Abide in the Word - Brandon Scalf

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2 Timothy 3:14-15

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All right, everyone grab your Bibles and turn with me to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 2nd
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Timothy Chapter 3 and We will be looking at verses 14 and 15 2nd
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Timothy chapter 3 Verses 14
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And 15 Today's message is entitled abide in the word and if you would please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy and fallible and As we will see today all sufficient
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Word I will begin in verse 14
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But we'll continue on through chapter 4 verse 8 This is the
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Word of God, but you Continue in the things you learned and became convinced of knowing
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From whom you learned them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith
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Which is in Christ Jesus? All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and righteousness
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So that the man of God may be equipped having been thoroughly equipped for every
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Good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and By his appearing and his kingdom preach the word
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Be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with great patience and teaching
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For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled
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They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires
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And we'll turn away their ears from the truth and we'll turn aside to myths but you
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Be sober in all things Endure hardship do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry
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I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.
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I Have fought the good fight. I Have finished the course.
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I have kept the faith and The future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness
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Which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me
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But also to all who have loved His appearing
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Grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen Amen go ahead and have a seat and find chapter 3 verse 14
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Last week if you weren't here, we began a series through the book of 2nd
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Timothy particularly the verses that I just read verses 14 of chapter 3 all the way to 4 8 and This series has been entitled preach the word and the plan as We look at this section of Scripture is to examine the nature the necessity and the supreme sufficiency of the preached word particularly
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In the context of the local church in other words
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What I'm seeking to do is to answer the question Why does heritage church care so much about this piece of wood up here on the stage?
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Well as we will see it really has nothing to do with the wood and it has everything to do with the word
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And as we began our journey last week we observed Firstly that there was in fact a current crisis on our hands
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That there is in fact a dearth of faithful preachers and the visible church in the present hour that there are plenty of Clowns seeking to entertain and offer cotton candy to the people of God as if they were
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Overseeing vanity fair as it were but there are very few shepherds
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Who faithfully feed Jesus sheep from the bottomless trough of God's nourishing word
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In other words, there are many people who stand behind pulpits or in front of really cool -looking tables
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Who do not follow? Paul's admonition No his imperative to preach the word.
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They are preaching their own ideas They are preaching their own stories their own personalities, but they are not preaching the word of God and So we must if we are going to be a biblical church
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Follow that admonition Secondly, we looked at the reality that This letter was written by maybe the best preacher
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Outside of Jesus Christ himself the Apostle Paul and he was writing it in Urgent fashion because he knew that he was about to have his head decapitated
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That he was about to be Killed and we know this one because just church history records it
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But then also he tells us in chapter 4 of verse 6 for I am already being poured out as a drink offering he says and the time of my
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Departure has come and the departure He is speaking about is not one to a different city to a different town to a different synagogue, but to heaven
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Where the Lord Jesus Christ will welcome him and tell him good work my faithful Servant well done my good and faithful servant and it was urgent because he was essentially writing it to this true child in the faith
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Timothy who he was bound to in both
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Affection as well as in ministry They were very close
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His heart Was knitted as it were to Timothy and he saw the hardship that he was in he saw the hardship that was coming and he knew that he needed to help and he needed to help by reminding him of the scriptures
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Namely of their power Their sufficiency and their ability to do the work
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When all else in the church seems to fail and it will fail the word
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Will stand above it all The word will reign supreme Because the word is as we will see next week more in detail.
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God breathed it comes from God himself It is authoritative. It is infallible.
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It is an errant But more than that it is sufficient and friends this is
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Quite honestly where the battle rages the most Someone might say that the
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Bible is without error good. That's true Others might say that the
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Bible is beautiful Sure, that's true. It's great Linguistically, there is an art form to be found there.
