Word of Salvation – Vol.29 No.12 – March 1984

 

Our Only Rule Of Faith (2Tim.3:16-17)

 

Sermon by Rev. S. Voorwinde, v.d.m. on 2Tim.3:16 & 17

Belgic Confession Art. 7

Scriptures: Joshua 1:1-9; 2Tim.3:10-17

Suggested Hymns: Ps.H. 237; 252; 249; 314 or BoW. 2:1,2,6; 702

 

Beloved Congregation of our Lord,

I want to begin the sermon by asking you some questions that might be of interest:

Where did Cain get his wife?
When were the angels created?
How old is the world?
Why does God allow evil?
What did Jesus look like?
Is there life on other planets?
What about U.F.0.’s?
What will the world be like in 20 years?

These are all interesting questions, fascinating questions – and as a minister I’ve been asked most of them.  People are curious, people want to know and so they approach someone who has studied the Bible for an answer.  Surely the Bible has an answer; surely the Bible would satisfy our curiosity?  But the Bible does no such thing, and as a minister of the Word I have to disappoint people who come to me with such questions.  And I think that the Bible will often disappoint us if we are just looking for answers to our questions.  The Bible is not some kind of religious encyclopaedia that is designed to answer any question that might arise.

And yet it is surprising how often people will treat and use the Bible in just that way.  When I was a student, our Hebrew class went to a synagogue one Friday evening and part of the exercise was to see how much we understood of the service.  For most of us that was painfully little.  Still there was a little hymn that they sang in English and I remember that quite distinctly.  They were singing about the Torah (the five books of Moses) and their little song went like this:
“The Torah, the Torah, you turn it and you’ll find everything in it.”

Unfortunately there are all too many Christians who would say the same about the Bible.  Somehow they see things that were never there.  Some people will tell you that Ezekiel predicted the motorcar and fighter bomber aeroplanes.  Others will tell you who will win World War III and when the world will end.

But the Bible tells us nothing of the kind and it was never meant to.  It is not an encyclopaedia that answers all our “religious” questions, but rather it is God’s Word to us.  Therefore we must appreciate what it says and also what it doesn’t say.  We must learn to live with the silences of Scripture as well as with the answers that it gives.  And then too, we must admit that we often go to the Bible with the wrong questions, questions that it was never meant to answer.  If we don’t know really what the Bible is for then we approach it in the wrong frame of mind.  It’s a little bit like when you have a question about gardening and you look for an answer in a cook-book.  Now a cook-book may give information about plants and herbs and vegetables (and that information may be quite correct), but it’s unlikely that it will answer your question about gardening.  That’s not the purpose of the cook-book.

And so it’s not the Bible’s purpose to answer every question that excites our sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness.  As we learn what the Bible is for, then more and more the result will be that we begin to ask the right questions.  And that too is part of growing in the Christian life, not just having some of the right answers, but being able to ask the right questions.

So what is the Bible for?  What is its main purpose?

Why did God take the trouble to inspire the Scriptures?  Paul answers this question very simply in vs.15 of 2Tim.3.  The Scriptures were given “to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  The Bible was given so that we might be saved by believing in Christ.  In a nutshell that’s what it’s all about: our salvation..!  That’s the Bible’s overall and general purpose, and then Paul breaks that down into the specific purposes of our text:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

So here we are given three specific purposes of Scripture:

(i)  Doctrinal:
It is profitable for teaching and for reproof.

(ii)  Practical:
For correction and for training in righteousness.

iii)  Total:
“that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

So first of all, Scripture has a doctrinal purpose – it is good for teaching (which is the positive side) and for reproof (which is the negative side).

Scripture is profitable for teaching.  Now that should be obvious.  Timothy as a young minister is to teach the Bible.  We probably think that goes without saying, and yet there are all too many churches today where the Bible is not being taught and where congregations are not being instructed.  And that’s where people need to be reminded of this very simple truth, that “all Scripture is profitable for teaching.”

But there is also a deeper lesson here that we must not overlook, and that is that the word for “teaching” here is also the word for “doctrine”.  As a matter of fact in the King James Bible we read that “all Scripture is profitable for doctrine.”  And it is no accident that doctrine is mentioned here first.  You can say what you like, but doctrine is primary, doctrine is basic.  It is from Biblical teaching and Biblical doctrine that everything else flows.

Yet it is surprising how many Christians today are anti-doctrinal.  In the United States I served as the assistant pastor of a Presbyterian Church, and the minister of that congregation used to teach an adult Sunday School class.  They would have Bible studies and discuss current issues, but when they discussed the Westminster Confession which of course involved a lot of doctrine, the attendance of the class dropped by half.  It is a lamentable fact that nowadays not many Christians have an appetite for doctrine.  The old liberals used to have a slogan: “Doctrine divides; service unites.”  And often in Evangelical circles you hear statements like this: “We are going to study the Bible together, but we are not going to discuss doctrine.”

But how you can study the Bible without discussing doctrine is beyond me.  How can you study the Bible, if you refuse to study what it teaches?  Paul’s advice was rather different: To Timothy he said: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching (and to your doctrine).” (1Tim.4:10).  To Titus he said: “Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” (Titus 2:1).

In his letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul stresses the importance of doctrine no less than 15 times.  Doctrine is vital for a healthy Christian life, and doctrine is no more and no less than what the Bible teaches.  Scripture, and Scripture alone, is to be the basis for all Christian doctrine.

So let me ask you quite frankly: Do you know your doctrine?  And do you know where the Bible teaches the doctrines that you believe?  For instance, you believe that Jesus Christ is God; how can you show that from the Bible?  Or you believe in the Second Coming of Christ; where is that taught in the Bible?  Do you really know your doctrine and where it comes from in the Bible?  Maybe you find this an embarrassing question, but it’s not half as embarrassing coming from the pulpit, as it is when a Jehovah’s Witness comes to your door and runs circles around you in a doctrinal discussion.  He’s got his verses at his fingertips while you’re fumbling around in your Bible trying to find what you’re looking for.

Brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be.  Of course, there are times when people gloat over the way they dealt with Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses: “They left our place with their tails between their legs.”  Sometimes Christians talk that way and I think it’s uncharitable.  But at least shouldn’t Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses leave our homes with second thoughts about their beliefs?  It’s the Lord’s work to grant them repentance and conversion, but shouldn’t we at least be able to make them stop and think again?  And the only way we can do that is if we know our doctrine and how it is based on the Bible.  “All Scripture is profitable”; and the first area that Paul mentions is doctrine.

And now the negative side of this – which we have already touched on is: reproof.  If someone holds to a fake doctrine then Scripture can reprove him.  For example, if you believe that man is basically good, or if you believe that Jesus was no more than a good moral teacher, then these mistaken views will be corrected if you go to the Scriptures.

And yet I think that we should see more here than doctrinal error.  The Scriptures can also be used to correct false notions that we have.  I want to mention an extreme case so that you will get the point.  Os Guiness in his book on doubt gives this example (p.10):

“I will never forget a girl who sat in the living-room of our home in Switzerland.  She argued, she cried, she pounded the floor.  Why should she trust God?  He was a monster, a hard unyielding monarch, a Mafia boss whose power was everywhere, a merciless creditor who demanded his pound of flesh.  Hadn’t she tried to obey?  But the more she saw God the more she feared, and the more she feared the more she became angry, and the more angry she became the more she hated, and the more she hated the more afraid of God she became.  She knew she was caught in a vicious trap, sliding down a slippery spiral.  She was young, she was loved, she was successful.  But none of it made any difference.  She could not trust God, and in the bitterness of doubt her spirit was like darkness at noon.”

You see, unless we read the Scriptures carefully, even our ideas about God can become caricatures and gross misconceptions.  Unless our minds are constantly being moulded by the Word of God we leave ourselves open to wrong ideas which can slip in, in all kinds of subtle ways.

That’s another reason why God gave us the Scriptures: to reprove us in our wrong thinking and our mistaken ideas.

So the first area where Scripture is profitable is doctrinal; positively that means teaching and negatively it means reproof.

Then the second area that Paul mentions is practical.  Here the negative is mentioned first (“correction”) and then the positive (“training in righteousness”).  Correction has to do with a wrong way of life.  It has to do with restoration.  For example, if a Christian is backsliding, then if he obeys the Bible it will put him back on the right path.  Just as Peter was restored after he had denied Christ, so the Bible can be used to restore us back into a right relationship with the Lord.  If a person is sinning then that sin will be pointed out by the Bible and the way to repentance will be clear.

Then on the positive side there is training in righteousness.  This word “training” can also mean “education”.  If you want to be educated academically, you go to school.  If you want to be trained physically you exercise.  If you want to be trained in righteousness you must go to the Bible.  And if you want to train others in righteousness, you must do the same.  This word for training is also found in Paul’s words to parents: “Bring up your children in the nurture (training) and admonition of the Lord.”  Parents are to train their children to be righteous and they are to train them by the Word of God.

I think, though, that here we should also see a warning.  The Lord trains and educates us by His Word, but what if we don’t listen to His Word?  Well, what do parents do if their children won’t listen to their words?  If words won’t do it, then it’s time for the rod of discipline.  And if that is true of earthly parents, it is also true of the heavenly Father.  If they don’t listen to what He says He applies discipline to His children.  The same word that in our text is translated “training” is in Heb.12 translated “discipline”, and in verse 11 of that chapter it says:

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

In each case the end result is the same.  The Word of God trains Christians for righteousness.  The discipline of the Lord trains Christians for righteousness.  You train your children by words and by the rod of discipline.  The Lord trains His children in exactly the same way.

Then thirdly, the purpose of the Scriptures is not just doctrinal and practical but also total: “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Today, we hear much about being a total man, a total woman, or a total person.  Here in this verse we hear what God has to say about a total Christian.  Such a person is someone who has been taught by the Scriptures, reproved by the Scriptures, corrected by the Scriptures and the Scriptures have trained him in righteousness.

Isn’t that beautiful?  Isn’t that challenging?  To be a whole person in God’s sight.  And He has given us the Bible for that purpose so that we will be well-rounded, well-balanced whole people.  He doesn’t want us to be doctrinal giants and practical pygmies.  Nor should we want to be doctrinally stunted, but overdoing it in practical application.  Rather the aim is to be well-developed in both areas, in doctrine and in life.  We have the Bible so that we can be total Christians.  And as such, we will be adequate for the task, we will be fit for the job.  As our text says, “equipped for every good work.”  We will be able to handle every duty that God may lay upon us.  For Timothy it meant preaching and teaching and doing the work of an evangelist.  For you it may mean raising a family, being a good neighbour, being a Christian witness where you work.  Whatever it is, God gave you the Bible so that you might be equipped for that task.

What a broad scope that is: “…that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

So that’s the purpose of the Bible, very broad and far reaching, and very down-to-earth.  It makes me a little bit embarrassed about my earlier questions about U.F.O.’s and life on other planets.  It may not answer every question that tickles my fancy, but it does far more: God uses it to remake me as a person and to redirect my life.  It instructs me about salvation, how I can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross.  And then when I’m saved it doesn’t just leave me, but it takes me further and teaches me and reproves me and corrects me and trains me in righteousness.  More and more I become a total Christian and able to handle whatever God wants me to do.

Can you think of any other book that would do all that?

Amen.