A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): In need of deliverance? Pastor John Randall points to the only one who can bring you what you need. Maybe today you've come into this sanctuary, or you're sitting in the fellowship hall, or outside, or watching online, and you're saying, "I need to be delivered. I'm in a situation now that I don't really know how to get out of, and I realize I need to be delivered. What do I do?" You call upon the one who is the deliverer. You look to the Lord. God has ways of delivering like no one else can.

Nowadays we can download an app onto our phones and get specific driving directions for where we want to go. But remember life before GPS? A few wrong turns and we were totally lost and confused. Today on A Daily Walk, we'll see how we need to listen to and follow the word of God as our GPS for life if we're going to stay on course. Pastor John Randall will explain how it's powerful and profitable for our daily walk too, as he opens up Second Timothy chapter 3.

John Randall: Paul was delivered in different ways at different times. One time he was delivered by being put into a basket and lowered over the wall outside of the city; he escaped. Another time his nephew informed the Roman soldiers about these men that were ready to assassinate him; he escaped. Sometimes he escaped by being put in prison.

But he said out of every situation, the Lord has delivered me. And the Lord was about to deliver him again, but probably not in a way that he would have expected. He was going to be delivered by his martyrdom. There's only so much that Rome could do to Paul, only so much that persecution could accomplish. At the end of the day, if Paul was to lose his life, he would say, "Listen, for me to die is gain because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The Lord's going to deliver me one way or another." Whether his life is taken from him, he's going to be immediately in the presence of the Lord. But he knew this: he has delivered me, and he will continue to deliver me.

Maybe today you've come into this sanctuary, or you're sitting in the fellowship hall, or outside, or watching online, and you're saying, "I need to be delivered. I'm in a situation now that I don't really know how to get out of, and I realize I need to be delivered. What do I do?" You call upon the one who is the deliverer. You look to the Lord. God has ways of delivering like no one else can.

And you might be surprised the way that he might deliver you. You remember the three Hebrew children in the book of Daniel? These young men unwilling to bow when the music played to the statue that had been built. And so they were brought before Nebuchadnezzar, and he questioned them and said, "Listen, when the music plays, you bow." They said, "Listen, King, you got to understand this: our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us from your hand. But if not..."

But if not? Wait a second, let me back it up. Our God is able to deliver us from your hand, and he will deliver us from you, King, but if not, let it be known that we're not going to bow to your statue. In other words, they were so committed to the Lord that they realized God's going to deliver us one way or another. Whether we get completely incinerated inside of that furnace, God's going to deliver us from you either way. He could take us out of the furnace. Whatever God's going to do, we are confident that he is able to deliver.

And you know what? They were delivered. Their ropes were burned off. They didn't smell like smoke. They came out because the Lord was in the center of that furnace with them. So however God's going to deliver you, he will deliver. And Paul said confidently, even though all the persecutions, all the hardship, all the pain, all the suffering, God has been faithful to deliver me.

He was confident of this. But then he also reminded Timothy of a promise. This is probably not one of those promises found in your precious promise book at the front, but it's nonetheless a promise in verse 12. "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Make note: that is a promise. It doesn't say you might; it says you will.

It's inevitable. It comes with the territory. But what this verse caused me to do was to ask myself a question, and the question was this: do I desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus? Paul said, "All who desire..." The question is, do I desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus? And if I do, do I realize that there's a price that comes with that?

Now, the degree of suffering that we will endure or persecution for our faith so often pales in comparison to the majority of the world where it is illegal to be a Christian. People are having their houses burned, having their families put to death, being crucified, being decapitated, being starved, put in jail for life, and beaten on a daily basis. Why? Because they want to live and desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. They've counted the cost, and they're suffering as a result.

The question is: are we willing to live and do we desire to live a godly life? If we do, this is something that will follow it. There will be some persecution. There will be those that disagree, and sometimes they will disagree maybe even violently. The word desire here is used in what's called the present tense, and it points to a person who has an abiding determination to live a godly life. In other words, it's not an occasional desire to choose to live a godly life when it's convenient and if there's no opportunity to compromise. It's not like that. It's a determined belief, an abiding belief to live a godly life, and this is one of the results that will inevitably follow.

Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew chapter 5. Jesus said in John chapter 16, "These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation; be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I've spoken this to you. You're going to have trial. There's going to be some persecution. But I want you to know this: I've overcome the world. And ultimately, he's going to deliver us.

