The Usefulness of God’s Word

Transcript

GR 1397
03/01/2009
The Usefulness of God’s Word
II Timothy 3:16-17
Gil Rugh


We're in II Timothy 3 in your Bibles. We're talking about the Word of God. We're not only studying it, but we're talking about it as the foundational matter for everything in life. Just to review for you, if there is a God and we are to know anything about Him, He's going to have to make Himself known to us, He will have to choose to make Himself known to us. That's just foundational. A follow-up on that, if there is a God and He has made Himself known, we can expect He will do it in a way that is clear and understandable. After all, if there is a God, that means He is the supreme all-powerful being, and He desires to make Himself known. By virtue of the fact He is God, He will be able to do it in a way that we will be able to understand and comprehend. As we have noted, there is a God, and He has revealed Himself. The fullest and clearest revelation is what we have found in our Bibles. That's why we call the Bible the Word of God. God created us in His image and we are able to communicate, and we communicate verbally, primarily. We speak, we write, we talk. That's how we communicate. There are many other ways, but the prime way is verbal communication of one kind or another. And God has communicated to us verbally. It's interesting to me that people say the Bible may be the word of God but everybody has a different understanding. We go back to what we said, if there is a God and He communicates, He will do it in a clear and understandable way. The Bible claims to be the Word of God, it claims to be understandable, and furthermore God says He holds us accountable for knowing what He has said and obeying it.

What Paul is concerned about in writing to Timothy is that the church has been infiltrated by men who were corrupting the revelation of God. They were teaching things contrary to what God had said were true. For example, in chapter 2 we saw that there were some false teachers in the church who were saying there is no future resurrection of the body for believers. In chapter 2 verse 18 they said the resurrection had taken place; all there is, is a spiritual resurrection for us. Paul said that is false teaching. God has spoken clearly on this matter. False teachers are also identified not only when they teach things contrary to the Word of God, but when they practice things that are contrary to the Word of God. In the opening verses of chapter 3 he talks about men, verse 2, who “will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,” on down through this list. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, involved in various forms of ungodliness, immorality and so on. So a false teacher could be identified either by teaching things contrary to the Word of God or by a lifestyle that is contrary to the Word of God. Either of these or both of these identify an individual as a false teacher.

Paul is concerned that Timothy understand the importance of staying committed to the Word of God, both in its teaching and in his practice, carrying out obedience to the Word of God. Down in verse 13 he reminded Timothy that “evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things which you have learned.” Stay the course. The things he has learned are what we have as our scripture, Old and New Testament alike, the things that Paul has taught him, as we have seen as we have looked in the opening parts of this letter. The only command in verses 10-17 is that word “continue” in verse 14. So everything in these verses really build upon that. Continue in the truth, Timothy; continue in the things that you have been taught, the Holy Scriptures. You were taught the Old Testament from childhood; I have taught you the truth of the gospel. You continue in these things.

One of the reasons this is so important is it's the scriptures that make us wise to salvation which is found through faith in Christ. The end of verse 15, “from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” First and foremost, how is a person to come into a right relationship with the living God? Now I realize we live in a day where everybody has his own ideas. It's sort of a sacred area. I am entitled to have my beliefs about God, and you are entitled to yours. But you understand that may mean you are wrong; it may mean I'm wrong. How do we know? If there is no revelation from God, we all just have our own opinions. No matter how passionately we hold those opinions, they are just opinions. We come back to verse 2 of chapter 3, “men will be lovers of self.” We love our own opinions, and we are quickly offended, especially in the religious realm, if somebody implies our opinions are wrong. But if there is a God who has revealed Himself, all of our opinions regarding God, regarding ourselves, regarding a relationship with God, will have to be subjected to what God has said. The scripture is clear, it is the Bible that gives you the wisdom that leads to salvation, which is through faith in Christ. How can you be saved? Well, how do I know I need to be saved? What does the Bible say? We are all sinners, we are all under condemnation. I come and open the Word of God and God turns a light on to me and shows me what I am, I am a sinner. How can a sinner be cleansed, forgiven? Well, it's through believing in the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of God who came to this earth to pay the penalty for sin which is death. So you see it's the scriptures that make you wise to salvation, which is found by faith in Jesus Christ. Now I find salvation doesn't come by being baptized, by joining a church, by trying to do the best that I can do because I am guilty, I am under condemnation. A holy God has declared me guilty, but He is a holy God Who said He provided a Savior, and through faith in Him I can be forgiven, I can have salvation. So number one, Timothy, continue in the scriptures because there is where people find out how to be saved, what is necessary for salvation.

