You could be in the most erudite university in America. Secular university, and if you know the Word of God, you know vastly more than all your teachers. And whatever they tell you, you can discern, and you can know every false way that they articulate because you know the truth. Welcome to a new week of Grace to You, the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
You've probably heard of the ancient Egyptian practice of mummification. But you may not know that one of the basic tools for that job was a small piece of pointed glass, history's first scalpel. Of course the scalpel has changed over the years as technology has improved. Today surgeons often use lasers that make super precise, efficient cuts.
Well, today John MacArthur will look at a scalpel of sorts, only this one cannot be improved. It makes a perfect cut every time, and it actually has the power to give life. I'm talking, of course, about the Word of God. John shows you how to apply its scalpel-like precision to cut away sin that can plague your thoughts and your actions. As John continues his study, the transforming power of scripture.
And now with today's lesson, here's John MacArthur. We are studying together 2 Timothy chapter 3 and we're looking at verses 15 to 17. Let me read our text to you beginning in verse 15. And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching.
For reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good Work. There is no other place in the New Testament where the work of the Word is so concisely spoken of. And we have been noting that there are five things that the Word of God does. It provides salvation, according to verse 15. In verse 16, teaching, reproof, correction, and training.
And we're looking at these things which we have titled the work of the word.
Now let me just say by way of introduction that This text, more than any other New Testament text and paralleled probably only by Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 in the Old Testament, affirms the absolute sufficiency of Scripture. The absolute sufficiency of Scripture when it comes to making provision for all spiritual needs. I have affirmed that the Word of God is absolutely sufficient. For everything pertaining to spiritual life. And that is, in essence, what this text says.
Scripture. Is able to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished, as the authorized said, unto all good works. Scripture is sufficient. It does not need any help. That is why Jude tells us to earnestly contend for the once-for-all delivered to the saints' faith.
That scripture, which was once, at one point in time, delivered to the saints. The once-for-all delivered to the saints' faith. Jude 3. We must fight for that. We must contend for that.
Because Anyone who comes along with a false belief system will do one of two things. Twist, pervert, attack the scripture, or, and sometimes they do both, add to the scripture. You can usually tell a false religious system by the fact that it comes up with new and novel interpretations of Scripture and also adds to Scripture, as if the Scripture in itself was not adequate. was not sufficient. For example, the Mormons have decided that the scripture is not able to stand on its own, and they want to add the Book of Mormon and the doctrines and covenants and things like that.
Christian science wants to add science and health and key to the scriptures, and all the various cults add to scripture the writings of the leaders of the various cults. Even the contemporary charismatic movement today is basically built on additional revelation. Jesus is speaking to people. You hear folks say that the Lord told them this, the Lord told them that, God told them this, the Lord spoke to them and said such and such. False systems of belief and cults usually have.
Writings and revelations in addition to Scripture. And the underlying assumption is that scripture in and of itself is not adequate. is not adequate. There are, however, even within the mainstream of traditional and historical Christianity, those people who question the truthfulness of Scripture. For example, a poll of Protestant clergymen recently was conducted by sociologist Jeffrey Hayden.
He surveyed 10,000 clergymen, of whom 7,441 replied. The questions he asked them were questions like this, for example. Do you accept Jesus' physical resurrection as a fact? 51% of Methodists said no. 35% of United Presbyterians said no.
30% of Episcopalians said no. 33% of American Baptists said no. 13% of American Lutherans said no. And 7% of Missouri Synod Lutherans said no. When asked if they believe that the scriptures are the inspired and inerrant word of God.
87% of Methodists said no, 95% of Episcopalians said no, 82% of Presbyterians said no, 67% of American Baptists said no, 77% of American Lutherans said no, and 24% of the Missouri Synod Lutherans said no.
Now, if you have within the traditional mainstream of American Protestantism such disbelief. in the authority of scripture. Is it any wonder why people are so susceptible to other cults and other systems of belief? Who add to the Bible, who twist and pervert the Bible, or I suppose who in some cases ignore it altogether. The Bible always has been under attack, and that's why Jude says to earnestly contend for it.
We have to contend against the cults that want to add their own revelation to it. We have to contend, in a sense, against even the charismatics who want to add new revelation. We have to contend against those liberal people within the framework of Christian tradition who want to deny the authenticity of Scripture. We're ever and always fighting to hold on to the authority of the Word of God. And Jude says we have to earnestly fight for it.
