Sufficiency of the Word (Part 2 of 2)

People are desperately looking for answers for their life today. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg encourages us to hold tightly to the absolute sufficiency of God's Word. We continue in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16. The gospel is not a means to the advancement of a sociopolitical agenda.

Preaching, which offers men and women a set of Christian ideas to appropriate and to assimilate in the hope that they might be better citizens in the long run, is not what Paul is referring to here in these verses. And what did he speak about? Faith in Christ Jesus. Why? It's the only thing to speak about.

Why would you use your time talking about something else? If you're a dying man confronting dying men and women, if your life has been transformed by the power of the gospel, if you know that it is appointed unto men once to die and after that comes judgment, if you know that God has set a day when he will judge the people and he will separate the sheep from the goats, surely you wouldn't go into a context like that and simply try and ingratiate yourself with Felix and his wife. Surely you wouldn't go in there and simply say, Well, you know, if I could get out of here and use this little tete-a-tete this evening as a means to get back on track, then I can go and get back about the business of the preaching of the gospel.

No. Instead, he spoke to them about faith in Jesus Christ, and he had a three-point sermon. He discoursed on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. You say, Well, that was easy. That was the first century. They liked that stuff then. You know, they were into, like, hellfire and brimstone and lions and tigers and people getting their heads chopped off and everything else.

Bogus idea on your part if you hold it. Felix stole Drusilla from her husband by the aid of a Cypriot magician called Simon. They were living in an adulterous relationship. And Paul stands up and says, My first point this evening is righteousness. Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scoffers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Felix is going, Okay, skip that one. Go to the next one. Okay, let me go to my second point, self-control. Maybe we can move directly to the third one.

Okay, glad you asked. I want to talk about the judgment that is coming. There is no equivocation in these matters, and loved ones, there cannot be. The times are too perilous.

The depth of human depravity is too deep. The means of proclamation is too powerful to clown around with anything else than a sufficient scripture—sufficient through faith in Jesus Christ—to bring men and women to salvation. You see, the great drag on Christianity today is not where the majority of people think it is. They think it's coming from the outside. They think it's coming from secularism. No, the great drag on Christianity today is coming from within—from the propounding of religious generalities and psychological theories and political agendas. We're killing ourselves. We don't need anybody to do it for us from the outside.

Why? Because of a lack of confidence in the sufficiency of the Scriptures. That's why people are told on television call-in shows and on radio shows, You don't need to go to your pastor.

You need to go to somebody who has a white coat and who understands about how you were locked in a box when you were seven and how your grandmother used to trap you in the back of the car and all those kinds of things. And so go to the people with the long white coats and the tiny wee Bibles. Now, what is that saying? I'm not saying that it's an indictment on the help that comes by means of all kinds of agencies. What I'm saying is that the whole thing is shifted. So people's last thought is that you would go to the Scriptures because they are all sufficient for the needs of a life.

We've done that to ourselves in the last quarter of a century without any help from outside. Now, I'm going to spend less time on the second point—I say that for your encouragement—sufficient for salvation and sufficient for transformation. Because is it not transformation that he's referring to here in verses 16 and 17? All Scripture is God-breathed. And you'll notice at the end of verse 17, So that … what's the purpose?

So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Paul is not teaching here, incidentally, on the doctrine of inspiration. Not that these verses teach us nothing about inspiration, but in terms of his purpose, he's not giving a discourse on the inspiration of Scripture. This great summary statement on the part of Paul is showing that the Bible is absolutely essential to both maturity and Christian usefulness. He is not informing Timothy of the fact that Scripture is inspired.

That wasn't in any doubt in Timothy's mind. Instead, he is reminding Timothy that the basis of the profitableness of Scripture lies in its inspiration. The reason, he says, that you can use it in this way is because of the nature of this book. It is unlike any other book in all of the world, because, he says, it is theopneustos. It is God-breathed. Now, what that means is mysterious and wonderful. It is not that the Scriptures existed and God came along and breathed life into the works of a man or man, but rather it is that God breathed, he spoke, and he spoke out the very Scriptures, and that their very existence by means of ordinary men in extraordinary times, by dint of their personality and in the environment of their historical context, writing as ordinary men, inspired by the power of the Spirit of God, God was actually breathing out his truth, in order that through it men might come to salvation, and in order that by means of it, God's people might be transformed.

Now, the transformation that takes place is delineated for us there in the sixteenth verse. It's useful for teaching, for teaching the faith. As I move around the country now as an old man, I now find that young men come and seek me out. And their questions are always the same questions if they're involved in the possibilities of pastoral ministry, if they have already embarked on that, and they want to know, what do you think I ought to do? What's the key? What should I endeavor to accomplish?

And my answer's always the same and fairly boring. Teach the Bible. Oh, they say, but there must be more than that, you know? There's got to be a secret, a hidden spring, a lever, you know?

