The transcript of a sermon on 2 Timothy 3:14-17 has been lightly edited for ease of reading.
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Please take your Bibles if you have them and turn with me to Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Today we are going to be in 2 Timothy 3, excuse me, verses 14 through 17, as well as considering here and there our Scripture reading from earlier that we read about creation and the Word of God in Psalm 19. So if you have your Bibles, please follow along as I read from 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 14.
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have heard it, you learned 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.”
Let’s pray.
Living God, help us to hear your holy word, so that we may truly understand, so that through understanding we may believe, and in believing we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
Today we are going to begin our study of the Apostles’ Creed with the first of three introductory sermons. This week we’re going to consider the nature of God’s revealed word, how God reveals himself both in nature and in Scripture. Next week we’ll seek to answer the question, “If we have the Bible, why do we need creeds and confessions?” We’ll touch on that briefly this week.
And then the following week we’ll do our best to consider the doctrine of the Trinity. If you look at the Apostles’ Creed, if you look at the Nicene Creed, you’ll notice that it is divided up, both of those are divided up into three distinct sections. In the Apostles’ Creed, which we which we proclaim frequently, the first section starts out with, “I believe in God the Father Almighty…”
The second section starts out, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son.” And the third section begins with, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” They are Trinitarian documents, and so we will briefly consider, to the best of our ability, the doctrine of the Trinity and to see how these creeds are organized along those ways.
But before we do consider the actual creeds and confessions, it’s important for us to study what the foundation is for those creeds and confessions. And the foundation for those creeds and confessions is the Word of the Lord, is the Bible. These creeds, these confessions are presented as summaries of what Scripture teaches.
And so we need to understand what the Bible is so that we can judge the confessions and creeds to be faithful or unfaithful to the Scripture. Creeds and confessions do not supersede Scripture. They are not the authority over Scripture.
Scripture is the authority over the creeds and confessions. And so we must have our foundation secure. So this week we are going to consider the doctrine of God’s revelation.
It’s not just the last book in the Bible. It’s an entire doctrine that teaches how God reveals himself to the world. We need God to reveal himself because he is infinite.
He is the creator. He is powerful. He is all wise.
And we are not. He must accommodate himself to us to reveal himself to us so that we can understand who he is, what he expects, how we are to live and what we are to believe. And so our study today of how God has revealed himself will begin with general revelation, how God has revealed himself in nature.
Then we will consider special revelation, which is how God reveals himself in the Scriptures, in the Word. And then finally, we will briefly consider the purpose of the Bible.
GENERAL REVELATION
So first, general revelation.
What do we mean when we say general revelation? When we say general revelation, we are talking about how God shows himself to humanity in general, in the created order. In Romans chapter one, Paul says, beginning in verse 18, he says,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
When you and I look to creation, when you and I look at the skies and the stars, the sun, the moon, the plants, the animals, when we look out across the expanse of everything that is created, we should see God and his glory and his power. Many of you, many of my local friends, many family members from around the country have been posting pictures this week of the northern lights and just the beauty that is in those northern lights. And as you begin to understand what has to happen for the northern lights to be seen, number one, in the north, but even in the south, it starts at the sun.
It’s not just a display that is here within the limits of what we can see. This beauty, this power, this majesty of the of the northern lights is something that that encompasses the solar system. And we should see the beauty and the majesty and the power and the grace and the glory of God as we consider creation.
We see the power of God. Over the last three weeks, we’ve seen the extraordinary power of two major hurricanes. And without downplaying the hurt and the destruction that came in the wake of those storms, we can look at those storms and realize that they are revelations of God’s power.
And they could have been worse because God did place his restraining hand upon those events. Nature also reveals God’s faithfulness to us. Nature seems so chaotic at times.
But if you look at the rhythms of nature, you’ll see that there is a faithful, repetitive cycle to nature. Noah, God told Noah that as long as season followed season, as long as summer followed spring and fall followed summer and winter followed fall, that Noah would know, we could know that God is faithful to not destroy the world again by flood.
Jeremiah, as he is watching the nation of Israel be carried off into exile, God says, “Watch the sunrise, watch the sunset. As long as that continues, you can be sure that I will be faithful to offer salvation to my people.”
Nature also, as Paul reminds us in Romans one, nature also reveals God’s judgment to us. God told Adam and Eve that if sin entered creation, that death would follow.
We know that it did not follow immediately. That was a grace giving humanity an opportunity to repent. But it still follows. Death is not the way it is supposed to be. But it reminds us that God judges sin.
