If you would turn to 2nd Timothy
chapter 3 This should be a very familiar passage
of scripture to you because we actually kind of quote from this
several times and Will again several times? 2nd Timothy chapter 3 I want
to begin reading in verse 12 Yay and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them. and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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. I'm gonna stop right there. Now,
what I wanna speak to you today is, I've titled it All Scripture. Now I preached from this a few
months ago, I think back in August, I looked. I preached basically
on verse 14 on continue. Well, there's a reason we are
to continue and there are ways we are to continue. And that's
all true, but now today it's going somewhere else because
I want to speak about, basically today, about scripture and doctrine. Now, I know some people say,
all you guys ever talk about is doctrine. Thanks. It ain't true, but thanks
anyway. We do talk a lot about doctrine
here because doctrine is important. Now we very clearly state and
we very clearly believe that doctrine does not save you. Christ
saves. But Christ has a doctrine. And just as there is one gospel,
there is one doctrine. And it's his, not mine. I mean, I've tried to speak the
truth and to relate to you, Sound teaching. Because I try to present
what the scriptures actually say. I do believe the doctrine
of Christ. I believe the doctrine of his
apostles, which is the same doctrine. And I believe the doctrine of
the scripture. because we are actually explicitly
told not to speak contrary to the scripture. Paul wrote that
also, and I believe he wrote it to Timothy. As a matter of
fact, we're told to withdraw ourselves from people who do
speak contrary to the scripture. It's important. It's vital. It's necessary. and it's right
here with us. Where do we get our doctrine?
This book. Where does sound teaching come
from? Well, Paul tells Timothy and us right here where it comes
from. And this is something we need
to know and we need to lay hold of also. I'm not going to go into, yay,
and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, I'll suffer
persecution. Now it does say this, I will
say this. It says all that live godly in Christ Jesus. Not all
that live godly in the world's eyes. Not all that live godly
in church. And it says evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, and yes,
they are. And yes, They are deceiving,
and yes, they are deceived. There's some people I know that
just seem to live for deceiving. Of course, I work in an auto
dealership. I ain't gonna go into how some
people make a living deceiving people. But that's the way it
is. This is not talking about that.
This is talking about religion. There are some that are deceiving. Bruce Crabtree say it on a message
this morning, where he told this woman about election. And she
said, well, I've never heard that before. My preacher don't
preach that. And he said, well, why don't
you go ask him why he doesn't preach that? So she did. And she told Bruce that, well,
he told me the reason he does not preach election is he believes
it. But if I preach it, it'll confuse people. And Bruce had it right, he said,
he don't believe it. He don't believe it. If it's
scripture, preach it. That's the only thing I got for
you. If it's scripture, now, you gotta be clear, it better
be scripture. Not what you think about the
scripture, not something you've added into the scripture, hermeneutical
iso Jesus. I still like that word or phrase,
I guess it's two words. There's a guy on television this
morning who was explaining how, see, some people say you're saved
by faith alone. And he says, well, it clearly
says, and they always go to Ephesians 2.8, by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. And he says,
but they stop there, and they don't read the part about unto
good works, okay? It's by grace you are saved. Faith is a result of being saved. Good works is a result of being
saved. These people were trying to say
you have to do this to be saved. No, you have to do this because
you are saved. And that's the point of Ephesians
2 and 8 and 9 and 10. Then he went on to say, and this
is the thing that made me throw this in my head, He said, I have
a friend of mine, he wrote a tract. And that tract, the title of
that tract was, we are not saved by anything alone. And I thought about it for a
minute, I said, that's actually sort of true. We are saved by
Christ alone. Now if that guy had said anyone
alone, he'd have been a liar. I think he's a liar anyway. But
I don't have his tract and I can't prove it, but I just have this
suspicion. Anyway. But continue thou in the things
what thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom
you have learned them. Now that of whom is Paul and
it's not Paul is Christ. I teach, I preach,
Walter teaches, Walter preaches, but the learning is by the Spirit
of God, it's not by us. It's by the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. We learn from, not what, but
whom. Knowing of whom thou hast learned
them. Because if God didn't teach you,
you ain't been taught. If the spirit hasn't taught you,
you haven't been taught. Not truly. You may know some
doctrine, you may know some facts, but it's not the same thing as
learning of whom. Now, the other key point here
is you have learned. You have. You're not where you
started out at. Or you better not be. Because
if you're still where you started out at, you haven't gone anywhere.
