In the sermon 'What Scripture Is to Us' by Jason Dohm, the speaker elaborates on the profound significance and sufficiency of Scripture for believers. Drawing from 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Dohm emphasizes that Scripture, being God-breathed, is the primary source of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness to equip believers for every good work. He highlights the spiritual legacy within Timothy's family, where his grandmother and mother instilled in him a love for Scripture from childhood, supported by Paul's teachings. Dohm contrasts general revelation, which is accessible through nature, with specific revelation, which is necessary for salvation and is communicated through Scripture. The sermon criticizes the tendency to place other teachings on par with Scripture, stressing its unique and unparalleled authority. Dohm calls for a continued reformation in the church, urging believers to embrace and live by biblical truths, even amidst contemporary challenges and false teachings.

Second Timothy 3 14 through 4 5 but you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I Charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead At his appearance and his kingdom Preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke Exhort with all long suffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears They will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions.

Do the work of the evangelists fulfill your ministry. So we're out of Ezra this morning, and back into Ezra again next week. The title of the message today is, What Scripture is to Us. And It flows out of my two weeks on another continent. The continent of Africa.

It's good to be home. We spent two weeks preaching on marriage, but we really weren't preaching on marriage. And preaching on the gospel, but we really weren't preaching on the gospel. And preaching on the duties of pastors, but we really weren't preaching on the duties of pastors, and preaching on how you get more out of Bible study, but we really weren't preaching on how you get more out of Bible study. We were really preaching on what the Word of God is to His people.

And that God has given us this magnificent body of truth, and that it's all sufficient. Meaning, we never put books beside it on the shelf. Scripture gets its own shelf, and it's the top shelf. And so when the Mormons want to put books beside it, we slide those books off onto the floor. And when secular worldly teachers want to elevate things and put it beside the Word of God, we'll have none of it.

Because that's not how the people of God think about the Word of God. It's incomparable to them. There's nothing to compare it with to them. So this is our foundation for everything. We are building a life together on this.

And everything else flows from that. Even the Gospel flows from that. The Gospel must be grounded in something. If you don't have a firm ground, then you'll find that the Gospel that you embrace is chipped away little by little because you've not held fast to what Scripture really is. It is sufficient.

We don't need anything else, but we do need our Bibles. So as we embark on the study of what the scripture is to the people of Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our God, I thank you that you have given us a life together under the authority of your word. Oh God may it be so happily under the authority of your word. I pray Lord that you would make us into a people who are so thoroughly satisfied by it.

That it would be sweet to our taste. That the taste of everything else wouldn't be the same. Oh God help us to trust so fully in this great body of truth you've given as a gift to your people may it be so in Jesus name, Amen. So we're in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 today beginning in verse 14 extending through the end of the chapter into chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 and I'd like to break this into three chunks. The first chunk being verses 14 and 15 of 2 Timothy chapter 3.

Just two verses there. And then the next two verses, the last two verses of the chapter, verses 16 and 17. And then take verses 1 through 5 of chapter 4 together. So let's look at this first section together, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. Paul writes to Timothy who is his son in the faith.

He's not his physical son, but Paul has discipled him and he's made him his spiritual son through his preaching. And through his care and through his discipleship. Here's what he writes to him beginning in verse 14. But you, Timothy, must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." In these two verses, the Apostle Paul is speaking of three things. He is speaking of things that were learned by Timothy.

Secondly, he is speaking of the people that he learned these things from. The people who were assuring him of the truth of these things. And thirdly, he gives him an exhortation. First, we see that he has been learning from Paul. If you look back up to verse 10, just a few verses earlier, in verse 10 Paul says, but you have carefully followed my doctrine.

Timothy as the son of the faith has been learning at the feet of the Apostle Paul. That's a pretty good teacher. And we in many ways are like Timothy. We've been learning at the feet of the Apostle Paul as well because he's passed on his doctrine through his letters. The Holy Spirit made this man sufficient to be a channel for the truth of God and to be an author of Holy Scripture.

