Gospel Ballast

Morning. We are continuing in our series through Second Timothy, and well, we're studying what the Bible is. This is the Bible, 66 books. We have them in the pew in front of you. If you don't have a Bible, if you don't have an ESB Bible, you can follow along with us. Please feel free to take that. We'd love to give you the Words of God that He has given to us so that we can know He is. We are a book religion. God has spoken in words, and He's spoken in words in a covenantal way, and we'll talk about that a little bit more later. But it's important that God has spoken in such a way that it's in our own language. God created us in His image to communicate to us, with us, He creates in his image so we can understand him and and know him and love him And the the words are important. And of course the words were originally in a different language than English It's interesting we look at translation and Let's play a game Do you think the full Bible is translated in more or less than? 500 languages the whole Bible More or less? About 700. The whole Bible has been translated into at least 700 different languages. Do you think there's more or less than 500 English translations? About 450. That's a lot. 450 English translations. It's important we want to follow the words, but also make sure that they're understandable. And so this is why the Bible has been translated over time and that we believe God is able to speak to us still, even though the language has been changed. There are some things that are lost in translation, but the very word of God and reliable and trustworthy, we're coming to you with an English Bible to read it together and proclaim it because we believe God is speaking still through these words and in these words. They're sacred words. Interesting, we look at the history of translation. Jerome was commissioned in 382 to translate the Bible into Latin. That was the vernacular of the day. That was the common language under the Roman Empire. And then it became canonized as a holy language. It became difficult to find scriptures in the common language of people. This came to a head with Cyril in the 800s. He wanted to go to the Moravians. He and his brother Methodius wanted to go, and they realized they could not teach, they'd have to teach them Latin in order to teach them the Bible, and they went before the Pope and said, translate the Bible into their own language, and they were given permission. They actually had to create a language for the Slavic people in order to translate it. And it was a blessing to see how the gospel spread through that area, even after their death, especially. This started coming to a head in the late 1300s. John Wycliffe, a scholar at Oxford, called the Morning Star of the Reformation. He wanted to translate the Bible into English. That had never been done, as far as we know. He provided that first translation, and he started arguing against the Catholic Church regarding transubstantiation of the Lord's Supper and indulgences. And he eventually was fired from Oxford, but he was a man committed to the word of God and wanting to make sure that the Christians understood that the words of God are authoritative, not the church over the word of God. He influenced a man named Jan Hus, who is in modern-day Czechoslovakia. He was also a rector of the Prague University. And he was actually burned at the stake for his teaching and wanting to have the words of God in the common language. And then, because they were so upset, they decided to dig up John Wicklow's bones and burn them ceremoniously to make sure they understood he was a heretic. It's a battle. We want the words of God in God's people's hands. Does that mean there's gonna be different denominations, different churches? Yeah, praise God. Because that way we can read God's word and follow it and we can have some healthy disagreements. We also make sure there's things that are absolutely true and clear and we must submit to them all together to recognize what a Christian is, who Jesus Christ is. This morning we're looking at the text. You heard there at the end of John, 2 Timothy 3, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. Let's turn to God's word and we're in 2 Timothy. This is a letter from an apostle, Paul, to a pastor, Timothy. Timothy is the pastor in Ephesus. This is the second letter. This is most likely Paul's last letter of scripture that we have. It's a very personal letter. He's writing to Timothy for the sake of the church and for the sake of the future of the church. He's already told Timothy to fan and to flame the gift of God so that he's able to teach God's people. He's already told him to entrust God's truth to other faithful men so that it will continue. He's already told Timothy to be strengthened, to be ready to share in the suffering. to remember Jesus, to guard the good deposit. Much of what Paul has been saying is there's a testimony of Christ that is to be guarded and proclaimed for the sake of the church. Now we get to a transition in the letter, because he's been telling him what to do. And Timothy is built around commandments. Now he's going to give him a warning. Why is it important that he is fanning in the flame? Why is it important that he's going to share in the suffering? Why is it important that he's going to be strengthened in the Lord? Why is it important that he's going to present himself