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Sermon preached on 2 Timothy 3:14-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/06/2023 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Acquaint Yourself with the Sacred Writings
Today at our annual church open house, I wanted to bring a passage and sermon that communicates what we are all about. This seems to be a fitting category. Our church is part of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the “OPC”, and our congregations have longed embraced the slogan, “Where the Bible is sincerely believed and faithfully taught.” We care deeply about Bible and its teachings. We believe it to be foundational for our faith and how we live out our Christianity. This passage clearly expresses this. So then, today we’ll study this passage in three points. First, we’ll consider what it says about the Bible in general. Second, we’ll look at what it has to say about making us wise for salvation. Third, we’ll see the call for discipleship that is here and its implications for our church here in Petaluma.
Let us then begin in our first point to consider what this says about the Bible in general. Observe with me in verse 15 that it refers to the sacred writings. That’s a reference to the Bible, and it’s a bit of a colorful way to refer to it. Think about that word “sacred”. The Bible is sacred. The word in the Greek is similar to the word for “temple” and “priest”. It is word that is closely connected with the idea of something that is religious and holy, something used in connection with the worship of God. There is nothing secular or common about this word for sacred. An atheist would have no use for the word “sacred”. The Bible is bound up with divinity. That makes it special and set apart. It’s why we treat the Bible with reverence. As verse 16 will go on to spell out, it is inspired from God himself. While human authors have been involved in the compiling of the Bible, the words are ultimately revelation from God. That is what makes the Bible so sacred, because it is not ultimately an invention of man but a message from God.
Yet, verse 15 tells us not only that the Bible is sacred, but that the bible is written down. When it speaks of the sacred writings, we observe the obvious truth that the Bible is written down. This is the etymology for the word “Scriptures”, by the way. The word “Scriptures” is from the Latin and means “writings”, like the Greek word here in verse 15. The Bible is not only inspired revelation from God, but it is also recorded in writing for us.
While this is an obvious truth, don’t miss its importance. God in his providence has revealed himself through different prophets and apostles over an extended period of time. As that revelation has been received, it is has been compiled down in written form in this collection of books we call the Bible. The fact that these inspired revelations were actually written down helps immensely. God thought there was a value in having them actually written down. Of course, the alternative to writing them down would be for them to be merely passed down through oral tradition. We can immediately imagine the dangers with that versus the value of actually writing it down. It’s so that God’s truth can be accurately preserved for posterity.
In fact, when we read here about these sacred writings we recognize that there have been times where people have tried to claim an oral tradition over that which was written. This was the case, for example, during the time of the New Testament. There were those Jews of the sect of the Pharisees that held not just to the Bible’s teachings but to an oral tradition they claimed was passed down from Moses. Yet, Jesus rejected their oral tradition and said it was just the doctrine of men. In a similar way during the Middle Ages, there were some among Christendom that claimed to have an oral tradition from the apostles, but the Protestant Reformers rightly rejected that as well. The Bible teaches us that when claims of oral tradition try to supersede the written Word of God, we must hold fast to what is written.
So then, in this first point, I want you to understand that our church holds a very high view of the Bible. At Trinity, it’s these sacred Scriptures that are the foundation to what we believe and teach. Our generation has the sacred trust to safeguard them for the next generation. The church is not to invent new doctrines but pass on what we’ve received in the written Word. The church is called to do this from one generation to the next until the day that Christ returns and brings this age to an end. That is what we are seeking to do here at Trinity. If you come to Trinity, you can expect that we are going to be teaching God’s Holy Word.
Let us now turn in our second point to consider what this passage has to say about becoming wise for salvation. This is the language of verse 16. It is saying that the Bible is what is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Bible is a big book, and it has a lot of different things it can teach us, and we try to study it all. But the most important message it conveys is what we call the gospel, AKA the “good news”. This is the message that we can be saved from eternal damnation by turning from ours sins and looking to follow Jesus Christ in faith. This isn’t just one message you can find in the Bible. It’s really the central, overarching message of the entire Bible.
