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God Breathed-Out Speech
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Text: 2 Timothy
3
Purpose of 2 Timothy: Pastor
to pastor conversation about the importance of the Word in an age of
Word-denying people, even in the church.
Illustration: Elders
meeting/presbytery meeting to watch well-trained, wise and godly men,
Biblical teachers/preachers as they search out and determine the truth of
what God’s Word teaches.
Wisdom is to be
gained from those who are quick to listen to God-breathed out speech.
1) God-breathed
out speech to convict, reveal, and remove godlessness.
2) God-breathed
out speech to create and develop godliness.
3) God-breathed
out speech to train and develop competent Christians.
1)
Context/Purpose:
Timothy called to shepherd congregation at Ephesus but he has fears, doubts, youth…against
false teachers questioning the truth and his authority to preach it (2
Timothy 1:7; 2:1, 15, 22ff).
a.
How is he to
be a godly pastor? Teaching the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:15; 3:12ff; 4:1ff).
b.
Application: Ministers declare to the sheep, submitted to
Christ’s Word. (Apostolic succession in the sense of faithfulness to
God’s Word and to passing down the truth that one has received).
c.
Ministerial
authority is declarative, not inventive.
2)
Why
should the Word of God be prominent? In the “last days” people will turn away from sound
doctrine, sound teaching, and suit their own selfish desires and whims and
buy into the lies of the devil, or the twists of the truth to suit their
selfish needs (define ‘Last Days’ from Acts 2:14ff), the period
of Peter, Paul, John and “us” and all those until Jesus
returns.
a.
Application: Difficulty with mere external religion in the
congregations (2 Timothy 3:1-9).
Merely “going through the motions” formality.
b.
These
attributes and traits of the Last Days are also found in the church (v. 5)!
2 Timothy 3:1-5 do not merely describe “the world” but the
church as “the world” influences her, or how the world got into
the church.
i.
List begins
and ends with a “misdirection of love” (Knight, pg. 430). This misdirection of love and not loving
God and man lead to the other sinful characteristics. [“lovers of
self” (begins) compare with “lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God” (ends list)].
ii.
Notice the
contrast in 3:5 between “the outward form” of Christianity and
the “true power” of Christianity.
God-breathed
out speech to convict, reveal, and remove godlessness.
c.
Revelation
3:1-6: "And to the angel of
the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven
spirits of God and the seven stars. "'I know your works. You have
the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up,
and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your
works complete in the sight of my God.
[What are they to do?]
3 Remember, then,
what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a
thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet
you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and
they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one
who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot
his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father
and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit says to the churches.'
3)
What to
do then as a congregation under the hearing and preaching of the Word of
God? Remember the teachings of
Scripture changes hearts, minds and lives (2 Timothy 3:10-19).
Hebrews 4:12-13:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to
the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning
the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is
hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to
whom we must give account.
4)
Paul’s
teaching (Scriptures)à Life (“life and doctrine”). Orthodoxy à Orthopraxy
(“right teaching leads to right living” the inverse is also
true: “false teaching leads to false/wrong living”).
Paul’s faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions and
sufferings to make the Word of God known.
5)
Sufferings
for Christ (2 Timothy 3:12)- Resistant people, hard hearts (vv. 2-3)- -mere
external godliness “without power” or “denying the power
of God” (v. 5). Self-centered,
greedy, proud, etc.
6)
What to
do? Persevere in teaching the Word of God- -it is able to make one wise for salvation through faith in Jesus
(v. 15). Paul is saying you have
seen the fruit of the teaching of the Scriptures in your own life, trust
that God will also allow the teaching of the Word to go forth in
God’s congregations and not return void, but bear much fruit- - fruit
that will last to eternity.
Not ingenuity or inventiveness or striving to find the help in
oneself, but in the Holy Scriptures.
God-breathed
out speech to create and develop godliness.
7)
Why is
the teaching of the Word of God useful? It is God-breathed out [qeo,pneustoj] and therefore is good and useful or profitable
for changing hearts and making one mature in Jesus (internal religion of
the heart):
i.
Teaching
(doctrine) [didaskali,an]
ii.
Reproof
(rebuking) [evlegmo,n]
iii.
Correction
(straightening) [evpano,rqwsin]
iv.
Training in
Righteousness (discipline) [paidei,an th.n
evn dikaiosu,nh| ]
i
and iv- positive aspects of the God-breathed out speech; ii and iii-
negative aspects of the God-breathed out speech.
“creed and conduct”/ doctrine and life: NEB: “for teaching the truth and refuting
error…for reformation of manner and discipline in right
living.”
v.
Thoroughly
equipped for every good work in the service of God.
a.
“Everything
we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3ff).
b.
You have all
the truth and power that you need through God’s Word by His Spirit.
God-breathed out speech to train and develop competent
Christians.
And he gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no
longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow
up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from
whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it
is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so
that it builds itself up in love.
CRB
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