Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Title: The importance of studying God’s Word
Introduction
Today we want to look at the importance of studying God’s Word; the Bible.
Our text is found in 2 Timothy 3:14-17
What we are about to read here in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 are some of the Apostle Paul’s final words.
“But as for you, continue in what you have learnt and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learnt it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
When it comes to the importance of studying God’s word there are 3 things that stand out for me from our passage. 3 things all of us have to have when it comes to the study of God’s word.
1.You and I have to have Conviction
2.You and I have to have Commitment
3.You and I have to have a Bible
Since #3 is a given I want to spend this time on what it means to have Conviction and what it means to have Commitment.
When it comes to the importance of studying God’s word
1.We have to have Conviction
2.We have to have Commitment
We see this in the very first verse of our text.
“But as for you, continue in what you have learnt (Commitment) and have become convinced of, (Conviction)”
Conviction and commitment go hand in hand
•We commit to our convictions
•Our convictions are…all the things we commit too.
Again when it comes to the study of God’s Word we have to have Conviction and we have to have Commitment
Question: Which of the 2 comes first? Conviction or Commitment?
“But as for you, continue in what you have learnt (Commitment) and have become convinced of, (Conviction)
I think that Conviction comes first. Commitment comes second.
Commitment follows conviction.
Too often we make the mistake of putting commitment first.
How often have we said to ourselves…”I need to commit to studying the bible more.”…
Truth: We are not going to keep our commitment to studying the bible more if …we don’t first -have strong convictions about it!
We can’t study the bible out of guilt –we have to study the Bible out of conviction.
Let’s look at Conviction
There are 2 convictions found in our passage
2 convictions I have to have if I’m going to be serious about studying the Bible.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
1.We have to have conviction about what the Bible is
2.We have to have conviction about what studying the Bible can do for us
1. What is the Bible?
There are probably a thousand different opinions out there on what the Bible is.
But the correct answer according to our text is that “All scripture is God- breathed”
What does that mean?
Every word that the human authors of the bible wrote down was given to them by God.
Here is what the Apostle Peter said about the bible.
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Peter 1:20-21
God prompted the original thought in the mind of the writers
God then guided their choice of words to express such thoughts
Lastly He illumines the mind of the reader of such words in a way that the reader potentially may comprehend the same truth as was originally in the mind of the writer.
How many of us wish God would speak to us?
He has! He has spoken to us through His Son and He has also spoken to us through His scriptures.
Is it your conviction that the Bible is God’s infallible word to us?
Statistic: About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word.
If this is not our conviction then we will never see the importance of studying it.
But if it is our conviction- We do see the importance of studying it.
Then secondly we have to have conviction about what studying the Bible can do for us
Again our text tells us what studying the Bible can do for us
…”and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
1.First of all it makes us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus
2.It helps us to be thoroughly equipped for every good work
I love that phrase “able to make you wise for salvation”
Reading the Bible doesn’t save us….
but what it does do is it -makes us wise for salvation.
It tells us why we need to be saved and it tells us how to be saved.
It tells us that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God- that’s why we need to be saved.
It tells us how to be saved…
We are saved through faith in Christ Jesus
By grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is a gift of God.
Why was the Bible given to us?
It was given to us so that we might know how to be saved.
Charles Spurgeon who was to become the Billy Graham of the 19th century for the first 14 years of his life didn’t know how to be saved.
Then in January 1850. Seeking refuge from a severe snowstorm, Spurgeon ducked into a Methodist chapel. He was 15. The snow had kept the minister from the service, but a parishioner was reading from Isaiah 45:22 "Look upon me and be saved." …In that moment, Spurgeon later recalled, he decided to give himself over to God's work and suddenly felt better. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, 'Trust Christ, and you shall be saved."'
Secondly the bible helps us to be thoroughly equipped for every good work
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
The Bible was given so that we could be saved and that after we are saved -we could be sanctified.
The bible teaches us. It rebukes us. It corrects us. It trains us in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Trying to live the Christian life without the help of the Bible is like jumping out of a plane without the help of a parachute.
When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness – Jesus responded with Scripture.
He said to Satan… it is written
….Why do we need the Bible… when we have the Holy Spirit?
We need the Bible in order to discern what the Holy Spirit is telling us
If we think the Holy Spirit is telling us to do something and it contradicts the Bible it’s not the Holy Spirit
So having Conviction means I believe that the Bible is God’s word and that it helps me to be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
But it’s not enough to just have the conviction that the Bible is the word of God and that it helps to equip us for every good work.
I must also have Commitment
Commitment must follow Conviction
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned“ (Commitment) and have become convinced of, (Conviction)
Continue in what you have learned…
Continue means to remain, abide, dwell…
We have the conviction… but we don’t always have the commitment…
We begin to read the bible and that commitment ends somewhere in Leviticus or Numbers.
So where do we get the necessary commitment from?
Again I think our text gives us the answer
“But as for you, continue in what you have learnt and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learnt it,
You learn commitment from having the support of others
God wants us to help each other to be more committed to the reading and studying of God’s word.
You might say…well I’m already committed to the reading and studying of God’s Word. Great!
You now need to help someone else to be as committed as you are.
You need to be looking for a Timothy to help.
But most of us here would if we were honest…say I need the help of others to be more committed in reading and studying God’s Word.
Conclusion: In January 2012 we are going to launch a church-wide reading of the Bible. We will help each other as we read through the Bible together. The name of the Bible reading program is The Essential 100 Challenge.