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It's poetic in many ways Many people can say that it is
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Flawless and even true in all that it affirms But what most people are afraid to do especially behind the pulpit is what to assert its sufficiency for all things
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Sufficient to make a man holy Sufficient for the church insofar as programs are concerned
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Sufficient to do the work that God has for his people here and now
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He knew Paul knew that Timothy Needed the only weapon
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That will defeat the enemies and grow the people of God and that weapon was not better ideas
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It was an old idea trust
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God and his word thirdly, we looked at the reality that that Paul and Timothy had a
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Relationship that ought to help us think through how Paul is speaking to Timothy Once again, remember this is a letter
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It's not a bunch of pithy statements stacked on one another to motivate us. It is one man who sees himself as a father figure to another much younger man and is looking to be there for him under the threat and promise of Death and That should change the way that we see this entire letter and So as you look at verse 14 as you find your way back there,
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I first want you to observe that that one Paul is trying to get across the reality that preachers of God's Word must abide in the
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Word of God I'll say that again preachers of God's Word must abide in the
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Word of God Paul begins by saying but you of course speaking about Timothy continue in the things you learned and became
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Convinced of much like this morning. We find ourselves in the middle of an argument and we know that because of this first word but This first word but is not
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Necessarily all that important Although it is
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What I mean by that is certainly it is simply just a basic Coordinating conjunction it is just joining two clauses together
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But what it's doing is really setting the tone for the rest of what
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Paul is going to say here It is the backbone of the charge that he will give in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 preach the
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Word and In many ways it's beginning a charge of its own when he's telling
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Timothy here to continue in the things that he has learned and became
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Convinced of not only that but it is obviously a contrast of sorts he is contrasting
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Timothy with the men that he has spoken about previously in Context if you remember chapter 3
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Paul has Warned Timothy the difficult times are around the corner
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That there are men who are looking to destroy the world the city around them, but most importantly the church
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They've come in deceiving And they've come in With the desire to twist scripture
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Though they are disqualified verse 8 says in regard to the faith They oppose the truth
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But more specifically verse 13
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Speaks of these men as evil men it begins with its own conjunction
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But evil men and imposters Paul says in verse 13 will proceed from bad to worse
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Deceiving and being Deceived So the contrast here is is between Paul Or between Timothy rather sorry with these evil false teachers that are evil and According to this translation imposters now in the
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Greek this evil men and imposters is really one word But it's a compound word that is used
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That really means an evil swindler One who is really as it says here an imposter, but but it's motivated by malice one that is motivated by Deceit maybe another way that you could translate it even is cheat
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Deceit What makes this hot word hard to discern is it's not found anywhere else in the
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New Testament We seem to be bumping into a lot of those as of late But it is elsewhere in antiquity for instance
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Philo uses this word to talk about a false prophet I want you to hear this quote from Philo Further if anyone cloaking himself under the name and guise of a prophet and claiming to be
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Possessed by inspiration led us on to the worship of the gods recognized in the different cities
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We ought not to listen to him and be deceived by the name of prophet
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For such a one is no prophet, but and here's our word but an imposter
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Since his oracles and pronouncements are falsehoods invented by no one else than himself
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So once again, Paul is contrasting
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Timothy would with these would be if we're going to use Philo's definition of the word to some degree a false
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Prophet so not just somebody who is teaching false doctrine, but potentially teaching false doctrine under the guise of Prophecy now to be sure we don't want to import
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What Philo is saying necessarily into what Paul is saying? But it helps us to understand kind of how this word is used outside of Paul's usage here
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It's also used in an extra biblical epistle epistle to Dignatus and what he says and I won't read that for you.
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But in his little excerpt using the word is a false prophet that exhibits illusions and deceit
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So it is a false teacher That isn't just Someone who if we are going to kind of push all these words together and their definitions
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It's not just someone who teaches some wrong things sometimes Because maybe he's mistaken but someone who is maliciously and Someone who is really
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Trying to on every level Deceive the people of God a fake a phony
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Who is according if we go back to verse 14 verse 13 who is not only deceiving but being deceived
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So these these men are evil. They're imposters. They're they're false teachers and likely false prophets and they are deceived
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Maybe they're buying into their own hype that they're doing the right thing and In so doing they are deceiving others
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And one of the things that's striking about verse 13 here is that he also says that these men will proceed from bad to worse there is a
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Progression of sorts in the negative In other words what
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Paul is saying to Timothy is that these men will aggressively advance in your midst
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They're not going to slow down Which is why he told him just a verse prior
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That he will meet persecution and that's the lot of everyone who bears the name of the Lord Jesus Christ And it's the lot of every man who opens his mouth and preaches the word
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But you can see that this is incredibly relevant to us today
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Sure, he is writing to Timothy But he is telling him truth that we need to heed today that preachers of God's Word need to heed today
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Because there are many false teachers many false prophets in our midst and They are dangerous.
