2 Tim 3:14-4:5 theme verse 2 Tim 3:14
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this fourth Sunday of 2025, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at that through general revelation and special revelation, God revealed the Nature and attributes of God. Yet this week, we would like to look at the Bible through which God clearly revealed His Being and Attributes together.
1) 2 Timothy in which we read today’s text is the Epistle to loving Timothy which Paul sent before his martyrdom. In today’s text of 3:14 to 4:5, Paul exhorted Timothy that “in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power so that even though learning, yet, they never be able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. But, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And preach the word in season and out of season.”
2) To summarize, the Scripture was breathed out by God, I other words, Scripture was produced by men spoke from God as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit” as 2 Peter 1:21 says. Here for the inspiration of God, there are three views, I mean, firstly, mechanical inspiration which refers to the idea that God dictated the Bible word-for word to the authors, essentially acts as a scribe, secondly, dynamic inspiration which suggests that God inspired the underlying ideas and messages within the Bible, allowing the authors to express them in their own words, and thirdly, organic inspiration which views the Bible as a product of God working through the unique personalities and experiences of the human authors, allowing their individual styles to shine through while still conveying God’s message. Yet, we believe that God wrote the Bible through the organic inspiration so that the Bible not only teaches us the special revelation of the knowledge of God for our salvation, but also is profitable to teach us the right doctrine through teaching and reproof, and the right behavior through correction and discipline so that people of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
3) Regarding this authority of the Bible, the Belgic confession article 5 confesses that “We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we believe without a doubt all things contained in them – not so much because the church receives and approves the as such but above all because the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they prove themselves to be from God.”
4) As such, the reason why the Bible is authoritative is; firstly, because the author of the Bible is God, because accepting the Bible in faith includes the belief that the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, when we confess to believe the Bible, it does not mean that we just believe some portion of it, rather we believe all of the Bible, not adding or extracting, or tweaking, so that we approve the Bible as the canon which does not have any error, because we believe the Scriptures is the Word of God who is perfect. In order words, as Calvin said that “the Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living words of God were heard,” God’s personality through which He speaks through the Bible is the best sign that the Bible is the Word of God. And secondly because the Bible has objective self-evidence of its own, as the Westminster Large Catechism says “The scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty (Hos. 8:12, 1 Cor. 2:6–7,13, Ps. 119:18,129) and purity; (Ps. 12:6, Ps. 119:140) by the consent of all the parts, (Acts 10:43, Acts 26:22) and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; (Rom. 3:19,27) by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: (Acts 18:28, Heb. 4:12, James 1:18, Ps. 19:7–9, Rom. 15:4, Acts 20:32) but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God. (John 16:13–14, 1 John 2:20,27, John 20:31)” And finally, because the "secret and internal attestation of the Holy Spirit" refers to the idea that within a believer's heart, the Holy Spirit provides a personal, inner conviction and assurance that the Bible is God's word, acting as a kind of internal witness that confirms the truth of Scripture without needing external validation; essentially, a direct knowing within oneself that the Bible is true, facilitated by the Holy Spirit's work in their life.
5) In this perspective Belgic confession article 6 confess that “We distinguish between these holy books and the apocryphal ones, which are the third and fourth books of Esdras; the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Sirach, Baruch; what was added to the Story of Esther; the Song of the Three Children in the Furnace; the Story of Susannah; the Story of Bel and the Dragon; the Prayer of Manasseh; and the two books of Maccabees. The church may certainly read these books and learn from them as far as they agree with the canonical books. But they do not have such power and virtue that one could confirm from their testimony any point of faith or of the Christian religion. Much less can they detract from the authority of the other holy books.”
6) And also Belgic confession article 7 confesses that “We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it. For since the entire manner of service which God requires of us is described in it at great length, no one even an apostle or an angel from heaven, as Paul says-'ought to teach other than what the Holy Scriptures have already taught us. For since it is forbidden to add to the Word of God, or take anything away from it,” it is plainly demonstrated that the teaching is perfect and complete in all respects. Therefore we must not consider human writings no matter how holy their authors may have been equal to the divine writings; nor may we put custom, nor the majority, nor age, nor the passage of times or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God, for truth is above everything else. For all human beings are liars by nature and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with all our hearts everything that does not agree with this infallible rule, as we are taught to do by the apostles when they say, "Test the spirits to see whether they are from God,”’ and also, "Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching."'
7) To summarize this confession, we confess that the Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely, and everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it and the entire manner of service which God requires in it at great length, as the teach is perfect and complete in all respects so that we reject with all our hearts everything that does not agree with this infallible rule.
8) Therefore, if we do not obey to this authority of the Word of God, “we are in no position to rely upon God’s promises unless we obey His commandments”, as Calvin said. And also as Fransis Shaeffer said “in the love of the creature toward, there should be obedience, because if not, it is meaningless,” I believe that we have to express our love toward God through our obedience to the Word of God.
9) And also that’s why Thomas Manton said “we do not meditate that we may rest in contemplation, but in order to obedience,” and the Psalmist in Psalm 119:11 said that “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you,” and also especially the reformers emphasized a lot on the Bible, since the Reformation is the religious movement that we can become one through forgiveness, repenting the theology that has become speculative and restore the spiritual life exemplified. So in this time when the pulpit of the church is becoming more and more secularized, we have to value the biblical sermon, in other that the Holy Spirit will actively spread spiritual vitality through the church who treasures the the Word of God. In particular, in the end time when people will not endure sound doctrine, but to suit their own desires they will accumulate for themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths, as 2 Tim 4:3 says, I believe that we must not be deceived by messages that simply please our ears, rather listen to the pure Word of the Gospel and obey to the Word of God. Therefore, I pray that all of us here may submit to the authority of the Word of God this year to hear and obey to it.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 Through Today’s text, we could know that God speaks directly through the Bible, the Scripture has enough self-evidence in it and also the Holy Spirit prove its authority through internal witnessing in us. For a while, after thinking this authority of the Word, I hope we could share our thought and experience on each proof of the authority of the Word of God with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also we became to know that the Bible, the Word of God, reveals the will of God, teaches everything which we need in our salvation, and also the way to worship God at great length, since it is perfect and complete. So after reviewing how the Bible teaches you all these things, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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