A Life Worth Imitating

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Division in the Corinthian Church and the Temple of God

If you would, turn within your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. As I mentioned, today we're looking at all 21 verses in this chapter as we wrap up our study in the first major section of 1 Corinthians.

If you've been with us over the last six weeks or so, you'll know that together we have been looking at one of the primary issues that was plaguing the church in 1st century Corinth. It was an issue related to unity.

If you had to summarize, if someone were to ask you on the street, give you a pop quiz and say, what is the theme of the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians in one word? It would be a weird pop quiz to find that on the street, but you could say, the theme is division.

It is about division within the church. The Corinthian church had many problems, as we're going to hear about in the continuing weeks to come, but they were first and foremost a church divided. I can think about a number of topics that we could look at as a new church plant, and division would certainly be up at the top of our list.

There's so much in the world to divide over. In Corinth, somewhere along the way, the saints in this city had lost sight of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the centrality of his gospel in all of life, and they were dividing over things like who had baptized them, or whose speech was more eloquent, or matters of human judgment.

Really, these irrelevant little details, and it was tearing the church apart, and in the process, what we saw from what Steve mentioned last week, the church in Corinth was destroying the temple of the living God.

Now, this doesn't mean that they were marching to Jerusalem with their siege towers to dismantle the temple, but what it means is that they were tearing apart, by their infighting, by their carnal thinking, by their bad behavior, they were tearing down the spiritual temple of God that had been constructed in Corinth.

That is the precious, the blood-bought church of the Lord Jesus Christ in that city. And what a fearful thing to be involved in, if you can imagine that. If you were to go to the first temple after it was just built, to go there and say, it's great that you have consecrated the temple, now I'm going to tear it down.

It would be a ghastly thing, it would be an evil thing to do. And this is exactly what the Corinthian church was doing to themselves. And as you might expect, God didn't look favorably upon this. You'll remember that Steve said last week in chapter 3 and verse 17, he read these words, if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.

What words. He says, for God's temple is holy. And he says, and you, that's a plural you, so he means all of you. If you're in the southern United States, it's all y 'all. All of you are that temple. I have to keep you on your toes.

And what a wonderful new covenant reality this is. And what a sobering warning. But nevertheless, the church in Corinth, the saints in Corinth, were doing exactly this. They were demolishing the temple of God.

So for the last three chapters, Paul has been urging the church, he's been pleading with the church in this letter to stop their self-destructive behavior. And then last week at the end of chapter 3, we heard this soaring doxology that Paul gave to the Corinthians when he said, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or death or life or the present or the future, all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, words that lift up Jesus, that lift up God. And I don't know about you, but if I was writing that letter, I would probably, I would have saved that for last. It was just such a good word that I would have left that for the end.

But Paul has another thing in mind. Paul has one more thing to say here in chapter 4 before he switches topics and goes on to other matters. And it begs the question, what could that be? What else does Paul have to say after this climactic doxology that he ends with in chapter 3?

As we turn our attention to chapter 4, where we're going to be today, this is what we find, as you would expect from a godly shepherd, from a good leader, Paul not only exhorts the church, he's exhorting this church in chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Not only does he exhort the church to do what is right, but now in chapter 4 he's going to provide the church with an example that they can follow. He's going to give them an example, and that example is his own life and ministry.

Now, if you are a purist when it comes to biblical exegesis and interpretation, you might say, where does it say that, Shane? Where does it say that Paul is going to compel us to follow his example? Really, the crux of this text that I want to take us to today, that's going to hold up the rest of the text, is beginning in chapter 4, verse 14.

Paul says, I do not write these things to make you ashamed. Paul is writing these things. He's going to write things that, frankly, should make any person blush. But he says, I don't write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Paul loves the Corinthians, just as every shepherd should love the flock that has been entrusted to them by God. He loves them. He says, for though you have countless guides in Christ, this is in verse 15, you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

And this is the text that we're going to look at here. In verse 16, he says, I urge you then, be imitators of me. So you could say that chapter 4, in many respects, what Paul is doing is he shows the Corinthian church how they are to view him.

