The Disciple's Manual
2 Timothy 3:16-17
A manual as a comprehensive and step-by-step guide on a particular topic for both beginners and experienced practitioners that also serves as a reference book. A manual details what is given and what is required, explains how to put the presented information into practice, and instructs how to solve problems as they occur. Another word often used for a manual is a handbook. God has given His disciples a manual, the Bible. It is our instruction manual. It is our handbook, our guide for life. Things in our lives, our families, our churches go wrong when we fail to follow the manual. James tells us in James 1:21 that we to receive or welcome into our hearts the Bible for it is able to save our souls.
I. The Neglect of the Bible
A. The best-selling book of all time is the Bible. Ninety-two percent of American households claim to own at least one Bible. When Americans reach for their Bibles, more than half of them pick up a King James Version (KJV), according to a new study advised by respected historian Mark Noll. The 55 percent who read the KJV easily outnumber the 19 percent who read the New International Version (NIV). And the percentages drop into the single digits for competitors such as the New Revised Standard Version, New America Bible, and the Living Bible.
B. While 92% may own a Bible, only 9% of Americans read the Bible daily. Among professed Christians that number rises only slightly.
C. Matthew 22:29 " Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God."
D. Neglecting the Bible results in an lack of knowledge of God's precepts.
E. It results in an ignorance of Bible Characters and their stories as given in the Bible. Someone said many don't know Hosea from Hezekiah. There is a susceptibility to erroneous characterizations of biblical people and accounts - e.g. the Hollywood film Noah where "artistic license" deviates from the core Biblical message and replaces it with a modernistic, humanistic and false portrayal of a historical event.
F. Neglect of the Word results in people being ignorant of God's Power. Dr Phillip Paschal, Pastor of Mt Olive Baptist Church, has said, " out of all the words known to man, there is nothing more powerful than the Word of God. Philosophy, with it unending questions, fails in its comparison to the Word of God. Science, with its concepts and fundamental beliefs, does not measure up to the Word of God. If you take all of the prominent speakers from all ages, and compare what they have said to what God has said, their words will be as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. There has never been an individual or group whose words carry more authority than God’s." - Paschal, The Power of God's Word
G. Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
H. Neglect of the Word results in people being ignorant to God's Program. Those neglecting God's Word fail to have a clear understanding of what the Great Commission and discipleship is all about. They become targets of erroneous teachings like the prosperity gospel and the emergent church.
I. Those neglecting the Bible are often, as Ephesians 4:14 states, "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting."
J. The major cause of neglecting one's Bible is misplaced priorities. Matthew 6:33 " But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
II. The Nature of the Bible
A. 2 Timothy 3:16a " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
B. All - that is every individual portion of scripture is God breathed.
C. The Spirit of God rested on and in the writers of our bible and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves, but from the very mouth of God.
D. 2 Peter 1:21 " For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved (borne along) by the Holy Ghost."
E. Over 3800 times the scriptures refer to themselves as the words of God. As such the Scriptures are the voice of God to hearts and souls of men.
F. As the holy inspired Word of God, the Bible is the final standard of truth for all of mankind.
1. Truth - in John 17:17 Jesus Christ referencing the Scriptures while praying said " “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth."
2. The Holy Bible is not just another book, but it is ABSOLUTE TRUTH. It is the only Book in history that "cannot" be proven wrong, because it has never been wrong.
3. Psalm 119:142 “Thy law is truth.”
4. Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
5. The Bible is the believer's only standard of truth. As such it and it alone, is this final authority in all matters of faith and morals.
6. Psalm 119:160 "Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endures forever."
7. The question of the supreme authority of the Word of God is not just some ethereal debate but is the supreme issue. Until you've decided this issue and honestly answered this questions, you're going to be tossed to and fro. Nothing is "of equal value" with the Word of God. It stands supreme. It is the "Supreme Court" of the Christian faith. Tradition may be likened to a lower court, statements of faith to a higher court, councils to a court of appeal. But the Bible itself is the Supreme Court from which there is and can be no appeal. - Copied
8. The Bible is Light
a. Psalm 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
b. Just as a light illuminates the way, provides direction, and allows us to see, so the Bible sheds light on human nature, God's plan for the world, and the correct paths that we are to take.
c. Psalm 119:130 "The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple."
d. "I would rather walk in a narrow way in full light than in a broad way in the dark. The Word of God lights up the Christian’s pathway. How beautifully the electric lights light up the walks in the city park! There is no danger of stumbling. The Bible is a light along the way of life and it lights the way beautifully. Not one step need be taken in the dark. There is light for every step of the way. Sometimes the Christian may think he has reached a dark place, but if he will open his Bible, he will find a light to lighten that very spot." - Charles Orr, The Christian Walk
e. 2 Peter 1:19 "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts"
III. The Importance of the Bible
A. While Word of God made flesh is our source of life, the written word of God is our guidebook or manual for life.
B. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture... is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
C. Profitable - means useful, profitable, serviceable, helpful, beneficial and refers to that which yields advantageous returns or results. - copied
D. Doctrine - refers to the entire body of essential theological truths that define and describe the message and will of God.
E. J C Ryle said "Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved by the Bible."
F. Bible doctrine serves four major purposes:1
1. It tells the truth about the way things are.
2. It responds to the revelation of God.
3. It addresses, interprets, and transforms human experience.
4. It gives believers, as individuals and community, identity and purpose. - McGrath, Alister E., STUDIES IN DOCTRINE, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1997) 237.
G. Reproof - refuting error. The Bible detects and exposes all that is false. Reproof tells you where you are out-of-bounds. It tells you want God wants and expects you not to do. Just as teaching (doctrine) tells you what is right - reproof tells you what is not right.
H. Titus 1:9 "holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
I. We are each individually responsible to allow the Word of God to reprove us…to convict us with the guilt that we are guilty of as the Word of God exposes our faults.
J. Correction - literally means a straightening up again and thus a restoration of something to its original and proper condition.
K. Psalm 119:9 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."
L. 1 John 1:7 - 2:2 " But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
M. That we "may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
N. Complete - proficient to carry out the work God has ordained us to do
O. "Dr. Howard Hendricks once asked a group of businessmen, If you didn't know any more about your business or profession than you know about Christianity after the same number of years of exposure, what would happen? One man replied “They’d ship me!” He was right. The reason God can’t use you more than He wants to may well be that you are not prepared. Maybe you’ve attended church for years, but you've never really got into the Bible so that it could get into you. You were not yet a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." - copied
P. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Q. We cannot fulfill Ephesians 2:10 apart from knowing and following our Disciple's Manual - the Word of God.