The question is: do you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus? Am I living a godly life in Christ Jesus right now? Paul went on to say in the 13th verse, "Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." It's like, "By the way, you're going to suffer persecution, and let me also add it's going to get worse." Timothy reading this thing... Timothy, those impostors? That word impostor: only time it's used here in the New Testament. It means those who would use sleight of hand to try to trick someone, to try to deceive. They would prey upon the hearts of the simple, and they would only increase.

It's as if Paul's saying these guys who are coming into the church, they are advancing backwards further and further away from the truth. That's what you're dealing with. Impostors are increasing? Evil men growing worse and worse? What are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to handle that? How do you combat that as a Christian? Paul gives him the answer in verse 14. I love this verse. This is so relevant. He says, "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've known the holy scriptures."

Timothy is exhorted by Paul in the midst of impostors, in the midst of evil men going from bad to worse, to continue in the things that he learned. What things? The word of God. Timothy, you got to continue in the things that you were taught. You know how you learned them, you know where it came from, you've got to continue in this. It means to abide in. It means to stay in the same place over a period of time. It calls for a constant, habitual way of living in what? In God's word.

The Bible says let the word of God dwell in you richly. Stay in the word of God. Continue steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. Paul's command to Timothy is to continually abide in the truth, to live in it, to dwell in it, and not to proceed away from it like the false teachers were doing. Stand your ground. Stay the course. Keep doing what you were taught to do. Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed."

Friends, listen, it's not enough to simply learn what is good, but we have to continue in it and persevere in it until the end. Matthew Henry said that. I love it. We have to continue. Where did he learn it from? It says he learned it from his childhood. You remember previously Paul said, "You remember your grandmother and your mother, Eunice and Lois. They raised you in the scriptures." Timothy from the time that he was a child was being raised and nurtured on the word of God.

And what happened in his life is it became a foundation to which he was able to build upon. That was his life. It was grounded on the word of God. It was cemented into his heart so that when the impostors came and tried to remove him from that word of God, he was immovable, unshakable. You know where you learned it, you know from whom you've received it, so you have to continue in it.

And he not only learned it from his parents, but he also learned from the Apostle Paul. A model for ministry, a pattern for him to follow. You know what I gave you. You know what I've imparted to you. You know what's been entrusted to you. Now stay with that. Oh, this is so relevant. I tell you, maybe because it's a pastoral letter, this to me is such a blessing.

From the time as far back as I can remember, I was given the scriptures. It was modeled in the life of my parents, imparted to me, the scriptures, the word of God. It's like the foundation had been cemented early on. And as I continued to grow in the Lord and then served in different places of ministry, served under Pastor Chuck and so forth, these are things that you watched, you saw models, you saw patterns for ministry. You realized that's the pattern that I want to follow. That's the example that I want to emulate.

The commitment to the word of God in the midst of an ever-changing world: that's the pattern, that's the lane I'm running in, that's how I want to live my life and how I want to minister for the Lord. I know where I learned it from. It's been cemented into my heart and I'm not moving from that. And that's where Timothy's heart was at and what Paul told him: you've got to continue in this.

And I want to tell you that this is so important in the days in which we're living. In fact, I want to for a moment read you something that was written by J.B. Phillips, and it was his commentary, actually the introduction in his commentary, I believe it was on First John. Although we're not in First John, you will understand in a moment why this is so relevant to continue in the things that we have learned. Listen carefully to what he said.

"As John was an old man, he looked on the world much different from the one that he had known as a boy. Jerusalem was no more. The Jewish people had been uprooted and scattered to the ends of the earth. The church was spreading over the entire world too and had already endured the terrible persecutions of Nero and Domitian. Then he writes, 'The roots of apostasy were everywhere. Gnosticism threatened to change Christianity into something that was unrecognizable. Peter was gone, James was gone, the Apostle Paul was gone.' John wrote for the third generation of Christians."

And then he said this, listen carefully, follow along: "By its third generation, a movement stands in desperate need of revival, or else it will either disappear altogether or linger as a ghost of its former self. In the first generation, truth is conviction. Those who hold a conviction hold it dearly. They don't know the meaning of the word compromise; they are willing to die for what they believe to be true. In the second generation, the conviction becomes belief. Sons will hold the truths that they've been taught by their fathers; they will defend their beliefs in discussion and debate. But the keen edge of conviction has been blunted, and an adherence to a body of beliefs inherited from the fathers is not so much a passion as it is a persuasion.

In the third generation, the belief becomes opinion. By then, some members of the movement are willing to trade in their opinions for anything that promises to be a fair exchange. They feel it is time for change. They talk about renewal, and they look to the world for ideas. John wrote for such a third generation, and he wrote with a sense of urgency. He did not write as the synoptics from the viewpoint of an infant church; he wrote from the standpoint of an infirm church, one that was in dire peril from persecution without and subversion within."