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They are deceived and they are deceiving and they are leading Thousands, especially if you add them all up of people straight to hell, and so we must do something
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Well, I don't know pastor you might be being a little hyperbolic here. Are you sure that's the case?
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Are you sure there's really as many dangerous false prophets false teachers as you say there are well, first of all, yes, there is
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We mentioned Joel out Osteen last week, but he's in Texas there are people in our own backyard
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Who fit this description? earlier this weekend
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I heard about a Quote unquote pastor, although I'm not willing to call him that Here in a waso or there in a waso
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He pastors a church once again using pastors very loosely no limits church not to be confused with the no limit soldiers of the 90s and his name is
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Cade Young and Cade Young this very Month just last week
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Prophesied that the right to rapture and he wanted to make sure to qualify might happen on Tuesday That because of his scripture reading
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Because of the Jewish calendar and because of what the Lord has revealed to him It is likely that this rapture is taking place.
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And so you must get ready He says it's ironic that he also has a book that he's just recently released called
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God's in times wealth transfer. Do you see how it might be?
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Advantageous For him to convince people that the end of the world is coming if he has a
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Theology that enables him to write a book about when the world ends Money should flow the reality is
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Even though I somewhat smirked there There's nothing funny about this.
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This is a dangerous man This is an evil man this is a man who is
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Deceived and deceiving Even closer still there's a man who pastors and I use that term very loosely as well a church called
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Transformation Church Right here in Tulsa. His name is Mike Todd and he preaches a heinous version of the prosperity gospel
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So much so in fact if you look into some of his sermons He connects the atonement to becoming wealthy if you're not wealthy
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Jesus did not die for you in fact on a Statement of faith that they have on their website that you have to look very hard for It says this it says we believe that as part of Christ's work of salvation
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It is the father's will for believers to become whole healthy and Successful in all areas of life and Then he goes on to speak about what that means and that means
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You should not get sick and you should be financially successful that flies in the face of Everything that the
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Bible teaches. In fact, it would disqualify
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Jesus himself from being a man Who was holy there's something very evil about using the very thing that the devil tempts people with that with as if it were a hook and Equated to that of salvation
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These are the men These are the type of a man that the
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Apostle Paul was warning Timothy About and he's contrasting them.
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He's contrasting them With him. He says but you
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But you Timothy Continue Now we're gonna get into what this continue word is all about But you need to see here that though these men will progress from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived
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Timothy is to dig his heels in where he has already been standing
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Though they have new ideas new prophecies new schemes and new theology
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Timothy is supposed to continue in The ancient paths and the
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Word of God you see prophets Or false prophets rather false teachers
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They want to seemingly progress Further than the Bible But if you're going to be a proclaimer of God's Word or a
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Christian who loves God's Word You have to understand that there is no such thing as progressing beyond the
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Bible. Oh Well certain preachers will say yes, we think that the
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Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin But you know, we're we're far more
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Progressive we've really
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Evolved since then We're not stuck in The first century with Paul and his bigoted mindset.
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No We stand anchored and tethered to the all
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Sufficient scriptures and we continue in them We continue in them and we continue in them whether we're suffering which is what's happening here in context
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Paul is suffering and he's inviting and telling Timothy to what?