Now he's going to move on in verses 16-17. Not only are the scriptures essential so that we might learn how we can be forgiven our sins and brought into a right relationship with God, but the scriptures are essential so that we, now as the children of God through faith in Christ, can be what God intends us to be and be ready to do everything that God wants us to do. That's where he goes in verses 16-17.

Let's pick up in II Timothy 3:16 with a tremendous statement— “All scripture is inspired by God.” As we'll note in a moment, that will include everything in the Old Testament and it will include everything in the New Testament. That word translated “inspired” came over to us from the Latin. The Greek word is a compound word; it's the word “God” and it's the word “breathed.” So you want to translate it just as the Greek word is, “all scripture is God-breathed.” In other words it is breathed out from God, it comes out from God, it is God's word. That's a tremendous claim. It's the claim that this is not the words of men, it is the words of God. Here I can come and read and learn what God is like, I can learn what God says I am like, the One who created me. I can understand what the problem is, why the world is in such a mess, why individual people are in the condition they are, and what is the hope. I can find it all here. All scripture is God-breathed; it comes out from God.

Turn over to I Peter 1. The scriptures, what we have as written out, are God-breathed; they have their origin or source in God. There was a human writer; Paul is the one writing the letter to Timothy; Peter is the one writing the letter we just turned to. All the books of scripture had human writers, but the claim is that God is the One behind what they wrote, and He guided and directed them in what they wrote. I Peter 1:10, “to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace....” What he's talking about is our salvation, same kind of context as Paul. Verse 9, “obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” The Bible is clear, salvation is by faith, by faith alone. You can't be saved by your works; you can only be saved by faith, by believing in Christ. “Obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” Verse 10, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries.” So in the Old Testament the prophets wrote about the coming of Christ, the salvation that God would provide in Him. Verse 11, “They were seeking to know what person or time,” now note this next statement, “the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” In the Old Testament the prophets wrote that God would send a Savior and He would suffer and die. Isaiah 53, we've been there many times, prophesied the suffering, the crucifixion, the burial of Christ in a rich man's tomb, His resurrection. And then later in his prophecy Isaiah writes about the Messiah reigning in glory over a kingdom. Now we're told here Isaiah didn't understand how this all could fit together. How could the Messiah come, suffer and die, be rejected by men and also rule and reign in glory over all the earth? It was not revealed fully yet. Now we know from later revelation Christ came and suffered and died, He's going to return to earth a second time and He will set up the kingdom and reign in glory. He came the first time to do what Isaiah 53 said had to be done—suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin. He'll come the second time to rule and reign in glory.

What we're interested here in verse 11 is that the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating that He, the Spirit of Christ, predicted the suffering of Christ. So it was the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God in them guiding them and directing them what to write. That's why Isaiah could be hundreds of years before Christ came to earth and write the details we have in Isaiah 53, about how He would be rejected, how He would suffer and die, be buried in a rich man's tomb, and so on.

Turn over to II Peter 3. I just want you to note that when we talk about all scripture is God-breathed, that begins in the Old Testament but continues and includes the New Testament. Verse 15, “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” Go up to verse 9, “the Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness.” What he's talking about is God has promised that Jesus Christ will come back to this earth, that the wicked will be destroyed, that there will be a new heavens and a new earth and an eternal kingdom. But it hasn't happened. Some people say, “Well you've been preaching about this for 2000 years. Where is He? He hasn't come yet.” You understand “the Lord is not slow about His promise,” verse 9 says, “as some men count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” This is a time for salvation; it is a time for men, women and young people to hear the Word of God and have opportunity to turn from their sin and place their faith in Christ and be saved. Why has God delayed judgment, so to speak? Why has it not happened yet? He's giving you a chance to be saved, He's giving men and women a chance to believe in Christ.

