All right, 2 Timothy chapter
three. You know we have a book that's
called Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, Rightly Dividing the
Word. If you look across the page there
to 2 Timothy chapter two and verse 15, it says, study to show
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. And I've got a book that
has rules of interpretation. There are rules. People talk
about, well, when you go into the Bible, they'll say, well,
you interpret it your way, and I interpret it my way. Well,
first of all, none of us can really savingly understand the
Bible until God opens our eyes and gives us ears to hear and
eyes to see. But there are rules of interpretation. The first rule that's listed
in that book is what I call the rule of Jesus Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. And it's the gospel rule, because
what I want you to see, and most of you already know, that if
we're going to understand the Bible, both Old Testament and
New Testament, we're going to have to read and study it with
what we call a Christ-centered view. Christ in the glory of
his person and in the power of his finished work is the key
to unlocking the scriptures and what they teach. And so the gospel
message of the blood of Christ, his righteousness, the grace
of God, it's the same message from Genesis to Malachi, from
Matthew to Revelation. And I want to say this because
we just finished studying the Song of Solomon, for example. The gospel truth of Christ may
not be stated in exact doctrinal terms in every book of the Old
Testament, for example. And we saw that in Song of Solomon.
You can see it in some of the historical books like Esther.
But the gospel and the glory of Christ and the work of Christ
is still the central truth that underlies even those books because
it's a revelation even of God working in Providence to preserve,
for example, in the book of Esther, to preserve the nation Israel
because it was through them that Christ was coming, the Messiah
was coming. And so the book of Esther is
one that shows us God's working all things after the counsel
of his own will to bring his final purpose in sending the
Messiah into the world, sending Christ into the world. And so
still, even look at that book with a Christ-centered view because
that's what it's all about. It talks about how God saves
sinners in the Old Testament and in the New Testament by his
grace through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's never been any different.
And as we go through, even today, we'll see some of that. But as
we go through, you'll see, you know, God didn't start out trying
to save sinners by the law, by their works, and then come to
a point where he said, well, that didn't work, so now I'm
gonna try something else. No, it's always been by grace,
and it's always been by the righteousness of Christ. And the concept of
righteousness is set forth in every book of the Bible, and
that righteousness is to be found in Christ, and that's that Christ-centered
view. Well, look at 2 Timothy chapter
three, and look at verse 14. He says, but continue thou, this
is Paul writing to Timothy, 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,
Now ask yourself, now the word scripture means written. It's
a writing. Something that somebody wrote
down. And these are talking about, Paul here's talking about the
holy scriptures, which is the word of God. The God breathed,
he's gonna say that, which are, those things that he's gonna
talk about are the inspiration of God. God breathed. Well, ask
yourself, what scriptures did he have? Well, he had the Old
Testament. Now, we don't know that Paul
had Genesis to Malachi. We don't know about all that.
But we know that he had the laws, the books of Moses, the books
of the law, and probably some of the books of the prophet.
We don't know exactly how many he had, because God was bringing
it all together in his providence. But he's talking about the Bible,
talking about the Old Testament. And he says this in verse 15,
known the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament, which are able
to make thee wise unto salvation. Now what kind of salvation is
it able to make you wise unto? Through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. So those Holy Scriptures, which
were God breathed in the power of the Holy Spirit, is able to
make a sinner wise unto salvation, to know the way of salvation,
God's way of salvation, which is Jesus Christ crucified and
risen from the dead. It's Christ as our surety, our
substitute, our redeemer. Everything that the gospel entails,
which is the revelation of the righteousness of God, was right
there in the Holy Scriptures, Old Testament. And then in verse
16, listen as he said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now you know that term inspiration
of God means God breathed. This entails the inerrant, powerful
word of God. This is the exact word of God. He said it's profitable for doctrine. If you want doctrine, you can
get the doctrine in the Old Testament. You know, the doctrine is in
the New Testament, obviously. You look at books like Romans
and Ephesians, especially those books, Galatians. But it's profitable
for doctrine. What is doctrine? It's teaching.
