Introduction

Listen to what the Barna Research Group has said:
1 out of 4 Americans can correctly identify John 3:16.
1 out of 5 Americans can correctly define the Gospel.
1 out of 3 Americans read their Bible regularly.
1 out of 3 Americans believe in a literal Hell.
4 out of 10 Americans cannot name half of the 10 Commandments.
4 out of 10 Americans cannot name one of the four Gospels.
Only 1 out of 10 Americans can identify the Great Commission.
4 out of 10 Americans believe that Jesus sinned.

I have included a copy of our entire Confession of Faith statement in the bulletin this morning. Keep it in your Bible after the morning message because I will be referring to it in the future. Listen to what the first article of our own Confession of Faith states:

We believe in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as verbally and plenarily inspired by God, inerrant in the original writings, and that they are the supreme and final authority in faith and life.

This morning I would like us to focus in on one passage:

2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Pray!

Application:

All Scripture is God-breathed

Verse 16a All Scripture is God-breathed;

We need to get to know the truth of the entire Bible – not just the easy to understand parts. 2 Timothy says, “All Scripture is…useful to teach us what’s true.” Not just the easy-to-understand parts or the ones we like. All of it. We all have favorite parts of the Bible that we read over and over. Most of us know Psalm 23 and John 3:16. But do we know Amos. Do we know Obadiah. God gave us the entire Bible to teach us and transform our lives. We need to get to know all of God’s truth. Start with the easy parts, but eventually we need to work towards knowing even the hard parts. Remember that our statement indicated that we believe in the plenary inspiration of the Word. Plenary means “all”. Indicating that we believe the whole Bible, all of the words, are inspired.

In some of the commentaries I read, the writers were emphatic to point out the what Paul was saying was that it is the Old Testament that is God-breathed. While others pointed out that while Paul’s primary reference was to the Old Testament, much of the New Testament writings were complete by that time and that these writings should also be included within the scope of being inspired by God.

Along with being plenarily inspired, we also believe that it is verbally inspired. Now let’s look at the second part of the first section. The King James and other translations render the passage “inspired by God” - All this is expressed in the original Greek by one word - Theopneustos. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means, God-breathed - from Theo, meaning “God,” and pneo, meaning “to breathe, to breathe out.” The idea of “breathing upon, or breathing into the soul,” is that what the word naturally conveys.

Look over at 2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. The idea is, that in what they spoke they were “carried along” by an influence from above. It is literally God breathing into the writers that which He wished them to write. God did not control their hands but worked within the culture and personality of the writer.

Jeremiah 1:9 Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.”

Ezekiel 3:4 Then He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak My words to them.

How is it useful

2Ti 3:16b and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

How is the Bible useful or better translated “profitable” to us. As believers we value it as profitable for all the purposes of the Christian life. The passage points to 4 specific things that it is good for.

Teaching (Doctrine) - Keeps us from error, it may be used as the perfect textbook to present the systematic teachings of the great truths relating to God himself. Notice that in all of the sections of our Confession of Faith statement each one is backed up by various passages of the Bible, not by any outside source. This means that at the heart of all our teaching, whether here from the pulpit, or in Sunday school, or in small groups, or in Awana, or in youth group, is the Bible.

Reproof - Greek elengmos. Here it is best translated as, “convincing;” that is, convincing a man of his sins, of the truth and claims of Christianity. Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart. No creature can hide from him, but all are naked and helpless before the eyes of the one to whom we must give a word of explanation.

William Barclay in his commentary on 2Timothy relates this story. One dark night in a forest in Sicily a robber held up a clergyman at the point of a revolver. The clergyman was ordered to light a bonfire and burn his books. He lit the fire and then asked if he might read a little from each book before he dropped it into the flames. He read the twenty third Psalm from one; the story of the Good Samaritan from another; from another the Sermon on the Mount; from another 1Corinthians 13. At the end of each reading, the robber said, “That’s a good book, we won’t burn that one; give it to me.” In the end, not one book was burned. The robber left the clergyman and escaped into the darkness with the books. Years later the same robber turned up again, this time as a Christian minister, and it was the reading of the books that he attributed the change in attitude.

As I said earlier, we have to accept and adhere to the whole Bible. We can not say, “that this passage is too convicting I just won’t read it.” Or “that doesn’t apply to me so I can just skip that part.” Or “Its too boring.”

Correction - Keeps us from failure, it will then show us the right way. The word here used - epanorthosis - again this word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, “a setting to right, reparation, restoration,” (from epanorthoo, to right up again, to restore); and here means, the leading to a correction or amendment of life - “a reformation.” The meaning is, that the Scriptures are a powerful means of overhauling a man’s character, or of putting men into the proper condition in regard to morals. After all the means which have been employed to reform mankind; all the appeals which are made to them on the score of health, happiness, respectability, property, and long life, the word of God is still the most powerful and the most effectual means of recovering those who have fallen into moral decay. No reformation can be permanent which is not based on the principles of the Word of God.

Training in righteousness - Man needs not only to be made acquainted with truth, to be convinced of his error, and to be reformed; but he needs to be taught what is right, or what is required of him, in order that he may lead a holy life. D.L. Moody once said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge. The Bible was given to change our lives.”

We need to ensure that the Word does not just stay up here in the mind, but that it travels the 18 inches to the heart. It has to be more than mere head knowledge. We need to apply it to our everyday lives, let it transform us, so that others truly see a difference, not just in what we say, but what we do.

Why is it useful

2Timothy 3:17 so that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Be complete - The object is not merely to convince and to convert people; it is to furnish all the instruction needful for their entire completion. The idea here is, not that any one is absolutely complete, but that the Scriptures have laid down the way which leads to completion, and that, if any one were complete, he would find in the Scriptures all the instruction which he needed in those circumstances. There is no deficiency in the Bible for man, in any of the situations in which he may be placed in life; and the whole tendency of the book is to make him who will put himself fairly under its instructions, absolutely complete.

Thoroughly equipped - God's Word provides all the necessary details which will allow a Christian to become fully equipped for every good work. Lets turn over to 1Peter 3:15 Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope.

Think of a soldier going out to battle without all his equipment. This would be unheard of.

Challenge and Conclusion

The Bible does us no good of it just sits on the shelf collecting dust from Monday to Saturday. We need to be reading, studying and digesting it on a daily basis. Allowing it to speak to us and let it transform our lives that we too may be complete and thoroughly prepared to face life and engage those that do not believe as we do.