So you come down to verse 15, “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” Instead of saying, “isn't the Lord ever coming,” say, “I better go tell someone about Christ.” This is the time of opportunity for them to be saved. “Just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,” verse 16, “as in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort.” Now note this, “as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” You know what Peter does here? He says Paul is writing scripture, and when people distort Paul's writings, they are doing the same thing they do to the rest of scripture. And by that he includes Paul's writings of scripture. So when we say all scripture is God-breathed, that includes what Paul wrote; that includes our New Testament.

Go to the last chapter of the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation. The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is recorded by the Apostle John. Verse 18, the book concludes, Christ is the spokesman through John, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book,” and particularly the book of Revelation, “if anyone adds to them,” now you note, “God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and the holy city which are written in this book.” Then a reminder, “I am coming quickly.” You see, you can't add to what has been recorded here, you can't take away.

If you went back to the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 4:2, what does God say? Now this is Moses writing 1500 years before Christ. “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it.” So you see the same requirements. You can't add anything to what God says, you can't take away from anything God says. In other words, you can't add your ideas to what God says, nor can you decide to become God's editor and take anything out of what God says. I don't like the idea of sin. I'll just exclude that. I don't like the idea of an eternal hell, I'll just exclude that. No, you can't add anything nor can you take anything away. And you'll note in Deuteronomy 4, “that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God.” You see when God speaks, He expects to be obeyed. You understand that means He is saying He is speaking clearly enough, you should understand it. So to say I didn't know what you said, I didn't understand, that won't be an excuse because God has spoken clearly.

Now about God-breathed, come back to II Timothy. God is the Author of scripture. That doesn't mean He was just dictating like you might do to a secretary. But what God has done, He has taken individuals that He selected and He prepared them, their personality, their style, their manner of speaking and then He moved in them to write the very words that He wanted, using their personality, the style they had. So as you study the different writers of scripture, you can see each has his own style, but they were prepared by God for that.

Go back to Jeremiah 1. God is preparing Jeremiah to be His prophet. So verse 5, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” So Jeremiah is going to be a prophet and his prophecies we have recorded in the book of Jeremiah. Now what does that mean he'll do? The end of verse 7, “everywhere I send you, you shall go and all that I command you, you shall speak.” Look down in verse 9, “Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, 'Behold, I have put My words in your mouth'”. “My words in your mouth.” And yet the personality of Jeremiah will come through in his writings, and that is true with each of the individual writers. You see, God had prepared Jeremiah before He formed him in the womb, according to verse 5. So all that Jeremiah went through as he came to this stage in his life now, to be sent out as a prophet, had been preparation by God to be the spokesman that God wanted so that he could use the very words with his style and his personality to communicate the very words of God. It's not just the ideas of scripture that are inspired, God-breathed, it is the very words. Now people say, even if that is so, that might have been true when Jeremiah wrote the first copy, what we call the autographs. And that's right, they are the only ones inspired, every word. Now we have copies and over time there may be changes in the copies. How do we know we have the Word of God? It's not really a debate among those who study the manuscripts of scripture, even those who don't hold to the same view of the Bible that we do. In just one family of manuscripts we have over 5000 copies or fragments of manuscripts. And you have a different group of manuscripts. Well, you compare all this together, there is one man who does not hold the same view of the scriptures we do, but he is an expert in the biblical language. He says, no one who does any serious study on the text of scripture has any question about the accuracy of our text. There is just such overwhelming evidence. But if over time men get it so garbled that we never know what God said for sure, God has failed. Right? He couldn't get done what He wanted to do. How can you hold me accountable, Lord? Everything is so garbled I can't be sure. No, God also preserved what He said so we can be sure we have an accurate record of the word of God.