He uses the word in verse 1, how they are to regard him. He shows them a life worth imitating, and then at the end of chapter 4, he urges them to follow his example, to imitate him, to follow him as he follows Christ.

And this was a theme that Paul had with the Corinthians. If you just flip quickly to 1 Corinthians 11, in verse 1, he says almost the exact same thing. In 1 Corinthians 11, he says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

And so that's what we're going to do today. We're going to look at some of the features of Paul's apostolic ministry. I'll warn you ahead of time, you are not going to find this exhaustive, but what you will find is that there are a number of things that we can glean from chapter 4 about the Apostle Paul and apply this to our own lives.

And as we normally do, we'll break this up into little bite-sized pieces. And so if you have a church bulletin, my apologies if you didn't get one, you can ask me next week and I'll make sure you get one.

But it breaks it down into points. And so we could break it down into more finite points. We're going to break it into bigger points today just to get through the text. So the very first thing that I want us to see in 1 Corinthians 4 is this.

Servants and Stewards of Christ with an Eternal Perspective

Like Paul, we must live as servants and as stewards of Christ with an eternal perspective. And the texts that we're going to look at there are verses 1 to 5, and then we're going to bunny hop over to verses 8 to 13.

So Paul begins this chapter with these words. He says this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.

It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

Then each one will receive his commendation from God. So as we've already heard, I don't want to repeat myself too many times, so I'm going to breeze through it a bit, but as we've already heard, the Corinthians up to this point have gotten the ministry of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, that's another name for Peter, completely backwards.

And so to remedy the situation, Paul shows these men and women in Corinth how they are to view his ministry. And Paul reiterates that they are not great orators, they're not leaders of competing factions that people are to get behind, but they are, first and foremost, he uses these three words to start, servants of Christ.

We looked at that, we had a smaller group that day, and we were looking at chapter 3 and verse 5, but Paul asked the question there, he said, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants. And if you're a Greek nerd like me, he uses the Greek word diakonos.

It's the word that we get our word deacon from, and it means a table servant. And he says, how should you regard us as table servants of the Lord? Or sorry, through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.

And then now in chapter 4 and verse 1, Paul uses a different word, a more humble word even than table servants, to describe himself. Paul says that he is an uparetos, which means an under rower of Jesus Christ.

Now what does an under rower mean? I'm going to look at the kids here for a second. Can you imagine this? Before there were boats in the ocean, with big engines and propellers that could take a boat across the ocean in the course of maybe five days or ten days, in the time of Paul, they had big ships, ships that weighed tens of thousands of pounds.

And an under rower was a slave that would be not on the top deck, but in the very bottom of the boat. And it was their job, when there wasn't wind or when extra navigation was needed, to row that boat.

And so they lived and worked in filthy conditions over long hours, when Paul uses this word uparetos, he chooses a word that was reserved for the lowest, the most menial and the despised of galley slaves.

And this was Paul's view of his own ministry. A galley slave in the bottom of the boat. It's interesting that Paul didn't see himself as the captain of the ship. I don't know about you, but if I was hanging around with Paul, I'd probably look at him at least as the first mate, maybe.

Maybe a journeyman on the deck. But Paul says, no, he is at the bottom of the boat with the lowest of slaves. And why is that? Why does Paul regard himself as amongst the least? If we know Paul's letters, if you've ever read Paul's letter, for instance, to Timothy, in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15, Paul referred to himself as the foremost of sinners.

In some translations, it calls him the chief of sinners. And yet, although he was the foremost of sinners, he had a great savior. Paul was keenly aware that this was all by the grace of God, that he had been saved, that he had been sanctified, that he had been made an apostle.

And in response to Christ saving him, in response to Christ putting him into his service, it was Paul's view on life. It was his life's calling to offer all of himself, all of his dignity, all of his energy, all of his life in service to Christ.

It was Paul who had the motto that he shares in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 21, where he says, to live is for Christ and to die is gain. Paul also says in the second part that he is not just a servant, but he says that he is, with his fellow ministers, stewards of, a steward of the mysteries of God.