So we're like Timothy, we've been learning at the feet of the Apostle Paul. So first we know from verse 10 that Timothy has been learning Paul's doctrine from Paul. Paul has already tipped his hand, in other words, he's already said what he's up to, in chapter 2 verse 2. So you might have to flip back one page, but in chapter 2 verses 2, Paul instructs Timothy to do what Paul has been doing in the life of Timothy. So Paul's expectation is, Paul's pattern of life in passing on truth is going to be followed by his son in the faith.

Look at 2 Timothy 2 verse 2. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So Paul has a pattern of life, he has been living in a certain manner, and it's to know truth and then to commit that truth to faithful men, to seek more faithful men and teach them the truth, so that they'll be able to identify more faithful men and teach them the truth and on and on and on until Jesus comes back. So this is what Paul's been up to. He identified a faithful man and he turned him into a spiritual son.

And he made sure that Timothy was paying attention to his doctrine and he has committed it to him for a purpose. Timothy wasn't the end of the line of the deposit of truth that he was passing on. He was just another stop on the track, one station on the track. And so the train keeps rolling down that track and it will roll into another station. Timothy in Ephesus is going to identify more faithful men and he's just going to be pouring the truth that he learned from Paul into them.

Secondly, in these two verses we learn that This didn't start with Paul. Timothy's learning didn't begin with paying attention to Paul's doctrine. Actually it began in his earliest days that from childhood he had learned the Holy Scriptures. So long before Timothy met his spiritual father, the truth of Scripture was being poured into this little boy. From childhood he had learned the Holy Scriptures.

In chapter 1 verse 5, Paul is giving thanks for the genuine faith in Timothy. He's just recognizing that there's saving faith in this young man. And he says that this genuine faith dwelt first in his grandmother Lois. And then this genuine faith dwelt in his mother Eunice. Now it dwells in Timothy.

So Paul is able to look back upstream in this glorious family history and see a grandmother who was saved by faith. She has a genuine saving faith. And she didn't keep it to herself. She taught it to her daughter named Eunice. And God was gracious.

And a combination of the preaching of the Word and then the Spirit came and breathed life into this daughter and she had the genuine faith too. And then probably both of them, probably this grandmother and this mother, were pouring the truth of Scripture into this little boy and God was gracious again. And by a work of His Spirit, He made this little boy alive to truth. And he received a genuine faith too. So not only has Timothy been learning Paul's doctrine, even from his earliest days the truth of scripture has been planted, has been sowed and watered and now it's bearing fruit in the life of this young man.

It would be a mistake not to stop for a minute and just address the ladies to acknowledge what we see in the letter that Paul wrote to Timothy here. That no mention is made of a grandfather, but there was a grandmother with a genuine faith. No mention of a father, but there is the mention of a mother who had genuine faith and was faithful and faithfully taught the scriptures to a little boy on her knee. And that these were seeds sown and watered and then God came and gave life. Only God brings life it has to be a work of the Holy Spirit but how often is God pleased to use the faithful the faithfulness of a grandmother with genuine faith and then a mother with genuine faith.

And this is passed on to the generations. Why? Because they're able to save their children. No, of course not. Because God's merciful.

And God honors even the most weak, frail efforts of his children. When we're faithful, when we have a heart towards obedience, God so often comes and just pours out His compassion in that place. So ladies, just be faithful. Just keep chipping away. You've been making these deposits day after day, and sometimes you don't see the fruit of it today.

But know this, know how pleased God is with faithful grandmothers, where there's genuine faith. Know how pleased God is with faithful grandmothers where there is genuine faith. Know how pleased God is with mothers who have genuine faith, and they're just giving a little deposit to these little boys on their knees, day after day after day. May it be said of you what it said of the grandmother here and of the mother here. They had genuine faith and then they faithfully taught the holy scriptures from the earliest days of a little boy, and the world's never been the same.

Something wonderful is said here of the Holy Scriptures. Look at verse 15. What wonderful thing is said of the Holy Scriptures. That they are able to make you wise for salvation. So I would like to take some time to consider the way in which this is true.