So come back to II Timothy 3. “All scripture is God-breathed and profitable.” That word 'profitable' means 'useful', it's useful in accomplishing God's purposes. God does not speak just to hear Himself speak, so what He says is useful for accomplishing His purposes. What does He want done, why did He speak of this? What He says is effective, it's useful, always is, in accomplishing God's purposes.

Go back to the Old Testament again, to Isaiah 55. Great chapter that begins by inviting people to come and receive salvation at no cost. And he uses it in a striking way. Remember he says, come and buy it, but buy it without money, buy it without cost because it is free. In other words, secure it for yourself because I give it to you graciously when you turn from your sin and believe in Me. Come down to verse 6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.” Remember this is a time of salvation. The Lord is not slow as some men count slowness, but He is patient, desiring that men who are perishing will turn from their way and believe and be saved. “Call upon Him while He is near.” Verses 7 and 8, “Let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on Him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are you ways my ways declares the Lord.” You may have a lot of ideas about God, you might have a lot of ideas about right and wrong, but you understand, “My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.” You don't find out about God by pondering in your mind; He has to reveal Himself.

Verses 9 and 10, “So My ways are higher than your ways, My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” So God sends the rain and the snow and waters the earth, enabling it to be productive. If we don't get enough rain and snow we have drought. What happens in a drought? The earth stops producing. So when God sends the rain and the snow, it accomplishes what He sends the rain and the snow to do. It makes the earth productive. So the comparison. Verse 11, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth.” You see it's God-breathed, it comes from the mouth of God. “It will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” That's saying My word is always effective, it's always useful, it always accomplishes what I want it to accomplish. “It will not return to Me empty.” Understand that it is always effective. You never share the gospel of Jesus Christ with anyone where something doesn't happen. You say, I shared the gospel with them. What happened? Nothing. No. What happened? What God wants to happen. I don't know the ultimate end. Maybe the person will ponder and think about it and ultimately be saved; maybe they will just be confirmed in their lost condition. But God's Word always accomplishes its purposes.

That's what we're talking about when you come back to II Timothy. All scripture is God-breathed and useful, profitable for accomplishing what God wants it to accomplish. He gives some areas of its usefulness or being profitable. Four prepositional phrases, four words all introduced by the same preposition which gives them force. You could, just as we do in English, use the preposition with the first word and let it be implied for the other three words. But he repeats it, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” This is what the Word of God is doing, the function it carries out. First it is for teaching. That is foundational. You go to church, you ought to be taught the Word of God. Some say, “I want to hear something that is encouraging, I want to hear something that is practical and might help me in my business, might sharpen my skills, enable me to make more money, relate to people better.” But we need to come to be taught what God has to say. This is not a self-help program, this is not a do-better-in-business program. This is to learn what God has said. So scripture comes out from God and is useful for teaching so that we can learn about God, what He is like, learn about what He has said regarding man that He created, learn what His purposes are, what He is doing in the world. I need to learn how I can become a child of God, make me wise regarding salvation which comes through faith in Christ. It is for teaching.

Back up to II Timothy 2 verse 2, “the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” “Timothy,” Paul says, “I taught you and others these truths. Now you take them and teach them to others who will be able to teach others,” and we are here 2000 years later teaching the same truths. We take the Word of God and we pass it on. I'm a preacher, I'm a pastor, so you come to learn about God from me. What do I know about God that anybody else doesn't know? I have to come and find out about Him from the Word of God. So what do I do? I study the Word of God, then I come and teach it to you to help clarify it, to help you understand it clearly. You bring your Bible and look so you can say, “that's what it says, to teach.” “The Word of God is God-breathed,” back in chapter 3 verse 16, “and profitable for teaching.” That's what He said and that's what it says here in my Bible. It's inspired by God. What do I have to do? I have to understand that that word 'inspired' means 'God-breathed'. In my margin I have a note, literally God-breathed. It means it comes out from God and it's profitable for teaching. If I come and teach you some of the good ideas I've come up with, that doesn't help you, but if I can teach you and help you understand what God has said, that's what is important. It's for teaching. That's what the church is to be, a place where we are taught the Word of God.