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Suffer, you don't have to suffer when you progress
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When you are just walking with the world and whatever they have to say you don't have to Continue in anything and you don't have to brace yourself
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For the blows that might be coming
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You don't need a Paul to tell you This is what your weapon will be
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Because you would just go no matter the pain no matter the prosperity you just walk about Progressing but the truth is if you're going to be a preacher of God's Word or if you're going to love
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Biblical preaching in the context of the local local church. You need to do a lot more regressing And what
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I mean by that is Romans chapter 12 tells us That we are to be renewed in our mind
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We need the spirit to help us We need the spirit to love
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The ancient paths the old ways the scriptures so he says here continue continue but you
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Continue in the things that you have learned And became convinced of knowing from whom you learned them
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This word continue here is an imperative verb What that means is it's a command
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He's not asking Timothy to do anything He's saying these men were progressing into evil but you
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Must continue in the things you learned and became convinced of Of course spoiler alert
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That's most certainly speaking about the Word of God the truth of the Word of God This word continue here though Deserves a little bit of our attention and the reason for that is because the word continue in the
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English language Doesn't quite although it's faithful. So don't hear what I'm not saying
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Capture what's being said here the word continue here is a word
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That has been translated from the Greek word minnow, which means to remain
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To stay but when we hear the word continue in modern
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English vernacular what we will certainly come to think about is that we need to essentially
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Keep progressing keep moving forward But the idea here is that that he is to plant his feet as it were
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That he is to remain where he is and live and and and love and and teach and preach out of That thing that was already there it's almost like if you know anything about mixed martial arts standing in base and mixed martial arts what you
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Have to do if you don't want to die Getting up in the ring is is what's called as I just said standing in base
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And what that is is you are standing up once you get knocked down but you have to stand up in such a way that you're not vulnerable to attack and So what you wind up doing is you have two points of contact at all times as you're standing up You always have your eye on the enemy the opponent and Yet you're getting up with one hand and one foot
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While that's happening Very slowly while the others two points of contact are lifting up the foot that is on the ground
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You're not just jumping up. You're standing in base You're standing in a way where your weight is
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Distributed so that you will not get knocked away Unaware But there's movement this is what he's talking about He's essentially saying stand in base
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Get up keep going But don't ever lose your points of contact
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So a better way to translate this might be the word abide So instead of continue we might say something to the effect of but you abide in these things
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The one of the reasons I say this is because theologically it makes sense, but then also this same word is used
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And Jesus or in John chapter 15 when Jesus says that we are to abide in him and that we can not bear any fruit apart from abiding
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In him so Though these men are going from bad to worse
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Though they're evil though, they're deceiving and being deceived you Timothy he says
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Continue Continue And the things you learned and became convinced of why is it important that he does this?
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Well, we just looked at it this morning in Ephesians chapter 4 in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14
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It tells us That we are to be built up remember that we are to be
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Equipped Why why are we equipped by the shepherd teachers verse 14 so that we are no longer
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To be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming
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If he's going to continue if he's going to stand he needs to do it in such a way that he will be protected from the arrows of the false teachers and their doctrine and their deceiving
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So what are the things? Well, the things spoken about here in verse 14 are things that he has obviously learned and became convinced of Now before looking at that specifically,
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I want you to notice another thing that's happening here There's another Parallel happening another contrast if you remember in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 3 verse 6 When speaking about these false teachers It says for among them are those who enter into households and take captive weak men women weighed down with sins
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Being led on by various desires always learning verse 7 and never able to come to a full knowledge of the truth
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You see here Timothy is to be unlike these people here Unlike the men who are evil and unlike the women who are able to come to a full knowledge of the truth
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Why because he learned and he became convinced of those things now, it's important to note that these are two different realities
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That these things are distinguished you can learn something and not be convinced by it You can know some facts and not love it
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As a matter of fact, the church is filled With men who have learned so much and opened their brains so wide that their brain and then their heart falls out of the way out of their head
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Bart Ehrman is a perfect example of this Bart Ehrman is a is a Phenomenal or was rather a phenomenal
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Greek scholar and then he abandoned the faith
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And now he spends his days trying to convince people that the Bible he spent his time Studying is not all that reliable Now he's wrong and I would love to go over as to why but that's for another time he learned more than I've forgotten or rather.
