Believer’s Basics #4 – Word of God (Part A)

These things are entered to by faith, but again, faith is never without reason. Faith is never without spiritual feature. That's why that word used in the New Testament, born again in the Greek, is actually born from above, a knowethan. You've been touched by God in a way that only God can do it. He says, may be complete, as opposed to being spiritually incomplete.

You cannot face a devil if you are incomplete. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through his series called, The Believers Basics.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3, as he begins his message, Word of God. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all, the Lord delivered me, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

The evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving, being deceived. You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for 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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We have been going through a series entitled, The Believers Basics, and this morning we will consider the Word of God, the Bible, and the text that I think best serves us for this morning's consideration is 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, and if you still have your Bibles open, please look again there, verse 16, 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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. All scripture, not just parts of scripture, but the entirety, the Old Testament and the New Testament. From scripture we get our knowledge of our faith, what we believe, what and who God is.

Peter, in his second letter, wrote, prophecy never came by the will of man, but by holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So there is a great spiritual feature, of course, that belongs to the scripture. Now this is a believer's basics consideration, and it is hopefully going to be beneficial to you, for those of you who know these things, to be reminded yet again, and then those who are maybe new to the faith or just not as schooled as maybe they would like to be, perhaps you will find something from this consideration concerning the Word of God that will make an impact not only on your life, but through your life. Scripture is what God has shown us, what He has revealed.

The fact that we have Bibles is a serious thing, especially if you have an understanding and knowledge of how it came to be. The lives that God used, those lives had squeezed from them circumstances that demanded they adhere to God, trust and believe Him or not, not much unlike us today. God telling the truth about man. Where else are you going to get the whole truth and nothing but the truth except from God? He shows who He is, that is revelation, it takes away speculation, the world's religions are based on speculation, just making up things, supposing things about God with no real spiritual platform to support their views. Now, of course, if you are an unbeliever, especially if you are a college indoctrinated unbeliever, you're going to take offense at that.

That might not be fair to yourself, won't bother us any. We know in whom we believe and we're going to continue to believe in spite of those who don't believe. Well, that's not intended to be obnoxious, just a fact. God is telling man the truth about himself and about man.

That's correction. When He tells the truth about human beings, He is telling us so that He can correct it and that is salvation. Where He says here in Timothy, our text this morning, is given by inspiration of God. Theonustos, one word in the Greek, God breathed. That word inspiration of God in the Greek is a single word, a compound word. God breathed the word into human beings, into their heads, so that they could write it down for future generations.

This is illustrated at the creation of man in Genesis chapter 2, Yahweh, God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. I have no problem with what God can do. I have no problem understanding that God can impart to human beings that which He wishes to communicate to human beings on what I mentioned already, who God is, how man is, and the solution which is salvation. But this inspiration, it indicates how the Bible receives its authority, why we consider it the Holy Scripture, God Himself telling the story through humans. Now canonization, and not the canonization of the Roman Catholics, that is we do not share their views on spiritual matters at all, at least I don't.

That again, not meant to be an insult, though those on the other side may be insulted. I have no control, a little control over that, but I know what I believe and when it comes to the word canonization, I'm using it in regard to those books of the Bible that we consider to be Scripture given to us by God, directly from God, through men. This would eliminate many of the fake and false writings, the Gospel of Thomas for example. That is a false writing.

It is to be totally rejected. There are many others. Now this inspiration, as I said, indicates the authority, but canonization shows how it is received, what humans have done with this inspiration, this inspired work. That's how we have arrived at 27 New Testament books of the Bible, not chosen, but acknowledged. Those who were involved in saying this is indeed Scripture, weren't choosing which ones were Scripture, they were acknowledging that they all were joined together all the way back to the Old Testament, to Genesis, there is this unbroken witness that cannot be denied or disputed, that they are not in contradiction, in spite of apparent, and I stress that, in spite of apparent contradictions. So it is one thing for God to give the Scriptures and their authority, and it is another thing for men to receive the Scriptures and its authority. Since God is holy, what he reveals is trustworthy and dependable, otherwise he has forfeited being holy, which certainly is not even possible. So God has not given mankind a book that they cannot trust.