Something you pull. No, the Bible is useful for teaching the faith. You know about the young man who wrote to his bishop as an Anglican clergyman? He was a curate, and he was excited because it was his first opportunity to preach in the parish church, and he wrote to his bishop who had ordained him, and he said, Dear Bishop, on Sunday I will preach my first sermon. What should I preach about? And the bishop wrote a postcard back that simply said, Preach about the Bible and preach about twenty minutes. I certainly got the first part clear in my mind.

I'm not sure I have the second part, so let me move on. It's useful for teaching the faith, for rebuking. Rebuking.

In other words, correcting error, pointing out where things are wrong. Now, you go to these churches, and they tell you, Good morning, and welcome to our church. We're a very positive, progressive, and peaceable, and palliative, and we just want you to know that everything's okay. Are you feeling okay? Everything's okay. You're going to be okay.

And I'm sitting back there, and the one thing I know about myself is I'm not okay. If we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, then we will proclaim the Scripture in such a way that it teaches the faith and it rebukes error. Not that we become those whose agenda in life is to be constantly searching out error and turn our exposition of the Scriptures into a shambles, into nothing other than simply taking the high road and pointing out that this chap's wrong, and that's wrong, and this church doesn't do it right, and we're nothing other than a cantankerous rascal.

That is not what he's referring to. He's saying that in the balance of the exposition of Scripture, not only will people be engendered in a love for Christ and stirred in a renewed commitment to the faith, but they will also have their lives brought in line with the truth of God's Word. Errors in belief, errors in behavior must be pointed out, and must be pointed out in a spirit of love and of genuine kindness. Paul, if you read the Pastor Rose, is very willing to identify the dangers, very willing to identify the deceivers, because he understands how crucial it is that not only is the faith taught, but that error is rebuked, and also that correction takes place. It's not enough for a pastor to be warning of the wrong path. He needs to be directing onto the right path. It's no good if we're constantly harping and carping on people's problems. They understand they have problems.

Now, what's the key to this? Don't preach topical sermons. Preach the Bible. Because in the balance of it all—incidentally, that is not a categorical statement, don't preach topical sermons.

Let me rephrase it and say this. The danger in preaching topically is that we will preach what comes easiest to us, or our hobby horses, and we will and we will neglect the broccoli. We will neglect the liver and onions. We will neglect the kidney.

We will neglect all that stuff. How will your people ever have some spiritual haggis? Now, someone next to you will tell you what that is. You poor ignoramus. But if you go to a golf teacher, you go to a golf teacher and he says, okay, well, I just take, make your grip, take your stance and make a swing.

And then he looks at you and he goes, well, your grip's wrong. Your stance is wrong. Your takeaway is wrong. Your follow-through is wrong. That'll be $75. Thank you.

No, it won't do. Correcting, rebuking, training in righteousness, resetting the direction of our lives so that the man of God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. That's the great challenge of our day. And what is the answer to fully mature believers? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, says in Colossians 3. Let the Scriptures be your guide. Let them be your food.

Let them be your map. You have all that is necessary in this book. The word that is used here for thoroughly equipped or the phrase was used to describe a rescue boat that was fitted out with all the necessary materials so as it could go out on a voyage. Alas, how many professing believers are so poorly kitted out that when we go out onto the voyage of the high seas and we meet the mariners who are in difficulty and are shipwrecking and are taking on board all that deprives them of the enjoyment of life and the opportunity of faith, we're not there to speak. Because we're not men and women who have embraced the sufficiency of the book. Jim Packer on one occasion said, If I were the devil, one of my first aims would be to stop folk digging in the Bible. And this conference is so timely, because for all of the emphasis and all of the push, we're really not making a tremendous dent in the cause of the gospel. And along that journey, there has been at the same time, as an overarching emphasis on all kinds of things, an accompanying loss of conviction in the sufficiency of the Bible. It's sufficient for salvation.

It's sufficient for transformation. And finally, it is sufficient for proclamation. That's why as he goes into chapter 4, he says, I want you to preach the word. He says, I want you to preach the word. It's a very stirring charge that he gives him, is it not? Jesus is going to appear, he says. His kingdom is going to be ushered in in all of its fullness. Men and women are going to face the judgment. Therefore, he says, in light of these truths, I give you this charge. Preach the word.

Isn't it interesting? This is his last letter. If you were writing a last letter to somebody, surely you would put in the things that were most pressingly urgent in your mind.

You wouldn't fill it up with trivialities. You would want to ensure that whoever it was that was on the receiving end of the information would grasp the nettle of what was being conveyed. And now as he moves into the final section of the letter, he says, in light of all that is about to unfold, and in light of all the confusion that you're facing, and in light of all the temptations that are before you, Timothy, as a young man, for power and for passions, and for all that accompanies your young life, he says, listen, devote yourself to this. Preach the word of God, because it is sufficient not only to see people equipped and to see them saved, but it is also sufficient for the building of the church. You see, he can raise a large crowd by all kinds of means, but the building of the church is something that God does. And those who have been called to the privilege of preaching have been called to a high task.