And a steward, usually in that time, was also a slave. And it was a slave that was given or specifically assigned the task of managing their master's household. They were a household manager. And Paul says that one of the most important qualifications or qualities of a steward was that they be found faithful, that they be found faithful.

And here Paul says that he has been tasked with stewarding the mysteries of God. That sounds intriguing, the mysteries of God. We see that word that we saw earlier in 1 Corinthians, mysterion. And here, as he stewards the mysteries of God, what he's saying, I think he summarizes nicely in Colossians chapter 1, verse 25.

He says there that I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. And so Paul saw himself as a servant steward to proclaim the gospel of God and the word of God to Gentiles.

And Paul says that it's of little to no concern how he's judged. And he names three different parties, three potential judging parties in his letter. He says it's of no concern to him if his performance is assessed by the Corinthians, by any human court, or even by himself.

He says he doesn't even trust his own assessment of himself. And the reason being is because ultimately all of these assessments in this first paragraph, all these people that could be judging him, himself included, are ultimately irrelevant because none of these parties are his master.

Daryl, I want to ask you a quick question. If someone has a servant, who gets to assess or who gets to maybe look at their performance and determine if they're doing a good job? The master of the servant, that's exactly right.

And that's what Paul says here that ultimately he doesn't concern himself with the Corinthians' view or any man's view or even his own view because the only opinion, the only qualified opinion that matters is the opinion of his master.

He says in verse 4, it is the Lord that comes from the word kurios. It's translated often in our New Testaments as masters. It is the Lord who judges me. It's not the Corinthians, it's not the world, it's not anyone else.

And when Christ does judge Paul, and just so you know this applies to you, when Christ judges you, he doesn't judge us based on our outward appearance. He doesn't just judge us based on our public ministry, but he judges us based on our private lives, even on the thoughts and the intentions and the motives of our hearts.

No one else in this room can judge me in that way. I cannot even judge myself in that way, but Christ can judge me perfectly in that way. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he says in chapter 5 and verse 9, he says, so whether you are at home, sorry, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, to please God, to please Christ.

And you might ask, why is that? Why are they making it their aim to please Christ? He says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Paul knew that one day all of our lives, he knows that one day all of our lives will be laid out before God. Every thought, every action, every intention will be exposed before the just judge of all the earth.

And so Paul didn't live his life for the praise of men. How often are you tempted to please men with your lives, with your actions, with your words? Every time I confess, every time I get up behind the pulpit, I am tempted to say things that might please people.

And I think that if we honestly evaluate our own motives, our own hearts, we're often driven by a desire to please people, to impress people. Paul says, it doesn't matter. It's not for the praise of man, it's not for his own comfort or pleasure, but it's for the commendation, it's for the reward that would come from God alone.

Like those who fall into the air of the prosperity gospel movement. We were talking a couple weeks ago, brother, about the prosperity gospel movement and this idea of having your best life now. We see that the Corinthians, one of their great problems was that they had an over-realized eschatology.

They believed that the judgment did not so much concern them and that they were already living the good life. And so if we look in verse 8, Paul writes this. He says, already you have all you want. Already you have become rich.

We heard Jason read it, so I won't read it all. He says, without us you have become kings. The Corinthians thought that they had already come to a place of heaven on earth. But here Paul cautions them that there is still a judgment to come.

The Corinthians didn't recognize this already, and not yet, eschatology, this aspect of God's kingdom. And so Paul recounts in verses 8 through 13 some of the suffering, some of the trials that he went through as a servant and as a steward of Christ.

He says in verse 10, we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst. We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands.

When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still. Imagine being described this way like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things, the garbage of all things.

And it begs the question, why would Paul live like this? Why would Paul live as a servant? Why would Paul live as a steward? Why would Paul endure hardship while the Corinthians, with their over-realized eschatology, are already celebrating as kings?

I think the answer is twofold. First, Paul had a high view of Christ. Paul realized the worth of Christ. You know, in Romans 6, it says that everybody in all the world, think about this for a second, every single one of you in this room and every single person out of this room, we're told in Romans 6 are slaves, and you're slaves to one of two masters.