Now we say the Bible, we'll get to the meaning of the word in a moment, of course it is not a single book, it is a library. Satan has attacked this from the beginning, this trustworthiness of God's word, its dependability. He comes at it, he comes at it through unbelievers, and he also targets believers. Genesis 3, the words of Satan, when we first hear him talking, this is what he's saying in the Bible, has indeed God said, that's what he said to Eve. Did God really say that, really, really, come on, casting his seeds of doubt, so effective were they against Eve and Adam that he's been doing it ever since. And Adam and Eve have been allowing him to get away with it. He lies all the time, Jesus made this clear, he said, whenever he speaks, it's a lie.

Listen to such a person. He says here, in our text, in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, that it is profitable. That is, it's a benefit that comes with the word of God. All scripture is God-breathed, and it is profitable. Spurgeon said this, a great preacher from long ago, there's nothing in the Bible which is unimportant, nothing God writes is indifferent, nothing in the Bible is trivial, doctrine. That is the point God's trying to make. That's what doctrine is. I could give you some elaborate definition, but the fact is, this is what God is saying. It is structured, it is organized, it is connected to everything else he has been saying.

It's going somewhere. Humans need to be told what is right, and doctrine does that. He says here, it is profitable for doctrine and for reproof, reproof. Humans need to be told what is wrong according to God. They need to be told what is right according to him. They need to be told what is wrong according to him. Correction, humans need to be told how to get it right with God. And then instruction in righteousness, humans must be told how to keep it right with God.

This is the intention of his scripture from Genesis through Revelation, not the only intention, but it is a vital one, one that cannot be lost. If wrong thinking leads to wrong living, then what does right thinking do for the human being? We come across many people in life who just think wrong about everything. They get it wrong all the time.

Many of them are in jails or cemeteries. Their way of thinking is not right. What happens when God gets hold of people who begin to think right? In the days of King Josiah, the nation had endured two horrible kings for a long period of time, for decades. King Manasseh, King Ammon, his son.

Even though Manasseh had eventually given his life to God, he had caused so much damage before that that it was near irreversible. Deep, deep were the roots of evil now in the land and the people suffered. Then King Josiah comes to the throne and in time they find the word of God in the house of God that had been missing for decades. God's people without God's word. Instantly he was moved by it when he heard it at his reading and he began to reform the kingdom and the people began to live right and began to live on a higher level of human life than they had ever lived before, all because they found the word of God and began to act upon what it said. King Josiah felt that if he could restore rightful worship to God, that at the same time he could restore right life to people.

You want to change how someone behaves, you have to change how they think. This has been the goal of missionaries, true missionaries that have gone into dangerous parts of the world and brought the gospel with them and chased away such things as cannibalism and many other things, but that one always grabs our attention. He says in verse 17 of 2 Timothy chapter 3 that the man of God, that the believers, yes Timothy is a pastor, but this is extended to all believers that the man of God, Peter is writing his first letter to suffering Christians. He said you've got to love, you've got to have love for each other and then he goes on the next words he says, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever because it is God's and he is eternal.

It belongs to him. It is soul saving, it is incorruptible and it is endless. Even with numerical discrepancies, for example, in scripture, it is still not corrupted because we still get to the point and its meaning.

That is very, very important. The reason, or should I say, there is reason why God has given his message to mankind. Jesus said, and this is eternal life, but they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. This is eternal life. This is life after this life. Life continues after this life for the wicked, too, just not much of a life for those who have the savior. It will be a glorious life, not an okay existence, something so beautiful.

The Bible says, I can't even tell you how glorious it's going to be. Probably, I would think the only thing, or at least for sure, what will survive from this life is the agave love in this life. There are many memories I don't want to take with me into eternity. I don't want to see certain people in heaven and remember some of the things maybe they have done to me or I've done to them. But if love survives, which God is keeping in the forefront of the scripture, especially the New Testament, every time you see the cross of Christ, you're seeing the love of God in its symbol. Every time you consider the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, you are considering the love of God. And then when you consider the resurrection and his presence, you're considering the power to back it up. These things are entered to by faith, but again, faith is never without reason. Faith is never without spiritual feature. That's why that word used in the New Testament, born again in the Greek, is actually born from above, a knowethan.