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I think the saying is something like he's forgotten more than I've ever learned and yet He's not convinced of the truths.
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He doesn't love them, but Timothy He's not only learned them.
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He's become convinced of them Now things is certainly Somewhat ambiguous so the question becomes what in the world
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Are these things well? depending on which scholar you look at or What conclusion you come to?
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The first option is usually The gospel message these things is the gospel message and I won't disagree with that.
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I think that's certainly Included in what's being said here, but I think it's far too narrow Not that there's anything more important than the gospel message
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But if Timothy is going to oversee this church if Timothy is going to Stand opposed to these men and and stand in the truth.
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He needs more It is a need more than the gospel, but he he certainly is privy to more than a simple gospel message
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So one way to think about this would simply be the truth of God's Word Right because he's going to go into and we're not going to have time to get into every single one of them
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He's going to go into the fact that even though this is happening Even though that this these false teachers are going to run rampant in your church
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And even though they are going to progress from bad to worse and even though they're going to deceive you have a weapon the
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Word of God and It does a lot and we're going to see that for the next six weeks
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But not only that it's the truth of God's Word as it is and as it's been exemplified in The people around him so there is an experiential element to this as well although as you will see it's
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It's not the experiential type stuff that the false teachers talk about so Timothy he says but you
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Unlike these men continue in the things you learned
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And became convinced of knowing from whom you learned them.
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The second thing that I want you to note is that Preachers of God's Word must abide in the
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Word of God Because it is completely and utterly sufficient for ministry
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I'll say that again Preachers of God's Word must abide in the Word of God because it is completely and utterly sufficient for ministry
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Paul is certainly talking about Ministry here. Where else is he going to preach the word?
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Except for in the context of the ministry that has been given to him remember he is the pastor of a
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Church in Ephesus or over the entire set of churches in Ephesus and we're going to see here all the ways in which
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The Word is sufficient. Firstly, the
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Word of God is sufficient To teach children. The Word of God is sufficient to teach
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Children. Now, this is an interesting place to start on a sermon series about the preached word But it's where Paul starts and he starts here for good reason
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Look with me here again at verse 13 or 14 rather. It says
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Knowing at the end here from whom you learned them and that from childhood
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You have known the sacred writings Paul begins here by reminding
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Timothy of his spiritual upbringing but the
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Word of God has according to Paul and According to the rest of Scripture the power to teach even the youngest of children
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It is not limited to age or understanding
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Timothy here Would have been very young. Now, of course, he wasn't an infant, but the word child here indicates in the
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Greek a small Child and He says to him remember
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Whom taught you? Right Knowing from whom you learned them
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The Scriptures in other words were always on the lives and lips specifically of his grandmother and mother they were rearing him up in the ways of The Lord we know this because in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 1 verse 5 It says being reminded of the unhypocritical faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother
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Lois and your mother Eunice and I am convinced that it is in you as well
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These women poured the scriptures down young Timothy's throat Because they knew what
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Paul knew It's the only thing That matters.
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This is why Proverbs 22 6 has trained up a child in the way He should go even when he is old. He will not depart from it
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The wisdom of God's Word is sufficient If it's not clear by now to teach children the truths that shape their worldview
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Ground their faith and provide them with spiritual armor as they grow in a world hostile to the things of God Now I know many of you homeschool, but there will be a day where they
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Are no longer under your roof and how will they stand on that day?
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If you are not training your children to know to learn and to believe
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The Word of God you must you must train your
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Children Not only that but children have a very receptive mind and they have a mind that guzzles up the truth
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Two examples come to mind things that would just normally blow the average person away
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I don't know if you guys remember this but when we were at the American Legion, I was preaching a sermon
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They had to do with the Trinity and as is custom.
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I got off my notes And I began to talk about the Trinity and I made a mistake
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As I was talking I fumbled over my words and I accidentally said something to the effect of The triune
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God is three gods and one person and I kept moving because I didn't know
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I did that It was an accident though. I wasn't teaching heresy. I'm not one of these guys that Paul was talking about but I got done and I'm talking to Pastor Corey after the gathering and I heard the story that when
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I said that Stella little Stella you see her running around here leaned over and Said that's not right.
