Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Title: Why we need the scriptures
Big Idea: The scriptures guard us from the virus of false belief.
Introduction
A scientist once conducted an experiment on two frogs. He put one frog
in a pot of boiling water. The frog immediately jumped out. He put a
second frog in a pot of cool water. Every ten minutes, he increased the
temperature one degree. The frog grew so accustomed to the
increasingly hot water that he eventually boiled to death.
Many have observed that Christians are a lot like the frog in the kettle.
We gradually become so accustomed to the false belief systems of our
culture that we boil to death spiritually before we figure out what has
happened.
The church, it seems, has always risked being boiled to death in the hot
water of false belief. When we read the Pastoral Epistles, we find some
members of Timothy’s young church mixing the opposing beliefs of the
surrounding culture with the true gospel.
The spiritual side effects of mingling the gospel with other belief
systems are severe. Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:18 that some in the
church have ship wrecked their faith after coming under the spell of the
false teachers. And in 2 Timothy 4:4-5 he worries that Timothy’s
parishioners, having their ears tickled by false teachers, “will turn away
from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
When the virus of false belief infects us, we become sick. What we
believe determines how we act and how we feel. When we believe lies
we suffer emotionally, spiritually and physically. Yet like the frog in the
kettle, we are constantly exposed to the hot waters of false belief. Every
time we turn on the radio, check face book, watch TV, see a movie, or
read a novel we are exposed to complex belief systems. Much of what
we hear and see is true in the course of a media-saturated day is true.
But much what we hear and see all day is nothing more than false belief.
And when we begin to live according to those false beliefs, we are in
trouble.
Consider Karen. The day Karen thirteen, Teen Glamour magazine
magically appears in her mailbox. She pours over every airbrushed
picture of the world’s most attractive young women, painfully aware
that she is not as pretty as they are. A few years later the Victoria Secret
catalogue arrives on cue, taunting Karen with a vision of the perfect
body she will never attain. In college, Karen and her friends regularly
watch The Biggest Loser. The message is clear: Karen, there is nothing
more shameful than being overweight. Nothing matters more than
what your body looks like. Indoctrinated with these lies about body
image, is it any wonder that Karen becomes obsessed with her weight
and develops an eating disorder? The virus of false belief has infected
her. And it is killing her.
None of us are inoculated from the virus of false belief. From the day we
are born we are taught by our culture wrong beliefs about what it
means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. We are taught lies
about the meaning of success. We are given a diseased view of sexuality.
We are handed a twisted understanding of aging. We are handed down
warped perceptions of authority. And when these viruses infect us, we
become spiritually sick.
Paul seems concerned that Timothy himself is being seduced by false
beliefs. In chapter 2 Timothy 3:13 he warns the young minister of “evil
people and imposters who go from bad to worse, deceiving and being
deceived.” Then he urges, “As for you, continue in what you have learned
and have firmly believed, and how from childhood you have been
acquainted with the sacred writings.”
“Timothy”, Paul pleads, “don’t be deceived by the false teachers. Don’t
let false beliefs poison the living waters of the gospel. Don’t be infected
by the half-truths that swirl around you. Stay rooted in the ancient
teachings of the church, the very truths you learned from your mother
and your grandmother, the very truths you have firmly believed
yourself and passed on to others. Timothy, continue in the scriptures.”
The Greek word for “continue” is the same word Jesus uses in John 15
when he says, “abide in me.” The word is also used in the New
Testament for living in a house. Timothy is to abide in the scriptures. He
is to live in them. He is to construct his intellectual world from the
timber of scripture. He is to form his self-concept from the wisdom of
scripture. He is to discern his vocation in the world from the guidance of
scripture. He is to find the meaning of life and the glory of death in the
hope of scripture. He is to shape his ministry according to the direction
of scripture. Only by continuing in the ancient words of scripture will
Timothy resist boiling to death in the treacherous waters of false belief.
That is equally true for us.
How do the scriptures protect us from the virus of false belief? Paul
answers that question in verses 15-17.
1. The scriptures guard us from false beliefs about salvation.
In verse 15, Paul speaks of “the sacred writings, which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Let’s define “salvation” rather broadly for the moment as “what
ultimately makes a person safe and happy”. Wisdom is advice on what
will make you safe and happy. Our culture gives lots of advice on what
will make you safe and happy. But a lot of it is just not true.