Obviously many people have heard the Holy Scriptures and they haven't gained in wisdom and they haven't been saved. So Paul isn't teaching here that all you need is a Bible. You just go away and you read a little bit and then you'll be saved. That's not what Paul is teaching. But he is teaching that this body of truth that has been given by God in His Word is able to make you wise for the purpose of salvation.

This isn't to discount the work of the Spirit. Salvation is always the work of the Spirit. One of his key instruments that he uses to call the elect to himself is the Word of God. And of course that's said pretty much everywhere in the Word of God. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 19.

Psalm 19 is a chapter about different ways in which God reveals Himself to mankind. Every man, woman, and child in the natural condition, as blind as a bat, dead as a doornail, dead to spiritual things, Unable even to embrace or receive them or even to understand them. Paul says that so clearly. I believe that's in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The natural man does not receive the things of God nor indeed can he.

They are spiritually discerned. So here in Psalm 19, we have two kinds of revelation given to us. So I'd like to read verses 1-11 of Psalm 119, to the chief musician, a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of the heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward." There's a clear division here. You have verses 1 through 6 speaking very specifically to a very specific thing. And then you have verses 7 through 11 which is so obviously a shift and a change.

Verses 1 through 6 is known as general revelation, meaning You don't need a book for it. It is truth revealed by God that you don't have to go to a library for. You can go outside on a starry night and hear a sermon preached by the stars. This is what verses 1-6 are about. It is general revelation.

The Apostle Paul picks up on this in Romans chapter 1. Listen to Romans chapter 1 verse 20. Paul writes, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. General revelation, the seeing of the works of the hands of God makes us without excuse. It is enough to condemn us.

It's enough to show us that there is an almighty God who's made the stars. And It's the sermon they preach when you go out on a clear night. They're speaking. They speak in every language. You don't have to know the language of the preacher, because the preacher are the stars, the works of God, And there's no language barrier there.

You can go out and look and see the invisible attributes of an Almighty God. And it makes mankind without excuse. It makes us accountable to the Creator because you can look around and say there has to be an Almighty God who has done that. And the people who deny it are just suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, meaning they love their sin. They really know in their heart of hearts that it's true, that there's an Almighty God who's made this thing.

Because they love their sin and because they will not be governed, they say there's not a Maker for that. It's a blindness caused when you jam your eyes shut. I'm blind. I'm deaf. You jam your fingers into your ears.

It's that kind of deafness. This is general revelation, verses 1-6 of Psalm 19. The sermon that is preached by the heavens. They are declaring the glory of God in every language and it's inescapable so that men are without excuse. Then in verses 7 through 11 we have specific revelation.

You can go out a thousand nights in a row, a thousand clear nights, and look at the stars. And the stars never preach this part of the sermon. You need what God has given you. God has given you. Jesus, in John 17, says, he's praying to his father, and he says, Father, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. So there's truth that you can get from looking at his creation, but there's a lot of truth that you need to get right from God. Things that your brain won't tell you in its normal pattern of thought. Things that you don't see from creation. Things that are actually contrary to so many other things that you think on your own.

So God hasn't left us in a state of ignorance. He's actually worked through so many different authors to give one unified message. That's what Scripture is. Not given through a single author, but 66 books given through multiple authors. I should know the number, I don't remember.

There's not 66 authors but multiple offers over a thousand years with one message. And the central message is how may we be saved and the central answer is through Jesus Christ. The center point of the specific revelation of God is Jesus Christ. So that the prophets were promising and promising and promising and promising, that sinful man was going to be reconciled to God through a redeemer that he would send at just the right time. And then we see the fulfillment of it in the New Testament revelation.

So this is a must for salvation and we actually see it in Psalm 19 on specific revelation. Look at verse 7 again. The law of the Lord is perfect so we know that it came from God in perfection converting the soul. So it is the specific Revelation of God, the words on the page that are able to make us wise for salvation, to put it in the terms of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3, our text for today. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

So Paul is pulling the language out of Psalm 19 into his letter, into 2 Timothy chapter 3. So God has given general revelation. He's made things with His hands and you can look at Him and tell a lot about the Maker through what has been made. But He hasn't stopped there. He's given a specific revelation and it's necessary for salvation.