And that goes more ways than one. But you have learned because
he has taught. Don't play down or denigrate
the work of the spirit of God. You are not as ignorant as you
used to be. How does that happen, some of
it? and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. How can we continue thou? Paul references the Scriptures
right there. Timothy has known the Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures,
since he was a child. His grandmother Lois and his
mother Lois taught him the Scriptures. Now, I wanna be very clear. I've
already said it, but I'm gonna say it again. The scriptures
are not the source of salvation. They are able to make thee wise
unto salvation. That's what Paul says. Now, if somebody wants to tell
you what Paul means there, tell them, well, I don't care, that's
what he says. The scriptures are able to make thee wise unto
salvation. The question is whether or not
you're able. You ain't. I'm not. Because the scriptures
are not the source of salvation. However, they are the truth you
are to believe in. A sanctification of the spirit
unto, what? Belief of the truth. The source
of salvation is the grace of God. What did he say? Which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation, what? Through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. Faith is in you, but faith is
not of you. Because the faith is of, is from,
is by Jesus Christ. He gives it. And without faith,
the scriptures will be of no value to you. They're value,
but they won't be of value to you. And that's just the way
it is. Here we come. All scripture given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof
for correction for instruction in righteousness First two words all scripture
Okay, how much All it all of it People think that way now,
there's not a real all or is that a partial all I Well sometimes
it is, sometimes it's all kinds, sometimes it's all who believe. But this is clear, this is all
scripture. And notice very carefully, he
doesn't say how many scriptures. Because if you pay attention,
I was looking at this, this says all scripture, that's in the
singular. And that's exactly what he means. Verse 15, where
he's talking about Timothy, as from a child thou has known the
Holy Scriptures, plural. But here, he's going to a different
thing, but not different. He says all Scripture, singular. Paul is writing here of the totality. the completeness, the complete
scripture, all scripture. And guess what? It's one thing. It's one thing. It is, scripture is singular
in this case because all the scripture, all scripture is one. We say it, we preach it, we quote
it. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. We say there's one gospel. There's
one Lord and creator of all the earth. But as there is one gospel,
what Paul is telling us here, in totality, there is one scripture. You can't break apart this book. Now you have to study it piecemeal. here a piece, there a piece,
here a little, there a little, jots and tittles. Because why?
It's not the problem with the scripture, the problem's with
us. That's the only way we can handle it. And that's the only
way we can speak to you about it, is a piece at a time. But
here it is, Paul is saying all scripture, and he is talking
about all scripture. Every single piece of it. Because
there is one scripture, or it's not scripture. If it's not a
piece of the one, if it's not a part of this, it's not scripture. All scripture is one coherent
whole, W-H-O-L-E. Now I understand that there is
an Old Testament and a New Testament. I also understand there is only
one gospel. There's only one message, and
that message is Christ, the Son of God. And if that is not what
you see from the beginning to the end of this book, you have
missed the point of whatever you are reading. And don't feel
bad about it necessarily because I missed the point too a lot.
There's no way to know everything this book says. We are not capable
of that. And I don't care if Jack Van
Impey can quote it from cover to cover. I've listened to him
talk, he don't get it. But all scripture is one message,
and it's the message of Christ. There is an Old Testament, there
is a New Testament. He took away the first, talking about the
covenant. that he may establish the second.
And they call it the second covenant because it's the second covenant
revealed. The law and the sacrifices were revealed first. Christ was
revealed second. But if you really wanna know
the truth about it, the second covenant, the New Testament,
was actually the first thing talked about because Jesus Christ
is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world,
before there ever was a bull or a goat sacrificed. Then he says, all scripture given
by inspiration of God. There's your definition of scripture. This is what Paul means by all
scripture. Given by the inspiration of God. Now looking at this verse as
a whole is strange because if you look at this where it says
all scripture is given, it's in italics and is profitable,
It's also in italics, the word is. This verse has no verbs in
it. They're not there in the Greek,
I looked. They're not there. Not in the Textus Receptus. So if you wanna read it literally
the way it is in the Greek, what you say is, all scripture given
by inspiration of God. That's your definition. If it's
not been given by the inspiration of God, it's not scripture. And
that's just the way it is. I spoke a while back, I mentioned
a while back why we don't have the apocrypha in this book. And
the reason why is, basically, is Jesus Christ never quoted
from it. None of the apostles, apostolic writers, the epistles,
speak about it. So we leave it out. And having
read a little bit of it, what little I've read, I don't need
it. Because I don't think it fits.
