May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his holy word.
Let us turn to the second epistle of Paul to the Timothy chapter
three and reading the last two verses. So verses 16 and 17 in
the third chapter of the second epistle of Paul to Timothy. And they read, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works. Sometimes I think it is good
just to be reminded of the greatness of God and the wonderful favour
it is for us as unworthy sinners to possess the great and glorious
truth contained in the word of God. It is indeed a wonderful
thing to think that God, in his grace and mercy and love to his
church, has given us his word. In the second epistle of Peter,
and the first chapter and the last verse in that chapter, we're
told, for the prophecy, that's the word of God, came not in
old time by the will of man." So we can recognize it wasn't
the Apostle Paul standing up and thinking, that's a good idea
today, I'm going to write a letter to Timothy. We're told this,
but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So let's realise the solemnity
and the wonder and the blessing that we have today, that there
were all these people, somewhere about 40 different people, who
were spoken to by God and they wrote down the words that He
spoke. And those words, as we know,
were in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek and some
Aramaic, but have been translated for us into English today, so
that we have the Word of God, not the Word of man. We should
never forget that. This is God's word. Some people
treat it very lightly and irreverently, and yet the great blessing is
that you and I have the very word of God. God's words, which
he breathed into all those people, all those years ago, and saw
fit to have it written down, and down through the ages, it's
been preserved to us today. Many people have made every effort
to destroy the Word of God. You may remember when Tyndale
translated the New Testament into English, and that was a
wonderful thing. And they were transported from
the continent where they were printed back into England, distributed
and people were so keen to have it they were avidly read it and
bought it and used it about the the enemy the devil was so keen
to get rid of them all that he brought together those evil people
who decided to buy up all the Bibles which had been distributed
and to burn them and to get rid of them so there was of course
then On that occasion, many bonfires with Bibles, New Testaments being
burned. But as often as the case, the
devil overstepped himself because in their keenness to get rid
of these Bibles, they often paid over and above what the market
price was. And therefore, the money that
was collected was then taken back to the continent and many
more Bibles were published and distributed again across the
channel to our country. So what a blessing and what a
privilege it is that today this has been maintained to us. And
of course, as we know, the translations have been improved, but we are
gratefully thankful to almighty God that we have before us today,
not the word of man and It's important that we emphasize that.
It's not the Word of Man. It is the Word of God. And therefore, as you and I read
the Word of God, we should not think, well, I don't think that's
very correct. I don't think that's very true.
I don't think I'm going to go along with that. Remember, you
and I are reading the very Word of God. And that should have
a big and wonderful influence in our hearts and to think again,
the wonderful privilege that it is that you and I today have
the word of God. There are billions of people
in the world who do not have the word of God in their language
or do not want to read the word of God. What a mercy, what a
favor for us today that we have the Bible and we're able to read
it. Now, We don't want to just read
it as a history book. We don't want to just read it
as an account which has been written by a number of people
and there it is, we're able to read it. We need to read it as
the Word from God. And as that Word from God is
granted to us, that we read it as it may speak to our hearts. And what a blessing if that is
so. What a blessing if God has spoken
to our hearts. Now, I don't know whether that's
true in your life. You know whether it's true or
not. You know whether God has spoken to you from his word. And if so, what reason you have
to bless God because many people have been passed by. Many people
have read the Word of God, but it's never been applied to their
heart. They've never realized it's God
speaking to them, and they've passed out of time into eternity
without coming to know the great and glorious God of the Bible. And again, to realize the greatness
of God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's wonderful to think that
we have those three persons as one God. There are mysteries
that you and I can't understand, and that's one of them. Naturally
speaking, we can't understand that there are three people in
one God, but it's true. And the Word of God spells it
out to us in many places, as you and I are able to piece together
quotations and parts of God's Word, which will prove to us
that there is God the Father, and there is God the Son, and
there is God the Holy Spirit. Well, to think, therefore, that
today we have this great and wonderful truth, and it tells
us here, all Scripture, all Scripture, you may think, well, I think
that's a bit far-fetched. Take God's Word at face value. Believe it as it's written. All Scripture is given by inspiration
God right from Genesis right through to Revelation I know
there are some parts of the Word of God which are not easy and
hard and difficult and there are of course those lists of
names which we might think is a bit irrelevant well let's not
let's not even think about it from that perspective let us
realize that this is God's writing God's Word that he breathed into
those that wrote it, and he ordained none less than Almighty God to
record everything that is written in the Word of God. And it's
a wonderful blessing for us today to have this great and glorious