You see, the Bible teaches that God made this world good, and made man to be like God on this earth. But the Bible records how our first parents rebelled against God and plunged all humanity into a state of sin and misery. We find ourselves then in this world as fallen sinners, people who naturally want to live for ourselves instead of God. But we also find that God has put a curse on this world to remind us that rebellion against him does not pay. If we remain in a state of such rebellion, we will ultimately find an even greater punishment in the afterlife. The Bible teaches that after this life, the punishment of hell awaits those who have not been reconciled to God. That is meant to scare us, and it is true. But the good news is that God so love the world that he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into this world, to save us from our sins and reconcile us to God. Jesus came and died on the cross, bearing God’s wrath in the place of all who would turn to him to find forgiveness and grace. The Bible teaches us that if we confess our sins and turn to Jesus in faith as our Savior and Lord that we will be saved from God’s wrath to come. Instead of knowing eternal damnation in the afterlife, if we are saved in Christ, we will know an eternal reward instead.
Coming back to our passage, Paul says that it’s the Bible that is able to make us wise for such salvation. Let me address that world salvation here because sometimes it gets used in different ways. Sometimes you’ll hear a Christian speak of their salvation in the past tense. They might say, “I went to church last Sunday, heard the gospel, and became saved!” That’s a common way we speak of salvation. But there is also a present and future sense that is also true too. When someone first becomes a Christian, we are saved, in the sense that we have become reconciled to God. Before we were not in good standing with God, but when you become a Christian he forgives you of your sins for Christ’s sake, and you are declared to be in right standing now before him. But then as you live as a Christian, God is at work in your heart and life to be renewing you. While the Christian life begins with God forgiving you of your sins, he doesn’t want us to be sinners for eternity. So, the Christian life is one where God is at work to renew you in what he always intended for you to be, someone who is not a sinner but a saint. Yet, that work is not complete until after this life, either when we die and go to be with him, or when he returns to bring this age to a close. In our final state, we become fully restored people. Think of someone who has an old classic car that is in disrepair. They then work and work on restoring that car until it is fully restored. That is what we will be at the end in glory. We’ll be fully restored, and that is when our salvation will be fully complete.
So then, let us appreciate that God uses the Bible in this. It says the Bible is able to make us wise unto salvation. From start to finish in what God does to save us, we find God using the Bible in the process. God uses the Bible to teach us about who he is, and who we are, and our need of salvation. It’s in the Bible where we learn about the gospel, God’s provision for salvation in Jesus. It’s in the Bible where we learn about the call to respond to the gospel with repentance and faith. It’s in the Bible where we learn about God’s holy laws that teach us how he would have us to live. It’s in the Bible where we learn of how God has been at work in the past. And it’s in the Bible where we learn of what God will yet do in the future. These and more are things about our salvation and we learn of them in these sacred writings so that we can believe in them. God by his Holy Spirit uses the Bible to convey these truths to us.
Let me pause and clarify. This is more than just about knowledge. Yes, the Bible teaches us the knowledge of salvation. But as it says here, the Bible is able to make us wise for salvation. Think of the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Someone could know a lot of things but not be very wise. Wisdom takes knowledge and uses it for good purposes. Apply that to our salvation. It’s not enough to just know about Jesus and God’s plan of salvation from the Bible. We have to have a personal, saving faith that has come to truly know Jesus and his salvation. We need not just knowledge but wisdom when it comes to salvation. We need to truly come to saving faith in Jesus. This word “wise” helps explain that salvation is more than just information we know. And so, while we in the OPC really love doctrine, we know it’s not about the doctrine itself. It’s about knowing Christ through that doctrine. It’s about becoming wise for salvation where God has, is, and will, save us from our sins and bring us to glory as shiny fully restored humans made in God’s image.