to God as a workman approved? Because of chapter three, verse one. Understand, be ready, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. Difficulty's ahead. Now last days, we're not quite sure what this phrase means when Paul is using it here. As Christians, we believe history is linear and there's times of persecution and times of peace. Praise God, we're living in America at a time of peace right now. But there's also always difficulty. And notice the difficulty he's talking about isn't necessarily persecution from a political power or state. The difficulty is going to come from within. Most of the Difficulties that Christians are going to persevere through are coming from within. This morning we're gonna be looking at the word ballast. The ballast is what you don't see underneath the ship. It keeps it steady, it keeps it straight, it keeps it from being tossed to and fro. Ballast is the depth of strength for the Christian. I'm gonna say that scripture is what gives us, faith in God's scripture is what gives us great ballast. Our passage has two different points, or two different sections. First, warning of difficulty. Pretty easy to see, verses one to nine. And then a charge to endure. There's the main verbs here. Chapter three, verse one, understand and avoid. Understand difficulties coming and avoid those that are causing that difficulty. And then verse 10, you have followed and therefore, verse 14, continue. continue. So first, the warning of difficulty. The warning of difficulty. Understand this, in the last days there will come times of difficulty. We already read this list, but let's do it again. This is incredible. Paul going out of his way to give us as many descriptions as possible of the kind of difficult people The difficulty is gonna be people difficulty. There'll be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving God, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. having the appearance of godliness, but denying his power. We need to make sure we identify these kinds of people and understand that they're going to come. A lot of folks will say, I want to avoid church. I'm going to step away from church because it's full of all kinds of difficulty. Well, yeah, it was actually promised. You don't step away because there's difficulty. You enter in because that is where you can safely recognize what is difficult and be part of the purifying and unifying purpose. Notice the importance of the word love, just to kind of get a simple understanding of the gravity of this. It begins with the lovers of self, lovers of money, not loving the good, lovers of pleasure, and then the ultimate contrast, they are not lovers of God. Augustine says that a wise life is one where your loves are properly ordered. Well, these people are out of order. They're loving themselves in a way that's ungodly. They're not loving God, and so their loves are going every which way, wherever their heart leads them. And it's going to cause disorder in their own lives, and it's gonna cause disorder in the church. And notice, it's inside. We can oftentimes think, who outside would look like that? No, the first step is to say, no, this is what's happening inside the church. Notice they creep in. They sneak in. The first way the church needs to consider these kinds of sins is to see the problem, to recognize the warning and first say, well, how can I repent of these kinds of sins? God's word is like a mirror here. Is it showing us sins in our own hearts that we need to be repenting of? Are there patterns in our lives that we ourselves should repent of personally? And then should we make sure that we're warning and caring for others within our own church? Before we think about that kind of thing coming from outside and in, let's consider our own hearts and within their own church. As we think about difficulties, The kinds of self-love and love that takes away from Christ, that takes away from God, there's a need for patience, there's a need for discipleship, there's a need for opening God's word and looking to it and inviting for confession. As we saw in chapter two, verse 22 last week, the emphasis of that entire section, depart from iniquity. Cleanse yourselves. And then chapter two, 22. youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. And notice it isn't individualistic along with those who call on the Lord from the pure heart. That's why we talk about membership. That's why we have a members meeting. If you're new to us, we have members meetings and what we do there is we hear testimonies of folks who want to join our church and we affirm them and join them in and And the goal of membership is to say these are the folks who have made a commitment to help us grow as a church in faithful discipleship and evangelism under God's word. That's what it means to be a member of the body, a co-labor. We use the word member because it's one of the many clear metaphors Christ uses. It's where his body, he is the head, and we're working together and joining together in solitude and in sincerity to glorify God as we live together. I think about the order of our own worship service. This service is for believers. The main focus here is to help build up the faith of the believers. so that we are ready to go out and be evangelists, and that we're ready to unite together under God's word. Now, if you're not a believer this morning, we praise God you're