Confidence: Resolve

Intro

Illustration: Aug. 24, 1572 and the days that followed are known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. It would be the bloodiest week in the history of the Huguenots – French Protestants – and the blackest day in French history.

Leading up to this day, around 1520, Jacob Lefevre translated the first French-language Bible. A literate group of emerging entrepreneurs devoured its early printings, meeting secretly in homes to study. Near the Franco-Flemish border where the Dutch were interspersed with the French, they referred to themselves as “Huis genooten,” which in Dutch is translated as “House oath fellow” and eventually, Huguenot.

The Huguenots were different in three ways. First, they were literate when only the clergy and nobility could read. Second, they were economically independent from the old agrarian feudal systems of land-owning nobles and land-working serfs – most were artisans and business owners. And third, they wanted a participatory Christianity where they could read the scriptures themselves and meditate upon their meaning.

It was a “bottom up” system of Christianity. By contrast, the medieval Catholic Church, with the mass and priests at the head, spoon-fed parishioners what they wanted them to know in a “top down” system.

You can imagine that the Catholic church really did not like them. And so they would send spies out to find them out. “Ratting out” their Huguenot neighbor became a thriving business in France. The typical Huguenot family, due to their business and artisan skills, had a higher per-capita wealth than the average French household.

And the informer received one-third of the confiscated wealth of the Huguenots in question and two-thirds was split between the churches and nobles. This may partly explain why the Roman Catholic Church owned over 40 percent of France at this time.

This went on for 50 years. 50 years of persecution. 50 years of standing firm in the truth of God’s word and the hope that all would one day be able to read it and delight in it.

Was it a lack of faith that they were persecuted? No. It was because they stood on the veracity of God’s Word and not the traditions of men. The story of the Huguenots is marked by unrelenting episodes of harassments, property seizures, tortures, executions, and slaughters.

Their story is marked by unrelenting episodes of harassments, property seizures, tortures, executions, and slaughters.

And on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Frenchmen slaughtered 100,000 of their Huguenot countrymen throughout France – 10,000 in Paris alone. The favorite disposal site, the Seine, the Rhone, and the rivers of France were stained red by the oozing corpses left rotting.

Frenchmen slaughtered 100,000 of their Huguenot countrymen throughout France – 10,000 in Paris alone. The favorite disposal site, the Seine, the Rhone, and the rivers of France were stained red by the oozing corpses left rotting.

Another 6,000 slain downriver in Rouen would have injected the Seine with a fetid ribbon of crimson as it meandered towards the Atlantic. The Loire River valley, so strewn with corpses, brought normally shy and unseen packs of wolves streaming down from their cover in the hills to feed on the freshly killed. The fish from the rivers of France would be unsafe to eat for months.

They were martyred. Seems foolish. All they had to do was to relent. Give up. Concede and surrender. But they would not. They loved God’s Word.

Sometimes I think that we feel that there is some sort of cosmic battle that is waging. For sure, in many churches today we hear about a spiritual war that is waging all around us between angels and demons. But for a believer, we already know one thing to be true. That is that Christ has already defeated satan, death, and sin. He has won. He has already won!

We also know that God is omnipotent. He is all powerful and not even Satan can do anything apart from God permitting it. Think about in Job, Satan entered into Heaven having traveled through the land. That was not a muted way of saying that Satan had fought his way into heaven. Did something change? Did God suddenly lose control? No, He is omnipotent. Christ has already won.

How can we know all these things though? And is it really that important? Ultimately, how we answer that question will decide where we stand on who God is, who we are, how we got here, our purpose in life, and what happens afterwards. You know big questions.

No, He is omnipotent. How can we know all these things though? And is it really that important? Ultimately, how we answer that question will decide where we stand on who God is, who we are, how we got here, our purpose in life, and what happens afterwards. You know big questions.

