November Staying Ready for God To Use

November Staying Ready for God To Use (2 Timothy 3:15–17)

The most important part of a “journey to a faithful finish” is staying ready for God to use.

How do we stay ready for God to use?

We find out in this passage.

It begins with our salvation, which is the result of the knowledge of at least some scriptures.

Paul reminds Timothy how from childhood he has known the sacred writings, or “holy scriptures” (3:15a).

For Timothy, the Holy Scriptures was the Old Testament—Genesis to Malachi.

Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him the Old Testament from childhood.

Therefore, when Timothy hears the Gospel, what is the result (3:15b)?

The Bible prepares us to make all the right choices in life.

My life is not made by the dreams I dream but by the choices I make.

Anonymous

Life is made up of choices. Who you are sitting here today is the sum total of your choices.

This passage reveals three requirements for staying ready for God to use.

Believe All of God’s Word (3:16a)

Believe all of God’s Word, not just some or most, because all Scripture is breathed out, or inspired, by God (3:16a).

This means divinely breathed out.

When you speak words, you breathe them out.

Words travel out of our mouths on our breath.

So, God’s breath, which is His Holy Spirit, transported His words into the minds of the biblical writers (revelation), and then guided the writers as they wrote down the words (inspiration).

This is true of all Scripture. How does Psalm 119:160a reiterate this truth?

Thy word is true from the beginning:

And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. Psalm 119:160

No one in history revered and elevated the Bible like Jesus did.

Over and over again in the Gospels, He refers to the Old Testament as “the Word of God.”

For example, Jesus says we should not live by bread, or food, alone.

Then, what does our Lord say (Matthew 4:4)?

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4

The word Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16) refers to the Old Testament, since the New Testament was incomplete at the time of Paul’s writing.

However, this verse certainly includes any biblical writings regarded as inspired.

The apostles considered the writings of Paul to be Holy Scriptures inspired by God.

Yet, today even in so-called Christian circles, no portion of the Bible is more under attack than Paul’s epistles.

In reference to Paul’s writings, Peter writes that Paul wrote with the wisdom God gave him.

He also writes that some of Paul’s writings are hard to understand and some people who are ignorant and unstable twist his letters to mean something different than what he intended. (2 Pet. 3:15b–16c).

Then, in the last phase of 2 Peter 3:16, what does Peter call Paul’s writings?

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Peter considered the writings of Paul to be Scripturesinspired by God. Today, ignorantpeople are still trying to distort Paul’s writings because these truths clash with the morality of our culture and often are not “politically correct.”

However, staying ready for God to use requires never retreating from the fact that the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God.

In its original manuscripts, the entire Bible is breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16a).

No prophecy or any part of God’s Word came by the will, or initiative, of man (2 Pet. 1:21a). How does 2 Peter 1:21b describe this process?

Through the revelation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, biblical writers, using their own style, penned the actual words of God as revealed to them.

It is inconceivable an all-powerful, all-knowing God would allow us to have a Bible we cannot trust.

We are in a spiritual war, in which the Bible is our two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), and our loving God would not send us into battle with a faulty weapon.

To stay ready for God to use, believe all of God’s Word

Receive God’s Word (3:16b–e)

God’s Word is not only inspired, it is also profitable when we receive it as His Word.

The Bible is not just a book of inspiring stories about ancient people or a book of doctrine for theologians.

It is profitable in everyday life.

It is profitable for teaching, or “doctrine” (3:16b).

The word translated teaching(didaskalia, did-ask-uh-lee’-uh) refers to the content of teaching, not the method.

This means our doctrine and Christian instruction must be consistent with Scripture.

Our God-breathed Bible gives us clear teaching on how to live, and it must be carefully received and obeyed.

When we stray from God’s Word, we get out of God’s will and are not ready for Him to use.

Unless God’s Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.

 Let it be God’s glory and not our own that we seek, and when we get to that point, how speedily the Lord will bless us for good.

To walk out of God’s will is to walk into nowhere.

The shepherd of the flock of God is the man who bears God’s people on his heart, who feeds them with the truth, who seeks them when they stray away, and who defends them from all that would hurt their faith.

What can we do then? Well, the Bible is also profitable … for reproof, or rebuking (3:16c).

This means reading and hearing the Word of God brings conviction about sin.

Conviction occurs because the Word of God is living and active, not stagnant or dead. It is sharper than any two-edged sword because it can penetrate the soul and spirit as well as joints and marrow, which means it penetrates every part of our being (Heb. 4:12a–d).

Why, according to the last phrase of Hebrews 4:12?

The Holy Spirit uses God’s inspired Word to convict of sin but what then?

At this point, the Bible becomes profitable … for correction (3:16d).

The Bible not only rebukes us when we sin; it also tells us what to do to correct, or rectify, our sin and get us ready for God to use again.

How does 1 John 1:9 describe this correction procedure?

To confess means agreeing with what God says in His Word is sin.

The word “confess” means “to say the same thing as.” When you confess your sin, you are agreeing with God that what he says about your sin is true. It is an admission of guilt.

Confessing sin is not informing God, it is agreeing with him.

It also means making a commitment not to sin again.

The Bible is profitable for teaching us, rebuking us, and correcting us.

However, it is also useful for training in righteousness (3:16e).

The Bible trains us in how to stay on the right track and be ready for God to use.

As we study the Bible, we learn how to live righteously.

How does the psalmist describe this in Psalm 119:11?

Through the pages of His inspired Word, God lovingly teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains.

To stay ready for God to use, believe all of God’s Word, receive God’s Word, and then …

Achieve the purpose of God’s Word (3:17)

The purpose of the Bible is that the man(anthrōpos, awn’-thro-pos) [or woman] of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (3:17).

The Bible will completely equip you to do whatever God’s purpose is for your life.

Full inerrancy also holds that the Bible is completely true.

While the Bible does not primarily aim to give scientific and historical data, such scientific and historical assertions as it does make are fully true.

Don’t study the Bible just for knowledge so you can impress your Christian friends.

Why, according to 1 Co

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

God didn’t give us the Bible so we could be obnoxious Bible experts. As we live God’s Word, we conform to the image of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we progressively become more and more loving and develop into better instruments for God to use in building up His kingdom.

In the last phrase of James 1:25, what promise does God give for not only hearing but also doing, or living, His Word?

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

James 1:25

The word translated blessed (makarios, mah-kar’-re-os) refers to happiness that is not dependent on outward circumstances.

Remember that men are dependent on circumstances, and not circumstances on men.

Nothing has a fixed value; all truth is dependent upon the given circumstances.

But Christ effectually gives people peace. Moreover, the peace of which he speaks is not dependent on outward circumstances, as any peace the world can give must necessarily be

It is “divine delight.”

To stay ready for God to use, believe all of God’s Word, receive God’s Word, and achieve the purpose of God’s Word.