here. But we haven't tried to figure out how to make this most appealing to you. We want you to see the fullness of Christ. We want you to see the fullness of Christ in his death for your sin. As we look at this long list of sins, we would all say that there's some hint, at least, of this in our past or present. We're all guilty of some part of this sin. That makes us worthy of judgment from God. And the only hope anyone has is that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to become the perfect human, to live a life without any of that sin. And then he died as if a sinner in the place of sinners. So that his wrath will be satisfied, because he's a just God? And those who believe in him, our sins are punished in Jesus and we are declared forgiven. If you're not a Christian, you need to believe in Jesus. That's the one invitation, that's the one clear invitation, that's the one need you have to believe in Jesus. And we want you to recognize that counting the cost of that is so important because the cost of not believing in Jesus is you will pay for your sin. And the cost of believing Jesus is that you will deny yourself, carry your cross, there will be suffering. We'll see that in a little while and follow it. Do not leave here without talking to somebody about what that means to believe in Jesus. And anyone who's wanting to come alongside with us and join the work of disciple evangelism, talk to somebody near you. There's gonna be all kinds of problems in a church, all kinds of difficult people that come in a church, and the church is a place where we want to invite everybody. He says, I wanna believe in Jesus. I wanna confess my sins and be restored, and I wanna walk in his ways. The church is supposed to be and is the safe place to confess sins. But it is not a safe place to hold onto sins. Look at verse five, we'll come back to this list. They love pleasure, they love their own desires, they're not denying themselves, they're not loving God. But look at verse five, they have an appearance of godliness. It's empty, it's a facade, it's a masquerade. They deny its power. See, true godliness has a power. power of God's word and the power of God's spirit to cleanse from within, to provide a pure heart that repents of these sins. And then look at verse nine. They will not get very far. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men, speaking of the men who opposed Moses. What a wonderful promise. You can't masquerade forever. Those who are coming in with these kinds of sin patterns are going to corrupt the church. They're going to appear godly, but it can't go on. As God says, sin will find us out. Our sins will be found out. This is a wonderful promise in that we want to be aware of the dangers. We want to be avoiding these kinds of dangers. We also want to make sure we have hope in God who protects us from all these dangers. Back to the list. The people who will be difficult are lovers of self. There's an important truth here. We all have love. God designed us for love, to love us and to be loved by us. And we all have some kind of me love, and there's a healthy kind. Because the second commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. There's a necessary me love. The problem is that in sin we love ourselves most. The call for the Christian is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. And then love ourselves according to how God would instruct us. Everybody loves themselves. Some people are just causing havoc and destruction and difficult because we love ourselves in a way that's outside of God's will. The call is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. Now let's just pause there, because that is a clear solution, right? We've got the problem, all these different kinds of loves, we've got the pride, we've got the recklessness, we've got the danger, but the real call here, the solution is to love God instead of all these problems. What an invitation. That's not a burdensome command. Love him who's most lovely. That's the invitation of Jesus Christ. That's the command of God. Love him who's most lovely. Be invited back into the restored love for God who is the most lovely. The reality is we cannot love God and love sin. We cannot pretend that we're loving God while loving and practicing some other sin, especially those listed here. Believe this is the high call. Love the Lord your God. We love him because he first loved us. He's shown us his love and that he sent his son to die for us. We've been purchased by his precious blood. He has revealed his love for us that while we're still sinners he died for us. The invitation is to love him. Understand there's gonna be difficulty. These kinds of people are going to sneak in. And then he says avoid such people. Avoid them. Do you not entertain? Do you not befriend? There's an importance of evangelism, but if someone will not listen, Paul tells Titus, have nothing to do with them after correcting them twice. Same idea here in that you avoid them. You wanna protect the unity and the holiness of the church. Well, they're dangerous. Notice what they do, verse six. For among these difficult people are those who come in and they creep into households like a thief, someone unwelcome, but they sneak in and notice they capture weak women. They enslave them. They promise something that's going to be freeing or they promise something to be satisfying, but