Some may say, well that really is not important you just need to live your life and try and do good. Things will sort themselves out. Don’t worry about it. And that is true. It is 100% true that it is not important and that we just need to try and do good in this life and just get by…if…if what? If what God has said is not true. If God lied. If what God has firmly and authoritatively revealed in His Word is not true.

But we know that God is truth and so He does not lie, make a mistake, change His mind, or misspeak. As Jesus said it, (Sanctify them by the truth, Your word is truth.) We know that His word is true and so it does matter how we live and what we believe. And we know that we can live with confidence standing on His word.

Illustration: This world is changing. Moral revolution. No truth. etc. Can we trust anything? Why is it that we can devote our lives to an ancient book that is over 2,000 years old. Rob Bell put it, “I think the culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from two thousand years ago as their best defense.”

So we can have confidence. Because we know that God is good. So what are we really concerned about? Is it that we really are not truly resting in Him? Are we forgetting His works and His words? Is it that we are doubting His goodness? Are we doubting His love? Are we doubting God’s Word?

Illustration: This world is changing. Moral revolution. No truth. etc. Can we trust anything? Why is it that we can devote our lives to an ancient book that is over 2,000 years old. Rob Bell put it, “I think the culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from two thousand years ago as their best defense.”

Illustration: This world is changing. Moral revolution. No truth. etc. Can we trust anything? Why is it that we can devote our lives to an ancient book that is over 2,000 years old. Rob Bell put it, “I think the culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from two thousand years ago as their best defense.”

And that is a good point isn’t it? Believers have boldness!!

Why is it that believers do this with such boldness? Why was it that Martin Luther, at the risk of his own soul and life, went against the counsel of the Roman Catholic church to stand on the veracity of God’s Word? Why did John Wycliffe risk his life to translate the Scriptures to the modern English tongue? Why did the apostles and so many other die for this book? Why do missionaries today and underground believers also risk their lives for this book? Why such resolve to stand firm on the truths found in it despite persecution?

So we can have confidence. Because we know that God is good. So what are we really concerned about? Is it that we really are not truly resting in Him? Are we forgetting His works and His words? Is it that we are doubting His goodness? Are we doubting His love? Are we doubting God’s Word?

Body

That does not seem to be a very happy passage. I mean verse 12— “In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Not exactly giving you the warm and fuzzies. And yet, we are told, verse 14 “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed”??? We stand firm in it? Why?

Because we know that God is good. So we have to ask ourselves, what are we really concerned about? Is it that we really are not truly resting in Him? Are we forgetting His works and His words? Is it that we are doubting His goodness? Are we doubting His love? Are we doubting God’s Word?

God’s Word has an origin and God’s Word is Profitable

Origin

It is from God.

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 3

Paul uses the Greek term theopneustos here (meaning “God-breathed”) to assure Timothy that Scripture is, in fact, from God. Although God used people to produce the Scriptures (2 Pet 1:20–21), their ultimate origin is God. By contrast, the false teaching that Timothy opposed comes from evil forces who spread their doctrine through errant teachers (1 Tim 1:3–7; 4:1).

These are not the ramblings of man. They are not readings from the skies. They are not even cute fairy tales. They are the very words of God.

If I were to give you an order, maybe some of you would obey. If your parents gave you an order, i would hope that you would obey. If a policeman gives you an order, it carries some weight. If a judge, even more. If the President of the U.S., even greater. These words, are not from man. They are of God. And so they carry with them great significance and supreme authority.

Those who question the authenticity of the Bible, are not just questioning words in a book. They are questioning God. They are in effect doing what Satan has been doing from the beginning when he asked Eve, “Did God really say?”

Holman New Testament Commentary: I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon B. Paul’s Charge to Timothy (3:10–17)

Admitting to God’s authorship is an acceptance of his authority over every aspect of life. By stating that Scriptures are God breathed, Paul established the Bible’s claim as God’s authoritative Word over all people.

But not only does it have an origin, it is profitable.

