Naylor Community Christian Church, Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Timothy 3:14-17
2 Timothy
3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from
infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17
so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
-- I think one of the dreams that
everyone has from time to time is moving away from it all -- finding a little
cabin in the middle of a wilderness or a little hut on an isolated island in
the middle of nowhere where there is no one around and you can be safe and
secure from all the craziness in life today -- that’s why occasionally you’ll
see pictures of cabins next to lakes on social media with the question, “Could
you live here for one year with no internet or phones?” -- and my first thought
is “Yes! Absolutely!”
-- as a wildlife biologist, I would
actually see remote jobs in places just like that from time to time -- very
remote -- very rugged -- areas where you had to work alone for months on end
doing wildlife research -- and while offers like this can seem very tempting,
the truth is that it would probably be very difficult to work in isolation like
that for very long
-- just imagine what it would be like if
you were hired to open up an office in the interior of Alaska by yourself -- no
one else -- no other coworkers around -- before you leave for Alaska, your boss
gives you a two-way radio and a policy and procedure manual and tells you that
you will receive further instructions when you get there
-- you make it up to Alaska -- you set
up the office -- and then you hear your boss’s voice over the radio saying,
“The only way I will be able to communicate with you is through this radio -- I
won’t talk to you every day, so you’ll have to keep your ears open and listen
for me when I call
-- “but be careful, because our
competitors also have access to this channel -- and they are going to try to
imitate my voice with false messages and false instructions because they want
you to fail in your job and they want our company’s reputation to take a fall”
-- when you hear that, you start to
worry -- “Then how will I know if it is you or the enemy giving me
instructions?”
-- Your boss’s voice comes back over the
radio -- “You’ll know in three ways -- First, considering the situation, check
every message that you hear that is supposed to be from me against the policy
and procedure manual -- Since I wrote the manual, I’m not likely to ask you to
violate it, right? -- if you don’t hear from me or if you’re not sure it’s my
voice on the radio, let the manual be your guide -- Don’t let an impersonating
voice or your own overactive imagination mislead you -- just trust in me and
the manual”
-- “Second, since the Manual does not
cover every situation, you will have to get to know my voice -- not only what I
sound like over the radio, but how I speak through the written words of the
manual -- I know, this will take time, and so I am not going to ask you to do
anything radical until we both have some low-risk successes under our belts
-- “Remember, I understand the situation
perfectly well, so I’ll go slow at first -- A time will come when I will be
able to tell you to do the wildest things, and you will know it is me and trust
that what I am telling you to do is the right thing -- In the short-term, though,
you must be trained to hear my voice by following my instructions over the
radio or in the manual in low-risk areas
-- “Third, over time, my overall purpose
for your work will begin to come into focus -- You will begin to see the grand
strategy in the policy and procedure manual, and the overall pattern of my true
instructions -- When this happens, you’ll know instantly if what you hear
through the radio is ‘of me’ or if it’s just your imagination or enemy
misinformation -- it will become easy for you to see what is true and what is
not -- and false instructions will begin to appear silly to you -- So, take
heart, and get to work.”
-- not long after this, you dive into
work and settle into a routine -- everything is going good -- and then you hear
the radio crackle and your boss speaks again -- “Take all of the money from
petty cash and give it the next person that walks in, no questions asked.”