That's what it is. People say, well, we don't, you
know, somebody up north when I was up there preaching in Indiana,
a couple came to me and they had come down about 200 miles
to be at a meeting that we're at. And they said they'd been
looking for a church in their area where the gospel is preached,
where the doctrines of grace are preached. And they go into
various churches and they talk to the pastor and they said,
one pastor said, we don't preach doctrine here. Well, you don't
teach anybody anything then. And probably what doctrine, they
do teach doctrine, you do know that. But probably what doctrine
they're teaching is false doctrine. But this, the scriptures, our
doctrine comes from the Bible. If I were to state what is the
most fundamental truth of Christianity, true Christianity, you know what
I tell you it is? That the Bible is God's word. Because everything
we believe about God, everything we believe about ourselves as
sinners, God who is holy and just and righteous and merciful
and gracious and loving, and us as sinners who are so dead
in our sins naturally, and how salvation is by grace, everything
we know about salvation, everything we know about righteousness,
that the perfection of righteousness that God requires that can only
be found in Christ and everything we know about Christ, where do
we get it from? Get it from the Bible. This is
our authority. So it's profitable for doctrine.
It's profitable for reproof. Somebody said reproof is basically
showing us what's wrong. If there's anything wrong, this
book here can show us why it's wrong. And then for correction,
that's showing us what's right. We talk about sin, sin in our
lives, and so we need to be reproved for our sins. But for correction,
how do we deal with this sin problem? What's the right way
to deal with it? See, religion will say do this,
do that, stop doing this, stop doing that. Well, there may be
some things we need to do and some things we need to stop doing,
but that's not gonna cure the sin problem. What is? The blood of Christ. And then
he says, for instruction in righteousness, in the way of God. It's a way
of righteousness. Jesus Christ is our righteousness. And he says, in verse 17, that
the man of God, a sinner saved by grace, may be perfect, that
is complete. There's a completeness here.
Now that doesn't mean that we're gonna be morally perfect in this
life. We should strive for it and we
should always seek repentance of our sins. But we're complete
in Christ. What does it say? That in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are
complete in him. And he says, throughly or thoroughly
furnished. And that word thoroughly there,
it means perfected too, but it's complete. completely furnished
unto all good works. And what does the Bible say about
good works? That they're the operation of God within us, that
they are, when they're coming through us, they're received
of God and accepted with God, because just like our persons,
they're washed in the blood of Christ. They're motivated by
grace and gratitude and love, not by legal threats of punishment
or mercenary promises of earned reward. They're the outcropping
of God's grace. How do we know that? Scriptures
teach us, and they tell us. So there's no doubt that the
Holy Scriptures here that he's talking about is the Old Testament.
But let's look at something. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter
24. I've written out some of the scriptures here that we look
at, but I couldn't write this one out because it'd take three
or four pages to get all these if I wrote them out on your lesson. But look at Luke chapter 24. And listen to what the Lord himself
says about the Old Testament. And here in Luke chapter 24,
this is two men walking. This is after the crucifixion
of Christ. And two men walking on a road
called Emmaus, and they're talking about the things that happened.
Verse 14 tells us what things that happened, about this man,
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified on a cross, killed by the Roman
government. And so he was condemned to death
and crucified. And look at verse 21 of Luke
24. It says, but we trusted that it had been he which should have
redeemed Israel. We thought he was the Messiah.
And beside all this, today is the third day since these things
were done. So he was crucified three days
ago. Yea, verse 22, and certain women
also of our company made us astonished which were early at the sepulcher,
that's the sepulcher of Christ, the tomb, And when they found
not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision
of angels, which said he was alive. And then a certain verse
24, a certain of them, certain person of them, which were with
us, went to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women
had said, but him they saw not. And verse 25, then he said unto
them, oh, this is Christ. Christ came up to them now. I
forgot to read that part, but he was listening to them. And
then when they said that, he said in verse 26, or verse 25,
then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Who are the prophets? Well, you
know, the prophets of the Old Testament, Moses, and you can
go all the way through, they were all prophets. Ought not
Christ, verse 26, ought not Christ to have suffered these things,
ought not Messiah. You say you thought he was the
Messiah and now you're not sure or don't know or denying it.