But this is the way, this is the definition. All scripture
given by inspiration of God. It says in another place, holy
men of old moved. And what were they moved? They
were moved to write scripture. That's what it means. We have
been given this book by God, not by man. Now it has been translated
by man. It has been preserved. But I'll
tell you this, I believe this has been preserved by God, not
by man. He used man, fine. But this book
is inspired by God. And how much of it is all? All
scripture. And then he says, and profitable. Scripture given by inspiration
of God and profitable This means it's to your advantage
That's what it is to your advantage All Scripture is to your advantage All Scripture inspired by God
is to our Advantage as the people of God What's that mean? Use it. Learn it. He just said it in chapter two
in verse 15. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. What? Rightly
dividing the word of truth. but shun profane and vain babblings
because they will increase unto more ungodliness. When he's talking
about rightly dividing the word of truth, he's talking about
all scripture. In particular, at that time, he was talking
about the Old Testament. We have both testaments. Study it. It's profitable for
you. I can tell you this, it's not
profitable for everyone. But it is profitable to the child
of God. And it's an advantage to you
to know it. It's an advantage to you to learn
it. What is the one offensive weapon
we have in the old armor of God? Sword. What's the sword? the word, the scriptures, all
scripture, all scripture. It's the only offensive weapon
we have in our arsenal. We've got shields, we've got
breastplates, we've got helmets for protection. And those are
all important and they're all glorious. But the only thing
we have is what we can say. and what we can say needs to
agree with all scripture. And it is profitable. And he
goes into the details. It's profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Instruction. Well, doctrine. Sound teaching. The doctrine of all scripture
is not the teaching of the world. The doctrine, the truth of all
scripture is not the teaching of the religious world around
us. I told you a little bit about
it before service. or just a while back. There are people who rest the
scripture to their own destruction. We're surrounded by them. There are so many people around
us who want to add something, to add just about anything to
the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. All scripture is clear. Salvation
is of the Lord. And salvation is of the Lord
alone. The results of that salvation
result in a great many good works. This world, when our Lord was
here, speaking to them personally with his own voice, this world
was astonished at his doctrine. That's what it says. You can
read it several times. I do want to turn right quick
to Matthew. I was going to read this in Matthew 7 in the last
two verses. Verses 28 and 29. This is at
the end of what they call the Sermon of the Mount. And it came
to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at his doctrine. Four, he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. There's a reason for that. He
is the one with all authority. Because just in this last little
bit, he told them, well, the very
first verse, Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with
what measure ye meet, it shall be measured unto you. Now I know
a lot of people, that's their favorite verse of the Bible.
Matter of fact, it may be the only verse of the Bible they
know besides John 3.16. And they only know the first
part of it. Judge not, okay? And they're directing it at you.
That's where they're directing it. You don't judge me. Judge
not in the Bible Well, you keep reading what Jesus Christ says
Verse 6 give that which give not that which is holy under
the dogs Neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they
trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you Now how do you know who's a dog
and who's a swine? It's got to be some kind of judgment
call bait there Beware of false prophets which
come unto you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. John tells us later on, try the
spirits. To these people that want to
talk to you and want to say, well, judge not, because all they want
you to do is not talk to them about what they shouldn't be
doing. That's all that is. That's all it is. You can't point
your finger at me. I'm not pointing any fingers.
You just say what all scripture says, and guess what? They think
you're pointing fingers at them. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Now let me interpret that. There's no interpretation to
it. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Now I understand
those are the Ten Commandments. I understand it's law. That doesn't
make them any less true. The New Testament didn't take
away the Ten Commandments. Christ kept them, I can't. But
they're still true. And people, ooh, they don't want
error pointed out. They don't want their sin pointed
out. And they were astonished at our Lord's doctrine. He did tell us a little later
on, judge righteous judgment. Guess what? All scripture. profitable for doctrine Jesus
Christ said I and my father are one and Guess what? That is profitable to you if
you know him Because if you've seen him you've seen the father
If you know him, you know the father He also said, no man can come
unto me except it be given him of my father. His doctrine astonished, and
all scripture is profitable for doctrine. It's also profitable
for reproof. Now, I looked at this, and I
think you talked about this a while back, Walter. This is not necessarily
meaning to rebuke someone. That's what we think of reproof.
The word is used now. You think you're approving someone.
Well, I looked at it. Literally, this means as a proof. That by which it is established
as genuine. That by which a thing is tested
against. All scripture is profitable for
proof. If it's not in here, it's not
in here. but also, and if it is in here,
in the scripture, it's in the scripture. All scripture is profitable as
a proof. Now that being said, another
thing that happens when you talk to people, when you tell the truth, people
think you are doing nothing but rebuking them. Sometimes man will realize down
deep even though he may not admit it even to himself. I've done
this You know you not Down deep you may know that you
don't know God Or you don't know this God that's being talked
about now Like that woman that Bruce Kraft, I've never heard
that before. I've never heard of a God who
saves completely and totally and all by himself. And they think it's a rebuke.