It isn't going to be an easy thing because the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Is under attack. The enemy. ever and always attacks the Word of God. And so here we are again, time after time after time, defending the Word of God.
showing why it is to be believed.
Now, here in this text before us, we have one of the great defenses of scriptural authority. The statement in verse 16, all scripture is God-breathed. It's a tremendously profound statement. It is not the word of man. It is the word of God.
It was breathed out by God. But then we're looking at this second statement. All scripture is useful. useful, profitable. To produce these five things.
According to verse 15, it can make you wise unto salvation. And according to verse 16, it is profitable or useful for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training. And is the only thing needed and the only thing able to make the man of God perfect. Equipped for every good work.
Now, beloved, that's another statement like Psalm 19 on the sufficiency of Scripture. What this says to us is the scripture is comprehensively sufficient to produce men of God for every good work. It knows no limitation. It has no weakness. Nothing is left out.
Nothing can be added to it. Such an attempt, by the way, according to Revelation 22, winds up. With a warning, if you add anything to this.
so shall be added to you the plagues that are written in it. The Bible is not to be tampered with, it is not to be distorted, it is not to be corrupted, it is not to be manhandled for your own purposes, and it is not to be added to.
Now let me say it as simply as I can. When it comes to spiritual life, when it comes to a person's relationship to God, the Bible is all that is necessary for proper instruction. to make the man of God complete. and capable of every good work. It is not the Bible plus anything.
And that is why we are so committed to the systematic ongoing teaching of God's Word. because of what it does.
Now we've entitled these five things the work of the word. What does the word do? First of all, remember in verse 15, it is able to make you wise unto salvation. The word has the power to save. Secondly, in coming into verse 16, He says it is useful for doctrine or for teaching.
And I pointed out to you that here he has in mind not the process of teaching, but the content. It is profitable to give you the necessary body of divine truth to live a godly life. That's what he's saying. The Bible provides for you what Paul calls to Timothy the deposit. It gives you the truth, the deposit of truth to be guarded.
1 Timothy 6:20 and 21, 2 Timothy 1:13. It is God's revelation of truth. And it provides for you the substance to be believed. Doctrine. The body of content.
Upon which, mark this carefully: every thought and every action is to be built. Did you get that? The Bible provides for us the body of truth upon which every thought and every action is to be built.
So it is profitable for content. It gives us the truth. John 17:17, thy word is truth. If you're looking for a foundation to build your life on, it is this book. It provides the principles that are to operate in the life of every individual at every point of need and demand.
Thought and action. It's comprehensive. Every single thing you will ever deal with in your spiritual existence is covered one way or another in the scripture, probably many more than just one time. It is replete with instruction for life. Life in the way that God has designed it.
So it is profitable and useful to provide for you the body of divine doctrine. As you study the Word of God and begin to accumulate its principles, you begin to build that strong foundation, which then becomes the foundation on which every thought and every action is built. Biblical ignorance is the grave tragedy of all tragedies in the church because what you don't know, you can't build your life on.
So, it ought to be then the pursuit of every believer to know the Word of God, to as much as is possible master the Word of God. The third work of the Word in verse 16 is mentioned: reproof. Reproof. The word literally means to rebuke. To confront someone with a view toward convicting them of misbehavior.
It's to rebuke someone's misconduct or to rebuke false teaching, error, whatever. The word that has such a positive ministry, building foundation, also has a negative ministry of tearing things down. The word is not just a builder, it is some.
Something that rips and tears and shreds. what deserves to be torn. The Bible has a rebuking ministry, a rebuking effect. In chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, just a few verses after the text we're in, it says: Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. And that's a negative ministry, in a sense.
That's calling people back from error. And the Word of God has that effect. It has that ministry. In fact, Archbishop Trench, writing about this particular word here, Elegmon, says it is to rebuke another with such effectual wielding of the victorious arm of the truth, so as to bring him not always to a confession, yet at least to a conviction of his sin. And the idea here is that the word convicts of sin.
Yes, the word builds a foundation of truth, but that also is accompanied by the work of conviction. As you listen to the Word of God, as you read the Word of God, as you study deeply the things of God, it begins to cut away the sin in your life. The first rebuking work of the word, then, is toward the sin in the life of a person, of a believer. It'll work on you that way. Let me show you a text to support that thought.