Well, here's what the prophet said, verse 26. Ought not Christ,
that's Messiah, to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory? And look at verse 27. And beginning
at Moses, Now, it's said, and I believe it's true, that Moses
was the human author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So here you have the first five
books of the Old Testament. So beginning there, and then
all the prophets. You think about Isaiah, Jeremiah,
all of them. He expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now you understand that. And then later on, stay right
there in Luke 24, he gathered his disciples together, and this
is right before he ascended into glory, and it said in verse 44,
and he said unto them, these are the words, he's teaching
Peter and James and John and all the disciples, and maybe
others that were there with him. And he says, these are the words
which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, and all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and
in the prophets and in the Psalms, even the poetry books like Song
of Solomon and the Psalms itself, Ecclesiastes, concerning me. And then he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Now I've often said
this, What was he doing there? He was teaching them how to preach
Christ from the Old Testament. I believe that's what he was
doing, showing them how the Old Testament is just as full of
Christ and the gospel and God's grace, the righteousness of Christ,
all of it. And he says in verse 46, and
said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it is written, thus
it behoove Christ to suffer, And you know that word behooved
is the Greek word for debt. He was obligated to suffer. Why? Because our sins were charged
to him. The Old Testament teaches that.
How does it teach it? Well, every time it talks about
Christ as being a surety of his people. Every time it talks about
Christ being the Lamb of God who suffered for the sins of
the people. That's a lesson showing that
he was obligated to suffer because law and justice had to be satisfied,
the idea of the mercy seat in the Old Testament, which comes
out to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice that brought
satisfaction, that he died for our sins charged to him and we
stand before God and his righteousness charged to us, and to rise from
the dead the third day because he would accomplish the work
that he was sent to do. Verse 47, and that repentance
and remission of our sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, not just the Jews. See, even in the Old Testament,
God revealed that he has an elect people out of every tribe and
nation, Jew and Gentile, and beginning at Jerusalem, and he
says, and you are witnesses of these things. So there's no doubt
that our Lord himself taught that he's the subject of the
Old Testament. Look over at John 5, now I do
have this one written out in your lesson. This is one of my favorite passages
to talk about this subject. And beginning at John 5 and verse
39, and here the Lord is speaking to the Pharisees and to the scribes. Now you understand, the scribes
sometimes called lawyers. But they weren't lawyers like
Robert is a lawyer. What it is is they were students
and interpreters of the law of Moses. And so they're kind of
like the guys who wrote the commentaries. And then the Pharisees, who they
were with, were the super religious people who claimed to know and
believe the Old Testament better than anybody else. And he says
in verse 39, search the scriptures. Now, the grammatical construct
of this could show that it could read this way. He's looking at
them and he says, now you do search the scriptures. That's
what you do. You scribes, you read, you study,
you write commentaries, you Pharisees, you memorize it, you sow it into
your phylacteries, you try to live it. You do search the scriptures. So he's not telling people who
don't read their Bibles to start reading your Bible. He's telling
these, you do read your Bibles. See, we got a lot of people today
who read their Bibles, and they study, and they quote, they memorize,
they try to live it. All right? He says, you do search
the Scriptures. For in them, you think you have
eternal life. That's why they search the Scriptures.
There's eternal life in this book, because it's the book of
Christ, but he says, and they are they which testify of me. You see that? You can read the
Bible from Genesis to Revelation and memorize it, but if you don't
see Christ in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, and especially
in the New, what good's it gonna do you? There's a fella up in
Michigan, he's been around a long time, he's called a famous evangelist,
and they used to call him the walking Bible, because he could
quote so much scripture. And I listened to him several
times. I never heard him preach the gospel. The gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in the person and work of Christ. He