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It's one God Three persons I was just sent a text message today this very day from somebody in our body who was playing
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Scrabble or some sort of game like that and Well, it was
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CC. All right, it was CC. I don't know how to go without mention her name. Okay, it was CC. Okay, and She was trying to make but God had fit in the
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Scrabble board You remember me talking about that in Ephesians chapter 4 right that we but God did
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I? Verbified a word that should not be verbified. I Do that all the time.
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I think it's a word CC. So if they won by one you really won Okay, but what
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I'm saying is children are listening and they can hear and They are guzzling the truth and the same thing happened to Timothy and we ought to take that Same truth to heart it is sufficient to train to equip
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Children to teach them in the ways that they ought to go This means that they don't need all the entertainment that everybody else is privy to They don't even need
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Dare I say it Children's Bibles with pictures of Jesus and so on and so forth
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Now if you can get one without second commandment violations, please do But they can understand and you should be trying to get them to understand and they can understand on a level
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That's usually higher than most people think that they can
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So parents take after the example of Timothy's grandmother and his mother but also it's the church's responsibility as well
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In Deuteronomy 4 9 and 10 It says only keep yourself and keep your soul very carefully lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen
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And lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, but make them known to your sons and to your grandsons
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Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God in Oreb When Yahweh said to me assembled the people to me that I may cause them to hear my words
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So they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and they may teach their children so when
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I preach Some weeks are better than others, but I try to address the children
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Because I believe that the Word of God is sufficient to teach them Psalm 78 4 says we will not conceal them from their children
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But recount to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh and his strength and his wondrous deeds that he has
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Done pastors Parents mentors must see their role as critical in shaping the minds of the next generation and in so doing
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Pouring the Word of God into them. We must not entertain children We must instruct them in the sacred truths of God's Word The reason for that, of course is because the scriptures are the source of true wisdom the scriptures are the source of true wisdom
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The scriptures provide wisdom far superior to the fleeting philosophies and sciences of this world
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Proverbs 9 10 makes this clear when it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom there is no other source of True wisdom the
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Word of Almighty God There are other true things, but this one trumps them all
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And it is the measuring stick by which every other truth claim is measured Every story every commandment every prophecy is laden with wisdom
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That is found in Christ Colossians chapter 2 verse 3
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The Word of God equips children for a life of faith and godliness and it guards them from the snares of sin it builds a foundation that cannot be shaken and That means friends that it is sufficient
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Secondarily, the Word of God is sufficient because it is holy Because it is holy look with me again at verse 14, but you
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Timothy continue in the things you learned and became convinced of Knowing from childhood you have known that here's what it is sacred
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Writings this word sacred could also very easily be translated as holy as holy
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It literally means holy thing so a sacred thing is a holy thing and what's going on here is
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Paul is trying to communicate with Timothy that the tool that he needs to safeguard him on In his ministry is one
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That is holy this the holiness of Scripture that he's pointing to In other words what he's trying to get across is that the
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Bible is not just another book on the shelf. It is the very God -breathed
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Word of God 2nd Timothy Chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 to which we will cover in exhausting detail next week
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It is set apart it is distinct from every other form of human
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Communication as God is holy. So his word is holy That's why
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Psalm 12 6 says the words of Yahweh are pure words as silver Tried in a furnace on the ground refined seven times
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And not only that but as we think about the holiness of Scripture and we compare it with say
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I don't know Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 Which says for the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two -edged sword
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Piercing to the division of the soul and spirit of joints in morrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart
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When we consider this what we're considering is the holiness of Scripture and the reason I say that even though holiness is not mentioned here is
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Because it's it's holiness It's a set -apartness. It's God breathedness
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That gives it this very authority its purity and its power to penetrate your heart
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It's not a bunch of human inventions. It is the revelation of a holy
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God it is the holy revelation of a holy God and it is the representation as It were of his holiness
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This is why in James chapter 1 Verses 23 and 25.