truth. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness. That is a good
list, isn't it? And it's an important list that
you and I are able to understand and to recollect that this is
what God has given to us and to believe, therefore, that it
is profitable. That means it is a benefit to
our souls. So don't think, well, I don't
think that was very interesting, that I read today, and I don't
think I'll read that again. We need to recognize that God's
word is inspired, and he has said that it is profitable. And what a blessing, therefore,
as you and I read the word of God, to think, well, has that
word, has it been a prophet to me? Have I benefited? Have I
learned something? Indeed, have I been instructed
by it? It's good, you know, if you and
I come to these things and recognize the blessing which is ours and
the desire to be instructed by the Word of God. You see, it's
not being instructed by man's words. It's being instructed
by God's Word. Surely we can see how relevant
and how very important it is because we do want to be instructed
by God's Word. We don't want to be instructed
by anything less than God's Word. What a mercy it is to realize
then that we have these wonderful things, these wonderful favors. You know when the Apostle wrote
to the Jews, the Hebrews. And again, the Hebrews is a wonderful
book to read and to truly benefit from. And we're told in the fourth
chapter and the second verse, this for unto us, that means
everyone who reads it for unto us was the gospel preached as
well as unto them. But the word preached, did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. So things which appear to be
very, very difficult, you and I need to pray for faith to believe
the great and wonderful truth that is contained in the word
of God. And of course, the apostle tells
us what faith is and it's good to know the word of God you see
explains things for us and in the 11th chapter to the Hebrews
we're told our faith this is what it is faith is the substance
of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen so there are
many things which you and I cannot actually physically see with
our natural eyes and we can't handle with our natural hands. But the Word of God describes
it. And what a blessing is, therefore,
if God gives you and me faith to believe in the great truths
contained in the Word of God. And so let me just read it again.
It's familiar, I'm sure, but let me read it again. Now, faith
is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things
not seen. And there's a margin note about
substance which says, or ground of confidence. So faith is the
ground of confidence of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen. And so we should be thankful
indeed that we have this great Word of God and what a mercy
of God has spoken to our hearts and shown us something of the
great doctrines contained in the Word of God. So it's profitable
for doctrine. Doctrine is a word perhaps sometimes
that we may shy away from. We think it's something which
we don't understand. The previous verse, verse 15,
helps us in that matter. And that verse tells us, and
that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. And that's something just to
ponder about, isn't it? Let me read that last bit again.
Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. Our great need, all of us, is
to know the grace and the favor and blessing of salvation. That means the saving of our
souls. That means the eternal safety
of our souls. And we have this statement here,
which will make us wise unto salvation. That means we'll come
to an understanding of what it really means And what a blessing
it is when the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to our hearts
to show to us the way of salvation. You may ask to me, well, what
is the way of salvation? Well, it's always good to ask
a question if we don't know. Well, the way of salvation begins when you and I realize
under the influence of the same powerful Holy Spirit that directed
all those that wrote the scriptures to show to us that you and I
have offended Almighty God. You may say, why have I offended
Almighty God? We have offended Almighty God
because we have disobeyed Almighty God. And you may think, well,
I don't think I've ever disobeyed Almighty God. Well, you read
carefully the scriptures, you read carefully the Bible, and
you will find there are many things there, many words of instruction
which if you and I are honest with ourselves, we will recognize
that we have not kept everything, obeyed everything as we should. And therefore, we have offended
God. Therefore, we have disobeyed
God. Now, what does that mean? That
means very simply, if we've disobeyed God, that means that we've sinned
against God because every act of disobedience is a sin. And if you and I possess sin,
we need that sin to be removed. And that's something that you
and I can't remove ourselves. We can't say, well, I think I'm
going to turn over a new leaf and therefore I'm going to start
again. We can't start again because
we've got a beginning and those sins need to be taken away. And this is really the great
plan of the word of God. And it tells us about how our
sin will be taken away. And everyone of us need to know
in our heart that our sins have been taken away. As most of you
know, I do often refer to you right back to the beginning in
Genesis, which is important because Adam and Eve came into this sinless
world which is a perfect environment, and they spoiled it because through
their disobedience they brought sin into the world. And what did they do? They disobeyed
God. What did they do? They listened
to the devil. My friends, you and I today know
better than Adam and Eve, because the devil deceived Eve, yes,
and deceived in a very simple way. He asked Eve a question. Hath God said, ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden? Hath God said, and sometimes
you and I might in our minds say, well, Has God said I can't
do that? Has God said I mustn't do that? It's really because we want to
do that. Therefore, the devil is very
able and hasn't changed his operation. He still makes us ask that question.