You have to know how God says to be saved. And it all points to Jesus. It's about Jesus. He is the centerpiece of the specific revelation. So Paul has spoken of what Timothy has learned.

He learned Paul's doctrine and he learned a holy scripture. And who has been teaching him, he learned from Paul, and he learned from his grandmother, and he learned from his mother. And now he gives him an exhortation. So we are back to 2nd Timothy. Paul is exhorting his son in the faith and he says, but you must continue.

It is an exhortation to continue. To not just learn and then move on, But to learn and to hold fast and to continue in the things he's learned and been assured of. So Paul's pointing to the fact that he learned from trustworthy people. Paul's saying, I'm trustworthy. And that grandmother of genuine faith is trustworthy.

And that mother of genuine faith is trustworthy. And the source of the truth is trustworthy, the Holy Scriptures. But he is saying it is not enough to learn, you must continue. So that's the big question for Timothy, but not just for Timothy. That's the big question for me.

Will I continue? We're not like kind of a physical form of library. We just keep taking in information and be a repository of it. We have to continue. We have to hold fast to it.

And that's the big question for you. Will you continue? Will you not simply be a learner, but will you also be a doer? And a doer who clings onto this body of truth that has been a gift from God with all your heart. Will you cling to it?

In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 The writer of Hebrews says, let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us. That's Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. Let us, together the people of God, Run with endurance. This is no sprint says the author of Hebrews.

This is a marathon and then some. It's a race set before us that is a long distance race. We must continue in the things that we've learned. We must run with endurance. Let's look at the next section now.

2 Timothy 3 verses 16 and 17. Paul writes, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is so dense. Every word has meaning and not just a little meaning.

Every word here has a lot of meaning. It might be hard to find a denser two verses in scripture. All scripture, all of it, is the same, exactly the same in this one sense. It is given by inspiration of God. God is the source of it.

So many human authors, many human channels for this truth of God, this specific revelation that is a gift to His people, but really one author. God Himself, All scripture, every word of it, every dot of the I, every cross of the T, is given by God. It is a gift of God given by Him, by inspiration of God. So not pamphlets of truth falling out of the sky, not directly, given by inspiration. God put His hands on the author and gave the truth through those.

Inspiration of God, the literal translation of that is God breathed. Breath of God. If you look at the Greek word, there's two parts to the Greek word. God breath. Every word of scripture is God breath.

That's how much He's the source of it. Every dot of the eye, every cross of the teeth, God breathed it out. You remember we were in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man.

This is exactly what Paul is teaching to. Prophecy never came by the will of man. This is exactly what Paul is teaching too. Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It was the holy men of God.

Not holy as in righteous, but holy as in set aside for a specific purpose, for God's purpose, and that was to be a channel for his specific revelation, a channel for his truth. I'm going to read that again. This is 2 Peter chapter 1, 20 and 21. So important for your view of Scripture. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.

For prophecy never came by the will of man, But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now Paul says that this scripture, this breath of God, is profitable for four things. It's profitable for four things. Meaning we should come to God's specific revelation expecting benefit, expecting help, expecting blessing. Why?

Because Paul is able to say with all confidence that it's profitable. It will benefit you. It will help you. It will bless you. So anytime you ever open your Bible and come to it, you come this way, knowing that it's profitable.

Expecting to be blessed by the words that God has given as a gift to His people. Expecting to be helped. Now understand the claim that is being made here. The claim that is being made is that the scriptures are able to make the believer complete. It says man of God here and there are some commentators who try to pull forward the Old Testament man of God and say this is for preachers.

No. This is the New Testament. This is the priesthood of the believer covenant. The man of God is the believer here. Don't you dare isolate these verses to the Old Testament man of God, the pastor, the preacher.

This is for believers. This claim is being made for the believer. And the claim is that Holy Scripture is able to make the believer complete. Complete. Here is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture.

You don't need the Bible plus the other book to make you complete. Scripture by itself, unadorned, unadded to, is able to make you complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So Paul, you can see what he's doing here. He's piling up the words so that you can't wiggle out of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. How many more words that don't admit of exception could he pile up here?