It is “profitable,” or useful “for teaching, for reproof.” Now we get to things we don't like. Who likes to be reproved, made to realize where they are wrong. We all sort of chafe at that. I don't go to church to be told about sin, I have enough problems in my life without going and having someone hammer on me about sin, that I'm a sinner, I'm condemned. I'd like to go and be lifted up and feel better. Well, when I go to the doctor I like to be lifted up and feel better, but I don't want them to lie to me. Gil, you have cancer and if you let us operate you'll be okay. Don't tell me that; I don't want to hear it. I'm getting a different doctor, one who tells me good things. Then why do you go at all? I sometimes wonder why people go to church at all; they only want to hear good things. They don't want to hear what God has to say; they want to hear what they want to hear. It's “for reproof,” that's a negative word, pointing out what's wrong. You know as you are taught the Word of God you have to be corrected. If you don't understand you are a sinner, you won't know you can ever be saved. That's the starting point. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no not one.” That's what God says. So I'm revealed for what I am. This is reproof. If wrong doctrine is being taught, it has to be corrected. If someone teaches everyone is going to heaven, God is a God of love and He wouldn't send anybody to hell, I have to come to the Word of God and reprove them and say, that's wrong because God says we are sinners and condemned, and He does say He will send sinners to hell. That's reproof. If somebody claims to be a believer but they are living in sin, the lifestyle that he talked about in the opening verses of chapter 3, they have to be reproved. That's sin. That's reproof; it covers all the range of pointing out sin, whether somebody is teaching something contrary to the Word of God, whether they are conducting themselves contrary to the Word of God, whatever. That's reproof.

So when you tell someone, I don't approve of what you are doing, well, we all have different convictions. If you don't approve of what I am doing or the way I dress or the way I preach, that's one thing. If you come and say, “the Word of God says what you are doing is wrong,” now that's a whole different thing. We all have our opinions, but it's only what God says that matters, right? Ultimately I won't be the judge of you; you won't be the judge of me; God will be the judge of us all. So we are reproved by scripture.

Scripture is also useful “for correction”. That's the follow-up, correction, restoration. In other words the Bible not only tells you what is wrong, it tells you what must be done to make the correction. So if you are teaching that the resurrection is past, as the men were doing in chapter 2, here is the correction—the Bible says there is a future bodily resurrection, a resurrection to condemnation, following which individuals will be sentenced to hell, and a resurrection to life, following which people will be given the privilege of enjoying the presence of God forever. Correction—if you are living in sin here is the correction, here is what you must do. It corrects you.

Scripture is “for training in righteousness.” You come to know about salvation, and you become a child of God because you hear and believe the message of God's salvation provided in Jesus Christ. It became clear to me at a point in my life that I was a sinner, as they were showing me from Scripture. I could only be forgiven and receive righteousness through faith in Christ. When I did that, I became God's child. Now the Scripture was used by God to further teach me, to reprove me for conduct that shouldn't be in my life, for misunderstandings in doctrine I had. It corrected me and showed me the right way, and it trained me in righteousness. That word 'trained,' we have it in words like 'pedagogue.' That's the idea of child training. It includes training and discipline, just like a child is trained, is developed. You train them, you discipline them. Hebrews says that every child of God experiences the discipline of God, part of the training process. We do it with our children. We don't do it with children who aren't ours, so God is not doing the child-training process for those who don't belong to Him. That's the argument of Hebrews. If you are in sin and God is not doing His discipline process in your life, you don't belong to Him; you are illegitimate. You are not truly His child. So it is the Word of God that is used by God to train us up in righteousness, in righteous living. It's in contrast to the kind of life and living that was evident in the opening part of the chapter.

