Westtown Church
Westtown Church
God's Word Is
Let's re-commit to God's Word in 2025 and beyond.
I'm Morgan Lusk. I'm the Associate Pastor here at Westtown and it's great to be with you on the last Sunday of 2024. Hard to believe we're already here. Hey, magic pulpit appears as we look to a new year.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you make resolutions, or I stopped doing that a long time ago and I just realized that I didn't have the willpower to continue with a resolution for a whole year. So I kind of just set goals. Now, you know, like a little bit less accountability needed for those. But one of the goals that I usually have is to read the Bible. But one of the goals that I usually have is to read the Bible and I found that in order to meet that goal, I need a plan. I kind of have to have something to tell me when I should be reading what on what day. When I don't do that, I sort of get lost and I'm like, well, what should I read now? Well, I haven't read Haggai in a while. Let me go there. So I like to have a plan.
Speaker 1:In the last couple of years at Westtown we followed something called the Seeing Jesus Together Bible reading plan, which is a plan that takes you through the Old Testament once in three years and the New Testament every year. You read five days a week and the New Testament every year. You read five days a week, two chapters a day, and then Saturdays, you read a psalm. So I would encourage you if you don't have a Bible reading plan for 2025, to check this one out. This is actually our third year, like I said, and if you would like to use that plan, I have some printed copies of it on the Connections desk, but you can also visit seeingjesustogethercom and find the plan there. But either way, it is essential for Christians to be in the Bible. Jesus actually compares the Bible to food. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God Even actually makes it seem like it's more important to us than food. It is sustenance for our souls and for our very lives, and so it is good and right for us to read it, study it and meditate on it, which is another way of saying to think through it and process it and understand how it applies to our lives. We're going to look today about God's Word by reading 2 Timothy, 3, 14 through 17, and we're going to see that it is essential to us, like I've already said, but it's also sufficient for us and it's effective for us in growing us in grace. So let's go ahead and stand as we read God's word from 2 Timothy.
Speaker 1:This is a letter of Paul to someone he mentored named Timothy, who's a pastor. In verses 14 through 17 of chapter 3, he writes but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how. From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is the word of the Lord you may be seated. So Paul has to tell, he needs to tell Timothy to continue in what you've learned and firmly believe. So why does he need to say that? Remember, timothy is a young pastor, he's just getting started out in the ministry and Paul has told him already in this chapter that, hey, listen, whenever you go to be a pastor, wherever you go and minister, things could get hard. Here's the type of people you're going to interact with.
Speaker 1:Look at verses two through five of this same chapter. Verses two through five of this same chapter. Paul says people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. So Paul leaves no stone unturned when describing wickedness. He's saying Timothy, you're going to be out there in the world amongst a bunch of wickedness, but you're also going to experience wickedness in your own heart and wickedness in your own congregation, because, guess what? I don't know about you, but you look at this list, I can be some of these things sometimes because I'm still a sinner. And so we're all going to encounter all these different types of wicked influences in our own hearts and in the world around us.
Speaker 1:And so what do we need? We need to be in God's Word. We need to be in God's Word, to continually to be in God's word, to continually have the truth of God's word before us, to continue in it and stand firm in it. So we must continue to read it and to study it. And in Timothy's case, in the case of a pastor or an elder to teach it. But not just for us, for these people right, for those who are lovers of self, lovers of money, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We need to continue in God's word because the only hope that anybody like that has of salvation is through the gospel that's only revealed to us in God's word. And so we need to continue in God's word for our own good, but for the good of those around us as well. And so that's why we see the first thing is that God's word is essential because it's able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. God's word is essential. You know, the main purpose of the Bible is salvation in Jesus Christ. It's the good news of the gospel that's revealed to a lost and dying world. Now there are other ideas of what the main purpose of the Bible might be.
Speaker 1:Some people, in my lifetime at least, I heard this a lot in youth ministry was that the Bible is a roadmap for your life. It's a roadmap for your life. It shows you how to have good morals and good behavior and to be a successful person. It's kind of like maybe you think of it like you know those dummies books like plumbing for dummies. It's kind of like godly living for dummies. Right, if you follow God's word, you're sure to you know, go to the right college and marry the right person and find the right career and just overall, win at life. It's sort of the message behind that whole roadmap for life thing. It's almost like you know, it's like it's a treasure map, like what Nicolas Cage found on the back of the Declaration of Independence in that one movie it's like.
