2 Timothy 3:16-17
The Unchangeable, Irreplaceable, Timeless Word of God
Introduction - Memorized scripture @ Hanoi Hilton
When Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked, stripped naked, and imprisoned. For the next seven years he endured brutal treatment. His food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fat --- skin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days in his own waste with carniverous insects boring through his oozing sores. How did he keep his sanity?
In his book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Rutledge gives a powerful testimony as to the importance of scripture memory. Some excerpts follow:
“Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak solitary confinement there was no pastor, no Sunday-school teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God, and so I had to go back in my memory to those Sunday-school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If I couldn’t have a Bible and hymnbook, I would try to rebuild them in my mind…
“How I struggled to recall those scriptures and hymns! I had spent my first eighteen years in a Southern Baptist Sunday school, and I was amazed at how much I could recall. Regrettably, I had not seen then the importance of memorizing verses from the Bible, or learning gospel songs. Now, when I needed them, it was too late. I never dreamed that I would spend almost seven years (five of them in solitary confinement) in a prison in North Vietnam or that thinking about one memorized verse could have made the whole day bearable.
“One portion of a verse I did remember was, ‘Thy Word have I hid in my heart.’ How often I wished I had really worked to hide God’s Word in my heart. I put my mind to work. Every day I planned to accomplish certain tasks. I woke early, did my physical exercises, cleaned up as best I could, then began a period of devotional prayer and meditation. I would pray, hum hymns silently, quote scripture, and think about what the verse meant to me.
“Remember, we weren’t playing games. The enemy knew the best way to break a man’s resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell. In other words, some of our POWs after solitary confinement lay down in a fetal position and died. All this talk of scripture and hymns may seem boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us.” (Excerpts from Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, & Quotes, Robert J. Morgan, Pp. 57-59)
God’s Word radically changes lives through Jesus Christ. Let’s examine the first aspect of God’s Word.
We see...
THE VARIETY OF SCRIPTURE 16a "All scripture"
The Word is Intellectual
It has history, poetry, & prophesy. It details the past without any error and predicts the future without any mistakes. It describes in prose and poetry every situation in life. The elite can’t understand it but the simple lives for it.
It is Emotional
The Word describes our anxieties, depravity, pride, humility. It encompasses and understands our every emotion in life. God has already been there and knows our situations.
It is Spiritual
God exposes our sinfulness and provides His righteousness through Jesus Christ. It is THE ultimate book on our spiritual lives.
Ill – WWII & Jacob DeShazer
Mitsuo Fuchida was the pilot in charge of one of the most successful aerial attacks in recorded history. Under his command was a squadron of 860 specially selected pilots, & on Dec. 7, 1941, Fuchida’s squadron bombed Pearl Harbor.
He quickly became one of the most highly decorated pilots in the Japanese air force, & the one most hated by the American forces. That included Jacob DeShazer, a young B-25 bomber pilot who longed for the day when he would be able to pay Japan back for what they had done.
One day that opportunity arose as DeShazer became a part of the very first bombing raids over Japan. But after dropping his bombs on the city of Nagoya, DeShazer lost his way in the heavy fog & was forced to bail out when his plane ran out of fuel.
He was quickly taken prisoner, & for almost two years, DeShazer suffered from hunger, cold, dysentery, & watching his fellow prisoners die. And the more he experienced this treatment the deeper his hatred of the Japanese grew.
Then, in 1944, someone gave DeShazer a Bible. He started at Genesis & read on & on, barely sleeping. And by the time he had come to the Book of Romans he had surrendered his heart & life to Jesus as his Savior & his Lord.
Immediately Matthew 5:44 became a crucial challenge to him, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you & pray for those who spitefully use you & persecute you.”
Because of it DeShazer’s attitude toward his Japanese guards began to change. His hostility evaporated & every morning he greeted them warmly. He prayed for them & sought to witness to them. Slowly their attitude toward him also changed & some of them even began bringing him extra food & supplies.
Finally, the war was over & DeShazer was free. Returning home he studied for the ministry & decided to return to Japan as a missionary. After establishing a church in Nagoya, the very city he had bombed, he wrote a pamphlet entitled, “I Was a Prisoner of the Japanese.” It wasn’t long until thousands of Japanese wanted to see & hear the man who could forgive & love his enemies.
Meanwhile, Fuchida, the Japanese hero, had come out of the war a very disillusioned man. He went back to his farm, but because of his wartime commission he was often called into the city to testify at the war crimes trials.
On one of these trips he was handed a pamphlet - the pamphlet DeShazer had written. Fuchida read it & reread it, & despite being a firm Buddhist was intrigued enough to buy a Japanese Bible.
He was especially affected by the words Christ spoke upon the cross when He prayed, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24).
Then he met DeShazer, & it wasn’t long until these two men, who once were sworn enemies, became the best of friends & brothers in Christ. And Fuchida became a great evangelist in Japan & throughout the world. (Adapted from the internet)
We also see...