What is the purpose of this ultimately? Verse 17, “so that the man of God may be adequate.” How do you become a man of God? Back at the end of verse 15, “the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ.” I heard the word of God and it made me wise in how I could be saved, by believing in Jesus Christ. Now the Scripture is being used to teach me, reprove me, correct me, train me in righteousness, in order “that the man of God may be adequate.” The word means complete, capable, proficient, qualified, able to meet all demands, having all that is necessary to meet whatever demands are put upon me. It makes me everything God wants me to be, basically. What are we training our children for? Maturity, to be what they should be as they come to adulthood. Right? What is God doing with us? He is maturing us. And the Word of God, the Scripture, has been given by God so that we'd know how to be saved, then it could be used to mature us now, so that we can become all that God wants us to be. That's what he says, so “that the man of God may be adequate” and complete. We have the idea of mature in this sense, all that God wants me to be.

“Equipped for every good work.” Now there is a play on words here. That word 'adequate,' it's the same basic word translated 'equipped.' So you see it makes me everything God wants me to be so that I can do everything God wants me to do, that's the idea. 'Equipped,' you just put a preposition on the front and a different ending on the word, but the basic word is the same word translated 'adequate.' I've been made adequate for every good work; I've been made ready so I can do everything God wants me to do. So I come to learn of salvation through the Word of God, and I come now as a child of God to be matured by the Word of God. I come to the Word of God so that I can be enabled to do everything God wants me to do.

Turn over to I Peter 1, where we were a little while ago. Look at verse 23, “for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring Word of God.” You see how you are born again? It's through the Word of God. What does that mean? Well, you hear the Word of God. How did I learn I was a sinner, under God's condemnation, not acceptable, under His judgment? The scripture told me. And when I heard that Christ loved me and died for me to pay the penalty for my sin, I bowed and trusted Him as my Savior. I was born again through the living and enduring Word of God. There is no other way of salvation, but to hear and believe the message of God's Word. Verse 24, “All flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.” This is God's Word, this is the word which was preached to you. So you put aside all the sinful things now that you have been born again. You don't try to clean up your life to be acceptable to God and be born again. You come as a wretched, defiled sinner. Here I am, Lord, a sinner undeserving, unworthy, but I am calling on you, trusting your Son, not even understanding such great love that He would die for me. I believe He did; He is my only hope. I'm trusting Him. Now I've been born again.

So chapter 2 verse 1, you “put aside all the malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander” because I'm a new person. Verses 2 and 3, “And like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord.” This is only for those who have been born again. Now I feed on the Word so I may grow in respect to my salvation, so that I may be adequate and come to maturity, and be equipped for every good work. That's the pattern that God has set down for us. There is a place for good works; the good works are a result of being born again and having new life in Christ and having the Spirit of God dwell in us.

Come back to Ephesians 2:8. The chapter starts out, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” This is talking about spiritual death. Death in the Bible is separation. One of our number died this week. What happened? Did he cease to exist? No, the Bible says the body without the spirit is dead. He as a person moved out of his body; he was separated from his body. He is just as alive and conscious today as he was two weeks ago, two years ago, whatever. But he doesn't live in that body any longer. “You were dead in your trespasses and sin.” What is spiritual death? It is separation of a person from God. Physical death is the separation of a person from their body; spiritual death is separation of a person from God. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins,” you were separated from God. Eternal death is separation from God for eternity in hell. That's what we all were. Verse 3, “among them we, too, all formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh,” and so on. “We were by nature children of wrath just as the rest.” We all started out on the same level ground—we are all sinners. So the difference now is some have experienced the salvation, which is in Christ, some have not. It's not that some were better than others. We have saved sinners and unsaved sinners.

Verse 5, “Even when we were dead in our transgressions,” the “God who is rich in mercy”, verse 4, “made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved”. Come down to verse 8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that salvation is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works, that no one would boast.” So no matter how many good works you do, you won't be saved because you are already under condemnation. Like a man guilty of a great crime, he has murdered three people, but now he is really going to do good works. But you understand, you are already guilty. A man who was sentenced to a couple of life sentences was in the paper this week. He may do many good things now, clean up things, try to help people. But you know what? He can't undo his guilt; he has to pay the price. That's where we start out as sinners. But we are saved by grace and not by works.