Speaker 1:The problem with that, though, is that it puts us at the center of God's word. It makes the story about us, and the story is not about us, it's about God. It's about God. It's about the truth that God is the one who's created all things and that, even though we have sinned, god is redeeming all things. He's redeeming the entire universe, and the end is already written where God wins. See, this is not about us winning at life, it's about God winning, and because God wins, we win. We are conquerors. We get the victory if we have faith in Christ, and so that is the main purpose, the main message of the Bible to reveal the good news that God saves sinners. That's the main purpose. So it's essential not only because of what it reveals, but also because this is the only place in the universe where you can find that news. So it's essential not only because of what it reveals, but also because this is the only place in the universe where you can find that news. Nowhere else can you hear of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Just to create an illustration for this, I googled the other day how to make chocolate chip cookies. I googled the other day how to make chocolate chip cookies and at the bottom of page 21 of the search pages I found this disclaimer. It said in order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 187 already displayed. So there's at least 187 halfway decent ways to make a chocolate chip cookie. All right, why am I bringing this up?
Speaker 1:The point is there are a lot of folks who have a religious belief that's like that, that there are numerous ways to find salvation, or there's numerous ways to have eternal life, numerous gods who can offer that, and as long as you choose one that works for you, that's great. You do you? A lot of people believe that, or they have no religious belief at all. But here's the problem. God is not one of many gods offering salvation at some kind of cosmic marketplace. In fact, he's the only God, and there's only one way to be with him. That is through Jesus Christ. Through believing in Jesus Christ, believing that his death on the cross should have been our death because of our sin, that by his resurrection from the grave he's conquered death and conquered sin, and through faith in him we can be with him and have eternal life.
Speaker 1:This is what Acts 4.12 is saying. It says there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus is the only one who can save us. He's the only one who has a message of salvation from sin.
Speaker 1:The Bible is the only place where we can hear this good news, and so this is why Peter and some of the other disciples, as they're starting to figure out who Jesus is, in John 6, 68, he says Peter to Jesus where else can we go? Lord, you have the words of eternal life. This ought to be our posture towards Jesus as well. Where else can we go? And so, for that reason, that's why we continue to talk about our need to read God's word, to study God's word, to memorize God's word, even to learn to apply it to our lives. We need it and, as we already mentioned, our community needs it, this world needs it. The lost need to hear the good news that salvation is available in Jesus Christ. This is essential to us. Not only is God's word essential, it is also sufficient that the entire Bible is sufficient, because it is the only word from God that we need.
Speaker 1:Paul says in verse 16 that all Scripture is breathed out by God. Another way you could say that is that all Scripture is God-inspired. An English commentator and pastor named John Stott said that God's Word originated from God's mind and was communicated from God's mouth by God's breath, or spirit. You see, in the Hebrew at least, the words spirit and breath are almost interchangeable. They're essentially the same word. So God's word is, it's like it's saying that it's God-spirited, god-inspired, god-breathed.
Speaker 1:Now we do have to talk about the fact that it was written by people. It was written by something like 40 different authors over the course of about 1,500 years between Old and New Testament, and so you might wonder how is it God-inspired if it's written by people? Well, does that mean that you know they were kind of in a trance and they're moving the quill on the papyrus, but it's really God moving it for them. I mean, well, that's not how it worked, because we know that if you go read these different books, like you read Ezekiel versus Isaiah, like there's some different personalities popping out there, right, you know? Read Peter versus Paul, and there's again different personalities Peter's like man. I can't understand what Paul's talking about, you know? Look, here's what I know. He's very straightforward. Paul likes to use a lot of words, but what happened happened, though, is that? Well, let's just read what the Bible says about it. That's a good idea.
Speaker 1:2 Peter 1.21. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So there's something, we have to admit, that's mysterious about this, but in some way, shape or form, the Holy Spirit carried these men along as they wrote Scripture. That they wrote it, but it's the very Word of God. So the entire Word of God, the whole Bible, is sufficient. It's all his word.
Speaker 1:Now, do me a favor If you have a physical Bible, will you turn to Matthew 5 for me? Just for an example of something. Matthew 5 is the Sermon on the Mount, or the start of it, and it's where we see Jesus teaching one of the, if not the greatest, sermon ever taught. And what do you notice about the coloring of the letters in Matthew 5? Call it out, they're red. Anybody know why they're red? Because they're Jesus' words. Yes, it's true, they are his spoken words from when he was walking around on this earth doing his earthly ministry. But here's a true confession. I do not like this. I do not like the red letters. It's okay if you like it, I don't like it.