All scripture, every dot of the I, every cross of the T, all of it is God breath. And all of it is profitable for these four things that you may be complete, no lack, fully complete, thoroughly equipped, thoroughly through and through, equipped through and through for every good work. In other words, there is not a good work on planet earth that the Bible can't equip you for, won't equip the believer for. Not one. There's no good works here on planet Earth that the Bible won't make you ready for.

Now does that make the Bible a manual for everything? It's the math manual. It's the science manual. It's the language manual. No, that's not what's being taught here.

But it is saying that Scripture speaks to everything by principle. And it gives you the principles that you'll need to develop in every good work. Which is of course why we've been saved. If we go to Ephesians chapter 2, it says that we've been saved by grace through faith. And this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man will boast." And then it says that after salvation by faith, we're brought into good works that God prepared in advance, that we should walk in them.

This is Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, poorly paraphrased. So these good works that God has prepared in advance, He's also given us the principles by which we can walk into these good works that God has prepared for us. Now the four things, Paul is saying that there are four things that are profitable. Number one, doctrine. Doctrine, the body of truth.

The specific revelation. It's profitable for doctrine. What you must believe. What you must believe. It's the body of truth.

Sanctify them by your truth. John 17 again. Your word is truth. You want to know where the source of truth is? You have seven of them in your house probably.

It's the Bible. And it's what you must believe. There are things that must be believed to be saved. And there are things that must be believed to know and embrace and walk by truth. It's profitable for doctrine what you must believe.

Secondly, reproof. The Greek word literally means conviction. Conviction of sin. Scripture is good to convict you of your sin, to reprove you, to rebuke you for the patterns of your life that are contrary to truth. What we must repent from.

So doctrine was what we must believe. Reproof is what we must repent from. Conviction, conviction of sin. We need to be rebuked. Here comes the Word of God to do the job.

To put its finger in the wound, to put its finger on the patterns of your life that are contrary to the truth of God. Scripture is profitable for that. And don't we need it? Don't we need to be confronted and rebuked in the patterns of our life that are contrary to the Word of God? Thirdly, correction.

What thinking patterns we must abandon? So this is confrontation with your mind. Scripture does that. It confronts your thoughts and overthrows them. If the Holy Spirit is working.

You read scripture and your thoughts are confronted and overthrown by truth because you weren't thinking right. So first we had doctrine, what we must believe. Second we had reproof, what we must repent from. Third we have correction, what thinking we must abandon. It corrects us in our thinking.

Listen to Isaiah chapter 55 verse 9. 9, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now think about that for a minute. That's Isaiah 55 verse 9. As the heavens are higher than the earth.

Big gap or little gap? Well, big gap, enormous gap between the heavens and the earth. I just spent the better part of the day at 40, 000 feet, So it's a big gap. So are my ways higher than your ways. Huge gap between the ways of God and our ways.

Between the thoughts of God and our thoughts. And so we need the special revelation to come and overthrow our ways and our thoughts. This is correction. Thought patterns that have to be abandoned and overthrown by the truth of God. Fourthly, instruction in righteousness.

God doesn't just send his word to rebuke us and leave us there. Overthrow your bad thoughts, let you know you're an idiot, and then move on. God doesn't leave us there. Then, after He's rebuked us for our wrong patterns and overthrown our wrong thoughts he instructs us in righteousness. He gives us what we must devote ourselves to going forward.

What we must devote ourselves to going forward. So your life is wrong, your thoughts were wrong, now devote yourself to this. Be different going forward. So again, doctrine, what we must believe. Reproof, what we must repent from, correction, what thinking we must abandon, instruction in righteousness, what we must devote ourselves to going forward.

In Acts chapter 20, Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders. I quote this text all the time, because it's an important text for elders, so it's top of mind all the time for me. Acts chapter 20 is Paul is exhorting the Ephesian elders. He says this in chapter 20 verse 21, and he's speaking of essentially his gospel. He says he preaches the same thing to Jews and to Greeks.