So verse 10, “we are His workmanship,” the result of His work when we believe in Christ; He makes us new. “Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we might walk in them.” Now we say all scripture is God-breathed and useful for accomplishing God's work so that we can be adequate, equipped to do every good work now as the children of God. We can live a life pleasing to God, honoring to Him, doing the things He wants us to do. I can't get saved by trying to please God by my works, but as a result of being saved by grace through faith, now I can live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Come over to Ephesians 4, and we'll wrap up. I want you to note here the same basic word we've been talking about in our study in II Timothy. Verse 11, “and He gave some,” as a result of the resurrection of Christ, the salvation He brought to us through His finished work, then He ascended to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists and some as pastors teachers.” You'll note what unites these various gifts of the Spirit together are that they are all speaking gifts, involved in the communication of the Word of God—apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers. They are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of serving,”, verse 12. That word translated 'equipping' we saw in II Timothy 3:17. “All scripture is God-breathed and useful” verse 16, in order “that the man of God may be equipped.” That's the basic word, artios. He said “may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” That word 'equipped' we noted, same word, artios with a preposition on the front and a different ending but the same idea. Now that word in Ephesians 4:12, “for the equipping;” it's that same basic word, artios. It has a little different preposition on the front and a different ending, but the same idea. You see we are equipped, we are rendered adequate to do what God wants us to do.

So God gives these gifted individuals to teach the Word of God, to equip, make adequate, the saints for the work of service. So what happens? Not everybody has the gift of teaching, but every believer has a gift of the Spirit, some the gift of administration, the gift of serving, the gift of helps, the gift of showing mercy, and on they go. You are equipped, you are made adequate for everything that God wants you to do. You are rendered adequate to do the work of God as you are nurtured on the Word of God, equipped to do the work of serving. So what goes on in our local church, our local body of believers, all the parts function together, each individual doing what God has enabled him to do as they have been nurtured and nourished in the Word of God. And that all works together to build us to maturity in Christ.

The result, verse 14, in Ephesians 4, “we are no longer children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” We know the truth now; we understand it. These false teachers that come, they don't deceive and delude us. Verse 15, “Speaking the truth in love, we are growing up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” What happens? A body, a church, and there are so many people functioning in so many ways, that as a cohesive unit they are accomplishing what God would have. So we are maturing together. At the root of it all is the Word of God. Apart from the Word of God you won't know how to be saved; apart from the Word of God, even if you are saved, you won't continue to grow and mature and become everything God wants you to be so that you can do all that God wants you to do. So you see, it's all about the Word of God. When the devil wants to divert the church, what does he do? Get it away from teaching. The church can do a lot of things but it can slowly minimize the place that the Word of God has, and fill the time with other things. Then people come, but they won't hear that they are sinners, that Jesus Christ is the Savior who can cleanse and forgive them because they are not hearing the Word of God. People don't want to hear about sin, so we take that out. Believers come but they are not being as newborn babies, as Peter wrote, longing for the pure, the unadulterated milk of God's Word that they might grow with respect to salvation. You just can't feed a newborn baby anything, and you don't want to mix anything in the milk that would be harmful. You want pure, unadulterated milk of God's Word for growth. Now we can function and each part develop as God has now equipped it to function, to contribute to the overall function of the body, and we continue to mature in love.

Any wonder Paul commands Timothy, “continue in the things you've learned,” II Timothy 3:14, stay the course, Timothy. All who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Don't let persecution make you think, maybe we're not doing the right thing. “Continue in the things you have learned.” That's what will bring men and women to salvation, that's what will enable the body of Christ to grow and mature and be effective in their service for Christ. That's what we're about as a church; we desire that you be saved because you hear the message from God. We desire that you grow and that we grow together so that we can honor God by being all that He intends us to be as His children and can do all that He intends us to do.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. Thank you that you have chosen to speak, you have spoken so that we can understand, we can be made wise regarding the matter of salvation which is found by faith in your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your Word that serves to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, to train us in righteousness so that we can be all that you intend us to be and be fitted to do all that will bring honor and glory to you. May we be faithful and continue in these things so that we would be the people that you have called us to be, that we would be the church that would be a testimony to the God who has revealed Himself and provided His Son to be the Savior of the world. The One in whose name we pray, amen.