really it's enslaving, it's capturing, it's entangling. Now those next phrases, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, that is what it means to be a weak woman or a weak man for that matter. I believe the weak woman here is because that's the vulnerable one. A woman who has no one to protect her and is already wrapped up in sin, they're capturing them. They're wolves seeking for easy prey. What a warning. If we're walking along burdened with sins, embracing and being led astray by passions, we're very vulnerable to being captured. What a warning against sin. The one who's gonna be intimidating to the evil one, the one who's gonna be intimidating is one who's fleeing these passions, pursuing righteousness. Notice the importance of truth here. They're always learning, never arriving. Why? Because they're embracing sin. You can always be hearing, you can always be learning, but never arriving at truth if you're constantly embracing sin. the truth of God and looking at it as the true mirror it is and not walking away and forgetting who we are, but letting it have its full fruit and confessing that sin, seeking forgiveness and restoration in Jesus Christ, that's how we flee sin and become strong in the Lord. Avoid those who are causing disruption. Avoid those who will not resist and repent of sin. We have this example. We go all the way back, we believe these two men are the two men who opposed Moses when he first goes to Pharaoh and asks for his people to be freed. They oppose the truth. They themselves are corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. They're relying upon their own strength, their own power, and they oppose the truth of God in a way that matches what Moses does. The power of God prevails. He uses these many examples. The call today is repent. This is a hard, long list of sins, a hard, long list of patterns, a warning that if we're embracing sin, we are vulnerable to being not only entangled in that sin, but being captured by others and their lies. This past Wednesday night, Pat Ranigan gave a really fantastic devotion and this one little statement, I just wanna hang out here on it. Pat said, you are either at war with God's word or the world. Very helpful. We're either going to fight against God's word and what it says and what it says about us and what it says about God and what it expects of us, We're going to go to battle against the world with God's Word. We're in a fight one way or the other. We're in a battle one way or the other. The question is, are we fighting against God's Word or are we fighting against our sin and the corruption of the flesh? So first we see a warning. It's verses 1 to 9. We see a need for the truth, to arrive at the knowledge of truth, to not oppose the truth, but to let that truth bring up a love of God. Now, let's get to Paul's much more precise charge. Our second point, verses 10 to 16, there's a charge to endure. Paul is contrasting these men who were capturing young women with Timothy and how he already knows how Timothy lives. You, however, have followed. This is important. Paul's encouraging a young man that he already knows has a pattern of being teachable, being correctable. Arriving at truth of the real knowledge of God, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecution and sufferings. It happened to me at different places. Persecutions I endured. And then something Paul does here regularly in this letter. There was suffering, and there was the gospel. There's suffering, and then there's God who's always rescuing. There's suffering, there's God who's always giving strength. There's suffering, and they call to share that suffering, and there's always grace that gives endurance and rescue. He lists all these different persecutions and he says, and the Lord rescued me from all of them. What's kind of weird about that is he says the Lord rescued me and he's sitting there in chains right now. Paul is writing these very words in chains, not defeated, not discouraged, but enduring hardship because other brothers and other so-called brothers and sisters in Christ have not treated him well. He's calling Timothy, you have followed. Unlike the troubled troublemakers above. You've learned, you've followed, you've had a call to share in my suffering, you've been with me, you've seen and you've proven yourself. It's important to see how suffering is in the believer's lives. Here Paul's gonna say my persecutions and my sufferings There's a few ways we can look at suffering. We could follow Nietzsche and say, whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. That's a strong determinist. We could follow the contemporary model that says, whatever doesn't kill me makes me weaker. And that's the idea that suffering should be avoided at all times. And if I am suffering, it's somebody else's fault. I'm a victim. You can follow Romans 8. Whatever doesn't kill me, God will use for his glory and my good. That's different than what Nietzsche said. That has a promise of God himself. God uses all things, specifically suffering in context, specifically trials and persecutions for the good of those who love him. It goes back to the love of God. Do we have a love of God and are we enduring with patience and steadfastness whatever kinds of suffering God brings our way? Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say seek suffering. It says follow the pattern of suffering. Verses 12 and 13 pull back and give two truth statements that we need to wrestle with and embrace. So he's declared something, he said, you followed, then he gives two truth statements, we need to really wrestle with both of these. Verse 12, indeed, draw attention to this, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be at peace and comfort and ease. All who desire to live a godly life will have no problems at all. those who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. There's a promise here that you've probably never seen in a Christian bookstore in a coffee mug. If you desire to pursue true godliness with all its power, unlike the folks in verse 5. To pursue a true godliness and a godly life in Christ Jesus, there will be persecution. It doesn't mean the state's going to come against you. It's going to mean other sinners are going to be against you. There's going to be difficult people who are going to be opposed to you. First of all, if you're seeking to live a godly life, you're seeking to deny yourself, carry your cross, follow Jesus. You're seeking to proclaim, to make disciples. You're running up, straight ahead, against the gates of hell, and Satan is going to fight against you. There's gonna be different circumstances. We're all gonna go through different persecutions. You realize, this is part of that counting the cost. And this is, I think, why the prosperity gospel is such a devastating lie, in that if we say, if you believe in Jesus, just everything's gonna work out great. Well, you're gonna start thinking Jesus isn't true, because it's not gonna work out in terms of our American dream, or some peaceful, easy life. No, there's gonna be persecution. There's gonna be suffering. Paul uses this word endure above. Endure means to remain under. We don't flee suffering, we don't pursue suffering, we remain under by the grace of God. Remain under and learn how to not think of how I'm a victim, but look up and say, God, how are you trying to teach me, restrain my sin, call me to repentance of sin? How are you purifying? So in promise, is that we, if we pursue a godly life, we'll meet some kind of persecution. A wonderful promise here is God is with you in persecution. God is for you in persecution. Let's look at this second statement. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Second, while contrast evil people and imposters. An imposter is someone who comes in with the appearance of godliness, but denying his power. They will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. I believe that's probably why he says in verse 9, they won't get very far. Sin never asks for enough. Sin always wants more. There's no such thing as one lie. Children, there's no such thing as one lie. You start walking down the path of being disobedient to parents, the warning is there, and bending the truth and not telling the truth. There's no such thing as one lie. There's no such thing as one sin. When we start entertaining what is evil, we're going to be deceived and deceive ourselves and others and keep pursuing that evil. We like to pretend we can keep sin in a safe box and we kind of have control over it. It's over here. That's the deception. If you choose sin, it's our master. We choose sin, we let it have control. This is why we stand firm in Christ. We seek to depart from iniquity. We seek to cleanse ourselves. We seek to flee from our worldly passions. Verse 14. You have followed my teaching all the way through the suffering and persecution. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted and now see the command. Verse 14. Come on in. Join me in the suffering. March towards the persecution. Continue in the pattern that is going to lead to the persecution. That's the invitation. That's the command. Who wants that order? That is the very words of Paul To a pastor at least, but I believe here the word all probably means all. We are to continue in the pattern of Christ. Not looking for suffering, but knowing it will come and continue on in that pattern. Notice the specifics here. Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed. knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings. Now Paul gives him the ballast, God's word. Standing on God's word is how we understand what persecutions are and where God is in those persecutions and why they come and how to endure. Continuing what you've learned, He didn't come up with something on his own. Continue with what you created in your own mind. Continue what you received and learned and have firmly believed. Think about chapter one and Paul begins this whole letter by saying, I remember your sincere faith. The faith that was in your grandmother and your mother and that I now know is in you. Continue in what you've learned. What you firmly believe. Notice there, knowing whom you've learned it from. Your family. Meet the Apostle Paul. Most of all, from God himself, those who are continuing in your following. You've been blessed, Timothy, from childhood to be acquainted with sacred scriptures. So you do need to be thankful. If you are in a home where the Bible is opened, be thankful. Parents, if you're in a home and you're a professing Christian and you're not opening the Bible to your children, Start. Just read it. Reading God's word is the way we entrust those truths and pray that God would bless the children. We want our children to be