“You will be safe and happy if you invest with the right brokerage firm.”
“You will be safe and happy if you find your soul mate.”
“You will be safe and happy if you graduate from the right school.”
“You will be safe and happy if you lose twenty pounds and eat low-fat
foods.”
“You will be safe and happy if you are a spiritual person, as long as you
are sincere.”
“You will be safe and happy if you harness the power of your mind and
think positive thoughts.”
“You will be safe and happy if you do enough good works to outweigh all
of the bad ones.”
But this is not real wisdom.
The wisdom the scriptures teach is this: we are saved through faith in
Christ Jesus. He is the only one who can make us safe and happy. This is
the message of scripture, from the first page to the last. It all points to
Christ as the wisdom of salvation and faith as the means through which
we enter into relationship with him.
As John Calvin put it in his comments on this verse, “We must not seek
anywhere else the wisdom which is sufficient for salvation.”
Friend, have you been infected by a false belief about the way of
salvation? What are you really trusting in to make you eternally safe and
happy? The scriptures expose our sins and then point us to Jesus Christ
as the one who forgives our sins and adopts us into his family. We are
saved by faith in this Jesus. Have you put your trust in him alone?
2. The scriptures heal the places in our lives that have been
infected by false belief.
Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life. Truth leads to life.
Error, however, leads to death. False beliefs have a way of hardening
our hearts and deadening our spiritual sensitivity.
Bob grew up with a demanding, critical father who was never there
when he needed him. Without being conscious of it, Bob transfers his
image of his earthly father onto his heavenly father. The God he prays to
is demanding, critical and absent. Is it any wonder that after thirty
years of praying to this God Bob feels spiritually dead?
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about a distorted understanding of God’s
law and its impact on his life. “The letter kills” he says “ but the spirit
gives life.” He describes the ministry of the false belief system “the
ministry of condemnation.” This is what false beliefs do. They condemn
and destroy and steal life.
Scripture, however, gives life. Paul says in verse 16, “All scripture is
breathed out by God…” Scripture contains the breath of God. That may
not mean much to us until we understand what the breath of God does
in scripture. God’s breath is God’s creative, life-awakening power. God’s
breath heals and changes and transforms.
The breath of God creates the cosmos in Genesis 1.
The breath of God summons the dry bones of Israel to life in Ezekiel’s
famous vision.
When Jesus sends the disciples into the world to preach the gospel,
John’s gospel tells us that “he breathed on them and said, ‘receive the
Holy Spirit.”
In scripture, the breath of God is God’s creative power. When we study
the scriptures, when we meditate on the scriptures, when we hear the
preaching of the scriptures, God breathes on the dead places in our lives
and brings them back to life.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe the animals of Narnia
have been turned into stone statues. Aslan, now resurrected from the
dead, is breathing on the creatures and bringing them back to life. Susan
says, “Look at the lion!” Lewis tells us what happens next:
I expect you have seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper
which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire. An for a second,
nothing seems to have happened; and then you notice a tiny streak of
flame creeping along the edge of the newspaper. It was like that now. For
a second after Aslan breathed on him the stone lion looked just the same.
Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back—
then it spread—then the color seemed to lick all over him as the flame
licks all over a bit of paper—then, while his hindquarters were still
obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds
rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, warm and
living, and gave a prodigious yawn. (LWW 184).
This is what happens to the stony parts of our own lives when we
expose them to the breath of God. And we feel that breath in the
scriptures.
When I was in seminary, one of the most influential men in my life was a
psychology professor and elder in our church named Tom Graham. On
one long trip together Tom told me that during graduate school he
stopped believing in God. A painful divorce reinforced Tom’s belief that
he was alone in the universe. But Tom never made peace with his
atheism. Years passed. Tom’s wife finally convinced him to attend one
service at Fullerton Evangelical Free Church, where Chuck Swindoll
preached. Tom went reluctantly. But as he sat under pastor Chuck’s
powerful preaching, Aslan started to breathe on his stony heart. Week
after week Tom returned to hear God’s word preached. Within months,
the dry bones that had been Tom’s faith had rattled back to life.