preached the false Jesuses that are popular today. But he could
quote scripture now. And so he says, there they which
testify me. But let's read on. Look at verse
40. And you will not come to me that you might have life.
You know what that is? That's a description of man by
nature, isn't it? Unless God gives us life and
opens our eyes and ears and gives us a new heart, we will not come
to him for eternal life. We're always, if left to ourselves,
having been ruined by the fall and born spiritually dead in
trespasses and sin, if left to ourselves, we'll always seek
eternal life in other ways other than the one way that's the real
way. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. He says in verse 41, now notice this. Now this is important. A lot of times we just read over
scriptures like this real quick. He says, I receive not honor
from men, verse 42, but I know you that you have not the love
of God in you. Now, how did he know that? Well,
we know he knows everything. The Lord is God in human flesh.
But how do you know somebody doesn't have the love of God
in them? Because if you love God, listen to me, if you love
God, you'll love his word. They didn't love his word. Now
they thought they did, but when they found out what that word
really taught, then they don't love God. Let me show you what
I mean. Now look, look on verse 43. I
am come in my father's name and you receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Christ came
in the name of his father for the glory of his father, for
the identification of his father. Remember what he told Philip?
Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. But they followed
men. In verse 44, how can you believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? There are people that I know
who claim to believe even the doctrines of grace as we know
them. but they follow men rather than following the word of God. How can you believe when you
do that? If some man of reputation, as my old buddy in West Virginia
says, runs a wheel off and goes in a different direction, if
you follow him and not follow the word of God, how can you
believe? That's what he's saying here. And so he says in verse
45, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, there's
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Now what does
he mean by that? It's not that they trust in the
person Moses, it's they trusted in the law, they trusted in their
works. Remember Romans nine? Israel sought after righteousness,
but they didn't attain it. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, that is to seek it in Christ, but by works of the
law. So the very law which they believed exonerated them and set them
free, that very law is gonna be their condemnation. Now, if that's what the books
of Moses say, how do you love them now? You thought you were
proud, see, you thought you had a righteousness that answered
the demands of God's law because you kept the law. But now Moses
is gonna condemn you, that law's gonna condemn you because God's
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. Now
how do you love the law of Moses now? You see what I'm saying? And so those who don't love God's
truth, they don't love God. But he says in verse 46, for
had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. Moses wrote of Christ. The law that Moses wrote was
a convicting law in the hands of the Holy Spirit to show them
their sins. and their depravity and their
need of salvation by grace. All through the Law of Moses,
there are pictures and types, shadows, prophecies that pertain
to Christ. As I said, we just finished studying
Song of Solomon. That whole book is a picture
of Christ as the bridegroom, the husband, and his church as
the bride, the wife. Even though the name Jesus is
not mentioned or anything like, there's no doctrinal dissertation
there in Song of Songs, but it's a book of Christ. And so he says
in verse 47, but if you believe not his writings, how shall you
believe my words? So you see that the Old Testament
testifies of the reality of God as both a just God and a savior. the sovereign of this universe,
the creator starts out, the sovereign, the one who works all things
after the counsel of his own will, all of that. And so the
revelation of Christ begins at the beginning of the Old Testament
in the book of Genesis, and it carries all the way through to
Malachi. Well, at the end of your lesson
there, I brought down, or copied down John 8. One of the most
prominent Men of the Old Testament is Abraham. And God set forth
Abraham as a prime example of how God saves sinners, how God
justifies the ungodly. Remember in Romans 4, he speaks
of that. It's not by works, it's by grace. And he supported that
with the writings of David. describing the blessedness of
the man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without works.
One day, and it's recorded in John 8, the Lord speaking to
the Pharisees again, and they claimed to be children of Abraham,
which meant they claimed to be children of God, but he was showing
them, no, you're not children of God, you're children of your
father, the devil. The works that he inspires you
to do, you do, trying to work your way into salvation and righteousness. And they said, well, we have
Abraham as our father. Well, look at the verse I cited
here, John 8, 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. And he saw it, and he was glad. And then said the Jews unto him,
thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And
Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before
Abraham was, I am. Isn't that an eye opener? It
is for some people. God opens our eyes. Okay, we'll
conclude there.