acquainted. Now, Sacred Writings, he's probably talking about the Old Testament. I'd love to go on a fantastic rabbit trail for you to how the Old Testament's actually the Christians books of the Bible and the Psalms are our prayers. Another day, another time. But referring to the Old Testament, and notice what he says first the Scriptures do, they're able, they're able, they have the power, the ability. They are what make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It's important, first, that we see there's a salvation promised throughout the Old Testament, and a salvation fulfilled in Christ Jesus in the New Testament. There's a salvation, and we need to become wise to it, we need to understand it, we need to receive it. We can learn about what God has done for us to save us through faith. Salvation is not taking a blind leap of faith. That's a horrible, horrible phrase for Christians. What a firm foundation of faith. What God has recorded about what He's done and why He did it. This is not a blind leap. This is a looking to what God has said and becoming firm in knowing what He has said. It's not blind at all. eyes wide open looking at the text and praying for God to let us see what He has done, what He has said. It makes us wise for salvation. As we consider this, the Bible is first and foremost a book that tells us about God. The Bible first and foremost tells us about who God is. how he created us, how we sinned against him, how he responded with a promise of salvation, how he's worked for thousands of years bringing about the fulfillment of that salvation, how God himself became flesh, died on the cross, rose again, ascended, is seated, and will come back again. The Bible tells us about God. The words of scripture, the covenant words of scripture are God's gift to us so that we can hear him speak. We're a church that believes in the word of God alone. Yeah, we'll go back and we'll wanna make sure that we're aligned with history and tradition. We wanna make sure we're believing it together, but the one authority, we all sit under God's word together. It's important and we need to be thankful for this. We see here the declaration, all scripture is breathed out by God. Every single word is the product of God providing it. We get from this, it's a $5 theological phrase, verbal plenary inspiration. Verbal. God revealed himself in words. Plenary. All. Every. Inspiration. That's the word that usually gets kind of confused. We want to think, well, when I'm inspired by the text, that's when God's, you know, speaking, or that's what that means. Oh, it's got to breathe out. It's God producing every single word as men are carried by the Spirit so that not us, the words, the very inspiration and the Holy Spirit himself brings illumination. It's important we recognize we have to have God's words as revealed in these scriptures for salvation and salvation alone. There is no access to the knowledge of God's salvation outside of these words. God does give revelation outside of these words, but it is not unto salvation. Let me be very clear. Romans 1 tells us that what can be known about God is made evident to everybody. It's what we call general revelation. We can look and we should be able to see God's hand in all of creation, God's hand in our own conscience. That is evident to all. And then it says, but we suppress that truth by not giving him honor or thanks. What does that truth make us ready for? It says it means we will be left without excuse. General revelation is only enough revelation for us to be condemned because we refuse what God has said. The only revelation that makes us wise to salvation is the very scriptures He's given to us. We don't hear, we don't know of salvation outside in creation or in our own hearts. No, we suppress that truth. We do not give God honor and thanks. No, we only come to the wisdom of salvation as we see God revealed in these words. Praise God He spoke in these words. Without them, we have no hope. If that sounds too exclusive, well there's also no salvation outside of Jesus Christ and His death and the resurrection. It is an exclusive salvation. And that's why we as a church are called to go and proclaim it. You're only saved in the name of Christ, who is revealed in these words. All scripture is produced, breathed out by God. Notice he continues to explain what the Word of God is. It's profitable. Profitable. God gives us good words. They're beneficial. They're useful. It's a good investment. committing to, and memorizing, and learning, and knowing, and devouring, and submitting, and standing, sitting underneath these words, it's good. You're doing it right now. I pray it's good. It's profitable to hear, and read, and study God's word. It's a great blessing. We actually can all have our own copy. That's pretty unique within the last 500 years of Christianity. Take and read. If you're not benefiting from a Bible study, talk to one of the elders or talk to somebody around you. Submit and be blessed by God's Word. Notice there's three things specifically it's profitable for. Teaching, reproof, correction, and training. Those first two, I believe, are referring to doctrine and beliefs, and those last two are lifestyle and living. Orthodoxy, orthopraxy. Teaching, this is just a word for instruction. The kinds of information that we need to download. The kinds of truths that are not evident in our own lives, but