-- something doesn’t seem right about
that -- you look in the policy and procedure manual, and see that this is
specifically forbidden -- Besides, you know your boss wouldn’t tell you to do
something that risky this early in your employment with him -- And there was also
a strange quality to the voice -- it triggered something inside you -- an
appeal to something different within you -- and the instructions were not in
the long-term interests of the company
-- you quickly realize that this voice
is an imposter, and because you trusted in the manual and in your past
experiences with the boss, you refuse to do what the voice is asking you to do
-- as you settle back down to your desk,
you begin to realize that you can indeed do this job with the tools that your
boss has given you -- even in this remote location1
-- we are continuing in our series on
hearing the voice of God -- as I said last week, there are four ways that God
chooses to communicate with us -- the Bible -- prayer -- the church -- and
circumstances
-- Christian tradition and experience
over the last 2000 years has borne out the truth of this -- Christians from the
days of the early church right up until now have communed with God on a daily
basis through these four means of communication
-- now, I mentioned last week that even
though God has chosen to communicate to us in these four ways, the weight of
that communication is not equal -- in other words, some of those means of
speaking to us are more important than others because they are clearly the word
of God and require no interpretation or additional understanding on our part
-- in terms of priority and importance,
God has chosen the Bible to be the primary method that He speaks to us today --
and it is through the Bible that we hear His voice most clearly in this time --
that is followed by prayer -- and then the church -- and finally, circumstances
-- so, this morning, let’s begin our
study into the four ways that God speaks to us by considering hearing God’s
voice through His word -- the Bible
II. Scripture Lesson (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
-- the story of the remote worker that I
shared in my opening illustration is a pretty good picture of how our lives are
as Christians today -- the Bible tells us that Jesus rose from the dead and
ascended to heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father --
because of that, we can’t see or touch or hear Jesus like the disciples could
when He walked with them on earth
-- we are separated from God right now
in a physical sense -- but even though we are physically isolated from God, He
made sure that we could stay in touch -- through His Spirit and through His
instruction manual -- the Bible
-- the Bible is God’s primary source of
communication with us as Christians today -- and as Paul tells Timothy here in
this passage, it is of utmost importance in our spiritual lives
-- let’s look at this passage in a
little more detail and see what we can learn from Paul’s instructions to
Timothy here in his second letter to Timothy -- just to remind you of who Paul
and Timothy were -- Paul, of course, was an apostle -- a leader of the early
church who wrote a good portion of the New Testament
-- on the road to Damascus, Paul had an
experience with the risen Christ -- and Jesus changed his life forever -- Paul
went from being a Pharisee who persecuted Christians to being a mighty
evangelist who carried the word of God to the far-flung reaches of the Roman
Empire
-- during his travels, he came to know
Timothy -- a much younger man -- who Paul took under his wing and mentored and
raised up to be a leader in the church -- Timothy took over as pastor of the
church at Ephesus when Paul left, and we see him mentioned in many of Paul’s
books
-- so, let’s look here at what Paul
tells Timothy about the Bible and let’s see what we learn together
--
vs. 14
2 Timothy
3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it
-- Paul instructs
Timothy to continue in what he had learned and had become convinced of -- and
that’s a very important point
-- a lot of
Christians start well -- they hear the word of God and they get convicted of
their sins and they ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior and then they really
start to grow in Christ -- they’re constantly reading the Bible and going to
church and praying and ministering to people they know
-- but, before you
know it -- they start to slow down -- they start to slip back into their old
ways -- and they find themselves not reading the Bible as much as they used to
-- or they’re not praying like before -- and then they start missing church and
just aren’t walking with God like they used to -- I think most of us who have
been Christians for some time can relate to this
-- so, Paul tells
Timothy here -- “continue in what you have learned” -- in other words, “keep
going -- press on -- Don’t hold back -- but keep on growing in Christ through
what you have learned and become convinced" of
-- this reminds me
of the story of John Steven Akhwari, a long distance runner from Tanzania who
competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City
-- everyone had gathered to watch the final leg of the marathon,
and they all cheered as Mamo Waldi of Ethiopia crossed the finish line at about
6 pm, winning the gold medal for his country -- the other runners staggered in
behind Waldi seconds and minutes later -- and then there was a long period when
no one came across the finish line -- by 7 pm, it was beginning to get dark and
the sports crews wrapped up their news reports, talking about how Waldi looked
as strong at the end of the 26-mile race as he had at the beginning
-- the final
spectators were beginning to drift out of the stadium, when they heard police
sirens and whistles outside the stadium -- the sounds got louder and people
realized the police were coming through the gate to the stadium -- everyone
turned to look at the gate to see what was going on -- and all eyes were on the
entrance as a sole figure, wearing the colors of Tanzania, came limping into
the stadium
-- this was John
Steven Akhwari -- he was the last man to finish the marathon in 1968 -- his leg
was bandaged and bloody -- he had taken a bad fall early in the race and had
fallen way behind all the other competitors -- now, it was all he could do to
limp his way around the track -- the crowd stood and applauded as he completed
that last lap.
-- When he finally
crossed the finish line, one man dared ask the question all were wondering.
"You are badly injured. The race was over -- you had no chance to win a
medal -- why didn't you quit? -- why didn't you give up?"