You've been touched by God in a way that only God can do it. He says, may be complete as opposed to being spiritually incomplete. You cannot face a devil if you are incomplete and expect to survive.

And yet countless multitudes over the ages try. They go to their graves, incomplete spiritually, thoroughly equipped, well, not without scripture. Where would you be if you did not know such passages of scripture that tell us to put on the whole armor of God? That equipment that we are to arm ourselves with, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation.

Where would we be without the sword of the word of God? I don't know why there are churches that have either gotten rid of the Bible altogether or just take parts of it. Why do they continue to call themselves a church?

What's the point? It doesn't make any sense. But those churches that adhere to the scripture, to me it makes absolute sense. It has meaning and purpose that extend beyond this life. So he says that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped. You have what you need, in other words, from the scripture to wage spiritual war, to engage the enemy's work, to reach lost souls, to strengthen the saved ones.

All this because of the word of God. Where would you be without it? Where would you be without the book of Genesis? Where would you be without the gospel of Matthew? Where would you be without all the other books of scripture? You'd be in the dark.

That is where you would be. For every good work, he says, you are saved to serve. Your good works cannot save you, but they can prove that you are saved. That you are related to forces higher than what is found amongst mere men. Well that is the text that we have chosen, or I've chosen. And now the definition, the word Bible, comes from the Greek. It simply means the book. But in the book, what's in the book? In the book are the scriptures. All those writings of scriptures, they're put together into this library. One poet said, language is the incarnation of thought. Oh yeah?

I don't disagree with that. Whose thought? Whose thoughts is language going to make clear to us? Well, in the Bible, it is God's language. Not a single book, 66 of them, books, and writings, and letters, written over a period of 2,000 years by over 40 persons who never met each other in many cases. Over 2,000 years, how could you meet some of the other authors?

You cannot. In the Old Testament, we have 39 different books. In the New Testament, as I said, we have 27. When you factor in the contributors to the books that really aren't, you can't number them. The chronicles, the kings, these happened over centuries.

And the information that is in those books that we know is scripture is God moving through people to document his activity amongst sinners and sinners who could be righteous because of God. It has survived all these centuries because it has been sustained through circulation. Human beings have kept it going. All other religions can make that claim too. But what they cannot claim is that it has been kept in circulation because of the attributes of truth that belong to it. Not just, not insistence, not saying, well, we're going to follow this because our fathers followed this, or we're going to follow this because if you don't follow it, we're going to kill you. It makes its appeal based on its truth.

Truth demands a verdict. It singles you out because what do you think about this? It forces a human being to consider, and based on the content of scripture, to consider eternity and the way there, which is through Jesus Christ. So scripture forms one continuous story of God in relation to humanity, or let me put it this way, scripture forms one continuous story of God in relation to you.

Singles you out. And it doesn't leave you there because then it says, now what are you going to do with this in regard to others? From Genesis to Revelation, the goal is to exalt one person in the life of the sinners and the work of Jesus Christ for us. It doesn't come out and say it just like that, and there's a reason for that, and we're coming to it now, the characteristics of the scripture. Hebrews chapter four, the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and there's a discerner of the thoughts and the, and the intense of the heart.

Who can do that? God, how does he do that? Through his word and the word is living and powerful. So that verse from Hebrews chapter four, the word of God living and powerful, I know of no other book on earth like this. God has given us the Bible progressively in assorted ways, Hebrews one chapter one, verses one through three, God, who had various times and in various ways, spoken times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power, that he might himself purge our sins, sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. Them's big words, can it back it up, will appeal to reason, it will influence reason through prophecy, and again, the attributes of truth, the things that belong to truth, the things that a human being looks at and says, that is right, or that is so.

And that is not something that I can just dismiss, honest persons, of course. So through direct speech, through visions and miracles, visitations, dreams, signs, symbols, parables, et cetera, God makes information about heaven and us and how to reconcile the two, he makes them known to us. Now this progressive revelation, gradually God has given his word to man at various times because the full message would have been incomprehensible and overwhelming to human beings. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. We hope you've been blessed by this Believer's Basics series, exploring the fundamentals of what it means to follow Christ. If you'd like to listen to more of this series or share it with someone you know, please visit CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit CrossReferenceRadio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's all for today. We hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the word of God, right here on Cross Reference Radio.