only given to us as God speaks. The word teaching is half the uses of this word are in the pastoral epistles. We saw it in Titus. Sound teaching leads to sound living. That's healthy teaching. What God has said, again, the invitation is amazing. We get to love the one who's most lovely. We can think God's own thoughts because he's given to them. He's given them to us. It's profitable for teaching. It's profitable for knowing what can be known about God. Second, profitable for reproof. This can refer to conviction, convincing. God's Word is its own measure of declaring to us what is God's truth. To be very clear, we don't get to stand on some isolated place and decide if this is God's Word. That would make that place more authoritative than God's Word. We sit under it and receive it as God's Word. It is its own authority. It is its own convincing power. It is consistent, yes. It is corresponding with reality, yes. But the truths, they correct our thoughts. They reprove its own authority. Correction. This is steering us away from the sins listed before. Loving self. Loving pleasure. Loving money. Loving everything but God. Correction. Showing light and dark. Making straight. This is why the law is so good. You look at the law. And you start to realize, I do steal. I do lie. I do have hatred and murder. I do have lust and adultery. I covet. The law is correcting. But correcting means you then repent and move out of those sins and move into God's will by confessing and following. And finally, profitable for training. This is the picture of a gymnasium. The scriptures give us a whole way of living a whole new life of mind, desire, word, and deed. The scriptures get us in shape. Spiritually. The scriptures make us fit. How are we exercising and practicing according to God's word? What kind of fitness do we have? The purpose statement, verse 17. That the man of God may be There's so many things out there that's gonna promise this is what you need to finally be satisfied. So many advertisements. You know what advertisements do? They just feed off your own dissatisfaction. So many things promise this is what's going to complete you. We have so many ways of being deceived and this is what's going to complete you. Here is God's promise. Word of God comes to us so that we might be people of God, a man of God, complete. This is where we get the sufficiency of Scripture. The Bible is sufficient to make you who you need to be. What God has said, we don't need anything else. We don't need to come up with some other new tradition or some philosophy that helps inform it. We need to learn how to submit to it in its entirety. The Bible's sufficient. And it equips us for every good work. The word of God is when God speaks, And here we are blessed that God has spoken in words that we can read, we can meditate upon, we can memorize, we can seek to be obedient to. The word of God is a bigger category than just scripture. We do know that, right? Let's just walk through a few instances. In the beginning was God and he spoke. Think about what happens at that moment. the heavens and the earth come into existence. What power. The Word of God has power. Power to declare things into existence that did not exist. The second thing is, it's authority. He puts all those things that he creates into order and says they're good. God's word has power, it has authority, and he's doing it for a relationship. He puts us in the middle of that creation, says you are made in my image. I've got work for you to do. I'm your God, you're my people. God's word in creation has power, authority, for a relationship. Let's fast forward to Mount Sinai, what happens? Moses goes to the top, Everybody else is fearful, staying at a distance. God speaks with great power. Power to the point of everyone's terrified of coming anywhere near the mountain. They hear the thunder, they see the lightning. The power of God declares himself and his holiness and also his authority. Here's my commandment. Here's how you are to be ordered as my people. so that all the other nations would see you and see that I am the one true God, the wisdom. God's Word has power and has authority. He's saying, I am with you, Israel. I am the God who delivered you from Egypt. I was with you. I will take you to the promised land. God's power and authority for a relationship. And then finally, the word became flesh. We're about to celebrate this Christmas. God himself added to his son, Jesus, fully God, adds to himself humanity without denying his Godhead, without denying himself his power. When he spoke, it was the power of God. When he healed, it was the power of God. He came to bring order with authority. He exercised that authority on the cross as he died for sin, rose again, and now sits. And he did it for a relationship. I am with you always. Brothers and sisters, this is a holy book. It has that same power. It has that same authority. It is how we know God, how he speaks to us, and how he even invites us to speak back to him. The call today, take and read. Read with one another. Read to one another. Let this be the food that you devour for your own soul and your family. Recognize these are the promises that are profitable. These are the commands and corrections that are profitable. These words are from God and sufficient to make us the men and women of God. Christ died to call us up to his own image. Will you pray with me?