Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1622

January 21 28, 2024

2 Timothy 3.1-17      Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Authority of Scripture”

 

¹But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ⁶For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. ⁹But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. ¹⁰You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. ¹²Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵and 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. ¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

 

• Essentials of Faith

 

One of the “fathers” of the Protestant Faith, St. Augustine, is credited with the saying, “In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity”. It is the motto of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. One of the things that drew me to the EPC when we were considering another denomination was its clarity and unity of essentials on issues of faith. Not all denominations are clear on that. The essentials of the EPC are predicated on an opening statement about the authority of Scripture. On the handout you received in the bulletin, the first paragraph reads:

 

All Scripture is self-attesting and being Truth, requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. The infallible Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is a complete and unified witness to God’s redemptive acts culminating in the incarnation of the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks. On this sure foundation we affirm these additional essentials of our faith.

 

The authority of Scripture is one of the reasons we moved out of one denomination and into another. There are certain things in theology that are essential to faith, essential to salvation, and essential to what we believe that makes us Christian.

 

• Under Authority Part 1

 

Authority is generally a word that designates an entity with power or a system that has rules over people, as in our laws having authority. When we are young we are under the authority of our parents. Sometimes it feels like we are never outside of that authority! When we leave the nest we come more under the authority of society’s authorities, law enforcement, government, work policies and bosses, and so forth. But one authority rises above them all, the authority of God and His Word. Biblical authority is directly connected to God’s sovereign power over all His creation. Since the Bible is the self-attesting Word of God, it has authority over all things in life and faith. It is in the Word that we see right and wrong, life and death, old and new, sin and righteousness, grace, mercy, love and it is the Word of God that has authority over all these things and all things. Some people think that self-attesting authority is no authority at all. Something else has to give anything its authority. But that is the unique quality of the Word of God is that the Word itself testifies to its own authority. The source of that authority is God who has breathed out this very Word. And God said...

I have taken 2 Timothy 3 and divided it into two parts under authority. In 2 Timothy 3.1-9 we see the world under authority without awareness, or if aware, without concern or care or belief in God. The authority of God’s Word is what sets judgment upon their actions, their sin, their unrighteousness.

 

¹But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

 

It is by the authority of Scripture that we are able to know that people are lovers of self (rather than God), lovers of money (rather than God’s kingdom), proud and arrogant (rather than humble), and we could go through each of these categories to show how they oppose God’s Word, and thus thwart the ultimate authority. It is simple rebellion against God, something akin to a teenager’s rebellion against the authority of the parent. It is unbelief and when there is no belief in the ultimate authority, there will be little if any submission to any authority except that of false gods. The lovers of money make money their idol. Those who are arrogant make what they think an idol. That may be a summation of the whole list in the phrase at the end of verse four, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”.

 

 

• Under Authority Part 2

 

¹⁰You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness...¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

 

Under authority part 2 begins with verse 10, ¹⁰You, however…” and includes the similar phrase in verse 14, ¹⁴But as for you…”. There is a great contrast between those who are under the authority of Scripture by judgment of sin and those who are under the authority of Scripture able to become “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (15). Under the authority of Scripture sinners are exposed and those who trust in Jesus by God’s grace are saved. Under the authority of Scripture the arrogant, abusive, disobedient will meet a very different end than those who trust in the authority of Scripture and follow it, study it, and remain in it. Paul writes to Timothy saying, You, however...are under the authority of God’s Word that you have observed and heard. That same Word is directed to us as the church, as disciples of Christ, we follow the teachings of the Bible from Paul and Moses and the Psalms and Jesus and others. This is because we know that the authors of the Bible have given us the God-breathed Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit. As Peter tells us in another letter to the church:

 

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. ²¹For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1.16-21).

 

Men spoke from God! This is God’s Word given through faithful servants of the Most High God. Back to 2 Timothy 3, a few verses later Paul writes, But as for you…continue in what you have learned. Jesus said it this way, abide in my Word. Remain steady in the authoritative Word that leads to a godly life.

 

 

• The Authority of Scripture

 

vs 15-17, 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. ¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

 

When we proclaim, The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks, we are saying that we place ourselves under that authority for our lives. We believe the Scripture to be the Truth, God’s Word, the revelation of God to the world and the means by which we understand God and ourselves and the miraculous works of God for our salvation. Its authority comes from God, from the Creator of all things, from the One who redeems, judges, loves, disciplines, sustains, and the list goes on and on revealed from the Scripture. We have come under this authority to recognize our sin, unlike those in the first part of this passage, and to repent of that sin so that we might be made complete and equipped for every good work. In this particular verse, verse 16, there are four ways we come under authority:

Teaching – We seek to follow the teaching of the Bible. Learn from its wisdom, commandments, examples, and follow those teachings in our daily life.

Reproof – We seek to abide by the claims of Scripture that tell us we are sinners and need a Savior. Reproof means that the Word shows us our sin and rebukes that sin. It is how God leads us on the path of righteousness, away from sin and toward holiness.

Correction – We seek to be corrected in our thoughts, beliefs, understandings that we might come in line with God’s Word in all things pertaining to life and faith. Reproof and correction are similar terms and perhaps are used here in concert to emphasize the need for our correction and censure.

Training in righteousness - We seek to be trained for living like Jesus. Following Him, learning from Him, training in His ways and thoughts. Athletes train to become better at their sport and we train to become more faithful disciples and more effective in all things we are commanded to do and not do.

 

Under the authority of Scripture, we are giving up any authority in and of ourselves and living solely under the authority of the Word of God. This is foreign to our world and it is what makes Christians, according to Peter, a peculiar people (1 Peter 2.9 KJV). We live under a different authority. That changes everything. I think today about authorities in our world today, people who claim an expertise in some area and it brings so much confusion because different “authorities” can claim completely opposite conclusions. But in the end we have to ask ourselves, under what authority will we submit? And if we submit to the authority of God’s Word, that will certainly set us against other “authorities”. We then have to pose another question, what authorities will we resist? The answer in my mind is any that go against THE authority – God’s Word.

 

The prophet Isaiah proclaims our final word on the Word. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (40.8). All worldly authorities will fade away like the flowers, but God’s Word will stand forever. Let us stand upon that Word as our authority in all things pertaining to life and faith. Amen.