Has God said, well, you know, Eve, she knew what they could
do and what they could not do. And she told the devil, she said,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, Remember that God had said, you shall not eat of it,
neither shall you touch it, lest you die. We need something just
to think of that. God said, don't touch it. Don't even touch it. Sometimes
there are things aren't there in our life, which we may think,
well, can I do that? Can I get involved in that? Don't
touch it. Don't even touch it. She remembered what God had said. And you see, you and I have a
conscience that reminds us of what the word of God says. But
the devil told her, you won't die. You shall not surely die. Total opposite to what God had
said. But you see, we're told, the
woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did eat. Just a simple action, wasn't
it? A simple action. You know, that
simple action was the worst action that's ever occurred because
it brought sin into the world and we're told there's a line
in the hymn which says all creation groans groans through the effect
of that sin well that was a situation and of course Their eyes then,
their mind understood what they'd done. They realized they'd done
that which was wrong. You see, they then tried to hide
from God. You and I can never hide from
God. Don't think you will be able
to hide from God. God's in every place, every single
place. He knows what we're thinking,
what we're saying, what we're doing. And we cannot hide. We cannot hide from God. Well,
God knew where they were, trying to hide. And he asked them, where
are they? And then they came and began
to make excuses. My friend, excuses don't stand
up before God. They don't stand up before God. You see, Adam blamed Eve, and
Eve blamed the devil. But you see, they had sinned. They had sinned. And therefore,
the Lord said, He spoke to Satan, and He said, Because thou hast
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, And above every beast
of the field, upon thy belly shall thou go, and thus shall
thou eat all the days of thy life. It's interesting, isn't
it, that today we still see snakes or serpents, don't we? And does
it remind you, when you look at a snake or a serpent, what
it is? It's the curse of God upon them. And then the Lord says, and this
is the wonderful gospel that is recorded way, way back. This is what God said to Adam
and Eve. I will put enmity, in the 15th
verse of the third chapter, and I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And what that prophecy
is about, the seed of the woman was none less than the Lord Jesus
Christ. There was the glorious prophecy
of the Lord Jesus Christ to come. And what would happen? Her seed,
the Lord Jesus Christ, would indeed bruise, would scotch the
head of the Satan. You see, it was a wonderful prophecy
that came to pass. Many years later, some 4000 years
had to pass before that came to pass. And yet the Church of
God, the true Church of God, would have been reliant upon
that great promise for their salvation. Well, what a mercy
it is today that we have the great glorious truth of this
salvation, which are able to make the wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Jesus Christ. Well, of course, we weren't
in the Garden of Eden, were we? But what a blessing it is if
God gives you and me faith to believe that that did occur. And because that occurred, sin
passed upon all of us. We're all guilty. We're all sinners. And we all need forgiveness.