Powerful, relevant to the days in which we are living. I believe that we are in desperate need of a revival. And I believe as a third, maybe fourth generation of Calvary Pastor, that the last thing that I would ever want to do is allow belief to become opinion and to be traded in for something at fair exchange. Oh no, friends. We are going to continue in what we have learned and how we learned it, and we're going to stick to the word of God. That's what Paul is telling Timothy, and it's as relevant for Timothy then as it is for us right now at this moment. Amen. It's important.

And then he tells Timothy what is the blessing and the benefit of scripture. What makes it so powerful? Why is scripture so powerful? Why is it so important? Look at verse 15. "From childhood you've known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." Why are the scriptures so important? First and foremost, friend, because the scriptures tell you how to be saved. The scriptures don't save you; they point you to the Savior who saves you.

That's why it's so important; leads to salvation. You say, "Saved from what?" Saved from eternal separation from God in a place called hell where the fire is never quenched, where the worm never dies, where there is an eternal darkness and an eternal fire and an eternal awareness of the fact that you've rejected God and you're going to be there forever. That's what Jesus saves us from. The word of God tells us how to be saved from that. That's why it's so important. That's why you can't compromise it. That's why you have to stay the course with the word of God because it tells people how to get saved.

Listen, we live in an informational age. There is no greater, more important information in all the earth that needs to be delivered than the gospel of Jesus Christ that's found in the word of God because that tells people how to be saved from separation from God. That's why it's important. That's why it's powerful. It tells people how to be saved.

66 writings that were penned by more than 40 authors on three continents over a period of 1500 years. The Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages, far more than any other book. It has a profound and lasting influence on humanity for more than 2,000 years and remains the most incredible book available to us. It addresses life's most controversial questions, such as "Where did I come from? Does God exist? And if so, what is he like? Why do people exist? What is my purpose? What happens after I die? Why is there evil and suffering in this world?" The word of God answers these questions. It reveals the answers to life's most pressing questions that people are asking, and it has given billions of followers of Jesus the confidence that their sins have been forgiven, that they have a relationship with God that's been restored, and that they will live forever in the presence of their creator when they die.

The word of God is living and powerful. It's active. It's important. And not only is it powerful, but it's also powerful because notice in verse 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." The word of God is powerful because it leads us to salvation, but the word of God is also powerful because it's inspired by God. The word inspired there means God-breathed. Let me give you the working definition.

The fact that the Bible is inspired means this: the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit whereby the sacred writers were divinely supervised in their production of scripture, being restrained from error and guided in the choice of words they used consistently with their personalities and stylistic peculiarities. God breathed. God moved upon them, and they wrote as the Spirit of God moved upon them. That is why there is such coherence when you read from Genesis to Revelation, so many different places in which it was written, three different languages it was written, and yet there is perfect coherence and harmony within the scriptures.

Only God could put that together. It's not something that man put together; it's something that God put together supernaturally because it's God-breathed. It's inspired. But not only is it inspired, it is infallible. The infallible word of God. And infallibility speaks of authority and enduring nature of the Bible. To be infallible means that it's something that is incapable of failing. Therefore, it is permanently binding and cannot be broken.

Peter said it this way: "The word of the Lord endures forever." Forever. There's only a few things that last forever: the souls of men, the word of God. Forever, the Bible says. But it's not only inspired, infallible, but it's also—and make note of this—inerrant. The inerrancy of the scripture is absolutely important. It's a hill that you die on. Inerrancy of scripture. And inerrancy simply means the Bible is without error. It's the belief in the total truthfulness and reliability of God's word. Inerrancy.

Jesus, you remember, said in John 17, "Your word is truth." Your word is truth. It's profitable. Not only is it powerful, but it's profitable. What is the word of God profitable for? Look at verse 16. It 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.

The word of God is powerful because it leads us to salvation, because it's inspired, infallible, inerrant, but it is also profitable. Why is it profitable and what is it profitable for? For one thing, doctrine. Again, that is instruction. The word of God is profitable for instruction. You need wisdom? Go to the word of God.

I think it's really difficult for people who want to live a Christian life and they never read their Bible. This is the instruction manual. Someone said the Bible is "basic instructions before leaving Earth." B-I-B-L-E. How can you live a Christian life if you don't read the manual? It's like trying to build something without looking at the instructions. You ever tried that, men? "I don't need the instructions, babe, just show me the picture." Oh, you know who you are. Don't ever do that when you get a playground that you want to put together. You better read the instructions from beginning to end.