Here it is. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Paul's gospel. Same gospel for Jews, same gospel for Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what Paul is saying of Scripture in 2 Timothy chapter 3. It comes and it commands us to repent. It tells us what we must believe. It tells us what we have to repent from, have to turn around, not just to turn away from sin, but to turn towards God. Repentance toward God.

Turning away from something, but turning very definitively towards something and that is God in this truth. And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's look at this last section. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 5. Paul writes to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, Rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, They will heap up for themselves teachers.

And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

All of scripture is inspired, but none of the chapter breaks are. And to me this is the most unfortunate chapter break in all of scripture because the thought hasn't broken at all. And you typically hear the end of chapter 3 preached in a sermon And then a year and a half later the preacher comes back and preaches on chapter 4. That's just a shame because the flow of thought is so beautiful. And because you have the word therefore in verse 1, that points us back.

So Paul is giving the most serious charge to Timothy. I can't imagine how you'd put together a more serious charge to call someone to do something than Paul does in verse 1. He says, I charge you therefore, because scripture is this, this magnificent body of truth that is a gift from a loving God to His people that are saved by grace, because of that, I am commissioning you before God and before Jesus who will be the judge of the living and the dead. Do you need a more serious charge than that to do your duty? He tells Timothy what to preach.

So this is the punch line for Timothy. Because scripture is this, preach the word. That is the sum, soul, content of your preaching. The Word of God. Not your own thoughts, Timothy.

Don't get caught preaching your own thoughts. Don't get caught preaching your best ideas. Don't get caught preaching popular theories, offering worldly wisdom to godly people. Don't get caught doing that. Preach the Word.

So here the preacher is set free from having to be smart, from having to have great thoughts and great ideas. He can just be a servant. Scott said something when we were in Malawi, and I don't remember hearing him say this before. The preacher isn't a chef, he's a waiter. That's what Paul is teaching.

Not a chef, not the one creating in the kitchen, but the one serving up what has been created in the kitchen by Almighty God. Just a servant to bring out the food and to present it and to provide it. When? All the time. In season, yes.

Out of season, doubly so. He needs to be ready at any moment to preach. Malawi was good for me in this way. When you go to another continent, the plans change all the time. The plan for preaching changes all the time.

We had a couple of times where we were ready to preach this, and we decided to preach that extemporaneously. Because the circumstances called for it, and if we were going to just stick with the plan and deliver the prepared sermon then people were just going to be left as they came. So we thought well we got one shot at trying to shake them up and bring change. And it's to teach this other thing. So we're going to do it.

So here's a text, like put your finger in the text, go. That happened a couple of times. It's very unnerving. It's every bit as unnerving as it sounds. But this is what the preacher has to be ready to do.

Bring the Word of God to bear appropriately to the circumstances. Sometimes not having prepared, but just standing up and delivering what God has said. Because it's a gift to his people. So we are to be ready, especially preachers. He speaks here of what it means to be out of season.

The time where people won't endure sound doctrine. There's no appetite, there's no hunger for sound doctrine. They want to be told what they want to hear. This is Africa. They want to be told that God wants them to be wealthy, even though they're very poor.

They want to be told that God wants them to be wealthy even though they're very poor. They want to be told that God wants them healthy every minute even though they've got massive health problems there. They want to be told that they can get God through water that's been prayed over by the man of God or through the anointing oil. They want to be told that. So they pile up their teachers just like Timothy says here.

They heap them up. Tell us what we want to hear. And for money, men will do it. So we have TD Jakes, and they have TB Joshua in Nigeria. They send people from Malawi to go pick up the water that's been prayed over and the anointing oil and they sell it.

It's a prosperity gospel. TB Joshua is very prosperous. He's the only one, but the prosperity gospel is working for him. So we have our heretic and false teacher, TD Jakes here, and they have his counterpart in Africa, TB Joshua. And they are charlatans.

They are teachers that just tell the people what they want to hear for their own gain. That's what it means when it's out of season. It means that You can have conferences on sound doctrine and you don't draw that many people. Many people at Antioch Baptist Church said, we could be drawing hundreds of people if you would pray over water and we could advertise that we'd be selling. The men of God coming from the United States with holy water for you.