THE VERACITY OF SCRIPTURE 16b "is given"
The truthfulness of God’s Word is seen in it’s Accuracy
God’s Word has never been disproven historically, geographically, or in archeology. Yet it speaks more in soteriology about the nature of man and his need for a Savior.
The truthfulness of God’s Word is seen in it’s Authenticity
It has God’s stamp of approval upon it. From the calling of Abraham in establishing His covenant, God has provided the Lamb of God (Jesus) for us.
The truthfulness of God’s Word is seen in it’s Authority
It is more than authoritative. It is the innerrant, infallible, verbal, plenary Word of God. Jesus came to do more than just heal people. Luke 19:10 states He came to seek and save those who are lost...He came to save people like you and me.
Ill - The Truth about Truth
“It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, then falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail do declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It’s better to stand-alone with the truth than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better to ultimately succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie.” Adrian Rogers (Quoted in The Berean Call, Dec. 1996)
The we see...
THE VITALITY OF SCRIPTURE 16c "By inspiration of God"
We discover His Inspiration in the Word. "God breahthed"
It is the breathe of God that is poured out to us through His Word. 2 Peter 1:20-21
We discover His Preservation of the Word.
It is the hand of God that keeps it safe. No one can add to or take away from God’s Word without divine consequences.
We discover His Revelation in the Word
It is the mind of God that is revealed to us. He wants us to know Him. Wow! What a pleasure it is to have the joy of knowing God!
We discover the Transformation in the Word
Here is the heart of God. He desires changed hearts through His power...Jesus!
Ill – The Bounty’s Bible
The English ship Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, journeyed to the South Pacific in 1787. Many signed on considering the voyage a trip to paradise. Bligh appointed a young friend, Fletcher Christian, to the post of second in command. The Bounty stayed in Tahiti for 6 months and led by the happy go lucky Fletcher Christian enjoyed paradise to the fullest. On April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian staged the most famous mutiny in history. He and his mutineers set Bligh and his supporters adrift in an overloaded lifeboat.
The mutineers aboard the Bounty immediately began quarreling about what to do next. Christian returned to Tahiti, where he left some of the mutineers, kidnapped some women, took some slaves, and traveled with the remaining crew a thousand miles to uninhabited Pitcairn Island. There the little group unraveled. They distilled whiskey from a native plant. Drunkenness, disease, and murder took the lives of all men except for one. John Adams, a.k.a. Alexander Smith, found himself as the only man on the island surrounded by an assortment of women and children.
Then an amazing change occurred. Adams found the Bounty’s neglected Bible. As he read it, he took its message to heart, then began instructing the little community. He taught the colonists the scriptures and helped them obey its instructions. The message of Christ so transformed their lives that twenty years later, in 1808, when the ship Topaz landed on the island, it found a happy society of Christians living in prosperity and peace, free from crime, disease, murder --- and mutiny. Years later the Bible fell into the hands of a visiting whaler who brought it to America, but in 1950 it was returned to the island. It now resides on display in the church in Pitcairn as a monument to its transforming message. (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, & Quotes, Robert J. Morgan, Pp. 53-54)
Finally, we see...
THE VALIDITY OF SCRIPTURE 16d-17 "is profitable...that the man of God may thoroughly equipped for every good work"
The Word does four things showing it’s validity or "workability".
Teach
It shows what is right. Christian parents should live their lives in a way that makes them a living example of God’s Word.
Rebuke
It shows what is wrong. We correct our children by disciplining them in a godly manner. Jesus shows us how to do that in Revelation 2 & 3 by pointing out the positive and then correcting the negative. This also applies to church members. We are all a part of the body of Christ which carries accountability.
Correct
It shows how to get it right. The Bible is more than a guide but it does show us what to believe and then how to act upon that belief. (Ephesians 1-3 Knowing and Ephesians 4-6 doing)
Train
It shows how to stay right. The pattern has been established in God’s Word. We then live in a way that is pleasing to God.
Ill – Was Popeye Right?
The cartoon character Popeye is famous for eating spinach. Whenever he breaks open a can of spinach and eats it he gains enormous strength. So, Popeye was employed by the US Government during World War 2 to promote the idea of eating spinach. Meat was a rarity during war, but spinach appeared to be a great substitute. In the 1890’s German scientists had shown that spinach contains the same amount of iron as meat. And iron of course is one of the essential vitamins in building strength. But the facts are wrong. The German researchers did prove that spinach contains iron, but when they wrote down their results they put the decimal point in the wrong place. They overestimated the amount of iron in spinach by a factor of 10! Unfortunately, the correction didn’t get across the ocean until after WW2. This episode shows how easily false ideas can quickly become accepted truth. By Karl Kruszelnicki’s abc.net.au/science 5-24-2001
Truth will never have a wrong decimal place in it. It will always be right. Jesus is The Truth. Through Him is no other way of salvation.
