God's word is very honest in telling us that the Christian life will not be easy, okay? So that's what we saw last time. God's word is very honest in telling us that the Christian life will not be easy. In fact, verse 12 says that godly Christians must expect to be persecuted. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, we said. We noted several reasons for that truth. God uses persecutions and sufferings as part of the purification process to make us more like Jesus. Second, the exclusive claims of Christianity made in the Bible that Jesus is the only way to heaven is offensive, both to people of other religions and to people who have no religion and think that they're going to get to heaven on their own merits. Third, we mentioned the fact that our efforts to be godly will expose and demonstrate the contrast between their sinful lifestyles and our own efforts to be like Christ. So Christians who are striving after godliness should expect to be persecuted. Jesus said that this would be the case. Just as he himself was persecuted, But he did say to us that there will be great rewards in store for those who endure and overcome and for all those who bear up under such persecution. Paul next states that the evil of false Christians will only get worse leading to error and sin as the end times progress and the return of Christ grows nearer and nearer. Verse 13, while evil doers and imposters will go from bad to worse. deceiving and being deceived. So we saw Warren Wearsby, Warren Eagle, men and deceivers are going to get worse and worse. Why? Because they will deceive more and more because they themselves are being deceived by Satan. And in the last days, there'll be more deception and more imitation. And the only way that a believer will be able to tell the true from the false is by knowing the word of God well. It's our most important subject today and one that every father and grandfather and of course every Christian should be well versed in. Verse 14 moves from those sobering warnings by contrasting the evils of the false teachers with Timothy's own call to be an excellent and faithful teacher of God's word. Paul reminds his protege that godly examples help create faithful followers. Verse 14, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you have known those from whom you've learned it. And you'll remember that the Greek construction of that verse is very strong, saying literally, keep on remaining. Keep on remaining in what you have learned and become convinced of. Learned speaks of knowledge, of acquired information about the scriptures, and become convinced of speaks of conviction and a firm dedication to that truth. Paul reminds Timothy of those who have seen to it that he learned the word of God, namely his mother, Eunice and his grandmother Lois, they were mentioned back in Chapter 1 of this letter. And certainly he's also thinking of his own efforts in mentoring and teaching Timothy over the 15 years that they had traveled around together and worked Now as we come to verse 15, Paul's inspired to turn his attention from those who taught Timothy to the textbook of their teaching, that is the word of God. And here in these next three verses, we have arguably the greatest and most important statement in all the scriptures about the divine origin and value of the scriptures, okay? Today we're looking at the origin and the value of the scriptures. So let me reread verse 14 once more just to give the proper lead in to this critical section. As for you, continue in what you've learned and become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it and how. From infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. because of the origin and the value of the scriptures. Here's our statement. The Bible is absolutely crucial to the life and health of any Christian. Every Christian. Bible is absolutely crucial to the life and health of a Christian. We're talking about trust, we're talking about confidence. Paul reminds Timothy of the foundation that had been laid in his own life which led to the younger man's salvation. So we need to understand first that knowledge of God's word can lead to rescue from sin. Knowledge of God's word can lead to rescue from sin. Verse 15, how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures. Now some versions say how you've known from childhood, but the Greek word is actually brephos. It means a newborn baby, even an unborn child actually. Timothy had been exposed to the Word of God from the earliest age. Now the term that's translated as the Holy Scriptures here is literally the sacred writings, meaning the 39 books of the Jewish Old Testament. Paul's inspired to remind Timothy and us that the Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. This morning I'm going to pick a little bit on a fairly well-known preacher and teacher, a guy by the name of Andy Stanley. Andy is the son of, to the best of my knowledge, a solid evangelical, a man by the name of Charles Stanley, who was a Southern Baptist and the founder of In Touch Ministries. You may have heard him on the radio. He was pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta. Well, sadly, Charles's son, Andy, in recent years has really abandoned his roots and he's veered off into the realm of the false teachers. In 2019, he raised eyebrows among conservatives by saying that Christians should unhitch their faith from the Old Testament. which is just the opposite of what Paul writes here in verse 15. The sacred writings, the Old Testament, are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Because the Old Testament predicts and prophesies the coming of the Messiah, who is Jesus, the one and only Savior of the world. Isaiah 53, for instance, the entire chapter is devoted to predicting the ministry and the suffering of Jesus. We cannot unhitch our faith from the Old Testament, unhitch the New Testament from the Old Testament. As Andy suggests, he's argued