Value of the Word

Value of the Word
2 Timothy 3:14-17
•Good evening, ladies and… ladies
•I would like to thank the Church for giving me the opportunity to be here tonight.
•I feel like this is some sort of great privilege—a land where only few men have ever ventured.
•This is actually the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to speak with my wife as a part of the intended audience.
•So, the topic for tonight is… “How to deal with a completely disorganized and procrastinating husband.”
•Subtitle: “Waiting patiently for him to realize you are right.”
•Actually, my topic for tonight is the Value of the Word—or for the Baptists in the room, the Worth of the Word.
•What’s actually interesting is that this is the same topic I was given the opportunity to share with the men at the Inside-Out retreat last year.
•So, I was able to give my notes a look-over, and see where God has grown my understanding of the importance of His Word in the Christian life.
•I’m actually going to be using the same text as I did for the men’s talk.
•The text is 2 Timothy 3:14-17, and it is one of my favorite portions of Scripture in the entire Bible—particularly when it comes to speaking for the Bible itself.
•2 Timothy was Paul’s last letter written with urgency to his most beloved son in the faith Timothy.
•Timothy, according to Chapter 1, verse 8, had begun to grow ashamed of the Gospel and its chief messenger, Paul.
•Apparently, he was growing fearful of the persecution that comes along with being a Christian preacher, particularly displayed in Paul’s impending execution.
•So, Paul writes one last letter to Timothy to strengthen and encourage him to remain strong in the things that he had learned from Paul since the beginning of his ministry.
•In Chapter 1, Paul reminds Timothy of the message which he has been given to preach to the Churches.
•Paul, in Chapter 2, likens Timothy to a soldier who is loyal to his chief, an athlete who competes according to the rules of the game, and a farmer who remains hard at work until harvest time.
•He then encourages Timothy to be strong in the Word of God, and alerts him of things which he avoid (and also the things he should be pursuing) if his ministry will be pleasing to God.
•In Chapter 3, Paul gives Timothy a stern warning of what types of people he would be dealing with, and also what would happen to some within the church.
•In contrast to this list of sinfully deceived people, Paul gives Timothy the reminder that he was not like those men.
•Timothy had followed Paul’s teaching from the very beginning. Timothy had seen Paul’s example of ministry.
•Finally, in the passage before us, Paul reveals the power behind his ministry.
•So, in Chapter one, Paul spoke with Timothy about the message, in Chapter 2 about the mission, and Chapter 3 about the power behind the ministry.
•(Sorry, I couldn’t come up with another “m” word there. Maybe the “missile” behind the ministry?)
•So, at this point, you’re wondering then, “OK, so it’s good for ministry, but I’m not in Pastoral ministry.”
•If that is what you are thinking, I hope that by the end of the evening, I will have been able to show you the personal application of the Word of God for your life.
•So, with that context setter, let’s look at 2 Timothy 3:14-17, which reads,
•“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.” (ESV)
•Ok now I know that I read verses 14-17, but I’m actually going to start from the ending and work backwards to the beginning.
•The reason I’m going to do that is because I have come to see this passage as picturing an enormous tree full of life.
•The way I have divided it will hopefully show you what I mean.
•In the second half of verse 16 and verse 17, we could call that the fruit of the tree.
•Verse 16a contains the trunk of the tree.
•And finally, verses 14-15 show us the root of the tree.
•So, I’m starting with the fruit so that once we get a taste of the good fruit which the Word of God provides, we will then go deeper and look at the thick trunk which holds the fruit, and the life-giving roots which support the sustaining power of the fruit.
•Ok, so with that analogy in place, let’s get a taste of the fruit of the Word.
•Verse 16b-17 form the fruit portion of the tree from this passage.
•Verse 16b-17, again says that Scripture is “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.”
•Here are listed four fruits of the Word of God, which will lead to full competence and being equipped for every good work.
•We will take a look at each of these fruits and then look at some others which are found in other portions of Scripture as well.
•The first of these fruits is “teaching.”
•Your translation may say, “Doctrine”—which is a big, scary word which means the same thing as “teaching”.
•Here the term teaching is referring to the truthful teaching which the Bible provides.
•In opposition to the teachers which Paul referred to earlier in Chapter 3, who “oppose the truth,” Paul wanted Timothy to know that he had been given “true truth,” as Francis Schaeffer called it.
•Timothy had been given a book which would teach him the truth, and we have this same book today.
•Today we are surrounded by people who ask “What is truth?” or make the statement, “There is no absolute truth!”
•What Paul is telling us here is, “Yes! There is absolute truth, and it is found in the Scriptures!”
•Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God proves true.”
•But not only does it teach us about truth, it teaches us specific truths.
•We learn what is true about God through the teaching of the Word of God.
•We learn from verses such as Isaiah 6:3, which says, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,” that God is a holy God.
•This means that He is, as Habakkuk put it, “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.”
•We also learn that God is love, from I John 4:8 which says, “God is love.”
•These would be things that the Bible would teach us about God.
•The Bible also teaches us about man, in verses like Ephesians 2:1-4, which says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
•Romans 3:23 says that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
•So, we see that the Bible teaches us the truth about God and man.
•Now, sometimes when we are reading our Bible, we will come across a truth which will clash with our presuppositions.
•Say, for instance that I believed, like I John 4:8 says, that “God is love.”
•That is true.
•But let’s say that I believed that to the exclusion of anything else.
•So, one day, I’m reading through the Psalms, and I come to Psalm 5:5, which says, “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.”
•Well, if God is love, then certainly He can’t hate, right?
•Well, we’ve come to a decision here, either the Bible is right, or I am right.
•Let me give you a hint on what the answer is when you come to difficult decisions like this one—the Bible is never wrong. (I hope that helps.)
•You need to taste the second fruit listed here—reproof.
•Reproof is a fruit which tastes very bitter at first.
•Reproof occurs when your belief or behavior is wrong.
•So, I think that God is only love, and yet God hates all evildoers.
•Well, God must have only hated them back then.
•No, because Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus, who was God, “is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
•So, how do these two verses harmonize? We will see this when we get to the root.
•Reproof also deals with behavior though.
•When someone wrongs me, I’m often mad at that person for a while, and my thoughts are—well, not generally that friendly toward that person.
•That’s ok every once in a while, right? I mean it’s not like I’m killing them or anything.
•But then I read in Matthew 5:21-23, “INSERT VERSES HERE”
•So, then, that means that not only is murder wrong in the eyes of God, but hatred and name-calling are wrong too.
•I’m quite sure I have used names far worse than “fool” to insult others before.
•So, then, is the Bible wrong, or am I wrong?
•I don’t think that my angry thoughts are that bad, but Jesus said they are bad enough to earn God’s judgment as sin.
•Who is wrong here? (Remember the hint from earlier.)
•I’m in need of reproof.
•Like I said, this is a very bitter fruit—at first.
•But once you have eaten it, it tastes very sweet.
•As we realize the areas where we are wrong according to God’s Word, and begin to seek to correct those wrong areas, we will see that God’s way of action leads to a truly “better” life.
•When you stop getting angry at everyone who offends you, you will find that those people are less “annoying” to you. It then becomes easier to pray for those people.
•This leads us to the third fruit listed in the passage: correction.
•This is another “bitter-sweet” fruit.
•The Bible not only tells us in what areas we are believing and behaving wrongly, but also tells us what we should believe and how we should behave.
•This often goes hand in hand in the New Testament.
•Colossians 3 gives a list of things that we are to “put off” as Christians, and then a second list of things which we are to “put on.”
•Correction here, according to John MacArthur, could speak of, “righting a fallen object, or helping back to their feet those who had stumbled.”
•So, Scripture does not just tell us we’re wrong, it also helps us to understand what way we should be going.
•Another rebuke and correction parallel would be the contrast in Ephesians 5:18, where Paul says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”
•Again, this is a bitter-sweet fruit.
•I don’t like to hear that instead of being angry at my enemy, I should love my enemy and act kindly toward them.
•But when I act in obedience to God’s Word, I learn patience toward others and experience the clear conscience which comes with obedience to God.
•You know, it’s almost as if God knew the best way that things were meant to work when He created this universe.
•So, as we continue to learn the areas which we have been believing and behaving wrongly, and find ourselves corrected by the Scriptures, we will find ourselves eating of the fourth fruit—training in righteousness.
•This training—speaking in the same terms as raising a child—is meant to be speaking of our growth in righteousness.
•We are trained in right living by applying the teaching, rebuke, and correction the Scripture offers us.
•We are made more practically righteous by our obedience to the Scriptures.
•This is how we grow as Christians.
•We read the Scripture, we are challenged by the Scripture, and we apply the Scripture.
•It’s easy to say—it’s impossible to do, unless rightly approached.
•Ok, so we have seen the four areas listed in this passage as fruits of the Word of God.
•But there are several other ways in which the Scriptures benefit our daily lives.
•For one, Ephesians 6:17, calls the Word of God a sword, while speaking of the armor necessary for the Christian life.