The doctrine of general revelation should give you and I a greater appreciation for everything that God has created. Since it reflects his glory, since it reflects his majesty, since it reflects his power, we should appreciate it. We should revel in it. We should worship when we see the things of nature.
One of you recently has been sending me pictures of dew covered spiderwebs pointing me to the beauty and the order that is seen in those things. Even something as insignificant as that should point us to worship God and to appreciate what he has given to us, to take care of what he has given to us so that it might better reflect his glory and his power. These glimpses of beauty should move us to praise and worship.
I truly believe that one of Satan’s tactics is to so distract us with the busyness and the repetitiveness of life that we miss God’s majesty in creation. Make sure you’re taking time to appreciate what God reveals to you in the world. That’s general revelation.
SPECIAL REVELATION
Next, we have special revelation. If you notice when we talked about what God has revealed of himself in nature, we see that we are left at the dead end of judgment. Paul said, we know enough about God to know that we are without excuse in his face, in his presence.
And so we need to know more about God. He has given to us special revelation that takes us beyond judgment and ultimately offers us salvation.
Now, you and I don’t typically walk around calling special revelation, well, special revelation. We know special revelation specifically as the Bible or Scripture or the 66 books of the Old and the New Testament.
But whatever you call them, God’s special revelation is the account of God’s creation of the world, helping us put categories and understanding to what we see in creation. We need both to help us understand each one. But it’s only as we see God revealed, especially in Scripture, that we begin to understand fully what we see in general creation, general revelation.
We also see the account of mankind’s fall into sin. Genesis 3 reminds us that mankind was placed in the garden, was given rules to live by, tasks to complete, and rather quickly they failed and gave in to defining life in their own way rather than letting God, who had created all things and infinitely knows what is best for humanity, rather than letting him set the agenda.
Scripture goes on from there to teach us of God’s work of redemption, salvation that is accomplished by Christ Jesus and applied to us by the work of the Holy Spirit. And special revelation goes on to teach us that final consummation of God’s kingdom will occur when Jesus returns.
The Bible helps us to understand in clear terms what we see in creation and it points us beyond that to the means necessary to be saved from the judgment that we find ourselves under.
The Bible teaches us that it is a special revelation from God. It teaches us this in multiple places, but we’re going to focus mainly on what we see in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Look with me again at verse 16. It says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” Your interpretation, your translation of the Scriptures may say “All Scripture is inspired by God.”
What does this mean that Scripture is inspired by God? Well, within conservative theological circles, there are two main views on the inspiration of God. The first is that God just grabbed a hold of the prophet and dictated word for word, sense for sense, absolutely everything that he wanted written down. That the human author had no power in this at all.
The other view, which is called organic inspiration, is very similar, except it allows the personality of the author to come through. So Luke was a doctor who did a lot of research to put together historical documents. And so Luke and Acts reflect Luke’s personality.
David was a poet. And so most of the book of Psalms reflects David’s personality as a shepherd poet. We see, we learned about in Sunday school today that one of the prophets, Micaiah, recorded for us in 1 Kings 22, lets a little bit of sarcasm show up in his words to King Ahab, signaling to King Ahab that he needed to dive a little deeper into the prophecy of Micaiah.
We see Paul’s brashness show forth in his letters. And so we have the personality of the authors in these books without losing the God-directed truth that is written down for us in these words, in their original form. And so that is important for us to understand.
We see it in 1 and 2 Peter 1. We see it in the book of Hebrews, talking about the prophets being moved along by the Holy Spirit. But it’s important for us to build our foundation upon something that is secure. This is God’s word breathed out for us by God, the God who cannot lie, the God who does not change as he reveals himself to us in Scripture.
And so we can be sure that when we build our lives upon the foundation of God’s truth, we can be sure that we are safe in what and how we seek to live. It’s important for our study of creeds, and I’m lumping confessions into this study as well because the confessions have come out of the creeds in certain ways, shapes, and forms. It is important for us to make sure that those are built upon the foundation of the word because it is God’s truth that matters.
While creeds are typically shorter summaries of biblical truth than confessions are, we still evaluate them and change them if necessary if we find they are in conflict with the Scripture. The ARP affirms the Westminster Confession of Faith with the larger and shorter catechisms as our summary of biblical doctrine, but even those are subject to the scrutiny of Scripture and should constantly be studied, should constantly be looked at in light of the Scripture references that are given so that if we find something that is in conflict with Scripture, it can be changed and brought more in line with Scripture. And so we see that the Bible is God’s special revelation of himself to humanity for redemption and salvation.
