The Transformative Power and Purpose of Scripture

17 our question has to do now with not what is the Bible but has to do with what is the Bible for what is the Bible for here we have essentially two answers that Paul chooses to give to Timothy at this point why uh should anybody bother with the Bible well first of all there at the end of uh uh verse 15 because it is through the holy scriptures the hiara gramata the holy writings that a man or a woman is made wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Jesus Christ and secondly in verse 17 because it is by means of these same holy scriptures that the man or woman of God can be thoroughly equipped for every good work taking it down a couple of notches it shows us how to be saved and it shows us how to live when we have been saved. [00:52:17]

incidentally that's what gives me and my colleagues complete freedom in teaching the Bible in the way that we do verse by verse in chapter by chapter and book by book some are almost paralyzed in their approach to teaching the Bible because they recognize that there is a great diversity of people listening some of them have no idea about the Bible at all some are unchurched and unlearned and disinterested whereas others have been around for a while what are we to do and they have conferences and sit together and discuss you know telling people when they should come and how they should listen and then come in the evening if you want to learn the Bible properly come in the morning if you want just to hear about Jesus and so on I applaud their Endeavor to be very very purposeful but I fear no such tyranny and feel no such need why because of what I learned here that Paul says to Timothy if you just teach the Bible two things will happen people will be saved and the people who are saved will learn what it means to be saved and you really don't need to bother much beyond that provided you are Faithfully Timothy speaking into a paganized culture and into a church that represents a diversity of perspectives so we let the scriptures speak to save and to equip. [01:11:52]

Now by deduction then each of you should be sitting here now saying to yourself that is if you're Compass menus at all if you're even listening then by deduction it is very clear if what this character is saying is accurate then I as an individual this morning in listening to the Bible being taught either need to learn what it means to be saved therefore I'm asking the question have I been saved or I find myself asking the question am I learning what it means to live as a saved person those are the only two options the scriptures are given to us to make men and women wise for salvation and to equip them then with everything that goes along with what it means to be saved. [03:12:36]

the Bible is not primarily a book for the speculative thinker the scientific investigator or the literary critic but it is rather for the individual who Having learned from the world around him and from his own heart something of God and of his own need now seeks to know God and to find salvation now why would that be the case well because the scriptures have been given to make us wise for salvation you'll notice it's not the Bible that saves us it's the Bible that makes us wise so that we might be saved read The Acts of the Apostles we consider a little of this last Sunday evening and you discover that when the apostles begin to proclaim the good news on the Jerusalem streets and Beyond what they're essentially doing is simply taking the Old Testament scriptures and saying this is him that this Messiah who was to come has actually come in the person of Jesus. [04:52:36]

the scripture has been given to educate us to educate us to tell us what we won't get anywhere else let me quote the confession for the last time this morning although the light of Nature and the works of creation and Providence do so far manifest the goodness wisdom and power of God as to leave men inexcusable yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary unto salvation therefore it pleased the Lord in various ways and at different times according Hebrews 1 to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the Flesh and the malice of Satan of the world to commit the same wholly unto writing which makes the Holy scripture to be most necessary these former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased. [06:30:36]

you need the Bible for that and incidentally those of you who regard yourselves as intellectual sophisticates too smart to believe this stuff you cannot by any other means be brought to Faith In Jesus except through this stuff you can know enough about God to be rendered without excuse that's why Paul begins Romans 1 as he does he says and so all men are without excuse why are they without excuse because they know enough about God to know that exists therefore when they say he doesn't exist when they exercise their willful unbelief they're going against what is actually made plain to them they have made a great exchange but it is by the scriptures that a man or woman is made wise for salvation. [11:30:36]

the message of the Cross is is foolishness to those who are perishing just pause there for a moment if you are perishing and that's the word the Bible uses not the word that I used in other words if you are on your way to an eternity without God when you listen to me or anyone else teach the Bible concerning the nature of Salvation you think it's de you think it's foolish you may think it's TR right and perhaps beneath your level of intellectual awareness I mention this simply to let you know that God is not taken by surprise by the reaction of man and neither is the letter to Corinth to us for being saved the message of the Cross is actually the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. [12:55:36]

what I mean is since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom didn't know him God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preed to save those notice who believe who believe no one is saved without believing so really there is a fundamental question that is before us if the Bible makes us wise tells us stuff that we can't learn anywhere else at all are we prepared to listen to what the Bible is saying what is it saying to us well this is how the wisdom goes the good the bad the new the perfect God made the world and he made it in Perfection man turns his back on God sin enters into the world and the world as we know it today and man as we know him today is not as God made him in all of his pristine Beauty and and uh uh reality but but is is man messed up by his Rebellion into that sorry condition God comes because he is a wonderfully loving God and he comes uh to introduce man to the remedy for his predicament providing in his own son a savior and a guide and a friend and when men and women believe in that son then not only is their life now uh transformed but they look forward to a day when that which has become new within them will become perfected in heaven. [14:18:36]

the Bible says that you and I are lost willfully helplessly and naturally and that Jesus has come to find us that salvation is the gift of God to us and that God has given it to us in Jesus because we cannot save ourselves the Bible is able to make us wise for salvation I can never think of this without thinking of someone of whom iard to my encouragement just a couple of months ago I've told you of this man before but I want to tell you about him again because many of you weren't listening the first time and others of you weren't here English right a scientist a physicist a confessed atheist he was quite prepared to tolerate the fact that his wife and his daughters three of them should go along to church he thought it was somewhat beneath him and without seeking to disparage his wife in any way he was quite happy for her to attend when I visited their home in the course of uh my responsibilities in Scotland uh it was an interesting encounter and when I suggested that I might pray uh he said something to the effect of go ahead and pray if you want it won't affect me he worked at the national engineering laboratory he had a PhD in physics and he was bright far brighter than me but of course I'm used to that I went home got a copy of basic Christianity it was around 9:30 in the evening got a copy of basic Christianity and drove back to his house and put it through his letter box with a note that said maybe you could read this and we could talk about it he read it we began to talk he came intermittently to church he sat on the balcony he never looked at me he always looked across the balcony and a journey began in his life and one morning preaching through the 23rd psalm having come to the phrase he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake a sermon that frankly I haven't a clue what I said I'm not sure even then I was was very aware of what I was saying I can't imagine what that phrase means even now but but anyway I I tried my best he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake it was one of those events where he said well okay we did that phrase let's move along and God saved him what from the 23rd psalm he leads us in the paths of righteousness this isn't this isn't Romans 10:9 is it you know if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved you can get saved from that verse you see but you you're not supposed to get saved from Psalm 23 you know he leads us in the path of ious for his name's sake how could that ever happen why because the Bible makes people wise for salvation and this Missing Link for him was simply he could not understand how it would ever be possible to live a righteous life and that was the final piece in the jigsaw forum and in that morning it dropped into line and this great archetyp of protagonist bows his knee to to the lordship of Christ and he was made wise for salvation. [16:56:36]

what do you think happens to a culture to a church to a family to a life that neglects the scriptures what do you think has happened to the history of the United States of America in neglect of the scriptures. [20:11:36]