Hebrews 4. A familiar verse, but perhaps not fully understood. Hebrews 4:12. And here the writer refers to the word of God in terms that we are used to. The Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
Most Sunday school kids memorize Hebrews 4.12. And rightly so. But let's look a little more deeply into it. The word of God is alive. It is living.
And it is powerful or active, sharper than any two-edged sword.
Now we're going to see the word as a weapon. It's definitely pictured as a weapon. It then says piercing. Deep down into a person, soul, spirit, joints, marrow.
Now the picture here is very vivid. The word is like a huge sword which is just driven to the core of a person's being, slices right through, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Word of God then is like a sword that cuts. It cuts deeply. And most, every one of us as Christians have been cut by the Word, haven't we?
We've been ripped open by the word. We came to church on a given Sunday feeling pretty good about ourselves and went away feeling terrible about ourselves. We were laid bare. We were cut open by the word. We came thinking everything was in order, and we heard a message that showed everything wasn't in order.
And when we were confronted with the word of God that morning, we realized we came short of that, and our sin was exposed, and we were cut up. That's why you see a A Bible preaching, Bible teaching church will never be a haven for sinners. They're not going to pile in. because they don't want to get split open every week. They don't want to get cut up.
Why? John 3. Those who want to hold on to their sin stay away because they don't come to the light, he says in verse 20, lest their deeds should be reproved. Rebuked. They don't want to be exposed to the cutting power of the Word of God.
And by the way, that That's a good indicator in your life. Even if you're a believer, you find yourself wanting to stay away from the Lord's people, wanting to stay away from the services of the church, wanting to stay away from the teaching of the word. It may be because you don't want to get cut open, you're harboring some sin in your heart.
Now let's follow along. In verse 12, the word is alive, it's active, it's sharp, it cuts deeply and reveals the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Verse 13, and there is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. God takes His word, cuts deep into your heart, lays you open, you're flayed, as it were, right before God's eyes, and nothing is hidden.
He sees every single thing about you. We are open to the eyes of him. It uses a most interesting term in the Greek. which was also used Among the soldiers, let me give you a little idea of how it was used. It was used to describe a criminal who had to lift his face and face the crowd as he was marched to his punishment.
And the way they did that was quite interesting. A soldier held a dagger. Right at the chin. with it just barely piercing the skin. The point of that dagger was held to force the criminal to hold his head high and his face so that everyone could see him as he was paraded.
to his punishment.
Now you see when you turn on the television set, some criminal going like this and holding his hands over his head and ducking under his coat because he doesn't want to be seen by the television cameras, there's a certain amount of shame and guilt. They knew that, but they wanted the criminal to have to face the whole wide world and the whole community to see his face.
So they rammed a little dagger up under his chin and made him walk with his chin up. And were he to lower his chin, he would have pierced himself right through. And in a very real sense, he is saying that's exactly what the word of God does. It jams its pierced point right up under your chin and it makes you face the reality and it makes God able to see exactly what you look like. It reveals you to him.
You are open before him. You can't hide a thing. That's what the word will do. The word is a reprover, the word is a rebuker. The word is a convictor of sin.
It sifts, it analyzes, it reveals emotions, attitudes, and thoughts. And you've experienced that as you sit down and read through God's Word and you read about something like, you may be reading about love and saying to yourself, I don't love enough. I have such a lack of love. You may be reading about bitterness and say, That's me. I have such bitterness in my heart.
You may be reading about hatred and you realize your heart is filled with that. You may be reading about pride and you say to yourself, That's me, that's me. That's cutting me wide open, and that's right obvious before God, and now even before my own eyes. That's the word. That's the work of the word.
Let me tell you something, beloved. You ought to thank God just as much for the reproving work of the word as for the doctrinal part of it, right? You ought to be just as eager to be reproved by the Word as you are to be instructed by the Word. You ought to be just as eager to have your sin exposed as you are to have some great truth and principle taught to you that you can apply. Why?
Because if you're truly God's child, you hunger after what is right and you hunger after righteousness. Let me take it a second step at that point. Not only does the word reprove sin, but it reproves error. It reproves error. And it would be unfair to deal with this without expressing that thought.
The word not only reproves sin in the life of an individual, but it also reproves false teaching and error. If I know the scripture, then I can recognize error. Is that not so? Because the scripture is the test, it's the standard, it's the measure by which all teaching must. be measured.
And whatever it is that comes down the path and claims to be the truth needs only to be compared with the Word of God. That's why, and I say this again, beloved, that is why inevitably cults twist the scripture and add to the scripture, because they have to mess with the standard. to justify what they do. The Word of God is the standard. It is the standard.