Has the poison of false belief turned your heart into stone? Then abide
in the scriptures. Start reading them again. Start studying them again.
Start hearing them preached again. For God breathes on us through his
scriptures.
3. The scriptures clean your hard drive from the virus of false
belief.
I know very little about computers accept that my world falls apart
when they don’t work. Recently one of our computers began running
very slowly. We called the guys from Geek Squad and they removed
some viruses and now the computer works fine again. In a similar way,
the virus of false belief can infect our internal hard drive. God uses the
scriptures to cleanse us and get us back to work again.
Look with me at the last part of verse 16. “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 competent,
equipped for every good work.”
The scripture is profitable for teaching: the scripture shows us what is
true. It also is useful for reproof and correction. It shows us where we
are thinking and therefore behaving wrongly. Scripture helps us detect
the false belief virus that is shutting down our hard drive. The result is
that we are trained for righteousness. We are prepared to be God’s men
and women on mission in the world. When we let the scriptures search
us and form us and correct us and cleanse us from false belief we are
then prepared for the good works God has given us to do in the world.
This past week I was studying scripture and God began to show me
some the false belief viruses that were infecting my internal hard drive.
He began to correct and reprove and teach me so that I could be trained
for righteousness.
One of the false belief viruses I found infecting my mind goes something
like this: “Doug, You must work harder than everyone else, and let
people know this by telling them how busy you are. Weak people need
down time. The real movers and shakers in the world get by on little
sleep, multi-task, and are extraordinarily productive.”
You can see that this virus is a mutation of a biblical principle. The
scriptures do teach us to work hard. But they also teach us to rest. One
of the Ten Commandments teaches us to take a Sabbath each week.
Along with my bible reading I have been reading Dan Allender’s book on
Sabbath. These words convicted me:
“We are afraid of keeping Sabbath. When asked, ‘What keeps you from
observing Sabbath?’ two of the sixty students I surveyed said, ‘I don’t know
what to do with a day that is meant to be full of delight.’ One person
added, “Sabbath scares me because I am so much more comfortable with
work, not play. I don’t know what to do with joy.”
This particular virus of false belief has infected me in a physical way. I
have always taken a day off a week, and considered this as a Sabbath.
But my day off was essentially about running errands and getting the
house cleaned up. I compensated by drinking too much coffee during
the week. Recently my body has told me I cannot live that way any
more. Starting in November, I am going to take Thursdays as my
Sabbath.
A second false belief virus scripture helped me detect this week goes
something like this: “Great churches are run by great corporations and
great pastors are like great CEOs.” For many years I went to the Willow
Creek leadership conference in Chicago. Willow Creek is a wonderful
church doing wonderful things for the kingdom. But it is also a
corporation. In an article on the church published in the Economist, the
reporter observes:
The corporate theme is not just a matter of appearance. Willow Creek has
a mission statement and a management team, a seven-step strategy and a
set of ten core values. The church employs two MBAs—one from Harvard
and one from Stanford—and boasts a consulting arm. It has even been
giving the ultimate business accolade: it is the subject of a Harvard
Business School case-study.
Another study of America’s largest churches increasingly found that
senior pastors of these churches typically have MBAs instead of MDiv
degrees.
Now corporations serve many good purposes and there are many
similarities between corporations and churches. There are good lessons
churches can learn about leadership and management from the
business schools. But in the end, the church is not a corporation. It is a
body. It is a family. It is a living organism. And Harvard Business School
can’t teach you how to run it.
I went into the ministry because I felt called to do two things: preach
God’s word and disciple God’s people. And yet time and time again over
the years I try to play the role of church CEO. And I inevitably do it
poorly.
Conclusion
In the end, all of us are like the frog in the kettle. None of us can hop out
of the boiling waters of our culture. What we can do is abide in the
scriptures. We can let them remind us of the one true way of salvation.
We can let them renew us with the life-creating breath of God. And we
can let them cleanses us of the false belief viruses that keep us from
being equipped for every good work.
This week, take some time to sit down and reflect on this question: what
false belief viruses are infecting me? How have they made me sick? And
for extra credit, you might ask the same question about your church.