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The Word of God is said to be like a mirror James says for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer
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He is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror All right
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So if you hear the word, but you don't do it It's like looking at your natural face in a mirror for once he looked at himself and has gone away
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He immediately forgot what kind of person he was The one who looks intently at the perfect law the law of freedom and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer
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But a doer of the work This man will be blessed and what he does But James is trying to say here that the
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Bible as a mirror reveals the true conditions of our hearts
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The true conditions of our soul because it is holy it exposes our sin our failings
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Our desire to be an act as God our need for grace and it does not flatter
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It doesn't tell you pleasantries to get you to do what it is that it wants you to do It tells you sometimes the worst things you ever want to hear
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As a matter of fact if you are reading the Bible and you never are offended by it You're not reading it, right?
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It cuts straight to the heart but in doing so it leads us to holiness
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It's it's holy and it leads us to holiness The Bible not only reveals who we are it reveals who
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God is That he is holy that he is righteous that he is just that he is Transcendent that he is beautiful and as we behold the holiness of God in his word 2nd
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Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 says that we are transformed from one degree of glory
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To another so the word is sufficient because It is holy
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Thirdly the word of God is sufficient to save sinners and sanctify saints
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The word of God is sufficient to save sinners and sanctify Saints look with me again at verse 15 now.
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He said that these sacred sacred writings are Second half of the verse are able to make you wise unto
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Salvation so the scriptures make us wise Unto salvation
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Salvation does not come from false teachers It does not come from false prophets it just could not come from human ingenuity wisdom or bunk philosophy
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It does not come from clowns behind a pulpit offering cotton candy It comes through the wisdom of God's Word This is how
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God saves a people for himself he uses men to proclaim his word and they believe it
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Romans 10 17 which was already uttered this evening So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ It is through the proclamation of the word that that sinners are convicted
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That they are cut to the quick By the Holy Spirit having their sin revealed to them and then drawn to Christ This is why
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Psalm 19 7 says the law of the Lord is perfect Reviving the soul the testimony of the
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Lord is sure making wise the simple But Paul is getting at here.
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Is that the word is sufficient for ministry? Why because it leads us to the cross
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It leads us to Jesus and leads us to the penalty absorbing death of Jesus Christ the atoning work of the
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Messiah appoints us to the sufficiency of his atoning sacrifice and This is why
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Paul could say elsewhere that he was not ashamed of the gospel For it is the power of God.
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He says in Romans 1 16 For salvation to everyone who believes
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So if we want to convert sinners, we're not going to do it by traveling across the pond and setting up Humanitarian situations where we're helping people and giving them food now
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Am I saying we should not give hungry people food? I'm not saying that at all I'm saying if you do not open your mouth and speak forth the scriptures
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No one's getting saved. Not only does it save sinners, but it sanctifies believers salvation here is not just Initial salvation
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Salvation is much bigger than being regenerated This is why
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Paul and other letters of his can talk about how
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Christians are both saved and being saved We are regenerated.
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We are converted, but we are still awaiting Glory, and as we await glory, we are here being conformed to the image of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and we need the Word of God To do it the power of the
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Word does not stop at regeneration It continues on To be sufficient in our sanctification.
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This is why Jesus prayed in John 17 70 Sanctify them in the truth.
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Your word is truth The scriptures are the primary means in other words by which God grows his people in to holiness not to be sure
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He uses suffering He uses joys. He uses you pushing on one another in the body
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But he does so as we cling to his word
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Ephesians 5 26 speaks of Christ's work in the church when it says that he might sanctify her having
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Cleansed her by the washing of water with the
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Word The Word of God That thing which
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Timothy is to preach is The cleansing agent that purifies hearts and conforms
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To the image of Christ it is the sword
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Hebrews chapter 4 says of the Spirit. It's what the Spirit uses to grow you and to sanctify you
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Not only that but the Word Gives us a spiritual nourishment.
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It's our spiritual food Jesus said in Matthew 4 4
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God If you think you need dinner tonight more than you need the
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Word in you then you misunderstand the
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Significance of Holy Scripture just as physical food sustains our bodies the
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Word sustains our very souls 1st
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Peter 2 2 calls us to go long For the pure spiritual milk that by it we might grow up into salvation you see one of the reasons it's sufficient to teach children in Ministry It's because we're all children.
