What are you reading?

Order of Service

• Preparation for Worship — Psalm 51:6
• Call to Worship — 1 Chronicles 16:8-13
• Hymn of Praise
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 49 (Second Commandment)
• Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 28:1-25
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymn
• Sermon
• Hymn
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: What Are You Reading

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

I. The Example of God's Word

A. Paul instructs Timothy to continue in what he has learned, grounded in confidence tied to those who taught him — 2 Timothy 3:14

B. Three teachers shaped Timothy's faith

1. The apostle Paul, Timothy's role model (see last week's sermon on 2 Timothy 3:10-13)
2. Timothy's mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, introduced in 2 Timothy 1:5
3. Timothy's father was a Gentile unbeliever; Paul circumcised Timothy in Acts 16 to remove obstacles among Jewish audiences
4. Paul may have had Timothy's home in mind when writing 1 Corinthians 7:13-14 — the believing spouse sanctifies the household

C. The faith of Eunice and Lois was sincere — meaning without hypocrisy (2 Timothy 1:5)

1. They did not merely go through religious motions; they believed and lived what they taught
2. Hypocrisy in parents — teaching God's Word while contradicting it in life — has been the ruin of countless children
3. Timothy stood firm because his mother and grandmother exemplified God's Word

D. Application for parents and believers

1. Are you diligently teaching your children God's Word?
2. Are you seeking to live it out before their eyes?
3. The goal: that those you teach will one day say not only "I thank God I was taught God's Word" but "I thank God for who taught me"

II. The Effects of God's Word

A. 2 Timothy 3:16 — "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (theopneustos)

1. This Greek word is found nowhere else in Scripture or in Greek literature prior to this letter — it is a uniquely Pauline, uniquely Christian word
2. No existing term was sufficient to capture the supernatural reality of inspired Scripture
3. Scripture is the visible mark of God's invisible breath — just as a breath on a cold window leaves a visible mark

B. The language of "God-breathed" echoes creation

1. God breathed into Adam's nostrils and he became a living creature
2. Scripture, as the object of God's breath, is a living, breathing, active word — Hebrews 4:12
3. The pneuma connection: the Spirit's work, like the wind in John 3:8, is invisible but its effects are visible

C. Because all Scripture is of divine origin, it is profitable for every facet of life

1. Teaching — positive instruction in true doctrine
2. Reproof — rebuking false doctrine (two sides of the same coin)
3. Correction — restoring moral failures; steering back from the broad path to the narrow
4. Training in righteousness — guiding how to walk in the narrow path

D. The proper end effect is holiness — completeness and wholeness before a holy God

1. Total depravity means sin reigns over every faculty of our nature
2. The regenerated Christian, brought before God's Word, can have every faculty directed toward holiness
3. God calls us to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16) and gives us the mark of His holy breath to show us how

E. The corporate dimension must not be missed

1. Timothy likely did not own a personal copy of the Old Testament — books were rare and expensive
2. Most first-century believers heard Scripture read publicly in the synagogue or gathered assembly
3. "The man of God" in verse 16 is singular and addressed directly to Timothy as a minister
4. This passage calls the minister to publicly read and proclaim God's Word to His covenant people assembled for worship
5. This is not primarily an individualistic passage ("just me and my Bible") but a corporate one — we are called to gather with God's people to hear His Word authoritatively proclaimed

III. The End of God's Word

A. 2 Timothy 3:15 — the "sacred writings" Timothy knew from infancy are the Old Testament Scriptures, a recognized Jewish idiom from rabbinic Judaism

B. The Old Testament makes Timothy wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus

1. The Old Testament is the age of preparation; the New Testament is the age of fulfillment
2. Timothy's childhood acquaintance with the Old Testament prepared fertile soil for the gospel
3. Gordon Fee: "Salvation lies not in the scriptures themselves but only as they are properly understood to point to Jesus Christ"

C. Warning against a high view of Scripture paired with a low Christology

1. This contradiction is increasingly visible in conservative American evangelicalism
2. When the Bible is wielded primarily as a weapon against cultural or political opponents, it becomes an idol
3. A truly high view of Scripture necessarily produces a high and mature view of Christ — His person, His work, His offices as Prophet, Priest, and King

D. Application — How do you read your Bible?

1. Are you mining for proof texts to settle scores or legitimize anger?
2. Or are you reading as the Bereans did in Acts 17 — searching for Christ?
3. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 we read with a Christ-centered hermeneutic — every passage finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ
4. Scripture is not meant to bring us to our knees before Scripture; it is meant to bring us to our knees before the Lord of lords and King of kings — the breathed-out Word made flesh