•This book is the main defense against the attacks of Satan—and it is all we need.
•For the ultimate example of the power of the Word of God, we can look at Matthew 4, where Jesus uses Scripture to refute the temptations of Satan.
•Jesus didn’t use human intellect, “No, Satan, this temptation doesn’t make sense.”
•Satan could have easily refuted this argument. “Sure it does. You’re hungry, and all I’m asking you to do is make some bread.”
•Jesus also didn’t appeal to human emotion, “No, Satan, I really don’t feel like disobeying God right now.”
•If that were Jesus’ response, Satan could have changed the way He was feeling easily by saying something like, “Hey, come on, don’t be so down on yourself. God must not love you if He’s letting you starve out here in the desert. He must have deserted you. Don’t you think you deserve the care of the one you have obeyed all of your life?”
•But Jesus didn’t respond with either of these.
•He responded to all three of the listed temptations—and doubtless there were more as He was out there for 40 days being tempted—by quoting Scripture.
•He quoted Scripture verses which dealt specifically with the temptation offered by Satan.
•He didn’t just fire off, “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”
•No, He quoted verses which were specifically aimed at the temptation He was facing at the moment.
•We can learn a great deal from that when we face the temptations of Satan to do evil.
•All that Ephesians says we have as a weapon is the Word of God.
•But it also says that all we need to be prepared to do is to stand.
•Peter says that if we will resist the devil, he will flee from us.
•All we need to do is have Scripture ready to take aim at the temptation, and as we stand strong behind the wielded sword, Satan will be forced to flee as he is battered by the truth of Scripture.
•Another benefit of the Word of God is that it teaches wisdom.
•Proverbs 1 begins, “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction”
•Here is a whole book dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom, and at the beginning, it says that the purpose is that wisdom will be attained.
•Psalm 19:7 says, “the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple”.
•Even in this passage, it speaks of being “wise for salvation.”
•The Bible’s use of the word “wisdom” means not just knowledge, but knowledge applied.
•The Bible teaches us wise principles, and as we put them into practice, we gain wisdom about how we should live our lives.
•And these are just a thimbleful of the ways that the Word of God benefits our lives.
•These are just a taste of the fruits which this tree produces.
•But for now, I hope this has given you a taste of the good fruit of God’s Word.
•Now, let’s take a look at the tree stump.
•On a tree, the trunk is the big middle section which supports the tree’s weight.
•The trunk of the tree is what protects the life-giving nutrients flowing from the roots to the fruit and leaves.
•This portion, I believe, would best be summed up in Verse 16a, which says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God”.
•This is a hugely, ginormous amount of power packed into a tiny, miniscule phrase.
•“All Scripture” speaks, in Paul’s mind, of the Old Testament, which Timothy would have been accustomed to hearing read since his childhood.
•Paul calls them the “sacred writings” in verse 15.
•However, Scripture is not just limited to the Old Testament—obviously as Christians we believe this.
•These are not just “cleverly devised myths” as Peter says.
•The God of the Universe has spoken!
•As I once heard John Piper say, (although with a passion that I haven’t been able to match yet!), “God Almighty has spoken. It can’t be boring!”
•God has revealed Himself through this Book!
•And because He Himself is perfect—therefore, we believe that His Word is perfect too.
•This is known as both inerrancy and infallibility.
•Infallible means it can’t make an error on the whole, and inerrant means it doesn’t make an error in the parts that make up the whole.
•These things that are written in this book are true!
•I know that when Glen shared, he did some apologetic defenses of the Bible, and I’m thankful for that—I love apologetics.
•I mean, I would believe it if none of it really made sense to me—I mean, if every issue had that tension like the “how does prayer work if God is sovereign?” question.
•But there is just something reassuring about knowing that God has not left us to take a “blind leap of faith.”
•The Christian faith is the most reasonable belief system, and the Bible is the most believable book there is!
•Let me give you my favorite Biblical apologetic for the truth of the New Testament.
•As I said earlier, Peter says that they didn’t just make this story up.
•Let me read you a passage from 2 Peter 1, and then I’ll give you my favorite “proof” for the New Testament.
•“I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.“
•“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
•Now, did you notice the part where Peter said that he is about to be “putting off” his body soon?
•Please realize that he did not mean there that he was about to die of old age.
•No, He is about to die by, according to Church tradition, being hung upside down on a cross.
•As the story goes, they wanted to crucify him, and he told them to turn it upside down because he was not worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.
•Does that sound like a story teller to you?