Profitable for...

Teaching

We teach correct doctrine.

We teach not just with words though. We teach with correct living.

“teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you.”

We move beyond and

“6 If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed.”

“11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise your youth; instead, you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, w in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.”

The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.”

It teaches us how it is that we may be saved. People need desperately to be taught this.

Rebuking

God’s Word is the standard by which we ought to live. When we deviate, it is to be used to admonish us. To reprove us. But it is also used for those tyrants who seek to twist the Word of God. To use it for their own greedy means. Or those who seek to confuse and distort God’s Word.

This points out sin and confronts disobedience

For such people, it is to rebuke them. They are out of order.

Correcting

This is a much gentler word than rebuke. It corrects and disciplines us. It helps us to grow in a godly behavior.

God’s Word is _____

This recognizes when someone has strayed and lovingly brings them back.

Training in Righteousness

It shows us what is right and what is wrong.

God’s Word is _____

And that is altogether good. It makes us complete and equipped. We are ready. We are not timid. We are bold because God’s Word makes us bold. We study it.

“ 97 How I love Your instruction! It is my meditation all day long.

It is my meditation all day long.

98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.

for they are always with me.

99 I have more insight than all my teachers because Your decrees are my meditation.

because Your decrees are my meditation.

100 I understand more than the elders because I obey Your precepts. ”

How sweet Your word is to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth.

104 I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way.

105: You word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”

Conclusion

We have Confidence before the Lord because of Jesus. We have confidence in this world because we know God’s Word is true. It is also everlasting and always relevant and useful to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us so that we may be equipped.

We are convicted in our hearts but our faithlessness and become more aware of our need to study His word. To love it more.

And we move towards living a life that is truly pleasing God. We have a resolve to face this world standing on God’s good and perfect word.

I want to leave you with one last story and then we will close out this morning’s passage of 2 Timothy.

William Tyndale was born in Wales in 1494 and died in 1536. And His life’s work was the translation of the Bible into English. Even from an early age, he stood firmly on God’s word even if it meant going up against tradition. He would regularly find himself in debates with the local clergy and when they disagreed with him, he would shut them down with the Bible. On one occasion, he was debating with a certain theologian who responded “ We would be better without God’s laws than without a pope.”

Tyndale, with great confidence and zeal burst out and said, “I defy the pope, and all his laws! If God spares my life, it will not be many years before I will cause every boy who works on a farm plowing fields to know more of the Scriptures than the pope does.” And began, he did in translating the Scriptures. And in 1525, he began printing the NT translation, he was disrupted and finished nearly a year later in 1526 after moving cities.

He started distributing the Bibles, and the Bishop there tried to put an end to it. A textile merchant by the name of Augustine Packington met with the Bishop and told him “I can do more to help you in this matter than most of the merchants here, if it would so please you. I know the Dutch men and strangers that have bought Tyndale’s books from him to resell them, so if you will give me the money I need, I will buy every book from them that has been printed and is still not sold.”

The Biship replied“Do your best, gentle Master Packington. Get them for me and I will pay you whatever the cost, for I intend to burn and destroy them all at Paul’s Cross church in London.” And he gave Packington money to buy up all the Bibles.

Packington went to Tyndale and gave Him the money directly instead though and they used it to print more bibles and sent a good number to the Bishop. Due to this, Tyndale was to print 3x more Bibles and get them into London.

But to fast forward a bit, they eventually put Tyndale in prison and on October 6, 1536, God’s first translator of the NT into English was executed. He was tied to a stake, strangled by the hangman to the point of death, and then burned in fire for doing God’s work.

Prior to his execution, he had written a letter to his friend, John Frith, which said “I call God to record against the day we shall appear before the Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would I do so to this day if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches might be given to me.”

This was a man who loved God’s Word more than anything. And was able to stand firm in it, against everything. May we live likewise in the example of those who have gone before. And in the charge from God...