Speaker 1:The reason is because it makes it seem like the spoken words of Jesus in the gospels are somehow more important or weightier or more authoritative than the rest of the Bible. And it's simply not the case. Because guess what? The entire Bible is the words of Jesus. Even that thing in Leviticus about the skin diseases, that's the word of Jesus. Even that genealogy in 1 Chronicles, that's the word of Jesus. It's the truth. It's just as much the word of Jesus as John 3.16. So the gospels are not more authoritative. The New Testament is not more authoritative than the Old Testament. The entire Bible is God's word and we can trust it. We can live our lives according to it. So it's the entire Bible and it's all sufficient for us and we don't need any other words from God. It's all we need.
Speaker 1:You ever been in a tough situation and you just wish God would just kind of come down and sit right next to you and look you in the eyes and be like here's exactly what I want you to do right now. Do it, sign me up. I would love that. Right, That'd be so nice. Just live your life that way, where every day, he's got an agenda for you, you know, and it's like do this, do this, do this, until I decided I wanted to sin and not do what he said, which that wouldn't go well, but I don't know. Anyway, in a tough situation like that, we would love to hear a direct word from God to us.
Speaker 1:Like when we were thinking about adopting again this is back in 2019, I was really conflicted if we should do it or not, because we already had three and felt like we had a lot on our plates and wasn't sure if we could handle having a fourth child, and so I prayed about it a lot. Jennifer was all in. I mean, she was like come on, give me another one, give me eight. You know, let's go, but I'm like I think three is okay, maybe four. So I prayed and I really did want God to kind of just tell me do it or not. You know, I didn't get that answer. Don't you wish that you would, though? I feel like David.
Speaker 1:Okay, king David in second Samuel 2.1. This is his dialogue with God. It makes me really jealous. He goes, it says, and after this, david inquired of the Lord shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him go up. David said. Now David said to which? Shall I go up To Hebron? It's like that's what I want. I need that. I'm really not very smart. I just need you to tell me what to do. I'm kind of a worker bee, right? So we would feel so much more certain about what we're doing in life if we got that kind of a direct answer.
Speaker 1:If God spoke to us directly. It doesn't tell us everything exactly about everything we need to know, right, but the Bible is God speaking to us directly. It is his word to us. You can be confident in that. The whole thing is his word to us. No, god did not tell us.
Speaker 1:Morgan and Jennifer go to Taiwan and adopt Caleb and you're going to be there for an extra 15 days because of COVID it doesn't work that way. But it does tell us that pure religion is to look after widows and orphans and their affliction. It does tell us that it is right to adopt, that it pleases God to adopt. We just were not sure if it was right for us at the time. So what we ended up doing is I just said well, we'll just go for it, and if God doesn't want us to do it, he'll stop it. And you see Caleb here. So he didn't stop it. We have our fourth child, a lot on our plate, but by God's grace we can sort of handle it.
Speaker 1:So the Bible doesn't tell us everything about everything, right, it doesn't answer every question we have. You know Napoleon Dynamite. He wanted to have nunchuck skills and bow hunting skills and computer hacking skills. The Bible doesn't tell us that. How to have good skills? Right? When I was single, when I was single, I wanted the Bible to tell me how to impress girls. Like I wanted dating advice, and guess what? Single people. I'm sorry there really isn't dating advice in the Bible, like there's Song of Solomon kind of. But dating wasn't even really a thing in the Bible. Like, dating in the Bible was basically a guy going up to a girl and being like, hey, you're supposed to marry me, like that's pretty much it. Or your parents, or my parents and your parents said that we should get married. So I don't know you want to. You know that's what it was. No, the Bible doesn't tell us everything about everything.
Speaker 1:Ji Packer says that God does not profess to answer in Scripture all the questions that we would like to ask about Scripture. He tells us merely as much as he sees we need to know as a basis for our life of faith. He leaves unsolved some of the problems raised by what he tells us in order to teach us a humble trust in his veracity or truth. The Bible is sufficient to tell us how to know Jesus, to find salvation in Him and how to please God. Some might say that it's irrelevant, that it's outdated, but I will say that it's never been more relevant, because we always need to know how to find salvation in Jesus Christ and we always need to know how to please God. And I think if you go through and you read the Bible, you find man. This actually is really relevant, like there's nothing new under the sun. God keeps on finding ways to address the things that we are going through right now.