•I mean, I have told my share of false stories—“No, Mom, I have no idea how those holes got in the ceiling. Oh, this broom in my hand? Well, you see, what happened was that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles broke in and started doing karate moves all over my room, and then the bow staff kept getting stuck in the ceiling, and then they jumped out the second story window right before you came in here.”
•Now, I’m going to stick with that story, because that’s what I came up with.
•But if my mom’s response was to bring out a cross and some nails, my response is not going to be, “Um, yes, but upside down please.”
•Yet, that’s what people want us to believe that Peter did.
•Come on, that doesn’t make sense at all!
•Peter was not dying to protect some “power struggle” message meant to dominate and oppress people.
•I don’t think he’d go that far just to get power—he wouldn’t be there to enjoy it!
•And not only was Peter martyred, but the rest of the disciples died martyrs’ deaths as well.
•I believe John was the only one not to be killed, and that was only because after they had tried to boil him alive, he still hadn’t died.
•So they shipped him off to an island and let him die of old age.
•These were the messengers of the New Testament, willing to die for the sake of the message, and not one of them recanting and confessing that it was a lie—because they all knew it was true!
•So, then, why doesn’t the world believe that this is God’s Word then?
•That question brings us to the root of this beautiful tree.
•The roots are the life-giving portion of the tree.
•I know I said earlier that the trunk holds the tree up, but it is actually the roots that dig down deep and secure the tree in place.
•And let me tell you, these roots are deep.
•The root of this tree can be found in verses 14-15.
•Verses 14-15, which read, “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.”
•This is the root of the whole passage in my opinion.
•Some may say that verse 16 is the root, but I would say that this section would be root-ier than even verse 16.
•See, this passage shows us the root of all Christian belief and growth—the Gospel.
•The Scriptures teach us the Gospel.
•Some of you, like myself when I have read this passage in the past—even when I taught this passage to the men—would say, “Yes, I see, the Gospel is the root because it starts our Christian growth.”
•And in a sense, yes, that’s right.
•The Gospel is the beginning of Christian growth.
•And the Scriptures are where we find the Gospel.
•The Scriptures are where we find truths such as Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
•A little ways down the Romans road, we find in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”.
•We also find shortly after that Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death”.
•Even in the Old Testament, Paul’s primary meaning behind “sacred writings,” we find verses such as Ezekiel 18:4, “The soul who sins shall die.”
•It’s also in the Old Testament where we find the Ten Commandments, which Paul says are meant to be a revealer of sin.
•We see that we have broken God’s Holy Law, and that because He is Holy, we can’t enter into Heaven while still tainted with sin.
•We need someone to pay our sin debt for us—enter Jesus.
•“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
•Jesus said in Mark 1:15, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
•Good news, that’s what Gospel means.
•Good news that we don’t have to pay our sins’ fine.
•Christ has paid the price for our sin, and we can enjoy eternal life with Him when we die.
•That is the Gospel.
•This is the message of the Christian faith.
•But so often I think that is where it gets left—at the beginning of the Christian faith.
•The Gospel is something we believe in to get our sins forgiven, and then we don’t really have to worry about it until we cash it in when it’s time to go to Heaven.
•But I don’t think that is how the Apostles saw the Gospel, and I don’t think it is how we should see the Gospel either.
•Look at Romans 1 with me, if you have your Bibles.
•When I heard this preached, it was life-altering.
•Paul, writing to the Romans says the following in verses 13-17 of Chapter 1, “I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
•“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
•Two things I want to bring out of this passage.
•First, who is Paul speaking to in this passage?
•Romans 1:7 says that it is addressed “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints”.
•Now, to me, that sounds like he is talking to Christians, am I right?
•But look at what he says in verse 15, “So I am eager to the Gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
•Why is he wanting to preach the Gospel to those who are already loved by God?
•Verse 16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
•Second thing I want to point out is right here.
•What does Paul say that the Gospel is the power of God for?
•“Salvation”?
•They already are Christians, aren’t they?
•Why is he wanting to preach the Gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, to those who are already saved?
•It seems a bit redundant, doesn’t it?
•It is, unless we understand that by “salvation” here, Paul isn’t talking about “conversion”.
•Paul doesn’t mean that the Gospel is the power of God for conversion—he means that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation—the whole process of salvation.
•I’m sure you have heard this many times, and I’ve heard Pastor Randy say this occasionally something to this extent.
•There are 3 phases to the salvation process—at Conversion, God dealt with the penalty for our sin; Currently He is working in us to eliminate the power of sin; and in the future He will eliminate the presence of sin.
•Now, what is constant throughout that whole process up until the end?
•Sin.
•Sin remains until in the end God destroys it.