All you're doing is preaching the gospel. All you're doing
is setting forth the truth of the scriptures. It is profitable
for proof. It doesn't mean they're gonna
get it, Because all scripture is the only earthly proof we
have now. Now we do have each other and
we do have our fellowship, but we are not always profitable. Not even for ourselves, much
less each other. And if you really want to know
it, we can mess that up. And I will state this of myself,
I am not always right. But the scripture is. I have been wrong. Not on purpose,
not trying to deceive, but I've been wrong. And the scripture
has done what? Guess what the next thing is?
For correction. Straightening up again. You can
fall, you will fall. Believers fall and believers
fail, but they will never be utterly cast down, but they do
fall. But all scripture is profitable
for correction. The reason I know you will never
be utterly cast down if you're one of his is because of all
scripture. He says, I will never leave thee
nor never forsake thee. And he didn't say unless. But
he said I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee If you failed get up Straighten
up all of Scripture is for you and Scripture corrects It doesn't
change It's never changed man's tried
to change it Man's gone out of his way to change it. But all
scripture given by inspiration of God has never changed. And then it says for instruction
in righteousness. Tutoring. Tutoring in righteousness. All scripture is profitable for
learning in righteousness. We have no righteousness of our
own and in and of ourselves. It has been imputed to us, the
righteousness of Christ. And in God's sight, we are righteousness,
but we're not in ourselves. We need to be tutored. We need
to be instructed. We need to learn. in righteousness. All scripture is profitable for
our education, for our edification, and this in righteousness. There are things that I don't
do now that I used to do. That's just the easy way to put
it. I have learned better. Sometimes it takes a nice kick
in the head to learn, or somewhere else. But all scripture is profitable
for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. We need to learn the way we are
to walk. because the natural man does
not know how to walk in righteousness. We don't. Because I don't know,
I don't care how educated you are in the doctrine, until the
Lord actually saves you, you don't know a thing about walk. I can attest to that by personal
experience. And today I am still learning
about my walk. We are to walk in the spirit
and so not fulfill the lust of the flesh. When does that end? Ooh, when I awaken his likeness. It's not gonna end while I'm
in this body. I was depraved. I am depraved
and I shall be depraved until I awaken his likeness. But the purpose for all this, for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, all scripture
is given by the inspiration of God that the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Quickly
now, that, there's the purpose. Now, and this purpose, scripture,
all scripture is profitable to the man of God. Now this is addressed
to Timothy personally, but it's still for us. I'm gonna say that
the son and daughter of God, that the child of God may be
what? Perfect, complete, thoroughly
furnished, I keep wanting to say thoroughly, but it's throughly
is the way it's written, unto all good works. I'll be clear again here. The
scripture is not profitable, to make or create the man of
God. All scripture is for the man
of God, for the child of God, not to make the child of God.
Jesus Christ makes his people. They were chosen in him before
the foundation of the world. They are called out and he is
bringing many sons to glory right now. Paul told Timothy that the scriptures
were able to make thee wise unto salvation. Not only through faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. And to be perfect. That word
actually means fresh. Complete. You will not stay as
you are. We need to be renewed day by
day. We need to be fresh. There is a growth in the grace
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ to every believer in this world. And all scripture is profitable
for that. Be perfect. Be complete. Throughly furnished. Basically
that means fully equipped. What do you need? Well, first
of all, who do you need? What do you need to know? All
scripture is profitable for who you need to know and what you
need to know. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. Our weapons are not carnal, are not fleshly. They
are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And all scripture is profitable
that the man of God, the child of God, the believer in Christ
Jesus is equipped fully. He'll see to it. And thoroughly furnished, what?
Unto all good works. That's where the works come in.
After all this. After all this. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. For we
are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which he has before ordained that you should walk in them. All scripture is profitable for
good works. And that even includes the learning
and studying of it. Now what are we to do with all
this? The first verse of the next chapter, or first and second
verse. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. All scripture is profitable to
the man of God to preach the word. Be instant in season and
out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and there it
does say rebuke. Exhort with all long-suffering
in doctrine. Why? For the time may come. No, the time will come. Time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after
their own lust they shall heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the
truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. What? Make
full proof of thy ministry. And there's no way to do that
without all scripture. It's profitable for you, for
the believer. All scripture is not profitable
for the world. It never has been. I'll go so
far as to say no scripture is profitable for the world because
there ain't no profit in the world. There's no way to be profitable
in the world. That's why the Jews were brought
out of Egypt. And that's why you were brought
out of bondage and translated into the kingdom of his dear
son. There's the only place in the
kingdom of his dear son that anything can be profitable to
you. And if you're in his kingdom,
it is profitable to you. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time, this place. In your word, Lord, which you
have given to us, and you have written it down and gave it to
us to try and learn, teach us. what we need to know. Teach us
who we need to know. And teach us your work and your
will and your way in this world as we go forth. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.