that the Ten Commandments are no longer valuable to Christians, having been supplanted by Jesus's command to love one another. But understand, friends, the whole purpose of the Ten Commandments was not to give us a blueprint for life. If anybody could follow it, you would live pretty well. You'd have a pretty good society. But the point of the Ten Commandments was to show that you can't keep them. to show you that you need a Savior. The Ten Commandments are the lens by which we figure out that we're not right with God. We've all fallen short of His standards and His glory and we all need a Savior. the one and only Savior, who is Christ Jesus the Lord, whom we receive by faith, as Paul writes here in verse 15. And both the Old and the New Testaments have important things to teach us. One of the key things is the difference between wise men and foolish men. For instance, both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 in the Old Testament begin, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Okay, fool is someone who is just stupid, okay, in scriptures. There's really no other way to say it. They're ignorant, they're dumb, they're foolish. Psalm 107, 17 warns, some became fools through their rebellious ways and they suffered affliction because of their iniquities, their sin. And the Old Testament Book of the Proverbs repeatedly contrasts those with true biblical knowledge and wisdom that is gained through knowing the scriptures and the ignorance of the fool. Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 10, verse 14, the wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin. And Proverbs 13, 20, walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. By the way, did you know that the Bible even speaks to politics? Ecclesiastes 10 and two. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. That's just an extra nickel's worth this morning for you. I didn't say it, God said it. But the New Testament has not supplanted or replaced the old because it's all God's word. And even the Old Testament is able to make one wise for salvation through Christ Jesus. Just as Paul writes here and Isaiah later prophesied, a highway will be there, be called the way of holiness. and it will be for those who walk on the way. By the way, did you know that the early Christian church was called the way? The unclean will not journey on it and wicked fools will not go about on it. And I said at the outset that knowledge of God's word can lead to rescue from sin. That's what salvation means, by the way. Rescue from the penalty and the power of sin to dominate our lives. But not all will accept. Not all will accept what the scriptures have to say, and that was the problem for the self-righteous religious leaders in Jesus' day. They thought that they were pleasing God with their religious rituals and their pretend piety, and Jesus said to them, you study the scriptures diligently because you think in them you have eternal life, but they're the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have eternal life. See, it's not faith in the scriptures that saves, but faith in the Savior that's predicted in the Old Testament and described and explained in the New Testament. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, the Bible reveals our need for this Savior, that we're not right in God's sight without him. And the Bible not only contrasts the fool and the wise man, but it also warns that there is human wisdom as opposed to God's wisdom. And relying on human wisdom is the same as being a fool, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 and following. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, well God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe in Jesus. Jews demand signs, Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. And this is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. The Old Testament prepared humanity for the coming of the Savior. The Gospels in the New Testament describe his life and his ministry and the epistles explain the meaning of his ministry. The Bible teaches us both how to be saved by admitting our sin and asking for God's forgiveness on the basis of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the Bible teaches us that we can be assured that we have forgiven and we are saved if and only if we have genuinely repented of our sin and believed in Jesus Christ alone as our Savior and our Lord. So we come to verse 16 then, which Chuck Swindoll describes as the single most significant sentence in all the New Testament regarding the scriptures, because it touches on the watershed issue of faith in our times. What you believe about the Bible influences everything you believe and affects every decision you make. Let me say that again, because it's so important. What you believe about the Bible influences everything else that you believe and it affects every decision that you make. And what we see here is the profound and categorical divinely inspired statement that the entire Bible is God's word breathed out through the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit through men. The entire Bible is God's word breathed out by the Holy Spirit through men. Verse 16, all scripture is God-breathed. Now some versions, like the New American Standard, the New Living Translation, render this as all scripture is inspired by God. But in the Greek, there's actually only one compound word. It's theopneos, theos meaning God, and pneustos meaning breathed out. The NIV and the others render it very literally and very accurate as all scripture is God-breathed or breathed out by God. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8.3 saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So believers Bible commentary explains in a miraculous way, God communicated his word to men and he led them to write it down for permanent preservation. And what they wrote was the very word of God, inspired and infallible. As the Moody Bible commentary puts it, God superintended the writing of scripture by his spirit without blotting out the human author's personality, style, or vocabulary. Now that's a divine mystery. that's not really fully explained in the scriptures. In some cases, God dictated directly to the human authors what to write, but in other cases, he, through the Holy Spirit, carefully superintended what was written so that we have exactly what God intended us to have, even though the human author's personality and writing style is still apparent in the text. And so the high view of scripture says that all or every scripture is literally breathed out by God through the Holy Spirit using human writers to communicate precisely what God wanted to say. On the other hand, there are many so-called Christians and churches that actually have what is known as a low view of the scriptures. John MacArthur explains that some have suggested that the first part of verse 16 should be translated, all scripture inspired by God is, okay? All scripture that's inspired by God is useful and so on here as we'll get to in just a moment. That leaves open the possibility then that some scripture is not inspired by God. You see where the problem comes? That makes the Bible useless, worthless as a reliable guide to divine truth because we would then have to determine which part of it is inspired by God and which is not. Men would be left to their own finite and sinful devices and understandings to discover what part of the Bible might be true and which may not, what part is God's word and what part is human conjecture. And this is where we have the problem in Christianity, so-called. You have churches that say the virgin birth is just a myth. You have churches that say the resurrection was just a myth. They go through the scriptures and they pick and choose the parts that they like, like somebody going through old country buffet or the king's table, whatever your buffet is. I don't like the broccoli. I'm not going to eat that. I'm not going to take that. I like this though. I like the candy coated parts. I like the chocolate covered fountain, right? That's not what the Bible is all about. You can't do that, okay? There's been a big hassle over Rick Warren's church, Saddleback, recently, okay? They ordained woman pastor. That's totally against the Southern Baptist's doctrinal stances. Okay, because the Bible says that men are to be pastors, not women. We've been studying this as we've gone through the pastoral epistles. They want to ignore that because that's not modern enough. That's not new. That doesn't conform to the standards of our society. Tough. God said what it was to be, and he put it all the way back to the creation in Genesis. God created man first and the woman to be man's helper. That doesn't mean that women are inferior to men. They're just as valuable in God's sights, but God has designated certain roles for men and certain roles for women. And we are trying to blow all that up. I mean society and many in Christendom. A high view of scripture says that God has said what he meant and he means what he said. A low view of scripture holds that men were just sort of generally inspired to write some spiritual ideas and concepts, but it's not actually God's intended word. And sadly, Andy Stanley has become one of those who represent this sort of a view. Just a couple of months ago now, he tweeted out this. When it comes to knowing if there is a God, and if there is a God, what God is like, and when it comes to trying to figure out who God likes, Does it really come down to the Bible tells us so? Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Amy, what's wrong with you? Where have you fallen apart? He goes on, the Christian faith does not rise and fall on the accuracy of 66 ancient documents. The tweet said it rises and falls on the identity of a single individual, Jesus of Nazareth. That's true to some extent. But the accuracy of the Bible is crucial because it's the Bible that tells us about Jesus, his message and his mission. If we've got it wrong, then we can't trust anything that's in it. It becomes useless, worthless to us. He goes on, his real attitude towards the scriptures comes out in this statement, it was given at the same time. The truth is, Christians are not expected to believe what we believe based on a collection of ancient manuscripts written by men who never met each other over the course of hundreds of years in a time when everybody was superstitious and everybody believed in the gods and there was no modern science. That tells you all you need to know. about his position on the scriptures. And sadly, there's all kinds of people out there pretending to be Christians, pretending that they have a church, and yet that is their attitude towards the Bible. It's precisely the low view of scripture that's plagued liberal and mainline denominations for years, and it's undermined people's trust in the holy scriptures. A low view of scripture places human philosophy or science in judgment over the words of the Bible. You understand that? A low view of scripture places man's opinions and his thoughts and scientific thought and all that in judgment over the words of the Bible. Well, we know that that couldn't have happened because that's against science, okay? We know that science says that the world's been here for millions and billions of years and we all have evolved out of primordial slime. No, God breathed life into the dirt that he created and he made a man and then he made a woman from the man and that's all he made. He didn't make 127 different genders. Come on, man. Come on, man. A high view of scripture says that the Bible is the lens through which all other so-called truth is evaluated. That's a high view of the scriptures. So conservative Christians hold to what is known as verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible. Okay, what does that mean? Verbal means every word, each and every word is inspired by God. Plenary means that the whole thing, the entirety of the scriptures were inspired by God, literally God breathed. Not just some of it, but each and every word of the Bible. Superstitious and unscientific men did not make up stories and put them in the Bible. God inspired and divinely superintended these men to write what they wrote so that we can utterly rely upon it. Peter was inspired to write another key passage regarding the origin of the scriptures. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable and you will do well to pay attention to it as a light that's shining in a dark place. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, above all you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. Understand, nothing that's written in the Word of God came about because of a man's decision to write it. Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but these prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along like the wind blowing a ship by the Holy Spirit. God breathed. That's what this book is. It's living and active because of that. And we reject that as our peril. John MacArthur points out the Pentateuch, that is the first five books of the Old Testament, contain at least 680 claims to divine revelation and inspiration. More such claims are found 418 times in the historical books, 195 times in the poetic books, and 1307 times in the prophetic books. The New Testament contains more than 300 direct quotations from the Old Testament and at least a thousand indirect references. Almost all of them declaring or implying that they are God's own word. And you see friends, these attacks on the inerrancy and the authority of the scriptures have been going on for decades, which is why a group of conservative Christian pastors, theologians and scholars, they met together back in 1978. to form a statement that defines our understanding of the true nature of the Holy Scriptures. And I've included a separate copy in your bulletin for reference today. Pull that out if you would, because there's a couple of blanks to fill in on that one. This is the Chicago statement. It was done here in Chicagoland on biblical inerrancy from 1978. Point number one, this is just the introduction. There's a bunch of affirmations and denials that, yes, we believe this, we don't believe that. I didn't have room to include all that this time. You can look it up online if you want. But here's the main portion, the introductory part. Number one, God who is himself truth and speaks truth only has inspired the Holy Scripture in order to thereby reveal himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as creator and Lord, redeemer and judge, and the Holy Scripture is God's witness to himself. Number two, the Holy Scripture being God's own word, written by men, prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority on all matters upon which it touches. The Bible doesn't talk about everything. It doesn't talk about whether or not taxes should be high or low. It just says we should pay our taxes if we have taxes, so on, okay? So the Bible doesn't address everything. We derive principles from the Bible to figure out other things when it doesn't talk to it. But they go on. A, it is to be believed as God's instruction in all that it affirms. Not everything in the scriptures is affirmed. Sometimes it's just reported on. Doesn't say whether this is a good thing. David had many wives. Solomon had many wives. Doesn't say whether that's a good thing. We gotta go to other places to find that, okay? Second, it is to be obeyed as God's command in all that it requires. It's not just merely for looking at. James said, don't deceive yourself, do what it says. Third, it is to be embraced as God's pledge to you and I in all that it promises. When God says he, Jesus said he's gone to prepare a place for us We're going to have an amazing place to live. God says, I've forgiven you your sins through Jesus Christ. If you will repent and believe in Jesus, we can be assured we have eternal life. Third, the Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine author, both authenticates it to us by his inward witness, and he opens our minds to understand its meaning. It's a divine work on the authors, and it's a divine work on the readers as well. It's living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces us. Fourth, being holy and verbally God-given, scripture is without error or fault in all of its teaching, no less in what it states about God's act in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in new lives. See, people say, well, the Bible's authoritative when it's talking about salvation, but not on all this other stuff. Nope. The Bible is true. And archaeologists use the Bible when they're in the old, in the Middle East, looking for things, and they find exactly what, you know, oh, well, that wasn't, we've never been able to find that civilization. And some 10, 20 years later, suddenly, oh, oh, sorry, well, we did find that civilization. And gosh, surprise, surprise, it was right where the Bible said it would be. Okay? And yet, people choose not to believe. Fifth, the authority of the scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own. And such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and to the church. Conservative biblical scholars signed off on this statement and yet it continues to be a fight. That's why you see rainbow flags flying down the street. When at every point in the scriptures it says this is something that will disqualify you from heaven. You've got churches that want to celebrate it because it's a man thing and it indulges man's sinful desires. denies that God created women for men and men for women. Not men for men and women for women. And they're even denying that God created men and women. They created all kinds of... I can't even figure out what it is that they want. Okay. This is the critical