You're either a slave to sin and the devil, or you're a slave to righteousness and to God. I want to ask you, who are you serving? Who is your master? If you ask yourself honestly, Paul knew that there were only two people, two persons that he could serve.

One was the devil, or one was Christ. And consider what Christ had done for him, that even while he was still a sinner, Christ died for the ungodly Paul. Christ came in human form. He became a man. He lived a righteous life.

He died the death that we deserve. As Steve pointed out, he was the propitiation for our sins. He was the substitutionary sacrifice for Paul's sins. And I think the other reason why Paul was willing to endure hardship, the reason why Paul was willing to work and to live as a servant is because he had an eternal perspective.

Unlike the Corinthians who believed that the best things in life were in this life, Paul had a future hope that went beyond this life into the future, where Christ says in verse, or where Paul says, excuse me, at the end of verse 5, then each one will receive his commendation.

That means reward or praise. Each one will receive his reward from God. Now, what do we have to do with all of this? If Paul says that we should be imitators of him in this respect, what do we do? I want to begin by asking you.

Just so you know, this is an interactive experience. So I do want you to respond, at least in your own minds. It might be embarrassing if you respond out loud, but respond at least in your own minds to some of these questions.

When Paul says that he is a servant of Christ, that he is a steward of the mysteries of God, when he says that he has become the refuse of all things, that he's the scum of the world, as he looks forward to his future hope in Christ, eternity in the presence with God and rewards and commendation, does this describe your life?

Does this describe your mindset? Do you see yourself, when you get up in the morning, as a servant of Christ and as a steward of the gifts that he has given you? I want to ask, do you regard yourself as a willing and joyful servant, as an under rower of Christ?

To drill in a bit deeper, would you say, does Christ have lordship? It's a big word for maybe some of our kids, but does Christ have lordship of your life? Meaning, does Christ's sovereign rule and reign factor into your every decision?

Where you work, where you live, what you buy, how you treat your kids, how you treat your spouse, what you look at online, how you spend your time. Does all of this, do all of these decisions, are they made under the lordship of Christ?

Or are they made by you, in your own world, in your own corner, pilfering and squandering and getting what you can get? I'm not sure that I've done the best job of it. But brothers and sisters, it is our greatest privilege in life to joyfully serve.

Do you believe this? It is the greatest privilege in life. You want to be happy. The world tells you, if you want to be happy, you need a new car, you need a new house, you need new jewelry, you need new clothes, you need to listen to this music, you need to watch this TV show, you need to do all of these things under the sun.

But if you really want to be happy, those things are not going to make you happy. They're going to make you thirsty for more of those things. If you really want to be happy in this life, and it's hard to convince someone that doesn't know this first hand, the happiest that you will ever be in this life is when your life is most given in service to Christ.

When you say, my life is not my own, my time is not my own, my money is not my own, this job is not for me, it's not even for this paycheck, it's not even for my satisfaction, it is for Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, I want us to be a church that is given in service to Christ, that is, to use the word, sold out for Jesus.

I want to ask, are you sold out for Jesus? I want to ask as well, are you living as a faithful steward, using the gifts and the resources that God has given you to advance his kingdom? God has given each one of us gifts, and he's given us these gifts, some of us the ability to teach, to administrate, to counsel, to pray, to give, to serve, to evangelize, and are you faithfully...

Notice in verse 2, Paul doesn't even say successfully, he doesn't say, it is required of stewards that they be found successful, but he says, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. Are you faithfully using the gifts that God has given you to magnify him as Lord and as Savior?

Peter said in his first letter, chapter 1 and verse 4, sorry, chapter 4, verse 10 of his first letter, he says, each has received a gift. Everyone in this room, if you are in Christ, if you're a believer, if the Holy Spirit is in you, God has given you gifts to serve him.

And he says, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Are you stewarding the gifts that God has given you? If God has given you the ability to administrate, I know faithful brothers that the best way that they serve God, and I can't make sense of it, but is counting checks and punching numbers into spreadsheets.

But if that's the gift that God has given you, are you using it to serve him? If God has given you the gift of faith or of service or of counseling other people and giving a good word in the right season, are you using that gift?