-- Akhwari, with
quiet dignity said, "My country did not send me seven thousand miles to
start this race -- my country sent me to finish."2
-- that is the
point that Paul is making here to Timothy -- God didn’t just send us to start
this race -- He didn’t just send us to just do great things in the middle -- He
sent us to finish well -- so, continue on in what you have learned -- continue
and strive for excellence in Christ
-- to continue on
in what you have learned is more than just reading through the Bible quickly
and trying to get through a certain number of verses or a certain number of
chapters every day
-- Timothy had
learned and become convinced of the truth of God because he had absorbed it --
he had made it a part of himself -- he meditated on it -- he weighed whether it
was true or not and, in the end, he became "convinced" of it -- he
believed in what he had read because he heard God’s voice through the Bible
-- this tells us that we are supposed to do
more than just casually read God's word -- we are to take it in and examine it
-- God's word is to be our standard and our manual which we use to know what to
do and to judge whether things are right or wrong
-- let's say somebody shows up at your door
and starts telling you about God -- how do you know if what they are saying is
true or not? -- how do you know if what they are saying is right? -- there’s a
lot of religious people and a lot of religious groups in our area that sound
pretty good and that make sense when you talk to them
-- so, how do you know if they are truly
Christians or not? -- you know by testing what they say against the written
word of God -- if what they say they believe in does not agree with God’s word,
then they are not Christians -- no matter what they call themselves and no
matter how holy they look on the outside
-- it’s not to say they’re bad people --
but if what they are teaching does not agree with the basic foundational
beliefs of God that we see in the Bible, then they’re not Christians -- they’re
preaching another religion, regardless of what they call themselves
-- God gave us His Bible so we would know
Him and His truth and not be led astray by false teachings
-- the Bible is the word of God -- written
down for us so that we have it with us always -- His instructions that are meant to help us see
and understand His plan for our lives and to help us continue on in what we
have learned and become convinced of
-- verse 15
2 Timothy
3:15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
--
Paul points out to Timothy here that the Scriptures are able to "make you
wise for salvation through faith"
-- now what this means
is that God speaks to our hearts through the Bible -- He speaks to the hearts
of Christians and to the hearts of unbelievers -- God uses the Bible to convict
people of their sins and to bring them to the saving knowledge of His Son,
Christ Jesus
-- as Hebrews 4:12
says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints
and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
-- God’s word is
alive -- and when we read it, we hear and experience God in our lives -- and He
changes us through His word
-- in most hotel
rooms, you can still find a Gideon’s Bible in a drawer there in the room --
sometimes, we open that drawer and see the Bible laying there, and we wonder if
putting those Bibles in motel rooms does any good or if the Gideon’s are just
wasting their time
-- a couple of
years ago, we had a man from the Gideon’s come and share his story here with us
-- he had with him a Gideon’s Bible that he had taken from a motel -- he said
that when he was younger, he was in a bad place -- things were not going well
in his life -- he was addicted to drugs and alcohol and he just found himself
in that motel room thinking about how bad his life was and wondering if things
could ever get any better -- he had hitten rock-bottom -- and when people do
that, they sometimes turn to God because they don’t know what else to do
-- so, he took the
Bible out of the drawer and started to read it -- he said he had read it before
and gotten nothing out of it -- but this time, he was ready to listen -- and
God spoke to him as he read through the book of John
-- he heard the
good news of salvation -- he read what Jesus did for him -- how Jesus died on
the cross for his sins so that he might live forever in heaven -- and all of a
sudden it clicked -- he understood and he prayed to receive Jesus as His Lord
and Savior -- all because he picked up a Bible and God spoke to him through its
pages
-- not only does
God’s word make it possible for the Christian to continue in what they have
learned and become convinced of -- but God’s word makes the unbeliever wise for
salvation through faith -- it is the way God speaks to those who are lost and
needing a Savior
-- verse 16
2
Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of
God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
-- even though God gave the words in this book to men
over 2000 years ago, this book is “God-breathed” -- inspired by the Holy Spirit
and infused with His life -- and God still speaks to us today through its pages
-- He uses the Bible to help us grow more
like Jesus -- He uses it to turn us into the people He wants us to be -- and He
uses it to equip us to go forth and to do great things in His name
-- Paul points out four uses of the Bible
in the life of the Christian: teaching -- rebuking -- correcting -- and
training in righteousness
1. Teaching -- that means learning more about
God and in His purposes here on earth -- not only for us but also for us to
pass on to others -- as I’ve said often in Bible study, it does no good to just
study the Bible unless you do something with it -- you’ve got to apply it to
your life and then you’ve got to teach it to someone else
