How Firm a Foundation

2 Timothy 3:14–17 CSB

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Introduction: One of my favorite radio Bible teachers (who is with the Lord) is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, with Thru the Bible Radio. He has for his theme song this hymn:

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word! What more can be said than to you God hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”

This hymn reminds us just how important the Word of God is for our faith and practice.

You and I have an English Bible in our possession largely because of a man named John Wycliffe. He was known not only as a builder, producing the first English text of the Bible, but also as a fighter.

When he died, his enemies burned him at the stake and took the ashes of his body and sprinkled them over the Thames River in London. "Forever, we're rid of Wycliffe!" his enemies must have thought. They were wrong.

The product of his labors, the English Bible, is with us today because he did more than fight. He stayed at the task.

The Bible is our sole authority for our faith and practice. Not the church, Not the Traditions of Men - the B I B L E - that’s the book for me.

Like John Wesley, I want to be a “one book man.” If you hear me preach any other book, fire me immediately.

Lets spend some time in the book this morning looking at what the book says about itself and why it is so important.

The Main Point of God’s Word (vv. 14-15)

Paul told Timothy to continue in what he had learned and believed in from infancy - the scriptures - which are able to give him “wisdom for salvation.”

The main point of God’s word is the salvation of mankind from the penalty of their sins.

As Southern Baptists, this is what we believe about the Bible according our statement of belief, the Baptist Faith and Message:

“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

Now it is important to understand that we are not saved by believing in the Bible - but by believing in the Christ revealed in the Bible. The devil knows and quotes the Bible, but obviously is not saved.

However, without the Bible, we would have no reliable revelation of how to be saved.

By the way, who taught Timothy the Word of God? WAIT FOR ANSWERS

2 Timothy 1:5 CSB

I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.

I share that with you to help you understand that the main ones responsible for teaching your own children about the Word of God are the parents! The church should be there to supplement what the parents are doing.

By the same token, my sermon on Sunday morning or Kathy’s Sunday School lessen should be a supplement to what you are learning on your own, not your sole source of spiritual nourishment. You can’t be spiritually healthy eating only one meal a week.

The Production of God’s Word (v. 16)

The Word of God was and is God-breathed.

2 Timothy 3:16 (LSB)

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,

“Theopneustos” Theo = God, pneo = To breathe or blow

Picture in your mind a sail boat with the sails catching the wind and being propelled along…The wind acts upon the sails thus propelling the boat forward.

Illus. Richard Dehan in ODB: The story is told about a young boy named Timothy who was planning to give his grandmother a Bible for Christmas. He wanted to write something special on the flyleaf but wasn't sure what to say. So he decided to copy what he had seen in a book his father had received from a friend. Christmas morning came and Grandmother opened her gift. She was not only pleased to receive the Bible, but she was amused by the inscription Timothy had put in it. It read:

"To Grandma, with compliments of the author."

Jewish rabbis taught that the Spirit of God rested on and in the prophets and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves, but from the very mouth of God which is in accord with Peter's declaration that...

2 Peter 1:21 CSB

because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is unique in some of the following ways...

It’s continuity - written over a period of 1600 years by 40 different authors yet there is unity in it’s message.

Its circulation - It is the most published and popular book ever written - far and away; any thing else is a distant, distant, second.

The Bible is unique in its translation: It was the first book translated, and has been translated into more languages than any other book in existence.

The Bible is unique in its survival: It has survived the ravages of time, manual transcription, persecution, and criticism.

The Bible is unique in its honesty: It deals with the sins and failures of its heroes in a manner quite unknown among ancient literature.

The Bible is unique in its influence: The Bible has had, far and away, a greater influence on culture and literature than any other book in the existence.

The Profitability of God’s Word (v. 16)

Profitable (beneficial, useful) 5624) (ophelimos) means useful, profitable, serviceable, helpful, beneficial and refers to that which yields advantageous returns or results. It provides something that one needs to attain a certain goal -- in context to be a "man of God".

Every Scripture serves to meet the moral and spiritual needs of man. Unfortunately as Charles Colson says “The family Bible is more often used to adorn coffee tables or press flowers than it is to feed souls and discipline lives.”

It is profitable for teaching. This is in reference to correct doctrine about God. (What is right) Doctrine is the entire body of essential theological truths that define and describe the message of salvation through Christ alone.