It is the plumb line against which the straightness or crookedness of anything is measured. And so, those who come along with lies, with deceit, and false teaching inevitably must twist the scripture and/or add to the scripture. to justify what they purport to be the truth. They are, says Paul, guilty of peddling the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 2:17 and 2 Corinthians 4:2, of adulterating the word of God. They peddle it, they adulterate it.
They do not properly explain it. and affirm it.
So the Bible exposes error. Let me show you this just. briefly from the Old Testament. Go back to Psalm 119. And Psalm 119 has so much to say about the Scripture, 176 verses, and every single one of them is about the Scripture.
But let me just draw to your attention a couple of them. Psalm 119 verse 99. This is a wonderful verse. I just love what this says. Psalm 119:99 says, Listen to this: I have more insight than all my teachers.
What a statement. I have more insight than all my teachers. Why? For thy testimonies are my meditation. Verse 100.
I understand more than the aged, because I have observed thy precepts. I know more than anybody. Because I know your word. I'm way ahead of my teachers. I'm way ahead of the aged because I know your word.
Notice verse 104. From thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Hey, I can recognize a false way. I know your word. I have understanding from your word.
So, as you build up the knowledge of the Word of God, it will reprove your sin and it will expose error. That is its reproving work. It reproves sin, it reproves error.
Now those works of the word have to do with content. They basically have to do with content. The word Builds foundation principles by which you can live, and it also. Cuts you open to show you your sin and to expose false teaching. Vital, vital works of the word.
Let me give you another Old Testament passage. I don't want to skip this. Isaiah chapter 8. It's just a rich Statement by the prophet. In verses 19 and 20, listen to what Isaiah writes.
And of course he's writing to a people who have Really been unfaithful to God and gotten themselves into all kinds of sin. Verse 19, and when they say to you, Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter. Shall not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? There's a lot of that going on today.
A lot of people running around consulting mediums and spiritists and people who supposedly contact the dead and contact spirits and all of that. And that was not new. That is not new. That was old stuff going on in the Old Testament time, even among the children of Israel. And he says, why would you consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter?
Should not a people consult their God? If you want to know an answer, go to God. There's no medium and no spiritist and nothing in the realm of the dead that's got anything to say to you. Go to your God. Notice verse 20.
I love this phrase. To the law and to the testimony. That's marching orders. to the law and to the testimony. And if they don't speak according to this word, it's because they have no dawn, no light.
They're in darkness. Go to the word. Don't go to any of these people. You know more than all your teachers. You could be in the most erudite university in America.
Secular university, and if you know the Word of God, you know vastly more than all your teachers. And whatever they tell you, you can discern and you can know every false way that they articulate because you know the truth. Beloved, it's a marvelous thing that God has done in reducing everything to this book. And to master this book is to master life. in every dimension.
And why were the Bereans in Acts 17, 11 more noble than anyone else? Because they searched the scriptures how often? Daily to see if these things were so. They didn't just buy anything coming down to Pike. They searched the scriptures.
They didn't want to be carried about by the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive. The Word of God was their standard, and it is ours as well. And we must affirm its truthfulness, and we must know its truth. We must know its truth. Stay away from the people.
Who? Distort the scriptures to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:16.
So the Word of God then has the positive content ministry of imparting to us truth, the negative content ministry in the sense that it exposes sin and exposes error. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Today, we continued John's study titled The Transforming Power of Scripture. And, friends, speaking of the power of the Bible to change you, I'd like to remind you about a resource that can help you dig into God's Word perhaps like never before. and experience its transforming power for yourself.
I'm talking about our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible, with 25,000 footnotes written by John MacArthur that will help you understand virtually every passage of God's Word. Order your copy when you contact us today. You can call us at 800-55 GRACE or visit our website gty.org. The MacArthur Study Bible also includes a helpful guide for getting the most out of your time studying God's Word. The Study Bible is available in several English translations as well as in Spanish, Chinese, German, Arabic, Swahili, and more.
To order, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And would you do us a favor? Let us know how grace to you has helped you grow spiritually. And if God has used John's teaching to bring someone you know to faith in Christ, we'd love to hear about it. You can email us at letters at gty.org or use regular mail.
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Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us and join us again tomorrow as John MacArthur shows you how you can effectively use Scripture to battle sin. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