So we could have increased our crowds exponentially by doing that. But there's not such an appetite and a hunger for just the teaching of Scripture. It's out of season there. That doesn't mean you stop preaching. That means you preach harder and more.

That means you go to them instead of expecting them to come to you. The Word of God is our anti-venom against the venom of false teachers and false doctrine. They've been bitten by the venomous snake. The Word of God is the antivenom which comes and contradicts all that false teaching and overthrows it. The Word of God is our antidote to the disease which is the cancer of false teaching.

It's meant to do that. So the presence of false teaching means we should ramp up teaching, pure teaching, teaching of the Bible. We don't back off when there's false teaching. We charge ahead with the Word of God and we declare what God has said to be true. Now, applications.

I have three applications. Number one, listen to this John Robinson quote. Do you know who John Robinson is? So the Pilgrims came over and they established a colony at Plymouth. And if you've ever read of Plymouth Plantation, it's by, I think, the second governor of the colony, William Bradford.

And then William Brewster was an elder there. So these are the names we know. Their pastor was John Robinson and his health wasn't good. So he never actually left Holland. When the Pilgrims left, and they came over and they established the colony at Plymouth, John Robinson was planning to follow afterwards when he got healthy enough, but he never got healthy enough.

He was the pastor of our forefathers. Here's what he says, I am absolutely convinced that the Lord has other truths to impart to us through His holy word. Personally, I cannot sufficiently deplore the condition of these quote unquote reformed churches. So now John Robinson is going after reformed churches. He says, I can't despise these churches enough, which have acquired a certain degree of religion, but which do not wish to go beyond their reformation." Meaning they've tasted reformation, but they've said, that's enough reformation.

That's enough. That's far enough. The Lutherans can only see what Luther saw. They would die rather than accept certain aspects of truth revealed to Calvin. As for the Calvinists, they cling to the heritage left to them by that great man of God, who nevertheless did not know everything.

It is deplorable poverty. For even if these men in their time were lamps which burned and gave light in the darkness, they had not yet entered into all the counsel of God. If they were living in our day, they would be ready to embrace a light which was more intense than the one which at first enlightened them. He's making the case that if Luther and Calvin were alive, they would be wanting to go further in the Word of God. Their lifespan contained them to the things which God was able to show them and establish in their lives but if they were given another lifetime, these men wouldn't be content there.

They would be reaching farther, learning more, and implementing the truth. As God gave them more light, they would be walking by it. So John Robinson says it's a deplorable poverty. It's a deplorable poverty to say we've reformed enough. Let's stop reforming.

So here's application number one. In some ways, our reformation has stalled. And we must restart it. In some ways our Reformation has stalled out. And we're much more content than we should be with where God has brought us.

Now we should rejoice in where God has brought us. I'm not saying anything other than that. But we should not stop where God has brought us. We might say, we've stopped to catch our breath for a minute. Okay, fine.

Now let's push forward. Let's push forward to go further. That is the danger of being part of a Reformation, is that you feel like you're out front. You feel like you've achieved. But that's not what Paul says in Philippians 3.

He says, not that I have already attained, but one thing I do, I press on. I press on. We must have the heart of the Apostle Paul that doesn't feel like we've attained anything, but it's desiring, it's burning to press on. Brothers and sisters, may it burn in our hearts to press on. To jolt awake when we get a sense that our reformation has stalled, as if we've attained to anything.

That's application number one. Look, look, are you comfortable? Are you a little too happy that you're part of a reform movement? I do think we're part of an important reform movement, and I do think there's probably half a dozen reform movements out there. So we're in that mix.

Are you going to be content with that? Not the Apostle Paul. Not Luther. Not Calvin. These men wanted to go as far as they could, as fast as they could.

They would never let their reformation stall. They were always pressing forward. Number two, pray for Antioch Baptist Church. That's application number two. Pray for Antioch Baptist church.

And then keep praying for Antioch Baptist Church. And then pray some more for Antioch Baptist Church in Blantyre, Malawi. Institutionalize it in your home. What do I mean? Make it a habit.