THE PURPOSE OF THE BIBLE
So why do we need God to reveal himself specifically to us in the Scriptures or, more importantly, to answer the question, to ask the question, what is the purpose of the Bible? Well, we see that in verse 14 and 15 of 2 Timothy chapter 3, and we see it in the second half of verse 16 and 17. He says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from who you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”
The first purpose of Scripture is to lead us to salvation.
From Genesis 3, where God promised redemption to Adam and Eve after their fall into sin, after their being given the consequences for rebelling against God, God made a promise to them, and he said, “I am going to set things right, and I am going to remove the serpent who has tempted you, even though the seed of the woman will be hurt in the process.” And from then on, we see God’s allowing people to develop into communities, into cultures, into cities, into nations, and to in many ways live according to their own wants and desires, but all the time drawing people to himself, choosing a people for himself so that he could establish the line from which Jesus would come. All of history presented to us in the Scriptures drives to that point at Calvary and at the tomb where Christ dies and is risen again.
Scripture’s first purpose is to teach us how to find salvation from the judgment of God. Oftentimes, we blame Adam and Eve for our sin and for our judgment. And yet, if we’re honest with ourselves, we make the same choice they do day in and day out.
We say we know better than God, and we will set the agenda for our lives rather than allowing God to lead us according to his wisdom, his goodness, and his love. Yet the punishment for our sins, if we embrace the work of Jesus, that judgment that should have fallen upon us fell upon the cross. That is the first purpose of the Bible, is to lead us to repentance, to faith, and to salvation.
And then the second purpose of the Scriptures is to lead us beyond that point. The rest of verse 16, “All Scripture is…useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” How do we live in light of the fact that God has offered and given us salvation? That’s what the word of God is there for.
It’s there to teach us how to live in a way that brings honor and glory to God. It can’t save us if we follow the teachings. It’s a reaction to us being saved by the work of Jesus.
It teaches us how God expects his people to live. And that’s a very important qualification there, how he expects his people to live. We do not call the world to holiness. We call them to repentance and then teach them holiness.
Secondly, it rebukes us. Rebuke is that showing that we probably have, not probably, that we have something wrong and it needs to be corrected.
Read through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five through seven and you’ll see Jesus say in this pattern, “You have heard it said, but I tell you,” in other words, “ou think the law applies in this way. And so you’re living very narrowly, a very narrow holiness. But let me show you a broader holiness, which you are missing the mark of.”
That rebuke there touches our hearts and leads us to repentance, to turn from those ways and to seek to live in more holy ways. As you walk longer, going through the process of learning from the teaching and finding the rebuke through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will see that some of those rebukes go deeper than just your actions. They will pierce into your heart attitudes. They will pierce into your desires, your false loves.
Beyond rebuking, we need correction. And so the Scripture provides that correction through the power of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t only show us where we have gone wrong. It shows us where the correct path is so that we can follow according to God’s ways.
And lastly, as kind of a summary statement, it trains us in righteousness, not a saving righteousness, but a righteousness that grows out of a heart changed by the work of the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
So we need God to reveal himself to us because we cannot find him on our own. So he reveals himself in the majesty, the beauty, the order of creation, and he reveals himself in his word. Creed’s confessions are summaries of what the Scriptures teach, and they are necessary summaries for what the Scriptures teach.
We’ll touch on this a little bit later next week, but if somebody asks you, as a Christian, what do you believe? You have two choices. You can give them kind of your own version of the Apostles’ Creed, or you can start in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, and not stop until you get to Revelation chapter 22, verse 21, I believe it is, 21 or 22, whatever that last verse is. Those are the choices before you, or some version of those things.
We need summaries of the sound doctrine of Scripture because we need guidance in how we interpret Scripture. We need guidance in how we explain Scripture, but those things are summaries of God’s breathed-out word, and so we must not forget the foundation upon which those creeds and confessions are built. It is important for us to understand and to scrutinize, to examine those creeds and confessions according to Scripture, because this is God’s word, which as Paul says in Romans chapter 1, which is powerful for salvation.
And so, brothers and sisters, as we consider the Apostles’ Creed moving forward, we will do so in light of what the Scripture teaches about each of the statements. So make sure you know your word. Make sure you trust in what God has revealed of himself in this word.
Let us pray. To the great God above, we do thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in the Bible. We thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in creation, and we ask that you would open our eyes by the work of the Holy Spirit to see you more clearly in creation and in the Bible.
And Lord, help us to evaluate our beliefs. Help us to evaluate our statements of belief according to the word that you have given to us. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As you go this week, take this blessing upon you: Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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