Speaker 1:So we don't need. We have everything we need in the Bible and we don't need another word from God either. Sometimes we want it's like we want to hear some audible voice from the Lord, or we want to hear, you know, like we want to hear some audible voice from the Lord, or we want to see a sign that we're supposed to do something, as if that's going to be more of a word from God than what we already have. We want that TV preacher to hear something from the Lord and some miraculous message that's new from God, and if we just pay him $100, he'll tell us what it is. We would love that. Sometimes it feels like that somehow is more of his word, but truly we have everything we need from God right here in our Bibles, because it's everything he believes and he has decided that we need to know about him.
Speaker 1:And there's one final thing I want to say about his word, which is that, through his sufficient word, god's word is a means of grace for growing us in maturity. It's a means of grace for growing us in maturity. When we say something is a means of grace, we're saying that it's a normal way that God shows grace to us or gives grace to us. The prayers, prayers that we pray, sacraments, his word, these are the ordinary or normal means of grace. And Paul shows us how the Bible is a means of grace in verses 16 and 17. He says that God's word is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. So we'll look real quick at these four ways that it is profitable and you can look at these four things as sort of like creating a cycle of living the Christian life. I'll explain what I mean in a minute. But first he says it's profitable for teaching.
Speaker 1:So we are taught truth from God's word, we're taught right doctrine from God's word. There is right doctrine, there's wrong doctrine, okay. And we need to know what is right and what's wrong, because if we don't, then we're prone to wander off into heresy or to error. So we need to make it our business as Christians to study not just God's word, but doctrine, but theology. What do we believe God's word is saying? All right. So this is why, as a church, we not only have Sunday mornings where we come and we preach, and we want you to come and listen and learn, but we also have men's women's Bible studies. We have life groups and life on life discipleship, and we have a adult Sunday school class that meets on Sunday mornings at 1030.
Speaker 1:And I think it would be important for all of us to be in not just worship, but in one of those other things too Not all of them, but one of them at least. Why? Because we need to continue learning God's word. We need to take advantage of the teaching that is offered to us so that we grow in our understanding of why we believe what we believe. And there are numerous other messages out there that distract us and that lead us astray from this truth. So we need help, we need each other to learn how to stand firm in what we believe. So it's profitable for teaching, but it's also profitable for it says reproof and for correction.
Speaker 1:And this is where we start to see that this is a cycle, because, as Christians, we learn the truth, we're taught what is right, we take that knowledge in, we know what's right for the most part, and then what do we do? We do what's wrong all the time, right. It's like, you know, when one of my kids we tell him, hey, don't hit your brother. And five seconds later, boom, he hit his brother. God's up there looking at us like that, like I just told you not to do that, you did it. God's up there looking at us like that, like I just told you not to do that, you did it. Come on, although he's not surprised, I shouldn't be surprised either. I don't know why I'm surprised. But so we sin every single day, even though we know it's right. So we profit from God's word. Because God reproves us.
Speaker 1:What does that word reproof actually mean? The Greek word can mean to expose. God uses his word to expose sin and sinful habits in us, to bring those things to light, so that they can be white. Why? So he can embarrass us, so he can make us feel bad. No, so he can correct us, so that he can purge that sin from us, put it to death. God is like a surgeon who uses the sword of the spirit, as it's called his word, to cut us, and sometimes to cut us deep. But why does he do that? Because he's on a search and destroy mission to rid us of the disease of sin.
Speaker 1:If we are open to that, if we want God to reprove us and to correct us. You know, understand that sometimes that can be painful, but the Bible's not meant to be a therapeutic book that makes us feel good. Sometimes the Bible hurts. Tim Keller says if the Bible is really true, it will be offending and correcting you somewhere. In fact, the fact that the Bible offends us and corrects us and maybe hurts sometimes, is evidence that it is true. It's evidence that it is God's perfect word. So this reproof, this correction, it is for our good, it's for our joy, because it is more and more bringing our lives into alignment with Jesus Christ. And so this is why David seems to welcome reproof and correction.
Speaker 1:He says in Psalm 139, 23 and 24, search me, o God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. He's just saying God, I'm here, look at my heart, take your microscope, take your word, look into my heart and reveal anything in me that's unclean. Can we do that? Do we want that from God? Do we want God to expose our sin. And then the fourth thing is that he trains us in righteousness. So not only does he remind us of his truth, teach us his truth and then reprove us and correct us when we fail, when we sin, but then he leads us back to righteousness. He leads us back to here Okay, us back to righteousness. He leads us back to here Okay, child, here's the right way, here is where you get to enjoy me. It's right here.