And how was that sin gonna be taken away? Well, the scripture
tells us, and there's a very wonderful word in John 3, 16,
and this is the verse. that God so loved the world that
he sent his only beloved Son and whosoever believeth on him
shall not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. And what does
that mean? That means that God gives us
faith to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world
to die in our place as our substitute. He took upon Him our sins, the
sins of all His people, and He died. He gave His life, which
was payment for our sin. Now, I've said that in a few
words. But if you read the Word of God,
really from Genesis to Revelation, you will find there are many
references to this great and wonderful work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we see there the wonderful
mercy of God displayed in that Garden of Eden. Yes, to poor
sinful mankind, all Scripture He is given by inspiration of
God and is profitable. That means it's a benefit. That
means it's that which is a help and instructive to us. Well,
what a blessing today. If you and I can recognize the
wonder of God's plan of salvation, make us wise. The devil doesn't
want you and me to be wise. He wants us to be ignorant. of
the great way of salvation. He doesn't want us to understand
the great truth of God. He doesn't want us to read the
Bible. That's why he does all he can
in this world to stop people reading the Bible. That's why
it's a wonderful privilege that we have to be able to offer Bibles
freely outside the chapel. so that by God's grace and favor
there may be those that take the Bibles and open it and read
the Bible and they find in that the glorious plan of salvation
and God gives them faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is the great plan, the great glory of the gospel And what
a mercy it is for us if we're able to realize that God has
blessed us with that, which are able, the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which
is in Christ Jesus, the blessed Savior gives us faith to believe. Well, have we been given that
great and glorious gift of faith to believe. It's not something
you and I can work ourselves up to. No. And God gives us that
gift and he gives us that gift to show his amazing love to unworthy
sinners. You will never come to that place
and think, well, I deserve God to look upon me. It'll be the
opposite. You'll say, I never deserved God to look upon me. And yet how wonderful for me
it is that God looked upon me. Again, there's a line of a hymn,
he saw me ruined, ruined in the fall. That was the fall of Adam
when Adam and Eve fell by singing. He saw me ruined in the fall,
but loved me notwithstanding all. Surely it's very humbling to
realize here we have this great simple statement, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. God's given his word to us today. Here we are. Do we appreciate
it? Do we love it? This is something
that we realise speaks to us about our salvation and therefore
directs us beyond our life on this earth to that life which
is to come. when by his grace we shall see
him as he is in glory and that forever and that without any
sin in that perfect harmony of glory. That's the prospect and
that's really what is set before us in the word of God and what
a mercy it is therefore that we have such great and glorious
truths and we are here given this wonderful blessing and we
are we're not to despise it you know we're not to turn away from
it again there are many many truths in the word of God which
speak to us about these things and are warnings to us And the
Proverbs, as you know, is a wonderful book of instruction. And in the
15th chapter, we can read this. In the 15th chapter and the 31st
verse, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among
the wise. He that refuses instruction despiseth
his own soul, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. And the last verse is the fear
of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honour is
humility. Well, here we have two statements
about instruction. two statements that speak to
us here about this which is profitable and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. What a wonderful thing it is
that we have God's Word to instruct us, but we're not to refuse the
instruction. And it's spelled out here, isn't
it? Very simply. He that refuses instruction despises
his own soul. That means you and I don't consider
our soul has any value. We despise it. And yet the reality
is our soul is the most valuable thing that we possess because
it will never die. And the importance thing is,
is that therefore that we do hear and we do understand. But
he that here is reproof, get his understanding. What a mercy
it is if God gives you and me, therefore, this spiritual understanding. The scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof. for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. Quite clearly, you see, the Word
of God is very comprehensive in that which it contains. And
it's a great blessing for us if God has brought us to that
position where we desire to have a heart opened by God to receive
His Word, to not turn away from it, to not think, well, I can
ignore that, to read the Word of God and count it as the Word
of God and the Word of God speaking to our very, very soul, how relevant,
how important it is for us today. Well, it's a great mercy, is
it not? And what a blessing it is. You know, again, this letter
to Timothy, the apostle tells us, he says, It is a faithful
