Sermon Tone Analysis

! Building Our Lives on the Bible

!!!! Education for Exultation: By the Word

2 Timothy 3:10-17

 

!!!!

A People of the Book

   In this series on EDUCATION FOR EXULTATION, we have focused on God, Christ, the cross, and faith in Christ that comes by hearing.

The natural next step is to focus on what we hear, specifically, God's Word, the Bible.

As Baptist we claim to be a people of the Book.

We know God through the Book.

We meet Christ in the Book.

We see the cross in the Book.

Our faith and love are kindled by the glorious truths of the Book.

We have tasted the divine majesty of the Word and are persuaded that the Book is God's inspired and infallible written revelation.

Therefore, what the Book teaches matters.

Doctrine is important for worship and life and missions.

EDUCATION FOR EXULTATION is education saturated by the Bible.

I want to show you where that conviction comes from.

In 2 Timothy 3:10-11 Paul reminds Timothy about his sufferings for Christ and how Christ has rescued him, over and over.

Verse 11: You have followed my "persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all, the Lord rescued me!" Then Paul turns, in verse 12, from his own personal experience to a general statement about persecution: /"Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."/

This is a sober preparation for Timothy: /"Timothy, if you follow my example in pursuing radical godliness, you will suffer."/

But then in verse 13 he warns Timothy not to think about running from godliness to escape persecution.

He says, /"But evil men and impostors [the opposite of godliness] will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."/

So you don't want to go that route, Timothy.

It is better to be persecuted for godliness than to have a fun time duped by the devil.

!!!! Don't Advance - Don't Go Forward

    Then in verse 14 Paul puts it positively again: "/You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of"/ (even if it results in persecution)……  

     I want you to notice a contrast here between verses 13 and 14 that is more obvious in the original language than in English.

But you can still see it if you look closely.

*In *verse 13 the evil men, it says, /"proceed from bad to worse."/

The word for "proceed" means "advance" or "go forward," and in this case it is from bad to worse.

*Then* in verse 14 Paul says to Timothy, /"You, however, continue in the things you have learned."/

The word "continue" is the opposite of "advance" or "go forward."

It's the word for "remain," "abide," "stay."

"You, Timothy, don't advance, don't go forward – but remain, abide, stay, continue in the things you have learned."

There is a conservative impulse in Christianity - an impulse to conserve: to remain and to stay and to abide.

Be careful here, though!

There is also a liberal impulse in Christianity - an impulse to be free from human tradition and to be radical and take risks for God and make changes and to bow before God alone as our ultimate authority, not man.

But here Paul stresses the conservative impulse.

So we need to ask: Conserve what?

Remain in what?

Stay with what?

Abide in what?

Verse 14 says, /"Continue in the things you have learned."/

But what does that mean?

Anything and everything you've learned?

*No.*

Verses 14-15 tell us what Paul has in mind: ". . .

/knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings .

/. ."

There it is: it's the "sacred writings" - the "Scriptures" - that he should continue in.

Don't leave these.

Don't "go forward" from these.

Don't "advance" from these.

Don't think that the "Word of God" is grammar school material while something else (say philosophy or science or technology) is college or graduate school.

Don't leave the "sacred writings."

Continue in them.

Conserve them.

Keep them.

*That is God's word to us as we launch into EDUCATION FOR EXULTATION.

Faith Temple,  "Continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of. . . the sacred writings" -the Word of God, the Bible.

Don't advance.

Don't go forward.

Don't proceed from this.

Continue in this.

Stay in this.

Remain in this.

This kind of conservatism will make you the most radical, counter-cultural, risk-taking, free people possible in Christ.

If you leave the Word, you will, in the end, just conform to the world - to the spirit of this age.

This may feel freeing for a moment.

But it will make you the slave of every passing fashion - and they are passing faster and faster.

*

    So God's word to us in this vision of EDUCATION FOR EXULTATION is:

*Continue* in your absolute allegiance to the unchanging truth of God's Word, the Bible.

*Stay here.

Abide here*.

Build children's ministries on it.

Build youth ministries on it.

Build adult ministries on it.

Build church planting strategies on it.

Build marriages and families on it.

Lead deacon meetings with it.

And whatever else you do, Greg Byrd, don’t preach anything but the Word of God, the Bible.

!!!! Saturated by the Word – Why?

When I think about what I could say to lift your sense of commitment to the vision of EDUCATION FOR EXULTATION - the vision of growing without growing - one of the most fundamental things I want to say is: All our education and all our exultation will not only be built on, but saturated by the Word, the Bible.

If I were in your shoes, that is what I would want to hear from my leaders is: We are not "advancing," we are not "going forward," we are not "proceeding" to something more up-to-date or more modern.

We are "continuing," "staying," "abiding" in the things we have been taught - the Word of God, the Bible.

It's very important for you to hear that and believe it.

I want your trust.

And without this, I should not get it: remaining in the sacred writings, the Word of God, the Bible.

!!!!  

!!!! Now why is this Paul's word to Timothy and to us?

 

 

   Paul gives two kinds of reasons to Timothy to "continue in the things you have learned . . . the sacred writings."

One kind has to do with the quality of the persons who taught him the Scriptures.

And the other has to do with the good effect of the Scriptures.

You might say, Paul reminds Timothy how the Scriptures came to him and what they would do for him.

!!!!! *1st.

The Quality of Your Teachers*

   First, Paul tells Timothy to remember the quality of persons who taught him the Scripture.

Verse 14: ". . .

/knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings."/

Remember, Timothy, who taught you to cherish the Scriptures and showed you what was in them.

Why should he?

Because that will be an ongoing confirmation of why he should love these writings and "continue in" them.

Who does Paul have in mind?