save law breakers. And on the cross, the sins of all those who would ever believed were laid on Him. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way.

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity, the rebellion of us all. There on the cross, God treated Christ as if He'd live my life and the life of the sinner. And He bore our sins in His body on the tree, we're told, 1 Peter 2, 24.

And three days later, after He had died, He rose again from the dead and is now at the place of all authority in this universe. And there is this command, repent and believe the good news. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

Saved from the anger that was due to us and is coming to us. Unless we take refuge in the Son of God.

Come to Him.

I plead with you to come to Him to believe not only the general revelation. There's a God out there somewhere. But the special revelation. Salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the clarity, theologians say perpiscuity, clarity of Scripture. So that we're not left to guess about how to get right with God or even what pleases you in life. That you've given us your Word.

Write the truth of that Word on our hearts. Now and forever. And in this be glorified. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.