Speaker 1:And really what he's saying here, I think, is he's telling us that the word is how we learn to be with the righteous one, with the only one who's perfectly righteous, which is Jesus Christ. The word is how we learn to follow Jesus and how we spend time with Jesus. That's what our training in righteousness looks like. It's time spent with the master. So now you see how this is a means of grace. I mean, think about how amazing this is. We're taught what's right. Very clearly.
Speaker 1:God is very clear about what he desires of us. We mess up, we sin, sometimes we sin intentionally and God's like okay, come on back, let's talk about it, let's confess it, let's repent, come back, come back to me, enjoy me, enjoy my grace. It's amazing. You see, it's not a list of rules. It's not just some dead list of rules that it's like we know it's right and if we mess up, well, then we're sunk. No, it's a living and active. It's God-breathed, it's sharper than any two-edged sword and God uses it to grow us in grace. And the end goal of that is that we will be complete, equipped for every good work. Or another way you could say that is that we would be mature in Christ.
Speaker 1:Maturity is a goal of our sanctification. It's what God is doing in us once we become Christians. He's growing us to maturity. Ephesians 4.13, he says he wants us to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And in Hebrews 6.1, he says sure of the fullness of Christ. And in Hebrews 6.1, he says, therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. Yes, god wants us to grow in maturity.
Speaker 1:Do you want to be more mature in your faith? If you do, you must be in God's word. We cannot grow in maturity without reading, studying and understanding God's word. Ben Stewart says I've never met a strong Christian who doesn't meditate on God's word daily. I've never met a weak one who does. If you feel as though you're weak in your faith, perhaps it is because you have not been in God's word. You can live your whole life as a baby Christian and still spend eternity with Jesus.
Speaker 1:But the question is, why would you want to do that? Why would you not want to grow? Why would you not want to spend time with Jesus and experience his grace? Why would you not want to learn to fight against sin and put it to death? Why would you not want to be equipped for good works? And that good works part clues us into something else is that maturity is not just for us. It's for others as well. It's for the lost community around us, it's for the lost world around us. It's so others will hear the good news of Jesus. Matthew 5, 16,. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven. Good works, being equipped for good works and accompanying those good works with the good news of Jesus Christ is how we shine the light of Christ in a lost and dying world.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's intimidating for you, the idea of evangelism, of sharing your faith. Maybe that intimidates you, scares you. Maybe you feel like I'm not equipped. Well, guess what? You're probably never going to feel fully equipped. I don't feel fully equipped. I'm scared still to share my faith with people. Sometimes it's challenging, it's risky. It's always going to be that way so.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing. That means it's always going to be an act of faith, a step of faith. We're always going to need to depend on the Lord when we share our faith with the lost, and when we do that, when we actually take that step of faith, we can see him at work, because he's the one on whom it all depends. It's God who changes hearts, it's not us. We're simply called to be faithful. So being in God's word equips us, it grows us for maturity, and really what we're seeing here is that God's word and maturity through God's word is how God gets us off the bench and into the game. To be part of God's plan for how God gets us off the bench and into the game, to be part of God's plan for how he brings many to salvation. So real, quick story to close.
Speaker 1:In World War II era there was an Irish priest named Hugh O'Flaherty Doesn't get much more Irish than that name and he helped save about 6,500 allied soldiers and Jews from capture from the Nazis. And because of his efforts he became a target of the German Gestapo, and particularly one officer named Herbert Kepler. So they tried setting traps for this guy. They were hunting him down and the Gestapo could not get O'Flaherty. So after the war, herbert Kapler was put on trial for war crimes. He was tried and he was found guilty and put in prison and O'Flaherty decided to commit to visiting Kapler, this Gestapo officer who made it his personal mission to hunt him down. He decided to visit him monthly, every month in prison, and share the gospel with him, and he did that For 14 years. He did that until finally, in 1959, herbert Kepler received Jesus Christ and was baptized by O'Flaherty.
Speaker 1:Now that is an extraordinary example of how God uses people. When we are equipped for the good works that he puts in front of us, he uses us to share the good news of Jesus with the lost around us. You probably don't know a Herbert Kepler. I'm pretty sure you don't know a Nazi Gestapo officer, but you know someone who's lost. I know someone who's lost. We all. Do we know someone who doesn't know about Jesus or someone who's rejected Jesus? Let's be equipped to share the good news with them. Let's be equipped to in the Word of God so that we grow in maturity, not just for them, but also for ourselves, so that we grow in our love for Christ and we grow in our ability to share his good news of the lost world. Let's commit to that. Let's commit to being in his word in 2025, so that God, through it, will give us more grace and come closer to bringing us to completion. Let's pray.