-- if you read the Bible and listen for
God’s voice and His instructions, He will teach you what you should do and how
you should live
2. Rebuking -- to rebuke means that you
reprimand someone who is doing something wrong -- you show someone the error of
their ways -- rebuking is for the person who is knowingly caught up in sin and
won't do anything about it -- when you read God’s word, He will speak to you
through its pages and He will convict you of your sin and will warn you to
repent and to turn around and follow Him
3. Correcting -- to correct someone means you
show them the right direction if they start out wrong -- correcting is for
those people who are making an error but haven't gone full-blown into sin yet
-- when you are learning to walk with Christ, it’s easy to get off course --
it’s easy to take a wrong step here or there because you just don’t know
-- you ever watch those old westerns where
they head out across the wide open for a town on the other side of nowhere? --
that has always amazed me -- those men and women would head out across a desert
or a prairie with no trail -- no road signs -- nothing but wilderness for miles
and miles and miles -- and, if you think about, if you headed out like this and
were off by one degree in your course, you could miss where you were going by
hundreds of miles
-- that’s why God uses the Bible to
correct our path before we get off-course -- it’s kind of like our compass in
life -- if we start to drift off-course, God steers us back onto the right path
through His Word
4. Training in righteousness -- this has two
aspects
-- first, it is the training of children
and new disciples -- those young in the faith -- in the way they should go --
directing them in what God's commands are -- back in verse 15, Paul reminds
Timothy that he had known the Scriptures from infancy -- in other words, from
the time Timothy was a small boy, his parents and his grandparents were
training him in Godly ways -- they were teaching him the truth of God through
the Scriptures so that he might grow up to be a Godly man
-- this is the heart of the oft-quoted
proverb -- Proverbs 22:6 -- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not depart from it.
-- by using God’s word, you can train your
children in the way they should go
-- and this also applies to new Christians
-- we need to disciple new believers -- to teach them to hear God through the
Bible -- and to help train them to live in this new way of life in Christ
-- this is the first way the Bible is used
to train in righteousness
-- the second aspect of training in
righteousness is the continued training and instruction in God and His commands
so that we will become more and more righteous, and we will continue in our
spiritual journey, becoming thoroughly equipped for every good work
-- I have been a Christian for a long time
-- and I have read this Bible through several times -- not always cover to
cover but various books and passages on a regular basis -- and even though I
have read this time and time again, I am always finding new things -- I am
always seeing things that I have never seen before or understanding things that
I didn’t understand before -- that’s because God is constantly speaking to us
through His word and as we read it, He will use it to train us in righteousness
and to give us what we need in that moment
-- you will never reach the point where
the Bible is stale and you’ve learned all you can learn -- God will always show
you new truths through His word as you stay in it on a regular basis
III. Closing
-- Scripture is valuable to us -- it should be regarded as a
gift from God because it is a means of grace -- a way that God has chosen to
make Himself known to us -- it is living -- it is ever new and ever fresh -- it
is just as relevant to our lives today as the morning newspaper -- and it is
the very word of God
-- it says in verse 16 that all scripture
is God-breathed and inspired by the Holy Spirit -- and this means ALL scripture
-- the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, can be used by God to speak to
our hearts and to change our lives if -- if -- we will read it and listen for
God’s voice and apply it to our lives
-- the Bible is God’s primary way of
speaking to us today -- and we need to be in His word and listening for His
voice on a regular basis -- if you do nothing else as a Christian, then you
need to be reading God’s word daily
-- let me close by leaving you with this quote from an
anonymous author:
-- "This book is the mind of God, the
state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of
believers -- its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories
are true and its decisions are immutable
-- read it to be wise -- believe it to be safe -- practice
it to be holy
-- it contains light to direct you -- food
to support you and comfort to cheer you
-- it is the traveler's map -- the
pilgrim's staff -- the pilot's compass -- the soldier's sword and the
Christian's Character
-- here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates
of hell disclosed -- Christ is its grand subject, our good its design -- and
the glory of God its end
-- it should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the
feet -- read it slowly, frequently , and prayerfully
-- it is a mine of wealth -- a paradise of glory -- and a
river of pleasure -- follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary -- to
the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ -- yes, to glory itself, for
eternity"
-- let us pray
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1
Illustration adapted from Sandy Gregory’s story of The Remote Employee --
http://www.acts17-11.com/hearing.html
2 Craig Brian Larson,
"Strong to the Finish," Preaching Today, Tape No. 155.
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