Make it something official. Make Monday Antioch Baptist Church Day, or Thursday Antioch Baptist Church Night. Institutionalize praying for this little church. They're nothing. They're a drop in the bucket.

They're overwhelmed by false gospels and false teachers, but they are a faithful little group that God is raising up to do something in this country. That's half a world away. So think of homeschooling here. The homeschooling movement here started 40 years ago. And in that way, it was a reformation bought and paid for by others.

Here's what I mean. They endured the persecution. They blazed the trail. So as a homeschooler, the persecution was really pretty much gone. I mean, you might have some family members with furrowed brow when you first talked about it.

But really, it's become quite acceptable because they endured the brunt 40 years ago, 30 years ago. So it's easy for us in a relative sense now. That reformation was bought and paid for by the sweat of others, by the faithfulness of others. Now think about family integration. In some ways we're paying for that revelation.

We're buying that ground with our own sweat. We're a whole lot more likely to be despised than that than we are for the homeschooling. In Blandtire, at Antioch Baptist Church, they're paying for it all. They are a despised people. But as Hebrews says, they're happy to go to Jesus outside the gates and bear his reproach.

Their Lord was despised. And so They're bearing it as a mark of honor to go outside the gates and to suffer reproach with Him. They think it's the favor of God. So they stand a chance to be useful. Until you See life through those glasses, you don't stand a chance of being useful.

Until you know that Jesus was treated that way, and it's a great honor to be treated that way, to bear His reproach, we can't really be useful. For them, they're bearing the reproach of the true gospel. They're swimming in the prosperity gospel and in easy believism. And so, everyone hates them for the gospel they preach. But it's the gospel of the Bible.

It's a gospel that Jesus would recognize. It's always good when you embrace a gospel that Jesus would recognize. The gospels that Jesus would recognize, you typically want to stay far, far away from. They're bearing the reproach of that. They're bearing the reproach of gender roles in marriage.

All of the women spend all of their time outside the home in Malawi. They can't be keepers at home. They can't be trainers and disciples of the next generation Because they grew up in a culture that just won't hear of it. They just will not hear of it. So all their family and all their friends say, don't do that!

They're bearing the reproach of homeschooling. They're getting ready to start homeschooling. Only missionaries do that in Malawi. Only white people do that in Malawi. But that's about to change in a couple of years.

And they're already catching the flag for it. These things all flow from a central thing. They believe the Bible. That's what it comes from. That's what's getting them into all the hot water.

That's what's causing them to be despised by their friends and their neighbors and their family members, it's the Bible. And they love it and they embraced it and they don't care. They would rather have the Bible and be conformed to the truth of scripture than to have the acceptance of their friends and their neighbors and their family. I say, Amen. Amen.

God, give us more of that spirit. We have much to learn from these brothers and sisters at Antioch Baptist Church, and we should pray for them, Because it's only going to get worse before it gets better for them. They are buying the ground of Reformation. Finally, number three, The sufficiency of Scripture, this great doctrine, which is at the heart of everything for us, implies the truth that it's for doing, not just for believing. This great doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture implies a truth.

It's sufficient, okay, not just for your thinking, but for your life. For what you should do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We should be governed by, not just in our belief system, but in how we conduct ourselves at home, at work, when we're out and about. May God make us doers of the word, who love it, who are not afraid to identify with it, even the hard parts of it. Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of salvation. It is the power of God to salvation. First for the Jew, then for the Greek. May we love this word and never be ashamed. Let's pray.

God I thank you for this great truth that you began pressing on us many years ago and I Thank you for the good results of it. God, I pray that you would forgive us for the ways in which we've been content with where you brought us. Now God, I pray that you would send a holy dissatisfaction upon us. Not dissatisfied in you, but dissatisfied in ourselves, and longing, longing, burning in our hearts to press forward into more truth, into more reformation, that we would be a people holy, that we would be a people strange and peculiar because we are more and more like the truth even as the world drifts further and further from your truth. Even as our nation drifts further and further from your truth.

May we be more and more conformed to it. May the gap between the acceptability of our neighbors and our family and our friends and how we live grow because we are desiring to be faithful. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for watching!