And we'll return to something of its power and something of its pitfalls tomorrow morning, God willing. But let me note in drawing this to a close that it is the word that we're supposed to preach. It's referred to elsewhere as sound doctrine, as the truth in verse 4, as the faith in verse 7. Jim Packer came to Scotland some years ago and addressed a group of Scottish preachers, and in doing so he gave this definition of preaching. He said, Christian preaching is the event of God bringing to a congregation a Bible-based, Christ-related, life-impacting message of instruction and direction from himself through the words of a spokesman.

From himself through the words of a spokesman. Now, when we use this as a standard, it becomes very quickly obvious that not every performance from behind a pulpit is preaching. And I'm not talking now about style, but the cool, chatty approach, which sounds as passionate as a man reading from the Yellow Pages, trivializes the matter and erodes any sense of expectation on the part of the congregation that God is about to speak through his word. So congregations, instead of heading for worship in the expectation that they're going to hear a word from God, an opportunity to give him praise, to hear him speak, the average congregation sits out in a spirit of detached passivity. They come as observers to measure the performance rather than as participants waiting on the word of God. Instead of sitting up and expectantly praying, master speak thy servant heareth, waiting for thy gracious word, they sit back, they relax, and they wait to see if anything that the preacher has to say tickles their fancy at all. And as a result, many churches are being brought up under knowledgeable fellows speaking with emphasis. That's all they are.

They're just knowledgeable chaps that get excited about stuff. But there is no sense of the accompanying power of the Spirit of God. There is no sense of that arresting of the lives of individuals. There is no experience of being cut to the heart and saying, Men and brethren, what are we supposed to do?

And at the very heart of it, in encountering such individuals and in seeing myself reflected in them and so readily drawn to that approach, I identify the missing element, and that is in a conviction regarding the absolute sufficiency of this book. See, ultimately, I don't care if you think I was long, short, good, bad, funny, or whatever it is. I care not if I am judged by you. I do not even judge myself.

My conscience is clear, but that doesn't make me innocent. I'm going to stand before Almighty God and answer for every occasion, including this morning, when I stood before a group of people, standing in the gap between a holy God and those to whom He has chosen to communicate His truth in the very sufficiency of His Word. Therefore, we mustn't be trivial, and it takes an expectant praying congregation, along with a preacher who is equally expectant and equally prayerful, to make an authentic preaching occasion.

So he says, I want you to be prepared. People won't choose churches on the basis of the truth. They won't first listen to the preacher and then decide whether what they've heard is true. They'll first decide what they want to hear, and then they'll go and select teachers who will oblige by towing their party line. That's verse 3.

They'll gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Tell me lies. Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies. Tell me it's all right. You're fine.

People love that. Tell me I'm handsome. Tell me I'm cute. Tell me I'm fine. Tell me what I want to hear.

No, he says, sude. They'll turn their ears away from the truth. They'll turn aside to myths. There'll be people coming out of the church who are saying the most unbelievable things.

Where do they come up with this stuff? When people stop believing in the Bible, they don't believe in nothing. They start to believe in everything. If you've seen people who set out on their journey of the faith, who were in group one of the parable of the sower, and you've met them now along the journey of their spiritual pilgrimage, good and as gracious their heads are full of whistles and all manner of stuff, what do they do? Turn aside from the truth.

Turn to myths. Well, then, what's the pastor to do? Run down this avenue and chase this?

Try and correct that? No, it's there in verse 5. But you, Timothy, number one, keep your head. Number two, endure hardship. Number three, do the work of an evangelist.

And number four, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Some of you are here in your pastors. You've been going at it hard and long. You're a wee bit weary.

You came here for a word of encouragement. Maybe you thought you'd get a lever, you know. Maybe you said, the secret. You know, if you read golf books, everybody wanted to know what Hogan's secret was.

The Hogan secret, sold like crazy. Everybody read it, and when they'd finished, they said, I couldn't find any secret. Because there wasn't really a secret. Actually, there was, but it's still a secret.

I know what it was. Here's the secret. It's right here. Get down on your knees and ask God to fill your heart with a love for Christ through his Word. Let's stay on our knees till he fills us with a passion concerning the absolute sufficiency of this book. And then let's take it, and don't let's be giving it to our friends and neighbors like this.

No force feeding. But let's go in amongst all those lonely people. Where do they all come from? You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, and Alistair's message today has been for us a clear reminder that God's Word is enough. In fact, the Bible contains all the answers that our confused and chaotic world needs. That's what fuels our mission at Truth for Life, which is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance. We know that when God's Word is proclaimed, unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established, and local churches will be strengthened. In addition to sharing Alistair's messages, we select books each month to support this mission.

Today we want to recommend to you Rico Tice's brand new book. It's titled Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most. This book is a brief book, just more than a hundred pages, but it provides an essential foundation for anyone in church leadership. It's filled with wise instruction that will give you the right perspective on how to lead others and how to lead yourself. Request your copy of the book Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most when you donate today.

Just tap the image in the app or call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us. When we're traveling on the highway, we understand that hazard signs are posted there to warn us to proceed with caution. Tomorrow we'll discover that the pulpit has its own set of pitfalls, and pastors need to stay alert. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.