difference between conservative and liberal Christianity, the very nature and the authority of the Bible. It says in Psalm 19, I read from it this morning, it's the great ode to the scriptures, the great song to the scriptures in the Bible. All your words are true, all your righteous laws are eternal. Now I should point out Warren Wiersbe correctly and wisely says that we should not say that every statement in the Bible is true because the Bible records the lies of people and it records lies by Satan. So not everything is true but the record of what's occurred and what they said is true. So understand that, not every word is true. We should eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die. People pick things out of the Bible. I like that. I'll eat, drink, and be merry. Now. I also need to point out that in verse 15, Paul was referring to what we know as the Old Testament when he said that Timothy had known the sacred writings. Because in Timothy's childhood, that's all there was, right? Okay? By the time of the writing of this second letter to Timothy now, 19 of the 27 books of the New Testament had already been composed, and it's clear from several points in these books that the human authors recognized the fact that they were being divinely inspired to write scripture. Paul hints that he realized this in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. And we also thank God continually because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. Okay? Second Corinthians 2.17, unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ, we speak before God with sincerity as what? As those sent from God. The words I'm teaching you are God's words. It's what he's saying. Peter specifically compares and describes Paul's writings as being the equivalent of the other scriptures. Second Peter 315 and 16, bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the what? Other scriptures. He's calling Paul's writing scripture. And they do this to their own destruction. John was well aware of the divine inspiration by which he was writing the book of the Revelation. It begins, chapter one and verse one, the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, the writer, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. On the Lord's day, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches. John understood that he was receiving revelation from God. He was writing scripture. All scripture, both New and Old Testaments, is God-breathed. As Psalm 19 puts it so beautifully, the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They're sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb, and by them, your servant is warm. In keeping them, there is great reward. Paul's inspired then next to tell us in the second half of verse 16 what the great reward is really. It is the fact that God has a fourfold purpose in giving us the Bible. Second half of verse 16, it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Now various versions translate this useful as profitable or beneficial or valuable. All scripture is profitable, beneficial and valuable for instruction in the truth. Instruction in the truth. This is teaching or doctrine. Didaskalia, it's used 21 times in the scriptures. Two are in one parallel passage in the gospels, while the other 19 are all used by Paul, and 15 of them are in the pastoral epistles. Didaskalia, or sound doctrine, speaks of the truth that's contained in the scriptures. truth about God and his nature, truth about how creation was formed, truth about the spiritual world of angels and demons, about the fall, about sin, about salvation, about the nation of Israel and its place in human history, about the church, as well as future events and so many more things. Paul was inspired to write the Romans that everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction so that through the endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. That's why he charged Timothy in his first letter, be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this because in so doing you will save both yourselves and those who listen to you. John MacArthur correctly points out that it goes without saying that it's impossible to believe, understand, and follow what you don't even know. Right? If you don't know it, how do you believe it? How do you follow it? It's completely futile as well as foolish to expect to live a spiritual life without knowing spiritual truth. The Bible teaches what's right and true. We have to study it. We have to know it well. Jesus prayed to the Father for us. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Not merely true. It's truth. It's the definition of truth. Second purpose revealed here in verse 16 for the Bible is revealing when you or I are in error or in sin, rebuking or reproof It's only used here in the scriptures in this context. The Bible reveals to us what displeases or offends our holy God, and the word speaks of conviction of wrongdoing. It describes correction or censure in the sense of refuting error or rebuking sin. Jesus said, are you not in error because you don't know the scriptures or the power of God? The Bible teaches us what is not right. For instance, it says in Ephesians 4.28, anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer. Notice that the Bible shows us what sin or error is, but it doesn't just leave us there. It tells us how to correct the problem, but they must work doing something useful with their own hands so that they have something to share with those in need. The third purpose given here in verse 16, it's demonstrated in the second half of that verse, showing us how to get back on track when we've gone off. Correcting is from the Greek epi-orthonosis. It's a compound word that's only used here. Epi is again, okay? And an orthos is to set up or make a deformed person straighten up once again. To rear again, to build anew and so it suggests rebuilding and improvement. The idea is that sin