saying, for if we be dead with him, we should also live with
him. If we suffer, we should also
reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. It's clear, isn't it? What a
blessing it is if we have spiritual understanding and that we don't
turn away from God. If we believe not, Yet he abideth
faithfully, cannot deny himself. And therefore of these things,
put them in remembrance. That's the apostle speaking to
Timothy. Put the people in remembrance
of these things. Don't let them forget it. Don't
let them not hear about it. Charging them before the Lord
that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting
of the hearers. Study. to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Well, my friends, it's a wonderful
epistle, wonderful letter. These two letters to Timothy
are well worth sitting down and reading. And you shouldn't think
that they only apply to ministers of the gospel because Timothy
was a minister of the gospel. They apply to the Church of God,
and we should recollect and recognize the relevance of them unto our
own hearts, our own life. We have, each of us, a never-dying
soul. And that means what it is, a
never-dying soul. We must spend eternity either
in heaven or in hell. And what a blessing it is that
we have, therefore, the Word of God to show unto us the way
of salvation. And if God gives us faith to
believe and to pray to God, then he will show us that we are amongst
those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed died, has given
himself. Now, this next verse is very
briefly, the man of God may be perfect. You may think, well,
that's impossible. Can't be perfect. Well, in and
of ourselves, of course, We can't be perfect, but it can also be
translated as complete. That the man of God may be complete. And that makes it a bit more
comprehensible for us, doesn't it? To be complete means that
we therefore have a right understanding of the way of salvation. And
the way of salvation as I've listed or gone through is to
know that we are guilty before God and that we need a saviour. And the only saviour that will
redeem our souls is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if the Blessed
Spirit shows you and me, gives us faith to believe this great
and glorious truth, we are complete in him, not in ourself, but we're
complete in him through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done.
Let us never underestimate the glory and the wonder of that
work. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, as the Apostle said, to save sinners. It's a great
truth, isn't it? To think that he came into this
world to save you and me from eternal damnation, to save our
souls, so that by His grace one day we shall be with Him in glory
forever. Oh, it's a wonderful prospect,
isn't it? We shall have finished with all
the poor things of this life, of all the sins which easily
beset us, of all the evil things, and to realize that we shall
be at peace in glory. Well, that the man of God and
everyone who is made perfect is a man of God or woman of God,
a child of God and truly furnished unto all good works. That means
we shall desire to do those things which are good and right and
God honoring and not listen or take it. We shall have the devil
will endeavor to captivate us. It's interesting, isn't it? He
brings things before our minds which are attractive to you and
to me. What might be attractive to you
wouldn't be to me. The devil knows what it is. I think of our dear friend Frank,
who, as you know, he and I were united together. And when we
met, I was very keen on sport. He wasn't keen at all. Didn't
interest him, really. He was very keen on the theatre.
I wasn't interested at all. You see, it wasn't anything that
attracted me. The devil knows exactly what
attracts us. And therefore he would direct
us in that avenue and try and turn us away from the things
of God and put those things before us and try to impress us that
there's no harm in just being involved in this and just being
involved in that. Well, you know, there's a very
simple way of discerning whether it's good or bad. And it's this,
really. Does it bring us closer to Christ
What does it take us farther away? That's a good test, isn't
it? You see, throughly furnished
unto all good works. To turn away from the things
which perhaps you and I want to go after. Yes. And it's hard
work sometimes. Hard work to turn away from the
things the devil brings before us. Don't forget. Eve in the
Garden of Eden. It was quite simple, wasn't it?
All she had to do there was say, no, I don't want to. I've been
told not to. But no, she looked at it. She
thought it looked rather nice. And therefore, she was tempted
and partook of it. And sin, so easy, isn't it? Don't be confused. Don't be taken
in by what we might say is the subtlety of Satan. He's very
clever. He's very clever. And he'll try
and wheel his way in to make you sin and to depart from God. Well, my friends, what a blessing
it is that you and I have the Word of God. Let us never underestimate
the wonderful blessing that we have today. And recognize that,
as I've said, billions who do not have the benefit that we
have. God has given it to us. And this is it. All scripture,
all of it. Don't just read the New Testament.
Don't just read the Psalms. All scripture is given by inspiration. God breathes into men. of old,
and they wrote down what God told them to write. It wasn't
them, it was God. And is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good
works. Amen.