•Now, when you put your trust in Christ, does that make sin disappear?
•Do you stop being a sinner?
•If you said “yes,” you are lying and you are showing that you’re still a sinner.
•Tell me, who is the Gospel good news for?
•So, what has changed about your need for the Gospel?
•Nothing! Until you have sin eliminated in your life by death or Christ’s return, you still need the Gospel!
•There is nobody who needs the Gospel more in your life than the person who stares at you in the mirror in the morning!
•There is no one who needs to hear verses such as these as people who still have remaining sin in their life.
•2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
•I Peter 2:24-25, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
•Colossians 1:11-14, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
•I would urge you, ladies, to memorize these verses because they speak so clearly what the entire Bible was written to proclaim to us—that our sin has been put on Christ, and His righteousness has been put on us.
•It is only by remembering this that we will continue to run back to Christ every time we fall on our faces due to some foolish decision that we make.
•Otherwise, we will try to make up for it with our own righteous deeds—which God sees as filthy rags, according to Isaiah 64:6.
•So, how does this give life to the fruit on the tree?
•It is the sustaining power for the fruit of the tree.
•The Gospel is the only thing powerful enough to sustain continuing movement in the right direction.
•I’ve been listening to a preacher named Tullian Tchividjian lately (say that 5 times fast), and he has been the one who has really solidified this concept for me that the Gospel is for Christians too.
•He said, quoting someone whom I can’t remember right now, that “the Gospel is not simply the ABC’s of the Christian life. It is the A-Z of the Christian life.”
•If you have ever worked with a VBS program, then you know you’re still a sinner.
•You also know that many programs will use the ABC method of evangelism with children in order to make it simple for them to understand.
•A-admit that you’re a sinner.
•B-believe that Jesus is God’s Son sent to die for you
•C-confess that Jesus is your Lord and Savior
•What this quote is saying is that we shouldn’t just stop there. We should keep going.
•D-develop a deeper understanding of what Jesus did for you.
•E-enjoy the fellowship that comes with being a part of Christ’s body.
•F-find more words that can illustrate the Christian life (apparently that’s where I ran out of ideas)
•I think you see the point.
•The Gospel is not just about getting people converted, it is about seeing them saved from sin—whether it is the penalty of sin or the power of sin—until they are ultimately delivered from the presence of sin.
•It is only the Gospel which makes obedience to God’s Word possible for any long period of time.
•I mean, I could guilt you into reading the Bible for probably a week or so.
•“You really should read your Bible more.”
•“Suzie reads her Bible for 3 hours a day, while her children are napping and she’s making the dinner and doing the dishes—all at once.”
•That might make you think, “I should be more like Suzie.”
•Of course it could make you think, “Suzie’s lying,” but that’s not the point.
•I could guilt you into reading the Bible because you should read the Bible more.
•Or I could approach it like this—God has revealed Himself to you in this book. God, who is Holy and Sovereign, whom you have offended by breaking His Holy law, is revealed in this book. God, who, instead of giving you the just punishment you deserved for your sins, took off His judge’s coat and put on human flesh so that He might be cursed, beaten, mocked, and crucified in your place is revealed in this book. God, who offers you mercy and forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf, is revealed in this book.
•Which of these options sounds like a better motivation to read your Bible?
•Which of these brought back to your memory every day will continue to sustain your diligent study of the Word?
•The Gospel!
•It is the Gospel which sustains our obedience, and it is the Gospel which will cause us to come before God immediately when we have failed Him—not hiding and covering ourselves with fig leaves—but coming out into the open and exposing our sin to God.
•To which He responds, “You are forgiven, because I made my Son to receive the punishment for that sin on the cross.”
•I would also contend that it is the Gospel which brings us to trust in the trunk of the tree—that God has given us His perfectly infallible, inerrant Word to sustain us every day of our lives.
•Is this not a comforting message to those who still struggle with sin?
•Is there anything better than this message to those who have felt the brokenness of this world because of sin?
•This message is enough to sustain any hurt felt by the presence of sin in this world.
•It is enough to sustain one through even the most difficult times, because it is a message of hope---that God will remake this world one day and destroy the presence of sin!
•No more death, no more rebellion against God, no more apathy toward the things of God.
•No more finding out from the doctor that your daughter has had her umbilical cord knotted and wrapped around her neck and has died while still in the womb. (which is what happened to my wife and I)
•The Gospel has the power to sustain us through these types of tragedies because the Gospel offers us the story of a God who has given us more than just eternal life—He has given His life to offer us eternal life.
•That is a powerful message.
•Thank you ladies.