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We're all spiritual infants and We need the bottle as it were of the
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Word of God to grow us into strong mature Believers it is sufficient to nourish us to strengthen us and build us up in the faith
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Fourthly the Word of God is sufficient to draw sinners to Christ through faith. And really this is the purpose of Scripture It is to draw us ever to the
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Lord Jesus Christ Through faith look with me again at verse 15. It says through faith, which is in Christ Jesus Paul says that the scriptures of Course are able to make one wise unto salvation, but he continues on obviously here as we've just saw
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By saying it's through faith in Christ Jesus Everything that the
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Bible teaches points to Jesus Everything every book is about him.
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Every passage is about him Every word can point to him. It's all about Jesus and to miss that fact is to miss everything
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The entire Bible points to Jesus Christ as the only Savior In Luke chapter 24 verse 27.
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Jesus is walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus you know the story and It says that beginning with Moses and all the prophets
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Interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself In other words what
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Jesus was trying to do was to help these men understand what we need to understand Which is this from Genesis to Revelations the scriptures testify of the
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Lord Jesus Christ He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that's all the way in Revelation and All of redemptive history leads to him
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This is why as Covenantal Baptists we put such a premium on the covenant of grace, which is the new covenant purchased in space and time on the cross
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Because it's all about him and it will all always be about him. Not only does all scripture point to Christ But the gospel about Christ is the power of God for salvation
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At the heart of the Bible is most certainly the gospel message the good news that Christ died for sinners and rose again for our justification and The gospel friends is sufficient to draw sinners to Christ and Acts 2
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Peter preached the first sermon
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After Christ Had ascended on high and he did so at Pentecost and The Spirit of God there pierced the hearts of those who heard
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Leading them to cry out. What shall we do? And it was on that day
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That the word did the work over 3 ,000 souls were saved that day.
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So what is the message that will save? 3 ,000 souls the message of Christ crucified.
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That's what draws sinners not light shows Not huge bands not fog machines
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Not people in really tight jeans and tennis shoes made by rap stars
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Not a better entry point for your with lots of baggies with goodies in it
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Donuts and coffee No, it's the word
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It's the very word of Almighty God because faith comes through the hearing of that word that points to Christ and the message of his gospel the word
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Is everything which is why he's telling Timothy here to abide in it to continue in it
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Brothers and sisters as we close this evening
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If it wasn't clear I want you to take this home with you As we begin to look at other parts of this passage what you need to understand here at this juncture
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Is that the Word of God is sufficient for ministry? It's sufficient for heritages ministry.
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It's sufficient for your ministry Under your roof or to the neighbors that live next to you or the people at your workplaces it is entirely sufficient it is sufficient to teach children sufficient because it's holy sufficient to save sinners and sanctify
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Saints and sufficient to draw all sinners to Christ and so it will be echoed over and over again
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We must if we are to be a biblical church preach The word and the word must thunder from this pulpit it must shape the hearts of our children
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It must save sinners It must sanctify Saints and it must draw lost souls to the
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Lord Jesus Christ And this is the call of every preacher Every parent and every believer to proclaim the word because it is the word that does the work
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For it alone is the power of God unto salvation And so let us never
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Forget the words here to continue To abide and let us hold fast to the sufficiency of Scripture Trusting that in it.
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We find all we need for life for godliness and for the glory of Christ And to that end
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I say preach the word Father we thank you. We thank you for your word
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And we thank you that you have given it to us that you have condescended to us as if to babes And I ask that you would use this sermon in this series
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Even if words fail me to impress the importance of the preached word
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Because the reality is Lord My words fail me at every turn
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I cannot paint an adequate enough picture of how needed and how
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Amazing and how Necessary and how supreme your word truly is
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And so Lord help us help us to see what I can't preach
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And help us to love it. Help us to learn and become convinced of it and Help us to be a people that love your word