Or are you spending it on the internet, on Facebook, on TV, on exercise, on whatever else it might be? And as I've said, the remedy to this is to have a high view of Christ and to have an eternal perspective, to look to the reward.

It says in Hebrews chapter 12 that Christ looked to the reward when he went to the cross. And so it's like Christ, and it's like Paul even, to consider the reward. I fear that many people in the church, they are justified.

We are all justified through Christ, but our work will be burnt up in the judgment because we did not live for God, we did not live for Christ, but we lived for the world. I want us to be like Jonathan Edwards.

If anyone knows Jonathan Edwards, some call him the last Puritan in North America, and he said this, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. With everything that I do, with everything that I see, might it be for eternity, for God and for Christ in eternity?

I was looking up stories in church history this week, as I do every week, that I might illustrate some of these points, and I thought, I found a beautiful story of a young woman. So often I reference men, but a young woman that had this same mindset that Paul had, that imitated Paul in this way.

In the 1800s, in 1853, a wealthy Victorian family had a baby girl, and they named her Lilius Trotter, Lilius Trotter, and she, as a child, she developed a love for art and taught herself how to paint.

I was thinking about your children's art last week, it was excellent, and she had taught herself how to paint, and her mother was so impressed by her work as she became a young woman that she took some of her paintings to this famous art critic in London named John Ruskin, and John Ruskin saw Lilius Trotter's art and immediately he recognized that she had a very unique talent as a painter and as an artist, and he took her immediately as one of his informal students, and after observing her for a time, listen to these words, Ruskin told Lilius Trotter, he said, if you devote yourself to art, if you commit all of your energy to this art that you're doing, he says, consider these words, very flattering words, he said, you will be the greatest living painter, and you will do things that will be immortal, meaning that had she devoted herself to her art, we would go to an art gallery today and we would see Claude Monet and Picasso and Da Vinci and oh, and Lilius Trotter's art, but many of us do not know the name of Lilius Trotter, do we?

Because when she was 25, she felt that she was being put in a position where she had to serve two masters, and we know what happens, we love one and we hate the other, and she felt that she had to choose between devoting herself to art or devoting herself to God in his glory, and so much to the dismay of John Ruskin, she put aside her artwork and she gave herself to ministering to the prostitutes in downtown London, and after a number of years of seeking the Lord, she felt that the Lord was calling her to Algeria, she went to Algeria, and there in Algeria, she went to minister to the Muslims, think about our ministry sometimes to the Muslims, how difficult it was, and it turns out almost 200 years ago, it was just as difficult as sometimes we find it today, she writes this about her experience, she said, that Islam is as dry as a sand dune and as hard as gravel, and when they arrived in Algeria, North Africa, she said, the early years were like knocking our heads against stone walls, but nevertheless, Lilius Trotter took her artistic talents, her giftings, and she applied them by designing these cards that would show Old Testament pictures, and she would distribute them to the Muslims, she designed them, but because of the intricate detail and some of the, I think it was the Arab lettering, she had to get someone else to actually do the artwork or to do the lettering on these cards, and through this ministry, Lilius Trotter saw a number of these hard-hearted Muslim people come to faith in Christ, and still then, it wasn't a walk in the park, she said that often many of them, many of the new converts were poisoned, some of them were killed, but she said she took comfort even as they were dying to know that she would see them again in glory.

One biographer wrote of her, he said, despite a weak heart, she labored for 40 years in filth, disease, ignorance, bigotry, and violence of the Algerian coast towns. She was recognized as a woman of literary gifts, rare artistic ability, undaunted courage, unlimited common sense, and faith like an apostle's, and even though many have never heard the name of Lilius Trotter, think about this, there are many brothers and sisters in Christ in heaven right now, and for all of eternity, who will remember the name of Lilius Trotter, and thank God every day that she laid down her art career that she might make much of Christ among this unreached people group.

When she left Britain for Africa, John Ruskin, we'll go back to him for a second, he said this to a friend, he said, I have lost the one pupil I had of real talent. He was really mourned, he probably could have made a lot of money with Lilius Trotter, I think, and he says this, she has decided to throw away her life teaching Arabs.