That brings us to our third point for today, to see this passage’s call for discipleship and its implications for our church. This passage begins in verse 14 with Paul speaking directly to Timothy. He says, “As for you.” Christianity is personal. Faith in Jesus, learning the Bible, going to church – these are not impersonal things where you try to keep God and his people at arm’s length. No, this faith calls you to respond in discipleship. Paul calls Timothy in light of the false teachings out there, to press in all the more on that foundation that he has already received in the Bible as a disciple of Christ.
See how verse 14 puts it so wonderfully. “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed.” When we try to define true, saving faith, we say that it requires three parts, knowledge, conviction, and trust. You need all three parts for your faith to be truly saving faith: knowledge, conviction, and trust. Well, we see these three parts of faith right here in verse 14. Verse 14 speaks of “what you have learned” – that’s the knowledge we need to have learned to have faith in Jesus. It speaks of coming to “firmly believe” – that’s the conviction that we need to have. Our faith needs to really believe these truths about Jesus. Verse 14 says to “continue” in these things, well, that’s that “trust” idea. The word “continue” could also be translated as “abide” or “remain”. It’s about going all in on Jesus, and God’s Holy Word, and never leaving that. You build your whole life upon Christ. You put your hope for everything in Jesus. Because you have been convinced that Jesus alone has the words of life that you so desperately need. And those words have been written down right here [in the Bible], for our sake.
Notice that Paul speaks of how these are things that Timothy has been already acquainted with since childhood. In Acts 15, we learn that Timothy grew up in the church. He would have learned God’s Word all his life. Right here our pew Bible says since “childhood”, but the word means infant or in some contexts even babies still in the womb. In other words, from the very beginning of his life, Timothy has been learning these things and growing in them. All his life he has been getting wiser in matters of his salvation. And that has happened by the Word.
But notice in verse 14 Paul tells Timothy that Timothy knows from whom he’s learned these truths. That is an interesting albeit vague statement because Paul doesn’t tell us here who the “whom” is referred to. But what we know of Timothy, we can point to a few people that he learned the sacred Scriptures from. Most recently, Timothy had been learning them from Paul. But Paul mentions Timothy’s childhood and well, back in chapter 1, there it speaks of the faith and spiritual heritage Timothy had received from both his mother and grandmother. There is that classic proverb of wisdom, Proverbs 22:6, that says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Timothy had this from birth. And surely, he had other pastors and teachers along the way. So, do you see how this works? Timothy could learn God’s Word all his life because of the people in the church who have helped him to learn it.
This is what we do here too at Trinity. We have disciples of all ages. From birth to glory, we have people all along the way. Each of us is simultaneously a student as well as people that will help others learn and grow too. Obviously the more mature in the Lord will especially help guide and train others. Paul in fact here is counseling Timothy and they are both church pastors. But each of us are together supporting one another in the church. And the church is a place for us to be learning these sacred scriptures that are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
If you are visiting today, I invite you to become a part of this church ministry. This is a place for serious discipleship. Maybe you are already a Christian but are looking for a church that is serious about learning God’s Word and living it out. I invite you to consider Trinity to become your church home. And if you are not yet a Christian, if you have never turned and put your faith in Jesus, this is a place where you can learn how to do that. You can informally begin that new life in Christ today by calling upon Jesus as your Lord and Savior to forgive you of your sins. And we can lead you to ultimately formalize that relationship with Christ by being baptized into his church. We offer a Membership Class that prepares people to formally profess their faith and be baptized.
And for our current members, I pray this message is a reminder of the importance of Bible-based discipleship. When we speak of discipleship, it can have various components to it, but fundamentally it is about being trained and reared up in God’s Word. As a part of our church, you are being discipled by God’s Word and you are to help others in their discipleship by God’s Word under the ministry of his church.
And so in conclusion, Christ’s church is especially a ministry of the Word of God as we have here in the Bible, in the Holy Scriptures. There is life, and hope, in this book! Our church continues to seek to be a place “where the Bible is sincerely believed and faithfully taught.” May God grow this congregation to be this more and more.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