warps, distorts a person and biblical correction brings them back to a place of erectness. The word without the epi prefix is used in Hebrews 12 where the author has been inspired to explain God's disciplining process when we go astray. Understand though that he's describing correction and not punishment. Hebrews chapter 12 beginning in verse 7, endure hardship as discipline for God is treating you as his children. What children are not disciplined by their father? And if you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you're not legitimate. You're not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we've all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more then should we submit to the father of our spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen or straighten out, anorthos, your feeble arms and your weak knees. Make the paths level for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled, rather healed. The Bible teaches us how to get right when we've strayed. And finally, the fourth purpose described here is learning how to continue to live as God intends. Training is from the Greek, pahidia. And that word spoke of the whole training and education of children, including the cultivation of mind and morals and employs for this purpose. Now commands, now admonitions, now reproof and even punishment. It also includes training and care of the body, but it also came to be used of whatever in adults cultivates the soul, especially by correcting mistakes and curbing passions. Pahidiyya then described instruction which aimed at increasing virtue, staying on the right track. Words used in Ephesians 6, forefathers do not exasperate your children, instead bring them up in the training, pahidia, and instruction of the Lord. The other four times that the noun form are used is in that same passage we just looked at in Hebrews 12. It's translated as discipline, as well as several more times in that same passage, which the verb form of the same root. This training or discipline here in verse 16 is training in righteousness or dikioskone, the state of one who is as he ought to be, the condition of being acceptable to God, speaks of integrity, speaks of purity of life, of rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting. As it says in Ephesians 4, that however is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to be made new in the attitude of your minds. Put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The Bible teaches us how to remain right, how to remain on the right path, on the straight and narrow. Fourfold purpose of God giving us the scriptures, knowing what's right, knowing what's wrong, knowing how to get back on the right path and how to stay there. And Paul's inspired to say that God's word makes our good works possible. God's word makes our good works possible. Verse 17, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, if you have the New American Standard, this verse says so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Swindoll explains that unfortunately the adjective adequate no longer means what it once did in English. At one time adequate meant equal to the task. Now it just smacks of mediocrity. No one who really wants a job would list being adequate as a personal quality on a resume. Today we call them the right person for the job. We call them qualified or proficient. He or she has the right training or expertise to master whatever task needs to be accomplished. So the Greek sentence begins with the adverb artios, meaning fitted or complete, having reference to a special aptitude for given uses. And it ends with that same word having an X prefix attached to it, according to linguistic scholars, that perfects its meaning. So kitchen explains the result as a meaning of completely outfitted or fully furnished, fully equipped, fully supplied. It was used of a wagon or a rescue boat that was fully outfitted for its task. So the King James translates the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished. I think I like the New Living Translations rendering the best. It's God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing that God wants us to do. And this equipping is from God himself, both in natural abilities, spiritual gifts, and through the benefit of the scriptures that thoroughly equip us to understand and do God's will. Paul's inspired to write to the Ephesians, Ephesians 2.10, we are God's handiwork, we are his masterpiece, his poema, his poem, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. The Corinthians, God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Believer's Bible commentary quotes Lenski, the scriptures are thus absolutely incomparable. No other book, library, or anything else in all the world is able to make a lost sinner wise for salvation. No other scripture, since it lacks the inspiration of God, whatever profit it may otherwise afford, is profitable for these ends, teaching us the true saving facts, refuting the lies and the delusions that deny those facts. Restoring the sinner or fallen Christian to an upright position. Educating, training, disciplining one in genuine righteousness. And Wiersbe puts it this way, I close with this. The times are not gonna get better, but as Christians, we can become better people. even in bad times. So we separate ourselves from that which is false, devote ourselves to that which is true, and we continue our study of the word of God. And then the Lord can equip us for ministry in these difficult days, and we'll have the joy of seeing others come to a knowledge of the truth. Let's pray. Lord, your word is so rich and we are so thankful that you have given it to us to reveal yourself and to teach us in every way what it is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through your spirit and through your word, you equip us so that we may do all that you have called us to do. Help us, Lord, to be faithful, to be wise and not fools.