If devoting yourself to the service of Christ, if devoting yourself to stewarding God's gifts is throwing your life away, then beloved, I want every one of you to throw your lives away a thousand times every day until you go to Christ or until he comes.

And I assure you, for those of you who I will enjoy fellowship in glory for all of eternity, you will not be disappointed if you give yourself to serving Christ with all of your being. Next thing that we see, said we had a big job ahead of ourselves, and I promise I'm not going to talk too long, but like we see, next thing we see is this,.

Staying Within the Bounds of What Is Written

Like Paul,.

We must be humbly ruled and restrained by God's word. We're going to look at two verses, verses six and seven.

He says,.

I've applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written. I want you to keep those words in mind, beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another, for who sees anything different in you?

What do you have that you did not receive? And if then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Paul has used the analogies of planting, you'll remember in chapter three, the planter and the waterer, the builder, he's used now the analogy of the servant steward in chapter four, to put before the, or he's put these things before the Corinthians to stop their prideful and arrogant divisions.

And he asks the question in verse seven, what qualifies you to make these judgments? Everything that you have, God has given you and it's the giver of the gifts. It's God that gets the glory, not the recipients.

And if we hone in on verse six, this is where we're going to focus.

He says,.

He's laid all of these things before them that you may learn by us. So by their example, again, we're imitating by us not to go beyond what is written. This might surprise you, but many scholars believe that this is the most difficult verse in first Corinthians to interpret, is verse number six.

And the reason is, everyone argues about what Paul means by what is written. What does Paul mean by this? Some people say, well, this was a maxim or a saying that would have been familiar to Paul and some of the other Corinthians.

And so Paul is saying essentially, don't go beyond the rules. Other people say that Paul is referencing what he's already written in first Corinthians. And then others say that Paul is referencing the Old Testament.

And it doesn't really matter all of the different arguments. What we do need to know is that most sound theologians, and I think our best interpretation would show that what Paul is doing is he is making reference to the Old Testament scriptures, his Bible, the Hebrew Bible.

He's making reference to the word of God. And the reason we can think this is because he uses a common expression, this word, what is written, the Greek word grapho. He uses this in first Corinthians alone.

He uses it 12 times other than this passage. In 11 of those times, he is referencing Old Testament passages. He's quoting directly from the Old Testament. And what Paul's getting at is that the Corinthians' proud behavior, their proud hearts, their divisive behavior is outside the bounds of scripture.

And he wants these saints, just as I want this of you saints, to submit to the word of God as our final authority. This was Paul's manner of life. If you've ever done a character study on Paul or looked at the words of Paul, he was through and through a man of the word of God.

Just a quick glance at Paul's letters reveals that he was full of his Hebrew Bible. Paul could barely make an argument without quoting some Old Testament passage. He was ruled and restrained by God and his word.

How many people here know about the Bereans in Acts chapter 17? If you're familiar with the Bereans in Acts chapter 17, it says that the Bereans were noble because they examined the scriptures daily after Paul had taught them.

And we should talk about the Bereans, we should learn from their example, but the Bereans don't hold a candle to the Apostle Paul when it comes to going back to the word, going back to the scriptures, going back to the Old Covenant Bible.

If you look up the word scripture in a Bible concordance, I did this this week as I was studying, what you're going to find is so often the word scripture is used by the Apostle Paul when he says, scripture says, but in the word it says, but in scripture it says, I refer to the scriptures.

Paul was always quoting on it, he was leaning on it, he was looking at it, he was submitting to God's word as his final authority for every doctrine and every decision. By my quick count, in the 13 letters that Paul wrote in the New Testament, he quotes or references the Old Testament more than 135 times.

And in the book of Romans, he quotes the Old Testament over 50 times alone, just in that book. Paul held the scriptures in such high esteem that many of us, when we go to look at the Bible, to see what the Bible has to say about the Bible, we find ourselves reading the Apostle Paul's words.

So when we look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, most of us know this, 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 completely equipped for every good work.