Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Timothy 3:10-17

Acquainted with the Scriptures from Childhood

 

/You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work/.[1]

It would be ideal if parents assumed responsibility to provide religious education for the children God entrusts to them.

Fathers are charged by Scripture to model the Christian Faith before their children, ensuring that their children are brought up in /the discipline and instruction of the Lord/ [cf.

*Ephesians 6:4*].

Likewise, according to Scripture, mothers are responsible to be mothers, above all else providing training in righteousness and pointing their children toward salvation.

While this is the ideal, it is a tragic truth that many parents have tacitly abdicated responsibility for moral and ethical training of their children.

Parents seem content to look to public educators to provide moral~/ethical training, or they seem to simply anticipate that somehow standards of righteousness will arise /de novo/ in their children.

Perhaps this accounts in part for the serious lack of ethical standards witnessed in modern businesses and the failure of contemporary politicians to fulfil their promises.

Churches bear responsibility for this distressing state of affairs.

By levelling such a strong charge, I am laying responsibility at the feet of church leaders.

I fear that we who serve as spokesmen of the Faith have failed to hold parishioners accountable for the biblical standard of the home.

We have permitted this condition to arise through our failure to teach biblical ethics and morals to those claiming this holy Faith.

Under our leadership, churches have rejected discipline, demonstrating neither willingness to apply biblical discipline nor willingness to accept such discipline.

If my children prove to be a benediction to my life, I share in some measure in the training they have received.

Similarly, if my children reject the Faith and choose to walk contrary to godliness, I must be willing to assume some degree of responsibility.

Timothy apprenticed under the great Apostle, Paul.

He learned from the Apostle, not in a formal setting, but through observing and listening.

This method of learning is neglected in this day, but there was a day when every preacher, every physician, every professional and every tradesman, obtained their various skills through apprenticeship.

Because of Timothy’s apprenticeship, the Apostle, in the twilight of earthly days, says of Timothy that he had followed his teaching, his conduct, his aim in life, his faith, his patience, his love, his steadfastness, his persecutions and the sufferings he had endured.

I seek to address two primary issues through this message.

I want to convince each hearer of the necessity of sound instruction in the Faith of Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am also endeavouring to present a strong case for the necessity of biblical instruction through the church, not to supersede the teaching of parents, but to complement parental training and to ensure that those not receiving training in righteousness have opportunity to learn of Christ the Lord.

I want to strengthen the teaching ministry of each parent and of each grandparent through laying a foundation for reaching the next generation with the message of life.

Coincidentally, I seek to strengthen the teaching ministry of this church, and especially to strengthen the teaching ministry of our Sunday School through strengthening the teaching ministry of each member of the congregation.

The Foundation for a Godly Life is Knowledge of the Word of God — Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Every structure requires a foundation if it is to withstand the pressure of the elements.

No less, does an individual require a solid foundation if he will survive the pressures that accompany life.

In this context, perhaps it would be well to recall the story Jesus told about two houses built on two different strata.

Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great [*Luke 6:46-49*].

It is not merely by calling Jesus “Lord,” that one prepares for the pressures of life, but rather it is in actually ensuring that He is the foundation for life that one guarantees survival as the pressures of life come.

Do not be deceived, pressures will come.

Heartache and sorrow and pain will attend the way of each individual in greater or lesser measure.

Should you be one of those rare individuals who do not experience such pressures, you will be tested by the good fortune you experience.

Wealth and the absence of need are every bit as great a test as is injury and misfortune.

Since we have already established that the Word of Lord is the only foundation certain to survive such testing, I wish to press this issue yet further by referring you to the words of the Apostle recorded in *1 Corinthians 3:10-15*.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Lest some are confused by the call to consider what foundation you are building on, I simply remind you that the proper foundation for all life is the teaching of Christ, that is, the instruction of His Word, just as Paul has taught elsewhere.

As an example, consider the following passage in the Ephesian letter.

Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit [*Ephesians 2:11-22*].

Each of the passages just cited, and others that could have been mentioned, attest to one great truth—the teaching of God’s Word is foundational for a godly life.

Do you want to be successful in life?

How do you define success?

Is a large portfolio the mark of success?

Is success a secure position in the labour force?

Is success determined by a name immediately recognised throughout the community?

All these conditions may be a mark of success—if this present existence is all there is; but none of these conditions will survive this life.

At the last, the sole mark of success is to be known by God, commended by Him and accepted into His Kingdom.

If an individual is to make a success of life, the foundation upon which he or she is building must be carefully selected.

If, as the Word of God insists, the teaching of the Word is foundational for a successful life, then we must ensure both that those who preach the Word carefully and correctly handle the Word, and that those who receive the Word as students receive every opportunity to discover the revealed mind of God.

Thus, Paul commends the training Timothy had received during his formative years.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well [*2 Timothy 1:5*].

A mother instructed her daughter in the truths of the Faith, and laid the foundation for that young girl to look in faith to the True and Living God.

That girl grew to adulthood and in turn was instrumental in training her son in the truths of that same Faith she had embraced as a child, and her son was prepared for life when the Spirit of God called him to faith.

Throughout the years of my service before the Lord, I have observed a great truth.

Parents are the most influential person in the life of a child, but their opportunity to influence their children is limited to an incredibly narrow window of opportunity.

An overwhelming majority of individuals who profess the Faith of Christ the Lord will attest that they came to faith in their youth.

Multiple studies and surveys state that an overwhelming majority of Christians come to faith before the age of eighteen.

In a recent sermon, Jerry Falwell, founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, stated, “About 95% of all believers are saved before age 21.

Yet, the average U.S. church spends 2% of its budget to reach teens and another 2% to reach pre-teens.

There are thousands of men and women in education who have dedicated themselves to teach teens.

The church must do the same.

“John Calvin was a pastor at seventeen.

George Whitfield was preaching to great crowds by the time he was twenty-one.

Charles Spurgeon was a famous pulpit orator when he was only sixteen, and became pastor of the great Metropolitan Tabernacle in London at age twenty.

The three Hebrew children and Daniel were all teens when they made Biblical history.

I was twenty-two when I graduated from Baptist Bible College, returned to my hometown and started Thomas Road Baptist Church.

My internship experience was as a youth pastor at Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1953 when I was nineteen...and Kansas City Baptist Temple in 1955 at twenty-one.”[2]

Here are some questions for you to ponder.

What percentage of our budget is dedicated to ensuring an effective teaching ministry reaching out to our communities?

According to my calculations, before changes initiated by our deacons, the percentage allocated for our Sunday School was 1.1% of our budget.

Even with the adjustments we have made, the percentage does not reach 2%.

There is great room for improvement.

What percentage of your time as a parent is invested in teaching your children the deep truths of the Faith?

I assume that you do spend time teaching moral and ethical values, explaining why you do not act in a way that would dishonour your confession of Christ as Lord.

I further assume that you invest time with your children speaking of what honours you as a parent and what is pleasing in the sight of God.

What percentage of your day is spent in prayer with your children?

What percentage of your day is spent in reading the Bible with your children?

What percentage of your day is invested discussing the truths of the Faith with your children?

For far too many of our youth, more time is spent watching television, passively permitting a fallen wicked world in which we are temporarily placed to teach them standards of death.

There is a reason why our children are doctrinally illiterate and there is a reason why few of our youth choose to continue in this Holy Faith after age seventeen or eighteen.