It is also profitable for reproof. (Correcting what is NOT right). The goal of reproof is to bring a person to the point of recognizing their error or wrongdoing. Reproof tells you when you are out of bounds.

It is profitable for correction. Straightening up again. Restoring something to its right condition. In secular Greek Literature, it was used to describe setting upright an object that had fallen. Also, to repairing a broken arm.

It is profitable for training in righteousness. To provide instruction in regards to forming habits of proper behavior. The Greek word used here refers to what parents do to train and educate their children. Training is different than teaching. Teaching can be done in a classroom in an hour but training requires time - years perhaps before we respond to what the Word of God is teaching.

The Purpose of God’s Word (v.17)

2 Timothy 3:17 CSB

so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Bible will prepare you to do everything that God expects of you as a believer. It will complete you as a Christian!

The Word of God sanctifies us and it makes us ready to serve.

Illus. Dr. Howard Hendricks once asked a group of businessmen, "If you didn’t know any more about your business or profession than you know about Christianity after the same number of years of exposure, what would happen?" One man replied “They’d ship me!” He was right.

The reason God can’t use you more than He wants to may well be that you are not prepared. Maybe you’ve attended church for years, but you’ve never really got into the Bible so that it could get into you.

You were not yet a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (2Ti 2:21-note). You must not just be under the Word (sound Biblical preaching and teaching) but not in the Word that you can than be trained in righteousness.

Closing: A young man had gone down to Florida to study at a small Bible college. After graduating, he came up to Wheaton College.

He was in Wheaton during most of the World War II years. Everyone recognized his gifts as a preacher of the gospel. As his fame spread across the Midwest, thousands gathered to hear this dynamic young man speak. During those years the young man met Torrey Johnson, the founder of Youth for Christ. He and Torrey Johnson toured the United States in 1944 and 1945 speaking in great Youth for Christ rallies. He saw thousands and thousands of people come to Christ.

In 1946 this young man left on a tour of Great Britain and Scotland preaching the gospel all over the United Kingdom. Hundreds and thousands of people came to Christ. He wasn't even 30 years old. Another year passed and another year passed. He formed an evangelistic team and it looked like his star was on the rise, and indeed it was.

Then came 1949.

In the early part of the year this young man was beset with inner doubts about the truth of the Bible.

He wrestled with questions he could not entirely answer. One of his close friends was a powerful speaker who began to drink deeply at the fountain of higher criticism.

This friend went to a liberal seminary. There he had his faith in the Bible as the Word of God taken away from him. He came back and told the young man, "You need to give up this fundamentalist view of the Bible. This is the twentieth century. You can't preach the Bible that way anymore. If you keep preaching the Bible this way, your ministry is going to come to nothing."

That young man was torn in his heart and by his own testimony, the turning point came early in l949 when he and a group of men and women met at a place called Forest Home, a Christian conference center in southern California.

He was there, deeply troubled over the raging battle in his soul: Is the Bible the word of God or is it not? Can I believe it or not? His friend was telling him, "Don't be a fool. If you follow that fundamentalist path your ministry will come to nothing and nobody will ever hear you."

Finally the night came when he knew he had to make a decision.

He skipped the evening meeting to pray by himself.

He talked to his friend J. Edwin Orr early that evening and laid out the great dilemma of his heart. Orr said, "You'd better go off and pray and get the matter settled." So off he went into the woods to settle the matter once and for all. Finally, he realized that he would never have all the answers. And so he knelt down and began to pray. These are his own words:

“I dueled with my doubts, and my soul seemed to be caught in the crossfire. Finally, in desperation, I surrendered my will to the living God revealed in Scripture. I knelt before the open Bible, and said, "Lord, many things in this Book I do not understand. But Thou hast said, 'The just shall live by faith.' All I have received from Thee, I have taken by faith. Here and now, by faith, I accept the Bible as Thy Word. That which I cannot understand I will reserve judgment on until I receive more light. If this pleases Thee, give me authority as I proclaim Thy Word, and through that authority convict men of sin and turn sinners to the Savior."

That was the turning point for Billy Graham.

Six weeks later was the great crusade in downtown Los Angeles, a meeting which would change the course of American history.

By his own admission, everything that has happened in Billy Graham's life goes back to that night at Forest Home when he put the Bible down and knelt before God and said, "Oh, God, I do not understand it all, but I am willing to believe it and willing to obey it."